Men in chariots roared across the decaying street raining shotgun pellets and spears all around them. A small child runs for the safety of his house, but before he can reach the door a man in pre-war sports equipment cut him off. The child lets out a small and terrified shriek as the legionnaire reached down and picked him up.
The scream prompted a man, who was clearly not a warrior, to run out of the nearby house... he was impaled by a legionnaire's spear within five steps from the door. The child stares in horror as he looks at the body of his father writhing on the ground with a spear lodged in his chest, his father looks at him and feebly mouths the words "I love you" before another legionnaire walks over to the man and stomps his head in with a heavy boot. As the legionnaire walks off and the house is set ablaze, everything slowly begins fading behind the view of the child- when suddenly I hear a loud explosive voice booming through the room..."DAMIAN! Get your ass out of that bed and quit thrashing around like you're having a goddamn seizure!"
Damian scrambles out of the bed to his feet, why this legion instructor always singles me out he began to wonder, but he didn't have the time to continue this thought through.
Within seconds of getting out of his bunk the legion instructor struck him down onto the ground, Damian began to raise himself up but the instructor delivered a swift kick to Damian's ribs. Damian rolls over from the force of the instructors kick, the instructor was getting some sick pleasure from this, you could see it through the aviator shades he was wearing. He was going to beat Damian to death! All of a sudden there was a loud bang and the beating stopped, all the legion cadets gasped in shock. Damian rolled onto his stomach and then pushed himself up to his feet, blood dripping from his lip and a sharp pain with each time he inhaled.
Damian stared ahead at the limp body of the instructor, a gaping wound at the base of the mans skull, he looked up from the body to see a legion centurion. The centurion stood stoically with a
.45 colt in his hand. The pistol looked so out of place in the mans hand, yet he used it to efficiently end the life of this brutal instructor in a single shot.
The centurion holstered his pistol and spoke in a bellowing voice "let this serve as a lesson to all of you, this man was put in a position of authority, and what did he do, cadets? He abused that power."
The legion cadets all stood in awe at this chain reaction of brutality. The centurion looked around and then said "alright cadets, today we're doing some more outside training exercises." Damian falls in line with the rest of the cadets, but is then pulled to the side by the centurion. The centurion begins speaking to Damian in a soft, gentle voice, "I can see you did not have the best possible start to your day...so to make up for it, I want you to lead your fellow students."
Damia looked at his peers and then called out at the top of his lungs, "Fall in legionnaires, two columns!"
As the cadets marched out under Damians command, he felt a sense of pride and confidence surge through him.
Six Years Later...

Damian, now nine-teen years old, stands an even six feet tall, he has developed a light scar on his lip where he had been beaten by the legion instructor six years earlier, his eyes are a steely blue and his dark brown hair is cut in a strictly military manner.
Damian is standing outside the tent of the tent of the man commanding an empire, the great Caesar.
As the tent flap opens Damian snaps off a crisp salutation to who he was expecting to be Caesar, but instead to his surprise, it was a person Damian had grown up with, Vulpes Inculta.
Vulpes looks at Damian with a surprised look and as Damian drops his salute after realizing who it was, Vulpes begins laughing and tells Damian "ah old friend, suddenly I am the rank of Caesar himself?" Damian replies, "well of course not", in a sly yet subtle way. You simply caught me off guard, Vulpes.
Vulpes looks to Damian and all the emotion suddenly disappeared from Vulpes' face.
"Damian, I need to talk to you."
"What is it Vulpes?"
"there is an urgent matter the legion needs you to attend to."
"What is it?"
"there is an approaching group of travelers, we need you to go determine whether they are a threat or not."
Damian with a puzzled look on his face ask Vulpes, "travelers? What leads you to believe they could pose a threat?"
Vulpes replies, "I am not the one who is concerned, it's Caesar. Our scouts report there appear to be NCR troops escorting these people."
Damian still confused states, "Oh, I still don't see why Caesar is worried, it's not like the entire, NCR army is marching across the river."
Vulpes' voice suddenly raises in an explosive manner, "you don't dare question the thought process of the great emperor Caesar?!"
Damian, knowing that outburst certainly didn't draw him any favorable attention, decided it was time to set out for his scouting mission.
The briefing

As Damian walked to his tent to get his equipment and meet with the men whom he commands.
Damian opened his locker and retrieved his legion armor, he leisurely put on the armor as it has turned into a routine after living most of his life in the legion. It had become simple muscle memory, but Damian has yet to allow the legion brainwash him. He still has memories of the day the legion stormed into his small village, killing all its inhabitants...save for Damian...
As Damian sat there staring into the glare of his legion officers helmet in a near trance, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching.
Damian shakes himself out of his trance to greet his troops and brief them on the mission.
Damian stands at the back of the tent and begins to spread the information to his men, "alright legionnaires, we are to inspect a large group of travelers, presumably NCR. You will act only on my command and follow my orders verbatim.""Do I make myself clear, legionnaires?"
"Yes sir, Damian, sir!"
As the other men piled out of Damian's tent, Damian returned to his locker to recover the rest of his supplies, he slips his helmet onto his head and ensures his machete is securely fastened to his hip.
The Encounter
Damian and his men silently trek across the dark Mojave, Damian decided on a night-time assault rather than an attack in broad day-light.
As Damian neared the NCR camp he saw four armed NCR guards watching over the camp. Damian saw an opportunity appear as two of the guards went in opposite directions making their rounds. Damian quickly crouched over to one of the guards and instructed his most trusted team member, Serrin, to follow suit.
Upon the men reaching there targets Damian and Serrin drew their machete's and plunged them deep into the necks of the guards. Damian then signaled for his two other legionnaires to dispatch the other two guards.
Damian and his men had managed to take out the visible guards without alerting anyone.
visible apparently being the key-word...
one of the two legionnaires decided not to wait for Damian to give the all clear and walked over to the nearby glow of a campfire. Damian and Serrin ran over to the campfire throwing caution to the wind in the hopes of preventing this recruit from fucking up the entire mission...but they were too late.
There were frightened screams from the campsite and then gun shots. The moment intensified at the realization that none of his men were equipped with a firearm.
When Damian and Serrin made it to the campfire, they saw the body of the recruit crumpled on the ground with a frightened man and woman standing over his body as the life drained out of him. The couple was armed with a single .38 caliber revolver. Damian began walking over to the couple, ensuring them he meant no harm, but before he made it to them they were separated by a hail of bullets.
There was a combination of armed NCR guards and armed civilians. Serrin was snagged in the arm with one of the many bullets flying by, Damian pulled him back before he was hit by any more and the duo turned around and attempted to run out of the camp, but encountered more armed guards. Serrin charged two guards and hacked them down disregarding the wound he already suffered as if it were nothing. Damian noticed a guard approaching from behind and quickly went after him, he drew his machete and with expert precision severed the arm of the guard and then kicked him to the ground. Realizing the guard no longer posed a threat, Damian reunited with Serrin and they continued there push through the camp. It was going well and they had been un-scathed until they came across a family at the end of the camp.
The father of the family pulled out an old service rifle and aimed it with a timid shake. Damian started to talk to them in an attempt to resolve this peacefully but before he got a word in Serrin stepped forward and lopped off the mans head.
The body fell to the ground limp and lifeless, the wife and children shrieked in terror at the beheading of their father and Serrin began to walk slowly torwards them...but, before he managed to come near the family Serrin let out a pained shriek.
Damian plunged his machete into Serrins, while Serrin lay there, blood oozing from his wound, Damian leaned in close to Serrin and whispered in a gruff tone "I thought I ordered for all my men to follow my orders VERBATIM, am I mistaken in that?"
Serrin grimaced and replied with a pained tone "you've gone soft Damian, I thought you were one of the legions finest...I guess I was wrong..."
Damian sheathed his blade and glancing at Serrin once more said "I never wanted to be a legionnaire, those bastards killed my family, they took all that mattered to me that day and forced me into slavery, this wasn't my plan for life, but now...now I have an opportunity to start over...and to live my life the way I want."
Damian winced at his next thought and almost couldn't believe how easy these next words came from his mouth, "first though, I must tie up a loose end..." Damian looked to the family and urged them to run, he could hear the guards nearing his position, so he said his final words to Serrin, "I wish I could say I'm sorry, but that would be a lie, so goodbye Serrin." With that Damian hacked at the neck of Serrin until Serrin stopped twitching.
Damian searched through Serrin's pack taking from it a bag of healing powder, three legion denarius and a bottle of dingy looking water- Suddenly the rip of a bullet flew over Damians head and he realized he had taken too long, he put the items in his pack and ran from the camp into the dark Mojave Desert, leaving the body of a former friend, a fellow warrior and the closest thing to a family he had, behind.