Author's note: This is my first fanfiction so any reviews are appreciated.
Disclaimer: I do not own nor claim to own Fallout NV or any of the character from it. Thank you Obsidian for making such a great game.
My name is Acentio, however names aren't important in the legion so I'm usually just referred to as explorer.
As a legionnaire explorer, it is my duty to scout out the Mojave to make the upcoming invasion easier. At the age of only 16 I had been promoted from recruit to an explorer in only a year of service due to my independence, loyalty, combat experience, and my pathfinding skills. It's been less than a year since my promotion but, I have already found success in my new role with my current mission being the exploration of the South East of the Mojave.
While exploring near Nipton I heard the familiar sounds of rifles going off. I climbed up the hill to look down. I pulled out my binoculars to see a battle between some NCR troops and legions. "Damn," I muttered to myself. The decanus had been mowed down in the first volley, with the remaining recruits pinned down in a crater.
"Those recruits are gonna get themselves killed without a leader, I better go help them." I thought to myself.
I pulled a spear out and took my gladius in my other hand and charged down the hill. I threw my spear and nailed an NCR soldier in the shoulder. The soldier fell down seemingly dead, that left 3 more soldiers and officer to go. I dived down into the crater with the other legionnaires as bullets rained down next to me.
"Aye true to Caesar." A recruit said nervously.
I looked back, 3 legionnaires were remaining. The decanius and another 2 legionnaires had already been killed.
I held up my hand and said, "No need to be formal, we need to kill those NCR soldiers before reinforcements come."
Another shaking legionnaire said panicky, "But, but how? As soon as we show ourselves those troops will kill us!"
I scolded the legionnaire for cowardliness and then thought to myself for a minute before coming up with a plan.
"Those NCR soldiers are just recruits too, if we can distract them we will be able to rush out and kill them. You." I looked to a legionnaire at my right. "Take this rock and at my signal throw it and yell grenade, I'll throw another spear at the officer while the rest of you rush the troopers."
He nodded back at me.
I breathed heavily, the seconds felt like hour. I waited for the perfect moment to strike. Bullets continued to rain down on us. And then I heard it, the familiar click of a rifle running out of ammo.
"Now!" I yelled.
'Grenade out!" The legionnaire yelled.
The NCR troops ducked for cover from the "grenade" while the more experienced officer tried to yell that it was just a ruse, but my spear had hit him in the neck before he could do that. The other three legionaries had attacked their targets. Two of the legionaries killed the troopers with only minor injuries, unfortunately, an NCR soldier had recovered enough to fire his gun. The legionary fell but, gave the soldier a deep slash in the process and they both fell dead in the sand.
One of the remaining legionaries began celebrating. "We did it! We-" He was cut off by his head exploding.
"WHAT TH-."
"RANGERS!" The legionary I gave the rock to earlier pointed to a ranger holding a grenade rifle. I couldn't see the ranger who blew up the other legionnaires head, but I knew if the grenade launcher wouldn't kill us the sniper would.
The ranger fired his grenade launcher.
The explosion knocked me off my feet, sand, and rocks flying around me. I fell in the crater and it all went dark.
I began to wake up in a daze, "My head is killing me. What happened?" I said to myself.
It felt like there was a layer of sand on top of me. I looked down at myself. I was actually was covered in sand. I shook it off and assessed the situation with my equipment. My armour was torn from the grenade but, it's still useable. I didn't see my weapons, I guessed they were either scattered in the explosion or looted by the rangers. I looked back up to see that I was knocked back into the crater. I climbed out and saw all the corpses from the battle are still there. Both of the surviving legionaries had been killed in the explosion.
"The rangers must have been in a rush when they ambushed us." I thought to myself. "Looks like they left most of our equipment behind."
After a few minutes of searching, I found all the useable equipment left behind. A 9mm pistol with 20 extra rounds plus the clip from the officer, some food and water, my antivenom, some bitter drink, my three spears, some machetes from the recruits, and most importantly my gladius Gaius. I smiled to myself, I never remembered why I choose that name. An off-hand name in a history book or something. I decided against the machetes as I already had Gaius. As for the pistol, I decide to take it, most legionnaires don't use technology and in principle, I agree. However, as an explorer, you are trained to use what you find. I noticed a faint scent of smoke in the air, I looked up and my suspicions were confirmed. There were pillars of smoke in the distance, it looked like the origin was Nipton. The massive clouds of smoke could only mean one thing, Nipton was burning and as an explorer, it was my job to investigate.
While walking down the road I came across a car with an intact mirror. I looked at myself. My hazel eyes looked back. Dried blood and sand caked my skin. I had always been browner than most combined with the inevitable sun tan from wandering the Mojave it was no surprise my skin was fairly bronze. While knowledge of tribal origins was strictly forbidden in the legion my mother had always sneaked information to me about normally forbidden knowledge like that. She was told me that she originated from a tribe called the Navajo before the legion incorporated them. I smiled thinking back on that, I never knew how she didn't get caught but, part of me is happy she did tell me. My black hair had the dust from the battle all over it. I sighed as the nearest non-irradiated large water source was rather far away.
"Legion scum die!" A crowd of Vipers ran from a nearby police station and began to fire.
I ducked behind the car, fortunately, the engine had already been scavenged so I don't have to worry about my cover becoming an atomic bomb. I peeked over the car and fired with my 9mm. The idiots weren't wearing any helmets so even my crappy 9mm could kill them easily. I nailed a charging Viper with a bat in the head who fell over in the sand, seemingly dead. I switched over to another Viper and fired again and hit her in the knee. She fell over screaming. A Viper with a golf club managed to get to past my cover and swung. I expertly dodged and slashed my gladius at his throat. It hit home and viper fell to the ground holding his bleeding throat, another stab and he was dead. The last Viper panicked and ran into the police station. As for the women Viper from earlier and ended her with a stab through the heart.
"Hmph, women on the battlefield, outsiders are weird." I mumbled to myself.
I decide to clear out the police station, better to not leave enemies behind me. I noticed a TNT stick on the ground and smiled to myself, decide that my entrance would go off with a bang.
II went against the wall and lite my TNT. I knocked the door open and threw the TNT in.
The Vipers inside screamed "GRENADE!".
I heard the explosion and stabbed the Viper closest to me, I brought Gaius back up and slashed the next Viper. By that time the other Vipers recovered enough to start firing back. I dived behind a desk right before the bullets started to fly. I fired my 9mm and shot a viper in a padded vest using a varmint rifle through the neck, killing him instantly. The last Viper was the one from outside, he wore metal armour and had a caravan shotgun. He fired once but, the gun was in poor condition and didn't pierce the metal desk I was behind, only sending some metal shards around me which did little more than scratching me. The shotgun jammed before he could fire the second barrel. Thinking fast I picked up a varmint rifle from the dead Viper who I had stabbed at the door. I fired and the bullet pierced the visor of the motorcycle helmet of the viper with the shotgun. He dropped dead instantly. I walked over to the dead viper when I heard a scream coming from the hallway.
"DIE LEGION FUCK." said a crazy-eyed Viper with a spear.
I picked up the caravan shotgun from the dead metal armoured Viper and fired, spraying the screaming Viper with hot lead, killing her instantly. After checking to see if anyone else was alive I started the scavenge what I could.
After a few minutes of searching I looked over my loot. Four stimpacks, some healing powder, more food, a varmint rifle and some ammo for it, a hydra, and some caps. I used some healing power to help with the scratches from the desk shards. It would give me a bit of a headache but, I figured it would be worth it.
"Well," I said to myself. "Better continue to Nipton.
Less than an hour later and a few bandits on the road I made it Nipton and the situation was worse than I thought, or better in my case. Legions banners were scattered through the entrance, fires were burning throughout the town and men on crosses were scattered down the main street.
"HEY LEGION GUY!" I looked over to a powder ganger running excitedly towards me. "You can't kill me cause I won the lottery!"
I decide to ignore him, figuring that the legion who did this had a reason for leaving him alive. I walked down toward the town hall and saw the legionnaires who did this.
"Explorer." The legionnaire in charge waved to me to come over. He wore a hollowed out wolf head as a helmet and his armour was covered in bronze plates.
"I didn't expect to see another true to Caesar in this god forsaken town. I am Vulpes Inculta." Vulpes said coldly.
"I was investigating the smoke, I'm scouting the region." I responded quickly.
"Mmm. Just curious, what happened to your armour?
I gulped and began to tell the events from earlier today.
"Interesting" Vulpes smiled. "I could use someone like you."
"Someone like me?" I asked surprised.
"Yes you, I need someone intelligent and who knows the land. You are to continue scouting, but I want you to do more than that. Find allies, eliminate potential enemies such as the powder gangers, or use them to harass the NCR. In fact, right I have an officer at the prison, show him this mark and assist him. I will give you some leather armour so you can fit in better in the settlements. Keep your legion armour so that you can drop off information and resupply in legion camps, in fact, I will give you a new set of armour. Oh, and while you're at it spread the word of what you have seen here." He smiled as if he told some dark joke.
"Of course." I replied. I was nervous but, at the same time excited about my new job.
He smiled again and said "Good, now change and go. For now, you will act as any other adventure. Clear out caves, do side jobs, just remember your prime objective. You can even see what you can get from these burned out ruins. Just don't go in the town hall behind me, I left a surprise for any scavengers."
I watched as the legionaries left and began scavenging the town. I decide to heed Vulpes' warning to stay away from the townhall. I began to search the houses, the search was uneventful until I found one house with a robot in it.
I opened the door and heard what sounded like an engine in another section of the house. I took out Gaius and a 10mm I found in another house and peeked into another room.
"DIE!" A robotic voice yelled from the room.
A nearly dogged a green plasma bolt. I saw what looked to be a Mr. Gutsy bolted together out of scrap metal. I rushed to slash the robot.
"OW!" The robot yelled. My gladius hit it in the eye which broke it, however, the robot remained function. "You'll pay for that!" The robot yelled. It fired it's built-in flamethrower. Fortunately, because of its damaged eye, its accuracy was poor and I managed to dodge the worst of the blast, thou my explorer armour has a few new holes in it. Thinking fast I slashed the flamethrower cutting it off, leaving some black oily stains on the floor. Before the robot could respond I shot it in the engine controlling its jet and then stabbed its upper body. It's cheap frame offered little protection against my finely crafted gladius. Sparks began to fly from its wound setting the oil from the robots chopped of flamethrower ablaze. The robot screamed in agony and it fell the ground and "died". I stomped out the fire before the entire house could be burned down and sat down on the floor. Sweating from the rush of the battle and the heat from the flames.
"Whew." I wiped my forehead. "Who would've guessed some rouge Mr. Gutsy could be such a pain?"
My burns were minor so I only used some healing powder. I checked my supplies and saw that I still had 5 left. Than I continued scavenging the town.
Besides for a few mantises, the rest of the looting was uneventful until I stumbled across the general store. "Who the fucks there?" Asked an annoyed voice. I immediately figured I wasn't gonna like whoever the voice belonged to. "Oh great, more legion fuckers. You already broke my legs. What, you coming back to taunt me now?" The same guy asked.
"I frankly don't give a shit about you. You got to keep your life so shut up unless you want that to change." I replied coldly.
The powder ganger held up his hands and replied. "Fine, fine you don't have to get so offended."
I searched the general store. The only objects of interest were a super stimpack, a 9mm submachine gun in good condition, and some weapon repair kits. I went upstairs to change into the leather armour and went to leave the store.
"Man you didn't say nothin about changing. You coulda stayed down here to put on a show." The powder ganger said sarcastically.
I shot him a dirty stare and left.
I went outside and saw the sun was already starting to go down. I decided to put off the prison and find a safe place to sleep and sell some of my junk. I looked up a hill and saw the Mojave Outpost.
"Guess I better start there."