Monster Of the East
The Courier, known by only a few as Sarah Dixon, walked out of Caesar's tent with a look of anxiety. It was completely justifiable, as she was surrounded by bloodthirsty slavers and murderers. Flinching ever so slightly as a light brown Mongrel snarled at her, she walked down the slope toward the weather station sitting at the opposite end of Fortification Hill surrounded by even more Legionaries and Decanuses. Meanwhile, back inside Caesar's large tent, Legate Lanius stared at the entrance the courier had exited out of for a moment before glancing subtly at Vulpes Inculta, who was also staring at the entrance. Lanius' eyes narrowed at the Frumentarii. Lanius had noticed the minute differences in Inculta when the Frumentarii had returned from his mission to speak to the Courier and give her Caesar's mark, and Lanius found Inculta's slight changes in behavior rather suspicious. The moment the courier entered Caesar's tent Inculta's gaze had gone to the woman and stayed focused on her the entire time Caesar was speaking. The women was clearly unnerved by the Frumentarii's cold, piercing gaze and her eyes had flicked toward Inculta more than once and couldn't hold his gaze for more than a second.
Caesar hadn't noticed the woman's attention not being focused on him, and had simply continued speaking as if everyone were focused on him. Lanius had been focusing on the courier as well, fully evaluating what the bane of the Legion looked in person. She was petite, red hair tied in a ponytail and her leather armor was torn in several places. Many of the cuts torn into the fabric he recognized as machete slashes. Lanius had been honestly surprised. Unlike most of the Legion, Lanius did not see women as merely breeding stock and was more than willing to utilize women as soldiers if they could carry their weight with the rest of the men. Unfortunately, Lanius had long ago come to the realization that women would be more useful as Frumentarii with their ability to use their beauty to appeal to a man (or women's) base lusts and recover information. He'd always hated that fact.
However, when Lanius looked upon the small girl in front of him, he simply couldn't believe that this was the woman who had somehow managed to destroy over a dozen Legion strike forces. It was because of her that thirty four Legionaries were dead. It had taken him a long moment to get over his shock, but the longer he stared at her the more he saw the battle hardened warrior just waiting to pounce on any threats presented to her. Lanius could see below those innocent green eyes, the hardened and dark gaze beneath. A warrior goddess he had thought and he had smiled at the thought of the woman tearing apart her enemies with a blood spattered machete. The thought was clearly futile, as Lanius could tell she was obviously feingning obedience to Caesar. He had a feeling that Inculta knew as well, as he narrowed his eyes when the courier agreed to Caesar's request (or rather demand) that she use the platinum chip to further the Legion's own ends. Caesar hadn't batted an eyebrow, which led Lanius to believe that either Caesar didn't notice the Courier's obvious lie, or he knew and was simply plotting to manipulate the Courier into a position where she couldn't back out of helping the Legion. Lanius would have liked to think the latter, but he had his doubts.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lanius saw Vulpes suddenly begin to speak, "Lord Caesar, I do not believe the Courier holds the Legion's interests at heart."
"I find that I must agree with Inculta Caesar, I would advise we not trust the Courier with our more sensitive information and assignments."
Caesar rested his chin on his knuckles, "We will see in time if she is trustworthy Legate, Inculta. While it is true that she can be a very dangerous enemy, she can be a very helpful ally. The NCR appear to trust her fully, it would be simple to plant her in McCarran and gain sensitive information for us."
"With respect mighty Caesar, she could just as easily give us false information in leiu of any actual information." Inculta said, crossing his arms.
"She hated the Legion before, I do not believe simple rewards of wealth, pleasure or treasures will sway her to us." Lanius added.
"Scouts have reported she travels with companions. Specifically a man wearing a beret and floating eyebot. They have reported her traveling with another woman, and a Cyber-Dog of some sort." Caesar replied, "It would appear she shows the most attention to the man with the beret."
"You propose a hostage to force her cooperation?" Out of the corner of his eye, Lanius noticed Inculta's jaw tighten at the mention of the Courier and the other man wearing a beret.
"Should she prove less than trustworthy, it may be necassary," Caesar turned to Inculta, "I want your best Frumentarii watching her at all times. Should she decide to betray us, I will have to force her cooperation. Hopefully that will not be necessary."
Lanius knew that it would almost certainly be necessay, but decided not to object to Caesar's decision. He felt the ground shake lightly, and Caesar said, "Her mission is complete." He sat back in his throne, looking triumphant. Lanius grunted and waited for the courier to arrive back in the tent. It wasn't very long until the petite woman strode back into the tent, looking a little less nervous and trying to ignore Vulpes, who had begun staring at her intently once again. Lanius, however, had the advantage of having a mask covering his face. Meaning no one could really see where he directly looking. his mask made it look like he was staring a little past the courier when he was in truth looking right at her. It made his subordinates nervous when they felt eyes on their back and they didn't know why. The Courier looked the same as when she'd arrived, though he noticed a distinct black pock mark on her left hip, clearly made by a laser weapon. Her face also had a light tint of green, as if she were sick. He decided not to think much about it.
"Did you destroy it as I asked?" Caesar asked, and Lanius could tell he was gauging her reaction, trying to see if she was lying.
"I did as you asked Lord Caesar." She replied impassively, her face betraying nothing.
"Very good," Caesar smiled thinly, apparently satisfied,"Your next assignment is to kill Mister House, I want him out of the picture. It will make conquering New Vegas after we take the Dam much easier."
"I will do as you ask Caesar." She bowed and Caesar motioned for her to leave. She did so quickly and he was once again left with Vulpes, Caesar and the half a dozen Praetorian guards spread out among the tent.
"Lanius," He turned to Caesar and listened intently,"Return to your men at your camp on the east bank, wait for my order to attack the Dam."
He bowed shortly, "As you wish Caesar."
"Go," Lanius turned and left the tent, and saw the Courier standing at the bottom of the slope near the drawbridge leading into the inner camp. She was speaking to a white haired man wearing simple Leather armor and at her side was a dog, its entire back half of its body was metal. The petite woman looked over at him and stared as he came closer. As he passed, he grunted and slipped by her and walked across the draw bridge toward the raft leading back to the west. The raft would take him down river to a hidden shore and he would simply slip back to his camp in the mountains on the east bank. There he would wait, and when the time came the west would fall before him.
Somehow, Lanius always suspected this would happen. He had known that the courier was untrustworthy the second she had stepped into Caesar's tent. She had lied, as he and Vulpes had suspected and now she was fighting next to the NCR and breaking through the Legion's attack waves. The warrior goddess he had seen in the woman's soft eyes was now unleashed and she was overwhelming their forces as the NCR pushed the Legion back out of the dam. When Caesar had given her her new assignment, she had never returned ever as rumors circled between the ranks that Mr. House was dead by her hand. Caesar had been enraged when she neglected to come back and had sent out assassination teams to take out her and her friends. The teams failed, and they were all killed.
Now they were literally at his front door, and now he simply waited for them to break through his gates. He had eight Praetorian guards with him, and he had two next to him now. Six others were waiting down below the ridge in the camp to push back any NCR that pushed through. He heard the thump of artillery and the explosions and even the screams of soldiers as they were all reduced to torn pieces. Gun fire echoed up from the Dam and he could picture a wave of a dozen Legionaries being mowed down to pieces.
He looked down into the camp as the massive doors into his camp creaked open and over two dozen NCR troops came screaming in, firing and tossing grenades at the charging Praetorian guards, and he waved at the Praetorians flanking him to join the battle and they did. The Praetorians waded in and threw out their fists and unleashing their dreaded ballistic fists. Their were screams of pain as the shotguns welded to the fists shot bursts of buckshot into the chests of the NCR troopers and killing them instantly. Lanius saw a flash of leather in the crowd of tan and crimson even from the extreme distance between himself and the battle. The battle lasted merely atleast five minutes and at the end, all of the NCR and Praetorians were on the ground surrounded by pools of blood. The courier remained standing however, her leather armor was even more torn up and her face was spattered with crimson blood. Slowly, she began to walk to the steps carved into the tall ridge he was waiting on.
She eventuallymet him face to face, and he could still see the warrior glowing in her eyes. The fact that she was still alive was enough to impress him even more. She lowered her rifle slightly, but still raised enough so she could quickly shoot a bullet at his helmet. He kept his sword sheathed on his back and crossed his arms, "So Courier, we meet again on the battlefield."
"Legate Lanius," She jutted out her chin courageously, " I have not come to fight you."
"So you have come to fight with words," he sneered under his helmet, "Like all of those cowards in the NCR."
"You must realize that this battle is lost Legate. The Legion is outnumbered and outgunned."
"So you seek my retreat, my surrender? The NCR has not seen my army's amassed strength, they await further east. They will come when called."
"Why would you tell me that Lanius?" The petite woman asked.
"That knowledge is not important, the NCR will fall before we must use them."
"Lanius, I have seen the NCR and what it has become. It is drowning in corruption and mismanagement, their greed is killing the NCR from the outside and the inside. They are dying because its size has left them bloated."
"Why do you speak these words Courier," Lanius growled, growing impatient.
"That is what will happen to the Legion Lanius. It took the NCR decades to grow as large as it is. Caesar won't live forever, and when he dies, the Legion's size and greed will kill them from the inside. You will drain yourself trying to expand, and like the NCR you will be vulnerable and will slowly be eroded by corruption and infighting."
"NO!" He snarled immediately, but even as he said it he felt something coming over him as the Courier's words brought up images of the the Legion's attrition and eventual annihilation. The NCR was weak, for the same reasons the Courier had described. If she was right, they were all doomed when Caesar was dead.
"You know i'm correct Lanius, your thinking about the consequences of my words. You know that the Legion will face eventual destruction just as the NCR nearly destroyed itself trying to keep you out of this region."
"We could still succeed, we could still live on after Caesar's passing." Lanius argued weakly.
"Perhaps," The Courier agreed, "But do you really want to take that chance?"
Lanius was silent for a long moment, debating within himself what he should do. He could press on, and could eventually capture the dam and press forward to more and more conquests, and possibly bring about the Legion's destruction. Or disobey Caesar for the first time by retreating, and possibly convince Caesar that pressing forward would only spell death for them all, no matter how slim the chance of him listening was.
When he thought about it like that, the answer was obvious.
Lanius finally nodded, "Their is wisdom in your words Courier. I will not allow the Legion to die because of its own weakness."
The Courier gave a small smile of relief and offered her small hand, "I'm glad to see that you saw reason Legate. Thank you. Lanius was shocked for a moment that a woman such as her would smile and offer her hand to a monster like him. He stared at the hand for moment and then back at the Courier who waited patiently. He looked back down, and then finally, he shook it. Then they turned away from each other, total opposites.
Legate Lanius, Monster of the East, champion of the Legion.
The Courier, Hero of the West, Savior of the Legion.
They were opposites, but Lanius saw her more as an equal.