"Breathe son. Breathe," someone was talking to him. Daniel heard him and tried to remember what had just happened. His squad had just been ambushed by Legion, and the first thing they had done was frag the hell out of the. Daniel shook off the shell-shock and grabbed at his helmet. Blood was trickling down from a cut on his head, it was wet, hot, and sticky. He grabbed his service rifle and took cover behind the husk of an old car.
"There are some legionnaires holed up on the other side of the highway. They got rifles, automatic ones. Nothing like the shit rifles we get," Brandon said. He was lower than Daniel on the food chain, but he liked to keep it that way. He was a 20 year veteran of the NCR and all of the promotions they'd tried to give him were shot down. He preferred grunt work, he thought it was much more fun. "Alright. We lost anyone?"
"Rob and Koop. Sheila, Garrett, and Raz are back behind us. The fucking Legion's got Wanda."
"Shit. Do we know how many?"
"At least seven. Judging by their aim they're veteran's too."
"Just our fucking luck," as Daniel said this bullets pinged around him. He felt one pass by his shoulder, and hit one of the empty barrels behind him. "We need to do something, and fast. Or we're going to get our asses kicked."
"Well. I've got a plan, of sorts."
"What?"
"Why not just go in guns blazing?"
"So you want to write your own obituary?
"No no. Listen to me. If you go right, and I go left then Sheila, Garrett, and Raz can give us cover fire. It's really either that or be picked off one by one."
"I hate to say it, but you're right. How do we let Sheila and the others know?"
"Trust me, they'll know."
Brandon jumped out of cover and sprinted over to half of a ripped apart bus. He reached cover and started firing, hitting one of the legionnaires in the head. Daniel ran to his right, and two more of the legionnaires ended up with lead in their brains. Daniel kept running and dove for cover and landed behind a concrete barricade. He started firing rapidly, hitting one of them in the arm and another in the leg. Brandon started running again, moving in even closer to the legionnaires. They kept firing at him, but the bullets just seemed to pass right by him. He ran with an almost inhuman speed, smashing the butt of his rifle into one of the Legion's soldiers before blasting three rounds into another. Brandon threw down his weapon and pulled out his combat knife, fighting off two of them armed with machetes.
Daniel ran up to help him, as did Sheila, Garrett, and Raz, but it was to late to save Brandon. One of the legionnaires lying on the ground pulled a 357 revolver from his hip and shot the old man. Daniel and the others fired on the Legion troops, gunning the down while they were distracted. Once all the legionnaires were dead, Daniel walked over to Brandon's corpse. "Dying on the battlefield' guess it's better than old age." He closed the dead man's eyes and took his dog tags. " I won't forget this Brandon, not ever."
They found Wanda in a nearby shed, one of the legionnaires had raped her and was in the process of doing it again when Daniel burst in and shot him in the back. He grabbed Wanda's fatigues and handed them to her before walking out. They were going to have to report back to McCarran, but not before burying their friends. They didn't bother with the Legion, the crows would take care of them.