It took us roughly half an hour to execute my plan and by the time it was done we had planted two sticks of dynamite cut into four sections in our floor hoping to bust through to the office of the target, hopefully Aurelius. The real issue came in the placement of the dynamite. The room over the office wasn't even one single room but the bath room of one and the bedroom of another. I had to cannibalize several sticks of dynamite to make a string long enough to connect the individual strings and even punched a hole in the decrepit drywall but by then I had constructed a vertical doorknocker from hell. After I had readied the surprise for the legion I pocketed one more stick of dynamite just in case. I met the rest of the squad far back from the stairwell and the dynamite. I looked at Chambers and he gave me the go-ahead to direct this phase. I started to speak directing just how I wanted to control the chaos
"Okay I'll be the one doing the blasting and I want you three to be at the bottom of the stairs ready to rush in. I can stand at the top of the hole I intend to blow and shoot at anything moving in the crater." They all nodded and Chambers slapped me on the shoulder and nodded before proceeding down the hall. I went to the hall outside the bathroom and bedroom and waited, Chambers keyed his mike and I flicked on of the lighters. I touched it to the frankenstein fuse of the dynamite watched the fire catch. It held my eyes for a moment then I remembered that it was going to send me into a million pieces if I didn't move my ass so I scrambled back into the cover of an adjacent doorway. It was about ten more seconds until the explosion rocked me off my feet. I pulled myself up readied my .45 then got to business. The dynamite had tore an impressive hole in the floor and wreckage was scattered all throughout the room which I could now see was infact an office. A form covered by floor boards and dust was beginning to stir, I raised my pistol and started to squeeze the trigger. My finger was about to send a .45 bullet into what I assume was Aurelius when I heard a board crack under my weight.I felt my feet go out from under me as gravity yanked me earthwards. I began to fall but not before I pulled the trigger. but my fall sent the bullet into the wall across from the figure. My pistol went flying and landed somewhere hidden by the wreckage. I landed square on top of a dust and debris coated desk smashing it in half under my weight. I was trying to pull myself out of the desk when I saw Aurelius rise to his full height. We had never had any pictures of him but we knew he was an arizona native and by his skin I guessed that he was hispanic. He was a giant of a man easily six and a half feet tall, all of the leaders of the legion were impressive physical specimens but he was brute. He coughed and looked down at me. I tried to extricate myself out of the desk but the rope I had slung across my chest had me pinned. I grabbed my knife and began to cut it. Aurelius looked down at me and coughed out
"You behold the armor of a Centurion. You have the rare honor of beholding it unspattered by the blood of my inferiors. But it shall not stay that way for long." A guttural growl escaped his throat and he charged me. I had managed to pull myself out of the desk and I was on my feet when he slapped my hand which caused me to drop the knife I had planned to kill him then swiped at my ribs with what felt like deathclaw claws, I would later realize he had collected the dogtags of my brothers and made a weapon out of them. The blow threw me off my feet and I landed on the floor, the rope still in my hands. The crazy bastard literally jumped into the air hoping to land on me and force his fist through my face. I rolled out of the way without a second to spare his fist made a crunching sound when it hit the floor cracking the floorboards. I jumped to my feet my side heaving and my left hand still encased in rope. Aurelius looked at me and a smile slithering across his lips, roaring again he charged and swiped at my head, he was big and immensely strong but I was just quick enough to escape the pile driver of his fist. I rolled to the side and dealt him a glancing blow on the knee which dropped him to a kneeling position. He jumped back up almost immediately and we began to fight to the sound of the rest of my squad in combat with the praetorians in the hallway. I watched the way he moved when we began to circle, he was lithe and strong as a bull, I didn't trust myself to take him when I was unarmed. He lunged toward me and abruptly his chest lurched. It seemed as if a bullet from the fight from the hall had pierced his chest and it halted him for a moment. He coughed out blood and his eyes found me once again, a new fire seemed to burn in them, he was beginning to die and he had decided to take me to hell with him. He swung at me even faster this time as if the hate in his eyes sped his fist toward me. This time he hit me but I kept on my feet and I managed to get a swipe at him. I hit him in the stomach and I could see blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. I leaned right to avoid his next punch which impacted the drywall I was standing in front of. While he was trying to pull his dogtag encrusted fist out of the drywall when I stepped past him so I was behind his back. Blood was beginning to stain his crimson cloak a deeper red. I had no weapons both my gun and my knife lost during the fight. An idea came to my mind and I placed my rope encased fist at the hollow of his throat I snaked my other hand around his head grabbing the rope to form a rudimentary garrote. He realized what was happening as soon as his air flow began to choke off. He began to trash back and forth freeing his fist from the wall but I held fast wrestling him to face the doorway protecting me from further bullets. I put my foot in the small of his back pushing in deeper into the garrote. His hands reached behind his head searching for my face, his fingernails scraped the sides of my helmet. It created a strange echo on the inside of the helmet which I still hear when I try to sleep. The sound of fighting had stopped in the hall and I heard the suppressors giving the customary double tap. I stood there glaring at the top of Aurelius's head while the struggle in his arms started to cease. Usually it takes a solid six to seven minutes to asphyxiate but I guess the hole in Aurelius's back sped up the process. While I was in the process of choking the life from his body my eyes found both my pistol and my knife. When his body went completely limp I threw him to the floor and I saw the rest of my squad staring at me through the doorway into the hall. I couldn't see their faces but I assumed they wore expressions ranging from impressed to horrified. I walked across the room and picked up my gun strode back to Aurelius, palcing my body inbetween my friends and the legion commander, I then put a bullet in his skull. Blood spattered my coat. I turned to face my squad and saw that there were at least ten more legion bodies on the floor, the quickest to die must have been awoken by the blast just as I realized this, the ranger standing in the middle of the trio crumpled to the floor. I rushed over and tore of the helmet and saw it was Chambers
"Sir" I asked "Are you okay, did you get hit" I ran my eyes over his body searching for any wounds and found one in the side of his stomach. An angry red bullet hole seeped blood onto the carpet. The bullet had snuck through a soft spot in the pre-war armor. I glanced up to Thompson and Vasquez and barked
"A Stimpack, med-x anything" I turned my eyes back to Chambers who was gritting his teeth and he spat blood onto the already soggy carpet. A stimpak and bandages were thrust at me and I began to try to save my commanders life. My mind flashed back to Speight and I ground my teeth down and started to bandage Chambers. He looked up at me let out a sigh and he passed out. I looked up at Thompson and Vasquez and barked out
"Search the bodies look for any medical supplies anything that might be of use" They immediately went to work and turned up some buffout and two doses of radaway. I grabbed the buffout and forced to into his mouth and tilted his head back but he didn't swallow, I grabbed a canteen off my belt unscrewed the cap and brought it to Chamber's lips. I tilted his head back and watched as his adam's apple bobbed and the buffout when down, hopefully that along with the stimpack would control the bleeding. I hefted his comatose form to his feet and motioned to Vasquez and Thompson to carry him. I pulled my pistol and and grabbed Chambers gun a ranger sequoia going akimbo down the hallway. I crouched to my knees and spoke backwards all the while keeping my guns pointed to where the stairs met the hall.
"This is where things start getting hard, we're gonna have to get out of here really quick and hopefully not be seen by anyone, so...so" Thats when I was a shadow begin to enter the hall followed a moment later by a crimson clad body. I squeezed the trigger of my .45 and the inside of the legionnaires neck exited the other side onto the wall.
"Okay we've gotta get out of here and the way we came in isn't gonna work" I thought for a moment my mind racing we only had so many ways to get out of here and options were decreasing by the minute
"We can leave out the front but we'd ask for too much fire" An idea alighted in my mind and I smiled the same wolf smile as earlier. I quickly conversed with my squad and we began to make our way down the stairway. Thankfully the legionnaire that came up the stairs seemed to be the quickest and we didn't encounter any in the stairwell. When we got to the lobby that changed. I gently opened the door and looked left out into the lobby, I didn't see any of them but I could hear them in the mess hall to our left they were waking up and forming ranks. I motioned to Thompson and she handed me a grenade from her belt. I edged up to the doorway into the mess hall popped the pin and tossed it in. The grenade shattered their post-sleep world as well as their bodies. We ran into the cafeteria and I opened fire on anyone still standing. The .45 coughed like a sick cat but the ranger sequoia in my left hand let loose with a booming roar sending anyone it hit straight to the ground. The mess hall was clear with at least ten bodies on the ground, I hadn't had all too much cleaning to do but the legionnaires coming from the front now knew that there was a serious battle going on. I could hear their footsteps coming at an even faster pace. Thompson and Vasquez set chambers down then Thompson came to help me hold off the legionnaires while Vasquez secured our exit. Our part of the casino was dark any lights destroyed by the grenade but the lobby where the legionnaires were spilling out was fully lit. Positioned on either side of the door Thompson and I began to open fire. When the first crimson cloaked body fell to the ground, felled by my silenced .45, it startled the group of Legionnaires but then as Thompson opened fire with a 12.7mm submachine gun she grabbed, the legion began to realize what was happening. They scrambled for cover and began to fire on us in turn. Thankfully their sleep addled bodies proved to be inaccurate and Thompson and we were able to pick off a few more. But we didn't need to kill all of them only buy ourselves some more time. The sound of freedom surprisingly enough was the explosion of another stick of dynamite. It was the one I had saved for good luck, and thank god I had, Vasquez had planted it in the ancient drywall in the south facing wall of the casino blowing a hole into the open air. The legion had realized what was happening by now and their accuracy and determination began to increase, with interest. As their bullets chipped off drywall and plaster flew in my face I screamed over to Thompson
"Throw another frag I'll cover you!" I squeezed off a few blind shots with the .45 hoping to suppress the legionnaires. She did as asked and the explosion of the grenade gifted us with a dew moment of silence. I quickly reloaded both pistols and stepped fully out into the bullet riddled doorway. I shot till my guns were dry, just like bitter springs, but this time I made sure to carefully select my shots putting a legionnaire down with each round. The cat cough of the .45 and the roar of the sequoia echoed through the lobby to the sound of legion bodies hitting the floor. Evidently the grenade hadn't had the effect I wanted it too and bullets began to search for my body. I felt a few tug at my coat and one even scored a new mark in my helmet. I answered each of those bullets with lethal force. I looked over to Thompson and screamed moving back into cover
"Get to Chambers and Vasquez, I'll hold them off!" I tossed her the sequoia, it being empty and only useful to pistol whip. She gabbed Chamber's pistol then ducked and rolled over the various tables and debris scattered throughout the room making her way to the other two rangers. I ran and slid under an upright table coming erect behind a flipped one to its right I unslung my rifle and scanned for targets that had replaced the legionnaires we had just dispatched. They hung back in the part of the lobby I couldn't see scared by the dual grenades that spattered their crimson a darker shade. They hung back and I eased back toward the hole in the wall. I decided to tease at least one out of cover and I feigned a shout
"I'm reloading!" Normally the decision to come out would have been a clever even a tactical one but a decanus poked his head out and lost it in the space of two seconds. But that left the others to learn from his mistake. I made a slow and steady backtrack to the gaping hole, I fired off a few suppressive rounds until my feet touched desert hardpan. I quickly turned to see Vasquez and Thompson making their way across the desert lit by the early morning light. I turned back to the hornet's nest in front of me the legion already advancing at me. I fired the rest of the shots in the ten round magazine reloaded and ran after my friends. They got to the hole not long after we began running and started opening fire at me, their bullets began kicking up dust all around me. I ran behind a rock large enough to cover me and I jammed my fingers against my headset calling Thompson and Vasquez.
"Carry on ahead, get to Mojave, I'll take care of the rest back here, see you at home" All I heard in response was a quick double click of someone's radio, but I knew that they were aware. I spent the rest of the morning playing cat and mouse with the legion. Half of the time I wasn't sure who was the cat and who was the mouse. I managed to take more of them down but they got licks of their own I was tagged in the left leg and a bullet even impacted my left deltoid. The riot gear helped my deltoid a little but I could still feel the bite of the bullet, maybe it pierced skin and my leg had no armor at all. I was even thrown flat on my back taking a shot in the side of my stomach, the riot gear saved my life but I definitely had a cracked rib or two. When I got up and started limping away it felt like three or four broken ribs but I continued on. I managed to make it to a distance where the legion either didn't see me or didn't care about me anymore but I was still leaking blood all over the sand.
