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With a huff of sheer annoyance, Titus had the one-legged girl hauled off to the old Mormon Fort with the other corpses and captives. With House still up there, at the top of the Lucky 38, Titus knew he could give Caesar a home warming gift for when his master anointed the city New Rome. His own centuria that had started the day as 77 men had now dwindled to under 30, but these men were his best. Few recruits remained alive under his command - his men that were left were Primes or Veterans, officers with experience and skill.
The centurion knew Mr House was still up there, cowering at the top of the building like the pitiful excuse for a man he was. He turned to the only two recruits left in his command, telling them to get back to The Fort as quickly as humanly possible, and send word to Caesar that New Rome awaits his arrival. They'd be of little use again the securitrons House was presumably hiding behind at the top of this tower.
His remaining men strode up to the elevator and loaded their weapons. Machetes were stowed and firearms brought out. One cannot inflict pain upon a machine. Titus took a thermic lance offered to him by his greenest Decanus, Lupe, and had a few practice thrusts. "Half of you take the elevator to the Presidential Suite," he ordered. "When you hear the fighting start, you come up and join in. The rest go straight to House's floor."
His men nodded and finalized their preparations for this last battle. Titus lead the first group that would go straight to the top floor, ready to take on House.
Sure enough, when they reached the top, House's face was plastered across a huge monitor in the center of the room, surrounded by half a dozen of those funny looking robots. "Ah-" he began, but Vulcanus cut him off.
"No monologues," he said calmly as he dropped a frag grenade into the crowd of droids by the screen. With the explosion, his men charged in, cutting down House's last line of defense, then the rest of Titus' soldiers came from the elevator and joined in. When the room was clear, the centurion let out a sigh of relief. They'd lost nobody up here, but they weren't done yet.
He told his men to wait here, to discard the shredded husks of the robots they'd just slain, while he went into the next room to deal with the mastermind of Vegas. Using a terminal he opened the wall and walked through to be greeted by two angry looking securitrons. Apparently, destroying their kin warranted their hostility. Who knew?
A 9mm round nailed Titus in the chest, stopped by his thick steel plate. Without a second though, he charged the bot that fired on him, the heated tip of his lance going through the blue armor plating like a hot knife through butter. The second faired no better as Titus swung round melting through its arm and shoulder, through into its face.
Titus pulled the cloth bandana he wore over the lower half of his face down to his neck and wiped the sweat and grime away. The puckered scar left across his cheek from Colonel Hsu had finally closed up, but was still sore, and he hated for people to stare at it. Pulling the cloth back up, he descended through another elevator down to House's control room.
To his shock and horror, what awaited the centurion down there was not the man he thought he would encounter, but a frail, rotten husk plugged into all manner of life support. If anything this was just illustration of the man's weakness. Caesar would like the honor himself, though Titus.
The shock of cold water brought her back once again to a state of exhausted wakefulness. She rubbed her hands through her hair as one of the other girls poured the bucket of clean water over her. filthy water ran in rivulets down her face and body. it felt so good to be almost properly clean.
The women were approached by another soldier.
"Report to the Lucky 38 and prepare Caesar's Suite. When you have finished that, you will prepare a suite for the Legate and also the Prime Centurion." the exhausted women nodded, dripping water from their hair and bodies. they dried quickly with rags they had found and dressed again in their dirty Slave dresses.
they were escorted up to the Presidential suite of the Lucky 38, Aurora was amazed at the beauty of the view that greeted them from beyond the dusty windows.
"Get this room ready for our Lord Caesar, then go to the suites and prepare them for the Legate and the officers." their escort gave the girls a rough shove, and they set quickly to work, removing the dusty, faded bed sheets and quickly finding some that were 'fresh' or as fresh as they could be having been laundered over 200 years ago. Aurora caught Titus' eye as he returned from the Control Room, where Mr. House was. he looked tired, his eyes were the only thing that could be seen, there was a dent in his new Armour, and the blood of his enemies had dried to a dark red against the metal.
Aurora nodded to her master, her mind flashed back to the 'lesson' that he had taught the Boomers, and she trembled a little, He was a man, capable of great and terrible things, some of which she had witnessed, and some she had been the receiver of.
The women quickly finished Caesar's quarters and headed down to the Suites. each took a suite to work on, Aurora prepared Titus' suite, when she was satisfied that he would be happy with it, though she had an inkling that he'd probably just bathe and rest before Caesar arrived, she sent word to her Master that his suite was ready for him, when he was ready for it. she moved to a small mat on the floor, and dragged it to the wall. she had food laid out for her master, should he be hungry when he arrived, and had everything ready for his bath, She lay down on the mat and closed her eyes, she began to tremble, and it turned into a shaking that she could not stop. she was still shaking slightly when Titus arrived.
When the recruit had come to the top floor to tell Titus his chamber was ready, he was relieved. All he wanted to do after today's events was sleep for a week. Surely the remains of the Legion felt the same way. Men from Utah would have to be moved out here to make up the numbers again, but that mattered not - nothing happens in Utah anymore. The weary centurion trudged slowly to his suite and, with his slave's help, began to remove his armor and lay it by the foot of his bed. Without a word, he turned and sank into the hot bath, beckoning Aurora to come to his side.
Aurora moved to kneel beside her master, she could see the weariness on his face, the prominent, puckered Scar from Colonel Hsu was a brother to a few smaller ones that he had given her on her back, something that the good Colonel had paid for with his life.
She picked up a cloth with hands that still trembled lightly and soaked it in the hot water of his bath, and gently took his face in her hands and wiped the dirt, blood and grime away, her thumb softly caressed the scar line on his cheek.
She moved the cloth down his neck and across his shoulders, her eyes following the contours of his shoulders as her cloth cleared the filth, the water slowly changed colour from clear to murky with a tinge of red.
"Have you any wounds that need tending, Master?" she asked him
Titus closed his eyes as the steam passed over his face and the hot water lifted the dirt from the day's toil off of his skin. It would be hours before Caesar arrived. He'd have time to rest and regain his composure before the arrival of his lord and master.
"None that I know of," he replied groggily. His hand went to his where the securitron had tagged him. It was just a sore mark, not a real injury.
"You should clean yourself, too."
Aurora nodded, "I shall do so master, when I have finished caring for you." she smiled softly as she continued to wipe his chest, her hand gently caressing the place where he had pressed his own hand onto his chest. there was a small mark there, red and angry with discomforting pain.
"What happened here?" she asked curiously
Titus sighed and placed his hand over hers, "Nothing, it is nothing that you need worry about." he assured her. He looked at her face, still streaked with grime.
He took her hand and helped her to undress, she felt nerves rising, having never bathed with her Master before, she slipped into the blood-tinged water and knelt naked before him in its warmth, the water rose to just below the rim of the tub with her small mass being added to the equation.
She finished cleaning him and then began to work on cleansing herself, it had been a long time since she had the luxury of a hot bath and doubted that the other slave women who had worked with her were even getting a cold bath, probably a quick wash down with cold water from a bucket would be all that they would be getting.
She was grateful to him, he could have her killed at anytime, but there was something in his eyes that she had noticed, a protective look that he took on when he looked upon her.
SHe finished bathing and they both left the tub, the water cooling on their bodies, she moved around him, drying him with towels that seemed to be wonderfully preserved, but now ruined with staining from the bloody water.
He guided her to the bed and gently stroked her face, tiny scratches from the day's events had gently marred the smoothness of her skin. he lay down beside her and they both rested, to be awoken hours later by one of Titus's men knocking on his door and informing him that Caesar was nearing the outskirts of New Rome
