TIMELINE
SHATTERED ILLUSIONS
Fractals
FRONTIER DREAMING
The Wasteland Train Robbery
By Way of Arizona
Welcome to Arizona
The Arizona desert had been baked through by the sun more so than any nuclear explosion. Heat radiated off the cracked concrete in shimmering waves, distorting the distant hills in an undulating rhythm. The horizon seemed to melt and solidify, melt and solidify. This place needed no scourge of radiation to have blistered and buckled under the heat.
"Fuck me it is hot," Ava said, holding her tattered duster up over her head in a futile attempt to ward the heat off with a little shade. She too felt like melting. Sweat beaded on her forehead and ran down to her lips in salty streaks. "You didn't tell me it was going to be this hot."
"Welcome to Arizona. Where it is hot." Knox said, unphased by the rampant sun that loomed above them. Smug bastard. He just pulled his hat a little further over his face and sat there.
Ava rolled her eyes at him and looked at one of the caravaneers who's wagon they'd begged their way onto. The caravan people all wore more clothing than she'd expected. Ava's thought of the heat was to shed layers. But out here in the desert everyone made sure that every scrap of skin was covered. Even Knox. His normally rolled up sleeves were down to the wrist and he'd tied a red and blue, handwoven bandana around his neck to cover it too. Billowy clothing and wide brimmed hats, that was apparently the Arizona way.
The caravan they rode on was the largest she'd ever seen. A few stripped-down pickup trucks and one mammoth tractor trailer that had been rescued from a forgotten highway had all been saddled up to a brahmin train and rolled on. A smattering of guards and hired hands here and there, but all in all, the wagons were carrying goods for sale, not people.
It was wildly irresponsible in Ava's book, carrying that much loot all together, but Knox had assured her that the safest roads he'd ever been on were in Arizona. He'd been sketchy on why they were so safe, but he hadn't lied to her yet, so she leaned into trust.
"Heads up back there," yelled the caravaneer who sat at the front of the wagon they were riding in. He was perched in the cab of the former pickup truck and had the reins of his brahmin tied to the steering wheel. He was turning down the radio he was listening to and slapped the metal behind him to get their attention.
"Heads up," he said again. "We're coming on up towards Dobe now which means we're coming up on the Praemium. So gird your stomachs and pray for bones."
"Praemium? What the hells a praemium?" Ava asked, sitting up and pulling a pair of garish, pink sunglasses that she'd found (stolen) over her eyes.
Next to her Knox blinked and said in quiet surprise, "Oh, shit, they're doing that in Dobe now?"
Bracing herself against the sacks of grain they were riding with, Ava glanced at him. "You know what he's talking about?" She looked back into the wavering heat waves. Thin black lines were beginning to take form in the distance.
"Praemium," Knox said with a sigh, massaging his brow. "It means reward. It's… well, fuck, you'll see."
Ava furrowed her brow and waited for him to say more, but he waved her attention back to the road. The lines were taking shape, former telephone poles along the roadway. The wiring connecting them all was long gone, but the poles remained. And hanging from each one was the sun-bleached remains of haggard skeletons. Iron nails were threaded between the bones of their hands, pinning them up to the poles' cross bars. Each one had a sign hanging around their necks alongside their ribs.
"The fuck?" Ava breathed, reading quietly to herself. "Latro, homicida, moechus… what is all this? Latin?"
Pointing from one to the next, Knox said, "Thief, murderer, adulterer. Those were their crimes and this is their-"
"Reward," Ava said quietly, finishing his thought for him as a fresher body caught her eye.
The emaciated corpse hanging in the air looked to be a few weeks dead, but still had his skin. Boiled red and turned leathery though it was, he still had it. Which was more than could be said for some of the other bodies. The dead man had been stripped naked and was crisscrossed in slim cuts. Whip marks Ava recognized. His sign read MENDAX.
"Liar," Knox translated when Ava looked to him. "My guess is he tried to skip out on taxes."
"Knox where the fuck are we? What is going on?"
"We're in Legion territory, missy," the caravaneer chipped in from the front. "They don't take kindly to those who break their laws."
Ava looked between the man and Knox. "...What the fuck is he talking about?"
The caravaneer turned himself entirely around, trusting his brahmin to follow the wagon in front. He looked at Knox in bewilderment. "She don't know about the Legion? Where the hell are you two from?"
"None of your business. And seeing as Dobe traditionally doesn't have a large Legion presence outside its garrison, it didn't seem relevant," Knox said back, his tone gaining just the slightest edge of warning.
The caravaner either didn't notice or didn't care. "Well, that's a bold fucking strategy. Because traditionally the Legion isn't mobilizing every which way to Sunday. So not a lot of normal going abouts."
"What didn't you tell me?" Ava asked, but Knox ignored her and kept talking to the caravaneer.
"Last time I was in Dobe it was a sleepy little burg, what are we rolling into right now?" he demanded.
"Look, you said you were just a courier. If you're caught up in something, I don't want any part of it," the man said, dodging the question and eying his passengers with new unease.
Knox tensed his jaw and fixed the man with an icy look. "Are you going to make me bribe you?"
The man chuckled. "Already got most of your caps, so I don't-"
His words cut off as Knox fished around in one of his pockets and pulled out a poker chip. He held it up before the man's eyes and they narrowed greedily.
"Is that legit?" he asked, looking around as if someone else would suddenly go for the black and white piece of plastic.
"Hundred caps if you make it to the Mojave," Knox replied. "Hell you could probably flip it in New Reno too." The caravaneer reached for it, but Knox pulled his hand back. "Start talking."
The caravaneer rolled his eyes and glanced back down the road. "Dobe has a new governor. He's got enough sway that the Legion doubled the garrison. He's even got a few of them fancy pray-turians as bodyguards."
Knox cursed and leaned off to the side to peer around the wagons ahead of them. In the distance, the murky shape of walls was starting to bloom.
"Anything else? I might have another chip for you if it's good."
Chewing his tongue, the caravaneer thought hard. After a moment he snapped his fingers and said, "Yeah! Yeah, I got something. There's this lady, they said she's one of them judges, one of the ones who do the signs." He pointed up at another of the hanging skeletons as they passed.
Knox's brow dropped. "An Aquilian is here!? Fuck that shit." He flipped the poker chip to the caravaneer and barked at Ava, "Grab your bag, we're bugging out." And with that he jumped over the edge of the truck bed.
"Wait, you said I'd get another chip!" the caravaneer hollered at him as Ava stood up and grabbed her bag.
"Knox!" she shouted, "What is happening!? Like...what the FUCK?!" She perched on the edge of the truck bed, swaying as it moved under her, but she crossed her arms and refused to jump down.
A sharp whistle sounded in the desert. Knox spun around, hand dropping to his gun. Red clad figures were standing up among the sandy scrub land. They shrugged dust-colored cloaks off that they'd been laying concealed under. Ava could make out one of them with a helmet crowned with feathers blowing into a wooden whistle. Two sharp blasts.
The red figures began jogging towards the caravan. Ava spun around and saw another group on the far side.
"Knox," she said, voice rising with tension. "Fight or run?" She looked between the advancing groups. She could see armor now. And weapons. Swords, spears, and rifles. "Fight or run!?" she repeated.
"Neither!" Knox hissed, jumping back up into the bed of the truck. He pulled another poker chip from his pocket, this one purple. He held it out to the caravaneer. "Not a word." His voice was low and his eyes deadly serious. The caravaneer slowly took the chip and nodded.
Knox grabbed Ava's belt and pulled her back down to sit once more. He glanced over his shoulder, the ambushers were just about upon them. "Ava, I promise I will explain. This is not what I was planning on."
She opened her mouth to start demanding answers, but Knox cut her off. "I promise. I will. But for right now, I need you to do me a favor and not say a damned thing."
With a borderline irate glare, Ava clenched her jaw in irritation and simmered in a cloud of confused hostility. But she didn't say anything. Knox mouthed 'thank you' to her as the soldiers reached the caravan.
Soldiers. That's the conclusion Ava came to. Matching handcrafted armor on each of them. Crimson wraps beneath, and leather straps holding it all together. The one with the feathered helmet began barking orders punctuated by short blasts on his whistle to his men. They dispersed along the caravan and approached the caravaneers.
One ran up to their wagon and Ava eyed him as Knox took on a disaffected air and looked up at the sky. The soldier's face was wrapped in rough cloth that was tucked up under his helmet. Goggles covered his eyes. He was faceless to the world.
"Ave, true to Caesar!" he said, standing at attention next to the caravaneer's door. The man nervously muttered a returned "ave", but kept still. "Inspection," the soldier continued tersely. "State your name and cargo."
"Neil, eh, Donald Neil. I've got, lemme see... ten sacks ground flour, ten sacks whole grain, 8 cases pickled greens, and a barrel of shelf stable xander root and broc flower each," he said, counting off his cargo on his fingers. He paused and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Oh and those two."
The soldier looked away from the man and at Knox and Ava. Ava was glaring right back at him until Knox kicked her in the shin out of sight. She turned the rancor towards him instead.
"State your names and business in Dobe," the soldier ordered.
As requested, Ava kept her mouth shut, but she kept watching Knox. This was an unusual event, even for him. She wanted answers.
"Ian Michael Lion," Knox said, the lie coming smoothly out of his mouth. "I'm a courier due for the Mojave. We're stopping overnight to rest and resupply, then moving on."
The soldier nodded curtly and turned to Ava.
"She's my cargo. Also due for the Mojave," Knox continued before the man could say anything to Ava. Knox didn't offer a name for her, but 'cargo' apparently sufficed for the soldier who nodded once more with a sharp jerk of his chin.
He waved the caravaneer forward and he and another soldier on the other side of the cart fell into step alongside it. Slowly each wagon started forward again, now under escort.
Ava leaned towards Knox and whispered, "So I guess we're not bugging out?"
Gently he shook his head and reached up to touch an ear and then point at one of the soldiers marching beside them. They're listening. Ava nodded and leaned back into her seat.
Well, this was sure to be interesting, she thought. A town with an apparent trained military that Knox didn't want to go into. It had been getting boring over the past two weeks. No train robberies, fights, or nothing. So who knows? Maybe this would be a fun detour? It could happen.
The caravans crept forward under the direction of the feather-helmeted soldier Ava had originally seen and another man in a similar helmet. They flanked the caravan and mirrored one another as they guided their troops along.
As they marched, the town before them grew larger and larger. Walls made of dirt and scree had been molded together into reddish orange blocks the size of a refrigerator. Atop the wall more of the red clad soldiers watched, their rifles at the ready. The feather-heads blew their whistles and brought the caravan to a halt before the wooden gate into the town.
"What's the most people you've ever seen in one place?" Knox suddenly asked, looking up at the gate.
Ava shrugged. "I dunno...in the Vault, five hundred-ish? Outside… I guess, a hundred?"
"Get ready then. When I passed through Dobe back when, last census said 483. And it's only going to be bigger now."
WHAT!? This town in the Wasteland was nearly the same size as Vault 101! The shock stupefied Ava where she sat. This was… what the actual fuck!? They were in the middle of a damned desert! Things weren't supposed to work like this anymore!
"483!?" she hissed at him. "483!?"
Knox smiled lightly at her, but it seemed forced. He wasn't happy to be here.
More bleats of the wooden whistles the soldier carried and the towering wooden gate started to groan open. Another feather-head and his soldiers stood there. He marched out, greeted his fellows and called over his shoulder.
A trio of women (two quite pregnant) and a slim balding man jogged out. Quickly they dispersed to the caravans and conversed with the soldiers that had interrogated the drivers and then the drivers themselves. They each held a leather-bound book and quickly scribbled the reported contents of the caravans down.
The woman that came to their car was draped in a colorful woven shawl and seemed quite unbothered by the unborn child she was carrying. She spoke in broken, accented Latin with the soldier and then confirmed with the driver. She paused when examining the truck and locked eyes with Knox. She raised two fingers and tapped them twice under her eyes. After a moment Knox returned the gesture. Like the smile, it seemed forced.
Hand sign returned, the woman continued with her business. Ava watched her go with curiosity. "What was that?" she asked Knox, but he'd gone back to looking up at the sky. With his head tilted back Ava noticed the scarf he had tied around his neck with fresh eyes.
She looked back at the woman as she walked away. The colors were different on her shawl as was the pattern, but both garments screamed similar. Honestly, the woman herself was built like Knox. Tall, curly black hair, and skin that seemed perfectly at home with the scorching Arizonan sun. Ava kept looking at the other folks who'd run out the gate. The other woman, the one without child, was older, grey streaking through her hair, but she too wore one of the colorful shawls. The balding man had a poncho with the same pattern as Knox's scarf.
Knox was watching her when she looked back at him. "Later," he mouthed as the soldiers started calling to one another again. The caravan shuddered into motion again towards the gate. One at a time each wagon would stop and one of the soldiers with a feathered helmet would step and start arguing with caravan guards. Each time it would get animated, settle, and the caravan would move.
As they get closer, Ava could hear the words clearly. "Weapons, turn them over. They will be returned when you depart." One of the women stood with her logbook ready to record.
The guards would fuss and protest and their caravaneer would cajole and prod them and then they turned over their weapons. Repeat with next wagon.
Donald, the caravaneer who Knox and Ava had hitched their ride with immediately started speaking quietly to the guards he'd hired. "Now, all of you know the drill. No funny business, you hear me?"
The mercenaries seemed nonplussed by this development and began to grumble amongst themselves, but the moment for conversation had passed. The soldier with the feathers strode up to them. "Weapons. You will submit them. They will be returned when you depart. Log your name." He nodded to the second pregnant woman next to him.
Giving Donald a baleful look, one guard stepped forward with his rifle held out. "Boss-man, this best not fuck us," he warned, pulling his knife from his belt and handing it off to a soldier as well. He gave his name to the woman and stepped across the threshold into Dobe.
The soldier turned to the next man. He seemed a degree less compliant.
"Nah, fuck this! You want my gun? Over my dead body!"
The man made it one step past the soldier collecting weapons when a thrown spear split through his midriff and pinned him to the ground. Ava hadn't seen who'd thrown it. All the assembled soldiers were the same with their goggles and facewraps.
The remaining guards began to shout and started to raise their guns as Donald stood up to try and add his voice to the confusion, but it was too late.
One of the soldiers fired blindly and was shot down by one of the guards atop the wall. Two of the faceless soldiers stepped forward and pulled the pregnant woman into a defensive bearhug, using their bodies as human shields to protect her. Meanwhile the soldier with the feathered helmet stepped forward and in a fluid series of motions, pulled a short sword from his belt, stabbed one of the guards through the chest, withdrew the blade, spun, and beheaded the last man standing.
It was over in seconds and all the soldiers started returning to their positions. Gently, the two guarding the woman released her and stepped back into the background without a word. She eyed the now dead guards suspiciously, but seeing that they were well and truly dealt with, she stepped up next to the man with the sword.
He returned his sword to his belt and looked at Knox and Ava. "Submit your weapons. They will be returned when you depart."
Ava looked to Knox. He'd grabbed her hand to keep her seated when the shooting had started, but he hadn't said a word. He locked eyes with her and very slowly he reached down to his belt and withdrew his pistol. He turned it hilt first and handed it over.
So that was how they were going to play this.
As Knox pulled out his knife and rifle, Ava did the same, gathering up the battered machete and revolver she was considering her weapons. She dumped them overboard to the soldier and watched as the man radiated judgment of the rusted blade and gun.
"I want all that dirt in the same place when I get it back," she said, unable to resist the comment. Next to her Knox winced and the soldier looked at her blankly.
After a moment, he said, "Your weapons will be returned when you depart." And then he turned on his heel and marched off.
The pregnant woman with the logbook stepped forward over one of the corpses gingerly. Despite throwing themselves over her, none of the soldiers made a move to assist her.
"Names?" she asked.
"Ian Michael Lion," Knox responded. He pointed to himself. "Courier." Then he pointed to Ava. "Cargo."
The woman nodded and started scribbling in her book. She paused and Ava saw what she had written. I.M. Lion. I-M-LION. I AM LYING. Knox, you asshole, Ava thought to herself and let her head fall forward with a groan. Knox winked at the woman. A small blush appeared on her cheeks and she snapped the logbook shut and nodded to the soldier with the feathered helm. He blasted his whistle and waved the wagon forward. A grim-faced Donald, spurred his brahmin forward without sparing a single look for his fallen guards.
Similarly, Ava's attention was firmly diverted from the bodies on the ground, but for completely different reasons. As the gates yawned before her and the wagon pulled through, her eyes widened and her breath skipped.
People. People all around. A market bustling with activity as vendors waited for the caravans. Tradesmen and craftspeople and their shops. Children ran back and forth! Mostly girls, but a few boys here and there as well. Scrap armored wasters perused the wares; people dressed in the same colorful, handwoven cloth Ava had noticed milled back and forth; elegantly robed persons, a few with retinues of servants and guards strolled through; and over it all the red-clad soldiers watched with stoic fortitude.
Fire roared from a blacksmith's furnace. A crowd was forming around a card table as a pile of caps grew. Men and women, naked and with their bodies painted up like skeletons loitered around what appeared to be a brothel. Someone was singing. Someone else was playing guitar. A child had her hand swatted away as she tried to snatch an ear of corn roasting over a clay grill.
Flash after flash, this hive of life and activity… it struck Ava to her core. This was… this was…
"Different than DC, isn't it?" Knox said from next to her.
"I've never…" she started to say but the words wouldn't come and her mouth hung open. After a moment she settled for, "People! So many people!"
Knox nodded and couldn't help smiling at the flabbergasted disbelief on Ava's face. She was outright gobsmacked, her brain drawing a blank seeing this many people around one another in a functional community.
The caravans weaved off to the side of the market and began parking. Caravan hands dashed around unhitching brahmin as the caravaneers themselves began haggling with the slowly amassing crowd of buyers and sellers.
Plucking another poker chip from his pocket, Knox tapped Donald on the shoulder and shook his hand, palming the chip from hand to another. Donald nodded back and tapped a finger to his lips, message received. Knox bumped Ava with his boot to get her attention and stepped up over the edge of the truck bed.
"Come on," he said. "I reckon I owe you some answers."
"You're damned right you owe me answers," Ava replied, fidgeting with nervous energy as she glanced around trying to take in the mass of humanity before her. She spun around, eyes trying to see everything.
Knox took her by the elbow and started to steer her away from the market and the crowd. With the amount of Mentats in her system at any given moment, this had to be overwhelming her neurons. Something quieter would be appropriate. He spied a lonely building off to the side with a sign reading 'SALOON - VINUM', and guided her along towards it.
"Come on, let's have a drink and we can chit-chat."
"Yeah, a drink," Ava agreed faintly, her head still swivelling around to catch every new detail. She blinked in surprise as he pulled her out of the sunlight into the dim interior of the saloon. "Wait-what?" she asked, having not processed anything he'd said and stopping in the doorway.
Knox whistled at the bartender. "Water, please," he called and looked back at Ava. "Answers. Come on."
Focused without the distractions of the bustling market, Ava zeroed in on Knox again and followed along at his elbow as he walked to a table.
"Yeah! Answers, you mysterious fuck! You owe me all of them!" She drummed her hands against his backpack obnoxiously as he shrugged it off and set it on the floor. He pulled a seat out for her and guided her to it as she remembered her irritation. "I don't like being in the dark! It's bullshit and I don't like it! I'm so fucking confused! You said we were going to some quiet town you knew. This doesn't seem quiet! And who are all the guys in red?"
Knox reached over and put a hand over her mouth. Beneath it he could feel her lips still moving, not silenced, just muffled. The bartender brought over a large bottle of water and two glasses. He set it on the table before disappearing again.
"Ava, I'm going to move my hand. It would be great if you didn't try and bite me. I'll tell you everything. Okay?" Ava gave a muffled affirmation and Knox lifted his hand. He filled the glasses and scooted one in front of Ava.
"So from the top then," he said with a sigh looking at the water.
"I guess I should start with Caesar's Legion."
A/N: Welcome to By Way Of Arizona!
I'm very excited to be working on this piece. It's almost entirely new material and doesn't take much from the original Frontier Dreaming, so this will be fun.
Additionally, I hope to expand on the lore and world of Caesar's Legion. I always thought that Fallout New Vegas lacked depth for the Legion. As a faction they didn't offer a lot of choice of decision making. They were just kind of blandly evil. Some cool lore behind them, but in practice didn't have much.
So I hope to explore what would make Caesar's Legion a viable society in the Wasteland. With its established philosophies and such, how would it actually work? What would that world be like? And so here we shall explore it.
If you're interested in this story, I would recommend Following it so you get alerted each time I post a chapter (should be weekly, usually Mondays). If this first chapter blew you out of the water, Favorites are cool too. And if you want to add Reviews as you read through, also very awesome and appreciated.
Until next time folks!
The author