ACT 5
Setting the Stage
Little changed in the next month after the Interfector sent the frumantarius West, but more of the forces under the Circle Junction Praetor were dispatched to Northwest Arizona to lead distraction and diversionary efforts against the Rangers of that territory. The trip from Circle Junction to the Grand Canyon region was long and more than trecherous. Between the Grand Canyon itself and steep cliffs of the region, that part of Arizona had long been something of a no man's land despite being under Caesar's banner. It is because of the environment there that the Ranger war lasted so long and had been a less than noteworthy war. Coupled with the fact that very few Legion garrisons and outposts dotted the region, it should be no wonder that the war against the Rangers in that part of Legion territory had been considered more of a side issue than anything. Still, the Interfector was right. The worsening pain from that thorn in the Legion's side was due to the increase in resources pooled together by the Desert Ranger/NCR Ranger Unification. Little is known about why the NCR Rangers ramped up their attacks against the Legion, since that territory was largely forgotten by the them other than perhaps the noble nature of the Arizona Rangers' mission.
Since the fall of Phoenix in late 2261, the Desert Rangers watched the city fall and those few who made it out gathered their strength with the help of their brothers in Nevada. It is believed that those Arizona Desert Rangers were scarred by the fall of Phoenix after learning the new power of the Legion and thus saw it as their duty to battle them in whatever way possible. After years of doing what they could, and even while the Legion conquered New Mexico, then later moved into Colorado, the rangers' mission in Arizona was never really significant. Once the Ranger Unification was signed in 2271, the Desert Rangers across the southwest continued to pursue their mission of battling slavers like the Legion but with the added strength of the NCR at their backing. Despite the Unification, the Desert Rangers still largely operated on their own in the Mojave wasteland as well as upper Arizona, but after the NCR's war against the raiders of California was over and after their war against the California Brotherhood of Steel was looking more like a victory, the NCR diverted its full attention to the Mojave Wasteland.
This effort was slow at first, but upon discovery of the Hoover Dam by NCR scouts in 2274, the dam was seized, and the crossroads into Northern Arizona allowed for an even bigger increase in their attacks on the Legions frontier. Much of this Ranger pressure would have been ignored like before if it wasn't for the silence from Caesar in late 2275 and early 2276. After the Legion's war against the Midwest BOS was ended and during the era of silence, the Interfector's focus was diverted to that stretch of Arizona where the Ranger skirmishes were seen as a worsening problem since people like the Interfector were no longer spending much of the days allocating resources to the front in Eastern Colorado. Addressing this Ranger issue in full focus and interrogations like the one previously, led to the question of "Why are these Ranger attacks worsening?" Though Hoover Dam, the new gate into Arizona and bridge for increased Ranger attacks was largely unknown to the Legion, the dispatching of that frumantarius to the west would soon discover it.
By the end of April 2276, the frumantarius had done as the Interfector directed, and reported his discovery to Caesar at the Palace in Flagstaff. After many days navigating back through the hostile terrain and cliffs of northwest Arizona, and around the Grand Canyon, he stepped before Caesar with news of a great old world wall spanning the Colorado River, covered by soldiers of a grand nation beneath their banner, a two headed bear. When Caesar heard the news, it wasn't more than a day later that he dispatched new orders all across the Legion for the first time since September of 2275. The silence from Lord Caesar had ended, and he immediately knew what to do. This newly discovered enemy on the bridge into the West was yet another sign that he was Caesar. The Legion's identity crisis was ended with the discovery of a new path forward, and though much of the manpower problems remained, the discovery of the dam was a signal for a grand unification of what was already under the Bull.
Many of the Legion's forces in the east were pulled from the border to Colorado and the diminished garrisons across Arizona and New Mexico were consolidated in only a fraction of their previous stations, largely around prewar towns. Gone were the days of territorial forces and regular patrols, the Legion's armies were moved to these key locations across the territories, and camps were packed up left and right. Garrisons that watched over auxilia tribes were too shifted to these new stations and though the mass mobilization or shift in Legion forces was puzzling to many, it wouldn't be long before the majority of those auxilia tribes were enlightened to the reason.
The Legion split into three sections during this time: there remained the army of the East, led by Caesar himself, with the assistance of minor legates and Lord Carnifex. Then there was the army of the Legatus Joshua Graham that was pulled from Western Colorado and Utah. Then lastly there were the forces of the governors or Praetors, who were given a new responsibility of overseeing the consolidation of Legion forces across Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado.
While the armies of the east dispersed across the territory to aid in the praetors' consolidation works, the army under Graham was moved to northern Arizona for a specific purpose that was not illuminated in the first set of new orders from Caesar. As the Interfector aided the consolidation effort how he could, his orders were rather scarce since the praetorship of Circle Junction dealt less with allied towns but rather supplies and the administration of forces across the whole of northern Arizona and New Mexico. Since Circle Junction was still the industrial heart of the Legion there was little for him to do in the new orders other than continue his war against the Rangers.
Another two months went by after the new orders and the Interfector was largely left alone. This changed for him when the next set of orders were dispatched, after the army under Graham was situated in northern Arizona, and after the consolidation of forces was complete. That next set of orders had the Interfector removed from his station at the head of Circle Junction and then sent him into the northwest section of Arizona. The Elite was still vocal about the Legion's manpower concerns, but was told that it would be handled shortly and that his new task was to lead the effort in clearing the way to Hoover Dam. And so, the Interfector's Circle Junction subordinate, Centurion Cassius, was installed as the Praetor of Circle Junction while the Interfector and Aleron headed to northwestern Arizona, leading a full strength cohort to battle the rangers while clearing the old highways and collapsed roads around that region. The Elite didn't mind this new assignment as much as he thought since he knew that he was at least partially responsible for the end of Caesar's silence. The Interfector knew that Caesar was aware of his past, and so the man felt honored that he was leading the way for the first engagement against the NCR. It should be noted that Caesar never officially gave intel about what was happening or where he was shifting his focus during this mobilization period, but the Interfector knew, and was glad that he wasn't put in charge of Caesar's solution to the manpower problem.
Once the Interfector began his work in northwest Arizona, Montano was given his first orders in the mobilization, and that was to assist the forces of the east in their new task: By the third month after the silence ended, the consolidation was over, Legion lands were more vacant of Legion forces than they'd been before the Arizona and New Mexico Campaigns, and the Arizona Campaign was reopened.
Caesar's solution to the manpower problem of this time was to specifically target many of the tribes across Arizona and New Mexico that had previously served the Legion as auxilias. The majority of these tribes were in Arizona, but this happened all over Legion territory, and it wasn't long after the first tribe fell to fabricated charges that many of the others fought back. Some auxilia tribes didn't know what was happening until it was too late, but even tribes like the Twisted Hairs were not spared from this betrayal that was seen as something long overdue in Legion eyes. Though it would take many months for all of these targeted tribes to be tamed, the forces of the east led this effort with the assistance of the frumantarii who aided largely in the beginning of the betrayal. Frumantarii work was usually limited since all it really took was for one tribe to be labeled a traitor before the next three prior auxilias rebelled. With much of the "traitors" being tamed, nearly all of the prior allies in Arizona were integrated into the Legion's ranks to mixed results.
As stated previously, many of the auxiliaries had fought by the Legion's side for years and some were inclined to side with the Legion even during the betrayal, but still, the big betrayal of the auxiliaries in 2276 almost completely tarnished the name "Auxilia." Although it was so long ago, many auxilia tribes had kept an eye on the Legion after the fall of the Twin Mothers tribe and as the Meat Grinder Campaign went on, some tribes knew it would only be a matter of time before this happened. That said, some of the prior auxilias fought back tremendously, being well familiar with Legion tactics. Still, despite the manpower problems across Legion territory, Caesar's forces were still a terrible force to be reckoned with and one by one the old Auxiliaries fell. With the betrayal being so drastic and despite the resistance from formerly allied tribes, the auxiliary absorption was still a net gain towards bolstering the Legion's manpower. It wasn't quite enough to fix the problem started with the four-year Meat Grinder Campaign, but it at least made up for the losses from the BOS War. Despite it all, the event was enormous and tragic, and even though it did indeed help the Legion, the Auxilia name would never mean what it once did. All across Legion land, it became widely known that anyone who sided with the Legion would eventually become part of it. Autonomy proved to only be a temporary status until Caesar saw fit to consume.
So, with Montano happily assisting in this eradication effort, he remained occupied with one Arizona tribe after another, constantly taming one village only for the next set of villages to cement their own status as traitors by fighting back against the Legion aggressors. As this short and focused campaign went on, the enemies didn't need to be revealed by explorer scouts or the frumantarii. Less than two months into this pacification, Caesar pulled the frumantarii from the territories and held a personal meeting with the elite spy corps in the Flagstaff Palatii. There it was made known to the spies and elite commanders what Caesar's next true target was. The Interfector continued his new job clearing the roads to Hoover Dam and pushing back the Rangers, even as scouts and spies passed his encamped force, finding new places to cross the Colorado and into the west. It was very clear that Caesar intended to go all out in this coming war. As more allies were silenced across the land, nearly half of Caesar's spies were sent into the west under various assignments while the other half continued to assist the pacification effort and keep watch over independent townships across Arizona and New Mexico.
Finally, September of 2276 arrived. After six months of silence from Caesar, and after another six months of mobilization across the Legion, nearly all of the Arizona auxilias were forcefully assimilated into the Legion's ranks, Caesar's spies were already reporting intel on the west, and the routes to Hoover Dam were getting clearer by the day.
Some may be wondering where Legate Graham was during this, and the answer is that he was still on standby. It was imperative that the Legion did not look like they were marching on Hoover Dam. So, the forces under Lord Interfector were doing their work along the old world roads and keeping their advance against the Rangers strong enough to drive them back, but not strong enough to cause any alarm against the NCR and their Dam. Still, getting constantly pushed back since mid 2276 was very concerning to the Rangers. Their continuous failed raids and recon showing more Legion forces in the area than usual caused a different alarm to sound. The Rangers eventually worried that presence of the force under Lord Interfector was a sign that it was time for them to draw back their attacks. As a bulk of the Rangers withdrew from northwestern Arizona, they feared an even bigger response from the Legion if they didn't cease what they were doing. So, the Rangers were pulled completely out of Northwestern Arizona for other matters around NCR territory and the Mojave. Little did they know, their withdrawal to keep the Legion away from the Dam was exactly what Caesar was waiting for. And so, in October 2276, Legatus Graham's forces were taken off standby and ordered to join the Interfector's force, 30 miles from Hoover Dam.
With Graham on the march, the Interfector continued his slow and covert work, and the forces of the east were still handling the prior auxiliary holdouts. Montano on the other hand, recently stood victorious after his role in the assimilation of the former Atomic Stalkers auxilia tribe, and was ordered by Legate Graham himself to join the march to Hoover Dam. There was still more work to do before Caesar would attempt to cross his Rubicon, but the stage was set, and while battles still raged in Legion territory, physical battles weren't the only ones certain Legion commanders were fighting.