ACT 6
Caesar's End War
Time began to resume at its normal pace after the duelists' last fight and the death of their legate. Just as one would expect, the morning eventually did come and all the Legion's units assembled to witness the end of Graham packed up and went their separate ways. Aleron and Montano were both so crippled in the fight after that momentous day, but the two were spared from execution by their ingrained ability to advance the Legion regardless of their condition.
Montano returned to his homestead in western New Mexico over the next few weeks with minimal assistance and was troubled little by the thoughts he so feared in the wake of his victory over Aleron. As upset and confused as he was about the death of the commander he so respected, Montano actually enjoyed his months of rest at the homestead, and instead looked forward to his joining of the recently reopened New Mexico Campaign. The victorious duelists spent many evenings walking his entrusted lands in silence, tending to the needs of his legionaries and slaves as continual streams of legionaries marched recent conquests to the camps of the east, resupplying their forces, and watching the escalation of the new eastern front increase slowly over the days and weeks. Montano would end each of those days on the porch his quarters, tuning out the aging sisters' continual bickering beside him and looking into that setting sun just waiting for the far off day that he would march back towards it and that old world wall. Montano hoped he would do so with a new mask, and towards a new victory in the temporarily delayed Mojave War, but for the moment, the man was satisfied with his recent victory over his rival.
Aleron, being the bested man in the night of that last duel, awoke the next morning with plenty of new scars and bodily damage even after the remainder of the night was spent being desperately treated to by Gabriella and the praetorian guardsmen. Upon waking, he discovered that he remembered little of the night before, but the image of Montano holding that blade above his head ready to kill Aleron appeared like a dream to him. The dreamlike nature of that memory prevented Aleron from suffering complete humiliation, and most of the embarrassment he felt in that was lessened by the state of Montano even when he was in a position to win. In the end, he awoke that morning to his 101st Century completely packed and ready to depart back to the Fortification Hill overlooking the Dam, and began the slow march west, still feeling the tremendous pain of the night before.
Aleron would eventually reach the encampment atop Fortification Hill and do his best to aid in the construction of that fortress as he slowly recovered. He was proud to rejoin the front line facing the enemy that had temporarily beaten the Legion, but the front of that war was slow at the start as Caesar and the forces of the east continued to replenish their ranks with the townspeople across New Mexico, Colorado, and parts of Arizona. Aleron would not have the ability to further consider this upsetting betrayal towards those towns, because as Aleron recovered, and while he was busy with his tasks on this front, he would regularly think about that last duel. There were many times in the immediate days and months after Aleron and Montano's last fight that he would overhear legionaries in the camps atop and below Fortification Hill talking about the feud. Legionaries of all ranks would never speak ill about a commander, but many would see Aleron walk his posts and wonder if the storied defeat was true. How it circulated that Aleron told Montano to finish him was unknown, but it was still respected nonetheless by all who heard the ending to that feud. Whenever Aleron heard how that was the ending to the story, Aleron found himself wondering if that was truly the end of it. Aleron still wished he had been killed in the fight or wished he had killed Montano, and as much as he accepted defeat at the hands of Motnano, he found himself continually asking the question if that was the end. The two were still alive, and neither man knew when or if they'd see each other again. One of a million things could happen between then and the time that their paths could even potentially cross again, but Aleron in particular, wondered what that would look like. Aleron still knew his rival could have killed him, but would the fact they were both carried away mean anything if they encountered one another again? Part of Aleron felt that any attempt to start another duel would come off as desperate. Having already been bested, Montano would have every right to decline such an engagement again, but Aleron knew the man Montano was, so the possibility of another chance to finish the matter remained. Aleron eventually concluded that the circumstance of pulling a more concrete victory from that defeat would have to wait until their next encounter... If that encounter was to ever happen.
The days went on and on for both men, and Montano remained in respite by the time Aleron and the front he was with finished their work on Fortification Hill. The Mojave Front had a solid enough foothold in the territory east of the Dam at around the same time that the harvest in the east was in full swing. It was just in time too, because the slow work of the Mojave Front was about to pick up.
By the late months of 2277, the battered and destroyed NCR force they watched from the clifftops immediately after the defeat at the Dam underwent its own replenishment, and before the construction forces atop Fortification Hill could begin their first raids into the Mojave, the NCR beat them to it. While Caesar and the forces under Lanius seized allied towns across the east, Aleron and the Mojave force he was attached to had begun their primary task of holding Arizona territory. From there, the Legion began to wage an almost year-long defensive war across the upper Colorado River.
The NCR raids into Arizona were small at first, merely testing the Legion's response-ability, but eventually, the year turned into 2278, and the activity all across the Mojave and reopened Eastern Front began to pick up. At the same time Montano was marching on the town of Gallup near his homestead, Aleron was leading the defense of "Arizona Spillway."
NCR began to feel restless as time went on watching the crimson force solidify its position atop Fortification Hill, and so, after almost a year since the NCR's pyrrhic victory at the Dam, NCR too was in a solid enough position to start launching preemptive strikes across the Colorado.
With the raids being small at the start and beaten back constantly, the Legion force watching over the Arizona territories found itself shocked when spies reported a large NCR force mobilizing in the south on the opposite side of a place near Willow Beach. There, at a half destroyed resort and marina on the Arizona side of the Colorado was a small Legion slave outpost and rally point known as Arizona Spillway. It was a lightly defended installation that sat with a relatively small garrison for new legionaries from recent conquests and was not a place of strategic importance. It was however, a place of astounding importance on part of Caesar's pride and Legion prestige. Many assets on their way to the Mojave front were given new orders to hold that part of the Arizona territory after learning about the coming attack, but the force around Arizona Spillway was no match for the NCR force that crossed in the night. Although, the Legion's response was immediate and already underway when the morning came, and orders were immediately given to the surviving force to to completely encircle the NCR's landing zone and outpost. This gave birth to the Legion's new defensive strategy.
Legion was always known to excel in offensive rather than defensive operations, and so the Legion's defensive strategy during this period of NCR's offense became one that forced the enemy into defense. When the NCR landed and was already establishing a foothold on the Arizona side of the river, they cheered at their victory over the lightly defending Legion force until they saw the garrison had only retreated to keep the invaders in place till the reinforcements from Fortification Hill could arrive. It hadn't even reached noon on the day of the NCR's victory at Arizona Spillway before NCR's scouts saw the long columns of Legion forces less than a few miles out from the recently claimed outpost. Marching beneath blood painted banners of the Bull, Aleron himself was leading this response force consisting of three battle hardened centuries, each one commanded by an Arizona veteran.
Aleron, still recovering his pride from his loss to Montano, took the lead of this engagement and ordered his force immediately against the NCR's landing zone, being joined by the rest of the reinforcing centuries as well as the garrison that had fallen back. As they were ones to do, the Legion were more than willing to allow a defensive position to fall if it meant that they'd be given the offense they so excelled in.
Before the end of the day, Aleron would lead the forces of the region to victory by pushing the NCR out of the outpost at Arizona Spillway and continue the slaughter as the NCR scrambled to board their boats and landing crafts back across the river. When the beach was clear and the sun had set, the Legion stood victorious with dozens of new slaves in NCR fatigues. Those NCR soldiers who weren't crucified along the cliffs would go to the same Legion camps that all who fell to Caesar did, and some would even fall to their own NCR brothers for service to the Bull. In the end, Aleron's actions and leadership in the battle did not go unnoticed, and not long after the victory, Aleron would be made the acting commander for the Mojave Front. Still subservient to the Elite Centurion Praetor of Flagstaff, Aleron became the commander of the defensive forces for this new front.
While Aleron was busy making a name for himself in the defense of Arizona, Montano was laying siege to the nearby township of Gallup, whose people traded with him and housed his Legionaries on respite for several years. Word about what was happening to towns across New Mexico was kept a closely guarded secret by especially brutal means, but the silence between trading towns under Legion occupation served as a message of its own. Needless to say, many of the people of Gallup suspected the worst when Montano's 32nd Century was pulled from the town not to march out, but to set up camp further away. Despite weapons of war being stripped from the people of Legion occupied towns, the people kept their own stashes of defensive weapons should such a day arise. Because of that, Montano's century was badly crippled on their pullback from the town and were in too battered a state to lead an effective siege. With two more reinforcing centuries on the way, Montano felt as though he had little time to lose. So, Montano saw the damage done by the fear induced uprising and felit it was a personal insult that he intended to rectify on his own. Before the order to hold position and wait could be read, Montano personally led the charge on the town's impromptu militia and butchered all who weren't in their homes. Montano's century tooke even more heavy losses, but the militia of Gallup still wasn't expecting such a horrendous fight and many dropped their weapons in surrender to Montano's forces who'd been hardened by the worst of Colorado and memories of the Dam.
Montano's reinforcements arrived to a burning town with the assimilation already underway, and beneath the smoke pouring into the night sky, Montano stood victorious in his first action of the eastern harvest. Months went by and time went on as Montano marched his forces from town to town across lower New Mexico, meeting up with other cohorts and battlegroups when necessary and always leaving behind a trail of ashes and weeping populous awaiting their fate in service to the Bull.
It wasn't until the conquest of Las Cruces that Montano established himself a new reputation. Montano arrived at the old fortress outside the town and Montano's mind went back to the days he spent there years ago under the forgotten legate. The memories stirred in him as he approached the hill where he once knelt before the legate, but a new commander occupied it this time, and that commander was none other than Lanius, the Monster of the East. There at a meeting for all the battlefield centurions under the Monster's command, Montano was recognized once more for his exceptional service under him in Colorado. Montano was then selected as part of the first wave for the final assault on the large settlement of Las Cruces, and knew that even though he had not seen Caesar, Caesar would be watching this next battle if the Monster was near.
When morning came, Montano's forces smashed into the ranks of the town's defenders, and feeling even more invigorated by the commander he was serving under, the memories of his victory over Aleron pushed Montano forward as he set out for more blood. Montano and his forces completely pierced the enemy's ranks and cut their center in half while doing so. Through sheer brutality, Montano broke the heavily fortified center in two, something that allowed his forces to battle the remaining enemies on three different sides just in time for the second wave to hit. Taking fire from the rear lines, Montano left the enemy's center to the work of the second wave and took the opportunity to suppress the rear lines and even begin invading the town. Lanius and Caesar saw and took note of the work Montano had done, and before Lanius began his march to personally join the slaughter, Caesar already saw the town starting to burn all thanks to the victorious duelist.
Montano had already begun to burn the buildings designated for destruction and pull the residents out of their homes by the time Lanius had entered the carnage. When the town's defenders saw the Monster of the East approaching the field, many turned to flee only to see that there was nowhere left to run as Montano continued his work in town destroying the enemy's resolve. Those who weren't killed in the fray saw their homes burning, their loved ones being subdued, their rear lines all laying dead, and saw the beast approaching steadily, his golden mask emanating the only message they needed to receive: Surrender or die.
The day went on, the Legion had won, and the largest settlement in southern New Mexico was in ruins, its people already beginning their march to soldier or slave camps across the southwest before the sun had set. Montano would not receive new accolades, titles, and gifts in the immediate aftermath of this vicious fight, but his actions were noted by Caesar and the Monster nonetheless. Instead, when morning came after the fall of Las Cruces, the forces under Caesar were all assembled to witness a new momentous occasion in Legion history. Beneath a sky grayed with smoke from yesterday's battle, Montano and the entire force present for the fall of Las Cruces witnessed the crowning of Lanius to the position of Caesar's second. A number of minor legates across the southwest heard the news and some were momentarily upset when word that Caesar crowned a new legate reached them. All that stopped when they heard who it was. The secret right hand of Lord Caesar for nearly a decade officially abandoned the status of myth for a place in the real world. No longer was Lanius a story around distant Legion outposts, and no longer was he the object of infatuation for legionaries who served in the Meat Grinder, Lanius had become Legate Lanius: A monster of a being, a butcher of men, a living breathing monument to Legion victory, a very real terror whose reputation for horror was already circulating in NCR camps in the west.
Montano got to witness the ceremony in the ruins of Las Cruces, and the image of the giant Lanius kneeling before Caesar had firmly imprinted itself in the mind of Montano as well as every legionary there. For the first time in already too long, Montano was able to replace the image of the burning legate with the new image of that golden giant kneeling before Lord Caesar, and the duelist felt at peace. However momentous as this moment was, it was not the end of the reopened New Mexico Campaign. Not long after the fall of Las Cruces, Montano would be marched to other towns in New Mexico, be attached to smaller units, and continue his service to Caesar in whatever way the task at hand entailed. This went on for another few months without much change. Montano would hear about news on the Mojave Front, but never any details about commanders, noteworthy battles, etc, and Montano had little interest to investigate so long as there was a yet to be fulfilled orders paper in his satchel. Montano had no idea how long this new Eastern Front would last, or how many other towns would fall, but he would later hear that Caesar and Lanius returned to Colorado and expand the front into that wilderness while Montano himself would stay in New Mexico.
It was some time in mid-late 2278 that the NCR's offensives into Arizona were beginning to lessen. NCR had to learn the hard way that it was rather difficult to lead raids against a nation that built itself almost entirely on raiding. Caesar and every one of his commanders lining the Colorado River already wrote the book on raiding and knew how to counter each one throughout the year-long NCR offensive. Although NCR still believed that they could pull some kind of success from this strategy, and the increasing number of Legion forces along the eastern side of the river was especially unnerving.
In one big battle, NCR would attempt to seize complete control of a Legion position on the Arizona side of the Colorado, and this big battle would take place at what was deemed by NCR high command as an easily defensible position significant enough to cripple the Legion force in the Mojave region. NCR's eyes went immediately to the Legion fortress at Bullhead City. Far to the south of the fortress atop Fortification Hill, NCR knew that Bullhead City was home to a large rally point for troops from lower Arizona and New Mexico to rally at before moving on to join the forces defending the Mojave. This was indeed a heavily defended and populated Legion position, but NCR still had the vast numbers to launch this offensive that would hopefully cripple the Legion's Mojave Front to such a degree that they would understand that the Mojave was not a land that Caesar would ever enter.
Unfortunately for NCR, Caesar had eyes in the Mojave long before his forces even attempted to take Hoover Dam, and it was in this period of rapid NCR mobilization that the intelligence was even more beneficial to the Legion. Being the acting head of the forces atop Fortification Hill, Aleron got to see almost all incoming intelligence reports firsthand before forwarding them to the Praetor of Flagstaff for consideration from Caesar. It is because of this that Aleron was able to read the report of a coming attack on Bullhead City and move his best units south a week in advance. Thanks to Aleron's service against the rangers while under the Interfector's command, Aleron was able to counter NCR Ranger scouts and prevent word from returning back west about the Legion's readiness. The NCR was by no means ready for what they encountered at Bullhead City, but Centurion Aleron led the defensive there, killing and maiming much of the NCR's forces before they could disembark from their rafts and boats. NCR still did not intend to let the Legion get away with such an easy victory, so more of their forces attempted to push the Legion defenders back and take the city. As badly as the NCR wanted to prove that the Legion were no match for the forces of democracy, and as long as the battle raged on, NCR would never succeed in establishing a foothold east of the Colorado. The battle for Bullhead City lasted two days and three nights, but by the time the dust settled, the Arizona shores were covered in more dead, and Aleron stood victorious yet again over the field as the last NCR holdouts inside the city were rapidly silenced in brutal urban warfare.
The NCR's disastrous defeat at Bullhead City marked the end of the NCR's offensive in those early stages of the Mojave War. The East was deemed far too dangerous to even try to take, and so their strategy returned to what it had been before the Battle of Hoover Dam: Purely defensive.
NCR was too busy having to deal with other problems in their Mojave territories before an accurate death tally from Bullhead City was even completed and Aleron was already marching back to Fortification Hill with another victory under his belt.
Not much happened in the days and weeks after Bullhead City. Caesar had heard about the triumphs of his forces there, but he was too busy in the Colorado Wilderness yet again to do much. So, the objective for Aleron and the other commanders of the Mojave Front remained on the defensive. However, the more days that passed, the more soldiers from Caesar's eastern victory would arrive. After over a year on this new front and harvest of the east, Caesar, as busy as he was in Colorado, ordered the gradual transition of focus back to the Mojave... This refocus would happen over time and Caesar himself would remain away from the Mojave for a long time afterward, but the amount of intelligence flowing through Fortification Hill, and the state of NCR post-offensive, was something that was needing more and more attention. The time would come for the second battle at the Dam, but there was still plenty to do as the image of what the Mojave Wasteland was became clearer and clearer.
After nearly 3 months since the victory at Bullhead City, it was September of 2278, and Aleron was made aware of Caesar's plans to increase efforts on the Mojave Front. This came in the form of new directives for the forces at Fortification Hill, as well as a letter outlining Aleron's new responsibilities. Although Aleron was not promoted any higher than Veteran Centurion, his new role had him officially acting as head administrator for Fortification Hill and intelligence coordinator. The latter is understood to mean that Aleron officially became the prime relay of intelligence information for Caesar's spies across the Mojave. The news was not much change for Aleron, as he had already held that responsibility for several months, but he noticed the order signature was from Caesar himself, and felt the wave of honor that letter emitted. 2278 was coming to a close, and Aleron felt proud of all he'd done in the past year as he continued to watch the camp below Fortification Hill grow and grow.
At the same time Aleron got his letter, Montano had received his own new letter. There in the fire light of the little New Mexican town burning behind him, Montano read the new orders to see that all he'd done throughout the reconquest of New Mexico had again not gone unnoticed. Montano saw that he was to finally join the Mojave Front while Colorado was being put to the blade in order to make use of his "expertise." Montano himself wondered what those "Expertise" were until he read the report outlining the fact that his new role in that faraway front was to "Lead the terror." Rarely were orders to Legion commanders so vague, but Montano saw his personal events of exceptional service above the new order as reason for his new assignment. Montano truly was an example of savage and merciless service to Caesar, and in that letter, Montano was personally ordered by Lord Caesar to introduce Legion terror to the Mojave populace. Reading how he and his unit were to act on their own and report only to the Praetor of Flagstaff, Montano felt the sinister grin on his face grow even more before he folded the letter up and rallied his soldiers to march west. With no new orders about what to do with his most recent conquests, Montano marched his soldiers west, dragging the captives along, and the only stop they made was at Montano's homestead. There, Montano left both of his servant women before continuing west. If Montano was going to rejoin this fight against the enemy who defeated them at the Dam, Montano would do so without any distraction, and devote himself entirely to the success of this ultimate war for Legion glory.