Maya knew that something was wrong. It wasn't exactly hard to understand: the fire gave it away quite obviously. Fires, rather. She could see multiple sources of smoke, rising into the air. Still... no, this couldn't be Novac. She pulled up the map display on her Pip-Boy, trying to adjust the zoom. Novac was still a good distance down the road, so where was she? More importantly, what the hell had happened here? She made her way up the small cliff that the burning town rested on, glancing over her shoulder periodically. She was never, ever, ever coming back to that path: every goddamn giant ant - if they could even be called ants and not horrific demon spider abominations - this side of California had decided to come after her. The stock of the varmint rifle was still covered in their... blood? Assorted juices? Weird insect fluid? Regardless, she'd need to get it washed. She wasn't exactly high on ammo for the shotgun, either. At least the two pistols were loaded, even if one was near-useless.

The woman stopped as she made her way over the hill, paralysed by the sight. She'd seen death back in Primm, but this was something else. Agony. People, hung up on massive wooden crosses. Crucified. The houses around them burned, crumbling. She had just walked into the aftermath of a massacre, and she knew she needed to move. Nonetheless, the feeling of rage that she'd felt before was present. It wasn't her tied up and helpless this time, but... some sick fuck had done this, probably laughed or talked to the people in the town as they killed them and strung them up like some sort of fucking decorations. Some...

One of them blinked. Her eyes went wide. Her hands felt cold. Her mind began to block everything out, leaving her with nothing but the sound of her own rushing blood. Someone had done this to them alive. Someone had left them there to... what, starve? Be found by a hungry pack of whatever this fucking wasteland had to offer, and be eaten alive? She couldn't even make out what she was feeling. Every reasonable cell in her body told her to run, told her that she couldn't stand up to something that had killed a town. The crucified men were dead anyway. She had no reason to add herself to the list. It didn't change the fact that she wanted whoever had done this to face the same fate. She'd break their fucking legs and haul them onto the cross herself.

The violent train of thought was derailed by a simple noise: a beeping. She practically coughed out a sigh of relief, turning to her left. ED-E. She didn't want to exactly attribute too much to the robot, but... hell, having a metal ball with a death laser and the ability to play cheery music was good. She couldn't quite understand what he said - anything past "yes" or "no" usually required her operator's guide - but it was nice regardless. She knew why she wanted to do the things she did, of course. Anyone that she could attribute the checker-coated man's crimes to worked well to temporarily quell her desire for revenge. For answers, more importantly. Why? What the hell did a whole town do to warrant this? What had she done to warrant being shot?

Thankfully, despite the sweat still present on her hands, she found it a bit easier to move, even as she slowed down ever so slightly, making the robot float a few centimeters in front of her. She looked right, at the destroyed houses, and the mound of burning tires, before turning left. The main road of the town was a few buildings long, and at least a dozen people hung on crosses. She moved forward, tensing her body to the utter extreme as she moved past the first pair. They didn't move, thankfully. This was the way she continued: ignoring their small attempts to move their heads, their pitiful cries. There was nothing she could do. The nearest doctor was too far. A stimpak worked wonders, but it didn't fix this. She was almost at the large building - presumably some sort of town hall - at the end, before she practically jumped. A voice.

"Oh, don't be concerned. Don't reach for your gun: I'm not planning to lash you onto a cross like this town. In fact, I'd like you to stop looking down, and take it all in. Look at the faces of the degenerates of this town, and remember the work of Caesar's Legion."

She spun around, immediately. He first instinct was, obviously, to reach for her gun, but... it was no use. As she looked on at the party of a dozen, she knew that she had no chance in hell of surviving if she tried to fight them. ED-E had obviously gotten the same message. He let out a long series of beeps, but otherwise merely hovered. At least... at least she knew the bandit fucks behind this. Behind the attack, behind the crucification. Caesar's Legion... it didn't ring a bell, not that she was complaining. These people... she was at a loss for words. She looked back up at the leader - a young looking man, wearing some sort dog-like pelt for a hood. She only managed partial sentences.

"These... this town... why?"

The man looked at her curiously, raising a brow and giving an utterly smug smile. He looked utterly confident, and she despised him for it. The checker-coated man had at least given her the comfort of looking semi-uncomfortable executing her point blank. The bandits in Primm had just been angry and drugged up. This man looked like he'd planned everything out. He didn't need to tie her up or beat her because he could count on her own instincts to stop her from charging him. He was smug in knowledge, not in having the strongest punch or the biggest gun.

"Why? Because it was a town of whores. A town where none trusted each other. A town where families sold out their children for a few caps. A town that was willing to sell everything to us for a measly sum. A worthless town that won't be missed. A stain on the Mojave that we have erased... and a warning."

A worthless town. The man had the audacity, the ability to burn a town alive, men and women, families, and then call them whores. Her own fists shook. She wanted him to feel this. To hang, to burn, to suffer. She wanted him to be as powerless as the people he killed, as powerless as she was, and she never wanted to feel like this again. She couldn't do it. She'd die, shot before she even managed to lay a hand on him, before she'd even pulled out the pistol in her holster. Unless she didn't have to. It had been tempting to let her instincts take over, to shut down parts of her brain and simply fight, just like in Primm. But she'd managed an ambush there, and she'd killed six inexperienced bandits, not a dozen or so heavily-armed soldiers all looking at her. However... where strength didn't win you a fight, cunning could. She spoke, and began to think.

"I... you're sick. You have me here, and I won't kill myself to prove it, but you're fucking insane. I'm... I'm going to bring this to everyone I can. The NCR is going to march on you, and we'll see how smug you can be then. Actually... why not now?"

The first few sentences had been exactly what the man wanted to hear. Maybe the acting was a bit much - too submissive. She wasn't stupid - whoever they were, they were big enough to not need to worry about hiding from the NCR. They held power. Men like him, who held power? They liked to think they were above those like her, that they were so intelligent and grandiose that their solutions seemed like madness to everyone else. The man probably enjoyed it, loved hearing those words. The last four, however, were ones that he hadn't been expecting. She could see the briefest flash in his eyes, before they returned to normal. He opened his mouth to speak, and she acted.

They'd have shot her the moment she went for her holster. But... with her arm already in her coat, the movement was minimal. All the attention had been on her face, regardless. She'd slowly moved the gun to face him: easy enough, with how large the pockets were. Now, she pulled the trigger. The heat was the first thing she felt: a rapid increase of temperature on her chest, followed by the bang. The bullet flew, tearing the coat apart, and colliding with the man's torso. There had been no time to aim for the head, or align it with the heart. It wouldn't kill him, of course. People like him got better medical attention than that. But it would leave one hell of a mark. It'd wipe the smirk off his face. It would buy her time. As she'd thought, about half of his little squad dropped down to help him. The rest, however, raised their shotguns at her... and saw their target disappear.

She'd been relying on tech she couldn't test, which was always an atrocious idea, but she didn't have a choice. Fortunately for her, the Stealth-Boy seemed to have worked. She dove to the right immediately, hitting the floor. She might have been invisible, but that didn't stop them from unloading buckshot into the space where she'd been. She made her way, quickly, to the houses on the side, her breathing quick and shallow. She turned back, just in time, to see ED-E just barely avoid a pellet. Reaching into her holster and trading the nine-millimeter for the familiar N99, she looked up far too late. The first man who had fired was laying on the ground, while a second one was nursing a stump of a hand. Unfortunately, that seemed to be all ED-E had to offer, as the robot began fleeing farther away.

She began her own relocation, running deep into the ruins of the town. She saw a bright flash of light, followed by another, and then a third. It took her a moment to realise what she was seeing: the end of the invisibility field. Looking down, she could finally make our her hand as being rather visible. At least she was out of their direct sight. Those were the good news. The bad news were... well, she had nowhere to hide, the moment they managed to get out of this godforsaken town. They'd either have to outrun bullets - probably fine for ED-E, less fine for her - or somehow get them to back off. Seeing as ED-E was out, and she was working with barely-enough ammunition to kill a pack of geckos, running seemed like a vastly more appealing option. She did just that: she ran past the houses, past the fire. She ducked to avoid a crashing piece of debris from the flame, and only accelerated as she heard a call from the Legion members behind her. If they found her now, a crucification would probably be a mercy.

As she ducked past a crumbling sign reading "NIPTON" - which at least clarified the location of her hell - she realised just how low her standards of comfort had dropped. She had never, ever thought that she'd take the corpse of a Powder Ganger being eaten by what seemed to be a wild coyote - or at least a wild dog - as a sign of safety. She half-heartedly moved her hand to her holster, unsure, before the animal gave her one judgemental stare, turned around, and practically leaped off the road, running to safety. She gave the glasses-wearing man a brief glance, before moving on. Someone would give the poor guy a funeral, but she needed to get moving. Novac was just up ahead. A city that would hopefully be a tad safer than this godforsaken place. Third time was the charm, right?