Boone stared at the burned out carcass of a Legion supply caravan. Close to two dozen bodies, sixteen guards and several slaves all burned beyond recognition. The bodies were piled atop each other at the centre of the caravan. There were shell casings all over the place. They tried to fight off whatever or whoever came at them. Emphasis on the word tried, thought Boone. He could see no evidence of them bringing someone down with them or any bodies being moved aside their own.
"Good work." Boone commented to Drip and Sunshine who sat on a rock a dozen or so feet away.
"Not us." Sunshine looks up from sharpening his machete. "Found them like this." Manny chuckled to himself.
"Well someone out there is as pissed off at the Legion as we are it seems." The spotter smiled at Boone. "Best move quickly though, the smoke will bring Legion stomping."
"Agreed." Boone, as always, was a man of few words. They had ramped up their strikes against the Legion in the past two weeks, quick strikes to take out Centurions and supply caravans before retreating into the hills. They always took care to leave no track back to the factory, the last thing they wanted was to wake up with the Legion at their door. The group moved fast – using the convoluted paths they took home it would often take a raiding party hours to get back. They travelled mostly in silence until as they neared the factory Manny came level with Boone and leaned in close.
"We're being watched." The spotter whispered. "Twenty metres back, been on us for the past five minutes." Boone nodded and beckoned Sunshine and Drip over.
"Manny and I are going to keep on walking, you two loop round and surprise whoever is following us." Drip grinned and prepared to head off. "Take them alive." Boone added, causing the smile to disappear. The pair of mercs went away but Boone did not watch them go, he just continued on his way as if nothing had changed. It was not long before they heard a shouting coming from behind them. The Sniper turned around to see Drip and Sunshine bringing their capture with them. It was a woman in her early thirties by the look of it. She had no bruises, dirt or blood on her – so she came in without a struggle Boone concluded.
"Who are you?" He asked, feeling no reason no make the kind quips that he had come accustomed to hearing the Courier make towards his enemies. The woman looked up and gave a slight smile.
"Are you the resistance?" She seemed to barely be able to control her excitement.
"We asked first." Manny cut in.
"Sorry, name's Sunny Smiles come from what used to be Goodsprings." She offered her hand. Boone left her hanging.
"Used to be?" He frowned.
"Oh they still call it Goodsprings but it ain't the Goodsprings I remember." She spat off to the side. "So are you the resistance?" She asked again.
"We kill Legion." Boone shrugged. "Didn't know we had a reputation."
"I heard about you from a friend in the Crimson Caravan. They pulled up in Goodsprings – Legion won't let them south until they catch whoever keeps on ambushing them. I heard about it and guessed I might as well join up."
"You hate the Legion?" Manny asked.
"There are people who don't?" She countered. Manny and Boone stared at her for a few seconds before she relented. "Bout a couple days after the Damn fell a patrol of Legion comes in and says we're now in Legion territory and nails their demands up on a post. Basically says we have to give them tribute every month, give up all our weapons and whenever they want the Legion can swing by and take any boys they want and train 'em up as Legionaries. Then as they're searching through our houses for weapons one of the bastards shoots my dog for trying to nip him when he went into the fridge."
"Was that you back there then?" Boone gestured towards the smoke from the supply caravan.
"God no, I only have a pistol I managed to hide in the floorboards." She told them. "I've just been waiting along the road for the past few days hoping I'd stumble along you, saw the smoke and thought I might be able to catch you." Boone looked at Manny and raised an eyebrow. The spotter looked thought about it for a few moments before making his mind up.
"Legion's too proud to use a woman to catch us, I think she's telling the truth." Boone glanced at Sunshine and Drip. Drip gave a slight nod, Sunshine just looked like he didn't give a shit whether she came with them or they put a bullet in her skull. Two for and one abstain, fair enough.
"You can come with us, we'll introduce you to everyone and if you're good with a gun then you'll get shoot some Legion."
"The fucking who?" Caesar's voice filled the chamber. Arcade could not help but grin as he watched the Legion's top men squirm under their lord's gaze.
"The 80's, Caesar." Vulpes bowed. "They are a band of raiders from the North who possess an impressive fleet of vehicles."
"I know who they fucking are! You've told me three times already." Caesar fumed. It was amusing and surreal for Arcade to see even Sandy look uncomfortable and ashamed. "What I want to know is why they're in my fucking land and why I've never even heard of them before now."
"They have always been a small fringe faction, with the New Canaanites and their ilk covering most of what is now our border with them. I never thought to burden you with knowledge of their existence." Caesar fixed him with a glare that would make even a deathclaw stop in its tracks.
"Get. Out. Now." Caesar did not raise his voice but instead dropped to a deep, tranquil tone that Arcade wished he would never hear again. Vulpes bowed and hurried out the door, past the glaring eyes of Lucius. "Now." He turned on the rest. "I no longer give a shit about who they are, what they want or what colour of fucking car they drive. I want them dead, crucified, massacred. I want there to be a subsection in the fucking history books titled: This is why you do not fuck with the Legion." Caesar ended his rant with spit flying across the room, some even touching Lanius' mask. Arcade loved it when Caesar got angry, it was one of the few times he got to see the enslaving bastards that formed the Legion's upper echelons get a bollocking.
"Allow me to handle this." Lanius stepped forwards. Caesar eyed him, the scowl still on his face.
"Good. Anyway it is unfitting for two Legatus to be commanding the same host." Caesar seemed to have calmed some as he settled into his throne. "Take as many centuries as you deem necessary, Cato will remain here and pacify the Mojave." Arcade guessed that if Lanius was even capable of it he would be grinning under his mask. Every time the Follower of the Apocalypse had heard Caesar and the Legate speak he had requested permission to go and crush some group or another, now he finally had a chance to go wail on something and Arcade wished him all the best, Lanius being a miles away from you was never a bad thing. "Begin the preparations immediately." He commanded. The pair of Legates saluted turned to leave. "Cato, stay." The Courier stopped in his tracks.
"Now, would you care to explain why we are losing men to a bunch of ghosts?"
"Sir, they attack and disappear before we can react. We are upping security but they are just hitting us harder." A lesser man might have stuttered or grovelled under Caesar's gaze but not Cato. He met the Son of Mars straight in the eye and stated his facts.
"I don't want excuses, I want it solved." Caesar demanded.
"Your will be done, Caesar." Cato bowed and left.
Arcade felt like smiling at the frustration he could see on Caesar's face – he had not given his new Legate permission to leave. It was small enough that Caesar would not make an issue out of it but still large enough to get under his skin. With his scowl firmly on his face Caesar joined Arcade at the chess board again. The game had been going on for close to forty minutes when they had been interrupted and in the time Caesar had been ranting and raving Arcade had devised the perfect way to put the topping of shit on what had so far been such a wonderful and stress free day for the slaver king. It worked a treat – within three moves Caesar's king was captured and Arcade was ordered out, no doubt to allow the soon to follow temper tantrum to go unseen by a slave.
Gannon walked through the guarded hallways, bowing to every Legionary he passed and taking care not to bump into any of the slaves as they carried their workloads around the old casino – he knew even a single drop of drink or food was dropped they would be punished for it. He paced about, trying not to make it look like he was going no-where in particular until he came to a rest room two floors down from Caesar's quarters. It was clean – as far as a post apocalyptic toilet could be in a building occupied by soldiers. Arcade did a quick check to make sure no-one was in the room, or making their way towards it before crouching before the closest urinal. He reached underneath and pulled out out a loose brick. Behind it were a pen and a piece of paper. In a scrawl that was barely legible he hastily scribbled down his news, every once in a while glancing up to make sure no-one came in.
Legion attacked in the north, serious – Lanius sent to deal with it. Resistance in the Mojave still strong – Courier given command of breaking it.
He folded the paper up and forced it back behind the brick. Captain Washington would be pleased with this. Arcade had doubted himself when the Spy had asked him to gather intelligence, thinking he would never find anything of note but as it turned out Caesar was not very guarded with what he said about slaves, regarding them more as furniture than people who could hear all his plans.
The slave turned doctor strolled out of the rest room – opposite the door a small painting hung from the wall. It was one of the mass produced ones showing a mountain with some fields that could be found in pre-war casinos and hotels. Giving a final glance to be sure no-one was watching Arcade lifted it off its hook and placed the painting on the floor – his sign to Washington that he had information. With a smile on his face Arcade made his way back to his room, felt better than he had in weeks, Caesar was going to be kicked out of the Mojave – and he got to be a part of it.
Manny wished he could staring up at the stars in boredom like every other watch. He wished it could be as every watch was – dreadfully boring and a test of will not to fall asleep. He wished it could be like that, but unfortunately it was not. Instead something was moving in the darkness. He turned and glanced at the others on watch, the new girl Sunny Smiles and one of Blueball's mercs – a bull of a man who went by the name of Mar.
"Did you see that?" He hissed. Mar looked up.
"What that?" His eyes scanned the darkness.
"Something moved out there."
"Something human shaped." Sunny put in from the other side.
"Fuck." Mar growled. "Fuck, think its Legion?"
"Could be a scavenger or a ghoul." Manny suggested. "Don't want to raise the alarm over nothing."
"We could go investigate." Mar suggested. Manny nodded.
"Sunny stay here, we can't leave the perimeter undefended." The spotter and the merc climbed out of their foxhole and unslung their rifles. They slowly and carefully made their way towards the the outskirts of the now deserted Novac, they had been the first to flee south and the first to be captured in the Legion's net. Manny stopped in his tracks when he heard a noise coming from behind one of the sheds. As silently as they could the pair made their way around it to find something they did not expect. A supermutant knelt on the ground, its face and hands buried into the side of a dead brahmin. They could hear the monster chew and tear pieces of flesh off with its bare hands. But in the middle of that they heard an all together more disturbing noise. The cocking of a gun.
"I guess curiosity killed the sniper." A gravelly voice said behind them. Manny's eyes met with Mar's and both men gave a slight nod. They flicked the safeties off and spun round. Before Mar had even made it ninety degrees two bullets went through his torso, the sound muffled by a suppressor. Manny at least got a look at his attacker, if not a shot before he was hit. He dropped his rifle as the two bullets entered through his chest and went out through his back. His shooter was a ghoul in camofluage gear.
"What happened?" The supermutant pulled its head from the brahmin.
"You let your guard down, Dog." A ghoul scowled, as much as one could while looking like a ghoul, at the mutant. "That's what happened."
"Sorry." The beast sounded almost childlike in that moment. Mar groaned tried to pull his pistol out of its holster. "No!" the mutant growled and before Manny could even register what was happening a huge booted foot was brought down upon Mar's skull, crushing it completely. Not so childlike now. The ghoul sighed and reached into his pocket.
"Subtlety as ever Dog is you strong point." The ghoul said as he pulled out what looked like a walkie talkie.
"Boss, its me here." The ghoul said into it. "We may have an issue."
"What is it?" A voice Manny recognised but could not put a name or face to answered back.
"Some of Boone's guys found us, we've dealt with them but I think we might need to ramp up the speed of things." There was a few seconds pause before the reply came.
"Pack up and leave the area, I'll be visiting very soon." The ghoul gave a slight chuckle and put the walkie back in his pocket.
"I'm going to tell the other, Dog – you deal with these two." Manny looked up to see a grinning supermutant and a raised boot.
Sorry for the long update time
As an aside I retconned Cato's promotion to Primus Pilus to Legate instead after I realised a bit of Caesar dialogue in the game hints that there is more than one Legate which would mean if Cato was Primus Pilus he would not be the 3rd most powerful man in the Legion.