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In the early hours of the morning, Titus had sent his scouts into Vegas dressed as gamblers. The atmosphere there was supposedly more somber and fearful than before the second battle of hoover dam. The information they'd gathered was that the McCarran garrison was going to receive supplies via the Vegas monorail early in the evening. But perhaps the most important part of their mission was that by early afternoon, the supply crate with food and ammunition had been replaced with crates of jury rigged explosives, mainly made from the howitzer shells from the Fort. Now all they needed was someone from the supply corps to wave this delivery through, and oversee the delivery itself.
Aurora held her head in her hands, again she was being 'forced' to do a traitors work, her enslavement to Titus and the god damned collar that had pressed against the flesh of her neck constant reminders of her situation.
She was once again dressed in NCR Fatigues; a Supplies Corps insignia stitched into her shoulder epilates, a face wrap attachment hid her Slave Collar. She again wore a dead man's uniform, "Smith" stitched into the name badge.
Two Legionaries arrived with Titus behind them. Aurora rose to her feet and stood before him.
"I'm ready, master." She said sadly.
Having her dressed up in NCR gear yet again was old but gold. "Good to hear."
"Come." He beckoned turning and walking toward the edge of the camp. "You know your job? Go with the supplies from Vegas, to McCarran, then detonate the first batch. When they go to help their wounded, detonate the second. Understand? Fantastic." He said patronisingly.
"From here you're on your own," he said pointing to Vegas in the near distance. "But I'll be watching." He held a veteran ranger's anti-materiel rifle in one hand.
"Don't disappoint me. My entire arsenal will taste of your 'virgin's' lips".
"Yes, Sir." Aurora said and moved off towards the closest entrance to Freeside.
Within the slums people watched her, some not sure if she was there to help or not, there were several groups of Troopers, the feel of the place was one of foreboding, and no-one could ignore the sea of red out there.
She passed through the gates past the Securitron Gate Keepers who let her pass. The feel on the strip was worse. Soldiers staggered, inebriated, whores didn't dance a vividly as they used to. She passed through the other gates and headed up to the Monorail station, she felt Titus' eyes upon her all the way.
The soldiers waved her through, seeing the ensignia of the Supplies Corps on her shoulder. She smiled and nodded.
She boarded the Monorail with the supplies and sat right beside the first box of destruction. Breathing deeply to calm her nerves, the two detonators sat in her pockets, one on each side. She was careful to place her hands on top of her lap and not touch them.
"Left side, first, Right side when they go to help with the wounded, left, right, left, right." She thought to herself nervously.
An old NCR cadence call sounded in her mind.
"Left, left, left, right, left, I once knew a girl from shady sands, who was good on her knees and great with her hands, I knew it was right, right, right to take her out on the town."
The Monorail rattled into the station at Camp Mccarran, Aurora stood and helped with the unloading, she indicated to the troops where the first crate was to be placed, along with several others. She looked for the second, marked with a tiny red x. to her shock, it was right beneath the first box of explosives.
"Hey," she pointed to the two soldiers nearest to her, "This has to go over there with those other crates." She said,
"Why?" asked one, "What difference does it make?" he asked.
"It's where it's gotta go, with the other crates, you don't just mix up medical supplies with ammo do you? God, you grunts are so damned dumb." She said as she helped them to move the crate to its place with the medical supplies.
"Right," she said, making a show of signing everything off on her clipboard. "Where's the Can?" she asked one of the women troopers. She pointed past rows of slot machines to the far end of the concourse. Aurora nodded her thanks and moved away.
She reached the door of the bathrooms and went in, she placed her hand in her pocket and activated the left detonator. The air rippled as the explosives detonated, followed microseconds later by the percussive explosion, smoke, fire and screams thrummed through the buzzing in her ears. She waited a moment and looked out at the carnage she had dealt.
Body parts lay about, men and women screaming at their missing limbs, some crawling away on stumps and shattered bones, trailing bloody tracks behind them. A flood of troopers arrived from the secondary concourse and went to help, most going to the medical supplies. When she felt there were enough men and women there helping the injured, She reached into her right pocket and activated the detonator.
The second explosion rocked the concourse as it had the first, more bodies flying, more smoke, and more fire. More Death. And she had been the one to pull the triggers. Traitor.
She sighed and stepped back out. She stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the click of a gun's hammer being cocked.
"I know everyone in this camp, and I don't know you." She felt a hand reaching into her pockets, and removing the first detonator and then the second from the other pocket.
"Legion whore." She heard as she felt a sharp pain against the back of her head and blacked out.
She awoke within the cells, heavy smoke still hung in the air. Colonel Hsu and four NCR MPs stood before her, on the other side of the cell. Her head ached, and she could smell and feel blood as it trickled down her neck. Colonel Hsu looked tired and worn. Blood splatters covered his uniform and cuts on his face and arms.
"Get her out of there." He growled.
The MPs opened the cell and grabbed her roughly; Colonel Hsu looked her in the eyes as the MPs hauled her before him.
"You're going to tell me everything." He turned to his men, "Take her to be interrogated, and to hell with the POW convention!"
Hours later, Aurora sat tied to the chair, blood dripping from her nose, eyes blackened and ribs hurting. Her own people had done this to her, but she had done worse to them and now she was paying for it. She hadn't said much, as there was not much for her to say.
She'd done her job for her Master, the Collar still about her neck was proof, as were the bodies of the NCR soldiers that the few survivors were cleaning up. Colonel Hsu had enough. "Take her back to the cell, if we see tomorrow through, We'll hang her for treason. She won't get a firing squad, it's too good for her."
Aurora's heart fell, her people knew what she had done, despite her telling Colonel Hsu about the threats to her person, he didn't care, he had just lost a large amount of the troops he had left to the two bombs that she had detonated.
She was hauled back to the cells and dropped to the ground at the door. It was all she could do in her battered state to crawl her sorry ass to the sparse cot and wait her execution, or for the Legion to arrive.
She didn't care which happened first, her life was over either way. She knew Titus would kill her for being captured, and the NCR, those she swore to protect, were no longer her people.
Titus had relayed his plan to Lanius, who had given his approval, but was against the idea of waiting til sundown to storm the building. Why wait for the sun to go down when those explosions would give the Legion the element of surprise? Titus' scouts had no only rigged bombs in the fore supply crates, but all the medical supplies and food being brought into the camp was laced with cazador and radscorpion venom. The second they used a stimpak, or med-x to help the men and women the bombs had harmed, their blood would slowly start to turn to jelly.
A camp full of dead men would be easier to take, reasoned the centurion. Thought Lanius was not happy with this dishonest warfare, he reluctantly gave his blessing. He'd need not waste the lives of men when the republic would be bolstering their efforts now.
The men were all out of their tents, in both legions. The camp was quiet. They had their orders and just when the last light from the sun disappeared over the horizon, the call went out. The doors were flung open and the red sea flooded in.
Aurora lay sleeping, the soldiers hadn't bothered to feed her, traitors didn't deserve a last meal the two MPs had sneered while they ate in front of her. She slept while they died from the venom laced food. She opened her eyes at the opening of the doors and the noise of the boys in red as they cheered their victory. She sat up slowly, painfully; her muscles so stiff and sore from her beatings at the hands of the NCR MPs
She heard nothing of the NCR retaliation, and only noticed the two dead MPs when she saw the movement of the legion soldier at the door to the cells