.com
When morning came, he'd set Aurora to work on sharpening his shishkebab after dressing him in his armor. The cohort was to be split - three quarters headed to NW Vegas to prepare to go into the tunnels, the rest, under Titus and Lanius would head to Nellis and hopefully Severus had made sure the Boomers wouldn't open fire.
The walk took hours but finally the smaller detachment broke of from the main cohort and stopped at the edge of the howitzers' range.
From the baggage van with the rest of the slaves Aurora looked out to the hill where the road lead to Boomer's territory. She saw the array of soldiers in formation. Anyone watching from a vantage point from Nellis would be assuming that there was an invasion afoot. They would not be far wrong. She worried for Titus, as much as she hated to admit it. She feared Lanius would order his death either by ordering Titus to advance and the Boomers firing upon him or by ordering his execution for failing the Legate in some small way. Even the slaves were on edge. The feeling was one of foreboding. Aurora took a deep breath and located Titus. He stood resplendent in his new armour. She subconsciously bit at her lower lip in a show of nerves, she caught herself and released her lip, the flesh showing white for a second before the blood returned to her lip. She turned to the other slaves that belonged to Titus' century and shook her head. Many of them seemed to look up to her now as his personal slave being in charge of the setting up of the masters personal camp. She knew that if they were going to be able to take the weapons from the Boomers, there would be no real need for a camp to be set up. Their detachment stood at the border to wrecked town that once existed south of the base. Severus was a capable frumentarius, but they had no way of being sure the Boomers had gone for his honeyed words. They were notoriously xenophobic. The Legion had only one way to be sure of the Boomers willingness to cooperate.
Even Lanius knew it would be foolish to walk straight into the shells. So instead they used the tried and tested method that was normally for clearing an area of landmines. Let the slaves head in first.
Lanius gave the order...
Aurora and the rest of the slaves were herded through the lines of soldiers. Her heartbeat thundered through her ears, the fear of every slave multiplied with each step they took that brought them closer to the field of death. Aurora stared ahead as she walked past Lanius and Titus, head and shoulders back, if she was going to die today, she would die with dignity. She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm as they were stopped by a Decanus.
"You will March through this field and await the rest of the cohort once you reach the gate. If the Boomers fire, and you die, it is for the Glory of Caesar that you do so. Move out!"
The body of slaves stepped out in unison, scared shuffles, only Aurora stepped properly. Her mind going through her NCR ordinance training, she checked the distance of the massive howitzers,
'If it goes boom... ten, maybe fifteen seconds of air time before the ordinance hits.' She thought to herself. 'Depending on wind, lucky to clear the hit zone before they can reload, our fastest time was twelve seconds reload and prime at best practice at the dam before we lost it, Fuck me that doesn't give much time to get first of blast zone. The group passed a wrecked and twisted corvega. She heard the first soft boom in the distance... S-h-i-t
"Run!" She screamed and dashed forward, the other slaves screamed in fear, some broke and ran back to the lines, others scattered across the field. Aurora ran forwards, ten...nine...eight... She counted in her mind by the time she got to 'one' then plus one she heard the second howitzer fire, she was only past the third row of houses and nearing the mortar ruined crossroads as the first explosion rocked the ground.
She stumbled and fell, her natural dancer's grace saving her from sprawling to the ground, she knew she would have less time the closer she got to the gate. She heard a scream , another slave also fell and badly twisted her ankle. Aurora hadn't realised that there were three others with her.
"Keep up with me!" She yelled at them as she pushed herself up with fluidic grace. Her ribs screamed in agony, the pain from the healing cracked ribs flaring up again. She ran on hearing a third boom, and knowing the second mortar was just seconds away. Her heart hammered through her chest and into her ears. She took a deep breath and sprinted towards the gates. They were not far now. Behind her where she had been mere seconds before, the ground erupted, taking another slave to her death. Aurora pressed on with the last two slaves, passing a sign welcoming them to Nellis air force base. The third impact threw all three women to the ground and they rolled down the inclined Road to stop at the gates of Nellis.
Aurora coughed dust from the shelling and opened her eyes. She looked up at the gates and the battered and pale faces of the other slaves who had made it to the gates and three laughed in relief. They had done as ordered and survived the Boomers firing range in the process.
Titus felt silent at Lanius' command. His face fell, gladly behind the bandana he wore. The centurion would have protested, but this was the Legate. His eyes followed Aurora duck and dive, bob and weave through the shattered remains of the town outside Nellis. His heart was in his mouth until the second she was out of range of the guns.
It seems Severus was not able to convince the Boomers to make peace with their inevitable fate, so it fell to the Legion to take them by force. Lanius turned to the men and began to march them the short distance east so they could go through the train tunnel and come out right by the fence. He wasn't afraid of the Deathclaws. Titus lingering in his position as long as he could, watching the survivors lined up by the gate, the Boomers approaching them by foot. This had to be quick.
When Titus had finally turned away from who he half considered to be his ward, he saw Lanius and his men butchering the last of those mutant chameleons Into the tunnel they went.
The three girls laughed with relief as they rested against the chian-link fence near the gates to Nellis.
The adrenaline began to wear off, and the little aches, and pains from their dash of insanity began to show. Aurora's side felt like it was on fire, beside her one of the girls began to shake and sob, Aurora too found she was trembling a little from the events. Her nerves were shaken, and. her ears rang a little from the noise of the explosions that had announced their mad arrival into Boomer Territory. she held onto the younger girl as she shook and wept with the shock of their experience, she gently caressed the girl's hair and tried to calm her. The other slave looked up and noticed that there were several Boomers approaching slowly on foot, their weapons drawn and aimed at the women.
She tugged frantically on Aurora's torn and tattered slave dress and Aurora turned from calming the other crying slave to look at the new threat. She repositioned herself between the other girls and the boomers, her hands out to her sides,, an unmistakably protective pose, She stepped back, pushing the two slaves back towards the welcome sign and an old pre-war police car that had been parked close enough that the bombardments hadn't destroyed it. She didn't want anyone to hurt the two women that she had gone through so much in such a short span of seconds with.
"Don't move, hold it right there!" shouted one of the Boomers as he held his weapon steady on the three slaves. A great shout arose from nearby, the Boomers turned as one as the sea of Legion soldiers washed through from the train tunnel. The Slaves were forgotten as the Boomers rushed to defend Nellis.
Aurora slowly relaxed her defensive pose, while the two women behind her continued to cower. they had been in the service of the Legion for a long tome, and didn't know any other life, strangers frightened them and it was only when Aurora finally sat and chatted with them around the slave's camp fires one evening while Titus was planning with the Legate and the other centurions, did they finally get to trust her a little.
The women watched as the Legion went and surrounded the men and women from Nellis. Aurora watched as the Boomers raised their weapons and waited for their orders.
"Get behind the Car, these old police vehicles are armored." she said, herding the two girls back around the old vehicle, they crouched down and Aurora watched the scence before her unfold