.com

The centurion's mind was fixed on that girl as he raced through the tunnels. He ran along with the front of the recruits, his behaviour not fitting for a Centurion of Caesar's Legion. Titus cursed her under his breath as he ran. As the men reached the exit of the tunnel, the centurion drew Gehenna and threw his sword arm forward. The sea of red and black poured into the base, thermic lances melted the fence away, and with Titus as their head, the legion cut through the Boomers before they had time to unload their ordnance. Boomer corpses littered the gates. Titus turned to see the surviving slave girls, and with a sigh of relief sent his men further into the airfield. They would root out every last degenerate in this sh!t hole - the women would be raped and butchered, the children enslaved and the men flayed alive, nailed to a cross then set alight. Titus would set an example that even Lanius found excessive.

Aurora watched the butchery unfold, there was no other word for it.

These people were just trying to live, to survive in a world gone mad, but for the desire of one man, who wanted nothing more than to have his "Rome" their names would be as dust, their home desecrated, their memories wiped from the face of the Mojave.

She watched as Titus, who seemed most fervent in the slaughter in the airfield cut down more than his fair share of Boomers. He was truly terrifying to behold as blood splattered around him from cut skin, from the very weapon that she had sharpened for him the night before. again, she felt a guilty responsibility for the death that was being dealt by him,

His Armour bloodied as he danced his deadly ballet, magnificent in his form, the dancer within her could appreciate his movements, the human within recoiled in horror at his actions and the bloody scene that he cut before him.

"How can you serve a man like that?" asked one of the slaves beside her, "He is so brutal, his actions scare me worse than the mere mention of Lanius."

"I serve him, because he is my Master. It is my duty to do what he asks of me without question." Aurora spoke, "You would be very wise to keep your words and thoughts to yourself." she said, defending him. She surprised herself, weeks ago, she would have given anything to be free, she had even tried to escape, All that earned her was more guilt, an everlasting scar, and a goddamned slave collar that was so tight around her neck that it pained her to swallow.

She had caused the deaths of her own fellow soldiers on his orders, She had betrayed her own and been branded traitor. She was responsible for so much loss, so much pain, and so much devastation, yet she found that she had done it willingly, she could have refused, more than likely she would be dead, or on the way to being dead, lashed and nailed to a cross. but she had taken a cowards route and sided with the enemy, her survival, her own life, far more important to her than those of her former comrades.

Camp Golf, Camp McCarran. and now, the Boomers, it was obvious that they cared for their people, as the defense was greatest at one of the barracks. when the greater majority of the defenders were dead, dying, wounded or captured, A group of Legionaries entered the barracks and took out several children.

There were still pockets of resistance which were quickly being subdued when a group of Legionaries came to retrieve the slaves.

"You, come with us, you are to assist in moving the guns." Aurora arose with the other women.

"Yes, sir," she said softly, they followed the men into the killing field where bodies of Boomers lay in their flight jackets and Vault-tec issued suits in pools of crimson lifeblood and headed towards the massive Howitzers.

After painting the ground red, and leaving most of his men to round up the survivors, a group of prime legionaries brought him the leaders of the base. Evidently, Severus had failed to do his job. Before the centurion stood a young woman clad in combat armor, an old man and an old woman. By the looks of them, they didn't fear the legion at all. They should.

He had them marched over to the front fence of Nellis. Titus sent some men over to the medical hut to get all the stimpaks they could carry and bring them back here. Then, without any warning, he plunged his sword, unlit, into Pearl's stomach. He removed the crude length of metal before shoving his hand into the puncture and pulling out a length of her intestine. At this point, she fell to the ground, barely breathing but silent. Then men came back with the medical supplies and Titus jammed a pair of stimpaks beside the gash he had just created. Pulling the entrails into a line, he wrapped them around her neck, looped the remaining length over the top of the fence, and tied a knot in the railing - hanging her by her own entrails, using stimpaks to keep her alive as long as possible. Following his lead, but with some degree of repulsion, the legionaries did the same to Raquel and Loyal.

Aurora and the other survivors of the mad dash to boomer territory pushed hard against the Howitzers, moving them inch by inch with other Legion recruits who were bloodied from their battles. The stench of blood, sweat, gunpowder and hot metal prominent in their atmosphere. Beside her, one of the slaves who had run with her looked up she paled and gagged at what she saw. She put her head down and breathed heavily. Aurora looked at her from her position, her arms up over her head, back straight, hands on warm metal and legs pushing the massive gun. The slave looked at Aurora with a mixture of pity and contempt.

"And you say it's your duty to Serve him, he will turn out like Lanius, who strikes all his slaves blind. What if he fails Caesar? You will be either sold or crucified, more likely the latter. That's what they did to the Burned Man's slaves. They crucified them to the last." Aurora looked over to where Titus stood, watching the leaders of the Boomers strangling on their own intestinal tracts. She felt the bile creeping up her oesophagus, she swallowed several times, how strange that she would not get squeamish when they slaughtered a Brahmin for food, but to witness this would almost make her lose her lunch. She lowered her head and pushed on past Titus and his gruesome display. That Old friend Fear had returned to visit.

Titus was instructing a few his men to stay behind and administer med-x and stimpaks whenever the three hanged bastards looked close to death. If they passed out, a dose of psycho should bring them back. "There's a promotion in this for you if they're alive when we get back." Their 'nooses' weren't tight, they could just about breath, but the pain must have been excruciating. The rest of the survivors were tied up in the hangar, ready to be taken back to the Fort or New Rome as slaves once the assault was complete.

The rest of the men departed, helping the slaves haul the heavy guns faster. Titus caught up with the rest of the men and walked in the middle of the guns being dragged across the ground spattered craters, a few yards from Aurora. His armor flashed red in the Mojave sun, dripping with fresh blood. After that display, he was already planning what he would do to desecrate the name of the NCR in Vegas.

Ised sat at the edge of the dusty old bar in the lucky 38, she did some convincing and Mr. House let her stay there so long as no one else would be accompanying her. Ever.
In front of her was more then just a few empty bottles of booze. "S-shit...I finished...that alll In just two days...am I even alive..." Her voice was very slurred and almost impossible to understand. "Do...do I have a liver still.." She looked down at her side wondering about the condition of her liver, she figured it wasn't anything a few stimpaks couldn't heal.

Figuring it was to quiet she glanced over at the stereo and then at her makeshift leg on the bar counter. " 'ere goes nothin'." She pulled the leg off the table and sloppily fastened it to her leg; it would probably fall off within minutes of her wearing it but the alcohol in her system caused her not to care in the least.
She leaned on every surface possible and made her way to the stereo that sat collecting dust at the end of the room. Ised pushed every button till one made music come out of the speakers. "Eh...never was fond of this prewar..stuff..but sound is sound...now l-lets make it louder." She turned the dial till the outside residents of Vegas could hear it.

The heat of the Mojave sun and the strain of the effort of pushing the heavy howitzer was taking its toll on the exhausted Slaves. Aurora's body was drenched in sweat, she blinked to clear the beads of salty water from her eyes while the girls beside her panted with the strain. the younger one stumbled and fell, Aurora's arm shot out and helped her back to her feet while she continued to push,

"Don't fall, or you'll never get up." she huffed.