The Legion's banner has now been placed in this new world. They set up a base of operations no different than The Fort when they took Hoover Dam. The base was built in a little over 2 days as expected of the Legion. Legate Nuntius walked to Lanius' tent.
"What's popping?" The Courier said as he walked into his Legate Lanius tent. Lanius was talking with some Centurions.
"Ahh Nuntius, we just were given word from a messenger, our enemy calls themself the Saderan Empire and...they share similarities with us." Lanius told him. The Courier looked confused.
"What are these similarities?" The Courier leaned on the tent wall.
"They share our battle tactics, uniforms, and even language." Lanius said to the Courier. He looked more confused.
"That's...odd? So does that mean we can translate their language?" The Courier asked curiously.
"We have Vulpes and the Frumentarii working on deciphering the entire language, they have enough information to last them a while." Lanius explained. Nuntius winced slightly.
"Damn, almost feel bad for them, Vulpes must be having quite the time in Rome." Nuntius said as he ate Blamco Mac n' Cheese, well 'Ate' is subjective he pushed the food against his mask's mouth and called it eating.
"They killed our Brothers!" a Recruit Legionary yelled at Nuntius. All the Centurions looked surprised at his outburst. Lanius almost decapitated him with his sword if it wasn't for Nuntius throwing his fork into his shoulder.
"AHHH!" The Recruit Legionary screamed. Nuntius walked up to him and crouched down to his level. He lightly slapped his cheek while smiling.
"aww, that's why I said almost." Nuntius spoke to him as if he was a child before he pulled out the fork it was stuck in the shoulder to the end of the handle.
"Ugh...not eating with that." Nuntius said as he stabbed the fork into the Recruit's other shoulder. Legate Nuntius stood up.
"You ruined my appetite." Nuntius said as he dumped the scorching hot Mac n' cheese on his face, causing a pained yell.
"You clearly need pain resistance training if you can't handle this heat." The Legate said to himself. Then suddenly Nuntius kicked the recruit with his spiked power armor boots.
"Take him to a medical tent and...also consider this his punishment for speaking to a Legate like that." he said to a random Centurion as Nuntius kicked the Recruit in the stomach over and over again.
"I've been bored lately, so this was a fun little workout." Nuntius stretched his neck as he walked out of Lanius' tent.
"See ya, Lanius!" Nuntius said playfully as he left. Lanius sat unmoving. A Centurion grabbed the out-of-turn Recruit dragging him to the medical tent.
Nuntius returned to his tent. He began the lengthy and painful process of taking off his bronze-painted Custom Striped Power Armor. The T-51 Power Armor chest had a red cape over it with the Mark of Caesar pinned by the Courier. The spiked shoulder pauldrons had a chain wrapped around the left shoulder. The cape led down and tied to a ring on the waist. The Power Armor also had a Pteruges and kilt customary for Legion soldiers. The legs had small jagged spikes on the outside to prevent leg sweeping often used by Rangers.
"And now for the grand finale" Finally The Courier took off his helmet, It had the horns of a Legendary Deathclaw on the sides except the left horn grew into the left eye of the mask causing blindness, or it would if The Courier could see out of his left eye. The face on the helmet and a look of horror and fright.
The sight of The Courier was that of the Burned Man. Bandages covered his face and the left side of his body. He began changing the bandages.
"Shit, Joshua wasn't kidding about the pain..." The Courier said while wincing. Thought about his companions and felt anger.
"Fuck'em." Nuntius said staring at his burn scars.
The Legion named the base "Fort Mobene" after an old Roman Fort. They had Legionaries with Riot Shields painted with the bull keeping watch. It seemed that they didn't take the Legion seriously as they arrived 2 days ago and not a single soldier showed themself.
Legate Nuntius was walking around Fort Mobene bored he thought they'd attack already. so he did the best thing to do when he was bored. He'd go bother Lanius.
"Lanius!" The Courier walked into Lanius' tent.
"Nuntius...again." Lanius said exasperated.
"So what's up?" The Courier said as pulled out a Nuka-Cola. Lanius stared at Nuntius for a moment.
"You reminded me of something Nuntius... Caesar wanted a team of Explorers to scout ahead of our conquest and wanted you to lead it. How fitting of Legatus such as yourself." Lanius said to Nuntius.
"Wh-the hell? Was that sarcasm?" Nuntius said while pointing at Lanius. He turned his back to Nuntius focusing on the map of the area.
"Hey! You can't ignore me! What does Caesar want?!" Nuntius asked for an explanation but Lanius ignored him. before a Centurion came in with news.
"Legate Lanius!...Legate Nuntius is here too. we've spotted the cowardly army that attacked Rome, they have a force of 10,000." The Centurion relayed the news.
"10,000? Shit, we only have around 3,500 in total, and mostly recruits" Nuntius said while going over the information in his head.
"Don't despair Nuntius, you have been in a battle with worse odds." Lanius said. Nuntius turned to Lanius.
"Damn... I'll need a look at the army, take us there." Nuntius told the Centurion.
Quest added: Don't Fence Me In.
Nuntius went to the wall of Fort Mobene, The force of 10,000 slowly marched towards Fort Mobene.
"Huh, a force of 10,000 interesting, usually we are the one who outnumbers our opponents" Nuntius said to himself with a chuckle.
"Legate Nuntius, what are your orders?" A Centurion asked. The Courier thought about it and decided he would use an NCR strategy.
"We'll shoot with long range then when they get closer, we open our floodgates. I'm sure our men are eager for blood after Rome." The Courier said while stretching his right arm.
"As by your command Legate." The Centurion walked away. The Courier looked at the approaching army. He looked at his enemies, imagining them as NCR, his old enemies. He sat there for a while before his favorite Legate, Lanius, broke him out of his stupor.
"Nuntius..." The Courier looked at Lanius without turning. He stood in front of The Courier menacingly.
"Your strategy...It reeks of the Bear. Are you perhaps growing weak?" Lanius spoke with venom. Nuntius finally turned to Lanius. Both the Legatus gripped their respective weapons.
"I assure you Lanius. I am anything but weak." Nuntius said then in a blink of an eye they pulled their weapons. Lanius had his blade on Nuntius' neck as Nuntius had his revolver primed under Lanius' chin.
"Understand this Nuntius. If your strength withers, I'll put you down." Lanius threatened. Nuntius chuckled.
"I hope you know this applies to you as well, Lanius" The Courier said coldly. Lanius nodded before the Legatus put down their weapons.
"Now, I assume you're going to join the battle?" The Courier asked Lanius. He nodded.
"You'd be correct Nuntius, how could I not after the battle of Rome. To spill blood of the Legion and expect no consequence, it requires...No, it demands correction." Lanius told The Courier. His ears perked up when he heard him say that.
"I wouldn't blame you..." The Courier stretched his neck. Before he tapped the back of his hand on Lanius' shoulder.
"You mind giving the order to fire, My arm is sore after I kicked that guy." The Courier said. Lanius scoffed.
"How does one become lazy enough to let that happen? Perhaps your death will be sooner than I expected" Lanius told The Courier to which he flipped Lanius off without looking. Lanius grunted before he stepped forward. Lanius and Nuntius stood above all of the Legionaries. The army 10,000 strong slowly approached Fort Mobene. Lanius lifted his arm, all Legionaries readied their range weapons, The Centurions brought out their LMGs, Anti-Material Rifles and even some had miniguns. Lower ranks of the Legion brought lower-grade arms such as SMGs, Pistols, and Assault rifles.
"Fire." Lanius said as he swiped his hand down. The Legion started firing at the army. The bullets ripped through the Empire's frontlines. The Empire's forces panicked and quickly tried to make a phalanx formation but were cut down by Legion. The flying geckos started to take out troops by dive bombing. Only Anti-Material Rifles were able to shoot them down.
"Those things are pretty strong for not being mutated" The Courier said as he grabbed an Anti-Material Rifle and loaded explosive rounds. He aimed using V.A.T.S. Although the Legion disapproves of using tech as a crutch as long as it kills his enemies, The Courier doesn't care. The Courier fired the bullet, It hit the gecko's eye causing the bullet to explode decimating the head. Lanius grunted but he sounded impressed...or not Nuntius really couldn't tell.
"1 Down..." Nuntius smiled wickedly. Before suddenly turning and firing at another gecko taking it down.
"2..." Nuntius shot 4 bullets before looking at his targets, more flying geckos fell by The Courier's hand.
"3...4...5...and..." Three flying geckos crashed after the explosive bullet collided with them except for the last shot Nuntius missed his 4th shot.
"95% my ass." He was with a bit of anger in his voice. The Rider of the Gecko was frightened by what happened to his fellow Riders but he persevered and attempted to dive bomb the General, with the magic stave. The Legate in question underestimated the speed of the Gecko and was taken by the overgrown gecko. It brought him far above the battlefield.
"Appreciate the view...but..." Nuntius said while pulling out his Revolver. The Rider intended to drop the Legate but was halted by gunshots in his chest from Nuntius. The gecko with no orders tried to bite down on The Courier but Armor protected him, the same couldn't have been said for the Nuka Grenade that the Gecko bit into and just so happened to release the striker. Maybe having 3 Luck wasn't the best attribute.
"Fuc-" The Courier said before he was cut off by the explosive going off. It was a fiery inferno in the air. The Night sky was bright as if it was day but only for a second before a ball of fire rained down from the sky. Many Imperial soldiers looked to the sky with fear. The Legate crashed into the ground followed by the flaming body of the gecko. The fire spread from the body to the battlefield due to the effects of the Nuka Grenade.
"(Keep moving forward! That was their General! His army will fall now!)" an Imperial Captain shouted. The Imperial troops moved forward motivated more than ever. Lanius simply chuckled at the sight of the inferno. As the army moved forward. Lanius decided to send the troops into hand-to-hand combat.
"Show them Caesar's might!" Lanius shouted with a stern expression. All of the Legionaries jumped over the fort's walls. Lanius jumped over the wall and pulled out his Blade Of The East.
"RETRIBUTION!" The Legionaries shouted as they ran at the Imperial soldiers blades in hand.
"Some bodies to feed the worms." Lanius said as walked menacingly towards the battle. An Imperial tried to catch him off guard. They tried to slash The Legate but the attack was caught. Lanius grabbed the soldier by the throat and lifted them off the ground. The soldier thrashed around but Lanius didn't budge.
"Another kill to my name!" Lanius shouted as slammed them into the ground leaving them there. Lanius was about to stab them. Before he was stopped by another soldier, they charged Lanius with a short sword.
"(DIE MONSTER!!)" The Soldier shouted while rushing Lanius. He simply sidestepped the Soldier and they ended up stabbing the other soldier they tried to save.
"Pathetic..." Lanius said as he stabbed the Soldier in the chest, quickly ending him. The Legion pushed further into the Imperial line.
As the battle ensued both sides took losses but the legion was bred to fight and put the Empire on the back foot. The blaze in the middle of the battlefield stood tall and someone walked out Lucky for said person they had 10 Endurance.
"Too bad, Flames don't do anything...not anymore." Nuntius said while flames were still lit on his armor. The Courier smiled remembering something he read in the Pip-Boy. [Sizzling Style: Gain 200 Fire Resistance while wearing the same armor set]
"I love my Pip-Boy." The Courier said as he pulled out his Revolver, shooting a charging imperial without looking.
Lanius was mid-battle hacking and slashing through enemies. Lanius' sword made quick work of any soldier in his way. His sword cut through any armor they thought of throwing at him. Shields were useless as Lanius would rip it from their arms with his left hand and then cut them in half with his right.
"If you don't have the strength to keep your shield, then you don't deserve it!" Lanius shouted as he cut down some Imperial shield troops.
Nuntius on the other hand was shooting through soldier after soldier with dual revolvers. The Legion started pushing the Soldiers back causing them to fall back into small groups and get surrounded by Legion troops. Soldiers started surrendering to the Legion though some Decani chose not to take prisoners.
"For our fallen brothers!" A Prime Legionary shouted as slashed at a Soldier's chest killing them.
"For Caesar!" A Recruit gurgled out as he cut his own throat. The Imperial Soldiers that were surrounding him were horrified at the resolve of a lowly soldier.
A Legionary Beastmaster sent out some Cyber-dogs to the battle, The Robotic hounds started tearing through the Imperial forces.
"(Armored Hounds! No! They're faster tha-)" An Imperial shouted before his throat was torn out by a Cyber-dog.
"Mars will thank me for your death!" A Legionary Beastmaster shouted as he sent out more hounds. The reinforced teeth of the Cyber-dog ripped through shields and armor with ease. Two hounds ripped apart an Imperial soldier as he screamed for help.
The gates of Mobene opened as some engines revved up. Motorcycle Chariots drove onto the battlefield. Prime Legionaries sat with the Chariot Riders, firing rifles into groups of Imperials as they drove by.
"(where are their horses! It's moving on its own!)" Imperials told their Captain.
"(Ignore them focus on the hounds!)" The Captain commanded his troops.
"Send Junia out!" A Centurion told a Beastmaster, who nodded. Multiple Beastmasters ran to the animal pens to open their biggest cage.
Nuntius was fighting off a squad of Imperials before a loud roar raged from the battlefield. Everyone in the battle looked at the source of the roar. It was the Legion's top contender in the Colosseum. A Deathclaw.
"Oh shit...They brought Junia." Nuntius chuckled.
"(What? Is that a wingless Dragon?)" a shocked Imperial said. The Deathclaw ran at the enemy on all fours. Junia got closer to the Imperials, jumping and slashing from both sides. The poor group of Imperials stuck in the middle of the claws were torn into bits. Junia set her sights on another scattered group of Imperials. As Junia ran towards them, Their spears, shields and bows were ready to strike, but Deathclaws had to evolve beside humans with firearms, this was nothing to them. Junia dug up dirt, tossing it at the group blinding them.
"(My eyes! Where did it go!)" An Imperial said as he tried to rub his eyes. But it was too late, she was behind them. She tore through the Imperials, Junia bit down on one of the Soldiers and shook him around like a chew toy.
"(Kill the beast!)" the Captain ordered. All of the imperials aimed their spears at the Deathclaw but it was too late. The Deathclaw swiped, turning them into chunks of meat. The Deathclaw stabbed her left claw into the Captain's stomach and lifted him up.
"(Help me! I order you...don't let me die...)" The Captain tried to order his troops but didn't notice they were already dead. Junia unleashed her right claw and swiped across the Imperial Captain and cut clean through. Junia threw her kill and ran for more groups of Imperials.
Elsewhere Nuntius started using V.A.T.S. and started shooting every Imperial he saw in the head. Headshot after Headshot, Nuntius' AP started running out as he started to breathe heavily.
He heard someone behind him, he turned using his forearm as a shield. Nuntius' arm stopped the blade from hitting him. The soldier had tried to move his blade for another attack but was too slow. Nuntius pushed his Revolver into his chin before blowing his brains out.
Nuntius stood up looking around for more kills but he only saw cowering men and no fighters left standing.
"Huh? Is that it? I've fought tribal more tenacious than this." The Courier said to himself before finishing an injured Imperial on the ground. The Courier saw how many prisoners were taking and sighed.
"...I'll let Lanius deal with them." The Courier said as he walked back to Fort Mobene.
"Where are you heading? Nuntius..." Lanius said from behind him with his sword out.
"What in the shitty Holotape sitcom...Lanius..." The Courier turned to him ready to pull out his revolver.
"I do hope you did not think you could abandon your duties as a Legatus." Lanius said while pointing a sword at Nuntius.
"Fine...what are we doing?" The Courier said moving his hand away from the revolver.
"To show why the Slaves are Slaves." Lanius told The Courier.
"I've been a Legati for 6 years, I know what that means. " Nuntius replied with a hint of venom.
"Then you should already be there." Lanius responded as turned and walked to Fort Mobene.
"Understood..." The Courier told Lanius.
Elsewhere in the dead of night as The battle at Fort Mobene was taking place.
"(Please don't! I'll stop being a bandit! PLEASE!)" a voice rang out into the night as a sick gurgling sound cut it short. The owner of the voice's head was missing as he was held 4 meters off the ground. The body was tossed to the ground as the hulking individual looked at the corpses of the Raiders.
"(My my, quite the bloodshed you created.) a voice of a woman said to him. The moonlight shined off his metal armor and blood glistened the ground. He turned to a small woman, she wore a dark dress with pink frills and a bow on her head.
"Another one that needs to be put down." The rough voice with a filter said to himself. As he pulled out his bladed gauntlet.
"(Oh? Are we fighting? I just wanted to compliment you...)" She said as she licked her lips.
"(...but if you insist!)" She yelled and pulled out her halberd. The moon to her back causing an otherworldly glow.
"(You may call me Rory Mercury, I am an apostle of the Dark God Emory.)" Rory said then started sprinting towards the large figure.
The tower of a man blocked the halberd strike with his blade. He tried to counter Rory's strike with a punch. Rory narrowly dodged, she was shocked at his strength.
"You've gotten a lot farther than you should have, but then you haven't met Frank Horrigan either. Your ride's over Mutie. Time to die." Frank said while grasping his hand multiple times getting used to his body.
"(Are you a demigod? You're definitely not a human.)" Rory said with a stern expression.
"Whatever you're saying won't help, time for talking is over." Frank said before taking a step right onto one of the corpses, causing red mist to appear in its place. The Monster Frank Horrigan pulled out his Plasma gatling gun, spinning it up.
"I love the smell of Plasma in the morning..." Frank Horrigan stood tall on the bodies of the Raiders. Rory stood across from Frank ready to fight.
Fort Mobene held an event to see Legatus Lanius battle against the Imposter Legion.
Nuntius sat on the side of the Makeshift Arena ready for Lanius' call. Many Legionaries as well as Slaves, they watched on with mixed emotions.
"Send in the Their General." Lanius said. The Courier did, taking the General out of a slave pen.
"(You damn dogs! Release me! I am a Noble! Your hands aren't fit to touch me!)" The Imperial General shouted trying to break free.
"Keep struggling, it'll make Lanius' work easy." Nuntius told him. He brought the General to the edge of the Arena.
"Better be a good fight." Nuntius said as he kicked the General into the Arena.
"Let us see your strength." Lanius said. Nuntius threw an Imperial sword down.
"(A peasant stands no ground against a noble)" The General said, grabbing the sword standing up. He rushed The Legate. Lanius sidestepped him.
"If this is your best then you have no chance." Lanius said while using his hilt to stun his opponent. Lanius stuck his sword into the ground in front of the Imperial. The legate grabbed him.
"You're too weak to even be considered a part of Caesar's legion." Lanius said as he threw the General at his sword in the ground. The General shouted in pain as his neck stuck to the blade, blood gushing out as a gurgling sound came out of his mouth.
"Degenerate..." The Legate said with disgust in his voice. The General looked at The Legate with pleading eyes. The Legate ignores him and instead kicks his head causing a decapitation. The General's head tried to roll away before Lanius stepped on his head and slowly applied pressure.
"If only you were stronger." Lanius said as his foot smashed through turning the head into red paste. Most imperial soldiers started panicking at the sight of their commander dying.
"Send in the next!" Lanius shouted. The Courier obliged and grabbed another high ranking soldier.
"Hopefully a better fighter than the last." The Courier said to the prisoner although they didn't understand. The Soldier struggled as he tried to break free. The Courier looked at the rest of the prisoners.
"Damn, this is gonna take all day. Ehh maybe making bets would be fun...although everyone would bet on Lanius and if he were to take a dive..." The Courier wondered aloud.
"I said next Nuntius!" Lanius shouted. The Courier rolled his eyes.
"Yeah I got it! Jeez, we have the same rank, not higher or lower. Why can't we get a recruit to do this job?" The Courier talked to himself. The Soldier in his hand squirmed.
"Sorry, not gonna help you here" Nuntius said with a wicked smile. The soldier had fear in his eyes as he saw Lanius waiting. The Courier cut the Soldier's binds and kicked him into the Arena, also throwing down his short sword in with him. The Soldier got on his knees as he slowly backed into the wall.
"Such cowardly behavior...your blood would only stain my blade..." Lanius told the coward. He walked toward the Imperial Soldier as he went to the fetal position. Lanius felt utter resentment towards this man...no...this filth, Lanius couldn't even consider him an animal, doing so would be an insult to all creatures. Lanius grabbed the filth by his collar and lifted him to his helmet, The filth started screaming in fear, an affront to The Legate's ears.
"Fight...Do anything to save your worthless life!" Lanius shouted at the filth of a person, they did nothing but whimper in fear of The Legate. Lanius punched the filth.
"Fight..." Lanius shouted as he was reminded of his old tribe, who were willing to give in to the Legion. Lanius sent another blow, then another, and another.
"...Or Die!" Lanius sent one final blow before an audible crack was heard in the Arena. The filth laid limb in Lanius' hand. His neck was bent in a way that no head should. Lanius dropped him. Silence filled the Arena, The Legionaries watching dared not to say a word. It was broken by a single word.
"Next..."
I am pretty excited to write further on this story. I picked the Legion for multiple reasons. 1 there is little to none Legion fics out there. 2 it would be cool to see how JSDF reacts to them and 3 it adds a nice medium between the modern JSDF and the medieval world around them. next chapter will focus on more of JSDF and The Legion.