"Well, shit."
Myina stared up at the pillar of smoke rising over the town of Nipton. She sighed. This can't be good. Why can't things ever go according to plan? Why is that too much to ask for?
She circled to the side of the town and crouched down, readying her rifle. She found herself wishing all over again that Major Knight would've had a spare service rifle lying around because this Varmint Rifle was really not ideal. The only real equipment she'd managed get, from a passing trader no less, during her stop at the Mojave Outpost, was some leather armor. It was slightly used, but it was better than just wandering around in nothing but a tank top.
ED-E seemed to take note of her desire for stealth because he remained silent and moved low to the ground behind her. Myina silently thanked whoever had programmed him for their foresight.
Creeping slowly around one of the buildings, she got a better view of the lane leading into the center of town. On the steps of the building she assumed was meant to be city hall were five people in crimson and sports gear. In front of them, a pile of burning rubble and what she knew could only be the bodies of the townsfolk.
Mother. fucking. Legion.
Could her luck get any worse? Her brain still struggled a little with the specifics, but she remembered enough about the Legion to know that this was some seriously bad news. She took stock of her surroundings. With only her and ED-E, she didn't have much with which to put up a fight, but she could easily get around them, couldn't she? It'd certainly save her from the possibility of getting captured, and the thought of that alone was enough to make her stomach turn. Getting out of there would be priority number one, followed closely by priority two: not getting noticed. But the openness of the surrounding area wasn't going to offer much protection for escape. She was amazed she'd been able to get this close without being noticed.
She crept quickly back around the building and noticed that the wall she was pressed against belonged to the town general store. Maybe she could hide out there until nightfall. That would certainly offer more protection for her to get the hell out of there undetected.
As quietly as possible, she eased the door open and slipped inside, closing it after ED-E and floated in after her.
"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"
Myina nearly jumped out of her skin as she whipped around to point her rifle at the body the voice belonged to.
A man sat in a chair in the center of the adjoining room, clutching his legs. Seeing the blue of his clothing, Myina knew she could trust him at least as far as him not ratting her out to the Legion asshats outside. His bloodied legs seemed to confirm that he was definitely not with them.
"Shhh!" She snapped, moving to crouch in front of him. "I was just passing through and if you don't mind, I'd really rather not get captured, thank you."
"Well I don't give two fucks. I've already got my lottery number and I get to live. But I don't want to piss them off anymore, so you can get the fuck out of here." The guy yelled at her.
"Lottery number?" Myina looked over his legs.
"Look, I got second place, so I got to keep my life, but they fucking crippled me okay?" He motioned wildly to his bloody legs.
Myina set her rifle down and pulled a bag off her shoulders to retrieve a stimpack for him. "If you'll just keep quiet I can help you out."
The man put on a heavily sarcastic tone. "Oh gee thanks! I don't know whatever I would do without you!"
Myina rolled her eyes as she dug into her pack. "What's your name? No, wait, I don't give a flying fuck, look, I'm just waiting til dark so I can get the hell out of here, okay? I won't be any trouble. I'm just gonna sit quietly in the corner until-"
BANG
Myina suddenly found herself splattered with the guy's brains, blood and grey matter streaking across her face and front. She ducked and spun on the attacker, reaching for her rifle.
A Legion soldier stood in the doorway grinning wolfishly at her, shotgun aimed directly at her head, another soldier standing in front of him reloading his own weapon. Myina froze, her hand still several inches from the rifle. A quick calculation made her sure the guy could blow her head off before she could wrap her finger over the trigger. Fuck fuck fuck.
"Well, what have we here?" The Legionnaire who'd been reloading his weapon strolled toward her, kicking the rifle further away. He pulled her roughly to her feet and pulled her sidearm out of its holster on her hip. Myina's thoughts raced, trying to pinpoint a plan for escape. Her hand-to-hand wasn't good enough to take down this guy before the other one got a shot off and managed to at least warn the others to come running, if not clip her.
As they pulled her from the building she suddenly realized she had no idea where ED-E was. He was no where in sight and the neither of the Legionaries seemed to have noted anything. Well, what the fuck good is he?
Myina looked up to see the groaning figures of townsfolk who had been crucified along the pathway. They were mostly men, she noted. This was not going to bode well for her. She knew damn well what women meant to the Legion and getting crucified would be a better option than that. Maybe if she pissed them off just enough…
"Don't worry." A snaky voice caught her attention and she looked up to the man standing at the top of the town hall steps. "I won't have you lashed to a cross like the rest of these degenerates. It's useful that you happened by." The man slowly stepped toward her, his voice making her cringe.
"Useful?" She intoned, trying to mask any emotions from the repulsive man in front of her. Myina eyed him up and down. He wore the same crimson as the others, but must have been of a higher rank as he was the only one in proper armor instead of the makeshift cover the others had cobbled together from abandoned sports gear of the Old World. Dark glasses masked his eyes and he wore the skinned pelt of what Myina could only guess was a coyote or nightstalker.
"I want you to witness the fate of the town of Nipton. To memorize every detail," the man drawled. "And then, when you move on? I want you to teach everyone the lesson that Caesar's Legion taught here, especially any NCR troops you run across."
Myina fought to keep her expressions in check and she cooly quipped back "What 'lessons' did you teach here, exactly?" The men on either side of her laughed quietly at her ignorance.
"Where to begin?" The coyote-man smiled, "that they were weak and we are strong? This much was known already." He moved closer to her. "But the depths of their moral sickness, their dissolution? Nipton serves as the perfect object lesson. Nipton was a wicked place, debased and corrupt. It served all comers, so long as they paid. Profligate troops, Powder Gangers, men of the Legion such as myself - the people here didn't care. It was a town of whores." He reached a hand up and ran a finger down her cheek, making her feel sick.
"So you slaughtered innocent civilians?" Myina struggled to keep herself in check, not wanting to make him too angry until she had her entire plan fleshed out in her head. She was close. She just need to stall for a little more time while she figured out the last few details.
The man scoffed at her reply. "Innocent? Hardly. I told them that when Legionaries are disloyal, some are punished, other made to watch. And I announced the lottery. Each one clutched their ticket, hoping it would set him free. Each did nothing, even when 'loved ones' were dragged away to be killed." He motioned to the crucified people down the lane. "No innocent they were not. Cowardly, though. They outnumbered us yet not once did they try to resist. They stood and hoped their turn would not come. Each cared only of himself."
Myina forced a laugh. "Ah yes, the human condition. So you freed the world from their terrible presence, then? And who is it I have the honor of thanking for this?"
The man's smile widened, making him look like the animal on his head. "I am Vulpes Inculta, of Caesar's Legion. I serve my master as the greatest of his Frumentarii."
Myina nodded as if contemplating his name, then elbowed the Legionarie on right, ducked and grabbed the combat knife from her boot, spun around slashing the blade across the other Legionnaire's face, and plunging it deep into Vulpes' neck. His eyes bulged and he clutched at the dagger. She didn't have the time to savour the look on his face though, quickly grabbing the pistol from his side and turning on the other men. The one she'd hit in the side and regained himself and was already pulling his shotgun back out when she put a bullet in his brain.
Two other soldiers were running toward her, readying their weapons. She raised the pistol to them but was suddenly and forcefully knocked to the ground. A searing pain shot through her right arm and leg and two dogs snapped their jaws onto her limbs. Myina yelled out in pain. She shoved the pistol, still clutched in her left hand, to the head of the dog on her arm as she heard the whizz of bullets fly past her ear. She pulled the trigger and the dog quickly released its jaw in its death. She kicked the other off with her free leg and pulled the trigger twice on the dog. It too went down.
A bullet grazed her cheek, the heat of it feeling like a flash of lightening against her skin. She tried to aim the pistol through the dust the dogs had kicked up but couldn't see where the other Legionnaires were standing. Myina rolled over to the side and ducked behind the pile of burning bodies. The smell of it overwhelmed her senses, and she clenched her jaws against the nausea and pain.
Suddenly, there was yelling from the two men and she heard two quick "pew"s, what she vaguely placed as energy bolts. What the hell?
It was very quiet then. Myina cautiously peered above the burning pile and nearly accidently shot ED-E, who hummed over to her, excitedly tweeling. Myina blinked in surprise and stood slowly. The two Legionnaires lay in the dirt, holes burned into their heads. She looked up to the eyebot.
"Was that you?" She asked it. ED-E gave what she interpreted as a series of affirmative squawks as he bounced up and down in the air. "Huh," she nodded approvingly. "Guess you're useful after all."
ED-E trilled gleefully. Myina laughed. "Well, guess we should roll these guys and see what we can get out of them.
Boone was going out of his fucking mind. He sighed and cracked his knuckles, looking out over the darkened Mojave wasteland. It was a full moon and the desert was lit in a wash of blues and silvers. The same damn desert as yesterday. And the day before that. And all the days before that. Nothing ever changed. And that bored the shit out of him.
He thought back to his time in his old unit. The first experience after getting through basic: training hell. 1st Recon Battalion, the snipers of the NCR force, were known across the west as being the best of the best. But to become the best of the best, they were put through the wringer that is the NCR 1st Recon training schedule. A two week obstacle course of pure misery meant to drive out anyone who wasn't willing or able, making them suffer through sleep deprivation, starvation, dehydration, and sand and dirt in places it has no business being, all the while balancing running for their lives and taking out every target thrown at them.
But Boone had gotten through it all. Standing before his commanding officer, bloodied and exhausted, but tall and proud. Craig Boone, the kid from the cattle fields of California, now the cream of the crop in the NCR's best. He'd never have to deal with day after day of herding smelly, stupid brahmin or his drunken uncles berating him while he spooned out his meager helping of dinner, the only real meal they allowed him to have. No, he was his own man now. And he had proved what he could do.
And yet here he was. The nighttime shift sniper of a little town in the fucking wasteland. Without a family. Without a friend. And without a goal in life. Aside from the one he wanted most of all. The one he couldn't understand why he still hadn't gotten himself out there to start. The one goal he couldn't seem to bring himself to acheive: find the person who had betrayed him and Carla.
Boone's jaw tightened at the thought. Three years. Three years and he still hadn't gotten any new information about her kidnap. And now, the people in town would barely even look at him; hell even No-Bark avoided him. He was left all alone in a town he struggled to consider home. He had thought about leaving so many times that he even had a bag packed in his room. It was left to the dust in the corner and at least once a day he would stare at it and think about the life he could possibly have. But in the end, he was resolved to stay. He had to stay. At least until he found out who had betrayed his wife. Boone knew he owed her that much.
And so he stood. The lone figure in the night, staring out across the wastes, silently gaurding the town from whatever demons might lie ahead. All the while wondering if they weren't already inside the gates.