Two year anniversary! Thanks for sticking around.
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"How close is the Legion?" Boone asked into his helmet's microphone as he flicked through the visual sensors the modified piece of armor provided.
"They're likely here, waiting at the edge of the canyon," Denn replied, his voice hollow and metallic through the speaker in Boone's ear. "The eyebot I have trailing them just passed over where they moved through deathclaw territory."
"I assume they suffered substantial losses?"
"An accurate count is impossible due to the nature of the deceased..."
"Torn to pieces, half eaten, passing through a deathclaw's digestion," Cass' voice said quietly through the coms.
"But a rough estimate would be just over a hundred Legion losses," Denn continued once Cass had finished.
"That's promising," Boone stated, "A portion of their forces gone before the fight even starts." Systematically, the sniper ran his gaze over the small field between the REPCON Test Site and the canyon wall. From his vantage point at the top of the facility's observation tower he had a clear view of the entire area, including the newly created mounds spread across it.
Boone shivered as he recalled watching the Courier's new soldiers move into position. Each had dug a furrow into the earth and crouched inside it, throwing dirt and rocks onto their backs as they did so. If he hadn't seen them move into place, it would have been impossible to locate the two-score creations in the faint moonlight.
A mound close to the test site shifted and Cass' com hissed to life as the redhead swore loudly. "Those Entrants of yours are fucking terrifying," she stated.
"Thank you," Denn replied. " Are you and Lily in position?"
"Yeah, we're here. Don't know why I need a babysitter, though."
"Now now, you're here to look after me just as much as I am to look after you," the ancient grandmother's gravely voice replied scolding.
"I know, I know," Cass said.
"Boone, hold your fire until the Legion leadership reveals itself," the Courier ordered.
"Copy that," the sniper confirmed, shaking his head and clearing his mind of distractions to focus on the coming conflict.
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The clouds permeating the sky above the test site cleared, and with the full moon's light shinning down on the ground below, the Legion made their move.
They knew the Courier's forces would have no problem piercing the darkness of night. They knew that fumbling over the unfamiliar ground with the pretense of stealth would be unnecessarily dangerous. They knew their best chance was to rush and overwhelm the prepared defenses as quickly as possible.
They didn't know the nature of the mounds of earth spread across the field.
As the sprinting soldiers reached the edge of the clearing, the REPCON facility's defenses came to life. Turrets emerged from the building's walls and began firing lines of superheated plasma into the charging forces. The soldiers took cover where the could, but still pressed forward.
A squad of Securitrons emerged from the test site and began firing into the Legion as well as launching tear gas, smoke and flash bang grenades across the battleground. Small arms fire peppered against the Secruitrons' armor and the closest soldiers began throwing improvised explosives towards the lumbering constructions. A pair of the explosives tore through a Secrutiron's reinforced tire and caused it to collapse to the ground with a muted thud. One by one, the Courier's forces began to fall.
In the chaos of the battle the mounds of earth began to stir. Silently, twisted metal figures rose to their feet and began to stalk through the swirling gas and booming flashes of sound and light. Soldiers forcing themselves through the burning vapor met their ends suddenly and without warning - disorientated comrades unwittingly passing mere feet away from the dead and the dying.
To those who had already passed through the smoke the first sign that something was wrong was the slowing of their reinforcements. Runners sent to find out what was happening never returned, and the legion advance slowed as the trickle of reinforcements ceased entirely. No more runners were sent, and the front continued to advance, but more and more soldiers glanced behind their shoulders to the silent wall of billowing gas and smoke.
Then came the screams. From the opaque cloud emerged the anguished cries of men tortured beyond all reason and thought. The cries lengthened, turning from screams of agony to a horrible cacophony of rage and anger, and in a single rush the Courier's created monstrosities - modified Entrant platforms intended to terrify the savage and brutal slave soldiers of the Legion - burst from the smoke and charged towards the front line.
They appeared human - emaciated and frail - but with arms and legs much too long for their gaunt frames. Bits of skin clung to their bodies' in disjointed patterns and the metal bones not covered by the morbid patchwork were coated in freshly spilled blood. Long, crooked fingers ended in broken nails as sharp as any knife and twisted digits twitched erratically, as if trying to grip something immaterial.
The creations moved impossibly quick - the motions utterly unnatural for a human frame to make - with two of the creations even scuttling forward on all fours, and as the creations approached, the Legion soldiers recognized the features on each and every one of the monstrosities' faces.
Caesar.
Twisted in pain and agony with eyes glowing in crafted rage, the face of the Legion's god greeted the terrified Legionaries. The monstrosities' lips cracked and bled, barely concealing hideously long fangs as they screamed at the Legion. The combined keen reached a crescendo as the creations closed the last few meters on the Legion line. One soldier fell to his knees and prostrated himself before the coming tide. In response, a monstrosity drove its clawed hand through his skull and fell upon him, tearing his body limb from limb as the nearby soldiers looked on in horror.
The Legion front line caved. Those closest to the horrors desperately forced their way through the soldiers still fighting the remaining turrets and Securitrons, leaving their confused comrades even more off balance and unprepared as the two score Entrants cleaved into their ranks and chaos consumed the battlefield. Those who stood their ground were singled out by the screaming creations while the rest that fled were cut down by the last of the test site's defenses. The cries of dying soldiers joined the dirge of their butchers as the monstrosities continued their work.
A bolt of dark blue energy lanced out from the billowing gas and slammed into an Entrant kneeling over a dying Legionaire. The monstrosity's roar ended abruptly as it collapsed onto its adversary, and in the next few moments, a trio of identical blasts struck a like number of the Courier's creations.
The sound of Boone's counterattack cracked over the din of battle as the Sniper made out his target with the aid of his helmets sensors. In response, a blindingly bright flare shot up towards his position a momemt later, directing the fire of a roaring minigun that forced the sniper to retreat off the backside of the tower.
A figure burst from the gas, it's ebony armor glowing with increasingly frantic energy as it charged to the center of the Courier's creations. Dodging every attempt to seize it with liquid grace, the figure crouched and spread its arms wide, unleashing a shockwave of dark blue energy that engulfed the remaining Entrants before spreading to the test site, disabling the last of its defenses.
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"I'm moving to intercept."
"Are you insane? That's the same type of energy that took you out at the dam!"
"I know, but I can't lose this facility and there's a chance that weapon needs time to recharge. Plus, even if I am disabled... Lily, get Cass to safety. Boone, get clear and re-engage when the opportunity presents itself."
"I got clipped by that minigun, will do what I can."
"Good."
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Legion reinforcements closed on the test site, their mouths covered with thick cloths and their eyes concealed behind makeshift goggles. The ebony figure rose, surveying the battlefield before unsheathing its sword and stalking towards the now silent building.
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Yes man?
Yes?
Would you kindly wake up my Entrants?
I would love to!