Cold, Cold Hear

Author's Not: Sorry it's been a year guys, but a lot has been going on. This past year I've been battling cancer. Right now I am doing well, and the cancer has been in remission since January. Next month is my next scan, and if that one is good I'm pretty much in the clear. I have not given up on this story, not or a long shot. I just ask you to be patient. Hopefully in a few months I will be back to full strength. Thank you for being such loyal fans.

Marcus and his companions were over a mile away from Nipton when they could smell the foul mixture of burning rubber and flesh. The black smoke was making it difficult to see the road ahead, and it was decided that they should wait until nightfall before approaching the town. They left their bikes and cargo a half mile from the town, with Lily standing watch. Not sure what to expect, Marcus took Lincoln's repeater, his side arms and the 40mm grenade launcher, while Sarah took her guass rifle for overwatch.

Though the fires had died down in the last few hours, they were still smoldering and the stench was getting worse the closer they got. They took cover behind some rocks and sand dunes near the town's main gate, which to no one's surprise was wide open.

Cass was staring through a pair of binoculars and let out a curse. "Sonofabitch! Legion!"

"How can you tell?" Marcus asked.

She handed him the binoculars. "You see those banners on either side of the gate? Those are Legion war standards that they march into battle with."

Marcus could see the red banners with the golden bull and latin writing on them. It reminded him of the pictures they were shown in history class of the ancient Roman Legions. It was starting to become clear that this "Caesar" had done his homework, and he had done more than just rip off the ancient army's name. "I don't see any guards or sentries. Moira, are you or ED-E picking up any movement?"

The avatar appeared on the PIPBOY's screen. "Nothing yet, but if ED-E gets in close enough he can use his inferred to find any guards or survivors."

Marcus' eyes shot open. "He can do that?"

"Sure he can! I didn't mention that? Here….watch."

The screen changed to the view from ED-E's sensor, and it showed all five of their heat signatures in the dark. Then the eyebot switched to night vision, and it was as if night had become day.

Marcus couldn't hold back his grin. "Moira, I love you more everyday. Ok ED-E, do your stuff but be quiet."

The eyebot responded with a beep and slowly headed through the main gate into the town. Marcus was watching his PIPBOY screen the entire time, with Sarah looking over his shoulder. It didn't take long for the robot to pick up something.

"There!" Sarah said as she pointed to the left side of the screen. "A heat signature in that building."

"Yeah. Doesn't seem to be moving. Could be a survivor hiding out. Moira, send ED-E around the buildings corner and get a look down the main road."

"You got it."

ED-E did as he was instructed and his sensors were pointed down the main street towards the town hall. Marcus could see more heat signatures on both sides of the street but….something was wrong."

"I've got heat signatures but they're barely registering."

"Could they be wounded?" Sarah asked.

Marcus shook his head. "I don't know. Moira, have ED-E switch to night vision."

The image on the PIPBOY changed….and Marcus' blood ran cold. "Oh my God."

Sarah moved in for a closer look, and she was just as shocked as Marcus. "Are those…."

"Yeah." Marcus said, hate burning in his eyes. Looking past the horrific sight, he spotted the town hall at the end of the street that Ghost had mentioned. "Alright, we're gonna make our way into the side entrance of this building and find this lone survivor. Maybe they can tell us what happened. Moira, have ED-E scout on ahead. Tell him to get as close to the town hall as possible but stay hidden! Everybody understand?"

The group acknowledged his instructions and they slowly made their way through the open gates and into town. Marcus found the side entrance to the first building unlocked and slowly pushed it open. Once inside, he turned on his PIPBOY light. The building was some kind of general store, and by the looks of things it had been cleaned out. After they had cleared the first floor, Follows-Chalk heard something on the next floor above, and he quietly alerted his companions. Marcus nodded, turned off his light, and the tribal led them up the stairs. Once they had made it to the far end of the room, what they found was not what they'd expected.

"Are you fucking kidding me!" The lone Powder Ganger yelled at the sight of the Lone Wanderer. "First I get my legs smashed, and then in walks the Powder Gangers' grim fucking reaper! What the fuck have you got against us, man!?"

Marcus quickly raced over to the convict and covered his mouth. "At the moment," he growled, "your inability to keep quiet! Now when I take my hand away, you will use your inside voice. Understand?"

The Powder Ganger mumbled something and nodded, and Marcus removed his hand. "Now who are you and what the hell happened to you?"

"The names' Boxcars and you're looking at the second place winner of the Nipton lottery! My prize was I got to live, but they beat my legs in with hammers. I'm fuckin crippled, get it!"

Cass stepped closer to the convict and kept her shotgun trained on him. "Lottery. What lottery?"

"It ain't like we came to Nipton to play it! Me and my crew had it worked out to kidnap some NCR troopers who come to town to get laid. Had it all worked out with the scumbag mayor. We were gonna ransom them off, keep their weapons for ourselves….a nice score."

Marcus used his gauntlet to scan Boxcars' legs. "He's telling the truth, his legs are smashed. I"m guessing your plan didn't go the way you'd hoped?"

Boxcars sneered at the Wanderer. "No shit! We get in position and next thing we know, we're surrounded by those fucking Legion freaks. They dragged us and everybody else into the center of town. And that asshole with a dog on his head, he starts talking about how we're bad people!"

"I'm sorry, a dog on his head?" Sarah asked.

"They're called frumentarii." Cass answered. "Spies for the fucking Legion."

"Anyway," Boxcars continued, "He said we needed to be punished for what we did. Not all of us, but some of us. And then he gives everyone a fucking lottery ticket. Then he started calling numbers and that's how people got punished.

"The first up was the 'lucky losers'. They got decapitated; guess they were lucky because it's pretty quick. Then came the crucifixions. God damn, those went on and on and on! Third place runners up got enslaved. I got the fuck beat out of my legs, and the winner they let go free."

"What happened to the mayor?" Marcus asked.

Boxcars spit on the ground. "Shit, when that fucker's number got called, they burned him on a pile of tires."

Marcus and Sarah shared a wary glance, and both of them were thinking the same thing. If what this Powder Ganger said was true, then odds are there were no survivors left in the town. Marcus put down his rifle and reached into his pack. "Here, I can spare a couple of Med-X for the pain and some healing powder for your legs."

A snort escaped from Boxcars. "Wow, two whole doses of Med-X and some tribal dust. Aren't you a fucking dream come true."

Cass pressed both barrels of her shotgun to the convict's head. "If that's not good enough we could always put you out of your fucking misery!"

Boxcars raised his hands. "Okay, okay! I'll take it. Thank you."

Marcus handed him the medicine. "Before you pass out, which direction did they take those slaves?"

"They were headed East. If you're feeling heroic feel free. Either way, I don't give a fuck."

After leaving Boxcars to his own devices, Marcus spoke into his PIPBOY. "Moira, has ED-E picked up anything?"

The avatar appeared on the screen. "He's picking up ten heat signatures inside the town hall. Not sure if they're good guys or bad guys."

Marcus nodded. "We'll assume the latter." He looked up towards the ceiling. "Sarah, you get up on the roof and provide over watch. The rest of us are going to check out the town hall."

Sarah nodded and leaned in closer to him. "You be careful out there."

Marcus responded with a grin. "Always."

As Sarah took position up on the roof, the others headed down to the street, and Marcus checked his ear piece. "Are you in position, Sarah?"

"Roger. I've got a clear line of sight to the front doors. Just make sure no one gets in my way."

"Copy that." He turned to the others. "Okay, nice and slow."

As the group headed down the main road they soon came across the grizzly sight of dozens of bodies crucified in rows on either side. Many had died from shock or blood loss, but a few seemed to be clinging to life. Marcus stopped and scanned them. "Moira, is there anything we can do for them?"

"I don't think so." she responded, her usual cheerful tone replaced by one of dread. "If we take them down the shock would kill them. Death is….their only release."

Marcus only responded by a nod and the group kept moving. Soon they were at the end of the street where ED-E was waiting. The robot suddenly beeped frantically, and Moira's avatar appeared on the PIPBOY's screen. "They're approaching the doors! They're coming out!"

"Scatter!" Marcus said, and the group split off into two groups, one on either side of the street, taking cover behind whatever they could find. The doors to the main hall opened and the first person to walk out was a man wearing a mask over his eyes and a skinned dog on his head. Seven more members of the Legion and two attack dogs followed, and soon they were standing in a line at the bottom of the steps, with the dog-man standing in the center.

"Come on out." He calmly said into the night. "We know you are here. Don't worry, I won't have any of you nailed to a cross."

Marcus let out a sigh. He turned to Cass, who was crouched down behind him, tightening the grip on her shotgun. "Just keep cool. Let me do the talking."

Cass was less than optimistic. "Sure hope you're as good at talking as you are at killing bugs."

The five companions cautiously made their way out of the shadows and approached. While they were still out of earshot of the Legion, Marcus spoke into his ear piece. "You got'em, Sarah?"

"Affirmative. Just make sure everyone's two feet apart."

Marcus whispered the instructions to the others, and soon the two lines of people were standing face to face; with about five yards between them. For a brief moment no one spoke as they sized each other up. Marcus examined the Legion's armor and weapons. The armor was nothing special….basically a mix mash of whatever they could put together, but unlike raiders, they were all colored the same shade of red. They had definitely made an effort to look like the Roman Legions. Their weapons were a combination of spears, gladius', repeating rifles and pistols. A first glance, they didn't appear to be the threat the NCR made them to be. Yet somehow, they were.

"I suppose introductions are in order." The dog-man said. "I am Vulpes Inculta. And who might you be?"

Marcus stood up as straight as he could. "My name is Six. I'm a courier with the Mojave Express."

An evil grin appeared on Inculta's face. "A courier you say? What luck. You are exactly the person I need."

Marcus' eyes narrowed. "For what?"

"I want you to witness the fate of the town of Nipton, to memorize every detail. And then, when you move on, I want you to teach everyone you meet the lesson that Caesar's Legion taught here….especially any NCR troops you run across."

Marcus understood why this frumentarii wanted to spare them. He wanted them to spread word of their terror in the hopes of bringing down the NCR's morale. Marcus turned to Cass and he noticed her focus was on one particular Legion soldier, holding what looked like a pearl handled pistol. Turning back to Inculta, Marcus decided to play along. "And what lesson did you teach?"

The frumentarii seemed almost giddy as he answered. "Where to begin? That they are weak, and that we are strong? This much was known already. 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 - they didn't care. It was a town of whores.

"For a pittance the town agreed to lure those they had sheltered into a trap. Only when I sprang it did they realize that they were caught in it, too. We herded them into the center of town, told them of their sins - the foremost being disloyalty. That's when I announced the lottery. Each clutched his ticket, hoping it would set them free. Each did nothing, even when loved ones were dragged away to be killed."

Marcus' blood boiled with each word coming out of Inculta's mouth, but he chose to keep things cool. "So you murdered innocent civilians?"

Inculta laughed. "Innocent? Hardly! Cowardly, though. They outnumbered us, and yet not once did they try to resist. They stood and watched as their fellows were butchered, crucified and burned….one by one. They stood and hoped their turn would not come - each cared only for himself." His hands dropped to his sides, and Marcus tensed up. "But if you feel so strongly about it, go ahead….attack us."

Out of the corner of his eye, Marcus could see Cass begin to raise her shotgun but he quickly put his hand out and stopped her. "No!" He turned back to the Legion. "We didn't come here to cause trouble. We're just passing through."

Inculta responded with a smirk. "A wise decision, courier." The frumentarii addressed the Legion in latin, and the men lowered their weapons. The Legion soldier with the pearl handled pistol holstered the weapon and shot a smirk in Cass' direction before turning to leave.

Feeling that the tension was gone, Marcus removed his hand from Cass' shotgun and began to turn. Cass however, was still staring at the Legion soldier. "That's an interesting pistol you've got there." She called out to him, and the soldier stopped and turned.

Cass' eyes suddenly narrowed and it seemed as though a dark shadow had come over her face. "I used to have a friend who had one just like it."

A look of bewilderment came across the Legionary's face...but a second later his eyes went wide and he went for his pistol. Cass proved to be faster and she cut him down with a blast from her shotgun. A legionary standing to Cass' left raised his lever shotgun - only to have his head blown to pieces by a single shot from Sarah's gauss rifle.

Marcus cursed under his breath as he raised his repeater and activated his VATS. He quickly locked in three targets (one a Legionary charging at him with a spear) and opened fire, cutting down all three.

Follows-Chalk raised his rifle to shoot the Legionary directly in front of him, but his enemy already had his pistol trained on the tribal and placed a single shot into his left leg. Follows-Chalk yelled in pain and fell to the ground. The Legionary was about to finish him off, but his chest was blown open by a 12 gauge round from Cass' gun.

Dogmeat charged at the two mongrels, determined to take them down before they could harm his master. But as strong as he was the two mongrels were too much, and he yelped as one pinned him down and the other bit him in the center of his back.

Marcus was desperately trying to get a clean shot to save his companion, when suddenly a strange musical tone began playing from ED-E, and the robot charged forward. Firing one perfect shot from his lazer cannon, he managed to turn one of the mongrels to ash. This gave Dogmeat the opening he needed and with one massive bit from his powerful jaws he ripped out the last mongrel's throat.

Marcus turned to his right and spotted Vulpes running for his life, and he quickly radioed Sarah. "Sarah you got'em?"

Sarah grunted in frustration. "He's behind the buildings. I can't get a clear shot!"

A moment later, the wounded Follows-Chalk drew his hatchet and threw it in the direction of the fleeing frumentarii, embedding it in the center of his back.

With the battle over, both Cass and Marcus ran over to Follows-Chalk to see how badly he was hurt. Luckily the bullet had gone clean through, and the tribal began cleaning the wound and applying dressing.

"That was a good throw there." Marcus said as he handed him some healing powder.

Follows-Chalk winced. "Thank you."

Marcus turned to where Vulpes had fallen and realized he was still alive. The Lone Wanderer slowly walked over to him and pulled the hatchet out of his back, causing the frumentarii to scream. Marcus flipped him over, and it was clear the man didn't have long to live.

"You've... You've just killed yourself, courier!" He began coughing up blood. "The Legion...has spies everywhere. When they discover...what you have done...they will tear you apart!"

Marcus leaned down closer, and stared directly into Vulpes' eyes. "I've heard that before, and I'm still here."

After a few more gasps, Vulpes took his last breath and died at the Wanderer's feet.

Marcus made his way back over to his companions and handed the hatchet back to Follows-Chalk. It was about the same time that Sarah had come down from the roof to join them, and she immediately made her way over to Cass and grabbed her by the arm. "What the hell was that?!" she growled.

Cass was able to free her arm and stood face to face with the Sentinel. "Don't you ever put your hands on me again!"

Marcus quickly stepped between the two women. "That's enough!" He turned to Sarah. "That Legionary drew down on Cass first," he turned to Cass, "but you said something to pissed him off."

"I don't have to explain myself to you!"

Marcus took a step closer. "You nearly got us killed. So yes, you do owe us an explanation."

Cassidy let out a sigh and walked over to the body of the dead Legion soldier she had killed. She retrieved the pearl handled pistol and held it up for everyone to see. "You see this pistol? It's a pearl handled Colt .45 with the initials KH on the barrel. It's the only one of it's kind in the Mojave. It belonged to one of my caravan drivers, Kevin Harding. We were," for a moment she seemed to choke up, "close. Six months ago he was driving a caravan to Vegas when they were ambushed by Legion troops. They slaughtered everyone and took all of the supplies. We found Kevin about a mile a way, nailed to a cross, and that bastard Legionary over there did it!"

After listening to her story, everyone stood in silence. Even Sarah appeared to have some regret for yelling at her the way she did. Cass broke the awkwardness by placing the pistol inside her jeans and headed towards the town hall. "I need a drink." she mumbled.

After watching her go inside, Marcus let out a tired sigh. "We'll go back and get Lily and the rest of our gear. Then I'll radio Ghost and tell her what happened here."

As he walked through the dark and carnage-filled town, Marcus was beginning to realize just how much trouble the NCR was really in. If they couldn't protect one town deep inside their lines, what were they going to do when the Legion stormed Hoover Dam?

It was around dawn when Marcus and his companions continued down the road out of Nipton. No one said a word about what had happened the night before. They just drove along in silence. The road began taking them up a small hill, and just up ahead Marcus could see a bend in the road littered with burned out cars and surrounded with hills. He began to slow down and brought his bike to a stop, and Sarah pulled up alongside him. "What is it?" She asked.

Marcus scanned the horizon. It was quiet - too quiet. "That bend in the road up ahead. Looks like a nice spot for an ambush."

Follows-Chalk nodded his head. "I agree. We should go on foot and make sure it is clear before moving on."

Marcus spoke into his PIPBOY. "Moira, are you and ED-E picking up anything?

"Nope. There's no movement or heat signatures up ahead."

Cass, who was riding with Sarah, got off the bike and readied her shotgun. "These bandits out here are pretty smart. Just because your robot can't see them doesn't mean they're not there."

Marcus agreed. "Okay, we'll leave the bikes here, go on foot and make sure it's clear."

Lily climbed out of the wagon. "I'd better go with you, Jimmy. You know grandma doesn't like it when you play in the street."

Cass tried her best to hold in her giggles, and Marcus' face turned red. "Thank you, grandma. Everyone else stay frosty and spread out."

The seven companions readied their weapons and cautiously made their way to the bend. Sarah scanned the hills with her gauss rifle, while Marcus continued to check his PIPBOY for any contacts. They soon reached the burned out cars and checked inside and underneath them. Still, nothing.

Marcus lowered his weapon. "I guess there's nothing here..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Dogmeat's ears went up and he began growling, causing Marcus to lift his rifle. A moment later a dozen armed men sprang out of the sand on both sides of the hills. Marcus and his companions took what cover they could behind the burnt out cars, and Marcus cursed under his breath. "That's why ED-E couldn't pick up their heat signatured. The bastards were hiding under the ground!"

The dozen armed men began hooting and hollering, but they had not opened fire on their surrounded prey. Cass gritted her teeth. "What the hell are they waiting for?"

A moment later the dozen men became quiet, and a voice echoed in the distance. "You all got about five seconds to identify yourselves, or we're gonna cut you down right here."

Both Marcus and Sarah's eyes went wide and they stared at each other. That voice. They had both heard it before.

"Is that…" Marcus began.

Sarah shook her head in disbelief. "No way it's him!"

A single shot rang out and hit one of the cars. "Last chance! Come out, or I'll use you for fertilizer for my tobacco."

Marcus smirked. "Oh yeah, it's him." he cleared his throat and yelled across the road. "Paulson! Is that you?"

There was a slight pause before the eventual reply. "Who's ask'n?"

Marcus put his rifle down, raised his hands and slowly stood up. "A couple of old friends."

Sarah did the same, and both of them could see cowboy off in the distance. "Everyone hold your fire!" He began to make his way down the hill, and as he got closer, there was no mistaking who he was. "Been a long time, Paulson." Marcus said.

Paulson, who was wearing the same cowboy hat and carrying the same Winchester 73' that he had on Mothership Zeta, was standing face to face with them. "Do I know you…" His eyes suddenly went wide and he began studying their faces. "Wait a minute." It took him a few moments to look past their disguises, but when he figured it out there was no denying the shock on his face. "Great bucks of bullshit! What in sam-hill are you two doing out here?"