Caesar's Legates
Chapter 12: Caesar's Legates
“Aw man, we’re going to learn more about Caesar's Legion?” Sandbar grumbled while shaking his head in disappointment. “Can’t we learn about anything happy just once? I mean, there is only so much utter death and destruction I can take.”
“What’s a ‘Legate’ anyway?” Smolder asked, tilting her head.
“Must be some commander-like position in his army,” Ocellus theorized as she wrote down more notes.
“Oh, hey! It’s that Graham guy! The one evil bald man burned!” Yona proclaimed as Josuha Graham, decorated in the usual white bandages that made him look like a mummy, appeared on the screen with a pistol in hand.
The narrator talked about how those who walked the Wasteland ended up usually getting scars, both small and big, which could be a good talk for stories. However, some wounds ended up defining a person for the rest of their lives in ways no human being should suffer.
“I think Josuha Graham is one of them,” Gallus said.
They watched as Graham slowly hid behind cover as a trio of raider looking tribals were standing guard. A second later, he fired his gun, blowing off the head of one of them in a burst of gore that made the others lurch back in surprise.
“Holy Celestia!” Sandbar cried out as Graham continued his assault as he gunned down a second of the three. The third tried charging forward, but Graham reloaded faster than the six could see and finished them off as well before he walked away without a second look.
All of this was done in less than fifteen seconds.
“Damn, no wonder he was top of Caesar's army before he got betrayed,” Gallus said.
The flag of the said warlord was soon seen flying in the breeze as the narrator talked about the Legion's arrival upon the great Hoover Dam. Caesar believed it was destiny to cross the Colorado River, similar to how his previous namesake did a long time ago. However, unlike the original one, the current Caesar was facing a foe that could match him: The New California Republic. Two vast different nations based on opposite ideas with only one that could stand supreme over the west of a once-great civilization now long dead.
The six watched as the two sides clashed on the very dam itself. Gunfire in all directions. Sniper fire from Rangers picking off Legion Captains and Centurions. Hordes of red armored warriors cutting their way through waves of brown and green soldiers. Bodies laid everywhere and somewhere thrown from the dam itself to a long drop below.
“Remind me never to take part in a war...ever...” Ocellus whispered as the others silently nodded.
Sadly, for the Legion, Joshua Graham had made several mistakes in that battle, which led to their defeat thanks to a carefully planned trap using explosives and the Legion’s arrogance. However, while it was a hard defeat, they were not done yet. Their vast fortress stood on the other side of the dam, with fresh soldiers and slaves for the upcoming second battle.
The six soon saw Joshua Graham, unburned and smiling, as he stood proud as the Legate of the Legion. One of Caesar's closest friends, he was admired and respected by the soldiers he commanded. That all ended when the defeat at Hoover Dam happened. Maybe Joshua was merely tricked by someone better than him, or perhaps he had limits that Caesar didn’t see in his friend? Regardless, defeat was a defeat, and the Legion only punished such shame with blood and death.
The six turned away as Joshua Graham’s burning body was thrown down the Grand Canyon with him screaming in agony. How the man survived was still a mystery to the six.
“Can you even survive being burned alive?” Silverstream asked. “I mean, I know Joshua here did, but I still find it hard to believe.”
“Yes, but you’ll be scarred for life,” Ocellus answered, shaking her head in sorrow. “The pain he must feel every day...”
The narrator only agreed with Ocellus’ statement. While Joshua Graham had survived his near death experience, he was forever disfigured and forced to suffer the agony of his burns. This only led to the question of who would lead the army now that he was no longer a member of the Legion.
“Hey, yeah, that’s right!” Smolder said eyes widened. “Who is the guy leading the Legion now that Joshua is gone?”
That answer was in the form of a man who was said to bring fear to the NCR troops' hearts. A man whose tall structure soon appeared in a storm of rain and thunder. His sinister-looking mask and armor made the six feel their spines tingle in fear as he held a blade that looked to be both a sword and a spear combined. It was wide and thick enough to cut any of them in two, and the man wielding it, if he could even be called a man, held it like it was a simple stick a child used as a toy.
For this person was no man but a monster, according to the narrator. All kinds of monsters could be seen from the Wasteland, be it from radiation, mutation, cybernetics, or the horrors of war. However, for the ‘Monster of the East’, he created by rage and hatred.
“I...I can feel it...” Ocellus whispered. Her eyes widened as the other five looked at her. “His rage...his anger...so much...”
“How? He’s not even really here,” Sandbar pointed out.
“Just by looking at him. His stance. Those eyes. That aura around him,” Ocellus whimpered as she shivered with terrifying awe. “What...what makes a person so...hateful?”
This person, whose real name was lost to history, was once the fiercest warrior of the Hidebark Tribe. His strength and power were unmatched by anyone in his tribe or those around him. Not even the Legion, seen running away from a hulking figure of a man, could fight him as seen with him cleaving their soldiers in two with his massive blade. They named this warrior “Lanius,” the Latin word for “butcher.” While some of the grim deaths disturbed the six, seeing it happen to Legionaries made it a bit more tolerable.
“That guy looks even bigger than Princess Celestia,” Sandbar commented.
“And look at her body count,” Smolder pointed out. “He’s one tough SOB, that’s for sure.”
Lanius was standing off a cliff of his tribe's walls, looking over at the rising sun while his tribe sat around happy and lazy. They had survived for 200 years thanks to their brutal strength. With Lanius around, they felt so invincible that they started acting more lazy and soft due to their over-dependence on him.
“Idiots, never stand around and be lazy! Always prepare for any future danger!” Smolder chided.
“So why do you sleep in class instead of paying attention to the lessons?” Gallus asked, deadpan.
“Details. Details.” Smolder waved him off.
Things changed for the Hidebarks when the Legion arrived in a greater force than imagined. They needed new slaves for their army, and seeing just how numerous they were, the elders of the tribe realized that this was a threat that not even Lanius could fight. So they surrendered. A coward's way out, but one they hoped would spare them from death. While Caeser did accept their surrender, Lanius did not. He found it a disgrace that the leaders of his tribe would surrender without dying a warrior's death, and so he turned on them.
“Wait, is he...” Sandbar gasped as Lanius drew his blade and began killing his tribesmen. “Holy smokes!”
“You never kill tribe members!” Yona screamed in anger. “Even if you disagree! Tribe shall not hurt tribe!”
He killed sixteen of them before he was finally overpowered with his face deformed and scared during his berserk rage against his tribe. However, Caesar was impressed by Lanius’s power and offered him a place by his side in the Legion. Disillusioned with his tribe, Lanius accepted with only one condition: he’d personally kill all the warriors of his old tribe, which Caesar granted him.
“Not just the leaders, but the warriors too?” Gallus asked in disbelief. “This guy is messed up! What kind of honor allows him to do this?!”
“This no honor,” Yona proclaimed with a huff. “It's just madness.”
Like many other tribes taken over by the Legion, their past is nothing but a footnote in a long record of tribal names that no longer exist, and the Hidebarks are no different. Their women became slaves, and their boys were now grown-up soldiers in the Legion with Lanius as the only full-grown man to survive from the original tribe.
To the surprise of the group, it turns out that Lanius held no love for the Legion in general. He hated the idea of strategy and trickery when he preferred to charge in and use brute force on their enemies. Lanius was loyal to Caesar himself and only fought in his name alone with pride and honor. Nineteen tribes had fallen from his hands, and it was a sure fact that he would lead the charge again in the next battle for Hoover Dam.
His armor was one of the unique things about him. Crafted by the Legion blacksmiths, Lanius’s armor could almost be mistaken for power armor due to its shape and size. However, unlike the Brotherhood’s power armor, it was all carried by Lanius’s weight instead of added gyros and power cores, unlike the advanced suit of armor. Yet no warrior was without a sword and his “Blade of the East” was every bit dangerous as he was as the six saw him tear apart Super Mutants and Brotherhood of Steel paladins with ease.
“But those guys are genetically and mechanically engineered with advanced armor and science!” Ocellus shouted in fear. “How can a mear sword do all that?!”
“I don’t know who would be the worst to face off in a fight,” Gallus said as he pointed to the screen. “This guy or that Frank guy from the Enclave.”
One of the final key elements of Lanius was his helmet. Due to his face disfigured in the fight against his tribe, he wore his helmet all the time. No other has seen his real face with even the slaves he had been blinded. All of this only helped further the enigma of Lanius whose myth sowed fear in the hearts of the Legions enemies, including the NCR.
Suddenly, the group was shown a picture of Ulysses walking down the Wasteland. He was one of the few who managed to escape life in the Legion and had personally known Lanius in person. In his talks of the “Monster from The East,” he strangely stated that if such a person with persuasion skills could meet with Lanius, it was possible to get him to part ways and leave the NCR alone.
“Yeah, right!” The six said at once.
Ulysses also met Joshua Graham, who went to the land of his people, New Cannan, to start life anew. They were a deeply religious people who worshiped one of the old world’s gods even after the bombs had fallen. They saw Graham and these New Canaanites passing out food and supplies to those who needed it. Having helped Graham, he reunited with his old people and began redeeming himself for his past atrocities as a Legate. Graham was already forgiven in the Canaanites' eyes, but he would forever hold the scars of his once dark past.
“At least he knows what he did was wrong and is trying to fix his mistakes,” Sandbar said.
“But can someone be forgiven for all that?” Silverstream wondered with a sad tone.
However, despite Graham’s desire to live in peace, whispers of the “Burned Man” reached Caesar's ear, and he began to fear his old friend would come back for revenge. The six watched in horror as the New Canaanites and a tribe under control of the Legion known as the White Legs started fighting with religious folk. Ironically, this was a tribe that Ulysses had a hand in making, but neither he nor Joshua seemed to hold a grudge. At least, so long as they remained apart from one another.
“Why?” Sandbar whispered, lowering his head. “Why can’t anyone just live in peace.”
“Damn that bald-headed evil flankhole,” Silverstream whispered with tears in his eyes. “I hope he dies.”
“Second,” Yona muttered.
The White Legs were sent to kill Graham but failed. He gathered what survivors he could and united with the Zion tribes to fight back against the White Legs. His skills in the Legion had come in handy in protecting them and reclaiming their homes from the invaders, but it seemed that he was unable to escape fighting from his past despite Graham's efforts.
Ironically, according to the narrator, the two Legates, Graham and Lanius, were very similar. Both served Caesar, either currently or once a long time ago, and we're forever cursed to wear scars because of it. However, while Joshua Graham saw his scars as a means to repent for his crimes as a monster, Lanius cannot see the one he has become since gaining them. One fights to redeem himself for his sins, while the other is a tool for destruction. It’s hard even to believe that at one point, the Legion had come from humble origins as the flag of the Followers of the Apocalypse waved on the screen.
But that was a story for another day...
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the Monster of the East isnt a hard man to figure out...he needs no more words to describe him...
love it. like all ways
Well, certain guidance counselor might have a few words about forgiveness.
This is why I always try to beat Lanius with Speech checks. There's a very interesting layer of character when you talk a man so hellbent on violence out of it through logic and smarts that he's capable of understanding that you'd think some violent meathead like him wouldn't.
Happy new year!
And happy great chapter!
Oh yeah new chapter
Still remember the first time I faced Lanius. I must have used a 1000 rounds and over thirty mines.
Hey! I didn't authorize this!!
Been a while. I wonder what they'll think of Arcade Gannon, even if he's not mentioned by name?
This was a good chapter and it seems that the 5 chapters a year trend I noticed continues.
The"hope Caesar dies" seems somewhat foreshadowy, hope you either show what could happen if either faction wins or just refrain from writing an aftermath as canon
Joshua Graham is by far one of the best characters in the Fallout Universe, is the example of how the monster you were can help you to be a better person, but only if you really learn the lesson. Lanius is a great warrior, but an awful leader, he only knows about war, and can't understand peace, he is, in a certain way, the example why the Legion is condemned to failure in the end. As the Storyteller said: "While Joshua Graham saw his scars as a means to repent for his crimes as a monster, Lanius cannot see the one he has become since gaining them. One fights to redeem himself for his sins, while the other is a tool for destruction."
Out of curiosity are you going to make some chapters covering events the story teller couldn’t. I don’t think he ever went on detail on many of the player characters beyond some bits here and there.
10696787
Nope