Fallout: Rise Of The Burned Man

Chapter XI

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. [Book of Revelation]

Caesar raised his eyes to the west as Hoover Dam came into view. Legate Lanius stood at the edge of the Dam, his arms folded as he looked out to the sun which had just begun to set.Hoover Dam. It was his, at last, the last leg of the NCR had been taken from the faction, leaving them feeble and leaning in New Vegas. New Vegas. It was so weak without the Hoover Dam, so ripe for the Legion to pick off. It had flashed its hideous neon signs, a testament to greed and dissolution, up into the night sky every evening, taunting Caesar from afar.

But no longer, his Courier was taking the streets of Freeside as he walked the road to the Dam and soon, New Vegas would be his. His Rome, he had it at last.

So why didn't he feel more pleased about it?

"True to Caesar," Prime Legionaries guarding the edge of the Dam muttered as he passed by. Just a few days before, idle troopers had stood where they did now.

"Ave. Mars has smiled upon us with this victory," the Legate's voice carried easily over the few metres between them.

"Ave, Lanius. You have cleared the dissolute from the Dam?"

"There is not a trace that the degenerates ever held such a place," Lanius said, uncrossing his arms, "The Courier is an extraordinary man. Where have you sent him? I would have congratulated him on his competence."

The compliment surprised Caesar, who had never heard the Legate pass praise on another of his Legion before. He brought himself to nod as he stepped down, his first step on the concrete of his Dam.

"He is in Freeside," Caesar replied, wincing as the light hit his eyes, "But don't you worry, he'll be rewarded for this," he inhaled smelling the clean air, trying to raise his spirits a little more, to prove it was all real. He had won. He, himself, no other, he had brought the Legion to the Mojave and Hoover Dam was his. It had all been him.

Caesar looked out over the Dam and his new empire. Yes. He would be satisfied, when it had all sunk in.

"Legate, a figure at the hilltop!" a legionary at Lanius' side muttered. Caesar raised his eyes to see where the man had indicated and was immediately blinded by sunlight. He could just make out the dark shape of a man at the top of the mount, and as the sun began to drop, he saw something glint in his hand. Something bright.

"What the fuck is that?" he exclaimed, snatching the binoculars off an explorer at his side. He squinted through the glass and saw the man raise his hand, the bright object catching and glinting in the sun. He flicked a dial on the side and saw the man's face.

"No," he said softly, dropping the binoculars.

Joshua Graham raised the detonator and looked, and before him he saw the Beast and his old friend, Edward, the man who had thought to cast him into darkness but had instead brought him light. About them there was a wash of blood, both by the crimson of the Legion flag and true, reddest of blood, gore, signs of the war which had taken place. It was hideous and yet Joshua could not bring himself to hate the man who had brought it about. He could not hate Edward.

Graham raised his eyes and arms above him, "Lord. I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive evermore, Amen, and have the keys of hell and of death." His fingers hovered over the switch for the detonator; "Your Will is mine and it shall be done, on your Earth."

He flicked the switch.

Follows-Chalk threw his arms about the body of his lifeless friend, true tears, the first of his own in Mojave, raining down over Arcade's cold face.