Greetings guys. It has been some time since I've written anything on these forums but I'd thought I'd give it a shot again. Please feel free to give any constructive feedback that is needed. Otherwise enjoy! Also just a heads up, I've been through the chapter a couple of times and I think I've got them all but my 's' button on my keyboard doesn't work too well so keep that in mind.


Two Brothers

Chapter 1: Sacrifices

Love. What is love really? Matthew’s parents had spoken of the concept earlier in the day. He distinctly remembers his father kissing his mother directly in view of both Matthew and his younger brother, Benjamin. Being 10 and 5 years of age, the brothers were disgusted with such displays of affection. It prompted Matthew to ask the question, “Why do you do this in front of us?”

“Love,” his father replied.

Matt pondered this unfamiliar feeling, sure he loved his parents and his brother but it did not make him want to kiss them.

Benjamin, however, had his mind on the task at hand. He and his older brother had been asked to catch dinner. Nothing special, just a giant rat or even a mole rat pup but for Ben this was a special occasion. This was the first time just he and his brother were allowed away from the safety of their village. Excited, nervous and just a little bit worried Ben saw his brother drifting off and spoke.

“Matt, Dad said we are to catch something and bring it straight back to the village! ‘No time for stuffing around,’ he said!”

Snapping back to reality, Matthew chuckled, “Yes Dad,”

Ben smiled as they moved on.

Their village was located in the middle of a small valley just a few hours from New Vegas, deep in the Mojave. They had built the town on an old river bed, long dried up by the nuclear fueled heat of the wasteland. Although they still managed to get water from a well in the centre of town, their only problem was food. Usually they would send hunting parties down ‘river’ to find wild animals, but the boy’s parents felt that it would be a good learning opportunity to send both of them on the small errand.

The high walls of the valley provided shelter and protection from the harsh wasteland. The sun was mostly blocked out and there was only a slight breeze. This created the perfect environment for their hunt. Matthew armed with a BB gun, would wound their victim and Ben would finish it off with the wooden club.

Matt was the first to see it. Down the way, there was movement, close to a small formation of rocks and shrubs. He was quick to signal his younger brother to be quiet. Ben, although filled with glee, nodded and took his place behind his older brother. Matthew loaded the BB gun a slowly and as quietly as possible. This wasn’t his first hunt and he didn’t want look bad in front of Ben by scaring the creature off.

Slowly he began to move forward, gun aimed directly at the bushes. He could see and hear the busy rustling of something but still had no idea what was there. The wind had slightly picked up and Matt could smell smoke but he was too deep in concentration to take any real notice. Feeling a slight bump from Ben, Matthew got an idea.

He turned and whispered, “Ben, you need to scare whatever it is out of the bushes. Then I’ll shoot it and you finish it off,”

Ben nodded excitedly and took off. He made sure his footsteps were loud as he approached the bushes and sure enough out scampered a giant rat. Quickly Matt took aim, as he squeezed the trigger, he made sure to breathe out.

The shot rang loud, louder than a simple BB gun could ever produce. Matt instantly dropped the gun; the loud noise had scared him, especially since he thought it came from his own weapon. Taking a step back he was trying to gauge what had just happened.

Ben on the other hand had some idea. His eyes were fixated on the view behind his brother. Smoke was rising up from the direction of their village.

Pointing, Ben asked, “Matt, what’s happening?”

Still bewildered by the gun shot Matt, for a moment, was frozen.

Tears welled, as Ben’s fear grew.

“Matt!?” He shouted.

The older of the two turned to see the smoke rising from behind him.

“I… er… don’t know,” the fear began to swell within Matthew, “We should get home.”

Ben agreed and quickly the boys set off, completely forgetting about their dinner and weapons.

Any hope quickly faded as the duo returned to their village. Smoke was coming from the fires that burned their makeshift huts. The people had been gathered in the town centre. Split into groups of men women and children. Caesar’s Legion was in complete control.

The village was now secured and ready. The legionnaires gave the signal for the all clear and in entered Octavian. Octavian was a man of many names, perhaps better known as “The Courier” once upon a time, he had taken up a more appropriate title, as Caesar’s right hand man. As he walked through the burning front gate, his men took a knee as a sign of respect to their leader. The townspeople were forced into a kneel by their captors.

Octavian shot a cruel smile as his will had been done. His face although dark, still clearly bore the ugly scar from the time he was shot in the head. His recovery was remarkable but his revenge was sweeter, albeit never satisfied. The courier was a large, heavily built man, dwarfing those troops around him as he approached the town centre. Octavian’s commander in the field was quick to approach him.

“Sir, as requested, the profligates village has been destroyed and the survivors have been gathered in the town centre and split into the appropriate groups.”

“Excellent,” replied Octavian.

He walked down the line, inspecting the groups closely. The groups seemed in fine shape, no disease or famine. They appeared pure, ripe for the Legions picking. Octavian eyed up the men, most had looks of disgust and hatred, and a small number had fear and cowardice in their eyes but only one showed no emotion. The Courier smiled.

“That one,” he said pointing to the man who showed nothing.

A foot soldier forced the man onto his feet and shoved him over to their leader.

Octavian gave another cruel smile,

“You are the leader are you not?”

The man stood there, once again giving no sign of emotion.

“Ah yes, of course you are the leader,”

Then at that precise moment, as if fate too was feeling awfully cruel, a Veteran Legionary approached. In his hands he held the young boys. The Chief of the village cringed and for a split moment, fear filled his face. It was all Octavian needed. He removed his gladius from its scabbard and approached the young boys. A woman screamed out, her pain was not physical but emotional.

“Excellent! Men, it looks like we have a whole family! It really is my lucky day. Bring both the chieftain and the woman here.” The Courier was known throughout the wasteland for his cruelty and this would be an excellent display of such.

He ordered the guards to make the mother and father kneel before their children. Ben was crying, almost uncontrollably and not even his mother could console him as she knelt in front. Matthew on the other hand had locked eyes with his father. The chief eyes were boring into his eldest sons head, still without emotion.

Octavian bent down next to Ben, sword still drawn.

“You listen to me young one, you need to be strong if you are to survive and become a warrior. If you want to your brother here to live, you will need to be strong. I’m going to give you this sword and you are to kill your parents,”

Ben broke, falling to the ground wailing. Octavian growled he had no stomach for weakness. Picking the boy up by the scruff of his collar he thrust the butt end of the sword into Ben’s chest.

“Take this and do as I say, or you all die.”

Matt’s eyes had not left his fathers. As Octavian shouted, the boy’s father did nothing but give a simple nod.

Love. What is love really? This question had plagued Matt the whole day. Was love that between their mother and father? Showing affection in a physical way between each other. Or was love murdering your mother and father to save your younger brother?

Matthew pondered this as he took the sword from Octavian. He told his brother to look away as he approached their mother. She too had broken down in tears unable to move. Matt tried to block out his emotion, to become numb in the moment but he could feel tears roll down his cheek a he raised the sword. The blade was sharp, sharp enough to cut the head from a body in one small swoop. Tears began to drip from the boys chin onto the bloodied sword as he stood over his mothers dismembered body.

Next was his father, for a moment they gazed into each other eyes. This time the nod came from Matt as he raised the sword to his father’s chest. Thrusting the blade, it went through the chieftain’s chest like butter. It passed through the man’s heart killing him instantly.

Octavian smiled as he stood.

“Excellent, this one will make a fine warrior. Take the younger boy and the rest of the children to camp. All except this one will become slaves, as well as these women. Kill the men.”

Gotta say, I'm definitely impressed. The cruelty and emotion really adds to the whole feel of the story. Anxiously waiting for more.

I like it, it's a pretty fresh take on the Courier since most fan fics portray him as a complete do-gooder.

Thanks guys, I'm glad you enjoy the story.


Chapter 2: Training

Flavius

The first thing they do is rename you.

It had been a few days since Matthew’s world had been torn apart at the seams then burnt to cinders. In that time he had been marched, along with other young people from different conquered tribes, towards a training camp just outside the strip of New Vegas. Benjamin had been taken somewhere else unknown. Matthew was left alone, travelling with other lost souls each taken from their own worlds. He trudged along, barely able to lift his feet and put one foot in front of the other. The walk was relentless and almost never ending.

He hadn’t bothered speaking to anyone, nor had any of the other ‘recruits’ bothered to talk to him. Matt had noticed that all the boys appeared to be older than him by quite a bit but even so their faces all resembled the same trait, loss. They all just plodded along in a line, with guards on either side. The guards were armed with whips for the recruits and guns for anyone else.

But it wasn’t the walk that weighed down Matt’s body, it was his mind. Each thought burned, each feeling wounded like a knife. For a boy so young it was overwhelming, unbearable. It caused his head to hang low and his eyes to search the ground for answers. There were none to be found so instead he tried to concentrate on how much his feet hurt. But this proved difficult as the boy could barely see his feet. His vision was blurred by the tears that seemed to have set like concrete in his eyes.

The sun above was scorching everything it touched, including the younglings. Matt wouldn’t have to worry about his tears much longer as dehydration set in. The other young people that marched in the line behind Matt were also feeling the effects of the radiated heat. There was no water provided by the guards, so some of the recruits faltered, falling out of line. The guards put their whips to use in order to fix this. Then there were other recruits who could simply take no more, they either fell to the ground dead, or were left behind, half dead. Nothing was done, nothing could be done, so they all pushed on without a second glance or thought.

Eventually the beacon that is New Vegas came into view. Matt had never been to the city, let alone seen such a sight but as they approached his eyes never even left the ground. The region was under complete legion control, nothing moved without them knowing about it. The boarders were patrolled by scores of legionaries. Anything hostile within the area had been driven out or killed long ago. Nothing but the legion and its citizens remained. The city itself had changed so much in the few years since the legion had seized control after the second battle of Hoover Dam. Monuments to Caesar and Octavian stood throughout the strip. A grand arena dubbed ‘The Colosseum’ was in the process of being built by hundreds of slaves. Caesar’s ‘Nova Roma’ was coming to life.

Finally they had reached their destination. Once known as Camp McCarren, the place had been transformed into a full on training centre for young legion recruits. Only top ranking commanders, trainers and the recruits were allowed inside. Slaves and women (be it slave or otherwise) were not allowed entry, they served as nothing but distractions in a training environment.

As they approached some of the recruits were relieved they had reached their destination but even the front gate to their new home was enough to diminish their hope. The iron chain link gate stood tall above the young men, barbed wire not only lined the top of the gate and the entire complex but it also was entwined throughout the chains. Their masters also held no sympathy as they marched the recruits through the gate they instructed (through the inventive use of whips) the young ones to line up. Training had begun.

The camp was desolate place. The smell of fear and blood ran rampant throughout the site. As a Legionnaire approached, Matt could swear the smell was emanating from him. He stood tall in front of the recruits tall, holding a wicked smile. Scars and age had long wearied his face but his impressive armour suggested this was a man of high rank.

“You are all to stand straight, heads up and eyes front,” boomed the Legionary Instructor.

“My name is Nero; you however will call me ‘Sir’ or ‘Master’. I am your leader, father and God. You will do exactly as I say, as soon as I say it. To disobey me is to sentence yourself to death and I assure you it will not be quick. I am going to transform you from the sniveling pieces of [censored] you are now into full blown warriors sent from Mars himself!”

One of the recruits in line fell; exhaustion from the heat had taken him. Nero smiled.

“I always like to make an example,” he signaled the guards to bring the young man forward.

Most looked away but Matt watched. He was unsure why, deep down he felt a burning hatred for legion, and perhaps he just wanted another reason to hate them more. As for the young man, Matthew couldn’t tell how old he was; obviously he was much older but by how much was impossible to know. It didn’t matter much anyway as he was beaten to death right there and then by a barrage of kicks and punches.

“Now I hope you all learn from this,” Nero’s voice was deep and low, memorable even.

As he walked down the line, another soldier approached holding a scroll. Nero smiled as he unfurled it.

The first thing they do is rename you.

Matt was standing about halfway down the line, still unable to feel or think he barely noticed his instructor approach.

“You are a little one aren’t you? Skinny as well,” Nero said as he lifted the boys arms, “Why on earth did Octavian pick you?”

For a moment there was silence, the question was not rhetorical so Nero stood waiting for an answer.

Matt didn’t think, he couldn’t, words simply fell out of his mouth.

“I murdered my parents, the same way I’m going to murder all of you,” the life from his eyes was gone, his statement was cold and hate filled.

Nero looked the boy over once more, noticing the sandy blonde hair he possessed.

“Hold on to that anger boy and you just might survive. Your name will be Flavius, your section is 3 and your tent is B. Go rest for a moment, you will need it.”