» Sat Sep 15, 2012 1:25 pm Chapter 1
Dear Father,
As I’m sure everyone at home has heard, we won over the Mojave! A great victory for our country I have no doubt. I was at that second battle of the Hoover Dam serving our nation with pride against the slave warriors under their new dictator, Lanius. During the battle my squad and I were given orders to hold down a position near a major generator inside the dam. We held the position throughout the Legion assault, but they overran us. Four of my squad mates were brutally slaughtered like brahmin by advancing legionnaires. Only myself and another Private, Ronald Weston, survived and carried out our orders.
As I write to you today, I have been promoted to the rank of corporal. I have been reassigned to an entirely different company, Bravo, but I‘m still in the same platoon. Only two days after our victory over the Legion at the dam, we’ve been redeployed straight into Arizona. My commanding officers who I trust with my life have made the decision to bring the fight to the Legion homelands. I’m not sure what our mission currently is, but I have to assume that I’m going to see some weird [censored]. I know you fought the Brotherhood when you were younger and I know that these Legion scumbags are no where near as tough. I’ll make sure to make you and the family proud.
With much love,
Landon
The corporal folded the letter he had just written and placed it gently in his pants pocket. Landon, referred to by his squad mates by his last name of Evans, was sitting on the hood of a rusted truck. His company had stopped along the highway they were traveling on to hydrate and rest. ‘Interstate 40’ the giant, green sign on the edge of the road read. Cpl. Evans had taken the time to write to his father, a former soldier for the New California Republic.
The rest of the company were lazily sitting with their eyes closed, cleaning their issued service rifles, or taking a sip from their canteens. Even though they had been walking for at least four hours, it was only midday and the sun was high up in the cloudless sky. The platoon Landon was in had divided into two companies as they made their way east into Arizona. The soldiers were making their way towards the old city of Prescott, where NCR rangers had setup a command post in the desert. The company’s commanding officer, Captain James Thomas had risen from deciphering a map of the area.
“Soldiers, we’re continuing on this highway,” Captain Thomas shouted. “Let’s move out!”
The soldiers of the New California Republic snapped to attention when they heard his command. They immediately followed his instructions and got themselves into a formation on the highway. Nineteen lines, four soldiers in each row began moving with Captain Thomas to their side. The sun’s heat was relentless as they marched along Interstate Forty.
It was one of the few times Landon Evans wished he had asked for a helmet after he went through basic training. He donned the traditional NCR military armor the difference being a light mantle that covered his heart and left shoulder. His face wrap was bunched down below his chin and a pair of goggles hung around his neck in case of a sandstorm. His body was long and his muscles tone, he had a traditional military haircut, and his face was covered by a long scar running just below his grayish blue eyes on his cheek.
Bravo Company continued to traverse the desert and alongside the interstate were many tribals, both Legion and other, that watched the soldiers closely as they trespassed on the land the tribals called their home.
“Tribal scum,” the soldier to Landon’s left muttered under his breath. “We’re going to wipe every one of them off this [censored]ing planet.”
“Calm down Cambell,” said the soldier on the other side of Campbell. “You’ll get your chance to fire that rifle of yours.” Campbell grunted at him, but didn’t look towards him.
“Hey privates,” said Captain Thomas, who had been standing one row ahead of Landon’s. “Where do you think you are right now? A mother [censored]ing meet and greet?” A couple of soldiers in front and behind Landon smirked or laughed. “When we march we will march silently, no exceptions.”
The company continued to march, and march, and march until the sun had finally disappeared over the horizon. Captain Thomas gave orders to set up a small campsite. No tents were to be pitched, only sleeping bags unrolled and campfires made. Landon who had just been reassigned sat alongside his new squad far away from the rest of the company and one of the soldiers lit a fire. The commanding officer of the squad, Sergeant Burrows noticed a new face among his men.
“Corporal Evans I presume?” Burrows asked. He was roughly the same size as Landon, however he had much darker skin and his muscles could be seen even with his armor on. “I heard about your bravery inside the dam, impressive [censored]. Welcome to Delta squad.”
Landon looked around and counted seven faces including Burrows all looking back at him. Landon shook his new officer’s hand and removed his service rifle from its strap and placed it on the ground next to his sleeping bag. He was to tired for introductions and none of the other squad members seemed excited to meet him either. Landon slipped silently into his sleeping bag leaving his rifle and his 9mm pistol by his side as he drifted off into a deep sleep.
____
“Corporal, wake the f*** up!” shouted Sergeant Burrows. Landon opened his eyes groggily and took a look around. At first he thought that all the campfires were still roaring until he noticed the dark figures in sporting equipment viciously butchering fellow soldiers. They were carrying brightly lit torches. “[censored]ing Frumentarii, grab your weapon.”
Landon exhaustedly grabbed for his service rifle and set it to fully automatic firing. He got up into a crouching position and slowly joined the rest of his squad behind a piece of debris on the outskirts of the rest of the company’s campsite.
“I can’t see anything,” one of the privates yelled.
“Cut the s*** Mitchell none of us can,” Burrows told him. Landon was disoriented from his lack of sleep and the yelling of officers to their soldiers sounded like a whistle blowing in his ear. Suddenly a huge explosion went off right before Delta squad’s eyes and the darkness of the night was bright with flames of the bomb.
“Fire bombs!” Burrows shouted. Landon couldn’t hear a word he had said. He could only watch as the soldiers in front of him were set on fire and running around like maniacs. “Let’s go!” Burrows ordered to his squad. Landon followed them as they moved towards the roaring fire, which covered the entire width of Interstate forty.
The Frumentarii had already disappeared into the darkness, watching as their bomb wreaked havoc on the NCR soldiers. Landon saw Captain Thomas shouting orders to everyone who wasn’t lit on fire to tackle them with their sleeping bags. Landon who was now fully awake and aware, didn’t even waste the time to run back and grab his bag. A soldier had just ran past him, his back completely on fire.
“Stand still!” Landon shouted at the man on fire as he ran top speed towards him, slinging his rifle back to his shoulder. The man instantly froze and turned around as Landon knocked him off the interstate road and into the cool sand. He grabbed onto the man’s whole body and forced him to roll around until the fire was completely out.
“You just saved my [censored]ing life corporal,” the man said. Landon wasn’t listening as he got up from the sand and looked up at the chaos. Many of the soldiers had already burnt to death as the others weren’t fast enough in saving them. Captain Thomas was still shouting orders but to no avail. The burning men and women ran around frantically, screaming bloody murder until the fire burned through their skin, killing them.
Landon got back to the road and found Burrows and the rest of Delta squad, prepared to kill any Legion that got close to them. Thomas, who was standing where the initial explosion had gone off, was shouting loudly into his radio.
“This is Captain Thomas, Bravo Company requesting immediate pickup!” the captain yelled. “We’ve got at least thirty dead and fifteen more wounded, requesting immediate assistance.” Landon also got into a firing stance removing his rifle from his rifle, but he was certain he wouldn’t need to use it.
“I don’t think we need to worry about any more raids tonight,” Landon said to his squad. “They already accomplished what they wanted to do.” Burrows looked over at his new soldier and shook his head.
“And if they do come back corporal?” the sergeant said. “The sneaky bastards are going to pay for this.” Landon disagreed with his superior but crouched down into a firing position anyway.
For almost half an hour Delta squad and many other soldiers stared out into the darkness, guns ready until Captain Thomas was finished. As he walked over the remaining soldier of Bravo company turned to find out what was going to happen next.
“The rangers at Prescott are sending four trucks to pick us up and get us to the camp,” Thomas told them. His voice was scratchy and he sounded as if he was in shock. No one was expecting the raid, the captain hadn’t even sent many men on night duty. “They’ll arrive within the hour, then we’ll get our new assignments when we arrive in the morning. Keep a watchful eye in case they return, something tells me they won’t however.”
The captain’s words were disheartening to many. The NCR soldiers weren’t expecting such a strong resistance from the Legion after their dictator had died of a brain tumor and the Legate known as Lanius took control.
“Well I mean we weren‘t really expecting the Legion to just let us prance into their lands and conquer them were we?” Mitchell asked. Landon wasn’t entirely listening. He couldn’t believe that the Frumentarii had managed to wipe out half of a company like that. There couldn’t have been more than five, and they killed over forty men and women.
It took well over an hour for the rangers to arrive with the trucks. The remaining medics carried all of the wounded and loaded them onto one truck. The non-injured soldiers all squeezed into the other three vehicles. Landon sat next to Burrows as the ranger in the front seat began to drive away from the campsite. With his last look at that spot on Interstate Forty he could see the final flames from the fire bomb burn out. The darkness shrouding the dead bodies that littered the entire road.
So any suggestions? Ideas? Concerns? Constructive Criticism? Any and all are welcome, I'm just trying to become a more proficient writer.
Notes: When I think of the fire bombs, I think of a napalm bomb that spread quickly and wreaked chaos along the highway. The trucks that the rangers come with are old pickup trucks and the backs had been transformed into an army style truck. I like to think that the NCR has vehicles at their disposal.
Thank you for reading and have a nice day.
