Eyes

For the next couple of hours firefights broke out constantly. The Raiders pushed hard and dozens of people from both sides died. Corpses were lying all around but, no one wanted to put themselves in danger just to move them so they were left where they fell.

It was the most disgusting thing I had ever seen. Luckily since Nikole and me were only kids they allowed us to be farther back in the defense line where it was safer. The only mildly good thing I could say happened was that I managed to kill a few more Raiders and finally leveled up.

I was now Level 3, I immediately opened my Perk chart and selected the Night Person Perk I have had my eye on for months. I could have unlocked one of the Psychic related skills in my new Perk Tree but, I had never unlocked a Perk like that I didn't know if it would give me knowledge on how to use my new power or if I would need learn it from scratch.

Knowing that, I decided to play it safe and get Night Person. Not only would it push my Intelligence passed 10 it would also would also give me 8 Perception which would let me have better Night Vision. Which was good as the sun was rapidly setting and all of this would more than likely be over by the time the sun rose again.

As the sun was beginning to fall below the horizon the Raiders were launching a fierce assault. Gunshots were flying everywhere and I didn't have the courage to go out and try and get more kills.

When suddenly all of the firing suddenly stopped it was strange. Before even if they stopped attacking to rest or reload there would always be someone still firing but, this time it was completely silent.

"What's happening" I whispered to Aaron who was sitting next to me polishing his 44. Magnum.

"I don't know be ready" he whispered back.

There was some activity at the edge of the caravan and I cautiously peaked my head out to see what was happening. It was a group of Gun Runners, I was really surprised when I first found out who they were. They were a decently major faction in New Vegas and seemed even tougher in this world.

There were ten people in the group and they were all wearing full Combat Armor and carrying Assault Rifles. The man in the middle of the group was even more decked out he was actually wearing a T-51b suit of Power Armor and had a Gatling gun on his back.

He was an old looking black man who was completely bald and had several small scars on his face along with a thin mustache. From what I could see he looked like the man in charge.

He lead his group to the edge of the caravan and out into the no man's land. The man walked out into the sea of corpses and from the raiders side came out a Raider in spiked metal armor. I couldn't see his face because it was covered in a bandana and I could also see he was also wrapped in bandages so no skin could be seen.

The man came out with his own group of Raiders and they met the Gun Runners half way between both camps. They were talking but, were too far away and I couldn't hear a thing.

______________________________________________________

Lieutenant Basil had been with the Gun Runners for most of his life. He had been on over 100 escort missions for them and had see every kind of grotesque monster out there but, the ones he hated the most were Raiders.

No matter how dangerous things like Deathclaws or Radscorpions are they were only wild animals and could easily be outsmarted. Raiders however were human so even if they were weaker they were always a huge pain in his ass.

He couldn't even begin to imagine how a bunch of low life Raiders managed to get their hands on a piece of hardware like a Fatman. Not even the Gun Runners had more than a couple of those in stock. A single Fatman shell was easily worth over 25,000 Caps and these morons wasted four of them. All of the cargo his group was carrying right now was barely worth that much and that was assuming they didn't have more.

Of course he couldn't expect that level of thought from Raiders half of them were probably either drunk or high and the other half were both.

Lieutenant Basil sighed the majority of the Raiders might be worthless junkies but, the man in front of him definitely was not. He could see it in his eyes they were different when he looked at the Raiders he could see their greed and insanity however that mans eyes were clear. They had a purpose and were filled with determination but, it was more than that it was ambition. They reminded him of the eyes of another man he once knew and that made him afraid.

Years ago Basil was a member of the Gun Runners when they were just getting started in New Vegas. He was just a worthless mercenary that they picked up off the streets fed and gave a place to sleep. So he was extremely loyal to them his job was to help deliver their shipments around the state. On one of his missions he and his mentor Horacio were assigned to send some guns to a relatively new organization in the desert called the Legion.

This was when the Legion was still new to the state so theyl needed all kinds of supplies especially guns. They weren't at war with the NCR yet so the Gun Runners had no problem trading with them. He remembered when he and his squad first entered Fortification Hill it was still under heavy construction and wasn't yet the impenetrable Legion fortress that it would become.

He was lead up to the top of the hill by Caesar's army of guards the Praetorians. When he finally arrived at Caesar's Tent they met with the man himself. At this point Caesar was still young and healthy he had an intimidating presence that made Basil feel like he was staring at a god of war.

They quickly unloaded all of the guns for Caesar to examine. At first everything went extremely well Caesar praised the quality of their products over their last few shipments and invited his squad for a meal. It was more like a feast than a meal; they were fed all kind of top quality meats and alcohol that would be impossible to find in the slums of Freeside. Everyone stuffed their selves and made conversation with Caesar who seemed like a fun guy.

As soon as Basil and his group finished their meal that's when things started to go wrong. We wanted to head back to New Vegas early and get paid but, were stopped by a group of Legionaries.

Caesar gulped down a cup of wine and smiled at us "No need to leave so soon gentlemen why not stay a little longer I have a proposal for you."

His smile made the room turn cold.

Horacio frowned a little and responded to him "What kind of Proposal?"

"It's simple, you see I am a man of peace and all I want is to bring order to this mess of a world. However to do that I need to take over New Vegas and defeat the NCR."

"What does that have to do with us?"

"This state is a particularly dry and unforgiving place it is extremely difficult to move goods across large stretches of land. So I need to source supplies from here rather than from my territories out east. Therefore I want you Gun Runners to supply my army with all of the weapons and ammo you have at your disposal.

"A deal like that will be expensive aside from the costs of shipping and manufacturing we would also have to fallout with the NCR. For us to even begin to be willing to accept your deal you would need to pay us a minimum of 2,000,000 Caps and that's just a down payment can afford that?

Caesar suddenly broke into laughter "Oh mister Horacio you seem to have misunderstood me."

"You, how do you know who I am?"

"Do you really think I would ever let anyone near me without doing a full background check on them? More than that though do you think I would discuss this important topic with just any random grunt the gun Runners send me? Of course I know who you are!"

"So what do you mean I misunderstood you" Horacio asked feeling a bit disturbed?

"I mean I want the Gun Runners to submit to my Legion. You will lose your freedom but, in exchange I will let you keep you lives after I take over this pitiful desert."

At this point everyone knew there was a problem and we drew our guns.

"From the looks of it you don't intend to take my offer do you?"

"Of course not you asshole the Gun Runners are the biggest arms dealers for hundreds of miles and you think we will just roll over and become you dogs."

At this point Caesar stopped and started laughing like a maniac once again. "What an ironic choice of words."

"I don't know what you find so funny but, you better let us out of here if anything happens to us the Gun Runners will never let you go" Horacio raged.

Caesar suddenly stopped laughing and looked at us with his nightmare like steely blue eyes and said "Fine never let it be said that I am not a gracious host you are all free to leave here and go on your way."

"What are you playing at" Horacio yelled everyone was confused by his sudden change in attitude and were scared of what he was planning.

"I'm not playing at anything you are free to go guards please escort them out of my tent."

Even though we were afraid we had no choice and we really did want to get as far away from here as possible. Horacio led us out of the tent and no one uttered a word as we all kept our weapons ready.

We walked as fast as we could down the mountain and headed for the docks.

When we were almost free and getting ready to board their boat one of my squad members suddenly spoke.

"Captain I'm not feeling so good."

"Ahh me too" another moaned.

Soon nearly all of them were doubled down in pain on the ground only I was strangely still standing. I ran over to Horacio who just collapsed hoping to help him.

"Damn it that bastard poisoned us he never wanted to let us leave he was just playing with us" Horacio screamed.

"Not true" a voice echoed.

I looked back and saw Caesar leisurely walking towards us with an army in tow.

"Bastard" Horacio yelled.

"There no need for baseless accusations I really didn't intentionally poison you. It's just I have a "unique" taste in food. You see for years now I have been giving myself small doses of various poisons to build up a resistance so that I don't fall like so many other emperors before me.

It's gotten to the point where I can have a bit of poison for every meal and some of them even taste quite good. However seeing as you do not posses my immunity you have all seem to have gotten a bit sick. Ah but, don't worry as it was only a micro dose it will not be fatal at most you will be in agonizing pain for a few hours."

"Wh-what's you game" Horacio struggled to speak?

"I have no plan and as I told you before you are still free to go . . . however I would hurry if I was you the sun is about to set and that's when my troops take our dogs out for a walk."

As if on cue a chorus of barking dogs appeared in the distance. There was terror in everyone's eyes as they lifted their rifle and shot.

Click click click the triggers were pulled but, nothing happened Basil checked his gun and to his shock found out that his clip was missing. It wasn't just him everyone's was gone.

"Are you looking for these" Caesar spoke as a man appeared out of nowhere and threw the bag he was holding to the floor letting a sea of bullets spill out?

"How" Horacio choked out?

"This man is a member of my Frumentarii and he is one of my best assassins. He had already disarmed you while you were still enjoying your meal."

Horacio threw his gun to the side in anger and yelled for everyone to run for the boat but, the poison was to strong the most they could manage was slowly crawling away. Basil tried to carry Horacio to the boat but, he was too slow the dogs descended on them like a force of nature.

Blood was everywhere and I had to watch as Horacio was eaten alive in front of me. I tried to fight back by hitting them with my rifle but, they were too fast and avoided every swing.

After all the screaming stopped and the bodies were starting to cool Caesar spoke.

"Call the dogs back this trash isn't worthy of being their meal."

Caesar turned around and was about to head back to his tent when a feeble voice stopped him.

"Why am I still alive" I whispered more to myself than to Caesar?

Caesar turned and looked at Basil. "You are alive because those dog were special they were trained to only attack the weak and as you did not eat the poison they spared you."

"But WHY AM I ALIVE" I scream?

When Caesar heard that he let out his devilish smile once again and simply spoke "Because I need to let the world know what it means to oppose me."

Caesars eyes when spoke those final words sent chills down his spine and he collapsed on the ground.

Back in the present he was now facing down an unknown Raider looking into his eyes Basil was afraid. They were the exact same eyes Caesar used to have.