Audience with a goddess

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Legate Lanius traveled, followed by many other carriages, in the direction the tribals had pointed out, where supposedly a goddess wished to have an audience with the Legate for her surrender to Caesar. However, the terms could have been discussed at the border, not so deep within tribal territory.

We had only traveled a few kilometers into tribal lands when I began to feel a strange atmosphere. Everything seemed much greener; the arid environment had given way to fertile green land where vast stretches of cultivated fields with irrigation canals could be seen.

This didn't make much sense. It's one thing for there to be little radiation, but this looked more like the work of a G.E.C.K. Yet Vault 29, the closest to this area, had the typical experiment designed to make the inhabitants kill each other, so it wouldn't be possible for survivors to have done this.

It was also unlikely that the tribals could have restored fertility through intensive agriculture alone. That would require extensive treatment of the land to eliminate radiation and various methods of water purification to make the water look this clean.

The Frumentarii had information that the tribals had some pre-war technology, but enough to achieve this? Or maybe the scouts were wrong. If this was a trap to attack us, we were screwed, because their appearance was quite primitive, even compared to the equipment of a newly recruited legionary: bows and spears. But they could have power armor or ballistic weapons capable of penetrating Vault-Tec armor. It wouldn't be surprising with the level of technology required to maintain such agricultural levels.

I kept my thoughts to myself and stayed silent, observing the vast landscape of farmland until, after several hours of traveling at full speed in our carriages across the canyon plains, we finally arrived at a settlement that immediately calmed my pessimistic thoughts. The buildings were a mix of primitive and basic construction, indicating that perhaps they had obtained some technology from Vault 29, and that was it.

We were met by a woman who seemed to be a shaman, who would guide Lanius to the goddess Diana. But at the same time, we were surrounded on all sides by those female soldiers and robots.

"Legate Lanius, the goddess's invitation is only for you. No one else may attend the audience with the goddess," said the elderly woman.

"I will not enter a possible trap of your self-proclaimed goddess. Either my escort accompanies me, or her surrender will not be accepted. You have already had the great privilege of me deigning to listen to your false goddess," replied Lanius, crossing his arms in an irritated tone.

The shaman looked nervous and entered a large cave.

"Decanus... can you disable those robots if necessary?" asked Legate Lanius as he observed the forces surrounding us.

"I need to know where the server is, where the enemy and ally recognition patterns were entered. It shouldn't be far; I doubt it has much radio power to send signals over such a distance to keep the robots updated with orders," I responded to the Legate.

Lanius didn't reply and continued watching the slightest movement of those amazons and their robots for several minutes until the shaman finally returned and allowed the Legate to bring five of his men with him.

Lanius took two centurions, two veteran legionaries, and included me in his personal escort.

"Stay alert; see if you can find a way to disable those robots if something goes wrong," said Lanius.

As we entered the cave, I realized it looked much more like a bunker than a goddess's temple.

"Ah, Legate Lanius... I've been expecting you... It's a pleasure to meet you," said a soft voice that echoed throughout the passage, alerting all the legionaries.

We continued walking, listening to the voice inviting us into her temple, only to finally find ourselves in front of a statue with glowing blue eyes. The shaman closed the door, leaving us in front of the statue just six of Caesar's men against the self-proclaimed goddess.

The mere sight of it filled me with fear... a sensation I thought I had conquered, but it seemed I still harbored a fear of the unknown.

The statue began speaking to Lanius about how he was an interesting individual—calm, yet brutal when necessary. Finally, all that palace-like flattery ended when it became clear that such praise was useless with Lanius, as it had been for a long time.

"What are the goals of the Legion?" asked the so-called goddess Diana in a severe tone.

"To conquer and civilize the wasteland, for pure humanity to reclaim what was once theirs," the Legate replied.

"And Caesar's goals?" the statue asked again.

"The Son of Mars's goal is to conquer the Republic of the Bear, to form a synthesis of the past and the present," Lanius answered in a tone that was slowly turning angry.

"But what is Caesar if not another tribal leader trying to unite the wasteland? What makes Caesar so special that will set him apart from all those who have tried to rebuild from the ashes?" the statue questioned once more.

"The Son of the God of War, the chosen one to unite the wasteland and bring order back to humanity," Lanius answered, his tone now angry—the tone that terrified his centurions, but had no effect on the statue.

As the conversation continued, I began to observe my surroundings and noticed security cameras in the offering area where Lanius stood, but none were pointing elsewhere. I also noticed some speakers in the back of the statue.

I slowly backed away from the camera zone as quietly as I could with power armor.

I noticed all the wiring in the statue... that thing wasn't a god; it was a damn farce.

I saw a terminal well hidden nearby, and observing that the statue was still engaged in a moral debate with Lanius, I continued to approach the terminal slowly.

It was difficult to hack a terminal with the massive fingers of power armor, and to complicate matters, the server's encryption was the most complex I'd ever seen. Fortunately, the Legate kept talking to the statue, which bought me much-needed timemore than an hour, during which I finally managed to crack the encryption and access the computer. I quickly investigated all the available information.

It was all about data transfer… satellite-based.

They have satellites… this is bad… very bad.

All the information was being transmitted from the area where Vault 29 should be, but there was another location where the original data was being sent, far to the north-west.

I searched for information on the server, but there was nothing—everything was empty. Extracting information wasn't possible since this server only sent and received data. I couldn't pull anything out without raising the suspicions of this woman pretending to be a god.

Since everyone was still very focused on the conversation between the Legate and the statue, I quietly returned to my position. I went unnoticed, even among the legionaries beside me who were fixated on the false goddess.

There would be no point in trying to cut off the signals. If they have satellites, the robots can receive information without us being able to cut it off—unless we had electronic warfare devices, which we obviously don't have.

I focused again on figuring out what this statue was. I spent several minutes thinking when I began to concentrate on the goddess's voice and noticed that she had a pre-war American accent. This left the possibility that she could be a ghoul who survived the war, but considering the possibility of Vault 29, it could be one of the survivors… but that didn't make sense. Cultures within the Vaults tend to change after so many years they would have different ways of speaking.

Vault-Tec records mentioned that RobCo had machinery for reading brain patterns to integrate them into a computer… that could be an option if RobCo managed to finalize the technology since nothing else makes sense for someone to have control over satellites.

The heated conversation between Lanius and Diana lasted another hour, debating the thesis and antithesis of Caesar and the NCR, until it finally seemed to end as Diana offered her closing arguments.

The goddess then began making Lanius an offeran offer to overthrow Caesar, rebuild the Legion, and create a stronger wasteland.

Hearing no immediate refusal from Lanius, I raised my rifle and aimed it at the Legate, as if he accepted, it could be the perfect moment to earn a promotion by killing a traitor.

But before pulling the trigger, I thought: I'm just a Decanus… A Centurion would likely take the power vacuum and keep me under close watch for stabbing Lanius, and that would be the end of everything I'd achieved by gaining this man's favor.

Lanius had to live until the perfect moment to seize power and not join this goddess. Caesar would be easier to win over than a robot or a long-lived ghoul.

"While Caesar holds your chain, you'll never be your own man. All your achievements, your glory, they won't be yours—they'll be Caesar's, and you'll be forgotten like thousands before you. Who are you, Lanius? Do you want to be remembered for eternity?" the statue finished.

"HA, HA, HA, GREAT ELOQUENCE, MACHINE, BUT WHAT YOU OFFER IS MERELY CHANGING WHO HOLDS THE CHAIN!" I shouted, using the speakers of my armor.

This snapped both the statue and Lanius out of their conversation.

"I am a goddess,mortal, not a…" the goddess's voice raised.

"I saw the audio equipment that emits your voice and the cables connected to transmit information from this room… to another place… Perhaps Vault 29, ghoul… or AI?" I said, interrupting and maxing out the volume on my speaker.

After those words, the false goddess fell silent for several seconds.

During that time, Lanius noticed that my rifle was aimed at him. He nodded and turned, drawing his sword.

"You false goddess, you try to deceive me… Fortunately, there are men who can see through your lies… There is no deal, and if you do not intend to surrender, there is nothing more to discuss," said the Legate, turning and signaling us to follow him.

Lanius opened the doors and led the way out of the temple.

Upon exiting, we found everything the same the group of warriors and robots surrounding us. Since no one attacked, we immediately returned to our carriages to leave the territory.

As we made the journey back, I didn't feel at ease, knowing our opponent had satellites one spy satellites and no attack would be a surprise.

Upon reaching the safety of our camp, the Legate summoned me to his tent again.

"Decanus Gaius… Your loyalty to Lord Caesar is enviable. I… had doubts for a few moments, but I must thank you. Knowing that you would have killed me before I became another Paullus has been a pleasant surprise. Now… I want to see that woman who proclaims the same divinity as Lord Caesar burn. I want you to find out where this Diana is when we've dealt with her weak tribe. I will destroy that liar and enslave her tribe so they can finally become another stone in Lord Caesar's grand plan," Lanius said in a kind tone before shifting to the one he was known for.

"It shall be done, Legate," I responded.

"Good, you may leave, Decanus. I have to make some sacrifices to Lord Caesar to cleanse the dishonor of my doubt," Lanius said, turning to his altar and subsequently calling in some slaves.

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Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.

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I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.

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