[center] [color=ed1c24][b]Servius Curius Proculus Vespillo[/b][/color] [/center]

Servius gave a small nod as Finn imparted culinary knowledge about the selection go deathclaw steaks. There certainly wasn't a lack of death claws in this city, that was for sure. 

"I am not sure how I'd want it done, I'll defer to your greater culinary knowledge and take whatever you recommend." Servius replied, trying to pass off his complete lack of knowledge in a somewhat less embarrassing light. The legion had a fairly one size fits all approach to the way everything was cooked and it hadn't exactly prepared him to even name the different ways it could be cooked. 

He turned his attention to Emil as the westerner began to relate a story about a deathclaw. 

"[color=ed1c24] A fair kill. Raiders and bandits are not the brightest bulbs in the tanning bed, I wouldn't be surprised if he had been off his head with psycho and jet when he decided to release the deathclaws. [/color]." Servius said, after listening to Emil. What kind of idiot kept a deathclaws as a pet, let alone thought he could control it? Raiders really were beyond belief at times. 

So, he wanted to knwo if any of them had fought deathclaws up close... 

"[color=ed1c24]I fought several deathclaws in my time, but the only one I have fought in such close proximity was near Caliente. It was a bright day, typical for the area. The town certainly lived up to its name, it couldn't have felt any hotter if it were aflame.[/color]." Servius began, reaching for his canteen and taking a long swig. Just thinking about Caliente was reminding him of the sweltering heat and the beating harsh sun. 

"[color=ed1c24]I had taken half a Contubernium westwards towards the town on a patrol of our border. Our frumentarii had reported the NCR had moved in and seized control of the town by force, and so we had to be cautious, but little would have made us suspect the presence of a deathclaw[/color]." Seized control by force indeed, they'd practically kicked down the doors and shot anyone who disagreed with them. It had been a NCR backed coup against the towns elected government. What a surprise, only pro democracy until it didn't suit them anymore. For a time they were able to gloss over it with propaganda, and had recruited and conscripted a vast number of townsfolk into a militia... But after a while the propaganda began to fall apart, it was clear the NCR didn't have control of the situation and that the Legion weren't going to role over. So Caliente descended into a brothers war with their own, and even more with the NCR. Captain Jay, as it turned out, was able to make people hate the NCR more than the legion. The Legion had turned it to their advantage, of course. 

 "[color=ed1c24]We stopped short to take cover upon a cliff face, frustrated by what we saw below. An NCR forward position - or what they intended to be a forward base. Two troopers and... Five 'conscripts' I suppose would be the word.. Local towns folk the NCR had pulled into acting as militia. Old men, young farm girls and boys. Not soldiers, and it showed. Their equipment was derisory; Surplus helmets, varmint rifles and nine millimetre pistols. None of them had body armour, a few didn't even have fatigues. The NCR may as well have shot them for us.[/color]."  Servius shook his head lightly as he fought back to it. He remembered an old man and his grand daughters having been amongst the foes in the militia at one point. Or, rather had heard about it first hand. The Legion had easily killed the old man and one of his kin, and captured the other Granddaughter alive. He had been surprised by what the girl thought of the Legion, she had been convinced they didn't even know how to use guns and were backwards savages whose only hope was to drown the enemy in bodies. 
He recalled a young man with only a baseball bat... Brave but hopeless, all the same. He should have been born a legionary, he would have gone far. 


No, fighting the militia wasn't war, it was slaughter, even more so than with the usual conscripts. At least they were usually able bodies young men who were given rifles and a modicum of training in how to fire then. More meatshields for the rangers to hide behind and hog the glory when it was done he supposed. It had made sense from a strategic perspective, perhaps. The more men on the battlefield had certainly allowed the NCR to get more done while reducing casualties to their actual soldiers (which, as he understood, had become a major problem for the NCR who were losing countless men each year) but ultimately their combat effectiveness was so low that the Legion had tended to steam roll them. Capturing them was one of the worse conundrums of his legion life. They couldn't release them, they had to keep their brutality and show little mercy and pity to these profligates or else the impact of their presence on enemy morale would have been lessened... But knowing that they'd been forced into it and lied to, and left so hopelessly for dead... It had weighed heavily on his conscience to consign them similar fates to the NCR soldiers, and he could tell it weighed on the Centurion Aurelius as well, however little he showed it. He and the Centurion tended to make their deaths quicker where they could, or else send them into slavery or other such decisions. Apollo hadn't cared, of course, he was the same monster to them as he was with everyone. Or perhaps he was simply better at hiding what he felt, it was sometimes difficult to tell. The mask was never meant to slip. 

"[color=ed1c24]It seemed too easy, I didn't trust it, so I had us watch and wait for a bit. Sure enough, before long I caught sight of a glint in a distant rock. I brought up my binoculars to look upon it, and thought I saw the movement of a ranger but I could not be certain. A trap.[/color]." 

"[color=ed1c24]We decided we would return to the fortress and inform the Centurion, collect more men and decimate the forward base. I left a scout to explore the surrounding area, make sure there were no traps waiting for us and to see if it was indeed a ranger, as the rest of us headed back towards the Fort.[/color]." 

"[color=ed1c24]We had to cross a stretch of no man's land to get there. It was usually fairly safe so close to our borders, Los Coyotes and various Raiders kept away for fear of being captured by us. But we kept our guard up and it was just as well we did, for our came a deathclaws from its den, a deathclaw that had killed Mars knows how many men. [/color]." He paused for a moment as he thought back to it. The Deathclaw must have moved in while he and the men had been out, because they had passed that cave in the way there without any disturbance. Unless it had been out hunting elsewhere at the time. 

"[color=ed1c24]When the deathclaws saw my Contubernium, you should have heard it roar. It was a roar which made the bushes shake, hound did tremble and man did quake, it rose up high upon the peak, it would have made a ranger weep.[/color]." 

"[color=ed1c24]But there was no time for fear or doubt as it leapt down upon us, a shadow of death cast in the blazing light of the sun. We brought out weapons to bear, but before I could fire it was upon me and swung fiercely for me, claws that could rend apart metal walls poised to rip out my heart. I leapt back as quick as I could, barely avoiding the slash of its claw. I brought my rifle to firing position, but then immediately case it aside; I recalled how close we were to the NCRs position and I called out to my men not to fire upon it. [/color]." Servius grimaced at the memory. It had been a difficult call and made in the moment, but it was necessary. The legionaries would have been very vulnerable while fighting the deathclaw, and the NCR were only a couple hundred meters away over the hill and rocks. It was far enough that they wouldn't come hunting a deathclaws roar, but close enough that they would for gunfire. 

"[color=ed1c24]So now we had little choice but to fight the beast in melee, for the firing our weapons would undoubtedly alert the NCR to our presence. Whether they would find us, or the scout, who could say, but I was not wanting either outcome. We would strike when we were ready.[/color]." 

"[color=ed1c24]But that left us dealing with a behemoth of flesh and bone with little more than our blades. Sure enough, as we learnt quickly as we danced with the devil, the deathclaws had a plague hide that could the sharpest of our steels abide. No sword would enter through its skin, which vexed my legionaries and made it grin... or at least, that is how it felt when it looked upon us with its vile fangs. It slashed at me and I dodged and parried, and it seemed to focus in on my to my shock and anger... I suppose due to my height it thought I was the most vulnerable. I lead it on merry chase, ducking and rolling under blows, knocking away its class with the hilt of my blade and occasionally managing to penetrate its scales, though never deep enough to kill it. Marcus and Gaius also threw themselves at it, but they too couldn't cut deep enough[/color]." 

"[color=ed1c24]And so we changed our tactics; It was at this moment that Marcus threw his spear into the deathclaw; bounced hopelessly of the monsters head, but it drew its attention to him. He quickly retreated backward and it bounded towards him... And I bounded after it.[/color]." And it hadn't been a moment too soon, Servius had been tiring of the long dance with the Deathclaw. He had strained his arm fighting back against its powerful blows and twisted his ankle rolling out of the way of a bite, he didn't think he would have made it much longer. For all the endurance and will of a legionary, a mortal body had its limits. 

"[color=ed1c24]I leapt upon its back like a possessed tribal, seizing our opportunity to bring about the beasts demise. As I climbed its back, it ceased its chasing of my compatriot and reached around to try and grab at me. But all its efforts would be in vain, for as in choler it did burn, I fetched the deathclaw a great turn, as a roaring it did cry, I thrust my sword into its eye.[/color]." 

"[color=ed1c24]I drive the blade in as deep as I could, through soft eye and the tough sinew behind it, I worked the blade in deep as the beast flung itself around, trying to buck me. Marcus and Gaius seized the moment and threw themselves into the fray, that we might be victorious that day. "Ad Victoriam", they cried, and that chorus the deathclaw died.[/color]."

"[color=ed1c24]For I forced the blade in far enough, that the beasts cries fell short and it collapsed, the blade had pierced into its skull, and cut into the brain itself. We kept stabbing it as it fell, piercing eye and hide and throat, making sure it was dead as it flailed into the ground, death rattles ringing out.[/color]." He gave something of a proud grin as he thought back to it. They hadn't lost a single of their number, which had impressed the Centurion greatly. Perhaps it was sheer dumb lucklre than anything, but he preferred to think of it as skill and teamwork. After all, it had been about coordination and baiting the deathclaw so that it was exposed - he had a feeling that if Marcus was not there, he'd be a very dead legionary. 

"[color=ed1c24]We dragged its carcass away to the fortress, thst we might use its claws for weapons, its hide and its meat. Once there, we told the Centurion what we had seen at the forward base, and when the scout returned he confirmed to us that the NCR had tried to set up trap using two rangers on a nearby cliff face. These sort of baited traps became one of the NCRs favourite tactics - and so it became our favourite tactic to subvert them. The fools waited a long time, which was good for us because it gave us a long time to set up. We fell upon the NCR later that day, a Contubernium sneaking around a long distance on their bellies to ambush the Rangers from the side while another Contubernium hit the forward post... But that battle is a different story, one without deathclaws. Suffice it to say, my blade had tasted much blood by the fall of night, man and beast alike had shed its lifeblood.[/color]."

Servius finished his tale and immediately took another mouthful of stew, downing it with water. It had been quite a long story, he realised, not at all concise. But he thought he had told it well enough, emphasis and more floral prose where appropriate.