I'd never taken Slayer before and it definitely reminded me of God Complex. I looked at the humanoid red blurs of the legion as if they were inferior as I simply stood despite the crippling shocks arcing into me. My exoskeleton was still spasmodic as I stood and my body fought the hardened steel. Then inbuilt limits to prevent the skeleton from damaging the user snapped and the exo was reduced to shattered steel armor. I could see my exo soldiers standing alongside me as I grabbed the shock net with both hands and ripped it apart.
With the annoying net gone and us free we immediately sought out the enemy. Frail human bodies snapped like dry kindling under my hands as we bathed in blood. I had been the one to name Slayer as the effects described reminded me of playing DOOM. As the flood of red people came at me my vision started focusing. I was hallucinating the game. The legion looked like demons from hell and the exo soldiers like the Doom Slayer.
Mountains of bodies built up around us as we slaughtered. Thoughts drifted through my mind as I covered myself in demon blood by literally tearing them apart. BFG division shook my brain as a stray thought caught traction. Where had the legion gotten so many troops willing to dive to their deaths at the hands of drugged up superhumans. As the music picked up, rocking my mind I idly noted that the demons were running away from us and that two leader like demons were approaching.
One was small but dangerous while the other with a massive sword and gold armor cut down one of my men. Every single one of us locked our sights on him. This lesser being dared to take one of our own. As one we charged. The small one fell back firing small and fast energy beams that we weaved through. Multiple weapons met the gold demons sword and were batted away. I leapt at him and my fist met his golden face.
He rocked backward as I grabbed onto his chest. His sword dropped as I brought him back at me and slammed my head at his. He met me midway and we both latched onto each other. My men surrounded us and one broke away to get rid of the small, ranged one. At the same time we both let go with one hand and started bashing each other in traded hits.
This mere man however was natural and couldn't compete with a god. His helmet failed as my hallucinations started fading into reality. He yanked his helmet off to reveal an handsome face, brutalized by my hands. His next punch hit me as his bloody smile revealed itself. I removed my helmet with a yank and threw my own punch. He met it with a counter and our fists glanced off each other.
He slammed a kick into my side and I caught him with an elbow to the chest. His next punch was something I actually felt an I realized we were running out of time. I shoved him away with brutal kick to the chest after catching another punch. I turned to find my men had been systematically split and either killed or brutally beaten down. Seeing this I pulled my last two cards. The first was a simpler and weaker drug of psycho, buffout, and med-x. I made my way back to the large gold armored man and we restarted our slugfest.
When the drugs weren't enough to keep me going he immediately caught on. He pushed me back and a net fell atop me. I then activated my last card. I gave the golden man a bloody smile to match his own as I reached to the sky and pulled the trigger of a flare gun. The area was lit with green smoke and harsh light as a line was drawn against the heavens by a dying god.
I fell to the ground on my knees as the gold armored man approached me. He had regained his helmet but I could feel the bloody grin hidden beneath. He stood above me as men spoke but I interrupted them all. Two words these legion bastards would understand.
"Memento Mori"
The gold armored man realized what I meant as a rhythmic thumping sounded from the direction of the city. The yanked the net tight around me and lifted me near effortlessly. He then began running. Others noticed as well and the large legion group went into full panicked retreat. With the last of my strength, as my eyesight grew dark I shouted above the sharp whistle of shells in the air.
"Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius"
My world went black as I was carried away from my tired up men who would die in the mass mortar strike I had called onto our location. The last thing I felt was the large man and I getting thrown by a blast to his left and us tumbling over each other with me completely ragdolled and him latched onto the spine of my exoskeleton and the net wrapped around me.
Colonel Moore pov
I walked out of general Oliver's office after my argument with him. Because of his orders we had lost sergeant Kane and all our exo soldiers. So what if it had allowed us to lure the legions army to Boulder City and crush them against the walls with our vehicles and mortars. We'd lost the man who had made those weapons. He'd just been made sergeant when the legion attacked us and Oliver ordered a lockdown. He sat comfortably in his office giving orders while protected by the robots Kane had made. And even after our crushing victory against that massive army he didn't even have us pursue to annihilate them.
Our most valuable asset, a genius with technology had been taken prisoner and our most effective infantry force destroyed. I immediately made my way from Oliver's office into the bowels of the dam. Deep inside was the small 'prison' and the R&D room. As I slammed the door behind me I made my way to paladin Clay who was working on his and Kanes new plasma gun.
"Clay, I need as many heavy weapons and exo skeletons as you can produce. We know sergeant Kane was taken as a prisoner by those bastards but we know that he'll try to escape. I will lead rangers in exo to assist in getting him."
The paladin, annoying, raised his eyebrow at me. "We'll need time and resources then man. Probably some more educated manpower as well. If you really want to crush them you'll want the best we've got."
I glared at him as he finished but simply nodded as I did in fact want to crush our enemy. Before I could leave the room to pull as many strings as I could he spoke again. "We'll also need some new machines set up in Boulder City. Big ones to carve very big gun barrels." He gave me a smirk at that part then turned to continue his work. The two girls and other men in the room watched me go as I left. I went straight to my own office and started contacting old colleagues.
Paladin Clay pov
I glanced over at the initiates and engineers as they gossiped about something being between Moore and Kane. I personally knew there was likely nothing to their 'relationship' as they put it. Moore valued Kane highly for his mind for war and his weaponized creations. It was as simple as that. Kane had made technology that could revolutionize the NCR and she saw that.
I looked away from the gossipers and continued my work on the 'blaster cannon' as Kane had named it. It was supposed to be the mid point for laser and plasma. The design looked way cleaner than most energy weapons and was significantly more effective. A long circular tube like barrel with a simple grip and trigger. The power source and internals were the masterpiece however. Tough and rugged systems that could take a physical beating and an MF breeder that was powerfil and not incredibly clunky and fragile.
The one time we'd tested it we both fell in love with it. The projectile was faster than plasma but just as strong. The plasma 'bolt' was a bar of blue plasma emitted from the blaster cannon that exploded on impact. It even had semi, burst, and automatic firing.
It weighed ten pounds, incredibly light for its power and versatility. I was currently working on the second version, a much cleaner one with an actual butt stock. He had insisted that the stock be an under folder with the ability to be used as a grip for the barrel, allowing more control when the stock is folded.
As I finished this gun a few hours later I was sent an order on the massive terminal system Kane had set up in the dam. It had come from Colonel Moore. She'd contacted multiple people and gotten what I'd asked for. I immediately set up the production of what she wanted and sent her my own message. She didn't respond but I knew she was thinking about going through with my suggestion. A technology trade with my own BOS chapter for some power armor forces to be sent to the dam to back up the forces she was sending to get Kane.
The boy had slowly become something like a friend and his creations would certainly interest my people. I knew the boy had been planning to take some forces to sneak into Helios One to assassinate elder Elijah. It was tactically smart for them to do so both Colonel Moore and General Oliver had been supportive of the idea.
I considered the idea a bit dumb as it had the chance of a hostile elder taking over but Knae had been certain it would be McNamara.
I sent the blaster cannon data to production and made my way to a secret terminal Kane and I had set up. The boy had been incredibly cautious about many things and always wanted a back up. The hidden terminal was protected by two of the Repconn sentry bots as it was a direct communication setup to Helios One. He'd jacked an old comms line from the dam and we'd luckily established contact with the one person I'd hoped to speak with.
Senior Knight Lorenzo, a kind young man who had a tendency to carry more weight than others. He was perfect to start getting the scribes to support head paladin McNamara in succeeding Elijah. If Lorenzo, a trusted friend to many, supported McNamara over the already known and disliked Elijah, then all that needs to be done is to get rid of Elijah. The only problem that remained was getting rid of Elijah in some way.
I would have preferred to have him demoted for mission deviation, negligent leadership, and prioritizing personnel obsession but Kane had been adamant that his obsession would lead to massive damage if he wasn't eliminated. I didn't understand his near hate for someone he'd never met but he was always a little weird like that. I quickly finished my message to Lorenzo and went back to R&D to continue messing with my own plasma weapon project.
Kane pov
I woke with a start. My body was functional so I assumed I'd survived and it had already been a week since the battle. I was tied up tight next to another man infront of some kind of throne. We were inside a nice tent setup and surrounded by nasty looking dogs and legion guards wielding displacer gloves. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and coughed a bunch. Whatever legion puke looked after me didn't do a very good job of it. As I coughed a man exited the main tent locked eyes with me past his masked helmet. I easily recognized him as Legate Lanius, the man I'd wailed on before my body failed me.
After he exited two more men left the tent, both also recognizable. Vulpes Inculta and the head of Cesars preatorian guard. Both were openly glaring at me and the slightly familiar man beside me. I shot them both a smirk as their glares deepened. They took their places and finally the big man himself walked out. Edward Sallow, the Cesar. A balding old man with a brain tumor. I gave him a full smile as he scowled at me.
"So… you're the one who created all those weapons that caused my legion so much trouble. The one who defied me so much as to force Lanius to stop you personally. Your name was Kane, correct?"