ALL NOVEL Chapter 10: Caesar's gift
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After securing the former Vault-Tec executive to the motorized carriage, my subordinates and I quickly returned to the camp. It only took a few minutes to reach the tent, where I tied the woman to a metal post we used to anchor the tent securely.
"I don't want anything to happen to her; only I can touch her. Understood?" I said to all the members of my contubernium.
Everyone nodded, and I stored all the information I had obtained from the servers before heading to the legate's tent to report my findings.
I had to wait a bit, as the legate was occupied in his tent.
Upon entering, I found Lanius with blood-stained hands and several prisoners who bore marks from some sacrificial ritual of the Legion.
"Ave, true to Caesar, Decanus Gaius. I trust your investigation has been fruitful for the interests of the Son of Mars," said Legate Lanius without lowering his hands from the prayer he was performing.
"Ave, true to Caesar. Yes, Legate, my investigation led me to find more of these vaults and to discover that the Vault-Tec executives built their vault not long before the wrath of Mars. They came from a city to the east, not too far from here. It might be interesting to investigate the area; we could find weapons or more technology that could support the eastern campaign," I reported to the legate.
"Interesting information, Decanus... but Lord Caesar's orders are clear; we must not deviate from our operation. Besides, the area you refer to is a city inhabited by ghouls and super mutants. For some reason, it's ideal for them and lethal for those who have not been affected by their curse. Several frumentarii have died within days of exploring the area. We must focus on our objective. Once Caesar's orders are fulfilled, there will be time for your investigation," Lanius said, without breaking his concentration on the sacrifice.
"I could go with my men to investigate the area," I suggested to the legate.
"No. I will not waste one of Lord Caesar's best men under my command. You are forbidden to go there, Decanus. Your duty is to operate all the technology we acquire and have provided to nourish and arm Lord Caesar's forces. The services of your tribe are crucial to my campaign, and they must continue," Lanius replied sharply, turning to face me.
"At your service, Legate. I will forget the matter, but I must ask about something else regarding my men and me," I responded, meeting the legate's gaze.
"Ask, Decanus, and I will answer if Lord Caesar permits," Lanius said.
"We captured power armor, and I found training files for its use. I have two of those suits. First, I request permission to wear the power armor in the conquest of the East, and if you agree, I also request eight more suits for my men so that my entire contubernium can be equipped with them," I asked Lanius.
"Your request requires you to provide more information. Do you have the means to repair that equipment? If the gear fails, what will your men do? Will they revert to using machetes? And are your men strong and skilled enough to wear it? I don't want weaklings needing to hide behind power armor to increase their strength. They must earn the right," Lanius countered.
"We have the means to repair and maintain the equipment. The Vault-Tec servers contain a vast amount of holotapes explaining their repair and maintenance. My men are well-trained; perhaps they don't have the experience of some legionaries who have fought in all of Lord Caesar's fronts, but they have more than earned the right. Each has killed over ten profligates while under my command, and many more under the previous Decanus," I responded to Lanius.
"If what you say is true, you have my authorization to use the power armor. I will speak with my centurions to have them deliver the captured power armor to you before they use it to enhance their armor," Lanius responded.
"Thank you, Legate," I said to Lanius.
"Don't thank me, Decanus. Thank Lord Caesar. The gift your tribe gave to the Son of Mars regarding the Romans has pleased Caesar. The Son of Mars, despite his many duties, has taken time to observe your gift, and it has met with his complete approval. Lord Caesar has ordered that for a gift worthy of a god's son, you must be generously rewarded. This is your reward, Decanus... but remember, you now have Lord Caesar's attention on your shoulders, which can be both very good and very bad. Triumph, and you will be rewarded; fail, and you will be punished with all of Lord Caesar's fury," said the legate, getting very close to me.
"Understood, Legate... I will thank Lord Caesar in my prayers," I responded to the legate, who was mere centimeters from my face.
"Decanus, I order you to return immediately to Castra Sol Rubrum to activate your technology. We will prepare to march north in a few months, and we will recruit thousands of legionaries. Your tribe must arm many of them at the very least, so march north, Decanus, and complete the mission I have assigned you," Lanius said, pointing to the exit of his tent.
"At your orders, Legate," I responded and left the legate's tent.
When I arrived at my tent, I found that my captive was not only bound at the hands but also at the legs, and she was gagged as well.
"Ave, true to Caesar, Decanus. I know you ordered that no one touch her, but she wouldn't stop screaming and even tried to run," said Cato, who was guarding her with a rifle.
"Ave, true to Caesar. You saved me the trouble of doing it myself. Good news, Cato, you'll no longer have issues with your new anti-materiel rifle. We'll be able to use the power armor; we just need to wait for it to be delivered, and then we'll head back north where we'll be stationed for a while, just training," I told the legionary, who started rotating his shoulder, probably still sore from the recent battles.
The others entered the tent when they heard my voice.
"All right, pack up the tent; we're heading north as soon as possible, and don't forget to bring that captive—I still want to use her as a punching bag."
Within minutes, our tent, where we all slept, was packed up and loaded onto a motorized carriage, and we drove through the desert day and night to reach Legate Lanius's capital as quickly as possible in his campaign against the tribes.
After a three-day journey, we arrived at the city, which was growing rapidly due to the influx of prisoners we had captured during our conquests.
I reported to the local Decanus why we were here, ensuring he didn't think our presence was due to desertion, and immediately got to work.
I threw the Vault-Tec CEO into one of the many empty rooms and began updating myself on what had happened in my absence from the vault.
It was already January. In just two months of campaigning, we had managed to control three tribes, and it seemed that everything we had conquered was waiting for my arrival.
There was all sorts of machinery that had been recovered from our campaign, which I hoped could be repurposed for production operations.
As I walked through the city, I noticed that many of the merchants who had recently arrived to trade held a considerable grudge against me. It wasn't a secret that my privileged position in Lanius's army allowed me to be the first to obtain whatever the Legion acquired, instead of what usually happened—a public auction of the machines or tools.
But there was little they could do against me, a low-ranking Legion officer, which made me almost untouchable to any other Legion subject.
During my two-month absence, food production had increased slightly due to the growth in the number of animals we kept; with more chickens and rabbits, we could boost production.
The Legion still didn't know that robots were operating inside the vault since all transactions were conducted outside the bunker doors.
With the necessary schematics obtained from the Executives, we managed to acquire the tools needed to continue expanding the vault. We quickly began assembling pneumatic hammers and drills and started expanding the various levels of the vault to increase food production and connect several rooms to create a large chamber dedicated to gunpowder and ammunition production.
This had to be operational as soon as possible since I had a significant debt to the Legion. Although the administrator robot greeted me with a large pile of Legion gold coins, much needed to be spent to continue the expansion, and the Legion was very fond of paying in slaves.
I had a credit balance of nearly five hundred slaves that the Legion had paid me for supplying gunpowder, explosives, armor, and swords.
Trained labor wasn't an issue because I could always use the teaching machines in the vault to turn someone who knew nothing into an expert in various subjects within days.
For two weeks, my routine focused on training my contubernium to use power armor, negotiating with merchants to obtain the materials needed to continue expanding the vault, and constructing buildings outside the vault, specifically a facility to produce simple firearms. I also worked on expanding the ammunition factory.
When the ammunition factory inside the vault was finally completed, gold coins began to pour in from all sides. Merchants from all the nearby cities came to the doors of my vault seeking all kinds of ammunition that the machines could produce at an industrial level, as long as we had the necessary materials to assemble them.
The problem arose with the tribute that Lanius demanded when he learned that my tribe had finally started ammunition production.
Lanius wanted me to start producing engines to replace and expand the size of his mobile force, in addition to a large number of munitions and firearms. It seemed he no longer had any interest in having me forge machetes. As my debt for everything I'd been given was substantial, I spent most of my time running at a deficit due to all the expenses. But if everything continued as it was, I could soon generate a fortune serving the Legion, and that fortune could be invested in my survival on the front lines.
The little free time I had was spent talking to the leader of the Executives. Once my anger had subsided from remembering what Vault-Tec had done to me, I no longer felt the need to continue humiliating or beating her. She was the only person I could converse with normally, as all the legionaries only knew the history Caesar had taught them, and the subjects of the Legion were slowly assimilating into Legion culture.
While the Legion continued preparing for its next conquest, hundreds of veteran legionaries, some even with gray hair, were arriving in the area, accompanied by hundreds of slaves.
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I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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