Courier 6: Stuck in the Underdark
Courier 6, also known as the famed 'Ruler of the Independent Vegas is forced into aiding a man known only as the 'Hero of the Undrentide', how will the Underdark fare with a new arrival, one whom shoots first and ask's questions later, one armed with advanced technology which rivals most of what Toril has to offer, and how will Valen and Nathyrra and the Seer feel about this new arrival...
Disclaimer: Neverwinter Nights HOTU owned by Bioware, Atari and Forgotten Realms Studio. Fallout NV owned by Bethesda and Obsidian Entertainment
Authors Note: Expect the unexpected, expect that some people are inexplicably going to have lead tearing their bodies apart and that explosions are going to rain down upon the enemies of the Underdark... and expect one pissed off Neutral Evil Courier 6.
I don't have much knowledge of Dungeons and Dragon's or the forgotten realm outside of Neverwinter Nights... sorry, so if something is wrong, do inform me and i will see if i can fix something up.
Also, being the fan of New Vegas mods that i am, expect to see stuff from Fallout Mods in this, especially from Weapons mod Expanded (WMX), the Modern Weapons variant of Weapons Mod Expanded, Black Wolf Backpack's, New Vegas Bounties part I and II, The Killer, Realistic Damages Mod (okay i didn't really have to mention that one, however i will try to make the gun damage as realistic as i can), Imperial New Vegas, the Spur's and Recon Duster armour by Gopher, because who can have Courier 6 without Spurs going Jingle Jingle Jangle, JIP's Realistic weapons overheating and burst firing and what not, Millenium's weapons (how could you not add his beautiful stuff in) and several others that i have completely forgotten about.
Random Interesting Fact: Bioware and Obsidian began when Black Isle Studios was split apart after making Fallout 2... it is quite ironic that i am now writing a Crossover with both of their games.
Prologue: Pissed off Courier
April the 5th 2284 C.E
Sera cringed in agony as her Pipboy 3000a shouted out its electronic beeps. Sera reached for the central button on her pipboy that would turn off the alarm, when Sera depressed the button she was extremely pleased and she could now get some extra sleep.
Sera began to close her eyes but before she could drift off she heard a creak emerge from her door as well as the voice of Yes Man. Yes Man was an interesting securitron robot who agreed with everything that Sera said, but in reality he was the true ruler of New Vegas since he was the one who 'filed the numbers' and whatever else a true ruler would do whilst Sera's existance was merely there to act as the enforcer and as the face of New Vegas. This did not mean that Sera was a puppet ruler by any means since she had control over Yes Man's actions and whatever she said went, however Sera was also open to wise suggestions by Yes Man.
"You did a super job wrapping things up yesterday with the Fiends, unfortunately my energy sensors have 'sensed' something from the nor..." Yes Man could not finish his sentence as he was quietened mid-sentence by Sera.
"You want me to investigate don't you?"
"Hahaha! you had me all figured out, i sent several Mk 2 securitrons ahead of you... would you like me to send out your brainless zombies as well" Yes Man detested the Lobotomite soldiers under Sera's command.
"No, i can handle this problem myself... can you point out the direction on my Pipboy?"
"Already done"
"Great, now scram..."
Sera groaned as she lifted herself off her mattress, she really hated early mornings. Sera quickly scrambled to the bathroom for a quick shower... thanks to Yes Man's efforts after the battle of Hoover dam back in '81, it left time for the Securitron army to fix things and now New Vegas was home to a well-maintained waterworks and functional plumbing, which meant that people could enjoy showers and baths with no hazardous radioactive fallout present in the water.
When Sera was finished with her shower, she toweled off her hair before observing herself in her mirror. Sera had no confidence in herself, for all that she saw was her monstrous face that was heavily scarred from her gunshot to the right bridge of her face as well as the sickening scar from her lobotomy... it sickened her and Sera hated what she saw... it was to Sera the justification for every dreadful action she had ever done. Sera knew deep down that it was petty but Sera no longer cared anymore, because who would ever care about her?... In this fucked up world of anarchy and chaos Sera had to stick up for herself because who the fuck would care about some bitch with a bullet in the brain.
Sera dragged herself from her depressing inner monologue before beginning the start of her daily ritual... dressing herself in her armour.
It always started off with the modified undersuit of a T-45d... modified in the fact that the urinary filtration systems were removed since she was not using the suit with Power Armour.
When Sera was snugly fit with the undersuit, Sera began to place her Saturnite reinforced ceramic plate over her firm chest before doing up the straps to the sides. Sera then did several practice maneuvers to ensure that the plate was not chafing or blocking several of her actions.
When Sera was fully confident of her armour, she then reached out for her black leather duster coat and donned it over her undersuit and ceramic plate.
Now all that remained was the final process, to secure her heavily modified blackened ranger's recon helmet that was equipped with multi-colour nightvision modes as well as in thermal mode. But praised above all for Sera was that it not only hid her scarred face but it also terrorized people as well.
Sera then began to strap on her backpack that was already laden with numerous objects including weapon bits and magazines filled with various types of ammunition of assorted calibers.
With her armour done and backpack secured, Sera began to stock up her Pipboy with numerous weapons and ammunition types as well as several varieties of armour and miscellaneous objects... Sera had no idea how the Pipboy 3000a stored objects but it was certainly handy.
Job done, Sera headed down the elevator and out into the streets of New Vegas.
Sera was readily greeted by the populace whom harbored a vast majority of those who liked and agreed with the Courier's decision's and the thin minority of people who abhorred everything that Sera had done.
Sera understood why people would not like her rule, she committed dreadful acts of extreme violence and brutality, yet at the same time it was those types of actions that were necessary to keeping the peace and securing the region from anarchy. Sera was glad of doing the acts that were necessary to keeping order even if they were done to the extreme such as eliminating the vagrants and homeless people that rejected the work done to improve the city. This also caused work rates to vastly increase but within a month people began to understand Sera's style of rule... you either worked in New Vegas where you could reap the benefits of living in a safe environment that had fresh water and clean streets, or you would end up dead somewhere, Sera kept Freeside and the Strip clean and relatively clear of rubble, and Sera knew how to keep it that way.
Flying high on an adjacent street was the flag of the 'Freed New Vegas', and below it was a pamphleteer handing out pamphlets of all that the Courier six had done.
That was another thing that Sera was proud of, within months of the battle of Hoover dam Sera had the securitron's fix up a nearby printer which was used to distribute among other things news and even 'brochures'... the brochures being largely distributed to those fanatical people who believed that Sera was some sort of god. It was complete bullshit but Sera went with whatever rocked their boat. The News on the other hand were written up by Yes Man on a daily basis and were heavily censored to ensure that the risk of dissent was as slim as possible and that the people were as far away from the events that really happened as possible.
"Read about the courier and her dealing with the vile mutants... Read about our saviour and her dealing with the vile mutant's"
The voice of the pamphleteer broke Sera from her thoughts. One of the only thing's that Sera had ever regretted was the incident that occurred in Jacobstown. Sera was not racist or at least she did not consider herself racist, but Sera blackmailed the mutants to unite the people under her banner. Keene was a threat to all of humanity but Marcus could not see it, so Sera made up her mind. Sera killed Keene and his lunatic psychotic followers, but in return Marcus pointed a gun to her face... it was then that Sera was done with the whole affair. Sera retreated back to the Strip as fast as she could and rallied up the securitron's. They returned to find that Jacobstown had been abandoned but Sera made up a cover story to explain why the site was abandoned... Sera said that she had executed the mutants for a plot against the people of Westside and North Vegas Square, the threat of foreign invasion united the people under Sera's banner.
Sera passed through the streets of the Strip and passed through the entrance of Freeside.
Freeside was much improved after the battle of Hoover dam. Sera ordered for her securitron's to secure order and had them labour away clearing out the rubble and the trash that suffused the streets, however when the homeless and the vagrants rose up in protest, Sera had them executed, she was not going to have such human waste trampling over her attempts at reviving humanity back to what things would have been like in the days of old, so they had to go.
Sera saw as citizens haggled back and forth over amenities, as citizens handed out sums of bottle caps in exchange for objects... the standards of living were rapidly improving within New Vegas and securitron enforced trade routes ensured that greater and greater numbers of caravans returned each month, each one laden with goods and materials from far away places, this ensured for an explosion of trade that flourished throughout.
Sera walked through the gateway that lead to the outer limits of Freeside and the beginning point of the Mojave wasteland.
Sera shrugged her shoulders before she brought out her 5mm Assault carbine. Nobody ever stepped out into the Mojave wasteland without a weapon ready at all times. With her chosen weapon slung over her back and easily retrievable through the loosely hung cloth bandoleer, Sera began to hold out her left wrist before fiddling around with her Pipboy to observe her map and where she needed to go.
General outline plotted within her head, Sera began to walk in the stated direction. Every few minutes Sera would slow down and stop to get her bearings as well as skirt out the horizons looking for the presence of any lifeforms, be they human or otherwise. After roughly two hours Sera had reached where the Pipboy had told her to go, and in the scant distance she saw the gutted remains of three Mk 2 securitron's. At that Sera unslung her Assault Carbine inline with her shoulder as she skirted back and forth through the terrain looking for anything that would offer cover. There were three boulders roughly twenty meters to the east so Sera rushed forth before she dived down trying as hard as possible not to spread the sand into the air and give away her position.
It was at that moment that Sera immediately felt as though she were made of lead and she could not move a single finger or toe as though she had been paralyzed and then as if out of a story book a figure emerged from the clouds and a beam of light emerged.
This was not Sera's first foray into mystical creepy events, Sera had been teleported and had her brain removed... hell she even had a discussion with her own brain, so as they say... this was but another manic monday for Sera.
"So you are the one whom i require in my time of need?"
Sera was wondering just what the fuck was going on...
"I see... you are the one... the guardian to save him... I am the Goddess Eilistraee"
Sera tried as hard as she could to open her mouth but she was unable to. If there was one thing that pissed Sera off, it was Vagueness and this woman was bathing in it.
"This journey shall test you and twist you... but you will find yourself. Seek out the Hero of Undrentide in the city of Waterdeep in the The Yawning Portal Inn, guard the Hero and i shall return you home..."
Sera then felt flushed with heat as a bright light flashed throughout.
Sera fell ass-first on some shanty corner side of a city where the ocean glimmered with the reflection of the Moon... and Sera would have to admit... the view was quite exotic and amazing.
It was nighttime apparently and that was a marked difference from the daytime that she had just been in back in the Mojave wasteland.
Normally, Sera would be quite calm in most situations... even if Sera was not exactly what someone would ever call or associate with as being a nice person, but that day was not today. Sera was not happy and her temper began to flare up... especially after being teleported to some other dimension or whatever without her fucking consent!.
Sera has already experienced teleportation before, but this was nothing like what had happened in the Big Mountain because in that situation she was still on earth. Here was different in so many factors and Sera felt out of place. This could not have been earth because nothing ever came in green that stretched for more than a kilometer in an area. Sera found herself looking at what appeared to be a medieval or dark age town, not that Sera knew much on the subject seeing as most relevant pages and insight into past historical events were burned away in the great atomic fires of 2077.
Sera rose up from the dirty cobblestone path and scraped off some errant dirt from her black duster coat. When Sera was assured that her armour was fine, she quickly held out her left wrist before examining her Powerboy 3000a to ensure that it remained in pristine condition... it was.
That done Sera quickly pried off her ranger's helmet and took in a deep breath. The air was pure and clean and a cool breeze waved through her hair, which helped Sera to quickly cool off her tempestuous temper. Sera took in another deep breathe before returning to the task at hand.
Sera began to dust off the inside and outside of her helmets visor screen before checking if the various technical gear inside of the helmet still worked, so Sera quickly replaced the helmet over her head before giving a slight twist on the dial held on the left side of her helmet.
Sera's screen was quickly flooded with the dull greens that Sera instantly knew as Green frequency Night-vision. knowing that that worked, Sera turned the dial yet again before having her view flooded with dullish blues, which Sera knew as Blue frequency Night-vision.
Sera then turned the dial a third time to have her view flooded with a dullish red light, which Sera knew as Red frequency Night-vision.
Sera had only one turn left on the dial, so Sera turned the dial one more time to have her view flooded with hues of purple's, blue's, yellows and reds... Thermal frequency Vision.
Sera then flicked the dial and watched as her view began to return back to normal. Assured that all of her helmet's technical gear was fully functioning, Sera decided to do a quick mental checklist on her physical self.
Sera moved her arms and legs as well as twinkle her toes. Sera had full mobility of every finger and toe and nothing was damaged or even bruised aside from her butt cheeks after landing on them after the teleportation.
She deduced from these simple actions that she had not sustained any physical damage at all, so she then decided to examine her assault carbine.
Sera unslung the weapon until it was inline with her shoulder. Sera brushed off stray bits of sand and dirt on the frame of the weapon before pulling back the bolt which released an unspent cartridge skittering down to the ground. The carbine seemed to be functioning normally.
Sera then tapped against her kneecap where she felt that her combat knife was securely strapped.
Sera heard something from the not to far in the distance so Sera turned around to investigate with her assault carbine's butt held firm against her shoulder and the iron sights just in front of Sera's helmet.
Sera walked through the alleyway that she had fell in and when she reached the point where the alleyway had met a large street. Sera leaned to the side of the alleyway before craning her neck to veer through the street. Sera found herself facing about fifty or more meters of street and housing. Being that it was the crack of night and the only form of street lighting consisted of small torches or candles that only covered small patches of the streets here and there, Sera quickly switched to her green frequency night vision to get a better view. With it Sera saw what looked like a family being assaulted by a group of short, fully cloaked assailants about twenty meters away. Neither the family nor the cloaked figures either heard or saw Sera, so she grinned with a grimace.
Sera unslung her backpack from her back before she searched through for her weapon kits. After a brief search Sera found what she was looking for.
Sera grasped her assault carbine held it up vertically with the threaded, chromed barrel held upright so that Sera could apply her silencer. Sera then quickly observed her silencer to make sure that the right side of the silencer was facing downwards before putting the silencer inside the tiny slot in the barrel of the gun and applied four quick twists to the silencer until the silencer was secured tightly to the barrel and that it fit the barrel snugly, Sera would not have a loose silencer.
Sera Lined up her shot through the iron sights, it was not exactly a clear sight and it was a bit difficult to observe through the iron sights through the visor of her helmet, but with plenty of practice and with actual experience Sera had built up a sound knowledge on how best to aim despite wearing a helmet that could be quite impairing when viewing through scopes and other such visual sights and aids. To Sera, the protection that the helmet offered was worth the price, there were not many helmets that could stand up to the lower tier of rifle rounds. Pistol rounds definitely but not to rifle rounds, so the trade-off was worth it especially if it stopped a 5.56 round from embedding itself into her skull and out the other end.
Sera strafed several meters to the side so that the trajectory of her shots would not continue down the street but would instead impact on solid brick walls instead. Her assault rifle would be firing surplus spitzer shaped FMJ rounds which would have no problem with going right through flesh and muscle and continue onward's. Sera favoured FMJ rounds in her line of work in that they would continue to go through whatever the round impacted especially through light and medium body armour until it reached a hard or solid enough object that the bullet would smash up against and impart the full kinetic impact of the said round.
Sera acquired her target and slowly honed in onto the target's head.
The 5x42mm FMJ bullet was propelled out of the barrel at faster than the speed of sound at roughly 1200 meters per second. The bullet struck the man's left upper skullcap and veered slightly to the right before coming out the mans cheekbone. The brain matter inside his head burst out of the exit hole as the man tumbled to the ground in an instant. The 'clack' or rather the sound of the bullet as it went supersonic was the only thing that alerted the violent men but even that would not save them.
Sera simply sighted down her next target and fired two rounds.
Both rounds impacted and delivered beyond fatal damage. One round struck right through the lower right portion of the man's neck whilst the second bullet struck through the man's jawbone a mere four inches away from the first bullet. There was no doubt that the man was dead.
The last target would know what hell was like. Sera purposefully aimed for shots that would have a minimal chance of killing her opponent specifically so she could 'question' them. Sera fired one round into the victim's extremities.
The first round went careening out and struck the man's lower right leg bone which caused the spitzer shaped round to veer violently and spin out which caused the victim an innumerable amount of pain.
Sera walked several paces forward as her victim screamed in pain. A moment later Sera fired another round.
This time an underpowered bullet went careening forth with half the velocity. When this round struck against the left thy bone the bullet violently expanded instead of penetrating through thanks to the lowered velocity... this had the effect of causing yet more immense pain on the part of the victim.
Sera walked forward with measured steps, firm and strong. The sound of the footsteps further terrified the parents, but Sera continued onward. When Sera stood 2 metres away from her victim she spoke up.
"Yawning Portal, have you heard of it?"
Sera received her reply a second later. "Vaaa...ccckkkk... Valsharess take you"
Sera replied with a monotone retort that sounded harsh with her helmet's voice regulator. "Wrong answer bitch, now you're going to know what a 21-gun solute looks like"
Sera grinned as she unleashed the full clip into her victim.
Bullet upon bullet poured their way through the man's chest and midsection and soon enough guts and gore were being sprayed on the ground in a horrific display of brutality. As the man's body tumbled down in death so too did the rounds strike new bits of his body, such that by the end of Sera's magazine three rounds had torn their way through the victims head and face and covered the pavement in brain matter and gore aplenty.
Sera unloaded her empty magazine and placed it inside an empty side pocket of her backpack. A second later Sera pulled out a fresh magazine and lodged it in, at that the bolt retracted and the weapon was ready to fire.
Sera watched as the blood slowly pooled out of the body in large trickles until a puddle roughly ten centimeters in diameter formed. Pleased with her display Sera turned her head to observe the family before she asked them a question.
"Yawning Portal... where is it?"
The figures instantly froze up for a moment, until the Father of the family spoke up, whilst he also pointed out his hand in a general direction.
"That way... you cannot miss it"
Sera didn't even give a glance to the Family and just walked off in the direction of the Yawning Portal until she heard a small shout from the man.
"Stop please..."
Sera turned her shoulder and her head to look back at the man, who was quickly approaching.
Sera quickly readied her body to defend itself should the man act violently. The man retrieved a small sack from a small pocket and held it out with his right hand, waiting for Sera to retrieve it from his hand.
Sera reached for the bag with her left hand, grabbed it and hefted it, it was a bit weighty and it clanked, signs that their were multiple objects inside... and Sera guessed that it had to be some form of compensation or valuable item.
"Thank you for saving us"
Sera ignored the man and turned back to walking in the direction of the Yawning Pool, Sera originally had no intention of saving the family from their fate, but at least she was compensated in some way.
Sera dropped the sack whilst she unscrewed the Silencer and returned it back into one of her Blackwolf backpack's side pockets, with the silencer now gone Sera slung her assault carbine back to her back.
Sera retrieved the dropped bag and began to open it with her index finger from her right hand, she opened up the sack to observe what was inside. Inside where small golden coins not too dissimilar to Legion Denarius and Aurium, so Sera quickly retied the sack of gold and placed it inside one of her sidepockets.
Sera continued to walk on through streets, her armour and her glowing eyes gathered stares from various people, she passed whores trying to ply their trade now that the night had set in, and to Sera's shock... a people of many different shapes and sizes were abound in small numbers, most of them were of thuggish or roguish in looks, some where big people with large muscles with pig like noses and not too disimilar in appearance to Supermutants. Others were like Dwarves from Grognak the Barbarian. There were even smaller human-like humanoids with sharp ears, elves if she had read Grognak the Barbarian correctly, but she doubted that they would actually be called elves.
Sera quickly rushed off, trying to avoid any places with which their was ambient lighting or crowds of people.
Through narrow alleyways and vacant street's eventually Sera reached that one destination that she sought out, The Yawning Pool, shown from a sign... not that she could read the writing but she did see an image depicting what looked like some sort of pool or well on the side, and she deduced from the painting that the building must have been the Yawning Pool.
Sera noticed that she was being stared at, this particular person was looking at her up and down inquisitively. Sera saw that the man had bulging muscles, but Sera could not decipher much details due to the fact of her Night vision goggles.
"So who are you stranger?... i don't know who you are"
Sera looked at the man, held her right hand over Maria's holster and spoke to the man, her mask's filter giving her voice a more harsh and menacing quality, as well as removing any of her feminine qualities in her voice.
"Tell me your name first... stranger"
The man seemed to take her question into consideration for a second before he spoke back his reply.
"My name is Durnan. I am the sole owner of the Yawning Portal, i take in adventurers like yourself. I take it you received one of my notes?"
Sera swayed her head side to side before replying back.
"No...Durnan i did not... i am known either as The Courier or just Courier 6, have you seen a certain Hero... someone called the Hero of the Undrentide"
Durnan did not exactly like the 'Couriers' mistrusting personality so he decided to issue a question with which he could possibly gauge his personality.
"So Courier 6, you must have traveled a very long way, i have not seen gear like yours before, and i have traveled many places... perhaps you could give me a quick tale about your home?"
Sera began to lie right out of her ass.
"What do you want to know about, the tall cities that are gleaming with gold spires, food that comes from places called shops... oh it is amazing... far more amazing then spending time chatting with you
"Really, i would have heard of such a place..."
Sera just quickly interrupted Durnan's speech by saying something that might work to explain the differences between herself and Durnan.
"Different portal... dimension... whatever you call it, that is why you have not heard of it"
Durnan had heard what the fairly frightening figure had said, and he opened his eye's with intrigue over what he had heard.
"Well i am sorry to say that you are quite late... a day late in fact, i lowered the hero down the well just last night, and i received two heroes coming back up saying that they were saved by him... as well as Grovel"
Sera didn't really give a shit, she was not under any compulsion to follow Eliasatraee or Eliastree or whatever. However Sera did want to return home, so she asked a simple question hoping that Durnan wouldn't run his mouth about heroes or quests or what not.
"Well i need to see him... urgently!"
Durnan simply opened the door to the Yawning Pool and motioned for the figure to enter inside.
"Well then would you like to come inside, the descent down the well is only 1 Gold"
Sera decided that she might as well enter.
Rewritten 13/02/2015
So what did you think?
