The courier is named, finally!
Kicking the stand into place on her rebuilt fusion motorcycle the courier climbed off at the entrance to Hoover dam with E-DE bobbing along happily, the men on guard got a good look at the leader of Vegas.
She was a very tall woman, 6ft 3in, not born like that but instead her bones had been adjusted and reinforced when she got her new limbs, which were a dull grey but very strong metal, with saturnite nails on her left, now robotic, hand. (I've changed it to the left hand for... reasons)
Dark tanned skin showed how much she had wandered the Mohave, and her striking blue eyes showed brightly with cybernetic implants. Her dirty blonde hair was very messy, long enough to reach the small of her back, her bangs were long enough to cover her eyes but stopped at about mouth length, the strands moved enough to keep her eyes very visible.
She wore a rebreather hanging off her neck, which she would put on whenever she entered someplace that was enclosed, the upgrades to it allowed it to also filtered air when not underwater. She also wore a mk II stealth suit, with an easily removable brown ratty poncho over it that could make her blend easily into the crowd once she pulled her attached hood up.
She had a plasma defender on her hip and a 12.7 mm submachine gun on her back, right next to her Anti-material rifle. Her pipboy looked twice as bulky as it should, overburdened with as many upgrades and features as she could shove into and onto it. A specially made Saturnite machete was attached to her other hip, and a similarly constructed bowie knife was strapped to her boot.
Glancing around making the guards stand at attention, she heard heavy panting from behind her, and smiled at her two (adorable!) cyberdogs. Rex and Roxie had gone through some of the safer methods that Dr. Borous had experimented with on his pet, and they were both now bigger than her motorcycle and while she was standing their shoulder's reached up to her elbows. (in essence, they are freakin' gigantic)
Heavy steel plating that still managed to look all nice and futuristic had been added to their cybernetic parts, and their fur had been modified to be infused with iron like her own skin so their normal fur was coarse and hard to cut through and had a cool jet black color, but their underside fur remained soft and cuddly. Their teech and the bone and gums surrounding them had been replaced with hyper deadly Saturnite fangs and the bone with a complicated titanium system designed to allow their teeth to overheat for short moments, but not burn themselves. The entire skeletal structure had been reinforced and armored like her own, using super-strong ceramics and titanium when needed.
It showed just how awesome they were now that they could keep up with her on a motorcycle at full speed without becoming exhausted, even more so now that the road from Hoover Dam and New Vegas had been replaced with a smooth and enduring concrete road. (I hate asphalt, concrete FTW!)
Rex nudge her side and the courier laughed, the vigorously scratched them both behind the ears.
"Who's a good pair of overpowered cyberdogs, you are, yes you are!" The two guards at the entrance sweatdropped at the couriers antics but she eventually decided to enter, nobody daring to try and separate her from her beloved dogs and the laser armed eyebot.
The courier now sat in a comfy chair as the squad leader who first spotted the scouting party approached her, under her withering glare he snapped off a salute and stammered out nervously.
"Greetings Queen Levina. May I ask why you ordered me to come here?" The glare intensified, and his forehead started to sweat.
"You were the one to order the first attack on these outsiders, not thinking about the consequences nor even thinking at all! The Legion does not use such technology except for stealth operations, nor do they arm soldiers with laser weapons! I have half a mind to have you discharged for your stupidity if nothing else"
The squad leader's face was clenched to stop himself from losing face, but Levina pulled out her Defender and her next words came out icy.
"Or I could kill you now for getting Vegas into another war with a technologically sound entity that have advanced enough to have actual vehicles for military use!" (Her own one is a special case) Levina lowered her gun and turned her back on the man, and slowly walked away.
"You will be stripped of your ranks and forced to go back to bootcamp, you will NOT be allowed to leave the military and will have to work to regain your rank again, dismissed recruit!" She slammed the doors behind her.
Levina had ordered all her soldiers to retreat into the dam, leaving herself to stand out at the place where the trucks always seems to approach from; on the other side of the river from the south.
Predictions had stated that they would arrive again to test Levina's defenses, having been doing so fairly regularly so far. She had a surprise for them. a few small hours later, passed by Levina's game programs on her pipboy that the thinktank had put full efforts into making, apparently making anything that had to do with computers was hard even for prewar minds.
She was distracted from her (Primitive) videogame by the sight of heavy and durable trucks approaching her location. Tbey slowed down after realizing she was the only one on the impromptu path they had been using. Levina used this chance to enact her plan.
Reaching up to her right ear she pressed a small button as wide as the ende of a pencil on her neck just under her ear and spoke, her voice being broadcasted by her inbuilt shortwave radio.
"Oy, you guys in the trucks. Yes I am hijacking your radio to speak to you." The trucks had stopped, obviously the inhabitants were confused.
"I am Queen Levina of the city-state of New Vegas and all the surrounding land within the Mohave desert, I am asking for a diplomatic solution to the recent conflict between our two peoples." That would shock them for sure, diplomacy in the radioactive wasteland? Unthinkable.
But soon she received a reply in her head by the same mean of all channel broadcast. It was a simple affirmative.
Lev stared dubiously at the picture that appeared in a small window on the "Imperial radio" that had been given to her to converse with their empress. Apparently they were an empire, but Levina suspected she would get all the information she wanted soon. A young yet strong female voice came out the the radio, with a hint of silkiness to it that confused her.
"Greetings Queen Levina, I am the Empress of the Rapturian Empire, it appears you want to speak something other than 'killkillkill'" The morbid amusement in the voice hid an anger that Levina could easily recognize, the anger that bubbles up when your people are killed by an enemy.
"I apologize for that. You see, there is a nation of slavers emulating ancient rome that we are still mortal enemies of, this nation is called the Legion and my soldiers are still jumpy after the second Battle for Hoover Dam in which we won our independence from another major power." A hum came from the radio as Eleanor thought this over.
"We have...lets say, 'encountered' this legion that you speak. In fact, I was the one to personally behead Caesar in his cute little fortress while the dead bodies of his royal guard lay dead around me..." A blissful sigh could be blatantly heard but Eleanor quickly snapped out of it, Levina could almost feel the blush from the radio.
"Ehem, sorry about that. Anyways, I do believe I am willing to believe your story, but there is a small issue. We have been using an expeditionary force of soldiers to scout out and mark territory for the empire to attain, yet your kingdom seems to be the only, lets say, port in the storm so to speak. I say we come to an agreement so as to benefit both or people and safe passage for my expeditions" Alice glanced to the east, then to the west.
"There isn't exactly any free land to claim west of here, the NCR, New California Republic, stretched all the way to the pacific and a fair bit north and south from their center too. Your better off going north or south from legion, or former legion, territory."
"Hmm, that is a problem. I've got an idea, would you like to join my Empire" Levina rose a brow at that.
"This is a sudden question, and I like my position of queen right now."
"I was thinking of a setup that I've planned for three specific cities up north. I was thinking of making Vegas an independence self-governing kingdom that is still a part of the Empire, but has a lot of freedom. Would that be agreeable?" The offer still was a bit much for her, but suddenly Levina had a greedy glimmer to her eye.
"Perhaps, but there is one condition that must be met for this to ever work." A self-satisfied grin spread across her face as she spoke.
"You will assist us in destroying the NCR."
2283- The kingdom of Vegas and the Rapturian Empire enter a pact for peace and unification with the requirement to wipe out probably the last democracy in the world, the New California Republic-
-New Vegas becomes the only independent city-state in the Empire and it's surrounding lands and itself is considered under the full authority of Queen Levina-
-Big mountain and a copy of the Think-tanks' contract is turned over to Eleanor, and with a "Big government" to serve again, the Think-tank finally returns to their pre-war glory, although Levina still has her personal projects and contracts for herself-
-Rapture begins to incorporate the stealth corps of Vegas into itself, establishing the Imperial Stealth Corp-
-The two new empire species are both quite surprising to scientists. Deathclaws are epic stealth operative but can only use special types of melee weapons. They appear to prefer rural type living arrangements, owing to their awkward size and shape.
-The formerly hated, yet still discriminated against, supermutants join the empire, Although the empire starts to realize that the east coast supermutants were completely different and insane compared to the at least relatively sane first and second generation mutants. And with the gender and intelligence reinvigoration research halfway completed, ADAM and the always advanced genetic knowledge of Rapture is used to speed up the project significantly, it is thought to be finished within a year-
-Rapture installs Imperial Police stations in every major city, replacing the old military police. They will utilize the same equipment and training that Vegas did, except now dogs are becoming very popular again for K9 units-
-Relations hit a slight hiccup as the Empire's strict drug laws are forced on Vegas, the surviving Families attempt to start dealing under the table but Levina sets her police and securitrons on the remaining families, enforcing herself as the final ruler of Vegas. Companies take control of individual casinos and with the new revenue and swarms of Imperial gamblers more casinos are planned to be built-
-In the empire prostitution is becoming increasingly regulated but not enough for it to be illegal, brothels are very popular ad the only place a prostitute can legally work, but in Vegas it is completely unrestricted (Interesting tidbit, shrug)-
-Tandi is now biologically 15, scientists have learned so much from the past short years and finally Tandi is sick of being cooped up in the grounds, she very publically announces her return to the world with governmental and scientific confirmation that she is indeed Tandi, just a month later she is again running for president-
-Tandi wins the Election by a landslide and is again president. She immediately moves to remove the republic's corruption and building up the military to properly protect each city, public works are begun to help bring up NCR approval with the citizens-
2284-At the first day of the new year, like many important events, The Empire formally declares war on the NCR across all radio frequencies and immediately strategically placed stealth teams bring down the various defenses of important NCR settlements. The expected panic and confusion is far less than expected though, as efficient NCR troopers deal with the issues and fight off any teams that were discovered. A response to the Empire is broadcasted back to Vegas, voiced by the president herself.
"Bring it on"
Although Tandi is confident at first, the defeat at Hoover dam less important than the fact that the enemy is on home turf, the NCR is shocked by the sight of numerous retrofitted civilian planes using laser, tesla, and plasma bomb weapons on Republic towns. This paves the way for Empire soldiers to take over and occupy the cities-
-Angered by the massive assault by the Boomers, Tandi sends a force of NCR Veteran rangers to attack Nellis air force base, the artillery barrage that would have destroyed them was avoided by the fact that they sniped Boomer members from very far away. Anyone they could see was killed, men women and children. Eventually a power armored security force killed off the rangers, but the Boomer immediately throw concerns to Levina about Nellis' security-
-A concrete wall is begun to be made at Nellis, but continued ranger attacks slow construction-
-Tandi plans a massive attack on Vegas, as Empire towns are out of her reach-
-The Great Siege of Vegas begins, NCR forces had managed to clear a way into the Mohave through the 95, a new supply line is created and troops begin to haul in artillery while launching rocket launchers and Fatmans, grenade launchers and red glares, anything to bring down the recently made heavy concrete walls of Vegas. Long range artillary shells all the way from Nelson airforce base, with coordination from Vegas officers, help to erode invading forces. The real victory happens when a massive flanking force of Supermutant volunteers from Jacobstown hit the invaders from behind, sowing confusion and decimating the NCR's forces, thoroughly getting rid of a vast majority of discrimination against them-
-After a few months NCR cities are falling left and right, and their forces are focused on defence of the major, founding cities now. Boomer air-raids reek havoc on the cities, and somehow the Hub has been nuked, but in reality recent attempts to install a fusion reactor were interrupted by an air-raid, and it went critical. Tandi panics and try to utterly destroy Vegas and thoroughly nuke the rest of the east in an attempt to stop any more perceive nuclear attacks before the Great War is repeated, but attempts to have the NCR's small and almost abandoned nuclear stockpile launched fail and only one ICBM manages to be launched at Vegas. It is shot down with the same defence system that House had used so many years ago from a very far distance, but radiation concerns are answered with massive truckloads of the finally mass-produced new gene tonics, giving the common citizen massive resistance to radiation-
-Tandi realizes that she not did not only get increased growth and cool eyes rom the FEV treatment but she is also starting to develop weak telepathic abilities, though investigation is ignored for current military issues-
-Imperial control now reaches into the inner lands of the NCR, only shady sands and neighboring towns and cities still remain under Tandi's control-
-The NCR declares a complete surrender, Rapture has won...
Extra codex
-Xana is eventually selected as forge city's second mayor through majority vote, and starts a vast campaign to regain the city's former name-
-Tandi is imprisoned as a prisoner of war, but treated fairly well even as she is extensively examined because of her unique traits-
And that's a wrap, wasn't expecting for Tandi's re-emergence to be so... anticlimactic, but that's how it goes I guess.
But with this, most of America is now under Imperial control, and soon, very soon, mass effect will come into play! :)
Hmm, lots of ANs this chapter...
JUST... A... FEW... MORE... CHAPTERS!