Legate Atticus waited the reports from a small scouting party right outside the gate Hardy had blessed them with. Other commanders wanted to launch an attack with their army without bothering with scouts, as they believed the Saderan Empire was now invincible, especially with its recent victories. They had grown arrogant and smug. But Legate knew better; beyond the gate, they would be in unknown lands. Even though he believed Goddess Hardy had no malevolent intentions with the Gate she had blessed them with, he was still cautious. He did not want to send his men to their deaths. As a commander their lives were his responsibility, and he geniuely cared for them like a good commander should. So he ordered a small scout army to investigate the lands beyond the gate first. Though much to his supreme annoyance other commanders accused him of being a ''coward' for his caution. He was a trained soldier though, so he ignored their and his petty feelings.
Hopefully they could conquer the lands without much bloodshed, he was a pragmatic Legate sure but he also preferred diplomacy to war. Besides they needed live subjects for their empire, natives would benefit from the gifts of Saderan Empire as well. The Saderan Empire would bring civilization, as it was their duty to help others.
Although... Legate would never admit this to anyone, but he was slowly starting to have doubts about the 'greatness' of the Empire. They had grown very arrogant, lazy, and it showed. The Empire was slowly walking a dark path. "Nobles were corrupt, and slaves were in great need, as their masters did not care for them even though they should. Criminals ran rampant, and they bribed the officers, who gladly accepted the bribes and looked the other way. The number of beggars increased greatly, and peasants probably had it the worst of all.
His thoughts were interrupted when his soldiers reported that someone had come back from the gate. He quickly exited the tent to check the newcomer. To his relief, from the clothes he could see that it was one of the scouts. Finally, it took more time than he thought. He was anxious and excited for some reports. Though... Said scout looked like he fought with Emroy himself, literally, his clothes were ragged and dirty, his head was down, and Legate could sense his tiredness just by looking at him. Scout slowly approached him and he did the same in return with his soldiers
''Report!'' he quickly ordered to the scout, ''and where is the rest of you!?'' he added. Said Scout looked at him, then he took of his helmet.
...By Hardy, he thought. Scout looked like he seen a ghost. His hair was also ragged and dirty like his clothes, and his eyes were bloodshot. He also knew this scout, Explorote Manius, Explorote Manius was one of the men Legate personally trusted, he was resorceful and smart, which is why Legate Atticus also chosen him for this mission.
''Where to begin?, it feels like years since we last talked sir'' Scout said in a dead, monotone tone, ''Beyond the gate... it's the hell itself legate there, hell itself is there, We should be grateful everyday that gods given us this beatiful, clean world'' He looked to the skies in admiration as if he seen it for the first time. ''You are looking at the only survivor of the explorote units, because the rest of them... all of them are dead... all dead... expect me''
Legate's eyes widened in horror, ''get back to the tent, give this man everything he needs! quickly!'' he ordered everyone, Manius and the rest of them walked back to the tent, once inside Manius quickly sit on the chair, then he eagerly drank a cup of water.
''Look I don't know what happened to you and your unit beyond the gate, but I have to learn it now. Time is essential, and I need every bit of information about the enemy, so report to me now'' Legate Atticius ordered to Manius, said Scout looked at him, and stayed like that for half a minute before he finally started to talk.
''As soon as we stepped through the Gate... We instantly knew something was wrong, because the whole area was covered in a horrifying red mist,even the skies and sun were red, very air itself tasted like copper and there was only just dust, we could barely see far lands other than some sort of lights in a huge tower, expect of course...''he shuddered ''blue lights of the ghosts... I...I will get to that later''.
Ghosts? they were just legends in Falmart, according to said legends, when someone died with an unfinished business, they would return to the world as spirits and inflict misery on all living beings, only the blessings of Hardy, goddess of the underworld could prevent such things. But in the lands beyond the gate they did they just roamed freely? and they were just in this red mist? what was this mist? perhaps they were connected?
''But turns out the red mist was just the beginning of our problems...'' Manius continued ''Sure it was scary and disturbing but we were trained for such things and it was not deadly, or so we thought, when one of the men went too far, in one of the concrentated area of the mist, he suddenly violently started to cough and scream, other men tried to help him but the exact same thing happened to them too, then... then they suddenly melted''
Legate's thoughts fell silent, as he focused all of his senses to listen for what scout has to say, just what kind of land they stepped into!?
''So in the hard way we learned not to go into the concrentated ares of the mist, thus we decided to explore other areas,specifically that tower with lights, even though our instics screamed us not to, we did it anyway and paid the price, not long after, out of nowhere we are suddenly attacked by... weird creatures, giant bugs I think you can say, they had orange wings,muscular bodies and had claws so sharp they cut through our armor like it was nothing, and moved so fast I don't think even horses could outrun them, but at the same time... they did not look like bugs, they were abominations in every sense, and I hope to gods you will never see one. They looked like as if some cruel god decided to mix the most horrifying creatures in existence to create an ultimate abomination. We only managed to survive, because we were ''lucky'', they loved to play with their food, thus giving us enough time to escape. I can only hope that those abomniatons killed their victims quickly.
Once again Legate looked at him in disbelief, ghosts, abominatons, red poison that kills anything...He couldn't help but to drink from the water as well, suddenly he felt very thirsty.
''Then... Then so we decided to stay away from that path and camp somewhere nearby, after making sure we were away from those abominations, we quickly set up camp to rest and mourn our fallen. I sent a dozen men to look for supplies, when they returned, there were only three of them left and they looked very sick, they could barely explain how they entered a cursed area, and how they suddenly felt a metallic taste in their mouths and how they suddenly dropped dead, or scratched themselves to death. Before they could even explain more, we were attacked again... but this time abominations were different, they were humanoid,they moved limply and they bled green like their eyes glowing green, no matter how much we hurted them with our crossbows,sword and axes and even with fire, when they fall, they would get up again, I think they were some sort of undead, cursed by some necromancer with foul magic, whatever they were, they were very effective, we had to retreat from our camp, thankfully they were very slow and we managed to retreat, from our few hundred men,barely few dozen left in this hellish realm. And we barely explored it, So we finally decided to go back to gate, to report all of the dangers and persuade how sending an army would be a suicide. Then on the road... we saw those blue ghosts.
Manius then looked at him, with eyes of horror ''it was a ghost in every sense legate, it almost looked pretty with glowing blue light, when we first looked at it, it was just roamind around mindlessly, then it saw us and it turned yellow and I don't know what happened, I think one of us panicked and shoot it with crossbow, it was then all hell broke loose, it suddenly turned red and strucked us with magic rays of light, whanever one of those cursed lights came near our men, they melted to ash like in the red mist, In the confusion, it took time for us to realise our attacks were completely ineffective: no matter how many times we struck the ghost, there was no demonstrable effect. Worse so, the ghost just keep shooting us with lights. Within one or two minutes, remaining of scout forces were completely killed. Only I survived because I ran away like coward, I just couldn't take it anymore Legate I expected to die but to my great surprise ghost did not pursue me and it turned back to blue, I think it was protecting that specific land. Scarcely could believe my luck, and realizing that only I survived from the expedition, I ran away quickly as possible back to Gate'' Manius finished his report at last.
''Legate listen to me, you are a smart man, surely you do realize this realm is cursed right? I lost all of my comrades, you are not planning to send your troops to their deaths right? Manius asked him hopefully, ''do the right thing, cancel this expedition, there is no glory to be found there only death. Try to destroy that gate, fuck the emperor, if he thinks he can conquer it, he can do it himself '' Manius rambled angrily.
Normally Legate had to punish someone for disrespecting the emperor like that but for now he had greater concerns, so he ignored it as he thought about everything scout had said, he did not have to think long, as far as he can see, that realm was cursed.
''Of course I won't, come on let-'' one of the soldiers quickly arrived to the tent, ''Legate! some sort red cloud arrived from gate, all of our men guarding the gate has dead!''
Legate's eyes widened in horror while Manius started hyperventilate, ''oh gods! gods have mercy! we carried the curse to our realm!it has started! end times are coming! by the gods!'' Manius screamed, then he started to laugh maniacally as if like it was a funny joke, Legate right now had no time for him so he quickly exited the tent to check the situtation, and to his astonishment there was indeed a great mist arriving from the gate, he barked all of his soldiers to retreat.
Death itself has arrived from the Gate, nothing would be same for Falmart.
Courier Six thought she had seen it all,but after looking from her scope of ycs/186, she realized universe always had surprises in store for her, When Yes Man told her about ''legion cosplayers'' arriving from ''gate'', she did not think it was meant literally, and yet here it was, against all of odds legion was here, However... they looked weird and primitive even by legion standards. They did not seem as experienced or tough as the Legion, even their lowest recruit was tough as nails, and she respected them for it, say what you will about legion but they were damn effective. They had absolute loyalty to their Caesar. But it was also their greatest weakness, she killed Caesar by launching a modificed Repconn rockett to The Fort to spread the cloud in legion lands, then she killed Lanius too with some maximized microfusion from LAER. She also nuked both of Long 15 and Dry Wells to prevent the the incoming of reinforcements of both NCR and Legion. That means legion was supposed to fall, they were not supposed to be there.
But they looked like amateurs really, no legion commander would tolerate such weakness, indeed it seemed like they had no experience with the mojave at all, since some of them walking towards the mountains right to the nest of cazadors and new ''cazadorclaws''. When Borous managed get some deathclaw eggs with his vivisectors, he decided make another ''pet'' to replace Gabe, and of course cazadorclaws managed to escape from the lab and they bred like radroaches in the mountains. She could have cleaned them with cloud, securitrons and holograms if she wanted, but why would she? she was curious how far they would go, They also provided further security in mountains to stop anyone, especially the NCR assasins and mercenaries from entering her ''kingdom''
Still, she was really curius about that gate, especially how this ''legion'' managed get their hands on such technology, or how they managed to find those pre-war animals, ''horses'' they were called if she remembered it right. That means she had to secure it...
''ED-E? my dear, give me my stealth suit please, and make a call to the Think Tank...''