Rory Mercury tracked those foolish bandits as they walked to the Coda Village through forest, not realizing that they were walking to their doom. If the rumors she heard about the Gate is true, then they were indeed doomed. Oh how she wanted to slaughter them. But she wanted to learn how powerful this ''Courier'' was. Oh yes of course she too heard about that Courier. About how Courier was the leader of the golem and ghost army who slaughtered anything stood in their way. Nobody knew what this Courier wanted, or what master she served if she have any. Some claimed that Courier was a sorcerer and warrior without equal, some claimed that she was a necromancer the ''Lady Of Death'' who ''carried the red death with her''. Some even said that Courier was actually an Apostle of Hardy who come to punish the Empire for their sins with her ghosts. Rory was obviously offended with the last one. Rory really wanted to see this Courier in action, even if you ignore rumors, if her god wanted Courier's skull then she must be worthy to fight. Which is why she was secretly following these fools right now, they would be near very soon.

Her apostle senses suddenly felt something... It was a feeling she could feel when someone or something important or dangerous was near her. Courier, she thought, It must be The Courier. She then focused all of her attention towards the Courier, to sense her. Fırst she wanted to sense Courier's soul and her soul just... felt wrong... It felt like it was cut to multiple pieces. So many pieces In fact Courier barely had a soul anymore. Rory had never seen anything like this before. No mortal has the ability to ''Cut pieces of their soul'' in fact until now she thought this was impossible. Why would anyone would want to cut their soul? More importantly how did Courier did this? It was a heresy to the highest order. Gods needed mortal souls to feed from from their worship and of course their energy. If Courier had the ability to cut the souls of others, she was a threat to the Gods. Especially to the Hardy. Hardy may be the goddess of dead, but she was also goddess of life. To exist she needed the souls of living to consume more than other gods. If Courier destroys the souls of mortals, she was the ultimate threat and heretic to Hardy. If Rory was the apostle of Hardy(she wanted to puke because of that line of thought) She would be furios to the Courier's heresy and attack her immediately to kill her.

But Rory was no the Apostle of Hardy(Thank Emroy), nor she was a zealot. Perhaps Courier was a threat to the gods, perhaps she was a heretic too. But Courier still deserved honorable combat, such is the will Emroy and the code of the warrior. And Rory's curiousity was multiplied now, she needed to learn how courier manipulates souls, necromancy? necromancy was about souls after all. She would find out about it eventually...

She then decided to sense Courier's personality and deeds. Courier smelt death, poison, artifical, change and perhaps most importantly evil... First one was easy to recognize, Courier was obviously a warrior, the second seemed like... plague? Perhaps connected to this red mist near the gate? She wasn't sure about the third either, perhaps Courier was good with making tools or something? It could explain her strange crossbow like weapons. Fourth was easy enough to recognize too, Courier causes change wherever she goes both good and bad. It must be mostly bad because Courier was... evil

Rory Mercury was an apostle of Emroy, but she was not evil. Despite what some may think, she enjoyed killing and death. But she only killed the evil people, those who deserved punishment. The Courier on the other just mass-murdered anything stood in her way. So Rory will not only kill a threat but also someone who deserved punishment. Well she would be glad to deliver it...

Bandits finally reached their destination she knew they already sent four disguised men first to scout and kill the mages first. But it seems they won't be bother with waiting their return and will just attack it anyway. Typical bandits. Now she had to wait for Courier

She did not have to wait long, after a minute later bandits revealed themselves their leader's head blew up like a melon. Rory was definitely sure it was the Courier, how did she did it though?... Wait a minute was that a corpse of fire dragon?

And then Rory finally saw the Courier... She had that exact same coat armor Rory has seen in her mind, but this time she had a helmet with glowing red eyes too, in her hands she had a glowing blue sword and right now sprinting towards the bandits much faster than a mortal should. Bandits were still in shock and not even realized her, then Courier began cutting the bandits one by one.

It was... beatiful, the way her killing was... mechanical, cold. Rory could feel Courier's rage, but Courier did not let it control her, well mostly... her killings proved that. She killed dozens of bandits. She dismembered them to multiple pieces with her strange metal blue glowing sword. And turning some of them to ash. Rory pursued and watched the Courier until she arrived in the middle of the forest chasing the last bandit who was trying to escape in pure terror. After realising he cannot escape he tried to beg for mercy only for Courier to simply behead him. It seems this was a perfect time for Rory to reveal herself to her rival...

Perhaps Rory should not feel surprised that, apparently her rival also killed a fire dragon... She had to fight with her rival with honor now.

''Well Done! Well done!'' Rory laughed with claps and revealed herself to her rival, Courier quickly collected herself and took aim with that weapon to Rory.

Rory smiled...

Even a fire dragon was not enough to stop the heretic

Giselle was still trying to supress her shock. Her dragon... her beatiful fire dragon was killed so brutally and quickly by the heretic. She felt his pain as those blasphemous heretical weapons hurted him beyond mortal compehension. She felt like her very innards were tearing to pieces everytime her dragon was shot by the heretic. Her mistress Lady Hardy was right these heretics had to die one way or another. She could sense the heretic's evil soul, or if one even can call this a soul, Heretic barely did have a soul anymore. She did not know or cared how how she managed to destroy her own soul. Heretic defiled the Hardy's gift with such blasphemy, and now she killed her fire dragon too. She was a threat and heretic at the same time.

Giselle decided to deliver the judgement personally.

She then felt other presences... evil presences... similiar to heretic... but their evil was nothing when compared to the heretic. They smelt like bandits, they smelt plunder, scheme, lies. She also felt... Emroy.

Now that was interesting...

Rory screamed in pain as Courier shot her with a blue light, she lunged to the Courier and tried to tear her two pieces with her axe. Only for the Courier to dash back much faster than she could see and shoot her. Her own being was tearing to pieces even as her flesh was regenerating... she did not felt such pain for a long time. Rory smiled, battle of pain... it was a good pain!

If Courier was surprised with regeneration she did not show any signs and just continuted to shoot her over and over again. Rory tried to dodge, but those blue light were much faster than her. She once more screamed and felt great pain, she regenerated much slower this time. Rory had to get close near the Courier and force her to melee combat, but pain greatly distracted her, she did not know how many she could take more of these things. And Rory would be dissapointed if she were to die without even engaging in melee. Thankfully Courier seemed to stop shooting her, it seemed even her weapon needed to reload like crossbow. As she tried to get something from her pocket.

Of course Rory was not going to allow that, she jumped to her opponent, Courier quickly holstered her weapon and too her sword and dashed to left. Rory cut the tree behind her. Before tree even fell to the ground as Rory once more tried to cut her, this time she blocked Rory's axe with her blue sword. Rory smiled finally things were getting much more fun...

Rory forced Courer to her knees as her axe was getting more and more closer to the Courier's helmet as Courier's strength dwindled to Rory. It was a perfect time to kick her opponent. But Rory wanted to feel Courier's terror, her realization to that she was about to die. Rory loved that feeling.

Unfortunately for her it did not happen, instead Courier's shoulders suddenly glowed blue and two... things... suddenly materialized right next to the Courier. They were glowing blue in the night sky and they had body armor with a helmet completely covering their face.

Ghosts?

The 'ghosts' instantly turned red and fired her with red rays of light. Rory screamed again, Their red lights were not that painful when compared to the Courier's weapon. But they still hurt regardless.

But it was distraction more than enough for the Courier. As ghosts continued to shoot her with red lights, Courier quickly attempted to behead her when Rory dashed to the ghost to kill it. Rory blocked her sword aiming for her head and she dashed to the other ghost and striked it.

Only for her axe to pass through the ghost. Rory's eyes widened, she tried to do it again many times, as fast as her apostle speed could yet each strike did nothing. She saw her axe carve through the flickering red body, scooping from the back of the legs out through its chest. And Not once did it stop firing. So the rumors were true then, Courier could command invincible ghosts. Ghosts could attack, but no one could attack them.

Rory fought with many interesting things in her long life, but this was the first time she was fighting with something that wasn't there, and there was something mechanical the way they moved, Rory then remembered they materialized after Courier's shoulders glowed blue, perhaps they were connected?

But she did not have time to think for this theory, she felt that similiar pain from Courier's weapon, worse those ghosts were now shooting her too. It seemed that Courier has no intention with playing fair. Rory had no other choice, she had to retreat, there was no more honor fighting in this battle, her opponent cheated. She sprinted to the forests to evade their shots, thankfully ghosts were slow, but not the Courier. She pursued Rory in forest trying to shoot her, She shot many trees Rory jumped through, turning them to ash completely. It was ironic, Rory was a hunter the whole time. But this time roles were reversed, she was a prey now. While Courier was the hunter.

This chase continued for a while. Despite being the prey, Rory actually found herself enjoying it. It has been a long time she escaped like this, knowing the fear of death, fear of unknown, fear of being the prey. She loved it. But Courier felt nothing, Rory couldn't sense any emotion from her, even though sensing Courier's emotions was difficult due to her soul. Courier simply moved like an automatron rather than predator and mechanically shooting her. She neither loved it or hated it, for Courier, Rory Mercuy was someone had to be purged, nothing more or less.

Rory thought about engaging The Courier again, but then felt another presence... similiar presence... Her eyes widened when she realized who it was.

Giselle... Apostle of Hardy...

Rory smirked again, well things just got more interesting, it seems Giselle too was here to kill The Courier for obvious reasons. Potential ally? Another enemy? Rory decided to go to her location to make this fight more interesting.

She once more sprinted towards Giselle, this time much faster, Courier seemed to lose her location, well doesn't matter, Rory simply would return to Courier after she ''negotiated'' with Giselle.

And there she was, Rory did not have to run long, she could see Giselle across the river. Her smile still visible on her face Rory simply walked opposite of the river and shouted.

''Well, Well, Well! it seems that whore Hardy sent one of her lackeys to me, or perhaps for someone else? What's the matter do your goddess is too afraid to contract me?'' Rory mocked, ''Or perhaps you are simply here to avenge your fire dragon? he must be died painfully, tell me did you felt his pain as his very innards were tearing to pieces?'' Rory asked and watched with satisfaction when Giselle's face formed pure rage for her words

''I will punish you later, for insulting my mistress and my fire dragon, for now we must focus on the heretic'' Giselle said, her face become neutral again.

''Ahhh yes *heretic* I suppose you are talking about the Courier? The one who killed your dragon? isn't it amazing, imagine a mortal who barely has a soul, killing a fire dragon without the help of any gods. Among other reasons. She is very fascinating isn't she?'' Rory asked.

Giselle's face was now in disgust

''You admire a heretic?'' She accused Rory.

''Perhaps I do perhaps I don't, it doesn't matter, what about the Courier?'' She asked even though she knew the answer ''And you should hurry, she could be here in any moment''

''Help me to kill the heretic'' Giselle responded. ''She and her masters are threat to our world and perhaps even to the gods.''

Rory's smile now could only be described as ''pure evil''.

''No...'' Rory declared ''I think not''

Giselle looked at her in shock then in rage.

''What did you just say?'' She growled.

''I said that I won't team up with you, oh no, I think I will collect Courier's skull and as a sweet bonus I will collect the Skull of a lackey of Hardy too'

It was all Giselle needed to hear, any more talks would be a waste of breath once the puppet of barbarian Emroy declared her intentions. She flied to the skies and threw couople of fireballs to Rory. Rory dodged most of them, and she launched herself towards Giselle to cut her. But Giselle simply flied to another location and easily evaded her. Giselle threw more fireballs again.

Giselle was about to form another fireball in her hands when she suddenly felt her head exploding with red cloud, she screamed in pain as the cursed cloud consumed her flesh. Red cloud prevented her apostle regeneration and her regeneration was not great as Rory. So she lost all of her concentration and fell to the ground. Rory instantly understood this was the Courier's doing, the same way Courier exploded that bandit's head with one of her weapons.

Rory ignored Giselle and sprinted to the forest instead, using trees as cover to approach Courier, unfortunately she saw those damn ghosts near Courier again. Rory cursed for missing a glorious melee with such a worthy opponent.

She then heard a very loud sound in the skies, it was not a dragon though, as dragons did not make sounds like that. Rory looked to the skies and saw a great metal steel beast, and the beast was looking right to her location...

Rory did not have time to wonder what this thing was as the beast suddenly started shooting her with red lights. Ahh so this belongs to the Courier then. She evaded the lights but there was just so many... Beast then threw bunch of metal things to her, and she exploded, Rory was in full retreat now, she had no idea what that was. And only a fool would engage without an unknown, especially when she was so wounded...

She could see that beast landing near the Courier, Courier jumped towards the beast and got inside of it through some sort of door.

''Hey! You can't escape me! Especially not like that! That's cheating!'' Rory screamed as loud as her vocal cords would allow her. Which was of course very loud for the apostle.

But Beast ignored her and just flied, she tried to chase it, but it was simply too fast even for her, Beast completely disappeared from her view. But not before leaving a depart gift by throwing another metal thing and exploding her again.

Rory screamed to the heavens in fury and dissapointment as flesh regenerated again. She then decided to fight with Giselle instead, but realized that she was disappeared too...

Doesn't matter... at least she learned couple of things about her new opponent. Rory Mercury would see both Courier and Giselle again...

It was a good thing she made a call to the JINKS through her pip-boy to pick her up. She was getting more and more annoyed, with... whatever she just fought.

''You just fought fought and survived against an apostle...'' Cato said in bewilmerent. Him and Lelei sitting on matress inside the vertibird Good thing she ordered both of them stay instide no matter what and ordered ED-E and Rex to protect them. So JINKS did not waste any time to wait for them when he moved the vertibird.

Apostle? so that was an apostle then? hmmm, she underestimated the psykers, perhaps she should classify apostles as some sort of super-psykers now

''I think it's hardly a surprise master, she fought and killed a fire dragon after all..'' Lelei responded. But it was easy for Courier to recognize the shock in her voice.

''Yes... but still... it's magnificent that's all... so many of my beliefs are completely challenged and changed ever since that Gate opened... I'm now more curios about the lands beyond...'' He answered back to Lelei. It was a good thing that Courier was still hearing her helmet because she couldn't bear to look them in the eye without a hint of malevolence.

With that Courier simply leaned her back, misson was accomplished and now all she had to do wait and incapacitate those two once they got closer to the Alnus Hill...

''My lady?'' JINKS requested.

''Yes JINKS? is something wrong?'' Courier politely asked. JINKS was a very good with his job and he was a good servant. He deserved her respect.

''It seems.. the one with the red dress'' He began. obviously nor sure how to describe the bizarre looking girl, she couldn't blame him. At this point Courier was convinced that there was a some sort of God Of Ridiculousness in this world majority of natives worshipped. ''It seems she has shouted a message for you, before I threw missile to her as a parting gift as you ordered, would you like to hear it?'' JINKS asked.

A message? interesting ''Sure let's hear it I suppose, what does this ''Rory Mercury'' think about me? she asked sarcastically.

''She basically thinks you have cheated my lady''

''Good'' Courier answered back with cold satisfaction. before JINKS could enlighten her further

OMAKE

MOJAVE COMES FOR THE COMMONWEALTH

The atmosphere in the Commonwealth was fraught with tension: the Institute, Brotherhood of Steel, and Railroad all fought for the attention and allegiance of the recently-unthawed sole survivor, a pre-war military veteran who had been very timely accepted into the vault on the day the bombs fell. The factions butted heads, trading a few soldiers here, a single patrol there for small territorial gains, though nothing that substantively threatened the others' existences. Each refused to commit without the allegiance of the survivor, if nothing else for the symbolism that they would represent: history's 'stamp of approval' as to the direction that the Commonwealth needed to go.

It was not uncommon in the post-war era for enterprising scavengers and prospectors to stumble across pre-war military installations and facilities. The smartest of these explorers would sell the information and location to more capable groups, as such places often had significant military robot defences still functioning. Similarly, functioning power plants and stations were the most tactically valuable and over which the aforementioned skirmishes were often fought.

When reports came to the attention of the factions of massive explosions from the West that left sickly metal tastes to the air afterwards, the public thought little of it, but the more educated amongst them knew: those were nuclear explosions. As to who would be or even could be employing nuclear weapons, nobody knew. The explosions subsided after a few of the primary highways into the West had been destroyed, razed to nothing.

For a time, there was relief among the factions and the public: whatever had triggered the explosions seemed to have run its course. However, one fateful afternoon, a lone caravaneer arrived in Diamond City bearing unfamiliar, very concerning news:

"There's some kind of red storm cloud coming this way. Honestly feels as though it's been following us north from DC. Moves really slowly, but I haven't seen anything like it before and it doesn't seem to dissipate as you'd expect storms to normally do."

Surely enough, a few weeks after the caravaneer's report of the blood-red cloud, settlements on the southern borders of the Commonwealth and those in visible sight of the Glowing Sea all began saying the same thing: an ominous crimson storm that drifted slowly and inexorably towards them. The unnerving sight of the red fog drove nearly all those in such settlements away well before its tide washed over them.

It is likely that those either infirm or unconvinced of the potential threat who did remain were fortunate: while they would perish painfully, scrabbling fruitlessly at the doors and their own throats in an effort to claw the metallic cloud from their lungs, they would not know the existential dread that swept over the region.

At first, the factions all accused one another of perpetrating the attack, but when they realised that the Cloud corroded and killed without discrimination, they quickly realised that the threat was elsewhere. The Brotherhood found to their horror that their suits of power armour, despite being near the top of the line both for pre-war and post-war technology, did *absolutely* nothing against the red fog.

Desperation proved to be the impetus for the Survivor to choose a side, and perhaps out of self-preservation, they accepted refuge in the Institute at their less-preserved son's behest. As the Cloud continued to roll over and through the Boston area, the Brotherhood would depart on the Prydwen, abandoning its outposts and taking its forces north and away entirely. The Institute, already isolationist, faced nearly no opposition in securing the beryllium agitator from the old Mass Fusion reactor. It would have been, in a pre-Cloud world, a perfect state of affairs for them.

"We've got nothing: we have tried for *weeks* now to get a good picture of the Cloud's chemical structure, what gives it the self-perpetuating ability it has. We know it's some sulphur-copper compound but we haven't got a handle on its properties."

The Institute fared better than above-ground residents, no doubt: Boston above them became a mass grave, the streets covered with bodies and powdery residue from the heavier concentrations of the Cloud that were blown through from the location's natural storms. However, in time, the metallic fog began to sink into the ground and before long, the Institute suffered its first breach in an ancient wing of Bioengineering.

It was in this area of paranoia and despair that the Institute received what it least expected: a transmission from the outside.

"Are you listening? Good. We know you're there. Leave your terminals, your data, all your information and infrastructure," a lifeless, mechanical voice spoke.

"Who the *hell* are you?"

"I am Elijah, former elder of the Brotherhood and we are here," it replied.

Out of nowhere, a figure materialised in the Institute atrium, its form covered in heavy armour and with three mysterious rings of blue light floating around its head. Barely a fraction of a second later, a swarm of angry red ghosts appeared by its sides that began to fire rays of light at the panicked scientists. A single robot of an unfamiliar design also appeared by the mysterious figure as the ghosts expanded outwards, continuing their lethal luminary assault. The robot was large, wheeled and armed, and a mysterious human skull face appeared on the screen.

"Don't expect them to have much, Six, but secure what you can," it said, before the face was replaced by that an angry soldier, now accompanied by hosts of others just like it. The armoured figure motioned to the three 'wings' of the Institute, and at once the robots surged towards those directions, effortlessly cutting down Courser, synth, and scientist alike.

Six turned her eyes to where she knew the director to be, having been able to parse and process the facility's layout immediately thanks to her numerous cybernetic implants and whole synthetic replacements. She moved slowly, almost leisurely towards them, visible all the while to the panicked Director.

The Survivor, having fought on the frontlines before, was not so easily unnerved. He immediately entered the suit of power armour he had stashed in the Director's quarters and trained the plasma rifle with it towards the door, simultaneously motioning to his father to get behind him.

Heavy footfalls moved up the staircases towards them for what no doubt felt like an eternity until at last…

The door exploded, blasting fragments of steel and metal everywhere. The Survivor opened fire: laying bolt after bolt of plasma into the armoured figure, but to his horror, saw no appreciable impact.

The figure trained its weapon towards the Survivor, a strange whitish weapon, simultaneously futuristic and retro, before firing a single bluish beam that cut through the Survivor's armor as thought it had not even been there.

The Director Shaun looked on in terror as his parent figure slumped to the ground. The figure turned to them and began to approach.

"Why are you doing this?"

It did not grace him with an answer before firing another shot that reduced to the Director to a smoking pile of ash on the floor.