''We will be in Alnus Hill in two minutes my lady'' JINKS reported their progress, good that means the time has come to knock the Lelei and Cato unconscious... Now she needed to distract them to safely inject the Etorphine into their necks...

''Only two minute left!? but only mere minutes passed since we left!'' Cato said in shock, He asked many questions to JINKS during the way, like how this vertibird and 'golems' like him worked and how they were constructed. JINKS answered as best as he could, but ultimately said they should ask the experts beyond the gate.

''What can I say? Vertibirds are fast like that, turns out you can be pretty fast, when you can just fly and ignore the obstacles on the road'' Courier answered back to impress them to catch them unaware.

''But you can reach Alnus Hill from Coda Village only in few days'' Lelei joined the conversation. Lelei then stood up from the matress with Cato she was sitting with her master.

''Yes, in foot'' Courier answered ''You can look out from front windows if you want, we have constucted a base near the Gate'' she ansered from her second pilot seat.

''Oh I can't miss the chance of seeing the buildings of your nations from the skies'' Cato said and he walked near the pilot seat with Lelei.

Well that was easy Six thought, she got up from her pilot seat to allow them easier access and get behind them...

Cato then looked in front windows in bewilmerent with Lelei, just when they have reached The Alnus Hill however they witnessed something very disturbing.

There was a red mist covering the Alnus Hill and skies were red as well

''T-There is red mist in there'' Cato said in horror and shock.

''Always has been'' Answered Six and before they could even recover from their shock she injected tiny dose of Etorphine into their necks with needle she took from the freezer when they were not looking, immobilizing them. The sedative worked instantly, rendering both Lelei and Cato immobile and unconscious within a couple of seconds, and it would last for several hours. More than enough time to give them to Think Tank.

They fell to the ground like puppets whose strings had been cut. Mission was now officially accomplished

''We have reached the Gate my lady'' JINKS said seemingly unnaffected, but Courier could hear the disturbed tone in his voice, she ignored it and contracted to Elijah from her pip-boy.

''I knew you would make it, resourceful as always'' Elijah answered in proud tone. He did not even entertained the the possibility that she might be failed.

''Indeed'' Courier said back to him, trying to keep it short ''I see you expanded the Cloud, I suppose you prepared anti-toxic vaccines for them?'' If she were to brought them out of the Vertibird they would die instantly from the cloud, she had to activate forcefield generators of the Vertibird to prevent cloud creeping inside the Vertibird, while such small doses most likely would be harmless, she did not want to take chances. Especially since their immunity systems would be so weak against the cloud.

''Of course I did'' Elijah answered back, sounding offended for her question that he did not think about that. ''Land your vertibird as soon as possible, you have specimens to deliver and we have many things to discuss...'' She rolled her eyes, as if like she had other ideas. He liked ordering her like that, reminding her that she was his protege.

''Well just wanted to make sure, Six out'' she cut the connection as the Vertibird landed to The Gate...

After injecting the psykers with temprary red cloud-immunity vaccine, she ordered two securitrons to carry them back to Mojave, then they would be teleported right back there with teleporter. Six could see Elijah looked like like a kid in candy store despite his inhuman body after he saw the specimens. Well to be fair she was curios too what Dala and Borous could do with them, and she didn't even told him about the dragon yet. Of course As soon as he was sure the specimens were safe when securitrons carried them and disappeared beyond the Gate. Elijah immidately got back to his work. She always admired him for his dedication, she was proud to chose him as her mentor. Perhaps this was why they get along so well... Elijah always reminded her Mr. House, both were geniuses, both had a vision, both were scientists, both were controlling. But... House lacked the will to do what was necessary. When she first walked through the Strip, she was disgusted with the debauchery and all of the waste of valuable technology on meaningless comfort. Not to mention the disgusting smell of copulation, booze, pleasure... It was that sort of thing caused The Great War in the first place. And House would simply repeat the cycle. Which is why she instead forced him into Think Tank. His knowledge would put it to better use there instead of wasting his intelligence for bunch of worthless pests in the strip... massacring every last one of those families were so satisfying.

Atop the Repconn test site, Six paused a moment in contemplation: the rockets were ready, infused with canisters of the Cloud. In one fell swoop, they would choke the life out of the heads of both the NCR and Legion. It was not so much a declaration a war, she reasoned, as an imposition of order and cleansing. None in the Mojave had the right to claim its Old World relics and technologies as their own, with the one exception of House.

It was this betrayal that grated on Six the most: in House's absence, there would not be a Mojave. She owed him her life. Yet she knew there was no way he would ever accept the destruction of the NCR as the necessary reality it truly was. She reminded herself that he did not know of the Madre and the technologies it offered, the ways she and Elijah had been able to use them. She recalled his words, his admirable vision for the future:

"New Vegas is more than a city - it's the remedy to mankind's... derailment. The city's economy is a blast furnace in which can be forged the steel of a new rail line, running straight to a new horizon. With all that money pouring in? Give me 20 years and I'll reignite the high technology development sectors. Fifty years, and I'll have people in orbit. One hundred years, and my colony ships will be heading for the stars to search for planets unpolluted by the wrath and folly of a bygone generation."

The technologies she had recovered from the Madre and Big MT could have put those plans in fast forward, to say nothing of what other scientific marvels could still remain undiscovered in the Big MT crater. But it would not align with *his* vision, it would not give *him* control to dictate the future as she knew he would want to do... and it was on this face that Six knew she had to extinguish one of the brightest intellectual minds left in the Mojave. It would, however, make the rest of the cleansing simpler: nobody else even approached worthiness of remaining in the future they were building. Still Six was glad that she did not had to kill him...

''I assume you did not into any *complications* during your objective?'' Elijah interrupted her thoughts without even bothering to look her. She was right next to him. He was occupied with cutting open the chest of a weird looking creature on one of the slabs in the research facility. Volralden they were called, and this Volralden was mutated with radiation. He had two heads, and teeth seemed too wide for his mouth. It had no fur on it's body. There were other creatures in other slabs as well, all of them dead or dying, few of them she could see the effects of FEV, on others she could see the radiation while others were mostly clean. She did not know if Elijah simply ''found'' them among the corpses of the vassal armies, or just collected them around and injected them with those chemicals to watch the slow effects on their bodies while they were alive. Knowing Elijah it was most likely the latter. Once seized, Elijah's specimens will look forward only to a pain-filled, though not always brief, existence in the bloodstained and shadowed laboratories. Few of his operations are carried out on the dead, as he believes the knowledge he seeks resides only in the living. Such was his brutal pragmatism. For him even when he was flesh and blood people were machines meant to do his bidding.

''I did actually, have I told you that I killed a huge fire dragon that would put deatchlaws to shame with it's size in the village while I was there?'' Six answered back to him, almost sarcastically.

''I see, still you killed it, I expected nothing less from you, and yes I sent a few dozen securitrons along with few hologram emitters to occupy the village. They will be there soon, they will secure the dragon's corpse'' He answered back, still too busy with operation, right now he was cutting the creature's mutated stomach with his small proton knife, guts,bones and other inner organs were perfectly visible as the radiation corrupted-blood flowed to the slab. She too watched it with fascination. She would never get tired to see this. Life and flesh... were so fragile, so easy to manipulate, so easy to corrupt, so easy to cut, so easy to...end.

''And much to my annoyance, I was attacked by bunch of bandits, they were easy enough to dispatch, but I... lost control'' Six admitted with shame. She still did not why she suddenly felt so much primitive rage, she was supposed to be better than that.

Elijah was still too busy with cutting the creature's insides, but she still could feel his dissaproval.

''Also I fought with an 'apostle' we learned about, who somehow managed to regenerate even from my LAER shot and looked like a child'' Now that she thought about it, that was not how biology supposed to work, LAER sheared apart the target's atoms. There was no way she could recover from that, not to mention her body shape... ''She also had superior strength, and speed compared to me and I did not see any augmentations in her body''

That finally made him look her from his work, he right now had extra pair of smaller prehensile appendages onto his skeletal rib-cage and onto his back for finer manipulation, with certain cables. ''You... will have tell me more about this disturbing information in detail...'' Elijah said, in a amazed tone, she did not if he was amazed with the fact that the weapon he designed failed to kill the super-psyker, or the capabilities she told him about the super-psyker.

''Sure, I will write my detailed report for you and Think Tank to examine'' She anwered ''Still I have no doubt in my mind these so-called apostles are just powerful psykers, alongside with their gods, they are just another field of science we have to examine and unlock, not just some superstition nonsense''

''Definitely'' Elijah approved, his mechanical eyes glowed brighter blue and his usual synthetic tone returned back to him ''We will examine them too, altough they seem to dangerous to capture them alive, perhaps forcefield prison would work?'' He suggested back eagerly.

''I think so...'' Six said ''She was still no match for holograms, and my forcefield shields worked perfectly against her close attacks, so yes I think it will work''

''No one are match for hologram guards'' Elijah said with certainty and satisfaction ''I will examine your detailed report when you write it, but now I wanted to talk with you about something else...'' he declared ominously.

She looked to his eyes on his silver skull, his body easily towering over her with his four arachnoid limbs. ''And what that may be?'' Six questioned.

''What do you think about the name of ''Mojave Technocracy'' for our nation? Sounds good for you?''

''Excuse me what?'' Six asked with shock ''I'm sorry but we were creating a nation now?''

''And why not?'' Elijah challenged ''I told you before back in the vault that I intented to create a nation with the technology of Sierra Madre, I have achieved what I wanted in the Mojave and more, now it is time to formally declare our nation, for these primitives and for the Wasteland...'' Elijah said with malicious relish.

Six still looked to him in the eyes, doubt visible on her albino face, but then she just shrugged and said ''Sure, do whatever you want, but I doubt this 'nation' of ours will last long, every nation is bound to fall''

''This one won't'' He challenged again ''Because this time it will be different, we won't waste our resources,energy and technology to entertainment, to pointless wars,to petty meaningless politics or to nonsense outdated ideologies, and to fighting crime and corruption like the goverments of the old and new world. We will be in charge, and it will be perfect, effective world...'' Now his synthetic voice sounded like he was in dreamland again. ''I even prepared the flag'' He said and pointed to a small displaycase, she looked at it, the flag had a white scientific atom symbol similiar to atomic-valence tri-radii-oscillator she and Elijah wore, with a plain blue background

That... that was actually a good point, still she doubted his 'Technocracy' nation would work, amusingly she once more remembered Ulysses and his obsession with 'building nation'.

She wondered what Ulysses would think about the nation she built in the mojave, in a twisted sense she indeed built a nation, with holograms and robots as people.

''I suppose that is a good point..'' She said with uncertainty ''Mojave Technocracy it is then...''

They decided to visit the nearest inn to listen the rumors and to rest from their journey. Right now all of them were sitting around a table and enjoying their drinks.

''I've seen it, I swear too all the Gods! She killed a fire dragon all by herself!'' Barkeeper announced in pure fascination, other men and women still looked at her in doubt despite her oath.

''Nonsense!'' One of men said in certainty.

''Please if you want to spread rumors, at least try to make sense!'' Another agreed

''Are you sure you were not in dreamlands?''

Barkeeper fell silent, annoyance and fury was clear on her face.

Pina listened their conversation carefully, she too doubted this story, but barkeeper's description of the dragon's killer sounded disturbingly familiar...

''What do you think about this?'' She asked to Norman one of the few male members of her Rose Knights order.

''What do I think? I think this inn has average food and drink'' He replied casually, shaking softly his plate.

''I mean what do you think about this fire dragon killing story'' She asked again with annoyed tone.

''Nonsense'' He said, ''Even if the story is true I'm sure It was not a fire dragon, There are many types of dragons, I have do doubt that inkeeper doesn't know the difference''

Pina thought about what he said, he had a good point...

''Hamilton'' Pina asked to her instead, ''What do you know about this?'' Hamilton was very good with learning rumors.

''It is the top rumor right now...'' Hamilton whispered ''People say that there is a ''Lady Of The Dead'' or ''Courier'' out there, they say she killed a fire dragon and the Saderan army all by herself, but most important one I think, some of them began worshipping her, they seem to hope that she will spare them from her ghosts.''

Pina's eyes went wide at the words of ''Courier'' and ''Ghost'' this must be the leader of the heretics Almus talked! Worse this means they were literally worshipping their leader, Empire's biggest enemy!

Pina quickly calmed herself to not worry her knights, she had to hear more about this!

''Lady of The Dead!?'' Grey almot shouted, ''Isn't that title belongs to the Hardy? Isn't this heresy?'' He asked.

But Pina ignored him ''Excuse me!'' She called to the barkeeper, causing barkeeper to look at her ''Say that I believe you, what can you tell me more about this Courier?'' She asked, hoping to not look suspicious.

Barkeeper looked very happy for being able to tell her tale again '' It is true! First, Lady arrived to the Village with flying iron elephant, She had red eyes and a skin pale as the moon! then dragon attacked, but Lady killed the Dragon all by herself with her summoned lightning and souls of the dead! then she left like nothing happened! Barkeeper announced loudly

Suddenly barkeeper looked like she realized something ''Don't believe me? Go to the Village, you will see it's corpse! I even heard Village is guarded by ghosts now! People there say Lady herself sent those ghosts as a gift for their tribute!''

That caused doubtful murmurs to die down, if there was proof they couldn't say anything until they see it after all.

Pina felt a chill down her spine,it was true then, their leader was powerful enough to kill a dragon, and her army was also powerful enough to destroy both Empire and Vassal Armies.

She sat back to her chair as the implications sunk in her mind.

''Are you alright your excellency?'' Bozes broke her silence with a suspicious tone. Others too looked at her in worry.

Pina was too busy with her thoughts to answer them back.

He always liked to think himself as merciful and reasonable, but also swift and pragmatic when it is necessary, which is why he read the report over and over again in the night sky, he decided to read the report again, absorbing every detail to the latter. After reading it again, he looked on the moon again.

Minutes pass, he stares on to the moon, seeking advice that it could not give. Tapping ash into the tray at his side, he mentions his hands.

''Is this confirmed?'' He asks, just to be sure.

Scribe near him nods, looking disturbed just like him.

He taps the ash into the tray again, He knew this was... bad for his health of course, and he should have more self-control than this, but... he had to do this after reading the reports.

Roger Arthur Maxson let out a sigh and he decided to think about it again.

He sent couple of scouts with vertibirds to Mojave, to determine what happened to the Brotherhood Chapter in there, he was extremely disturbed with the sudden cut of communications. He knew Mojave Chapter was in very tough spot. But couldn't do anything because his own chapter had their own problems, after the said problems taken care of, just when he decided to sent some help. All of their call-lines suddenly cut. Worst of all he had no idea who was responsible for it, almost everyone suspected NCR finished what they started, but he wanted to make sure, which is why he sent those scouts.

What they found... was extremely disturbing to say the least.

Whoever responsible for whatever happened to the Brotherhood Chapter Of The Mojave, he was now certain it wasn't NCR nor it was Legion. No it was a new horror. A crimson red cloud now covers the Mojave, there is no protection against it, gas masks,filters even power armor was useless as few scouts learned it in the hard way. While that red cloud alone was enough to be horrifying enough for him, turns out it was merely the beginning for whatever this new horror would bring to the Earth. Some scouts managed to find a way through Hoover Damn, only to found out that it had... ghosts guarding it. They of course tried get closer to examine them, only for the 'ghosts' to turn red and kill most of them, scouts tried to fight back but all of their attacks were completely inneffective, so they retreated with most of them ended up being dead. After reading their reports, scribes theorized that ''ghosts'' were beings made of hard-light. That means Brotherhood can't attack them, but they can obviously attack everyone. That meant this new horror also had horrifyingly advanced technologies at their disposal as well. Scouts then decided to send eyebots, since they couldn't even see beyond the cloud and move into the Mojave, especially now it was confirmed new horror had guards made of hard-light in there and god knows what else. Only for the eyebots to instantly shot down, one of it's video transmission managed to record a a single robot of an unfamiliar design, the robot was large, wheeled and armed. Later on they learned that those robots were ''Securitrons'' masterpiece of Robco Endustries. They were deadly, laster for a very long time, easy to make and cheap. That meant this horror also had an army of those abominable intelligences. No one knew what this new horror wanted, or if it even had a purpose.

''Sir'' other scribe began, ''Forgive me for interrupting but...what should we do... about this threat?'' He asked.

That was a good question, could they just pack up and leave Commonwealth while Institute threat was still active? Especially when they almost knew nothing about this new horror? No they couldn't, they still had a duty for Commonwealth.

''By your estimation Proctor Quinlan, how long it will take for this...biological weapon to spread onto the America?'' Maxson asked to him politely, he had no doubt in his mind that this was a biological weapon, another dark path of science.

Proctor Quinlan let out a cough ''Sir. I examined and calculated the speed of the cloud, it will take months for it to reach north of the Arizona, a few years for it to almost completely cover entire west coast, decades for it to reach in Capital Wasteland, but... this is not natural, I have no proof, but it feels like something or someone is speeding up the process''

Everyone in the room looked horrified at the news, Maxson hid his emotions perfectly, but he was panicking inside. His mind was still trying to find something, anything to deal with this threat.

One of the troopers outside suddenly opened the door in hurry, he looked breathless

''Sir! Last scout you have sent for the Mojave has returned with their Vertibird intact! They say they have a survivor! from the Mojave Chapter!'' he announced eagerly.

Maxson's eyes went wide as pilot lights ''Bring them in here with the survivor now!'' He ordered, perhaps too harshly, but this was important, if that was true, it could be the answer to the most of their problems. Others in the room looked excited as well just like him.

After a few minutes, couple of paladins escorted someone... she looked like a scavenger with those clothes instead of a member of the Brotherhood, she looked... dead, almost uncaring, Maxson knew that look, it was the type of look when you met so many tragedies in your life that you didn't care anymore. He felt some sympathy for the woman, despite what some may think he wasn't a completely hearthless monster, he was still a human.

''My name is Veronica Santangelo'' Woman reported, almost in cryful tone ''Last survivor of the Mojave Chapter, and I am here to tell you all you need to know about what kind of shadow fell upon the Mojave...''