It was boring, there was nothing to see. Just some random ghost towns and some scattered settlements he already knew about. It wasn't the most exciting adventure. That was until realization struck when he remembered that he allowed the Think Tank work on a new Transportalponder. At least that's what he thought from the bickering he could piece together by the floating color-coated jars. It went along the lines like this.
"So this is more or less allows me to explore interdimensional mumbo-jumbo?" The Drifter cocked his head at the device while both Klein and Borous glanced at each other and then back to the Drifter
"Yes! Yes indeed! You see lobotomite, this is an unfinished device. It has a plug for your Pip-Boy to act as a monitor to catalog the planet and-slash-or dimension you visited. Best of all. You can use it… INDOORS!" Klein boasted like the crazy scientist he is with added 'hand gestures' or as close as you can get to hand gestures with only three monitors to use.
"So tell me this Klein; When is this new Transportalponder going to be completed? I mean, it's nice and all but you have to remember that while I am willing to accept your experiments and test them I also have to run New Vegas. That isn't counting that I'm practically bordering California with tense relations with the NCR and us basically forcing the legion towards Oklahoma, We also had some weird shit of some advanced civilization in Canada near Vancouver." The Drifter explained before placing the new Transportalponder on a weird robotic trolley that carried the device off
"I see my friend. But have no worry. I'm actually managing your assembly line now. Not these buffoons." The Monitor sputtered on with Mobius' image, "Now. I remember you gave me an order for a few extra DC-3's for transport of goods. Worry not I can produce these as well."
"Sup Mobius, thanks for taking a look at that order. But I'll have to take my leave." The Drifter leaves giving a small wave. Just another day as a leader in his line of work. Nothing major just thousands of lives depending on his judgment.
"Woo boy… This is gonna be a doozy." The Drifter slurred to himself for the distaste for the dreaded unnecessarily long introduction of the new Transportalponder.
Pulling out his Transportalponder from the bottomless pit known as his coat pocket, he hesitantly pulled the trigger and transported heh himself to the sink and boarded the elevator for the grand finale.
The elevator ride for some reason was always enjoyable. It had a nice soothing hum and some synthesized piano playing for the music, nice and quiet, and he was going to need all of the quiet time he can get before being pushed to the madness that is the Think Tank again.
The blissful music came to a soft close as the doors opened. It looked like the Think Tank wasn't in some huge existential crisis this time seeing as how all have their backs turned.
"Well guys," The Drifter struts confidently out of the elevator, "I see you guys decided to pour some bottles of ADHD medicati-"
"Lobotomite!" A wild Klein almost flings his metallic body to the Drifter nearly squashing him.
"What the fuck!" The Drifter almost sent his fist through Klein's glass dome if it wasn't for the pacification array.
"We have… PERFECTION!" Klein like a teen girl fawning over the popular boy quickly had the same robotic trolley whiz on by with the working Transportalponder Mk II
"So it's finished?" The Drifter asks skeptically.
"Of course it is! We need you for research. I presume you've made your little faction run autonomously without you for a short while correct?"
"Yes… Klein. I did, it was a bitch." The Drifter shuddered at the paperpocolypse that was his office. Mountains of paper, papers stacked in boxes, and worst of all was his wrist afterwards. He couldn't even shoot straight for a week after first getting in that office.
"Perfect! Dala, I think you have a small gift to give to further our efforts." Motioning his left eye monitor for Dala to come forward with a unique gift.
"Yes my little teddy bear, I have oversaw the development of a camera that can strap to your helmet," Dala presents the small camera as it also whizzes by on another dinky trolley, "This band is extra-strength elastic allowing you to strap it to multiple helmets if need be, and the videos can be transferred to holotapes. We expect you to give us reports on your findings. Any questions my dear, dear, dear teddy bear?"
"Nope. Just readying my ass in case I land on Jupiter or some shit." The Drifter waved her off
Snatching the small camera from the trolley and stretching the elastic around his helmet before letting go and having a satisfy 'snap' on his metal helmet. Glancing to his left he saw the second trolley roll up to his feet presenting the Transportalponder. Just looking at the device it looked like some oversized laser pistol with a weird slot that could be opened to reveal the plug for the Pip-boy. Taking a mighty breath and slowly letting it out The Drifter was ready to withstand whatever Hell he might land too. Sure he could land on a planet where all the inhabitants thought he was a god, but at the same time, he could possibly be transported where he gets instantly ripped apart by a black hole or eaten alive by giant space worms. Not exactly the most reassuring thoughts.
"Fuck it. Let's do this." Grabbing the large pistol from the trolley the Drifter readied the device and held the trigger tightly down. Loud whirring emanated from the Transportalponder gradually getting louder and louder until it was just one giant screech. The Barrel finally glew a giant bright blue before a giant flash and the Drifter was gone…
In the dark of night in the inhospitable deserts of Menagerie far away from Faunus civilization, a bright flash of blue that could rival the sun in brightness that slowly faded, and a sound equivalent of a bomb going off that would even wake the heaviest sleepers, a single man stood in the center of it all. Armor cladding is body armed to the teeth for this new expedition.
"What the fuck!" Screaming in the pain that his ears were having from the sound of the new Transportalponder, "I thought they would test this shit first!" A few minutes from writhing in pain the Drifter looked up to see the shattered Moon.
"Holy shit… Good to know I'm not in Kansas anymore." But with a few quick glances, it didn't matter. There was only one feature that the Drifter saw of this brand new landscape. Desert.
"Are you kidding me… I ended up in a desert…" 'At least it's better than a black hole.' The Drifter didn't add to his complaining.
Exploring the desolate wasteland did show differences compared to his home, for one, it was more like Monument Valley. Sand every where meaning that sooner or later he's somehow gonna magically get sand in his underwear, all in all, this was too much of home.
Scanning the night sky he made sure his camera catch a good shot of the shattered moon, and some weird black creatures with very obvious glowing red eyes showing up in the night. Popping on nightvision he decided to take a scan through the horizon only to spot an oasis.
"Perfect." He muttered in anticipation. Breaking into a casual stroll he made his way towards the oasis completely dismissing the danger of this desert's creatures.
The stroll was quaint. The Desert night was comfortably cool, something he did cherish at home leaving him with a comforting sense of familiarity that was until a low growl interrupted him. Snapping his head to the right and readying his Survivalist Rifle, the Drifter activated VATS to see a black beast of great proportions just six yards away from him. Armadillo-like with white, bony, plating as the and a sharpened black snout that went into a sharp point. Even VATS offered no name for the creature, but that didn't matter, it will soon be gibbed by multiple 12.7mm's piercing its body
With four trigger pulls, the Armadillo exploded in a wonderfully gory mess the 12.7's tore through the creature
"Boom bitch!" Throwing two middle fingers to the dead creature, he haughtily taunted it, "That's what happens when you can't guard your body for SHI-!" The Drifter instantly paused as the creature began to quickly decompose and fade away, "The fuck…? Better grab a sample…" Without haste, he quickly fetched flesh from the dying creature. It was tender as if the flesh barely clung to the bones of the Armadillo. It was easy pickings for the Drifter before digitizing the quickly fading meat to his Pip-Boy.
It was a great start for sure! But what really piqued his interests was the oasis surely he saw a flash of light coming from there. He waited for a few seconds before... There it was again! Another flash! It wasn't bright by all means. But hey, it at least gave the Drifter a reason to hustle.
From a walk to a jog to an absolute mad sprint, he was excited! Sure he should be worried about the light in some way, shape or form. But who cared about that? He boxed with Deathclaws just for shits N' giggles before that got too stale for him.
It was not until that the light brightened again and being close enough, he pulled out his Circle of Steel rifle and scanned for the light for a few seconds before it appeared again. It looked like…. A building? It had the door opening over and over again as people or what he thought were people exiting and entering the building. Letting curiosity grab him by the balls he marched forward in prospects in seeing aliens that probably won't kill him. That was unless it was those little green fuckers again. Then he would just firebomb the entire place basking in the glory of their screams of pain. Hopefully, he wished this wasn't the case.
"Closer…. Closer…. Yes… Yeeess…" The Drifter whispered to himself like a maniac, "All this Knaaaawwwwledge." He was having fun, the feeling of discovering new places made his gut almost want to jump for joy and all the things he said was to simply entertain himself, he nearly forgot that he would have to give the video footage to the Think Tank and didn't even hit the realization that they would criticize everything he said in the footage.
He got as close as he could get before noticing that the building had much, much more behind it. That was when he had his "Holy shit" moment,
"I am literally on the border of a fucking city…" He mumbled to himself.
He saw people, that's right people. Bonafide, genuine people. At least, sorta… They had weird animal features; Rabbit ears, Cat ears, Antlers, Dog ears, even tails from cats, horses, cows, or foxes. It was…. Interesting to say the least but from what the Drifter could tell from the white masks. It was some stupid club meeting or some shit with bouncer… He was planning on introducing himself until it seems the bouncer outside the entrance decided to introduce himself first.
"Hey! What're you doing here!" The tall masked man with Antlers calls towards the Drifter's direction. It took a few seconds for the Drifter to realize that an alien was actually talking to him, and… It. Was. Awesome. He had to pause to think. He was speaking in English, and the Drifter pausing and not responding any further began to grant bigger problems as he closed in cautiously.
"Oh! I'm from the desert over back beyond me. I was sent to explore by my town to search for other people to make contact with." Sounding completely friendly, a very stark contrast with his daunting appearance.
"Yeah. Bullshit. That desert is impossible to live in." the Faunus readies his awkward looking submachine gun as those in the line waiting are visibly distressed
"Hey, hey, hey, hey… Calm it. I ain't causin' trouble for y'all!" The Drifter quickly waves his hands nervously, "I'm a man just like you! Why so hostile?"
"How can I believe some random guy who looks nothing like us..." The Moose Faunus becomes more agitated as he readies his weapon aiming at the Drifter
"Wrong move…" The Drifter mutters under his breath. He whips out his Ranger Sequoia and lugs a .45-70 through the masked man splattering his brains all over anybody standing by.
"Ah… Shit…" The Drifter fucked up bad. Holstering his trusty pistol, he popped a trusty Stealth Boy giving him the sweet advantage of invisibility, he ran at full speed deeper into the city instantly leaving the clubhouse in the dust.
"Shit! Fuck! Ass!" The Drifter cried out. Before the Stealth Boy wore off leaving him in the middle of a street. He slowed down and took deep breaths and collect his bearings
So far, he's in some city which looks like Hawaii or Maui with some weird Tiki shit, and he didn't make the best first impression. So far the first guy he met he blew his brains out. Not exactly the best decision, but it was instinct so he couldn't be blamed for it right?
'Of course, I shouldn't be blamed. He pointed his gun at me for no reason' The Drifter desperately reasoned in his head. It didn't help that some people came out of their homes, even from a sound such as that from such a far distance away people normally this far away wouldn't react like this. It probably didn't help either that people saw the helmeted wanderer in the streets.
Gazing left and right eyes were all looking at him. And the eyes looked like they… Glowed? Sighing, the Drifter was already regretting this experiment and the long night that will accompany it.
AN: Sorry for taking so long. I just have really bad writer's block. I just have issues on how my writing style should lean. When I try to go at it (heh heh) I end up making it feel... Stiff. I don't like it. If you guys have any ideas or questions then send me a PM but if you're a guest I can reply in the Author's note. As in, right here. Thanks for reading! Also don't forget to review!