Snowflake in the Sand

Chapter 15

Over his long life Mr. House had wished many things, but right now he just wished that he could change the appearance of his static image, just so he could make feel people under contract more judged. He stared down at the battered duo that he decided would be his tools to usurp the entire Mojave Wasteland from both the Legion and the NCR. Mr. House let out an audible sigh "What on earth have you being doing? Time is not something that I have the luxury of"

"We… stopped Legion advances on Utah, they wanted to crash on the Mojave from both sides, kind of hoping you were not expecting compliance from the Legion from now on" Six said as he massively resumed everything that happened on Zion valley. If the man in the computer was surprised by this he didn't show it "Ah understandable and no, for the next part of MY plan Caser is no longer of any use. Antagonize him if you must, because your reputation with the NCR must be positive, even in all their misguided attempts at "civilization" they are still the primary customers on the strip".

Winter raised an eyebrow "And you plan to keep your plan under wraps while we aid the NCR?"

Mr. House did not falter for a second with his answer "Of course, you see the main problem with the New California Republic is, no matter what President Kimball and General Oliver say, their main force is still back in California. Protecting the rich and the politicians from whatever scandal they have. Without their full army, they are barely keeping a hold of their interest here and the Legion knows this, but more importantly I know it. But that will come into play later so for now, just aid them while keeping your allegiance to me secret and if they ask just tell them that we are… let's say not on the best terms"

Six rubbed his chin "So, help the NCR and make the legion hate us when we are not working on the main mission. What is the first step then?"

Mr. House printed a small pamphlet "This, there is a tribe near us that has quite the powerful weaponry that will tip the scales once the battle for Hoover dam comes, one of my securitrons was destroyed when it tried to approach their territory with what appeared to be a coordinated bombardment, the locals call this tribe the Boomers, they live in a place called Nellis"

Six snorted but gave the man on the TV a nod and a wave "I will be back when they are allied with us" the courier gave Winter a nod and moved towards the elevator. The specialist waited for the elevator to close before speaking. "I got your message on my PipBoy, if this is about betraying Six we're through I will find another way home"

Mr. House let out a chuckle and Winter was sure that if he could he would have shook his head "Nothing of the sort, this is a topic that requires more… let's say tact, Courier Six while important is not apt for this task. You see when I looked at my files there is one name that appeared again and again and that was Helios One the government had a strict security around the information of the palce but I managed to decode some of it before the bombs fell. There's something hidden there, something ancient that's why the brotherhood fought tooth and nail for it, the NCR does not know what that building holds. Maybe it holds something of value to you"

"Helios One?" Six said with a raised eyebrow as they walked towards where the boomers supposedly lived, Winter gave a short nod "Seems like there might be something there for me, I just wonder why he didn't want to say it in front of you"

"Rule of the wasteland Winter, too many ears means more information might get out. And being honest is not like I need to know, I might fuck something up knowing my luck" he said as he kicked a pebble. Now it was Winter's turn to stare at him "You are quite literally the luckiest man I have ever met, your mere existence is proof that luck has favorites" the specialist said with a deadpan tone of voice she could muster. Six snickered and put both hands in his pockets "Is the outfit what can I say"

Winter frowned and let out a huff "You looked good for a couple of days but now you switched back to that Vault Suit, I hate that thing"

"I will not give up until you wear one Winter and besides, we're on a diplomatic mission what makes you feel more safe and at ease than a blue Vault Suit" Six said as a man waved at them to stop.

"Slow down there friends I would suggest that you stop, up ahead are the boomers and unless you want to be torn to shreds I suggest you turn back… unless you are the betting kind" Six grinned.

"You got my interest picked good sir, tell me about this gamble"

"Nothing much, I just tell you the secret of how to pass the bombardment for some caps and if you pass I will give you double" the man said as he put his hand forth, Six not short on caps decided to humor the man. Caps safely in his hand the man gave Six a small piece of paper "all you need to know is right there, I hope you make it" and with that he left them to their devices.

"Sure you do" Six muttered under his breath as he gave the note one last read, he placed a hand on Winter's shoulder "Ready when you are"

Winter gave a nod "Try to keep up"

Six snorted and started to walk towards the first cover, but their walk stopped as the sky cracked with the sound of a giant round fired. Six's eyes widened as he saw a giant rocket head directly towards him

"Fuck"

Winter gasped as blood sprayed her cheeks, Six groaned as his legs broke and his arm almost was torn from its place, using his only good arm he stabbed himself with Stimpaks, Winter tried to help him but another explosion made her move to a safer location "Six! We rendezvous by that destroyed house!"

The courier nodded as he downed Buffout and some Jet, Winter ran as fst as her body allowed it and to her surprise Six kept up with her, the drugs on his body made him ignore the pieces of rock that had sunk deep into his flesh the torn Vault Suit no longer offering any protection. The house that they managed to find some cover held many bodies and Winter wondered how many people had died trying to reach this aggressive tribe, but as she tried to get a better picture of where to go a beam of light reflected on metal caught her eye.

"Six what is that thing" Winter said as Six patched himself up, the Courier gave it a quick look and frowned "Power Armor, more specifically Brotherhood of Steel power armor and if they didn't make it I think we might be fucked"

Winter covered her face as her aura flickered, more of the house they were hiding was destroyed the bombardment was merciless but an idea made it's way to her head "Six get ready to move"

Concentrating she used one of her glyphs to move the power armor, the movement where inhuman but it mattered little all they needed was a distraction. It looked as if an icy mist covered a zombie and if that did not catch their attention, she didn't know what will.

The duo stealthily made their way towards the gate as the power armor was bombarded by almost all artillery allowing a safe passage, Six gave her a grin "Not bad, my plan was to jam myself full of stimpaks until I made it there"

"Creativity for violence always came easy to me" Winter commented making Six chuckle "Sound to me like a lot of repressed anger"

Winter rolled her eyes "Says the one who solves everything with his fists and guns" to her surprise Six nodded "Yup, violence outside not inside maybe that's why I am such a straightforward guy… at least now, who know how I was before" he commented as they arrived at a gate.

Shaking in their boots with what Winter could only describe as cold rage "How the hell did you get pass that bombardment?" Winter glared at them but said nothing leaving the negotiation to Six "Is all in the pacing, luck and a little something called stimpaks"

"But I had you zeroed in the entire time!" the boomer said, Six simply gave him a grin. Banter was cut short as the leader of the security team escorted them to their leader, while they walked Winter analyzed the area. Hangers that once contained may aircrafts where scattered around the area, if she was a betting woman she would say that this entire area belonged to the military back before the war.

It was no airport like Camp McCarran, that old airport had a certain eeriness to it. Winter had yet to enter but it felt as if the NCR moved inside a dead husk, while Nellis had a life of its own. The boomers had a modified Vault suit, they had survived the war by secluding themselves from everything. She could not blame them for being hesitant from accepting outsiders.

The leader of security grumbled as she opened the door for them, their leader; an old woman with a tired look, motioned them to approach. "Welcome children, I am mother Pearl, when I heard that someone had breached the perimeter I didn't know what to think, but maybe it was a sign and I thank you for coming to us"

"So I passed a test already, look at that" Six said with a small smile, as he shifted his expression from aloof to one more focused, the boomers that guarded pearl lifted an eyebrow at that. "But I assume that getting your trust is not as easy as simply running across a bombardment"

"No it would not be enough, but why would you want our trust" Pearl commented with a curious smile. Six chuckled "Well I don't know if should say something so intimate with so many people"

Pearl narrowed her eyes "Leave us"

The boomers looked at each other and then back to their leader "But…"-"Out now" the old woman commanded "Our new friend here won't try anything, and besides what would a savage do against a weapon" the smirk that appeard on the lips of every boomer told a story that Winter didn't know how to feel. Six merely chuckled, the specialist wondered if it was because he found it funny or because he had many concealed weapon on him that could allow him to "take care" of the situation.

"Savage huh, you know I have been called many things but that is a new one" The courier commented once they were alone once again, Pearl simply shook her head.

"It's to put their mind at ease, it is all we have ever know and all we will know if I don't do something about it and that's when you come in. For now don't tell me your intention for I don't care because if you truly want to get something from us you will first have to help us"

Six shrugged "Sure, what do you need help with"

"Oh so many ways child, but I would recommend speaking to Raquel or master at arms and Loyal, they can direct you to the most pressing of matters succeed there and well we might have something else to talk about"

Six nodded and headed towards the door followed by Winter, when the door opened they where met with the boomers trying to look as if they had not being spying on them.

"So Raquel, what problems do you need solving?" Six said with a grin making the master at arms scoff, but Winter saw a small blush reach her cheeks. For such a hostile and volatile people they seemed to really care for one another. Making a mental note on that Winter half listened in on the bug problem. Nothing to complicated she noted, a casual extermination.

Children ran around the place and for a moment, she forgot that these people had actually shot at them with the full intent of blowing them to a red smudge. But as she glanced back at her friend she realized that Six was covered in his own blood and the entire upper half of his Vault suit was missing. She could see some rocks and debris from the explosions deep into his skin.

"Winter" Six said snapping her out of her inspection, with a small hum of acknowledgement she turned towards her friend "Could you go speak to Loyal about any other problem, I will go ahead and kill all those small ants"

Winter gave him a nod and turned to Raquel "Loyal can be found in the hangar".

Whit a small sigh and a nod she turned towards the hangar and walked, as Six faded from her view she saw how he chatted with may of the kids as they swarmed him with questions. He took it all in stride but Winter wondered if he felt as exasperated as she was, now that the adrenaline had worn off and a plan had been made she kicked a pebble as the frustration mounted.

Chore after chore, quest after quest and yet all she got was that there "might" be something capable of helping her on the other side of the dessert. And there was nothing she could do about it, if she just dropped everything and went straight to Helios One there was no guarantee that she would find something that could help her in the long run.

And if the territory fell into all-out war there would be little time for finding any information, she distrusted House but he was the only one aiding her. Six was no scientist and the followers of the apocalypse in Freeside to her looked as they would be of little help. So here she was walking from place to place, half listening to Loyal's insults and nodding along as he pointed her on the direction of the solar panel that needed repairing.

The sun was finally settling again as Winter felt her hand shake slightly as she tried to look at the solar panels, another day gone with nothing to show for it. Winter shook her head as she realized she could do nothing about the panels and sat down to stare at the moon. She hated it, but at the same time she admired it.

Remnant was always a broken planet, full of broken kingdoms but there was always something beautiful to behold, the trees so full of life and the cold vistas of Atlas that no matter the day or what was on her head it would always maker admire how beautiful it was.

Here on the Mojave Wasteland the moon was intact while the planet was broken, everything was a shade of brown or green, nature was eaten away by the decisions of mankind and even Zion was not the exception.

A loud explosion bellow her made her alert as she brought out her sword, but her worries died down as she heard a familiar string of curse word "Why the f…. where the fuck was that ant hiding?!"

Six kicked the door open and with his hand swung the carcass of the dead animal towards the exit, he then proceeded to flip it off repeatedly. Winter shook her head "I think he got the message once it died Six, not much use trying to make it angry now"

"I… what are you doing here?"

"The solar panels are broken, and fixing them are beyond something I can do. So it seems we need to travel to another place for it… again and then come back and wait for the next stupid sh… thing to go after"

Six whistles as he sat down next to her "Careful you almost said a swear word, I think I might be having the wrong effect on you"

Winter could only scoff but found herself a little bit more at peace with Six messing around with his newly acquired jacket.

"So are you going to tell me what's wrong or do I have to magic it like your weird ice things" Six commented, Winter gave a chuckle that didn't seem genuine. But after a moment of silence she relented.

"I am not getting any closer to going home than I was before, House has an army and both the NCR and Legion are making their moves. But me I am as close as getting to home as I was the day I fell on this STUPID dessert!" Winter half yelled.

Six said nothing, letting Winter vent for a little, but when the girl started to shake either in rage or cold the courier placed a hand on her shoulder "We have a lead"

"Helios One might be empty for all we know"

"So? If there's nothing there we move on to somewhere else, there's a local leyend The Sierra Madre said to keep secrets of the old world and if there's nothing there the wasteland is a big place and IF we must we could always talk to the brotherhood of steel"

Winter gave a nod and shook her head "Yeah, I know. I just… miss my home and I guess I lost hope for a minute"

Six grabbed her by the shoulders "Don't, you promised me a trip didn't you" and smiled down at her. Winter felt her heart beat a little faster and realized something 'Oh no'

"So, we need solar panels to replace these old ones. Good, so it seems like Helios One just jumped up in our priority list" Six said as he jumped down from the place he was sitting and offered his hand.

Helios One was bigger inside than what any of them expected; with their newfound reputation in the NCR the soldiers at the entrance let them in with no problem. They were pointed towards "the idiot with the glasses" who was in charge of getting the giant power station back in order, but sadly for the NCR he really was just an idiot with glasses.

"Shit man I do everything here, I press the buttons and turn dials, I read numbers. Sometimes I make up stories in my head about what those numbers mean, you know scientist stuff" Mr. Fantastic said as he pointed at the main console. Winter felt her eye twitch as Six could only raise his eyebrows.

"How the fuck did you get this job"

"It was easy man, the NCR was going door to door if anyone knew any scientist and I said look no further. They asked me if I knew anything about power plants, I said as much as anyone I'd ever met. They asked me how well I understood theoretical physics I told them I had a theoretical degree in physics and they said welcome aboard"

Winter felt her despair at not finding anything worthwhile here grow so she simply shook her head "Just give us the password so we can repair this place"

"Sure no problem babe, here you go. It was written down on the bathroom" Fantastic said as he went back to turn dials and press buttons on the biggest console. Another scientist was there and as Six waved hello Winter noticed how he had more research data on his small desk than fantastic had in the entire lab.

"It's unusual to see a different face around here, what can I help you with" the scientist said.

"Well you seem smarted than the other fellow over there so I wanted to ask some questions about the station" Six said as he leaned against the wall, the scientist gave a small nod.

"Sure, this power station is old war one of the most advanced and from the looks of it the most heavily fortified scientist station on this side of the country, but why is more of a delicate subject one that I don't think the NCR should know about"

Winter narrowed her eyes "Sounds to me like you don't want the NCR here"

"No, but I will keep my comments to myself if you are part of the NCR" the scientist said making Six shake his head "We are here more on a… let's say scientific research, helping the NCR is a bonus but we are more interested in what can we use here to help the people"

"Many have made those claims before but their intentions have been less than true but I have no way of solving this so you're the only hope I got. My name is Ignacio I'm with the followers of the apocalypse and I need your aid, sleeping in this station there's a weapon of mass destruction one that the NCR must never know about. By a miracle they hired an idiot, that console he's working on is the light control of the station, he thinks that is the most important one because is the biggest one"

Six and Winter spared a glance at Fantastic as he managed to zap himself with the console. For his part Ignacio seemed used to the event.

"But we need to solve this now, it wont be long before they realize that fantastic is useless. So we need to power up this plant and give the NCR energy so the don't dig deeper into the issue" Ignacio said as he handed him a note with the codes. Six gave a nod "So should I send the power to the strip and McCarran like they want?"

"Not necessarily as long as you send some energy I think they would be satisfied, so please send most of the energy to the places in need of it" Ignacio said as he gave them a nod and turned to leave but Six stopped him. Ignacio raised an eyebrow at him but Winter quickly intervened

"I know it might sound weird, but in your studies of this place you have not come across some odd documents, like let's different universes and teleportation" the specialist asked in a hopeful tone. Ignacio brought a hand to his chin "Not here no, but from what the monitors say there is a console inside that might have what you need. I could not access the information from here but I am certain that there was something called dimensional transportation, I hope it helps"

Winter smiled and turned to Six who gave her a nod and they made their way outside, on their way to the two control panels they salvaged some replacements to the panels that the boomers needed. Winter made quick work of the consoles thanks to the passwords they were given, but she could not help but notice that Six looked over her shoulder when she opened any of the documents concerning Archimedes II.

Indulging his curiosity, she moved to the side so that he could see "Seems like they went very far on the testing of this super weapon, but with so many bombs already at their disposal why would they need another super weapon"

Six rubbed his chin "Seems to me like this was faster, a weapon to surpass the bomb" his eyes narrowed but he simply shook his head "Come on, we need to fire this bad boy up"

The inside of Helios One turned out to be more deadly than the outside, turrets and robots greeted them with a hail of bullets and fire. Winter was a great counter against robots using her ice powers to make them easier for Six to destroy. But for most of their time inside Winter looked frantically for any type of monitor on her way.

And once they where on the main console Winter found it, a small computer barely flickering, Winter wiped the dust off the screen and carefully booted it up. Winter fell some anxiety rise as it asked for a password but she could only hope she could hack it. The first two attempts where a bust but at her third she was successful.

"Here it is" Winter said as she read the files. Winter felt her hand shake with excitement as she typed away on the green screen.

"Teleportation and multiversal studies moved to The Big MT Research Facility, Dr. Klein insisted that the breakthrough that the research required could only be achieved in those facilities, to me it seems we just handed those eggheads the cheat sheet to a test, he had almost finished it"

Six finished routing the power to the poorer areas of Vegas with a sigh, if he was not going to use the weapon might as well help some people. He was caught quickly by surprise when he was caught in soft embrace.

"Winter what…"

"They have it, they have a way for me to go home" Winter said with a large smile and tears in her eyes.

A/N: Hello, good to be back. Not much to add except something regarding Courier Six. If not for Winter he would have activated Archimedes II for its in his nature but more of that in the future. Thank you for reading!