Author's Note/Prelude
Hey this is RedRat8 bringing you guys another story, and for all looking forward or enjoying my previous story, I am sorry to announce but they're dead. One reason being is that when I was writing those stories couple years ago, I went through a sort of...breakdown of sorts, one my oldest friends, the younger brother of my best friend died due to medical complications and his death plus other issues going on, caused me to suffer depression and an inability to write or think of anything good to do. As a result I turned to other activities and focused on dealing with real life, but now I am doing mentally much better now and I am very much excited to bring to you people this new story.
Shoutout to milkduds100, who helped me convince this idea can work and for his own AoT/OnK idea gave me inspiration for this, enjoy~
It's been close to nine months since the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, the combined forces of the NCR Armed Forces and House's Securitron Army made mincemeat of Caesar's Legion and sent them scurrying back to Flagstaff. In that time, a great deal of many changes has occurred for good or for ill, like the fact that the House now had his own personal army and the NCR couldn't take over New Vegas anymore. But House was able to use his own business skills and silver tongue to negotiate entrance into the NCR as the ruling head of New Vegas as a Protectorate state, considering how everything but New Vegas was still free for annexing, along with maintaining control of Hoover Dam and Helios One, it was a worthwhile exchange as House would still have to send taxes in.
But for the man formally known as Courier Six, AKA, Markus Redgrave, however; that was hardly his biggest concern as he was dealing with one of the biggest problems that he currently has right about now.
"For crying out loud Markus, I promise you that nobody will let those gel brain scientists off their leashes." Julia Farkas said in exasperation as she and Markus stood in the Big Empty Science Facility, which had soon become the new home of the Followers of the Apocalypse following the Second Battle of Hoover Dam and Markus told them about the place.
"Normally I would agree with you Julia but those Brains are smarter than they act, and they're responsible or the Night Stalkers existing to begin with. If any of them manage to escape, there's no telling what kind of damage they can do." Markus warned.
"Markus, you told not just me, but members of the newly established Iron Revolutionaries here, you know that people like Paladin Ramos and even that former Enclave Soldier, Orion, know full well about the threat they pose." Julia said in exasperation.
"And both the Brotherhood and Enclave were defeated by people that they deemed their inferiors, and that way of thinking is what led to the Brotherhood having their Civil War, so we especially have to take all precautions just in case." Markus said sternly as Julia, reluctantly nodded as she could see where Markus was coming from.
"Fine, we'll keep the Iron Revolutionary Guards on them at all time. Just try to not be too intense about it, okay Markus? A lot of our members are kind of high strung after seeing how intense conflict can get at Hoover Dam." Julia said.
"Ah you know me Julia, I wouldn't go out of my way to antagonize you folks, you lot are among the few decent groups left in the entire wasteland that I can trust to run this facility." Markus assured as Julia nodded before Markus checked his Pipboy and saw the time. "Well much as I like to go now, I have things to do, places to be, so ciao." Markus waved good bye as Julia waved back in response as Markus walked off.
As Markus walked off to his next destination, he passed by a number of Followers that greeted him with respect, or Iron Revolutionaries clad in their Power Armor saluting him as he passed by. Markus shook his head as he was exasperated by the respect given to him, sure he may have been the key linchpin in keeping everyone allied together against the Legion, but fucking damn it, they placed far too much importance on him, and now he was going to become the Chief Diplomat for the Mojave so that way no one tries to actually kill each other. Not really helping that is the fact that most of these factions can easily backslide into causing trouble if no one is there to keep an eye on them.
As Markus looked out the window, he saw a number of Iron Revolutionaries in their Power Armor going out on another hunt to deal with more scientific abominations that Big Empty produced and wasn't heard until now. Iron Revolutionaries were not just a group that came out of nowhere, Iron Revolutionaries were former Brotherhood of Steel Defectors that turned against the Codex and were more like Veronica and wanted to better their organization. Kind of ironic that most Brotherhood members he met were isolationist and conservatives but, to his surprise and Veronica's, there was actually a larger number of Brotherhood members that wanted to change their ways.
Apparently, a long time ago, the NCR and Brotherhood had an alliance, and the Brotherhood were even helping out the NCR improve scientifically as a nation. But all of that changed when the higher ups in the Brotherhood wanted to hoard all the good weapons and science stuff for themselves and started becoming more hostile as a result. This led to a number of Brotherhood Personal to argue and the decision of their High Council, and as a result, these Brotherhood members were sentenced to an informal exile on airships that nobody hasn't heard from until recently. Then apparently, there was an East Coast chapter of Brotherhood of Steel that had a sort of Civil War that started because the Elder cared more about the people than technology over there.
Due to the number of people questioning the Codex and their decisions, the High Council became more fanatical in trying to enforce their rules and orders, while it was silent on the surface, they didn't realize discontent has been secretly brewing as a result. The NCR/Brotherhood War apparently was the second to last spark to cause the discontented members to gain a large following. And when the Brotherhood main headquarters heard that the Mojave Chapter survived by allying with the NCR, that became the final spark for the Brotherhood Civil War.
This led to the Eight Month War, in which Brotherhood Conservatives fought against Brotherhood Liberals, dubbing themselves the Iron Revolutionaries. The Iron Revolutionaries wanted change and be open to the world, as well as restart their alliance with the NCR and other civilized nations to rebuild the world. Initially, the Conservatives had the advantage to due to being larger and having access to higher grade Energy Weapons and Power Armor, but the Iron Revolutionaries had an advantage that the Conservatives could never beat, allies.
The Iron Revolutionaries appealed to the NCR for an alliance to beat back their codex bound tech hoarding brothers, and the NCR, seeing a chance to finally lay down the people initially responsible for the NCR/Brotherhood War, as well as gaining new allies, agreed to an alliance. This resulted in the NCR giving the Iron Revolutionaries access to NCR's military, which not only included Vertibird VTOLs salvaged from the Enclave's Oil Rig, but also the Enclave's Advanced Power Armor and their Energy Weapons. The Iron Revolutionaries quickly changed up gear and with NCR Rangers and Troopers by their side, they completely and utterly dominated the war until the Brotherhood of Steel were defeated.
As part of their alliance, the Iron Revolutionaries agreed to join the NCR and became part of their nation, where the scribes not only aided in the recovery of lost technology and knowledge. The power of the Brotherhood's military might also join forces with the NCR's Military, and soon the Paladins soon formed a new Corp to replace the NCR Heavy Trooper Corp, that was disbanded in the aftermath of the Second Battle of Hoover Dam to give the Brotherhood back their Power Armor, the newly founded Vanguard Corp, the NCR's exclusive Powered Armor Division. Meaning that the Iron Revolutionaries, combined with their liberal views and their desire to rebuild the world, made them the perfect prison wardens and guards for the Big Empty, and when Elder Nolan of the Mojave's Iron Revolutionary Chapter heard about the secrets and danger that the Big Empty had, he sent Paladin Ramos, alongside a number of trustworthy members to guard the facility.
Markus thought that the Civil War, while costly, for the Brotherhood was perhaps for the best; especially since they all but degenerated into becoming High Tech Raiders, and in Markus's opinion that would be an extremely unfitting end for the Brotherhood who had played a big role in ending the threat that were the Master and his Super Mutant Army, and the Enclave threat. Speaking of which, he saw Orion doing his role of being the strict task master, while it was surprising to see the old man now part of the NCR's Vanguard Corp, the fact that Markus was able to get a Pardon for all of the former Enclave in exchange for their aid in the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, was a kind surprise to most of them. As it turns out, there was actually a number of Enclave Defectors that quit, due to seeing the changing tides of the war or had morality like Johnson and refused to break them, so the NCR accepted Enclave Defectors into their rank.
Due to the fact that Markus got a pardon for all of them, they got job offers from the NCR, for Daisy, she got a chance to train the next generation of Combat Vertibird Pilots and gets to soar the skies for as long as she wanted. Henry got the chance to attack even more medical projects and with NCR, Follower, and Iron Revolutionary support. Johnson and Orion got an offer to join the NCR's Vanguard Corp and train new soldiers in the usage of Power Armor, both accepted for their own reasons of course. Orion wanted to showcase to the NCR of what a "real fucking soldier" looks like while Johnson was more than enthusiastic at the idea of Powered Armored Soldiers kicking the asses of slavers, raiders, monsters, and more, while redeeming the honor of the Advanced Power Armor. Krieger was given a chance to join the NCR's Officer Corp, where his access to pre-war training and rare leadership experience proved invaluable.
Then Markus heard a wheel rolling up and smiled as he turned to the machine that made it all possible, Victor. "Hey there Markus!" Victor greeted cheerfully. "Was wondering where you've been, the Old Man is excited to see you soon at the Lucky 38." He said with such enthusiasm that Markus couldn't help but chuckle.
"Sorry Victor, but I had a few things to take care of first, pre-war science facilities like these can't be left unattended, else they'll release some kind of disaster that will kill everyone sooner or later." Markus answered.
"Ah well I can understand that, even the Old Man was surprised to see that the Big Empty survived well enough to still be causing trouble." Victor replied as he looked around. "Thankfully you seem to have that issue well in hand to make sure it doesn't ever happen now."
Markus nodded. "Yeah, as much as I would prefer tireless machines like yourself to guard this place, that would give House too much power, and the NCR's already nervous about you boys, best to leave it in the care of the Followers, God knows they won't be causing any trouble if they can, and giving House and NCR access to the facility through the Followers' filtered research is the best compromise." Markus explained to him.
"Aye, that's fair, and also we finally got your package ready." Victor nodded as Markus brightened up at his words. "Follow me partner." Victor said as Six followed Victor to his personal room, that he was going to give up to Julia so she can watch over this facility, the Sink.
And soon enough, Markus saw the suitcase holding his remaining gold bars that he had from the Sierra Madre, the suitcase was reinforced and hardened so that way nobody can open it and without permission too. "That my luggage case that I got commissioned Victor?" Markus asked as he examined it.
"Aye, House knew that you would want to keep some items secured, that carries all of your Gold Bars and is now DNA Locked to you and cannot be seen inside or broken into so easily now." Victor explained as Markus nodded at the details. When he first came back from the Sierra Madre, he went to the New Vegas Medical Clinic to get all of the Implants, as they were a worthwhile investment, while it was apparently very costly, Markus easily had the money now to pay for it. Using about five gold bars, he easily paid for all of his Implants, and then he spent another five gold bars to get the Implants at the Sink, so now he had about twenty-seven gold bars left, which lowered to twenty-four after he donated three of them to the Followers to keep them funded.
"Thanks Victor, I really appreciate the aid you given me since you dug me up." Markus smiled as he pulled out a handle bar and started pulling the case around, which wasn't that much issue, as the wheels were made of high-grade material to prevent it from collapsing under the weight of the gold. "Well, I suppose that's enough for now, this should be the last of my stash that I kept hidden here, now I got to go to the Lucky 38 and play ambassador." Markus said with an eyeroll at the last bit of info as Victor just laughed joyfully.
"Well just keep up the good work Markus, I'll see you soon enough." Victor said as Six nodded and took out the Transportalplonder…that Markus quickly renamed the Teleport Gun and soon activated it as he waved Victor goodbye and vanished. Victor than rolled off humming to himself checking over some details at Big Empty before he would return to the Lucky 38 to greet Markus and guide him to his Penthouse Suite.
But unknown to him and the rest of the Mojave, Markus would never reach the Lucky 38, and many would mourn for the loss of the Mojave's Messiah.
Markus hated traveling by instant teleportation for the most part, he couldn't deny it was quick and fast, but he hated the lack of control he had over the teleportation, he didn't know if he was going to end up dead or missing one way or another, and even worse was that the Brains designed it. So naturally it was going to be fucked up one way or another, and was simply waiting for the shoe to drop, so when he finally appeared again, it occurred to him that the other shoe had dropped.
"…What the fuck?" Markus said with wide eyes as he found himself on the rooftop of some building in some city that he has never seen before and rushed to the edge and looked around in shock at what he was seeing. "What the fuck?" He repeated as he saw neon bright lights, cars driving and moving, people walking around like it's nothing, and a bunch of Chinese looking words all over everywhere. "What the actual fuck?!" He nearly shouted as this was clearly not the fucking Mojave.
What the fuck was this place?! This looked like no settlement he ever seen or visited before in his life. This was something new, something unexpected, he had to go into hiding quick before anyone notices him and rats him out. So, as Markus rushed to grab his luggage, he found the fire escape stairs and climbed it down while carefully trying to stay out of line of sight and then dropped his luggage once he got to the bottom and he jumped down and hid in the ally, trying to get his bearings.
"Okay Markus." Markus started speaking to himself, which probably wasn't a good sign for his mental health, but he needed this. "You're in an unknown location, you only have the stuff you brought on you, you don't know the Chinese looking written language, which looks familiar yet different, and you only just got here…fucking wonderful." He groaned as he hid his gold bar luggage case so nobody spots it and find it and did the next important task, which was learning their spoken language.
Six checked his looks in a nearby broken mirror in the trash and looked at his casual clothes that he wore, which consisted of a baseball cap, lucky shades, and a park stroller outfit. He wanted to bring his weapons with him, but considering that nobody looked to be armed, coming out armed would stand out too much and decided that discretion was the better part of value. So, with great reluctance, Markus placed his weapons away and started walking out among the populace to get a feel for the people; and what he heard did not make him feel better.
He did not recognize the language, he understood none of it, he took as much notes as he could of the setting around him to find anything familiar, but to his dismay; nothing was familiar. He was also starting to get queasy from all the bright lights that he was seeing, and was secretly thankful he wore his lucky shades, after he broke open into that Caesar Legion's Safehouse after he stole the keys for it from Lucius's corpse, as the shades kept the bright lights from blinding him too much.
With great reluctance, Markus moved to a book place of some kind and simply stayed there for a moment as he decided to regain his composure. As he looked at the books, he leaned towards the aisle in the book place where there weren't many people, but still filled to the brim with unreadable books, which didn't do him any good. But he suddenly passed by a book that caught his interest and picked it up and read the title, which was actually in English! It was none other than an English to Japanese Dictionary that actually explained the spoken and written language of the place he was in!
This told Markus a lot already of what he needed to know, for one thing, the language of this place was Japanese, which he heard about in mention from the Gun Runners when he got that Katana blade. The second important thing was that he now had a way to understand and speak the language of this place he was in. The third and most important thing that occurred to him now was…he was flat broke as he looked around the book and saw a price tag for a type of currency called Yen, meaning his bottle caps were worthless here.
"Crap Baskets." Markus muttered as he didn't have the means to pay for the book, so he examined the book to see if there was any kind of security system of sorts, and found a sort of hidden chip in the back, so with great ease and carefulness, he removed the chip from the dictionary. Next, he needed to cause a distraction that would prevent the shop owner from focusing on him, and he saw a bunch of kids drinking and eating something while laughing, and then he saw the soda cans…and got an idea.
So silently walking as stealthily as he could, Markus snuck out a soda can from the group and started shaking it all about. Then once it was fully shaken, he rolled the can back to the group next to the hand of one of the youngsters, who picked it up and opened it, causing everyone to yelp and scream as the soda exploded in her face, causing the shop owner to rushed up in anger, as the soda got everywhere, allowing Markus to leave the store without anyone for the wiser.
"Okay then, location knowledge, check. English to Japanese Dictionary, check. Status of my current funding, piss poor, check. I should probably get out of here while I still can." Markus muttered as he moved back to the ally where he hid his stuff and go into hiding. Along the way though, Markus made sure to stay under the radar, until he knew more about his place, because it was certainly no settlement he has ever been before.
As Markus made his way back to the ally, he heard someone speaking in Chinese, which caught his attention as he saw a bunch of young men surrounding a scared young girl. "Bie guan wo! Bie guan wo!" She cried out, which translated to "Leave me alone!" To her misfortune however, the young men spoke in Japanese and laughed at her mockingly as they grabbed her arms "Dong shou dong jiao!" She cried, which roughly translated to "Don't touch me!"
Seeing the young woman in distress, Markus immediately walked towards the group. "Excuse me!" He called out in English as the group suddenly turned to him as they blinked at the sight of a tall well-built westerner with scars, holding a book, approaching them. Markus looked into his book and found the words he wanted to say. "Gomen…demo…kanajo…hanatte…oite mo…idesu ka?" Markus asked as he winced at how bad he sounded. But the question translated to. "Sorry but…can you leave her alone?"
The response he got from the people was not very encouraging as the men started laughing at him and pointed at him mockingly as the girl looked to him in pleading for help. The lead male started speaking up fast enough that Markus couldn't exactly catch up to what he said but some words like "Baka, Gaijin," and a few other words stood out. Regardless, Markus tried diplomacy again. "Kanojo o hanatte oite." He said, which translated to roughly "Leave her alone." If he was speaking it correctly. But that seemed to aggravate the men who started to look more annoyed and angrier and started yelling at him. As Markus was about to say something, some of them pulled out blades of some kind on him.
The girl now looked shocked and worried and turned to Markus with a worried look as she spoke. "Tao chu hu kou!" She pleaded with him, which meant "run away from great danger." Which makes sense in this context as he was unarmed and they were armed. But Markus didn't get as far as he did if he ran away from trouble all the time now.
Markus then simply calmly and kindly smiled and turned to her and spoke in Chinese, which surprised her. "Ni fang xin ba, chu u liao cha zi." Which translates into "Don't worry. Everything will be fine."
"Ni ke yi jiang Zhong Wen!?" the Girl asked in shock, which translated to roughly. "You can speak Chinese!?"
Markus simply nodded. "Wo ke yi jiang Zhong Wen, ke shi, wo de Zhong Wen bu hao." Markus answered back which translated to roughly. "I can speak Chinese but my Chinese isn't good." And so, Markus focused on the group before him as they seemed rather annoyed that he ignored them for a time. "Well time for a fight." He muttered in English as the group roared and charged at him.
Contrary to what most people believe, having a weapon, doesn't automatically make you superior in combat, there were a lot of caveats when using weapon. Mainly in how you hold yourself, how well you know your weapon, and how far you're willing to go. For a group of would-be Japanese delinquents or creeps, a simple box cutter is a weapon that's not exactly illegal to hold in Japan, but is easily obtainable. That combined with a number of people's predisposition to be averse to violence, meant they were an actual threat in some ways.
But to someone like Markus, who had been on the receiving end of bullets, lasers, explosives, plasma, knock out gas, fire, sharpened claws, and far worse. It was nothing more than an annoyance as he quickly grabbed the arm of the first thug, and twisted his arm so he had no choice but to kneel, and redirected his position into another thug, causing them to collide. As he dropped the thug, he then bent over backwards a bit, as the thug did an overly telegraphed attack and Markus rushed in and kneed him hard in the groin, causing him to collapse.
Three thugs knocked out, and three more to go, as the two of the thugs looked nervous and charged at him running like berserkers with their arms outstretched with their box cutters. Markus simply grabbed their outstretched arms and twisted them and causing them to yelp as they basically flipped over and got sent face first into the pavement. Then Markus turned to the last one, who was now nervously holding the girl hostage with a blade to her neck, causing his eyes to narrow beneath his shades.
"There's a world of difference between a would-be thug and an actual fighter fool." Markus said to the thug as he calmly walked towards the increasingly nervous screaming thug. "The most basic difference is, that if you're in a hostage situation, you never let go of your hostage or move your weapon away from the hostage, else someone like me can take advantage of that." He said calmly as the thug got even more nervous. "Like for example, you will want me to keep my distance so you will point your weapon away from the girl to me." He said as the thug did just that. "Idiot boy, that means I can rush in and grab you." He said as he rushed and grabbed hand and twisted the arm, forcing the boy to release the girl, as she got away quickly. "Which then means you have nothing to protect you now." Markus said as the thug looked terrified.
"Akuma." He muttered, which Markus has no frame of reference for at all.
"Don't know what that means but I'm assuming you're calling me an insult, but let's be honest here boy. Who's worse? The guy that beats up a bunch of you scum to save a young lass, or a bunch of thugs accosting said young lass?" He questioned as he twisted the man's arm causing him to scream in pain. "Personally speaking, I think this is a case of self-serving memory and double standard, and I personally cannot stand such hypocrisy." Markus said coldly as he kicked him in the head and knocked him out.
Markus sighed as he finished that and turned to the girl who looked at him with both awe and respect and then she bowed to him. "Xie, xie ni!" She said to him, which translates to "Thank you."
"Ai bu ke chi." Markus said as he waved off her thanks and continued walking on now feeling better about himself. Helping people is what he loves to do, it makes him feel good that someone somewhere out there is now doing better off thanks to him. That's why he loved exploring unknown locations and settlements doing his best to help them all out as much as he can.
However, he kind of had to go back and grab his stuff, and he also heard old world police sirens on their way, so he needed to move fast. Once he got back to the ally, he grabbed his luggage, looked out for a moment, saw no one or anything aside from pre-war police officers of sorts and they seem to be searching for someone or something. Not liking what that would actually mean for him, Markus took his luck in the sewers and opened up a manhole, dropped his luggage down there, and climbed down as he pulled the manhole cover back on top of him.
Markus was used to the smell of sewers and pre-war sewers were filthy, no doubt, but it was something he was used to and started walking around to find a nice place to stay. Eventually he found a group of homeless people blinking in confusion at him and staring at him with suspicion and Markus turned back to his book again and found the words he needed to say. "Watashi wa…mazushi?" He spoke as the poor people gave him a weird look. "Subete…ushinatta…saikin?" He offered as they now gave him sympathetic looks. Said words translated to "I'm poor, and lost everything recently."
One of the poor homeless got up and gave him a kind smile and pointed him to an open spot with a roll to sleep on. Markus nodded his thanks and grabbed his luggage and lay down there and he sighed as he had a long rough day today. "Well, this day sucked, but at least I am somewhere safe for now." He muttered as he turned to his book. "Might as well learn the language while I'm still here, because I got a feeling I'm going to be here for a while." Markus muttered to himself as he started to familiarize himself with the Japanese Language. "Might as well make the best out of it I suppose."