Chapter 1
Hello! I had this story on the back burner for a while and upon replaying Skyrim for the hundredth time I finally decided to publish it. I'll try my best to entertain you! So before we begin I'll answer a few questions!
Will this story include mods from either games? Yes, it will. If you have some mods you suggest adding to the story, let me know, I'll play them and decide if to add them to the story.
I will also had elements from Fallout 4 and 76 like how Power Armor works along a few other mechanics.
Why add mods to the story at all? Mostly to spicy it up and to hopefully make this story different from the others.
Have fun!
It was a calm day, the people in the strip's streets were going about their day with a smile on their faces. Around them, the Securitron army watched for any danger but it's been a while since any real danger had appeared. If asked why that is, most of the people would have pointed at the giant tower, the home of the king of Nevada, the man who had risen up during a time of crisis and defeated both the NCR, Mister House, and the Legion. The Courier.
He was sitting inside the Lucky 38 Presidential Suit, enjoying a nice bottle of Nuka Cola as he watched the city below while tapping his foot. He remembered the time immediately after the second battle of Hoover dam and the chaos that followed it...But five years have passed and now it was quite the opposite.
He laid his blue eyes towards the east, remembering his long journey across the United States before coming to the Mojave with a certain sense of nostalgia even though the wasteland was certainly one of the least welcoming places. He had taken the crown of New Vegas and lived inside the best place on the strip and yet he still had much to do.
He raised his arm checking the pip-boy before noticing that it was time to go. He walked to his gun cabinet and grabbed his gear put on his Elite Riot Gear Set and then entered his Power Armor. He moved to the living room where his friend Joshua was reading the holy scriptures and gave him a nod causing the former Burned Man to close the Bible and follow him. They used the elevator to go to the former penthouse and once he got there he walked up to Yes Man.
"Oh! You are fully geared up! Guess it's time for your test!" Yes Man greeted him with his usual cheery tone.
"Yep wish me luck." The Courier replied calmly.
"Oh! Good Luck! Although I don't think you'll need the minds at the Big MT proved to be quite capable!" Yes man replied as the Courier and Joshua left the penthouse.
They walked down the strip, he could still remember the people who were scared of The Courier because of his power armor before seeing it become commonplace now they would bow their heads in sign of respect. He then walked into Freeside and once again he was given respectful looks by the Kings. He then pulled out his transponder and teleported to the Big Mt.
Immediately he was confronted by a couple of individuals armed with energy weapons and donning power armor "Welcome back President Nuntius"
The Courier groaned at that and nodded before heading inside one of the main buildings where several individuals were working on what was some sort of aircraft. As soon as he entered many of them gave him the military salute.
Immediately he was approached by one of his old friends...Arcade Gannon who was wearing his usual lab coat although now it was way cleaner.
"Just in time, we are about to finish the preparations for the test flight," he said in his usual calm tone.
"Great, can't wait to pilot this beauty" The Courier replied with a snarky tone causing his friend to frown.
Arcade groaned and massaged his temples "Do you realize that if something happens your life could be over? And that if YOU disappear everyone here will be in big trouble you know...being hunted down...it will be Navarro all over again since we have gathered here once again."
"First off, If I don't do anything I will literally die covered in stacks of papers. Second off, You know very well that nothing will happen, we have backups"
In the 5 years since the battle of Hoover dam and things had changed quite a bit around the Mojave and Vegas mainly the building of the New Super Nation now known as The New Vegas Government (NVG).
'Think you got the guts to carve out a frontier? Build towns, protect the roads, run supplies, train troops?'
Those words had preoccupied the courier but what General Oliver could not predict was the presence of immense amounts of technology both in the Big MT and the Sierra Madre. In the months following the battle of Hoover Dam, The Courier had various construction robots repair and expand the facility, he then had the SINK override the doctors authorizations giving him full control of the facility and its resources and not allowing the doctors to do as they pleased. He then and gave the Think Tank the task of finding a way of dealing with the Cloud that surrounded the Sierra Madre Casino. In the end, after a certain number of fiends and powder gangers were used as test subjects, the great yet tormented minds came up with an antidote to the cloud, various forms of equipment capable of dealing with the deadly fog and a counter weapon that was able to neutralize it completely.
With the Sierra Madre now more easily accessible, the Courier recovered the wonderous vending machines of the place which the SINK of Big MT recognized as Matter Conversion Machines. These were Machines capable of creating matter on their own and could have been programmed to produce ANYTHING from Food to Medicines to Weapons and much more. The Courier used the Big MT to produce more of these machines of various sizes with a clear goal in mind...Building a new super nation. Father Elijah was right on how wonderful these things were but wiping the slate clean was not something the Courier would have allowed him. Swarms and Eye bots and robots occupied the Sierra Madre and then cracked open the once unforgiving fortress before plundering of all of its secrets. The vault trap was the hardest to deal with but eventually, it also failed as the THINK TANK created Saturnite Drills that disabled its door. Christine was shocked to see all of this happening but in a sense was glad as the robots analyzed and recovered the Hologram technology freeing once and for all the ghosts.
To build a new nation the courier needed more manpower and so he asked help from his friend Arcade Gannon and the Remnants who in turn used old Enclave Encrypted Channels to call upon what few of them remained across the wasteland. The Courier, as the leader of the New Vegas Government, had offered a pardon to all of the Remnants and offered a safe haven for anyone who was willing to serve a better cause with their technology. It took them a while but eventually small groups of individuals began to arrive, some of them were as old as Arcade's friends who had served the Enclave at Navarro or Raven Rock, they came seeking refuge not necessarily for themselves but for the families they had built while hiding their identities.
Another portion of them instead from the East, from the Capital Wasteland and a place called Adams Air Force Base. Both the Courier and Arcade had agreed to be extremely watchful in their regards putting them under very tight surveillance as they had partaken in Project Purity not too long ago. Their concerns proved to be right as various individuals showed to have come to the New Vegas Government with the intention of bringing back the old Enclave. These individuals were lobotomized and their knowledge was extracted before getting killed.
Any other Remnant came from various small bases and bunkers hidden within the Wasteland. In the end, 300 Enclave Personnel had come to the Mojave but in fact, only a quarter of that number had actually served in the Old Enclave, the rest were the result of breeding. The Courier put Arcade in charge of the New Enclave with the main directive being able to make amends for the pain they had caused by helping the New Vegas Government establish itself and to avoid the mistakes of the previous Enclave.
Those who were scientists were sent to the Big MT to help with the production of new technology while those who were soldiers were sent to Camp McCarran to train the soon-to-be standing army of the NVG.
With the Matter Conversion Machines, The Courier began producing supplies for his nation and then turned to his friend Cassidy for distributing them. He gave the woman access to the teleportation technology of the Big MT and she revived Cassidy Caravans and began distributing the goods all across the Mojave making her quite popular among the people but nowhere near as powerful as the old Brahmin Barons since she had to rely on the Government. But nevertheless, once she began working, she put out of business all those barons. Of course, those people tried to retaliate by destroying her caravan but each time they tried they would find that Cassidy Caravans was protected by the government which would deploy the Securitrons or its slowly forming standing army to repel any attacker.
Speaking of the Grand Army of New Vegas, The Courier knew how essential it was to have a standing army but he had a problem...numbers. The people in the Mojave were a little over ten thousand people, and considering that not all of them could be made into soldiers, they were far too few to make an actual army. This caused The Courier to ramp up the production of War Robots ranging from Assaultrons, Sentries, Duraframes, Security Holograms, and Securitrons to newer machines created in the Big MT such as Behemots and Pacification Robots. But Six didn't want to be overly reliant on machines and knew how critical human soldiers were and so he also began producing Howtziers and Pre-War Tanks such m46 Patton and the United States Main Battle Tank along with the various APCs and Artilleries.
The Remnants had brought with them their Technology such as their power armors. In particular, those who came from Washington brought with them their Hellfire Power Armor. The Courier knew that armor had a lot of baggage with it and so ordered to use this Hellfire Armor as a base to make a new armor. The Think Tank came up with a new and improved design that incorporated various technologies called the Saturnite Supernova Power Armor. Production of said Power Armor for the Grand Army of New Vegas began immediately and gave the soldiers of the new government the technological edge over anything else in the wasteland. But he did not stop at that as he had the intention to establish a no-fly zone above Nevada. To achieve this goal, he upgraded Mr. House's aerial defences and had the production lines at Big MT replicate them before spreading them all across Nevada and being guarded by various robots.
After ensuring that no harm could come from the sky, The courier wished to achieve aerial supremacy. He remembered how useful the B-29 Bomber was at the battle of Hoover Dam. After some extensive convincing, he managed to get his hands on it from the Boomers allowing him and his science teams to reverse-engineer the bomber and produce it. The Only problem left was that no matter what he did or said, the Boomers would not let him take one of the simulators at the Nellis Airport. With no other choice left, the Courier unleashed the Security Holograms on them but he made sure that they were programmed to stun the boomers. Once the Boomers regained consciousness, Nellis had been fully occupied by The New Vegas Forces. They were given a choice, help train the New Vegas Air Force or return to Vault 34. Some chose to return to the Vault and so the Courier ordered the repair of the Vault...But some of them understood something. If the Courier was building an Air Force, it would mean that sooner or later he would have needed to blow something up and so chose to stay at Nellis and help with training new pilots and artillery crews. And so the New Vegas Air Force was born mainly composed of Vertibirds, B-29 Stratofortress and a new fighter jet produced by the Big MT called the Hellion.
All of this brought to the creation of an elite army trained by Veterans and armed with top-notch technology...but it was still a small army that was outnumbered by the NCR. Of course, the Robot Army would have repelled any attempt of invasion, especially the Security Holograms, but having an analogical backup was essential to the eyes of the Courier if he wanted his nation to succeed. Words of the New Vegas Government had already spread across the wasteland, of how they seemed to possess incredible amounts of supplies and technology. They had already begun taking in lots and lots of refugees from both the NCR and the East but both the Courier and Arcade knew that it was only a matter of time before the NCR launched a new campaign against them...or new Chapters of the Brotherhood of Steel arrived to claim their technology or to hunt down the Remnants.
The Lack of Manpower was still a problem and so The Courier's eyes set out east towards Ceasar's former land. Since the death of Lanius, many refugees told stories that the Legion was slowly crumbling and that the few remaining legates were struggling to keep order as the others returned to be common raiders worsening everyone's conditions. The Courier and his closest friends began discussing the option of bringing those who were once below Caesar into their fold. There were lots of discussions on the matter but eventually, they agreed that they were in dire need of men and that the Legion could provide both trained soldiers and a big population. Of course, none of them wanted to perpetuate the notion of slavery that Caesar had established and so they needed to find a way to drop that philosophy...but they didn't know how the legionaries thought so they were at an impasse.
The Courier sought the advice of the only person he knew that had been deep inside the legion...Joshua. Six informed his friend that, unfortunately, the legion didn't crumble quietly and instead, Arizona and all the lands previously occupied turned into an even worse wasteland than it was before the legion. He informed him about his intentions of rallying the few legates who still believed in the legion and the slaves under his command and using them to build his nation.
The former burned man advised him that only a new Caesar could lead a legion, a Caesar that proved his strength and leadership since the legion only responded to strength. The cult of personality that Caesar had created had conditioned all those below him and if the Courier wanted to change what Caesar had done he would have needed just as much charisma as the former master of the legion. The former burned man also warned the Courier that if he were to take over the legion he would have needed to watch out for himself so that he may avoid becoming a monster. It was then that the Courier asked Joshua to aid him on this dangerous road. The Mormon declined the offer at first not wanting to take any part in leading the legion once again but then the Courier clarified that he didn't need the Malpais Legate nor the Burned Man but Joshua Graham the missionary, one of the few people that he trusted enough to give him the task of making sure he wouldn't turn into a new Caesar. Joshua couldn't turn away such a request from the person that had helped him in his darkest hour and swore that he would have followed him like John did with the Son of God.
With Joshua at his side, the Courier returned to New Vegas and a plan was devised. The New Vegas Government would infiltrate the legion territories using the newly built Stealth Suit Mk III, an updated version of the MK II now having a stealth field, and began conducting a PSYOP.
They began to spread rumours among the slaves of a new Emperor who had defeated Caesar, Lanius, and the NCR bearing the name of Augustus and that he would have broken their chains and led them to a new world if they swore their allegiance to him. Quickly the rumors of this new emperor spread among the slaves who, hoping for freedom, came into contact with the agents of NVG.
A similar offer was given to the remaining legates, they would have been pardoned if they swore loyalty to Augustus. At first, they were sceptical but all of them changed their minds when the slaves, suddenly equipped with combat armor and energy weapons, provided by the secret agents of the NVG, began killing the traitor legates while being supported by the New Vegas Air Force.
This action brought the birth of President Augustus Nuntius. Arcade had come up with this name for the Courier, Augustus was to refer to what could be considered the best emperor after Caesar established the Courier's role as a replacement. Funnily enough, the word Nuntius was one of the Latin words for Courier or Messanger.
The Courier's government now counted more than half a million people and this, despite the Matter Conversion Machines, began straining the production facilities of the Big MT and so he ordered the restoration of all production facilities in both the Mojave and all the annexed territories installing Matter Conversion Machines on all of them. This action proved to be vital in stabilizing the situation as the newly freed slaves either joined the working force which granted them a roof above their heads, protection from the government, and all the needed supplies, or joined the army to protect their newly acquired rights.
The legionnaires, on the other hand, all joined the army but were not put in great positions of power and were put under the watchful eyes of the Remnants' commanders and the chief of the New Vegas Secret Services Craig Boone who quickly identified those who planned to betray their new leader and put them in their graves striking fear in the Legionnaires' rank and repelling any future betrayals.
By this point, word of the New Nation had spread like wildfire and wastelanders came seeking refuge and raiders came looking to prey upon them but were met with deadly force. Using the annexation of former legion territory, The NCR accused the New Vegas Government of being just a replacement for the Legion and that it would have soon invaded them. That couldn't be farther from the truth as The Courier had no interest in further expansion has at this point had more land that he knew what to do with it but of course, it did not matter since he knew that the NCR was just looking for an excuse to get their hands on Vegas' supplies.
The NCR launched another assault on the Mojave but the troops didn't even come close to the Mojave Outpost as they were met with massive artillery fire, their vertibirds were shot out of the sky by the laser defenses, and their already strained logistics due to the destruction of the Crimson Caravan sabotaged by the secret services. During this phase, Boone voiced his concerns over waging war against the NCR. To meet his requests, the Courier came up with a battle plan that should have avoided unnecessary losses. It was on this occasion that the courier realized how hard pleasing everyone was...because his plan involved recovering as many ICBMs as possible from the Divide and activating Archimedes II.
Both Boone and Arcade didn't fail to express their anger as they had no intention of frying NCR Soldiers who were just following orders and threatened to leave. The Courier explained that he didn't plan on using said weapons, he only planned to let the NCR know that they had them which would hopefully scare off the already demoralized soldiers or their government into dropping the idea of invading the Mojave. With this in mind, the Courier sat in front of a camera and broadcasted his message on all frequencies announcing that the New Vegas Government was armed with Nuclear Weapons and had activated Archimedes II and that they'll use them to defend their sovereignty. He also directly addressed the NCR government calling them corrupt politicians that send good men to die in their wars and that he would give full citizenship to any NCR member who didn't wish to die because of them. When the message was broadcast, The Courier had Archimedes fire a shot far away from the NCR soldiers but still in their field of vision and then waited...
The Secret Services began to report about the spread of discontent among the NCR ranks. The New Vegas Government hoped their demonstration of power would have convinced the NCR politician to order the withdrawal of their forces...but they did not, calling it a bluff. This was the straw that broke the camels' back as the dehydrated and starving soldiers began deserting in mass and executing the officers that threatened them with being court martialized. These soldiers would then head towards the Mojave using white shirts to signal their surrender. As promised, the Courier gave them Citizenship and all the commodities they needed. With word of the former NCR troops being welcomed upon surrender, the NCR government ordered an immediate attack but their generals dragged their feet in order to avoid being obliterated on the battlefield.
The war ended when The Courier ordered an aerial raid on the NCR government buildings and the houses of the Brahmin Barons using a squadron of Hellions outfitted with Stealth fields. The attack was precise and devastating taking out a majority of politicians who supported the invasion. New Elections took place and the new President and Senate were quick to call off the invasion. At that point, The Courier offered reparations for the damages, and a treaty was signed allowing trade between the NCR and NVG.
With the NCR taken care of, the New Vegas Government was met with massive waves of immigration and Yes Man calculated that in 10 years they would have run out of water but that they could have prevented this by going south of Bloomfield into the Gulf of California and build a pipeline and a water treatment facility. Mr House had already predicted this need and planned to build the pipeline that could provide water from the pacific ocean. However, the NCR occupied that territory and the Courier didn't trust the NCR with an essential resource for the NVG. This prompted a military expedition south which aside from a few tribals and bandits went on undisturbed. A pipeline and a water treatment plant were built along with many defenses but to ensure that the NCR didn't try anything The Courier had a second project in mind...The acquisition of an actual navy. Expeditionary forces were sent all across the united states into old harbors looking for ships and while they found them, none of them were in operational condition, they may have survived the nuclear blasts but not the hundreds of years of disrepair.
For months, these expeditionary forces analyzed the ships and in some instances even repaired them enough to set sail, the latter case happening around the Hawaiian military bases. In total, a carrier, 2 destroyers, 1 battleship, and 1 cruiser were led through the California Gulf and harbored near the water treatment plant. The Courier gave Raul the job of being the one in charge of the area which had begun construction of an actual harbor and naval factory. When both were completed, the ships were fully repaired using the data taken by other ships and updated with newer weaponry defenses such as the Mr. House anti-air defenses.
The Courier believed that the only one left willing to come to the Mojave to cause trouble was the Brotherhood of Steel since he knew of their obsession with technology. He remembered the chapter led by McNamara and how after the battle of Hoover Dam he had used the Security Holograms to raid their bunker in the hidden valley stunning them and rendering them all unconscious. Many had advised him to simply kill them off but Veronica, despite no longer being with them, begged the Courier to spare them and so he did as the woman had been supportive of his actions even when he had pardoned the Remnants saying that she trusted him and Arcade and personally helping with dealing with the those who wanted to bring back the Old Enclave. The Mojave chapter was teleported back to Lost Hills thanks to Veronica, sometimes reports came in by the Secret Services of small scouts units of BOS getting near the border but never crossing it.
The Courier was not interested in the West Coast Brotherhood of Steel but in the East Coast one. The Secret Services reported that Arthur Maxon had been nominated new Elder and that recently had started heading towards Boston to deal with an organization named the Institute seeking to destroy it. The President of New Vegas had other plans though, a secret operation called 'Operation Prometheus' which involved finding the Institute, planting a beacon in it, teleporting a Task Force there, and occupying it before bringing to Big MT all the scientists and their research. He was, in particular, interested in their synths.
The reason for that was to use them to make sure that even if the Courier died, he could be replaced by a copy of himself with his memories and plans. His government was not going to fall with his death either because he would make sure that Synths of him was around taking over his spot or because by the time of his death, he would have established a strong government that could manage itself without him. As of now, The Courier had an implant in his brain constantly uploading data to Big MT was used to make a perfect AI copy of him which could be activated when needed. With the Synth technology, he could upload that data directly to a Synth allowing him to appear in public and not as a computer or robot.
All of this brought to the final and most fundamental discovery yet. One of the refugees called Paulson who, in order to receive citizenship, spoke about a supposedly alien spaceship whose inhabitants had killed his family literally waiting to be taken. Most would have turned him away but this was not the first time that the NVG had come across aliens having recovered a spacecraft north of Horowitz Farmstead and having studied it. The man spoke about a way to access it just outside of Washington and so a Task Force was sent there guided by Paulson. Against all odds...They indeed found the ship's beacon on the ground and immediately asked for an emergency extraction to Big MT which teleported them away along with the beacon before anyone could spot them. The New Vegas Secret Services boarded the ship, finding three actual pre-war civilians on board, supposedly taken by the aliens, kept in stasis, and immediately taken for questioning. Eventually, thanks to the cooperation of one of them, the ship was landed in the Mojave and taken apart for scientific purposes.
The most notable findings were a new form of energy, a way to travel faster than light, and energy shielding. This brought the commissioning of the Mojave Space Program that combined all the technologies of REPCONN, Poseidon Energy, Arcjet, and the new Alien Technologies, which consisted of the creation of a starfighter, a transport spaceship, an orbital station, and orbital laser satellites. All of these were needed in case the Zetans showed up again.
This led to the current situation, the first human-manned test flight of the newest XSF-01 Starfigter based on the Delta IX rocket. The possibilities of an alien invasion were real and currently was the biggest threat and that could show up at any moment and without anyone up in the sky the fight would happen directly on land which would put main production locations in danger. The Space Program centred around building bases on the Moon and Mars to use them as primary defenses and if possible as new frontiers.
With a sigh, Arcade guided both the Courier and Joshua to the briefing to go over the details of the operations for one last time before the test. In the room, there were two pairs of power armors, their undersuits, and a pair of modified PIpboys along with various other objects. Arcade walked over to the power armors and cleared his throat.
"These are Saturnite Supernova Mk II power armours, the difference between this one and the MK I is that this power armor is made to be fully usable in space, it has a couple of thrusters that allow it to manoeuvre during a spacewalk along with an integrated jetpack and oxygen tanks. The Saturnite alloy will keep the sun from frying you to a crisp and protect you from energy weapons if you happen to come across any hostile alien that might want to kidnap you. Under the Saturnite plates, there are various weaves mainly ballistic ones to protect you from anything that ISN'T energetic. The armors are powered by fusion cells but they can absorb energy like heat and solar to recharge and have an internal cooling system if its insulation systems were to fail. All of this is to say that in case you were to come across any problems or, God forbid, crash you will be protected and hopefully survive."
Both the Courier and Joshua nodded as the former walked over to the undersuits and tapped on them "These are Stealth Suits."
Arcade nodded "Again, all of this was made to deal with hostiles, the Power Armors are for loud and dumb and the undersuits are for a more stealthy approach. The helmets fit inside the power armor ones. Its light armor so don't think of soaking up blasts or you will end up six feet under before stimpacks and med-x can kick in."
He then went over through the various objects such as stimpacks and all of the sorts before finally stopping at one in particular.
"Now this is a CAMP 2.0, which the device that will help you survive until we can recover you. The 1.0 version built to allow the residents of Vault 76 in West Virginia to build housing, machines and similars. The 2.0 has a matter conversion machine integrated...you cannot build a jet but surely you can build ammo, weapons, food and similar." He explained before pointing at the Pipboys on the table.
"Oh! And what new features do these have?" The Courier said walking over the Pipboys.
Arcade gave him a shrug "Bigger memory storage, they are way harder to crack open, they send you vital signs to us and they act as a walkie-talkie between each other oh and can take photos like a polaroid."
"No shooting lasers? No super cool armor coming out of it?" Augustus asked crossing his arms before noticing the stern look that Arcade was giving him "I'm just fucking with you."
Arcade sighed and shook his head before walking over to a chalkboard and starting to write on it "As a reminder, your mission is to take off, use the jump technology to reach Pluto, take a photo and return. Nothing more and nothing less, if you do not run into problems, you should be back before dinner."
"And in case something happens?" Joshua asked crossing his arms as he carefully listened to Arcade.
"If you crash and survive, the spaceship has an eyebot that has full instructions on how to repair the ship. In case the eyebot is destroyed, The CAMP has both instructions on how to rebuild it and the ship's schematics. Lastly, if the CAMP is destroyed, your Pipboys can launch an emergency signal and while it will take a long time, we'll eventually send you another ship. If encounter Aliens, either avoid them or destroy them."
"Well I'm glad to hear that there are lots of backup plans...unless we die on the spot." The Courier said with a chuckle
"Now, I'll be going on the control room, take your time to prepare yourself and when you are ready...Well, you know what to do." Arcade concluded before walking out of the room.
"Well you heard him, let's get this party started." The President said exiting his power armor and removing his clothes before removing his old pip-boy and putting the new one, wearing the undersuit on and entering the Power Armor Arcade showed him.
Joshua opened his holy scriptures and began praying, once done, he removed his armor. Of course, he had not removed the bandages instead opting to put the undersuit on them before he too entered the power armor.
Both of them equipped themselves with all that could have been needed. They kept their weapons in various bags. They gave each other a nod before heading outside.
As they walked to the ship's hangar, the soldiers would salute them as they walked past. The expressions of the soldiers were full of hope, they reminded the Courier of Ulysses' words on how he carried the hopes of the people. He wondered if he was watching from some unspotted location.
The two of them walked inside the ship, they placed their weapons and equipment inside the ship's safe, activated the eye-bot and then headed to the commands.
They began running all the checks guided by the control room before finally initializing the takeoff sequence.
"Can't believe you agreed to come with me in this!" Augustus said with a sarcastic tone.
Joshua despite the potentially dangerous situation was calm and collected "I swore to follow you like John followed Jesus and I am standing by those words."
"Well, I appreciate it nevertheless" He replied as he placed his hand on a lever "Are you ready?"
"Always have been" Joshua replied.
The Courier pushed the lever causing the ship to lift itself from its platform and move forward. Both of them then used the control sticks to make the ship fly higher and higher as it gained more and more speed.
"Six..." Arcade's voice came through the radio.
"Don't tell me we are already exploding" Courier Six replied
"No...I just I want to tell you that I appreciate what you did for me...and the others and that I am very proud of the work we are conducting." The scientist replied with a chuckle.
"I see, you are giving me the 'before you die' talk, spare me of it! You can tell me once we return. I have full trust in you Arcade and your work!" Six replied as the ship was about to leave the atmosphere and the stars became visible.
There was no reply nor did anyone want to say anything as the ship finally left the atmosphere and was now floating in space gracefully.
The Courier looked at the planet he called world, even from space it was clear how the bombs had scarred it but even then it was beautiful.
Joshua did the same, his visor staring at God's creation that despite being injured still kept going. He praised the Lord in his mind not wanting to ruin the moment by speaking out loud.
After a few seconds of contemplation, the Courier began going through various controls and typing on a terminal a destination.
"Alright, beginning phase 2, ready for the jump in 3...2...1...Jump!"
The space around them turned into a shower of lights without a form, it was like a cosmic waterfall impacting against the ship's windows. The two of them held tight on their seats and before they knew it they were arrived at their destination.
The Mission Control room was silent waiting for the confirmation of the jump, all of the personnel tensed as they waited.
"We call this a planet? It's quite small."
The room erupted with joy as the Courier's voice confirmed that they had reached their destination intact.
Six chuckled hearing the commotion and so did Joshua as they observed the rather small celestial body.
"Well, let's finish the mission shall we?" Joshua proposed as the Courier nodded.
Joshua pushed one of the many buttons on the ship and a camera located on the ship's exterior took a photo of the small planet.
"And one for personal reminder," The Courier added lifting his arm and taking a picture with his Pip-boy "Alright we are coming back boys."
The two of them turned around the ship pointing it towards Earth's direction. Once again they inputted their destination on the ship's terminal and once it was done calculating, they began the countdown.
"3...2...1...Jump!" The Courier said initiating the jump's sequence.
Suddenly on the terminal appeared the word 'Critical Error' but it was too late as the jump sequence had already been initiated.
The space around them blurred once again but this time the entire thing was more violent as the ship began to shake.
The two wastelanders held as tight as possible as the cosmic shower continued. Unable to move, they could only watch praying to not die horribly.
It was in this moment that for a split second, the Courier seemingly saw something. A giant golden-winged being that roared in his ears.
He re-opened his eyes and now a planet was in front of them. He was quick to deploy the ship's energy shields and try to pull it away from crashing but there was no use.
"Brace for impact!" He shouted holding onto his seat.
The ship entered the atmosphere becoming a ball of fire. The energy shields flickered as they protected the spacecraft that finally entered the clouds. Both The Courier and Joshua pulled the control sticks towards them with all of their strength as they broke through the clouds and now the ground was visible. They tried to stir away from the mountains but then a massive one appeared in front of them...And then their vision went black...
"S-...Ix! Pl...res...ond!"
The Courier groaned while his ears were ringing and his vision was blurry. He looked at his side and saw Joshua slowly reaching for his helmet as if trying to remove it. Before he could, Six stopped him shaking his head. They didn't know if the ship was still providing them with air or if they were exposed to this planet's air.
He slowly turned around and moved to the radio trying to fix the transmission "Arcade...we crashed...we don't know...the damages"
"S...ix...not...Ear...th! We...res...cu...e...A...S...AP"
"Fuck we are out of range..." Augustus muttered going over the ship's terminal and launching a damage assessment.
The ship exterior was wrecked but everything inside seemed to have survived pretty much intact. This allowed The Courier to bring Joshua to the Ship's autodoc and have him healed. Unfortunately, the crash had caused him various internal bleeding but now he was fixed.
"Bet John and Jesus didn't have to survive a crash landing..." He joked as he helped Joshua out of the Autodoc.
"Where are we?" The Mormon asked as he slipped back inside the Power Armor.
"No fucking clue, apparently not on Earth," Six replied going to the gun cabinet and arming himself to the teeth before walking over the ship's terminal and deploying the eyebot "Can you walk?"
Joshua nodded and also grabbed his weapons and equipment.
The eyebot left its pod and immediately headed outside. The two astronauts walked out, the Courier placed a couple of projectors around the ship and security holograms appeared to protect the ship.
It seemed that the ship had crashed so hard that it formed a cave on the mountain they saw before the crash. The two walked out of it and were left...stunned.
A lush forest covered in snow extended below them. The pip-boys Geiger counters didn't make a single sound. They could see and hear birds doing their thing and in the distance, they saw a town.
"Holy shit..." Augustus muttered almost not believing the paradise in front of them "You think we found the aliens?"
Joshua didn't reply immediately instead taking out a pair of binoculars and observing "No unless the aliens look exactly like us and have horses"
"What the...?" The other would say also grabbing his pair of binoculars and observing.
The small town was indeed occupied by humans and yet he was sure he heard Arcade saying they were not on Earth. Just where the hell did they end up?
"Well, I think it's worth checking this place out" He would say before looking at the drop in front of them.
Unfortunately, the ship had crashed on the side of mountain meaning that they were quite high from the bottom of the mountain.
"If you don't think you can take it use the jetpack" Augustus said before dropping down with his power armor and landing.
Joshua would follow him but he would slow his fall down with the jetpack not wanting to re-open the autodoc sutures.
"The town is west from here, let's go" Six said before beginning to walk again.
The two walked through the forest, silent but amazed. They saw the little animals going about their days, the butterflies and other insects flying calmly. They even saw wolves and they were not mutated in any shape or form but they knew better than attack.
They were about to reach the city when suddenly...
"Hey you two!" Someone called from behind.
The Courier and Joshua turned around to face the person who called them. Due to being in power armor, their figures were way bigger and taller.
They found themselves looking at a small group of people wearing leather and red fabric. They were all armed with swords.
"My God how big are you? Are you even human?" The one who called added once he had a clearer look at them.
'Well ain't that some irony?' Six thought remaining calm "We are humans yes, we are also quite lost and were heading towards the a small town we saw."
"Lost? I've never seen armor like yours, is it dwarven-made? Where do you come from? What business you have at Helghen?" The person asked.
Joshua and Augustus looked at each other clearly showing their confusion at the man's questions.
"I am afraid we do not know about...these dwarven...These armors we made them ourselves...Uhm...We come from...New Vegas, Nevada, United States of America? We are going to Helghen to understand where we are since we are far from home..." Augustus replied trying to answer the man's questions.
"Never heard of such a 'America' stranger, you are In Skyrim, one of the regions under the control of the Empire of Cyrondill!" The man replied as in the distance he saw some carriages coming from the hills "Oh now I understand! You must be Ulfric's men, trying to free your usurper heh? Well you are out of luck! You may have some fancy armor but we are the Empire's finest Legionnaires! Surrender now!"
The Courier sighed at that declaration "Silencers Joshua, I still want to enter the city."
Joshua nodded and both of them pulled out a couple of silenced 10 mm submachine gun as the people in front of them unsheathed their swords. They fired their guns and the bodies dropped.
"May God Welcome you in the afterlife," Joshua said putting away the gun.
"Come on let's head inside before someone comes looking for them" Augustus said moving away from the corpses heading inside the small town.
He noticed that the air was tense, the place was filled with soldiers that looked like the ones who had attacked them.
They noticed something...interesting. By the entrance there were people on horses talking, one was a human wearing quite the intricate armor and the other was a woman although they doubted she was human due to her very pale hold skin, pointed ears and almond eyes. The two of them seemed to be in an heated discussion but stopped when noticing the Courier and Joshua passing by observing with curiosity.
But before any of them could question them, two carriages rolled in carrying various people with their hands bound.
The Courier and Joshua moved to the side of the road to let them pass before noticing that further down the road there was a chopping block.
"Oh damn looks like we made it just in time to see some heads rolling..." The Courier remarked.
"First we come across people called legionnaires and now we are seeing an execution conducted by them...We may be on a different world but things didn't change much..." Joshua replied as the prisoners got off the carriages.
They watched as the legionnaires called one after the other. One of them tried to escape but was shot by archers. Then they watched as they gathered the prisoners near the chopping block.
The man they saw speaking with the strange-looking woman began to talk to one of the prisoners in particular, a certain Ulfric Stormcloak who was responsible for leading a sort of rebellion after killing his king with a 'voice'.
But the ceremony was interrupted by a distant roar but none of the present seemed to care. The Courier on the other immediately began looking around trying to find the origin of the sound and so did Joshua. They used the armor's optics to scan the sky as a prisoner was decapitated and another was brought to the chopping block.
They widened their eyes when they saw a giant black creature with wings flying towards the small town. Immediately the Courier yanked one of the guard's arms and pointed towards the beast."
"By the Eight! DRAGON!" The guard shouted alerting everyone as the beast landed on top of the tower next to the chopping block and let out a powerful roar that seemed to send everyone near it off their feet.
In a swift motion The Courier reached for his back and grabbed his Anti Materiel rifle and tossed it to Joshua before he grabbed his laser Gatling and began shooting at the beast.
Joshua took cover and loaded armor-piercing rounds into the rifle before opening fire. The people around them also grabbed their bows and began sending arrows to the beast but to no avail.
The man in charge of the execution ordered the immediate evacuation of the civilians through the keep while also leading a counter-offensive force of people capable of launching fireballs from their hands.
The legionnaires didn't seem to even bother the dragon, on the other hand, the beast grew furious as it was hit by Joshua's bullets and Six's lasers. The injuries caused by the weapons healed almost immediately but they were sure the lizard was feeling the pain of it due to its angry roars.
"He did not like that!" The Courier shouted tossing on his back the gatling and pulling out a modified version of the blade of the East, one which had its blade made out of Saturnite.
The beast came closer opening its mouth before unleashing a torrent of fire that enveloped the Courier. The Power Armor's energy filled up almost instantly as it absorbed the heat.
The beast stopped unleashing its firey breath and the Courier was still standing, his armor glowing with the heat of the attack but unhurt. The soldiers around them were in shock but were more so when Six charged at the beast swinging his blade without hesitation as Joshua kept taking shots at it.
The blade cut and dented the scales but all of them healed almost immediately but the Courier was not discouraged because with the corner of his eyes he was looking at the soldiers and their leader leading the civilians to safety.
The beast swung its tail at the Courier hitting him on his side and sending him crashing against a nearby wooden house.
"Dispensing stimpacks" The AI voice in Augustus' undersuit announced as the man let out a sharp and pained groan.
He then noticed that he was in a pool of blood and for a second he thought his armour was breached but then noticed that he had apparently squashed the dude that was about to be decapitated when he crashed into the building.
"Ah sorry dude, not your lucky day..."
'The thread of prophecy has been severed...' a ghostly voice spoke into the courier's ear 'It must be mended...'
As those words were spoken some sort of energy entered the Courier's body coming from the corpse of the deceased prisoner.
"What the fuck?"
He was about to get back up when Joshua rushed to his side "Still alive?"
"I've had worse..." Six replied sarcastically thinking about what had just happened "Alright Round Two"
Joshua placed his hand on his shoulder and shook his head "No my friend, it would seem the evacuation is over let's get out of there that beast is too much..."
"Only because I left the Fat Man on the ship..." The Courier replied as Joshua offered his hand to him to get up which he gladly accepted getting back on his feet.
The two of them began running out of the wooden house as the beast was back in the sky raining fire on the small town before heading Northeast.
"You two! Come here! We are leaving!" The man who was in charge of the execution shouted at them apparently waiting for them with his soldiers.
Augustus and Joshua approached the group and together left the burning town as the dragon began to fly overhead.
"Is this a common occurrence around here?" Six asked sarcastically to the men in front of him.
"What? No, dragons are definitely not a common occurrence around here, they were not seen for thousands of years and out of all the days they could have shown up they chose the one when I was about to end this rebellion..." The leader of the legionnaires said with an exhausted voice "I do believe I should present myself to the brave men that stood against that beast, I am General Tullius."
"Oh right seem like the man you caught escaped too, talk about bad timing..." The Courier noted noticing that this Ulfric wasn't among the evacuated civilians "Pleasured to meet you General, I am Augustus Nuntius and my companion here is Joshua Graham."
The man shrugged "I caught him once, I will catch him again, my duty is to protect the citizens of the Empire and so I did," he would say before hearing the Courier's name "Oh? Quite the name you have there, you come from Cyrodill?"
"I don't know what that place is" The Courier replied bluntly causing the General and his men to stop.
"The Capital of the Empire...I presume that you at least know about that..." Tullius would say getting no answer "Forgive my curiosity but from where do hail from?"
"You see General we come from a very faraway land that has lived isolated until recently, we are explorers sent from there..." Six would reply calmly as he also stopped in his tracks.
Tullius stared them up and down checking their armors and the weapons they carried before sighing "That would explain your attire I guess...what's this place called?"
"Nevada, the capital is called New Vegas." The Courier replied.
"Never heard of that place I am afraid, I might have to ask some of the merchants back at Solitude" Tullius replied before crossing his arms "I'm going to be honest, your fight was impressive, to say the least, the Legion would be more than interested in an asset like you."
Both the Courier and Joshua looked at each other and then shrugged "With all due respect General, we just arrived on these lands, I think it is premature for us to be involved with its politics."
"You make a fair point but still should you change your mind, You can find us at Castle Dour, normally one would have to prove its worthiness but honestly seeing you charging at a dragon fearlessly and being completely enveloped by its flames and survive is more than enough proof" Tullius would reply before gesturing one of his man and grabbing a piece of parchment and handing it to the two of them "This map should help you travel these lands, we are going to Falkreath west from here and take the long road to solitude. If you could, head North from here to Whiterun and warn Jarl Balgruuf the Greater, his hold is neutral and perhaps it will help get a clear idea about the current situation...On the way there you will come across Riverwood it is a small town but you can use the stop to rest..."
"Thank you General," Six would say raising the parchment to his head and nodding before looking at Joshua and then North.
"Oh and one last thing," Tullius said reaching for a pouch on his hips and handing it to them "This is helping us with the dragon, helping us with the evacuation and with the errand of alerting Whiterun..."
The Courier took the bag "I would say that you shouldn't but unfortunately I doubt you take Nevada coins here in the Empire..."
"Thought as much...I hope we see each other...on the same time that is, I really do."
With that said the General and his men returned to their march leaving the two of them alone surrounded by the sounds of the forest and of running water of a nearby river.
Both Joshua and The Courier contemplated those sounds as if completely alienated by them. They listened to the chirping of the birds, they saw a pack of deer running nearby. Thousands of thoughts clouded of minds before their silence was interrupted by a sigh coming from Augustus.
"We are going to have to find a way to bring everyone here, aren't we?" The Courier said looking at his friend.
Joshua let out an amused chuckle "You tell me Mister President"
Author's notes: For anyone wondering how the Saturnite Supernova Power Armor looks, I took it from the Concept Art made from Art Bully Productions for Fallout 76 in the Fallout 76 - Concept Art - Characters 01 gallery, it should be the black and red armor in the 8th pic!