Sandstorm over Remnant
Chapter 9
To the town came a stranger one fine day
"Vulpes is delusional. Lanius is going to kill him when he finds out. Seems like a good time to strike at the legion, I will talk with Mr. House about it, careful on the way back" Six finished writing his small message as he let out a sigh of relief, she was fine.
The courier almost wanted to laugh but he could not because he was almost one hundred percent sure that he would freak out his two younger companions, they were already staring at everything with mild shock no need to creep them out further. Six caught Weiss looking at him with mild curiosity as they began their long walk towards the place were "supposedly" they kept the slaves. "Something on your mind kid?"
Weiss coughed into her fist embarrassed at being caught staring but her curious mind did not let her pass this opportunity "You wlak like you know the route"
"I do"
Ruby raised an eyebrow "But I thought you had lost your memories because of the… bullets…" Six chuckled as he tapped the side of his forehead "I don't remember most, but as time has gone by I know bits and pieces. Things like walking here are second nature, I walked here before and just like putting on shoes becomes natural. Well this feels natural too"
Weiss gave a small nod, Ruby on the toher hand seemed sad "But, its like watching a movie in parts. Diesnt it get confusing?"
"Yeah, that's why I only focus on the present cant remember badly a story that you're living right? Come on we still have a lot of distance to travel… and look at that we have our first tutorial. White and Red please prepare yourself for the rumble in the plains of California, on this side with the most adorable eyes you have ever seen, please welcome a wasteland specialty!"
Ruby and Weiss felt a shiver go down their spine as the creature that Six attracted by yelling began to make its way towards them, lumbering like a zombie from the movies a feral ghoul growled at them its whited out eyes only conveying one thing aggression. Six turned serious again as he motioned towards their weapon "You're going to learn to shoot, if there is one ghoul there are many more hiding. I know it looks human but it's not, that thing lost its mind a long time ago put it out of its misery"
Ruby jumped back with her speed to avoid the attack she shot at its head making the creature stumble for a bit as blood poured from the wound, it quickly turned around and slapped the young huntress away from him.
Weiss jumped towards the creature as she unloaded two shots into its legs and then another one into its head. The ghoul stumbled as it used the radiation around them to keep it going but in its anger it forgot about Ruby who aimed one perfectly aimed shot at its head exploding it like a balloon. Six clapped with a small smile "Not bad, ghouls are something we are going to come across a lot in this area. And if you see one that glows green just let me handle it ok?"
Ruby tore her gaze away from the blood as she barely managed a nod, Six placed a hand on your mind "Come on, no need to be shy. What's on your mind?"
"It used to be human… right?" Ruby asked as Weiss frowned as she watched the courier let out a sigh. Six placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder "Yes, but they stopped being human long before it looked like this. The secret killer of the wasteland is the radiation from the war long ago the moment he became a ghoul he was already not human" Weiss shuddered a bit as they resumed their walk.
Silence reigned as they passed through hills and fields of grass with the sun now at its highest peak out in the distance the glimmer of something that somewhat resembled a building, Six took cover from the sun as he looked at his PipBoy in the shadow that was cast from the Red Rocket logo "Not too far now, water?" the two teens nodded as Weiss tried to look at his machine, Six extended his arm for her to get a better look at.
"Thank you… it must be frustrating boring for you to take care of us huh?" Weiss said as she studied the map, there was nothing along the plains except for a marker that they indeed were close by, just another hour or so of walking she supposed. Six for his part simply smiled at the duo "Nah, I find it fun to be honest. You two are capable and getting to know Winter's family is always a treat… got any juicy gossip from when she was young? Or was she always little miss perfect?"-"You won't be getting any dirt of my sister from me" Weiss said but a small smile did play across her lips. The courier laughed and ruffled her hair getting a loud "hey!" from the heiress of the Schnee dust company.
Ruby smiled at the small interaction, guess Winter's boyfriend was not a bad person at all!
The courier and RW resumed their travels as little by little signs of civilization came into view, little by little they could see how the touch of man began to change the soil and the land. Ruby had to look away from the sight of a carcass of a Brahmin being devoured by radscorpions. Six for his part was more interested in the trail of footprints and tire-tracks that had not been wiped out by the wind and sand "Six, there's someone… oh my gods" Weiss covered her mouth in disgust as she watched a poor bastard crawl om the sand with both his legs cut off and his eyes gouged out.
Six gritted his teeth as he prepared his weapon.
"Please… s-somebody. K-kill me…" soft and broken sobs came from what remained of the man, Six walked slowly as he knelt down next to him "Easy there, don't move. I'll help you"
Six reached into his pocket and injected the man with some Med-X "Who did this to you?" the courier asked as the man let out a small sigh of relief as the drug numbed him from the pain "Th-that bastard… Jeremiah he… he's got more people… p-please…"
"Don't worry" Six took a look at his body and frowned as he spotted signs of a very pronounced infection on the wounds, the skin already blackening were it had been crudely cut. There was no way to save this man, he turned to look at the two teens and shook his head he tapped on his gun to let them know what was coming "I will make sure they pay" Six reloaded his weapon as the man barely managed a small smile at him, Weiss looked away and Ruby covered her eyes. Six pointed as the man felt the pistol touch his temple "Thank you"
It surprised Weiss how loud the gun sounded and how quiet everything was after, Six holstered his weapon and looked around for something. He spotted a lone shovel and decided he would do something nice. Ruby turned to Weiss and stared at her for a brief second, the white haired girl nodded as she understood what her leader wanted they helped Six to dig removing rocks and trash that had been swallowed by the land, Six let out a sigh as he finished and went over to the corpse moving it towards the grave he had just made.
Burying him took seconds and all that followed was for him to do a final thing for the soul. Reaching into his pocket he unpacked a small gift from the burned man, Joshua Graham and did a small payer for the soul of the man so that he could find peace in the afterlife.
Once he was done he turned to the two girls "Come on"
"I feel bad for him" Ruby said as she rubbed her shoulder, Weiss nodded sadly. The courier nodded "The wasteland is cruel yes, but people make it worse. aside from Vegas and the NCR this is mostly common… for now. Come on we are going to hunt some monsters" Six checked the ammo on his weapons, the smoke on the horizon told him that they were near their camp. He spotted a patrol coming their way and grinned, one of the morons was wearing ranger armor but no helmet.
Big mistake.
Reaching for his pistol Six activated VATS and placed a perfect bullet between the eyes of the man with the fancy armor, his companion jumped in fear as blood and brain sprayed him all over "WHAT THE FUCK!" he screamed as he tried to shoot at were the gunshot had come from. Petals and dust covered his eyes as Ruby ran at him and slammed her gun on the back of his head making him stumble Weiss shot at his knees making him fall to the ground.
The raider watched in fear as the tall figure of Six approached him "L-look man… we can talk about this" he gasped as Six grabbed him by the throat and lifted him with one arm.
"The time for talking has already passed, you can die slowly and painfully watching in horror is I rip you apart limb from limb or you can die cleanly with no pain. Where is Jericho? How many slaves has he got?"
The raider paled as he felt the terrifying presence come over him "No no wait don't! I- look Jericho is not someone who you want to mess with! That man is pure evil" Six grinned "Sounds like a challenge, I will consider this a public service instead of a bounty. Now, answer my question. Where is he? How many slaves?" Six pointed with his gun towards the groin area.
The raider gulped "H-he's always at the victory hall. Neck deep in booze and women, he will only come out if you challenge him to a duel in the middle of town. The slaves are at the farm man that's all I know I swear just le me go please you will never see me aga…"-BANG.
Six holstered his pistol as he felt a plan begin to form "Weiss, Ruby I am going to need your help. This piece of shit wants a duel? Fine; I'll give him one and that will be the perfect distraction. Get to the slaves and free them, I will take on the gang of nobodies"
Ruby nodded but Weiss was not so sure "But what if there are more than what you are thinking? They will overwhelm you"
"Don't worry little one. There's not much left of me to kill and besides this guys are just a bunch of parasites. Remembering the days of old when Elsdragon and his boys ruled the land. They think they are safe here in the outskirts of NCR territory but the time of raiders has long passed" Six began to undress the first man he killed as he donned the Ranger armor.
Jericho laughed as he slapped his knee at the sight before him.
"Dance man come on!" a slave was jumping as his boys shot bullets at his feet tears and sweat running down his face. He turned to look at the ladies he had by his side "Isn't this fun dolls?"
Fake smiles greeted him as the scantly dressed women tried not to earn his wrath. He was living the best life right now! Oh if only Elsdragon could see him now, sure his late boss probably would want him to do more grander things to get territory from the NCR but that time was long past the raiders. All they could do was live like this, free from NCR as the Bear returned from the Mojave licking it wounds. The doors to his place opened as the saloon went quiet, a man out of breath looked at him with fright with his only eye the other a bloody mess "Boss! We got problems!"
Jericho frowned as he stood up from his seat "Fuck do you want I was just going to"-"This ranger just showed up boss! He killed the guards at the gates and is waiting for you in the middle of the base! Fuck man he grabbed by the head and gouged my eye out!"
Shooting the guy in the head making the rest of his head explode Jericho simply laughed with full confidence "All of you! you see this?" he gestured towards his weapon. A giant 12.7mm gun on his hand shined in the room "This is The Big O the most powerful handgun in the world. And its mine, no ranger fuck could ever defeat me. Come on lets show that bumfuck what we Survivalist are all about!"
Jericho rallied his men as they all stormed out to see who the one that dared to cross them, a masked figure waited for them making Jericho glare "Look at that boys, a big bad ranger. Guess I should shiver in fear and surrender at once"
"You are only getting out of this town in pieces Jericho"
Jericho scoffed and pointed at his arm "see this, I mark every single one of you NCR fucks that I kill. One… and nineteen more" the smirk grew larger as he pulled his sleeve a little bit further "you will be twenty one"
The only response Jericho got was the reveal of a small 10mm pistol making the rest of the raider laugh as Jericho reached for his bullet proof helmet "This is fucking sad ranger. Come on lets get this over with, one of the boys is going to shoot and that the signal. Get ready ranger boy"
The two opponent squared off as everyone looked with disinterest at the fight. Jericho was covered head to toe in metal armor, his helmet could deflect laser rifle fire and plasma shot bounced off the metal armor. What was going a 10mm bullet going to do?
Jericho heard the shot but did not draw his weapon, he wanted to savor it. The shot predictably bounced off his armor. Exploding into dust, Jericho threw his head back and laughed "You have any idea how fucked you are?"-"Not as much as you, you look taller Jericho"
Jericho looked around as thing seemed to be smaller. He tried to take a step but he was unable to do so, the ranger fired another shot at him as his boys began to look smaller and smaller "Gravity dust is one hell of a thing. I snuck some in my pocket just in case and look at that. You're flying like a bird" more shots were fired as Jericho tried to suppress the cold shiver on his spine.
He was fgloating, holy fuck hwo would he get down! Jericho tried to shoot at the bizarre ranger but a well placed bullet disarmed him and the Big O fell to the ground.
Jericho screamed in terror as he gained more and more altitude "Don't worry, it goes away. But I think you might be a little too high for a safe landing" the rest of the raiders could only watch in horror as Jericho fell from the sky landing with sickening crunch. His legs completely shattered as he screamed bloody murder. The armor was in one piece but Jericho was not, bits of bone and organs began to leak out as some of the raiders threw up in horror.
Six removed the gas mask and grabbed the Big O, 12.7mmm huh? He could work with that "Now, the rest of you" the firefight that broke out ended in seconds. VATS had once again given him the edge over the ones that had been hyping his boss. The rest on the other hand had their weapons aimed at his head "Shows over freak!"
The courier let out a sigh as he prepared himself for a long fight, but from behind the raider slaves pushed them to the ground as they beat them over and over with their chains, Six stared in shock until he spotted a glimpse of black and white. Grinning he waved at the duo as Ruby and Weiss waved back, turning to the now crying Jericho Six stared down at him removing the mask that was supposed to protect him.
"Y-you!"
Six frowned at him "I came back to finish the job, tell your former boss that I said hello" Jericho did not have time to scream as the bullet destroyed his face. Turning back to the two girls he was met with the heartwarming and slightly humorous image of the now freed slaves thanking the two young girls as the two looked embarrassed but at the same time proud of what they had done.
Heroes, heroines, hunters, huntresses.
It was nice, for them to be able to see a bit of their world in his. Rarely did things go so smoothly, or amybe he was just pessimistic at this point in his life, looking down at his dust covered bullets he smiled. Not as strong as they would be on Remnant for sure but they worked even if they were not supposed to.
Winter said that Dust only worked on the planet. That if they tried to use them outside they will not work and yet here it was working just fine, if he was smarter he would begin to try and comprehend the how and why but Six was just glad that it worked, he would be sure to let Winter know. Maybe there was something else here, was the connection they created doing this?
Questions for the smarter folk.
But what he could do right now was get to work on the highway man he just now spotted sitting near Jericho's corpse.
A/N: Hi! Back from my small break. Hope you like this small chapter, next chapter is going to be the last one on the Old World and we are back to Remnant with more questions than answers.
Also I know I don't normally do this but I did want to answer some of the questions you leave in the reviews or have private messaged me about.
1. Lanius would never let Vulpes let women fight
Yeah he would not, hell in the ending were he becomes Caesar he slaughters the Followers for "disrespecting the image of the old Caesar". Vulpes to me was always the one legionnaire that would change to win, to do everything. That's why he and Lanius do not get along, and more of this will play out later in the story but I will say no more because spoilers.
2. You mentioned the Frontier, please don't go there!
Haha don't worry I don't think the frontier will show up in any way, shape or form in this story. I do want to write a novel of it but with another character that's not Six. (That and I need to finish the Fallout New California novelization that IS about Six and is basically being published hand in hand with this story)
3. Questions about the Lone Wanderer and the Sole Survivor.
The lone wanderer is probably in space so you won't see her, but the Sole Survivor is a different story and I wont get into why I wont tell because it will spoil things.
Once again thank you for reading, I really appreciate it and I hope to see you soon on the next update!