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I hope you enjoy it!
xXx
Defender, Peacekeeper, Vegas Legend.
Those were just a few names given to the man who would become the greatest legend to come out of the Wasteland. A man who defied the odds more times than anyone could count. A man who changed the Mojave for the better.
That man was Courier Six.
Across the Wasteland, many stories were shared about the Courier's journey.
Like how he was shot twice in the head, only to climb out of his own grave to hunt down his would-be killer so he could repay the favour.
Word told of how he was the first person to 'find' the Sierra Madre and escaped with all the wealth the pre-war casino had to offer.
Or how the Courier encountered a fellow legend, the Burned Man, and aided him in defeating and pushing the ravenous White Legs out of Zion Canyon, thus saving the lives and home of the Sorrows and Dead Horses.
There was also the time when he got captured in the pre-war science facility, Big MT, where he then escaped. When he returned to the Mojave, he brought with him lost technology from there that he used to benefit the lives of everyone in the Mojave.
Then there was the time he trailed the Lonesome Road, walking through the blistering storm and radioactive craters of the Divide. Nobody knew exactly what happened through that journey, only that NCR and Legion territories were suddenly struck by nukes and suffered heavy losses right before the Courier walked out of the Divide, unscathed. Physically, at least.
But of all those incredible achievements, none could beat Courier Six's greatest of feats. In a move that shook the Mojave and beyond, Courier Six toppled Mr. House off his throne in New Vegas. With Mr. House gone and New Vegas under his control, the Courier commanded his upgraded army of securitrons to throw both the NCR and Legion out of the Mojave. In that grand act of defiance, the Courier declared the independence of the Mojave.
So focused on one another, neither the NCR, Caesar's Legion nor Mr. House saw the threat that was Courier Six until it was too late. To them, the Courier was just a useful pawn in their plans to take New Vegas and the Mojave with it. By the time they realized their mistake, House was dead and the two-headed bear and bull suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of the Courier.
The NCR was sent packing back to the West, broken and demoralised. President Kimball and General Oliver's popularity among the NCR citizens plummeted after wasting so much time, resources and soldiers in their campaign to annex New Vegas, only to lose it all in the end. The fact they lost it to a courier and not the Legion was especially damning.
As for Caesar's Legion, they suffered the most after the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. The loss of Caesar before the battle, killed at the hands of Courier Six, had been a huge blow to the great army. All that kept the Legion from splintering was the fear and respect everyone felt for Legate Lanius who took control of the Legion after Caesar's death. Under his leadership, he led the Legion's forces during the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, all while planning a bloody campaign across the Mojave once he was victorious. That victory was taken from him once the Courier killed him in battle.
With Lanius's death, the Legion collapsed on top of itself. Legion commanders staged coups, slaves rebelled and absorbed tribes splintered off to return to their old ways. The end result was Caesar's empire breaking apart into multiple smaller territories ruled by various warlords. Law and order collapsed as the East fell back to the savage ways of the Wasteland.
The stories were all true but what they won't say is that Courier Six, the man, the myth, the legend, was also a glorified babysitter.
Year 2283 - Big MT
"Teleportation?" repeated Courier Six. He wasn't sure if he heard the scientist correctly.
"WHY MUST YOU REPEAT WHAT I JUST EXPLAINED TO YOU, LOBOTOMITE?" sighed Dr. Klein, his monitors lowering as if disappointed by the Courier's lack of understanding of their work. Courier Six was more concerned about why Klein hadn't fixed the volume settings on his chassis yet.
"Give it time, Dr. Klein. It often takes a second or two for the teddy bear to understand the complications of science. You can tell by how it... purses its lips... and furrows its brows in thought..." panted Dr. Dala.
"Great, there she goes again. Will someone please find a cloth to wipe the condensation off Dala's container? Her bio gel is heating up again" complained Dr 0, his monitors reeling back as if wanting to put space between himself and Dala.
" [$((*#8#%] [$((*#%] !" commented Dr 8, unhelpfully.
"Remind me again, why haven't we done something about 8's voice module?"
"Incompetence, thy name is Dr. 0!" dramatically proclaimed Dr. Borous.
"What!? What did I do?"
"Nothing. That's the point you floundering imbecile!"
"Now, now, let's be rasional about this. Rasional? That doesn't sound right" muttered Dr. Mobius, the recently reinstated Think Tank member.
The Courier never agreed to babysit six pre-war scientists. Unfortunately, he had no choice in the matter.
If he never got them to promise to keep themselves and their experiments within the bounds of the Big Mountain Research Facility, they would have gone off into the Wasteland to conduct whatever mind-boggling experiments came to their crazy little minds.
Having seen the results of some of their experiments, Six knew the Wasteland and the world in general was a lot safer with the scientists holed up in Big MT. If they never made that agreement, he knew he would have had no choice but to kill them. Truthfully, he didn't want to do that.
Despite their many flaws, very immoral past decisions and obvious lack of sanity, their brilliance shouldn't be wasted. They came up with many incredible life-changing inventions over the years.
Auto-Doc Mk IX, Cyberhounds, Saturnite, Holograms, Sierra Madre Vending Machines, etc. Inventions which he brought back to the Mojave and used to better the lives of everyone. With the technology of Big MT, New Vegas prospered more than it ever had when under the rule of Mr. House.
Even though the Think Tank's technology had helped the people of the Mojave, Courier Six never forgot that not all of their creations were for the better. The Think Tank scientists' lack of morals brought about horrors that could still be felt across the Mojave.
Cazadors, Nightstalkers, Total Pacification Collars, the Cloud, and Spore Carriers were just some of the horrifying creations they conjured up in their pursuit of science.
Other times, Courier Six couldn't understand how the six scientists could possess the brightest minds in the world and still somehow act like hooligans at the best of times. Klein with his irrational overconfidence, Dala and 8 with their perversions, 0 with his attitude problem, Borous with his overdramatic flare/sadism, and Mobius's drug addiction.
Today, they wanted to showcase a new invention to him. A teleportation array that was based on the Transportalponder prototype they had given him so he could teleport in and out of Big MT whenever he pleased.
Klein explained that the Transportalponder Mk II would be capable of teleporting whole communities in one go. Unlike the original Transportalponder which only teleported him to Big MT, the upgraded version could teleport people to a selected designation of their choosing. Just type in any coordinates, press a button and bam, they're there. It was specifically designed to teleport communities away to safety whenever a nearby threat was spotted approaching their location.
Courier Six saw the usefulness of such a device. Even with his army of securitrons and the recently reinstated Desert Rangers, threats of all kinds still managed to squeeze through the cracks in his security. Raiders, slavers, super mutants, NCR assassins, Legion remnants, etc. A device that could teleport a whole town to safety when attacked could save a lot of lives. No community wanted to become the next Nipton after all.
As the scientists worked at their respective stations to start up the activation sequence, Courier Six couldn't help but ask. "And you're certain nothing will go wrong?"
"OF COURSE NOTHING WILL GO WRONG. I SPEARHEADED THE RESEARCH MYSELF" told Klein, one monitor looking up from the station while the other two focused on what he was doing.
Being told that Klein spearheaded the project didn't help calm Six's worries. It might have worsened them actually. After all, Klein was the reason why Big Mountain was no longer hidden beneath a mountain. He still didn't know exactly what mistake Klein made in the Y-0 Research Center, but it must've been a very big one if the result was the destruction of an entire mountain. Six didn't want to imagine what could happen if Klein forgot to carry the 2 again when he worked on the Transportalponder Mk II.
Courier Six watched on as the Think Tank worked on the start-up experiment. As he waited, he contemplated how New Vegas was doing.
After kicking the NCR and Caesar's Legion out of the Mojave, the Courier had spent the last two years doing his best to help fix any problems. Gangs like the Fiends, Jackals, Vipers, and Scorpions were killed to the last man, trade agreements were made with the Crimson Caravan Company, Gun Runners and others, and the Desert Rangers were reformed and given the task of protecting the Mojave along with the securitrons, agreements were made with the Followers of the Apocalypse and his friendship with the Great Khans, Boomers, Brotherhood of Steel and the Kings helped solidify and improve security within New Vegas and the rest of the Mojave.
Proud of bringing independence to the Mojave, Six brought his attention back to his scientists when he saw them finish up their preparations.
"Commencing start-up of Transportalponder Mk II" informed Dr. Borous as he pulled a switch.
"Capacitors charging at 10% and rising" called out Dr. 0 as he read the numbers from his terminal.
"NUCLEAR REACTOR?" asked Dr. Klein, not once looking away from what he was doing.
"Stable" answered Dr. Dala, checking the readouts of the nuclear reactor that had powered Big Mountain for the past two hundred years. So far, there have been no signs of fluctuations.
"Charge is at 40% and rising."
"COOLANT STABILISERS?"
"£$*?£#$!" answered Dr. 8, noting that the stabilizers remained online and functional. There would be no power overload with him here.
"GOOD!"
"Charge is at 70% and rising"
Courier Six watched in silence as the scientists all did their parts to start up the experiment. He was a little perplexed to see the usually argumental scientists work so well in tandem with each other. It was refreshing to see them not at each other's throats for once.
Sadly, all good things had to come to an eventual end. That end came when they heard in the distance something that sounded awfully like an explosion which caused the facility to shake. Six struggled to keep his balance. The floating scientists weren't at all affected by the shaking, but they were worried about it nonetheless.
"STATUS REPORT! WHAT IN EINSTEIN'S GHOST JUST HAPPENED!?" demanded Klein, turning to Dr. Mobius.
"Troubling noose! The power stabilizers just blue!" told Dr. Mobius, his pincers tapping his console rapidly to try and minimize the problem.
"Nuclear reactor is heating up!" shouted Dr. Dala, sounding somewhat worried.
"*$£~?~%$£9 3!" declared 8, trying and failing to stop the reactor from overheating, now that the stabilizers had been disabled.
"We've got a bigger problem here! The Transportalponder Mk II is still charging. We're at 90% charge!" exclaimed Dr. 0 whose robotic body was shaking in panic.
"What is it still charging for when the stabilizers are shot!? Shut it down!" roared Dr. Borous, his monitors shaking from side to side showing his frustration.
"What do you think I'm doing!? They're not responding!" Dr. 0 yelled back while attempting to stop the experiment with no success. Every procedure to cut the power wasn't working!
Barely keeping himself on his feet, Courier Six glared at the Think Tank scientists. "Damn it, what the hell is going on!?" he asked but was ignored as the scientists focused on stopping their invention.
"The Transportalponder Mk II is at full charge! It's commencing activation!" told Dr. 0, raising his pincers over his head in a panic.
"BUT WE HAVEN'T PUT IN ANY COORDINATES YET!" stated Klein, his usual confidence having been replaced with deep alarm.
"What does that mean!?" shouted Courier Six, not knowing what was going on.
"It means you better hold onto something. It's about to get bumpy!" exclaimed Dr. 0, having given up trying to stop the experiment and instead wrapped his robotic limbs around a sturdy-looking pipe.
Before Six could follow his lead, a bright blue flash enveloped his vision, similar to when he used his Transportalponder. However, this was different. Whereas Six was supposed to feel the floor disappear for a split second before it reappeared again after a successful teleportation, solid ground never returned after the one-second interval. He couldn't even look to see what was happening around him, since the bright blue light was still blinding him. Blinded by the light, Courier Six could do nothing but float in what must've been some sort of void that he couldn't even see.
If someone were to look at Big MT from a distance, one would see the entire facility get enveloped in a dome of blue electricity before a bright beam shot up into the sky. When the beam faded, all of Big MT was gone.
16th October 2010 - Georgia
When he regained his vision, a groggy Courier Six pushed himself off the floor. He grunted when he lost his balance and fell stomach-first onto the cold hard floor of the Think Tank. While relieved to feel the solid floor again, he could've done without the falling.
Dizzy, Six slowly and carefully pushed himself onto his knees to stabilise himself. He didn't dare try to stand up, knowing he would only tumble to the floor again in his current state. "I-Is everyone... alright?" he asked the scientists, stopping for a second to try and stop himself from barfing into his helmet.
Imagine that. The great Courier Six killed by drowning in vomit in his own helmet. Cass would piss herself laughing if she ever found out.
"Ooh~, my dome..." groaned Dr. 0, his mechanical body slowly rising off the floor.
"Teddy bears... teddy bears everywhere!" giggled Dr. Dala who was already back up, although she was tilting left and right in a dizzy state.
Once all the scientists got up from the floor and assessed that they hadn't taken any serious damage, they all went to find out what happened but most importantly, where they were.
"Someone better tell me what the hell happened because if you don't, I'm replacing all your bio gel with vinegar!" threatened Six who was in no mood to satisfy the whim of the crazy scientists.
The threat did wonders to get the scientists talking. "It would appear that just before the experiment could proceed correctly, the nuclear core stabilizers blew" revealed Dala as she read over the data displayed on her terminal.
"What's the status of the reactor? Big Mountain isn't gonna go into a full meltdown will it?"
"Not at the moment, no, but we will need to replace the stabilizers immediately. The coolant system is still operational, so that should keep the core calm long enough for me to fix the stabilizers" told Dr. 0 who was already on the move to do just that.
Six nodded to Dr. 0, delighted that he wouldn't have to worry about dying in a nuclear explosion, for now anyway. "That's good at least. What about the Transportalponder Mk II?"
"Offline would be putting it nicely!" exclaimed Dr. Borous, reading the information from his console. "The device was overloaded once the stabilizers blew. All that's left is the smoking remains of our hopes and dreams. Ah, reminds me of prom night."
Courier Six wasn't gonna cry about the loss of the device, but he did need to know something about it. "But did it work as intended?"
"OH, HEAVEN'S NO!" shouted Dr. Klein with a shake of his monitors. "THE DEVICE DID ACTIVATE, BUT IT DID SO BEFORE WE COULD INPUT COORDINATES."
"What does that mean? We could be anywhere in the world?!" asked Six, his voice rising along with his temper. Klein's lacklustre attitude to nearly getting them all killed rattled his nerves.
"We sooth be happy we're not in the middle of the sea," told Dr. Mobius, sounding far too cheerful, despite everything that just happened.
"7?69*%$£8?" mumbled Dr. 8.
"KEEP YOUR PANTS ON, 8, I'M ALREADY IN THE PROCESS OF CHECKING OUR SURROUNDINGS WITH THE SCANNERS!" stated Dr. Klein, typing away on his console to bring up Big Mountain's scanners. "LUCKILY, THE SCANNERS WERE LEFT UNDAMAGED THROUGHOUT THE TELEPORTATION PROCESS."
"The same thing might not be said about the rest of Big Mountain. I'll have to do a thorough scan of the entire facility to make sure we're still in operational order. Dr. 8 can assist" remarked Dr. Dala.
"£%*2[%]03!"
"What else would you be doing?" asked Dala, getting further noise from the sound technology specialist.
"QUITE RIGHT! NOW THEN, LET'S SEE WHAT WE HAVE HERE" said Dr. Klein, pressing a few buttons on his console. "WAIT A MOMENT, THIS CAN'T BE RIGHT."
"What is it?" asked Courier Six, looking over at Klein.
"OUR SENSORS ARE PICKING UP... IRREGULARITIES" answered Dr. Klein, seemingly unable to explain what he was looking at.
"What kind of irregularities?"
"HAVE A LOOK FOR YOURSELF." With a twist of a knob and the flip of a switch, Klein transferred camera footage onto the large monitor at the front of the room.
Everyone turned to the large screen as footage from multiple cameras was displayed for all to see.
For a few seconds, Six couldn't comprehend what he was looking at. There was just so much... green.
By the look of things, Big MT and all of its facilities were teleported right in the middle of a forest. It was a surreal sight but he was amazed nonetheless.
Where a wide stretch of dead and empty land once surrounded Big Mountain, there was now a wide expanse of trees and green-covered hills. Six saw trees before but none like these. Often, they were either lifeless husks or half-dead with leaves that were a mix of dried-up dark orange or rotten brown. But these trees were so green and full of life as if the carnage and destruction of nuclear radiation had never touched this part of the world.
"Klein... where are we?"
"HMM, IF THESE COORDINATES ARE CORRECT, THEN WE MUST BE IN THE STATE OF GEORGIA."
Six turned to stare at the robotic scientist in shock. "Georgia? Your device managed to teleport us to the other side of the country?"
"WHY DO YOU SOUND SO SURPRISED? THIS WAS OUR INTENDED GOAL. ALTHOUGH I PERSONALLY WOULDN'T HAVE CHOSEN GEORGIA OF ALL PLACES."
"$£[9]#29#£$#!" exclaimed Dr. 8, his mechanical body shaking in a panic.
"IMPOSSIBLE! THERE HASN'T BEEN AN OPERATIONAL SATELLITE OVER OUR ATMOSPHERE FOR OVER A HUNDRED YEARS!"
Klein didn't know about ARCHIMENDES II. Six thought it best to keep it that way. "What satellites are you talking about?" he asked.
"Our scanners have picked up signals from satellites just over our atmosphere. Multiple actually" told Dr. Dala, sounding very curious. "I've already hacked into one. The security protecting the satellite is very primitive." She put up an orbital image of the planet on the large screen.
"For a planet that went through atomic annihilation, it's looking pretty good, all things considered" commented Dr. Mobius, his cracked monitor taking in the green imagery of the planet.
"That isn't the end of our surprises! Look here!" exclaimed Dr. Borous who pointed a monitor toward the top-right corner of the screen which displayed all kinds of information. Borous was focused on the date. "The satellite claims that the year is 2010."
"MALFUNCTION?" asked Dr. Klein, but there was a hint of worry that Six could hear in his voice.
"Unlikely. I'm looking through the data files and everything seems to be in order. Either the damaged data file is buried so deep that not even I can find it, or..."
Six heard Dr. Dala's voice fill with worry as well and it only worsened his own. He didn't know what they were thinking, but it was enough to disturb both Klein and Dala.
"Or we've just teleported through space and time" finished Dr. Borous, his voice ever dramatic, but also hinted with worry.
A tense silence filled the chamber as everyone processed the notion that they teleported into another universe. That silence was then interrupted by Klein.
"HOW TREMENDOUSLY BRILLIANT!"
Klein's cheer was soon followed by the rest of the Think Tank who floated to their consoles and began pushing buttons and turning dials.
Courier Six could feel a headache coming along as he heard the scientists clap themselves on the back for a job well fucked. "Can you bring us back?" he asked, bluntly.
Klein turned his monitor to face Six. "OH SCIENCE, NO. EVEN IF OUR STABILIZERS WEREN'T DESTROYED, WHICH REMINDS ME." Forgetting his conversation with the Courier, Klein pressed a button on his console, connecting him to Dr. 0. "WHERE ARE WE ON THOSE REPAIRS, DR. 0?"
"Will you give me a second! I've only got so many appendages on me!"
"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR EXCUSES! I WANT RESULTS!"
"Screw yo-"
Klein cut the connection. "BORING CONVERSATION ANYWAY." Turning back to Six who was growing impatient. "NOW THEN... WHAT WERE WE DISCUSSING?"
"You were telling me why we can't go back" Six replied, slowly losing his patience.
"THAT'S RIGHT! AS I SAID, EVEN IF OUR STABILIZERS WEREN'T DAMAGED, WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO RETURN. WE'VE NEVER WORKED ON INTERDIMENSIONAL TELEPORTATION BEFORE. IT WAS ALL A THEORY, TILL NOW AT LEAST. WHILE WE COULD TRY TO USE THE TRANSPONDER MK II AGAIN, THE CHANCES IT WOULD TAKE US BACK TO OUR ORIGINAL WORLD IS SO UNLIKELY IT MAY AS WELL BE IMPOSSIBLE."
"You're saying we travelled into another dimension? How do you even know we didn't just go back in time?" Six asked, recalling how the year was supposedly 2010. It sounded more plausible that they travelled back in time instead of somehow ending up in a different universe.
"I can answer that," said Dala who floated over to the pair. "While looking over what data I can get off the satellite, I had a brief look over this world's history. For most of it, it is exactly the same as ours. Same earth, same landmasses, same countries, same history. It's all there. It was not until 1945, after World War 2 that our histories began to diverge from one another. For example, while we put our focus on using nuclear power as our main source of energy, this world instead placed its efforts on using fossil fuels with a mix of green energy. A major divergement if there ever was one. How fascinating."
Courier Six rubbed the top of his helmeted head in slight frustration. "So we're stuck in an alternate world to our own and you have no idea how to get us back."
"THAT'S THE GIST OF THINGS, YES," Klein said, nodding his monitors.
"Fanfuckingtastic" groaned Courier Six as he turned and walked away.
"HEY, WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?" shouted Klein, watching as the lobotomite walked out of the room.
"Going for a walk 'cause I know if I stay any longer, I'm going to hurt someone. Probably you, Klein." Six walked through the door that slid open before it automatically closed behind him.
"OH." Klein lowered his monitors and levitated back by a few meters. "WELL THEN, TAKE ALL THE TIME YOU NEED TO COOL OFF. A CALM MIND IS A HAPPY MIND AFTER ALL!"
"Dr. Klein, are you shaking?"
"DR. DALA, THERE ARE FAR MORE IMPORTANT THINGS YOU SHOULD BE FOCUSING ON! LIKE SEARCHING FOR ANY MORE DIVERGENTS IN THIS EARTH'S HISTORY."
"Now that you say that, something... curious has happened to this world as of late. Something big"
Dr. Mobius poked a monitor above his workstation, having been listening. "How big?"
"Worldwide nuclear devastation big."
"That's pretty big."
"WHAT NONSENSE ARE YOU SPOUTING? OUR READINGS AREN'T PICKING UP ANY SIGNS OF RADIATION IN THE ATMOSPHERE. NOT EVEN A SMIDGE"
"Oh sweet, naive Klein" sighed Dala, shaking her monitors in disappointment, much to Klein's agitation. "That's because this world didn't kill itself with nukes. Instead, it travelled the biological route. A virus."
"WHAT KIND OF VIRUS?"
Taking a brief tour around Big MT to see if there was any damage to the facilities caused by the teleportation, Six managed to spot a few minor damages. Cracks in the walls of buildings, an occasional severed wire, a leaking pipe. Nothing that couldn't be handled by the eyebots which were already in the process of fixing the damages done. As he watched the eyebots breeze through the air, Six gave himself an internal pat on the back for bringing the little robots back from the Divide after he had his heart-to-heart with Ulysses. The small bots proved to be of great help when it came to construction and repairs.
They weren't the only things he took from the Divide. Having been a nuclear silo for the pre-war American Army, it still held an abundant supply of weaponry, ammunition and supplies, all of which he took and brought to Big MT. He even found a few operational vertibirds, though it required the eyebots to deconstruct them, transport the parts and then rebuild them to bring them to Big MT.
As he watched the eyebots flying around, he also took note of the running cyberhounds, crawling robo-scorpions and the rolling of the occasional securitron. Not too far, there was also the recently constructed barn which housed his brahmin and bighorners. The brahmin he had taken from the Fiends after wiping them out. The bighorners were gifts given to him from the tribes at Zion Canyon, as a way to thank him for dealing with the White Legs. Secretly, Six had been turning Big MT into his last resort hideout, in case he were to lose the Mojave to a foreign threat, whether it be the NCR, remnants of the Legion or some other kind of threat. Big MT was to be his final stand. He doubted he would ever need it but he didn't get as far as he had without being prepared.
He even placed twenty securitrons in Big MT to further add to the facility's defences which already consisted of automated turrets, robo-scorpions, cyberhounds, eyebots and various other kinds of robots. It took a lot of coaxing to keep Dr. 0 from destroying the Robco-made robots. Two hundred years and the scientist still hated Mr. House with a passion. Luckily, telling Dr. 0 about how he killed Mr. House was able to cheer up the scientist enough to ignore the securitrons now roaming Big MT.
A loud bark had Six turn to his right where he saw Rex run up to him. The cyberhound stopped in front of him and sat there, panting and vying for attention.
Smiling beneath his helmet, Six rubbed the top of the cyberhound's head where he could see the dog's brain sitting in a container of biogel. "Heya, boy. Are you doing good? Are the pups alright?" Rex responded with a bark. Six guessed that meant all was well with him and the cyberpups.
Rex and Roxie's pups were cute as all hell but he learned early on not to trust them with any of his limbs. Not since they tried to take a bite out of his finger. Since they tended to eat through anything flesh or metal, he was weary to go near them.
"I'm heading out for a quick walk. Get my bearings. You wanna come along?"
Rex barked and bent low before it took off ahead of Six, getting an amused chuckle out of the Courier. Following the cyberhound, Six walked past the damaged radar fence and entered the surrounding forest. "At least there's no longer a crater to climb out of" he thought, happy to see that when Big MT teleported, it didn't bring the crater it laid in with it. The facility now rested on flatlands.
As he ventured through the trees, Six admired the surrounding forestry. The trees looked so healthy and there was just so much green! Even the air smelled so fresh. There was no stench of rotting corpses, burning buildings or rusted metal. Just nature at its best.
Six eventually caught up to Rex who was in the middle of marking his third tree. Shaking his head, Rex and himself continued walking for another hour. He wasn't concerned about getting lost or about going too far from Big Mountain since his Transportalsponder would take them both back with just the press of a button.
While walking, Six considered the state of the Mojave now that he was gone. Once word gets out, and word will get out, that he disappeared, the NCR will attempt another attack. The Legion would've as well if they still existed.
Six wasn't too concerned about the NCR successfully invading the Mojave. They were still reeling from both the First and Second Battles of Hoover Dam. Yes Man, who he had programmed to not answer to anyone other than him, will be able to keep the Mojave going even without him. His companions would also help out, knowing them. He also heard that the President and General Oliver weren't highly looked upon by NCR citizens because of their losses in trying to take the Mojave. A third attempt could very well be the last.
So, no. Courier Six didn't fear the idea of the Independent Mojave falling to the NCR.
After another hour of peaceful strolling, the pair found a tarmac road. They decided to follow it in one direction, all while Six appreciated how smooth the road was. It was unlike the cracked and damaged roads he was so used to walking on.
By the three-hour mark, Courier Six hummed to himself. "I would've thought we'd have met someone else by now." There was no nuclear apocalypse, at least not for another sixty-seven years if this earth was to follow the same course as their own. Yet, there was nobody around. He would think there would be vehicles driving on this road. Were they perhaps too far from civilization?
He was brought out of his thoughts when Rex barked. Rex ran off ahead and he quickly saw what caught the cyberhound's attention. Just a bit ahead was a car. Getting closer to the car, Six saw that it had crashed into a tree just off the side of the road. Stopping a few feet from the vehicle, Six noted the bend in the road that the car came out from before it crashed. "Must've been driving too fast and couldn't stop or turn in time. Crashed right into the tree." Walking to check the front, Six whistled when he saw the damage. The entire front of the car was crumpled up like tissue paper. It stood no chance against the thick oak which only had a deep crack going down the middle.
"It's a good thing this world doesn't use nuclear energy. The car's reactor would have exploded from a crash like this." Going over to the driver's side, Six expected to find a corpse but was surprised to only find an empty seat with a trail of blood leading out into the forest. He didn't think anyone could survive such a crash. Dropping to one knee, Six touched the blood. "A week old at least. With how much blood there is, they probably only had an hour, maybe less to find help. Doubtful when we seem to be in the middle of nowhere. Likely bled out at some point." A sad way to die but he wasn't going to waste time searching for someone who was most likely dead.
Pushing himself back to his feet, he wiped his hands together to get the dirt off. "Come on, Rex. We've seen what we can here." When he heard his companion respond by growling, Six immediately pushed aside the right side of his grey duster so he could grasp the handle of his revolver holstered to his right hip. Carefully walking around the car so he could see Rex, he came across the sight of the dog growling at something in the forest. "You see something, buddy?"
He couldn't see much, not with how tightly packed the trees were. Didn't help that because they were so tightly packed, sunlight couldn't break through their foliage, keeping the forest shrouded in darkness. Rex growled dangerously before he started to bark. The barking seemed to work cause whatever was hiding behind the trees decided to step out.
What came out wasn't a man, though it might've looked like one. It stood half a head shorter than Six himself, though it might have stood taller if it wasn't slouching. Dried blood caked its brown hair, likely because of its grievous head wound which had long coagulated. What was once a white shirt with some sort of image printed on it had turned reddish-brown from all the dried blood plastered over it. Its jeans and shoes only had drops of blood decorating the fabric.
Courier Six suspected it to be a feral ghoul, though he wasn't too sure. Other than the wound on its forehead, it looked far too fresh to be a ghoul. And yet, it groaned and acted much like how a feral would. It also moved slower than the traditional feral ghoul which could pounce on a suspecting victim before they had time to draw their weapon. This thing did a mix of walking and shuffling. Six took only a few measured backward steps to keep his distance from the strange creature.
Once he stood in the middle of the road and finished his impromptu studying of the creature, who he suspected was the unlucky driver of the crashed car, he unholstered his revolver, Lucky. With a barrel, frame and cylinder decorated with ornate gold etchings, a polished ivory handle and decorated with gambling motifs, the long-barrelled revolver was truly a beaut to behold. It even had the word 'Lucky' engraved on the silver plate of the ejector tube for extra style.
Squeezing the trigger once, Six fired a .357 magnum round straight into the creature's heart. The creature stumbled back half a step as the powerful round opened a hole in its chest and heart. Six lowered his revolver, expecting the creature to fall down dead.
Only it didn't.
Beneath his elite riot gear helmet, Six's brows rose to his forehead once he witnessed the creature continue its pursuit of him. "The fuck is this?" he said to himself, positioning his free arm out to keep a growling Rex away from the creature. Not to say Rex couldn't tear this thing apart, because he very much could. But he needed to study it some more.
Despite having blown a hole in its heart, the creature continued to stumble towards him, reaching out with its hands. Lucky barked once again and blew a second hole in its chest and like last time, it failed to deter the creature.
Now, Six could understand why people would look at regular ghouls and view them as zombies. They looked like zombies and would eventually lose their minds to the radiation plaguing their bodies and feed on anything that moved. They also travelled in packs which was what made them so dangerous. Despite looking and acting like zombies, feral ghouls were still alive, in a sense. All their bodily functions slowed to a near standstill thanks to the radiation plaguing their bodies. Their hearts still beat, their stomachs still processed food and yes, they still shit. But that also meant a gunshot to the heart would still kill them.
No, this thing was not a feral ghoul. This was an actual groaning, walking corpse!
Six shot it again for further confirmation. The results remained the same. A fourth shot hit the creature in one of its knees. This time, it fell, the destroyed knee no longer capable of holding up the creature's weight. Despite this setback, it crawled towards the Courier with the same determination.
Kicking the creature onto its back, Six stomped on its chest to keep it in place, ignoring how it tried to claw at his leg. It wasn't gonna scratch through the military-grade armour of his elite riot gear armour. Now up close and personal with the creature, Six studied it closely. "You're an ugly bastard, aren't ya?" It replied with growls and inhuman snarls. "I wouldn't worry about it. I've seen uglier."
Noting the creature's pale skin, bloodshot eyes and rotting gums, Six held his Pip-Boy close to the creature. Not once did the Geiger counter move. "Either you're the healthiest ghoul I've ever met or you're something else entirely." This only further confirmed that this wasn't a feral ghoul. A feral with no signs of radiation? Not possible.
Six then used one arm to hold down the creature's head sideways and held two fingers to its neck. A few seconds later, he removed his fingers. "No heartbeat. And I thought I'd seen it all." Not surprising really. He did blow a hole in it after all. Still, he had to be sure. He aimed his revolver down at the snarling creature's head. It was said, from pre-war comics anyway, that a bullet to the head was the only surefire way to kill a zombie. It worked on the Ghost people in the Sierra Madre and they were the closest things to actual zombies Six had gone up against.
Pulling the trigger, Six shot a hole dead centre into the undead creature's skull. He was satisfied to see the creature go limp, now truly dead. "Looks like that did the trick." Taking his foot off the corpse, Six looked at it for a minute to see if it might reanimate again, like the Ghost people. After a minute of no movement, he nodded but turned when he heard Rex growl again. He quickly saw why because more of the creatures started to pour out of the woods.
"Rex, come." The cyberhound quickly followed his order and ran over to the Courier. Touching the hound with one hand, he used the other to pull out the Transportalponder from his duster. With a pull of the trigger, both man and dog vanished in a flash of light.
Big MT
The two reappeared in a flash on the top balcony of the Think Tank. Immediately, Six walked through the door that led to his quarters, the Sink. Paying no heed to any of the talking appliances, Six entered the elevator which would take him down to the central dome. Rex would've followed after him if he hadn't spotted Muggy rolling in from the next room. That led to a chase with Muggy fleeing and screaming in terror while Rex chased after him. The other artificial intelligences either cheered on the cyberhound or told everyone else to quiet down.
Stepping into the central dome, Six could see the Think Tank scientists were hard at work, though he noticed how frantic they were when moving from a terminal to a fellow scientist. Each one kept yapping, going on about some scientific nonsense that Six could barely wrap his head around. It wasn't that he wasn't smart. Many saw him as a brute who only knew how to kill but he considered himself pretty knowledgeable when it came to science, machinery and other fields. You don't outsmart three different armies by being stupid after all. It was just that the Think Tank scientists were leagues above him and pretty much everyone else when it came to everything that revolved around science.
Dala was the first one to notice the Courier's return, one of her 'eye' monitors peeking over her designated console. "Look, the teddy bear returned. How... marvellous."
Before Six could open his mouth, he found himself crowded by Borous, Klein and Mobius.
"LOBOTOMITE! HAVE YOU PERHAPS COME ACROSS SOME OF THE LOCAL POPULACE WHILE OUT IN YOUR TRAVELS?"
"That depends. Are you referring to the living populace or the unliving?" asked Six, folding his arms. It looked like he wasn't the only one to find out about the undead.
"So you did see them! Tell us, could they walk like living lobotomites? Did they poisess all their senses? Could they speak?" chattered Mobius, his tone far too eager for someone who found out the undead roamed the world.
Borous shoved a monitor so close that Six had to lean his head back to not hit it. "Stop leaving us in suspense!"
Courier Six shoved the monitor out of his face. "Give me some room and-" The three scientists floated back one foot. Amazing how cooperative scientists can be when focused on science. "Fine then. I took my walk a few miles out and came across a road. On that road, I came across the site of a crashed car but no driver. From the dried blood on the scene, I estimated the crash was a week old. Turns out the driver didn't get far as he came out of the forest, acting and looking like a much fresher but slower feral ghoul. I thought it was feral until I shot it in the heart and it kept moving. After finding no pulse, I shot it in the head. Destroying the brain seems to be the only way to kill them."
Laser and plasma weaponry should also prove to be effective. Difficult for a corpse to rise from the grave if turned to ash or a puddle. "The gunshots also seemed to attract more of them because they started swarming out of the forest soon after."
As Courier Six explained his experience with the undead creature, all six scientists listened closely. Dr. 0 typed every word on a computer for future research.
"Fascinating. Walking corpses. A week dead yet has kept its sight and hearing. What of other senses?" muttered Borous.
"POSSIBLE THAT THE VIRUS SLOWS DOWN DECOMPOSITION. SUBJECTS REQUIRED FOR FURTHER STUDY!" told Klein, monitors shaking in excitement.
"Are any of you going to explain to me why corpses are walking around on this God-forsaken Earth?" asked Six, wondering how the Think Tank found out about the undead while he was away.
"We linked to this world's satellites. Despite how primitive the technology here is, their wireless networks are surprisingly more advanced than our own" stated Dr. 0, his tone showing his surprise. A big feat since Courier Six knew how high the Think Tank held their standards. "We scoured through the network and found a LOT. Pictures, videos, communications. All detailing the early events of when the virus first emerged. They were... not pretty."
He pressed a button on his console. Six and the others turned to the large monitor where a video started playing.
If Six was amazed by the sight of healthy trees, then he was incredulous at the sight of an actual city. The video was shakey, the person holding the camera clearly not bothered by keeping it steady. Despite the shaky footage, Six could make out skyscrapers taller than the Tops and Lucky 38. They lacked the flashy lights but made up for it by sheer size.
He didn't get much time to enjoy the sight because the camera aimed lower, showing a road packed with cars, all trying to leave the city. Only the people had long since given up trying to drive out, most walking through the gaps between the vehicles with all they could carry. Not since the Second Battle of Hoover Dam had the Courier seen so many people in one place. Hundreds, no, thousands of people marching through the streets. They were so bunched up so tightly that they were all practically rubbing off each other. Faint gunshots could be heard through the frantic panic and shouting of thousands of people. The camera briefly showed a man and woman arguing with each other while a pair of children stood to the side. Then it showed a pair of men fighting each other, the pair uncaring they were in the middle of a packed road.
Screams happened so suddenly that Six almost thought they weren't real. Oh, they were very real because what was one scream turned into hundreds and then thousands. Rushed walking changed into frantic running. Parents picked up their screaming children as men and women shoved each other to get away, uncaring if someone fell. Those unlucky people were stomped to death by the panicking mob of people. Some people even dropped everything they were holding so that they wouldn't be weighed down.
The person holding the camera had no such reservations, continuing to hold up the camera to record the screaming mob as they all fled from an unseen threat. The camera then turned and was held up to record overhead the panicking crowd.
Six saw what everyone was running from. At a distance, he could make out people charging into the crowd. Only, they weren't living people. They lunged at the crowd with the kind of ferocity he only saw among a pack of ferals. Men, women and even children were brought down by the walking corpses. Six couldn't see what happened to the people who fell to the undead but from his experience with feral ghouls, he pictured them being ripped apart, either by hand or teeth.
The camera then lowered and all they could see were the running feet of the cameraman. The sight of the bloodbath seemed to be enough for the cameraman to finally put his focus on running for his life. While they couldn't see any of the carnage, everyone could still hear it. The screams of the populace along with the snarls of the corpses seemed to get closer by the second. The camera then cut off, basking the Dome in silence.
Six's gaze never left the monitor, mind going into overdrive as he thought about everything he had just seen. The amazement of seeing intact pre-war cities and a human population in the tens of thousands was ruined by seeing the people get attacked by the undead.
He only had one question to ask. "How bad?"
Borous answered. "Every world government collapsed within a month. The virus, named the Wildfire Virus, was identified by mid-April. It was soon declared a pandemic on the 25th of August and per its name, it spread like wildfire. Two days later, society collapsed."
Six couldn't believe how fast everything went to shit in this alternate Earth. The Great War destroyed his world within the span of a few hours, but that took a worldwide nuclear bombardment and even then, it only happened after a decade of war between the U.S. and China.
"Nuclear apocalypse doesn't sound so bad right about now" muttered Dr. 0. Zombies that eat brains? As a human brain in a jar, that was a nightmare come true!
"As you might expect, everything went from bad to worse afterwards" continued Borous. "With the collapse of society, protests and riots erupted countrywide. Those didn't last long once they were beset by government forces, the undead, or both. Before, collected data claimed this planet had a population of seven billion. Before the public lost access to this worldwide network, remaining governments and organisations estimated that the lives lost were in the billions."
Six sighed, not even surprised the alternate Earth he managed to get stuck on was somehow worse than his radiated one. "Are there any organisations left?"
Dr. Dala answered. "If there are, they've gone dark. The worldwide network collapsed, meaning we couldn't look for survivors even if we wanted to. For all we know, you might be the last living human on this planet, teddy bear."
"Knowing my luck..." replied Six with a shake of his head. "First things first, can you make a cure?"
Klein's monitors shook as he laughed. "CURE? THERE'S ONLY ONE CURE FOR THE UNDEAD AND THAT'S A BULLET TO THE BRAIN. WE MIGHT BE BRILLIANT, BUT NOT EVEN WE CAN CURE DEATH. WHAT WE CAN DO IS CREATE A VACCINE. THE GREATEST OF VACCINES WHERE NO ZOMBIE BITE OR SCRATCH COULD SURPASS!"
Dr. Mobius's mechanical body bounced off Klein's, shoving him aside. "Though to even think of such an endeavour, we need subjects to study. We can't study a virus if we don't have any samples."
Dr. Klein shoved Mobius out of the way so he could get uncomfortably close to the Courier. "AND THAT MEANS YOU MUST BRING US THOSE SUBJECTS, LOBOTOMITE." A pincer emerged from his chassis so he could point it at the doorway. "NOW GO AND CLAIM OUR PRIZE."
The glowing red lenses of Courier Six's elite riot gear helmet stared at Klein's multiple monitors in silence.
Klein's monitors lowered. "IF YOU WOULD KINDLY..."
Nodding, Six turned and left, leaving the scientist to be heckled by his fellow Think Tank members.
xXx
Author's Note:
For those who don't know, Mobius has malapropism. This means that sometimes he says words similar to what he was meant to say. Like instead of fish, he might say dish. Hence, why in some of his sentences, there are a few incorrect words.