Chapter 1

Relocation

XXXXX

Something was wrong with the transmission from Big Mountain. Granted, it was hard to ever say that there was something right with it, but it was wrong in a different way. Its normal transmission had been replaced with a long, piercing note that sounded like there was something broken on the other end. For the first few days, James Walker had thought it might correct itself. Now, two weeks after it had started, he had to accept that something was most likely wrong at the secret research facility. James fiddled with the dial on his Pip-Boy, futility hoping that the problem was on his end, but to no avail.

"No change?" He looked up from his Pip-Boy to see Arcade Ganon looking at him with questioning eyes. He shook his head. Arcade sighed. "Well, I guess we're heading over there to see what the problem is. If half of what you told us about Big Mountain is true, we can't let any of it get loose into the Mojave."

"Some of it already has gotten into the Mojave," James replied. "Cazadores, Night Stalkers and Spore Carriers are all their handiwork. The last thing we need is giant robot scorpions getting into the mix."

Arcade grimaced. "All the more reason to not let them out. And here for a second I thought we were overdoing it bringing this much ordnance in." He looked down. With the exception of the helmet tucked under his arm, he was wearing a suit of Enclave Tesla armor, his father's, and holding an odd looking rifle in his other hand, a YK42B pulse rifle. Despite the name, it wasn't anything like the pulse gun and had no EMP capabilities, it was just a damn powerful weapon that had once been a staple of the Enclave armory. Arcade wasn't sure if there were any others like it out there anymore.

"No kidding," James said, looking around. He hadn't just brought Arcade. Boone, Lily, Raul, Cass and Veronica were nearby, ED-E floating above them all. Arcade was easily the most heavily armored and armed out of all of them, with Veronica coming in at a close second. Despite her preferring to travel light and to get by with only a power fist, which she had replaced with a pair of displacer gloves, she was wearing T45-d power armor and clutching a laser rifle, all of it salvaged from the bastards that had massacred the Followers of the Apocalypse outpost. While she had been reluctant to take anything from the Brotherhood of Steel when she left, James had managed to convince her to deprive those murders of their equipment. After all, their little stunt had doubtless gotten them expelled from the Brotherhood and their equipment was merely listed as missing, not stolen.

Boone was wearing his 1st Recon survival armor and was scouting the distance with an anti-material rifle. James actually had mixed feelings on splurging the caps for that heavy weapon, because Boone rarely used it. Often the sniper switched back to his old hunting rifle and just let Veronica carry it so long as she was in power armor. To be fair, he often proved he didn't need it, and the few times he did he had it with him.

Cass hadn't bothered to change out of her caravanning outfit, simply tossing an old bulletproof vest over it, but she had taken a riot shotgun to replace her old one. As well as a 40mm grenade launcher and a few belts of specialized grenades, including plasma grenades, which seemed to bring her an endless source of joy. James could still remember the first time she had shot one into a pack of legionaries. She had been cackling for hours, so much so that it had even brought a smile to Boone's face. Either that or he had been smiling at the liquefied legionaries, it was hard to tell with him.

Raul was wearing his Vaquero outfit, a .44 magnum in each hand. James couldn't help but privately wonder if the reason Raul had moved up from one magnum from two was because his outfit had a pair of holsters and he wanted to make use of both of them. The two century old man certainly had mastered the art of dual wielding, but James couldn't help but wonder. In addition to that, he had a brush carbine slung over his back.

And finally, Lily. Lily was the only person who had not received any major equipment upgrades since James had met her. Mainly because it was kind of hard to improve on a nine foot tall blue giant that was tough as nails and had a giant sword. Lily didn't even need the sword half of the time. Half of the things that threatened them, she could kill with a nice, solid punch. James had suggested armor, the only thing he could think of, but she had turned him down every time. She didn't want anything that slowed her down or made too much noise.

That only left himself to check. He had two weapons slung over the back of his scavenged Desert Ranger armor. One a riot shotgun much like Cass', a Gun Runners original that had cost him a good deal. The other was a more odd weapon, one that he had found in Zion, along with his armor. A rifle that had been designed to take 12.7mm ammunition instead of 5.56mm. The result was a weapon that wasn't as powerful as Boone's anti-material rifle, was rather expensive to resupply and could fire half as many shots as a service rifle before it had to be reloaded, but was unbelievably helpful against more armored targets. The kind of weapon he'd be needing in Big Mountain in other words. Finally, his side arm, the 9mm SMG that had once belonged to the Pre-War criminal Vance. It lacked the stopping power of his other weapons, but spat bullets at such a high rate that it was handy for when he was being swarmed.

Grabbing his rifle, he unholstered it, checking the magazine and confirming that it was full. "Boone? See anyone?"

"No one," the ex-NCR soldier said, getting to his feet. They were all standing in the middle of the Mojave Drive In, around the crashed satellite that had taken James to Big Mountain the first time. There were now several hundred bullet holes in it, along with the scorch marks that indicated that explosives had been set off on it, cleaving it clean in half. "Your handiwork?"

"Really didn't want anyone to use it to get to Big Mountain," James said, privately thinking that, while that had been the case, it had also been a very therapeutic experience. A few charges would've done the trick, but spraying the satellite until it was a smoldering wreck. Despite this, the signal had continued to broadcast from a source James couldn't find, but with the teleporter in the satellite disabled, it didn't matter. The signal normally just sounded like a bad drive in movie theatre ad, so no one would be able to figure out that it was connected to a Pre-War government research facility.

And yet, despite that, something was clearly wrong with Big Mountain. When the signal hadn't changed back to its normal, panic had flowed through James. Had someone, by some miracle, managed to stitch the satellite back together? A thought that had haunted his mind all throughout the gathering of his friends and the desperate sprint they had made for the Mojave Drive-In. But no, the satellite was still damaged beyond repair. This had quelled the overwhelming feeling of dread that James had felt, but left him with a feeling of uncomfortable certainty. If no one had gotten to Big Mountain via the satellite, what was going on?

"James? A few questions about Big Mountain, you never told us that much about it, and your explanation on the way here was a little hasty," Arcade said. James grimaced, he had been expecting this. He had done a fair bit of traveling in the three years since the Legion had been beaten out of the Mojave for a second time, and he had been thrust into quite the set of misadventures. He told his friends what had happened, but had skirted on a lot of the details. Partially because he didn't like to relive what had happened, partially because a lot of it was personal for him and others (Veronica had been the only one to hear the full details of what had happened in the Sierra Madre) but in the case of Big Mountain, it was a combination of the former and him not wanting to risk information of the place being leaked.

He trusted his friends with his life, but the more people that knew a secret, the bigger a chance of that secret being leaked. He hadn't just refused to mention anything about it, still giving them the broad strokes of what had happened, but he had also explained that there was a lot of nasty things there that would be better off buried. Most of them hadn't argued, although Veronica had confronted him after that and accused him of going down the same road of the Brotherhood of Steel, hoarding technology that could help people without a plan for that.

That had forced James to think a bit, explaining to Veronica that some of the nastier aspects of the Big Mountain could easily kill countless people if mishandled, to which she had replied by asking if all of it was like that. At her urging, James had gone back to Big Mountain every once in awhile to dig for information that could help the people of the Mojave, preferably non-combat related. The result had been some minor finds that he had relied upon Arcade to leak to the Followers of the Apocalypse, who would then spread things out ever further, to the rest of the Mojave and eventually out west to the NCR core regions. So far, he had leaked a few hundred seeds for crops that needed far less water to thrive and gave twice as many seeds, recipe for a chemical that acted as an effective substitute for Med-X, and simpler methods of Stimpack production. Arcade had gawked when the formula for said Stimpacks had included barrel cacti.

This had made Veronica much happier, and James himself was glad that she had talked him into it. In hindsight, the zeal and damn the consequences mindset of Father Elijah had possibly pushed him to be too extreme from the other end of the spectrum. That being said, there had always been a fear in the back of his mind that someone would still try and abuse the advanced technology of Big Mountain, so he kept the darker aspects of it secret.

"Shoot," James said, turning to face Arcade.

"Just to make sure we don't end up wandering into something that looks friendly and helpful before old Polyphemus lumbers in and bites our heads off, what should we expect and what should we look out for?" Arcade asked. Everyone else's attention was now firmly on James. Even Boone was watching him over his shoulder and ED-E was now facing directly downward.

"Ok," James said, running through his memories of the place. "If it moves, there's a 99% chance it'll try and kill you. The spore creatures from Vault 22? This is where they came from. I tried to burn them, but they may come back, they're resilient little things. Aside from that, there's also cyber-dogs, not unlike Rex but nowhere near as smart or friendly," ED-E gave a rather annoyed sounding beep, "more than a few robots, some crazed lunatics who had their brains cut up by the Think Tank, all of them will probably attack on site. No matter how many I kill, there always seems to be more of them, it'd take a few hundred people to properly clean that place out. As for the Think Tank, they're harmless and inert. For the moment. Klien is dead and the rest are staying idle, but I'd rather we stay away from them just to play it safe and keep it that way. You're not missing much, they're effectively a bunch of senile seniors that are only lucid half of the time."

"Kill everything we don't like, ignore the rest, find what looks like madhouse," Veronica said idly. "Don't go changing our daily routine too much there James, we might all get whiplash." James gave a small laugh.

"Now now dearie, don't go saying mean things about your elders," Lily said, reaching forward and giving James a gentle pat on the shoulder that nearly caused his knees to buckle. "I'm sure they're not what they used to be, but even then they're probably still very nice people." James privately thought that even kindly old Lily might be rethinking that statement if she had had to deal with the Think Tank exploding in horror at the sight of the ten, massive, thick "penises" she had. Oh god, what if CASS had had to deal with that? James wondered in horror.

"Yeah boss, you gotta be nice to us old people," Raul said, his voice more dry than his skin. "Real old people, not pretenders like you who think they're old just because their hair is starting to turn gray."

"So long as we have it clear that you're old and I'm not, I think we're in a good spot," James said, earning a grin from Raul. The gray hairs that had started popping up all over his head two years ago were getting hard to ignore, a good half of his head was gray now, with only the upper sections of the hair still managing to be brown, shrinking every time he had to cut his hair. Truth be told, at fifty-one he wasn't sure whether to consider himself old or not, there wasn't exactly a universal standard in the wasteland. Though Raul had a point, he certainly wasn't old so long as he stood next to him, Lily and the Think Tank. Not that they were metrics that were fair compared to a body that still aged, but still.

"So, Think Tank are non-combatants," Boone said simply. "Understood. Any others in the area?"

"Mobius, but he's practically identical to them, and provided he's not high off his long since rotted ass, we won't even see him. Aside from him, pretty much everything that moves is a hostile. Target rich environment if you would." Reaching into his rucksack, he pulled out a small gun like object. The teleporter gun that would take him to Big Mountain. "Any other questions? If not, grab onto me, this is the only way I can get back into there now."

"Wasn't bad enough that we had to deal with one megalomaniacal maniac keeping himself alive to fuck the world long after his time, we had to get six more," Cass said sourly. "Ten caps says they caused this entire mess in the first fucking place, probably without realizing it." It certainly wasn't beyond the realm of possibility, James had to admit. "But hey, cleaning up the messes left behind by dishits is practically part of our way of life now." Reaching forward, she put her hand on James's shoulder, the others following suit while ED-E nuzzled the top of James's head. After giving a quick check, he pulled the trigger.

The nice thing about teleportation was that it was quick and painless. One second, they were in the heat of a mid-afternoon day in the midst of June, the next, they were in a pleasantly air conditioned room. "Looks Pre-War all right," Veronica said, as the group broke away and examined the room they were in. They were on the balcony of the Sink, the forcefield in front of the railings giving them all an excellent view onto the rest of Big Mountain. Dozens of research facilities in various states of repair, some holding up wonderfully, others looking like they were in dire need of a tune up.

There was also one that James didn't recognize.

"The hell?" he said, to himself more than anyone else. Moving forward, he peered out as far as he could without touching the forcefield. He knew from experience that doing so would be a very unpleasant experience. The new building was dome shaped, the color of white that had long since been stained with dirt and grime, and the soil around it looked like it had been recently shifted. "That wasn't here last time."

"Looks like it was underground, look" Arcade said, pointing to the base of the dome and mounds of loose dirt that circled it. "That's the kind of mark something leaves when it comes out of the ground. That thing was hiding the whole time you were here." He glanced at James. "Now, I don't want to sound paranoid, but what is so important that they need to have a secret facility at a secret facility?"

"Somehow I don't think it's gonna be a hidden stash of medicine and candy," James said, a nasty feeling sprouting in his gut. The first time he had been to be Big Mountain, he hadn't walked away the same. Even now, while his heart was beating faster, it was much more controlled and evenly paced than it had even been before he had encountered Big Mountain. That had been awkward to explain, along with his now unbreakable spine and the fact that all of his upper skull was now metal. Although thankfully surrounding a fleshy brain. He grimaced. The new heart, spine, and metal skull were all extremely helpful, but he couldn't help but despise the way in which he had gotten them. If possible, he'd rather never go back to Big Mountain at all, but that wasn't an option.

"Ok, everyone, follow me, we gotta get in there." With a firm stride and his rifle at the ready, James led his companions into the Sink, hoping that they wouldn't ask too many questions about all the sapient appliances and that Muggy wasn't in the middle of an episode. Thankfully they were moving too fast to stop, and after a few minutes of nativating the inside of the Sink and the Think Tank, they had made their way outside without any issues.

"Hold it," Boone said, putting his arm in front of James as they neared the new building. Kneeling down in the loose soil, he examined it closely, his eyes narrowing. "There are footprints in here. A lot of them. A dozen people at the very minimum, probably more."

"Shit," James swore, "any idea who?" That was his worst fear realized, someone else finding Big Mountain. The question is, who had been the one to find it and how bad was the damage?

"Yeah," Boone said, digging into the soil and producing a small pouch with a drawstring. Opening it just a bit, he showed the inner contents to James. Gold and silver coins. The denarius and aureus of the Legion. "They don't like advanced technology," Boone said, tossing the money to James, who pocketed it. "What are they doing going after cutting edge Pre-War tech?"

"Caesar's a hypocrite," James replied instantly, being sure to use the incorrect pronunciation of the name. "He was more than willing to make a deal with the Van Graffs for energy weapons and he had an auto-doc in his tent the one time I was at the Fort. It just couldn't get the job he wanted done." He silently prayed that Caesar was dead now, that the tumor festering inside his skull had finally finished him off. The Legion had certainly been quiet ever since they were fully pushed out of Nevada, that could easily be taken as a sign that they were without a leader to drive them forward. From a certain perspective anyway.

"They're getting desperate then," Boone said simply. "If they're scrounging around Pre-War ruins, spitting in the face of Caesar's supposed precious values, it means they don't think they can hold out without an ace up their sleeve."

"Which also means that they've got reason to think that whatever's in there can help them beat an enemy they've lost to twice," Veronica said. "As much as I'd like to think that Caesar's just a misogynistic prick who's doing all this because he's bitter he can't get laid any other way, he's not dumb. He wouldn't commit this many bodies to such a dangerous place unless he knew it would be worth it."

"OK, right now the working plan is to hit them hard and torch anything that looks too dangerous. I don't care how hard it'll be, if Caesar wants it, we're all going to want it gone." That got him a good chorus of nods before the group continued their advance, stopping just outside the door to the dome. "Veronica, Arcade, you two first," James said, pressing the button next to the door, causing it to slide open. Both power armor clad figures advanced, James stopping to let them take the lead before following behind them.

Whatever the dome was, it was thankfully well lit. Passing through what looked like an atrium, they crossed a threshold and found themselves in what looked like a military checkpoint. Sandbags had been piled up to act as a choke point, although no one was manning it. "This is out of the ordinary," James said, "the rest of Big Mountain wasn't like this."

"To be fair, by the sounds of it, the rest of Big Mountain was a lot more bugfuck crazy," Cass said from just behind him. "Frankly I'm not complaining that this new add on is turning out to be the boring step-dad of the family. I'm more concerned about the guy or gal mom is fucking behind the dumpster to liven up her sex life."

Another threshold brought them into a cross between a lab and a mechanic's workshop. Dozens of different tables were laid out across the room, mechanical parts that James didn't recognize at all, some assembled, some disassembled, and whiteboards coated every corner of the room, all of them covered with complicated equations. "Veronica, can you make anything out of this?"

"Not a thing," Veronica admitted. "This is more advanced than anything the Brotherhood ever found. If they knew this place existed, they'd be calling in Knights and Paladins from as many chapters as possible to secure and strip this facility."

This room had three more doors leading off of it. One lead to a massive room that was stuffed to the brim with bunk beds and laundry baskets. The other led to a kitchen with a dozen different stoves and gardens that had long since been overrun with weeds. The third room on the other hand, was different. As the door opened, a dazzling light hit them all. Inside, was a metallic archway that thinned into fine metal points as two parts reached an apex, noticeable wires coming out of it at nearly every part. In the middle of the arch was a shimmering white portal that almost looked like a reflection on water except for the odd white tint and a strange landscape that James didn't recognize. Blast shields filled the room, a couple looking like they had been snapped off, but the rest suggesting that they had been there to keep something between the portal and those observing it from any direction.

There were also no less than two dozen legionaries in the room, many of them looking at the portal, but some of them had been watching the door. "PROFLIGATES!" one of them shouted. James's rifle snapped onto him, firing a shot that reduced his head to red mist, but the damage had been done. All around the room, the legionaries realized that they were no longer alone, and weapons, blades and guns both, were drawn.

James fired a quick shot at the next nearest legionary as he raised a SMG before throwing himself behind one of the barriers. Both Arcade and Veronica opened fire with their energy weapons, reducing a few of the legionaries to ash, and causing the lion's share of the enemy fire to focus on them. Taking advantage of this momentary tunnel vision, the rest of the group filed into the room, with the exception of Boone, who took up a position by the doorway aiming his hunting rifle into the room, his anti-material rifle placed to the side.

Within seconds, the room was a chaotic mess as both Arcade and Veronica took cover, even power armor could give out under enough strain and neither one of them wanted to push their luck, and the legionaries took cover themselves. Bullets, grenades, and the occasional spear filled the air as the fighting quickly devolved into person to person combat, with there being no overarching strategy, but the act or die split decision making of a dozen different firefights.

Peeking out of cover, James fired off a quick shot at a legionary that had been taking aim at Raul, enabling the Ghoul to take out a pair of legionaries by emptying his revolvers at them before he ducked down to reload. He had to duck down a second later as a burst of gunfire and a spear streaked overhead, the latter embedding itself in the floor behind him. "It's him! It's Barca! Focus on him! Cover me!"

Peering out of cover, James spotted a Centurion charging at him, a Super Sledge raised over his head, the thruster in the back ready to fire. James threw himself back just in time, the hammer came crashing down, the Centurion leaning over the cover, leaving a crater where James had been a second before. Sliding a few inches backwards on his back, James leveled his rifle as best he could and fired. The shot tore through the Centurion's leg, causing him to stumble, but he still pressed on, swinging at James again.

Fuck fuck FUCK! James internally screamed, kicking off a nearby blast shield to push himself away from the Centurion, the hammer just barely missing him as it hit the ground again. Desperately, he attempted to right his rifle, only for a strange shimmering to fill the air to the right of the Centurion. "Young man, that is very rude!" With the grind of metal on metal and the nauseating sound of something wet and squishy being torn, the Centurion's sides tore open, blood soaking a phantom sword that was otherwise invisible. "But Lily knows how to deal with brutes like you!" The barely visible sword pulled back and struck again, biting into the already open wound and cutting halfway into the man's gut. "My goodness, your mother must be ashamed."

"You saved my fucking ass Lily!" James shouted, scrambling back into cover, pressing his back against it as bullets came uncomfortably close. A few spurts of blood opened near Lily's blood-stained sword. Though she didn't seem bothered that she had been hit.

"James dearie!" Lily said, sounding appalled. "You're better than language like that!"

"Sorry!" he said, knowing full that he would only stop swearing when his life stopped involving people shooting at him. Blind firing a few shots in the direction of gunfire, he chanced another peak out on the far left side of his cover. He saw a legionary holding a very large looking sphere that couldn't be anything other than a bomb. Pushing a button, he gave it a heavy heave and threw it across the room.

The ball rolled to a halt in front of James, who braced for detonation. Instead, the top opened and a speaker jutted out. The battle froze, every last person in the room staring at the bomb. Then, a bombastic voice filled the room. "Greetings filthy communist scum! Whether we're at home in good old America or in your backwater third-world nation, you have the pleasure of dealing with the newest and greatest achievement of the stars and stripes. Your death by a state of the art time bomb! Our scientists-"

Realizing he had a chance, James lunged forward, grabbing the ball, and beaned it as hard as he could it back in the direction of the Legionaries. He got one right in the face with it, knocking him to the ground, howling in pain and clutching at his broken nose. Scrambling back into cover, just avoiding a few bullets, he hollered, "get down!" He had a bad feeling that whatever that thing was, it would be comparable to a mini-nuke in terms of destructive power. He ducked down his head and waited. There was a loud clang right next to him.

"Not that any of you would understand the merits of hard work when you just sit on your asses and collect government handouts like the parasites you are! I had to work my ass off since I was fifteen, my daddy wouldn't lend me so much as a nickle if I didn't mow the lawn first, and you assholes think you can just say ahhhh and-"

"Uh, General Chase? This is just a test run and we can't record for much longer."

"I'll make if brief then. In short, fuck off and god bless America! This message will now repeat in both Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese."

"Oh come on!" James hissed, grabbing the bomb and throwing it over his cover . Five seconds later, it came rolling back around the corner, speaking Chinese that, even though James didn't know a word of it, was obviously clumsy and clunky. "Lily! Chuck it!" Grabbing the babbling thing, he tossed it across the room to the Nightkin.

"If you insist deary," she said, stretching her arms out before raising the bomb about her head and pitching it with a vicious ferocity. The bomb tore through the air, hitting another legionary in the gut, who silently crumbled to the ground and did not get up just as the bomb started to play the Star Spangled Banner over the horrible Chinese. Then, without warning, it exploded.

It was a plasma charge, a ball of green exploding outward and swallowing up five legionaries, and clipping the edge of the the portal. There was a deep sucking noise that filled the room, and the portal swelled, slowly growing to eclipse the archway. Without warning, James was hit by a powerful sucking sensation that pulled him off his feet. Half of his body hit the side of a blast shield, flipping him upside down as he desperately grasped for a grip. He managed to get an awkward hold on the side of the blast shield, the suction pulling his rifle out in front of him, it only stopping due to the strap he had attached to it that was still slung over his shoulder.

Most of the legionaries were sucked into the portal before they could react, being closer and having less reaction time, but a few were holding onto blast shields, even as the portal tried to pull them in. He gave a quick look to check on his fields. Lily, Arcade, and Veronica were all stumbling, but remained firmly on the as they grabbed holds on the blast shields. They were apparently heavy enough to stay on the ground. Raul had wrapped one arm around Arcade's leg and was firing carefully placed shots with his free hand. Veronica was crouching flat against one of the blast shields, just barely out of range of the suction, and was angling her grenade launcher over the top with some difficulty. ED-E had its back to the portal and was flying as hard as it could away, causing it to look it was stuck in midair.

Boone on the other hand, had flown completely out of the doorway and had nothing between him and the portal. Veronica darted outward and grabbed him by the back of his outfit, leaving him awkwardly billowing about in mid-air as the ex-scribe tried to keep her grip. "Hold me steady!" Boone shouted, raising his hunting rifle and chambering a round. Taking aim, he opened fire, and the head of the nearest legionary exploded, his lifeless body losing its grip and being sucked into the portal.

With difficulty, James grasped for his SMG, not sure if he could reach his other weapons, and pulled it loose. With one hand, he aimed at the three remaining legionaries, all of whom had drawn their pistols and were taking what shots he could. The first burst missed by a long shot, going well over the heads of all of his targets. The second hit the front of one of the blast shields. The third managed to hit a legionary right in the throat. Jamming down on the trigger, James continued to spray, adjusting to get the legionary next to the first. Three or four bullets hit his front armor, and while the 9mm bullets didn't penetrate, it did knock him loose from his grip, causing him to be sucked into the portal along with the corpse.

Taking aim at the last legionary, James pulled the trigger, only for the hammer to give a distinct "I'm hitting something but it ain't a bullet" click. The legionary, having spotted the source of the gunfire that had hit his allies, took aim with a 9mm pistol and fired. His aim was true. The bullet hit James right in the chest, knocking the air out of him and causing him to lose his grip.

No no no no NO FUCK FUCK FUCK! Even though his new heart could pump much more blood with each beat than his old one, it was now hammering in his chest as panic flooded him. He dropped the SMG, both hands stretching in every direction for something to grab onto, but there was nothing. He was tumbling over and had been flipped right side up again when something heavy hit him in the chest. Looking down, he saw ED-E pressed into his chest, trying to push him back away from the portal. But ED-E had barely been able to push away its own weight, and all it could do was slow James down a bit.

As the portal drew even closer, he spotted the last legionary, laughing in triumph. Twisting in mid-air, James kicked out and caught the legionary square in the face. "You're coming with me asshole!" he shouted as he, the legionary, and ED-E hit the portal. James was blinded by light, and the world around him disappeared.

XXXXX

There was a rumble like thunder and, the next thing James knew, he had hit a hard, asphalt road at the speed at which he had hit the portal. After the initial pain of the impact hit him and began to dull, thoughts began to filter through his head. I'm...not dead? Pushing himself to his feet, he looked down at his hands. He had half expected that portal to vaporize anything that had gone into it, if it was experimental even by Big Mountain standards, but he didn't seem to be harmed at all.

"Wait, ED-E!" he shouted, looking around him. To his relief, he saw the eye-bot a few feet away. And just behind him where half a dozen legionaries, all of them getting to their feet, with a few bullet riddled corpses on the ground. The portal had not been harmful at all. To anyone who had gone through it.

"Fuck," he hissed, scooping his SMG off the ground and turning to look for cover. There was an abandoned store not far from where he was standing, the front display window having been smashed. "Over here!" he shouted, gesturing to ED-E, who followed him at once. Running as fast as he could, he vaulted into the store, crouching down and sliding into cover just as bullets started to fly again.

"ED-E, any idea where that portal sent us? Are we in Nevada still or somewhere else?" The robot gave a confused beep as it slid into cover next to James. "Ok, here's the plan. You scout out the back of this place and see if there are any ways out, I'll keep them busy. If you find a way out, let me know and I'll leave them some presents while we make a run for it. Got it?" But ED-E didn't respond, and was staring into the corner of the room. A family of five was huddled in the corner, what looked like a mother, father, teenage daughter and young boy and girl children. And now the Legion was firing into the building they were hiding it.

"Oh no," James said, realizing just how badly he had screwed up. "Look, you gotta get out of here! I'll hold off the Legion! ED-E, new plan, find a back door and get them someplace safe, don't wait for me, I'll meet up with you-"

"We can't go out there!" the father shouted, "it's swarming with Grimm! Didn't you see!?" James focused on the father. He had to blink twice to make sure he wasn't seeing things. He had four ears, a pair of regular ears, and a pair of shaggy dog ears with bright golden fur further up his head. James was baffled. He had never seen a mutation like this before. Or was it the result of Big Mountain DNA splicing? It doesn't matter, figure it out later, he told himself.

"What the hell is a Grimm?" James asked, poking his head out of cover to see where the Legion soldiers had taken position. He almost dropped his jaw. Two of them were dead on the ground, one was sobbing as he crawled on the ground, an arm missing, while the other three were running. One of the runners stopped, grabbed the one armed legionary, hoisted him up into a fireman's carry, and took off again.

Wolves were in the street, the biggest wolves James had ever seen in his life. They were the size of Deathclaws, with pitch black fur as dark as night, bleached white bones jutting out at random points along their body, with blood red eyes shining out of the bare skull it had instead of a head. One of them was holding a severed arm in its mouth, while a pair were descending on the two fallen legionaries, tearing them to shreds with their claws. There was no speculation on what a Grimm was.

Feeling more than a little terrified, James crouched back down. The Grimm didn't seem to have noticed them, he had to approach this carefully. Picking up the SMG, he reloaded it with a fresh magazine, before ejecting the clip in his rifle and topping it off before sliding it back in. "Are you a Huntsman?"

He looked back at the family. The young girl was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and hope. He had no idea what a Huntsman was, but he could tell saying no would crush what hope the girl had. She couldn't be older than five. "I'm better," he said, putting on a smile before remembering that his helmet was still on. He wished he could take it off, but removing head protection in the middle of a combat zone was a bad idea, metal skull or not. "I'm a courier. I deliver things, and I'm about to deliver you all to safety."

That was the dumbest fucking thing you've ever said in your life, he couldn't help but think. It seemed to be a common consensus. Both parents had winced at the line, the teenager was staring at him as if she couldn't believe he had just said that, and ED-E made a beep that sounding suspiciously like a raspberry being blown. But both of the younger children looked enthralled. "Is he really mommy? Is Mr. Courier going to save us?" the young boy asked.

"Yes, but you need to do everything I say," James said, looking at both the mother and father. Unholstering his shotgun, he held it out to him, handle first. "Do any of you know how to use one of these?" Slowly, the parents and the elder daughter all shook their heads. Shit James thought. It'd be one thing if just one of them knew how to use a shotgun, but with kids in the picture? That's a recipe for friendly fire. "Ok, I need you to follow me. Stay close, stay quiet, and stop when I tell you to stop." He poked out of the window. "Which way is safest? I don't know the area."

"That way," the elder daughter said, pointing east if the slowly setting sun in the opposite direction was a good indicator. "The other way would take you to the docks."

Docks? I'm on the coast? Am I in Washington? Oregon? Because this place doesn't look NCR. Now that he thought about it, the building he was in and the ones around him looked extremely well maintained. Almost as if some of them had been constructed recently. Maybe that portal thing went crazy and I'm on the east coast, or another continent all together James thought. Now's a bad time. Eyeing up the streets, he saw that the wolves were begining to move off, though not in a pattern he could make out. In the distance, he could hear gunfire, and they seemed to be moving vaguely in that direction. He prayed that they were chasing after the last few legionaries.

Examining the streets more closely, he spotted alleyways that the wolves might not be able to fit into, and even if they did it would only be in single file. "Ok, run across the street and into the buildings, now! ED-E, go on ahead and let us know if you see anymore of those Grimm things. Stay high, don't let them get at you." Giving a confirmatory beep, ED-E sped off into the alley as James vaulted himself over the window frame, rifle in hand. "Come on!" he said, his voice low but sharp.

The family was quick, James suspected that it was half panic and half pent up stress from being forced to hide for so long, but they didn't lag that far behind as he led them across the street, the mother and father each carrying one of the younger children. James's eyes darted back and forth, checking for more of the mutant wolves, but none were in the area. At the moment. They reached the alley, sliding into it, with it only being wide enough for two people at a time, and James crept along to the end, peaking out.

Three of the wolves were there, having fanned out across the street, their noses pressed to the ground as they sniffed. They didn't seem to be in any hurry to leave the area. James looked down to his side. Five copperish canisters with glowing green prongs were there. He could afford to use one. "Cover their ears," he said to the parents, taking one of the canisters and flicking a pin on the side out. Two of the Grimm were converging on each other. As they did, the young boy gave a barely suppressed sob. The closest Grimm's head snapped up, staring in the direction of the alley they were on.

Shocked at how acute the hearing on these things were, he didn't waste any time, hurling the canister right between two of the Grimm. James wondered if they had ever seen a plasma grenade before, and if they would understand why the tiny bit of metal thrown between was worth paying attention to as it detonated. An orb of blinding green light flashed as the explosion engulfed two of the Grimm, the last one roaring and charging at the alley. Righting his rifle, James opened fire. Four caught the wolf in the stomach, causing it to stumble, getting uncomfortably close, before a shot to the head caused it to collapse flat onto the ground mid step, with James firing another headshot just to be safe.

Things are tough, that'll be a problem, James thought, checking the area for more Grimm. At least his plasma grenades were effective, there was nothing left of the first two he had killed. In fact, there was barely anything left of the third. The body was barely there anymore. James had looked away for what couldn't be more than ten seconds, and the little bit that was left was collapsing into a pale substance that looked like it was halfway between dust and mist, before it vanished all together. As he watched, James could've sworn that he heard the slightest tick from his Pip-Boy's Geiger counter, but a quick check revealed no radiation levels in the area.

"Ok, you're doing good, all of you, keep moving," James said, giving one last check before dashing out, heading to another gap between buildings. He was halfway across the street when he spotted movement on top of a building next to one of the ones that made up the alley. Figures in white armor. James blink. Local guards? They had the weapons for it. Weapons that were being aimed. Right at them. "MOVE!" James shouted, just as the bullets started to fly.

Stopping at the head of the alley, James took aim and emptied what was left of his magazine, trying to suppress the shooters. The daughter reached the alley first, turning around and pulling her mother in, with the father right behind them. The shots were coming dangerously close, many, James realized with horror, being aimed at the family and not at him. One bullet tore into one of the father's human ears, reducing it to a mangled mess that was only half attached to his head. The man stumbled and fell, still clutching his son tightly, who was now crying in confusion and fear.

Darting out of cover, James grabbed the man by the shoulder and ungracefully but quickly dragged him towards the safety of the alley. He felt someone brush by him and the next thing he knew, the daughter was helping them, having grabbed the other shoulder. It couldn't have taken more than three seconds to get the father back into the alley, but it felt like an eternity with bullets streaking by. James felt one skim the top of his helmet, leaving him feeling like he had just taken a hammer to the head, complete with ringing ears. When they were out of the crossfire, James pressed the father against the wall, producing a stimpack and a bundled of bandages.

"Hey, stay with me," James said, injecting the man's sides with the stimpack before wrapping the bandages tight around the ear. "What I just injected you with will speed up the clotting process, but you're gonna need to get medical attention fast. Understand? You gotta get to a doctor as fast as possible when you get out of here or that wound's gonna get worse." The man nodded groggily, he seemed to be half out of it, but still had his son in a vicelock grip.

After the wound was bandaged, he glanced at the mother and elder daughter. "Who were those people on the roofs?" he asked. A rage was building up inside him very quickly, only growing as the son's sobs began to grow.

"White Fang," the elder daughter said, looking at her father and sounding as if it was taking everything she had to stay calm. "But I don't get it! Dad's a Fanus, why would they try and hurt him!? He's one of them."

"I don't know dear, I don't know," the mother said, trying to comfort her elder daughter with a hand on the shoulder while bouncing her younger daughter in an attempt to keep her from crying. Judging by the way the young child was looking at her father, that was a losing battle. "I don't even know what they're doing here."

James thought fast as he reloaded his rifle, pocketing the empty magazine. Then, he spotted a chained side door in one of the alley sides. To the building that was right next to the one the gunmen were hiding on. His eyes narrowed, the rage pulsating through him. "ED-E, get these people to safety," he said, to a confirmation beep from the robot. "Ok. Listen. We're not gonna be able to get out the far side of the alley with them up there, they'll just hit us from the other side. I'm gonna take care of them. Don't wait for me." He pointed to ED-E. "Follow him, he's never steered me wrong before."

ED-E responded to this by playing a triumphant score of trumpets over his speakers, flying in front of the elder sister and mother before staying rigidly still in mid-air. ED-E's version of snapping to attention. Unholstering his shotgun, James blasted the chains off the door before reholstering it. "Can you stand?" he asked the father. He nodded gingerly as he slowly got to his feet, his eldest child moving to support him. "Don't wait for me, you can't afford to stay still while I deal with every last one. Stay right behind ED-E. ED-E? As soon as you hear me engaging them, move. Get them out of this hellhole. All of the family looked at him with something on their face, but James didn't stop to figure out what it was, and disappeared into the building.

From the inside, it looked to be some kind of corporate HQ for a small company. Desks, cubicles and lounges dotted, streaking past as James charged through until he found the stairwell. Even as the fight or flight adrenaline was pumping through his body, he couldn't help but take in what good shape the building was in. It didn't even look like a fifth of it had been scavenged yet. He mentally made a mark of what the building looked like, if he was far away from the Mojave, he would have to scavenge up supplies for the trip back once the family was safe.

The top of the stairwell loomed in front of him and he took the flight of steps three at a time before slamming into the door. As he had hoped, the door had taken him out onto the roof of the building, which was dotted with vents from air conditioners and heaters. And just across the way were seven people in white armor, their faces covered by masks of the same color, all of them armed and with their weapons trained on the streets below them. "I can't see them, they must be hiding in the alleyway," one said.

"We're wasting our time here, Adam said to fall back!" said another, his voice carrying across the roof to where James was. "The plan went all wrong, someone triggered it early, and Atlas is moving their heavy hitters in. We're all gonna end up in an interrogation room if we stick around, or worse, the morgue."

"They're right there! We just need a few more minutes and-" the first one said, but before she could say another word, there was a loud bang and a hole the size of a fist burst open in her skull. James bared his teeth in anger as he hid behind the door frame, aiming his rifle at a new target.

While the logical part of his brain was telling him to play it smart, the emotional part wasn't listening. "HEY! TRY FIGHTING SOMEONE WHO CAN ACTUALLY FIGHT BACK YOU FUCKING COWARDS!" He chastised himself for losing his temper like that, but he couldn't deny the anger that was boiling through his veins. Shooting at unarmed civilians? Civilians with kids at that? They were all dead. He didn't know who they were or why they were doing this, and to be frank, he couldn't care less. None of them were living past the hour. Six left he thought, taking aim and pumping two bullets into the chest of another one of the figures as they all scrambled for cover on their rooftop. She clutched her chest, still holding her weapon weakly, before she stumbled and slid off the side of the building, falling three stories to the ground below. Five.

He snapped into cover as a hailstorm of fire tore past both ends of his cover. Well, the good news about his outburst was that it had made sure that all attention was on him. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted ED-E darting into the streets, the family right behind him. "I'll catch up with you buddy," James whispered as he took stock of his situation. Now that he had actually gotten a chance to shoot at these people in white, and the family was out of harm's way, his anger was starting to die down. And he realized he was in a less than ideal situation.

He was outnumbered. True, he had slimmed the odds from one to seven to one to five, but those were still hardly odds to brag about. And with the way they had him pinned, a forward firefight would be a bad idea, it would play right into their strengths, and he didn't know what kind of firepower they had. He had to play this one smart.

The building on the other side of this one, the one that wasn't covered with people trying to kill him, was a rather big and wide one, with plenty of venting systems to hide behind. The vague outline of a plan began to form in his head. Taking a running start, James leapt the gap between buildings, hitting the roof hard and rolling to recover. Not having long until the five surviving gunmen realizes what he had done, James jumped through the maze of exposed vents before he got to the very far end. Unholstering his rifle, he placed it against the far side of the vent before undoing the straps for his helmet and placing it on top of the rifle's barrel. To someone looking from afar, the propped up helmet would look like someone taking cover. From afar.

As he took a few steps back to check his work, the gunfire stopped. "Did he jump!?" he heard a voice cry. He didn't have long, this plan was a long shot, and it would all be ruined if they saw him out in the open. Drawing his shotgun, he dashed to the side of the building, finding a nice bit of cover that only left a few feet between him and the edge, and slid it behind it, laying flat and out of sight. Shotgun in one hand, he took one of his four remaining plasma grenades and waited.

After a few minutes, he heard heavy grunts followed by footsteps as the gunmen made the same jump that he did. "He's gotta be here somewhere. Spread out, don't-"

"Look, Adam, Adam, told us to pull back! Atlas' airships are right over our heads! We're gonna get swarmed and massacred if we stay here much longer," a second, angry voice said. On pure instinct, James looked up. His heart caught in his throat. Giant, silver ships were hovering in the air above him, at least a dozen of them. They were sleek, they were shiny, they looked like they had just come off an assembly line, and they were disgorging a wave of much small craft that were around the size of Vertiberds.

James's mind reeled at the impact of this sight. He had thought it was impressive that a couple of VTOLs had been restored by the NCR, and these people had not only managed to get ten times as many up and running, but those giant ships they were launching out of. But nothing about any of these designs looked Pre-War. Were they all home brewed? Had these people advanced to the point where they had climbed back to Pre-War levels of infrastructure and technology? Was that even possible.

Dark thoughts found their way into James's mind as he pondered this, remembering something he had heard three years ago. "Give me 20 years and I'll reignite the high technology development sectors. 50 years and I'll have people in orbit." Mr. House had claimed that he could have done something like this, and he also claimed that he had been hampered by his predictions being slightly off. With House, it was damn hard to tell what was empty bravado and what was him simply stating what he was capable of. If House hadn't been giving empty boasts, and these people had had the foundation House had had and hadn't been stuck with the handicaps, maybe it was possible.

House's voice echoed in his mind. "A bit late for idle speculation, don't you think? The NCR you idly threw away so much out of the misplaced belief that every average simpleton has an opinion that needs to be considered by even the highest authority, do you think they'll be able to stand against these juggernauts? Their archaic human wave tactics yield moderately respectable results when they outnumber their opponents ten to one, but you've already seen that they struggle when the odds are not overwhelmingly stacked in their favor, even when they face a man who's merely a warlord with pretensions of grandeur. These people? They seem to be a fair bit more, don't they? If they want the Mojave, want California, want all of the west coast and beyond, there's not a thing the NCR, the Legion, or Vegas can do to stop them. I could've. There's even a sliver of chance you could have. A sliver. But you've already made your choice. But still, it could be an enlightening experience for you, to experience classic Pre-War subjugation. Most likely some form of imperialism, possibly neo-colonialism if they prefer a more hands off approach. The end results will be the same though. I hope your choice was worth it."

Reaching around his neck, James looked at something that was hanging there, tied to a string. The Platinum Chip. With a .44 magnum bullet lodged directly in the center of it. His grip tightened in anger. Even to this day, he wasn't sure he had made the right choice regarding the fate of Vegas. For a few minutes, he had held the future of Vegas in his hands. The opportunity had been right in front of him, when he had Benny cornered in his suite. The plan laid out in front of him, the Platinum Chip in the same room as him, and Benny disarmed.

But the idea had scared him. It still terrified him to this day. Taking all the power in Vegas, at the head of an army that neither the Legion or the NCR could oppose, being untouchable. Yes he could use that power for good, but after all the time he had spent opposing Caesar and those like him, the idea of taking the power had felt like a betrayal. A hope for an independent Vegas, yes, but one where one autocratic dictator was replaced with another. A hope for a more secure future at the cost of freedom in Vegas. He had at the same time wanted to scream how wrong it was, yet part of him couldn't help but consider the potential benefits, and that he could make it all worth it.

His hesitation had cost him the chance to make that choice. Benny had made a run for it. The fucking little piece of shit, James thought bitterly. Straight into Legion territory. James had chanced a trip to the heart of Caesar's territory, against the advice of all of his friends, only with Caesar's promise of protection assuring him it wasn't a one way trip. Well. He had gotten the Platinum Chip back. Kind of.

"He's over there!" James was snapped out of his thoughts as gunfire broke through. There were a few bursts, followed by a cry of triumph. "Ha! Got him right in the head!"

"Great, yeah, fantastic," an annoyed man's voice said. "Now let's go!" Slowly, James removed the pin from his grenade, peeking up over cover. All five of them, clustered together, their weapons trained on the spot he had left his rifle and helmet.

"One second, gotta double tap him, make sure he's dead," one of the women said, taking a step forward. "It'd suck if he shoots us in the back on the way out." A smart move, one James probably would've made himself. Mainly because he had a unique relationship with double taps. Though in this situation, the smart move wasn't the safe one. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the grenade into the thick of the White Fang. "Oh F-" the woman screamed as the grenade bounced once and then detonated.

Rising up, James took am with his shotgun, squinting through the blinding light of the grenade. Two of the White Fang were gone, puddles of green goop were oozing on the ground where they were three seconds ago. One still had an intact body, but was most certainly dead, her head was split open diagonally and her right arm and leg hand been blown off. Two were on the ground, badly wounded with severe burns and open gashes, but still alive. James pumped two shells into the nearer one, hitting him in the torso with the first and face with the second, before turning his attention on the last one.

"HUMAN! YOU'LL-" the woman screamed as she struggled to raise her SMG, but what exactly James would do or experience, he never found out, for three shotgun shells were quickly emptied into her. James let out a deep breath that he didn't know he had been holding as he got to his feet. The adrenaline was starting to wear off, and his body was starting to ache. His head from the bullet skim, his stomach from the trip through the portal, and his feet from the rooftop jump. It all felt so much sharper now that he wasn't actively fighting for his life.

Crossing back to where his rifle and helmet were, he picked them both up. A bullet was now lodged in the back of his helmet, a SMG round by the looks of it. Idly considering the explanations that would have to come from this, he pulled the bullet out, strapped the helmet back on, and slung his rifle over his back before he topped off his shotgun's magazine.

"One quick thing," he said, moving to where the dead White Fang members were. Bending down by the last one he had killed, he grabbed her SMG and held it up. It was clean, looked brand new, and felt good in his hands. Ejecting the magazine, he checked the ammunition within. He tilted his head. The bullets inside had bright silver casing and what looked like a red glowing section. They looked vaguely like 9mm bullets, but he wasn't sure, and he didn't feel comfortable stuffing these unknown elements into his SMG. He tucked it away into his rucksack, he would examine it later.

Drawing his rifle, he took a few steps forward before stopping dead in his tracks. Five more White Fang members were standing on the rooftop he had jumped from. Three were unremarkable, but one was an utter giant of a man, looking as if he was only an inch away from being seven feet tall with what was unmistakably a chainsaw sword resting over his shoulder, and the other was wearing what looked like a custom uniform. Solid black coat and pants, the coat partially unbuttoned to reveal a red undershirt, and exoticsplashes of white and red on the left shoulder of the jacket, forming symbols James didn't recognize. The boy, and he couldn't be older than eighteen, had bright red hair, what were unmistakably a pair of bull horns, and a sword at his side.

James raised his rifle, but paused when he noticed none of them had opened fire yet, even though all of them had their weapons trained on him. All of them were looking to the boy with the bull horns, silently asking for directions. The boy was focused directly on James. At least, James was fairly certain he was, it was hard to tell, the boy was wearing the same mask as the rest of the White Fang. "How many freedom fighters did you just kill?" he asked, his voice low and angry.

"Freedom fighters? Zero," James replied. "If you're wondering how many murderous assholes I killed today, seven. There were a couple of others before that, but they weren't yours, so I doubt you care." James considered his options. He had a talker on his hand, the type that liked to speechify before he did anything. He could use that, but he had to pick just the right time. "Shot at a bunch of civilians, hope you don't mind that I wasn't going to sit around with my thumb up my ass with that going on."

"They shot at humans," the boy said simply. Something clicked in James's mind. The boy's horns, the father's dog ears, how the daughter had said the father was one of them, one of the White Fang calling him human. Oh goodie. It's one of THOSE situations, he thought bitterly. "After everything they've done to us, all they're still trying to do, you defend them. You-" but James decided that he wasn't going to entertain this boy. He had an opening and he wasn't letting it go to waste. Mid-sentence, he leveled his rifle directly at the boy's head and fired. He shifted, taking aim at the big one with the sword, when something happened that caused his jaw to physically drop.

With a blur of motion, the boy drew his sword, the blade a blood red that shined in the sun, and slashed in front of him. There was a clang of metal on metal and, there was no other way to interpret it, he had slashed the bullet in half. A moment of silence passed as the boy silently stood with his sword out and James gawked at him. What?

The boy took a step forward and a fresh sense of adrenaline surged through James. Focusing back on the boy he fired twice, one aimed at the head before shifting down for a gut shot. Another blur of motion followed and the boy's sword rose up to meet both bullets, deflecting them with deadly precision. WHAT!? James abandoned all restraint, firing his rifle until the chamber clicked empty. Every time a sword met his bullet, and while he could've sworn that the very last shot, one that had been aimed low at a leg out of desperation, didn't seem to be blocked, the boy only stumbled back. There was no damage visible at all.

You're out, no time to reload, switch weapons, he thought. His rifle was slung over his shoulder and his shotgun was halfway up when the boy jumped. One second, he was on the other building. The next, blinding pain tore through James's side. Blinking in shock, he looked down and saw the boy right in front of him, his sword up to the hilt in James's torso. His armor had done nothing to stop it. The boy was smirking. "Just a human," he said, before drawing his sword down in a single, fluid motion. The pain was so great that the edges of James's vision went black. The blade tore down through his stomach before the boy drew it out, following up his stab with a strong kick.

James flew back across the roof, slamming into one of the vents and getting the air knocked out of him. Gasping for a breath he couldn't take, blood dripping out of his mouth and flowing out of his torso, James fell to all fours, his weapons loosely hanging on him. He felt like he had just been kicked by a Super Mutant. "That's the funny thing. For all their bluster and power, humans aren't too hard to kill," the boy said, slowly stepping forward. "It's so easy to make them pay." Not seeing any other options, James grabbed another plasma grenade, primed it, and tossed it at the boy. Not stopping to see if the boy was taking cover or had sliced it in half, he forced himself through the agony and onto his feet, over the vent and towards the roof's edge.

The grenade detonated behind him and he half jumped, half was blown off the top of the roof into a freefall, his ears ringing in addition to all the other pain. His fall was brought to an abrupt end as he slammed back first into a car, denting the roof and adding more pain that was slowly coming to dominate his entire body. He's still up there, that grenade will slow him down at best. You need to MOVE!

With great difficulty, he forced himself off the car, onto the street below, and he ran. He ducked into random alleys, charging out of one and into another three more to the left before shifting directions, doing everything he could to throw the boy off his trail. His disbelief at the boy's feats and how utterly impossible they were clashed at his desperate struggle for survival. His guns sapping against his back, he reached into his rucksack as he ran and produced a stimpack, jamming it into his arm with some difficulty. But it was a band aid measure, he was still bleeding badly and the edge of his vision was still going dark. He had to find a safe place to stop and properly patch himself up.

He rounded the corner, thinking that he would have to duck into an inconspicuous building where he would hopefully go unnoticed, and found himself face to face with five Grimm. He skidded to a halt so fast that he almost fell over, drawing and leveling his shotgun at the Grimm. They were undaunted and began to advance on him, spreading out so that they could come at him from multiple angles. After the desperate run, James's legs felt very weak, to the point where he had to put a hand on a nearby wall to stay upright. With his right arm, he kept his shotgun raised, trying to figure out which Grimm would charge him first, and trying not to think about how bad his odds were.

Then, out of nowhere, a black rope shot towards one of the Grimm, wrapping itself around its neck. A young girl in black and white came into view from the far end of the alley, the far end of the rope in her hand, which she used to pull herself forward, using feats of strength and agility that should be impossible for any human, let alone one her size, to directly on top of the room. Whatever it was she had in her hands, she used it to fire a burst of rounds directly into the Grimm's neck, killing it.

Jumping off it with a graceful backwards flip, she fired her weapon as she fell, killing two more of the Grimm before she hit the ground, the last two charging at her. She did something with her weapon, and it was no longer some bizarre grappling hook and SMG combo, but a rather blocky sword, one that she didn't hesitate to use.

One swing took off the front leg of one Grimm, the follow up decapitating it. After that, she dashed forward towards the last Grimm, which raised its hand to slash at her. "LOOK OUT!" James shouted, realizing in horror that the wolf would hit her before she hit it. But it was too late. The clawed paw of the wolf came crashing down on the girl, smashing here into the ground where she...collapsed into shadow? Unless James's eyes were playing tricks on him, the girl had vanished, the Grimm looking at where she had been with the same confusion that James felt.

Then, she was back, behind the Grimm. A flurry of slashes ended the Grimm's life within seconds, tearing it apart as it began to collapse into a black smoke that quickly faded away. Checking to make sure there weren't any other Grimm in the area, the girl approached James. She was barely any older than the boy, though she wasn't dressed as a member of the White Fang. A black bow was perched neatly on top of her head, and she stared at him with bright gold eyes that looked at him with suspicion. Suspicion that quickly gave way to shock. "Are you all right?" she said, starting forward. She glanced back over her head. "Is this what you were trying to show me?" At the end of the alley, ED-E was flying towards them, a mess of beeps coming from him.

James tried to form a reply, but all that came out was a gurgle. It was so very hard to stay standing. Vaguely reaching up in the direction of his helmet, half baked ideas of taking it off so he could empty his mouth, his legs gave out. He collapsed to the ground, darkness enveloping him as the girl's voice and ED-E's cries grew fainter and fainter.

XXXXX

Author's Note: To an outside observer, Old World Blues is hilarious. But I imagine actually experiencing it would be hell on Earth. Trapped in a facility with a bunch of crazy brains in jars caught up in their private war, you can barely reason with any of them, their creations are all running amuck, you've been cut open and had body parts removed without your consent, when you think about it, it's a damn traumatizing experience.

I don't remember a lot of Starship Troopers from when I read it back it high school (I was severely disappointed by the shortage of power armor on bug violence, which was why I picked it up) and while I was reading about it to see what I had forgotten, I found something interesting. A talking time bomb that announces that it's a time bomb? I'll be damned if that doesn't sound perfect for Fallout America. Though I imagine the Starship Troopers bomb was more to the point but hey, it's only a prototype here.

Also, in regards to James having a metal skull, if you get your brain back in Old World Blues, you get an increased damage threshold and can't get a crippled head, with the damage threshold increase being even bigger than if you keep the artificial brain. The only way in which keeping the artificial brain is better is that you can't get addicted to chems with it. The only logical conclusion I could draw from that, with the Big Brained perk having description that "some of the advanced technologies remain," is that the auto-doc that operated on the Courier replaced all of the Courier's upper skull with a highly durable metal, mainly the parts you would have to remove in order to extract the brain. Best explanation I could come up with for how a shotgun blast to the face can no longer cripple.

Also also, I decided to make James on the older side because A. it's something that doesn't happen anywhere near often enough and B. the very first time I played New Vegas, I played as an older man (which basically means I gave my character gray hair, because the age slider in that game is beyond useless.) I ended up taking a great deal of offense when Caleb McCaffery referred to my character as kid. It's a shame there's no mod to use Terrifying Presence to say "Who the fuck are you calling kid, boy?" Ideally following it up with a bitch slap.

Also also also, I realized something when this chapter was that James was using Randall Clark's rifle and armor to protect kids, and it's kind of stupid, but I was reading the Feels thread on Space Battles when I realized this and I kinda got choked up when thinking about it. I swear to god I didn't do that on purpose, it just kinda fell into place.

Also I know it's Wild Wasteland and not Wild Wild Wasteland, but I honestly thought it was Wild Wild Wasteland for a long time, I'm used to saying it, and I think it sounds snappier. So I 'm going with that.

I would like to thank my Patrons, SuperFeatherYoshi, xXNanamiXx, Ryan Van Schaack, RaptorusMaximus, Davis Swinney, and Mackenzie Buckle for their amazing support.