Chapter 66 – Home on the Wastes

Teleportation is a strange sensation; The sudden change in scenery akin to being thrown into cold, dark water. A doorway made of an intangible material. From a purely technical standpoint, it can be described as having every matter of one's being ripped apart and forcefully materialized at God knows where. A feeling an individual is possibly unable to comprehend when their mind is in a million separate parts. It simply didn't feel real. However, the heat bearing down on Nathan's body felt very real and as he awoke. The charred brown earth of Mojave Drive-In theater the first thing he sees.

A familiar jolt rocks up his spine as he quickly sits up, scanning the immediate surroundings. The sights, sounds, and smells of the scenery hitting him like a bullet. He was back home.

He turned to the sound of metallic clunking, seeing Ranger Parmley face down in his suit of power armor and unable to get up. Nathan momentarily took a knee before walking over to help the ranger. Upon closer examination, the fusion core for the power armor was knocked out of its socket. Unable to find the power source, Nathan manually opened the armor's back by twisting the valve, the ranger now free to crawl out of it.

"Thanks, sir," Parmley said as he rubbed his eyes. "Don't think I've ever been knocked around that hard."

Nathan grunted in affirmation as he gave him a once-over. The ranger seemed fine, except that he looked like a dozen shattered pieces in his right eye.

Nathan removed his helmet and examined the shattered right lens. The cracks would obscure any attempts at aiming. His thoughts of how to remediate this were interrupted by more groaning and he looked out at the rest of the Drive-In.

"Oh, no…"

Several Overwatch members stirred on the ground as they regained consciousness. The two Wasters watched in stunned realization and horror as McCree was the first to get on his feet, shaking Mojave dust off his poncho and hat. With his trademark headwear firmly seated upon his head, he looked around the Drive-In and could spot the discrepancy with his sharp-eyes.

"If I didn't know any better…" The Gunslinger started as he examined his surroundings with simmering trepidation. "I'd say we were back stateside. But… This ain't it, is it?"

"No, it ain't," Nathan sighed as he looked at the Big MT satellite still smack-dab in the Drive-In. "Definitely not yours."

McCree's astonishment almost betrayed the dread bubbling up in him. He didn't count on dimension hopping to be the next thing on the agenda. He couldn't get a moment to pity himself before the others who accompanied them through the rift caught his attention. He began to pity them more.

The three on their feet began to help the three who weren't. Lucio and Satya were able to get on their feet without much struggle, but Hana would be needing more assistance as she was stuck in her mech, planted face down. Nathan bent down to see her still in the pilot seat, knocked out.

"Kid? Are you okay? Can you hear me?" He reached in and put his fingers to her neck to feel a pulse. He let out a small sigh of relief once he felt one, before shaking her more vigorously. "C'mon kid, wake up!"

"Ugh… wha…?" The MEKA pilot finally woke up, her eyes trying to adjust to the brutal Mojave sun. They had trouble staying open until she looked down and saw she was face-to-face with the decaying corpse of a Legionary. "KKAMJJAG-IYA!"

Hana instinctively pulled back on her mech's controls to get away from the corpse but yanked too hard and caused her mech to slam into the ground on its back. She scrambled to correct the mech back onto its feet upright, before hurriedly ejecting herself from the machine. The pilot stumbled onto the ground until she suddenly lurched forward and vomited. Nathan quickly went to her side.

"Hana, are you alright?" he asked, hands already on her shoulders.

Hana flinched at his touch but quickly realized who it was. She didn't say anything as her features softened and she suddenly leaned forward and hugged him. Nathan flinched, but slowly hugged her back. That was when he noticed all the corpses that were still here – remnants of the Courier's last visit.

"What… the fuck… just happened?" Hana asked.

Nathan just held her.

Unfortunately for them, they heard more groaning to their side. Not from an Overwatch agent.

"Oh, shit…" Nathan let out as he spotted Zarya a couple meters from them, on the ground and also waking up. Still in her white winter gear.

He stood up and cautiously walked over to her, crouching over her.

"Sergeant… Zaryanova, can you hear me?" he asked, nudging her shoulder.

She stirred, before her eyes went wide and she swiped an arm across Nathan's face and sent him onto his back. Coughing from the sudden cloud of dust and sand that was kicked up, he looked up to see Zarya getting up on her feet, trying to regain balance. Once her mind began to settle, her eyes darted all over and examined her new surroundings. Practically spinning in every direction to see that the metal chamber was swapped for a sandy desert. With weather she was not dressed for at all.

Zarya muttered in Russian, unable to comprehend where she was. At that moment she noticed all the Overwatch members standing around her, concerned looks as they eyed the bear of a woman. That didn't put her at ease.

"WHERE THE FUCK AM I?!" she bellowed at them, making some of them flinch.

"Now, just hold on…" McCree tried to calm her, holding up a palm to her.

"I will not hold for anyone! Tell me where I am, now!"

Zarya did little to contain her rage as she looked like she was going to throw one of them onto the ground. The rest of Overwatch stood there, one half trying to think of an explanation that didn't sound insane and the other half in the same boat as Zarya. The Mojave's air roasting them as they stood there in silence. All the while Nathan sat there on the ground, watching everything unfold. Watching how Zarya acted and how familiar it looked.

"You're in another world."

Zarya looked at him, not believing what she just heard.

"What?"

Nathan simply got up and reached up to his helmet. Taking it off and letting it slip out of his hands to the lot of the Drive-In.

"I know what you're feeling, right now," he started, looking her square in the eyes. "Because I went through the exact same thing. Through tech I barely understand and probably the shittiest luck anyone could ever have… Without warning, I got sent to your world – the one we just left."

Zarya just looked at him, her rage giving way to disbelief as she just stared at him with her mouth agape. But from the way he carried himself… The stranger did not seem to be lying. She then turned to McCree.

"Is this true?"

McCree cocked an eyebrow at her, looking back and forth between the two. He stretched his arms out, letting out an exasperated sigh, and let out a half-hearted nod.

Zarya could only blink after that.

The group took the better part of an hour to gather their belongings and their bearings, but some more easily than others. Lucio and Satya were – reasonably – also in complete disbelief that they were now on a completely different Earth somehow 200-years in the future after a nuclear war. Despite the confirmations from McCree, Hana, and the two resident Wasters, it wasn't adequate for settling them in.

"What you told us is absolutely preposterous!" the Architect blurted out, her eyes showing her mind racing where it usually didn't. "How does this make any sense?"

McCree shrugged his shoulders. Satya narrowed her gaze.

"Well, I guess we're not in Russia, anymore…" Jesse elaborated.

"We seem to have transported to a desert, yes, but surely there would be a more rational conclusion to make?"

"You got a 'rational conclusion' about all these… uh… what'd you call 'em, Brin?"

Nathan was picking through the pockets of one the corpses strewn about the drive-in theater when McCree called out to him.

"Legionaries," he answered, not looking up from his looting. "Soldiers of Caesar's Legion, or what's left of it. From out east."

That exposition did little to placate Satya, having constructed a hardlight chair to calm her nerves. Lucio chose to sit on the dormant Big MT satellite. He shrugged.

"It's not like we can do anything about it, now," Lucio bluntly stated. "If what you guys said is true and Nathan and his friends were able to travel to our world, then that means there's gotta be a way back home, right?"

"For once, I welcome your optimism, Mr. Dos Santos," Satya added.

"… Thanks?"

McCree interjected. "Agreed, but I think we're going to need some local help for that. So, how 'bout it, Brin? Mind showing us tourists around to see the sights?"

Nathan looked up from the third Legionary he was looting, getting everything he needed from the corpses he had created around the old drive-in. He looked at the Big MT satellite, seeing what Veronica and the others did to it before finding him. He thought back to the moment he made that split-second decision. He thought about the plasma grenade landing next to him and if he had been a second too late, none of this would've happened. Ending things more quickly.

He stood still until Parmley walked up to him, with a sack over one shoulder and a rifle on the other.

"I'm afraid this is where we'll have to part ways," the Ranger said. "I've gotta get to Mojave Outpost. There's no telling what's been happening since I was gone. Maybe they'll understand if I tell them where and why I've been AWOL. But it's a pretty tall story to pass off, to be honest."

"I have a hard time believing it, too," Nathan admitted. "But… Thanks. You didn't have to go through all of that for me."

"Don't mention it. I'm sorry this didn't pan out how'd we expected it to, and I hate to leave y'all like this. Tell you what, if I get back to the rangers and they don't court-martial me, send a call out for me on the NCR radio. You got one of those, right?"

"Not at the moment, but I know where it is. I'll keep that in mind."

With that, Ranger Parmley tipped the brim of his hat and turned to head to Mojave Outpost. However, Nathan called out to him, and he turned around for a moment.

"Give 'em this," Nathan called out as he tossed Parmley his ranger helm, catching it and feeling all the scars that it had sustained. "Might have a better chance of believing you. I've already got enough use from it."

The Ranger seemed a bit hesitant to leave the Courier without proper headgear, but he figured he would manage in the end. Parmley gave a final nod before making his way back to the ranger monument.

As the ranger disappeared into the darkening, dusty horizon, Nathan turned to the rest of the party and noticed most of them already looking at him. Now was his time to show them Wasteland living.

"I know of a town northwest of here," Nathan said. "It's gonna take a day getting there on foot and it's getting dark quick, so we'll have to make camp for the night."

"I reckon we're not gonna sleep out here among these poor bastards," McCree stated, looking at the corpses.

"No, there's a town northeast of us that's pretty close. It's been abandoned for years so there's probably an empty house we can use."

"Sounds like a plan." McCree then addressed the rest of the party. "Y'all got anything to square away before we head out?"

Satya and Lucio exchanged looks for a moment. The latter spoke up, "This place is going to be safe, right?"

McCree and Brin exchanged looks. Brin spoke. "Safer than waiting around here. The smell of all these bodies is just going to attract Nightstalkers."

"Yeah, that sounds like something I don't want to see. Well, lead the way, man."

Lucio and Satya got to their feet. Hana hopped into the cockpit of her mech. And Nathan slung his Mauser over his shoulder. It was the only firearms he had on him when he got teleported, and ammo would not be easy to find. And if the things Veronica had told him about were happening since he was gone were accurate…

He looked up at the rest of the party and off to the side he could see Zarya, out of her winter gear, crouched over her pack and checking her inventory. She maintained a serious look as she diligently inspected what little she had with her from home, finally slinging her pack over her back and hefting her large cannon. She walked over to the rest of the group without uttering a word and nodded.

Then, they heard an animal yelp somewhere far away.

"Coyote?" McCree asked, noting the familiarity.

"Maybe," Nathan answered, flipping his Pip-Boy light on. "Or a Nightstalker."

It did not take long for the group to get to Nipton from the drive-in with Nathan's guidance. The appearance of the town wasn't really what they had expected; It didn't look drastically different from a typical western American town aside from how ancient the buildings and roads seemed - the ones that remained, at least. But the first thing they noticed upon entering the town was the silence, heightened by the darkening sky.

"Jeez, so this is what happens after a nuclear war?" Hana asked, the lights on her mech shining upon the desolation around them. "I'm surprised this place wasn't blown away."

"Because it wasn't," Nathan corrected, staring straight ahead at the silhouette of the townhall he could see at the end of the street. "It was the Legion."

"You mean the guys we saw at that drive-in? What did they do?"

Nathan looked over his shoulder, but he hesitated to speak for a moment.

"They sacked the town. Corpses and crosses lined the street here. Everyone was killed except for one man."

"They… Killed an entire town? Why?"

"Because they could."

Hana felt a chill crawl up her spine from the tone of his voice, and the rest of the party behind them exchanged nervous looks. And Nathan, despite it being years since he came to Nipton on that day, could still smell flesh burning on tires.

"Ever since the roads re-opened up north, people avoided this town like it was radioactive. Took a long time before anybody decided to bury the bodies. And it's been a ghost town since."

His attention turned to one of the homes on their left.

"Let's use this one. I remember the inside being clean," he called out, gesturing to the door, until noticing that it wasn't shut. "Stay out here, I'll make sure it's clear."

"I thought you said this place was abandoned?" Zarya asked.

"Abandoned by people… I'll be quick."

Without another word, Nathan pulled unslung his rifle before pushing the door inward. He casted another glance at his traveling party before going inside, disappearing from view. Everyone else took semi-defensive positions outside of the house, keeping their eyes peeled out towards the rest of the town. Watching these empty, desolate homes as the desert wind blew over the empty structures and into the darkening expanse of the Mojave.

These agents of Overwatch – considered to be some of the best and brightest that their world had to over to stop the forces of evil, armed with the finest weapons and implements it could offer – could not remember a moment between them where they felt such despair and unease from just the sight of some abandoned buildings. Even Zarya, who had fresh memories of the desolation left in the wake of omnic war-machines, barely had words for what she saw. They heard more distant calls of what sounded like "coyotes" as well as the noises of some other creature that they could not discern. McCree, accustomed to the sounds of the American Southwest, only felt alien in this desert. Each second that their host spent in the house felt like a minute that grew longer with each chill of the wind in this dead town.

McCree broke the silence, cautiously etching towards the front. "Brin, is it clear? Brin?"

Silence answered.

"Brin! You okay? What's the holdup-"

"Raaaaaaargggghhhh!"

McCree unholstered his revolver faster than the rest of them took to face the door. Not one second after that unknown scream, a gunshot echoed through the house and lit up the interior for only a moment. They all waited with their weapons trained on the door, almost counting each second, until they saw the amber glow of Nathan's Pip-Boy, the wearer walking through the door. Carrying what almost looked like a human.

"Is that a fucking zombie?" McCree asked, his eyes locked onto what looked like a corpse.

"Ghoul," Nathan corrected. "Must've wandered in from the desert."

"These things come from the desert?!"

"If there's a lot of radiation… Yeah."

Nathan didn't see their reactions to what he said as he dragged the dead ghoul a good distance away from where they would be sleeping. Lest something come sniffing right up to the front door.

With the corpse disposed of, the group went inside. Hana's mech had to be parked outside, as well as the gear and set of Advanced Power Armor tied to it in a makeshift sleigh.

The non-Wasters didn't comment about the state of the interior despite the obvious signs of decay and dilapidation. They didn't have much to say, regardless, after how the wasteland decided to welcome them. Exhaustion didn't help.

Hana and Jesse, despite being among the first and only in Overwatch to know about this, were not prepared for what they had witnessed in the time they've been there. Everything they knew was already turned on its head when Brin appeared out of nowhere in Gibraltar, but even then couldn't compare to now. Being told one crazy story was one thing, but experiencing it…

Satya and Lucio didn't fare much better – and while their respective homelands taught them what squalor and poverty could look like – the bleak, post-apocalyptic desolation presented to them couldn't be matched. They thought they had the idea of an organization like Overwatch dialed in when they became members, knowing what it truly was and for what it stood. They hardly believed it.

And Zarya was silent through the entire thing. Not uttering a single word since the drive-in.

Even in the dim light of this rundown living room, Nathan could tell what they were thinking. These people probably the only five in this world, and theirs, that now know what he felt like when it was his turn. He wasn't alone anymore.

"There's some beds in the other rooms," Nathan told them as he dropped his pack in a corner. "I'll let you guys figure out who's bunking with who. I'll stay here in the living room. If you're hungry, I don't have much but there's still something I can share. Anyone?"

"I'll pass. Kinda lost my appetite, to be honest," McCree admitted, his nose twitching. "The smell in this place ain't helpin', either."

Nathan didn't even notice it.

Even with the stench, they all started deliberating on their sleeping situation as Nathan sat upon the old couch. The Waster sat there silently as the others divvied up the old, dirty beds, not really paying any attention to what they spoke about. The women went to one room, the men to another.

By the end of the hour, the house was no more silent than the desert as one-by-one, out of genuine exhaustion, the tourists began to go to sleep. Nathan didn't join them, sitting silently as he looked out at the dirty, dark windows towards the remains of Nipton. He barely moved with his eyes glued to the streets outside. Listening softly to the ambiance of the house and the streets. He looked down on his PipBoy, pressing a button and flipping the dial, and saw the map for the Mojave. Instantly recognizing all the landmarks and points of interest.

He stood up and opened the door to look outside and listen. A few moments later, he would step back in and sit back down on the couch and grab his Mauser. He did not sleep.

Hana awoke in a sweat. She couldn't get a good night's rest on the filthy mattress. She had no idea how long she was at this, and finally decided to sit up. She looked back to see Satya was still asleep on her half of her bed, her back to Hana as she laid on a layer of hard light cot she constructed between her and the mattress. It didn't look the most comfortable, but Hana couldn't blame her. Hana then looked in the corner to see Zarya sitting in a chair, leaning back against it with her head back, snoring. Hana envied her for a moment.

As Hana sat on the edge of the bed, her thoughts drifted to the events of the past day. She wasn't as skeptical as the other members of Overwatch when they learned of Nathan's origins. If anything, she honestly found the prospect to be exciting and noted how it would make for quite the premise for a science-fiction movie or even a videogame. But as she examined the dilapidated house they sheltered in and what may have happened to its previous, non-feral residents, she wasn't so sure now.

She heard the front door of the house open then closed shut. She stood up from the bed, grabbing her black MEKA jacket that she had stowed in her mech's compartment and was using as a makeshift pillow, then her sidearm on the nightstand.

Walking lightly as she could, she approached the doorway of the bedroom and slowly peered out into the living room. The darkness made it hard to see anything, but she noticed that the warm, amber glow of Nathan's Pip-Boy was missing.

She looked back at Satya and Zarya, the two still asleep, and looked at the other room that Lucio and Jesse were sharing. She didn't hear anything from them except for Jesse's snoring. Hana thought about calling out to them, but after a moment said nothing as she walked to the front door and stepped outside.

The first thing that struck the young Korean was how cold the air was, instantly putting on her MEKA jacket as stepped out into the Mojave winds. The second thing was the pitch-black darkness of the town at night, causing her to pull out her phone to see more than a couple of feet in front of her. She scanned the front yard and street with her phone but saw no signs of Nathan. She looked to her right to see her mech still parked outside the house, all the gear and the power armor still hitched to it. Her gaze lowered to the ground where she could see large footprints next to the mech, then trailing off into the road southward.

"Nathan?" She called out into the desert wind, not receiving an answer back. "Nathan!"

Hana peered into the distance to see if she could spot the tall man down the road where the track trailed off to. She took one glance back at the house before taking one step south.

Luckily for her the desert sky started to reach the beginnings of twilight, sparing her phone's battery. Despite this boon to visibility, Hana was no closer to finding Nathan as she tried to track him across the small town. She would eventually reach the town's southern edge, where the desert began. Her eyes scanned the vast landscape stretching out before her and to the mountains miles away. No other signs of life save for the shrubbery. No indication of where Nathan went.

The Mojave Desert at early-dawn was blanketed in a soft-blue glow that was nothing like the merciless heat that bared down on them just hours prior. The air was bearable to stand in, for now. She wondered how anyone – or anything – could survive in this barren landscape, even call it "home". And that was before taking the nuclear apocalypse into account.

She could only ruminate on the desolation for a moment as she heard a sudden animal cry to the east of the town. It didn't sound like any animal she'd ever heard of, but it did seem like it was screeching out of pain. As she looked out to the mountains east of the town, she could also see the aura of the sun slowly rising over them. Hana continued towards those glimmering mountains.

Hana felt the desert chill through her jacket and jumpsuit, making her shake a little as she got closer to where she thought she heard the noise. She shortly reached the eastern edge of the town, stopping near the remains of a railroad going North-South. She peered out into the desert wilderness bordering this town to the east and didn't see any signs of Nathan. She thought about what her next course of action should be. Hana spotted a small rock next to her and decided to sit on it, adjusting her right coat pocket where her sidearm was stored. She pulled out her phone and watched as the screen turned on, and stared at it as if she was expecting notifications to suddenly pop up with no cell signal. Instead, she just stared at the mountains, the sun hanging higher over them but not enough to completely blanket the desert in its rays.

Hana looked at her phone again, the lock screen still vacant, then unlocked it to go onto an app that would work without a connection. She looked at what the app presented to her, a solemn look overtaking her features. So far away from home, the young woman was so engrossed in what she was looking at that it was only at the last second that she could hear skittering from her right.

Hana screamed as she fell off the rock and narrowly missed the stinger of a Bark Scorpion. On her back, she stared wide-eyed at the large, amber arachnid as it arched up it claws and tail towards her. Stunned at the size of the scorpion, she quickly re-focused and dug her hand into her coat but felt her blood run cold when she felt nothing in her right pocket. She looked back at the scorpion to see the pink shape of her handgun behind it. She then tried to scramble to her feet as the scorpion skittered to her, arching back its tail to strike. She screamed and tried to brace herself for the sting but felt nothing except the cold desert wind. She looked up and saw the scorpion dangling in the air as its tail was held high in the air by Nathan, futilely wriggling its legs.

The Waster examined the scorpion before looking at Hana and asking, "You alright?"

Hana said nothing as she stared up at him, the sun casting an aura around him, before noticing he had a spear hanging over his shoulder with the corpses of two large lizards – about the same size as the scorpion – dangling from it. Blood dripping down the shaft.

"Yeah…" Hana said, as she got to her feet and dusted herself off. She looked at the scorpion Nathan held. "Fuck, I didn't know they were that big."

Nathan cast a curious glance at her before examining the Bark Scorpion. "They can get bigger."

Hana didn't know what to say as Nathan dropped the geckos on the ground and stepped over to the rock she was sitting on. He bent down and picked up Hana's Light Gun and presented it to her, muzzle away from her. She took it, and inspected her weapon for second until she noticed Nathan placed the wriggling scorpion on its back against the rock. He then took out his knife.

"Uh, what are you doing-?"

She got cut off by the sound of his knife embedding into the underside of the scorpion. The critter went limp. Hana watched in further silence as Nathan grabbed his spear of geckos and skewered the scorpion's body alongside them. He hoisted the spear over his shoulders and gestured with his head back to Nipton.

"C'mon, before the meat spoils."

The others didn't fare that much better than Hana in getting a good night's rest. Thankfully, they had a proper wasteland breakfast to wake up to when Nathan and Hana returned.

"You cannot expect me to eat… Those," Satya stated, looking at the wasteland critters suspended on sticks and roasting over a campfire.

"We don't have anything else to eat," Nathan replied, before biting down on some gecko meat.

Satya just stared at him and the food with her ever-present incredulity, sitting on a hardlight stool she had constructed and had even offered to the others to not sit on the sandy ground. Only Hana and Lucio accepted her offer.

Lucio wasn't any more keen on eating Mojave delicacies than Satya but couldn't resist the pit he felt in his stomach. Jesse didn't mind eating gecko, noting its similarity to snake meat, but was hesitant about the scorpion. Zarya said nothing as she took bits and ate them without a second thought. Hana had already seen how a wasteland sausage was made.

"You guys should eat," Nathan told them. "It'll be a day's trek to Goodsprings, and we should leave when we still got daylight."

"And you're certain that once there we'll find our way back to our world?" Satya asked.

Nathan thought about it for a moment, before saying, "No, but you guys don't have anywhere else to go."

The others exchanged looks as Nathan stood up from the fire and threw a gecko bone into it.

"At least try the scorpion pincers," the Waster remarked before walking away. "Lotta meat on 'em."

They watched him away to the front door of the house until he stepped inside. Silence hung around them as the fire kept crackling before Lucio broke it.

"I still can't believe this is happening," the DJ admitted. "Almost feels like a dream…"

"Dream or nightmare?" McCree questioned, tearing one of the pincers off the Bark Scorpion. "I dunno, we've been thrown into the deep end and there ain't any other way we're getting out other than following Brin's lead."

Satya interjected, "So, you're fine with this? Despite the fact that Mr. Brin isn't even certain we can get back home?"

McCree shrugged. "Like he said, not much else we can do."

"Well, I for one, cannot get over the fact that you and other members of Overwatch knew about this the entire time? And never informed us?"

Lucio was the one to interject, this time. "To be fair, I don't think anyone would've believed them if they straight-up told us about… This." He broadly gestured to everything around them. "I probably wouldn't if we weren't, well, you know." That was hardly a relief to Satya.

"I cannot believe any of this," Satya stated, her hands rubbing her eyes.

Hana was only passively part of the conversation as she scrolled through the gallery of her phone and kept swiping through her pics. She stopped on a picture of her and her MEKA comrades at a concert. She swiped her a finger a few more times and stopped on another selfie, but this time with Overwatch.

She sighed as she turned her phone off and thought about discussion, but instead she looked to her left to see Zarya squatting over the campfire and gnawing on some gecko meat. She couldn't recall her saying anything ever since they left the drive-in. Only keeping to herself and the fire.

"What about you, Sergeant Zaryanova?" Hana asked, the pink-haired woman. "You've been quiet since we got here."

Zarya cocked an eyebrow at the smaller woman, in a way that could be construed as suspicious. Her features softened, however, maintaining a slight scowl as she went back to staring at the fire. After a few silent moments, she sighed.

"What's the use of fretting about our current situation?" The Olympian posed. "We must simply deal with it. Because of that, I don't have anything to say until we do."

Her blunt but concise response made the others exchange looks, with McCree being the first one to show his affirmation with some understanding nods. "Anyone else?" The others were mostly silent.

"I trust Nathan," Hana stated, looking at the campfire. "We're clearly in his element. From everything he's told us about his life here, in his world, he would know this place better than anyone else. He's been surviving in this desert longer than I've been in Overwatch. I think this is the only way."

That moment was when the front door opened, and Nathan stepped outside. His tall, armored form topped off with a mask of fabric wrapped around his face with a pair of goggles obscuring his eyes.

"What do you guys know about desert survival?"

The group set out from Nipton as early as they could, with the sun just above the eastern mountains by the time they left. Nathan suggested they cover themselves up with some for protection against the Mojave sun.

McCree, naturally, was equipped to deal with the weather with his trademark hat and poncho. Lucio and Satya decided to use hardlight technology to manifest what were essentially floating parasols that followed them. Hana didn't really need anything with her being inside her mech, even having air conditioning like a suit of t-51b. And Zarya simply opted for some rags wrapped around her face and large arms to bear the heat.

Not even an hour into their trek from Nipton, the sun was scorching everything underneath it and the five outsiders were glad to have heeded the Waster's advice. Even McCree felt something different about the heat in this place, like there was something else lingering in the air. May have been the background radiation, but Nathan's Pip-Boy would've let them know if that were the case. Hopefully.

Nathan set the pace, which he barely considered a brisk walk as he found himself wandering through familiar scenery and kept his eyes focused forward. Observing the horizon and noting every landscape feature that he hadn't seen for a long while. He felt like everything stayed in place the moment he was gone, that it all froze until he came back. It didn't seem like it moved on without him there. He didn't find this feeling comforting.

"Look at the size of 'em!"

Nathan looked over his right shoulder to see McCree observing a herd of Bighorners that were about a hundred yards from them. The others noticed the creatures and were also in awe of their size.

"Are those buffalo?" Satya asked.

"We call 'em bighorners," Nathan answered, turning his head back forward.

"They're not going to charge us, are they?"

"Not if we give 'em space. They're pretty docile but can knock you on your ass if you give them a reason to."

Suddenly, he could hear the rapid pounding of dirt and saw the herd of bighorners were now running away from them. Watching the herd kick up a large dust cloud as they ran away. The Waster didn't expect that.

Nathan stopped, instantly scanning the horizon. The rest of the party also stopped, looking at him and then the bighorners.

"Why are they running?"

"I don't know," Nathan muttered. "Even if they spotted us, their first instinct isn't to run."

Nathan scanned the horizon more, the others watching him with some unease. They looked back at the herd of bighorners, now farther away kicking up an even bigger cloud of dust.

"Something's spooked them... Let's keep moving."

They trekked through the desert for a few more hours, the sun getting hotter and higher into the sky. Despite how much more unpleasant they felt, the party was relatively quiet. More focused on scanning the horizon than making idle chatter. They didn't spot anything across the empty stretches of their sightlines as they went further north, but they couldn't be too sure in these foreign lands.

They started to walk by the remains of the old Highway Patrol Station. McCree was staring at the old, rusted out police cars that were parked out front as they walked by. The cars' body style looked familiar, but the Cowboy couldn't quite place where exactly he'd seen it before.

Nathan also stared at the patrol station but for a different reason.

"There's supposed to be people here," he thought to himself aloud.

"What?" McCree questioned.

"This used to be a raider den, but it got cleared out and the NCR started using this place as a checkpoint. For patrolling the roads and such. Where is everyone?"

The rest of the group also stopped to also look at the station, before they heard one of theirs fall to her knees. It was Zarya, propping herself up with one arm as she held her head with the other. Lucio went to her side.

"Woah are you okay?" he asked.

"I am fine," she responded, pulling down her facial covering to reveal a sweat-slicken face.

"No, you aren't," McCree looked at her and then at the sun to see that was right in the middle of the sky. "It's already high noon. Think we should take a break?"

Nathan looked north to and could faintly see the outline of Primm miles away from them. At least a couple more hours till they got to the town. And Goodsprings would only be a couple hours after that.

"We can hole up in there," Nathan relented, gesturing to the police station. "There's probably water stocked up in there."

They opened the doors to the patrol station and Nathan was the first to peek inside, then slowly creep inside with his rifle at the ready. There was no one to greet them as they all walked into what was once the main reception and office for those stationed here. Some office desks, filing cabinets, and a table with a coffee machine on it. Nathan walked over to the coffee machine and inspected it.

"Empty," he sighed. "McCree and I will clear the rest of the building. You guys wait here."

He nodded at McCree who nodded back, the two then stacking up on the door leading into the rest of the building. They quickly opened it to see the hallway before slowly moving down forward, checking both the bathroom doors as they did to find them also empty. With the final door, they swung it wide open and sprung forth into the station's holding cell room. There they found a whole lot more nothing. Nathan eased his stance while McCree let out a small chuckle.

"Can never seem to stay away from jail cells," Jesse humored.

Nathan grunted in acknowledgement as he slung his rifle and began scrounging around the cell.

"Let's try to find something useful. NCR had to have left some supplies."

"Sure. I'll go check if the taps. The plumbing should be working, right?"

Nathan shrugged as he looked through the desk. After McCree left the room, Nathan looked in a desk drawer and found a holotape. He stared at it blankly, having not seen one of these things for quite some time and when he picked it up he nearly forgot how to put the storage device into his Pip-Boy. When he selected the holotape on his Pip-Boy it turned out to be an audio recording; He pressed play. What he presumed to be an NCR trooper's voice played from the speakers.

"…The roads were quiet a few days ago. Just the occasional caravanner or traveler heading straight to the Strip. Been like that for a while. Now, it seems like we're rolling out for another battle at Hoover Dam. Even saw some Brotherhood. We've received word from McCarran to pack up our things and get ready to move north. Didn't tell us why. If we were moving to McCarran or the strip that'd probably make sense, but our unit's going to Goodsprings. That place is practically a ghost town. Why there?"

The recording stopped, and unlike the NCR trooper who made it, the Courier stood there in silence as he remembered what Veronica had told him. Or what she tried to. His train of thought was interrupted by McCree.

"Taps are working!"

A few minutes later – in the entrance area – Hana, Lucio, Satya, and Zarya were recuperating as much as they could from trekking through the desert. Lucio and Satya shared a leather water bladder that they pilfered off one of the Legionary corpses, having filled it in one of the bathrooms. Satya was hesitant about drinking local water, but Zarya practically chugged the much-needed water, not accustomed to heat like this.

They also offered Hana some water, but she declined, saying that they needed it more than her. However, Lucio did cast a worried glance at her as she kept her eyes focused on her phone and nothing else. Not even sure if she saw her eat anything for breakfast earlier in the day.

Nathan came into the room and caught everyone's attention. He looked around for something that wasn't there.

"Where's McCree?" he asked.

"He went outside for a smoke," Lucio answered. "Why? Is something wrong?"

Nathan stayed silent for a moment.

"I'll explain later when we're all ready to head out. How are you guys holding up?"

They all let out responses of varying degrees of content. Nathan expected as much.

"We'll still need to reach town before night. Rest up as much as you can. Take as much water as you need."

With a nod he left them to their own and went back into the hallway. Hana stared at where he went for a couple moments before putting her phone away and suddenly standing up. Lucio looked up at her.

"Just gonna use the restroom," she said, before walking off.

She shut the hallway door behind her and went to one of the bathroom doors, the one Nathan occupied. He didn't seem to notice her standing there, at first, as he was bent over the old sink and ran his hands under the running water. He splashed multiple handfuls up into his face, the dirty water dripping off his face.

"What is it, kid?" Nathan asked, not opening his eyes, and not turning away from the sink as he cupped another handful.

Hana didn't question how he knew it was her. Still, she stayed silent as she tried to come up with a response. Suddenly, she didn't have one.

"Actually, never mind. It's nothing."

She was about to walk off when the faucet stopped running.

"I don't believe you." Nathan responded, wiping his face with a rag. First thing he sees after drying his face is the broken bathroom mirror. "What's wrong?"

Hana looks at him, her arms crossed. She sighs as she looks to her side.

"I… I just want to apologize for what I've said."

Nathan wrinkled his brow.

"For what?"

"Oh, come on, you know! For all the times that I've annoyed you and such. Or the times that I didn't take you seriously."

Nathan looked at her for a few moments, still confused and getting slightly concerned at how earnest Hana was becoming at this moment. His features softened.

"Why the sudden change of heart?"

Hana looked up at him, then looked at the decaying hallway of the police station. Her mind kept going back to the Legionary's face. The first thing she saw after the blinding flash of light in that chamber. She was honestly amazed she hadn't gone insane in the past day. Nathan's voice broke her train of thought.

"You know what? Forget it," Nathan relented, shaking his head. "As long as you're okay, right?"

Hana hesitated to answer for moment. "Yeah."

Nathan's expression didn't change as he took her answer, trying to gauge the young woman.

"Just don't worry too much," Nathan said, glancing back at the broken mirror. "I'm sure we'll get through this."

"If you say so. Thanks," Hana said, before walking off.

She stopped at the door to the entrance area before Nathan called out to her from the restroom.

"Hey, I'm sorry, too."

"For what?"

"Bringing you here. All of you."

Hana didn't say anything as she stepped through the door, Nathan left alone in the hallway restroom and staring at a mirror with no reflection. He stood there with his own silence and the settling decay of the police station before a thought crossed his mind, and then executed as he pulled out his canteen and quickly poured the contents down the sink.

Before he could watch it all go down the drain, a gunshot echoed through the building. Nathan quickly ran out of the bathroom and into the reception area, where everyone was also on their feet and looking towards the front doors. Saying nothing, Nathan summoned his Mauser to his hands as he walked over to door before swinging them wide open. He presented his rifle to the sight of McCree, who also had his revolver out, with the muzzle smoking as he stood over a dead feral ghoul. Nathan pointed his rifle away from McCree as the others inside the police station came out and saw the reason for the commotion. They watched as the Gunslinger eased his stance, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding before spinning his revolver back into its holster.

The Wasteland sun was still high in the sky.

Just a couple minutes later, the party were back on the road and heading their way north. They were more quiet than usual after their second encounter with a ghoul, and equally more observant with their surroundings. Their eyes scanning the surrounding horizon, not being bothered by the sun, now. Nathan largely kept his eyes to the front, his Mauser in his hands as he did so.

After an hour of trekking passed, Nathan could see the outline of Primm's rollercoaster in the distance. The town looked the same as it ever did at first glance, but Nathan raised his rifle to look through the high-tech scope. The party stopped for a moment when he did, McCree walking up to his side.

"What do you see?" Jesse asked.

"I see smoke rising from Primm," Nathan answered, taking his eye away from the scope. "But the town is still clearly standing..."

Nathan thought for a moment before turning around.

"Hana, can your mech still fly?"

"It can, but not for long," she answered. "My boosters got damaged when Parmley crashed into me and sent us flying into the portal."

"Hmm…" He thought for several more moments until he shook his head and stepped forward.

"We'll have to go through either way. I think we might have some company."

An NCR trooper silently stood watch on the southern flank of Primm, or at least he should've been. But there had been nothing ever since the Mojave Outpost closed I-15 following the attacks at Goodsprings. No caravans ever coming up from the south, only wounded and refugees leaving from the north. Nonetheless he tried to pass the time by writing into his journal, recounting all the things he had seen. And what he wished he could forget. He was so entrenched in his writings, that he didn't notice the new "caravan" of travelers that had come up on the road until the sight of some large pink thing was in the corner of his eye, finally making him look up. He practically dropped his journal as he scrambled for his Service Rifle and presented it to the group.

"HALT!" he yelled. "Who goes there?!"

Once he got a proper look at what the "caravan" was, he couldn't even look through his sights. A very tall man accompanied by the strangest collection of people he's ever seen, along with what he could only describe as a large, pink, Sentry Bot. It only took a few seconds of staring at this group before realizing he might need some backup. Thankfully, he didn't have to say anything as several troopers came up running behind him, along with their Lieutenant.

"Goddammit, I told you to keep watch!" Lt. Hayes reprimanded, as he looked at the group of strange travelers. He was also caught off-guard by what he saw, but that didn't stop him from placing his hand on his holster as he called out to them. "This is Lt. Hayes of the NCR, identify yourself immediately!"

He could see the leader of the party, turn his head to the sound of his name.

"Hayes? Is that really you?"

'That voice…' the LT thought to himself. "Yes, it is. Who are you?"

The tall man took off the facial coverings and looked up at them. "Nathan Brin… It's been a while."

Lt. Hayes' eyes widened in disbelief, immediately doubting what he heard until he looked at his left-arm and saw that Pip-Boy. The strange collection of companions behind the man also helped.

"Brin? You mean- ?! I-…"

The Lieutenant wasn't sure what to say, and the troopers around him –that had their rifles trained on them just moments earlier – were all looking at each other once they heard the man's name. Nathan's party all looked at him as they witnessed the exchange, the Courier shaking his head.

Hayes looked back up. "Come on through, let's talk at the Bison Steve."

Ever since the 2nd Battle of Hoover Dam, the town had grown considerably especially with the influx of NCR travelers and merchants to Vegas. It had grown; become more busy and more lucrative. One more place to spend some more caps at before returning to California dirt poor. That wasn't what Nathan saw now.

The wounded troopers in makeshift triages, displaced civilians and caravanners trapped as they tried to tend what was left of their own. This town looked less chaotic when escaped convicts were running things. Nathan looked at what he saw and kept walking, with his companions in tow. The outsiders couldn't help but stare at what they saw, these "foreign" people the first example of a wasteland civilization they have ever seen, and they were quite… Overwhelmed by how normal they looked. They all collectively thought how a nuclear apocalypse would've resulted in mutated freaks of nature or roaming bands of psychos, but that wasn't what they saw. This feeling, however, wasn't mutual as they instantly got stares from many of the people in this town. Especially at Hana, who was still in her mech. Didn't help that they all spoke in English, too, removing any blessed ignorance they could have about their murmuring.

However, the longer people stared at this group, the more the locals began to recognize the person leading it.

"Holy shit, is that-?"

"Is that Nathan Brin? I thought he was dead?"

"He's here? Is he here to help? Thank God!"

Nathan silently groaned under his mask, not caring for the attention. Even with the strange cavalcade of companions behind him, he couldn't stop being the center of attention. He couldn't help bringing that upon himself.

Suddenly, someone ran in front of the group calling out to the leader.

"Hey! Are you Nathan Brin?" An NCR trooper went up to him, making him stop.

Nathan looked at him for a moment, glancing back at his party, who were now observing the interaction. He looked back to the trooper. "Yeah, that's me."

"Oh, thank god…" The trooper let out, reaching up to off his helmet. "I really need your help here. I've got some of my people stranded at Goodsprings, but the brass can't spare anyone for a rescue mission."

Nathan blinked when he heard the name of the town. But he steeled himself.

"Is there any way you can help? At least see if they're still alive?"

"Goodsprings, right? We were going to head out there after talking with your LT."

"So you're going to help?"

He looked back at the other group of people he was meant to be helping. They looked like they were anticipating his next response to this man. Even as he just got back to the Mojave, it was always something.

"I'll see what I can do."

Even as unsure as that response was, the trooper immediately looked relieved that somebody was going to do something about it.

"Thank you. My people were held up in the town trying to protect some of the townsfolk. Last I ever saw of them were at that Doctor's house, trying to hole up in there. I'm sure the LT will tell you more. Good luck."

The trooper left the group be, unaware of the chill Nathan felt run up when he mentioned Doc Mitchell's house. He stood there in the middle of the road for several moments until he McCree walked up to his side, looking at the trooper.

"Man, didn't think you were so popular 'round these parts."

"Yeah," Nathan half-heartedly responded, before moving forward. "Lucky me."

Once the group reached the front of the Bison Steve Hotel, the non-Wasters looked up at the decrepit looking building and the crumbling rollercoaster that wrapped around it. Less in awe of the size and presentation of the building and more surprised that such a structure was still standing, and apparently habitable if the armed guards standing outside the door were any indication. They greeted Nathan, first.

"Mr. Brin, sir! It's nice to have you with us. The LT told us to let you in, but I'm afraid your friends are going to have to stay outside."

He looked back at the rest of them. They didn't seem particularly bothered by what the trooper requested, but if he was here to speak with an NCR officer, that meant there was a job in-plan for him. A job that these poor bastards would have to tag along with.

"What? Is it crowded inside?"

"Well… Yes. And I'm not sure that – pink thing – will fit inside."

"Fair enough. Still, I think one more person couldn't hurt? They're my crew, which means whatever your LT is going to tell me needs to be told to them. Might as well have someone with."

The trooper looked towards the companions and examined them. He was absolutely unsure what to think of any of them, or the weapons or gear they had on them. Hell, it was at this moment that he noticed there was a small crowd of trooper and civilians gathering on the street in front of the Bison Steve to ogle the strange group, whispering all the while. The Courier and his group also noticed the crowd that materialized behind.

"Yeaahhhh, I think you have a point, sir," the trooper admitted, remembering he wasn't a high enough rank to deal with this. "You guys can head on in. The LT is in the dining hall, all the way to the right. That pink thing still won't fit through the door."

Hana was about to say something before Zarya spoke up.

"Is fine," Zarya spoke up. "I can stay out here and keep watch. Rest of you go ahead."

"If you say so," Nathan said. "Just holler if you need help."

"No need."

Nathan chuckled as he stepped forward and opened the doors to the Bison Steve, letting everyone sans Zarya walk-in after him. The NCR Troopers trying not to stare at the strange people, carrying technology alien to them. After the group of five went inside, their attention turned to the pink mech and the pink-haired woman that was left outside. Zarya scowled at them. The guards turned their eyes back to the street.

Once inside, the group found the interior of the Bison Steve hotel to be slightly less chaotic that outside. There were plenty of NCR troopers about, many of them wounded and either on makeshift cots or leaning against the walls in various states of injury as medical personnel, both military and not, tried to tend to them. The NCR troops that were still able-bodied and not busy with the wounded hurried around the place with a frantic purpose. A fireteam of troopers scooted right past the party and out the front door. Barely registering the odd-looking folk.

"I hate to say it," McCree started, looking at all the wounded in lobby. "But it probably would've been a good thing if Angela came through with us if it meant helping these folks out".

"No kidding…" Lucio blurted out, then looking down at his gear. "I should probably do something."

Nathan interjected. "Let's talk with Lieutenant Hayes, first. And then we can see what we can do."

Without another word, Nathan moved ahead with the rest of the group following in short order. They soon reached the dining hall and saw that it was converted into a command center for the NCR contingent here. A group of NCR officers were gathered around a long, oval dining table as they had maps and comms equipment laid over it. Lt. Hayes, in the center of the table, looked up to Nathan and his group.

"Ah, you're here," he greeted with a smile, his demeanor slightly changing slightly when he saw the company he brought. "And your friends, too? Well, I'm not in a position to say no to more help."

"That's what I figured you needed," Nathan said, stepping closer to the table. "What's the problem?"

Zarya stood a vigilant watch over Hana's mech and its haul as she leaned her against her cannon. She tried her best to not let the Mojave heat deter her as she eyeballed every passerby who so much as looked in her direction. Through her imposing figure and equally imposing weapon, many of the people kept their distance. However, she was so intent in her intense staring contests that she didn't notice the metallic, waddling figure that walked up to her and made her curse in Russian.

"Howdy!" A strange looking, bipedal robot with a rusty body, rudimentary limbs on ball joints, and one glowing "eye" greeted her in a jovial, western accent. "Welcome to the fine town of Primm! I'm Primm Slim, Primm's equally fine sheriff."

Zarya, recovering from her surprise, looked more closely at the robot, and noticed it was wearing a leather cowboy hat, and matching leather cowboy boots.

"What is this place…?" She muttered to herself, finding this world stranger by the minute.

"You're in the fine town of Primm! Here, we've got an assortment of fun activities and attractions for the whole fam-"

"Shut up, robot."

Unfortunately, Primm Slim didn't recognize her command and kept prattling on about the town. Zarya groaned, but her attention was then drawn to some other noise emanating from the street. A series of loud, metallic thumps practically shook the ground as three hulking individuals shrouded in steel walked along the street. She recognized the armor they were wearing was the same type that the snarky woman she interacted with wore. The one that wasn't sucked through the portal.

'This is all real, then…' She thought, now properly resigned to her predicament.

She stared at these figures as she examined their armor, and they stared back as they noticed the strange technology she was wielding and guarding. One of the Brotherhood members even stopped in their tracks as he pointed out Hana's mech. Zarya recognized what they were pointing at, and immediately got on the defensive.

Silence reigned in the impromptu command center as Lt. Hayes finished debriefing Nathan and his peers what the situation in Goodsprings was. The Courier said nothing as he took in all the details and kept thinking how he wasn't that surprised by this. He knew that something would happen, that the Divide would spill over to the rest of the Wasteland. Something he tried to find a solution to with the help of the Think Tank. But it was happening a lot sooner than they predicted.

Of all the things the Other Courier spouted about, Nathan cursed that he was right about this.

And Goodsprings was the first casualty.

"You're familiar with these things," Hayes observed from the other side of the table.

"Very," Nathan affirmed with an exasperated tone. "They're one of the few creatures I know of that actively hunt Deathclaws."

All the NCR officers across from them were visibly shaken by the statement. The outsiders behind Nathan were a bit more puzzled, but the fact there was something in this world called a 'Deathclaw' didn't put them at ease, nor did learning that they were prey to these 'Tunnelers'. Hayes cleared his throat to re-orient the conversation.

"Then we're talking to the right person," he admitted, sounding cautiously hopeful. "Is there a way we can stop them?"

"'Stop'?" Nathan repeated, with some incredulity. "Unless you can send a battalion underground to stamp 'em out, they're pretty much here to stay. Like every other critter in the wasteland."

The NCR officers tried to hide how disheartened they were to hear that, feeling their faces grow paler at the news. Nathan saw this, caught himself, and lightened his tone.

"But… there might be a way to slow 'em down. Control their population and make sure they don't spread out. For a while, at least."

"How?"

"Find their Queen."

Hayes blinked, surprised by the new bit of information he had learned about these creatures. Further convinced that he was speaking to the right person.

"You make it sound like its easy."

"It isn't," Nathan clarified, pausing for a moment before looking over his shoulder and back at the group with him. "But I'm not going at it alone."

All of the outsiders perked up when they heard that.

The people around the command center deliberated for several more minutes, the outsiders now joining in on the conversation as they began to ask questions about the situation. They asked about what they were going to deal with, where they were going, who was going to help, and other reasonable questions. However, the NCR officers couldn't help but notice the way they spoke about things made it seem they were clueless about the local land, as if their attire and gear didn't make that apparent. They almost wanted to ask the Courier who these people were, but there were more pressing matters.

Besides, the newcomers had agreed to help.

"That easy?" Nathan asked.

"We're already here, aren't we?" McCree asked back.

Nathan nodded.

The Courier and his group walked out of the dining hall, Jesse holding a burlap sack gifted to them that carried a day's worth of provisions. Jesse wasn't quite sure what to make of foodstuffs, specifically the canned food with faded labels. He tried to look for something denoting an expiration date, but it seems that too faded a long time ago. He grumbled uncertainly as he slung the bag over his shoulder. Nathan looked back to him.

"Don't worry, the preservatives they pumped into those things make it the most palatable thing you'll find out here," Nathan reassured him, with a smirk.

Any amusement he had at Jesse's expense quickly dissipated once he swung open the doors and immediately saw a group of Brotherhood Paladins forming a steel barrier. Their visages towering over Zarya as she stood between them and Hana's mech. The Russian not giving an inch as the Paladins tried to push in further.

"We only wish to examine that strange technology you have with you," one of the Paladins said, their voice modulated by their helmet.

"For what reason?" Zarya questioned, her hands balling into fists.

"We have never seen such equipment. And you clearly aren't from here. Where did you come from?"

The tone in which they asked that last question only made Zarya growl more. That gesture only made the Paladins tense up more, packing some serious hardware befitting their armor. However, Nathan doubted the armor would hold up to Zarya's cannon.

Primm Slim tried to intervene. "Now, now, as the sheriff of this town I would appreciate if y'all would take that business elsewhere-"

"Shut up, robot!"

Poor Sheriff meant well, but he wasn't going to do much in this situation. So, Nathan stepped in.

"Stand down," the tall man ordered as he got between them. "Both of you. You're attracting a crowd."

One of the Paladins, about to take offense that there was an interloper, froze as he realized who had intervened. The others also took notice and stepped back.

"Nathan… Brin?" One of them thought aloud, almost shocked to see him there. "We thought you went missing?"

"I was," Nathan admitted, with a shake of his head. "I guess you can tell McNamara I'm back, in case he was wondering."

The Paladin, looking to their brothers for a moment, gave Nathan an affirming nod. "I'm sure the Elder will be glad to hear you're back. I apologize for the behavior of my Brothers. We'll get of out of your way, now."

Nathan was about to let them go, but then he thought to mention something. He called out to them, "Hey, wait! Before you go…"

The Paladins turned around as Nathan trotted over to them. He stopped right before them and began to tell them something, just out of earshot of the outsiders. They watched as he said only a few sentences to them at most, but they noticed their demeanors change as their helmeted heads perked up. As if they were told something more shocking than finding out that the Courier was still alive. A couple more words were exchanged before one of the Paladins handed Nathan a small, metal device that was grey and yellow. Nathan thanked them before he turned away and went back to his group. He didn't say anything as he walked past them and straight to the set of Advanced Power Armor. He popped in the new fusion core with a hearty thump from his fist. They could hear the suit began to whir back to life.

By the time the party had trekked to the outer reaches of Goodsprings from Primm, the Mojave sun had set below the western mountains. The sweltering heat now supplanted by a chilling cold. Even without the local weather antagonizing them, the outsiders felt their bodies were at their limits from an entire day traveling through the desert, mostly on foot. Hana was lucky to have her mech do most of the walking, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't get nauseous from a day's worth of constant rocking inside that pink egg.

Of course, the only one who wasn't on the brink of collapsing was Nathan, now wearing a set of Saturnite-made Advanced Power Armor loaded with packs and sacks of equipment and provisions. Even as the sun-bleached landscape became pitch-black, the eyes of his Enclave helmet lit their way as they kept to the old road. The stomping of his metal feet made it easy to follow in the low-visibility.

It had been a long time since Nathan had put on a set of power armor. Wasn't something he did often when he was still roaming the Mojave full-time, but every time he donned one of these mechanized suits he felt the Mojave Wasteland became slightly-less dangerous for as long as he kept it on.. In spite of that, he wondered if this experimental armor would still hold up for Goodsprings.

As he silently mulled over what came next, the lights from his eyes shined upon a familiar fork in the road. He instantly recognized that they were on the outskirts of Goodsprings, and it wouldn't be long until they were in the town proper. His party stopped when he did, watching as his eyes scanned the road in front of them before he turned to the left, getting off the road.

"There's a campsite over here, as well as some water pumps," Nathan explained. "We'll stay here for the night."

"Finally!" Hana exclaimed, her young face visible with exhaustion. "I'm starving."

The party only walked for another minute before Nathan brought them to the campsite and situated himself right next to a large campfire set up years ago. It looked like it hadn't been used for a long time, so Nathan opened up the back of his power armor and climbed out, the lights on the eyes still on. Once he stepped closer to the firepit to see if he could get a fire going, he heard shuffling dirt to his right and looked to the rocks hanging over him. Immediately spotting several pairs of red eyes looking at them.

McCree looked to where Nathan was looking, and before anyone said anything, instantly drew his revolver and lined it up with one of the red eyes. However, he relented pulling a trigger the second he heard a lever-action to his left and saw another pair of red eyes looking at him. The figure walking into the light of the power armor eyes and revealing itself to have armor that he's seen before.

"Well, I'll be," Jesse let out, before chuckling. "They look like you, Brin!"

Nathan grunted, before raising both his hands to placate his side of the standoff. "Easy, guys. These are Rangers. They're on our side."

Zarya, Lucio, Satya, and Hana were unsure as they stood at the ready with their weapons. 'An appropriate response', Nathan thought, considering the Rangers had the drop on them.

Then, coming from behind a rundown, pre-war camper trailer, another ranger showed up to greet them with another pair of glowing red eyes. The ranger had a lever-action shotgun in their hands and stepped right in-front of Brin as if there weren't guns being pointed on either side. The range then spoke, the helmet modulating a female voice.

"They told us you were coming… Along with a caravan of freaks," the ranger stated, examining everyone beneath those red visors. "I almost didn't believe them, but things have been out of the ordinary for a while."

"If you think you've been going through some weird shit, boy, do I have a story to tell you."

The ranger chuckled. "Heh, I'd imagine." The ranger decocked her lever-action shotgun and deftly slung it over her shoulder. Nathan heard similar noises from the other rangers as they safed their weapons. Eventually, Nathan's compatriots did the same.

"I'm Ranger Claudia," the ranger greeted. "You guys thirsty?"

It only took a few minutes for Nathan to get a campfire going, the flames big enough to cast the immediate area in a warm, orange glow. The outsiders were gathered around the campfire as Nathan was cooking their provisions. Some of the rangers joined them, including their leader with the lever-action shotgun. Most of the other rangers remained on watch, but everyone by the campfire couldn't tell since the darkness hid them so well. They just took their leader's word for it.

Nathan spoke with their leader as he stirred a stew made from a variety of gecko, brahmin, and what veggies they could spare. Ranger Claudia was an older woman, and under that helmet had an olive complexion and long, black hair she kept in a messy bun. She explained why the rangers were stationed all around the outskirts of Goodsprings and what had happened inside the town prior to their arrival. The more she explained the situation, the more often Nathan paused from stirring his stew. Claudia explained how the responsibility for watching over the town shifted from the NCR Army to the Rangers before Nathan interjected with another, more pressing question.

"What about the townsfolk? Are they okay?" he asked, pausing his stirring.

Ranger Claudia's looked at him and she hesitated to answer. "We evacuated as much as we could," she stated, but her face scrunched up in frustration. "Unfortunately, after the disaster in the caves, the army tried to organize a hasty re-grouping of any troopers we had left while we tried to get the civvies out. Took longer than it should have, because before we knew it, those bastards started popping out of the ground around us."

The outsiders looked up at the Ranger as she said that with varying degrees of shock and horror on their faces. Nathan looked up from his stew, before nodding his head.

"They were attracted to all the foot-traffic," he stated. "And there was no sun to scare 'em away."

"Really?" Ranger Claudia blurted out, the veteran sounding genuinely surprised. "Well, shit, that explains it. Yeah, they came out of nowhere. Dozens of them. We then had to organize a hasty retreat from the town. Ever since, we've been ordered to maintain a perimeter – make sure nothing gets in or out. But thinking about it now, kinda hard to spot something that could burrow right underneath your feet."

"If any Tunnelers made it out here, we would know by now. They haven't spread out any further. Yet."

The campfire conversation became quiet as everyone contemplated the threat they were dealing with just a mile up the road. The outsiders visibly unnerved by all the information they could gleam from the wasters. Curious, Hana looked up, "So, no one's left in the town?" she asked.

Claudia cocked her head to look at Hana, thinking of a response. "Honestly, young lady, in all the chaos in that moment it was hard to tell who got out and who didn't. All I know is that we've still got some unaccounted for. Shame, there were always good people in Goodsprings."

Nobody said anything as Nathan finally finished stirring his stew and poured a serving into a wooden bowl. He passed it to Hana, first, who took it and thanked him. He kept pouring and passing bowls until everyone around the campfire had one, except for him. He poured what remained in the pot until it was empty, the serving barely reaching halfway of his bowl. He didn't care.

"That's why we're here," Nathan stated, as he looked at his bowl. "Take back this town."

"No offense," Claudia let out. "But I'm not sure y'all have the firepower to deal with the infestation we seem to have here. Even with all this weird… equipment you guys have."

McCree took offense to this. "Ma'am, you clearly haven't seen us work," he gloated, mouth full of gecko.

"Sure, but there's a hive of those things out - under - there. Y'all have anything for that?"

Wasn't an unreasonable question. Barring Zarya and Satya, the outsiders had weapons that they simply couldn't just restock ammunition for at the local general store. Hana had her mech, but something so big would be bound to get caught on something down there. They needed a more economical, backup option for their current situation. Nathan looked up at the ranger, before his eyes looked to their north beyond the rocks that sheltered them. Towards Goodsprings and remembering the cemetery that towered over the town. Remembering where he died.

"I might have something for that," Nathan said, finally taking a sip from his soup. "You guys got any shovels?"

They waited until the crack of dawn to move into Goodsprings to take advantage of as much sunlight as they could. Rangers that were keeping watch over the town reported no movement when the sun rose, except for some vaguely humanoid figures skittering back into whatever holes they came from. With the all-clear, the Courier's party, accompanied by Claudia and another ranger, walked into Goodsprings proper. The other rangers would maintain the perimeter and keep watch over them, but they were on their own.

As the group got closer to the center of town, Nathan kept waiting for the moment of realization that they were in Goodsprings. He kept waiting for the buildings and people to become recognizable. Instead, he saw abandoned homes – some in ruins – and the corpses of townsfolk and troopers that were not dragged below. Nathan squinted to see if he could spot a familiar face among the corpses among them, to at least know the fate of somebody he hadn't seen for so long. The outsiders stared at the corpses too, but in a mixture of shock and disgust as their eyes darted from one mangled, butchered body to another. Satya and Hana tried to cover their noses from the stench that hung over the town. The others tried to bear it.

"Goddamn…" Jesse remarked as they passed by the corpse of a bighorner, more bone than flesh as it was nearly picked clean by the Tunnelers. Even its face was devoid of any skin, only the horns left untouched in the sun.

Nathan had nothing to say about the mutilated corpses around them, unless it was one he could recognize. The rangers accompanying them were also silent, largely keeping their eyes on their surroundings. They knew better to gawk unlike the tourists.

Eventually, the group came into sight of the town's saloon and Nathan physically stopped in his tracks when he saw the state of it. The Prospector Saloon was still standing, but with the front door ripped of its hinges and the windows shattered. There were blood stains, bullets holes, and claw marks all around the façade. Even neon "Open" sign was ripped from the patio roof and unceremoniously on the ground. Considering the state of some of the other buildings in town, it was a miracle that it was still standing.

"Mr. Brin…?" Claudia said, looking up at the man in power armor. "You okay?"

He looked down at her, his face hidden under that bug-like helmet. He didn't respond as he kept walking forward.

The top of the hill overlooking Goodsprings would've been a picturesque, scenic view of this corner of the Mojave Desert, if the town was in wasn't in its current state. The dead here certainly didn't give off a stench.

The group were gathered around one grave, in particular. It was unmarked, but seemingly occupied as the dirt formed a little mound. The group would've asked questions if Nathan hadn't opened up the back of his power armor and clambered out. He walked over to the grave, hovering over it as his face scrunched up in thought. Then nodding.

"Yep, this is the place," he said aloud, remembering where it all began. Claudi walked up to Nathan, holding a pair of entrenching tools. Nathan reached out to, and she handed them both to him. He looked up at the outsiders. "Anyone wanna help?"

"We grave-robbing now?" McCree remarked, somewhat uncomfortable at the prospect.

"Not if it belongs to me," Nathan retorted.

Jesse looked up at him, then down at the grave. It didn't take long for him to make the connection. "Jesus…"

"Yeah."

Nathan – done belaboring the point – just tossed McCree the shovel. The Courier and the Gunslinger began to dig.

As the two men dug up the grave, the others took time to relax around the cemetery. With the sun high up in the sky, there was no need to worry about the Tunnelers surfacing through the ground they were disturbing. The ones not digging, particularly the tourists, were drawn to the vistas presented to them from the top of this cemetery. Lucio and Satya were looking over the southern edge, looking towards the destruction of Goodsprings. Hana was opposite of them, with her eyes north of the town scanning what was in the horizon. Shielding her eyes from the sun, she saw in the distance a large city with a tower rising high above everything else. She had been to Las Vegas back in her world, but the city she was looking at had a passing resemblance with only a fraction of the glitz and glamor that she was familiar with. She thought she knew city-wide destruction from the Omnic Crisis, but what she saw taught her she didn't know the half-of-it. Despite first impressions, she was still surprised that there was even a city that large standing in this world. She even recognized the outline of the airport she had to fly into but saw no planes coming or leaving the runways.

"You ever been?" Hana suddenly heard a modulated voice next to her, belonging to Ranger Claudia. Hana wondered how anyone could stand wearing that armor in this heat.

"Yeah… Wait, actually, uh- No, not really," Hana stumbled on her words, making the Ranger cock her head.

"Right… Where are you from, anyway? You guys clearly aren't from here. Definitely not from California."

"We're- I'm from out east."

Claudia's red eyes just stared at Hana, her head turning slightly to look at the pink mech parked behind the younger woman. Claudia just shrugged.

"If you say so," the Ranger relented. "I was just curious, is all. To be honest, I've always heard weird things about the company your friend keeps, which only piqued my interest… No offense."

"None taken."

Hana flashed a friendly smile to her, and Claudia probably did the same. They looked back at New Vegas, and all its post-war splendor.

"Have you ever been?" Hana asked.

"A few," Claudia said, before shaking her head. "And I regretted every goddamn visit. The only thing that place is good for is making you broke. Either at the roulette table or the bar right after."

"Heh, yeah. I'm not a fan of gambling, either."

"Then the Mojave isn't for you, young lady."

Before Hana could inquire about that statement, they heard metal impacting metal behind them.

"Jackpot!" They heard McCree declare.

The Gunslinger crouched down and wiped away some dirt to reveal the top of a metal container, covered in black stripes. Pounding it with his fist revealed the construction was sturdy, but that was it was definitely not empty. Before he could ask Nathan what they had dug up, Nathan had already climbed out of the grave and hopped back into his power armor. Nathan crouched down and grabbed a set of chains that were also in the grave. He stood up and began walking backwards, the chains jiggling as the crate was slowly lifted out of the grave. And then another. Eventually, the two large crates were exhumed from the grave, and the group gathered around them. They waited until Nathan hopped back out from his power armor and walked over to the caches and opened them both up for those present to see.

"Wow…" Lucio said, blinking. "That is a lot of guns."

Nathan nodded as he looked at all the loot he had compiled from his travels all over the Mojave and beyond. Every rifle, shotgun, pistol, knife, gauntlet, hammer, and launcher told a story of when, where, how, and why. A more pragmatic person would've found such an arsenal to be overkill, if they never found themselves in the situations he has. This day might be another one of those.

"We're gonna head into those caves by the end of the hour," the Courier declared, addressing each and every one of them. "If there's something here you think you'll need, take it. More than enough for everyone. And I'd suggest trading what you currently have for something here if ammo is going to be an issue for when we… Get back to where y'all need to be."

He crouched down and immediately got to sorting through the armaments for his needs. The outsiders all looked at each other, before one-by-one they joined him.

Claudia's ranger subordinate was about to join them until she stopped him with a hand on his chest. "We're not going into those caves, so you don't need shit." The subordinate tried not to express his disappointment.

It took less than half-an-hour for the team to sort through the foreign equipment, thinking it best to pick items that were the closest to what they knew. McCree chose a giant revolver with a black finish, and immaculately decorated with gold all over. His sharp-eyes caught the rangers staring at his chosen piece, making him confident he chose well. Lucio went with a handheld energy weapon with a soundwave visualizer on the back with a muzzle that looked like an antenna dish. Nathan commented that the weapon is quite the noisemaker, which should be helpful for the Tunnelers. Hana, the last one to choose, also picked an energy weapon - a grey, blocky pistol that had glowing green lights on both sides. She remembered one of Nathan's friends having something similar with them back at Gibraltar, saying that it fired "plasma". Looked like it packed more punch than her standard sidearm, might be just what she needs. Satya and Zarya stuck to what they had as ammo was not an issue.

Nathan was a bit more proactive with his loadout; He equipped himself with a riot shotgun, an Assault Carbine, and a Grenade launcher, adding the Mauser to his cache. However, the weapons he chose were all secondary, as he would wield a unique Gatling Laser that glowed a brilliant green instead of the more common red. With smaller weapons slung across his metal body, and one big weapon in his metal hands, Nathan was a sight to behold in his power armor. Enough to make the rangers' slightly jealous in their black armor. Slightly.

"Y'all ready?" Nathan asked. After a few more moments of looking at their gear, they all nodded. "Good, but we're not going into those caves just yet. First things first, we to split-up and find any survivors on the surface."

They started with the Prospector Saloon. Nathan and Jesse were the ones to go inside, having split-off from the rest of the group to search for the rest of the town. They weren't too worried about being cut-off from the others in the event of something happening, or vice-versa. Goodsprings wasn't that big of a town, so the sounds of gunshots and screaming would get their attention quickly.

Once inside the saloon, Jesse couldn't help but be charmed by the interior's cozy aesthetic. Nathan would've agreed on any other day.

Nathan crossed to his left towards the bar of the saloon and saw no sight of its proprietor or patrons. There was blood and casings everywhere, though. Nathan immediately wondered whose blood that was.

Nathan slowly stomped up the aisle towards the back of the saloon, looking for any signs of somebody surviving what occurred here. He looked at the far end of the bar and saw one of the spots where there should be a stool now had a hole. The wood flooring splintering outwards as if something erupted from below, with a bloody trail leading down it. McCree was behind Nathan, looking at the man-sized hole that lead to a dark void below.

"There was a regular who would sit on a stool here almost every time I came into the saloon," Nathan started, looking at the hole. "Never got his name…"

Nathan and Jesse came out of the saloon after finding nothing. They were soon joined by the other members of their party and the rangers.

"No survivors?" Nathan asked.

"No, sir," Claudia responded, shaking her head. "Only what's left of them."

The others shared similar findings about the corners of the town they explored. Nathan grew more exasperated upon hearing this information.

"What about that house on the hill over there?" he pointed towards Doc Mitchell's. "No one?"

"Sorry, man." Lucio shook his head, Satya bowed hers. "We didn't see anyone there. We did see a freaking big hole there though. Could that… be where they've gone?"

Nathan's heart dropped when he heard about the entrance right in Doc Mitchell's home. If they didn't find any trace of him, or anyone else in this town, then the chances of them not being a Tunneler's meal were slim. The PA hid his downtrodden expression, before his head tilted up as he remembered something. The only place in this entire town that was built on solid concrete.

Just a short walk towards the long derelict gas station, Nathan stepped up to the front door with the others in tow. He looked at them, looked back at the door and opened it. Slowly peeking his head inside, two gunshots from inside the gas station echoed out into the rest of town with Nathan staggering back as his helmet was ringing. The armor held, and his senses were stable enough for him to call back to those inside.

"Ceasefire! I'm human!" He called out to them.

"D-Nathan…?" He heard a familiar voice reply.

"… Sunny?"

Against better judgement, he poked his head back through the doorway to look inside. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the lack of light, and when they did, he first saw Sunny Smiles with a rifle in her hand pointed at the door. Behind Sunny were the remaining townsfolk and some surviving NCR troopers, cowering behind whatever they could in the small store. Cooped up in here for who knows how long.

"Trudy? Chet?" Nathan eventually recognized.

"Well, I'll be," Trudy said aloud, the older woman looking a bit worse for wear. "Come back to save the town a second time, huh?"

Nathan removed his helmet so he could see them with his own eyes. "Something like that," he said, with a smirk.

That smirk quickly disappeared as Sunny Smiles suddenly rushed him and wrapped her arms around his armored form. Nathan, caught off-guard at first, gently placed his metal hand on her back. His smirk would've come back if he didn't notice that Sunny Smiles was missing her faithful companion.

"Where's Cheyenne?" he asked, not seeing her anywhere in the tiny store.

Sunny only looked up at him, her red, tired eyes welling up with tears. Seeing that was enough for Nathan to wrap his other arm around her in a tighter, but still gentle embrace.

"I'm sorry…"

"When you find those little monsters, do me favor: Kill 'em all."

The Rangers took upon the responsibility of evacuating the remaining Goodsprings citizens and NCR troopers back to the outside of the perimeter, but not before the survivors told them they saw some people dragged to the caves underground – alive. Nathan wasn't optimistic about the chances of survivors in the caves, but he knew that if a Tunnelers was going to retreat anywhere it was going to be their nest. And the closest way to get to those nests was in Doc Mitchell's house.

"Goddamn, those things can dig," McCree stated as he looked at the size of the cavern opening in the middle of Doc Mitchell's operating room. "Big enough for all of us to fit."

"Lucky us," Nathan said, putting on his PA helmet. "This might lead us back to their nest. We go there, save anyone that could still be alive, and kill anything that isn't standing upright. Everyone understand?"

The outsiders looked at each other, then at the gaping maw that led to the dark underground. They affirmed they were ready.

Ranger Claudia then stepped forward. "Don't know if the signal underground is gonna be great, so holler to us on the radio as soon as you guys come back up to the surface. Don't worry, we'll get the survivors to safety. Ranger's promise."

"Thank you, Claudia."

"Don't mention it, Brin. Good luck, guys!"

With that final word, the ranger left the group alone to face the void that stared up at them. Feeling and hearing the wind chill them near the entrance.

The lights on Nathan's eyes turned on, illuminating the opening of the cave. He stomped into the giant cavern, glowing gatling laser in his hands, and slowly disappeared into the depths below. His companions soon followed, and Doc Mitchell's home became empty once more as the sounds of their footsteps slowly faded until they could not be heard above the cavern's wind.

It couldn't have been more than 10 minutes since they had descended from the surface, but the Courier's party had no way of telling time from their surroundings. Each member of this party was relying on any source of light they had with them, some holding handheld flashlights that were manifested by Satya. Even with all the light sources they had, the long, dark caverns ahead and behind them with nothing else to guide their path accompanied them. Well, almost nothing else, as the group passed by some fungus that emitted an unnatural glow.

"Glowing mushrooms? That's kinda cool," Lucio said, liking the green tinge some of the fungi produced.

"I doubt they're safe to consume," Satya responded.

Hearing that, Nathan turned around to look at the cluster of mushrooms they were referring to. He stepped over to the cluster, took a knee, and picked one of the red specimens.

"These are," he explained as he tossed the red 'shroom to Satya, who barely caught it. "Helps flush radiation out from your system."

"You're serious?" Satya looked at him with incredulity.

"Yeah, Tunnelers like eating this stuff too. Probably another reason they're in these tunnels."

Satya looked at the glowing red mushroom with more incredulity, before Lucio reached out to it.

"May I?" he asked politely.

"You may…" Satya replied, depositing the mushroom into his hand like it was a dead rodent.

Jesse looked at the two interacting before turning to Nathan. "I think they're getting along," he said.

Before Nathan could even be amused by the thought, a sudden, inhuman scream echoed from the direction they were heading towards. The sound combined with the acoustics of the cave made everyone tense up and point their weapons to the darkness ahead. They stayed still as the lights from Nathan's eye shined the dozen or so meters up ahead. Waiting for something inhuman to come rushing into the light so they could blast it with all the firepower they possessed.

"We're getting closer," Nathan remarked, keeping his gatling laser trained ahead.

The group continued down the cavern.

Minutes of walking down the singular, winding path of the cavern had led them deeper underground. Despite that, the only sounds they could hear were the stomps of Nathan and Hana's machines reverberating across the cave. Seeing nothing in the cave with them other than more glowing mushrooms that dotted path. The group was entirely silent, not one of them making a peep as they crossed another rocky corner. However, their fortunes had changed as they now saw before them a fork in the road with two paths openings leading in differing directions.

"Great," Jesse remarked as he shined his light upon the fork.

"I hope you aren't going to suggest that we split up," Hana said, looking at Nathan.

Nathan shook his head. "Not what I had in mind. Let's stick to one side and see if there's anything there. If not, we backtrack. Everyone in agreement?"

When no one objected, he looked back at the fork.

"Let's go left."

Left they went, going even deeper into the caverns. While they spotted no abominations or their victims, they eventually noticed that this part of the cave gradually began to tighten, the rock walls slowly constricting around the group. There was still enough clearance for the largest among them to walk upright, but they could feel the air around them squeeze in on them, their arms scraping against rock more often, and their bodies becoming more packed against each other. Hana was lucky that the walls allowed enough clearance for her mech to fit through, barely. However, another in their group was struggling to keep her resolve, and Lucio was quick to notice when he glanced at Satya.

"Hey, are you alright?" Lucio asked, noticing how distraught she was.

"I-I'm fine," Satya responded, trying to keep up appearances.

"Uh, you're sweating? Want us to stop?"

Their exchange caught the attention of the others, all of them stopping as they watched Lucio try to console her, despite her attempts at rebuking.

"You alright, Vaswani?" Nathan asked, getting closer.

"I'm fine," she said once more, not really convincingly. "I just need to rest for a minute."

Nathan looked back at the direction they were going, then looked back at her.

"Let us know when you're ready. This isn't the place to be loitering for long."

Suddenly, they heard screaming from the direction they were heading to, everyone aside from Lucio and Satya instantly presenting their weapons to the darkness. The screaming continued, but the longer they listened, the more human it sounded.

"Someone's in trouble!" Zarya exclaimed.

'Shit…' Nathan thought, as he looked back at Satya and Lucio and towards the source of the screams.

"We must do something!" Zarya spoke, again.

"Yeah; Hana, Zarya, Lucio, you guys stay with Satya. McCree and I will check it out. Stay put until we come back."

Without another word, Nathan went away from them and deeper into the caverns without them. Jesse hesitated for a moment, before he cursed under his breath and quickly caught up to him. The group left behind watched as the two men slowly disappeared deeper into the cavern, their own lights going out with them.

"Any reason you wanted me to tag along?" Jesse asked, warily eyeing the cave walls.

"You're the one who shoots the straightest," Nathan replied, his eyes scanning for any signs of anyone human.

The two men began to descend down a slope, and as the ground became level again, they walked into an underground chamber. The space had opened up and the ceiling was much higher above their heads. The chamber was almost circular in shape, and wherever they looked with their lights they only saw walls of rock. However, the sound of splashing at their feet made them look down to see the chamber floor filled with ankle-deep water. And bloody body parts floating on top the water. Jesse let out a sound of disgust at the sight and the smell.

The sound of skittering drew their attention upwards to see that there was another opening above them. With a pair of bioluminescent eyes looking down at them.

"What the-" Jesse started but was interrupted as the Tunneler leapt at them. Fortunately, Jesse was quicker on the draw and shot the creature right between the eyes with the Ranger Sequoia, its limp body crashing into the water right before them and splashing foul, bloodied water onto them. Wiping some of it from his eyes, Jesse got a clear look at the corpse of the creature in front of them. Trying to make sense of what his eyes were seeing.

"Hey, eyes up!" Nathan called.

Jesse looks back up to where the Tunneler leapt from to find there were more glowing eyes staring down at them. He had no time to swear as the Tunnelers started funneling out.

Back with the others, Lucio was trying his best to calm Satya, getting some help from Hana after she hopped out of her mech. It seemed to be working, as she had calmed down from where she was several minutes earlier. Lucio even guided her through some breathing exercises.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Hana asked.

"Community classes back home," Lucio answered nonchalantly. "Always useful for community outreach."

Satya's breathing had slowed down to a calm, steady tempo. She got up from the hardlight stool she had hastily created to prevent herself from collapsing. It looked like they were ready to rejoin Nathan and Jesse, but they then heard a gunshot reverberate through the caves.

Startled, they all looked towards the direction that the two men went into minutes earlier. They waited as the ringing of the gunshot left their ears and there were a few moments when the cave was silent, again. Then, there was another gunshot. Then another. Then what sounded like energy weapon fire. Then yelling. More gunfire. And then… Metallic stomping.

At the far end of the cavern, they could see the lights from Nathan's power armor start to shine onto the walls.

Eventually Nathan's armored form came into view, but he then turned his back to them and lit up the cave walls around him in green flashes as he fired his Gatling Laser. As he fired into whatever was chasing them, Jesse came running into view as well. He waved fervently at them.

"Run back! RUN BACK!"

"What?" was their collective response, unable to see what they were even running from. Unfortunately, that would quickly change as Nathan paused from firing to resume running. Behind his hulking form they could see a pair of luminescent eyes appear behind him. Followed by another pair, then two, then four, and before they could count anymore Hana had hopped back into her MEKA.

"Go! I'll cover you guys!" She told the others, who immediately heeded her and started running back to the fork of the cave, squeezing through the tight spaces as fast as they could. McCree would soon pass her, as well, and Nathan would come stomping up to her and stopping before swiftly turning around. She could hear him popping another Electron Charge Pack into his weapon as she focused on the horde of eyes approaching them. He began firing, with Hana following suit, and she watched as they cut through this horde of strange figures in the dark. Even with their machines' onboard lights and the muzzle flashes of their weapons, she wasn't sure what they were even shooting that. She kept watching vaguely humanoid figures rushing them despite the combined firepower of their heavy energy weapons. However, Nathan's Gatling Laser ran empty, and as he tried to reload quickly a Hulking Tunneler took advantage of the reprieve and pounced right at Hana. The force of the creature colliding with the mech was enough to knock it off balance. Hana yelped as she watched her world fall and immediately came to face with the snarling face of a Tunneler. She watched in horror as the glowing eyes of the abomination were mere inches from her, scratching and snarling at the cockpit's windshield that kept her from being ripped apart. Thankfully, Nathan stepped over and grabbed the tunneler with a large metal hand, the tunneler immediately grabbing and scratching at him until he threw it off her. The tunneler quickly recovered its footing and snarled at Nathan before its head exploded from a burst of super-heated energy.

After that, he heaved a sigh and looked out at the cave in front of them, with over a dozen dead tunnelers strewn about. Hana was able to orient her mech back onto its feet and examined the carnage before them. She was about to ask Nathan if that was the last of them, but a faraway, inhuman roaring answered that question.

"We can't stay here," Nathan said, turning back to the fork. "We need to get to the others. Come on!"

Nathan motioned for Hana to go first, to cover her and to leave enough space in the cave for both of them to move. Hana quickly turned on a metal heel and ran back further up the cave, with Nathan somewhat close behind her. Despite leaving nothing alive in that section of the cave, Hana had become hyperaware of any cavernous nook and cranny that could be a hiding spot for those creatures. Letting curiosity get the better of her, she activated a holographic screen and tapped on it several times. The screen then switched to a radial display, displaying the motion of anything within a 100-meter radius even through the thick rock walls of the cave. She could see Nathan right behind her show up as a blip, alongside several stationary blips just ahead of them. Then, surrounding them were dozens of fast-moving blips closing in on their position.

Hana's eyes widened. "Oh, shit."

"What's wrong?" Nathan looked over his shoulder to her.

"We're about to get surrounded!"

"Then don't stop!"

They had caught up to the rest of their group who were catching their breaths at the fork of the cave. Zarya was the first to notice they came back.

She stood up. "What do we do now?" she asked Nathan directly.

Nathan looked back at the cave they had just come back from before looking to the way back to the surface. Thinking back to what Hana just said.

"We need to make our way back to the surface and find another way through. This cave system is too crowded. We need to get out of here, now!"

Before they could even agree to that plan, the shifting of rock from a hole in the wall caught their attention, their eyes affixed to the empty void until they saw the glimmer of eyes peek from within it. They barely had time to react when a tunneler pounced from the opening and towards the group. Lucio was unlucky to be tackled to the ground and he found himself face-to-face with the subterranean abomination. He screamed as the tunneler tried to claw and snap at him, until a blast of hardlight sent the creature hurling towards the rock wall. Lucio was then quickly helped up to his feet by Satya, quickly giving her his thanks.

However, that tunneler was still alive and the sound of it skittering up the cave wall made Zarya and Satya fire their beam weapons at it. Their energy weapons left a trail in the rocky caverns as they traced their fire up to the ceiling following the tunneler. Nathan's eyes widened up at what their weapons were doing.

"Wait, guys! Stop-!" He only got as far as grabbing Zarya's shoulder until the cavern suddenly collapsed in on them, sending rocks everywhere under a cloud of dust. The next several moments were spent coughing away the dust and trying to get back on their feet. Nathan was the first to get to his feet, and when his vision stopped being blurry the first thing he saw was the tunneler, lifeless, and buried under a mountain of rock that blocked off the way back to the surface. Nathan saw that only Jesse and Zarya were with him but not the rest. However, he could hear the others coughing on the other side of the cave-in; The group had been split up.

"Hana, can you hear me?" Nathan called out, trying to peer through the pile of rocks and dirt.

"Y-yeah… What happened?" She responded, in-between fits of coughing.

"The cave-in separated us! Can you get through? Maybe dig through the rubble?"

Hana waited for the dust to settle to examine the pile. Satya and Lucio were with her, relatively unscathed, but their efforts of assessing the damage were cut short by the sound of a dozen clawed feet pattering heading right towards them. Nathan suddenly heard Hana's cannons going off, then Satya, then Lucio as a horde of tunnelers converged onto them.

"Hana! Are you okay!"

"The rubble is too thick to get to you!" Hana exclaimed, trying to make sure her shots were hitting in the dark. "We need to find another way around!"

Nathan looked back to the stretch of tunnel they had just retreated from, the only other way forward with their path back to the surface blocked up. He took a deep sigh as there was only one way left.

"Fight your way through to the other side!" Nathan instructed her as he got up, heaving his Gatling Laser. "We'll do the same from here and hopefully we can link up further down the cave."

Hana was too preoccupied blasting tunnelers to have any objections, same with the others. "Okay!" she exclaimed, but still uncertain. She began to press forward into their side of the cave.

Nathan glanced at the two now stranded with him, McCree and Zarya. That was when he noticed that Zarya was barehanded and looked at the cave-in to see her cannon buried under the rock, and clearly broken beyond use. No point in digging it out, and rather than letting her wrestle tunnelers to death he pulled the backpack for his Gatling Laser off his back and handed it to her.

"Here," he said, helping put the backpack on her and putting the weapon in her hands. "Not as fancy as yours, but it'll get the job done."

Zarya examined the glowing green weapon in her hands, bouncing it in her arms to get a feel for the weight. It was crude, but simple.

"Da." She nodded in approval. "This will work."

With everything squared away, Nathan took the lead on their side of the cave, with his Riot Shotgun in one powered-hand. They delved deeper into the caves, descending further into the ground as they tried to find another route that would get them back to surface, or at least regroup with the others.

Nathan's heavy footsteps echoed and thumped along the cave walls as they tried to get through with haste. Not wanting to give any tunnelers on them a chance to catch-up. After several more twists and turns, they weren't any closer to finding an alternative route along this long, winding path. No doubt they were much deeper than they were just five minutes earlier, but the path didn't lead them to a dead end, yet.

He wondered if the others were having any better luck. He tried radioing them but there was nothing but static bouncing off these walls. However, as they continued delving deeper, the group stopped as they started hearing gunshots further away in the cave. They listened to the weapon fire, Nathan being the first to realize the sound did not match any weapons the other half of the group brought with them.

"Someone else is down here."

Hana and her team were also steadily making progress through the caves. Hana's eyes would repeatedly dart to her motion tracker to see the density of hostile blips around them only increasing. She saw a smaller cluster of three blips parallel to them and going at the same pace for the first few minutes, but by the time they delved further into cave on their side of the cave, those blips were out of view. Unlike the other half of their group, Hana's team found itself ascending up into the bowels of the cave. This was reassuring, at first, until they traversed through half-a-dozen paths and dips and still found themselves within the confines of the cave. This worried Hana even more as the motion tracker still showed the activity around them was buzzing, yet they hadn't seen another tunneler since. To her, there were two possibilities for this: these creatures had a hard time trying to find them or were biding their time and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The latter made her shudder.

"Be careful, guys…" She cautioned her team. "Keep an eye on the walls."

Eventually, they turned into a straight path that led to a chamber. They could see some faint light at the end, but any hopes that they were signs to an exit were dashed away upon entering the chamber and finding a collection of human bodies before them, illuminated by colonies of glowing mushrooms surrounding them. Satya almost vomited upon the sight of all the corpses in various signs of decomposition and – judging from all the mangled pieces of flesh and bone – consumption. Lucio held a hand up to his mouth and nose in an attempt to block out the stench. Hana couldn't bear to look at the corpses as she tried to find another way forward. As she took the first step forward to trudge through the mound of corpses, but then she heard someone speak.

"Wait…"

She pivoted her mech to the source of the voice and amongst the dead was an old man. He was bald, had a white moustache, and was in dirty and ripped clothing.

"Oh, my god!" She exclaimed getting closer, Satya and Lucio instantly doing the same. "Someone's alive!"

"Are you okay, mister?" Lucio asked, bending down and trying to assess his injuries.

The old man tried to speak, but he was clearly exhausted and struggled to utter a word. But he pushed through the pain to tell them something they needed to know that instant.

"Those things they're… They're waiting for you…"

It took a second for Hana to register those words, but her eyes widened when they did, and she spun her mech around. Sure enough, glowing eyes began to appear in the cave wall's crevices. It wasn't long before a tunneler lunged out at them from one of the holes.

The gunfire Nathan and his team first heard had not let up by the time they got to the entrance of another large underground cavern. What little light there was substituted by the bright muzzle flashes of an automatic weapon, firing in short-controlled bursts. There was a pathway overlooking the cavern floor that allowed the team to look down. The cavern floor was still quite a drop below them, but the lights from Nathan's eyes were able to illuminate enough of the situation to see there was someone at the bottom of the cavern, dispatching loads of tunnelers that ran after him.

"Holy hell," McCree exclaimed. "It's just one guy?"

Nathan squinted as he tried to get a good look at the man, the muzzle flashes from his 12.7mm SMG momentarily lighting up his features. The most prominent being his twisted hair.

"Ulysses…?" Nathan thought aloud.

"You know that guy?" McCree asked.

Nathan grumbled as he got up and looked for a way down, spotting a pathway to the side that led downwards. "Come on," he said, without another word. McCree and Zarya exchanged looks before following him.

Ulysses spent the last rounds of his current magazine onto a tunneler as it lunged at him, narrowly dodging the tumbling body. His breathing was ragged under his mask, having been at this far longer than anyone else has against a brood of tunnelers. Well, almost anyone else.

Just as he finished reloading his weapon, another tunneler sprang forth from the shadows at him. Ulysses was quick to present his weapon to it, but he did not need to pull the trigger as a well-placed shot from McCree's Ranger Sequoia. Immediately after, the rest of the party opened fire upon the other tunnelers in the cavern, making them vacate through any hole or burrow they could find. Eventually, the humans were the only ones left in the cavern. Ulysses fell to one knee, now having a moment to catch his breath. As he did so, the others began to circle around him. The masked man in the spotlight of Nathan's light.

"Figured you would show up," Ulysses said, not even looking up at the ground.

"I guess I could say the same for you," Nathan responded, holding out an armored hand.

Ulysses looked up and grabbed his hand, hoisting himself up to his feet.

"Same roads …" Ulysses iterated. When he stood up, Ulysses began studying the two companions he had brought with him. "More strange company to keep?"

"You're not wrong…" Nathan responded, letting out a bemused chuckle.

The other two were perplexed.

"Who is this man?" Zarya questioned, cocking an eyebrow at the strange looking man.

"He used to be a courier, like me. What he's doing here, though…?"

Without another word, Ulysses reached into the pocket of his duster and pulled out a huge bundle of metal necklaces. Upon closer inspection, Nathan recognized them as NCR dog tags. Dozens of them all bound up on his hand. Many of them dripping with blood.

"Jesus…" Nathan let out.

"Won't let the tunnelers claim their names. Keep their history to themselves – to this cave."

Nathan looked at Ulysses' face, ever stoic and sullen, as he put the dog tags back into his coat pocket.

Nathan started to explain things to him. "Well, the entrance we came through at Doc Mitchell's house is blocked off. Think there's another way out of this hole?"

"Hmph, in a tunneler cave, chances aren't as dire. They like having as many ambush points as possible. Helps them catch more prey to feed their queen and her brood. That's how I got here. Only other way back to the surface as far as I know."

"Then we'll go through there."

"Not in that armor. Only enough space for a grown man - barely."

Nathan looked down at his power armored form, McCree and Zarya doing the same. Nathan grunted before looking back at Ulysses.

"We'll get there when we get there."

Ulysses simply nodded and began to trace his steps through this dark, blood-soaked cave. The others following him without another word.

While Ulysses helped one half of the team find a way out of the cave, the other half were dealing with a tunneler ambush. The three tried their best to protect the only other human they could find against the onslaught that charged them. Lucio stayed the closest to the old man while Satya and Hana used their energy weapons to blast, burn, and zap any quadruped that ran up to them. Despite the amount of tunnelers they were killing, the creatures would not let up. Even the ones that seemed to be running away from the chaos would just pop out of another hole to attack from another angle. Thankfully, Satya's deployment of hardlight turrets and Hana's mech evened the odds against their numbers, but they couldn't count on this forever.

Just as when Hana noticed the horde lightened up a little, she looked back at Lucio and the old man.

"Are you guys okay?" She asked.

"My healing tech can help him stand up, but that's about it," Lucio stated with a great amount of concern. "We need to get him out of here as soon as possible."

Satya spoke up, in between shooting her beam. "I concur with that idea! We are not in a strategically sound position!"

Hana agreed on both counts, but before she could respond, the cave ceiling above suddenly gave way. A shower of rocks fell upon her, and with it, a hulking tunneler that latched onto the top of her mech, scratching and clawing at anything. Warnings flashed upon her cockpit visor as the creature large claws began ripping out chunks of her armor.

"Hey- Get off-!" She yelled, then pivoting her right arm-cannon upwards in an attempt to blast it off. Unfortunately, the tunneler grabbed the appendage – and before she could even wrestle it back – ripped it right off from its socket. "Oh, you little-!"

Out of desperation and rage, she rammed her mech into one of the caves walls, making the entire chamber shake. That was enough to get the tunneler to fall off, still holding on to her right arm cannon. The beast would've retaliated, but a blast Satya's weapon exploded its head before it could do so.

With that last threat taken care of, Hana quickly assessed the damage of her mech to see that she still had one cannon left but that wouldn't last for long if they stayed here any longer.

"Satya, can you make something to help the old man move?"

The Architect nodded and twirled her hands and fingers to quickly manifest a floating white stretcher. The old man watched and was almost too tired to express amazement.

"Well, I'll be. That'd be mighty helpful around the clinic…"

Together and without saying anything, Satya and Lucio got the old man into the stretcher. They began running deeper into the cave, Hana still taking point with her damaged mech, Lucio pushing the gurney behind her, and Satya holding the rear. Hana looked at her motion tracker to now see an error message, courtesy of the tunneler that ripped a cannon and who knows what else off. She swore under her breath but pressed on.

Nathan and his team weren't having that much of an easier go at things, shooting and scooting as they went along and tried to keep up with Ulysses. Even in the dark, the masked man was deft at navigating and fighting through these underground tunnels, the others doing their best to keep up. Their efforts would pay off as they turned another corner and they were presented with the sight of another large cavern, larger than any of the previous ones they had stumbled across. However, Nathan was immediately concerned by the lack of tunnelers. There were plenty of bodies and refuse - both human and animal – but nothing else. Ulysses seemed to sense his apprehension.

"The bulk of the brood may be responding to a disturbance elsewhere in their cave. Should take advantage of their absence."

Nathan wondered where the other half of their group was. They couldn't have made it through this part of the cave as there was no sign of fighting.

"Alright…"

Even if salvation to the surface was close, the group skulked cautiously through the suspiciously deserted den. Anxiously training their weapons on any spot a tunneler could pop out of from. Nathan lagged behind the rest of them, taking care to be as light as he could be with the heavy footfalls of his armored feet. Stepping over human remains and tunneler refuse that littered the area, particularly the bones. This moment made him think back to what he had been doing at Big Mountain long before their satellite sent him on a one hell of a detour. He thought he would have more time, that Ulysses could've been wrong about the tunnelers like he was with other things. Maybe he could get the chance to get back to it when all of this was said and done. Always maybe.

Ulysses was able to lead them to the crevice that would be their way out of this hole, but what he had said earlier about it being a tight fit seemed more like an understatement now. Zarya especially cursed upon the sight of the exit. They would all have to shimmy and then crawl on all fours to get through. However, the feeling and whistle of a cool draft coming through the crevice was an indication that the surface wasn't far.

Before they could say anything, they heard a roar emanating from the bowels of the canyon, enough to feel the cave walls tremble as the bellows echoed. Nathan and Ulysses instantly recognized it as not belonging to any lowly tunneler drone. Nathan looked back at the crevice and gestured to it.

"I'll stay back. Ulysses, get 'em out of here."

"What?" Jesse questioned. "You want us to leave you behind? There's a damn army of these things down here."

Before he could respond to that, Ulysses was the one to come to a fellow courier's defense.

"He's dealt with worse, long ago… Far away from here. Wouldn't trust anyone else to cut through a pack of tunnelers."

Jesse cocked an eyebrow at Ulysses before looking at Nathan for confirmation.

"I don't wanna leave the others behind," Nathan explained. "Not gonna blame me for that, huh?"

Jesse clicked his tongue. He exchanged glances with Zarya and Ulysses. He looked back at Nathan. "We'll hold here until you get back with the others, to make sure the way out is clear. Just remember, you're our only ticket out of here!"

Nathan gratefully nodded before turning his back to them and returning to the den, not noticing Ulysses' quizzical expression at what Jesse had let slip.

"Home where…?" He muttered under his breath to himself.

Nathan stomped out onto the den, still devoid of tunnelers as he looked around. Suddenly, a series of explosions near the ceiling of the den made Nathan look up to see a chunk of the wall blown out, sending rocks tumbling down. It was high up, and Nathan waited for the smoke and dust to clear before he could see the cause of that explosion was a pink mech.

"Hana? Is that you?"

It didn't take long for Hana to spot the glowing eyes from Nathan's armor. She waved her remaining arm cannon down at him.

"Samchon!" Hana exclaimed with some elation, relieved to see him. However, that elation was fleeting when she realized they were dozens of feet up in the air from him. She shined her lights upon the den to see if there was a way they could walk down but couldn't find so much as a ledge lining the cave walls. Her mech's boosters were still too heavily damaged to safely fly, and the tunneler didn't make things better. Thankfully, they wouldn't need to climb or fly down.

"Please step aside," Satya said, walking to the edge. "I'll construct a teleporter momentarily."

"Thanks, Satya," Hana said, moving her mech giving her some space to work.

"I must warn you that it may take… Longer than usual," Satya admitted, looking over her synthetic arm, still having not gotten entirely used to it.

Lucio spoke up this time. "Hey, as long as you get us down there, no sweat. Don't rush yourself."

Satya looked at him, bowing her head gratefully to him.

As she got started on the teleporter, Hana looked at the old man in the floating stretcher.

"How are you holding up, old man?"

The old man turned his head to her, tired, but weakly flashed a smile towards her. "I might make it. What about you, young lady? Holdin' up fine?"

"Yeah, probably." Hana's expression hardened for a moment from the exhaustion, finding herself looking at the cave floor. She looked back up at the old man. "Hey, I don't think we ever got your name?"

"People 'round here call me Doc Mitchell. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Hana. Nice to meet you, too."

Nathan looked up and saw Satya devising a way to somehow get down. He could also hear some chatter from up there, but they were too far up for him to hear. However, he swore he could hear another voice up there with them that didn't belong to any of them. Shortly after doing another visual sweep of the den, he called up towards Hana.

"Hey, Hana!" Nathan shouted, getting her attention. "Is there someone else up there with you."

"Yeah, we found someone!" she responded, looking back down at Nathan. "He… He was the only survivor we found. And he's kinda hurt bad."

"Get him down here as quickly as you can. We found a way back to the surface."

"Really? Where?"

"There's a man-sized tunnel just at the end of this den. It's gonna be a tight fit, so you'll have to ditch that mech, unfortunately."

"Seriously?!"

"Uh-huh."

Hana sighed in frustration but knew there was no point arguing about this when a civilian's life was on the line. If it meant getting out of this place faster, so be it. She was getting tired of being swarmed by monsters in a dark, damp cave, and knew the others would agree. She was about to ask Satya how much longer until the teleporter was operation before they all heard a low growling coming from behind them deeper into the cavern. They all looked back to where they came from but saw nothing stalking the shadows they once stood in. Then Doc Mitchell shot his right arm up at the ceiling, pointing. "Up there!"

Hana was the first to pivot her mech up to see an exceptionally large set of glowing eyes looking down at her from the shadows in the ceiling before lunging at her.

The Tunneler Queen crashed into Hana's mech and sent them both tumbling down into the den. Hana screamed as her world was flipped upside down again and in a blur before it came to a crashing halt. She was dazed but still alive. Unfortunately, the Queen was instantly on her mech again and started slashing at it with her powerful claws. Parts of her mech practically flew off with every swipe from the large monster, and Hana was almost helpless to stop it. She watched in terror as the Queen's maw jutted and latched onto the screen of her cockpit before ripping it away, leaving Hana completely exposed. Panicking, Hana scoured over her person to find her sidearm before the Queen would maul her to death. She had produced her sidearm and in an instant, pointed it at the maw of the Queen right as the tunneler was about to clamp down on her flesh. The amount of teeth and the gape of her maw made Hana freeze until a hail of bullets made the Queen flinch and look towards the direction of the fire. She leapt off of Hana's mech, who still held the pistol out in her shaking hand.

Nathan fired his Assault Carbine at the large Tunneler Queen, which seemingly shrugged off every shot until it was right on him. The Queen, larger than even him in Power Armor, effortlessly threw Nathan against the wall and made the cavern shake from the force. Nathan got the wind knocked out of him and became dazed as he tried to get back up, a large gash across the front of his chest plate. The Queen, seeing an opportunity, was about to dash over to him and rip him apart until a metal, cylindrical object landed at her feet. The flashbang exploded and sent the Queen into a roaring panic, instantly digging into the soft-earth below and her large form tunneling out of view.

"Jesus Christ, that thing was huge!" Jesse exclaimed as he ran over to Nathan, cautiously eyeing the mound of dirt it disappeared in. "You all right, pardner?"

"Yeah…" Nathan cursed under his breath as he got up to his feet. "Biggest goddamn tunneler I've ever seen…"

Suddenly, the cave walls echoed with the scream of the Queen, her bellows reverberating along the walls. Only a second later, the cave echoed again with the screams of her brood. The echoes beyond counting.

Instantly, Nathan looked at Hana's mech and ran over to her with Jesse. Nathan was the first to be at Hana's side, using his powered strength to help the mech right back on its feet. He stepped over to the front of the mech and looked into the cockpit to see Hana was still alive, but very much shaken.

"Hana, are you okay?" Nathan asked.

Hana's expression was vacant for a moment until she blinked and looked at Nathan.

"Nathan… I-"

"Are you alright? Can you still move this thing?"

Hana quickly looked at the state of her cockpit, now without a digital display or windshield, and the rest of mech in considerably worse condition than it was just a few minutes earlier. However, the mech's legs could still move without much trouble and she still had one arm cannon to spare. She looked up at Hana and gave him an affirmative nod.

It was at that moment that one of Satya's teleporters had manifested just a couple feet away from them. As soon as the blue portal flickered on, all three of the remaining humans above them teleported down to the den. Nathan wasted no time telling them where the exit was.

"There's a way out of here at the far end of this den!" he exclaimed, pointing to where they should go. "We'll cover you, get moving!"

Lucio and Satya didn't say anything as they heeded Nathan and began pushing the gurney towards the exit. Nathan watched as they went, trying to get a good look at who was in the gurney until he was interrupted by Jesse yelling.

"They're coming out of the walls!"

Nathan looked up and the spotlights from his eyes immediately shined upon several tunnelers already climbing down the cave walls at them. He wasted no time presenting his Assault Carbine and firing at the walls. Hana would quickly join them, the three of them lighting up the den in a cacophony of muzzle flashes as dozens of glowing eyes converged on their position. With their advance covered, Satya and Lucio were able to get the gurney to the far end of the den, with Ulysses and Zarya waiting for them at the exit.

"Only one survivor?" Zarya asked, covering their sector with her Gatling Laser up.

"Unfortunately…" Satya responded hanging her head somewhat low before she noticed the exit they would have to take. "Oh! Oh, nononono- Please tell me we're not going through that!"

The others all looked at her as she started to go through what looked like the beginnings of another panic attack. Lucio was instantly next to her, trying to calm her down.

"Woah, hey, easy!" Lucio said as he held her arms. "Remember what I told you. Breath in and out. In and out…"

As Lucio went through the exercises with her, another voice spoke up with concern for her well-being.

"Are you all right, young lady?" Doc Mitchell spoke out, having gained enough strength to get off of his gurney when heard his savior in distress. Before anyone could even protest his help, he was already by Satya's side and started assisting Lucio with calming her down. The old man clearly demonstrating his decades of experience as a doctor as he soothed Satya and helped her breathing to under control.

Nathan, Jesse, and Hana slowly backpedaled towards the entrance as they fired upon whatever inhuman figures lurked in the cave with them. Nathan just finished firing the last few rounds he had for his Assault Carbine before ditching it and reaching for his Grenade Launcher. He fired a 40mm grenade towards a group of tunnelers, detonating within the cluster and sending body parts flying. Nathan racked the launcher and sent another explosive projectile towards the wall, knocking several tunnelers off like insects. And he was about to fire a third grenade but the earth below him erupted a two large clawed-hands pinned him to the ground and on his back. The Queen swiped at Nathan's armor, ripping chunks of it off before he aimed the Grenade Launcher right at its head. He fired but no explosion ever occurred as the distance was too short for the grenade to arm, instead embedding itself into the Queen's left eye. The large beast screamed in agony as she hopped off Nathan. Jesse was about to throw another flashbang at her, but the Queen backhanded him away and sent flying onto his back. Before anyone could get another shot off onto her, she had disappeared into the ground, again.

It was a long couple of moments before Satya could look them in the eyes, again, with a calm expression greeting them.

"Thank you, doctor," Satya said.

"Don't mention it." Doc Mitchell smiled warmly at her. "It's what I'm here for."

However, that smile disappeared when she looked behind Satya to see a tunneler poking its head through a hole. He jumped forward and pushed both Lucio and Satya out of the way just as the tunneler pounced.

Hana watched the ground as Nathan and Jesse got back to their feet. That was when they heard a scream and a burst of laser fire at the den exit. Looking up at the noise, Nathan tried to run towards them but struggled to get the armor moving. The mechanisms were too heavily damaged by the Queen, so, the back opened up and Nathan climbed out, gathered what weapons and ammo he could, and ran to the den exit with Jesse and Hana not far behind. Once they had gotten there, they saw a dead tunneler with blood dripping from its mouth and laser burns across it body, and the rest of their group huddled around an old man with a nasty bite on his arm. It only took a second for Nathan to recognize the old man.

"Doc Mitchell?!" Nathan exclaimed, practically pushing the others out of the way to kneel over him. "What are you doing here?"

Doc Mitchell looked over at Nathan. Even with everything that had happened to him, the old doctor couldn't help but smile upon seeing The Courier He Saved.

"Haven't seen you in a while, son," Mitchell said, in between strained breaths. "How are you holding up?"

Nathan couldn't think of what to say.

Then, the ground erupted once more in the den and the Queen was on full spring towards them. Everyone scrambled to get their weapons on target as the Queen quickly closed the distance with at least a dozen of her brood following behind. But just as she pounced at them, a thick wall of light appeared and stopped the Queen in her tracks. Everyone looked behind to see Satya had summoned a barrier, her limbs growing bright blue. The Queen, angered by the solid light, began clawing at it. The light literally cracked with every swipe, and Satya strained herself to fix the cracks.

"I cannot maintain this for long…" Satya said, straining to keep her pose and keep the barrier on.

Nathan looked back at the crevice, and everyone else around them.

"Get through the crevice, now! While we still got time."

"What about Satya?" Lucio asked. "We can't just leave her here."

"N-no… Go!" Satya responded, looking back at them "I will hold them off!"

"To hell with that!" Jesse exclaimed, flicking his revolver cylinder into place. "I ain't leaving anyone to die in this hole."

"What would you have us do, then?" Zarya questioned, keeping the Gatling Laser pointed at the cracking wall of light.

Nathan looked at all of them, then back down at Doc Mitchell. He was still alive, barely, and was sweating profusely. The bite around his arm was bandaged but still getting worse. Then, someone else spoke up.

"I have an idea," Hana said, addressing all of them from her damaged cockpit.

She explained her idea and was met with varying levels of reluctance. But before anyone could even protest it, Nathan got up carrying Doc Mitchell in his arms.

"How long does it take to get to the surface?" the Courier asked Ulysses.

"About a minute," Ulysses answered. "At a good pace."

"Then you just say when, Hana."

Hana looked at Nathan and nodded, before piloting her mech next to Satya and pointing it towards the Queen and her brood. The others began vacating the cave; Nathan gave Doc Mitchell to Lucio and Zarya to help carry through the crevice, and Ulysses and Jesse followed quickly behind them. The only ones left in the den were Nathan, Satya, and Hana. Nathan hoisted the last remaining flashbangs Jesse had given him along with his Riot Shotgun. Hana had to manually prime her mech for what she was about to do with the analog controls. Satya stood steadfast, sweat trickling down her brow as she tried to preserve as much of the barrier's strength as she could. All of them watched as the Queen was unrelenting in her bloodthirst, bashing, clawing, and scratching at the light.

"Don't miss, kid," Nathan pleaded, readying himself.

"Don't worry," Hana said, tapping a few buttons to make a big red button popup in her view. She looked up at the tunnelers. "You taught me how to shoot, remember?"

She slammed her fist on the Self-Destruct button while simultaneously activating the boosters on her mech. She ejected from the cockpit just a split-second later. Satya dropped the barrier just in time for the mech to slam into the Queen and brought her to the far end of the den, crashing into the cave wall. Nathan threw the bundle of flashbangs at the Queen's brood sending them fleeing, and blasting the ones that weren't. They didn't bother admiring their handiwork as they all scrambled to the exit crevice to catch up with the rest of the team. Nathan let Satya and Hana go first, making sure they were clear. Once they were, he looked back at the den to see the Queen was now pinned under the mech. Screeching and trying to claw her way out from the piece of heavy, pink machinery. He finally dipped into the crevice, content with the fact that the queen was not going anywhere.

The three shimmied, crouched, and crawled through what felt like a mile of tight rock. Despite the claustrophobic spaces, the feeling of cool air blowing on them energized their efforts, which were only doubled by the glimmers of light that become more abundant the more they crawled. They ignored every scrape, every bump, as they climbed further up into salvation. The sounds of the screeching tunnelers becoming more distant with every passing second. Nathan watched as Satya and Hana's shape eventually disappeared into a blinding light. He crawled towards that light, watching it grow bigger and brighter with every movement until he finally reached the surface, and was pulled up by several pairs of helping hands. Nathan almost collapsed to the ground, almost blinded, until he got to his feet and started running with the others. He didn't know where or what they were running towards nor did he care, as long as it shielded them from the upcoming blast. The group would eventually come across a dry ravine, deep enough to act as a trench. They all hopped into it, some more gracefully then others. Some balled up to protect themselves; Others started to cover their ears. Nathan and Hana peeked over the trench to where they had just run from, waiting and wondering if the earth would hold. Suddenly, the ground began to quake and in the blink of an eye a giant ball of flame spewed forth from the crevice and shot rock and dirt everywhere. Everyone took cover then as the shockwave quickly washed over them for miles around. It was long before dirt and debris started to rain over them too for several seconds, the group staying still and in cover for the duration of the rainfall. It felt like an eternity waiting for the blast and its after-effects to subside, acting as if the world had ended once again. But when the dust settled and the quaking beneath the earth stopped, they would slowly open their eyes and one-by-one before standing up again. They all looked up to see the smoldering crater they had produced, burying who knows how many tunnelers under the rock. Even if the queen had managed to dig itself out from underneath Hana's mech, it wouldn't survive the blast.

They had done it.

"YEEEEEAAAAHHHHH!" McCree was the first to celebrate, jumping and pumping a fist into the air.

Zarya would join him, letting out a Russian battle cry. Then the others would express elation at what they had accomplished. Hana jumped into the air and started cheering, hugging Nathan and latched onto him as she did. Nathan began to let out sporadic spurts of laughter before he started hugging Hana back, then picking her up and twirling her around, eliciting more laughter from her. Lucio and Satya shared a moment, the DJ patting the Architect on the back and congratulating her on a good job. For that one moment in time in a world most of them were not born in, they had felt they had conquered it all.

It was then that Nathan let go of Hana and looked behind to his left to see Ulysses, the only one not cheering. Nathan would quickly discover why when he saw the masked man crouching over Doc Mitchell with his head bowed. The old doctor motionless.

The others would eventually notice Nathan's demeanor and look to where he was looking, and also come to the same realization. Hana gasped, Jesse took off his hat, Satya would cover her mouth, Zarya shook her head, and Lucio covered his eyes. Nathan stood there, staring.

"No…"

Goodsprings did not celebrate the eradication of the tunnelers, as the entire afternoon was spent burying their dead.

Atop the cemetery were the Courier and his companions as they stood around the grave of Doc Mitchell. Accompanied by some of the surviving townsfolk, especially Sunny Smiles and Trudy, the latter giving an impromptu eulogy; Not just for Doc Mitchell but for all that Goodsprings had lost. Trudy would end the eulogy thanking Doc Mitchell for everything he did as the town's modest doctor, particularly his "compassion and generosity". When she said those words, Nathan looked down at his left-arm, his hands brushing over the rigid exterior of his Pip-Boy.

Once the eulogy had wrapped up, the remaining townsfolk began walking back to the remains of their homes. As Trudy walked by Nathan, she stopped and put a hand on his shoulder.

They shared a silent moment, before Trudy gave a small pat on his shoulder and walked away. The Courier let her, despite his desire to apologize for failing to save Doc Mitchell, but he knew Trudy wouldn't have that. He looked at Doc Mitchell's grave, staring at it and once again wondering if there was anything different he could've done. However, he looked to the grave right next to Doc Mitchell's, the grave marker also bearing his surname etched into the wood. He didn't believe for certain that the doctor could be back with his wife, but the thought of it was enough to comfort him.

He felt another hand grab his shoulder – a metal one.

"We'll be down by the saloon if you need us," Jesse informed him. "Take your time."

"Thanks," Nathan replied, turning his gaze back to the grave as the others left him. Alone atop the hill with the dead.

The sun was beginning to dip down into the west as he stood there, contemplating the grave in front of him. Thinking about how he would've been sharing the same patch of dirt had it not been for the robot and the doctor. How everything that occurred in his life from that point onwards was thanks to the efforts and care of this old doctor. As he thought about the cascading effect this one doctor had for the Mojave and beyond, Nathan's fingers brushed against his Pip-Boy again.

As he silently stood vigil over the cemetery, he heard footsteps walk up behind him until Ulysses appeared at his side, also silent and pensive at the grave before them. No longer donning his mask.

"This the man that saved you?" Ulysses questioned, breaking the silence of the cemetery.

Nathan turned his head to look at Ulysses, who was still focused on the grave.

"Helped you cheat death. Given the strength necessary to walk the Mojave. Quite the choice he made."

Nathan stared at Ulysses for several moments before looking back at Doc Mitchell.

"Y'know, I never got to thank him for giving me this…" Nathan looked down at the Pip-Boy.

"You helped him get out of that cave, no?" Ulysses responded, finally turning his head to look at Nathan. "Gave him peace. Buried next to the one he loved… Luckier than most in the Mojave."

Nathan looked up from his Pip-Boy to the darkening sky, his eyes fixed in the far distance. Once the sun had properly fallen beneath the west and the skies had darkened, the lights of New Vegas shined brilliantly. Ever beckoning, ever alluring to anyone caught within the rays of its light. But the Courier had long left New Vegas, for there was nothing more to be done. Not there, and not here either.

He had friends in two worlds that needed him. And one doctor left that cared for him.

"What about you?" It was Nathan's turn to ask. "What will you do now?"

Ulysses looked off into the distance. Not towards Vegas, but the dark expanse that surrounded the city. He hummed in thought. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the bundle of NCR dogtags. Nathan reached out his hand to them, feeling the weight of all the names deposited onto his palm.

"I've also done enough good here," Ulysses answered. "So long, Nathan."

With only a nod, Ulysses walked forward and left the Courier atop the cemetery, dogtags jingling in the wind. Nathan watched the Old World Flag on his back slowly disappear into the darkness.

"Are we good, Satya?" Nathan asked, looking at the array of teleporters hidden inside the Goodsprings caves.

"Everything seems nominal, yes," Satya said, attentively focused on the foreign technology with patchwork hardlight repairs.

Nathan confirmed her assertions by checking the terminal for the teleporters. The damage to the machines was heavy, and it would've taken ages for Nathan to fix it by himself. Thankfully, the Architect had an eye for details.

"Then we're good to go," Nathan declared.

With a few keystrokes on the terminal, the teleporters began to hum to life. As they did so, the group gathered around them were more than ready to hop through and be one step closer to back home. Even though all the things Nathan had told them about Big Mountain were concerning, to say the least, it still meant putting distance between them and the Mojave Wasteland.

"About damn time…" McCree said, puffing a cloud from his current cigar.

"No kidding," Lucio said, less cheerful than usual. "I think I've had enough wasteland living for the rest of my life."

Hana and Zarya were quiet, both wanting to be done with after everything that happened in the caves.

Nathan sympathetically bowed his head in thought as he finished looking over the last status report from the terminal.

"I promise, just one more step after this," Nathan said, addressing all of them in earnest. "And thanks for sticking with me through all of this. Y'all did well for your first day in the wastes."

With one final tap on the keyboard, one of the teleporters flashed life and produced a flickering portal not dissimilar from the one that sent them to the Mojave. Watching the flickering tear in reality, they slowly gathered around it with all the things they could carry. No one bothered to make the first step for a good minute, and Nathan could hear some grumbling from McCree.

"Something you want to get off your chest?" Nathan asked him.

"Well… Y-yeah, there is," McCree said, shuffling in his boots a little. "After going through some of the worst near-death experiences I've ever had the pleasure of enduring and seeing as how I trust this teleporter as much as I trust rattlesnakes, I wanna come clean about something."

Everyone's attention was focused on him, surprised that the always smooth and suave Gunslinger seemingly had something dire to say at this moment. They waited with bated breath to hear what it was.

"My name… Ain't Jesse McCree," the Gunslinger came forth with the truth. "That's always been an alias, and I want y'all to know what my true name is in case this portal turns me in mush - Cassidy. Cole Cassidy."

They all were silent, everyone on the Overwatch team having known him as "McCree" for so long that they could hardly comprehend his true birthname. The stale air inside the cave became staler as the group was silent, Cole looking at them somewhat expectantly. Then, Nathan started laughing.

"What so funny?" Cassidy questioned, furrowing his brow.

"Your name is 'Cass'?!" Nathan questioned back, before erupting into even more raucous laughter.

"Cass" was quite taken aback by seeing Nathan in a state he was not accustomed to. After several more moments of laughter, Nathan let out a deep and satisfied sigh.

"I've always been in good company," Nathan said before stepping through the portal.

The others, eventually shrugging off the last exchange, followed Nathan into the light.