Okay, this is the third time I'm rewriting this, every time I read this thing I just keep finding new ideas and have to write them in, it is a very vicious circle.

Initially, it was somewhat of a spiritual successor to "Gate: Nuclear Legion", the story was abruptly plunged into a hiatus with no updates from the author whatsoever, which was quite a bummer for me since I was very intrigued by the story, after six months, I decided to make my own take on the story. This is the essential reason why my story has some similarities, but now I'm pretty sure I've changed enough things to be a thing of its own.

It's nearly going to be TWO FUCKING YEARS since the last chapter was put and I deeply apologize, the main reasons for such absence was me being busy, unmotivated and also in the middle of writing another fanfic (which also felt into hiatus last year, jeez I need to get my things together…)

And now here I am being the second most favorited fanfiction in the section, only slightly below the OG that started it all, I can't express how thankful I am to all of you guys for following this story since the beginning despite my numerous absences.

This is why I'm back; I've said it in my bio, I never leave my stories unfinished until I say it myself.

For the old-timers here, I suggest you read this story once again from the beginning, as many things have changed since last time and the entire story script was altered, for the others, welcome! Take a seat crack open a sunset sarsaparilla and enjoy the show!

UPTADE: This rewrite alone took me a whole year all for itself, now I've made the choice to never rewrite these pages again and focus on continuing it.

I've also decided to implement some contents found in some mods; I will obviously point them out in writers' notes.

And in other news, this story is published on both Space Battle and Sufficient Velocity so please come join the discussion, however, I'm still slowly releasing the chapters as the weeks go by so please keep refraining yourself from spoiling things until both threads catch up.

War. War never changes.

On October 23rd, 2077, at 12:02 am eastern time on a Saturday, the nuclear exchange finally ended after two hours of constant atomic bombardment, the first nuclear warheads that hit the US were on the west coast.

Nobody knew who launched the first bomb, some says it was the Chinese, others blame the Russians. In both cases, all the nations of Earth burned into one single atomic fire with scarce territories unscathed by the disaster.

The world has been plunged into radiated storms and acid rains for years, before turning into the Wasteland we all currently know. Still, like cockroaches, humanity survived and the unfortunate souls that survived set across the ruins of the Old World and witness the madness of their governments, with no shape of civilization left in this desert of death, most of what's left of human society turned into chaos and anarchy while the most delusional and ambitious tried to establish new communities and tribes.

Out of all expectations, some of them succeeded and built prosperous factions ruling territories of the Wasteland, unfortunately, many of them didn't learn from the atrocities of the Great War and still fought each other for power and lands.

One of them battles occurred in the year 2281, a fierce battle between the East and the West happened in the land of The Mojave Wasteland, a battle taken over the great dam of Hoover Dam, a giant wall soaking in the still pure water of the Colorado River, rumors have been told that this mighty wall of concrete supplied the whole southwest of the United State in electricity before the Great War.

The New California Republic clashed against the fearsome Caesar's Legion, like a bull smashing its head against the claws of a bear, the fight lasted days with none of the two sides overcoming the other.

But then suddenly out of nowhere, a man by the sole nickname of the Courier rushed into the battle, many great stories in the Mojave were told about this unknown man and his legendary journey, appearing out of nowhere in the humble town of Goodsprings, he set foot inside the dangerous wilderness of the Mojave and took the Highway 95 to reach New Vegas, seeking for the man who left him dead.

On his way, he visited many locations across the desert and built himself a reputation of 'messiah' among the citizens of the Mojave, for the best and the worst.

And now, he decided to participate in the biggest battle that would change the face of the Wasteland forever with intentions as obscure and unknown as always, he stormed through the NCR's ranks and assaulted the many Legion troops all by himself with only the help of one single Securitron taking out the survivors of the Courier's assault, however at the NCR's surprised, he turned against them and made his way down Hoover Dam through the many NCR defenses before finally settling his businesses at the other side of the dam.

With the Legion retreating back to the East and the NCR chased from Hoover Dam, both factions with the bitter taste of failure in their mouths, the Courier sat on the edge of the dam resting after the long tiring battle, looking down at the army of Securitrons controlled by RobCo's CEO and ruler of the fantastic New Vegas, Robert House, sweeping the place around for any more resistance, he slightly sighed in an exhausted manner and took a quick sip of the Nuka Cola he recently opened.

Both parties have been severely hit by this defeat and withdrew out of the Mojave Desert, letting the New Vegas Strip under its all-time ruler, the mysterious owner of the Lucky 38 and the de facto ruler of New Vegas and its three families.

Some small factions were still stationed on the Mojave like The Enclave Remnant, The Boomers and The Mojave Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel (Which their destruction from Mr. House had been aborted thanks to the help of the Courier who skillfully hid them from Mr. House's radars), but all of them stayed away from the Lucky 38 and its surroundings, letting it feast with its victory while they kept living their lives unbothered.

The Legion was never heard from since then, President Kimbal resigned from his place as the President of the New California Republic after such harsh humiliation and General Oliver never came back to base to write his report, rumors say he took his own life during the trip back home.

As the NCR was in the middle of a huge crisis, the vice-president who took the place of Kimbal after his demission was hugely overwhelmed by all the problem that faced NCR in it territories while the news about the defeat in the Mojave only spilled more ink and created more tensions inside the faction.

Due to the vice-president's lack of competence to restore order in the New California Republic, he was abruptly impeached and dismissed after only a month since he took his duties, leaving the seat of presidency empty, the presidential elections were a complete disaster as no presidential campaigns were happening in the faction's territory since no senator was willing to deal with the job of presidency, even worse, there have been even talks of portions of these territories willing to declare their independence and start on their own without the NCR's bureaucratic nonsense.

The 100-year-old republic was soon going to vanish and fall into chaos if it wasn't for a woman by the name of Josiane Sutherland to stand up, senator of San Francisco and member of the Shi Empire, her charisma regained hope and trust within the citizens of the NCR and finally reunited the faction once again, now under the new leadership of President Sutherland, fourth woman president of the New California Republic.

It was a very tough year for the NCR, but the situation finally began to stabilize, the president decided to initiate her ambitious project in reuniting the west coast by first setting an alliance with its past most prominent rival, Robert Edwin House.

She contacted The Courier as she knew he had enough influence in the Mojave to convince even the most stubborn faction to at least respond to the president's demand, the Courier – with much hesitation- accepted the president's request and headed toward Shady Sands where he personally met her.

The Courier wasn't very excited to make an agreement with them, he never trusted the NCR one single which was why he turned against them at Hoover Dam, however, this new president seemed quite different from the usual bureaucratic puppets he had met in the past.

The Courier heard with great attention at her ideas to reunite the west coast, after a bit of reflection he finally agreed to her demand and set off to send the message to all over the Mojave.

Four months after, Mr. House and the new NCR President, as well as the Elder of the Brotherhood of Steel and many other leaders of the groups around the West Coast gathered in a reunion in the biggest room of The Tops.

The tensions were quite appearing between them given by the glares and slight insult they gave to each other's sworn enemy, the most notable one was probably Mr. House meeting with Elder McNamara after that he thought he was dead during Hidden Valley's explosion, if it wasn't for The Courier's intervention, Mr. House would have already set his Securitrons in killing mode and this meeting would gruesomely end in one big massacre.

The most peaceful folk from all of them was probably Mother Pear who brought cookies to the table, this slightly eased the atmosphere in the room and made all of the participant's mouth busy for the moment.

Hours of negotiations were made and still no apparent resolutions, none of the faction trusted the NCR and bad blood was still apparent between them, but President Sutherland didn't give up and kept reasoning them and telling them about the benefits of such alliance, slowly but surely, she began gaining the leaders' trust and approval.

And so, after many and long talks, all the people on the table finally reached an agreement and the paper of reuniting the factions was signed by each of the persons involved, the scene was quite similar to the Declaration of Independence of America five hundred years ago.

It was a historical debate, for the Wasteland but also for The Tops, as the place became very famous for being the historical location where all the debates happened, you could find photos of the event in The Tops' reception desk, just behind Swank's head.

And so, on the 5th of July 2282, the West Coast Commonwealth (Do not mix with the East Commonwealth in Massachusetts) was born.

This event happened just one day after the US Independence, which created another day of celebration for the people of America, one day for the Old World and another for the new one.

The factions agreed to reunite all of their power in one single nation, the West-C territory was split into different factions, while each one of them governed their territories as they pleased, they all had to account for the well-being of the entire community and help each other. And so, through all the chaos and anarchy that occurred since the Great War, this was the true spark of a reborn civilization.

- 2283 -

As peace was finally settled, a massive economic gross hit the Mojave and the entire west coast, the NCR Embassy in The Strip was rebuilt with the ex-ambassador retaking his old office, while in Freeside, the Kings agreed to keep order in the ghetto as long as Mr. House gave them some of his Securitrons and paid for the place's renovations, slowly the once poor district of New Vegas started to bring customers of its own.

The NCR finally found some breathing room after resolving its issues with her southern border, now having to focus all her forces solely toward the Frontier.

The Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel finally began reconnecting with the one in Lost Hills and all those still active in the west coast.

The Enclave Remnants finally decided to come out from the dark and begun recruiting new men and women to their ranks, the Remnants bunker became a boot camp where the small portion of the Enclave veterans taught their new recruits the old values and combat tactics that made the Enclave so fearsome.

Helios One has been shared between the NCR and the Brotherhood, where both of their skillful engineers united to make the solar plant work, providing the whole Commonwealth a secondary power source besides Hoover Dam.

The Boomers gladly opened their arms to the outside, many people traveled to Nellis to visit the Nellis Boomer Museum while the owners began establishing trades with nearby town and villages, for security reasons, the howitzers ranging the air base's entrance where temporary disabled for safety reasons, under the residents' sorrow.

And what about the Courier?

After the declaration of alliance back in The Tops, not much has been heard from him since then, he kept a low profile enjoying his half retirement and was just slightly noticed passing by here and there without staying for too long.

- 2285 -

One year passed with not much happening in it besides peace and prosperity, some people even complained how boring it was, bullets started to stack up and there was nobody to shoot at besides the usual critter.

And somehow, a strange event will finally give them back that opportunity as what followed then changed the fate of the Mojave, the Wasteland and the entirety of Earth.

The Courier reached the camp where the NCR and many other military factions requested his assistance, the place was located directly north of the haunted green cloud known as Camp Searchlight, why they demanded him was still unknown to him.

As he arrived at the entrance, two NCR soldiers welcomed him with a firm salute.

"It's good to see you here, sir!" Shouted one of them in excitement, meeting the famously known Courier was always an honor.

"Anything for the NCR…" The Courier gladly responded with a slight nod.

"The commanders are waiting for you in the main shack." Said the other soldier pointing to a large tent in the middle of the camp.

The Courier gave them a nod once again and proceed to walk towards it while taking quick glances left and right, the NCR soldiers were walking around and patrolling the horizon while the Brotherhood of Steel paladins were taking care of their armors and weapons and the Enclave were doing the same thing with their Vertibirds.

It was quite a fascinating thing to see all these people mixed up in one single camp, three years ago these people were shooting at each other and now look at them working together as one single army.

He walked past a band compromised of the three factions talking to each other about nonsense, as soon as they noticed his presence, they all gave him their warmest welcome which the Courier obliged him to reply back by giving them a nod, as soon as he walked away from the group they immediately resumed their casual discussion.

The Courier lifted the rag and entered the tent, this is where he met the eyes of three men around a map on a table in the middle, from the three two of them were quite familiar to him.

On the left we have the Head Paladin Edgar Hardin while in the middle we had the leader of the Enclave Remnants Judah Kreger, the two men were very glad to see the Courier and same can be told for him as well, he was especially glad to see Kreger in a much better attire than he had in Westside, his new officer uniform fitted him pretty well.

The third man standing on the right was unknown to the Courier, he faced him and made a salute, he was wearing the same uniform as General Oliver back in the day.

"General Douglas Craig!" He shouted with a strong tone "It's nice to finally meet the famous Courier of the Mojave."

"Likewise, sir." The Courier settled with a nod.

The Courier heard many things about this man, General Douglas was a fantastic leader and had many victories on his name even before Hoover Dam, so obviously he was the favorite one to replace Oliver Lee after his strange disappearance, even though the Courier heard many bad rumors about the general's sickening way of work, he preferred leaving the speculations for later.

The Courier then approached the table looking at the map representing the nearby region, since Camp Searchlight is figured down the map, this meant that the red dot slightly on top of it represented the camp and their current position, slightly more north was Searchlight Airport who was surrounded by a big red circle for reasons the Courier would like to know.

"So, what's the situation?"

"The Legion son! The Legion!" Said the Enclave Remnant's leader, frowning his eyebrows while slamming his right fist on the map.

The Courier wasn't surprised, who other else would try to defy the new and powerful West Commonwealth army? But he was still wondering how they reached this far inside the borders without getting caught, he didn't have to ask about it as Hardin predicted his upcoming question.

"The way they arrived so far here is fairly unknown, we have no idea how they passed our endless patrols over the Colorado River, but our hypothesis suggest that they circled the perimeter, however, no way they could've climbed the rocky hills on the south, especially that there's nothing over there in thousands of miles but sand and radscorpions... It's like they appeared out of thin air…"

"Our bet is that they settled on Searchlight Airport." The general said before pointing to the center of the red circle with his finger. "Our reports say that they circled Camp Searchlight and attacked a group of caravans passing by, the caravans quickly fled as they noticed dozens of Legionaries rushing toward them."

The Courier slowly studied the situation while taking a thinking pose while examining the map after all what the three men confessed to him.

"So, was there any assault taken? Just to see if these guys were still as resilient as before?"

"Not yet, my colleagues here recommended me to wait for the Courier to assist us in the fight." Said General Douglas while pointing his palm to two men he's referring to. "In such case, I think I should rely on their advice for once…"

"It would be really nasty if you missed all the fun wouldn't be?" Followed the High Paladin with a grin, the old man next to him had the same smile on his face.

"Y'all know me too well." Responded the Courier looking down humbled with a slight chuckle.

[Unknown hour, Second Gate, West Imperial Capital, Empire, Special Region]

Commander-in-chief Leonard was calmly resting in his fancy war tent, wearing a complete armor set of the fanciest gold and iron with a red cape of fur stripped to his thick shoulder powers and sliding all the way down to the ground.

He was sitting in front of a table with a bottle of wine and a crystal cup on it as well as his helmet decorated with jewelry and a pair of horns on each side, he had a very dull expression on his face while putting his chin on top of the palm of his left hand, sliding the index of his other hand on top of the cup emitting a slight whistle before taking a quick sip and sighing in boredom.

He couldn't believe that all the armies of the Three Kingdoms were sent in the middle of the action against the foreign armies in Alnus Hill's Gate, while he had to do the stupid job to check this new Gate that popped out of nowhere, literally, this thing just appeared directly on a grassy plain, in the middle of nowhere significant beside a river a couple of kilometers east.

The commander didn't have even have a fraction of the number of men each of his fellow lords had, he wore his finest armor expecting to let it swim in the blood of his enemies but now the only thing it was dripping from is the sweat of this very hot sunny day.

"This is so boring..." He whispered, just waiting for his recon group to come back and give their report, whatever kind of thing his soldier would find, he will surely find a dumb excuse to the emperor to let him go to Alnus Hill and give this crappy Gateno more attention than it already took.

Afterward, a young man wearing an armor of steel quite scratched and dusty entered the tent, his movement made the coat of dust and sands covering him fly away which filled the tent with a brown cloud, the cloud entered the commander's lungs and made him slightly cough before smiling at his visitors.

"Stanford, my son, it is quite nice to see you back in one piece..." He said, glad to see his dear and youngest son back from his recon, the commander stood up and walked toward the young man to embrace him, however, the moment his fingers touched the steel of his son's helmet, he felt a very bad sensation that mildly preoccupated him.

"Pleasure's mine father…" Lord Stanford replied with a slight cough before being redirected to sit next to his father, he then slowly removed his helmet and put it on the table with a sigh of fatigue, the commander suddenly got terrorized as he stared at the man's face and shouted with shock.

"Dear God! What in the name of Oblivion happened to you, my dear son ?!"

The commander was completely shocked, even heartbroken, the young man's face completely changed for the worse since the last time he saw him, it was like he suffered from a terrible illness or he was transformed into a Draugr, his face was filled with wrinkles like he grew old to a hundred years, he even looked much older than his father.

His eyes became blood red with really dark eye bags reached down his nose while patches of his hair turned from a shining gold to a dull white, his skin became so dry it began to crack like old paint, small holes also popped all over his body and his bones were so apparent that he looked like a skeleton with grey dry skin covering it.

"How can I begin... " He whispered "That Gate, that Gate took us straight to hell itself, we found nothing but a giant desert of sand, the climate was horribly awful and the air was unbreathable, my men began to fall ill by strange diseases unknown by our druids, then there was also this strange taste of metal in our mouths and - we don't know if the cause was the burning sunlight but - we felt like small needles started to stab our skin, it felt so itching that we couldn't resist the need to scratch our faces, some men even went crazy and started to scratch themselves so frantically they began to bleed..."

The commander was speechless at his son's dialogue, what kind of place is that and what did it to his soldiers?!

"But that was the least of our preoccupations, in fact, after we came out of the Gate, we found ourselves in the middle of a strange giant flat track surrounded by a barrier of rusted steel, there was a range of giant abandoned buildings made of iron and stone behind us, they were shaped like stables for giant horses and were really in ruin, we also found strange wreckage of birds made of metal scattered around the trail. But we were not alone, the place was swarmed with giant scorpions reaching the height of an average man, they were fast and strong and it took us days to exterminate all of them, those damn creatures took the lives of so many of my men. But it wasn't just it, during the night, we were also attacked by hordes of living dead in fluorescent color, we had nights and nights of attacks, waves of undead storming at us, while our days were haunted by the giant scorpions…"

The Lord paused a minute as he couldn't help but empty the bottle of wine to soothe his unbearable thirst, the commander was impatient to hear the continuation of his son's story, but he preferred not to force him and leave him to take a quick pause after of all the hardship the poor man and his soldiers must have gone through.

"Hardly but surely, we finally established a decent camp there and we decided to scout around, we found a strange town in front of us covered in a weird green cloud, two men volunteered to march over there to see what it was but they never came back since, so we decided to stay away from it for the moment, this is where we found a long road made of stones. And you wouldn't believe me but, we found a group of humans, actual people!"

The commander gasped in shock at the sudden revelation, how can a scorched land full of giant scorpions and living dead still being habited by mankind? "Are you sure they were humans like us?" The commander didn't like the nod given by his son, the good news at least is that this Gate wasn't leading to the lands of demons, hopefully.

"I don't know what kind of witchcraft they had but they were riding a strange cart made of metal and it was advancing without horses, we decided to take them in for interrogation, but the moment they saw us they quickly ran away aboard their strange machinery, one of them even shot at us with some weird spear of iron and killed one of our men before they disappeared..."

"Stanford, my son, your story makes practically no sense! I don't know what happened to you back there but are you sure you didn't hit your head on a tree or just started making this up to scare your old father uh?" The commander nervously chuckled as a desperate way to lighten up the mood, but he widely knows that his son would never joke with him with such serious manner, especially with how he stood up from his place and slammed his palms on the table, his eyes wide open while gibbering in panic and terror.

"I wish this was a joke! I really wish, father! But you have to believe me! This is a hellish place and we still barely scratched its surface, who knows what kind of monsters roaming in these lands?! We must destroy this gate at once! Before any of those... 'things' reach the empire! I-"

They both quickly got cut off by screams and shouts of the soldiers in the outside, they immediately exited the tent and contemplated the whole confusion inside their units, men from all over the place running left and right at an alarming rate, gathering as much of their equipment as possible in the outcome of an enemy's approach.

"What the hell is happening ?!" Shouted the commander dumbfounded, the lord was as much puzzled as him but soon gradually started to understand the situation, the same expression he had during his emotional breakdown started to reappear on his wrinkled face.

"Commander! Commander!"

The two men quickly turned towards the soldier coming at them, he promptly stopped in front of them and tried to regain his breath.

"What's the matter soldier speak to me!" Shouted Lord Stanford, feeling more and more stressed by the situation around them.

"We just got reports of an unknown battalion towards our camp in the other side, hundreds of men with strange outfits similar to the color of the sand, as well as golems of steel holding heavy strange weaponry and flying giant birds!"

An explosion coming from the Gate shook the whole camp, now the center of the camp was plunged in a huge cloud of dark smoke lifting in the air like the one of a wildfire

"Dear God..." The commander inadvertently slipped through his wide agape mouth before marching towards the event in fear "All soldiers! Hold position around the Gate! Shield formation! Get ready to defend quick!" He ordered waving his left arm around while the other drew his sword, the lord behind him done the same but in a more trembling manner.

"I knew it! I knew it they would come after us! I knew it! What would we do? How can we defend ourselves against such things!"

"Shut up you moron!" Shouted the commander at the lord while giving him a violent slap in the face, wiping from him all the cowardice plagued inside his limp body. "Man, up and prepare to fight for once in your pathetic life! I knew I never was your father, that coward blood running in your veins is clearly not mine!"

"Wh-What?" Mumbled the poor young man with a trembling voice, drops of tears started to form above the bags of his eyes as the painful revelation hit him like a boulder.

The commander turned his back at the lord's cries and preferred to focus on the task at hand, he also needed to keep his head cool in such a dreadful situation.

But he desperately can't, because he was in fear, he can't believe it, but he was in fear! In fear of what could come from that Gate, in fear of what kind of demons they've unleashed on the empire!

The whole settlement circled the Gate, firmly grabbing their shields forward and their spears pointing at the center of the camp, the smoke still blurred the view from the Gate but then suddenly, a dozen pairs of red shining eyes suddenly appeared, inspecting the soldiers from each side, the sound of clunking metal on the ground followed by slight grumbling noises began to be heard louder and louder from the smoke as more of pairs of red eyes began to appear.

The sole sight of those strange hellish pupils made the poor men shiver in terror, fighting the urge to leave their position and run away with their tails between their legs, but they couldn't move a muscle unless risking the possibility to be executed for desertion.

But what was worse? Being killed by their own government? Or by beings of unknown origins?

But none of them found the time to answer such question because they were, unfortunately, all slaughtered by the unknown creatures as soon as they erupted from the Gate. Unknown to the empire, a Gate straight to the underworld itself opened and they will soon all be doomed.