After the Fall
Prologue

The Second Battle of Hoover Dam fast approached. NCR mobilized their troops, hundreds poured into the narrow pass of the top of Hoover Dam. On the other side of the Colorado, training drums beat, sounds of battle flooded the East. The coalition of 86 conquered tribes advanced forward to lock horns with the NCR for the second time. As whoever controlled Hoover Dam, controlled New Vegas.

But when the dust settled, http://img830.imageshack.us/i/aidenfalloutnewvegas.png/ with the help of Yes Man had triumphed. Both of the two great armies of New Vegas had lost.

When the Courier returned to New Vegas, he was hailed as the hero of New Vegas. The Courier seized control immediately, pushing both the Legion and NCR out of the Mojave Wasteland. This is the tale of the Courier after the fall of both great armies and his rise to power one year after the Battle of Hoover Dam.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lucky 38 Penthouse Floor, 12:00AM, 2282
Aiden took another shot of Mr. House's Pre-War wine. He stared lazily outside at the beautiful night sky. It seemed that after New Vegas was under his control, the entire city seemed no longer like Mr. House's despotic vision of Pre-War Las Vegas. It seemed like New Vegas was competing with the stars...Mr. House would've been proud.

He glanced over from his trance like state to Yes Man. It was about a month ago that Yes Man almost took control of New Vegas with Mr. House's "final stand" in the form of a program in the Lucky 38 computers. It was as if House was trying to strike at him from the grave.

But yet again, it failed. Yes Man was again reverted back to regular state by Julie Farkas and the Followers, it ran day in and day out, and of course, provided companionship to the ever lonely Aiden Park.

After an hour of staying in the state of amazement of New Vegas, occasionally glancing back to Yes Man, Aiden finally spoke up.

"Yes Man, tomorrow, I will be heading to the Old Mormon Fort once more. While I'm gone, collect the caps as usual, nothing special," He said.

Yes Man, as expected, responded in the same cheery voice. Even when Yes Man was corrupted with Mr. House's data, he had the same happy voice. "You got it boss! And again, I'm sorry for trying to take over New Vegas, how stupid of me!"

Aiden smiled but then frowned when he realized the only companionship he had at his Penthouse was Yes Man. "It's alright, stop apologizing. Anyways, I'm going to go to sleep now. Yes Man, you should go to autonomy for the night as well."

Yes Man's screen blinked a couple times and the bright green light that was illuminating the Penthouse switched to very dim green flicker on the screen with nothing but an "Autonomy Mode" on. Autonomy mode was just sleep mode for Yes Man, conserves power and still allows for Yes Man to run the Lucky 38 machines, albeit in a mindless state of number crunching.

Aiden yawned as he stumbled back to his bed chamber. He changed into his nightwear and crawled into bed.

New Vegas, 7:00 AM

"It's morning Boss!" Yes Man's screech was heard throughout the Penthouse, probably even the High Roller suite a couple floors below. Immediately, Aiden regretted asking Julie to put an alarm feature in Yes Man's programming.

Aiden slowly got out of bed and put on his regular business suit and sunglasses. After having a quick breakfast laid out by one of the Securitrons(how the Securitrons cooked or delivered breakfast with just claws, nobody would know), Aiden proceeded downstairs, escorted by two Securitron bodyguards.

Previously, when Aiden first arrived in New Vegas, it was easy to get past gamblers. Back then, he was just some wastelander. Now he couldn't even get past the stairs without people asking about what's going to happen with Freeside.

After about 800 "no comment"s were thrown around, Aiden finally made it to Freeside, where he was even more of a hero. Aiden smirked, knowing that his plans for Freeside, that being integrating Freeside as a residential area of New Vegas, was pretty popular with the locals.

Finally, Aiden made it to the Old Mormon Fort, which seemed to be in better condition than ever. The wooden cylindrical walls were the same but this time, two Securitrons guarded the entrance, along with nearly every street in Freeside.

He opened the door to the Old Mormon Fort and immediately, Julie came rushing in with a smile. "Hey Aiden! I really appreciate what you're doing for the Followers and Freeside. Seems you haven't forgotten your roots."

Aiden smiled back. Julie was a close childhood friend to him and needed to be repaid. "Of course I haven't Ms. Farkas. That's why I'm repaying the Followers for helping me and my mother when we were younger."

Julie nodded and headed towards the tents with Aiden following close behind. "But that whole battle at Hoover Dam...especially that 'climactic' ending really put a toll on our services. And then there's this..."

She pulled off the covers of one of the bodies who were supposed to be cremated. Aiden's breath faltered. It was the dead body of Caesar himself. Neither Aiden nor the NCR tried to proceed towards the Fort and Aiden knew Caesar escaped east. "What happened?"

Julie nervously pulled the covers back on Caesar's dead body. "Now that's a story. Does the Brotherhood of Steel strike back any memories?"

Very good Zerker, keep it up!

Wow, two stories in a row where I'm left speechless? That's a first, I must say, good job. I hate having so few of words to say, but sometimes simple is more complex. Just a single suggestion, a tiny crack in the jewel of the crown, but that nuance makes all the more noticeable.


Get rid of the second tomorrow, it's redundant, you already said it.

Other than that my friend, I'm looking forward to an exciting epic. One I saw it was about the courier, I was like "not again...," but you made it interesting and fun, and hope more chapters matching this one's excellence. Don't let me down.

Good Luck,

Thanks both to youcouldn'tthinkofaname and Yttrium. I'll try to update once a day on weekends and days I don't have school and about 2 days a week on days I do have school, especially since until Standardized Testing, I have some free time. Oh and by the way...I fixed it.

I like stories about how the Courier runs the Mojave; instead of fighting ghouls in irradiated vaults, running away from deathclaws after the Courier's cleverly laid traps fail, or dealing with a few "cultured" cannibals, the Courier is funding building renovations, annexing cities, and defusing protests about unusually high Maize quotas. It would be interesting to see how the Courier's past adventures contrast with the tedious minutiae of running New Vegas. Will Aiden be a sort of warlord, like in "http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=176759" (which, unfortunately, will probably never be finished), or a Good Karma peaceful Courier?

Just please, no Courier/Boone romance, Okay? How the Yaoi fandom managed to intercept Fallout: New Vegas, god only knows.

I'm joking! It's your fanfiction, do what you want with it, but please, consider my advice? :ermm:

By the way, I'm new here, so pardon the emoticon.

Chapter One
A New Friend

Old Mormon Fort, 9:00AM 2282
"The...the Brotherhood of Steel?" Aiden stuttered out as Julie nodded grimly. "The autopsy came back...multiple burn marks and they weren't ordinary fire based weapons, the burns were from laser weapons."

As Julie kept talking about the autopsy, Aiden's mind kept working on and on. He knew why the Brotherhood would make a comeback. They wouldn't take a banishment from New Vegas and the surrounding areas lying down, especially considering Yes Man, a Securitron, a piece of technology, was the one giving the message.

But why Caesar? Shouldn't they have killed maybe Swank or Cachino?

It was a very weird move on the part of the Brotherhood that they would go after Caesar's Legion rather than the ones who pushed them out of the Mojave Wasteland. But rather than comprehend this, Aiden simply shook his head and sighed.

"Julie, I know what I have to do. For a year now, I've been creating what the Pre-War era would call the CIA. If you have anybody who may be interested, please tell me."

Julie seemed to be in deep thought and stroked her hair, which over the course of one year, fell down into somewhat long locks rather than the Mohawk she had before the Second Battle of Hoover dam.

After a very long and annoying silence, her face brightened up for the first time since she revealed the body of Caesar. "I've got it!' Julie exclaimed as she lead Aiden towards a small tent.

In that tent sat a young woman who looked about as old as Aiden, 29 years old. She bared a striking resemblance to Julie in facial features, but looked a bit more "Pre-War" with very little grime to be seem, despite that her Brahmin skin clothing and Followers coat was covered with dust. The girl glanced up and gave a small smile to Aiden. "Mr. Park," She said formally.

Julie smirked. "Aiden, meet Kirren Tara. She was a former NCR Medic and after the Second Battle, she worked for four months as a New Vegas Peacekeeper and then settled here."

Kirren then stood up and extended her hand. "Mr. Park, an honour to meet you sir," She said in a formal and somewhat humbling voice. To Aiden, it was usually hard to tell if a newcomer was mocking him or really honouring him but Kirren's compliments seemed legitimate.

Aiden nodded. "If you're going to be working for me, then please, just call me Aiden, your commander, not leader of New Vegas. You're going to meet the team soon, but until then, head on over to the Lucky 38 Penthouse floor. One of Yes Man's cronies can direct you there."

Kirren simply nodded and headed away to leave Aiden and Julie in the tent. Julie stood in front of Aiden and crossed her arms. "So what do you think?"

"I personally think...she's a decent addition to the team, considering there are no medics in Lamina. Are there any more personnel you know of that might fit the bill?"

Julie shook her head. "Why do you even want this squad anyways?"

Aiden sighed and looked at his golden pocket watch. It was about 10:00 AM, time to head back and show Kirren the team. "If the Brotherhood of Steel wants a battle...I will give them a war. But in any case, I better show Kirren the team."

He headed outside the Old Mormon Fort and five Securitrons were waiting to escort him back to the New Vegas Strip. Once there, he headed to the Lucky 38 and to the Penthouse. There, Kirren looked as stiff as a log as she walked around nervously.

Aiden called out, "Kirren Tara!"

Kirren probably jumped about thirty feet as she looked around for the source of the call before her gaze settled on Aiden. "Ye...yes?" She stuttered. Aiden smirked as she began to nervously shift her weight on each of her feet, alternating every couple seconds.

That's kind of cute actually... Aiden thought to himself before clearing his throat. "Follow me, I'll introduce you to the rest of the team."

The two headed into the elevator all the way to the bottom floor. But rather than hitting the casino floor filled to the brim with people, they traveled much lower, into an underground bunker.

Maybe the Securitron Bunker or the Hidden Valley bunker was big, those two paled in comparison to this. It was just as big as the Securitron Bunker but the design was superb. Artwork was hung around the walls and the walls were all painted a beautiful wooden colour. Not to mention the exquisite marble desk where the leader of Lamina was supposed to sit.

Both Kirren and Aiden surveyed the bunker. Aiden glanced at Kirren and just like he expected, her face was completely mesmerized by the beauty of the subterranean base. When Kirren finally snapped into existence, her eyes adjusted to the faces of three men, clad in black trench coats with the combat armour body underneath, all wearing gas masks.

Aiden sighed with pride and gestured to the three men. "Kirren... welcome to Lamina."