Memoirs of a Desert Ranger
Prologue July 24th 2279 19:30 The 'Haven' in the Wasteland
The Ranger stood outside the saloon one hand on his hip absent mindedly running his fingers along the enscription on the barrel of his sequoia reading each letter with his fingers 'Against all tyrants' it read, once the words had given him a sense of purpose. A drive to protect the weak. However they now meant something very different. He studied the Saloon with an amused grin forming under his helmet; The sign above the door read SPITOON in a flickering neon light and for the state it was in it was probably the most apt name that could be given, the building was a patchwork of wood and corrugated iron turned black from constant exposure to the Wasteland with an odd oily liquid running down the sides in beads, smoke curled out from the gaps of the makeup of the building disapearing into the blackness above senting the atmosphere for miles around. It also seemed to be slanted and buckling under its' own weight making the sides buldge out slightly. His amusemnet also stemed from the fact that once he had spotted the building in the distance and made the choice to sleep hear rather than spend another night out in the wastes on hard rations and cold water and now, seeing it up close, almost made him want to turn around to that much less filth infested rock over there to sleep on, his reasoning had been that he might be able to get some hot food -even some fried cazador would taste sublime to him right now- and if he was lucky he also might find a half comely woman to warm his bed for the night.
The other reason he liked to hide (even from himself) was that he hadn't had a drop of whiskey in almost a week, saloons mean whiskey and whiskey meant that the growing pain behind his eyes would subside and the shakes that had started to take his hands would be kept at bay at least for awhile.
He took one last breath, through the filter in his helemt, of clean air and strode forward towards the fine establishment that would be his home for the night. He was a stickler for etiquette especially as so little remained in the Wastleland, however he would have forsaken it just this once and kept his helemet on if it hadn't made people mistrust him more than they already would.
What would they see? A man dressed, to what looked like to them, as an NCR Ranger. Hiding his face behind that emotionless helemet, behind those intimidating red eyes. No, it would be better to suffer the toxic air than have them immediatly hostile. Of course people were always suspicious of him even if they could see his face, he was after all armed to the teeth, wearing a big black trench coat covered in days worth of dust and dirt also he had a green blood stain up his right arm from where a Giant Ant had tried to eat him as he slept and it turns out that shooting them while they are on top of you results in a large amount of splash back.
As he entered the conversation slowly ebbed out of the room into the wastes behind him until all that remaned was a deathly silence. He quickly scanned the room; eyes used to spotting hidden bandits from a quarter of a mile away made quick work of the room pulling in all the information that was in view and some that wasn't. For instance he saw some people premptively leave through the back, he saw some people instinctively place their hands to their sides to reach for their weapon, he saw somepeople with red ringed eyes and hair falling out not even noticing that something had changed indictating they were in the depths of psycho addiction and he saw people avoid his gaze entierly and suddenly become very interested in the bottom of their glass. They would be the ones would wouldn't give him any trouble by themselves but if one person harrassed him then they would find their voices.
"Well I'll be Fuckin' damed" rang a voice from the back of the saloon "I can hear the radio" A very overweight man walked in almost draging his feet along the floor as he did so under his great weight, a feat almost impressive in the wasteland.
"What!? Get back to your drinks you craven halfwits". He spat at them. After such a scolding a low hub of noise returned to the bar however it was much quieter than the raucous behaviour that had been before he entered the bar, some eyes still nervously flickered from him to the door calculating whether something would happen if they tried to leave.
"An' what can I get for you sir" said the Barkeep in a much more civil tone than he adressed the rest of the Bar with.
"A whiskey and a bighorner steak if you have it" His voice was one of his greatest weapons, sometimes even more dangerous than a bullet and had almost certainly saved his life on more than a few occasions. It was one that exuded confidence and strength yet not to harsh as to be arrogant or too timid to be considered weak, it had a silky texture to it that captivated listeners and on the more dim people he met could be used to almost bend them to his will in a way that often scared even him. He saw the effect it had on the Barkeeper immediately as his features softened and he became more relaxed as did some of the clientele surrounding him.
"Bighorners have been dying off reacently, gettin' pretty pricy mister, 15 caps a piece of meat" his eyes gave away that he wasn't totally mispleased with the fact.
"After the friendly greeting I've recieved hear?" questioned the Ranger spreading his arms around him palms flat in a gesture of humility. "Maybe we could cut that to...9 caps? I'm not unreasonable".
The Barkeeper broke his gaze and grumbled something that sounded like "fair enough" and shuffled away and into the back placing a bottle of whiskey on the bar infront of him as he did so. The Ranger sat at the bar resting his helmet on his knees. He pried the cork from the bottle trying to keep the savage hunger that he felt for the drink from his face and fingers as he did so. When he removed the cork as controlled as he could, he took a long swig from the bottle emptying half of it in one go. As he set it down upon the bar he felt a gentle pressure on his shoulder of a hand and heard a very delicate clearing of a throat behind him, he turned and the corners of his lips involuntarily curled at the edge into a smile.
"I don't believe that I've had the pleasure" The Woman drawled as she held her hand out toward him, she was wearing a dress with a black bodice and red lace for the lining tying up into a flower on her thigh, it exposed one leg going all the way to just below her waist showing the pale skin of her leg and scarcely hiding what was beneath. Her hair fell loosely around her shoulders in brown curls, her chin was sharp above a long neck with sea green eyes full of warmth resting upon prominent cheeckbones.
The Ranger kept his smile eyes never leaving hers as he raised her hand and brushed his lips against her knuckles and said "No you haven't...Yet anyways" he replied not breaking eye contact for the entire engagement, he may be getting his wish after all he thought. He would soon learn that this was to his folly as while his eyes were fixated on hers he hadn't noticed or heard the two people approach him from behind. Her eyes widened and she pulled away ever so slightly a silent word forming on her lips, for a split second he wondered as to how he had acheived to repel her in what must have been record time, instinct however kicked in as he recognised it as a look of fright from something behind him. He dived forward taking her down with him in his haste turning as he did so feeling a swoosh of air past his nape missing him by mere milimetres as he rolled to his feet. The two people behind him, one a man and one woman, glared at him with such hatred burning in their eyes that he already knew it was becuase they thought he was from the NCR, not for the first he marveled at the hate the NCR could instill in people in a world where Caesars Leigon existed. He was also exasperated since there were considerable differences between a Desert Ranger and an NCR Veteran Ranger and it had only been 8 years since the NCR absorbed the Desert Rangers.
"NCR Dog shit" the man spat "Do you think you can just saunter in hear as if you did nothing to us" he hissed through bared teeth, spittle flying out with the words.
Just as he suspected the ones who had stared into the bottom of their glasses earlier now looked up and met his gaze.
"I have done nothing to you" he said keeping his voice steady and on an even tone "We have never met before and I am not NCR"
"Du'yuh think us t'be that dumb Ranger, just dumb tribals is that it?" Sreeched the woman, this time "You wear the uniform, you carry the gun and yet you still walk in hear"stamping her foot in a petulant fashion as she shrieked, almost in harpy like hysterics.
"Do you see a two headed bear on my shoulder "he growled in a low tone losing his usually calm demeanor in confrontations such as these "I have never even been hear before" taking an unitentional step forward in his rage. "Get your bloody eyes sorted out fuckwitts".
That had pushed it too far and the woman dashed forwards swinging the knife downwards in a wild overhead swipe screaming obsceneties as she did so, the sudden danger caused adrenaline to rush through his system and activate his Implant GRX, part of the NCRs 'Soldier Enhancement Program' naturally kept away from the eyes of the NCR public the Program had been guilted upon him when he once was loyal to the NCR. The Implant mass produced adrenaline and would release it in large concentrated quantities at once to make it appear to the user as if time had slowed and their reactions having sped up to incredible speeds, he saw the knife slowly decend towards his face, if he didn't do something he would have his head in two halves quite soon, he brought out his seqouia from it's holster at his hip, brought it level with the knife and squeezed the trigger. The bullet came into contact with the knife at the blade causing it to go spinning across the room with the crash of the shot reverberating around the small Bar. She turned and looked at the knife travelling across the room her mouth still agape from her screaming, he now drew the gun level with that, thumbed back the hammer and waited. As the implant wore-off and time seemed to fasten and she ran onto the gun barrel with it pressing against the back of her throat, too stunned and surprised to do anything she just stood there in shocked silence, with eyes wide, as was everyone else while the Ranger Sighed and drew a deep breath to adress the entire room.
"Now, since we have all calmed down I am going to lay this down very simply". He said quite crisply projecting his voice to all corners of the bar"Now I am going to take my Whiskey, with an addittional one Barkeep if you please" he said as he stroad over to the bar the gun still pointing down her throat as he walked to the bar pressing further down her throat so she would walk backwards, seeming just to notice she let out a pained whimper as she was forced backwards towards the bar. "And leave without any further fuss or interuption to your night" He picked up the bottle in his right hand placing the new unopened one in his jacket pocket simultaneously drawing out a handfull of caps and throwing them at the bar "Keep the change" he said out of the corner of his mouth. "There is a difference between the Desert Rangers of Nevada and the NCR Rangers of California" He said taking a swig from his whiskey "With the dissolution of the NCR in the Mojave after The Courier pushed them out, pushed the Legion out and turned Mr House into a vegetable you are going to be seeing the return of the Desert Rangers very quickly and you should better learn the difference very quickly as others aren't as well manered as I am". With that he removed the gun from the Womans mouth pressed it against her forehead and slowly walked backwards out the Saloon doors giving the woman he had been talking to a hand up and apologised for the inconvenience he had caused her and whispered something no one else could hear in her ear.
"If anyone follows me I'll know" As he said this he was disapearing from their view into the night but he flashed his Night Vision quickly on and off making his eyes seemigly flash very brightly Sanguine red and from the tales the customers would tell of that night the eyes hung in the darkness all the way until the break of morning.