The only reason why this is a one-shot is due to the fact that I suck at maintaining consistency in uploading chapters. Seriously, I have so many abandoned projects that it is depressing and unbelievable. In fact, it's basically my Modus Operandi at this point and I outright hate myself for it.

And so the Veteran Ranger walked east until he couldn't walk anymore; following the example of the Courier who was fair and even-handed in the Mojave wastes. The Courier was idolized by the NCR and managed to bring peace and cooperation between the factions in the area against the Legion. The Courier saved the lives of him and his squad that day at the second battle for Hoover Dam. Outnumbered and outgunned, it seemed their story was about to come to an end, but then they showed up.

The Courier along with a 1st Recon trooper, and a cybernetic dog engaged the enemy with such precision and in such a calm demeanor the Ranger almost couldn't believe it. The Ranger and his squad would then help the Courier advance and bring the fight to the Legate Lanius and ending the Legion's operations in the Mojave once and for all. The Ranger recounted everything about the battle, how the Boomers provided air support, how the Brotherhood of Steel came to their aid, and most shockingly of all, a squad of Enclave troopers assisted them in the fight. The Ranger knew that if it wasn't for the Courier the NCR would have lost that battle and he would not be among the living anymore.

After the battle was over the Ranger remembered the Courier asking General Oliver if there was anything else to do that could help the cause of the NCR. This was inspiring to the Ranger. After the battle was over the Courier was declared a hero, and given the Golden Branch, the highest medal of honor the NCR can bestow on a civilian.

The Courier did not stay, however. The Courier went east, and for some reason left behind those who had followed and aided the Courier along the way. That day was many a time ago. Since then the NCR ranger who had been saved by the courier had succeeded himself in becoming a veteran ranger. So, when the Ranger's tour of duty was done he went east in search of the Courier. But what he found on the east coast was not the Courier, but something far more astounding. He looked out at the sight of what was once Boston, and said to himself,

"I will find you Courier, and when I do...Well I guess we'll see what happens..."

...

...

...

A cacophony of gunshots and energy weaponry shattered the silence of the morning sky. From atop of a large bridge, old and worn from disrepair and continuous battle, a large hostile contingency of Gunner soldiers alongside their entourage of Assaultrons and Mister Gutsies were putting on heavy fire upon the lone ranger on the other side of the bridge.

On the Gunners' side, there were multiple and rising casualties while more Gunners poured in due to a reinforcement order from the Brigadier Gunner in charge of them. Crashed Vertibirds could be seen at the bottom of the bridge and even a downed Vertibird over in the distance. Down the road to the bridge, there were signs of mines being set off and multiple Gunner corpses strewn all over the road.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the Veteran Ranger hid behind a small stack of destroyed vehicles and carefully paid attention to the enemy movements while he was marking his targets and striking them in their chest or head with his assault carbine.

While he kept sustaining fire, he quickly noticed one of the gunners pulling out a missile launcher. Once the Gunner fired, he accidentally jerked the trigger and the missile barely flew over the Ranger's cover. Immediately after, the Veteran returned fire, shot the Gunner in the head, then ducked his head down before a hidden sniper can return the favor.

Observing the situation once again, there was an incomprehensible amount of men, bullets, and robots coming in from the front. From his flank, there didn't appear to be hostiles, but there was too much open space to retreat. The ranger sat at his position and sighed to himself as he checked his ammunition supplies. "This is an embarrassment." The amount of bullets clanging against his cover was grating on his nerves and giving him a headache. He rubbed the side of his head and tried to get his bowels in check as the enemy approached closer at every second. "How the hell did this even happen?" He winced in pain in his upset stomach.

At that very moment, a frag grenade rolled by the Ranger's feet. He stared at it with a dumbfounded expression before dropping his helmet over it and hoped for the best. Once the grenade blew up, the helmet flew into the air and landed over on the Gunners' side of the bridge. Everyone stopped firing and the leader of the large group sent a few recruits over to check if the Ranger was dead or half-dead.

While the recruits checked up on the NCR Ranger, the Gunner Brigadier took a headcount on his casualties and injured. "How many dead and wounded?" One of the lower ranked Gunners ran out to him and saluted,

"Not including the ones we lost during our manhunt, 206 dead, 47 wounded, and 63 robots destroyed. Including vertibirds, 9 are downed and 3 are in need of repair" While the Gunner recited the list, he realized something, "Sir...Er...why didn't we send the snipers?" Then he remembered the .50 Caliber sniper rifle the Ranger used, "Or the Anti-snipers?" The Brigadier stared down at him like he was an idiot,

"You think I'm that incompetent private?! He killed everyone we sent!" His intense glare was not only bloodshot from unbridled rage, but also a week without sleeping. Then, at that moment, he had a sigh of relief, "At least we took 'em out...We lost too many-" The sounds of several guns firing and then an abrupt end broke his mood, "...Please tell me that was a double-tap."

"Oh god he's still alive!" A Gunner soldier screamed out as every single Gunner began firing at the Ranger yet again. At the same time, the Brigadier Gunner held his head down in disappointment and then wore a crazed smile around his face. The Gunners that saw his face flinched in fear and then changed their positions to get out of his line of sight.

"Someone get me the fatman." He calmly said as he walked through his wall of men and to the supplies set in the back of the bridge. The cache in question was spilled out from one of the crashed vertibirds. "I can't remember why I didn't do this sooner." He picked up the fatman and returned back to the battlefield while being in front of his men. "You son of a bitch!" His roar of fury overcame the sounds of battle, "In the name of all of my men, eat shi-" Before he could fire the fatman, the Ranger singled him out and sniped the mininuke while it was in the launcher.

The next moment after, the Brigadier Gunner was reduced to ashes and cinders as the surrounding Gunners were blown away and burned to death. The majority of them died from the initial blast while others were slowly dying from radiation poisoning and flash burns. In the confusion, the Veteran Ranger was free to fire away at the retreating Gunner soldiers. As he was sniping them one at a time, he noticed the cache of mininukes.

For a few moments, he lamented on whether or not he should waste the big guns on the small fry. On the other hand, he really wanted to see what a cache of mininukes exploding looks like. Therefore, the obvious choice was picked and he fired to his heart's content.

Thus, in the distance, a glorious big ol' mushroom sendoff could be seen across the Commonwealth. Some of its inhabitants thought an idiot messed around with an experimental fatman, those more educated thought someone discovered an ancient ICBM missile and decided to detonate it for the hell of it, and those in the Children of Atom thought their god had given them a gift from the heavens and struck down the infidels and heretics.

At the site of the explosion, the bridge had collapsed and half of it was now down on the street it was hung over. The air was clouded with smoke, rubble, and toxic radiation reaching to the levels of the Glowing Sea. The attacking Gunners were few and far between and were too afraid to fighting the Veteran anymore. Even the hidden snipers forgo contact with him and ran off without any regrets.

Meanwhile, the Veteran Ranger chuckled to himself as he went to pick up his helmet off the ground. After cleaning up the shrapnel and admiring the quality of the one who built it, he placed it firmly and proudly on his head as he admired his handiwork. Then, he slightly adjusted his gasmask to show his mouth only, took in a deep breath, then yelled out with all of his might, "I don't know who you bastards are, but you're messing with a member of the NCR Veteran Rangers!" The Gunners who heard him turned around and hid in the closest cover they could find while hearing him out, "You mess with me, and you disrespect the bear!" He pounded his chest, "And if you mess with the bear, you are screwing with the entire West Coast!" As a sniper tried to get into position to snipe the Veteran out in the open, it just so happened that the Ranger looked in his direction. Remembering the time his sniper squad got taken out by him, he suddenly fell over and scuttled away from his post while screaming out,

"The bastard's not human!" The face of true fear was plastered on his face as fellow Gunners watch him run away in the opposite direction with morale-broken expressions.

Continuing his proclamation, he pointed at the Gunners and finally said, "I don't know who the hell you guys are, but if you keep trying to kill me, I will not stop killing you!" After his speech was done, a still silence filled the polluted air and a wind blew on in; causing the Ranger's longcoat to slightly shift and move. "I'm done here." He adjusted his gasmask again and covered his entire face. The man walked away from the scene and was not afraid of anything that may attack from behind. The Gunners that saw him leave witnessed the back of a legend who would leave his mark on the Commonwealth for years to come...

...

...

...

"Jesus fucking Christ, what the hell is that stench?!" A caravan guard commented as his little merchant group was walking through one of the Commonwealth towns. Everyone who had a facemask tried to mask it by putting in sweet-smelling flowers or fruits while those with gasmasks tried to keep the others at distance. As the merchants unwittingly approached the source of the foul odor, what they saw was something surreal and out of an odd comedy.

A well-armed individual, who was wearing high-grade combat gear that was worn, torn, and patched from years of use, was limping towards them while holding his stomach. The man raised his head and kindly asked, "Er...If you would be so kind...Do you have anything for a hangover?...Or explosive diarrhea?" Behind the Ranger, there were three dead deathclaws and a whole slew of dead raiders.

In the middle of it all, there was a campsite where it appeared the man tried to cook up and eat a Deathclaw. The second deathclaw had a bucket of foul smelling feces and urine on his head and a dismembered deathclaw arm was lodged in his stomach. As for the third, his head was propped on top of a stop sign and his body was torn apart like a butchered animal.

As for the Raiders, it looked like a typhoon tore through the place and turned all of them into indescribable piles of flesh and meat.

The man looked back at the entire scene before him and turned back at his new companions, "...If it means anything, the raiders were not my doing."

From that moment, the Veteran Ranger was picked up by the Caravan and he was given some proper medicine for his illnesses. As he was drinking and eating some of their supplies, he kept on the alert for any dangers lurking about the place. As he was doing so, one of the merchants asked him a question, "What's your name, stranger?" The Ranger did not break contact with the environment and he answered,

"I'm not at liberty to say, but mind if I ask you a question?" The merchant clicked his tongue before retorting,

"I'm not at liberty to say, but mind if you tell me your name?" The Ranger huffed out a comedic puff of air,

"I'm not at liberty to say, but mind if you tell me your name first?" One of the guards raised his head at the two and said,

"By the gods man, just say your name!" He frowned at the idiotic talk between the two and he kept his guard up. Then, the merchant turned to the Ranger and said,

"As courtesy, I'll say my name first." He put his hand out, "The name's Fredrick Wilks, what's yours...Stranger?" The Ranger shook the man's hand and answered,

"Bernard Koeman, you can call me Ben, whichever you prefer...So, mind if I ask a question?"

"Of course."

"Ever heard of someone named The Courier? Or Courier Six?" The merchant, as well as everyone else who was listening in, thought about it for a few moments before the merchant replied,

"Anything to go off of?"

"You remember that massacre over where you found me?" Everyone nodded their head, "Imagine that, but with an entire army." Everyone reeled back with shocked expressions, all except one of the guards,

"Bullshit he's that strong, you're exaggerating." The Ranger turned to him and said,

"Then he's not in the Commonwealth yet."

Through the entire Caravan ride, everyone remained relatively silent. Aside from idle chatter and shooting random wildlife, the group had made it to their destination; Bunker Hill. As the group separated from each other, Fredrick went up to Ben and asked, "So, what're you going to do now?" Ben shrugged his shoulders and replied,

"I'm going to find The Courier." Before he could turn back and depart, the merchant grabbed his hand and said,

"Why?" The Ranger kept looking forward,

"Because it's a goal I made myself. Now quit being nosy and leave me be to my own mission." The Ranger started to move and even the entire weight of the merchant didn't slow him down,

"Wait, wait, wait, but...what if he's...You know...dead?" The Ranger stopped in his tracks and turned around at Fredrick, staring him down in the process,

"That's impossible."

"Even the strongest can die! It's the wasteland, who knows what could be out there that could kill even the best of us!" He started gesturing exaggeratedly for effect,

"What you call the best, The Courier is better."

"Then...Old age, he could've died from age...Or disease!"

"Age is not an issue to him, nor disease. If something did kill him, if someone did manage to kill The Courier, then I will do the honor of killing that someone back."

"But...Why? Why do such a thing, and how do you know he's in the Commonwealth?"

"Simple, I followed the trail of destruction he left behind in his wake. Something absurd only he could do, that's why..." He turned around and started to walk off before he finished his final thoughts, "Oh, and if you're wondering why I want to find the Courier." He cocked his head to the side and replied, "I want to thank him personally for that day, many years ago. I followed in the wake of his legacy and tried to become the greatest I could ever strive for...and then? You ask. Simple..." he stopped for a few moments before sighing, "I want to see who is stronger...Me...Or him."

The Ranger left the merchant speechless as he began to walk out of Bunker Hill and into the open wasteland.

As he did so, not just one legend, but three were about to be born in the Commonwealth.