Chapter 1

(Recording start)

"Year 2282 recording session one of "Behind the Courier"

(Clears throat)

"Alright Miss…?"

"Just call me Cass."

"Alright. So Cass you've been traveling with the Courier for some time now, you've seen firsthand what the woman is capable of and how she took over Hoover Dam for the NCR. Is that right?"

"Yep, sure is."

"Alright, what I'm trying to do is to show people back home that the Courier is not some big, elaborate fairy tale, but just a human as the rest of us. It will surely be good if they can get a glance behind the Courier persona and see the woman behind it. I was hoping that you would answer some of my questions if that's alright with you?"

"Go ahead. I sure as shit haven't got anything better to do, since she left me here."

"Leave you? Why would she leave you here? Weren't you together at the Battle of Hoover Dam?

(Frustrated Sigh)

"I don't know. I honestly don't give a shit by now. One day she came into this bar and bought my Caravan for that Bitch McLafferty and asked me to join her mad quest across the Mojave. At least we got McLafferty in the process."

"Yes, I heard about that. It was big news back home. What exactly happened?"

"Why the fuck do you care anyway? She's dead, that's all that matters."

"I understand you have personal feelings in the matter Cass, but the story would really help people back home understand your side in all of this and inevitably the decision you and the Courier made that day."

"Look, I'll give you the short version. McLafferty and the Van Graffs tried to screw me and my Caravan over and they paid the price for it. Let's leave it at that."

(Feet shuffling and chair creaks)

"Alright, I didn't mean to upset you. Now how about we start at the beginning? When did you meet the Courier?"

"I remember as if it were yesterday…"

The wind was blowing through the open windows of the fast moving vehicle and the cool breeze felt like heaven in the hot desert the Lone Wanderer was driving through. It had been two years since she left the Capital Wasteland behind and made her way west to find a new purpose. The Brotherhood of Steel was more than capable to defend the region and she made sure to leave them a note with all her secret stashes, so the better equipped soldiers would be able to take on any serious threat. Admittingly she left to forget Amata, who's Death she blamed herself for.

It was hard to cope with the fact that the once thriving, though sometimes oppressive Vault was empty like every other Vault in the Capital Wasteland. She spent many weeks in the cold, empty rooms walking around mourning and thinking of better times. At first she cried, the full realization of the emptiness hitting her once she cleared out all the bodies, but after a while she didn't feel anything but loneliness and regret. The Outcasts she burned, but the Vault residents she buried, as she felt that they deserved a proper burial. The Vault door stayed close and she refused to let anyone in, fearing that if she did, she would lose her mind. Suicide hadn't been an option, because she knew whatever choice she would take it always ended with one side losing. So she decided to leave and to try and forget everything.

A few weeks past and the Wanderer put together a plan of how to fix up one of the cars lying around in the Wasteland. It was probably her most ambiguous schematic she created and it did take some time before she could set the repairs in motion. First she searched for an optimal car body and afterwards she had used the old Vault robot to bring her the parts piece by piece. They only ventured out at night, because she couldn't risk being seen and worse she didn't want to be seen by Sarah. It was hard enough to save her life and she didn't want that to change. Getting the car body was easy enough, as the old Chryslus Building offered enough parts and a suitable car body to get her project started. The difficult part was getting the electronics and the parts for the engine. She scavenged the various Vaults and even went back to Raven Rock to find anything of value. It was the hardest part, but after she jury rigged some equipment her self-made engine roared to life. She used some old Vault mattresses to build a few seats into the car and destroyed multiple Vault computers to build working headlights. Another difficulty she faced was to hide the car. She couldn't build it inside the Vault, only small parts were created there. The bulk was hidden in the Garage above Vault 112. Few people ventured that far outside D.C. and fewer made it through the wilderness. The closer one stayed to the Citadel the safer it was.

After she was done and finished she drove the car in the safety of darkness to Vault 101 and grabbed enough purified water, food, weapons, ammunition and repair tools to last her for months and left her past behind. The destination didn't matter. Over the time the Wanderer helped out a few selected communities but in the end she never stayed to long in one place. The vehicle made her notorious and she kept it safe from anyone who dared to steal it. It was probably one of the most prized objects in the post-apocalyptic world. She had to make many stop along the way and search for fuel, but after some time she optimized the engine to use energy cell as the secondary power source, so she wouldn't get stuck in one place. The problem was that the energy weapons she brought along were all but useless afterwards. She had to preserve as much every energy cells as possible.

A radio was built into the car as well, though it was as much of a help to navigate through foreign terrain as it was a way to play music. The occasional radio transmission was caught by her Pip-boy and she made sure to check the locations for anything valuable. So it was that one day she received the signal of the "New Vegas Radio Station". Intrigued by the old man's voice she kept hearing regularly she set a new course and drove towards the direction the signal kept transmitting. The Wanderer learned of a brooding war between two factions and a strange feeling of déjà vu overcame her. She quickly learned that reliving her life many times did some damage to her brain as she couldn't recall certain events any more. Sometimes painful migraines hit her and she blacked out, not being able to bear the pain. She would wake up feeling dizzy with her nose bleeding and she knew that dying and cheating death had started to take a toll. All this was her own theory though and one day she had to visit a proper doctor and let her be examined for she feared that would go insane, because she didn't trust Death to do its job.

The Wanderer had been driving for a while trough the open desert terrain and thought about setting up camp the next time she would come along a cave or tall rocks, as they were the safest spot, but she had to stop the car when she noticed a few shapes in the distance, next to a couple of desert cacti. She brought the car to a halt and exited it to get a better view through her sniper rifle. She could make out five silhouettes who were circling around a sixth. She immediately thought of raiders and adjusted her lenses to give her a closer look at the situations. Upon closer inspection it looked like a woman was fending off her attackers with a knife. Five men, dressed in unusual red outfits and sunglasses were circling and baiting her with machetes and the Wanderer contemplated whether to help the woman or leave her to her fate. Uniforms were never a good sign, as they most likely belonged to a group of people who again were part of a faction or organization and she tried to stay neutral as possible since leaving the Capital Wasteland behind. But since they were pretty much in the middle of the desert she decided to help the woman. Before she could fire a shot though, one of the men raised his machete and cut the woman's right arm clean off. The woman dropped to her knees clutching her arm tightly and rolled around on the ground, most likely from the pain. The Wanderer cursed internally and fired a shot at the attacker, hitting him cleanly in the head. The four other men, alerted by their dead comrade, started to search the area, but before they could react another shot killed one of them. They started to spread out but the Wanderer was able to kill one more before the last two disappeared behind a huge sand hill.

She instantly put her rifle away and got in her car. She quickly pushed in the first gear and gradually sped up the car, driving towards the bleeding woman on the ground. When she arrived she rushed towards the whimpering woman who looked pleadingly up to her and showed her the bleeding arm.

"Please…help me!" the woman begged with a painful expression and crawled towards the Wanderer.

Having years of medical experience the Wanderer wasn't fazed by the bloody sight and quickly pulled the woman up and supported her while she dragged her towards her car. She opened the trunk and let the woman sit down while she got her medical supplies from inside the car. She gave her some Med-X to ease the pain and made work to disinfect and clean the wound. After the arm was bandaged she patted the woman on the shoulder, but at this point she fell asleep. She couldn't tell whether it was because of blood loss or dehydration but she applied an IV just in case and carried the woman to the passenger seat.

Once she made sure that the stranger was buckled up safely she made to drive towards her original destination. Deep down inside she loved and wanted to help people but right then, the Wanderer hoped that her little stunt wouldn't bite her in the ass later. Glancing at the sleeping form of the woman she sighed and pushed the pedal down all the way, accelerating the vehicle. She had to find a safe place for the night.