Authors Note: It's been a while since anything by me has popped up here. Eh, life happens. This little work of genius is a novelized version of the game, reflecting a lot of the choices I made, and some funny instances that happen to me during play. In my fallout games I like to make a sharp-shooter build. High guns, decent sneak. You get the idea. This is reflected in my character. My main goal was to add personality and back story of my own to the character of the courier, as well as flesh out interactions with her companions as well as other NPC's. I will follow the original storyline of the game rather closely in the beginning, merely as a vice to help set the rest of the story. Please bear with me, it will come in to it's own, I promise. I rated this M. No lemons, but there are sexual themes, drug use, alcohol, swearing, and blood. This is Fallout after all.

I do not own Fallout or any of the Fallout storylines used. All I own are the character of Gekko, and my own bad ideas.

Special thanks to my husband/beta reader, for critiquing this for me, and for getting me hooked on Fallout in the first place.

Traveling the Mojave, you hear many life stories. Sad stories, most of them. Loss, destruction, corruption. People leave and people die. Entire life fortunes vanish in the blink of an eye. Life out here is difficult and trying. It was very different from what I was used to, growing up in the quiet mountains of Oregon. But a lot about me is quite different.

All of my grandparents came from the same underground vault. Vault 556 to be exact. Childhood friends, they left together to start a new life outside of the florescent confines of 556, along with most of the younger generation of the vault. They settled in with the local tribal's, and helped to build what is now known as New Salem. With it's proximity to Highway 5, and the Willamette River, both two of the largest trade routs to the north, the city flourished.

I lived a modest childhood. Away from the city. Not rich, but we seldom went without. I was close with my older brother and especially close with my younger sister. Mom stayed at home with the kids, and my father took up many odd jobs, from caravan guard, to logging, and his favorite, prospecting. He was gone a lot, but always returned to us with tokens of his travels. I especially liked the old pre-war books he found in the empty vaults.

One day, however, that all changed. As most good things do come to an end. My father and his traveling partner came across a sizeable lost gold reserve that was rumored to be in the area, but had gone long undiscovered. Suddenly we were among the richest in the northwest. My parents moved the family back to New Salem, and into the life of the high society. One would think being rich as a blessing, but not me. I hated the city, and I hated the social standards and confines I was now expected to live by. I was too free-spirited to adapt to a life of luxury. My parents changed, my life changed. The force governing our life was money. Everything became about money, fame, reputation and prestige.

Then my life was being taken out of my control. My whole childhood I dreamed of traveling the footsteps of my father. Adventure in the mountains, living off my gun and the stuff I could carry on my back. Now I learned that if I wanted to remain part of my family, I would need to conform the rituals of the elite. So I did what many bull-headed, know-it-all 17 year olds would do. I packed what I could carry, took an old 10mm my dad gave me, and left. Never to return again. I took on a new alias, "Gekko", my name real name a fragment of my past, changed my appearance and joined the first caravan I could to California.

8 years later…

"And that there must be Goodsprings…" Gekko muttered to herself, standing on a large boulder off the side of the crumbling road. She glanced into the distance at the sparse twinkling lights down in the small valley. The sun was quickly starting to set, and she wanted to find refuge for the night. She hopped down from her perch, picking up her backpack and slinging it over her shoulders in one swoop.

A courier with the Nevada division of the Mojave Express, she was en route to deliver a poker chip made of pure platinum to the New Vegas Strip. Once her delivery was made, she was to travel to the Mojave Express branch office in Primm, which was a few miles south of Goodsprings, to confirm the delivery order. A relatively simple task altogether. She figured it might leave her some time to play in New Vegas as well.

As she neared the top of the hill, which began the final leg of her journey into town, she saw a man in a checkered suit, holding a map, standing at the side of the road.

"Hey excuse me, doll, can you give this cat a hand for just a second?" The man said with a toothy smile.

"What?" Gekko replied in a harsh tone, catching the man off guard. If this guy was out here looking for trouble, she wanted to make sure he knew that she was not a chick to be messed with.

"Whoa whoa easy there doll, I just have a simple question for you is all." He took a couple steps towards her. Gekko stepped back, her right hand hovering near the grip of a 9mm holstered to her hip. She kept her icy blue eyes on him, analyzing his every move.

"Can you point me to the town of Goodsprings? It's getting late and I'm not lookin' to be caught out here in the dark, hey?"

Gekko gave and annoyed sigh. "Dude, it is right there at the bottom of the foothill. You can fucking see it from here."

"Look I am really lost, can't you just point it out to me on this here map?"

"No." She said firmly. How dumb does he think I am? She asked herself. As if I would fall for such an obvious trap.

The man started to become annoyed wither her defiance. "Well then, do you think it would be ok if I traveled with you? I wouldn't want anything… bad to happen to a pretty doll like yourself, all alone out here in the dark." He suppressed a small laugh with that last statement. His demeanor betraying him.

Gekko whipped out her pistol and aimed it right between his eyes. "Unless you feel like having a hole put in your head tonight, I suggest you fuck off and keep away from me."

The man pulled out a cigarette from inside his suit, put it to his lips and lit it. "You know, doll." He took a long drag from his cigarette. "I was hoping to make this easy for both of us tonight, but it looks like you leave me no choice… GET HER!"

Gekko whirled around at the sound of footsteps rushing up behind her. She tried to jump out of the way of two men running at her, and fired a bullet into one of their legs. The second man leapt at her, grabbing her by the arm, twisting it and nearly pulling her to the ground. She yelped in pain as she smacked the man over the head with her gun, causing him to release her. As she stood up, something heavy and metallic struck her in the back of the head. Instantly her vision blurred before she blacked out and slumped to the ground.