Chapter 1

Michael opened his eyes, sat up, and scanned the barracks, there were a few soldiers still sleeping in a few beds. There was a constant noise of talking coming from the bar. As he sat up, he could see two people in a single bed in the corner, as he approached the bed, he saw Kenny's unmistakable messy blonde hair, and saw that he indeed found someone to share a bed with, an NCR Trooper, nonetheless. Michael walked out into the bar and stretched his arms and back, before eyeing a Sunset Sarsaparilla machine. "How do I get a soda?" Michael asked the bartender, since the prewar vending machines don't exactly run on bottle caps.

"Give me 3 caps, and you open the machine and get it."

Michael gave the bartender 3 caps, then opened up the vending machine. This one still worked, as he felt the cold air pour out of the prewar cooler. He grabbed a Sarsaparilla, and popped the cap off, and took a refreshing drink. The Geiger counter on his PipBoy clicked a bit, signaling his body had absorbed some radiation. Michael inspected the cap he got off of the soda, it had a blue star on the inside of it. He walked up to the bar and asked the bartender about it. She leaned in towards him, which made him a bit nervous, she whispered, "What that is, is a contest that was put on by the Sunset Sarsaparilla company before the war, apparently, if you collected enough of the star caps, you won a prize. No one is sure whether or not the contest is still on, but there are people who hunt those things down, and they're worth a lot to people who are looking for them."

"Are you looking for them?" Michael asked.

"Who me? No. But you should be careful, don't wear them out openly, there are people out there who kill people on suspicion that they have them."

"Oh, well thank you for the warning."

"Yep, no problem."

As Michael finished his soda and dropped the bottle into a trash can, he heard a scream from the barracks, and Kenny came out with a red handprint on his face. "What the fuck happened?" Michael asked.

"I asked her if she wanted breakfast, I told her I have a special sausage."

"Jesus Christ dude, it's amazing any women sleep with you."

"Well, it's not like they can resist my charms anyway." Kenny laughed.

"Anyway, I'm ready to go, so get going." Michael said hurriedly

"I'm good to go, let's head out." Kenny said as he sling his backpack over his shoulders.

When they went outside, they saw Randy set up outside the fence that served as the entrance to both buildings, selling everything he has.

"Hey Randy, good luck with this tax situation man." Michael said.

"Thanks fellas, are you guys going back to California?"

"No," Kenny declared, "We're going to check out New Vegas, see what's happening over there."

"Kenny, come here." Kenny walked closer to Randy "Two things, 1, take care of Michael, you know he's fresh out of the Vault, he's a bit naive, also, I believe I owe you this." Randy reached into his Brahmin pack, and pulled out a Cowboy Repeater, and handed it to Kenny.

"Thanks Randy, take care of yourself, alright?" Kenny said.

"Of course, you guys be careful!"

Michael and Kenny waved to Randy and turned East, toward the Ranger Statues, towards the unknown. They looked across the new valley they were entering, flat, it was a dry lake bed, with a road running North and South, and one running East and West. They looked directly ahead of them down the highway, a mess of old prewar vehicles littered the 15 on both sides. Michael and Kenny looked at each other, nodded and started down the highway.

"So Michael, what was it like in the Vault?" Kenny asked, Michael looked a bit surprised, but nodded to himself as he began to speak.

"To be honest, after being out here for almost a year, I would honestly hate to go back to that lifestyle. I mean, I suppose that things were a bit simpler, but more complex at the same time. Everything you did affected everyone else, out here, it's just you and those you keep close to you."

"Well, I was actually just asking about the food and the girls."

"Holy shit dude," Michael said as he stared at Kenny unbelievably, "But I guess I should have expected that from you." He shot him a smirk, as they were almost at the crossroads. "So, do you feel like fighting some Deathclaws? Or do you want to go the long way?"

"Let's go the long way, I know we've fought Deathclaws before, but it was only a single Deathclaw in each instance, from what I heard, there's a bunch of them. Fuck that."

"Alright, lets go east then."

They walked in silence for a good while, before Kenny broke the silence.

"Listen man, I didn't mean to stomp all over your philosophical breakthrough back there, I just wasn't expecting that deep of a conversation to just pop up out of nowhere."

"It's alright, but to answer your questions, the food was good, that's definitely one thing I miss about the vault. The girls weren't too bad either, a little stuck up, but they were hot."

"If we find a vault, we need to...investigate." Kenny said.

They laughed as they came up to a town. The sign outside it declared it Nipton. There was thick, black smoke coming from the center of town, as they entered, they saw the atrocities that were happening, as the smoke was from burning corpses.

"Oh my God!" Michael yelled, and when they turned towards the town hall, they saw a bunch of people being hung on crosses. "Kenny, this is called crucifixion," Michael whispered, "I learned about it in school in the vault. The Romans did this to their criminals. Jesus was crucified like this."

"How very smart you are." A voice said from behind them, they turned to see a man wearing predominantly red approaching them. "You see the Roman influence in our punishment of Nipton."

"Punishment?" Kenny asked.

The man replied, "Nipton is, was, and always will be a wretched place, we come here every once in awhile to clean out the scum, Caesar wishes Nipton to be extinguished, but no matter how many times we come here to finish it off, it comes back, it's quite annoying, especially since we have to move in the night, what with the Dam Battle and all."

"Caesar? You guys are Legion?" Kenny asked.

"Why yes, but we must be going, we have business to attend to, True to Caesar!"

Michael and Kenny watched as The Legion squad left eastward.

"Those guys are bad news Michael, while some of their policies are noble, like they don't allow drugs and alcohol, as a whole they are bad news for normal people. I thought that the Legion was pushed back to Arizona after the Battle of the Dam, but they're already back terrorizing this far west. I just don't get it."

"They seem like radroaches you have to put a bullet through the brain or they never die." Michael sighed. "What should we do about the crucified?"

"They'll die for sure if we move them, plus the Legion guys might still be watching, so I say we leave them and get the hell out of here."

Michael nodded and they began down the road eastward. They followed the road as it went into hills on the eastern side of the lake bed, they saw a group of prewar cars forming a barricade of sorts.

"Hey Kenny, my PipBoy is picking up 4 life signals, two left, two right."

"Alright, you go right, I'll go left, watch the ground, there may be traps."

The road bent left a little farther up the road from the wreckage, and sure enough, Michael could see Frag Mines placed on the ground, covered with some sand. Carefully, Michael disarmed the 3 he could see, before a shot rang out and flew past him.

"Shit!" Michael armed the mine and threw it up the hill, it exploded with a bang as it landed.

"AH!" He could hear his assailant yell.

Michael pulled his Service Rifle out of his pack and aimed towards where he threw the mine. He slowly climbed up the hill, as he crested the hill, he spotted the guy who he hit with the mine, his left leg was soaked in his own blood, Michael raised his rifle, and lodged a bullet in his brain. As soon as he turned from his kill, he was met with a grenade at his feet, he kicked it, and it exploded about 5 feet from his foot, and he could feel the heat come off of it, and immediately spotted the person who threw it at him, and shot a few rounds into his torso. As he fell over from the shots, Michael took the butt of his rifle and smashed it over the back of his head, knocking him out, if not killing him.

"Kenny! You okay?" Michael yelled.

There was no answer, Michael sprinted down the hill back onto the road. He ran towards the other hills, before he saw two dead Raiders on the ground. He stopped and smiled, looking around for Kenny, his PipBoy picked up a life signal at the top of the hill, Michael went up to the top of the hill, and found Kenny looking through a Sniper Rifle back towards Nipton.

"Where'd you get that?" Michael asked.

"One of them had it on them." Kenny replied.

"You know what, we cover twice the ground when we travel without the caravan. It's only noon." Michael said, looking at his PipBoy.

"Well how about that?" Kenny replied as he slung the Sniper Rifle over his shoulder and strapped it into place. They hopped back down onto the road, and traveled around a few more bends, before coming up on Highway 95. They approached a billboard, when Michael reached out and stopped Kenny.

"Raiders, behind the billboard. Sneak around and get some pot shots with your new toy, I'll sit back from here and shoot them from the side." Michael ordered.

"Alright, sounds good." Kenny ran off towards a nearby hill. "He might not be socially mature, but that guy sure knows strategy." Kenny thought to himself as he set up his rifle.

Breathing slowly, Kenny fired 3 shots which killed 2 Raiders and wounded another, 2 more ran out from the sign, having spotted Kenny, when Michael started tearing into them with his Service Rifle from the side. Before long, the Raiders were dead, and they spotted a big green dinosaur in the horizon.

"We're pretty efficient." Kenny said.

"Yea, until 3 Deathclaws show up." Michael added.

"Hey, you don't say that. Don't even think that." Kenny exclaimed.

Michael laughed as they walked up to the green dinosaur, and saw a Sniper Rifle barrel sticking out of the mouth, pointing in the direction they just came from.

"We were being watched." Michael said, pointing

"Well no shit?" Kenny said to himself, coming to terms that he could have died.

"Let's go say hi." Michael said as he walked through the gates of the hotel, and into the dinosaur.

"Whoa there, who goes there?" The Sniper said whipping the barrel into Kenny's face.

"I'm Kenny, this is Michael, we were just wondering why you didn't just dust us? You know, since you were watching us."

"You fought the raiders, that's all the proof I need that you're good guys."

Michael and Kenny nodded at each other. "You mind if I look at your rifle?" The Sniper asked.

"Naw man, go for it, let me see yours. I just picked mine off of some raiders we killed earlier today."

Michael and Kenny checked out the Sniper's rifle as he did some fiddling on theirs. "Your rifle is sweet man." Kenny said, handing it to him.

"Yours can be just as sweet, my man. By the way, my name's Manny. But yea, your gun can be turned into a sweet thing with just some TLC and some new parts."

"So what exactly are you hunting up here Manny?" Michael asked.

"Raiders. I used to hunt Legion too, but I haven't seen them since the 2nd Dam Battle. What exactly are you two guys doing here?"

"We're just a couple of friends from California here to see the Strip." Kenny said.

"Well,we were Caravan guards from Shady Sands, but our caravan got taken out of business at Mojave Outpost, so we decided to check out Vegas before we head back to California, if we go back at all." Michael explained.

"Ah, the adventurer lifestyle, well, I know all about that, I was in a gang around here until I signed up for the NCR, soon after my service ended I need to settle down, and since then I've been here. It's a simple and modest life, but it's a lot more stable than the Khan or NCR life."

"You know, we saw some Legion folk in Nipton." Michael said.

"What?!" Manny exclaimed. "I thought they were pushed back to at least the Colorado by now."

"That's what I thought too Manny," Kenny said. "They say they only travel at night though, and they did go over the hills east instead of the road, but you should keep extra watch."

"Well thanks for the info guys, I can put red back on the shoot on sight list."

"Alright Manny, we should be going, we want to get to Vegas before sundown." Kenny said, as he offered his hand to Manny to shake.

"You boys have passports?" Manny asked, shaking Kenny's hand and reaching for Michael's.

"Passports?" Michael asked, shaking Manny's hand as well.

"Yea, you either need to have a certain amount of caps on you or have a passport to get into the actual Strip, the amount of caps changes almost daily sometimes it seems, but when I first went in it was 1000 caps for you to enter, you didn't have to pay, you just had to have it, to show that you weren't just squatting or causing trouble."

"Hmm, that's something we didn't think of." Michael said, almost to himself, "Anyway, Thank You Manny, good luck, and if we ever come back here, we'll be sure to stop by." Michael said.

"Alright, sounds good you guys, oh, go to the Gun Runners if you want to get parts to make that Sniper of yours sweet, they sell all sorts of modifications and things for em." Manny said.

"Will do, Thanks Manny." Kenny replied.

They waved goodbye and headed out of the dinosaur, and out of the hotel's parking lot, and turned due north, they stopped and turned around and waved one last time to Manny, who in turn bounced the sunlight off his scope into their eyes. They made their way up North through the 188 Trading Post and past the REPCONN Facility, without much trouble, a few geckos here and there, and then, they saw Camp McCarran.

"It's the old airport of Vegas, right off the strip." Michael said, recalling his history of the area.

"It's an NCR base now, so we could probably stay the night there." Kenny replied.

They made their way to the main gate of Camp McCarran, they immediately walked up to the barricades set up just inside the entrance.

"Is there a common house or empty barracks where we can sleep tonight?" Michael asked a trooper.

"Well, for Couriers and Caravaneers, yes, for Prospectors, no."

Michael was about to say something, but Kenny butted in, "We're caravaners, we have been separated from our caravan, and are just looking for a place to stay."

The trooper nodded and showed them over to a tent which had 3 bunk beds inside. Michael and Kenny each took a bed, and drifted off into sleep.