AN: Hello again, readers! DovahCourier here. Sorry if this chapter took a little longer than normal to post, I just have been 1: testing my absolute balls off at school, 2: My school's FRC robotics team had a competition from Thursday to Saturday and, ironically, 3: AUTOMATRON Now that the week is over, spring break has started. That means I can finally get off my ass and write as much of this story as I can. Now that I'm done ranting, time to get to the chapter. Buckle up, it's a long one! Thanks for sticking with this story, and I hope you like this chapter!
I do not own RWBY or Fallout: New Vegas. RWBY belongs to Roosterteeth, and New Vegas belongs to Obsidian Entertainment/Bethesda
The Tale of Dust and Sand
A RWBY/New Vegas Crossover
Chapter Four: Courier
The team had been walking south from Primm for about an hour. In the distance, Yang could see what looked like some kind of statue on a hill in the distance. To the team's left was a dried up lake, the dry desert wind kinking up enough dust to eliminate all visibility where the body of water once sat. On their right was an abandoned gas station. The team decided to stop for a moment, using the ruined building for shade while they ate a quick breakfast of gecko steak and some packaged snacks older than the entire team combined.
"How far is it to the outpost from here?" Ruby asked, a slight tone of impatience showing in the question.
"Not that far, just about a mile." Blake responded, checking her Pip-Boy's map to confirm it. The team was about to get under way again, when Blake's ears suddenly perked up. "I hear something." She began, quickly drawing her machete and pistol. The rest of the team did the same, preparing for whatever she heard coming to make its presence known.
The team stood there, backs to the wall of the abandoned gas station, for well over a minute. Weiss decided to speak up. "Are you sure you aren't hearing thin….AHHHH!" Weiss began, but was interrupted when the ground below her exploded outwards in a shower of concrete and soil, throwing her a good twenty feet away from the rest of the team. The others quickly turned to look at the source of the noise, only to be greeted by what had to be the second largest scorpion any of them had ever seen.
While still not quite as big as the Death Stalkers back in the Emerald Forest, it was still massive; at least twelve feet long with its tail, with legs at least as long as Ruby's rifle and a stinger the size of Blake's machete. It was covered in thick plates of a stark white chitin, almost six inches thick in some places. Its pincers were large enough to rip of any of the girl's heads clean off without any effort. The thing had eight blood red eyes, all locked on the group of girls in front of it.
"Well fuck. Anyone got a plan?" Yang asked, drawing her shotgun.
Ruby thought for a moment, eyes never leaving those of the thing in front of her, before coming up with a very rough plan. "Blake, go make sure Weiss is ok. Yang, can you distract this bastard?"
"Ha. Childs play." Yang responded, immediately firing a pair of slugs harmlessly into the beast's hide. "Hey dumbass, over here! Free lunch, if you can grab it!" She began to jog backwards, waving her arms wildly, luring the thing away from the rest of the team. Blake merely nodded at Ruby before running over to Weiss with a doctor's bag in hand.
Ruby ran behind the beast, prepared to do something both brilliant and stupid. Against all instincts of survival and common sense, Ruby leapt onto the scorpion's back. She quickly jammed her rifle between the armor plates on its back, and started to fire as quickly as she could. The beast immediately started to twitch and flail, attempting to get the apparently suicidal prey off of its back, but to no avail. The scorpion's jerking and flailing slowly came to a stop, and the beast slumped over, dead.
"Well… That was a thing." Yang said, putting her hand up for Ruby to high five. Ruby ignored it, sprinting as quickly as she could over to where Weiss lay.
"WEISS!" Ruby screamed, panicking. As she arrived, she realized the landing didn't do as much damage as she had initially believed. Weiss had passed out, but her only obvious wounds were a twisted ankle and broken collarbone, both of which were mending at a stupidly fast rate due to Blake using one of the heavy stimpacks from the doctor's bag.
"She should be ok. I'm pretty sure she only fainted from fear, not the damage." Blake reassured Ruby, making sure the younger teen would not immediately panic.
Yang arrived and threw Weiss over her shoulder. "How many times do I need to carry this one? Next time she faints or gets drunk, it's Blake's turn to carry her." She said, slightly irritated by having to play pack mule for the team. She then turned to Ruby and proceeded to punch her in the arm.
"OW! What was that for?!" Ruby exclaimed, looking at her brute of a sister.
"That's for leaving me hanging!" Yang said in a sarcastically angry voice, sly smirk forming on her face. Ruby was about to retaliate with a kick between Yang's legs, but was interrupted by Blake shouting at the sisters.
"Guys, we need to run. NOW!" The raven haired teen said in a tone that depicted true panic. Ruby and Yang looked towards Blake, confused as to why she suddenly seemed so worried. What they saw send a feeling of terror into the girls.
Scorpions. There were about a dozen of them. None of them were nearly as large as the one the team had just killed, but they still were almost five feet long from stinger to head. These ones had similar armor plating to the larger one, only it was a deep blue, almost black.
"Well, time to start running!" Yang said, turning on a dime and sprinting ahead of the group, Weiss bouncing along on her shoulder. Blake and Ruby followed, running backwards so they could fire at their pursuers. Blake grabbed the grenade launcher off of Yang's back, and took a grenade from her belt. The grenade looked like any other one, only it had a clear tip, which Blake could see was filled with a glowing green liquid. She loaded the interesting round into the launcher and fired.
The grenade impacted in the middle of a group of five of the scorpions. The air was filled with the smell of ozone as the grenade exploded in a ball of bright green light, engulfing the scorpions in plasma.
The girls were now only a hundred yards from the outpost, sprinting uphill through dozens of ruined cars from before the war. Ahead of them was a massive statue made of scrap metal depicting what looked like a cowboy shaking hands with somebody wearing a gas mask and riot armor. They were nearly below the statue, when a scorpion popped up from under the ground. This one was the same color as those behind the girls, but was almost as large as the albino one they had fought earlier.
The team panicked, realizing they would die either by a swarm of small scorpions, or a single massive one. They drew their weapons, prepared for the worst, when a sudden CRACK filled the air. The team looked up and saw the scorpion's face was gone, replaced by a hole the size of Ruby's head.
"Hey! Get in here before the rest show up!" The team looked up to see a man and a woman, standing on top of one of the buildings behind the statue. The woman was wielding a massive sniper rifle, and the man was holding a large scoped revolver. Without question, the girls ran around the now dead scorpion and through the chain link gate to the outpost.
The team's two saviors walked down a ramp from the roof, and approached the group of teens. The silver haired female holding the ungodly large rifle spoke up. "We saw you down by the gas station. Good job. It takes normally a whole squad of troops and a ranger to take down an albino radscorpion. Welcome to the Mojave Outpost. I'm Ranger Ghost, this is Ranger Jackson." The man nodded in acknowledgement as Ghost continued. "We are the NCR Rangers in charge of the station. If I may ask, what exactly are you girls doing out here?"
Ruby stepped to the front of the group and spoke up. "We're couriers with the Mojave Express, here to pick up a package and deliver it to Camp McCarran. Here is the work order." Ruby said with a friendly smile, materializing the work order from her Pip-Boy and handing it to the rangers.
Ghost took it and looked it over. "Well, Jackson, it looks like she's tellin' the truth."
Ranger Jackson took the piece of paper and nodded. "Well, thanks for taking the job. There have been very few couriers willing to work out here with the war between us and Caesar's lapdogs. The only other courier I've seen out here in a while passed through about two days ago. She came in with a pet Eyebot, helped out with a few odd jobs, and then left with some caravan boss after splitting half the outpost's whisky with her." The ranger seemed amused by this memory, but quickly regained his focus. "You'll want to talk to Major Knight over in the depot. After grabbing the package, you're welcome to rest up and trade a little bit in the barracks."
Ruby extended her hand to the Ranger. "Thank you, sir. We will pick up what we need, trade for some supplies, and be on our way." The Ranger and the teen shook hands, and the team headed to pick up their package.
After concluding business at the outpost (and waking up Weiss), team RWBY headed down the hill once more. They had sold a few unneeded supplies, restocked on ammo and water, and headed out. The team sat down on the hood of an old car, checking a large print map Ruby had bought for the team to share. It seemed the safest route was to head east through a town called Nipton, and then north along a highway until they reached Vegas. The trip would take about a day and a half, but would have a few rest stops and most of the time would be spent along the highway.
As the team began to head east, a pair of soldiers in NCR combat gear approached the team. "Halt. Nobody's allowed to head through Nipton until the NCR has confirmed the Legion scum have been wiped out from the town. Please turn back."
Yang approached the soldiers, noticing one's scarf was partially covering a tattoo of what seemed to be a bull. "Alright, we don't want any major trouble. Would you happen to know an alternate route to Vegas? We have a delivery for the commander in charge of Camp McCarran."
The soldier produced a small map from his pocket, and showed it to Yang. "Our superiors have told us to redirect any traffic north through Quarry Junction, around the town of Sloan. The town is under raider control, so just head straight through the quarry. There are a few large creatures in the area, but they are very docile."
Yang thanked the soldier, and the team started the long hike north towards Vegas.
The day passed without much more action. The team had had to fight off a few small groups of geckos, oversized flies, and a few coyotes, but nothing nearly as large as the scorpion incident that morning. The team had just made it to the outskirts of Sloan as the sun was hitting the mountains in the west, and quickly climbed the ridge to the left of the highway to avoid the town. They continued along north until they reached the edge of the quarry.
"It looks like a long climb down. We may need to head a little farther west and find a safe way down." Said Weiss as a strong sense of vertigo hit her from looking off the edge of the cliff into the quarry.
Yang pointed to a smaller section of the quarry, with what seemed to be a natural slope into the manmade hole. The team proceeded to walk over to the set of ledges and climbed down, hoping to not fall on the way. Once all the way down, the team walked around a small pond, headed towards what seemed to be the exit. They were almost out of the small section of the quarry when a small, chirp-like noise caught Ruby's attention.
Ruby turned her head to see… well, she had no idea how to describe what she saw. It was a small creature, only about two thirds of her height, standing on its hind legs. The creature had a leathery, tan colored hide, along with a slightly elongated head, with small beady eyes and a pair of small lumps on the sides of its head. The creature let out another cry, almost a chirp. Ruby walked slowly towards the creature, thinking this must be one of the things the NCR trooper mentioned.
Ruby leaned down next to the thing, slowly putting her hand out in a sign of compassion. The thing licked it, than looked up at her. "Guys, come look at this!" Ruby exclaimed, excited at the thought of a new friend. The team started to walk towards Ruby, but suddenly stopped in their tracks, frozen out of fear. Confused, Ruby looked at her team. "Guys? What's wrong? This lil' guy won't hurt you; he's friendly!"
Yang looked at Ruby, an expression of horror that Ruby hadn't seen on her sister in years forming on Yang's face. "Ruby, I need you to come over here, slowly. Don't make any. Sudden. Movements."
Ruby was confused by her teammate's fear, and was about to question it when she heard it. Breathing. Massive breaths, filled with a near primal rage. Ruby turned her head to see what was causing the breathing, and a realization of horror struck her as she did. The reason this creature was so small, so cute, was because it was a child. She realized, with great horror, that the thing behind her must be this cub's… mother. The massive figure finally came into the girl's view.
Behind Ruby was what she thought must be a beast straight from hell itself. It was massive, built like a Beowulf Alpha, but larger. The creature stood at least twelve feet tall, with arms reaching at least Ruby's height in length. The hide was dark, a deep greenish-blue, even rougher than that of the cub. Each finger on its massive hands ended in a claw the size of Ruby's forearm. The thing had a tail longer than Yang was tall, and it ended in a set of large spikes. The creature's head elongated much like the cub's, only there was a pair of horns reaching at least two feet long that swept backwards. The thing opened its maw, showing a row of massive, razor sharp teeth, and bellowed a roar that would haunt the young girl's nightmares for years to come.
Ruby ran towards her team, screaming, and they proceeded to sprint towards the canyon exit. They were almost out when a sudden shadow blocked the exit. There was another one of the beasts. This one was about two feet taller than the one behind them, and was even more terrifying. The thing's horns were even longer than the mother's, and faced forwards. The claws were twice as long, and twice as sharp. The hide was pure black, almost blending with the night sky. The thing's eyes were blood red orbs, locked on the group of girls cowering in front of it.
The team huddled together, realizing their fate was sealed. Ruby was ready to die, realizing any attempt to fight would only make it a more painful death. She closed her eyes, thinking of her friends, her family, and her time at beacon. She braced herself for the feeling of claws and teeth tearing her apart, and the sound of the beasts' roars and her teammates' screams.
But the roars and screams never came. Instead, Ruby heard the least expected combination of sounds possible. She heard the crack of a sniper rifle in the distance, what sounded like a woman yelling at the top of her lungs, and… Was that a cavalry horn?
The team looked up, confused by the things they were hearing. What they saw only strengthened this confusion. Behind the massive beast, which had turned its back to the team, was the oddest group of people Ruby had ever seen. There was a woman, wearing a cowboy hat and flannel jacket, shotgun in one hand, and a bottle of whisky on the other. There was a man, lying on a ridge a few dozen yards behind the others, cracking off shots at the beast behind the group with a rifle similar to Ruby's. There was what appeared to be a flying, roughly spherical robot, about a foot and a half in diamiter, spouting the cavalry music and blasting away at the beast behind them with a built-in laser. In front of all of these was a woman with jet black hair, streaks of neon purple highlighting it. She was wearing a long camo duster, and had a repeater slung over her shoulder, a revolver in one hand, a large throwing hatchet attached to a lit safety flare in the other. The thing that stuck out on the woman to Ruby, though, was her face. It showed an expression of joy and happiness on the purest, most unfiltered level, only interrupted by two small, circular scars on the woman's right temple, and just above and to the right of her left eye.
The woman threw the flaming hatchet in her hand, and Ruby watched as it imbedded itself in the left eye of the beast in front of them. The beast roared in pain, and immediately began to claw at its own face, trying to get the flaming blade out of its face. The woman took advantage of the distraction she had caused. "HEY, OVER HERE! Unless you want to become deathclaw chow, I suggest coming with us!"
Without hesitation, the team sprinted towards the mysterious woman, taking whatever she had in store over being mauled to death. As the team reached the woman, she yelled to the rest of her companions. "ED-E! CASS! BOONE! WE'RE FALLING BACK!"
The others immediately proceeded to pull back, firing at the beasts as they went. A few more deathclaws had now appeared, these ones smaller than the mother, but still large enough to kill a human without much effort. Ruby and Yang drew their weapons, assisting their saviors by firing towards the incoming mob of beasts.
Ruby slipped into VATS, taking aim at the flare sticking out of the deathclaw's face. The shot left her rifle and impacted the flare, showering the massive beast in sparks. The deathclaw panicked, trying to claw the flare out of the flaming mess that was the remains of its left eye. The beast began to flail, and struck the two smaller deathclaws closest to it, inciting them to attack it. The alpha turned its attention from the flare to the smaller creatures, suddenly forced to defend itself from the smaller beasts. The last thing Ruby saw before the scene left her sight was the alpha, lifting one of the smaller deathclaws by a horn and gutting it from belly to throat with a massive, razor sharp claw.
The team's saviors led the team south to Sloan. The team hesitated, remembering the soldiers' warning, but all fear dissolved when they saw what seemed to be a man in mining gear coming out of one of the shacks. The woman in the duster, apparently the leader of the group of saviors, walked up to the miner. "I told you I could save 'em."
The miner looked at the woman in shock before shaking his head, a slight smirk forming on his lips. "Well I'll be damned. Any luck driving the bastards out?"
The woman nodded. "We tore the alpha up pretty bad, and the others should leave when it does."
"Thanks for the help. Well, go ahead and camp here for the night, and here's your pay." The man tossed the woman a bag of caps.
"Thanks. Have a good night, sir."
The girls sat down at the mining camp's central bonfire with the group that had saved them. The woman in the flannel leaned her shotgun against the log she was sitting on, and pulled out a bottle of whisky, taking a swig. The sniper began cleaning his rifle, inspecting each piece of the machine with extreme detail. The robot settled down next to Weiss, who immediately started to pet the small machine. Lastly, the woman in the duster sat down, laying her repeater across her lap. The woman leaned towards the fire, and began to speak. "Alright, I need to ask a couple questions. Who the hell are you, why are you headed through Quarry Junction instead of taking the safer route around the mountains through Novac, and what the hell made you think it was a good idea to pet a BABY FUCKING DEATHCLAW!"
The team recoiled slightly at the woman's yelling, but they were soon over it. Yang spoke up first, explaining the entire journey from getting the job in Primm, to the Mojave outpost. As yang mentioned the shifty looking soldier with the bull tattoo, the sniper looked up from his rifle, shocked look on his face. "Nipton was confirmed safe for travel two days ago, and the NCR would never have foot soldiers redirecting trade traffic without a Ranger to help out. Whoever sent you on that suicidal detour sure as hell wasn't NCR."
The entire team facepalmed in unison.
The woman chuckled and stood up, approaching Ruby. She stuck her hand out. "The name's Liz. This is Boone," the sniper nodded. "Cass," The woman in the flannel waved. "and ED-E." The robot beeped happily.
Ruby stood up and accepted the woman's hand. "My name's Ruby. This is Weiss,"
"Greetings." The heiress said, nodding slightly.
"Blake,"
"Hello there." Responded the raven haired girl.
"and my sister Yang."
"Sup." The blonde brawler said with a grin, waving at the team's saviors.
After greetings were exchanged, Ruby moved from her spot between Weiss and Yang, and proceeded to sit down next to Boone, whom was still working on cleaning his rifle. "What size round does she use?"
The man looked at the young girl, slightly confused. "What?"
"Your rifle? What caliber round does she fire?" The girl asked, having to look about a foot upwards to make eye contact with the fellow marksman.
"It fires a standard .308 sniper round." The man said, believing he would stump the girl with weapon statistics.
"I expected as much. It is just hard to tell with the modifications to the receiver." Ruby responded.
"How can you tell the rifle is modified?" Boone asked, raising an eyebrow to the girl's keen eye spotting his modifications.
"Easy. The receiver is obviously bulkier than a normal one, with a few mechanisms added to give a little more kick. This brings the negative effect of the rifle only being able to hold a five round clip. The bolt is titanium instead of steel, making it lighter and allowing for a faster rate of fire. The scope appears to be built for extremely long range shots, as the length suggests a magnification range from x5 to x10, at least. The stock looks like wood on the surface, but seems to have a metal core to add to damage when being swung, and to avoid recoil." Ruby responded, a cocky smile forming on her lips.
Boone was shocked. Most gun experts had trouble spotting any modifications made to the rifle, and this girl had just listed them like she had built the thing herself, all just from glancing at it for less than a minute. He was about to question her expertise when she continued.
"What's her name?"
"His name is Paciencia. It reminds me to compensate for the clip size by being patient and making every shot count." He responded, patting his rifle to emphasize the connection.
"Seems fitting. I've never been too fond of the .308 round. I find the .50cal to be a bit more fitting to my combat style." Ruby said. The two than began talking about the one thing they both were experts in; High caliber, long range firearms.
As Ruby and Boone began arguing over the concept of a fully automatic sniper rifle, Yang turned to face the courier. "If I may ask, why did you decide to save us? It wouldn't have affected you if you had just left us to die."
The courier looked at the brawler before shaking her head and laughing. "What, just because it's a wasteland means kindness doesn't exist? I happened to be in the mood to save you idiots from becoming deathclaw chow. If you want, I can throw the lot of you back into the canyon as an offering to the damn beast…"
"NO! Sorry if I seemed ungrateful, it's just that most people don't run into a suicidal situation just to save a few girls." Yang responded, hoping she didn't offend her host.
"Don't worry blondie! I'm just screwing with ya. I may be a courier, but if someone is about to get ripped in half, I may as well try and get them out alive instead."
Suddenly, something in Yang's head clicked. The courier job, the air of invincibility, the bullet scars… "Are you the courier they found shot outside of Goodsprings?"
Liz looked at Yang, hand slowly drifting to meet the two scars on her head and temple. "Damn. That name's been spreading across the Mojave like wildfire. Most people who know my story have started callin' me 'The Courier', like some massive title. Honestly, I've never been one for fame, but it sure as hell strokes the ego when someone I don't know recognizes me like some pre-war celebrity."
Yang looked at Liz, observing her in more detail. She was wearing a long, worn out camo duster, with light leather armor underneath. On her arm was a Pip-Boy nearly identical to Yang's, only it emitted an amber light instead of a green one. She was holding a revolver, made of black metal with an ivory grip, the word Lucky engraved on the barrel. On her hip sat a katana, the grip and sheath worn and frayed, but the holes in the sheath that Yang could see through showed that the blade was very well maintained. On her lap sat a leaver action repeater, wooden stock chipped from age. She had jet black hair, with a few streaks of purple mixed in, pulled back into a ponytail. Her eyes, like her hair, were a deep purple.
Yang was thinking of ways to break the awkward silence, when a sudden crash sounded from behind her. Yang quickly turned around, ready for a fight. What she saw was… intriguing, to say the least. Blake was chasing a red dot, which ED-E was managing to emit from the laser on his underbelly. Needless to say, Yang immediately fell backwards off the log and began laughing.
After calming down, Liz thumbed a few commands into her Pip-Boy, causing a miscellaneous collection of bottles to appear. "Anyone up for a drink?"
Liz tossed a beer to Yang, who proceeded to open it and take a swig. Boone grabbed a bottle of scotch, and handed Ruby a bottle of Sunset Sarsaparilla before she could reach for a glowing blue bottle labeled Nuka Cola Quantum. Blake grabbed a bottle of red wine, sipping slowly. Ruby looked up, wondering where Weiss was, when she saw Weiss and Cass, passed out and leaning against each other, a bottle of whisky in the cowgirl's hand, a bottle of vodka in the heiress'.
The next morning, the two teams packed their equipment and prepared to leave the town. Blake made another dose of what Yang started calling 'the refreshing beverage', and gave a dose to Weiss and Cass. As soon as each party had their equipment ready to travel, Ruby walked up to Liz. "Thanks again for the help."
"Don't mention it, just being a nice person. Anyway, where are you four headed?" Liz asked, interested where the young courier's package was bound.
"We're headed up towards Camp McCarran." Ruby responded.
Liz thought for a moment, before looking at the group of teens. "We're headed that way too. If you guys wanted to, I don't know… travel together, than I'm ok wi… AH!"
Ruby immediately jumped onto Liz's back, literally vibrating in excitement. "THEN LET'S GET GOING!"
AN: Well, that was a fun chapter to write. Did I do ok? Does anyone like/dislike where I'm going with Liz? I'm going for a 'Wasteland Samurai + badass Sheriff' feel with her, and hope to develop her as a character because remember: even though they will help along the way, team RWBY will not be the only ones deciding the final fate of Vegas. That job falls upon the Courier herself. I'm going to go through with the story like normal until everyone meets house and Benny is handled, but after that, I'll see where you people want the game's story to go, and try to sail the story that way (as long as it doesn't lead to the Legion ending). Now, time for a few comment responses:
BlueScreen26: I added the Pip-Boy and V.A.T.S. almost as a way to balance out the lack of the team's core weapons and abilities. I think they add a little bit of flair to the story, and make it a little easier to explain the team carrying their equipment. VATS won't be used a freakish amount of the time, but will be used in some key moments. On the note of realism, I think that went out the window with the fact that it's RWBY plus New Vegas! Doc giving the team the gear was done out of the old man's heart, as A: He realizes there is no way he is going to use the stuff B: He is unwilling to allow a group of children to go into the wasteland without at least some equipment, and C: I thought the Courier's Stash gear plus a few small tweaks would be perfect for the team's starting gear in the wasteland. I'm sorry for these small details not pleasing you, and I thank you for liking the rest of the story anyway.
Everyone who answered the random question: Blake made the refreshing beverage from Fallout 4 to kill Weiss' hangover. Good job to everyone that got it!
Kien Kotei: Thanks for another review! On the note of Weiss, I won't make her swear 24/7 (That will eventually be Yang's job), but this chapter was special. What would you do if you woke up with a hangover and a 15 year old sharpshooter tackled you? PS: Thanks for agreeing to be my beta.