AN: To clarify, I have made certain changes to Fallout canon both as a result of a modded playthrough and for plot reasons. Most obviously, the Courier and the Lone Wanderer are not the same person in canon. The reason they are in this story is because of a great mod I installed called "A Tale of Two Wastelands." This mod ports the entirety of Fallout 3 into the New Vegas engine and provides a pre-war railroad with which to travel between the two wastelands. Secondly, I reduced the time between taking the G.O.A.T. and leaving the Vault as well as ignored the time difference of nine years between Fallout 3 and New Vegas so that the Lone Courier is not nearly twice the age of the characters of RWBY. At some point I will develop and release a modified Fallout timeline for all this. The Courier also has access to modern weapons that would not have existed in the 1950's. This can be explained by the point of divergence in the Fallout universe being inconsistent. There are references to a Vietnam war, hippies, and Reagan being president, all things that are past the post-WW II point of divergence.

Chapter 10 - First World Problems

The Lone Wanderer was in the Royal Library again. He was once again sat down at the same terminal as before, in the same uncomfortable blue plastic chair. The spartan appearance chairs and terminals stood out in odd contrast to the otherwise grandly decorated interior. He had spent several hours here, searching through information he could find regarding anything he would consider relevant.

Despite the amount of information available on the internet, he found that little of it was any use. Most scholarly information was in the more traditional medium of paper books which the Courier tore through voraciously. He had prioritized current information over subjects such as history. Through the course of his research, he had discovered many things. Firstly, from the maps that he had consulted, he was in a place called the Kingdom of Vale which was in a place called Remnant. He also did not recognize the location relative to North America. There appeared to be no maps that encompassed more than the region designated "Remnant". Whether this was the result of simple isolationism, or something more sinister, he had no way of knowing. He did find it peculiar however.

Secondly, he had discovered the "correct" names for all the creatures he had encountered in the forest. The creatures on a whole were known as "Grimm." Likely a reference to the eponymous German brothers.

Guaiclaws were known as Beowolves (strangely enough), the boar-like thing was called Boarbatusk, and the bird of unusual size was in fact called a Nevermore.

Things then became far stranger. Aura and Dust. Those were two four letter words to the Lone Courier. Neither made any sense.

Dust was a highly volatile compound that had a myriad of uses. From what he could find, it was used as gunpowder in this society as well as being able to be controlled by Aura. There appeared to be different kinds of Dust that produced various seemingly magical effects. Still stranger, was Aura. There appeared to be scientific studies that supported that aura was a physical manifestation of the soul. It protected the user from death, but could cause them to collapse from exhaustion if depleted. It could also be used offensively in conjunction with Dust, however this appeared to be extremely difficult requiring enormous concentration.

This whole thing left the Courier baffled. The best scientific explanation he could find for Aura was mentally controlled nanobots that everyone in this area was infected with. However, even he knew that this theory was weak.

The lack of organized religion surrounding Aura meant that there was no motive for deceiving the population if nanobots were in fact being used. Furthermore this place was more than advanced enough to detect microscopic robots.

He decided to perform his own experiments later, and pass the results on to the Brains in the Think Tank for analysis.

In the three days since he had assumed his new identity, the Lone Wanderer had spent most his time modifying his Pip-Boy with the scrolls he had captured so that it had the functionality that they did. The process seemed to take forever, largely due to the differences in technology. However, the end result was that his Pip-Boy could now do everything that a Scroll could, thereby avoiding awkward questions.

He had also created all the accounts and registered for all that a person such as himself would have had as well as spending late nights hacking each site to fake a history of activity on them. If he was going to be stranded here, his story would need to be airtight; he could not afford even the slightest suspicion to be cast on him.

The Courier had purchased large amounts of Dust based ammunition in all calibers that he utilized. From his research, he discovered that dust based bullets did not break the sound barrier and in fact traveled significantly slower than their conventional counterparts. However, the Dust made them extremely effective against soft targets as the shape of shell impacted in a particularly brutal manner. The projectiles fared far less favorable against armored enemies or robots.

In that vein of thought, the Lone Wanderer had also discovered that most of the military was robotic. Peculiarly, the units were bipedal and looked generally rather humanoid. Fortunately, none of the units appeared to be sentient. He knew from President Eden, as well as the Institute, that bad things came from sentient AI. His Brotherhood of Steel side mandated that he keep a close eye on AI and weapons research to ensure that these people did not destroy the world again. An AI induced apocalypse would likely be more permanent than the nuclear one.

The educational system seemed very strange to the Courier, it appeared that a significant portion of children went to "combat schools" where they trained to be "huntsmen" and "huntresses". Contrary to the standard denotation of the words, huntsmen and huntresses primary purpose was to hunt not animals, but Grimm. The word choice of "huntsman" was strange. It was an archaic word, not ordinarily used and never in this context.

In addition, said huntsmen also fulfilled roles similar to pre-war SWAT or Germany's GSG9 in assisting law enforcement. He was not at all comfortable with this idea. While the wasteland was merciless to children, to him it was abhorrent that a apparently civilized society would use what amounted to child soldiers. Starting military training at so young an age was effectively indoctrination and something he found reminiscent of the Legion or the Agoge of ancient Sparta. Yet, things here gave no indication of a heavily militarized society.

This also meant that when he had created records and transcripts stating that he had been privately tutored, these were records largely of combat training.

The Lone Courier felt that his plan of integrating into this society and hiding in plain sight until he could get the Transportalponder working was proceeding well. So far, he had given no one any reason to suspect him of being anything other than the paperwork said he was. He was confident in his abilities to construct lies in the moment or deflect questions if someone tried to pry. Still, he did his best to avoid social interaction, mostly observing the habits of others. One of the strangest things about this place was that the vast majority of people he saw were happy.

While happiness was not rare in the wasteland, it was by no means the norm. Most likely due to the depressing atmosphere of the post-apocalypse, the majority of people had become pessimists. Burdened with the knowledge that they had been born into a destroyed world and believing that they would die without any positive change.

In Vale, it appeared, that everyone was the physical antithesis of this attitude. From their brightly colored clothes to the cheerful tone with which they spoke, the residents of Vale were overall far happier than existence than those of the wasteland. And why shouldn't they? They had a far higher standard of living than virtually anyone in the Wasteland. As well, they did not need to worry about their safety. Even with the ever-present threat of the Grimm, the citizens of Vale were still safer than the Mcnamara Brotherhood in their bunker.

Despite his best efforts, the Courier could not help but resent them for their obliviousness. While it was not the fault of Vale that millions of people a world away were suffering, the stark contrast in the quality of life felt unjust. He hoped that the technology that these people possessed could be brought back to the wasteland. It Could help both the NCR and the Lyons Brotherhood to rebuild civilization. Technologies that were taken for granted here would be invaluable in the wasteland.

The Lone Courier was awakened from his brooding by an unfamiliar noise that appeared to originate from his Pip-boy. it took a second for the Courier to realize that the sound was a result of him integrating the "scrolls" with his Pip-boy. In order to cease the dirty looks he was receiving, he tabbed into "data" and then into then went into the new "messages" section.

"Message: REMINDER: New student of Beacon Academy, please report to the Beacon skyport tomorrow at 2 pm for the start of the school year."

The Courier was aware that he was, quite frankly, totally screwed. He had not paid much attention when selecting his current educational enrollment and was now paying the the price. At the time, it was merely another box to fill. It was meant only to deceive those that checked his records, not have any tangible impact. Now, Beacon was aware of his existence. Great.

In his research, he had learned two things about Beacon: one, that it was a prestigious combat school. Two, that it was the many towered complex on top of the cliff in the center of the city. Now, with term apparently starting tomorrow, he had painted himself into a proverbial corner. Withdrawing from a prestigious school a day before the school year started would be highly unusual and most draw large amounts of unwanted attention from whomever dealt with administrative affairs at Beacon.

The problem with going to Beacon is that it would mean giving up most of his freedom. He would be constantly under observation and have to maintain an act twenty-four hours a day for however long he stayed there for. On the plus side, he would be receiving information about this new place and would remain in the city. Escaping observation should also not be too difficult. While it might slow his progress towards repairing the Transportalponder, it shouldn't hinder him too significantly. But that was besides the point. All in all, he really had no choice. The Lone Courier would be attending Beacon academy.