A/N: This is based purely on my playthrough of New Vegas, my choices will be explained in the story. also, I don't know all of the fallout lore, so I don't want no 9 years olds in the comments saying how "Oh the color of the riot gear wasn't red it's green" ok? also I'm not the best writer, so advice is appreciated.
Goodsprings graveyard, 1 month before the battle of hoover dam.
The courier woke up on his knees, with his hands bound.
"What happened" The courier thought.
"you got what you were after, now pay up," a voice said
"you're crying in the rain pally," a second voice said.
"Look who's waking up over here," a third voice said.
the courier looked up to see Jessup, and McMurphy, 2 great khans he'd met in boulder city, and standing in between them was none other than Benny.
the courier tried to say something, but all that would come out of his mouth is the beautiful sound of silence.
"From where you're kneeling it might seem like an 18-carat run of bad luck," Benny said while pulling out a gun, "Truth is... the game was rigged from the start."
BANG!
Texas, 2 months after the battle of hoover dam.
the courier jolted awake. he looked around his tent and saw his pet eye bot ED-E.
"ED-E," the courier said, "What happened?"
"[worried beeps]," ED-E said.
"tossing and turning in my sleep huh," the courier said.
"[confirmed beeping]" ED-E said, "[curious beeping]"
"Yeah I had a dream about that night again," the courier said, "sorry for making you worried."
The courier looked outside.
"welp its time to wake everyone up," he said.
the courier got up and left his tent. 3 other small tents were surrounding a campfire.
"Alright ladies!" the courier yelled, "Get yourselves situated. we leave in 2 hours."
the courier sided with the NCR along the road to the second battle of hoover dam, and with siding with them, he made sure that, by the time the second battle of hoove dam came, the legion was nearly crippled. he did this by both killing caesar, and (With the help of fellow courier Ulysses) nuked all of the legions territories. during the second battle of hoover dam, he used this information to convince the legion to get out of the Mojave. to where? nobody knew at the time.
a month passes by and the NCR gets a message from a group in san Antonio texas calling themselves "The Freedom Fighters." These "Fighters" said they were attacked by a legion and thought it would be of NCR's best interest to send men down there to aid them. the NCR sent the courier and some troops to texas to aid the "Fighters" against the legion.
once he finished waking everybody up the courier returned to his tent to get his loadout, elite riot gear (for brand representation), a hunting revolver (for long-distance encounters), a combat knife (For practical reasons), and his trusty medicine stick (straight from the gun runners arsenal). he packed up his tent and once he finished he looked to some troops sitting around a newly furnished campfire eating breakfast. he got out a sunset sasparilla and sat down next to them.
"So how are y'all doing," the courier asked.
"I'm missing my girl over in California right now," a trooper said, "probably going to propose to her once my commitment is up."
"You know your friend Boone," another trooper said, "turns out he snores super fucken loudly. why did we bring him specifically along."
"One of the best spotters I know," the courier said, "considering that he was the one who spotted most of the mutated shit in Arizona, I think it was a great choice to include him."
"speaking of Boone," the courier continued, "where is he, we're about to head out and we need him as our spotter."
"I'm right here," Boone said in a somewhat tired voice.
"Ok well pack your tent, we're leaving soon," the courier told Boone.
the courier and his men traveled through the texas wasteland, towards San Antonio. last week they made it to El Paso, an old-world city that was meant to welcome people into America. It is now conquered by the wasteland. since then they have done nothing but walking and camping.
they walked for what felt like miles before a trooper asked, "how long until we get there sir."
"I don't know," the courier said, "why you asking"
"Because we've been walking for hours sir and it's bothering my feet sir," The trooper said.
the courier had come to terms with the fact that these soldiers were not the sharpest tools in the shed a week into the journey from California to Texas. but is moral so low that people are complaining about something as little as their feet bothering them. the courier was gonna have to come up with a way of keeping them distracted.
"Oh yeah, you boys said you listened to the radio to pass the time, why don't you sing a song from there?" the courier suggested.
it took the troopers a minute to think of something but then they started singing "anything goes" by Cole Porter. this bothered the courier for 1 reason. when anyone tries to sing it, they either try to sound like cole porter or they don't, and it bothers the courier either way because if they try, the singers are almost always annoying, and when they don't try, it's like they won't even respect the song. when his troopers sing it's a mixture of both.
after a few minutes of singing, they made it to the edge of San Antonio.
"Alright men be quiet," the courier said, "I'm only going to say this once, while they might've invited us over they might be setting us up, so whatever you do don't let your guard down, you hear me."
"psst," a voice whispered from one of the abandoned buildings.
the group pointed their guns in the direction of the voice.
"Woah woah," the voice came out with his hands up, "I'm with the freedom fighters, they sent me to escort you and your team to our base."
the courier and his men put their guns down and followed the fighter.
they followed him until they came across an old mission. there was a sign next to it that said "The alamo." the fighter knocked on the front door of the alamo and it opened to reveal a small camp.
while the courier and his troops were walking through the camp a man stopped them, "I'm sorry sir, but I'm going to have to ask you to remove all your weapons, please."
"Listen I get all the concern you have, but we need these guns to ensure that if you or you men try anything we'll be prepared," the courier said.
"And I understand the concern you have, which is why I need you to remove your weapons," the man said.
the courier and the man went back and forth for a few seconds until a female voice shouted, "What's going on here."
the voice walked towards them to reveal none other than cass, his old companion.
"the general is over in the main tent wondering what is taking so lo..." cass looked at the courier.
"Well well well, if it isn't Ms. rose of Sharon Cassidy herself," the courier said.
"I should've known NCR would've sent their greatest weapon," cass asked.
"what are you doing here," the courier asked.
cass was about to say something when the man spoke up.
"Wait," the man said, "you know this guy."
"Yes, we traveled the Mojave together for some time," cass responded.
"Are they trustworthy," the man asked.
"Yeah we can trust them," cass said.
"wait," an NCR trooper said, "what happened to 'don't let your guard down'"
"That was before we knew if it was an ambush or not," the courier said.
while everyone dispersed around the alamo the courier entered what looked to be the main tent, inside was a strategy table with a map on it, and a man wearing star-spangled combat armor.
"These guys really love their pre-war America don't they," the courier thought.
"You must be with the NCR. With how long it took you to get here, I was beginning to think you didn't get our message," the star-spangled man said, "My names general Douglass, welcome to the alamo."
"Yeah I heard you had a legion problem, I'm here to fix it," the courier said sarcastically.
"Ha, well our intel suggests that an ex raider was taken over by the legion a few months back," Douglass said, "This base was located over here."
The general pointed at a place on the map that said "La Villita"
"with most of the buildings around the camp destroyed our forces combined should make an attack on the camp swift and painless," Douglass said, "we were thinking of using our combined forces to surround the camp and 'squeeze' them in. but as of right now get some rest, and get ready for tomorrow."
that night
the courier, cass, and his men sat around a campfire eating their dinner when the courier asked, "so cass, how did you end up here in texas anyway?"
"Well..." cass started, "I remember after hoover dam, I created another caravan and started going east, figured it would be safer with the legion hiding. One day I came across this small town in texas called "Modessa," which was run by "the freedom fighters," a group dedicated to waging war on raider gangs. they needed more recruits and I joined because, after adventuring the Mojave with you, being a caravaneer wasn't exciting anymore. I was in the group for a week until they sent us here to claim the alamo and take care of the local raiders by any means necessary, we came here and we are still taking care of the raiders."
"must be one hell of a war then," the courier said.
they ate for a bit until a trooper spoke up.
"On the topic of stories, what's your sir?" the trooper said.
"Why do you want to know my story?" the courier asked.
"Because we've all told you our stories, given you a reason to, in your words 'give a fuck about us,'" the trooper said, "why should we give a fuck about you."
"you don't know Boone's story and you seem to give a fuck about him," the courier replied.
"Yeah but thats because it seems if you ask him what his story is, he'll shoot you," the trooper said, "also he's kept us alive this far, how could you not give a fuck about him."
"True, true, Ok, here it goes," I said, "I was born in the Mojave to two loving parents, lived a pretty good life until some raiders killed my parents when I was 14. I learned how to purify irradiated water and I was decent at using a 9mm but I had no way of making caps. thats when I came across Primm and Mojave express, thought it would be a good idea to be a courier, traverse the land. I was a courier for about 18 years until the whole 'benny' incident happened and the rest is history."
"you know, for being the NCR's hero, I was expecting the story to be a bit more epic," the trooper said.
the courier was offended for a second until he remembered that his story was another generic wasteland story.
"Well sorry to disappoint you man," the courier said, "but I'm just like the rest of you, a man trying to survive."
"So why'd you choose the NCR," a trooper asked.
"Mr. house seemed like your average rich guy, I hate your average rich guy's," the courier said, "and I was never really a fan of the whole, 'owning human beings' concept so the legion was out. I did search benny's suite one time, found this weird robot that always agreed with me, it creeped the hell out of me. so I only had one option left, the NCR."
the courier went to sip his sunset sasparilla when he realized there was nothing in his bottle.
"Alright, I'm going to check out for the night," the courier said, "goodnight."
Hidden valley, 2 months ago.
The courier woke up expecting to wake up on his knees again, instead, he was in the brotherhood of steel's bunker with the alarms blaring and veronica, his old companion, standing in front of him.
her voice echoed throughout the bunker, but her mouth wasn't moving.
"The brotherhood is like my family," her voice said, "even though they don't know what they're doing, I still love them."
the veronica in front of him spoke, "If your willing to destroy the brotherhood, my family, then I don't think I can travel with you any longer."
"Wait," the courier said, "but if you don't escape, you'll die."
"At least I'll be dying with my family," veronica said.
the alamo, present day.
the courier was startled awake. he looked around to see that it was morning. ED-E stared at the courier.
"[worried beeps]," ED-E said.
"No, I had a different dream this time," the courier said, "I had a dream about Veronica and the fact that I killed her family on NCR's orders."
"[you feeling guilty beeps]," ED-E said.
"Yeah a little," the courier said, "But whatever, I did it for the great or good of the Mojave."
the courier got up, grabbed his loadout, and walked outside to a pleasant surprise. his men were awake before he was.
"You guys are up early," the courier said, "What's the occasion."
"We're about to end the mission sir," one of the troopers said, "we're eager to get it over with."
"did you already eat," the courier asked.
his men nodded their heads.
"where's Boone?" the courier asked
"He said he was going to scout out the area," the trooper said, "to get a good vantage point. he said to give this to you."
the trooper handed the courier a radio
"he said that if you needed to contact him to use that," the trooper said.
the courier looked around before asking, "what about our freedom friends, are they ready to depart yet?"
"Ready and rearing to go," one of the fighters said.
"Well then, let's move out," the courier said.
together with the fighters, the NCR troops moved towards the camp. after a few minutes of walking, they made it to the camp. the courier gave the signal and the group dispersed around the camp.
the courier radioed Boone,
"Hey man, is everyone in position?" he asked,
"Yeah," Boone said, "feel free to attack at any time."
the courier got up from his position aimed at a legionary and fired. then gunfire erupted around the camp and the battle was underway.
after a few more seconds of gunfire, the courier's troops were able to break through the wall that surrounded the camp. the courier and his troops invaded the inner camp and all hell was unleashed.
the courier fought bravely aside his men, blowing the heads off of legionaries left and right.
"I see cowboy guns are still your specialty," cass said to the courier.
the courier was about to say something whity back, but a figure ran up to him and tackled him, the figure put him in a chokehold.
"I told you one day we'd meet on the battlefield," the figure said.
the courier tried to look at the figures face, only to see the legate Lanius' mask.
"You can run that fast!?" the courier said, "the stories they told about you never said anything about that!"
the Legate Lanius put his arm up and punched the courier 3 times
the first punch was enough to give someone a concussion.
the second punch left a crack in the courier's riot helmet, his eye was able to be seen in the space the crack left.
the third punch knocked his helmet completely off.
the legate readied his arm for a 4th punch that was probably going to finish the courier off when ED-E charged at the legate while firing his laser bolts at him. the legate dropped the courier caught ED-E like a football, put ED-E between his paws, and started to apply pressure.
"ED-E, NO!" the courier screamed.
the courier got out his medicine stick and started firing at the legate, who dropped the nearly crushed ED-E and started walking towards the courier. he grabbed the courier's medicine stick and snapped it like a twig. he then lifted his leg to crush the courier when Boone shot the legate in the forehead making him stumble backward. then Cass came up behind the legate and shot him with her shotgun. the legate returned the favor by kicking her in the chest and sending her 3 yards away.
while all the was going on the courier noticed a flaw in the legate's armor, there wasn't any plating around his kneck, so a well-placed shot should make this Fucker suffer.
as the legate walked up to the courier to bash his head in, the courier got out his hunting revolver cocked it and...
BANG!
the legate grabbed his throat and started coughing. soon the coughs turned into gurgles. blood started to drip from the bottom of his mask. he was on his knees trying to take his mask off. the courier noticed this and helped him get it off, all the while Ulysses voice played in his head,
"no one has ever seen his face," Ulysses said, "he cut his slaves eyes out so he could take his helmet off as well."
by now silence filled the battlefield as everyone looked at the legate dying on the ground. the courier looked in horror as the legate coughed up blood. the legate looked at the courier, and for a moment there was fear in the legate's eyes, but that fear turned into amusement as the legate started to cough harder and faster. the legate then got on his back and died with a smile on his face.
the courier understood why he was having these nightmares now, he was feeling guilty about the people he's killed because whether they deserved to die or not, they were all trying to survive out in the wasteland, just like the rest of us. and it all started when benny shot him in the head.