Courier's Journal: Week One
Day 5: October 23rd 2281
Anniversary of the Great War today. Here's to two hundred and four years of Old World Blues.
I got a lot of reading in last night. I had light sources this time, and wasn't much in the mood to sleep, so I got through most of my collection, and they were all useful in different ways. The Chinese Army manual had some good stuff for stealth techniques. Lying, Congressional Style was a deeply cynical and depressing read, but had some good tips about public speaking. Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor detailed how a man sold his mother, which was... great? Guns and Bullets had an interesting feature on firefight tactics. Pugilism Illustrated showed off some professional boxing techniques which could be useful. And Duck and Cover! is always good for a refresher, even if there's not much in there that's new to me.
Once morning came, I decided to delay my journey a little. I wanted to help the situation at the outpost after spending much of the previous day hearing about how bad it was, so I went to the main office to find someone in charge. After flirting a bit with the major on the front desk, and getting some of my equipment repaired, I met with Ranger Jackson. He told me that I could help by clearing out the ants on the I-15. I'd avoided them on my way in, since there were a lot of them around and I didn't want to deal with that, but I figured if it would help the NCR get things back on track around here, it couldn't hurt too much to go back for them. So I did.
The ant extermination was uneventful. I walked all the way back to the patrol station, killing any ants I found on the road, and even exterminating the large population in the Ivanpah Dry Lake, all without any major interruption. It almost would've been tedious if it weren't for my new Pip-Boy and Radio New Vegas. I really like the song selection they have. And I had to laugh when Mr. New Vegas read the news, and mentioned a package courier in Goodsprings making a full recovery after being shot in the head. I really hope that asshole in the suit was listening to that one.
Though he couldn't officially pay me for my services, Ranger Jackson rewarded me when I got back with a hundred caps, two weapon repair kits, a pair of caravan lunches, and a service rifle of the kind used by NCR troopers, along with seventy-two armour-piercing rounds for it. These would have been useful to have before I went to Nipton yesterday, but hey, that's not his fault, and at least I have them now.
Once my business at the Mojave Outpost was concluded, I continued on the road back towards Nipton. As much as I did not want to see that town again, I had to know what became of my attackers, whether they were caught up in the Legion's attack, or whether they made it out in time. For all I knew, the platinum chip could've been somewhere in the ruins there. So when I got back, I set myself to searching.
The place was still smouldering when I arrived. Though the Legion had already left, their banners were still flying, and they'd even left some of their dogs behind in the town hall. I found out a lot about the attack while walking around, observing the damage. Despite the Legion's claims that the town sat back and watched as they killed everyone, and didn't even try to defend themselves or their loved ones, I found significant evidence to the contrary. At least one guy fought back with a laser rifle, and I discovered his body next to a pile of ash that I think was once a legionary, and he wasn't the only Legion casualty I found, either.
I couldn't believe it! I mean, I knew the Legion were mass murdering slavers and rapists, but who would've thought that they were liars as well?
In any case, I searched every building and checked as many bodies and ash piles I could find, but there were no signs of the man in the suit or any Great Khans. In the case of the ash piles, it's a little hard to tell, but the Legion generally didn't take any of the dead people's possessions, which would have easily identified them in this case. So as far as I'm aware, my attackers were not among Nipton's casualties. It's very likely that they all left town in time to make it on to Novac.
To my surprise, I actually found another survivor while searching. A Powder Ganger called Boxcars was still sitting around in the general store, in part due to his legs being smashed. I wanted to help, but he was less than enthused to see me. Legend of my exploits up north have apparently spread among the Powder Gangers. Boxcars called me their "grim fucking reaper," in his own words, which is... fair, honestly. I'd be scared of a guy who killed nearly a hundred men in less than a week, too.
Boxcars was the second prize winner of the lottery, which meant he got to live, but that they broke his legs. After giving him some Med-X for the pain, he gave me the detailed version of what exactly the Legion did to the town. I learned that there had been a number of punishments depending on placement in the lottery. Crucifixions were the worst of it, but some (the "lucky losers," he called them) were quickly decapitated, and a few others were enslaved. The mayor was a special case. He was burned alive on a pile of tyres, which sucks for him, but I can't pretend I'm too broken up about it after what he did. You reap what you sow in this life.
I don't know if Boxcars will ever walk out of that store again. I wanted to help more, but he didn't really want me near him, so aside from the Med-X, I just gave him some food and left him to it.
Searching the rest of the town was much more depressing. The houses were mostly empty, since the residents had been herded outside, though I found Legion corpses in two of them. One had belonged to an introverted techie, whose Mr. Gutsy tried to murder me when I stepped through the door. The other was full of booby traps, including tripwires, pressure plates, mines, rigged shotguns, and even a cage full of scorpions. The owner was apparently really paranoid and protective of his "vital essence," which he thought Mayor Steyn and everyone else in town were trying to steal from him. No idea what the hell he was even talking about, since I didn't find it, but hey, he killed a legionary, so good for him, I guess.
The other buildings in Nipton were less empty. I found a bunch of dead NCR troopers in an office building, and collected their dog tags to pass on to whoever will take them, and there were a lot of dead townsfolk lying around in the town hall, along with those Legion hounds I mentioned earlier. It was weird how many of them they'd left behind. I don't understand the strategic purpose, but it must have been a deliberate plan, because I have no idea how they would've left over a dozen dogs behind by accident. They were very aggressive, too.
I found Steyn's office at the top. His computer didn't reveal much I didn't already know, save for the fact that he was the reason why the Powder Gangers were freely served in the town to begin with, and the reason why they and the NCR soldiers never ran into each other while visiting.
Grim as it was, I looted anything good I could find in Nipton while we were there. It's a tragedy what happened, but somebody was going to come by to pick through the town's carcass sooner or later anyway, so I figured it might as well be me. Better that than leaving it to raiders or passing prospectors. Mostly there was just a lot of food and alcohol in the houses and chems everywhere, but there were also a few interesting weapons, like the laser rifle by the ash pile, or another grenade rifle in the schizophrenic's safe, this one with actual ammunition. I also found another star bottle cap (bringing my count up to fifteen), a rare Nuka-Cola Victory, and a Big Book of Science.
I stayed in town a little while longer after I was done searching. I used the benches in the tinker's house to clean and repair all of my weapons, and I finally remembered how to assemble those weapon repair kits for myself, and made a few with the parts I had on hand. I also mixed up some slasher and some more PTMs, and I skinned and harvested meat from all the Legion hounds I'd killed in the town hall, since there's no sense in letting that all go to waste.
Once finished, I packed up everything I could possibly carry and stashed the rest, and made the trek back to the Mojave Outpost to sell everything. I think I'm getting a little better at trading, because I got a good price for all the meat, hides, and alcohol. I was actually a little weighed down by all the caps afterwards, so I picked up some new combat sights, focus optics, and a recycler for my laser pistol, so now not only can I conserve ammunition with it and get more bang for my buck, but I can also actually aim the fucking thing properly.
And I still have like eight thousand caps left over after all that.
I'm not going back to Nipton again today. It's getting late, and I need to rest and read my new book after all the running around I've done. But tomorrow, I'm going to head back to the town, retrieve the weapons I stashed there, and continue on with my journey. And along the way, I'm going to see if I can find those Powder Gangers who were enslaved after the lottery.
I failed to save Nipton from the Legion, and I failed to avenge it by shooting the man responsible, but I might still be able to redeem myself in some small way. I took one of the dead legionaries' machetes and stripped him of his armour to make a disguise. Hopefully it will hold up better than my ill-fated attempts at masquerading as a Powder Ganger. I don't know what the plan is yet, but this time, I'm not going to freeze up. This time, I'm going to do something.
Hail to the Keeper.
Killed: Giant ants, bark scorpions, a Mr. Gutsy, and Legion dogs (literal, not metaphorical).
Today's dinner: Caravan lunch. Thank you, NCR Rangers.
Had sex with: Nobody. Thought Major Knight at the outpost was promising, but apparently his coworkers are not so open-minded. Said he might see me next time he gets up to Vegas, though. Considered Boxcars too, until I remembered the whole "escaped convict with good reason to want me dead" thing.
Author's notes:
Do you know what, surprisingly, was the biggest pain in the ass for me while planning and writing this story? Aside from getting the game to run without crashing for my test playthrough? It was the weapon mods.
Much like Wanderer's Diary, I'm intending for Courier's Journal to be a hyper completionist runthrough of the game, so that I can show off and use every piece of content that I possibly can (and also because I am a completionist myself, and not playing the test playthrough that way would cause me physical pain). This means that I also intend to have the Courier eventually collect every weapon mod available in the game as well.
But there's a problem. You don't just find weapon mods in New Vegas. You have to buy them. And the Courier needs a character motivation to invest in these mods, so there needs to be a logical progression to them. Why would he shell out for a bunch of laser pistol mods if he already has a fully decked out plasma pistol, for example?
But the game doesn't give you a preset logical progression of weapon mods. Which mods the merchants happen to be carrying is an RNG element. So I figured, whatever, right? Just buy whatever mods are available, and change it to something which makes more sense in the story itself. It works fine for the random encounters in Survivor's Testament.
The only thing that I didn't account for is that different weapon mods cost different amounts, and I don't know the value of each individual mod off by heart. And even if I did, the costs change depending on your barter level and merchant discounts. So basically, I ended up having no idea how many caps the Courier was actually spending in the story, and how much he was supposed to still have, because in my actual playthrough, it's perpetually zero, because I have a box full of random Gun Runner's Arsenal mods instead.
It's a damn good thing that I don't overwrite or delete my old saves.