Disclaimer: I do not own the fallout series, I simply write stories based on Bethesda softwork's Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 3, most of my info is based on knowledge from the Fallout Three and New Vegas, along with .Com, and my own ideas for the story. So please Bethesda spies, do not hunt me down with lawsuits, I am just a fan boy with a wild hair to right a story based on a good series.

Objects in this story may be made up, please refer to .com to reference any items or events, if I have stated something in error, please leave it in the review section. I am trying to write this story as best I can to the feel of the fallout story, though some places visited have been mostly spared of radiation, and my view of the fates of the other countries in the world are based on my speculations, and like I said earlier, if I have been in error of fact, please tell me so in the reviews as well as a link to any sites with said info. Also it is mentioned in the fallout bible that the NCR does have Aerial and mechanized units, so they will be present in the story.

Also sorry it has been a bit of time to post this story, been in Las Vegas (oh the irony) for my 21st birthday.

Chapter Two: Five by fuck!

(The next day)

Dak waited outside the McCarren terminal building, taking another long drag on his cigarette and repeatedly check the clock on his Vault-Tec PDA (personal data assistant). It was a little handheld device that was used before the great war by people in the old world in their daily tasks. The clock read it was 3 p.m. and Dak scanned the camp. The Courier hadn't shown up yet, neither did any of his friends besides the ghoul Raul, or was it Miguel? He wasn't too sure since the jumpsuit the ghoul was wearing had the tag saying Miguel on it. Then Dak's ears twitched at a change of sound in the air, it was a faint whipping sound that was slowly getting louder. Dak shielded his eyes from the merciless Nevada sun as he looked around for what he guessed must have been the Vertibird that was supposed to be here already. A flash caught his eye on the horizon and was quickly joined by a second dot that was rapidly growing into two Vertibirds. What the hell? I thought we were only being sent in with a small team, where are two Verts coming? Dak wondered then his skin began to crawl and he thumbed his light machine gun's safety off, Shit they could be Enclave, I thought they were wiped out long ago. As the Vertibirds came closer, small symbols began to form on the fuselage and hull of the craft. NCR, okay good those are our birds. Dak realized he had been holding his breath and let it out in a rush.

"What the hell is that? Enclave?" A trooper behind him asked.

"No you moron, we kicked their asses back at Navarro, after their little oil rig got blown up," another replied, followed by a sound of someone being smacked.

"Back to work assholes, those are our birds, so stop your jaw jacking or I will start cracking them!" came a voice so stern and aggressive that it even turned Dak's blood cold, "What the hell are you doing you useless meat bag, standing there gawking at pretty little fly boys?"

Dak turned around and was so close to the man with what could only be the devil's voice that he could smell his last meal. It was one of the NCR drill instructors based at McCarren and he was Dak's height but with his demeanor and the murderous scowl playing across his face, he seemed to grow three feet taller. "Si…sir those Vertibirds are here for my squad, I am part of the 22nd rangers," Dak managed to feebly reply under the deadly glare of the drill instructor and I see his eyes fall upon my collar, noticing the officers bars pinned on my uniform and he steps back and snaps off a salute.

"Sorry sir, I thought you were another slack jaw, pansy ass trooper standing around doing jack shit and fondling himself," The drill instructor's neck seemed to pulse as he shot a dirty look at a couple of troopers standing around talking, the troopers catch the stare and turn ghost white in the face and hurry off to whatever task they were originally assigned to.

Dak was slightly irritated by the drill instructor's pervious verbal assault and his own inability to tell the instructor who he was but brushed the thought aside, "it's okay D.I., just next time make sure you know who you are verbally beating down before you start, others may not take kindly to it." He nodded at the instructor and returned the salute from the D.I.

With that, the D.I. turned around and surveyed the base and already his muscles in his neck started pulsing as he zeroed in on a group of troopers sitting on crates and talking. With jaw clenched, the D.I. moved across the yard, eyes locked on the troopers and yelling incoherent threats and insults, and judging by the things he said, Dak assumed he must be very familiar with their mothers.

Dak sighed and chuckled as he saw the instructor pull out a police baton and waved it menacingly at the troopers who scattered like a pack of brahmin being chased by a nightstalker. Then the whipping sound of propeller blades caught his attention again and turned to spot the Vertibirds, he was surprised to see they were about ready to land. That's weird, normally those things are so noisy you can hear one passing over freeside from here, He pondered as he looked up, shielding his eyes from the sun. The two Vertibirds were slightly different in design, both were in the shape of some kind of flying insect from the old world…a dragon fly but one was shorter than the other and was sporting weaponry under its wings and a turret on its nose. That is probably one of the Vertibird gunships taken by the NCR during the NCR-Enclave campaign, Dak nodded as he had to admire its deadly looking beauty; I wonder what the gunship is here for. A pit formed in his stomach, something he always got whenever things would get bad.

"Soldier, you might want to get back, you're in their landing zone," came a voice from behind him.

Dak quickly retreated backwards and saw the Vertibirds slowly glide down. He spun around in place to see who had spoke to him and spied Colonel James Hsu, the acting commander of Camp McCarren, standing between two tents with a cigarette protruding from his lips and Dak instantly snapped off a salute. "Colonel! I didn't realize I was in the landing zone, thank you, I don't think my ride would be gracious towards me if I had kept standing there," Dak managed to spew out his words nervously. What is with me today? I am too on edge lately.

Colonel Hsu smiled and returned the salute, "at easy ranger, I take it you're with the 22nd."

"Yes sir," Dak responded as he stood at attention.

"What is your name?" Colonel Hsu's eyes locked in on Dak and even though his tag was right on his chest, he knew that the Colonel was probably making sure that Dak was really a ranger and not an infiltrator, it was the worst kept secret that McCarren had been infiltrated before the second battle of Hoover Dam.

"2nd Lt. Dak Stevens sir, 22nd Rangers," he wondered why he added his unit, Colonel Hsu already knew his unit.

Colonel Hsu nodded and extinguished his cigarette and motioned for Dak to come closer. Walking towards the Colonel, Dak heard the main gate rumble open and saw three NCR supply trucks pull in as the gates were opened fully and the lead truck pulled in front of the terminal building. The Colonel was also observing the truck, a hint of suspicion in his eyes that seemed to evaporate as he saw whoever was getting out of the truck, though Dak's view was blocked by the tent in front of him.

Then the Colonel smiled and started talking to someone behind the tent and pointed towards Dak and the Vertibirds. "The Vertibirds are here Jamieson, they just need to have a last minute check up and restocked before take off," Colonel Hsu said in a reply to a question that the Courier must have asked.

Jamieson rounded the corner and spotted Dak and moved towards him holding a rucksack. "I see you didn't get the revised time huh Dak?" Jamieson asked as he set his rucksack down.

"No, I must have missed it; I decided to hike it from Camp Golf to here last night," Dak leaned against one of the posts that used to be parking lights back when this area was a parking lot back in the old world, "got a little tricky getting past those psychotic fiends, had to take out a couple and ended up being chased almost to the gates."

"And that is why you don't travel alone in New Vegas," Jamieson stated as he light up a cigarette, "otherwise you'll end up like me, a bullet in the head and changing the outcome of a war."

Dak chuckled and lit his own cigarette as Hsu and Jamieson started talking again, Boone walked past Dak and nodded grimly to him and moved to the now powered down Vertibirds and stowing his gear inside. Dak's insides turned cold at seeing the old, grim Boone returned, it was always followed by trouble and conflict, much like his life after Bitter Springs, a story that was told to him by Jamieson. The three other rangers showed up and all nodded at Dak, two of them were 20 year vets and therefore were sporting black NCR ranger armor and the other one was a regular Ranger like Dak. They all lined up in front of Dak and saluted him. He saluted back, but awkwardly so, due to the fact that these men have been with the NCR long enough to remember the first march into New Vegas and a smaller NCR.

The first ranger in the line was Mendoza, a medium build, Hispanic man from southern NCR, and used a light machine gun, a 9mm pistol, and a machete, which was odd because most rangers were known to use revolver and lever action weapons and he was using an automatic rifle. The next man was actually a ghoul by the name of Hank, Hank was from the old world and had owned a ranch in southern Nevada and kept referring to Vegas as "Las Vegas". He was sporting a Brush rifle and two .357 magnum revolvers with two combat knives strapped to his chest, looking more like a bandito than a ranger, the only difference was Hank was wearing black NCR armor. The last man was a veteran ranger that went by the name of Gabriel, a man more shrouded in mystery than the Big Empty, he came packed with a grenade launcher, a sword that he had found in an old Chinese house that must have been used for spying during the old world, and a brush rifle also. They all moved towards the transport Vertibird and stowed their gear and strapped themselves in.

"Time to get moving Lt. Stevens," Hsu voice came from behind.

"Yes sir," Dak turned and saluted the Colonel and was surprised to see his hand stuck out waiting to be shaken. Dak took his hand and shook it.

"Good luck son, this is an important mission they are giving you rangers, go spread our word and help the NCR grow," Hsu shook his hand firmly and released his grip.

"We will sir," Dak nodded as he picked up his bag and headed for the Vertibird. Jamieson was already situated next to Boone and Raul, the ghoul must have gotten on with Jamieson when Dak and Hsu were talking; all three were talking in low murmurs. Hank and Mendoza were talking away with speculation of the missions. Gabriel held a small book with what looked like a lower case "t" on it, than Dak felt ashamed as he realized the "t" was actually a cross and he was actually reading a bible. He didn't speak to anyone, just sat there, mouthing the words he was reading and his eyes darted back and forth across the page in an almost manic tempo. Sitting down, Dak buckled in and closed his eyes to try and rest. Slowly sleep started to overcome him as the Vertibird slowly lifted off.

(Seven hours later)

Dak's eyes flew open as the Vertibird rocked back and forth violently. The passenger bay was glowing in a dull red with a flashing light. He looked around and saw concern in all the eyes of the people in the bay. "What the hell is going on pilot?"Dak screamed out over the roar of the engines and clattering equipment.

"Sir, we are encountering hostile fire, we are just outside Wenatchee Nation Forest," The pilot yelled back as he struggled to control the craft, "We got winged by a missile and lost hydraulics on the left wing."

An explosion rocked the Vertibird. "Holy shit! The gunship is going down!" The pilot screamed.

Dak looked out the window and saw the smaller bird falling towards the ground with its wings ripping off. The craft handed hard among the trees, knocking a few down. "Pilot, take us down at the clearing there! We have to check for survivors!" Dak yelled as a siren kicked on because a lack of air pressure set in.

"Roger that sir!" The pilot dodged another missile launcher and glided towards the clearing.

"Rangers, ready up! We are in hostile land and they obviously got some heavy gear, weapons and ammo only, we are going to pull and survivors from the crash and get them back here!" Dak yelled as he pulled out his Marksman Carbine along with his weapons and retrieved his weapons bag. The others readied their weapons and all lined up at the back hatch. It dropped open and they charged out of the craft and crouched around the wheat field.

"Hank, Mendoza, and Raul, stay here and guard the Vertibird, no one comes close unless it's us or the crew from the gunship, everyone else, follow me," Dak ordered as he moved out across the field, cursing himself for the lack of cover of his choice of landing zones.

They dashed across the field, pointing their guns at anything that moved and as they neared the tree line, Dak could make out movement in the tree line and saw a glint of a scope. "Get down!" he yelled as he dove for the ground, a fury of bullets sprayed across where Dak was standing only moments before. Looking around, he noticed that all the others had taken cover too.

"Jamieson, Boone, give covering fire on the stand of trees over there and cover me and Gabriel as we move towards that old wreck over there," Dak pointed to an old rusted tractor and moved as soon as Boone and Jamieson opened fire. He dashed across the field till he reached the old husk and sighted in on a man wearing green combat armor and fired five quick shots, one bounced off his armor but the other four struck his body and he toppled to the ground. Dak sighted in a second man wearing the same armor and dropped him quickly. Just then, he heard screaming come from the tree line and saw the troopers try to break cover and run towards them. What the hell? Are they charging us? Dak peaked up more to get a better view and saw an enemy soldier get thrown from the tree line and was quickly followed by what looked like Yao Guai but they didn't look irradiated like in California or Nevada. The Yao Guai tore through the soldiers with frightening speed and strength and Dak motioned Jamieson and the others to stay down.

One of the beasts pinned down one of the hostiles and bit into his neck and giving it a vicious jerk of its head, being rewarded with a cascade of blood spraying into its face and into the air. The beast stood on its hind legs and sniffed the air in their direction, Dak held his breath, worried that his breath would give him away. If the beast had sniffed them out, it must have not cared, because it turned around and walked back into the woods, dragging a corpse of one of the men in green armor with it.