Chapter 1

People Are Very Strange I

"Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons."

-General Macarthur

"Cord, go get those guys on the left! Dogmeat, help him!"

I nodded. "Got it, Mil!"

"I'm on it!"

Big Town was a prime target for Super Mutants in the area, and we showed up at a good time to kill a few of the big green idiots. I still absolutely hated them for how easy of a target I was as a human, and I wasn't above taunting them as my claws raked across their bodies.

I'm 20 years old. That doesn't mean I'm above things I did when I was 19 years old... then again, I wasn't a deathclaw when I was 19 years old.

It wasn't long before I took a few bullets from the green men I was sent to kill, but because the big deathclaw seems like more of a threat than the dog, they focused on me. The mistake they made was thinking I was tougher than Dogmeat.

That furball picks on me endlessly and truly never accepted my apology for betraying Milly, though he does welcome me as part of the family. He simply never said "apology accepted".

I digress. While one of my paws swiped at the Super Mutant's chest, the other stabbed into his neck and brought him down fairly easily. The other stopped attacking me as Dogmeat caught him by the neck (something that he did to me when I was betraying Milly, though he didn't squeeze hard enough to kill me). With my guy done, I thought I could return to Milly, and then a Super Mutant threw a grenade at me.

It hit me in the back and landed by my feet, but it didn't go off because the idiot that threw it forgot to pull the pin. I snorted and charged him as he tried to throw another grenade at me (more bumbling on his part that would lead to his demise). The citizens of Big Town were practically painting a picture of Natural Selection. Where we took a few precautions, the Super Mutants threw caution to the wind.

Milly was using a technique on the Super Mutants that she learned of in Little Lamplight. If you shoot a Super Mutant in the right spot in the chest, it drops immediately. Now, if you are using a submachine gun or a hand gun, it may take a few more rounds, but for Milly's Steyr AUG (her favorite assault rifle), all it took was one well-placed round.

The citizens of Big Town knew the trick, too, because they were almost all from Little Lamplight. Why they held so much fear for the Super Mutants when they were so good at putting them down is beyond me. Maybe it was the size and fear of what they did with their prisoners (the civilians didn't know), or maybe it was the fact that Super Mutants stink worse than Dogmeat trying to avoid a bath.

Milly was using the technique like all the others, and a few Super Mutants gradually started to understand what was going on, because they tried wearing something to block that weak spot. Most of the time, the armor wasn't very good, but sometimes it would require an additional bullet before it went down.

Super Mutants are created of the FEV- the Forced Evolutionary Virus. Without it, humans would eventually evolve into Super Mutants in the future. If that's the case, I am so glad to be a deathclaw.

The Super Mutant attack lasted for about 15 minutes, and I took my share of bullets while the civilians suffered no casualties (or kidnappings). Some were wounded in the fight, but Milly, Dogmeat and I did our best to keep the injury toll low.

I threw my weight into my final Super Mutant and knocked him down, and it was on the ground that I started slashing at him with my claws as hard as I could. Milly and Dogmeat say that I get more violent when I'm fighting Super Mutants, but I really, really hate them. Granted, Deathclaws aren't the most loving creatures, but I think one of the reasons I hate Super Mutants so much is because they don't know that everybody thinks they're stupid.

Once I got off the now thoroughly dead (I kicked him once for good measure) Super Mutant, I returned to Milly. She smiled up at me and I knelt down to her to receive medical treatment for my wounds. I still find it difficult to dodge bullets, though. Just because I'm mutated doesn't mean bullets slow down when they are fired upon me.

"You take Super Mutants out like a pro, Cord," said Milly as she started dressing the bullet wounds I received. "It's almost an art."

"I'm better at it, though."

I glanced down at Dogmeat while Milly worked on my wounds some more. "Says who?"

"You killed 4. I killed 6."

I stared down at him, and then I looked out at the expanse of Super Mutant corpses (Milly killed 12, or she killed a few and the defending town helped), and sure enough, I counted 6 Super Mutants with teeth marks on their necks. I killed 4 Super Mutants and took a few bullets. Dogmeat killed 6- not a scratch on him.

I was thoroughly impressed, but I couldn't say that to him because then his head gets so big you can't fit it through a door. Instead, I snorted.

"I let you win."

Dogmeat stared me down, and I relented. The only time I can get a decent petty jab in at Dogmeat is if it's time for his bath. He flops around like a fish out of water, but he's... you know, in water.

Milly gave me a stimpack and even a mild painkiller for the headache I was sure to receive, and then she smiled and wrapped her arms around my neck.

"You did very well here," she said, and then she did the same for Dogmeat (minus the medical attention because I attract more bullets than Dogmeat does). Then, she turned around and looked at the wounded being taken to a medical clinic.

"I'm going to go help with the injured. Come on, guys."

Dogmeat went to her side, but I stayed by the road.

"You guys go on. I'm going to look around and make sure we didn't miss any stragglers. I'll meet you by the clinic."

Milly smiled and nodded, and then she and Dogmeat headed for the clinic. She was raised by a doctor and learned much about medicine from her father. James was also one of the reasons she helped the Brotherhood knock over the Enclave (or the bad tin men).

I was reflecting on the final attack on the Enclave (the one that took place shortly before Betelgeuse went supernova), and like usual, I was cursing myself for my betrayal. The devil himself offered me something to sell out the only person that really cared about me in this form, and I accepted the deal. Milly was reasonably upset when I told her... and though she tells me that she accepts my apology and wants to let the past be the past, Dogmeat never said "Apology accepted", though he seems to have rectified his friendship with me.

It's just as well, because I missed having conversations with the furball. Still, when I do bring up the apology every once in a while, he ignores me. I view what I did as unforgivable, but Milly managed to forgive me after some time to be angry. She is, by far, the strongest person I have ever met. She's far stronger than me in the mental sense of the word, and in some ways, the physical sense. I still gladly carry her around when she's too tired to walk, or we need to get somewhere quickly, though. It's the least I can do after the many times she has saved my life.

I was zoned out for a few minutes before I took note of the man in the suit and top hat standing beside me. I looked behind me at Big Town, and was relieved to know I hadn't gone too far. Then, I glanced down at the man again.

He looked like he fell backwards into a time machine and his back hit "2277". The man had a black suit, top hat, and a mustache. I wanted to call him "Old Timey", but... it was too easy.

My playfulness vanished relatively quickly when he spoke to me as if he knew me forever.

"Hello, Cord."

Nobody that I am not familiar with knows my name. I met Three Dog once, and though he knows my name, Milly made him promise to keep from saying it on the air if he ever speaks of me (it's a long story). I would certainly remember a man like this, so his knowledge of my name bothered me.

"Do I know you?" I dumbly asked. The man kept staring out at the wasteland ahead of us.

"Well, I hope so. I know you."

"Well, help me out here. What's your name? Where do I know you from?" I asked. Still, the man did not acknowledge me.

"I'm asked that fairly often" was all the response he offered.

"So... who are you?" I asked. He finally looked up at me.

"Why, I'm you, Cord. I'm you, as I am Milly, as I am Dogmeat, as I am James, as I am a Yao Guai, as I am the cursed wolf, as I am a judge, as I am and am not."

I blinked.

"I am everybody, and I am nobody, Cord. I meet everybody, and I meet nobody. I am and am not."

"Well, Mr. Riddles, what possessed you to stroll up to a wandering deathclaw and try to engage conversation? How did you know I was the talking one from a distance?" I asked. The man broke eye contact with me and stared out at the landscape again.

"Oh, I know quite a lot about you, Cord. I know your name, I know your age, I know your favorite color, I know the truth, and I know of your betrayal."

My neutrality, formerly my playfulness... now it faded to slight irritation.

"What do you know of these things?" I asked.

"Cord, one of the civilians in Big Town had a dog named Buck. He went missing in the confusion of the attack on Big Town itself. Why don't you try to hunt him down? Return him to his master... or literally hunt him down. Eat him, if you'd like. I'm sure the former option would make your master happy, whereas the latter would make your stomach smile."

I was about to demand that the guy tell me his name, but he started walking away too soon. Around Milly, I tried to be patient with everybody (because she is, and acting as patient as her pisses the deathclaw part of my mind off to no end), but it took some doing to keep from pursuing the guy.

I decided to look for the dog like he said. It would make Milly happy, and it might take my mind off the boredom of stand-by for a minute or two.

Deathclaws typically have weak vision but strong noses. I'm unusual among them. I retained the eyesight I had as a human (though my eyes look like any other monster's), but my sense of smell got stronger. Oh, and I can talk. Milly did a few tests on my vision shortly after we returned to Megaton (and I didn't get killed by Lucas Simms), and she told me that as time passed, my eyes would probably deteriorate and my nose would get even stronger. I was not looking forward to another overhaul on my senses, but I can't exactly do anything about it.

I used my nose to find the dog. I snorted in the air a few times to catch his scent and I was off after him. It was fresh, so the man was right- he fled during the attack. He probably would've been killed if the people defending Big Town weren't being distracting. That dog didn't know how lucky he was.

He ran off over what used to be an overpass, and his scent was going towards a raider camp (of course). I expected him to be dead, but the raiders didn't kill him. Rather, they had him roped to a pole, and they were trying to train him. They wanted a guard dog that would respond with only violence. These raiders were training him by making him angry.

If a week or two passed, he'd become a guard dog that they wanted... but they didn't count on a deathclaw interrupting. Once they heard my footsteps, they slowly turned around to face me (there were 3 of them). I stopped before them and waved a paw at them.

"Hi."

All was silent for a few moments. One gripped the sledgehammer he was holding tightly, another put a hand on a pistol, and the third looked like he was moments away from soiling himself. I quickly pointed at the dog (and made them all jolt).

"I want that."

The poor dog was staring at me, too, and his tail was between his legs and he was being submissive. The two raiders carrying weapons said nothing to me, and the one with the sledgehammer approached. I looked down at him.

"I can almost smell the fear coming off you."

The raider swung his sledgehammer at me, and I swung my paw at it (a move I developed for people stupid enough to get into close quarters with me). My counter snapped the sledgehammer in two and my other paw took the raider's life.

The other raider started shooting at me, but his weapon was no good (lady luck really smiles down on me more often than not, all things considered). Most of his bullets missed, and a final attempt at shooting me made the gun actually blow up in his hand. The explosion didn't harm anybody but him. Shrapnel tore through his hand and he was gushing arterial blood. He ran off to die of blood loss somewhere.

It was around then that I smelt something in the air, and I looked at the third raider. He actually peed all over himself and ran away. I had a feeling that he'd be sailing straight from now on. I found that to be very, very funny.

Now, I looked to the dog. He was still being submissive, and I wondered if I was actually the reason he ran off. Nonetheless, the look in his eyes... it was as if he was expecting me.

"Are you Buck?" I asked. His ears perked up at his name, and he stared at me. I slowly approached to show that I was no threat, and I cut through the rope that bound him to the pole.

"Come, let's get you back to Big Town. The Super Mutants are gone."

I didn't need to say more to get him to follow me.

Buck never said a word to me, so I don't know what he sounded like. All I know is I crossed the bridge to see Dogmeat waiting by Big Town, but Milly wasn't around (I later found out she was still tending the wounded).

Dogmeat ran out to meet with me, and Buck slowed to acknowledge him.

"Did you find anything?" Asked Dogmeat. I gestured with one paw towards the bridge.

"There was a raider camp off the bridge a little. They had this dog."

"One of the humans is complaining about a lost dog. He's waiting by the second house on the left in town."

I looked down at Buck. "Well? Let's get you back home."

I started to wonder if Buck was capable of speech as I took him to meet his master again. The boy stared up at me in awe at first, and then he noticed the dog by my side.

"...Buck?"

Buck trotted up to the boy and licked his face. Almost immediately, the human knelt to his height and was playing with the pooch.

I decided to wait by the clinic for Milly so I didn't have to watch that, and Dogmeat decided that I made the right decision and followed me.

"What made you find the raider camp?"

I shrugged. I figured Dogmeat wouldn't believe that some mysterious guy from my past told me to do it, so I just called it a hunch and left it at that. Dogmeat dropped it quickly and looked back at the boy and his dog.

"I don't look like that with Milly, do I?"

I snorted. "No, you're fine."

"Good."

I looked down at Dogmeat. "What, are you afraid that I'd think you were being sensitive?"

This time, Dogmeat snorted. He looked up at me. "That would make me sick."

Revolution! Revolution!

Manifest Destiny is a pre-war American goal: The desire to expand and know the east and the west; the desire to expand "from sea to shining sea". In young America, it was a nice idea. For Caesar's Legion, it was domination.

Really, how would the Legion's "Manifest Destiny" be any different from young America? The new country would harm those that got in the way and do what it needed to get what it wanted. The Legion would harm those that got in the way and do what it needed to get what it wanted. It had control of territory in the east already (not past the Mississippi), and it wanted the west... but that which stood in the way of the west was the NCR. They controlled the west, and so far managed to stay the Legion from any progress there.

The NCR was one of two topics that Caesar and his top Centurions met about in 2277. Even Legate Graham had a chair in the meeting.

"I expect to hold Hoover Dam this year, Graham. If we can take the Mojave, it will devastate the NCR. That victory will ensure all others. We will have the west."

Graham said nothing in return. He often required no words in order to speak. Caesar commanded it, and so it would be.

Caesar was so sure of his Legion succeeding that he already made his plans to take the west. Jumping the gun like that would be bitter-sweet for him. In one sense, his Legion would not succeed that year and he would tar, burn, and throw Joshua Graham into the Grand Canyon, but in another sense, he already had his plan for when he eventually would succeed, if at all.

With that issue out of the way, Caesar turned his attention to the former capital of the USA- Washington, D.C. Not a month earlier, he sent Legionaries to assist a young woman in a campaign against the Enclave. How he got his Legion to D.C in such little time is not known to any but Graham. Some say he used a vertibird, because one was seen leaving the Fort shortly before the attack on the Enclave. Others say his Legion got there so quickly because he commanded it. Others still say that the Enclave doesn't exist, and people shouldn't believe in fairy tales.

Caesar's interest in D.C was obvious to many: to have the former capital of the USA under Legion control would essentially complete his goal.

"What news of D.C?"

"Marcus returned not long ago. The profligate you put so much faith in was successful, Caesar."

"Then the Enclave is wiped out?"

"The Enclave is wiped out."

Caesar leaned back in his chair.

"Excellent. We shall make haste for D.C immediately."

Now, Graham intervened.

"Caesar, to attack D.C now while we have the threat of the NCR still live would thin our numbers. We would do well to focus on one threat before moving on to another."

All was quiet for a few moments. Disputing orders by Caesar himself was either punishable by slow death, or well rewarded. In this case, Graham lived another day.

"If we attack D.C too soon, we will lose the dam. You're right."

"We should focus on the dam now, and only when it is under our banner should we bother with D.C."

Caesar acknowledged Graham's presence with the nod of his head.

"Yes, that's the best course of action here. Do not fail me, Graham."

Joshua Graham would bow to Caesar that day, but he would fail. The Legion would not take the dam in 2277, and Joshua Graham would become the mythical Burned Man. The Legion would not succeed until a Courier with two bullets in his head came along, and D.C would not see the true fury of Caesar's Legion until then.

End of Chapter

3,489 words.

I just got done with the DLC for New Vegas today. It was O.K, but I'm not such a big fan of Sierra Madre. Mainly because my controller kept turning off whenever the collar started beeping. Any other time, it was fine. Assume the DLC for New Vegas doesn't exist in this story. As for Fallout 3, well... you think whatever you want.

Milly can't enslave Red from Big Town because:

1- She's not evil.

2- Paradise Falls broke last story, and only a few weeks passed since the end of "Beneath This Gruff Exterior" and now.

Next chapter takes place in 2278, and covers the end of an attack on Evergreen Mills, among other things. It should be a bit shorter.