A frontier away

Prologue

The sound of a fire fight tore through the night sky of the Mojave as a the last standing legionnaire assassin fought against their mortal foe, the NCR's most priced asset and the biggest pain in Caesar's behind.
It was not the first time that the legion had sent their best against her and yet the troublesome courier refused to die "HAHAHAHAHA eat plasma!" the blonde beauty yelled at the top of her lungs as she fired at him with her Q-35 matter modulator, not the most effective weapon on her arsenal but certainly one of her favorites.

"Retribution!" the man screamed as he tried to gun her down but he was struck in the face before he could aim, the legionnaire screamed in pain as half of his face began to melt away. But his payment was quickly put to an end when a bullet splattered his brain across the sand.

Putting lucky away the woman stared at her work, bloodied corpses across the sand and a couple of plasma spots here and there "You still got it Victoria" she grinned to herself a second before she stumbled drunkenly from side to side.

"Oh man… not now" Victoria, the fearsome courier, the ghost that haunted the legion, the conqueror of Big MT and the Divide keeled over and threw up "Oh god oh fuuuuu-" the whiskey and the beer she had drank finally caught up to her and her body cried out in pain as everything became blurry.

Victoria felt her eyes water as she tried to compose herself "I'm good I'm good" said as she spoke to her imaginary companion, the blonde adjusted her hat so it covered her eyes as she rested against a small building. Trying to check were she was she spotted some familiar ruin, she was close to Vegas, north Vegas to be precise.

Letting out a long sigh she tried to remember how in House's mummified balls did she end up here… she was supposed to be helping Hsu at McCarran "Oh man, how did I end up here" the mother of all hangovers began to set in as she tried to play it cool in case anyone was watching her. bits and pieces of what had happened began to appear on her brain as she remembered that she had been ambushed by what remained of the Fiends, to fight them off she had drugged herself and consumed enough booze to make any sailor blush.

"If I die of an overdose I am going to be so pissed" she muttered to herself as she focused on just staying alive. Out of the corner of her eye she watched a shadow approach her and she frowned, seems like someone else wanted to meet their maker. Green fatigues and worn boots made her raise and eyebrow as she tried to get a better look at the man.

NCR… but there was something different, the uniform looked old. The new troops did not use that type of fatigues anymore "Hey I need to talk to you!" Victoria felt her head do a spin at the volume that this man was using.

"Shoot" she managed to garble out without throwing up.

"You see I have been following… well the better word would be scouting capable people and you look like you are just what we need. Please read this pamphlet everything you need to know is inside, stay frosty Oliver has eyes everywhere" Victoria was handed a small paper as she tried to focus on the words on the piece of paper she had been given. "Yeah… me. I am the eyes" she muttered under her breath as she downed some Fixer with a beer she had on her backpack.

Victoria almost giggled at the childish description of what the mission entailed:

"WHEN THE WORLD CRIES FOR A HERO, THE FRONTIER NCR ANSWERS THE CALL!

Welcome to The Frontier NCR: a powerful presence in the Old Northwestern Commonwealth. You'll be joining a courageous, highly skilled organization. One who stands as the last and best defense against the tribulations of the wastes, from combating raiders and radiation-born abominations, to humanitarian and rescue missions. Fly a vertibird; drive a tank! What are you waiting for? Whether you're seeking adventure, personal fulfillment, or simply searching for a new start, the Frontier NCR is where you'll find unrivaled training, fraternity and incomparable experiences"

"What a load of horseshit" Victoria muttered to herself, who were this people? The NCR was neck deep in shit at the moment, fighting a war against the largest army the world had seen in centuries, the Legion was the number one threat and this jackoffs were recruiting?! For some place on the north?

This reeked of a trap for young a gullible morons or worse a devious plan by the legion, Hsu and his plans could wait. With the victory of the NCR over legion forces in Nelson the soldiers of Caesar had taken some steps back and began to prepare themselves more strategically, Vulpes no doubt had a hand in this change of strategy while they waited for the famed Legate Lanius to arrive.

A legend of the wastes, one that had never been defeated, Ulysses had called him a symbol something greater than any flag before he died. The courier that used the number six told her that he would destroy hoover dam and that his armies will come down on the NCR like a hammer. So many things to worry about and she could not allow this thing to be another torn on the NCR's side, so looking at the location on the pamphlet she wiped her mouth and let out a long sigh. She was still a bit drunk and withdrawal was kicking her ass but she could manage, is not like the place was that far away anyways, she hoped she got better when she got there.

The fiends tried to make her travel slightly difficult but a single shot from her trusty weapon melted them into piles of goo, leaving behind the dessert she was surprised to see that the camp was just up ahead, it was way to close to McCarran for it to not be noticed and what remained of the securitrons should have alerted her, this was looking worse by the second. Taking advantage that this people had set up their camp plain view, she reached for the sniper rifle on her back and looked at her enemies through the scope.

"NCR?" the uniform did not lie, they were dressed like they were from the New California Republic and she spotted some of the equipment used on the bases, so either they were really good deceivers or something was going with the NCR that she was not made aware of and neither of those things sounded like something good in her head. So she prepared a Laser RCW and steadied herself if things went sideways she could always rely on the Laer or a plasma grenade to do the trick.

So with that in mind and confidence to back it up she made her way to the small camp, immediately she could tell that this bunch were not the usual NCR, they looked like a bunch of mercenaries practicing to be military. Maybe they were now that she really thought about it, she spotted out of the corner of her eye the guy with the glasses that "recruited" her as he desperately tried to make a push up.

"….. that's unbelievably sad" she muttered to herself as she entered the training grounds proper, the grunts all eyed her warily but quickly looked away when she winked at them. "Tough crowd" before she could go an inspect the vehicles that she refused to believe that worked she was topped by what looked like to be proper military guys "Hey you there, what do you think you are doing?"

Victoria simply reached into her back pocket and showed the pamphlet "I was invited, you guys NCR?"

"In a way, name and previous profession" he said with a sigh as he stared at her up and down, Victoria simply shrugged "Sure, name's Victoria and I was a Courier." This made both of the soldiers stop what they were doing and look at her with narrowed eyes.

Victoria blinked in confusion as they looked at each other "You wouldn't happen to be the legendary Courier of the Mojave would you?"

Da fuk?

"Ermm… I mean no my name is actually…"-"So you are the one that stopped the Enclave huh?" she was interjected by the guard as she blinked in confusion, enclave?

The other chuckled and shook his head "No you idiot that was the chosen one" Victoria was about to speak when the guard simply shook his head "Never mind who you are, if you are looking to sign up for a tour then head on inside, Gray is the one that deals with that"

Victoria nodded a little weirded out but it wasn't the weirdest thing someone had said to her so she just rolled with it and walked inside the small tent that this guys had set up, inside she was greeted by a more familiar sight. A stern looking man with a beard looked up at her with a raised eyebrow "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, here to enlist" she lamely showed the paper in her hand as the man nodded and stood up, extending his gloved hand towards her they shook hands as he grabbed a small pencil "Nice to meet you the name is Grey, it says here you were a courier, interesting. Do you know how to handle fire-arms? And if you do, tell me what is what you are most comfortable with"

Victoria thought of the weapons she had on herself and hummed. She was missing a shotgun "I am a damn good with a shotgun not going to lie"

"Good choice" reaching into one of the boxes he had to the side Victoria was handed a large fuckoff shotgun that felt heavy on her arms, she was glad that her spine had been reinforced, shame that she had to kill the old brains over it. Grey returned to his chair and looked at his clipboard and then back to the new recruit "Right now that you have your new toy, lets get down to business. You'll be working for the NCR in the Northen Frontier, in what once was Oregon, the weather is cold so you will be given the proper attire for it. The trip is a long one so if you have questions, shoot before its too late for you to back out"

Victoria blinked as she looked down at the shotgun she was just handed 'then why did you give the weapon first dumbass? I can just say I'll think about it and run'

"Sure, what's the NCR doing all the way out there? Isn't priority fighting the Legion?" at this Lieutenant Grey did seem to be uncomfortable "We are not… part of the NCR, proper. We believe in our country but not in the way they are handling things, so under General Blackthorn we defected and moved north, and you know what we found" he paused as he leaned forward "Legion, they were trying to do a pincer attack and cut the Mojave off. We might not be NCR but they are still our brothers and sisters, so now we are at war with the Legion on two fronts"

Oh… that was reaaaal bad actually.

Victoria began to formulate a plan on her head and hummed the most present issue was to stop the Legion from attacking from Oregon and cutting off the much needed supplies and troops that Monroe and Oliver desperately needed, deserters or not they were her best ticket to get to the Frontier and kill some Legion Dogs "And how long are this tours?"

"Well that really is up to the situation, if your service is just one week then congratulations you just have successfully completed the shortest campaign on NCR history" ah so there was a caveat "And if it takes ten years?"

Grey narrowed his eyes at her "If you waste our time will waste yours, simple as that. But as long as you do your job and do right by us, you'll be back here in the Mojave before you know it, so are you ready?" Victoria looked at her PipBoy and watched the things she had to do, the Brotherhood was the next step to smooth things out on the Mojave before the last battle commenced.

But she could not bring herself to kill them, not with Veronica deciding to stay with them. Not with her being an honorary knight it meant that she preferred to stall that situation as long as possible, so with that in mind she gave a grin "Sure, when do we leave?"

"We actually have a truck leaving right now, so if you want just hop on in on the back we leave in about an hour" Grey commented as he continued to write things down on the piece of paper that Victoria assumed was her enlistment letter, a small part of her wanted to take a peak but she ultimately decided against it because she felt it really didn't matter in the long run anyways.

But from what she had seen they were just happy to get people at all, so maybe it was just a small note to this so called General Blackthorne with something along the lines of "Holy shit someone actually joined us!" as she exited the thing and headed towards the bus she blinked in surprise at it. "Wait… they do have a working bus wooow" she had not seen many of this, most of the NCR army marched or used horses. But these guys had (at least one) functioning vehicle, she would not waste on new recruits but maybe it was a way to show how much more they had compared to the NCR here in the Mojave.

Pressing a secret button on her PipBoy she waited for ED-E to fly towards her as she placed a loving hand on the head of the robot "Hey there boy, let Arcade know that I wont be here for some time and make sure that Cass doesn't drink the Lucky thirty eight dry" there was a sense of melancholy as she stared at the more robotic ED-E after what happened in the divide, but that was just another bitter memory for her to swallow but at this point she could realistickly just make a museum with all her bad memories. The machine chirped a question snapping her out of her depressing thouights "How long? I honestly don't know, hopefully just some days but worse case scenario go to the Penthouse and ask Yes Man to activate protocol Protect the Bear"

None of the soldiers seemed to notice what she was doing so she wrapped her arms around the robot bringin it closer to her chest, the blonde beauty smiled down at what was her only family as sad as it sounded "Don't do anything I wouldn't ok baby" she let go off the robot as it stared at her for a moment before flying away.

She heard the truck being started and she turned her head, Victoria Star made her way to the truck and was handed a comically white outfit "Ok Courier hope you are what they say you are"

…. Why did like the name Courier so much?

A/N: I have a confession to make... I love the frontier, its just so fascinating to me, so bad its good in my opinion and I adore it for all its silly little flaws and I ignore the big ones. So I wanted to novelize it in half joking half serious manner, poking holes in somethings we all know are pretty BAD (Frontier NCR in general if we are being honest) and showing things that I enjoyed, thank you for reading the prologue!