Greetings Everyone. This is an entirely new story from the Fallout universe. Don't worry I will still be working on Light of Cascadia, but I feel like that I need to alternate between stories too. I have several projects for the Fallout universe that I want to share with you all. I appreciate everyone's continued support and hope to keep bringing you great stories from the wasteland.

A young gunslinger turned bounty hunter carry's a vendetta across the Midwest as he journeys south of the border into Mexico to hunt down the people that took his family from him. His journey into a foreign land however is not without its challenges as he not only faces new creatures and deadly enemies, but also the cultural barrier as his reputation instills fear and mistrust into the locals. Follow the path of Kota Langrisse as the dead guide his hand of vengeance across the desert, but he may soon discover that there is more to his life than revenge. Will he deliver justice to those that deserve it most, or will he die by the gun and be trampled into dust?

Disclaimer: All Fallout related content belongs to Bethesda and Obsidian; original content is mine.

Chapter 1: Doom from Baja

Gunshots went off in the distance as the sun beat down on the barren desert, loud cracks going off as bullets whizzed by and struck a decrepit wall belonging to some building from the past.

The raiders stopped firing their weapons from the abandoned gated office building and began to look at one another with uncertainty and apprehension.

"Did anybody see that motherfucker?" One said nervously as he kept the destroyed piece of wall in the sights of his hunting rifle, shaking nervously.

"How should I fucking know?" A woman next to him said. "We filled that wall with so many bullets that he should have been…"

Her head suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a mist of crimson red as blood and gore splattered all over the deceased woman's accomplices, her body falling to the ground with a heavy thud.

The others turned quickly and began firing again as the silhouette of a man stepped out from behind the wall and started running towards the front of the building.

"Oh, hell no not this clown!" Another raider shouted as he began firing his 9mm SMG at the stranger but also met a quick end as a bullet ripped through his torso splattering blood and pieces of bone behind him as he hit the ground flat on his back.

The figure in question was standing at the now open gate. His grey ranger hat was obscuring the top part of his face, the stranger's mouth showed no sign of emotion as he raised his head slightly, revealing a young face with the shadow of a beard and a scar across his right eye. His silhouette against the noon day sun revealed the unmistakable appearance of elite riot gear but instead was painted a blackish grey instead of the standard army green from his pauldrons all the way to the metal inlays of his knee-high boots, the pauldrons were stenciled with the likeness of a rattlesnake while the chest plate was stenciled with the front view of a rattlesnake skull in the center.

The stranger raised his trail carbine with a 4x scope and sent a 44 magnum round down range, hitting another raider in the shoulder nearly blowing his arm off. He ducked behind a ruined tree as bullets peppered the trunk.

With a quick motion, he spun around the left side of the trunk as the last raider on the roof fired a sawed-off shotgun at him, but the buckshot simply bounced off his chest plate as he lit a stick of dynamite and tossed it on the roof, two seconds later an explosion threw the raider off the roof onto the sidewalk below with a heavy thud.

The stranger looked around as he holstered his trail carbine, spitting tobacco juice out onto the ground as he strolled up to the front door. Pulling out a lever action shotgun, he loaded dragon's breath shells as he could hear commotion coming from the other side of the door.

Putting his fingers to his mouth he let out a sharp whistle, seconds later a four-legged creature revealed to be a male Nightstalker came running out of the dust up to him. The Nightstalker stopped behind him, tail rattling and its forked tongue sniffing the air around the stranger.

"Ocho, Search." The stranger said to the Nightstalker in Spanish as he elbowed a window next to the door shattering it. Ocho jumped through the broken window snarling, a few seconds later the front doors burst open as three more raiders emerged shooting behind them in panic. The stranger pulled the trigger on his shotgun, fire emerging from the barrel as the first two were engulfed in flames wailing in agony before falling to the ground while the third one was knocked down by Ocho who's teeth were sank into the raiders neck and with a mighty shake of his head ripped out the raider's windpipe killing it.

"Good boy Ocho." The stranger said to the Nightstalker as the creature finished eating the last chunk of windpipe, blood dripping from its mouth. The pair entered the lobby of the office building with Ocho occasionally using his tongue to sniff the air around them. Nightstalkers were always perceptive creatures, able to detect even the faintest trace of scent and close in on it with unnatural efficiency.

The stranger pulled out a red piece of fabric from his coat pocket and held it up to Ocho's face. The Nightstalker began to extend his tongue repeatedly towards the object. After a few seconds Ocho took off down a hallway with the stranger close behind him. He was soon ambushed by a female raider with a spiked baseball bat. He raised his shotgun, but the raider knocked it out of his hands and started to swing again at his head. The stranger quickly raised his arms to block the strike with his wrist guards and swiftly delivered a right jab to the raiders jaw while holding the bat with his left hand. The raider was knocked back as she fell through the open door flat on her back. The stranger rushed towards her, raising the bat and swung down towards her head but the raider rolled to the side and pulled a 9mm pistol and shot the stranger in the chest.

The chest plate on his armor blocked the shot but stunned the stranger to where he was forced to drop the bat. The raider retrieved her weapon and was about to swing but suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest, looking down to see the stranger had a Bowie Knife sank into her heart and after three seconds the stranger pulled the knife out as she fell backwards with lifeless eyes.

Wiping the blood from his knife with his coat sleeve and putting it back in its sheath, the stranger retrieved his shotgun and continued down the hallway to find Ocho had held his own against two raiders and was currently pawing at a set of wooden double doors.

The stranger kicked the doors open with his shotgun raised. He and Ocho slowly entered the large two-story office space when suddenly flood lights turned on and illuminated the space revealing four more raiders with weapons pointed at him plus the person the stranger was looking for. A woman dressed in raider armor holding a 40mm Grenade launcher was standing on the balcony overlooking the first floor where the stranger was at.

"Well now." The lead raider said, smirking as she leveled her grenade launcher at the stranger. "So that little piss ant of a mayor has an entire security force protecting that waste of a settlement, I'm able to walk in and take what I want, but instead of getting his hands dirty he decides to hire Kota Langrisse to take me down, fucking coward!" The woman shouted down to the group below.

"You've heard of me!?" The stranger now known as Kota shouted back at the woman.

"Oh please, every fucker south of New Vegas and Two Sun have heard of the Baja Rattler. Supposedly one of the fiercest bounty hunters who will take even the toughest jobs and is always accompanied by his pet. I've head of you and how fast and ruthless you are when pursuing targets." The woman replied, focused on Kota with a gaze that would make most quiver in fear, yet Kota remained unfazed by the death stare he was getting.

"Well, I appreciate the compliment ma'am." Kota said with little emotion. "But I'm not here for pleasantries." Kota began walking slowly towards the center of the room, his shotgun still in his hand as he stared shouting to the group of raiders. "I'm here to collect on a bounty that was put out by the settlement of Dry Bones, a hefty price of six thousand caps for the head of a woman known as Miss Muerte that fits the description of that bitch right there!" He shouted as he pointed at the woman on the upper floor with a smirk on his face. "I'd rather not make a fucking mess out of this place, but I'll kill you and every single asshole in here if I damn well must. Whether I bring you in hot or cold, I get paid either way."

"You sure talk a big game, little man." The raider said as the pumped her 40mm grenade launcher and prepared to fire. "Let's see how tough you are when…".

Suddenly Kota let out a sharp whistle and two seconds later, the woman barely had anytime to react as she turned around at the sound of running footsteps only to see Ocho jump at her fangs bared. She raised her grenade launcher, but Ocho slammed into her like a battering ram throwing them both through the wooden banister and plummeting to the floor below.

In the confusion Kota raised his shotgun and fired, the incendiary dragon's breath rounds incinerating the first two raiders. Kota was suddenly spun around from the impact of a 44 round on his right shoulder pauldron, he winced in pain as instinct kicked in and he instantly drew his "Lucky" .357 Magnum Revolver and fanned the hammer in two quick motions dropping the other two raiders. With a slight nod, he spun the pistol around his finger and slid it back in its holster.

He heard the commotion between the head raider and Ocho. He walked over to see Ocho biting down on the woman's leg thrashing around wildly while the woman grunted against the large creature.

She attempted to reach for her grenade launcher a few feet from her, but Kota kicked it away and stepped onto her stomach. He looked her square in the eyes which were now filled with fear and acceptance of her impending death. Her throat had been sliced open and blood poured from it, she didn't have long.

Kota drew his revolver and pulled the hammer back with a loud click. Looking down at the woman he uttered a simple phrase in Spanish "Dios favorece a los preparados." And pulled the trigger.

Kota stepped into the bright office that belonged the mayor of the town of Dry Bones. The mayor who was a ghoul and his guards were talking amongst themselves when they turned to Kota's direction who was followed close by Ocho. He pulled a small sack dripping blood out of his coat and dropped it on the desk of the mayor as he sat in a chair at the other end with Ocho seated next to him. The mayor opened the sack to reveal the head of the female raider that had a nice clean bullet hole in her head.

The mayor began laughing. "Well, I'll be, you actually managed to kill that skank and walked away with barely a scratch." He covered the head back up and handed it to one of his guards.

"I must say, the Baja Rattler certainly lives up to his reputation, it's nice to see someone who can last longer than a month, I tell you that bitch cost me a lot of…"

"I got your target." Kota interrupted the mayor startling him, staring daggers into the portly ghoul which was a rare sight in the wasteland. "I want my payment and the information you promised me."

"Yes yes of course." The ghoul nervously said. He snapped his fingers, and a guard handed Kota a large bag that jingled full of caps. Kota looked in the bag and nodded in approval at the sight and slid the caps in his satchel, satisfied at another completed bounty to his name.

The mayor cleared his raspy throat. "Now as far as the information I have for you. The person you're looking for is a man named Emmanuel Rodriguez also known as "Ripper". He's supposed to be a top enforcer for the Rojo Solidad Chem Cartel. From the town records I was able to gather he was in the area at the time your home was destroyed so its highly likely he oversaw carrying out that hit."

Kota began to feel anger boiling in his chest. He despised chems and chem addicts including his parents who decided to sell him for chems, but he especially hated the Rojo Solidad or the Red Sun Chem Cartel. He still had nightmares about how they came to the home he grew up in and burned it to the ground, killing the people he came close to realizing as his family.

"Do you know where he is currently is?" He asked, his voice dripping venom as he spoke.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure myself, but a couple of months ago a few of his men came into town to talk business with a resident. We got pretty banged up in that scuffle but drove them off. One of them that we killed had this letter on him but it's in Spanish so maybe you could get something out of it, my guess is it probably says where the transaction was supposed to go down, I would start there." The mayor pulled a clean envelope out of his vest pocket and handed it to Kota who placed the letter in his satchel.

"I appreciate the help sir." Kota said while putting his hat back on. "But there's one more thing I need to inquire about before I go." He said as he pulled out a note from his coat sleeve and opened it.

"I found this note on the woman whose head I brought in, and it had some rather shocking details." Kota said and as he began to read it, he felt the guards begin to shift behind him and the mayor was looking at him uneasily. "According to this, the raider in question was doing a money laundering scheme with a particular settlement in this area, robbing it only to give most of the spoils to the settlement's leader while skimming some off the top as her cut for her services." He paused and could tell that he was verbally torturing the mayor with the truth and judging by his arm movement he was getting ready to attempt a standoff. "However, from what I'm gathering here, she was getting ready to expose this individual if her cut didn't increase so that means once she was no longer under control, her usefulness was..."

Almost instantly the mayor stood up to draw his pistol but didn't even clear leather. In a split second the Baja Rattler proved he was faster and shot the ghoul dead in the chest killing him instantly. He turned out of his chair, where his left hand held four throwing knives and with a throw of his arm sent all four into the mayor's guards, hitting each square in the neck ending their lives.

After the fighting was done Kota retrieved his knives and stuck them back in the wrist sheath under his coat sleeve. "I honestly didn't think that would work Ocho, I thought we were goners." He said to the Nightstalker who looked up at him from sniffing a dead guard. He searched the body of the mayor to find his pistol which was a gold-plated Chinese pistol which instead of the standard 10mm was custom made for .357 Magnum rounds, and it even came with its own holster.

"Nice gun, Ill fix it to my armor later." Kota said to himself as he put the weapon in his satchel. He found a key in the mayor's pocket and after a quick search he spotted the door to the mayor's bedroom. He opened the door and there was a safe next to the bed. He opened it to retrieve a total of twelve thousand caps and stuck the money in his satchel.

He then noticed a small note on the inside of the safe door. He ripped it off and read it. It was a bounty notice for the Baja Rattler from the Red Sun Cartel for one hundred and twenty thousand caps.

"Oh, come the fuck on, I'm worth more than that!" He exclaimed as he crumpled the note up and threw it to the floor. "Well Ocho, it looks like they know we're coming for them, let's not disappoint them then."

With a final pat on the head for Ocho and leaving the raider's note on the mayor's body, the pair walked out of the mayor's home and back into the settlement's main street. They had to leave town fast before anyone found the grizzly scene in the now deceased mayor's office. He stopped in front of a small shop where other people were standing and opened the letter he was given, sure enough it was in Spanish.

"Tell the buyer to make the journey south to the town of Mesa north of Mexico City. This could be a new opportunity for us so be discreet and don't fuck this up. Ripper is already in hot water with the Reina, and he will fry all of us if we fail. And keep and eye out for the fucking Baja Rattler, I don't know what he has against us but for some reason he's now our organization's grim fucking reaper and he's supposedly arriving in Dry Bones in a few days. If you spot him do not try to attack him, otherwise you'll just end up dead. Report his location and wait for backup so we can put this bastard's head on the Reina's Casa. Once your business is done, head back to Mesa, that perra rubia is going to be mincemeat for thinking she can refuse us. Good luck amigos.

Turning the letter over revealed a detailed map showing a route drawn from Dry Bones to Mesa. It was south of the border in Mexico outside of Mexico City.

Kota sighed and after grabbing a quick bite, restocking his supplies and putting in a fresh wad of coyote tobacco in his mouth, he and Ocho turned their gaze south and started walking towards the southern border into Mexico. This was who he was, the Baja Rattler, and he would stop at nothing to get the revenge he desperately craved or he would die trying.