BACKGROUND;;
Fallout is a game set on Earth, diverging from history post World War II and creating something of a retro-fifties futuristic society. Before the Great War of 2077 America is largely a 1950’s culture in terms of clothing, hairstyle, music and other cultural areas. Despite this there is a great deal of advanced and often bizarre technology, including AIs, robots and energy weapons.
In 2077 the Great War began, China and the United States starting nuclear warfare that lasted only two hours. Despite the short timeframe a great deal of life on the surface of the planet was destroyed, irradiated in the long term or displaced. Many who survived did so in Vaults, large underground communities built to survive the inevitable nuclear devastation. The Fallout series begins a couple hundred years after the war, New Vegas taking place in 2281. For more general information on the series here is the general wiki on it and on New Vegas.
The Mojave Wasteland suffered the same destruction, though a great deal of the area is hardly as ravaged as many other areas in America, especially the city of Las Vegas, now New Vegas. During the time of the game all eyes are on the Hoover Dam, a pre-War structure still capable of powering a great deal of the land. At the beginning of the game it is held by the NCR, the New California Republic, an army based out of California with great numbers starting to stretch thin with their continued expansion. Opposing them is Caesar’s Legion, a war society of slavers under the rule of Caesar, a man who conquered 86 tribes and effectively most if not all of Arizona. The Legion had already lost the dam in the First Battle of Hoover Dam and spent their time preparing for a second assault.
The Courier’s story begins outside a settlement in the Mojave called Goodsprings with two shots to the head. A man in a checkered suit takes a delivery she was to make to Vegas, arguing with his two lackeys before informing the Courier it all might seem like bad luck but the ‘game was rigged from the start.’ She’s buried in a shallow grave and when she wakes next it’s in the care of Goodspring’s doctor, Doc Mitchell. He proceeds to examine her, explaining a robot named Victor had dug her out of a shallow grave and brought her to him. She finds her memory is largely choppy, for a while she has a hard time remembering even recent events but the confusion begins to clear somewhat, though her older memories were shaky at best. After clearing her to leave he give her her belongings and a Pip Boy, a device strapped to the wrist with many uses including a map and radio, stating she’d need it more.
Leaving Doc Mitchell and still suffering from the damage to her brain the Courier begins asking around Goodsprings to learn about the men that tried to kill her. During the week or more she was there she scavenged, asked around and learned/practiced shooting with Sunny Smiles, helping her kill some large geckos and helping save a Goodspring’s settler in the process. She learned from townsfolk and the robot Victor that the man who shot her and his lackeys headed south towards Primm.
Her stay in the town didn’t end peacefully. The Courier overhears a man named Joe Cobb threatening the local saloon owner Trudy, stating if the town hid a man named Ringo the Powder Gangers would attack the town. After Joe left it’s learned a large correctional facility managed to overthrow the NCR men guarding it and many prisoners escaped or began using the facility as a fort. These convicts called themselves the Powder Gangers due to the explosives they used and had been terrorizing the Mojave since their take over. The Courier agrees to help Ringo when she meets him, going around town to ask for aid. She manages to get Doc Mitchell to offer medical supplies to those fighting and Trudy to convince some settlers to help when the attack came, though it takes the Courier a few tries to convince her. When the attack came Ringo, the Courier, Sunny and a couple of others thwarted the attack, saving Ringo and Goodsprings. Ringo expresses his gratitude, explaining he’s from a large company known as the Crimson Caravan and rewards the Courier, promising more should they meet again.
The Courier spends a few more days in Goodsprings, learning to play a card game known as Caravan and failing abysmally at it. Eventually she heads out to the Wastes towards Primm, finding a rather bizarre, abandoned radio station in a trailer on her way and more notably meeting a man named Barton Thorne in the hills. He claims his ‘girl’ is being attacked by geckos and begs the Courier to save her, so the Courier heads up to see what could be done. She kills the geckos but finds no one in the area, puzzled until Thorne appears again and states there was no girl, he just needed someone to clear the area so he can scavenge. He tries to kill the Courier and is killed in return.
Once in Primm she finds a Mojave Express building, the same company she worked for. When she tries to get into the town an NCR trooper stops her, explaining that the town had been taken by convicts and was too dangerous. She cautiously heads into town, fighting a few convicts along the way until she reaches the Vikki and Vance Casino. Inside most of the townfolks had barricaded themselves within, armed and defending against any convicts. The Courier approaches Jonathan Nash, the head of the Mojave Express in the area, and learns the town’s deputy had been taken by the convicts and trapped in the Bison Hotel.
Deciding to try and help out she enters the hotel, dealing with the convicts with some difficulty but managing to get Deputy Beagle. With his help they escape the building and the Deputy thanks her, stating now they needed a new Sheriff since he wasn’t qualified. Somewhat exasperated but still willing to help she heads learns of a man with the qualifications, Meyers, who had been jailed in the NCR Correctional Facilty, the same that the Powder Gangers had taken over. She heads there, meeting the man and asking if he would consider taking over Primm only to have him say he would on the condition that the NCR grant him a pardon.
Thus began another long walk to the Mojave Outpost where she found an NCR officer and tried to plead Meyer’s case. Unfortunately her argument of ‘he’s just a convict, how bad could he be?’ doesn’t fly and without enough bottle caps (the currency in the Waste) the trip is largely fruitless. The only worthwhile thing that happens is her meeting a woman named Rose of Sharon Cassidy, a ruined caravan owner who’s caravan had been wiped out in an attack.
The Courier heads back to Primm, frustrated but determined to find someone. While considering asking the NCR to take over the town she meets Primm Slim, a robot that worked in the Casino before the Great War. After talking to Jonathan Nash she sets to work trying to reprogram it to act as sheriff for the town, finding she has some skill in repairing and a little in robotics. After some time and work she manages to get the robot reprogrammed, the citizens of Primm mostly happy with the new leadership.
Intrigued by discovering this skill in repair and robotics she spends a few more days in Primm, trying to fix an like so) and eventually meets Manny Vargas, a former NCR First Recon member and one of the town’s snipers. Manny informs her he knows where the man who shot her’s lackeys were, though he isn’t willing to hand over the information unless she helps with a big problem the town was having. Without much of a choice she agrees to help, learning that the local scavenge site had been overrun by ghouls, both feral and in charge of their facilities.
While preparing for the inevitable fighting going against the feral ghouls would bring the Courier meets another notable resident of Novac, Craig Boone, the other NCR sniper protecting the town. Boone, ever the ray of sunshine, started off dismissively and gruff, only showing any interest in the conversation when he realizes the Courier is a stranger with no ties to Novac. Without anywhere else to turn he explains that his wife, Carla, had been kidnapped by legionaries and sold into slavery. He further explains the legionaries knew where to find Carla, when to come and how to get in without being spotted, leading Boone to believe someone in the town was behind it. Boone then gives the Courier his beret, saying if the Courier could find who was responsible she should bring him or her in front of the dinosaur so Boone could take care of the rest.
The Courier tries asking around town, learning Carla was not well liked for her thorny attitude and displeasure at living in Novac rather than a proper city, some believing she left on her own and some unaware she was gone. Nearing a dead end the Courier talks to No-bark Noonan, essentially the town madman. Having already gotten a small, questionable amount of help from him before she manages to get from him that there was some strange happenings in the motel lobby around the time Carla was kidnapped. After the motel lobby closed for the night the Courier checks it out, finding nothing until she (with great trouble and many broken bobby pins) breaks into the motel safe. Inside is a bill of sale for Carla Boone and an unborn child, the payment going to Jeanie May.
Disgusted by this the Courier finds Jeanie May during Boone’s shift and asks her to come in front of the dinosaur. For some reason Jeanie May agrees and Boone makes quick work of her. When they speak again the Courier shows Boone the bill of sale and Boone states he’ll be leaving Novac now that it was over. The Courier asks Boone if he’d like to travel with her and after some convincing Boone agrees, stating it ‘wouldn’t end well.’
With that done Boone, ED-E and the Courier head to the REPCONN Test Site where the ghouls had been giving the Novac residents trouble. After making their way through a few waves of feral ghouls they make it into the building, a voice over the intercom calling them out. A rather rude ghoul’s voice tells them to head upstairs, refusing to give any real answers. The team does so, fighting more feral ghouls along the way until they make it to the voice on the intercom. It turns out the voice isn’t of a ghoul but a human named Chris Haversam who for some reason believed he was a ghoul despite what anyone told him. Haversam rudely tells them to go see Jason Bright, the leader of the group of sane ghouls in the building. Bright informs them that the group of ghouls were known as the Bright Followers, trying to make their ‘great journey’ before ‘demons’ attacked the building, forcing them to lock themselves in the upper floor and halting all progress.
The Courier, of course, is asked to help take care of the demons. Agreeing she, Boone and ED-E head down to the basement, learning the ‘demons’ were actually Nightkin, a type of mutated human that used pre-War stealth technology to stay mostly invisible. After a long, arduous trip through the basement they manage to kill all the nightkin and report back to Bright with the news. Of course nothing is so simple as killing a dozen large, powerful, invisible mutants twice your size, and Bright requires more aid before they can make their journey. It turns out he wants to use the rockets at the facility to take his followers into space as he saw in visions.
With no more knowledge of space travel than cheesy pre-War sci-fi the Courier agrees again, this time helping Haversam find the parts he needs. One of the parts costs her most of her caps as her attempt at charming her way to a discount falls completely flat, but the parts are found. During this transaction ED-E suddenly starts playing a recording, something left over from its creator telling whoever was listening that the eyebot was on its way to Navarro. Unsure of what to do with that information the Courier heads back to Bright.
Bright makes a grand speech, thanking both the Courier and Haversam for all they did. Haversam is understandably pissed he’s being left behind and the Courier attempts once again to explain he wasn’t a ghoul and he’d die out there. Eventually she convinces him to go to Novac and he does, grudgingly. With that the Courier, Boone and ED-E head upstairs to start the launch and watch as the rockets fly off to parts unknown. All and all it’s a fairly bizarre day.
With that excitement over and the ghouls now gone the Courier heads back to Novac to find Manny so she can continue tracking those that tried to kill her. Despite the awkwardness between Manny and Boone Manny explains two of the thugs were Great Khans and were headed for Boulder City. So team robot courier Boone head that way, with little excitement until they reach the city. Outside the gates is an NCR officer who tells the group to stop and explains that a small group of Great Khans had taken some NCR troopers hostage. The situation was looking grim as they had orders that the hostages were expendable if needed, and the officer reluctantly allows the Courier to enter the area, stating there wasn’t much more harm she could do all things considered.
The Courier and co. head to where the Great Khans were camped out, managing to make it to their leader, Jessup. Jessup, one of the two thugs there when she was shot, is shocked to see the Courier alive but quickly explains the man that shot her, Benny, had ditched them without paying. He further explains that Benny is a casino boss in New Vegas and probably headed back that way.
With that out of the way the Courier tries talking some sense into Jessup, or at least saying the NCR were ready to kill them all for this. Jessup is frustrated, explaining they had little choice in the matter and that the Great Khans and the NCR had bad blood due to a past fight the groups had that had ended in many uninvolved Khans getting killed. Eventually Jessup realizes the only chance they had to get out of Boulder City alive was to release the prisoners, which they do. Before the Courier heads out he hands her Benny’s lighter, asking her to shove it up Benny’s ass for him.
Outside Boulder City the Courier tells the NCR officer that the hostages were released only to learn that the officer had received orders to take out the Khans no matter what. The officer seems hesitant though, and when the Courier states he should hold up his end of the bargain the officer readily agrees, both groups leaving unharmed.
The Courier, Boone and ED-E head towards New Vegas, making a few stops on the way. The two most notable were meeting Victor again and the 188 Trading Post. Victor, the robot from Goodsprings, shows up yet again on the road, saying he’s still making his way to New Vegas. His answers when questioned remain vague and shifty, and the Courier and Victor part soon after.
At the 188 Trading Post the Courier meets Veronica, a hooded woman who asks her some questions about where she was headed and where she had been before asking if she knew about a group known as the Brotherhood of Steel. If the Courier did she couldn’t remember and answers neutrally, which Veronica seems pleased by. The Courier asks if she’d like to come along but Veronica declines, stating the Courier already had too many traveling partners between ED-E and Boone. She also meets the ‘Forecaster,’ a child with a strange device on his head who could ‘think’ about things for a fee. He says some rather cryptic, foreshadowing things that subconsciously stick with the Courier.
Finally the trio make it to Vegas. The actual Strip is locked and guarded by robots while the area around it, Freeside, is rather like a slum. The Courier makes her way through the area, meets a few people and tries to get on the Strip so she can find Benny only to find out she needs a passport or to pass a 2,000 cap credit check. After unsuccessfully trying to reason with the robot she gives up and heads to the Old Mormon Fort to come up with a game plan.
For the next couple of weeks she stays in Freeside, doing odd jobs to see if she can make enough money to get onto the Strip. She stays at the Fort with the Followers of the Apocalypse, a group that offers something of a free clinic and tries to spread culture and education in the Wasteland. Seeing as she was getting a free mattress and relatively safe place to sleep she ends up trying to help them out, most notably helping some addicts return for proper treatment. Her stay in Freeside is fairly busy- she works for the Garrett siblings of the Atomic Wrangler, a casino of sorts, collecting debts and finding ‘workers,’ aka as prostitutes for them, in an attempt to raise some money. She also plays messenger between the Followers and the Garrett siblings as they made a deal regarding the Garrett siblings making them raw material for various things if the Followers would keep their stills in order. She also asks the Crimson Caravan for work but finds the trek would be too long.
While she’s in Freeside the Courier also goes to meet the King on her search for work. The King is the leader of a gang known as the Kings, a group that based themselves off an Elvis Presley imitation school and generally kept Freeside in line. She helps the King with a fraud bodyguard taking business from his group, finding out he was a fake for the King. He then asks her to look into an attack made on some friends of his. After a lot of footwork and a lot of luck in questioning the Courier and co. learn that the cause was growing tension between the Kings and a small group of NCR soldiers handing out food in Freeside. The NCR officer in charge had sent an envoy to the King that had been beaten nearly to death, and despite that the NCR were willing to try and work something out with the King.
The Courier goes to deliver this message to the King and is stopped by Pacer, the King’s right hand man, who says the King shouldn’t find out about the envoy. Insisting the King should know only annoys Pacer, who leaves, and the Courier delivers the message to the King. The King is surprised at the news, stating he never heard there had been an NCR envoy around, and before any decision can be made one of the King’s men comes in to inform him that Pacer, some Kings and the NCR were currently in a shoot out. The King asks the Courier to go and try to defuse the situation, asking her to tell the NCR that the Kings were willing to work with them. The Courier does just that and the NCR reluctantly agree to try again. Pacer is pissed but the King is grateful, and states he owes her a favor should she ever want to cash in.
By the end of all that the Courier was still low on caps, not nearly enough to get into the Strip. Hearing a radio broadcast from the Happy Trails Caravan Company offering work she parts ways with Boone, who states he’s heading back to Novac, and ED-E, who makes it’s way back to Primm.
Honest Hearts
And thus begins the first DLC. The Courier makes her way to the pass where the caravan is waiting, scares away an idiot looking for a free ride and signs on for the journey. The trip is through what was once Utah, a largely wild and unspoiled area with a lot of tribes inhabiting it. The journey opens with a story from Jed Masterson, the caravan’s leader, telling the group the story of the Burned Man, a powerful figure who was once Caesar’s Legate until his loss at Hoover Dam. As punishment for the defeat Caesar had the man, Joshua Graham, covered in pitch, set on fire and cast down the Grand Canyon. When stories of his survival began popping up Caesar forbad anyone to speak his name, thus starting the Burned Man legend.
About two weeks into the expedition the caravan is attacked by tribals known as the White Legs, everyone but the Courier slaughtered before the tribe retreated. Wounded the Courier starts heading forward in hopes of finding a safe place to rest only to meet another tribal young man named Follows-Chalk. Follows-Chalk explains the situation somewhat and asks the Courier to follow him back to his camp, which the Courier does. There she meets the war chief of the Dead Horse tribe, none other than Joshua Graham, who explains that he sent a scout when he heard of the attack to see if there were any survivors.
Graham continues to explain that they’d be happy to help the Courier get back to the Wastes but they had a problem on their hands that occupied their time for the moment. The White Legs had been trying to overtake the area from the Sorrows, another tribe, and Graham and the Dead Horse tribe had come to help with the situation. With no way of getting back without help the Courier asks if she could help in some way, and Graham asks her to go out with Follows-Chalk and scavenge certain pre-War items they would need. He explains that the tribal’s considered many pre-War areas as taboo and refused to enter, Follows-Chalk being one of the few willing to make the journey.
The Courier and Follows-Chalk gather the supplies, the Courier growing fond of Follows-Chalk’s enthusiasm and interest of the world outside of Zion Canyon. When they gathered what they needed they made their way to the Sorrows Camp and met Daniel, a missionary from the now destroyed New Canaan, the settlement both Daniel and Joshua Graham had been born to. Follows-Chalk heads back to his camp and the Courier then travels with Walking Cloud, a Sorrows tribal midwife, continuing to do some odds and ends for Daniel and Graham as both tribes prepared for the White Legs.
During this stretch of time she and Follows-Chalk have a discussion about Follows-Chalk’s interest in the outside world where she encourages him to see the world if that’s what he wants to do. There’s also drama between Walking Cloud and Daniel, where the Courier finds out Walking Cloud’s husband had died but Daniel kept it a secret so she wouldn’t be distracted at this crucial moment. The Courier tells Walking Cloud and she is understandably upset but keeps it together, saying she and Daniel would ‘have a long talk’ after it was all over.
When everything is finally done Daniel explains how there was a disagreement between Daniel and Graham over what should be done. Daniel wanted to flee the Canyon, avoiding bloodying the Sorrows’ hands with a battle while Graham wanted to fight the White Legs and defend the territory. The Courier supports Graham, leaving Daniel without any backing and the White Legs getting closer and closer. He reluctantly agrees with Graham’s plan and the battle begins.
Graham and the Courier make their way through the battle, which claims Follows-Chalk’s life. When they eventually reach the chief Graham kills many of the White Legs before turning on their chief. The chief begs the Courier to talk to Graham, and when she tries Graham argues back, showing despite his spiritual nature he did wish revenge against the White Legs for what they did to New Canaan and Caesar, who had been behind the White Leg’s violence. The Courier reminds Graham of some of his own philosophy about god, and Graham reluctantly allows the chief to flee.
So the DLC ends, and the Courier returns to the Wastes with help from the tribes. She takes Follows-Chalk’s hat, the whole experience throwing her off kilter some. She takes the longer way back to Vegas as she contemplates much of this, hearing a strange radio broadcast as she passed Black Mountain. Going to investigate she meets Neil, a Super Mutant who warns her that a crazy nightkin named Talitha had taken over the mountain and was causing trouble. When he tells her about a man who had been essentially taken prisoner to help Talitha repair things the Courier decides to try and see what she can do to help. Neil reluctantly agrees to help and head on ahead of her.
The Courier makes her way up the mountain with difficulty as the path was heavily guarded by nightkin and Super Mutants. When she makes it to the top Neil distracted the guards, allowing the Courier to sneak in. There she finds a broken robot that had obviously had a lot of work done on it in an attempt to fix it. With a lot of the work done already she manages to fix the mainframe and the robot comes online, asking for Mistress Tabitha. When the crazy nightkin sees her robot fixed she’s overjoyed and the two leave without much of a fuss. Confused but happy she didn’t have to try and kill a mutant twice her size the Courier explores the area more, finding a locked room. One of the terminals gave the password to unlocking it and she does, meeting the man- ghoul- who had been imprisoned there, Raul Alfonso Tejada.
Raul proceeds to snark at her dryly, and the Courier asks if he’d like to come along, not wanting to leave him on his own in the Wastes. The start traveling together and the Courier realizes he’s actually quite capable with a pistol. They continue their travel towards New Vegas, reaching Camp McCarran, a NCR base. Having a somewhat good reputation with the NCR from Boulder City it proves a good place to stop. After chatting with a few people, notably one of the older soldiers, Raul asks the Courier how she felt about older folk continuing to work so actively despite age and injury. Raul then tells her a little about his life, where he and his family had been when the bombs dropped in the Great War (since ghouls can live for hundreds of years).
In the camp the Courier gets asked to help interrogate a Legion soldier the NCR had managed to capture. Since they were getting nowhere and couldn’t use and ‘creative’ ways to get information the officer was willing to let the Courier have a shot. When the Courier starts speaking to the legionnaire, Silus, she finds herself losing her temper and snapping as it was the Legion’s fault the White Legs had been trying to eradicate the Zion tribes, which helped lead to Follows-Chalk’s death. While she manages to scare some information out of Silus she’s bothered by her uncontrolled reaction and hastily leaves the Camp.
Uncomfortable with heading to New Vegas and facing Benny after such a strong outburst she instead heads north, planning to check out the town of Super Mutants Neil had mentioned and tell it’s leader about Tabitha’s departure. She stops by Primm first to pick up ED-E again before the trio reaches Jacobstown, a settlement of Super Mutants and nightkin living fairly peacefully. She meets the head of the town, Marcus, and learns they are trying to find a cure for nightkin schizophrenia. When she speaks to the doctor in charge of this research ED-E plays another recording from his creator, more about the eyebots and Navarro.
Still unsure of what to do with that she opts for helping Doctor Henry, the researcher, since they were staying at Jacobstown. He asks her to check out a nearby cave where Nightstalkers, half rattlesnake half coyote creatures, were showing similar mutations as the nightkin and were, perhaps, a viable research opportunity. Raul, ED-E and the Courier do just that, and find a chewed stealth boy in the cave, which explained the mutation. They head back to Doctor Henry with this news and he states the only way to continue his research would be to test a stronger stealth boy on Lily, a nightkin the Courier met during her stay so far. The Courier talks to Lily and she heads over, eager to help. They do the test only to have the leader of the nightkin in Jacobstown come in and demand the advanced stealth boy.
The Courier fumbles through trying to talk Keene, the nightkin leader, out of this, and by a stroke of luck manages to do so. He leaves and Doctor Henry states that they need now to continue testing on Lily but it would cause Lily a good deal of mental damage.
Unsure about this the Courier talks to Lily, who seems to understand and wants to help anyway. Torn about the whole thing the Courier and co. leave, heading now towards Red Rock Canyon nearby, home of the Great Khans.
At the Canyon the Courier finds herself becoming quite fond of the tribe for their friendliness due to her questionable adventure at Boulder City and their rather direct method of dealing with things. She, Raul and ED-E stay there for a couple of weeks, in which the Courier helps out around the Canyon in return for being allowed to stay, and of course due to her liking of the group. Most notably she spent a lot of time helping Diane and Jack, including sharing some recipes for drugs and medicine she learned in her travels, helping a Khan who had been captured by the Legion and general drug business crazy.
During her stay there someone suddenly spoke through ED-E, explaining her was from the Brotherhood of Steel and that due to ED-E’s last two recordings they had noticed the activity and learned of ED-E’s existence. The man explains further that his group was very interested in seeing ED-E, and if the Courier could drop him off they would examine ED-E and in return upgrade the robot. Curious the Courier heads out to do so when a Followers member also contacts her, saying that the Followers were also interested and would use what they learn to help mankind rather than keep the information as the Brotherhood would.
As she had already seen the good the Followers did the Courier decides to drop ED-E off with them. After that’s done the Courier and Raul continue their journey, this time with the plan to travel down past Primm and up to Novac, then eventually Vegas again. Near Primm the Courier sees some strange and disturbing graffiti, including ‘courier six?’ and ‘you can go home, courier.’ A bit spooked and confused by this the Courier slips when they’re attacked by cazadors, the most annoying enemy in the game. With Raul hurt she leads him to Primm, heading out to find supplies to help him out.
With Raul on the mend she ends up at the Mojave Outpost, meeting Cass again. She remembers one of the jobs she passed down from the Crimson Caravan to buy Cassidy Caravans and tells Cass about the offer. Cass is anything but receptive, and after some unsuccessful reasoning the Courier challenges Cass to a drinking contest over it, and Cass agrees. Of course the Courier fails horribly but Cass agrees regardless, and with that bit of her past behind her the Courier asks if Cass would like to travel with her a bit, which Cass agrees to.
Cass asks if they can go to her destroyed caravan so they can pay respects, which the Courier agrees to. When there Cass notices something off about the site, and asks that they visit the wreckage of two more destroyed caravans. The pair do just that, and by the end Cass says that the energy weapons and the goons they find there are from the Crimson Caravan and the Van Graffs, an energy weapons dealership based in Freeside. She’s understandably pissed by it all and the Courier suggests trying to find evidence rather than go in guns blazing. Cass reluctantly agrees and Project Steal Damning Evidence from Two Extremely Powerful Businesswomen begins.
Surprisingly this was not an easy or smart plan. The Courier manages to break into the Crimson Caravan owner’s safe after awkwardly waiting until nightfall, taking many, many tries to get in but finding a damning note. From there they head to Freeside and try to do the same with the Van Graffs, which proves to be much, much more difficult. After several misadventures they manage to find the evidence they need, and Cass, though still unsure about it all, says they should go to Ranger Jackson in the Mojave Outpost to turn it in.
They do that, and Jackson thanks them for not going on a shooting spree. He explains while it might take a while the NCR will not be pleased with this and both guilty parties would pay. Cass admits this would probably hurt both parties more and is happy with the result despite her initial reluctance. She also pushes the Courier to stop hiding and go find Benny so she can finally finish what she had started, the way Cass had.
So the Courier and Cass head to New Vegas. This time she has enough caps to pass the credit check and enters the Strip, only to meet Victor yet again. Victor explains he is a securitron under Mr. House’s control, the mysterious overseer of the Strip. He then says House wishes to speak with the Courier and tells her to enter the Lucy 38, a large casino, alone, the first time anyone but robots had entered the casino since the Great War.
The Courier does so and is brought to the penthouse where a large screen shows a moustached man. The screen, only a place holder and not a live video feed, introduces himself as Mr. House and explains that he had been the one who ordered the platinum chip’s delivery. He also explains he was the one who ordered Victor to dig the Courier up and save her, apparently believing she could reclaim what had been stolen. He explains further backstory, how the three main casinos on the Strip had once been tribes he brought onto the land and gave new purpose, and how Benny, the head of the Chairmen of the Tops Casino, had been something like his protégée before Benny had stolen the platinum chip. Still being unclear about exactly what the chip would do Mr. House tells the Courier to get the chip back from Benny and that she and others of her choosing could stay in the Lucky 38 suites.
Of course the first thing she does is send word to Raul and Boone, Boone who was basically a homeless person and Raul who was a bro. Still feeling guilty about Lily and the experimentation she also heads to Jacobstown, bringing Lily back with her.
With that excitement done it was finally time to confront Benny. The Courier and Cass head to the Tops Casino, their weapons taken at the entrance as per casino policy. The Courier tries talking to Swank, the right hand of Benny, but with only the lighter from Jessup as evidence she’s unable to convince him fully of Benny’s guilt. Undeterred she heads to Benny directly, confronting him on the casino floor. Benny is shocked to see her then nervous, asking her to ‘play it cool’ and not cause a scene. Under accusation he suggests they go to the presidential suite to discuss matters, and the Courier agrees as long as his body guards don’t come as well.
Upstairs Benny explains that the chip was the key to House’s power, and that with it House’s vast army of securitrons would be much more powerful, powerful enough to hold the decisive power in the Mojave. The conversation strikes the Courier as suddenly as her confrontation with Silus in McCarran as she finds herself involved in yet another power play between people with too much power to begin with. Like with Silus she lashes out, managing to kill Benny before his goons get upstairs in what was obviously supposed to be a trap for them. The Courier and Cass manage to take care of the goons, and on Benny she finds the platinum chip.
Thoroughly tired and shaken yet again the Courier leaves the Tops to finally finish her delivery, only to be stopped by a Legion member, Vulpes, the same man who had done the Nipton lottery. He hands her ‘the Mark of Caesar’ and explains that Caesar wanted to speak with her, and that his Mark would allow her safe passage to the Legion Fort. The Courier takes the Mark and continues to the Lucky 38, where she hands the chip over to House. House is quite pleased of course, but less pleased when she declines seeing the power of the chip and asks simply to leave. Surprisingly House returns the chip to her, telling her to ‘think it over’ and the Courier leaves.
Before heading out she puts the chip away, telling Raul where he can find it if it was needed. Then she heads out again, wishing to get away from the Mojave. During her trip south she hears a curious broadcast from a pre-War casino, claiming a grand opening. Curious she goes to check it out, finding an underground bunker where the broadcast was originating. Before she can explore the bunker a gas starts leaking out of the walls
In 2077 the Great War began, China and the United States starting nuclear warfare that lasted only two hours. Despite the short timeframe a great deal of life on the surface of the planet was destroyed, irradiated in the long term or displaced. Many who survived did so in Vaults, large underground communities built to survive the inevitable nuclear devastation. The Fallout series begins a couple hundred years after the war, New Vegas taking place in 2281. For more general information on the series here is the general wiki on it and on New Vegas.
The Mojave Wasteland suffered the same destruction, though a great deal of the area is hardly as ravaged as many other areas in America, especially the city of Las Vegas, now New Vegas. During the time of the game all eyes are on the Hoover Dam, a pre-War structure still capable of powering a great deal of the land. At the beginning of the game it is held by the NCR, the New California Republic, an army based out of California with great numbers starting to stretch thin with their continued expansion. Opposing them is Caesar’s Legion, a war society of slavers under the rule of Caesar, a man who conquered 86 tribes and effectively most if not all of Arizona. The Legion had already lost the dam in the First Battle of Hoover Dam and spent their time preparing for a second assault.
The Courier’s story begins outside a settlement in the Mojave called Goodsprings with two shots to the head. A man in a checkered suit takes a delivery she was to make to Vegas, arguing with his two lackeys before informing the Courier it all might seem like bad luck but the ‘game was rigged from the start.’ She’s buried in a shallow grave and when she wakes next it’s in the care of Goodspring’s doctor, Doc Mitchell. He proceeds to examine her, explaining a robot named Victor had dug her out of a shallow grave and brought her to him. She finds her memory is largely choppy, for a while she has a hard time remembering even recent events but the confusion begins to clear somewhat, though her older memories were shaky at best. After clearing her to leave he give her her belongings and a Pip Boy, a device strapped to the wrist with many uses including a map and radio, stating she’d need it more.
Leaving Doc Mitchell and still suffering from the damage to her brain the Courier begins asking around Goodsprings to learn about the men that tried to kill her. During the week or more she was there she scavenged, asked around and learned/practiced shooting with Sunny Smiles, helping her kill some large geckos and helping save a Goodspring’s settler in the process. She learned from townsfolk and the robot Victor that the man who shot her and his lackeys headed south towards Primm.
Her stay in the town didn’t end peacefully. The Courier overhears a man named Joe Cobb threatening the local saloon owner Trudy, stating if the town hid a man named Ringo the Powder Gangers would attack the town. After Joe left it’s learned a large correctional facility managed to overthrow the NCR men guarding it and many prisoners escaped or began using the facility as a fort. These convicts called themselves the Powder Gangers due to the explosives they used and had been terrorizing the Mojave since their take over. The Courier agrees to help Ringo when she meets him, going around town to ask for aid. She manages to get Doc Mitchell to offer medical supplies to those fighting and Trudy to convince some settlers to help when the attack came, though it takes the Courier a few tries to convince her. When the attack came Ringo, the Courier, Sunny and a couple of others thwarted the attack, saving Ringo and Goodsprings. Ringo expresses his gratitude, explaining he’s from a large company known as the Crimson Caravan and rewards the Courier, promising more should they meet again.
The Courier spends a few more days in Goodsprings, learning to play a card game known as Caravan and failing abysmally at it. Eventually she heads out to the Wastes towards Primm, finding a rather bizarre, abandoned radio station in a trailer on her way and more notably meeting a man named Barton Thorne in the hills. He claims his ‘girl’ is being attacked by geckos and begs the Courier to save her, so the Courier heads up to see what could be done. She kills the geckos but finds no one in the area, puzzled until Thorne appears again and states there was no girl, he just needed someone to clear the area so he can scavenge. He tries to kill the Courier and is killed in return.
Once in Primm she finds a Mojave Express building, the same company she worked for. When she tries to get into the town an NCR trooper stops her, explaining that the town had been taken by convicts and was too dangerous. She cautiously heads into town, fighting a few convicts along the way until she reaches the Vikki and Vance Casino. Inside most of the townfolks had barricaded themselves within, armed and defending against any convicts. The Courier approaches Jonathan Nash, the head of the Mojave Express in the area, and learns the town’s deputy had been taken by the convicts and trapped in the Bison Hotel.
Deciding to try and help out she enters the hotel, dealing with the convicts with some difficulty but managing to get Deputy Beagle. With his help they escape the building and the Deputy thanks her, stating now they needed a new Sheriff since he wasn’t qualified. Somewhat exasperated but still willing to help she heads learns of a man with the qualifications, Meyers, who had been jailed in the NCR Correctional Facilty, the same that the Powder Gangers had taken over. She heads there, meeting the man and asking if he would consider taking over Primm only to have him say he would on the condition that the NCR grant him a pardon.
Thus began another long walk to the Mojave Outpost where she found an NCR officer and tried to plead Meyer’s case. Unfortunately her argument of ‘he’s just a convict, how bad could he be?’ doesn’t fly and without enough bottle caps (the currency in the Waste) the trip is largely fruitless. The only worthwhile thing that happens is her meeting a woman named Rose of Sharon Cassidy, a ruined caravan owner who’s caravan had been wiped out in an attack.
The Courier heads back to Primm, frustrated but determined to find someone. While considering asking the NCR to take over the town she meets Primm Slim, a robot that worked in the Casino before the Great War. After talking to Jonathan Nash she sets to work trying to reprogram it to act as sheriff for the town, finding she has some skill in repairing and a little in robotics. After some time and work she manages to get the robot reprogrammed, the citizens of Primm mostly happy with the new leadership.
Intrigued by discovering this skill in repair and robotics she spends a few more days in Primm, trying to fix an like so) and eventually meets Manny Vargas, a former NCR First Recon member and one of the town’s snipers. Manny informs her he knows where the man who shot her’s lackeys were, though he isn’t willing to hand over the information unless she helps with a big problem the town was having. Without much of a choice she agrees to help, learning that the local scavenge site had been overrun by ghouls, both feral and in charge of their facilities.
While preparing for the inevitable fighting going against the feral ghouls would bring the Courier meets another notable resident of Novac, Craig Boone, the other NCR sniper protecting the town. Boone, ever the ray of sunshine, started off dismissively and gruff, only showing any interest in the conversation when he realizes the Courier is a stranger with no ties to Novac. Without anywhere else to turn he explains that his wife, Carla, had been kidnapped by legionaries and sold into slavery. He further explains the legionaries knew where to find Carla, when to come and how to get in without being spotted, leading Boone to believe someone in the town was behind it. Boone then gives the Courier his beret, saying if the Courier could find who was responsible she should bring him or her in front of the dinosaur so Boone could take care of the rest.
The Courier tries asking around town, learning Carla was not well liked for her thorny attitude and displeasure at living in Novac rather than a proper city, some believing she left on her own and some unaware she was gone. Nearing a dead end the Courier talks to No-bark Noonan, essentially the town madman. Having already gotten a small, questionable amount of help from him before she manages to get from him that there was some strange happenings in the motel lobby around the time Carla was kidnapped. After the motel lobby closed for the night the Courier checks it out, finding nothing until she (with great trouble and many broken bobby pins) breaks into the motel safe. Inside is a bill of sale for Carla Boone and an unborn child, the payment going to Jeanie May.
Disgusted by this the Courier finds Jeanie May during Boone’s shift and asks her to come in front of the dinosaur. For some reason Jeanie May agrees and Boone makes quick work of her. When they speak again the Courier shows Boone the bill of sale and Boone states he’ll be leaving Novac now that it was over. The Courier asks Boone if he’d like to travel with her and after some convincing Boone agrees, stating it ‘wouldn’t end well.’
With that done Boone, ED-E and the Courier head to the REPCONN Test Site where the ghouls had been giving the Novac residents trouble. After making their way through a few waves of feral ghouls they make it into the building, a voice over the intercom calling them out. A rather rude ghoul’s voice tells them to head upstairs, refusing to give any real answers. The team does so, fighting more feral ghouls along the way until they make it to the voice on the intercom. It turns out the voice isn’t of a ghoul but a human named Chris Haversam who for some reason believed he was a ghoul despite what anyone told him. Haversam rudely tells them to go see Jason Bright, the leader of the group of sane ghouls in the building. Bright informs them that the group of ghouls were known as the Bright Followers, trying to make their ‘great journey’ before ‘demons’ attacked the building, forcing them to lock themselves in the upper floor and halting all progress.
The Courier, of course, is asked to help take care of the demons. Agreeing she, Boone and ED-E head down to the basement, learning the ‘demons’ were actually Nightkin, a type of mutated human that used pre-War stealth technology to stay mostly invisible. After a long, arduous trip through the basement they manage to kill all the nightkin and report back to Bright with the news. Of course nothing is so simple as killing a dozen large, powerful, invisible mutants twice your size, and Bright requires more aid before they can make their journey. It turns out he wants to use the rockets at the facility to take his followers into space as he saw in visions.
With no more knowledge of space travel than cheesy pre-War sci-fi the Courier agrees again, this time helping Haversam find the parts he needs. One of the parts costs her most of her caps as her attempt at charming her way to a discount falls completely flat, but the parts are found. During this transaction ED-E suddenly starts playing a recording, something left over from its creator telling whoever was listening that the eyebot was on its way to Navarro. Unsure of what to do with that information the Courier heads back to Bright.
Bright makes a grand speech, thanking both the Courier and Haversam for all they did. Haversam is understandably pissed he’s being left behind and the Courier attempts once again to explain he wasn’t a ghoul and he’d die out there. Eventually she convinces him to go to Novac and he does, grudgingly. With that the Courier, Boone and ED-E head upstairs to start the launch and watch as the rockets fly off to parts unknown. All and all it’s a fairly bizarre day.
With that excitement over and the ghouls now gone the Courier heads back to Novac to find Manny so she can continue tracking those that tried to kill her. Despite the awkwardness between Manny and Boone Manny explains two of the thugs were Great Khans and were headed for Boulder City. So team robot courier Boone head that way, with little excitement until they reach the city. Outside the gates is an NCR officer who tells the group to stop and explains that a small group of Great Khans had taken some NCR troopers hostage. The situation was looking grim as they had orders that the hostages were expendable if needed, and the officer reluctantly allows the Courier to enter the area, stating there wasn’t much more harm she could do all things considered.
The Courier and co. head to where the Great Khans were camped out, managing to make it to their leader, Jessup. Jessup, one of the two thugs there when she was shot, is shocked to see the Courier alive but quickly explains the man that shot her, Benny, had ditched them without paying. He further explains that Benny is a casino boss in New Vegas and probably headed back that way.
With that out of the way the Courier tries talking some sense into Jessup, or at least saying the NCR were ready to kill them all for this. Jessup is frustrated, explaining they had little choice in the matter and that the Great Khans and the NCR had bad blood due to a past fight the groups had that had ended in many uninvolved Khans getting killed. Eventually Jessup realizes the only chance they had to get out of Boulder City alive was to release the prisoners, which they do. Before the Courier heads out he hands her Benny’s lighter, asking her to shove it up Benny’s ass for him.
Outside Boulder City the Courier tells the NCR officer that the hostages were released only to learn that the officer had received orders to take out the Khans no matter what. The officer seems hesitant though, and when the Courier states he should hold up his end of the bargain the officer readily agrees, both groups leaving unharmed.
The Courier, Boone and ED-E head towards New Vegas, making a few stops on the way. The two most notable were meeting Victor again and the 188 Trading Post. Victor, the robot from Goodsprings, shows up yet again on the road, saying he’s still making his way to New Vegas. His answers when questioned remain vague and shifty, and the Courier and Victor part soon after.
At the 188 Trading Post the Courier meets Veronica, a hooded woman who asks her some questions about where she was headed and where she had been before asking if she knew about a group known as the Brotherhood of Steel. If the Courier did she couldn’t remember and answers neutrally, which Veronica seems pleased by. The Courier asks if she’d like to come along but Veronica declines, stating the Courier already had too many traveling partners between ED-E and Boone. She also meets the ‘Forecaster,’ a child with a strange device on his head who could ‘think’ about things for a fee. He says some rather cryptic, foreshadowing things that subconsciously stick with the Courier.
Finally the trio make it to Vegas. The actual Strip is locked and guarded by robots while the area around it, Freeside, is rather like a slum. The Courier makes her way through the area, meets a few people and tries to get on the Strip so she can find Benny only to find out she needs a passport or to pass a 2,000 cap credit check. After unsuccessfully trying to reason with the robot she gives up and heads to the Old Mormon Fort to come up with a game plan.
For the next couple of weeks she stays in Freeside, doing odd jobs to see if she can make enough money to get onto the Strip. She stays at the Fort with the Followers of the Apocalypse, a group that offers something of a free clinic and tries to spread culture and education in the Wasteland. Seeing as she was getting a free mattress and relatively safe place to sleep she ends up trying to help them out, most notably helping some addicts return for proper treatment. Her stay in Freeside is fairly busy- she works for the Garrett siblings of the Atomic Wrangler, a casino of sorts, collecting debts and finding ‘workers,’ aka as prostitutes for them, in an attempt to raise some money. She also plays messenger between the Followers and the Garrett siblings as they made a deal regarding the Garrett siblings making them raw material for various things if the Followers would keep their stills in order. She also asks the Crimson Caravan for work but finds the trek would be too long.
While she’s in Freeside the Courier also goes to meet the King on her search for work. The King is the leader of a gang known as the Kings, a group that based themselves off an Elvis Presley imitation school and generally kept Freeside in line. She helps the King with a fraud bodyguard taking business from his group, finding out he was a fake for the King. He then asks her to look into an attack made on some friends of his. After a lot of footwork and a lot of luck in questioning the Courier and co. learn that the cause was growing tension between the Kings and a small group of NCR soldiers handing out food in Freeside. The NCR officer in charge had sent an envoy to the King that had been beaten nearly to death, and despite that the NCR were willing to try and work something out with the King.
The Courier goes to deliver this message to the King and is stopped by Pacer, the King’s right hand man, who says the King shouldn’t find out about the envoy. Insisting the King should know only annoys Pacer, who leaves, and the Courier delivers the message to the King. The King is surprised at the news, stating he never heard there had been an NCR envoy around, and before any decision can be made one of the King’s men comes in to inform him that Pacer, some Kings and the NCR were currently in a shoot out. The King asks the Courier to go and try to defuse the situation, asking her to tell the NCR that the Kings were willing to work with them. The Courier does just that and the NCR reluctantly agree to try again. Pacer is pissed but the King is grateful, and states he owes her a favor should she ever want to cash in.
By the end of all that the Courier was still low on caps, not nearly enough to get into the Strip. Hearing a radio broadcast from the Happy Trails Caravan Company offering work she parts ways with Boone, who states he’s heading back to Novac, and ED-E, who makes it’s way back to Primm.
Honest Hearts
And thus begins the first DLC. The Courier makes her way to the pass where the caravan is waiting, scares away an idiot looking for a free ride and signs on for the journey. The trip is through what was once Utah, a largely wild and unspoiled area with a lot of tribes inhabiting it. The journey opens with a story from Jed Masterson, the caravan’s leader, telling the group the story of the Burned Man, a powerful figure who was once Caesar’s Legate until his loss at Hoover Dam. As punishment for the defeat Caesar had the man, Joshua Graham, covered in pitch, set on fire and cast down the Grand Canyon. When stories of his survival began popping up Caesar forbad anyone to speak his name, thus starting the Burned Man legend.
About two weeks into the expedition the caravan is attacked by tribals known as the White Legs, everyone but the Courier slaughtered before the tribe retreated. Wounded the Courier starts heading forward in hopes of finding a safe place to rest only to meet another tribal young man named Follows-Chalk. Follows-Chalk explains the situation somewhat and asks the Courier to follow him back to his camp, which the Courier does. There she meets the war chief of the Dead Horse tribe, none other than Joshua Graham, who explains that he sent a scout when he heard of the attack to see if there were any survivors.
Graham continues to explain that they’d be happy to help the Courier get back to the Wastes but they had a problem on their hands that occupied their time for the moment. The White Legs had been trying to overtake the area from the Sorrows, another tribe, and Graham and the Dead Horse tribe had come to help with the situation. With no way of getting back without help the Courier asks if she could help in some way, and Graham asks her to go out with Follows-Chalk and scavenge certain pre-War items they would need. He explains that the tribal’s considered many pre-War areas as taboo and refused to enter, Follows-Chalk being one of the few willing to make the journey.
The Courier and Follows-Chalk gather the supplies, the Courier growing fond of Follows-Chalk’s enthusiasm and interest of the world outside of Zion Canyon. When they gathered what they needed they made their way to the Sorrows Camp and met Daniel, a missionary from the now destroyed New Canaan, the settlement both Daniel and Joshua Graham had been born to. Follows-Chalk heads back to his camp and the Courier then travels with Walking Cloud, a Sorrows tribal midwife, continuing to do some odds and ends for Daniel and Graham as both tribes prepared for the White Legs.
During this stretch of time she and Follows-Chalk have a discussion about Follows-Chalk’s interest in the outside world where she encourages him to see the world if that’s what he wants to do. There’s also drama between Walking Cloud and Daniel, where the Courier finds out Walking Cloud’s husband had died but Daniel kept it a secret so she wouldn’t be distracted at this crucial moment. The Courier tells Walking Cloud and she is understandably upset but keeps it together, saying she and Daniel would ‘have a long talk’ after it was all over.
When everything is finally done Daniel explains how there was a disagreement between Daniel and Graham over what should be done. Daniel wanted to flee the Canyon, avoiding bloodying the Sorrows’ hands with a battle while Graham wanted to fight the White Legs and defend the territory. The Courier supports Graham, leaving Daniel without any backing and the White Legs getting closer and closer. He reluctantly agrees with Graham’s plan and the battle begins.
Graham and the Courier make their way through the battle, which claims Follows-Chalk’s life. When they eventually reach the chief Graham kills many of the White Legs before turning on their chief. The chief begs the Courier to talk to Graham, and when she tries Graham argues back, showing despite his spiritual nature he did wish revenge against the White Legs for what they did to New Canaan and Caesar, who had been behind the White Leg’s violence. The Courier reminds Graham of some of his own philosophy about god, and Graham reluctantly allows the chief to flee.
So the DLC ends, and the Courier returns to the Wastes with help from the tribes. She takes Follows-Chalk’s hat, the whole experience throwing her off kilter some. She takes the longer way back to Vegas as she contemplates much of this, hearing a strange radio broadcast as she passed Black Mountain. Going to investigate she meets Neil, a Super Mutant who warns her that a crazy nightkin named Talitha had taken over the mountain and was causing trouble. When he tells her about a man who had been essentially taken prisoner to help Talitha repair things the Courier decides to try and see what she can do to help. Neil reluctantly agrees to help and head on ahead of her.
The Courier makes her way up the mountain with difficulty as the path was heavily guarded by nightkin and Super Mutants. When she makes it to the top Neil distracted the guards, allowing the Courier to sneak in. There she finds a broken robot that had obviously had a lot of work done on it in an attempt to fix it. With a lot of the work done already she manages to fix the mainframe and the robot comes online, asking for Mistress Tabitha. When the crazy nightkin sees her robot fixed she’s overjoyed and the two leave without much of a fuss. Confused but happy she didn’t have to try and kill a mutant twice her size the Courier explores the area more, finding a locked room. One of the terminals gave the password to unlocking it and she does, meeting the man- ghoul- who had been imprisoned there, Raul Alfonso Tejada.
Raul proceeds to snark at her dryly, and the Courier asks if he’d like to come along, not wanting to leave him on his own in the Wastes. The start traveling together and the Courier realizes he’s actually quite capable with a pistol. They continue their travel towards New Vegas, reaching Camp McCarran, a NCR base. Having a somewhat good reputation with the NCR from Boulder City it proves a good place to stop. After chatting with a few people, notably one of the older soldiers, Raul asks the Courier how she felt about older folk continuing to work so actively despite age and injury. Raul then tells her a little about his life, where he and his family had been when the bombs dropped in the Great War (since ghouls can live for hundreds of years).
In the camp the Courier gets asked to help interrogate a Legion soldier the NCR had managed to capture. Since they were getting nowhere and couldn’t use and ‘creative’ ways to get information the officer was willing to let the Courier have a shot. When the Courier starts speaking to the legionnaire, Silus, she finds herself losing her temper and snapping as it was the Legion’s fault the White Legs had been trying to eradicate the Zion tribes, which helped lead to Follows-Chalk’s death. While she manages to scare some information out of Silus she’s bothered by her uncontrolled reaction and hastily leaves the Camp.
Uncomfortable with heading to New Vegas and facing Benny after such a strong outburst she instead heads north, planning to check out the town of Super Mutants Neil had mentioned and tell it’s leader about Tabitha’s departure. She stops by Primm first to pick up ED-E again before the trio reaches Jacobstown, a settlement of Super Mutants and nightkin living fairly peacefully. She meets the head of the town, Marcus, and learns they are trying to find a cure for nightkin schizophrenia. When she speaks to the doctor in charge of this research ED-E plays another recording from his creator, more about the eyebots and Navarro.
Still unsure of what to do with that she opts for helping Doctor Henry, the researcher, since they were staying at Jacobstown. He asks her to check out a nearby cave where Nightstalkers, half rattlesnake half coyote creatures, were showing similar mutations as the nightkin and were, perhaps, a viable research opportunity. Raul, ED-E and the Courier do just that, and find a chewed stealth boy in the cave, which explained the mutation. They head back to Doctor Henry with this news and he states the only way to continue his research would be to test a stronger stealth boy on Lily, a nightkin the Courier met during her stay so far. The Courier talks to Lily and she heads over, eager to help. They do the test only to have the leader of the nightkin in Jacobstown come in and demand the advanced stealth boy.
The Courier fumbles through trying to talk Keene, the nightkin leader, out of this, and by a stroke of luck manages to do so. He leaves and Doctor Henry states that they need now to continue testing on Lily but it would cause Lily a good deal of mental damage.
Unsure about this the Courier talks to Lily, who seems to understand and wants to help anyway. Torn about the whole thing the Courier and co. leave, heading now towards Red Rock Canyon nearby, home of the Great Khans.
At the Canyon the Courier finds herself becoming quite fond of the tribe for their friendliness due to her questionable adventure at Boulder City and their rather direct method of dealing with things. She, Raul and ED-E stay there for a couple of weeks, in which the Courier helps out around the Canyon in return for being allowed to stay, and of course due to her liking of the group. Most notably she spent a lot of time helping Diane and Jack, including sharing some recipes for drugs and medicine she learned in her travels, helping a Khan who had been captured by the Legion and general drug business crazy.
During her stay there someone suddenly spoke through ED-E, explaining her was from the Brotherhood of Steel and that due to ED-E’s last two recordings they had noticed the activity and learned of ED-E’s existence. The man explains further that his group was very interested in seeing ED-E, and if the Courier could drop him off they would examine ED-E and in return upgrade the robot. Curious the Courier heads out to do so when a Followers member also contacts her, saying that the Followers were also interested and would use what they learn to help mankind rather than keep the information as the Brotherhood would.
As she had already seen the good the Followers did the Courier decides to drop ED-E off with them. After that’s done the Courier and Raul continue their journey, this time with the plan to travel down past Primm and up to Novac, then eventually Vegas again. Near Primm the Courier sees some strange and disturbing graffiti, including ‘courier six?’ and ‘you can go home, courier.’ A bit spooked and confused by this the Courier slips when they’re attacked by cazadors, the most annoying enemy in the game. With Raul hurt she leads him to Primm, heading out to find supplies to help him out.
With Raul on the mend she ends up at the Mojave Outpost, meeting Cass again. She remembers one of the jobs she passed down from the Crimson Caravan to buy Cassidy Caravans and tells Cass about the offer. Cass is anything but receptive, and after some unsuccessful reasoning the Courier challenges Cass to a drinking contest over it, and Cass agrees. Of course the Courier fails horribly but Cass agrees regardless, and with that bit of her past behind her the Courier asks if Cass would like to travel with her a bit, which Cass agrees to.
Cass asks if they can go to her destroyed caravan so they can pay respects, which the Courier agrees to. When there Cass notices something off about the site, and asks that they visit the wreckage of two more destroyed caravans. The pair do just that, and by the end Cass says that the energy weapons and the goons they find there are from the Crimson Caravan and the Van Graffs, an energy weapons dealership based in Freeside. She’s understandably pissed by it all and the Courier suggests trying to find evidence rather than go in guns blazing. Cass reluctantly agrees and Project Steal Damning Evidence from Two Extremely Powerful Businesswomen begins.
Surprisingly this was not an easy or smart plan. The Courier manages to break into the Crimson Caravan owner’s safe after awkwardly waiting until nightfall, taking many, many tries to get in but finding a damning note. From there they head to Freeside and try to do the same with the Van Graffs, which proves to be much, much more difficult. After several misadventures they manage to find the evidence they need, and Cass, though still unsure about it all, says they should go to Ranger Jackson in the Mojave Outpost to turn it in.
They do that, and Jackson thanks them for not going on a shooting spree. He explains while it might take a while the NCR will not be pleased with this and both guilty parties would pay. Cass admits this would probably hurt both parties more and is happy with the result despite her initial reluctance. She also pushes the Courier to stop hiding and go find Benny so she can finally finish what she had started, the way Cass had.
So the Courier and Cass head to New Vegas. This time she has enough caps to pass the credit check and enters the Strip, only to meet Victor yet again. Victor explains he is a securitron under Mr. House’s control, the mysterious overseer of the Strip. He then says House wishes to speak with the Courier and tells her to enter the Lucy 38, a large casino, alone, the first time anyone but robots had entered the casino since the Great War.
The Courier does so and is brought to the penthouse where a large screen shows a moustached man. The screen, only a place holder and not a live video feed, introduces himself as Mr. House and explains that he had been the one who ordered the platinum chip’s delivery. He also explains he was the one who ordered Victor to dig the Courier up and save her, apparently believing she could reclaim what had been stolen. He explains further backstory, how the three main casinos on the Strip had once been tribes he brought onto the land and gave new purpose, and how Benny, the head of the Chairmen of the Tops Casino, had been something like his protégée before Benny had stolen the platinum chip. Still being unclear about exactly what the chip would do Mr. House tells the Courier to get the chip back from Benny and that she and others of her choosing could stay in the Lucky 38 suites.
Of course the first thing she does is send word to Raul and Boone, Boone who was basically a homeless person and Raul who was a bro. Still feeling guilty about Lily and the experimentation she also heads to Jacobstown, bringing Lily back with her.
With that excitement done it was finally time to confront Benny. The Courier and Cass head to the Tops Casino, their weapons taken at the entrance as per casino policy. The Courier tries talking to Swank, the right hand of Benny, but with only the lighter from Jessup as evidence she’s unable to convince him fully of Benny’s guilt. Undeterred she heads to Benny directly, confronting him on the casino floor. Benny is shocked to see her then nervous, asking her to ‘play it cool’ and not cause a scene. Under accusation he suggests they go to the presidential suite to discuss matters, and the Courier agrees as long as his body guards don’t come as well.
Upstairs Benny explains that the chip was the key to House’s power, and that with it House’s vast army of securitrons would be much more powerful, powerful enough to hold the decisive power in the Mojave. The conversation strikes the Courier as suddenly as her confrontation with Silus in McCarran as she finds herself involved in yet another power play between people with too much power to begin with. Like with Silus she lashes out, managing to kill Benny before his goons get upstairs in what was obviously supposed to be a trap for them. The Courier and Cass manage to take care of the goons, and on Benny she finds the platinum chip.
Thoroughly tired and shaken yet again the Courier leaves the Tops to finally finish her delivery, only to be stopped by a Legion member, Vulpes, the same man who had done the Nipton lottery. He hands her ‘the Mark of Caesar’ and explains that Caesar wanted to speak with her, and that his Mark would allow her safe passage to the Legion Fort. The Courier takes the Mark and continues to the Lucky 38, where she hands the chip over to House. House is quite pleased of course, but less pleased when she declines seeing the power of the chip and asks simply to leave. Surprisingly House returns the chip to her, telling her to ‘think it over’ and the Courier leaves.
Before heading out she puts the chip away, telling Raul where he can find it if it was needed. Then she heads out again, wishing to get away from the Mojave. During her trip south she hears a curious broadcast from a pre-War casino, claiming a grand opening. Curious she goes to check it out, finding an underground bunker where the broadcast was originating. Before she can explore the bunker a gas starts leaking out of the walls