Thank you for all that have read, and commented. Have updated (nellis now!) and improved the story. Chapter one and two now finished. To all that read thank you and if you have any comments please feel free. All comments good, bad..ok no trolls. But besides that all comments and criticism welcome and needed.


Fallout Arizona

Chapter one: Arizona Straights
by Bob Tom


In the dark of the night the Courier, held on to his 9mm while looking up at the sky which was illuminated by New Vegas in the distance. The Courier thought to himself about how he wouldn't be seeing that light anytime soon, and so he'd better enjoy it but something within himself couldn't bring him to look at the city. He had had quite the time there, from when he bashed in Benny's skull with his bare hands, to when he carried the severed heads of the Fiend's leaders. The NCR had finally put down it's enemies but only because of him. In the span of a month he'd destroyed the Fiends, Great Khans, Vipers, Brotherhood, Enclave, and many other wasteland savages. The best times were still fresh in his head, like the time when Bonnie punched Caesar with a displacer glove into the next century or when those [censored] Powder Ganger's got erased from existence.

All the times weren't as good of course, and the courier couldn't forget when he'd lost Veronica to that Death-claw or when Bonnie almost got killed...on further reflection Bonnie almost got killed a lot and yet they always seemed to pull though together. The courier then wondered what Bonnie was up to and if he ever thought about what had happened over the last few months, and honestly who wasn't?

The NCR had taken the whole wasteland, apart from a few allied positions such as Free-side still under the Kings' control or Nellis Air Force Base with the friendly, but still xenophobic, Boomers.
Even the pest such as the Death-claw was no longer a threat, though Cazador's were still a major pest in the hills west of Vegas. Under this new law and order the Mojave was now trying to come to terms with what had happened and in the following weeks after the battle at hoover dam. Shortly after The Courier defeated the Legion he found himself in meetings with the top NCR brass. President Kimball, Chief Hanlon (who had recently been put on suicide watch), General Oliver and Colonel Moore.

President Kimball had called the meeting, which took place in a quickly redesigned Colonel Moore's office. Her desk and chair set had been removed and in there place a large conference desk and a map of the United States hung over the wall. Moore seemed somewhat angered by the change but didn't say anything. General Oliver was the first to speak out of everyone, once they all took seats at the table.

“So we've beat the damn Legion, the Khans have collapsed, the Wasteland has taken the Fiends, The Brotherhood is 6 feet under and every major power player in the region are our allies. I'd say we did a pretty good job.”

President Kimball had a look of frankness on his face and simply uttered, “It's not over.”
“What?” asked Oliver who had secretly been waiting for the day he could return to California.
“You heard me,” said Kimball with a deep seriousness in his tone, “This is no time for sitting on our asses, with our hands in the air just waiting. Right now the Legion is on a retreat back into the heart of Arizona and their capital, Flagstaff. I don't want ONE legion alive before they reach that hell hole.”

General Oliver looked moderately disapproving but then Chief Hanlon spoke up,
“I agree, right now those boys are massively disorganized, with Caesar dead, Legate dead, Vulpes dead and half the military is either killed, inquired, or fleeing. We have to strike while the iron's hot!”

General Oliver sat back in his chair and looked as if he was full contemplating what an Arizona campaign would mean.
“How do you think this operation, in conjunction with Annexation, should be done?” asked Kimball looking at the faces around the table.
Moore spoke up and said, “We should have our troops repositioned quickly, with some surplus troops from Primm and the Mojave outpost sent to clear I-15 and Good springs of any straggling resistance from the Powder Gangers, Jackals, or any mutants. This could give us a clear supply line to Camp Mccarran for the Annexation of the Strip and surrounding slums including the pacification of any Fiends left in the area.
“It would be my recommendation that all prisoners of war be transferred to the I-15 railroad and begin the immediate construction of the track, we need to be able to rapidly send supplies for the increased numbers of troops and that railroad is the best way too.”

President Kimball leaned back in his chair and then nodded his head in agreement. He put his hands together as if he was forming his thoughts and then looked at General Oliver,
“Oliver, I need you too send the rangers into Arizona and do recon missions. We need to know how many Caesar troops are headed back”
“Yes Sir, but sir,” said Oliver, “Don't you think Recon should deal with any Caesar still roaming Nevada?”
“And where would those be? Cottonwood? You know damn well our friend here took care of that place. Where Camp Forlorn Hope? All those legion are in chains. The corpses around the Hoover Dam? Yeah they're going to be a threat. Now stop with the talk and follow orders Olly.”

A look of amusemant spread around the room as everyone remembered that The President and General Oliver were surprisingly good friends, after a few muffled coughs the meeting went on.

“OK,” started off Kimball slowly, “Now that we have I-15 issue cleared up, what is to be done about Camp golf and Forlorn Hope? I've been thinking that since Golf wasn't as badly damaged that we use that as the new base of medical operations for the wounded from Forlorn and The Dam. Then we move all forward operating troops to Forlorn and get them all the good supplies they need to move into Arizona.”

“Whoa Whoa, sir you want to move a full battalion into Arizona?!”cried out Oliver in almost a plea
“That's right, I've been planning this day since I've taken office. It's going to be hard to sell to the Senate but since the constitution give's me the power to use troops for 60 days in “police action” that won't be a problem. Just think of the outcry if those damn Senators try to leave our boys in Arizona with no funding!
“In any case, Oliver yes we're forming a new battalion and are going to move them in through the Dam and set up our Western Arizona headquarters in Caesar's old fort. Now that I think of it General, before you get the Ranger's to do that recon have them go into the fort and give the stragglers hell, they won't know what hit um. You got that Chief Hanlon?”
“Sir,” the chief said with a elderly thoughtfulness, “It'll be done by the end of tomorrow.”
“Excellent. Hey I just realized we haven't let our hero speak, what do you think about all of this?”

The courier looked at the ceiling for a brief moment and then an amazing idea came into his mind.

“You all's ideas are great, and I'm sure they'll work, but if you want to cripple the Legion MASS SCALE, then we're going to need the Boomers.”

“The Boomers?” Oliver asked, “Yes they were mightily helpful during the Battle with that ancient airplane of theirs but we haven't heard a word from them since.”
“Don't worry,” said the Courier,”I'll go talk to them again, in the meantime we're going to need some mode of communication over long distances.”

The room grew silent, no one wanted to be the one but President Kimball, took lead.
“Boy, the device I'm about to give you is top secret, but since you've been with us so long it's only natural we let you in. It's called a mobile wireless connector; you ever see a Phone that works?”
“Once in California, they seem pretty rare though”
“That's because the equipment to run them hasn't be scavenged and the lines are costly to maintain. But this device we're going to give you is a mobile phone, you can talk to us anywhere in the w-” Kimball paused and noted the Pip Boy on the courier's shoulder, he then resumed.
“On second thought, that Pip Boy you're wearing uses GPS locating, I'll just have one of our scientist recalibrate that thing to give you a cellular function.”
“Fine with me” the Courier said nodding his head in agreement.
“Excellent, then once this meeting is over I'll get an egghead on that. OK so we all now our rolls.
Oliver, Hanlon, Moore. Get I-15 secured and annexed within a week, I want every community on that strip paying taxes and patrolling itself. We need as many troops east as possible. Also make sure to set up the new Battalion and move the wounded troops to Camp Golf. O, now that I think of it I want the Lucky38 set up as the new NCR Mojave Capital building immediately, and those secretions pacified. And you courier, we're going to need you to meet with the Boomers, and once you give us the go we'll invade Arizona. Any questions?”

Everyone was getting ready to leave but the courier had a problem now.
“Sir all of that was fine except one thing, the Lucky 38. Now I'm fine with you all using the building but the Presidential Suite remains mine and mine only. OK? Under no circumstances will I give that one up. Agreed?”
“Damn I had planned on using that for myself...but I suppose you have done us a lot of good, fine. Now does anyone else have anything else to say? I have to get back to California if you don't mind.

No one said anything and the meeting was adjourned.

Happy New Year, welcome to the board, and very nice post.

I thought some of the paragraphs were kind of long, but none were absurdly so.

Everything was broken down in a way that made sense. I've never played NV but you talked about the characters in a way that made sense to me and made me look forward to seeing what develops down in Arizona.

Cool possibilities with the NCR too. Continuing their expansionist ways all the way down into Arizona, political power plays going on, I likes it.

Thank you very much for reading my fanfic, that's all I really want out of it. The suggestions you made I will definiately keep in mind, the format could be improved. Thanks for reading and please continue, I'll make sure to keep things interesting.

Good writing but Admas Air Force base seriously? Maybe Nellis Air force base?
Looking forward for more.

Thank you for all that have read, and commented. Have updated (nellis now!) and improved the story. Chapter one and two now finished. To all that read thank you and if you have any comments please feel free. All comments good, bad..ok no trolls. But besides that all comments and criticism welcome and needed.

~Welcome to the Forums~

First off I would recommend posting your chapters in a separate posts so that people don't have to see this huge wall of text on the first post and scare them out of reading. If your doing it for convenience then just add a table of contents linking each of your posts/chapters.

I would put a single line space in between the dialogue. Like:


Instead of having it mashed up together, sure it makes it twice as long but it makes twice as easier to read.

Do not use



Please. It really breaks up the flow of story, and seems just unprofessional, not that I'm saying anyone here is a professional( though so could be).



I know spell check says to but I would just put it as Deathclaw and add the word to your dictionary.

Write out the numbers one through ten, I would make it one through a hundred but the rule is one through ten.

You also seem to have a habit of not ending your quotations. Go back and re read to catch them, spacing out the dialogue might help with this.


Avoid repetition of words in a single sentence at least. It makes the writing more boring, I would recommend changing one of the "pest"'s to "threat".

This is all I got on first glance, I just skimmed through so I then went back and read the story and I got...

The writing is pretty solid, at first I was like oh no. Not another Courier story but it then turned it something interesting, you added a total new experience to make it stand out from other courier stories and make it so you build your own tracks. Which is cool and makes it more interesting to read. The chapters are pretty good, keep me entertained and interested but I think you can still add more to the story.



Eh.

The courier looked at the ceiling, contemplating the discussion. He was thinking of what to do when a smile slowly spread across his face, he just got a brilliant idea.

It adds more imagery to the story and more depth to the character. I picked this line out as an example it's not the only one.



Change mass to massive. And you probably want to put it in italics instead of bold(personal taste I think, your choice) and maybe re write the you all's to: Y'all ideas... If you were going for that southern accent thing.

I think I have left you with enough to ponder for now. Good work, original and all the characters have their personality and seem to act like they would in the game, so good job.

I'll keep following, so keep writing.

Good luck.

Alright, those are some good ideas. Thank you Yttrium for the advice, once I get some time I'll make sure to update it. Thanks for reading

Chapter 2:Things that go boom

The Courier had met up with a NCR scientist who downloaded the software to his pip boy. He had tested it out and noted that unlike the phones of old he could only call the numbers in the contact list they had downloaded. The only numbers were President Kimball, General Oliver and Colonel Moore. The Courier left the dam shortly afterward and made his way to the Boomers.

He passed through Boulder city which was teeming with activity as construction workers began pouring concrete. This drew up memories of when he cleared out the quarry on I-15, and how much of a fight those death-claw's put up. For most wastelanders the death-claw was an almost mythical creature who disturbed caravans and small settlements. For the courier it was just another animal that needed to die. He was fairly sure he'd drove them to extinction in this region.

Once out of Boulder City the courier made his way up to the city on Highway 95 and found that the highway intersection of 93 and 95 trading post was full of life. Broke but happy NCR troops were drinking, and waving the flag. The traders were swamped with customers and when the courier looked down 93 towards Helios One and Novac he saw large caravans and large groups of people walking towards New Vegas. The NCR was happier than before and it seemed that regular citizens felt glad the war was finally over...or at least that's what they thought.

He tried to buy some goods but partiers swamped the trader and the line that formed was too long. “He probably don't have anything left anyway,” he thought. He continued walking down the road and saw behind an old Repcon sign a group of NCR squatters. They had set up tents and probably choose the spot for the shade. There was no telling if they were going to create a long term residence here or if they were only going to stay a few days but he knew that the region was going to see more NCR residents come to the Mojave seeking a better life.

Hours of walking later the Courier had reached the warning signs of Boomer terrority and saw a small caravan walking towards him. He didn't believe his eyes, they people in the group seemed to be dressed as Boomers. Could it really be some of them? He kept walking and made his way to the left when he finally caught up to the group.
“Are you boomers?!”, he asked
“Of course, you've seen us at the base before,”
“You're away from the base! You all never leave the base!”
“Not any longer, after you showed us all outsiders aren't savages we decided to explore the outside world. And find the source of the lights.”
“Are you allowing more outsiders in?”
“No, only you outsider.”
With that the caravan moved on and the Courier made his way to Pearl, the Boomers' leaders house.

He walked into the wooden framed house and saw Pearl cleaning her table.
“O hello my child come right in.”
“Sure thing”
“So what brings you here today?”
“I just wanted to thank you all for your help with the battle recently.”
“Well once you found that plane for us it was easy! I have no doubt you saw our scouts.”
“Yes I just ran into them, so are you going to start trading with the NCR?”
“If the scouting mission goes well yes. We have some matters that can't be obtained without access to outside goods. But I have a feeling you didn't come here to just talk about Boomer trade policy.”
“Yes your right. Listen the NCR-”
“What does NCR stand for exactly?”
“New California Republic.”
“Republic you say?”
“Yes they're a democracy.”
“Well that's surprising.”said Pearl as she a look of astonishment overcame her face.
“You'll find a lot of things in the outside world are, but I have an urgent matter. The NCR are about to crush a Hellenistic group of pagans called the Legion,you recently helped us fight them at the dam. In any case the NCR wants to push into Arizona and annex it but they need your help. More specially the Boomers help.”
“How can we be of service?”
“We just need more ordinance. More bombs. All we need of the boomers is to spot large numbers of troops on the ground and bomb them. The way the NCR figures you would get target practice, and to test your new planes. It wouldn't even be that far of a fly, since most of the retreating troops are leaderless and just across the lake in Arizona.”
“I'll talk to and get this started then. Do we need to wait for a signal of some sort?”
“Nope just as soon as you can fly and get the bombs start.”
“With all you've done for us how can I say no? O and deary please do stop by some other time. The school children are dying to see you again.”
“I'll be back. I promise.”

The courier left her home and quickly made his way to the ruins outside of Nellis. He looked up at the sky and saw an ancient plane gaining speed and attitude. He knew that he couldn't wait to see the massive explosions and so he made is way over the cliff quickly. The Bomber dropped low over the fort and dropped a massive play load. Even though it was mid-day and the sun was shining down bright the explosion lit up the sky and the courier covered his eyes.

The plane flew on from the fort and went further east and was out of view and only flames were seen from the horizon. The courier knew immediately that the Recon had been in the Fort at the time, and the size of that ordinance had been massive in scale. As the smoke cleared from the hillside, the Fort still stood but some of the walls had fallen and the fire seemed to be strong. The courier felt a slight since of panic (something he hadn't felt in a long time) and quickly looked at his Pip Boy.

He looked through his contact list and called General Oliver.
*ring *ring *ring “Hello? Yes what do you want? Have you talked to the Boomers? I think I just heard explosions.”
The courier was rattling his mind of things to say and decided to just tell the full story, “Yes the boomers are dropping bombs now, but-”
“Great Great! I haven't received word from my recon boys but I know they'll have the fort cleared out. Oh here comes Chief Hanlon now.”
The line went somewhat silent and the Courier could here muffles in the background. The speech didn't sound causal though, it seemed panicked almost frantic. It was a few moments later that Oliver got back on the phone.
“WHAT THE HELL BOY?! You trying to [censored] on the bear?! Why the hell would you have them bomb the fort when you knew we had recon in the area?!”

The truth was that the courier wasn't paying attention at the meeting. When he was looking at the ceiling he was really thinking of the parade he would have back in the Capital, or his face replacing Ranger Seth on the 20 dollar bill.
“Sir I didn't think they'd attack the fort!”
“If you told them to on purpose I swear I'll-”
“Now listen here Oliver, calm yourself. I made a mistake, and if it weren't for me you'd be in a Legion camp on a cross. I'll get to the camp and rescue as many troops as a can. How many did you send.”
Oliver collected himself for a moment and then simply responded, “10”
“Then that's how many I'll bring back, dead or alive. Goodbye Oliver.”
“Goodbye, but let me tell you one thing. Don't make a “mistake” again or I-”

The courier hung up and and grabbed his 9mm. Up ahead near a tunnel he saw a Death-claw, and knew that he needed a bigger weapon than this. The Death-claw was in between him and Raul's shack were he kept his Marksman. “[censored]” thought the courier as the Death-claw looked at his direction on the hill then looked away. He was on the hill and had squatted to become less visible. The sun shined down on the death-claw's razor claws and the light reflected into his eyes.

Raul's shack was about 100 yards away and yet the Death-claw blocked his path. He could walk around back by the Boomers but they might mistake him for someone else (unlikely but he never came to the base this way). The Death-claw would see if he came down the hill and the hill got to steep to just keep walking on it. The courier knew the only thing left to do was to take it on. He had done it many times before but not with such a limited inventory.

He pulled out his 9mm, took aim at the Death-claw's spine and pulled the trigger. The first 3 bullets shocked the animal and exploded into the animals back. The creature quickly turned around only to find another 4 bullets unloaded into it's head. Most other animals would be dead by now, but not a death-claw, their skin was too thick. The claw spirited full speed at him and he ran up the hill side. Just as the Death-claw got onto the ridge he shoot it 5 times in the head. The Death-claw grabbed his skull as blood poured out while the courier made a mad dash down the hill side.

The death-claw jumped in the air and the courier turned around and took aim. He had only one bullet left and knew that if he missed he wouldn't have time to reload. The claw extended his claws, and with one final bullet the courier got off a clean head shot. The death-claw's head didn't fly off but instead it collapsed to the ground. The courier quickly made work cutting off the death-claw's hands, as he made work with them a sarcastic voice spoke calmly in the background.

“You never have been one to do things the easy way huh boss?”