The Courier, however, had a very different approach. After the original Courier Six was killed on his way by cazadores in the Mojave, his quest to deliver the platinum chip fell into the hands of a powerful psychic warrior whose powers were suffering from some withdrawal due to some accident she recently suffered. Her powers were weakened by that accident, but were slowly recovering. After learning that there's a major reward for bringing the Platinum Chip to a certain Robert Edwin House in New Vegas, this new Courier used her powers to speed towards Vegas, but managed to trip on some plasma mines that Benny and his pals set up. They captured her and shot her as per the New Vegas opening, but her stronger physiology allowed her to survive the encounter.
This new Courier walked a path of blood; she joined the Happy Trails Caravan to Zion National Park only to slaughter the White Legs without mercy alongside Joshua Graham. She entered the Divide, only to emerge after carving the rival Legion Courier Ulysses like a cake and slaughtering hundreds of mutated creatures, from Tunnelers to Deathclaws and Marked Men. She entered the Big MT only to emerge victorious after destroying the X-42 and forcing the minds of the Think Tank to submit to her authority. Even after they lobotomized her, she had her spirit leave her mind to possess her brainless body so she can use it in battle and force the Think Tank's occupants to put her brain back in her body. She entered the Sierra Madre Casino, only to come out with the wealth of the casino and after crushing Father Elijah's mind and soul as payback for using her as his slave to open up the Casino.
This Courier used the technologies of the Sierra Madre and the Big MT to basically create a power base for an army, and after she managed to win over the Boomer tribe by running past their bombardment and giving them a bomber plane, she now had the beginnings of her own power base. After befriending Arcade Gannon on Freeside (and after reading his mind like a book and learning of Enclave remnants still lurking about in the Mojave) she made her way to New Vegas, seduced Benny, killed him for the Platinum Chip, and handed the chip to Robert Edwin House as her entrance gift to the Prince of New Vegas. The following night, she snuck into the Lucky 38's private chambers and discovered House's withering body, and she used her psychic energies to rejuvenate House after having previously used her powers to drain life from some poor Fiends who crossed her way. A rejuvenated Mr. House was now in her debt, and House publicly made himself known to the people of New Vegas after he demonstrated to the Courier the upgraded Securitrons courtesy of the Courier giving him the Platinum Chip.
As it happens, the Courier's fellow psychic and bridegroom-to-be wound up working for Caesar's Legion. The two of them were separated in that "accident" that made her powers fuzzy for a while, and now, he wanted to meet with her in Caesar's Fort, telling her to bring the Platinum Chip with her. There he tried to get her to join Caesar's Legion, as Vulpes Inculta and the Frumentarii have used females as agents before, but despite the law and order they brought to the Mojave, the Courier just couldn't stomach the crappy way the Legion treated women-but she kept that to herself, nodding and smiling at Caesar and promising to serve him. So when she entered into the bunker beneath Caesar's Fort, instead of following Caesar's orders, she decided to do as House told her and passed the upgrade to the dormant Securitron army beneath the fort, then had the Securitrons go to the Lucky 38 by way of a back sewer tunnel after she used the last of the bunker's power to give the Securitrons a temporary jolt so they can make it to the Lucky 38.
When the Courier emerged, she convinced Caesar that she destroyed the "evil beneath the fort," and Caesar sent her back to Vegas to kill House, but her boyfriend checked the bunker and found out the opposite, so Caesar sent him to confront her with a group of Legionaries. His psychic powers were stronger than hers due to not having had any accidents, and he defeated her in battle. He had her crucified near the ruins of Nipton, stripped naked and powerless for the world to see. But Joshua Graham, who owed the Courier a favor after she massacred the White Legs for him, was shadowing the Courier in her trip to Caesar's camp. He and Arcade Gannon managed to rescue her once her former bridegroom and his Legionaries left her for dead, and brought her weakened body to New Vegas, where the Followers of the Apocalypse and House's servants tended to her wounds.
After the Courier recovered, Arcade talked to her about how they're going to need help to defeat Caesar, and pointed her to the Enclave Remnants who were once his father's teammates. Gathering them all to a secret Enclave bunker near Jacobstown, she then told them of her true plans for the emerging war between the Legion and the New California Republic-she wants to win the war for the NCR's side, only so she can propel herself into power through election and turn the NCR into a haven for Enclave remnants. She will then use their technological expertise, and combine that with the tech and wealth of House's New Vegas, the Sierra Madre, and the Big MT to revive the Enclave and the United States of America as the world's foremost superpower. Robert House was even at the meeting, to the surprise of the Enclave remnants, and he voiced his full support for the Courier's plan, saying that her vision would be the first phase for humanity's recovery, as a rebuilt United States could revive the tech sectors and fund the space colonization plans he had in mind.
Using the tech of the Sierra Madre to replicate pieces of technology to make more Enclave Power Armor suits, and using the technology of the Big MT as well as the supplies of the Van Graff clan in Freeside to equip soldiers with energy weapons, House and his pet Courier began building up their power base in New Vegas. The Enclave remnants spread the word and got other remnants of the Enclave to gather in New Vegas, and when the NCR protested, House's upgraded Securitrons reminded the NCR that they are allowed in the city as House's guests and allies, they're not allowed to question his moves. Besides, the influx of Enclave remnants served to strengthen the NCR's position in the Mojave, fortifying it with power-armored shocktroops against Legion attack, and as the Enclave troops and their new recruits from the Kings and the Boomers started mopping up lesser gangs like the Powder Gangers and the Fiends, the NCR's complaints withered away as the efforts of the newly-Christened "Vegas Enclave" strengthened their position in the Mojave.
The only remaining obstacle to their power was the Mojave Brotherhood of Steel. The Brotherhood has been shooting down Securitron scouts near Hidden Valley, and both House and the NCR wanted them taken care of. The Courier scouted out the area, only to be captured again and stripped of her clothes and weapons by Brotherhood paladins on the orders of Elder McNamara, just as Father Elijah did to her in the Sierra Madre. She earned their trust by working for them and helping them with scouting and technological missions, and she even befriended one amongst them-Veronica Santangelo, with whom she shared a curious love of innovative technology. But just before they were about to make the Courier a Paladin, one of their spies discovered her communicating with House back in Freeside, and they realized that she must be infiltrating them on behalf of House and the NCR, which both seek to destroy them.
The Brotherhood had the Courier captured and imprisoned in their bunker, but as they threw her into a cell, she gave them a foreboding warning, that they were in for a nasty surprise. As she was restrained and imprisoned in the Mojave Brotherhood's bunker, she warned Veronica to leave the bunker before something bad happens. Just on cue, something bad did happen-she staged her capture by the Brotherhood as her Pip-Boy had a tracker installed, which allowed Enclave and NCR power armor troops to trace the captured Courier to the Hidden Valley bunker. The Courier managed to escape on her own and set the bunker to self-destruct, forcing the entire Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel to run outside the bunker-only to be surrounded by NCR Veteran Rangers, NCR Heavy Troopers, Securitrons, and Enclave Power Armor Troopers. With such overwhelming firepower pointed at their faces, the Mojave Brotherhood had no choice but to surrender to the Enclave and NCR forces lest they be annihilated.
Orion Moreno of the Enclave forces and Colonel Moore of the NCR forces wanted the entire Mojave Brotherhood summarily executed, but Veronica pleaded for the lives of her family, and her plea moved the Courier's heart. They were ordered to surrender all weapons and power armor, but they were given the RepConn Headquarters as a new home, where they were given paid work, to help NCR forces maintain an army of combat robots in case of a Legion assault, as well as train NCR Rangers on the usage of power armor and energy weapons, now that their own power armor and energy weapons were handed off to Chief Hanlon's NCR Rangers as a "gift" from the Courier. After foiling a Legion assassination attempt on NCR President Aaron Kimball, the Courier gained the respect of the NCR public.
During the Second Battle for Hoover Dam, the Courier met her ex-boyfriend once more, but by this time, her powers had fully recovered, and she soundly trashed him as Enclave and NCR troops fought side-by-side with Securitrons and pushed back the Legion forces. To make a point of her power, the Courier took off her power-armor near the end of the battle and challenged Legatus Lanius to a trial by combat, armed only with a bumper sword. Her psychic power coursing through her body, she crushed Lanius in single combat, but spared the Legate. She then used her victory as a springboard to announce her candidacy for President of the NCR, with House as her financial campaign backer and Joshua Graham as her Vice President. But when she became president, she made unpopular choices that rankled both the NCR elite and the commoners, as her far-sighted actions failed to take into account popular emotions and feelings.
While the Courier sharing technological gifts from the Big MT won her some popular support, her later moves cost her popularity even though she had good intentions. Her first move was to move the capital from Shady Sands to New Vegas, as it was easier to defend and had more technology and economic strength. That rankled the NCR elites back in Shady Sands who were used to bribing local politicians there. Her second move was to work with Caesar's Legion to prevent the east from splintering, sending Enclave troops to help Caesar stamp out rebellions in his lands in exchange for an oath of allegiance and freeing many slaves. This irked many in the NCR military, including General Lee Oliver and former president Aaron Kimball, as well as many widows and commoners who lost family, friends, and loved ones to the Legion's barbarity. Her third move caused even more unrest, as she pardoned all Enclave personnel, stating that the war with the Enclave was over a long time ago, and the remaining Enclave personnel in hiding could be better used to help secure NCR territory or help NCR scientists with scientific and technological research. This move angered many old-timers who still remembered horror stories of the Enclave's actions.
A coalition of NCR elites and commoners who were pissed off at their "courier-walk-the-wasteland-fuck" of a president joined forces, assembling a force of renegade NCR soldiers and rangers and assaulting Hoover Dam, cutting off the power source of the Courier's new capital. While Colonel Moore and Chief Hanlon remained loyal to the Courier, many NCR Rangers, soldiers, and even some power-armored troops joined the rebels. Knowing that sending NCR troops against other NCR troops would weaken morale, the Courier was forced to rely on Caesar's Legion and Enclave troops exclusively. With the Securitron's power weakened due to being cut off from the power provided by the Dam, the Courier was forced to use Legion troops against her former subjects. Lanius arrived with a large contingent of Legion troops and offered his support for the new president in exchange for her healing Caesar of his brain tumor. Being a whiz at medicine, the Courier healed Caesar of his brain tumor and secured the loyalty of his troops. The Legion forces formed the bulk of the Courier's assault force in the Third Battle of Hoover Dam, with Enclave forces leading Legion troops by showering rogue NCR forces with laser fire and plasma grenades. The Courier had Oliver and Kimball executed, and their followers were massacred, as her forces retook Hoover Dam and offered no quarter, even as the rebels were trying to surrender near the end.
But by the end, the Courier was left with a broken mess of a country, with the NCR being weakened by internal strife. Outside of Hoover Dam, the rebels also devastated parts of the NCR before loyal soldiers and citizens put them down for good. So to solve that internal strife, the Courier decided to bump up patriotism by declaring that not only has the NCR preserved the traditions of old America, it has BECOME old America. Encouraged by Enclave forces in her ranks, the Courier declared the NCR the United States of America reborn. Since they have become America reborn in fact due to preserving its democratic traditions and government, the Courier reasoned that they should become America in name as well. To cap off her new announcement, new suits of Enclave power armor and energy weapons were being given away to loyal citizens who helped suppress rebels across the NCR as their reward for their patriotism. Using the replication tech of the Sierra Madre's machines and the tech of the Big MT, manufacturing power armor suits was easy.
This, of course, caught the ire of the Lost Hills Brotherhood of Steel. Weakened by previous wars with the NCR that started because the NCR wanted to use technology that the Brotherhood didn't want them to have, the Brotherhood nonetheless hung on to their strength and continued to harass NCR forces. Now that the new president is handing out power armor and energy weapons like candy, they could stomach it no further, and they assaulted one of the factories that were producing power armor and energy weapons. Ironically enough, however, that same factory was hosting a tour for some schoolchildren, and when the Brotherhood attacked, the schoolkids were a sad casualty of war. This allowed the Courier to rally the people against the Brotherhood-giving her divided country an enemy they can unite against. Rallying NCR, Enclave, and Legion forces alike, the Courier sent them to assault the remaining Brotherhood of Steel bunkers in California, and wave after wave of power-armored troops stormed the Lost Hills Brotherhood bunkers, decimating their archaic forces using newly-produced power armor and energy weapons. The Courier allowed different parts of her new domain to have their fun: Enclave forces spearheaded the assault on Brotherhood positions, captured male paladins and scribes were unceremoniously shot by NCR Ranger firing squads, while the female paladins and scribes were sold to the highest bidder to Legion officers and veterans.
This new "Vegas Enclave" as people came to call them, expanded to the east rather violently, crushing any opposition they encountered. The Courier incorporated any faction that wished to join, and her Enclave recruited the likes of the mutants from Jacobstown as well as sapient ghouls and Deathclaws into the army. Factions that entertained the idea of joining them were welcomed with open arms, but those who resisted were eradicated, just like how America originally spread westward, eradicating any Indians who opposed their expansionism. Eventually, tales of their eradication of the Lost Hills Brotherhood made it back to DC, where Henry Casdin and the Outcasts urged John Henry Eden and Owyn Lyons to declare war against the woman in Vegas.
