Courier

"What the hell is a fish???."

The Courier is the player character in Fallout: New Vegas. One of six hired by the Mojave Express to deliver strange packages across the Mojave Wasteland, the Courier was carrying a parcel containing a platinum chip from Primm to New Vegas. The package was intercepted by Benny, by whom the Courier was shot in the head and left for dead; buried alive in a shallow grave in the Goodsprings Cemetery. The Courier is dug out by Victor, a friendly Securitron, and nursed back to health by Doc Mitchell, resident doctor of Goodsprings.

Doc Mitchell gives the Courier a Vault 21 jumpsuit, a Pip-Boy 3000, and either a 9mm pistol or Laser Pistol, depending on the player's Guns and Energy Weapons skills, respectively. If Explosives is a tagged skill, then the Courier also receives sixteen sticks of dynamite. If the Melee Weapons skill is tagged, he gives the Courier a straight razor. If Unarmed is tagged, the Courier gets boxing gloves unless melee is also tagged.

After hunting down Benny, the Courier can kill him or spare him and choose to work with him. If the Courier chooses to spare him, he can learn of Benny's plan to usurp Mr. House's control of New Vegas, and after Benny's death at the hands of Caesar's Legion (or escape, if facilitated by the Courier), the Courier can take Vegas for his or herself. Otherwise, the Courier can choose to work with New California Republic, Caesar's Legion, or Mr. House for control of Hoover Dam, and ultimately the city it powers.

The Courier is slightly more customizable than the Lone Wanderer from Fallout 3 with the option to edit the Courier's age.

Background
The Courier is largely a blank slate, with a background largely left for the player to create and develop. One element seems to be constant between all player characters, however - when questioning Johnson Nash about the six couriers hired to deliver packages to Mr. House, it is revealed that an unnamed man described as a "deadbeat" was originally hired to carry the platinum chip, but after seeing the Courier's name next on the list, he turned down the job (and considerable number of caps that the job was worth), insisting the player character do it instead. Nash speculates that he must have known of the misfortune that was to befall the carrier of the package, and so he must have held some sort of a grudge against the player character. Johnson speculates that this man must have held some sort of a grudge against the Courier, and states that he hopes that "a storm from the Divide skins him [the previous Courier No. Six] alive."

The plot thickens somewhat in Dead Money when Christine tells the player character how she was rescued from Elder Elijah by a courier who "wore the flag of the old world on his back". That courier told her that he sought another, implying that the other courier had a large part in his past, and that he wasn't happy about it.

In one of Dog's endings for Dead Money, it is stated that:
 * "The new voice did not think of the Courier again until the battle at the Divide reached his ears. The battle between the two couriers, beneath the torn skies and the Old World flag... each bearing a message for the other. And the mutant prayed the Courier that had saved him... had been saved in return."

Graffiti by an unknown artist can be found around the desert reading "You Can Go Home, Courier" and "Courier Six?". Examples of these can be found at the canyon wreckage, alongside graffiti reading "The Divide" and "Lonesome Road."

Other background information
The player can make several suggestions about his or her past through in-game dialogue options. Since these are, as the name suggests, optional, it can be assumed that these are down to player choice and as such, do not form part of the player's background until they have been selected.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of elements of the character's past which can be explicitly expressed by players:
 * During a conversation with Bruce Isaac in Novac, the Courier can state that they have been to New Reno before.
 * If the Courier has the Lady Killer perk, he can imply during conversation with the Lonesome Drifter that he impregnated a woman in Montana in 2264, seventeen years before the game takes place.
 * It can be suggested during dialogue with Veronica Santangelo that the Courier does not know their birthplace.
 * The Courier can tell Cass that they do not know what a fish is.

Appearances
The Courier appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

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