Paulson

"Doesn't matter now. Only important thing is... Well, I guess it's revenge."

- Paulson

Paulson is an abducted cowboy found aboard mothership Zeta in 2277.

Background
Paulson is from the American Old West (mid 1830s–1920), born sometime during this period, and was a sheriff , a legal official with responsibility for a county at that time. Sometimes during this period, him, his wife and son were abducted by mothership Zeta, and his wife and son were killed by the aliens during the abduction. He was interrogated by them and put into cryo-sleep until 2277 when the Lone Wanderer stumbles upon him and unfreezes him. After he is released from his cryo-sleep, he has a deep hatred for being removed from his old life, having nothing now and just wants to exact vengeance on his abductors, "on every last one of those bastards".

He is a cowboy, an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America and had the task of driving the cattle across the southern Great Plains in the absence of railways by horseback. This transhumance, which ceased around 1890, gave the cowboy image of a free man, solitary and nomadic in some places. They had a reputation of gunfighters, used their firearms to protect the livestock from predation by people and wild animals, and extremely well known for their use of revolvers, a powerful high caliber handgun allowing comfortable use on horseback, and also used in gunfights against another gunman, developing a personal technique of rapid stripping and shooting for win. The cowboys have also a personal culture, a blend of frontier and Victorian values that even retained vestiges of chivalry. They have a tradition of self-dependence and individualism, with great value put on personal honesty, exemplified in songs and poetry.

Quests

 * Among the Stars: You have the option of bringing Paulson with you as a companion to the Hangar to help out.
 * This Galaxy Ain't Big Enough...: If Paulson survived his section in Among the Stars, he will help in the last battle by keeping aliens off you while you fight the other mothership.

Effects of player actions

 * Following the events of Mothership Zeta, Paulson leaves the ship to wander the wastes. He will not become an active NPC in the Capital Wasteland and does not appear again without the use of console commands.

Other interactions

 * You can ask him to accompany you in destroying the generator in the hangar area of the spaceship, and as mentioned above you can use a speech check or the Black Widow perk to find out why he hates the aliens so much.
 * If you take Paulson into the hangar bay with you, when you come upon three Nuka-Cola trucks on a shelf, he says "Nuka-what?", refering to his life on the earth being long before current time.
 * If you pause while standing in front of an advertisement for Giddyup Buttercup, Paulson may comment on how he finds the image of a little girl riding a horse named Buttercup to be rather cute.
 * Paulson's outfit can be reverse pick-pocketed, but his revolver can only be obtained if he is killed, mainly due to the fact that he uses a different version of it, than the one obtained off his dead body; this way, it is impossible to get his version of the gun, other than by utilizing console commands.
 * Killing Paulson will not result any gain or loss of karma and attacking him will not provoke other NPCs, instead they will come to your aid or simply stand around doing nothing.

Notable quotes

 * "Nuka-what?"
 * "Now you're speakin' my language. Hell yeah, I'll come with you."
 * "I can still hear 'em, crying out to me, begging me to save 'em. And there wasn't a damned thing I could do."
 * "They were... they were everything to me, you know? So now I've got nothing. Nothing at all."
 * "Doesn't matter now. Only important thing is... Well, I guess it's revenge."
 * "End of the road for you!"
 * "I'll bury every last one of ya!"
 * "If I go, you're comin' with me!"

Appearances
Paulson appears only in the Fallout 3 add-on Mothership Zeta.