Sgt. Xavier Lawson

> "*How the hell did I get here?*"
> ― Xavier Lawson
>
>

## History

### Background

Xavier Lawson was born inside of Arroyo which is a small settlement in prewar Oregon. The settlement was a long time territory of the New California Republic by the time of his birth and following the notion of the nation and the general community he believed in preserving the collective over the individual. The family he was born to was poor, too poor for their own good, and as a result of this they were exploited by the Californian Brahmin barons who pushed to control the cities politicians and people through corrupt practices such as blackmail and bribery. Xavier was a firm believer in the sanctity of his community, even at a young age, and with a band of other youth and young adults formed a vigilante group to terrorize these barons. His actions eventually led to a violent confrontation which resulted in the death of two vigilantes and one goon (who was hired by the barons) and placed several of them, including him, under crimes of varying degree. As a result of his activities he was given a choice, to be sent to prison or to join the army. In short, after careful consideration with his family, he joined the army.

### First Tour

Xavier fit into basic training well, he believed in the collective over the individual as well as being physically fit able to both be indoctrinated by their ideology and fit the physical quota. He passed basic training and was stationed at Vault City for some time occasionally going out to patrol the I-95. During his time in Vault City he gained invaluable combat experience when he was ambushed by a group of large raiders, twice. However, during his second engagement he was wounded after a grenade went off sending shrapnel into his thigh and calf putting him off the line for some time and getting a potentially deadly infection, thankfully the NCR doctors worked vigilantly and he was saved. Following his recovery he was promoted to the rank of corporal and applied for the military police division and began his training but something was going to catch up with him.

During Xavier's time in the hospital be became addicted to Psycho, following his removal of the hospital he found a supplier and would often break out into violent episodes not only when confined out of base on weekends but also sometimes having horrible episodes when waking up. This eventually led to a preliminary discharge when he actually outright assaulted an NCR officer, this put forced him into a trial by court martial. Xavier was demoted to private and sent to the New Columbian wasteland instead of serving time in a military prison, mostly due to his good service record prior to his addiction and the skillful charisma of his Jewish-Californian lawyer. Upon arriving he found the territory to be inadequate for what he saw as his raw combat potential but he soon learned despite the men here usually here due to low quality or disipline reasons found the region to have brutal fighting reminiscent of the New Vegas frontier.

Xavier found himself in a new infantry squad at a trade outpost, he often wrote of his experiences in New Columbia and planned to publish a book when he returned home detailing his experiences on the frontier. He attempted to convey New Columbia as the "Great Northern Frontier" as a last of uncertainty and adventure, he was attempting to appeal directly to future readers. Upon his first few weeks the first test of his grit came, a group of Canadian raiders attacked the trade post where he was stationed leading to a drawn out firefight for several hours where his squad leader was killed and several other men were wounded. He quickly seized the initiative organizing a defense and under his leadership they beat back the second assault with Xavier scoring several of his own kills. As a result of his command skill and bravery early in his days inside of New Columbia he was once again reinstated as a corporal due to his valor and appearing to be clean of chems. However, his tour was coming to an end and he hoped to return to civilian life. He was honorably discharged from the army and began his journey home to discover everything had changed.

### Finding Himself

Upon returning home to Arroyo he discovered his mother was gravely ill with his father no where to be found being taken care of by some neighbors. He was hurt deeply by this believing his father abandoned him and his ill mother and remained with her for several months caring for her all the way until her final hours. During this time he considerably let himself go returning to chems and drinking falling into a deep depression where he traveled around to what was refereed to as the "Big Circle" taking up cheap manual jobs in Vault City and New Reno primarily. However, within half a year of this lifestyle following an epidemic episode where he collapsed to alcoholism and was only saved by a nearby Follower he decided it was time to reenlist.

### Second Tour

He reenlisted inside of New Reno returning to the rank of corporal and at a request he was sent back to his original unit inside of New Columbia. Using his time in the NCR Army as a chance to become clean he still found his fix of chems and drinking the exact opposite of what he hoped and it got worse as combat progressed piling the stress of death onto his head. He began to break down mentally unable to cope with the violence in the region and the men around him being hurt or dying, despite this following an engagement where the squad leader was killed Xavier was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and tasked to lead the trade outpost where he first arrived years ago. He now had the lives of a full squad under his command, he had frequent alcohol and/or chem induced episodes where he would give out faulty orders, assault his men and merchants, and in general be a disturbance with his men having to restrain him multiple times. Following an episode where he beat a private into unconsciousness he was once more put into trial by court martial, however he once again struck lucky being allowed to keep his rank but was subject to rehabilitation and a desk job for several months, a job which ironically drove him crazy. However, being fully dedicated and wishing to return back to the front lines to his unit (with the help of modern medicine) he was able to ward off his Psycho addiction and drinking problem to be fit enough to return to the front line within a year.

### Recent Years

Xavier has recently returned to the front line to find old friends, new faces, and daring foes opposing him. He knows his job and his ability and has had plenty of combat experience of his time. His primary goal however is the good of the New California Republic as a whole, his men come second to that. As well as this he plans to begin to resume writing of his experiences inside of New Columbia, picking off where he left and detailing the experiences he didn't write about. Being a changed man due to his rehabilitation program on behalf of the NCR he may make new longstanding friends or daring enemies.