Hanlon

Chief Hanlon is the commanding officer of the New California Republic Rangers, coordinating Ranger operations throughout the Mojave. He operates out of Camp Golf and is a major character in Fallout: New Vegas.

Background
Hailing from California, Hanlon is the head of the NCR Rangers and is one of its longest serving members. Hanlon served as a Ranger for over forty years, joining before Elise became Ranger Chief around 2241. Over nearly half a century of service, he saw the Rangers grow from a small, rag-tag group of abolitionists with a clear moral sense into a large, professional military force that had trouble telling the good guys from the bad.

Many of the things he saw as a Ranger changed him and his relationship with the Republic. One of these pivotal moments came between 2256 and 2261, when he led a team of six Rangers to investigate reports of raider attacks on a small settlement called Rattletail in Baja California. It took the Rangers a week to get to Rattletail, losing one to night stalkers and another nearly dying of dehydration. What they found was a slaughter: Twenty four bodies shot dead among the dunes, all by the five NCR settlers with .308 rifles who claimed the only well in fifty miles and opened fire on anyone who tried to reach it. None of the dead were heavily armed or raiders. To prevent further loss of life, Hanlon sold them a story about an incoming raider army, one hundred strong, and losing ten Rangers already on the way in. Then he offered to escort the settlers back to the NCR. They took the offer and eventually resettled in Anza-Borrego as bighorner ranchers. He considers this his one good deed in over forty years of service. The Courier: "There must be something good the rangers have done that you're proud of." Hanlon: "[SUCCEEDED] It's kind of a long one, but all right. About twenty, twenty-five years ago, a group of NCR settlers pushed way south into Baja. I guess it doesn't seem so far now if you look at a map, but back then, they were out a ways. They built this little shanty town around a well in the middle of nowhere. Called it Rattletail." The Courier: "[Continue]" Hanlon: "Word got back to one of our stations that raiders had been attacking the place. I went out with six rangers. We must have been on the trail for a week before we got to Rattletail. We lost one woman to Night Stalkers and another almost died of dehydration. When we reach the place, it's six shacks set up around an old well." The Courier: "[Continue]" Hanlon: ''"There's over two dozen bodies lying in the dunes way outside of town and five men with .308 rifles crouched behind sand bags. And these bodies, these people out in the sand, they aren't raiders. Aren't even heavily armed. They're just people who were trying to get to the only well in fifty miles. I didn't have to talk to the men to see that they did not care one bit." The Courier: "[Continue]" Hanlon: "They had planted an NCR flag over the well and they would not budge until every last one of them was laid out, dead and cold. So I walked up and told them there was a group of raiders coming, one hundred strong. I made up some cockamamie name for them and everything. The men looked at each other, looked at us, and asked me what we were going to do about it." The Courier: "[Continue]" Hanlon: "I told him we would take them back into NCR territory because we had already lost ten rangers on the way out. Ten rangers, five men with .308 rifles. Well, that was enough for them. They packed up what they could and we took them back north. Last I heard, they settled somewhere in Anza-Borrego. Raised Bighorners. Had some tough times, but it worked out okay for them. So there you go. That's my one bit of good."'' (Hanlon's dialogue)

Despite his doubts, he served the Rangers and the Republic to the best of his ability. He developed a legendary reputation for his use of misdirection, traps, and ambushes, frequently executed with the use of explosives, especially mines. The Legion learned to fear his name in the wake of the First Battle of Hoover Dam, when his strategy broke up the Legion's offensive by luring the bulk of their forces across the Hoover Dam and literally blowing them up together with Boulder City. As a war hero and a veteran of countless campaigns, he is a powerful influence in military circles, and even has the President's ear, though Kimball tends to favor his own coterie of war hawks. This was evident when Hanlon's request to assign Rangers and power armor troops to the Mojave was ignored in favor of sending veterans on ghost hunts down in Baja. The situation's not helped by the bitterness of General Lee Oliver at Hanlon receiving credit for winning the First Battle of Hoover Dam. Given that Oliver is a favorite of the President, Hanlon has faced an uphill struggle for the past several years.

As such, Chief Hanlon took a hard look at the Mojave Campaign and came to the conclusion that holding on to the Dam and New Vegas would eventually kill the Republic. Believing the task of keeping the Colorado and the frontier safe was too much for the Army or even the Rangers to take, he decided to deliberately sabotage the war effort by manipulating intelligence reports sent in from Ranger stations across the Mojave, to convince the brass that the situation was more hopeless than it was in reality. In the end, he wished that the NCR would decide to cut its losses and abandon the frontier.

The Courier can reveal his plan and then decide how to deal with the situation.

Quests

 * Return to Sender: The player is asked to investigate strange reports from Ranger stations an upgrade radio codes. Eventually, Tech Sergeant Reyes discovers that Chief Hanlon is the culprit and asks the player to confront the Chief. At this point, the player can decide how to deal with the Chief, indirectly deciding the fate of the Rangers.

Bugs

 * Hanlon's behavior during the speech at the end of the quest - should the player decide to turn him in - can bug out, either not playing completely, failing to trigger the scripts for Rangers to investigate, and so on and so forth.

Appearances
Hanlon appears in Fallout: New Vegas, and is mentioned by Ulysses in Lonesome Road.