@Mechasaurian
What is being claimed: Chief Helen Russell, leader of the NCR Rangers
Canonical/Original Content explanation:
Few expected Helen Russel to end up succeeding Hanlon as Chief of the NCR Rangers.
Helen was originally a member of the Desert Rangers, a militia who took it upon themselves to protect the Mojave by defending innocents, hunting raiders and putting down other such threats. Helen made a name for herself early in life by playing a key part in a mission to destroy a mysterious machine intelligence in the heart of Vegas which had been kidnapping and vivisecting nearby wastelanders.
Yet everything changed when Caesar's Legion entered the Mojave from the east, taking slaves and. To begin with, the Desert Rangers dealt with the Legion as they dealt with any other warlord, assassinating leaders, inflicting disproportionate casualties through hit and fade attacks, and freeing numerous slaves. Yet, it became apparent that the Legion was of a vast scale that was simply beyond anything the Desert Rangers had seen since before the Great War. No matter how many were killed, they simply kept coming. And now they were out for the Rangers' blood.
And then came the New California Republic from the west. A vast army, claiming to be attached to a nation-state straight out of the Old World, who were now making overtures to the Rangers of absorption. This split the Desert Rangers into two camps - the "Joiners," who wanted to accept the NCR's offer of integration so as to better fight the Legion, and the "Indeps" (short for "Independents"), who wanted to stay clear of association with what they viewed as an imperialist power. The leader of the latter faction was none other than Helen Russel, fiercely declaring that the Desert Rangers ought to continue fighting a guerilla was against the Legion on their own terms. Yet, wary of the Legions overwhelming strength, most of the Rangers chose integration. As the war in the Mojave heated up, even Helen's faction steadily defected one by one, choosing to wear the flag of the Bear in exchange for the resources provided by the NCR's military machine.
Furious with her former compatriots for "selling out to imperialists," Russell chose to assemble a small squad of like-minded Rangers and strike into Legion territory, aiming to find some way to cripple them, perhaps by organizing a slave uprising or even putting a bullet in the head of Caesar himself.
Nearly a year later, two of the original six squad members came back with haunted looks in their eyes. Neither of them spoke a word about what happened. One ventured north into the untamed wilds, never to return. And the last one - Helen Russell declared that she was ready to join the NCR.
As the NCR-Legion war escalated, Russell proved an able leader, and her grim focus on killing Legionaries endeared her to some. Yet, things changed yet again when a massive scandal at the leadership of the NCR Rangers emerged: Chief Hanlon, it was revealed (presumably by a Legion spy), had been purposefully sabotaging the NCR military by falsifying intelligence reports and deliberately miscommunicating information sent in from various NCR outposts, ultimately seeking to stir unrest in the NCR forces stationed in the Mojave and hoping to start a resistance against the higher echelons of the NCR military. In response, Hanlon committed suicide and a purging of the Ranger's upper ranks was done. In the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, General Oliver's plan for the Rangers replaced Hanlon's, putting the Rangers in the thick of the fighting on the Dam. As a result, they suffered heavy casualties and fatalities, severely thinning out their numbers.
In the aftermath of the political purges and the deaths of several high ranking Rangers, Russell emerged by consensus as the most acceptable choice to replace Hanlon, by a combination of competent (though not necessarily outstanding) leadership ability and a seething desire to do as much damage to the Legion as possible, alleviating concerns about a repeat of the Hanlon fiasco.
Though the Rangers have seen better days and distrust in them grows by the day, Russell is at least grimly determined to leverage their remaining strength into dealing the Legion a bloody nose by whatever means possible.
Why they are relevant: The NCR Rangers are famed as being the best of the NCR's best, being able to survive extended periods in the wild without support if necessary, infiltrate enemy locations, and being crack shots with dependable gunpowder-based firearms. The Veteran Rangers are the only humans of the Wastelands who can hope to fight a Brotherhood Paladin one-on-one, assuming their best kit of Elite Riot Gear and an Anti-Material Rifle.
