"It was easier than you might think to leave my home. After all, I spent most of my life on tours of duty. Home to me was a barracks or a night in a tavern. The Boneyard? Shady Sands? Those were not my home." He paused. "I did feel bad leaving the place I had protected for so damn long but even if you nuked Shady Sands the NCR would survive. It's robust enough that it would take more than one dead city to kill it. I promise you that." He paused. "So I left. To find myself, or something like that."
"So you've been on your own for a while… and much like Deccanus your home no longer felt like your home so you left to find a new one." Percy laughed.
"Well if you put it like that, yeah. Guess me and that legionnaire really do have more in common than either of us would have guessed. Look at us, both holding onto the garb of the past. Though at least mine is still original." He grinned. Poking fun at the fact that Deccanus had upgraded his armor to something more protective and helpful than his old Legion armor. "Anyway, you are right. I didn't feel at home while I was home so I left to find some better way to spend my life. To find another calling." He paused again. "Along the way I came to start to question everything. If the ideals I fought for were worth my legs. If the rebels in Baja were bad, or if we were just encroaching on their homes. If the damn war with the Legion was even worth it."
"I know exactly how you feel." Adam said slowly. "Ive begun to question what I even fought for back then. Everyone died. We all lost. What use was it to fight the Chinese for Alaska if no one is alive to remember it? Society moved on but is the death of my friends so easily forgotten? What did we even hate the Chinese for? Being different than us? Resources? I don't even know. That fanatical drive I felt in my youth is gone. I just feel a bit bitter about it now."
"You get it." Percy said with a frown.
"I do." Adam replied. "But I also know my experiences from the war helps people in the here and now. Maybe in another 200 years defeating Famine will be meaningless but I will have helped the people in front of me. I can only focus on the problems in front of me. Helping the people in here and now… if my skills from before the bombs fell help, well I will make use of those skills."
"I wish I was that noble." Percy said as he leaned back into his chair. "I was just trying to find myself. Sure along the way I helped plenty of folks. Saved some damsels in distress, cleaned out some bandits, all that jazz. But I'm not. I wasn't so noble as to use my skills to help others. Just solve problems."
"That's the same thing." Adam said, assuring him. "Even if you don't feel like you did, the people around you, the ones you saved, surely see it as you putting your skills to good use. You no doubt helped untold numbers of people who owe you their gratitude. Maybe you don't feel noble about it but it was." Percy glanced at Adam for a moment and then sunk into his seat a bit more looking out the small window at the road ahead.
"Just… When I started following you, I heard all these people speak about your feats, about the effort you have put in, doing things I haven't even heard of to help more people, I began to question just what I have been doing this whole time." He frowned. "I am a Ranger, the best of the best. I could take on damn near anyone I wanted to without breaking a sweat. But in less than a year of waking up, some kid from a vault has changed an entire region more than I have in an entire lifetime." He said as he turned to Adam, not angry, instead more remorseful. "I can't help but feel like you are the better man, Adam. you have done more good in your short time than I have ever."
"Don't compare yourself to me." Adam said slowly. "Feats are not equal, actions are not all the same. Maybe something I did was rewarded more highly than something you did but that doesn't mean your actions are less worthy. You have been helping people far longer than I have even been awake. And now you are still helping people. It's not a race to be the better man, it's through our efforts that we make a better world. One where everyone tries to help each other. A pipe dream, I know. But if we can capture even a little bit of that. I think this world would be a much better place."
"I said you were crazy… but listening to you now I know you are downright mad." Percy said as a slow grin grew on his face. "And that's the kind of madness I can get behind." Adam laughed.
"Glad to know I got at least one person in my corner rooting for my insanity. I just want to help people, that's all. I have the skills to do it so I will."
"I'm glad I decided to tag along with you. I haven't felt this alive in a decade."
"And I certainly am glad to have a man like you with me. Especially for the battles to come. Who knows, I may just need some of that famous Ranger grit." Percy slowly smiled.
"You are flattering me, I know you are. But damn if it don't feel good."
The rest of the trip to Midway was spent far more casually between the two. Each man sharing some less harrowing tales from active duty. Percy had a ton more to share than Adam, as Adam's mostly ended up being about suffering in the cold, but Percy had no shortage of suffering in the heat. Seems service members can't catch a break no matter where they are from.
Eventually they rolled up to Midway's gate and to Adam's very slight surprise the gate did not open automatically for him, so he popped out of the hatch to make his presence known.