Return to Sender is an NCR side quest and achievement/trophy in Fallout: New Vegas.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Side Quest: Return to Sender | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Reach Camp Forlorn Hope and speak with Sgt. Reyes in the command center; agree to help deliver the Ranger station radio codes. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Reach Ranger Stations Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, and Foxtrot to deliver the new radio codes to the station comms officers. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Return to Reyes. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Go back to Ranger Stations Alpha, Delta, and Foxtrot to investigate the suspicious reports. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Return to Reyes again. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Reach Camp Golf and speak with Chief Hanlon about the falsified reports. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Follow Hanlon to his office inside the House Resort. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Agree to keep quiet about Hanlon's sabotage. | Convince Hanlon to turn himself in. | Attack and kill Hanlon. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Reward: 500–800 XP NCR fame Hanlon dies: Ranger Sequoia (optional) | |||||||||||||||||||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
The quest is started by traveling to Camp Forlorn Hope, northeast of Novac and east of the El Dorado Dry Lake, and speaking with Sergeant Reyes in the command center; Reyes normally resides immediately to the left upon entering the command center, sitting in front of a ham radio. Speaking with her, she will request the player character's help with a task, one that she's gotten no help from any of her comrades up to the present. She says that she's been finding numerous inconsistencies in the reports coming in from the various Ranger stations scattered around the Mojave Wasteland and suspects that someone's been tampering with NCR radio communications, so needs the player character to bring new security codes to the communication officers at each of the Ranger stations to confirm her suspicions, triggering the quest.
Radio security[]
There are six Ranger stations located around the Mojave Wasteland, identified from a distance by the tall metal radio towers located within their boundaries, as follows:
- Ranger Station Alpha is located north-northwest of Boulder City and slightly northwest of the Boulder Beach Campground. The comm officer is Castillo.
- Ranger Station Bravo is located east-northeast of Bitter Springs along the north shore of Lake Mead. The comm officer is Tilden.
- Ranger Station Charlie is located southwest of Novac and east of Harper's shack. The comm officer is Stepinac.
- Ranger Station Delta is located slightly north of Camp Forlorn Hope and east of the cazador nest. The comm officer is Scheffer.
- Ranger Station Echo is located northeast of Camp Searchlight and east of the Snyder prospector camp. The comm officer is Green.
- Ranger Station Foxtrot is located east-southeast of Jacobstown and the Remnants bunker. The comm officer is Lenk.
Note: If a Ranger station's comm officer was killed beforehand for any reason, the objective can still be completed by interacting with their ham radio to deliver the code.
Note: If Ranger Station Charlie was already wiped out by the Legion during the unmarked quest Andy and Charlie, the objective for it will automatically complete and one will not be required to visit.
Find the saboteur[]
Upon delivering the codes to each of the comm officers and returning to Reyes, she reveals that some of the new reports received with the upgraded comms are providing some unusual casualties at some of the Ranger stations, and wants the player character to speak with the Rangers at those stations to confirm the contents of their reports.
Unlike the previous objective, this time one only needs to speak to Ranger Pason at station Delta, Ranger Lineholm at station Alpha, and Ranger Kudlow at station Foxtrot; each of them will confirm that the reports Reyes received were altered after being sent out. Returning to Reyes, the information helps her confirm that the altered reports are coming from the Ranger headquarters at Camp Golf, each bearing the signature of Chief Hanlon himself and pointing to him as the culprit. She asks the player character to head there and question the Chief about the falsified reports.
Note: If the marked Rangers at the three stations are dead, the quest can be continued by looting their bodies for the reports to bring back to Reyes.
At Camp Golf, Hanlon is typically found seated on the balcony above the entrance to the House Resort during the day. Upon asking him about the intel reports, he says to follow him into the resort as he wants to discuss the matter in a more private setting and will lead the player character to his office, located on the first floor of the resort, past the front desk, and to the left of the vending machines. Once seated inside, Hanlon reveals that he was motivated by a dissatisfaction with the course the republic is taking during the Mojave Campaign, how they are losing just as much young blood in battle against the Legion as they are caps to Mr. House and the casinos of the New Vegas Strip; once his sabotage began costing Ranger lives as well, Hanlon realized he had gone too far, and asks the player character what they intend to do with him now that he's been caught. Making a choice from the below options will influence the ending for Hanlon and the Rangers, as follows:
- Choosing to turn him in, Hanlon will send the player character to go get a ranger to make it official. However, upon stepping out of the office, the door closes and locks, and Hanlon delivers a speech to the stationed rangers via the intercom; once his speech is over, he commits suicide. A nearby Ranger will rush into the room to find the dead Chief, his Ranger Sequoia revolver dropped to the floor (marked as owned and therefore incurs Karma loss to pick it up), completing the quest and garnering 500 XP and no reputation.
- Choosing to let Hanlon continue his plan without informing the NCR, he thanks them, remarks that there's nothing more to discuss and walks off, completing the quest and garnering 500 XP and NCR fame.
- Choosing to attack and kill Hanlon directly, which he warns is a bad idea due to being in the middle of a ranger base; insisting on doing so after his warning will turn him and the Rangers hostile.
- Choosing to convince Hanlon to come back to his senses and cease falsifying the reports, he will then agree to stop the sabotage, completing the quest and garnering 500 XP and NCR fame. Note: This outcome is only possible if Caesar was killed at the Fort beforehand.
Note: If Hanlon was already killed beforehand, the quest will end upon returning to Reyes, who will say "Since Hanlon is dead, we will never really know," garnering 300 caps and 720 XP.
Quest stages[]
Notes[]
 | The following is based on Fallout: New Vegas cut content. |
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- According to in-game files, there is an existing dialogue option whereby Hanlon could be convinced to stop falsifying the reports if the Courier had learned about Caesar's illness. However, since the only way to learn of Caesar's illness is to advance far enough into the Render Unto Caesar quest that the NCR would already be hostile and it would impossible to advance their quests, making the option extremely difficult to get should the player wish to side with the NCR.
- For a while, this was believed to be a bug in the game, as Silus can give a hint towards Caesar's illness if he is beaten into talking in Silus Treatment. However, this was later proven false, as the dialogue option with Hanlon is impossible to activate, as evident by its peripherals in the game's code.
- This option is possible to obtain if Caesar is killed in The Fort before talking to Hanlon. However, it also unlocks the option to convince him with Caesar's death, making it obsolete.
- There is also an ending the player can obtain which requires Hanlon to be convinced to stop falsifying the records, completing Veni, Vidi, Vici, while Caesar is still alive while Et Tumor, Brute? is active. It can be presumed that the requirements to meet this ending are to learn of Caesar's illness and inform Hanlon that way, having disguised oneself in NCR armor in order to prevent hostility. But due to the dialogue option being cut, the ending is impossible to obtain.
| End of information based on Fallout: New Vegas cut content |
|---|
- It is possible for a ranger to be present in the room across the hall from Hanlon's office, meaning if the option to turn him in is chosen, one can do as Hanlon asks and get a ranger without getting far enough from Hanlon for the door to shut. However, there is no scenario where Hanlon lives after being turned in, so it will be useless.
- Hanlon will refuse to discuss the falsified reports unless he is already seated on the balcony.
- If playing in favor of Caesar's Legion, this quest can still be completed alongside We Are Legion (which requires killing all senior officers in Forlorn Hope, one of them being Sergeant Reyes). To be able to do this, upgrade the ranger stations and double-check the intel reports, then kill all the officers and, at the same time, talk with chief Hanlon, which will successfully complete this quest.
- If one convinces Hanlon to stop falsifying reports, the quest will be completed but one can still return to Sergeant Reyes, where she can either be lied to and tell her there was a legion spy responsible or told the truth that was Hanlon, but he has a plan and convincing her to keep quiet about it. Neither option results in any extra rewards or consequences.
Behind the scenes[]
- The quest name is a reference to the 1962 rock and roll song "Return to Sender," written by Winfield Scott and Otis Blackwell, and recorded by Elvis Presley, at which point it became a hit single.
- The high-level concept of this quest was created by Joshua Sawyer, who intended it as a way to encourage exploration on the way to each of the NCR Ranger stations.[Non-game 1] The full quest was designed and implemented by Jeff Husges and Matt MacLean, the latter of whom wrote the characters at the NCR Ranger stations. The character of Chief Hanlon was written by Joshua Sawyer.[Non-game 2][Non-game 3][Non-game 4]
Bugs[]
If asked, Sergeant Reyes will say that Ranger Station Charlie has recently been reporting an over-shipment of medical supplies even if the Courier has reported that the station's inhabitants are dead. [verified]- If you upgrade all stations but one, which must not be station Charlie, before receiving the unmarked quest Andy and Charlie, then starting this quest and visiting said station again to find it's been wiped out, you will be informed that you upgraded the remaining station. [verified]
- The quest may register Ranger Station Bravo as having been updated while it has factually not. [verified]
- It is possible for Hanlon to become glitched so that he remains stationary and never goes out to the balcony. He will not enter dialogue with the character and the quest cannot be completed. Sleeping, waiting and fast traveling are all unable to fix this. [verified]
- This may be fixed pushing him around, loading a save prior to entering the building, exiting the building and waiting until he comes out on the porch or pick-pocketing him while detected so to make him resume his normal routine.
- Sometimes he will get stuck in a mass crowd of other NCR members. [verified]
- A way to fix this is to use a silenced or melee weapon to sneak kill all of the NCR soldiers that are in Hanlon's general vicinity. Almost immediately after this he will begin to move once more.
- Companions may disappear when you leave the balcony. [verified]
- They can be left waiting outside the resort before going in to prevent this.
- When they disappear, leaving the building can make them return after 30 seconds or so. Sometimes they must be dismissed as they become stuck in front of the balcony.
- When Chief Hanlon makes a speech over the microphone before his suicide, each line is said twice. This does not change the ending of the quest. [verified]
- If the player character crosses the threshold that closes and locks Hanlon's door before the objective of finding a Ranger to arrest him finishes displaying, Hanlon's radio announcement fails to play and the holotape you receive may works only once or not at all. The gunshot still occurs and the quest is completed, though. [verified]
- After you confront him, the game may glitch as the door will never automatically lock and he will not speak on the intercom, no matter how far away you move from the office. [verified]
- This can be fixed by reloading a save before confronting him.
- Use the console commands setstage 0014f3b1 100 to complete the quest, prid 00106d79 and disable to make Hanlon disappear, and player.additem 00129a44 1 to obtain the Ranger Sequoia.
- When locked inside his office, Hanlon will sometimes stop performing his speech leaving the quest incomplete and his Ranger Sequoia impossible to obtain. [verified]
- This can sometimes be fixed by reloading a save or turning off your radio while Chief Hanlon is speaking.
- If you level up after you complete the quest the game will freeze. [verified]
- It should go back to normal after 20-30 seconds.
- Due to a scripting error, if you convince the chief to stop falsifying records, you will get the ending where you agreed to keep his secret safe. [verified]
References[]
Non-game
- ↑ Question: "Who had the brilliant idea of making 'Return to Sender' a quest with oh-so-many endings and incredibly brilliant writing an incredibly tedious and incredibly long FETCH QUEST? And what was his/her reasoning?"
Joshua Sawyer: "I did. The ranger stations are located around interesting areas, so the primary gameplay enjoyment was intended to be derived from the exploration required to reach them. If you've already discovered all ranger stations and done everything around them (not likely), that's a problem. But then again, if you've already discovered the stations, you can fast travel to them."
(Formspring reply from December 5, 2010) - ↑ Question: "I know that you wrote a couple of the quests, including Return To Sender, but did you help write any parts of the main storyline of New Vegas? If so, what parts?"
Joshua Sawyer: "For the most part, I only wrote high-level documents. I didn't write any of the plot-critical characters and I didn't do detailed area development or implementation. I wrote our RDC (Region Design Constraints) documents, which had a basic overview of the concepts/conflicts for all of the primary locations (e.g. Goodsprings, Mojave Outpost, the vaults, The Strip, Nellis AFB, etc.) and I did the initial write-ups for the companions (just a page each covering their basic concept, background, personality, voice, and intended plot arc). Let me just do a mini-writing credits dump to answer a lot of common questions here. Most of the major plot characters (Benny, Victor, Caesar, Mr. House) and the main story itself were written by the game's creative lead, John Gonzalez. Eric Fenstermaker wrote Veronica and Boone. Chris Avellone wrote Cass, Lanius, and Oliver. Travis Stout wrote Lily and Raul. Most of the other characters, major and minor, were split between the writers above and other area designers. Of course the actual full design treatments, quests, and implementation of areas were done by the area designers. The only "big" characters I wrote were Chief Hanlon, Arcade Gannon, and President Kimball's speech. Also I just wrote/structured the dialogue in GECK. The design, implementation, and scripting for the associated quests of those dialogues (Return to Sender, For Auld Lang Syne, You'll Know It When You See It/Arizona Killer) were handled by Matt McLean, Travis Stout, Jeff Husges, and Charlie "Master of Hoover" Staples. Most of the content design and generation I did was for game systems (SPECIAL + gambling/Caravan + equipment)."
(Joshua Sawyer Formspring posts/2011) - ↑ Question: "Who created Hanlon and the Return to Sender quest? It was one of my favorite sidequests, and Hanlon is an amazing character."
Joshua Sawyer: "I wrote Chief Hanlon, but Jeff Husges and Matt MacLean implemented most of the quest content. Thanks."
(Joshua Sawyer Formspring posts/2011) - ↑ Joshua Sawyer on Something Awful Forums: "Matt MacClean
- Return to Sender station rangers"
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