I guess I had a rather similar experience while exploring the capital wasteland in Fallout 3. This is an encounter I had during one of my first playthroughs of the game so I was quite impressed. As most probably know, you can sometimes run into a small band of Brotherhood Outcast soldiers roaming the wastes. This time however, while I was searching for loot, I encountered a gunfight between heavily armed raiders and the Brotherhood Outcasts who all ended up dying except for one who was carrying a Laser Rifle. Being a low level, I of course decided I would benefit more to just hide and wait the fight out then finish off who ever was left. Also, I was generally curious to see if the last remaining Outcast soldier would be able to survive alone with just the Laser Rifle. To be honest, I did not have a lot of confidence in him as he already had taken a lot of damage from a couple of grenades that the raiders had threw. To my surprise, he kept on pushing, killing a raider each step of the way until they were all dead. When I walked up to him, his health bar was incredibly low and I debated whether I should just finish him off so I can take his loot. Needless to say, I spared him as he put up quite an entertaining show for me to watch and he earned it!