Technological Transdimensional Turbulence

Part 4

Prospector Saloon. Goodsprings.

The small town was special because this is where the player character begins their journey, after being shot by Benny and recovering while under Doc Mitchell's care for several days. I found memories of starting a game of Fallout New Vegas and exploring this town.

Not that the Courier really mattered anymore given that killed Benny and then I'd take over New Vegas. If the Courier had turned in New Vegas he or she wasn't causing any problems.

The real Goodsprings was a small town and some farmland, not that there was much in the way of agriculture in these parts, but the harsh conditions didn't stop some people from trying to grow food and keep livestock.

Upon arriving at the town with Cameron in to act as my bodyguard I quickly focused my attention on the Prospector Saloon and once I'd met with Trudy, the owner of the saloon I'd requested that she bring everyone together so that I could talk to the whole town, or at least the majority of the people who were living here.

That hadn't taken very long so by the time I'd fixed Trudy's radio and finished my drink the bar area was really filling up.

"Good afternoon, everyone," I said as I stood up "I am the new boss of Vegas".

No one doubted that because I had robot guards with me as well as Cameron. It also helped that by now news of the change in managers over in The Strip had gotten around.

"I've worked out a deal with NCR that will ensure New Vegas remains a free city as it did under Mr House," I told the locals "I'm planning on fixing up the city and turning it into a place anyone with enough money can visit and merchants can come to for trade from all over".

This might not seem as if it would affect them and not everyone seemed to care, a few people did look concerned.

"What does this mean for Goodsprings?" asked a young woman who I felt sure was Sunny Springs.

I knew that I had to handle this situation carefully if I wanted to win over this town.

"The treaty between Vegas and the NCR prevents the NCR from just taking over the settlements here in the Mojave, at least in theory, and with the Legion preparing to attack, they don't have the soldiers available to enforce their rule so they won't directly conquer you" I answered "However if they beat the Legion then they will take over. The only person who can prevent Goodsprings from being ruled over by the NCR is me".

I paused and let the locals murmur for a little while.

"You can choose to become part of New Vegas" I offered "I won't tax you because I don't collect taxes and I have no interest in running this town".

I took tribute from the families this was enough and my casino was making a profit as well.

"The NCR will tax you, they'll limit what you're allowed to trade, and they'll have soldiers patrolling your streets" I warned.

Not everyone was alarmed by the idea.

"At least the NCR will protect us" pointed out the local store owner "Someone needs to deal with those powder gangers".

"The NCR brought the powder gangers here" another argued.

I got people's attention before speaking again.

"If you become part of New Vegas then I'll protect you from the gangers" I offered "I have enough robots to keep the roads clear and to protect the town, I'll even supply you with weapons if that is what you want. The NCR will try to limit how much firepower you have".

I didn't mind them being armed to the teeth because that would only make Vegas safer. I also wasn't worried much about rebellion since I could always get more robot soldiers.

"My robots won't take over the town, they won't start fights in your saloon and they won't demand payment for their protection," I stated.

That appealed to many of the locals.

"I heard Primm accepted NCR protection because of the gangers," said a man who was clearly a farmer "How long before we have to do the same?".

Dealing with the Powder Gangers was on my list of things to do. I knew that their main base of operations was an old prison and I had more than enough robot soldiers to cleanse the place.

"This is mighty generous" pointed out Trudy "What's in it for you?"

A very good question.

"I don't want the NCR becoming too strong here in the Mojave" I answered "If Goodsprings is part of New Vegas then I can expand my borders and keep the roads into Vegas clear. I want Vegas to be a city for more than a place for gambling and entertainment for the NCR troops, I want it to be a centre of trade and that means keeping the roads clear".

There was more for me to say.

"I'm willing to sign a treaty with Goodsprings to make this all formal" I let everyone know "If you want weapons, protection and to be left to run your own affairs then becoming part of Vegas is your best option. As long you are willing to accept the money I'll be minting as you do caps and allow my robots to move through the town then I won't require anything else from you. I have no desire to manage this town I have enough work just handling Vegas".

Controlling the roads mattered far more to me than the town itself.

"Your other options are joining the NCR, or staying totally independent and hoping that the NCR doesn't take over anyway, and that's assuming that the Legion doesn't turn up. They will kill or enslave all of you" I added, "I can give you protection, not just robots, I can give you weapons, a radio that will let you contact Vegas for help and I can even get you stuff like body armour or maybe you could do with more medical supplies".

It might not be that bad, but given what happened to Nipton they couldn't take that risk. I planned to point that out when I visited Novack as well. If I got that town under my banner then I would be able to stop the NCR from taking over too much of the area.

"How long do we have to decide?" asked Trudy.

While there was no rush as far as I knew it would be best not to wait too long in case the NCR made a move. They might take over the town under the guise of protecting it from the Legion.

"I'll return in a few days," I told the occupants of the saloon "I know you don't have a single leader, so you should vote on this matter and choose someone to represent you. If you agree we'll type up a treaty for your representative to sign. You can let me know your terms then".

Nellis Air Base. Mojave Wasteland.

I took Veronica, Fred and Cameron with me to meet with the Boomers, we needed to get them sorted so they could help during the big battle that might be only days away. Unlike in the game, the Legion wasn't going to sit around and wait for me to progress to a certain point on the main quest line. This was a shame as I still had lots to do.

While I didn't mind letting the Legion and the NCR duke it out I couldn't risk the Legion winning and them trying to take New Vegas. It was best to allow the Legion and the NCR to fight and then for me to send in my forces to deal with the Legion. I could kill Caeser and the other leaders whenever I wished. I had a cyborg assassin quite well suited to that role.

Recent intelligence reports, I'd hacked the NCR communications and had my own probe droids, showed that the NCR and the Legion were both massing troops near the dam. At some point, one side was going to order an attack and I had to be ready for that.

So I'd opened a portal to the air force base and gotten on with convincing the Boomers to be part of New Vegas. When the Legion was defeated the NCR would formalise their control over the Mojave Wasteland and they could take this base.

If I were the NCR and I had working aircraft, which they could do, then I'd have a team of the best soldiers I could find, drop in by parachute at night and take everyone by surprise. Something that I'd pointed out to the leaders of the Boomers.

Pearl wasn't a stupid woman, she understood that her people couldn't keep surviving as they had. Societies that don't change become stagnant and then die out, you had to adapt to survive, but you can allow the changes to happen over time so as to give people time to adjust.

Hence why Pearl had agreed to meet with me and to make a deal that should hopefully lead to the Boomers somewhat opening up to the outside world even if it was in a limited way.

"Alright, here's a question for you," Veronica said as we walked into the hanger "I've read about Nellis. The Brotherhood has files on every old-world military installation from before the bombs. Nellis is an Air Force base. So what are a bunch of howitzers doing here?".

I didn't know enough about this world's military forces to tell if having howitzers here was odd.

"Well, they weren't here originally" answered one of the Boomers "We found the guns at a huge weapon depot many miles north of here. It took weeks to drag the guns and all the ammunition back here to Nellis, and it was the last time any of us set foot beyond our homeland".

They used the big guns to keep this base safe from all the nasty things and people out there. Mostly it worked, and it would have kept working if not for the fact that there were large organised factions out there. The NCR had the resources to take this place, even if the Legion might be able to do it with their sheer weight of numbers if they didn't need their combined might focused elsewhere.

"Alright, so that explains the howitzers," I said. "One thing I'm curious about, how do you know to fly the bomber?".

This wasn't something you could learn from a manual.

"When we finally restored power to the base, we learned that some elaborate chairs we'd been sleeping in were actually virtual reality simulators," the Boomer told us "We believe they were used to train combat pilots before the bombs fell. I alone have shot down over 500 Chines Xian-85 fighters, and flown over 1000 simulated sorties".

Once our guide had started talking about the bomber he began to sound more friendly.

"So tell me about this bomber" I requested.

This was part of why we were here, that the solar panels. The Boomers wanted to remain independent and to be left alone. I was fine with that as long as they help defend New Vegas, and they wanted things in exchange for their help.

"Loyal, one of our elders, is responsible for repairs in the maintenance wing, found a file somewhere on the base, complete with magazine articles, photographs, and a map" we were told "It seems that a bomber, the 29th of its kind, crashed in Lake Mead on July 21st, 1948. Just imagine, that's over 300 years ago! The photographs showed that it was basically intact, and the map tells us exactly where to find it. But we haven't left Nellis in decades".

Which was why my group had to go salvage the bomber. None of the Boomers would last long outside of their base.

"I can't imagine that would be easy to dredge up from the depths of that lake," said Fred "You'd need a hell of a crane".

That was one way to handle this.

"No you wouldn't," Veronica said, shaking her head "You'd just need to attach ballast to the plane to make it buoyant enough to rise the surface, and then those Mr Gutsy's they have around could haul it back for repairs. I'll even help with the repairs".

A good idea. If she helped the Boomers with repairs, they might be more willing to work with us again.

"Yes!" Pete, that might be his name, was now saying "In fact, that's exactly what Loyal has planned to do. You should definitely go talk to him about it, and the solar panels".

Sounded like a plan to me and I knew exactly where to get the panels from.

If only their long-term problems could be so easily sorted. They had food, defences and water, and that would keep them alive, but they also had a limited gene pool and not that many young people about.

They needed to bring new people and maybe I could convince the elders that ran this place to adopt some of the orphans in Freeside, to raise them as their own, so as maintain the cultural identity they'd created.

"Then there are the ants," said the Boomer "We could do with some help dealing with them".

I would offer them robots for protection once I'd earned a little trust.

"We will help you," I promised

Time to get a bomber up and running, but first some solar panels, the fun never ended for me and mine.

It was best to let them talk it over and decide for themselves. If I took the town by force, which I could do, then I'd have to occupy it and that would only give the NCR an excuse to act out. Much better to get people on my side even if I had to bribe them to join the winning team.

HELIOS One. Mojave Wasteland

As a pre-War installation, HELIOS One was hailed as the 'Dawn of a Golden Age' by Poseidon Energy who had promised the people of America a new source of power. Something they'd badly needed due to fossil fuels having almost totally run out.

Constructed before the war by Poseidon Energy, in the eyes of the public HELIOS One was merely a solar energy plant that consisted of an enormous array of reflectors as well as the power plant itself which housed all of the machines required to transform the sun's seemingly endless energy into usable electricity.

The centuries-old power plant had been damaged since the start of the Great War, and more damage had been done recently due to the conflict between the soldiers of the New California Republic and the Brotherhood of Steel forces here in the Mojave.

In recent times the Brotherhood of Steel discovered the facility and they had been trying to determine how the plant worked when the NCR initiated Operation: Sunburst in order to wrest it from their control. Not that the NCR had been able to do much with the plant.

Before the Brotherhood abandoned the facility, they put it in a nearly inactive state and armed the pre-War security system. Despite the NCR's best efforts, they'd had no luck in getting the plant to work even close to its full potential or in deactivating the security system.

Currently, only a third of its reflectors were still fully intact and able to fully rotate according to what I'd been able to find out so far when questing the people in charge of the plant.

To make matters worse, various issues within the plant itself made the energy transfer inefficient, meaning that the plant was operating far under potential.

In turn, this meant that very little power could be transferred to New Vegas, and it was required by the modified treaty for the NCR to send a percentage of all generated power in the Mojave to my city. I needed that power to improve Freeside and other places.

The NCR simply didn't possess the scientific knowledge to get the plant running at anything close to its maximum capacity, and both the Followers of the Apocalypse and the Brotherhood of Steel were reticent to help for political reasons.

Since Vegas would get some of the power produced here it made sense for the new leader of Vegas to take an interest in the plant and for him to offer his services. The NCR officer in charge wasn't hard to convince.

"You know, I've been meaning to ask," I said to Veronica as we entered the power plant and began to look around "How did you manage to escape when the NCR took over this place?".

She looked a little sheepish.

"Well I wasn't actually here during the attack," Veronica admitted "When the NCR arrived, I was at the 188 trading post, because even before we fully retreated underground, I still had to leave all the time to search for supplies".

I'd been hoping that she'd been heavily involved in the work here.

"When I left, it felt like just another supply run, but when I came back the Brotherhood was already gone so I hung around at the 188 stop for a while," she told us "Eventually, I went to the bunker".

Made sense since she was a scribe, not a knight, she wasn't meant to fight as a soldier even if she was quite capable of doing so.

"I was never actually told about ARCHIMEDES," Veronica went to say "I don't think Elder Elijah trusted anyone other than himself with any of the research. I didn't need to know, so I was never told".

While I understood operational security, Fred did not, and I'd been happy to share information on this plant with both of them.

"So. Does the Brotherhood just keep its people in the dark then?" the small woman asked, sounding a little bit confused "Doesn't sound very trusting. Aren't you supposed to be a big family?".

All organisations will have secrets only known to the leaders. Heck, my group was small and I hadn't told my people everything they might want to know.

"Information can be a weapon," said Veronica "and the fewer people who know something, the safer the information becomes. All I knew for certain was that there was something named ARCHIMEDES inside Helios, and Elder Elijah seemed to think it was important".

Since I did trust these two I'd told them that ARCHIMEDES was in fact meant to harness the power of the sun and use it as a WMD. It didn't long for them to figure out that it would be a bad idea to let the NCR control such a weapon.

"I was under the impression we were just going to steal some solar panels, and restart the generators," Veronica said, "What are we going to do about some superweapon?".

We were here for the solar panels and the weapon, which could be useful to me, but more likely it would just be something we would study after it was deactivated. I didn't need the weapon as I could just throw a mini-nuke through a portal if I wanted to.

"I'm going to need your help, Veronica," I said as I turned to face her "You told me that you know where the spare solar panel parts are kept, so let's go find them. Then we can discuss ARCHIMEDES".

As it turned out finding all the spare parts the Boomer needed for their solar power wasn't difficult at all. I had thought it was going to be a lot more complicated. Mostly this was made easy due to Veronica's extensive knowledge of the area and skilful use of tools.

"How are we going to get these out of here?" Fred asked while looking at our haul "If we try and carry this out the front door I think someone will notice".

For a moment I pictured us trying to get past the guards that I'd convinced to let us in here while holding frames and parts for the big solar panels. It was an amusing image in my mind

Of course, this wouldn't work, but I had a solution for our problem.

"Like this," I said to Fred,

I opened a portal to the basement of the Lucky 38 Casino and let Cameron move the parts. With that part over and done with it was time to explore the rest of this place.

HELIOS One. Mojave Wasteland

"Alright Veronica, what can we expect down here?" I asked as the heavy metal door slid shut behind us "Security bots, automated defences, that sort of thing?".

After we'd unlocked some terminals on the outside, and opened up the only hatch that led into the tower in the centre of the solar panel field, I'd thought that we'd find ourselves in an elevator, but instead, the big door opened onto a set of stairs, going down, not up. In this world going underground rarely ended well, yet we had to go.

We couldn't leave if there was any chance that the NCR could get the superweapon working as that would tip the balance of power and allow them to take over the whole state. I wanted the NCR strong enough to be an ally of Vegas, but strong enough to conquer it without it costing them too much.

Hence why Veronica and I had changed into our power armour, and why Fred was back at the casino cleaning the parts the Boomers wanted. If we entered into combat I wanted her out of the way.

"It might be any number of things," she said while Cameron took point "One of the so-called experts I spoke to upstairs mentioned the security system, and a few soldiers being killed the last time they tried to enter here, and knowing Elder Elijah as I do, there could be any number of things in our way".

We all kept an eye out for sentry guns and landmines.

"SECURITY LOCKDOWN IN EFFECT. HOSTILE TARGETS ACQUIRED! COMMENCING NEUTRALISATION. NEUTRALISATION BY LETHAL AUTHORISED".

There was a whine like a jet turbine spinning up, and the air was filled with the sounds of dozens of rounds flying through the air.

Now I was realising that the automated defences had to include miniguns because I couldn't think of any other kinds of guns that fired that fast, and even our power armour combined with our personal shields could only handle so much. As such it was a good thing that we found cover.

"YOU HAVE ENTERED A SECURITY ZONE. LETHAL FORCE WILL BE USED"

The voice boomed during a pause in the barrage of bullets.

"Sentry bot!" the scribe yelled.

I could barely hear Veronica trying to shout over the noise, I was too focused on the defences. The robot blocking our way was basically a massive, vaguely-humanoid torso sitting on top of thick tripod legs, each of which ended in giant, treaded all-terrain wheels. There was a missile launcher on the end of one arm, and a six-barrel Gatling gun on the end of the other. It didn't look like a robot so much as a small tank

It was getting closer so I dropped a pulse grenade and then I opened up a portal beneath us so that when the device went off we weren't even in the same building. When we got back via another portal the robot was inactive and Cameron made sure it wasn't going to come back online by removing its power source.

"I should be able to repair and reprogram this bot" I declared.

To that end, I opened up a portal beneath the machine and let it fall into Vault 3 for safe storage. I had plenty of robot soldiers, but it wouldn't hurt to have a few more hidden away in case they were needed.

"So, Elijah activated sentry bots before he left," Veronica said "He was always good with robots".

By now she'd gotten used to me opening up portals and didn't feel the need to discuss it.

"Looks that way," I said "We'll probably run into more of them as we move deeper into the facility".

Things went far more smoothly, now that we knew exactly what we were up against. Thankfully there weren't any more sentry bots, there were maybe half a dozen protectrons, and those went down easily enough since we'd all dealt with them before. Along the way, we found some more pulse grenades.

It was always handy to have a way of creating a localised EMP that could fry electronics when you're fighting robots. They came in very handy when we ran into even more bots, and some automated defences connected to cameras. I'd have to study the pulse grenades later so I could build my own or I could just buy ion grenades from somewhere in the Star Wars galaxy.

There was a lot diverting my attention so I hadn't been able to devote as much time to studying the local tech as I would have liked. I really should recruit some more help.

"How much further until we get to the mainframe?" I heard Cameron ask Veronica as we entered a still-working elevator.

She was concerned about the threats here.

"I'm not sure," Veronica said.

Both the cyborg and I stopped immediately so that we could turn to look at the scribe.

"You don't know?" I asked.

The local woman shrugged, a somewhat amusing sight considering that she was wearing a suit of power armour.

"I mean, I don't know. I never actually came down to this part of Helios" she told us "This is beyond the restricted level Elder Elijah set up. I did warn you that he kept secrets".

The elevator doors slid open with a creak, which meant that this place at least had enough power for that. By the looks of things, this was the right floor and we'd soon enter the control centre.

HELIOS One. Mojave Wasteland

The elevator doors slowly opened and once the dust settled we were presented with a view of a large room full of computer mainframes, cables, and a lot of terminals. I could hear the humming as the machines drew power from some source.

The machines were still going after all this time, and that was impressive, but as the command centre for a super weapon, it seemed rather lacking in something. If I hadn't known better I wouldn't have imagined that this place was dangerous at all.

"I was expecting more," I said as I stepped out of the elevator door "This isn't very impressive".

Well, looks didn't matter much in this case.

"Find the controls to operate the power plant and any information you can find on ARCHIMEDES" I ordered, "Once we get this place up and running as a power plant we can hand it over to the NCR".

They would not get the weapon. No one faction, other than mine, should be allowed that kind of power.

I began to look around as I did I spotted an important-looking terminal that turned out to be password protected. Thankfully, it wasn't too hard to crack as the computer technology of this world was rather simple when compared to that of my own and I'd had some practice hacking the computers of this dimension.

"Well, I got into the system," I told my two female companions, who were in other parts of this room finding out what they could "but it's not giving me any options. It says something about low power".

It actually said 'Please repair the mainframe generator before attempting to access power grid options'. I figured that these machines were all running on backup power.

This could be a lot of work and I was about to start when I saw a Mr Handy-type robot that was now floating toward me. The spherical, octopus-armed robot with three eye stalks was honestly not something I was expecting to see in operation. Veronica must have gotten it online. I'd seen her examining it before I found the terminal.

"Mind explaining the robot?" I asked

Rather than do that she fixed some sort of ID badge to my armour. Once that happened the robot stopped moving towards me.

"Welcome employees," said the robot "I hope you are having a productive day".

What an odd thing for it to say.

"And why does it thinks we work here?" I then added.

She held up some small bits of plastic.

"They're Poseidon Energy employee ID cards" she explained "Anyone holding one is recognised as an employee and the Mr Handy will help us fix this place up".

While the robot and the girls got to work, with Cameron and Veronica doing their best to clean up while the robot did most of the real repair work, including fully powering up the mainframe, I tried to learn more about this place.

Poseidon Energy was certainly more than just a power company before the bombs dropped. That much had been known to me even before I'd started going through the files on the terminals here. One of them mentioned an 'upcoming' visit (in this case meaning November 2077) by Brigadier General Scott Lowe of the US Army.

It also mentioned ARCHIMEDES by name, but it didn't mention specifically what it was, what it did, or even where it might be, not that I needed that information since I already knew enough about the weapon to want to dismantle it.

I got the sense that whoever had been running this ARCHIMEDES project had some serious pull with the pre-war military-industrial complex given how much funding they'd gotten during a time when resources were becoming more and more scarce. The work must have been important if a General was coming to visit the power plant.

"Boss I found something," the scribe told me "Take a look at this"

She slid a holotape into a slot, and a projector started to hum.

"It's a recording. Of one of the ARCHIMEDES tests," Veronica said, sounding a little upset "Just watch".

The image showed a small column of light appearing out of nowhere, from the top of the image to the bottom, and then it got wider, and wider, getting brighter. There was a flash, and then a mushroom cloud was slowly rising from the spot on the ground where the beam of light had impacted.

"What was that?" Cameron asked.

Something extremely hazardous and a big game changer.

"That was the initial test of ARCHIMEDES," Veronica said while pointing
at the hologram. "It's a satellite in geosynchronous orbit around the planet. It is a space-based laser, powered by energy collected by this power station and sent to the orbital weapons platform through microwaves. I'm not sure how it finds a target, but the yield on impact is... well, you saw the mushroom cloud".

I understood why she felt concerned. That blast was equal to kiloton warheads going off, but unlike other WMDs, you couldn't intercept a massive laser. There was no bomber or missile to shoot down.

"If someone got a hold of this and they figured out how to get it online, and then learn how to target this thing," said Veronica "No one will be safe".

While she was busy contemplating the ramifications of this superweapon, I considered what to do. I was planning to give New Vegas an energy shield, but such things could be sabotaged and only my city would have one.

"We can't leave this place until the controls for this weapon are destroyed," I said "It's too dangerous to allow anyone to have it. We've got to find some way to totally disarm the laser".

I had not known how destructive this weapon could be. Now that I did I was even more driven to keep out the hands of the primitives of this world. They'd destroyed civilization once before and now that it was being rebuilt it could be destroyed all over again.

"We can't take out a satellite" stated the scribe.

Veronica was wrong about that. It would take a bit of planning, but I could get my hands on a small spaceship. I'd been studying Star Wars tech as well as the technology of that universe wasn't hard to use. Perhaps I could purchase a small spacecraft, it wouldn't need to be hyperspace capable, and then move it around via portals?

"I can wipe all the data these computers have on the weapon" Cameron offered.

That part would be easy at least they were crude machines compared to her. However, this might not be the only location that has data on the weapon, and as long as the laser was still up there then it would remain a threat to the whole world.

"I'm supposed to help collect and safeguard the technology of the pre-world world," Veronica said to me "But this is a piece of the old world that the new world can do without."

Assuming all went well we could turn on the power and then get the fuck out of here. I needed to get my hands on a ship.