"I know we both have questions." Veronica said as she stood from the table and removed the plates from their meal of canned pork and beans. "So since you're new here why don't you go first?"
Valeria watched Veronica take the plates to a nearby sink, then looked at the Brotherhood of Steel banner. Veronica had been thirsty and hungry after their journey, and insisted on eating before any further conversation. Valeria didn't argue and ate silently as she waited for Veronica to finish.
"Could you tell me about yourself?" Valeria asked after a moment of thought.
"Sure, it's my favorite topic." Veronica replied with a grin as she returned to her seat at the workbench they used for a table. "What would you like to know?"
"That banner on the wall belongs to the Brotherhood of Steel." Valeria said, indicating the wall hanging with a nod.
"You recognized it?" Veronica asked with her eyebrows raised in surprise. "In that case before I get started I have to know what you think of the Brotherhood of Steel."
"They were the bravest and most honorable people I've met." Valeria replied as she looked down at the table somberly.
"Really?" Veronica asked with a start of surprise. "Wow. I grew up with them and I wouldn't have described them that way."
"You're a member of the Brotherhood?" Valeria asked as she looked up.
"Once. I was trained as a scribe and came to the Mojave with Elder Elijah. What chapter did you run into?"
"I don't know the 'chapter', but they were led by Elder Lyons."
"Elder Lyons!" Veronica exclaimed in astonishment. "He was sent east over twenty years ago. We hadn't had word in so long it was assumed he was dead."
"He died fighting the Enclave in the Capital Wasteland." Valeria said sadly, looking down as she remembered the flaming crater where the Citadel of the Brotherhood had been.
"The Enclave was on the East Coast?"
"You know about the Enclave?" Valeria asked as she again returned her weary gaze to Veronica's face
"The Brotherhood fought them after their base in San Francisco was destroyed. I didn't know any set up shop that far east."
"I think Elder Lyons changed the Brotherhood's mandate." Valeria said slowly. "He gave me the impression that defending the Capital Wasteland against the Enclave and the Supermutants was…unusual."
"I'll say it was." Veronica replied with nod. "The Codex states that the purpose of the Brotherhood was to preserve technology. How best to do that is open to some interpretation. The West Coast Brotherhood decided to seclude themselves and not recruit new members from the outside. As you can imagine, that didn't do much for our numbers."
Valeria nodded, struck by the similarity between the Brotherhood's fate and what happened to her home in Vault 101.
"Elder Elijah wanted to use technology to improve the world, not hoard it for ourselves. But he was never good at dealing with people, and he made the other Elders mad. Finally they sent him to the Mojave to investigate Boulder Dam, but really I think it was just to get rid of him."
"Why did you go with him?" Valeria asked after a moment of silence.
"Elijah was like a grandfather to me, especially after my parents were killed." Veronica explained with a sigh. "I agreed with his overall philosophy, but not with the details. Elijah didn't think much of people, and over time seemed to think using force for the greater good was the way to go. Anyway he asked me to go with him, so I did."
"What happened to him?" Valeria asked as she saw the sadness in Veronica's eyes.
"I don't know." Veronica said with a shrug. "We never got to the Dam. Along the way we found the Helios One solar plant and Elijah ordered us to fortify it. He didn't tell us why, but he seemed to be more and more obsessed with it. When he heard the NCR had taken Boulder Dam he went into a rage. We were starting to think Elijah was losing it, and I confronted him with our concerns."
"How did he respond?" Valeria asked, leaning forward on her forearms.
"He listened to me so calmly it was spooky, then told me my talents were wasted at the plant. He sent me into the field to gather intelligence and get supplies." Veronica paused a moment before shrugging and adding. "While I was gone the NCR arrived at Helios One."
"What happened?" Valeria asked quietly as Veronica sat in pensive silence.
"I wasn't inside." She suddenly said with a shudder as if she was shaking herself awake. "...I watched from the hills while the NCR stormed the plant. Just when it looked like it was over I heard alarms all over the plant and then an energy beam fired from the sky and...blew the plant up."
"Was it an orbital weapon?"
Veronica looked sharply at Valeria, clearly surprised that she knew what an orbital weapon was. Then she nodded and sighed
"I think that weapon was what Elijah had discovered at Helios One. I don't know why it destroyed the plant."
"Were there any survivors?" Valeria asked quietly. Veronica looked into the big woman's strange white eyes, surprised at the genuine concern in Valeria's voice.
"If there were, I've never found them." She finally answered as stared at her clasped hands on the table before her. "After the battle, I assumed I wasn't going to be popular with the NCR, so I laid low and wandered doing odd jobs and scavenging tech. I did that for years while I looked for survivors...before the Legion found a way to beat the NCR."
At the mention of the Legion, Veronica's mouth closed in a grim line as she closed her eyes with a shudder. Valeria waited for Veronica to gather herself, and after a minute broke the silence with another question.
"How did the Legion win?"
"They had something the Brotherhood didn't." Veronica said as she looked up with a wry smile. "The Legion has thousands of soldiers, and they used their numbers better. The Assault at the dam was a diversion to get the NCR to commit most of its forces. While the NCR was trying to hold the Dam, Legion infiltrators started raising hell behind their lines. The NCR didn't know how to handle being encircled and a lot of them broke and ran. Caesar kept the pressure on and the NCR wasn't able to rally. Finally they withdrew from the Mojave after blowing up a lot of stuff they didn't want Caesar to have."
"What happened afterwards?" Valeria asked as she looked into Veronica's eyes and tried to read the young woman's mood. Veronica's eyes were haunted, the pain Valeria saw contradicting her ironic half-smile.
"The Legion took over." Veronica finally said with a shrug of indifference. There aren't a lot of laws, but the ones the Legion has are all punishable by death or enslavement. Women that stay in the towns are left alone, but any who leave risk getting enslaved."
"Was that why those soldiers were after you?"
"Not exactly." Veronica admitted with a grin as the pain in her brown eyes faded. "I was guilty of breaking two laws. One was the Legion's prohibition against trading in energy weapons, the other was traveling unauthorized between towns. I'm pretty good with tech, but that doesn't have a lot of applications under the Legion. Nipton was the hub of the black market in the Mojave before the Legion decided to clean house."
"So you're risking enslavement or worse to stay in the Mojave." Valeria said as she stared thoughtfully down at her hands which she had also clasped on the tabletop.
"Why?"
"Nobody's ever asked me before." Veronica replied with a grin. "After the battle for Helios One, I began searching for the few Brotherhood safehouses that I knew about. I found this one and discovered that Elijah had turned it into a secret lab. He kept a journal on one of the terminals, and based on what I read, he had been here briefly after Helios One. He had made references to a treasure that would change the Mojave forever, which made more sense when I saw the posters from the Sierra Madre." Veronica nodded toward one of the faded posters hidden in the shadows.
"The Sierra Madre?" Valeria wondered aloud as she turned to look at the posters.
"It's a Mojave legend." Veronica explained. "It was a casino built by a pre-war millionaire named Frederick Sinclair. It's supposed to hold a fortune in tech, but no one who tried to find it has returned. There are a lot of stories about the place being cursed and haunted by ghosts. I didn't believe them, but if Elijah went there, then there may be something to it."
"You want to find the treasure?"
"Mostly I want to find Elijah. He was obsessive and hard to like, but he is also the closest thing to family I have left. He believed that whatever was in the Sierra Madre would change the world, and based on what I've seen I think he may be right."
Veronica gestured to a device shaped vaguely like a pre-war jukebox with a soft blue glow coming from a round receptacle on the top.
"I can't make it work, but from Elijah's notes it's a workbench similar to ones installed at the Sierra Madre. While I was with the Brotherhood there was always a chance I could change their minds and make a positive difference. Now I'm just a scavenger living on the fringe of society. Maybe with the treasure I could make the Mojave a better place."
"Is that why you're trying to sell tech on the black market?" Valeria asked as she turned back toward Veronica.
"Actually I've tried to get enough cash to pay the admission fee to get into the New Vegas Strip." Veronica explained with a sigh. "The current rate is five hundred Denarius or twenty Aureus, which isn't including the exchange rate on the black market if I try to convert caps or NCR dollars. It's been pretty slow going."
"Why do you need to get into the Strip?"
"I've heard rumors mercenaries are being hired by House and Dean Domino to look for the Sierra Madre. House runs New Vegas, but he's in the Lucky 38 and its been sealed for two centuries. Domino runs the Ultra-Luxe Casino, which is open to visitors. If I can get in to meet him, I'm hoping he'll take a chance on backing a girl from California with stars in her eyes and a pneumatic gauntlet on her fist." Veronica smiled at Valeria, her quirky humor restored as Valeria hesitantly smiled in return. Veronica sighed as she rested her chin on her fist and stared thoughtfully at one of the Sierra Madre posters. Suddenly her eyes widened and she turned to stare at Valeria.
"That's why you looked so familiar!" Veronica exclaimed. Valeria turned to look at the poster of a dark-haired woman reclining provocatively in an evening gown, then back at Veronica in confusion.
"The hair threw me at first, but you look exactly like Vera Keyes!"
"Who is Vera Keyes?" Valeria asked as she again looked at the poster.
"I don't know much about her." Veronica admitted with a shrug. "She was a celebrity before the war, and Sinclair must have had a serious thing for her because she's on all the Sierra Madre posters."
Valeria stood from the table and approached the poster, touching the yellowing paper below Vera's face. Was it simply a coincidence that she looked like a woman who had been dead for centuries, or was it more? Her mother and father had come from California, so were they connected with the Sierra Madre, and if so how?
"That's pretty much all there is about me." Veronica said as she watched Valeria. "What brought you to the Mojave? I know you're not from around here because you really stand out and I'd have heard about you before now."
"I'm trying to find out what I am." Valeria replied as she continued to stare at the poster. "My mom and dad lived in New Vegas before they went east. It's not much, but it's the only clue I have."
"If you don't my saying it, you look like some kind of supermutant." Veronica observed.
"I might be." Valeria replied with a shrug as she continued to stare at the poster. "I really don't know."
Veronica stared thoughtfully at Valeria's massive shoulders and the huge hammer she carried effortlessly on her back.
"I think I'm getting an idea." She said thoughtfully. "We both need to get to New Vegas and it's a town where you need money even if you don't gamble. Discreetly selling salvage will take too long and it's too risky with the Legion cracking down."
"What do you have in mind?" Valeria asked as she turned from the poster.
"I noticed you aren't carrying any guns." Veronica observed as she stood from the bench. "Either you're crazy or you don't need them."
"I'm a pretty bad shot." Valeria explained with a shrug. "I just can't seem to get the hang of it so I rely on my hammer."
"You've been fighting hand-to-hand across the wasteland and still have all your parts." Veronica shook her head in amazement then grinned. "We need to get to Westside Val and see Red Lucy at 'The Thorn'. With my brains and your brawn, we'll be inside the gates in no time!"
Swept up in Veronica's infectious enthusiasm, Valeria found herself smiling despite having no idea what the 'Thorn' was. She had no idea what to do now that she had reached New Vegas, and knew that having a guide would be invaluable. But more importantly, the brief time she had spent with Veronica had made her aware how terribly lonely she was. Veronica was one of the first people she had met in a long time who spoke to her as if she wasn't a monstrous freak. Starved for human contact, Valeria craved more.
"Ok Veronica." Valeria said, attempting to look stern as she folded her arms. "I'll go with you to Westside."