Off-site Screenshot test poster

Toggle Background Color

Update 29 ? Not that OSI

Guys I picked a bad place to fast travel to. CAZADORES

I survived and made it over to the last Brotherhood scout over near Camp Forlorn Hope/Nelson.

Elder McNamara sent me for your report. He asks if the bears are still hunting.

Then I am sworn to report. I've been dividing my time between the camps to the north and south of here. One belongs to the NCR, the other to a band of slavers known as Caesar's Legion. I was sure the NCR would quickly win, but that has not happened. Instead, the two sides have reached a stalemate, and only occasionally send skirmishers against one another.

In any event, I've recorded my findings in this report. Please deliver it to the Elder. I am sure he will find it most interesting.

Aaaaand it's back to Hidden Valley.

Yes, I did. Here are their reports.

Good, let's take a look... Hmmm, if I'm reading this right, it appears that the NCR's grip on this region is nowhere near as firm as I thought. I'll have to review these in detail, but these reports have given me much to think about. Thank you, outsider.

Go on.

It was never meant to be used with any regularity, and the other systems here were not designed to accommodate such usage. In particular, the air filtration system simply cannot handle the quantity of sand and grit that it's been forced to cope with these last few years.

Should that happen, it will quickly become impossible to breathe here in the bunker. Already teh air quality begins to slightly worsen. I would like you to find the components we need to fix this bunker's air filtration system. I cannot overstate the importance of this task.

Man are we the only competent person standing in this bunker? (yes) Senior Knight Lorenzo is on the same level as the Elder, down the other corridor from the level entrance.

The Elder wants me to retrieve components to help fix the air filtration system.

...what.

Er, what?

I was the one who supplied the Elder with the location of possible sites where we could find the components, so their deaths are my fault. And now it's your turn. Well, don't say you weren't warned. I won't take the blame when you die horribly. But I can tell you're getting impatient.

At present, my best guess for finding the items would be to search any of the old vaults in the area. Those vaults were usually built much like these military bunkers, even using the same contractors in their constructions at times.

The three places we need to go are Vault 3, Vault 11, and Vault 22. We have already been to Vault 11 and picked up the Differential Pressure Controller there, but we need to visit Vault 3 and 22 still. 22 has a quest associated so we will pretty much get on that.

It comes with an opportunity for some points with Arcade Gannon so I will briefly pick him up.

Gannon still doesn't like ED-E and says so when we collect him

I give him the old Assassin Suit. Dude looks pretty good in all black, doesn't he?

Time to go to Camp McCarran and talk to a guy though.

Facing all the stairs, this door is under the left set.

Thomas Hildern is the man we want to see.

No, this is the first I've heard about Vault 22.

No, they wouldn't have briefed you, would they? Probably better that our junior fellows stay within the bounds of their pay grade, anyway. Vault 22... where to begin...

I'm listening.

...orchards of trees, their branches weighed halfway to the ground, hung with fat, ripe oranges. A harvest that could feed a city... or a nation.

Nothing is impossible.

The bounty I described to you is no idle fantasy. It exists, in primitive form, only a few miles from where we stand. We need only reach out and unlock its secret. For that, the OSI needs you.

Scientific discovery is never so simple as that.

I believe that the inhabitants of Vault 22 unlocked the secrets of vegetative growth. Plants are spilling from their gate. No one tends them. No one waters them. Yet they multiply and spread in all directions.

Actually, I have an invoice for you from Alice McLafferty.

Crimson Caravan runs a tight operation, even out here in the waste. Wouldn't do to keep them waiting.

All right. I'll investigate Vault 22.

Vaults typically contain a server room on a lower level, where they would have backed up their research data. A computer room, you understand?

Anything else I should know?

I thought it was a fairly straightforward assignment. It's a simple question of retrieving the data, which shouldn't prove overly challenging.

I have some questions.

Oh? What might those be?

Tell me more about the OSI.

Suffice to say, we are the leading edge of the NCR. Our work focuses on practical matters. Medicine, engineering, biology. The Dam, for instance. OSI routes its energy supply to our cities in the west. That's only one responsibility of this office.

You said you were the Director of OSI?

No, I direct our eastern operotions. I've been responsible for squeezing unprecedented levels of power from the Dam. I'm also confronting the problem of food production, in what little time I have. But I've found some promising leads.

You're doing all these things yourself?

NCR has a food shortage?

Not yet. But our government understands the value of proactive thought. Our studies project an imbalance between production and consumption.

What other responsibilities does this office have?

There've been complaints about the amount of water we're supplying, but those are just excuses for lack of diligence, I'm sure.

Do you control the Dam from here?

Directly? No. But we attempt to maximize its output. You have no idea how difficult it is to provide power to an entire nation.

note:

As to where the power is going... who knows. Can you imagine? A drifter outsmarting professional scientists? Only in New Vegas.

What do you think of NCR's chances against the Legion?

To be frank, I Have no idea. I leave the fighting to Colonel Hsu, and I expect him to leave the science to me.

Goodbye.

Yes... goodbye.

I like that he mentions that we rerouted power from HELIOS One. It's nice when games acknowledge your actions, what can I say. I exhausted Hildern's options mostly to make sure that we trigger Arcade's thing here:

At some point he became so fixated on large scale results that he lost the concept of "the common good" along the way. It's an inhumane kind of public service when people and the basic resources they need become numbers in a ledger.

Good thing there are still people like you around.

I really do hate that I need to run around and collect these flags to get some companions' quests going though.

Oh well, it's better than one companion we haven't met yet that I'm quite possibly not going to do the quest of because it has a non-fixed trigger that just loves to not occur

Hildern's assistant forces dialogue when you exit Hildern's office.

Yes. He asked me to get some data from Vault 22.

I shouldn't say anything, I know that. But you're not the first person Hildern's sent out to the vault. There were a lot of mercs. One after another. None of them came back.

And he didn't mention her? Not even her name? Or any of the other mercs?

Maybe Hildern and I need to have another talk.

Listen. I make a fair wage, but I'm not rich, not by any means. Maybe my kind of money wouldn't appeal to your average merc.

All right. I'll look for her.

I had a good feeling about you. Moment you walked in. I mean it.

Well, we're done collecting Arcade's trigger so it's back to the Lucky 38 to pick up Boone.