Entry 50: Immortalizing glory

Hello mommy. Hello daddy.

I didn't really remember being at the Red Rock at first. I didn't immediatly after I woke up, too, since I woke up in a longhouse with Papa Khan, a man who I had talked to before, looking at me. I didn't recognize him at first, my head was still pounding from the cazador thing. But then I really saw him and I remembered everything.

He just wanted to talk though. He told me had an alliance with The Legion and that would help them get revenge against the NCR. Well, the Legion doesn't need more support than it already has, or else it could get too hard. I told him I wanted him to break the alliance. He didn't want to, he was blind by revenge.

Regis - his right hand man - on the other hand... He met me when I was let go and was already on my way out, asking me to talk about what I said for a moment. He told me that I had to convince him and other three members of the Khans, the ones Papa trusted the most, that an alliance with Caesar was bad.

And so I got back to the longhouse, where Papa usually is. There was a Legion representative living there, too. Karl, was his name. I felt that if I found something in his room it would disgrace him right there in front of all the present Khans. And also convince Regis.

And I was right. Don't feel sorry for him though, they were planning on enslaving the Khans.

Then I had to convince Jack and Diane. It was easy, I just told Jack that Diane would be enslaved and sold as a prostitute and he agreed to oppose Papa Khan. He even taught me a new word for "bullshit", "copasheshy". It's the best word ever, if I may add.

Then there was Melissa. She was on a mission, camped near the Quarry Juntion. Thank God there weren't more Deathclaws, right? Well, actually I did punch four of those fuckers to the death and hammered three more in the process, while reaching their camp, but hey, just details.

Melissa, oh poor girl. She thought she'd be a ranking officer in the Legion, how cute. I told her no women served the Legion, they were all either slaves or, the lucky ones, officers' wives. She actually got very sad and told me she'd support me. I felt kind of bad so I asked why was she there. She was waiting for a chem supply drop from someone from Sloan, at the quarry. I told her I'd help. Turns out they didn't make the delivery because of the deathclaws and, after that, they had just forgotten about it. I retrieved the chemicals and got them to Melissa.

When I got back to Papa Khan, he was surprised I had convinced his most trusted men to tell him to break the alliance. He was still worried about his tribe's glory though. I think I understand. I'm a proud man myself. As you know, I'm not dumb. On my travels as a lost kid and up until now, I learned a lot. That includes some of the history of the Pre-War people who the Khans based themselves in, the Mongols. They too sought glory, but it didn't end up well. So I told him that they shouldn't clinge to the glories of the past. Then and there he decided that I spoke the truth and, to immortalize the Khans, they'd ride to the Hoover Dam battle one last time, in a suicide attempt of making as much damage as they can. Well... That turned out better than I ever could expect. They'll fight both the Legion and the NCR and die in the process. Yeah, sometimes I'm cruel, but you know from the start I'm not an angel, what did you expect?

Finally I returned to Red Lucy. Veronica had to remind me of the eggs, I didn't even remember by then. I gave her the eggs, got handsomly rewarded and then got handed the ultimate challenge. She wanted me to be the one hunter who would bring her and The Thorn the "sacred" deathclaw eggs. (normal deathclaw eggs, but are sacred because they're hard to find). I had two choices: Quarry Junction and a deathclaw nest in a cave. It wouldn't be much of the ultimate challenge if I went to the Quarry where there were no deathclaws already right? So yeah, I told her I'd go to that nest. She warned me about a legend. A legend of a deathclaw far stronger than all others. No one had ever seen it and lived to tell the tale. Well, that's copasheshy for me, if no one's ever seen it, then no one can know it exists.

So here I am now at my suite, gearing up. I'll use that armor those old Enclave men gave me, seems pretty tough and easier to move than with the Brotherhood's power armor.

Love you,
Bill

Entry 49: The Thorn

Hello mommy. Hello daddy.

As you know I had time to spare. Westside was pretty dull, but there was something near I had told you about. A place called The Thorn. I went there with Veronica and Rex, to check it out.

 

 It was actually very awesome. It was an underground arena for creature fights. And, of course, anyone who thought could fight said creatures. The person in charge was Red Lucy. I still hadn't seen her and I had already been bombarded with words of respect towards her and also some men who said would enjoy a night with her.

I could see why.

She was hot, yeah. And pretty. But most of all she was... Powerful. She intimidated even me, just with her calm, strong voice. I could tell she was a tough one. That made me smile right from the bat, so I told her I'd fight in her little arena. Told her to set me up with three of her biggest radscorpions. Yeah!

Right before they released those bastards I looked up on the crowd. Saw they wanted a show. I started undressing myself and disarming, putting my armor on the ground and my weapons on it. Which was not a good idea, now that I write about it. But hey, survived to tell the tale. The crowd loved it.

When I got back to Red Lucy she was impressed. Said I had the build for a hunter and that The Thorn could use one like me. She wanted me to go to some creatures' nests and steal some eggs, so they could hatch in the Thorn and become fighters. First ones were Giant Mantises. And fuck, they were in that creepy ass green Vault, Vault 22, filled with plants.

It was fairly easy. Me and Veronica remembered the place just barely to be able to navigate through it swiftly and get the eggs. Fucking mantises though, when they throw their arms in the air to attack they freak the hell out of me!

She was pleased, but not impressed. Not at all. That was child's play, I could tell. Next she told me to get Radscorpion eggs, near Goodsprings. Well, I ain't nor wasn't so affraid of those bastards after taking out three barehanded, so...

Going to the Radscorpions made me pass by Goodsprings' cemetery. You know... Where I died. Or should have. I was awfuly quiet for a while after that, because it got me thinking. I changed  lot since then heh? Killing the scorpions was easy enough, so I quickly returned to The Thorn.

My next challenge were Fire Geckos. Those were tough bastards but nothing excessive. I had already fought many. That one was a long, long walk though.

After finaly finding the cave we fought like one hundred of those fire breathing bastards. Nah, I'm kidding, they were maybe twenty. Still, pretty easy.

Tired of walking though. I got back to Red Lucy and gave her the eggs and she gave me the caps. She had more work for me. I had to get her nightstalker eggs. Well, like most animals nightstalkers didn't even seen to want to attack me, so it was easy. Tired of walking though.

I got handsomly rewarded for the eggs and the she told me my next challenged: motherfucking cazadores. I fake smiled as I panicked inside and nearly crapped myself just thinking about it.

After I fougt a buttload of cazadores to steal their eggs I found myself in very bad shape. Veronica helped me walk a little until we reached Red Rock, home to the Great Khans. She was able to drag me to a tent and helped me stay awake just enough to write you this.

Love you,
Bill

Entry 48: Hello farewell

Hello mommy. Hello daddy.

Where was I? Oh, right, before I met that guy. "Which guy do you speak of, sweet child?", you ask. Arcade Gannon, my most recent asshole of a friend, I answer. I bumped (litterally) into him on my way to Westside, while he was crouching by some cacti. Apparently he is researching on how to make stimpacks from barrel cacti fruit. I first mocked him for a while, but his lack of patience and sarcastic replies made ways to more serious talk. He was with the Followers and figured that was the best he could do to help.

He convinced me at first to help the Followers. I didn't really like them, but I didn't have anything against them too. So I went on with it. I could use a partner to make fun of. I made a deal with the Garrets to supply the Followers and got some guys off of drug and alcohol addiction. I'm turning into an angel, so you better be in heaven so I can meet you when I die.

Our rivalry started right when he said Mr. House wasn't a good choice for New Vegas' future. The people outside The Strip would suffer just like they do now. But I knew it wasn't true. I knew Mr. House's plan and where he was going, the greatness he'd do. But I didn't tell him. Mr. House had told me, so I had no right to tell anyone else.

Somewhere along our patrol on Westside he decided to talk about the battle of Hoover Dam. How he could help. Help how, I asked, since he was just a geek. Then he said his father was once with the American Pre-War enforcers, the Enclave. He was never actually one of them, but he knew some remnants who lived in the Mojave. That could help out big time with the battle. I accepted, of course. Big robot army, Boomer's help, plus ex-power armor and military experts?! Hell yeah, that's a win at the Dam for sure! He actually made his first real smile since we had met, when I told him we'd talk to their old friends.

The first one was actually in Westside. He told me that's part of why he told me. His name was Judah Kreger. He was playing checkers with some guy. He accepted pretty quick, actually.

You wouldn't guess who the second one was. Doc motherfucking Henry. Yeah, from what he knew of me he accepted really quick.

I was doing a whole lot of walking, my feet hurted like hell. But the next stop was Novac, in which we talked to Daisy Whitman, the chopper handling woman. She accepted just for the chance of flying one more time. Heh.

Cannibal Johnson was next. No, he wasn't a cannibal. He was actually pretty neat, even though a bit depressed about his old age. He agreed because he wanted to do one last good thing before he died.

The last one was a cranky old man named Orion Moreno, who hated the NCR. Good thing. He was in with us as long as we didn't help the NCR.

Then I finally got to the Remnants bunker, led by Arcade. It really pissed me off when the guys were only wanting to fight either for the Legion or the NCR. They wouldn't even listen to me when I spoke of Mr. House. Then I did something I shouldn't. Not since I hand't spoke to Mr. House about it. But still, I'm smart, I know what I did. The Legion had smaller numbers than the NCR. So I shouted HELP THE LEGION. I just... I hate the NCR... For what they did to you... Arcade looked at me for a long while and then left, without saying a word. Cannibal Johnson left, too. He liked the NCR. The others were either neutral or happy about going against the NCR. Since Johnson wasn't going they gave me his armor. Which is pretty neat.

So that's the story of how your angel of a son manipulated a potential friend into joining forces with him against someone he cared about. In my defense, it's pretty much because they wouldn't listen to me. But fuck it.

Love you,
Bill

Entry 47: Some don't deserve what others have none

Hello mommy. Hello daddy.

So I had time. If I had any shred of smarts in my head, I'd rest up on the time I have. But no. I wanted to explore, much like I did before Kimball arrived. This time around I visited the Outer Vegas area called North Vegas. I have been there before actually.

The place was even worst than Freeside, everyone was skinny and dirty, it smelled horribly. I asked the first half decent looking guy I saw what was up. Crandon was his name and he was like the sheriff. Eventually I asked if there was need for help around the parts. At first he didn't want to, but he decided I would be a good thing to happen to that God forsaken place. The first thing he asked me to do was to talk some low lives out of the playground area, where they were seen by everyone and everyone would see them cause trouble.

Maybe it didn't go as it should. He asked me why should they leave and I told them they better had done it before I got mad. Then he called me "punk" and told me to fuck off and that's where I drew the line. I killed all three of them, causing one heck of a mess. Still, when I told Crandon about it he didn't seem to mind, as long as they were gone. Next job was to take care of some assholes who were starting to create a gang, down on the sewers.

Smelled even worst than the actual town, the sewers, which is hard. I don't like dark places where I have to go around and crawl through tunnels. So I wasn't in a very good mood when I got there. And God damn, the poor son of a bitch had to go and call me "punk". More dead... Oh well, less food that has to go around right?

Crandon actually didn't mind too. Guess being so surrounded by death made him impartial to what kind of death it is. The next job was to talk to some mother about her daughter, who was hanging out with a bad croud. Hoo-fucking-ray, I got to be a babysitter!

The woman lived near Crimson Caravans, so I took advantage of that and passed by New Vegas Clinic, Doctor Usanagi, which was also nearby. I wanted another implant. The first one felt great, so I decided another one couldn't hurt. She analyzed me and said my body could handle another. I chose one she had that would make my skin rougher, almost bullet-proof-like. Which is fucking awesome. When she told me it would take a few hours I gasped; but hey, the little girl could wait.

It was late in the night when I got into that woman's - Mrs Hostetler or something - house. I broke in because no one answered and found her sleeping in her bed, so I sat at the dinner table and waited for her to wake up. Creepy right?

Yeah she thought so too. She screamed and tld me to get out before she blew my head off. Then I told her I was sent by Crandon and wanted to help with her problem. She wanted me to investigate her daughter's new friends. And so I did, since I commited to it in the first place. But damn, I do not like babysitting.

I looked for Alice - the girl - in North Vegas and question people there. One of them, a cowboy looking guy, told me she was hanging out with someone named Andy at "The Gray", the local hotel.

I looked a little and didn't find them. There was a guy guarding a door though, so I asked him where could I find Alice and Andy. He asked what for, so I just said I wanted to talk to them. Then he started saying that that was their turf and if I snooped around anymore he'd kill me then and there. Hah. I told him I didn't like his tone and his answer was his last. Specially the words "Go cry to your mama" triggered me. I punched him three times, turning him into an almost blood-pool. Then I searched the room he was guarding, which had a note that said their "gang" was planning an heist on Mr. Hostelter's - or whatever - cut from his work at the Crimson Caravans and were using Alice to get close.

When I was finished reading the note I was caught by who I assumed to be Andy. He was a ghould, which I didn't expect, don't know why. He told me Alice was with him in the gang. Told me she was happy, she was tired of working with her mom. God damn, I despise spoiled kids. I stormed off from Andy and ran to find Alice, to tell her a thing or two.

When I entered her house a girl in her early twenties was pointing a gun at me. Alice. Told me she had enough of "their shit" and would kill her parents if she had to. I... I wanted to hit her, hit her so hard. She had parents who cared for her, that knew they had to work to survive. And she was thinking of killing them just to join a fucking gang? Before I knew it I was holding her by her neck, breathing heavily, staring into her eyes, as mine were filled with anger. Then I took a deep breath, let her go and shoved the note I found on her face. Then I left the house. Let her be so grown up as she thinks she is.

That was it for me and North Vegas. The place looks like shit, but Mr. House will manage, I know it.

Next stop, Westside!

Love you,
Bill.

Entry 46: When the reality exceeds the expectations... You'll Know It When It Happens

Hello mommy. Hello daddy.

So, it was time to save the leader of the bastards who continuesly ruin my life. "Awesome", I though, so ever sarcastic.

Deserves mention that I passed by the King while going to my suite and said Rex was all better, we were tgether for a while and then he told me Rex liked me and he could hang with me a little longer, which is awesome. I brought Veronica with me, too, since I missed her company, even though I only thought about what I had done to her - without her knowing. I gave her Pushy, as a way of saying "I'm sorry", I guess... Psychological stuff.

I gotta say, I love seeing the Dam. It's so magestic... Good thing Mr. House is planning on taking it, that way I can look at it without picture those NCR bastards.

I got into the Dam and got all kind of looks. I was famous. Some of them looked down on me, some of them wanted a go at me, others respected me and others were positively surprised I was there to help. Me? I'm just glad I had my shades, preventing them to see the fury in my eyes, the disgust of being there, among them, about to save their President.

I reported to Ranger Grant and asked him what did we have. Which was pretty much nothing. "Just keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary". Well, no shit!

I rested a little and morning came. Had to do my check ups. First checked the lobby's terminal. Nice thing I did, because the file that contained the ranger snipers' locations had been accessed from an unknown ID earlier, so that's one thing I had to look out for.Then I checked the small storage room and found a blood puddle on it. I examined the place and there was a bloody wrench too, so I figured an engineered must have been killed, probably for a legionarie to replace him and go undercover. So, weird engineers to watch out for too. Outside, I checked the Anti-Aircraft gun control console, to see if had been tampered with, but no, nothing. I couldn't think of anything else to look out for. They'd probably try to rig the Vertibird to blow, too, but I could only check that out once Kimball arrived. Veronica backed me up, reinforced the idea that we had to look out for that engineer and the snipers and Rex just panted and waved his tail when I asked if we were all set.

I told Grant I was ready. And right then we saw the Vertibird appearing in the horizon.

I went up to the visitor's center roof, the place where the vertibird would land. Aside from checking if Kimball got there in one piece, it was one of the sniper positions and from that one I could see the other two with Christine's rifle scope. It landed and Kimball, surrounded by bodyguards, not talking or even looking to anyone, got to the door that would lead outside. Right then I saw one engineer go to the vertibird, supposely to make sure everything was alright. Once he was done tampering I went there myself and found a bomb, which I was able to disarm. He was, of course, my prime suspect. I was able to grab him by his arm just before he walked into the visitor's center. He asked me if there was a problem and I asked him, even though I knew, if he knew who did the vertibird maintenance. Then he screamed "DIE, PROFLIGATE!" and pulled out a knife. Veronica blew his head off with a punch and then looked at me, worried at first, but then smiling. It got into my head how I was considered a "profligate", the word they use to refer to NCR people. Hated it, hated it. Oh well... One less motherfucker trying to kill the biggest motherfucker of them all, I thought.

Surprisingly, once the sniper that was in that position saw what happened, he screamed "CONTACT" and everyone started flipping out. Before I knew what was happening I saw Kimball covering his head with his arms, being dragged into the vertibird by one of his bodyguards while the others looked around for threats. I guess they scare easy, the President didn't even make it to the stage and was forced to leave because of the threat.

This turned out nicely! Not only did I fulfill Mr. House's request, securing a future for New Vegas' tourism and economy, but also deprived the NCR of their little morale boost speech. I came out of that Dam smiling after all.

The trip to The Strip was actually pretty quick, since I was so distracted with the thought of what I had done and that went down so good. Then reported to Mr. House, who said I was critical in Kimball's survival. Damn right, those assholes couldn't do anything by themselves. Anyway, Mr. House gave me another job, no hurries. There is a small electrical plant near that damned Vault 11 which has great strategic value to the Lucky 38. Mr. House wanted me to install an override module on it, in order to power back on Mr. House's primary reactor, which has been shut down during Las Vegas' defense. He said there were NCR troops there, guarding it. Easy peasy.

Now it's resty resty time. Since there are no hurries, I'm going to take a look around a bit more. I'll let you know if I find any more stylish guys willing to loan their awesome dogs.

Love you,
Bill

Entry 45: Decision decisions

Hello mommy. Hello daddy.

I figured out that the pipes for the water pump passed through a mountain, that I guessed had a cave system. I found the entrance to the cave, guarded by some geckos and right then I found lots of barrels of toxic waste. That was definetly the source of the radiation.

I followed the cave system and ended up in an opened Vaul door. Man, I don't like Vaults. And you know. Vault 34 it was. Apparently Lily was from there, once. She said the place brought her memories and even pointed to a place where she said she and my "grandfather" first kissed. Poor woman...

More importantly though, the place was swarming with feral ghouls. You know, the ones who jump on you from the dark and try to rip your throat out with their teeth. Yeah, those bastards.

Navigating through the darn Vault was awful. It was dark, the geiger counter didn't shut up and, besides of me feeling physically sick from the radiation, I felt even more sick because of the psychological effects the geiger counter had on me. And those feral ghouls, they were EVERYWHERE.

I needed keys to get into the Overseers Office, from where I thought I could have access to everywhere. It was the only door locked, also. Or so I thought. I went to the armory, searching for the key, but it was also locked. Eventually I found a page of the Overseer's journal that said he had locked the armory to protect the dwellers from themselves and that he had the key.

I found a terminal that I used to drain one of the flooded rooms. I went into that room and went through a door that I assumed to be the security offices. More ghouls, of course, but also another terminal, that granted me access to the Oversser's office door control. So I unlocked it and made my way there.

The place inside was full of armored and ruthless ghouls, which I guessed to be the Overseer's personal guards, who maintained their once human strength. The Overseer himself was a tough son of a bitch, but I nailed him while Rex and Lily fought off the other ones.

So, from there I thought I had two routes: under the Overseer's office or unlock the armory and go check it out. And then I thought better, I could unlock it, go check out the Overseer's tunnel and then, on my way back out, go to the armory. I'm a genius (dumb ass).

On the tunnel I ended up in the Vault's Reactor and there I found a terminal. From what I read I learned that the Reactor was damaged and that, if I shut it down, the radiation would stop contaminating the water. I also learned that a family was trapped in the Vault, but helping them would mean keep the Reactor online.

Decisions decisions...

It's not like Mr. House won't find a way to get clean water. It's not even like this pump gets a significant percentage of water to New Vegas. So I tried to save the family trapped inside. I unlocked the reactor doors and looked for the terminal that would allow me to reroute power to their terminal, enabling them to unlock the doors. So yeah, I wanna believe they're alive and well now.

I went back to the armory and there wasn't much. I mean, there was this freaking awesome gun, but I ain't much of a gun man, as you know. So I took it only to see if it was worth anything on the Mojave market.

And so that was it. The water continued irradiated, but one more family now lives to enjoy that glowing element of dehydration. I think I'm going to stay at the Lucky 38 for the rest of the time that Kimball won't arrive. Which can't be much.

I'll talk to you after it.

Love you,
Bill

Entry 44: Brains brains brains

Hello mommy. Hello daddy.

We made our way through the night to Jacobstown. The man, the mutant and the dog. What looked actually pretty close to New Vegas seemed to take all night to get there. And the screeching violins on the background didn't help. Oh, what am I saying? Forget it.

It was really cool to see Marcus again. He got really happy to see I had brought Lily along and that she was doing good. We chatted for a little while and then I got to the lodge, where Doc Henry was.

Doctor Henry diagnosed Rex right then and there. He said it was neural degradation, because the med gel containing the brain could only sustain it for so long. So I had to find a replacement. What's with me and brains lately?! Henry suggested me Old Lady Gibson, the old lady near Novac from who I got the spaceship modules from, for those crazy ass ghouls. So I said goodbye and told him I'd be back.

I was tired of walking, my feet hurt like hell. Damn dog, had a way to get to me. I already liked him so much, so he kept me going. I couldn't let him die.

I arrived at the old lady's scrapyard, nearby Novac. I was pretty straightforward, told her I needed a dog's brain. At first she told me it was a bit ghoulish of a request, but then she agreed to it. Talk about hypocrisy, she picked an old dog, said she'd put him down for a price. After I told her we shouldn't put a price on Rey's (the old dog) immortality she agreed, called him, offering a treat and broke his neck. Shit. We removed the brain and I took it and kept it as cool and safe as I could. Then made my way back north.

When I finally arrived, late in the night - at the Lodge in Jacobstown, Doc Henry was still up. I told him, after I caught my breath and sat down, I had the brain and we were ready. The doc told me to rest up while he did the surgery.

I woke up in the morning with Rex licking my face. Doc Henry smiled while he cleaned his hands, telling me it went all good. I petted Rex and was really happy for him.

So it was time to leave Rex. Bah, I don't want to get him back to the King just yet... We walked around for a bit, around New Vegas. Eventually we got to one of the pump stations, the East one. We entered the place to see if there was anything interesting.

Found Vera Keyes and Dean Domino Sierra Madre posters, which made me smile. Even though Dean did cross me and ended up being killed, by me. But still, made me smile. There was also a terminal. I tried to access it but the network connection was down and I coudln't access all the data. But I was able to fix that, though. It had only one entry, that said that radiation was contaminating the waters. Well, fuck! I have to get to the bottom of it, how can Mr. House rebuild society if the water pumps will get irradiated?

I am now at the Clinic, with Doc Usanagi. Figured I could use RadAway, since I'm going to explore irradiated places... I'll let you know what I find out.

Love you,
Bill