[A/N: Mostly another lore chapter]

In the dead of night, I began my plan and simultaneously ran an experiment.

Would I be able to propagate my plants when the sun was down?

So, I waited till nightfall, and once it was dark enough, and used my 'Create' skill to create a single Spore Plant seed for 5,000 Energy, and used 500 Energy for 250 Grass seeds.

And with a confirmation as to what I wanted, wisps of green energy flowed from all of my Spore Creatures in the area and into the center of the X-22 Botanical Building.

The seeds seemed to manifest in a pile with a small flash of light.

Well...that's a bit inconvenient...

Especially since it seemed I'd have to plant the seeds myself.

Well...I guess I might as well get to work...

Taking control of Patient Zero's body, I immediately noticed a difference with it compared to the other Spore Carriers.

Its body was tougher, stronger, and far more agile compared to its brethren.

Strangely enough, it also felt easier to control.

Taking a handful of grass seeds with the PZ's hand, I carefully walked out of the building and down the stairs and began planting them along the canyon floor.

With each hole I made, I planted five seeds and made sure to spread the holes.

I wanted to also test if the grass would spread and propagate, or if I would need to continuously use my energy to create more seeds.

Once I was done planting all of the grass seeds, I grabbed the one seed that differed from all of the others.

One that would grow a new Spore Plant.

Now, I had a few options for where I could plant it.

I could plant it inside the building and use it as a sort of last defense, I could plant it among the grass, or I could find someplace to plant it on the cliffs of the canyon walls.

Eventually, I planted decided to plant the seed just outside the building on a ledge where the plant would be able to fire upon anything climbing up the stairs or approaching the building.

With nothing but free time on my hands, I took control of Patient Zero and decided to explore.

It was in the dead of night, so I shouldn't have to worry too much about Labotomites or the Think Tank, though that doesn't mean Id let my guard down.

I decided to head northeast, toward the Y-0 Research Center, where the Sierra Madre Vending Machines were created.

And I wanted to see if I could recover anything.

If I could get my hands on the schematics of the Vending Machine, my rise to power would be assured due to just how useful and powerful the machines were.

Moving at a decent pace, it took me only around 30 minutes to reach the Research Center.

The Research Center was a small building covered in rock and other debris, burying half of the structure, while two trucks sat in front of the building, one of which was also buried under rock.

On the backs of these trucks were some crates and broken cages.

Leaping up onto the back of one of these trucks, I looked around and noticed a terminal that seemed to still have some power.

Jumping down, I walked over to the computer and turned it on.

[Welcome User.]

There were two entries.

[Requisition Order: Dispensers]

[Dispenser Funding Update]

With my claw, I selected the first entry.

[We finished up the design for the dispensers for the Sierra Madre villa as requested. That big-wig Sinclair went to the Big MT execs: he wanted emergency dispensers for his sheltered Villa in case war broke out and they needed to care for the survivors there. He's done everything he can to isolate the community and tighten security, now he just needs to guarantee a food supply and be able to ration out resources in the event of a nuclear holocaust. I hear he even narrowed the streets so cars couldn't come inside the town, let alone up to the Villa.]

I see, so its referring to the deal Sinclair made with the Think Tank to get his hands on the Vending Machines.

I then opened the next entry.

[Got the funding from Sinclair. Near as I can tell, he's willing to not only bankrupt himself for these devices, he's struck a deal with the Big MT executives, letting the Villa become a lab for the supposedly-harmless prototype tech here. I've seen the Big MT execs do this with other isolated towns (Hopeville Meteorological research up north), and the whole process, it's not what I signed up for.]

Interesting, turning the computer off, I focused back on the building.

As I manuevered around the building, seeing if I could find some way in, I thought about Sinclair and the Sierra Madre Vending Machines.

Frederick Sinclair was a pre-War businessman as well as the founder and owner of the Sierra Madre casino in 2077.

Sinclair was a wealthy businessman with a boastful and egotistical disposition who suffered many crippling financial losses in the 2070s. Nonetheless, he managed to hold on to the remainder of his fortune and expand it. He then remained obsessed with security for years to come. Sinclair was friends with Dean Domino, who introduced Vera Keyes to him. From that moment, he fell in love with the starlet.

The Sierra Madre Casino & Resort was to be his ultimate gift to her, a shelter from the inevitable nuclear war with China that he predicted was to come, its vault serving as a bunker. But, events did not pan out the way he had hoped. Dean Domino introduced Sinclair to Vera Keyes, with whom Domino once had a torrid affair if the tabloid press was to be believed. Sinclair was suspicious, and rightly so.

Sinclair discovered evidence of a plot by Domino and Vera that involved breaking into the casino vault and taking the treasures that lay within. Sinclair set about preparing a trap, and had the builders design the casino so that the vault, once accessed, would be impossible to escape.

Vera eventually confessed her betrayal to him, overcome by guilt, and Sinclair decided enough was enough and it was the time that the casino returned to its original purpose.

Although he no longer loved her and he was left hollow by her betrayal, Sinclair could not bear to condemn her to death after hearing her confession, so he returned to the vault and removed the entry intended for her, replacing it with an apology.

Subsequently, Sinclair attempted to jury rig the shelter's electronics to remove the trap by directly accessing them from the pipes, but due to a leak in the system, he succumbed to a poison cloud. All that remains is the trap itself and a message to Dean Domino that he left behind.

As for the Casiono itself, it is a pre-War casino resort close to the Grand Canyon, a dead city surrounded by a poisonous rust-like cloud.

The Sierra Madre, especially the casino, was intended as a place for guests to reverse their fortunes and "begin again." During its construction until the end, it remained a reclusive area.

All conveniences were supplied to the inhabitants by unique vending machines, which provided a number of commercial and non-commercial services, and allowed the residents to live in self-sufficiency, even when cut off from the outside world. The goal of the entire enterprise was not only to create a great casino - it was to create the perfect shelter from the nuclear holocaust. Every element of Sierra Madre's functions is designed to protect its inhabitants.

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In design, Sinclair was drawn to the nostalgic Art Deco era. This is reflected in the architecture of the villa and of the casino. To make it a perfect opening gala, Sinclair strengthened its frequency emissions, normally reserved for emergency broadcast signals before the war.

The kitchens of the Sierra Madre aimed for a 5-star rating, and sought to bring in the best chefs from around the world. In order to meet deadlines and budgets, the construction of the Sierra Madre was handled by two different companies: a well-performing company for the casino, and a cheaper, slacking, corrupt company for the Villa, resulting in numerous incidents during the construction of the Villa.

As guardian of his paradise, Sinclair forbade any other food or vending machines beyond the ones he'd installed there, and banned any personal contraband like chems, alcohol, and "foreign substances", which created a black market from the workers within.

Part of Sierra Madre's security's role was to prevent such contraband from entering the Villa area. They were known to have conducted inspections of the Puesta del Sol construction offices, confiscating prohibited items.

Obsessed with security, likely due to his own financial losses in the 2070s, Sinclair installed holograms, a futuristic technology purchased on an exclusive contract by Sinclair. The doors of the Sierra Madre were designed to hermetically seal in case of emergency, and the speakers were shielded to prevent vandalism.

The Sierra Madre Casino & Resort was equipped with an automated front desk that would escort guests to their rooms upon arrival, and security systems that would stun those entering with foreign substances or contaminated by radiation.

There is also a darker side to the Madre. In return for the technologies supplied by Big MT, Sinclair agreed to have the casino and the villa act as proving grounds for various experimental technologies such as the saturnite alloy, hazmat suits, and prototype matter recombinators.

Sinclair was oblivious to the fact that previous similar deals did not end well (as was the case with Hopeville and its disastrous meteorological research project). In the Sierra Madre, the catch came in the form of the Cloud, a strange airborne toxin created in the laboratories of Big MT.

The Sierra Madre Casino is more than a mere casino & resort – it is the material testament to one man's inability to let go. Seeing the Great War nearing, Frederick Sinclair, the chief architect and financier of this grand fortress, wished to save Vera Keyes, his love, from the looming destruction.

To this end, the Sierra Madre Villa and its capstone casino were built. But that was not enough for Sinclair: deep within the basement of the casino, a nearly impenetrable vault was constructed as well, to make sure he and his love could ride out the apocalypse, together.

Accordingly, security was of the utmost importance and National Electric was contracted to provide it. Anything foreign or unauthorized that entered the casino was detected by security measures and instantly rendered comatose and moved to another location within the hotel.

Further into the casino, an emergency broadcast emitter could be triggered and the myriad of holograms designed specifically for Sinclair would activate, patrol the casino and executive suites, and exercise lethal force on unauthorized visitors to protect the hotel guests under their charge.

The entire casino was also lined with a metal that interferes with radio reception and broadcasts out of the casino; this was put in place to ensure that the radio frequencies from within the casino would not interfere with the hologram beacon in the Villa, which would send out an emergency signal so others would be alerted to Ms. Keyes' presence within the casino.

After all this preparation, Sinclair failed to anticipate one thing: Vera's complicity with lounge singer Dean Domino's plot to break Sinclair's heart and steal the treasure of the Sierra Madre for themselves. Domino had enlisted her aid in his planned heist, later blackmailing her with evidence of her Med-X addiction, completely unaware that she was terminally ill.

This news broke Sinclair's heart and he became embittered and vengeful, transforming his shelter into a trap, ensuring the elevator down to the vault only went in one direction, and upgrading his security holograms to make sure that rescue would never come for Vera and Domino.

After Vera broke down and confessed everything, Sinclair, fearing he had overstepped himself, did what he could to reverse his changes, but he could only do so much and the casino remained a deathtrap. He died in the vault, unable to return to the casino and his love.

The guests would meet a similar fate, while the Great War occurred outside, they were slaughtered by the automated security, their last calls for help recorded by the systems.

Vera Keyes instead met her fate in her hotel room. Her last words to Sinclair were recorded by the system, her holographic form and last words living on as ghosts in the executive suites. She chose to take her own life using the drugs that kept her alive, after writing her final words "Let Go."

As for the Cloud, Holograms, the Vending Machine, and other such advanced technology...

The Cloud was created as an experiment by the Big MT execs, the Cloud is a product of the Z-43 innovative toxins plant located in the crater. When Frederick Sinclair came to Big MT for technology to purchase for the Sierra Madre, he unwittingly signed a Faustian pact: Apart from holograms and matter recombinators, the Think Tank would also place the Cloud at the Sierra Madre, using the casino, villa and its inhabitants as guinea pigs in its experiments.

Sinclair likely saw no other way to get the technology he needed, as he was already teetering on the brink of bankruptcy when he started negotiating with the executives. Of course, he was not informed that he would be receiving more than just harmless prototypes. The Sierra Madre was the only testing ground that was protected by the Cloud, which was hardly a prize.

The Cloud manifested itself for the first time when the cheap villa ventilation system ground to a halt, a victim of cutting corners and Mr. Yesterday's dubious practices. The pipes backed up, spewing out the red cloud. Workers in the area started choking and vomiting. Hospitalized in the villa clinic, the damage to their health was extensive enough to put them out of commission for good.

To deal with the problem, Sinclair negotiated with the Big MT executives for yet another technology: The Darklight hazmat suits. Although considered creepy by the maintenance crews, they allowed the crews to explore the ventilation system and try, in vain, to identify the source of the Cloud.

The teams managed to find the source of the problem in the main ventilation pipe. However, traces of the dust cloud were present and eroded the metal of the suit's locks, exposing them to the Cloud and sealing them within.

The crewmen retreated and headed to the villa clinic to get medical attention. Much to the displeasure of the attending physicians, they cut themselves out of the suits with steak knives.

However, despite the problems, the ventilation system was eventually restored to barely functional order. When the Great War hit shortly afterward, it continued to work for a few more years, before finally giving up the ghost. The Cloud gradually seeped into the area, climbing out of the damaged vents, eventually blanketing the area, blotting out the sun

It became a grim, uncompromising guardian of its secrets. The maintenance crews who donned their hazmat suits and tried to fight it, succumbed to its effects, mutating and becoming the violent, savage guardians of the Sierra Madre, called Ghost People.

For centuries, the Cloud protected the casino and the villa, killing scavengers or weakening them so that they would become another victim of the tribe inhabiting it, the hazmat suited ghost people. It wasn't until the 23rd century that it became important once more.

Father Elijah, a disgraced Brotherhood of Steel elder, learned of its existence from Ulysses. It inspired him. When preliminary samples taken from air on the edges of the Sierra Madre yielded promising results, he set up a chemistry set to allow it to replenish itself and traveled to the Madre in person, to perform research onsite.

Upon further research, Elijah decided to weaponize the Cloud as a weapon of mass destruction, to wipe the slate clean. It was intended to be used to reclaim the Mojave and destroy the New California Republic.

He also plans to use it as an offensive technology, unleashing it upon the Mojave, cutting it off from the rest of the world. He could then use modified REPCONN rockets to push out both the New California Republic and Caesar's Legion at Hoover Dam, and finally, let traces of it drift west to NCR territory, he was ecentually stopped by the Courier, that is, if the Courier didnt chose to join him...

The Sierra Madre Vending Machines on the other hand...

While the origin of the technology is unknown outside of he location of its creation, the machines utilize Sierra Madre Chips as batteries and material to assemble items. Dispensed items vary for each Vending Machine, with emergyency items such as Medical supplies, weapons, and even ammo, with more becoming avaliable if the player found the scattered Vending Machine codes.

The Vending Machines were essentially matter recombinators, allowing for matter to be recombined into conutless different items for hardly any energy. It would allow for the mass production of weapons, ammo, medical supplies, and even something as simple as food or water. It had endless potential.

So while the Cloud would be a formidable weapon, the Vending Machines were far more valuable to me.

Besides, while the Cloud could be useful, its danger would probably make all other factions that became aware of it instantly hostile and maybe even decalre Total War against me in order to destroy the Cloud.

Even then, if I wanted a weapon, I'd perfer the Holograms over the cloud any day.

Before the war, research efforts were undertaken to weaponize holography, such as at the Big MT research facility. Based on RobCo Stealth Boy technology reverse-engineered from captured Chinese stealth suits, the researchers attempted to create a design capable of matching the Chinese technological edge.

Despite promising initial results, holograms required excessive amounts of electricity to power, as well as the cost of materials and manufacturing, greatly limiting their potential. Mobile holograms, and those that could be deployed as weapons, never reached any popularity in the United States likely due to the recent developments in 2077.

Person holography was pursued at Big MT, under the name "Hologram Project," where the entire program teetered on the brink of cancellation due to poor results. However, the insistence of Frederick Sinclair, support from N.E. and significant financial backing from Sinclair's pockets kept it going for his personal project, the Sierra Madre Casino & Resort.

The researchers at Big MT's Z-38 lightwave dynamics research facility (equipped with an enormous laser array) developed the first working, mobile holograms, creating 3-D human figures (including a replica of Sinclair's love Vera Keyes). This iteration of holograms and their functionality was limited as they were only good as holographic greeters and walking cameras; completely unsuited for combat.

Its only weak point were the emitters, which could be destroyed despite their space-age alloy housing or disabled if someone tampered with circuits. However if the emitters were safe, custom energy recycling emitters could keep them going indefinitely.

There were so many different technologies that could very well shift the power in the wasteland, and I wanted them all.

However, I wasn't stupid.

The most valuable things here in Big MT, was not the technologies and weapons, but the scientists themselves, the creators of these technologies.

Question was, would I be able to...employ them?