Adventure Body
Boulder City was an unfortunate name, given the town was now reduced to rubble. The NCR had led the Legion into the city after giving up Hoover Dam. Once the Legion entered the town, the NCR blew up the city and took back the dam with ease.
Finding the trail of the checkered-suited man was easy. His former employees were held up in a hostage situation with the NCR. They were apparently members of a tribe called the Great Khans. Cass had described them as a group no better than raiders, except they sold more drugs than they used. Her exact words were, “No good drug dealing fuck heads.”
She also mentioned an incident called the Bitter Spring Massacre, where the NCR killed a lot of the tribe, children included. After that, the NCR let the tribe move into Red Rock Canyon unmolested. Lacking access to water and food, they turned the surrounding plant life they could find into drugs, which now make up most of their economy and trade.
Franklin didn't know how to feel about them. Sure, their actions were apprehendable, but you can only watch someone get knocked down before you want to help them back up.
It was easy to convince the NCR to let Franklin act as their negotiator. They seemed desperate to end the situation, and the Khans were also. Franklin convinced both groups to lower their weapons and simply walk away.
Once the Khans left the city, they told Franklin what he wanted to know. The checkered-suited man was called Benny. He was the leader of the Chairman's, one of the three families of Vegas. They operated the Tops casino.
Benny had betrayed the Khans and escaped. They guessed that he might have returned to the city by now.
“So House’s package was stolen by his own employees? You've gotten yourself wrapped up in some kind of political plot, Doc. No offense, but politics is a game played by slimy snakes. Might want to get uninvolved real quick,” Cass remarked.
Robert Edwin House. Founder of Robco Industries and owner/manager of the New Vegas Strip. He was a prewar business tycoon with a similar style to Howder Hughes. Franklin found a lot of books and newspapers mentioning the man. His activities after the bombs fell were much more challenging to piece together. He finally showed up seven years ago in 2274 with an army of mono-wheeled robots. He claimed New Vegas as his own, along with three subordinate families. There were the Chairmen, the Omertas, and the White Glove Society. Each family operates their own casino with a distinctive flair.
The NCR signed a treaty with House. In exchange for McCarran airport, power from Hoover Dam, and a few other agreements, House would remain in control of the strip, and the NCR would be forbidden from limiting access to Vegas or its services.
Robert House was also the ‘boss’ Victor mentioned. He hired the six couriers who delivered six packages, including the platinum chip Benny stole.
“You might be right. Victor never let on how important this chip is. He also didn't mention that Benny stole it. I doubt House was ignorant about who stole his package. This is a dangerous game to which I have been invited. Sorry to drag you guys in as well,” Franklin said apologetically.
Franklin had been told that House had never been seen publicly, only on screens through his securitrons. He had also kept his casino, The Lucky 38, closed. It was the tallest remaining structure in New Vegas. Its lights burned brightly for all to see, illuminating the city at night and outshining all others as if it were the last beacon of civilization. It was very apparent to Franklin that the prewar billionaire had an ego. Franklin was also disappointed that despite having the ability to do anything he wanted with Vegas, House chose to continue commercialized gambling. Just because he had the resources to rebuild a functional casino didn't mean he should have.
Franklin needed to know what the platinum chip was. He didn't think Benny was stupid, and House obviously valued this chip, so it wasn't just a poker chip. It might be another kind of chip—one of the computer variety—which means it has information or it is a key to something. But if he is going to figure out which, he will need to ask either Benny or House. It's time to finally make it to New Vegas.
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Bunker Body
The Nightkin from the REPCON facility were still on their way to the Bunker. Franklin had fabricated a medicine that treated the symptoms of the stealthboy-induced schizophrenia, so they shouldn’t get too off track, hopefully. Hopefully, Antlers, Davison’s Brahmin skull, will lead them to him even if the medicine proves ineffective. Franklin found all of the Nightkins’ schizophrenia both fascinating and depressing, but he moved his focus to other projects.
Black Mountain was crawling in supermutants. Mostly the mean green variety, but a few of the Nightkin kind were at the top. There were also a few flesh amalgamations. Mutants that look like the process to become a supermutant went horribly wrong and left them a bloated, slithering mess. But there was still hope for a diplomatic solution.
Tired of his drones being shot at, Franklin turned to a smaller solution. Literally, he just made smaller drones.
From their spying, Franklin learned a lot about the mutants of Black Mountian, or as the supermutants called it, the State of Utobitha. Their leader was Tabitha, a nightkin, and she was slipping deep into psychosis. It is manifesting itself as her dead robot friend, Rhonda, causing her to be violent. She also has a captive ghoul mechanic named Raul, who she threatens to execute daily.
The good news is that a diplomatic solution might be possible. Rhonda’s body was in the storage shed on top of the mountain. Franklin could fix the robot, hopefully leading Tabatha out of her delusions and to a better personality. It seemed some supermutants kept most of their personalities from when they were human or at least formed new ones suitable to socialization. There was one at the base of the mountain that had directed a few scavengers away from the mountain. His name was Neil, and he was a pleasant man. Franklin would have to visit him.
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SPACE Body.
Primary Objective: Space.
Secondary Objective: The Moon
Tertiary Objective: Helios One.
Quarternary Objective: Crashed satellite south of Nipton
Despite Franklin's boisterous claims of taking over the moon, a rocket doesn’t get built in a day. He solved half of the fuel costs by buying up all the toy rockets in the Dino gift shop, but his nanite fabricators were still dripping out fuel and rocket pieces. You don’t create over a hundred tons of metal in just a couple of hours. It would take a whole week to finish a working prototype based on the blueprints he found in the REPCON facility.
So, with the fabricators working on autopilot, Franklin turned his gaze to his tertiary objective, Helios One. It is a solar farm with dozens of solar panels arranged in a semicircle around the facility's north side. Each one pointed at the hundred-foot collection tower in its center.
A few years ago, it was home to the Brotherhood of Steel and to the former Elder Elijah. It was their main base of operations in the Mojave until their war with the NCR reached them here. The journals Franklin found in the bunker say that Elder Elijah was obsessed with the military secrets in the facility and made the Brotherhood defend the facility for over two years against constant NCR attacks. When the NCR launched its last assault, Senior Paladin Hardin fought back against the assault and had the Brotherhood retreat to the Hidden Valley Bunker. Elder Elijah mentioned something about almost getting it to work, but he disappeared in the battle.
Currently, the NCR maintains control of the facility, but whether they got ‘it’ working is unknown to Franklin. So, he is going to lend them a hand while the fabricators finish his rocket.
Since he had another body that lived for adventure, Franklin didn’t bother with the humble experience of walking like a peasant and flew his way over the mountains to Helios.
The NCR set up a sandbag barricade around the building's front entrance. An old prewar fence surrounded the solar farm, and guards and dogs patrolled its perimeter. Between rows of solar panels, tents, and beds were set up where the soldiers slept.
Franklin landed far enough away so that he wouldn't be spotted by any NCR snipers. He checked himself over to make sure his new self was presentable.
When he decided to make new bodies, Franklin had to choose whether to maintain the same appearance. People would notice if he was in more than one place at the same time. He ultimately decided that he didn't care if anyone knew about his abilities; the legend of his powers would be of great help to his growing reputation.
He also upgraded his body. It now includes a thicker lead coating to block out most radiation and a circulatory system to help flush out the rest. He now had a titanium skeleton and carbon fiber muscles. His CPU and memory storage were also protected by a new electronic defense chip that should protect himself and his nanites from any hacking attempts or, if the worst happens, cause him to self-destruct. Lastly was the miniature nanite forge in his gut that he fed raw materials by eating them.
That's all for the interior, but now, it's for the toys. He wore a traditional lab coat lined with hidden pockets for guns and small knives. His long white hair was now tied into a ponytail. He wore light black pants and a simple t-shirt that said, "Think like a proton." For his armaments, he was wielding a laser rifle he designed based on weapons the Bright Followers used. Its current settings wouldn't vaporize anyone, but it would burn like a motherfucker. If he needed to, it could be set to a more lethal setting, but Franklin planned on leaving that as a last resort. Despite the sacrifices he has made to his moral code in the last few weeks, the doctor believed in saving lives and rehabilitation. He was prepared to make exceptions, but they would only happen if all other options failed.
With his outfit all set, he marched to the Helios One Solar Farm.