“Halt. State your business,” Lieutenant Haggarty ordered. From her perspective, a lone man walked towards the most prominent free-standing building for dozens of miles. It was also an important NCR outpost that she defended from over a dozen legion skirmishes a month. Her job was to keep her men safe and ensure the facility was protected. She couldn’t let just any random stranger come near.
It was also her job to get the ‘scientist’ she hired to fix the fucking tower. Last she heard, it was operating at 1% capacity. One fucking percent! It wasn’t a tiny amount either since it kept the lights on for the entire facility. It wasn’t going anywhere else they desperately needed, but it was a start. Once the facility was fixed, it could provide 100% of the power the NCR needed in the region.
This would help them lessen the load they put on Hoover Dam and let their engineers get some maintenance time scheduled. As long as the fat fucks/brahmin barons get their lights and air conditioning, they won’t care what the NCR does with their time.
But that all relied on her shoulders and the fact that she had to deal with the moron Mr. Fantastic. He is only a mister because it soon became apparent he didn’t have a goddamned doctorate. Theoretical degree in physics, my ass. The man was an idiot, but his work had done something, so Haggart was still hopeful.
“I am Dr. Liquid. Grayson Liquid. Friends call me Gray. I am a scientist exploring old prewar facilities to pursue knowledge and salvage cool technology,” Franklin said confidently. In order to avoid law enforcement or buy extralegal materials, he needed different identities. Creating and maintaining a fake identity was second nature to him. He slipped on a new persona as if he was changing clothes even before he could change everything about his body.
Haggarty looked at the stranger with a slight budding glee. It wasn’t often that a solution to her problems walked up to her, but she was more careful this time. “What are your skill sets? What do you have experience in?”
“Biology, Nanotechnology, AI development, computer software/hardware, Cybernetics, Robotics, and more. That's also just my scientific career. I do have other job experience. Can’t get far in the wasteland without knowing how to handle a gun after all.”
Haggarty looked at him with a ravenous gaze. She might have just found Fantastic’s replacement. “Go inside and find Fantastic and Rivas. They will explain what is going on. If you can complete their work, there will be compensation and some discussions on future employment.”
Franklin chuckled with glee, “Yes, mam.” Given free reign to enter the power plant, Franklin marched right in. It was his lucky day as Haggarty didn’t assign him a babysitter so he could spend some time walking through the building before speaking with this Mr. Fantastic. He dragged his hand across the walls of the building, admiring how hundreds of years of disrepair could render this once great facility into a ruin. Troopers sat inside makeshift barracks and occupied themselves with the power plant's former break rooms. They didn’t seem bothered by Franklin nor seemed to care he was even there. Their relaxed attitude could be attributed to this being a secured facility or his confident swagger, hopefully not a disinterest in their safety. The frontline with the Legion was only a couple dozen miles away after all.
Sadly, two hundred years of decay ruined almost every book, journal, and newspaper he could find, but luck was still on his side, for cold steel and circuits survived. In an upstairs bedroom, he found a working computer with message logs from before the war. It spoke of a US general named Scott Lowe, who oversaw the military’s interest in a weapon that the researchers worked on here. They were all employees of a company called Poseidon Energy and were working on a project codenamed ARCHIMEDES II. Franklin assumed it to be a weapon, but there was no information on what it did or what it looked like. The only other information on the terminal was an old training email about not leaking classified information. Franklin wished they did so that his work would be easier.
Once he was finished with the computer, Franklin went to find Fantastic.
“Oh yeah, I'm awesome. I'm going to make these solar panels, my bitches.”
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“Hello, I'm lo–,”
“Yo yo yo! Looking for someone? That's gotta be me, Dr.Motherfucking Fantastic! What can the good doc do for you.”
Fantastic was an average-height male with bloody, greased-back hair. He wore a lab coat and sunglasses despite the room's dim light. Everything about him, from his posture to his outfit to the way he talked, told Franklin that Fantastic only cared about one thing: looking cool—or at least his definition of cool since Franklin thought he was an idiot.
“Yes. Lieutenant Haggart said you were the one to talk to about Helios One. I have offered my services to try and repair the solar farm,” Franklin said professionally. There was no need to disrespect the man just yet.
“Wow wow, they're replacing me? Ah, man,” he moaned.
“Oh no. I'm just here to help, not replace anyone.”
“Damn right, you're not. I'm the best thing the NCR has found in a hundred years. I'm irrerapabable.”
“Irreplaceable.”
“Yeah, that.”
Franklin could only sigh in response. He didn't have a lot of hope, but this fool couldn't even jump over a bar so low. “Just tell me what you've already done.”
“Man, I've done so much. See that light? It glows red when I hit that button and green when I hit that one. That slot over there shocks you if you stick a fork in it, but it can also heat up a box of Blamco Mac and Cheese. Oh, and that button? I don't know what it does, but I like to pretend it calls for a hot, skimpy maid to bring me ice cream,” Fantastic said, drooling.
“That's nice. Anything useful about the solar panels?” Franklin was starting to lose his patience with this manchild. He was tolerant of many things, but idiocy in a place like this wasn't one of them.
“Oh, those? No, the main controls for those are outside the big tower building. Tried to take a peak in there, but the dumbass NCR set off some kind of security system when they took over the place. Lots of laser turrets and torrents. Best I could do is find a few consoles outside, but they won't work without a connection to the main one.”
Finally, some helpful information. Franklin heard all he needed and walked away from the idiot. He moved on from Fantasitic to the next room, where a sign pointed towards the exit.
“Excuse me? You’re new here. We don’t get many people,” a man in a lab coat said.
“I am very new. Hired just a few minutes ago,” Franklin replied. He was worried this man might be another Fantastic, but his polite nature demanded he respond.
“I see. Tell me, scientist or soldier?”
“Scientist. May I ask who you are?” Franklin wondered.
“Ignacio Rivas. Now I have another question. What are your intentions here?”
Franklin marveled at the first man who might have his head on his shoulders. The NCR lieutenant was desperate, so she didn’t question his presence too much and jumped on the opportunity for help; the soldiers didn't pay him a second look. Fantastic was a few crayons short of a schoolyard, but this man immediately saw through Franklin.
“My goals are purely scientific, I swear. It's not every day you find a semifunctional power plant. Especially not two within the same region. I would visit Hoover Dam, but the NCR is much more tight-lipped about that location. It might be the Legion on the other side of Colorado.”
“Haha. Fair enough. I’m with the Followers of the Apocalypse myself. If you have ever heard of the Brotherhood of Steel, you can consider us their opposite,” Ignacio laughed.
“So instead of being fanatical cultist hoarders, you’re anarchist teachers?” Franklin joked.
“HAHA! Not too far off. We believe that there are things we should never forget and technology that should be uncovered: medicine, metallurgy, radiation treatments, and more. We do our best to help those who need it and stay unbeholden to any government. Our base for this region is the old Mormon Fort in Freeside.
“But enough about me. Let us get back to this place. I have been here about as long as Fantastic, and what I have found worries me. We have technical records of the company that ran this facility, Posiden Energy. They worked not only on energy creation devices but also on energy weapons and robots. I have also found documents from the U.S. Army and their interests here. A code word kept popping up amongst them: ARCHIMEDES,” Ignacio explained.
“ARCHIMEDES? It is an ambitious name. Do you think it’s a weapon?” Franklin asked.
“I can only guess. I hate to imagine what the NCR could do with it. Luckily, they don’t know about it. That idiot in the other room hasn’t figured it out either. He thinks the intercom console controls the solar panels because it's the biggest one. His stupidity has delayed the NCR long enough, though. If you figure out how to get this place working, divide the power evenly across all areas. The NCR will want it to go to McCarran and the Strip, but people are suffering everywhere. Make sure they get what they need, please,” Ignacio asked.
“I will see what I can do, but no promises. I need to see what this ARCHIMEDES weapon is first,” Franklin said. It might be a mystery to Ignacio, but Franklin was an American. This world might have split culturally in the 1950s, but his history and their history had one thing in common. A love for big fucking weapons. Archimedes was famous for one weapon, his solar-powered death ray. What better place to develop a giant laser named after one of the first mad scientists than at a solar farm? The question was, how big did they make it?