Thread 6320830

It is nearing a year since you, The Courier, fought and secured independence of the Mojave from domestic and foreign powers. Mr. House was put on ice, the NCR got sent packing and even the mighty Legion tucked tail and fled back East.

Now, the New Vegas Directorate, your new government, faces as many challenges as it does opportunities. Industry is rapidly expanding and agriculture is now firmly established while migrants from around the wasteland flood in looking to change their fortunes.

But the Boomer Blight, an engineered plague from parts unknown, is spreading throughout the Wasteland and little looks uncontainable. You continue to walk the line in courting both the NCR and the Legion, seeking to be a stable power between the two warring giants.

A new player comes into the picture and he brings with him hundreds of Enclave descendants eager to start again. You have agreed to welcome them into the NVD but time will tell if you can hide their influence from the NCR while keeping other factions happy.

With the looming NCR election, the hostile President Kimball seems poised to lose to the unknown Allgood Murphy while Caesar continues to see you as his Augustus, urging greater cooperation between both nations.

The one-year anniversary is rapidly approaching and while a grand celebration is planned, existential threats lurk everywhere and with Mr. House on the loose, you can be sure you’ll see him one last time.

Thread 1: Genesis

The Courier talks Lanius down, and General Oliver is thrown off the Dam. A ceasefire is negotiated with the NCR and the chaos in Freeside is swiftly put down. In the chaos of the battle, the Brotherhood took over Helios.

Boone got talked into staying around, the Courier absolutely dogwalked the NCR ambassador two separate times for a very favorable treaty with the Mojave in return for much of the dam’s power and water.

The Crimson Caravan is banned from the Mojave and the beginning of the Follower-Mojave relationship is formed over bath houses. The Courier encounters boomer blight for the first time after asking the Boomers for food, though not understanding the severity at the time.

Doing what the NCR couldn’t, the Courier completely eradicated the Fiends as a force in the Mojave, demolishing Vault 3 in the process. A massive deal is made with the Brahmin Baron Heck Gunderson to supply much needed food to Freeside in return for vast freedom over his businesses and for his son to serve as AG Secretary.

Senator Armstrong of the NCR is introduced.

Thread 2: Ain’t like chowing down on Fancy Lad Snack Cakes…

The Courier discovers a large group of raiders operating from the town of Nipton, targeting NCR visitors from the border. The Courier also officially creates his council, the nexus of the Mojave Government.

The Courier finally explores Lucky 38, finding wealth and secrets that he quickly uses, most notably the Mojave Rehabilitation Plan. But much of the information pulled is heavily corrupted and will take time and effort to make use of.

The Courier refuses to let House die and instead rushes him off to Big Mountain to extract his brain from the rotting body, resulting in House in a coma. The Brotherhood makes another move and seizes Black Mountain.

Boone runs into a stranded NCR special forces group who agrees to stick around for the time being and they prove instrumental in the dramatic victory over the Nipton raiders after they launched a terror attack on the NCR border crossing.

Senator Armstrong climbs the ladder of power and is invited into NCR President Kimball’s Council.

The New Vegas Police Department is created to alleviate pressure on the Securitron Force and begin the process of civilian control over the region. A military is officially created with the former Enclave captain as its head, with an infantry core being the focus and the M1 Garand selected as the standard rifle of the armed forces and a production deal made with the gun runners.

The beginnings of industry is created as a nascent leather industry grows around the production of leather armor for the armed forces. The Mojave Rose Caravan Company was created with Cass as its president, cutting construction costs and alleviating the issue of transportation.

The Courier activates the Emergency Beacon in the Remnants Bunker and is offered a deal to heal Caesar in return for a mighty boon.

Thread 3: Render Unto Caesar

The Courier travels deep into Legion lands to heal Caesar of his tumor, learning much about the empire in the process.

In return for healing Edward Sallow, the Courier receives a set of master codes that should override any government facility in the country. In the aftermath of the surgery, Caesar now believes that the Courier is the heir of his empire though much needs to be done for the Mojave walker to earn that position.

Before heading back West, the Courier also planted the seeds of a major conspiracy forming against Caesar with the goal of destabilizing and weakening the Legion.

The Boomer Blight, which is an altered strain of the Vault 22 and Big Mountain strains, begins to become a much larger issue with it being manmade, particularly hard to treat and multiple strains existing in the wasteland. But it’s not just confined to the Mojave, with rumors of it having infected the lush lands of Zion.

While focusing on this apocalyptic issue, the Courier also continues to strengthen the position of the Mojave. He negotiated a massive investment deal with a cabal of NCR businesses and a minor agreement made with the Brotherhood to provide technical support throughout the desert.

Yes-Man finishes his upgrades and turns into an even bigger big brother than he was before and a very generous trade agreement is signed with the Legion.

A New Reno crime family shows up in Freeside, causing endless headaches for the Courier and his government.

Perhaps the most impactful episode happens when the Courier explores Hawthorne Depot, finding a large NCR garrison and roping in the Brotherhood and Legion for a raid. After insertion with Vertibirds, the initial assault goes nearly perfectly but disaster strikes when an explosion kicks up a nerve agent and nuclear material in the middle of a dust storm, killing the entire town, garrison and the raiding force while also nearly killing the Courier in the process. After waking up back in Hidden Valley, the Courier is without the Platinum Chip and the master override codes with no idea on the status of either.

Arcade Gannon and his research team sent to Zion have gone silent and the status of the Platinum Chip unknown. The only saving grace is the Courier officially decides on a direction for the Mojave, creating the New Vegas Directorate and giving the nascent government an air of legitimacy.

Quintilius Publicis is introduced.

Thread 4: An Evil Awakens

The Courier wastes no time in finding the Platinum Chip, but also comes away with no answers on what exactly happened in Hawthorne. He discovers a treasure trove of pre-war military equipment stored in a locked bunker.

The Courier journeys deep into Zion to uncover what happened to his research team and stumbles upon horrors beyond his imagination. He fights his way through the entire valley, pushed nearly to his limit. He finds a handful of survivors and evacuates them, though Joshua Graham stayed behind as a distraction. The survivors of Zion are settled at Cottonwood Cove, now renamed Genesis.

Domestically, valuable resources are found throughout the Mojave and construction on the first gold mine is underway. The dual investment finishes up and the region is rapidly industrializing. A series of states are drawn up dividing the Mojave into governorships, and those governors are approved by the Courier. Funding is decided on a “per-head” basis.

An intelligence apparatus is created and the Armed Forces is rapidly expanded, with additional manpower given by the Westside Republic after agreeing to join the NVD.

The Courier takes a trip to The Divide to ask Ulysses to join his government and look for a weapon to destroy the Boomer Blight in Zion. Ulysses joins after a few months of consideration, while The Courier finds a nuclear weapon to use.

The Courier travels to Big Mountain to talk to House’s brain fresh out of his coma, gleaning some perspective on the Mojave’s situation. He returns again to bring Doctor Henry and Arcade to the scientific wonderland only to find out that House is now missing. Henry and Arcade begin to settle into Big Mountain but have different wishes for its use.

The national currency is decided to be casino chips, with the specifics still being worked out. The NCR attempts to shut down all traffic and trade, but is quickly overruled by NCR business interests.

The Courier visits Creech AFB with Bear Team One and a platoon of troopers but encounters nothing but misery. He finds out that the Boomer Blight has begun to spread from Zion.

The Courier makes his way to Fortification Hill, discovering that it needs repairs and needs raw material, but can repair and build new Securitrons. The water shortage was also investigated.

The Salvatore Crime Family was quarantined and raided in a joint operation that rounded up every member. In talking to their leader, Courier realized Cyrus Long is Enclave-affiliated and agreed to accept his people in the NVD.

Link to previous threads

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=No+Gods%2C+No+Masters

FACTION REPUTATIONS

New California Republic: Liked

Legion: Accepted

Brotherhood of Steel: Wary

Followers of the Apocalypse: Liked

The Boomers: Idolized

Think Tank: Liked

Enclave Immigrants: Liked

The Shi: Wild Child

Strip Families: Liked

New Reno: Vilified

Great Khans: Dark Hero

The Governorships of New Vegas

1: The Governorship of New Vegas
Governor: Swank.

2. The Governorship of Freeside
Governor: The King

3. The Governorship of Jacobstown
Governor: Marcus

4. The Governorship of Bitter Springs
Governor: Landon “Boots” Fischer

5.The Governorship of Sloan
Governor: Hal Stringer, Former Deputy Foreman of Sloan

6. The Governorship of Goodsprings
Governor: Trudy McGill, de facto mayor of Goodsprings and saloon owner.

7. The Governorship of Hoover
Governor: Kate Stanson, Former Deputy Secretary of Energy who specializes in hydroelectric energy.

8. The Governorship of Novac
Governor: Cliff Briscoe, owner of Novac Hotel and the Dino Bite Gift Shop.

9. The Governorship of Primm
Governor: Johnson Nash

10. The Governorship of Searchlight
Governor: Daniel, religious leader of the Children of Zion. Loyal and dependable.

(Each State will be given 1000 caps/month for administrative funding and each state will receive 1 cap per population. States will be created after year anniversary.)

Somewhere in the Colorado Province

You are Quintilius Publicis, Tribune of the mighty Caesar’s Legion and an unmatched conqueror.

And you’re currently very frustrated.

Pullo: Bring the building down on their heads, Legate. If they wish to cower, let it be in their tombs.

Morus: I promised Caesar these slaves, and I am not sure where else in the wastes I will find such a group. Do you concur, Tribune?

The argument has been going on between Camp Prefect Grackus Pullo and your “commanding officer” Legate Morus. You shake off your mood and turn to the Legate.

[Caesar commands and we obey. The tribals inside will be taken alive and unharmed, somehow.]

The three of you are gathered at a command tent three blocks from the Denver Public Library, a building designed very similar to those in New Rome. The last of the United Tribes of the Bronco have gathered there, desperate to not be saved by the Legion.

When you first approached The Citadel and its inhabitants, you were….impressed by the challenge ahead of you. They numbered in the tens of thousands, had advanced technology and the benefit of a metropolis to defend from. Any other Legion commander would have shed too much blood to subjugate the tribes and take this jewel of the mountains.

You’re not just any other commander, which is why you’re the youngest Tribune in the Legion and on track to become the youngest Levante ever. It’s the highest honor of your life to serve a man who brought civilization to the barbarians you were raised with. The pain of losing so many kin was eventually replaced with a singular purpose to defeat the enemies of the Son of Mars. A role you’re exceedingly good at.

This was to be the last task before you turn your sights back to the West, to the degenerate Republic and then to New Vegas. The United Tribes were intimidating at first, but you quickly saw the best path forward. Instead of taking the entire faction on, you began targeting each tribe individually.

The Handdogs, ferocious fighters that made good use of their mongrels. In urban combat, they were just as vicious as your legionnaires. Instead, you introduced your own diseased mongrels to fight, mate and interact with their stock. In time, their greatest strength would become their undoing.

In the meantime, The Mole Men posed a different threat. While poor combatants in traditional fighting, their mastery of the Denver sewer system and knowledge of subterranean hideouts made it impossible to secure supply lines and protect your rear echelons. It wasn’t an option to root them out, so you directed your engineers to build aqueducts from lakes surrounding the city and flooded a portion of Denver. With their hideouts submerged, the moles fled much like rats and were handled as such.

The Blue Angels were the simplest to deal with. While their aircraft could have destroyed your force in Colorado, they are irreplaceable machines and their tribals treated them as gods. Just having the threat of anti-weaponry grounded their vehicles. Little do they know, you actually did find some equipment outside of Colorado Springs. It was a simple task to raid their air base and secure the craft, but unfortunately the personnel had fled deeper into the city which is where you find yourself now.

Morus:….isn’t that right, Tribune?

You don’t hear what the Legate asked, and don’t bother to pretend you were listening. Instead, you throw your crimson cape around your shoulders and march down the street to a barricade manned by legionnaires.

Grackus runs up behind you, the sound of his hobnailed boots clacking against the cracked asphalt of the street. The library is surrounded on all sides and each street has a barricade of rubble. A legionary standing atop the pile approaches the two of you and clambers off the pile before saluting.

Legionary: Sir, we’ve got the savages boxed in. But we can’t be sure of any threats within a block of the building in all directions. I would suggest you hold back until we clear the path ahead.

You lean to the side and look around the barricade. A block ahead is the mighty edifice of the Denver Public Library. The windows on the bottom floor are blocked and the main entrance has its mighty doors shut and sandbags piled all around.

[No time for that, Soldier. Please hand me your shemagh.]

The trooper looks confused before remembering the name of his scarf. It’s a dirty, white scrap of clothing but it should do the trick.

Grackus: Quintil-er Tribune, surely we aren’t going to just walk up to the front door and ask for their submission?

You tie the cloth around your old Centurion’s staff before turning to your only friend.

[Of course not. You’re staying here. Make sure the Legate knows where I’m going. If I’m not back within an hour, bring the supports down and raze everything.]

You step out from behind the barricade and begin walking straight down the street while waving your flag. You glance to either side, gazing up to the tops of the buildings that infest the city. This city has taken too much of the Legion’s blood even with your creative tactics.

You get to the end of the last block and before you can cross to reach the library, a trio of well-camouflaged enemies jump out of a ditch with their weapons raised.

[Steady, friends. I have come to talk, not fight. Not yet, at least.]

The three men talk between themselves in some disgusting language before the shortest one responds.

“You will face death if you come to fight. But follow, I take to greybeard.”

The small man is instead a child. He clambers up out of his pit and leads you to a side door to the building. The child is wearing a mixture of stitched, ratty clothing and bits of trash that makes him blend in remarkably well to the rest of the city.

[Your name?]

“I El-Weh. Don’t forget.”

His confidence makes you laugh in spite of yourself. You smile down at him.

[I am Quintilius Publicis. You will make a good legionary, El-Weh.]

“Your head make good shitpot.”

He could use some discipline, but he has the fighting spirit. The tribal child hands you over to two older soldiers and after some back and forth, they bring you deeper into the Library. While it has been turned into a fortress, you can tell its first purpose is a place of hoarding knowledge. You mentally note the need of a contamination team to sweep the building ahead of the rest of your force.

The two men bring you to a back corner of the library, far from any potential danger. One man puts his arm across your chest to halt your progress while another knocks on the dark, wooden door.

A very old black man answers. His clothing is made up of fine linens, though not exceedingly luxurious like some in the Legion. His features betray his upbringing, however, and you know this is not a man who has known hardship. His grey beard is short and neatly trimmed, much like the hair on his head.

“Ah, a visitor. Please, come into my sanctum.”

The old man babbles some nonsense to the two guards and heads back into his room. The two savages give you a nasty look before heading back to their posts. You may as well see this gamble through to the end.

The room is warm and welcoming with a fireplace roaring and plush reading chairs scattered around the room. You don’t bother to hide your disgust. The old man has settled into a chair near the fire, a book held up in front of his face. You take the time to walk around the office. While there may be thousands of books stacked on every possible surface, they’ve been placed with care and have plastic protectors across the covers.

The subject matter ranges from technical manuals on electronics and practical engineering to medical textbooks. Others have names that mean nothing to you. The old man still doesn’t beckon you and the hour limit is quickly ticking down so you march over to his chair and leer over him. Without looking up from his book, he asks,

“Would you like to take a seat? It’s a very comfortable chair. Many nights I’ve fallen asleep while reading….”

The small man is instead a child. He clambers up out of his pit and leads you to a side door to the building. The child is wearing a mixture of stitched, ratty clothing and bits of trash that makes him blend in remarkably well to the rest of the city.

[Your name?]

“I El-Weh. Don’t forget.”

His confidence makes you laugh in spite of yourself. You smile down at him.

[I am Quintilius Publicis. You will make a good legionary, El-Weh.]

“Your head make good shitpot.”

He could use some discipline, but he has the fighting spirit. The tribal child hands you over to two older soldiers and after some back and forth, they bring you deeper into the Library. While it has been turned into a fortress, you can tell its first purpose is a place of hoarding knowledge. You mentally note the need of a contamination team to sweep the building ahead of the rest of your force.

The two men bring you to a back corner of the library, far from any potential danger. One man puts his arm across your chest to halt your progress while another knocks on the dark, wooden door.

An old, very old black man answers. His clothing is made up of fine linens, though not exceedingly luxurious like some in the Legion. His features betray his upbringing, however, and you know this is not a man who has known hardship. His grey beard goes down to his chest yet his head is completely shaved.

“Ah, a visitor. Please, come into my sanctum.”

The old man babbles some nonsense to the two guards and heads back into his room. The two savages give you a nasty look before heading back to their posts. You may as well see this gamble through to the end.

The room is warm and welcoming with a fireplace roaring and plush reading chairs scattered around the room. You don’t bother to hide your disgust. The old man has settled into a chair near the fire, a book held up in front of his face. You take the time to walk around the office. While there may be thousands of books stacked on every possible surface, they’ve been placed with care and have plastic protectors across the covers.

The subject matter ranges from technical manuals on electronics and practical engineering to medical textbooks. Others have names that mean nothing to you. The old man still doesn’t beckon you and the hour limit is quickly ticking down so you march over to his chair and leer over him. Without looking up from his book, he asks,

“Would you like to take a seat? It’s a very comfortable chair. Many nights I’ve fallen asleep while reading….”

When you don’t move from your spot, he chuckles.

“Okay, the stoic type. I have a book you might like. But ah, that’s not what you’re here I imagine.”

[I am Quintilius Publicis, Tribune of the Ninth Legion. I am here to demand your unconditional surrender and submit to the authority of Caesar, Son of Mars.]

The old man’s eyes light up and you see what he’s reading, the light of the fire illuminating the weathered cover.

The History of the Fall and Decline of the Roman Empire: Volume 3

“You can call me Xerxes. I always liked that name. Xerxes the Great, ever heard of him?”

[I will leave here with your surrender or the building will be brought down with everyone still inside. Your answer.]

The old man laughs again before finally putting his book down.

“I am not their leader. They only listen to me because I am an old man. But I do not wish for this day to end in so much bloodshed. Answer me one question, and I will suggest to those here to submit.”

You gesture for him to continue. You don’t know what could be of such importance to Xerxes.

“How similar is this Legion of yours to the Roman Empire of antiquity? Do you embrace technology, resulting in some sort of techno-agrarian society? Is your Caesar hereditary or chosen from the elites? Where does he trace his lineage to? How are your units deployed? Do you use the cohorts system and how do firearms and advanced weaponry impact that?”

Romans of antiquity? You’re not familiar with the term Roman, other than it being a variation of Rome. And what does he mean by Caesar being part of “a line”? The old man’s questions tumble out of his mind and you become annoyed at his attempts to confuse you.

[Hold your tongue before I cut it out. Caesar is the Son of Mars, who is the God of Mars. He is a deity and the Legion is born out of divinity with our ideals coming straight from the Gods themselves. I know not of these Romans, who are you to claim us as anything else?]

Xerxes looks genuinely dumbfounded and asks the question again. When it once again doesn’t click, a look of horrible realization fills his face.

“Wait, are you not aware where your leader’s namesake comes from? Your Legion is an imitation of a society that existed thousands of years ago! And your Caesar certainly does not come from a God, he just knows his history!”

[LIAR!]

You draw your firearm out of its holster when you freeze up. On a table next to Xerxes is a stack of books you’re now just bothering to notice.

Caesar, The Civil Wars
Caesar, Life of a Colussus
Caesar in Gaul
The Rise of the Roman Empire
Caesar’s Legions: An Odyssey

The stack seems endless and the words begin to blend together. You stumble over to the table and pick one up.

Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic

Your hands begin to shake.

“I wanted to do some reading to familiarize myself with your customs. As I said, I thought your group was just emulating the old Roman Empire. You wouldn’t be the first ones.”

The book looks old, very old, and the print date behind the cover is hundreds of years old. A trick, how obvious. You almost whip yourself with how obvious the answer is.

[A trick. You almost got me, old man. Your duplicitousness would impress even the Frumentarii, maybe you’ll have the chance to meet them.]

The academic’s weak smile falls.

“How could you be so blind?”

You regain your composure and step back from his lies.

[I answered your question and it’s the same answer even after your subterfuge. We’re out of time.]

Xerxes slowly rises out of his chair and nods to you.

“I’ll pass along the message. I refuse to condemn these people to death, though I’m not sure slavery is much better.”

The old man leaves you alone in the office. The Frumentarii Liquidators will sweep the building soon, but….

You’re not sure what comes over you, but you can’t stop yourself from grabbing a few books off the top of the stack. You tuck them behind your chest plate and exit the Denver Public Library, back to your Legion.

We Are So Back (^:

Mojave Region

Month 11
-------------------------
Population (Rough Estimate): 85,000
Freeside/New Vegas/North Vegas: 68,000
Novac: 800
Westside:5,500
Goodsprings: 1000
Jacobstown: 700
Primm: 2,250
Nellis: 1,000
Genesis: 350
New Vegas Outskirts: 4,000
Sloan: 400
Boulder City: 150
Bonnie Springs: 600
Nipton: 0
Remaining population dispersed throughout region
New Vegas: Rebuilt Pre-War buildings, defensive wall, electricity, plumbing.
Freeside: Sparse electricity. Pre-war ruins, pre-war buildings, shacks. Defensive wall. Basic sanitation.
Westside: Some buildings electrified, pre-war ruins, pre-war buildings, shacks. Defensive wall. Abundant sanitation.
Boulder City: Pre-War Ruins
Primm: Electricity. Intact pre-war buildings, pre-war ruins
Nipton: No plumbing, no electricity, damaged buildings and rubble
Genesis: Intact pre-war buildings, tents
Goodsprings: Electricity, intact pre-war houses
Novac: Electricity, intact pre-war houses, defensive wall.
Camp McCarran: Intact pre-war building, military tents, electricity, plumbing, defensive wall, watch towers
Camp Rex: Intact pre-war building, military tents, electricity, plumbing, expansive training grounds


Economy
Tariffs: Low 5%(+135,000 caps/turn)
Casino Tribute: Intermediate (+70,000 caps/turn)
Pharmaceutical Industry: (+10,000 caps/turn)
Additional Dam Income: (+50,000 caps/turn)
Upkeep: -104,000 caps/turn
Treasury: 0 caps (99 Gold Bars)

Food
Below-average (Stable)
Dynamic Diet
As agriculture is stabilized in the Mojave, food is available for those who can afford it. The biggest limiters are lack of mechanized agriculture and lack of arable land.

Water
Low (Falling)
It’s confirmed that the water shortage isn’t due to Mojave usage but increased population, no water control and increased industry/agriculture is straining the plumbing system of the Mojave.

Medicine
Poor (Falling)
Scavenged industrial medicine, sparse home remedies. The Followers have begun manufacturing medicine on a small scale. There is a Cholera outbreak in Freeside and Novac.

https://pastebin.com/WUaGdbQc

Anon’s Suggestions
https://pastebin.com/z8vZKF5i

ALERTS
------------------

WARNING: NIPTON
A small group of immigrants have moved into the ruins of Nipton and began to rebuild the large abandoned farm and ranch just south of the town. Their population is roughly 75 and they consist of former NCR citizens.

WARNING: ENCLAVE IMMIGRANTS
The first groups of Enclave refugees have arrived and are waiting to be told where to go. Once this initial group is settled in, they will quickly bring in more and more of their numbers.

WARNING: CHOLERA OUTBREAK
Novac and Freeside are both suffering from the early stages of a Cholera outbreak, cause unknown but presumed to result from a rapid influx of population and poor water distribution/sanitation.

WARNING: STRETCHED FORCES
While there’s no pressing need, more and more Securitrons are deployed to guard travel and trade routes or to isolated towns around the Mojave. Kreger is pushing for the creation of more infantry companies to take over standard patrol duties from the irreplaceable Securitrons. Novac and Genesis are requesting patrol forces as there are a large number of dangerous animals interfering with trade and travel.

WARNING: ZION
Zion is infested and there seems to be no saving it. While the research team has assured you that the spread will slow as it hits inhospitable territory, there is a fear of travelers visiting and spreading the contagion elsewhere. Border crossings are closed but the infestation grows slowly. The atomic bomb is ready to be deployed.

WARNING: BUILDING MATERIALS
With the recent boom of investment and the NVD continually funding projects, there is a severe shortage of basic building material across the Mojave. Business leaders are clamoring for subsidies to import from elsewhere or new material to be found and used to sustain growth.

WARNING: CRIME
There has been a small uptick in crime across the entirety of the region due to the reinvestment and increased migration from the NCR and elsewhere. Especially in urban areas, punishments range from corporal punishment, indentured servitude, banishment and often, death. This becomes an issue when NCR tourists are the subject of punishment. Members of the council are pushing for not only a comprehensive legal system but also for jails and prisons for worse offenders.

WARNING: CAESAR ORDER
The Mighty Caesar has requested your assistance in assassinating Vulpes Inculta, the head of the Frumentarii. This will weaken the Legion in the long term and further ingratiate yourself to Caesar as his heir.

WARNING: GOVERNMENT FUNDING
Many department heads have submitted complaints over the recent reduction in funding and requested not only a return to previous levels but increases to support advanced work within the region.

Nice to see this back.

>>6320884
Courier Actions:
>Assassinate Vulpes.
A pretty time-sensitive one.
>Use the atomic bomb on Zion as we've planned.

Courier Diplomacy:
>Meet with/organize the Enclave immigrants.
Better deal with this sooner than later.
>Talk with the Families of New Vegas.
Maybe we can convince them to help us out since the NCR investments will also help them too.

Military Action:
>Create more infantry companies, per Kreger's suggestion.
Department of Defense to help.

Research Action:
>See what needs to be done to fix up more Securitrons, and begin research into that end.
Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Energy both help here if they're available.

Industrial Action:
>Continue dealing with the RMRP.
According to the pastebin we're still on the second stage (manufacturing).
So have the Department of Commerce, Department of the Interior, Department of Agriculture and the Department of Transportation.
We don't really have the caps to spare at the moment, but if we use casino chips we might be able to fund things.

Other:
>Recruit Rotface as a spy for the Directorate.
>Create audits to see what the businesses are doing, particularly with to the NCR investors.
>Have some people (maybe a companion) look into what the immigrants in Nipton are doing.
>Confirm the governorship/department appointments if it hasn't been done already.

Department Actions:

Department of Health & Human Services:
Continue helping against the cholera outbreak. If they need anything, then they can come to us for it and we can see what we can come up with.

Department of Tourism and Entertainment:
Make an advertising campaign for the celebration of the Anniversary Celebration of the Directory.

Department of Housing and Urban Development:
Keep an eye out for cholera and other sicknesses. Raise awareness and work with the Department of Health & Human Services to increase illness prevention.

>>6320923
Courier
+1 to assassinate Vulpes
+1 to bomb Zion

Diplomacy
+1 to meet with Enclave immigrants - I think we should send some to Big Mt as extra hands, and as extra firepower in case House decides to run amok... I don't like that the giant roboscorpion is laying around for him to tinker with potentially. He could end up in a lobotomite pretty easily.
+1 for talking to the families. We have a good rapport with them, we need help with stuff.

Military
I think we need to secure all the swag in that bunker at Hawthorne. Clock is ticking on someone else grabbing it. We might not need the vehicles and ordinance for our own military (though surely it'd save us money and be a big benefit). But we could sell this stuff for a big injection of cash, or trade it to a faction in order to help secure fealty, and then it's basically ours to use anyways. Westside might be ideal.

Research
I think Henry has the right idea about the weather machine. It is one of the more stable technologies in the empty, and it could vastly improve lives for our citizens, and ruin life for our enemies. Would turn around the dropping water levels. Could create all the funds we could need. If the securitron army secured us the Strip, weather control would secure the Mojave.

Industrial
Get to work harvesting and using all that sweet new clay we found. We need building materials, and we need money, and even if we just use the bricks to improve road infrastructure, that saves money long term.

+1 to all the department actions at the end of this post

For the Enclave immigrants, I'll repeat my suggestion to house them in a vault, we have a few in the area. I think Vault 34 or 3 would do, I can't remember if we blew up Vault 19.

>>6320879
I thought we would have something in the treasury.

How much is each gold bar worth?

We'll have to improve our income or probably make it one for every two population. I am expecting to spend a lot for the fight with Zion. Since even if we do bomb Zion I do believe we're going to have to do a little controlled burning around the area.

That is even assuming the people who put it there in the first place don't you start putting it somewhere else.

>>6320923
Generally support this, but I'd like to investigate the weather control system at Big MT as Research.

If we can, I'd also like to tack on as Other actions restoring the departments' budgets to pre-austerity values and organising a foot expedition upriver to western Colorado to investigate the diversion dams. If we're losing water, we need to shut those gates and this'll take a few weeks so best get started now.

>>6320939
Vault 3 was basically demolished by Boone, the sulfur caves below Vault 19 were also destroyed by you but you’re unsure of the damage to the vault itself

>>6320941
I have each bar valued at 20,000 caps, but that may fluctuate with other actions, especially if you guys try to dump a bunch of the bars. As for income, please correct me if the math doesn’t math but you guys the into the negative so I liquidated a bar to bring it back to 0

The good news is that you’ll be making a lot of change this turn going forward as the investment has finished

>>6320957
Ah, yes, the new regional budgets are ruinously expensive. We need to cut this funding formula dramatically or foist some of the responsibilities of the central government off onto them.

>>6320951
LFG

>Make weather control machine
>Stick it on the Lucky 38
>Weather Wizard Time
>?????
>Profit

>>6320939
the first ones are already in Nipton
get over it

>>6320931
>Industrial
>Get to work harvesting and using all that sweet new clay we found. We need building materials, and we need money, and even if we just use the bricks to improve road infrastructure, that saves money long term.
seconding this

>>6320957
I think what messed me up was thinking we would get some income from the quick fix of our trade with ncr. It makes since if it needed the whole month to get the income rolling a again.

If we can wait until next turn to pay for the party. Then things should be fine, but I think we should get some caps from gold to cover a few things. Otherwise we should have 56k in caps to work with after the states are set up. -85k for pop and -10k from governess

>>6320884
Supporting this >>6320923

>>6320884
>Enclave immigrants
>"ENCLAVE could be here" he thought, "I've never been in this territory before. There could be ENCLAVE anywhere." The desert heat made him wish for a nuclear winter. "I HATE ENCLAVE" he thought. Big Iron rebounded through his pip-boy, making it pulsate even as the $0.50 healing powder circulated through his powerful thick veins and washed away his (merited) fear of pre-war American COG forces after dark. "With a pip-boy, riot armor, and RadAway, you can go anywhere you want" he said to himself, out loud.

Would rainwater collection help prevent cholera? We still need to boil rainwater, right?

>>6320884

Courier Actions:
I agree with
>Assassinate Vulpes.
A pretty time-sensitive one.
>Use the atomic bomb on Zion as we've planned.
I am not sure if we can fly the bomb in. We assume need to get some people we train for hazmat to join us for cover.

Courier Diplomacy:
>Meet with/organize the Enclave immigrants.
I think Nelson, we can have them help set up the town for the mine and wind farm. If not Nelson there is bitter springs or Nipton.

>Meet with the boomers.
We need to see about training people on the Heavy Artillery and see if they will help with Zion. It will be good to work with them to see if we can cover openings on the other sides.

Military Action:
>Send squads to check out the west side of Zion.
We saw people and signs of things getting out near Creech AFB. On the west side lets see if we can make it to Area 51, NV and the salt flats with the Enclave FOB. It should have a chance for loot as well. The legion should have the east side covered. I hope the rides we got will be of help.

I hope the area near our home will be ready for the after effects of the bomb.

Research Action:
Lets check in with the team and plan the best location for the Zion bomb.
Department of Defense support.

Industrial Action:
The clay would be nice, but needs 50k to get going. Yet that would be all we need and can use the action for other things. I would be down for selling some gold for it. Then the remaining money can help with water systems for the area.

Get to work with getting a better system for water distribution/sanitation.

Other:
>no water control and increased industry/agriculture is straining the plumbing system of the Mojave.
Send out techs and people from the Department of Agriculture to get people set for better water use.

>Recruit Rotface as a spy for the Directorate.
>Create audits to see what the businesses are doing, particularly with to the NCR investors.
This likely would be covered with better budget for the departments.
>Have some people (maybe a companion) look into what the immigrants in Nipton are doing.

>Send a personal Invite to Ms. Yen for the 1 year event.
I think it will be good to say thinks for the help.

To much for one post.

>>6321047
>>6320884
Agree with the Department Actions:

Department of Health & Human Services:
Continue helping against the cholera outbreak. If they need anything, then they can come to us for it and we can see what we can come up with.

Department of Tourism and Entertainment:
Make an advertising campaign for the celebration of the Anniversary Celebration of the Directory.

Department of Housing and Urban Development:
Keep an eye out for cholera and other sicknesses. Raise awareness and work with the Department of Health & Human Services to increase illness prevention.

Postmaster General: Send out flyers about the plague safety. Work with Department of Health & Human Services and Department of Science and Technology to make up some best practices to stay safe. No need to make people panic it is mainly to inform people and have them send those with signs to the nearest doctor to get checked.

Department of Commerce and Department of State: We are lacking building materials. See if there is something we can do to make a deal with novac for scrap to help that out and support the RMRP plan. After that it will be seeing what we need to import want we can get set up here.

Government Department funding:
I want to up everyone to 8kThe Department of Defense will get another 8k to help cover the intelligence agency added in. Make us go from 48,000 to 88k.

--

The problem is the states being to much for it. If we can make it 1 cap for 2 people. That would be better until our income grows. Otherwise that would only leave us 16k in caps to work with. We do have the gold mine coming next turn and that could change things for us. So the cap per person can wait until then.

>>6321048
>>6320884
If we can't wait until next turn also use gold for the 1 year event.

>>6321042
Las Vegas gets about 4in of rain a year in total and can go months without getting any. It's far from enough and for the most part all we'd be collecting is dust. Rainwater is not really clean since it's collected airborne dirt and bacteria plus whatever was on the catcher but boiling is more to kill off anything it's picked up in the cistern while being stored. Just another reason to start turning all that salt around here into chlorine.

>>6321051
Unless....... We could control the weather.... From our wizard tower in the Lucky 38....... But making chlorine for the water is a better priority (:

>>6320871
>You’re not sure what comes over you, but you can’t stop yourself from grabbing a few books off the top of the stack. You tuck them behind your chest plate and exit the Denver Public Library, back to your Legion.
Ohoho, the seeds of doubt are sown.

Okay, new thread. Let's hope we didn't forget anything.

>Courier actions:
Kill Vulpes Inculta

Deploy the nuke to clear Zion's infestation
Support from Ulysses

>Diplomacy actions:
Gather the Council and create a legal code
Support from Department of State

Settle the Enclave Immigrants in Nipton for now

If it's possible to send someone else to do it as a free action: Notify the NCR and Legion about the nuke before we set it off.

>Military action
Send a recon team up the river with the motorcycles to investigate if there's something obstructing the river. Pack antifungals.
Support from Department of Defense

Have the First Company clear out some of the wildlife dens that have been harassing us.

>Industrial actions
Begin building a greenhouse (-30k)

Begin working on refurbishing the NV sewage system
Support from Department of HUD

>Research
Begin researching ways of repairing and resupplying the Securitron Factory in Fortification Hill
Support from Departments of Science and Technology and Commerce

>Misc. actions
Quarantine the cholera outbreak, clean out the dumping areas, and form specialized dumping areas in controlled spaces. Also test local water supplies for contamination and have them put under guard in their respective towns.
Support from Department of HHS

Return the Department funding and boost them to a uniform 8k/month

Fund the Anniversary Celebration and begin the campaign(-75k)
Support from Department of Tourism

Offer Ms. Yen a personal invitation to the Celebration. If anons agree, send a gift package consisting of the Toaster and a few minor knickknacks from Big MT.

Give the Securitron Factory resource list to the Commerce Department and see what they think of it.

Recruit Rotface as a spy

Have ED-E do the eyebot thing and monitor the Enclave immigrants in Nipton.

>>6321075
I forgot about people saying get Ulysses to be our Vice Courier. I think yes Man should help cover the government part he lacks.

If we die and Ulysses picks up the chip I wonder if her gets to hear our voices, thinking the Courier never left or something.

I wonder if we shouldn't try getting Vulpes onside? He may be loyal to Caesar, but if he gets told by us that his death has been ordered, he might reconsider. Loyalty is one of his #1 values after all. He'd know all the dirty secrets of the Legion, on top of running all the NCR networks they have. Of course, the risk is that we spare him and he goes off to tell Caesar who executes him anyway while getting mad at us, but it's something worth considering.

>>6321109
we should offer him sanctuary in the NCR, new face, new identity

anons seem hellbent on taking every bait^Wsuggestion from our esteemed QM though

>yeah! let's have 10 governorships!!
>>>MOMENTS LATER
>oh shit 10 governors is 10 times the salary of one governor!

>>6321109
>>6321160
Please stop trying to recruit everything that is even tangentially opposed to one of our enemies. It was a godawful move when anons tried it on House and it's a godawful move now.

>>6321097
If not Ulysses, someone else. We need a Vice-Courier/Vice-Director (more correctly), if we are going away or are wounded/need of healing there needs to be a 2nd in command figure that fills in our shoes and calls the shots. A 2nd in command is also useful, even if we are of good health and ruling simply because we can delegate some tasks to it and it can help us in other matters.

A Vice-Courier/Vice-Director should be preferably someone that doesn't already do one job in the government (overwork). And also preferably someone loyal and that we know.Ulysses while not being great for governing (i have to say that Courier Six has also been learning this kind of stuff on the go, and he is still doing so. He wasn't a born perfect bureaucrat/ruler), is still learned, experienced, willing to play ball, loyal and with a similar vision to us.

I would seriously advise people to not pass over this and think on having a Vice-Courier/Vice-Director before the end of the vote. Cassidy already told us that without us some decisions slowed down, since the council had to decide between each other.

Technically we have never nominated an heir. I suppose people didn't consider the question so far. Or thought of doing it later on.

>>6321097
>>6321166
Agreed.
I guess I'll belatedly add "Declare Ulysses Vice-Director" to my orders.

>>6321167
Very good
Consider me supporting your vote and suggestions here and here

>>6321075
>>6321167
>>6320884
supporting this plan

>>6321075
>Deploy the nuke to clear Zion's infestation
this is at least one military action in and of itself, we can't drop it, we need to walk it in, or fly it in on the vertibird, IF it can carry the damn thing, set it on the ground and gtfo and hope the fungal menace doesn't chew through the casing before it goes off
we need to rig it with a timed initiator, we need a day when the wind is blowing from the southeast... it's a whole damn thing

>>6321174
and of course, detonating the thing in a shallow well in the hope of creating a more localized fallout pattern is also an option, but idk who could back-of-the-envelope that for us. Maybe the think tank?

>>6321065
sort of trivial, we have electricity, we have salt
what we don't have is a way to store and deliver it

>>6321165
Trying to turn enemies into our assets is a valid strategy if we can beat the rolls which we can't lol. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer as the old saying goes.

>>6321177
It wasn't a factor of rolls only actually, and it would be a long series of rolls to do.

House was specifically placed somewhere free and with little to no supervision, inserted among a group of mad scientists, when he should have been put bare minimum on something resembling a cell and with some guards. Like it was said far far before we arrived to these events, we were also simply too occupied with our duties to go and visit regularly to chat him up for convince him. Combining that with what we did to him (which from his own point of view is incredibly humiliating), if things turned out like this is a miracle.

>>6321174
The vertibird should be able to carry the warhead. The B53 weighs about four tonnes while the V-22 as a stand-in for the vertibird has a vertical lift capacity of about seven tonnes. Might need to strip out some fuel or do short hops, but doable.

>>6321194
it's gotta be on a sling then
no way you're just landing a vertibird in the middle of all that and coming out alive
>do short hops
yeah bro just gonna create and secure some LZs in the fungal madness. lel. not happening

>>6321196
IIRC we outlined a plan to the BoS to lower it into Zion with a timed detonator.

>>6321199
and now I'm thinking it might be useful to drop some barrel bombs and some napalm first, clear a spot

>>6321196
Short hops insofar as it may need to go with a reduced fuel load to allow it to carry the thing and stop to refuel on the way.
It should have no issues with a sling, they are designed for it.
>>6321202
Now that sounds like a job for the bomber.

>>6321208
>stop to refuel on the way
it's going to be a major military operation to set up and secure those pit-stops...
I mean this is going to be a big thing anyway, but

>>6321160
The governors budget of 1k each is not my worry. It's the 1 cap per person, that would be the same even if we had less governors. Which would be good if we have the income to still do things. Since that would allow them to take care of the small things to help our people grow.

>>6321174
>we need a day when the wind is blowing from the southeast
That is why I was thinking we should use the researchers to get placement down.

>>6321202
The need of the bomber support with their weapons made me pick them to support us as an action.

>>6320923
I'll also support getting Ulysses as our second in-command.

So what is the goal with the bomb?

I ask because I doubt it will take care of everything and there is the fallout to worry around. I really think it's best to have our people research best location and we get some support to help with Zion. With our troops moving to cover the west better and keep the spread down, hopefully.

With the boomers we can see about their airplane clearing the landing zone. With luck and I assume supplies from us, we can have them fire bomb areas around to close off opens for a bit or at least reduce growth. Then send in people to cover the paths. From there they can train our people with the Artillery to be able to slowly move into area and clear it of the blight. If not the boomer we can try the BoS again with the new info we have about the ncr look a likes.

While there is a chance we can wait until next turn to send people. Since it takes a few weeks for fallout to reduce. Assuming the blight can't rebound before then.

>>6320884
I would like to know if our Courier can place it well or if we need to research a good spot for it. Since it would make make some of my worry invalid.

>>6321314
>>6321221
>>6321208
>>6321202
>>6321196
>>6321194
>>6321174
Feel like we are possibly inventing problems to solve, has the QM indicated there will be fuel or weight issues with delivering the warhead in the vertibird? I think I did see him say the lady of the lake couldn't handle it, but I'd imagine refueling and creating landing zones might have come up now. To be fair, some parts of this story are surprisingly granular and oriented to realism (not necessarily a bad thing) while others are more of a handwaved in keeping with the setting.

>>6321331
Do wanna add to this anyways that I am low-key anticipating that the radiation from the nuke will end up mutating the parts of the Blight that survive, if any do - I bet dollars to doughnuts there's FEV somewhere in the mix. Even still, nuclear fire is probably the best way to buy us some time right now. War never changes ...

>>6321331
>>6321314
The bomb was pulled from The Divide by Vertibird so it can be delivered by Vertibird, but that’s about all it’ll be able to carry.

As for the spot, I won’t make it its own action. That being said, you’ll be using your best judgement on the best place to use it but the courier, in all his skill, has very little experience with nuclear warheads like this.

The more effort given will result in a better outcome, as with everything. If you, the players, also give a detailed plan on where to deploy, that will help as well.

For fuel, vehicles like the Vertibird don’t need fuel, just fusion cores. And the fusion core for your Vertibird is still good. Regarding the need to “refuel” the Vertibird, I think that would only apply to long trips where the bird would need to land and minor maintenance conducted with certain fluids restocked.

(As you said, anon. A mix of realism and fantasy that I’ll try to explain as we reach the grey areas)

>>6321334
I thought vertibirds were fuel-burners? I could swear Daisy mentions being limited by fuel at some point, but you da boss. While we're here, are the various abandoned aircraft scattered around the Mojave also fusion-powered?

Placement depends on where the Blight is and how much it's covered, which still hasn't been elaborated on in detail.

>>6321334
Oh ok great, thank you for clarifying.

With that in mind, I think *someone* in the crop of Enclave immigrant pool is going to have the technical skill to assist with this project. We should start screening for that person, and we should be as subtle about that screening process as possible. Maybe we should use a department action to locate that individual very discreetly so enemy spies don't become aware of our nuclear capability (if they aren't already).

That individual should provide advisory assistance and supervision, I think. We should drop the warhead nearer to the center of the Zion infestation but downwind of it. That will save us some time in delivery and minimize time over Blight airspace, but will carry the heat and fallout farther up. How downwind will accomplish that without leaving the far side of the infestation undamaged is up to a brighter mind to devise. I am assuming we have already determined the blast scenario can encompass the entirety of Zion? If not, hoping input from Ulysses or this hypothetical Enclave tech will help.

We went ahead and accepted a bunch of Enclave science officers and military personnel into our society.

We chose operation paperclip.

They didn't stick Braun at a McDonald's. We shouldn't put enclave weapons specialists or scientists in a podunk like Nipton. When people find out we let the Enclave in, they are going to be pissed off. That's an expense we are expecting to pay. Every minute we aren't taking advantage of their presence is bad business. They should already be working at Big MT, producing enough food for themselves with sink tech and ironing out new tech for us to field. They should already be enlisting in our militias and they should already be coordinating military actions to make up for our current severe lack of resources in these areas. NCR and Legion have boat loads of experts. We have very few and we are spinning so many fucking plates trying to triage them all. We chose paperclip, let's follow through and start making progress. Halfassing it is so goofy.

>>6321345
I meant UPWIND not downwind.

>>6321345
I was hoping to use the time they get settled to sift through them for people who can be trusted to go to and revitalize Big MT (hence the use of ED-E).
I don't have strong opinions on the matter though, if you and other anons think it's more important to get them started immediately despite the risks.

>>6321431
I was thinking with Nelson we can see how they do with getting the mine or wind farm up. It will make it feel more like we are open to using while getting to see people in action. In hopes that they don't keep their guard up as much. Then we can have our people come in to double check their work and if things go well we will have more resources to work with in turn.

>>6321431
>>6321447
I genuinely appreciate the caution in this approach, but I feel like taking big gambles is our thing. I think I'm a little frustrated at how we have rushed headlong into sending our science team to hell, dropping nukes, and just unleashing House in the Big Empty. Frankly we should probably focus every single action on apprehending him right now, before we end up with a new unmanageable front bleeding our resources. What if he gets back the 38? What happens if he gets to the Sierra Madre? I'm getting distracted. Basically I just think we can't afford to be slow utilizing one of our most needed resources right now. Someone could find out about their presence next month, we really ought to get them to work and folded in promptly.

>>6321075
>>6321167
For the most part I can back your action plan. I would like to have the military scout more than just the river. SInce the water is from "It’s confirmed that the water shortage isn’t due to Mojave usage but increased population, no water control and increased industry/agriculture is straining the plumbing system of the Mojave."

The military will need more budget from the talks we had last thread. Yet that can happen next turn as well.

I hope next turn we can recruit the boomers and Nipton work just as well. We can move people around later.

>>6321450
I agree with keeping an eye out for house. If we didn't need to Assassinate Vulpes I would say we can do that. The blight is a problem that shouldn't be left to wait as well.

At least with more people in Nipton and those at Genesis we have more eye down south. We can up the budget for the Department of Defense to get more passive eyes out as well. Ulysses should be a big boon to our intelligence agency. Which we need to still deal with the frumentarius sent to us, as we were told to kill them. I would say we can work with Ulysses to recruit them or remove them if not possible.

>>6321454
Maybe we should just tell Ulysses to assassinate House? He would probably be the best guy for it, he already knows the empty pretty well, and how to get in.

>>6321447
>I was thinking with Nelson we can see how they do with getting the mine or wind farm up[...]
Between this and the realization that the NCR immigrants might notice who the Enclave guys are, I'm thinking Nelson might be better? Though we'll probably have to give them resources to get it started, we can postpone it by asking them to send a list of basics they'd like.

>>6321457
Yeah we can tell him house likely got out and the reasons we think so. Then see what he can dig up for us.

----

Looking up something to help for placement of the nuke I found this. https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/?&kt=9000&lat=37.2982022&lng=-113.0263005&airburst=0&hob_ft=0&fallout=1&psi=3000,200,20,5&rem=500,600,1000,5000&therm=_3rd-100,_3rd-50,_2nd-50&zm=11 It let me put setting for how strong and show us the area it will affect.

Thermal radiation radius (2nd degree burns (50%)): 22.3 mi should mean most things are not gonna be in a good spot.

If wind is on our side we should be safe by a good amount (30ish miles) from the Initial explosion fallout at it's current wind seed and direction.

https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/?&kt=9000&lat=37.2982022&lng=-113.0263005&airburst=0&hob_ft=0&fireball=0&fallout=1&fallout_wind=2&fallout_angle=253&psi=&rem=&therm=&zm=11

After that for planning I am just sure what we can do to clear things away from our target area. Then I assume we would want to drawn to make the most targets drop. With out help we get the 1 bird to work with and what we can fit on board.

We can try for a mine drop and get some crazy people to hold the line until we can set up. Like on the side of a high point in the area. Then attempt a pick on the way out.

>>6321468
I want to get both places our support if we can. Since that would win over the NCR people and get things building up smoothly. Then we can use that as a reason some of our people are around.

>>6321345
Operation Paperclip was years in the making and years in the execution
lists of people were being drawn as early as 1943
by the time they reached US shores those guys were pretty much known quantities, still they were all debriefed before being sheep-dipped into various places
we do not know anything at all about these fuckers
>>6321450
Since the topic came up first you've literally done nothing but try to hand over the NVD to these guys. Idk why you think that would be fun, but I don't. Also it doesn't fit with the Courier being 10 int, nobody that smart does something that dumb just because.

>>6321431
I sure as fuck don't think it's a good idea

>>6321584
>I sure as fuck don't think it's a good idea
Agreed, let's just split the difference and set them up in Nelson where ED-E will keep an eye on them. We'll have them send us a list for whatever basics they need, and we can gradually vet them for Big MT access over time.

>>6321584
Frankly, I don't think an Int 10 courier would've invited them in at all, and I wasn't there to vote against it - feels like an unwise decision overall. Regardless of their (fucked up) background, accepting refugees before we get stable on water and medicine? Anyways, since we DID vote to being them in, I am feeling frustrated that it seems to be the only thing we are slow-walking while a big injection of skilled expertise, in science particularly, is one of the top things we need around here. Meanwhile our Int 10 courier left House's brain to babysat by the same lunatics that misplaced HIS OWN BRAIN WHEN THEY FIRST MET LOL, and we are trying to develop a plan for nuclear deployment WHILE we are pressing the button.

On the one hand, I get not wanting to demonstrate that same recklessness in one more area of our operation, but on the other it just seems to me that we are just about desperate to get both hands on the wheel with some of these projects. If we are in for a penny on Enclave recruits, I think we oughta just be in for a pound. Again, totally respect your sense of caution here, what you're saying does make sense to me, I think we are just gonna have to disagree.

Look, if we’re going to make any damn use of them (and keep a good eye on them), gonna have to keep them in Vegas lads. Not only is it our powerbase, but that’s where the industrial infrastructure and low-skill labor is- we just get more bang for our buck in New Vegas.

>>6321629
You’re ascribing wisdom as intelligence- it may not wise, but the logic is sound.

The undeniably stupid thing was getting rid of our diplomatic deniability of claiming they’re Salvatores, NCR immigrants enmeshed in the NCR’s political system, for perceived domestic optics of a one month battle and ‘but muh feelings’ arguments.

Before the month began in earnest, Cass requested some time to speak with you. Alone. You get her point and wisely choose not to invite her to the Lucky 38 but a more “intimate” setting.

The Ultra Luxe has a beautiful garden attached to the rear of the hotel and while it’s constantly full of tourists, it’s easy to send a quick message to ownership and clear the rabble for your use. When you meet Cass outside of the hotel, the first thing you notice is she’s wearing…makeup? And a dress. Oh no.

It’s not a ball gown but it’s still an admittedly cute homestead outfit and one Cass probably hasn’t worn in years. She notices your shocked look as you walk up to her and puts her finger in the air.

“Don’t say anything, Six. It’s laundry day.”

You give her a look of doubt.

[Is that why you’re wearing makeup? To celebrate laundry day?]

Her pale features rapidly blush and she flips you off before spinning around and heading into the casino. You can’t help but smile to yourself as you follow the wily redhead in.

You quickly catch up to your shorter plus one. She gives you a backwards glance.

“So, why are we at the Ultra Luxe? It’s not exactly my style…”

[There’s a really nice garden built into the back. It’s usually packed with tourists but I made a few calls…]

Cass snorts in response.

“Oh, you made some calls, huh? Really waiving that dick of power around, aren’t you?”

[Ah, sometimes all of this responsibility comes with a few perks. We’ll only be there for a few hours anyway, the patrons can go gamble their caps in the meantime.]

She doesn’t respond and instead works her way through the gambling floor. You’re pleased to notice that while the slots have never been the main draw of this place, nearly all of them are full and the high-roller tables are well attended. You’ll have to look at the numbers of all four main casinos, but it looks like business is returning to normal. Cass reads your mind and comments on the same thing.

“Good to see people coming back. That little maneuver with the NCR was impressive, even if it was the business interests pulling most of the weight. Are you worried about that?”

[About the NCR oligarchy secretly controlling the republic? Not as much as you. If they attempt to pull their resources out, we nationalize. If that ever happens, we’ll be in a much stronger position with industry and our military. If all we need at that point are resources, the Legion will provide.]

Cass gives you a sour look as the two of you pass down a hallway towards the garden.

“I hate our reliance on the Legion. I’m not a slut for the Republic, but I think the literal slavers and rapists are a bigger threat.”

[I don’t necessarily disagree but our position geographically, economically and politically requires us to play both sides off of each other. Neither wants to open a front with us, not when Kimball or Caesar thinks they can win me over.]

Cass doesn’t look convinced but drops the topic. The two of you arrive at the doors of the greenhouse, manned by a White Glove.

Attendant: “You honor us with your presence, Secretary and Director. The garden is empty sans another attendant who will be available for any good or drink requests. All on the house, of course.”

The two of you give your thanks and are let into the lush garden.

But you don’t see a tranquil place of peace in the safety of New Vegas. You’re back in the jungles of Zion with monstrosities of indescribable makeup scurrying through the dark undergrowth. Your breathing becomes ragged and you reach for a firearm that isn’t there. Screams fill your head and your vision begins to dim…

“Six, you good?”

Cass gently touched your hand, pulling you out of whatever came over you. You quickly shake off the remnants of whatever that was.

[Uh, yeah. I’m good. I need to drink some water, I think. Anyway, what did you want to talk about? More concerns from the Secretaries?]

Cass knows you’re dodging the question. You start walking further into the garden. That little episode aside, it’s beautiful. While most of the plants and flowers are local, they’re all well-maintained.

“It’s actually about you. I’m worried about you.”

You stop and smell a rose, a Mojave rose in fact. You pluck it and give it to Cass.

[Why? I’m doing great! The Directorate is in a good position, our economy is back on track and there are some big opportunities coming our way!]

You know she didn’t mean the state of the Mojave but you’re not too excited to talk about your “feelings”.

Cass tucks the flower into her dress but scowls at you.

“You’re being more of an asshole than usual. You know damn well I’m not talking about New Vegas. You’re in less danger than when you were on your adventures, but you’re getting so lost in your work.”

Looks like you don’t have a choice in the matter and Cass is almost as stubborn as you are. You sit down on the ledge of a fountain, enjoying the cool breeze from it. Cass plops down next to you and smoothes out her dress.

“You have so many people who care for you on some level or another, but I just don’t know where your head is at. Where does this all end for you?”

Now you actually don’t know what she means.

[In the grand scheme of things? I guess I haven’t thought about it.]

“That’s what I mean. You have some serious hardware on you and if anyone is gonna live to a ripe old age, it’s you. But do you really want to be The Director forever?”

You actually haven’t thought about it much. Before, you focused on staying alive and the best way to kill each enemy that you came across. Even now, the only thing you have time for is the Directorate and it’s taken nearly every waking minute. The little downtime you have is spent keeping your skills sharp. You haven’t ever contemplated a life past the NVD. You’re honest with her.

[I don’t know. The obvious answer is no. No one lives forever but I don’t see myself stepping away for some time. There’s too much to do and I don’t trust anyone else to do it.]

The disappointment is evident on Cass’ face and she turns away from you. Neither of you speak for a few minutes and you instead try to enjoy the garden. It is beautiful and there’s nowhere like it in the Mojave but damn if it doesn’t bring back some nightmares.

“Isn’t it lonely? All this time and effort put into this project of yours, are you afraid of your companions drifting away from you? What about when they choose to move on?”

[Red, I’m going to assume you have a point here and I’m too dumb to get it. This isn’t about me losing my friends to the sands of time, is it?]

Cass takes a moment to collect her thoughts.

“I am worried about you being alone. It’s lonely at the top and power attracts the worst sons of bitches in the wasteland. You can surround yourself with liars and thieves, all while they rub shoulders with you. And what about when it’s all over? Who will you have?”

[I haven’t thought about it, Cass. I guess I imagined most of my companions sticking around for the long haul.]

“I know. That’s why I’m bringing it up now. We won’t wait around forever.”

Cass looks disappointed at your answer and you know there’s more she wants to say but the conversation seems to be over. Instead, she sighs and stands.

“This is a nice place. Let’s take a walk and just enjoy the quiet.”

The two of you spend the afternoon enjoying the nature walk, but you know there are things that have been left unsaid. By both of you.

(Will call turn tonight, just wanted to get this out before I forgot.)

>>6321761
Man....

She's right.

I think we are right to knuckle down on Vulpes and nukes and all that other stuff. But next month? I think we should take Cass out for a date. Six should probably be thinking about a family, especially if we are going at this shit a month at a time.

>>6321761
Damn, If she just wants to have a baby in her. She can ask for a quckie.

>>6321030
Kek, don’t know how I missed this. Great job anon.

Also posting this as a reminder to myself to add the vehicles looted last thread

Such is life from time to time. Fortunately, there appears to be an agreement on having a second in command. Delegating some work is never bad; it's a long road, but having a well-organized government will eventually allow Six more free time.

Gonna update the suggestion pastebin. Some stuff, like reading Phenomenology of Spirit and recruiting Ulysses, is done. I think I will add the clay deposit in the economy, I forgot if it's in Genesis or Novac, though..

>>6321794
Clay deposit is across the river near Genesis and copper is near Novac.

Thanks for your work, Anon

>>6321795
Thank you for the info and quest!

>>6321772
>>6321790
Duality of man

>>6321761
It hurts but it's true, we're treating our companions as hired help, and gradually taking them for granted. We should take them all out during the celebrations, go do stupid shit that's just fun.

>>6321808
That was kind of my hope is an action next turn. Of giving everyone a day or as a group depending on the people and how long the event last.

Granted that assumes everything goes well with the bomb.

It would likely need our Military action, but I was thinking the Securitrons with Pattron could help cover some areas. We would still have a problem of weight. If the Lucky 38 range for linking the Securitrons is good enough with Black Mt working. We can try hooking Pattron into the system to make the bots work better for the Zion raid.

I mainly have been thinking how do we get the fire support we need and get them out. If we don't mind loosing some Securitrons. We can get them set up on points in Zion near where we wish to place the nuke. Assuming they can hold out until we load the nuke and drop it off.

Other thoughts would be dumping oil and setting aflame the area. In hopes in will keep the regrowth down and hostiles at bay until it is time. It could be used cooking oil if we got enough heat to get it to ignition temperature.

Really I am thinking we need to get some help. Since a small group will have hell of a time. Unless we have a more than one airship or can load enough to clear the area in one run with a quick nuke set up. Dam regrowth rate making it hard to do a bombing and come back with the pay load.

>>6320923
>>6321075
These are the two proposals with the most support and they're pretty similar, so I will combine them

As always, please call what you roll.

Courier 1
Kill the Fox
(Will ask for roll during operation)

Courier 2
Drop the nuke in Zion with Ulysses help
>1d100+8 (DT65, lowered due to Ulysses assisting)

Diplomacy 1
Meet with first wave of Enclave immigrants and decide where to settle them
(Won't need a roll, will just have a choice vote)

Diplomacy 2
Meet with the Families, thank them for their support and ask for their help with investing in New Vegas
>1d100+8 (DT45)

Military
Send some of BTO upriver with motorbikes to investigate potential water blockage. Bear Team One are the only ones that know how to drive the bikes worth a damn
>1d100 (DT70)

Industrial
No money can be spent but have Commerce, Interior, Transportation and Agriculture meet to discuss further support of the RMRP
>1d100 (Higher the better)

Research
Send what few robotic experts exist to Fortification Hill to examine the facility, and have Commerce provide a report on the possibility of obtaining necessary resources.
>1d100 (Higher the better)

Other
The Courier will call a meeting of Secretaries to get their input on the outline of a legal code

Misc
>Confirm Ulysses as Deputy Director
>Invite rotface to the intelligence agency
>Boost every department to 8,000 caps/month starting next turn
>Invite Chen to anniversary and provide gift basket of fun tech
>Notify NCR and Legion of Zion cleansing
>Direct DHHS to assist with Cholera outbreak in any way possible (1d100, DT 75)

Let me know if I missed anything but this is the gist and just at the limit of actions

Rolled 86 + 8 (1d100 + 8)

>>6322069
Drop the nuke
>it's a less than one in two chance to go right, fuck me

Rolled 90 + 8 (1d100 + 8)

>>6322069
Families roll.

>>6322069
Diplomacy 2
Meet with the Families, thank them for their support and ask for their help with investing in New Vegas
>1d100+8 (DT45)

>>6322085
>>6322069
I may be retarded and forgotten how to properly roll

>>6322086
Put your dice in the options field in the format of dice+1dx+y, in this case it would be dice+1d100+8

>>6322086
Put your dice in the options field in the format of dice+[x]d[y]+[z], in this case it would be dice+1d100+8. Note that if you're ever rolling with a negative modifier, it would be formatted as +-z.

Rolled 62 + 8 (1d100 + 8)

>>6322086
>>6322085

>>6322096
Urk, I've given you false information because it's the wee hours and I'm tired. There was no modifier on that roll, but in any case I've just noticed the families were already rolled for above you so you'll need to pick a different one and roll again.

Rolled 33 (1d100)

>>6322069
Inevitably doomed research roll.

>>6322103
Fuck it, I'm just glad the nuke roll went really well.

>>6321757
fuck it, Cassidy wife route. She deserves well and we should give her that happiness.

Also she is right that we are likely slowly killing ourselves and our friendships.

>>6322103
>RnD fails again
lmao, lol even.

Rolled 27 (1d100)

>>6322069
Military.

Rolled 56 (1d100)

>>6322069
>Industrial

If we can spend the money for the anniversary next turn I am happy. Otherwise I would be down to use some gold for it.

>>6322116
Yeah, if it's now or never for funding the Anniversary Celebration, spend gold to do it now.

Rolled 40 (1d100)

Rollang for Cholera Containment by DHHS

>>6322122
"Circumcision causes cholera"

>>6322072
way to save the day you glorious fucken bastard

Oh hey maybe this thread will have better-
>sees the remainder of the rolls
Well at least the blight roll went well

>>6322215
I'll treat some of rolls being poor as it's because we're broke and we need more researchers.

>>6322244
Literally what it is. If we got the empty set up right I bet our research DT's would average below 30

>>6322244
Our roll spread was entirely average, even above average. Remember that any DT above 50 is worse than a coin flip; most of these were simply not going to happen.

>>6322215
atleast we didn't Nat-1 the Nuke drop roll

>>6322359
While true, I doubt lacking personal and caps is helping.

>>6322359
Right, that's the incentive to not be broke and to have resources like competent researchers or technicians or bureaucrats - it will invariably lower the DT on resource intensive, expensive tasks to below average instead of well above.

>>6322382
Imagine
>Loading vertibird with bomb
>Whoopsee daisy, butterfingers!
>Beat
>Picrel

This month has two priorities that stand above all else. First, detonating the nuclear weapon in Zion. You’re almost certain it won’t end the infestation and you do need to find the source of this bio weapon, but it will buy you breathing room. The nuclear weapon has been checked by you for any blatant flaws and a timed mechanism has been built and implanted, but it’s still a daunting task. Not just because you’re returning to Zion, but because you’re still not sure where to detonate the device.

You’re also not too sure you can do it yourself. If Zion was that bad months ago, who knows what it looks like now. But you can’t bring in a full platoon of shock troopers, you have neither the room or weight allowance for the Vertibird. You know of only one other person you would trust to watch your back.

Ulysses is exactly where he said he would be, camped out in front of Yes Man’s main terminal in the Lucky 38. He has his pack leaned up against a far wall with a sleeping bag rolled out in front of the monitor. You exit the elevator in the middle of a discussion between the two.

Yes Man: “…post Civil War saw a rapid increase in industry, population, GDP, migration and just about every other relevant metric!”

Ulysses is sitting in a simple dining chair while hunched over a notebook he’s scribbling in.

Ulysses: “It seems war creates the basis for a healthy society, but only after the conflict ends.”

Yes Man: “That’s what my databanks tell me! Every time the United States left a war, they were stronger and more optimistic which bled into many facets of life! Of course, this wasn’t the case when nuclear weaponry was involved. Oh, hiya Courier!”

Ulysses turns around and shuts his notebook, standing and giving you his measure of respect.

Ulysses: “Courier, it’s good to see you. I’ve taken the liberty of catching myself up on the stats of things. Plus, a few history lessons.”

Yes Man: “He sure is curious! I haven’t had time to reset my cycles in days!”

You glance over back to his pack and see a stack of notebooks of varying styles and sizes.

[I hate to interrupt but something has come up, and I could use your help. Follow me to my armory.]

Ulysses nods and heads to get his pack while you head back to the elevator. Once the both of you are inside, you clue him in.

What do you know about this Boomer Blight?]

“A bio-engineered weapon, targeted at you or the Mojave in general. Exposure results in horrific mutations or a highly-communicable and deadly sickness. Either way, it’s a threat.”

Yes it is and currently, the Zion Valley is fully infested and beyond saving.]

“A shame. Zion was beautiful. But we’re beyond containment, so what’s the plan?”

The conversation continues as the two of you exit the elevator and into your personal armory. You’re missing much of the power armor after making a donation to the NVAF but have added through your recent travels. A rifle from the bunker at Hawthorne and armor from one of the dead 80’s near Creech.

[I have a nuclear bomb and while I can’t be sure, the yield is over 4 megatons. The plan is to place it somewhere in Zion where we will then activate the timer and the fuck outta there. For good.]

“As good a plan as any.”

He begins separating his gear and taking a peruse through your private stock. You take a look at the few sets of power armor you have left. Your Remnants Enclave suit and a set of T-51.

[We’ll both be using Power Armor. I hope you know how to use it.]

“I trained on it years ago with a Brotherhood Chapter far out East in payment. The T-51 is a fine set for the task at hand.”

You know what you’re getting into, but have to be conscious of weight. The two sets of armor and the bomb will more or less eat up the lift capacity of the Vertibird. That means ammo will be light and you have little room for medicine or other supplies. This needs to be a quick arrival and departure.

That being said, you will still need some heavy firepower. The two of you begin organizing your mission gear in complete silence. You don’t say it out loud, but it’s nice to work with someone of the same caliber.

You bring a Fatman with a handful of warheads, another custom Shiskebab and the Tri-Beam. The only other thing you make room for are the remaining napalm and incendiary grenades you have.

Ulysses grabs the Heavy Incinerator, a machete and two 10MM sub machine guns. He also included a bundle of plasma grenades, because you can never have enough grenades.

[Alright, once more into the breach.]

Twelve hours later, you and Ulysses are suited up in the back of the Vertibird while the device is strapped underneath the bird. The two of you have been discussing the merits of an oligarchy while on the way to Zion. While illuminating, it also had the intended effect of distracting you from the goal at hand.

*bxzt* FIVE MINUTES *bxzt*

Daisy’s voice comes over faint in the speakers of the cabin. You nod to Ulysses and put your helmet on. Checking the seals of the suit, you lumber over the side door and rip it open. Rushing wind fills the cabin and the unnatural greenery of Zion spreads out before you.

>1d100, BO3 (DT35)

Rolled 46 (1d100)

>>6322423
ah shit more rolls

Rolled 82 (1d100)

>>6322423
Casually tell Ulysses that we're making him our Vice Director and heir.

Rolled 22 (1d100)

>>6322423
fug, nat 1 here we go.

>>6322428
Until we have a Mojave rose baby for him to uncle !!!

>>6322428
do that as we're bathed in light from the mushroom cloud
Kodak moment if there ever was one

Courier Six and Ulysses fighting together is sure to be kino. I wonder if the Blight cooked some new horrors

The morning sun is just now bathing Zion in warm light, though you’re sure not much of it touches the jungle floor. It’s not the unnatural beauty that gets your attention, but the objects flying straight for the Vertibird getting larger and larger.

*crzck* WE HAVE VISITORS *sztt*

Daisy alerts you of what you already know, and you’re way ahead of her. You turn on the internal comms for the Vertibird.

[Let us handle it, get us where we need to go.]

You close the circuit and turn to Ulysses. He also has his helmet on and is loading both machine guns. You’d kill for a minigun right now.

Patching into his speakers, you gesture towards his closed door.

[Hitch yourself up to the Vertibird and try to keep those flying freaks away from us.]

During the flight here and in between politically philosophical discussions, you gave Ulysses the tour of the Vertibird. On each side of the Vertibird are hard points where heavy weaponry can be attached for use. While neither of you brought the appropriate firepower, power armor can also be attached which grants the user greater maneuverability.

Ulysses hooks the back of his T-51 to the hardpoint and leans out the Vertibird. Daisy’s baby jerks to the right and behind leaning dangerously before the internal compensators increase power to the left engine and steadies the craft.

The 10MM sub machine guns aren’t the best weapon for this task but it’s what you have and Ulysses’ aim is almost as good as yours. Hundreds of yards away, the unidentified flying objects begin dropping under a measured stream of 10MM rounds.

But not enough of them to down.

As they get closer, you see them for what they truly are. Another disgusting mutation born out of the unique ecosystem of Zion. If it was a bird once, its wings are now longer and wider, but much thinner. So thin that you assume them to be translucent.

Their body is long and bony, more similar to a praying mantis than any bird. More details become clearer as the swarm numbering in the 50’s approaches the Vertibird. Ulysses bolsters his peashooters and begins shooting gouts of flame from his incinerator.

But just as the flock is about to impact the Vertibird, they scatter and dive down into the canopy top of Zion below.

*shrzk* WHATEVER YOU BOYS DID, IT WORKED. COMING IN FOR LANDING NOW. *bzirk*

Before you have time to consider the reasons for those creatures pulling off, your heart drops into your stomach as Daisy’s bird seems to fall out of the sky.

You nearly bend the stability bar with your augmented strength as the Vertibird finally reaches the detonation point. You chose The Sentinel as good a detonation point as any. Considering the suspected yield, a small peak like Sentinel shouldn’t impact the explosion too much. You remember a relatively flat plateau at the Southern edge, still above most of the valley but a good staging area.

If it wasn’t for your pipboy map, you wouldn’t know what you’re looking at. Zion has turned into a green carpet with little geographical difference. Daisy finishes her descent and is now hovering fifty yards above the canopy. Too close for comfort but you need the incendiary munitions to drop to half the tree level below the canopy.

You give a thumbs-up to Ulysses and the two of you begin dropping what napalm and incendiary grenades you have left out of the Vertibird. Within seconds, plumes of flame shoot up from below and consume everything in reach with a cleansing fire. You idly wonder if Big Mountain has any sort of pesticide that would make your job a thousand times easier, but you file that under “to do sometime later and monitor the progress.

Not nearly enough foliage has been burned away for your tastes but that’s why Ulysses has the incinerator. Daisy lowers her craft around 30 feet from the ground floor and both couriers drop off their respective sides and hit the still-burning jungle floor.

[I’m sure everything in this godforsaken valley knows we’re here. Let’s get this over with.]

Ulysses blinks his helmet lights green in confirmation and begins burning a greater clearing for the nuclear device while you hold overwatch with your tri-beam. But no creatures scurry out of the dark jungle and these few precious minutes allows enough space for Daisy to lower the bomb to the floor and you to disconnect the straps from the VTOL.

“I think we’re in the clear.”

A rumble shakes the ground, causing Ulysses to take a knee and you to grab onto the bomb for support.

YOU HAVE LEFT MY SANCTUM BEFORE, ALIVE. THIS TRANSGRESSION, I WILL NOT ABIDE

The voice rumbles through your brain and causes your vision to dim as your head pounds with pain.

Ulysses regains his footing, and runs over to you.

“Courier, we have incoming targets.”

You can’t seem to catch your breath and your body feels sluggish and drained.

“Ulysses..did…what was that voice?”

He shakes his head as the helmet bobs its lights back and forth across your vision.

“What voice?”

The earth shakes again, dropping both of you to the ground.

>1d100, BO3 (DT90)

Rolled 89 (1d100)

>>6323025

Rolling for great justice...

Rolled 10 (1d100)

>>6323025

jesus christ. we're not passing that. Niggah let us fucking just drop a bomb.

Rolled 59 (1d100)

>>6323025
And another Fallout fanfic features a Joshua Monster.
Are we ever going to drop this fucking bomb? I'm sick of Zion at this point. I just want it to stop dragging and be over.

>>6323037
Zion is more of a state of mind at this point. But don’t worry, last roll from you guys.

And that 89 basically passes short of a little friction

>>6323032
>>6323037
C'mon fellas, this is an endgame level threat, more or less the main antagonist of the plot, and clearly it's a story element the QM has put a lot of thought and effort into.

>>6323045
Its not so much having a boss fight, its just fucking the dice man.

>>6323042
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA6wmf-MUP8

>>6323045
I get it, it's just frustrating to take a shot on goal after much anticipation only for the goal to suddenly seem to teleport twenty metres back and you miss your shot. I want to move on to new things now rather than get stuck here even more - Zion is this arc's villain but it's definitely not the main antagonist of the story. There'll be more threats of its calibre and greater to come. I don't even want to think about how we'll deal with the Tunnelers.

Uh oh. Do we know about the Master? Because I think it's time we called up the Brotherhood bigwigs and start screaming about another psychic super mutant Thing that's going to take over the West Coast.

>>6323059
I think it's Joshua, hijacked and mutated by the Blight. We didn't see him die, which is just too much of a hook to ignore and he mentions us leaving his sanctum before, which is a very Joshua thing to say. That and his infamous role in DUST.

>>6323059
>>6323060
Option A: It's Joshua's corrupted husk having somehow developed psychic abilities, whether through latent talent he never knew about or the Blight somehow evolving this ability.
Or Option B: The Blight itself has developed some sort of central gestalt with the aforementioned psychic powers.

Either way, I'm really fucking glad we did this now and didn't wait any longer to use the bomb.

>>6323057
Sadly even after the nuke we still must do clean up or it will just come back. Which I do hope our limited researchers can do something or it will come down to flame and bodies. Granted it will be hard to for the people that did this to fine a good spot with this much greenery, so I assume.

>>6323078
I just hope the clean up with goes with out problems. Otherwise I doubt we can talk it out with this thing.

>>6323078
>a fungal collective consciousness
oh great, maybe we can sic it against Yes Man when House inevitably subverts him/it

>>6323025
As i expected it gained enough mass for some form of intellect beyond mere insticts to form. All in all in a very short timeframe. This will not be the end of it.


>>6323037
Its never so simple with an enemy of this size. It might retreat away for a while if nothing else, it has made good effort in expanding in all directions remember. The nuke should hurt it which allows us some breath to resolve more problems in the Directorate.

If it had been something small and concentrated in a small space like say the Fiends, wiping it out would be easy. But since we found even bikers not near Zion with the Blight....


>>6323057
I think we have too many enemies for one of them to be considered the main one. Hopefully they will start getting in the way of eachother hahaha

A column of ash and earth shoots up next to you, followed by three others elsewhere in the clearing. You’re slow to get back on your feet and Ulysses is already up and shooting into the jungle.

Rolling onto your back, you see those same bony birds circling ahead and diving down to attack.

*szhrt* IT’S GETTING HAIRY UP HERE *bzrt*

[Daisy, we’re triggering the bomb now. Just a few minutes.]

She radios back an affirmative and gains altitude for better maneuverability. You would kill to take a hit of jet right now but you’re not taking this helmet off and you don’t have the drug cocktail that’s meant for this suit.

Instead, you will your sluggish body up just to be set upon by a pack of spore carriers. Ulysses is too busy defending his half of the perimeter so type get your tri-beam up close and begin blasting from point blank range.

YOU WILL NOT LEAVE ME TWICE

The same pain flows from your head down to your toes but the adrenaline of combat helps to clear your mind. The laser rifle goes empty just as the last of the immediate threats lay dead, thin wisps of smoke drifting up from their body. The smoke of the fires bring visibility down to almost nothing but of course the Zion creatures don’t seem to be bothered.

[ULYSSES, COVER ME.]

You shout over the closed circuit between the suits and hope he hears, and can help. You sprint over to the bomb, your power armor letting you fly across the smoldering clearing in just seconds. The suit of armor doesn’t give much in the way of dexterity but you take the time to input the code, activating the weapon of mass destruction.

[OKAY, WE-]

You're hit in the side by something, causing you to stumble and the breath to fly out of you. Unsheathing your shiskebab, you turn and see that it’s not a monstrosity, at least an intact one. The bottom half of a former Yau Guai cub is still twitching, bleeding out its green goo.

You look at Ulysses who’s still holding his machete, now dripping in the same bright green liquid with the other half of the cub at his own feet.

“We should leave.”

Always perceptive. You take a second to reload your rifle, the blade in your right hand with the tri-beam in your left. The other courier is emptying the rest of his tank to create a wall of fire for your retreat. The birds are still making occasional dive attacks but their accuracy leaves much to be desired due to the smoke.

[Daisy, the bomb is armed. Get us outta here!]

You can’t see the Vertibird through the smoke or hear it over the firefight, but you know she’s still up there.

*crzk* ROGER, COMING IN HOT *kzrt*

Ulysses has backed up to your position while quickly burning through his remaining ammunition. Instead of normal spore carriers, or really anything you would recognize, the new enemies are just fleshy amalgamations of all shapes and sizes. Some have eight appendages which allow them to skitter along the jungle floor while others are smaller and dart from tree to tree using their sticky, vine-like skin.

You’re not sure how or why but what passes for “natural” in the wasteland is being warped and twisted to unrecognizable levels. You’re not even sure what used to be the freaks you’re putting down with concentrated laser fire.

Your musings help steady your nerves and bring you into perfect combat zen, so much so that you don’t notice the Vertibird drop out of the sky right above your position.

Thick eddies of smoke swirl and dance as the Vertibird’s twin engines help to clear the smoke still streaming from fires all around.

You and Ulysses waste no time clambering up into the cab and before you can get both feet planted, Daisy takes her baby straight up in the air and out of danger. But it’s still not over. Ulysses thunks you on your shoulder paldron.

“Look.”

He’s pointing away from the detonation sight towards a distance in the trees. Something massive is moving through the jungle towards the bomb. You’re not sure how much damage the device can take but you’re not taking any chances. You kneel down and ready the Fat Man.

[Daisy, take us Northwest, towards that disturbance in the trees.]

*szhrk* Your funeral. And mine. *bzlt*

The craft dives again to pick up speed, directly to whatever the hell is big enough to move the jungle like that. You pull the trigger and the first warhead is away. Another warhead is loaded before the first one explodes.

Ding

The first warhead explodes in a mushroom cloud as the other heads directly where you expect the unknown contact to be.

NOOOOOOOOAAAAAUUUUGGGGGGHH

You don’t get the luxury of appreciating the twin mushroom clouds stopping whatever was on the way to the bomb. This internal screech dims the world around you. If you weren’t already kneeling, you might have fallen right out of the Vertibird. Imagine that.

[Ulysses….might be a bad time…I want you to be my second-in-command.]

Your Deputy Director closes his side door and walks over to shut yours as well.

“I’d be honored, Courier Six. With that being said, it may not be wise to send us both on these suicide missions.”

You can help but laugh through the pain, fear and exhaustion.

You look at the clock within your helmet. Any second now…

A blinding light fills the porthole windows on both sides and the shockwave rolls through the Vertibird. If you misjudged the yield and you’re too close…

*bzkt* HANG ON BOYS, WE’RE RIDING THE LIGHTNING *czrk*

The bird bucks and dives but doesn’t fall out of the sky. On the turn back home, you get a glimpse of the massive mushroom cloud billowing up from Zion.

You can’t say you’re sad to see it go. Zion was once beautiful, but if you ever return, it’ll be too soon.

The only lingering question, one you’re not ready to seriously ask yourself; what was that voice? And did the nuclear blast kill it?

>>6323344
>>6323347
>>6323351

[b]QUEST COMPLETED: WHEN THE FIRE COMES DOWN FROM HEAVEN[/b]

https://youtu.be/6Tt7-_pbklY?si=EWNCtx9h42jjpJ8e

Happy Saturday New Vegas. The nights may be getting colder but our time together always seems to warm me up. But enough of these sweet nothings, it’s time for the news.

It’s a bird! No, it’s a plane! No! It’s- well yeah it is a plane. A small workshop out near Goodsprings has built an actual working plane from scratch. While the owners originally did it because of a dare, they’re hoping to begin selling them to businesses or even the New Vegas Directorate.

If that’s not a sign of the time, folks, I don’t know what is.

Here’s another one for you good people. The Secretary of Health and Human Services have warned against travel to certain neighbors in Freeside to help contain the recent cholera outbreak. She claims the situation is under control and that containment is the top priority for the government. Note to self, wash hands.

This news bulletin comes from the reclusive, and newly-admitted settlement of the Westside Republic. They are now accepting new applications for residency with particular focus on roboticists, doctors, skilled craftsmen and anyone with an educational background. I just hope they have room for a humble radio host!

Lastly, you may have seen a mushroom cloud far off in the Northeast. I have it in good authority that a military operation, led by our dear Director, resulted in the total destruction of hostile biological agents that may have posed a threat to Directorate citizens. Officials are monitoring for radioactive fallout but have no cause for alarm. I salute The Courier for his bravery and swift action against foreign enemies.

That’s all I have for now. But remember, it’s a crazy, crazy wasteland out there and anything can happen. Especially in a place like New Vegas.

Now, radioactive isotopes aren’t the only thing filling the sky. Here’s Elvis!

https://youtu.be/zf2VYAtqRe0?si=wlv3b0nU9vnYXTta


>>6323370
Mission titles for bigger courier tasks are such a good idea, I’m a hack for not thinking of it before. Too late to start doing them here on out?

>>6323500
Never too late babe, sorry if I stole any thunder on that one; felt appropriate

>>6323500
Ooh, an aircraft workshop? I'm definitely interested in whatever they've come up with. I'd also like to see if we can contract them to restore the abandoned aircraft from places like Jean, Nipton Road and Searchlight if that's within their expertise.

Never too late to start naming things.

>>6323370
based

>>6323508
I bet it's Jane's, and if they're able to scale up we could have an air force....

>>6323351
Hallelujah, that's one sword of Damocles firmly postponed. Naturally we're going to have to finish the job at some point (and deal with whatever was talking to us), but hopefully all this will be crippled long enough for us to put it down for good.

>>6323500
>Too late to start doing them here on out?
Hell no. I'd love having dramatic quest titles for when the Courier has to personally deal with serious shit.

>>6323508
yea this is super exciting
I'd contract them to build a small utility plane along the lines of the Po-2 or Piper Cub

Good to hear I can hop on that wagon mid-ride. Won’t use them for every courier action but the bigger/longer missions could be cute.

Next up: A few small tasks until it’s time to travel into legion lands once again.

>>6323511
Remind me who Jane is?
For an air force, I'd rather we task them with jetplane restoration like I mentioned if they can do it since I doubt whatever they're making would be particularly suitable for combat, especially against a major adversary. But that could be significantly more complex and something to build up to later.

>>6323516
There is the question of what sort of aircraft would actually be useful to us. What would we use small utility aircraft for? We can use them as scout craft for the armed forces and possibly light strike craft without needing to call the Boomers every time, but I'm less sure of civil uses right now. Perhaps as charter flights to California for rich tourists? They are presumably going to need fuel though, so we'd need to get on coal liquefaction or our own ethanol brewing first.

>>6323500
There's a few uses for this plane. We can see about selling it to the Boomers for support, or we can use it with those trainees we got for flying troops and vips hopefully, or transporting rare Goods.

>>6323658
Mistyped! Jean's Sky Diving, just next to Goodspringd

>>6323658
it's called general aviation, we do a little general aviationeering
>crop (or Blight) dusters
>VIP transport
>aerial observation (cattle, fires, weather, wildlife, you name it) and mapping
>courier duty
and this is before we get into the military uses
just a great little force multiplier
remember how we spent an action and a few weeks to not find out what's going on with tthe water level in our lake? yeah

Your most recent trip to Zion wasn’t nearly as bad, but the mental strain shocked you. Whatever that beast was, it was talking to you specifically and it certainly wasn’t happy.

You’re in no rush to head East for Edward’s assassination orders so you instead cross some things off your never-ending list of responsibilities. The most important task is to check wind direction so ensure heavy fallout doesn’t blanket the Mojave. You should have done more planning beforehand, but the chance to halt further infection by the Blight was more than worth the risk.

In perhaps the greatest break of luck in your reign so far, the prevailing winds in the region are North-Northeast meaning very little of d the initial and strongest fallout will hit anywhere around the Mojave. God help anyone living north of Zion.

You can’t be sure what the long-term impact will be regionally and you should plan on numerous radiation sickness cases in the next few months, but the worst will pass you by.

Breathing a sigh of relief, you turn towards less-serious domestic concerns. One of these isn’t necessarily a concern but a potential source of growth that really hasn’t been tapped yet. The (now) four big families of the strip.

Instead of meeting at the Lucky 38, you make it a point to hold this meeting at a spot on the Strip. Earl J’s Surf and Turf is a rising star in the food scene and sits on one of the less-traveled sections of the Strip.

When Earl J heard that The Director, the Secretary of Tourism and all four family heads wanted to dine at his establishment, Earl was all too happy to reserve the private room and bring out the “prime cuts”.

Sarah on the other hand was a little disappointed that this dinner wasn’t just between you and her but she is glad to have everyone in one place talking about investment.

There’s no place on The Strip that’s “seedy”, the Securitrons make sure of that. But there are certainly some locations that are off the beaten path, either being down an alley or tucked between two larger buildings. Earl J’s is one of these places. A classy joint but a far cry from the headline of New Vegas.

The first hour is spent catching up and making friendly small-talk. This is where you meet the head of the El Presidente for the first time.

Hayden Flint is everything Swank, Marjorie and Cachino aren’t. While civilized, the three original families are tribes and much of their attitude and personalities march this. Hayden is a businessman who got his start running establishments back in New Reno and has a penchant for turning a tidy profit wherever he is. When the joint investment was signed, Hoss headhunted him to run the new flagship investment out here in New Vegas.

He’s a nice enough man, but quiet and calculating. Understandably, the three other family heads gave him a wide berth. After drinks and some light appetizers, you gather up the attendees.

[Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for joining me here at Earl J’s. It is my first time here and I’m happy to see other venues thriving just as yours are.]

You get light applause from the family heads and Sarah. It’s true, business has been very good for The Strip.

[With the NCR-Legion war far from this land and our roads safer than ever, travelers domestic and foreign aren’t afraid to visit the Mojave as they once were.]

You receive a little more lively applause this time around, deservedly so. With the Legion not propping up raider groups and their soldiers in other theaters, the NVD has some very safe roads.

[But there is more work to be done and that’s why I’ve called you here today. New Vegas is unlike any other place in the wasteland but aside from your four casinos, the remainder of the strip could use some real love and care. I am strongly implying the four of you to use some of your comfortable profits and reinvest into New Vegas. I’d ask you to throw some money into Freeside, but that may be a bridge too far.]

Hayden looked unmoved, but the three other family heads almost spit out their drinks.

Cachino: Hold a fucking second, you’re allowing us to invest outside of our casinos?

[Yeah? Why wouldn’t I?]

Swank: House wasn’t as cool a customer as you. He said he would end us if we dared get out of our lane, in more words than that.

Cachino: It’s always nice to go swimming in my pool of caps, but I’d love to open some brothels over in Freeside.

Marjorie: You’re right in thinking that the White Gloves wouldn’t be caught dead anywhere other than New Vegas, but there are some business ventures we have considered. If you’re giving us…permission….we could begin immediately.

You’re shocked and surprised. Why wouldn’t House have wanted the other families to invest their vast fortunes? If it’s a worry of influence, that’s balanced out by NCR investments and your own stubbornness. You look to Hayden.

[Mr. Flint, does the El Presidente feel the same way?]

He’s said no more than a few words this entire dinner but has been taking the entire meeting in full.

Flint: As I’m sure everyone here is aware, the El Presidente has just opened and is the smallest of the three on The Strip. While I am confident that we will become a mainstay just as the Tops, Ultra Luxe and Gomorrah are, right now the best focus is on the casino.

The three other family heads look smug, but you see the logic and you didn’t expect much else.

[Thank you, Mr. Flint. I look forward to visiting El Presidente. Secretary Weintraub, can you please share some specifics on investment and growth opportunities for everyone else here?]

You sit back down and finish the rest of your drink. The liquor selection at this place isn’t much to write home about but they have a killer Nuka-Cola frozen drink you’re in love with.

Over dinner, Sarah spends the time espousing her ideas about what the three families could spend their pile of assorted currency on. For as enthusiastic as she is, Sarah doesn’t have a finger on the pulse of the Omertàs or White Gloves.

Cachino wants to appeal to the lowest common denominator, no surprise there, while Marjorie is still sticking to cuisine and New Vegas in general.

Swank and the Chairmen are a little more open-minded but the reality is that anyone traveling to New Vegas for pleasure or for business usually does not bring their children. Business talk slows as the main meal comes out and it does not disappoint. The Scallops and Brahmin Ribeye are fantastic and you need to find out what sauce they put over the clams.

Great food aside, all three original families promised a year-long investment of 200,000 caps each, mostly in tourism and entertainment. It may not help your long-term industrial plans but the more attractive New Vegas is, the better.

You give your best wishes to the rest of the families as Cachino, Swank and Marjorie depart full and happy. It’s Mr. Flint who stops on his way out.

Flint: Director, a word alone please?

He makes a small gesture to Sarah, evidently wanting to be “alone” alone.

[Of course. Thanks for your help tonight, Secretary.]

Once again, Sarah looks disappointed that it was all work and no play tonight but that’s the price of running a nation. When she leaves, you gesture for him to sit down at the table across from you.

Flint: Thank you Director. While I do not represent every single NCR investment interest out here, I hold no small amount of sway with those vested in the tourism industry. Which is the majority of our investment out here, I add. That being said, I have been asked to propose two things to you. First, that the El Presidente be exempt from taxes to the NVD for five years. Due to the resources needed to overhaul and staff the casino, there’s a very big risk of going under which would be terrible for everyone involved. Secondly, your government has issued a proclamation that any natural resources are NVD property. While I applaud the foresight, the fact that the copper deposit hasn’t been touched yet opens an opportunity for cooperation and some enterprising industrialists would love to get a mine quickly set up. You don’t have to answer now, but my benefactors hope the relationship with the NVD will continue to bear fruit.

He bids a good evening and leaves you alone in the private room at Earl J’s. At least it’s not an overt threat this time.

>>6324499
The copper is my thought for the next mine anyways. Coal would be if we can't get more power out of the dam or windfarm. Yet getting caps into the area and getting people better off. It will be good for their health and our income.

I assume we will need to look outside of NVD for some of the resources we need for the Securitrons.

>>6324513
I broke down the raw resources last thread and the only things we likely won't be able to get our hands on from within southeastern Nevada (albeit with outposts for the further-away resources) are uranium (even if we did, enrichment would be so hellishly complex it wouldn't be worth it) and chromium (we have the refinery, but the nearest source of chromite is in Bagdad in Legion territory).
Really, burning coal for power seems like a waste of a finite resource. With the effort needed to construct a large coal power plant, we could be adding new solar thermal capacity (iterating on HELIOS One's design, sans secret laser) or putting up new wind turbines (the Spring Mountains ridgelines west of Vegas have excellent wind potential) instead.

>>6324544
Yes Man: The two resources the Mojave has in absence are energy and clean water so you’re exactly right! The best use of coal, besides a valuable trading resource, is in the production of steel through coke.

>>6324499
that will be a "no and fuck you" on being tax exempt... unless there is something unique he can do for us?
investors, we can always use
>>6324544
who said anything about enrichment?
trading with the Legion for chromium should be posible
as for power, let's first find out what's wrong with our lake

>>6324565
Weather machine + lightning rod = mucho power
Weather machine + solar panels = mucho power

>>6324565
You can't do very much with natural uranium. It should go without saying that it will need enrichment to be usable for fission power systems unless we can can substitute the fission batteries in the Securitrons for something else.
I ballsed up, I meant titanium and not chromium. The Legion won't be mining Ti since there have been no functioning Ti refineries anywhere since the War, indeed the ilmenite deposits at Bagdad are considered subeconomic (at least by OTL standards) so there likely won't be any existing workings there. We'd have to kick off titanium mining ourselves to start with, perhaps via a mining concession.
Obviously Hoover Dam is our priority and we still have the other half of those turbines to restore and then we also have the Davis Dam (and even the Parker Dam if we're feeling brave) to check out as well so we're only using less than half of the potential nameplate hydropower capacity available to us. It's just a consideration for the future or if we want to diversify our power sources earlier to not be so dependent on Hoover if anything goes wrong there. Either way, there's no pressing need.

>>6324547
Ya mean abundance there? Coal also for manufacturing synthetic hydrocarbons for fuel and even plastics.

>>6324573
I don't know how cool the securitron factory actually is
maybe it can ingest natural uranium and produce batteries
otherwise, yes, a multi-year project and expensive as fuck, even if we do go the detergent route
>We'd have to kick off titanium mining ourselves to start with, perhaps via a mining concession.
this actually dovetails nicely with my plans to subvert the Legion
>>6324566
weather machine + hydroelectric dam = mucho power, food and cleanliness
no need to complicate things, just make it rain, bby!

>>6324598
Using the weather control machine to provide water is an attractive idea, but we don't know its limitations as a technology. Does it depend on scarce atmospheric moisture? What's its maximum range and power? What bugs might this experimental technology have? We're also in a desert and have to be really careful with dumping excessive rain on it.

>>6324565
I do believe there was not a turn post about it, but the water is saying it's a system problem.

"It’s confirmed that the water shortage isn’t due to Mojave usage but increased population, no water control and increased industry/agriculture is straining the plumbing system of the Mojave."

Still it could be cool to make a the lake useable for resources like food or transport for goods.

>>6324725
While I enjoy some of the granularity that's applied to different elements of this quest - like currency exchange rates and having to figure out wind direction for fallout or even looking at the various industrial applications of coal and chromium - I think for the mad science weather machine, we should assume that if we roll good to make it work right, we can use it to print water and tornado dipshits without anyone in the thread having to write a meteorological thesis explaining how that works without disturbing the delicate (made up, fantastical, mutant filled) ecosystem. All that real world science and chemistry and economics that has been flexed here is cool, but it doesn't change that in this setting, radiation can make you an immortal zombie or cause a bug to multiply in size, and there are household appliances with batteries that last for centuries. I think the weather machine should probably be viewed as functioning in a similar, fantastical manner.

>>6324735
Good perspective anon and that’s the attitude I take. I think people on 4chan are a little smarter than the average population and if you’ve stuck around in this quest to this point, you’re probably further above that line

So when it concerns fantastical technologies, it’s more a matter of time and good rolls, plus some shopping lists to make a tech work than it is actually telling me how you think it would work


No holds barred for unforeseen consequences though

>>6324735
Ultimately, I know that's true and I'm overthinking it. Issue is, I enjoy overthinking it as a thought exercise even if reality is more abstracted.
Points about what the weather machine is capable of and whether we can rely on this unproven tech are still valid, though I get a lot of that will be decided by dice.

>>6324544
I assume we can loot fission batteries from old world spots. We still haven't explored Area H1 for example, I'm sure they have lots of cool tech stuff lying around, if it hasn't been looted already (I almost want to hold out for a Nat 100, save the boon, and use it to explore Area 51 or some other military installation, but no idea when one of those might come along). Otherwise I'm sure we can talk to the Brotherhood, maybe do a little quid pro quo, we should put some more effort into weaning the Mojave chapter off Lost Hills. Or even our new Enclave folks, they might figure something out.

>>6324974
We definitely can, but there's only so many of those around and they're a finite resource. I don't know how long a fission battery lasts (I assume as long as is story-convenient) but if we're going to manufacture robots and vehicles and such at scale we'll need some kind of manufacturing pipeline for power cores. I believe the NCR has a production chain going for enriched uranium given I assume they're still running the nuclear plant at Gecko and they seem to have an awful lot of fission cores to go around for their vehicles, aircraft etc. Perhaps it would be better to skip fission batteries directly and go to microfusion tech, though how complex that would be to manufacture I don't know given Fallout technology consists of magic black boxes that can be MacGyvered together with a bobby pin, tin can and duct tape when the camera isn't looking.

With the treasury being empty for the month and you not being too keen on dipping into the gold reserves, you take this as an opportunity to consolidate what you’ve done so far. There’s nothing as important as the work you’ve done with the Revised Mojave Rehabilitation Plan.

While every department has had some part in the RMRP, four stick out to you. Commerce Secretary Garrett, Interior Secretary Lewis, Ag Secretary Gunderson and Transport Secretary Tejada. You don’t have them meet at some nice restaurant in New Vegas, but at the NVD headquarters south of the city. You haven’t been there since your government moved offices. The first problem is actually getting there. A local group runs a daily caravan down, bringing supplies and people back and forth with it being a six hour trip from The Strip.

You get to talking to an employee of the Energy Department and after their awe of sitting next to The Director wears off, you glean some useful information off of her. The former REPCONN Headquarters are in pretty good shape and the renovation work done wasn’t horrible, but the biggest problem is getting people down there and back. As there is no real housing near the facility, employees either live in the headquarters in unused cubicles or in the surrounding rundown buildings.

This results in a similar lifestyle as those who work at Hoover, staying at the office until the weekends when they’ll travel back to see family or visit The Strip. Security down there isn’t the best either, with a few gangs having grown around intimidating workers and businesses for caps.

The trip down South is uneventful otherwise and you arrive at the NVD Headquarters. It is true that the area is a little livelier than before with a few saloons, diners and motels having opened for not only other traffic but specifically for government workers. The grounds surrounding the administrative building are cleaner than before with the large sign at the beginning of the driveway now reading “New Vegas Directorate Administrative Headquarters”.

As you walk into the facility, a horrible realization hits. If someone were to hit this place, there’s no real security stopping them. Your government may not be decapitated and the military could function just fine but almost everything else would suffer huge setbacks. This is only further proven when a smiling front desk helper, without any identification shown, directs you to where the four Secretaries have gathered in a meeting room on the fourth floor.

Raul: So then I said, that’s not a lump of rutting flesh, that's my wife!

The small meeting room erupts in laughter as you enter but quickly dies down when they realize who it is.

[No need to quiet down for me, Raul is a funny fucker. Was that the joke about the Pastor’s daughter?]

Raul: Caught red-handed, boss. It’s the ol’ reliable.

You take a seat at the table next to Francine and Raul while everyone gives their greetings.

[Well I’m sorry to interrupt the comedy club but I thought this month would be a good opportunity to discuss how the Revised Mojave Rehabilitation Plan is progressing, from each of your departments.]

Raul: Especially since we have no money, right boss?

The other three Secretaries murmur in support.

[I know everyone’s budget has been cut and this month and there’s been no funds for any projects, but you all know the reasons. I’m happy to say that not only will they all be restored, but every department will have their monthly budget increased to 8,000 caps a month.]

That gets smiles and applause from your Secretaries, as it should. It’s going to be a lot of money out of your treasury.

[But I expect results from everyone, much more than in the past year. While I will receive a council report next month from everyone, let’s focus back on the RMRP. Who wants to start?]

Garrett: I will, as I’ve been more involved than anyone. First, that’s great news about the budget. I will be able to hire more border officials not only check goods but to extract the correct tax. As imports and exports have increased, my department has had difficulties collecting the proper duties. But as for your question, it’s been an improvement across the board in every way. While some industries and facilities take time to set up and begin production, there is a clear increase in the output of the region at large.

Lewis: Sorry to interrupt ma’am, but I want to agree with you. My boys down in Sloan and now over near Searchlight used to have a hell of a time finding a shovel or pick worth a damn. Now, they’re still not pre-war quality or like back West but it’s a far cry from before.

Garrett: That’s the gist for me. Anything not worth getting from the NCR is being made here, mostly simple tools and goods. But it’s a start. We’re importing almost everything else from the Republic.

Gunderson: That’s a dangerous path. I took a class on this back in university. The more we buy from the NCR, the more dependent we are on them and the less our domestic industry can grow.

[Good point, Ted. But that’s why we have the massive investment plan, to inject government funds into certain parts of the economy to grow it unnaturally and keep it in the NVD. With how expensive it is to transport things back and forth between here and Shady Sands, the more we produce here the better.]

Garrett: That’s the idea of the program, but we may have been a little over eager in the rollout. As I mentioned, the region is more productive now than it’s been probably since the Great War but we took the path of least resistance and focused on basic tools, goods and services. We’re still dependent on the Republic for anything more than hammers and nails.

You feel like you want to scream. The plan specifically focuses on basic industrial staples and more intensive industries in a completely different phase. Deep breaths, Six.

[Part A of Phase 2 called for exactly what you’re describing, simple production and low-skilled industries. I imagine everything else will follow. The goal is to get people to work, export what we can to the NCR and Legion and, above all, keep domestic prices low to drive consumption.]

Ted: Certain farm equipment I’ve monitored has dropped in price and increased in quality. It’s far from what the NCR is using on their best farms but it’s progress.

[Good! That’s what I want to hear! Anyone else?]

Raul: I’ve seen a lot more people on the roads, boss. I still haven’t really figured out what you want to do in terms of this “transportation” business but I’ve been in the Mojave for years and this is the busiest I’ve seen it. Maybe except for when the NCR soldiers first came.

You take a minute to collect your thoughts. Everything is on the up and up, even if no firm numbers can be given. You chalk that up to the relative decentralized nature of the region and the illiteracy throughout the wastes.

[So we’re progressing well on the RMRP?]

Garrett: Production wise, I think so. The issue may become overproduction if anything. The NCR can manufacture just about anything we can, so why buy from us? Eventually we’re going to hit a bottleneck and I’m worried it could crash us:

Ted: I agree. We will never match the industrial strength of the NCR so we shouldn’t try beyond providing the basics domestically. What we need to focus on is our strengths, the products and services we can provide better and cheaper than everyone else. Not to do Chomp’s job for him, but power and fresh water are our greatest resources and we should be leveraging that.

Ted may be a smug bastard, but you’re impressed by the young man. He’s usually on the ball and he’s to the crux of the matter quicker than most.

(Rest of the post will follow tomorrow morning. Wanted to get something out this evening for you all to ruminate on.)

>>6325041
We may want to station a troop here to support the area. At least until we get a National Guard unit made to watch the place for cheaper upkeep. Then look into a bus or some other improved public transport like a train.

>>6325060
the very first thing we need to get started is the trans-Mojave highway, a nice claycrete brick road starting from Cottonwood cove, going North to Vegas and beyond along the railway track (or directly on it since the embankment should be fine as a foundation)
this will employ a lot of people, absorb some/most of the glut of production of basic tools and basically solve most of our logistics problems

>>6325060
We probably should invest more into our military, we've haven't been doing much expansion lately. Maybe another infantry company? IInd Guards or something like that. They can pull guard duty until we get the securitrons online or expand the cops. Hey, maybe we could even target NCR vets tired of the war, get an ad campaign going and piss off Kimball even more.

>>6325046
young Ted is rarted
value-added products is how you get rich
if you're only exporting energy and/or raw materials you'll stay a banana republic forever
granted, Batista-era-Cuba-in-the-desert can be a fun thing but I think our ambitions run quite a bit higher

>>6325131
We do have two units coming next turn from Westside.

I am thinking ideally we would get 4 National Guard units. One to cover The strip and Freeside, one on The Dam, one housed at HQ, one to protect the main trade rout with NCR.

For the Troops get one to cover Nipton to Boulder city for using squads to patrol and cover the south. The Guard unit should help them keep the west side trade covered. One stationed at Rex to cover the north side viva patrols keeping us up to date and people covered from random animal attack. Send one unit to explore north and the other south.

It will cost a lot upfront so we can slowly make the Guard to free up people. Until we can get the armor and guns in mass to make things cheaper. Mainly we just need more armor out put, we have 600+ guns for the army.

>>6325115
Yeah we will need roads or rail before the transport, but still it would be get to know what we can get. Maybe we can hire the plane makers to fix some of the broken bus on the roads.

You snap your fingers and point at him.

[Exactly. We will never match the NCR one for one. The end goal for the NVD is a high-tech utopia where we match pre-war America and even surpass it in some cases. How do we get there? These things build on securities and for all the caps in the world, we couldn’t just construct a Securitron factory next month. So the question is, how do we leverage our water and power supply, and access to advanced technology, to get there? Another way to ask, what is the best thing we could be making for the wasteland?]

The room goes silent as everyone tries to think of the best answer to your question. Minutes go by and you feel like you’re herding molerats.

[Raul, you have the most experience of anyone here. Anything to suggest?]

Raul: Ah, thanks for calling me old boss. I’d love to help but where I grew up, there wasn’t a lot of high-tech stuff going on after the bombs, that wasn’t happening anywhere.

[Okay how about the two from the NCR? Lewis, Gunderson?]

Chomp rubs the back of his head.

Lewis: I came from a pretty small town, spent most of my life working with picks and shovels. I know the Republic has a few places that make some advanced stuff. I’ll say this though, people could never get enough ore. There's only so much you can do with leftover scrap, whether you’re melting it down again or just using it as is. If you can start producing quality iron, steel…that’s a good place to be.

Gunderson: My background is similar to his, even if I did go to college. I’ve worked with new plows, plows hundreds of years old and ones made from whatever is lying around and I tell you, the new ones blew everything else out of the water. You want to make your robots, you’re not going to be able to use what’s sitting around the Mojave.

It’s not the clearest answer you’ve ever gotten but it makes sense. The metallurgical process is as important as anything else, even if you’re still learning about the whole thing. If you can build a steady supply of reliable materials, it makes any high-tech industry possible.

Garrett: I would caution attempting to rely on the NCR for that. It would make the whole process quicker and simpler but quality ore and finished metals are prohibitively expensive and would further bind us to the Republic.

Raul: I finally have something useful to say, boss. I’m still learning what the hell a Transportation Secretary does but I do know the harder it is to move around, the more expensive everything is. Back down in Mexico before the war, I bought chickens at 700 pesos each. When the local government finally opened up this new bridge, the chicken farmer got to town quicker and his price dropped by almost half. Not sure how that helps us, but it’s probably good for people to be able to move around easier.

Lewis: Roads are fine and the NCR has been pretty good about patching up those bigger interstates but if we’re talking about heavy industry, rail has no match. The tracks around here aren’t extensive, but getting them fixed up and trains running will cut down travel by more than I can count.

[Let’s call the meeting here. It’s been helpful to hear your perspectives on where we’re at and where we’re headed. I want you, and every other department, to have suggestions for the best industry we could focus on as we transition out of a subsistence society. Pass that along to other department heads as well.]

The secretaries give their goodbyes and depart, eager to share the news of increased funding with their staff. You stay behind and scribble down some thoughts of yours. You’ve read enough history and economics to know the danger of overreliance on foreign partners and on just a handful of exports, but no one wrote the book on post-apocalyptic economies. Ha, maybe you’ll be the first.

You should have brought Ulysses to this meeting. You’re still getting used to having a Deputy who you can rely on.

>>6325041
Gack, we need to beef up security. Get a couple of army squads posted here as guards and train some competent security staff to check the IDs we should be issuing everyone. This isn't just a physical security threat but an espionage risk as well.

>>6325060
Some public transport has been mooted before and I still think trolleybuses or light trams would be our best bet. When we start producing copper for wires and finally get round to switching NV Steel back on to cast vehicular components, rails, tools etc. then we can think more about it. Though the HQ is on the rail line into Freeside, we could dig just that seemingly mostly intact section out and run some speeders back and forth to Freeside on it, Bamboo Railway-style.

>>6325115
The Pre-War roads are all mostly still there, they just need to have their holes filled in (I believe the DoT has been slowly working on this in the background) and a bypass built around Searchlight. This is best done with gravel and concrete with the bricks reserved for buildings given how much labour goes into making them. We shouldn't cannibalise the trackbeds either since, while we don't have the resources to do it right now, the rail lines will be important in the future and should be kept available for restoration.
Really, our logistics bottlenecks are the fault of shortages of caravans and the fact we're still using pack animals for everything, though better roads would help.

>>6325132
Not the point I was trying to make, rather it was to find what industry not only gets you guys to the high-tech goal but also uses a lot of water and electricity, which are your two cheapest input resources.

And resources almost no one else has in abundance like you.

>>6325257
Sounds like an invitation for heavy industry. We've got both titanium and aluminium on the cards for the future, which seems to fit the bill. I can't imagine literally anyone else in the world is producing the former and I'm unsure if the NCR is doing the latter - either way, with cheap power and raw resources I imagine both East and West would rip our arms off for such high-tech materials. it's kinda doubly funny in the NCR's case since my thinking is that they have so much scrap from the Boneyard that they've come down with a case of the resource curse and failed to develop their own metallurgical industry.
I can also imagine we'd do well at the chemical industries since we have a lot of the raw resources for feedstock around here and a lot of the processes are energy-hungry. If we can make the desert bloom and produce large surpluses of food and have a way to export it cheaply, we'd also have the Republic over a barrel for agricultural products given their own limitations in that regard.

Speaking of cheap export, how much of the cost of a lot of the stuff we're buying in from California is the cost of the item itself and how much is shipping? It takes days to reach Vegas and pack animals can only carry so much, which must balloon all the costs. Where do trade caravans go from and to in the NCR to get to Vegas anyway? Is there a railhead at Barstow they visit and just shuttle back and forth up I-15 from there or do they go further?

>>6325437
>chemical industries
I really want to see if we can up our medical field. Since it would likely be our next best income source after mines, water, and power.

I'm hoping we can feed off of that to grow our schooling and repairs of the NVD.

>>6325502
Pharmaceuticals would be an excellent road to go down that have been discussed before and in the future we should have the expertise to not only produce complex drugs but to do active RnD. That's a long way off, but imagine if we were the only place in the world inventing and producing advanced medications. Things must be pretty grim if you have a wide variety of medical conditions about now.

In any case, I was talking heavy industrial chemicals. Acids, polymers, fertilisers, solvents, halogens, pesticides, explosives, industrial gases, chemical weapons and more, which would provide a good foundation for a pharmaceutical industry to branch off from as well as support a wide variety of other sectors. But for now, that's just a dream for the day when we can explore such resource- and expertise-intensive projects and have a way to ship in bulk.

At the beginning of the month, you sent out a squad of rangers, headed by Boone, up North to trace the Colorado river and find any blockage that may result in the water levels being as low as they are. You sent them with the new off-road vehicles taken from the dead 80’s.

You didn’t expect it to be too difficult of a mission, hence the relatively small force sent up north. But man plans and God laughs. Two weeks after departing, the force returns and Boone arrives at the Lucky 38 to give his report.

Boone strolls into your office fresh from the field with sand still shaking off of his fatigues and grime covering his skin. He gives you a salute and you prepare yourself for bad news as he only does that when in trouble.

[Boone, welcome back. I’m glad to see you alive and well. What’s the story about your trip up north? Sit down and have some water, you must be exhausted.]

You grab a bottle of cold purified water from the fridge recently moved into your office. A little excessive but something about responsibility and perks.

“Thank you, Director.”

Boone grabs the bottle and drains it in one go.

[Don’t call me Director, Craig. You’re one of my oldest friends.]

Boone nods as he finishes the water and places the empty bottle on the floor next to him.

“We crossed the dam with documentation from Secretary Cassidy, if we ran into Legion or NCR. The terrain was rough as hell but those new vehicles made quick work of it. I didn’t know where Legion land started or ended but we were far from civilization.”

He takes out a small road atlas with a series of marks with a grease pencil all along the river. He turns it around and begins tracing his path.

“We couldn’t travel right along the river as the terrain was rough and the river still had some water so we took an old dusted trail that ran parallel to the glorified creek.”

He points to a little point on the map circled with graphite.

“Trumbull had what we thought was a raider group squatting there with a group of captives. They had no markings or any Legion identifiers so we went in at night and killed most of the combatants while the rest fled into the dark. The captives didn’t speak English but we gave them some supplies and told them to follow the river here. Ortiz wanted to escort them back but the mission wasn’t done and I wanted to find the blockage.”

[I’m assuming Trumbull wasn’t the answer?]

Craig rubs his chin, further smearing his grime around.

“There was a dam there, but it was basically destroyed. Some of the wreckage was blocking the water, but it shouldn’t have been enough at normal water levels.”

You gesture for him to continue and he points at a point further down the river. A little speck on the map called Grand Canyon Village.

[That’s far in Legion land, Boone.]

“I know, but I had to know. Ortiz and I snuck in while the rest of the squad stayed behind to watch the vehicles. We found a new dam being built right on the river, with further expansion on farms all through the Tusayan Valley. Pretty fertile ground.”

[It sounds like it was a pretty successful mission then.]

Boone leans back from the map and crosses his arms.

“We had to pass by Trumbull on our way back to Vegas. The Legion was there in force and they found their slaves. Do you know the punishment for a failed escape?”

You nod. You unfortunately do know the punishment.

“Most of them were still alive on those fucking crosses. We put them out of their misery, but got caught in the process. We spent 72 hours straight in a running gunfight with Legion motorized patrols until they realized we were entering NVD territory and pulled off.”

You exhale slowly and tent your fingers over your face. You have a lot of sway with Caesar and with the favor you’re about to do for him…

[You completed your mission and you didn’t do anything I wouldn’t have. We know why the water level is so low and now I can handle it diplomatically. Return to your men and we will quickly move on from this.]

“I don’t want to take your forgiveness for granted, but the longer we work with the Legion the more we are enabling them. But thank you, Six.”

He salutes again and heads back out into the desert. You’re sure you’ll be hearing from the Legion consulate but if you can kill Vulpes, you should stay in Edward’s good graces.

>>6325540
Well we're about to stick it to them where it likely hurts in the long run. That is unless we can win them over or something else can be changed. The only thing I can really think of is if we get proof that he's on Caesar's side and we can turn it on the other guy.

I wonder if we will end up doing an et tu Courier.

>>6325226
I feel like metallurgy and chemical engineering (with a specialty in pharmaceuticals) are going to cover the bulk of everything we want to accomplish.
Like Chomps said, everybody needs quality metal, and the great thing about industrial chemical plants is that they are extremely versatile in what they can produce. Back in the world wars era we had big name chemical companies churning out both chemical weaponry and pharmaceuticals for first aid. A strong chemical industry would open many doors for us both financially and technologically.

Also, we need to be sure we get the guys who made the airplane on our payroll and have Mr. New Vegas talk about it. We need to set a visible precedent that technological advancement is a means of obtaining fortune and fame within the NVD.

Also also, let's set up a large shipment of booze, chems, and playing cards for the cholera quarantine, so they don't feel completely cheated out of the festivities.

>>6325257
well, young Ted has my excuses then, and you too
a semi obvious answer is... drumroll... more power! with lots of water and lots of power we can make heavy water and good steel
with heavy water, good steel, natural uranium and some repurposed securitron "heads" for control units we can make and export small, fully automated CANDU-ish reactors (they don't need enriched uranium to function) and live like kings off making (and later reprocessing) fuel bars
sure, they'll have a positive void coefficient but I think they can be sited in already heavily irradiated areas so if they happen to blow it won't be no biggie

>>6325540
well, the thing with Vulpes takes on a whole new hue now, doesn't it

>>6325600
>on our payroll
nah
toss a gov't contract their way, make them into celebrities, sure
I don't want them working exclusively for the state, that's how innovation dies

>>6323025
>>6323344
I'm getting these vibes

>>6325437
>is the cost of the item itself and how much is shipping
Aside from the more high-tech imports, the price is incredibly dependent on transportation. You're exactly right, if it moves by train, it comes to Barstow and then on foot (or hoof) to the Mojave and then mostly to Freeside/Vegas.

When you consider things like milling machines or other heavy machinery, it's almost a prohibitive cost.

>>6325687
Hm. We have a couple of trucks - we can't use them to move more than a small fraction of trade volume but if we need to move bulky objects, can we not arrange to meet Republic Rail at Barstow and collect it ourselves to cut shipping costs?
All the more reason to rehabilitate the rail line. Even if we don't have any functional trains right now, California can ship in to us.

>>6325743
If we don't think we will end up at war with NCR a trail rout to them would help. At I assume the cost of being more influenced by the NCR.

>>6325748
There's nothing indicating a war with the NCR in the forseeable future, especially if Kimball falls from power. Our whole position here is about leveraging both major powers to bootstrap our development and the NCR is our largest economic partner and trade market - for that reason, I'd like to be able to run trains to the Legion markets as well in the future (we would need to construct a line from scratch to Kingman and rehabilitate the trackage to Flagstaff and Phoenix, which would be a real megaproject and not viable for a long while) but, for now, the line to Barstow is the easiest project for the largest benefit. If we're to use said position to develop our economy to its greateat potential, establishing these links is vital and managing competing influences is just something that comes with it.

Aight bois. I finally caught up.

Things we should build to export and boost domestic supply.

>Leather: armor, gloves, aprons, boots, aka work gear and PPE. It'll cut down on injuries and improve quality of life. Get the hides from the ranches and do "luxury" ones from the geckos.

>Chemicals: if we Crack coal to produce fertilizer from low grade coal. That will increase crop yields, more pharmaceuticals like a lot more we can easily mass sell it to the legion... theyre in a large war, industrial chemicals (acetone, rubbing alcohol, lubricants, ect.)

Metallurgy: mine everything, blast furnaces fed with coal, make steel, copper, titanium, zinc, lithium, ect.

Heavy industry: make large tractors, diggers, mining equipment, trucks, (we can use corn, potatoes, linseed, canola, biodiesel and ethanol as fuel source). Get the train up and running. With all our electricity we can just electrify the rail.

Then we export medicine, fertilizer, food, heavy equipment, and leather goods.

We should focus on one industry at a time get it so it's making a ton of money then jump onto the next.

Step 1. Pharmaceuticals export to the legion and NCR if they need it too.

Step 2. Start mining.

Step 3. Build a blast furnace make steel.

Step 4. Start making high quality heavy equipment for mining and transport.

Step 5. Build out our leather making capabilities since the herds should be built up by then. Start a luxury gecko brand.

Step 6. Start broadcasting about the leather and luxury brands. Get the casinos to all get luxury gecko brand red vests for their workers. Get our NCR investors to get some too. Start a new fad. Basically Start a marketing and advertising campaign. Broadcast about us having 0 taxes and other benefits into the NCR.

Other ideas: I think we should start buying slaves from the legion and freeing them and incorporating them into the NVD. We want to help push the NCR onto the back foot and be the good guy a free people from the legion. (Will also allow us to head hunt some high skilled people too)

>>6325879
I believe we already are producing and exporting various leather goods. How are we going to make fertiliser from coal though? While coal liquefaction will be very useful for chemical feedstock and synthetic fuel, it doesn't contain any of the key ingredients for fertiliser since it's just hydrocarbons. Fertiliser is a high priority when we have the ability to synthesise it - we don't need anything special to manufacture nitrates but will need to import phosphate from the Legion for phosphorus fertiliser. If we get round to collecting and treating sewage, we can also use the (treated!) sludge as fertiliser.
The issue with doing things one sector at a time is that a lot of these feed into each other and neglecting a sector until we've finished another could come back to bite us if it's an important one. We'll need to have a few irons in the fire to keep things progressing across the board.

Speaking of trains, does anyone have a count on the number of locomotives we have available to us to restore to running condition? I can recall at least five around the place, assuming one of them is the one the NCR was using and we still need to order in parts for. I think we'd be better off converting them to pantograph operation in the long term but stringing up catenary wire over the whole network would be very expensive and the line beyond our borders won't be electrified.
Ah shit, I've just realised that to connect to the southwest, we'd need to not just pull the track from the dirt but also reconstruct the Crescent Canyon bridge. That'll be fun.

While buying and emancipating slaves has its uses and is an interesting notion, basically all of them will be uneducated tribals. It could have its uses, but also bring some practical and political headaches.

>>6325912
Coal slime fertilizer: Some methods use coal slime, a byproduct, as a base for silicon fertilizers to improve soil health and reduce heavy metals.

The coal to fertilizer process involves either gasification to create ammonia and urea or biological/mechanical processing to produce organic fertilizers from leonardite or other coal types

One gets us Urea and the other improves soil health. Mind you this is for LOW Quality coal only. (Aka usually a waste product)

The legion guy Dead Sea said the legion always desperately needs armor and weapons. I know our stance is not to sell weapons... but we should be able to sell tons of Leather armor easily. But I more mean the luxury gecko brand and work gear. We so far aren't making any of that.... and we know all farm hands need a good pair of gloves, boots, and assless chaps.

>>6325954
I see where you're coming from. The coal -> ammonia route did fall out of favour for a reason though, we'd be better off using the syngas to produce hydrogen for the Haber process or using it elsewhere and just electrolysing our infinite water with our excess of power.

We'll always have plenty of waste coal in the form of culm, waste slurry, coal dust and sub-metallurgical grade coal (coal seams are not homogenous) to huck into the gasifier.

>>6325879
>blast furnace
why don't we do electrical arc furnace? much higher temps, much more controllable

>>6325912
tribals would be good at scavenging, crafting, possibly agriculture
also, we could train some of them and send them back into Legion lands to prepare a slave revolt

>>6325912
>I believe we already are producing and exporting various leather goods.
Not exactly. Right now we are producing leather armor from the two leather shops we expanded and bought, and we use that leather armor for equip our army. Thanks to that we have cut a small amount of the costs and upkeeps that comes with making military units. In this case i am talking of our infantry units. There is other small entities that produce leather and sell it in the Mojave, but the Directorate is currently the main producer in the Mojave.

And we have not really tapped in to it truly. We could produce far more leather, and if we establish the Mojave Hunting Guild we could hunt a lot more across the Mojave.

>>6326008
this is another thing tribals/freedmen could be good at btw

>>6326009
true
it can provide them jobs, improving/expanding leather shops alongside establishing the Mojave Hunting Guild would be quite beneficial, here a few examples of what it can give beside creating more jobs for the common men : a further reduction of infantry upkeep/cost of unit, possible future opening of the possibility of equipping police with leather armors (irrealistic in the immediate future), utilizes more the overabundant resource of wildlife in the Mojave, makes the region more secure for travelers, farmers and merchants (less dangerous wildlife killing domesticated farm animals or people), creation of more trade goods to sell both to the Mojave economy and outside, possible future opening of hunting tourism., slight improvement of some recruits for military and police, and lastly could help with certain research or entertainment ideas..

>>6325987
Electric arc furnaces just heat things up, they don't do pyrometallurgy. Great for recycling scrap but they can't refine metal.

>>6326028
we have metric fucktonnes of scrap

>>6326031
Indeed we do, but they do different things. If we want to produce virgin steel, we need a blast furnace.

>>6326034
but that's just not true
you can smelt iron ore powder to get refined iron in an arc furnace, then you add whatever it needs to become the steel you want it to be

You’re probably more familiar with the formation of the NCR and its history than most. But the details are lost to time and mixed up in legend. So you’re not sure if Tandi sat down with her advisors and hammered out a legal code for the small settlement of Shady Sands. Also unlike the infant NCR, you don’t have decades to develop naturally. You need to surpass both of your superpower neighbors much sooner than the Legion or the Republic grew to their sizes.

This is one of the biggest advantages to your centralized government, but also one of the most serious responsibilities. The legal code you create now will be the basis for decades because if it’s not, something horrible has gone wrong.

In the few months Ulysses has been around, the two of you have become nearly inseparable. Whether it’s training together, eating together or maintaining equipment and weaponry, the two of you talk about anything and everything. When you mentioned your plans to bring the council together for a legal code, Ulysses was all too happy to give his two caps.

Unsurprisingly, he was full of historical precedence for laws and how they impacted their respective nations. He spoke of the Code of Hammurabi, the Chinese Legalistic System and even the Old Testament found in the Christian Bible. Also unsurprising was his favoring of strict and harsh punishments for many crimes ranging from murder and rape to robbery and arson.

Ulysses believes that human nature is nasty and violent and therefore needs the threat and enforcement of firm discipline to keep people in line. Even if he is disillusioned with his former master, Ulysses still believes the Legion way of life is preferable to the lax and corrupt system in the NCR.

His advice follows you into the council meeting with your Secretaries. This may be one of the last meetings with The King and Nash before they assume their Governorships after the year anniversary.

As is tradition, you arrive last with Ulysses in tow. The council is in the usual conference room, making small talk and sharing the news about the increased budget next month.

[Good afternoon, everyone. As usual, thank you for coming and I look forward to this very important meeting. Before we begin, I want to introduce Ulysses. Some of you may have seen him around, and that’s because I have chosen him to be my Deputy Director. I trust this man with my life and in time, I am sure you’ll trust him as much as me. He’ll run things when I'm away, incapacitated or if I die.]

You stop and wait to see if anyone objects, but instead they’re relieved and take turns to congratulate Ulysses. No one looks happier than Cass.

[We have an important job in front of us, perhaps the most important we’ll do as a council. We’re going to decide upon a broad legal code for the New Vegas Directorate which will be applied across the entire region. No longer will justice be served differently from one town to the next.]

Once again, the council seems very pleased to finally be able to cross this one off the list.

Farkas: That’s great! Freeside has been under the rule of moral thugs who take the law into their own hands for far too long. I welcome a compassionate criminal code for the NVD.

King: Hold on there sister, my boys keep the peace in Freeside. You don’t know how nasty those thugs can be.

You knew this was going to be the most contentious debate yet but you’ll be damned if you lose control.

[I understand there will be differing opinions, but we will be civil here. Now, let’s talk about the most severe crimes first. Rape and murder.]

Ulysses: Execution for clear cases of rape, no exceptions. Same for murder, no exceptions.

Raul: Si, that’s good to me.

Cass: Yeah, that fits the crime.

Farkas: Wait! Do we really want to build our society on capital punishment? We have the opportunity to do something truly different here!

Gunderson: Sorry Julie, but this is pretty unanimous. If you do the worst thing to people, you deserve the worst done to you.

Julie wants to respond but knows she’s vastly outnumbered and instead gives you pleading eyes.

Farkas: Please think about it, Director. This is not a decision to be taken lightly.

[Of course, that’s why we’re doing this. Next up are less-serious but still important crimes to decide upon. Theft, assault and manslaughter.]

Ulysses: Execution, same as before. A society should not have to care for those who willingly break its laws.

Lewis: Forced labor, maybe? A few years building roads and breaking rock would rehabilitate them just fine.

Garret: Not to mention the costs saved for construction. I agree with Lewis, that should be forced labor for, say, five years?

Cass: It’s not too different from what the NCR does, so that’s good right? We shouldn’t just apply a broad sentence for everyone though, it should depend on the crime and circumstances.

Farkas: I would agree with that! More important than this legal code are the judges that will carry out the sentencing. A man who steals a loaf of bread to keep himself from starving should not be sentenced to half a decade of hard labor.

Kreger: You could always form Penal Companies. They’re not too dependable in combat but they’ll clear a minefield just fine.

The cabinet looks over at your Defense Secretary, trying to decide if he’s joking or not.

Sarah: I believe we should try to rehabilitate as many people as possible, everyone deserves a second chance!

Lewis: Which they’ll get, in the mines!

Garrett: What about the white-collar crimes such as smuggling, tax evasion, defrauding?

[I would say that doesn’t deserve execution or years of hard labor. Prison time and a fine, right?]

Most of the council agrees, though you’re sure the few hardliners would like something a little more public and humiliating.

[Now, things that may break local laws such as littering or dumping waste in public spaces. Fighting and other public disturbances.]

King: We usually just issue fines for those sorts of scuffles, nothing worth calling Johnny Law for.

Garrett: I've seen The Kings and the NVPD extract all sorts of fees. It seems like protection money more than anything…

King: It isn’t cheap running a police force or a gang, and don’t forget about all the good I do for the neighborhood. You haven’t had issues with any bad customers, have you?

Francine doesn’t bother responding but she raises a good point.

[Laws and justice are both unequal across the entirety of the Mojave, which is why we’re here. Before I put down how I want the criminal code, are there any more suggestions or thoughts?]

Nash: There should be a difference between a town law broken and a Directorate law broken.

Ulysses: The old United States had something similar. While the NVD should always have ultimate authority, I agree that maybe these governors should have some freedom to enforce rules.

Garrett: We’re going to need to find places to put these people and hire guards. Almost every settlement has a small sheriffs office with old cells and Freeside has a much larger jail but they’ll need renovated and upkept.

Farkas: Don’t forget the judges! We need impartial men and women who will be able to issue rulings fairly!

Kreger: Any crime done against the NVD, even if that means stealing a pack of smokes from the Department of Agriculture, should be judged harshly and have a minimum sentence.

Ulysses; Agreed. The citizenry needs to understand the importance and power of the Directorate. Treason is punishable by death.

Kreger nods in agreement. No surprise there.

[Secretary Haversam, any input? You’ve been quiet.]

Chris: This isn’t really my expertise. I think people shouldn’t have to be scared and if that means being tough on criminals, they shouldn’t have committed the crimes, right?

You wish Arcade was here, he probably would have given you the best perspective of everyone. But that’s why you’re the boss, you make the decisions.

Ulysses told you that a nation is its laws. What will yours look like? A mirror of the old United States’ robust penal code, similar to the NCR’s? Or will you punish all crime harshly leading to an orderly if constrained society?

Or will you remember the lessons Joshua taught you about the rule of God and how it kept people for millennia?

And there’s always the possibility of breaking the mold like you’ve done before, and creating a completely new system without outside influence.

>Please rank crimes under their severity and punishment. I am including an example below. Feel free to include other

Capitol Punishment: Execution without unjust suffering
>Treason against NVD
>Murder
>Rape
>Membership in raider group who conducts aforementioned crimes

Hard Labor: Any type of manual labor in service of the government for a series of time
>Manslaughter
>Theft over a certain value
>Attempted murder
>Serious assault
>Any theft or defrauding of NVD
>Smuggling
>Assault or violence against any member of NVD government

Incarceration Time: Amount of time in a local or NVD correctional facility
>Patty Theft
>Minor Assault
>Fraud
>Tax Evasion
>Any attempts at minor crimes

Fines: A payment to be extracted from the individual in property or income
>Dumping waste in public spaces
>Fighting/Public disturbances

>>6326115

Time for us to wade into the social construction of crime....... Before I give a full answer, I just wanna say that if we are already tacitly accepting ideas like 'white collar' and 'blue collar' crime, we are following in footsteps that have already headed over a cliff, at least in my opinion. I don't think we should tell rich people that, as long as they harm people in a way that looks more respectable, they should suffer fewer consequences - it encourages corruption, and sleazy people rise to the top, it just reinforces a bad class system that isn't aligned with the No Gods No Masters ethos.

Execution:
>Treason
>Murder
>Rape
>Human trafficking or slave trading
>Membership in raider groups that do the above

Hard labor for three years, WITH rehabilitation programming to transition ex-cons into decent paying civil service/public works
>Theft or property crime over 1500 caps in value
>Tax evasion or fraud over 1500 caps
>Criminal racketeering
>Unlawful production of explosives, biological agents, or chemical weapons capable of taking more than 30 lives at a time (folks should be able to make and sell grenades to prospectors or mercs, but we can't let just anyone make bombs big enough to wipe city blocks)
>Smuggling of product with a value over 1000 caps
>Aggravated/serious assault, unarmed or otherwise
>Any criminal action leveled against NVD property or personnel

Incarceration for four years, with rehab, including transition to private companies that opt in with the option to hire inmates two years prior to their release (at the same pay as free workers, no prison slavery thanks), to make the transition from incarcerated employee to free easier.
>Theft, smuggling, property crime, etc below the above cap levels
>Petty assault
>Stalking
>Perjury

Fines, unpaid fines escalate to a maximum of one month incarcerated, with an assigned caseworker for that time to develop a plan for improvement
>Littering
>Public indecency/disturbances
>Unlicensed selling of goods, where such licensing is required

And I don't think we should criminalize sex work, gambling, or any drugs. This is Sin City, after all, and it will only cost us money and piss people off. Instead we can throw Farkas a bone by having HHS develop a system of clinics funded with a portion of their local taxes, a portion of HHS budget, and private donations (which can be reported as a tax write-off). These clinics should be staffed by former addicts and prostitutes that have left the business or recovered, as they often struggle for other work, and provide mental health support and resources for those wanting to make a change. IRL, decriminalizing drugs regionally has backfired, as addicts flocked to those places and overwhelmed them, whereas places that do so nationally have seen significant improvements over a relatively short time. So this should be policy for the entire NVD.

>>6326129

And instead of felony/misdemeanor, we just categorize these as Class 1, 2, 3, and 4, with 1 being the worst, and 4 being fines. Class 2 criminals should have restrictions on their ability to purchase or own more than one or two weapons, and have a yearly check in with the NVD penal system for monitoring. I don't think we should fully revoke anyone's rights to weapons in the wasteland, and while I like the idea of exile or banishment as a punishment, I think those will have to be enforced at a local level by governors. Keeping track of people across the whole Mojave and databasing that info, making all authorities aware, etc, it's just not technologically or logistically feasible.

My last suggestion is that we reach out to the Followers about helping to draft local/regional legal codes for different governorships. Local laws should be softer, should be tailored to the community's needs, and the Followers have as much insight into this stuff as Ulysses if not more. And? They'd be really glad to help, and we can expect them to produce good results. Governors get final veto and review of course, but this will save us money pushing pencils and sourcing legal experts. Followers should maybe be invited to put together an advisory committee to help us establish rules for our penal system regarding the selection and appointment of judges, lawyers, trials, etc.

>>6326133
>>6326129
Good point on the distinction between “white collar and blue collar” crime. What can I say, we live in a society.

>>6326036
No, they can't. They can produce steel from iron refined in other ways, but they can't process iron ore directly, which is what I was meaning. Though it is possible we could use an induction furnace to save on coke.
https://www.servicesteel.org/resources/electric-arc-furnace-vs-blast-furnace

Speaking on an arc furnace though, I bet the Nucor steel mill in Kingman would have one we could "borrow" aka dismantle, steal, refurbish and reassemble closer to us. If the mill is still there IOTL, that is.

>>6326115
I'll leave in depth discussion of the legal code to other people but I would like to share a couple of thoughts.
Bribery and corruption must be included in this, either in the second or third tier depending on nature and magnitude. We cannot tolerate this behaviour, especially at public office level.
Also, could we make use of low-level community punishments? A day or two in the stocks or fixing what you broke and then some may be a more effective deterrent for bad-neighbour behaviour like vandalism, certain petty thefts, public drunkenness and being a dodgy merchant than fines etc. Not sure about this one.

>>6326115

Capitol Punishment: Execution without unjust suffering
>Treason against NVD
>Murder
>Rape
>Slaving
>Membership in raider group who conducts the above crimes
>Grand theft (very high value)
>Recidivism of a lesser crime
I figure we give them a bottle of booze/the chem of their choice and shoot them when they're done with it. The grace drink can be skipped if there's any particular need to do so.

Hard Labor: Any type of manual labor in service of the government for a series of time
>Manslaughter
>Theft above petty but below grand theft
>Attempted murder
>Serious assault
>Any theft or defrauding of NVD
>Smuggling
>Assault or violence against any member of NVD government
Recidivism at this level should be kicked up to capitol punishment, unless a judge deems there to be good reason not to do so given the circumstances.

Incarceration Time: Amount of time in a local or NVD correctional facility
>Petty Theft
>Minor Assault
>Fraud
>Tax Evasion
>Any attempts at minor crimes
Recidivism at this level should instantly be kicked up to hard labor. We don't want our prisons turning into bed and breakfasts for those who don't want to work properly.

Fines: A payment to be extracted from the individual in property or income
>Dumping waste in public spaces
>Fighting/Public disturbances
>Unlicensed sales where such licenses are required
Tossing this out there, what if we adjusted fines based on the perpetrator's income? Make it to where it's X% of their value so that it'll always hurt even if it's a wealthy individual doing it. A brahmin baron will probably respect the laws more if an infraction would cost them 70,000 caps.
There should still be a staunch floor though so people can't weasel their way out of things by pleading that they don't have money.

>>6326129
I disagree with the heavy emphasis on rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is a good thing to have but a terrible thing to institutionalize; the criminal code needs to be the stick that people are afraid of, not a carrot that gets them off easy if they promise to do better.
What we can do is arrange for the Followers to meet with people as they get out of jail and let them love bomb the ex-cons and arrange employment (and in the future perhaps temporary housing) to get them back on their feet without having to fall back into crime. That way they were given a fair chance to rejoin society properly and any failure to do so can be unambiguously laid at their feet.

I do agree with the system of clinics though; getting a Followers clinic set up in every settlement can be a nice simple initiative to get our new governors' feet wet.

>>6326145
>Bribery and corruption must be included in this, either in the second or third tier depending on nature and magnitude.
Tier one. Corruption is treason against the state. Letting corruption fester is what destroys a country and subverts the rule of law.

>>6326184

I respect our disagreement of opinion. To be expound on my end, I think the wasteland is dangerous enough and if we want to maximize our base of laborers, consumers, and fighters, we should do what we can to keep our state apparatus from being one more major hazard for anyone that isn't truly an enemy. Big philosophical debate to be had on this stuff under the best circumstances, even headier one when you're nation building in a radioactive world full of monsters, so don't wanna get too far into it. But basically, we ought to take a real stab at retaining as many workers as we can, and it doesn't hurt to be seen as more merciful than the Legion, and equitable in our toughness than the NCR (who punish their poor more strictly than the rich because their society relies on an underclass, it's baked in).

I also will say that, for me when I am voting and considering options in this QST, I personally am thinking a lot about what it means to be a courier that chose No Gods No Masters. Does he want that for the whole Mojave, as a libertarian or even anarchist, or was it a means to an end, and he ultimately just wants what House wanted for himself. Even while we centralize government and economic power, I am leaning towards a justice system that is less invasive, more community focused, and aimed at balancing a reduction in crime with a retention of labor. If we take on a harsher system, especially one that's enforced at a scale no one in the Mojave is used to, we could potentially seed rebellion or struggle diplomatically. In a world like the wasteland, criminals and politicians may decide that their response to authoritarianism should be heavy armament and violence before submission or cooperation.

Of course, you're right that if we have too light a touch, criminality could flourish in the wild West and create big problems down the line.

>>6326184
>>6326115
>support

>>6326185
Corruption should be punished and indeed punished harshly up to and including execution for particularly egregious instances or those with major consequence for others but going straight to treason and murder for even minor instances of petty impropriety is a level of disproportionate and unnecessary bloodthirst I will not support. We're trying to build a better Mojave, not make the state the biggest enemy of its own people.

Public Examples: Execution involving suffering during the course of the act itself, in full-view of the public
>Crimes against Children
>Slave-Trade/Human-Trafficking
>Cannibalism
>Desecration of Corpses, Burial Grounds, Monuments, & Nature Reserves
>Rape

Capitol Punishment: Execution without unjust suffering
>Treason against NVD
>Murder

Hard Labor: Any type of manual labor in service of the government for a series of time
>Manslaughter
>Theft over a Certain Value
>Attempted Murder
>Any Theft or Defrauding of NVD
>Smuggling
>False Accusations of Rape/Murder
>Usury
>Membership in Raider Groups
>Cattle/Livestock Rustling
>(Domestic/Tame) Animal Cruelty

Incarceration Time: Amount of time in a local or NVD correctional facility
>Petty Theft
>Fraud
>Assault or Violence against any Member of NVD Government
>Serious Assault
>Any Attempts at Minor Crimes

Fines: A payment to be extracted from the individual in property or income
>Dumping waste in Public Spaces
>Fighting/Public Disturbances/Minor Assault
>Tax Evasion

No Penalty:
>Mutually Agreed-Upon Fights/Duels
>Vigilante Justice with Credible Evidence

No one is above the law, not even the enforcers thereof. What's more, vigilantism is the white-bloodcell of a society.

>>6326207
Change Treason to Public Execution, actually, along with Hard Labor for Armed Robbery, & Bribery/Bribe-Taking in the Public Execution spot.

>>6326207
>>6326210
One last change:
False Accusations & Adultery should result in Exile/Banishment/Outlawry from the entire territory for a year at least, & poisoning wells/water sources should be punished with public executions.

>>6326215

Adultery???? Brother.... Even House wasn't in the business of legislating peoples sex lives...

>>6326207

I like your suggestion of adding cannibalism to death by execution, so want to add it to my vote here
>>6326129

But I think if we make executions a spectacle we are taking a hit to our diplomacy and politics for no particular gain. I also think you should reconsider the allowance of vigilantism - people will fabricate evidence if it can exonerate them, and while we could investigate that evidence, it would end up costing more police resources than just enforcing the laws ourselves, especially because so many people will feel incentivized to commit murders with the possibility of getting away with it. Could just create more crime instead of less.

Sad to see so many votes that assert stealing a wage from a worker is less of a problem than stealing a product off a shelf... But I suppose democracy will prevail at the expense of imagination. As the man said, we live in a society.

>>6326217
If the state is involved in the process of marriage, then the state must take steps to ensure that marriage itself is not defrauded.

>>6326197
>minor instances of petty impropriety
If it is genuinely just that then it can be tier 2 or 3 (so long as they are stripped of power permanently), but you need to remember that we are the major powers in a highly-centralized nation. The nation is counting on us to act honestly and not abuse the substantial power we hold over the people, and we need to be held to standards that reflect that. Anything that goes beyond "minor instances" should be treated as tier 1.

>>6326207
>Execution involving suffering during the course of the act itself, in full-view of the public
No dude. That's too far.

>usury
>adultery
>desecration tier 1
I... what? No, you need to cool your jets a bit, anon.
I do agree with punishing false accusations though. A false accusation should share the punishment that the accused crime would face, with the caveat that it must be firmly proven that the accuser knew the accusation was false.

>>6326224
>If the state is involved in the process of marriage, then the state must take steps to ensure that marriage itself is not defrauded.
So let's not be involved with the process of marriage. Done.

While I at the moment don’t have the time too write up my full proposed legal code, I’d like to say I think we’re all overlooking another value able form of punishment that doesn’t require the expense involved in incarceration but isn’t quite as severe as capital punishment.

>corporal punishment

In my mind basically every crime that doesn’t deserve a death sentence could be treated with a corporal punishment that would bring about a quicker reform process then forced labor, fines or confinement.

Steal something
>get flogged

Drunk and disorderly
>get flogged

Smuggling, tax evasion, or other financial crimes
>get flogged

Do it publicly and swiftly following any conviction and I think we’d see a rapid decrease in criminal behavior. Just throwing it out there as an opinion for the moment but I do think it certainly has a place in our justice system.

>>6326224

Vulpes is that you???

>>6326115
>>6326114
>Capitol Punishment

Treason against NVD
Murder
Rape
Returning to the old ways after being given a '2nd chance'
Somebody who has committed 'hard labor' tier crimes atleast 3 times within there life without justifiable defense.
Defrauding of NVD

>Hard Labor: Any type of manual labor in service of the government for a series of time

everything fucking else

Aight. Solutions for current issues and make lots of money.

We have wood and wood scraps. Let's make industrial glue. And make MDF and Particle board. This should help with our building supplies issue.

Let's get the a the scrap recycler up and running. Start turning that into low grade steel and iron.

We can do clay but transporting it atm will be an issue... so im skipping it for now.

We can do steel and iron framed buildings (just dont build too high). With particle board and MDF for interior and siding. With corrugated metal on the outside.

So we need to setup a stamping facility or one with rollers.

We can cast the angle iron and brackets. Roll the scrap into sheets.

We have 161k to spend. I say we invest 100k into these endeavors buildings should get cheaper and fixes some of our issues.

Second phase is:

5 more leather armor shops and 1 PPE shop for leather. Get more mines opened. Two of these being the copper and coal mines.

Third phase:

Get a blast furnace up and running to get virgin steel being produced.

4th phase:

Heavy industry and manufacturing with new virgin steel. Also expand pharmaceuticals to the nth degree and start exporting. Expand industrial chemicals also.

>>6326253
Reminder that we still haven't funded the 75k Anniversary Celebration.

>>6326188
I'm sort of leaning towards letting the public have a say in this
let's not start things off with a penal code, but with constitutional debate

>>6326253
>We can do clay but transporting it atm will be an issue
I am sorry but this is bullshit
the clay itself can be used to make bricks, the bricks made into a road to ship more clay/bricks to where they are needed
it's a self-solving problem

>>6326145
yes I was wrong, it seems you need to reduce the iron first in a bloomery or similar
>I bet the Nucor steel mill in Kingman would have one we could "borrow" aka dismantle, steal, refurbish and reassemble closer to us. If the mill is still there IOTL, that is.
worth a try. we really do have a lot of scrap

>>6326261

Very based proposition, would second that, but I think a lot of anons seem to have a more authoritarian lean on this.

>>6326261
>I'm sort of leaning towards letting the public have a say in this
This is a super good point.
We should put a pin in whatever we come up with and run it past the governors to see what they think. They're the ones that are going to be dealing with the consequences, after all.

>>6326290
I could take an unofficial consensus and run it by the governors

>>6326291
I'd support that.

Happy Halloween btw. Was going to have a Mr New Vegas post in the spirit of the holiday but got too drunk instead

This vote will run until Sunday night or so because it’s important, have a spooky night y’all!

>>6326291

I'm in on this too, but still glad to iron out a solid draft and make it easier.

I beseech you anons... Consider mercy and libertarianism. If we know anything about the Mojave wasteland, we know it is full of criminals - not just out in the desert, but in Freeside, Westside, Goodsprings, Nipton, Jacobstown, and all the fuck over the strip. The legion approach of harsh punishment works because it's a cult of personality and they force women to breed constantly while conquering new tribes, replenishing the numbers they lose to crosses. NCR just lacks the ability to enforce crime it disapproves of and runs on the crime it does approve. I'd rather not half ass either approach and find a third way instead.

>>6326261
you do not let the 'public' have a say in this like this, People with educations now a days are fucking retarded. You think a 'good' outcome is gonna come out of people who are both super uneducated AND forced to live in hellish conditions will be productive or good?

>>6326263
Qm even said it wasn't worth the cost to ship the bricks due to the weight...

And Bricks are extremely brittle... not a good surface for a road... you'd grind it into dust.

>>6326256
Good point. Maybe we should burn 9 gold bars for 180k. If we fast track the gold mining we can quickly re gain the gold back. In a economy game it is much better to max spend early to regain money quickly on the investment back end.

Also the the 75k was said that we'd make money off of that investment.

Anons we need to be min maxing the fact we can broadcast into both the NCR and the legion lands.

Another note maybe we send a letter to Caesar that he can exile some of his people to the NVD. Instead of just massacring them all. Let's try to brain drain both the NCR and the legion. Espouse to the NCR no taxes safe roads and homesteading opportunities. Espouse to the Legion that we're a sanctuary for slaves and disenfranchised. (2nd one im more questionable on.)

>>6326294
That artwork is fucking siiiiick

>>6326184
For the most part I agree with the set up here. The only worry would be rehabilitation cost to go with. If we up the penalty for repeat offenders it should keep people in line.

>>6326184
I agree with make use of the Followers to help rehabilitation. With how most our people that care it would lead to them being a better pick for rehabilitation.

>>6326228
I think that will work for the Corruption stander.

>>6326291
It never hurts to get a second opinion.

>>6326294
Happy Halloween.

>>6326313
The gold mine should be set up after this turn. We would mainly need to make sure the people working have a place to live safely and eat. Then have better roads and transport to move things.

>>6326305
>I beseech you anons... Consider mercy and libertarianism.
Uh, while mercy's still an option (one we're angling toward at that), the libertarianism ship kind of sailed a long time ago. We're a well-intentioned dictatorship attempting to run Enlightened Despotism, and Ulysses already decided to throw in with us on that basis.

>>6326352
Fair enough brother, here's hoping the wastelanders find some of these proposals enlightening and not the rallying cry for a terrorist netw- er I mean... Raider gang...

>>6326253
We could really do with getting the NV Steel foundry up and running so we can actually forge metal on an industrial scale instead of artisanally in workshops like we're doing now. I believe it has a lot of these casting, rolling and stamping capabilities but it has languished neglected on the todo list despite that.

>>6326309
I'm not saying we should leave it at frontier justice but I think at least some degree of culture fit is necessary, since one cannot govern without at least some degree of consent from the governed.

What does the average Mojave citizen think about judicial duels, if anything? Do they value money to the degree that it would make sense to have blood price codified into law? That sort of thing.

>>6326313
>Qm even said it wasn't worth the cost to ship the bricks due to the weight...
but you wouldn't be shipping them, you'd start laying them down at the origin quarry and just go from there
>Bricks are extremely brittle
this is some sort of claycrete supermaterial
surely it can be made into passable tiles
> If we fast track the gold mining
we should, ASAP, I don't like being poor. Also figure out who's gonna pull security for it and any transports.
>>6326357
yes to this. yes to any proposal involving steel manufacture
we need it yesterday, for weapons, constructions, rail, you name it it's got steel in it

>>6326184
>getting a Followers clinic set up in every settlement can be a nice simple initiative to get our new governors' feet wet.
nice
we can follow up with a totally-not-Enclave school?

Gonna slap up an unofficial consensus, based on what I'm seeing. Speak up if you think it's full of shit.

Generally something between >>6326129 and >>6326184 for ranking crimes.
Capitol punishment is common and expected for tier 1 crimes.
Lesser crimes are met with efforts at rehabilitation courtesy of the Followers along with the usual punishment.
However, recidivism is dealt with far more severely, perhaps going up an entire tier of punishment.

This sound about right?

>>6326432
I have some issues
"Treason" is extremely vague, "rape" is a function of the alleged victim's mental state at the time of the alleged offense and thus very hard to ascertain, "slavery" is a vague term covering many degrees of exploitive of labor relations
I am against slavery but I would not kill anyone just for "being a slave owner"
I would definitely not kill anyone just for rape, although castration or a lobotomy may be in order
I would not kill anyone for just "being a raider", because child soldiers are a reality of this world but that is just me!

I also put to you that our fledgling state is not developed enough to effectively prosecute most things that most people would think of as crime so we need to codify frontier justice to some extent

this, in matters of penal code
what about civil?
what about rights, liberties and duties of citizens?

>>6326402
Cultural fit doesn't matter, We give people a 2nd chance by coming here if they break it. They get removed or punished harshly imo.

the common Mojava citizen probably wonders and thinks about there next meal still at this point and would just kill somebody if they got in the way. We've improved things alot but its still New Vegas and its outskirts.

>>6326432
>>6326434
I'm also noticing that no one else has much to say about the legality/criminality of hard drugs, prostitution, and gambling. Lot of talk about bribery and murder and tax fraud and theft. Anons should consider that gambling and hard drug addiction both lead people readily to theft and murder. In the game FNV, these things are ostensibly regulated within the Strip, and at least kind of controlled in Freeside.

In this QST, the courier is an 'enlightened despot', and we are creating a penal code more or less personally to apply to a bunch of different communities under our sphere of influence. I maintain that we shouldn't criminalize these things at all, and just create guardrails for them to be indulged in safely or escaped from easily (if someone develops a destructive addiction to drugs, sex, or gambling). But how does that square with the rather harsh and violent approach to crime that a lot of anons are favoring? And if we do go with these harsher sentences and penalties for recidivism, but don't include or even regulate drugs/prostitution/gambling, are we prepared for the friction that'll be produced by people having the liberty to pursue these vices, which are sometimes quite dangerous and certainly generate criminal activity in their wake, and yet serious consequences for engaging in that activity? We could be really stepping in some shit here. Realistically, our penal code is going to have more repercussions and fallout for us than dropping that nuke. Bad law is the birthplace of insurrection, and the death bed of economic projects.

>>6326581
it's premature anyway
we can sort of enforce public order, of a kind, in New Vegas itself, but not much else

>>6326579
>We give people a 2nd chance by coming here
most of the residents are not recent immigrants
>Cultural fit doesn't matter
because you say so?

>>6326581
>I'm also noticing that no one else has much to say about the legality/criminality of hard drugs, prostitution, and gambling.
It's Sin City. As long as nothing truly exploitative is going on there's no reason to criminalize any of those things. We have access to Addictol, which explicitly cures physical and mental dependence on drugs, prostitution can be regulated to avoid people being put into indentured servitude that's "slavery but technically not", and gambling is just a matter of self-control.

We can protect people from being exploited, but we can't protect them from themselves. That way lies tyranny and madness.
It's okay to have expectations that people can manage their own affairs without the state needing to be involved.

>>6326434
Most of this is just stuff that would be hashed out with the development of the code itself. No, being a slave owner won't be a crime yet but slaves won't be allowed in the NVD and enslaving people here will get you killed. Mr. Legion Tycoon should have to leave his slaves at the border if he doesn't want us to free them.
As for rape, the general consensus seems to be death, though that's for clear-cut cases. Ambiguity might lead to lighter sentencing to avoid moral recklessness on the NVD's part.

>I would not kill anyone for just "being a raider"
Consider that raiders are a very real threat to civilization in this setting. This isn't a situation where they're just poor oppressed people, this is a world where they could easily have sacked all of Goodsprings and nobody could have done anything about it.

>>6326581
Implying rich people will commit crimes after doing drugs... does not make any logical sense.

People have personal agency... we do not need to create a nanny state. People can choose to do drugs or prostitute themselves... if they CHOOSE to kill people we choose to kill them. Simple.

>>6326602
>Cultural fit doesn't matter
Because they adapt to the culture already here, The clear ''culture'' here is already far more extreme then elsewhere. And foreigner culture doesn't and should never matter for a nation and its citizens.

>We give people a 2nd chance by coming here
most of the residents are not recent immigrants

Now we did have influences prior to this whole autism at the border and nat 1 on Zion.

>>6326604
Are we gonna nationalize healthcare and provide addictol readily to people that ask? Does addictol cure gambling addictions. Again, I agree these things shouldn't be criminalized, I said that from the jump. I am just pointing out that if we have draconian policy for property crime and violence, but extremely lax laws for addictive substances and gambling, we might just be creating a conveyor belt to the gallows.

>>6326606
>Implying rich people will commit crimes after doing drugs... does not make any logical sense

Where did I say 'rich people'? Were the Fiends rich? Did the Followers set up their clinic on the Strip or in the slums of Freeside? I said that consuming addictive products - drugs, prostitutes, gambling - can create addicts, and that even if we have a robust rehab system for recovering addicts, if the penal system is overly harsh towards the kinds of crimes committed by addicts, we might be asking for trouble. I don't think this stuff is particularly simple.

>>6326610
who's these "they"? the laws will presumably apply to everyone. I meant cultural fit between the laws we will set and the existing culture of the Mojave.

>>6326611
>Are we gonna nationalize healthcare
No, or at least not in the scope of this discussion. But addictol specifically is something we can take care to ensure is readily available.

>I am just pointing out that if we have draconian policy for property crime and violence, but extremely lax laws for addictive substances and gambling, we might just be creating a conveyor belt to the gallows.
I understand what you're getting at, but I still think that people can be expected to control themselves when under the influence of drugs. If a guy gets drunk and shoots somebody that's on him, no matter how much he had to drink.
People have agency and they are responsible for the things they do with impaired judgment.

>>6326617
My brother I am not talking about how people will behave while drunk, or high, or sitting at the card table. I am talking above t how people will behave when they are trying to stave off withdrawal, strapped for cash, and isolated after fucking up their close relationships.

>>6326618
we could always provide free drugs

>>6326625
Now we are using our imagination!

>>6326625
New Vegas: Come for the free drugs, stay for the addictol centers

Here’s another idea, get people addicted to free government drugs and turn them to indentured servants

>>6326625
Free drugs to those who clean the
Waste system.

>>6326618
This is the wasteland. People are trying to survive. They're not going to have these #firstworldproblems.

>>6326639
Just about every Fallout game either features directly or mentions people that struggle and criminally misbehave because of addiction, so I don't know what you're talking about. People getting hooked on hard drugs or gambling, fucking up their finances, and resorting to crime or violence to make debts or get a fix is in no way unique to the #firstworld, it's famously much worse in countries riddled with poverty or with an unstable government, actually...

>>6326642
Uh... not really. Unless youre counting raiders that are jet heads. Which I don't. You're harping about something that literally is a non issue.

>>6326655
Yeah really. Jacob Hoff and Bill Ronte are addicts you help in order to befriend Julie Farkas in FNV, who laments to you that the Mormon Fort is overwhelmed with people struggling with withdrawals. There are hard drugs laying around all the casinos. In earlier FO games there are crime families producing and trafficking drugs all over slums, it's where Jet comes from. If the QM is having us check the wind for fallout and having anons talk about industrial chemistry in detail, I think it's realistic he will apply a similar realism to drug policy, and it's a canon fact that there are addicts all over the Mojave.

>>6326618
That doesn't really change my point. If somebody becomes so impaired that they gamble literally everything they have away, that's on them. Unless they were slipped something way stronger specifically to put them in that state, but that would be a poisoning case.
I'll say it again, people should be expected to be able to tend to their own affairs and indulge responsibly. We can't live people's lives for them.

>>6326668
Have you ever interacted with an addict in your life, man? I don't know how you don't understand what I'm talking about here.

If Jet, for example, is fully legal, people will use it and get *ADDICTED* to it. They might be annoying while they are high, which is what you are singularly focusing on. But probably not violently murderous (though a drug like Psycho is a different story). Maybe they throw up or yell at their kids. Once they have spent all their money on jet, and are getting the shakes, and NEED another hit? That's when they hit their wife because she keeps complaining about not being able to feed the children, since they blew it all on getting high. That's when they steal from a store. That's when they mug someone in an alley. Ever know a gambling addict? You could watch Uncut Gems to get a funny but mostly accurate idea of how it deranges someone into a sack of shit. Or you could look at how bankruptcy has spiked in the U.S. since we lowered restrictions on sports betting and gambling started to proliferate on social media.

>>6326673
>uncut gems
Patrician

If it helps the conversation here, Raul, Farkas, Kreger, Ulysses and Nash would like to see strict regulations on drugs. Farkas obviously doesn’t want its use criminalized though

The families would not be too happy about it though.

>>6326673
>If Jet, for example, is fully legal, people will use it and get *ADDICTED* to it.
Which is why addictol will be the backbone of preventing that, which has already been mentioned. If they can spend 30 caps or some other reasonably affordable price to get rid of their addiction then it's on them if they end up acting like a strung out lunatic.
To be fair under normal circumstances your objections would be valid, but there are decisively mitigating factors in play.

>>6326673
Yes tons. I was a security guard. Guess what they all chose that shit. Not my problem if someone makes bad life choices.

You sound like a deranged lefty that doesn't realize that people have personal agency. And freedom comes with the freedom of making bad choices. If they choose to go from addict to criminal they get hit with the law stick. Plenty of addicts that don't commit crimes. Also people that do crime in general are a tiny part of the population.

So still not worried. And farkas of course is going to help addicts that's kinda their shtick bleeding heart lib type.

Tbh seems like youre bringing irl personal stuff into the game. Also as others said we won't produce drugs we just won't prosecute people doing them.

We are not here to be morality police or to create a nanny state.

>>6326678
We can regulate their quality to ensure that people aren't taking dangerous bathtub jank and ensure that addiction aid is always available. Honestly we don't necessarily need to go hunting down all the bad stuff either; if clean, decent, legal drugs are available people will naturally flock to those instead of taking sketchy stuff of unknown provenance.

To be fair though, this is heavily contingent on Addictol functioning like it does in FO4. If there are any caveats that emerge in this more realistic take on the setting then that would necessarily require a more realistic approach to handling the situation.

Okay I’ll say this about Addictol. It eliminates the physical negatives of addiction but the mental addiction pathways are still there. So someone may not have shakes, shivers and what else but he still may have the mental addiction

It’s also a pre-war drug and it’s not incredibly common but could be manufactured just like any other pharmaceutical with enough time and effort

>>6326678
Yeah actually is helpful to know what some of our guys think, thanks. I figured the families would want all of that stuff flowing freely, but hadn't considered who WOULD want to finally bring real drug reform (let alone gambling or prostitution restrictions) to NV.

>>6326679
If we can make Addictol free or as close to it as possible, I do think that will mitigate problems caused by a lot of drug use. But I have concerns about gambling and sex addiction, which can't be treated the same way, and can be just as much of a slope to worse crime. My initial pitch on having this stuff be decriminalized revolved around an abundance of clinics because we should just have as holistic and approach as possible to treating people that aren't able to manage their substance use, or game playing, or hooker fucking. Even still, my point about their being harsh punishments on crimes while having lots of gateways to addiction hasn't really been refuted. With a robust clinic system we can minimize that problem as much as possible, but it's kinda fucked that we are making a society where people are welcomed to our paradise of indulgence and partying, but people that party too hard or lose their heads are dealt with so severely, yaknow? I am not gonna keep debating it though, I wanted others to consider that angle as we move towards commitments on these parts of the law, they will or won't, and maybe I am thinking too much into it.

>>6326682
I just don't think you have very capable reading comprehension skills, anon. How am I proposing a 'nanny state' when I lead this discussion calling for all of these vices to be totally unregulated and decriminalized? When did I say anything about personal agency one way or another? I said that if we make it easy to become addicted, we will have to reckon with the behavior of addicts. Even if plenty of them don't break the law, very, very many of them do, and often violently. I'm not saying that because I want to inject my baggage into this game, I am saying that because it's a recurring feature in the Fallout series, something the courier dealt with multiple times in FNV and we are in the process of dealing with at a massive scale in this game right now. Keep your weird direction-brained grumbling to yourself. If anons are going to write long schpiels about blast furnaces and tax rates to make sure we don't fuck those things up, there's room to talk about the implications of legal drugs and betting, which I'm sure we don't want to fuck up either.

>>6326687
>It eliminates the physical negatives of addiction but the mental addiction pathways are still there.
Okay, well that's a pretty serious change. I guess we'll have to get in the mud with proper handling and regulation of drugs after all.
Fuck.

>>6326691
Or just have good clinics/injection sites run by people in recovery all over. It'd be clutch if Addictol was an instant fix, but it being an instant, successful detox still does a LOT of heavy lifting. IRL people avoid rehab because detox is scary and painful and takes a while, and it's expensive, too, if not for the person the state. We are never gonna end addiction, but if we can make the physical aspect that seamless, a very strong mental health apparatus should honestly be damn effective.