You’ve put it off for a month due to injuries, but reclaiming the Platinum Chip is the top priority bar none. Finding the override codes would be a nice bonus, but nothing matters if you lose control of the Securitrons and the Lucky 38’s systems.

You’re not sure of the situation up in Hawthorne. Yes Man has captured snippets of radio messages between the cleanup crew and NCR Command in Shady Sands, but nothing that paints a complete picture. If they found the chip, they either don’t know what it does and therefore regarded it as a trinket, or they know exactly what it does and is keeping the discovery close to the chest.

You pack light for the trip, it being nearly a three day hike up north over flat, though inhospitable terrain. Depending on the force deployed to the town, you aren’t keen on another firefight and would rather slip in, find your gear, and get the hell out of dodge. Your lack of the Stealth Suit Mark ll is a double-edged sword and you instead opt for the old Chinese Stealth Armor you found in the bowels of Hoover. It doesn’t hold a candle to the suit from Big Mountain but you’ll make do.

You pop into the Lucky 38, pack for the trip, and immediately return to the wastes, Yes Man still in charge. A lesser man would need to rest and recuperate from the trip to and from The Divide, but once again, your success relies on your abnormality. The time it takes to head to Hawthorne does give you an opportunity to crack open the book Caesar “suggested” you read.

You stop just outside of an abandoned husk of a town called Amargosa Valley. The only attraction is an old rest stop that revolves around aliens seemingly housed at Area 51, an air base you’ve only heard about in rumors and old government documents. You can’t stop from laughing at the absurdity of the faded depictions of little green men. You’ve seen extraterrestrials and admittedly they’re not too far off from the illustrations.

Phenomenology of Spirit is a translation of a book written in Germany hundreds of years ago, but if Edward can grasp it, you’re sure you can. This false confidence leads you through an evening of frustration and curses as you try to figure out what the hell the book is about. You’re an intellectual by all accounts but this book throws you through the wringer.

Philosophy is not your strongest subject and reading something so esoteric without any reference material is a test of patience. You only make it through a few pages over the next two nights as you make your way up to Hawthorne.

Feeling immensely frustrated, you welcome the task at hand. A few hours outside of Hawthorne, you spot a NCR patrol on dirt bikes. Unlike the patrols from before, you can tell the soldiers are professionals, either veterans or well-motivated conscripts.