* PURSUIT OF RANSEUR / EVENTS OF STABLE TWENTY. This takes all night.
* CROPPER'S PRESS CONFERENCE. Just before arriving, Pink-E realizes Cherry has been hypnotized by Cropper and breaks the hold using her Mesmertron. Running on two hours' sleep, Cherry and Hard Way cut the deal between Vikeans and the NCR, undermining Cropper's influence in the process. Hard Way then departs with the agreement, having traded the greenbacks Cherry originally stole from the NCR for it, to link up with the Vikean fleet as it returns to Hasverige from the raid on Mount Morgan.
* MOVIE TIME. Torn between the orders of his employer and his growing affection for Pink-E, Cherry decides to "treat" both her and Tag-End to a movie, formally "hiring" Tag's bouncer and bartender so they can be recognized by the robots and run the Cherry Pit in Tag's absence. Because she'd wanted to see a movie at the old drive-in south of Nipton to begin with, that's where they go. Cherry is shocked to see the satellite still there and apparently untouched, although Pink-E seems to think that was inevitable. When she goes to use its built-in holoprojector to play one of the movies stored in her memory ("Terrible Creatures from the Stars!"), the three of them are magically teleported to the Institute for Magi/Tech Development... the "Big M/T".
* CELESTINE BLUES. Cherry and Tag are still recovering from Teleportation Disorientation Disorder (TeDDi?) when Lyra walks in on her hind legs, dressed in a lab coat, wearing pince-nez glasses and carrying a clipboard in her forelegs. She welcomes them to the "Big M/T" before leading the way to the Think Tank, who are all too happy to receive Cherry's packet --- of Mentats. Of course, before they and Pink-E can help out with Rep'Corn and Celestar One, they have their own problems involving giant robot scorpions and malfunctioning test centers... Cherry also meets "Steelgraft" and "PNK-3" (copies), who tell him about an "inheritance" left for him in Detrot... "a debt unpaid".
- The Steelgraft Sweeper-clone was grabbed and attempted to be lobotimized, resulting its being augmented instead. Was chasing a rogue Deadmare into Big M/T, they mistook him for the Deadmare. Spritebot (PNK-3) tethered his mind so he's not actually a lobotomite (ala the original story for the Courier).
- Tree of Yggdrasil is the cross-pollinated result of Harold's Oasis meeting up with Vault 22/X-?? Testsite over 10,000 years.
** MEANWHILE, IN DETROT - Rainbow Dash travels to pay her respects at the Shadowbolt Memorial, also to find what happened to the MoA hub there. The "Flickerjack", Jack's original ship, is there and functional as part of the museum, representing another reason to go. Nessie is there, Steelgraft's sister, who heads up the Dashites controlling and maintaining it. Knows him as "Toughluck Jack". Enclave has a base there for building/testing airships, but they don't go to Ravenholm.
* SUNSHINE ROAD. Cherry, Tag and Pink-E go to space, deal with astro-ghouls, star-spawn and Cthuloid monsters, and fix a thing. Possible chapter name: "Paint the Moon Pink"? Pink-E draws an oblong smiley face with what looks like nipples to either side in the lunar dust. "What the hell is that?" "A lemon face. I dunno, it just seemed like the thing to do!"
1) Ten thousand years ago, Jason Bright and his followers went to space in three nuclear-fusion rockets, each with the approximate passenger and cargo space of a ground-based sedan. Each was capable of an effectively infinite number of landings and takeoffs from the planet, first demonstrated when they returned to evacuate Novac during the Courier's missile strikes. In thanks, the town allowed them to take its rocketry scrap when they returned to space... including all the toys filled with Isotope-239 igniting agent.
2) Bright's Brotherhood first set up a collection point in the Moon's Sea of Tranquility, then began conducting scavenging runs to uninhabited ruins for tools, materials and supplies. Soon, they began inviting other ghouls to join them. Numerous ferals were also "rescued" (being unable to consent to much of anything).
3) Constant space radiation, unfiltered by Earth's atmosphere, not only kept the Brotherhood's membership from degenerating, but also transformed them into Glowing Ones. Those with minds retained them, those without were trained to perform manual labor as necessary. They became effectively immortal, unless away from radiation long enough to begin degenerating again.
4) For a thousand years or so, the Bright Brotherhood watched as the last remnants of humanity on Earth --- ghouls included --- extinguished themselves, then watched again as the planet seem to bloom anew. Intrepid explorers conducted overflights, taking pictures and film of the burgeoning life below. After a few landings, they determined Earth to still be hostile towards ghoul life, particularly overrun with chaotically-mutated flora and fauna, and gave up on further returns, content to view Earth as the distant and beautiful cradle to which they should never return.
5) Once turned entirely inward, the Brotherhood began to take on a more philosophical bent, and then a religious one. A Black Book was discovered on an altar of raw basalt, launching the "Cult of the Nightmare Moon", which viewed Earth now as a pestilent, fungus-covered blight on the pure void of space and ghouls as the sole inheritors of humanity's legacy. What remained of the human genetic code corrupted into mutation piled upon mutation, until it faded into the background of planetary life like the breath of a ghost.
6) Over the millenia, Earth spawned numerous sentient species, towards which wisps of evil drifted through the vacuum like moths to a candle. Unfocused cults of power arose, witches and warlocks blindly following whispered promises into madness. Eventually these began to coalesce and organize, giving rise to more formal schools of magic as well as paganistic belief systems. On the Moon, with no way to expand its population and ever-more-fearful of eventual death, the Bright Brotherhood occupied itself with philosophical debate, refining its holdings, and occasionally staring at a world where they could not long survive. During dull times, they would toy with the mutants, using technology to appear as monsters or gods, sometimes even dropping meteors. In particular, they enjoyed the reactions of zebras to these antics, and began to concentrate on messing with them almost exclusively. It was during this time that the Krivbeknih was delivered to a zebra alchemist, providing the knowledge and inspiration to create an equine-specific version of the Black Book.
6a) Supporting Fallout lore: invocation of "Alhazred", author of the Necronomicon, by Jaime in the Dunwich Building. "Abdul comes again, on the feast of the weaker. Feast for the Deep Temple. Born again, here. Alhazred, G’yeth. G’yeth." This name is unique to H.P. Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos". As the ghoulified Jaime stands facing the obelisk of Ug-Qualtoth with arms upraised, it appears that he is somehow summoning ghouls out of the mist-shrouded recess in the rock wall opposite. The Black Book, however, is named "Krivbeknih", unique to FO3's "Lookout Point" DLC, as is the name "Ug-Qualtoth".
6b) What were the Aliens doing all this time? Mothership Zeta was taken over and used to destroy a second mothership, but several years afterward a scout ship appeared near New Vegas. As there has been no retaliatory strike on the planet using a mothership death ray (each shot capable of wiping out everything in a circumference of 350 miles), it can be assumed that a few such scouts survived their mothership's destruction and became stuck in our Solar system. ALTERNATE HEADCANON: the last Alien hurrah was an attempt to seize the Big MT using sonic technology in 2910. Blind Diode Jefferson detected and immediately countered the incoming soundwaves by commandeering the site's PA system to play syncopated versions of jazz numbers. The offending sounds ended up blending into a series of trumpet and saxophone duets, rendering them somewhat annoying but otherwise harmless. The Aliens, ignorant of their bombardment's failure, moved in with a small army of combat drones. Their second and last mistake was assuming that Area X-7b, "Boomtown", was the Big MT's actual residence block, since it seemed identical to inhabited ruins they had seen elsewhere on Earth. A single artillery round from "Left Field" (Area X-7a) destroyed most of the invasion force, with the remainder being picked off piecemeal by other defense mechanisms. Mostly robodogs.
7) The Nightmare Moon Incident. Luna, fallen to jealous and rage inspired by Lovecraftian influences, turns on her sister and is subsequently imprisoned in --- not on --- the Moon. Seeing in her a weapon to use against "those foul mutant horse-things on OUR LAWN", a ritual is developed and readied for the optimal planetary alignment a thousand years later. Four Bright Stars (what they call their ships) position themselves in perfect focal points around the Moon and carry out the ritual, releasing Nightmare Moon to warp time and space, thus imposing "everlasting night" on the Earth. The Bright Brotherhood hopes that this will kill off the mutant flora and fauna, first by depriving it of sunlight and then by freezing what's left.
* DEBRIEFING AT LUCKY CHANCE WITH HORSE. Cherry explains, Horse drops more info. Cherry Pit closes for several reasons: the bartender was embezzling, the bouncer was playing favorites, the novelty has already begun to wear off amongst the high-class types, and the giant red nav-ball now directly receives microwave energy from space. It's finally time to deal with "Bent Nail" Benny and get Mr. Horse's chip back, after which Cherry is assigned a new mission to broker an alliance with New Braynan.
* HONEST HOOVES. Face-off with the Herd, which is trying to wipe the town out and obtain the strategic northern flank. Ends with Cherry and company being kidnapped and imprisoned by Diamond Dogs (why prison instead of death?).
* BRAVE NEW WORLD. Diamond Dog society/plot revealed. The DDs are covertly pushing the NCR and Herd into an all-out battle with the intent of smashing the survivors with giant steam-driven 'mechs. DDs are murdering NCR citizens and making the carnage look like the Herd did it, which was the case at Nipton (doublecheck?). They tell the Herd it's the NCR killing its own "malcontents" for propaganda purposes. At the same time, the DDs are digging tunnels deep under Hoofer Dam so the Herd can bypass the Dam and the military camps at Big Rock City altogether.
* RESISTANCE. Cherry and company escape to warn Horse, but the main battle is already underway on Ivannapony Flats.
The Herd, having positioned a large holding force to keep the main body of NCR troops bottled up at Big Rock City, is advancing slowly from the north-by-northeast, pushing heavy wheeled artillery pieces protected to the front and sides by thick slabs of scrap-metal armor. Firing ports let them shoot at anypony who charges the guns, and anypony who gets close enough then has to contend with the guns' melee-ready defenders (the ones pushing).
Absent any artillery of their own, the NCR first tries a frontal charge (ala "The Lighthorsemen"), but after being repulsed with heavy losses they have retreated far enough to dig some hasty trenches. Unicorn magic, as limited and varied as it is, is scoring the occasional bit of damage while some units try to execute a flanking manuever to shoot up the guns' exposed rear angles. The Herd, however, had kept several melee formations in reserve against just such a possibility. They quickly drive the flankers back.
General (Oliver?), frustrated and lacking any better ideas, orders another all-out charge. Just as the charge is about to contact the Herd's front line, a battalion of Diamond Dog mecha erupt from the earth to the north, firing immediate on both armies from their respective flanks. With their reserves already fully committed, neither the Herd nor the NCR is able to respond effectively.
Cherry arrives at the head of the surviving Vikean raiding fleet, leading their own charge in Horse's ancient personal hovercar, modified for combat with Pink-E plugged into its electronics. Honoring their promised alliance, and led by Rainbow Dash herself, the Zoomers conduct tactical rainbooms along the Diamond Dog line. After this, the battle devolves into a more evenly-matched (albeit confused) fight between the remnants of all three armies (the Vikeans having just concluded a peace and trade agreement with the NCR).
> > > The combined rainbooms rip open the Ivannapony lakebed, creating a huge "divide"... beneath can be seen what's now a hugely-damaged metropolis, seventeen layers deep and four miles wide.
**** What happened to the Robot Bunker at Fortification Hill in the last 10,000 years?
1) The Courier got the Chip from Benny before he could skip town, then threw it into the Colorado after seeing what happened with the Securitrons in House's basement. He never went to Fortification Hill, never opened the facility, and ended up "resolving" things by launching all the nukes at the end of Lonesome Road.
2) The Chip would have been used both for opening the Securitron Vault and for upgrading the software there. It cannot be done remotely (or House would have done it to begin with). Therefore, it's reasonable for House to have gained access by having robot work teams forcibly rip their way into the elevator and then manually deactivating the security once inside, but the remaining 'bots can't be upgraded. Nor would any new 'bots be produced with the upgrades. House's relatively small force of militarized 'bots have since been destroyed during operations or fallen to pieces over the millenia.
3) After access, the facility would have continued as a manufacturing facility for House/Horse, allowing him to push his line of radio relays to the East Coast. Other robots could reclaim/repair the RepConn facility so that he could start launching communication satellites, but the landlines are needed for instantaneous local control. Satellites work, but often get poor reception and "green-outs" due to lingering atmospheric radiation. This is why some of the DNA recovered from Norway's "Doomsday Vault" was damaged or destroyed.
4) But when Horse founded Las Pegasus on New Vegas' ruins, he had to make sure no overt sign of humanity remained. The Lucky 38, the only building he had kept up, was remodeled to look brand new. Similarly, he rebuilt Hoover Dam on the still-solid shoulders of its base, later explaining it as his own project to ensure plentiful local power supplies for further expansion. The Fortification Hill complex, having served its purpose, was mothballed and covered over as "worthless scrubland" which Horse nonetheless owned as part of his claimed parcel.
5) So when the Herd appeared en masse and started building up forces on the Hill, Horse was actually taken by surprise. The facility has been uncovered by members of the Herd while digging latrines and rubbish pits, but they have been unable to break through the (relatively) new blast doors. Horse still needs an agent to physically operate the facility, as he never did upgrade it to allow remote control from the Lucky Chance.
Cherry is busy elsewhere... why not give the job to Ranseur? Gets her off the hook with Horse, but he doesn't trust her.