Chapter 44
“You know what? I don’t think I will ever get the urge to go to Zion again.” Anne said with a sigh as they finally exited through the cave they had been walking through for the past few hours, finally greeted by the sight of the Mojave once again in all its irradiated glory.
“I will never have a pot plant in my house after those fly traps.” Twilight added with a shiver going down her spine, they ran into a few on their way back ‘home’.
They had left the box they had been given as a gift not long after leaving, having emptied it so they didn’t have to carry it around. Inside was Salt-Upon-Wounds’ helmet and his powerfist, which Anne kept the weapon and put it into her back as a keepsake along with the helmet. There was a few books of scripture that Twilight kept in her pack, Anne not really caring about it. But one thing that excited Anne was a pistol.
It was a short barreled .45 pistol with a worn snakeskin handle, it’s once darkened color scratched away from use to a dull shine. On both sides words were carved into the metal, and on an attached note was written the translation of ‘And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not’ in Greek. Anne had come to call it ‘Shining Light’ to make it easier.
There had been some food, water and medical supplies as well in the box, which they took as well although there were some tribal clothes that they left inside, they had no need for any of it.
“I think we deserve a break after all that, want to head back to the Lucky 38?” Anne asks idly as they stood at the exit to the cave.
“We need to get the stuff we hid away before we left.” Twilight pointed out.
“Oh yeah, good memory princess.”
After getting the things they stashed, although Twilight took parts of the laser rifle they got from Zion and used them to repair her old rifle, while Anne just got loaded down in weaponry she had left.
Boone looked up from the rifle he was currently in the process of cleaning when he saw the two very tired friends come back into the king suite of the Lucky 38, brow rising slightly at the state of them. “So… a bit more than just a caravan trip?” The man asked looking back down at the rifle, rubbing away excess oil he had rubbed onto the bolt action he had taken off.
“Just a bit.” Anne said taking her pack off and dropping it in a corner, not bothering to do anything else as she flopped herself into a sofa, the furniture creaking under the force and her weight. “Didn’t really get paid too.”
“We were attacked when we were going through Zion valley and we went on a whole adventure to help the people living there escape from a group of killers.” Twilight said, not even bothering to take off her pack before flopping down on another chair, face buried in the pillows tiredly.
“Just remember you have things to do, you have to decide if you want to keep around a bunch of the groups around New Vegas.” Boone said idly as he put the barrel back onto the wooden stock of the rifle.
Anne groaned softly, the pony letting out faint snoozing sounds as she passed out on the couch. “I’ll do it in the morning…” Anne grumbled.
“I’m not the one who’s trying to run this place.” He stated. “Should just let the NCR move in, they’d run this place right.”
He didn’t get an answer from the woman, and when he looked over he saw her passed out from exhaustion.
Rolling his eyes he continued working on the rifle.
It turned out ‘in the morning’ meant after a few days of resting and recovering from Zion valley, mainly lazing about the strip and Lucky 38, Anne at one point going to The Tops to do a bit of gambling, although got a slap on the back of the head when she came back missing two hundred caps. Twilight mainly read books they had collected in the Mojave and some already in the building while cuddling against her teddy bear.
But finally Anne decided they should actually do something if they wanted New Vegas to become independent.
“I think I should deal with the Great Khans, maybe you should do one of the others?” Anne offered. “There are so many we’d need to go through it all quickly otherwise it would be years before we’re done.”
“I guess I’ll probably go look at those ‘Boombers’ Yes Man was talking about, I have were they are on a map I’ll take with me.”
“And remember Twilight, look to see if you’d want them to be around once everything is said and done, I don’t want any assholes making it hard for everyone else around to ruin our day.”
Twilight nodded, slipping herself into her vet, strapping on her pistols to her legs and draping the rifle over her back, packing her pockets full of bullets, batteries and medical supplies for the trip ahead.
After a farewell the two head in different directions once leaving The Strip and heading towards the airfield that was on the map she was given.
She walked along the Strip proper, casting glancing looks at the large robotic monsters guarding the strip, knowing that each one had enough firepower to take on a dozen armed people and come out without a scratch. And she and Anne had almost full control of them. Even when she was a princess in Equestria she had the Royal Guard at her beck and call, but if she gave a crazy order they wouldn’t do it. But these things had no emotions, just blank killing machines, not caring if they were destroyed or who they need to target. The thought made chills go up the pony’s spine, making her uncomfortable.
Twilight groaned softly as she flopped herself down on the floor of the shack she had found. It had become night before she had reached the airfield and she didn’t feel like going for a night stroll through pitch black darkness knowing all the things that want to kill her out there, even if she used a light spell to guide her way she didn’t want to.
It was rather easy for her to set up a fire with her magic, just using some scrap wood around the shack and breaking it into chunks, using her horn to light them up. Twilight sighed sadly, she felt very alone, none of her friends around, no one knowing where she was. The thought of all that put the pony down, making her snuggle herself into a ball near the fire, shivering slightly from the cold as tears came to the corners of her eyes.
Lazily she reached into her discarded pack with her hoof, not being bothered to use her magic, before she pulled out a warn teddy bear, hugging it to her barrel tightly as she tried to calm herself down but she couldn’t.
Tears streamed down her face and impacted on the dusty and dirty floor and left small wet spots in the wood. She wanted to be home, she wanted to see her parents, she wanted her brother, her friends, her home. But now she was stuck in a place she could have never imagined, the horror present every hour of the day and even though Anne had helped her cope with the change it still wasn’t enough for her to be okay with everything. ‘I’m going to die here’ She thought to herself as she sobbed softly, eyes clenched shut tightly as she imagined the bear was someone she knew, like Celestia, holding her tight to keep her student safe and sound, telling her how she’s all good now, how nothing would happen to her.
But when she opened her eyes again she was just greeted with the dull eyes of the teddy bear in her hooves, dull plastic eyes looking up at her with a stitched on smile.
Twilight cried herself to sleep that night.
After a cold breakfast of Insta-Mash mixed with some dirty water she headed out, heading towards her objective of the Nellis Airforce Base. She came over the crest of a hill, seeing the large plains before her, large hangers not far in the distance with a large wire fence going all around. Between her and the buildings were the destroyed husks of houses, blast holes pocking the ground everywhere. Along the road headed towards the base Twilight spotted a sign reading in big red letters ‘BOOMERS’ and ‘Trespassers will be killed.’
“Friendly welcome…” Twilight muttered to herself, scanning around to look for any snipers around. How bad could getting in be?
She walked towards the fence, where she could see a gate to get inside, with guard towers scattered along the length.
Not wanting to get caught by a sniper she summoned a shield to make a wall in front of her, blocking any shots that may come towards her from the front.
Twilight got slightly worried when she hadn’t in counted any form of resistance or life around, only seeing the burned and scarred ground around her. Out of all the black and grey she spotted something of color, trotting her way over to it. She heard a dull thudding sound in the distance she picked up at red covered lump.
“What do we have here?” the pony mumbled to herself. When she realized what it was she dropped it with a splat and quickly stumbled herself back, dropping the detached arm to the ground. Only two fingers were still attached to the hand, the flesh shredded and mince, as if a grenade went off in its grip.
Before she could look around for the rest of the body she heard a loud whistling sound that quickly got louder and then painful. But it got even more painful for Twilight as the largest explosion she had ever seen went off right next to where she was standing.
Before she knew it she slammed against the foundation of one of the old buildings with a crack, knowing either one of her bones broke or the foundation did. She could barely get breath into her lungs, the wind getting knocked right out of her body.
She slowly got herself back onto her hooves as she heard the faint whistling sound again, her whole body feeling as if it were on fire. She let out a cry of pain as she put weight onto one of her hooves, collapsing back down to the gravel, letting out another yell of agony as she landed one what must be a broken wing. She slowly got back onto her three usable hooves but another explosion knocked her over, luckily a little further away so she didn’t go hurtling through the air again.
She looked over at her broken forehoof, jaw quivering as she saw how bent out of shape it was, along with the bloody and leaking holes that were going up along her hoof and out of sight along her neck.
She couldn’t focus on the pain anymore, just looking around in panic as she heard the whistling growing louder again. Twilight quickly lit up her horn, doing a quick teleport since she wasn’t able to focus on a long range one in all the pain.
She managed to get out of the way of the explosion, going off just where she was before. She could hear more whistling.
The purple pony princess knew she couldn’t keep jumping around using her magic, she had to get out of there before she was blown to bits like that last person was. She quickly started hobbling her way towards the fence, not thinking clearly from all the burning pain going through her body.
She forced a lazy shield around her body, hoping that it might be enough to protect her from any close blast to her as she staggered, wincing as she moved her broken leg. “J-just a bit f-further…” She gasped to herself as she limped.
Her shield was cut through like wet paper, her body getting flung several feet forward, her body collapsing to the ground as she felt more stinging along her back. She felt like she landed in a puddle, her back feeling wet with liquid dripping down off her body.
Getting to her hooves again slowly she continued towards the fence.
It felt like years before she managed to get to the fence, but it was only a few dozen feet away. She fell down to her rump, gasping for air as she tried to stay conscious.
“Hey!” A voice yelled out, the pony sluggishly looking around for who yelled. “How the hell did you get past that strike?!”
Twilight managed to see who it was by looking up a tower, seeing a man wearing a helmet and a black leather jacket, large metal tube over his should and pointed at her.
“Y-you did that?” Twilight asked weakly.
“I’ve heard about you on the radio, but we still don’t want you here, turn back.” The man warned angrily.
Twilight just looked at him blankly, her horn sputtering to life. The Boomer looked surprised as his rocket launcher was pulled out of his grip by an invisible force, looking at it worriedly as it pointed at him. Twilight didn’t know how it worked but she did know was big heavy things could be used for.
The man let out a yelp of surprise as he was hit across the head with the end of his rocket launcher, collapsing in a heap unconscious.
Twilight a groan Twilight dropped the weapon, body going limp as she sat there. “H-hopefully Anne is having a b-better time…”
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You can run along the left side until you hit the fence, they'll stop shooting at that point
To get into the Boomers' territory "correctly" is just as 7941878 said. Run along the left side until you hit the chain link fence, then go to the gate. The "sneaky way" is to go through 2 very hard locked doors in the train tunnel, but it's bugged. You can do it, but then the Boomers don't recognize that you've made it past the artillery before and will fire on you anyway. So don't do this.
Also I realized I lied to whomever it was that asked about the Survivalist's rifle. While the rifle is found on top of the red arch, the armor is found in the caves above the Dead Horse's Camp.
There are actually a couple of ways to get to Nellis AFB "safely", and I shall list them as such, alongside links to Nuka-pedia describing them as well.
Doorway No. 1 into Nellis AFB: Near the shack that you likely had Twilight staying in, the one just before the hill that you crest to get into the mortar field, there is a man by the name of George. He will mention to you how no one has made it into Nellis before, and propose a wager of 'Double or Nothing' on you getting in - if you give him 300 caps, he will give you a note, titled "Nellis Artillery Timing Details", which will teach you the trick for getting in safely. Note that there is a speech check that will let you lower the amount of caps that you give to 200, but keep in mind that will hold true the whole way - you will only recieve 400 caps from him once you return, instead of the original 600 that you would have received. All in all, this unmarked quest is a nice little way to earn a few quick caps while steadily progressing towards starting Volaire!. Back to the note that I mentioned you recieve, I'll be quoting what the note says directly;
Obviously, when doing this method, you follow the instructions as much. Also, take note of that last line, as it describes method number 2.
Doorway No. 2 into Nellis AFB: An old train tunnel route near Raul's Shack. If you don't know where Raul's Shack is yet, then shame on you. That's all I have to say. He's too good of a companion for you to not have learnt of where his personal domicile is yet. Either way, near his shack, there is an Unmarked Train Tunnel, situated on the World Map about half-way between Raul's Shack and the Brotherhood of Steel Safehouse. Keep in mind this tunnel is no less hazardous than the Artillery Field route initially, in fact it may be even moreso. Both the entrance that I have alluded to many a time already, and the other end that exits near the gate to Nellis are locked with a Very Hard-level lock, albeit there is a verified bug for the PC that sometimes, under highly extreme situations one or both doors may already be unlocked, due to software issues with the parcers for pre-locked doors across the game. A good rule of thumb for whether you'll get that glitch is if you've found any other doors that should have been locked before, but weren't when you came across them for the first time. Also, due to time constraints in Obsidian's timeframe for making the game, although there was a key planned for the doorway, it was never finished enough to warrant a Command Console spawn code, let alone actually be in the game. You need to lockpick your way in. Either way, just getting near this tunnel can be hazardous, as the AI pathfinding for the Deathclaws that spawn in the nearby Gypsum Train Yard (to the South-South East of the Tunnel, and along the same rail tracks) has them sometimes wander as far as the door itself. Once you enter the Tunnel, be highly cautious of the several dozen armed and hostile Fragmentation Mines scattered around the tunnel, alongside multiple Feral Ghouls - most level up their type with you as you go, but there are several that are pre-programmed to be Glowing Ones regardless of the level of the PC. After fighting through that lot, and hopefully not blowing the bottom half of your body clean off the rest in the process, you've finally come to the second door that you need to open, which is also a Very Hard-level lock. Also, before you leave, make sure to get both the Fire Helmet off the body of a dead Ghoul Wastelander (there are only 8 known in the game, with 7 in the Searchlight Fire Station and the eighth being here in the tunnel), as well as the Construction Hat scattered on a random shelf inside, notable of which for only having 2 pre-placed in the base game (one here, one on the head of Chomps Lewis, a quarry worker in Sloan, alongside 2 in Dead Money, 2 in Old World Blues, and 3 in Lonesome Road). Finally, after picking the final lock and exiting the tunnel, you're still not out of the fryer yet. You still are targeted by a Howitzer barrage, however you are much closer to the gates and alongside a rock wall, which makes it much easier to simply haul ass alongside the rock face until you reach the fence, then simply follow the fence to the gate, much like option number one.
Doorway No. 3 for entering Nellis AFB: Like you were already doing, simply book it like a nice tropical vacation to the gates while consuming enough Med-X, Jet, Psycho, Stimpacks, Turbo, and Hydra to make even Chuck Norris keel over in a heart attack.
You can attempt, as a sort-of Doorway No. 4 to entering Nellis, simply hug either of the rock walls surrounding the artillery range and walk along the perimeter, but this is not always reliable as some of the pre-coded artillery strike coordinates are still close enough to kill the PC when they strike.
Do not attempt to sneak through the Howitzer barrage while sneaking, even if under the affects of both the Chinese Stealth Suits and a Stealth Boy simultaneously, as the artillery is hard-coded to fire when anyone gets near, regardless of what they do, unless they are the Player Character with a Neutral-or-higher reputation with the Boomers, or a member of the Boomer faction themselves.
Also, after you have made it into Nellis AFB and made it so that you will not be shelled by coming back into the artillery ranging field, don't forget to walk back through the field and loot the bodies of two Brotherhood of Steel Paladins that are already dead inside the field, they are either wearing BoS-Faction T-45/T-51 Power Armor (depending on your level), and one is carrying a holotape that you are tasked with retrieving in the BoS quest "Still in the Dark" for Elder McNamara.
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Have fun, it took me like 45 minutes to write and format this. I've got my text preview testing the links I threw in, and that's reading 38 minutes prior, and that was after I had already written out and posted quotes from Doorway No. 1.
7941917 The tunnel isn't always bugged, and usually when it's doing that you simply need to perform a cell purge-and-refresh, as that happens when the AI simply starts committing suicide and you need to do that anyways. Usually that needs to be done anyways to prevent the notorious PC bug of the ground's textures derping the living fuck out and sucking things inside of it, like Radscorpions being half-consumed by the ground and what-not.
I was inspired by this fic. I started up a new game of New Vegas, and I'm trying my best to kill every single person in the Mojave desert. Thanks, dude!
7941977 Let me know how that turns out for you, would you kindly? kthxbai
Should be "worn"
Just run like hell and take turbo, that's what i do. Well... if i have turbo... which i rarely do. I just run and go straight to the fence... much like you do. Though i don't use much drugs unless i die once.
Surprisingly, i haven't died more than once. And that was on my first playthrough. Never died again to the bombardment
7941919 I did not know that. If you ask me, the Gypsum Train deathclaws is just as hard as the Deathclaw Alpha Male because for the latter, you can only have so much time before being overrun (unless you have explosives or are employing a playstyle with them). It's a little easier with companions, though. Facing that many deathclaws pretty much requires enough chems and stimpaks to kill a normal person in real life. I've also managed to kill the DAM using a sniper rifle, a 9mm pistol with a truckload of ammo and a ballistic fist.
7961983
To be honest I only added that part in to get it out of the way, cause I know a few people would be asking if they'd get together. And I didn't want them to
Supposedly there's a guy there that tells you how to get across while evading the explosions, but you have to make a bet with him in the process, whether or not it actually works I have no idea, after the first try I just pumped myself with drugs and did what you did. Lol