Silath's Journal: Day 33 - November 20, 2281

We rested for nealt 10 hours at the overseers room. I felt good today; rested, eager, and not irritable for once. Vault 22 lay a few miles to the northwest, so we geared up and began the walk to it. Stopped by the Freeside Broadcasting building to do a small amount of trading and use their reloading bench.

Vault 22 was overgrown with plants; ferns, vines, and grass everywhere. Someone had set up a large plywood sign out front, just on the border of the plant life. 'Stay Out! The Plants Kill!', painted with a red spray can.
Of course we went in anyways. A short ways into the vault was an elevator, and after some simple repairs we took it down to level 2: oxygen recycling. It sounded like the most likely place to find air filter equipment. Sure enough, on an inventory list on one of the working terminals I saw it: six HEPA 20 cartridges. The terminal claimed they were located in 'Storage Room 2'.
I sighed as I saw that the storage room was blocked off. Of course it was. The only way in was through a tunnel broken through one of the walls. I couldn't find the entrance to the tunnel on this level, so I hoped maybe it would be on a lower level.

We took the stairs down the Level 3, which was proclaimed as 'Food Production.' There were many spots on the floors where plant life had erupted, and in several of them lurked strange... plant people. They would hide under the ferns until we got close and then spring out.
Easily killed, though, most needing only a solid hit of buckshot to the chest. We found a solid metal door, with a terminal beside it that claimed this was the 'Cavern Acess Door'. However it was locked electronically, and I couldn't hack the terminal. Of course it couldn't be this easy! Nothing ever was. I found myself beginning to feel frustrated.

So, we had to find the electronic key for the door. We headed down another level, to the common area. The Overseers office was wide open, and inside I found a terminal with a command to unlock the cavern door. Of course, the terminal simply told me a manual override had been activated at the door.
Someone REALLY didn't want that door to be opened. Regardless, we would have to find a way. The floor of the common area was a vertiable forest, with several of the strange plant-people lurking about, but Veronica and I killed any that sprang out at us.
Finally, though, I found the keycard. It was just laying on a shelf in one of the bedrooms, of all places. Someone locks the door down tight, overrides the Overseers commands, and then just leaves the keycard on a shelf. Odd.

Anyway, I didn't feel like spending all day wandering around in another vault, so we ran through the caverns (which were empty, aside from a few mantis', dunno what they were so afraid of!) and grabbed the HEPA filters from one of the cabinets in the storage room. Then we exited the vault without further trouble.
That had actually been our quickest vault trip yet, despite the fact that getting the filters was far more complicated than it should have been. It was 5 PM by now, but since we both had nightvision capabilities, and the suits really helped lessen how much the Mojave could wear you down, we decided to head back to the Brotherhood bunker rather than camp for the night.

Along the trip back southeast, we were attacked by some powder gangers. This was pretty surprising as the only time I had seen more than one or two of them was at Goodsprings and Primm, both fairly close to the NCRCF.
I thought maybe they were starting to spread out, and if they were hostile, it was a situation I might have to look into. Later though, later. Some legion assasins also attacked us, but at this point it's kind of a routine thing anymore.

We got back to hte bunker just before 10 PM, and I gave Lorenzo the equipment while Veronica went to talk to Father MacNamara, about whatever it was she was so eager to discuss ever since we'd entered Vault 22.
I found her leaning against the wall outside his office, her arms crossed. When I asked her how it had gone, she just shook her head. It seems she had tried to convince him that the Mojave was a different place now. That people were establishing stable towns, and actually making a living. The elder had said the Brotherhood had outlasted the nuclear apocolypse, it would outlast 'these upstarts.'
Veronica wanted to go find technology, to convince the Elder that the Brotherhood could help the people of the wasteland. First though, I told her, I had to tell him the filtration system was being fixed by Lorenzo and... about the NCR's threat.

MacNamara looked deep in thought as I approached him, and when I explained that the air system would soon be fixed, he looked up at me with a strange glint to his eyes. "After Helios One, I let myself be ruled by fear." he claimed. He now saw what a grave mistake he had made, and... the lockdown would be lifted!
I was shocked. Veronica would be very pleased to hear this. But first, I had to inform him of the mission Colonel Moore had given me. Strangely, rather than being angry, Elder MacNamara seemed thoughtful.
When I began to explain that if the Brotherhood didn't offer at least a token of support to the NCR, they would be crushed, he stopped me. He had already come to the same conclusion: and the brotherhood would offer more than just a few men. They would actively help defend the dam... if the NCR would accept their offer of a truce.

I assured MacNamara that I would take this news to Moore at once, and that I was sure they would accept his terms. She wasn't a stupid woman, I told him: she would see what could be gained by a truce, as opposed to the lives and material lost wiping the Brotherhood out.
This had gone better than I ever could of dreamed. When I told Veronica of MacNamaras choices, she was overjoyed. She actually hugged me again, and this time I was so happy as well that I hugged her right back.

It was getting late, though, past 11 PM, so we decided to stay at the bunker and head out before dawn to the Dam. "So, was it worth it? Going all over the desert for the Elder, I mean." Veronica asked me. I nodded and told her "We probably just saved the entire Brotherhood. They should promote you, or something."
Veronica just laughed and said that was unlikely. Despite what we had done, she was still a black sheep of sorts among the Brotherhood. And there were those who thought we had manipulated MacNamara. Maybe we had, just a little, but most of it was simply him being smart enough to see what was inevitable.