Silath's Journal: Day 11 - October 29, 2281

It was raining when I stepped outside of the Lucky 38 this morning. The moisture and smell felt good. For some reason it gives me a feeling of longing, though I do not know why. Loaded up some .308 armor piercing rounds for my DKS rifle at the Gun runners station.
Discovered the New Vegas clinic just outside the Crimson Caravan Company, strange I never noticed it before. Inside was a very kind Doctor Usanagi, offering supplies and, of all things, implants. I wanted to buy an implant that allowed your cells to regenerate, but it was 12,000 caps. Too expensive. Maybe some day?
As a side note, things feel much less urgent than the days leading up to killing House. With him out of the way it feels like I can take a little time to breath. Especially since I took some time this morning to set some new parameters for Yes Man. For one thing, nobody but me can command him now. For another, if I go more than 60 days without contacting him, the securitrons are programmed to all find uninhabited areas and self destruct.

On the way up to Nellis air force base, home of the fabled Boomers, a man named George stopped me to offer a bet. If I gave him 300 caps, he would give me a note detailing how to reach the base without getting blown to smithereens. If I made it there and back, he'd double my money.
I found a safe place and left the majority of my gear, just taking my rifle, combat armor, some water, stimpacks, and ammo. I read the note George had sold me; essentially one just had to find cover, wait for the shelling to stop, then run a few yards to the next piece of cover and repeat until you reached the fence.
I, however, had an ace up my sleeve. Just before I passed the signs warning of impending death for any trespassers, I activated a stealthboy. A little ways behind me I could hear George laugh and yell "They'll see you anyway!"
Imagine my chagrin when I discovered he was right. Thankfully I was able to make it to the gates regardless, using the tactic outlined by the note. How they saw through my stealthboy I don't know, perhaps thermal vision or some sort of lifesign detection like my combat module.

I was greeted at the gate by a young man carrying a rocket launcher and looking rather frightened. It was pretty obvious he'd never seen combat, but before he or I could do much of anything I was greated by a girl names Raquel, who was the self proclaimed Master At Arms.
Raquel took me to see 'Mother Pearl', an elderly but spirited woman wearing the same decorated leather jackets as many others around the base. Mother Pearl apparently felt there was 'Something special' about me.
Pearl requested that I help out with various tasks around base and learn about the history of the Boomers. I asked her what my payment would be, to which she replied "Our trust." Hopefully their trust will be enough to get them to turn their guns on the Legion.

I was told I would be allowed to come and go and I pleased, so I headed back to George to get my caps and pick up the gear I had dropped off. George paid up willingly, claiming it was the first time he had ever seen anyone survive the trip to the gate and back.
While I was walking through the base, an adorable little girl came up to me and asked if I could help her find her teddy bear. I said I'd keep an eye out. There's a surprisingly large amount of children scrambling around the base.
The first place I came into was the medical hut, a man named Argyll in charge. I offered what assistance I could, unfortunately out of the three patients I was only able to help one; a Boomer suffering from infection. He should live.

After that, I visited the musuem. There was a boy named Pete, who pointed at a mural painted on the wall and gave me a history of the Boomers. It seems they had originally been inhabitants of one of the fabled Vaults, this one numbered 34. But they were upset that their 'Overseet' would not allow them to use explosives in the vault, so they left.
For a while, they wandered the wasteland (Pete cited a kill count of something like 54 to 1, in favor of the Boomers) until they settled at Nellis. Now they have some sort of dream of restoring a massive flying bomber plane.
Afterwards I found two men, names of Jack and Loyal. Jack was a little... akward, mentioned something about a lady and then scrambled off. Loyal requested I bring him some scrap metal, and that I fix the base's solar array.
Raquel, the woman who had greeted me at the gate earlier, asked that I take on the ants swarming over their generator room and restart the generators. Apparently these ants had taken out a few Boomers who tried.
I think she just wants to get me killed, but she's underestimating just how hard a 'savage' (What the Boomers call us.) can be to kill.

Anyway, the solar array is right on top of the basement housing the generators, so I worked on those first. Was able to fix them up quite nicely, they should be operating at even better output than they were before they broke. My repair skills are getting pretty good.
Inside the generator room I killed a rediculous number of ants, but it wasn't too difficult with the help of my combat shotgun. Restarted the generators and got them back up and running.
By the time I came back outside it was dark, pretty late, so rather than go around waking up a bunch of sleeping Boomers I set up camp. I can surprise Raquel with my survival in the morning. Brat.

Silath's Journal: Day 10 - October 28, 2281

Slept all day yesterday. Everything has been happening so fast, even though I've been bedding down every night, I haven't been sleeping well... Woke up at 2 AM, I'm not sure how long I slept for. 25 hours, I think.
Spoke with Yes Man. I guess, after taking care of Benny, his family is pretty much falling apart. They won't be an issue. That does leave the Brotherhood of Steel, Great Khans, Omertas, and White Glove Society to deal with.

I decided to go speak with the Omertas. Found a guy named Cachino, who was a fucking asshole. The secretary at the front desk hinted that he was involved with some backroom dealings.... the kind that's bad news for the whole strip.
So, I got the key to his room from her (For 300 caps) and did a little investigating. Found a journal recording all sorts of nasty business Cachino had been hiding from his higher-ups, so I used it to blackmail him into telling me exactly what was going on.
Apparently the Omertas have been stockpiling weapons to try and take over the strip. Cachino agree to help me take down the Omerta bosses; Nero and Big Sal, in return for the journal.
The quieter we can take care of this, the better, so I agreed. Nero and Sal have been using two guys to get them the guns; Troike and Clanden. I went to talk to Clanden, couldn't get a peep out of him.

Troike, however, proved more useful. Seems like he was drugged and blackmailed with the murder of a prostitute. Nero and Sal had him dead to rights, so I went to see Sal. Was able to buy Troike's freedom for 300 caps.
In return, Troike gave me all the details of the operation. Apparently he had some friends in the NCR who were diverting weapons shipments to where the Omertas could get at them. I'm not sure where Clanden fit into this.
In any case, Troike gave me some thermite to destroy the weapons with, which were hidden in a basement side room. I put aside a nice sniper rifle for myself, and destroyed the rest.
All that was left was to kill Nero and Big Sal, which Cachino offered to help me with. His plan was to get us all in the same room and slip me a gun, then we'd take them out and Cachino would take over.
What Cachino didn't know is I planned to kill him too, let the Omertas fall apart just like Benny's family. Ironically enough though, in the gunfight, Sal killed Cachino for me, then I killed both him and Nero. Problem solved.
Not an ounce of regret about that. They were all scumbags.

After that I headed to the Ultra-Luxe, home of the White Glove Society. Fucking. Creepers. One of the men at the bar was Heck Gunderson; a big time NCR rancher. Apparently his son had gone missing, and he was willing to pay caps if I could turn up any information.
I figured this would give me a good excuse to look into the WGS, so I took him up on the offer. After some asking around I found Marjerie, one of the people in charge. Apparently Gunderson's son isn't the only person to have gone missing. A detective had been around asking about a missing bride.
Marjerie directed me to Mortimer, who directed me to the detective's room, who I had asked to speak with. Inside the detective was dead on the floor, bludgeoned to death. A moment later, two men burst in the door and attempted to beat me to death with canes. They failed.

On the detective's body was a matchbook, with a note scribbled; Meet at the Steam Room, 4 PM. I followed the lead, and sure enough at 4 PM a man named Chauncey met me at the steam room.
I explained the detective he had planned on meeting had been murdered. Chauncey did his best to help me instead; it seems Mortimer was planning to cut up Gunderson's son and serve him up the the members making up the WGS's council. It seems once upon a time they had all been cannibals, but had since given up the custom under penalty of death. Fucking psychos.
Together with the help of Chauncey, we developed a plan. I would sneak into the kitchens, kill Phelippe the chef, and use his recipe for a human flesh substitute (Ew) and serve that to the council instead.
Mortimer would, of course, think it had been prepared with Ted's (Gunderson's son) meat instead, and launch into his speech about returning to cannabalism. As soon as he was done, I would pop out with Ted in tow. Having not eaten actual human meat, Mortimers plan would fail and he would be punished to death by the council.

Sadly, when Chauncey rose to leave and opened the door, he was pumped full of bullets by an assasin. His death gave me just enough time to tackle the assasin, grab the little silenced .22, and kill him.
I hurried to the kitchens, bluffed my way inside with some bullshit about a burst water pipe, killed Philippe, used his recipe and a little scientific knowledge to create the imitation human meat pies, and then rescued Ted from the meat locker.
Ted was not particularly pleasant, but who could blame him, considering what had happened? Still a bit of a brat, though. Anyway, we hid in the pantry for about an hour, then I called down to the dining room on the intercom that the food was ready and waiting in the kitchen.
The waiter came up and got the dishes, we waited a few minutes and then followed him out, hiding behind a counter as Mortimer gave his disgusting little cannibal spiel. As soon as he was done, me and Ted walked out and confronted him. Mortimer ran off like a crying baby, he never made it out of the building.

I was amazed the entire thing had gone so smoothly. I am one lucky son of a bitch. Marjerie expressed her thanks for saving them all from cannabalism, but she seemed more worried about the possible damage to their reputation than the fact they ALMOST MURDERED AND ATE ANOTHER HUMAN.
I could tell they'd go back to their old ways given half the chance... they all hid behind their false veneer of sophistication, but the'yre animals, just as bad as the Omertas. Unfortunately I couldn't just kill them... so I settled for blackmail instead. I let them know that if they ever tried anything, from kidnapping another human being to causing any trouble on the strip, I would make sure everyone knew of their attempts at being cannibals. The strip would tear down their hotel if they ever found out.
I escorted Ted back to his father, who was grateful and gave me a payment of 500 caps. Unfortunately he then decided to be a complete jackass and claimed he would lead a food boycott of the Strip, and I was unable to convince him otherwise.

It had been another long, eventful, and painful day, and by now it was after dark. I headed back to the Lucky 38 to let Yes Man know my decisions regarding the Omertas and WGS. Told him that the Omertas wouldn't be a problem anymore, but I had to make plans to have the White Gloves carefully watched, and informed Yes Man of the blackmail I had hanging over their heads.
Tomorrow, I'll see about the Boomers. Yes Man told me they launched artillery shells at anyone attempting to approach the air base they live on...

Silath's Journal: Day 8 - October 26, 2281

Silath's Journal: Day 8 - October 26, 2281
I only slept four hours this morning, if you could call it sleep. There was too much going through my head. Too many worries I wouldn't be able to defeat House.
Decided to go back to the Strip the way I had come, along the 95. Found a dead body in a rad suit by Clark Field Resevouir; decided to put it on, and with some rad-x explored the (what appeared to be) pumping station. Inside were a rediculous amount of ghouls, judging by the fact a lot of them were in NCR armor, it looks like the NCR had been here and something happened to release a lot of rads... Like Camp Searchlight. Coincidence?
There wasn't anything terribly interesting inside, mostly a waste of shotgun ammo, aside from the fact those feral ghouls won't be roaming outside to terrorize anyone now. Novac is nearby, so I did them a favor, not that they'll know it.

Stopped by the Grub and Gulp station on the way back up, then the Gunrunners shop to reload some ammo. After that I stopped in Freeside to finally get Jacob Hoff the chems he needed to clean up. Followed him back to the Old Fort and Julie Farkas was very thankfull, and offered me a huge discount on medical supplies as a gift.
Went to Benny's room right after that to talk to Yes Man, but much to my surprise he wasn't there. Wasn't anywhere, that I could find. I figured House had gotten wind of the operation, so I rushed over to the Lucky 38.
Soon as I walked in the door his securitrons started shooting at me. I took them out and made my way up to the penthouse. It was not an easy battle, and one of the goddamn robots fired grenades at me, crippling my legs. I damn near died, but some Med-x, super stimpacks, and hydra saved the day. Barely.

House' massive terminal displayed an eerie message: "Connection Lost..." but, while looking around, I discovered a terminal nearby. It opened a secret door, which led to an elevator... which led to House' life support pod thingy.
I opened it, ignoring the warnings that infection was likely. House was less than thrilled with my decision. He demanded to know why I had ruined his plans.
I explained to him that security and safety is not what is important in this world. I told him I saw no point in living life if people were not free to pursue their dreams. I told him he wanted to make humanity work like his precious robots. What reason, then, to live, without the freedom to try and be happy?

House screamed at me. He called me a blustering idiot, allowing my emotions to get in the way of rebuilding humanity. What kind of 'humanity' would it be, I wondered, if he got his way?
I disabled his nueral network interface, and he fell silent, seemingly resigned to his fate. I didn't see the point in making him suffer; best to be done with this. Put a bullet in his head.

Yes Man was waiting for my when I went back up the elevator to the Penthouse. At this moment, I held the fate of New Vegas. And in doing so the fate of the NCR, and by extension Ceasers Legion.
I sat on the floor and stared at the platinum chip, Yes Man waiting with his electronics humming. I could order the remaining securitrons to shut down. There were the three families of New Vegas, who would most likely step in, but it was possible, even probable, that would leave New Vegas the center of a bloody battle.
It would take vital resources away from the NCR, trying to control the strip, when they needed them most for the battle over the Dam. The most likely outcome would be a victory by Ceasers Legion. An unnaceptable outcome.

No, for now the securitrons would have to maintain control of the strip. Which meant giving the platinum chip to Yes Man, so he could take over the network. I simply held out the chip to the robot, which he took all too cheerily. A few moments later it was in control of the entire remaining Securitron force.
Yes Man's programming would not allow it to do anything without my permission, at least. He told me House had a demonstration planned for me, in a basement of the Lucky 38.

It turns out the chip held software upgrades for the securitrons, allowing them to access previously locked functions. They now had the capability to fire missiles, launch grenades, and use auto-repair abilities. Yes Man claimed their combat prowess had been improved by 235%.
I had three options: I could essentially take House' place on the strip. I could use the remaining securitrons to help the NCR win their battle against Ceasers Legion. Or I could help the Legion win.

Yes Man said I should get to know the various factions of the Mojave; The three families of the strip, the Boomers, and the Brotherhood of Steel. It was up to me to decide how to deal with them.
I think... I think the best option, in the end, is to leave the fate of the Mojave, and the Strip, in the hands of the NCR. They are by no means perfect, and frankly I'd rather have nobody in charge and just leave everyone free to live their lives. But there's always going to be some asshole in charge. We seem incapable of just leaving eachother alone.
So, given the options, the NCR seems the lesser evil. The question now is: how do I let them take power with as little bloodshed as possible? I'll have to use securitrons to eliminate the three families of the strip, but that still leaves the Boomers and the Brotherhood. Guess I'll just have to meet them and see what they're all about.

All this plotting and scheming makes my head spin. I never wanted this, but it's been thrust into my lap regardless. And I don't trust anyone else. I've just got to do the best I can, make things as good as realisticly possible for the Mojave... and pray I don't fuck up too badly.
Time for sleep. Lots and lots of sleep...

Silath's Journal: Day 7 - October 25, 2281

Headed out early today, at 5 AM. I've got to make the most of the available daylight; don't like to use the night vision module unless I have to.
Along the road south a feral ghoul, wearing NCR armor, came out of the hill charging for me. I noticed a building a ways behind it, and my pipboy identified it as the Coyote Mines. Inside the building were a few medical supplies, and inside the mine itself was plenty of dynamite.
Oddly, a few minutes after I entered the mine, two scavangers came running through randomly. Neither of em said a word, they just kept running wildly.

Came across Camp Searchlight further down the road, and it was irradiated all to hell. Some NCR experiment gone wrong, maybe? Was attacked by two more NCR ferals while going around it.
Reached Cottonwood Cove shortly thereafter. People were crucified along the road heading to it; I put them out of their misery. It was too late to cut them down; their hands had already begun to suffer cell death from lack of blood flow. As soon as I released the bindings, assuming their system survived the shock of all the dead cells entering the bloodflow, infection would get them.
Maybe, with the proper medical supplies for amputations, they could have been saved. As it was, it seemed better to just kill them. This was my first taste of what Ceasers Legion had to offer the people of the Mojave.

I passed through Cottonwood Cove, and with the mark of Ceaser, was able to take a shoddy raft up the Colorado to Fortification Hill. Before I was allowed to enter, I had to surrender my weapons. Of course. This was really starting to irritate me, but what I saw at the camp filled me with enough anger I didn't need guns to kill people in any case.
Rampant and blatant brutality, slavery, sexism. Everything that was wrong with the wasteland, was personified by what I saw here. Ceasers legion is not some great force of order and law, it is nothing to be admired or sought after.
All the legion is, is a group of thugs and murderers, throwing people into slavery under the guise of bringing stability to this world. And Ceaser is nothing more than a fallen man, someone who had the charisma and intelligence to do something great... and instead made something awful.
It's not just his fault, though. Too many people were willing to give up their freedom for the security Ceaser offered. How can they be so foolish, to not see it's exactly that kind of thinking that led to the Great War?

Needless to say I hadn't even met Ceaser yet and my opinion of him was already low. When I met him, he was very... flattering. I hadn't considered how my actions might look to the outside world. But he made an interesting point.
Ceaser claimed he had Benny as his prisoner, and that I was free to do whatever I wanted with Benny... once I had finished a task for him. This task was to take the platinum chip down to the bunker at Fortification Hill, and to destroy whatever it contained.
I agreed. At the time I had no idea what might be in that bunker; all I knew was that it was something House had spent almost a million caps on, and that Benny had tried to murder me twice for. That told me it was powerful. That told me it was dangerous.

I was given back my weapons and used the chip to access the bunker door. It led to an elevator, with the Lucky 38 symbol painted on it. The elevator led to a small room, with another massive monitor, with House's face on it.
Fancy meeting him here. House wanted me to use the chip on a terminal, at the far end of the bunker. I lied and told him I'd consider it; he had no power in this place. What was he going to do?

Inside the bunker was a veritable army of securitrons. Row upon row of them. It was a truly awesome sight. I could do as House wanted; I could give him this army of securitrons.
I could also take over Benny's plans; House still had no clue about Yes Man. But once this army was awakened, there was no putting it back to sleep. Even assuming I didn't fuck something up terribly, and used this army to do only good... there's always the distinct possibility of someone doing to me what Benny wanted to do to House.

These robots were just tools; neither good nor evil. And right then, it was my choice what to do with those tools. I realized that no one man should ever be allowed to have this kind of power. This was not a rifle, with which you could kill a few men.
This was not even a vast army of men like the Legion. This was what Ceaser WANTED his legion to be; unquestioning, always loyal, incapable of disobeying an order. That made it infinitely more dangerous than any army of men could ever be. An army without conscience.

I still had the dynamite taken from the Coyote Mine (Once it had been given back to me upon entering the bunker, anyway). I used it to blow the power regulators to the two massive generators in the bunker. The entire place started started falling to pieces around me; I barely made it out in time, a massive explosion rocking the earth under Fortification Hill.
Ceaser kept his end of the bargain, allowing me to choose Benny's fate. I decided to face him down in the arena, and cut him to pieces. Afterwards Ceaser talked to me once more; he wanted me to kill House.
Once again our goals were in alignment; I had planned on killing House as soon as I got out of this hellhole anyway. So I agreed, and I was finally allowed to leave. The raft took me back to Cottonwood Cove, by this time it was nearly 2 AM.
Needless to say I'm crazy fucking tired. Tomorrow's plans: kill House, and hopefully bring my part in this madness to an end. I should really remember to incinerate Yes Man, too.

Silath's Journal: Day 6 - October 24, 2281

Soon as I left the Lucky 38, an NCR trooper was waiting to hand me a message. Seems an Ambassador Crocker wanted to speak with me. I thought what the hell, may as well, so I stopped by the NCR outpost on the strip and spoke with the guy.
Turns out he wanted me to talk some group called the 'Boomers' into helping the NCR out in it's war against the legion. NCR rep and caps in it for me, I told Crocker I'd look into it but didn't promise anything. He was also kind enough to give me a bit of a history lesson on the NCR's prescense in Vegas when I asked. Seemed nice enough, but he IS a politician... eh.

Afterwards I went to the Tops casino, had to turn in my weapons at the door, but that's standard procedure. Sure enough though I found Benny a minute later. He was shocked to see me, to say the least. He gave me the keys to the Presidential suite and told me to meet him there in an hour.
Of course, I suspected a trap, and I didn't have any weapons. I also figured, though, if he wanted to kill me he could've just had his men grab me and take me into a back room. I was wrong.
It was a trap, I was hoping Benny would prove more reasonable... Alas. Fortunately I picked a wallsafe in the suite open, lo and behold inside was an MP-10 and two magazines. Brilliant of them. Maybe he just forgot it was there.

Either way, little while after I go up there the assfuck comes on the intercom telling me I'm going to die. A minute later four of his goonies bust in the door and start shooting at me, coming at me with dinky .22 pistols, switchblades, crowbars. Granted these weren't your average wasteland gangers, they were quite a bit harder to kill. Nevertheless I took them out, and went after Benny.
He wasn't in his room, but here's something interesting: a hacked securitron named Yes Man was. Apparently Yes Man's programming wouldn't allow it to disobey an order, so I pumped the thing for information.
Apparently the platinum chip is some sort of data device, and it contain's information to 'Upgrade Defenses' of House and his securitrons. Not sure what that means exactly. Benny wanted to take over House's network, take over the securitrons, and the chip is the key to his plans.
Yes Men said Benny had probably taken off towards Fortification Hill: one of only two places the chip could be used, the other being the Lucky 38.  Thing is, Fortification Hill is on the other side of the Colorado river, and it just so happens to be where Ceaser Legion has set up his HQ. How Benny plans on getting there, I don't know, but it's possible he had some sort of arrangement with Ceaser.

Soon as I left the Tops, though, some creep named Vulpes runs up and tells me Ceaser wants to talk to me. All the sudden I seem a real popular person, and I gotta say, I fucking hate it. I've got a feeling I'm in WAY over my head...
So I'm thinking, what the fuck is going on? Figure I may as well see what Ceaser wants of me, especially if Benny is heading that way... this whole day has just been crazy. All I wanted was to sleep in a nice bed for a night and now I'm in the middle of some insane power struggle.

Anyway, Vulpes told me the only way to get to Fortification Hill is to take a Legion barge through Cottonwood Cove, which is about two full days trek south. So, I started walking. Found a 'Grub and Gulp' station along the way, grabbed some more water and a brahmin steak.
Little ways after that was the 188 trading post, stopped there just long enough to grab some more 20 gauge shell for my shotgun then headed on my way. Then out of nowhere this guy comes booking it down the road to me, named Malcolm Holmes, and gives me some story about how if you collect star bottle caps from Sunset Sasparilla bottles, you can find some magical treasure.
Sure man, like some pre-war treasure is still going to be around. Even if it was, it's probably a lifetime supply of 200 year old potatoe chips or something... I thanked him for the infortmation and went on my way. Nutter.

Couple hours down the road and I stumbled across Novac, where I was finally able to find some pyscho for Hoff. Grabbed some more 20 gauge ammo and used the reloading bench, then went down the road for maybe another 30 minutes, happened across a nest of gangers.
I tell you, with how good I've gotten with this service rifle and VATS, I took three of them out with headshots in as many seconds. Decided to camp here for the night, it's getting dark. Tomorrow I'll keep heading south on the road, then east to Cottonwood Cove... then we can see what Ceaser wants.

Silath's Journal: Day 5 - October 23, 2281

Ran across the Crimson Caravan HQ on my way back from where I had exited the sewers. Stopped inside to trade with a man named Blake, grabbed some medical supplies (Can never have too many stimpacks and hydra), ammunition, and some upgraded recoil springs for my service rifle.
After that I headed back to the H&H building, managed to hack into the terminal this time around; some journals by an 'Anthony House' detailing him wrestling for control of the business with his more savy brother. There was a 'Lucky 38 Override' command, but it didn't seem to do anything.
Found the gun runners station too; traded with the vendertron. Swapped my N99 for a 20 guage combat shotgun. The N99 served me well, but I'm thinking the combat shotgun will be real nice for those situations where I get swarmed by ghouls, rats, or both. Used the reloading bench there to make some more 5.56 AP and some 20 guage magnum rounds.

Headed into Freeside, on the way to get into the strip. Soon as I got into freeside though a sandstorm like you wouldn't believe came rolling in. Louder than a grenade blast, rads and sand scouring at you. Not pleasent. I had to run for cover into the nearest building, which turned out to be Mick and Ralphs. Seemed pleasant enough guys; we chatted a little bit while they played caravan. Seemed like the building was gonna fall down.
Mick said these storms came through from time to time, but with no real regularity. Sometimes you'd get two or three in a month, and sometimes they'd go half a year without seeing one. After about an hour, the storm quit blowing so hard and it just started raining. The rain cleared the dust out of the air but left the streets a muddy mess. First time I've seen rain in the mojave. It was nice. Wasn't even radioactive!

Checked out the Old Mormon Fort, met an interesting ghoul named Beatrix Russel. She seemed to have some real experience, though being a ghoul I guess she's been around long enough. Also talked with a doctor goes by Arcade Gannon; strange name. But he seemed very intelligent; it was nice to meet someone else interested in science and technology.
Arcade directed me to see Julie Farkas, however, and I did so. Apparently the Old Mormon Fort is in the hands of a group by the name of the Followers of the Apocolpyse. I vaguely recalled the name, but nothing specific. Seems they do their best to help people out and rediscover and share pre-war tech; admirable goals.
Gotta admit I took a liking to Julie, even if the ideals of the Followers are naive, they're admirable; I've got a feeling it's not easy to stay benevolent in a place like the mojave.

In any case, whether it was just her charm or I was feeling soft... or the idea of a discount on medical supplies, I agreed to help the Followers out with a few things. She wanted me to work out deals with the Atomic Wrangler casino, and the Crimson Caravan.
She also asked that I help out two addicts, Bill Ronte and Jacob Hoff. I guess before they got addicted to chems and alcohol they were quite the handymen. When I went to Jacob Hoff he said he was being supplied by a man named Dixon, who I found shortly thereafter.
Dixon wasn't too interested in helping me get Hoff back on his feet, though. Real bastard he was; when I mentioned it wasn't good for business to get your customers killed, he said he WANTED them to die. Liked seeing them waste away and was all too happy to help... all just because they were part of the NCR. Fucker.
So... he wanted 300 caps to quite supplying. Now, I don't have anything against drugs per se, if people want to use them it's their right. On the other hand, this guy Dixon was doing it out of pure malevolence. He was little better than those gang members roaming the wastes... I put a round of buckshot in his head, and when his bodyguard took offence to that I put a few in him, too.

With his supplier out of the picture, Hoff was somewhat more willing to get help. He said he wanted 10 cases of fixer, which was pretty rediculous; I've been reading some of those medical journals I keep stumbling upon, and it seems to me that a combo of buffout, fixer, and pyscho should get him clean. The steroids from the buffout will keep his vital's from giving out, while the pyscho will amplify the effects of the fixer. It will be painful but a lot faster.
I have the buffout and fixer, but pyscho is a problem; nobody in Freeside had any, which means I'm gonna have to head out and find some.

After dealing with Hoff, I stopped by the Atomic Wrangler; this one was a lot easier to deal with. All they wanted was some people from the Followers to fix up their alcohhol stills, get em running cleaner and better. In return, the Followers get some chemical supplies and pure alcohol for disinfectant. Julie took little convincing to agree to the deal.
Bill Ronte was surprisingly easy to get to agree to cleaning up too, once I told him Dixon was dead. I failed to mention how, and Ronte didn't ask. A pack of fixer, bottle of whiskey, and agreement to head to the Fort for treatment was all it took.

I still wanted to head into the strip for a clean bed and decent meal, though, so I headed further into Freeside till I got to the gates. An older fella named 'Old Ben' (Go figure) stopped me and told me to make sure to check with the securitron guards before trying to get inside. We chatted for a few minutes, he was surprisingly forthcoming about his past. Apparently he's been a jack of all trades. Interesting guy.
After the securitron verified I had a decent amount of caps to spend on the strip (2000!) it let me through. Soon as I walked through the gates, though, none other than Victor accosted me. Told me to go see Mr. House in the Lucky 38.
Didn't seem like a great idea to put that off, so I went to see him. The inside of the Lucky 38 was ubelievable; in near pristine Pre-war condition. Amazing.

Mr. House decided to see me on a giant monitor, though; no in-person contact for him. Although, from what I've gathered of what he said, I've got a feeling he's probably like one of those robobrains... just a brain in a containment system. Fucking creepy. No other way he could have survived since pre-war times. Just imagine what he's seen...
In any case, House wanted me to recover a 'Platinum Chip' from a guy named Benny. At first I wasn't too keen on this... until I learned that Benny was the one who popped me in the head, and that it was to get at the platinum chip I had been contracted to carry.
Way I see it, I get to kill two birds with one stone, and make 1000 caps in the process; I get to fulfill the contract I originally got from House (Even though I can't remember taking the contract, damned amnesia, but a contract's a contract) AND I get to kill the son of a bitch Benny, who decided to kill me for no better fact than I was carrying something and he wanted it.

As an added bonus, House gave me a suite in his hotel; I've never seen such a nice room. Although I guess I could have and just wouldn't remember... anyway, I got my wish of sleeping in a real bed with clean sheets. There was even a bathroom with clean water, and I washed myself and my equipment in it.
It's still pretty early, only about 5:30 in the afternoon, but I'm gonna take the oppurtunity to get plenty of sleep and still wake up early. Tomorrows plans are: figure out how to get the chip from Benny, finish my contract with House, and then go try to find some pyscho to help out Hoff.

Silath's Journal: Day 4 - October 22, 2281

Continued to follow the strip wall around to the east today, until I ran into the H&H tools building. I wasn't in a huge hurry to get to the strip, so I decided to explore inside a bit. I remembered seeing that H&H Logo on Victor.
Inside were a few hostile robots, Mr. Handies and Robobrains, and a few turrets. Not a single one of them got a shot off one me. What was more trouble were the mines and booby traps; there was a pack of 6 mines at the landing of one of the stairways to the factory floor catwalk. The damn things blew before I got out of range and crippled my left arm and leg.
I had picked up some Hydra from that doctor back at the radio station, though, so that and a stimpack fixed me up. Hydra is great stuff.
At the top of the catwalk was some sort of managers office, inside was a terminal I couldn't manage to hack and a Lucky 38 VIP access card. Not sure what that's for, maybe the terminal could have told me.  Now that I think about it, I want to head back there in the morning and try to hack it again.

After that I left H&H and found a manhole cover, headed inside to explore (What can I say, I'm curious) and it lead to a very extensive sewer system. Oddly though it was inhabited, and not by hostiles; just ordinary folk. A little further down though, deeper in the sewers, were plenty of rats and ghouls waiting for me. I swear there's not a damn place in the wasteland someone or something isn't waiting to kill you if you look hard enough.
My N99 with the 10mm hollow points did a fantastic job on them though, glad I could finally give my service rifle a break. I found another terminal with a locked chest beside it, but I wasn't able to pick the lock. Was able to hack the terminal though: it gave me an option to access the sewer controls. When I did, all I got was a message about "Override order blah blah House Directive'.
Interesting thing is, I'd heard that House name mentioned back in some of the H&H unsecured terminals. On a few of them, someone had left some (poorly) concealed files, the journal of some paranoid man named House. He mentioned a brother, though: H&H is two brothers House?

One of the ways outta the sewer was guarded by some NCR troopers; these guys weren't as friendly as the ones at the water cistern, and they didn't want me going through the manhole they were guarding. I wasn't going to push my luck.
Little ways past that I ran into some more hostile gang members; had to pull out the service rifle and AP ammo again, but I put them down easy enough. I hate to say it, but I might be starting to enjoy taking out those freaks. I'm a little worried.

Anyway, past the gangers, I found a locked room holding a shitload of ghouls. Once I had killed them off (Hollow points to the head do wonders at stopping them) I found a dead salvager hidden in a back room. He had some small amounts of various ammo on him, and more interestingly... reinforced combat armor, accompanied by a helmet.
I used my old combat armor to patch this reinforced suit up a bit and put it on. Granted it's a little heavier than my old armored jacket, so I can't be quiet as sneaky, but it's worth the trade off for the protection. Especially since I seem to have a bad habit of getting my limbs crippled by explosives.

Anyway, I got out of the sewers around 10:30 PM, I had no idea I had spent so much time wandering around in there. Worth it, though. Plan for tomorrow: head back to H&H to try and hack that terminal again, then try to get into the strip... hopefully without getting distracted by another 10 hour jaunt in a sewer system!