บท 495: Letter'us begin?
Afton looks over the letter, noticing the various stamps printed on it. Most look official, especially the one of the two-headed bear... He opens it and pulls out the paperwork, beginning to read the message inside.
Almost immediately, Afton palms his face at what he's reading... Daisy becomes curious and leans over to read with him, "Hmm, that's odd..." she mutters.
Afton nods, "Yeah, really odd." he retorts. The letter is essentially an invitation to start peace talks with the NCR, they've even picked out a 'neutral' area where this can occur without either party having time to scheme. It's set in a week from now...
"Are you going to attend?" Daisy asks.
Afton shrugs, "I don't know about you, but this seems like a trap..."
Daisy nods, "Those star-spangled bears are too arrogant for this to be serious. But, if it is real we could get them off our backs for a while." she states.
"Who sent the letter, if I can ask?" Arcade asks with crossed arms at the side.
Afton glances at the letter again, "Ambassador Crocker? Does he even have the power to do something like this?" he mutters to himself. He hadn't personally met the man, but from what Boone had said about him, he seems pretty honest and hardworking, at least compared to the other bureaucrats...
Arcade shrugs, "No idea, I'm not all that interested in military ranks and such, but I think he's trustworthy... His work in Freeside, while not perfect, has helped a lot of people. And just think about it, a chance to set aside your war with them temporarily so both sides can concentrate on eradicating the Legion."
Afton clicks his tongue, "I don't know... I think we'll end up fighting the NCR no matter what. Plus, making a temporary peace agreement with them would only allow them to target other vulnerable factions."
Arcade raises a brow, "Like what? The only other factions are raiders, cannibals, and slavers..." he asks in confusion.
Afton shakes his head, "You're forgetting about where I came from... The Brotherhood will be targeted, without me causing trouble the NCR will apply full force against them."
...
Arcade looks like he wants to say something but is stopped by Daisy as she rests her hand on his shoulder, "Leave it, let Afton decide this alone, neither of us are really in a position to object anyway." she states, "I'm going to get back to work, decide what you wish." she says before leaving. Arcade himself gives a brief nod before exiting as well, leaving Afton alone to decide his plan of action.
With that, Afton departs from Novac after checking the place to make sure supplies, defences, and other essentials are all properly maintained. Once he's back at Big Mt he begins thinking about whether or not actually going to Primm is a good idea.
Due to it being for a peace agreement, he would only be allowed to bring two bodyguards. And it didn't have to be said to not bring Power armour. Though, the NCR did make sure to write that rule down in bold font. Clearly, they either wanted him to show his sincerity, or they wanted him defenceless so they could attack without having to deal with his Power armour.
Strangely, they didn't have any rules to prevent bodyguards from wearing Power armour, meaning that they'd somehow requisitioned some, or really did want to have peace between their respective factions.
It was also said that the people of Primm would be the ones setting up the entire 'event', with neither faction having anything to do with it. This would allow things to be as impartial as possible. Of course, Afton doubted this and would bet a significant amount of caps that they'd have spies scheming in the background, but that would be the case for most big factions anyway.
"Fuck it, I'll go, but I won't expect anything but a fight..." he mutters to himself. If the NCR really did use this opportunity to attack him, it'd be a massive win for his publicity. His factions current stance, even if they didn't state it, was that the NCR, Legion, and Brotherhood of Steel did not hold the peoples best interests at heart, and would use any means necessary to prop up their corrupt, barbaric, foolish ideologies.
If the NCR was seen breaking a peace agreement by an entire town like Primm, there was no way they'd be able to hide it. Even mentally deficient people would be able to realise that the NCR weren't as honourable as they usually purported to be... This news might even make NCR troops themselves start to lose trust in the country they served.
Well, that, and hoping that the potential war crime they were about to commit would make his own NCR sympathiser companions more willing to go against them...
At least he had a week to help fix the EMP vulnerability in their Power armour. He'd have Veronica accompany him, so making sure she wasn't at risk was a top priority... Still, he wasn't sure who his second would be.
He couldn't bring Tamia as she was technically affiliated with Mr House, and anything that went wrong there could possibly force New Vegas into a war. This would be a catastrophe considering that the NCR had a firm foothold in the strip, Freeside and outskirts of New Vegas in Camp McCarren.
Bringing Anja might be a good political statement, but she was more suited to infiltration and other stealthy missions than to that of a bodyguard. She didn't know how to operate Power armour, and he doubted a couple weeks of training would get her up to the skill he'd wish.
The same could be said for his other companions however, none knew how to operate Power armour, making training them a top priority... He'd need to get on that eventually, but first, he'd actually need to make a couple more suits of armour.
"Urrrrghhhh! There's so much that needs to be done!" he complains to himself, with the only other person aware of his self-pity being Glados who just watches with a slight degree of amusement.
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บท 496: Completely Bombed
It's been a day since Loyal's robots had taken apart the bomber and shipped it all back to the airfield. The attitude of the people towards outsiders had undergone a massive change once the bomber parts were spotted.
It was obvious from Tamia, Veronica, and Anja's absence that they were partly responsible for this. This had changed a number of 'bullheaded' minds, which was surprising to the trio, but to no one else.
Tamia hadn't properly understood the significance the 'Lady in the Lake' actually had to these people, though, she probably should have realised once she saw the literal paintings on the wall showing the bomber flying above the Mojave.
Once all the pieces were recovered, the entire place burst into celebrations. An entire day was dedicated to partying, and Pearl had even decided to make this a yearly event to honour the trio who'd helped the Boomers achieve their dream.
Adults danced, played music on makeshift instruments, and ate luxurious foods that'd been caught, dried, and prepared in advance, children were given toys and taught to sing and dance with everyone else.
The atmosphere was overall incredibly enjoyable... Tamia was hoping to be around for next years celebration if she could make it. Though, not everything was fun and games that day.
Due to the robots carrying bomber parts and their recent artillery warning shots, a few raiders had concluded that something big was going to happen. They waited until the sounds of music could be heard when they tried to make a move.
Unfortunately, the guards who usually watched the walls were drinking on the job, they weren't able to enjoy the celebration, so instead, they had their own party... This obviously included alcohol. Of course, the next day when Pearl heard about it, she kicked the shit out of them and banned them from next years celebration, making the guards cry tears of despair.
As for the raiders? The Boomers weren't stupid, so before the celebration, the group had set down an almost obnoxious amount of mines. Once half of the raiders had lost legs or exploded into red mist, the remaining few retreated and disappeared. Not willing to test how many mines the Boomers actually had.
After all the partying was finished, Pearl had pulled the group aside and accepted Mr House's proposition. Obviously, the Boomers had no reason to reject them any longer, especially after all the work Tamia and the others had put into building relations.
This wasn't really a problem though, as their work had basically just given Mr House's faction an air advantage with the Boomers bomber. The bomber was on their side now, so retrieving it couldn't be seen as 'work'.
Once everything was finalized, the trio left as the Boomers bid their farewells. Mr House would start up negotiations between the two groups with couriers or maybe even Securitrons, but now it was time for them to see what other jobs the boss wanted done.
While Tamia headed to the Lucky 38, Veronica and Anja return to Big Mt for a long-awaited break. Once she was back in the penthouse, she ignores Jane's greeting and approaches the screen that has Mr House's face displayed on it.
"Welcome back... I'm assuming your presence here means that you've made progress with the Boomers?" House asks.
Tamia nods, "You could say that, the Boomers are fully willing to cooperate and negotiate terms with you." she explains.
...
"That is... Unexpectedly good news." he states, likely not having expected this so quickly. "With the Boomers launching missiles in New Vegas's direct I had suspected you might have offended them somehow. Was there a reason for that? Or were they just testing out some new weaponry?" he asks.
"Well, it might surprise you to find out that those missiles were actually a distraction," she says with a small grin.
"A distraction? Well, might I say it worked. Both I and the NCR were scrambling to discover what had gone wrong, and whether or not we should be awaiting explosive annihilation... So, what was so important they had to antagonize most big players in the Mojave?"
"Well, you might not know this, but the Boomers have essentially deified anything that's explosive... This includes pre-war aeroplanes. So, when they discovered a news article describing an almost intact bomber at the bottom of Lake Mead, they were more than eager to fish it out. Veronica, Anja, and I helped raise it out of the water while robots took the plane apart and transported it back." she explains.
...
"So you're saying you helped a group of Pyromaniacs fish out a military issue pre-war bomber without feeling the need to let me know about it...?" House breaks the awkward silence, sounding incredibly tense in this moment.
"Err, yeah? You said use any means necessary to get their compliance, right?" she retorts.
House scoffs, "And if that order included jumping head-first into a mine, would you do it?... What you have done isn't just helping a potential ally get stronger, but arming a potentially dangerous group, ally or not, with a weapon capable of destroying most post-war settlements with ease. If the Boomers are able to fly it, New Vegas could be flattened in an instance." he slowly, agonizingly describes just how badly Tamia had fucked up in his eyes.
Tamia crosses her arms, "Well, stronger allies mean better allies, in my opinion, the Boomers are relatively peaceful when unprovoked... If you exclude their 'bomb outsiders out of our territory' policy."
"Hmm, sometimes I have to doubt your intelligence, Partner... But I suppose what's done is done. Admittedly even if we took the bomber for ourselves we'd have no one to fly it. Even robots have their limits after all, and I doubt we'd be able to program a robot to fly such a thing before it'd become redundant... Let's discuss your next mission then," he's about to continue but notices Tamia's dull look, "Now don't look at me like that, you'll have time to relax before doing this. I just want to confirm our options."
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