Notes From New Vegas 54
Aug. 19th, 2012 06:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynNotes From New Vegas 54: Okay, I Found You, Will You Shut Up Now?
When last we saw our heroine, Janice was plotting a thousand thousand humiliations for Ulysses, who had just informed her that she, personally, was responsible for the horrible nuclear deaths of everybody in the Divide and probably for what happened to the Marked Men too and for KILLING WHAT REMAINED OF AMERICA. Also he'd taken away her robot. Mostly the second one. She'd gotten to the point of not trusting Ulysses any farther than she could spit while wearing a gas mask; the man had no reason to tell her the truth, and pretty much just loathed her and everything she stood for anyway. But the robot thing? That pissed her off.
Unfortunately she still had some territory to cross to get to him if she was going to jump up and down on his neck and scream SAY IT, SAY IT, I WAS RIGHT AND YOU WERE WRONG. And that territory was full of fallen buildings and deathclaws. Nothing narratively interesting, really- although I understand if you poke around the area enough you find an in-character note from some poor scared NCR schlub. Janice didn't bother. She just wanted to find Ulysses, give him the finger as hard as it was physically possible to give someone the finger, take her robot back, and go home. So she crept along and shot deathclaws from hiding, and eventually found her way to what she thought was a tunnel leading to Ulysses' place. Turned out it wasn't. First tip-off: the overwhelming smell of stenchy death. Second tip-off: the bag of NCR trooper gear that had a holotape in it about being pinned down by a giant deathclaw that had killed everyone else. Third tip-off: the way the passage out collapsed behind her, leaving only a Big Bowl of Pudding and a few shafts of light to illuminate the GIANT GODDAMN PREDATORY DINOSAUR. Named Rawr.
No, really, it showed up in the display when Janice went into VATS mode to target him: Rawr.
Well, Janice had no real urge to be right next to the Big Bowl of Pudding when it exploded, nuclear or no, and she didn't trust the roof not to collapse if she set off grenades. So rather than lure Rawr into its proximity she figured she'd see what the modded holorifle could do. Turns out surprise critical hits directly to the head cause a lot of damage. Rawr went down with only two shots.
Not complaining! Not complaining in the slightest! Just... that seemed worrisomely easy...
Well, anyway, once Rawr was dead she checked the rest of the area for a way out. There wasn't one, so she was forced to detonate the Big Bowl of Pudding and wait for the local rads to die down a bit before going back outside. And being shot at, a lot, by a patch of empty blurry air. SHOOTY TIME FOR YOU, INVISIBLE MARKED MAN.
Man, I wish I could say Janice felt anything other than a vague sense of irritation at this point, but... c'mon, she's been in the Divide I don't even know how long and literally doesn't remember when she last slept or ate. At that point everything becomes the target of a vague sense of irritation, including puppies and sunshine. That's Allie Brosh-class sneaky hate spiral material right there. Janice prodded Inviso-Corpse a bit, found its Stealth Boy, took the device and wandered off in search of Ulysses. She didn't find him yet, of course. She did find:
- An NCR Ranger Action Report talking about the horrible hazards of the area and how their Geiger counters were ticking like grandfather clocks on Turbo, which would have been more effective if Janice's ever did;
- Journal entries on some computer lying on its side from some person bitching about noise and seismic activity before the war. And then boom. Because there is always boom;
- A waste disposal facility full of nuclear waste barrels and not a whole lot else, which caused Janice to say 'screw this, I'm not bothering' and walk out again (Just as well. The only thing to find in there is a note on some corpse that exists for the 'Find all the journal entries in the Divide' challenge, which... again, way to artificially extend your play time, Obsidian. And as soon as you pick it up, Tunnelers spawn. Whee);
- A wastewater treatment plant with a Big Bowl of Pudding out front and nothing inside worth looking for except a RALPHIE poster and a computer entry for the Find the Journals arbitrary quest. Not worth risking the Evil Lizard Children and Skinless Dudes for.
Eventually, Janice found her way all the way up to an area with marked men and random body parts. So tired of finding random body parts. Oh look another pile of indistinct overly shiny human giblets that don't actually resemble anything anatomical. Shock value approximately zero, seen it too many times before. At least there was a door leading into Ulysses' Temple- at least I assume it led there. It said 'Maintenance Access' but my quest objectives updated to tell me to go find Ulysses inside the Temple at that point, so, yeah. Ulysses' Temple it was. Great, here comes the symbolism.
Nothing unusual once Janice got inside, although she leveled up as soon as she stepped through the door. I had her take Nerd Rage as a perk, and if you want to know why then you have not been reading enough of these. She continued on her way, found a dead skinless dude pinned to the wall with a knife, rolled her eyes, and kept on moving. Honestly, there's only so much a thing like that can impress you after a while. There was a locked door in the hallway ahead, and she hacked the computer controlling the door to let her in, but there wasn't anything worth mentioning on the other side. The next door she ran across was unlocked, but there was a sentry bot behind it, so a firefight broke out- if you can call 'three well-placed shots to the robot's legs that result in a pile of ash where the robot used to be' a firefight. And then there was the computer terminal, the one that apparently controlled the Eyebot Maintenance System.
Okay, now Janice was feeling something, because ED-E ED-E LET MY ROBOT OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW totally counts as a feeling. She shot up the defense turrets and sentrybot in the room and ran in to get ED-E out of there; he was in reasonable condition, if a little shocky. You know. As far as a flying Sputnik can be shocky. She told him not to worry about leaving her, Ulysses must've piggybacked an override signal over his last words, and that if Ulysses wanted him so badly it was time for them to go and meet up with him in person. ED-E played a little Determined Beeping- no, really, that's what the subtitles said- and off they went. There was a suspiciously well-placed autodoc in the corridor just outside, which Janice made use of, and then there was the door that must've been programmed by people who got burned when Fallout 3 was made, because it offered the player a warning that if they went through they wouldn't be able to leave until this business was completed. (FO3 got a lot of rage for the "wait, you mean I'm DEAD dead? It's OVER? No extra play, no warning, no nothing?" nature of what happened at Project Purity. Lord knows that made me angry.) Whatever. It was time to go make Ulysses shut his damn fool idiot yap once and for all.
The Temple looked suspiciously like a garage at first, or a hangar or something, at least in terms of its lighting. Then Janice realized that the place was FULL of missiles. I'm not really sure how all of them were supposed to be launched from that space, as it's not as if there were that many doors in the ceiling. Maybe they were mounted on tracks that would take them to the central area, where Ulysses was standing in front of one particular missile, on a platform with the Old World flag hanging from two nearby twisted bits of scaffolding.
Oh don't look like that. Of COURSE he was standing in the most portentous-looking place possible. It's Ulysses. He's the kind of person who'd insist on meeting you at midnight because eleven thirty-seven just wasn't dramatic- I'm sorry, symbolic- enough.
Janice marched right up to him, past a number of recessed floor areas with consoles in them. He had a sleeveless leather duster on with the Old World flag painted on the back, and he had what looked like dreadlocks. He was maybe a shade or two paler than Janice herself in terms of skin tone, although given the lighting in there it was a little hard to tell. Maybe Pantone 1605. When he turned around he was wearing a respirator mask that covered most of his face below the eyes. Didn't seem to affect his voice, though. Either that or he'd learned to project really, really well through it, which I could easily see happening, because Lord did that man love the sound of his own voice...
"Even in this place NCR's shadow falls. Or is it just you, Courier, without the Bear's corpse to wear you down..."
Janice would've just rolled her eyes and yelled at him to start making some sense, but in amongst all his usual symbol-heavy drivel he said the Divide giants, the missiles, were awakening and there was no way to stop them. That, in itself, is officially pants-wetting material. There were a LOT of missiles in that room alone, and God only knew how many others there were elsewhere.
But, yanno... someone who speechifies as much as Ulysses does is probably holding something back. If only so that he has enough time to talk even more before running for his life. Stupid unreliable narrator with a grudge... well, anyway, at that point Janice sent up a silent prayer to Ferris Bueller, God of Liars to quicken her tongue, and told Ulysses that what she might (or might not, as she still didn't believe his bullshit about the detonator package) have done was an accident. What he was doing? Madness, plain and simple.
"No, now there is purpose. I believe you when you say you were... careless. The Divide.. the Chip... the machine you brought here... many messages can be taken from that, intended or not. What I do now is an act of conviction."
Mmmyeah. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Fantastic Four tend to fight people with that kind of conviction? Like, a lot? Anyway, there was no available speech option for "You're so crazy I'm surprised your pants aren't on your head", so Janice fell back on Ulysses' apparent dislike of people who got other people killed en masse and told him that if he blamed her, pin the blame on her, not the innocents who were going to be targets.
"Blame you? No, learned from you. Both the weapon to kill a nation and the strength to do it. You showed me a road, a way to carry my message. You've already answered for what you've done. Now the flag you follow will answer for it."
So... you're gonna bomb the Mojave. BECAUSE THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE
"No, not the Mojave. The West, all that's been built since America died. Same symbols as before the war, now a flag carried by a tribe of children. You walked the West, didn't stay. You know the reason. The Bear grows without structure, follows a symbol without knowing its history. Knowing that you believe in the bear's sickness and have given it strength, then that gives me more reason to destroy your homeland. After this, only one flag will remain over the Mojave. Let that one fly, or destroy itself."
Ulysses, you have problems, you sad, strange little man. You can't destroy the West, even with all the missiles here.
"No need to destroy the Bear, just cut its throat. You taught me that at the Divide. Only need to cut off the supply line, the road, to watch something greater die. I'll turn the Long 15 into miles of fire, cut off the Mojave. NCR will fall back, lose Hoover Dam, and leave their throats exposed to the Legion."
Oh, for- even if you don't have faith in NCR I do. (Mostly because they offer structure, which is more than small towns can say they have against assholes like Caesar, but that still counts.) My actions have proven it.
"Your... actions.. have carried strength. If you speak for the two-headed Bear, I'll hear your words. Even if I will be the only one to hear them. If you believe it shouldn't die this day, then answer me why."
Oh, I don't know, it might be sick but hell, you yourself said one person can build a community and make it stronger, didn't you blame me for that at the Divide? you ass.
"History has proven this. Our history. And you think that you have this strength? Enough for all NCR? The West is not the Divide. And nothing you can do can prevent the missiles' launch. Convincing me changes nothing."
(So tempted to say "well, I only said this because I'm betting you have a way to stop it all", but I'm not taking that chance just yet.) "One person can make, or break, a nation. You already know this."
"It may be... that as much destruction has been written in the earth here... you may build something else, as you built the Divide. You have spoken truly. There is a shadow of a nation behind you, a hope of a people. Yet it does not matter, the Divide stands against us."
"... er, what?"
"Our enemies gather outside..." Oh great, here come the skinless dudes. Lots of them. Apparently Ulysses always planned to let them in to flood the place and cut off my escape if he couldn't kill me. "If we cannot prevent what comes then let us make our stand here. Two couriers, together at the Divide."
UP YOURS, ULYSSES. I'm fightin' for ME.
Cue about five solid minutes of shooting and running and running and shooting. That holorifle was one sweet piece of gear for the fight, and Hydra was a lovely LOVELY chem to have on hand given how many times the plasma grenades the Marked Men were hucking around managed to cripple her limbs. It was basically one big BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, ASH FOR THE ASH THRONE moment, and when it was all over the room stank of ozone and green goo and yuck but hell, Janice and Ulysses and ED-E were all still alive, so really, isn't that what matters?
Janice ran for the nearest console and started poking it in the hopes that "ABORT COUNTDOWN - ONLY TOUCH THIS IF YOU REALLY MEAN IT" would appear. Well, it kind of did. She got a menu offering to let her direct all the missiles at NCR, or at Legion territory, or to evenly divide them into missiles aimed at BOTH territories, or to accelerate the launch and set them off RIGHT NOW. And down at the bottom was 'Abort the launch', which she chose immedi- OH SNAP IT'S ENCRYPTED, WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW. YOU CAN'T WIN. YOU WOULD HAVE TO BE A CODE-CRACKING ROBOT TO HAVE A CHANCE OF DOING THIS, HA HA YOU SUCK, PUNY HUMAN.
WAIT. WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THE FLYING SPUTNIK.
Yeah, turns out ED-E had one last recording from Dr. Whitley. The eyebots were capable of hacking unencrypted and lightly encrypted targets without batting an eye, but military grade encryption presented the possibility of a critical overload. Basically,the eyebot would fry itself hacking military networks. So ED-E might be able to do it, but he'd explode... *sniffle* No, ED-E! I won't let you sacrifice yourself, there has to be some other way!
(Seriously. That was the speech option. Janice chose that one rather than a more sensible one because she was exhausted and bloodied and chemmed-up beyond the point of good judgment, and because she was really gonna miss that poor little bot.)
ED-E made as much of a sadface as a Sputnikbot could make and beeped sadly in response. It's kind of hard to resist the robot equivalent of puppy eyes, so Janice sniffled again and thanked ED-E, and said, if.... if you're really sure you want this, okay. Go ahead and stop the missile. And... goodbye.
She was gonna miss that bot. Heck, I'm gonna miss that bot.
and his dramatic music, which he played as he flew up to the console and started hacking into the abort code. And did it successfully, right before the whole place started shaking with explosions and seismic activity and MORE explosions... Okay, apparently this was a load-bearing missile silo or something. RUNNINGNOW and fuck Ulysses. He could take care of himself. Janice? Just wanted to reach the elevator door and get out. And she did- and the ending slideshow started. I'll let it speak for itself:
When ED-E's circuits burned in the fires of the Divide, there was one small part that held on until the end. It was the fragment that held the Old World memories and the words of his creator in his last moments.
As his last gesture, he sent one last signal to his counterpart in the Mojave, passing along what the Courier had taught him in the Divide. There was the chance.. always, that ED-E's journey would continue, perhaps carried by another eyebot in the Mojave.....the one from which the ED-E from the Divide had been shaped. For now, the Courier knew ED-E's history and could carry it, even if the eyebot had forgotten.
Hopeville burned lightless in the night, invisible fires of radiation scorching it from within and without. It is said a man still walked its streets, with a tattered jacket, an Old World flag etched on the back...
He remained there, perhaps as punishment for the scars he left on the wastes - or a reminder of a history he could not forget. For Ulysses... his journey was over. The Courier had been the end of his road.
As for the Courier... she turned her back on her home for the second time and made her way back, navigating the treachery of the Divide. Tunnelers and the Marked Men... avoided the lone figure, as if recognizing the Courier's right to passage... or out of fear.
The Courier walked until she stood again upon the edge of the Divide, the last road she would walk before the second battle for Hoover Dam. There, beside her feet, was a final package, from one Courier to another - a footlocker, bearing a gift, and a message. But that message - it is something for Couriers to carry, and for them alone. The lights flickered across the Divide, reminders that the Old World histories persist, and find meaning in the present.
It's said war - war never changes. Women do, through the roads they walk. And this road - has reached its end."
Whoopty crap, Ulysses. I know you're trying to be meaningful, but... you tried too hard. G'bye.
The loading screen ran after that and came up at evening in the Mojave, just outside the canyon wreckage. Janice, it turned out, could now put a single point in one of her attributes- I chose Luck, since she'd demonstrated enough of it- and gained reputation with the Followers of the Apocalypse and the Brotherhood of Steel for stopping another Armageddon. Which is nice, but.... they know about what just happened how? ... Eh, who cared. It didn't matter. The Divide was no longer a threat, other than maybe the evil lizard children, and Janice was home. All hail Ferris.
And, hey, there's that footlocker Ulysses mentioned in the closing narration! Full of stuff- bitter drink (nasty tasting but powerful healing stuff), a duster of Janice's own with the NCR bear on it- apparently Ulysses was into craft projects. Nice idea, but Janice's casino armor was still better, unless she needed the weird extra load capacity the duster gave her. (Twenty-five pounds of extra carry capacity if you wear it. Really.) A Red Glare rocket launcher from the Divide, which Janice had no real use for but could probably sell off. A ... bludgeoning flagpole weapon thing called Old Glory with a bird on one end (gee, thanks, Ulysses)... snakebite tourniquets of some kind, Ulysses' own duster and mask (he'd better have clothes on when I see him again, that's all I'm saying) and a final message holotape.
"Last tape, last message. In case... you best me. If you're hearing this, you have, through blood or word. This message, and all that lies with it - it is for you, Courier. If you want to know the... why of things. This world, I've walked a good part of it... I stopped only because of you. What you did - gave me pause. Long ago, I crossed the Colorado, the first among the Legion to see Hoover Dam in all its glory... an Old World wall, yet bridging two sides. And beyond it, a symbol of a two-headed Bear, an idea great enough to challange Caesar himself. Might kill him, taking it, whether he won or lost. The Bull needs to fight, needs the challenge, without it... it falters, dies in the dust. Might be a lesson there, in you and me. Leave the thought behind the message to you. My message is this - the destruction has been wrought, at the Divide - or elsewhere, if you couldn't stop me... It can happen again. It will keep happening. If war doesn't change, men must change, and so must their symbols. Even if it is nothing at all, know what you follow, Courier... just as I followed you, to the end. Whatever your symbol... carry it on your back, and wear it proudly when you stand at Hoover Dam."
Dude, I said it before, I'll say it again. You had problems. Talk all you want about symbols, I'mma go home and deal with actual people now.
When last we saw our heroine, Janice was plotting a thousand thousand humiliations for Ulysses, who had just informed her that she, personally, was responsible for the horrible nuclear deaths of everybody in the Divide and probably for what happened to the Marked Men too and for KILLING WHAT REMAINED OF AMERICA. Also he'd taken away her robot. Mostly the second one. She'd gotten to the point of not trusting Ulysses any farther than she could spit while wearing a gas mask; the man had no reason to tell her the truth, and pretty much just loathed her and everything she stood for anyway. But the robot thing? That pissed her off.
Unfortunately she still had some territory to cross to get to him if she was going to jump up and down on his neck and scream SAY IT, SAY IT, I WAS RIGHT AND YOU WERE WRONG. And that territory was full of fallen buildings and deathclaws. Nothing narratively interesting, really- although I understand if you poke around the area enough you find an in-character note from some poor scared NCR schlub. Janice didn't bother. She just wanted to find Ulysses, give him the finger as hard as it was physically possible to give someone the finger, take her robot back, and go home. So she crept along and shot deathclaws from hiding, and eventually found her way to what she thought was a tunnel leading to Ulysses' place. Turned out it wasn't. First tip-off: the overwhelming smell of stenchy death. Second tip-off: the bag of NCR trooper gear that had a holotape in it about being pinned down by a giant deathclaw that had killed everyone else. Third tip-off: the way the passage out collapsed behind her, leaving only a Big Bowl of Pudding and a few shafts of light to illuminate the GIANT GODDAMN PREDATORY DINOSAUR. Named Rawr.
No, really, it showed up in the display when Janice went into VATS mode to target him: Rawr.
Well, Janice had no real urge to be right next to the Big Bowl of Pudding when it exploded, nuclear or no, and she didn't trust the roof not to collapse if she set off grenades. So rather than lure Rawr into its proximity she figured she'd see what the modded holorifle could do. Turns out surprise critical hits directly to the head cause a lot of damage. Rawr went down with only two shots.
Not complaining! Not complaining in the slightest! Just... that seemed worrisomely easy...
Well, anyway, once Rawr was dead she checked the rest of the area for a way out. There wasn't one, so she was forced to detonate the Big Bowl of Pudding and wait for the local rads to die down a bit before going back outside. And being shot at, a lot, by a patch of empty blurry air. SHOOTY TIME FOR YOU, INVISIBLE MARKED MAN.
Man, I wish I could say Janice felt anything other than a vague sense of irritation at this point, but... c'mon, she's been in the Divide I don't even know how long and literally doesn't remember when she last slept or ate. At that point everything becomes the target of a vague sense of irritation, including puppies and sunshine. That's Allie Brosh-class sneaky hate spiral material right there. Janice prodded Inviso-Corpse a bit, found its Stealth Boy, took the device and wandered off in search of Ulysses. She didn't find him yet, of course. She did find:
- An NCR Ranger Action Report talking about the horrible hazards of the area and how their Geiger counters were ticking like grandfather clocks on Turbo, which would have been more effective if Janice's ever did;
- Journal entries on some computer lying on its side from some person bitching about noise and seismic activity before the war. And then boom. Because there is always boom;
- A waste disposal facility full of nuclear waste barrels and not a whole lot else, which caused Janice to say 'screw this, I'm not bothering' and walk out again (Just as well. The only thing to find in there is a note on some corpse that exists for the 'Find all the journal entries in the Divide' challenge, which... again, way to artificially extend your play time, Obsidian. And as soon as you pick it up, Tunnelers spawn. Whee);
- A wastewater treatment plant with a Big Bowl of Pudding out front and nothing inside worth looking for except a RALPHIE poster and a computer entry for the Find the Journals arbitrary quest. Not worth risking the Evil Lizard Children and Skinless Dudes for.
Eventually, Janice found her way all the way up to an area with marked men and random body parts. So tired of finding random body parts. Oh look another pile of indistinct overly shiny human giblets that don't actually resemble anything anatomical. Shock value approximately zero, seen it too many times before. At least there was a door leading into Ulysses' Temple- at least I assume it led there. It said 'Maintenance Access' but my quest objectives updated to tell me to go find Ulysses inside the Temple at that point, so, yeah. Ulysses' Temple it was. Great, here comes the symbolism.
Nothing unusual once Janice got inside, although she leveled up as soon as she stepped through the door. I had her take Nerd Rage as a perk, and if you want to know why then you have not been reading enough of these. She continued on her way, found a dead skinless dude pinned to the wall with a knife, rolled her eyes, and kept on moving. Honestly, there's only so much a thing like that can impress you after a while. There was a locked door in the hallway ahead, and she hacked the computer controlling the door to let her in, but there wasn't anything worth mentioning on the other side. The next door she ran across was unlocked, but there was a sentry bot behind it, so a firefight broke out- if you can call 'three well-placed shots to the robot's legs that result in a pile of ash where the robot used to be' a firefight. And then there was the computer terminal, the one that apparently controlled the Eyebot Maintenance System.
Okay, now Janice was feeling something, because ED-E ED-E LET MY ROBOT OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW totally counts as a feeling. She shot up the defense turrets and sentrybot in the room and ran in to get ED-E out of there; he was in reasonable condition, if a little shocky. You know. As far as a flying Sputnik can be shocky. She told him not to worry about leaving her, Ulysses must've piggybacked an override signal over his last words, and that if Ulysses wanted him so badly it was time for them to go and meet up with him in person. ED-E played a little Determined Beeping- no, really, that's what the subtitles said- and off they went. There was a suspiciously well-placed autodoc in the corridor just outside, which Janice made use of, and then there was the door that must've been programmed by people who got burned when Fallout 3 was made, because it offered the player a warning that if they went through they wouldn't be able to leave until this business was completed. (FO3 got a lot of rage for the "wait, you mean I'm DEAD dead? It's OVER? No extra play, no warning, no nothing?" nature of what happened at Project Purity. Lord knows that made me angry.) Whatever. It was time to go make Ulysses shut his damn fool idiot yap once and for all.
The Temple looked suspiciously like a garage at first, or a hangar or something, at least in terms of its lighting. Then Janice realized that the place was FULL of missiles. I'm not really sure how all of them were supposed to be launched from that space, as it's not as if there were that many doors in the ceiling. Maybe they were mounted on tracks that would take them to the central area, where Ulysses was standing in front of one particular missile, on a platform with the Old World flag hanging from two nearby twisted bits of scaffolding.
Oh don't look like that. Of COURSE he was standing in the most portentous-looking place possible. It's Ulysses. He's the kind of person who'd insist on meeting you at midnight because eleven thirty-seven just wasn't dramatic- I'm sorry, symbolic- enough.
Janice marched right up to him, past a number of recessed floor areas with consoles in them. He had a sleeveless leather duster on with the Old World flag painted on the back, and he had what looked like dreadlocks. He was maybe a shade or two paler than Janice herself in terms of skin tone, although given the lighting in there it was a little hard to tell. Maybe Pantone 1605. When he turned around he was wearing a respirator mask that covered most of his face below the eyes. Didn't seem to affect his voice, though. Either that or he'd learned to project really, really well through it, which I could easily see happening, because Lord did that man love the sound of his own voice...
"Even in this place NCR's shadow falls. Or is it just you, Courier, without the Bear's corpse to wear you down..."
Janice would've just rolled her eyes and yelled at him to start making some sense, but in amongst all his usual symbol-heavy drivel he said the Divide giants, the missiles, were awakening and there was no way to stop them. That, in itself, is officially pants-wetting material. There were a LOT of missiles in that room alone, and God only knew how many others there were elsewhere.
But, yanno... someone who speechifies as much as Ulysses does is probably holding something back. If only so that he has enough time to talk even more before running for his life. Stupid unreliable narrator with a grudge... well, anyway, at that point Janice sent up a silent prayer to Ferris Bueller, God of Liars to quicken her tongue, and told Ulysses that what she might (or might not, as she still didn't believe his bullshit about the detonator package) have done was an accident. What he was doing? Madness, plain and simple.
"No, now there is purpose. I believe you when you say you were... careless. The Divide.. the Chip... the machine you brought here... many messages can be taken from that, intended or not. What I do now is an act of conviction."
Mmmyeah. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Fantastic Four tend to fight people with that kind of conviction? Like, a lot? Anyway, there was no available speech option for "You're so crazy I'm surprised your pants aren't on your head", so Janice fell back on Ulysses' apparent dislike of people who got other people killed en masse and told him that if he blamed her, pin the blame on her, not the innocents who were going to be targets.
"Blame you? No, learned from you. Both the weapon to kill a nation and the strength to do it. You showed me a road, a way to carry my message. You've already answered for what you've done. Now the flag you follow will answer for it."
So... you're gonna bomb the Mojave. BECAUSE THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE
"No, not the Mojave. The West, all that's been built since America died. Same symbols as before the war, now a flag carried by a tribe of children. You walked the West, didn't stay. You know the reason. The Bear grows without structure, follows a symbol without knowing its history. Knowing that you believe in the bear's sickness and have given it strength, then that gives me more reason to destroy your homeland. After this, only one flag will remain over the Mojave. Let that one fly, or destroy itself."
Ulysses, you have problems, you sad, strange little man. You can't destroy the West, even with all the missiles here.
"No need to destroy the Bear, just cut its throat. You taught me that at the Divide. Only need to cut off the supply line, the road, to watch something greater die. I'll turn the Long 15 into miles of fire, cut off the Mojave. NCR will fall back, lose Hoover Dam, and leave their throats exposed to the Legion."
Oh, for- even if you don't have faith in NCR I do. (Mostly because they offer structure, which is more than small towns can say they have against assholes like Caesar, but that still counts.) My actions have proven it.
"Your... actions.. have carried strength. If you speak for the two-headed Bear, I'll hear your words. Even if I will be the only one to hear them. If you believe it shouldn't die this day, then answer me why."
Oh, I don't know, it might be sick but hell, you yourself said one person can build a community and make it stronger, didn't you blame me for that at the Divide? you ass.
"History has proven this. Our history. And you think that you have this strength? Enough for all NCR? The West is not the Divide. And nothing you can do can prevent the missiles' launch. Convincing me changes nothing."
(So tempted to say "well, I only said this because I'm betting you have a way to stop it all", but I'm not taking that chance just yet.) "One person can make, or break, a nation. You already know this."
"It may be... that as much destruction has been written in the earth here... you may build something else, as you built the Divide. You have spoken truly. There is a shadow of a nation behind you, a hope of a people. Yet it does not matter, the Divide stands against us."
"... er, what?"
"Our enemies gather outside..." Oh great, here come the skinless dudes. Lots of them. Apparently Ulysses always planned to let them in to flood the place and cut off my escape if he couldn't kill me. "If we cannot prevent what comes then let us make our stand here. Two couriers, together at the Divide."
UP YOURS, ULYSSES. I'm fightin' for ME.
Cue about five solid minutes of shooting and running and running and shooting. That holorifle was one sweet piece of gear for the fight, and Hydra was a lovely LOVELY chem to have on hand given how many times the plasma grenades the Marked Men were hucking around managed to cripple her limbs. It was basically one big BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, ASH FOR THE ASH THRONE moment, and when it was all over the room stank of ozone and green goo and yuck but hell, Janice and Ulysses and ED-E were all still alive, so really, isn't that what matters?
Janice ran for the nearest console and started poking it in the hopes that "ABORT COUNTDOWN - ONLY TOUCH THIS IF YOU REALLY MEAN IT" would appear. Well, it kind of did. She got a menu offering to let her direct all the missiles at NCR, or at Legion territory, or to evenly divide them into missiles aimed at BOTH territories, or to accelerate the launch and set them off RIGHT NOW. And down at the bottom was 'Abort the launch', which she chose immedi- OH SNAP IT'S ENCRYPTED, WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW. YOU CAN'T WIN. YOU WOULD HAVE TO BE A CODE-CRACKING ROBOT TO HAVE A CHANCE OF DOING THIS, HA HA YOU SUCK, PUNY HUMAN.
WAIT. WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THE FLYING SPUTNIK.
Yeah, turns out ED-E had one last recording from Dr. Whitley. The eyebots were capable of hacking unencrypted and lightly encrypted targets without batting an eye, but military grade encryption presented the possibility of a critical overload. Basically,the eyebot would fry itself hacking military networks. So ED-E might be able to do it, but he'd explode... *sniffle* No, ED-E! I won't let you sacrifice yourself, there has to be some other way!
(Seriously. That was the speech option. Janice chose that one rather than a more sensible one because she was exhausted and bloodied and chemmed-up beyond the point of good judgment, and because she was really gonna miss that poor little bot.)
ED-E made as much of a sadface as a Sputnikbot could make and beeped sadly in response. It's kind of hard to resist the robot equivalent of puppy eyes, so Janice sniffled again and thanked ED-E, and said, if.... if you're really sure you want this, okay. Go ahead and stop the missile. And... goodbye.
She was gonna miss that bot. Heck, I'm gonna miss that bot.
and his dramatic music, which he played as he flew up to the console and started hacking into the abort code. And did it successfully, right before the whole place started shaking with explosions and seismic activity and MORE explosions... Okay, apparently this was a load-bearing missile silo or something. RUNNINGNOW and fuck Ulysses. He could take care of himself. Janice? Just wanted to reach the elevator door and get out. And she did- and the ending slideshow started. I'll let it speak for itself:
When ED-E's circuits burned in the fires of the Divide, there was one small part that held on until the end. It was the fragment that held the Old World memories and the words of his creator in his last moments.
As his last gesture, he sent one last signal to his counterpart in the Mojave, passing along what the Courier had taught him in the Divide. There was the chance.. always, that ED-E's journey would continue, perhaps carried by another eyebot in the Mojave.....the one from which the ED-E from the Divide had been shaped. For now, the Courier knew ED-E's history and could carry it, even if the eyebot had forgotten.
Hopeville burned lightless in the night, invisible fires of radiation scorching it from within and without. It is said a man still walked its streets, with a tattered jacket, an Old World flag etched on the back...
He remained there, perhaps as punishment for the scars he left on the wastes - or a reminder of a history he could not forget. For Ulysses... his journey was over. The Courier had been the end of his road.
As for the Courier... she turned her back on her home for the second time and made her way back, navigating the treachery of the Divide. Tunnelers and the Marked Men... avoided the lone figure, as if recognizing the Courier's right to passage... or out of fear.
The Courier walked until she stood again upon the edge of the Divide, the last road she would walk before the second battle for Hoover Dam. There, beside her feet, was a final package, from one Courier to another - a footlocker, bearing a gift, and a message. But that message - it is something for Couriers to carry, and for them alone. The lights flickered across the Divide, reminders that the Old World histories persist, and find meaning in the present.
It's said war - war never changes. Women do, through the roads they walk. And this road - has reached its end."
Whoopty crap, Ulysses. I know you're trying to be meaningful, but... you tried too hard. G'bye.
The loading screen ran after that and came up at evening in the Mojave, just outside the canyon wreckage. Janice, it turned out, could now put a single point in one of her attributes- I chose Luck, since she'd demonstrated enough of it- and gained reputation with the Followers of the Apocalypse and the Brotherhood of Steel for stopping another Armageddon. Which is nice, but.... they know about what just happened how? ... Eh, who cared. It didn't matter. The Divide was no longer a threat, other than maybe the evil lizard children, and Janice was home. All hail Ferris.
And, hey, there's that footlocker Ulysses mentioned in the closing narration! Full of stuff- bitter drink (nasty tasting but powerful healing stuff), a duster of Janice's own with the NCR bear on it- apparently Ulysses was into craft projects. Nice idea, but Janice's casino armor was still better, unless she needed the weird extra load capacity the duster gave her. (Twenty-five pounds of extra carry capacity if you wear it. Really.) A Red Glare rocket launcher from the Divide, which Janice had no real use for but could probably sell off. A ... bludgeoning flagpole weapon thing called Old Glory with a bird on one end (gee, thanks, Ulysses)... snakebite tourniquets of some kind, Ulysses' own duster and mask (he'd better have clothes on when I see him again, that's all I'm saying) and a final message holotape.
"Last tape, last message. In case... you best me. If you're hearing this, you have, through blood or word. This message, and all that lies with it - it is for you, Courier. If you want to know the... why of things. This world, I've walked a good part of it... I stopped only because of you. What you did - gave me pause. Long ago, I crossed the Colorado, the first among the Legion to see Hoover Dam in all its glory... an Old World wall, yet bridging two sides. And beyond it, a symbol of a two-headed Bear, an idea great enough to challange Caesar himself. Might kill him, taking it, whether he won or lost. The Bull needs to fight, needs the challenge, without it... it falters, dies in the dust. Might be a lesson there, in you and me. Leave the thought behind the message to you. My message is this - the destruction has been wrought, at the Divide - or elsewhere, if you couldn't stop me... It can happen again. It will keep happening. If war doesn't change, men must change, and so must their symbols. Even if it is nothing at all, know what you follow, Courier... just as I followed you, to the end. Whatever your symbol... carry it on your back, and wear it proudly when you stand at Hoover Dam."
Dude, I said it before, I'll say it again. You had problems. Talk all you want about symbols, I'mma go home and deal with actual people now.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-20 12:21 am (UTC)Indeed. :)
I love the writeups you do for these. Thanks for sharing!
no subject
Date: 2013-05-01 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-01 07:51 pm (UTC)