Part 62: Sneaking Mission: Update 2

Sneaking Mission: Update 2



"Wait a second. Otacon, wasn't I in Klamath a second ago?"

"I.. uh… kind of fast forwarded the simulation a bit to save us some time. We're not actually supposed to be using this, so every minute counts."

"Just try to let me know next time. It's a bit disorienting."

"No problem, Snake. Stay safe!"



"Infiltration successful… wait, what's up with the glowing beer?"

"Maybe it's so you can see in the dark when you're going to the bathroom?"

"Ugh. Completely useless on a stealth mission."



"Even the kids in this town are carrying… child soldiers?"

"No, I think it's just that kind of neighborhood. Watch out for those kids, Snake… they might try to help themselves to your inventory too."

"I think I like virtual kids even less than I like real ones."




"I'm not seeing a lot of weapons just lying around… is this a Procure on Site mission?"

"If you can manage it, sure. But if you get caught, you won't have much of a chance of sneaking out of that room."

"IF I get caught. It'll be like stealing candy from a big, slave-taking baby."



Unfortunately we can't just pickpocket the locket from Joel. We can threaten him, but that's a non-starter and can piss him off. Other than that, there's nothing really worthwhile to steal in the Den, so we'll skip ahead and swing back to rescue Smiley.



If you want to pick him clean, Smiley actually has a nice selection of Golden Gecko pelts. At about $135 each, this is quite a haul.

"Snake, brace yourself!"



"For aha… oh. Ghost Farm? Is this like the Psycho Mantis thing?"

"Not quite. Your mission in this area is to infiltrate the Ghost Farm and negotiate a peace settlement between them and Modoc."

"I only wish I could do more missions like that."



There's not much remarkable in the Ghost Farm for thievery, with a free grenade and molotov cocktail being the best thing we can easily find here.




A couple of manuals are much better objects for our thievery, and it's worth it to hold off on raising small guns for a bit since there's so many manuals available early on. For a more combative build this isn't such a good idea, but if we're not fighting as much...



Completing enough quest pushes us to level 6 and gets the most convenient perk for a stealth play through. Like most people I set my Fallout 2 to "always run" in the settings, but normal sneaking requires you to walk. Just for the sake of making the game faster to play this perk is worth it.



"Wow, that's a lot of beer for a kid to have."

"And we don't know if he started with a 12 pack or a 6. He could be tanked already."

"Not our problem, though… speaking of which, Snake, did you complete the negotiations?"

"I guess so… I just passed a message, but they seemed happy."



"Good. Next stop is Vault City. You have to make your way inside the city to get information on the location of your ultimate objective."



"Shouldn't be hard… wait, how is this guy carrying all those weapons?"

"You're the last person who should be asking that question. I'll report that as a bug… as a merchant character he should have his stores in a set of shelves, not on his body."



Being a pickpocket gives us a much easier way to get into the city than talking our way in, which is a good thing since Snake's not much of a talker.



This comes into play trying to get Joshua out.

"Snake, you're trying to claim he's sick? Do you know enough about medicine to pull that off?"

"It's not like I can sneak him a ketchup packet."




Bribery is an option, but it's a bit pricy… we actually need $1000 to pull it off, which is considerable investment for a relatively small number of experience points.



We also have an opportunity to threaten to break a foot off in Thomas Moore's ass, since he doesn't believe our interest in his rhetoric.



"Snake, what are you doing?"

"The first rule of infiltration is to find places where people won't look for you… turns out this wasn't a very good one."

"At least it's not the women's bathroom this time."



Near the bathroom there's a surprising haul to be found in a desk. This one has nothing to do with sneaking or stealing, it's just a matter of knowing it's there.



Other than that, the only goodies available in Vault City are some anti-radiation meds, some stimpacks, and the Mentats that the First Citizen is packing. All things considered it's a disappointment for stealing fans.



"So I have to shut down a nuclear power plant? Are they using it to produce nuclear fuel?"

"Not exactly… it's poisoning the groundwater. Fixing it would work too."

"I guess you could use radioactive waste as a weapon, but that's even more random and unpredictable than conventional nukes or even chemical weapons. It's crazy."



"It looks like there's some kind of cult operating… that might explain it. Once you get religion involved people get a little bit crazy."




"Crazy or not, they're packing some serious heat in town. I really have to make sure that I don't get caught."

"You say that like getting caught is ever an option for you, Snake."



"Sure. Wait, what's this?"

"The bee… wait, you mean that porno mag?"

"It'd be pretty useful for distracting people, wouldn't it?"

"You're not fooling anyone Snake."



"Otacon, are you sure I can't kill him?"

"Not that kind of mission, Snake. If it helps, I apologize on behalf of otaku everywhere."

"That only helps a little bit."



On another note, I don't want to know why The Brain's doorkeeper has a condom in his inventory. Some things just don't bear thinking about.



"Keycards… looks like some things don't change. How many levels of keycards are there?"

"You only need those two, I think."

"Whoever's in charge of their security arrangement needs to be fired."



You can also steal a 3 step plasma transformer for Scooter. I ended up with two of them as a result, with absolutely no use for the second one.




"These guys have a bit of a porn fixation."

"Wait, why are you complaining? Shouldn't that make them easier to distract?"

"Exactly the opposite. If they've already got their own mags they won't stop to check out a new one… unless it's got twins, and none of the issues I have qualify."



With our lousy speech skill, talking Festus into fixing the power plant is right out. Instead, we have to approach it from another angle…



"Uh… Otacon? A little help here?"

"Just a second… got it! It's the order of the outer planets, backwards."



"I'd never have gotten that. Wait, something's off here…"

"Wow, they still have Pluto listed as a planet. That's probably not an accident."

"You might be right. Then again, a planet's a planet… there's some things you shouldn't change on people."



Repairing the plant this way gives you a chance to watch the robot go on its merry way to fix the reactor core. Doing it this way also gives you a couple hundred more experience than talking Festus into fixing it.



It's enough to get up to level 9, where we might as well take Ghost for thematic reasons. It's not as useful as some of the others, but an extra 20% in dark conditions with no drawback isn't terrible. Better criticals was an option, but our goal is to avoid combat.