Part 35: "You'll Never Be Rich…"

Update 35: "You'll Never Be Rich…"

A lot of people have been mentioning audio for the next NPC, and I agree that it's hard to do him justice without. That said, the majority of programs to record audio in this situation are Windows only and I'm not on a Windows machine. There are videos of this on youtube, but I don't think it's right to link a random person's video to an LP that they had no intention of supporting. So, there are three options here: either search for your own video, or just imagine that R. Lee Ermey is shouting all of these lines, or go here where they've got all of the audio in the notable quotes section.



"Oh, I'm Luke. Nice to mee…"

"What was that? Did you forget something, maggot?"

"I can see we're going to get along just great. My name is Luke, Sir!"



"Yes Sergeant!"

"Outstanding! Proceed on the double to the hangar where you will stand guard duty. You will do a fine job. Do you understand?"

"What am I guarding there, Sergeant?"

"Was that a question, maggot?"

"My name is Luke, Sergeant."



"Yes, Sergeant!"



Next thing I knew I was standing in a hangar with no idea what I was doing. I tried to ask one of the mechanics, but he didn't have any time to explain, and out the door of the hangar I could hear the familiar cadence of Sergeant Dornan's voice.



He appeared to be just making the rounds and shouting at all the troops, so I went with my most military instincts and stood rigidly in place until he went away. Evidently I was a natural soldier. The same instincts also told me that as soon as the sergeant left it was time to go screw off.



"Shit? Snow? What the hell kind of food is this?"

"You're not used to army food yet, are ya?"

"Are you saying that when I am I'll look at shit and snow as a treat?"

"Naw, no offense. That's just what we call stuff here. Shit on a shingle's chipped beef on toast. Snow and fly shit's another name for salt and pepper."

"Oh…I think I see. So what's up with maintenance? They seem kind of busy over there."



"Is that so? I'll make sure not to get on Raul's bad side then. What about us guards?"



"Well, that's cute. Hey, how do I get to the main base? I don't wanna be stuck out here in the sticks forever."

"Get there? Well, you need either a vertibird or there's a ship you can take from San Francisco. But you'd need a passkey for that."

"A passkey?"



"Well, that's a good idea. Anyway, gotta go. If Sarge catches me away from my post he'll have my ass."

"Keep warm out there, and if ya need more just come on in."



Obviously I didn't go back to my post. Instead I went looking around the base, and stumbled into someone who was determined to improve my equipment. I wasn't going to complain.



They had a whole suit of high tech power armor stuffed into a locker. It looked like some kind of weird insect mask, and I wasn't exactly sure if it was designed for efficiency or intimidation.



Either way, I liked it.

Advanced power armor gives you a +4 bonus to strength, and provides higher damage resistance against everything than the old power armor. The weakest point is still plasma damage, but it's an improvement over the regular power armor in every conceivable way.



Wandering around the main floor I ran into 'Snookie.' I couldn't help but tease her a bit, and I have a feeling her lab tech boyfriend was going to get an asskicking later. I also caught a glimpse of something through the door panel that made me more than a bit curious.



Luckily nearby was the office of the resident… well, not exactly doctor, but more of a mad scientist.

"Works for me, Doc. Say, is this room soundproofed?"

"In the course of my research I perform… experiments on test subjects. Sometimes they get a little vocal. The base commander found this to be disturbing so he had the soundproofing installed."

"Like that thing in the next room over? What's the deal with that?"



"Why are you going to kill it?"

"The Enclave has been looking for cheap, expendable soldiers. We are interested in death claws because they have built in armor and weapons, and they're mean as hell. They just need to be smarter so they can understand commands but not so smart that they're a threat."

"Following you so far…"

"Well, evidently they've been faking and are actually far smarter than we realized. They can talk, and they've been plotting to learn as much as they can from us. Obviously they're far too dangerous to be allowed to live."



"Want me to kill the thing for you?"

"I suppose. I just want it dead, I don't really care who does it. If it makes you happy, go ahead."

"Sounds great. What's up with the dog?"



"As punishment I disabled his legs but left him pretty much functional otherwise. Now he gets to sit there and watch every distasteful thing I do."

"Could you fix him if you wanted to?"

"Oh, easily. His motivator is up in the bay with Raul. Maybe if he changes his attitude someday I might actually fix him."

"I see… well, be right back."



Snookie tried to stop me from going in, but once I explained that the doc wanted someone to kill the deathclaw she knew what was going on. Didn't offer to help or anything, but she stopped giving me crap about going in.



"Nope, I'm here to rescue you."

"I find it hard to believe that an Enclave soldier is here to rescue me. More likely, you are here to build up my hopes so that you can dash them to pieces."

"Who said I was an Enclave soldier? Listen, what do I need to do to get you out of here?"

"You are my last hope, so I will place my trust in you. That door over there leads to an airshaft that exits into the woods. If you can open the door, I can escape… but the doctor will not give up the keycard easily."

"I didn't intend to ask."



Back with the doctor I double checked on the sound proofing, and then…

"Gruthar says hello."

I took care of the problem. The card was in his desk, and it looked like it would be some time before anyone missed him.



The K-9 unit in the corner didn't see anything in my actions that disagreed with his morals, so I decided to fix him and take him with me.



After that I let the deathclaw loose and sent him toward Vault 13. I always felt bad about that later, but I had know way of knowing then why I shouldn't have.



I managed to talk one of the techs into giving me access to the base computer, mainly through knowledge of his illicit relationship with one 'Snookie'. That also turned out to be the password, amusingly enough.



"Okay, let's give this a shot… where is the Enclave main base located?"



"Okay, I grew up in a village where we burned shit to keep warm. What the hell does all that mean?"



"geographical coordinate system then you will not find it."

"…dick. How do I get there?"



"available. Vertibird transportation can be acquired at San Francisco harbor. Please note that ship transportation has been flagged as inaccessible due to security act 9837-334-27A. Ship has been disabled and a passkey is required for reactivation. Base commander, Navarro outpost, current holds the passkey."

"Well, that's a bit more concise than what the cook had to say. Thanks, computer!"



Returning to my original reason for being in Navarro I went looking for the Vertibird plans at the maintenance chief's office. Turns out that the cook wasn't overstating the feud between the two mechanics.



On the plus side, he gave me the plans and didn't blink an eye when I rummaged through the rest of his stuff and took everything that looked interesting. The only thing he wanted me to do was tell Raul to come and visit him.



Just for the hell of it I passed the message, which set Raul off. He asked me to watch the vertibird, but I wasn't about to miss the show so I grabbed the K-9 motivator and a couple of other small objects and followed him over.




It was everything I could have hoped for. Even if Quincy hadn't given me the plans I could have grabbed them while he was passed out on the floor, and Raul took so long strutting back to his hanger that I actually beat him back and was waiting when he showed.



With the plans in hand, there were only two pieces of unfinished business in Navarro. Since I was on guard duty it wasn't terribly hard to convince the commander's guard that I needed to take the tanker passkey to a safer location like in my pocket.



For some reason he was also storing a pack of Tragic cards in the same locker. Kind of random, but I guess everybody needs a hobby.

You can see some of the treasures of the Navarro base in my inventory in this shot as well. That includes a full lock pick set, an electronic lock pick MK II, and a free extra Super Sledge. That's only the tip of the iceberg, but this and the Advanced Power Armor are the most important parts.



"I'll have you know that I am a doctor."

"A doctor, master. Not a veterinarian. Or a mechanic."

"Oh sure, laugh it up… there. You're mobile again. Let's get out of here."



K-9 is another companion option and as you can see his stats aren't terrible. He can't use weapons, but he gets a lot of attacks and his damage isn't bad at all. He's got insane sequence (28) and he's very fast, but he is still vulnerable and likely to wander into the line of fire on his own. K-9 is a sarcastic but judgmental sort, and he'll leave if your Karma goes below -100.



After that we walked out of there, collected everybody, and left Navarro. K-9 went off on his own, and last I heard he ended up somewhere in NCR. I just couldn't leave him in Navarro, but there was no way I was taking him on to an oil rig.




Turning over the Vertibird plans gets us our biggest experience award of the game, 20,0000. It's enough to boot us up to level 24, and open up the two best perks in the game. Given our build, I'm sure you know which one we go for. Skill points go to Energy Weapons.