When we finally got to Shady Sands we where given a day to rest. Most of the men weren't from Shady Sands so they all went to a hotel, inn, or bar. I ,and a few others, went to the main bank that the NCR used. If you were good enough in the military you could get paid more money, and alongside that all of my creations that the NCR now used had a patent I owned. With that ownership I got a bit of the money that came from those things.
I'd signed a lot of papers to have most of my money put in the bank to accumulate. I was going there now to get my money in bottle cap form. It would be a large amount but I wasn't planning to pull it all out. A large chunk would remain NCR dollars as those were needed for most legal transactions. As I left I I found a hotel near the venue for the award ceremony and settled down there for the night while working on plans for what I could produce and sell through my company.
My company couldn't just sell cars and exoskeletons. That stuff was way to expensive, even with military budget. I couldn't produce that stuff and sell it domestically. My first designs were manual bikes and electric bikes. With sufficient robotics and material supplies those would be a good product that anyone could buy. It would be insanely cheap to produce them with robots and they would sell like… like any modern transport would in a post apocalyptic world.
After designing the bikes I left to find a place where we could produce and sell them. Near nightfall I found a decent place with a back room that I could set up initial production in after installing proper machinery. Once I got a supply chain started I could make bikes and hire workers besides myself. And of course, who better than the men I'd served with who just got back and need jobs.
They would be settled by the time I was ready so I'd have a loyal force working under me. After setting things up I could produce more lucrative things like combat chems and other creations of mine. After a few hours passed I found a place to set up. It had been a gang hideout that had seen lots of horrible stuff done inside. A veteran had been caught snooping by the gang and was executed without them knowing he was a vet.
Some MP had investigated and found them which led to a shootout and a small convoy rolling in to splatter the gangers across the pavement. I'd have to wait at least a week for due process to complete before I could start setting things up. In that time I'd need to find some robots to reprogram for production of bikes. As I searched for scavengers to buy from night began to fall. As Shady Sands was a decently modern place streetlights flicked on and people continued to go about their lives without worry of th sun going down. It certainly helped that this area was close to a military base and had MP patrols going around with soldiers off duty having fun.
I found a scav shop after nightfall and marked it on the paper map I had been working on. It was a large map of NCR territory, the Mojave/Nevada, and known Legion territory. Shady Sands was a smaller map attached to the state maps with paper clips and rubber bands. After marking the map I left to go to bed. If had to deal with the speech the next day so I needed rest.
Morning came with the blistering heat of California an th scorching sunlight acting as a laser through my window. I quickly dawned my dress uniform and service pistol, a .44 magnum desert eagle. I'd dug this out of the dams armory and registered it as my service weapon. As I wasn't a frontline soldier it was easily allowed. It was the only weapon I was allowed and I was the only man in a high enough position to be allowed to carry a gun near the president during the speech and award ceremony.
I hurried to my position to be briefed on the ceremony. I was the highest level person and would be leading. It was all fairly stressful but I was planning to pop a grape mental before getting to the stage. Grape mentats unlike berry or normal mentats lasted longer and had less crash if taken correctly. It would set under my tongue and dissolve very slowly so the effects would be weak but longer lasting.
Time seemed to fly as we waited for the ceremony. When the crowd finally gathered and the time came a small convoy rolled up to the back of the building we were in for the ceremony. Two tanks, three jeeps, and two armored cars with an armored limousine. I could hear vertibirds buzzing over the city as the president stepped out. Almost everyone saluted reflexively as he approached.
After he and his entourage pass I move to my place with the rest following me. Before Kimball takes to stage a man in a sharp black suit with black glasses and a plasma defender on his hip, walks up to him with a paper. They talk for a bit before the man walks away and Kimball goes to start the speech and ceremony. As the president and his people go through the curtains of the stage and cheering eruptes I spot something on the man in black.
Below the small two headed bear symbol on his jacket pocket was another symbol. A small rectangle with OSI, the o being made of twelve stars. My stomach drops as my mind involuntarily shot to the worst possible identity for that man. Twelve stars in a circle, black unidentifying clothes, a plasma weapon. It was a horrible possibility. Enclave in a high position in the NCR. Maybe even controlling it via Kimball.
I stored the thought away before taking a mentat and walking out onto the stage with multiple other soldiers following behind me. We stood through an entire speech and finally got medals pinned to our chests before standing through another speech. Once the ceremony was over many men went to join family while the rest followed me back behind the stage. I distributed the small pager like devices I'd gotten ahold of after getting to Shady Sands. They were all connected to my own and would allow me to send messages to all of them almost instantly. With transmitters all over NCR territory I could communicate with all of them even if some left the city.
I gave them a layout for my plan and they all got to work on what in needed. While they did that I went to look for the suspicious guy from earlier. First I went to the nearby military police office to check their records for someone from OSI who'd been here at the time of the event. I didn't expect to find anything but I could always pull some strings and get ranger help.
I got a lot of trouble for going through record while not technically in the military but due to my rank and being generally well known, I was allowed free access. As I'd expected there was nothing so I needed to go higher. The highest I could reach was the rangers stationed in the city. I only had a bit of doubt that they wouldn't have the info I needed. The chief of the rangers here in Shady Sands was a hard man to meet but was amiable enough do to my achievements and reputation.
The grizzled old man stood taller than me an looked like he could punt me through a concrete wall. He had the ranger sequoia on his hip with a bladed supersledge leaning against his desk. It could probably cleave into power armor if he timed the rocket swing correctly with a full power strike. The old man smirked at me as he caught me looking at the rocket powered maul. I really wanted to make some for my own men. It would be the perfect weapon for power armored shock troops going against the legion. Fortifications wouldn't stand a chance against the small siege weapons in human form.
The discussion we had was mostly him browbeating me into letting him get first pick of all the juicy technology I'd be producing. In return I'd get Ranger intel and support if needed. He was crafty and resourceful and absolutely loved th idea of long range electric bikes and specialized vehicles his men could use. I didn't know much about the rangers but I could see the old NCR rangers in him, a stubborn warrior of freedom who'd do what needed to be done to protect the rights of others.
After his aggressive verbal negotiations I finally got access to records. He had piles and piles of papers brought in along with a desk, chair, and terminal with digital documents. It was all overwhelming for a bit before the chief started navigating it like he'd been born to it. Less than ten minutes in I found the info I needed. It wasn't old as it had been less the three hours since I saw my suspect. I tracked him to an OSI base on the edge of the city where a large mercenary group was set up.
I looked to the chief and asked "Are you fit for stealth, infiltration, and possible combat chief?"
One of the old mans eyebrows shot up as he quickly answered. "Some people say that there are no stupid questions. I'd call them all bumbling idiots."
I snorted at his answer and led him to my apartment. I'd obviously taken all the stealth suits we made at the dam besides the ones the general, colonel, and some rangers had. I called over a group of my men and we all got our suits on while stuffing the chief into the largest one I had. With our helmets on and cloaks concealing we went straight for the OSI base. Getting in was easy. The chief had nearly inhuman strength and ripped a hole in the fence of the facility.
The chief was surprised we were investigating an OSI base but went along with it, though it seemed it was mostly for his own amusement. I doubted that he had seen much action or activity in general for some time. Guards not in NCR or OSI uniform were stationed everywhere. We moved like death itself as the stealth boys we had cloaked us, with the suits stopping all other detection methods.
As we went deeper into the OSI base we continued to find nasty stuff. A few mutation experiments or observatories had been easy to spot but I ignored them in favor of finding some kind of data storage. A large government like the NCR was practically expected to have the stuff we were seeing. The experiments didn't even look all that bad either. A lot of it was genetic testing and identification.
At one of the deepest levels we found, we ran into a problem. A large square metal door guarded by floor, wall, and ceiling turrets with a Mr.Gutsy checking IDs. My immediate solution was to wait for someone to exit and use quick commands to get past the gutsy. I knew most Rob Co quick commands and I could easily rely on the chief and my men to get the card from an OSI member. The plan had a stumble almost immediately as the chief and others tackled and knocked out a guard who had just exited.
He had resisted surprisingly well despite multiple trained attackers who were also invisible. The gutsy almost freaked out but was held back by its detection systems not seeing us. The chief quickly produced the card and I started belting out backup Rob Co security commands. "This man's army" had ended up being the needed command and it easily excepted the security card from me after the command. I made sure all my men got through as we continued our infiltration.
Eventually we made it to a large server room. Our helmets immediately fogged up from our hot internal temperature and the incredibly low temperatures within the room. I hooked my portable computer thing to the main server stack and started my hacking. I continued hacking for hours as my fingers started numbing from the cold, I finally got through the first layer of security. The security on this stuff was above my level but I got through to where I needed.
I started downloading everything I could so I could send it all to the BOS in the Mojave for de-encryption of all the information. As soon as the data download ended we bolted. Unfortunately Murphys law came into effect as a squad of black armored soldiers entered followed by a large black suit of power armor. It looked like it had been welded together from multiple different types and the coloring of it was not painted but burned. I could see spots of grey an flaking from uneven burns on the metal.
The most glaring part of the suit was its sheer size. It stood close to 9 feet tall and hefted a single massive pistol and a shield that could rival a vault door. The moment the blackened steel giant entered his V shaped visor locked onto us. We all froze and I felt the chief put his hand on my shoulder. He stepped forward as men started questioning the massive power armor wearer. Before the chief could do anything, the pistol the giant carried was level with his forehead. His hands shot up as the enemy started freaking out.
Then with a voice to rival Darth Vader, the giant spoke. "Identify yourselves, intruders."