Chapter 66: ARCHIMEDES II

Chapter 66: ARCHIMEDES II

Welcome back to the program. Got some Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong coming up later, but first up: some news. NCR officials are urging travelers to avoid Searchlight for the foreseeable future. According to a First Sergeant who wishes to remain anonymous, Legion troops set off a dirty bomb recently, flooding the town with radiation and turning most of the troops stationed there into packs of feral ghouls. If you do need to travel down that way, be sure to bring three things: your Geiger counters, plenty of Rad-X, and a shotgun. That's the news this hour, thank you all for listening.

"You know, I've been meaning to ask," I said to Veronica as the three of us stepped out of the main building and back into the sun. "How did you manage to escape when the NCR took over this place, anyway?"

"Well... I wasn't actually here during the attack," Veronica refused to look me in the eye. She'd refused to look me in the eye ever since Ignacio Rivas told us about ARCHIMEDES. "When the NCR arrived, I was at the 188 trading post. Even before we..." Veronica's eyes subtly darted in Arcade's direction. I don't think he noticed. "...before we retreated underground, I still had to leave all the time to search for supplies. When I left, it felt like just another supply run, but when I came back, I counted two dozen NCR squads patrolling the area."

"Two dozen squads? That would have to be 200 troops, easily! Are you sure?" I asked, not sure I believed it - especially with how empty this place felt now. Veronica nodded, still refusing to look me in the eyes.

"After evading the NCR patrols around Helios, I did the only thing I could think of: I went back to the 188. Eventually, I ran into Raymo- er, another procurement specialist like me, and reintegrated with the rest of the Brotherhood. Or... well. What was left of us, at any rate..."

"I'm not concerned with that," Arcade said, grabbing Veronica by the shoulder and turning her around. I was surprised - in fact, I think Veronica must have been, too. I can't see any other way Arcade would've been able to bring her to a halt like that. "I'm more concerned with what you know - and what you haven't told us."

"What do you mean?" Veronica's voice wavered slightly - she knew exactly what he meant. Arcade's expression just became more furious.

"No. No more games," I don't quite know how he was able to do it (since the two of them were about the same height), but Arcade seemed to loom over her considerably as he shouted. "ARCHIMEDES. You knew about this before we came here, didn't you? Why didn't you tell us? What else are you hiding from us?" I had to stop this, before it went too far.

"Alright, hang on, back off a minute," I stepped between the two of them, and did my best to guide Arcade away from her. "No need to get all confrontational, Arcade. Give her a chance to explain." I turned to Veronica, and did my best to send her a look that I hoped would convey 'now would be a good time to explain,' without actually saying anything.

"I... I was never actually told what ARCHIMEDES was," Veronica said eventually. "I don't think Elijah trusted anyone other than himself with any of the research. And if he did... Operational security would've come first. I didn't need to know, so I was never told."

"So... what? Does the Brotherhood just keep its people in the dark then?" I asked, a bit confused by that little crumb of data. Veronica shrugged.

"For all the weapons the Brotherhood possess, information is the most potent. The fewer people who know something, the safer the information becomes. All I knew for certain was that there was something named ARCHIMEDES inside Helios, and Elijah seemed to think it was important. I swear, that's the truth."

"Uh-huh," Arcade didn't look convinced. Veronica, on the other hand, seemed to grow back into herself.

"Look, when we decided to come here, I was under the impression we were just going to steal some solar panels, not restart the generators!" Veronica balled her hands into fists and advanced on Arcade. "And even if I had known that's what your game was in getting us in here, I still wouldn't have told you! Why? Because it's something I didn't think you needed to know about! It's like your friend Ignacio said: some things are best left buried with the old world!"

"And I think if we're potentially dealing with some kind of weapon, then we have a right to know about it!" Arcade yelled back, trying to cut in around me.

"Alright, both of you calm the fuck down!" I jumped in again, keeping them both at arms length away from me and practically grabbing them both by their respective collars. I really did not want to keep playing referee. "We've got a job to do here. I say we get going and do it, and we'll worry about sorting out all this 'nobody told me this' bullshit later! The pair of you need to stop acting like children! Understand?"

A tense silence hung heavy in the air as the two of them glared at each other. Eventually, I let go and both of them started to slowly back away from my outstretched arms.

"We good?" I asked, looking from Arcade to Veronica and back again.

"Yeah, we're good," Arcade said. It was obvious that he was already starting to cool down considerably.

"We're good. I won't cause any more problems..." Veronica muttered something incomprehensible and inaudible under her breath, but I could guess what it was. Honestly, I didn't think it mattered at this point. As long as I could get them to act civil to one another...

"Alright, first things first," I brought up my Pip Boy, and switched on a familiar radio frequency. "ED-E, you around?" Immediately, ED-E's familiar beeping sounded off, followed swiftly by the flying metal ball appearing out of thin air with a belch of ozone. "Good. I'm going to need your help in a bit. Veronica," I turned to face her. "Lead on. You said you know where the spare solar panel parts are kept, so lets go find them."

I was surprised. Finding all the spare parts hadn't been difficult at all. I thought it was going to be a lot more... complicated than it was. I guess it just seemed easy because of Veronica's extensive knowledge of the area, but I think the list of supplies Raul had written up for us to find before we left may have helped as well. Granted, the list was in Spanish, so Veronica had to help translate.

Of course she spoke Spanish. I actually felt bad for not picking up on that before now, but given that her last name was Santangelo, it made sense. Maybe she could teach me some words later, so I'm not so in the dark when Raul gets going...

Veronica grabbed the edges of the burlap tarp the parts were sitting on, and started tying the corners together. I reached down to help her, and soon we had a large sack full of spare parts, closed off by a metal clasp attached to a chain, all consolidated and ready for transport.

"Question is, how are we going to get this out of here?" Veronica asked, stepping back to examine the haul. "I mean, this isn't exactly subtle. If we try and carry this out the front door..." She looked down at the bag, which reached up to her waistline, and was three times as wide as both of us put together. "...yeah, someone is going to notice."

"Who says we're taking it out the front door?" I asked, hitting a button on my Pip Boy. "You can come out now." With a belch of ozone and a crack of electricity, ED-E materialized in the air above us. "Hey buddy. Think you can help us get this out of here without the NCR noticing?" ED-E beeped happily, and followed it up with a some confident marching music. The eyebot shook up and down in place, almost like he was nodding. "Awesome. Thanks." I took the end of the chain holding the sack together, and hooked it onto a small latch on the underside of his chassis. "Take this to Raul. Fly fast, and stay out of sight. You see anything dangerous like raiders, Legion, or anything else, I want you to fly as high as you can and stay out of range. Don't take any stupid risks, got it?" I patted his chassis for good measure.

"In other words, just make sure you don't do anything Sheason would," Veronica added with a smirk. ED-E beeped once more before lifting off without another sound. In an instant, the eyebot and the package of spare parts had cleared the fence and were soaring through the air and off to the north until all I could see was a small shiny speck in the sky. Before he disappeared completely, my Pip Boy beeped, and when I looked down, I saw a single message on the screen: "Fly Far Fly Fast."

"Don't do anything I would?" I asked, lowering my Pip Boy and raising an eyebrow at Veronica. She shrugged.

"It's like Arcade said earlier, you are a bullshit magnet. And you have to admit, he's got a point."

"Maybe... " I sighed. Part of me wanted to argue, but most of me... my life had just gotten so weird lately, that maybe being called a bullshit magnet was appropriate. "Whatever. Let's find Arcade. With any luck, he's figured out what we need to do to turn this place back on."

"Alright V, what can we expect down here?" I asked, as the heavy metal door slid shut behind us. Arcade had figured out what to do all right; he'd unlocked both terminals on the outside, and opened up the only hatch that led into the tower in the center of the solar panel field. I thought it was going to lead into an elevator... but instead, it opened onto a set of stairs, going down, not up. I was getting that sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach again... I had a bad feeling about this.

"It could be any number of things," she said, taking point down the wide staircase as the three of us descended into the darkness. "Ignacio and that 'Fantastic' idiot both mentioned some kind of security system, and a few soldiers being killed the last time they tried to enter here... and knowing Elijah, there could be any number of things in our way."

"Great," I said, grabbing the marksman carbine off my back. If we were heading into a fight, I wanted to be ready. "Any suggestions?"

"Yeah," Veronica reached into her robe, and pulled out two magazines that looked like they would fit the carbine in my hands. "Use these." I grabbed them, taking a look at the rounds inside. Sure enough, they looked like 5.56mm rifle rounds, but I could tell that these weren't standard ammunition: the rounds loaded in these magazines had black painted tips.

"Armor piercing rounds?" I asked, loading in the new ammunition. Veronica nodded. We were almost at the end of the stairs when a terrifyingly deep voice echoed off all the metal walls.

"SECURITY LOCKDOWN IN EFFECT. HOSTILE TARGETS ACQUIRED! COMMENCING NEUTRALIZATION!"

"What is-" Arcade started to speak, but was interrupted by Veronica.

"DOWN!" As she yelled, she grabbed the both of us by our respective collars, and all three of us ended up being thrown to the ground behind a nearby metal table. I was only able to keep hold of one of the magazines worth of armor piercing ammo; the other one flew out of my hand and slid across the metal floor well out of reach. The next thing I knew, the air above us was scorched by a trail of fire and the wall above me and to my right exploded in a shower of sparks, shrapnel and smoke.

"ALERT: TARGET LOCK LOST. NEUTRALIZATION BY LETHAL FORCE REMAINS PRIMARY OBJECTIVE." I heard the huge, metallic, booming voice echo out when the noise from the explosion died down.

"The fuck is that?!" I yelled, making sure what little ammo I had was loaded. If Veronica said anything in response, I couldn't hear it. There was a whine like a jet turbine spinning up, and the air above us was filled with the sounds of hundreds of rounds flying through the air, turning the wall behind us into swiss-cheese. Whatever it was, it must have been using a minigun, because I couldn't think of any other kinds of guns that fired that fast.

Shit, a minigun and a missile launcher? What the fuck was this thing?

"YOU HAVE ENTERED A SECURITY ZONE. LETHAL FORCE MAY BE USED WITHOUT FURTHER WARNING!" The voice boomed during a pause in the barrage of bullets.

"Where was the first fucking warning?!" I did my best to get off the floor, and practically welded my back to the desk we were hiding behind. I'm just glad it was metal... but if it kept laying on the fire... The whine returned, and more bullets flew through the air, causing hundreds of shattered pieces of wall to rain down on us.

"Sentry bot!" I could barely hear Veronica trying to shout over the noise as she peeked around the desk. "Aim for the head! I'll try and draw the fire!" And without a second word (not that I could really hear her anyway) she ran out of cover faster than I thought was possible. The hail of bullets tried to follow her, and chewed up the ground as she ran. A cloud of smoke, sparks, and shrapnel obscured her from view completely.

"Veronica!" I shouted, despite knowing that I'd never be heard over the noise. The fire paused, but the smoke refused to clear.

"ADDING TARGET TO THREAT MATRIX," The robot bellowed. "REANALYSIS COMPLETE: THREAT LEVEL: RED." There was a streak of fire, followed by a massive explosion somewhere in the direction Veronica had run. Nothing else for it; I slipped into VATS, and looked up over the desk and out of cover.

I don't know if it was a good or bad thing that VATS was activated; the sensation of time slowing to a crawl gave me plenty of time to line up a shot, but it also gave me quite the opportunity to appreciate just what was trying to kill us, and the sight was bowel-clenching. Before then, I'd never seen a sentry bot this close. The robot was basically a massive, vaguely-humanoid torso sitting on top of thick tripod legs, each of which ended in giant, treaded all-terrain wheels. It didn't have a head so much as a reinforced bump set deeply in the center of the barrel-chested torso; it didn't have eyes, so much as a row of four vertical red lenses. There was a missile launcher on the end of one arm, and a six-barrel Gatling gun on the end of the other. It didn't look like a robot so much as a small tank.

As soon as I lined up the carbine, I fired off as many shots as VATS would allow, aimed right at the thing's... head. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of green, and realized that Arcade was firing on the behemoth as well. Sparks flew off the metal with every shot, but... it didn't even seem staggered. Several holes appeared in its chassis, but other than that...

"Fuck!" I didn't have any action points in VATS left, and shooting it in the face didn't even stun it. So... plan B. I ran out of cover and just kept shooting as I ran. I wasn't really aiming, but, hell, the damn thing was so big, it's not like I could-

I felt an explosion rip up the ground behind me. My whole world flipped upside down, and I was thrown into a wall. At least, I think it was a wall. I know that when I was upside down, my back smashed into something hard that felt like a metal wall. I couldn't hold on to the carbine. The next thing I knew, I was falling through a cloud of ash and dust and fire, with tiny pellets of hot shrapnel peppering me. I'm sure I must have looked stupid, flailing around upside down, but by sheer luck I managed to grab onto... something. Maybe it was a cable or something. I don't know, I didn't really get a good look at it at the time, and by the time I could get a good look, I didn't really care.

"It means we're going to be waiting for a while, so this thing can initiate repairs," He was standing at the top of the stairs on the second level, looking proud and smug. What startled me was the Mr. Handy that was floating toward me. The spherical, floating, octopus-armed robot with three eye stalks was honestly not something I was expecting to see.

"Hullo, fellow Poseidon Energy employees!" The robot said in a tinny, enthusiastic voice. "This unit is programmed to respond to the designation PYTHON. Please, stand clear, whilst I attempt repairs!"

"Uh... Arcade?" I asked, watching the robot float past me, the three jets on the underside of its chassis belching blue flames and jet exhaust. "Mind explaining the robot?"

"And why it thinks we work here?" Veronica added. Fair point, well made. By this point, Arcade had made his way downstairs, and I could see that he was holding a jet black, not-quite rectangular card in his hand. He turned it so the light in the room reflected off it just enough for me to make out the wires and circuitry molded into the side.

"Found this on our way down, after the 2nd or 3rd sentry bot. Before we found the room with six protectrons, remember? It's a Poseidon Energy employee ID card. I scanned this in the back of his head, and now it thinks we all work here." Veronica and I looked at each other, then back to Arcade. I don't know about her, but I was in shock.

"How did you know how to do that?" Veronica finally asked. The only other sound in the room was from the Mr. Handy welding something off to the side and softly humming a metallic tune. "I thought you didn't trust robots. How'd you know what to do?"

"Lucky guess," Arcade shrugged. "So, while that's working, we should have time to find out what ARCHIMEDES is."

Poseidon Energy was certainly more than just a power company before the bombs dropped.

That much was obvious, going through the files on the terminals here. One of them mentioned an 'upcoming' visit (upcoming in this case meaning November 2077) by a Brigadier General Scott Lowe of the US Army. It also mentioned ARCHIMEDES by name, but it didn't mention specifically what it was, what it did, or even where it might be.

But that meant whoever was running the show here for this ARCHIMEDES project had serious pull with the pre-war military industrial complex if a General - even a one star - was coming to visit the power plant and was the 'only person here allowed to authorize its use for anything other than a test.'

There was no doubt in my mind that ARCHIMEDES was a weapon of some kind. This was some serious bad news, and I was starting to get a really, really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach about all this.

"Found anything yet?" I heard Arcade shout from... somewhere.

"Yeah... yeah, I think I... I think I found something," Veronica's voice echoed out from above us, on the second level of the observation deck. I made my way up the stairs, with Arcade right behind me, and we found Veronica standing in front of a large round table. It was illuminated blue, and had a lighted ring on the inside lip, with a grid pattern of lights criss-crossing over the table. Veronica was looking down at the table, but she was clutching a holotape next to her chest.

"V?" I asked, pointing at the table. "You said you found something? Is this it?"

"No. Well, yes... I mean... here. Take a look at this." She slid the holotape into a slot on the table, and it started to hum. The lights grew brighter, and suddenly there was a column of super fine mist hanging in the air directly above the table. Lights started projecting into the mist, and the next thing I knew, I was looking at a three-dimensional model of the Helios One power plant made out of light hovering above the table.

"Is this a hologram?" Arcade asked, brushing a hand through the mist. The image flickered, but readjusted after his hand passed.

"If it is, it's certainly not as impressive as the holograms I saw at the Madre," I said, trying to figure out what this was. I folded my arms over my chest, and started scrutinizing the image. "What exactly are we supposed to be looking for here?"

"It's... it's a recording. Of one of the ARCHIMEDES tests," Veronica said, swallowing hard. "Just, give it a few-"

The image shifted. A small column of light appeared out of nowhere, from the top of the image to the bottom... and then it got wider, and wider, getting brighter. There was a flash, and... I think some of the effect may have been lost, as there was no sound, but a mushroom cloud was slowly rising from the spot on the ground where the beam of light impacted. On the edge of the holographic image, I saw that the power plant was still standing.

"What... what was that?" Arcade spoke in a hushed whisper, his eyes transfixed on the tiny mushroom cloud made of light on the table. Veronica pressed a few buttons on the table, and the image shifted again. In place of the power plant and the mushroom cloud, there was a picture of... well, at the time it looked like a someone had taken a bottle of scotch, drawn a few lines on the side of the bottle, and stuck a few solar panels to the side in the shape of wings.

"That was the initial test of this. And this is ARCHIMEDES," Veronica said, pointing at the hologram. "It's a satellite in geosynchronous orbit around the planet. It is a space based laser, powered by energy collected by this power station and sent to the orbital weapons platform by way of microwaves. I'm not sure how it finds a target, but the yield on impact is... well, you saw the mushroom cloud."

"Jesus..." Arcade looked pale. "If someone got a hold of this... figured out how to activate or target it..." While he was busy contemplating the ramifications of this superweapon, he was completely unaware of Veronica hanging her head.

"Veronica, are you alright?" I asked. She shook her head, and when she looked up at me, her face was screwed up, like she was trying to hold back...

"No. No, I-I'm not. This is... not what I expected," Veronica sniffed loudly. "This is what they died for? This is nothing more than a piece of... This is..."

"Dangerous," Arcade finished for her. "We can't leave this here. It's too dangerous. We've got to find some way to..."

"It has to be destroyed," Veronica said, nodding her head up and sniffing once again. Her expression was stony and focused; she was directing a look of hatred and venom at the hologram in front of her.

"Agreed," Arcade nodded, staring at the image, the same as Veronica. He didn't have quite the level of hatred in his eyes as Veronica, but it was surprising enough that the two of them actually agreed on something.

"Okay," I said, clapping my hands together in a vain attempt at trying to get these two to focus. "Let's concentrate on what we know. We now know exactly what ARCHIMEDES does, and why it's a bad idea to just leave it sitting here, and we all seem to agree that destroying this is the best option. Right. Good. Now. Do either of you have any ideas on how we can deal with this little problem, and make sure it can't be used to hurt people?" And make sure that neither the NCR or Caesar's Legion can get their hands on an orbital weapons platform, I didn't need to say. Both of them nodded. That was a good sign.

"The terminals up here are pretty sophisticated... give me half an hour, and I think I can program a virus that will erase any mention of ARCHIMEDES from all of the Helios databases," Arcade said, stroking his chin. He turned to Veronica. "That is... if I had help."

"Don't worry, I'll help with the code," Veronica nodded. "As soon as I'm finished with... what I need to do."

"Do I even want to know?" I asked.

"Even if we wipe out any mention of ARCHIMEDES, the satellite is still up there. I need to see if there's any kind of control console that would get me access to the satellites thrusters that keep it in orbit." Veronica grimaced, like this whole idea was suddenly unappealing. "It... it's too dangerous to just stay up there. It's got to come down."

"Isn't the Brotherhood's mission to preserve the technology of the old world?" Arcade asked, apparently not buying her story. "Isn't this sort of a... conflict of interest?"

"Yeah, well..." Veronica shrugged, and shook her head. "I think... this is a piece of the old world that we can do without."

"Alright, I think we have a plan. Arcade, get working on that virus. V, you try and find that control panel - I'm sure it's up here somewhere. Meanwhile, I'm gonna go check on the octopus-bot, see if that's finished. If it is, great, we can turn on the power and get the fuck out of here."

A little more than half an hour later, all three of us were on the top floor of the needle in the center of the power plant, standing in front of a console mounted on the railing. Standing there, I was afforded the best view of the field of solar panels beneath me, with the horizon stretching out for miles below me.

"You know, this should have been labeled the observation deck, I think..." I said, admiring the view. I was going over everything in my brain, trying to figure out if there were any loose ends we'd missed.

Arcade and Veronica had programmed the virus and unleashed it on the system, which means that there was no more mention of ARCHIMEDES anywhere on any computer system anywhere in Helios. That was one.

Veronica eventually found the terminal that had direct access to the satellite, and ordered a total shutdown of all its primary systems. She said it wouldn't be immediate, but now that it wasn't going to make any more course adjustments during flight, the satellite would fall into Earth's gravity field and burn up in the upper atmosphere. Apparently, we were in for quite a show in a few hours. That was two.

Finally, there was my job. There were several options on the power grid, but I sent the power exactly where the NCR and Fantastic didn't want it to go: Freeside, and Outer Vegas. Knowing Fantasic (though, I honestly wish I didn't) they wouldn't catch on for several months. If they ever caught onto it at all. So that was three.

"Well?" Arcade asked. I turned to look at him questioningly.

"Well, what?" I asked.

"Are you going to throw the switch or not? Reconfiguring the grid isn't going to do anything until you align the panels properly."

"Can't a guy just... enjoy the view for a few minutes?" I said with a smirk, only half joking. It really was a nice view.

"Just flip the switch, for pete's sake," Veronica said, leaning over me and grabbing the lever. There was a loud clunk, as things started to change very quickly - I looked down, and saw every single solar panel start to slowly adjust themselves.

"Oh! Wait! I almost forgot!" Arcade started fishing around in his labcoat. I looked at him... and then I looked again, a bit confused. Was Arcade wearing sunglasses? Sure enough, he pulled out a pair and handed them to me.

"Why would I need sun-" As I spoke, I turned back to look at the scenery and immediately wished I hadn't. I was practically blinded by the assault of sunlight.

"MY EYES!" I shouted as I clutched at my face, trying to ignore the rapidly growing headache from the sight of the sun reflected directly into my face by several hundred solar panels pointing directly at the collection tower.

For some reason, the name "Manfred Mann" passed through my head as I tried to will my sight back.

Not entirely sure why.