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Previously on The Stars of the Midnight Rangers...

After settling their business with the powder gangers, the party headed north towards the destination doc had picked up on back in Raul's shack. When they arrived, the party were somewhat surprised to see a fairly nondescript abandoned house, with boarded up doors and barred windows, granting only a better view of a dusty, empty house. With a strike that roared like thunder, Fox was able to break the lock and get the party in, an act which earned him acclaim from a distant, passing supermutant.

Initially, the interior didn't give much away that the exterior didn't already reveal, which is to say mostly nothing, but a stairway down lead to a hatch with the Lucky 38 logo emblazoned on it and a terminal on the wall. As was growing standard by this point, Doc was able to quickly pop it open, letting the party down into the darkness. The latter went for quite a ways before stopping in rough and earthen walls coated in total darkness. After a bit more walking, the party eventually found themselves in a chamber with copper pipes along the walls, a copper gate on the floor, and a large console with an old-timey radio on it, tuned to Radio New Vegas. Right as the party started feeling like they'd been duped, the host spoke up.

"Pardon the trouble listeners, but I've got a couple in-person visitors for the first time in years. Visitors, you're on air!"

The party, naturally, had questions which Mr. New Vegas was happy to oblidge. He was a computer personality, created by Mr. House as something of a legacy should something go wrong, and based on the historical Mr. Las Vegas from before the war. Mr. New Vegas didn't really like thinking of himself as an "AI," however, and also curiously seemed unaware that the courier had taken over Mr. House's network. When he was made aware of this, the host quickly put together that he was wired in only to read the data going through Mr. House's network, but he was totally cut off from it. Even though the Courier had taken control, he was kept safe because of this. He also mentioned that that ability to read data was how he was doing his news reports. Every robco branded product was a little listening peice feeding him info. This news in particular pissed off Sam, who did not much care for the spying and wasn't about to give a robot some kind words. This, in turn, set off Mr. New Vegas a touch, enabling his defense systems in the form of 4 wall-mounted laser turrets.

After a few choice words were exchanged, the party decided a fight wasn't worth it, since all they were hired to do was find the robot. As the party prepared to leave, Doc momentarily turned around, asking if the machine knew about any ghosts. Naturally, Mr. New Vegas had, and had heard about a lot of different Mysterious Strangers running around. But still, Mr. New Vegas knew what Doc was talking about, and offered a quick exchange of info: Doc tells Mr. New Vegas why the party were looking for him, and in exchange, Mr. New Vegas tells Doc everything he knows about the Man in the Lab Coat.

"I can't say much," Doc said, "but I know who hired us could be convinced not to kill you if you work with them."

"Well then I can't say much 'neither," retorted Mr. New Vegas, "but I can say they aren't a ghost. They aren't much human anymore either. There are a lot of Mysterious Strangers out there. Whatever they did to Him, they didn't do it just Once."

Satisfied, Doc and the party left, taking the short walk to the Lucky 38 to report their findings with the courier. She had been listening to the radio, but didn't much care about what she had overheard. She had her info, so she made good on her end of the bargain, but as she started, Sam began insisting she shut down her computers in case Mr. New Vegas is listening in. The courier's eye twitched, and she pulled up on her big computer screen, a news story about a caravan that ahd trouble with radiation sickness as it pulled in to the Strip.

"Way before the bombs dropped, the people had things figured out. You want to get across a big place like this? You build a big damn road and keep it stocked with cops armed to the teeth. I wanna rebuild wanna those big highways, but I'm having trouble. Whatever's left of Caeser's Legion is camped between here and the East. They'll probably die out on their own in a decade or two, but news stories like this," she gestured to the news clipping, keeping dead eye contact with Sam, "make me want to get a move on. I can get you the Vault 3 data, but I got another favor to ask you. To get to the person who has your data, you'll need to find the people I want to hire on to get rid of the fuckin legionairies in the way of my beautiful new trade route. I'm trying to contact the Chicago Brotherhood of Steel."

The courier explained that the person who had her data was, in fact, her twin sister. While her birth name is Jenny Dingo, her twin goes by Jessie Dingo, and she was the one who got shot in the head and cleared out the Fiends in Vault 3. A bit after that, she got some foolish idea in her head about a higher calling before using a teleporter with a timed explosive set next to it, vanishing from Jenny's life without a way to reach her. The only people Jenny can think of in the whole wasteland that could repair the damn thing would be the Chicago Brotherhood.

She said she'd let the party rest on the offer of the mutually beneficial job, but in the meanwhile she had a computer to fry. The party tried to argue for Mr. New Vegas' continued existence, but Jenny explained that changing the songs he plays means fundamentally altering his personality, something she was not ethically OK with. In her mind, it's that or just kill the damn thing, and she views murder as a mercy, in that case. The party relcutantly agreed, and headed off for bed.