Chapter Seventy-Eight

NCR Embassy. New Vegas.

Like any good boy I did my homework before meeting with the NCR ambassador. I'd focused on what I could remember and looked over the intelligence that my Master of Whispers had been able to put together in an impressively short amount of time.

Thanks to that I knew that The NCR supports old world values, such as democracy, personal liberty, and the rule of law. It also aims to restore general order to the wasteland, and works towards the improvement and development of infrastructure, economic systems, and overall they claim to want peace between all peoples. Noble things to strive for, but reality tended to crush such idealism.

Their continued expansion has created challenges for the NCR who are having issues with territorial control, maintaining the loyalty of its citizens, and there quite a bit of corruption that plague the Republic, which serves to hinder its goals. The NCR is often criticized by other factions for being imperialistic, poorly managed and over-extended. Some people think it is foolish for them to attempt to hold onto the very old world values that led to nuclear holocaust in the first place.

I could see how the NCR would be over extended and have trouble maintaining its supply lines. Something I'd kept in mind when making my first offer to them and sending them samples of the lasguns I was willing to sell them. I also had ideas on how to help them with their infrastructure.

Under the terms of the New Vegas Treaty, the New California Republic (NCR) was able to establish an embassy on the Strip to resolve and negotiate issues with Mr. House. Not that these efforts ever got very far since Mr House didn't met with people, at least not directly, likely I'd gotten closer than anyone else had in years.

The NCR Embassy that I am currently visiting was compound consists of two buildings, including the embassy itself and the NCR Military Police Headquarters a place I no desire to visit as my business here was with the ambassador not with the military, at least not directly.

From what my Master of Whispers had told me, Ambassador Crocker began his political career as a mayor back in the NCR sometime before 2261, and worked his way up through the ranks. Which was why he had his current position. Crocker is a strong believer in diplomacy and hopes to unite the Mojave Wasteland under the NCR peacefully. Not that this was likely to happen since I intended to support an Independent Vegas under the rule of Mr House.

"Your Excellency" greeted Ambassador Crocker as I came into his office "It is good to see you again".

He hadn't been so friendly during out first meeting. Back then he hadn't seen what I was offering. Also he'd been rather busy as that asshole in charge of the Legion had recently died, because I'd gotten Black Widow to kill him, and as predicted the Legion was breaking up into gangs who were attacking each other more than anyone else. I had my assassin working down a list of Legion officers to ensure that none of them once the legion's civil war and took over.

"Ambassador Crocker" I said "I take it your people have had the chance to look over what I am offering".

Before the ambassador could formulate a reply I took a seat in front of his desk as my bodyguards took positions in and outside of the room.

"Yes your Excellency" Crocker replied.

I don't why he called me that. I had many titles and that wasn't one of them, but I could be considered a foreign diplomat, so perhaps it did make some sense.

"As you can imagine our military leaders are eager to purchase a large supply of your lasguns" Crocker let me know "I confess that I don't fully understand why".

It was because the NCR generals understood about the need for Boots, Beans, Bullets, and Bandages. What matters most to an army is not its grand plans for winning wars or even the courage of its fighting men, although this do have a place, what matters most of all is logistics. The armies with the best supplies and means of getting those supplies to the fighting men will win wars because they can keep fighting while their enemies run low on everything needed to support their troops in the field.

This was why the average Imperial guardsmen had a lasgun, because those weapons don't require massive piles of ammunition to be moved around nor do they require much in the way of repair work or effort to maintain. The power cells of a lasgun can be easily recharged and the weapon will keep firing in an environment where a projectile weapon will jam.

The NCR controlled a lot of land and they needed to protect what they controlled, and the lasguns I planned to sell them would help with that. They'd learn to make their own before long as the design wasn't complex and would stop buying from me, but by then I'd be done with this world.

Smartly I wouldn't be selling them any lascannons or other heavy weapons as I wanted to make sure that I maintained an advantage when it came to heavy weapons, so they would have to be satisfied with lasguns, laspistols and laser sniper rifles.

There were things I wanted from the NCR, the ability to send an Ad-Mech team in to inspect HELIOS One would be nice. I could have HELIOS One taken by force, however making an enemy of the NCR was not wise as they had the means to make it very hard for the expedition to operate in this part of the world. As such it just made more sense to befriend them.

"I'm glad to hear that" I said to Crocker "Now let's discuss what you are willing to trade for a good supply of my laser weapons".

What followed from those words could be hours of talk as the ambassador tried to get as much in the way of material support from me while giving as little back as possible. Thankfully I had some experience with these sort of talks so I should be able to avoid getting ripped off.

Laser weapons would just be the start. I could cheaply produce armour and other bits of equipment their fighting men needed. What I figured the NCR would pay most for was the Ad-Mech to come along and build new factories and homes for the NCR's people, but that would have to wait since the cyborgs would be rather busy for the foreseeable future.