Meeting Mother Pearl¶

When you reach the gate you’ll be confronted by a bewildered Boomer Guard, who will get his superior, Raquel. She, in turn, will make an offer you can’t refuse; to meet their elder and leader, Mother Pearl. Agree to go with her and you’ll get your meeting with the Boomer matriarch, who seems to have been expecting you. Succeed at a [Speech 20] check and she’ll explain that she is aware that the outside world is changing, and isolationism won’t last forever. A progressive ideal… except for the fact that they shot freakin’ howitzers at you as a precondition to changing! Anyways… she’ll ask you to complete some tasks for them as to prove your worth and move onto bigger, better, more important things. This starts the quest Volare! , and more importantly Mother Pearl will give you the ability to come and go as you please.

The reason for coming here was to find the third and final Brotherhood patrol, who - unlike you - did not make it past the artillery fire. To do this it was easier to make contact with the Boomers to get them to stop firing. You can now search the ruins south-west of the base without being fired upon, which naturally is helpful when you’re trying to… you know… not die? You’ll find find the bodies in the ruins, the one bearing the “Brotherhood of Steel Mission Holotape” is lying in a crater with a ruined car nearby, while the other very dead Paladin is lying on a shattered concrete wall.

Now that you have the third holotape you can leave… but there’s good reason to help the Boomers now, then make a detour to the Crimson Caravan compound afterwards. It’s a round-about way of dealing with the Brotherhood of Steel’s requests, but it’ll help you out in the long run, prevent having to explore some areas twice for different quests, and give you an excuse to explore many of the areas around New Vegas. So with that in mind, return to Nellis, all prepared to help the Boomers… after robbing the blind, of course.

Helping the Boomers¶

The whole purpose of this quest is to be… well, helpful. You do odd jobs for people, or in other ways ingratiate yourself to the Boomers, and you’ll gain Fame with them. Complete the quests Ant Misbehavin’ , Sunshine Boogie and Young Hearts and you’ll be able to help the Boomers with more important matters. Simple enough. It’ll also give you an excuse to wander around Nellis and loot everything that’s not bolted down. Speaking of which, let’s start exploring the base, starting with Pearl’s Barracks.

In here you can find some Cabinets in the bathroom worth looting for their apparel (including Combat Armor) as well as a First Aid Box on the wall. North, north-east of the kitchen you’ll find some Lockers where some weapons can be scored, and near them on the wall is a First Aid Box. In the living room, on a shelf along the south, south-western wall you can find a copy of Duck and Cover , carefully hidden amongst the rest of the books, and near it is a Grenade Rifle and some 40mm Grenades. Also along this wall are some Filing Cabinets, in one of which rests Col. Blackwell’s Key and the note “Inventory Transfer Order”. This key will allow you to bypass a [Very Hard] lock in a vault you may be exploring sooner rather than later.

Leave Pearl’s Barracks and, before you get to exploring, head to the southern end of the base during the day. It’s time to pick up your first task for the Boomers. On an elevated barricade along the southern end of the base you can find Raquel, who has problems of her own. Ask to help and she’ll tell yo about some Giant Ants that infested the generator building, killing and wounding some Boomers who went to drive them off. Giant Ants are no big deal by now, but she’ll explain that these ones seem rather… well, explosive, and will encourage you to not use Flamers or laser weaponry on them, then suggest that Loyal may have a special weapon you can use on them. After this she’ll give you the “Nellis Generator Key”. This starts the quest Ant Misbehavin’ .

Burglarizing Boomer Barracks¶

Return to Pearl’s Barracks and turn west, north-west to find several buildings. In the Nellis Schoolhouse you can loot the teacher’s desk [Very Easy] to find some magazines (both on and in the desk) and other goodies. There’s also a First Aid Box on a bookshelf. In the Nellis Women’s Barracks you’ll find no fewer than four Gun Cabinets, a First Aid Box and a Refrigerator to rob. Ignore to the Nellis Medical Station for a moment and head south, south-west to find the Nellis Men’s Barracks. In here you can find three Gun Cabinets and two First Aid Boxes (one in the bathroom and one near two of the Gun Cabinets). Finish up the barracks by heading east, south-east from the Men’s Barracks to find the Nellis Children’s Barracks and another Women’s Barracks. The Children’s Barracks isn’t very interesting unless you’re fond of nabbing the odd pack of BBs or Baseball Bat and the second Women’s Barracks isn’t as interesting as the first, but you can still loot the First Aid Box, Cabinet and Refrigerator within.

Doctor Courier¶

When all the barracks have been looted, return to Mother Pearl’s Barracks and from there head west, north-west to find the Nellis Medical Station, which is next to the Nellis Schoolhouse. Inside the Nellis Medical Station you’ll find Argyll, whom you can help tend some patients. Talk to him, ask to be helpful, then either succeed at a [Speech 35] check to lie about your credentials or succeed at a [Medicine 40] check to convince Argyll that you know your stuff. Despite this, you will need to make a different Medicine skill check on each patient (there are three of them to the north, north-east), starting at [Medicine 40], then [Medicine 50] and finally [Medicine 60]. You’ll gain Fame for each one you treat (not to mention the obligatory XP related to the skill check required). Treating all three is enough to gain an “Accepted” reputation, something Pearl will comment on if you visit her. Loot a Medical Cabinet and a First Aid Box, and grab some other minor goodies if you wish, then leave the clinic.

Boomer History¶

Leave the Medical Station and head north, north-west to find three more buildings in a row. Start with the south-western one first, which is Loyal’s House. In here you can find a copy of Dean’s Electronics on a counter, two Gun Cabinets and five Bobby Pins on a bookshelf. In the next building over, Nellis Workshop, you can find some crafting components, a Fixin’ Things magazine, and a Gun Cabinet. In the Gun Cabinet is a “Howitzer Firing Mechanism”, an item that’s used in a later quest, so you might just want to leave it alone for now. Don’t need it weighing you down in the mean time, and you’ll know where it is when you want it. There’s also a Workbench and Reloading Bench in here, in case you needed to get any crafting done.

The third building here is none other than the Nellis Boomer Museum, wherein you’ll find Pete, the rather young keeper of history. Talk to him and opt to hear the story of the Boomers, which naturally includes a lot of explosions, past, present… and dreams of destruction yet to come. Once the history lesson ends, you’ll receive some Boomer Fame. Talk to him some more and ask about more Boomer history; every topic comes with three responses, a positive response, a skill check, and a negative response. Say positive responses or succeed at a skill check to gain Fame, or respond negatively to gain Infamy… which is kind of besides the point for what the goal here is. The skill checks are, in order from the first dialogue option to the last, as follows; [Explosives 40], [Science 35], [Survival 40], [Speech 40], [Speech 55] and [Repair 40]. Responding positively or completing skill checks at every dialogue options should get your reputation up to “Accepted”. Before you leave be sure to grab the Snow Globe - Nellis AFB from the desk near the door.

Mess Hall & Munition Storage¶

Leave the Nellis Boomer Museum and head east to find the Nellis Hangers map marker, near which are two large buildings; the Mess Hall & Munitions Storage and the Hangar. In the Mess Hall & Munitions Storage you can find some dumpsters to loot in the north-western corner of the build, twelve Ammo Boxes along the western wall, two pairs of Vending Machines and in the south-eastern corner you can find some First Aid Boxes and a Broken Missile Launcher, a Broken Grenade Rifle and other mundane loot.

Hangar¶

In the Hangar you can find a row of three Ammo Boxes near a yellow crate in the north-western part of the hangar, nearby you’ll find six Armor Cases containing Combat Armor; one sitting alone on some metal steps, three stacked boxes and two sitting next to each other. A short distance to the west sit two more Ammo Boxes and two Armor Boxes. Along the south-western wall you’ll find some bookshelves, on which you can find some First Aid Boxes and some other minor loot. Similar bookshelves can be found along the north-eastern wall.

Young Hearts¶

Once you’re done looting, you can find Loyal and Jack in the Hangar, both of whom have quests you can do to earn Boomer Fame. Talk to Jack and he might babble about some “Lady” before shutting up. Ask him what you can do to help and he’ll ask you to get him some Scrap Metal before mentioning personal issues. Succeed at a [Speech 35] check or use [Black Widow] to get him to to talk about another “lady”. Apparently he’s been binocular flirting with some tasty redhead over at the Crimson Caravan compound near New Vegas, and for obvious reasons needs you to do the talking for him. Doing this will get you the notes “Nellis Scrap Metal” and “Jack’s Love story”. The Scrap Metal is essentially junk you can give the Jack to earn Boomer Fame, but playing courier for Jack’s affections is somewhat more involved…

If you have the Crimson Caravan location discovered (it’s east of New Vegas, and just west of the New Vegas Medical Clinic), fast travel there, or failing that, to a location nearby. There are plenty of reasons to deal with the Crimson Caravan; Cass told us to seek employment here, for one, for another, the Brotherhood of Steel questline might overlap with the Crimson Caravan quest (depending on who you side with during “Still in the Dark”. Also, Ringo from back in Goodsprings may have been patiently waiting for you since you saved him from the Powder Gangers… if in fact that’s what you did. Indeed, there’s plenty of reasons to head over to the Crimson Caravan compound and start working for them, but for now, keep the visit brief. If you saved Ringo he’ll come find you and hand over 150 Caps for your help earlier. A man true to his word. You can also ask him about his future, the Crimson Caravan company and the big boss person here.

Getting back on track, find a redhead named Janet milling around and talk to her. Tell her about Jack, tell the truth about the dork, or use [Black Widow] to hype him up. After she bites you can offer to talk to Pearl about letting Janet some see Jack or you can pass a [Speech 55] check to convince her she can just walk into the base (which will results in a howitzer surprise for her). The other two options just kick the can down the road, so to speak, and since getting Janet blown up causes the quest to fail, there’s really only one sensible course of action.

Return to Nellis and talk to Pearl who will - if you succeed at a [Speech 50] check - agree to allow Janet to enter Nellis. Return to Jack and tell him the news, then return to Janet and give her the Boomer Outfit Jack gave you. Since nothing can ever be simple, Janet will ask another favor of you; head into the Crimson Caravan Main Office and talk to Alice McLafferty and say “Janet’s asked me to talk to you about releasing her from her contract.” and either succeed at a [Speech 75] check or a [Barter 65] check to get Alice to relent and let Janet keep her wages, or accept the forfeiture. Getting her money will earn you a bit of Boomer Fame, but otherwise it’s not too important. Return to the Hanger in Nellis and wait for Janet and Jack to meet. After they do, talk to Jack to finally wrap up this quest.

Sunshine Boogie¶

Talk to Loyal and ask him how you can help and he’ll direct you to repair some solar arrays on top of the generator building. The problem? Well, they don’t have parts to repair the solar arrays with, and there’s a bit of a bug problem in the way. Agreeing to help will start the quest Sunshine Boogie . If you ask Loyal for more information you’ll find that his isolationism has greatly limited his usefulness as far as scavenging goes, but if you should already have explored HELIOS One you can bring that up. Ask him about the VR Pods and succeed at a [Speech 50] check and he’ll tell you the Boomers dream of one day ruling the sky. Finally ask him about the weapon Raquel mentioned and - after he whines about a problem with the weapon - succeed at a [Science 50] or [Speech 50] check to get him to hand over the Sonic Emitter; five pounds of (hopefully) pure ant death.

Loyal’s desire to repair the solar arrays overlaps with Raquel’s call for an exterminator, so you might as well try to knock out both at the same time. If your Repair skill score is 65 or higher, you can head right to the Nellis Array area, which is east and slightly north of the Nellis Hangers area. If not, fast-travel back to HELIOS One and make your way to the exterior, where all the solar panels should be working their magic. You can find five “Broken Solar Reflectors” lying around (make this your active quest and your map markers will lead you right to them) which you can salvage for parts. This only requires a paltry Repair skill score of 20, as opposed to the score of 65 required to repair the arrays without the spare parts. With the Solar Array Parts salvaged from HELIOS One in hand (or a sufficiently high Repair score)

head to Nellis Array and make your way to the roof of the generator building. Repair all five of the broken panels however you are able (earning 50 XP per panel) then return to the ground. You can now tell Loyal the good news, but since you’re all the way out here… well, you might as well deal with the Boomer’s ant problem, no?

Head into the Nellis Array Generators building (the building on which the solar arrays are located) and exterminate all the Giant Ants in the first room. Your immediate goal is to kill all the Giant Ants in the complex, so focus on that, first. Remember to avoid using flame or lasers, as the Ants will explode. This is especially true in the large room where the generators are located, as an exploding ant could detonate nearby ordinance and cause a lethal chain reaction.

The generator room is a large chamber that dominates the center of the building. Make your way to it and descend down some metal stairs (or a sewer tunnel, depending on the entrance you took) and clear out Giant Ants. Place the Sonic Emitter on the Ant Nest along some rubble along the south, south-west end of the room, activate it, then find two Electrical Switches to the east, south-east. Activate them then head up some stairs to the west, north-west and activate the “Generator Main Power Switch” at a “T”-intersection along the stairs, between two flights of stairs leading up. Once that’s all done, loot the area. You can find two dead Boomers in the elevated rooms along the south-western corner of the building. One Boomer will have an Assault Carbine on the ground near her body while the other has a Marksman Carbine nearby. So well-armed, and they could kill some ants? Along the north, north-eastern edge of the generator room, near a door that leads to a sewer entrance, you’ll find some metal shelves holding seven Ammo Boxes, two Fat Men and assorted other boxes of ammunition. Once all that’s yours, leave the building and return to Raquel and Loyal for your rewards.

*You will get more XP if you didn’t use any Solar Array Parts to repair the solar arrays.

The Lady of the Lake¶

Once you’ve completed the quests Ant Misbehavin’ , Sunshine Boogie and Young Hearts you’ll need to report back to Pearl, who will tell you to talk to Loyal and ask about the greatest dream of the Boomers. In addition, Boomers will now start selling you stuff… the few merchants they have, anyways. Return to the Hangar and talk to Loyal and he’ll tell you about this “Lady”, which is - unsurprisingly - a crashed bomber that now lies at the bottom of Lake Mead. Ask him about the specifics and he’ll lay out a plan of action and give you two “Deployable Ballasts” and “Loyal’s Detonator”. Yes, you. Of course it’s you. These Boomers are stupid about the whole “not leaving Nellis” thing.

Ask how to do this operation without drowning and he’ll direct you to Jack, who was working on a Rebreather. If you talk to Jack he’ll tell you to fetch him a Pressure Cooker, which he can use to finish his toy… or you can succeed at a [Science 45] check to help him finish it with parts that don’t require you to run around. Either way, help him out and he’ll give you a Rebreather , a head accessory (takes up the glasses slot) which will give you Water Breather and 3 Damage Resistance (not to be confused with Damage Threshold). It can’t be damaged and is weightless, too, making it not only a fine accessory for any spelunking you might do, but a nice defensive item, too.

Your next goal is Lake Mead, which is the water around which the Callville Bay, Fisherman’s Pride Shack and Boulder Beach Campground are located. In fact, it’s just south-east of the Callville Bay map marker, but before you rush off anywhere, keep in mind that the Cazadores probably respawned by now. Simply put, fast-traveling to Callville Bay is a good way to become Cazador food. Bitter Springs Recreation Area to the north is safer, and from there you can either avoid the Cazadores entirely, or circle around west of Callville Bay and snipe the Cazadores from the safety of the crane near the boxcars.

Once you’re in the clear, head into Lake Mead and swim south-east of Callville Bay to find the Crashed B-29. This is quite easy if you have the Rebreather, as you can swim as long as you wish until you find it. Once you locate it, dive down and swim under each wing to find a transparency showing where the ballasts go, then activate them. When they’re both attached, swim back to shore and onto the concrete ramp, equip Loyal’s Detonator, make sure it’s beeping (you have to be standing is fairly specific spot) then summon the lady of the lake.

Return to Nellis and find Loyal, who is quite pleased you managed to raise the bomber intact. Ask him about the specifics of his plans to get to bomber back to Nellis and he’ll tell you. You can attempt an [Intelligence 7] check to help him improve the security behind the plan, but it doesn’t really affect anything. Talk to Pearl to finish Volare! and get your reward. The XP is decent, but the political power that being allied with the Boomers - perhaps the only group of people in western America capable of carrying out tactical bombings - may prove more significant in the long run.

The Boomers have been satisfied, and you should have found all three Brotherhood patrols. Now might seem like a fine time to return them to the Brotherhood of Steel and continue their quests, but you dipped your toes into the Crimson Caravan questline, and since that soon may intersect with the Brotherhood of Steel… well, it’s another diversion that’s worth doing. It’ll also give you plenty of excuses to organically explore many areas around New Vegas, which is a long-term goal for the guide. The next section of the guide will cover the Crimson Caravan quests, and subsequently Cass’s quest involving them, then finally some jobs you can take on for the NCR in Camp McCarran. After all that, it’ll be time to return to the Brotherhood of Steel.