The Launch is a main quest in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Lonesome Road.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Main Quest: The Launch | |||||
| Fight across the length of the High Road from northwest to southeast. | |||||
| Reach the Ashton silo control station. | |||||
| Activate the control console and launch the nuclear missile to open the sealed silo. | |||||
| Reward: 4400 XP Access to the Courier's Mile Condemned to Repeat It achievement/trophy | |||||
| Leads to: The Divide | |||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
Second talk with Ulysses[]
Upon emerging from the collapsed overpass tunnel and completing The Job, the player character is interrupted by Ulysses reaching out through ED-E for the second time, remarking on how he is satisfied to see that the Courier had not lost their nerve and returned to the Mojave Wasteland, as he had thought. He states that the dangers they have faced moving through Hopeville will seem easy compared to what awaits them along the High Road to Ashton: deathclaws, meaner, tougher, and more cunning than the Mojave ilk, on top of the marked men and "what burrows below."
- On the creatures encountered within the tunnel, Ulysses calls them tunnelers and explains his belief that they were the original inhabitants of the Divide until the cataclysm opened up their subterranean havens to the open sky; now they are spreading out beneath the earth and potentially even back east, becoming a "slower death" for the Mojave. Passing a Survival 35 skill check allows for correctly deducing that Ulysses' remark about a "slower death" means the tunnelers are spreading out from the Divide through their burrowing, potentially becoming a great threat to the Mojave's inhabitants in a few years' time; he notes that even apex predators like deathclaws have fallen to tunnelers in great numbers, "torn apart, like Denver hounds."
- A subsequent Survival 35 check or Explorer perk check gets Ulysses to speak a bit more about his past travels in Legion territory before it became Legion, at least around Colorado.
- Passing a Science 65 skill check allows for pointing out that radiation mutated the tunnelers into their current form before the underground detonations and subsequent earthquakes exposed them to the surface; Ulysses posits that signs of their long-term residence indicate they may have even been around shortly after the Great War scorched America.
- Depending on the player character's NCR and Legion faction reputation, one can pass a reputation check to comment on the resemblances of the outfits worn by the marked men to NCR/Legion armaments, respectively. Ulysses elaborates that the marked men's years of torment in the Divide has gradually weakened their memories of lives before coming to that place, so the ex-frumentarii try and recreate artifacts of their past with scrap and junk, such as blades and masks evoking those of Legate Lanius. Meanwhile, the ex-NCR special forces members instead fall back onto their military training, honing their skills with guns and bombs as an anchor point. Ulysses may also posit that the marked men's cohesion despite once being mortal enemies is because in the Divide, they are all united by the pain from winds flaying their skin and radiation healing their wounds, trapping the soldiers of both sides in the same cycle of suffering and making everything else meaningless.
- He further explains that it was not a mistake that so many NCR and Legion soldiers were at the Divide on the day of the cataclysm, as they were locked in a struggle for control of a vital supply line the republic needed to support the war effort in the Mojave; Ulysses even suggests he had a part to play in it, talking about how "if [he'd] never laid eyes on that Old World Wall, never spoke of it..." but does not explain further yet.
- If the player character acquired one or both of the holotapes Ulysses discarded in Hopeville while exploring, the option becomes available to reveal this fact to him, to which Ulysses offers a little more history, including that he got the original recorder used to make those logs from "a woman" he met in the Big Empty. He claims to have made them only out of sentiment and cast them aside without a second thought, as they "weren't worth the words anyway;" he will not dissuade the Courier from looking for them if they want to hear his deeper thoughts but refuses to place any value on the knowledge they glean from it.
- One can pass a Speech 75 check to convince Ulysses that he would not have created the tapes in the first place if he thought it meaningless, which he begrudgingly accepts and muses that there might have been an underlying "purpose" to leaving the tapes where one like the Courier could find them.
- Asking after the next leg of their journey across the High Road, Ulysses reveals that the way forward will require going to Ashton, specifically its own missile silo, where ED-E is vital to cracking open the lockdown barring the way.
- One can pass a Perception 6 attribute check to point out Ulysses' tone of disgust when speaking of ED-E. Ulysses will respond that he does not hate the existence of a machine like ED-E, but instead looks down upon it as a mere tool of the Courier and questions why they think of it as anything more.
- An optional dialogue is also available to try and learn more about the promise Ulysses made that he would not harm the Courier, though he continues to be vague about the details and insists they will earn the right to know after trekking deeper into the Divide.
- Upon choosing the option to remark that the Divide is no place for people to live, Ulysses retorts that it was not always like that, and that there was once apeaceful community living there which prospered due to the supply line between the Mojave and the Core Regions of New California. Furthermore, he claims that supply line was created by the travels of a courier, the Courier, one of, if not the only one who made the journey into the wasteland to connect the Divide to civilization and its resources, becoming a kind of "home" to them.
- Questioning how the Divide was the Courier's "home" will lead Ulysses to respond that while the Divide may not have been their birthplace, the efforts they went through to build it up and bring life to the community spoke to him of it being more than just "another job" to the Courier; Ulysses himself would not have even known it existed if not for following the roads traveled by the Courier. Choosing the option "I've walked a lot of hard roads, Mojave and before. Doesn't mean anything" in response will get Ulysses to respond that, whether they believed it or not, the Courier played a pivotal role in the history of the Divide; choosing it also advances the challenge Most Likely To... to learn more about the Courier's past.
Ulysses then continues with more of the history of the Divide and how it ties back to his vendetta with the Courier. He explains that their support of the Divide community opened the eyes of the powers that be in the New California Republic to the viability of a route through the Divide, leading to a surge of expansion in that direction. He elaborates that soon, Caesar also realized the threat posed to his conquering ambitions if the NCR gained a crucial lifeline to their armies in the Mojave, which brought the Legion to the Divide as well. Ulysses leaves off his lesson at that point, stating that the Courier might earn more words on history from him once they brave the dangers of the High Road and make it to Ashton.
Crossing the High Road[]
From the High Road entrance, advance through the crumbling streets. At the top, there will be three marked men including the unique enemy Beast, who wields a shoulder mounted machine gun. After defeating Beast and his men, one can obtain the unique marked beast face helmet from his body as well as a few ammunition boxes and satchel charge boxes around the camp, and also unlock another commissary terminal on the back of a transport truck.
In the distance, there is a toppled-over skyscraper sitting at an angle, with a warhead visible at its base and more marked men surrounding it; if the laser detonator is used to set off the warhead (after getting closer), the explosion can take out most if not all of the marked men at once if they were not alerted to the Courier's presence. If the warhead is detonated, it will be possible to climb the toppled skyscraper to reach the Crow's Nest, a makeshift sniper's nest. This location has some valuables, as indicated by one of Ulysses' blue-colored graffiti marks: along with ammo and various other loot, one can acquire the unique advanced riot gear armor, which is a stronger version of the standard riot gear, along with another one of Ulysses' logs and a RALPHIE poster.
Past the Crow's Nest, with ED-E's Enhanced Sensors, the player character will be able to spy multiple red radar marks and from a distance, can see that they refer to a few deathclaws ambling around the upcoming section of overpass:
- Approaching a tipped-over trailer, going inside it and looting the containers on the east end causes a scripted encounter with a deathclaw spawning on the roof, which is immediately hostile on sight.
- Two deathclaws further along the path hunker around another warhead, and depending on when it's detonated, it may either kill them or severely wound them for follow-up attacks before they can get close to the player character. Just in front of the truck carrying the warhead, on the south face of a road divider next to a motorcycle, is another Roughin' it! bedroll kit.
- A third deathclaw can be seen on the radar hiding behind an overturned dumpster beyond the warhead, only emerging when the player character is closer, which may prevent a decisive sneak attack critical before it charges.
Southeast of the warhead, a trailer truck contains a small campsite with a few skill magazines and a survivor's footlocker holding a moderate amount of loot along with some military shipping crates.
Shortly after passing under an elevated roadway, ED-E plays another recording detailing Whitley's ultimate break from his Enclave superiors and the formulation of his plan to send the eyebot on its cross-country journey that ultimately led it to the Mojave. In an overturned military transport amidst several waste barrels, one can find a lead-lined metal box containing a breathing mask, RadAway, and Rad-X. A fourth deathclaw resides near the end of the High Road but out in the open, allowing for a sneak attack from a distance.
Campsite with Ulysses' log Y-17.22
The end of the High Road gives way to another pair of forking paths, one following an off-ramp while the other leads to a rubble-filled tunnel and a sloping hill going in the reverse direction. The off-ramp is the way forward, but the other path includes several points of interest:
- Exploring the blocked tunnel, especially climbing the rocks to an open trailer near the top of the pile, will lead to a nearby campsite with Ulysses' log: Y-17.22, the fourth of his holotapes.
- Turning back and taking the dirt slope down, one will find another warhead next to an old billboard and the half-buried ruins of the Junction 7 rest stop. On the second floor of the main building, tucked into a fallen-over bookcase is the snow globe - Lonesome Road.
- Nearing the building will cause a trio of tunnelers to spawn outside and likely attack ED-E immediately. At the same time as the tunnelers, an additional pair of deathclaws will spawn on the High Road above, near where the aforementioned fourth deathclaw spawned, though they are not immediately aware of the player character's location. One can exploit this to lure them down near the warhead together or one after the other and take them out directly or via detonating the warhead as a trap.
A present from Ashton[]
Returning to the roadway fork, go to the left and follow the road between the rock walls. The road is trapped; a series of satchel charges lie hidden amongst the loose rocks dotting the roadways. Even with a high Explosives skill, the delay before they explode can be short so watch for their telltale red highlight and try to disarm them quickly, or shoot them from afar to minimize damage.
Near the end of the offramp, one will pass near another crumbling structure populated by marked men, including the unique enemy Bonesaw wielding a chainsaw and residing in a small camp closer to the roadway; from his body, one can obtain the unique marked beast tribal helmet. The structure itself also contains moderate amounts of loot, including ammo as well as another RALPHIE poster.
- Note: The encounter with Bonesaw is the earliest that one can acquire the special Marked perk (+10% damage dealt to marked men) if Blister and Beast were killed beforehand and Bonesaw subsequently; if this is not the case, then one can either go back to finish them off or wait to encounter the fourth unique enemy Blade during a later quest.
Following the road to its conclusion leads the player character to the Ashton silo control station, overlooking one of the still-intact military missile silos and with the door to the missile bunker close by. On a shelf to the right of the double doors is a toolbox containing the first instance of the industrial hand, an unarmed weapon. Interacting with the silo's doors reveals that it is locked until the preset missile launch is completed. This requires one to approach the nearby console with ED-E unlocking the controls and the Courier throwing the switch. After a short fade to black, one will witness the launch of the silo's nuclear payload, flying into the distance before erupting in the air and double-irradiating the irradiated ruins.
The missile launch
The incident serves as the cue for ED-E to play one final recording from Whitley just before the eyebot left his creator to travel to Navarro on the West Coast, leaving off with a hopeful but slim promise that they may reunite again; one can pass a Survival 55 check to point out that the journey from one coast to another was a long and hard one for a little robot to make, to which ED-E beeps in the affirmative. Upon trying to open the silo doors, a message subsequently appears indicating that there may be something of value to find in the area that it impacted, though at a later time. Launching the missile completes the quest, and one must then enter the Ashton missile bunker, leading to the next quest, The Divide.
Quest stages[]
Notes[]
- Ulysses appears in a small vantage point on the right-hand side of the toppled-over skyscraper serving as the Crow's Nest when leaving Beast's camp near the High Road entrance for the first time, disappearing shortly after. He is indicated by a non-hostile radar marker and cannot be damaged if shot from afar.
- This Ulysses is actually separate from the one who appears later, having a separate ref ID and the editor ID NVDLC04UlyssesFake.
- Like in the previous quest, Ulysses' opening dialogue upon reaching the High Road entrance will differ depending on which (or none) of the player character's reputations with the three major factions in Fallout: New Vegas is the highest at that point, as follows:
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