Go East, Young Man

To: Caesar
From: Helena Rosa Bertinelli, Empress of Italy

Ave Caesar. As you are well aware, the Empire in which I am a co-ruler of has chosen to assist the remains of your defeated enemy, the Enclave. In the interest of ensuring that there is no bad blood over this, I have been chosen to discuss this matter with you. In the name of efficiency, I am also to discuss an official trade deal and, if you permit, an examination of the ruins of a certain place known as Graceland. Should you agree to this meeting, I will arrive in one week.

Vale,
Helena Rosa Bertinelli

To: Helena Rosa Bertinelli, Empress of Italy
From: Caesar

Ave. I had hoped you would have chosen to not assist them. However, it will bring no hard feelings between us. There is, after all, little that we can do at the moment. Provided those that carry the name of Enclave do not make any attempt to return to this land, there will continue to be no bad blood over your assisting them.

I have no issue with you coming here to discuss a trade deal or going to Graceland. I would request that anything you may wish to remove from Graceland be discussed with me prior to doing so. I will have a liason group assigned to make certain you have everything you need. I'd strongly suggest that you not take offense to anything some of my people may say or do, seeing as you are female. Some of them are still getting used to the fact that women have the same social status as men.

Vale,
Caesar

As promised, she arrives in a week at Boulder, Colorado, by Black Hawk helicopter and accompanied by six Special Forces troops. She steps out in what appear to be regular civilian clothes, with automatic crossbow strapped to her back over a cape. Of course, the gloves she wears gives away the armor she's wearing underneath. Not that she's trying really hard to conceal it, anyway.

She makes her way to whatever building Caesar is in and if told to disarm and leave the other troops behind, she will comply.

(OOC: Her SPECIAL stats.
S - 6
P - 6
E - 7
C - 4
I - 6
A - 9
L - 4

She took Intense Training twice.)

They're not worried about whether or not she's armed. They're more concerned about keeping original Legion troops away. She'd be brought to Caesar's location and told that she's the only one allowed to see him. Yes, he's got guards in there as well. His location is just outside of the city courthouse. They're working on repairing the building, but it's slow going. Caesar is in a tent outside of the building.

And so she enters the tent.

"Ave."

Caesar looks up from where he's standing in front of a desk, looking over some blueprints. "Ave. Welcome to Boulder. I trust you were not harassed on your way here?"

"That would be correct."

She pulls up a chair and says, "To business, then. Prior to my arrival, the Imperial Assembly ratified the Treaty of Hew. We never had a formal trade agreement with the Enclave, so we'll be starting fresh."

She pulls out a generic trade agreement.

"The Confederated Empire of Greater Switzerland is hereby a trade partner of [nation name here]. This trade agreement opens up free trade in all goods except those forbidden by the laws of each trade partner.

Chancellor [name here]

[Signature here]

[Stamp of Parliamentary approval here]

[Head of House of Bertinelli signature here]

[Head of House of Bourbon signature here]

[Head of House of Habsburg signature here]

[Name of Head of State of trade partner here]

[Head of State of State of trade partner signature here]"

Caesar nods. "Even if you had a trade agreement with them, we likely wouldn't recognise it. It'd be a fresh start either way." He sits down then looks at the generic agreement. "Provided I don't discover you trading weapons with those that remain of the Enclave, I don't believe this will be a problem."

She nods and says, "In the interests of openness, we are selling the North African Remnants food, supplies, and maintenance kits in exchange for technology."

Caesar nods slightly. "I see. So you're getting what could be more advanced technology by giving them humanitarian aid." He shakes his head. "Be careful. They bite."

She nods. "On to the topic of Graceland. To mitigate feelings of hostility that people may have over our small troop presence in the New Vegas area, we're planning to make nice with the Kings, preferably with items from Elvis Presley himself recovered from the ruins. That's only one part of it, of course, but it's the only part that requires us to enter Legion land."

Caesar is still for a moment before nodding slightly. "As long as my people catalog what you remove and I approve it. That is if you can find anything. Most places have been scavenged through pretty thoroughly."

"Our records indicate that there was a vault built there to safeguard the items. It may not have been picked through, yet."

She gets up and says, "I thinks that concludes our business. Until next time, I bid you 'Vale.'"

If it's done, she returns to her helicopter and makes for Freeside to talk to the King.

(OOC: Not a numbered vault. Something like what the National Archives has.)

Caesar inclines his head toward her, pretty much an indication of dismissal. He has no clue what kind of vault is there.

(OOC: Sounds fine to me.)

A few hours later, she arrives in Freeside. On her way to the King's School of Impersonation, she's ambushed twice by groups of Freeside thugs who are promptly dispatched of by her bodyguards. When she gets there, she arrives with a present for the King -- Elvis: The Biography by Jerry Hopkins, 416 pages long with plenty of pictures.

(OOC: Yes, it's an actual book.)

(OOC: Hmm?)

(OOC: Nothing to add really. The King is there, but I really don't want to NPC him. Heh.)

(OOC: OK.)

King appreciates the gifts but declines to go.
After a few hours of exploration, they recover his jumpsuit from the 1973 Aloha from Hawaii concert. On the way out, on of the Special Forces soldiers is shot in the head by a raider who had managed to obtain a .50 rifle. Said soldier was only annoyed and calmly converted his blaster carbine into a sniper rifle and blew the raider away. The jumpsuit was delivered to Freeside with a display case to protect it.

(OOC: *blinks* Shot in the HEAD and only annoyed? You might want to explain how the soldier is not incapacitated or dead after that one....)

(OOC: Really really good armor. Specifically, this one sold by the Rheans to Swiss Special Forces and even then in really really limited numbers [300 suits, meaning every single one in New Vegas territory].
"This armor was more expensive and provided better protection than standard clone armor, due to the special composition of its armor plates and the fact that due to the novel chemical properties of it, and deflector shields."
Lower grade than the Mark III armor Rhean commandos use, which is apparently resistant up to light cannon rounds, but yeah... personal deflector shields.

Anyway, I assume that regardless, if any one of them tried to walk into Nellis with the Boomers blasting at them, they'd get flattened or bleed out from shrapnel penetrating gaps in the armor.)

(OOC: Ahh. Okay.)

(OOC: And in my timeline, which I will get to eventually, the Mark I armor was developed in the closing months of Blackest Day and did not see anything even close to widespread deployment.)