The conversation ended hastily, and Pierre suddenly lost interest, not saying a word about why he had left the Brotherhood of Steel, which might have meant a nasty experience for him.

Either way, the Pip-Boy has an extra location marker on it this time, and Andy can now leave for the stronghold of the Brotherhood of Steel in Arissansan at any time

"Fort Maxson", of course he did not have any motive at this time, there was no new plague infected person that Odysseus asked him to capture, and there was no other attraction .... Wait, you can't say no.

Andy remembered the remnants of the enclave he had met on the road earlier, and he was impressed by the horrible guy in power armor.

Power armor .... The most advanced protective equipment in the Old World, one might even say a vehicle, is powered by a fusion core, which is a long-lasting nuclear battery, but about the size of a large rolling pin.

With it, you can directly incarnate into an iron can, the gun can't penetrate the knife, and shoot the bullet into the enemy's head while facing the enemy's desperate shot, not to mention its own powerful functionality and the handsomeness of the metal machine's attraction to people.

The most well-known users of power armor are the Brotherhood of Steel, and the people of the NcR almost subconsciously bind this rare pre-war high-level equipment to their image, and the know-how of acquiring, maintaining, and using power armor is a secret of the Brotherhood of Steel.

Maybe he could consider going to the Brotherhood of Steel's territory, and although those guys had been violently attacking before, they had stopped in the last year, did that mean they weren't as irascible as they used to be?

Thinking like this, on the way to the top of the dam, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed a man staring at him.

Turning his head, it was the gentleman's hat of the crimson caravan. He looked at Andy with a look of resentment, and when he realized that he had been noticed, he uttered something that was almost an ultimatum.

"You're amazing, Mr. Andy, it's been reported that since you left Jericho, not only have the water purifiers not been destroyed but have become more productive, and the water they produce has been so well received that they have even begun to be sold to Hoover Dam City in the open air, which has done great damage to our interests, and is far from what Ms. McClofty expects from you."

"You know.... You know that Madam McClofty admires you immensely, that you could have gained more in our Crimson Caravan family, whether it be bottle caps, prestige, or power, that we can give you more than what Joseph Dodge can give you, that you can achieve financial freedom for the rest of your life, that you can become a hero who defeats the Brotherhood of Steel, that you can even become a glorious Hoover Dam City Councilman, and maybe even that of an officer who runs the army in the future, but what have you done? You're rejecting things that no one else wants. The gentleman's hat clenched into a fist.

"Ms. McClofty is magnanimous, but there is only one chance, and the last time, within this week, you must do what you told you before." Without waiting for Andy to respond, he turned around and left, disappearing around the corner.

Andy snorted coldly, he didn't care what the woman thought, he didn't care about being in the company of such people. He walked all the way to the gate of the military headquarters and announced his name, this time the NcR soldiers guarding the door did not stop him, the foul-mouthed receptionist seemed to have heard something about Andy, and barely maintained the peace of the language on the surface, although it still sounded very yin and yang, but Andy didn't want to be like this woman.

After some security checks and being asked to hand over his weapons temporarily, Andy finally entered the special room that belonged to the Dodge Mayor, which was heavily guarded by layers of security.

Andy thought, it's no wonder that McClofty didn't have confidence in planting a bomb near the door to kill the Dodge Mayor, it was almost impossible, it was a difficult thing to kill the Dodge Mayor, most people didn't have a reason to go deep into the Hoover Dam military headquarters to see him, and it was even more difficult to sneak in, I don't know how the previous two assassinations of the Brotherhood of Steel assassins were executed, but as long as NcR continues to maintain the current security measures, the life of the Dodger Mayor is indeed safe and secure in the foreseeable future.

Major Fleming himself checked again, and finally motioned for Andy to enter the house. A pot-bellied middle-aged man wearing a green military hat and a baggy oversized NcR military uniform sat behind a lavish desk as he looked at a briefing note in his hand and stood up immediately when he heard Andy open the door.

"Welcome, welcome, Andy, a wonderful citizen who has made a remarkable contribution to our entire Hoover Dam City, and I have been looking forward to meeting you for a long time." The two shook hands, and then Mayor Dodge motioned for Andy to find a couch to sit on.

Andy sat down and looked at Mayor Dodge, this was the first time he had met Mayor Dodge himself, it seemed that he was calm and gentle, and he must have been kind to people in normal times, which can be corroborated by Otto's account of what happened to him when he first arrived in Hoover Dam City, after the death of President Tandy, racism was rampant in NcR, but Mayor Dodge was willing to help a strange ghoul who was living on the streets.

At the executive level, Mayor Dodge is not inferior at all, although he prefers to call himself mayor, but mayor is only the most common of his many titles, and before coming to the East, as one of the members of the NcR Congress, he was already of great status; After coming to the East, he was appointed by the NcR government as the supreme administrator of the Eastern Special Administrative Region, and the entire Eastern Special Region covered a vast area east of the Hoover Dam, including most of the so-called Great Southwest Federation in the Old World, and its administrative division level was the same as that within the NcR

There are only five administrative units at the "state" level, which are only five in the NcR itself. If you compare side-to-side within NcR, there are not many people who can be equal to him in terms of level.

Such a person, but there is no bureaucratic frame on his face, or he is too ordinary, and he may be more suitable for the chair than him to drag a random passer-by in Hoover Dam City, but the reality is that this position can only be sat by him, and the only competitor, Alice McClofdy, is now a ruthless capitalist and unscrupulous profiteer in Andy's eyes.

Mayor Dodge sat down in his chair with his hands under his chin and looked at Andy with anticipation in his eyes.

"It's been a long, long time since we in Hoover Dam City had a person who could be everyone's hope, people are numb and apathetic, and I really don't want to see this situation continue, everything has been going downhill since 2249, we have been devastated for three years, the broken connection with the homeland has not been restored, the facilities destroyed by the Caesar Legion have not been repaired, and the gold reserves that disappeared in the 370 Heist have not been found, And the facilities inside the Hoover Dam are getting worse and worse day by day, and the problems are getting more and more every day. ”

"I don't lie to you, as mayor, my responsibility is the greatest, I have had a breakdown several times and feel that everything will be irreparable." The ordinary-looking middle-aged man tugged at his collar, he was obviously more suited to a suit than this military uniform, but since he wore it, it was probably because he felt the need to visually highlight himself as standing at the forefront of the fight against external enemies, and even if he couldn't shoot accurately, he probably hoped that he could be on the same page as the soldiers of the NcR on a psychological level.

"I was told you were a little close to the Crimson Caravan before." Andy wasn't surprised that Mayor Dodge knew about it, after all, there was a lot of commotion at the beginning, but he also understood the reason why Mayor Dodge mentioned it.

"Don't worry, Mayor Dodge, I won't support that kind of guy, I have no problem with you continuing to be the leader here, please listen to me next...."Mayor Dodge interrupted Andy with two coughs.

"Please—give me a little time to elaborate, Mr. Andy, you know that you have become very important in the eyes of many people now, and you are the same with me. I also know that you must have heard some comments about me and... Abusive, this may cause you to misunderstand me, so can you give me a chance to tell you what I really think? Looking at the sincerity in the other party's eyes, Andy of course had to nod in agreement.

So Mayor Dodge began to talk about himself.

"I'm Joseph Dodge, that's my full name and my real name, I don't have any pseudonyms or former names. I was very ordinary, my parents didn't leave me endless bottle caps or endless connections, when I went to school in Shayin State, my grades were not up or down, my body was also average, it was too difficult for me to be a soldier, I pointed a gun at someone else, and my hands were shaking first. ”

"By chance, I started as a public servant at the lowest level of the government, and I knew almost nothing except treating others with a sincere heart, and thanks to everyone's exaltation and the appreciation of some big people, I actually walked into the NcR Capitol step by step and became a councillor. It was like a dream to me, and when I became a member of parliament, I was even more afraid of my power, because I didn't know what was right for me, and I was terribly afraid that my mistakes would have serious consequences, even if people didn't know who they were to blame, and the guilt would overwhelm me. ”

"Rightfully so, I was considered a mediocre man in the dead house, and when I thought I was just waiting to retire and live my life as a marginal person, fate played a joke on me. The official launch of the Eastward Expansion Movement requires a high-level politician to go to the Eastern Special Administrative Region as a leader, and everyone knows that coming here is a foolish choice for a life of nine deaths, both from the perspective of political life and from the perspective of real life. Mayor Dodge got up from his chair and slowly walked over to the couch next to Andy and sat down.

"I was forced to come here, Andy, I don't want to come here, to take a group of immigrants and a bunch of soldiers to a place so far away from NcR and start from scratch, you have to have a lot of ability and perseverance to do it. I thought it was impossible to choose whoever I was going to go, but it turned out that this person had long legs and ran all the way to me. One day, as soon as I walked into my office, several GIs came in with documents asking me to prepare immediately to go to the East to perform my duties, and the document was a letter of attorney approved by the majority of the NcR congressmen and signed by the president, with a formal seal on file, and with legal effect, and I didn't need to do anything, and this 'pie' fell on my head. ”

"I'm not afraid of your jokes, I was so scared that I almost peed out, and when I reasoned that I didn't have this ability, the guy immediately pulled out his gun and said that he had been ordered by his superiors, and if I was not willing to accept this honor, they could immediately execute me for treason, what could I do? I can only humbly accept the letter of appointment and start writing about my bereaved family..."

"If I choose not to come here, what am I betraying my country? I think I'm a doer, and that's why I didn't show that I had enough value through words and just the right amount of behavior, and a person who lacked value and was in a high position probably couldn't be said to be a betrayal if he didn't sacrifice for his country at a critical moment, and I chose to be loyal, and I could only comfort myself with this. Andy was amused when he first heard these stories, because Mayor Dodge had been forced to come to Hoover Dam at gunpoint.

"Then you obeyed the instructions and set off from NcR to reach Hoover Dam and build what is now Hoover Dam City, right?" Mayor Dodge asks Andy if he minds, then pulls out a pipe and puts some tobacco in it.

"At first, no one told me where to go to start the first step, they just pointed their finger to the east and told me: go east, just go east. I knew that my role was to be a pawn who would not be distressed even if he died, and that was probably the fate of most of the soldiers who were sent here, and I was given the order to take everyone to the east, to open the way forward and exert influence on the inhabitants of the surrounding settlements, so-called...'unite' them. It wasn't until after I set off that there was a vague indication that a certain superior told me that my first destination should be the Hoover Dam.

“

"At that time, the relationship between the Brotherhood of Steel and the NcR was already highly strained, and the information on their activities in the eastern area of the Hoover Dam had been grasped by the Rangers, and the Hoover Dam itself was an important pre-war scientific heritage, and it was impossible for the Brotherhood of Steel to sit idly by while we occupied this place, they would definitely do it, and referring to the previous friction, there would probably be a decapitation operation."

"That's why they don't want the best leaders to get to the east first, because that's too risky." Andy also smoked a cigarette, the atmosphere was very relaxed after the two met, Mayor Dodge was indeed as approachable as everyone said, he talked to himself about these past secrets, probably the purpose was to make himself closer to him, this is also a conspiracy, after listening to these interesting things, he did understand Mayor Dodge better.

"In your opinion, NcR is just looking to pick out one.... Victim? Mayor Dodge let out a puff of smoke.

"Yes, I'm a victim. But as I said, I consider myself a doer, and since I have been appointed with this mandate, I will do my best to do it well. I made my trek with a huge procession to the Hoover Dam, a magnificent pre-war spectacle that had been settled by only a few sporadic inhabitants, many of whom were naturally scattered around the dam. I went to convince them personally, and when they learned about the situation, they immediately expressed their gratitude and welcome to me, and that was when I felt the value and meaning of my existence for the first time. ”

"I hope that the Eastern District will not repeat the mistakes of the original NcR expansion, in some areas, our intervention and control are too strong, hurting the people there, so I found Sergeant Ralph and hoped that he would lead a group of people to serve as Hoover Dam police, and the NcR troops stationed at Hoover Dam can clear out predators and wild beasts in order to protect the people, but the internal contradictions of the people should be resolved by the people themselves, I think so."

"In addition, I give them the utmost tolerance and understanding with regard to the indigenous people inside the dam, those who are contemptuously called cave people, by allowing them to continue to live in the innermost part of the Hoover Dam, allowing them to hold arms and self-governing the enclosure at the bottom, and even allowing them to control the most important hydroelectric generators alone; You understand how much risk I was taking to make these decisions, they could destroy the generator at any time and take up arms to deliver a deadly blow to us from inside the Hoover Dam, but I chose to trust them and supply them with supplies in exchange for their commitment to maintaining the generator. ”

"I even called on people to stop using the scornful term caveman and call them neutral albinos."

"As we drove out the looters around us little by little, and built up the fortifications little by little, I was proud of the new Hoover Dam City from the bottom of my heart. The people here are grateful to me, some of them call me Commissioner Dodge, some call me Governor Dodge, but I want them to just call me Mayor Dodge because I love this city. I also want to be a fair and honest leader who always protects the safety of the people here and leads them to prosperity, as they say about me. Andy listened to Mayor Dodge's heartfelt words and nodded, compared to those real corrupt bureaucrats in NcR, Mayor Dodge has done quite well, and the kind of affection for Hoover Dam City revealed in his words cannot be faked.

But Mayor Dodge didn't stop there, and began to wallow in the complacency of his past achievements, and he began to criticize himself.

"After that, I began to preside over the official construction of the Eastern Special District, with Fort Alashid as the center, two crossed railways as a medium, the Eastern Special District will cover all the settlements and people in this land, I thought that with the good start of the Hoover Dam everything will be smooth, but I was wrong, I was wrong more than once, and there were many irreparable results."