Chapter 647 - Days Past

It's been a couple days since Macka's capture, not much had happened aside from the ongoing negotiations with House, and the renovations to Big Mt and Novac.

Usanagi had chosen to be paid on commission in the end, thinking that the projects Afton assigned wouldn't be all that difficult... How very wrong she was... The Cybernetic eye implants were almost finished though, so she'd get paid for that one fairly soon.

During this time Afton had quite a lot on his plate. With the absence of the NCR, bandits, raiders, cannibals, and gangs attempted to take control of some areas of the Mojave. These places included trade routes, nearby the New Vegas farms, the empty vaults... Some even tried to claim the now empty Camp McCarren for their own, wishing to steal any weaponry or equipment the NCR may have left behind.

The same could be said for all the Legion camps that'd been abandoned once their war for the Mojave had brutally failed. Fortunately, the Legion wasn't known for its vast military armaments, so a few bandits claiming a bunch of machetes and sportswear wasn't a problem.

He also wanted to try and clean up Freeside while he was at it, but House apparently had it handled. The Securitrons that previously were only seen on the Strip had now invaded the slums, House's influx of robotic soldiers and law keepers allowed him to finally deal with the criminal element that'd taken hold of the place.

House knew who were the troublemakers were, it was his city after all, and he had surveillance basically everywhere one would care to look. Overnight, almost every gang, criminal, and spy were apprehended.

Of course, there were no prisons in the Mojave, so House had to ask Bulwark for help in dealing with his new prisoners. Afton elected to use the Chips... Or at least, the technology they were based on.

Chipping each and every criminal found in Freeside would literally take weeks, if not months to do, let alone the resources spent on chips that may or may not be rendered useless once the person was executed.

So, they used a machine that was temporarily attached to the base of a person's skull to temporarily induce the effects of the chip. This would allow Afton and House to tell what someone's intentions were when asks questions.

So, when House asked each and every person whether they would return to the Mojave if sent away, a large portion lied and said they would. Those that agreed to never come back were shipped of East into Legion territory where they could make 'better' lives for themselves.

As for the people that refused to leave? Well, let's just say, Dala was given an early Christmas present.

Afton questioned House on what he'd actually do concerning the many chem addicts and homeless people living in Freeside. You couldn't turn a slum into a prosperous city without addressing them, at least somewhat.

His answer both confused and surprised Afton however. House intended to make all drugs, chems, and other similar things legal. His reasoning for this? You couldn't tax illegal drug trade, not without basically owning it yourself, which defeated the point of making it illegal anyway, aside from maybe claiming the moral high ground.

Of course, to stop thousands of people OD'ing in the streets overnight, House pushed forward a strategy Afton hadn't ever seen before. He opened up chem sellers that would only sell certain amounts depending on a person's body weight and overall health.

Not only that, but the sellers each had separate 'recreation' rooms that'd allow people to use chems while being monitored by doctors in case something went wrong.

This almost completely stopped all chem deaths in Freeside, though, there was still a homelessness problem, which Afton also asked House about.

The man explained that after taking control of the drug and chem trade, chem addicts would need some sort of income to actually purchase it. Crime wasn't possible for them anymore due to the presence of Securitrons, and gangs had completely vanished, leaving a large workforce eager for employment... Which House would use to start slowly rebuilding the ruins of Las Vegas.

Of course, House needed proper tools and vehicles fit for the job, and so hired Bulwark yet again to get started on that. There would be temporary accommodation built near Sharecropper farms so House could get started on demolishing the desolate and ruined skyscrapers that were somehow still standing in Freeside.

Afton was looking forward to what New Vegas would look like in a few years under House's leadership.

Now that Freeside had been claimed by House, most of the people that valued their freedom above all else elected to settle down in Westside, the place hadn't yet been cleared of criminals, but House had seriously considered it... Were it not for Afton cautioning him to slow down and let the population acclimate to the new changes, he'd have either bulldozed that slum to the ground, or sent an army of Securitrons there to clear it up.

Afton didn't think it'd be wise to antagonize the now vagrant population of idealistic wastelanders wishing for ungoverned freedom. It was best to let them settle down in Westside and slowly introduce changes, like boiling a frog in water.

He did want to preserve the Thorn as well, the arena that allowed people to fight each other and dangerous creatures for caps... This was the solution in Afton's mind to the problem of mercenaries without work. With the war finished and the Mojave at relative peace, the mercenaries would need to find other work.

Sure, there was a never-ending amount of mutated creatures to fight, but Afton didn't think everyone would be happy to be glorified pest control. Thus, the Thorn. Once Westside was claimed by House, Afton would help make another, more readily available 'Thorn'... He considered making a colosseum, but rejected that due to the Legion and the similarities people would draw from it.