HELIOS One

 is a Poseidon Energy solar plant and a condensing mirror that can provide energy to the Strip and other places. It contains a massive super laser, Archimedes II. is located north of Novac and Gibson Scrap Yard.

Background
A pre-War installation, Helios was hailed as the Dawn of a Golden Age by Poseidon Energy. After the Great War, a chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel, led by Elder Elijah, was sent to HELIOS to secure its use for the Brotherhood. Elijah, believing the base to have "massive potential" based the Brotherhood there, against claims from other senior members that it was undefendable.

Eventually the NCR became interested in it's ability to generate electricity and, outnumbering the enemy 20 to 1, took control of HELIOS from the Brotherhood of Steel by force. However, before the Brotherhood fled, they enacted security measures on the installation to ensure that the NCR would not have much to gain.

Storyline development
At the beginning of the events of Fallout: New Vegas the facility is controlled by the NCR, who have a technician named Fantastic working on getting the power plant functioning. Entering the room adjacent to Fantastic you will locate another scientist who has the password to the eastern console. Fantastic has the one for the west.

Layout
Behind the main plant are all the reflecting mirrors. Before you enter you need to connect to the mainframe from both the Eastern and Western reflector control terminals. Both are in the fenced cages within the reflector yard. The eastern terminal is guarded by bear traps, mines,(Note, one of the mines is very hard to disarm as it is trapped under a floorboard) and a rigged shotgun. The western terminal is guarded by attack dogs.

Inside the Solar Collection Tower building, past a small straight path there are three hostile turrets and at least one protectron on the cat walk leading to other side and down to the lower level which should contain one Robobrain. Going straight ahead leads to an unlocked door, (closed) which is defended by two mines on each side of a rectangular stone desk. (mines are armed) There is a computer behind the desk which can shut off or turn turrets against robots. (If you have ED-E leaving the robot at the door is advised, it can die a lot so it is suggested that the player go solo, though you'll likely need stealth boys and a good weapon to survive that.)

Note: It is recommended to first set the turrets to attack the robots, kill the robobrain and then take the pulse grenades and pulse mines from the small room behind the locked door. Pulse grenades and pulse mines can disable ( destroy ) all of the remaining enemies in the building with one hit and will make the trip to the end far easier.

Downstairs is a small room with an average safe and two pulse grenades. It is guarded by a robobrain.

Notable Loot

 * D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine upstairs, lying on a bed in the same room with holotapes for the east and west terminal passwords.


 * Solar Collection Tower - Programmer's Digest on a desk next to some double doors that lead into a sewer-like tunnel. The room is located just past the pit of death with turrets, sentrybots and robobrains shortly after entry from the Wasteland.


 * Solar Collection Tower - Fixin' Things on a desk next to a toolbox. The room is located after descending the sewer-like tunnel into another tunnel to the left.  In the pitroom with the Gutsy and Sentrybot.


 * Solar Collection Tower - Two Poseidon Energy employee ID cards - Bottom floor, southernmost room (contains average locked door)on the floor near the south corners of the room.

Appearances
appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

Related Quests

 * That Lucky Old Sun


 * Sunshine Boogie

Behind the scenes

 * Archimedes is rumored to have developed the plans for a 'death ray' super weapon. The weapon would harness the power of the sun through a series of mirrors and prisms, resulting in an intense beam of light that was intended to sink enemy ships.
 * Helios was the Greek god of the sun.
 * This location is based on The Solar Project located in the Mojave Desert.

Glitches

 * Occasionally when trying to enter after convincing the lieutenant outside to let you in, all of the NCR troops will attack you if you come within the boundary of the sandbag piles. It's recommended to save beforehand if you intend to be on the NCR's good side. If not, go nuts.
 * Upon leaving the 'lab' of Fantastic, occasionally 2 mole rats will appear followed subsequently by Old Lady Gibson and her dogs. The dogs and mole rats are hostile and any NCR troopers you encounter will also become hostile if you do not have a good reputation with them. Amusingly enough Old Lady Gibson is friendly and will attack her dogs and also the NCR if they are hostile. Just kill the dogs and mole rats, there is no karma related issues when you kill them. Occasionally when this occurs, the characters that appear may be appearing and dissapearing quickly, and when you move into them it creates a loud metallic sound, as if there are bits of metal bumping into eachother loudly.
 * The side enterance to the main building is not spacially conststant as one one side of the door it appears to be of the office build and on the other it is utility build.
 * When trying to complete 'That Lucky Old Sun' inside the lab, where the quest starts, there is another character. Talk to him, and ask about everything he knows. Then you can complete the game normally until the very end, when you overide the power, as you are asked to do by the other character. you then go back to the lab, and talk to him, there is an "end quest" option, which you click on. repeat this as much as you want.

Note:
 * You get doctors bags, and stimpaks.
 * At the start of the quest you need to have at least 40 speech, or the Confirmed bachelor perk for this to work.

Gallery
Гелиос-1