Find a way into the Sierra Army Base

Find a way into the Sierra Army Base is a Fallout 2 side quest.

Walkthrough
Orville Wright wants an edge on the other New Reno families; is his edge edgier? It better be, because they all think they have edges too. And for the most part, their edge is you. He tells you of an abandoned military base. There are two ways to get the Sierra Army Depot location on your world map: getting the quest from Orville or going to Golgotha and using a shovel on the grave of Sam Pritchard and looting the map in it.

As you arrive here, note the bodies lying where they fell. Join them or take out the automated turrets. Depending on your skill level, you may not be able to target them while completely outside their range, even with a sniper rifle, but with such a weapon, you'll most likely have a much better chance of hitting them at far range than they do of hitting you.

Even if you have killed every Salvatore gang member in the bar, he will tell you that there are other Salvatore Made Men and Enforcers outside of New Reno and they are a threat to the Wrights and still wants the extra firepower.

There is yet another way to get in, however. If you look at the bodies, note how one of them is slightly farther than the rest. Move in a diagonal from the right of the guard structure to the grouping of trees to the left of the center turret; you'll make it through without triggering combat. Of course, having a high sneak skill will work too. Then, you could ignore them or take them out...

There is loot on the ground as well as on the bodies, including a sniper rifle if you don't already have one.

To the northwest there's a bunker with three traps outside, a trap on the door, and a trap on one of the ammunition crates inside. Use the Howitzer Shell on the howitzer in the building to the right (which has three mines in front of the door, one in the gap by the truck, and one near the barrels and tires), creating an access to the depot. Anything by the Depot entrance doors at this time will take damage.

Once you're on the inside you can report back to Orville Wright. However, even if you don't the quest is crossed off in the PipBoy, so you just need to visit Orville for your reward.

Should you enter the fenced-in area in the northeast corner you'll take electrical damage. In a small room at the bottom of a manhole is a switch which puts the base on backup power (50% normal power). Consider before using it that this has the effect of reducing the illumination in the Depot, and turns the yellow impassable forcefields in the base into red ones which damage anything passing through them. Alternatively, as with all yellow forcefields, you can use Repair to pass them safely.

Level 1
After entering the base there is a password note [TCHAIKOVSKY] in the first desk on the left. Typing it in the computer terminal disables Force Fields in Level 1. In the locked room located to the left of the entrance you can find "Sierra Depot Evac. Notice.". In the lab located to the right of the entrance you can find bio med gel (needed for quest) on the ground and in the lockers: yellow memory module, Dixon's eye (use it to open elevator), medical holodisc.

Level 2
Robots will not attack if the alarm is not triggered (don't fail too many times to deactivate force fields). You can get 200 XP for disabling the repair bay computer, on the left side of the level. There is a cookie in the room to the right of the laser beam. Eating the cookie increases your maximum Action Points by 1 for 15 minutes.

Level 3
Again, robots will not attack if the alarm is not triggered. Triggering the alarm causes extra robots to appear from their previously hidden location inside nearby walls. The computer on this level is an AI known as Skynet. Skynet has a strong desire to leave the base and explore. To facilitate this you may reactivate a Robobrain by retrieving a brain from the medical storage facility on this level. The better your science and medical skills, the better the brain you can retrieve. There are 4 brains, with the chimpanzee brain being the worst and most useless. While using the computer to retrieve a brain, you can also retrieve and reanimate a cadaver of a soldier and have a funny conversation. After activating the Robobrain, you can have it join your party, its stats being mainly affected by the brain you were able to retrieve. It's often worth coming back to the base to complete this quest at a later time.

Behind the scenes
The password [TCHAIKOVSKY] is the surname of Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

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