Fantastic

Fantastic is a man working at HELIOS One as a technician for the NCR in 2281. It is obvious, however, that his technical expertise is severely lacking and is merely using the position as a way to fuel his drug addiction.

Background
An immature and egotistical con artist, Fantastic was recruited by the NCR because they required technical experts to work on the HELIOS One power plant. When the Courier asks Fantastic how he got the job, he confidently replies, "they asked me how well I understood theoretical physics. I said I had a theoretical degree in physics. They said welcome aboard." This was enough to satisfy the NCR recruiters, and he was given the job.

Since arriving at Helios One, Fantastic, due to his incompetence and self-centered attitude, has done nothing to repair Helios One. However, he's been instilling the belief among NCR personnel that he's essential to the operations at Helios One, to avoid being fired, so he can gain as much money from the NCR as possible to fuel his drug addiction. Some people in the plant have seen through his lies for the idiot he really is.

Even though Fantastic has accomplished very little in his time at Helios, he has properly identified a couple of problems that he has yet to fix, like the outside mirrors being aligned improperly. For months he has been working on a single console, assuming that the biggest console is the most important, which, unbeknownst to him, is the console for the Helios intercom system.

He works in the control room alongside Ignacio Rivas. Ignacio is shown through dialogue to be far more knowledgeable about HELIOS One, but Fantastic manages the plant and doesn't listen to Ignacio's ideas. He continues to maintain the plant's output at "one percent efficiency." This is advantageous for Rivas as he has been purposely keeping Fantastic - and by extension the NCR - in the dark in order to protect information about Helios One. If the plant is run inefficiently then its true purpose, ARCHIMEDES II, can be safely kept secret from the NCR.

Personality
Full of himself, Fantastic believes in nothing but his own self-interest and benefit and has no qualms about weaseling his way into a position he's untrained for. He truly believes (or has deluded himself into believing) he could fix Helios One without any technical expertise.

This would make him a shrewd character to deal with, but Fantastic is fantastically bereft of intelligence, which exposes him as a fraud to anyone who has to spend even a couple of minutes around him. Other NCR soldiers and Ignacio Rivas have little respect for him. When asked to elaborate on his working environment, his explanation starts promisingly enough, noting "that console there controls the main power grid," but soon devolves, ending with, "that slot over there makes sparks when you put stuff in it." If told that he doesn't know what he's doing, he disagrees and insists that he knows exactly what he is doing, he just doesn't know what effect it will have.

Fantastic is also a frequent drug user, solely using his position to further fuel his drug addiction. He often uses his drug addiction as a sympathy plea to guilt anyone calling him out. Further adding to Fantastic's depravity, should the Courier kill all the NCR on the base, Fantastic joins Caesar's Legion when they push forward, occupying the location. He will be wearing legionary armor amidst the other Legion members. Nearby is Ignacio Rivas, who is deceased. When inquiring about Ignacio, Fantastic says doesn't know what happened to him, or if he is personally responsible or not.

Quests

 * That Lucky Old Sun: Fantastic has to be confronted for the beginning of the quest and spoken to in order to end the quest. He also can give the player character the Western reflector control terminal password through dialogue.

Effects of player's actions

 * If choosing to wipe out the NCR in That Lucky Old Sun quest by arming Archimedes I, and Fantastic is left alive, upon returning, he will be wearing Legion armor and will have killed Ignacio Rivas. If the player character talks to him he will say, "Hey man, when in Rome."
 * Alternatively, if chosen to side with the NCR, Fantastic can be found at Hoover Dam. He gets a promotion to the position of "goddamn dam god" (in his own words). However, if asked about his new job, Fantastic will admit that Mike Lawson, the chief engineer at Hoover Dam, has made arrangements so that anything Fantastic tries to do must be approved by Lawson first.

Other interactions

 * When first meeting Fantastic, it can be stated the player character is there to replace him. Fantastic gets worried and tells them that he needs this job for his chem addiction, and with a Speech check of 25, 100 caps can be extorted from him in return for not taking his job.
 * Choosing to send power to any of the non-weaponized locations in the quest That Lucky Old Sun may result in NCR guards remarking, "Maybe that guy Fantastic wasn't an idiot, maybe he was a genius," when exiting the facility.
 * Killing him does not affect NCR reputation nor make NCR troopers hostile to the player character.

Inventory

 * * If the Courier kills the NCR troopers by activating Archimedes I.

Appearances
Fantastic appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes
Fantastic was written by Eric Fenstermaker.