The Destruction of the Divide was an event in New California some time before the First Battle of Hoover Dam.[1]
Background[]
During the NCR-Enclave War, the New California Republic overran the previously heavily defended Navarro outpost, inflicting a decisive blow to the remaining Enclave presence in California.[2][3] The technology left behind by the Enclave was recovered by the NCR, and it was noticed that the symbols found upon the technology (American flag, silo stencils, etc.) were identical to those that had been recovered at Hopeville and Ashton, and so a tie between the two was suspected. The NCR hired a Courier to take the technology from Navarro to the Divide in order to test their suspicions.[Non-game 1][4]
By order of the NCR, the Courier carried the package containing an activated ICBM detonator from Navarro to the Divide. When this device was close enough, it remote linked with the ICBM computers, sending a signal to the dormant nuclear missiles lying in the silos beneath the ground. They then began detonating one after another, splitting the earth, cracking and twisting the landscape, aggravating the areas pre-existing seismic instability[5] and causing massive earthquakes.[Non-game 1][6] Entire companies of NCR soldiers in the area were trapped together with a detachment of Legion forces sent further west to disrupt the primary NCR supply line towards the Mojave Wasteland.[7][8] The disaster warped the Divide into a new form: a wind-beaten maze of twisting canyons, skin-flaying dust storms, and horrific abominations.
Aftermath[]
The Divide twisted the surviving NCR and Legion. As the winds flayed their skin and radiation ghoulified them, they became the marked men; skinless horrors fueled by hatred and rage for everything around them.[9] Outside the Divide, the disaster became a blessing in disguise for the Legion: cutting off NCR supply lines along the 127.[10][11] However, it also traumatized and inspired Ulysses, as he learned the impact a single person can have on history, leading to his occupation of the Divide's largest missile silo and the Battle of the Divide.[12]
Appearances[]
The Destruction of the Divide is mentioned in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Lonesome Road.
References[]
- ↑ The Courier: "I'm guessing you don't like Caesar very much."
Joshua Graham: "Love the sinner, hate the sin. With Caesar, it's often very difficult to see through all of that sin to the person inside. I can say that we were both lucky that NCR's supply lines and land routes north of Mojave Outpost were destroyed before the Battle of Hoover Dam. Something bad happened near Death Valley, at a place called the Divide. NCR couldn't cut across anymore and it slowed down their reinforcements. Terrible storms ripped entire companies apart before they even got to Nevada soil. The aftermath of Hoover Dam could have been even worse for Caesar."
(Joshua Graham's dialogue) - ↑ Courier: "What happened to the Enclave oil rig and Navarro?"
Judah Kreger: "Internal sabotage took down the oil rig - never did get the full story. The NCR took out Navarro, saying we posed a threat to the region."
(Judah Kreger's dialogue) - ↑ Courier: "Tell me about the old days with the Enclave."
Judah Kreger: "I miss those days sometimes. We all had a purpose, you know? I admit that some of the folks in charge were pretty ruthless. The rest of us, though - we were just trying to civilize things. The NCR was still new and it didn't look like they'd last all that long. Then, we lost the oil rig and shortly after that, the base at Navarro. Nobody left except us Remnants."
(Judah Kreger's dialogue) - ↑ Courier: "You said I brought it from the West?"
Ulysses: "It was a device, a detonator. One I'd never seen before - or heard before. You carried that thing to the Divide. I know because I followed you as you walked the road, watched you do it. You brought it here, to the community you built. And you are responsible for what happened after - when the device opened, started to speak. When it did, the Divide answered back. Those missiles you've seen, buried in their silos. They exploded beneath the ground, cracked the landscape. Sand, ash... the dead... the Divide skies became a graveyard."
(Ulysses' dialogue) - ↑ Wastewater treatment plant terminal entries; Jackie's terminal, Earthquakes
- ↑ Courier: "Area looks like it was hit with earthquakes... or underground detonations."
Ulysses: "[SUCCEEDED] America sleeps in the Divide - giants, beneath the earth. You saw one locked in the silo beneath you. There's more Only takes a few of them, locked below ground, to tear apart the earth... and cast dust, sand... ash... into the skies above. You'll see the extent - the miles of it, soon enough. You need to see it... walk it."
(Ulysses' dialogue) - ↑ Courier: "[NCR] NCR would have needed this supply line open to reinforce the Mojave - and Hoover Dam."
Ulysses: "The Dam. That Old World Wall. The Bear, NCR, couldn't be allowed to reach it easily. Long 15... Canaan... both bad enough. Kimball, Caesar, House... you'd think their whole world was that wall, cutting the Colorado. If I'd never laid eyes on it, never spoke of it... ...but once found, it was all Caesar could see. That, and the flag beyond it, another symbol, big enough to challenge him. And the Divide, one of the roads to it - Legion was tasked with cutting that artery. If you can't kill the Bear in one stroke, bleed it, starve it. That kind of murder... it's what any of the Legion would have done. Now... the Divide belongs to history."
(Ulysses' dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "[Legion] The Legion would want to cut this road off if it had been a supply line to Hoover Dam."
Ulysses: "The Dam. That Old World Wall. The Bear, NCR, couldn't be allowed to reach it easily. Long 15... Canaan... both bad enough. Kimball, Caesar, House... you'd think their whole world was that wall, cutting the Colorado. If I'd never laid eyes on it, never spoke of it... ...but once found, it was all Caesar could see. That, and the flag beyond it, another symbol, big enough to challenge him. And the Divide, one of the roads to it - Legion was tasked with cutting that artery. If you can't kill the Bear in one stroke, bleed it, starve it. That kind of murder... it's what any of the Legion would have done. Now... the Divide belongs to history."
(Ulysses' dialogue) - ↑ Courier: "I've never seen corpses mutilated like that."
Ulysses: "Even as the fires here burned them from within... the winds of the Divide tore their skin, exposed them... screaming... to the sky. And just as the Divide tears at them, so they tear at each other, for sport - like some tribal scarification. Falling back to their history, maybe. No matter what they suffer... the radiation, fire of the Divide, sustains them. Makes them stronger."
(Ulysses' dialogue) - ↑ Courier: "The Divide blocked all of their northern land routes?"
Joshua Graham: "Not all of them. But they couldn't take 127 north to get around the mountains. As if Death Valley weren't enough, they had the Divide and Big Empty to deal with. From what the Legion's explorers reported, the Big Empty may as well have been a wall to any living thing approaching it."
(Joshua Graham's dialogue) - ↑ Courier: "What's at the Divide?"
Joshua Graham: "I don't know for certain, and I don't think NCR knows, either. Whatever happened at the Divide was too much for them to handle. Our frumentarii told us what they saw. Only fools and madmen would march into a place like that. All roads wind down to the same spot, the grave. They said all that's left there is a gaping wound cut into the Earth, cursed and damned. No place for God-fearing folk."
(Joshua Graham's dialogue) - ↑ Courier: "So you believed in this place. What it once was."
Ulysses: "There was hope here, another chance. A new nation, stirring to life. A place I could have set my flag. Not the America of old. But something larger than the tribes of the East, something larger than the houses of the West. Something better. The Divide... could have bridged both, like Hoover Dam. Now like the Dam, it's too covered in blood to see what it could have been. You gave life to this place. I followed your road here, saw the Divide. You led me here, so that I could see. Then, you brought it to an end."
(Ulysses' dialogue)
Non-game