ED-E
ED-E is a pretty bland robot companion in Fallout: New Vegas. He's good in the early game but very quickly gets outclassed by the best boy, Rex. Rex is a dog. Therefore he's better. The fact that ED-E is so useless to me in game made me really uninterested in his lore, but after finally getting myself through his questline for the review I'm doing, I realized he's actually pretty neat. So for anyone who can't be bothered to use non lonesome road ED-E, here's all of this round robot's lore. I'm still using Rex though.
ED-E's Past
Eyebot Duraframe Subject E (often shortened to ED-E or Eddie) is a combat eyebot prototype created by enclave scientist Whitley at Adams Air Force Base. Still boring so here's the weird part. It's an enclave eyebot in the middle of the Mojave wasteland, and the west coast enclave is essentially non-existent at this point. Why would the enclave spend the resources and send a precious combat prototype into the middle of the god damn desert by itself? Well it turns out ED-E isn't even from the east. Adams Air Force base is in the Capital Wasteland. Apparently the attention given to the eyebot prototypes was diverted to the research and creation of the Hellfire Armour (which is a story for another day). ED-E was then given the task of transporting important data about Poseidon Energy to the Navarro Enclave base. Somehow, this tiny round boy, armed only with a miniature tesla cannon (which is admittedly quite powerful), almost made it to his destination across the wasteland, and the only stop he had (to our knowledge) is a pit stop at a hidden Enclave base in Chicago for repairs. That’s one hell of an origin story.
ED-E During FNV
ED-E was rudely interrupted in the Mojave Wasteland by a raider who shot it with two .308 rounds. Even the resilient ED-E couldn’t withstand that. ED-E dropped deactivated around Primm, and at this point it would seem the journey to Navarro was over. If you’ve been listening at all though, you’ll remember that this robot is effectively immortal. A courier for the Mojave Express found ED-E, and decided to take it in to Mojave Express supervisor Johnson Nash, in the hopes that it would aid them with package delivery. Despite his efforts, Nash couldn’t repair it, and ED-E simply sat on the counter of the Primm Mojave Express as the town was overrun by convicts. So surely this is the end of him, right? The convicts are gonna scrap him? Nope. Some dude comes around Primm, clears the place of the convicts, and repairs him. That guy was The Courier.
After this, ED-E travelled with The Courier for quite a while. Nothing too interesting would happen until they reached a junkyard and talked to Old Lady Gibson. To The Courier’s surprise, ED-E started playing a voice log.
“My name is Whitley. I'm a researcher at Adams Air Force base. Until recently I was in charge of the Duraframe reinforcement project for the combat model Eyebots. Eyebot Duraframe Subject E is both the prototype, and the last functional model in this test group. I was prepared to make several significant upgrades to the machines. However, as the project was canceled and all Duraframe assets are being diverted to Hellfire Armor, I am sending this model to the Navarro outpost. If you are listening to this log from one of our Enclave Outposts in Chicago, give this unit whatever repairs it needs so it can continue to Navarro.”
It seemed certain phrases and words were triggers for ED-E, and those triggers made it play voice logs. The Courier only ever finds two voice logs in the Mojave, and these are what give us a good amount of important information about this journey. There’s also some extra lore you get from ED-E’s clone in the Lonesome Road downloadable content. That story pertains more to the story of Whitley and ED-E’s clone, and I plan to make a more bite-sized article about it another time. Here is the second voice log:
“Navarro outpost scientists, I am glad that ED-E has reached you. You will find several databanks of information on this machine. Please handle this information with the utmost care as it represents the sum total of the results of my research on the Duraframe Eyebots. There are also several databanks with information on my research into Poseidon Energy and some projects they were working on in the Mojave area.”
After this voice log is triggered, The Courier is given a choice. Here’s how.
Brotherhood of Steel Senior Knight Lorenzo calls the courier through ED-E, asking rather politely for ED-E as The Brotherhood had found out about the research on ED-E after listening in on it. Then he asks The Courier to take it to a Brotherhood patrol, which happens to be dead, so Lorenzo instead asks for The Courier to take it to their bunker. During the transmission sent by Lorenzo asking ED-E to be taken to their bunker, the transmission is rather rudely interrupted by one April Martimer of the Followers of the Apocalypse, who asks ED-E to be taken to the Followers so they may obtain information that they believe will aid them.
The Courier either takes it to The Followers of the Apocalypse or The Brotherhood of Steel. With either of these choices, ED-E completes his purpose of delivering valuable research across the wasteland. Maybe not to ED-E’s original destination, but it will still aid a group, and the information is still preserved for research and the eventual rebirth of large scale civilization. After this point ED-E either continues to travel as a vigilant comrade with The Courier, or is taken on by a trading caravan as a protector. ED-E’s story ends here.
Replies
ED-E is probably my favorite companion in gaming history. Great article!