Fallout: New Vegas Walkthru - Volare!
Volare! - Introduction
This technically begins with your run through to the Boomer base. I covered the various options to raise your reputation with the Boomers in another article, along with how to run past the artillery fire to make it to the Boomer base alive.
“Volare!” is the separate quest that occurs once you talk to Pearl and find out about their ambitions.
Once you get enough reputation with the Boomers, you will be able to find out about their real plan. Note that they actually reveal most of it in the history museum tour, but you get confirmation from Pearl and Loyal.
There’s a crashed B-29 in Lake Mead and the Boomers want you to help them recover it. Our role in this is actually really easy, although it will be a bit of a walk. You will get the ballast balloons from Loyal along with the unique detonator for them.
Volare! - The Long Swim
The real problem is that the airplane is at the bottom of Lake Mead. Unless you have a lot of Endurance, you will not be able to swim to the
bottom of Lake Mead and plant the ballast charges.
You can talk to Jack and get a rebreather. He’ll want a pressure cooker first, although you can just pass a Science check with 45 points and have him seal the rebreather without it. There should be a pressure cooker at Chet’s store in Goodsprings, if you don’t have one already.
With the rebreather in hand, walk out to Lake Mead. Bring a rifle with you, because there are a lot of lakelurks here. Don’t let them get close and try to shoot them from the shore. They have a nasty sonic and a melee attack, but if you hang back you should be able to dodge the sound waves and use a rifle to tear them apart. You can’t really fight them in the water, although it seems like they can’t do much to fight you. If you have several chasing you, you can swim out to a floating smuggler’s platform in the center of the lake and pick them off from the little fortress. There should also be medical supplies and beds if you need a quick break.
Raising the Bomber
The bomber is at the bottom of Lake Mead. Just put on your rebreather and start swimming down and toward the marker. It should be easy to spot. There are what appear to be two airbags on the airplane’s wings. These are just the markers for where you need to plant the real ballast bags. Swim to the ghost images of the bags and use the context key to plant the ballast charges, then start swimming to the marked dock on the shore. Once you make it to the dock, turn around and shoot any lakelurks following you. Once the coast is clear, pull out Loyal’s detonator and walk around briefly. It should beep when you’re in the right spot. Pull the trigger and watch the airplane surface. Your part of the mission is done, since Loyal’s robots are handling the actual salvage mission.
Return to Loyal and Pearl to report your success and confirm that the Boomers will have your back in the battle for the Mojave, regardless of which side you choose.
This post is part of the series: Fallout: New Vegas - Nellis Air Force Base (The Boomers)
The Boomers are an eccentric and isolated group of people that love to use their big cannons to seal everyone else off. You will need to outrun their cannon fire and make it to their base for most of the main quest paths. This section covers the different ways to gain Boomer aid for your faction.