HELIOS One HELIOS One is a Poseidon Energy that generates and provides power to the New Vegas Strip , Freeside , and other settlements in the Mojave Wasteland . It also contains the control system for two space - based weapon platforms , Archimedes I and Archimedes II . Background . Constructed before the war by Poseidon Energy , HELIOS One is a concentrated solar energy plant consisting of an enormous array of reflectors and the power plant itself ( housing steam turbines and all of the machines required to transform the energy into usable electricity ) . The plant has been damaged extensively since the Great War ( including recent incursions between the New California Republic and the remaining Brotherhood of Steel forces in the Mojave ) . Now , only a third of its reflectors are still fully intact and able to fully rotate . To make matters worse , various issues in the plant itself make the energy transfer inefficient , meaning the plant is operating far under potential . The NCR doesn ' t possess the scientific knowledge to get the plant in ideal shape , and both the Followers of the Apocalypse and the Brotherhood of Steel are reticent to help for political reasons . Due to its fragility , Caesar has no serious interest in HELIOS One , but his troops perform occasional raids on it to keep the NCR ' s forces spread out . A pre - War installation , HELIOS One was hailed as the " " Dawn of a Golden Age " " by Poseidon Energy . The Brotherhood of Steel discovered the facility and were trying to determine how the plant worked , until the NCR initiated to wrest it from their control . Before the Brotherhood abandoned the facility , they put it in a nearly inactive state and armed the pre - War security system . Despite the NCR ' s best efforts , they have had no luck in getting the plant to work to its potential or in deactivating the security system . Layout . HELIOS One power plant . At the beginning of the events of " " the facility is controlled by the NCR , who have a detachment guarding the facility . At the front entrance is Lt . Haggerty , who must be convinced to allow the Courier in , or the player can lockpick a side door to gain entrance . Downstairs , the building ' s hallways circle in on themselves , leading to a pool room , where a unique toolbox that spawns either a or a can be found on a nearby shelf , as well as an open workshop leading upstairs , to the opposite side of the downstairs area , as well as a door leading further back into the building . Traveling further back into the building is a " " technician " " , Fantastic , who is working on getting the power plant functioning ; the room adjacent to Fantastic ' s contains a scientist , Ignacio Rivas . A nearby door leads to the mirror yard . Mirror yard . Behind the main building is the solar collection tower and an array of computer - controlled mirrors . There are also two mirror control terminal s in small shacks , and several tents set up by the NCR trooper s guarding the facility . The western terminal is guarded by mines , bear traps , and a rigged shotgun , while the eastern terminal is guarded by NCR attack dogs . There are also a number of broken solar panels scattered around , that you can optionally repair / salvage for the Sunshine Boogie quest : you ' ll find the first near the tents behind the western terminal ; walking along the outer row and the fence towards the eastern terminal will produce the next three ; the final one is by the tents near the eastern terminal . Solar collection tower . Inside the solar collection tower , past a small straight path there are three hostile and several ( level - dependent ) security robots , a mix of , , , and / or . Going straight ahead leads to an unlocked door to a small room containing several ( both active and inactive ) and an easy locked terminal . The terminal can be hacked to shut off the turrets or get them to fire indiscriminately at all targets ( including the security robots ) . Near the entrance is a water fountain with no radiation . Downstairs is a small room with two on a shelf , and an average safe containing more pulse grenades and plus miscellaneous loot . The level continues through a double - wide door and down a sloping corridor guarded by a leveled security bot . The door at the bottom leads into another narrow corridor , leading to another multi - level room with stairways and catwalks , guarded by a . At the bottom of the catwalks past the Mister Gutsy is a door leading to a corridor that branches left and a shorter one to the right ending at a door . The corridor to the left contains a single in a shielded charging station , past which is a laser tripwired door ( disarm with an 85 Repair or 67 Science skill ) . The room beyond contains four more protectrons also in shielded charging stations . The tripwire releases the shields and activates all five robots . The door to the right in the initial corridor opens into a room contains some desks , skeletons and two Poseidon Energy employee ID card s . Both paths have doors that adjoin the final room ; which has an elevator that leads to the observation level of the tower . HELIOS One observation level . The observation level contains the mainframe computer used to activate the plant and direct its power , plus a broken generator that can provide power to the mainframe and a repair robot called PYTHON . See That Lucky Old Sun for more about repairing and using the mainframe . There is a door at the top level that leads to the observation deck . A desk by the generator has a wooden box with embossed red symbols ( [ ! ] - [ X ] - [ H ] - [ A ] - [ H ] - [ X ] - [ @ ] ) on it . It cannot be picked up but may be interacted with . Observation deck . This is a circular deck all around the top of the solar collection tower . A spiral catwalk leads down from the entrance door . There is a reflector control panel that must be activated to complete the retargeting of the mirrors during That Lucky Old Sun . This location is outside , so the player can fast travel from here , though it is not recommended to do so during the HELIOS One / Archimedes I startup sequence , as this can cause quest glitches . Appearances . HELIOS One appears only in " " and is mentioned in " Dead Money " .