Just some minor questions about the BoS and minor plot holes.

1) The Brotherhood spent quite a while chillin' at HELIOS One, trying to unlock a way to active ARCHIMEDES. Their best experts, however, couldn't do it. Then you walk in and use the two terminals (even Fantastic knew you had to do that), waltz through some security robots (that weren't active then the BoS controlled the place) and then choose "reroute power to Strip, Freeside, or Orbital Laser?" I guess that what's on-screen in-game isn't what really appears, but you can do that no matter the Courier's science or intelligence.

2) What are folks in the bunker eating (heh, reminds me of Fallout 3)? It's quite a plot point that they don't take in anything that's not weapons tech (and have no interest in something like vault 22's food production), and they don't want to give any laser toys away. I guess they could be selling Guns, though they certainly aren't producing those. If they aren't traders, Veronica does act like she's a scavenger/prospector, but from what I can tell those don't make enough to feed a bunker.

Helios is one of my major pet peeves in NV. Basically, they wanted to cripple the BoS so they wouldn't factor much in the game, so how to do it?However, to answer your question, the BoS were basically on the verge of success. So, apparently, the BoS did all the hard parts, then left traps and disabled some stuff on their way out.

As far as food, if the bunker was similar to a Vault there is probably some kind of hyrdo garden or something unseen + with food and water collected from the outside. Not to mention BoS probably had control of the bunker long before they even occupied Helios, and they probably stocked it up good with food before all the shenanigans started.

Soylent Green.