"You can Depend on me", sudden realisation

[Jogre]

In the quest You Can Depend on Me, I always found it odd how Alice McLafferty was interested in the gun runner plans.

After all, she runs a caravan company, which probably mainly trades in things other people have made. I'm unsure if it's ever even hinted at that Crimson Caravan creates weapons or anything else themselves.

But here's the thing: What if the plans weren't for Crimson Caravan, what if they were for the Van Graffs?

We know the Van Graffs and Crimson Caravan had an alliance from Heartaches By The Number. What if the gun runner plans were actually CC's end of the bargain?

 

[NMLevesque]

Well there are these two notes.
https://fallout.gamepedia.com/Letter_to_Gloria
https://fallout.gamepedia.com/Crimson_Caravan_-_Van_Graff_agreement

I don't know that their bargain was missing anything but it's definitely plausible. It also wouldn't surprise me if Crimson Caravan wanted to get into the gun manufacturing business. The Gun Runners have a bit of a monopoly going, so that would definitely be a lucrative venture. All they would have to do is set a slightly lower price and let basic economics do the rest. Even if they can't match the quality, undercutting price would still work. We should remember The Gun Runners would be nothing if not for the schematics they chanced on. Before that they were just another Hub gang. So a large business empire with said schematics wouldn't have much trouble in catching up. Especially since these are probably updated, improved schematics, not just the ones the Gun Runners originally found (prior to being the Gun Runners).

 

[Einhanderc7]

Did everyone forget about that little bit of dialog McLafferty tells the player?
If I remember correctly the motivator behind this was to destroy the Gun Runner Monopoly by allowing the Crimson Caravan to produce comparable product in greater quantities to knock them out of the market.

The Crimson Caravan is a ruthless business, constantly trying to identify new markets to take hold of. With the topic of weapons manufacturing, Crimson Caravan could easily out produce the Gun Runners simply due to their massive supply chain. They have no intention of giving such a massive acquisition to the Van Graffs which they see as a very unstable relationship.

You must also consider that the Van Graffs are more mercenary than the Crimson Caravan, the Crimson Caravan's intention is long term profits and policies, where the Van Graffs are much more short term and don't care who they side with.

It's obvious in FNV that the Gun Runners are hard up on scrap metal, since the quest giver literally tells the player that the Gun Runners need scrap metal. This is one of the few issues the Gun Runners contend with, so they focus on making high quality products vs. massive quantities.

The Crimson Caravan of course would be aware of this fault in the Gun Runners armor, and they are smart enough to try and exploit it to their benefit. If they can they would steal all blue prints, and set up a manufacturing facility to endlessly churn out stupid quantities of firearms, thus giving them an additional hold on NCR's politics during war.

If you can control the supply in war, you will be the richest person of them all. The Crimson Caravan is simply ambitious enough to be the only supplier.