Bab 585: Gearing up
Soon enough the group ended their training and headed out to get some food. It was fun and relaxing but Afton still has work to do, so he ended up leaving earlier than most anyway. He heads to the Think Tank laboratories and delves underground, only to find Dala floating over Shani who was currently lying on an operating table.
He takes a quick shower in the provided room and puts on some clean clothes before entering the lab. "Alright, Dala, remember what I told you... Only biopsies and chipping, otherwise I'll be taking you apart as well." he states. The only real reason he was here, after all, was to make sure Dala doesn't go overboard with her duties. If she wasn't so deranged he'd have left her alone to do it herself.
"Mmhm." the scientist acknowledges and starts the operation, getting biopsies on every relevant organ that may or many to be involved in Psyker physiology. Of course, this meant doing some of the more dangerous organs such as the brain, the heart, the lungs, etc. Still, it wasn't as dangerous as it would've been in his old world primarily due to the existence of Stimpacks and Cybernetics. If something ever went serious wrong he could just replace the organ entirely.
Everything was going as planned until halfway through the procedure Shani's eyes began to glitter open... "She's almost awake, sedate her." Afton calmly states, somehow hiding his worry... He himself would be very distraught at finding himself suddenly being operated on... Shani hadn't even been informed this was happening to prevent her from trying to escape again.
He also wondered why Shani was even awakening... Had Dala purposely not given her enough sedatives? Or had her Psyker biology made her more resistant to it?... Shaking his head, he grabs the chart and quickly finds the problem.
Indeed, Dala had applied minimal sedatives. This was the minimum required for a young female, meaning either she was trying to avoid using too many resources, or it was purposeful... He'd have to ask her after this.
Shani was wide awake at this point, rapidly looking around the room while hyperventilating. Her whole body was trembling and a ton of adrenaline was being pumped around her body. She scrambles to try and escape the bed, but Afton jumps into action by locking her in place with his Plant arm, trapping her head, body, and limbs with many root-like appendages.
Shani would have screamed had she not been wearing a ventilator, she appears to panic further once she'd been trapped in place. Finally, though, Dala manages to pump her with enough sedatives that her adrenaline can't keep her awake any longer. Her eyes flutter, and despite all her attempts to resist, she falls unconscious again.
Afton retracts his plant arm while sending a glare towards Dala, "Did you mean for this to happen?" he accuses.
"Not at all... Consider this more of a test... To see if these 'Psykers' are more resistant to sedatives than regular teddy bears... As you can see, my theory was correct."
...
Sure enough, she had done it on purpose... At least there was a valid reason for it though?... Afton couldn't really argue against her methods, at least, not without arguing for Shani's sake. Which, considering she'd been trying to break out since she got here, he wasn't all that inclined to do.
"Whatever. Let's just get this done so we can send her back." he states, urging her to continue the operation.
Half an hour later everything was done, all the samples had been collected and Shani had been chipped to make sure she wouldn't try to escape anymore. All that was left was to ship her back to her room and get some sleep to prepare for tomorrows expedition into Tunnel territory.
Afton throws off his medical gloves and walks towards the showers, "Dala, send Shani back, and no additional experiments." he warns.
Dala watches him leave and then looks down at her manipulators, contemplating whether or not to listen to his last order... Eventually, she just decides to leave it as is, there were always opportunities in future... At least, as long as she didn't piss Afton off. Not to mention the fact Glados was probably watching her right now...
The next morning Afton was already up and standing fully geared outside the railway tunnel. He was backed up by Tamia, Veronica, Christine, and Scorpion-Man... The latter of which was the only one not wearing Power armour.
The only reason Scorpion-Man was even here was his Psyker status, for anyone else it would simply be too dangerous. Still, that didn't mean he wasn't outfitted in top of the line armour.
He was currently wearing the newly created Bulwark Ranger armour, which sounds exactly as the name implies... They'd used the Ranger armour they'd received from the Van Graffs and created their own variant. This one had Light saturnite plating, saturnite under armour mesh, Deathclaw leather coat (This one not going past the hip due to Scorpion-Man's abilities), and the highly advanced Ranger helmet.
Scorpion-Man already had fairly good low-light vision, but in the tunnels it'd most likely be pure darkness, so night vision was required, plus infrared vision would help identify the enemy. It also came with communication systems, targeting systems, and many more add-ons they were able to fit.
Last but certainly not least were the weapons he'd been allowed to start using... An Ultra Chainsword, and a silenced SMG which would support his style of combat, and aid in infiltration when he is eventually sent out on such missions... The only thing he was missing for the gear he'd 'officially' be using was a Stealth boy... Which, probably wouldn't be all the useful against Tunnelers anyway.
Behind the group was also a large contingent of robots, Cyberdogs, and a couple Deathclaws. The Deathclaws were more of a test than anything else, using large numbers of them together was a disaster waiting to happen.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
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Bab 586: Tunnel Trouble
The Ultimo-Bots had all been modified to suit the occasion. Their wheels had been replaced with four heavy-duty legs that were able to latch onto things, they were able to create footholds in even the hardest materials like granite. Not only that, but each had been fitted with shoulder-mounted flamethrowers, the fuel tanks of which had been installed on their backs.
This would be a potential hazard if they were against humans who used ballistic weapons, but Tunnelers doesn't possess any way of igniting those tanks... At least, to Afton's knowledge. He was pretty thankful that Glados had elected to modify them when he'd forgotten about it. He doubted they'd be all that useful if they were still on wheels. Going up and down steep cave passages would be a one-way trip, especially considering the possibility of the tunnelers only creating vertical pathways.
"You guys ready?" he asks his companions.
Tamia nods, and rolls her shoulder, still seeming to be slightly uncomfortable wearing Power armour into battle. "Think so... Something does feel familiar about the creatures you mentioned."
"Maybe you've fought them before? You know, before you lost your memories?" Veronica asks.
Tamia shrugs, "Maybe... Didn't you say these things are usually quite hard to spot though?"
Afton nods, "Yeah, but Cass has apparently encountered them before, so it wouldn't be strange considering you were a Courier."
"Erm... Are you guys sure I should even be here?... I haven't properly trained for something like this yet..." Scorpion-Man, or 'Juan' asks, seeming quite anxious at the prospect of his first mission.
"You've fought humans, so you're probably good to fight Tunnelers... Probably... Ah, all you make sure to remember your Anti-Venoms. Borous says that these things are quite poisonous, considering how varied their species is, I wouldn't be surprised to find a venom-spitting version." he warns.
Juan looks pretty uncomfortable at that revelation, had he not thought the Anti-Venoms he'd been given were there for a reason?
"Relax, hopefully we won't need to get anywhere near melee range to them. We're only there to make sure things go 'well' and to coordinate the troops. Glados isn't able to properly command them that far underground, so we'll be there as insurance."
"Are these things really as big of a threat as you said, Afton?" Christine asks.
He gives a grave nod in response, "From the reports Borous has given on our 'subjects', they are a highly adaptive hive-like species which breed quickly, mutate quickly, and are able to bring down creatures as tough as Deathclaws... If left alone, I wouldn't be surprised if they began devouring entire towns... The only limit to their growth is the amount of food they can obtain, so, even some countries may be at risk..." he shrugs, "And that's not even considering the possibility that they might mutate into a variant that only needs sunlight or something..." he says, explaining why they are such a big threat to the Wasteland as a whole.
"Great... Hey, don't these things remind you of those spore-things you fought before?" Veronica asks.
Afton shakes his head, "Not really, as big a threat as they are, they aren't anywhere near as dangerous to the spores. I mean, imagine if a giant mushroom sprouted on land and started releasing millions of spores across the country... That'd be end of the world shit..." he states.
"Alright, enough talk... Let's go." he decides and activates his night-vision before stepping into the tunnels.
The others follow as he looks around the dilapidated railway tunnel... Elijah had previously destroyed it when he was escaping, so it obviously had another exit somewhere... Wait, didn't Christine leave the same way when she was chasing him?... "Christine? Didn't you follow Elijah through here?"
She nods, "I did, what of it?"
"Well, where does the tunnel lead? You must remember right?" Afton inquires, while focussing on the small indentations, obviously made by Tunneler claws. It looked as if they were preparing to dig another tunnel, but were given a shortcut by Shani.
Christine shrugs, "I'm not sure, we ended up near some heavily irradiate military bases, but his tracks headed in the opposite direction after that... I just followed until I was trapped in the Sierra Madre..."
"Huh, did the Tunnels have Tunnelers in them beforehand?" he asks.
She shakes her head, "No... The other exit had been blocked by a large gate, but Elijah was forced to destroy it to exit. That's probably how they got in." she explains.
Afton palms his helmet, "So it ends up being Elijah's fault... As always." he mutters, wondering if he should have kept that psycho in a prison cell and tortured all the knowledge out of him... Or better yet, taken his brain out and interrogated that.
"Youknow, I stubbed my toe yesterday, should I blame Elijah for that too?" he muses to himself but stops in place as he notices something of interest.
"Something wrong?" Tamia asks at his abrupt stop.
Afton nod and points at a small hole on the left side of the tunnel, from it, he could see a small bulbous 'rock', well, it looked like a rock at first glance, but upon further inspection, he found that it's material more matched scales than anything else. He makes a gesture that all of his companions should understand as he allows the Ultimo-Bots to march in front of them.
Once everyone was in position, he had his shoulder-mounted light flash directly at the hidden Tunneler. The creature immediately shrieked as it was blinded by the sudden light, once its position was revealed, all the Ultimo-Bots fired their flamethrowers, engulfing the creature in fire as it ran out and start flailing.
Surprisingly, there were far more Tunnelers hiding in that spot than Afton had initially thought. Four more run out from it, in a similar manner as the first. It was only then that the ground around the Ultimo-Bots began churning, and after a couple moments claws erupted from them as Tunnelers began pulling themselves out of the ground.
"It's an ambush!" Afton shouts, disregarding his earlier words and immediately skewering the closest Tunneler.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA
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