Bab 270: Not-so-friendly locals...

Afton continued to circle around the building until he spotted something strange... A group of what looked like people were huddled around something amongst some blue grass... They numbered around ten people and all wore goggles atop their bald shaved heads, even the females were entirely void of hair.

Some wore just underwear and a t-shirt, while others were wearing thicker clothes, heavy overalls. That wasn't what intrigued Afton the most however, no, that honour belonged to their weaponry. Most held some sort of firearm, but others wielded strange melee weapons.

They looked like axes, but their blades were made from blue light, it looked somewhat holographic, yet he could tell they were very sharp, and most likely very effective against most materials.

Afton had no idea what they were, why there were here, or whether or not they'd be hostile... So, he decided to check one over with his [Living Anatomy] Perk.

[Lobotomite]

Health : 99%

Stamina : 99%

DT : 6

Strength : 7

Perception : 5

Endurance : 7

Charisma : 5

Intelligence : 1

Agility : 7

Luck : 1

Ailments :

[Lobotomite] : Brain has been extracted, rendering the 'skinvelope' as intelligent as a baby... Without a brain. The bodies reflexes and muscle memory are still active however. Sets Intelligence to 1.

[Unfortunate soul] : Fate has decreed that this person will not live a happy life, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Sets Luck to 1.

Afton's surprised upon reading the status, these people were like him. People who'd had their brains extracted by Dala and the Think Tank. He stands from where he'd been hiding and observing them and slowly walks towards them, his hands raised pacifyingly. "Hello!?" he asks, finally catching the groups attention.

The group stop huddling over whatever the object of interest was and slowly stand, allowing Afton to see nine broken chips of some sort. Probably the personality chips belonging to the Sink.

"I come in peace, I too was attacked by the-"

*Bang!Bang!Bang!*

[John Wick Style is in effect]

Afton ducks just in time as the Lobotomites start shooting at him. "What the fuck!" He shouts as he throws himself behind cover, unholstering That Gun and Lucky from his hip. "You better stop firing or I'm going to blow whatever brains you have left into fertiliser!"

Obviously, his threat achieves nothing and they continue to advance on his position. Had Afton still had a regular modern-day moral compass, he'd have tried a lot harder to reason with them... But, as they say, the Wasteland changes you.

A shadow encroaches on his position and Afton can see them getting ready to swing one of those futuristic axes down at him. Before whoever it is gets a chance, Afton springs out of cover, slamming his foot into the handle of the axe to stop its swing and firing a shot into the enemies face.

Their skull explodes under the force of the bullet but Afton doesn't let the body drop just yet. Instead he grabs it across the chest and uses it as a meat-shield while firing at its comrades. Bullets impact the body he was holding up, by he manages to kill five more Lobotomites.

Only four were left now, all of which were charging him with the holo-axe-things. Lucky was now out of ammo, so he holsters it and picks up the axe his meat-shield had dropped earlier.

He fires That Gun at one of the approaching Lobotomites which instantly kills them and blocks another's axe with his own. Headbutting them afterwards and causing them to stumbled backwards from the force of the strike. His 12 Strength made him stronger than any human could ever hope to be, so his headbutt just now had probably fractured the Lobotomites skull.

Still, the three remaining enemies advanced on his position. He raises That Gun to finish them off but is unable to as he hears something behind him.

*BARK!*

Before he's able to turn around to see what it was, he's thrown off of his feet and over the Lobomite's attempting to attack him. The sheer force of whatever had just hit him, making him dizzy momentarily due to the sudden change in his position. If only his [Stonewall] Perk worked outside of melee attacks.

[Grit is in effect]

He uses VATS to stop time and observe what'd just attacked him, his eyes locking onto the new enemy that was behind the three lobotomites... A cyber dog?

Afton was already familiar with Cyberdogs in general, the Brotherhoods database had fairly detailed logs on them. The NCR made good use of them in close-quarter combat, so the Paladins made sure we knew how to fight them. He'd even met one before, the King's dog called Rex, it was friendly and seemed quite strong, not something a regular person would want to fight...

Unfortunately, he'd never read anything in the logs, nor heard anything about them being able to blow people off of their feet. The two approaching Cyberdogs in question had large portions of their anatomy replaced by machinery, their heads having large glass domes on their containing their visible brains.

The domes glowed a dark orange, and drool dripped from their maws as they looked in his direction... Afton stopped VATS and leapt to his feet, quickly firing the remaining four shots in That Gun at the leftmost Cyberdog.

But he's forced to watch his bullet ping off of the dog's brain-dome in mild-horror... Since when could those things deflect bullets! He mentally screams. Before he's able to reload his gun, the Lobotomites charge him, seeming to break out of the daze of seeing him thrown over their heads.

Afton quickly holsters the gun and holds the holo-axe-thing in both hands, his stance correcting itself due to his maxed out Melee Weapons skill. "Come get some you Goggle-wearing freaks!" he shouts, dodging to the side to avoid an axe and then ducking under the next.

He quickly slashes the axe at one of the Lobotomite's extended arms, the axe easily cutting it clean off. As if he were wielding a lightsaber. He grabs the dropped axe and backs away with both weapons ready.