บท 250: Roses are red, blood is red... Roses are blood?
Just as Anja had started firing Afton was struck by something, forcing him a couple steps back... Looking down at what'd hit him he sees four large thorns protruding from his shoulder that'd managed to slip past his recon armours metal plates.
Quickly, he steps to the side just as more projectiles are fired through the fog, thrones and large globules of a corrosive material flying by. Afton rips out the thorns stuck in his shoulder and scowls when he spots the green substance clinging to their tips.
[Grit is in effect]
"Of course, why wouldn't they be poisoned!?" he complains aloud to no one imparticular before getting back up, now isn't the time to laze around. He jabs himself with a stimpack to hold off whatever poison he'd been afflicted with and surveys the situation.
Anja's efforts in clearing the fog had proven rather effective, while the laser rifle wasn't as powerful as when Afton has used it, she'd still cleared the majority of the spores in the hallway. This revealed the various enemies within it.
Afton takes a peek and uses VATS to stop time, in the hallway were many Spore Carriers, Spore Plants, and some huge rose-like plants that had tentacle-like limbs covered in thorns... They seemed to be swinging the limbs to dislodge their thorns and fire them down the hallway at them.
One immediate problem he noticed was the fact that some of the Spore Carriers were wearing combat armour. More of Dowagers mercenaries Afton reckoned, shaking his head to void the pity he felt for them he reaches for the grenades... He had three left and needed to use them sparingly.
Deactivating VATS he unclips a grenade and tosses it inside, afterwards slamming his fist on the door control to shut it, just as the explosion occurs.
*BOOM!*
[John Wick Style is in effect]
The ground beneath them shudders and Afton sends a glance towards Anja, nodding before opening the door again. The place was scorched, and most of the Spore Carriers were dead after taking the brunt of the explosion.
That Spore Plants and Spore Roses were still alive, however, resuming firing projectiles once the door was open again. Afton avoids the first burst of fire and waits for a lull, afterwards peeking out and firing unloading his pistol at the Spore Plants. He knew that he could be hit by a couple thorns, but if he was hit by one of those globules of acid then he was truly fucked.
What he didn't notice was the fact that the Spore Rose wasn't stuck in place like the Spore Plants were. By the time he'd holstered That Gun and pulled out Lucky the Spore Rose was already upon him. It rapidly slithered towards him like a snake, snapping one of its thorny limbs at him.
Afton throws himself out of the way but loses Lucky in his panicked movement, the tentacle hits the door frame and his jaw almost hit the floor when the tentacle wrenches itself backwards, allowing the thorns to slice through the metal-frame like a chainsaw.
Anja fires the Laser rifle at it, but the Spore Rose was apparently much, much smarter than the other creatures as it flung one of the Combat armour wearing Spore Carriers into the line of fire, completely avoiding any damage.
Still, her actions had given Afton some room as it's attention was on Anja. One of its limbs shot towards her as the Spore Rose stuck its head through the door. Quickly, he slammed his fist on the door, allowing it to drop on top of the creature, locking it in place under the weight of the heavy door.
Afton grabs the axe he'd propped next to the door and is about to cut it's head off, but is stopped when its tentacle swipes past the axe, catching it by the head and throwing him across the room. "What the fuuuuu-ck!" he exclaims as he's slammed into the wall, knocking the air from his already in poor condition lungs.
He holds his ribs as he hits the floor but notices the creature's tentacle rearing back with the axe still in its grasp. His eyes widen as he quickly ducks his head, just as the axe is thrown at him.
*THUNK!*
Fortunately, he'd managed to barely avoid having his head split... Some stray strands of hair float down in front of his face, clearing showing just has close that had been. He looks back up at the creature in time to see Anja unloading the Laser rifle at it, the beams dealing heavy damage to its tentacles and large red petals on its head.
Afton stands and wrenches the axe out of the wall and runs at it, managing to catch the creature by surprise as he slams the axe down onto what he could only guess was its neck.
*Slice!*
The axe had been dulled to quite a large extent after being stuck into a metal wall, so he had to bring it down two, three, four more times to finally decapitate it. He wasn't at risk of a counter-attack as the monster was having a seizure from the first attack... He must've cut something vital to its functions.
With it finally dead, Afton drops to his knees and releasing a hacking cough, spitting out dark, unnatural-looking blood onto the floor. That knock he'd taken earlier wasn't hard enough to truly injure him, but the infection was definitely taking its toll.
He plunges his hand into his Deathclaw leather bag and searches around for something to help him out... Med X? He jabs it into his thigh and feels the pain dull, but he continues. Buffout? No. Anti-veno-What the fuck? He still had Anti-Venom in here?
Cursing his stupidity he gets it out and slowly injects it into his vein. He knew it wasn't advised to go all at once, so he slowly injects the substance over a minute or two. Once done he tosses the used needle away and props himself up against the wall. "Ah, please god don't let any more of those things exist." he mutters, not wishing to face anything like that again...
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง 
Niggross
Niggross Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
If you like my content or want to read ahead please go to https://www.p.atreon.com/Nagross, I'd appreciate it.
บท 251: Stupid Scientists
After recovering from the brief fight with the Spore Rose, the duo got straight back to work. While this floor wasn't as populated with Spore Carriers as the one above, no, instead quality replaced quantity.
Everything room was covered in a thick layer of spores that concealed everything inside. Forcing them to remove it, of course this would usually be prevented by whatever mutated abomination would be living within it.
The potential mutations didn't seem to be restricted b anything either, as the group ran into short, incredibly fast creatures, large ones with skin-like steel, or even ones that attacked via ultra sonic sounds... Yeah, the latter one was a headache, literally.
After a couple hours of clearing the floor, a beaten, battered, and weak pair of Afton and Anja stumbled across the mainframe of the terminal systems. They could see it through the window of the room, and Afton was sure the backup of the research would be held inside.
He coughs into the crook of his shoulder as he fingers the door control for a moment, scowling when it seemed to be locked. "A-Anja, could you get this open please?" he says weakly.
She nods had opens the panel before beginning to fiddle around with its internals... Afton finds it somewhat amusing as she grimaces and pulls her hand out, revealing that a root had been inside the control and tried to grab her.
Not wasting any time, he grabs the root and tears it out. "Continue please, Anja."
A few minutes later and wallah! The door slowly slides up but gets stuck halfway, forcing them both to duck under it to get into the room... Strangely enough, this was the only room thus far that wasn't completely infested by Spores... In fact, Afton was sure not a single plant was within here...
Shaking his head he accesses the mainframe terminal and is greeted by many, many things. It contained every message ever sent across the Vault, a note every time someone accessed the system, and, all of the combined research that'd been conducted here.
He sighs and asks Anja to close the door to the room, not wishing for this temporary safe haven to be taken over. He'd probably need a few hours in the least to look through all of this.
Four hours later :
Afton grumbles to himself at the result of his search... He already knew that the floors were separated so they could work on different functions of the fungus, but it was only the fifth floor that knew the dangers of it.
The first couple of floors researched methods to increase the plant's oxygen recycling efficiency and other similar concepts. Some even tried to get it to use other chemicals entirely, which, if it had worked might just make the world suffocate if the fungus spread.
The third floor was responsible for improving food production, a noble goal that might have been able to feed millions if the subject matter wasn't an incredibly dangerous and infections fungus. The only thing they really managed to accomplish was the 'sweet substance' the plants sometimes produced that seemed to attract insects, hence the large number of mantises lingering around.
The fourth was obviously the common areas, the place where most scientists in this place actually lived. Which Afton found incredibly stupid considering the ventilation system was directly above the place where they were researching ways to improve the fungus.
But, most criminally damning was the fact the fifth floor was the only one that actually knew what they were working on. No designing to mention how truly fucked everyone would be if it escaped, and, even when it had escaped to the upper floors no one was warned of this impending threat.
The fifth floor worked on ways to control the fungus's growth, control the creatures reanimated and manipulate spore growth. Obviously all of the above were failures, and once it broke out the spores infested the ventilation system, firstly infecting the common areas and slowly moving up via the Spore Carriers who slowly succumbed to the infection.
Now, while all of this was happening, you'd think the scientists would put their heads down to find a cure, right?... FUCKING WRONG! They did nothing! Actually, it was worse than nothing! They ignored it entirely and continued trying to improve the fungus! Were they fucking stupid!
Afton mental tirade is cut off as he breaks into another coughing fit... Truly, he considered himself pretty screwed at this point, there was no research that could help him here. The only other place he could think of that could potentially hold it would be the locked cavern access... He'd check on their way out, if he lived that long.
He looks at Anja and shakes his head while disconnecting his Pipboy. Just because the research was useless to him didn't mean he wouldn't download it. Though, he definitely wouldn't be handing it to Hildern. "There's fuck all here, all the research is useless... But, judging by the logs, Keely is still alive somewhere around here, probably within the cavern the plants managed to escape into." he says, wondering why she'd venture into that place when it was clear most people who go to investigation never return.
Anja nods, "Maybe she'll know something that can help you? She's spent more time down here than anyone else." she observes, but Afton just shakes his head, "I doubt it..." he mutters.
They leave the room and shut the door behind them, continuing to explore the floor until they come across the room that seems to have had one of the walls torn apart... The thing responsible? Some roots were still growing from outside the wall, resting against the sides of the wall as if they were the ones who'd done it. If Afton knew one thing from his time here, it was that the plants KILL.
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง
Niggross
Niggross
Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
200+ การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
3 หินพลัง 
ความคิดเห็นย่อย