บท 576: 'Seared'
[Raul has become your companion!]
[Raul grants you a Perk : Regular Maintanance]
[Regular Maintanance] : All equipment used by your party will degrade 50% slower.
Interesting, but no all that useful... This Perk is rendered useless if Afton is around, primarily due to [Mechanicus]... Regardless, it would help his Companions that were doing missions away from him.
With his new follower, Afton ventured back down Black Mountain to get back to the Brotherhood base... Though, on the way, he stops by Neils shack and spots the Super Mutant passed out on the floor with many empty bottles of whisky next to him.
Deciding to leave Neil to his own devices, Afton leaves and continues to the base, actually getting back just in time for the teleport extenders to be ready for use.
Afton grins as he spots his friends, "Yo-"*Clank!* he's interrupted as Veronica gives him a light punch to his helmeted forehead.
"That's for doing radio-karaoke without me!" she exclaims, pointing a finger at the radio still playing his crappy rendition of 'Fly me to the moon'.
Afton ignores the punch and just laughs, "It was funny though, wasn't it?"
...
"Kinda? But after listening to it four times it loses its effect ." she admits before turning her head towards the Ghoul, "This ain't a replacement for Anja, I hope?" she asks, semi-sarcastically.
"Anja? That another Ghoul you been keeping boss? Maybe I shoulda tried my luck back at my shack..." Raul snarks.
Afton shakes his head, "No... Her cybernetics should still be in development as we speak. Raul here also doesn't have her 'feminine charm'... Plus he can fix vehicles and stuff." he shrugs.
The group make small talk for couple more minutes until Afton finally claps his hands and looks towards the Brotherhood prisoners, "It's time to send our friends on their way I think."
A few grim nods are given as they walk over to the boundary set out by the Teleport extenders, Christine's mother continues to plead for her to stop this, but Christine just ignores her, grasping Veronica's hand tightly with a tense frown.
Afton nods to McNamara who just stands there with his arms folded. "I'll leave you all in 'Elder' McNamara's hands... Please don't come back to the Mojave, or I'll be forced to do something even more drastic than sending you all to Mexico... Cya later!" he waves as lightning strikes the group, uplifting dust as they all disappear.
The Teleport extenders power down and begin recharging again while releasing a heat-vent sound. Afton turns back towards his companions and grins, "Alright, time to get this place ready for our NCR guests."
With that, Afton, his companions, and the able people in his army all begin repairing, modifying, and preparing the base for the NCR attack that'll be occurring in around two weeks.
Elsewhere :
Shani can't help but feel as if her end is quickly approaching... This place, Big Mt has quickly started becoming more militaristic than it used to be... Recently some of the people she had been brought here with had been allowed to go free... Under the condition they willing had some sort of chip installed.
As much as she wished to leave, having those... Things, operate on her in any sort of way made her feel sick to her stomach. As such, she was forced to stay, and forced to watch as various things occurred around her...
She wasn't even sure if the others had noticed yet... But she'd snuck around and found that large fenced off area, she'd seen the large monstrosities held inside... She'd checked on that place occasionally, yet the creatures inside changed almost constantly... The colour of their hides, their sizes, the way they act... She'd even seen one that looked vaguely human, its snout having been drastically shortened, along with its height.
All of this just made her more sure that her vision would be occurring soon. So, she decided to try and escape... She'd been watching how people operated those teleporters, and she was sure they wouldn't work for her even if she tried, so instead she elected to try and dig a small passage through the train tunnel that'd collapsed in the past at some point.
And, after weeks of work... She finally broke through and was greeted with the gloomy darkness of the tunnels. She was about to enter inside and flee this place when a small whirring sound starts behind her... Slowly and stutteringly, she turned her head, and was greeted with the familiar orange eye of a drone...
"Subject designated: Shani, you need to return back to your apartment immediately. Attempts to refuse will result in injuries and potential death." its robotic voice emotionlessly state .
"W-what? N-no! I'll be fr-"
*SCREEECH!!*
The sound of some sort of creature has Shani's head whip around towards the tunnel... Where some humanoid reptilian creatures skitter towards her on all fours... Immediately, she flees in the other direction. She takes one glance over her shoulder towards the drone that'd for some reason attempted to save her... Only to spot large weapons appear from its chassis...
*BEEeeewwww*
*PEWPEWPEWPEPEWPEWPEWEPWEPWEPEPWPEWPEWPEWPEPWE!*
The Gatling laser that'd appeared from Glados' drone immediately begins firing down the tunnel, disintegrating many Tunnelers are they charge towards it. The drone floats far above them however, firing at them without the creatures being able to reach the drone...
The creatures, suddenly realising the sheer disadvantage they were under quickly retreat back into the tunnel. Just in time too, as large groups of Cyberdogs and other robots appear around the tunnel, ready to combat any force that may appear.
Glados drone retracts its weapon and turns, focusing on Shani who was still sprinting away. "Foolish Meatbag."
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Niggross
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บท 577: Trained
Upon getting back to Big Mt, Afton's first reaction to hearing tunnelers had broken in was to punch a wall and curse whatever god was shitting on his parade. "For fuck sake! I finally get things going the way I want and this shit happens?" he sighs while pinching the bridge of his nose.
After taking a moment to himself he looks back at Glados' drone which had delivered the bad news. "And where is Shani now? I'm still wondering whether I should punish her for trying to escape, or thank her for revealing this rather extreme security risk... One you didn't seem to notice I might add." he states with a slight glare.
"Subject is currently resting in their apartment... They appear to have shut all curtains, locked all windows and doors, and is hiding in their bathtub..." Glados explains, somehow sounding awkward about having to say this.
...
Afton crooks a brow, "So... Like, is she having a mental break or something?..." he trails off.
"That can neither be confirmed nor denied without a psyche test. I suggest you speak with her before the meat bag tries to end its own miserable existence."
Afton releases a sigh and nods before turning and quickly walking towards Shani's apartment. He ignores the greetings of the maids living here and eventually reaches her room, giving it a couple of firm knocks.
Inside, he hears someone panicking and quietly muttering gibberish. This only gets louder with each knock... He raps his knuckles again the door again, but Shani still doesn't seem to want to answer it.
Letting out another sigh, Afton allows his plant arm to infest the lock, and after locating all the pins he shapes a key from it. With a satisfying click, the door swings open, though, he's greeted by Shani rushing him with a knife... That just harmlessly skitters off of his Power armour. The woman continues to attack him with tears streaming down her face, as if this was her last stand...
Finally having enough, he grips her wrist and clenches his hand, forcing her to drop the knife, afterwards he jabs her in the neck with his fingers and renders her completely unconscious. With that done, he tosses her over his shoulder and begins marching back to the Think Tank so he can get this woman sorted out...
Clearly, she wasn't in a healthy state of mind, so he'd have her checked out... Might as well take some fresh samples from her while they're at it. Now they had 'Scorpion-Mans' samples, Mr X's samples, and Shani's, there was a good chance of some progress being made on Psykers.
He leaves Shani with Dala and makes his way to the tunnel where the breach occurred. Since then there was a constant military presence patrolling the area, but there hadn't been any expeditions into the tunnels as of yet... Afton was pretty sure any unprepared force would quickly be wiped out, Tunnelers aren't your average beast after all.
Afton crosses his arms and glances at Glados drone that floats next to him, "So. How did the tunnelers gain access to these tunnels anyway? I thought you had patrols covering the exits?"
"Patrol would routinely check them, creator. The tunnelers must have snuck through our defences somehow... It is strange, and potentially indicates far more intelligence than has previously been observed..." she states.
"Great... NCR attack is coming, Legion bolstering defences along Hoover Dam, and now Tunnelers gaining intelligence and committing to a sneak attack against us... Glados, has Borous found anything from his Tunneler test subjects that might indicate anything?" he asks, hoping there'd be a reason for the current situation.
"Negative. Though, the reason for this could be that we have not found the Tunneler variant responsible yet. As you know, the species is incredibly diverse, and it is likely that a mutation that drastically increases intelligence can occur."
Afton chews his lip for a moment before nodding, "Alright... I want a group of Deathclaws, Ultimo-bots equipped with flamers, and Cyberdogs ready for an expedition as soon as possible. I'll be accompanying them, so inform me when everything is ready." he states.
"Affirmative, Creator."
Elsewhere :
"HHHaaargh!" a feminine roar sounds out as Tamia lifts the heavy rebar weaved concrete slab. The power armour she's wearing creaks under the sheer pressure it's put under, but after careful training in recognising its limits, Tamia slowly lifts the concrete from the ground.
She lifts it to around her hip before the strain is too much and she unceremoniously drops the three-quarter-ton weight. She sucks in heavy breathes after the exertion, despite the Power armour assisting her in lifting it, she still had to utilise all her strength.
This was the last test required for her to finally complete her Power armour training... It required you to use just enough of the suit without damaging it, which, as it turns out, is much harder than it'd seem. You have to judge how much strength you are using, while recognising the few cues that'd indicate the armour is close to failing.
Of course, there is a reason the training is so strict... If you overexerted the armour it could potentially implode under the pressure, crushing everything in the area and more likely killing whoever is wearing it. Everything comes with a price, and essentially becoming bullet-proof was a hard debt to pay.
She drops the weight with a grunt and looks around, grinning at Josie who's not even close to completing her own training yet. "Come on, you're almost there." she encourages but holds herself back to prevent causing Josie to overextend herself.
Unfortunately, the engineer gives up, too scared to approach the limits of the armour due to the many risks associated with it. Still, Glados' drone floats over to them, "Subject designated: Tamia, congratulations for completing the mandatory Power armour training. You are rewarded with the armour you currently wear, and the gratitude of... Myself..." she states the last part in a robotic, clearly prerecorded way, "And... the rest of Bulwark. You have permission to take time off until you are called back for duty."
And with that, Glados floats away again, not even saying a word to Josie who looks mightily put out at being ignored...
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Niggross
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