As I was hauling ass to the undercity, I continued using and trying out different things with my stealth field like I've been doing and out of nowhere something seemed to click in me, and the next thing I knew I figured out how to muffle the sound within the area of effect of my ability.
I knew fucking around with my stealth field was going to make something happen eventually, but I didn't think it would be this.
I messed around with this newfound feature a bit more and soon came to a conclusion that this was going to boost my capabilities and especially those of my forces a fair bit.
This is quite the game changer for me and my forces. The ability to move in on targets with a small army producing minimal noise until it's really too late for them to do anything is quite the broken ability considering my current firepower let alone what'll I'll have at my disposal once I lay claim to Fort Kern and Area 51 and the advance technologies that lay within. Although I will say I wished it completely silenced all the noise since that would make it nearly impossible for anyone to detect our movements… Maybe that'll come in the future.
Hoping to either find out how to do such a thing or unlock it via an increase in my stealth skill, I kept moving forward and soon entered the ghost town of Adaven. From there, I sped through the long-abandoned and ruined mining town, whose only inhabitants were mutants, and entered the tunnels, rapidly closing in on my destination. Nearing ever closer to my objective, I zoomed through the spacious mines and swiftly turned up at the gargantuan door that was securing the entrance to the undercity and keeping the wasteland and its undesirables out.
Hmm, I wonder if I'm going to encounter any difficulty with the security forces guarding the undercity's entrance… Well if they're compromised it's not like it's the end of the world since I can easily take them all down and remove an additional cancer from the city.
Confident in my ability to face any situation I may encounter, I hopped off my ride and retrieved my H-40 Grenade Machinegun, fully loaded with high explosive rounds. Now prepared to take out all defenses in a matter of seconds alongside my autonomous combat bike, I approached the door preventing my entry, and rang up the security personnel on the other side. However, no matter how many times it rang, I never heard that recognizable click.
Looks like they're preoccupied... That can't be good.
Unwilling to just stand around and twiddle my thumbs while waiting for someone to answer any longer, I took matters into my own hands and decided to investigate what was going on myself. The moment I approached the massive door protecting this underground city, I checked to see if I could hear anything from beyond the door. But due to its incredible thickness, I couldn't hear a damn thing, so I went and tried the next best thing, my perception field. Unfortunately, that turned up nothing as well with its normal range.
Hmm, no one's in the firing area between the defenses and the door... Let me try one last thing before I phase through with | Ghost |.
Trying the last ability I had at my disposal, I focused my perception field in a conical shape and began scanning with my 3x extended range. Unsurprisingly, I didn't have to scan for more than a few seconds to discover the reason why no one was picking up my call. What my scan revealed was a few hundred Carven Family troops attempting to seize control of the undercity's entrance and its nearby facilities from the stationed security forces.
I better get in there and lend a hand before any more of our people die.
Cognizant of the fact that time was of the essence, I retrieved my bike and stowed it away in my item box before activating | Ghost | and phasing through the monstrous door that protected this underground metropolis. The second I made it to the other side, the booming sounds of gunfire rang throughout the formerly peaceful air of the undercity as well as a cacophony of other violent sounds and noises.
As a sense of urgency bubbled up inside me, I hastily deployed the dozens and dozens of robots I'd been keeping in my item box, along with my Black Mamba that I had stowed away seconds prior whilst fully automatic gunfire and explosions rang off in the distance.
"Alright, let's go, boys."
"Rodger-" My many mechanical men returned.
My crew was fast, but they were nowhere near capable of keeping up with my own speed, so I left them in my dust and rushed on ahead to save as many of our guys as I could and reduce the damage they were sustaining as much as possible. I sprinted as fast as my legs would take me, and the instant I ran up on the defenses; I jumped and scaled the defensive wall, encasing the only entry and exit of this underground city. As soon as I made it to the top, the gravity of the situation laid bare before me.
What entered my vision, as well as my perception field, was a war zone filled to the brim with bodies lying in mixed pools of blood and a plethora of body parts strewn all about. Needing to know who was who and where exactly I needed to direct my deadly explosive firepower, I examined the battlefield in greater detail and did my best to disregard the carnage that even possessed dozens of smoldering craters with nothing but remnants of the deceased combatants' gear with bits of flesh and bone holding onto them.
Regretting my younger self's indecision even more than previously, I focused on the now and once I had distinguished friend from foe; I hoisted my heavy grenade machine gun up and directed it to the far most enemy on the left side and pulled the trigger. My actions immediately caused a thump-like sound from my weapon, and at the same time that noise reverberated through the surroundings a 40mm high explosive grenade left my weapon's muzzle, arced through the air, and sailed in the direction of a squad of Carven Family troops taking cover behind a wrecked armored vehicle.
Having practically signed their death warrant, I continued holding down the trigger and started sweeping my weapon over the targets of elimination. As my grenade machine gun released a successive series of thumps, the first of the explosive booms soon followed, and once they had, that original group of soldiers I had initially targeted was obliterated and blown away in the blink of an eye.
The sight of my enemies' flying shredded body parts brought me immense satisfaction and relieved some of the guilt, regret and shame I was feeling, so I kept laying down continuous fire and soon had a hail of extremely deadly grenades soaring towards a majority of the hostiles across the area. Mere moments later, deafening explosion after deafening explosion rocked the battlefield, leaving nothing behind but destruction in its wake.
My furious firepower caused the war zone to fall into a period of momentary silence as both allied and enemy forces alike looked on astonished, with a not so small amount of fear beginning to bubble up inside them. And just as they were coming to the realise they had just survived whatever the fuck that was, my chopper and robots finally rolled up to the scene and began gunning down all the targets my explosive barrage was unable to annihilate.
Thankfully for my robots and I, the security personnel manning the defenses here recognised us from our constant trips back and forth through the city's "sole entrance and exit", so there were no instances of friendly fire to be had while we mopped up the remaining hostile forces. A minute passed by before we had the battle settled, and when we did, I climbed off the top of the fortification and approached the defending forces to one inform them of incoming reinforcements and two to save any injured in critical condition.
"Looks like I came just in time to pull you guys out of the fire."
"There's no doubt about it, and I'm glad you did, because it was only a matter of time before we would've been overwhelmed by those bastards. Thanks for that." Officer Davey, the head honcho of the undercity's entrance, thanked me.
After receiving a few more words of thanks from the other soldiers nearby who weren't busy stabilising their wounded brothers, I informed the decorated but armored officer of the coming reinforcements. "Hey, I got some more reinforcements en route, so can you do me a favor and let them in as soon as they show up at the door?"
"I'm not really supposed to. However, the circumstances are dire, so I'm sure the leadership will allow us to break the rules, given the seriousness of the situation."
Receiving the a-okay from the person in charge, I spent a short bit alongside my robots helping the injured and once we saved who we reasonably could with the timeframe we had available; I gave the men a few supplies prior to preparing to rush to the next area of action. After having claimed every kill, saved as many allies as my current abilities would allow, and infected a number of turrets and cameras with my will, I reloaded my weapons and moved off in a hurry for another battlefield with my fearless mechanical troops trailing close behind.
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