The minutes ticked on by as I slaughtered my way through the lengthy halls and checkpoints that checkered this building's sprawling interior, and after butchering close to another hundred men; I showed up at the false wall, hiding and protecting the control room.
"The masterminds of this uprising are just beyond this wall." I informed everyone while I reloaded my shotgun with a fresh, fully loaded magazine and stowed it away for later.
"Hmm, you don't say... How do you want to handle them?" Bob, the other intellectual of our party, asked.
"Take out and neutralize all immediate threats first before moving on to secure those in charge of this mess."
"Sounds like a plan." Gramps followed up before my other two companions, each nodded their heads in understanding.
With all five of us fully understanding the situation and what needed to be done, I drew both of my sidearms from their respective holsters and kicked the false wall with my full power. The wall wasn't too durable, so it broke into chunks and flew into the space before slamming heavily onto the carpeted floor inside the control room. This sudden and destructive attack of mine caused a bunch of dust and debry to get thrown up, so I used that impromptu smokescreen to my advantage and first threw in several F-3 Flashbangs to blind those in the space.
Once they had gone off and disoriented those within, I charged into the space alongside my squad, lined up my weapons on two separate targets on opposite sides of the room, and fired full auto bursts of superheated plasma with my FBPMP-11 Plasma Machine Pistol with my left hand and shot my AP-6 Hand Cannon in rapid succession with my right. I went from target to target alongside my squad, dispatching guard after guard, and the moment we had wiped the floor with their combat personnel; we began rounding up the unlucky survivors, who were all still reeling from the potent effects of the flashbangs.
I don't think I'll be able to extract any truly valuable information from these folks, but I'll see what I can get out of them before sending them to the afterlife.
Pretty much in full control of this installation now that most of the resistance had been extinguished and 100% certain that whatever remnants left would soon join them, I removed my helm and waited for these overly ambitious fools to recover from my grenades' blinding effects. These leading figures of the rebellion and their families came back one by one and pretty much all shared the same expression, one that indicated that they understood the reality of their situation. Minus that stupid young master, who made a full recovery from the time I busted his handsome mug years ago.
"IT'S YOU! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, LOWLY SCU-" The young master of the Carven Family started yelling.
I thought this animal would have gained at least a smidgen of intelligence after that whole ordeal I put him through, but I guess that was asking for too much.
Disinclined to listen to the literal bullshit he was spewing, I raised my hand cannon in the direction of the grown brat's leg and simply pulled the trigger, taking out his kneecap and crippling him on the spot.
"OH GOD, AAAHHHH-" The brat screamed in pain as he dropped to the floor with his mangled knee bleeding profusely.
Whilst this moronic young master bled out on the floor and stained it dark red, I made a recommendation to his father, who was glaring at me venomously from several feet away. "I would suggest you shut him up before I take any further action."
A few seconds passed as the unimportant and soon to be dead Carven Family young master cried and screamed on the floor in pain and agony, but that didn't go on for long because his dad soon knocked him out and tied off his leg to prevent him from dying of blood loss.
Satisfied with the reduction in noise, I had one of the Multibots grab a nearby chair for me and set it down right smack dab in front of my captives, and once it was in place; I took my seat upon it. "Now that the nuisance has been dealt with, we can get down to business. I'll ask my questions, and you'll answer. Got it!"
The many formerly powerful captives looked at me scared shitless but nonetheless nodded their heads in silence, although reluctantly.
"Good, let's start with-"
...
I interrogated them for around half an hour, and after I drew every bit of value I could get out of them; I told them of their fate. "Thanks for the info, but it looks like it's time to send you guys on your way."
"Where are you sending us?" One of the less intelligent ones of their group inquired.
I smiled and responded vaguely. "You'll know in a moment."
The instant I finished answering that middle-aged woman, I retrieved my FBPS-3 Plasma Melter and pointed it in the general direction of the formerly powerful leaders along with their families and pulled the trigger. My handheld plasma flamethrower ignited upon activation and spewed a wide swath of superheated emerald-colored flames on the crowd of people.
The extremely potent flames of my weapon rapidly devoured the crowds' flesh and burned the bunch of people of all ages to death and quickly consumed their bodies, leaving nothing behind besides some remnant ashes and black scorched marks. And although their deaths were relatively fast, they were not nearly fast enough to prevent those further away from letting out terrible screams of pain as the intense green fire incinerated their flesh.
As I was dishing out their just desserts, I noticed my friends behind appeared bothered by the incredibly ruthless and vile act I was committing to varying degrees and even though I knew they wanted to open up their mouths and say something they nonetheless kept them shut and watched... Silently. The only one of us who seemed entirely unbothered by my ruthless actions was Gramps, unsurprisingly.
They're going to have to get used to these sorts of things because the wasteland will not show them any mercy. Thankfully, I don't have to worry about the old man seeing how he's seen more than his fair share of atrocities over the decades he's spent exploring the wastes... I should really have a chat with him after this, so he and I can tackle any mental hiccups my friends may or may not be having.
Making plans to make sure my friends who were basically my brothers at this point got through this chapter mentally and unwilling to leave a single root behind, I continued my torment emotionlessly and bathed the crowd no matter how much they cried and screamed for mercy, no matter their gender, and no matter how young or old they may have been. Their relentless screams and wailing echoed loudly off the solid concrete walls of the control room, including the head of the Carven Family, though he was yelling tearfully for an entirely different reason.
I continuously spewed emerald green fire onto the crowd without pause as and mere moments later into my cleansing, the only perp left was the head of the Carven Family, who I separated from the rest of the group on purpose since he was the main instigator behind this bloody and gruesome event. Nearly done dishing out the punishment for their actions, I eyed the once powerful man who had billions to his and his family's names and found he was no more.
Seconds passed as I observed the older Caucasian gentleman, who was a shell of his former self, but he didn't keep me waiting for long and eventually piped up in a rough, raspy voice. "Kill me." He requested with a lifeless gaze.
I was expecting a bit more fight from the power-hungry guy, but I suppose being made to watch your family and every person related to you get reduced to ash right before your very eyes was simply too much for him to bear... Not that I believe many would've had the mental fortitude to go through such an extremely brutal and torturous event, but I guess this outcome isn't surprising when you tack on the privileged and easy life he was brought up in.
Knowing he had completely given up at this point and relinquished himself to whatever fate I had in-store for him, I approached the sad, pathetic man and said one last thing. "Haa, you could've just stayed in your lane and been content with the privileged, cushy position you were born into through the hard work of your forefathers. However, you instead chose to foolishly risk it all on the chance of knocking off the founding Steele family and claiming their seat as your own." The man twinged at my words but nevertheless remained silent with not even a single ember visible within those dead eyes of his.
Finding the defeated man had zero intention of refuting anything I said, I continued my narration. "Unfortunately for you and, fortunately for us, you had absolutely no idea of what you were truly going up against."
I paused for a brief few seconds and began wrapping things up. "Farewell, Adam, may your suffering be prolonged wherever you end up."
As soon as I finally finished saying what I wanted to, I raised my hand cannon to his cranium and pulled the trigger. The sound of the gunshot thundered and resounded loudly throughout the spacious room, and what immediately followed that booming noise was the sound of Adam Matthew Carven's lifeless body collapsing heavily onto the floor.
I would've loved to have seen this ruthless bastard gritting his teeth for a longer length of time as he suffered from the repercussions of his actions, but having to watch on helplessly as I take away absolutely everything from you, you might have cared about has got to be up there on the list.
Content in knowing I dished out a suitable enough punishment for this villain who dragged the innocent civilians of the undercity into his schemes and put my friends and family in danger, I paid no mind to the wall I just splattered with blood and brain matter of the dead man in front of it and turned to my comrades. "Alright, our job is done here... On second thought, we better loot the place before heading out, otherwise you four ravenous bastards will take me to the cleaners."
"Hey-hey, we don't eat that much." Big Tom, the least bothered of my companions, countered jokingly, attempting to lighten the grim mood.
Sharing a good laugh with Gramps and my buds, we joined the robots in scouring this captured fort and taking everything it had to offer, even the stuff bolted down. My army sustained no further losses in this raid due to the improvements made to their tactics, so with repairs being completely unneeded, I set off and joined my forces in looting the place from top to bottom.
…
When we had gathered everything of value and loaded it onto the many armored big rigs, the gang and I met back up with each other out in front of the large concrete perimeter wall.
"What are we going to do about the rest of the spoils of war... You know, the ones from all the fights on the way here." Big Tom asked.
"Hmm, that's a good question... Well, it's going to cost a fortune to repair all the infrastructure plus everything else that got damaged in this conflict, so might as well let the government have it so they fix the city good as new. There's also the many families of those that passed to consider too, who will no doubt be needing financial support from now on, so that's just another reason to let the undercity government deal with the situation."
It'll also farm some goodwill from the undercity residents, but that doesn't need to be stated.
"Hoo, you're being quite generous today, huh, kid?"
"I can be when I want to, but I really just don't want to waste time here when there's a plethora of things to take care of back at base."
With our business wrapped up here, the group and I linked up with my family and Takeshi's and made sure Bob's and Big Tom's families were fine before we went and met back up with the governor and the city's troops.
"Good news?" Alice's dad asked not long after my return.
Nodding my head, I gave a straight answer. "The mastermind and his allies have all been removed."
My father-in-law was elated to hear the wonderful news and quickly congratulated me on the job well done. "You did good, Dom..." He followed that up by placing his hand on my shoulder and examined me deeply for a few moments.
"I'm fine." I said, brushing off the obvious concern in his eyes.
"Just making sure."
"Dom's a trooper, so he'll be fine." My own father said, backing me up.
"To say the least." Gramps added, brimming with pride.
From that conversation, we got a few situations concerning the city under control before we ventured off and spread out across this expansive underground metropolis we called home.
...
The whole lot of us spent the next couple of hours crushing the remainder of the resistance, and the very minute we had finally brought this sudden violent outbreak to a close, the system popped up with a notification.
[ Ding! ]
[ Task Has Been Completed ]
I guess that means the city is clean now.
Finished removing the rebellious elements from the undercity, I turned to the gang. "So, where are we eating?"
"I would say let's go hit up the local diner, but I doubt it'll be open, given the recent chaos." The boy genius, Bob, commented.
"Mm, you have a point." Takeshi agreed.
The boys and I went back and forth brainstorming different ideas, but we couldn't really come up with a single place that would work. "Welp, since you rascals can't come up with anything, why don't let this old man decide?"
"Sure, if you got a place that's open."
"I got just the place in mind." The old fart smiled before packing us into his old armored truck like sardines.
[ Loot Gained ]
| Weapons |
AALP-3 Laser Pistols (456) - Combat Knives (988) - M76 Minigun (1) - M90 Frag Grenades (923) - M101 Frag Mines (200) - STAR-25 Assault Rifles (514) - TBT Sniper Rifles (20)
| Weapon Magazines |
5.56 STANAG 30 Round Magazines (3,358) - 7.62mm Minigun 500 Round Drum Magazine (3) - 7.62 STANAG 20 Round Magazines (180)
| Armor |
M-45 Combat Armors (476)
| Apparel |
Chest Rigs (661) - Rucksacks (150)
| Aid |
AFAKs (99) - First Aid Kits (98) - IFAKs (475) - Maxigen Bottles (77) - Medstims (2,306) - MFAKs (50) - P-Dex Bottles (192) - P-Dex Syringes (269) - R4GE Combat Stims (433) - Z-Rox Combat Stims (383)
| Ammo |
5.56x45mm Rounds (150,747) - 7.62x51mm Rounds (10,459) - Microfusion Cells (1,311)
| Skill Books |
All Things Gun (1) - Atomic Power (1) - Boom! (1) - Conversationalists Notebooks (3) - Entrepreneur (1) - Leaders Of The Worlds (2) - The Choice Is Yours (1)
| Miscellaneous |
Metal (459,032) - Stealth Packs (19) - Other Misc Items (1,571,966)
| Money |
Dollars (107,666,325) - Gold (500) - Silver (3,500) - Undercity 7 Credits (5,327,212,009)
[ Creatures Killed & EXP Gained ]
AAEL Defense Turrets (33) Exp 45,045 - Carven Family Officers (53) Exp 108,518 - Carven Family Squad Leaders (421) Exp 766,220 - Carven Family Troops (4,609) Exp 5,662,157 - Humans (101) Exp 91,910 - Human Mercenaries (2,789) Exp 3,806,985 - Human Mercenary Squad Leaders (145) Exp 362,863 - MD-7 Multipurpose Defense Turrets (19) Exp 60,515 - Undercity 7 Rebels (2,244) Exp 2,756,754 - Total Exp 13,660,967