It certainly didn't help that the area was built in favor of these soldiers either. It was at the back of the town where a sort of drainage/sewage mote existed around a building with a lot of cover all facing out towards the rest of the town. I spotted a couple of red chests there as well that I mentally tagged for looting later. Even with all their advantages these soldiers were fucked and knew it as they made sure we had to work for this victory. At one point Lil even had to stop using her powers to get close as the soldiers adapted to the sound she made when she reappeared and getting stabby.-
Shield or not Lil decided that it wasn't worth the risk and chose to play the back and forth shootout game Roland and I were doing. The fight wasn't long at all in truth, maybe two or three minutes max but it was super fucking intense. Once it was over though all that was left of the lance in the town was maybe a squad or two off to the right side of the town where the trash was piled up.-
"All that's left is to finish off the survivors and whatever's left in the rest of the town before we shut off those smoke signals. After that it's lootin time!" I said grinning widely.
I casually cleared the mote and activated my powers sucking in all this lifeforce and yet another five copies of [Gun expertise] and [Mechanical engineering expertise]. Most of the armors on the ground collapsed as the bodies in them turned to dust but a few didn't which promptly got shot until the bodies did turn into dust, no survivors.-
I didn't bother sorting all the loot just like before and opened up my house before stuffing everything in and putting it away again. In the first red chest I was disappointed to find a plain Uncommon quality Atlas sniper and a grenade mod of the same quality. The other red chest was better slightly as there was an Eridian gun of Uncommon quality in it. It was a blaster type weapon that had three "barrels" and a vaguely rifle like shape despite it's small size. It took me only a glance to identify what the thing did and I was not surprised to find it was fucking weak.-
It effectively sent several small energy projectiles at whatever it was aimed at like any similar SMG but the projectiles lacked any real oomph to them, it was a fucking peashooter.
"That bad huh?" Roland said after hearing my scoff.
"This thing is barely lethal unless you are a robot with circuits to fry, it's downright pathetic. It'll sell for a lot though so I suppose theres that." I said honestly.
"I think you might be a bit biased Alex." Lil said with a smirk and I rolled my eyes but didn't disagree as she was probably right.
The smoke signal was in truth merely a pile of burning tires on a disposal trapdoor that opened with the pull of a lever cutting off the smoke entirely as the fire suffocated. To my surprise though there was a Claptrap unit in a weird sort of elevator cage that had likely been what was keeping it safe from the bandits. I walked over to the keypad and promptly ripped it open to reveal the insides. Pressing my finger tip on the part that sent the unlock signal I shocked it and immediately the elevator started to lower.-
"Did you just brute force your way into rescuing my Claptrap?" Tannis asked over the echo as the robot was released.
"Didn't know it was yours but yes I did. It's not even that hard to do if you understand what you are looking at." I said with a shrug.
"I suddenly feel like a lot of my research isn't really safe anymore. Still you've unintentionally done me a service by freeing my Claptrap so I suppose I am in you debt." she said reluctantly.
"Nah, I was going to add this one to my collection if you hadn't said anything so purely a selfish act on my part that you benefited from. No debt needed." I said with a shrug.
I meant it too as saving the bot was merely something I did for selfish reasons only for it to benefit someone else. Nothing for it in my opinion as you'd be surprised how often things work out this way. If I collect a debt for every time that happened I'd drown in the favors owed me. Most people assume that cause and effect is a simple one to one ratio but it's rarely the case.-
In fact most of the time a single action has multiple effects whether immediately or in the long term that may or may not be obvious. In this case one of the effects was obvious but the others may take time to see. I didn't bother thinking about all of them because if I did I'd likely fry my brain from the sheer amount there. Ignoring the now roaming Claptrap that was waiting for us to fully clear out New Haven we headed over to the junkyard of the town that had the second of the four smoke signals we needed to shut down.-
The resistance here was miniscule with only five lancemen in our way. We collectively let Brick have these since he was useless in the previous firefight. He ended up with a new bullet hole in his chest but like the chad he was he shrugged it off until the fight was over.
"Hold fucking still, we need to get the bullet out before I can use some lifeforce to close the wound." I said as I dug around in the wound for the bullet and he squirmed uncomfortably.
Once the bullet was out i sent fifty lifeforce into his body which caused the wound to rapidly stop bleeding and start closing. It wasn't really healing so much as the lifeforce jolting his healing factor into overdrive for a brief moment. He'd still need a few days or a healing stimulant for the wound to fully close and at least two weeks for his chest to return mostly to normal with an extra scar and some aching. This was more or less something I discovered about lifeforce from past tests with it. The energy won't try and improve the body it's injected into if theres an injury but rather works to fix that first.-
With that done we turned off the smoke signal and moved to the third one that was nearby on top of a building. The lance were more protective of this one with ten soldiers guarding it, not that it worked. A nice gunfight and snack later that signal was also shut down with us moving to the final signal at the far left side of the town. This one proved a bitch and a half to shut down as the lance had the gall to install two autoturrets high up and nearly twenty soldiers of various varieties in wait.-
Brick, that poor bastard, was once again rendered helpless during most of this fight as the wall of bullets had all of us except Mordy and Lil pinned down. Mordy took out the turrets and Lil left explosive "gifts" at the soldiers feet while Roland and I took a few shots to the shields to slowly whittle the enemies down. Once that was done it was my favorite time and I collected all the loot into my house after feasting upon this fine meal. Nothing really interesting but the amount was not small at all.
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https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro
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Alexander Drake
Lifeforce:452,814
Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade]X4, [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Demi-supreme body-Legendary grade], [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Energy projection-Legendary grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade]X2,[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade]X2, [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X4, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X3,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade], [Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Mechanical engineering expertise-Rare grade], [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3, [Elemental body(Corrosive)-Rare grade], [Corrosion resistance-Rare grade], [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade],
Stored traits: [Flame projection gland], [Mechanical engineering expertise(degraded)-Common grade, [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade]x10, [Mechanical engineering expertise-Uncommon grade]x10