ALL NOVEL Chapter 9: Looking for answers
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Finally, I managed to get my hands on one of the anti-materiel rifles that I had been searching for because the tactic of taking advantage of the limited peripheral vision of power armor wasn't always feasible. Using inverted bullets could destroy my weapon, and if power armor was accompanied by more infantry, it would make it really difficult to kill soldiers with power armor, even the Vault-Tec armor that doesn't have such thick plating.
So my new acquisition was expensive. I had to trade one of the power armors to a centurion who wanted to modify his own armor with more pieces from the one I gave him to have more frontal protection.
I lost an armor, but the centurion didn't seem to care that I removed the servos, so I saved something from the armor. But with an anti-materiel rifle in my contubernium, we'll be able to fight better against power armor. I also managed to get information on how to manufacture, repair, and use them. I might try to convince my centurion that they're reliable armor and have my whole contubernium equipped with one of those armors until I get a West-Tek power armor, which is much better than Vault-Tec's cheap crap.
Still, many patrols of legionaries have suffered greatly in defeating the power armors. A centurion lost nearly forty legionaries to defeat a group of ten of the executives' soldiers, four of whom had power armor, because he made them charge against the group that was armed with pistols and assault rifles. A great victory for the centurion because he only used legionaries that had been newly recruited.
Unlike what we usually did of launching ourselves against the capital, the legate Lanius preferred to surround it while legionaries in motorized chariots captured all the executives' territories to cut off all forms of obtaining reinforcements or materials to make more power armors.
For several days, we constantly probed their defenses with small-scale attacks on the city they had built around their refuge, and since many buildings were constructed by our enemies, every window was a place where someone could be armed, so we were waiting for more reinforcements to be sent as cannon fodder.
On the day when eight centuries of men arrived, we were formed to carry out wave attacks on all sides of the city, forcing the executives to divide their forces, who still believed they could win because they hadn't tried to surrender, or the conditions for surrender were too intolerable.
When the order to charge was given, legionaries with machetes and spears fanatically threw themselves against the executives' defenses, who had built thick walls where they had all the Vault-Tec employees under their control fighting for their lives.
The shortage of assault rifles was evident since almost all of them used 10mm pistols, which made the Legion's tactic of throwing waves of fanatics at them actually work. The first wave was already trying to scale the walls, and seeing the weakness in the defense, Lanius ordered a general charge, throwing everyone into the battle.
Most of the decanus iofmy centurion had started to imitate my tactics due to the considerable increase in the survival rate of their subordinates, and the annoyance of having to retrain a legionary and get them to adapt to their group was shared by all. So they opted to train with us in urban combat.
This made moving through the streets much safer as there were more targets I could shoot at. When we encountered strong resistance with power armor, several legionaries charged, which bought us time for Cato to use his new rifle, which indeed proved effective against Vault-Tec power armor.
At the first shot, we saw a hole in the armor, and it finally fell to the ground. Cato kept firing while the recruit legionaries distracted the other soldiers with power armor. Finally, the resistance in the streets was eliminated with several casualties among the recruit legionaries and Cato's shoulder sore from the repeated recoil of the rifle.
We moved through the streets, eliminating anyone who peeked out the windows while the recruit legionaries furiously entered the buildings to fight hand-to-hand with those hiding inside.
After several minutes, we encountered the forces attacking from another direction and went to support the others who still had to keep fighting.
"Legionaries, here!" a centurion shouted, and we all began to run to his position.
Upon seeing a shelter in the ground, it was very likely that the executives' leadership was hiding here, probably thinking they were safe because the walls and door were impenetrable.
"Gaius, perfect, open the door like you did before," said a centurion, giving me a pat on the back.
"Let me see… Yes, as I suspected, it requires supervisor-level authorization to open the door, so I'm afraid I can't," I said after checking to see if someone had forgotten to properly close the security door.
"Ah… so what do we do… normal explosives won't work," said the centurion, surprised that I couldn't open the door.
I started thinking and observed the largest building in the city, which had the name Vault-Tec HQ.
"I'm going to check their computers in the main building. In the meantime, send legionaries to search for ventilation tunnels—they could be nearby or hundreds of meters away. If they find them, we should look for a way to block them to force them out," I told the centurion before heading to the building.
All my subordinates followed me, and upon entering the building, I found dead legionaries and many bodies dismembered by the legionaries.
I started checking all the available computers until I found one that didn't have too many access restrictions. I managed to locate the central server within the building.
Upon entering a well-decorated room, I found the workspace of CEO McKinley and her computer.
It had access to all the Vault-Tec databases in the area. In less than five minutes of breaking the computer's encryption, I had an ID with the same rank as the Vault-Tec CEO, so I could open the shelter without any issues. With everything ready, I returned to the shelter.
A sea of legionaries surrounded the shelter, eager to enter and kill Caesar's enemies.
"I'll have you crucified and make you watch as everything you've built collapses around you," I found Legate Lanius at the shelter's entrance, talking to the cameras.
I approached the legate, who gave me a brief glance.
"CEO McKinley, this is your last chance to surrender," I said, also looking at the cameras.
"Barbarian, you may know who I am, but it won't do you any good. These doors can withstand a nuclear explosion,we built it for a case like this. You'll die of old age waiting for us to open them," said the voice through the loudspeakers.
I inserted the CEO's ID into the door, and we heard the mechanism begin to open, as well as the voice expressing surprise at seeing their last, unbreakable defense fail.
"Done, Legate. The doors are open," I told Legate Lanius.
He simply responded with a small laugh and pointed at the door, where all the legionaries rushed in like hungry wolves against the shelter's facilities.
"Do you need anything from your old tribe?" Lanius asked.
"If they have hydroponic equipment, I could expand the Legion's food production. The shelter's power plant could also be used to boost my shelter. I suppose there were no experiments planned here, so there shouldn't be anything special. If you allow it, Legate, I'd like to investigate the documents of these profligates; they might contain valuable information for the Legion. The sooner I start, the less chance something will be corrupted," I replied to the Legate, who simply stood there with his arms crossed.
"You have my authorization, decanus, but remember, some information should not be rediscovered. Any data regarding automation must be destroyed," Lanius said, looking at me intently.
I signaled my men to follow me and returned to the Vault-Tec CEO's office, where I began searching for all important information—blueprints for tools, machines, weapons, and Vault-Tec power armor, including how to make, repair, and use power armor.
I studied and created holodisks of all the relevant information when something reminded me of an acronym: G.E.C.K. The briefcases that are extremely secure in the shelter, and I didn't know what they were for.
I quickly filtered all available files and found out what the acronym stood for: Garden of Eden Creation Kit. It was a terraforming tool that cleaned radiation from the area and made the land fertile again. I also noticed it was listed as inventory, and the executives had one stored, planning to use it for aggressive land acquisition in the future.
Without making much fuss, I made a copy of the information and deleted the files, while continuing my search for information.
After hours of searching, I found machines used to expand shelters; there was even a plan to expand the shelter to increase the underground hydroponic farms.
Finally, I found blueprints for construction robots. As with everything else, I made a copy on a holodisk and deleted all information related to autonomous robotic machinery.
The last thing I found was the aggressive acquisition plans of the Vault-Tec CEO, marking many shelters in the area and all files related to the experiments being conducted in each one. I never thought I could hate a company so much.
As well as the fact that the executives were not from the area, there was a secret Vault-Tec shelter in a nearby town, so this shelter must have been built by executives,preparing for a siege or for more nuclear missiles to fall
I saved a copy of the map and, after filtering all the important keywords from all the Vault-Tec information available, I went to see if I could get the G.E.C.K. here before someone broke it or decided it was pretty and didn't want to part with it.
Several hours had passed, and calm had settled over the city again, only hearing legionaries moving around searching for abandoned weapons.
Many legionaries were already working to dismantle the machines and remove everything important from the shelter. When I entered, I found areas still sealed off; apparently, they hadn't found the CEO's access, so there were still sealed rooms. I also found that after all these hours, the room where the supervisor could oversee everything was still sealed.
That meant only one thing—the CEO was still alive and trapped, probably with what I had come to retrieve under her care.
Placing the supervisor ID in the door's reader, it opened quickly. Without giving her time to react, I ran in, even without having a clear target.
I spotted my target, who was kneeling and crying, and quickly tackled her.
"Well, look what I've caught—a damn Vault-Tec bitch," I said with considerable disdain as I restrained her arms.
"No… help… someone… no!" the woman screamed, trying to break free.
"That's not going to work. Everyone's dead or captured, soon to be slaves. Besides, your people made sure to make me extremely strong," I said as I began to strangle her.
She tried to fight for her life, hitting as hard as she could, but each second my hands were on her throat, her blows grew slower and weaker.
But I wouldn't be satisfied with such a quick death. That Vault-Tec bitch had to suffer, so I loosened my grip. While she struggled to breathe and coughed, I focused on finding the safe's code, which, like in our shelter,the safe was hidden behind a painting.
When I found the safe's code , I stood up, kicked the Vault-Tec employee hard in the stomach, opened the safe, took the briefcase, and dragged the former CEO by her hair back to the camp.
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Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
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I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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