Wasteland Conqueror

Chapter 113 Raid In Progress

Although the bunch of us were excited to sneak in there and get this mission underway, there were quite a few robots and heavy defenses that could easily put my female companions out of commission if given the chance, so the girls and I kept our wits about us as we began rounding the base. The security measures, although dated and very old, were still functional and nearly just as deadly as the day they were installed, so we kept following along the wall all while keeping hundreds of meters worth of space between us and the automated defenses, that continuously scanned the area outside the fort's perimeter.

If we were any closer, we would've gotten lit up, and if we were any further, we might've encountered some wild, ferocious mutants stalking just beyond the kill zone of the base. But fortunately for us, I had run through this place dozens upon dozens of times back in my old world. Hence, I knew exactly where the fine line of safety laid and where danger began and good thing I did because it wasn't long before I heard an unfortunate mutant getting shot to shit by multiple energy turrets when it wandered in range of the turrets' sensors.

And that there is why we're keeping as far away as we are.

As that thought crossed my mind, I returned to looking forward and continued leading the girls around the base, specifically to where I remembered a hidden entry point existed. Fort Kern was a massive military installation, to say the least, but after circling around it for a dozen minutes at a relatively brisk pace, we arrived at the very rear of the base. And once we did, we came upon a small hidden crack right between where the defensive wall and the mountain met and connected.

Having arrived at the very means we would use to sneak into the base undetected, I made an announcement and waved the three beauties over. "Alright, we're here, girls. Now we can really get this raid underway."

"So Dom, how'd you know this sneaky way in was here?" Mary asked curiously as she and my two lovers followed along.

"You see those little guys flying around up there."

"Yeah." She responded the moment her eyes locked onto one of my sparrows that was circling above in the clear blue sky.

"Well, I have control of it and many others like it, and can use them as my literal eyes in the sky, so to speak. Hence, why it was so easy to find a way in such as this." I said, making up a pretty believable excuse on the spot.

"Hmm, can we get something like that too?"

"I suppose, but it won't be anywhere near the same level of usefulness as mine, since I can literally use their eyes as my own, so I don't think it would be all that useful to you and the others."

Noticing my words had put a damper on the excited glint in their eyes, I figured I could toss them a bone and let them know a thing or two about a particular idea I'd been giving some thought to as of late. So as we reached the secret way in, that was hidden by a number of overgrown, untrimmed bushes, I paused for a brief few moments as I checked to see whether my big frame would be able to clear the gap between the wall and the rocky terrain.

"That said, I do have plans for integrating them into my forces on a large scale, meaning you, Alice, Rei, and everyone else will eventually get linked up with the network I'm in the midst of designing. So even though you won't have something like your own eyes in the sky like myself, since it requires the abilities I've gained through my system, you'll at least know what is going on in the surrounding area."

"Ohh, it's sad to hear that we won't have our very own eyes in the sky like you, dear. But I'm sure the alternative you have planned won't end up too bad once you've completed it, right, girls?"

"Mm, everything Dom's made for us in the past has more often than not been a major help, so I'm sure this network will be no different when it's finished."

"Well, if that's what you two are saying, I guess we will be getting some kind of version of our own eyes in the sky, so to speak." The wildflower added, before directing the conversation back to me. "Isn't that right, handsome?"

"I was playing with the idea of a minimap being added to the suits' H.U.D. so that could work as a version of what I got. But keep in mind it can be iffy if there aren't enough units in the area, so don't expect to be able to rely on it at all times. Though if we are dominating a sector, I should be able to make the minimap feed in real time, which will pretty much grant you three and everyone else a version of what I have at my disposal."

Their vibrant, different-colored eyes gleamed at my words, and though it was nice to see them so excited about the future, there would be no minimap unless we got through this mission first.

"Alright, that's enough chit-chat, come on!" I told them as I crouched down and started crawling through the gap, since it was wider at the bottom.

"Coming." Alice answered for the three of them.

The walls surrounding the fort were thick, so after crawling for a bit, I popped out on the other side where a bunch of bushes covered the opening. Quickly climbing to my feet, I stood up and scanned the area again, with my eyes instead of my perception field, which did most of the heavy lifting when it came to examining my surroundings. Although the action was wholly unnecessary thanks to my perception field spanning a massive 1,516 meters, I was still human at the end of the day... Or at least considered myself to be.

What I found surrounding us was several buildings, all of which had their back ends facing us and providing plenty of cover from the automated defenses and the roaming machines' host of sensors. "The coast is clear, come on out!"

When my female companions heard my voice, they left the relative safety that the crack in the wall provided and looked around the area with their weapons drawn and ready to fire. Fortunately, nothing was lurking in this far-away back corner of the base, so I grabbed their attention and had them follow my lead, since I pretty much knew this place like the back of my hand. Under my direction, I led us through the base's less active and least traveled sections.

As we traveled to the destination I had in mind, we ducked behind cover whenever a patrol was passing through and used the military installation's many corners to our advantage whilst we wisely refrained from picking any fights. All it would take to send things south here was to disable one of the innumerable machines running around this place offline, and before we knew it, we would be facing a flood of deadly pre-war military robots and machines. So it was best to keep a low profile, at least until I could compromise the tech running this whole base.

Fortunately for my group and I we had quite a number of advantages working in our favor, so after sneaking past yet another squad of patrolling gun drones, we came upon a sort of metal cover located on the back of an old reinforced concrete building, that held up remarkably well for being over 200 years old.

"This is the place. We're going to head through here and go underground." I said lowly so I wouldn't alert the mechanical forces roaming the military installation to our unauthorized presence.

The girls responded with silent nods to indicate their understanding, and once they had, I approached the hatch like cover, took out my lockpick set, and started finagling the lock. I was quite the experienced lock breaker by this point in my life, so before long, we heard an audible click from the lock's mechanism.

With the lock disabled, it's time to get in there and make our way to the central server.

Having beaten the lock in a brief few moments, I opened the hatch door next, whilst doing my best to keep the old thing from squeaking and making too much noise. Luckily, I managed to keep the noise to a minimum, so as soon as I had the thing open, I had the squad descend into the darkness that lay within whilst I closed the hatch behind us and brought up the rear.

I knew nothing dangerous was nearby, so I had nothing to worry about having the girls go in first. However, the moment I had the metal door shut, I still climbed down the dark, unlit stairs with my night vision enabled and retook my place at the front since this massive maze-like space running under the base wasn't without its fair share of danger.

When I had once more returned to my leading position, I scanned the underground utility maintenance room we found ourselves in for a light switch. Although it had been decades since I'd last been down here, I had come through here so many times in the past that it didn't take me more than a moment to find what I was looking for. And the second I did, I approached the switch and flicked it into the on position, and the next thing we knew the lights that had lain dormant for possibly centuries flickered to life.

"I'm just going to reiterate this again because the last thing I want to deal with is a swarm of robots, but we're going to keep sneaking our way through the base. And only once we've taken control of the systems running things here will we be allowed to start taking the bots out. Is that clear?"

"Crystal." The firecracker answered for the three of them.

As I was about to proceed forward, Rei spoke up about something that had been on her mind previously. "Umm, I meant to ask this before, but why aren't we taking them out when you did so for the Cyberdynamics Robotics Facility?"

"Good question, that would be primarily because there is an advanced military AI running this base to this day, that can react to all kinds of new variables and situations on the fly. Meaning, if a bunch of its forces started going offline because of our actions, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities to see it move its forces to the area we're in and eventually discover us. This would then expose you girls to even more danger than you're already in, on top of making our whole mission here that much more difficult and time-consuming."

"Ohh, so that was the reason."

"I was wondering why we were holding back too, but it makes sense now if we're trying to keep a low profile from an advanced AI." Alice chimed in as well.

"Any more questions?"

Seeing them shake their heads no, I ended the conversation there. "Okay, then, let's see if we can finish this mission before nightfall."

Finally, assured that they wouldn't just start shooting unless absolutely necessary, I strode to the sealed door at the opposite end of this utility room and opened it from the switch at the side before continuing our venture through Fort Kern's underground layers. From that entry point, we began our initial foray into the dark, aged sublevels, which, although dusty, held up even better than the exposed structures above.

The four of us kept proceeding down the no-frills concrete hall, with various pipes and wires running across its surface, and before long we came upon a few that had come loose from their holds.

"Hey, watch where you step, there's some debry that came loose from the ceiling up ahead."

"Rodger."

The night vision was kind of unneeded for me due to my innate low light vision granted to me by | Cat Eyes | but when the two were combined it pretty much made my vision down here the equivalent of standing in a brightly lit room, thus I kept it active as we pressed on into the darkness. Our venture through the underground was uneventful as we crisscrossed across the massive network of tunnels and dedicated military space and closed in on the cargo elevator located on the north side. But this was only possible because of my knowledge of the base's structure and the patrol patterns of the robots roaming the various halls and spaces down here.

However, this wouldn't remain the case for too much longer because just as we were busy descending the massive, industrial-sized elevator shaft via one of the two ladders embedded into the concrete walls, a mutant wave started assaulting the base from the sky.

I wasn't expecting this variable, seeing how I've never come across it in any of my playthroughs, but I guess we'd better hurry this operation along; otherwise, those vermin out there will steal my exp.

Feeling a sense of urgency beginning to stew in me, I swapped my grip on the ladder and raised my head to tell the girls that we were about to switch things up from this point forward, but before I could, I caught sight of the splendid view closing in on my head. 

Ahh, I really am a lucky guy.

Once I got a good, solid look at the nice, shapely asses floating right above me, I opened my mouth. "Hey, change of plans, the situation above ground has had an unexpected variable introduced, so we're going to throw stealth to the wind and beeline it to the central server."

"Does that mean we can finally let loose?"

"Have at it." I answered, causing the three beauties to gain a boost of vigour and a glint of excitement.

"Hey, hey, careful now! What are you going to do if you fall?" I warned Mary, who was getting a little too rambunctious with her joyfulness.

"Oh, sorry about that." The firecracker quickly apologised after ratcheting back her excitement.

The instant I was sure none of them would be falling off the ladder by mistake, I loosened my grip on the sides of the ladder and allowed myself to slide down the remaining three floors I had to go to reach the 5th underground level. As I approached the solid metal awaiting me below, I slowed myself down so I wouldn't slam into it like a smithing hammer being struck on an anvil. And when I finally met with the floor, I landed softly on my feet and removed myself from the ladder and moved out of the way, so my women could get off too whenever they reached this level.

I had a few dozen seconds to wait before they would arrive on this floor, so I spent the time running my eyes over the surroundings, particularly the gargantuan armory door at the back of this huge space. 

seized-up cargo elevator platform.

I've always wondered what lay below that seized-up elevator in the back of the armory and whatever was hiding in the depths of that darkness in the past. But since this is no longer a game world, I'll be able to finally get that gargantuan platform moving and see what has been waiting down there out of my reach for all these years.

My xianxia senses allowed me to see what lay beyond what my sight could reach, but unfortunately that wasn't enough because the large shaft just kept extending way past the limits of my normal perception range.

This elevator isn't endless, is it?

Intrigued by the incredible depth this shaft extended to, I was about to step over to the armory doors and open it before moving to the platform itself so I could examine its depths with my even stronger eyes, but the girls had finally reached the 5th floor, thereby putting a stopper on that urge of mine.

Hmm, it looks like I'll have to hold off finding out just a bit longer... I've waited this many years already, so I can wait a few more hours if need be.

Although I was incredibly eager to find out what had escaped my curiosity for years and could have easily found out what awaited me down there if I just focused my perception field and extended its range via that method, I chose to hold off and leave myself in suspense since even if I could find out what was down there right now it's not like I could do anything with it just yet. Plus, I had bigger fish to fry, so finding out what was lying past the fifth level would have to wait until after I've taken control of the central computer and dealt with the messy fighting going on above ground.

Putting a pause on things there, I waited for my companions to rejoin me on the lowest floor I was able to explore in the past. And as soon as Alice, Rei, and Mary got off the ladder and grouped up with me, I turned for a small sealed armored door and unhesitantly unlocked it with | Mechanical Domination |. Time was of the essence, so I couldn't afford to waste my time here fiddling with the lock the old-fashioned way when more and more exp was being lost above.

"Alright, we're going to take the fastest route to the central systems from here on out, so get ready to run into at least a few machines on our way there."

"Understood, we'll be ready." Rei answered for the three of them.

Confident that they would be able to handle the robots and automated defenses I sensed ahead, I began leading the squad on the most expeditious route to the brain of the operations here at Fort Kern.