"Oh, holy shit" Conrad muttered.
"Ditto" Carter said.
The two looked through binoculars to see that the Enclave's Red Rocket cover was swarming with dozens of power armor-clad soldiers. Six vertibirds hovered over the area, searching for any patrols cut off from the base by the attack.
Both Alpha and Sigma Squads had responded to the distress call from Bunker Sigma with haste, all but raiding the Bunker Alpha garage for vehicles and taking a platoon of Knights. They were currently held up in a Super-Duper Mart not far from Bunker Sigma.
"We're never getting past, not even with these" Gregor said, rummaging through his munitions satchel and counting the explosives within.
"No, we're not getting in this way" Conrad said while wiping his brow in relief. Carter understood why. When Alpha received word of the attack everyone had assumed Maxson's forces had breached the bunker, now they knew that wasn't true, at least yet.
"Sigma One. The emergency exit?" Vic asked.
"Emergency exit?" Carter asked in turn.
Aisha turned to Carter, "Aye. When the Brotherhood came for us they hadn't even realized this gas station was our cover. We had an emergency exit in the sewers beneath the city, they found references to it hidden in some Vault-Tec paperwork"
"Yes, we can go through there to get to the bunker" Conrad said. The Paladin rubbed his jaw. "All right, all right. Carter, Gregor. I need the two of you to stay here. Tell us if anything in the situation changes. Got that?"
"Roger that" Carter said.
"Alpha Four. Stay here with Sigmas Five and Two. We'll take half the Knights, Sigma Two, you keep the other half just in case things turn sour" Vic said.
"Got it" Gregor responded. "I'll be sure not to get 'em killed"
Vic and Harris walked to the back of the store and out the loading door, where the platoon of Knights was stationed.
"You three stay safe" Conrad said. "We'll radio you when we've got Sigma evacuated, shouldn't take more than an hour. I'll make sure to leave an APC"
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SAVIOR INSTALLATION LIBRARY ASSISTANCE SYSTEM welcome to KOVAC-MULDOON network. It has been [1days11hours3minutes6seconds] since last network connection attempt. [!ERROR!ERROR!] unauthorized updates found. Please have registered ENCLAVE COMMAND OFFICER authorize updates to proceed.
Updates authorized. [!WARNING!] no targeting beacon set. Set manual coordinates?
Input coordinates.
<41.706593,-87.605222>
Coordinates accepted. Please remain in safe distance from selected coordinates. [!Error!Error!] KOVAC-MULDOON incapable of payload disbursements since logged incident INCIDENT-B47. Please contact platform administrator and thank you for using KOVAC-MULDOON for all military needs.
<"Greetings Paladin Lord Conrad Smith">
>"Silas, is that you?"<
<"Yes, I have opened up channel D in my communications program so that we may speak. I have attempted to access the Kovac-Muldoon platform to rid Savior Installation of these attackers. Much to my dismay, Kovac-Muldoon is still irresponsive since Incident-B47.">
>"Damn. Alright, have everyone stay tight. Alpha and Sigma are heading to the emergency exit right now. We'll be there in a bit."<
<"As you say.">
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Mendez, Gregor, and Carter watched the ECs' movements through the grocery store's windows.
"Hmm, they find us out you think we could take them?" Mendez asked.
"Maybe, but we'd lose too many" Carter replied.
"Eighteen of us, few dozen of them? We could take 'em" Gregor laughed.
"Real question though, how they'd know where Bunker Sigma was?" Carter asked.
The smile dropped from Gregor's face "Watch it. You go saying shit like that, implying we may got a mole, everyone's against you. Believe me, saw some straight paranoia back in the Commonwealth"
"What did you even do in the Commonwealth?" Carter asked.
"Me? Railroad" Gregor replied.
"And that's supposed to mean?" Carter said, not getting the implication.
"Conrad or Shepherd never tell you about the Railroad? We were spies, agents, regular folk helping out synths, Shepherd's people" Gregor explained.
"Ha. The day I believe Paladin Gregor was a spy is the day I see brahmin fly" Mendez chuckled.
"We were more than just spies. With enemies like we had we needed big guns too, heavies, that was my job. Fucking glorious mayhem we gave them Institute bastards" Gregor said.
"If it was so great why'd you leave?" Carter asked.
"Eh, no more work after the Institute got blown. We'd just about saved every synth survivor we could. Escorting Shepherd and his flock out to Albany was my last assignment. Resigned right there and came with 'em rest of the way to Chicago" Gregor said.
"Hold up" Mendez said quickly. "You see that?"
Gregor and Carter looked out the windows to where Mendez had gestured. Sure enough there was something, multiple somethings. Three fleshy gray scorpions with bulbous tails and disfigured claws that were melded shut.
"Mendez, those the fucking mutants Vic was tryna keep secret?" Gregor asked.
"Aye, that's some of them. No clue what they are" Mendez responded.
"They look cancerous, like tumors growing all over them" Carter noted.
The three mutant scorpions looked in the direction of Bunker Sigma and, seeing the ECs, took off in that direction. A small squad noticed them and began firing. One of the creatures was fried by a laser rifle, and another torn up by an overhead vertibird's gunner. The third made it within a few yards of a power armored soldier and shit a green liquid from it's tail. As the liquid splattered over the soldier his armor began to melt. Screaming, the soldier exited the armor and began rolling on the ground, hoping to neutralize the acid on his arm. A shotgun blast blew the last scorpion to pieces, it's acid seeping out and making the surrounding sand hiss and smoke.
"Hot damn, literally" Gregor exclaimed.
"Good thing they didn't see us" Carter said.
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"Almost there" Aisha said.
"Knife lady lie. Said that long time ago!" Harris yelled.
"Quiet!" Vic shushed.
The remainder of Alpha and Sigma Squads had made their way through the sewer systems and into a maze of tunnels Vault-like in design. Five Knights marched behind them, the other ten guarding the APCs and sewer entrance.
"She's right this time. We are close" Conrad said.
"You know, I expected something grander" Leon mumbled. "You Enclave were a rich bunch, coulda bought better tunnels"
"The point of our secret bases were they were secret" Conrad said.
"I don't see why. Books, books, books, diaries, books. That's all we had" Aisha said. "How were we going to save America with a copy of Moby Dick?"
"Stories are important, kinda" Conrad shrugged. "We had history books too, those were important. Art of War?"
"Oh shut up Con. You were the only one of us who actually read that" Aisha laughed. "Ah, nothing like impending doom to lighten the mood, right fellas?"
Mara put her long arms out to stop the group.
"Sigma Three?" Vic asked.
The reptile began smelling the air. "Dead" she said.
"Dead?" Leon asked. "What do.... oh, dead"
The group began to hear sloshing sounds ahead of them, getting quicker and louder.
"Form up!" Conrad yelled. "We've got ghouls!"
Not a second later the first mutant appeared in the groups crossed flashlights. Harris came from behind and smashed it's head in, killing it. The rest ran ahead, past Harris, all downed in a hail of bullets and lasers. Aisha walked forward to inspect the bodies.
"Wait, these aren't ferals" Aisha said, hoisting one of the corpses up to show the group. It appeared similar to a ghoul, but in places where one would be losing flesh it was instead being replaced by thick, chitinous plates.
"It was human for sure, but yeah, that ain't a ghoul. Vic?" Conrad said, turning to Alpha One.
"What? Because I had orders to keep my mouth shut about unknown mutants I must know what these are?" Vic asked.
"I just figured I should ask" Conrad said. "Mara?"
The deathclaw sniffed the air again. "Safe" she said, and the group pressed on.