Part 26: Mardin Part 1: Stitch Is An Apothecary

Well, a few more years, a few more forgotten posts, and maybe one of my MSPaint artifacts will end up in smilie gallery.

Post 26: Mardin, part 1: CAWS Is Basically A Bolter



Right, Mardin. The squad proceeds to clear the outside area by going counter clockwise.

Flashman gets to use the minigun on a few guys who get in PE 3 hit zone. It's a very expensive weapon! Alas, hand-to-hand combat doesn't do area damage.



A few other Beastmasters decide to join in and Flashman charges into the hailstorm.

God, I wish there was an RPG where "fix bayonet" was a viable gameplay choice.



Yay, one of the dead 'masters has useful ammo!



As Flashman is patched up, Stumpy is sent to ransack the corpse of the Warrior.



Huh. He appears to be one of ours. Lousy initiates getting on scouting runs.



One of the more fearsome weapons employed by the 'masters.



The hell is this shit?



Huh. Don't know making the enemy gay is of any help. Then I remember that these are the same guys that keep throwing exploding bugs at my squad.

Bright ideas are likely few and far between.



We finally reach the place of self immolating Beastmasters. It appears that one ghoul died in the explosion

The whole place is mined!



Not to worry, Stumpy can deactivate them. I bet this will make a killing in the market!

Alternative joke: Stumpy might not know what a UN Peacekeeper is, but he's starting to feel like one



Lucy Lawless? Noooo!



Ah, the mildly irritating kind of deadly weapon.

I'm sure it would be useful if they got attacked by a migrating nudist colony or something.



Further away, some 'masters are guarding the entrance to their base. They're all armed with shitty weapons. Even raiders and racist raiders had better stuff. I bet that guys with the CAWS was either one of tribal champions, or they just gave him the gun thinking it's some sort shoebox.



Ice was supposed to open up on the hornet while Flashman was running towards the sleeping 'masters, but teeny tiny bit of positioning meant that Flashman now has to punch out everyone.



Not that he minds.



Wh...what? Why would you ask such a thing?! What's wrong with you?!



By the way, Flashman is now running on a mixture of Psycho and Voodoo.

It's not nearly as impressive as a Psycho/Buffout cocktail, but, as you recall, he exchanged all the Buffout he had as part of the deal for the sweet sweet armor.



It's raining mentats in this level (...because they need it for telepathy?) and we find a suit of Brotherhood's advanced leather armor.

R.I.P. Initiate



Flashman can't have a fistfight near lava, so toxic radioactive pools will do.



We'll see about that, boyo!



A lot of action shots in this update...



One of those assholes has the worst gun idea in video games: single shot pistol. I guess someone took a look at the single shot rifle in Fallout 2 and said "nah, I don't need range and accuracy". Typical beastmasters.



It's a good rifle, especially if you love it when a plan comes together.



Some more guys show up, with predictable results.



What happened here is that MORE guys showed up, this time with guns, and Flashman was encumbered and unable to run. So I made him walk (then) crawl before getting Ice and later Stitch on scene. Many can be seen doing nothing, her aim blocked by a few small rocks and dead trees.



Stitch makes an explosive entrance.



Mandy is sent to get at least some use out of her new SMG. She's either hit by a bullet or doing impromptu Fonzy cosplay. "Heyyy!"



She gets Stein and Stumpy as back up. Stein immediately shoots her because of positioning and has to be told to stand somewhere else before he shoots her again.

Rest assured that this will result in a brooding diary entry after they get back.



I don't think you need a '-' in 'young one'. I might be mistaken.



The shootout ends in a textbook assault by Flashman: he runs in, gets shot a couple of times, beats people dead.

I don't know if it's luck or anything else, but the guns that the guys guarding the entrance have don't seem to be doing any damage to him.



Flashman is the master of all he surveys. Mostly because he can punch anything he sees.

Also, you might probably notice in some screenshot, that Mardin takes its name from the cemetery.



And he sees more Beastmasters! And more bugs! Time to act as melee AA emplacement!

I'm horribly sexist, so I feel a little bad about killing the rare obviously female Beastmaster (Beastmistress?). No such feelings about males. Maybe some pity about female raiders, but I don't remember. Raiders happened MONTHS ago!



Ice uses the lull in murder to see if the dead civvie has anything good.

Civvie, as is the custom of his useless noncombatant kind, has nothing.

Civvies!



Take that!

I guess those things should be poisonous, but Flashman doesn't feel anything. Maybe it's his manly stature. Maybe it's Environmental armor.

Oh Environmental armor. I want to have a threesome with you and the SEVA suit.



Insulting Flashman's illustrious ancestors? That makes him!

*punches a giant hornet so hard it explodes*



This is a beatdown of such epic proportions that Ice gains a level just by proximity.



Uh, your side exploded in a fountain of blood, gore and viscera. Even if you're trying the Necromonger pain replacement technique, it won't help.

Did I make that joke already? I have to watch more movies, references are getting stale



Stumpy gets easy duty and checks out two more dead warriors. Those guys saw the gate, couldn't unlock it and starved to death.

INT 2, everyone.



Most of the people you didn't kill don't carry anything interesting. You could say that 'masters looted them before. But if they did, they did a shitty job of it.



Another brilliant Beastmaster (TM) invention. A beanbag that you have to throw in the face to mildly irritate one enemy.

Then again, at least one guy defending the cemetary saw Flashman shrug off SMG bursts and thought "THIS ROCK WILL SURELY KILL HIM".

Seriously, what do you have to do to get rocks when almost everyone else have firearms?



I'm running out of ideas for Ice perks. Stealth is an option, but it's an option I never use.



The crew is ready to assault the base.

That means that Flashman and Mandy take one entrance and the rest of the stack up on the other to maybe make an entrance, some day.

This ain't exactly Doorkickers, people.

As you can see, the combined powers of fists and 9mm bullets have already taken the lives of several 'masters and one deathclaw youth.



The other assault squad consists of Stitch.

Only Stitch.

Not only is CAWS enough, it would actually be dangerous to bring other people in.

Because CAWS.

I bet that's how Space Marines feel when they fight any enemy that doesn't have power armor.

It's just futuristic 'pew pew' sounds, blood and limbs flying everywhere.

Awesome, so to speak.

Seeing Stitch Jackhammer a super mutie to pulp is still one of my fondest childhood memories



Can't find a smiley to express the joy of watching Stitch work, so this will suffice



Even better, the third underground entrance leads to a crypt that might be overdoing a little on the Christian symbolism.

It also leads to three lil' roaches exploding simultaneously as buckshot rends their stinky chitin hides.



Challengers appear!

Also, I think those walls are made of boarded up jerky. You'd think it's clay, but the more I look at it, the more convinced I feel that it is, in fact, meat.



Poisoned pistols?! What foul sorcery is this?



Flashman to the rescue!



Yes, ask the Fantastic Punching Man to come closer!

Next Time: Mardin, part 2: Is it furries? It's furries, isn't it?