Part 72: Vault 0, Part 2: POOP!

If I manage to post the last post of the LP in the next 5 days, the LP won't have run for 2 years. And I have written the last post! So I guess this means that I won't be doing the mod lping, which is something I am fine with. Trouble is, what should I LP next? Should I LP at all?

Post 72: Vault 0, Part 2: Flinging Poop



There was no horde of robots waiting past the newly opened door to cryostorage. Concious of a possible ambush, Flashman elected himself to go forward and investigate.



Of course, he ran into trouble almost immediately, but Ice and Peta untangled the situation via tactical movement, overlapping fields of fire and liberal expenditure of ammunition.

Mandy held the rear, which had been her only role ever since Flashman had declared that stealth had no place on the modern battlefield.



It was... a prudent choice. Robots started streaming at the squad. Scurrying metal beetles closed in under the covering fire of security robots.



Executing bounding overwatch, Peta and Ice pushed forward, moving from cover to cover. Darting in and out of the fight, Flashman made some contributions with his fists. He barely even felt EMP blasts that sometimes hit his back – all power armor had been hardened against such effects.



The squad leader went back into the fight so fast that Stitch barely managed to take out used stimpacks from the injector port in time.



Flashman returned equally quickly with laser blasts almost burning his heels.



The shootouts with robots were taking way too much time. Time that people back in the besieged Brotherhood bunkers could ill afford. But even if the going was slow, it was still progress.



It was the thought of their beleagured compatriots that drove Flashman to tear security robots limb from limb, though Psycho might have helped, too.



The squad had not hit any of the freezing areas yet, but they were hopeful for something, anything. The Vault had been mismanaged so badly that there was bound to be a way to open the door to the generators via cryostorage.



Jackpot, I guess?

The room was a mess. A twitching robot was standing over an eviscerated body of a Vault dweller. Several live ones were standing around, oblivious to their surroundings.



They were babbling like babies and using their own feces to paint on the walls. One had clearly stepped into the blood of the dead dweller and just continued walking. It was a slow, smelly pandemonium.

What the hell...

Freeza burn, mon. I'n'i read about it. Cryo pod go bad 'n' cryo beans go crazy.

That would explain some of this stuff, yes.

With no Vault dwellers to set in on the right path, the Calculator had no recourse but continue to be a crazed maniac. Then again, who knows if Calculator's madness had not resulted in faulty Cryo openings in the first place.



Flashman lifted a lump off the ground.



He held in his hand the head of a former scientist from Vault 0.

Why would you take that?

Retinal scanners. This head might just be our pass into power core.



No need fo' the bad juju, mon. I haxed th' console!

Too late, already tied it to my belt.



The other vault dwellers didn't even notice. They were almost entirely oblivious to the outside world.

There's nothing for us to do here.

Though I wonder why the Calculator would keep them alive.



Shall we clear out the last room? It would be unwise to leave this threat at our backs.

I have never ever seen enemy sentries abandon their posts and rush to the aid of others. Not even when were clearing a town from assaulting beastmasters. Never. I think we're safe.

But...

Safe! I swear, the enemy only ever seems to have strategic inniative; once our squad enters engagement, they surrender it to us.



Well, let's see what's at the power core.



GET DOWN! Turrets!

And indeed, there were two turrets overlooking their entry point. Their ugly barrels were facing the team and the whole thing would rotate left and right at regular intervals, scanning the area. However, they did not seem to notice the Brotherhood soldiers.



There were a few robot sentries, though. But fighting humanoid robots had been the routine of the squad for some time now. The metalic foes didn't last long.

The turrets were a little hardier, however, they seemed to have been miscalibrated, as the squad's snipers could engage them with impunity without getting any sort of response.



Have I died and gone to Heaven?

I don't think I have fired that much .50 BMG in my life!

The turrets were overflowing with ammunition. With ten thousand rounds between them, the turrets could have fired until their barrels got totally shredded and more. There was no possible scenario where two fixed weapon turrets could have warranted that amount of ammo.

Yet there it was, a cornucopia of .50 BMG. Flashman made sure to stuff ammo whereever he could and had to be talked out of replacing water in his canteen with additional rounds.



The way forward was barred by a forcefield, but it took only a few hits on a nearby console to drop it.



The next room held vast, irregular wats of bubbling radioactive goo. There were few robots, too, and Stitch was convinced that they should glow in the night.



In fact, Flashman had gotten too close to the goo and Stitch had to hook up a dripper of Rad Away to a port in the back of the power armor.



The defense seemed minimal so far, but the squad was always on their toes. There was no way to tell if the dastardly AI hadn't filled the next room with Behemoths or something.

If Peta had learned one thing about the robots, it's that they were prone to putting big robots in places they should no be able to get it and wouldn't be able to get out of.



They found only two humanoids guarding a pair of consoles. Those dropped a further forcefield...



...revealing a tank bot! This one didn't last long as Flashman had ammo to spare and an itchy trigger finger.



The squad pushed forward to the nodes.



The way in was, as always, badly planned and rife with security bots.



However, plentiful .50 cal ammo made them more of annoyance than a threat.



Are those cryo coffins? I don't think we shold be fighting near them.



Wearily they closed in on the last node. They didn't know what to expect, but they were sure that is was going to be something stupid.



The nodes were in a long hall which was patrolled by several humanoids, a pacification bot and more. Nothing the squad couldn't handle, and Flasman didn't even need to charge in with his powerfist.



Everyone did their part to hold back the tide of advancing robots. Everyone except HR, because he was too brittle to face frontline combat.

The robot is seriously useless in the game



Pacification bot led the charge even as his metal soldiers fell all around him. Eventually, the weight of fire brought it down, too.



Naturally, Flashman was the one to lead the way in clearing the corridor. He was the most experienced close quarter fighter in the squad, a trait that no military would foster in a leader, but Brotherhood was a little different in that regard.



Naw, there's a just a humanoid he...



Cunt!

A stream of scurry bots burst out of one of the enclosures and made a beeline towards Flashman, who wisely fell back towards the rest of the squad.



The whole corridor was drenched in oil and littered with broken robots. Flashman walked carefully as not to crush the ejected brass. Repo squad will collect every last bit, no need to make their work any harder.





For Stitch, it was quite trivial to turn on the power cores and restore power to the elevator.

Maybe after the war was over, the Brotherhood could take one or two apart to figure out how they work.



Mandy reloaded the Gauss Rifle, happy that her role in the squad both made her useful and kept her out of the line of fire.



Are you stashing stuff in the turret to get more ammo?

I may or may not be, yes.



Squad, move out!



And like that, they stepped into the elevator, which started to descent into the depths of Vault 0.

Next time: They saved Ron Jeremy's brain!

Writing this bit in Suvalkai. I can't usually sleep in busses, but the Sandman unleashes his spell the minute I open Libre Office.

Not much to be said about the level. The layout is still nonsensical, the head bit is really unnecessary, and the amount of ammo in those two turrets is amazing. They have 10K rounds between them if memory serves. 10K! I don't know if I had spent that much during the entire game. Why did they put that much ammo in ther? It's not like I'm going to get into major fighting this late in the game... Simply put, it's crazy.

Just like HR and all other non-human characters who can't get armor being absolutely useless in the game. Top notch design there, bro.