Chapter 70: Chapter 67

The activation of the radiation resistant gene was taken up by just about everyone in the Nexus, especially after a demonstration from a few of the members from 1st Company chugged down heavily dosed water along with me. It didn’t taste much or do much to me, but looking at the console the troopers gained no more than fifteen points of rad damage. Usually, the water should be lethal.

With everyone inoculated to some degree (well, a very high degree) against radiation, I shouldn’t need to worry too much about collateral if the misty ghost thing decides to show up again.

Which it didn’t, even after nine days of preparing for the Nexus’ most aggressive expansion. So either it was a one time thing, or whatever it was was planning for a different angle of attack.

Not wanting to wait and see if the latter was true, preparations and planning were ramped up. This was the rad wasteland DLC, and I’ll be properly introduced to giant scorpions, deathclaws and Atom worshippers with a home advantage. So much fun in that vast desolation.

My research bots and the Institute workers had predicted that cleansing the Glowing Sea would cut down radstorms to freak occurrences instead of a frequent inconvenience. If that’s true, maybe then I can finally start on-land agriculture and general development without the worry of crops or material rotting under constant radiation deluges.

Really, how the wasteland farmers keep at it and actually enjoy their rad-tainted crops is beyond me. They need to try proper fruits and greens instead of the misshapen and metal-tasting stuff they usually harvest.

Anyway, the Nexus now housed a sizable legion of robots, outnumbering Caladan’s residents roughly five to one for now. Out of the thousand plus bots, the Sentinels took up about a solid half of that, with combat robots like Eversors and Centurions taking up a quarter, and the Mr Handies, Ms Nannies, eyebots and other utility bots making up the remainder.

We’ll be using nearly every Sentinel and combat types for this campaign, with the rad cleanup Mr Handies only coming in after the land’s been secured. Estimates for thoroughly scrubbing off the rads from the Glowing Sea was about three years at the very least, but Eva’s gestalt processing had figured out a way to ensure that the worst contributors to the radstorms could be dealt with in under nine months.

As more bots were churned out, new volunteers for the Nexus’ companies were being put through their paces. At the rate the training was going, 2nd Company would have five platoons of forty troopers each, while 1st Company was barely filling out its third platoon.

While both companies had the same gear, it was obvious that 1st Company was treated with a different level of respect, considering that nearly all were younger rescues, and I’ve definitely fucked and ‘owned’ every single one of them. They treated their roles as troopers way more seriously than those in 2nd Company, as if I was granting them a huge honor in letting them fight.

I don’t know where that idea came from, but so long as they kept to orders (which they zealously did), I wasn’t going to complain. Having a core of utterly loyal soldiers is always good to have for a ruler, especially versus 2nd Company’s more white collar approach to taking up the job; they were still professional enough for my standards, but they’re in it because it was the best fit for them or they had nothing else to do.

While the buildup kept..building…up…I had eyebots scan the lands we’d be cleansing. I was focused on where we’d be facing what threats. Deathclaw and rad scorpion nests and their territories, suspected ghoul-infested sites, the possible inhabitants of any ruins we found…

There were a lot of things to shoot and stab to death down there.

The Crater of Atom was easily found, and contrary to the game, the eyebots picked up a rather large gathering of people there. Also contrary to the game, these people seemed to be arming up, with stacks of weapon caches and the occasional weapons testing being noted. The people there were mostly kneeling around the crater during the day though, with the center of it converted to some sort of stage where several people would take turns to stand and presumably preach.

Watching the whole thing made it easier for me to accept what I’ll be doing to them.

It took two weeks before everything was set. I didn’t bother giving a speech, preferring to just watch from the admin office as the Zetan holograms set up displayed the unit movements. Battle buses carried the companies from Station 81, while Sentinel swarms either carried an Eversor each, or paired up to lug Centurions in the air. More combat robots followed on foot, easily keeping pace with the Glossu being crewed by my girls (and Nat, who used her lethal puppy dog eyes to get her place in the tank).

All in all, the map showed a cluster of icons moving at varying speed towards and beyond the borders of the Nexus Severalty. It gave off a very RTS-ey feel. The unit icons even had group numberings attached to them.

With the march seeming smooth enough, I let Gwen and the rest of the admin team handle the monitoring while I left for the Zippy Lid to join the campaign.

Time to field test my new toys.

*****

Mother Isolde watched the gathered zealots and soon-to-be martyrs for her faith gather around the Atom’s sacred crater. Every devotee here had the same dream as she did, of an angry figure wreathed in radiation calling for a crusade against the great Enemy to the east.

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The Nexus, it was called, the unsubtle name clearly marking it as the antithesis of holy Division. The people there would scour the world of Atom’s gifts, snuffing out and deconsecrating the lands bathed in the sacred glow. Like many others, Isolde wept at the sacrilege that would take place, of the unholy Fusion that would abort the nascent lives awaiting their birth from the most holy Fission.

It cannot, will not come to pass though. Atom called, and his Children answered. They had lost contact with the scouting teams sent out, and Isolde had no illusions about their martyrdoms. She remembered their names and prayed for them that in their passing they achieved Division.

The gathered Children were filled with zeal and brought with them Atom’s gifts for this holy war: weapons and armor, even power armor and reprogrammed robots. The crusade would be moving out soon, once the last of their brothers and sisters joined up. Then the enemy would feel the full wrathful might of the faithful, and the lands of the abominable Nexus will be consecrated and sanctified in Atom’s Glow.

In the meantime, the faithful kept to prayers, meditation to fortify their souls against the abominable Fusion of the loathsome Nexus, as well as training to overcome the physical servants of the Enemy. Confessors and Mothers preached every day since the crusade gathered in strength, as Isolde did, to remind the massive congregation of Atom’s greatness, and to keep the glow within their hearts bright with holy fury.

Confessor Staven was taking the stage when a barrage rained from the heavens right onto it, shattering the salvaged wooden construction into a cloud of radwater-drenched splinters. Amidst the cries of shock and surprise, some of the faithful had the presence of mind to get their weapons. Isolde herself watched, stunned, as the cloud of debris faded to reveal a lone figure in a coat standing in the holy waters of the crater. She also noticed several…things around the figure, each a tangled heap of metal glinting menacingly under the rad-tinged sunlight.

Instinctively, Isolde knew that this was a servant of the Enemy, come to disrupt the crusade and sow disorder amongst the faithful.

“Children of Atom,” the figure called out, and Isolde gasped in horror as she realised that the young man was clearly untouched by Atom’s presence. What kind of abomination is he that his exposed body rebuffed the embrace of holy radiation?

“I am Sev, ruler of the Nexus.”

No, this was not the servant of the Enemy, he was the Enemy, or at least its avatar. Isolde’s mind snapped into focus and she reached for her own rifle as the man continued his speech.

“You’ve been intruding and annoying me and my people. I’m here to give you this one and only warning: Cease hostilities and we can try negotiating something, or I will end hostilities my way.”

“We do not negotiate with Atom’s enemies!” Father Isop answered on behalf of the congregation as he fired his radium rifle at full auto into the avatar of unholy Fusion. Isolde and the other brothers and sisters joined in, lasers and irradiated bullets and gamma waves filling the air as they sought to deliver Atom’s wrath on the abomination.

The young man didn’t budge, didn’t seem affected at all, the rounds and energy bolts dissipating or ricocheting off an invisible bubble around him. As Isolde reloaded her weapon, she noted a brother closing in with a flamer and sending gouts of fire that washed harmlessly around Sev.

“Do not relent, brothers and sisters!” she yelled out as she returned to shooting at the man. “Smite this abominable thing! Atom’s wrath will guide our weapons!”

Everyone kept firing into the center of the crater, and the Children were shouting curses at Sev or prayers to Atom. After a while, with still no result of even a scratch on him, the Enemy decided to act.

“Enough!” Sev bellowed out and he swept an arm to the side, actually gaining a pause in the firestorm from it. The air hummed with tension, some brothers and sisters drawing their blades or affixing bayonets.

“Since we’re going down this route…” Sev raised a hand, palm facing upwards.

“Strigoi. Awaken.”

And then, as the metallic objects around Sev shuddered in activation, the air above was filled with an unholy choir and orchestra.

“AYAYAYAYAY…”

And then metal brutes rose, and the Children began dying.

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