Eleven people in 7 and 1/2 foot Power Armor take up a lot of room, and that was before adding in a Sentry or two and a few Probes, never mind Mr. Wid Myself. To solve that volumetri, I had the Probes s one of the AldeRAPS. My dismay at not having time to design my own version of the Javelina was strong, but we o limit the number of plications in this mission. My own need for speed could wait.
The MRAPS I chose was an already heavily modified MTV or Medium Tactical Vehicle. The rear had been modded into a cargo bay that could hold up to five rge ATVs with some sitting room left over. The top of the Bay had several antennas and dishes, of which, I was in the dark as to their purpose. A scary 25mm gun sitting on the roof of the , rounded out the package. It was some variant of a Bushmaster, that could be remote trolled from both the drivers and shotgun position and had a full suite of targeting sensors and the software to run it. I think it was an adva of the CROWS (oely Operated on Station) system. While it would have been advanced in my world, here it seemed very outdated. Well, we couldn't have that, could we.
I went to work on the vehicle's design. This started with sg it up a bit, then repced the engine arical system to work on the Psicrystal format, that freed up quite a bit of room in the engine bay, so I added even more crystal for an increase in avaible power. That power was just what we o activate a cloaking field and shield emitters. Troop transport iive safety.
To maximize the offeential I redesighe gun. First verting it to a gauss format. That took a lot of hair pulliing to get right, but perseverance paid off finally, with us getting it running smoothly. I wasn't sure how muph the crysbronze alloy added to the already potent 25mm rounds, but I also wasn't worried about possible failure to pee any armor we came across. The CROWS system massively beed from version to Psicrystal processing, being much easier to handle. I even added in an automated trol system, though there were still some bugs to work out.
We modified the cargo bay, it was set up with a series of 2 by 6 floor and ceiling cmps for the troops' power armor. This left us with just enough room for four Seo fit. The roof of the Bay had armored positions for the Probes to cmp themselves into and one focused Narrow Spectrum Psibeam Repeatier borrowed from the Observer's schematics. This would allow us to unicate with the base from outside the Psifield. We weren't sure how far yet, but it would at least be a viable link for now.
Lastly, I spent some time trying to improve the tires and suspension. We used a variant of Psicrystals' superductor levitation effeooth out the handling. While crysbronze now impreghe aggressively treaded rubber tires.
Ohe Probes had fihe assembly of our new vehicle, we ran it through a series of tests. Nothing major seemed out of whack, only a few small hiccups. A few adjustments soon fixed those small issues.
I would have Raynor load his boys into the bay. Then the Sentries and Probes would settle into their positions. Mr. Wick would take shotgun, while I sat in the driver's seat. Though I had ihem along, Megan and Sally decided to sit this o. They were pnning something iing with Jaina, and it was occupying all their attention. When I stopped to pohat, I got a sinking feeling in my gut. Not sure why. All I could e up with was that maybe they were tired of me holding us back from the stage of our retionship. Probably not, but I tend to sider worse case sarios first, before rolling back around to the normal ideas. Well, nothing to do about it for now.
We had our eyes on a few different spots in the Badnds for Outposts, from some satellite data that Amanda had pulled up. The first point of i was north of the ghost town, Rocky Ridge. The problem was that the Raffen Shiv had taken over both the Ghost town and the area I wao set up in. Some new leader had started gathering a following amongst the outcasts, and had embarked on an expansion campaign. That just wouldn't do, Wraiths made bad neighbors at the best of times, and our town couldn't afford their shenanigans being close by.
We were going to assault Rocky Ridge first, sweep it clear and if the assholes to the north didn't get wind of the situation and high tail it out by then we'd roll up to them after. servation of ammo was unnecessary, thanks to the Fes, and my standing orders were to triple tap anyone who eveely looked like a threat. I'd rather we make a mistake in the hard to live with dire, tha alive anymore dire.
We headed out and I decided to take the trip across the wastes themselves, while avoiding roads, to really be able to evaluate the performance of the new beast. One great thing about verting a vehicle to the Khai tech was how quiet they were. You could hear the tires on the ground sure and the air resistance made its own no rumble of the engine, no burr of belts or whirling of faher. It gave me a creepy feeling since I was used to the noise an ordinary car makes.
The troops were stig to general versation, who liked who and what the city might be like, and I have to say I leased that they didn't seem nervous in the slightest. Hell, Raynor was more worried than them, and you might think he had i his veins, for all he showed it. The only way I could tell was in the way he repeatedly checked his rifle. Mr. Wick was as silent as the grave, worse, he barely moved. Not a fidget, a stray cough, or a sniffle, nothing. It was almost like he wasn't there, but I could feel his mana. Otherwise, I might think he was a hologram host.
After a small window of being bored I said, "Fuck it!" and turned on some tunes. Flipping through a couple of stations I found something that sounded like Death Metal with some Industrial uohrown in. Good enough, and great timing too, as that was when four vehicles approached us from the south. They were obviously on an intercept course, and it didn't take long for us to be able to make out the Wraiths graffiti c the cars. Was that a multi tube rocket uncher?
"Mr. Wick, it is too crowded out here, please see tuests." I have to admit, I wao see him in a. All those hours of training had made me eager to unleash him upon our foes.
"Yeah." He began to work the gun's trols. The modified system made it incredibly easy. He only had to use a simple joystick to line up the target, his small s had a reticule that would fsh red wheargeting system had calcuted a hit. Then just pull the trigger on the joystick. Easy peasy.
His first shot wasn't a crack, it was a boom. We learned a little too te that sound insution in the vehicle was a must.
The vehicle with the rocket uncher was cored by the 25mm round traveling at many time the speed of sound. A huge hole traveling all the way through ed in the middle of the car. The passage of the round had torn off much of the rest of the material from the frame, and thrown the vehicle backwards. I couldn't tell what happeo the octs, but I think it would be fair to assume they were no longer among the living.
The other Wraith vehicles scattered but Mr. Wick was determio leave no withree more booms, three more tumbling piles of shredded metal. Though the st two were more felt than heard. Our eardrums were boxed into submission. The ringing took a while to stop. Thankfully, the troops in their power armor were ued.
I'd never fet the most ued sight, of when John Wick turo me and smiled, "I like it."
That was maybe the most surreal thing I'd ever seen. The smile of the Baba Yaga. It's brief duration, blink and you missed it fast, pced it among the most rare of events, perhaps ever. Unlike a double rainbow it's wasn't beautiful, but it was amazing. I cast Regrowth on both of us to clear any lingering damage to our hearing. The growling sounds of Death Metal from the radio slowly came bato focus.
When we were near Rocky Ridge, I let the boys in baow to be ready for a. The first bullets start pinging off the truck's shielding almost as soon as the town was fully in view. Nothing with any real power came into py. I ted the trud skidded to a halt with the rear of the vehicle fag the main road of the small town. I hit the ramp's quick drop which also pops the cmps on the armor free at the same moment. Out leaps Raynor followed by the rest of our troops in quick order. They didn't even pause, by the time the Probes aries exited, even as rounds bounced off their shields, the humans are already taking cover and exging fire with the Raffen scum. Their SORs were already doing some nasty work, spttering a few of the lightly armored raiders into paste.
I was more than pleased that Raynor had traihem to get behind cealment or cover. Their shields would shrug off most rounds, and the thick ptes of the power armor would deflect most of the rest, but it's a bad habit to stand around taking fire even if it's iive. The Sentries projected their more stable shields forward as the Probes started assembling a ylon. There was no reason to hold ba this fight, since we were going to mercilessly crush these raider bitches. Anything that gave my people more of an edge was a good thing in my books.
With the troops now dropped off, I flipped the switch to close the ramp and Mr. Wid I went hunting iruck. We swept wide around the east side of town. Mr. Wick had already started sending rounds into any vehicles he thought might be a threat, and especially any that were trying to flee the se. He was offehat the scumbags were trying to escape.
To say we were overprepared, was an tremendous uatement. I noticed that some of our troops were using the enormous strength of their power armor to demolish the town's buildings, bringing the rubble down on the Raffen fools. There was nothing here we o keep intact so it was a ruthlessly smart py. I also noticed their ammo was devastating, ofterating the cover of our foes and pulping raider flesh while rendering any cyberware into its base pos.
Once I had reached the North exit from the town I slowed the MRAP to a stop. Letting Mr. Wick pick his shots with greater ease. On one hand part of me wao leap out and join in the fun. But that wasn't the pn, and fug with a pn that's already w well is usually a recipe for disaster. I once again found myself watg others carry the fight. It really sucked. Something inside me burned in frustration as I watched the Wraiths die. My only soce was knowing that without me, this would be as much of a one sided affair.
A few mier and the ylon was finished. However, its ons wouldn't get to fire a single shot. The fight that had already been in our favor became a rout, the few remaining Raffen shiv, no longer able to see or sense our troops, were hunted down and sughtered like bugs. Their frightened shrieks were a fitting but pathetid to scumsuckers.
The Probes were already building another ylon on the northern edge of town, while the troops swept each of the buildings they had left standing. To be fair that wasn't many. The devastation of the town was catastrophic. I actually felt about it, despite no one living out here anymore. Later, I'd e back here and we'd scrap everything before building a own for folks wanting a quiet life away from the corrupt city. Fht now, it was time to push north to the area I actually po cim for an outpost.
There was a small plot of nd with a trailer home and a cated metal shed. A rger propaank off to the side. Someone waheir own isoted pce away from others, maybe to try tet something or maybe they just didn't like other folks underfoot all the time. Only a few Shivs had been statiohere. Mostly to keep a for trouble and to scout out the northern trade routes for vulnerable voys. They panicked when they saw us ing, and started to bolt, but Mr. Wick cut off their evacuation pns by trashing their rides.
It took almost no time for the troops to put them all down. The Shivs were unprepared and underequipped, mostly handguns and bdes. The boys didn't even waste any ammo and just beat them to death. So far the power armor was far outperf any cyberware we had e across. While I wasn't surprised by those results, I hadn't quite expected just how well the armor held up.
As we set up camp waiting for the Pylons and Fes to be assembled, we searched the house and shed finding nothing of any io us. Then I broke out some of the rations for everyo might not have been much of a workout in the end but good work always deserves a reward. After the meal, Raynor and Mr. Wick were taking the opportunity to train the boys in some bushcraft teiques. I kept half an ear out while I went over everyone's armor and ons looking for any damage, finding nothing out of pce. Most of what they taught was simple stuff, basic shelters, starting fires, and finding edible pnts. Thought that st one wasn't much help out here. Given the simple lives most of the troops had led oh this was more like a refresher course, than an initial education. Hell, a few of the boys had good tips to share themselves.
It was quiet out here, despite our earlier ruckus. Maybe too quiet. I spend a while poking around the area, looking for anything that stood out ht indicate Corpo bullshit. But I found nothing suspicious. After we'd established the other outposts I'd bring Wisps out to set up Moon Wells and start some trees growing.
Projederbridge had finished before we set out, meaning we now had a tunnel from New Lordaeron to Japantown. The first reservoirs were now being filled up. I thought about how we'd link these new Outposts to the tunnel system down the road. Eventually folks would never have to travel the surface of the Badnds again if they didn't want to. Of course, at some point our pn would turn the nd green again and maybe, just maybe, folks would like what they saw. Though with some of the critters popping up in the Valley I'm not sure it would be any safer to travel, just better looking.
Raynor had found himself a portable radio, and found a station that pyed an iing bination of synth try western arikytonk and some electro swing. Not bad at all. As night fell the boys and him were sing stories and telling tales around a crag campfire. Even the Robo-Buddies were dang about in good cheer. We were just missing a pot of chili and some cowboy style coffee, to ihe old days of the wild west.
Even Mr. Wick seemed as much at peace as he ever did, and he and Raynor were starting to get along.
Everything seemed to be going too well. I didn't trust it, my gut was telling me something was going on, but I couldn't pce what it was.
I decided to keep a lookup throughout the night. No one would sneak up on us on my watch.
