Due to the nature of how the echo blockade worked the installations were never far from the main console so it was easy enough to see where we needed to go. The first of these installations was located to the east of this main area in a sort of enclosed area in the rock walls. The fact there was soldiers guarding the way served as wonderful discovery. Not that I couldn't understand why they were there. As I had said previously blocking the echonet was an important step to keeping the news of the vault opening from getting out.-
Naturally Steele understood that more likely than not someone was going to try and take down this blockade and had stationed defenders at all the important parts as a result. The problem however is that she was obviously short staffed or had underestimated all of us to a ridiculous degree as the first group of defenders consisted of only three soldiers who weren't even elites. They were next to a relay tower that was sealed up tight and patrolling behind sandbag walls that did all of nothing to stop us from killing them. -
Collecting the lifeforce and loot we moved on to the installation proper that had a fucking turret set up to defend it along with like fifteen soldiers. Brick, Mordy, Roland and I had to take cover behind a crate from the hail of bullets as Lil worked her siren magic dispatching the turret. Once that was gone the bullet fire dropped to a level we were comfortable taking with our shields. Roland tossed out his Scorpio turret and rolled to behind it's projected shield while I grabbed Brick and yelled as I threw him over the top of the crate to surprise the fuckers.-
Mordy peaked around the crates edge to take potshots at the soldiers while I dashed around it's side and towards the soldiers that were starting to panic at the sudden and drastic turnaround. I raised my gun and squeezed the trigger three times in rapid succession claiming three lives as my shock infused bullets shattered the shields of the soldiers before continuing on through their faces. I didn't even bother slowing down as I ran past another soldier sending my own energy blade into and out of their chest cavity from the gap in their armor at the waist in one fluid motion.-
Soon the soldiers outside of the installation lay dead upon the snow and upon the roof of it where they had been firing down at us. I ripped out the lifeforce from the corpses while putting a lead aspirin in the head of one of the soldiers that was trying to play dead. The inside of the installation was nothing all that special and if anything was more or less empty with the exception of a some lockers and supply boxes. The whole building only had two rooms in total with one being the room with all the tech that went into blocking the echonet and the other being the first empty room.-
It wasn't all bad though as on the roof where the soldiers had been firing at us we found a red chest. Cracking it open we found two weapons within. The first was not great as an uncommon quality Dahl shotgun. The second however was a treasure, one I more than any understood and wanted. It was a revolver style pistol of the Atlas brand with a black barrel, scope and cylinder and a white body and grip, it had an intense orange glow coming off it as well.-
[Name: RV32 Pearl Chimera
Level: Legendary
Type: Revolver pistol
Damage type: Explosivex4
Manufacturer: ATLAS
Affix: A beast of many forms- Fire, Lightning and Poison.
Random elemental chance, high caliber, High elemental effect chance]
"Dibs!" I yelled immediately.
"Not even gonna complain this time, pairs up with your shield and gun perfectly." Mordy said with a chuckle.
"Yeah, looks like it's a worse version of what your stuff already does but at random rather than as a counter." Lil said and I nodded.
"That's why I want it. If I can figure out how to trigger a specific element intentionally and up the caliber to match my normal one it would be the perfect pair. Not used to dual wielding guns but in this case I think I'd be up for learning. That does sorta make all the modifications I had made for the Volcano pointless though unless any of you want it?" I said with a shrug.
"I'll take it. The AOE fire effect it has would be good with my powers." Lil said and I nodded and handed my secondary weapon over to be replaced with the Chimera.
With that taken care of I pulled up my map and then cursed as I discovered that the last two installations required backtracking. Specifically the last two were on the western path from the main base back to back with a long strip of land and even a bridge between them. I told my friends about this and they all complained as well but we headed that way anyways. Let me tell you getting to the second installation and into the tech room was a fucking SLOG. See not only was there yet another fucking turret but the soldiers guarding this one also locked the bottom door forcing us to climb the external stairway WHILE they were firing at us.-
The installations structure was the same as the first otherwise with only two rooms though this time the red chest was in the mostly empty locked room at the bottom. If there was one thing I was thankful at least it was the sheer fucking amount of Lance armor and lifeforce this was giving me. I had a tall pile of armor waiting in my house by now and had gained 47,829 lifeforce as well. No decent traits though so that fucking sucked.-
Not that I was surprised at this or anything, just disappointed. For all the variety humans could have most of the traits that made them up were boring or common in other species. We weren't the strongest or fastest or even the most durable of creatures but what we did have was generational knowledge. Unfortunately that wasn't really a trait so nothing really worth grabbing off the average member of the species. Anyways that red chest I mentioned turned out to be a bust as it only had a collection of Dahl uncommon quality pistols.-
The last installation was the biggest bitch to reach though. We had a steep ravine to our left and a tall rock face to our right. The way forward though? Soldiers, Seraphs and very little cover. Really just the funnest of times. Thankfully the Seraphs were hounding the soldiers mostly so we weren't totally be flooded with bullets but it still sucked. Mine, Bricks and Roland's shields all broke as we rushed the soldiers and we ended up shot a couple times each. Brick took three rounds to the gut, Roland got his in the left shoulder and hip and I was the biggest target a-fucking-parentally as I got no less than five bullet holes.-
Two in the gut, one on my right pec and two at my waist. My traits meant that the bullets did a whole helluva lot less damage than they normally would and my regeneration even pushed out the bullets and started closing up the holes right after I got hit with them. The same couldn't be said for Brick and Roland though. Adrenaline kept them going but I knew I'd need to spare some lifeforce to close those wounds once we weren't getting pounded with bullets.-
Once we pushed to the edge of the bridge where we had some decent cover finally I got to work treating my friends wounds.
"This is gonna suck so scream if you gotta but I need to get the bullets out before I close up these holes." I said seriously as I created a phase lock bubble the size of an orange in front of Bricks gut wounds and filled it with an intense electromagnetic field.
"RRRRR!" He growled like a rabid animal as the bullets were forced out but I pushed a thousand lifeforce into him without delay and the energy immediately got his body regenerating at a visible rate. Soon enough the holes were closed and scarred over with only the holes in his shirt and blood stains left to say they were fresh moments before. Roland put his rifle butt in between his teeth and nodded sternly before I got the bullets out of him the same way and gave him seven hundred lifeforce to close up the wounds while ignoring the teeth marks on his gun from him clenching his jaws.
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https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro
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Alexander Drake
Lifeforce: 682,169
Integrated Traits: [Gun mastery-Rare grade]X3, [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Demi-supreme body-Legendary grade], [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Energy projection-Legendary grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade]X2,[Lesser dragon breath-Epic grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade]X2, [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X4, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X3,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade], [Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Mechanical engineering expertise-Rare grade]X3, [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3, [Elemental body(Corrosive)-Rare grade], [Corrosion resistance-Rare grade], [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade],
Stored traits: [Flame breath-Uncommon Grade], [Tinkering instinct-Rare grade], [Minor regeneration-Rare grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade], [Omega body-Rare grade]X2, [Supreme Armored hide-Epic grade], [Hard bones-Rare grade], [Sword expertise-Rare grade], [Gun mastery-Rare grade]