The three of them waited for a little while outside the gate, though the gate guards were confused since they were under the impression that Adam was going to accompany the Caravan they didn't raise any fuss about it.
After giving plenty of lead time to the caravan they began to move as well. The trip was very peaceful, as with last time the route itself was very easy since it was often used and therefore basically patrolled.
They paused outside The Gourmand for a bit since the caravan and the guards seemed to have stopped there to eat. Adam and Deccanus didn't go inside. For the same reason as before they wanted to keep some distance, let things play out naturally.
The two men shared one of Adam's last MREs he had on hand in his backpack, it was pretty good all things considered, but he really wished he was having a meal in the Gourmand instead.
Regardless, once they confirmed the caravan began moving again they resumed their pursuit, following out of sightlines but close enough that if the caravan were to stop for any reason they would stumble upon them very quickly.
Everything seemed to be moving smoothly, perhaps too smoothly. Not a single thing had gone wrong the entire trip.
They were about 3 hours from Midway when they began to hear gunshots from up ahead. Adam shot Deccanus a look and both men took off running.
By the time they arrived they found the caravan worker dead on the ground, one of the guards with his throat slit and bleeding out on the ground and the other one was hiding behind some rubble on the street, clutching a bad stomach wound that had punctured through his body armor. The two brahmin had begun to panic and were running around uncontrollably. However despite being such large and easy to hit targets that were not fleeing the battlefield, neither cow had taken a single hit the entire engagement It seemed whoever was attacking had no interest in hurting the brahmin. Then he saw where the bullets were coming from.
On the rooftops on 4 buildings surrounding the area men in purple robes firing down on the Caravan from above. It seemed only by a miracle that even one guard had managed to get some sort of cover, he also seemed to have killed one of the purple robed men, likely the same one who slit the throat of the other guard. There was no mistaking who these men were, they were the cult of pestilence.
At a glance there were 6 men firing from the rooftops, but there was no telling if there were more waiting inside the buildings.
"Deccanus!" Adam shouted to him as the two men got close enough to see the evolving situation.
"I see it." Deccanus said as he pulled out his cowboy repeater. Adam whipped his head around scanning the area for a plan for a moment before finding a building close to them with sightlines on the battlefield.
"Come with me!" He yelled as the two men ran into the building. Buddy was slow, as per usual, so he was lagging quite behind the other two as they ran up the concrete stairs and got to the roof position for firing.
Adam saw Buddy arrive at the entrance to the building, intending to follow Adam inside but he called out to him.
"Buddy! Enter combat mode!" He yelled out from the roof.
"Confirmed, entering combat mode." Buddy said as his laser emitters began to glow.
"Buddy, designate everyone wearing primarily purple as an enemy and engage the enemies in the distance!' He called out, giving buddies very simple and easy FoF for the battlefield.
"Confirmed. Entering the battle." Buddy said back robotically as he began to waddle towards the battlefield.
While all this was happening the guard had been hit twice more. He was no longer fighting back but the cultists on the roof were not letting up, intending on shooting until he was dead.
Adam balanced his scoped rifle on the rim of the roof and lined up a shot.
Boom.
His bullet connected with the head of one of the cultists and splattered his brains inside his hooded cloak. The sudden shot startled the ones sharing the roof with their comrade and caused them to stop firing. Adam knew he didn't have long until they saw him, he was not too far away, after all he was not a sniper, just a damn good shot, this was about the limit of his range.
Boom.
Another round lined up perfectly with the head of another cultist. The ones on all roofs began to stop firing and take cover, unsure where they were being hit from. That was when Buddy began to fire.
A brilliant light show of reds began to pour out of the laser emitters from Buddy's hands as he carpeted one of the roofs in laser rounds fired in rapid succession. Adam may have suped up Buddy a bit more the night before. After all, when he originally gave Buddy combat mode it was meant for keeping VIPs and HQ safe, now that Buddy was going to be a companion on his scaving adventures, Buddy needed more fire power.
What once was laser rounds fired nearly at the same speed as someone firing a semi automatic laser rifle was now a handful notches down from a laser gatling gun. In other words, Buddy had the firepower to rival a Mr. Gutsy now. Of course this had its own drawbacks, Buddy's combat mode lasted even shorter amounts of time now but it clearly was working.
With one roof pinned down by buddy and another pinned down by the fear of an unseen sniper Adam was feeling confident. That was until a few rounds whizzed past his head and now he was forced to take cover. Apparently one of the other rooftops had spotted him and was now shooting at him too.
However as Adam took cover he looked over to Deccanus and saw that he was missing, nowhere to be seen. Adam didn't have time to think about that though, so as soon as the bullets stopped he once more balanced his rifle and shot at one of the rooftops. He missed this time, mostly because he didn't have the benefit of the element of surprise nor did he have time to line up his shot but it was enough to take the heat off Buddy who was just about to get shot at.
Then he looked down and noticed Deccanus hanging off the edge of a windowsill on the building they were on and working his way down to the floor. Once he was only two stories from the ground he dropped and then began to run towards the battlefield. Adam would be impressive if his actions were not completely reckless but instead he chose to focus on the task in front of him.
Adam's next shot hit one of the cultists in the throat. It may not have been an instant kill but even a stimpack was not healing that. There were now only 3 enemies in the fight. No wait, 2. Buddy managed to hit one of the cultists foolish enough to poke his head out. He was killed without firing a shot.
Deccanus then arrived at the front while Adam fired again only to miss his mark once more. Meanwhile Deccanus fired a few times at the roof from his cowboy repeater and then entered the building where one of the two men remaining were stationed on the roof.
Adam felt comfortable leaving that building to Deccanus so instead he lined up his shot at the other man still alive. He took his time, the man was being suppressed by Buddy now, after all. And then:
Boom.
He hit the ground like a ton of bricks, his head missing from his body. By the time Adam had whipped his scope around to see if he could take out the last cultist he made it just in time to see Deccanus impale the man through the back with his machete. Killing him within seconds.
After a tense few moments longer, just waiting to see if more would pop up Adam decided it was now time for him to get to the battlefield. It seemed like they had managed to beat them all.