The second our destination was decided, we swiftly departed from the deathly quiet battlefield and started moving in the direction of the Carven Family and the other factions within the undercity government that colluded with them.
It's a damn good thing I got a good percentage of the cameras and turrets across the city under my influence; otherwise, it would've been a huge pain to locate these sly bastards.
Imagining the not so fun time I would've had to go through if I didn't have the foresight to expand my intelligence-gathering abilities, I spent a few seconds being pleased with myself. Once I was satisfied and wiped that smirk off my face, my thoughts transitioned to that of the future as I led both my squad and my small but rapidly growing army of loyal and tireless machines.
Having said that, I think it would be wise to develop a serious surveillance apparatus, so I can stay up to date with the going ons in this massive underground metropolis and nip any potential problems in the butt before they even have the chance to take off. I doubt anything like this will take place again after I've done my due diligence and removed every last bit of the cancerous elements lurking in this city, but one can never be too careful in this day and age.
[ Ding! ]
[ New Task Gained ]
| Big Brother | Objectives: Build a fully fledged surveillance network in Undercity 7 to ensure you know what's going on at all times. Rewards: Perk | Big Brother |, 25 Repair Points, 25 Science Points, 10,000 Exp.
A new task, huh... I'll take it.
Delighted to have received yet another task, I continued progressing towards the location of the rebellious leadership with a slight bit more pep in my step thanks to the newest addition to my quest tab. My combined forces, and I wasted little time in our venture through the concrete jungle and effortlessly plowed through every roadblock in our path, i.e. enemy troops, and as soon as we rolled up to our stop on the border of the north side of the undercity, an expansive multilevel structure surrounded by a tall perimeter wall came into view.
"So we've finally arrived at the rats' nest?" Bob, my most intelligent and scientifically gifted friend thus far, asked.
Busy observing the large building in the distance that appeared more like a fort than anything else, I answered my friend with a simple one-word response. "Correct."
Not even a couple dozen seconds after we arrived in the general vicinity, several turrets elevated from the thick structural post sections in the perimeter wall surrounding the place, and locked on to us in the blink of an eye.
"Get down, boys!" Gramps yelled hastily as the many turrets dotting the wall immediately opened fire on us.
"We're fine." I responded loudly as deafening shots rang out from the defenses ahead, which failed to pierce my armor as well as the rest of the gang's.
"Oh... Return fire then."
I knew the forces we slaughtered prior to us coming here were radioing back to those in charge, but they sure reacted quickly... Not that it's going to matter in the end.
With stealth completely out of the equation, I shrugged off the 7.62x51mm fire coming from the dozens of MD-7 Multipurpose Defense Turrets and let Purge rest against me while I retrieved my EM Waver. I hadn't come across many opportunities to use this type of weaponry thus far, so I intended to make full use of it and put this weapon through its paces.
The instant the rifle-sized energy weapon poofed into existence, I grabbed hold of it and wielded it in the direction of the turrets. Once it was aligned and targeting the furthest turret on the left, I pulled the trigger and fired.
This single trigger pull of mine sent forth a continuous stream of invisible electromagnetic waves that instantly met with the unshielded defense turret. And not even a moment after they made contact with the machine, it caused clouds of sparks to fly off the metal wildly before it spazzed out and ceased functioning entirely.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we install electromagnetic shielding on all electronics, robots, and vehicles.
Having fried that turret instantaneously, I hurried onto the next and then the next and so on and so forth. These same sets of events repeated themselves again and again until every turret on their defensive wall was either fried or riddled with holes from the various weapons my squad and army of machines were using.
Satisfied with how my electronic warfare weapon performed, I returned it to my inventory, re-grasped Purge once more and ignored the smoldering wrecks topping their peppered defenses whilst I advanced with my forces, nearing closer and closer to bringing this sudden rebellion to a definitive close.
Move in and lock down the area.
My robots received my mental order loud and clear, so they swiftly rushed the fortifications and swarmed the area. As the killing machines surrounded the fortified base of my enemies to such a degree that not even a fly could get by them without their notice, I approached the gate myself with Gramps and the boys, and on my way there I came up with a bright idea.
That's a solid-looking gate right there, so how do I want to get past it... Well, I suppose I could blow it to kingdom come and remove it that way? On the other hand, it has been a minute since I've last gone all out with my monstrous strength, so why don't I let loose a bit?
Loving the sound of that idea, I decided to go ahead and put my body to work. Right as I made up my mind, I stowed my personalized heavy gatling laser away and walked up to the gate before I called upon the qi-like energy of | Unarmed Master |. I had been using this special energy for quite a long time by this point, so I deftly encased my fist and arm in it.
When I had my entire right arm coated with this ethereal energy, I swung and struck the center of the heavy metal gate with my full strength. That strike echoed throughout the surroundings as if a giant blacksmith had struck his equally massive anvil with all his effort. Removing my energy-covered fist from the gate, I discovered I had left a sizable dent with an imprint of my fist right in the dead center of it. Regardless of how impressive that feat of strength was, it still didn't change the fact that the thick alloy gate still held up strong under my efforts.
You're a tough one, huh? Let's see how many more you can take.
Reluctant to resort to any other methods just yet, I pounded on the gate relentlessly, deepening the original dent with each new punch I stacked upon my original strike. However, I knew this was going to take forever at this rate, so once I had my fun I used the additional force output of | Herculean Strength Rank 2 | that scaled with my carry weight and struck again.
The moment my energy-covered fist met with the metallic surface of the gate, it was as if a bomb went off, and following that absurdly loud sound, the many ton gate burst off its reinforced hinges and flew back over a dozen feet. When it had lost all momentum, it collapsed to the ground with a resounding bang that shook the area.
"How'd you like that?" I asked with a bit of a smirk.
"You're one hell of a monster kid. I'll give you that, hahaha." Gramps laughed, looking as proud as can be to have played a major role in my development.
"Your abilities never cease to amaze, Dom." Bob commented, awed by the force I was able to produce as a human, although a special one.
My other two friends commented similar things, and once the dust had settled, we pushed into the enemy base and lit up the hostiles, who were standing there dumbstruck, looking wide-eyed at the inhuman feat I just performed. Because of our superior firepower and overwhelming numbers, we wiped out all the troops the enemy had manning the defenses and positioned in the courtyard in seconds.
Although pretty confident we had eliminated every hostile in the vicinity, I remained ever cautious and scanned the courtyard-like area one more time like a hawk. Fortunately or unfortunately, my follow-up scan turned up nothing but corpses littering the ravaged environment.
So, with our business handled here, I turned to my squad and said. "They're all dead, so let's move and finally put an end to these assholes."
Bob scanned the surroundings himself and followed with a simple one-word response. "Rodger."
"We're right behind you, bro." Big Tom said, eager to collect a few dozen more kills with his 7.62 minigun.
"On your lead." Takeshi, the sniper of our small squad, responded curtly.
"About damn time. I've been fucking starving for a hot minute here." The old man grumbled.
"Same." Big Tom agreed, followed by the rest of the group.
I was feeling kind of peckish myself, so I told them. "Come on, then. The sooner we get this resolved, the sooner we can go grab a bite to eat."
"Are you paying?"
"...Sure." I responded.
"Atta boy. Let's get this fiasco over with then and go grab some grub." The old bastard said joyfully, clearly happy to be getting a free meal out of me.
Taking up the leading position as per usual, I stepped forth and proceeded to the building with my gatling laser held firmly within my grasp as the rest of the squad and my army of machines followed my lead. The second I made it to the armored door, I moseyed right on over to the nearby panel, took out one of the dead Carven Family squad leaders' hands and placed it on the biometric scanner.
*Access Granted*
Seconds later, the door opened and retreated into the recesses in the walls, but before it could make it all the way, the enemy forces hiding within the base began firing all out at the opening. Already aware of their presence due to my all-encompassing perception field that had grown well over 100 meters in size, I stepped forward whilst tanking their rounds with ease and returned with a bit of my own fire at 6,000 rounds per minute.
After sweeping my gatling laser back and forth over the entry hall and filling up the concrete walls with scorched molten holes, all 50 of the enemies that were fiercely defending the entrance laid dead on the tiled floors of the installation. Absolutely sure that they were all dead, the guys, the robots, and I poured into the enemy's base and started clearing the building multiple halls and rooms at a time. As we were killing our way through the facility, I eventually detected a large control room-like space towards the back of the structure hidden behind a false wall. And in that control room sat a number of leading figures of the city, as well as that moron and his family.
Ahh, so this is where you bastards were hiding at.
Delighted to have finally located the perpetrators behind this awful bloody event, I traded in Purge and brought out my magazine-fed BFS-6 Heavy Shotgun.
Time to run you through your paces, big guy.
As soon as I finished that thought, I let the hefty bolt slam forward and chambered two rounds, one for each barrel my shotgun possessed. Determined to bring this show to a close as quickly as possible, I stormed forward with speed someone of my size and weight shouldn't be capable of and filled the halls with clouds of shotgun shot. Every time I fired a shell from my fully automatic double-barrel shotgun, the Carven Family and their allies' forces would get a large, deadly peppering of ball bearings and lose at least two enemies.
...