Chapter 177 - Firing Squad

After dumping the Fiends body in sewage, Boone and Karl went straight back to the other Fiends position. Both already knew what they had to do.

*Tink* *Tink* *Tink*​​

Both ready their weapons as the sound of mining continues, Boone readying his hunting rifle while Karl prepares to use his new Light Machine Gun.

Without another moment wasted they both walk out into the light, catching the attention of the Fiends who try to get out of the way after the confusion had left.

Nutter's eyes widen as both men point their weapons into the room, she reaches for her Laser RCW that'd been propped up against the wall, but it was already too late.

*RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATAT!!*

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

The entire underground labyrinth was deafened by the sound of weapons firing. Karl sprayed the entire room with his weapon, making sure to aim for those with range weapons first before moving onto the next. The gun was pretty unwieldy, but it shot enough bullets to make up for it.

Boone immediately blew the head off of the woman reaching for an energy weapon, not allowing any chance of injury in their mission.

By the time they'd stopped firing there wasn't any life left in the room. Anyone who'd been present had gotten annihilated by their firepower, leaving only mangled corpses in their wake.

"Huh... Expected a little more trouble than that." Karl mutters as he starts looting the bodies, Boone goes over and checks the stability of the wall the Fiends had been trying to dig through, luckily they'd not breached it...

Elsewhere :

"When things go wrong, don't go with them!" Afton says as he points at the unconscious Kings.

...

Chance and Pacer just look at him in confusion, having never heard that saying nor recognise it as having any value. The latter was still itching to shoot dead this intruder, but that wasn't an option now that the King was here.

The King upon hearing this just looks at Afton with wide eyes. "Boy, where did you hear such a thing?" he asks after a moment of composing himself.

"A legend known as the King of Rock, Elvis Presley." he states, causing the King to gape at him.

"The King had a name? How do you know it?" he quickly asks, all the information he'd scrounged about the man had only referred to him as the King. They didn't even know what he was the King of, where was the place called 'Rock' anyway!?

Afton just shrugs, "Oh, my father used to play his music... He-er, had holotapes of the man speaking and other similar things. A shame our house burnt down." he says with a sad look.

"So his name was Elvis Presley?... A noble name, one suited for someone known as the King." he mutters to himself, still apparently stuck on that one fact. The King shakes his head and gestures around the room, "Still, that doesn't explain what you've done to my boys. Explain yourself before Rex'y here makes you his chew toy."

"What happened was your guys attacked me for trying to speak with you. Had to beat them down to knock some sense into them." he states, glancing at Pacer with a disinterested look.

The King frowns at this, "Pacer, he tellin' the truth?"

Pacer scowls and slowly nods, there was enough witnesses to refute any lies he tried to conjure, and lying to the King would definitely put him in a bad spot. "Yeah, he said something about whether or not the grease in our hair was flammable, continued to mock us until I lost it."

Afton just sends a smug smirk at him, "Seems that having a shit temper and being a shit fighter go hand-in-hand." he says with crossed arms.

"Why you-" he sputters but is interrupted.

The King lays a hand on Pacers shoulder glares at them both, "Enough. Pacer, someone else will take your post until you can handle your anger, and you, you'd better stop your mockery in my building. Whether or not you hold the secrets of the King is irrelevant if you force my hand."

Pacer mumbles something under his breath as he walks straight out into Freeside.

Afton himself didn't really care if he had to follow some rules while in the Kings territory, all he wanted to do was get the counterfeit licence and make his way into the strip... It's irritating he'd had to deal with these idiots though.

The King directs some of the still conscious members to carry the beaten ones to their rooms. None of them were all that badly injured courtesy of Afton's mercy, but most would not be fighting anymore today and maybe tomorrow.

After sending Pacer away and cleaning up the injured, the King gestures for Afton to follow him. He leads through the previously looked door into some kind of theatre? A large stage was set up at one end of the room while many tables and chairs were sat beneath it.

The King sits in one chair that looks more comfortable than the rest before gesturing to the chair opposite him. "Now that we've got all that unpleasantness outta the way, you wanted to speak with me? It better be important, one doesn't beat half my men for nothin' after all."

Afton rubs the back of his head, "Ah, actually, I only wanted to know where I could purchase a licence to get into the strip..."

...

The King just shakes his head and looks down at the cyberdog resting at his feet, "Hear that Rex? This fool fight his way through our boys just to get a licence." he looks back at Afton, "What? The 2000 caps needed to enter too much for you?" he says, eyeing the rather vicious weaponry Afton currently has on him.

Afton shrugs, "I'm a mercenary, these weapons are my life, in this business saving money is for the dead and buried."