Chapter 291 - Elite's Outta Nowhere!

Afton continues to cut his way through the door, until eventually there isn't anything that remains of it. In the next room he's almost blinded by what he saw... Everything, the floor, walls, and ceiling were layered in glowing black and blue hexagons.

On the ground appears to be a skeleton with a purple proton axe sticking out of its back? There's another skeleton at the opposite end of the room, lying under a destroyed terminal that sparked with electricity from its destroyed monitor.​ ​

There were also two holographic floor mounted projectors, displaying a proton axe and a box respectively... For what purpose? Who knows.

Afton sighs, "Well, I guess my dream of a holodeck is gone." he mutters, walking over and picking up the purple proton axe before checking it with his inventory.

[Protonic inversal axe]

Strength req : 5

DMG : 58

Crit dmg : 45

Crit mult : x1

AP : 25

Weight : 8

Value : 10000

Special : +50 damage against robots outside Big MT, +20 damage against Big MT robots and power armour.

Well, it's just a straight upgrade of the regular Proton axe... A bit more base damage and almost double the crit damage. "I don't think this thing is worth not having a holodeck." he says, inspecting the damaged terminal and finding a boot sitting within its destroyed screen.

Perhaps he could repair this? It'd have to be another time, as he had no idea just how long it'd take to do that. Plus, if everything went as he wanted, he'd have help in repairing this.

Turning he leaves the room, walking over to the opposite side of the room, heading down some stairs towards where the Night Stalker kennel should be. At the end of the hallway is completely stained with dark, dry blood. A skeleton lying directly under it. The door to the kennels was wide open, with the cages that used to keep the creatures restrained having been bent, and broken so they can escape.

"Detecting movements beneath us." Nyx states, and Afton draws his new Inversal axe along with That Gun.

"Can you tell how far?" Afton asks, wondering if there was a room underneath him.

"Between one and infinity meters." Nyx says, his tone fixed but it was clear she was taking the piss.

"Oh, ha-ha. You're very funny." he sighs, checking the room for anything good to loot.

"Thank you. The people who designed me always praised my humour."

"I was being sarcastic." he retorts, taking great pleasure in getting some payback.

"Ah, I couldn't tell. Are all human jokes that bad?" Nyx asks as he was rummaging through an upturned desk.

"Alright, here's a joke then. Knock Knock."

"Who's there?" Nyx replies dutifully.

"Nunya."

"Nunya who?"

"Nunya business. Now, let's get to work." Afton states, not wanting to get caught by some Night Stalkers with his pants down and talking to Nyx.

"You are a very strange man."

Afton ignores Nyx's comment and continues looking through the various rooms that used to hold the Night Stalkers. He walks through large pipes that were presumably made to transport the Night Stalkers to whatever test area's they were required at.

Though, he could see a grated off part of the pipe completely destroyed, Night Stalkers having apparently chewed through the metal bars and escaped the facility. He continues into the next room and spots various things to loot, though, he was staying far, far away from the still somehow 'edible' steaks lying on the floor...

Afton simply couldn't believe they had been lying on the floor for two-hundred years, and not rotted or been eaten by the Night Stalkers here... Either the were poison, or wax replicas.

He checks the room for a while and eventually finds a Stealth boy tucked into a corner, Afton examines it and snickers to himself. These things used self-contained power sources that couple be swapped out as they were inextricably linked to the other electronics that allowed it to function. This was a negative thing in most instances... But, Afton was uniquely suited to dealing with this.

His [Mechanicus] Perk allowed him to repair it after each use, making the Stealth Boy reusable, and not just a disposable tool that most saw it as. Of course, he'd need to wait a bit after each use for it to regain functionality, but that was fine.

"Hey Nyx, I've already found your replacement," he says with a smirk, holding up the relatively heavy Stealth boy. With it, he could now become totally invisible for around ten minutes.

"That is not funny either." Nyx complains, the AI slightly worried if there was truth in his words...

Before Afton is able to say anything in reply, Nyx's next words stop him in his tracks... "Uh oh. Enemies incoming."

Afton shoves the Stealth boy into his Deathclaw leather satchel for now. The enemies were likely to be Night Stalkers, so there wasn't any point activating it when they could just smell him out. He ducks into the corner of the room and lines up That Gun at the pipe where they'd likely be coming from.

Though, strangely enough, despite hearing the rattle of their snake-like tails and quiet steps through the hollow metal exit, he couldn't see them... No, that wasn't true. He could see slight shimmers in the air, indicating that the creatures had somehow evolved to acquire the ability to become invisible. Was this the ability the scientists in the terminals upstairs were talking about?

He takes a slow, deep breath before firing at one of the shimmers. A spray of blood is the only indication that he'd actually hit something, but quickly the others were on the move.

*Bang, Bang, Bang!* he continues firing, not knowing exactly where to aim.

[John Wick Style is in effect]

One Night Stalker falls over as its invisibility disappears, a bullet wound on the side of its head. Afton isn't able to celebrate as he's assaulted by the rest however.