Chapter 492 - Watch The Fireworks

With a final muffled shout, Tamia manages to push the Lakelurk against the bomber, the ballast's magnet gaining strength and digging into its chest, keeping the creature stuck to the bomber. The Lakelurk attempts a sonic scream but is unable to due to the sheer pressure being applied to its chest. It tries to shuffle the magnet off of itself but is unable to, simply being trapped here.

Tamia sends one final scowl at it before quickly swimming to the surface, her shoulder was still heavily bleeding, so she needed to get it looked at before anything else. Veronica and Anja spot Tamia's bloodied and tired state and quickly pull her to shore, Veronica looking over her injuries and doing her best to patch her up.​​

After a rather gratuitous amount of wound-cleaning and bandaging, Veronica finally decides to approach the elephant in the room, "What did that to you?" she asks, not all that knowledgable about what creatures the lake held.

"Lakelurk, I accidentally broke an egg in its nest. You saw the result." she simply states.

"And you managed to kill one of those with a knife?" Veronica asks in disbelief, most 'high-level' creatures in the wasteland were very resistant to most weapons. With unnaturally thick skin, scales, regenerative properties, and other defensive abilities.

Tamia shakes her head, "Use the detonator and you'll find out." she says with a small grin.

Veronica and Anja look at one another before shrugging, the former pulling out the detonator Loyal had given them and activating it.

*PUUSCH!*

Small spouts of water spurt from the water due to the sudden decompression of the ballasts, and not long after it looks as if a sea monster's about to burst out... The huge pre-war bomber quickly appears from beneath the water, slowly bobbing along the surface, revealing all the barnacles, rust, and other damage it'd accumulated over its centuries underwater.

However, the most interesting add on would be the Lakelurk somehow stuck to the top of it, magnetically trapped by the now expanded ballast. Veronica glances towards Tamia and spots her smug look of satisfaction, "So, had to improvise, huh?"

"I can't tell if you're taking the piss or actually asking," mutters before shrugging, "I almost died, you gotta do what you gotta do." she explains.

"I'm just saying, without that ballast the bomber might've fallen apart... But I guess trading the bomber for your life is a good trade..." she then looks to the thirty Cyberdogs standing on the dock, "What now?"

Tamia shrugs again, "Afton said they'd scan it once it's out of the water, how they'll do that I-" she interrupted as the Cyberdogs all launch themselves into the lake, doing a rather poor doggy paddle as they swim towards the bomber. "Ah..."

"You sure there're no other Lakelurks around? Cuz I'm not gonna be the one to tell Afton that we lost one of his pets." Veronica states..

Tamia shakes her head, "If there was I wouldn't be here." pointing her thumb at her heavily bandaged shoulder and stomach wound.

The trio watch as the Cyberdogs reach the bomber and begin to climb up onto it with their metal paws. Some cut their way inside the plane while others just wait on the outside. Of course, they easily tear apart the trapped Lakelurk while they're there, and Tamia takes an almost sadistic amount of satisfaction at it being eaten alive.

Once each of them is in position, they lie down and seemingly go to sleep. Unbeknownst to everyone watching, devices placed inside the Cyberdogs by Glados was working overtime to scan the entire bomber.

The bomber itself wasn't all that complicated, at least, not compared to what the Think Tank was working with. The only reason they actually needed to scan the bomber in the first place was to examine the gyroscopic instruments and other essential components needed for planes to properly fly.

Sure, Afton could have had the scientists working on rediscovering such systems, but it was far too time-intensive to ignore the other projects for... At least this way, he'd be able to get started on creating a vehicle for Bulwark to be known for.

Though, Afton kept thinking whether or not stealing the bomber and repairing it with [Mechanicus] would be worth making enemies of the Boomers and potentially Mr House.

The Cyberdogs continuing scanning and relaying information about the bomber to the Think Tank for a couple hours. Once everything was done, they hopped back into the water and swam towards the trio on the shore.

"Alright, that's done I guess... We better tell Loyal to start transporting the bomber back." she states, taking the radio Veronica was holding and relaying to Loyal their success. Of course, the man almost blew a hip jumping up and down in joy like a schoolboy.

"HAHAAAA! I knew you could do it! Damn those prudes who thought you'd betray us! Hahaa!" Loyal happily exclaims over the radio, all the while commanding his robots to head to Lake Mead, take apart the bomber and transport it.

Tamia grins at the others as they clearly hear Loyal over the radio, "Yeah, yeah, we'll be headed back now. Are you going to start 'distracting' the NCR yet?"

"It's already happening... If you look up in a couple seco-"

*DukDuk, DukDuk, DukDuk!!*

Missiles launch into the sky from roughly where the Boomers are located, leaving trails of smoke as they split off and approach the outskirts of Camp McCarren and Camp Guardian that was located north of Lake Mead. Obviously, the missiles dropped out of the sky a bit before they struck their targets, but it was enough for anyone to shit themselves at.

Seeing a dozen powerful missiles flying towards you wasn't exactly a common thing in the wasteland. But the Boomers were certainly capable of it, even if they were some of their more rare resources.

The missiles strike the ground a good distance from their targets, causing huge explosions which kicks up large plumes of dust and sand. It's nowhere near as powerful as a mini-nuke, but it's enough to scare even larger factions.

"Yeah, I see them... We're headed back, see you soon, Loyal." Tamia says over the radio before turning it off.

"To think he'd congratulate us with some fireworks." Veronica jokes from the side.