Chapter 577 - Trained

Upon getting back to Big Mt, Afton's first reaction to hearing tunnelers had broken in was to punch a wall and curse whatever god was shitting on his parade. "For fuck sake! I finally get things going the way I want and this shit happens?" he sighs while pinching the bridge of his nose.

After taking a moment to himself he looks back at Glados' drone which had delivered the bad news. "And where is Shani now? I'm still wondering whether I should punish her for trying to escape, or thank her for revealing this rather extreme security risk... One you didn't seem to notice I might add." he states with a slight glare.​​

"Subject is currently resting in their apartment... They appear to have shut all curtains, locked all windows and doors, and is hiding in their bathtub..." Glados explains, somehow sounding awkward about having to say this.

...

Afton crooks a brow, "So... Like, is she having a mental break or something?..." he trails off.

"That can neither be confirmed nor denied without a psyche test. I suggest you speak with her before the meat bag tries to end its own miserable existence."

Afton releases a sigh and nods before turning and quickly walking towards Shani's apartment. He ignores the greetings of the maids living here and eventually reaches her room, giving it a couple of firm knocks.

Inside, he hears someone panicking and quietly muttering gibberish. This only gets louder with each knock... He raps his knuckles again the door again, but Shani still doesn't seem to want to answer it.

Letting out another sigh, Afton allows his plant arm to infest the lock, and after locating all the pins he shapes a key from it. With a satisfying click, the door swings open, though, he's greeted by Shani rushing him with a knife... That just harmlessly skitters off of his Power armour. The woman continues to attack him with tears streaming down her face, as if this was her last stand...

Finally having enough, he grips her wrist and clenches his hand, forcing her to drop the knife, afterwards he jabs her in the neck with his fingers and renders her completely unconscious. With that done, he tosses her over his shoulder and begins marching back to the Think Tank so he can get this woman sorted out...

Clearly, she wasn't in a healthy state of mind, so he'd have her checked out... Might as well take some fresh samples from her while they're at it. Now they had 'Scorpion-Mans' samples, Mr X's samples, and Shani's, there was a good chance of some progress being made on Psykers.

He leaves Shani with Dala and makes his way to the tunnel where the breach occurred. Since then there was a constant military presence patrolling the area, but there hadn't been any expeditions into the tunnels as of yet... Afton was pretty sure any unprepared force would quickly be wiped out, Tunnelers aren't your average beast after all.

Afton crosses his arms and glances at Glados drone that floats next to him, "So. How did the tunnelers gain access to these tunnels anyway? I thought you had patrols covering the exits?"

"Patrol would routinely check them, creator. The tunnelers must have snuck through our defences somehow... It is strange, and potentially indicates far more intelligence than has previously been observed..." she states.

"Great... NCR attack is coming, Legion bolstering defences along Hoover Dam, and now Tunnelers gaining intelligence and committing to a sneak attack against us... Glados, has Borous found anything from his Tunneler test subjects that might indicate anything?" he asks, hoping there'd be a reason for the current situation.

"Negative. Though, the reason for this could be that we have not found the Tunneler variant responsible yet. As you know, the species is incredibly diverse, and it is likely that a mutation that drastically increases intelligence can occur."

Afton chews his lip for a moment before nodding, "Alright... I want a group of Deathclaws, Ultimo-bots equipped with flamers, and Cyberdogs ready for an expedition as soon as possible. I'll be accompanying them, so inform me when everything is ready." he states.

"Affirmative, Creator."

Elsewhere :

"HHHaaargh!" a feminine roar sounds out as Tamia lifts the heavy rebar weaved concrete slab. The power armour she's wearing creaks under the sheer pressure it's put under, but after careful training in recognising its limits, Tamia slowly lifts the concrete from the ground.

She lifts it to around her hip before the strain is too much and she unceremoniously drops the three-quarter-ton weight. She sucks in heavy breathes after the exertion, despite the Power armour assisting her in lifting it, she still had to utilise all her strength.

This was the last test required for her to finally complete her Power armour training... It required you to use just enough of the suit without damaging it, which, as it turns out, is much harder than it'd seem. You have to judge how much strength you are using, while recognising the few cues that'd indicate the armour is close to failing.

Of course, there is a reason the training is so strict... If you overexerted the armour it could potentially implode under the pressure, crushing everything in the area and more likely killing whoever is wearing it. Everything comes with a price, and essentially becoming bullet-proof was a hard debt to pay.

She drops the weight with a grunt and looks around, grinning at Josie who's not even close to completing her own training yet. "Come on, you're almost there." she encourages but holds herself back to prevent causing Josie to overextend herself.

Unfortunately, the engineer gives up, too scared to approach the limits of the armour due to the many risks associated with it. Still, Glados' drone floats over to them, "Subject designated: Tamia, congratulations for completing the mandatory Power armour training. You are rewarded with the armour you currently wear, and the gratitude of... Myself..." she states the last part in a robotic, clearly prerecorded way, "And... the rest of Bulwark. You have permission to take time off until you are called back for duty."

And with that, Glados floats away again, not even saying a word to Josie who looks mightily put out at being ignored...