Chapter 585 - Gearing Up

Soon enough the group ended their training and headed out to get some food. It was fun and relaxing but Afton still has work to do, so he ended up leaving earlier than most anyway. He heads to the Think Tank laboratories and delves underground, only to find Dala floating over Shani who was currently lying on an operating table.

He takes a quick shower in the provided room and puts on some clean clothes before entering the lab. "Alright, Dala, remember what I told you... Only biopsies and chipping, otherwise I'll be taking you apart as well." he states. The only real reason he was here, after all, was to make sure Dala doesn't go overboard with her duties. If she wasn't so deranged he'd have left her alone to do it herself.​​

"Mmhm." the scientist acknowledges and starts the operation, getting biopsies on every relevant organ that may or many to be involved in Psyker physiology. Of course, this meant doing some of the more dangerous organs such as the brain, the heart, the lungs, etc. Still, it wasn't as dangerous as it would've been in his old world primarily due to the existence of Stimpacks and Cybernetics. If something ever went serious wrong he could just replace the organ entirely.

Everything was going as planned until halfway through the procedure Shani's eyes began to glitter open... "She's almost awake, sedate her." Afton calmly states, somehow hiding his worry... He himself would be very distraught at finding himself suddenly being operated on... Shani hadn't even been informed this was happening to prevent her from trying to escape again.

He also wondered why Shani was even awakening... Had Dala purposely not given her enough sedatives? Or had her Psyker biology made her more resistant to it?... Shaking his head, he grabs the chart and quickly finds the problem.

Indeed, Dala had applied minimal sedatives. This was the minimum required for a young female, meaning either she was trying to avoid using too many resources, or it was purposeful... He'd have to ask her after this.

Shani was wide awake at this point, rapidly looking around the room while hyperventilating. Her whole body was trembling and a ton of adrenaline was being pumped around her body. She scrambles to try and escape the bed, but Afton jumps into action by locking her in place with his Plant arm, trapping her head, body, and limbs with many root-like appendages.

Shani would have screamed had she not been wearing a ventilator, she appears to panic further once she'd been trapped in place. Finally, though, Dala manages to pump her with enough sedatives that her adrenaline can't keep her awake any longer. Her eyes flutter, and despite all her attempts to resist, she falls unconscious again.

Afton retracts his plant arm while sending a glare towards Dala, "Did you mean for this to happen?" he accuses.

"Not at all... Consider this more of a test... To see if these 'Psykers' are more resistant to sedatives than regular teddy bears... As you can see, my theory was correct."

...

Sure enough, she had done it on purpose... At least there was a valid reason for it though?... Afton couldn't really argue against her methods, at least, not without arguing for Shani's sake. Which, considering she'd been trying to break out since she got here, he wasn't all that inclined to do.

"Whatever. Let's just get this done so we can send her back." he states, urging her to continue the operation.

Half an hour later everything was done, all the samples had been collected and Shani had been chipped to make sure she wouldn't try to escape anymore. All that was left was to ship her back to her room and get some sleep to prepare for tomorrows expedition into Tunnel territory.

Afton throws off his medical gloves and walks towards the showers, "Dala, send Shani back, and no additional experiments." he warns.

Dala watches him leave and then looks down at her manipulators, contemplating whether or not to listen to his last order... Eventually, she just decides to leave it as is, there were always opportunities in future... At least, as long as she didn't piss Afton off. Not to mention the fact Glados was probably watching her right now...

The next morning Afton was already up and standing fully geared outside the railway tunnel. He was backed up by Tamia, Veronica, Christine, and Scorpion-Man... The latter of which was the only one not wearing Power armour.

The only reason Scorpion-Man was even here was his Psyker status, for anyone else it would simply be too dangerous. Still, that didn't mean he wasn't outfitted in top of the line armour.

He was currently wearing the newly created Bulwark Ranger armour, which sounds exactly as the name implies... They'd used the Ranger armour they'd received from the Van Graffs and created their own variant. This one had Light saturnite plating, saturnite under armour mesh, Deathclaw leather coat (This one not going past the hip due to Scorpion-Man's abilities), and the highly advanced Ranger helmet.

Scorpion-Man already had fairly good low-light vision, but in the tunnels it'd most likely be pure darkness, so night vision was required, plus infrared vision would help identify the enemy. It also came with communication systems, targeting systems, and many more add-ons they were able to fit.

Last but certainly not least were the weapons he'd been allowed to start using... An Ultra Chainsword, and a silenced SMG which would support his style of combat, and aid in infiltration when he is eventually sent out on such missions... The only thing he was missing for the gear he'd 'officially' be using was a Stealth boy... Which, probably wouldn't be all the useful against Tunnelers anyway.

Behind the group was also a large contingent of robots, Cyberdogs, and a couple Deathclaws. The Deathclaws were more of a test than anything else, using large numbers of them together was a disaster waiting to happen.