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Nobody likes patrol duty. Scavving, yeah, sure, that's fine. You get rewards for that. Take your cut of whatever shit you find, turn the rest in, you're good. Maybe you get to pop some trogs. Point is, there's usually something makes scavving runs worthwhile. Patrol.... enh. You better hope you get daytime duty. There's a shitload of perimeter to cover and if Krenshaw makes you do it at night, you're fucked. The trogs come out in force once the light goes down, and the wildmen- well, hell, those assholes don't ever sleep. They just get meaner when it's dark. You'd better hope to hell you've got enough ammo.
It's a long run and it takes you around the city perimeter, out over the Wabash Bridge and through the railyard tunnel and back again. And Krenshaw always asks about the details, or if he doesn't Lord Ashur does, so you can't skip that part of the loop. You just do that part of the route as fast as you can without skipping anything. If you get back without having to blow a stimpak on the deal you're coming out ahead.
So, yeah. Over the bridge. Past the wildmen warrens. Through the gorge and the gates and damn straight you lock them behind you, because if you don't there's gonna be some shitwad slave trying to escape and there's gonna be hell to pay. Down through the trainyard- there's trogs there, two of them. Nasty bastards. There ain't much left of them when you're done, but eh, you'll call someone to come get the meat once you're back in the city. Make a couple of slaves do it, send them with the next patrol asshole, worst that happens is the patroller's got meat shields.
Christ, what you wouldn't give for a meat shield. The tunnel's up ahead.
It's a long damn tunnel and it's way too damn dark and there are always, always trogs in it, and you do not want to be there, but it's the only way into the city that counts. And the boss's been real damn itchy about border security the past few months. So... deep breaths. Into the dark you go. You've got a flashlight. It ain't enough. It's never enough. There's always trogs. There's-
Shit. There's no trogs. You're halfway through the tunnel and you ain't run into any of those goddamn creepers yet. Just- piles of ash? All over the place, piles of ash. And green goo. What the fuck.
And what the fuck is that noise.
It's mechanical. It's a lot of mechanical. It's a shitload of mechanical. You know the noise of the ammo press in the mill, bam bam bam bam bam bam? Like that. That rhythmic dull roar, just over and over. And getting louder-
And then, without any warning, the whole place just lights up at once. Not that anybody's hooked up a generator or anything, 'cause that would be too fucking easy. No, see, the other half of the tunnel? Is full of more goddamn robots than you have ever seen anywhere in your goddamn life, and they all just switched the lights on their heads on at once.
"I really wouldn't move if I were you, sir," says a woman's voice. One of the robots ain't a robot after all, it's a... suit of power armor. Huh. "We've got a mission ahead of us and we'd rather you not interfere with it. Please put your hands on your head and stay exactly where you are if you don't want to get hurt."
Shit.
It's a long run and it takes you around the city perimeter, out over the Wabash Bridge and through the railyard tunnel and back again. And Krenshaw always asks about the details, or if he doesn't Lord Ashur does, so you can't skip that part of the loop. You just do that part of the route as fast as you can without skipping anything. If you get back without having to blow a stimpak on the deal you're coming out ahead.
So, yeah. Over the bridge. Past the wildmen warrens. Through the gorge and the gates and damn straight you lock them behind you, because if you don't there's gonna be some shitwad slave trying to escape and there's gonna be hell to pay. Down through the trainyard- there's trogs there, two of them. Nasty bastards. There ain't much left of them when you're done, but eh, you'll call someone to come get the meat once you're back in the city. Make a couple of slaves do it, send them with the next patrol asshole, worst that happens is the patroller's got meat shields.
Christ, what you wouldn't give for a meat shield. The tunnel's up ahead.
It's a long damn tunnel and it's way too damn dark and there are always, always trogs in it, and you do not want to be there, but it's the only way into the city that counts. And the boss's been real damn itchy about border security the past few months. So... deep breaths. Into the dark you go. You've got a flashlight. It ain't enough. It's never enough. There's always trogs. There's-
Shit. There's no trogs. You're halfway through the tunnel and you ain't run into any of those goddamn creepers yet. Just- piles of ash? All over the place, piles of ash. And green goo. What the fuck.
And what the fuck is that noise.
It's mechanical. It's a lot of mechanical. It's a shitload of mechanical. You know the noise of the ammo press in the mill, bam bam bam bam bam bam? Like that. That rhythmic dull roar, just over and over. And getting louder-
And then, without any warning, the whole place just lights up at once. Not that anybody's hooked up a generator or anything, 'cause that would be too fucking easy. No, see, the other half of the tunnel? Is full of more goddamn robots than you have ever seen anywhere in your goddamn life, and they all just switched the lights on their heads on at once.
"I really wouldn't move if I were you, sir," says a woman's voice. One of the robots ain't a robot after all, it's a... suit of power armor. Huh. "We've got a mission ahead of us and we'd rather you not interfere with it. Please put your hands on your head and stay exactly where you are if you don't want to get hurt."
Shit.