Chapter 38: Into The Mines

Date Friday, August 9th, 2261

The next day I spent the early, early morning continuing to hone my body and getting used to my new abilities as much as I could at home. Eventually my parents and Alice woke up and after a quick breakfast my mom and dad headed off for work while Alice and I waited for gramps to arrive. It wasn't long after my parents had left that gramps showed up in his armored truck.

"Mornin, you two ready for today?" Gramps asked while walking over and joining us in the living room on the opposite couch.

"As ready as I can be." I answered him.

"Yeah, ready to watch you two go and have all the fun." Alice answered somewhat sarcastically, clearly making it known that she wanted to come along.

"Well, maybe you can come next time, kid, although you'll have to clear that with your boyfriend."

Alice turning her attention to me now I responded. "If the situation isn't as dangerous next time, you can come, Alice."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

Hearing my reply, she lit up and smiled happily.

Following our brief conversation, we covered a few other things and left for the truck, and departed only a minute later. The old man drove the bunch of us through the metal and concrete undercity to the foundry and the second the truck was put in park, we wasted no time and unloaded from the vehicle and went inside. Upon reaching the main area where the bulk of the manufacturing takes place, the Prospectron I had my Multibots working on the past ten days was finally finished being put together.

| Prospectron |

Armament: 2 x integrated palm lasers

Carry Capacity: 650

Power: Fusion Breeder

Value: 185,000

Description: The Prospectron is a bulky humanoid shaped robot that was designed with the purpose of finding and extracting resources from the earth. The robot model comes with emp shielding, making it immune to emp weapons and comes equipped with two beefed up manipulator arms with integrated lasers built into the palms. So they can use a wide assortment of tools and be able to fend off hostiles that may be lurking underground. On top of its useful manipulator arms, the robot also has an assortment of other in-built tools, such as its ore and mineral detectors, which help it easily track down resources underground. Designed by Dom Mason Woods.

Good, I have a bot that can passively scan the surroundings for resources as we scour the mine and caves, killing off the molemen. I also didn't use Mechanical Domination nor that presence hiding field I got from Shadow Lurker yesterday, so let me test those two perks out starting with Mechanical Domination on my newest robot.

It took me a minute, but I eventually figured out how to use the ability and the instant I did, it felt as if I myself was the robot. Further testing the ability revealed that I had absolute control over it and could control it as if it was my own body.

Alright, that's fucking cool. This perk, along with my second thought process, basically gives me the ability to be in two places at once. And if I integrate the rest of my robots, I could have eyes and ears anywhere my robots are that I could swap to in an instant.

On top of that, this power would allow me to issue new orders to any of my robots, no matter where they are. That ability will give me a ton of versatility and will allow me and my forces to adapt to various situations extraordinarily quickly.

I could also use it to manage my manufacturing and from just about anywhere I wish, which is very handy. Ahh, I can see it now chilling on the beach somewhere with family while still being productive...

Leaving those thoughts behind, I tested out several other things with the Prospectron to see the extent of what I can do. Once I was satisfied with my testing, I moved to the robots I had called over when I first got here to see how fast it would take control of one of them and how close I needed to be to do it.

On average, it seems to only take one second to take full control of a robot, but when I tested it out on the Crusader, it took about three to gain full control over it. I suppose it takes longer because of its larger size. I'll have to do more testing in the future to make sure that is the case.

Happy with how useful the perk was and how much easier and efficient it was going to make life going forward, I moved onto the next thing and started testing out the effects of the presence hiding field with my robots. A couple minutes of testing showed that I couldn't find out shit with their help, so I called gramps and Alice over to see if they could help me find out if the perk's ability was useful or not.

"I'm going to activate it. Tell me if you notice anything peculiar or odd." I asked them.

Receiving a nod from the both of them, I activated the presence hiding field and after testing several things out for a few minutes; I asked for their input. "So, did it do anything?"

"Yes, it basically entirely removed your presence and any noise you were producing prior to you activating the field. So, if you were to be standing beside me without me having seen you, I would have no idea that you are even there." Alice answered.

"I agree with everything Alice said although I noticed one other effect."

"What?"

"It obscured you to an extent just not by much. You'll more than likely have to spend a bunch of your skill points on stealth to increase the effectiveness of that effect."

"Hmm, so that's what that was. I thought it was just something from the activation of the field."

"Thanks for the help guys and if you see anything, no matter how miniscule the effect may seem, tell me next time, even if it seems unnecessary, Alice."

"Yeah, sorry about that, darling. I'll be sure to tell you everything I notice next time, no matter how small it may seem."

"No problem, babe."

The testing wrapped up; we went and sat down in a planning slash relaxation area I had set up when I took the building over.

"I'm guessing you're done testing out your new perks?" Gramps asked right as I joined them.

"Not all of them, but most of them, and it's going to make life a hell of a lot easier for me, too."

"Good, so what's the plan, Dom?"

"Alice, will be watching us from the desktop over there, and if anything goes wrong, she can make a call to her dad." I answered while pointing at a PC 30 feet away.

"While she is doing that, you, I, and the robots will head into the mine with several pieces of heavy equipment, clear the blockage, and reinforce the tunnel before we go in to get rid of the moleman problem."

"Sounds like a plan, and what sort of gear are you bringing? We're going to be facing quite a number of molemen, I imagine, so you're gonna need to bring something with a lot of ammo."

"I'll just use what I was using at the range yesterday. Can't go wrong with the NPDM. Although I'm going to bring along a second FBLAR-1 Laser Assault Rifle and a bunch of T-4 Plasma Grenades."

| T-4 Plasma Grenade |

Damage: 200

Weight: 1

Value: 5,000

Item Description: A plasma grenade that was developed by the U.S. military prior to the nukes. The grenade can either be set to explode on impact or after 4 seconds have passed since it was armed.

"Gimme a belt of those nades and one of those Laser Assault Rifles too. I won't necessarily use it, but it's good to bring something that doesn't run out of ammo, just in case."

"Sure, take as much as you want gramps, I can always produce more."

We covered a few other topics and when everything was just about wrapped up; I turned to Alice and said. "Alright, wish me luck, Alice. I'll be back in a bit."

"Good luck, darling, make sure you come back to me in one piece and if things look like they're going south, I'll do whatever I can to get you out of it, even if I have to go in there myself." She said, sounding and looking very determined.

"I appreciate the thought, but let's hope it doesn't get to that."

"Agreed."

"Okay, we're going to head to the armory and get geared up. Love you, Alice." I told her before she closed in on me and caught my lips.

"Love you too, Dom." She responded sweet as honey after ending the kiss she initiated several seconds later.

"You two lovebirds done yet. I want to get a move on." Gramps piped up from the side, causing Alice to gain a blush and feel embarrassed because of her actions.

"Alright, let's go, old man. I know you aren't getting any younger." I said jokingly.

"Let's get to it then, youngin."

Ending the conversation there, I grabbed the streaming device that was already setup and signaled for my robots to all head for the armory via Mechanical Domination while gramps and I made our way there so we could all get kitted out to the teeth the bots included.

The moment we got there, all the robots minus the Crusader were already doing their thing streaming out of the armory with FBLAR-1 Laser Assault Rifles in hand and war belts with plenty of T-4 Plasma Grenades attached magnetically on the various magnetic attachment points.

| War Belt |

Resistances: DT 1

Class: Light

Weight: 2

Value: 500

Item Description: A leather belt with attachment points for different pouches, holsters, sheathes, and adjustable magnets for quick drawing of ranged weapons, melee weapons, and explosives.

Gramps and I, not willing to delay our excursion by another second, quickly joined my robots in getting geared up. Once I made it past the armored door into the armory, I headed to the large locker in the back where I kept my normal kit and unlocked it. Next I began pulling out my shit and getting it set up on the stainless steel table located right in front of the mannequin that was wearing my Heavy Trooper Set.

After getting everything placed in front of my armor to speed things along, I removed my armor from the mannequin and wore it. Quickly getting it on, I wrapped my war belt that had most of the stuff I needed already attached around my waist and secured it. Pretty much ready to get this show on the road, I slung both FBLARs onto my back and picked up the NPDM from the stainless steel table, putting the sling up and over my head and letting the light machine gun hang in front of me.

Wracking the charging handle, I turned to gramps and asked. "Are you ready to do this, gramps?"

"Fuck yea, I am. It's been so long since I've gotten some action, hahaha."

Gramps, more excited than I expected he would be, was ready to roll. With nothing else to hold us up, I mounted the streaming device on my chest securely and asked Alice through it if she could hear and see everything clearly. After hearing her say crystal clear gramps and I started making our way to the mine.

The two of us reached the heavily armored doors of the mine entrance and after taking them over with Mechanical Domination I began the process of opening them via my will instead of the usual door controls. The lights sitting above the door lit up and began rotating within their housings while releasing high pitched chirps. Following several chirps, the massive door split in half, one part grinding and receding off to the right and the other going off to the left into the foundry's wall.

"Let's head in." I said aloud to my group.

Entering the mine, we first passed by the many laser turrets I had set up in case shit went down and later the other improvised mines that were still in place serving their purpose, both of which I took control of with mechanical domination. Not too many minutes into the mine, we arrived in front of the artificial cave in.

Needing the blockage removed before we could proceed, I had my robots begin dismantling it and hauling the rubble off to the side for now with the heavy equipment I had them retrieve with Mechanical Domination while gramps and I were equipping our kit. With nothing to do but let them do their thing, we waited in anticipation, thankfully we didn't have to wait all that long.

Around ten minutes of clearing is all it took for my robots to have the cave in cleared and with it cleared, it revealed a dark mine tunnel that had all its wall mounted lights extinguished due to the previous collapse.

"Those two molemen that have been guarding the rubble for the last year are gone; they must've gone off to inform the rest of their group and get reinforcements." I said upon not seeing the two molemen that were supposed to be watching over the rubble.

"That's most likely what happened, so what do you want to do? We can either wait for them to come to us or go forward and find them ourselves."

"Let's do the latter and turn your night vision on and your IR light so we can see."

"Guys, start reinforcing the collapsed section so we can get a move on."

"Rodger." The many Multibots and the singular Prospectron I brought along responded before going and setting up reinforcements to prevent the ceiling of the tunnel from further collapse.

Whilst my robots were doing their work, I turned my night vision on and my IR light so I could see in the complete darkness that lay ahead and guarded them along with gramps and my Crusader's help.

Approximately 15 minutes is all it took for them to complete the reinforcement and so with nothing holding us back now and not wanting to waste time twiddling my thumbs while waiting for the molemen to show, I took the lead. As I was taking my first step to head into the depths and exterminate the molemen, I enabled my presence hiding field covering myself, gramps, and a good number of my robots in its radius and began walking further into the mine beyond where the rubble used to be.

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