Firefight

It was well passed midnight when most of the Raiders finally finished partying. It started to rain lightly so they decided to call it a night. The left two Raiders outside to keep watch along with their attack dog.

The first Raider was inside a makeshift building they built on top of some scaffolding, while the other was sitting in front of a campfire they lit earlier with the dog at his side.

I leveled my rifle and took aim at the one by the campfire, since I couldn't even see the raider in the building. I took my time aiming because this was the most important part of my plan. I needed to take both of these Raiders out with them letting the people inside know.

I fired and watched the Raiders head explode like a watermelon. The gunshot startled the dog and the Raider in the building who started shouting and ran out with his gun in hand. He was moving quickly down the scaffolding and I didn't have confidence in my ability to hit him so I activated VATS.

I fired two shots into his chest not wanting to risk missing his head at this distance. They punched right through his leather armor and he collapsed on the ground. Seeing how easily he went down I reminded myself that Leather Armor was only good against small arms.

All that was left was the dog who was already charging towards me after pinpointing my location from my last shots. I stored away my Hunting Rifle and pulled out my 10mm and put the dog down once he got close. I always had a soft spot for dogs and felt really bad having to put him down like that. After all there are no bad dogs, only bad owners. But, I didn't have a choice if I didn't kill him he would have killed me.

Once everyone was dead I hid behind some plants and was ready to run if the Raiders came after me. But, I was lucky the Satellite Array was a massive concrete building with a massive basement which is where the Raiders lived. I figured there was a good chance that they couldn't hear anything down there especially considering the fact that this was a military facility that had a large blast door to help muffle the sound.

I waited several minutes and was thankful that these Raiders were so incompetent. I quickly looted there bodies and continued with my plan. It wasn't much of a plan but, it was the best I could come up with.

I crept up the blast door and carefully opened it wincing every time the metal squeaked. Once the door was open I slowly descended the stairs ready for the first sign of trouble. There was a sleeping Raider at the computer terminal with his feet kick up on the desk. I stepped over the laser tripwire to avoid setting the Arc mine they set up and approached him. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take out an extra Raider.

I took out a Machete I found and reached out with shaking hands. In one swift motion I covered his mouth to stop him from screaming and slit his throat. Blood gushed from his neck like a fountain as he weakly struggled in my grip. I had my eye clenched shut not wanting to see the look on his face as I killed him.

Eventually his movements stopped and I let go of him and looked at my hands. They were stained with his sickly warm blood. I had to force myself not to vomit and give myself away. It was a completely different experience killing someone with your bare hands as opposed to through the sights of a gun

With a gun there's a sort of barrier between you and the Person you kill and you can keep your distance from their death. But, with a knife you have to feel every sickening detail. I had never been more glad I didn't choose a melee build.

Wiping the blood from my hands I tried to put my feelings to the back of my mind and continue with what I have to do.

The room I was in had a window that led out to the main room which I could still hear Raiders partying in. There were also two doorways one of which led to a long hallway that attached to the large scaffolding in the main room. While the second door had a stairway to kitchen and utility area and also led out into the main room.

My plan was to set up all of my mines in these areas before using VATS to take out as many Raiders as possible through the small window. And when the Raiders try and rush up here to kill me they would trigger the mines. Then I would retreat while covering my escape with the SMG and use the Fatman to give whoever was brave enough to follow me a nasty surprise.

I placed 6 Frag Mines, doing my best to make sure they were hidden while avoiding being seen. Thankfully it was dark and the Raiders were blaring the radio. That combined with my sneak skill let me avoid being caught.

Though, there were a few close calls. Like when when I was placing a mine in the shadows at the base of the stairs. I accidentally knocked a bottle, it didn't fall over but, it made a slight clinking sound. This was noticed by Ack-Ack who seemed to be the only competent Raider here.

She came to check the noise but, thankfully didn't actually enter the room or else she would have set off the mine.

With everything set I took a moment to drink a Nuka-Cherry out my inventory since it was one of the few items that can refill AP. I wanted to use VATS to take out as many of them as possible.

All in all it took maybe 15 minutes to set everything up and having no other reason to hesitate I got my Rifle out and leaned out the window with VATS activated.

About half of the Raiders were in the main room. They were just laying around enjoying their high. I targeted one shot at the heads of the Raiders who looked the most sober.

Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang I fired five shots in quick succession. four of them hit their targets while the fifth grazed a Raiders head leaving a long bloody gash.

Without missing a beat a put away the rifle and started throwing Molotov's down. I did my best to throw them in places that would block off the routes to me with fire. I managed to nail four more of the Raiders with the Molotov's taking them out. Which should leave around ten of the left.

The remaining Raiders finally realized what was happening and started firing at me, forcing me to duck inside. I retreated to the stairwell leading outside with my SMG ready to spray anyone who stepped into my line of sight.

At this point I finally started to hear explosions going off and I knew I had a couple kill because of the level up notification I received but, seeing as I was in the middle of a firefight I ignored it for now.

Two Raiders rushed around the corner and I filled them with holes before they could even fire a shot. I waited for the next Raider to pop out but, several seconds passed and no one came. The remaining ones must have finally wized up and weren't going to randomly charge me.

I downed a Nuka Cola Quantum which gave me an extra 100 AP and threw out a couple more Molotov's to cover me as I rushed forward. I didn't want to let this turn into a prolonged firefight because they had more people and ammunition than me and I would definitely lose. My hope was that they wouldn't expect me to rush them and I could take a couple of them out before they could react.

I choose to go down the stairs because there was more cover there than in the long hall. I saw three Raiders who looked like they were getting ready to rush up the stairs. I caught them unaware and was able to take two of them out before they could attack but, the third managed to fire a shot into my Leather Chest Armor before I killed her.

It was a low caliber bullet that couldn't get through my armor but, it stung like hell.

I switched out my SMG for the .44 Pistol. I wanted to have the .44 ready to use with VATS so I could put a bullet in Ack-Ack's head the second I saw her. I didn't want to risk giving her the chance to rev up her Minigun. Other than Ack-Ack there were between six and zero Raiders left depending on how many people my mines killed, I decided to err on the side of caution and assume it was on the higher end of those numbers.

Moving further in I came across two more Raiders who were hidden behind cover. They would occasionally pop out to fire a few shots before jumping back behind cover while the other started shooting. I was out of Molotov's and had to resort to wasting precious AP to kill them in VATS.

Once the two Raiders were dead an odd sense of stillness came over the area. I backtracked up the stairs and swept through the entire facility but, couldn't find any more Raiders. I was ready to activate VATS at any moment as I started counting the corpses. It was a little difficult counting the ones killed by mines. Not just because they exploded everywhere but, because I couldn't stop vomiting.

I didn't notice it while everything was going down and I was filled with adrenaline but, there was a literal ocean of blood filling the rooms. It looked like a scene out of a horror movie. The worst part though was the smell. You normally don't think of blood as having a smell but, when there's this much of it you notice.

Forcing myself to ignore the grossness I came up with a total body count of 19. I search thoroughly and didn't find any more Raiders let alone a giant Minigun that should've been pretty hard to find. That meant that Ack-Ack was still alive somewhere in the base, and there was only one place I had yet to check.

There was a locked double door at the end of the maintenance area. In the game it was just filled with some Radroaches and some minor loot. But, now I had a hunch it was where the final boss and the girl they kidnapped were. It was tough situation.

If there was no hostage I would just blow open the door with a Frag Grenade and launch a Mini Nuke inside but, I obviously couldn't do that now. I couldn't just walk up and start picking the lock either because Ack-Ack was probably right behind it ready to fill anyone who approached the door with holes.

I honestly couldn't think of a way out of this. My only option might just be to starve her out. But, if I did that there was no guarantee she would kill and eat the girl. I was stuck.