Chapter Ninety

HELIOS One. Mojave Wasteland

Now I felt more like a Rogue Trader. Here I was about to break into someplace where no one else should have been in for many years in search of lost treasures and forgotten knowledge. Given the US military's involvement in Archimedes 2, there could be some sweet tech down below, technology I could keep for myself or sell to some branch of the Imperium as a means of filling the coffers of House Thrax.

"Alright Veronica, do you have any idea of what can we expect down here?" I asked as the heavy metal door slid shut behind us "Security bots, automated defences, that sort of thing?".

After she'd unlocked some terminals on the outside, and had opened up the only hatch that led into the tower in the centre of the solar panel field, I'd thought that we'd find ourselves in an elevator, but instead, the big door opened onto a set of stairs, going down, not up. In this world going underground rarely ended well.

Veronica had been here before, at least in parts of the plant and as such, she knew quite a bit about this place, she'd known that there should be some good tech stored away somewhere in the solar energy plant. Well, she didn't know for certain, but the possibility made this venture worthwhile.

"It might be any number of things," she said as the three of us along with members of my battle harem descended into the darkness. "One of the so-called NCR experts I spoke to did mention security system, and a few soldiers being killed the last time they tried to enter this part of the plant, there could be any number of things in our way".

I wasn't too worried as Veronica, Sarah and I wore full sets of newly manufactured power armour. As for my battle harem, they were superhumans.

"SECURITY LOCKDOWN IN EFFECT. HOSTILE TARGETS ACQUIRED! COMMENCING NEUTRALISATION. NEUTRALISATION BY LETHAL AUTHORISED".

"The fuck is that?!" Sarah yelled

If Veronica said anything in response, I couldn't hear it as there was a whine like a jet turbine spinning up, and the air above us was filled with the sounds of dozens of rounds flying through the air.

Now I was realising that the automated defences had to include miniguns because I couldn't think of any other kinds of guns that fired that fast, and to make matters worse our protection did have its limits so we ended up having to take cover.

"YOU HAVE ENTERED A SECURITY ZONE. LETHAL FORCE WILL BE USED"

The voice boomed during a pause in the barrage of bullets.

"Sentry bot!" the scribe yelled.

I could barely hear Veronica trying to shout over the noise, and lucky for me my battle harem didn't need to hear any orders, they got to work and quickly disabled the robot as it was a direct threat to me. No doubt the means they used to destroy the robot had been impressive however I didn't see it.

Once the coast was clear I got a chance to examine the machine that had attempted to bar our entrance. The robot was basically a massive, vaguely humanoid torso sitting on top of thick tripod legs, each of which ended in giant, treaded all-terrain wheels. There was a missile launcher on the end of one arm, and a six-barrel Gatling gun on the end of the other. It didn't look like a robot so much as a small tank.

"The cogboys can have what's left," I said.

Due to their shortages, they had started making use of local robots when possible. The repair, restoration and anointing of these machines took time, but so did training recruits.

My battle harem moved again as I almost came face to face with another Sentry bot.

"ENGAGING HOSTILE TARGET!"

Before it could fire its missile launcher and blow someone up, one of my battle harem disabled it with a pulse grenade. I felt very glad that my ship had the means to manufacture such items for us.

"Elijah must have activated sentry bots before he left," Veronica said once the defences had been dealt with "They are what killed the NCR soldiers"

"Looks that way," I said "There are probably more of them deeper in the facility".

Sarah didn't take that news well and I learned a few new swear words that must have come into use since the bombs had dropped.

Things went far more smoothly, now that we knew exactly what we were up against. It wasn't all sentry bots, there were maybe half a dozen protectrons, and those went down easily enough since as we'd dealt with them before. Along the way, we found some more pulse grenades. It was always handy to have a localised EMP coupled with a miniature electrical storm specifically engineered to fry electronics when you're fighting robots. They came in very handy when we ran into more sentry bots, as those things were tough.

"How much further until we get to the mainframe?" I heard Sarah ask from behind me.

We must be fairly deep underground by now and finally, we came across an elevator which should take us where we wanted to be.

"I'm not sure," Veronica said "I never actually came down to this part of Helios," she told us "This is beyond the restricted level Elder Elijah set up".

The elevator doors slid open with a creak, which meant that this place at least had enough power for that. I sent 006 and 007 ahead to ensure that we wouldn't be gunned down as soon as the lift doors opened and when they reported over the vox that it was safe to follow I got into the elevator.