Chapter Eighty

Fort Independence. The Capital Wasteland.

As I stepped off the shuttle and into what must have once been a parking lot for those who worked at the fort before the booms dropped I delighted in how easy it was to move around in my new armour. This set of armour had started off as something taken from an Enclave officer and then modified for my use, not in terms of the technology used, rather the cogboys had altered its outer appearance to make it look more ornate. They'd reshaped the armour and added some decorations.

The Boltpistol at my side was a master-crafted artificer weapon that had been made with great artistry, I found the use of gold and engraving to be a bit excessive, but it was a weapon fit for a planetary governor, or a Lord Inquisitor, and while it looked more like a work of art than a weapon it was a Ceres pattern bolt pistol under all the decorations, a weapon favoured by high ranking navy officers and my fellow rogue traders.

I also carried my Valyerian steel powersword, which I called Shadowsteel, on my person, it along with my armour and weapons showed that I had become a powerful Imperial noble in a very short amount of time. The Ad-Mech were very happy with the fun new toys they got to play with and despite most of their efforts being focused on many different projects the Arch-Magos had found the time to ensure that I profited from our alliance.

This latest mission would no doubt aid with that as even now members of the 2nd Thrax Regiment, elite warriors who wore power armour and carried plasma weapons produced my the Ad-Mech, and were replicated Enclave technology altered in appearance to seem more Imperial, were securing the inside of the fortress. The men and women inside the power armour had been trained by members of the Brotherhood of Steel, however they'd not gotten a chance to put that training to action so it was good that the fortress was so lightly defended.

More regularly armed and armoured troops had been sent into the runs of what had once been a place called Fairfax in order to clear out the raiders who had for some reason decided to set up stop near the fort. Something that seemed damn silly to me. Not that raiders were known for being a sensible group of people and they'd all be dead soon as I'd brought a lot of troops with me.

Once inside Fort Independence, I found that there was nearly no notable loot other than a computer that the Outcasts kept some records on. That machine would soon be transported back the Enclave base that my forces had taken over so that the cogboys could take it apart so as to find any data of value on its hard drive or they could use for toaster sex Tuesday. I didn't much care as I got paid well for these finds.

We found little else of note until we reached the lower levels. Once we got sown some stairs the Magos and I found a terminal which she opened after some bit of ritual work that apparently involved appeasing the machine spirit before getting the password. I assumed she did some clever hacking stuff that was dressed up in needless ritual.

We continue down until reaching a room full of research terminals. Activating them proved to be worth the time as they contained research notes on various weapons, including a model of missile launcher, a minigun, Enclave power armour, a type of plasma rifle I'd not seen before, pulse grenade and laser rifle.

As the goodies were taken out men and women came in so as to set up this little fort as base of operations for the 2nd regiment. This left me free to read some reports I found a terminal as the local computers weren't exactly hard to use.

Henry Casdin

We've secured the building and are currently implementing our orders for the occupation of Fairfax. Raider activity in town has increased since we first took up positions in and around the fort. We've killed a lot of them and scared off others. But they just keep coming back. Their numbers seem limitless, while requests for our own reinforcements are repeatedly denied. That the Raiders take such continued risks to invade our facility appears to confirm suspicions that we've had an intelligence leak. They've tried tenaciously to infiltrate the base, but so far hadn't stood a chance. Our objective remains the same: protect the research personnel.

Rococo Rockfowl

Defender Morgan and I executed a reconnaissance mission last night to gauge Raider entrenchment in the structural underground of Fairfax. We located three entrances into underground utility tunnels, and confirmed the enemy has occupied and fortified these positions. Some are undefended. We also identified a small weapons cache in the southeast section of the tunnels. We were compromised by a patrol while placing explosives here. In accordance to mission parameters, we did not engage, instead retreating to Base. Raiders will be likely to attach more patrols to that area now.

My interest in these dull reports faded quickly as did my desire to stay here at the fort as there wasn't much worth seeing. These Brotherhood Outcasts had proven to be a disappointing lot as had their little clubhouse.