Chapter 57: Warrington Station

With those hordes of ferals dealt with, we pushed onward and spent the next several minutes traveling along the rails until we started nearing the metro station. Once we reached a certain distance from the station platform, I detected a number of mines ahead. So I had everyone come to a complete stop and keep an eye on the level above the station platform where there was a makeshift defensive position, as well as below it where there was a makeshift wall constructed from various pieces of scrap.

"You guys hold here and watch the surroundings while I deal with the mines in our path." I told them lowly.

"Roger." Amata responded.

"Sure thing." Don replied lastly.

Assured that my squad had my back, I moved in and got to work on defusing the mines. Around 3 minutes later, I had all of them disarmed and managed to come out with a solid haul of 27 Frag Mines.

Finished taking care of that small minefield, I approached the station platform and asked aloud in a loud voice that echoed across the metro station and into the nearby tunnels."Is there anyone here?"

I repeated that a few more times and received no response, so I called Don over to come give it a try and see if he could get a response.

"Are there any fellow ghouls here? If there are, we don't mean you any harm. We only wish to talk?" Don inquired loudly in his usual rough and raspy ghoul voice.

...

When Don didn't receive a response either, he repeated himself again and seconds after he did; he received a response back from a ghoul that was hiding behind the defensive position up top, above the train platform.

"There is, but what do you all want?" The ghoul hiding up top responded somewhat standoffish.

"Well, I'm looking to clear this old metro out and take it over for my own purposes." I answered the unknown ghoul which, if I had to guess, was likely Michael Masters.

"That won't be possible since I'm living here wastelander, so I would recommend you turn back around and head on back to where you came from." The ghoul replied, obviously sounding displeased because of me wanting to take his home away from him.

"Why don't you hold up for a minute there since you've yet to hear my proposition?"

Continuing before he could pipe up, I began presenting my proposal. "For clearing out of this place, I can offer you the same deal I offered to my friend Don here and his two brothers that are back at our home."

...

"Ohh, and what would that be exactly?" The ghoul asked, only slightly intrigued and still just as defensive and skeptical as previously.

"That would be a safe home, better equipment, fresh non-irradiated food, and clean, pure water. You can obtain all those benefits and more at the cost of becoming my subordinate and helping me achieve my goals."

...

"Hmm, I don't know, your offer sounds a bit too good to be true if you ask me, wastelander. Also, what kind of goals do you have?" The ghoul responded, still sounding skeptical after a couple of seconds had passed.

"Understandable, but as a show of good faith, here's some of the food you can expect to eat on a daily basis if you agree to my terms." I said while retrieving a sealed package of food from one of my robots before tossing it up to where I heard the ghoul's voice originating.

A few dozen or so seconds later, after I heard some rummaging with the food's packaging, the ghoul who had those clear normal human eyes that only a very minute percentage of ghouls possessed popped his head up from behind his cover and said with a bit of food on the corner of his mouth. "If this is what you're offering as a daily meal, sir, you got yourself a deal, at least from me. As for the rest of my group, I can't say for sure whether they'll agree to your terms, but they'll more than likely agree as well as long as we're not discriminated against and get to eat food like this every day."

Oh, so it is indeed Michael Masters, nice. Having a highly intelligent electronics and biological engineer who focused mainly on human mutation experiments to develop super-soldiers prior to the bombs falling as one of my subordinates will be exceptionally useful in many of my future endeavors, especially those involving genetic augmentation and modification.

He can also help out with educating others as well, though I'll more than likely have him focused on research and experimentation since he would be more useful there. So with his talents and knowledge being more useful elsewhere, I can just have him type all the information he knows into a terminal occasionally and that material can be used for others to learn from.

"Then you have nothing to worry about because I have plenty of this kind of food and am in the process of growing more of it, as well as various other foods, just as good as we speak." I responded after finding out who I was communicating with for the last few minutes.

"Now, to answer your previous question regarding my goals, I plan on taking over the wasteland and restoring some semblance of civilization back to it. Hopefully recruiting you and possibly your ghoul friends as well can reduce the difficulty and help me accomplish that goal of mine faster given that you've likely been around for a couple of hundred years at this point and have a wealth of accumulated knowledge and experience to draw upon just like Don here and his brothers back at our home."

"Ahh, you have a good point and yeah, we've been around since before the world went to hell in a handbasket. So you're right that we have accumulated a ton of knowledge and experienced a lot over these last two centuries. Although not as much as we would've had the world not been turned into the wasteland that it is now... That aside, how do you plan on accomplishing that goal of yours, sir? It is quite the steep task, after all."

"Before I answer your question and we continue this conversation of ours any further, I think it's about time we've introduced ourselves. I'll go first. My name is Harold Todd Woods. The person standing next to me on my right side is my fiancée, Amata Ashlen Almodovar, and the person on my left side is Don King Hill."

"It's nice to meet you all. My name is Michael William Masters." The previously unknown and unnamed ghoul said.

"With introductions out of the way, I'll answer that last question of yours regarding how I plan to accomplish my insane goals. For starters, I've taken over the nearby RobCo Facility, repaired it and its machinery, and brought it back online. Which has now given me the ability to take over the capital wasteland within a year if I had to make an educated guess. But if I really go all out and rush it a bit, I could probably cut that timeframe down in half and have everything within my control within half a year."

"Besides the RobCo Facility, I have a number of automated manufacturing machines that I've developed that produce all manner of components and items that I'll need to accomplish my goals. I also know the location of many advanced civilian and military installations, manufacturing facilities, and military bases that will help me in regards to taking over and restoring humanity to what it once was and eventually advancing beyond where it was previously. Does that answer your question?" I added further.

"That it does, and the fact that you have a small army of robots helps add validity to what you just stated about taking over the nearby RobCo Facility." Michael replied.

Following that, the both of us discussed several more things, including Michael telling us about his previous occupation prior to the bombs and what skills and knowledge he picked up since that very day.

"I wasn't always like this, you know. I was a goddamn scientist back before the war. We were doing great things. Amazing things!" Michael said passionately as we were wrapping up our chitchat to go recruit the rest of his friends.

"Well, I'm sure you can start pursuing and doing amazing things again once we've recruited the rest of your group and get back to the facility." I responded.

The minute we were done with that, Michael guided the way forward for us until we got to the portion of the metro tunnel that was guarded by a pack of Feral Ghouls, which my group quickly and easily mopped the floor with. And of those ferals dispatched, my robots and I took 29 Feral Ghouls, 6 Feral Ghoul Roamers, 2 Feral Ghoul Reavers, and 1 Glowing One.

When we finished off the last of the ferals, we continued on our way through the dark, dreary metro tunnel until we arrived at a blast door that Michael immediately went up to and opened via a button located on the side.

*Kssnhhnk*

The instant the blast door had settled into the open position, we pressed on inside and into the maintenance corridors.

______

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