Chapter 77: It’s Your Lucky Day

Many, many hours into my loot transfer operations, as I was hauling ass down the wrecked roads coming back from my final trip to the undercity.

Man, I can't wait to get back home and eat. I've worked up quite the appetite, helping my guys out with all the loading and unloading.

I thought as I was running alongside my convoy with my item box's felt weight turned way up for training purposes. Continuing to think about what I wanted to have in a short bit, my Sparrows flying throughout the sky around the convoy spotted a smallish band of bandits coming from the valley exit located to the southeast of my stronghold as my convoy and I were rounding the bend to the north.

Hmm, that's odd I don't ever recall bandits roaming around these parts of the wastes, I wonder why they're here… Well thinking about it isn't going to tell me shit, so I'll just head over to them, cut them off, and find out what they're doing out here in the middle of nowhere.

And once I've shaken the information out of them, I'll figure out what I want to do from there... I'll probably end up killing them since I need to get used to taking human lives at some point. Thus, I might as well ease myself into it by ridding the world of some scum who are known for committing all manner of atrocities, from raping and pillaging to slaughtering entire towns just for sport.

With the human garbage following the road that will eventually pass by my home, I wasted no time and gathered two of my Wolverines, 10 Crusaders, 10 Defenders, and 20 Multibots. From there, I started making a beeline for them as the blazing Nevada sun was setting in the west. Speeding off in their direction at over 30 miles an hour, which was a hell of a lot faster than their walking pace, my squad and I began nearing them in about a dozen minutes, give or take a dozen seconds.

Oh, they even have a Nembe pulling a makeshift carriage. They must be pretty well off if they have a beast of burden to haul their shit for them.

Unconcerned about being spotted because of my active stealth field and the distance my guys and I had away from the band of scum, I took out my X-50 Anti-Material Rifle and looked down the scope to see if I couldn't find out what they were transporting in that ramshackled carriage of theirs. Spending the next several seconds scanning the thing I discovered they were transporting a number of weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and an assortment of general supplies. However, that was only the loot. They also had a young woman tied up and locked inside a jury-rigged cell of sorts in the rear of the carriage.

I initially planned on taking them all out by spraying them down with my gatling gun, but now that I know they're transporting what I can only assume is someone they captured, I guess I'll have to change my initial plans a slight bit. I have zero interest in taking the lives of innocents and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as I possibly can, even though I probably won't be able to do that forever.

Keeping my rifle lifted, I didn't bother scanning them since I was already aware of all 31 of the enemies and the weapons they were wielding, which were mainly small arms that were mostly of the 5.56 variety, thanks to my eyes in the sky. Nearly 100% assured that they wouldn't be able to harm nor disable any of my forces with any of their weaponry, including myself, I began lining up my suppressed rifle's reticle on the frontmost bandit.

The moment I had my heavy rifle training, the well-built, sun-kissed bandit who appeared to be the leader of the band of mostly men, I squeezed the trigger and fired a single round. The only noise my set of actions produced was the sound of my gun's bolt flying back and catching a new round, an expended brass casing whizzing through the air that was still a ways away from landing on the Nevadan sand, and the crack of the 50 caliber bullet I shot at my target, breaking the sound barrier that had yet to arrive at the enemy forces.

Not pausing for even a single second, I transitioned my scope's reticle to the darker toned bandit beside the one whose death warrant I had just signed and let loose another round as the first bullet was nearing ever closer to its intended destination.

As soon as I had locked in on the next piece of shit and was about to fully depress the trigger, the first round I fired found its target and ripped through the bandit leader's makeshift armor that looked to be a mishmash combination of leather and metal scraps before entering his chest cavity. The 50 caliber round then sailed through his flesh and bone and blasted out his back, splattering a mess of blood and flesh across the pavement with small bits of bone mixed amongst it.

Continuing my onslaught before they could even really begin to react, I rapidly swapped from one poor bastard to the next, although only after I had fired off a round. Running the weapon dry, I unloaded the spent magazine, deposited it in my inventory, clicked in a fresh 10 rounder, and restarted the slaughter as the bodies began hitting the cracked pavement, one after the next.

Whilst I was busy unloading all 10 rounds I loaded seconds ago, the bandits I hadn't yet blown massive holes into started to holler and react to the dropping of their companions with audible cracks ringing out in the area. Pulling the trigger again and again, I emptied that magazine as well and exchanged it for another fully loaded one and kept sending hate down range till there were only a mere 5 bandits remaining.

That should be enough for now. I'll deal with the remainder of them once I've gotten the information I want out of them.

Planning to send the other five off to the underworld later on, I moved in with my small unit of mechanical forces and began closing the 1 mile distance I had between them and us. Moving ahead of my forces since they were all a hell of a lot slower than myself, I reached them in no more than a minute's time.

"You vermin better remain on the ground if you know what's good for you!" I ordered the three male and two female bandits I had spared momentarily with my AP-6 Hand Cannon drawn and ready to begin unloading .338 Lapua Magnum rounds.

"Fuck yo-"

*Bang…*

"Do the rest of you wish to join him?" I asked as my gunshot rang out in the surroundings and bounced off the mountainous walls of the valley.

"...Doesn't look like it." I commented.

"Okay, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to ask you bandit scum some questions and you're going to answer. Got it!" I told them in my typical deep voice, although in a much harsher and more demanding tone than my usual.

"Y-yes." One of the now four surviving bandits stuttered out while the rest of his compatriots shivered in fear, most definitely intimidated by my massive heavily armored frame towering over them and the carnage I just inflicted on their group laying feet away from them.

"Now, what are you doing all the way out here in the middle of nowhere?" I asked the four pieces of trash that looked about ready to piss themselves.

It took a few seconds, but the one who answered me previously opened his mouth again and began spilling the beans. "We we-were traveling back to our hideout."

"Oh, and where would that be?"

...

Growing impatient, I utilized my bloody slaughterer aura I gained years ago when I exterminated the mole man colony in the mines. "It would be in your best interest to tell me what I want to know before I lose my patience." I suggested, while implying shit would go very south for them if they didn't do as I asked.

"It's a shack up ahead." A bandit caved whilst pointing in the direction of a small two-lane road that went northward.

Checking my minimap I had positioned in an out of the way spot in my vision, all I found was an abandoned shack a few miles north, one that shouldn't be able to support their formerly 31 person group.

"Hmm, are you sure about that?" I asked as my robots started rolling up behind me, exerting even more pressure on the four surviving bandits.

"I-I am." The one who had been talking all along answered fearfully.

"Alright, we'll verify if that's the case in a minute here."

"Moving onto my second question. What's with the girl locked up in the back of that carriage over there?" I inquired whilst pointing my armored hand at the bulky mutated two headed camel pulling their belongings.

The bandit who had been answering up to this point looked both surprised to hear I knew what was hidden within and apprehensive to fill me in on the details, but he eventually succumbed to the formless pressure I and my forces were exerting on him. "...She's the daughter of the Crystal Springs mayor."

Hmm, I do recall going on a mission to save her back in my previous world... 

As I was remembering the events that followed that particular quest, I couldn't help but take note of this girl's luck.

This chick is honestly quite lucky her kidnapper's base is situated right next to my own. If things didn't align as such, she would've ended in the same position as her game counterpart, which is raped, tortured, and dumped right outside her small wasteland town she called home her whole life.

That being said, the same could also be said for me since I could easily use this opportunity I stumbled upon to establish and build some sort of beneficial relationship with the mayor of the town that's basically right next to me. But even if I can't get anything out of them, I can probably, at the minimum, set up and start building the business arm of my future empire there before I start looking to move and expand south to Vegas.

Pretty much understanding, I stumbled across a nice little game event for myself wholly by accident; I continued, sounding quite pleased. "That's all the questions I have for the moment."

"Get up and come with me." I ordered.

Those three pieces of shit had been of no help and entirely worthless to me up to this point, so might as well get rid of them and gain some exp from dispatching them.

"Ah, ah, not you three." I told them as they were beginning to rise from the cracked asphalt.

With the other bandits not having come forth with even a smidge of information thus far, I swung my revolving hand cannon and rapidly fired three shots into their heads, one bullet for each of them. Splattering their brain matter onto the pavement below and instilling even more fear into my captive bandit friend, I mushed him in the direction of the rickety mobile cell. Quickly passing by the docile, mutated two headed camel that had one massive hump for storing water, my cooperative prisoner and I arrived at the rear of the carriage.

"Go ahead and open it."

Hearing what I said, the bandit did as directed and speedily moved to open the rusted sheet metal door.

______

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