14 - Nest

"How's it looking?"

"... Like a monster infested town alright."

 Answering the adventurer Ruth while still peering through his scope, Tom took note of the broken gate, crumbling wall and collapsed buildings inside the abandoned town of New Dale about 3 kilometres away.

"This is close enough so let's set up here."

Seeing as the caravan consisting of Tom himself, Lisa, two armoured carriages and 20 adventures was already drawing plenty of attention, Tom called it and the adventurers immediately got to work.

"You heard the boss! Set up the spikes!"

With Ruth delegating the work, her and the other adventurers started setting up half metre long, sharpened stakes up around the carriages, packing them about 10 centimetres apart in multiple rows at an outwards angle to create a wall of spikes which would help fend off the eventual hoards of gobs which would no doubt come swarming in no time.

"Hurry it up people, I want to set off for the town before they start forming lines."

Having already started popping the heads of stray scouting parties, Tom urged the adventurers to speed up as he reloaded, quietly accepting the magazine Lisa handed him before chambering a new round and wasting another gob which had gotten too close.

After about an hour of concentrated work and a few magazines, the improvised defences were completed and Tom immediately started the next step of the plan.

"Ruth, we're leaving in 30 seconds!"

"Ay boss! Simon, Peter and Victor with me!"

""""Roger!""""

Abandoning his position on top of the armoured carriage, Tom prepared to move out together with Lisa and Ruth's team as he continued to work on multiple different fallback plans. Although he wasn't pleased with the current plan, where he would potentially need to tie up 20 loose ends, Tom was also well aware that just going with 4 adventures would be asking them to die, and even throwing a shit ton of cash after people wouldn't usually be enough to do that.

(If things end up going badly I'll need to deal with 20 adventures… While that wouldn't be as much of a problem normally, these people have gotten used to my way of fighting.)

Observing the surrounding gobs which now seemed to keep their distance, Tom realised that the adventures weren't the only ones getting used to his way of fighting.

Thus, he changed his tactics.

"Mask's on, lose your seal from now on and you're better off dead."

"Ay boss."

Even if she hadn't had as much training as Lisa, Ruth nevertheless had gotten used to wearing the transparent gas mask; her and her 3 man team had even gotten on a run just to get used to it. Still this would be the first time they were subjected to long time use and the problems which came along with that.

"... What do you think about this Lisa?"

Having entered the abandoned mining town of New Dale which was supposedly overrun with monsters, Tom hadn't seen more than a handful of gobs as he and his party made their way down the main road.

"It doesn't seem good, but I don't know where from."

Being used to Tom's habit of constantly testing her, Lisa had long since realised that they were walking into an ambush, but even with her great hearing she couldn't place the location or distance to the encounter. 

"That's good, given your experience I would say you're ahead of the curb."

Throwing a rare compliment, Tom held up a hand and signalled the group to halt as he grabbed a pair of X-98 Theta's and pulled the pin on both, tossing one over his head which landed behind the group while he hurled the second one through a shop window two buildings down.

The effect was almost instant, as soon as the grenade started letting out gas inside the abandoned shop, coughing and screaming could immediately be heard. 

"Wow…"

Just hearing the sound of screaming and aggressive coughing made Lisa feel a bit bad for the monsters, but after remembering how gobs were known to kidnap people and do horrible things to them for fun made her rethink and retract her sympathy.

Holding for about a minute as the sounds of agony continued, Tom started moving along again as the sounds mostly died down, as the few gobs who hadn't choked to death dispersed and ran away. Crushing a few other ambushes with gas, Tom, Lisa and the adventures eventually made their way through New Dale and reached the entrance to the mine which showed obvious signs of monster activity, the amount of footprints heading out from the mine made it look like an entire army of monsters had passed through since last time it had rained.

"... This seems like the place alright."

Racking the slide on his M-909, Tom Caught the round mid-air and used the rim of it to change the gas release rate on another X-98 to its lowest value before pulling the pin and tossing it to the side.

"That one will last about 30 minutes, if I'm not back before it runs out, release another, and if I'm not back within an hour leave me behind."

Reminding Lisa about the plan they had already gone over before, Tom reached out and ruffled her hair before pulling out the PHX-13 PDW which were much more suited for the cramped conditions of a mine.

"Okay, but make sure you come back!"

"Sure, I'm off."

Saying his goodbye to Lisa and the others, Tom entered the mine where he dropped the first of many green flares which would help guide his way back before turning on the flashlight attached to his PHX-13.

"Hmm…"

The mineshaft Tom had entered was no more than 4 metres wide and just 2 metres tall with occasional wooden supports and damp walls that reflected sound in a very disorientating way, these factors alone would make fighting difficult but the addition of a complex tunnel network and honstiles who could see in the dark made this monster nest a nightmare to clear out. At least that would be the case, but Tom had the perfect counter for these conditions.

Having made it about 200 metres into the mine, Tom noticed the downwards slope of the mineshaft had started to increase and so he pulled the pin on another X-98 and let the spoon fly off. As the tear gas started pouring out, Tom noted how the heavy gas floated downhill as a slight smile made its way onto his face.

Keeping up with the gas as it spread further down into the mine, Tom made good speed, planting a single round in the head of each collapsed gob he passed until he finally reached the point where the mineshaft started branching out.

(What I wouldn't give for a few mapping UGV's right about now, or even a good set of NOD's… But nothing to do about it I guess, I just need to conserve my remaining X-98's.)

At the moment, the only advantage Tom held was the tear gas he used to incapacitate monsters, but given he only had 5 left and still didn't know where the 'monster nest' he needed to wipe was, Tom would need to adapt his strategy.

(... 'All you need is speed and violence.'...)

Remembering the words that had kept him alive far beyond what was reasonable in his past life, Tom changed the settings on his flashlight to strobe light as he sped up.

Sure these gobs might be able to see in the dark, smell him coming from a mile away and be equipped with claws that could tear him apart if he got too close none of that would really matter to Tom.

Using the full extent of his god given, enhanced body Tom sped up his heart rate and stretched his mind to the limit.

(... 39 left.)

Going from a full on sprint into a slide on his knees, Tom opened fire on the group of gobs who had failed to ambush him, barely taking the time to slow down.

(23, still two more mags left… A walk in the park really.)

Ignoring that he had already been scratched by one of the gobs, Tom slid back into his old mode of operation as gracefully as an unaware pilot dying from hypoxia.

"What the fuck is up with these gobs!?"

"No idea, more killing, less talking!"

About 30 minutes after Tom had entered the mine, the team on the surface had started running into issues out of nowhere as the gobs had suddenly turned much more aggressive, even bordering on suicidal. Having just secured a fresh magazine, Lisa drove the hammer home and chambered a round just before she squeezed the trigger and turned a gobs head into pink mist before steading on the next target which she immediately gunned down. 

(Shi!-)

"RUTH!"

"Aye!"

Noticing that she had let a gob through due to her tunnel vision, Lisa was about to gun it down when she realised there was a good chance she would hit her ally doing so, so she warned Ruth before switching to another target.

With it being far too close to use her signature bow, Ruth relied on a mace and light hide shield to defend herself and while she would normally be struggling repel this amount of gobs in close combat, the fact that the gobs were basically blinded by their own tears served to skewer the odds to her side.

"Mini Boss, the 'gas' thing seems to be running out!"

Having just reduced a gobs skull face and neck to chunky globs of matter, Ruth noticed that the first gas grenade was starting to run out, indicating that half of Tom's lifeline had passed. Checking her ammunition reserves as she tossed out the last X-98, Lisa started to worry.

(For now we're doing good on time, but if these gobs keep throwing their life away like this we aren't going to be able to hold on for another half hour…)

( 09, rotate.)

Finding himself almost out of ammunition as a pair of larger-than-normal gobs rushed him, Tom placed the remaining amount of ammunition centre mass in the closer of the two then dug his back heel into dirt below and slightly lowered his posture, waiting only a single heartbeat until the last gob had gotten close enough. With a swift movement, Tom turned off the flashlight attached to the side of his PHX-13 before lunging the PDW forward like a spear.

"GUHG!?-"

With nothing to hone in on when the light suddenly disappeared, the gob's eyes hardly had time to adjust to the dark before barrel of Tom's gun crashed into its throat, the combined momentum of the gob charging and Tom lunging easily crushed the monsters windpipe before it realised what was going on.

"GHA!-"

With the monster collapsed Tom spared no mercy and stomped on its throat with his full weight and power, outright decapitating the teenager sized gob as it made another unintelligent noise before he turned on the flashlight again.

(Empty, re- rotate.)

Caught mid reload by another swarm of gobs appearing from around the corner just ahead of him, Tom dropped his PDW and let it be caught by the strap as he pulled out his M-909 which he had already attached a bayonet to.

(2-1-3, easy.)

Counting the six gobs which had rounded the corner, categorising them by apparent threat and formation in a single breath Tom stepped forward faster than they could react and stabbed the closest gob in the chest with his bayonet equipped rifle before bringing the weapon to bare on one of the monsters in the rear and shooting its face off with a gob still attached on the end of his rifle.

(1-1-2.)

Seeing the remaining close gob attempting to get around him, Tom used its skewered kin on the end of his rifle to smash them into the side of the mineshaft before pulling back half a step where he stabbed the next charging monster through the eye socket with his bayonet.

(Last one.)

Not wanting to waste more ammunition, Tom twisted his M-909 to release it from the still twitching monster corpse and stabbed after the last gob when it closed in, only this one had seen what had happened to its kin so it barely managed to dodge underneath Tom's lunge.

Only Tom was of course prepared for this.

"GU!-"

As the last gob came within range of Tom almost running on all fours he simply crushed it underneath his already raised foot, the force easily cracked most of the gobs fragile ribs, killing it within seconds.

(Clear, reset… Huh?)

It was only after Tom returned his M-909 to his back and reloaded PDW that he finally noticed the pale glow which was coming from around the corner up ahead. The light had an eerie resemblance to moonlight, and if it wasn't for the fact that there was almost a kilometre of dirt and rock above his head (and around noon) Tom would have mistaken the light as such.

(This better not be radiation.)

Having already enjoyed his fair share of radiation burns and sickness in his past life, Tom nevertheless peered around the corner to find that the mineshaft had seemingly run into some sort of cave, a cave where a 10 metre wide, slightly glowing, metallic sphere was floating in mid air.

"... That somehow seems worse than radiation."