The fighting went on and slowly expanded outward as the minutes ticked by, but when a dozen minutes of fighting had come to pass, those much needed reinforcements we had all been waiting on had finally come to our aid.
"We're here, kid." Gramps announced over the encrypted communicator I had built into my Heavy Trooper Helmet as I kept laying down hate on the Carven Family troops that would be dead shortly.
"About goddamn time, old man. Now I can really go all out."
"Don't take 'em all before we've gotten our share."
"Yeah, leave some for the rest of us." The rest of the squad protested in the background of the call.
"Better start shooting then." I said lastly before abruptly hanging up and relaying the good news to my father-in-law, David, Alice's father.
"Oh, that's great news. Now we can really ramp things up and rid the city of its cancer without losing too many of our own."
"Certainly, just let my robots act as the vanguards since they can easily be repaired or replaced after the battle, unlike human lives."
"I'll send an order down the chain of command. Stay safe out there, Dom."
"You too, don't get yourself killed, father-in-law."
"I've yet to see any grandchildren, so I won't be kicking the bucket anytime soon, hahaha." The governor laughed whilst continuing to cast various tier 1 and tier 2 fire elemental spells.
I better hang up before I get dragged into this subject.
Leaving the man to keep burning his foes alive with swaths of flames and turning them to ash, I focused on the many hostiles in front and ramped up my damage output as gramps, the boys, and the thousands of robots I'd been quickly accumulating out in the wasteland entered the war zone. I continued drawing attention to myself for a minute or two longer and then retreated when the heat was becoming too much for me to bear with safely.
From there I moved into the streets and used my unique gatling laser's crazy fire rate to slaughter entire squads in seconds before I again sought refuge in another of the city's towering buildings. The moment I made my entry into the multilevel urban structure, I scoured the place looking for a decent spot I could use to my advantage.
When I found yet another solid position for myself with a good view of the streets and the enemies below, I repeated my previous actions once more and laid waste to the hostiles running amok. And while I was becoming an increasingly bigger and bigger pain in the ass by the second for the rogue elements within this underground metropolis, my new reinforcements began absolutely decimating the rebel army en masse with their technological advantage.
This won't take us long.
...
The conflict with the main force of the Carven Family went on for an hour and change, nearly 2 hours, but once I placed my armored boot on the head of the last remaining enemy soldier who was currently in the midst of begging for his life, I pressed down and crushed his head under my immense weight and strength, thereby ending the fighting in this portion of the city.
Mildly disgusted with my gruesome curb stomp, I lifted my bloody foot off his crushed, fragmented skull, manipulated the wind element mana particles floating around the surroundings, and removed the scum from my boot. I then carelessly tossed the filth aside and deposited it onto the concrete street and kept it pushing.
Having dealt with their main combat force, that was their only real means of overthrowing the current powers that be here in the undercity, I was ready to get a move on and cut the head off the snake and finally bring peace to this underground city once more. Although extremely eager to head to my next destination, I needed to update the governor on the situation, so I began making my way back whilst going over the extended clash in my head.
For fighting non-stop for nearly 2 hours, I would say we performed exceptionally well for our first actual battle against a relatively well-trained army. I mean, they weren't the absolute cream of the crop per se, but they definitely weren't inexperienced by any means since they did manage to disable over a hundred of my robots.
That said, it didn't really provide much of a benefit for them nor have any meaningful impact on the battle since all the units taken down were passively repaired in my | Restorer |'s repair field and rapidly at that, thanks to the massive amount of skill points I've been pouring into my repair skill.
Yeah, it really was a long arduous experience, but it was well worth the effort since the fight has given me a ton of combat data, which I'm currently using to upgrade my robot's AI software as we speak with the assistance of the computers back home. In addition to that gain, I had quite the fruitful harvest when it came to my skills and especially on the exp front. The amount of kills I collected between myself and my killing machines was in the thousands, so this coming power-up is really going to be like no other before it.
I also wasn't the only one who gained a lot from this battle. Gramps and the boys did too in the way of major combat experience. Though I believe the boys gained a ton more from this struggle than Gramps, considering he has already taken part in and survived over a dozen major conflicts in his long career as a wasteland explorer.
Then again, it has been a number of years since those times, so this was probably a much needed refresher for him... Now that I'm thinking of it, maybe I should've brought out the drake, Vritra and let him gather some experience. I'm sure it would've been good for him.
On the other hand, it would have been his very first bout of actual combat that wasn't a training exercise between him and I, so he could've gotten injured by the explosives and heavy weapons the enemies were using. I know his scales are durable and have increased in toughness as he's shed and replaced them with bigger and thicker ones as the years gone by, but I've never shot a rocket at any of them, so I'd rather not let my not so little guy get gravely injured if I can help it.
I mean, I'm aware of his damage threshold, which sits at a tanky 311 thanks to my perk | Observant |, but that is not enough to protect him from some of the more specialized munitions that exist in this landscape. There's also the fact that he's grown so big that he's unable to exit the Genesis Foundry through the main entrance without at least destroying a portion of the structure working against him. Meaning it's just as well that I didn't have him participate in this conflict.
Those many positives aside, it wasn't all hunky-dory since we did lose a few hundred more of the Undercity's troops, unfortunately… As sad as that is, I'm just happy I didn't lose Gramps and the gang, nor anyone else I was close to, so I got that to be happy about I suppose.
However, there were more than a few times where I needed to stop what I was doing over the course of the battle, so I could rush over and pull their asses out of the fire... I really need to get that old fart and the boys in power armor in the near future because it's only a matter of time before something really bad happens. The last thing I want to have to do is tell their parents I got them killed. Mom would also be none too pleased if the old bastard kicked the bucket.
Finished with those thoughts, I rolled up on our friendlies. "Our work is done here."
The undercity forces broke out into a bunch of cheers and hurrahs, clearly relieved to hear the main enemy force had been eliminated, and once they quieted down some, Alice's dad asked. "Have all of them been dealt with?"
"Every single last one of them." I answered the governor.
A lull fell on the crowd of men following my father-in-law, but that didn't last longer than a couple of moments. "You've become even more vicious since the last time I saw you, son."
"Mm, I did what was necessary and should've done in the very beginning..." Pausing for a few brief seconds, I rerouted the topic of conversation elsewhere. "Are you ready to go confront those who started this whole mess?"
After informing my father-in-law of our success, I was going to join his forces and set out to put this problem to rest once and for all by going after the leaders in charge of this sudden rebellion, but he had other plans in mind. "That's alright, son, you can take charge on that issue. The citizens and the rest of the undercity need me and the troops more than those vermin."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm confident you'll bring those who caused all this death and destruction to justice..." Alice's old man said, pausing briefly to indicate he witnessed how absolutely ruthless and merciless I was to my enemies. "So get going, Dom." The man followed up, looking plenty sure I was more than up for the task.
"Alright then, I'll go round up the rest of the squad and return with good news once the job is done."
Shrugging my shoulders, I left and gathered up Gramps and the boys to settle this old grudge.
"Where are we heading now, kid?"
"To the ones behind this violent uprising, the Carven Family." I answered the old man.
"That's not a bad idea, Dom. I like where your mind's at." Gramps commented happily before giving me a pat on the shoulder, which had evolved to a hard slap at this point.
"We're right behind you, bro." Big Tom said, looking ready to follow me into the pits of hell if that's where my destination lied.
"Taking out those in command is sure to end this coup d'état the fastest, so I'm 100% in line with that decision of yours, Dom." Bob agreed.
Rei's brother, Takeshi, nodded his head and said simply. "Mm, let's kill them."
Running my gaze over my comrades, I saw they all shared the same desire to bring an end to this small-scale war that suddenly broke out across Undercity 7. "I'm glad we're all on board. Let's head out and pay these bastards a visit."
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Hey, I'm going to be gone for months at a time for work probably for the next year, year and a half, so Patreon is getting dismantled and I will be going back to writing purely as a hobby, so expect releases for the next however many days till you guys are caught up.