Slayer Gothic 2
Part 9
CRD. Sunnydale.
This place was not only a factory, it also had its own warehouse, offices and even a loading bay. All of which had long since been gutted so there was plenty of space inside the building.
Currently only a fraction of the place was currently in use as while Fred worked here doing her science stuff, it was only her here most of the time and we kept the most sensitive research materials back at home.
Still there was plenty going on inside. Fred was hard at work figuring out to open portals to worlds that humans could survive on, and she making good progress as knowing about both Mareth and the Host's dimension had allowed her to create a coordinate system which meant we could open a portal that would led to any destination we wished in other realities, as long as we knew where it was on a map. We could even use portals to reach other parts of this planet by first leaving this world and then opening a portal back to wherever it was on Earth we wanted to go.
The dangerous part was finding new realities to explore. We could open portals to countless dimensions, however we had no idea what we'd find in those planes of existence until someone used the portal.
That was risky because we had no way of finding out if humans could survive in those other places. Sure the portals were formed with psychic energy, meaning there had to be thinking beings with feelings in the other dimension, but that didn't mean the air would be breathable for humans, and the locals might be powerful demons who would eat us.
My solution to this problem was to send a robot scout that could inform us of what a reality was like before anyone more fragile ventured there. To that end I'd tracked down the android Ted and then damaged the machine enough to shut him down.
Once that had been done I'd brought him here so Fred could use her sexy brain to re-program Ted. We needed a robot as sophisticated as him as opening portals the way we did was a lot like casting a spell, and the wording had to be exactly right. Also Ted had a lot of inbuilt tech that allowed to him to study an environment.
While all that was going well it wasn't making portals that concerned me right now, it was closing them, and also I needed ways of killing whatever came out of the Dark Anchor. Which meant I needed fire power, pistols and swords weren't going to be enough to deal with what was coming. I needed guns, lots of guns.
"Okay Fred what do you have for me?" I asked when I found the smart woman busy at work "Please have some good news".
Normally Winifred would not normally be in this place so late as while it was private property it was not a home as such vampires required no invitation in order to enter. We had discussed converting some of the rooms on the upper floor into an apartment, but we were unsure if that would grant the entire building protection or just the apartment part. Since we didn't know for sure I wasn't willing to risk anyone living here.
That wasn't to say the place was defenceless, it was warded using powerful Wicca spells and the symbols I used to hide things from higher powers, however these protections had their limits, and they could be removed by someone with magical talents.
Sure this was also true of my home, but I was often at my house as was Tara and she was a witch so anyone planning on breaking into that place was a moron. Plus the pool of holy water from Mareth and the sapling we'd taken from the nature goddess tree kept demons away from the house, so it was only human intruders we needed to ever worry about at home.
"I do" Winifred told me "The new research material you got me was interesting, and its taught me a lot about portals".
The research material she was referring to was information I'd taken from one of Fred's college professors, he was why she'd ended up trapped in a demon dimension in the first place. Fred was unaware of this and hopefully she always would be.
The professor had studied portals and other dimensions for years, and had accumulated vast amounts of data on them. Which I had taken from him and I was now drip feeding it to my science loving girlfriend in such a way that it would be impossible for her to discover its source. She was under the impression that I had a demonic contact that was giving me information in exchange for money, and that the creature was the one drip feeding me.
"If I understand everything right, then you can't have two portals close to each other, or too close to the Hellmouth" she told me "Which means this Dark Anchor can't be near the school, it must be on the outskirts of town".
Which wasn't that helpful really, as there were caves all over the place, but at least I could rule out a small area around the Hellmouth.
"What might help us is trying to open our own portal near the Dark Anchor" Fred was now saying "If my maths is right, then the two portals should destabilise each other, but this will only buy us time because the Dark Anchor isn't formed by psychic energy, it can't be and remain open for long. But our portals do require psychic energy so it would be hours or even days before another one could be opened in the same place. Sunnydale has a lot of psychic power but its not endless. This Bal guy won't have that problem".
So this wasn't a long term solution, but it might be the difference between saving the town and watching it get sucked into a horrible Hell-dimension.
"That's great" I said with a smile "But I actually came here for weapons".
Fred's other job was come with things that could kill demons and vampires more effectively that what we already had. Sure I had quite the armoury at home, however this was the place most of the weapons were kept because it was a lot safer to test them in a place that wasn't inhabited by people.
Winifred took me to another part of the factory, and after unlocking a door she led me into a room that was pretty much a vampire's worse nightmare. Nearly everything in here was lethal to them, and it was all also very unhealthy for demons in general.
The long table was covered in the more traditional vampire dusting equipment. A wooden stake of any kind damaging the heart is fatal to a typical vampire. Even wooden pencils and tree branches could end them, but by far the best was the wooden stake and we had loads of them.
Also we had a few crossbows. These weapons commonly used by vampire hunters because they are quiet and accurate, they allowed us catch a vampire off-guard, and that a was a good thing.
"How's that rapid fire crossbow coming along?" I wished to know.
That movie with Helsing being played by Hugh Jackman had been stupid in so many ways, but having a rapid firing crossbow would be awesome and should someone ever let those Uber Vamps free having them could mean the difference between life and death for all of us.
"I'm still in the design phase" Fred told me "but I do have something nearly as cool".
She reached under the table and took out something that I could only describe as the bastard child of rocket launcher and a shotgun. Also it looked heavy, at least for a normal human like Winifred.
"This is basically a stake launcher" the woman in a lab coat told me "as in it launches stakes".
Driving wood into the chest of vampire wasn't a lot of work, it had something to do with the mystical properties of wood in relation to vampires, and while crossbows could take out a vampire from a distance I could see the value in having a stake launcher like this. If nothing else it was far more intimidating than a crossbow.
"This thing won't just take out a vampire" Fred was now saying "It will take out the vamp behind him too even if he's hiding behind a car door".
I picked up the stake launcher and found that the weight wasn't too bad, however I didn't think it would be a great help against daedra. I needed something that fired hot bits lead and a lot of them.
"Show me the shotguns" I requested.
The next crocodile headed motherfucker who came near me was going to get some buckshot to the face and while assault rifles were all well and good, when you really need to tear a monster to pieces, nothing filled the air with metal death quite like a combat shotgun. And for those times when a regular combat shotgun wasn't generating enough flying body parts, then people like me turned to what had to be be the most outrageously devastating hand-held anti-personnel murder devices in existence: the Atchisson Assault Shotgun, or AA-12 as it was also known.
Fully automatic and drum-fed, the AA-12 fired five 12-gauge shotgun shells per second, with extreme reliability and so little recoil that a strong man like me could shoot it Arnie-style with one hand. And if that hail of hot buckshot wasn't enough then it could be loaded with FRAG-12 - a new type of shotgun cartridge in which each round is a small explosive or fragmentation grenade accurate up to about 175 metres. Undead or not it didn't matter the AA-12 would take them down. Plus Fred looked super hot while holding one.
"You've got the option to load the AA-12 with either an 8-round box magazine or a 20-round Tommy gun-style drum" Fred the told me "but it's largely inconsequential in automatic mode as the 20-round drum takes only 4 seconds to use up if you hold the trigger down. That's a lot of ouch"
It was amazing what you could buy in LA if you knew the right demon, who knew another demon, who in turn knew the right people.
I had been saving the AA-12 for the Judge, should that creature ever be assembled, but I figured the Master would also make a good target.
"Being a standard 12-gauge shotgun, the AA-12 is compatible with a fairly wide variety of shells" the science woman was now saying "but you're going to need the FRAG-12. Which as you know is a 3-inch 12-gauge cartridge case and propellant, that fires a small warhead and fuse assembly that arms itself 3 meters out of the muzzle and explodes on impact thereafter. Small stabilising fins pop out when the warhead leaves the muzzle, spinning the projectile and giving it an awesome 175-meter effective killing range".
In other words 'DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA'
"FRAG-12 rounds are available in plain high explosive (HE), high explosive fragmenting anti-personnel (HE-FA) and high explosive armour-piercing (HE-PA) varieties" Fred went on to say "Each of which is designed to mince foes in different locations and situations. The frag grenade, for example, can be put through the window of a house from 100 metres away, and will explode with a burst radius of up to nine feet. Send a few and its bye-bye vamp nest".
After that there wouldn't be anything left to stake.
"This is turning you on isn't it?" Winifred then asked.
I just nodded.
"Silly boy" she said a smile "Come on let's get get you some grenades".
Which was exactly what she did.
"These are Lewes bomb" I was then told "Which is a blast-incendiary field expedient explosive device, manufactured by mixing diesel oil and Nobel 808 plastic explosive. It was created by a Lieutenant Jock Lewes, one of the original members of L Detachment SAS back in 1941".
Which made them sound out of date, but if when it came to demons newer weapons weren't always the best.
"Back then the SAS needed a combined incendiary and explosive device that was light enough to be carried by a small group of commandos yet powerful enough to destroy and set fire to aircraft on an enemy airfield" Fred said.
I knew I needed firepower but even I thought this was getting a little ridiculous, on the other hand if Bal manifested in this reality he could be sent back to Oblivion using mortal weapons, at least in theory, and it might take something like this to even slow him down.
"Yeah these should do nicely" I said.
These weapons had cost me a small fortune, but they would be money well spent if I had to deal with a Hellgod. Sure I'd been thinking of Glory when asking Fred to make me bombs, but Bal was even worse so I was grateful for my foresight in this mater.
"Right I'm off to go save the world" I told Fred "Wish me luck, sweetheart".
Which she did by snogging me, and that was nice. I would have taken things further but I was needed elsewhere.