Commando Scruffles moved silently through the countryside, barely visible amongst the foliage. He was a ghost, a phantom. He was invisible, untouchable, unassailable, and pissed. He was going to destroy the Raiders in Corvega Assembly plant if it was the last thing he did. Not necessarily because it was good for the fine settlers of Tenpines Bluff, but moreso that he could finally get into the Institute and take over the greater Boston area.
The Corvega Assembly Plant stood prominent among the other buildings in Lexington. It had high smoke towers which made it easily distinguishable. This building had been used to put together cars of the Corvega make, before the war. It made Commando Scruffles wonder. How come there were no cars anymore? I mean, it had been 200 years and still nothing. He had heard that all the cars he saw dotting the landscape were completely unable to be fixed, and even if he accepted that, how come nobody made a new car? He had seen the Institute come up with freakin' robots that could not be told apart from real human beings, we're talking complicated pieces of work. Were they really incapable of building a new car to drive around up here? Or at least a bicycle. Something. It seemed oddly suspicious that nobody around here had seen any bikes. They seemed to stop evolving after the tricycle stage here in the Commonwealth. It made walking everywhere a pain in the ass, that was for sure.
Because he was so lost in deep, philosophical thought, he barely noticed the factory looming larger in the distance until it filled his entire screen. He had made it. Immediately, he dropped low into a crouch. Using his tactical training, he conjectured that this place had some kind of back entrance. Before the war it was used as an assembly plant, and that meant it had to dump waste somewhere. Given the laziness of Pre-War businesses, that usually meant right out back. He snuck back there and sure enough, found a pipe that led into the factory. Hopefully, he could use the element of surprise. However, in the back, no accessible piping.
"Come on," he thought, "usually there's a sneaky way to get into dungeons like this." He snuck around the front, and sure enough, found a convenient pipe. At this point, he sent Strong back to Sanctuary Hills. Strong didn't sneak. He made it an outright principle. The commando respected someone who could stick to principles, but the principle needed here was silence and secrecy. He made his way into the pipe alone, just like he did last night, if you catch my drift.
On his way in, our valiant hero realized that he was not the first person to try the pipe entry method. After chuckling to himself about the phrase 'pipe entry method,' he noticed that some feral ghouls were attempting to break into the facility using the same entrance. Good. He hoped that they would provide a good cover for him to get in. He took a deep breath, and dropped a ghoul at the far side of the pipe. "Tango down," he said to nobody in particular.
The pipe opened up into a basement room where he quickly dismantled a turret. These bastards were going to pay, and no automated defense system was going to stand in the way of Scruffles' revenge. See, he had made up this story in his head that he used to be a simple brahmin rancher, attempting to eke out a living in the Commonwealth with a sturdy wife and a tiny, tiny, baby. Until the Raiders struck. Now, he wanted through the wilderness with nothing to lose, dropping all of the Raiders that he could with his hand-built weaponry. As far as stories went, none of it was true, but it would work as a brilliant motivator for our hero to dismantle this gang. And then hopefully get the Minutemen to teleport him to the Institute, so he could take over. With these big dreams in his heart, our hero pressed on through a corridor decorated with weird tin cans hanging from the ceiling.
He supposed that the cans could be used to alert people about intruders, but they were pretty easy to walk past without tripping. It was going to take more than that to deter a man hellbent on his mission.
At the end of the corridor and the top of the stairs, he ran headlong into three Raiders who were searching the area. Perhaps they heard the turret explode. Perhaps Scruffles' footsteps were too damn loud. Perhaps they had an inside man. He dropped all of them, but not before they got a couple of shots off.
"Damn it! Now this whole place is alerted!" the Commando yelled, before activating a Stealth Boy and leaping into the shadows. He found a nice little corner to hide in. He saw the bar on the top of his screen go from Danger, and then widen out to Caution. All around, Raiders were walking laughably predictable routes and shouting for him to show himself. He wouldn't be fooled that easily. After a couple of minutes of tension, his HUD reflected that he was hidden once more.
When other men would panic in a situation like this, Commando Scruffles just grinned. Behind deep behind enemy lines made him feel alive. He noticed a spotlight in front of his path, and calmly shot it down. Raiders upstairs were still semi-alert, but Scruffles had the advantage on them. He slowly crept up the stairs, rifle in hand. All of a sudden, three raiders popped up at the top of the stairs, practically clambering over each other. The Commando stayed calm and popped them each with one well-placed shot. His opponents barely got a round off before being sent straight to Raider heaven. The Commando pondered for a moment what Raider heaven must be like. I guess it could be paired conveniently with settler hell. Then he pushed the thought out of his mind. He had a mission to focus on.
He made his way onto the ground assembly floor, diligently following his quest marker all the way. It appeared that the target, the Raider boss that is, was located on the top floor of the building. Scruffles was going to have to sneak past more Raiders and alarm systems, or assassinate them. He activated a Stealth Boy and made a break for another flight of stairs, bypassing a machine gun turret and a couple of thoroughly confused Raiders. One of them made a comment about needing to back off of the Jet, because it was clearly causing him to hallucinate about intruders.
Our hero chuckled too himself. Poor bastard was going to find his friend's bodies soon enough, but by then the Commando would be long gone. He made it up to the top of the stairs. They entered into a cavernous room full of giant machines capable of assembling cars. He noticed a couple of spotlights darting to and fro, and a protectron locked in its station. As if Commando Scruffles needed any more reason to hate Raiders! They also enslaved poor Protectrons! It took all of the willpower he had to stay calm and determine a path of approach.
To be continued…