Chapter 38 Meeting

The outpost of the Brotherhood of Steel was made up of several houses built with alloy plates, forming a rectangle and surrounding a small missile launcher in the middle.

There was no gap between the houses, only a single-person entrance and exit was left on the west side, and a half-person-high shelter was surrounded on the roof.

The Thorn Outpost was the same.

After noon, everyone finally arrived here.

Dadada... Boom...

There were fierce gunshots and explosions from the outpost, and a tall bug could be seen spitting at the outpost from a distance, the Queen of the Swamp Crabs.

Knight Mira shouted: "Run forward and join the battle as soon as possible!"

Two soldiers escorted the pilot to turn west and leave the battlefield, and the others immediately accelerated and rushed to the six Swamp Crabs and the Queen of the Swamp Crabs.

According to the arrangement of Knight Mira and Robert, 6 power armors were pushed to the front of the outpost to resist damage, and the rest of the people either entered the roof of the outpost to output, or attracted the attention of the big monsters on the periphery.

Marvin ran to the base, jumped onto the roof in two steps, picked up the M67 heavy machine gun and started firing.

The serious knight Mira was very brave and always stood at the front row. Her loud orders were heard from the communicator from time to time.

With a calm tone, reasonable tactics, precise orders, and leading by example, this female knight is really a good hand when she is serious.

Facing the powerful Queen of the Swamp Crab, the boys in the shelter also put aside their differences and fought wholeheartedly.

After 3 minutes, the monsters were cleared out, and everyone focused on the Queen of the Swamp Crab.

Mira's voice came from the communicator: "Power armor push forward, and everyone else enters the base immediately, pay attention to avoid collisions and acid."

After another 5 minutes, boom... bang bang bang...

The carapace on the chest of the big bug was shattered by a string of large-caliber bullets, and countless bullets and laser beams quickly focused on it.

One minute later, as the two front claws of the Queen of the Mud Crab were shot and fell off, the chest wound was hit by a rocket, and the monster fell down with a bang, and the battle ended.

After several side-by-side battles, the atmosphere between the two groups in the team became more harmonious.

The two pilots immediately began to repair the missile facilities and communication lines, and the soldiers began to repair the outer wall.

The Vaughn team was assigned to guard and did not need to repair the wall, which was very easy.

Marvin was assigned to guard the southeast of the roof because he had a sniper and used it well.

"Report, about 500 meters at 4 o'clock, Mr. Thug Robot was found, number 1, and no other suspicious targets were found. Over." Marvin stared at the sniper scope and pressed the Pip Boy call button and said.

"Zi... Killed." Knight Mira replied.

"Received."

Bang! Shedding, manually loading into the gun chamber, loading, firing, bang!

Because the situation was not urgent and there was only one enemy, Marvin did not load the magazine and chose to load manually.

After two shots to kill the robot and confirming the kill notification, Marvin pressed the Pip-Boy call button and said, "Killed. Over."

"Good job, keep alert." Mira replied...

Time went on until evening, and the maintenance work went smoothly.

Four hours before dark and a whole night, Marvin saw the real Cranberry Swamp.

There are not only more violent monsters here, but also military robots with disordered programs.

No matter day or night, they may be attacked by these things at any time. If there is no outpost, I am afraid that even sleeping is a luxury.

Since there are 17 more people at once, the space in the outpost is limited, and everyone can only squeeze together to sleep on the floor.

Marvin did not sleep, sitting cross-legged in the corner and meditating until 3 a.m., and then went to take over the night watch.

He used the opportunity to go to the toilet to determine the spatial coordinates on the hillside behind the outpost. These Brotherhood outposts should be the few safe spots in the Cranberry Swamp.

The next morning, two Brotherhood soldiers stayed to replenish the lost defense force, and the rest escorted the two pilots to continue heading north.

It was still the purple-red wasteland, and all kinds of mutant monsters still popped up from time to time, but they failed to delay everyone's pace.

As the atmosphere in the team was much better, Knight Mira was no longer on guard against them.

Marvin secretly discussed with Anita and prepared to find out some information.

Does the Brotherhood know the source of the scorched beasts?

Mira was really simple-minded, and even a half-baked person like Anita could be easily controlled and found out without much effort.

This matter was not a secret within the Brotherhood, and many people knew about it.

After a long-term confrontation with the scorched beasts, the Brotherhood of Steel roughly determined the source of the scorched beasts.

They basically came from the southeast of Watauga City, where there might be a nest of scorched beasts.

More than two months ago, an 18-man full-power armor reconnaissance team with a radio station broke into that area.

However... the whole army was wiped out, and no one came back.

According to the news sent back by the reconnaissance team from the radio, they found a huge mine pit.

While exploring the mine, the reconnaissance team lost contact with the fortress and never appeared again.

In order to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, the Paladin called off the follow-up reconnaissance operations and planned to accumulate enough strength before the second exploration.

As for where the mine was exactly, Mira could not know.

At noon, everyone arrived at the Alpha Base.

The problem here was more troublesome than the Thorn Base. It took everyone 6 hours to repair the equipment and the base.

It took until late at night to finish the work.

Marvin did not sleep for long at night. He was thinking about what the senior leaders of the Brotherhood of Steel wanted to do.

From the experience along the way, the other party should be testing the true combat power of the boys in the shelter and his strength.

But the focus should still be on him.

Damn, again?

This time it's not an amateur team of 11 people, but a paramilitary force with a large number of power armor and thousands of soldiers.

It's definitely not okay to rush in. Although I'm not afraid, there's no need.

After thinking about it, he came up with a solution. It's a bit risky, but he is very confident. Let's give it a try.

While everyone was sleeping, he wrote a letter of appointment in his notebook under the light of the Pip Boy screen.

The next morning, 3 soldiers were left behind, and the remaining 12 people marched back quickly.

In the evening, when he saw the flag on the top of the fortress, Marvin handed the piece of letter torn from the notebook to Knight Mira.

"Please be sure to give it to your commander Knight Weber."

Then he said hello to Robert and others, and left on his own.

[Tip: The mission "Forward Base" has been completed, and the reward is "A Practical Study of Throwing Shaping Spells". ]

After returning to the underground base, Marvin had time to carefully look through the rewards.

This book comes from a world called Aegean Continent. A wonderful wizard who specializes in fire magic wrote down his life's research and combat experience.

Unlike all the wizards Marvin has seen, he is a practical wizard who specializes in combat, and most of the time in actual combat, he can only throw one kind of magic, fireball, all kinds of fireballs.

This combat wizard can even shoot supersonic arc fireballs with his feet, which is also his famous skill. Note ①

Starting from his fireball technique, this wonderful wizard gave a lot of analysis on the practical application of similar throwing energy-shaping techniques, which is very profound.

Unfortunately, there are many things to do recently, and Marvin has no time to study. The low magic characteristics of the wasteland world do not support his research on magic.

…

The next morning, in the communication room on the third floor of the fortress, only the fortress commander Knight Weber was there.

He took this piece of paper torn from an unknown book and read it into the microphone.

"I know you are very curious about my abilities. I also know that the goal of the Brotherhood of Steel is to collect technology to prevent people from destroying the world once again with shitty technology. You haven't started this work yet, probably because you are tripped up by the scourge of the Scorch Beast.

The day after tomorrow morning, I will wait on the road 20 kilometers north of the Atlas Observatory. Let's talk frankly. Paladin Tagti, or someone else who has the final say, come. I won't show up if there are too many people. After all, you may have hundreds of tin cans, which is still quite scary. - Marvin Goyidema."

Weber finished reading, put the letter aside and asked, "What does this Marvin want to do?"

The voice of Paladin Tagti came from the speaker in front of him: "I don't know, I'm thinking too..."

Weber asked, "Then...are you going to go? 20 kilometers north of Atlas."

"What do you think?" Tagti asked.

"My opinion? Ignore him, that guy is not a good person. If you ask me, I can send two teams to capture him and all the problems will be solved."

"Do you know where he is now? According to Mira, he is very fast. How do you catch him?"

"We have 12 of them."

"Marvin is not from the shelter. Are you sure he will obey for these people?"

"Uh... then..."

"Hey, man, we are the Brotherhood of Steel, we are the most powerful military organization in Appalachia. What can he do alone? I'll go and see what he wants to say."

Weber pushed his sunglasses, leaned back in his chair and said, "You decide, I have no opinion, I just think it's unnecessary."

...

In the crater, in the shop of the profiteer Colt.

"This knife comes from the mysterious East, look at the curve, look at the gloss..." The middle-aged fat man talked endlessly with his belly bulging.

Dangdangdang...

Marvin knocked on the blade, and the sound was a little muffled.

He paid no attention to the nagging profiteer, he simply didn't know shit.

The steel blade of the samurai sword in his hand was okay, otherwise it wouldn't have been preserved for so long and still intact, but it was just an ordinary steel knife.

To Marvin, this thing was more like a work of art than a weapon.

He had seen this knife in the store when he first came to the crater, and he hadn't sold it until now. (Chapter 17 and Chapter 24 of this volume)

After all, no matter how stupid the looters who survived in the wasteland were, they knew that weapons were for life, and simply looking good was useless.

Marvin sheathed the knife and quoted a price: "30 bottle caps, I'll buy it."

Colt jumped a foot high as if his tail was stepped on.

"Dude, are you kidding me?" He stretched out his hand to grab the knife, but failed. He could only frown and say, "Hey! This is the best knife you can find in Appalachia."

Marvin glanced at the Gus pattern hanging on his waist, raised his eyes and asked, "Are you sure?"

Colt was speechless. He laughed awkwardly and said, "I was talking about before you came."

Although he had never seen Marvin use a knife, or even draw a knife, he had heard the legend about Marvin many times, and it was getting more and more weird.

"Okay, Fatty, this is a work of art. How long have you put it in the store, but no one buys it. 30 bottle caps, keep it."

Marvin counted out 30 bottle caps and threw them on the counter.

Colt was annoyed that he gave the knife away in excitement, and now he couldn't take it back even if he wanted to.

Otherwise, with the knife in his hand, he could earn 10 more bottle caps.

He put away the bottle caps with a bitter face and complained: "This is just you. If it were anyone else, I would definitely not sell it for less than 100 bottle caps."

"Come on, you can make at least 20 bottle caps." Marvin controlled the Pip-Boy, pretended to put away the samurai sword, and pulled out a large backpack and put it on the counter.

"Sell all these."

Colt asked in confusion: "Why didn't you calculate it together just now?"

"If you calculate it together, the bottle caps are in your hand, and you have the final say on how much to give? Can I really snatch it from you?" Marvin patted the counter, "Hurry up, I'm in a hurry."

Colt cursed "swindler" inwardly, and then he calculated the price reluctantly.

Almost everyone in the crater is a villain, but they also have their own rules.

The prices of guns, bullets and medicines are actually not difficult to calculate. If Colt deliberately lowers the price, Marvin can beat him up and no one will care.

But the samurai sword has no accurate price. It is 10 bottle caps and 100 bottle caps.

If the two transactions are mixed together, the price is hard to say.

Even if Colt offered a high price, he can't be said to be cheating. Marvin has no reason to beat him up, let alone robbing him.

To put it bluntly, doing business in the crater requires vision and strength.

If you don't have good vision and get cheated, you can only blame yourself for your bad luck.

If you have good vision but not enough strength, you find that you have been cheated but haven't fought back, you can only blame yourself for your bad luck.

In fact, Marvin still underestimated the profiteer in front of him. He picked up this samurai sword, and didn't spend a bottle cap, making a net profit of 30.

...

One day later, in the morning, on the north side of Atlas, on the road, a group of 7 people were passing by the cave where Marvin stayed when he first encountered the scorched beast.

Taggerty was wearing a T60 power armor painted with a Paladin, without a helmet.

She pointed to the cave on the east side of the road and asked, "I remember there was a report that there was a deathclaw here, why didn't I see it?"

Morano, who was also wearing power armor but no helmet, replied, "Killed by a scorched beast."

"Oh, I remember, the first time you reported Marvin's news, where was the scorched beast?"

"A few days ago, I received a report that a body was found at the Morgantown Airport. I don't know who dealt with it. And it did lose half of its hind legs."

"Well..." Taggerty frowned and nodded, "This Marvin Geidema is really a trouble."

The Paladin may not be the most powerful in the Brotherhood of Steel, but as the highest military commander of a branch, the Paladin must have a good force value and rich combat experience.

So Taggerty only brought a standard 6-man team to the appointment.

The seven people passed by several abandoned trucks and buses, which are very common in the wasteland.

No one noticed that after they passed by, half a head popped out of the bus compartment to peek at them and sank again.

On a short stretch of clear road, Marvin's voice suddenly rang out from behind the seven people: "Everyone, I'm here."

...

Note ①: If anyone knows who this person is, then he is really a very old bookworm.