[Dungeon of Stories] 49 – Uninvited Guest Part 2

Screams echoed across the city as a mercenary squad fled from dozens of charging ants that burrowed up from the ground or charged out of rubble and abandoned buildings.

Lasers and bullets riddled any ant in their way as they fled in the direction of the portal they had traveled to enter the city, in hopes of either getting back up or escaping before the ants completely surrounded them.

"Keep moving!" Colin shouted, the rifle in his hands feeling hot from overuse, and his hands growing numb from the recoil.

Their situation was growing increasingly desperate as more and more ants chased after them, and it turned for the worse when they heard the sound of metal screeching and something heavy coming their way.

Rolling around the corner at the speed of a car, multiple strange machines rolled over grass, crushed cars, and rolled through everything within their paths before seemingly unfolding into the very same types of machines that attacked New Vegas and Camp McCarran, and as Mr. House had briefed all of the mercenaries to what they could encounter on the other side of the portal, all of the mercenaries recognied the danger before them, and Collin acted.

Looking to his left, Collin spotted a way into one of the many large skyscrapers around them and shouted, "Through there, into the building! Let the machines and ants fight it out!" 

Running with all their might, most of the mercenaries made it into the main lobby of the building, overgrowth spilling into the lobby and covering everything in sight, leaving the only sign at the top of the lobby's wall opposite the main door partially visible. 'Umbrel## Cor###ation.'

While many of the mercenaries made it into the building, a few got caught by the encroaching machines and were dragged out of the building before the ants swarmed both the machines and the mercenaries.

"Up the stairs!" Collin shouted, tossing what few explosives he carried into the swarm of ants that were rushing into the building and flooding over the machines outside. Said machines, which immediately turned on the ants attacking them, slowed the tide of ants flowing into the building, chasing after the mercenaries.

With Colin falling behind his colleagues, a strange string of a guitar echoed in his ear before he heard the sound of a revolver, and an ant mere feet away from grabbing his leg found its entire head blown away, its carcass pushed back with great kinetic force into the ants.

Not wasting a single moment, Collin rushed up the stairs, a hail of gunfire parting around him as those at the top laid covering fire against the encroaching storm of ants climbing atop one another up the stairs, but before the ants continued any further, an ear-piercing roar came from outside.

The ants stopped in their tracks and turned around, all rushing back out of the building where the roars continued along with the sounds of fighting.

"Don't stop moving! Keep going up!" Collin shouted, not stopping to see what could possibly be going on outside the building or what drew the ants away from them.

As they rushed up the stairs, they passed skeleton after skeleton, including ones that looked like guards of some kind with strange white vests and full helmets with golden visors. On the vests was a peculiar symbol of white and red, along with the initials 'U.C.S.'

The weapons that lay on the floor by the skeletons seemed to have been grown over by moss and vines, signifying that whatever happened in the city must have happened a long time ago, for plant life to reach so far.

Outside of the armor of what appeared to be security, the clothes on all of the skeletons became tattered or rotted away.

It was a grim scene, one that the mercenaries ignored as they continued rushing up the stairs of the building till they reached the third floor.

"In here!" Collin spoke, gesturing to what looked to be a conference room.

Once everyone was in, Collin, with the help of two other men, barricaded the door with whatever they could get their hands on, mostly chairs.

"Everyone alright?" Collin asked, getting a headcount and realizing that a few of his members were not present, bringing down the mood of everyone in the room.

Of the original ten mercenaries, only six remained, the group having lost two of their scouts, their lock pick, and their mapper.

Collin, seeing the problem, immediately ordered the group to rest and recuperate, while he began passing around food and water rations while going on Guard with a volunteer. 

Collin only hoped the other expeditionary groups were having the same amount of trouble as they were.

...

Meanwhile, the other mercenary groups were not faring any better as they too were getting attacked by ants, only these ants didn't number as many as the ones that attacked Collin's group; these ants instead looked different. They had various shades of colors, one red and the other black, while the ants that attacked Collin's group were brown in color.

The red ants, while bigger, could spit fire and vicious acids that melted metal and, very notably, melted the flesh off of bone, as a well-aimed spit took the arm of a mercenary while a few others got some burns.

The black ants, on the other hand, seemed to specialize in pure strength and endurance, being far larger than any of the other ants, with bodies that could crush cars beneath their thick carapaces, but that was all the other mercenary groups faced, as the [Corrupted Defense Units] were few in number, seemingly far more numerous closer to the edge of the city than the center.

They were not the only ones suffering issues, as the two expeditions led by Bright and Jay were also facing numerous ants and [Corrupted Defense Units] that bulldozed through everything in their paths. Luckily for them, however, they were capable enough to take on these machines with little effort.

Yet, despite all the foes they faced, they had not met the true heavy hitters of the city; instead, they were only dealing with the more common threats of the ruined city.

...

Kohl, watching the scene of the strange humanoid in a trench coat invisible to all but his own senses, realized what this humanoid was.

A 'perk' from multiple of the stories in its mind, where the main character could gain a mysterious companion that had a chance to slay a foe at the end of 'VATS instantly.'

The Mysterious Stranger. An entity filled with mystery in the world of Fallout, with countless theories and investigations into this mysterious figure that appeared and disappeared in the heat of battle, but as much as Kohl wanted to keep pushing the humans to get more data and information on the Mysterious Stranger, it instead stepped back, as the Mercenaries due to miraculous luck entered one of the more special locations of Invictus.