Location: Malo ruins
Forger's pov
'Another great catch' I thought as I looked towards the back of the truck, seeing the dozens of new slaves we just caught from up north. Among them were a few guards, ready to shoot them if need be, although that wouldn't be likely. Most of them were in low spirits after their capture, and those who still had a fire in them were either being carefully watched or were wounded.
Scouts had found the settlement these people called home a couple of weeks ago just beyond the Canadian border, some place called Triton. When we got there and attacked, there was quite a fight. About a couple dozen or so of the settlers had been killed, along with 7 of my own slavers and a couple of motorcycles when one of the bastards got a lucky shot off with a missile. These losses were worth it however, since we got 37 new slaves, along with food, water, some meds and ammo, and even a few laser guns. The missile launcher from before was too badly damaged however, but oh well, we had a decent amount of those anyway.
After staring at them in a mixture of pride and greed for a few minutes, I turned around and went back up to the front of the bus. Dodging a ladder that went up to one of the machine guns on the roof of the bus, I walked up to the driver, Thomas. "Anything unusual?" I asked him curiously. While we were one of the most powerful groups in the entire Pacific Northwest region, there was still the chance that there could be a heavily armed group nearby.
"One of the scouts just reported in that they dealt with a pack of mole rats up the road, but besides that there's nothing boss. Home base reports nothing out of the ordinary either."
After thinking about it for a moment and taking note of the late time, I told Thomas to tell home base that they're going to spend the night at Malo before returning home. After doing this, I decided to walk to one of the few seats that were safely away from the slaves to catch a nap.
7 minutes later
"Boss! Wake up!"
At hearing this, I groaned, slowly opening my eyes and looking for who called for me with a vengeance. I've been waken up from sleep enough times before to know roughly how much sleep I got, and I could tell I barely got any. However, these thoughts went away as one of the slave guards rushed into my vision, worry and concern in his face. "Boss, we just arrived at Malo. It's occupied."
I immediately jumped up at hearing this, glaring at the man as I demanded at what he meant. After taking a couple of steps back, he pointed out the window behind me. Turning around, I could immediately see why he was worried. Malo's damaged wall laid ahead of us, with at least a dozen people and robots peeking over the walls or guarding the two breaches, armed to the teeth with weaponry. The breaches themselves were also blocked off, with one being blocked by a sentry bot and the other by a humvee with a manned machine gun.
'How the hell are we gonna get out of this in one piece.' I thought as I stared at them. I was just about ready to order a retreat, when I heard a loud voice from the wall, being amplified by a bullhorn.
Billy's pov
"Attention slavers, you have one minute to surrender all of your weapons and slaves, otherwise we'll have to open fire." Richard said, his voice being ten times louder due to the bullhorn. On insistence from Sheila, we had decided to try this first before fighting, in case they listen. This had only been reinforced by the fact that Alice saw that most of the people in the bus were slaves. 'Well clearly they aren't gonna take the offer.' I thought as I watched them. While most of them looked quite nervous, it didn't look like they would easily surrender.
I sighed as the slavers had fifteen seconds left. After a discussion between me, Richard, and U-12 on the radio, we had decided to bring up more firepower. Due to the very short amount of time we had, they were flown in by the two transport vertibirds, which were piloted by assaultrons. We were especially concerned since they weren't meant for complex things such as piloting a vertibird, and while they still shouldn't be used, they were still alright for basic flights.
'I just hope we won't have to use the artillery.' I think as I look back into town at the two mortars manned by militiamen. It had been part of the equipment we had brought in on the vertibirds, but they wouldn't be used yet, since we couldn't afford to hit the slaves with the blast or shrapnel.
"Start it." I told Richard as I continued to look at the slavers. As Richard issued the command into his radio, I saw one of the slavers in the bus staring at me with a fierce look in his eyes. That, combined with the impressive equipment he had on him and the air of authority around him suggested that he was the slaver leader. 'Not for much longer.' I thought as I saw a small ripple in the air to the left of the bus, quickly making it's way onto the bus itself.
Forger's pov
'Surrender or be shot, really?' I thought to myself as I watched the people in Malo, who were currently either staring at us or talking to each other. After a little bit of observation, I decided to give the order to attack first. "Prepare to open fi-!" I was cut off as an object hit my back from behind, sending me against the wall of the bus. I managed to look back and caught sight of a humanoid robot as it's stealth field dissipated. Off to the sides, I could see my men being attacked by more of these robots, but instead of restraining them like me, they simply cut them down. Before being knocked out, I saw two of them starting to climb up the ladders to the gun posts up top just as the bus started moving.
Billy's pov
"It worked!" Max exclaimed as we saw the bus starting to speed away from the main slaver group, with fighting both inside of and on top of the bus taking place. Before the other slavers could piece together what happened, I gave the order to open fire.
All of a sudden, bullets and lasers started flying towards the slavers, hitting those most of the ones who weren't smart enough to get to cover. The slavers soon started firing back at us, although in few numbers. As I fired at them, I saw one of them climbing into the back of one of the pickup trucks, hoping to get to it's machine gun. Before I could fire or he could get to it however, an explosion landed right next to the truck, causing its fusion cell to go off and the whole thing erupting in an explosion, taking out not only the guy who was going for the gun but also a few others who were nearby.
'That must've been the mortar' I thought, which was immediately answered by a second mortar round landing on them, hitting another couple of them.
After a couple more minutes of shooting and explosions, the battle ended. As soon as Lisa reported that the UAV wasn't picking up any movement and few remaining heat signatures from live bodies, I ordered that the robots we had stationed here to secure the battle area. After doing so, I looked as the bus, which had been parked away from the fighting, and started walking toward it, motioning for Richard to follow me.
I was soon at the bus, and looking inside I could see that there was quite a fight. About half a dozen slavers were dead on the ground, with another three unconscious. 'Glad we had these' I thought, looking at the dominators. They were a modified version of the assaultron, equipped with two swords and a stealth generator. We only had seven of these, but they've more than proven themselves to be useful.
Looking into the back of the bus, I could see all of the slaves looking at me with mixed emotions. There was fear, curiosity, caution, and hope among their faces. Deciding to talk to them before letting them make assumptions, I walk up towards them until I'm right in front of the first row, which is when I start my small speech.
"Hello everyone. My name is Billy and I'm the leader of the group that just took out these slavers. Now, we won't be forcing you to become our slaves or anything like that. Instead, I'll give you a choice. You can either join us, and help us fight against these slavers and others like them, or we can return you back to your settlement or a nearby one. I'll have my soldiers unlock you from your chains and give you half an hour to decide, just make sure to not grab any weapons or threaten or do anything else bad, and you'll be good, any questions?"
After looking at them for a few moments, I gave the soldiers who came with us the task of unlocking their chains and guarding them with the dominators. I then decided that I wasn't needed here anymore, so Richard and I left the bus and went back to where the battle took place. As I approached, I could already see that my soldiers were busy. Our three humvees had been brought out and formed into a rough semicircle around the battle site. The robots were with those humvees, guarding the perimeter while the soldiers went over the bodies and wreckage of the battle.
I caught sight of Sheila and quickly jogged over to her, asking for an update on the aftermath of the battle. "We only suffered one wounded thankfully, although I can't say the same for the slavers." She reports, looking at the mangled bodies of them for a second before looking back at us and continuing with her report. "We're still counting, but there's at least two dozen dead slavers and another four wounded, who have been taken into custody. After a bit of looking, me and John think that along with the bus, two of the motorcycles and one of the transport trucks can be reused, and most of the other vehicles have some part that can be salvaged. There's also a bunch of lower grade guns, ammo, food, and meds that we've salvaged as well."
After thinking over this for a second, I told her that she did a good job and I gave her a break after she sent some of her people up to the bus.
25 minutes later
"Alright everyone, let's load up and head back home!" Max shouted as everyone started final preparations to leave Malo. After talking with Sheila, I had radioed back to the bunker and follower's base at the school to let them know the results of the battle. To bring everything back, another three trucks were driven over, two from the bunker and one from the followers for their share of the loot.
As I start walking towards one of the trucks, I see Max come towards me. "Hey Max, how's the armor?" I ask him when he arrives. "Pretty good" He responds, moving his armor covered arms for a moment before saying something else. "By the way, I just got back from the bus. All of the slaves want to come with us back to Republic."
To say this surprised me was an understatement. I had thought that at least a couple would want to go somewhere else. 'Well, I guess since we're the ones that saved them and have all of this weaponry and equipment, it sorta makes sense.' I thought as I thanked John for the report and start heading towards the truck, ready to go home.