(fyi, it's from an album called "Language of Flames and Sound")
Entering Enclave, we find ourselves surrounded by turrets. Luckily, they're inactive at the moments or we'd been torn to shreds instantly. Anyhow, we're not letting them stay here - hacking them to win the final confrontation would've been to easy and letting them stay during that would've been suicide. We decide to take care of them from the very beginning, destroying them one by one in stealth mode so we won't attract significant return fire.
Killing the first one, Pope moves on to the second, but Marcus, deciding to show his initiative once again, wants to deal with another one.
Two quick bursts and the giant falls to the ground without even finishing his sentence. Fuck, Marcus, fuck! In the end, it wasn't a good idea to bring old fellow to the Enclave - his armour is just too shit to survive through it. I'm not even sure those were the critical hits, to be honest.
At least you've done your part by bringing all this ammo for us - that's already half of the victory. And, as you can see, I spent five minutes picking up said ammo from the Marcus's corpse and dropping it on the ground. Wait for a couple of images and you'll see why that was extremely important. Also, I don't mess around with the rest of the turrets, insta-destroying them from a safe distance.
This one cannot be approach that way, so I take caution and enter the area in the combat mode, rushing and killing it ASAP. The failure to do so already cost me one rather glorious ironman run (with kinda similar build, only skilled instead of gifted and tons of larping, you can see the, erm, fallout of that in my underrail alpha lp) - 700 hp crits are no fucking joke.
Then it's all about choosing the good fighting position. This small, isolated room will do perfectly.
First we must clean it from its personnel - one APA soldier falls fast, other one stands, and those huge robots near the wall shower us with their rockets. Fortunately, their rockets are not as majestic as ours so our own APA holds them fine.
Second soldier is quickly sent to join his buddy in hell (with a little bit of living inferno as well)...
Then it's turn to overheat some unruly robotic conduits. Despite their intimidating look, sentry bots are much weaker than live enclave soldiers so they're deep down on our priority killing list. It goes like turrets > soldiers > bots > civilians.
Quite logically, all those explosions have attracted quite a bit of attention so now this level is like a disturbed wasp nest, rushing on us in its entirety. That's, like, scary, but tactically unwise - we immolate them as they rush through the narrow doorway.
Even the puny scientists go at us kamikaze-style - I understand their desperation as, probably having heard what happened to Navarro, they know what we're capable of, but I really wish some modder would've written a script to organize some defenses instead of bumrushing. Breaking through those defenses with rocket launcher would be so sweet...
This battle goes long - Pope is not really able to kill of all enemies as they arrive...
But that's the beauty of a flamer - the more the merrier!
For a change of pace, we decide to launch a point blank range rocket at them (well, almost - Pope is out of the blast range, obviously), but it's not that much better than flamer - we really shouldn't waste our ammo here.
Despite the relentless onslaught, we fare quite well, losing only one third of our hps so far.
We roast another citizen...
Then we nuke a full hoard of them, with some soldiers in the mix - once again, waste of ammo, but that was too sweet of an opportunity to miss. Just look at all those fleshy parts scattering in all directions!
Another blast, for good measure, but dammit, I really should've started conserving rockets - that bastard totally survived a second blast. But that's kinda predictable - see, not only those bastards are equipped with some high-tech stuff, they also have impossible stats. Your APA guard has a Special stats of 10 ST, 8 PE, 8 EN, 5 CH, 7 IN, 9 AG, 8 LK if male or 10 ST, 9 PE, 8 EN, 5 CH, 6 IN, 10 AG, 8 LK if female. They also have 130-160% in their weapon skills and two hundred hps. For some reason, PA troops are even better in some departments - they have 10 in all relevant stats, 150 hps (well, that's their only flaw) and at least 150% in each of the weapon skills.
Basically, that's why bringing companions into Enclave is semi-pointless - even the good ones like Sulik or Cassidy pretty much equal just one Enclave grunt. And we're fighting them in large packs.
Then it's our first crit there - it's more or less safe one, taking just half of our remaining hps. Barely a scratch.
We retaliate tenfold, of course.
It's hard to believe, but this skirmish is done. There's still plenty of enemies on this level, but they're too smart to follow their mates into the grave.
Gaining a tiny bit of xp as a reward, we level up. I polish my big guns skill a bit so we can launch rockets from safe distance.
Then I return to the entrance to restock. And look - Marcus's corpse has miraculously vanished! Amongst with his weapons, batteries and other small stuff I hadn't bothered to loot out. Now just imagine what would've happened if I left all that ammo on him. Phew.
Back into fray. In one round, I boil this enclave trooper, staying too close to the entrance...
Then I retreat into the corridor, wishing to take my stand there.
With our short range and their crit potential, it just wouldn't be smart to rush across the room to get them.
Charring that batch without much problems, we move on. One of the soldiers here wields a vindicator minigun and, well, there is one marquee on our priority list that is higher than turrets - vindicator soldiers. We shred the guy away with our first rocket.
Yeah, whenever I use the rocket launcher, I tend to carry away, blasting the stuff on left and right. Hope that won't bite me in the ass.
Another enclave soldier picked up the gun of his fallen buddy, but, luckily, we're out of his firing line at the point. We get rid of a smaller nuisance...
Then we turn the smart guy into a fucking LEGO set.
Good news for us - in this armoury, we find a couple of rockets. Even minor refreshment is welcomed.
We also find some grenades and, hey, EMP ones are rather good against those bots.
For the sake of conservation (and since we have to put those skillpoints somewhere), let's try them.
We're forced to waste another rocket here and it doesn't even kill the guy, but how else we initiate the combat here? I guess I could've picked vindicator from one of the corpses, but that wouldn't be stylish.
Pulse grenades are superb, however, and, due to the fast shot, cost only 3 AP to throw. Should've brought a lot more of them, I guess.
Short-circuiting the bots, I flame the rest of this guy's life away.
And I spend my last pulse grenade on the turret - it's also cool against them, unsurprisingly so. Damn, I definitely should've brought more of them.
One of the bots gets that corpse overlay bug, so I can loot it - they're armed with avengers, it seems.
Guess what> That was just the first level. Well, not even the first one - the side one. Certainly doesn't feel that way.
Another turret is melted down in a second.
Thankfully, one guard is keeping near entrance so we can get their attention simply with flamer.
But then they group a lot and it would've been foolish not to launch a missile there - you never know when one of their miniguns could crit. And avenger crit is probably more than enough for us.
Half of them is gone, time to pacify the other one.
The remnants don't look that challenging so I'm torching them down.
An unlucky launch for me - I really hoped that those scientists are in the blast area, yet somehow they weren't.
Time to fall back and rely on our trustier weapon.
It's a holocaust in the very literal meaning of it.
Bodies lit up one after another...
Until this room is filled with nothing but smell of ashes, napalm and death.
One of the corpses shared our weapon choice - good, we'll need that ammo. With ammo fix mod, Mk I is much worse than Mk II (surprisingly, in the vanilla Mk I is much stronger and Mk II shouldn't be even considered), but it'll have to do.
Tons of turrets on this level means bad news for our rocket supply.
Terrible, horrible, atrocious and hideous news.
Better safe, but sorry.
At least we're not taking a single hit in the process.
Small chat with our village elder - dammit, I totally hoped they've whacked the old hag so I could lead my tribe as totally befits to the person of my greatness.
Still, such insult to our folk has to be avenged in only way possible.
You thought experimenting on people is fun, fucker? Well, let's test your flame tolerance, shithead.
Second level, the labyrinth. No hard fights here, just a puzzle of sorts.
Also a hidden stash in one of pcs which gives you reward depending on your tagged skill. You have to repair one of the terminals (selected at random) then, if you have a certain skill tagged, you're getting reward. Well, we've got the reward for our doctor skill and it's nothing important - just medical supplies.
Browsing the labyrinth, we stumble on the room full of enclave soldiers, but, to our relief, they're completely armless - we must've caught them during the combat preparations or whatever. Good for us.
Bad and insufferably painful for them.
Yeah, you go on trying to crush through my APA with your fists, dumbasses. Sure, you're in the motorized armour, but even it is not that strong.
But I must excuse myself for badmouthing them - the guys are polite enough to group for some rather efficient toasting so I'd rather thank them for it.
Last one goes down with a funny dance...
And it's a huge reward for barely any work done.
I browse the labyrinth once again. As actually solving it is kinda tedious, I just lockpick my way through it - it's pretty painful, but nothing that wouldn't get cured by a dosen or so stimpacks.
So there's a symmetrical room here, also foll of hapless soldiers. And once again I go trigger-happy, wasting rockets needlessly.
They're unarmed, just kindling them kindly is ok.
The carnage brings us one level up.
But there's something better here - a mk II APA!!!
You'd thought that MK I was already beastly enough, but no, MK II racks it up to insanity. As we're ourselves are mad for storming the Enclave, this suits us just fine.
We're through the labyrinth.
Down to level 3, giving some guards a warm greeting.
Before killing the second one, I run out of potential shooting lane of that turret - just for a good measure.
Then I viciously blow it up.
As usual, another soldier rushes to her death, but there's no huge inflow of soon-to-be corpses - not much soldiers stationed here, I guess? Whatever, I'd rather worry about that minigun toting soldier - doesn't look like I'll be rocketing him.
Sneak works fine, however - I crawl upon him, then rush forward and seal his fate with in two bursts.
More guards incoming.
For a change of pace (and out of ammo conservation), I try lobbing plasma grenades at them, but it's hopeless - doesn't do jack. I guess they can be used against those unarmored civilians, but no more than that.
The vice-president himself tries to knock us out - won't he break his tender bureaucratic hands on our hardened shell?
Since it's THE vice-president, we must honour him with a missile to his face - regrettable, but necessary.
Simpler folks are combusted...
As usual.
It's another prolonged struggle here. Well, struggle is an overstatement, merely massacre.
In all the commotion, the presidents joins the chaos and, to my shame, I incinerate him before even noticing it. Sorry, but my etiquette sense is really poor.
I take his card, just in case. 37 units of fuel and 20 rockets remaining.
Then it's time for the greatest dialogue in the game. Hey, dude, have you considered that you're, like, totally evil?
"Really, mr. Pope? Let me consider that... Oh, gee golly molly, that's true, I'm evil!"
"Now I must totally kill myself and everyone I've known and loved!"
Eh, ok. I move up to clean up a cowardly soldier that tried to wait through the slaughter here, then it seems like the doc had another change of heart - the retard attacks us!
He would've died from toxins anyway, so let's consider it mercy killing.
Level 4. All non-armoured guys here are already dead - saves us lots of ammo.
Now to take care of the armoured ones - rush and burn, rush and burn.
They respond with some plasma grenades and, well, it tickles. A bit.
Our attacks are not nearly as friendly.
Nah, sure, they took 50 hps from us in that round and that's something, but they have to work harder to ever threaten us.
Ahh, to walk on dust of your enemies...
We take a well-hidden turrent with rocket shot...
Then we drop down the last enclave soldier surviving.
No longer surviving. We switch attention to their last scientist and he doesn't fare better.
I blow the reactor PC with some explosives I've snatched from their armoury - very poetic, I think.
Who would've guessed, but blowing stuff up can teach you something. Browsing though the perk choices, I find nothing better but this one - extra level means extra 11 hp and I'd rather have them soon.
Since we've already slaughtered everything here, escaping to the exit is effortless - just a matter of running fast.
Along the road, we check up our supplies - 21 rocket (yeah, I probably worried too much about wasting them), 13 fuel units + 5 in the flamer. Kinda low, but that has to be it.
Entrance area. I spend all of my skill points - no sense in holding them up and I don't want to fail a particular skill check.
In the hallway, I meet a team of enclave commandos. Since I'm rather fond of commandos, I decide to give them an opportunity of their lifetime:
So, dudes, either you fuck with the guy who just brought an entire military base down...
Or you help me and walk out of here, alive and intact. Besides, I can always use some amoral ex-military henchmen. Now choose - is it a fuck or walk?
Good puppies.
So it's Frank Dontgiveafuckwhomheis.
I'm not here for talking.
He goes first, but his plasma gun merely stings us...
Or so I would've loved to say.
Dammit, one sixth of our hps in one go. Seems like he's not the guy to joke about. And rocket terribly fails against him - sure, it brings him to his knees, but 38 damage out of 999?
We inject ourselves with a super-stim and launch another one - wasn't a big success either.
Next round is a similar exchange of plasma bolts and rockets, only this time Frankie stays on his legs.
Our newly gained allies finally get on the move, so I reposition myself to the side, getting out of their firing lines.
Nah, we shouldn't have bothered to spare rockets - they're basically worthless against him. Well, our build is not as good against him - we're focused on fighting large hordes of enemies, not on mano a mano affairs. Not that I'm complaining.
Flamer is also not quite lethal against him, but at least it does greater damage and it's 3 five bursts in two turns.
Dat end boss plasma gun, however...
The only good news is that out of ammo. Otherwise, it's 160 hp in one round. You've gotta be kidding me.
And that doesn't stop our problems - with couple of savage blows, he throws us into the corner.
We get up and, with couple of bursts, bring him on his knees once again. Suck on that, bitch! And those slow motherfuckers are totally worthless - they're just fucking around, not doing a shit. Should've killed them. Kids, remember: never trust a traitor!
Next round was like fucking hell - Frankie goes berserk and leaves us at unbelievable low of 25 hps. Fuck! That's all I can say as you can only imagine my facial expression as I've watched those HP numbers move down.
We patch ourselves up, but that's not needed, actually - another burst and that's it. Feeling high and mighy now, you cocksucker, feeling high and mighty?
Frank is too busy with spewing his innards out to give us a concise and well-articulated reply.
After a while, he manages to mutter something, but we don't bother to hear it out. Let his last words go to waste.
His body lays there in two huge pieces and we're out of here in one.
And what of the Enclave?
it's in the same state that everything else that dared to oppose us - in ashes.
The end.