With those hordes of ferals dealt with, we pushed onward and spent the several miraveling along the rails until we started nearing the metro station. Once we reached a certain distance from the station ptform, I detected a number of mines ahead. So I had everyone e to a plete stop and keep an eye on the level above the station ptform where there was a makeshift defensive position, as well as below it where there was a makeshift wall structed from various pieces of scrap.

  "You guys hold here and watch the surroundings while I deal with the mines in our path." I told them lowly.

  "Roger." Amata responded.

  "Sure thing." Don replied stly.

  Assured that my squad had my back, I moved in and got to work on defusing the mines. Around 3 mier, I had all of them disarmed and mao e out with a solid haul of 27 Frag Mines.

  Fiaking care of that small minefield, I approached the station ptform and asked aloud in a loud voice that echoed across the metro station and into the nearby tunnels."Is there anyone here?"

  I repeated that a few more times and received no response, so I called Doo e give it a try and see if he could get a response.

  "Are there any fellow ghouls here? If there are, we don't mean you any harm. We only wish to talk?" Don inquired loudly in his usual rough and raspy ghoul voice.

  ...

  When Don didn't receive a respoher, he repeated himself again and seds after he did; he received a response back from a ghoul that was hiding behind the defensive position up top, above the train ptform.

  "There is, but what do you all want?" The ghoul hiding up top responded somewhat standoffish.

  "Well, I'm looking to clear this old metro out and take it over for my own purposes." I answered the unknown ghoul which, if I had to guess, was likely Michael Masters.

  "That won't be possible since I'm living here wastender, so I would reend you turn back around and head on back to where you came from." The ghoul replied, obviously sounding displeased because of me wanting to take his home away from him.

  "Why don't you hold up for a mihere since you've yet to hear my proposition?"

  tinuing before he could pipe up, I begaing my proposal. "For clearing out of this pce, I offer you the same deal I offered to my friend Don here and his two brothers that are back at our home."

  ...

  "Ohh, and what would that be exactly?" The ghoul asked, only slightly intrigued and still just as defensive and skeptical as previously.

  "That would be a safe home, better equipment, fresh non-irradiated food, and , pure water. You obtain all those bes and more at the cost of being my subordinate and helping me achieve my goals."

  ...

  "Hmm, I don't know, your offer sounds a bit too good to be true if you ask me, wastender. Also, what kind of goals do you have?" The ghoul responded, still sounding skeptical after a couple of seds had passed.

  "Uandable, but as a show of good faith, here's some of the food you expect to eat on a daily basis if you agree to my terms." I said while retrieving a sealed package of food from one of my robots before tossing it up to where I heard the ghoul's voice inating.

  A few dozen or so seds ter, after I heard some rummaging with the food's packaging, the ghoul who had those clear normal humahat only a very minute pertage of ghouls possessed popped his head up from behind his cover and said with a bit of food on the er of his mouth. "If this is what you're as a daily meal, sir, you got yourself a deal, at least from me. As for the rest of my group, I 't say for sure whether they'll agree to your terms, but they'll more than likely agree as well as long as we're not discriminated against ao eat food like this every day."

  Oh, so it is indeed Michael Masters, nice. Having a highly intelligeronid biological engineer who focused mainly on human mutation experiments to develop super-soldiers prior to the bombs falling as one of my subordinates will be exceptionally useful in many of my future endeavors, especially those involviic augmentation and modification.

  He also help out with edug others as well, though I'll more than likely have him focused on researd experimentation since he would be more useful there. So with his talents and knowledge being more useful elsewhere, I just have him type all the information he knows into a terminal occasionally and that material be used for others to learn from.

  "Then you have nothing to worry about because I have plenty of this kind of food and am in the process of growing more of it, as well as various other foods, just as good as we speak." I responded after finding out who I was unig with for the st few minutes.

  "Now, to answer your previous questiarding my goals, I pn on taking over the wastend a some sembnce of civilization back to it. Hopefully recruiting you and possibly yhoul friends as well reduce the difficulty and help me aplish that goal of mine faster given that you've likely been around for a couple of hundred years at this point and have a wealth of accumuted knowledge and experieo draw upon just like Don here and his brothers back at our home."

  "Ahh, you have a good point and yeah, we've been around since before the world went to hell in a handbasket. So you're right that we have accumuted a ton of knowledge and experienced a lot over these st two turies. Although not as much as we would've had the world not been turned into the wastend that it is now... That aside, how do you pn on aplishing that goal of yours, sir? It is quite the steep task, after all."

  "Before I answer your question and we tihis versation of ours any further, I think it's about time we've introduced ourselves. I'll go first. My name is Harold Todd Woods. The person standio me on my right side is my fiancée, Amata Ashlen Almodovar, and the person on my left side is Don King Hill."

  "It's o meet you all. My name is Michael William Masters." The previously unknown and unnamed ghoul said.

  "With introdus out of the way, I'll ahat st question of yours regarding how I pn to aplish my insane goals. For starters, I've takehe nearby RobCo Facility, repaired it and its maery, and brought it baline. Which has now givehe ability to take over the capital wastend within a year if I had to make an educated guess. But if I really go all out and rush it a bit, I could probably cut that timeframe down in half and have everything within my trol within half a year."

  "Besides the RobCo Facility, I have a number of automated manufacturing maes that I've developed that produce all manner of pos and items that I'll o aplish my goals. I also know the location of many advanced civilian and military instaltions, manufacturing facilities, and military bases that will help me in regards to taking over a humanity to what it once was aually advang beyond where it reviously. Does that answer your question?" I added further.

  "That it does, and the fact that you have a small army of robots helps add validity to what you just stated about taking over the nearby RobCo Facility." Michael replied.

  Following that, the both of us discussed several more things, including Michael telling us about his previous occupation prior to the bombs and what skills and knowledge he picked up sihat very day.

  "I wasn't always like this, you know. I was a goddamn stist back before the war. We were doing great things. Amazing things!" Michael said passionately as we were ing up our chitchat to go recruit the rest of his friends.

  "Well, I'm sure you start pursuing and doing amazing things again once we've recruited the rest of yroup a back to the facility." I responded.

  The minute we were doh that, Michael guided the way forward for us until we got to the portion of the metro tuhat was guarded by a pack of Feral Ghouls, which my group quickly and easily mopped the floor with. And of those ferals dispatched, my robots and I took 29 Feral Ghouls, 6 Feral Ghoul Roamers, 2 Feral Ghoul Reavers, and 1 Glowing One.

  When we finished off the st of the ferals, we tinued on our way through the dark, dreary metro tunnel until we arrived at a bst door that Michael immediately went up to and opened via a button located on the side.

  *Kssnhhnk*

  The instant the bst door had settled into the open position, we pressed on inside and into the maintenance corridors.

  There are 2 more chapter releases till we're caught up to ten chapters behind the Patreon. This means there will be chapter releases for the wo weeks. However, releases after that will be paused due to Wastend queretting more views and votes for at least the st 2 weeks on top of winning the monthly Patreon poll, so I'll be writing more chapters for it.

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