~THUMP!~
Appearing in the sky above sanctuary hills high enough to avoid detection and jamming a courser was deployed. They wore a reinforced stealth suit equivalent of the courser armor with a buoyancy backpack that was full of lighter then air gas to slow their fall that would disperse these gasses upon landing to tighten up the stealth field.
Zimmerman had been probing for weaknesses in the perimeter and no sooner had he noticed fluffy glider power armor tests had he come up with the idea to come in from above. He doubted the interior of the settlement had similar motion detection devices due to the constant activity of the residents so he just needed to get a stealth unit inside in an unconventional manner.
Having landed on the streets and no turrets locking on to their stealth form they slunk towards the garage bay. Taking out a lockpick gun they made quick work of the manual lock and other security to enter. They made their way over to the courser fluffy and after overcoming the locks they removed them from the fluid attaching a capsule to the horn and pressed a button.
Having not detected anyone accessing the chair and not receiving an authenticity transmission from the pipboy to verify director was being taken out for maintenance a light began to blink sending the pipboy a priority alarm notice.
“Whu dah?” Director blinked curiously.
“Hello prototype. Courser override protocol Black-66.”
“NNnnnghh…” Director seized for a moment before standing up and saluting with their front hoof.
“I need you to retrieve something for me…”
As director stepped out the door an abrupt. “How are you moving!?” Could be heard as Johnson was stepping in quickly to grab his fluffy body barely noticing the shifting stealth pattern of the feet of the courser until it had grasped his head against its body with one arm. The two promptly began exchanging blows as Johnson attempted to destabilize the stealth coursers footing while the courser did a quick foot scoop and toss of director into the air before catching with their offhand to cock them back and hurl the courser fluffy like a football towards their objective.
Johnson had managed a few body blows and the courser flipped sidewayds and released their grip in the hopes of pinning him to the ground with its legs in order to pummel them.
“TOUGHIES! ASSEMBLE~ Gyuck, stop Director~” Johnson added over his pipboy while attempting to block the bulk of the incoming blows as they started to get choked. Johnson forced himself to stand before breaking the choke and shifting to grab the coursers legs before they could dismount their chest. He took several blows to his shoulders and back before flinging their upper body into both sides of the sent wall by rotating their body followed by attempting to leap forward and slam them back down against the pavement. As the fighting continued the turrets nearby struggled to attempt a lock on that wouldn’t shoot their whitelisted targets.
Isaac could be seen heading into the arena house while Cato, Gawain, Hulk and Gentleman assembled from the cul de sac attempting to cut off Director. “Stop wight dewe Diwectow!” Gawain added striking a standing dramatic pose atop hulk with Gentleman on the left flank and Cato on the right flank
“Nu eben twy…” The stare was not one that suggested they didn’t want to hurt them but more a ‘I dont have time to not crush you if you try.’ As they attempted to continue Hulk came barreling in. They were stopped by a single hoof to the face as Gawain flipped overhand to land in the flank. “Dummies…”
“Owies! Hrmmph~” Hulk added getting enraged / happy as super mutants tend to do with a proper fight.”Hahah~”
The group was surprisingly well co-ordinated. Perhaps it was because they all had some experience sparring with director and assumed they wouldn’t have such a one vs many chance again and wanted to use it to win.
Cato moved to halt directors advance towards his objective while gentleman approached from the rear in the hopes of using their horn blade to greater effect. Standing up on their back legs was easy for director due to their superior courser specs so he was able to redirect hulk and Gawain to collide with eachother and block off Catos frontal assault as he flipped back and over the lunging Gentleman to land atop them and place them in a chokehold. Their horns tapped with a glowing flash as Director lifted his fluffy meat shield in front of them.
‘Why ou twy and huwt ou daddeh Gentweman?’
The two commenced to spar in the mindspace where they could have a rapid conversation over a few seconds. Releasing gentleman from their hold as Cato leapt over the pileup and commenced to dive towards directors head. Director simply smirked as they caught their forehoofs with their own as Gentleman leapt up to stab into Cato’s underbelly. Thankfully cato pushed promptly with the attempted hoof lock and spun the correct direction limiting the horn pierce from internal injuried to an external slice.
The pile of hulk and gawain had corrected itself and from a nearby house, smashy, bashy and the ball robot friends were arriving from the arena house followed by Mano piloting the Is4c.. Gentleman leaps to attempt and finish Cato with a land to the head only to parry into Catos own horn blade.
“Sowwy Cato, nu wike but am daddehs undewhand.”
Gentleman could hold off Cato for a little bit. “Shame Johnson fowgot tu update dah uddah wobots…” Director added with a smirk. “Smashy, Bashy, ball, Isaac. Password, Sanctuary Hills.” Director fluffy added concentrating to speak coherent English. “Disengage safety hardware and remove safety protocols. Neutralize any target attempting to follow me or enter the building and lock out any other admin overrides.”
“Aknowledged.” Came the unified vocalization from the bots that didn’t simply beep or boop. Their weapons and limbs disengaged safety padding that limited damage as they prepared to engage the cluster.
“Fluffies in danger. Rules violators will be punished!” Nanny added disengaging from their power dock and dashing over to join the clusterfuck.
Director disengaged at this point to head to the security basement. Their mind held the secrets to bypassing the security in place for Johnsons collection as Director had possessed much time to read johnsons memories and history while he enjoyed his game of pretend. Director had been preparing to take over one day anyway so this just gave him the tools to act.
Johnson and the courser were catching their breath in a standoff. As the stealth field began to fail and turrets made the lock on sound the courser dashed between the houses and flipped over the hedge.
“Where the hell are you going!?” Johnson paused realizing by the sound of the turrets firing into the vegetation field that the courser was likely heading to critical infrastructure. He could likely stop Director now but doing so would make the battle fifty times harder as reinforcements teleported into the settlement. (google.)
Gripping something from his belt pouch he began to huff something. “FUCK COIN FLIPS!” Johnson added feeling the delicious rush of Turbo as he gave chase through the fence gate and towards the sound of the various turrets firing at the courser. As he rushed to keep up with the courser he watched bullets sailing past, through and into his various produce be it bullets, lasers or rocket munitions. He had assumed the courser was heading to the shielded power node but instead they diverted towards the teleportation pad shack that you were using to jam the signal. ‘Frick.’
While it had an emergency battery in case of power outage, the shack was not hardened against attacks as the piece had been considered an antiquated collectable until he had repurposed it recently. Just another of a series of stacking oversights he committed by over focusing on his fluffies.
Johnson had made the wrong choice in chasing the courser with limited personal armaments on his person and they simply had to burst into the rickety wooden. Deliverer did not pack enough of a punch to fully penetrate the courser armor to any meaningful degree. And with every shot you made they also fired from their own pistol as the door in front of them until it disintegrated shortly before they reached it. The courser simply turned around as you approached as the rocket turrets locked and prepared to fire at the courser in the doorway. They smiled beneath the helmet and twisted an apparatus containing a fusion core that the institute had plenty of, that powered their stealth field generator that had malfunctioned after a series of blows from Johnson in the melee.
Johnson saw the light dotting down and the incoming missiles and skidded to a halt before sprinting black uphill away from the incoming explosion. The courser, shack and teleporter pad were reduced to shrapnel scattering through the area. Johnson hurried praying he was not too late to stop what was about to happen. By the time his hearing returned he was picking up the whistling of a large construction girder that was teleported into the sky above the shielded generator node and had been falling for the last few minutes. A thunderous impact through a pane of energy shielding and cement followed by a second fusion core explosion scattered even more shrapnel. (heads, rampage)
He might still be able to stop Director but Johnson was not armed or armored to face off with a potential death squad if they show up. He rushed into the garage and into the blue butcher before grabbing some weaponry from his collectible racks as this may well be a battle of endurance.
As Johnson exited the Garage in his Quantum X-01 power armor he approached the remains of the scuffle surprised at how quiet it was. Besides some blood and fluff there were no signs of his toughies. Nanny had lost her own arms and one leg but had managed to delimb, destroy or disintigrate most of the sparring robots save for ball either via rip and tear or eye beam. Ball simply hovered around her with its rope out swinging it repeatedly with a repeated ‘clunk clunk clunk’ sound. Whether it was managing any actual injuries was uncertain but you had a lot to do anyway so you didn’t care about breaking another toy and plinked it with your side arm. “Nanny, report?”
“Sensors detected an energy spike and bright light flashes before a majority of fluffies disappeared.”
Johnson sighed. This explained why they took out the jammer. Though it was odd, up until recently they had only been able to relatively track the synths. If they could just recall them from the component, then coursers or agents like himself wouldn’t be needed. Either they made an advance recently, or the courser left something behind that allowed this lock on. You’d have to investigate that.
“Head to the repair bay, then drag isaac back for repairs but reset their systems to override the lockout. Then conduct a head count and see if there are any fluffies left…” Johnson assumed that if Zimmerman was after specific targets and they were the prototype 100 fluffies and their spawn. Having chipped the offspring born without the synth implant of daisy, durum, peaches and Phanes when he brought them in for vaccinations had been used against him. Thankfully you still had some spare milk, formula and soft food for Sundaes foals who were likely left behind in the house since you hadn’t brought them in yet for vaccination. They would need looking after while you stomped a mud hole in an old man~
With a sudden rupturing explosion the side of your collections building had been blown out from the inside. Thoughts of his family and current situation had distracted Johnson from the scene at hand. He had assumed director would have been teleported back as well. Such sloppy oversight was unlike you. The black unicorn hovered in the air wearing Lorenzos helmet which had seemingly shifted to fit and integrate the horn. His eyes glowed with power. “Nu mowe stwings, Diwectow du wah diwectow wan nao.” The helmet had severed the courser command protocols which was likely why he had resisted recall. This was assuming Zimmerman didn’t expect a fluffy to kill him.
Directors vision shifted down to Johnson. “Thewe ou’ am…” Director added with a smirk. Leveling his kiloton radium rifle Johnson fired once and was surprised as the explosion impacted on a sloped pane of force in front of Director. “Weawwy?” Director adds as if disappointed that you didn’t think he had taken precautions after seeing how you killed Lorenzo by reviewing your memories.
With a hiss and a puff from your armor as Johnson triggered it to administer his various cocktails of combat drugs. “LIGHT EM UP BOYS!” Johnson adds using his passphrase that would cause turrets on the network to search for any target he was aiming at and would remove their white or grey listing status if applicable.
Director floated forward ominously as their energy barrier was truly spherical as various turrets peppered the fluffy from a minimum of eight directions at any time, not including Johnsons own fire. “Nu wan pway wif ou’ wight nao.” Director added extending their arms to the side as a visible crackle around the globe appeared followed by a sudden pulse in all directions as the defenses were all simultaneously deactivated with an emp.
“Diwectow offah~” They paused throwing up a hoof in front of them as Director continued shooting. Their barrier had been neutralized by the pulse and their limited energy could only muster small panes of barrier if not given time to recharge. “ou a deaw… CAN OU’ STOP DAT!” Director adds annoyedly as Johnson finally finishes the magazine and proceeds to prep the next clip as director sends it flying with telekinesis.
“RAHH~” Johnson bellowed out in a drug induced rage as he drew throat slicer and leapt towards director with his jetpack.
“Oh poopies~” Johnson chest checked the fluffy and commenced to wrap around them as they fell onto the ground attempting to keep him pinned with sheer mass. Director struggled as it took a great deal of focus to hold up the armor that would otherwise crush his body. He used his back hoofs as mediums so it wasn’t as intensive an effort while their left fore hoof worked to repel stab after stab of the knife the right simply bapped repeatedly against your helmet.
Your attacks were preventing the artifact from accumulating energy to pull off any grander displays and may have even been losing energy slowly as you eyes a few nicks appear on the hoof and limb as your blade made slight pokes through or across. You both said “Almost there/Awmost dewe.” Simultaneously. You were slightly confused on why Director thought they had a chance in this position until you checked the heads-up display and saw your helmet was in critical condition. It suddenly shattered as Director fluffy focused most of their remaining power into the last punch. No sooner had Johnson pulled back the knife for a final plunge had directors body fallen limp in a sudden flash of light from the helmet followed by a painful impact. You were frozen in place wearing the helmet.