Ouch that burns

[retiredgord]

OUCH that burns


     In my wanderings I experience different things. I learn how to kill off the menaces that are also out wandering like those mole rats, giant scorpions that almost don't wanna die and super mutants that seem to dumb to die. I've learned to use the sledge as much as I can so I can save ammo. When I find a weapon I try to repair another of the same to keep the condition better. I'm learning how and when to use the hunting rifle. My aptness with the sledge came in handy as I almost walked into a quest.
     I was wandering about when a young boy came running up to me asking for help. It turns out his father has gone missing and he's the only one in town with a batch of fire ants. They are really dangerous he tells me and he asks that I look for his father. I promise I will and that I will find out why and where they are and try to stop them Bryan Wilks tells me he lives in a house near the diner and that there is a shelter for him to keep away from the ants. I follow him into town, Grayditch, and see no other people. It's very quiet and then I hear clicky, clicky click. My Pipboy warns me of hostiles and I look about. I see in the distance this monstrous size ant, about the size of a mid-size dog. It seems to be heading straight for me and I try to figure a means to get the best of it. As it nears it sprays out a long jet of fire that singes me and creates a "get outta here" response.
I run back a hundred feet and watch as it starts to follow me. I see this car near it and as it goes up one side it seems to be blind to me. I think this is my chance and arming myself with the sledge I hop unto the car and jump behind it swinging as soon as I land. I deal a crippling blow and give it a few more whacks. It goes down and I grab the meat out of it.
       I think I should try to follow this procedure to see how well it works. As if on command I see another red blip on the Pipboy and I wait to see if the critter has seen me. It has and I wait until it is committed to following me. I run back to the car near the diner and shift back and forth until it starts down side. I repeat the move with the same results. Several more follow their kind into oblivion and I get some meat from the deal. As I move down the street where the boy lives I get some free time and I go into his house. There on the floor ,dead near two ants is his father. I rummage thru the place looking for useful items and ammo. I find some good stuff and a key that seems to belongs to the Dr that had built a shack next to the Wilk's house. Upstairs is a cabinet that I think I can use  for storage. The bed inside I can use for sleeping to restore myself. I go back down and go outside. The  street is empty but as I walk along the street I'm tempted to return to the shack. Inside I find the info that as the boy had stated the Dr. seemed to be a strange man with strange doings. His computer mentions samples that can be accessed via the Marigold sub system. There is also an alcove which had the "shiny" man inside that Bryan told me about. That's something I'll check out later. Right now I gotta do some more pest removal.
      Up the street I see two more blips and in time I have a meal out of them. I keep going up and down the streets seeking out and destroying the critters before there are too many. When I finally seem to have gotten ahead I go back and explore an abandoned house. Inside I find more goodies and a place I can store my stuff without hindering the boy.
Now that I got a home base I can try to track down the critters. Off I go into the subway system and I thoroughly check all the areas I can. As I w@&k my way through the system other critters are trying to get their piece of me. Mostly the sledge is my best weapon and it fares me well. I run into tight spots and have to take stimpaks. Other times I eat what I kill. Eventually as I checked a side room it opened and there inside was the Dr. who the boy had told me about. He explained that he was currently working with a agent that would return the creatures to their former small size, in quite a few years of course. I kept my thoughts to myself and agreed I'd do him a favor by going down to the queen's hatching site and destroy the ant warriors that were guarding her from harm. In this way he could restart the system of distributing the agent. The Dr. tells me the location and I note it on the Pipboy.
      I start out on seemingly endless journey because of the twists turns and cave-ins in the subways. I find what seems to be the right track and start to follow it when I encounter a flooded area. It's radioactive so I take a Rad-X to jack up my system and into the water I go. I make a left at an opening and follow it up and into another set of tunnels. As I go up into the tunnel where it has caved in and down I encounter some ghouls and a glowing one to boot. It takes a fair bit of ammo and hits to kill it but eventually it becomes dead. I go to the end of that tunnel and find a very welcome big weapon, the Burnmaster.  With it I can do some long distance b-b-queing and hope to level up the odds in my favor. I turn around to follow the Pipboy  marker and notice that one side of the tracks is still solid. I hop over to the other side of the opening and start walking. After some heated meet and greets my position is by a door that lead to the queens chambers. In I go to whatever.
     I follow the tunnel down using frag mines, grenades and rounds to destroy the warriors one at a time. The robot guard must have been programmed to chase off intruders but one of the ants or the queen got to it. They are tough and I can't get close enough to have a head-to-head burn with them. The 10 mm holds out and the assault rifle helps and finally I have them beaten. I enter the chamber seeking the computer to redo the controls. That time was when the big bloated bitch spit something caustic and green at me and p'd me off. Now I was not gonna be keeping it alive. And I had promise Bryan I would stop these things for good. Kill the queen, kill the species.
    The queen is tougher that the others and MUCH BIGGER. Like the size of a small house that can move and jump high. I throw everything at it, 'nades, frag mines in her path, flames, rounds even using the hunting rifle all to no avail. I got down the side tunnel that overlooks the area but there's no way out. I think I better get out of the tunnel, go and find more ammo and then return. She doesn't show on my screen so I start out of the tunnel and go into the chamber. As I walk over to the computer I hear that sound like the wings of a very large rad roach near me. I turn in time to se the big b coming back into the chamber. I try to burn her again and after some of her health goes down she disappears. I run for the entrance and bolt up the path..and am stopped by this humongous leg blocking my path. The queen is above me on the ceiling and drops her legs down almost making a cage. She can't spit so I'm ok in that regard but I don't know what to use. In desperation I grab The Ripper, a little hand-held chainsaw that doesn't do much damage but can go on, and on and on. Almost like a limitless battery.
     My battle was started and I hacked and sawed and whacked at that thing and started to notice she was weakening. Amazing that this little thing was doing what the big weapons could not accomplish. She was weakening and still couldn't spit. Finally with a fast five cuts to her head she was done. I grabbed what meat I could around and got a bit of health and left. I retraced my steps back to the Dr and was amazed he was p'd at me for killing her, said he would start over and I wouldn't get a reward. I was amazed that he would endanger more lives with his whacky w@&k so I  toasted him, took what I could and left
When I exited the tunnels I returned to Grayditch and learned from Bryan that the ants had gone nuts, turned on each other and killed themselves off. Now that the danger was over he would live in his house until I could find somewhere for him to live,  maybe a relative in Rivet City. Another adventure coming in the future, I'm sure..

[Art Blade]

very good story, gord  :-X

Man, that reminded me of my first encounter with that big b. Scary thing, isn't she? Kudos how you finished her, you're a mean guy! I think I used nukes on her, hehe, but gosh, a hand-to-hand encounter? Never. What I did (had read that somewhere) about the ants is to shoot their antennae off. Once those are gone, they can't distinguish friend from foe, and go at each other... I had a snack while they did the hard w@&k for me, extinguishing themselves, that is :)

[Ricamundo]

Great story Gord. 8) Im not familiar with the  Burnmaster. The standard Flamer is always my go-to weapon in tunnels against the bad ghouls, so i may wander back to GD and see if i can find that special flamer. ;)

[PZ]

I've done that mission too, but used the Colt assault rifle with plenty of ammo.  I've also not seen the Burnmaster, but I agree with Ricamundo - sounds like a weapon I should investigate further.

I too am impressed with you taking on that queen in hand-to-hand combat!  :-X

[Ricamundo]

I spent a good amount of time today, re-visiting  the tunnels and sewers under Grayditch, but couldn't locate the Burnmaster, or the flooded area Gord mentioned. Also, i didn't see a Burnmaster listed in the weapons section of FO3 cheat codes i occasionally visit. ;)

[Art Blade]

Special Weapons                                  [SPCWP]
--------------------------------------------------------
Burnmaster (Unique Flamer)                  000C80BD

;)

[retiredgord]

I entered thru the Marigold Stn and just wandered about exploring evry nook and cranny. I think the doctor is in a room with a computer screen outside and I think a ree light. Once you see him he basically showed the location on the map. The flooded part leads into a collapsed section and you take the left thru the broken wall. If I remember correctly the glowing ghoul is at the top of the collapsed field along with another. Kill off the glowing one first as it can heal the other. If you go straight on following the tunnels one goes in a bit and it's at the end of that tunnel. You then trace back and jump over the opening you came up thru.  Of course, I was lost down thee so I may be wrong on a lot of things.  I'm playing without any help on the PS3 and no advice from the son-in-law who has finished.
     

[Ricamundo]

THX Art. I was looking under "Weapons". ;) Gord, i completed that mish a while back, so the Doctor's room was abandoned. I was all over Marigold, and i even went in the Ant Queen's Lair, but im assuming it wasn't in that area.

[retiredgord]

When you're leaving from the lair and you come to the cave-in downward try going straight ahead instead of hopping dwon. I'm sure I picked it up as I I went straight on. I looked for that spot in my save list but with two or three quests I'm gonna have to start a log of what is where.