By Franklin Clay
Fort Ned was attacked by Super Mutants on the second day of the last surface expedition. As per new policy amongst the various soldiers I assumed military command of the mission.
We were initially expecting a mission in the more traditional sense, heading out from Fort Ned to take on a group of mutants. Instead, they came to us. The initial attack came from the treeline Fort Ned faces out onto with mutants firing from positions on both the left and right sides of the trees. After exchanging fire for a few minutes the first of the larger butchers came at us, hiding behind shields and bringing large melee weapons to bear. Luckily they were charging across a sizeable open field and the majority were cut down before they got to the fort, largely due to crossfire from our snipers down the left side of the field.
It was a rough fight, the mutants can take a sizeable amount of fire before they drop, but we persisted. A solid firing line behind the hedge kept the field secure but that led to the mutants starting to approach from the right hand side along the road. A few of us ended up working our way around the smaller buildings near to the fort and taking up positions there. It proved to be a hard fight as a small number of mutants were very well dug in to sniper positions before we located them.
As the attack ebbed though we got dire news over the radio. A small party of mutants were on their way to the mines at Blackhill armed with a sizeable bomb. We reacted swiftly and split our forces. Half of us made our way into the trees and set off to intercept the bombers.
The trees were clear so we made swift progress but as we got close to the target area we got radio messages from back at Fort Ned to say a second wave of the assault was underway and they needed assistance. Initially we pressed on with our mission, figuring the civilians of Blackhill were more important but as the messages from the fort got more desperate we relented and split our forces further, sending the majority of our group back to the fort and leaving myself and then General Aggro on overwatch.
I was not there, so I am unable to comment in detail, but the forces back at Fort Ned were hard pressed and suffered two casualties as a result of being overwhelmed and caught away from their ammo supplies. It is my hope someone amongst that group will be able to give more detail.
Back at the roadside, myself and then General Aggro intercepted the mutants with the bomb but they took a great deal of fire to drop, so we only managed to stop them about 4-5 metres from their target. The device detonated as they fell, knocking both of us off our feet.
As we rallied and surveyed the area we noticed flames and destruction from Blackhill itself, despite it being a significant distance away, far further from the blast than either myself or Aggro. The target site for detonation was a handful of metres away and still nowhere near Blackhill. We then surmised that it wasn’t simply a bomb. I went to Blackhill alongside Sally Fields and whilst she did what she could to assist people I interrogated their head geologist. Their coal mine had suffered a partial collapse and it became clear the bomb was in fact some kind of shaped charge or seismic device designed to collapse the mine entirely. The bomb detonating just short of the target saved the mine and meant that the damage done was recoverable. I would very much like to commend Sally for her organisational skills, as she rallied the residents of Blackhill into better action to put out fires, rescue people and generally make good the damage done. I believe headless chickens is the most apt phrase to describe the place before she got stuck in.