Radiance Ch. 04

"It's fine Visa honestly, I can't umm ever say that I've ever thought about sharing a bed with a deathclaw but umm I'm glad it was you, get the feeling I probably wouldn't have survived it with any other, though maybe a little warning the next time if you please," Seven said before suddenly realizing what he'd just said and realizing that he had royally just jammed his foot once again into his gob.

"N-N-Next time!!?" Visa exclaimed her voice going up about thirty octaves in shock while her brother and Wisp grinned like idiots, well Ven did he could just feel Wisp grinning as she didn't have a mouth.

"Well would you look at that dear sister, he's inviting you into his sleeping nest in the future, I believe you said it best, we certainly have found a rather interesting human haven't we? He not only believes in the same honour that we do but he apparently is not reviled by us, enough so that he offers you an indirect invite to share his sleeping nest with some warning, first he offers you his service for slighting your honour, then he compliments your tail, now he does this, my I never imagined humans being such interesting creatures, think I'll have to take a closer look at them myself from now on, if they are capable of such respect, honour and consideration what else are the good ones capable of?" Ven said grinning at his obviously uncomfortable sister who was growing more and more uncomfortable with every word that left his grinning maw.

"You're bloody enjoying this aren't you?" Visa growled and Ven's grin grew even wider.

"I resent the implication you are making there dear sister, would I utterly and thoroughly enjoy catching the proud and dignified claw of my sister squirm like a spiked mole rat at being caught cuddling up to her pet-human in his own sleeping nest of all things, absolutely not, I'm shocked," Ven said ad Visa growled deeply.

"Umm can you stop referring to me as her pet?" Seven said and Ven switched his grin to him now.

"Oh? And what title would you prefer young Seven, slave? consort? concubine?" he said playfully and now Seven growled along with Visa.

"My bloody name would do," Seven said and Visa growled.

"I'll give you bloody concubine!! Like I would ever do such a thing with a human of all things!" Visa snarled swiping at her now laughing brother.

"Oh dear sister no need to be so defensive I'm your brother you know I'd never judge your delightful deviance," he said dodging her angry swipes like a seven and a half foot ballerina never stopping laughing the whole time.

But it was wisp that finally broke up the sibling tussle, "Alright guys as much as I'm enjoying Seven and Visa dying of embarrassment here we have to get a move on, so can we get our game faces on and let's move out shall we?" she said and Visa huffed at her shooting her a venomous glare.

"Gladly," she said and the group moved to the stairs again though this time Wisp took point with Ven in second, Visa in third and Seven bringing up the rear.

Ven glanced over his shoulder, "Seven if you could try to restrain yourself from trying to peek under my sister's tail I'd greatly appreciate it, I know it might be difficult to try and catch a glimpse of her hidden treasures but save it for when we aren't under threat of being shelled to death if you don't mind" he said making Seven blush bright crimson, he actually felt just about all of his blood rush to his face making it glow like a nuclear reactor.

There was a thwok noise as Visa cuffed her brother around the head and she growled at him, but Seven also noticed that she glanced back at him over her shoulder as if worried that he would actually do so, he also noted that his tail instinctively lowered to the point where it was nearly planted on the ground further cementing the reality of this thought.

"I would never peep on your sister she chooses what she shows me!" Seven grumbled indignantly before mentally slapping himself as he realised what he'd just said.

He heard both a squeak and a laugh ahead of him, "So you do want to look! Good to know" Ven said followed by a solid thwok again.

"That is not what he said! He was showing honour by saying he would never betray a female's honour in this way correct?" Visa said in a somewhat shaky sounding voice.

"Err yeah! Yeah, that's what I was going for!" Seven said grasping this surprising olive branch with both hands.

"Sure that's what he meant," Ven said sounding sarcastic.

"Fucking focus!" Wisp snapped and they all went silent, Seven's mind was whirling, how in the name of hell had he gotten himself into this situation, but even as his mind was whirling trying to think of ways out of it his eyes had decided that they wanted to look at Visa's long tail which was swishing back and forth as they climbed the stairs, he noticed that despite the incredibly thick base of it under which appeared to be an incredibly solid pair of buttocks that looked like they were carved out of solid rock and then covered in scales, infact it took a very hard mental slap to force him to look down at the stairs ahead of him, what in the name of hell was he doing?

As they emerged from the basement Seven instantly realised that it didn't lead into another building but into the remains of one, the building above had been destroyed, looking around the moonlit area Seven could indeed see that they were in the middle of a huge military base, off to their far-right in the distance huge shapes loomed that appeared to be lit by the flame that stuck out, he guessed by the size that they must be hangers of some kind, though how he knew that he didn't know.

Directly ahead of them was another large building that looked like a workshop of some kind by all the things lying around in states of repair lit up by the silver moonlight, "This way, keep low and quiet" Wisp hissed back to them.

The two deathclaws ahead of him opted to walk silently on all fours so they could stay as low as possible, the small group moved in single file hugging the buildings and sing the shadows of them to move, every so often Wisp who had night vision would stop them and they would take whatever cover they could find as they watched little roaming patrols of guards passing them by without stopping.

Eventually, they drew close to a large fence that surrounded the perimeter of the base, "Ok here, this is where the care package should be" Wisp whispered pointing at a covered divot in the ground, as she reached the ole she dropped in and she let out a noise of triumph before holding up a large military-style backpack that looked rather heavy.

"Here we go, for you Seven" Wisp said and he took it from her the weight nearly pulling him off balance and into the hole.

"Holy fuck! What's in here!?" he exclaimed and Wisp leaned in and opened it revealing what turned out to be a set of armour to be worn over his fatigues and more importantly a way to defend himself finally.

Seven pulled out the strange boxy rectangular device recognizing it as a laser rifle, he'd seen both guards carrying them on board the airship, he'd also had them shot at him in order to see if like projectiles he could stop the shots from them, he had three scars from holes burned through both shoulders and one bicep that showed indeed he could not.

There was also a handful of little yellow and black batteries called fusion cells that powered the weapon like magazines for a regular projectile weapon, "It's not much but its better than nothing, it's only a very basic one but I figured since all the rest of the hardware they had lying around they'd be likely not to miss it right away if at all, plus the armour to give you at least a fighting chance" Wisp said.

He smiled at her brightly, "Thanks Wisp you're are the best" he said clapping her on the metallic shoulder, he'd utterly hated being a spare wheel while everyone else around him fought.

Visa huffed and folded her arms over her chest, "I would have protected you" she said and then when everyone looked at her she baulked and rubbed the back of her horned head with embarrassment, "Because you know I have to protect my investment! I cannot collect a debt from a dead man!" she exclaimed rather hurriedly.

Seven simply smiled awkwardly before quickly pulling on the plated combat armour which was a shaped set of plates that were a mixture of metal and ceramic designed to protect the wearer from weapon fire, there was also a helmet equipped with a torch which was an upgrade on the one he was already wearing, so he tucked it away in the now near-empty pack so he could dispose of it later so they didn't leave sign here.

The last thing he pulled out was a rather odd-shaped box-like thing with a screen obviously designed to be worn over the forearm, "What the hell is this?" he asked turning it over in his hands.

"It's called a Pipboy, from what I understand they used to give them out in the prewar vaults so a person could track and interface with a verity of things, it's like a personal computer of sorts," Wisp said.

"Huh not sure why I'd need one when we have you but ok, thanks," he said clapping it over his right forearm and locking it in place, he didn't switch it on in case it lit up and drew unwanted attention.

With all his shiny new gear strapped on and his backpack in place Seven joined the others after stowing the fusion cells in his pouches and pockets for quick access and placing the rifle on its sling, Wisp opened a section of the fence she'd had the hacked protectron remove for them and they all crawled through, "Hey seven you'd better be careful with that fancy new head torch of yours, if my sister notices any halos of light between her legs she's going to know you're peeking under her tail for sure now" Ven whispered as Seven crawled through the gap following Visa who spun around and glared first at him and then at her brother before swiping at him as Seven just blushed.

"Really not the fucking time guys! If one of those spotters in one of those towers spot us we'll all be fucking flying chunks before I can say fucking told you so!" Wisp hissed.

Vis huffed shot a look at Seven as if to say 'Don't you dare say and then turned back to crawling, rather than rise to their group crawled single file following wisp as she guided them through the minefield, she had to stop every so often to disable one or two that they simply couldn't avoid after which she would uproot it and hand it back down the line for Seven to stash in his backpack, they figured they'd come in handy to protect anywhere they might choose to bunker down for a bit.

But after what felt like hours of crawling on their bellies through the dust and sand they finally made it to a ridge that they were able to slide down and dropped out of sight of any of the towers allowing them all to finally stand back up.

"Uggh fucking finally, thought we were going to have to crawl all the way across the fucking desert for a while there," Seven said stretching his back, Visa looked at him and nodded in agreement.

"Agreed, it does no do for a proud claw-like myself to be crawling in the dirt like a fucking mole rat," she said lifting up her tail and brushing sand and dust off the tip.

"Better get used to the dust peeps, we're in the fucking desert and I dare you to point to a spot where there isn't any" Ven said stretching his arms wide and spinning on the spot to emphasise his point.

Visa simply grumbled, "Doesn't mean I have to like it" she growled.

"Try having circuits and servos, I don't even want to imagine how much of that shit has wormed its way into my joints and mechanisms right now," Wisp said.

"Try having scales, I'll be cleaning this shit out from under them for months unless I can find a place to bathe" Visa shot back.

"Perhaps your new human admirer slash pet can help, you know get all those hard to reach spots or maybe scrub your back spines for you?" Ven said with a grin that earned him a scowl and a snarl.

"I can wash my own back thank you very much!" she snarled.

"Hey only trying to be helpful, I'm sure he wouldn't mind washing under your tail for you if you asked him nicely, I'm sure he'd take his time and make it squeaky clean" Ven said before Visa unleashed a barrage of cuffs on the laughing male claw.

Seven rather than bother to try and hide his crimson blush just shook his head, Ven seriously wasn't going to let his sister live her little slip down, well at least travelling with them didn't show any signs of being boring.

"Hey seven turn that Pipboy on, it's got a local area map loaded into it, should tell us where we are and what's nearby, hopefully, we can find a place to hold up that we can use as a temp base before sun up," Wisp said.

Seven looked at the device before locating what was obviously the power knob and flipping it on, the device surprisingly gave off very little light as the screen crackled into life, the background was black and everything else like the text and imagery was green, the device seemingly took a moment to scan him somehow before declaring that he was in peak health with no damage, it also scanned his attire telling him that that was undamaged showing both images overlayed onto some kind of smiling image of a man in a jumpsuit.

Impressed by the little device Seven flipped through the menus and found the one labelled map, it showed a top-down scan of the area like a photo that had been taken from high in the sky, it showed the basic topography and lay of the land, but was also littered with little green symbols that seemed to represent places.

"Here look at this one, it's not too far and its marked abandoned shack, looks like it's under an overpass of some kind and it doesn't look like its too far from others places as well, should hide us from the air and allow us to scout the area for supplies come nightfall, looks like its worth a look to me," Wisp said glancing at all of them.

The deathclaws looked dubious but it was obvious that wisp's efforts in guiding them out of the human encampment had earned her a degree of trust and respect with them, so they nodded their assent, "Alright then let's move out and get there before sun up, if it's no good then at least we'll have chance to scout any other nearby options" Wisp said and with that she took off in the direction the map indicated.

Seven shut down the screen to the Pipboy and looking at his odd collection of companions he simply shrugged his shoulders and began to follow them into the night.