Radiance Ch. 07

About a hundred meters off was a guy in a beat-up leather duster coat that was seriously living up to its name by the generous coating of dust it was covered in, under the coat seemed to be a rather battle worn set of armour that was covered in scorch marks and pitted holes, Seven couldn't see his face as he was wearing some kind of helmet that covered his whole head and face and possessed a pair of red eyepieces.

The pair stood looking at one another the only sound was the howling of the wind and the gentle whirring of the power armour's servos, to Seven's eye the guy looked pretty beat up, "Are you with the NCR or the Legion?" the guy asked his voice sounding almost like Wisp's thanks to a processor in the helmet he was wearing.

"Neither, I'm not with the NCR and I've never heard of the Legion," Seven said his voice also sounding robotic thanks to the power armour.

"How can you not have heard of Ceasers fucking Legion!?" the man exclaimed.

"Not from around here, just passing through," Seven said cryptically.

"Yeah, but everyone has heard of the Legion! How could you not have?" the man yelled and Seven simply shrugged.

Before he got a chance to formulate an answer a shot rang out and there was a sharp *ping* noise off the floor from in-between the man and Seven, "Fuck!! They've found me!!" the man yelled driving for cover behind the nearby support pillar for the overhead overpass, funnily enough, the same pillar Seven sprinted towards and ducked behind.

At the sound of the shot Visa, Ven and Wisp burst out of the shack looking for the shooter, "Holy fucking shit!! Deathclaws!!" the man yelled trying to turn and raise his rifle.

"Don't!!" Seven yelled grabbing the barrel and forcing it back down the power armour servos whirring quietly as the man struggled.

"What the fuck are you doing!!? There are deathclaws behind you!!" the man yelled with genuine fear in his voice that was easily distinguishable even through the helmet's modulator.

"Yeah I know, they're my friends," Seven said making the man cock his head as if he'd just grown a second one on his shoulder.

"How......" he began but Seven cut him off.

"No time, deal with shooters first explain about friendly deathclaws later, now who the fuck is shooting at us?" Seven yelled.

"Hunters from the Legion, they track down run away and escaped slaves," the man said his voice pausing like he expected Seven to either shoot him for bringing the problem to his door or just turn him in.

"Slavers? The Legion are Slavers?" Seven growled and the man nodded.

"Yeah, biggest slave workforce and worse in the region, how the fuck have you not heard of them?" the man exclaimed again.

Seven turned and he saw both claws and Wisp taking cover behind the rocks and burnt out cars next to the shack, "Slavers!!" he yelled over to them and instantly he saw both Visa and Ven's face change to pure anger.

"Draw their fire Seven we'll get around them!" Ven yelled and Seven nodded.

"You heard him, let's pull their fire over here," Seven said.

"D-D-D-Did that Deathclaw just speak?" the man stammered pointing at Ven.

"Questions later shoot now," Seven said and he leaned out from behind the pillar, on the rocks about two hundred meters away were a group dressed in black, they were working their way forwards using the rocks for cover.

Seven hoisted his laser rifle and began firing on them, the range was too great to get reliable shots without a scope but it was enough to make them get their heads down, both Visa and Ven who were out of sight of the group in black scrambled up the vertical wall using their claws to dig in and climb before vanishing out of sight.

Wisp had also joined in the shooting now having moved to a better location behind a burnout car, she, of course, did have a form of scope as she could zoom her vision in, so more than one of her shots hit home and there were a series of screams before the group unleashed a barrage of return fire.

A round bounced off Seven's shoulder pauldron scoring the paint but doing absolutely zero damage, the low calibre rounds they were firing weren't even enough to actually dent the armour let alone pierce it, he could have most likely ran full tilt right at them and all he'd need was a new pain job at the end, but rather than test fate's sense of humour Seven stayed put keeping the group distracted while a large pair of shadows crept silently over the top of the large outcrop before dropping down right behind them.

Seven heard the unmistakable screams of people coming face to face at point-blank range with two very angry deathclaws, followed by a pair of bellowing roars, followed by more screams, followed by silence.

Visa and Ven appeared from among the rocks both wiping their blood-soaked claws off on what appeared to be a black rag of some kind, as they approached Seven stepped out from behind the pillar and she saw both claws tense up out of instinct at seeing a power armoured figure appear out of nowhere before relaxing as they realised who it was.

Visa instantly noticed the scuff on his shoulder and rushed forwards grabbing hold of his pauldrons, "You're hit! Did it get through!? Are you hurt!?" she exclaimed surprising both Ven and Seven with her concern.

"I'm fine, just scuffed the paint," Seven said and Visa seemed to notice them all staring at her and she released him before scampering a few feet away, "I was err just protecting my investment" she mumbled before vanishing back into the hut with a flash of long tail.

"What in the name of fuck just happened?" the newcomer exclaimed.

"Oh don't mind her that's just my sister, she's just a crazy tail who's in love with him," Ven said.

"I'm not a crazy tail!!" Visa's muffled voice came from inside the hut.

"Noticed you didn't deny the being in love with the human part!" Ven called back.

Silence for a moment, then she yelled back, 'Shut up!" before slamming the door extra hard.

Ven turned his grinning face back to Seven and the new guy, "See? Crazy tail" Ven said.

"What in the name of fuck is going on here!? Who are you people, How can these Deathclaws talk?" the new guy wailed firing questions off like a living machine gun.

"You first stranger, we didn't bring slave taking ass holes to your fucking front door now did we?" Wisp said somewhat angrily making the guy stare at her in disbelief

The guy took his helmet off and revealed a youngish looking man in his early twenties with a shock of fiery red hair and bright green eyes, his young face was peppered with freckles and his skin was as white as snow where it wasn't burnt and sun-baked.

"My name is Gregory, Gregory Adams, I'm a runaway slave," he said and Sven and the other looked at him curiously.

"That's some heavy-looking gear for a slave Gregory," Wisp said and he nodded.

"Got it from a guy who got me out, said he was an NCR special Ranger, got me and six others out, he freed us from a forced labour camp the Legion were running a ways from here, they shot him and when he knew he wasn't going to make it he told me to take it while he distracted them, blew himself and a whole lot of them up with mines and a stick of C4, took out a whole squad of them, but that's when they sent out the hunters," Gregory said.

"Hunters?" Ven asked stepping close enough that Gregory had to crane his neck to look nervously up at the talking deathclaw.

"Slave catchers, they specialise in hunting down and retaking escaped or freed slaves like me, they're ruthless and they are merciless," he said and the group looked at one another.

"Please, I know I have no right to ask and I probably wouldn't but I'm desperate, please help me," Gregory said softly.

Ven looked at his companions and Wisp was the first to nod and then Seven a second later before he looked back at the hut and saw Visa's head poking out and nodding as well, then he turned and laid a huge hand on the very slender young man's shoulder making him jump, "Easy there, we won't hurt you, but it sounds like you are a lot like us, so how about this, we're heading out of here probably a lot faster now these guys have shown up and you can come with us, all we ask is that you tell no-one about us and that if you can treat me and my sister like any normal human you would meet then you're welcome to tag along" Ven said making the man look utterly amazed.

"I think I need to know who you are first," Gregory said showing a sign that he was used to betrayal.

So Seven took his arm then took him to the shack and sat him down inside, before climbing out of his power armour and telling him the whole story of how their group of misfits came to be, hey after all he'd trusted them and from one escaped slave to another, that took a lot of guts.

"So you guys are on the run from the Enclave?" Gregory exclaimed and Seven nodded.

Gregory's eyes flicked between Visa who was sat next to Seven and ven who was sat next to him, "And they were experimenting on you guys to turn you into weapons?" he asked and both claws nodded in unison.

"But what I don't get is if you guys have powers........." he began with a sceptical note in his voice which vanished the moment Seven held out a hand and levitated a cup full of water off the countertop and floated it over to him making Gregory's eyes go as wide as dinner plates and his mouth fall open.

"There is no IF here my friend," Seven said.

"H-H-Holy shit that was incredible" Gregory exclaimed.

"Thanks, hurst like a bitch though," Seven said rubbing his temples with his thumbs to push the needles of glass away.

"Well, why are you running? Surely you could turn that shit on them?" Gregory asked.

"Could you fight the entire of Ceasers Legion?" Wisp asked and Gregory baulked and shook his head.

"Fuck no, I'm lucky if I could fight a fucking puppy, I'm not a warrior, I'm an engineer, I fix things," Gregory said.

"Well then now imagine these Legion guys but wearing this stuff armed to the teeth with ships that fly and vertibirds," Seven said pointing at his power armour making Gregory look rather nervous.

"Still sure you want our help?" Ven asked.

Gregory looked up at the big male deathclaw next to him, "Well the way I see it you guys saved me once already so I pretty much owe you for that at the very least, but I guess if I'm with you guys then you can help me fight and then I could help you fix your shit, like that power armour there" Gregory said.

Seven looked at him curiously, "What do you know about this stuff?" he asked curiously.

Gregory's face lit up and he smiled brightly, "Oh heaps, I've been fixing things since I could walk, my dad used to joke my first words were screwdriver," he said before his face went sombre.

"Well that is until the Legion killed him for trying to stand up to them," he said in a quiet voice.

Ven placed a huge hand on the man's back, "You have my sympathy Gregory, my sister and I know this pain you feel, our pack tried to stand against them too when they came and took us, they killed a great many of our beloved ones that day and the scar still aches in our hearts even now" Ven said.

"Murdering bastards" Visa spat.

"Well anyway yeah I've seen quite a few sets of T45D before, though not as many in as a good shape as that, though if you find me the part, a power armour work stand and some tools I could upgrade it for you, turn the D into and F so you'd have a T45F instead of a D, granted it's still not as good as T51 or T60 but you rarely see anything like that out here and not outside of the hands of someone like the Brotherhood of Steel," Gregory said.

"Wait, bos Brotherhood of Steel! So that was their bunker!" Wisp exclaimed.

"Oh, you guys know the Brotherhood?" Gregory said.

"Know them? No, but we found an abandoned bunker that used to belong to them, was cleared out" Wisp said quickly before the other could answer.

Gregory nodded, "Pity, those guys have some serious hardware, but they hoard it like magpies like bottle caps," he said.

Seven looked around at his companions and one by one they picked up on his silent question and nodded, "Alright then Gregory here's the deal, if you truly want in then we'll take you with us, but you have to promise not to breathe a word of any of this to anyone, in return we will protect you and keep you out of the hands of the Legion" Seven said.

Gregory's face lit up, "I won't I swear! Your secret is safe with me! Plus I'll pay you back for saving me by fixing things and I swear I won't treat you any different to how I would treat another human" Gregory said looking at Ven and Visa as he said the last part.

"And in return, we won't gut and eat you," Ven said making Gregory go pale as ice.

Visa punched her brother's long arm, "He's teasing you, Gregory, my brother likes to make highly inappropriate jokes to get a rise out of people, we are not savages and never have been, we may be deathclaws as your kind call us, but we are noble claws, we would certainly never eat another sentient being" Visa said huffily.

"She might hug one to death while she is asleep though," Ven said earning him another punch to the arm.

"Alright then let's pack up and head out, we can't afford to wait for the night now that these Legion guys are sniffing around, so let's get everything we have and get the fuck out, we'll just have to run the mountains with what we have," Seven said and there were nods of agreement, this was going to be an interesting trip indeed.