Radiance Ch. 115

Chapter 115: Sting in the Tail.

"Left side!! Left Side!! Don't let them flank us!!" Temour yelled firing his practically empty assault rifle down one of the long tunnels ahead of him while waving one of his pincer arms for his brethren to see where he was indicating.

"How the hell did they find us down here Temour!!?" Vlen yelled over the din of the booming rifles that were echoing all around them.

"No fucking idea, these bastards just don't give the fuck up do they?" Temour yelled back to the large Emporer genus scorptaur.

Valen was a particularly large specimin of her genus, being about ten foot long and about six high without raising her legs to full mast, she was also one of their best soldiers alongside Temour who himself was of the Forest genus plus he wasn't a taur like many of his brethren, instead being a humanoid species like roughly half of their population.

The Taur half of their population was far larger than their humanoid counterparts having a humanoid torso that ended in a scorpion lower half that had six long segmented legs and a curved armoured tail complete with a stinger.

All of them had a set of humanoid arms and a set of pincer arms which were primarily used for power tasks or fighting, their pincers were so strong many of the could cleave clean through metal with them with little effort.

Screams were echoing down the tunnels to their left and their right from the chambers where their civilian population had been hiding from the onslaught.

"Fuck! Someone get the civilians moving we need to get out of here!!" Vlen yelled exactly one second before there was a massive series of deafening explosions to the point where Tremour's entire carapace rang like a bell.

He wasn't even aware that he had been knocked down until he saw Vlen's face above his head, he could see her mouth moving and her mandibles waving wildly then he was aware of being dragged before everything went black.

When Tremour woke up with a start Vlen was sitting there on the floor opposite him, they appeared to be in a wide cave with a small fire separating them.

"What!? Where are we? What happened!?" Tremour exclaimed.

"Concussion charges, the fucking bastards sent a load of little spider drones down the tunnel carrying the things and set them off in amongst both our soldiers and civilians, but I don't think they were expecting the rock to be so unstable in that area, it triggered a cave in, I was just able to pull you clear before the passage we were in collapsed behind me," she said her voice drooping much like her mandibles and claws.

Despite her size and warrior spirit Vlen really was the dictionary definition of a gentle giant, she could be fiery and opinionated at times but she was a gentle woman at heart who would do anything to protect and help her friends or anyone really.

"The civilians?" Tremour asked and Vlen hung her head looking into the fire.

"Captured I think, I don't know how many we've lost but I know it has to be some, I could hear the screams and I tried my hardest to dig through the debris but there was just too much and it was too heavy, it went quiet a while back and I could hear the fucking metal humans moving about and shouting at people, so at least some have been captured, but I have no idea how many survived, I'm hoping most," she said sadly.

Tremour slammed his right pincer against a rock and cursed loud enough to make her jump and flex her stinger as well as her tail.

He looked at her apologetically, "Sorry Vlen, it wasn't your fault I know that you would have done everything you could to help and to save them, thank you for pulling me out of there when you did," he said and she nodded.

"What do we do now Tremour?" she asked and he shrugged.

It had always been his burden, ever since they'd first encountered the metal humans that called themselves the Enclave all those moons ago when they had attacked their colony and he had chosen to take his people and run.

Ever since that moment, they had looked to him for leadership and for reassurance, for guidance and for clarification and it had been a heavy burden, to say the least, but one he had borne gladly because it was as his mentor had taught him, it is a leaders duty to give hope and confidence to those who see only chaos and confusion, if you pick up this mantle be prepared for the weight of the worries of the many to be placed upon your carapace.

He had felt that burden grow steadily heavier and heavier day by day with every mile they had run, they had thought that finally, they had found a place within these caves where they could be safe from the clutches of those vile humans, but he had been wrong, so very wrong and now his people had paid the price for it.

"Tremour?" Vlen asked snapping him back to the moment from his mindscape and he focused his eyes upon her as the golden flames painted her shiny black carapace in liquid golds and reds.

"We get them back," she said feeling his blood beginning to boil at the thoughts of the fears and horror those bastards must be subjecting his innocent people to.

"But how? There are only two of us we can't fight them like this?" Vlen said sounding forlorn and that one stung him harder than her massive stinger ever could have, to see such a lively and happy woman such as her in such a depressed and miserable state hurt.

"I don't know but we will find a way, there must be someone out there who would be willing to help us?" he said feeling the hollow nature of his words even as they left his mouth.

"Like who, the humans? They hate us just for existing," Vlen spat and she was not wrong.

It seemed that anywhere they made an appearance and humans saw them, fear and revulsion swiftly followed, it had been the fuel that had kept them moving from place to place in their search for a new home.

"There must be someone out there who would be willing to help us, there has to be," Tremour said trying to sound confident though how effective he was up for debate.

After they had rested enough the pair moved through the cave network which ran for miles beneath the place the Humans called Boston, until finally they found a break in the caves that led them into one of the tunnels the humans called a subway.

As per the norm, these tunnels were infested with radioactive humans called Ghouls that attacked anything they laid eyes on that wasn't one of their own kind, though they were no match for either Tremour or Vlen and when neither of them could be bothered to fight to be able to walk on walls and ceilings came in rather handy to bypass large groups.

Eventually, after sticking underground as long as they could the pair emerged back onto the surface world which they hoped was a far enough distance away that the Enclave would not find them, though hopefully they believed they had been killed in the cave in and this would give them an element of surprise when the time came to get their people back from their metal clutches.

"Where are we Tremour?" Vlen asked and he shrugged his shoulders.

"No idea but it appears we've reached the coast," he said pointing with one of his claws towards the flat blue horizon where the sun was slowly beginning to set.

"hey check that out it looks like a human town, should we go take a look?" Vlen said pointing with one of her massive pincers towards what indeed appeared to be a human settlement, though a fairly ruined one to say the least.

"Yeah might have some supplies we can use, though let's be cautious about this just in case it's a trap because I don't know about you but I smell human pheromones on the wind," he said.

"That sense of smell of yours has never steered us wrong before," Vlen said with a warm smile as she scuttled after her smaller companion.

The pair of them found what appeared to be a ruined train bridge that was high above the ground on large concrete supports and using one of them to climb up the pair of them hugged the floor as they peered over the side to get a look down on to the town below them.

"Yeah I was right, look there, humans are hiding in the buildings," Tremour said pointing towards some of the open-topped rooves which revealed their occupants thanks to the high angle they were at compared to them.

"Somehow I doubt they are friendly," Vlen said with a scowl.

"Yeah pretty sure they are Raiders by the smell I'm getting, desperation mixed with heavy narcotics use," Tremour said.

"Think we should move on?" Vlen asked and Tremour nodded.

"Yeah let's use this bridge to sneak by them then we can......hold on whats this?" he said and lifted his head to the breeze.

"What?" Vlen asked going on alert.

"I smell Deathclaw and something else that I don't recognise, infact a whole host of things I don't recognise," Tremour said.

"Fuck if a Deathclaw is lurking about we should stay put until it moves on, those things hate us worse than the humans do," Vlen said.

"Agreed we should lay low here until nightfall then we can use the cover of dark to slip out," Tremour said.

That's when all hell broke loose in the town below them.

At first, it was just screams and shrieks, then it was swiftly followed by the unmistakable roar of a Deathclaw and then gunshots.

The pair peeked their head over the side of the railway bridge to get a look at what was going on down there.

"Think the Deathclaw found the hiding Raiders by the sounds of it," Vlen said with a little bit of mirth in her voice, no one lost any sleep over human Raiders getting their just desserts for the vile evils they did.

"I think more than the Deathclaw found them, check that out," Tremour said pointing.

Far below them, a pitched battle was going on between human raiders and what appeared to be metal soldiers though they were different to those they had seen in the Enclave, with them appeared to be large green humanoids who looked remarkably like super mutants, but they didn't move like them or sound like them, he could hear their shouts from up here and they were actually rather eloquent.

Then there were the other humans mixed in among them as well as the Deathclaw who for some reason appeared to be ignoring either the mutants or the tin soldiers to go after the Radiers, though it was not eating them, merely laying into them.

After a few minutes of intense fighting, the town fell silent and to both Tremour and Vlen's absolute amazement, all three groups came together, Deathclaw included.

"A-A-Are they working together!!?" Vlen exclaimed as she saw what appeared to be the humans, mutants and even the Deathclaw along with some others they hadn't even seen all having what appeared to be a conversation together.

"I-I don't know, but they aren't attacking one another......look they are leaving together!!" Tremour exclaimed as he watched the incredibly strange group pack up and head out of the town.

"S-Should we follow them?" Vlen asked her voice a mixture of confusion and possibly excitement.

Tremour nodded, "Hell yes if these people are working together then this might just be the help we've been looking for and praying was out there, if they can help one another then maybe just maybe if we play our cards right then they'll help us too!" Tremour said excitedly.

The pair followed the very strange group for a couple of hours as after they left the town they seemed to have a destination in mind and were heading right for it, from what they could see they seemed to be following the directions of a very strange little being that was sat atop the shoulder of one of the large super mutant males, one which seemed to be extremely friendly with the Deathclaw by the way the pair were constantly touching and hugging and even holding hands at one point.

Eventually, the group arrived at what appeared to be some kind of shipping warehouse with what appeared to be watching the place very closely from a hillside, it also appeared that they seemed to be planning something.

Tremour and Vlen managed to get themselves into a higher position so they could observe the goings on below them and they simply watched the strange group.

"What do you suppose they are up to?" Vlen hissed to Tremour as they both watched.

"I can't be sure but they seem to be planning to oust the human radiers from that place below us," Tremour said thoughtfully.

"Why do you think they are targeting the raiders specifically and isn't it a bit suicidal to be taking on such a large group with so few people at your disposal," Vlen said quizzically.

"I was thinking that myself but if there is something we've learned from going up against the Enclave it's that superior numbers do not always win the day," Tremour said with a distinct note of bitterness in his voice.

Vlen nodded at this, "Yeah, superior weapons and tactics also account for a lot," she said inadvertently making him feel even worse though he knew that wasn't her intent.

After a couple of hours, the sun was due to come up so the larger mixed group took cover in some caves below them and appeared to sleep for the day, rotating a guard who kept an eye on the place below them.

Both Vlen and Tremour figured that this was a good idea and decided to take cover in a small cave themselves while taking it in turns to sleep while the other kept watch on both the warehouse and the group below them but it wasn't until it started to get dark again that the group began to stir and wake up.

It seemed what every they had planned required the cover of darkness to execute and while Tremour and Vlen once again watched, the group actively fractured and began to move around the compound each with seemingly a different objective to achieve.

The two figures that drew the most interest from the pair of scorpions were a human male and what appeared to be a rather large bipedal Nightstalker female that had split off from the main group.

As cave dwellers and denizens of the underground both Vlen and Tremour had plenty of experience with Nightstalkers as they were a common sight in the deep caves and could be a royal pain in the stinger if you didn't know how to spot them, but thanks to their sensitivity to vibrations their kind could usually spot them easily and thanks to their highly venomous stings and powerful pincers most Nightstalkers wouldn't pick a fight with them, though the young ones always had to be watched over when in their territory.

The pair at first glance seemed oddly matched but the more they watched them it swiftly became obvious why they were paired off as their speciality seemed to be stealth and infiltration.

As they watched the pair silently made their way into the compound using the female Nightstalker's ability to leap incredible heights to clear the tall fencing surrounding the area, once inside it seemed that the Deathclaw was causing a distraction to draw the patroling raider guards and their dogs away from them by digging up molerats and throwing them at the electric fence on the opposite side of the compound, it also seemed to be herding those it had scared out their warrens right into the fence causing quite a lot of commotion.

Tremour had to admit it was rather entertaining to watch the raiders running around trying to figure out what in the name of hell was going on while a massive Deathclaw popped up in the thick shadows of the shrubs surrounding the place and launched a screeching molerat through the air sending it spinning into the fence with a shower of sparks before vanishing back into the darkness only to do it again somewhere else.

As this was going on both the Nightstalker and the human made their way through the shadows between the buildings every so often making one of the less active guards vanish into the shadows out of sight of the others before emerging and making their way further forward until they vanished inside one of the larger buildings.

It was only at that point that Vlen and Tremour realised that they weren't the only ones that had broken into the compound, a team of rather strange-looking bird people had soared in over the fence and were rapidly making their way towards another of the large buildings only to silently take out two door guards and vanish inside.

"What are they up to?" Vlen asked curiously and Tremour simply shrugged.

"I have no idea but I have to admit they are damn good at this I mean look at this shit, not only have they managed to break into the heart of this heavily defended raider compound completely undetected but they have got them running around chasing their own fucking stingers," Tremour said in disbelief, these guys were truly putting the tactics of the Enclave soldiers to shame.

"Just you wait, strangers, you haven't seen nothing yet," a strangely feminine and very ethereal voice whispered next to Tremour making him nearly jump out of his carapace as he spun around and primed his pincers and his tail to attack but only found nothing but a rather confused looking Vlen sprawled out on her belly next to him.

"What?" she asked looking around nervously as Tremour scanned the area around them.

"I heard a voice," Tremour said.

"Umm, are you sure you're feeling alright? Did you get enough water in the cave? Because I didn't hear a thing?" Vlen said looking around.

Tremour was as confused as hell as he slowly rotated himself back to the scene below them, he was sure he had heard someone speak but it was true there was no one there at all.

Just as he got himself settled there was a deep resonating rumble that Tremour instantly recognised.

"Down!!" he exclaimed pressing himself tight to the dirt just in time to see a massive fireball erupt from the building the Nightstalker and her human comrade had vanished into before only a couple of seconds later a second one exploded out of the building that the bird people had gone into.

The chaos was instantaneous as raiders began to stream out of the building they were using as living spaces running slap bang into a hail of gunfire coming from all sides of the compound from outside of the fence.

It was obvious what the group had done now, they had split their forces up to make a few firing lines all along the fence line, some of the metal soldiers, the super mutants and even the bird people were revealed by the muzzle flashes of their weapons in the thick shadows around the compound as they began to stream fire into the confused raiders.

A large and heavily protected group rushed right through the centre of the compound heading right for a rather large warehouse at the far end that appeared to be under heavy guard by all the muzzle flashes coming from the windows and walkways attached to the outside.

No sooner had they been rushed inside by the raiders inside than there was a soft whoosh and a bit of a dull thud from inside somewhere.

A bright golden glow from inside the building created pools of eerie shadows that danced like shadow puppets on the high windows as what was revealed to be a rather nasty fire rapidly began to spread throughout the warehouse rapidly engulfing the whole thing.

The group were incredibly methodical but oddly enough they seemed to be letting the odd raider escape through their line and into the darkness of the night, in the thirty minutes that it took them to wipe out the remainder of the defending raiders Tremour counted at least ten of them that were able to flee into the night before the whole place fell silent but for the crackling and popping of burning timbers.

"So did you enjoy the show?" the same voice asked and Tremour spun over only this time he found himself staring down the barrel of a rather large gun as well as facing down a rather angry-looking Deathclaw.

"No sudden moves now I'd rather not have pulled this trigger but I won't hesitate to if need be," the wielder of the large rifle said in a deep gravely voice turning out to be the large mutant male they'd seen walking with the Deathclaw with the little creature perched on his shoulder and was still there.