Radiance Ch. 18

The group separated and took up positions around the depot, as soon as they settled in to watch their arcs the sound from the Vertibird's rotors became deafening as they began to circle overhead, a series of incredibly heavy bangs from the metal above them revealed soldiers in power armour being dropped in, shit was about to get very real.

Heavy footfalls revealed the movement of the soldiers across the roof revealed them moving towards the hatch, Seven's heart was beating so hard and fast his armour began displaying a warning on his HUD, that's when the footfalls stopped.

The noise of the riled up Ghouls screeching and moaning outside was incredible, it was so loud that it even managed to muffle the blast from the breaching charge that the soldiers used to blow the hatch off.

Even before the smoke had cleared four heavily armoured soldiers dropped through the hatch not bothering with the ladder and instead of using the armour's ability to absorb fall damage through its frame and servos.

The soldiers were wearing jet black heavy power armour that Seven instantly recognised the familiar black armour that the guards on the airship wore, their heavy armour made the entire catwalk ring like a bell as they hit it, what they were not expecting were two claws to come at them from two sides at once while they were stuck in that narrow walkway, or to not be able to lift their weapons up as an invisible hand grabbed them and held them down.

Both Ven and Visa bellowed loudly and hit them like a scaly claw filled vice trapping the hapless soldiers between them, both of them tore into the outer soldiers with their vicious claws which as they jabbed them punched through their armour like it was made of paper, the two soldiers caught on the outside of the Deathclaw metal sandwich screamed as their long wicked claws pierced through them like skewers.

That's when the door to Seven's right blew inwards with a terrific boom that if it wasn't for the aural protectors of his helmet he would have most likely lost his eardrums.

Again before the smoke even cleared another four of the soldiers came barreling through the swirling smoke their armour making them look like black demons, Seven knew that his weapons were next to useless against power armour, even his laser rifle was of limited use against the hardened metal as this is what it was designed to protect the wearer against, so he had to use what he did have that they didn't.

Seven focused his mind and the pain that had already begun to pulse in his brain got steadily worse, he grabbed the four soldiers and froze them solid so they couldn't move, it was like they'd run face-first into an invisible spider's web that snagged them arresting their movement, as they struggled against the invisible web a large shape loomed out of the darkness in front of them and the instantly recognisable sound of miniguns spinning up carried of the sounds of chaos.

Power armour is designed to resist assault from firearms of both the ballistic and the energy verity, but it is not impervious to it, so when Wisp's dual laser Gatling guns spun up and unleashed a barrage of fire into these stationary targets the suits could only hold out against the incredible rate of sustained fire for so long.

With a loud beeping and an equally loud whoosh Wisp's sentry bot overheated, the large rear armour plates shifted and opened exposing the twin fusion core power plant and its radiators which vented the excess heat into the surrounding air.

But it was already too late for the four soldiers that Seven had caught hold of in his telekinetic web, as he let go of them the four hole-ridden suits flopped to the floor with a series of loud crashes and blood began to leak from the holes though some of them leaked what looked like ash which swirled in the breeze from the now open door, that's when the Ghouls arrived.

The troops had obviously dropped down in front of the doors and blown it before the Ghouls had managed to react, now they were catching up with them and they poured through the open door like living water.

They rushed to attack both Seven and Wisp as the only two things that they saw, Seven hoisted his laser rifle and began firing indiscriminately at the river of Ghouls, but there were just too many of them, they simply swarmed over the top of both of Seven and Wisp clawing at the armour with bare fingernails which screeched like they were running down a chalkboard.

Warning klaxons began to sound as the weight of the Ghouls dragged him downwards towards the floor, Seven knew that if he hit the floor then he would never get up again, his servos whined loudly as they fought against the weight crushing down on him, that's when there were two huge bangs right next to him.

"Get off my human you rotten bastards!!!!" Visa's voice roared from above him before a huge hand dove through the mass of clawing bodies and grabbed hold of him and dragged him out of the mass hoisting him into the air.

Ven was slashing left and right dismembering a multitude of them with every single swipe, that's when Wisp's cooldown ended and her guns woke back up, she bolted upright and threw the pile of the bodies off her before spinning up upper body on the spot firing everywhere but at Seven, the two Claws or the spot where both Riss and Gregory were hidden.

The results were incredible, she utterly shredded them but that wasn't the end of it as that was only the Ghouls that had managed to get inside, there were still more outside, "We gotta move! Go! Go! Go!" Seven yelled as Visa put him down.

The group ran out through a wide open door and spread out to avoid being hit by a hail of bullets that instantly began ripping down on them from the circling vetribirds, "Find cover!!" Seven roared and the group dove for cover hiding behind the heavy metal shipping crates as round sparked off the concrete and the metalwork.

Seven fired back at the three circling Vertibirds to draw fire from both Visa and Ven who as tough as they were not immune to gunfire, both of them were busy taking care of the Ghouls that were trying to swarm their position, "Get down!!" Wisp yelled and she rolled out of cover momentarily instantly drawing fire from one of them.

There were a series of whooshes from the back of her armour and a series of smoke trails revealing that Wisp's new body contained more than a few surprises, in the form of what appeared to be a hidden rocket pod.

The trails of smoke streaked towards the firing Vertibird before slamming into it with a series of flashes and deep rumbling booms, oily golden flames burst from both engines and the body of the vehicle before it began to list violently before crashing down hard into the ground with a loud blast that sent a shock wave over them.

Seven popped his head up and it was instantly answered with a stream of bullets that were fired from one of the two remaining Vertibirds, the bullets pinged off the crate and off the top of his armour making it ring like a bell.

But Seven wasn't going to be suppressed so easily, his armour could easily stop the 5mm rounds that the minigun mounted to the side of the Vertibird fired, or at least it could stop them long enough for him to pump a good amount of laser rounds into the engine of the Vertibird and cause it to go up in flames.

The flames must have hit the fuel line because with a loud blast and a bright flash sending the Vertibird spinning out of control and crashing into the ground where it exploded.

That left one Vertibird circling above them, to be fair Seven had to give them the credit they were very dedicated as they were simply not giving up, but they had seen the mistakes that were made by their two fallen comrades, they were not sitting still but constantly moving, but that didn't save them.

As he was aiming Seven suddenly saw a shimmering fast-moving shape moving along the top of the crates, it leapt from crate to crate so fast he could barely keep up, with pinpoint timing it leapt from the crates and grabbed the wheels under the body of the vertibird and swung itself up into the body of the craft.

It took Seven a moment to realise that it was Riss, she had managed to jump from the ground into a moving Vertibird and with reflexes so fast that he could barely see her as she sank her fangs into the necks of both the pilot and co-pilot before diving back out of the vertibird into the air.

Seven stared at the air with an open mouth as Riss's body twisted through the air and shot down towards him, by pure reflex he reached out and caught her before she hit the ground.

"Thank you SSSSeven," she said with a smile as he put her down, above them, there was a huge bang and a crash followed by the shriek of rending metal as the Vertibird slammed into the building exploding within the building itself and setting the whole thing on fire.

"Umm think we should take this opportunity to err fucking run maybe?" Wisp said turning her upper body on the spot from the burning building to face them.

"Yeah I'm with robogirl," Visa said.

'Yeah me too" Seven said.

"Gregory! Where is my Gregory!!?" Ven suddenly yelled looking around himself as he slammed a Ghoul's head into the metal of the crate they were hiding behind so hard it turned into a paste that squelched between his fingers before he flicked them clear.

"Right here," a voice said and out of the shadows, a shape morphed into reality as he stood up.

"Oh thank fuck!!" Ven yelled scooping him up and holding him so tight he looked like he might pop.

Ven didn't put Gregory down as they turned to run for their lives from the depot, the whole place had turned in the space of five minutes it a burning bullet-ridden hell, then there was also still Ghouls to deal with.

Thanks to one of the Vertibirds having crashed into one of the outer walls there was now a nice big hole for them to use to escape, both Visa, Ven and RIss were able to leap over the mass of flames that were filling the hole like a burning wall while both Seven and Wisp were able to charge through them thanks to their fireproof bodies, suddenly shots began to ring out behind them which revealed that one of the teams had somehow managed to survive the crash and thankfully for the fleeing group it drew the attention of the pursuing Ghouls.

But that also meant that they now had a team on the ground hunting them, but that was a problem for another day, now all that mattered was getting far enough away that they'd either have a hard job tracking them or it would make it far too costly and problematic for them to continue.

As they ran Ven flipped Gregory onto his back so he was now riding him like a jockey, he also dropped down onto all fours to help him increase his speed, his sister was doing the same but she was also constantly glancing back at Seven to make sure he was keeping up, which he was doing his very best to do so and thanks to the power armour doing most of the work while also cooling his body so he didn't overheat in the harsh desert sun, but he was still limited by only having two legs.

Riss had the same ability that both Visa and Ven did by being able to walk on two legs or run on all fours in order to achieve a higher speed, which helped to put distance between the depot and themselves.

They had little choice than following the road as fast as they could as other than running off blindly into the desert which was almost certain death, they had very little choice but to run the risks.

Thanks to the upgraded servos that the T-51F had Seven found the going so much easier as it took most of the load but eventually after about ten miles of continual running he ran out of stamina, so with the blood pounding in his head and his headache pounding like someone was shaking a bag of needles in his skull he was forced to slow down and call the group to a halt.

As he crashed down next to a rock Visa appeared next to him with a look of concern painted on her handsome features, "I-I-I'm alright, just need to catch my breath" he panted hard his respirator clicking away like a gas valve.

"We need to find somewhere to hide," Gregory said from his mount on Ven's back and Seven nodded.

"Yeah but we need to put in the distance here or they are simply going to regroup and hit us again," Seven said.

"We need some way to counteract that way they can see through your eyes," Visa said and Seven nodded.

"The only safe way of doing that right now is to take away my eyes, if I can't see where we are then I can't betray our position," Seven said.

That's when Wisp snapped her metallic fingers and reached into the backpack she had attached to her rear armour plates, she pulled out a roll of bandages and Seven instantly knew where this was going so as she showed it to him he nodded his head, in agreement.

'Do it" he said and Wisp closed in on him.