Radiance Ch. 41

"Oh don't you worry your tail there big girl I'm not after you man, just stating a fact is all I mean can you not look at him and think he's cute?" Shepherd said and Seven saw Visa glance at him and he saw the instant conflict in her eyes because he knew that Shepherd had her bang to rights.

She simply growled and huffed, "I'm the only one who should get to call him cute" she grumbled and Shepherd laughed loudly.

"Oh honey your the only one of us with claws not the only one of us with eyes, but don't worry I'm loud, blunt and honest but I'm not stupid, I know a lost cause when I see one and I'm no home wrecker, don't think a fucking Fatman would pry that boy off your tail," she said and Visa stood up tall and proud puffing out her rather ample chest as she did.

"Damn straight," she said and Shepherd grinned at her before ushering everyone off to get everything arranged.

It didn't take them long to get everything packed up and sorted as well as to send out scav and transport teams with strict instructions on how to pass through the Amazon territory unnoticed from both Sheila and Shauna, now that that was done the whole group was sat in the briefing room and maps were being thrown up.

"Alright people here's the deal, Seven and his team are going to help us take out Paradise falls and in return, we are going to help them take on the Amazons, this will be a big ask and I know we are not a military force by any measure of things but trust me when I say I've seen twice with my own eyes what these guys are capable of and I know we can do this, so here's the way I see it, Paradise is the bigger threat as they are far more spread out and well connected with all the local raider groups, so just burning the place down is not good enough as they'll simply up and move to another spot and we all know there are plenty of candidates around here, we need to hit these fuckers so hard that they'll be so fucking scared to come back to Washington that the mere thought alone will make them shit their pants," Shepherd said pointing to the map of Washington.

There was a cheer from the whole group, "Yeah but how are we supposed to do that? We aren't military or anything, all we got is the training you gave us" one of the groups asked.

"Extra training and let me ask you something you have ever seen an angry claw before?" Seven said stepping up onto the stage next to her though now he was out of his power armour again, all of them glanced around and then shook their heads.

'Those two right there are worth about fifty maybe more in a fight, trust me you know what the words force of nature really means when you see one of them lose their shit and go postal, those claws of their are not just for show they'll cut right through my power armour if they hit me hard enough and we got two of the best right here, alpha claws, then we got our stealth specialists Runs and Riss who trust me when I say if they don't want to be seen they won't be" Seven said indicating first the two proud claws sat among them then the two empty chairs where once Riss and Runs had been.

The whole group looked about in confusion until Riss just decloaked right in front of them making them all jump and then a sharp squeak from Louise made everyone turn to see that Runs had crept up behind her and was holding a sheathed knife to her throat.

Seven was smiling confidently, "Then we got our resident computer whizz who can turn their own fucking turrets on them," he said gesturing to Wisp who exited her body and did a lap of the room before returning to her body and striking a pose.

"And before you all say how is her beloved Malakai supposed to sneak his big fluffy bum into their camp let me ask you this can any of you see him?" he said causing them to all look around in confusion but then they looked back to Seven he was pointing upwards causing them to all glance up to see Malakai stood on the ceiling looking down at them with an upside-down smile.

"Then there are our two latest editions to our group Sheila and Shauna, Shauna who is a fucking scientist and probably has an IQ higher than most of ours added together and I'm sure you've all seen what an angry super mutant can do so don't get in Sheila's way or I'm sure she'll have a very little problem going through you," he said gesturing to the two blushing mutant girls.

"Finally there's me and I'm pretty sure you all know what I can do by now, me and Wisp were once prisoners of the Enclave, genetic experiments to make superhuman soldiers, so there ain't going to be any fucking barricades those fuckers can hide behind while I'm around, so look at it like this, we're the muscle you guys are the brains, you guys know the place, the people, the weaknesses, put all this together and you got a seriously potent mixture," Seven said clenching his fist and before him, the room burst into more cheers.

"I'll give that boy of yours this he really knows how to work a crowd," Shepherd said to Visa but Seven heard her and she heard Visa's response as well.

"Trust me I know, it's enough to make a girl's tail swish," she said.

Now Paradise was a pretty big place so they spilt the groups up into teams, each of which would have very specialised jobs, Seven's team was split up to merge the people in his team into the teams where they would be most useful for example Visa, Ven and the two super mutant girls would be part their primary assault team who would hit as soon as the prisoners had been located.

Seven himself would be part of an infiltration team who would be going into the place along with Wisp both posing as buyers from an out of town raider group, they would be accompanied by Riss and Runs and their stealth team who would be moving through the shadows and when the prisoners were located it would be their job to move in and eliminate any guards that were protecting them before springing them.

Now they knew there would be no way in a million years these guys would not notice all their precious slaves disappearing, so that was going to be the job of Malakai and his sniper/extraction team, he would be hosting the group's best shots like Gregory and a few others into hidden spots to lay down sniper fire while also securing a back exit for the slaves to escape from.

Once the slaves were ready to move the fun would really begin, Seven and Wisp would start a fight in the place and this would be a sign for the rest of the team to unleash hell while they were distracted and they were all convinced two angry claws and two equally pissed super mutants charging into their midst along with a few heavily armed ex-slaves would do just the trick.

The last part of the operation would be to seal the fuckers in their own nightmare and bring it down around them, this would be done by a few expertly placed demo charges that would be cooked up by Shauna and planted by Malakai, these would bring the house down and burn the remainder to ash, result a whole lot of freed slaves and a whole lot of dead raiders with a very big burning message to all who saw it, you fuck with us and we will burn your fucking house down with you inside it.

"Jesus H Christ this is a seriously ballsy plan, I fucking love it," Spectre said looking at the stretched map of paradise falls that was hung up on the board with all the arrows and movements of the teams written down on it including a little smiling cute fluffy spider that was meant to represent Malakai and two angry-looking devil like things that Seven guessed were supposed to represent Visa and Ven.

"We're going to need some serious preparation because as tough as claws are I am not sending them into a wall of fire without armour, so we need to do something about that" Seven said.

"I have an idea about that actually," Malakai said and they all turned to look at him.

"Well my silk is incredibly strong, I think with enough time I should be able to weave it into a oversize vests which we could put metal plate's into them" Malakai suggested and Seven nodded enthusiastically.

"I like this idea yeah we can work with this," he said rubbing his chin,

"Do you really think your silk can stop bullets my sugar legs?" Wisp asked curiously.

"Well the theory is sound, spider silk is one of the strongest know natural materials there is, if it was woven very tightly I'm sure it could stop low calibres but the higher stuff not so easily but if we combine that with some steel or ceramic plates we should be able to stop the bigger stuff," Shauna said looking at Malakai.

"Alright Malakai you get to work on making that stuff up, Shauna you start work on the demo charges, the rest of you follow me, it's time for some assault training," Seven said gesturing to the rest of the gathered women.

The group spent the rest of the day working together to drill the girls in how not only how to use weapons properly and how to defend themselves properly, plus they had to be able to do these things while they had rampaging claws around them and Seven could see this response because he could see the doubt in their minds that it was even necessary right up until both Visa and Ven burst into their room and scared the living shit out of every one of them leaving only Seven and Wisp standing as the rest threw themselves the floor.

After that little escapade and lesson in humility, the girls were a lot more receptive to learning, now Seven was not any kind of military genius but he knew how to plan and also how to best utilise his team to play to their strengths, so he put all this to good use, add in some incredible marksmanship training and drilling courtesy of Shepherd and her people and the whole thing was really starting to come together.

Seven had two armed teams of four charging forwards on either side of him while Visa and Ven ran ahead and began smashing through targets, he tore two large metal barricades up and held them suspended in front of the teams as moving cover but leaving himself vulnerable as he relied on his armour but as his mind was totally focused he could not shoot this left his protection up to his teams and the two claws so it was imperative that the teams learned how to move together and to not trip over each other as well as how to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances like he dropped the armour and pretended to go down and the first time he did this they all just froze including Visa, so he proved his point.

Seven knew this was going to take a couple of days to get them ready but he was determined to make this work, he was sure that after a few days of this they would be ready to hit the bastards and hit them hard.

By the end of day one, Malakai had also managed to whip up his prototype armour for both the claws and for the super mutant girls and seeing them decked out in the heavily woven white silk as he walked around them making adjustments and tightening things up was kinda funny like when he pulled the straps a little too tight on Visa's tail and she nearly took his legs out from under him with an involuntary response that made him jump into the air like they were playing jump rope.

But it was definitely worth it because with the help of Gregory who while helping Shauna with the demo charges had also managed to make some serious good plates to fit into the silk plate carriers so now both claws and both mutants looked like living tanks and were utterly battle-ready, now all he had to do was get the rest of the team that way and the armour had caused such a fuss especially when they had tested it out and it had stopped a bullet from Gregory's high power rifle dead they'd decided to make a whole set for the whole team.

Though everyone knew that short of either direct hits on the plates or possibly Seven or Shepherds power armour they were incredibly vulnerable to laser or plasma fire but these guys would be taken out by the sharpshooters first chance they got, the plan was coming along very nicely, they were nearly ready to go to war and what a war it was going to be.