Radiance Ch. 62

"That makes two of us," Faith said leaning forwards in her seat to get a better view of the little alien girl who looked at her and nodded.

"It must have been truly terrible for you to live through something like that" Zixxy said and Faith simply nodded.

"I remember actually watching the bombs falling on us and I actually looked up and saw it coming down on us and I remember thinking so this is it, this is how my short time on this little world of ours ends, in a flash and silence, but I got the flash and before the roar of the explosion hit I remember the screams, I think they are as burned into my soul as the rads are into my flesh" Faith said and Zixxy nodded.

"I know what you mean, I never in my life I'd ever have imagined a whole species screaming in pure terror in unison but I heard it, it was a fear so powerful it travelled around the world like the shockwaves of the blasts did and I felt it, all of it," Zixxy said and Faith's eyes went wide.

"Oh man I can't even begin to imagine what that must have been like, it was bad enough hearing what I did but that? Fuck that" she said and Zixxy nodded.

"Agreed it will remain with to me to the day I expire, but it also gave me a new lease on life itself and made me realise that life is such a fragile and temporary thing that you need to not only live it but to enjoy it because otherwise in a single blink of an eye or a flash of light it might just be gone and you have eternity to realise that it's just gone, so I am going to live and I'm going to enjoy what life I have and now thanks to you good people I get that chance," she said happily.

"if you ask him nicely I'm sure Seven will set you up with a nice human boy or even a non-human if that's your flavour, it seems that human non-human love just blooms like mutfruit under the summer sun around this guy though I suppose when you see a human guy dating a claw girl and you see just how happy they make one another you start to realise that anything is possible," Spectre said leaning back in her chair and placing her arms behind her head as she shot a kind of jealous smile at Shepherd who was still sat smugly on Passa's lap with his white wings and by the lumps moving under them his arms wrapped around her.

Zixxy looked around at the group around her, "Yes I do see that, I can also feel all the respect that you have for him and indeed them as a pair, you all look to them for insperation and as an example to follow and it seems to work well for you all, I find myself both very impressed by what this group has already achived and what I have seen you do back in DC but now from what I have seen in your memories as well, I have seen such beautiful things and after a two hundred year dry spell, well as dry as being stuck in a pod filled with liquid can be anyway i do belive that this maybe somthing i am very intrested in, Seven does seem to have a rather unique talent for rooting out good open minded people from among all those who would not only turn you away but aggressivly try to exterminate you, you pluck these roses from the world nutture them and watch them grow and bloom under your care, it is beautiful" she said smiling shyly as she seemed to realise that she had just admited that she would be intrested in an interspecies releationship with a human.

"Well thank you Zixxy that err very kind of you to say," Seven said flushing and feeling his skin warming.

"You do not take praise very well either do you? It is one of the many things that I like about Seven you are still rather humble despite what you have achieved and I strongly believe you will achieve" she said.

"So Ummm changing the subject what's it like on your homeworld?" Seven said and Zixxy smiled again.

"Very militaristic, the only way to avoid being drafted into the military is to go into space, when you come of age you have two choices either be free,r leave your home and go into space in whichever role you can get into, or you'll get drafted into the military and have to serve a term of five years in the military, which given how aggressive my species government is usually resulting in a war of some kind with one species or another is not a great choice if you know you like being alive," Zixxy said with a hard bitter note in her voice.

"Sounds like your species and ours have rather a lot in common" Shepherd said from her happy perch on her new man's lap as he seemed to have developed a fascination with her dreadlock and was trying to flip them gently with his horns.

"More than you would believe, the only two major difference is the biology and the technology level, but I genuinely believe that if humans hadn't very nearly destroyed themselves they have ended up like my race, but given the choices available that's why I chose a life in space, now here's the kicker thanks to my choices I'm never allowed to go home, in order to be a card-carrying citizen of my world you have to allow yourself to be drafted and possibly die in one of their endless wars, but at least freelancers like me are allowed to trade with the home world as they like the benefits of our labour but won't let us set foot on the soil that gave us life but such was the price of my choice and I'm fine with that I made my peace with it and now this is my life and I am going to live my life my way and no one is going to tell me who to be," she said with a defiant note in her voice.

"Good on you girl know your worth and your strength," Cho said nodding her head.

"Exactly and I believe my best bet at seeing the best life I can get right now is with you fine people so I am gonna stick with you," she said defiantly.

"And done! Hey this came out really nice I'm proud of this" Malakai suddenly exclaimed and as they all turned to look they saw him lift up rather form-fitting white silk pants and a blouse as well as underwear made from pure silk that had been woven and stitched from scratch in the time that they had been in the air.

"Holy shit wow! That's beautiful Malakai damn Wisp when we finally get a chance to stay in a place for more than a few days you are gonna be like a wasteland supermodel or something, supporting the very finest in Arachnakai made fashions" Shepherd exclaimed upon seeing the garments.

Wisp beamed proudly and nodded as she saw the look of surprise and joy on Zixxy's face as Malakai handed over the garments, "Trust me when I say I know exactly how talented my beautiful man is with his hands though still maintain the best suit he has is his birthday suit, definitely his sexiest" Wisp said making him blush and twitter both his mandibles and spinnerets in embarrassment as a few of the others chuckled.

"Thank you so so much Malakai, no one has ever given me a gift like this before, these are truly beautiful," Zixxy said beaming brightly as she looked at the beautiful garments that the big Arachnakai boy handed over to her.

"You are very very welcome, couldn't have you walking around in nought but your bare skin it's not right, a lady should always have her dignity, wish I had a dying kit to bled up some colours for it and I'll say it now white silk is a fucking nightmare to keep clean, but give me another half an hour and I'll be able to make some shoes for you and then I think I have enough heavy leather and heavy cotton left over to make you a coat to keep you warm, gonna get pretty cold where we're going from what I understand and I don't know how your species handles the cold but not everyone has heated power armour or an inbuilt fur coat you know" he replied wit ha smile.

"It does get very cold up where I'm from," Chris said and Malakai nodded and pointed at him as if he'd just made his point for him.

"You don't have to go to all that trouble," Zixxy said and Malakai waved that concern away.

"No trouble at all I love creating clothes and trust me when I get to have five minutes to breathe and I can get my hands on some dying tools and some materials just you wait and see what I'm going to be dressing my beloved Wisp in, she's gonna be the best-dressed Robo cloud girl in the wastes just you wait and see," she said with a large grin.

As it turned out Malakai had managed to cut some pieces of old tires that he'd been found along their path, and while they all sat and watched the young Arachnakai he measured Zixxy's feet and then proceeded to cut and stitch together some leather and some vulcanised rubber before turning the two into a surprisingly beautiful and functional pair of all-terrain shoes he then proceeded to begin working on a coat for her and just as promised he delivered on it finishing only ten minutes before Gregory called out the ten minutes ETA warning.

They put the vertibird down a safe distance from the settlement so as to not be noticed it, thanks to the terrain it was surprisingly easy to hide the thing around here as it was full of small hiss and valleys filled with trees and other vegetation, so it was easily concealed from prying eyes and the echoes of the valleys would diffuse the noise of the large aircraft and make it very difficult to locate which direction it had come from, it also helped that it was dark when they put down.

"Damn looks more like a garrison than a settlement," Seven said as the group laid down in amongst the large rocks and grass of a large hill that overlooked Chris's settlement which was obviously once an old farm town that had been reinforced with what looked like metal siding and they had watch towers set up on all four corners.

Seven could also see the farms dotting the hills and that's when Seven noticed something on the opposite side of the valley sitting atop the hill opposite them, "Hey check it out, looks like one of our feral friends is taking a look" Seven said as his night vision picked out the shape of a rather large claw hiding near a patch of trees that appeared to be picking something up from the tree line.

"It looks to me that the farmers are still feeding the claws, that's a bundle of mole rats and what looks like a couple of Brahmin legs," Wisp said her eyes zooming in to give her a perfect picture of the large claw collecting the hidden bounty before turning around to head back to its nest with its prize.

"Well I'm glad of that, those claws have always helped us as there are some pretty nasty things that roam these hills and they keep them away from the settlement, I'm glad the Enclave hasn't hurt them or chased them off, though to be fair they are pretty good at hiding and I know that people down there wouldn't sell them out as they haven't hurt anybody and it would be really bad and sad if they were allowed to kill them for nothing more than just trying to live, infact I remember a couple of years ago we saw a big momma claw with at least six baby claws and she was teaching them to hunt and they were all going after a big radscorpion, it nearly got one of the baby claws and the momma tore its stinger off and stabbed it through the head with it," Chris said trying to see the claw but thank to the darkness of the night he was effectively blind except for the light of the settlement.

"Never doubt the resolve of a claw matriarch who is protecting her hatchlings, she would tear anyone or thing apart that stood between her and her children and woe betide anyone tries to hurt them," Vess said proudly and Chris nodded.

"I believe it," he said nodding.

"Alright people, we need a plan and I think that those claws could be a good place to start, so I think we should divide our forces again, if the claws among us try and get the ferals on board while we try and figure out a way to dig the enclave out of there but for now lets head back to the vertibird and get our heads down, we're gonna need to be rested and have clear heads for this" Seven said and with that, the group turned and headed back down the hill back to where they'd hidden the bird, this was gonna be a tricky one to sort out without anyone getting hurt, there were a lot innocent people down there.