Radiance Ch. 69

"Anyone else we need to watch out for down there boss?" the Sarge asked.

"Yeah two groups spring to mind but our intel on both is near non-existent, one calls themselves the Institue and they seem to be responsible for numerous synth sightings we keep hearing on both the Brotherhood's chatter as well as from people we have in Diamond city which is the self-proclaimed capital of the area, apparently these robots or synths as they refer to them as are near indistinguishable from a normal human, so we will have to keep ourselves on our toes, the other we have so little intel on they might as well be a myth and we are positive that is by design, they call themselves the Railroad," she said.

"Railroad boss? What as in the organization responsible for moving freed slaves into the north during the civil war?" Fuller asked and Fletcher pointed at him and nodded.

"Exactly my thought as well corporal, for the whispers we have heard it seems these people are responsible for targeting the institute's synths and freeing them, though for what purpose I have no idea, not sure why anyone would want to free talky toaster but hey if that gets them hard have it as long as they stay out of our way, but we still have to be cautious of them as from what we have heard they are well equipped and very well trained, plus as with all underground movements they specialise in guerrilla warfare and clandestine operations, we have no idea who is affiliated with them or not, but we have seen pictures of the scenes left over from their ops and they appear to be very good at what they do, not a trace anyone can use to track them left behind," she said.

"Hmmm, maybe we could use them, boss?" Sarge said suddenly and Fletcher looked at him curiously.

"Care to explain that Sargent?" she asked and he nodded.

"Well it sounds to me like these guys will have eyes and ears everywhere, who better to help us locate our targets than people with a network in place already?" he said.

"And what makes you think they will help us, they don't owe us anything nor us them?" Fletcher asked.

"Sure but that doesn't mean that we can't use them now does it? All we need is for one of our number to infiltrate their ranks and then feed them misinformation, like for instance either Number Seven or Three is themselves a synth and they are being used as a slave, or something along those lines, then we just sit back and let them do the hard work and find them for us because given Number Seven's past actions something tells me he won;t be quiet for long, guy is too self righteous about this crusade he's seemingly on, he won't be abe to resist sticking his noe in where it doesn't belong sooner or later and when he does we then get to hear about it, then we can either just scoop him up ourselves or even better get the fucking Railroad to provide a distraction by hitting them so we can swoop in and grab him in the confusion, before they even know they got played we'll be miles away, or you know number Seven will wipe them all out and save us having to concoct a cover story to extract out people," the Sarge said and by the way Fletcher's face lit up she liked what she was hearing here.

"I like your thinking Sargent, it certainly would be very useful to have a local network like that at our disposal, hell with a bit of work we might even be able to usurp the whole thing and turn it to our cause, alright good that's a solid base, alright as for our infiltrator I believe corporal Fuller would be our best option as he is our sniper and covert operative so this is his area of expertise, so once we are on the ground we will secure ourselves a staging area out of sight of all the local players and secure supplies, then we will put out feelers to locate this Railroad and from there the ball will be in your court Fuller and I expect nothing short of death or victory, same as from any member oldest to youngest is that understood?" she said turning her powerful gaze upon Fuller, he didn't hesitate he saluted and nodded.

"Good, well then let's start going over these satellite images and looking for a good place to set up unnoticed, the last thing we need is the Brotherhood up our collective ass before we can get moving, so let's get to work people," she said.

"Yes ma'am!!" they all chorused in unison before setting to work with their own copies of the satellite pictures.

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"Alright guys we are pretty much bingo on fuel, we gotta put her down," Gregory called back and Seven patted Visa's large thigh and she lifted her sleepy head off his chest and looked at him with the most adorable sleepy face.

"Huh? What's going on?' she asked in a sleepy voice.

"Time to land, get up and let's get everyone ready," Seven said sliding out of her lap and stretching himself before heading for his armour, once inside he began waking his sleeping team and they began getting ready as he felt Gregory descending towards the ground.

There was a bit of a bump as they touched the ground and Seven immediately hit the ramp release and followed it down walking out into the clear night with his weapon raised, the area looked clear around them so he beckoned the rest of the team down though Visa was already stood at his side ready to defend them anyway.

"Alright first thing given the time we need to find somewhere to hold up for the night, possibly longer if it's decently secure, did you get anything from the map Gregory?" Seven asked as the young man came down the ramp alongside Ven both wearing backpacks.

"Yeah we're a few miles away from the small city of Concorde, but if you are looking for something a bit quieter there's a few old farms and a satellite station around here," he said and Seven went quiet and thoughtful for a few moments.

"Alright, people I think the satellite station would be our best bet, it's going to have military-grade quarters though we are probably going to have to evict some current tenants given where it is it's probably going to have super mutants so we'll need to either convince them to move out or more likely kick them the fuck out," Seven said and he got a few nods.

"Hey umm, Visa mind if I ask a favour?" Zixxy asked in a slightly nervous voice and the big Claw turned and looked down at her.

"What can I do for you little one?" she asked warmly.

"Umm, would it be alright if I rode on Seven's back? Walking distance isn't exactly my strong suit and if I'm going to be any use I need to be fresh when we arrive, plus Ummm our eyes really aren't very good in the dark so I can't see more than a few feet, we have exceptional day vision but incredibly poor night vision," Zixxy said sounding highly embarrassed.

Visa glanced at Seven who just shrugged, "Fine with me, it's not like her small frame is gonna make any difference to the power armour is it?" he said.

So as they tromped along Zixxy was sat atop Seven's pack looking pleased as punch as she got to ride along instead of having to trip over constantly and feel around in the dark despite it being a pretty clear night, but she wasn't the only one getting a ride along as Malakai was beginning to look like a trusty steed crossed with a pack mule as they'd been flying he'd been hard at work and had knocked up himself up a set of saddlebags and indeed a saddle, somehow the super polite and ultra helpful Arachnakai boy had managed to score himself some high-quality leather from somewhere though Seven suspected it had something to do with the dresses he'd been stitching and fixing back in their temp home back in town.

So now the result was a set of heavy-duty saddlebags and a very finely stitched saddle which Wisp was now very proudly riding on as Malakai scuttle along and it seemed the clever spider boy had set it up so so she could not only hold onto him for support but access the bags, so there she was clamped onto his back as he scuttled along smiling all over his pretty face.

When they finally arrived at the outer edge of the satellite station Seven could already see the camp the mutants had set up as they neared the place, "Alright people stash the excess gear here, Zixxy can you tell how many are in there?" he asked glancing up and she nodded and closed her eyes for a moment.

"I sense about ten of them in there, pretty spread out, should be easy enough for us they seem pretty simple-minded hang hmmmm yeah that might work, give me a second let's see if this works," Zixxy said and moments later there was a series of yells from inside the station followed by bellowing and gunshots that made them all flinch.

"It's ok don't worry I got this," Zixxy's voice said into his mind, then the yelling got louder and what sounded like more gunshots before a deathly silence descended over the camp and Zixxy took a deep breath as she seemed to come out of her trance.

"Well sorted it, damn I'm glad that both Raymond and Shauna are nothing like these mutants, they are good people but what I saw in their minds really disturbed me, like pure anger at everything and everyone, but it made it really easy to manipulate them," Zixxy said with a smile.

"Err what did you do?" Seven asked.

"I umm kinda just made them believe that all of their friends had turned into members of the Brotherhood of Steel so they just kinda shot each other to death even to the point that I convinced the last one of them standing that he himself was a bucket head and after he saw himself in a mirror he just shot himself, so the job is done and we didn't have to lift a finger or fire a shot though we will kinda have some cleaning to do now, so yeah, sorry about that," Zixxy said and as one pretty much every one of the group's fell open like a row of dominoes falling.

"By the Great Saviour of Spiders, you are a scary individual Zixxy you know that? Damn I'm glad you're on our side," Malakai said and the little alien grinned at him and winked.

"Well I owe Seven and all of you for getting me out of that living hell, in all that time you are the only people who would have accepted me for who I am and what I am, so yeah I owe you guys, you saved me from the Enclave, so yeah you guys have my loyalty and I'll do anything to keep this group and its members safe, trust me on that," she said happily.

The group made their way up into the satellite station and the group were pretty disgusted by the scene they found but thankfully the mutants somehow had managed to completely miss the living quarters in the small bunker under the main station and had only been living in the station above, so with a generous use of Telekinetic energy to shift all the bags of meat and bodies out into the main fenced in area of the station where they were set alight before the team set about scrubbing the place up to make it livable, Seven got the feeling they might be holding onto this place for a while and a secure staging area and roof over your head was nothing to sniff at in the wastes.

But once the emergency clean was done and Seven did have to admit it was rather funny to see Visa with an odd hanky-like bandana on her head and a stick fitted with sticky silk thanks to Malakai was pretty funny, in fact, Seven thought she looked kinda cute in it he wondered if he'd be able to convince Malakai to make her a nice apron, though he did have to admit the sticky hanky that was on the end of her tail was a very night touch it actually made her look like she was doing some kind of dance while she was using it to sweep, now all they had to do figure out where they had to go next from here, where to start, that was the real question now wasn't it?