Radiance Ch. 73

Chapter 73: The Bigger They Are.

The walk to Nukaworld was quite a trek even with his power armour doing most of the hard work Seven was still feeling the strain of it as was Chris by the look of him, well that was until Vess had noticed and now Chris was riding on the back of his massive Alpha Matriarch Claw girl as she tromped along happily.

Honestly, Seven had known that Claws had some serious stamina from loving Visa as long as he had but they were like scaly fusion batteries in that they just never seemed to run out, though when Vess had snatched Chris off his feet and planted him on her back he'd caught Visa eyeing him thoughtfully and he'd had a grin to himself inside his suit as he imagined himself riding his valiant Claw steed into battle in a full power armour suit, or rather her running about ten steps and then face planting into the dirt under the weight of it, she was strong but carrying him, the armour she was wearing, the armour he was wearing and his pack might just be a tiny bit too much even for her.

But eventually, they reached a large platform for a train system that seemed to lead to Nukaworld and by the look of it it was still running much to their complete amazement, though not as much amazement as the mercenary group that was camped out at the entrance when two large Claws, a dude in enclave power armour and a human showed up at their door.

Though fortunately for the group they had decided to try talking rather than shooting the moment the odd little group walked into the concourse that led to the platform though as the leader of the group walked up flanked by two of her soldiers Seven could feel the numerous rifles being aimed right at them from numerous hidden positions all around them so he took the liberty of encasing them in a telekinetic bubble to catch any shots so they'd have time to break into cover if need be.

The leader and her two soldiers were clad in olive-coloured military-style ballistic armour that was obviously meticulously well maintained and cared for, it screamed professional to Seven as he approached flanked by Visa and Vess who incidentally still had Chris riding on her back as she had insisted on keeping him up there where she felt he was safer, though he was now supporting his plasma rifle in case things went sideways.

Seven noticed a Captin's rank badge on her shoulder and he recognised these from the Enclave soldiers he'd seen both on the airship and from those who had fallen to his team, "Greetings we are here looking for a way through to Nukaworld," Seven said as the two groups stopped about twenty feet from one another and Seven could see the three of them nervously fingering their assault rifles as they glanced between the two large Claw females flanking him.

"What's your business their stranger? Are you a raider?" the woman said in an authoritative but obviously nervous voice.

"We are investigating rumours we've heard about a new breed of Claw that's been seen in those parts, heard they have been causing some problems around there and we think we can maybe help out," Seven said never taking his eyes off the black-skinned woman as her dark brown eyes darted from Visa to Vess and then back to him curiously.

"You a Deathclaw tamer or something?" she asked curiously and Seven chuckled and patted Visa's massive thigh making her growl softly at him.

"Something like that, let's just say me and my friend here have somewhat unique perspectives on them and we think we can help the people up there to not only understand them but for the Claws to understand the people as well we think that we might be able to help both groups to find a happy equilibrium," Seven said cheerfully.

The captain snorted a laugh, "You want people to find common ground with Deathclaws?' she said in a now rather amused sounding voice.

"Oh it's easier than you'd think human, I think you'll find that a little understanding and compassion goes a long way," Vess said in her best Matriarch's voice which she had obviously used for scolding younger mischievous Claws and keeping them in line.

The reaction from the three soldiers was instantaneous as all three of their mouths dropped open and all three of them snapped their attention snapped onto the massive Claw female, "E-E-Either you are the world's best fucking ventriloquist or that Deathclaw just spoke!!" the captain stammered as she looked up at Vess who just smirked at her.

"Not so easy finding out that you are not the only sentient species on the planet now is it?" Visa said and now their attentions all snapped to her as their jaws sunk even lower.

"They prefer the term Claw actually as they only bring death to those that threaten them or their loved ones, otherwise they are quite content to live in peace with anyone as long as they are left alone," Seven said.

"H-H-How is this possible!?" the captain exclaimed glancing between the two large Claw females before settling her mystified wide eyes upon Seven.

"Welcome to the truth captain, guess what the world is a lot more mysterious than you ever believed possible, you'd be surprised how many non-human species are as sentient as we are and would be quite happy to live in peace with us if given half a chance, now I'm not saying that all Claws are like my companions even for a moment, but even the non sentient ones are smart enough to respect boundaries for the most part, if people leave them alone and don't infringe on their territory or if they must at least show respect to their hosts then they would be left be, I've seen entire towns that live with feral Claws as neighbors and when the settlement was threatened by the Enclave the Claws came out to fight for their friends because those people had not only respected them but had showed them respect by giving them free food, in exchange the Claws had kept large animals and dangerous predators not to mention raiders away from the town, its amazing what can be achieved if people are just willing to take the time to try something different rather than shooting first," Seven said proudly as he saw both Claws puff up in pride and nod their agreement.

"Well stranger you certainly are an odd one with an odd way of looking at things and to be fair given that armour I thought you were Enclave at first until I saw the paint job on that thing, so I'm guessing you liberated that thing from them and that marks you as ok in my book as you are no friend of the Enclave and you didn't come in here swinging and shooting, so maybe you do have a point about how showing respect gets things done better," she said once again glancing at the two Claws who nodded in agreement.

"So captain what's the deal with entry to Nukaworld?" Seven asked gesturing to the train station behind the small group and she glanced back where he indicated.

"Place is loaded with raiders, we got tasked to come don here and basically keep them contained, they've got their own little fiefdom going on down there where they basically kill each other over supplies and territory and that's fine with everyone else as if they are down there killing and robbing people they aren't up here doing it, but its the civvies that got caught up in it I feel sorry for, there a whole settlement down there and a few satellite ones dotted around the old park and yeah we got stories of some whole new breed of Claw as you call them floating about down there near the old zoo, some crazy stories I've been hearing say that they have mutated alligators or something but I don't know and I'm not going in there to find out if you want in I'm not going to stop you as that's on you but I can tell you now you'll regret it, so my advice is turn around and head out, it ain't worth it," she said.

Seven sighed and nodded getting the feeling where this was already going, "Thanks for the advice captain and I appreciate it but we came here with a job to do and we're going to do it and hell if we get to save some Claws and kill some raider fucks at the same time all the better I guess," he said and she shrugged.

"Alright man then it's on your head just don't say I didn't warn you but for what it's worth I hope you make it through, this world has a whole lot of crazy in it at the best of times but at least you and your friends there seem to at least be the good kind of crazy, ain't too much of that floating about no more," she said and Seven nodded.

"I hear you there," he said.

"Alright the best bet is to walk the rail line here, we locked down the train to prevent anyone falling into the trap of riding it as it leads you right into a warzone-like area death match gig the raiders set up, so your best bet is to stick to the maintenance shaft that runs alongside the monorail until it reaches the park then split off and vanish into the park itself, just whatever you don't follow it to the end or you'll regret it," the captain said and Seven nodded.

"Thanks for the advice," he said and the captain held a hand and then dug into her pocket and produced a small folded paper booklet.

"Here you'll need this, its a map of the park, hopefully, it should point you in the right direction and for what it's worth stranger I hope you make it through you seem like the good sort to me," she said with a smile and with that her and her men headed back to their posts and waved Seven's group through onto the platform and on their way.

The maintenance tunnel was pretty dark and gloomy and Seven had to deploy his night vision to see more than a few feet in the darkness, the four of them were moving in a staggered line as there wasn't a lot of room to manoeuvre in the tight tunnel and given it was a pain in the arse in power armour he couldn't imagine how either Vess or Visa felt, though by the constant clonk noise of horn meeting cross beam and then swearing he got the feeling it wasn't pleasant.

But finally after an hour or so the small team finally reached the part that the captain had indicated, from what Seven had seen on the map it was easy to see why the raiders had set up in this place as it was very defensible on all sides as it was near impossible to enter except from this one place, this provided a natural choke point to control who got in or in the case of what he'd heard, out.

A distinctly cold slimy feeling was sitting in the pit of Seven's stomach that they might very well be dealing with a massive slave labour camp here as Raiders were not exactly known for being either forgiving people or good neighbours by anyone's stretch of the imagination, hell he was pretty damn sure that given a choice most normal people would have chosen a nest of Claws as neighbours any day of the week, at least Claws were rational and could be reasoned with if you knew how, jetted up raiders intent on either killing you and taking your shit or slapping an exploding collar on your neck and taking you as well, not so much.

Seven spotted a submarine-style service access door and after deploying his armour's strength to open the very rusty and stiff wheel handle he poked his head out and looked around onto the darkened platform beyond, it appeared clear and off to his left he could see what the captain had been talking about, it appeared that the raiders had built a wall out of corrugated metal and wood to prevent anyone getting off the train from simply being able to escape into the park, it would serve to funnel them into their clutches like a rat maze.

No sooner had the four of them crossed the threshold of the door than Seven heard voices and he held up a hand to freeze his team in place as he listened and tried to locate the speakers, they appeared to be on their side of the wall and by the footsteps, he was hearing they were getting closer.

Seven quickly ushered the two Claws and one human into cover behind some large pillars and the group sat watching the wall where a telling glow was getting closer, "Don't engage unless they spot us," he hissed quietly and everyone nodded.

"God it's been so fucking long since we had some fresh meat around here," one of the raiders complained and another grumbled in agreement.

"Yeah it's because those Gunner fucks have got the fucking entrance locked down, don't know what fucker hired them but they shoot anyone trying to leave on sight and they are fucking good at it and they also stop anyone trying to get in either, so no more freshies for us to play with and not getting out to raid the local towns either," the other said.

"Fucking do-gooders, I thought the Gunners were supposed to be as tough as it comes and doesn't take shit from anyone?" the first raider said in a gravely voice.

"Yeah, I heard that too, had a friend who used to run with them and said they were just like us but in cleaner armour, until some new guy took over the reins, cleaned the whole lot of them up apparently, got rid of the chaff as he called it, in other words, people like us," the second one said.

"Huh I tell you what gone are the days when you could make an honest cap ripping off a lazy fucking farmer, if we didn't have this place here we'd be fucked, what with the Brotherhood showing up in Boston and clamping down on everyone not to mention those other mercenary clowns towns keep hiring to protect their towns, it's getting harder and harder man, hell we've even got those fucking Gatorclaws running around up in the fucking Safari zone now I mean have you seen those fucking things? I thought regular Deathclaws were bad but those fuckers, I tell you man its fucking bad, whole place is a no go zone now, they keep sending in slaves to try and figure out where they are coming from, not one had come back out, they just find bits of them," the first one said which made Seven smiles inside his helmet and then an idea crossed his mind and he motioned for both Claws and Chris to stay hidden.

As both raiders rounded the corner where Seven and his team were hiding Seven stepped out into the open in front of the two men, "Hi fellas," he said with a cheery wave.

"What the ever living fuck!!?" one of them yelled and went to hoist his rather battered-looking pipe gun in Seven's direction but before it got halfway both his and his friend's guns just turned into a shower of loose parts in his hands which clattered down onto the floor along with the bullets they'd had in them.

"Oh come now that's not very nice is it?" Seven said holding out a hand towards them and hoisting the pair into the air securing their arms and legs out to their sides like they were affixed to invisible crosses.

"What the hell!!? Who the fuck are you and how are you doing this!!?" the second man a rather scraggly thin-looking man who looked like his diet consisted entirely of jet and caffeine exclaimed.

"Me? Oh, I'm no one really, just your friendly neighbourhood Claw wrangler, they tell me I've got quite a talent for it and let me tell you, fellas you haven't lived until you've managed to wrangle yourself a female Alpha Claw Ooooh boy that's a whole lot of energetic girl right there," Seven said putting on a fake Southern accent to fuck with the two men, from behind the pillars he heard a soft purr and a quiet pair of giggles, one very distinctly human.

"Claw wrangler!? What the fuck are you talking about!? Let us down!!" the first raider yelled, he was a rather heavy-set-looking man who obviously made his way through life using his size to bully and intimidate others into getting what he wanted, Seven knew the type a mile away so he was the target.

Seven walked right up to the man and looked him right in the eye, "Now I don't suppose you fellas might be so kind as to tell me what the deal is around these parts, guy has to know who's in charge now don't he?" he said still holding onto his accent, it was more for if there were any raiders on the other side of the wall that he hadn't seen or heard it would throw them off the trail until they could get themselves set up to deal with this place.

"There are three gangs here, the Operators that's us, the crazy fucking Disciples and the savages that call themselves the Pack, then there's an Overboss who runs the whole show and keeps the groups in line," the scraggly man said quickly and Seven turned his head to face him.

"Good to know, now where might one find said gangs and Overboss?" he said.

"Don't tell this fucker nothing Blades!!" the large man yelled and Seven turned to him again.

"Now that's not nice now, is it? I and this fine gentleman here are having ourselves a nice conversation and you just had to butt into it, I can already see you are going to be a problem so shall I show you how I deal with problems of the raping, stealing, raiding and just generally scum of the fucking earth style problems?" Seven said still keeping the accent but taking on a whole new leave of menacing to his tone.

"Go fuck yourself you........ughhhhh" the man began before Seven crushed his entire body down into the size of meaty dripping soda can that he let fall to the floor with a wet thud as the incredibly dense meat tube hit the cement.

"No thanks don't need to fuck myself got a big sexy Alpha claw girl who happily does that for me and she's a whole lot better at it too," he said before hearing a soft growly purr from behind the pillar.

"Oh my fucking god!! Who the hell are you!!?" the scraggly man called Blades yelled in a panicked voice.

"I told you, your friendly neighbourhood Claw wrangler, I just forgot to mention that I have zero time or patience for raiding fucks but now that that's cleared up you'd better start talking unless you want me to insert your new meat tube friend there into a bodily orifice I'm not sure if you'd like him to be in," Seven said and Seven had never heard a man talk so fast in his life before.

Once he was done Seven nodded, 'So that's it, I've told you everything I know, so you'll let me go now right?" Blades said in a hopeful voice and Seven chuckled.

"Nope that part was never on the table, can't have you warning your friends that we're coming for him now can we?" he said.

We? What do you mean we!?" the skinny man yelled and on cue both Visa and Vess stepped out from behind the pillars doing their very best angry Claw routine, Seven heard the piss hitting the cement very soon afterwards.

With a flick of his wrist Blades hit the cement and rolled over next to his friend, to anyone that found them they'd just be two tubes of meat laid rotting on the platform, well that was unless the rats or radroaches got to them first, of course, if there was one thing Seven had learned on his travels, you don't have mercy where raiders are concerned because they sure as fuck won't have any towards you.

"You are one scary fucker Seven you know that?" Chris breathed as he looked at the two wet-looking meat tubes that only seconds before had been men.

"Only to my enemies and those who would hurt innocent people, to everyone else I'm as nice as pie, I'm just your friendly neighbourhood Claw wrangler," he said aiming that last part at Visa who gave him a deep throaty growl.

"Keep calling yourself that and this Claw girl is going to wrangle you right out of that tin suit and into the nearest bush," she replied making him laugh.

"Promises promises," he said patting her large thigh.

Vess turned to Chris, "Don't you go calling yourself a Claw wrangler just you remembered who wrangled who," she said playfully as she stoked her human's head with her massive hand.

"Oh I don't know I think I did a pretty good job of wrangling myself a sexy Alpha Matriarch Claw if I do say so myself,' Chris shot back and Vess gave a purry growl before turning to Visa.

"I see what you mean my dear niece, their tounges are made of silver and do make you just want to yank them into the nearest bush," she said and Visa nodded eagerly.

"See? I told you, I know it wasn't just me," she said and Seven laughed before pointing towards the far end of the platform.