Radiance

Chapter 121: Where Only Ghosts Tread.

As Riss and her beloved husband moved silently through the shadows of the tunnels underneath the satalite station she felt her heart swelling with pride.

Being able to do such good for innocent people such as those imprisoned in the catacombs here made Riss so very happy.

Ever since she had joined this incredible group not only had she watched them go from strength to strength under Seven's leadership but now they were truly in a position to do some serious good for the world and they were only getting str the day as more rallied to their flag.

In all honesty, she had worried some when the group had split up to accomplish multiple goals at once, she had feared that their degraded overall strength would cost them in the long run, making them far less effective at helping people but as it turned out her fears had been completely unfounded because not only had she seen Raymond come truly out of his shell but rise to the occasion as a truly incredible statesman and leader.

Not only had he managed to broker a peace that many would have thought unobtainable between non-humans and the Brotherhood but her had managed to use that same effort to stop a war and turn enemies into allies.

Even now as she and her beloved husband stalked the darkness of the tunnels below the base the power-armoured comrades of their tame Brotherhood attachment were setting up their positions ready to attack their mutual enemy all while their other comrades from the Valkeries moved to disable their long range communications network.

This incredible teamwork made possible only because of their biological and evolutionary differences was made possible only because of the efforts made by Raymond who had taken Seven's lessons in unity truly to heart and was now putting them into effect.

He saw the strengths of each of his team and he instinctively knew where to use them, he made them feel needed and special, and he gave them confidence in not only their skills but their themselves and this had really made a lot of them shine.

Take Zixxy as an example of this, once she was just a shy little alien who as a stranger to this world had taken a massive risk in reaching out to Seven all of them months ago in the hope that he would free her and treat her fairly.

Now she was not only was the the mender of hearts and minds but one of their most powerful members while also standing on the edge of taking her first steps down the road of interspecies love and it was thanks to Seven's faith and Raymond's confidence.

The pair of them had taken that little shy alien girl and made her shine like a bright star and now as they stalked the dark tunnels below the base she felt invincible because she knew that there was nothing that all of those stationed above their heads would not do to save them should one of them get into trouble.

"I sense the group up ahead of you, be warned I feel some of their intelligence operatives in the area, I think they are questioning someone by the heightened aggression but it is difficult to tell, watch out for traps on the lead-up to the holding area as they will have not left this place undefended though how much they know about these tunnels is unknown," Zixxy's quiet voice said into both of their minds.

Riss and Runs looked at one another and he signalled that he would look for traps while she watched their backs and she nodded vanishing from sight as she engaged her cloaking ability.

Through the field that surrounded her body, Riss watched as her husband became a living shadow and moved close to the wall treading carefully as he checked for hidden defences, as it happened it didn't take him long to find one.

Runs held up his hand in a balled fist which told her to stop dead and she froze as still as an invisible statue while he moved slower than the passage of time.

He lowered himself down onto his belly and crawled forward while her sharp eyes tracked his movements until he revealed what it was that he'd spotted and as it turned out it wasn't one thing it was two.

The first was a series of hidden landmines that had been buried under loose dust and dirt to disguise them which he revealed by very gently scooping a handful of the dust off revealing the shiny metal underneath.

The second was revealed when he blew the handful of duct he had scooped into the air, the cloud revealed a series of red laserbeams crisscrossing the tunnel ahead of them though she couldn't see what they were connected to.

Runs could though and he pointed towards the ceiling causing her to tilt her head up to follow the direction of his point and that's when she saw the series of flat discs set in othe celing a little ways off.

"Turrets," she breathed and Runs nodded as he set about slowly and very cautiously disarming the landmines, though he didn't leave them where they were when he made them safe, he took them along as to be fair turning the enemies on weapons against them was one of his specialities.

Riss lowered herself down to her own belly and alongside her husband she crawled through the laser grid disarming every single mine they found to make a safe path through the tunnel until they were finally able to stand up under the turrets themselves.

Runs turned to her and using hand gestures he mimed her disabling them which she nodded her head at.

Even as tall as she was she couldn't easily reach the discs set into the ceiling so she had to dig her large claws into the rock in order to lift herself into the reach of them digging her toe claws into the rock in order to reach the appropriate height.

If one had direct access to the turrets they were remarkably easy to disable and Riss remembered Seven's lessons on how to do it should they ever encounter the things, there were two things that she needed to hit in order to kill it without destroying the thing itself, the first was the control relay which fed data from the sensors to the brain of the turret, without this it would be effectively blind and deaf, then all she had to do was pull out two fuses.

The first of the fuses controlled the arming mechanism which would prevent any backup or redundant systems from being able to trigger the turret, the second was for the firing control matrix which without this the turret would be unable to fire.

Now most people would ask why would you simply not remove this first and indeed this was a question that Riss herself had asked when Seven was giving them all the lesson with a captured turret he'd pulled out of one of the bunkers.

Well, the answer proved to be a simple one, a lot of the turrets especially the newer models had a backup trip system that if someone pulled the firing control matrix it could simply reroute power through the other systems that they had just disabled, so by pulling this fuse first you were accomplishing nothing other than fooling yourself into thinking that the turret was offline when the opposite was true.

A fact that he proved by pulling the said fuse and throwing it to Riss who when she caught it found herself now staring down the barrel of the thankfully unloaded turret but the clicking of that firing pin hammering away on an empty chamber instilled in her a powerful need to never take anything for granted.

Once Riss had disabled all of the ceiling turrets she clambered back down and promptly destroyed the essential components fully rendering the turrets inert which she signalled to her beloved husband before the pair of them continued on their way with a fresh coat of caution shrouding them.

"Watch yourselves you are coming up on the holding area, I sense multiple Enclave Spectre there," Zixxy's voice said into both of their minds and once again the pair nodded at one another in confirmation that they had both heard the warning.

The holding area made Riss think of what would happen if someone crossed a mine with a prison.

It looked like they'd carved holding cells right into the very rock itself and each cell had been fitted with reinforced stell doors that completely hid their occupant from view.

Riss tried to imagine the misery of someone incarcerated in a place like that, cut off from the world and unable to see the sun or to even feel fresh air, hell to someone in a place like that time would have no meaning especially if they were locked in there with either an artificial light burning all day and night or worse, total darkness.

Though it would only be worse if the prisoner was human or one of the species with poor night vision, for someone like her with crystal clear dark vision darkness was an ally and indeed an old friend rather than a foe, but for someone like her beloved husband it would be a fucking nightmare made reality.

Given the Scorpians tended to live underground she imagined their dark eyes would probably be pretty good and if their eyes weren't then they would have most likely evolved a method for dealing with the crushing darkness.

From somewhere off to their right down what appeared to be a narrow tunnel that ran off the main and highly illuminated chamber they could hear a pair of raised voices, it seemed that someone was indeed being interrogated though thanks to the rock they couldn't make out what was being said due to the scattering and muffling effects of the thick rock.

Riss motioned for her husband to head for the main cell that Zixxy had indicated was likely to be where the Scorpions were being held.

He motioned back asking what she was going to do.

She motioned that she was going to investigate the interrogation as it might be their chance for them to not only free another prisoner but also grab one of the Spectre agents away from the others without any of them noticing and thanks to her abilities she would be the only one able to get close enough to do it.

Runs thought about this for a moment before nodding and with a kiss for good luck he vanished into the shadows to make his way to the large and kinda obvious main holding cell on the upper level of the two-story holding area.

Riss silently made her way through the lit area and she noticed a few of the Spectre milling about, she found herself surprised at how much like simple normal humans they looked.

Usually, when they encountered Enclave personnel they were always meticulously groomed, dressed up to the nines in elaborate uniforms and their entire presence screamed military, but not these guys.

They wore simple civilian clothing, they had beards and long scruffy hair, and there was no sign of any kind of Enclave regalia, hell at a simple glance they looked no different from a simple caravan guard one might encounter on the roads but then she guessed that was kinda the point wasn't it?

Thankfully there were only three doors in the passage she'd headed down and the lights were spaced out creating pools of thick shadows which were easy to hide in, it didn't take her long to locate which of the doors the interrogation was being held behind thanks to the muffled mumbling and periodic shouting.

Riss thought about bursting into the room but given that she had no idea what was behind that door truly she felt that would be a very bad idea, she had to concoct a way to draw them out of there.

So taking a look around the dead-end corridor the only thing that Riss could actually see in it of any use were the large domed lights that were spaced out along the ceiling of it as it contained very little else.

That's when a plan began to form in her mind and a smile crossed her face as she flicked her long tongue at the light directly outside the door, silently she used her long legs to push off one of the walls while using her tail to stabilise herself and buying her enough time to wedge a foot into each side of the corridor to hold her aloft.

Thankfully there were clips around the circular metal casing that shielded the bulb within the light so she wouldn't have to smash the glass, carefully she removed each of them until the outer case swung down on a hinge allowing her to simply unscrew the bulb housed within.

As soon as it was loose enough the light flickered out creating a perfect pool of shadows directly outside of the door though she would need to kill the light at the end of the corridor in the same fashion otherwise anyone standing in the pool would be a silhouette against the pool beyond it.

So quickly shimmying herself down the corridor Riss reached the other light and sabotaged it in the same way as the first, plunging the entire end of the corridor into pitch blackness.

As she turned back to the door and began to move her heart froze in her chest, the door was being unlocked from the inside!

Riss froze as still as a statue in the narrow gap of the corridor ceiling as the door swung open below her sending a small column of golden light spewing forth from the room beyond and piercing the pool of shadows she had created.

One of the two Spectres stepped forth from the room and immediately stopped dead in the corridor looking up into the gap of the ceiling where Riss was hidden.

"For fuck sake these goddamn lights are shit, how many fucking bulbs have we burned through this week?" the Spectre a man in his mid-thirties maybe early forties with greying hair and an annoyingly handsome face said obviously speaking to the other who was still inside the room with the prisoner.

"Another burnout?" the Spectre still in the room asked and the man nodded lighting a cigarette with a large golden lighter that he took from the pocket of his long leather trenchcoat.

"Yeah looks like a double this time, either the bulbs are shit or the wiring is but then this place is a couple of hundred years old, I suppose we should be glad that it works at all, I'm going for a piss, I'll grab some spare bulbs and some coffee on the way back, you want a cup?" he asked.

"Yeah black two sugars, I get the feeling we might be here a while because I get the feeling we're just getting warmed up with our guest here wouldn't you agree?" the female Spectre said obviously aiming the end of that statement at the unseen prisoner who simply let out a pained groan in response which elicited a chuckle from both of the Spectres.

As the man walked away into the complex Riss leaned her head down to look through the still-open door and what she saw beyond surprised her, a human male was sitting at a table with a light being shone into his face from a large lamp mounted on a metal table.

He looked to be in his mid-thirties maybe late thirties at most, though it was kinda hard to tell as it looked like he'd been pretty badly beaten if the pair of black eyes and the forest of bruises that littered his face were anything to go by.

He was handcuffed by both wrists to a bar on the table which forced him to hunch over into what was obviously a rather uncomfortable position all while the female Spectre who looked to be an Asian woman in her late twenties sat opposite him with her legs crossed and a very relaxed posture as she read what looked to be an intelligence file of some kind.

"You know Sasha this would all go a lot easier and a lot quicker if you would simply tell us where your fellow Cossacks are hiding you would spare yourself and them a whole lot of pain because we both know it's only a matter of time before we catch up with them, you don't get to romp around causing us this much grief and simply walk away you know?" the Spectre said.

"Fuck you I will never betray my brothers and sisters," the man replied through gritted teeth and in a heavy accent that told Riss he was not from around these parts though she hadn't heard it before so where he was from was a mystery.

The female agent sighed and chuckled to herself before closing her file and then striking as rapidly as a rattlesnake she stuck the burning butt of the cigarette she was smoking right in between the knuckles at the centre of Sasha's right hand.

Sasha roared through gritted teeth and the look in his brilliant blue eyes was one of pure fury as he looked right into the face of the woman.

"I don't want to do this you know? I have much better things to be doing with my time so why don't you just save us both a whole lot of time and effort and in your case pain and just give it up?" she said in a relaxed and somewhat amused sounding voice.

Riss dropped silently down from the ceiling and as quiet as a shadow she moved into the room, though to her surprise her entrance didn't go unnoticed.

She could actually see Sasha's brilliant blue eyes tracking her movements as she moved silently up behind the Spectre and while it was obvious that he couldn't see through her cloak he did seem to have noticed the very faint shimmer that the radiation she used gave off.

Now while this intrigued Riss she really didn't have time to ponder it as there was no telling how long her partner would be gone for and she needed to secure this Spectre and release this prisoner before getting them both back to her people before he returned and raised all hell.

So striking faster than the female Spectre could have ever hoped to have achieved Riss stepped right out of her cloaking field and while she sank her fangs into the neck of the woman she grabbed both of her wrists and secured them with her far superior strength.

The woman tried to yell out in alarm but Riss's grip on her throat strangled that cry off so that it was little more than a gurgle while she yanked the woman up and over the back of the chair holding her in a position that made it impossible to fight back while the small dose of venom she had shot into her did its job.

Thanks to her being bitten right in a major vein the venom was pumped right into her heart where it was spread very rapidly throughout her entire body paralysing her in mere seconds and causing her whole body to go limp.

Now Riss could have bitten her right in the carteroid artery but artery hits were always risky business as not only could piercing too deep cause her to bleed to death but it could also deliver too high of a dose directly to her brain which would cause her to die.

Once she was sure the venom had done its job Riss released the woman and pulled out the bindings she'd brought in order to secure her prisoner all while Sasha simply stared at her in a mixture of disbelief and curiosity.

"A Nightstalker, here?" Sasha said in a very quiet and low voice which surprised Riss as she had half expected him to start yelling at the sight of her but it seemed the man was far more observant than he let on, probably how he'd managed to notice her in the first place.

"Indeed, my name is Risssss and I am an agent of the Free Peoplessss of the Wassstessss, we and our alliessss are here to free the non-human prissssonerssss the Enclave have taken, if you wisssssh we can take you assss well," she said in a very quiet voice.

"You can talk? Well this is a surprise and da I would come with you, the enemy of my enemy is my friend after all and you are obviously no friend to these animals," Sasha said glaring at the now bound and unconscious woman that Riss had hoisted up onto her shoulder.

"That issss an understatement, here I will unlock your cuffssss and you can follow me out but you musssst be quick, can you walk?" she asked.

"Da I am tougher than these animals believe," Sasha said giving her a grin that revealed his bloodstained teeth that were obviously a result of the Enclave's hospitality.

Riss took the keys from the unconscious agent on her shoulder and unlocked Sasha's cuffs before taking a cautious step back from him which he seemed to notice as he stood up on shaky legs rubbing his wrists.

"You need not fear me I know a friend when I see one," he said.

"Follow me and sssstay clossse and quiet, we mussst not alert them," Riss said and Sasha nodded before picking up the Spectre's side arm which she'd dropped when Riss had tackled her.