Radiance

Chapter 146: Logistical Nightmare.

Sasha managed to get the communications up and running through a relay system that the underground storage facility had built into the control tower to communicate with the surface.

With a bit of jury-rigging and Russian ingenuity, he'd managed to get it working to the point where he was able to put a call into the Minutemen's HQ known as the Fort to tell them of what they had found.

Within two hours of the call being made a team of Minutemen logistical engineers had found their way down into the underground military storage site.

The first thing they did was nearly shit their pants at finding Ebony standing there on top of the crates with a clipboard helping the team take inventory.

The massive Trantula girl upon hearing the gasps and squeaks of alarm turned on her eight fluffy legs and gave the newcomers a cheery wave.

"Ahh you must be the team from the Minutemen that Sasha said were on their way down," she said walking slowly down the side of the crates to stand before the surprised-looking humans.

"Umm yeah, that's us," one of the team said with his voice laden with confusion.

"Awesome, well my name is Ebony and as you can see I'm an Archnakai, I believe you guys may have already met one of my brethren before, a jumping spider genus named Malakai I believe?" she said hopefully and at the mention of Malakai's name they all seemed to calm down quite a bit.

"Oh yeah! The tailor dude with the Free Peoples, damn that guy can sew, he fitted my brother out with this sweet coat and even fitted a chin strap to his hat so it wouldn't blow off, but damn you're a lot bigger than he is," one of them said looking up at her.

"Yeah I'm a different genus that's why, I'm a Tarantula and we tend to be much bigger than our springy little cousins," Ebony said laughing at her joke.

"Yeah, we can see that," one of the team said and that's when Sasha appeared around the corner of one of the crate stacks.

"Ahh good you finally get here, we have much to do, come," he said gesturing to them to follow him and Ebony clambered her way back up onto the crate stack to continue with her task of helping take inventory.

Above her, she could see members of the Valkyries flapping about high above her head, each of them had been given a section of the large room to work with and were logging all the full crates in their section as well as what they contained.

They would then bring these results back to Ebony who was working like a co-ordinator between all of them as well as the human members of the Cossacks who were on the ground working in different areas.

Both the leader of the Cossacks and the leader of the Valkyries were up in the control tower as they had been working on the comms system as well as the other systems trying to get things working so that when the time came they would have a head start on getting things moving.

Ebony had to admit she rather liked these humans and their Valkyrie friends, the humans of the group were definitely not like any she had met in her life so far and it made her happy to know that there were indeed good humans out there in the world.

She couldn't help but wonder what this group the Free Peoples of the Wastes that they'd spoken of were like, from the way they'd spoken about them they seemed to be an interspecies group made up of all sorts of different races including humans all working together to try and make the world a better place.

The very thought of such a group even existing filled Ebony with a mixture of both profound joy as well as a great deal of sadness.

The joy stemmed from the fact that her wish had come true, finally, there were good people out there including humans who were willing to stand up and try to make the world better for everyone not just themselves.

The sadness came from the fact that it pained her that such a group was necessary in the first place, the very fact that people like her had to fight and even justify their very existence in this world was horrific but now at least they had a powerful ally in the fight, finally, they had someone in their corner who would make the others of their kind sit up and pay attention.

She looked over at the engineers of the Minutemen as Sasha and Celine showed them around and gave them some of the preliminary numbers she had given them already.

Their reaction had been relatively minor to first encountering her and while she did understand that yes she was big and intimidating when first encountered by someone like a human that didn't mean she was a threat to them or intended them any harm but it was something that she had gotten used to over time.

Though now actually having the chance to not only walk about freely on the surface but to interact with humans without them shooting at her or trying to rob her made Ebony feel like doing a little happy dance on top of the crates as who would have guessed that this chance encounters could lead to a partnership that could potentially change her entire life for the better.

She also found herself wondering about this other Archnakai that the Free Peoples had with them, she would very much like to meet him and get to know his story, it had been a very long time since she'd even seen another member of her own kind let alone spoken to one of them, well hopefully she would get to meet him soon enough as it looked like the Minutemen were ready to get things rolling along here.

Pretty soon it seemed that Sasha and his team were ready to move out and the power-armoured human soldier along with the large Valkyrie commander who seemed to be working as his second in command both came walking up to Ebony.

"Well Ebony we are transferring control of the site to Minutemen now, our job is done here now only question remains would you like to stay here and help them or would you rather come with us and meet others?" Sasha asked looking up at her.

Ebony felt her heart flutter in her abdomen at this.

"Y-You want me to come with you?" she asked in disbelief and Sasha smiled at her.

"Celine here is of opinion that you need to spread your wings and fly in this world I try to remind her that these are legs, not wings, but she clips me across back of head and tells me I am pedantic human and is metaphor and you need to get out into world in good company so world can see you and you can make good friends and show them you are not dangerous as they believe, on this part we agree but I still say are legs, not wings and telling girl to spread her legs can earn you clip across head if not careful," Sasah said while looking playfully at Celine whose feathers ruffled like crazy at the last part.

"That is not what I meant and you know it! Get your mind out of the gutter human!' Celine exclaimed as a few of the soldiers both Valkyrie and human alike sniggered at their second in command's embarrassment.

"I would like this very much commander but I think I will keep my legs firmly non-spread if it's all the same with you," Ebony said joining in on the joke which made Celine's feathers ruffle even more.

"You lot are as bad as each other, a girl can't even make a simple metaphor around here anymore!' Celine said stomping off with her large talons clacking on the concrete.

Sasha grinned as he watched her go with her large tail feathers swishing in a very determined way as she went.

"She is fun to tease but I will have to apologise later on if I do not want to spend next week getting scowled at, Condors give worst scowls," he said making Ebony smile and chuckle to herself.

"Do you think there is a place for someone like me in your team commander?" Ebony asked as the team packed up and she stood with him overseeing things.

"Hmmm, do you have experience in combat?" Sasha asked looking up at her.

"I tried to avoid it wherever possible but if I need to stand and fight I will, I do not wish our first meeting to give you a false impression of me, I was caught off guard by your presence down here and was caught on the hop so to speak, but I am no coward and will fight to protect what's mine if need be," Ebony said.

Sasha nodded and then walked around her seemingly sizing her up.

"I believe we can find a place for you if this is what you wish, but you will need to train with us, we will need to see that you are worthy of being Cossack, no offence but not everyone is cut out to be one of us, infact very few are, but if you pass tests we throw at you then you will be welcome among us as big sister," he said.

This made Ebony smile and dance about on her eight fluffy feet swishing her rather large booty about as she did.

Sasha started laughing and she looked at him curiously.

"What?" she asked and he dismissively waved his hand.

"Oh nothing just you remind me of Natalia trying to dance after too many Vodkas," he said with a grin.

"Sorry when I get happy I just feel like dancing and sometimes I can't help it," Ebony said.

Sasha patted her large leg in a friendly way which actually surprised her as not many people were willing to touch her so openly and without fear.

"Oh you not need to apologise or be ashamed of this, I am sorry for laughing was not aimed at you I assure you, if you are happy you should dance till you feel you cannot anymore, is very few simple pleasures in this life anymore and dancing is one of them, we Russians know this better than most, granted most of us are not good at it but after good Vodka you don't care and neither does anyone else!' he said.

"What's this Vodka you keep speaking of?" Ebony asked and Sasha's face crinkled into what she took to be a mock shock.

"Another day passes and again we meet another who does not know the powerful social tool and lubricant that is good Russian Vodka! Shameful," he said then he turned and looked at his people.

"Ivan!" he yelled causing one of the human soldiers to pop up among the team.

"Yes boss?" the man called back with an accent thicker than Sasha's by a webbed mile.

"Flask! We have another who has never heard of Vodka!" Sasha yelled and instantly the man got the same look of outrage on his face though his looked more authentic than Sasha's had been.

Ivan reached into one of the pouches clipped to his power armour and threw what looked to be a little silver flask to his commander who caught it deftly from the air before turning to Ebony and holding it up to her.

"Take one swig and you will see," he said.

Ebony was actually shocked by the gesture, this was the first time in her life that a human had ever offered to share a drink with her and even though he obviously did not know it, this meant more to Ebony than any amount of words or happy dancing could ever express.

She took the little silver flask that seemed to be engraved with a strange language made up of backwards and upside-down letters and sniffed at it.

The scent that hit her right in the face was like a slap made of alcohol and she recoiled looking at Sasha in alarm only to find him grinning at her.

"Careful big one the human drink may seem benign but it is anything but I can attest to this," a voice from above her said and glancing up Ebony found Celine perched on top of a crate stack to her right.

"Oh hush you, you are only annoyed that we stopped you before you could unleash your best burlesque feather dance," Sasha said and the noise that escaped Celine was somewhere between a bark and a bear trap snapping shut.

"If I was ever to do such a dance it would be so captivating that you would not be ever able to look away let alone stop me human!" she barked at Sasha who simply grinned up at her.

"Very well then a bet is made and honoured, next time we drink the holy Russian freer of hearts and the great lubricator of socialness then I will not stop you and we will see if your dance is as captivating as you believe it to be," Sasha said never leaving his grin for a moment.

Celine clacked her large beak at him, "You will see human! We Condors are not just the predators of the skies but paragons of sensuality! One dance and you will never look at one of your skinny human girls in the same way again, they will be nothing but a disappointment to you!" she said and with that, it was time for angry Condor girl stomping off round two.

"Thought you were going to apologise to her not antagonise her further?" Ebony said and Sasha grinned at her now.

"That is apologising trust me, Celine thrives on challange and giving her the chance to prove me wrong as well as to show off the skills of her people will have her fired up for quite a while," he said.

"I'll take your word for it," Ebony said shaking her head.

"More time you spend with us big girl more you will understand us, now come, drink and let us see if Vodka is your demon or angel," he said.

Ebony took a deep breath and with that, she took a swig of the powerful-smelling liquid and almost immediately regretted it, it tasted a lot worse than it smelled but oh boy did it warm you from the inside.

As she coughed and spluttered Sasha roared with laughter and patted her leg.

"And another is bitten by the demon," he said taking the flask back before sealing it up and throwing it back to Ivan who to her amazement caught it without even looking up from the box he was packing up.

Later on once they were all loaded up the group headed up the tunnels towards the surface, by now the Minutemen seemed to have called in reinforcements as there were more of them marching down the tunnel with every mile that passed.

But as they walked it seemed that Sasha had been right about Celine as she seemed pretty fired up and was constantly talking about the joys of a good feather dance as performed by a handsome Valkyrie boy, she also kept insinuating that if she won the bet she was going to get Sasha to do a feather dance for her as payment.

To his credit Sasha just seemed to be taking it all in his stride and nodding along with her, he was either completely crazy or was just so accepting of things that he was willing to roll along with them for the sake of his team, it was hard to judge which it was though she did wonder to herself what the grizzled human soldier would look like doing one of these so-called feather dances.

Finally, they reached the surface and as the light grew ever stronger Ebony felt her fear rising with every step that she took closer to it, the surface world had never been kind to her or to her kind and now as she headed towards it for the first time in a very long time she couldn't help but feel the tremors of its memory in every step she took.

To his credit, Sasha seemed to notice this and he patted her large leg with his armoured hand causing her to look down at him though this time his face was hidden behind his helmet so she couldn't see the bright blue of his eyes.

"Don't worry big girl, this time will be different, this time you are not facing raiders and even if you do this time you have powerful friends who will not let them harm you or fool you," he said.

"Raiders would have to be fucking fools to mess with us," Celine barked with a laugh.

"Being fools is what makes them Raiders in the first place," Ivan said from the back of the group.

Celine ruffled her head feathers but nodded.

"Good point, damn now even I find myself surprised that even Ivan can see this," she said making the rest of the Cossacks laugh and Ivan snarl and sulk at the back.

Finally, they emerged into the almost blinding sunlight which caused Ebony to put on her special glasses that she'd made from some Nuka Cola bottles that used a dark glass which she'd ground down and fitted into a set of special frames that covered all eight of her eyes.

Now normally Tarantulas have pretty crap vision and granted yes her eyes were nowhere near as sharp as one of her jumpy cousins, but thankfully the human in her genes had managed to make her vision at least passable and even let her see colours, but sunlight was still a bit of a killer for her if left unfiltered.

Ebony looked around at the large human camp that seemed to have popped up at the entrance to the tunnels and she found herself amazed at just how quickly they seemed to have organised everything.

To her surprise and somewhat delight none of the humans running around this new addition to the landscape seemed to pay her much mind other than a curious glance but certainly none of them seemed to be frightened or disgusted by her presence.

It seemed to Ebony that these humans seemed to have at least some experience in interacting with non-human races or at the very least had been prepared to do so by those that had the experience.

As Sasha and Celine headed off to speak with the commander of the Minutemen logistical section the remainder of the team stood by at the new makeshift landing pad that had been set up for the Vertibirds that Ebony saw coming in from time to time to drop off gear and supplies to the troops on the ground.

"You ever ride in such a thing big girl?" Ivan asked from her side as he watched her turning on her eight legs to watch the large flying human craft dropping in a cargo net laden with boxes.

"Goodness no, closest I've come to those things is when I got chased by one a long time ago, made the mistake of coming out in the day time and got spotted by a Brotherhood of Steel air patrol, they gave chase until I was able to hide underground and lose them using the railway tunnels," she said.

Ivan looked rather sad at this little revelation and he nodded.

"Our brothers and sisters have made many mistakes over the lifetime of Brotherhood, but is something that we Cossacks pride ourselves on," he said and Ebony looked at him curiously.

"What making mistakes?" she asked in confusion and Ivan shook his head.

"No, in learning from them and striving to make things better, we see where we and others fail and we adapt, we get better and we learn, we take failures of past of both ourselves and those that wear this uniform and we learn from them, one of biggest failures I see now is beliving that we are top of food chain and best at everything because we are human, are plenty of things out there more dangerous than us, yes we have big guns and powerful bombs but take that away and our armour and what are we, naked and afraid squishy creatures who are barely able to defend ourselves let alone others, but take one like you, take away weapons and armour and you are still strong, you can walk up walls, you have big fangs and venom, you are more dangerous than us, but you are every bit as smart as us, this was human failing, we thought we were better than you and everyone else, we were wrong," Ivan said with such honesty in his voice that it took Ebony seriously off guard.

"Wow, I think that is most humble and smart thing I ever hear you say, Ivan, did someone replace your Vodka with brain juice?' Natalia said making the other Cossacks and Valkyries chuckle.

Ivan growled at her through his helmet.

"Can I not have serious moment and speak truth for once, must I always be clown to you?" he snapped which seemed to take Natalia off guard.

"Hey now was just a joke, I meant no offence," she shot back as the others stopped laughing as they saw the tension rising between the two Cossacks.

"Take it easy guys theres no need to argue, I appreciate your kind words Ivan and it is good to see that you understand my plight and the plight of others like me, if more humans like you start to take notice of it and act on it then maybe we can change this world for the better or at least small parts of it," Ebony said moving her sizeable frame in between the two Cossacks.

"This is what I say and I am glad you see it Ebony," Ivan said and Ebony could feel that Natalia was about to snap back at him but before she could both Sasha and Celine came strolling back over.

"Ok we have turned over control of site to Minutemen, they have organised a flight back home, will use one of those cargo Vertibirds rather than our bird as our new member might have problems fitting in it," Sasha said gesturing to Ebony.