Radiance

Chapter 65: Claws of War.

Seven and Chris were just on their way back from their meeting which had gone incredibly well as it turned out that every single person in the settlement wanted the Enclave gone, preferably as violently as possible so it would not be ambiguous as to whether they should try to come back at a later point.

Thought to be fair Seven had done pretty much all of the talking as Chris had been pretty preoccupied with being hugged to death by his mother and sister who had come running the moment that word of Chris being here reached them.

He spent pretty much the entire time intermittently being hugged and telling them what had happened to him and to be fair it wasn't every day you get press-ganged by a megalomaniac military and then shot as well as rescued by the same people which included a whole group of non-humans none of which were at the meeting for security and safety but it still amazed them.

It was also thanks to Chris that the opinions of the town's people were rapidly swayed as he told them how the group had very quickly taken down and entire Enclave stronghold and as well as told them of the group's non-human contingent and how they were with the humans of their group.

So it was definitely his opinion of them that swayed them, though his mother and sister were rather angry with Seven for shooting their beloved one though Chris did point out that they didn't have to save him as far as they were concerned he was an enemy combatant and they could have just easily executed him or left him to die helpless, scared and alone, but they didn't they healed him, they took him with them and gave him a chance not only to live but to help them so he took it, though thankfully he left out the agreement between him and Vess which was probably for the best.

As they were walking Seven saw a figure flat out sprinting towards them and instantly he went on alert, his heckles went royally up as soon as he saw who it was.

"Seven! Come quickly we's has major problem, may need to hit town right now!" Runs exclaimed sounding a little out of breath which wasn't surprising that he had just sprinted all the way from the town itself which was a fair distance.

"What's happened!?" Seven demanded.

"Soldiers try to rape girl and boy, Gregory stop them from getting girl, kill them, Riss go after soldier that take boy, gone up to big house where officer live, could be major problems!" he exclaimed and Seven didn't even hesitate he took off running but not before turning and yelling to Chris to get back to his people and to tell them to get ready to go right fucking now.

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Getting out was a hell of a lot harder than getting in as Riss's cloak couldn't hide Billy, so Riss had to pick a path that could allow them to slip past unnoticed, her heart was pounding in her chest as they dashed across the open ground with him riding on her back like a little jockey, she dashed from the side of the house to the first fence and leapt it landing in the middle of the patrol path.

Almost instantly she heard a shout from their far-right, "Hey you! Stop there!!" a man yelled his power armour amplifying and distorting his voice but it wasn't the shout that worried her it was the two plasma shots that hit the ground next to her.

"Hold on tight!!' she yelled before leaping the second fence and making a mad dash for the tree line all the while green bolts of plasma sizzled the air around her and impacted the ground setting the grass aflame here and there as she weaved.

She was running as fast as her legs could carry them and she could feel Billy ducking low and hanging on for all he was worth as they ran and that's when she heard something that made her heart soar, "Run straight Riss they cannot see you, right now there are a thousand of you running in all directions" a voice she quickly realised was Zixxy said into her heads and as if on cue she heard the men behind her screaming something about an invasion and shooting wildly at the ground in every direction.

As she burst through the trees she impacted into something large and green that stopped her dead like she'd hit a wall that was as soft as an airbag, "Got you big girl" a familiar voice said a second before she went to lash out with her claws and she looked up to see Raymond smiling down at her though he now appeared to be rocking a brand new suit of Malakai's finest armour.

"Are you ok?" another voice asked from her right and she turned to see both Wisp and Zixxy standing there both armed with what appeared to be plasma rifles.

"Yessss we are unharmed, what did you do to them!?" Riss panted looking at Zixxy and the small alien girl oddly smiled at her.

"Ohh nothing too amazing, I just made them believe there are currently over a thousand NightStalkers rampaging all over their HQ, amazing what you can do with a little memory and more than a healthy dose of fear" she replied.

"We came as soon as Gregory burst into the Verti yelling something about shit going sideways and that you'd gone off to save someone I guess this is him?" Wisp said and Riss nodded.

"The officer in that houssse was going to torture and rape him, I extracted jussstice upon her, though I wisssh I'd had longer to get jusssstice and vengeance for all the sssoulssss sssshe hasss desssstroyed Riss spat and all of them nodded.

"Rest easy big girl I'll carry him from here, you did good, damn fucking good," Raymond said softly taking Billy from her back and hoisting the scared-looking teen up..

"Don't worry young one you are safe with us, no-one on this Earth is stupid enough to try for you while we guard you, trust me I've seen first-hand what happens when these guys get angry, ain't pretty," he said softly trying to calm the youngster's nerves.

"I-I-I know Riss killed the bad woman, she bit her in the neck and killed her dead, fucked her right up!" Billy said in a scared but also a relieved-sounding voice that made the group smile.

"Yup Riss here is one of the best, trust me once she's got your back you need never be scared again because there's only one person that scares her or any of us for that matter and he's on our side and if I know him he's on his way here right now with her husband in tow and I pity any fucking one fool enough to try and stop him reaching us," Raymond said as he turned and began to lead the way back to the Vertibird.

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Seven burst through the back door of the Vertibird making everyone still inside jump a mile and he found himself staring down a few gun barrels before they realised who it was and they lowered.

"Jesus fucking Christ Seven I nearly fucking shot you!!" Shepherd growled as she lowered her gun and moved to reveal that she had thrown herself in front of a young scared looking girl who was wrapped in a warm blanket that looked to be Malakai's handiwork.

"Don't worry Lily this is the guy I was telling you about, I know he doesn't look it but he's more powerful than all of us combined, he's called Seven and despite his gruff exterior he's actually really friendly" Shepherd said softly stroking the frightened teenage girl's hair trying to comfort her.

"Any word on Riss?' Seven asked and they all shook their heads.

"Wisp took off with Raymond, Spectre and Zixxy to catch up with her but we haven't heard from them yet, though Wisp does have one of the radios with her" Shepherd said and immediately Seven rushed forwards to the cockpit and dropped into the co-pilot's chair and tuning the radio to the private encrypted channel their radios used.

"Wisp come in Wisp," Seven said and there was a soft hiss of static for a few moments before just as he raised the radio to repeat it her voice cut back through.

"Go for Wisp, that you Seven over?" she said.

"Yeah, it's me, what the situation over?" Seven said.

"We've got Riss so you can tell Runs to calm down his wife is safe and sound, we've also got the boy and I'm happy to report she got to him in time, he's safe, sound and whole, they didn't get chance to touch him before Riss turned their worlds inside out but we got a major shit storm brewing over," Wisp said and Seven sighed heavily but nodded.

"Roger that, get the boy back here on the double, we are going in now, we need to get word to the Claws I get the feeling we are going to need them asap with or without the ferals over," Seven said and there was a pause for a moment and then Wisp came back.

"Zixxy says she may be able to helo with that, she knows both Ven and Visa's mind patterns whatever that means, she says she can reach them, over," she said and Seven frowned for a moment before he realised what she was talking about.

"Roger that tell her to do it and get everyone back here over and out," Seven said before turning to head to the back where he relayed what had just happened to everyone making Runs sigh in pure relief.

The team got back as quick as they could and watching both Billy and Lily sobbing and hugging as they were reunited and they both kept thanking the team over and over again, especially Gregory and Riss.

"Alright people we're stuck with zero time now, we gotta move because if they were clueless to what was happening before they are gonna figure it out pretty fucking quickly, so we gotta move before the shit hits the royal size fan and they dig in hard and we have a series problem digging them out, we gotta hot them now and hard," Seven said moving over and stepping into his power armour which when it moved he saw the fear in both Billy and Lily's eyes.

"Don't worry guys same guy different face, the Enclave might be giant cunts but they do make damn good armour and if I can turn their own toys against them, I'm gonna do it" he said flexing his fingers as his suit ran its boot-up sequence.

"Have you called Visa and Ven?' Seven said as he turned to Zixxy and she nodded and that's when he noticed that she was looking worried.

"Yeah but I don't think we have the time to wait for them something is going on in the town Seven I can feel it, panic, fear, anger I get the feeling it's going down and we need to go, now, or we are not going to win this, well easily anyway," Zixxy said looking very concerned and Seven nodded.

"Everyone gear up, we're going in," Seven said.

"What do I do with all this armour I've been making for the feral Claws?" Malakai asked holding up some of the armour which he seemed to be sitting on top of a pile of like an eight-legged Dragon sitting on its treasure horde.

"Zixxy can you tell Visa and Ven that we will set up a drop-off zone for their armour?" Seven said and she nodded.

"On it and I know just the spot, I saw it on our way back from the forest near the town," she said and Seven nodded.

"Alright peeps grab some of Malakai's horde and let's fucking go and Gregory get ready on that detonator," Seven said and Gregory checked his pouch for it and nodded.

The group began to march towards the town and as they reached the edge of the farms they found a large group waiting for them and they looked like a mob straight out of a medieval witch hunt or a vampire hunt, given the absolute mishmash of gear they were carrying they were one step away from pitchforks and torches.

As they approached the group all tensed up and Seven could see a lot of eyes darting between the two super mutants and the now heavily armoured Arachnakai boy who was holding a rather large laser rifle he's nicked from the bunker where they'd found Zixxy, though to be fair she actually kinda looked like one of those Russian dolls that had other dolls inside them now that she'd been wrapped up in some of Malakai's armour.

Sensing the tension Seven moved in front of them, "Ok people listen up, this is not going to be easy and it is not going to be clean, I want nobody to be under any illusions, the Enclave as much as they come across as a cartoon villain are incredibly good at what they do and they are very well armed and equipped and they will not give up without a fight, but they are not invincible and we have made a life pretty much kicking these arrogant twats royally in the dick as hard as we can, we are going to scare these fuckers so badly that they never come within a thousand miles of this town ever again, we are going to show them what good people both human and non-human can do together when they are united under one banner when we stand by side and we fight not only for each other but what is ours!!" Seven yelled and all of them cheered and roared as the built-up resentment and anger found a vent before they all fell in step with Seven as they headed towards the town.

As the group reached the edge of the town Seven spotted a single soldier running through the town, he was obviously acting as a scout and he'd spotted the mob approaching and was running to warn the garrison.

Seven saw Gregory pull the detonator out of his pocket and he shook his head, "Not yet, give it a minute" he said and Gregory looked at him curiously until he saw a load of soldiers running from the garrison towards the armoury as an alarm began to peel across the landscape and Seven gave him a thumbs up.

No sooner had Gregory hit the button than the alarms were drowned out by the deafening boom of the incredible explosion that rocked the landscape sending debris and smoke pluming upwards in a huge mushroom cloud sped skywards.

"Nope," Gregory said dropping the detonator switch to the floor and pulling his rifle from his back to his hands again.

The armoury just vanished from existence leaving nothing but a burning crater as debris rained down all around the town, Seven raised a telekinetic bubble around the mob which deflected any pieces of the debris from raining down and hurting anyone.

But Seven could see the townspeople ducking and trying to shield themselves along with hearing a few cries of alarm as bricks and metal bounced off the invisible barrier above their heads which were swiftly replaced with murmurs and looks of confusion as to what had protected them.

"Do not fear good people Seven's got this, he will protect you" Malakai said confidently.

"Alright people let's do this, let's take back this town!!!" Seven yelled pointing forwards towards the garrison just as some of the power armoured soldiers came rushing out of the garrison right into the line of fire.

Seven opened up with the laser Gatteling gun making the soldiers scatter, despite the numbers being heavily in the favour of the townspeople Seven knew the advantage lay with the Enclave soldiers as even without the armoury they still had had far heavier weapons and as was obvious they still had a few suits of power armour in use which gave them a massive advantage in survivability over a bunch of farmers equipped with mismatched equipment and firearms.

So now the plan was to keep them soldiers uncoordinated to prevent them from forming a coordinated defence that would be able to push back the mob, now on the way down here Seven had pulled a hash of plan out of his arse, it was relatively simple in that the majority of the mob focused on the unarmored soldiers while Seven and his people would deal with those wearing power armour until the claws arrived.

The mob charged screaming and waving their mismatched weapons right at the garrison while some of them split off and headed towards the house that the officer had taken and that Riss had rescued Billy from.

Seven knew that the Xo-01 power armour that both he and they were wearing was incredibly resistant to energy weapons so unless he focused his fire on a single soldier they would swiftly figure out that he just wasn't able to do enough damage to them to push them back so the trick was to keep them panicking so they didn't collect their thoughts and realise it, fortunately, the rest of his team were doing the same thing having immediately spread out into cover using the buildings to cover their advance.

The centre of their town had pretty much instantly become a pitched battleground with projectiles of all shapes and sizes and in the case of the plasma and lasers colour being slung about crisscrossing the street like an obstacle course of death.

"Cover me I need to reload!!" Seven yelled and his team sprung up and upped the fire rate to keep the Enclave undercover.

Seven ejected the spent fusion core from the gun and slapped in a fresh one or near fresh one as it was one of the cores liberated from the destroyed power armour back at the labs, just after Seven got it powered back up he noticed three of the Enclave soldiers pushing up trying to flank Wisp and Malakai who were dug in behind what appeared to be an old metal sign that was just big enough and thick enough to prevent any bullets from penetrating it while just being enough to hide Malakai behind it while Wisp sat on his abdomen and used it to lift her up enough to fire over the top.

Quickly he dropped his gun letting the strap hold it and held out his hands towards them and the three of them stopped dead like they'd just run into a wall before floating into the air, "Rwahhhh fuck you!!!" Seven screamed through the pain that flared up as he was still not fully recovered from the over-excursion of his powers lately, doing the motions with his hands he smashed the three of the screaming men together and crushed them into what appeared to be a wrecking ball with assorted arms and legs sticking out of it before pitching them at the entrenched Enclave smashing through some of their cover.

Unfortunately, this had the side effect of causing a lot of the remaining soldiers to turn and focus their fire onto Seven who was essentially caught out in the open, now while he could use his Telekinis to quickly deflect any solid projectiles but was pretty much useless against plasma and lasers which shot right through and hit his armour causing alarms to go off inside it.

A series of very well-placed plasma shots managed to focus in on his right shoulder and punched through it causing an oddly cold sensation to burst right down his entire right side which caused him to yell out as he realised that he was hit.

"I'm hit!!" he yelled diving back into cover and looking down at the shoulder pauldron which had a nice series of scorches on it along with a hole burned clean through, it wasn't large about the size of a bottle cap which made him realise that it had deflected the vast majority of the plasma across the skin of the armour but the core of the shot had been hot enough to burn through when enough of them had hit it in the same place, it seemed that these soldiers knew the weaknesses of their own armour.

Seven heard a sharp hiss in his ear as the suit's auto stimpack injector kicked in and hit him with one of the stimpacks that Shauna had cooked up and loaded into his suit's medical systems which allowed him to keep going, these stimpacks as mentioned were a blend of Shauna's own design, they were far more potent than the standard one's around the wastes these had a mixture that not only acted as an incredible pain killer but as a very powerful regenerative agent to fix the damage.

But there was a bigger problem than the hole in his shoulder right now, it meant that he couldn't lift the gattling gun so now he was going to have to focus and rely completely on his powers as he was not carrying a secondary weapon as they had all been distributed to his team.

But the funny thing was that the first thought that came into his mind was not that they were going to have a much bigger problem now he was partially disarmed, it was that Visa was going to freak the ever-living fuck out when she found out.

Speaking of which just as the soldiers began to get bold there was a huge and bellowing roar that shook the whole town and not only did it echo but it was picked up and amplified by a whole host of others causing Seven's and everyone else's heads to turn to find the source which was right at the edge of the woods.