Radiance

Chapter 83: Sea of Broken Dreams.

Thankfully the team has been listening in to Fuller's conversation in the Railroad HQ they knew where to move his power armour to so that it was away from their staging area, as he'd been talking to Desdemona he'd given a fairly detailed description of where it was supposedly stashed so when they headed out there it was waiting right where he said it would be courtesy of his soon to be former team.

As the X-03 snapped shut around him he could see Glory looking at him with a mixed expression, "What's up?" he asked as his voice modulator distorted his voice somewhat.

"Oh nothing just thinking about how fucking intimidating you look in that bloody thing, gotta say it's proper evil looking," she said looking him up and down.

"Are you saying I'm not pretty anymore?" Fuller said playfully making Glory laugh and go to punch his shoulder till he deftly dodged her.

"Whoa! Don't do that," he exclaimed and she looked at him in surprise until he pointed to the low protrusion tesla coils mounted all over the suit, this type was designed not to stick out as much as previous models but still carried as much charge.

"Damn didn't even notice those things, thanks for the heads up," Glory said.

"Got 'em powered down but the suit has a defence system, if I get attacked or what it perceives as attacked it will kick them into gear automatically and well fry your ass," he explained.

"God you Enclave types don't do shit by halves do you?" she said and he chuckled.

"You ought to see the Hellweaver variant, lots of fire great for making barbequed molerats that's for sure," he said making her laugh and shake her head.

"Alright tin man let's go meet with the others, we got a Vertibird to catch," she said and the pair headed off though not as stealthily as before.

The Minutemen Vertibird was waiting exactly where Desdemona said it would be, Fuller could instantly see that it was an older model obviously salvaged from one of the many nearby military bases and then painstakingly restored to working order before being painted in the garish blue and yellow of the minutemen.

"You Owl and Glory?" a voice called from nearby before a young woman poked her head out of a bush near the back of the aircraft.

"Not exactly covert operators of the year are they?" Glory hissed as she raised her hand to wave to the young woman dressed in combat fatigues, leather duster and odd-looking folded-side cowboy hat.

"Yup that would be us he's Owl and I'm Glory," Glory said approaching the young woman.

"Whoa sick looking power armour man, that thing looks awesome where the hell can I find me one of those?" the pilot said looking Fuller up and down.

"Join the ESF and they kit you right out," Owl said and the woman looked confused.

"What the hell is the ESF?" she asked and Glory waved her off.

"Never mind it would take too long to explain, so you are our ride to the glowing sea I guess? Glory said.

"Yup, the name's Melissa nice to meet ya and this here is ol blue, he might not look like much but he'll get you anywhere you need to go right quick and it sure beats walking I can tell you, General says I'm to take you out to the edge of the sea to meet up with some of your people and from there I'm to wait and bring you and some other passengers back when you get out, never known the General to do favours for anyone who isn't a settlement that needs our help before so he must owe you guys," Melissa said thoughtfully.

Glory just shrugged "No idea our boss tells us where to go and what to do and we do it, they sit in their nice cosy bunker while we get to hoof our assesses all over the shop, you know what it's like," Glory said obviously deflecting the young woman's curiosity.

"I hear that, ever since the Minutemen realised I had a talent for machines both fixing and piloting em its been Melissa go here, Melissa fix this, Melissa fly that, doesn't stop you know what I mean?" she said and both Glory and Fuller nodded in unison.

"Did our people drop something off for me?" Glory asked and Melissa nodded and pointed over to what was like a cabin nearby.

"Yeah it's in there, those things always give me the creeps when there's no one in them like looking at the shell of a person you know?" Melissa said as she pointed.

"Thanks back in a moment," Glory said before disappearing into the cabin.

Fuller heard the telltale noises of a suit of T60 powering up, he'd always been a bit of a power armour buff and one thing he'd noticed is that all of the suits had not only their own little quirks but their own distinct sounds that while might sound the same to the uninitiated but to the cultured and ones in the know the differences were obvious.

For instance, with the actuators and hydraulics being much more modern on Enclave armour their open-up procedure was much smoother and quieter than any of the old T variants but if you listened closely you could tell a T60 from a T45 with ease, hell if you spent as long studying them as he'd done in his spare time you could even spot which variant it was, this one was most definitely a B by its servo whine.

A moment after it closed up and finished both powering and booting up Glory clomped out into the open, "Ok wow forgot what it feels like to have one of these things on damn it feels weird," Glory said as she stepped out in the freshly painted black T60B power armour.

It had obviously been painted to cover up and remove all the Brotherhood markings which were smart as they wouldn't exactly be appreciative of people clomping around in their stolen armour sets.

"Remember to let the armour do the work don't try to fight against it just go with it," Fuller said as he noticed shifting her balance constantly as she tried to get used to her new height, it was always a bit disconcerting when you first used these things due to the way they lifted you of the ground but you still kinda felt like you were on it, it could easily throw off your stride or you wound up looking at your feet to see where to put them.

"I got it thanks, hey Owl does this power armour suit make my bum look big?" she said jokingly and he laughed as she struck a pose cocking her metal bum out.

"No bigger than mine?" he said copying her and making her laugh.

"Oh great your ass is huge in that thing," she said.

"Oh, thanks very much I'll remember that one the next time your fishing for compliments," he said playfully.

Melissa laughed out loud at the pair of them, "You two ain't what I thought you'd be, you're a breath of fresh air that's for sure, well alright let's get a move on I fucking hate being around this place, gives me the fucking creeps, let me just get my rad suit on and we'll be off," she said and clambered up into the back of the Vertibird where they both saw an oversized radiation suit sat on one of the benches.

Once she had it on and was looking at them through the goldfish bowl-like helmet that was now mounted on her head she gestured for them both to climb aboard before they both clambered up and locked themselves into harnesses that he'd the door gunners in place.

"We're about a ten-minute flight from the Glowing sea, from there we're about another ten from the drop-off point, once I drop you off I'm heading back to a safe zone outside of it, that flare gun that was with the armour has three shells, once you do what you need to fire one off high as you can and I'll come to pick you up, only do it from the landing site, I ain't circling around this godforsaken place any longer than I have to, like my hair on my head thanks you very much," she said.

Both of them nodded in response and Melissa started the engines up with a low growling whine as the jet turbines wound up, You ever been in the sea before Owl?" Glory asked and Fuller shook his head.

"Its a fucking nasty place, comms don't work for shit in here, hell next to no electronics do, the only reason these suits do is because their shielded against rads and not even they will last forever in this place so let's not fuck about in here ok?" she said.

"Well I wasn't planning on picking out a vacation home," he said.

"Good because this is not my idea of a romantic getaway I can tell you that for fuck all," she replied making him laugh but also making his heartache, the way she kept hinting at romance now was making him feel even worse about what he was going to have to do, it had started as something to make both of them feel alive and dare he say it human, now it was so much more complicated and it had only been a couple of days.

The glowing sea was pure nightmare fuel made a reality, dark dust clouds hung close to the ground creating a haze that never seemed to settle, it gave everything a deep septic yellow haze to it like looking at everything through a sepia lens.

There were almost constant lighting flashes in the clouds as both the dust and the rads created a kind of ionic interference that led to arcs flashing across the sky though oddly enough never seemed to strike the ground.

Everything here was just gone, levelled completely to the point of just being rubble, buildings with any kind of integrity to them were a supreme rarity here and Fuller guessed that as a kind of natural shelter would also draw the creatures that called this hell home to them like magnets, no wonder the scientists and their synth friends had chosen to come here, finding anything or anyone except death in this place was going to be a fucking nightmare.

"Quite the regular hell on earth isn't it?" Melissa called back to them.

"You got that shit right, seen some messed up places in my time but think this beats all," Fuller said.

"Yeah, one of the eggheads I know back at the castle once told me that this place got hot so hard during the war that a lot of the elements and metals in the ground fused together under the stress and the heat, it created some kind of fucked up magnetic field here which is why there's an almost constant dust cloud hanging in the air, it's like the ground itself repels the dust which means it just hangs there keeping the rads permanently in the air, said it was in what he called a state of constant fallout flux, said that after the bombs fell a lot of the globe would have looked like this until everything settled, just here it never did," she said.

"That's fucking messed up," Fuller called up to her.

"I know right? Gotta love it when science and nature duke it out over whose the bigger cunt and can fuck us up the best," Melissa called.

Fuller looked down at the yellow haze and destruction that was dotted with huge mutated monstrosities below them, she wasn't wrong.

"We're thirty seconds out and it looks like we got a hot LZ, spin up the guns guys I'm gonna orbit and let you clear it!" Melissa yelled back and Fuller squeezed the cycle triggers on the mounted 5mm minigun making the barrels begin to spin faster and faster until they were cycling faster than the eye could see.

Suddenly the Vertibird banked left dipping Fuller's gun towards the ground and he saw what she had seen, there appeared to be a few giant radscorpions hanging about the LZ so Fuller lined up and fully squeezed the triggers.

The minigun burst into life with its telltale buzzing noise as all of the shots happened so fast that they blended into one like an engine constantly revving, thanks to the tracers he could follow where his shots were headed and managed to correct his aim so that his shots began to slam into the top plates of the armoured giant scorpions.

Now normally a 5mm round wasn't exactly what you'd want to fight a scorpion the size of a walking tank but thanks to the sheer amount of them that the miniguns spat out Fuller was able to use them to drill holes through their thick armoured carapaces to get to the meat underneath, though it wasn't exactly easy to managed to hit the same spot multiple times with a weapon not exactly known for its accuracy and from a moving vehicle at that, but he'd had more than a little practice at this, so just as his gun was about of overheat the first of the four her could see dropped to the floor in a heap.

Melissa banked the Vertibird over to the right now and Fuller heard Glory open up as he let his gun cool down but kept the barrels spinning to speed that up as the glowing hot metal spun through the air.

As the Vertibird changed sides again bringing the scorpions back into his gun sights he could see that Glory had nailed one of them which was now in its back with its legs curled up like a dead spider, the remaining two were dancing about waving their claws and tail stingers aggressively at the circling aircraft so Fuller opened up on them.

As soon as the last one went down Fuller heard the sharp clicking that indicated his drum had run dry and needed swapping out, "I'm dry!" he called.

"Don't worry I'll swap it out when I'm landed, we're touching down so get your big metal arse ready!" Melissa yelled and swung the belly of the aircraft about to level it out before Fuller heard the telltale whirring noise of the gear being deployed, no sooner had the wheels hit dirt than both he and Glory jumped clear allowing Melissa to lift off again.

With a final orbit and a wave, the young pilot took off into the haze leaving them with the haunting noises of the Glowing Sea and each other for company.

It was only now that Fuller was able to make out the clicking of his Geiger counter over the background noise of the engines and guns, it was jumping about like red squirrel on a hot tine roof indicating the suit was soaking up so serious rads.

"Let's not hang about here I'm not keen to find out if synths can become Ghouls and I kinda like your pretty skin on your bones where it belongs if you don't mind, plus got plans for that pretty white skin of yours and none of them involves picking it up off the floor and giving it back to you," Glory said panning her weapon around the area.

"Any idea where we should start?" Fuller asked and Glory pointed at some hills in the hazy distance.

"Bet there are caves up there so that's where my money is," she said and Fuller nodded.

'Sounds good to me let's get a shimmy on then," he said ad the pair began their long slog through the radioactive nightmare towards the crater-laden foothills in the distance.

The stingwing exploded as Fuller's round ripped right through it and slammed into the ground behind it, "Holy shit you are a fucking scary shot with that thing anyone ever tell you that?" Glory asked as she watched the shattered insect fall to the ground about five hundred meters away.

"Not really because most don't ever get to see it, or anything else ever again," Fuller said visibly making Glory shiver in her armour.

"Damn if I hadn't have just seen you hit something the size of a cat on the wing with a single bullet about half a kilometre away I'd call you full of it, but with you, I can believe it," she said and he patted her shoulder.

"Don't worry Glory you got to see a part of me that next to no one ever has so thank you for that," he said then he stopped and pointed.

"Hey check it out, footprints, human footprints," he said and Glory stopped and shone her headlamp where he pointed.

"Yeah your right, looks to be about six of them by my reckoning and look here, two others my money is these two are the hunters, we gotta pick up the pace Owl they are on their trail and trust me when I say these guys do not fuck about, our group is in grave danger," she said a very hard note creeping into her voice.

"Well then what are we waiting for, let's get a move on, we got synths to save," Fuller said quickly checking his weapon and then falling into step with Glory as she followed the footsteps in the yellow dust.

Fuller got an odd sense out here that was oddly calming, he knew that despite the fact he was still transmitting nothing he said was being received thanks to the rads outside, it kinda gave him an odd sense of relief as he'd had to be so careful lately because of them, he just hoped one of those scientists had a medical degree or at least knowledge maybe just maybe they could help him get these fucking things out of him then he could truly move on with this plan of his as painful as it was to think about.

Fuller and Glory tracked the footprints in the dust for a couple of hours and it was obvious to Fuller that by the way, they were moving that the runners were trying their best to throw off any potential trackers by doing things like walking in circles, switching back and using things like the rocks in the terrain to mask their tracks.

It was basic but smart anti-surveillance tactics but it wouldn't throw off a determined tracker for long even in this environment, but that's when the pair spotted something that made them freeze.

"Are those what I think they are?" Glory asked looking down into the crater and at the small cave entrance on the other side.

"Well if you think it's a cave entrance being guarded by six glowing Deathclaws and two dead coursers then you'd be correct," Fuller said using the term that Glory had taught him for the Insitute hunter synths.

"How can you tell?" Glory asked and he handed her the Gueauss rifle and pointed.

"Look how heavily armed they are and what they're wearing beneath the rad suits fits," he said as she hoisted the scoped weapon up to her eye.

"Yeah you are right and what's more the track lead right into that cave, what I don't get is why the Claws are hanging about here, it's too small for them to fit into so why are they hanging around I've never known Claws to stake out prey like that before, if they can't kill something straight out they usually fuck off and leave it be, they are smarter than that," Glory said.

"I can't be sure but I think it has something to do with that," Fuller said pointing to a canister near the safe entrance.

"What is it do you reckon?" she asked.

"If I had to bet I think it's one of two things, it's either cub pheromones or highly concentrated male pheromones," Fuller said and Glory looked at him as she handed his weapon back.

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

"Heard about some experiments the Enclave did back in the day with the things, they discovered that Claws have incredible guarding instincts even towards nests that are not their own, they are never known to attack young no matter if they belong to other Deathclaws or not infact our scientists have actually seen them guard the nests of complete strangers if the mother has had to leave it unattended to hunt for food from desperation," he said.

Glory cocked her head, "Oh and what about the male pheromones?" she asked.

"Female Claws are supposed to have incredibly high mating drives and then it is said the scent of a strong male triggers a powerful mating urge in them so a solitary female will travel miles to track down a suitable male who once they win over they will keep for life, look all the Claws down there are all girls," he said pointing to the glowing Claws that were pacing back and forth around the cave entrance and glancing at it continually as if trying to spot their prey inside it.

"You seem to know a lot about Deathclaws," Glory said and he chuckled.

"I must read up on them, think they are fascinating, call me a nature buff but I mean just look at em, that's a whole lot of power packed into those scales right there," he said.

"Want me to see if one of them wants to go on a date with you?" Glory asked and Fuller had to stifle a laugh lest it echo into the crater.

"Think those girls have other things on their mind if I'm honest and they'd probably see you as another contender," he said.

"Last time I checked I was the winner of that particular contest," Glory shot back making him choke up again.

"Gotta say that was a really smart move, they must have been planning this for quite a while to be able to get their hands on enough concentrated male Claw pheromones to bring in the cavalry, but I get the feeling that not even a courser would have willingly walked in here with those girls roaming around so how did they get ambushed?" Glory asked.