Chapter 80: Breaking In and Out.
Fuller and Glory finally finished their long trek to the staging ground where they met the other Railroad heavies who were waiting on their arrival in a HQ that had been hastily set up on the top floor of a bombed-out building that overlooked the raider compound at a distance.
"What's the situation?" Glory asked as the pair finished greeting the other heavies and were escorted to the command table by a large grizzled man who was called Bear who screamed veteran to Fuller, he was either ex-mercenary or ex-military and by the look of him, it could quite possibly be NCR.
"Not good in the slightest Glory, from the latest intel we've managed to gather coming out of this place it sounds like they've managed to figure out what they've got their hands on and from what we've heard they've been in contact with the Brotherhood," Bear said.
"Fuck! When are they arriving?" Glory said slamming her hands onto the tabletop in frustration.
"A couple of hours, so we have to hit them now but this op is going to draw a lot of heat Glory, if the Brotherhood figure this out then they are going to start hunting us and given what I've heard on the airwaves that they have been calling in heavy reinforcements because of the losses they keep taking with that little war they got going with those Avian tribals to the north pretty soon this place is gonna be swarming with those tin soldiers," Bear said.
"Avian tribals?" Fuller asked.
"Yeah there's some non-human tribe of what looks like bird people that live towards the north in the hills, for the most part, they are peaceful as long as you leave em alone and don't enter their territory without an invite, hell our people have even traded with them on quite a few occasions, they have a have a love of fruits that don't grow up there and they have a real talent for scavaging and repairing things, right little tinkers that lot and they seem to have a talent for laying their feathery hands on high-end weapons which we put to good use," Bear said.
"So what's the Brotherhood's beef with them?" Fuller asked and Bear shrugged.
"Typical tin-pot dictators with a heavy emphasis on the tin part, they believe they can go where they want when they want even when that happens to be right into someone else's backyard, well the Avians didn't like it one bit and if I can tell you one thing about that lot is they seriously know how to fight, scary bunch, to say the least, no idea who taught them but I'd love to talk shop with them sometime," Bear said.
Fuller couldn't help but wonder if Seven's team might be sniffing about in that area given their perchance for helping non-humans out but he kept that thought to himself.
"Well then if the Brotherhood is involved then we are going to have to up our game plan," Glory said and Fuller shook his head causing her to raise an eyebrow and look at him questioningly.
"Well we had a plan in place to leave a message to the raiders not to fuck with us again, but for my money, I think we could simply easily modify said plan to make it look like another raider crew hit em and took the synths, for my money that would be a double win, because not only do we take the heat of ourselves but we send the Brotherhood after the raiders which will take the pressure of the normal people of Boston by having the tin brigade wipe out one of the raider clans in the area," Fuller said thoughtfully.
An evil smile broke out on Glory's face and was instantly echoed on Bear's, "I like the way you think new guy, your a fucking crafty one to be sure, that could work nicely but you got anyone in mind?" Bear asked.
"I do, I know a group that has been giving both Diamond city and Bunker hill grief for a few months, now normally I wouldn't give a fuck about Diamond city as they can take care of themselves but they are harassing our caravans out of Bunker hill, we've lost a couple of good heavies to them so this is a good opportunity to use those tin soldiers to exact some revenge for us," Glory said.
"Well alright then, so what's the plan?" Bear asked and both Glory and Fuller outlined what they had in mind for them.
Fortunately, nightfall was only an hour away when both Glory and Fuller had arrived so when they finished outlining their plan it had fully fallen and it was pitch black outside when the heavies reemerged into the open air.
To his surprise Glory gave Fuller a kiss on the cheek as well as a hug before they separated, she'd also told him not to die, a sentiment that he had echoed back to her but now as he crawled along the drainage trench that led into the pipes he was going to use to infiltrate the base he couldn't help replay it over in his head, along with the thoughts that had been plaguing him ever since he'd started this mission.
Never in his life had he experienced such care and tenderness among his comrades but he could see it plain as day among the Railroad people, they genuinely cared not only about one another but about the non-human lives they took it upon themselves to defend.
Plus having experienced the very distinct joys of one of those said non-human lives himself having spent the last couple of days with Glory he felt like the very fabric of his world was beginning to come apart at the seams.
Having gotten to know her the way he did Fuller was truly beginning to see exactly why Seven and his people did what they did, they were right and there was no way he could actually deny it to himself anymore, he also knew that if the Railroad encountered Seven's people on hostile footing they would get their collective arses beat into the ground as Seven's team's reputation was a fearsome one given their ability to punch far above their weight.
He truly didn't want that to happen he also knew that if they encountered them on friendly terms there was a good chance that they would become strong allies given their belief in pretty much the same goals, goals which in essence the people he was fighting for opposed rather violently.
Now on the surface, the Enclave said they opposed slavery but in reality, they completely embraced it, doing everything from press-ganging entire towns into service to either provide cannon fodder soldiers or even food and supplies.
In essence, they were no better than the raiders, just much better organised and equipped, hell even the Brotherhood were better than them, at least they tried to protect people for the most part and wouldn't go out to either enslave or attack civilians, they at least had morals.
But given the very nature of the mission that he was out on now he realised completely that his people had none, this also led him to the realisation that his own team would put him down without a single second of hesitation should he rebel against them, or worse they'd probably put down the people around him like Glory to force his co-operation.
He had to end it, he had to break away from the ESF and to actually free himself of the Enclave, but the real question was how?
Fuller knew deep in his heart that if he tried to remove the sub-dermal implants his team would likely storm the place thinking that he had been killed and to remove any trace of his existence including anyone who had met him, sterilisation and plausible deniability were two of the cornerstones of the ESF.
There was also a very good likelihood that the sub-dermals themselves were booby-trapped with some kind of trigger that would either cause them to explode or release some kind of poison into his bloodstream if he tried to remove them with a very exact procedure, that's the kind of thing he would fully expect from the Enclave now.
He needed a way out and what's more, he needed a way to prevent them from actually being able to broadcast what he was saying and his location so that he could have time to remove them, question was, how?
But these were thoughts for another time, right now his Railroad team were counting on him and he had to get his head in the game, he had a hostage rescue to pull out of his arse, so without further distraction, he began to crawl head first through the pitch black narrow pipes into the compound.
After a few yards, Fuller came to his first obstacle, a large metal grate that was designed to stop anything larger than a rat from passing through between the bars, with a bit of wiggling he removed the plasma cutter he'd been carrying between his teeth and aimed his red light head torch at the bars.
Fortunately, he'd remembered to bring his anti-flash goggles which were like a pair of welder's goggles with lenses that reacted to bright light by turning black in a split second protecting the wearer's eyes from getting arc eye from the bright light as well as protecting them from the sparks as he cut through the metal.
The heat from the torch was incredible and he could feel it washing over his face as he cut through the bars like butter with the plasma, the cut ends of the bars glowed white hot as he sliced through them so he was going to have to be real careful when he crawled on through or he was going to seriously burn himself though he had filled a canteen with water to cool them for just this kind of instance.
Once through he cooled the metal and slowly picked his way through the stumps which were surprisingly sharp around the edges, it was like crawling over a series of hot knives.
Once he was clear he began to crawl in earnest again until finally, he reached the inside of the tank inside the old pump house that would lead the prisoners to freedom, he pressed his head against the metal and listened hard but he couldn't hear anything close by outside, the most he could hear was a few muted voices that sounded pretty far away.
So taking a deep breath and checking his suppressed pistol he fired up the torch once more and began to cut through the outside of the heavy metal tank.
Fuller cut the metal in such a way that when the cut section fell it would make less noise by not slamming right into either the tank or the floor, he did this by holding a heavy wadded piece of leather against it so he could take the weight and lower it inside, though even through the scorching leather he could feel the heat the torch had dumped into the metal itself.
But finally, the circle he'd cut was complete and he took the weight of the thick steel disc he'd cut and lowered it slowly into the tank, though there was no way to make it a completely silent operation given that he simply couldn't hold the thing properly given how hot it was and he simply wasn't carrying enough water to cool it to the point where he could hold it.
So there was a deep metallic thud as he got it to the floor and the reaction was almost instant, "What the fuck was that?" a voice from outside exclaimed.
"No idea but we'd better check it out," another voice said and Fuller moved like a man possessed.
Quick as a flash he was out of the tank and into the pump house, he instantly saw the door and the old pump, he quickly dashed around the pump and doused his torch, quickly swapping the cutter for his suppressed pistol just as the door was unlocked and a torch beam lanced into the darkness.
"I swear to fucking off if those goddamn mole rats shave gotten into the pipes again I'm going to drop some fucking plasma grenades in there with them to keep 'em company," a gruff voice growled and the second voice laughed.
"Yeah man or maybe pump a canister of that Buffjet spray that Clips makes in there and watch 'em tear each other to fucking pieces, we could take fucking bets," the second voice said making the first one chuckle.
"If it wasn't a waste of good Buffjet I'd fucking do just that, probably make some good caps on taking bets," the first guy said.
Fuller tracked their progress through the small pump house by watching the shadows moving and once he was sure they were at the spot he'd just cut he moved out silently.
"What in the name of fuck is this!?" the second guy said exactly one second before Fuller's knife blade emerged through his throat causing him to gurgle in pure fear and panic not to mention pain.
The other guy began to turn only to come eye to eye with a large cylinder of Fuller's suppressed pistol which with a deep thud ended his life before his brain had had the chance to comprehend what his eyes had actually seen.
Both men collapsed to the floor and quick as a flash Fuller began to move them by pulling them both behind the pump, he also quickly relieved them of their weapons and ammo, they might be pretty shit but it would give the synths at least a chance to defend themselves once he sprung them.
Fuller stuck his head out of the door and looked around the compound and to his relief most of the raiders were either passed out drunk or just asleep so they had barely any reaction at all when he fired the flare gun hed been carrying into the sky to signal the attack to begin.
The response was instantaneous, with a crash like thunder the main gates blew inwards as the demo charges that they had rigged up went off and brought them inwards followed Immediately by the heavies.
Right in the centre of the group toting her trademark minigun was Glory and she wasted no time opening up on the barracks as raiders began to fall out of it in their stupored haze.
Under the cover of the heavy automatic gunfire Fuller dashed forwards towards the hut that they knew was holding the hostage synths, just as he was pulling out his torch to cut the locks the door opened from the inside to reveal a man that had obviously been charged with guarding them he was obviously not expecting to find Fuller on the other side of it though to be fair Fuller had not been expecting him either and given he had no time to draw his pistol before the man raised his rifle he did the only thing he could, he clicked the plasma cutter on and pressed it right into the man's eyeball.
With a soul-shattering scream, the man dropped both his gun and fell to his knees as his eyeball boiled and vaporised in his head thanks to the superheated plasma that had just been sprayed into it.
This gave Fuller the time he needed to pull his pistol and pop a single shot into the top of his head ending his torment before stepping over his body and into the room beyond.
The first thing he saw was a cage that had been crudely welded into the corner of the room and beyond the bars, he saw the terrified synths clustered together for protection.
"Don't be frightened, I'm with the Railroad and we're here to get you out of here," Fuller said stepping up to the gates.
"The Railroad!? You found us!?" a man exclaimed lifting his head to look at Fuller as he brought the torch to the lock and chain holding the gate shut.
"Shield your eyes!" Fuller exclaimed before cutting right through chains causing the gate to swing open.
"Ok, let's go stick to me like glue!!" Fuller yelled and he began pulling people out of the cage before he shepherded the group towards the pump house.
"Ok once we inside you're going to need to crawl, I've cut into the drainage pipes, now it's tight but don't worry you'll fit, if I made it through with all of this gear you can too, so when you are on the other side there will be one of us waiting for you so let's go people move like you have a fucking purpose!!" he exclaimed.
The freed synths didn't need to be told twice and they positively bombed head-first right into the hole into the tank and only moments later he could hear the telltale sounds of people crawling for their lives.
Once they were clear Fuller moved onto phase three, he quickly exited the pump house to join the fight and headed right for his next target pausing only to shoot at any raiders that presented themselves in his path though this time he was using his rifle so the hits were far more dramatic.
As he reached the middle of the compound he very quickly saw the armoury where there were two people inside handing out weapons and ammo to those who had made it that far, quickly pulling the chain from his bag he pulled a single pin and wound up this throw.
The chain spun through the air like a lazy propeller blade before hitting one of the armourers in the chest and wrapping itself around him and making him fall backwards into the room, the man barely had time to look down at what had wrapped itself around him before he vanished in a cloud of ionized green plasma gas that ignited everything explosive inside the armoury.
The explosion was tremendous and sent a fire-filled mushroom cloud hurtling skyward that Fuller had only just enough time to dive clear of before it rocketed into the sky.
The explosion took out most of the rear side of the compound and if Fuller hadn't released the hostages first there would have been a bit of a problem freeing them now given that the shed they had been secured inside of now ceased to exist.
As did the vast majority of their force who had been pretty closely clustered around the armoury itself as with all raiders they fight to protect their stash rather than each other.
The rest of the fighting was incredibly short-lived as the heavies had been expecting the explosion so they weren't rattled by it going off, in fact, they used it as an opportunity to push home their advantage and to wipe out the remaining pockets of resistance dotted around the camp.
Fuller remained in the camp and helped with the cleaning until only the Railroad personnel remained, "We lose anyone?" he called as they finished sweeping the compound and Glory approached him grinning all over her face showing her obvious joy that their plan had gone flawlessly.
"Nope, all people accounted for and all hostages freed not a single loss, couldn't have asked for a better outcome if you ask me," she said grinning all over her handsome face.
"How long till the Brotherhood get here?" Fuller asked and Bear checked his watch and as he did Fuller saw his face darken.
"Not long, we'd better get a move on," he said.
"Alright people let's move like we got a purpose, extraction team, you get the hostages moving and clear of the AO, the last thing we want is the Brotherhood picking up heat signatures on their sensors when they arrive, the rest of you with me and Glory we'll get this place looking like the Raiders fucked it seven ways from Sunday!" Fuller called before he and Glory got everyone organised into work teams and moving.
They could only afford half an hour before they had to bail out and make it to a safe distance, the last thing they did was make a set of heavy signs heading towards what Bear said was the direction of the Raider clan they'd framed camp.
Once that was done they all split up and vanished into the night, scattering off in as many directions as they could in order to prevent pursuit, as for Glory and Fuller they retreated to building about a quarter of a mile away where they set up to watch the show on one of the upper floors.
They'd barely had time to settle in when the telltale sound of Vertibird engines cut through the night, in the silence of the world now engines really did tend to stand out among either the silence or the simple nature sounds of the wastes.
As the pair watched, the Brotherhood Vertibird swung in now over the compound and Fuller could see the two power armoured Knights manning the door guns as the large craft lined up and put down among the burning ruins.
They'd done a pretty convincing job of raidering up the remains with both strung-up bodies and even clan signs painted in the blood of the deceased, not exactly an enviable job to be sure but a necessary one, little touched like that would go a long way to convince the Brotherhood that the raiders they had come to see had been wiped out by a rival clan who then had made off with their prize.
With any luck the knights would do one of two things, either fly over and hit the other Raider clan in the hope of recovering the captured synths who were currently known to them on their way out of the state with the extraction team hidden amongst a caravan, or B simply head home having been convinced of the loss of the prize.
Thankfully they bought it and chose option A, the Vertibird lifting off again before orbiting the compound once it took off in the direction of the other raider Clan's HQ which according to Bear was an old hotel a couple of miles away.
"Whoo! We did it! I tell you what Owl we make a fucking good team me and you," Glory said throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.
"You bet that fine black ass of yours we do," he replied with a toothy grin.
Glory grinned at him mischievously, "And how would you know that my black ass is fine good sir Been looking that closely have you?" she said playfully and Fuller laughed.
"Let's just say I have a little inside knowledge on hand to aid my observation," he said making her roar with laughter.
"More than a little I'd say and it doesn't feel little," she said with a grin.
"Well, that's good to know," he replied returning her embrace.
"You know when we get back I'm going to put into Des to have you made into my permeant partner," she said and Fuller cocked his head curiously.
"Had you pegged as the lone wolf type, starting to get used to my company are we?' he asked and she grinned at him.
"Let's just say I could definitely get used to the perks that come with such a partnership, now speaking of perks how about a little celebration of a flawless mission eh?' she said.
"What did you have in mind?" Fuller asked in a playful but coy voice.
Glory gave him a warm smile before hooking his leg to trip him but she failed to anticipate Fuller's reflexes and he rotated the trip instead spinning her down onto her back instead and most definitely surprising her.
"You forget us ESF guys don't go down that easy?" he growled softly in her ear before nipping it as he pinned her down.
"Well in my experience I know one that goes down rather easily problem is once he's down he doesn't come back up not that I'd probably notice if he did my brain is always mush by that point," Glory shot back with a grin.
"Well you know us ex-special forces types, always gotta hit the right weak spots," he said running a hand down over her stomach and in between her thighs.
Glory gasped and arched her back as his nimble fingers found their target, "And when you find it strike hard and fast," she said in a breathless voice.
"Before settling in and simply pounding your target into submission," he growled making her shiver all over.
"Stop teasing me and take me Owl before I go fucking crazy," she panted wantingly.
"Now who am I to refuse an order like that?" he said and with that, he truly set to work on her.
The next morning as Fuller woke up he lay there stroking Glory's hair as her head lay on his chest and her arms clung tightly to his torso, this was all wrong, everything, this was the very thing he was supposed to be fighting against.
He'd joined the ESF to make a difference and to be the best of the best, but now as he witnessed what the world itself was truly fighting for all around him he was beginning to truly realise that he was the bad guy.
His so-called friends and comrades would have zero issues wiping this remarkable woman out without a second thought or ounce of pity, to them she would be nothing more than a talking toaster, just lights and clockwork.
They wouldn't care about the truly remarkable, loving, kind, gentle woman that Glory was, none of her hopes, wants or dreams would matter to them, to them she was an abomination to be extinguished and that's when something else hit him as well.
Even if he did complete his mission to them he would be considered stained and tainted now, even if they understood that he was doing this to maintain his cover in their eyes he would be still the guy who fucked the robot chick and liked it, there would always be whispers and glances, but that was the least of his worries.
The biggest was he didn't want to go back, he wanted to find Seven and his team but he didn't want to turn them over to DR Chalmers so he could go back to being either a weapon or a test subject locked in a cage for her to play games with, he wanted to warn them what was coming, but the question still remained, how?
Fuller decided he needed to break free but he knew in his heart that he could just blow off the ESF and then go on with this life in the Railroad, if he did that the ESF would simply burn them to the ground to either recover him or to take revenge for his betrayal and he wouldn't allow that to happen to these good people, he wouldn't allow that to happen to her.
He looked at Glory's beautiful sleeping face as she smiled into his chest and snuggled her head against his bare skin, to protect her he was going to have to leave her, to save her he was going to have to hurt her, he understood that now.
That's when he had a moment of pure clarity, in order to live he was going to have to die.
This was going to need careful planning and even more careful execution, there were multiple angles he had to consider in order to make this work, the first and most dangerous of which was the.
With them monitoring everything he heard, said or did he was going to have to figure a way of disabling them out, once they were disabled he could have them extracted and properly destroyed, he was going to need something that generated a very powerful EMP.
Next was the issue of his body, in order to properly fake his death he was going to need to use a method that didn't leave trace or if it did it left something which was pretty much unidentifiable so that his team could simply say KIA but never truly know the truth.
This was going to mean that he was going to need with incredibly noxious chemicals like acid or something incredibly hot like either plasma or nuclear fire, something that left no real trace that could be identified.
He also knew it was going to have to happen within the confines of a mission, killed in a firefight was going to be far more believable than simply 'died in an accident' to his team.
He needed to ensure that they wouldn't dig too deep into what happened in order to see the holes and inconsistencies and there were going to be those, there always were in cases like this, the ESF was rather skilled when it came to hunting down traitors who had tried tricks like this to either defect or to simply run away.
In fact, it was one of the main duties that the teams were given when they weren't on something important like this, tracking down runaways and defectors and either bringing them back in irons so they could be 're-educated' or making sure that their absence was permanent and no-one else could make use of the skills and knowledge the Enclave had gifted them with.
So he knew they were going to look hard if he gave them a reason to, he needed to make sure that he created a scenario where simply going in the team was convinced that there was no way anyone could have survived it, that way they really wouldn't poke too hard and would be convinced by what they saw on face value.
This was going to take some serious forethought as well as planning and what was worse was he was going to have to do it pretty much exclusively in his head as anything he wrote down could risk being seen by either his team or the Railroad, plus on top of that he was going to have to continue his mission from the ESF for the time being as well or they were going to start getting suspicious of him, though he did get the feeling that at least now he should have enough credibility to possibly start a hunt for Seven and his team, at the very least it might help to point him in the right direction to locating them and forewarning them of what was coming, that way they'd be able to deal with it, or at least stand a chance of doing so.
A part that weighed heavily on his heart was knowing how this was really going to hurt the beautiful woman lying on his chest right now, he really was starting to like her in all the right ways, the young synthetic woman had already had a very hard life and he felt like a total shit for making her suffer even more even if he hadn't actually done so yet, he knew it was coming and that was bad enough.
But he could at least promise himself that in the time leading up to the execution of his plan he would make her as happy as possible so that when she remembered him she'd have nothing but happy and fond memories to make her smile through the tears that would be shed, though he got the feeling this was going to be as much for him as for her because he knew deep down that she wouldn't be the only one shedding them.
His first instinct had been to possibly start pulling away from her, to distance himself but two things had shot that plan right down, one was that it would have made everyone suspicious as to why his attitude had changed so dramatically only then for him to go pop and die, his team would see right through that one like a pane of fucking glass.
Secondly was that he knew that he didn't want to hurt Glory anymore that he was going to have to, so instead he felt it would be much kinder and better for him to make her as happy as he could leading up to this false belief she was going to have to live with, it seemed like the much kinder thing to do for her.
This line of thought continued with him as the pair of them journeyed back to headquarters, during the day he kept up his professionalism and his playfulness and at night he bathed her in passion and ecstasy making her sleep deep and her dreams joyful, all the while he himself felt like was a dying a little bit more with every lie that he told, it was like every single one was tearing off another shred of his soul before casting it into the flames, he just hoped there would be enough left of it when he did break free to still be considered himself.
Though it seemed fate and karma were watching over him as they arrived back at HQ because a fastball mission had literally just come in moments before they walked in the door and Desdemona was all over them before they'd even put their packs down.
"Good timing you two already heard about your success from Bear so you don't have to worry about the debrief but I'm gonna need to you to rearm and head back out and I've even had to arrange some transport for this one because I'm gonna need you both on-site as quickly as possible," she said grabbing them both and leading them to the map table.
"Transport? How'd you pull that one off boss?" Fuller asked.
"Got some friends in the Minutemen, let's just say their General is an old friend who lends us a hand from time to time, well this is one of those times, we've gotten word of a hunter team going after a science team, not only do we have synths but actual institute defectors, this could be fucking huge for us, people with actual knowledge of how to get inside the institute and its secrets, this could be the key to putting a stop to them once and for all," she said.
"Alright, where are we headed and what's the score?" Glory said.
"Ah yes well that's the bad news," Desdemona said and both of them cocked their heads.
"Why do I get the feeling I'm seriously not going to like this?" Fuller said.
"Yeah not likely well unless the Glowing Sea is top of your holiday sightseeing destinations that is in which case this will be right up your alley," Des said.
"The Glowing Sea? Fucking seriously? Glory said and Des nodded.
"Yup and before anyone asks the obvious but dumb question of why let me say can you think of a better place to hide from people hunting you than a radioactive nightmare filled with glowing Deathclaws and where even the air will kill you?" she said.
Both of them looked at one another and sighed, "Yeah good point, well then we're going to need some power armour," Glory said.
"Well I can get one set not sure about a second," Fuller said piping up and Des looked at him curiously.
"Left my old ESF set in a safe place before I came into the city, thing is DNA locked so no one can nick it but felt clomping around in it made me a bit too much of a target, I could easily pick it up though," he said and Des pointed and nodded.
"Good! And it just so happens we just laid our hands on some Brotherhood armour via some unusual feathered friends we have, we''re having it shipped to the edge of the sea, so once we pick yours up, we can get you both on-site, but an FYI you're going up against Enforcers, so you're going to need it for two reasons," Des said.
"Well this day just keeps getting better, alright give us the details, looks like the dream team is going to have to pull some more asses out of the fire eh partner?" Glory said nudging Fuller who grinned and nodded but he never said a word, his mind was going at a million miles a second, for he'd just seen a plan.
