Chapter 88: Joint Operation.
"Alright guys we're going to have to find a radio relay, we can't leave valentine in danger but we also can't ignore the threat from the ESF and maybe even the Railroad if those fuckers somehow manage to compromise them, we need to contact Seven and the others so they are aware, Seven will know what do about these fuckers," Wisp said.
"You put a lot of faith in this Seven don't you?" Fuller said looking at her curiously and she shot him a warning look.
"He's not just our leader he's a true symbol of what this world can be if we are willing to fight for it, he's saved just about every single person you see here's life more than once, he's the one that not only bound us all together but he showed us what could be if only we were willing to fight for it, he's the reason that not only do I have a new body but the love of my life and before you go getting the wrong idea about him he didn't force this on any of us, he's just so passionate about what he believes in and what he stands for that it's hard not to fall in line with him, he's probably one of one of the few truly good people left in this world and now he's actively trying to make a difference to it and we're going to help him do it," Wisp said.
"Fuck you make the dude sound like he's a religious leader or something?" Fuller said and Wisp actually smiled at him.
"Religion fucked this world up enough already so no thanks on this point, but the only thing that I get down on my knees and give thanks for is this big sexy spider boy next to me and the only thing in this world that'll get Seven onto his knees is his Visa his proud claw girl," Wisp said proudly as the spider boy who Fuller had learned was an Archnakai boy called Malakai Yellowleg looked kinda embarrassed and happy in equal measure.
Fuller actually found himself shocked by the blunt and matter-of-fact tone to her voice when she'd said that, it was like the fact that they loved non-humans was just something that should be accepted without any kind of question, but he had questions alright a whole fucking tone of them.
"Don't you guys worry about the judgement of others for well you know loving a non-human?" he said and Wisp shot him an evil smile as Malakai puffed himself up in indignation which given all of his fur actually puffed up was actually kinda funny because he looked like an eight-legged dandelion.
"You forget I'm not exactly human myself? Cloud girl in a synthetic body so I really couldn't give a fuck about what other people think about me, though if you insult my big sexy spider here we're gonna have words and two of them will be fuck and you shouted in-between shots," Wisp said and Malakai smiled smugly at him.
"I wasn't trying to mean offence I was just genuinely curious," Fuller said and Wisp nodded.
"Oh I know, I saw the self-doubt and guilt bouncing around your skull after Glory, tell me when you were with her did you feel guilty or like a race traitor?" Wisp said and that got Fuller thinking but he eventually shook his head.
"No I didn't look at her like that well not after the first time anyway, the first time it was just about maintaining my cover but then it just got muddy and complicated, at the end I didn't look at her any differently to anyone else," he said and Wisp nodded and pointed at him.
"And that is exactly how all of us think, I mean just look at Malakai here, sure his big and very different looking but he doesn't have a bad bone in his body, he couldn't be mean or scary if he tried and I simply adore that about him, he's too honest and good hearted for his own good and it makes him shine bright than the sunlight bouncing off his snow white fur, talking to him for thirty seconds tells you all you'll ever need to know about him, he's just a boy plain and simple, a boy who was looking for acceptance and for love and he found both with us, he needed help and we took him in and before I knew what was happening I loved him more than ever could one of my own kind not that I have a kind given what I am but still, that is how we all feel, we do not see the non-humans of our group as non-human, to us they are just people same as us, same wants, needs and hearts, just different looks," she said.
As they walked to the nearest radio really Fuller thought about what Wisp had said and he could certainly see it was true for them, it was obvious to anyone that she and Malakai absolutely adored one another, they were constantly teasing and winding each other up which seemed to be something universal among all of them as he was noticing it among the other pairs as well even the massive male Claw called Ven and Gregory the human that loved him.
As Fuller watched the pair Gregory would use his stealth suit to vanish and then he'd do something like smack Ven's ass before running off giggling while the big Claw chased him before reemerging from some nearby bushes with the man over his shoulder mumbling about he was going to teach him a lesson in teasing his Claw.
He just simply couldn't get over how easygoing and relaxed about this kinda stuff they were, it was like it wasn't even second nature to them it was first, it was seriously confusing for him and he just couldn't wrap his mind around it all but it constantly kept bringing his mind back to Glory and that constantly made him feel both sad and a worthless sack of shit.
To his surprise he actually found himself wishing that not only could he take away any pain that she might be feeling right now but that he could just undo it, that he could go running back to her and to explain the whole thing but not only would that most likely get him and all of the Railroad killed, but it would also at the very least make her hate him to his core and he didn't think he could bare that.
He knew it made him a coward of sorts as it felt like he was just running away and abandoning the woman who truly did love him, even if it was for a truly good cause and to protect her it didn't make him feel any better, he just hoped that one day he might get the chance to actually tell her why and maybe just maybe he could beg her for forgiveness, until that day came he would simply have to carry this stone of guilt around in his soul.
It took a couple of hours for them to reach a radio relay that wasn't far away from their apparent destination, in a display of unusual trust the group had given Fuller his weapons back so he could help them stand guard while they got the relay working.
As it turned out Gregory was a bloody good engineer and as Fuller watched his back the young man not only got the relay powered up but managed to boost the signals the relay and the amplifier were capable of broadcasting he also gave them the ability to listen in on any signal being broadcast through it.
As Fuller watched in fascination Gregory aligned the dishes on the relay tower apparently looking for the optimal broadcast direction and height to give them the clearest signal while he was also working on encrypting it.
But by far the most incredible thing he saw was Wisp actually leaving her body again and entering the relay itself, apparently, she was encrypting the signal so even if the ESF were able to pick it up they wouldn't have a clue what was being said which was both smart and tactically sound.
"Gold three to Gold one and two are you receiving over?" Wisp's voice came through a crackling old synthesizer that was attached to the large relay.
A couple of silent minutes went by before a voice came through the synthesiser, "This Gold two go ahead Gold three," a deep rather gravely voice said.
"Good to hear your voice Gold Two hows things going on your end? Over," Wisp said.
"So far so good, have located the avians and have made contact, and will hopefully be entering into negations with them, hows are things on your end? Over," the deep-voiced man said.
But before Wisp could respond another voice joined in, "This is Gold one go ahead Gold three, over" it said and that's when Fuller realised this was him, this was Seven the man the whole Enclave and more specifically the ESF was hunting tooth and nail.
"Ahh good while I got both of you I can say this once, we got big problems, we've got an ESF team on our tail, they've been sent here with specific capture and kill orders on the whole team, more specifically capture myself and Gold one and kill everyone else, over," Wisp said.
"This line secure? Over," Seven said.
"Yeah running the encryption protocols myself, over," Wisp said.
"Good alright how did you find this out? Over." Seven asked.
"Well err we kinda captured a defector, he's stood with us right now, they had him infiltrating the Railroad which is an underground synth-freeing operation that free synthetic slaves and smuggling them out, their plan is to turn them against us and uses them to track us down, but the new guy kinda got his eyes opened by a synthetic girl and saw what he was doing was wrong, so he came to warn us, over," Wisp said.
"You check him out? Over," Seven asked.
"Yup inside and out and he's true to his word, over," Wisp said.
"Alright roger that well now we got wind of these fuckers I'm thinking we turn their plan on its head and out them, we need to find some synths and to hand them over to the Railroad, this will essentially fuck the ESF plan of painting us out to be synth appears as BS and hopefully it will get them on the side to be able to track them down, does our new friend have any usable intel about their movements? over," Seven said.
"I know where their operation base is and where their Vertibird is hidden as for their whereabouts they are to ground so no," Fuller said.
"Oh yeah and how, he's got some juicy goods oh and just for even more fun they've decided to sick both Eight and Nine on us apparently the pair are with us, looks like Chalmers is really upping the ante, over," Wisp said.
So they did know of the infamous Dr Chalmers though he supposed that was inevitable as they were made by her department so obviously they had met her at some point.
"Oh well now this just gets more and more interesting, any word on what abilities the pair have and do you think it will be a kill-on-sight job or do you think we'll be able to deprogram them? Over," Seven asked and that caught Fuller's attention.
Rather than just outright planning on killing the pair the man was actually thinking of ways to turn them to his side, this really made Fuller think about the guy he was dealing with, the ESF intel on him had said he was an incredibly good tactician and always seemed to be one step ahead of his enemies and this was one glimpse into how that mind of his worked.
Rather than simply outright going right to the heart of their problem and crushing his enemies with the power that he had which was enough that even his old ESF team feared it he was thinking of ways to turn the team against itself while also outright outing the team so they couldn't hide in the shadows, therefore turning main players against them, therefore turning the hunters into the hunted, this guy truly was as smart as they albeit rather sparse intel gave him credit for.
"No idea, Eight and Nine were relatively new when I was getting ready to escape so I really wasn't able to find out anything about them, though what I do know is Nine is a transfer from another site, so it at least shows that the program is not only operational in one place but a multisite venture, though where the off-site area is I have no idea, over," Wisp replied.
"Hmmm roger that, with all we've been focusing on lately I had compeletly forgotten about the effort to look into the others like us, I get the feeling that we will have to reopen that case file very soon, alright for the time being continue with what you are both doing but keep your ears to the ground for actionable intel about the whereabouts of both the Railroad and this team but do not engage, I want the whole team back together before we take that step because I'm pretty sure the Enclave will not take the loss of one of their ESF teams let alone two more of our number very lightly, Gold Three see what progress you can forge with the Avians they may be able to help us out in the long run especially if you can forge a peace between them and the Brotherhood because my instincts tell me this might be a rather important bargaining chip to bring the Brotherhood to the table, I get the rather distinct feeling that they'd be rather interested in the intel of an Enclave Special Forces team operating in their territory, over," Seven said.
"Roger that Gold One message received and understood, we'll do what we can here, over and out," the gravel-voiced man said.
"Gold Two wrap up what you are doing as fast as you can and then go synth hunting I want you heading the operation to pull the Railroad to our side, I want you to show them that we are all about synth freedom too, I want you to cut this ESF team out and to force the fuckers out into the open as best you can, I'm gonna be tied up here for a while as we have made excellent progress with the Gatorclaws but there is still much to be done here, the whole place is being run by Radiers who have enslaved the entire populace and any traders who have been unlucky enough to wander into range and I'm not going to let that stand, if I'm successful here we have the chance to forge something completely new between the people here and the Gatorclaws, Gold One over and out," Seven said.
"Roger that Gold one see you soon good luck out there, over and out," Wisp said and with that, she disengaged herself from the radio relay and flew back into her body which Fuller had to admit was rather eerie to watch, it was like watching an old ghost move about possession watching the body suddenly spring to life like a possed puppet or something.
"Alright, guys I'm guessing you heard Seven so here's what we're going to do, we're going to pull Valentine's synthetic arse out of whatever fire he's plunged it into, then hopefully he's going to be able to give us what we need or at least point us in the right direction, while we're at it Fuller here is going to fill us in on the details of the ESF and the where they are camped out because I do believe it might be time to do some demolition," Wisp said with a large grin.
So while they walked Fuller talked, he told them everything, from ESF SOPs right through to the location of where their current camp was though he did warn them that there was a possibility that both Eight and Nine were there now and given that not even he knew what they were capable of he warned against going there in numbers in case it tipped their hand before they had the chance to play it.
"So there was always one of them with your field team while there was one at the camp?" the woman who called herself Shepherd said and Fuller nodded.
"A couple of the team usually stay to protect the camp and bird while the others are out in the field following me, though now with my current status as either MIA or KIA I'm not sure what they will do, SOP's would be to fall back to the FOB and take stock so they can formulate a new plan, they will have most likely enacted a stealth infiltration of the Railroad HQ to garner my status when I failed to return from the glowing sea, so by now they have undoutabley marked me down as MIA or KIA," Fuller said.
"Why would they mark you down as MIA if Glory saw you 'die' out the in the glowing sea?" Gregory asked doing quotation fingers on the word die.
"Simple because they would want to confirm that it was not an elaborate escape plan what could tip this against me is if Glory reported that we got the doctors to remove my subdermal implants first, as shitty as this sounds I'm kinda counting on her feelings for me from keeping her from souring my memory among her people in reporting that I still had those things inside me," Fuller said.
"So what will they do when they don't find a body?" Ven asked staring right at him with those unusually intense eyes of his.
"Made it so there would be nobody to find, triggering a suit self-destruct never leaves a body, at most you find bone ash from the contained nuclear explosion, when one of those suits goes bang with the user inside it there is never any remains as it's worse than even a standard nuclear explosion as whereas they usually leave at the least a burning skeleton the physics of containing an explosion in a confined space intensifies its power by a factor of ten at the least, it works on the same principle of setting a firecracker off on you hand," Fuller said and Ven tilted his large horned head questioningly.
"He's talking about force multiplication, if you were to set a firecracker off on the palm of your hand it would burn the palm of your hand and that's about it because all of the power dissipates outwards very rapidly, but if you were to close your hand it would blow your fingers off because of the energy now being contained and multiplying greatly," Gregory explained to his big Claw and Ven nodded his head in understanding.
"So if the fusion core in the back of one of those suits goes off the user is basically dust?" Ven said and Fuller nodded.
"Yup and mine had two of them due to all the upgrades I had on it so double the power twenty times the bang, they won't find shit except some shrapnel and twisted parts, or at least that's what I'm counting on," he said.
"God doesn't ever tell Visa that little gem or she'll dismantle Seven's armour the next time he climbs out of it or knowing her she won't even wait for that she'll just open it like a living tin opener," Gregory said and Ven chuckled to himself.
"I'm beginning to believe you know my sister, as well as I, do my love soon you'll be winding her up about echoing mole rat farts," he said and they all chuckled.
Suddenly Wisp stopped and pointed off to their left, "That's it, that's the last know position of Valentine as that's where the people of Greentop saw those cult members going in and out of, let's go and take a look shall we?" she said pointing towards what appeared to be an old supply depot by all the burnt trucks around the place all centred towards a large building that kinda looked like a hanger in the middle.
The group moved up towards the outer permitter of the building and as they did they quickly filled Fuller in on what it was they were doing and he found himself very surprised that they had gone to all this trouble to not only help someone they didn't know but a synth none the less, plus that they had promised the people of Greentop that they would look into stopping this cult if they could, it really seemed that Seven's group were good people at their core.
The entire group spread out around the perimeter fence of the building including Fuller who was being shadowed by Ven, he hoisted his Gueauss rifle into the shoulder and used its powerful scope to scan the building's interior which was easily visible thanks to the two massive shutter doors standing wide open.
"I don't see movement of any kind but there have definitely been people coming in and out of here recently," he said and Ven nodded his head.
"Yeah I saw the track too, gotta be at least thirst of them by my reckoning and more than one set was carrying something heavy by the spacing," he said.
"Sounds like you been taking tracking lessons from Runs my sexy tail," Gregory said and Ven grinned at him.
"I'll have you know us Claws are natural trackers but yeah that boy is top rate, I'm good but I've never seen someone identify where someone stopped to scratch their arse by their foot positioning before I met him so yeah learn from the best," he said with a toothy grin.
"Hold up I got movement," Fuller said and both Gregory and Ven's attention snapped forwards though at the distance they were at and the bush they were currently laid in made it a little difficult for them to see properly through those scary eyes of ven's really proved his point about tracking and hunting when he too managed to pick out what Fuller was seeing.
"Yeah I see them, two hooded figures by the shelves to the right inside," he said and Fuller nodded.
Gregory let out a bird whistle that caught the attention of Malakai who was laid flat a little further down the bank they were all hidden behind and he quickly used hand signals to tell him what they'd seen.
Malakai nodded and gave a thumbs up before relaying the info down the line, moments later Fuller was surprised to see Wisp in her cloud form floating over to the building staying high so as to not be noticed by the two figures who seemed to be moving what looked like a large sack of something deeper into the building, though where they'd emerged from was a bit of a mystery as the building was large and open plan, not a lot of hiding ability or cover in there.
From where he lay Fuller could see Wisp flitting about in the lights and after that made up the high roof in the building, he was beginning to see now how Seven's team had not only managed to say ahead of pursuit for so long but managed to get the drop on the people they had hit.
Each person here brought something very different to the table and they managed to blend all those skills together to make an incredibly effective special forces team, from intel gathering and electronic warfare experts like Wisp to assault and tracking specialists like Ven, they maximized their potential by covering as many avenues as possible while also making use of the natural talents of their members and when you added the fact that they acted like a very odd family into the mix, therefore giving them a very powerful drive to fight it created a very potent mix.
A couple of minutes later Wisp floated back and word came down the line that they were looking at an underground structure of some kind, the entrance to which was hidden in the basement of the building.
Word came down the line that Malakai was going to head in and subdue the two in the back who were still clearly in Fuller's line of site messing about with a series of sacks that were stacked up along the rear of the building and they wanted Fuller to cover him with his long-range rifle as he made his approach.
Fuller gave a thumbs up to indicate he was good to go but in his head, we were wondering how in the name of hell the giant half-spider boy was going to get anywhere near the place without being noticed given his size not to mention his bright white fur.
That's when Fuller found out about one of Malakai's many hidden talents, as he watched through the scope he heard a whoosh to his right and as he glanced he saw Malakai flying through the air with all of his legs compressed together into a point before he began to descend on the side of the building where he fanned them out and made a near silent landing had he just jumped the length of a football pitch in a single leap!?
As Fuller watched in pure amazement Malakai scuttled right up the outer side of the building like was walking on the floor before scuttling his way onto the roof and flipping upside down as he entered stuck fully to the ceiling of the place.
He could feel his mouth fall open as Malakai simply scuttled his way along the ceiling till e was directly over the two clueless hooded figures where he was spinning on the spot seemingly lining himself up while also seemingly doing something with his hands, that's when he dropped something on them.
Both figures were yanked off their feet and up into the air where Malakai caught hold of them and with scary speed and precision he began to wrap them up in his silk after delivering what appeared to be a bite to both of them making them go as limp as boned fish in his hands.
Once he was done he turned on the spot to face Fuller and gave him an upside-down thumbs up to go with the upside-down smile he was wearing on his face.
"He got them and he says the way is clear," Fuller reported.
Ven relayed the message down the line and Wisp gave the order to move up so as like a wave the team got to their feet and began to move cautiously forwards towards the building.
"Are they dead?" Fuller asked tapping one of the human-shaped silk cocoons with his foot and Malakai shook his head.
"Nah gave them a tiny bite, just enough to know them out for a while," Malakai said.
"So I assume that venom of yours can kill a man if need be?" Fuller asked and Malakai nodded.
"Yeah pretty easily actually what I gave them is just enough to coat the tips of my fangs, any more than that and they'd be done for, it's pretty potent stuff," he said and Fuller nodded thoughtfully.
"Should coat some darts with it, be a pretty good knock-out or silent take-down tool," he said and Malakai looked thoughtful.
"Never thought of that, that's a great idea, nice one Fuller thanks," he said his face lighting up.
"Alright before we go any deeper in I want to see what's in those sacks, I already get the feeling I know what we're going to find but I want to be sure, it's gonna confirm what kind of people we're dealing with here," Wisp said walking over to the sack that was on the floor near to the base of the shelves.
But none of them was expecting to see what they did when she opened it, bones, human bones.
There was a full-sized skeleton inside the sack and all of them looked horrified by the grizzly sight, Fuller given his profession gritted his teeth and knelt down next to the skeleton to examine it and what he found not only turned his stomach inside out but set his blood aflame.
"It's a teenage boy alright, no older than eighteen but it gets worse, his flesh has been completely stripped from him with a blade, here look at these marks, those were done where the blade hit the bone, same type a butcher would use to strip the meat from the bone," he said.
"B-B-But why? Why would anyone do this?" Malakai stammered and Fuller looked up at the horrified and rather sick-looking Arachnakai boy with a grim expression plastered on his features.
"Only reason I know of to go to this length and to use these methods is to preserve the flesh in cut form, the only people I have ever seen use these methods are cannibals," he said.
"So a cult and fucking cannibals!? Oh this just went from ten to a hundred in the blink of a fucking eye," Shepherd spat and Fuller nodded and then he looked up at the multitude of sacks lining the shelves.
"And it's about to go from a hundred to a fucking thousand because I don't know about you guys but I ain't about to let this shit continue, this ends here and now," he snarled as anger washed through his veins like liquid flame bubbling through his blood.
"Got that shit right, gonna show these sick fucks exactly what it feels like to get cut limb from limb," Ven snarled flexing his massive claws menacingly.
"Agreed but we need to be smart about this, we have no idea how many of these fuckers are down there and the last thing we want is to wind up as someone's main course, I'm pretty sure if they have no problem eating their own kind then they'll have zero problems serving up a nice roast rump steak of Claw or leg of Arachnakai," Fuller said warningly.
Gregory growled, "Only one ever going to touch Ven's rump is me," he snarled.
"And you'd better believe that Malakai's legs are staying all where they belong any fucker so much as looks at them in a way I don't like is getting their brain turned to mush in their skull," Wisp snarled patting said yellow leg.
"Good and if we want it to stay that way we need to do this smart and by the numbers," Fuller said and Wisp nodded.
"New guy is right, we can't go in there half-cocked running on anger or we'll wind up either getting any hostages they got in there or ourselves killed in the process," Wisp said.
"Yeah the folks at Greentop said this lot swiped six boys from them and said they been hearing that they been hitting a lot of other settlements in the area which means to me that they got some fair numbers in there," Shepherd said.
An idea hit Fuller and he turned to Wisp, "If they are using a bunker or something down there they are going to need airflow, that should mean they need vents in order to breathe so we can use that to infiltrate and spy on them, this should give us the intel of their numbers, defences and hopefully the location of where any hostages they have are located including this mister Valentine you are seeking is located, all we need to do is find those vents and then Wisp can do her sparkly cloud thing," Fuller said.
Wisp nodded thoughtfully scratching her chin and then nodded, "I like the way you think new guy, alright guys set up and watch the entrances I'm going in," Wisp said and with that, she exited her body and began to float around looking for a vent shaft before vanishing through one of the grates in the wall.
The rest of the group moved to where a hidden door that lead down into a basement tunnel that led off into the darkness that was lit only by a load of little candles, so the group took up positions to watch the door.
Wisp was gone for a total of ten minutes before she poured back out of one of the vents above their heads and heading right back into her body which once again made Fuller think of the story of Pinocchio wanting to be a real boy.
"Alright I got the lay of the land and you're not going to fucking believe this, it's a fucking vault, the bastards have a fully functional vault down there and it's just as well you guys with you otherwise you'd never get in, you'd need one of those pip boys like Seven has," she said.
"Do those to have one?" Shepherd asked and Malakai shook his head.
"Nope, I didn't see anything like that," he said.
"So how were they planning to get back in?" Shepherd asked.
"Obviously have someone monitoring the controls so they'll just press the comms and they'll let them in so we are going to have to be prepared for a fight as soon as he breaches the doors," Fuller said.
"Agreed, if we want to effect a stealth entry which we are going to need to do if we are going to reach the remaining twenty hostages that I saw down there we are going to need to do this stealthily," Wisp said.
"I think I have an idea," Malakai said and they all looked at him.
"Well going on what Fuller said to me earlier if I dip some darts or a knife with some of my venom then Gregory should be able to slip right in and silently take down the door guards before they know what's going on," he said and Fuller nodded.
"That's a good idea with that suit you should be able to walk right up to them before they even know you are there, we need to secure the entrance and the hostages should be our first priority, what's their guard situation like?" Fuller asked.
"Six of them all heavily armed around a large bunk room with them stationed outside of it, but there are a lot more deep in, I counted at least thirty of them," she said.
"Alright, so we're outnumbered and in the tight spaces it's going to be difficult to deploy our claws effectively so we need to lure them into a kill box so we need some bait, so I think once we remove the hostages from the situation we need to pull them into the same trap they locked their victims in, now I'm guessing that this Valentine guy given he came out here all on his lonesome to find these guys he'd be more than willing to help out, did you see him at all?" Fuller said and Wisp shook her head.
"No he's the one person I didn't find but that's not to say he's not there there are a few places I didn't have time to search," she said and Fuller nodded.
"Alright we count him out for now but we keep looking if we find him we should pull him in to help, I'm sure he'd make great bait to pull their attention to where we want it," Fuller said.
"Alright then people we got ourselves a plan, lets move like we have a purpose people, time to show Seven that he's not the only one who can pull off this heroic and look damn good doing it," Wisp said with a grin as she flicked her hair and kissed Malakai's cheek, it was rescue time.