Chapter 99: Hunter Hunted.
"Overwatch to all call signs I'm in my attack position and have eyes on the target, no signs of movement all remaining tangos must be inside, over," Fuller said into his comms unit as he lay on the metal support of an old billboard bolted onto the side of an old ruined highway overlooking the old scrapyard the ESF had converted into a base.
It felt kinda strange being back here now, they'd been watching the place for a day to try and gauge what was going on with them, but other than seeing them bringing in an unidentified prisoner who had a bag over their head and was trussed up and then leaving with what must have been one of the Numbers or taking an extra squadmate with them not much had been happening.
Wisp had finally decided enough was enough and they'd decided to execute their attack plan, she'd opted to hit the bae while the majority of the team was out and about so that they would meet minimal resistance while destroying their hardware such as their primary comms and the vertibird along with all the gear they'd brought with them from home.
Fuller knew that ESF teams were trained and capable of operating in the field away from home base without support for months if not years at a time if need be but cutting off their supply line and comms would put them royally on the back foot, it would also send them a message loud and clear, one that said 'We know and we don't care.'
In the position he was in now, Fuller couldn't see that far side of the base where the main building was too clearly but then again he didn't seed to, it was his job to hit both the comms unit in the form of the satalite dish mounted above the vertibird on a long pylon and the vertibird itself by hitting the fuel tanks and detonating them with the special explosive tipped rounds he'd gotten hold of, the plan was to punch a few holes in the armoured fuel tank with some regular AP rounds and then to hit the leaking fuel with a popper top to make the whole thing go up.
Once the vertibird went up this would most likely set the whole place on fire and force the remaining troopers and hopefully the numbers out into the open, they would then get hammered with fire from the others who were all set up in overlapping arcs around the only gate leading in and out of the compound, he knew that as soon as the fire opened up they would try and take cover in one of a few spots around the mostly open front end of the base, so he'd planned accordingly and had Malakai set some web traps on them, so if anyone dove for cover they'd find themselves web snared and easy pickings for both the shooters and the two armoured Claws waiting in the wings to pounce if need be.
"Roger that overwatch we're all set down here no point waiting any longer so on your mark let's get this party started ambush one over and out," Wisp's reply came in clear.
Fuller started taking deep breaths and holding them before exhaling slowly, he raised his scope to his eye and zeroed in on the mounting holding up the dish and then with a slight additional pressure to his trigger fired.
The dish went crashing down onto the roof of the vertibird as the mountings blew apart as the ultra-high velocity slug hit it with enough force to turn the tungsten into liquid and burnt clean through the cheap steel of the pylon.
Next up was the vertibird and quick as a flash he adjusted his aim never breaking his breathing cycle as he began to fire slug after slug into the tank housing, thanks to the armour the slugs managed to punch the tank without setting off the fuel but the popper top did the job nicely sending the whole lot up with a loud whoosh that he even heard from as far away as he was.
The explosion was glorious, when the liquid gold flames travelled up the river of fuel pouring from the ruptured tank and into a large rounded pod under the vertibird the whole thing exploded with enough force to lift the bird about ten meters into the air before crashing back down in a flaming mangled wreck.
It also had the bonus effect of setting the main base on fire as well as everything else in the compound.
It didn't take long for the ESF to respond and two power armoured figures raced out of the main building which was now a blazing inferno thanks to the aviation fuel which had gone up right next to it.
No sooner had they emerged into the open than the team watching the gates opened up on them from four directions at once, three human shooters and one Arachnakai who was hanging off another billboard giving him a decent elevation.
As predicted as the rounds began to hammer their armour making it ring like a continually struck bell the pair of soldiers dived for cover to either side of the front gate and dove head first into Malakai's near invisible web traps which sprung the second they came into contact with them.
Even with power armour-enhanced strength, the pair couldn't break free of the tightly wound sticky threads which gummed them up as they tried to struggle against it, leaving them defenceless for Ven and Passa to lea into action and to close in from either side using their claws to easily pierce the chest plate of each soldier putting them down for good.
As he watched the two claws take out his former comrades in arms Fuller did feel a pang of guilt in his heart but he swiftly silenced it with the knowledge that at least their deaths were quick, far more of a courtesy than they would have afforded him if they'd have caught wind of his continued life.
All that was left now was to deal with the two numbers but as of yet, the pair had failed to emerge despite the building being a raging inferno.
"Overwatch any sign of Eight or Nine over?" Wisp's voice cut through the howling of the flames.
"Negative no sign, I'd use thermal but the fire is so hot it's shutting down my optics no sight, so they're either still in there in which case they have burned to death or we've missed them somehow, over," Fuller said sounding as confused as he felt, he was sure he hadn't missed them as the team had only been and gone once since he'd been here, once to bring in the prisoner they were holding though who that was he didn't know he knew it wasn't Glory thankfully thanks to the size of the person but he did feel sorry for whoever it was because when they'd left he'd seen them bring out a pile of plasma goo to be thrown into a pit in the back so they'd not fared well whoever it was.
That's when it clicked, the extra member!
"Overwatch to Ambush I believe we've missed at least one of them, there were two guards, when they left earlier they had an extra member with them I think that was one of the Numbers in power armour, so at most there's only one of them left here over," Fuller said.
"Roger well all we can do is wait for the fire to burn down and then take a look, I'm not sending anyone into that inferno on the off chance unless they're a pyro I doubt they are going to feel well in there and even a pyro needs to breathe, over and out," Wisp said.
Well, that was that then, the plan now was to wait.
As fuller watched the heat from the fire set off a few smaller secondary explosions within the building itself as gas canisters and various other flammable objects went off but after an hour or two the place had basically burned down to nothing more than a warped metal shell that stood holding nothing but crackling and popping embers.
The team did a quick sweep of the remains but they found nothing, no bodies, no remains, no nothing.
"I don't fucking get it, if one of them went with the team when they left then where's the other one?" Shepherd said kicking at some of the embers sending showers of sparks exploding into the air like startled fireflies.
"We must have missed them, either they were out with the team and left holding their FOB in the city while the remainder brought in that prisoner they had and then they must have brought the other one back with them when they left," Wisp offered.
Fuller scratched his chin and nodded, that kinda made sense, Number Eight and Nine as creepy as the pair had been had never shown any signs of being disloyal to the cause or to the team, so it was quite possible that they'd brought one of them to the FOB in case of an encounter with Seven and his team but that didn't explain why they had brought the second one out with them now unless they were planning on something.
"Do you know where the team would be set up to observe the Railroad Fuller?" Wisp asked
"Not the exact building no but I know the area of the city they were operating in because I know where the entrance to the Railroad HQ is located so we should be able to pick up their trail once we get close but we'll have to be careful when they're exposed like that they'll be very vigilant, we only caught these guys off guard like this because I knew how the defences were arranged, I don't know what they got set up down there," he said and Wisp nodded.
"So we tread lightly, when we get close I'll go cloud mode and scout out the place should give us at least a heads up on what the deal is," she said and Fuller nodded.
"Alright then let's move shall we?" he said and with that, the team set off leaving the ESF base to smoulder to itself quietly completely unaware that they were only a hundred meters from one of the very people they were looking for who was at this very moment laid unconscious in a little copse of trees hidden among the grass.
The trip to the city was a bit of a trek but the team made good time getting down there in only a few hours, but as they began to move deeper into the city they began to notice the telltale sounds echoing down the streets of a major firefight going on somewhere deeper in its streets.
"Damn sounds like we arrived into the middle of a major war, what the fuck is going on?" Shepherd said as they listened to the echoing distant chatter of small arms fire mixed in with dull thuds of explosions.
"No idea but I think it's worth investigating, you guys hold up here, I'll go cloud mode and take a look," Wisp said.
"You sure you don't want me to do it, I could use the flying practice?" Passa asked hopefully.
"Nah better you keep your claws on the ground for now big boy because I don't think I'll hear the end of it from you missus if your tail gets shot full of holes by whoever is shooting over there and a flying Claw is a pretty big target," Wisp said giving him a grin as Shepherd wrapped an arm around the deflated looking Claw's waist.
"Don't worry lover claw you'll have plenty of chance to stretch those wings of yours soon," she said reassuringly.
As fuller watched Wisp poured out of the nose and ears of her body as Malakai took gentle control of her body and kept it safe, "Hurry back my love," he said softly to the little floating golden cloud before him and she did a swooping loop around his head before shooting off into the sky and out of sight.
As it turned out it didn't take Wisp very long to complete her scouting mission, she was gone the grand total of fifteen minutes before she shot out of the sky and back into her body like a bolt of golden lightning.
Before anyone could greet her she sat bolt upright and looked at them with a concerned expression written on her face, "It's the fucking Brotherhood! They found the ESF and are hammering the shit out of them!" she exclaimed and Fuller's face mirrored his surprise.
"How?" he exclaimed.
"No idea all I know is the team is pretty much wiped out, they are down to one soldier and what looks like one of the numbers, the others are all dead and the Brotherhood are moving in on them from all sides, they got them surrounded, though I did see the number shoot down a couple of vertibirds with what looked to be lightning, I think she's an Elementalist," she said.
"An Elementalist?" Shepherd said.
"Someone with control over various elements though which ones are up for debate, but I'm pretty sure I saw using fire as well as she kinda flew in through a window while I watched," Wisp said.
"She can fucking fly!? Oh, this just gets better and better," Malakai groaned.
"Won't matter the standing protocol is if we end up in a situation where the team is about to be wiped out we are to liquidate the Numbers to prevent them being captured by the enemy, if we're done to one soldier which given the description you just gave me sounds like the case is that the surviving number is number nine then she's as good as dead," Fuller said.
Wisp growled darkly and glared at him for a moment before seemingly remembering that the whole reason he was with them in the first place was he disagreed with what the Enclave was doing and what it stood for and calming down.
Suddenly there was a loud whoosh high above them and as they all looked up they saw a small shape surrounded by a trail of fire streaking away from the city, "I get the feeling number nine didn't feel like being liquidated today," Wisp said with a bit of a sly smile on her face.
"Yeah looks like it but where is she going?" Fuller said.
"To meet up with reinforcements maybe?" Malakai offered and Fuller shook his head.
"We don't have any local teams in the area, we have a few intelligence assets but that's it and I highly doubt the Luitenant would send her to call for backup, she was very by the book for the most part, she'd have carried out her orders out so the only scenario I can think of is the Luitenant got popped before she could carry her orders out and now number nine is on the run," Fuller said.
"Well whatever the case we gotta find her before the Brotherhood does, there may be a chance however slim that we may be able to get through to her and convince her to join us but even if it's not the case better we pull the trigger on her than the Brotherhood captures her, she's been a Guinea pig her whole life better it gets ended by someone who understands than get plunged back into that again," Wisp said.
"Well alright then let's move out follow that fireball people," Fuller said picking up his rifle and checking it as the team fell in and began to march in the direction they'd seen the fireball containing Number Nine heading.
As they walked Fuller tried to run over tracking scenarios of how they were supposed to be able to track someone who could fly, though that little revelation came as quite a shock to him, granted they weren't exactly privy to what Number Eight and Nine were capable of as that shit was very hush hush and the pair had never really given them any kind of hints.
He also spent time thinking about how the team as a whole had treated them since they'd arrived, while they were openly hostile to them the disgust and dislike were obvious to anyone.
Most of them looked at the pair like they were something nasty that someone had just trekked onto a nice clean carpet but he at least could take a small measure of pride in knowing he hadn't been like that with them.
He might not like the idea of what they could do but the way he had seen it was they had no choice in being what they were, it wasn't their fault so it did no one any good blaming them for it or being hostile to them, so he'd tried to treat them with respect and some kind of empathy and he kinda hoped that it had at least had gone someway towards maybe garnering some kind of trust with them.
He also remembered how Number Nine had smiled at him every time he'd seen her, she was far from ugly as women went and if it wasn't for him knowing what she was he'd have never been able to tell that she wasn't your garden variety human just like him.
Neither of them had been very talkative but Nine had taken the time to at least greet him every time she'd seen him which he'd always returned and swapped pleasantries with her, number Eight, on the other hand, was a much stranger bird, he kept himself to himself and while he rarely spoke Fuller was always acutely aware that he was watching and analysing everything that went on, plus there were the rumours that he could make himself look like other people which was disturbing, to say the least, not to mention worrying because if it was true finding him would turn out to be a proper nightmare.
But right now they couldn't focus on him right now they had to focus on finding Nine, though that was going to be easier said than done given that she could fly but they had two members who could do the same, what they really had to worry about was what were they going to do when they found her.
Could she be reasoned with?
Would she even try to talk or would she come out swinging?
What was the extent of her powers as none of them had been told barely anything about them or what they were capable of so they were kind of going in blind on that front?
After a couple of hours of searching, they turned up no trace of her or her whereabouts, it appeared that Nine had gotten away clean.
"So what's the plan now boss we've been at this for hours and given she can fly she could be fucking anywhere by now?" Shepherd said looking at Wisp who sighed heavily and nodded.
"Yeah you're right, let's make camp here for the night and we'll head back to Diamond city in the morning, we're going to need to talk to Valentine he's going to want to hear about this, he's probably heard about the firefight already," she said and there were thankful nods all around from the group.
But as they began to pitch camp around the edge of the swamp Fuller got an odd sense that they were being watched but no matter how much he stared into the fog it didn't yield him any answers just more questions all swirling amongst the thick grey fog.
The team took it in turns to watch over the others while they slept when it was Fuller's turn he stood on the edge of the camp with his rifle keeping the small campfire stoked up and fed while circling the area and watching for Mirelurks or any other nasties that undoubtedly called this place home, but it wasn't a Mirelurk that came for him that night.
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Yui watched as the group set up camp on the edge of the swamp, she'd heard them coming as they'd waded through some of the shallower pools near the hut she'd been hiding in and had decided to hide and let them pass her by but when she'd seen who it was she'd decided to follow them.
She'd heard them talking and she was under no doubt that this was part of Seven and Three's group though where the two of them were was a mystery as none of the people in the pictures looked anything like them, but there was one face in the group that she did recognise and it had struck her like a thunderbolt to the heart, it was Fuller.
As they'd walked Yui had made sure to remain downwind of the two massive Deathclaws the group had with them which to her sheer amazement could speak just like the reports had told them. and they treated them just like normal people, hell she actually began to get jealous that these two Deathclaws seemed to be better treated than she herself ever had been.
She began to wonder if this was a part of the plan that she and Phillip had not been told about, maybe they'd sent Fuller to infiltrate the Railroad in the hope of getting him into Seven's group further down the line?
But as she listened in using the water in the mist to help keep herself concealed by making the fog around her own body thicker and harder to see through she heard Fuller talking and he was talking about ESF protocols and tactics, there was no way he was infiltrating this group, he had joined them, he was a traitor!!
That's when it clicked into place, that's how Seven's people had known where to hit them, Fuller had told them where the base was and that shooting that took out the dish and the Vertibird had to have been him as well, he was the team's sniper and given his choice of weapon the damage fit perfectly, he'd helped them kill his own people!
But the question that was driving her to madness as she followed was why?
Why would he do this?
Why would he join these rebels and terrorists?
What the hell was in it for him, what were they giving him?
Yui couldn't shake these questions out of her mind and the more she tried to push them down the louder they seemed to scream in her skull, she had to have answers and she knew just how to get them.
The group seemed to be giving up for the day and as he watched they set up camp on the edge of the swamp in a high dry place, they set up some makeshift camp beds from logs they gathered and made a few A-frames while one of them set up a small fire pit at the centre of the camp to cook food which at the smell of it made her stomach growl though thankfully not loud enough to alert them.
After they had eaten they all sat around talking and she listened in trying to get a gauge on these people, she was so very tempted to kill them all outright given that she had the drop on them here but she got the distinct feeling that doing that without either Seven or Three present would be rather unwise as who knew how Seven would react to such a thing, no it was better to observe and strike when the time was right.
That's when things just got... weird.
As she watched one of the group a young-looking human man who was wearing what appeared to be one of those old Chinese stealth suits sat himself down on the lap of one of the big Deathclaws and if that wasn't shocking enough the big Deathclaw actually embraced him and nuzzled the side of his face!
Yui felt her mouth drop open at this display and just as she was beginning to wonder if the Deathclaw was some kind of oversized pet or something the pair actually kissed!
The man just up and turned his head and planted his lips right on the mouth of the Deathclaw as if it was nothing and the pair stayed like that for a couple of minutes.
Yui had physically close her jaw it was hanging so low but it appeared that this group wasn't through with the shocks they were going to give her because as she continued to watch others in the group joined in.
First, it was a black-skinned woman who to be fair looked as hard as nails and had the air of a seasoned veteran around her, but just like the man before she planted herself in the lap of the lighter-scaled Deathclaw who was in possession of a rather odd set of wings and what appeared to be feathers all over him.
But just like the man she seemed to have absolutely no reservations about planting a kiss right on the mouth of the Claw.
Then there was the other black-skinned woman who was sitting lounging on the abdomen of what appeared to be some kind of spider centaur creature who seemed to be fucking knitting of all things.
She was draped over his abdomen and when the other had shared a kiss this seemed to have given her ideas and she wrapped her arms around his torso from behind and leaned around his shoulder to plant a kiss right on his mouth allowing his two little mandibles stoke her face all while his hands simply kept knitting like nothing was happening.
Infact the only two that didn't seem to be getting loved up were Fuller himself and a Ghoul woman who by the look of her was already asleep on one of the make-shit cots they'd rigged up.
Yui guessed that the Ghoul woman would probably be taking first watch and was getting her rest in early while the others got themselves settled in for the night, so despite her thirst for both vengeance and answers Yui settled herself in, patience here was going to be key.
As it turned out she was absolutely spot on with her estimation, when the others went to sleep they woke the Ghoul woman and she sat on the edge of the camp with a rifle at the ready in her lap, Yui couldn't for the life of her think why they'd want to bring a Ghoul with them in the first place but then given the way this group was made up it wasn't all that surprising really and she began to wonder what it must feel like to have been turned into one of them, like it must have seriously hurt to have been exposed to that much radiation that it rewrote your DNA to that kind of level.
Eventually, she went back to bed but before she did she woke up Fuller and he took her place at the little guard post next to the fire and Yui felt herself tense up, she'd spent the last few hours planning on how she was going to do this, it was going to be a royal pain not just getting to him but getting him out of there before the others realised he was gone she'd never tried doing this with another person so she just hoped it worked because otherwise, she was going to have a major fight on her hands and one that she knew she wasn't strong enough to handle right at this moment.
So once the Ghoul woman was back asleep and snoring away happily Yui moved herself as close to the camp as she could get comfortably, Fuller seemed on edge and he was constantly pacing about and looking out into the fog, it seemed that he could feel her watching him he just didn't know where from and that kinda intrigued her because the entire time she'd been watching the Ghoul woman she'd never shown any kind of sign of an awareness of her, but with him, he was blatantly aware of it.
One thing she was going to have to be careful of here was making sure he didn't accidentally discharge his weapon because the last thing she wanted was him firing that bloody thing off in the middle of the camp, suppressed or not at that distance it would snap the entire team awake like someone hit a metal bin with a hammer in the middle of the camp, though thankfully Fuller's trigger discipline meant he kept his fingers away from the trigger itself while carrying it, now she just had to make sure not to make the voltage too high as to accidentally trigger the damn thing.
So when she got close to the little patch of trees at the edge of their camp that she was hiding in she simply leant out and hit him full in the chest with a small thin lightning bolt from her right hand.
No sooner had it made contact with him than Fuller instantly tensed up and began to spasm as the electricity flowed through his body and as soon as she released the shock as she walked close enough to catch the inevitable fall he fell limply into her arms, though his weight did actually surprise her, he was quite heavy for someone of his size more so than she would have believed, not that she'd had much experience carrying unconscious men around, well exactly zero truly.
Unfortunately so focused on holding Fuller upright was she that she failed to notice the rifle slip from his hands as she grabbed hold of him and it was only when it made a loud clattering noise on the rocks at their feet did she remember it but by that point, it was too late.
"Ugghh wazzat?" a sleepy voice from behind them said and she turned just in time to see the oddly cute head of the spider centaur boy pop up from the oversized camp bed he was sleeping on with the black woman wrapped in his eight legs.
As his head turned to look around himself his eyes locked onto the pair and widened in a look of amazement and alarm, "Alarm!!!! It's Nine she's got Fuller!!!" he yelled at the top of his lungs scaring the rest of them awake in a second.
The woman wrapped in his legs burst out of them like he was a living bear trap that just sprung open and released her, all around her the others were bursting out of bed and arming themselves, she had one chance and this had to work or she was well and truly fucked.
Using what little energy she had recovered during her rest her Yui summoned the flames to her and the winds as well but she amped it up as high as she could with what energy she had in order to compensate for Fuler's weight and before the group could converge on her she shot upwards into the sky holding Fuller like the pair had just been fired out of a cannon.
"No you fucking don't!!!" came a bellowing roar from below her and when she glanced back she saw that not only was there a flying Deathclaw hot on her heels but a glimmering golden cloud that was only just visible through the haze of the flames swirling around her, it was Three!!
The flying Deathclaw looked like an angry Dragon chasing her as his massive wings cut against the air as he pursued her, he was surprisingly fast for his size and he kept bobbing and diving in order to gain speed and ground on her while the glittering cloud that was Three was screaming at her like a fluffy missile.
She had to lose the pair but how the hell was she going to do that, carrying the unconscious Fuller's dead weight was sapping her energy rapidly and slowing her down to boot, the pair were gaining on her by the second, she was going to have to do something drastic or one of them was going to take her out of the air.
That's when the clouse ahead of her gave her an idea, reaching out with the last of her strength she charge the particles in the clouds and felt them respond to her, the first bolt of lightning hit the outer edge of her firenado and scattered off around her like an explosion of light, creating a blinding white flash as it did.
Both Three and the Deathclaw had to take evasive manoeuvres to avoid being struck, Yui pushed harder than she ever had before and swiftly another bolt struck and another, soon the pair were dancing and weaving all over the place while she carried on gaining ground rapidly, pretty soon the pair were nothing more than specks on the horizon, she has done it she'd lost them!
But now the question nagged at her, where the hell was she gonna go now?
Yui had studied the maps of the area quite well while she'd been cooped up in the makeshift base and the vertibird, so she knew there were a few abandoned military bases in the area that were scattered around, she figured the facilities in one of them would be a good place to start, though she probably has to watch out for the Brotherhood as they kinda liked to raid places like that, but right now she didn't have too much option, she was royally running on fumes and if she didn't set down soon she was going to fall out of the sky and kill both herself and her cargo in the fall.
So concentrating on her knowledge of the maps she plotted a mental course of where the wamp was and which direction she'd flown in, she'd passed some mountains a few minutes ago with some old listening posts on them, so she should be close to one of them, hopefully, it hadn't been hit too hard but mutants or the like.
As she flew down to the old camp it was silent as the grave, the only dangerous thing she saw were a few molerats and radroaches lurking about but one lightly toasted molerat later and the rest fled in fear of her, which was just as well because that last shot wiped out her power reserve completely, now she was just a normal person until it recharged which given that she hadn't had anything to eat in quite a few hours could be quite a while.
She had to get Fuller locked up or tied down or secured in some way before he woke up, so using what little physical strength was left to her she half dragged half carried the unconscious man into the base itself in search of a place to lock him down, which she rather swiftly found in the form of a billet room deep inside the place.
Using some handcuffs she found just laying on a locker Yui fasted his wrists together over the headboard after laying him down on one of the beds, then using some wire she found in the same place she tied his ankles to the foot bar leaving him stretched out a bit, once she checked his breathing was sound she decided to go hunting for some food to eat.
"Once I've eaten and I'm back up to strength me and you are going to have a nice little chat, so don't go anywhere no ok?" she said to the still unconscious Fuller, she was actually kinda giddy that she'd pulled this off, not only had she snatched this traitor fright from under their noses but she'd managed to evade Three and one of her pet Deathclaws, now when Fuller woke up she and he was going to have a little chat and she really couldn't wait to hear what he had to say, this was going to be interesting.