Chapter 104: Angels On Our Shoulders.
"That's our first target down there," Seven called to Visa as they circled the dimly lit town far below them still obvious from even up as high as they were because of how far light travels in the night and especially when in an unpolluted zone.
"Shall we go and take a closer look?" Visa called back swivelling her horned head to track the town as Seven circled.
"Probably best to do it from the ground just in case," Seven replied and then swooped down at a steep angle putting some distance between them and the town so as to not get spotted in the moonlit night sky.
As they touched down the pair crouched and listened to make sure their approach and arrival hadn't been detected but there were no shouts of alarm or angry yells from the town, just the buzzing of badly fitted and maintained electrical systems and the chugging of a generator.
Keeping low and using the terrain to their advantage Seven and Visa approached the town's outer wall quietly, the whole place had been boxed in with corrugated metal sheeting affixed to what appeared to be tyres filled with concrete and jammed into a boxy metal housing frame.
There were two guard towers one at either end of the small town but Seven couldn't see any guards in them or any light from them, so they were either that confident that no one would attack them or which was more likely the case the raider's occupying them were tripped off their tits on jet and had passed out.
"First thing we need to do is find the fucker in charge, they are likely to be the one with the remote for those collars, I can't imagine that they were that numerous that every single raider has one, my bet is at most there will be two of the things both held by the two most senior people but I'd bet my bottom cap that there will be only one held by the head honcho of the place and they shouldn't be too hard to identify they'll either be the craziest or the most cowardly," Seven said.
"The latter worries me more, cowards tend to act out of spite when they are outmatched or out manoeuvred that sort of person wouldn't think twice about killing everyone in here to buy themselves time to escape," Visa said in a low snarl and Seven nodded in agreement with her.
"Yeah so they have to die first and that remote disabled, hopefully, we can capture one of the things then maybe Eve or our own tame scientists can study it and work out how to rig up some kind of jamming system that will block the signals and prevent them being used at all," Seven mused.
"Sounds like a solid plan to me my love, so how do you want to play this?" Visa asked.
"Silent and deadly until the shit hits the fan, don't want to tip our hand until the commander is toast and that remote secured, after that, it's angry claw in a box time," he said grinning under his helmet.
"Why would anyone put an angry claw in a box? That would just make them even angrier," Visa said in confusion.
"You've never seen a Jack in the Box, have you? You know what never mind, let's just get in there and see what we can do," Seven said standing up so he could hook Visa under the arms and silently he lifted the pair of them up and over the wall depositing them down on the other side.
It's kinda hard to move quietly in power armour even if it has run silent servos and quiet hydraulics, it's still about a ton of heavy metal moving about on a frame and even with cushioned padding on the feet its footfalls are still pretty hefty.
By contrast despite her size Visa was as quiet as a mouse when moving, well a vastly oversized scaly mouse with anger issues and giant claws anyway.
The pair peeked from in between some old boarded-up houses that were blatantly being used as storage areas into the main street of the shanty town, it appeared that it had once been a kind of display area for plants that had been engineered to grow in Nuka Cola's colours by the old faded display billboard that stood towering over the four large greenhouses that stood in the centre of the town.
But now it was obviously being used to grow food for the raiders and managed by their captive slave labour force all of which seemed to have been confined to three heavily guarded houses that were little more than large two-story pens with iron siding.
As he panned his head from left to right Seven spied both their armoury, guard barracks and the commander's hut, all easily identifiable even in their ramshackle makeshift state.
"Alright that's our first port of call, the commander is most likely going to be in there, hopefully, we'll catch the fucker sleeping, or better in a drug-fueled coma," Seven said pointing towards the guarded hut that had two very bored looking guards sat on chairs at its door.
"Lead the way, my love," Visa said and Seven stuck to the inside of the wall until they reached the gates where he used the guard tower to slip unseen across the open street with Visa slinking along behind him.
Even as they got close Seven could hear the soft snoring of the two guards on duty outside the commander's place and from inside they could hear muffled chatter but the metal walls.
Visa mimed that the commander was still awake with her large hands and Seven nodded, it wasn't ideal but they had no choice but to press on, Seven mimed taking out a guard each at the same time and Visa nodded her head before silently slinking off to circle around the house from the opposite direction so she'd come up near the other guard.
Seven moved into position and when he saw Visa's horned head pop out of the gap between the houses he stuck out his hand and counted down from three, when he closed his fist to hit zero the pair moved in perfect sync around the walls and grabbed a guard each, Seven's hydraulic enhanced strength snapping the sleeping man's neck before he even had the chance to make a murmur other than the long drawn out sigh of his final breath escaping over his shoulder blades.
Meanwhile, Visa had opted for something a little more direct and had simply driven her claws up through the chin of her sleeping guard and punched out the top of his head, neither man made a single noise as they passed and rather than drag them both away the pair simply placed them back in their chairs and propped them up, with Seven even turning his guard's head back round the right way to look more natural.
The commander's hut might be a ramshackle affair but it was still not only the best maintained but it was the biggest of the houses other than the billet for the rest of the guards which made it kinda obvious, rather than making a racket kicking the door in Seven simply popped the door lock telekinetically and then slowly opened it outwards allowing him and Visa to step silently as they could inside.
The place was a fucking mess, to say the least, empty alcohol bottles were strewn everywhere along with disused food packets, and there was what appeared to be a large pool table in the centre of the large room that had most of its felt missing from it exposing the slate underneath.
Around the walls there were skulls with candles affixed to them in an obviously grim attempt to make the leader seem more threatening, it was radier decor 101 if Seven had ever seen it.
The voices seemed to be coming from another room off this main one and Seven could see light spilling under a partially open door, he motioned to Visa to move silently and she nodded the pair picking their way across the trash-covered floor gingerly so they didn't boot any cans or empty bottles flying.
Seven peeked through the gap in the door and what he saw inside made him sick to his stomach, in the centre of the room was a pole that was anchored to both the ceiling and the floor, dancing around the pole was a young naked woman with a bomb collar around her throat and a dead look in her glassy blue eyes.
Sat on a large couch with two of what must be his bodyguards was the commander of the place, he was obvious because he was the biggest fucker there, he was easily six-five and about three hundred pounds of tattoed muscle but it didn't matter how big he was because angry Claw girl was bigger, faster, meaner and a whole lot stronger.
"That fucker dies first," Seven hissed pointing to the man in the middle of the three and Visa's eyes flicked over the scene beyond the door and a look of purest hate crossed over her features as her lips came up into a fang-filled snarl.
"He's mine," she hissed and Seven nodded, this left him with the two bodyguards well that was easy.
Visa hit the door with her head and before any of the men could even shout an alarm she had crossed the room in a single bound driving both her claw-tipped hands right through the man's chest and nailing him to the couch.
The two bodyguards went to instinctively dive for cover but neither of them managed to move as Seven anchored them in place before snapping their necks at the same time he also managed to use his telekinesis to clamp the young woman's mouth shut and to hold her still to prevent her from screaming the place down and alerting everyone to their presence ahead of time.
Even Visa managed to hold her tongue in not bellowing a victory roar in the dying man's face as he chocked on his own blood as she bared her vicious teeth at him, "This is for everyone innocent you've hurt, scum," she snarled in a low voice as the man's head finally flopped limply against his chest.
The dangling naked white woman that Seven was telekinetically holding stared at the talking deathclaw across the room from her in disbelief, "Sorry about this miss just had to take out the trash before we discussed pleasantries, here come sit down, let's get you some clothes shall we?" Seven aid gently flew the girl over to the currently unoccupied bed and sat her on the end of it.
"Indeed we apologise for the distress and unpleasantness but these things cannot be helped when dealing with scum like them," Visa said retracting her claws after wiping them free of blood.
"Now I'm going to release your mouth if you promise not to scream, we're going to have a he of a time helping your people if we're having a running gun battle with the jet heads down the street ok?" Seven said and the blonde woman nodded and he released her mouth from its invisible clamp.
"W-W-Who are you and how can that deathclaw talk!!?" the woman exclaimed in a thankfully quiet and fear-filled voice as Seven handed her what must have been her clothing that he'd found piled on the floor next to the dancing pole.
"Well my name is Seven and this ravishing slab of Claw feminity here is Visa and we're here to rescue you and the others like you from these fuck wits, we have a safe place set up not too far from here that we can take you all and protect you while we deal with the rest of them," Seven said gesturing to the dead raiders.
The woman looked more shocked at the prospect of someone actually wanting to help them than at the revelation that deathclaws could talk by the way her eyes nearly bugged out of her skull.
"H-Help us? What for? Why?" she exclaimed.
"Err because it's the right thing to do and I fucking hate slave-taking cunts, so it's kinda our mission to help people like yourself so we send a clear message out across the wasteland, take slaves and we will come for you, every creature should live free," Seven said passionately.
"Ahh lookie what I found," Visa said pulling out a small body little remote control with an antenna stuck on top of it.
"Excellent, lets pocket that and hopefully Tim and Shauna can do something with it, in the mean time lets get that fucking thing off you," Seven said pulling out the defuser and heading over to the frightened woman who flinched away when he came near her throat with the device.
"Don't be scared it disarms the bombs and means we can safely remove it without you well you know going headless," Seven said softly though his speakers really didn't help soften his voice all that much.
The woman watched him curiously for a moment before nodding slowly, Seven lifted the defuser and after a quick burst, the lit red LED on the bomb around her throat fizzled out indicating that it was now inert.
"There we go now lets get this pos off you got a far better use for this fucking thing," Svene said unlocking the collar from around her throat and exposing a very pale white ring around her neck that indicated that she'd had it on for a rather long time, it reminded him of the ring a person gets from wearing a watch on one arm for extended periods.
"O-Oh my god, it's been so long that'd actually forgotten what it feels like to not have that thing on," the woman exclaimed rubbing her throat as she looked at the bomb collar in Seven's armoured hand.
"And we will make sure that you or anyone else never has to wear one again," Visa said in a defiant snarl.
"What's your name?' Seven asked looking at the woman who was now clutching her clothes against her still-naked body protectively.
"J-Julia," she said softly.
"Well Julia I need you to stay here for me ok, hide yourself in that cupboard over there because very soon it's gonna get real loud and real shooty, but once we're done with these raider fuck heads we'll come back to get you ok?" Seven said and she looked at him with wide eyes.
"Are you really going to kill the raiders? All of them?" she exclaimed and Seven nodded.
"Yup, that's the plan, the only ones walking out of this place today are soon to be free slaves," Seven said and with that, he turned to Visa and gave her a nod, the big Claw girl turned and headed for the door.
"Remember cupboard until we come to get you," Seven said and Julia nodded and quickly scrambled into her tatty clothes before scrambling into the cupboard to hide herself while Seven and Visa both quietly left the way they'd entered.
"So what's the plan?" Visa asked as they used the shadows to move along the wall.
"Simple I'm going to blow the armoury to kingdom come, when it goes boom you break down the barracks door and go Claw postal on the fuckers inside, don't hold back my love I want the fuckers that find this place shitting their pants at the merest thought of who did this," Seven said and Visa gave him the evilest grin he'd ever seen on her handsome face.
"Now that sounds like my kind of plan, only wish Ven was here to join in he'd love this if only to win brownie points with Gregory," she said and Seven chuckled.
"Think that boy's got all the brownie points he'll ever need with him don't you?" he said as he took out a plasma grenade and began wiring the bomb collar to it.
"A good Claw should always seek to impress their human, no matter what the circumstances it serves to reiterate that we are the only ones for you," she said before slinking off into the shadows and heading for the barracks.
Seven moved around the makeshift armoury where the raiders held their heaviest gear like missile launchers etc and looked for a way in, he figured his best bet as there didn't appear to be any windows was right in through the front door so taking a deep breath to steel himself he opened the door and stepped inside.
The place wasn't large not much more than an oversized garden shed with a partition made out of what looked like an old subway ticket counter with bars bolted over it, behind it on a chair watching what appeared to be a holo tape player was a man with a really long grey beard in his mid-fifties, though given his obvious excessive drug use due to his gaunt wirey appearance he could be in his early twenties for all Seven knew, didn't matter either way he was a dead man before he could even turn his head to look at the newcomer.
Seven's telekinesis overestimated just how frail the man's neck joints were so when he twisted his head it pretty much pulled it clean off his neck sending a spurting jet of crimson blood upwards as it fell to the floor with a heavy thud.
Seven blinked in shock for a moment, either his grip on his powers was accelerating far faster than he'd imagined or that guy's neck was made of fucking paper, he'd only meant to snap his neck not tear his head clean off.
But either way, he had a mission to complete, so he quickly broke open the door that lead into the back room which was filled with mismatched racks of weapons and ammo that the radiers had collected and stored for the unlikely (in their opinion) event that they were attacked.
After carefully placing the suped-up plasma grenade in among a whole box of grenades and hitting the primer Seven went back out the door like the arse of his suit was on fire, heading clear across the centre street with just enough presence of mind to turn and reach out with his mind, coiling it around the inner legs of the two watch towers pulling on them hard enough to snap them clean off before he jumped into cover.
Before the two towers had begun to even fall the armoury exploded in a gigantic fireball that rapidly morphed into a mushroom cloud heading into the sky, as the shockwave of the explosion peeled across the town Visa's huge foot collided with the door of the barracks and sent it inwards with a muted crash.
Her huge frame vanished inside the building through the narrow doorway and pretty soon even as burning debris began to rain down across the chaos-stricken town shouts and screams began to sound from inside the building along with a deafening battle roar, which given the close confines they were in when she gave it must have rattled the senses of every living thing in there with her, not that the 'living' part would be their active status for long.
Seven aimed his plasma rifle at the doorway and promptly shot anyone that was quick enough to make it out of the path of the incredibly pissed-off claw girl currently going ape shit inside the barracks, after only three minutes Visa emerged without a single scratch on her armour, though she did look like someone had upended a bucket of blood over her head as she was coated from head to toe in the stuff.
She met Seven halfway as he stepped out of the alley he'd been using to get a line of fire on the doorway and she wiped some of the crimson from her face leaving a long line where the gaps between her fingers missed.
This almost made her look like she was wearing war paint, "Well they won't be taking any more slaves that's for fucking sure, they were all so fucked up on whatever that shit they pump themselves full of that they barely even had time to pick themselves up off the floor before I hit them, think they were all too shell shocked from the armoury exploding to even realise I was there until it was too late," she snarled whipping her tail back and forth and sending a shower of dark splotches into the dust and across the stone of the road.
Seven nodded and grinned darkly under his helmet, "Good enough for the cunts, I wonder how many nighttime raids they did on innocent caravans and towns to collect the people in that cage over there, sounds like poetic justice to me," he said.
Visa nodded her large head and grinned, her large white teeth vividly contrasting with her blood-darkened hide, "Think you can punch a hole in that water tower over there? I'd really like to wash this shit off before we go meet our new friends in there I'm likely to give them a heart attack normally looking like this we won't have any left to take out of here," she said gesturing to her grizzly visage.
Seven nodded and headed over to the large squat water tower that sat in the centre of the town on four long legs like the guard towers had until he had snapped them like twigs, the first thing he did was tap on the side of the tower with an invisible fist to gauge if it was actually for show or if it did indeed have water in it when it made a dull thick ring like a gong he knew it was full and promptly that same fist punched clean through the metal siding like it was made of paper.
A stream of gushing water flowed out of the newly made hole and Visa stepped into it letting it wash both the dust and blood from her armour and scales, rivers of cloudy red water flowed off her and pooled on the ground at her feet.
"Ahh much better damn that stuff doesn't half stick to your scales and I don't know if it's because it's so full of chemicals but it fucking stinks," Visa said stepping out of the water stream with her scales now dripping wet and gleaming in the silver moonlight like they'd been polished.
"Well let's go meet our new friends shall we?' she said and Seven nodded leading the way over to the slave quarters where he could already see a face pressed against the upstairs bars looking out at the chaos that had engulfed the town.
Seven snapped the door clean off its hinges before stepping inside having to duck his head slightly as he did, immediately he could see that it was like a shanty town within a shanty town in here.
The slaves contained within the building had simply strung up things like fabric and bits of cardboard to section off little spaces for themselves, even as he took his first steps into the building Seven could see curtains snapping shut and twitching as if those flimsy pieces of cloth would either magically shield them from any intended violence or would somehow teleport them to a dimension where they were safe from the invader's wrath.
"Good people please do not be afraid, we mean you no harm, quite the opposite actually we have come here to free you," Seven said loudly his voice carrying throughout the building thanks to the amplifiers on the speakers of his helmet.
He instantly began to see faces peeking out from behind the curtains and cardboard dividers as they regarded the strange pair that now stood in their midst, "You don't need to fear us good people I know we look scary but we will not hurt you we only wish to free you from these bonds that these vile people have imposed on you," Visa said loudly her voice making people shrink back in alarm.
"Do me a favour and go and collect the woman from the commander's place, perhaps she can help here," Seven said and Visa nodded before heading off out of the door again.
Seven stood there silently watching the curious faces peeping at him from behind their curtains, he wondered how this must truly look to someone in their position, two very unlikely strangers and one a non-human at that bust into the camp, fuck the place and then raiders running it up seven ways from Sunday and then say they are here to free them, it must all smell pretty fishy.
A couple of silent and tense minutes later Visa returned with the now-dressed woman in tow leading her into the place and Seven could see pretty much every set of eyes dart to her and more importantly her lack of a collar.
Suddenly a young woman poked her head out from behind a tatty orange curtain and looked her up and down, "R-Rachel?" she exclaimed and the blonde woman from the commander's office smiled broadly.
"Julia!" she exclaimed and the woman burst from behind the curtains and threw her arms around her.
"Oh, when they dragged you off I thought I was never going to see you again! Oh but here you are safe and sound, my big sister is alive!" the woman called Juila half yelled half sobbed.
"Yeah you can thank these two for that, that fucker Spiker had some pretty vile plans for me, well I won't go into details I'm sure you can guess what he intended to do to me but these two saved me, they burst into the place and before any of them knew what hit them they were all dead and they were freeing me, they even got that fucking collar off, see?" Rachel said pointing to her whitened neck.
"T-They freed you!? But why? What do they want?" Julia asked glancing up at Seven and Visa.
"I don't know but I know that they don't want to hurt us, hell the deathclaw lady can even talk, they said they have a safe place nearby and that they intend to free everyone here," Rachel said but Seven heard a note of scepticism to her voice which to be fair he understood quite well, how often was it that prayers got answered and a benevolent group of strangers burst into your life with goodwill and noble intentions burning in their hearts?
"Look I know it's kinda hard to stomach or believe but honestly we don't mean anyone any harm, we just have a serious problem with raiders and especially the slave-taking variety, both of us and more of our group have been where you guys are now, we've all been captives and slaves held against our wills and had horrific things done and forced upon us, but we were lucky and able to free ourselves, now we make it a point to pay that luck forwards where ever we get the chance to, to help people just like us regardless of who or what they are," Seven said gesturing to Visa not in an unkind way but t simply make his point.
"Myself and my brother Ven we prisoners of people we call the Enclave, they did horrific things to us and my packmates and turned us into mindless killing machines but we were able to escape them when Seven and another of our friends Wisp broke out and we met up with them later on and decided to help one another, soon we realised we could use our collective strengths to do some good for normal people out there, Seven and Wisp showed Ven and me that not all humans are bad, that there are good, kind decent humans who would not treat us like mindless beasts to be exterminated, but as fellow sentient living beings just like them, then it became so much more than that, now we offer the same hand that was offered to us not so long ago, come with us now and be free good people, let us show you what it looks like when the strong stand for the weak and what they can truly accomplish together," Visa said.
It seemed the appearance of the now-freed Rachel and Visa's heartfelt words inspired the people around her and like meerkats cautiously coming out of their burrows they began to emerge all around them, slowly coming over for a better look.
"First things first let's get those fucking vile collars off you all, so please people line up and present yourselves to me and I'll take those bloody bombs off you, never again will you wear your lives around your necks like this," Seven said beckoning Julia towards him for a demonstration.
She looked at Rachel for reassurance and the blonde woman simply nodded and smiled before guiding her younger sister over to Seven who pulled out the defuser and simply placed it to her neck, once the LED fizzled out he telekinetically popped the collars locks and pulled it free discarding it with a heavy thud on the floor that made people gasp.
"I-I-It's gone! I-I-I'm free!" she exclaimed feeling her now bare throat that still bore the same white ring around it that her sisters did.
"See?" Rachel said and instantly the crowd swarmed towards Seven but a loud snarl from Visa froze them in their tracks and all eyes turned to the massive Claw girl in alarm.
"Form an orderly line, good people, we are not going anywhere till everyone one of you walks free, my beloved one will get to you all I promise," she said loudly.
"You know if we ever do manage to get the world back to some semblance of order and stability I think I've got the perfect job for sentient Claws to do," Seven said to Visa as he began to work on the line of people stood snaking around the building before him.
"Shock troopers and special forces,?" Visa said proudly puffing out her ample chest as she took up a proud and noble pose.
"Close, club bouncers, don't think I've ever seen someone get people to form an orderly line quicker in my life, hell I think you might actually be able to herd drunks or even cats," he said with a chuckle that grew louder as she cuffed the back of his helmet with a metallic dong.
"Smartass," she huffed.
"You know you love me," Seven chuckled with a grin under his helmet.
"Damn right I do human boy," Visa said flashing him a toothy grin.
It took Seven the better part of an hour to get all of the collars off and as much as he would have liked to keep them to use the ordinance he decided that a display of goodwill to those they had held ensnared for so long was in order, so with another creative use of a plasma grenade Seven used the pile of collars to blow the gates of the compound into fucking orbit to loud cheers and whoops from the now freed people.
"I won't force you to come with us people that's not what we're about if you wish to take your journey elsewhere then we will simply wish you good luck and farewell, but if you do wish to come with us you are very welcome to do so, we have set up a safe haven nearby that we have set up to house people like yourselves while we work to make the entire of Nukaworld safe for everyone, the last thing we want is for anyone to get retaken by the slavers still roaming these lands, plus I would not recommend staying here as it will only be so long before the raiders from their main hub send out people to investigate what happened to their food supply, so I offer you a choice people, walk your own path or follow us on ours but please choose quickly we cannot linger for long," Seven said addressing the crowd of what had turned out to be fifty people.
The vote was unanimous all fifty chose to follow Seven and Visa, so Seven instructed them to clear out the food stores and to grab any remaining weapons from the dead raiders they could carry as well as anything like water for the journey ahead.
Once they were done with Seven and Visa helping where they could the group set out into the park with Seven leading the way while Visa followed up the rear and watched their backs, it was not a tremendously long walk to Dryrock Gultch but the terrain was not kind.
Fortunately, they did not encounter any resistance on the way there and other than the odd roaming animal the walk was quiet and uneventful, once they arrived Seven introduced them all to the Sheriffs guarding the place and gave them strict instructions to guard these people and to keep them safe against the raiders they'd now been programmed to repel, Visa thought it might be a good idea to get some of the Gatorclaws to come over here and set up a little outpost of their own to help beef up the security while also doing wonders for the relations between the two species an idea what Seven fully endorsed as he'd noticed during the walk that while people had been rather nervy of her at first they'd swiftly warmed up to her as she spoke with them.
He figured it paid into the mindset of we always fear the unknown, Visa had been an unknown a talking deathclaw, but now that they'd spent time with her and seen for themselves that other than the aesthetics she was truly no different to them on the inside people had began to warm up to her rather rapidly.
If it had been that easy with her then there should be no reason that the same shouldn't be true of the Gatorclaws as well.
So while Visa remained behind to help the newcomers settle in Seven headed back to the Safarizome to meet with his other comrades and the Gatorclaw pack Alphas to discuss this with them.
As it turned out the Gatorclaws were more than happy to send some of their numbers over to help the people out, they were all for anything that would help their people to live in peace with their human neighbours they also thought it might be a good chance to show them the best places to hunt and fish around the area so they could help the newly freed slaves become self-sufficient and Seven saw an opportunity here in the sense that the freed slaves might be able to teach the Gatorclaws how to farm, the land around the Safari zone was certainly fertile, this could lead to the potential for future enterprise between the two with Gatorclaw grown fruits and vegetables ending up on the tables of humans all over Nukaworld.
He also took the time to check in with Shauna and Timothy to hand over the radio transceiver so they could start to work on trying to work out a way of jamming it, though he did get a chuckle out of Shauna grumbling to him that she had new found respect for Visa's suffering about wanting to peel her human out of his tin can given that Timothy kept slipping back into his every time she had her back turned.
All in all the plan was really starting to take shape now and they were starting to gain momentum, all they had to do was keep it going and hope that they'd be able to weaken the outer ring of slave towns before the radiers really started to realise what was happening, with a bit of luck they'd have the drop on them with a much larger force than they anticipated, but the real question was, would their luck hold out?