Chapter 155: Cracking the Code.
"Condor to Show Stopper I have a great view of your cute little human ass from up here over," Latisha's voice cut through Yumi's comms as she lay a few feet from Snow and very nearly caused her to bark a laugh but she managed to suppress it.
"Snow to Condor maybe try looking at the enemy installation rather than Show Stopper's ass, over," Snow said into the comms grumpily.
"Deadeye to Snow stop being jealous that the big feather girl is looking at her ass rather than yours, I'm sure if you hang around these guys long enough a big Claw girl will show up with eyes for your human ass over," Deadeye said making it even harder for Yumi to stifle her laughter.
"You guys are a seriously bad influence on her," Snow grumbled softly and Yumi grinned at him.
"Hey don't blame us I'm pretty sure she was like this before she got introduced to my lot," Yumi hissed back at him.
"Well you're not wrong but you guys have made it a lot worse," Snow grumbled.
"Hey some might say we made it better you know, if there is one thing I have learned since joining the Free Peoples is that the world doesn't play by anyone's rules but its own, I mean take a look around us that the place we live in as an example of that, it and we survived nuclear fire," Yumi said.
"Fair point, doesn't mean I have to like it," Snow said.
"No one said you did, just accept it and move on, the world is complicated, seriously fucking complicated, I mean look at me, I'm a human girl with abilities that would fry the brains of most people whose madly in love with a Condor girl and part of an organisation that is trying to forge humans and non-humans together into one unified whole," Yumi said.
"Stop making good points," Snow said.
"Condor to all call signs, heads up guys I'm seeing a lot of movement here, over" Latisha's voice cut in again, both Snow and Yumi turned and used their binos to scan the building.
"Deadeye to all call signs, I see it too, there's a lot of movement, looks like they are moving something pretty big, over," Deadeye said.
Through their binos, both Snow and Yumi saw a team of what were blatantly synths moving a rather large cage out into the open before opening it and connecting it up to what appeared to be a series of sensors and a portable power supply.
"It looks like they are setting a trap of some kind but what the hell could they want to catch in a cage that big?" Snow said.
"No fucking idea also the other question ringing in my brain is why would they want to be catching something that big?" Yumi said.
"Well with a bit of luck hopefully we'll be able to find some answers in their network, but at least we have visual confirmation of numerous Corsours and normal synths present on site, check out the tracking collars they have them wearing," Snow said and Yumi panned her binos up to take a look at the nearest synth gasping as she saw what looked to be a slave collar around their neck.
"That's not just a tracking collar, it's a fucking bomb collar," Yumi growled.
"A bomb collar?' Snow asked.
"Seven's people reported that the Raiders controlling Nuka World are using them to track and kill escaped slaves, press a button and pop, head turns into confetti, they sent over a way for us to disable the things if we encountered them, but we don't have one of the units on hand because we didn't exactly expect this, why the hell are they wearing those collars, I mean isn't the whole point of them making the synths to allow them to replace people and infiltrate key organisations, how are they gonna do that if they have to strap them with a bomb to prevent them from running away?" Yumi said.
"No idea but it could be that the Synths they have here are previous runners and this slave labour and those collars could be being used as some kind of cruel punishment, a hey look at the outside world you'll never get to see because you decided to think for your fucking self and tried to live a life of your own, fucking bastards," Snow growled.
Yumi could feel the rage radiating off the young stoic Asian man even from here, he really did care deeply about the plight of the synths, just like she was committed to the plight of the non-humans of the Free Peoples and those they encountered, they really were not so different after all.
As they continued to watch the captive synths under the continual watchful eye of the Coursers set up a few more cages all around the factory area, she wondered if there would be a way to free them when they infiltrated the place but it seemed that Snow had a little trick of reading minds hidden up his sleeves because he answered that even as she was thinking it.
"Don't get any ideas about freeing them when we go in there, we can't afford them to even suspect that we were here, trust me if there was even a chance that we could bust them out of there without the fucking Coursers suspecting outside help I'd be the first one to suggest it, but we know their methods all too well if they even suspect that they had help busting out, they'll scramble all of the access codes to the system and make our lives absolute hell trying to break in, they might even go hunting and pull the RAT before it has chance to break their system open, we need this access to save more lives, as much as it pains me to say this let alone think it, we can only just watch," he said in a voice that echoed every single drop of the pain he was feeling at the situation.
"Don't worry Snow when we have what we need from this place and it won't matter either way I will personally make sure that I head back over here with a team of angry Claws and tear this place to fucking shreds, we'll get those synths out of there and take them someplace safe, hell if they want we'll even give them a place in the Free Peoples, last time I checked they fall into the non-human category, we'll show them what freedom really is, you have my word," Yumi said.
Snow glanced back at her and for the briefest of moments, she swore she saw a smile flicker over his stoic face before it was gone like a lightning flash.
"Make sure I'm on the team, I wanna be here to see that," he said.
"You got it, I'll even put in a word with Ven, after what happened to his husband Gregory as well as himself and his sister few people are walking this fucked up Earth that hate slave takers more than that boy and trust me, when that big Claw boy goes fucking postal you just grab a seat, a Nuka cola and some fucking popcorn, because it is one hell of a show," Yumi said with a grin.
"One that I sadistically find myself rather looking forward to watching," Snow said.
Once night fell over the wastes all seemed to go quiet in the factory, it was time for Yumi and Snow to move in, so the pair of them got as close as they dared using just darkness to cover their approach before both of them activated the modified Stealth Boys, as the mirror-like radiation shimmered around them the pair of them vanished from sight making it nigh on impossible to even see one another let alone to be seen by others.
"Radio silence from here on in, we can't afford them to pick up the transmission signals, these guys have pretty sophisticated radio pin-pointing equipment," Snow said.
Yumi nodded her head before realising that he couldn't see her.
"Roger that, I'd say lead on but I can't fucking see you," she hissed back in a low whisper.
"Yeah gonna make co-ordinating our movements a bit tricky but just move slow and steady, that way if we do bump into one another it won't knock us on our asses," he said.
The pair of them moved super slowly with Snow leading and Yumi doing her best to try and follow his footprints in the dirt as he left them, it worked right up until they wound up walking on the concrete of the factory area, that's when Yumi came up with the idea of her placing a hand on his shoulder that way where one when the other followed at the same speed without any risk of tripping over one another.
So once she found his shoulder that's what they did, a slow conga dance right up to the wall of the factory before using one of the many holes in it to slip inside being careful not to slip on the piles of rubble strewn everywhere.
The Institute was nothing if not thorough in covering its tracks, to the untrained eye, this place looked like any other abandoned factory, well other than the massive traps set up outside but even they had been camouflaged now as the team had been watching the captive synths setting up metal sheeting and other debris in order to camouflage the traps.
The pair took a brief look around the room they had entered and to the untrained eye, it simply looked like any other wrecked factory, well other than the high-speed transfer cable running along a series of hooks in the wall high above head height.
"Follow the wires," Snow hissed softly and Yumi patted his shoulder to indicate that she understood.
The pair of them began to move along the wall following the new cable and straight away they could tell that it led to a stairwell that led to a few subterranean levels.
The pair hugged the wall as they descended the stairs and they heard footsteps coming the other way, the pair of them froze as still as a pair of statues against the wall.
Yumi could feel her heart beating like a drum in her chest, she focused her mind hard and controlled her breathing, she began to charge an electrical current through her body, spooling it up like a capacitor, ready to release the whole thing at a moment's notice.
She had to let go of Snow's shoulder while she did this otherwise she'd send the current through him as well, she had to be ready to discharge it and thankfully it didn't disrupt the cloaking energy.
Two figures emerged into the stairwell below them and began to ascend the stairs towards them, by the way, the pair were dressed and looked almost emotionless the pair of them were blatantly Coursers, and the lack of collars gave it away as well.
Yumi was so very tempted to zap the pair of them regardless of whether they spotted them or not, that flush of hot anger upped the voltage flowing through her quite considerably and she had to fight to hold it contained within her body.
The pair walked right past them without ever even glancing in their direction, it seemed that Tom's modified Stealth Boys did their job rather well.
As soon as the Coursers were out of earshot and sight Yumi pressed her hands to the wall and dumped all of the energy into it causing the energy to dump right into the earth with nothing more than a crackling and the smell of ozone.
"What was that?" Snow hissed.
"I charged up a shocking surprise in case they spotted us, I just dumped it into the ground," Yumi said.
"Wow I keep forgetting the kind of shit you are capable of, remind me not to piss you off," Snow said.
"Just don't go looking at Latisha's feathered ass and we'll be fine, I'm the only one who's gonna get to peak at the treats hidden under those feathers," she said and much to her shock, Snow actually laughed.
"Deal, besides apparently I'm into Deathclaw girls remember?' he said.
"I'll be sure to let Seven know we got a Claw-loving human bachelor on our hands, get him to fly in a whole group of human-loving hopeful Gatorclaw girls," she said as she began to descend the stairs with her hand on his shoulder again.
"Don't you fucking dare," he said grumpily.
"There's the grumpy Snow we know and love, boy we need to get you laid and I'm sure there will be a long line of Claw girls ready to try their luck," Yumi said.
"Ha fucking ha," Snow hissed as they continued on their way down the stairs.
"You know the more you fight the feeling the more inevitable it becomes trust me on that one, better to face it head-on or before you know it some big Condor girl is scooping you up and kissing the hell out of you and you're obsessed with her fluffy tail feathers," Yumi hissed back.
"I believe they call that projecting," Snow hissed.
Eventually, the staircase terminated in a large basement area where they kept what appeared to be the generators which looked like they had once run on the standard fusion core batteries that were also used to run things like power armour and even vehicles.
But the cables seemed to vanish into the wall on the far side of the large basement, the pair moved slowly and silently through the basement, and the first thing they noticed was that one of the generators was running and had a fusion core plugged into it.
"Looks like this generator is powering the stuff upstairs and possibly their defences like those turret guns they did a pretty good job of hiding in the ceiling, but this generator won't be enough to run their entire operation, they must have more hidden somewhere, let's keep following the wires," Snow said from her left side.
The pair of them picked their way carefully and slowly across the room until they found where the wires seemed to disappear right into the wall itself.
"Got to be a hidden entrance here somewhere," Yumi said looking at the wall.
"You could try that electrical trick of yours, if you dump enough energy into the wall it might trigger the mechanism that's hiding the door," Snow said.
"Or I could just press that switch over there," Yumi said walking up to a small button that was in a recess to her left and pressing it.
There was a deep rumbling noise as the concrete of the wall moved back an inch to reveal a seam in the wall where the door was hidden, slowly it rolled out of the way to the hidden door that they sought.
"Smart ass," Snow grumbled.
"Yup but brownie points go to you for thinking up creative uses for my abilities, I'm glad to see you are embarrassing them," Yumi said.
Snow simply grumbled some more though this time the words were unintelligible as he passed through the hole and into the stairwell that was hidden behind the door.
It seemed that the Insitute were using a cave network that was located directly underneath the factory for their base.
Rather than using buildings they were using large open-plan work areas, there was an area dedicated to eating, sleeping and multiple areas for working depending on what tasks they'd been assigned.
But the biggest thing that caught both of their attention was the fact there were easily over a hundred synths here and not a single one of them was gen ones or twos.
"Holy shit I've never seen so many in one place," Snow gasped in a low hiss.
Every single one of the synths here wore the same jumpsuits and bomb collar get-up except for the Coursers that were guarding them, they seemed to be engaged in both research and in the manufacturing of something.
"Focus Snow, we have a mission here, when we get the chance we'll come back and these fuckers will pay for this" Yumi hissed.
"Damn straight," Snow growled in a low voice and Yumi felt him begin to move again, slowly picking his way along the far wall to stay out of the visual range of the Coursers, once they were close enough the pair of them laid down on the ground and began to slowly crawl forwards.
Their progress was painstakingly slow as they had to ensure that their movements didn't cause the energy hiding them to shimmer enough to give them away, every meter they covered felt like a fucking inch in an ever-expanding expanse between them and their target but eventually, they reached the area where the data terminals were sat with synths beavering away busily on them.
Yumi reached into her pouch and retrieved the RAT from it before slowly tapping it against Snow's invisible leg to indicate not only where she was but what she was holding.
Snow reached back and took the RAT from her hand and ahead of her she could see the wires moving where his hands were, he was being careful not to pull any out or cut them as he gently cut through the jackets that protected the wires so that he could connect the crocodile clips from the RAT to the wires so that it could receive the signals moving through them without interrupting them.
Once that part was done Snow hooked the RAT into the power supply port at the back of the terminal and connected it in so that it didn't look out of place, the RAT had no lights or anything that would attract attention to its presence and now it was connected their job here was done, now all they had to do was get out again without being noticed.
The way out was just as painstaking as the way in but they had to be sure that they were not detected so they took it slow and sure and only deactivated the Stealth Boys once they were well clear of the place and on somewhat safe ground as much as there was such a thing out here in the wastes.
"Condor to Show Stopper there's the fine human ass that I love over," Latisha's voice said sounding relieved over the comms and that's when Snow decided to pull another curve ball out of his ass.
"Snow to Condor kindly please stop talking about my ass over the radio, over," he said before Yumi could respond and by the barking laugh that came back over the comms he'd almost chocked Deadeye and nearly caused Latisha to fall out of the sky in shock.
"You wish human boy, over," she said.
"Snow to all call signs job is done, let's withdraw to the safe zone and regroup, over and out," he said.
As Snow and Yumi arrived at the OP area both Deadeye and Latisha were both arriving as well, Deadeye from the direction of the water tower and Latisha came swooping down out of the sky and fluttered to a halt next to Yumi.
The big Condor snatched Yumi up into her large powerful arms and pulled her against her massive chest tightly.
"Mine," she said possessively while holding her tightly.
"You got that right big girl," Yumi said lifting her head up to look at her.
Latisha leaned down and pushed her beak to Yumi's lip so that she could kiss her in the human way while running her long tongue over them.
"Can you at least save it until we are inside out of sight?" Snow grumbled opening the door to the ruined buildings that they had picked out a safehouse.
"No time like the present to enjoy some love, you've had me up in the air all night staring down at my girlfriend's perfect human ass and you expect me not to kiss her the first chance I get?" Latisha said winking at Yumi while smiling all over her large beak.
Snow just groaned and headed inside with Deadeye grinning at the back of his head.
"I think you girls are gonna make him horny enough to give in to those Claw girls you keep threatening him with," she said and there was an even louder grumble from the stairwell ahead of them indicating that the stoic Asian man had heard her.
The group headed inside and up the stairs into the apartment they had commandeered, they would be heading back to base but they knew that Tom needed to call in to indicate that they were receiving the data and if they had something that would need their immediate attention, plus Snow wanted to report what he had Yumi had found in there to Desdemona.
As soon as they were in the living room all of them dumped their gear and Latisha lifted Yumi so that she could plant the smaller human woman on her lap as she lowered her large feathered ass into the couch.
"Wise One to all call signs we are in business the RAT is alive and squeaking and boy is it squeaking up a storm, you should be seeing the shit I am seeing here, it's gonna take me a few hours maybe longer to sift through all of this so we're gonna need you guys to stay out there in the field for a bit, we need a rapid response team on call, oh yeah over," Tinker Tom said.
"Roger, that Wise One is the Boss there with you, over?' Snow said.
"Yeah Roger that, over," Tinker Tom said.
"Whats the problem Snow over," Desdemona said.
"We have over one hundred loose on-site over, they have bomb collars on holding them on site, over," Snow said.
There was silence for a few moments as Desdemona went over the information she had just received and when the response came back the growl in her voice indicated that she was going to be talking it over with their new allies.
"Roger that, I will discuss this with others and get back to you, over and out," she said.
"Well I guess we're stuck here for the time being so get comfortable people, this could take a while," Snow said.
"Well I know I'm already comfortable," Yumi said grinning playfully at Latisha who simply lifted an eyebrow at her before grinning back at him.
"That makes two of us," she said.
"Oh god could you get any cuter if you tried, I seriously need my own fluffy feather boy so I can snuggle up in his lap," Deadeye said.
"Be easier to find a nice Gatorclaw boy to snuggle up to than a big feathery angel like the one I got," Yumi said making Latisha growl and then purr and nibble at her with her beak.
"Honestly given the state of my love life I'm beginning to think you might be right, seems to do pretty well for your boy Gregory he absolutely worships the ground that Ven walks on, so maybe a big Claw boy wouldn't be so bad," Deadeye mused.
"Honestly from what I've seen and heard of the Claws in our midst they are absolutely devoted to the ones they love, they might not be to everyone's taste but if they are to yours then you might very well be landing on your feet because you can pretty much guarantee you will not only get loved for life but you'll be protected for life as well, because who in their right fucking mind is gonna take on an angry Claw boy to get to you?" Yumi said.
"Good points those," Deadeye said wistfully rubbing her chin in thought.
"Plus I'll bet you any amount of caps those Claw boys are definitely packing some serious heat in the male department if you catch my meaning," Yumi said playfully giving Deadeye a grin that first made her blush and then returning it with some gusto.
"Now that you mention it I kinda wonder how in the name of hell those of your lot that have a Claw for a lover fucking manage it, I mean the boys must be hung worse than a fucking horse and the girls well, do they even get anything from jumping on a human?" Deadeye said.
"From the noises, I've heard Ven and Gregory making together they seem to fit together rather nicely and from what I can tell the pair of them are switches so no distinct top or bottom, so whatever a human has seems to be more than enough for them and from what I'm told Seven and Visa's passion for one another is the stuff of fucking legends among our lot, kinda the love that sparked the revolution if you will, so if it works for the four of them then why not you too?" Yumi said with a shrug.
Latisha was gently stroking Yumi's stomach and her thighs as she held her in her lap and it gave a very distinct feeling of both security and comfort to her, but more than that, every single light brush of her hand sent sparkles of powerful pleasure bouncing around her nerves like a ping pong ball made of electricity.
"Huh, so I guess there's a lot more to it than just size difference, but then I suppose it really does put the whole size matter argument to bed doesn't it, I mean if a human boy can please a Claw girl or a human boy can please a Claw boy then what fucking excuse does a human girl have for making fun of a man's size right?" Deadeye said thoughtfully.
"Size matters not, it is in how it is used, look at the difference in size between this beautiful human and myself, I am much larger than she is, but having seen her power with my own two eyes I know full well that she could beat me with ease if she chose to, I mean sure I could pin her down and she might struggle playfully while I peck gently at all the right spots until she gave in but if she truly wanted me off her then I'm pretty sure I'd be running across the room with an ass full of fire instead of tail feathers," Latisha said playfully giving Yumi's stomach and thigh a squeeze.
"I couldn't do that to your tail feathers, I love looking at them too much to do that to myself, though I think a little jolt might do the trick, you know fluff them all up nicely, should get the point across," Yumi said equally as playfully while holding her hand up and making sparks arc between her fingers to prove her point.
"Not a girl you want to piss off right there big girl, something tells me she could peel the lacquer off your beak at a hundred paces with just a cold stare," Deadeye said with a grin.
"And that is one of the many reasons I have fallen head over tail feathers in love with her, she can match me with ease and despite her great power lords nothing over me and considers herself nothing more than my equal, she seeks the comfort of my arms while I seek the reassurance of her heart, I know that I will love her till the end of my days on this Earth," Latisha said very nearly bringing a tear to Yumi's eyes, instead she quickly turned and kissed the big Condor right on the tip of her beak so that she wouldn't see her emotions threatening to tear their way out of her.
But it seemed that those incredibly sharp eyes of hers did see because she gently began to stroke the back of Yumi's head until the human girl looked up at her with bleary eyes.
"You never have to hide your feelings from me Yumi, good or bad I want to see them all so that I can be where I belong at your side while you ride through them," Latisha said in a soft whisper.
"Thank you for understanding me," Yumi said softly.
"You never have to thank me for that my beautiful one, if anything it should be me thanking you, you are the only one who has ever been brave enough to take a chance on me and to give me the chance to not only be happy with who I am but with my life as it is, there are simply no words in either of our languages to convey how much that means to me," Latisha said.
Suddenly both of them heard a soft sniffing and they both turned to see Deadeye trying in vain to dry her exposed eye.
"Gods above why the fuck do you two have to be so fucking precious! It's not fucking fair I tell you!" she sniffed and both Latisha and Yumi looked at one another before they both chuckled and Yumi settled her head in against Latisha's very ample chest.
After a bit of time the team decided to get some sleep, Snow said he would man the comms and take the first watch while the others retired for a bit, they would cycle out every four hours to ensure that everyone was well rested until they got their orders from HQ.
As Deadeye was heading to the room she'd bagged for herself she turned and grinned at the couple.
"Try not to make too much noise guys, some of us do actually want to use this time to sleep you know," she said with a wink though given her eyepatch it kinda just came off as her blinking for a bit too long at them.
Both Yumi and Latisha blushed like crazy at the implications in her words and they looked at one another as Deadeye vanished leaving only an airy laugh in her wake.
"Look if it's too soon for anything like that I'll completely understand I mean we've only been together for a couple of days so mean there's no need to rush anything so if you wanna take things slow and ease into things I'll completely understand..." Yumi started to babble before Latisha cut her off by putting a large soft finger onto her lips and then without saying a word she hoisted her up into a bridal carry and made a beeline for the room she'd bagged for herself.
"Well umm ok then I guess that answers that question," Yumi said blushing as she looked up at the very determined-looking Condor.
Latisha closed the door behind them with her large talon-covered foot and then carried Yumi over to the mattress in the corner of the room where she tenderly placed her down upon it.
Yumi could feel her heart hammering in her chest like a super mutant with a fucking super sledge was trying to bust through her fucking rib cage.
"I know that this feels fast to you my beautiful human and if you do feel rushed I will slow down I swear it but I have waited a lifetime to feel this way and I do not want to give fate the chance to snatch joy away from me before I have the chance to taste its truth, I only wish that I was able to give you the kind of nest a beauty like you deserves to lay down in rather than this dingy human ruin," Latisha said rather breathlessly as she loomed over her.
Yumi reached up and gently stroked over Latisha's feathered face, taking in every little contour of her beauty through her fingertips, from the softness of her fluffy feathers to the oddly sharp feeling of her bones beneath her tough skin to the hard smoothness of her long curved beak.
"I don't where we are Lati I only care who I am with, for me this is perfect because to me you are perfect, so your perfection cancels out the place entirely, does that make sense or am I just babbling here?" Yumi said chuckling at her own nervousness.
Latisha chuckled as she knelt down over Yumi making her truly realise the difference in size between her and the massive condor woman.
"It made sense to me my beautiful human and that is all that matters because you put into words exactly how I feel in my heart but I still swear to you that one day I will give you the kind of nest you deserve to lay in and then I will show you everything that you mean to me," Latisha said leaning down to kiss her gently.
Yumi's hands suddenly moved of their own accord, she reached up and very gently guided the large Condor woman to lay down next to her on the mattress and the sheer size of her caused Yumi to have to move up so that she was pretty much laying on top of her which she definitely wasn't complaining about.
She reached up and slowly began to attack the fasteners that held Latisha's armour in place and she could actually feel the massive Condor's heart pounding in her chest signalling to her that despite her earlier confidence she was just as nervous about this as she was herself, this was going to be a first for both of them and neither of them truly had a fucking clue was they were doing.
But somehow Yumi had confidence that between them they were going to figure it out, that between them there was no challenge they could not overcome, they were a perfect pair and she was going to prove it to her large feathered female love, she was going to love her in the way that she deserved to be loved, without reservation and without inhibition.
Suddenly she felt Latisha's large hands moving over her body, it seemed that she too wanted all barriers gone and was seeking the fasteners of her armour and clothing in order to remove them.
With each passing second and each discarded garment, their desperation and hunger built and grew stronger, their fingers became shaky from both excitement and building nervous energy that caused them to shake but the pair of them pushed on until finally the pair of them were both as naked as the day they were born or in Latisha's case, hatched.
"By the gods, you are beautiful Lati," Yumi exclaimed as she drank in every feathered curve of the large Condor woman laid before her on the mattress.
Her body looked like an oil painting thanks to her dark feathers making it look like she was covered in a layer of coloured paint that flowed and moved with her every breath and movement.
From her regal-looking head to her broad shoulders, to her large chest where only her nipples managed to pierce the layer of fluffy feathers all the way down to her huge and powerful legs, this woman was a work of art made flesh and feather.
"I was just thinking the same thing about you, my love, you are breathtaking, it's like someone carved beauty from pure porcelain and gave it a soul for me to yearn for," Latisha said reaching up and running her hand gently over Yumi's bare chest, gently engulfing one of her small breasts in the palm of her hand and causing Yumi's erect pink little nipple to brush against the soft feathers.
This sent a sparkle of pleasure crackling through her body and Yumi gasped which made Latisha smirk slightly.
"Before this night is done I am going to make you make so many more noises just like that one, tonight we will make our own dawn chorus," she said and with she pulled her down into her embrace.