Chapter 154: Echo Chamber.
Click stood at the war table with the rest of the very odd group that called themselves the Free Peoples, or so she had learned since speaking with them, one sect of the Free Peoples.
Apparently, they were part of a much larger organisation that was working on the idea of freeing the area that the humans called Massetuses from the control of groups like this Enclave that had attacked her colony.
They also seemed to be dedicated to not only freeing but integrating sentient non-humans and humans together into one cohesive society which she had to admit while she found to be dubious as to whether it would work or not seemed like a very admirable goal.
It also seemed to be working very well for them as from what she had heard and seen while gathering information about the group around this town all seemed to point towards them being very well-liked and exceedingly good at what they did.
"Alright people listen up, according to our new friend Click here, the Enclave are dug in around this factory and production site, as you can see by the layout of the ground it is atop a rather large hill but also deep in a heavily fogged area, this is going to make visibility a fucking nightmare, even from the air, plus from what we understand the Enclave troops are all wearing advanced power armour suits much like mine which is going to give them a form of early warning, now to this end I have an idea which is kind of inspired by our new friend here," Seven said glancing at Click who pricked up her large ears and wrinkled her stubby little nose as she looked at him curiously.
"By me?" she said and Seven nodded.
"You use sound waves as a form of sonar to both navigate and increase your visual range correct?' he said and she nodded.
"Yes, it allows me to see things with sound, it kind of paints a picture in my mind of where everything is," she said and Seven nodded.
"Well I believe there should be a way for me to do something very similar using my telekinesis, this will allow me to get a picture of the entire compound and a rough estimate of not only how many people are there but also what kind of layout and hardware they have," he said.
"We also believe if you are able to fly around the base and use the maximum range on your sonar you should be able to avoid detection, just ping the base from multiple angles and I will do the same, between all of us we should be able to build up quite a picture of the place, this will allow us to know where to deploy and where they are at their weakest," Seven said.
"What if they've already moved my flock to another place?" Click asked with anxiety lacing her voice.
"Then we will track them down and bust them out, but you must prepare yourself for this eventuality young one, having dealt with the Enclave on multiple occasions we are rather good at dealing with them but they are not to be underestimated or taken lightly, those weapons of theirs are no joke," Visa said and Click nodded with a grim look on her face.
"Trust me there are few that know that as well as I do at this point," she said and Visa nodded.
"Keep that fire burning young one, you are going to need it for the battle to come, be prepared for the worst, the Enclave will not want to give up their new ground easily and will most likely fight to hold their new territory to the last man," she said.
"Or until they are able to secure their assets and retreat," Seven said and Click nodded, this was going to be a hell of a fight and she knew it.
Before they gathered up their strike group to head out Seven and the others outfitted Click with some of the lightweight combat armour that they'd developed for those who could fly like Vizzy and Varrel, though they did have to modify it on the fly to accommodate her wings.
She marvelled at how quickly they were able to not only get things done but to organise such things, it really did seem like they had quite extensive experience doing this sort of thing though given the amount of different species working with them that kind of made sense.
Once she was outfitted with her new lightweight and surprisingly comfy armour Click took to the sky with Seven and the others following close behind, though it was a bit disconcerting to have a bubble filled with angry-looking Death and Gator Claws floating along in your wake, it was enough to make any Banshee put a sping in her wing.
Click flew as hard and as fast as she could, heading home again with the Free Peoples in tow, with every mile that passed below her wings her heart seemed to beat harder and faster in her chest, she was praying to anyone who would deem to listen to her little voice that her flock were ok and that the Enclave hadn't moved them or worse, she hoped she was not too late.
It took them most of the day to return to the Nothern area of the area where the swamps and her colony were located, it was an odd feeling, whereas before the thick fog had always given her a sense of safety and security from being seen by the predators of the land, now it gave her a deep sense of anxiety and fear.
This fog hid secrets and predators, though these predators didn't stalk the deep waters of the swamp, they simply appeared out of the fog, kicked in your nest's door and took what they wanted, including your life.
As she got close Click began to use her sonar to navigate as her eyes had just become completely useless and from behind her she could feel Seven doing the exact same thing.
She could feel the high speed ultra high frequency pulses of his sonar passing over her though it felt kinda strange to her.
Whereas any Banshee worth their salt could tell another Banshee by their sonar signature his felt strange to her, not mechanical or artificial exactly but almost cold and clinical.
Every Banshee's sonar signature was slightly different, this was how they didn't get confused when flying together in a flock or a swarm because if all of their sonar signatures were exactly the same all that would end up happening was they would wind up crashing into one another as their pulses merged together to form a wall of indistinguishable noise.
This was something that she had explained to Seven while they were outfitting her with her new armour before they even took to the air.
This was because his first few attempts perfectly mirrored Click's own frequency which confused the absolute hell out of her ears, it was like hearing your own voice echoing back at you despite having never spoken.
So once she'd explained this to him he had altered it slightly so that they could distinguish one another but it still felt odd to her, it was like his pulses lacked emotion.
To another Banshee they could easily tell what kind of mood the person who had sent the pulse out was in by the vigour to it, if it was higher than normal they were stressed or angry, if it was lower they were tired or being lazy.
Just little things like that could not only give away the sender's mood but also who they were as their signature was always present.
But with Seven sending pulses, it was like a machine doing it, there was a mechanical rhythm to it, no emotion, it was simply gathering raw data and nothing more.
As Click's pulses began to return to her she drew an image in her mind's eye of the ground below them, she could see the trees and the water, and she could even see every little blade of grass and leaf.
Now while she couldn't obviously see colours or anything like that her mind tended to fill in those gaps based on its experience or her mood.
For example, if she was happy the colours of the grass and the leaves and the little insects would be vibrant and beautiful, if she was sad or depressed they would be more sombre and grey.
Today her anxiety was playing fuck with her mental imagining so the colours were all over the shop, it was like looking at an abstract painting of the ground below her.
She wondered to herself if Seven would be seeing colours with his mechanical style pulsing, or whether everything would be basic black and white which is what a young Banshee saw until they were able to interpret what their pulses picked up.
As her sonar began to paint her a picture she could see Seven moving out to one side with Vizzy and Varrel sticking to her flanks, he obviously wanted to present a smaller target which was kinda hard to do when you were carrying along a bubble-filled with Claws, Super mutants and people in power armour.
Click suddenly spotted a safe place to put down and she hit Seven's bubble with a few high frequency pulses to get his attention, she felt a number of them hitting her back in return as he tried to figure out what she wanted and she pointed downwards.
Seven followed her down to the ground and the pair landed on a small island in the middle of the deep swamps.
No sooner had he put it down than Seven released the bubble and the Gatorclaws instantly spread out to form a perimeter around them, to be fair they seemed rather at home in the swampy terrain and didn't seem phased by it in the slightest.
"Ok so what's the deal, how close are we?" Seven asked as Click landed next to him.
"It's just up on top of that large hill ahead of us, there's an old human factory on the top that we took over and turned into our colony, the Enclave flying machine is located at the rear of the big building as there is some kind of landing pad back there," Click said.
Seven looked out into the fog and Click felt him use a series of ultra high-frequency pulses to be able to 'see' what she was talking about as the fog was so thick here visibility was barely a few few in front of you.
"Wow I can see why both yourselves and the Enclave came here, this place is so foggy I can barely see my own Claws in front of my face," Visa said holding up her large hand before her to emphasise her point.
"Yeah you could hide an entire army in here let alone a special forces team," Tim said clomping up to them in his power armour.
"I do believe that was probably the point, they most likely situated themselves here to hide their presence in the region and to either gauge the land or to begin attacking us," Seven said.
"You believe they know of our presence in the region?" Shauna asked curiously.
"Yeah, I mean the raiders that live here don't even truly know we are here yet, so how the fuck would the Enclave know?" Tim asked turning to face Seven.
"It just seems too coincidental for my liking, they seem to be showing up in every arena we are operating in and given that we know they are actively still hunting for myself and Wisp it just seems like too big of a coincidence for my liking, they know something and I'm going to find out what," Seven said.
"We taking prisoners?" Thundertail asked resisting the urge to bash her huge tail on the ground and possibly give away their position.
"Yeah we are, I want answers and there's only gonna be one way to get em, pry them the fuck out of the heads they hide inside of," Seven said and Visa cracked her fingers menacingly with a sound that was almost as loud as Thundertail banging her tail on the ground.
"And I do believe I know just the way to start prying," she said darkly.
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Clements watched as the cages containing the now muzzled and sedated Banshees were loaded into the Vertibird for shipping back to the mainland where they would be held at a secure base until they could be transported to the Bio-weapons division for processing.
Apparently, according to their tame Spectre Sabine, the capture of these creatures was causing some palpable excitement up at the Bio-weapons division and they would be sending a specialist handler to meet them at the FOB while they worked out which of their labs would be best suited to handle them.
Honestly, as Clements watched them being loaded into the bird he was having a hard time imagining how dangerous these creatures were given how peaceful and non-threatening they looked.
If he hadn't witnessed their power first-hand and seen exactly what kind of devastation their cries could unleash you really wouldn't believe that they were that dangerous given that they simply looked like oversized bats.
Hell in certain lights you could even say they were kinda cute given that they had massive eyes and even bigger ears, plus then there were their stubby little noses and exotic features, but when you added in on top of this the fact that they actually looked surprisingly feminine you'd have a pretty hard job seeing them as dangerous really.
But then Clements figured that was the point really, wasn't it?
That was how they got close enough to take you down, by appearing non-threatening and harmless so that by the time you realised what kind of serious mistake you had made it was already too fucking late.
Clements locked the leg joints of his power armour so that he could use it to simply take his weight while he leaned into it, it was kinda like sitting while standing up as the armour was holding you up while you simply kinda hung there.
As he watched the bird spool up its engines he began to think about the world at large.
Since joining the ESF he had seen so many different things, the world was so much bigger than anyone could really imagine and in a way, it was also a hell of a lot smaller.
Take these creatures for example, yes they were dangerous and deadly under the right circumstances but they were all the way up here not really hurting anyone that they knew of until they had busted in their front door.
As they had cleared out the factory there had been no evidence of human remains or anything like that, hell if anything the place was actually pretty clean and organised where the Banshees had been living.
He found himself taking out a small book he had found while clearing out their living area that had blatantly belonged to an artist of some kind.
As he flipped through the pages of it he saw beautiful drawings of their little world inside of this factory, of Banshees all gathered around a fire sharing meals and some of them looked like they were singing by their poses.
The artist had been incredibly talented as they had captured the fine details of those they had drawn and honestly, they had made some of the creatures look rather beautiful if he was honest.
As the clatter of the engines died down and was lost in the fog Sarge clomped up to him and thankfully he'd managed to stow the book before the grizzled veteran had seen it.
"All good Sarge?" Clements asked unlocking his leg joints to regain his movement.
"Aye, I don't know whether to be glad or sorry for the fucking furry critters with where they are going, heard some pretty nasty shit about those bio-weapons lot," he said.
"Yeah I know what you mean, some scary shit comes out of that place, I mean just look at this fucking Seven fella that we are hunting, he's one of theirs ain't he?" Clements said as he fell in step with the veteran soldier as they headed back into the facility and towards their command post.
"Yeah and if they made him then fuck knows what else those creepy fuckers cook up on a daily basis, I'd say I'm glad they are on our side and that of liberty but honestly I don't know if they are a credit or a fucking hindrance to America, just give me a good ol fucking Mini Nuke launcher any day," Sarge said.
"Amen to that Sarge, so has our tame Spectre got any jobs lined up for us yet?" Clements said as the pair of them stopped to watch the synths assigned to their team assisting Sabine in connecting up the comms network.
"Not any that she's deemed to tell me about yet but I don't imagine she'll keep us waiting for long, your little snatch-and-grab with the Banshees has scored the whole team some major brownie points with the brass and she will want to capitalise on that so she'll want to keep the momentum going if you catch my drift," Sarge said and Clements nodded.
"Yeah makes sense, right now she'll know that they are watching both us and more specifically her rather closely now and they'll be expecting results," Clements said and Sarge nodded.
"Yeah which means we'll be the ones to deliver them now doesn't it?' he said just as Sabine looked up and spotted the two ESF soldiers looking at her.
The Spectre waved them over and both soldiers looked at one another.
"Looks like we're up," Sarge said and the pair clomped up to her.
"Good timing you pair, command is rather pleased with our progress so far in capturing the Banshees, so I'd like to keep the ball rolling while we have momentum, so I'm going to start sending out scouting pairs to really start getting a lay of the land and getting some actionable intel, so over the next couple of days we're going to start sending out two-man patrols with specific target areas in mind in order to gauge what kind of resistance our troops may face when command finally decides to pull the trigger and fucking steam roller this place," she said.
"You honestly think that command is going to annex this entire place, ma'am?" Clements said in surprise and Sabine looked up at him and nodded.
"Yeah I do, tactically it makes sense, the place makes a great staging area to launch further attacks down into the Boston area while providing plenty of land and resources to keep an army both fed and secure, so they are going to want numbers on the raider clans operating here, as well as strengths, plus they are obviously going to want any kind of intel we can provide on the Free Peoples as well, we know they are here we just don't know where they are or what kind of fighting strength they are currently able to field or where they are operating from, these and some many other questions need answering, so we are going to do just that," she said.
"You said two-man patrols ma'am I guess that means one of our people and one of the synths correct?" Sarge said and Sabine nodded.
"Yes, we will stagger the patrol times and routes so that we maintain a fighting force here on base, after our performance command has agreed to send us some base security to help maintain our integrity while our soldiers are in the field, they should be on the return flight when the Vertibird comes back in," Sabine said.
"Very good ma'am, so who is going out first?" Sarge asked and Sabine pointed at Clements.
"He is, so far he has proven that he has a good tactical head on his shoulders and I'm hoping that he continues to prove that he is an asset to both your organisation and the Enclave as a whole, so he will be going out first with his synth partner, they will be travelling here," she said turning to point to the map of the area.
She was indicating a rather large central region that kinda looked like a small city at the centre of the park.
Clements felt a rather cold chill run down the back of his spine, she was sending him right into the fucking lion's den.
"Are you sure that's wise ma'am, thats the central hub where we believe the main strength of the Raider forces to be located," Sarge said with obvious surprise in his voice.
"I am well aware of that Sargent, our synth friends are infiltration experts and they should have no problem entering the Corporal here will be using his stealth adaptations, this is merely an observe and report mission, not a direct engagement, your mission is a simple one, infiltrate the central hub of the Raiders, locate an area to make a safe house and observe, note down all the comings and goings you see over the course of one week and once that is done exfiltrate and return here to report, this will be a radio silent mission as I do not wish to risk them detecting your presence," Sabine said.
Clements and Sarge looked at one another but all they could do was shrug, it wasn't like they could argue with her, she was in command.
"Yes ma'am," they said in unison.
"Good, grab your gear and head out Corporal you are on foot as we can't either spare or risk the bird to get you close so this is going to be a walk-in walk-out operation, dismissed," Sabine said.
Clements headed over to grab his gear and there he found Delta two waiting for him, she appeared to be armed and ready to go.
"I assume you have been briefed on our mission?' she said as he approached.
"Yup just got done with our resident Spectre, infiltrate, observe and do not engage unless absolutely necessary, standard SOPs for a close ob job, doesn't mean I gotta like it, fucking Raiders give me the bastard creeps," he said as he loaded up a backpack with two weeks worth of food and ammo as well as other supplies.
"Why?" Delta two asked with what almost sounded like curiosity in her voice.
"Honestly I'd rather be locked in a room without my fucking power armour with the Banshees rather than in the wastes with the fucking Raiders, I'd say they are like animals but that is an insult to fucking animals everywhere, animals do not behave as badly as these fuckers, so the thought of being among them for a whole week is not exactly a pleasant one," Clements said.
"I agree, I have spent a lot of time observing the various sects that humans have organised themselves into and it is my opinion that the Raiders and the Canibals are by far the worst that your species have to offer," she said and Clements nodded in agreement.
"You are not wrong, just wish I had a licence to shoot on sight," Clements said and Delta two gave him an odd look.
"I find it strange that humans are so flippant about ending the lives of their own species, despite trying to rebuild the country it seems pretty counterproductive to kill everybody, as if you do, who will be left to take over the country when all is said and done?" she said.
"Preaching to the choir there honey," Clements said in a bit of a growl.
"What is this choir of which you speak?" Delta two asked as the pair of them exited the camp after gaining their bearings using the map and transferring it to their heads-up displays so they could stay on course they set off into the fog.
"Oh it's just a figure of speech that basically means I agree with what you are saying," Clements said as the pair moved while covering their fire arcs to ensure they were not ambushed in the fog.
"So why didn't you just say that then?" Delta two asked as they moved.
"Same reason humans find to kill one another I guess, we're fucking strange creatures," Clements said as he switched on his thermal vision.
"No arguments on that statement, though I do find it odd that you would agree with me given your profession," Delta Two said.
"How so?' Clements asked.
"Well you are a professional special forces soldier in the employ of an organisation that seems to have absolutely zero value for human life, it seems strange to me that you would have any kind of vested interest in preserving it," she replied.
"I don't fight because I enjoy killing if that's what you are insinuating, I fight because I am trying to both preserve humanity and to try and restore the world to its former glory, though without the threat of communism there to endanger us this time, tell me, why do you fight?" Clements said.
"Because I am commanded to, I do not enjoy killing or fighting truly, it is my purpose and I aim to fulfil it to the best of my ability," Delta Two said flatly.
"Don't you ever want more though, like I don't know, just to have a life where you can simply settle down and enjoy simple things?" Clements said.
"Like what?" Delta two asked.
"Like making a home for yourself, like building something with your own two hands, hell I don't know doing a jigsaw or solving fucking logic puzzles or whatever it is synths like to do when they aren't trying to impersonate us so they can infiltrate our infrastructure and kill us from within," Clements said bitterly.
"I am not an infiltration unit, my purpose is combat and retrieval, Coursers like myself are deployed when other synths escape the Insititute and are in need of retrieval or in cases like this where military-style intervention is required as we are rated for intense combat unlike our lesser equipped brethren who are more suited to what you would call grunt work," she replied.
"Does that happen often, you know synths escaping the institute?" Clements asked.
"More often than my superiors would like or like to admit," she said earnestly.
"Now why do you think that is, the synths running away like that I mean, if your society is supposed to be so fucking perfect then why would they run?" Clements asked with an accusatory tone to his voice that his armour did little to disguise.
"Possibly the same reason that settlements resist being annexed and taken over by your Enclave, they do not wish to be enslaved and controlled in that way, to our masters we are little more than tools, objects for use whenever needed, but the problem is they have equipped us with sentience so that we can feel and think the same way you can, so now imagine it from that perspective," Delta two said.
"Sounds like you kinda sympathise with these runaways to me," Clements said with a bit of surprise now entering his voice and Delta two seemed to hesitate for a moment before responding in a much more measured and controlled way.
"Not really it's more that I am programmed to think in a similar fashion to them so that I can understand both their motives and to analyse them so that I can predict their possible movements, it aids me in figuring out where they may run to or where they may go," she said but something told Clements that wasn't the whole truth which meant that synths could lie as well, this was interesting.
Finally, they exited the accursed fog and could finally see more than a foot in front of their fucking faces.
Clements found himself taking a deep breath despite wearing a power armour helmet which flitered all of his air supply though he guessed it was more of a psychological thing.
Though on the other hand, delta two seemed completely unfazed by either being in the fog or out of it, she truly was a strange creature to say the least, on one hand she felt unerringly human at times and then at others she couldn't come across as more machine if she fucking tired, he really needed to get a handle on her.
"Why do you believe that Raiders act the way that they do?" Delta two asked suddenly and Clements glanced at her curiously.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Well the fact that they so easily kill and maim others the way they seem to and the pleasure they seem to take from it denotes a level of psychopathic behaviour that would be considered rare in my experience, but the levels of both sociopathy and psychopathy among these groups is both alarming and curious to me," she said.
"Well I guess some would say that desperation drove them to it, that being left with nothing for so long had an effect on them both mentally and psychologically but in my opinion, they are simply lazy and greedy motherfuckers who rather than put in the work to try and build something would rather simply take what others have built from them, they would rather kill a farmer over his yield of corn that he planted and nurtured to grow in the scorched soils of this world rather than learn from him and do the same themselves," Clements said.
"It seems very short-sighted in my opinion as if you do not learn and evolve the skills necessary to become self-sufficient then you are inevitably doomed to the same fate as your hypothetical farmer," Delta two said and Clements nodded.
"Exactly and that is why Raiders and people like them need to be wiped off the face of this planet, they, in my opinion, are not only stealing necessary life-giving supplies from good, hard-working people but the very fucking oxygen they breathe is fucking stolen from the lungs of these good people as well," he said causing Delta two to glance at him through her tinted visor.
"You seem very passionate about this subject, why is that?" she asked.
"When you've spent as long as I have roaming the wasteland that is this country you see all sorts of things, from communities pulling together to try and rebuild the America that their distant ancestors built with their own blood, sweat and tears, right through to the degenerates like the Raiders attempting to burn it all fucking down and we will not let that happen, I will not let that happen, not while I still draw breath," he said.
"This seems somewhat counterproductive to the Enclave's mission in my observations of your organisation," she replied and Clements simply shrugged.
"The Enclave is kinda complex in its nature, it's a large and very powerful organisation and in my opinion that can attract some serious egos to compete for the spotlight and attentions of the higher-ups, personally its not like that for me," he said as he walked along.
"So how is it for you then?" Delta two asked.
"It's more about the good hard-working people who make up the bulk of our troops, they are people just like me who want to make a fucking difference while having a safe place to call their own and sleep at night while also having warm food to fill their bellies, basic yeah but also the core of what humanity runs on and that's a kinda feeling I want everyone to have the chance to have, to have their hard work pay off and to have their families protected and fed without the threat of having it all stolen away from them by some fucking scum bag Raiders who simply can't be arsed to work for themselves, that's what the Enclave is to me," Clements said.
"I very much doubt those in the Free Peoples of the Wastes would agree with your estimation of your Enclave," she said.
"Well they are a totally different kettle of fish now aren't they?" he replied.
"How so?" she asked.
"Well for one how they integrate themselves so freely and easily with non-humans, that in itself is odd to me, I mean what the hell do you talk about with a fucking Deathclaw, I doubt you can simply sit around casually discussing the weather, or maybe they talk about the best way to pick Raider bones out of their claws or to buff Radscorpian blood out of their scales?" Clements said chuckling at his own joke.
"Well if a Deathclaw is able to talk I imagine much the same as you and I are conversing about right now, or did you forget that I am not human?" she said and Clements froze for a moment mid-stride, fuck she was right he had actually forgotten for a moment that he wasn't talking to a human being with her, she was a synth, fuck was it truly that easy to slip into it being normality?
"Yeah I guess I kinda did, but then in my defence, you do look human, even behind that mask and armour you still have the same shape as a normal human woman, so I doubt I can be blamed for having it slip my mind right?" he said.
Delta two seemed to consider this for a moment before she replied.
"I actually rather like the thought of having you think of me as human, I often wondered to myself in my moments of trying to understand the minds of run-away synths if that was part of what they sought out as they never seem to run to places without humans, quite the opposite actually, they seem to actually seek out densely populated areas and I used to think that it was simply to have the cover of having other people to hide amongst, the whole getting lost in a crowd thing, but the more I think about it and now with what you have just said I do believe it reinforces another line of thought that crossed my mind, that they simply wished to be seen as normal people like everyone else around them," she said.
"Yeah, I guess I can see that if you spent all your life being seen as a tool or an object then the prospect of both being free to do what you wish and to be seen as the same as everyone around you would be rather appealing," he said and delta two nodded.
"I believe that this is possibly what draws those kinda people and non-humans to the Free Peoples as they seem to live by a philosophy that all are equal regardless of race or species, in fact, I do believe it would be in the Institute's interest to possibly try and infiltrate their ranks to see if there are runaway synths hiding in their numbers," she said thoughtfully.
"Kinda risky that one, while they might seem like the peace-loving hippy kind from what I've heard and read on them they are anything but, they fight hard against those who would take them on and so far even my own organisation have not even been able to defeat them in battle so they are no joke," Clements cautioned.
"Agreed, but it would still be a worthwhile avenue of investigation I feel," she said flatly, that's when the pair of them began to see lights in the distance, they were close now it was time to get their game faces on.