Radiance Ch. 123

Chapter 123: Ratcatchers.

"Ok this place is officially amazing," Tom said stepping into the Overseers office which had become the official joint ops command centre for both the Railroad and Wisp's team.

"How are we looking on the system's front like power, water etcetera?" Desdemona asked looking up from her maps that were now covering at least three different tables.

"Oh yeah pretty good, the power systems are up and running and thanks to the fact that the reactors were never even run in the fuel rods still have enough juice in them to run for I don't know about two hundred years or so," Tom said with a grin.

"What about everything else?" Desdemona asked.

"Yeah everything is looking green across the board as far as we can see, water is good I measured the rads in it and it is purer than any fucking snow that will ever fall on the surface of this fucking planet, as for air and the rest of it we checked it and its good all the filters are running perfectly but we took the precaution of setting up a few CO2 alarms around the place just in case, so far everything is coming up Railroad and co," he said.

"Well that's good news at least," Wisp said shooting Desdemona a grin and she nodded.

"Yeah after the last few days I'll take any good news I can get, though I suppose that now leaves us with the two big lingering questions of what do we do about the fucking Enclave and our runaway rat?" she said.

"I sent out Malakai to set up traps in all the places leading up to this place that he could think of but given the nature of the individual we're dealing with we might have to get a bit more inventive, we're gonna need to lure him out into the open as trying to find the fucker will be nigh on impossible due to that little face changing trick of his, we're gonna need something to pull him out but the main problem with that is that after the last failed attempt he'd gonna be seriously cautious," Wisp said thoughtfully as she lounged back in her chair.

"Yeah that's an understatement and that's assuming he hasn't run right back to the Enclave to report in," Desdemona said.

"We have to assume that is his intention but given what Yumi told us he was completely clueless that the team he came in was wiped out until she told him of it, so he'd have no way to know that more teams are operational in the area now, but yeah my guess is he'll try and figure out a way to first establish comms with Enclave HQ and then go from there, which will be really bad for all of us if he achieves it," Wisp said.

"Agreed, the last thing we need is to be dealing with a whole division of those power-armoured fucks as well as the Institute," Desdemona said.

"Pity we just can't get 'em to fight each other," Tom said dropping into another of the comfy armchairs in front of the Overseer's desk.

Suddenly Desdemona went quiet and looked very thoughtful.

"Tom you're a fucking genius!" she suddenly exclaimed.

"Yeah I know, what's your point?" he asked curiously.

"No, seriously, we could get them to fight one another and we could also use that to lure out our runaway rat!" she exclaimed and both Tom and Wisp glanced at one another before looking back to her.

"Alright I'll bite here, how are you planning to get them to go after one another and how does this relate to our rat problem?" Wisp asked.

"Well, you said that the ESF team originally came here to chase down you guys correct?" she asked and Wisp raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah so?" she asked.

"Well, then we know that despite these other teams most likely having different orders they are still going to have your team pegged as a target of opportunity correct?' Desdemona asked and Wisp nodded.

"Sounds reasonable," she said.

"Well then it stands to reason that if one of these teams gets a whisper of where your team is located then they are most likely going to come and investigate said report," Desdemona said pacing around the table now as her thought process began to run.

"Ok yeah that follows but how does this relate to the Institute?" Wisp asked.

"Simple, the Institute is still pretty pissed about their scientist defection and just before we left I got word that they have now reached safety and are now fulfilling their part of the deal in that they are supplying us with information on the inner workings of the Institute, everything from comms frequencies to locations, so I'm saying that say some misinformation was to say accidentally find its way into that comms network about a potential location for both runaway synths and these scientists then they'd be compelled to check them out," Desdemona said a grin starting to form on her face.

"And if we can figure out a way to lure the ESF into the same place at the same time......" Wisp said beginning to pick up her train of thought.

"Then we get them to fight one another!" Tom finished and Desdemona pointed at both of them.

"Exactly! All we need now is a way to get word to the ESF," Desdemona said.

"Well, we could ask Fuller If he knows any ways to contact them, if anyone has some inside knowledge on it it's bound to be him," Wisp said thoughtfully.

"If Glory will let him out of her sight for five minutes the girl has been glued to his arse since she got him back," Tom said with a bit of a girn.

"Can you blame her, she thought he was dead, the man who she opened up to and gave her heart to convince her he was dead, granted he did it with the best of intentions in order to protect her but that shit is gonna hurt like fuck either way on so many different levels, if it were me I'd be fucking handcuffed to him at this point," Desdemona said and Wisp nodded in agreement.

"Yeah I concur, it's understandable and to say she must be going through a whole maelstrom of emotions right now is an understatement, she finally figures out what love is and how it feels only to have it torn away then goes through the whole process of starting to come to terms with it and grieving for the one you love only to find out they are alive and well, yeah that's gotta throw your head and heart for a fuckign loop," Wisp said.

"I half expected her to try and punch his lights out if I'm honest," Malakai said and they all looked up to find the fluffy spider boy standing on the high ceiling above their heads happily knitting away at what appeared to be some kind of armoured scarf.

"When the hell did you get here?" Wisp exclaimed as her fluffy man dropped off the ceiling and landed on his eight legs before them without missing a single stitch.

"Oh just after you guys started debating how to lure our the ESF and the Institute, I didn't want to interrupt your chains of thought so I thought I'd catch up on my knitting while you guys brainstormed," he said with a smile.

Wisp jumped to her feet stretched herself out then promptly sat herself back down but this time on Malakai's fluffy rear end before wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him tightly to her.

"If you ever fake your death fluffy spooder boy I will tie all eight of your legs together with your own silk and then tie your arms to the headboard of our bed," she said nuzzling her nose and face against the back of his neck.

"Don't threaten me with a good time sparkly girl or I'll start asking Fuller for tips," he shot back making her laugh out loud before resting herself on his shoulders.

"God it still sends warm pulses through my heart to see how easy it really is for humans and non-humans to get along and even love one another you know? It's like what we've been fighting for all this time only with synths but you guys not only took it to the next level but have been fucking living it all this time," Tom said grinning at them both.

"Pretty sure if you stick with us long enough we'll find a nice non-human girl for you too at some point, probably happen faster if Seven was about given that he somehow seems to be a fucking living magnet for them, but I do try my best to fill in for him while he'd off doing his whole knight in shining power armour Claw loving routine up in Nukaworld, now what would you prefer, a nice super mutant girl full of muscles or maybe a rough and ready Claw girl?" Wisp said teasingly.

Tom's eyes widened until he realised she was teasing him.

"Very funny cloud girl, very fucking funny," he said grumpily.

"Got the boy all excited there for a moment darling, I think you might have just hit a tender spot he didn't know he had," Malakai said.

"Don't you bloody start spider boy," Tom grumped and all of them broke out laughing while he sat there sulking.

Eventually, after all the merriment died down somewhat Wisp called Fuller up to the command centre and lo and behold when he arrived he did indeed have Glory in tow with him, it really did seem that she was unwilling to let him out of her sight from now on in case he did vanish like smoke in the breeze.

"What's up, boss?" Fuller asked as he looked around the table at all the maps spread out around them.

"We were wondering if you had any ESF or just general Enclave comms codes or frequencies rattling around in that noggin of yours that might help us crack their network and possibly help us set up an ambush of sorts?" Wisp said causing Fuller to raise an eyebrow at her.

"Ok well that's got my attention, what did you have in mind?" he asked curiously so Desdemona and Wisp outlined their idea.

"Hmmm it might just work but we're gonna need to be careful how it is executed, all Enclave units in the field are given call signs and challenge codes which are cycled very regularly to prevent any kind of infiltration such as this, the comms frequencies are routinely changed and cycled as well as the whole organisation takes security very seriously," he said.

"What are you thinking?" Desdemona asked seeing that he did indeed have something in mind by his body language.

"There are certain frequencies and call codes that are never changed and for good reason, they are only used in emergencies, think SOS type of deal, It's so a lone operator or survivor may be able to get assistance or call in a high-value target if they get separated from their squad or stuck in the field for weeks at a time while being out of comms, or if such as the situation that Eight is now facing, team wiped out and on the run, each of us is given a frequency and a code word and phrase to say to open up communications with either HQ or another friendly team should we only be able of short-range communications," he said.

"How would another team be able to verify such a thing if they are out of comms with HQ?" Tom asked.

"Only the code phrase changes, the word never does, only an Enclave soldier would know it and they can take their time to verify the code phrase later on but if the word matches up then you are dealing with an Enclave member," he said.

"But how would they know it's not been compromised, say someone captured them and forced them to talk?" Wisp asked.

"Ahh now that's the clever bit, there are three variations of the word, and each means a different thing, one is I am okay and am making this call of my own free will, the second is I have been captured and am making this call under duress, the third is there is no chance of survival for me as I am compromised and will be very soon captured but there is a high-value target here so bring everything down on my head," Fuller explained.

"Oof that last one sounds pretty nasty," Tom said and Fuller nodded while glancing at him.

"Yeah that's a dog whistle to bring an air strike or artillery down on your head with the intention of killing everything in the area," Fuller said.

"Would Eight have been given these codes as well?" Wisp asked and Fuller shrugged.

"Not sure you'd have to ask Yumi about that, I know they weren't trusted enough with all the operational details so it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't given the radio codes too, especially as they had a standing kill before capture order on them," he said.

They called up Yumi to the command centre and indeed as it turned out she had been given no such codes or was even aware of their existence.

"Well that's at least one thing working in our favour then, if Eight can't use these codes against us he's going to have a much harder time calling for help but I would be willing to bet one of the first thing he's going to do is to try and get his hands on a radio of some kind to at least listen in on the comms so he knows where to go to hook back up with the Enclave teams in the area," Wisp said.

"Agreed, we might not have had any kind of codes but both of us made a point of trying to memorise any radio frequencies that we saw so we could call in if we needed to," Yumi confirmed.

"One thing we could use to get their attention is an emergency transponder," Fuller said and the group turned to look at him.

"Emergency transponder?" Wisp asked and he nodded.

"Yeah it's a distress beacon of sorts, each team member is issued one to bring help down on them if they get into real shit or their coms is down, it's kinda a last resort," he said.

"You mean to tell me you've been carrying around an Enclave transponder all this time?" Wisp exclaimed and Fuller scowled at her and shook his head.

"No I smoked mine when I detonated my armour, I'm not that stupid but we might be able to salvage one from my old team if their remains haven't been picked clean by the vultures of the ruins already," he said.

Wisp looked thoughtful of this and then looked at Tom.

"If we snag one of these things think you can strip it and extract the frequencies and codes from it?" she asked.

"Yeah I can do that, might take a little time but if we work together on it should go much faster," he said.

"Perfect, alright Fuller take some of the team with you including Yumi as she knows where their last stand site is and go and check it out," Wisp said.

"I'm going with him," Glory said looking at Desdemona with a look that simply said this is a statement of fact, not a request.

Desdemona nodded her consent.

"Yeah I got no problems with that, I get the feeling you're probably about one step away from joining their team at this point anyhow," she said with a smile that bore no malice in it.

Glory nodded and turned with Fuller and Yumi to head down to the floor to scoop up one of the others and to gear up.

"Alright that's gonna make a start on our Enclave side of the problem, now we just have to pump those scientists for the right intel to help lure in the Institute, I'll hit up our people up north and see if they've given up anything useful to that end so far and see if I can get them to steer the convo in the right direction," Desdemona said heading for the comms relay they'd set up in the far corner of the room which looked very out of place in the plush office.

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"Hey Gregory mind if we borrow Ven for a bit?" Fuller yelled poking his head into the recreation room where the human engineer was relaxing with his large Claw boy on the large comfy leather couches.

"Yeah, sure as long as you borrow me too, tall, scaly and sexy here ain't going anywhere without me," the young human mechanic said lifting his head from his Claw boy's chest to glance over at the small group as they approached.

"Yeah I can work with five," Fuller said with a nod.

"What's up what do you need me for?" Ven asked in his deep gruff voice.

"We're heading into the city to see if we can recover some transponders from my former ESF team members and it strikes me that having a bit of Claw power in hand may be a rather good idea given where we are headed," Fuller said.

Ven nodded his large horned head and with a surprisingly tender kiss he lifted Gregory off him and the pair got to their feet the large Claw towering over his human husband.

"Sounds good to me I'll just go and get my armour from our bedroom," he said.

"I'd say I'd come with you under the guise of collecting mime too but we both know the moment I see you bend over to pick anything up I'm gonna pounce on you so bring mine out for me too will you my love?" Gregory said with a playful pat to the big Claw's thigh.

Ven growled deeply and gave his human a devilish grin before flicking his tail and doing a very good impression of his sister rolling her hips when she wanted her own human to look at her tail end as he headed for the bedrooms.

Twenty minutes later the teams were packed up and ready to go so they all congregated near the door.

"Gotta admit I didn't think we'd be heading out quite so soon," Gregory said as they watched the large drill screw pulling the cog-like door out of the entrance to the vault.

"Yeah was kinda looking forward to getting in at least one or two days of relaxation before we got dragged back out into the joys of the outside world," Ven growled softly.

"Tell me about it," Glory growled glancing at Fuller who simply shrugged.

"Evil never sleeps and takes days off so neither can we apparently," he said checking his Geuss rifle for like the tenth time while they stood there.

Honestly, he was kinda feeling the weight of Glory's stare on the side of his head, he knew that he deserved it for what he'd done and for not fully trusting her with the truth of what was going on, plus he had also explained fully both his reasoning and his fears to her in private when she'd dragged him to their room on that first night here.

Infact they had had a very long and rather emotional heart-to-heart about how they both felt for one another and how things were going to be between them going forward.

Fuller had agreed to be fully open and honest with her from now on regardless of how worried he was for her and Glory had agreed to forgive him given that she could actually see now that his actions had come from a place of love as well as fear.

He'd outlined how worried he had been that his former team might attempt to capture her and torture her for information if they even slightly suspected that he had survived the Glowing Sea and had gone on the run as it was a standard SOP in that albeit rare circumstance.

This fact had calmed her down somewhat and then she had asked him for details of the ESF and how they operated plus his part in it, so in order to show his commitment he had told her everything.

The lengths that the Enclave and the ESF were willing to go to to get what they wanted had shocked Glroy deeply and it had been written all over her face when she'd heard the full truth, but what was also written there was an understanding of why he had done what he had done and why he had done it that way when he knew the stakes involved should he fail.

He had promised to forgive him on the stringent condition that now that he was a free man and the ESF were no longer a part of his life and his team were gone that he stand by her side no matter what came for them, that they would face each and every problems as a pair as a team.

Fuller had agreed to this wholeheartedly because he knew deep down that this was exactly what he wanted, that she was everything he wanted.

They had spent the rest of the night making love and it was obvious from her passion that Glory was using it to work out some of her frustrations given how aggressive she was but thankfully she hadn't been violent, just a little rough at times though she had apologised afterwards.

"Watch out for Malakai's trip lines and traps, he drew us a map to get through them but you know how hard that bloody silk of his can be to see at times and while it might entertain me and indeed arouse me to think of my big sexy Claw boy strung up in the air with his tail tied to the back of his horns I don't fancy having to try and cut him down, so watch your step," Gregory said waving a hand-drawn map at them all.