Radiance

Chapter 118: Team Building.

It was a pretty long walk over the rough ground to where Tremour's people had been ambushed by the Enclave special forces team but Raymond and his people set a blistering pace in covering the ground.

"So you were held up in the tunnels in there?" Raymond said looking at the side of the large mountain that dominated the landscape ahead of them.

"Looks like an old mining complex to me," Paladin Wright said giving the old installation that was fixed into the side of the mountain a knowing look.

"That's exactly what it was, the humans of old dug a multitude of tunnels throughout the entire place, it's like a giant ant hill of tunnels down there, we thought we'd be safe given how many there are, but they still found us," Tremour said sounding rather forlorn and Raymond noticed his long segmented tail drooping along with his mandibles.

He reached out and planted a large hand on the chitin-plated shoulder of the young Scorpian hybrid and he looked up at him.

"Chin up kid if there's one thing we've learned it's not to underestimate those fuckers, they have a real nasty habit of showing up in the least expected of places and when they do a shit storm almost always follows them, it could have happened to the best of us, to be fair you had a solid plan," he said trying to reassure the young male to not lose heart or start doubting himself.

"Yeah they are persistent if nothing else but don't you worry we're gonna get your people back, me and my people been looking for a pretty damn good excuse to kick those fuckers right in the cunt and this seems like a pretty good one to me, ain't that right guys?" Paladin Wright said not only looking at the other Brotherhood Knights when she said it.

There was a cheer from some and a growl from others but it served to give Tremour heart as he led the what must be incredibly strange team into the tunnels.

There was a thunk and a snarl from behind him and Raymond glanced back to see Lia rubbing her horns grumpily as she'd hit her head on a support beam for the fifth time in an hour.

"These tunnels are not built for a fine specimen of claw femininity such as myself!!" she snarled rubbing her horns protectively and soothingly.

"I hear you big girl trust me, I might not be as tall as you but the number of times I shut my own damn tail in the zone doors down here wasn't even funny, bloody springloaded my tail end!" Vlen said looking at her long segmented tail with a look of despair in her dark eyes.

"There's springloaded doors down here? Oh I am so not going last now, Raymond you're following me from now on, there's no way I am slamming my tail in one of those bloody things," Lia said quickly switching positions with Raymond at the head of the group.

For his part Raymond couldn't help himself, as Lia moved ahead of him he glanced down and let his eyes drink in her long luscious tail and her feminine hips, not to mention the very curvy rear end that was hiding below that long tail.

"Any excuse eh Raymond?' Zixxy said from his shoulder and when he turned she found the little extraterrestrial grinning at him knowingly, it seems you didn't need to be telepathic to know what he was thinking about.

"Should I need one?" he shot back quickly and Zixxy roared with laughter and shook her head.

"I doubt Lia thinks so," she replied and as one they both turned to find the large Claw girl looking back over her shoulder at them and as if on cue she cocked her hip and placed a large clawed hand on it.

"Doubt I need to be able to read minds to know what you are thinking about my beloved male, do not worry there will be plenty of time for Claw love when we find the hybrids and peel the Enclave like metal bananas," she said flicking her tail in a long swish to make her point.

"Just watch you don't knock any support beams out with that bloody thing," Raymond said with a grin.

"Probably better if you watch where you're putting your feet instead of staring at her tail and arse, the last thing we need is you tripping over and nailing one because I somehow doubt they are designed to handle your weight," Zixxy said.

Lia roared with laughter which seemed to echo as she turned and began to lead the way deeper into the tunnels, while Ryamond simply grumbled to himself about being ganged up on by all the females around here and how a man can't just enjoy staring at his woman's arse in peace these days.

That's when Riss decided she was going to weigh in and scare the living shit out of them all by just appearing out of an alcove o their right and to be fair Raymond never actually imagined a Claw girl as rough and tough as Lia could scream like a schoolgirl who just found a spider on her thigh but once again he was proven wrong.

Though thankfully for the Nightstalker girl, her reflexes were razor sharp which helped her to avoid the incoming reflex swing from Lia.

"Ssssorry about that, didn mean to sssstartle you," Riss said flicking her tongue at the big Claw girl while grinning all over her fangs.

"Sure you didn't, find anything?' Lia growled grumpily as she folded her arms over her ample chest and twitched her tail in annoyance.

"Yessss me and my beloved one have found the place the sssscorpianssss were living, it'ssss just down thissss corridor," Riss said pointing back behind her.

The group followed the Nightstalker girl down the long winding corridor and very quickly they began to find evidence of a very pitched battle having been fought here by the scoring and bullet holes in the walls all around them, they also found bodies further in and the mood changed from mirthful to sombre as if some had flipped a switch.

"If you's needs help in carrying the fallen out to bury them we's will help," Runs said as she saw both Vlen and Tremour looking at the bodies.

Both of them shook their heads in unison, "It's not our way to bury the dead, we believe that once the soul has left this mortal shell all that remains is food for our little brethren and cousins, we believe that what we leave behind will help them to grow stronger like we once did, granted we don't usually leave them where they fell but honestly, dow here is about as deep as one could be buried, but we will pay honour to them if you don't mind," Tremour said and all of them nodded in unison.

"Take as long as you need, it is only right to honour your fallen pack mates, while you do that we will search the area for signs of where the Enclave went," Lia said and Raymond nodded in complete agreement.

"Thanks, guys that means a lot to us, we are still not used to all this kindness," Vlen said and with that, she and Tremour headed over to the bodies of the fallen to do their thing while the rest of the team began to cast about looking for signs of the Enclave.

"How about you Zix, you getting anything on that psychic radar of yours?" Raymond asked the little alien perched on his shoulder as they cast about in the tunnels surrounding the battle.

"Actually yes but it's pretty faint," she replied closing her eyes as if trying to tune in on it like one might tune a radio dial to get the right frequency.

"Well ok colour me impressed, do all living things leave a psychic trace?' he asked and she nodded.

"Yes but it usually doesn't last long, it's kinda like a scent trail but one that can't really be masked by anything like a scent can, its made stronger by potent emotions like fear or anger, so the stronger the emotions the stronger the trace left and the longer it lasts," Zixxy explained as she cocked her head left and right as if she was trying to listen for the trace in the darkness.

"That way," she said suddenly pointing down one of the tunnels to their right and Raymond turned to look.

Instantly he saw evidence of the passage of someone wearing power armour in the form of crushed stones and deep footprints in the dust.

Once Tremour and Vlen had finished their grieving process the team reformed before following Zixxy's directions with the help of Runs and Riss putting their tracking skills to good use to fine-tune the directions they followed.

But eventually, the team emerged from the mines a good few kilometres away from where they'd entered them.

"Well this just got a lot trickier," Raymond said looking around the flat featureless rocky ground surrounding them.

"Actually it'ssss a lot easier," Riss said lowering herself to the ground and flicking her tongue over it before pointing off to the left down a steep verge and towards what looked to be a large forest in the distance.

"How the hell do you do that?" Raymond asked and she gave him a fang-filled grin.

"Thissss tongue of mine issss not jusssst for kissssssing my husssband you know?" she said and Raymond chuckled before they all fell in step with her and Runs.

"That's them alright, I can feel them down there," Zixxy said as the group looked down the large grass-covered hill towards what appeared to be an observatory of some kind which was on a large cliff but still below them.

"How many?" Lia asked.

"Quite a few, they have a number of soldiers in there along with a number of highly trained intelligence agents, but the strongest feelings I can detect are those of the captured hybrids, there is a lot of fear and sorrow in there," she said.

"We have to get them back!!" Vlen snarled beginning to raise herself up on her six legs as she did until Lia placed a large and strong hand upon her shoulder to push her back down as well as reassure her.

"And we will I promise but we must be smart about this, these people are no joke as you have already seen for yourself, they are ruthless and they are efficient and they have zero problems killing to complete their goals, there is no such thing as a non-combatant to them and they will not think twice about using your people as shields to save themselves," she said cautiously and Vlen snarled angrily but nodded her head in understanding.

"So what do we do?' Tremour asked.

"We do what we do best, we plan," Raymond said.

"Agreed, we have the strength and the numbers we just need to figure out how to use them here, they have set themselves up in a very defensible position with great sight lines around the whole place, it's going to be damn hard to get close without being detected, well at least for some of us anyhow," Paladin Wright said shooting Riss a loaded glance.

"Our first priority is the hostages, we need to get them clear before the shooting starts, these fuckers won't think twice about shooting them to prevent us from taking them back so we need to ensure they are clear of the zone before we bring the real pain," Jack said scratching his beared chin.

"Agreed, so that's the first part of our plan, how to reach and extract them undetected, after that it's going to be weapons free so we need to figure out how to draw those fuckers out of their hidey holes and into the open where it will be much easier to take them out of the fight one at a time if need be," Raymond said.

"Normally I'd say an angry Claw would do that rather nicely but in those confines and with the hardware those fuckers tend to pack I wouldn't fancy Lia's chances," Jack said and Raymond nodded his agreement.

"Yeah I'm not exposing my girl to any more danger than I have to, we're doing this as safe as possible," he said.

"I believe it might be time to once again deploy the talents of our little secret weapon," Lia said glancing at Zixxy who was sitting leaning against the edge of the bank they were using for cover to observe the Enclave stronghold.

"I will of course gladly do my part, but I would like to stress the importance here of ensuring we capture at least one of their soldiers or preferably one of their intel agents, I would like the opportunity to do a deep dive on their mind, it could reveal valuable intel to us and also even shed light upon their ultimate goal here," Zixxy said.

"Sounds good to me, with her talents I'm sure Zixxy will have them running in circles in no time," one of the Knights a man called Lucas Harrison said cheerfully and the little alien looked up at him and smiled warmly.

"While I appreciate your faith in my talents Knight Harrison these are not your run-of-the-mill soldiers or raiders, their minds are very difficult to penetrate as they are all trained to resist interrogation techniques and by the looks of it some of that training included anti-psionic," she said causing Lucas to lower himself down in his armour to her height from the bank he was currently laid upon.

"Do you mean to tell me that the Enclave have telepaths in their ranks, enough so that the prospect of coming across other factions also in possession of them worries them?" he asked in a startled voice.

"I do not know for sure as all I can really garner from here and with all the distractions are mostly surface thoughts, idle stuff really but they all seem to have undergone the same training regimen because of the way their thoughts and memories are organised, hell for all we know it could be some kind of brainwashing technique that they are completely unaware of, we know that the Enclave are not averse to using such techniques," she said thoughtfully.

"Well, I have faith in your ability to crack through it Zix, small but mighty!" Lucas said confidently balling his fist and shaking it in a gesture of defiance.

Raymond glanced at the young tan-skinned human male who was currently clad completely inside of his Brotherhood issue T60 power armour and grinned, maybe it was time to pull a Seven here as he had seen their leader pull this trick numerous times and it seemed to work for him so why not for Raymond himself?

"Seems like you have an admirer there Zix, get the feeling you might have a new shoulder to ride on soon if you're not careful," Raymond said giving Zixxy a wink that made her blush a deep shade of green.

"Get the feeling it might not be his shoulder he wants her to ride upon," Latisha said jokingly while playfully giving the obviously embarrassed Knight a shove in the shoulder while both his own comrades and the rest of the team chuckled.

Suddenly Zixxy seemed to snap out of her embarrassed stupor and scowled at them, "Knight Harrison is a fine man as he has already proven with his actions to aid us thus far and he was obviously chosen wisely by Paladin Wright for both his skill and his talents not to mention his open-minded and friendly personality, if he were to offer me a ride I would gratefully accept!" she snapped and instantly the chucking intensified with many hands now being deployed to stifle and prevent full on belly laughing from erupting and giving their position away.

Zixxy looked around in confusion at the intensifying mirth until Lia leaned down and whispered in her ear and by the blush that now erupted and completely covered her entire face Raymond was sure that Lia had hit the nail on the head of what she had just told her.

"I-I-I-I meant his shoulder obviously!! But well err if the opportunity for romance outside of my species were to crop up Knight Harrison would be a fine chance as he is an honourable man!" Zixxy said defiantly glaring around at all of them.

"Someone get that girl a bite-sized shovel for the hole she's digging herself into there," Paladin Wright said clapping the obviously embarrassed Knight Harrison on his metal-plated shoulder and gently shaking him.

"Oh leave her alone, she is taking her first steps down the path to finding love outside of her species that last thing she needs is any of you souring this experience for her, if anyone had made fun of my attraction to my Raymond I would have shown them in no uncertain terms why mocking the heart of a healthy and proud Claw girl is very unwise for a continued existence on this mortal plain," Lia growled at the group.

"Thank you, Lia," Zixxy said turning to her Claw defender gratefully who simply nodded her horned head at her.

"You are most welcome little one and for what it is worth I wish you the best of luck on your hunt but never give up hope and never back down and your human prize will soon be yours, you may be small in stature but you have the heart of a full-blooded Claw beating in your chest and I have faith in you!" Lia said making Zixxy's mouth fall open and her blush return.

"Alright enough of teasing our loved-up alien girl and her human prey err suitor and let's get back to planning this assault shall we?' Raymond said making everyone shoot some grins at both Zixxy and Lucas who despite having not taken off his helmet was obviously blushing as hard as Zixxy was and Raymond swore he could see steam coming off the metal.

Much to his delight as they sat around going over the details of what they had learned so far of the Enclave enclosure from what Zixxy had learned and the high altitude flights of the Valkyries he saw both Zixxy and Lucas shooting one another glances when they thought the other wasn't looking, it seemed this Seven routine actually worked, simply plant the idea and let nature do the rest.

"Ok it ssssseemssss that there might be a back door for ussss to ssssneak insssside unnoticsssed," Riss said pointing a point on the cliff directly below the comms station.

Both she and Runs had been scouting the ground while the Valkyries had run the skies above them, the team was analysing the compound from as many angles as they could in order to best plan their attack, their main priority was securing and extracting the civilians safely before they truly hit the Enclave with everything they had.

"What did you find?" Raymond asked looking up from the crude ground drawings he'd made of the compound.

"It sssseemssss there issss an essscape tunnel that leadssss to a sssseriesss of cavesss that are under the compound," Riss said using her clawed fingertip to add them to the sketch of the cliff side.

"Think it was some kind of bunker in there or something?" Raymond asked thoughtfully and Riss nodded.

"Thissss is my thought assss well, thissss place sssseemsss like a perfect target during the war, there musssst have been ssssomthing consssstructed in there to protect the workerssss," she said.

Raymond slowly pieced together all the data his group had collected and began to think, these were not rank-and-file soldiers but Enclave elite troops, they were going to need to act very cautiously but also aggressively when the time came.

"Alright people listen up I have the base of a plan but feel free to chime in as I want your perspectives here," Raymond said and all gathered up on him as he began to explain.

"Ok the first thing that will need to happen is for our stealth specialists to infiltrate the compound using those tunnels, so Riss and Runs will break in through there, it's my guess that's probably where they are holding the captives anyhow as it seems to be the only place big enough to house them properly, so they probably have the place locked down and guarded day and night while they wait for whatever pick up their superiors have sent to retrieve them," Raymond said drawing his finger in a path that traced up the cliff and into the caves to indicate their route.

"Yeah agreed if anyone could walk right past those lot it's those two they have a real talent for being unseen," Paladin Wright said nodding her head in agreement.

"While that's happening I want our Valkyrie team to hit the dishes and to take positions atop of them, my guess is that they will be using the infrastructure already in place to communicate long distance with their HQ so if we can jam that up by sabotaging those dishes that will cut them off from any support that could be sent their way," Raymond said once again tracing his finger over the drawing though this time from high above to show the Valkyries diving onto the dishes from above.

"We can do that but we will need assistance to know what to look for and how to disable it as we are not overly familiar with human comms systems," Jewel said.