Radiance Chapter 15: Running the Gauntlet.
True to her word Riss led the group through the winding tunnels of the mine until they reached an exit on the opposite side, well it was more of a collapsed air shaft that had opened up a hole large enough for them all to climb out, but an exit is an exit.
"It hassss been sssso long ssssince I walked on the ssssurface," Riss said looking around herself and tasting the cool night air with her forked tongue, well Seven imagined it to be cool as couldn't actually feel it inside the temperature regulated power armour suit.
"We too know what it is like to hide yourself away from the world, as proud claws we hated it, walking tall and proud is our hatch right, so we know this pain well," Visa said actually sounding sympathetic towards her.
"Honestly with all the shit up here I don't blame you fr wanting to live underground," Gregory said looking around himself nervously as if he expected a swarm of Cazadors or Legionnaires to burst out of the night at any second.
Gregory put his long arms around his nervous human in order to comfort him, causing the slender male to glance upwards and smile softly, "Come on people let's get moving, we got a long way to go and this road is going to be a tricky one to travel" Seven said.
"Plus we have to get out of range of the Enclave's latest puppet before she brings an assault team down on our heads," Wisp said inside Seven's skull and he nodded an agreement.
"This road is dangerous at the best of times, we need to be real careful here, there's a reason the locals and the trade caravans refer to it as running the gauntlet," Gregory said glancing off towards the eerily silent road.
There were no signs of life moving about over the old broken asphalt road, no lights, no fires, no anything for miles upon miles, but Seven already knew that it wasn't the problems that you could see that you should be worried about, it was the ones you couldn't.
Rather than walk along with the asphalt itself, the group used the ditches and scrubland to the sides to keep themselves partially out of sight, well as out of sight as two seven and a half foot claws, one seven-foot Nightstalker and a guy in power armour could be anyway.
The sandy ground also helped to muffle Seven's heavy footfalls somewhat as well, in the utter silence it still managed to sound like he was banging a metal bin lid with a gong hammer with every step but it wasn't half as bad as it could have been had be been walking on the solid asphalt, but still, it was those heavy footsteps that eventually led them into trouble.
The group were spaced out as Seven had advised ensuring that if the shit hit the fan they wouldn't all be caught in one place, Ven was at the very front with Gregory twenty feet behind him, then another twenty feet and Visa was behind him, then after the same distance there was Seven in his power armour and finally right at the back was Riss.
"I ssssmell something!" Riss said suddenly but before Seven could reply a bright light snapped on blinding him and there were a series of clicks which Seven knew all too well, those were the sounds of weapons being cocked.
The group scattered and took cover, it appeared that whoever was behind the light had only managed to pick out Seven in the darkness because there was no furry of movement in order to pin them down, or any form of realisation that there was anyone other than Seven here.
"Well, well, well, looky here boys and girls, we got ourselves a genuine tin soldier" a voice rang out from between the burnt-out husks of cars that were serving as the hiding spot of the group, the accent was thick and rather slow, Seven also heard a series of giggles indicating that there were indeed more than one of them.
"Think that suit will look real nice in our office don't cha think boss?' another voice said as Seven tried in vain to identify the speakers through the blinding glare.
"Why I do indeed Smeg, so why don't you make this easy for us tin man and go on and get out of that there tin suit for us nice and slow, be a real shame to have to fill my new toy full of holes now don't you think?" the first speaker said obviously addressing Seven.
"Not going to happen, you do realise this thing is useless to you right? DNA locks, one user, one pilot, one person, period and that person ain't you" Seven said loudly,
"What's he talking bout boss? What's this err D M A?" the second speaker called Smeg asked.
"It's DNA fool! And he's bluffing, you only see that kinda shit on the later models, you know the ones you always see those Brotherhood cronies running around in, that there is one of them older T45 ones, ain't no DNA lock on that thing" the leader growled menacingly.
Out of the corner of his eye, Seven saw two large shapes moving low to the ground so he decided to stall some more, "Well, either way, it's still more bulletproof than those cars now ain't it? So I think a better idea would be you cut your losses and walk away because I can promise you if we keep this up the only one walking away will be me, I mean sure I might have to get a new paint job and have to buff out a few scratches, but you can't buff bullet holes out of your ass now can you?" Seven said confidently, though inside he was shaking.
There was a series of murmurs among the hidden raiders behind the cars, "Well the way I see it, there's ten of us, one of you, you gotta get lucky ten fucking times to get all of us, we only gotta get lucky once, you like those odds tin man?" the leader growled with a snide laugh.
"That depends on how well you can count?" Seven said watching both Visa and Ven morphing into view their huge figures moving as silent as the night as they crept up behind the hidden group.
"And what's that supposed to mean!?" Smeg yelled.
"Well you see there's ten of you, one of me, plus those two angry Deathclaws right behind you and yeah I like those odds just fine," Seven said.
