Radiance

Chapter 64: Way of The Claw.

As they got close to the nest Ricky Claw began to run on ahead but he didn't just leave the group and leave them he was just running on ahead then turning around and waiting for both his friend and the following Claws to catch up, he was obviously just excited to introduce what he saw as his new friends to his pack.

"Now remember we are going to be seen as invaders until we can convince them that we are both no threat and are not interested in their land or their nest, so remember to show proper respect," Vess said and the others nodded.

Vess suddenly glanced at her son who was at the back of the group she turned and walked over to him before placing a hand on his shoulder making him look up at her, "They may pay you a lot of attention my son because you look different so please do not be alarmed if some of the females of their pack mob you, they mean no offence they will be simply very curious of you and they may very well like what they see, but remember you are a claimed male now and I will not have no son of mine being a loose claw!" Vess said and Passa looked aghast.

"Matriarch I would never do something like that! Shepherd is my female and I am her male and I would NEVER be disloyal to her!" he snarled and rather than be angry with him Vess was proud of him and nodded approvingly.

"I am very glad to hear it and I am proud of you my son, I am glad that you see your human love as important as another Claw," she said and Passa snarled.

"Of course I do, I do not see humans as less than us, these wonderful people have not only taken us in they have given back our pride and our dignity, then they took us in and helped us to free our brethren, they have proved to me that they care just as much about claw lives as they do their own and I am proud to love one of them and that she loves me and I will defend her with my very life for as long as I breathe!" he snarled.

Vess stopped then stepped up to her son and hugged him tightly, "I'm very proud of you my beautiful son" she said and the tension just seemed to leave him and he returned it.

"Thank you," he said softly.

"No Claw or any other species would ever make me betray my Seven, I would die first," Visa said in a deep snarl folding her arms over her ample chest defiantly.

"I feel the same about my Gregory" Ven said in the same defiant snarl as his sister.

Vess nodded approvingly at the loyalty of her pack, "it's just over this ridge in front of us" Adam said suddenly but he really needed to have said anything as Vess had been smelling the presence of the other Claws for quite some time and she was sure that they knew they were approaching a thought that swiftly became fact as before they hit the edge ten Claws with what was blatantly the alpha Matriarch and Patriarch at the centre by the size of them.

The ten Claws were glaring at Vess and the other Claws and snarling as Ricky Claw scampered up to what was blatantly his mother and weaved in out of her massive legs until she reached down and picked him up from the ground and cradling the little Claw in her arms but she never took her eyes off Vess for a single second.

"Everyone kneel and show deference," Vess said and she lowered herself to one knee bowing as she did, her pack did the same thing following her example and Vess held out her large hand towards the Matriarch with her palm turned upwards and her claws retracted to show that she mean no harm and wished to be invited into the pack territory and this was them announcing their presence to them in accordance with pack etiquette.

The Matriarch and Patriarch looked at one another curiously but then the Patriarch stepped forwards and sniffed the air around them, he was a truly gigantic male with green scales that had swirls of yellow throughout them infact if Vess's attention hadn't been grabbed by the surprisingly pretty human called Chris they'd stolen from the Enclave she might have very well taken more time to appreciate just how pretty of a male claw he was.

He circled in and out of the pack that didn't contain Adam as he was now standing next to the Matriarch and making faces up at Ricky Claw who was trying his hardest to do it right back at him, it was obvious that the little human cub was completely accepted by the pack.

Suddenly the Patriarch stopped next to Visa and Ven and he began sniffing at the pair far more intently and Vess instantly figured out that he could smell their human mate's on them, his curiosity seemed to be getting the better of him but that's when he spotted Passa and by the very interested looks she spotted on a couple of the faces of the female Claws that were stood with their matriarch they spotted her son.

The patriarch stood stock still cocking his head from side to side as he analysed him before taking two large steps and arriving at his side, he leaned down and began to analyse the line of feathers that ran down his spine and in between his massive wings, he reached out with his massive clawed hands and lifted up one of his wings and stared at it in disbelief.

That's when the three female claws lost their restraint and headed right for him and began to circle him curiously and it was obvious that they wanted to paw him but a single snarl from Vess stopped them dead and they all glanced at her, other Claw's territory or not all Claws knew to respect an Alpha Matriarch or Patriarch especially when they were protecting their cubs from over-curious or amorous claws.

That's when the Patriarch glanced between her and him then leaned down and took a few deep sniffs of Passa before straightening up, then he turned and shooed his daughters away from Passa much to their confusion and obvious sadness which showed in the way their tails drooped as they walked back over to join their matriarch and to be fair Vess did feel kinda bad for them as they were just excited to meet a new and if she did say so herself pretty and exotic male only to find out he's off-limits.

The Patriarch turned to his obviously beloved mate and nodded so she stepped forwards and reached out to stroke Vess's hand before closing it to show they had been accepted and to be fair it was most likely because they smelled of human and not human blood, infact Vess herself actually found herself feeling somewhat jealous of how strongly both her niece and nephew smelled of their beloved ones as human sweat and skin oil while rather potent was a very pleasant smell to her, she found herself thinking about Chris again and thinking to herself how she was going to feel when she finally managed to cover herself in his scent, she was going to be a proud claw on that day because then she would have managed to have wooed and stolen away a beautiful male from his race and it would be glorious, she was determined to make him happy and show him that she would be a worthy mate for him but she would also not accept anything less than his very best so he was going to have to prove his devotion to her as well and she had some very deslisious ideas of how he could do that.

Vess and her pack stood up and the Matriarch and Patriarch gestured for them to follow them into their territory, it was always claw for a visiting pack or claw to offer another pack a gift for permission to either pass through or to seek refuge in the territory of another it was another way to show you meant no harm or intrusion, so both Lia and Lemet handed off the molerats that they had caught on the way over here to them which they accepted gratefully.

As they walked with them more claws began to emerge from the nest and to Vess's count there were at least about thirty claws here of a variety of ages, this was a very healthy pack, as soon as they reached the centre of the hidden old quarry that was incredibly overgrown and very well hidden the Matriarch placed down Ricky Claw and he and Adam sped off to play together.

Now all Vess had to do was convince the pack to assist them in their endeavour to free the human town, this was going to take all of her claw diplomacy skills, hopefully, her status as an Alpha Matriarch would help her out because this was not going to be easy.

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Gregory crouched close to a wall using it to break up the shimmer of his stealth suit, which which it would hide him could still be spotted by the more observant as it created a heat-like shimmer in the air so by hugging solid objects so that they disguised it.

He moved very slowly along the wall of what appeared to be a general store, the Enclave presence was pretty heavy here so moving around them was pretty tricky even while invisible so it required a steady nerve to move slowly.

Ahead of him, there was a cluster of six guys in power armour all clustered around a commander who was dressed in an officer's outfit, by her posture she seemed to be both relaxed and confident, she obviously felt that her power was absolute here with no-one offering any kind of threat and by the nervous and submissive body language of the civilians around the town, she was absolutely right, or at least she had been, now not so much.

Gregory took a deep breath and held it for a moment to calm his nerves, he remembered people exactly like her in the Legion, infact her demeanour really brought back all sorts of bad memories of his treatment at their hands, he really wished he could retreat into the safety and warmth of his Ven's arms right now but he couldn't as his beloved Claw boy had a mission of his own, he was just going to have to be brave as Seven and the rest of the team were relying on him and he would not let them down, he would be strong.

A slight shimmer drew his attention to the top of a large building that looked like it had once been a cattle market of some kind what with its large open pens sitting outside and a large stage that had once been used for auctions.

But it wasn't the building that caught his attentions it was the little shimmer atop of it high above the soldier's heads, he felt himself smile below his mask as he recognised the outline of Riss as she moved perfectly silently along the rooftop which meant that one of the shadows below her would contain the living shadow that was her beloved husband.

Fortunately, the town itself wasn't that large so it didn't take them long to cover the entire of it, Gregory had managed to tag three heavy weapons emplacements, six troop deployments where there were between six and ten soldiers stood guard and the star of the show he'd found the armoury which given that they seemed to be moving a fresh delivery of crates inside had presented him with a fortuitous opportunity.

Moving slowly and silently Gregory hugged the outer wall of the newly constructed armoury, the building had been constructed from solid steel that looked like it had been partly made from parts of scrapped cars and other recycled sources but it still looked very strong as hastily constructed as it was.

The outer defensive wall was shaped like a horseshoe and made from a mixture of metal and cinder blocks, it surrounded everything but the very front of the building which had a gate on one side and some metal chain link on the other side, the gate was stood open and soldiers were moving back and forth lifting the large pile of crates that sat under guard out the front of the building in the centre of the street.

Staying low and moving slow Gregory hugged the wall and tried his hardest to slow his pounding heart as he tried to time the coming and goings of the soldiers, as soon as he had an opening he slipped through the gate and pressed himself against the inside of the outer wall and moved slowly along it, stopping every time a soldier appeared and letting them pass him by until he was around the back of the building where the rear doors stood open.

Two soldiers were stood close to the rear door smoking what looked to be prewar cigarettes which must have been recovered from some ruins somewhere, Gregory knew that they were one of the most commonly looted items from old prewar ruins along with tobacco where it could be found, though these days it gave a rather hefty dose of rads to go along with the other poisons the smoke contained.

The armourers were so busy with their death sticks that they didn't even notice Gregory passing within 6ft of them silently and into the room beyond, the sudden lack of daylight caused his eyes to adjust to the gloom which was lit by a couple of slit like windows and a couple of small electric lamps.

The room itself was very tight quarters filled with shelving units that were stacked with weaponry for the soldiers of the garrison, moving slowly and silently Gregory advanced in between the shelves away from the side of the room where crates were being stacked ready to be sorted.

Looking around Gregory took a mental note of what was on the shelves, it was mostly small arms of different varieties, everything from 10mm pistols right up to plasma rifles, it looked like they were stocking up to potentially use this place as a major staging post for future operation in the area to either cement or further cement their hold on this region.

That's when Gregory saw something that made a smile light his face up, stacked up on the back of the wall were a series of large satchels and demolition charges, it was time for Gregory to put his engineering and demolition skills to good use.

Gregory rigged two of the charges and one of the satchel charges which had a remote detonator for it which he pocketed so when it got triggered it should hopefully cause a chain reaction that would blow the whole place to kingdom come.

Once he'd hidden the charges behind the rest he moved to make his exit and he very nearly bumped into the soldiers carrying one of the heavy crates between them with split second timing he narrowly managed to dodge in between the shelves and one of the soldiers stopped for a moment looking in his direction.

"Did you just see that?" the rear one closest to the door asked, the other soldier looked around and by the way, his gaze passed over him several times he felt safe enough that he hadn't seen him.

"Thought I saw something just now, guess it was nothing, that fucking cheap ass moonshine is playing fuck with my head, fucking country bumpkins" the rear soldier grumbled seemingly to himself.

As they moved inside Gregory slipped outside again finding himself momentarily blinded by the sunlight but he managed to avoid stumbling into the two armoury guards instead of making his way to the wall again and momentarily feeling his way along until his eyes cleared and he straightened up so he could slip out of the gate.

Just as he was heading back out of the town Gregory saw something odd towards the outskirts, of the town, he saw a pair of soldiers and they appeared to be half dragging and half carrying something between them so he quickened his pace in order to catch up with them and as soon as he got close enough he could see it was not a something they were carrying, it was a someone.

"Don't you worry sweetie we're just gonna have some fun, you don't have to be worry and who knows if you're a good girl we might even let you enjoy some of it as well?" one of the men said and the other one laughed making Gregory's skin crawl as if it was covered in ants while also making him feel like he was going to puke.

It was plainly obvious what the two men intended to do to the poor young girl who looked no more than maybe eighteen years old, she was wearing a large coat and a pair of heavy-duty looking jeans and work boots along with a thick-looking woollen jumper, to be fair to her she was fighting for all she was worth but this just seemed to entertain the pair as they half carried half dragged her out of sight of the town and into a patch of woods that was set in-between the town and the direction that the Claws had gone in.

Gregory already knew that he was going to have to do something here and that it was going to have repercussions as someone was bound to notice that the pair were missing, but Gregory was not the sort of person who could simply walk on by and simply let something like this happen and just run his back because it was not his problem if his time with this strange but incredible group had taught him anything it as that you did not look away, you did not back down and walk away, you did not ignore evil without challenge, because if you did then it got worse and would eventually win, win or lose you stood your ground and you stood tall.

Gregory was armed, thankfully his suit had a thigh holster set into it which allowed it to hide a plasma pistol that he'd picked up from a previous engagement with the Enclave, it wasn't exactly as quiet as a suppressed weapon would be but it also was nowhere near as loud as a ballistic gunshot, but he had nothing else so it was going to have to do the job.

Slowly Gregory drew the pistol from his holster and he moved slowly, fortunately, the suit's cloaking field hid the pistol in his hands but he knew as soon as he fired it the field would be disrupted so he was going to have to be quick and he was going to have to be precise, there could be no room for a mistake here as if they were happy to rape this poor girl then they would most likely have zero problems using that poor girl as a human shield to protect their scummy raping selves.

His heart was pounding and he took four slow breaths to steady his nerves and hands, he raised the pistol and aimed it at the back of the closest man's head and with a soft but steady pull he squeezed the trigger.

There was a bright green flash from the end of the pistol along with a loud squeaky pop noise, the bolt of bright green plasma struck the man in the back of the head-turning it into a green paste that splattered in every direction hitting trees and the grass around him also splattering onto both the girl and his partner.

The other would-be rapist's eye's widened and he dropped the girl, his hands rapidly began moving towards a holster on his hip but Gregory's hands were faster, reorientating his aim of his now completely visible gun which having only moved a single foot was perfectly in the aim squeezing the trigger a second time.

There was another flash and a second squeaky pop as a second green plasma bolt flew from the barrel and struck the man dead centre in his chest burning a hole clear through him, once again green goop splattered the surrounding area and the soldier dropped his gun as his eyes widened.

Slowly he looked down and saw the large dripping hole in the centre of his chest, he reached up and pushed his hand into the hole causing both blood and green goo to drip onto it, his heart was simply just gone along with both of his lungs but it took his brain a moment to realise it and when it did he simply crumpled into a heap on the floor.

Gregory quickly holstered the pistol and rushed to the terrified girl's side, "It's ok! it's ok! I'm not going to hurt you, I'm here to help you, my name is Gregory me and my friends are here to help your town, you're safe now" he said in a voice which was almost as fearful as the girl herself was as her wide blue eyes came up to look at the black-suited ninja-like man appeared at her side.

"P-P-Please help me! Please!' the girl exclaimed reaching up to grab at Gregory as he hoisted her up from the floor and onto her feet.

"That's why I'm here, I'm going to take you somewhere safe now ok? I'm not going to hurt you" he said as softly as he could.

"P-Please! You have to help my brother! They took my brother and I-I-I think they are going to give him to that fucking animal! Please you have to save him! Please don't let them do to him what they've done to the others!" the girl said and Gregory froze for a moment.