Radiance

Chapter 70: The Freedom Trail.

"So they abandoned the Vertibird and headed out on foot, satellite imaging lost them just after they put down as it went out of range and by the time the second one came into range they were gone and we have zero ideas in what direction, not only that it looks like scavengers and scrappers got ahold of it by the time the second satellite came into range, fucking thing isn't even a shell anymore it's stripped clean and just gone, so it looks like we are back to the plan involving the Railroad," Fletcher said pointing to the incredibly bad satellite photography in which it was hard to tell the cargo Vertibird from the surrounding terrain.

The team were set up in the back of the MCV which was currently sitting in the middle of a rather large scrap yard that they'd had to clear out before setting up a load of security turrets to keep away any curious locals and wildlife, but now that it was secure and the large MCV was nicely hidden behind the towers of scrapped cars and Red team were settled in to start their work.

"So what's the word on the on-the-ground assets boss?" Fuller asked and Fletcher turned to look at him.

"We've touched base via the radio codes we've been given with four of them and instructed them to put out feelers for any Railroad activities or known safehouses, but so far the only thing we've got to go on is what one of them said to us, and I quote 'Follow the freedom trail', whatever the fuck that is supposed to mean," she said.

Fuller scratched his chin for a moment and then a young-sounding voice spoke up and they all turned to look, "I believe your contact is referring to the Boston Freedom Trail, it was a route famously used for trafficking slaves to freedom back in the civil war, there is supposedly a monument to it in Boston city," Number 8 said.

Both Number 8 and 9 were definitely not what Fuller had expected, though to be fair he had not known just what to expect when they'd been told that they were going to have these two tag along from Dr Chalmers's Advanced bioweapons program.

Number eight appeared to be a young man between the age of nineteen or twenty, he was tall, skinny and had hair as white as snow while number nine was a young Japanese girl who looked about the same age as number him.

Both of them might be eight and nine but they were definitely a fucking ten on the creepy fucker o meter, now he had no idea what abilities these two supposedly had but he was pretty sure number eight's had something to do with shapeshifting due to the face he'd personally witnessed him looking into a mirror in the communal onboard bathroom and before his eyes, the young man's face had changed to that of a middle-aged black man, more specifically the sarge's face.

Fuller had wasted no time pulling the sarge to one side and telling him what he'd seen and he'd never seen the infamous man of ice that was the Sarge look so shocked in his life, he'd told him to keep his eye on the pair of them while he'd gone off presumably to have a word with Fletcher about this unsettling discovery.

Now while they had a clue what he could do they were still clueless about Number 9 as she'd given away no outside indicator, in fact, other than catching her staring at him and giving him the odd creepy smile that chilled him to the fucking marrow she hadn't said or done much of anything, at least Number 8 actually spoke, though he did have an annoying and unsettling habit of doing it in series of different voices and accents, so it wasn't only his face he could change.

"Alright well that's at least something, Fuller I'm going to send you in to take a look and see if you can figure this shit out, but before you do head down to medical, the doc is going to fit you with those new prototype subdermal comms and tracking systems we got issued for this op, we'll run overwatch in the city but we will not be able to get close to you as I'm pretty sure Enclave power armour is going to draw eyes like flies so we're going to have to run the X-02's and 3's in stealth mode just in case, speaking of which hows the new 3 you got issued holding up?" Fletcher asked turning to look at the Sarge at the end.

"Running like a dream boss, didn't think it could get much better than the 2 but the boys down in R&D really pulled through with this thing, tell you what though she is a thirsty girl, never seen a set that needs two fusion cores so when I saw the twin ports that looked like it got lifted off a sentry bot I was pretty dubious but the first time I fired up those twin shoulder mounted guns I saw why, the thing his like a fucking pissed of Deathclaw on Buffjet," he said smugly.

Fuller couldn't help but feel a little envious, it was obvious why they had given a couple of these suits out to the ESF for their trial runs and each one was set up in different configurations but one theme was true of all of them, integrated weapons and that was definitely the way to go.

The Sarge's suit looked like a variation of the fairly popular Tesla variant of the X-02 combined with the Hellcat variant but this thing had a much heavier chassis capable of supporting the shoulder-mounted gauss miniguns that were set onto his shoulders on a set of gimbals when in transit they sat on his back but when they deployed they popped up on either side of his head and tracked a targeting laser mounted in his helmet firing on anything he targeted.

This meant that the suit chewed through cores like a goddamn whale went through plankton, well if there were any whales left that was, so that meant that the suit was fitted not only with a large backpack to hold all of the 2mm tungsten slugs the fearsome guns fired but a pair of twin fusion cores, one for the weapons and one for the suit itself which considering it was fitted with deployable Tesla coils and also stealth systems in the form of a stealth boy system that would last as long as the fusion core did.

Though to be fair all ESF power armour suits were pretty damn fearsome, they all used at the very least the X-02 variant with a few specialist variants floating about depending on the role their user took on, being a sniper Fuller had tuned his with both stability and stealth in mind, he'd tuned the servos and stabilisers to the point that he could hold up the heaviest of.50 rifles and fire it from a standing position and it was like being laid down prone with a bipod, there was zero vibration or drift.

That when combined with the enhanced optics and stealth systems meant that from any range he was a fearsome threat, as was intended but this op was very very different, now while he knew his team would be watching his back he also knew that he was going to be on his own with no power armour and nothing but his personal weapon and his wits to keep him out of trouble, he just hoped he didn't wind up stumbling over a Deathclaw nest or something while following this trail.

The team headed for Boston itself at first light the next day and other than the odd Bloodbug encounter or the odd skirmish with a few wandering Raiders the trip was pretty uneventful and rather smooth.

Once they hit the outskirts they split up, with the bulk of the team moving stealthed among the burnt-out buildings, even 8 and 9 were with them though rather than power armour both of them were equipped with variations of the reverse engineered stealth suits that had been captured from Chinese infiltrators at the beginning of the war, the Enclave variants were far better than what they had been based on, they were armoured for a start.

While the suits were skin tight and designed to complete freedom of movement these models had been fitted with hardened titanium plates that protected the user's vitals which included the helmet, they had also been outfitted to make them incredibly resistant to hazards like toxins and radiation while also being fitted with enhanced optics packages so they could see in the dark.

So while Fuller found himself standing alone in the middle of the street dressed in civilian clothing and a heavy leather duster that they'd lifted off a passing trader who'd stumbled onto their camp before they left and given his now lack of head status very much did not need it whereas for Fuller it completed his look of a wanderer, as did the backpack covered in everything from pots and pans to a bedroll.

He was also armed, he was carrying his favourite rifle a heavily modified Gauss rifle, he like all ESF soldiers tended not to use the basic standard-issue stuff that the rank and file used, when he first entered their ranks it was heavily encouraged by everyone to find himself a weapon and to make it his, now he'd always wanted one of these things after seeing someone punch a hole right through a Mirelurk with one from seven hundred meters.

So he'd gone out of his way to get ahold of one and to modify it so that it could do its job far better, this model had a long barrel that while it made it kinda unwieldy inside made it incredibly accurate over long distances, it was also fitted with an optic that not only had a smart targeting system which could plan out where his shot would hit and flight time to target but could see thermal so he could pick out the body heat of a super mutant at two thousand yards with zero issue.

Plus thanks to the special suppressor it was fitted with known as a sound barrier cracker it was also incredibly quiet, now most gun suppressors worked by having a series of baffles inside a tube which worked to absorb and vent the explosive gasses that chased the round to deaden the shot as it exited the weapon, but gauss weaponry had no propellant, it worked by using electromagnets to accelerate a tungsten slug to hypervelocity inside the barrel though given it was a coil gun it could be pretty much used with any ferrous metal, so given this the only thing to deal with was the supersonic crack when the round exited the barrel, so the sound barrier cracker worked by absorbing that using a slightly wider barrel that was filed with chambers filled with sound absorbing tiles.

This meant that when the round came out of the barrel and into the suppressor the sound of the sound barrier breaking was absorbed by the suppressor and by the time it exited it there was no secondary crack because the round was already at maximum velocity and was already through the sound barrier when it came out the end of the barrel so the break happened inside the suppressor itself, this allowed the suppressor to absorb the pressure wave that was created and caused the telltale supersonic crack, it really was a very clever design.

For close quarters work he relied on a small plasma SMG, compact and powerful but most importantly lightweight and small, it was easy to swing around inside tight spaces like a pistol plus being an energy weapon there was no need for this thing to be silenced as its shots didn't break the sound barrier relying instead on the explosive power of their plasma shot, this thing could turn a Mirelurk to mush in a single mag, not a feat to be sniffed at.

So with his sniper rifle on his shoulder and his little smg in hand, Fuller began to make his way down the ruined street towards Boston common where Number eight had informed them was a monument to the beginning of the Boston Freedom Trail.

As he walked he couldn't help but constantly rub at his throat where the doc had injected the comms pellet right next to his Adam's apple, fucking things itched like crazy, he had another one implanted right behind his right ear which allowed him to hear his team's replies over the encrypted channel they were tuned to, though if that channel ever got compromised they were fucked as it was impossible to retune by hand and needed a special tool.

The third and final pellet was the tracking chip and this was inserted in his back next to his spine just above his hips, the three of them had been injected using a rather nasty-looking metal gun, now while the thing looked like it was designed to dish out a serious amount of torture it hadn't hurt much, but fucking hell did it itch.

"Stop playing with that thing you'll go blind," Fletcher's voice came through his comms.

"I told the doc to inject it into his cock so he'd have an excuse to have the fucking thing in his hand but he wouldn't have it said something about giving him unfair expectations given the one-inch pellet would double its size," McKay said making them all laugh inside his skull.

"Ha fucking ha, when I asked the doc if he'd inject yours in your ass he just laughed and asked me what I thought the gun was a fucking coilgun? He also mentioned something about firing a tic tac down a train tunnel, care to elaborate on what he meant McKay?' Fuller retorted making the team laugh again.

"Hey don't knock it till you try it, my friend, I'm sure the Sarge would love to give you a crash course or maybe the boss I'm sure she's got a magnetic one she could strap to the outside of her armour somewhere," McKay said making Fuller laugh out loud which echoed down the street and making him glance around nervously.

"Will you can it McKay before you find out first hand if I do or do not have said metal attachment," Fletcher said.

"Promises promises boss," McKay shot back.

This was the one thing that Fuller loved about being in the ESF more than anything, the soldiers of their ranks were nothing like those of the regular rank and file of their forces, each team was more like a family unit than anything else, they lived fought and died together, they were brothers and sisters in arms and it bread not only familiarity but a comradery that you just couldn't get anywhere else, a place where officers were not stuck so far up their own arse they could lick the inside of their own skull, where the opinion of a corporal could trump that of a Luitenant if that corporal was the one with experience in the field if anyone had spoken to an officer like that in any other area of the Enclave army they'd have been tied to a post and fucking shot.

Finally Fuller made it to Boston common and he looked around, over to his far left was what appeared to be an entrance to one of the many subway stations littered throughout the area, but it was the lake directly in front of him that really caught his attention, he saw an odd little boat that kinda looked like a beaten up old swan floating along in the water and that's when something froze him up and he instantly switched to his rifle.

"What is it Fuller what do you see?" Sarge's voice asked all business now.

"The boat, it's moving and there no fucking tide or wind, somethings moving it," Fuller said in a hiss as he brought up the rifle to look through the scope.

No sooner had he flicked to thermal than Fuller's blood turned to ice, "it's a fucking behemoth!!" he exclaimed as the thermal revealed a large hot shape under the cold water and he instantly recognised the shape.

Before anyone could respond to this the swan boat rocketed upwards as the gigantic super mutant behemoth broke the surface and rose up out of the water, Fuller didn't even hesitate, he did what he was trained to do, he aimed and squeezed the trigger.

Now the trigger on a gauss rifle works kinda different from that of a normal ballistic or energy weapon, most weapons fired a shot every time you pulled the trigger, but single-shot gauss weapons didn't work like that, when you pulled the trigger the weapon pulled power from its recycler power cells and dumped it into the coils to charge them like oversized capacitors this caused them to issue a high pitched whining noise as they built up a charge rapidly, but it was when you released the trigger again the real fun began.

As soon as Fuller let go of the trigger the fully charged weapon fired and kicked slightly, as it happened the creature chose that exact moment to move causing his round no to hit it right in the centre of the head as he'd planned but instead to blow off the top of its left shoulder like a greasy slab of rotten green beef as the 2mm round hit it with enough force that it didn't even slow down as it munched clean through.

The behemoth roared with pain and anger and spun towards Fuller glaring at him before lifting a large rock from the ground as Fuller fought to keep his leaping heart under control and to re-aim so he could fire again, the creature saw him doing this and managed to get its forearm into the line of his shot which removed it at the elbow sending its right arm spinning off into the water but also sending the shot off into the air to points unknown, hopefully, to come down later on a raider's head rather than an innocent person just minding their own business, Fuller was not in this to hurt or kill innocent people, he really wanted to remake the United States to what it once was.

The third shot was the money winner, as the creature opened its large vile looking mouth filled with broken and green teeth to bellow out a roar of anger and pain Fuller found his target, the hypervelocity entered right between those teeth the shockwave it created within its mouth shattering them only a split second before the round punched clean out of the top of the behemoth's head and exploded it showering the ground and water around it with skull and brain fragments.

The body of the behemoth simply stood there swaying for a moment before its large remaining right hand came up and seemingly felt for its missing head before the whole thing just toppled over like a giant green tree sending a tidal wave of vile-looking water washing out in every direction.

Fuller's breath exploded out of him in raggy bursts as he released the held breath he'd been holding while firing on the behemoth and he sagged forwards letting the rifle dip, "You ok Fuller?" the Sarge's voice came over the line.

"Y-Yeah big fucker caught me off guard but I put him down, glad I brought the big girl with me and took the fucker apart," Fuller said catching his breath.

"Alright suck it up and move out soldier ESF only rest when we're dead you know that," Sarge said and Fuller nodded.

"Yes sir," he said straightening up and putting his rifle back on his back again before pulling out his smg.

As he didn't fancy wading through shit-smelling water that was now filled with mutant blood and brains Fuller took the long way around the pond, as he neared the far side something caught his eye.

"Think I found the monument looks like it's got a Protectron guarding it though," he said spotting the dome-headed robot standing near the small monument which had a lantern standing atop it.

"It's probably a tour guide one, as memory serves this was a national monument at one time so it will probably want to give you the tour," Number eight's voice said in his ear suddenly which felt very odd indeed, he was already used to his team speaking into his head from spending countless hours inside a suit of power armour, but when a stranger did it set him on edge.

"Approach it with caution Fuller, if it starts winding up to take a shot at your power the fucker down permanently," Fletcher said.

"Roger that boss, proceeding now," Fuller said.

As soon as it detected him the Protectron turned and clomped towards him, "Welcome citizen to the start of the Boston Freedom Trail, would you like to learn about the Freedom Trail?" it asked as it stopped a few feet away from him.

"Sure," Fuller said and the robot launched into a recorded explanation of how they used lanterns and markers to guide freed slaves through a series of set-up safe houses and markers so that they could be safely smuggled out of the south and into the safety of the north during the civil war.

That's when Fuller noticed a second lantern sitting on a building not far away and what really caught his eye was the fact that it was lit.

So once the robot had finished its spiel Fuller said thank you to it out of instinct, though why quite why he took the time to be polite to a robot that neither understood nor cared was beyond him, he guessed it was because his parents had raised him to always be polite and respectful, he might be a highly trained and skilled warrior who's main skill was turning his enemies into pink or brightly coloured mist at long range but that didn't mean he had to be an uncouth and unmannered swine.