Chapter 77: Way of the Warrior.
"And it's up good job people now let's check in to see if we can raise Seven and the others," Raymond said as the radio pulser clunked into place at that top of the tower and the dishes all began to align themselves.
After such a long period of inactivity and exposure to the harsh elements, he had been worried that the relay would be inoperable leaving them cut off from the others, but as it turned out that other than a few feral Ghouls that they'd cleared out pretty quickly the tower itself was in a remarkable condition which now thanks to Cho and Spectre was fully online, or at least he hoped it was.
"Gold two to Gold one are you receiving us over?" Spectre said into the radio handset before releasing the PTT to let the replay come through if there was one.
Now Seven's team was the only one not actually carrying a handset as their radio was built into Seven's power armour which incidentally also made it the most powerful set of all of them due to the armour having a built-in booster unit and far more powerful ariel than the handheld sets that they had, so all they could hope was that Seven was actually in his armour and not in a bush with Visa somewhere.
Though Raymond did know one little trick that Seven's armour had that he himself might not even know about as Timothy had taken great pleasure in telling him about it before they had set off if it received a Radio call and its occupant wasn't inside the armour would actually begin to flash its headlamp on and off to alert it's wearer to an incoming broadcast which he thought was hilarious as it conjured up images of it shining a high powered torch on him and Visa essentially catching them in the act.
But as it turned out they didn't have to wait long for a reply, "Gold one to last call sign check in over," Seven's voice came through the handset which made Raymond smile as not only had it worked but he had indeed been outside of his armour when the radio went off.
"It's Gold two checking in and letting you know we got the local radio relay working down here so we have comms, also reporting that we have made an interesting discovery oh and tell Visa we apologise for dragging her man back into his tin suit and out of her arms, I can practically feel her pacing from here, over," Cho said with a giggle as they all knew about the power armour trick as Raymond had kinda let it slip while they'd been walking.
"Wait how did you......you all knew my armour did that when I wasn't in it didn't you? Over," Seven's voice said and they all broke down into a fit of giggles as they imagined the angry Claw pacing around him.
"Someone in Gold one kinda let it slip to us but refuse to name any names, over," Cho said stifling a giggle as she spoke.
"Well I'll let you explain it to her when we get back as right now I have a rather unamused looking Claw girl pacing around me, so what's this discovery you mentioned? Over," Seven asked.
"We believe we have located a splinter group of the Greasers from DC down here apparently they are called the Roaming Ronin and we are going to try and make contact before we proceed on with our mission over," Cho explained.
When Seven's voice came back it had lost its edge of irritation and was now curious, "Wow they walked a long way to get all the way down there ok roger that then, keep us in the loop and let us know how it goes, tell your leader that I have faith in his abilities to pull this off as I can feel him fretting from here, Gold one over and out," Seven said and all of his team looked up at him making him sigh, Seven seriously was an astute one.
"Roger that Gold one and don't worry we got his back Gold Two over and out," Cho said making Raymond smile and chuckle as he noticed Lia moving close to him and he felt the large claw-tipped hand on his shoulder.
"See? Seven has faith in you as do we," she said and he smiled at her gratefully.
"Alright then people let's get this show on the road then shall we?" he said and with that, the group gathered up and headed down towards the ruins.
En route, Raymond had wondered how they were supposed to find both Riss and Runs in this place as they were both masters of the shadows and expert trackers, but as it turned out there was no need to as one of the pair was waiting for them on the outskirts.
"Ahh good you are back, come I'm will guide you to where glorious wife awaits us, now be careful, is many traps here, tread where I tread and only where I's treads," Runs said as he emerged from the shadows making them all jump as not one of them had seen him hiding among the shadows of the buildings.
It turned out that the Ronin were very meticulous about their security as they found numerous traps that ranged from landmines through to simple can chain noise maker traps absolutely everywhere along their route through.
But finally, they reached what appeared to be a rather well-hidden bunker in the basement of what appeared to be a book store towards the centre of the ruins, there they met up with Riss who was waiting for them.
After she embraced her husband lovingly she turned to the rest of the group, "I have scouted the place and they are indeed insssside, I count twelve mutantssss all heavily armed sssso we sssshould be cautioussss," she reported.
"Good job Riss, well alright here's the plan, these guys are gonna be pretty cautious, to say the least, but they all know me so it's best if I handle the introductions so you guys wait here while I go and speak to them and if it goes well I'll bring them up," Raymond said and instantly he saw Lia begging to twitch.
"I do not like the thought of you going in there alone I should go with you in case there is a problem," she said and Raymond shook his head.
"I appreciate the offer, Lia, I do and in any other circumstance I would not hesitate to have you backing me up but not here, these are my people and misunderstandings need to be avoided and without any offence being offered here Claws appearing out of the shadows in amongst your group who are not used to good Claws can cause them real fast," he said making the big Claw girl huff in annoyance.
