Chapter 80: Breaking In and Out.
Fuller and Glory finally finished their long trek to the staging ground where they met the other Railroad heavies who were waiting on their arrival in a HQ that had been hastily set up on the top floor of a bombed-out building that overlooked the raider compound at a distance.
"What's the situation?" Glory asked as the pair finished greeting the other heavies and were escorted to the command table by a large grizzled man who was called Bear who screamed veteran to Fuller, he was either ex-mercenary or ex-military and by the look of him, it could quite possibly be NCR.
"Not good in the slightest Glory, from the latest intel we've managed to gather coming out of this place it sounds like they've managed to figure out what they've got their hands on and from what we've heard they've been in contact with the Brotherhood," Bear said.
"Fuck! When are they arriving?" Glory said slamming her hands onto the tabletop in frustration.
"A couple of hours, so we have to hit them now but this op is going to draw a lot of heat Glory, if the Brotherhood figure this out then they are going to start hunting us and given what I've heard on the airwaves that they have been calling in heavy reinforcements because of the losses they keep taking with that little war they got going with those Avian tribals to the north pretty soon this place is gonna be swarming with those tin soldiers," Bear said.
"Avian tribals?" Fuller asked.
"Yeah there's some non-human tribe of what looks like bird people that live towards the north in the hills, for the most part, they are peaceful as long as you leave em alone and don't enter their territory without an invite, hell our people have even traded with them on quite a few occasions, they have a have a love of fruits that don't grow up there and they have a real talent for scavaging and repairing things, right little tinkers that lot and they seem to have a talent for laying their feathery hands on high-end weapons which we put to good use," Bear said.
"So what's the Brotherhood's beef with them?" Fuller asked and Bear shrugged.
"Typical tin-pot dictators with a heavy emphasis on the tin part, they believe they can go where they want when they want even when that happens to be right into someone else's backyard, well the Avians didn't like it one bit and if I can tell you one thing about that lot is they seriously know how to fight, scary bunch, to say the least, no idea who taught them but I'd love to talk shop with them sometime," Bear said.
Fuller couldn't help but wonder if Seven's team might be sniffing about in that area given their perchance for helping non-humans out but he kept that thought to himself.
"Well then if the Brotherhood is involved then we are going to have to up our game plan," Glory said and Fuller shook his head causing her to raise an eyebrow and look at him questioningly.
"Well we had a plan in place to leave a message to the raiders not to fuck with us again, but for my money, I think we could simply easily modify said plan to make it look like another raider crew hit em and took the synths, for my money that would be a double win, because not only do we take the heat of ourselves but we send the Brotherhood after the raiders which will take the pressure of the normal people of Boston by having the tin brigade wipe out one of the raider clans in the area," Fuller said thoughtfully.
An evil smile broke out on Glory's face and was instantly echoed on Bear's, "I like the way you think new guy, your a fucking crafty one to be sure, that could work nicely but you got anyone in mind?" Bear asked.
"I do, I know a group that has been giving both Diamond city and Bunker hill grief for a few months, now normally I wouldn't give a fuck about Diamond city as they can take care of themselves but they are harassing our caravans out of Bunker hill, we've lost a couple of good heavies to them so this is a good opportunity to use those tin soldiers to exact some revenge for us," Glory said.
"Well alright then, so what's the plan?" Bear asked and both Glory and Fuller outlined what they had in mind for them.
Fortunately, nightfall was only an hour away when both Glory and Fuller had arrived so when they finished outlining their plan it had fully fallen and it was pitch black outside when the heavies reemerged into the open air.
To his surprise Glory gave Fuller a kiss on the cheek as well as a hug before they separated, she'd also told him not to die, a sentiment that he had echoed back to her but now as he crawled along the drainage trench that led into the pipes he was going to use to infiltrate the base he couldn't help replay it over in his head, along with the thoughts that had been plaguing him ever since he'd started this mission.
Never in his life had he experienced such care and tenderness among his comrades but he could see it plain as day among the Railroad people, they genuinely cared not only about one another but about the non-human lives they took it upon themselves to defend.
Plus having experienced the very distinct joys of one of those said non-human lives himself having spent the last couple of days with Glory he felt like the very fabric of his world was beginning to come apart at the seams.
Having gotten to know her the way he did Fuller was truly beginning to see exactly why Seven and his people did what they did, they were right and there was no way he could actually deny it to himself anymore, he also knew that if the Railroad encountered Seven's people on hostile footing they would get their collective arses beat into the ground as Seven's team's reputation was a fearsome one given their ability to punch far above their weight.
He truly didn't want that to happen he also knew that if they encountered them on friendly terms there was a good chance that they would become strong allies given their belief in pretty much the same goals, goals which in essence the people he was fighting for opposed rather violently.
Now on the surface, the Enclave said they opposed slavery but in reality, they completely embraced it, doing everything from press-ganging entire towns into service to either provide cannon fodder soldiers or even food and supplies.
In essence, they were no better than the raiders, just much better organised and equipped, hell even the Brotherhood were better than them, at least they tried to protect people for the most part and wouldn't go out to either enslave or attack civilians, they at least had morals.
But given the very nature of the mission that he was out on now he realised completely that his people had none, this also led him to the realisation that his own team would put him down without a single second of hesitation should he rebel against them, or worse they'd probably put down the people around him like Glory to force his co-operation.
He had to end it, he had to break away from the ESF and to actually free himself of the Enclave, but the real question was how?
Fuller knew deep in his heart that if he tried to remove the sub-dermal implants his team would likely storm the place thinking that he had been killed and to remove any trace of his existence including anyone who had met him, sterilisation and plausible deniability were two of the cornerstones of the ESF.
There was also a very good likelihood that the sub-dermals themselves were booby-trapped with some kind of trigger that would either cause them to explode or release some kind of poison into his bloodstream if he tried to remove them with a very exact procedure, that's the kind of thing he would fully expect from the Enclave now.
He needed a way out and what's more, he needed a way to prevent them from actually being able to broadcast what he was saying and his location so that he could have time to remove them, question was, how?
But these were thoughts for another time, right now his Railroad team were counting on him and he had to get his head in the game, he had a hostage rescue to pull out of his arse, so without further distraction, he began to crawl head first through the pitch black narrow pipes into the compound.
After a few yards, Fuller came to his first obstacle, a large metal grate that was designed to stop anything larger than a rat from passing through between the bars, with a bit of wiggling he removed the plasma cutter he'd been carrying between his teeth and aimed his red light head torch at the bars.
Fortunately, he'd remembered to bring his anti-flash goggles which were like a pair of welder's goggles with lenses that reacted to bright light by turning black in a split second protecting the wearer's eyes from getting arc eye from the bright light as well as protecting them from the sparks as he cut through the metal.
The heat from the torch was incredible and he could feel it washing over his face as he cut through the bars like butter with the plasma, the cut ends of the bars glowed white hot as he sliced through them so he was going to have to be real careful when he crawled on through or he was going to seriously burn himself though he had filled a canteen with water to cool them for just this kind of instance.
Once through he cooled the metal and slowly picked his way through the stumps which were surprisingly sharp around the edges, it was like crawling over a series of hot knives.
Once he was clear he began to crawl in earnest again until finally, he reached the inside of the tank inside the old pump house that would lead the prisoners to freedom, he pressed his head against the metal and listened hard but he couldn't hear anything close by outside, the most he could hear was a few muted voices that sounded pretty far away.
So taking a deep breath and checking his suppressed pistol he fired up the torch once more and began to cut through the outside of the heavy metal tank.
Fuller cut the metal in such a way that when the cut section fell it would make less noise by not slamming right into either the tank or the floor, he did this by holding a heavy wadded piece of leather against it so he could take the weight and lower it inside, though even through the scorching leather he could feel the heat the torch had dumped into the metal itself.
But finally, the circle he'd cut was complete and he took the weight of the thick steel disc he'd cut and lowered it slowly into the tank, though there was no way to make it a completely silent operation given that he simply couldn't hold the thing properly given how hot it was and he simply wasn't carrying enough water to cool it to the point where he could hold it.
So there was a deep metallic thud as he got it to the floor and the reaction was almost instant, "What the fuck was that?" a voice from outside exclaimed.
