Chapter 89: Home Among the Clouds.
Raymond had never in his life imagined anything like what he was seeing from the deck of the small airship that had descended to retrieve his delegation from the surface.
The small airship looked like something out of a steampunk novel or film, it was like a small boat that had been fitted with a large leather balloon and leather wings on the sides while two large slowly turning propellers pushed them through the air.
Honestly, Raymond found himself more amazed that the small craft was actually able to lift the considerable combined weight of half a dozen super mutants, a claw girl and assorted others as it flew into the clouds but it didn't seem to miss a beat so it was obviously the definition of small but mighty.
As they drifted lazily upwards Raymond began to see something hiding among the ever-present clouds above them but thanks to the white mist he was unable to make it out until they got higher but when they did his eyes nearly fell out of his skull.
There floating in amongst the clouds hidden nearly perfectly from the ground while also aided by what appeared to be a series of angled mirrors mounted all along the bottom of it which seemed to act as some form of crude but effective camouflage was a full-sized city.
The whole thing seemed to be sat atop of large ballast bags much like the one that held them aloft currently but with far greater thickness and also redundancies, they were grouped into masses so rather than rely on one large bag they had many much smaller ones and Raymond guessed this was for safety incase one or more of the bags suffered damage the city integrity would not be compromised.
All around the outside and underneath in strange rotating glass pods they could see what appeared to be gun turrets designed with the sole intention of defending against encroaching aircraft, they even seemed to have what appeared some shoulder-mounted rocket launchers that had been fitted into quad-shaped frames so they could be used like makeshift SAM turrets.
Raymond really couldn't be more amazed at these people's ingenuity, they seemed to really like to reuse and recycle everything they got their feathery little hands upon, he instantly recognised captured Brotherhood equipment mounted inside of those turrets in the form of things like laser miniguns.
Given that these people could fly Raymond found himself why they needed airships like the one in which they rode, the only use he could see that they would have for them would be for retrieval of non-flying people like them and also picking up captured equipment from the ground.
The airship circled the city before taking up a waiting pattern in a queue of other similar ships that were waiting to enter the city docks which appeared to be through a pair of large gates into what appeared to be a large glass dome of some kind.
From where he stood at the bow he could see what appeared to be a security checkpoint of some kind that dispatched officers to each ship to check both the goods and people aboard before fluttering back to their station to allow the ship to enter.
When it finally came to their turn four security officers who all looked like oversized humanoid Magpies to Raymond fluttered onto the ship stopping short when they saw both himself and Lia looking at them and their bright sharp eyes all locked onto Lia with a look of alarm plastered on their Avian features.
"Greetings," Lia said putting on her best smile as Raymond had instructed her to do to make a good impression on their hosts.
"Ummm greetings, I am going to assume you are the delegation that the honoured ambassador spoke of that is here to parlay with the Elders?" the closest Magpie officer who appeared to be a female by her body shape asked in a very high-pitched and sing-songy voice and Raymond nodded.
"That would indeed be us my name is Raymond," he said and she looked at the paperwork that she had been given and nodded approvingly as obviously the name she had been given matched what he had said.
"I am to relieve you of your weapons and issue receipts for all individuals that then can be collected upon leaving the city as we do not allow firearms within the city limits, given the nature of our city I am sure you can appreciate this," the female officer said and Raymond nodded instantly hearing a low murmur of disapproval from Jack and his men as well as his own people.
"Indeed I can and mightily impressive it is I must say and honestly I am sure we will not need them given the ambassador gave his word to us that we would be treated with both respect and honour but I must impart a warning, neither a super mutant like myself and my allies here or my beautiful Claw girl here need weapons to be dangerous and will not hesitate to defend ourselves if we must, also while you may take our weapons our armour stays with us, I will not be rendered defenceless," he said making sure the woman understood that this was not a threat but merely a warning to make sure that civility was observed and she nodded.
"Understood and we appreciate your cooperation," she said nodding her narrow head before issuing a series of whistles and chirps to her comrades in what was obviously their own language.
The group moved forwards and Raymond's group handed over their weapons though Raymond noted that the Ronin seemed to have been prepared for this occurrence and he had noted that many of them had rather subtle blades hidden among their armour which would be invisible to all but the most vigorous pat down or the sharpest of eyes.
Once the weapons were handed over and the inventory taken receipts were written for all of them and handed to their owners, "These will be held in our lock up here at the port and can be retrieved once you leave our fair city, please be welcome here," the security officer said before the group turned and fluttered their way back to their office and opened the gates for the ship to proceed inside.
