Radiance Chapter 133

Chapter 133: Rapid Response.

Both Yumi and Glory jumped up and grabbed hold of the door guns after the pilot flipped the switch to open the outer doors which allowed them a decent sight line down to the ground below them.

"I really don't like the look of that smoke," Fuller said spotting a column of thick black smoke rising into the air ahead of them.

"What exactly was this call out again?" the pilot asked glancing at him in the passenger seat of the vertibird where he had control of the nose guns which were mounted inside of a small gimbal mount just above the bulletproof glass bubble that was supposed to allow the pilot to see the ground properly but was currently being used by Malakai to look into the cockpit.

"A raider attack on a farming settlement," Fuller responded as he pulled down the visor on his helmet which activated the cameras mounted in the gun gimbal and allowed him to use the viewfinder and zoom functions.

In the distance, he could see the farm as it appeared to be walled in behind what looked to be a very thick cement panel system topped with what appeared to be razor wire of some kind.

"Ground around the outside looks clear, I see some bodies here and there but nothing major but fuck me it looks like that wall took a bit of a hammering," Fuller said as he focused the long-range zoom of the 30mm nose guns onto what appeared to be scorch marks and craters blown out of the cement panels.

From the height they were at Fuller could also see some figures stood out in the middle of the farmland and they all appeared to be both armed and looking up at the incoming Vertibird.

"Malakai drop early and clear the outside while we sit down and have a word with the farmers, they look a little on edge and you dropping into the middle of them might set off some friendly fire," Fuller called down to the large Archnakai boy who was still hanging under the Vertibird.

Malakai gave him a salute and then pushed off the bottom pulling a spin in mid-air as he used a line he'd attached to the bottom of the bird to slow his fall before landing safely on the ground.

"Damn I felt the pull of that!" the pilot exclaimed as she corrected the yank that Malakai's bungie line had caused.

Think of it as a learning experience, if this all goes well you'll probably be working with us a lot more and you'll probably wind up ferrying more than an Archnakai boy around," Fuller said before pointing to a large clear section at the rear of the farm.

"Set her down there but keep the engines warm, we might need to bug out in a hurry if this goes south," he said.

"Roger that," the pilot said doing a curving lap around the far to give the people on the ground a look at them before bringing the large craft in for a landing.

Fuller pulled off his helmet and motioned for the other two to stay in the back on the guns to which he got two nods in response before he clambered out of the cockpit and down onto the ground.

As he turned around from the vertibird stairs Fuller came face to face with four people three of whom had weapons trained on him and one who was walking towards him slowly and cautiously.

"Who the hell are you and what's your business here?" the gruff-looking man who was obviously the head of the family household demanded.

He was a well-built man, standing about six foot three and with solid muscles, it looked like farming was definitely in his blood and was something he took very seriously, along with the safety of his family.

Fuller put his open hands out to his sides to show he wasn't holding any weapons as he stepped closer to the man so he could have an easier time talking with him over the drone of the spooling engines.

"That's close enough stranger, now I'll ask yer again, what's yer business here?" the man said in a deep gruff voice.

"Easy now, I'm from the minutemen," Fuller said.

The man's eyes narrowed and he glanced at the vertibird skeptically.

"That sure as hell don't look like no Minutement craft to me," he said.

"It's not, it's on lone from our new allies in the Brotherhood of Steel, kinda like us really," Fuller said.

"The Brotherhood!? Since when are those metalheads working with the Minutemen?" the man asked in surprise.

"Since the Free Peoples of the Wastes brokered a peace and mutual defence pact with them, that's who I'm from as are all of my colleges here, including the rather large spider boy who dropped outside of your walls who I would really appreciate if you don't shoot at," Fuller said.

"Spider boy? What are ya blathering about lad?" the farmer demanded about a second before Fuller let out a very loud and shrill whistle.

About a second later Malakai landed right next to them with a heavy thump that kicked up a load of dust and nearly made the farmer drop his gun in alarm.

"Greetings, sorry about the surprise entrance, figured it was just easier to jump your wall than climb it, really didn't want to snag my armour on those nasty-looking coils of razor wire up there," Malakai said smiling at the farmer as he twitched his pedipalps at him happily.

"Holy shit a talking spider!" the farmer exclaimed looking between Mallakai and Fuller in alarm.

"Don't worry he's with us and he's a friend, his name is Malakai," Fuller said quickly before taking a step to his left to ensure he was between the large Archnakai boy and any potential shot from either the farm or his very nervous looking family.

"A friend you say?" the man said eyeing Malakai susspisiously.

"That's right, these are my friends and I am theirs, we're here to help you with your raider problem," Malakai said in a soft voice.

"Your message said that a raider gang had been attacking your farm?" Fuller said quickly before the farmer could launch into the barrage of questions that were so obviously brewing in his mind and the man's attention flicked back to Fuller.

"Yeah, this here farm has been in my family for generations and is one of the major producers of corn for the entire area, but those fuckers keep stealing it and demanding money from us, they were bleeding us dry so we decided enough was enough and took a stand, they already killed my brother and his wife," the farmer said gesturing off to the side of the large house where Fuller spotted two graves sticking up out of the ground.

"Any idea where the gang is coming from or hold up?" Fuller asked.

"Aye, see that old radio tower on that hill over there?" the man said pointing off towards a series of large cliffs that made up one side of a rather large hill which had a large radio mast sticking up off the top of it.

"Yeah," Fuller said looking up at it.

"They have their home base in that place and we only know that because they kidnapped my boy a couple of weeks back when he was coming back from the market, fuckers stole two of our pack brahmien and all the caps as well as the supplies he was bringing in, then they had the fucking cheek to demand a fucking ransom but my boy is a smart lad, he gave em the slip and got back here," the farmer said indicating a teenager off to his left.

"Anything you can tell us would be helpful, like the size of the group we're dealing with," Fuller said looking at the boy.

"Not sure exactly but there's at least twenty of them and they are well armed, they are using the radio station as their main base but they took over all the smaller buildings too," the teen said.

"Alright then thanks that helps, don't you worry after today those fuckers won't be bothering you or your family again," Fuller said.

"What just like that?" the farmer said and Fuller nodded.

"Yup, that's kinda the point ain't it, you call the Minutemen for heklp and they answer only now they got bigger guns, sharper teeth and new friends who will lend them a hand," Fuller said gesturing to Malakai who gave them a grin that showed off his sharp fangs.

Just like that Fuller turned and headed back to the Vertibird which once he was onboard went into a hover to allow Malakai to remount the underbelly of it before heading for the radio tower at Fuller's instruction.

"Alright people get ready this place is hot and the group down there is well armed, Malakai I want you to hot drop in, we will provide cover fire from the bird until the outside is clear, at that point I want a rapid drop in the centre, pilot stay in orbit outside of small arms range, we'll pop smoke for recovery," Fuller said and got acknowlagements from everyone.

It appeared that the raiders must have heard the vertibird coming because it didn't take long for bullets to start pinging off the armoured hull as they got close.

"Fucking hell looks like we really kicked the fucking hornet's nest!!" the pilot said as she began to take evasive manoeuvres to throw off their aim as Fuller began to return fire with the nose guns.

"Malakai go go go!!" Fuller yelled.

Malaki simply dropped from the bottom of the Vertibird with all of his massive legs fanned out to stabilise his fall, the safety line he was using slowed his descent until he hit the ground at which point he severed it and began the ground attack of the base which gave the defending raiders on the ground two things to worry about.

The pilot immediately put the vertibird into a steep banking turn which gave Glory a perfect line down onto the compound far below them as was evident by the high-pitched whine of her minigun opening up in the back.

Now the funny thing about a minigun firing is that they do so fast that there is never a single audible gunshot, instead, the noise is kinda like a whine or someone doing up a really big zipper really fast.

Fuller was able to angle his gun in the nose cone to be able to join in and after switching his visual mode to thermal he began firing at any small blobs that he could see in the windows making sure to keep his rounds as far away from Malakai as possible as the 30mm was no joke.

The 30mm chaingun that was installed in the nose of the assault vertibird fired a 30mm explosive slug that could not only punch clean through a brick wall before exploding on the other side of it but could turn a man into a could of pink mist on impact if it hit him directly.

Just one of these guns in the right hands was a truly fearsome weapon as it combined a fearsome firing rate with heavy-duty penetration as well as power, it was the kind of weapon that could turn a force of men to mush or a base to splinters in seconds and Fuller's hands were definitely the right ones.

Down below them, Malakai was certainly doing his part as well, he was making use of the arieal covering fire to leap from building to building and either tossing grenades inside with the sheltering defenders or whip pulling them out by throwing sticky web balls at them before yanking the silk tethers and tearing the men from their hiding places.

In less than a minute Malakai was on the roof of the main building giving the all-clear sign with his arms and his large two front legs forming the shape of a large double Y.

"Time to get in there and stir shit up, get ready for fast rope deployment!" Fuller said taking off his helmet and retrieving his gun before clambering between the seats and into the rear cab.

Both Glory and Yumi rolled the two fast lines out of the side of the Vertibird as it slowed to a hover over the building that Malakai was atop before launching themselves out of the door holding the lines.

"See you soon Fuller good luck!" the pilot called a second before he was out of the door and sliding down the line towards the rooftop.

"Malakai you're on overwatch, stay up here and keep an eye or eight out, catch any stragglers that try to escape, not one of these fuckers leaves this place other than in a bodybag," Fuller said heading to the front of the line that was stacked up on the rooftop access door.

"Roger that I'll set a web," the large Archnakai boy said with a salute.

Fuller slung his Gueass gun and drew his suppressed magnum pistol, he'd picked this thing up a while ago from the military base that Yumi had taken him to when she snatched him and had now modified it to his liking.

Fortunately, the rounds nor parts for the weapon had been hard to find and while he had had to part with some caps to get some upgrades for it, it had more than paid off as this thing packed far more punch than his previous 10mm, though he really wanted to get his hands on a Gueass pistol though they were pretty rare to stumble across out here.

But until that day came this semi-auto large calibre magnum pistol would do the job rather nicely.

He checked the breach was loaded and his suppressor was tight before thumbing the laser pointer on and giving a thumbs up to Glory who was stacked up behind him.

As Fuller opened the door Glory leaned past him and tossed a flash-bang through the gap and into the stairwell beyond it.

"Go go go," Fuller said as there was a deafening thud from the stairwell and the cries of both alarm and pain indicated that the Raiders had been set up waiting for them.

As Fuller stepped through the door he saw his first target immediately below him on the platform just down the stairs from him.

There were three of them all with automatic rifles and it was obvious to him that they had all set up waiting for them to come through the door so they could pepper it with fire but had not been expecting the flashbang to get tossed into othe very confined stairwell.

The blast from one of these little hexagonal devices was devastating in a rather spacious room let alone a narrow stairwell, so as the grenade had detonated it had released a pulse of blinding white light from its magnisum core along with a deafening boom designed to overload the senses of the defenders.

Which as Fuller put a round through his first target's cranium sending part of the man's skull spinning into the air along with a jet of thick blood which painted the wall behind him had obviously done very well.

Given that they were going into a building Glory had opted to leave her minigun behind and instead was supporting a much more compact suppressed 10mm SMG which chattered to his right as she put a burst into both the second and third defenders in quick succession.

Fuller gave a thumbs up before slowly descending the stairs towards the next level, the plan was simple, clear one level at a time until the entire place was empty.

A sharp crack and a scream from outside indicated that someone had decided to test Malakai's marksmanship and had lost that bet.

The group stacked up on the door where the now dead defenders had been set up and Fuller gave a thumbs up before pulling the door open.

Once again Glory slung another flashbang around him and even before it went off bullets began to smash into the door frame and wall where they were.

No sooner had the grenade detonated Fuller was dashing through the door and heading left while Glory was going right while Yumi went down the middle, each of them seeking cover.

once again the flashbang had done its job though not as effectively as the stairwell due to this room being what appeared to have once been an open plan office level it had still distracted the three or so defenders enough for the three to make entry.

Fuller was about to put a bullet into a figure he saw over the far side near an overturned watercooler when a brilliant flash of blue and white light struck them before it split off and hit the other two standing to their left and right.

It took him a moment to realise Yumi had thrown a fighting lightning bolt at them.

As the three smoking corpses slumped to the floor now all supporting the same bald look haircut from their highvoltage haircut both Fuller and Glory turned to look at Yumi who gave them a sweet and innocent smile.

"God help your future boyfriend is all I can say," Fuller said before heading rapidly for the door on the far side of the room.

They rapidly swept the offices that were obviously once belonging to the management of the radio station as they were separate from the main office floor but all were empty which left them free to return to the stairwell and to descend to the final floor.

"Hey, I've got an idea I've been wanting to try, mind if I stack second for this one?" Yumi said and Fuller glanced at her and then at Glory who nodded.

"Alright but have the flashbang ready as I want it going in as well just in case whatever is floating around in her little head doesn't work," he said.

"hey my plans always work, now prepare to be impressed soldier boy," Yumi said before they stacked up and he couldn't help but worry when he heard what sounded like a camera flash charging up behind him.

As he flung the final door open Yumi stepped around him and lobbed what looked like a large ball of glowing light past him.

Before he could even begin to ask what in the name of fuck that was there was a brilliant flash like someone had just turned the fucking sun on and off in the next room along with a whole chorus of screams.

With no time to waste Fuller and his team burst through the door only to find some of the room on fire and at least three people as well, but there was also a much larger problem.

The ball of lightning that Yumi had thrown had indeed done its job by both stunning and blinding the defenders in the room which appeared to be filled with sandbags, some of which were now on fire.

But it had struck what appeared to be a dude in a large makeshift power armour suit standing in the centre of the room turning him into a fucking walking Tesla coil.

The lightning had been attracted to the dense metal frame and had homed right in on it, striking the suit directly in the centre of the dense chest plate before arcing out to everything else in the room.

The result was been while everyone else in the room got smoked by lightning chaining off the suit, the guy inside it was totaly fine because even in its bare frame state power armour has high voltage conduction to ensure if a user is struck by lightning in the field it is directed away from them.

Unfortunately, it hadn't seemed to do much to his rather large minigun either.

"Cover!!" Fuller yelled causing his team to scatter as the Raider boss in the suit turned on the spot spinning up the gun as he did before unleashing a barrage of 5mm bullets into the walls where they had been stood only seconds before.

As shrapnel rained down on him Fuller behind the tables that he had dove behind for sight cover he pulled his Geauss rifle from his back and switched it on.

The gun made a low humming noise as it sent power through its coils, now yes he could have hammered the chassis of the suit with magnum rounds until he got lucky but while doing that the guy in the suit was going to rain a torrent of high velocity 5mm death down on his head, that wasn't a fight he was going to win in this universe.

So rolling to one side to peer under some desks that were somehow still standing Fuller used the canted sight on the side of the weapon that he used for close-range engagements and levelled it square on the abdominal mass of the suit.

He squeezed the trigger and the capacitors that lined the sides of the barrel began to whine as they charged up with high-voltage electricity, the second that he released it the capacitors would dump all of that electricity into the powerful electromagnets that also lined the barrel which would propel the 2mm tungsten slug down the barrel at insane velocity.

The real trick was keeping a weapon like this both on target and stable while it charged as it defied conventional sniping tactics.

"Hey fuckwit!!" a familiar voice yelled and the raider turned just in time to get hit square in the face with a large golden glowing orb of what looked to be fire.

Fuller was under no illusions as to who had thrown the fireball as only one person among them was capable of pulling a trick like that out of her Japanese ass, thankfully it gave him the time he needed and he released the trigger as the weapon signalled that it was ready.