Radiance Ch. 137

Chapter 138: Frenemies.

"What's with the hush-hush Sarge, I mean no briefing before we even head out on an op, how the hell are we supposed to come up with a tactical plan here?" Corporal Adrian Clements asked his squad's Sargent, a grizzled man in his mid-forties and a very well-respected combat veteran of many campaigns by the name of Rogers but everyone even those of the same rank simply referred to him as Sarge, the man was the living embodiment of what it meant to be an ESF soldier.

"I don't like it any more than you do Corpral, but you know the score as well as I do, you've been in the unit long enough to know when the president says jump you don't even ask how high you just start skipping your merry ass off until he tells you to stop," Sarge said as he stepped into his power armour and buttoned it up.

Sarge preferred to use the MK2 variant of their X series of power armour despite a good many of them now using mark 3's and even a few 4's, he was very much a tried and true kinda guy and given the amount of battle scarring on his suit it wasn't hard to see why, it had gotten him through so many engagements that he considered it closer than his own skin now.

Clements himself was using their MK3 variant equipped with a stealth frame system and top-of-the-line cloaking tech developed right here in their labs, his suit was also heavily modified with parts he'd sourced and implemented himself to work around his role of close-quarter tactical specialist.

So good was his ability to walk right up to an opponent unnoticed and dispatch them before even their own squad had noticed that it had earned him the codename Sythe after the Grim Reaper's famous curved blade.

Right now he and the rest of his team of four were heading out to meet a Spectre and to transport them to a meeting while providing operational security and while they were used to operating kinda in the dark as to a lot of the true log term objectives of their missions given the covert nature of them, this one was far beyond what was considered the norm of operational security known as OP SEC for short.

For this mission they hadn't even been told who they were meeting or even where they were going, all they knew was that it was a Spectre operating in the Boston arena.

Now they did know that command was close to launching a full-scale occupation of the region as teams had been buzzing in and out for days and the word around the barracks was that they were very close to establishing a true foothold in the region, something they had been trying to achieve for a while.

But something had seemingly really ramped up their timetable as there had been a lot of involvement of the Spectres and even some of the big wig squints from the Bio-Weapons division seemed to be getting involved, which in Clements experience always spelled trouble.

To say he was not a fan of the creepy fuckers in the Bio-Weapons division was the understatement of the century, he'd seen some of the things that had come out of those halls during his time guarding one of their facilities up north and what he'd seen would stay with him for the rest of his life.

After stepping into his own armour suit he checked it over and as all of the systems were reading green he retrieved his weapons from their lock-up case in his locker.

His weapons of choice were a heavily modified 10mm SMG he lovingly referred to as the Ghost's Fart because in his words the damn thing was quieter than a ghost's fart and ten times as lethal.

Now while the gun was chambered for 10mm rounds he used a rather special armour piercing variant that acted more like a Sabot round that had been developed right here in the Enclaves armoury for use on covert missions.

The round had a steel dart as a core that was propelled at incredible speed forwards when the subsonic round struck a hard target, this prevented the round from breaking the sound barrier and making a telltale supersonic crack until the core was already travelling through the target and by that point it was muffled to high hell by the body it was travelling through which absorbed the vast majority of the sound.

As a backup, he carried a shrouded and focused plasma pistol which he only deployed if he really needed something to not exist in solid form any more.

Once the team was geared up they loaded into the Vertibird that had been assigned to them for the mission and headed out.

As it was even the pilot had no idea where they were headed, they'd only been told of the pickup point for the Spectre and from there they would be given a set of coordinates that they would need to head to, so effectively everyone was completely in the dark here which really set Clements teeth on edge.

It took them nearly an hour and a half of constant flying to reach the pickup point which was on the edge of the Boston territory, more specifically an old military outpost that had been taken over by another ESF team and now had what appeared to be an increased presence there which made Clements why they needed his team for this?

As they touched down a fueling crew came out and began checking the Fusion Cores that ran the engines on the Vertibird while two figures made their way towards the crew section of the bird and almost immediately Clements smelled both spook and officers because despite being in civilian clothing the pair of them gave off the vibe that all of those types had.

The pair of them were female and late twenties, the Spectre was black with short cut hair and the person he suspected was an Enclave Military Intelligence officer by her demeanour was roughly the same age but white with the coldest blue eyes he had ever seen, it was like looking at someone who had pure ice running in her veins.

The pair barely gave the team a nod of acknowledgement as they boarded and the Spectre stepped forward through the gap in the bulkhead so she could speak to the pilot.

Moments later she stepped back and took her seat next to the officer without saying a word to the team who were all sharing glances through the visors of their armour, none of them liked this and that much was obvious.

As soon as the ground team gave them the thumbs up the vertibird lifted into the air again and began to turn towards the co-ordinates that they had been given.

"Any mission brief we need to be aware of ma'am?" Sarge asked looking between the two silent seated women.

The white woman Clements suspected was military intelligence looked up at him with a look that could have frozen him inside his armour if it wasn't heated.

"None Sargent, you are here to provide close protection to myself and my colleague here as well as security and to stay out of the way, you will not repeat any of what you see or hear is that understood?" she said in a voice that could have cut glass at a thousand paces.

"Understood ma'am, stone mode it is," Sarge said in a voice that positively screamed bitterness.

"Stone mode sargent?' the officer asked fixing him with a stare that seemed to be trying to bore its way through his visor to see the man inside.

"Hear nothing, see nothing and don't move unless god himself moves you," Sarge said and the officer nodded.

"Glad to see we understand each other Sargent," she said coldly but Clements could have sworn that he saw a flicker of a smile pass over her face but then she might have just farted.

They spent another hour in the air before the pilot announced that they were five minutes out from their intended target so Clements and his team checked their weapons and took positions on both side doors standing two up to provide a screen for any incoming fire that could potentially hit the crew section from either side.

To Clements's surprise, they seemed to be over the water and that's when he saw it on the horizon, an old oil tanker.

He found himself amazed that anyone other than the Enclave themselves had ships that still ran let alone were in this kind of condition as the thing even looked like it had a fresh coat of battleship grey paint.

Their vertibird did a loop of the ship and Clements could see numerous little figures milling about on the upper deck one other thing he could see was that they were all armed with some very advanced-looking weaponry, just who the hell were they dealing with here?

A landing crew guided the Vertibird into land on one of the landing pads at the bow of the ship where as soon as the wheels touched down the four ESF soldiers jumped down with their weapons at the ready.

"Keep the engines warmed up we may need to leave in a hurry if this goes south," the Spectre said to the pilot.

A group of figures dressed in highly unusual armour that masked both their features and their faces approached with a young-looking man at the head, he was dressed in what appeared to be a lab coat and Clements began to wonder if this was an Enclave black site.

Both the Spectre and the officer both jumped down from the Vertibird and strode towards them stopping in between the two ESF soldiers one of which was Clements the other was RichardIrons who was the team sniper.

"Today is a day in the making," the young Asian-looking man said in a soft voice as his eyes glanced somewhat curiously between the two power-armoured soldiers flanking the intelligence officers.

"But tomorrow is a day in waiting," the Spectre said in a soft but very direct voice.

"Ahh you must be Sabine, it is good to finally meet you in person, you can leave your security here while we go inside to discuss matters," the Asian man said.

"No that's not the deal and you know it, where we go they go and I would recommend your soldiers do not get twitchy, those suits of theirs are not just for show, plus do not bother asking them to disarm, the only way to take a weapon from an ESF soldier is to kill them and I can assure you that is no easy task," the Spectre that had been referred to as Sabine said very curtly.

The man looked at her coldly for a moment before a smile broke out on his face and he nodded.

"Very well as you wish but please ask your troops to be on their best behaviour, it is not our wish to have an 'incident' here," he replied gesturing towards a door in the distance.

"If shooting breaks out here it will not be because my soldiers initiate it but they will finish it if need be," Sabine said confidently and also a little coldly.

Clements wondered if she genuinely had this much faith in their abilities or whether it was all for show and was some serious posturing, either way, it kinda made him want to puff out his armoured chest.

The group fell into step with the man and his own group with the two intelligence officers walking at the centre of a tight square formed by the ESF team as they watched their angles, those in the rear would have activated their suit's rear cameras so they didn't have to walk backwards to see if they were being approached from behind as they all headed for the doorway at the far end of the landing deck.

It was painfully obvious now that whoever these people were they were not Enclave, not even the fringe groups or the remote teams were like this and Clements had spent quite a lot of time interacting with those guys during his time, no these guys whoever they were, were something different entirely.

As they walked in tight formation through the ship's narrow corridors where they quite often had to duck to prevent themselves from making their heads on the bracing bars that ran across, they could see people milling about performing various jobs, but the more he looked the more something seemed off with them.

Finally, they reached a doorway that was guarded by two of those oddly armoured soldiers who seemed surprisingly unphased by four heavily armed and armoured ESf soldiers clomping towards them down the corridor.

"Halt, no unauthorised personnel beyond this point," one of the guards said holding up a hand to gesture for the group to halt.

"It's alright B16 I'm authorising their entry," the skinny man at the head of the group.

Both Clements and Sarge glanced at one another and although his expression was both invisible and unreadable through his helmet Clements could positively feel the same weird out vibe coming off the grizzled veteran as he was feeling himself.

What kind of name was B16?

We they clones or something?

These and a whole host of other questions began to bounce around his skull as the guards stepped clear and allowed the group to move past them and into the room beyond but no sooner had they entered than all of them got answered in an instant.

There sat at a table in the centre of an incredibly white room with three guards flanking them on either side was another man though this one looked distinctly far better fed than his colleague but the dead giveaway as to who they were dealing with lay in his arm, it was fully cybernetic.

There were only three groups with the technological capability to produce something like that in this day and age, the Enclave themselves, the Brotherhood and the Institute.

Since these were definitely not members of the first two that only left the highly secretive and illusive Institute, but that opened up an even bigger question of why in the name of hell were they meeting with them?

The group of four ESF soldiers moved to flank the table with two on either side of it, while the two intelligence officers moved to take the two seats that had been set on what was obviously their side of the table.

As they approached the portly man smiled and rose to his feet and it was only then that Clements realised that both of his legs were cybernetic as well and done in the same open metal skeletal frame style as his arm.

"Ahh it is so good to finally meet you both in person, this meeting had been a long time coming and I do apologise for the sheer amount of hoop jumping we made you endure in order to set it up, but with recent events, I am sure you can appreciate our need for security," the man said gesturing for them to take a seat without offering them a handshake.

The two intelligence operatives took their seats and the skinny man who had led them here moved to another seat that had been placed next to the portly man who was also dressed in a lab coat though Clements instantly noticed that while he had on a green armband the portly man's was red.

"Indeed, our own reports are growing increasingly concerning from within this territory," Sabine said flatly and the portly man nodded.

"So let us get down to brass tacks as they say, I believe an alliance between our two organisations would be advantageous for us both, as I am sure you know the actions of a small but seemingly powerful and highly diverse group who call themselves the Free Peoples of the Wastes have made highly impressive strides to uniting the region under their banner, for the first time in history we have reports of the Brotherhood of Steel working hand in hand with non-humans, this is a travesty and cannot be allowed to continue, if it is they will rapidly grow into a threat towards both our organisations," the protly man said and both Sabine and her college glanced at one another before nodding in unison.

"Indeed, they are headed up by a criminal that calls himself Seven and that has been on the run from us for a rather long time, his organisation seemingly grows in strength with every region that they enter though quite how or why people buy into their message still remains a bit of a mystery to us, but the important thing is not the how I suppose, it is the why," Sabine said.

"Indeed so what is it that you are proposing to us exactly?" her colleague asked addressing the portly man.

"Quite simple really and alliance between our two organisations, we will assist you in taking over this region and pulling it under full Enclave control, in return all we ask is to be left alone to continue our work, it is in our opinion of great importance to the future of humanity that we be unimpeded, so we will supplly you with operational intelligence from our great many sources on the ground while also gifting you squads of our synthetic soldiers to help supply your war effort where you need them, these soldiers are absolutly fearless and completly loyal, they can also be used to build infastructure much faster than human soldiers or ineed more standard robots, all we ask is to be left in peace to contine our work with no interference from either yourselves or these interlopers, who thanks to their blind ignorence would seek us out and irreversibly undermine and possibly even destroy all of our hard work, their actions could set humanity back hundreds of years and this cannot be allowed to happen," the protly man said.

"So what do we get out of this arrangement exactly?" Sabine asked.

"Simple, you get the entire region to govern and do with as you please, all we ask is that you just leave us alone to work, the fruits of our hard work and labour will be used to enrich humanity as a whole anyway," the portly man said with a dismissive wave of his skeletal synthetic arm like it should have been something that was obvious to them.

The two intelligence officers looked at one another and nodded.

"I do believe that our superiors would be happy to agree to your terms though they might wish to add in some addendums or caveats but I do believe they would be rather pleased with the final outcome, once we have run it past them we will be back in contact," Sabine said.

"Wonderful though I would advise haste, from what our intelligence sources are saying the Free Peoples are in the process of brokering a peace deal between the Brotherhood, the Minutemen and a lot of the other major players in the area if they manage to pull that off our efforts will be made infinitely harder, plus they are expanding their sphere of influence, some of our operatives on the ground have sent in reports of possible sightings of them as far north as the region of Nuka World which is an old theme park far north of here that was taken over and now run by a series of Radier clans if the Free Peoples manage to lock that place down they will have an army at their disposal, not an outcome that either of our governments wishes to see occur I'm sure, we are already taking steps to circumvent them there but we cannot be sure of their success," the portly man said.

The pair looked at one another and nodded again, "Agreed, so please expect to hear from us very soon," Sabine said and with that, the pair rose from the table and turned to leave with the ESF stacking up on their flanks and ahead of them for the walk back to the bird.

As they walked back Clements couldn't help but look at all of the crew he passed on the way, it all made sense what was off with these people now, they were synths but they for the most part looked fully human but it was in the mannerisms, there was a slight delay and jerkiness to them that made them look false.

Clements felt far more at ease when he and his team along with their two tag along were back in their bird and back in the air heading for home, but the things he had heard in that room were weighing on him heavily.

The reports on the Institute were not concise, to say the least, some came in that they had been manufacturing huge genetic monstrosities in order to break up settlements and keep the power in the region fractured.

Others reported that they had been sending synthetic look-alikes into various settlements and cities to gather both intelligence and to sway public opinion by systematically replacing people in power with their own.

All in all, it was a very shady operation and he was not unaware of the irony of that coming from a member of the ESF who apart from the Spectres themselves were essentially the fucking kings and queens of shady shit.

Clements was half tempted to speak up and to start asking questions about this proposed peace deal between them and the Institute but it appeared that Sarge had a similar idea and beat him to the punch.

"Do you think command will go for the deal they are proposing ma'am?" he asked tilting his helmeted head to look down at both Sabine and her military int companion.

Clements half expected her to tell him to shut up and go back to being walking furniture but uncharacteristically Sabine simply shrugged.

"I don't know but in all honesty, I believe they would be fools to ignore it, our own reports have the Free Peoples making great strides in the region and if someone doesn't shut that shit down pronto we could end up with far worse than a rouge state on our hands here," she said.

"Is it really that bad ma'am, couldn't we just cordon off and contain them in the Boston area?" Sarge asked.

This time the Int officer responded.

"No Sargent we can't because the Free Peoples represent a far more dangerous thing than some rogue group of monster-loving hippies, they represent an idea and when you add in on top of that the fact that they are smart and they are organised, you have a supremely dangerous foe on your hands," she said somewhat coldly.

Clements sensed that Sarge was about to ask why this was but Sabine also seemed to sense his impending question and answered it before he could even begin to form the words.

"If word of what they've accomplished here spreads then we could see others like them getting similar ideas all over, suddenly you have chapters of the group springing up all over the place like cancerous tumours, it will spread and spread until people suddenly don't rely on their government to protect them any more, they don't turn to us to sort their shit out and keep all the big bad nasties at bay, suddenly they realise they don't really need the likes of us any more, you starting to get the picture Sargent?" she said and the man straightened up as the reality of the situation hit him and the rest of the team like a cold hard slap, they were fighting for their very survival here.

"Yes ma'am I believe I do,' he said.

"Good because teams like yours are going to be instrumental in the coming days if we are going to win this thing, we need to show the people that they can't rely on the likes of the Free Peoples to protect them when chaos comes knocking, only we can do that," the Int officer said.

"So what about the Institute?" Sarge asked.

"Oh don't get me wrong we'll make this alliance the squints want happen, they have some very interesting technology that I'm positive the Bio Weapons department and the other R and D teams will be chomping at the bit to get their hands on, so for now we'll play their game and use their resources but when the time comes they will answer to us, we are the US government son, no-one tells us what to do, thats our job," she said with a hint of a smile flickering over her lips that actually sent an icicle running right down Clements spine.

Once the bird landed back at base both Sabine and the Int officer hurried off to give their report while Clements and his team headed back to the ESF barracks.

"What do you think Sarge?' Clements asked as they walked.

"It's not our place to question the higher-ups, I think if they give us the order to follow then it's our job to do so without question, it why we're here in the first place, to do the jobs that no one else can, so if they order us to play nice with the cooky squints then I'll paint my power armour pink and have a fucking tea party with them if that's what's on the cards to get the mission done, doesn't mean I have to like it though," he said his voice modulator making his voice sound extra growly.

Clements nodded to himself, Sarge was right on this one, he was a soldier, it wasn't his job or his place to ask why, it was his job to do or die, simple as that, though didn't think his armour would be nearly as intimidating in neon pink with unicorn stickers on it.

Turned out the head shed as Sabine had predicted jumped at the idea of the alliance because only two hours after they had gotten in Clements's team and one other were being ordered back out and it didn't take a genius or a spooky Int nerd to know where they were going.

They were told to pack for a prolonged engagement so in military speak that meant extra rat packs, extra ammo and extra fusion cores.

Once the team had drawn everything they thought they were going to need from stores and fitted it into their armour's magnetic carry packs they made their way back to the landing pads where they were once again met by Sabine and the icey Int officer, though now both were dressed in full Enclave officer garb and carrying packs of their own.

The second ESF team was under the command of another Sargent, this one called Hadley though while younger than their Sarge was no less respected in the ESF chain of command, he had a reputation for being firm but fair with his people while also being absolutely ruthless to their enemies, scarily so if half the stories about the man were to be believed.

Sabine and her colleague clambered up into Clements's bird and once again took their seats, "I'm guessing everything went smooth by how soon we're meeting again ma'am?" Sarge asked as the bird took to the air with the second one following.

"Indeed, as predicted command was very eager to make this alliance a reality, we have been authorised to do all necessary to ensure its smooth transition, so I want the best smiles and parade dress Sargent from all of your people," Sabine said.

"My team has never given anything less ma'am, that's why they're my team, I would have no one who does not meet my standards in my unit," Sarge said.

"Good to hear, now chances are you will be required to work very closely with both the squints and their cybernetic goons so I want your eyes and ears open, anything you see and hear comes back directly to us and we only understand?" she continued.

"Yes ma'am but how can we ensure Op Sec when we are going to be, I assume, operating out of their territory, the place is gonna be a security nightmare," Sarge said.

"You leave Op Sec to us, we have this covered," Sabine said and with that, the team fell silent as they watched the ground whizzing by and giving way to the open waters of the ocean as they headed once again out to sea.

Pretty soon both birds were landing on the deck of the old oil tanker and just like last time the skinny guy was there to meet them as was his personal synthetic entourage.

"It seems that you Enclave types do indeed work fast, it's good to see you again so soon, if you'll please follow me we have set up a staging area for you," he said gesturing to the same door as last time.

This time when they went below decks they did not follow the central path that led them to the meeting area, but a far more winding one that led them past all sorts of unknown rooms until it finally reached a large area that had been cleared out and opened up for them to set up as they needed.

The place reminded Clements of one of the hangers where they stored aircraft parts for when they were servicing the Vertibirds on terra firma at one of the Enclaves bunkers.

But the room wasn't completely empty, there was a series of bunks off to the far right of the room and that's when he saw them, a team of eight figures who were setting up on some of the bunks.

Upon seeing the team enter the eight figures made their way over and stood to attention next to the skinny man who had led them here.

"These are Delta and Echo teams, they are Courser battle teams and they are being assigned to you to assist your ESF teams during their operations as requested by your high command," the skinny man said causing both Sarge and Clements to shoot each other a glance but neither said anything.

"Very good but we will need more equipment than this," Sabine said gesturing to the empty room and the skinny man nodded.

"Agreed, we were just awaiting your arrival before we began setting the place up, so if you'll please give D12 here a list of requirements he will bring it to us and we will ensure that it is brought and built to your specifications," the man said gesturing to a female looking synthetic.

"Very good," Sabine said and the man turned and gestured to a red phone on the wall.

"If you need to reach us directly for any reason please use this communicator, it will be much faster than sending a runner, " he said and with that, he and his entourage were gone back the way they'd come leaving the Enclave personnel alone with the eight synthetic soldiers who were still stood to attention.

Sabine glanced at them curiously before she spoke.

"At ease, what are your designations, starting from the left," she said pointing to the first member of the group who like all of his companions was wearing a helmet that hid his face.

"Delta one ma'am," the figure said in a very distinctly masculine voice but it did not sound like that of a synth, more like that of a normal human.

As it turned out each of them was simply named for their team and their position in it, so Delta one through four and Echo one through four and there were two men and two women per team, in fact, D12 was the only person in the room that you could easily tell simply by looking at them was synthetic and that was only because of their pale waxy skin and yellow eyes.

"Alright I guess we'd better get to work setting this place up, everyone grab a bunk then start making a list of what we are going to need," the Int officer said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

It took them just over an hour to compile a list but once they handed it to D12 they got to see the efficiency of the Institute first-hand as no more than five minutes after the synth left the room it returned with a whole army of them.

Each of them seemed to be carrying some piece of a giant jigsaw puzzle that in next to no time at all they had clipped together to form a fully functional operations HUB, it had everything from a briefing table and up-to-date satellite imagery, right down to long-distance communication equipment to reach their field teams.

They even had a shooting range complete with a backdrop and sandbags for weapons testing.

"Umm ma'am forgive me for asking this but why do we need Institute soldiers to come along with us? ESF teams work better alone?" Sarge said glancing at the two teams who were helping their companions to assemble the room.

"It was part of the deal command brokered with the Institute higher-ups, they wanted to be involved in securing the region, I guess to show us what they were capable of and possibly as a kind of silent threat that says we can fight back too if pushed, either way command agreed and now we're stuck with them," the Int officer said sounding like she didn't like it much either.

Meanwhile, Clements was helping the synths and two members of the Delta team to set up their power armour frames so that they could maintain and service their armour when needed.

He turned to look at the nearest member to him which happened to be Delta three a female by the sound of her voice and the shape of her body.

"So you are a synth huh, hows that feel anyhow?' he asked feeling dumb even as the words were leaving his mouth.

"Given that I really have nothing to compare it to as I was never human I'd have to say it feels fine," the synthetic woman said with her helmet muffling her voice slightly.

"Err yea ok that was a stupid question umm so why are you guys all wearing those helmets and armour in here? I thought this was your ship, is there something we need to be worried about like a possible attack?' he asked.

"The same reason I assume you are wearing your power armour still, battle readiness," she replied flatly.

"Oh we are only wearing these at the moment because we had nowhere to put them, it's not exactly easy for a human to carry around a couple of hundred pounds of steel and titanium you know?" he said.

The figure stopped and looked him up and down, "An assessment I'd say was apt, humans are fragile in many ways," she said and Clements sighed, conversation was not going to be one of their strong suits obviously.

Once the building crew was done they all filed out of the room as abruptly and swiftly as they had come, leaving only the Enclave personnel and their new comrades alone once again.

"Alright let's get down to brass tacks then, Delta team you are assigned to the Red team and you will answer to Sarge, Echo team you are assigned to the Green team under Hadley, we have been informed that you will obey orders and you will obey all the orders they give you understood?" Sabine asked.

"Yes ma'am," they all chorused in perfect unison which was creepy as fuck, to say the least as it all sounded like one voice.

"Well then let's get down to business then shall we?" Sabine said and the team set up to start planning.