Radiance

Radiance Chapter 7: Metal Head.

Seven stared at the suit of power armour as it stood silent and unmoving like a testament to the old world, he half found himself wondering just kind of horrors those eyepieces in the helmet had seen in its time.

Visa tapped the metal chest piece with a single claw making it ring slightly like a large metal bell, “At least it doesn’t look like the ones those Enclave dogs use” she growled looking somewhat accusingly at the armour.

“It’s just a thing Visa, it can’t help who uses it or for what purpose” Wisp said looking at the big female claw who was examining it closely.

“I know that! It just brings back bad memories is all, the Enclave are not the only ones who use such things and for our experiences, those in these suits are rarely good people, they tend to abuse the power it gives them” she grumbled.

Ven laid a large hand on her shoulder, “Well this time it will be different dear sister, this time your favourite human will be piloting it and that’s doubly good because it means your favourite human will have a much better chance of surviving whatever we run into” he said softly but with a hint of playfulness in his voice.

Visa’s head snapped to face her brother so quick her horns made a slight whistle as they cut the air, she slapped his hand away and folded her own over her chest, “He is not my favourite human!!” she snapped her voice audibly showing her baulk.

Ven grinned an evil grin, “Oh? Name a human you prefer to him then?” he said and Visa looked visibly confused.

“You know as well as I that we haven’t met any good humans before, he is the first!” she growled.

Wisp raised her hand, “Err also human I’d like to point out” she said but she was ignored as the two claws went at it.

“Exactly! He’s the first human that we’ve met one: Doesn’t want to kill us, two: doesn’t want to run us off for merely existing in the same place as him, three: has gone out of his way to make us feel both welcome and comfortable around him, four: has paid you compliments even so much as to say your tail is and I quote ‘lovely’ so, therefore, it is safe to assume he is a human that you do not dislike correct?” Ven said and Visa shifted from one foot to the other visibly uncomfortable by this.

“Well now you are correct I do not dislike him” she conceded and Ven’s smile widened.

“Therefore your favourite human” Ven said and Visa huffed in annoyance.

“Well by that logic that makes him your favourite human as well!” she shot back and Ven simply smiled.

“I never denied such a thing, infact I wish there were far more like him, the world would be a nicer place, certainly better for us claws at the very least,” he said.

Visa simply huffed and nodded, it seemed her brother had made a point that she could not argue, the whole time that they’d been arguing Seven had been blushing with embarrassment and had decided to focus on figuring the armour out rather than trying to interject, he walked around the suit to the rear where the handle to enter it was located.

As he looked closely at it he realised there was a slot in the centre of the handle where something appeared to be missing, “Think it needs one of these” Wisp said from his left side and he turned to see her holding out a yellow and black cylindrical device with two flat points n one side and a doorknob shaped head on the other.

“It’s called a fusion battery and the suit needs it to run, I found a box back there with five of them in it, I don’t know if they’re any good but I’d assume they wouldn’t keep them lying around if they were flat,” Wisp said as Seven took the surprisingly heavy battery from her.

It felt rather warm in his hand and given it was a fusion battery he didn’t want to think about the reactions taking place inside it, Seven turned back to the armour and looked at the slot in the centre of the turn handle on the back of the armour, simply shrugging he flipped the battery so the prongs were facing forwards and pushed it into the slot hitting it with the base of his fist to ensure that it was snug and secure.

He heard a brief hiss and a whine from somewhere inside the armour as the battery made contact which at least said there was some charge in it, he took his weapons, backpack and ammo from his pouches before placing them down at his feet and reaching up to the handle.

It was pretty stiff but with a decent amount of force the handle turned and the armour suddenly shifted standing fully erect now rather than stooping, with a whine of servos and hydraulics the whole thing split open like a large green metallic flower revelling the gel padded interior of its frame.

Seven had to jump back to ensure that he didn’t get hit in the face by the rear plates as they shifted upwards and opened up, Seven looked at Wisp and she simply gave him a robotic shrug, both claws stuck their heads around into the gap so they could look inside the suit.

“So that’s what they look like inside, you know I’ve always wondered how uncomfortable these things must be for humans to wear all the time, but to be fair it looks like they thought of that, this stuff looks pretty comfortable,” Ven said prodding the gel padding inside the suit being careful not to puncture it with his claws.

“Well here goes nothing,” Seven said and with that, he reached up grabbed a set of handholds and stepped up into the body of the suit, it turns out it was a one size fits all kind of deal with these things, as his feet stepped into the receptacles of the suit’s boots a pair of locking devices shot forwards and locked over the top of his feet while rails popped up behind and around to lock his whole foot inside a kind of cage which prevented him from lifting it out of the mountings.

As he aligned his body with the suit’s inner frame he felt it actually adjusting to his dimensions so that he would sit snugly inside it, the gel he was leaning against was actually incredibly comfortable, having a kind of foam feel to it as he leaned on it, he guessed it was to prevent chafing and sores from being inside the thing for long periods.

As he pushed his head into the angled helmet with a soft pop it tilted to rest under his chin and the suit seemingly detected that he was now fully inside it because without warning it very suddenly closed up behind him slamming shut and sealing itself up all around him with a series of hisses and clicks as plates and locking bolts slid into place and locked it shut.

Instantly a respirator of sorts clicked on and Seven realised he couldn’t smell the musty scent of the storage room anymore but the air had an almost metallic tang to it telling him that it was being pushed through a filter system, in front of his eyes a series of pictures lit up creating a form of Heads Up Display in front of his eyes but not interfering with his view.

‘Registering new user please wait…….’ appeared in green text before his eyes and Seven stared at it curiously.

‘Is this user the primary user of this unit? Y/N’ popped up and Seven looked at the Y.

‘Registering new user, would you like to gene lock this unit to the new user? Y/N’ popped up and again Seven felt his eyes drawn to the Y.

‘Confirmed sampling DNA please wait…….’ appeared and Seven felt a sharp pinch in his left arm that made him wince and yelp with surprise.

‘DNA sample confirmed and locked, the unit is now locked to this user in order to reset please report to nearest Master Key recipient or your local General Atomics servicing department’ the armour stated.

Suddenly the whole HUD lit up, on the left a very basic looking picture looking like was drawn by a five-year-old showed the armour and its current status, it showed all the pieces in a bright green colour and next to them were a set of numbers obviously displaying the health or current damage level of each of the suit currently connected to the frame.

Each one read 100%, at the bottom of the display he had a form of digital compass displaying which direction he was facing, then next to that was a display showing his current battery life which thankfully also read 100% and finally what appeared to be a Geiger counter showing the outside rads.

There was also a little blinking rune of some kind which when he looked at it popped up a display much like that of his Pipboy and after a moment of cycling it he realised it was the display from his Pipboy as the map it displayed was identical to his own, somehow the suit had interfaced with the computer on his arm and had jacked its display function pushing it into his helmet.

“Hey Seve,n are you ok in there? You haven’t moved yet, don’t need us to fetch a tin opener or something do you?” Wisp asked playfully but also with a slight note of concern in her voice.

Seven noticed another rune that when he looked at it asked him to confirm by blinking on yes twice when he looked at it, when he did the armour locked up and opened up again releasing him and allowing him to step out before closing itself back up and returning to wait mode.

“Sorry about that I was just trying to figure it all out, it’s actually surprisingly easy to use, well the control systems are anyway, they’re all eye-movement tracking, so I just look at the thing I want and it turns on,” Seven said looking at Wisp and the two curious claws.

“How about the fusion battery?” Wisp asked looking at the other four she still had in the box.

“Full one hundred percent, so no reason to believe the others aren’t either,” he said and Wisp nodded.

“Awesome, well depending on how long these things last that should keep us going for a while and to be fair in that thing you’ll have both the strength and resistance of a robot now, ao at least surprise attacks or ambushes won’t be so much of a worry plus it will make us a lot less of a target for raiders as who in their right mind is going to want to mess with a guy in a power armour suit, two bass ass deathclaws and a sexy robot?” Wisp said playfully.

“Ahem I prefer devilishly handsome claw if you don’t mind and I’m sure my sister most definitely despite any protests you may hear prefers the term crazy tail,” Ven said ducking the swipe from his sister while sticking his long tongue out at her.

“I’ll give you bloody crazy tail!” Visa snarled swiping at Ven a second time and this time connecting with the rear of his horns with a solid thwok noise.

“Ok ok how about tail lifting?” Ven asked, Visa answered with a swipe.

“Hussy claw?” he said, another swipe.

“Giant ass?” he offered, yet another swipe.

“Ok ok, human loving” Ven said and this time Visa froze mid swipe and sort of stuttered like a computer freezing up.

“W-W-Why would you say such a thing!?” she stammered her scales flushing and she shot Seven a glance that was both embarrassed and nervous.

Ven grinned like he’d won the lottery, “And we have a winner, Visa the human loving claw it is, that’s it, finalized, no take backs, that’s your name from now on” Ven said before vanishing in between the shelves to evade his sister’s wrath, Visa simply shot Seven another nervous look then spun on her heels and raced after her brother with a snarl that echoed through the place.

Seven simply shook his head and twisted the armour opening handle again, “Those two are going to be the death of me” he grumbled and Wisp laughed.

“Well one is anyway and probably not in the way you think,” she said before walking away with her hands clasped behind her back whistling a merry tune which sounded god awful through her vocal processor, what a strange bloody group he’d found himself a part of.

Seven clambered back into the armour and it once again locked up and readied itself, as he took his first step he was surprised by how light it was and that caused him to seriously overcompensate with the step he took, which caused him to stumble before he caught himself.

“How the fuck?” he exclaimed but then he realised that the armour’s servos and hydraulics were doing all the work, he was simply guiding it, he tried again and stumbled less this time, he could hear some slight robotic giggling as he tried to find his feet, “You look like a baby rad deer trying to figure out why two heads and four legs is a really shit idea” Wisp giggled from somewhere between the shelves.

“Sod off! It’s not as easy as you think!” he exclaimed catching himself on a shelf to stop from toppling over.

“Hey try using legs that aren’t your own and don’t really feel anything” Wisp shot back still laughing.

She had a point there, she was a human-made of vapour living inside a hijacked robotic body, he could barely say that three times fast let alone wrap his head around it, so rather than responding, he chose to ignore he and carry on trying to find his feet in the metal suit.

In just over ten minutes he’d managed to get it down to pat, he’d also had to figure out the joys of grasping things that he couldn’t actually feel properly as he was using metal gloves that covered his hands and didn’t allow him to touch things directly, but with a bit of practice, he was not only able to pick up his guns but use them as well after a few dry firing tests to make sure he didn’t send a bullet or laser careening around inside the room with them.

But finally, they were ready to go, Visa had finished beating the shit out of her brother, Seven had finished learning about his new toy and they were ready, so both claws picked up the food boxes they’d found and Seven picked up the rest of his equipment, though now he did look as comical as Visa with a tiny backpack on his back as Visa did.

The power armour wasn’t exactly stealthy when it moved, making a kind of rhythmic hissing clanging noise not to mention the sheer weight of it impacting on the ground with each step made the ground vibrate slightly, but other than that it was surprisingly easy to move over even the softest ground with, the boots had specialized soles that kind of acted like snowshoes spreading the weight of the huge metal suit as Seven tramped over the sometimes rather soft shifting sands of the desert.

But by far Seven’s favourite thing about the old prewar suit was the air conditioning, the suit was a sealed environment and obviously, the manufacturer had figured the pilots would be stuck in them for long periods of time, so adding to the rebreather system that filtered his oxygen there was also a liquid cooling system that used some kind of oil that was pumped around the suit keeping the temperature of the user stable regardless of the outside temp, which as they togged across the now rather cold desert was fucking fantastic.

It didn’t take them long at all to return to their little shack as rather than go via the train yard they just went in a straight line, they did have a few run-ins with a couple of bugs and mole rats in the desert sands which the latter Visa and Ven added to the food pile, but other than that they had a pleasant stroll in the moonlight, to be fair even after the short time in the suit Seven had begun to realise why these things gave their wearer a sort of sense of invulnerability.

The suit kind of isolated its wearer from the outside world putting a barrier of heavy steel between them and it, it gave him an odd sense of detachment, plus the odd sense of vulnerability when dealing with Ven or Visa was gone, because even though he knew then to be both friendly and honourable it was an incredibly difficult thing to switch off your primal lizard brain when it was trying desperately to get you to run away from the apex predator you were having a nice conversation with.

Once back in the shack Seven instantly realised how Visa and Ven felt as he banged his head on the door frame and had to turn himself slightly to fit through it, but once inside he stepped out of the armour and put in the corner facing the wall so it didn’t creep his companions out by silently staring at them.

He was happy to see that the tank of water he’d filled the still with before they’d left had pretty much all run its course and had now given them a decent supply of water to take with them that would make him either glow in the dark or turn into a feral ghoul.

To Seven’s surprise both Visa and Ven seemed to be rather skilled butchers, once they’d dropped their load into the shack the pair had retreated outside with their dead mole rats and using only their razor-sharp claws had rather than eat them whole like Seven had imagined they would (though he didn’t tell them that as he rather liked his face) they had skillfully gutted and cleaned their kills before removing choice cuts of meat and then taking the remaining offal and carcases had disposed of them away from the shack.

To Seven’s further surprise the pair had brought the meat in and asked him rather politely if he would be willing to cook it for them as apparently, the pair had always wanted to try properly cooked meat over raw after having witnessed humans preparing their food many times and always wondering if it tasted better or worse, it appeared that the stew Wisp had made with Ven the other night had had quite an impact on the pair and they were wishing to expand their pallets.

Seven of course obliged, he didn’t really know how it was he knew how to cook but it was something that seemed surprisingly comfortable to him, he knew how to watch meat how to judge its cooking progress by both colour and smell, not to mention as he was turning the mole-rat chops he had a real urge to spice them with something, though what was another question entirely.

It seemed his efforts were not in vain, Seven watched as the pair tore into the cooked meat like it was the last on the planet, “Oh wow! Holy shit we have been seriously missing out sister!” Ven exclaimed as he finished off his steak.

“Indeed brother, who knew that humans had it right for so long, how does it taste just so much better like this? It’s the same meat” Visa said finishing off her own steak then she turned to Seven who was eating his own steak, granted Molerat wasn’t exactly his first choice of prime meat cuts but it hadn’t come out bad at all in truth.

“My compliments Seven this meal is truly worthy of a noble claw,” Visa said smiling.

Ven grinned after licking the grease from his fangs and claws, “Well they do say the quickest way to a lady claw’s heart is through her stomach, quickest way under her tail as well” he said causing Visa to shoot him a death glare while Wisp snorted a laugh in the corner where running maintenance on herself.

Rather than ruin the meal Visa simply huffed at her grinning brother, “This claw only lifts her tail for someone worthy” she grumped and Ven turned his grin to Seven who was sat on the mattress next to Visa at her insistence.

“Looks like you need to up your cooking game Seven or maybe hunt her dinner for her as well as cook it next time,” Ven said playfully making Seven blush bright red and Wisp snort yet another laugh in the corner but before Visa could throw back an angry reply at her brother she stiffened and turned her head towards the doorway as did Ven.

“You hear that?” she asked and he nodded.

“Hear what?” Seven asked his voice taking on a hard note of concern.

Suddenly Wisp was standing up as well, “My sensors are picking up movement approaching,” she said and Seven scrambled from his seat rushing towards his weapons and the power armour suit, whatever was coming he wasn’t going down without a fight and if it was the Enclave he was going to use everything he had to remain free.

The armour powered up and Seven checked his laser rifle which in the surprisingly nimble hands still managed to look like a toy now, it was good to go and so was he, he looked at Wisp and the two claws and all three nodded at him.

Seven opened the shack door and emerged into the bright sunlight of the Mohave desert with his rifle in the shoulder looking for a target to shoot at, he instantly found one but it wasn’t exactly what he was expecting.