Fallout Equestria: Rough Water

Chapter 4: Draconian Past

Fore note: The following events take place 2 weeks after the events of the last chapter.

oooOOOooo

My host shivered as the salty spray splashed up over the walls of our landing craft as if plunged through a wave. I noted that we were in a conventional landing craft rather than one of the more advanced LCACs (hovercraft landing craft) that were developed, that wasn’t that helpful since I knew the general time the orb was from already. My host gave a flap of his wings to poke his head over the landing ramp. The island before my host, er… me, was dark with two exceptions, what looked like a town in the distance, and a few lights dotting the coastline. I was on an assault. My host returned to the deck of the LC with the other As my host began to make his way to the back of the craft I overheard some conversations whispered conversations, most of them broke down to “Why did Luna disband the Marine Raiders?” or “I wish we had our rubber rafts back so we could be stealthy rather than use this noisy tin can.” My host continued to make his way back; at the back he found a yellow unicorn buck in full combat dress frowning as he listened.

My host cleared his throat and spoke, “Two Way? Any word on that air support yet?” My host’s voice was masculine, so the only odd anatomy for me was a lack of a horn, and a new set of wings.

The buck looked up. “No word.”

“Command’s sent us to die.” My host turned around to see the speaker, and I found myself looking at a grey earth pony whose early assault rifle. “We’re in the middle of the ocean, without the firepower for a frontal assault, and with out the equipment for a stealth op, and Admiral Xattax has converted this island into a fucking fortress.”

The unicorn was the first to respond, “Oh Brawny, do you have to always be such a negative thinker?” Wait, this was Brawny before he was a ghoul with a gas mask for a face? “I’m sure command is just worried about revealing sensitive information over an insecure channel.”

“If the channel was insecure, then the zebras would be raining fire down on us by now.” Brawny replied evenly.

A crack broke the relative silence. “Show time!” My host yelled before the roar of the landers engine revving up to full speed, the whoosh as the landing craft modified to carry rockets fired their pay loads, and the bangs of our 20mm guns drowned out his voice. Despite our suppressing fire, the last bit up to the beech was under heavy fire. I noted, as a few small holes were punched in our ramp, that the Zebras were using armour-piercing rounds. I felt the craft grind to a stop and heard a hiss as the hydraulics opened the door. My host kicked the safety off of his boxy belt fed LMG, and flew up as fast as he could and then aimed to fire down into the enemy trench. Below I noticed the hundreds of ponies rushing out into the water only to be gunned down on the beach. Then my host opened fire. I noted that while the enemy’s trench provided superior cover from an equal level assault, it turned firing down on them into shooting fish in a barrel. The fire from my host created an opening that the remaining marines used to surge forward. Then a zebra turned his rifle up and fired.

The round caught my host in the stomach, and he tumbled to the ground in a sloppy mess. The impact had torn clean through me, apparently the marines had not yet received any effective body armour as standard issue yet. With my host no longer raining bullets down on the trench the zebras had returned to their positions, and now that the marines had moved out of cover to advance they had turned the beach into a slaughter house. My host drew his side arm, some sort of .44 magnum, with his mouth and tried to aim at the enemy through his blurred vision for a few seconds before dropping the weapon in deffeat. He watched as his comrades were cut down or forced into cover, continuously wheezing (probably from a collapsed lung) what sounded like "The horror! The horror!" The fight continued for another couple minutes, at which point multiple streams of glowing large caliber bullets followed by a barrage of missiles decimated the trench, and sent my host flying. My host hit the ground and presumably was knocked out.

oooOOOooo

I awoke from the memory orb to find myself still lying on the beech I had laid down on. I glanced over at the Salvation, it was still docked in the small port getting its last repairs and refueling. We had docked at the Island of Abundance, the main island of the Abundance command segment. The sun was shining, the tropical birds were singing, there was nothing to do, “OOF!” someone had just thrown a saddlepack full of supplies on top of me, and my hopes of a relaxing day quickly faded.

I glance over in the general direction of where the bag came from, and I noticed Contingency standing over me and wearing a pith helmet. “G’day, hate to cut in on your leave but it’s time to start covering some costs.” Contingency said and I noticed that the pack had a lot of equipment for what I guessed was archeology.

“How do you know this island has any good stuff?” I asked as I pulled my saddlepack on.

“Every island has something good on it, and I talked with the locals, there’s a rumor of a tomb inland.” Contingency replied, then added, “Oh and they mentioned some rebel blokes in the jungle so I brought your gun.”

“Oh thank-” then I remembered that I had left Lead Storm locked in my locker, “You broke in to my locker?!”

“Yup.” She replied. “I break into tombs all the time, it shouldn’t be surprising that lockers aren’t that hard.”

“Ok, who else is joining us?” I asked as I put on my equipment.

“Xager, Swordfish, and Signal Fire.” She replied. “Oh and I didn’t bring your helmet.”

I blinked in confusion, “Why?!”

“Treasure hunters don’t wear combat helmets, they generally wear fedoras, but that's too mainstream for me.” She replied. “Relax, It’ll be fine.”

“Ok, then let’s go find the others.” I said as I pulled on the pack. “Also why is Brawny not joining us?” I asked.

“Well I asked, but apparently he was more intent over standing guard over that one Zebra. I swear that grudge is unhealthy…” She explained as we entered the port town.

“How is it unhealthy? Brawny’s yet to kill him.” I replied.

“Well, the way he insists on spending as much time as possible standing guard over that one zebra makes me think it’s less of an urge to kill and more of a bloody fixation on that zebra.” She explained, the logic didn’t make much sense, but then again when dealing with irrational behaviour maybe that was proof that it was bad.

I noticed Swordfish passed out in the gutter in front of the bar she had spent the night in. She had pulled her saddle pack under her head to use as a pillow. I gave her a little nudge as she got up with painful slowness, “Ugh… I feel like I’ve been run over by an APC…” She groaned.

“G’morning mate what me to whistle up a cuppa coffee?” Coningency offered with a hearty smile.

“Ugh… I think that if you whistled, my head would explode.” Swordfish replied and put a hoof on her forehead.

“Just wondering, what’s it like sleeping outside a boozer?” Contingency asked. Of course the ever-curious mare would ask that. Just last week she had been sticking her hoof down the Salvation’s 6” gun to see it was rifled or not.

If looks could kill, then the look Swordfish gave Contingency would be classified as a weapon of mass destruction, “Have I ever told you that I hate the Alpacadonian accent?” Swordfish’s statement deflated contingency ever so slightly, but she recovered quickly enough.

“Ok, let’s go find Xager now.” She said with a slightly forced smile.

We found Xager near the docks where he was watching some large creatures lumber through the water. Rad Lions, Sea Lions mutated by the radiation, filled the water. “Hey Xager, what are you doing?” I asked.

“the Lions, they are so… majestic…” he trailed off.

Swordfish looked at the beach then groaned, “Ugh… There go my hopes of using the Xager method to off my hangover…”

“Ok, just give me a few more minutes with these beautiful beasts, Signal’s over there on the dock.” He said and lamely pointed a hoof over in the direction of the dock.

“I’ll get him.” I said and trotted off, glad to get away from Xager’s… unusual opinion on rad lions. I trotted down the dock to where I found Signal Fire throwing fish from a basket at a very large Rad Lion bull that had a pup on it’s head. “Ok, come on Signal, we gotta go. I said and began pulling him away.

Apparently the Rad Lion didn’t like losing it’s feeder, because it rushed up to the dock, and I was able to appreciate it’s size, it was the size of an average zebra hut! It opened it’s mouth and let out a long, low cry, “BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!-” Signal Fire shut it up by shoving a… Kraken tentacle?! Into it’s mouth. A Kraken is a very large ocean creature found throughout the… well the ocean obviously.

My wonder over how Signal Fire came in to possession of the tentacle ended when a marine with and Abundance-green collar started berating him, “Eh dude that was my dinner! Why the fuck did you just throw it to the sea mutt?! Where the hell is your commanding officer?!”

The way Signal Fire had rolled up his sleeve hid his rank, so when he pulled out the ID card from The Giant they couldn’t see the obvious flaw in the rouse, “I’m captain Rio, I felt that a rampaging Rad Lion could threaten my ship and acted accordingly!” he exclaimed and gestured over to the Salvation.

The marine simply sputtered and began slowly backing away, “uh… oh gee… I’m sorry sir I didn’t realize that you were… well…”

Signal Fire clearly was enjoying this power trip too much to let the marine off easy, “So you would have acted so wrongly to another of your fellow service-stallions? You are a disgrace, get out of my sight before I decide to push for a court marshal!” The marine saluted then scampered away as fast as he could. Signal Fire then turned to me and broke down laughing, “I am a god with this thing!” Clearly Brawny wasn’t joking when he said Swordfish was the preferred choice for command over Signal Fire.

“Ok, let’s go Signal.” I said and we walked back down the dock to where the others were waiting. Once back we greeted the others then made out way through the town to the dense forest beyond.

The town it’s self was nice, considerably larger than the one on Wind Way, and much more built up. The town had multileveled buildings, a large local garrison of professional troops rather than a simple militia, and even clean water via a purification plant. The town seemed pretty happy, I couldn’t see much reason why there would be a rough group trying to wreck this.

I left the question as we entered the jungle, I quickly noticed something, with out my helmet, the bugs had a lot more exposed skin to go for. I found myself hobbling along on only 3 hooves as I used my right fore hoof to swat away the flying insects that tormented me. I noticed that the rest of my companions were doing the same, except Contingency who seemed to be ignored by the bugs. “Hey Contingency, why aren’t the bugs going after you?” I asked.

She turned around and laughed, “Wow, now I know why it’s called the bailer salute! Oh sorry, I guess I should have thought of this.” She said and started rummaging through her bags. I watched my friend continue to swat at the bugs on their heads, yes I could see how it sort of resembled a salute. Contingency pulled out an aerosol can, and pointed the nozzle at us. “Now close your eyes and keep your mouths shut.” I did as told and felt a mist wash over me, she forgot to mention to not breath, because I inhaled some, and when I started coughing got some in my mouth.

After a few seconds of coughing and spitting into the bushes I recovered. “Bah! What was that?” I asked.

“Bug repellent mate.” She replied and led on.

As we continued on through the forest we reached a creek that had a few logs sticking out of it’s bed. Contingency pulled out a map and muttered to her self a bit before tucking it back into an empty ammo pocket. “yup we’re going the right way.”

All the jungle looked the same and I doubt the map marked logs in the river, so I was a bit confused. Swordfish had the same reservation too apparently, “What how do you know?” She asked, apparently over her hang over.

“The bridge.” She replied and pointed to the map, which showed a wooden foot bridge crossing the stream, and then pointed to the logs, they all stuck out at the same angle, and were stuck deep into the river bed, so it quickly became apparent that it had at one point been a bridge.

“Uh how old is that map?” I questioned, as I took another look at the rotting logs.

She examined the river, “I’d say about 200 years old, I really doubt the locals had the time to maintain the bridge with the hostile forces in the jungle.” She explained.

“So why didn’t the rebels fix the bridge? It’s in their territory.” I asked again.

Contingency chuckled a bit, “Why would they give marines greater mobility in their territory?” I guessed it was a valid point; most rebel groups relied primarily on guerilla tactics.

We turned when we heard a loud crash. A small tree had fallen into the river, I looked at the where it had fallen from, and saw Swordfish standing on it’s stump. “Why you do that? They may hear you!” Xager demanded.

“Aw gee, I’m not to scared of the rebels, the eels in the river on the other hoof…” she trailed off.

Signal Fire crossed the impromptu bridge and stepped on to the other side. “I christen this bridge the Rio Bridge!” He said with a smile.

I crossed, followed by Xager and Contingency, “Ok Contingency, lead on.” I said and we continued following her deeper into the jungle.

Onward we continued, passing numerous strange creatures and hearing many different tropical birds. As we continued though, the smell of damp plant life was slowly replaced by a new scent, rotting flesh. Contingency noticed it to, as she stopped the group and began to wander off in a different direction the rest of us followed her on her way.

We came out in a clearing. The clearing was dominated by a single solid stone platform; into it was carved a large four-pointed star. A single dead zebra lay at the center of the star. I stared at the star for a few moments. The Zebra carried a Zebra assault rifle, and wore some sort of uniform. It wasn’t the uniform of the local defense force, so it was safe to assume that it was a rebel.

Swordfish was the first to break the silence, “That’s fucked up, is it like sacrifice?” she questioned with a look of disgust.

Signal Fire took a look around the body, “I doubt it, looks like he was killed by a 5.56 round.” He answered.

“Bl- bl- blasphemous heretics!” Xager said as he slowly stepped back.

I couldn’t see what he was getting at, but Contingency seemed to understand it, “Hey Xager, no drama, just because they seem to revere the stars doesn’t make them some sort of scary voodoo zebras.” Then it clicked; Zebras hate stars! Of course Xager saw this as inherently wrong. “Ok, this clearing is on the map, and the temple is just a bit farther inland.” Contingency said and motioned for us to continue.

We continued farther into the forest until a found ourselves as a mountain cliff with a large waterfall cascading off it. Contingency fell back, “It was supposed to be right here!” she exclaimed. I looked up at the waterfall, it didn’t seem that powerful. “Wait, I’ve seen this before! It’s-“

“Behind the waterfall.” I interjected.

She seemed surprised, “How did you know?”

“I saw it in one of my comics.” I replied. Those comics sure were useful!

“Ok, let’s go then.” She replied and began walking towards the waterfall.

We followed her, and let the cool refreshing water cascade over us. On the other side we found our selves in some sort of cave mouth, I watched as Contingency removed her pith helmet an shook the water out of her silver mane then watched her expression light up with excitement. “Ace! It’s been over a month since I’ve been in a musty tomb!” She squealed and all but bounced around in joy.

Swordfish shook herself dry and took a look around the cave, “Ok, I feel like the ceiling is about to fall on me.”

“You’re in the cramped corridors of a ship most of the time, I don’t see why you’d be claustrophobic now.” Signal Fire said as he examined the room.

“Yeah, but I know what the ceilings on the ships are made of, and the structuring systems put in place to prevent the ceiling from falling, here it’s just mud, rock, and nature.” Swordfish replied.

Xager for his part just wandered around scoffing at the cave’s decorations.

“Ok, let’s just find the stuff then get out.” Swordfish urged and continued to glance up at the ceiling.

“No worries, this is the fun part.” Contingency said and began to move deeper into the cave. We followed her in, and to our amazement the further we went in the less it seemed like a cave. The walls had been smoothed, carved and painted with detailed reliefs of what seemed to be battles. On one side was obviously some early Zebra legion, and on the other a strange looking group of long necked creatures armed with circular shields and pikes. “These are certainly Alpaca ruins.” Contingency informed us. I guess that made the long necks depicted Alpacas then.

“I really am a god!” Signal Fire exclaimed, and I turned around to see what he was on about, and then had to pick my jaw up off the floor, the relief on the wall opposite me was a depiction of a stallion that looked strikingly like Signal Fire, wearing a horned helmet, and holding a torch.

“You’re fucking kidding me!” I exclaimed.

“Well, look, it’s sandy brown like me, it’s facial structure is similar to mine, and we both carry fire!” He explained and gestured to his flamethrower.

I face hooved and moved on. I noticed that Contingency kept on glancing around the walls, floor, and ceiling of the tunnel. She raised a hoof and signalled  for us to stop. With out saying anything she picked up a rock from the tunnel floor and tossed it into the tunnel ahead, I heard some sort of shifting above, and that’s when I noticed the shaft on the ceiling ahead. Before my mind fully comprehended what was happening water began flooding down the shaft. “Wow any dill would have seen that trap, this ruin’s making me bored.” She said and watched the water continue to pour down.

Swordfish groaned loudly, “Ugh! Great, just great, now I don’t have to just worry about the ceiling falling in, but eels too! I would say this tunnel will drive me to drink, but that’d be redundant.” Having said that she pulled a hip flask out and took a swig.

Xager looked at the water for a moment, then made his assertion, “The lower level is flooding.” I looked at how the water continued to flow down in the direction we had been heading.

“Well then we had better hurry up then.” Contingency said and began trudging through the water. We quickly followed her. We quickly found ourselves slipping down a stone staircase and slid out into a large dark room. Contingency flicked on her belt mounted flashlight, and shined its beam over the room, at the center of the room was a raised plat form covered in cinders, amongst the cinders I noticed a large sword. I flicked on my own light as I approached it. The blade was about as large as me, I examined it, it seemed like only somepony extremely skilled in telekinesis would have any hope in lifting it. To try my luck I tried lifting it.

oooOOOooo

I was on some form of wooden boat, the island ahead of me seemed familiar, I had seen this same view when the salvation set port yesterday. However, things where different now, judging from the billowing smoke I would guess their were multiple fires on the island. The boat I was on had a sail, which was tied closed at the moment, and a single level of oars. I noticed that I was a pony, and that everyone around me was a pony. My host gave a long sigh, “I hope this is worth it, the Alpacas have been nice traders and all, but I still question the Jarl’s decision to go to war against the Zebras on their behalf.” From what I gleamed from my host’s word was that, yet again, I was trudging to war.

“Relax, the Zebras have never fought something like us.” a stallion standing behind my host reassured.

“Ah, Moss Wood, prepare the men, the moment we land it’s right to the front lines.” My host replied and turned to face the green stallion. I noticed that Moss Wood was noticeably taller than me. Regardless he bowed and moved to complete his orders.

I let the continuing rhythmic sloshing of the oars give me a false sense of calm, it was a nice day, a war seemed out of place. However, our ships did hit land, and almost immediately my host and his soldiers disembarked and surged in land.

We continued moving until we reached the foot of the large plateau on the island. Up on the plateau I got a good look at the other side of the island, a port was ablaze, and red painted ship bearing the Roaman eagle sat up on the beach. On lower part of the plateau I noticed the battle, furry long necked tall creatures armed with excessively long pikes tried to push back the red shield baring Zebra legionaries. From the looks of it, the battle was in the Alpaca’s favor, the Legionaries we unable to get past the thick wall of pikes, and the Alpaca’s had the high ground. The only thing that bothered me was that there were multiple Roaman ships, and only a small group of legionaries. Maybe the others had been killed or were fighting elsewhere on the island. Moss Wood however saw something while my host was preoccupied watching the battle, “Stripes! Left flank!” He yelled and pointed to where a large group of legionaries crept out of the shrubbery and charged in to the backs of the Alpacas. What I guessed was a Roaman officer gestured and yelled something in zebra causing a regiment sized force to break off to engage us.

My host moved his shield to his shoulder, and telekinetically drew his hatchet, “Shield Wall!” He commanded and the other ponies rushed to form a defensive system of overlapping shields that protected both the front sides and top. Another order was given in zebra, and javelins were thrown at us, in some cases the penetrated our wooden shields, which killed a couple of ponies, but the shield wall was mostly effective at protecting us. Before the legionaries reached us, some more ponies moved to fill the gaps in the formation. My host recoiled as the force of the Zebras slammed into our formation. Through the gaps in the shields my host and his ponies thrust spears and swords through at the mass of Zebras. One Zebra felt like being a hero and tried climbing through one of the gaps, for his effort my host slammed the hatchet down on the legionaries’ head. The battle continued for a few minutes, the Zebras were taking dreadful casualties compared to our few. Suddenly, screams from further down the formation made it clear that the battle had changed; a zebra armed with some sort of combat pickaxe was smashing his way through our shields with ease. If they stayed still they would die, so my host made a pretty risky decision, “Break formation!” He yelled and shoved his way forward into the mass of zebras. My host swung the hatchet around until he had cleared a bit of room for himself, at which point he dropped it, in favor of that massive sword. I could feel the strain it put on even his stronger telekinesis. My host heaved the massive blade back and forth, the shear force behind it letting it cleave through armour and flesh with ease, I also noticed, that it’s length meant that it could be trusted like a spear to impale. Around and around the blade was swung, until my host found himself and a very beat up Moss Wood encircled by legionaries, all of who had their javelins drawn ready to be thrown.

“Well captain Morning Star, I guess this is it.” Moss Wood panted as he struggled to stand. I noticed my host’s wounds as well, I guess the adrenaline rush had stopped him from feeling them, because I was surprised at how cut up he was.

The legionaries parted a bit to let a zebra and his purple-cloaked bodyguards to the front. “So you are the accursed Viking that tried to reinforce the primitives? My it’s good to fight mindless barbarians rather than creatures of culture and grace.” The Zebra gloated, “Now then, before you die, I’ll let you know that you have just doomed your pitiful tribe as well, whenever our conquest eventually brings us there.” My host had had enough; he grabbed the hatchet, and threw it with all his might, the blade catching the Zebra right in the head.

In response the legionaries threw their javelins, and I had a feeling that my host’s body looked like a porcupine with the number of javelins that hit him. As my host bled out on the ground a zebra yelled something about the Alpacas making another push.

oooOOOooo

I snapped back to the present, “Oh shit how long was I out?” I asked.

“Um… what do you mean?” Contingency asked as she walked up.

“The sword is like a memory orb, how long was I just staring at it?” It felt like an hour.

“Uh, I don’t know what you’re talking about, you only just climbed up here.” She said as she hopped on to the platform with me. “Oh, this greatsword here?” She asked and grabbed it momentarily with her telekinesis. The glow of her telekinesis immediately faded. “Well, that was interesting. How long did that take?” She asked.

I was a little surprised, memories are supposed to take time! “Um, I’d say a second, maybe?”

“Cool sword, a little bit too heavy for my liking, but still cool.” She replied then went to work rummaging through the pile of charred bones and weapons.

I still wanted a souvenir from this place, and since the sword was too heavy, I settled on a nearby hatchet. I picked it up in my telekinetic grasp and felt it’s heft; it had a solid feel to it and the heaviness of its head gave the illusion of it wanting to be swung. I helped scour the ruins, picking up anything of perceived value. As I did so the water level continued to rise. I was slightly worried about the water, and they say a quiet marine is a dead one, so I decided it was better to ask now then drown in a flooded mountain later, “Hey Contingency, how much longer do we have to be here, I don’t like the way the water is still rising.”

“Leave! Leave now! Run! Get out!” Contingency yelled as she ran through the water from the back of the cavern.

All my friends and I exchanged nervous glances and ran after her. I managed to catch up to her on the stairway out, “What’s, going, on?” I asked between pants.

She looked back an I noticed the panic on her face, “Dragon.” She squeaked out. I had no idea what a dragon was, but I assumed it was bad. We made our way up into the tunnel, and then Contingency halted right before the waterfall.

With no time to stop and a slippery cave floor, Swordfish, Xager, Signal Fire, and my self slammed right into her and tumbled out into the river outside. Before I surfaced however, the water was full of dust and bubbles. To the ordinary pony it would be confusing, however, one of the first things they show new marine recruits is why we are given side arms specifically meant for under water action, that reason being that bullets disintegrate shortly after impact on the water’s surface. I drew my side arm and got ready to give the first rebel to come in to look for us a belly full of flechettes. However, the bullets stopped impacting on the surface and when I looked up for a reason why I found myself looking as a mass of flame that had formed.

Fortunately that cleared pretty quickly, and I took the opportunity to get air. I surfaced, followed by the rest of my friends, and gasped for breath. “The fuck was that?” Swordfish asked in horror.

Contingency looked around, “Apparently the temple had a dragon for security.”

Signal Fire was quick to ask the million-ration question, “What’s a dragon?”

Contingency face hoofed then explained, “Well, they’re generally bullet proof, they can fly, they breath fire, they have claws like swords, and they have mouths large enough to eat a pony like a bikkie. I couldn’t see how big it was in the cave, but I think we ought to head back to port where the harbor defenses should be able to handle it.” Well, I wasn’t quite sure what a ‘bikkie’ was, but it got the message across. “Since it breathes fire, I say we take the river back to port.” It was a logical choice and we nodded in agreement.

About 15 minute later of swimming in terrified silence, it had become apparent that we weren’t going to make it back. Again and again the shadow swooped over us each time a little lower, each time it did so we dove under to provide cover from any fire. Eventually the gold and red-scaled creature got fed up and swooped down to directly block us. I noted that it seemed small compared to what Contingency had described, but the smoke that flared from it’s nostrils and it’s large scaly wings stopped me from considering it killable with what we had on hand, maybe if I had a spark pack, Contingency had her .75 rifle, Xager had his RPG, Swordfish had her anti-armour missile launcher, and Singnal had a weapon that’s actually useful we would, but certainly not with our current scraped together kit. “Is this how the god Rio dies? Is it? IS IT?!!!!!!!!!!” Signal shouted at the beast.

Oddly enough his question was answered. A thunderous smashing noise echoed through the forest, and, battering trees aside like they were toothpicks, in stormed the giant Rad Lion from the beach. “BWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” it roared aggressively and body slammed the dragon with as much force as it could muster. After jumping on it repeatedly the two hulking beasts both went for each other’s throats. A dragon might have been an apex predator back before the bombs, but 200 years of radiation had kicked the old balance of power aside.

The dragon’s fangs failed to penetrate the Rad Lion’s thick blubber, and with a resounding tear, the beast tore the dragon’s head off then looked at Signal Fire expectantly. “Uh… Good boy.” Signal stammered out.

“Fuck!” Swordfish exclaimed from behind and hopped out of the water. “There’s eels in the river…” She said when she noticed the looks we were giving her.

We road back into town on the back of the Rad Lion. Signal Fire was standing on it’s head, with the baby Rad Lion on his back. Needless to say as a result of Signal Fire shouting “I am a god!”, Contingency making us stop to unload and sell treasure, or Swordfish trying to fly straight over head, the townsfolk gave us many a curious look.

When we finally arrived back at the Salvation it was apparent that the repairs were done. We all hopped down off the Rad Lion and Signal Fire dragged over the dragon’s head. “Aw yeah! Look who killed a dragon!” Signal Fire gloated to the ponies washing the deck of the Salvation.

“Congrats on killing an adolescent. Do you want a medal, because during the war I killed 5 and didn’t get any form of acknowledgement.” Brawny said as he walked up along side Shanty.

“We were about ta go looking for ya, we just received news of a possible Enclave presence in Alpacadonia, so we’re going to have to cut shore leave short.” Shanty explained.

Immediately all eyes went to the Alpacadonian deserter among us.  Contingency smiled a bit, “Ok, could be nice to see the GAFA again, as long as we don’t stop at the HMNS Boomer.”

“Unfortunately that’s exactly where we’re going.” Brawny stated dryly.

Contingency calmly pulled a paper bag out of a waterproof pouch, then began hyperventilating into it. After a few second she stopped long enough to ask a single question, “Swordfish? What type of alcohol would you recommend for afeeling of impending doom?”

“You’re… like… better to… to… um, what’s that word that means to not stop doing something… oh yeah, keep breathing into that paper bag. The last thing… you want… is to show up… to the ship you call home… too sloshed to make proper word sequences.” Swordfish slowly explained.

“Um Swordfish, the Salvation is yer home, and yall are kinda drunk.” Shanty said, pointing out the hypocrisy of Swordfish’s advice.

Contingency returned to her paper bag, Swordfish fell asleep on the dock, and once again, I got that feeling that we were a shipwreck waiting to happen sailing toward something that was out of our league.