Fallout Equestria: Broken Steel - Under the Red Cloud

Fallout Equestria: Broken Steel

Under the Red Cloud

Chapter 1: That Collar around your Neck!

HowoooOOOOooooOOOO

Ugh, what is that noise?

That sound, what is it and why is it repeating itself? It sounds like some sort of broken alarm.

I groaned out in discomfort as I began to wake up. My throat felt like it had been attacked by a cheese grater and I had the awful taste of copper in my mouth as I slowly became aware of my bodily functions and senses again. I put a hoof to my head as I pulled myself up to sit on my haunches, and I felt a slight headache come along. In all honestly, I felt like I had one too many and now had a hangover but I don’t even remember drinking any lager last night… Come to think of it, I haven’t drunk any alcohol in the last ten years. Ugh… What did I do last night?

I sighed with some relief as the light headache faded some and I placed my hoof back down to the paved floor I was seated on and then opened my eyes. What came to greet my vision was not at all what I was expecting. It was like something out of a horror movie. The sky is cloudy and stormy and I could hear the rumble of thunder in the distance. I appear to be in what looks like an abandoned holiday resort villa which was showing signs of severe neglect. There is an old run down fountain right in front of me, its base tiled with what looks like blue and white flower patterns but many have fallen away, leaving empty patches all over the base. There is a high elevated cliff in the distance and atop the cliff sits an imposing large structure that looks to be reaching up to the sky, and to cap it all off, everything is red, it’s like the sky itself is red, the light of the sun filtering through the dense clouds is bathing everything in a shade of red. This has to be the scariest place I’ve ever been.

Just what the fuck did I do last night?

I closed my eyes again as I tried to think. I felt my head clear when the last of the headache faded and then everything came rushing back.

XXXXX

It has been ten years since the destruction of the Krogoth, and life in Equestria was slowly but surely improving. Things were still bad with Raiders and Slavers and all, but still with how things were improving now that Equestria’s land had been restored and we no longer had to worry about taint or radiation, life was improving.

My family and I had left our home in New Ponyville to visit Stable 24 to see how things were going. I smiled as we entered the Trottingham area, as it was clear life was returning to the old town. Makeshift homes and tents were now sitting close to the entrance to Twenty Four when there wasn’t anything before when we left. It was good to see the change around us.

Elder McNamare, who was being flanked on both sides by two rangers approached when she saw us. She smiled at us when we saw her.

“Ah, good afternoon Paladin Longshot, it’s been a long time and it’s good to see you” She greeted us happily.

I smiled in return. “Thank you ma’am, it’s good to see you again too and it’s good to be back”

“Good afternoon McNamare” Motor Runner said with a smile and a respectful nod of his head.

Blueberry hid behind me, as she didn’t know the now middle aged mare before us. But before any of us could get her to say hello our attention were directed to my two passengers sitting in my foal carrier saddle as the latest editions to our family began to wail loudly.

I giggled as I opened my storage unit and pulled out two bottles of milk, then lifted my wings to reveal the two tiny foals sitting comfortably in the carrier.

“Here you go” I said with a motherly smile as I split my levitation so both bottles floated to the mouths of my hungry foals. Sitting in the carrier were twin fillies, both purple furred with black manes and tails just like their father, one an Earth Pony and the other a Pegasus, who thankfully had her wings bound while in the carrier. She’s just as much of a nightmare as Xian was as a foal.

“Two new additions to your family, huh?” McNamare asked.

I smiled and nodded as my two foals held their bottles with their tiny hooves and greedily drank from them. “Yeah, this is Prism” I said, indicating my Pegasus filly with my left wing. “This is Raspberry” I said while indicating with my right wing. “And this is Blueberry” I said, stepping to my side to reveal my shy ten year old filly who “eeped” as she was now in plain sight.

“Well I’ll be. I haven’t seen you since you were no older than your sisters” McNamare said gently as she smiled down at my eldest child.

Blueberry simply shuffled on her hooves nervously. Motor Runner bent down and lowered his head so it was close to her ear and whispered something. She looked up and smiled softly, “Nice to meet you ma’am,” she said quietly but with a soft smile on her lips.

After our introductions we began to make our way towards Twenty Four with McNamare leading until she stopped just before the entrance.

“Oh, nearly forgot. Since you are here would you be able to check something out for us?” She asked, turning to face us.

I’m still a paladin of the Applejack Rangers and still have a duty to uphold with them so I felt obligated to ask. “What is it?”

“Nine months ago a radio signal was recorded from an abandoned Steel Ranger bunker. The signal just appeared and then a few days after it disappeared. Thirty two hours ago however we detected the same signal from the same location. Currently all my available rangers are out doing other important tasks. Can you please check it out for me?”

“Err?” I looked back at Motor Runner.

”Don’t worry; I can look after the kids. You are still a ranger after all”

“It shouldn’t take you long; the bunker itself is only an hour’s trot from here”

Well I wasn’t going to be that far away and my newborns were in good hooves with their father, so I decided to check it out. Besides, how bad could it be? Well, my answer came when I arrived at said bunker.

I decided to fly to it since it would be quicker. I learned I didn’t have a fear of heights as I first thought, it was a fear of falling, as I could go extremely high and not be scared, if I knew I was safe. If I knew I wasn’t safe I would be shitting bricks and wouldn’t move. I was still a bit uneasy flying high so I flew low so that if I did fall and crash, I wouldn’t plummet to my death.

The Pegasus part of me loved the feel of the air rushing past my face and through my mane. I understood why Sky Fire loved to fly now. The flight to the bunker took roughly twenty minutes and when I landed I stood in the middle of an intersection with a ponyhole cover right in the centre.

Even now I’m still amazed that my PipBuck can instantly acquire direction markers and new objectives without anypony’s input as my EFS was pointing directly at the cover. Not wanting to waste any more time, I used my telekinesis to heave the ponyhole cover off and slid it to the side, as I descended into the bunker.

I was expecting a tunnel upon reaching the bottom of the ladder but instead I found myself in a fair sized rectangular room that was pretty much bare with ridged walls. Beside the ladder I climbed down sat an empty footlocker. I turned around and took in the rest of the room. The first thing to catch my attention was the large poster on the back wall. It looked like an old movie poster or something like it as it displayed an actress or singer wearing a lovely looking dress and holding a wine glass. At the bottom of the yellowed poster in fancy lettering it read. “Sierra Maredre” I didn’t know if that was the mare’s name or the name of what the poster advertised. Before I could muse on that more the second thing to catch my attention showed itself as a blood splatter half way down the poster and seemed to dribble down to the wall to the floor. I followed the blood until I then saw a decapitated corpse lying on its back before the poster.

Suddenly what seemed like a simple recon mission turned into a mysterious murder investigation. Why was there a body in the bunker, why was its head missing, what did this and who? Those were just some of the questions running through my head as I approached the corpse. I lit my horn with my colourless magic to shed more light onto the situation. The body was too decayed to really give me a sense of gender. Plus, it was wearing a white jumpsuit. I gently rolled the body over onto its side to see the back, sometimes a jumpsuit has a logo or a company name written on them but this one just has a red painted X on the back. I shook my head and put the body back into its original position. I then checked the wound around its neck where its head would have been and I was surprised to find the flesh around the entire neck where the head would be was burnt. Lastly I checked to see what this body had on it and found a number of useless miscellaneous items, some drained Micro-Fusion Cells and a vile of an odd red powder that my PipBuck labelled as “Cloud Residue”. This was just plain weird.

Before the corpse to the right side of the room was a large rectangular hole with a set of stairs leading down. I left the corpse and walked around back to where I came in, descending the stairs. At the bottom was a familiar security door. You seem to see these doors almost everywhere underground and in a secure area. I used my magic to grip the manual override wheel and spun it clockwise, which then released the door’s locking clamps as it fell with the weight of gravity pushing it down into the floor, opening up a short corridor. The walls were the same as the room upstairs but it seemed that the corridor branched off in two directions and ended with a room at each end.

I stepped into the corridor and to my right was a hallway that would take me somewhere deeper but it was completely blocked by a cave in. A little further down I came to the other branching off hallway to my left which ended with a locked security door with a terminal mounted to the wall. I had learned a lot from Zyon about hacking and I would hopefully be able to hack this particular terminal. If I attempted it, it would have likely taken me several attempts, and I didn’t have time to waste hacking it. I left it alone, which left me with the small room at the end of the main corridor.

Standing at the threshold to the room I noticed it was a sleeping quarters as both sides were lined with foldaway cots, each cot having an accompanying locker. The room looked pretty much standard apart from one oddity. Sitting in the centre of the room with a light shining down on it was a small table with an unusual looking radio sitting on it. I could hear it clearly now, the radio signal that McNamare told me about was coming from this radio set. A lovely mare’s voice was speaking. It said:

“Has your life taken a turn, do troubles beset you, has fortune left you behind? If so, the Sierra Maredre Casino in all its glory is inviting you to Begin Again. Come to a place where wealth, excitement and intrigue await around every corner. Stroll along the winding streets of our beautiful resort; make new friends or rekindle old flames. Let your eyes take in the luxurious expanse of the open desert under clear starlit skies. Gaze straight on into the sunset from our villa rooftops. Countless diversions await you. Gamble in our casino or take in the theatre or stay in one of our exclusive executive suites that will shelter you and cater to your every whim. So if life’s worries weigh you down, if you need an escape from your troubles or if you just need an opportunity to Begin Again. Join us, let go and leave the world behind at the Sierra Maredre grand opening, this October. We’ll be waiting”

The transmission then began to repeat itself. It sounded like a wonderful place by the sound of it, and the time it mentioned told me it was advertising an opening to a resort from before the war. It was strange that it was still broadcasting this even now. I didn’t know what to make of it and I hope that McNamare would understand it better than I. I looked around again for anything out of the ordinary considering the body upstairs. Finding nothing that could outright kill me, I decided to just turn off the radio and go.

I stepped fully into the room and reached for the radio when all of a sudden the security door at the end of the hall closed up tight again. Before I had a chance to react, a red mist began to be pumped into the room from vents in the ceiling. I coughed and hacked as I breathed in the gas. My vision instantly began to blur and I became unsteady on my hooves. My wings drooped and fell limp at my sides as I finally lost what little balance I had left and collapsed onto my side. The last thing I remember seeing before everything went black from the knockout gas was the radio still sitting on the table and still repeating its message.

XXXXX

Now I remembered what happened to me but that still doesn’t explain how I got here to this… Wait, I’m in a holiday resort. This, this is it; this is the Villa of the Sierra Maredre. I looked up at the tall structure on the cliff. I suppose that’s the Sierra Maredre Casino. Well I guess I know where I am now but that still doesn’t answer the other question now floating in my head.

How the buck did I get here?

There was a blue flash in the corner of my eye and I turned my head back to the fountain and a blue hologram that appeared at the top of the fountain and stood looking out behind me. A quick glance told me that must have been the entrance to the Villa, as there was a wide road with an arch going across it but was also locked up tight with a heavy iron gate. Looking back to the fountain and its hologram I felt like I had seen that hologram before, well its image. It took me a minute to remember the poster in the bunker. Yes, the hologram is the same as the starlet from the poster.

The starlet hologram flickered for a moment before it disappeared and a section of the fountain’s base tilted up, revealing a projector, before a new hologram appeared above the fountain. It was a single unmoving image like a photograph of an old stallion with a wiry mane and a mouth encompassing beard in the same fashion. Again I felt like I’ve seen him before.

Suddenly a gruff voice began to speak. The voice sounded of experience, authority and intelligence and it seemed to be coming from the fountain and I then realised it was the stallion behind the image who was talking.

“Are you listening? Good. From now on, when I talk, Listen – and follow my instructions”

This was a voice you didn’t want to argue with, and it carried with it such weight that just made you keep your gob shut and listen. But it was also laced with a dark edge.

“Play stupid, play clever, make the mistake of saying ‘No?’ That collar around your neck’ll go off and take your head with it”

“Collar?” I shrieked and instinctively reached up with my cybernetic leg to feel at my neck and sure enough my metal hoof clashed with another metallic object around my neck. My bright red eyes widened as I felt around the object and it was indeed a slaver’s explosive collar. I’ve seen enough of the wretched things to know one when I felt one.

The voice continued, albeit in a calmer tone this time.

“It’s like that pipbuck in your leg, except filled with explosives. A little radio of the Old World, just needing some tuning.

Do as I say, and the collar won’t go off… refuse, try and run, disobey me? I’ll kill you and find somepony else,” the dark edge returned in the last sentence. “There’s no escape until I let you go. The sooner you accept your situation, the better”

Well I don’t have a fucking choice in this, do I with this contraption around my neck. I sighed knowing full well I had to do what he asks in the hope he keeps to his word in letting me go afterwards. I need to do this quickly then, for my babies need me.

“What do you want?” I asked with a defeated tone.

“That structure you see above the Fountain, the Sierra Maredre Casino… You need to break inside. A…” There was a pause as if he was trying to think of an appropriate word to continue. “Heist. Too many years in the making.

But to get inside, you’ll need to avoid its traps… you’ll need to gather the team. As I’ve found, one cannot do it alone”

Wait, the team? There are more here? This is sounding more dangerous by the second with the mention of traps.

“There are more ponies here, more ponies I’ll need to gather for this Heist?” I asked standing up and feeling oddly light but at the moment I didn’t think about it.

“Around the Villa are three other collars like yours, Collar 9, 13 and 15. Find all three and bring them back here to the Fountain. We’ll talk more then. And should you get any ideas about killing each other and taking the treasures of the Sierra Maredre for youself, a Warning: All your collars are linked… one of you dies, you ALL die. If that’s what it takes for you to co-operate, so be it”

The situation just got a whole lot worse.

“Why would you do that?” I cried out at him.

“Because in some respect, breaking into the Sierra Maredre is easier than breaking equine instinct. Greed.”

The Villa is filled with corpses. Some killed by the dangers here, some by me. Others… turned on each other.

Once they realised the Sierra Maredre could be theirs, they cared nothing for their freedom… their survival… or each other”

If I wasn’t already an albino I would have paled a few shades hearing that.

“This just keeps getting better and better” I thought sarcastically.

“So everypony is dead?” I asked.

“The ones brought here live on only in what they left behind, their marks, graffiti on the walls and the victims they’ve killed.

Some tried to help… left supplies and healing aids for others who came. Their reward? They were tracked down, killed by others with baser instincts.

Some of these murderers went as far as to leave traps behind them… turning markers for help into death traps for anypony following them.

It killed some of them when they forgot where the traps lay… or when they desperately needed the assistance they had cut others off from”

Dear Celestia, this place is gonna be more dangerous than any other place I’ve been to.

I felt a little anger rise in me as I asked my next question. “Just how many ponies did you bring here to die?” I growled.

“Too many. This place is dangerous… and its quarantine measures, its hazards… have claimed many. Failures upon failures” He replied in a casual tone which pissed me off more. The fact he didn’t care how many he was sending to their deaths was something that was really eating at me, but I didn’t voice my anger as he continued. “Do you think I wanted to place collars on you to ensure compliance? No… if robots could have done this, I would’ve sent them.

The Sierra Maredre is a complicated lock. Cracking it open requires equine hooves”

Quarantine measures? It was then that I realised why I was so light. I wasn’t wearing my power armour and all my weapons and ammunition was missing. I was stripped of everything I had when I entered the bunker and was now dressed in the same white jumpsuit. Oh dear Luna please tell me I’m not wearing the same one that corpse was in.

“Where is my armour and equipment?” I demanded, stomping my cybernetic hoof, cracking the ancient paving beneath it.

“The Sierra Maredre has many… defences, means of screening guests for illicit or dangerous items. Your arrival here, weaponless, was not my intention” He replied honestly.

“The Casino, this Villa… it takes anything with even a trace of radioactivity, traces of unknown substances… and returns it home. The Bunker.

The process is automated, and the Casino itself has other, similar “Services”. I was unable to find a work around, except to send others in as tools.

Still, I have not left you defenceless, and the Sierra Maredre’s security in some respects, can help you if you are resourceful enough”

I was about to ask what he meant by not being defenceless until I saw what looked to be a pump action rifle of sorts lying on the floor just in front of me. I sighed, knowing I would have to do as he asks if I wanted to have any chance to get home to my children and husband. So with my magic I picked up the rifle and held it before me as I looked back up at the hologram.

“All right. So I find the others wearing bomb collars and bring them back here?” I asked.

“I’ve downloaded the instructions and markers into your PipBuck in case you forget. And yes, I have access to that device in your leg.

Get the other three here, after that… I’ll have other instructions for you.

Do this, I’ll let you go. I’ll let all of you go”

I sighed again hopefully. “Ok, I guess that’s it for now. I’ll do as you ask and find the other ponies to bring them back here”

“Good. If necessary, I will guide you through the Villa’s broadcast systems, if you get lost, return here and I’ll direct you.

I’ve downloaded instructions on an audio log in your PipBuck in case you can’t read… If you forget why you are here, let my voice remind you” Once the last word was spoken his hologram faded away and was replaced with the original starlet hologram standing on the fountain.

I actually felt insulted with the “In case you can’t read” statement. The nerve of that bastard.

I checked the weapon over as I brought it close to me to inspect it. It was in piss poor condition, and to make matters worse it is also an energy weapon. I couldn’t even describe it since I’ve been trained in projectile weapons and never used energy based weapons before. But a plus about the weapon is that it has a scope, so it can be a medium and long range weapon. If anything it looked like it was made from an old grenade launcher as it has the loading port at the bottom for the ammunition it takes. Ranged weapons are my speciality thankfully.

Well, I find myself in another bad situation with certain death to look forward to if I screw up. At least this time I do not have a giant robot to deal with. Sighing dejectedly I began my new adventure in the Villa of the Sierra Maredre.