Fallout Equestria: Broken Steel - Under the Red Cloud

Fallout Equestria: Broken Steel

Under the Red Cloud

Chapter 4: Tick Tick Tick

I had made it to the gate to the Medial District of the Villa. It was a hard road from the Police Station back the way I came as when God and I left the Police Station we were both confronted by two Ghost Ponies. According to God these ones were known as Ghost Trappers, most likely for the fact their primary weapon is something called a Bear-Trap Hoof which is exactly what it sounds like, a bear-trap strapped to the hoof which will clamp shut everything you strike. In that short battle I for the first time used the Holorifle as an experiment to test its effectiveness. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was quite effective. In two shots, SATS assisted due to the Ghosts being too close to aim via scope, the Ghost Trapper had been brought down to a tenth of its health with a bizarre glow coming off it as it glowed from being struck by the holographic cube the weapon fired. The third shot caused its head to explode. I am certain that once I get this weapon repaired to one hundred percent it’ll be even more devastating and could probably be able to kill a Ghost Pony in two shots, or maybe in one due to it being a scoped weapon. During the fight the other Trapper managed to land a punch with its Bear-Trap Hoof on my flank armour, the jaws of the bear-trap bending the armour plate under the fabric of my armour causing it to bit into my flank painfully. I can feel it squeeze each time I take a step. After defeating the two Ghosts I searched their bodies and took both their Bear-Trap Hooves, using my repair spell to improve the one that was in the better condition and I decided I’d use it for a melee weapon as it’ll be perfect for chopping the inhabitants up if my shots down them without killing them . When we got to the stairs leading down to where I found my second Dean’s Stash we ran into another Trapper which I dispatched pretty much the same way I did the first with the Holorifle and took its Bear-Trap Hoof and used it to further repair the first. From there it was an uneventful trip towards the Fountain.

God looked down at me when she realised I stopped, but didn’t say anything.

“You go on ahead. I’ll meet you at the Fountain,” I told her as I turned to look at the large wooden gate to the Medical District.

“Are you sure?” She asked.

“I’ll be fine; Collar 13 is through those doors. You’ll be safe at the Fountain.”

“Very well, to the Fountain and its ghost then,” she said, trotting away towards the Fountain.

I was about to open the gate when I noticed the glow of a Vending Machine to the left of it. “Might as well buy some more Weapon Repair Kits,” I said to myself as I approached the odd machine. When the interactive menu appeared I saw that I could buy .357 Magnum and .308 rounds and that beside the items it had (20). I don’t know what that means but I assume it’s telling me how many I’ll get for, um, one chip maybe? I dunno and ammo for those guns will have to wait until I get more chips. I scrolled through the available items until I found the Weapon Repair Kits and toggled up ten of them. The ten kits cost me pretty much nearly all my chips, I’ve gotta pay attention to how many I have... With the kits now bought and in my possession I used four of them to bring the Holorifle to maximum condition. I smiled at the result, a weapon that looks brand spanking new and powerful. I took a quick moment to double check my inventory and then opened the gate into the Medical District.

The gates open up to a short street just two arches long before it ended by a wall with a short passage leading into another square smaller than the first one I entered in the Villa proper. I stopped at the passage when my collar began to vibrate and beep again which prompted me to quickly step back until it stopped.

Father Elijah’s voice rang out from my PipBuck again, giving me another heart attack,

“The Villa’s comm speakers have aged poorly, like the Maredre. Pre-war junk. The speakers emit a signal that’ll set off your collar if you stay too long.

“There are damaged speakers, and shielded ones... the damaged ones you can destroy at range- don’t get close, you can’t switch them off like a radio.”

“For fuck’s sake will you stop doing that” I cried out loudly in annoyance at the unexpected warning.

Okay, so I have to be on the lookout for these speakers as well as radios. I don’t have a clue what they look like but I suppose I’ll know them when I see them or hear them. Looking back towards the passageway I noticed more graffiti on the wall above the final arch before the passage. “Listen before you move AHEAD” was written on the wall, the word “AHEAD” written in red, emphasizing its importance. Yeah I guess that’s good advice considering that the radios and speakers will make my collar go boom.

With caution I walk back towards the passage, my collar beginning to beep and vibrate again. The passage was only about six feet long but it opened up into another square with an enclosed path that has arches surrounding it. On the arch beyond the passage I notice a picture of a pony head with a sad face and crosses for eyes, an arrow through its head pointing at a speaker with a blue square light surrounding it, which sparked every few seconds. I quickly unholster my Police Pistol and aim at the speaker, firing once. My .357 round impacted the speaker’s casing and the insufferable device exploded in a shower of sparks, my collar stopping its beeps and buzzes and going cold again. Phew.

The square is pretty much empty aside from the tonnes of rubble littering the floor. The only notable features I can see is a soil bed with a withered black dead tree in it and a sign post pointing three ways. In front of me I could see a half blocked gate with yellow light beyond it, almost like a beacon, and to my right I can see another passage through the arches. Heeding the warning about listening before you move I stopped and listened. After a moment of listening I began to hear the tell tale signs of a Ghost Pony nearby from the sounds of the rebreather they use.

“Oh for Celestia’s sake,” I groaned, already hating these things with a passion. I crouch down low and begin to creep towards the blocked gate as quietly as I can, which is a job and a half in itself, considering my left foreleg is made of steel. I sigh with disappointment when I come up to the gate. Through the gaps I can see the Fluttershy Medical Clinic and its neon sign just on the other side, but now that I’m here I could see how much rubble and shit has been pushed up against the gate, it’s like a mountain. There isn’t a chance in Luna’s butthole that I’ll be able to shift this.  I sat down on my haunches and lifted my left leg to view my PipBuck’s map screen. The local map showed me that the passage to the right of where I came in leads to another square and to the left of entering that is a short street which ends at an apartment but half way up the street on the left would be another passage leading to the street beyond the gate and my destination. This shouldn’t take me too long.

I crouch down again and quietly sneak my way into the passage to the second square and quickly drop to my belly as I spot the Ghost Pony in the opposite corner next to an arch column, poking the floor with its Knife Spear. Have I told you how much I’ve grown to hate those fucking things? Yeah, I hate them a lot. I subconsciously rub my flank as I can still feel the sting from that Cosmic Knife stabbing me back in the Police Station. I shift my left foreleg out in front of me and then I used my magic to levitate the Holorifle down from my back. I press the butt of the gun to my shoulder and rest the underside of the breach on my metal leg as I bring the scope to my right eye. It’s still night and the scope automatically switches itself to night vision, which thankfully makes everything a lot clearer and makes seeing my target piss easy. I sighted the crosshairs onto the abomination’s head as it continued to poke at the floor completely unaware of my presence. I grin with anticipation as I then pull the trigger. The rifle releases a strong magical discharge in the form of a cube that hurtles through the air at a good speed for an energy weapon and impacts with the monster’s head which, to my delight, disintegrates as the Ghost Pony falls dead to the floor.

“Hah! In your face!”  I shout with glee. What a rush.

I pick myself up from the floor and trot around to the passage, completely ignoring the body as I trot through the short passage and into the street. My collar began to beep again and I look around at the walls for any signs of a speaker. I walk out into the middle of the street looking around but can’t find it. My pulse starts to race as panic starts to rise as I fail to find the speaker.

“Fuck, where is it?” I cry while drawing out the Police Pistol.

I gallop to the end of the street hoping to get out of range but at the dead end by the closed the door my collar was still beeping. “Shit!” I cry out as the beeping and throbbing sped up. Panicking, I look around trying to find the speaker. Unable to see it on the ground floor I end up looking higher. That’s when I noticed a balcony running the length of the wall on one side and the wall above the passage. While looking at this balcony I noticed the sparking blue light of the speaker nestled on the wall under the roof of the balcony above where I came in. The beeping of the collar has almost reached a constant tone, I don’t have long. I aim the pistol quickly and fire. The bullet impacted the rotten plaster next to it. I fire again; the bullet hits the wooden guard rail. FUCK! I fire two more times quickly and both rounds miss completely. The beeping has now reached a constant tone, any second now and boom. “Come on, come on,” I whimper as I close my left eye, focusing my aim down the sight with my right and pulled the trigger as the beeping and throbbing of the collar reach a peak and then boom. I scream, thinking the collar had blown but to my utmost relief my final bullet in the pistol had hit the speaker and destroyed it. Oh thank fuck for that. I collapse to the floor panting as I fought to regain my nerves from again shitting myself with fear. Fuck these collars, fuck this place and fuck that old git.

I lay there for a couple of minutes while I wait for my pulse to drop back down to near normal levels. Once I came down from my fear induced anxiety of my collar almost popping, I stand back up and dust myself off,  rubbing at my neck where I can still feel a tingling around where the collar had been vibrating. I cringe as my metallic hoof grinds against the cold steel of the collar and I force myself to pull my hoof away. Shaking my head I continue.

The passage into the final street of the Medical District opens up into an open triangular street. Directly in front of me I can see the clinic, to my right the blocked gate and to my left a gift shop. Why the hell would you put a gift shop in a medial area, anyway? It’s not for tourists.

I stop in the middle of the street as my ears swivel around. I can hear another rebreather to my right. Looking up towards the clinic I can see a path between the clinic and the shop, my EFS showing a red marker in that direction. Great, another Ghost to deal with. Sighing, I equip the Holorifle and check its ammo count. Hmm, three shots before I need to reload should be enough.

I crouch and slowly make my way to the corner of the shop. I take a deep breath and ready the rifle as I turn to make my way down the path, but as soon as I do I find the Ghost Harvester in my face. I let out a startled yelp and quickly beat my large wings to push me back fast. My hooves leave the floor as I soar backwards. I land and skid over the cobble stone street until I come to a stop several feet away. I grit my teeth and snarl at the monster as I see a Knife Spear lodged into the floor where my head had been only seconds before. The creature makes a sound that I can only guess to be of confusion as it tries to pull the four bladed staff from the ground. Taking this opportunity I jump into SATS and toggle up three shots. The spell does its job and I fire off three rounds in quick succession. The first shot strikes the Ghost in its shoulder, consuming the entire being in the blue glow effect of the holoshot and its strange glow effect. The second shot goes wide and strikes the wall. The third and final shot smashes into the creature’s face, but doesn’t kill it. It stumbles for a moment but recovers and starts to advance on me while I’m reloading the Holorifle by shoving Micro-Fusion Cells into the breach. The creature had managed to yank its spear free and had raised it over its head for a killing strike. “Shit,” I groan as I pump the rifle to chamber a cell and then to my surprise the Ghost falls to the floor unconscious just as the light stops glowing. It was then that I realised the effect of the holoshots leave a lingering disintegrating effect that continues to deal damage to them until it wears off. Well that’s nice to have.

I holster the rifle and then equip my Police Pistol, aiming it at the creature’s head. I cock the hammer back and am about to pull the trigger when I stop as a dark thought enters my mind and I holster the pistol and instead pull out the Bear-Trap Hoof I had acquired earlier. I grin as I slip my right hoof into the device’s harness and thrust my hoof out as if to punch something. As I reach the end of my punch the sharp jaws of the bear-trap clamp shut. Grinning darkly I step up to the fallen Ghost. “You know, I’m starting to really dislike you guys,” I say to it before punching the creature’s head. The jaws clamp down on the Harvester’s head and with a sickening crunch the jaws crush its skull and rip its head in two. Smiling with satisfaction I put the Bear-Trap Hoof back into my bags.

Recovering from my fight with the monster I decide to check out where the path leads to instead of going through the front door of the clinic. The path leads to a dead end divided in half by two arches with a shingled roof. Looking up at the roof of the arches, I notice that they connect with the roofs like in the square where I got my second BAR. At either end of the walkway like roof of the arches, I see two huge holes in the walls. Hmm, it looks like I can get up there through the gift shop and the hole in the wall opposite looks like it could lead me to a back door of the clinic. Nodding to myself, I decide to go through the shop and try for a backdoor.

The shop is pretty much empty save for a cash register on a counter. Quickly checking it reveals a dozen chips and two bundles of pre-war money, again in paper bank notes. There is nothing else really of value and so I make my way up the stairs that are in front of the front door. The stairs lead up into a large living area above the shop. To my left I can see the hole in the wall and the sickly red hue of the cloud filtering in from it. I ignore the room and walk out onto the roof, trotting over to the other side using the bridge, and then through the hole in the opposite wall, which lead me into what I can only describe as being a café. In front of me sits a long bar with a large coffee machine at the end. The room is pretty much bare apart from a couple of tables and chairs in a corner to my right, a door on the back wall, and a set of stairs going up. The door seemed to be barred from the other side as it wouldn’t budge, which left me with no choice but to go up the stairs.

I cough as I get a lungful of the tainted air as I step out onto the roof of the building. The Sierra Maredre looms over me from atop its cliff. If the sun could shine here it would cast its shadow all over this place. Looking around the roof I see other roofs of neighbouring buildings, as they were at varying levels and didn’t seem to go any higher than five stories tall. To my right from the door onto the roof I can see a hole in the wall like the downstairs, which is where I need to go to get down. I take it. Looking to my left I see that the roof I’m standing on is sunken slightly as I see a rim all around the roof. I trot over to the left side as it is almost next to the lip and look down into the street below, which is the dead end. While I’m looking down I catch something in the corner of my eye and look up. I smile with delight at the sight of another glowing hoofprint on the wall on the opposite side of the shingle roof that forms a square around the dead end street on this level. Eager for prizes, I climb onto the roof and trot around. Just as I was about to make it to the case I freeze, the clouds above part enough to give the full moon a brief chance to shine. When it does its light filtering through the red cloud paints a bright red glow over the case and behind a wooden railing I can see a dead pony skeleton slumped onto the railing with its hoof outstretched as if it was reaching for it.

I call upon my magic to pick up the case and levitate it away from the skeleton. I drop it at my hooves and open it. Inside I find a few things I can use, three healing potions, some food, 9mm rounds, a 9mm Pistol, another Police Pistol and a few Energy Cells. The other stuff I didn’t have any use for and just left them. I really must thank this Dean pony if I ever meet him. He’s left some nice goodies in those cases.

The hole in the wall next to where I got on the roof opens into another living area, as I can see a vanity table against the wall, a blocked door, and on the other side of the vanity is a queen size bed. I step into the room and immediately step back out as my collar starts to beep again. “For fuck sake,” I groan as I look around for the speaker. To my left from the hole I can see into an open plaza, maybe it’s down there. I climb onto the shingles and walk to the edge of the roof, the drop is shallower than from the other side into the dead end, only a single story drop rather than two. I don’t see any other streets or passages leading away from it either. In the far corner I notice a door which must be the back door to the clinic. A spark catches my attention and I turn to the wall at my right. Leaning out from the wall, I can see the speaker sparking away. I pull out my Police Pistol and aim at the damaged speaker spewing out its unintelligible noise and pull the trigger. I groan as I miss my first shot. I steady my aim and close my left eye to better focus down the sight and pull the trigger again. The hammer strikes the bullet and with a bang sends the .357 Magnum round into the casing of the speaker, silencing it for good.

Without the speaker to get in my way now I enter the apartment. Rooting around I only find a couple of chips in the vanity, and in the end table next to the bed I find a pre-war bonnet hat which for a laugh I decided to wear. The wide brim of the hat blocks about a third of my vision above me. Giggling to myself I descend the stairs in the room into another shop. This one, much like the last, is pretty much bare and only has a couple of chips lying around for me. I sigh at the lack of valuables and make my way into the plaza. It too is empty of anything, so I decide not to explore it any further, trotting up to the door I noticed earlier. My EFS confirms that the door is to the clinic, however it’s locked. I levitate a bobby pin to the lock and start to mess around with it. I can feel the tumbles shifting as I move the pin until finally I feel it click as it releases the lock and I open the door into the clinic. It’s time to find Collar 13.