Fallout Equestria: Clever Alibis

Fallout Equestria: Clever Alibis

Chapter: two

Felo-de-se

“Hell hath no fury. Fury hath no evil. But evil hath no allegiances. Although it does loves misery for its company.”

    We had been flying in the same direction for about an hour before Lumen said anything. “We're breaking the cloud cover.” This is it. My first time unto the surface world. I've seen Equestria many times in books, but now I'm going to see it for myself. Lumen dipped his angle of flight, and slowly began to approach the cloud cover.

    Lumen disappeared into the cloud cover, them his team, followed by the technicians, and then my team and I. As we entered the clouds our visibility was cut off, unable to see anything but the clouds themselves. Then after a few seconds we cleared them. And so we entered Equestria.

    The desolation that laid before me was beyond what I had imagined. Dirt, dust, sand. That's what the land consisted of. Void of any plant life, or life at all for that matter. The ground was mostly small hills with level ground in between. Everything seemed to have a layer of dirt and dust, every color was chalky, and the very air had a haze to it that held a strange lingering smell. I guess the cloud cover did its job of filtering this stuff out for us. I felt sorry for the ponies who had to breathe this stuff in for their lifespan. The sight and smell of it all made me want to pull a chandelle to return home.

    A mile or so to the northwest there was an alteration in the landscape that was once a city. Once was the key word, this ‘city’ was not much more then rubble in its current state. Majority of the buildings were collapsed, or on the verge of. About ten miles to the southeast a large ominous greenish pillar of smoke rose from the ground. At this distance I couldn't tell what from, and frankly I didn't want to know.

    Lumen dropped low speeding towards the ground. Once we got within fifty feet of the ground we leveled out and continued forward. I could see what we were aiming for, a small building a few hundred meters in front of us, so small and well blended it'd be hardly visible from the ground, unless one were relatively close to it. It was tucked into the hillside. I didn't find it hard to believe that this was a communications array. They were usually built with most of the equipment underground where it would be harder to find and destroy, especially ones that were this close to Zebra territory. I wonder how they even found this.

    We touched down within fifty yards of the building. Upon landing we all went prone following procedures. From this distance everything seemed clear. Slowly I got up and made my way to Lumen. “Welcome to terrestrial terra firma, commander,” He said as I reached him. “Let's get this mission underway shall we? You and your team move in, we'll wait with the engineers 'till you clear it out.”

    I motioned for my team to form up on me. Getting up Chaucer and Rhetoric sprinted over to me. I began to trot towards the building with my team close behind. Lumen and his three ponies stayed on the back with the engineers. It was hard to keep a constant pace, my hooves were not familiar with this ground. The dirt and sand worked its way around my hooves with each step.

    Reaching the door on the structure I pressed myself up against the wall left of it. Chaucer and Rhetoric doing the same, but on the right side. There was only one door and no windows.

    “How're we going in?” Chaucer asked in a whisper. “Breach it?” He lowered himself in front of the door ready to buck it, but I waved him off. I reached forward and pushed the Handel down. With a rusty click the door opened inward. I craned my head around the corner in attempt to survey the room, but was greeted with an adorning lack of light. The only source of any illumination came from the open door.

    “Hello darkness,” I said turning on the flashlight I had on my shoulder, my team doing the same. Pulling a flare from my side in my mouth, I reached up with my hoof and smacked the igniting cap off. The flare bust to life. Swinging my head, I tossed it into the room.

    I looked back into the room now bathed in blue light from the aforementioned flare. It was empty aside from a row of computers along the back wall. The whole room was only about 30x20 feet. The only other exit being a stairwell at the back right corner. “Move in, stay low and quiet.” Rhetoric and Chaucer moved into the building quickly.

    Turning I signaled for Lumen to come to us. Turning back to the doorway I entered. “Clear, commander. Should we search the lower level?” Rhetoric asked. “Yes” I responded, “but I want you to stay here. Watch Lumens approach. Keep an eye on their surroundings. They're a big target with those engineers. Chauc, you're with me.” “I got your back” He responded.

    “Aright,” I said approaching the stairwell, “if there's something down there chances are they're going to be waiting for us. We move quickly, clear it out, then get back up here.” I stepped up to the stairs, pitch black. Pulling a small plasma pistol from my right shoulder, I prepared to move.

    After getting a small running start I dropped to my stomach, and slid down the stairs. Once at the bottom I rolled left behind a now visible desk, covering Chaucer as he moved right. Our flashlights only illuminated a small area, and only in the direction our bodies were facing. I placed the pistol on the floor. “Equestrian military, if you do not want to be fired upon make your presence known.” I picked my pistol back up, and waited for a response.

    When there was none I got up to search the rest of the room. Running a short distance I slid behind another desk. I was about to yell to Chaucer to move up when the lights above us hummed to life. Guess they found the power that (somehow) still worked. Now with the whole room illuminated, I could see it was roughly ten times the size of the first floor, only this room was filled with electronic equipment. Most of which seemed to be damaged.

    There looked to be only one adjoining room, so I made my way to it. Testing the handle, I found it to be locked. The door however was made out of wood, so I just kicked it off its hinges. Inside was what I assumed to be a small office since it was filled with cabinets that looked to be for files. The room was clear, so I holstered my pistol. Since I wasn't here to be looking through old paper work I left the room, making my way back upstairs with Chaucer. The engineers passed us on the stairwell, beginning their job of salvaging the equipment below. Two of Lumens ponies followed them.

    Lumen approached me at the top of the stairwell. “Good job, commander. Take up over watch outside. Take Ark with you so you can watch in all directions.” He said pointing to the only pony with him who didn't go down the stairs. “Yessir,” I responded making my way outside, the three respective ponies following.

    We took up position on the roof, all four of us back to back, each facing our own direction watching a ninety degree field of vision. The roof was just tall enough to see over the hill the building was built into. I faced north, the direction we came in from. Chaucer west, towards the nearby abandoned city. Rhetoric east, there was nothing visible in that direction, just open ground. Lumens pony, whose name he said was Ark faced south. The only thing in that direction was the large pillar of green smoke.

    Form a tactical standpoint we had a very good field of vision, but it presented us as four targets back to back that could be taken out with a few well-placed shots. But from a logical standpoint not only are the chances of somepony not only making those shots, but having a weapon accurate enough to make them were small. Not to mention it'd be a feat to behold to get within firing range without us (Pegasi with 20/20, possibly better vision) spotting them in the open desert.

    “Best get comfortable, by Lumens estimates we'll be here for eighteen hours,” I said pulling my rifle off of my side and leaning it up against my shoulder. It had a scope on it, not a very high magnification scope, but a scope nonetheless. “Least we don't have to worry about sunburn,” Ark said looking up to the clouds, “Down here for ten minutes and I already want to get out of here. Feels like I'm breathing ass fumes.” Rhetoric laughed, “Though that's true, I have to say even though it seems like it's going to be pretty quiet at least I don't have to lie to myself that something could happen. It's nice to finally have a reason to be on guard.” “Besides Day smacking you because you can't put your own armor on,” Chaucer averred.

    I agreed with Rhetoric, our lives have been spent in a group which was centered around military. We were trained to fight. It's been in our blood for around 10,000 years, but above the clouds there was nothing to fight, just train. Down here even if we didn't fight anypony or anything at least there was still the chance we could.

                                                                             •••

    After about seven hours of siting and staring I got up to stretch out, plus I figured I'd ask Lumen how things were coming along. The sun was starting to set and it was getting dark, the clouds filtering out most of what sunlight was left.

    Landing on the ground in front of the building I walked inside. Lumen was sitting in front of one of the computers messing with some radio equipment, seemingly trying to get it to work. “See anything up there commander?” He asked without turning. “No captain, came down here to see how we’re doing on time.” “Ahead of schedule as it were. Everything's going as planned.” He pushed the radio back and turned around. “And as usual I can't report that in. Even this close to the edge of the cloud cover it still blocks the signal. Anyways, should be out of here soon. We're doing a good job commander, let's keep it up.”

    “Day!” Chaucer called from the roof, “come look at this.” I pivoted and ran outside. Giving my wings a quick flap, I propelled myself onto the roof. Upon landing Chaucer pointed west. Lumen landed behind me. “What is it?” “I don't know,” I said sitting and pulling my rifle off of my side. Shouldering it, I looked down the scope towards the town to the west.

    “It’s a wagon,” Chaucer said from over my shoulder. He was right, through my scope I could see a wooden and metal wagon slowly approaching the town from the northeast. A maroon stallion pulled the wagon, and two other ponies walked alongside. I couldn't tell what kind of ponies they were from this distance. “They're heading in the other direction. They don't know were here,” Lumen said turning back around, “let me know if that changes.”

    As Lumen reached the edge of the roof there was a report (an explosive noise) in the distance, which was succeeded by several more. Everypony froze as if the vindictive presence was going to present itself to us. Looking back to the city through my scope, I could see the wagon, which was now within the city itself. Past it gunfire rained down from the buildings within the city. The ponies from the wagon were now taking refuge behind it, occasionally returning fire.

    “Lumen?” I said questioningly. “Everypony inside,” He said turning once again. “What!” Chaucer yelled, “And leave them?” Lumen spun to face Chaucer, marching up to him. “Yes, avoid hostile confrontation.” Was he serious? Yeah, we were told not to make contact with local life, but that's because they were supposed to be crazed. These ponies were hiding behind a wooden wagon probably scared for their lives. They weren't going to last long with the amount of gunfire coming from that city in fortified positions.

    My mind segregated itself from the outside world. I had an important decision to make, and if I was going to decide it had to be now. Could I really look myself in the mirror if I didn't do this? What would the repercussions for my actions be? Okay, looks like all bets are off.

   “I'm going in,” I said putting my rifle back onto my side under my wing. “Eagles on me.” “Excuse me, commander?” Lumen asked seeming dumbfounded, “Get your team inside.” “Day?” Rhetoric asked giving me a look asking me if I was sure.

    “Lumen,” I said looking to him, “stay here protect you're engineers. We're going to move in and get the heat off of those ponies. We'll be back.” “Commander, you are going to follow my orders. The amount of trouble I'd be in if I let you go. Commander? Day? If you do this ill have you extirpated.” I ignored him as I prepared to take off. “You don't even know who you're fighting, what if you're picking the wrong side.” I really hope these ponies realize we're on their side, I thought as I launched myself into the air towards the city.

    There wasn't enough time to plan. I'd have to try and coordinate once we got there. Looking back I spotted Ark following us. His normal Pegasus wings were having trouble trying to keep up. Four is defiantly better than three, the amount of gunfire I heard wasn't very endorsing. At least their attention was drawn elsewhere. It would most likely be a hot landing, but at least we wouldn't be under fire before we even touched down.

    A large amount of the fire on the wagon was coming from a ten story building in front of it from the northwest part of town. They were also taking some fire from behind that was the biggest treat, so I signaled for Chaucer and Rhetoric to take that building.

    Coming in fast and low, I landed behind the ponies and their wagon. I rolled to the side into an alley in case they decided to open fire. There were four ponies behind the wagon, the maroon earth stallion, a chalk colored unicorn stallion, and two unicorn mares, one was a light green, and the other was amethyst colored.

    Leaning around the corner, I attempted to yell to the ponies, but pulled myself back when a piece of concrete was blown off in front of my face. Apparently they saw me fly in, even if these ponies didn't. “Hay!” I yelled leaning back around the corner, keeping myself lower this time, “You need to get out of the street!” They looked back at me in confusion as more bullets impacted around us. “Now!” I yelled.

    They all looked to the maroon stallion as if waiting for him to tell them what to do. “I'll cover you, but you have to run.” Grabbing my rifle, I began firing towards the building where most of the fire was coming from. I wasn't aiming to hit anypony, just suppress them so they would stop firing, or at the very least miss.

    All four ponies behind the wagon got up at once and began running towards me. “No, one at a time!” But it was too late, by the time I said it they had already closed half the distance. They were too big of a target. There wasn't anything I could do except continue firing. The fire from behind us had not been silenced, but now it was firing towards the building across the way, obviously the work of Rhetoric and Chaucer.

   Miraculously all four ponies made it into the alley uninjured. I pulled myself back behind the wall letting out a sigh of relief. My sigh quickly turned into a surprised squeak when I was pulled into a headlock from behind. I struggled to break free, but only succeeded in producing more squeaks. I was forced to stop struggling when a knife floated up to my neck.

    “Who are you?” The earth stallion asked stepping up to me. The two unicorn mares sat behind him, so I guess that meant I was being held by the chalk colored unicorn. Well not the most hospitable, but at least they didn't kill me, yet that is.

    “My name's Day. There's no need for hostilities, I'm here to help you.” “We'll see about that. Why are you here?” The maroon stallion questioned. “I, I just said, I'm here to help you,” I responded, “ask yourself, if I can fly why else would I be here? I am a Pegasus, and I'm armed, am I not? You're in a bad way being stuck in this city, just doing my job to help.” “How do I know I can trust you?” He asked looking more and more worried as the gunfire got closer. “I didn't shoot you for starters. I helped you get out from behind that wagon. I brought backup, who as we speak is holding those ponies off. If that's not enough surely I've been mistaken coming here in the first place.”

    He nodded his head taking in what I said. “One last thing, where'd you come from, and how many are with you?” I pointed up to the clouds. He didn't seem too happy about that, but the knife lowered from my throat, and I was pushed forward lightly. “Well, you're definitely not from around here, you still smell like a mare,” The unicorn who had me hostage said putting his knife away. That left me a little nonplused, but now was not the time for confusion or questions. “Uh, thanks, I guess.” “So,” he said levitating my rifle over to me. It was quite odd to see unicorn magic for the first time. “You're going to be our escort out of here?” I nodded my head taking the rifle.

    Laying down I leaned my body around the corner. Looking through the scope I couldn't see any presence in the building that had previously been firing at us. There was however there was a rather large group of ponies moving slowly towards our location. Hearing a scream I looked up in time to see a pony defenestrated from the top floor of a building onto the ponies below. Most scattered, but the two that got knocked down didn't have the chance to get back up as the body exploded. The sight of Rhetoric flying from the aforementioned building to the adjacent structure confirmed my suspicion of what had just happened.

    I pointed to the maroon stallion “name?” “November,” he responded. “Okay, November, we're going to move. We need to get out of here before they decide to close in. I want you and your ponies to get behind your wagon and push it up the street. My ponies are among the buildings, they're going to be covering us. I'm going to walk you guys out. We do this fast to keep from being flanked, Alright?” “Yeah, yes,” He responded. “Well then go!” I yelled making a break across the street, holding my rifle in my mouth.

    Sliding behind an overturned dumpster on the opposite side of the road, I dropped my rifle into my hooves. I took aim and dropped a pony with three .222s to the chest who was stupid enough to be standing in the street trying to fire at me.

     These ponies didn't seem to be very smart, but I guess they made up for that in numbers. Also, up close these ponies seemed pretty bad off as the looks of it. Where their mostly metal armor separated their fur was patchy, and their skin was blistered and scarred. Their weapons seemed pretty old and in disrepair, but as long as it fired bullets it was still deadly, inaccurate and unreliable, but deadly nonetheless.

    Hearing flapping, I turned to see Ark landing behind me. He tried to speak, but was silenced by a few rounds flying past his head. “All hands on deck, soldier,” I said pulling him behind the dumpster. Most of the rounds were deflected by the metal dumpster, but the larger caliber ones passed through easily, forcing us to lay prone.

    “All the buildings behind us are clear,” Ark said pointing over his shoulder. “Good, we need to get moving we're going to cover that wagon down this street and out the other side of the city. I don't know what kind of opposition we're dealing with, but it's enough to not stick around. We'll move along the right. I need you to stick close and cover my six.” Not waiting for a response I got to my hooves and prepared to make a sprint to the right side of the road, there wasn't much cover, so we were probably going to have to move through the buildings. November and his ponies were already moving their wagon up the street.

    I stopped when I heard more wings approaching from behind. Lumen and his other two ponies landed alongside us. “Commander, it's pretty obvious you're not going to come back 'till these ponies are out of here, and I'm not going to try dragging you back, so let's make this quick.” “Ark and I are going to move along the right side of the street. I suggest you take the left.”

    Sprinting across the rest of the street, I hopped through a ground floor window. Turning and placing my rifle on the window seal, I fired at a pony hiding behind a mailbox as Ark jumped in behind me. Several rounds penetrated the mailbox and killed the pony on the other side. Having us on the right, Lumen and his ponies on the left, November moving through the center, and Rhetoric and Chaucer weaving across the rooftops was doing wonders at keeping the opposition from pinning us down. We had to just keep moving along before they could group together.

    This building seemed to be a factory of some sort. It continued to the end of the street. We moved along down the building, firing out every other window. It was rather annoying having to grab my rifle in my mouth every time I had to move. Lumens team was lagging behind. They had to find ways to get from one building to another without exposing themselves, which was a lot slower than us just walking along the factory floor, or November pushing his wagon down the street.

    Reaching the end of the factory we waited at the last window for November to catch up. Two large earth stallions came running from across the street towards us. I couldn't tell if they were running for us, or just trying to relocate to get a better position. Either way, I really didn't care. I pulled the trigger and the lead pony dropped, my bullet passing through his right foreleg. The bolt on my rifle locked back, the magazine was empty. I used all forty rounds I had brought. Dropping the gun, I reached for my pistol. Before I could draw it the pony opened fire at me. The large rounds from the rifle on his side impacted the wall around the window, some passing through nearly hitting Ark and I.

    I rolled to the right to avoid being hit. I began firing at him, but few rounds hit, and the ones that did succeeded only in melting chunks off his armor off. He repositioned his body to aim at me, but before he could fire a red laser streaked down from the building behind him directly into the back of his neck, effectively felling him. A second later another laser killed the first pony that was attempting to get up. Chaucer I presumed, Rhetoric used plasma rifles.

    Placing my pistol back in its holster, I rushed over to my rifle and slung it across my side. Looks like I was going to be using my laser rifle now. Unlike my rifle it was attached to my body on a battle saddle, which was fired by a bridle as the trigger. I didn't like the fact I couldn't really aim with it, but in most cases it was better than mouth firing it.

    By now November and his ponies had reached the end of the street. They were almost out of the city. “Come on Ark, were going out.” He turned to the door, but before he could open it the door swung inwards slamming him into the wall. The lime earth pony who was behind it charged me with a machete. Before he could bring his weapon down on me I had my sword in the way. Sweeping the Sloghammer down, the blade passed right through his right fetlock. As he fell forward from his lack of hoof to hold him up, I brought my blade across his throat.

    “Ark, are you alright?” “Yeah,” he responded getting up, looking rather dazed. I sheathed my sword, and took the bridle for my laser rifle in my mouth. Rushing out the door, I made my way to November. Most of the fire from our enemy's had let up.

    “Okay November, we're almost out. I need you to get in front of your wagon and pull it out of here. Can you do that?” “Yes, ma'am!” He yelled back in response. The green unicorn mare ran up carrying the unicorn stallion on her back. “What happened to him?” I asked. She shook her head, levitating him into the back of the wagon. “He got shot.” We'll thanks for distilling that, I thought to myself.

    Lumen formed up behind us, along with Chaucer and Rhetoric. “Let's move up and clear the path for them.” In unison we all began to run forward towards the edge of the city. Just as I began to gallop a bullet whizzed in front of my face, followed by a sound I couldn't even begin to explain. I stopped dead in my tracks. Slowly I swept my head to the left. My heart dropped upon seeing what it had hit.

    Rushing over to Rhetoric, I began applying pressure to the large hole now blown in his chest right through his armor. “Chaucer, Chaucer!” I yelled. He rushed up alongside me, and began to pull Rhetoric up. “Day, we need to get him out of the street. Come on, let's get him to that building.” Chaucer helped him onto my back pointing to a nearby building.  As soon as he was on my back, I began running towards the nearest building. “Get those ponies out of here!” I yelled back to him. Running into the building, I began up the stairwell to the second floor. Everything seemed to be happening so much faster.

    I placed him on the floor putting pressure on the wound. Throwing my bag on the floor, I began searching through it for medical supplies. The bullet was deep. Without the proper tools or medical training it was going to have to stay in for now. I just needed to stop the bleeding. Easier said than done.

    The best I could do was use blood coagulant. It would slow the bleeding, but it was a big wound. I couldn't use a healing potion with the bullet still in him. It would close the wound, and if the bullet was lead (which it more than likely was) it would give him Septicemia (blood poisoning), plus it could be within or near an organ. I needed help.

    I began to sprint towards the door, but stopped when Lumen walked through it. “Lumen I need help, he's in a bad way. We need to stop the bleeding.” He approached me, looking like he was trying to say something but couldn't get it out. “Lumen, I need.” I was cut off when brought a hoof across my face at full force. I tried to rebound to swing back, but he rushed me with his head. Slamming me into the wall, he hit me with another punch. “Lumen!” I yelled out, but he hit just me again. I was forced against the wall and couldn't move. “Commander, you disobeyed a direct order, took a pony from under my command, got one shot, and got one of your own killed.” He continued hitting me between each statement. “I'm sorry, but it looks like you’re discharged. I hate to see this happen again.” I brought my wing up to protect myself. He slammed my wing into the ground with a hoof. He pulled his other hoof up, then brought it down on the base of my wing. With a resounding snap the bone in my wing gave way. He kicked my left foreleg in causing it to give out from under me.

    He backed off letting me fall to the ground. “I'm sorry, commander,” He said turning around and leaving through the door. “Lumen, captain!” I yelled after him, but to no avail, he was gone.

    Slowly with my remaining strength I dragged myself over to Rhetoric. Forcing myself into a sitting position, I pulled him up, and slowly lowered him back to the ground. He was dead, and I was alone