Fallout Equestria - Long Way Home

"The Number of people in the universe that can observe events is staggering; The number of events that happen in a universe... leaves an inconceivable amount of events unobserved."

“The camp of ‘raiders’ are directly in our path and to bypass it we would have to come very close to the settlement of Gutterville. Oh, and Elder; we should get rid of this raider camp. You know how these ponies like this are: they’ll kill the next pony they see. We’d be doing everypony a favor.” I say without stating outright my desire toexterminate raider on principal.

“You make a good case Icepick. Your forward scouting with Ironsight has proven to be quite a valuable asset.”

He seemed sincere.

“Yes sir, I believe a small team could do the job as effectively as a large team and avoid drawing undue attention to our operations.”

Yeah. Ironsight, two paladins, and I…

We could take some raiders.

“If you’re sure you can do the task, minimizing our exposure is critical until we meet up with Elder Steelhooves. Although, the task would be easier if that creature was better at garnering attention.”

“I wouldn’t have wasted your time if I wasn’t sure I could pull off this assault. Elder, were you informed that the ‘creature’ you just spoke ill of, has destroyed an entire slaver camp alongside the raider base located near our previous headquarters, singlehoovedly?” I mean he did help us out. Unintentionally of course, but I find that to be highly irrelevant.

“I’m not sure what point there is in your praise for his actions... other than, of course, your obvious infatuation with him.”  He says with a dastardly mixture of jest and seriousness in his voice.

“I don’t know what your refering to Elder,” I said sternly. Elder or not, he knows not to talk about my personal life. Silence reigned in the tent for a few seconds before he decided to leave the issue behind, besides I had some purging to do.

“Icepick, ready your strike force. In the meantime I’ll requisition some heavier armaments for your group.”

“I don’t need anything myself, however initiate Bread Slice needs some missile launcher experience.”

“Duly noted, now execute your plan.” He said as I turned around, the clinking of my armor was heard as I left. As an extra benefit it made the nervous sigh I let out after leaving inaudible to anypony (except me). Promotion isn’t usually thrust upon steel rangers, even rarer is promotion for heroism. But, I’m one of Applejack’s followers.

“Maybe that has something to do with it?” I thought as I went around looking for Ironsight. The search was over when I found her passed out in the mess tent. The mess tent was empty of occupants other than her. Trotting over to her, I prepared myself to do what has become something of a tradition between me and her.

“ENCLAVE RAPTOR!”I screamed, letting my amplified voice wake up my friend. When she jumped out of the booth, I could see someone had painted dyke on her left side in pink.

“Who.. wha… who did that?” she questioned, covering her eyes with her forelegs to shield them from the annoyance of the light.

I pointed at her side as her consciousness returned.

“Where’s the ‘Raptor?’” She asked, obviously aware of the answer.

        “There’s is no raptor; who painted on your armor?”

“What?”

She finally turned her head to look at the word inked on her armor’s flank. “Someone’s getting a five millimeter massage.” She stated her intentions with a cold anger. My fillyfooler friend was pissed, and I had to keep her from killing somepony.

        “Ironsight don’t, it won’t help you any, besides I’ll file a report about this incident.” My responsibility had grown considerably after leaving the bunker. Trying not to play favorites was taxing, but staying unbiased was important, isn’t it?

        “Fine, but if I find out who did it…” she left the ending out, perhaps to avoid self incrimination in front of her best friend turned superior. My promotion and befriending of Jake had driven a wedge between us. It had gotten worse when we were clearing out a building and she had found a stash of liquor, the subsequent drunken confession to me in front of some other rangers had left her depressed (to put it lightly).

        “Just come on, we have a mission to complete.” I said in hopes that drawing her attention to the problem at hoof would keep her mind occupied; for a while atleast.

        “Clearing out the raiders, you actually got steam to agree to that?” My furious nodding served as affirmation enough for her.

        “He’s letting us take some of the heavy stuff,” I say.

“Can I take occulatius?”

        “Um...Hell no, that thing is there for emergencies only.”  Occulatius was death incarnate and kept in pieces in a safe, in another safe.

“An emergency like a Raptor attack.” She said sardonically I could feel her eyes glaring at me through her helmet, somehow.

“Yeah,” I say feeling bad for lying to her, even if it was justified.

“Whatever, I get a ‘nade gun at least?”

        “That’s fine, just don’t mention occulatius again.”

   “Fine, but who’d you get to assist us?”

I started off in the direction of the armory tent, but not before saying “Bread Slice and Fiberglass.”

                                         00000

        My squad was assembled in short order, initiate Bread Slice on missile launcher along with his assault carbine. Fiberglass was a pyromaniac this much would be apparent to anypony with a pair of firing neurons; a flamer and a quad barreled flare gun he had made much to Steam’s chagrin. Taking an entire chapters supply of flare guns to experiment with tends to piss off the establishment, though to be fair he had scared off a flight of blood wings with his creation. I had grabbed a rebuilt light machine gun, along side my fifty caliber death dealer. Ironsight had her usual minigun and the grenade launcher consolation prize.

Our journey to the outskirts of the raider camp was uneventful as we tried to stay stealthy, stealthy being a relative term. The camp was surrounded by rubble walls, with a main entrance guarded by sentries.

“Okay, Bread blow a hole in that wall when I give the signal.” I say while I rack my rifle.

“Yes, ma'am.” The young colt responded mechanically, attempting to be collected. Under better circumstances he would still be practicing with a BB gun in a firing range, but we had a personnel problem. That was the real reason we left the mountain bunker, we lacked the mare power to maintain the place as a base of operations. And who’s fault is that?

“Shall I assist the initiate, Paladin?” Fiberglass asked running my train of thought off it’s rails, which was probably for the best.

“Good idea, glass. Iron you should move with me through the main entrance after they distract them.” The dry pragmatism of combat, was a welcome change from the hours of time where the only things to do were exercises in remembrance.

“So we trot right in, that’s the master plan.” Ironsight said as the colts marched off to their positions.

“Don’t belittle the superiors officers combat doctrine,” I say in a Faux-offended tone. Her silence, showed me how far we had drifted. Was my rejection that harsh? I had been sitting in the mess tent after out patrol eating with some of our fellow rangers, she had stumbled in. When her features lit up upon seeing me, I knew something was up. But had I done anything about it; she had come right up next to me and rubbed her tail on my muzzle before trying to kiss me.

To say it ended poorly would be like saying Equus was a little irradiated. To put it simply I’m not gay or Bi, not that I think that theres anything with a ponies sexual orientation. Really when It comes down to it when your drunk best friend tries to fuck you in front of everypony, being a little mean just kinda happens.

Her movement caught my frayed attention, and I lead us to the ambush location.

                        ooo000ooo

Luck was in our, there was a two story building over looking the camp with a staircase leading to the second floor, that also lacked a roof. I ordered Iron to follow me up there.From there I could see into the camp, therefore I could fire into the camp. Sniping from here beats the old plan by quite a lot.

“Go guard the ground level, I’ll signal the attack soon.” She stayed reticent as she took up position guarding me.

The retical displaying where my bullets would strike was displayed in my H.U.D.; the attack was signalled by a raider’s head being turned into an unidentifiable mush. A second after the ‘signal’ was sent out an explosion gave the camp a new entrance. The raiders were scurrying around getting armed as I liquified anyone who was out in the open.

*Bang* a raider mare holding a rocket launcher is now in two bloody pieces ‘six’.

*Bang* raider with a blood red coat; after impact lacks a head ‘five’.

I empty the magazine and while my gun is reloaded, I survey the camp. I watch as Fiberglass charges into the camp, followed by initiate bread.

A small object is thrown in front of them from inside one of the tents, it was a grenade I could tell that from here. Shit, my rifle was about two seconds from firing and the situation was out of my hooves, yet I could see it happening.

A visible explosion of magic exploded from the grenade, Glass and Bread were both in the explosion radius however. Glass was mid stride when his armor shut down leaving him to fall on his side. Bread Slice was solidly grounded when the pulse struck, leaving him standing up. Before I could think about the next thing to do Ironsight was running towards the main entrance, the only place other than the tents and buildings that I hadn’t been able to shoot at. A raider fired a large gun, probably a forty five by seventy I pinned down what the gun was.

I had to keep overwatch to protect them, Ironsight must have a figured this out and was gonna flush out the raiders.

Next I heard a big gun fire, it was almost as loud as my gun. Shit, a gun that big could punch through our armor. Should I go help her? No, if I do that then I can’t protect Glass and Slice. The whirring of a spinning up minigun came from where Iron was at. The return fire consisted of more big gun fire, along with some pistol fire.

Just then another raider came out of a tent at a dead sprint running towards Glass.

She had bag of powder in her magic, she got to him just as I got her in my sights.

^Crack^ The bag of powder fell out of her magical grip, her horn was gone. Her scream could be heard from my perch, she went down after the scream she was in shock. The powder bag broke open and some of the powder landed on Glass’s back leg. The powder was lit by a raider throwing a flaming piece of table leg by the stuff. I then heard a bunch of explosions from Irons grenade launcher I turned my head to try and one of the raiders attacking her. When I looked back at the flames after not seeing raiders any shootable raiders; the flames had burned through glass’s armor and his… leg.

I threw up in my helmet, the thing then detected on it’s own. The smell of my own sick kept me standing there for a second as I dry heaved. Iron fired her minigun again I could hear but not even know what got her to fire, was she still in real danger? Okay, gotta put on the helmet back on so I can actually aim my gun. Who knew your own body smelled so bad? But as bad as that was, not being able to aim your guns is worse. One of the things steel rangers are taught as soon as were born is that technology is the most important  thing in the world as a whole. Wastelanders are not to be trusted with anything more advanced than a rusted tin can. All so someday we could ‘rebuild’ society. In the hooves of a Steel Ranger my rifle was tool to defend and obtain technology. As I stood on the floor of a collapsed building overlooking a raider camp I was rethinking things even though staying on my hooves as I protected my troops was the job at hoof.

The Steel Rangers see the armor keeping a knight alive as more important than the pony inside. That did make us bandits didn’t it, what's the difference between a chapter of rangers and a camp of raiders? The sounds of gunfire from Iron’s location had died out, better yet the hostile EFS tags over there had stopped showing up. Okay don’t get cocky, just cause we’ve kicked flank…

                It would be awhile before I got that train of thought moving again, but when I did.

        The burst of fire from Iron along with some help from me cleared out the camp pretty fast.

        I went down the stairs and into the camp to see Iron limping over to glass, where she walked a trail of blood was left behind her. I trotted quickly over to her as she pulled open glass’s spell matrix interface port, she did a fast restart of his armor. He was unconscious and probably in shock too, but his armor would give him some adrenaline to wake him up.

        Iron had moved on to Slice and was booting up his armor when Glass got up. A big chunk of his leg was missing, but he stood up anyway.

        “We made a good distraction at least, commander.” He sounded giddy when he said this, the suit must have given him med-x. He started moving towards me before beginning to fall back down,but I caught him and pressed my side against him to keep him upright.

        “Can you give me some help here?” I said while keeping Fiberglass steady.

“I’ll be right there,” Bread Slice let out as his armor started working again.

        Iron wasn’t bleeding anymore she just looked at me before trotting close to us.

“Good job ice, only two casualties,” Her voice was full of anger.

        “Whatever you want to say to me, say it when he’s been to Gauze Pad and you have that bullet pulled out of that leg.

        She turned around, and spat “Alright, ‘commander’” with venom.

As we walked back to base, glass chatted a little with Slice. I tuned them out though, I was thinking as we travelled. How should a follower of applejack see a my gun? A sword to kill monsters? That sounds like some foals sword mare comic, besides if you just try to kill monsters that puts you on a path to becoming one yourself. No, my gun and my armor should be used not to go out and attack evil. It’s job should be to fight defend ponies (no people, an image of my alien friend entered my mind.) that can’t fight for themselves. Damn why did I even think to attack this place? Oh wait it was to keep us stealthy? Why? Because we’re afraid of the wasteland, even though we’re the strongest group out there. Why is it so hard to not think like a Steel Ranger?

        Trying to answer those questions filled my head until we got near base camp.

As soon as we were within the perimeter, Iron trotted off to who knows where. A situation report for Steam Gear would be in order; after I made sure Iron got that bullet out. Glass and Slice were fine, the initiate could support him easily, he was a big colt.

        I ran after Ironsight and caught up with her quickly, she looked at me as we stood in front of the tent she slept in.

        “I’ll get it taken out tomorrow,” she says while walking into the tent, I follow her in.

“No you get it taken out tonite, whatever you have against me… hurting yourself isn’t gonna help anyone.”

        She takes off her helmet before responding, “Wouldn’t have a bullet in my fucking leg if not for you!”

        “What? you volunteered for that mission?” I say.

  “Yeah to be the loyal friend to the big damn hero.” Her yells are ignored by everypony that could hear them. I take off my helmet now, and not just to get rid of the smell of my sick.

“I’ve never forced you to do anything,”

“You always go off and put yourself in more danger than you need to be.

Besides you were always happier when I was around, and I liked seeing you happy.” She says sardonically before letting a chuckle pass her lips; she was hurting.

“So I do like having my best friend around,” I say earnestly. She smiles for a second before she becomes mopey (again).

“You had no idea, about my feelings before I got…” She was tearing up now. I can’t leave her like this, but i’m not gonna lie to her.

 “I… just never think about mares like that, sorry I had no idea about how you felt.”

She had stopped crying by now and was looking at me.

        “I thought you dead when you went by yourself to go check the warning indicator. That was the reason I was sneaking around the halls, I was looking for you.” Was she really that worried about me? “And when you came by with Him, I was just happy to see you alive.”  She stopped and before she could start again I sat down beside her. “After the fighting was over I looked over at the two of you; you and the alien were acting like a cute couple by the time morning rolled around.”

“No, he’s a…” I say before Ironsight interrupts me.

  “Don’t deny it, you’re a terrible liar. Seeing you and the alien match up so well, I can see now that it broke something in me.”

         A hug was given to her, before I asked a question of life or death.

“You think me and Jake would make a cute couple?”

“Ice, sometimes I think that helmet is pointless” She said before, genuinely laughing.

“My skull isn’t that thick, besides I gotta keep my eyes protected.” I say softly.

“You two are a cute couple, I mean you fight like an old married couple. But I just hope you see how stubborn you are.” My glare made her shift a little bit before she attempted damage control. “Not that you’re stupid, no you just stick to your guns a little too much.”

She’s not wrong, on either count. But, I have to wash off and she needs a bullet taken out.

I order her to visit the infirmary, before I go take a (sponge) bath. My cott is worse than my old bed, plus the fabric kinda smelled like Jake. And that is been nice, not that I would admit it to anyone as long as I lived.  Yep…  Iron was right, I have a crush on an alien, then again I think he might like me back. Well after I help the chapter set up, I can probably go look for him.

“Going out to give him his caps is a good enough excuse right?” I whisper to myself as my eyes droop.

End Of Icepick’s Lament