Fallout Equestria - Long Way Home

Chapter Two: Dazed and Confused

Putting my arm down I digested this new found information. After a moment of contemplation I decided my previous goals were still very good ideas. My stomach grumbled loudly, perchance alerting every being in this world to my very position. Well, figuratively of course.

“Food seems like a good idea.”

Taking a moment to soak in my surroundings yet again, the thought struck me…

“This place got a goddamn map or somethin’ ?”

I set off on exploring and scavenging the facility. The place seemed absolutely deserted. To sum up those first few minutes of my ordeal, two things come to mind. The good part was that nothing tried to kill me. Perhaps that was part of the reason for the second part. ‘Twas incessantly mundane.

After aimless wandering, I came across a stairwell that led upward. The memorable parts of this particular stairwell were the lack of lighting as well as the graffiti on the wall beside it.

And the wax melted

Is that a reference to the name of the facility? I guess it is... Wait is it written in blood?!”

I reached out and acquired some of the crimson liquid on my finger. I immediately take some between my fingers and rubbed it to check the consistency. It didn’t feel like blood.  I guess the written in blood cliche isn’t in effect here.

Walking up the stairs I observed two things.

1.  That the next floor up had the lights off.

1. The stairwell ended here. Indicating that either this was the highest elevated level of this place or that the stairwells were decentralized for some strange security reason.

Waiting at the top the stairwell for a second I remembered something about a flashlight feature for my fore-arm computer. That’ll do I thought as I found the button that activated the function.

  As the light arced across the room I felt a more primeval part of my mind placated as the darkness vanished in a localized area. Then I spotted a Large room with a plaque on it

Artifact decontamination and storage.

Perhaps the stuff I had on me when I was taken here is in this place.  The idea that this place was on another version of earth entirely had been growing on.  After fighting that robot. That thing was probably not something that could be found on my Earth Circa 2014.

Once I opened the door to the room  I saw that at the center of the room was a large work bench covered by objects that were familiar to me. Namely my clothing which I inspected immediately. The thing that surprised me was that they looked no different. Really just my Pair of jeans that I wore a lot and My hoodie-shirt combo. So I began undressing and putting on the clothing which belonged to me.

While I was putting on my pants I spied what looked like an old projection based computer monitor.  After finishing redressing I went in for a closer look at the wall mounted computer. Pressing the big clearly marked power button on the front of the thing It came to life. Displayed on the screen was a interface that appeared to be similar to the one on my Pip-boy.

Three entries that I could read, all contained references to project icarus and the Oceanic isolation facility.  that has to be where I am.  Something about the terminal that caught my attention was that all the entries were dated to the year 2077 yet on my pip-boy it displayed the current year as being 2280.  The conclusion I drew from this is that this facility must have been mostly abandoned, yet still functioning in some ways for 203 years, give or take a few months.

As I read further it became clear that icarus was a some sort of transdimensional teleporter.  “so someone must still be running the icarus array (what the device was called in the terminal entries) or something?  That robot probably wasn’t the only automaton in this god forsaken place.

I searched the drawers the fruits of my labor were a couple of stale powerbars. Which I promptly consumed.  The taste they left wasn’t the only bad taste in my mouth,          The Terminal entries had left me with only more questions.

Making the decision to explore the top floor of the facility. I wandered aimlessly, up until the point I spotted a corridor studded with faintly glowing emergency lights. I began moving with increased vigor down the passageway, barely coming to a stop as I practically ran into a faded map of this level of the facility. Quickly spotting the words evacuation craft launching facility among the multitudes of other locations. While the prospect of escape from this decrepit facility seemed too good to be true, I hastily figured out a direct route towards the launch bays. I itched to begin my journey on said route, if only to stop the directionless wandering.

Whilst following the route I encountered no signs of life; stillness seemed to be the atmosphere of this figurative prison. The only interesting things I observed were a few broken down robots clearly labeled Protectron 3000. Oddly it seemed they had been scavenged. Was there something useful in these robotic rent-a-cops? Perhaps I should've searched the wreckage of the one that had tried to subdue me…

As these thoughts were running through my head, I was steadily approaching the evacuation submersible dock. Drawing to about the near end of my journey, I stumbled across a room that brandished a plaque that put a comical grin on my face; a single thought now the entirety of my existence.

“I adore  gunz.”

Weapons research and firing range.

The idea of a firing range in a place where the oceanic pressure outside would crush you like an Asian bitch under an American businessman wasn't exactly comforting. “Though judging from the atomic age aesthetics, this place’s outer walls are probably a solid twenty inches of steel.” I smugly stated to no-one but myself.  Attempting trying to open it “damn it must be locked” I spoke in a defeated tone.   The door in question was constructed of sturdy metal. My first action was to back up, then shoot the lock with my ten-millimeter pistol. The folly of that idea was made immediately apparent. The bullet striking the doorknob made a loud metallic reverberation as it ricocheted off the knob coming very close to hitting me. Recovering from that little bit of terror, I re-examined the door. Noticing that the hinges that secured the door to the wall were of stock quality I wondered how they would handle a gunshot.

With the new plan in mind I moved to what I judged would be a safe distance for the shots. The gun shook slightly in my hands as I sighted in my target. Focusing intently on the target, I squeezed the trigger three times. The bullets travelled in the air for a split second before they crashed against the target. The faint smell of Cordite filled my nostrils as I exhaled the breath I had taken before firing.

I jogged wearily until I was within an arm’s reach of the door. Placing my hands upon the door. I felt the rusted paint prick my hands slightly. Placing a single hand on the handle (my other on the center of the door) I pulled inwards. The door’s damaged hinges buckled under my augmented strength, causing the door to plummet backwards; nearly crushing me beneath its imposing steel frame. As this happened I leaped back in fear of being crushed; a disappointing way to end this rather appealing journey. The small sense of victory that came to me ceased when I heard the sound of gunfire and the simultaneous plinks of bullets coming down around me. My often useless survival instincts aided me in this situation as I dove out of the sights of whatever was firing at me. Regaining my resolve I peered over the corner of my cover, my eyes resting on what appeared to be a security camera on the ceiling of the room. Realization swept my being as I saw a laser emanating from the so-called camera lock onto me. Returning to cover instantly, shots rang out where my head had rested moments ago.

I had counted a 3 second delay between sighting and firing from the turret. This gave me the brilliant idea to try and pop a shot off at it before it had time to fire again. I jumped into the doorway with my handgun held out in firing position, something happened as I tried to determine what part of the turret to fire at. The event was V.A.T.S, an automated targeting program that slowed my perception of time down to a crawl, and gave me the ability to cede control of my body so that I could actually hit what I wanted to Hit. However It was not that moment that I discovered this information. At the time all I could think about was What Part Of the turret that I wanted to Hit Which I decided was the casing.(Coincidentally it was the largest part of the turret.)

The instant I Thought “Now fire” time sped up to what I considered normal speed the shots I had selected rang out.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

The turret exploded right after the fourth bullet hit it.

I had felt out of control of my own body while I was shooting “Okay that felt weird” but the results were undeniable. I conceded to the point that it would be very useful.

Moving cautiously into the room I was taken aback by the fact that it was filled to the brim with various types of weapons. There was a rack by in the room with various rifles cataloged and mounted vertically. The Rifle that caught my was given the name “Epilogue”

by the name tag attached to the hand grip. I grabbed the firearm and then caressed the unloaded implement of destruction in my hands. It’s polymer stock sturdy and reinforced, the barrel black steel, the receiver dark silver and the sights perfectly aligned. I looked around until I sighted what I wanted, A sling for my rifle. Letting a smirk of triumph cross my face as I attached the sling to Epilogue.

After using the sling to lay the gun across my back I looked around for magazines. I Quickly spotted a box of 30-round magazines and noted their location. I realized that getting a backpack would let me carry a lot more equipment. Luckily in a nearby cabinet someone had stashed some survival gear before whatever cataclysm had made everyone leave. The fruits of my labour were a faded military backpack and a survival knife that somebody had dropped in a dark corner of the cabinet.

Now wearing my mismatched clothing I grabbed six of the previously mentioned 5.56 magazines. While doing this my Pip-boy made a beeping noise, moving it to my face I switched it to the weapons tab.

10 Millimeter Pistol

Bowie Knife

“Epilogue” Marksman Carbine +

“No idea how it does that” I stated, staring bemusedly at the device before putting my arm down.

No other minor revelations came to me as I set my course for the firing range . Part of me just wanted to see how such a place was constructed. I was disappointed to find that it looked like normal indoor firing range.

On the end of the stalls was a door marked AMMO REPOSITORY.  Feeling like a kid in a candy store (or a brooding teenager in an abandoned military base), I trotted towards the door. Inside were oodles and oodles of bullets. I found boxes of ammunition for Epilogue including one-hundred rounds of armor piercing ammo.   I grabbed a couple boxes of ammo for the 10 millimeter as an afterthought. In my searching of this room I had come across what appeared to be grenades. Picking up the probably ordinance, I checked my Pip-boy it showed them as plasma grenades. Reading those words I let out a psychotic chuckle, I was glad no-one heard me.

Before leaving the scene of my looting I went about loading the magazines with my newly acquisitioned bullets, then setting off towards my original objective.  The quiet of the place I realized was a deranged kind of peaceful.  “Now that just won’t do” I started humming in a manner reminiscent of a serial killer.

A loud noise broke me out of my whistling. Clanking noises could be heard from further down in the hallway.  Swiftly I moved into a recessed doorway, as the mechanized sounds steadily increased in volume.

Clutching my rifle in my slightly shaking hands, waiting for the robots to come into visual range. “SUBJECT Z-34 YOU ARE HAVE BEEN ORDERED BY THE IMPERATOR  TO BE DETAINED. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE TERMINATION.” The protectron stated in a loud monotone.

“ TELL THE IMPERATOR TO GO FUCK HIMSELF” I yelled at the robot while stepping out from behind my cover. Feeling an eldritch calm as I entered Vats, quickly selecting five headshots each at 77%.  As time returned to what humans deem as normal my body controlled by my Pip-boy fired the shots I had selected.

The Protectron fell to the ground as four high velocity shots struck it.  I strafed back behind the door way as two more protectrons came around the corner. They let out a barrage of laser bolts striking the wall in front of me.  Returning fire manually I hit the closest Protectron to me in the chest three times. Turning to aim at the other enemy, it shot me in the chest with its flesh broiling laser. Yelling out in pain I reacted as no machine would, empting the remaining rounds in the magazine at it.  Perhaps half of the bullets struck it, but it  was enough to leave the robot a smoldering pile of garbage in sea full of garbage. Sitting down in the doorway I had in before I took a moment to look at the laser wound.

It  definitely wasn’t pretty, a good sized hole of cauterized flesh just above my right ribs. So it wouldn’t kill me but it still hurt like a motherfucker. I wondered if I had any pain meds on me. That led me to start searching the aid tab Seeing something called a stimpack on there. I selected it and read a short description of the drug.

It appeared to be a  non-addictive healing catalyst. After searching my pockets for the stimpacks I Injected the syringe into the spot indicated by my Pipboy. The pain decreasing with little delay,  the entry stated that the stimpacks effects wouldn’t end for around ten minutes depending on body size and dosage.

After following the instructions about resting for the duration of the healing effects, I began to trudge closer to the evacuation center.

Finally coming to the doors of the place I noticed signs that something was amiss. Dropped bags littered the floor, along with signs of struggle. Swiftly moving into the  submersible dock part of facility. The floors were littered with corpses decayed to the point of being nearly skeletons. Most of the the corpses were wearing lab coats and business suits. What was absent was the corpses of security personnel. The decayed clothing showed signs of being torn up by bullets.

Then I noticed that the entire place was devoid of evacuation craft.

End of chapter Two

Perk Swift Learner

You gain an additional 10% whenever experience points are earned.

Footnote- Guns 50