"So what the hell are we doing here exactly?" Jaden asked to Reece and Cole. "Command wants us to check out some pre-war facility, they think that it could have some technology that could give the NCR an edge over any enemies." Reece replied. "But that's what I'm sayin, if this technology is SO important why send only three Rangers to do the job?" Jaden asked. "Minimize casualties maybe?" Cole chimed in. "And what exactly are you expecting to happen to cause casualties?" Jaden questioned. "Fuck man, I don't know it's just a guess. What's got you so riled up anyway?" Cole kept walking while awaiting a response from his squadmate. "Look, I've been on edge about commands intentions since Bitter Springs happe-." Jaden stopped talking as Reece stopped walking and turned around to face him. "Now you listen here and you listen good, we don't talk about what happened at Bitter Springs I was there as well but there's not a damn thing we can do about it now except try to right our wrongs but being paranoid all the time won't get you anywhere, understood." Reece finished his lecture. "Understood." Jaden replied and chose not to speak. The group continued their trek through the desert wasteland known as the Mojave getting closer to their objective.
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Paladin Davila wondered to himself what kind of technology could possibly be at this vault-tec facility that it required seven Paladins to retrieve but he thought it best not to dwell on such things as to not be distracted from the task at hand. His bulky T-45 power armor made him look menacing and deadly, it wasn't just armor it was a symbol, a symbol of the Brotherhood of Steel. The residents of the Mojave were aware of the famed Brotherhood but in recent years many had never seen the mighty warriors of the Brotherhood due to the war with the NCR, but everyone recognized the power armor its soldiers utilized. This made the patrol a high profile target to the NCR and average raiders alike. Paladin Davila knew this and decided that the best course of action to take was to keep to buildings or desert and avoid highways and railway tracks if at all possible, this strategy has kept the patrol away from many possible threats and in turn sped up the total time elapsed on the way to the facility. "What do you think is going to be in there." Davila heard Paladin Maples say from the back of the group. "I have no idea Paladin I guess we'll find out when we get there, speaking of which we should be coming up on it in just a few minutes." Davila responded. A series of yes's and finallies echoed across the platoon as they walked onward.
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When the Rangers came upon the facility they decided to put Cole on top of the building with an Anti-Material Rifle to watch for and pick off any oncoming threats while Reece and Jaden cleared the building. After clearing several rooms the pair came across a research terminal and began trying to hack it for any potential information. That's when the comms crackled to life. "Guys we have a problem." Cole said shakily over the radio. "What kind of problem?" Reece asked. "Brotherhood patrol approaching fast I count about seven so far." Cole reported. "Cole you pick off as many as you can and get your ass down here, we're gonna hold this building wether the Brotherhood likes it or not." Reece ordered as he started setting up makeshift barricades out of old desks and work lockers. The two heard the loud thunderous sound of an Anti-Material Rifle firing above them and could only hope that the bullets met their mark. "Lock and load Jaden." Reece ordered while tossing him a Combat Rifle, a few magazines and two pulse grenades. "With pleasure." He responded with a wide grin under his helmet. Cole came back into the building using the ladder in one of the nearby rooms and took his place at the barricade. "How many did you get?" Reece asked. "One confirmed dead and one injured." He replied. "So in short, we only have to deal with five of these assholes now." He added with glee. The room fell silent as they waited for the Brotherhood Paladins to breach the door and all hell break loose.
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Paladin Davila was well and truly pissed at this point. First the NCR had beaten them to the facility, Second a sniper killed one of his men and wounded another and thirdly he had no idea how many Rangers were inside of the facility he needed to take his anger out on something and that something was going to be those Rangers. "What's our strategy sir?" Paladin Garvin asked. "Form up on the doors, two on each side I'll take the middle." He said. "Yes sir." The patrol responded. "On my mark three, two, one, Mark!" He yelled as he kicked in the door and began firing his laser rifle.
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"Three, two, one, Mark!" That was the only thing the Rangers heard before the door breached. Jaden began firing his Combat Rifle filled with armor piercing rounds at the Brotherhood Paladins relentlessly while Cole stuck with his Ranger Sequoia and Reece began rapidly firing his Brush Gun only stopping to reload and dodge laser rounds. The tight hallway became a mess of scorch marks and spent brass casings within minutes with neither side gaining any ground. This went on for several minutes and with no end in sight the Rangers decided to keep fighting and realized that they were in for the long haul.
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"Sir I have an Idea!" Paladin Garvin yelled to Paladin Davila. "Well let's hear it!" He yelled back. "If I can land a pulse grenade behind them it may cause a long enough distraction for us to move forward and kill the Rangers!" Paladin Garvin yelled over the gunfire. "At this point I'll take anything, go for it Paladin." He replied. Paladin Garvin nodded and primed his pulse grenade and threw it, but it didn't hit its intended mark instead it hit the doorframe of one of the rooms and rolled in.
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The Rangers saw the pulse grenade coming and ducked before it hit one of them and instead rolled into the room with the research terminal. "Wasn't that the room with the terminal and wasn't there some sort of chambers in there?" Jaden asked. "Yeah, what about it?" Reece replied. "My point is that we have no idea what the hell might happen if that pulse grenade goes off arou-" Jaden was cut off by the pulse grenade exploding and a bright light with what looked like particles filled their vision before blacking out.
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As Luna watched over the night she felt several disturbances of unkown origin made themselves apparent across equistria and even one outside of the southern border. She decided to investigate the closest one first appearing to be just outside of Canterlot. She felt the disturbance appear about a mile outside of the Canterlot city limit, as she got closer to the source of the disturbance she did not know what to expect but she certainly never would have never thought of something like this. There on the mountain side there were two creatures, one of which had a brown coat of sorts, glowing red eyes and a strange type of armor she had never seen and another creature similar in overall shape but appeared to be made entirely of steel.
Luna wasn't quite sure what to think of the two creatures but she had a few ideas.
The first creature wearing a brown leather coat with red eyes looked to be more of a hunter while the creature covered in metal looked more like a mighty warrior but in both cases they seemed to be experienced in combat. This was not a good sign, why are two unkown creatures doing in equistria and a better question might be what exactly are these creatures? Luna finally came to a decision, she would bring the creatures back to the Canterlot castle, remove any supposed weaponry and place each in a separate cell until they can be proven to not be a threat to any of her and her sisters subjects. She grabbed the two in a cloud of magic and began the flight back to Canterlot.
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Jaden started to wake up as a cold breeze blew down his back as he pulled his duster closer to his skin to stay warm. "Why is it so cold? Wait a minute. Cold? In Nevada?" Jaden sat up to look around as he started recalling recent events. "So it teleported us? But to where exactly?" Jaden asked himself. He started looking around and realized that he was in some sort of stone brick building. "Reminds me of those old Tales of Chivalry comics I used to read as a kid." He said to himself. As he continued looking around he found his Combat Rifle and twelve magazines for it as well as his Combat knife. He situated his gear and began sweeping the building. The longer he was in the building the more he realized just how old it truly was. "This thing has gotta be older than anything pre-war, thousands of years this thing may have been here. I should pro only stop talking to myself." He said to himself. Finally he came upon a room with two thrones on the back wall, one gold and the other a midnight blue. He decided to inspect the thrones further and continued forward until he reached the golden throne. He checked the structural integrity of the throne and after he thought it wouldn't collapse he sat down and propped his feet up on the second throne. "I kinda like it here, I think I'll make this my base camp for a while, at least until I find Cole and Reece." He began to break several planks of wood in order to start a fire, as he did so he noticed that the wood was surprisingly sturdy despite looking old and rotten. After a while of the continuous cycle of breaking off wood and carrying it back to the center of the room he decided that he had enough wood to last at least a few hours of continuous burning and got his matchbox out of his duster pocket. He struck the match against the side of the box and threw it into the pile once it was lit, he continued the process with two more matches before he decided to do a quick perimeter check before he went to sleep. He grabbed his Combat Rifle off of his back and walked to the nearest entrance on his right. "Clear." He mumbled to himself as he looked down the dark corridor and proceeded to the next entrance. The same tedious process of checking corridors was starting to bore Jaden and as a result he was glad when he finally finished and he finally got to sleep without the assistance of a teleported to knock him out.
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When Cole came to the first thing he realized was that he was in a cell. As recent events flooded through his memory he remembered what had happened. The mission, the firefight with the Brotherhood soldiers and that blinding light he saw before he blacked out. "Well ain't that somethin'." He said aloud. What he saw next made him question his sanity. Two creatures that looked like some kind of white one headed Brahmin wearing what looked like gold legion armor looked at him with just as much confusion. "You can speak Equish?" One of them, a male with a deep voice asked. "What the fuck?. Cole asked to no one in particular. "How many drugs am I on?" Cole said. "Pardon?" The other gaurd asked. "What are you?" Cole said to the two Stallions. "We could ask you and your friend the same thing." The first stallion replied. "Wait, friend? There's no one else in this cell." He said in cunfusion. "Your friend that's covered in metal, we put him in a separate cell after princess Luna brought both of you in." He answered. "Wait covered in metal? Oh no, did he have a symbol on his armor that had a sword in the middle with two blu wings on the sides?" He asked already knowing the answer that he would receive. "Yeah I think so, why?" The second gaurd said. Cole rushed to the bars and clenched them in his fists. "Where is he?!" Cole said as he frantically looked around. "Now why would we tell you that? Last I checked you were the prisoner awaiting questioning from the princess." The gaurd said in a mocking tone. "Oh really, and where is this 'princess' of yours that wants to question me?" Cole was getting really annoyed now. "She has been informed that you are awake and is on her way as we speak." The stallion with the gruff voice told him. A few moments of silence later and Cole heard a door opening down the hall and the clip clopping of hooves on the cobblestone floor. A creature similar to the two guards appeared from around the corner except this one was larger, midnight blue and her hair looked like stars? "Greetings I am Princess Luna of equistria whom might you be?" She asked. The first thing that caught Cole off gaurd was the air of superiority she gave off and coupled with her voice he could definitely tell that she was important. "Cole Frost." Cole said in a monotone voice. "I heard you were the one who brought me in." He said in an attempt to start conversation. "Yes, this is true I found you and your friend on the mountainside." Luna replied. "Let's get something straight me and him are not friends we simply ended up in the same situation." Cole sternly said to the princess. "Is there some sort of conflict between the two of you? If so you could try to talk to him about it." Luna offered. "Ha, no it's not just me and him the war between the NCR and the Brotherhood has been going on for years." Cole said venom in his voice at the mention of the Brotherhood. "So you're a soldier?" Luna questioned. "Yes, an NCR Ranger to be exact." He replied. "What caused this war?" Luna asked. "It's complicated, it doesn't matter right now." Cole said trying to dodge the question. "Very well." Luna said. "If you don't mind can I ask a few more questions?" Luna asked. "Sure." Cole muttered. "What are you exactly? As in what is your species?" Luna asked with curiosity evident in her voice. "A human, and what exactly are you?" Cole asked. "As a species we are called ponies but I specifically am an alicorn. "So I guess that explains why you have a horn and wings." Cole said to himself. "I have one more question for you." Luna said to Cole. "And that is?" Cole said getting impatient. "What were those box like sticks you both had when I discovered you two?" Luna asked. "You seriously don't know what a gun is?" Cole uttered in disbelief. "Gun?" Luna tried the word but found it unfamiliar. "Well it looks like I've got some explaining to do." Cole said as he started his lecture on how guns work and what they are used for.
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When Reece awoke the first things that he noticed were the green trees all around him and his Brush gun digging into his back through his Elite Combat Armor. He sat up and began to take in his surroundings. The green trees, the cool breeze, the Brotherhood Paladin rushing toward him, the night sky, wait Brotherhood Paladin? Reece scrambled to his feet and began to try and lure him into an open field so he could have a clear line of sight. He kept running until he reached what looked like a house from the dark ages and stopped on the wooden bridge that went above a small stream and turned to face his attacker. The Paladin was still racing after him at full speed, Reece reached for his Brush Gun and fired a warning shot when the paladin got within a few yards of the bridge. The paladin stopped and faced him as he had the rifle pointed at the Paladins head. "Stay there or I blow your fucking head off." Reece ordered. "With what? That little rifle? Don't make me laugh." The paladin mocked. "Well this 'little rifle' is packed with custom made armor piercing rounds specifically made to pierce power armor." Reece said in a tone that mimicked the Paladins.
The paladin fell silent as Reece kept the rifle aimed on his head. Suddenly a door opened on the front of the cottage causing Reece to look over at the noise. In this moment the Paladin began sprinting at the Ranger again seeing his opportunity to strike. Reece whipped his head back toward the Paladin only to see him trying to rush him, Reece waited until the Paladin was on the bridge to strike though. He sidestepped the Paladin and shot him in the back of the knee with his Brush Gun causing the Paladin to cry out in pain and topple over and fall to the ground. Reece placed his foot where he had just shot the man and said. "You ready to listen now?" The paladin cried out in pain as Reece pressed down on the wound with his foot. "Yes, yes just for the love of god stop!" He cried. Reece lessened the weight he had on the wound and began talking. "I never thought I'd say this but we need to help each other if we're going to make it out of this." The pair fell silent as Reece awaited the Paladins response. "Never thought I'd hear that from a Ranger but, I think you're right." He said in between grunts of pain. "Good, now let me help you up." He lifted his foot off of the mans back and grabbed his outstretched hand. "You're a heavy son of a bitch you know that?" Reece said struggling to lift the man. Once he got the Paladin to his feet the man put his arm around Reece as a support so he didn't have to walk on his bad leg. But before the pair started heading out though they noticed a strange light yellow creature standing in the doorway of the house with an expression of awe and fear.
