Countdown

"Alright. First of all, we need to structurise everything. Point "A" -- resources. Point "B" -- the use of resources," Cider said, while turning on the computer. After a few minutes of loading, it was fully operational.

"Cool stuff. What this thing can do?" Rainbow Dash asked, being interested.

"A lot of things. Before this whole situation has gone deep, I loved videogames... But anyway, let me open the map."

In a few clicks of a mouse, Cider opened an image of a map, and it emerged on a TV screen. Rainbow Dash gasped -- the size of a city was enormous. There was no place in Equestria, that could be THAT big.

"And that is your city?! How?!" she shouted in amazement.

"Machinery, that's how. And also, Tarkov is not even a biggest city in our country. You should see Moscow... Ahem, back to work." The man pointed his finger at the city center, "Alright, that's where we are right now. We have two options -- go to the seaport and try to hijack a vessel to go by sea, or we can use this highway to navigate and go at the opposite direction on foot."

"Can you repeat, what are the dangers of both ways?"

"If we go to seaport, we'll face mercenaries. We'll be outnumbered and outgunned. And if we go to the highway, we'll face an army of bandits."

"Also, I think that there will be another problem. How the army will know, that we're not those baddies? Alright, I can try to negotiate, but I don't think that this will work, hehe..." Rainbow Dash replied nervously. "And your clothes... You don't really stand out of this marauder crowd, so they will shoot you, too."

"Ugh, even if we can go through bandit zone, we can't do the same with military... Seaport, then. At least, we have a small chance there," Cider said, while scratching his head in thinking. "What about a vessel, these mercenaries are coming and coming, so they probably use small or medium-sized boats. I can hijack something like that, but if they try to intercept us... That will be tough. Especially without help."

"And why?"

"Mercenaries have a lot of weapons, and are well-equipped. There was a rumor that they use anti-tank grenade launchers. And they blow up... Well, enough to kill an armored vehicle."

"And what about help? I can't believe that you are the only friendly person here!"

"Well, we can contact bandits, or one of PMC's to do what they want, as they provide us some cover. Or we can make a deal with UN or Russian Military. What a great range of choices, I can't believe it..." Cider sighed.

"Ugh, definetely not bandits or mercs. I suggest that we should contact your government first. I think that they will understand," the pegasus shrugged.

"Alright, let it be. But to establish contact, we need a radio transmitter and a power battery. There was a rumor, that an old sawmill was transformed by Terra Group into a secret site with radio equipment. We should go there first. After we get a transmitter, we should establish contact with military forces. If they ask for anything, we'll do it. After recieving a green light, we're going to make a plan how to get to the seaport."

"Sounds good to me. A sawmill will be a good place to start," Rainbow Dash smiled.

"Good. Now, we have to sleep well. Tomorrow it will be a hard day," the man said, while turning the PC off. "Have a nice sleep."

The built-in alarm inside Cider's wristwatch rang at 4:00. As the man woke up, he quickly got on his feet and headed towards Rainbow Dash. She was having a nice sleep, but it needed to be stopped. As Cider got to the pegasus on a couch, he slightly punched her.

"Utro dobroe, blyat," he swore, "we have a transmitter to find."

"U-u-ugh... What time is it?" Rainbow Dash opened her eyes, being not very happy.

"Four o'clock. Come on, after a quick breakfast we're heading out."

As Rainbow Dash was waking up, Cider set up an electric plate to boil up the water in a small pot. "As you've said, you're a pony. I suppose that means that you are herbivore, am I correct?" he asked.

"Right... But why do you ask?" a pegasus replied.

"Humans eat meat. As I don't know what are you into, I can't risk. I'll make a fast-made porridge for you. Mostly it contest wheat, but also some fruits."

"Wait... You eat meat? U-u-uh, this keeps getting better and better." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes in disappointment.

"Stop whinies. Here, take this."

Cider took a bowl with fast-made porridge, and gave it to Rainbow Dash, along with a plastic spoon. At first, she wasn't sure, could she take it, as it looked pretty unnatural, but as her stomach started to rumble in hunger, she decided that she could get past it.

"Anyway, I wanted to ask you. Where do you get all this energy to power up your stuff? That machine that can show pictures or this plate?" the pegasus asked before taking a spoon.

"Solar panels on a rooftop, along with a small wind generators. They store energy in a power bank, made of a few heavy batteries. However, all this stuff was here before I came, I just use it for myself right now," Cider answered, while eating canned meat.

"Cool... In Equestria, all stuff like that is powered by magic, mostly."

"Well, we don't have magic here, so we don't really have a choice. We build big powerplants to power up cities and towns. They are not really healthy, but very effective."

Pretty soon, the pair was finished with their breakfast, and Cider started to equip himself and Rainbow Dash.

"Alright, as much as I can tell, you are not ready to kill anyone to survive, right?" the man asked his companion, while putting on the leather coat. As he recieved a nod, he continued, "Well, let it be. You're going to take my backpack, then, so I can strap more ammunition and guns to myself."

After putting on a hat and protective glasses, Cider walked towards his armory. He took his old Vz.61 along with seven spare magazines and put it into a holster. After that, he moved towards his old AKM.

"Hello there, nice to see you again," he thought, and took it along with a warbelt. Inside its pouches were lying twelve spare RPK magazines. As all this equipment was considerably heavy, Cider didn't use it very often. But with Rainbow Dash carrying his backpack, he could afford it.

"Uhm, Cider?" suddenly, Rainbow Dash spoke up.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Don't you think that my color is... Um, a bit standing out?"

"Fuck me..." the man also realised, what she meant. Her bright colorful body was an easy target. "Wait, I'll bring you something."

Cider quickly got to the table near the couch, where all his clothes were lying. He took an old trench coat and a bit rusty grey cap.

"Take this. Old clothing, but it will keep you a bit more safe."

"Ugh, gross... Well, still better than nothing," Rainbow Dash replied, while taking the provided clothing. Meanwhile, Cider looked at his wristwatch.

"Four-thirty. Let's roll out."

The pair was quickly moving through empty streets of Tarkov towards the sawmill. Approximately at 6:15, the industrial zone was replaced by forest. As it happened, Cider and Rainbow Dash stepped from the road and kept themselves covered by grass and trees.

"Alright, if my calculations are correct, we'll be at sawmill in about... Twenty minutes," the man said after checking the map.

"Ugh... That's too long! Can we make a break? My wings hurt under this trench coat of yours!" Rainbow dash complained.

"Fine. You can have a break for a couple of minutes," Cider replied with a slight disappointment.

After recieving an agreement, Rainbow Dash immidiately took off the backpack and the trench coat. As she freed her wings, she immidiately flexed them with a cracking sound.

"O-o-oh yeah... That feels good!" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes in enjoyment. "Hey, and there's also no sign of a yesterday wound! Thanks again, Cider."

"No problem... With that," he replied, while looking at a stretching pegasus. "Damn, she's hot..." he thought to himself.

Yes, Rainbow Dash looked gorgeous. Her sports outfit revealed much of her body. And how all these muscles were flexing and rolling under her skin... The man even became jealous, that he wasn't that fit. "Well, surviving ration can't really help a muscle growth..." the man thought.

But, the timer in his writwatch has gone off, showing that the pause was over. As Cider turned it off, Rainbow Dash was already in a trench coat and with a backpack.

"We had our time. Come on, let's go," she said, and the pair contunued their way towards the sawmill.

In a fifteen minutes, the pair reached the main gate. The sawmill itself wasn't very big -- everything could be seen just from the gate. A few abandoned lumber trucks, a few buildings here and there... However, one thing was standing out -- a massive satellite antennae, placed on one of the rooftops.

"Uh-huh. So the rumor turned out to be not a rumor," Cider smiled, but immidiately became serious, "however, no time to celebrate. That facility was owned by Terra Group. That means that we can face USEC as guards or Bear as they might want something to extract from here. Also, there can be marauders. So be careful. Understood?"

"Understood," Rainbow Dash nodded.

"Good. Now, let's see where the wiring from this antennae goes."

As Cider stood on guard to open fire at anyone, who tries to interrupt them, Rainbow Dash climbed on a rooftop using an outside ladder, and tried to figure out, where the wiring would lead them.

"Let's see... Hey, there's two types of wires," she said, "one of them is really big and marked black, and another one is orange with a writing on it, which says "optical". What does that mean?"

"Probably, we need an optical cable. Where does it lead?" Cider asked, while Rainbow Dash jumped on a ground.

"It leads into the woods over there," Rainbow Dash pointed a finger in a direction of a cable, "and I can see that the wire is buried. Not enough to hide it under our feet, but enough so noone could see it from a bird's height."

"They were hiding it from satellites, but making it easy to maintain... They surely had a control over this place," the man said, while tracing the bump on a ground, that meant a cable location. "Alright, let's go."

After about ten minutes of walking, the pair left the sawmill and headed into the woods, following the cable. The path wasn't rough like in a regular forest, and that was something.

"Hey, Dash. How are your wings? Everything's fine?" Cider asked.

"Yeah. And why do you ask?"

"Because before the sawmill you were complaining. That means, that this path is not so rough. Someone was using it a lot," the man explained.

"Yeah, you have a point there..." Rainbow Dash replied. "Anyway, how this facility must look like? I mean, I don't think that there will be a skyscraper in a middle of a forest."

"According to satellite maps, there are no big buildings in this area. So I think that there will be a small house or a bunker... Like this one," Cider smiled and pointed a finger.

"What do you... Oh, that's a good timing!" Rainbow Dash released a laugh, when she saw, what the man was pointing at.

A really small entrance, made of concrete and steel, was growing from the ground like a pyramid. And it had a massive steel door, that was slightly open.

"Someone left the door open? That's strange," the man said, while walking towards the door. As he pulled it, he met no resistance or even a squeak of rusty metal.

"Oiled door in a middle of nowhere? That's convinient," the pegasus said in a worried tone.

"Not convinient. Because that means that someone can be inside. So we go very quietly. And always be on guard."

Cider took out his forehead flashlight, and strapped it to his hat. After checking the power, he slowly got inside. Rainbow Dash followed behind.

The bunker, in fact, was very small. It had only three rooms. The first one was an armory, with nothing left in it, and the second one was filled with gas masks and individual food rations.

"Outdated, outdated, outdated... Oh, these two are still good. Hey, Rainbow, take these two boxes and throw them into a backpack."

"Will do!" Rainbow Dash replied, while taking a backpack from her shoulders. While she was re-packing it, Cider went to the last door. It was almost the same as the one, that lead into the bunker. However, there was one strange detail in it.

"Zoomers. That's not good."

"What do you mean?" Rainbow Dash asked, as she got to her companion.

"It's connected to an alarm. And we can't tell, where it is. And as we found out, this bunker is still in use... Damn it." As the man swore, he started thinking.

"So, what should we do now?"

"Hm, let me think... Alright, here's the plan," after a few minutesof thinking, Cider said, "this facility must be important, if it's still in use. So they will not use frag or HE grenades. Most probably, pepper gas or smoke. Let's see these gas masks."

As the pair got into the room with gas masks, the man investigated it. "Old GP-7V masks. Let's hope that this will fit on your face."

After a few minutes of struggle, Cider managed to fit the mask and the filter on a Rainbow's face. She tried to complain, but the man explained, that it's better, than nothing.

"Alright, here's the plan. We quickly go inside, search the proper transmitter and a battery, and run away from this place. If baddies come here before we can leave, we ambush them. Understood?" Cider asked Rainbow Dash before putting a mask on himself. After recieving a nod, he took a door's handle. "Three, two, one... GO!"

After a command, he pulled the door with all his might, while Rainbow Dash ran inside. Cider heard a small zooming sound, which meant that the zoomer was triggered. As he ran inside after Rainbow Dash, he saw that this room was much bigger than the previous two.

"Alright... Transmitter and a battery. Let's find them," he thought, while searching with his eyes for equipment.

The room itself looked like a communication center. It was filled with computers, monitors and control pads. And in all this mess he had to find everything he needed...

Minutes were passing slowly, while Rainbow Dash and Cider were searching for the transmitter. Or, better to say, Cider was searching, and Rainbow Dash was following him.

"Anyway... How this transmitter and battery look like?" Rainbow Dash asked with a voice, muffled by the gas mask.

"Basically, both look like a metal or plastic boxes. The transmitter must be bigger and have a lot of handles and levers, also a tangent indicator. The power battery should be a bit smaller, and have two metal contacts. And yes, you shouldn't touch them -- that will hurt a lot," Cider replied, while searching inside one of the chests.

"Hey, what's that?" suddenly, Rainbow Dash spoke up. As the man looked, where she pointed her finger, he was confused. He got closer to investigate the thing, and that let him speechless.

The thing looked like a big backpack. But instead of having a cargo compartment, it had a metal box with a small LED screen, and a little control panel. On its right side, it had a long metal stick, that was facing upwards. The box itself and the straps were painted in TAN color.

"Dash, you are a genius. This is a RS-2000 transmitter. No need to fuck with metal boxes and break your spine, huh..." Cider spoke, while checking that transmitter was operational. As everything seemed good, the man smiled while strapping the transmitter to himself. "Alright, we've got it, time to roll out."

"Not so fast, dude! Do you hear?" Cider heard a worried voice of a pegasus. As he listened, he heard that someone was going down the bunker.

"Shit, they're here! Hide!" the man whispered, and turned off the flashlight, while running to the door and standing at its side. As veins in his head were pumping, he heard some voices behind the door.

"Supply room is clear," the first voice said.

"Armory is clear," the second one emerged.

"Looks like that intruder is in control room. Voozya, cover our backs. Derill, you go first, your weapon is more compact," the third voice commanded.

"Sure thing, Nolan," the second voice spoke, and loud footsteps emerged, as they were coming towards the last door. As they stopped, Cider heard loud clicking, and after a few seconds, a smoke grenade flew through a hole between the door and the wall.

"Thank anyone that I took these masks," Cider thought, while taking out his "Škorpion" from a holster and changing it into full-auto. As the room was filled with smoke, the sound of footsteps emerged again.

"We know that you're here! Let us pass and you'll be spared!" the guy named Derill spoke.

"Oh no, you fucking mercenary shit," Cider thought to himself, while aiming the door, "your beloved USEC has caused this hell on Earth, and now I will rip your guts out."

As the man sat on his knees to be more stealthy, he saw how the rifle's muzzle was slowly emerging through the entrance. After the muzzle, came the barrel, the magazine, the merc's hand... Seconds were passing by, like being glued.

"Come on, show me your face..." Cider thought, while aiming the door. He was scared to his knees, but at the same time, he was concentrated to his maximum. His feet hurt, as he was sitting in uncomfortable position, but at the same time he couldn't move, as it would make too much noise.

Suddenly, after a loud "bang", the door shut open and the first merc almost literally flew into the room and opened fire from his assault rifle in Cider's direction. Howewer, he aimed much higher, as he expected the man to stand, and not to sit on a floor. Right after that, Cider opened fire from his "Škorpion", and after a few shots, one of the bullets hit the first mercenary in his head.

"Derill is down! Voozya, cover me, I go in! SMG fire, 10 o'clock, behind that door!" Cider heard Nolan's voice, while changing from his Vz.61 to the AKM, as he didn't have much time to reload.

"Grenade!" the merc named Voozya shouted, and Cider heard a click of a safety lever.

"DASH, TAKE COVER!" the man shouted, and jumped behind a steel container, that was lying near the wall. As he did so, he covered his ears and opened his mouth, to reduce the impact of a blast wave.

But, that didn't help much. As the grenade blew up, Cider thought that his brain was kicked by a heavy military boot. His vision became blurry, and all sounds in the world were replaced by an awful noise of a broken TV signal.

"Dash... Are you okay? Dash!" he shouted, while trying to get out from his cover. He saw one of the mercs going inside the room. Cider immidiately aimed his AKM and went full-auto into intruder. However, the merc managed to hide behind one of control pads.

"KOGDA ZJE TI SDOHNESH, YOB TVOYU MAT', BLYAT'?!" Cider shouted, sending hot plumbum towards the merc's cover. However, he forgot about one thing...

The man recieved a great punch at his head. From a great burst of pain, Cider lost his balance and fell on the bunker's concrete floor. His vision went red, and he almost lost his consciousness. As he recieved a few more painful punches, he realised that he forgot about the third USEC operator, that didn't come with the second one.

"Hey, Nolan, there's someone else!" the man heard a muffled voice.

"Who is it?"

"I don't know, looks like-UGH!"

Cider heard a loud punching sound, as the body of a second merc went flying into a wall, crushing the bunker's furniture. After a couple of seconds, the merc named Nolan fell on a ground, too, being unconscious. Then, something has lifted a wounded Cider.

"Hey, are you alright?" a Rainbow's face emerged in front of the man's eyes.

"Could... Khe-khe... Be better..." he replied, while taking off a gas mask.

"At least you are conscious, unlike these baddies!" the pegasus smiled, "Can you walk?"

"Yes. Alright, pick their weapons and ammo, khe-khe... We're heading back, until reinforcements arrive."

The road back to the skyscraper was tough. From time to time Cider almost lost his consciousness, and Rainbow Dash was carrying a lot of loot from the fallen mercenaries. So, the pair came to their base only at 17:45. They were tired, but happy.

"Woo-e-e-e! Dash, you've saved my life back there! How did you kick them so hard, that one of them even flew into a wall?" Cider asked with excitement, while closing the entrance door.

"Years of cloudkicking, and being so fit, ha-ha!" she replied with a laugh.

"No, seriously, thank you! Without you, my cold body would lie in that bunker..."

"Oh come on, that's what friends do -- save each other!" as Rainbow Dash took off her gear, she immidiately hugged her companion.

"Aw, shucks... You make me blush," Cider replied, being embaressed.

"Why? Don't you like being hugged?" the pegasus laughed.

"It's not that... It's just... Well, you can fly, you are good-looking, you can get rid of two armed-to-teeth men... I'm a bit jealous, to be honest."

"Hey, pal, I'll tell you what," Rainbow Dash turned Cider so he would face her, "you've saved me twice. Without having awesome wings or cool abilities. First, when you found me. And second, when I acted stupid and got myself in a middle of a gunfight. So you are already better than most of folks around, and maybe better than some ponies. And what about good looks... I promise, when we get out from this city, we'll build a very nice body of yours, I promise."

"Heh, thanks, I guess..." the man replied, blushing. "Ehem, but anyway, let's sort out our loot."

And the loot was great -- they took two M4A1 Mk. 18 carbines, equipped with EOTECH sights, and one AUG assault rifle. What about a sidearm weaponry, all three mercs had Glock 18 automatic pistols with extended magazines. And of course, a lot of magazines.

"Huh, now we have enough firepower to equip a whole squad..." Cider admitted, while taking a reserve warbelt and a holster. "Let's equip all this stuff. After that, we'll get to the radio."

Hours were passing by, while Cider and Rainbow Dash were equipping their gear. While the pegasus was loading magazines, the man was counting and sorting cartridges.

"Alrighty, Dash, here's the thing. Most probably, when we'll head to the port, I won't be able to carry all the guns on myself. Wouldn't you mind, if you carry a few of them?" Cider suddenly asked.

"If you say so. What do you want me to carry?"

"Makarov and the sawn-off double-barrel. They are hanging over there," the man pointed at the farther side of the wall. As Rainbow Dash finished with magazines, she got up and walked towards them.

"That double-barrel looks pretty," she stated, "I like the ornament."

"Yeah, it's sort of a family stuff. Still, I don't think of it like it's something special, as it's just an instrument of survival," Cider sighed, while packing another box of spare ammo.

Rainbow Dash took the shotgun in her hands and started to investigate it. Yes, it looked gorgeous -- polished, with silver-coated ornament. But there was one thing, that attracted her the most.

"Hey, Cider! There's a writing, but I can't tell what it means! Do you know anything about that?"

"It says "Chkalov". He was my best friend, so I named a gun after him," the man replied with a sigh.

"And... What happened to him?"

"He died. His "Grach" was shot down during one of the bombing runs in Chechnya. He was fighting terrorists and died like a hero."

"Oh. Sorry about asking," Rainbow Dash immidiately apologized.

"Ah, don't mention it. These times passed long ago."

"You know what? I think that I will be a personal keeper of this gun," the pegasus replied, "so it will make it through with us. Sounds good?"

"If you want to. But don't get yourself glued to it. It's only a thing, not a living person. A thing can't work on its own, no matter how good it looks or how fat its barrel is," Cider laughed, "however, many people believe that all these things have a soul. Pretty stupid, right?"

"Yeah, totally..." Rainbow was unsure, what she should say, but after a few seconds of thinking, she decided to get past it. "Hey, have you finished yet?"

"Yup. Let's have ourselves something to eat. Bring these two rations that you've picked up in the bunker. Tomorrow, we'll try to make contact with the military."