War, war never changes. For the last a hundred and ninety years we have lived with the price of war in Equestria. When Princess Luna and her ministries took control we were promised a swift and total victory over the Ceaser and the Zebra nation. But in truth the war became bloodier and more costly. So that in the last days of the war the Ministries were getting ready to unleash their ultimate weapons on their foes. Applejack with her Steel rangers would dominate the field of battle, while Twilight would create Alicorns which could overwhelm any Zebra magic. And so the Caesar unleashed his final solution to the Equestrian problem. His pink cloud turned Canterlot into poisoned city which offered nothing but a fate worse than death to any foalish enough to enter. And the Balefire bombs sought to wipe all pony kind off the map of Equestria and leave nothing but a irradiated wasteland.
And as time went on the wasteland proved that the only way ponies could hope to survive was to wage war on every pony else in a desperate struggle for the most petty of resources. It was because of these struggles that we start our story on a cold night outside of Arbu, where our main stallion is starting on his journey.
The lights from Arbu were the only proof that some ponies were still awake at this late hour. With a click of the eyes forward sparkle he magnified onto the gates of the old mall to reveal a group of stallions huddled around a lantern, where their card game was in full swing. With a final click the magnifier was switched off and armoured clad pony rose to his hooves. "It appears I have the night to myself, good. It means I can get going then." and with that he pulled his dusty cloak over his armour and made his way to the floor below and out into the empty street. The remains of Buckland had long since been scavenged clean for anything of value and now they was nothing but dead reminders of the world before the war. But for the Ranger, this was ideal as It meant no pony would know of his movements. He brought up his map onto the visor and looked at his destination which glowed on the screen with the name Buckland Ferry Pier. It wasn't far now and he would reach his rendezvous with the ferry pony and his way to freedom.
As he slowly moved closer to the water's edge the fog began to roll in and gave the streets a ghostly presence. It gave him a cold shudder through his flanks as he made his way onto the old pier. It had clearly seen better days as the old wood creaked and groaned under his hooves and along the side of the pier lay the rusty remains of the ferry. It had sunk at the pier side and lay at a sharp angle, with only the bridge and top deck still visible above the water. He moved pass not giving the old ferry a second glance. It was his ferry that he was more concerned about right now. It was a small craft tied at the end of the pier which he was concerned about right now and the young unicorn mare which was sitting beside it taking a long drag of a cigarette. She rose to her hooves as he approached and gave him a long look. "So you're the stallion who wanted to get to Manehatten in the middle of the night huh? Didn't expect you to be a Steel ranger. You lot usually have your own arrangements."
"Is this going to be a problem for you?" He said flatly as he glanced down at the mare who was starting to shake in her hooves.
"No..No! No problem. I just wasn't expecting to see a ranger. That's all." She turned and hopped into the craft and with a glow of her horn the old engine spluttered into life. "We should get going. C'mon and get in the back." Gently he stepped into the boat which leaned to the side as his full weight touched the deck. He sat himself down as the mare went to the wheel and pushed the throttle gently forward and the boat moved off into the dense fog.
Soon they were on their own with only the muffled pop pop pop of the old spark engine making any kind of noise. The ferry mare took a long drag of her cigarette and looked back to the armour clad pony. "Have you been hearing the news from DJ-pon3 lately? Apparently some stallion has taken over Fillydelfia and has started buying slaves but the hundreds. Some say he made a pact with those alicorns and used them to clear out the raiders." she gave a laugh "Heck, I'd wouldn't want to meet one of those things. They just aint natural."
The stallion gave only a low grunt of recognition and went straight back to staring out into the fog bank, leaving the mare feeling awkward. Then with a crackle and a pop the engine fell silent and the boat came to a sluggish stop in the water.
The mare once again looked back at her passenger. "Aww..shoot that darn spark battery has died! Hey ranger, grab a spare from that locker and replace the dud. I need to keep her steady." Quietly the ranger rose to his hooves and opened the locker with the battery. He pulled it out and opened the panel on the engine. But his scanner gave him cause to be concern. It said the battery was only half full.
"Hey! There is nothing wrong with your....argh!" As he went to stand he was hit by multiple scarlet blasts which struck him right in his chest and side. His EFS flashed multiple warnings saying his forward armour was damaged and his spell matrix was near to overload. He fell back onto his haunches and looked straight into the muzzle of a laser rifle being levitated by the ferry mare.
"Now you're just gonna sit there like a murderer you are and wait for your ranger friends to come pick you up. Try anything and I will put you down for good."
"You are a fool! The rangers want me dead not alive! That bounty is for my head, not all of me!" With that he stood up and moved towards the trembling mare, who took a step back and pointed the muzzle of the rifle at his head. "You really think I am going to believe that coming from you, Vector the butcher of Trottingham who murdered his own team in cold blood!"
"I did not murder them!" He snarled through his helmet. The mare simply tightened her magical grip and turned her head as a bright floodlight pierce through the fog to illuminate the small boat.
"we're over here" she yelled at the top of her voice. Slowly a large grey vessel loomed out the fog and came to a quick halt. From the top of the deck came the shape of several Rangers clad in their familiar armour and a voice boomed out to the small boat. "Do you have the murderer in your custody?"
"Yes! He's right here." She shouted with a nervous tone. Suddenly thin beam of red light cut through the fog and marked the deck.
"Thank you." The voice said. "BLAST THEM!" With those words a pair of missiles roared from the turret on the bow and streaked towards the boat. In a instant Vector leapt up and ran for the gunwale. As he leapt for his life the boat disappeared in fire and the blast hit him like a ton of bricks and a lancing pain was split through his side. He hit the water with a heavy thump and plunged beneath the waves. His suits buoyancy talisman kicked in and his head broke the surface. He looked back to the boat and all he could see was the burning fragments on the water. The Rangers vessel was illuminated by the fires and he could clearly see two normal ranger stallions and a mare with armour engraved with gold filigree and her crest was that of a Elder knight.
"Is there any sign of him?" The mare asked.
"No elder Iron Tail. He's clearly been terminated!" A stallion answered in a smug tone. Clearly pleased with his own work.
But Irontail didn't sound impressed. "Unless we find his body, he is not dead! He cannot be allowed to live after what he did!"
"Elder. We have a survivor!" The second stallion called out, as he pointed into the water. "The ferry mare is still alive!"
Vector could just make out the Mare. Her mane and horn were gone and she was badly burned all over.
"Please...help me." she weakly begged. A shot rang out and her body jerked back into the water and her EFS tagged blinked out.
"There are no survivors!" Irontail said in her cold tone. "We know he's trying to reach Manehatten. Take the ship to the dockyard and set up a cordon. He cannot escape from us." With that she turned and went inside.
The boat started to growl to life and move off. Quickly Vector fired his magnetic grapple from his rifle and latched onto the hull. The line became taught and jerked him along with the ship. His EFS was telling him that his wound was serious and that he was also taking in a unhealthy level of radiation from the Hoofton river. The looming shapes of sunken ships came into sight with the dockyards old cranes and ruined buildings. When the bailfire bomb killed the city of Manehatten the ships tied up alongside had been melted and disfigured by the heat of the fire. and now they lay as nothing but reminders of the past. Vector released his grapple and let the boat continue on deeper into the docks. He weakly swam his way up onto the deck of a old tramp steamer and pulled himself onto his hooves. The pain from him impalement mixed with the radiation he soaked up made his legs feel like lead and he quickly collapsed into the old bridge of the steamer to rest.
Then he felt a nasty feeling coming up from the pit of his stomach. "Oh no!" He quickly grasped his helmet in his hooves and pulled it free just in time as vomited a mixture of blood and stomach bile. He finally sat up and ran a hoof through his brown and red mane and rubbed his eyes. "Urgh! This could have gone a lot better." As he lay down he looked at the piece of shrapnel protruding from his side. There was no way he could remove it without making himself bleed out. If he used any of his Healing potions it would make it much worse by closing around the metal and he couldn't turn on the amours repair matrix with the metal sticking out.
Any way he looked at it....He was in trouble. He selected his last rad-away and watched the counter start to drop into the green. And finally he put in a double dose of Med-x into the dispenser and with a hiss he felt a wave of relief flow through his body. His pain in his side fell to a dull ache and his strength returned. "okay new plan, get the hell out of this dock and find a medic." He pulled his helmet back on and made a sweep of the dockside. Thankfully his EFS was showing no red bars near him. Stepping down the gang plank he took in the layout of the dockyard, from its burnt brick building to the melted and twisted cranes which now stood silent in their place. He passed by an old abandoned warehouse when his Radio started to crackle.
"What the? That's Ministry level transmitter frequency." He adjusted his sensors which a few clicks of his controls and he had the frequency pop up in the corner of the screen. It pointed further along the docks towards to a squat two story brick building. He moved closer and saw that the old building sat next to a dry-dock which held a old ship with two single gun turrets on the bow and stern, the mid section was covered in a tattering of tarpaulin hiding most of the superstructure. But on the deck he made out a tattered life ring with the faded golden letters HMS M33. Vector gave a slight chuckle.
"It wasn't even good enough to get a proper name."
He moved on towards the brick building standing after so many years and surviving a bailfire bomb with only mild damage and a lot of burning to the outside. The roof had partially collapsed at one end and taken the corner of the building into the dry-dock with it. At the other end of the building was a large bay window which had long since lost its glass but still jutted out from the brickwork.
Vector looked around for a way in and finally found a old pair of wooden doors which had the sign "Dock Number 3 Logistics " with a six pointed star with a S sitting in the middle. With a gentle push of his hoof the door creaked open and showed a dust filled gloom of the ground floor. With a click his headlamp flashed to life and showed the open space of the ground floor. The area was filled with rusted steel plates, machinery and dusty wooden crates. Clearly no pony had been in here for a long time. Vector moved past a stack of shells, gentle kicking up the dust from the ground and found a flight of stairs leading up to the second floor. The next floor opened up onto another open space which had a large number of cubicles each with its own terminal and desk. He searched through a few of the desks and found himself a few bottlecaps and a book on the importance of diplomacy. His EFS was pointing to a short hallway at the back of the room. It had offices either side and at the end was once faded red door. He brushed the plaque on the door. "Commander Seaspray. Head of the Manehatten naval dockyards and Mare of the garter." Vector looked back to the door and tried the handle but it refused to budge. "Damm it!" he grumbled. He knew this was going to hurt, but he turned around and gave the door a double buck right against the lock. A lace of pain shot right through his body and he fell to the floor wincing. But the lock was now in a hundred pieces on the floor and the office was open. He hauled himself back onto his hooves and moved inside.
The room was surprisingly well kept for all its years exposed to the wasteland, the floor had a burgundy carpet which had a thick layer of dust. On one side there were wooden panelled filling cabinets with a large model of the HMS Celestia on the top. The other side had the bay windows which looked out over the drydock and the surrounding dock. But in front of Vector was a large desk which had the terminal which according to his EFS was the source of the Signal. He moved around the desk and saw the remains of a unicorn mare lying slumped in the chair. The top of the skull was missing and a pristine long black pistol lay in the lap. It was long and square, It had a mahogany mouthpiece and tongue trigger and on one side is was inscribed with silver letters which read "Luna's will".
"This is a masterpiece!" He said to himself as he turned the pistol in his hooves. The gun metal body had no signs of rust and the slide moved like silk. With a faint grin he put it gently into his saddle bag. And now he turned his attention to the terminal, it was encrypted, Of course it was encrypted! Since when did anypony leave a terminal unlocked. Especially a Ministry level Signal which was not the kind of thing you let any pony get there hooves on. But luckily Vector was no average pony. Steel rangers was all experts in pre apocalypse technology and its application. With a click a small part of his right hoof lifted like a lever and revealed a double socket, which he nimbly plugged into the side of the terminal and pulled his hoof back letting the cable play out. His EFS was flooded with computer code and his built in spell matrix and onboard systems went to work cracking the pass code.
"Jeez this password is tough" He was watching his screen as it slowly got closer to the answer. Then finally a little smiley face sprang up with the words success underneath. The password was "In peace prepare for war"Huh odd choice."
He opened the main screen and saw the source of the signal. It simply read "Legacy paradigm". With a click he opened it and a soft mares voice filled his ears.
"This is Commander Seaspray, reporting to the O.I.A Canterlot branch. I have failed in my orders to get the Legacy paradigm out of Manehatten. The vessel is far from ready and the materials have failed to be delivered, but we have reports of a massive missile attacks all over Equestria and my staff have fled the docks. I can't get hold of Goldenblood in Hoofington and the enclave are not responding to my requests for a Raptor to retrieve the materials. What the fuck is going on out there! I was told that Legacy was vital for the survival of Equestria and I'm now in a freaking communication blackout.
Anyway if you are receiving this, Legacy was in storage in stable 31 before the news of the missile attacks and the stable door code is attached to this message. They should be safe inside the stable until these missile attacks die down and.." A deathly boom filled the transmission along with a burst of static. " Oh Fuck! Oh Fuck, they've done it! Those fucking Zebra's have hit Manehatten, I can see the balefire from here!" There was a sudden woosh of air and a deathly rumble and the sounds of explosions "This is the end.... This is the end of Equestria." He then heard the sound of a pistol cocking with a sharp click. "I've failed. May Luna forgive me." BANG!
Vector moved back from the screen and looked back at the remains of Seaspray. "The legacy paradigm?" Suddenly there was a flash of red bars filling his EFS and he heard the voice of Irontail down below. "We've picked up a life sign in there! You three search the building and kill any pony you find!" Then he heard one of the stallions with Irontail shout out.
"let him eat two of these!" Vector heard the woosh of a pair of missiles and bolted away from the desk. The missiles hit with a deafening explosion which ripped the office to shreds, ripping the desk into splinters and filling the place with fire and smoke. Then with a groan the building began to shake and Vector watched the office and the adjacent rooms begin to move away from him till with a thundering crash the bricks and mortar collapsed and fall away into the dry dock below. The dust cleared to reveal a steep bank of debris gliding down with burning wood and furniture tangled in the wreckage.
"You fool!" roared Irontail. " Do you want to bring every ghoul down on us!" She spun around and kicked the stallion square in the chest, making him loose his balance and slip over the edge of the dry dock. He screamed as he fell and there was a dull thud and crack as his neck snapped from the impact. Irontail had a interesting perspective when it came to discipline in her ranks.
Vector moved back into the open office area and saw glowing lights come from the stairwell on the opposite of the room. He dove for a cubicle as the rangers drew nearer. He stayed huddled down as the voices grew louder and louder.
"Irontail, said to sweep all of this floor!" A gruf mares voice spoke and Vector picked up three red dots on the EFS.
"Cool your flank Blackberry Tart." A stallion spoke out. "He's probably been blown back to Trottingham by that explosion."
"Just do as you are told Hotshot! Stay here and give me and Sherbet lemon cover as we search!" Two of the dots moved away as the third, which must be Hotshot stood guard. Vector waited as the metal hooves grew slowly nearer. He knew staying put in the cubical was going to be suicide, so he crept closer and closer to the edge. The hooves we getting nearer and Vector got ready. He injected the second of his last two Med-X and felt his pain slowly die away to a dull burn. The hoof passed the door and he leapt into action.
With all his strength he threw himself at the mare and with a mighty crash she broke through into the adjacent cubical breaking through filling cabinets and the computer. Whilst she was stunned Vector whirled around and pointed his last spark grenade at Hotshot.
"Oh you son of a Bi.." The grenade hit him with a shower of blue sparks which made him twitch and convulse and finally collapse to the floor. He then heard a noise which he didn't want to hear. The other mare spun up her twin mini-guns with a horrifying whir and Vector ran for the cover of the hallway again. The room filled with the roar of hundreds of red hot bullets began cutting a line through the cubicles and getting close to Vector. A filing cabinet burst into flames as Vector passed it pelting his armour tiny fragments of shrapnel. At full speed and he heard the pings and ricochets and bullets started to dig into his armoured tail. He was almost thrown off balance as he made for the cover of the hall.
Or so he thought. The bullets tore through the wall and continued to follow him and now the mare he had stunned was on her feet and turning her rocket pod on him.
"Oh shit!" He had no choice but to dive for the rubble.
"Eat this you fucker!"
A whoosh came from behind him and a office erupted in flames and debris. He galloped fast and stumbled as the ground disappeared beneath him and he was falling! He rolled down the slope smashing through a timber beam with a shower of splinters. He rolled again and saw the bottom of the dry dock coming into his view. A ranger below him looked in horror at the second avalanche of bricks and rubble came his way. With a scream he dissapeared and Vector soon followed catching a glance of Irontail standing there with her two guards, then a spluttering of bullets as they tried to hit him. He finally hit the bottom of the dock and rolled in the dirty salty mud and slammed into a stack of timbers.
He felt as if he had just gone two rounds with a Mirelurk and lost, his EFS was flashing warnings of multiple injuries all across his body. He ducked down for cover from the rangers above him as splinters few out in all directions from their attempts at shooting him. BUt another sound gave him cause for concern. The dock entrance gave a groaning sound like a wounded animal. The steel gates had been damaged by the collapsing rubble and with two hundred years of rust they could barley hold back the water for much longer.
Irontail and her two companions were on top of the gate waiting for him to try and move from his cover behind the timbers. He looked around desperately for anything which could be of some use to him but all he could see was long rusted pieces of steel and the tools of the ponies who were once busy building the boat. And then he heard a metallic voice from above shout out.
"You two hold your fire! He's mine"
As Vector looked around he saw Irontail jump from the top of the gate and hit the dock floor with a thundering crash. The actuators in the suit took out the impact and in a flash she went on the attack. She flipped her body to send her armoured tail smashing trough Vectors hiding place and knocking him backwards into the slime covered floor. But before he could even recover her fore-hooves came down on his helmet making it ring like a bell and stunning Vector.
"Scum like you make me sick!" Her tail swung again, this time hitting Vector in the side and causing his helmet to come free from his head and making him to slide across the floor and crash into the pile of brick he came down. His brown and red mane was mottled with blood which trickled down his scar on his right cheek. Before he knew it Irontail had reared up with her fore hooves ready to bring them down onto his exposed head and finish this poor excuse of a duel. What could he do? she was amazingly fast for somepony wearing armour and his injuries were slowing him down. Slowing down? That's it!
He activated his STATS just in time as Irontail's hooves were just barely a foot from his head. He looked around as saw the crushed remains of the ranger's rocket pod protruding from the rubble and without hesitation he rolled and grabbed it and pointed it strait at the damaged dock gate and pushed the fire button.
The pod broke free of its corpse and pushed him back just in time to miss Irontail's killing blow and causing her to vanish in a cloud of smoke. The rocket on the other hand hit the dock gate and erupted in an explosion which sent the rangers on top to fall off their hooves and away from the gates which were shuddering, popping rivets and spraying water in every direction. Then in one movement the gates disappeared in a wall of muddy green water which ate up everything which stood in it way. The ship lurched off its bed and was thrown against the back wall with a resounding crash and a crushing of metal. Vector was carried by the water to the base of the stairs and he wasted no time clambering up them and out onto the dock and making a hobbled run to a dark alleyway. From the dry-dock behind him he could hear the shout of the rangers.
"Holy shit! You two, get down here and help the commander! A metalic mares voice shouted.
There she is! Quick get her out!" A wheezing a choking Irontail pulled herself up the stairs and was finally helped by one of the others. With a voice filled with pure rage she shouted. "VECTOR! WHERE EVER YOU GO I SWEAR YOU SHALL BE HUNTED UNTIL YOU PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES!"
With that he slowly slipped away into the shadows and made his way to the dockyard gates and Manehatten. Back at the now flooded dry dock the Ship was sunken and bubbling beneath the filthy water. inside Irontail's squad had gathered in and were taking stock of their skirmish.
"We've lost Shamrock and Ten-cense in the dry dock ma'am and Hot shot's armour has been fried by the spark grenade. And I'm afraid we were pushed back by ghouls when we tried to pursue the traitor"
Irontail placed her hooves on her helmet and gave a slight twist, with a ripple of clicks the helmet came free giving a hiss from the mouthpiece and revealing a cropped but striped mane and her dark grey striped which adorned her face. Her voice had the slightest hint of the zebra accent but her words were firm and to the point.
"Contact Buckland cross and have them come and retrieve Hot shot and the bodies, I want every ranger in the city scanning for the fugitive! He won't get far."
He teal eyes were staring at the top of the stairs where a trail of blood led into the shadows.
"He's dying"
..............................................
Vector found shuffled along the scotched road from the dockyard and finally gave into the fatigue and pain he was feeling. The shard of metal in his side was making him bleed slowly and was not helped by the fight he had just been in. He found a Red Scooter wagon stop and found a empty room to lie down in. He inspected the wound and didn't like what he saw in the dim light. The area around the shard was a deep purple and it was bleeding slowly. If he needed a doctor but he was square out of luck in that department as Tenpony tower was days away to the north west and Junktown had no medic pony the last time he was there.
He knew what had to be done.
He prepared his healing potion and manoeuvred his head down to his side.
"This is going to hurt"
In one movement he bit down on the shard and pulled with all his strength. He roared in pain as every nerve in his body screamed in agony. He administered the potion and his last med-x and felt the skin start to pull itself back together and the pain slowly start to return to its normal ache.
"Never...Again" he thought to himself before falling into a restless sleep.
Fallout Equestria:Legacy
Chapter 2: Magic in many forms
Trottingham Ranger fortress
The hall was busy with ponies in robes moving up and down talking about their day, discussing the latest reports coming outside the wall and even who was dating who. But In this case it was Vector walking with a mare dressed in the same dark burgundy robes of the knights as himself. Her Cream coloured mane had a purple streak running through and was cropped short but it kept its curls on her head and back of her neck.
Her collar had two bars showing her to be a six year veteran of the knights and she stood a head shorter of Vector by her side. His collar had four bars and a star along with golden piping on the seam of his robe and the scar on his right cheek gave his face a mirk of a smile. He continued to smile as he continued their conversation.
"I truly can't see what is making you cross with me Cheese?"
Raspberry Cheesecake clearly was unimpressed with the name as it made her scrunch up her muzzle in distaste and she refuse to even look at him.
"Why am I upset? You know full well that this meeting is just a farce to the other elders and you and Elder Paladin Celery stalk have already agreed to send Us out on this mission!
Vector looked kindly down at her.
"He ask for my council, Cheese. And I suggested that my team was the best option"
Raspberry snorted.
"Suggested my flank! You're like a son to him and you asked him, knowing full well he would not refuse!"
That one hit home but he expression stiffened
"These attacks have already cost the Ranger five ponies Raspberry. We need to put this incident down before it spreads and costs us everything we've worked for over the last eight years."
He cantered forward and looked down at her hard.
"Our team is the best suited and best trained for this kind of mission. We've done long recon before and produced results and I know that we'll look after each other."
Raspberry was just as stern as him and her teal eyes didn't blink once.
"Yes we are the best! But we are a team Vector, not just us but the whole Trottingham Chapter! If we keep taking all the hard missions how will the other squads every improve? You can't protect everypony Vector. You have to let ponies make mistakes in order to learn."
The stallion sighed.
"You're right. Of course. I can't protect everyone but It won't stop me from trying. It's not in me to quit Rasberry."
Her eyes softened and she finally gave him a smile.
"I know. But Hotshot and the others were looking forward to some R&R and they won't thank you when you cancel on them."
He simply grinned back.
"So Hotshot is still dating Gidget? Wow, he really is a sucker for punishment."
Suddenly another voice broke into their conversation.
"Maybe you two should compare notes Vector." The voice was sickly smooth and made both Vector and Raspberry cringe with distaste as the silver coated stallion in robes stood in front of them Smirking.
"Elder knight Silver tongue" Vector nodded.
"Elder knight Vector. And the lovely knight Raspberry Cheesecake. A pleasure as always to see you. I'm sorry if I am unable to stand here and chat, but the elders have called an emergency meeting and I do hate to be late. Even if I already know the reason."
Vector had hated this stallion every since he had joined the Rangers. He had a way of talking his way through any situation and had greased his way to Elder knight in a short space of time.
"Then don't let us get in your way."
He smirked again.
"oh believe me you won't" With that he turned away and moved into the Control centre.
"I really hate that pony." Vector said in a low tone.
The control centre was one of the largest buildings in the fortress with a huge map in the middle showing Trottingham and the land surrounding the walled city. The rest of the room was filled with consoles, screens and wires hanging from the ceiling and everywhere ponies were hard at work. By the table stood three elderly ponies dressed in fine purple robes each decorated with honours and medals. These were the High paladins who lead had the Trottingham chapter for nearly forty years and had each seen their fair share of battles.
Each of them had started as a Squire and worked their way up the ranks to the highest position possible. And Elder Paladin Mustang was a pale sandy coloured stallion with a dark grey mane filled with silver stripes. From his left side he looked like any normal pony until you looked at his right side and saw that he had lost his right eye and had a metallic implant fixed to the side of his face with tubes snaking around the back of his head and a glowing green eye replacing the one lost. He gave Vector a wide smile as he saw him enter and quickly tapped his hoof on the ground.
"Silence please! Let us get this emergency brief underway." The Knights and Scribes fell silent as everyone turned and looked at their leaders.
"Two days ago Golden Oats and her squad were completely wiped out by a Raider gang in the South east sector. They were ambushed by the raiders and lost four Knights in the fight that followed. They fought a fighting retreat until only knight Star shower was left and she was picked up a mile from the city gates, mortally wounded and beyond help. Before she died she told us that the gang was highly organised and heavily armed."
Silver tongue suddenly spoke up in protest.
"How can we trust the testimony. These could be the mad ramblings of a dying mare."
The Elder unicorn mare gave him the sternest of the looks which made Silver tongue slink back to the ranks.
"Because knight Star Shower brought us back proof!" Her horn glowed yellow as she lifted up the chest plate from a piece of power armour. As it thudded to the table everypony saw a hole the size of a bottle cap on the front but the shoulder mount and actuator fixings were torn away and the inside was caked with dried blood.
"My Scribes have analysed the damage and this was caused by a High velocity armour piercing 50 calibre bullet and fired from an anti material rifle. If a raider gang has this kind of firepower then we may have a serious problem on our hands"
This sent a spread of nervous and angry chatter through the ponies in the room. Vector could see that many of them were shaken by the idea of losing eight rangers to one gang. But the Second elderly stallion whose coat was navy blue with a silver mane banged his hood to the ground.
"silence! SILENCE! We have decided that this attack will not be treated lightly. We are going to send another squad to the wipe out this gang once and for all."
A voice from the crowd suddenly piped up.
"Why not send the entire regiment to deal with this? Use everything we have?"
Mustang's voice broke over the chatter.
"It would be folly to send the entire regiment. Not to mention the fact it would leave the city defenceless. No, One squad under the command of a skilled seasoned knight will manage better for this mission."
Silver stepped forward making everypony look in his direction.
"I request that my squad be given this mission. We will wipe them from the face of Equestria and bring back the head of the Raider leader.
Mustang shook his head.
"Thank you but no Silver Tongue. We have already decided that Elder Knight Vector and his squad is better suited for this."
"That is an outrage!" Silver spat in anger at the Elders. "Vector's squad is half the size of mine and.."
"SILENCE ELDER KNIGHT SILVER TONGUE! It's not you place to decide what missions you want! We have chosen Elder Knight Vector and that is final! Meeting adjourned!"
At this, Silver turned and left the room muttering under his breath.
As the ponies went back to work, Mustang trotted up smiled at Vector through his yellowed teeth.
"The others agreed with your proposal Vector. Your team will leave tomorrow morning and deal with this raider problem."
"Thank you sir. I won't let you down"
Mustang laughed. "For Celestia's sake Vector don't call me sir. Also I wanted a private word with you"
With that the two stallions went into a side chamber which was occupied with old computer tapes.
"The Elders didn't want this information being made public, but the day before the attack one of the Scribes in the comms centre picked up a transmission sent from the fortress. It was a load of numbers repeating for two minutes, but after the attack it was analysed and revealed that the numbers were co-ordinates and a time." He moved closer. "The exact time of the first attack."
Vector looked concerned.
"Are you saying that a ranger is responsible for the attack? But why? It makes no sense to kill our own."
Mustang looked stern
"That's why it wasn't made public. We don't want the ponies responsible to know we are onto them. You will go out and find these raiders and interrogate their leader. Find who is doing this and come back to me."
Vector nodded. "I will. You can count on me."
..................................
Slowly Vector came around from his sleep to a throbbing pain coming from his wounded side. He looked down at the wound and saw it had turned a sickly purple colour and now had a rancid smell about it.
"shit!" Was the only word he found appropriate for his current situation. He pulled out one of the Med-x he scavenge last night and injected it via his meds dispenser. A wave of relief spread through his body as the pain ebbed away and allowed his to think more clearly.
" I need to find a medic or else I'm done for" He looked into the distance at the Tenpony tower with its tall radio mast reaching high into the cloud covered sky.
"If I were the Rangers then that would be the first place I'd look for a fugitive like me. Now if I remember correctly there should be a few scavenger settlements in the east district which should be able to help me. " He dragged himself to his hooves which sent a stab of pain into his side and crunched into the wall. "Crap" He shuffled out into the gloom of day and began his path through the blackend and dead streets of Manehatten, littered with the charred wrecks of wagons all holding onto the bones of their former owners. The buildings were all standing tall and silent with nothing alive to make a sound.
It made me feel intolerable lonely as I moved through the rubble and death. The morning, if you could call this a morning carried on for what seem an eternity as I persisted in just putting one hoof in front of the other and pressing slowly into the east side. As I watched my EFS I could see my health was slowing getting worse and radiation bar was still clicking away every few minutes. My power bar was not great either and as with everything else I was all out of Spark cores, thus my legs felt like they were made of lead and every step was a labour. The buildings slowly started to become less grand giving up their shop fronts with somewhat charred stone work for the much more practical brick style of normal houses. Many of them had collapse inwards or burned away when the balefire bomb struck, giving them all the look of a mutilated skeletons.
But whilst he was looking at the scenery, he didn't see the small crater in front of him. The ground fell away beneath his hooves, sending him tumbling into filthy muck in the bottom. He desperately gasped for air as he tried to get back on his hooves, but the exhaustion and pain made is so hard to co-ordinate his movement. His forelegs tried desperately to grip the side by they only dug furrows into the mud, until he caught his leg on a cable and finally pulled himself from the water. Limply he lay on the craters lip, filthy and tired. He was barely able to lift his head to look at his wound, which to his dismay has started to bleed out a reddish pus which gave off a smell that made his nose wrinkle in disgust.
"I think i'm done now." He said pathetically to no pony in particular. The strength he normally had was all but gone. Replaced with a sense of self pity and defeat.
"I this how it ends for me? Dead in a ditch?" He lay there for what seem an eternity until...
.....Boom...
Then another
.....Boom....
Then the familiar sound of cracks and bangs of gunfire.
Vector's ears pricked at the sound and from somewhere he felt a tiny pulse of energy urging him to get up. He planted his rear hoofs and pushed himself upright again. The EFS in his eyes was showing a mixture of blue and red bars only a block away from his location. He knew that somepony out there was in trouble
"Don't be crazy Vector" said the voice in his head "You are in no fit state for helping them."
He started to walk towards the point on his map.
"If you fight them you're going to die! Why save ponies you don't even know!" The voice was screaming at me as I continued to move slowly closer.
"It's better than dying in a ditch" I muttered under my breath.
As he rounded the corner, he was confronted by a wall of rubble formed by two of the flanking buildings having collapsed into the street. Gingerly he climbed up the bank and poked his head over the top. His face was still caked in the mud from the hole which gave him some camouflage.
He saw a pair of wagons in the street filled with boxes and other junk, In the front he could see the remains of a stallion who had been crushed under the falling rubble and under the wagons huddled a group of ponies who were trying to avoid the hail of bullets from the buildings. Maybe two or three of them had what could be called guns and were firing blindly into the air and then Vector looked at the buildings and saw a sight which made his blood boil with rage.
“Raiders! Fucking RAIDERS!” They were all wearing scrap metal armour with jagged spikes giving them a monstrous look. They whooped and hollard from the windows and from the rubble as they fired into the wagons and at the helpless ponies hiding under them. On the second floor the raiders had rifles and shotguns while those on the ground had Pistols in their mouths. One of them charged for the second wagon screaming like a pony possessed and was brought down by a double blast of shotgun fire which turned him into a bloody meaty mash and then Vector saw an Earth pony jump from the wagon brandishing a pair or riot shotguns in a battle saddle.
“This stallion must be their caravan guard” Vector thought to himself. The Stallion made the raiders duck for cover when he blasted shot into the rubble, sending fragments flying in every direction. But then a crack of a rifle finished his attack as blood spurted from his neck and he reared up and fell backwards.
“Now kill these fuckers!” A raider mare screamed loudly! Vector quickly looked into his inventory and saw he had only five shots left in his rifle and two shells.
“This better work.” He stood on the top of the rubble and roared.
“RAIDERS! THIS ENDS NOW!”
The raiders suddenly stopped and stared with a look of shock. There stood a muddy, dirty and shaking pony in clearly damaged power armour and the ragged remains of a cloak sticking to his side.
“WHO THE FUCK IS THIS PIECE OF SHIT” A muscular mare wearing bearding covered in jagged bits of metal and a helmet which seemed to be digging into her skin leaving red trails of blood running down her face. She looked at Vector and spat on the ground.
“I’M THE PONY WHO WILL GIVE ONE CHANCE TO LEAVE WITH YOUR LIVES!”
The raiders laughed “YOU HAVE TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME TO THINK WE’RE SCARED OF YOU! KILL HIM!” They all began to level their rifles in Vector’s direction. But in a flash time stopped as vector dropped into STATS and lined up five shots and executed. The first shot buried itself into the raiders eye and blasted the back of his head into the pony behind him. The Second took a mare in the jaw and blew it away leaving her mouth a red and ragged mess. The Third ricochet off the armour of a stallion and took off his ear making him fall down in pain. The fourth shot missed its target and hit the bricks and the fifth shot shattered a scope sending glass fragments into the eye of the mare in the window. The leader growled with anger.
“YOU FUCKING CUNT!”
“THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!” Vector was shaking more now and was barely able to stand.
“FUCK YOU!” The raiders fired and shots pinged of Vectors armour.
“Fine” He selected the blue shell from his inventory and hit load. His gun on his right side clicked and whirred as the breach at the back opened and the shell loaded. The breach shuts and the turbines on the gun’s barrel began to spin to life and glow blue. Vector then roared.
“Caster shell number 11! Ursa minor spell!” A bright blue burst of energy roared towards the raiders who had looks of horror. Some dropped for cover and waited for the blast to hit them, But nothing happened. They looked up and saw the energy beam had formed into a ball and was hovering in mid-air. One of the raiders laughed mockingly.
“Was that meant to scare us? You piece of Sh…” The Raider exploded into blue ash as a claw reached from the ball of energy and came down with enough force to make the ground shake. Then the ball began to morph into the shape of a giant creature. It growled and roared and finally finished taking the form of a giant bear which towered over the raiders and looked at them with nothing but rage.
A raider panicked and fired his shotgun at the bear and was rewarder by the bullets disintegrating off it hide and the bears claw tore into the building sending him to oblivion. The other raiders panicked and opened fire or tried to run from the monster’s attack. It claws turned them to ashes and brought bricks and rubble crashing everywhere till only the Raider mare was left. She had backed up to a brick pile and was having an expression of fear and insanity. The bear loomed over her and growled.
She screamed loudly and opened up with her shotgun “DIE YOU CUNT!” The bear reared up and brought down both claws and made her explode in a cloud of blue ash leaving only her crumpled amour flattened into the dirt.
Finally the air was quiet once again. One of the ponies who were hiding under the wagon stood up and looked around at the piles of ash and destruction. She then saw the Ursa-minor sitting and looking up to the cloudy sky, it didn’t seem to noticed anything around it and finally it gave a sad groan and began to fade away sending motes of blue sparkles into the air. When it was finally gone it revealed Vector, his head drooping forward and the colour was gone from his mane. His body felt like lead and his strength was entirely gone and his front hoof slipped and he fell forward. He fell like a rag doll, smashing and tumbling down the pile till he hit the ground with a crash. His world began to go black and he thought he could hear a voice saying something, but he couldn’t make it out.
“So this is what death feels like?” With that his world when white and there was nothing…
..................................
Trottingham Ranger fortress
The workshops were filled with the sounds of machines and tools grinding into metal and all around were suits of power armour being worked on. Some suits had been completely stripped down to bare exoskeletons whilst others looked as good as the day they came off the production line. Vector and Raspberry now both wearing deep red skin tight bodysuits walked down the middle still taking and joking when a gruff mares voice broke their conversation.
“Well look at what the RadRoach brought in!” A mare with a pale coat and red scruffy mane stepped up to Vector and grinned. She wore the exo-suit for power armour due to the fact she had no rear legs, lost in a battle long ago and thanks to her technical skills she gave herself new ones. Now she was almost a head higher that Vector and she gave him a light punch on his shoulder.
“It took my Scribes two days to fix your amour. You bring my amour back in that kind of condition again and I’ll beat your ass myself!”
Vector laughed. “Hey don’t blame me if the stuff out there tries to kill me” He smiled as Raspberry and gave her a nudge “I’ll join you and the team in a few minutes” She gave a nod and made her way down the room.
“She’s a lucky mare that one! Having you and your meat keeping her warm at Knight!” Vector went bright red at her comment as she smirked at his reaction.
“Hey that’s personal Ratchet!”
But she only rolled her eyes “Please. Next to keeping the scribes here busy, listening in to the gossip is my next big thing.” She trotted over to a half built suit and inspected the work. “Besides I envy her having you to scratch under her tail” She tapped an actuator on the foreleg and grumbled “Damm thing is shot!” She looked back to Vector “I haven’t had a good scratch since I lost my legs”
Vector went red as she waved her flank in his direction. “With the way you behave I’m surprised at that!” She walked over to him and smiled. “What I’m trying to say you need to be careful out there. For her sake and yours.” Her face softened as she went back to the armour.
“We’ve lost so many ponies recently. It saddens me that for all my skills with these things, I can’t protect the people I care for” She walked back to him and put a hoof on his shoulder
“Which is why I’m telling you to be careful out there. You have many friends here that want to see you lead us vector”
Vector shuffled “I know Ratchet. But at the same time I have I can’t ignore what happening outside these walls. If somepony doesn’t stop these killers, the Chapter could fall. I can’t let that happen. I WON’T let it happen!”
Ratchet shook her head “That attitude will get you killed you know” Then she sighed “All I can do is help you” She put a hoof around him “C’mon. You armour is in the loading bay”
The two walked together to the bay where Vectors team was making ready. Each of their armours was unique to the wearer giving them each an edge in combat. Hotshot and Gidget were vectors close support brandishing Laser Rifles and grenade launcher battle saddles. Two-ton was the heavy of his team with his Gatling laser battle saddle and Whisp was their sniper and carried a long anti-material rifle and rocket launcher. Raspberry was the communication expert and spotter for Whisp. And Vectors armour carried his Assault rifle and Caster gun, giving him a flexible team which was highly trained.
“Listen up! You’ve heard the brief from the Elder. This gang has killed our brothers and sisters and we are going to put a stop to it” He stepped towards his armour which opened up to let him in. his hooves clicked into the feet and the armour started to close. As connectors clicked into place, these pulled the seals tight with a hiss, the rest closed around his body and locked around his neck. With a whir the Spark core came to life and his suit began to move.
“Once this is done I guarantee you’ll get your long overdue R+R. But right now I need your best.”
“Ad victoriam!” they chanted as one.
“Ad victoriam” Vector said proudly as his helmet locked into place. “move out!”
The Squad stepped to the bay door which slowly began to lift and reveal the grim waste which was Trottingham.
