Fallout Equestria: Broken Oaths

A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria

Chapter 3: Band of hate

By Fallen Sentinel

“Wake up! The world's falling apart, and you don’t get to play the nice guy anymore.”

I shivered as I slowly woke up, surprised at how cold it had gotten overnight. I’d expected the irradiated, desert-like wasteland to be sweltering hot all the time, but I was starting to learn that things out here could swing to either extreme. Blinking the sleep from my eyes I glanced around the room. Siren was still asleep on the bed, making me a little relieved she hadn’t escaped on my watch. But only a moment later my relief vanished, as I saw Ark sitting in front of the terminal. “How did you get in here?” I asked, stunned. I was sure I’d locked the door!

Arkangel pointed at a nearby window, wide open to the elements. I facehoofed in embarrassment: I hadn’t once considered that last night, and if Ark had gotten in Siren would have gotten out easily. “Gunrunner’s giving us twenty minutes before we leave,” said Ark matter-of-factly, standing and trotting to the door. “I suggest you eat something before we go.” He unlocked the door and left without another word, his armored hoofsteps clunking down the stairwell audible even through the door.

I sighed and got to my hooves, stretching to try and get a knot out of my back from sleeping awkwardly. Something about Ark’s appearance had bugged me, so I went over to the terminal and unlocked it. All of the messages that had been there last night were gone.

I nervously glanced at the door before checking on my Pipbuck, making sure the files were still safe there. I was sure Ark had deleted the first set, but he didn’t seem to know I’d already made a copy...and maybe it should stay that way, for the time being. So with one final check on Siren to make sure she was still asleep, I shut the window and headed downstairs to see what was going on.

Gunrunner was busy with his scrap pile, organizing everything for easier transit and tossing it into a few saddlebags. Ark was sitting at the table in the dining room, staring off into space, scowling at something unseen. He did at least notice me enter the room and pushed a saddlebag across the table at me. “Here,” he muttered, “already portioned it out. Give half to Siren.” I glanced inside to find something like bread and water stashed inside. I looked back up at Ark, who had propped his head up on a hoof and resumed his scowling at the ether.

“Alright, what is it now?” I asked. After yesterday, and a poor night’s sleep, the cool, brooding bad boy routine was beginning to run its course. I was starting to get ticked off by it.

“You mean at the moment? Or overall?”

I smirked a little, trying to lighten my tone and lift some of the dread out of the room. Like it or not, I was out here with Ark, so maybe I needed to give him a little more credit than I was currently giving him. “Let’s start with right now,” I said with a shrug.

Ark looked at me for a second, before he turned his eyes away and stared out the window next to me. “We’re headed the wrong way, Rock Point is north from here. This detour’s going to add another day to our trip, at least.”

I opened my mouth to say something in response, but Ark didn’t look in the mood for it. He seemed almost bored, and that nothing I said was going to improve that. So I shut my jaw again and grabbed the saddlebag before exiting the room, leaving Ark to stare into the wasteland to his heart’s content. I instead focused on getting some food into myself and our prisoner.

Siren had woken up by the time I got upstairs, and rolled over to face me. Her forelegs were still tied, something she was struggling a little to work with as I pulled her blindfold off and met her gaze. “Wonderful,” she sighed. “It wasn’t a dream after all, getting dragged off by a cybernetic nutcase and his featherbrained lackey.” She was staring daggers at me, but I couldn’t help but think that tension was running high here as much as it was with Ark.

“I brought you some food at least,” I said, a joking grin on my muzzle as I gestured towards the saddlebag. I noticed Siren’s expression soften at those words, her front hooves pressing down on her stomach. I could faintly hear it rumbling as she glanced away from me, looking a little embarrassed. “Here,” I reached into the bag and gave her one of the bread bites.

Siren glanced at the bread for a moment as she held it carefully in her bound hooves, looking almost like she was trying to determine if it was actually food or not. “You know, I still have to have you executed when we get back,” she said, before dropping her food off the side of the bed. I sighed in annoyance and moved away from her, sitting back by the door and opening my Pipbuck again. I started to try and eat my portion, but the taste was near unbearable. The only good thing I could say about it was that it was very filling for how little I had to eat. I tried to distract myself from the taste with another message from the list.

Message sent
Doc said they don’t know yet and honestly, I want it to be a surprise.
Not sure if you know but there's been a lot of zebras back in town talking of joining up in the Equestrian military. I don’t know how to feel about them. Sure they want to help, but I keep getting this feeling that they might try to sabotage us. If you see any zebras fighting with you, please be careful around them.

A strained grunting sound pulled my attention from the message, and looking up I saw Siren straining to reach the bread she’d intentionally dropped from the bedside. She glanced over at me and looked expectantly between me and the food. I shook my head at her. “I’m not your butler here, sorry.” Siren sighed before sliding off the bedside, moving carefully to not fall over with only three points of balance, as she grabbed the bread in her teeth and hopped back on the bedside, gagging. “Yeah, I know,” I sighed, raising what was left of my own portion. “This junk tastes terrible. Maybe the water will help wash it down?” I offered. She looked at me quizzically for a second, but I didn’t let it linger and went back to my Pipbuck, forcing myself to finish my half.

Message Received
Well at least we got a foal coming. That’s good enough for me.
As for the zebras, I think they’re doing fine. Sure, it’s a bit hard to tell between them and enemy, but they’ve been changing appearances to make it easier for us. We still haven’t been deployed yet, although I’m hearing that many groups are getting rushed training. Don’t know what for. At least everyone seems like they want to come out of this alive, a lot of prisoners are being exchanged whenever battles end.
Things are getting more intense out here, but I should be alright. I can’t wait for this whole thing to be over.

I glanced back up at Siren, who was eating rather noisily for an overseer: I’d expected a little more class out of a mare of her status. She glanced up at me with her portion finished. “I don’t suppose you have another one?” she asked. I shook my head. “Oh...well, there must be some more downstairs. Do you think you could get me another one?”

“I’m still not your butler,” I replied, a little less jovial this time.

“Oh, well what if I said ‘please?’” she asked.

I sighed. “Still no.”

Siren stared at me pleadingly, raising her hooves up to her chin and squirming slightly to press them together. “Pretty please?”

I wanted to keep arguing with her, hold my ground and prove I wasn’t going to roll over anymore, but at the same time I did want to at least improve how the two of us interacted. “Alright, fine,” I said, trying not to sound too exasperated. “But keep this in mind later, alright?”

Siren only nodded as I pulled myself up and headed back downstairs. A quick glance in the kitchen found Arkangel packing near 200-year old foods into saddlebags. “What are you even doing?” I muttered.

“Relax, it’s non-perishable,” he replied, “and I already tested it, radiation’s at safe levels.” I simply stood there staring at him, unsure of how to best describe how I didn’t think ‘non perishable’ ment ‘still edible after 200 years!” By the time I got my thoughts back, Arkangel had finished his packing. “Oh, right. Siren was asking for another one of those bread things you gave us.”

Ark only burst out laughing in response. “She absolutely did not, she hates those things.” He slid the saddlebag across the table at me. “So,smart guy, what do you think she really wanted you to come down here for?” I apparently took too long staring in confusion for Ark’s liking, because a moment later he answered for me. “She’ll have locked that door, tried to get herself untied and fly out the window to freedom. She might have some issues with step two of that plan…” The sound of something hitting the floor above us interrupted Ark for only a moment. “And step three, really,” Ark added with a smirk, as realization dawned on me.

I turned and ran up the stairs as fast as my hooves could carry me, reaching the door and moving to slam it open. But the door didn’t budge: it was locked, just like Ark had figured. “Siren, what are you doing?” I called, frantically pushing at the door and trying to get it open.

“Stay back!” she shouted, “Stay out of here! I’m not going to sit around and let you idiots drag me further out into this hell!”

By now both Ark and Gunrunner had heard the commotion and met at the upstairs landing. Ark stepped closer to the doorframe and whispered “step back” to me. I did, letting him line up with his back legs to the door. “Siren, I’m giving you to the count of three before I break this door down!” he said loudly. There was no reply from Siren, not until another thud emanated from the door itself this time. “You know that’s not going to work!” Ark called, but Siren remained silent. “One...two…”

Silence hung in the air for a moment as nopony moved, before Ark slammed his hind legs into the door, blasting it off its hinges and sending it skidding across the bedroom floor. The bed Siren had somehow propped against the door fell to the side as Ark’s buck cleared the path. Inside Siren was sitting in the far corner, desperately tugging at the knots binding her wings. She’d wriggled free of the binds I’d put around her forelegs, I could still see them knotted nearby, but she’d made no progress getting her wings free. She glanced up at us, shocked, before she locked eyes with Ark. He moved towards the center of the room, Siren staring him down fiercely as she got up and moved to meet him. They kept glaring at each other for nearly a minute, before Siren’s expression melted.

“Of all the overseers, why did you have to pick me…” she whimpered, lowering her head and banging it against Arkangel’s armored neck.

I thought for sure Ark was going to snap at her, but to my surprise his voice became very gentle as he raised a hoof to stroke her mane. “I don’t know,” he said. “Just remembered you told me you hated living in the stable. I panicked, I don’t know…” Siren didn’t respond for a moment, making Ark smirk. “What, you prefer if I’d have gone to get Redwood instead?”

Siren responded to that at least, yanking her head back in disgust and glaring at Arkangel. “Redwood, Redwood, Redwood!” she snapped, “always mentioning her whenever I’m having an issue.” I blinked in shock, as Siren suddenly sounded furious. I hadn’t expected that kind of response, especially since I didn’t recognize the name at all. “Redwood this, Redwood that. ‘Oh Siren you should come to the atrium, Redwood and I had so much fun! You should have seen her flying today!’”

Arkangel looked back at Siren, actually taking half a step back away from her as her blind rage built. He shot a glance over at Gunrunner and myself. “Er...give us a minute, alright?” he asked, looking very nervous all of a sudden.

I could hear Gunrunner turn and start to head out of the room, but after a second of me not moving I felt Gun yank at my tail. “Oh come on,” I muttered, “I’m dying to know more about Ark and Siren.” I turned back to see an unamused Gun staring back at me through half-lidded eyes. I sighed, but turned to follow him out, closing the door behind me.

I sat downstairs staring at my Pipbuck, watching the clock keep counting away. It had been thirty minutes since Siren had started her outburst, and judging from the muffled yelling we could hear through the floorboards she was still at it. I didn’t know how much longer she would go on like this, all I knew was how much I wanted to be listening in on the conversation. Nothing was clear through the floorboards, but every time I tried to leave to head upstairs Gun intercepted me and pulled me back down. I’d eventually given up and settled at the kitchen table, going back to more of the saved messages.

Message sent
This war is taking a turn for the worse, the frontlines are starting to pick up more heat. I’ve heard the fighting is no longer about trying to keep casualties low, Special forces are starting to be used to inflict casualties now instead of disrupting supply lines.

I made my first kill yesterday, he got in close tackled me to the ground. My ammo bearer shindig jumped at him knocking him over, when I gun back I turned around in time to watch that stripe snap his neck. I screamed as my machine gun tore chunks out of the bastard. I’m feeling myself slip, they’re gonna transfer me to the second battalion much closer to home.

I just want this war to end

“How much longer you think those two are gonna be?” Gunrunner asked, pointing absently at the ceiling. I shrugged in response, straining to listen. It sounded like Siren had finally stopped yelling, and I thought I could hear Ark’s voice in whatever response he was giving. But the words were too muddled to make out, so I didn’t listen for much longer and tried to let silence fall again. Gunrunner decided to keep talking though. “What’s it like?”

“Hmm?” I asked. “What’s what like?”

“Living in a Stable,” Gun said. “Living all safe and sound, while the rest of us out here gotta kill each other just to breathe another second.” It seemed like Gunrunner was getting agitated, and I could guess why.

“Well, it wasn’t really my choice to be born down there,” I started, “but it’s really not at all bad. Not until I was nearly executed for what I chose to work on,” I said jokingly, making Gun smirk as he kept listening. “Well my vault was a little different than just trying to be a shelter. We had a special job given to us by the Enclave, they…”

Gunrunner’s eyes widened immediately. “Enclave?!” he shouted, before whipping his gun out and pointing it straight at me. I gasped and backed up a step, shaking.

“W-w-w-what’s wrong with that?” I asked, raising a hoof in an effort to get Gun not to shoot me.

Gunrunner just glared at me for a second, lips curling back to show his teeth still gripping the revolver. “You really don’t know, do you?” he snarled, and I shook my head. He sighed and set the gun down on the table. “What kind of Enclave member are you then…” he muttered, mainly to himself.

“Well I’m not Enclave myself...technically, I guess,” I said, as Gun grimaced at me again. “We were just supposed to design weapons and armor for them, help finish off the zebras.”

Gunrunner laughed harshly at me, shaking his head. “The rest of your Stable believe that garbage?” he asked. I looked at him blankly, apparently only ticking him off further. “Those stuck up featherbrains are never coming back,” he snapped. “They’ve had all the time and tech they need to fix all this, and what do they do with it? Sit around in the clouds, hunt down any pegasus not involved with em and brand em...make em disappear.” His hostility melted away in an instant, suddenly very remorseful. I could guess he knew that last part from personal experience, and overcome with grief I looked away, ears turned down as I bit my lip. “Look,” Gunrunner sighed, “just…don’t bring em up again, ok? The Enclave’s not your friend, no matter what your Stable thinks.” I only nodded back at him, as he grabbed his gun again and holstered it.

I didn’t feel like talking anymore after the Enclave incident, just listening to the vague sound of Siren talking. After a bit she’d stopped yelling and, if I was hearing it correctly, started crying. I was debating going up there to check if Siren was alright. “Ugh...what’s taking them so long?” Gunrunner groaned, tapping his hoof iritably. “We should have been out of here ages ago…” He trotted over to me and set a hoof on my shoulder. “Look, go up there and get them moving, before I put my head through a wall,” he muttered, before moving past me and setting his forehead against the doorframe. I hurried up the stairs before Gun decided to cause serious brain damage to himself...felt like the least I could do after setting off whatever hatred of the Enclave he had built up.

I made it halfway up the stairwell before I realized Ark and Siren were already at the landing. I stepped aside as Siren walked past, sitting down on the couch. “She’s having a lot of issues adjusting to the wasteland,” Ark sighed as he looked at me. I couldn’t tell what color his cyber eye was at that second, but he blinked and looked at me with the red one a moment later as he handed me a small revolver. “Make sure she doesn’t run off. If she tries to, aim for the legs,” he said calmly. “She’s not a confident flier.” Ark then pushed past me as I stored the gun away in my bag. “Mercenary,” Ark called, “we’re ready to go.”

“Finally!”

It was a only a few minutes of walking before my curiosity peaked, and I just had to turn to Siren and talk to her. She seemed to be doing a lot better than back at the house, even still blindfolded and leashed to me she didn’t seem as nervous as I expected. “So…” I said hesitantly, “what was that between you and Ark about? Is everything alright?”

Siren glanced in my direction, missing my eyes slightly thanks to the blindfold but close enough I could tell she was thinking if telling me anything was smart. She stayed quiet for a few moments, listening for Gunrunner and Ark’s hoofsteps before she answered. “Do you trust him?” she whispered to me.

I looked at her, confusion plain on my face, until I realized she couldn’t see that. “Erm...what do you mean?” I asked.

“Arkangel. Do you trust him? Has he even bothered telling you where we’re going, what he’s doing? Do you even know if he wants you alive or not?” She bit her lip for a moment. “Does he even care about us?”

I couldn’t help but smile slyly at that. “When you say ‘us,’ you mean you and I?” She nodded. “Well I know he didn’t try to get me killed by robot firing squad yesterday. Twice. So I trust him a bit more than you, especially after you lied to me this morning to try and escape.”

Siren scoffed at me. “You’d have done the same thing if you were in my position,” she muttered, looking away.

I let silence hang for a moment before I risked another question. “So who is this Redwood exactly?”

Siren lashed out with one of her hind legs, kicking in my general direction. She missed by a mile, though I still jumped to the side to avoid getting hit. The conversation clearly wasn’t going to go anywhere useful, so I dropped it and spent the rest of the trip staring at the rock formations around us. Suddenly, the harsh wasteland seemed like the most inviting thing around me.

It was hour’s before we arrived at Gunrunner’s place, and the sky was already darkening in the late afternoon sun bleeding through the clouds. We were headed towards a bunker nearby, something I assumed was leftover from the war. Gunrunner had clearly made himself at home here though, as the door was well maintained and sturdy after all these years, even if there were piles of loose scrap littered about the entrance.

Gun was first into the place, and I moved Siren to follow him. But as I was about to cross the threshold myself, I glanced back at Ark. He was looking out at the horizon, his helmets blank stare gave no sign of what he was thinking of. “What is it?” I asked.

“Thought I saw something,” he said absently, sweeping his vision across the darkening horizon. He didn’t seem to see anything worth acknowledging, however, and turned back to Gunrunner as he finished getting the door open. We followed him inside, and I took Siren’s blindfold off now that we weren’t surrounded by obvious geographic markers. She seemed relieved to be inside somewhere protected, though she seemed to be the only one of us like that. I couldn’t read what was on Ark’s mind, but I was preoccupied with the design of the place. It didn’t look like any kind of Stable I’d ever seen.

As Gunrunner started to unload the scrap still attached to Ark, bouncing like an excited little filly at his new haul, I decided to wander deeper inside and take a look around. I could tell a lot of the stuff around me were trophies from Gun’s past trips: an assortment of creature heads stuffed and mounted on the walls, weapons of different designs, though what really caught my eye was a set of nearly pristine power armour. I’d never seen anything like this exactly, it wasn’t any Enclave model I knew, but it still seemed like an Equestrian design.

Siren, still tied to my hoof, saw my interest and spoke up. “T-51 power armor.” I glanced at her as she dug through a desk drawer. “Steel Rangers used those in the war,” she smiled. “Developed by the Ministry of Wartime Technology, meant to be a mobile artillery. Unfortunately,” she shrugged, as she started to walk an arc around me, “they weren’t as invincible as thought. Best we can figure, a company called Ironshod Firearms created an anti-machine rifle that could punch straight through the self-repairing armor.”

I recognized the type of gun, and looked again at the armor. It was hard to imagine that kind or rifle being fired at something small as a pony, the enormous recoil likely to bowl somepony over unless they had an appropriately strong battle saddle. “I think it’s a bit funny,” Siren said, suddenly much closer than I’d realized. She was still smiling, but something looked a tad off. “An invincible iron pony, but all it takes is one shot from one gun and you’re toast.” She was uncomfortably close now, her muzzle almost touching mine. I was just about to step back and give myself some room, when I felt something tense against my leg. “You think you have an advantage,” she sneered, “but it really leads to your loss.” At that she leapt backwards, grabbing her leash and yanking hard on it, pulling it closer to her.

The rope snapped against my legs and pulled me off my hooves, tossing me on my side and pressing all four hooves together. I cursed myself mentally, for failing to spot her setting this up, and for giving her a longer leash to begin with. I didn’t have time to snap for long, however, as Siren leapt at me, a knife in her teeth that she pressed right to my throat. She glared at me, hissing through her teeth “you should have just left me alone in the room…now stay quiet!”

At that she pulled herself back and started to cut at the rope binding her wings. She hadn’t started by cutting her leash off, we were still attached. I tried to glance around inconspicuously, looking for anything that might help. The ropes weren’t too tight around my hooves, I could probably get out easily enough, but she was armed and I wasn’t, no time to grab my gun from my bag before she noticed me moving. There wasn’t anything in easy reach for me to use, but I had a different idea and slowly moved a hoof to grab the leash firmly. Siren was almost through getting her first wing undone, I’d need to be exactly right in this timing…

The rope compressing Siren’s left wing snapped and her feathers unfurled, a look of relief spreading across Siren’s face. Her jaw slacked just a little, the moment I’d been waiting for. I grabbed the leash as hard as I could and pulled hard. She jerked towards me, shocked, halfway dropping the knife as I forced myself upright and lunged for it. Our muzzles met as I snatched the knife from her teeth, before I hurled it away from both of us, yanking my other foreleg free of the wrap. Siren hadn’t yet recovered from the shock when I lunged at her, knocking her over and pinning her down on her back. She yelled and started to fight against me, but I was stronger than her and I had her pinned. She gave up and just glared at me again, making me roll my eyes. “Not fair,” she muttered.

“Well you should be grateful,” I replied. “Arkangel told me what I should do if you try escaping again.” She looked at me worriedly, and I almost thought it was better to not let her know what I had been told to do. But it seemed too cruel to leave her in the dark. “You get too far away from me, and I’d have to shoot you through the hoof. Or the wing, if I had to.” She looked at me, shocked, but disbelieving, until I pulled the pistol out of my bag and showed her. She stopped fidgeting altogether then, and as I stepped away from her she stayed frozen stiff, staring back at me with fearful eyes. I might have gone too far…

I didn’t have too long to worry however, as I heard armored hoofsteps coming closer to us. I glanced over as Arkangel turned the corner and moved closer to us. “The merc has something for you,” he said, looking rather bored as he indicated me. He then looked between Siren and I for a moment. “She try to escape?” I only nodded in silence. “Good job,” was all he said, before turning to walk off.

“Hey Ark…” I said, before I could stop myself. for the briefest of moments I thought about bringing the subject up again. “About you ans Siren...”

Ark looked back at me for a split second, he stared at me for what felt like too long. He seemed about ready to answer, but I glanced at Siren to see her response, and when I looked back at Ark he still hid behind his helmet. “That’s nothing you need to know,” he said coldly, before jerking his head towards the hallway. “Just go. I’ll watch Siren.” His voice was dangerously low, and I didn’t think it a smart idea to argue with him right now. I hurried across to the exit, watching Arkangel as he kept his gaze fixed on Siren the entire way.

I was halfway down the hallway when I heard somepony talking behind me. I thought about turning around to listen, but at that exact moment Gunrunner appeared, smiling. “Hey, there you are! Come on, I got something for ya.”

I sighed, but followed him back towards the bunker’s main entrance. Gun dragged out an old trunk, and cracked it open as I came closer. “So I didn’t even know you were a pegasus til Ark told me, your coat’s doing you no favors out here.” I raised a hoof and tugged at the neckline of my labcoat, a little embarrassed I was still wearing this thing so long after I’d left the Stable it came from. “So here, take it as payment for helping with the scrap.” Gun pushed the case over to me, with an old black and grey outfit. “It’s not in great shape, won’t do much good against bullets or anything sharp, but it’s better protection than what you got.

I nodded and started to change outfits, taking note of the design as I did so. It was clearly meant for some kind of combat, the aged kevlar on the chest and stomach to protect a flying pegasus from ground attacks. “It’s an old retriever uniform,” Gun explained, “before the Enclave outfitted em with power armor. Real ancient.”

“Well, at least it fits well,” I replied with a weak smile, surprised at just how well it did fit. My wings had a good chance to stretch finally, perfectly slotted into the outfit’s design, and the rest of the uniform was flexible and comfortable on its own.

“Guys, head’s up,” came Ark’s voice from somewhere nearby. Gun and I both turned to face the sound as Ark hurried outside. We followed him, Gunrunner taking one of his rifles and staring down the scope of his rifle, towards where Arkangel had pointed almost immediately. “You see that?”

“Yeah, seems like it’s getting close,” Gun replied, eye to his scope. “What is it, some kind of robot?” I shivered at the thought: was it from the Stable? Had it really found us here already?

“Storm, go check on Siren,” Ark ordered me. “Don’t let her use this to get away.” I turned to head off looking for her, but as I left I heard Ark talking to Gunrunner. “Thing’s been dancing on my EFS for the last hour, at least, but I don’t know why it’s not attacking.”

I wanted to ask Ark why he hadn’t warned us earlier, but Gunrunner came closer with something that looked like a cobbled-together battle saddle. He tossed it to me. “Something else I borrowed from the Retrievers.”

I caught it and inspected the two weapons on it, some kind of laser pistol on one side, while the other was a ballistic rifle. I started to put it on, my days in security coming back to me as I remembered how to wear it, and I’d just gotten it on when I made it back to the room I’d last seen Siren in. She was gone.

I spun around at the sound of movement behind me and spotted Siren trying to sneak towards me, knife in her teeth. She glared at me, but I pointed both my guns at her hooves and she dropped the knife without question. She’d managed to cut her wings free and removed her leash, but she’s lost her advantage.

I gestured back towards the center of the room, and Siren begrudgingly obeyed, sitting down far from anything around her as I located the ropes she’d cut free. I knew I needed to tie her up again, but my security training had left me knowing how to use hoofcuffs, and clearly my rope skills weren’t up to par. She smirked slyly at me as I fumbled a bit with the rope, surely thinking the same thing. I didn’t think she’d be smiling for long if I decided to use the duct tape I’d spotted in the corner, something I was trying to avoid using since I knew getting it out of fur was a hassle.

“So, what exactly are you gonna do?” Siren asked me, a haughty grin on her face. That cinched it, and with an irate sigh I grabbed the nearby tape roll. Her smile vanished instantly. “Er...no reason to use that,” she stammered, “why not use something else? The cables there, like you did in the stable,” she pointed a little to my left. I’d completely glossed over those.

“Yeah, I could,” I shrugged, “but a few minutes ago you did try to slice my neck open.” I raised the tape in a wing, making her wince. “I’d call this even.”

An explosion sounded from somewhere outside, distracting me for a second. Siren tried to take advantage and leapt at me, but I was stronger and forced her back down, pinning her to the ground. She looked pitiable for just a moment, and I sighed. “Look, just work with me here and I won’t use the tape, deal?”

Siren glanced worriedly at the roll of tape I still was lifting with a wing, before shutting her eyes and sighing. I picked myself up off her as she held her forelegs together, not moving as I grabbed the nearby cable. I moved to tie her back legs like I’d done before, working much quicker since I had practice at this one. I tried using the ropes to mimic the bindings Gunrunner had put on her before, but I didn’t know for sure if they would work at all even as I tried to yank at them. Finally, I moved onto her forelegs, which she still hadn’t moved despite struggling a little with her other restraints. She glanced at me, almost as though she were daring me to tie them. “Wait...no, I don’t think so,” I lowered my eyebrows at her. “Hooves behind your back.”

Siren sighed, but I gently pushed her until she rolled onto her stomach, hooves behind her where I could find some way to bind them there.

More explosions had passed since I started tying Siren up, making me nervous that something was going wrong. I hurried towards the door to catch up, only for Gunrunner to come bursting through it, heading straight for his power armor. “Heh, not bad,” he said to me, glancing at Siren. She was still looking at me a little bemused, but I couldn’t tell if she was thinking of something or just trying to unnerve me. “Might want to add a blindfold though.”

I looked up at Gunrunner in confusion as he hurriedly started to work with the armor, I assumed trying to hop into it, as I tried to figure out what he meant. But a glance around the room made me realize what he meant: there was a lot of scrap laying around Siren could have used to cut herself free, even with her hooves behind her. But if she couldn’t see any of it…

I quickly took my old lab coat and tore a strip from the base, tying it sternly over Siren’s eyes. Her smile had faded by now, but I was worried she already had an escape plan in mind. I couldn’t obsess over it now, as Gunrunner tromped back across the room in his heavy armor. “That thing’s getting closer, hurry up,” he called, running surprisingly fast for a pegasus in armor so heavy there was no chance he was going to be flying anywhere. I followed him towards the bunker’s entrance, where Ark was huddled in a corner, clutching his wing and watching it intently.

After a second of staring, I realized why. It looked like his wing had been almost entirely severed, messily by a hail of bullets. But after only a few seconds I saw the meat of his body knitting itself back together, the armor following suit. I’d heard that armor had self-repairing talismans to provide better longevity in a firefight, but I didn’t think the same went for their operators! “Ark, what’s happening to your wing?” I asked, before I could stifle the question and worry.

“One of my enhancements,” he muttered, teeth gritted but not letting nearly as much pain as I was sure he was in obvious in his speech. “Tells my body to heal quick…” he let go of his wing as the armor took enough of the weight. “It’ll heal fine, but there’s no way I’m using it soon enough to fight that thing.” As if on cue, a blast shot past the bunker door and blew something up not too far from us.

Gunrunner stepped out from cover and leveled his minigun at the target, prompting me to take a peek at the enemy. It was another bot much like the one I’d nearly been killed by back in the Stable, though clad in white armor with the air shimmering around it; I recognized it immediately. A B-series unit with energy shields. The shields were effective only to a certain point, so a minigun like Gunrunner’s might have overloaded the system before it could replenish the shield. However a B-series like that wasn’t going to go down so easily. As the bot locked onto Gun, an electronic voice emanated from all of our Pipbucks, a signal broadcast from the robot. “Steel ranger detected, switching to armor piercing.” Its miniguns spun up to match Gun’s speed. I hoped that Siren was right about the steel ranger armor, because I knew that even if he could break the shield we’d have to dig into the bot’s armor, and Gun only had the one layer of defense…

The two opened fire at the same time, bullets pummeling into targets on both sides. The shielded bot was unharmed, but after only a few seconds Gun’s armor wasn’t looking too good. He dove back into cover seconds later, his armor riddled with holes, many of them oozing blood. “Ark, you got a plan here?” I asked, as Gunrunner cracked open his helmet and downed a purple mixture from a bottle. His wounds stopped bleeding near instantly, but I didn’t have time to marvel at the sight.

“If I could just fly, my tail could tear that armor to pieces,” Arkangel growled, staring at his injured wing. “And with Gun pinned down in that armor...you’re gonna have to do it,” he pointed at me.

I could just stare at him for a second, silent. “You’re giving me your armor?” I asked finally.

“No, of course not,” Arkangel snapped, sounding rather offended. Then with a sigh, he angled the barb of his tail towards one of the last links in it, some kind of liquid dripping from the tip. The tail disintegrated on contact with the liquid, leaving the barbed tip to fall to the ground. I picked it up carefully, holding it as far from the busted metal end as I could. “Go, straight up,” Ark pointed at me. I only nodded and, barb in my teeth, I spread my wings and shot into the air.

I hadn’t flown in open skies like this before, but I didn’t have time to marvel at the sensation of free-flowing air all around me. I could just barely hazard a glance back down at the robot, who had started to track me as I flew. It stopped, however, when Ark shot it in the chest with a laser blast. I knew what I had to do and turned to dive at the robot, angling the barb in my teeth straight at the robot’s head. It was then that my Pipbuck let out another message. “Airborne threat detected. Initiate Skyfire.” I twisted my body and spread my wings wide to halt my decent, flapping wildly to get some height between me and the robot as it launched several small spheres into the air above it. They exploded and coated the air in fire, too dense and dangerous for me to even get near. I’d been lucky to dodge the strike, there was no way I’d manage that again: I had to approach from the ground.

Arkangel had continued firing on the robot, keeping its focus towards the bunker. I dove for the ground not far from the bot’s flank, watching carefully as it kept its focus on Ark. I lunged forward at ground level, barb still aimed right at it’s head, so close to impact. But the last second the bot intentionally sidestepped me and I flew past it, hitting the ground and flipping over myself twice as I came to a stop, dazed. I’d just shaken the dizziness off when I heard a familiar sound: the gatling guns spinning up. “If you’re going to kill me,” I thought, snapping at whatever cruel twist of fate was doing this to me, “pick a new method!”

A pair of golden hooves slamming into the robot’s chassis, saving me from the guns yet again. Arkangel had tackled the bot and was tumbling around attached to it, striking with his hooves and releasing an electric shock on each impact. The robot answered with its daggers, but every blow just glanced off Ark’s armor. It finally changed tactics though and got purchase on Ark, using its hind legs to push him backwards. Ark recovered quickly and charged at the now-damaged bot, but the robot managed to spin and slam both its rear hooves into Ark’s helmet. He collapsed on the ground.

Before the bot could capitalize on its opening, Gunrunner opened fire from somewhere behind me, sending a hail of bullets from his minigun into the damaged frame. The bot charged towards me and I tried to aim a gun to shoot, but I hadn’t gotten off my back from my crash landing and my saddle was useless. However, the robot wasn’t after me; it was after the barb from Ark’s tail. It grabbed it and raced towards Gunrunner, starting to fall apart under the merc’s relentless hail of fire. It wasn’t enough to stop it, but when Gunrunner braced for melee combat the robot leapt up over him, striking at his rear leg with the barb. He flinched as his armor began to spark, the barb slicing cleanly through the armor and drawing blood, giving the robot another opportunity to slash at Gunrunner’s stomach. He collapsed in a heap.

With the other two incapacitated, the robot turned on me. I’d at least gotten myself back upright, and I knew exactly what I had to do. Between Arkangel and Gun the robot’s armor was damaged enough I could probably reach the processor or the spark battery, if I thought it through well enough. I aimed both my guns at it and opened fire. The robot turned and charged at me, closing the distance and giving me a better chance to hit where I needed. I braced just before it slammed into me, the two of us tumbling for a moment before the bot pinned me on the ground. Only then did it notice I’d gotten ahold of my revolver.

One single shot was exactly what I needed; the bullet blasted clean through the robot’s head, and it collapsed on top of me a second later.

I just lay on the ground a few moments, breathing heavily. I knew I had to get up, but my body was shaking, the adrenaline too much for me to cope with. But I was the least injured of the three of us, and I had to check on everypony else. So I forced the robot off of me and hurried over to Gunrunner. He was bleeding severely. I pulled his helmet off, but before I could ask him what I could do he locked eyes and wheezed “potion...saddlebag...now…” His eyes were pleading, though he didn’t need that to convince me to help him. I threw open his saddlebag and started digging, eventually finding another potion like the one he’d drunk earlier. I quickly gave it to him and he threw back his head, drinking greedily until the whole thing was nearly consumed. To my amazement, his wounds stopped bleeding almost instantly.

“What even is that stuff?” I asked.

Gun gasped for air for a second before he responded. “Magic healing potion,” he said weakly, struggling to stand. “Good for most injuries.” As he stood shakily I could get a better look at his armor: it was a wreck, and worse off I couldn’t see it repairing. The bot must have destroyed the repair talisman, but that still seemed impressive. Was that barb really so dangerous? I was sure Gun’s armor could rival that of the stable, of Ark, but…

I quickly turned and hurried towards Ark, but my panic was short-lived. He was already standing back up, staring at the bot I sighed with relief, but followed his gaze to the robot. We were in serious trouble now...what would happen if they sent more of those? Or a C-series instead? We’d barely survived this one.

“We can’t stay here,” said Arkangel, still staring at the robot. “They’ll send more of these, maybe some soldiers too.” Gunrunner was struggling to get his armor off and come closer, leading Ark to look back at him. “You’d better come with us. You’re a target for them now, better than getting picked off on your own.”

Gunrunner glared at Ark for a second, but nodded. “There’s a town not far from here,” he said to me, “maybe we can get you some proper barding there.” With that he turned to limp back to the bunker, hobbled by the still-healing wounds, especially the nasty gash in his haunch where the bot had gone after the talisman. I followed him leaving Ark to stare at the robot as much as he wanted.

I helped Gunrunner walk for a bit as he drank another potion, leaving him at the entrance to go check on Siren. She was still in the same room, but had wiggled to a wall and was sitting up against it. “Who’s there?” she asked, “Stable? Or traitor?” I didn’t answer her, only moved to cut her hooves free. “It’s about time you made it here,” she replied, reaching up to pull her blindfold of, “I didn’t think you’d ever…” She stopped dead when her blindfold fell, and she stared at me. Her expression went from shocked to disbelief. “They seriously didn’t kill you?” I just shook my head, and she sighed in defeat.

“We’re headed for town, you’re still coming with us. Where’d you put that leash?” I asked her. Siren didn’t respond. “Look, I know this is awful for you, but please, just...work with me.” Siren stared at me for several seconds, unblinking, before she finally pointed towards a corner of the room.

A few minutes later we’d gathered in the main entrance again. Ark had gotten the bot inside and rigged it for the recovery team. I didn’t want him to, but he’d claimed it wouldn’t kill anypony, and I didn’t feel up to arguing it. Gunrunner had his things already gathered and was taking time to heal up a bit, after finding Siren a brown cloak to wear. She’d refused to be seen in town without one big enough to obscure pretty much everything about her, save the leash that still led to my hoof. Gun had told us a little about the town we were headed to: it was called Black Pass, a gathering of mercenaries, traders, and slavers, and their regular currency was bottlecaps, of all things. I didn’t bother asking why, it wasn’t worthwhile for me to know.

Arkangel was working pretty well with his non-lethal explosive, wiring it just right so it would go off if somepony tried to access the robot’s memory cores. I’d offered to help, but he’d brushed me off with a simple “I knew a guy”, and apparently he was right. As he finished, he closed the robot’s remaining armour on the device, hiding it from easy view. “Alright, all set to-”

“Leaving so soon?”

All three of us turned our weapons on the robot, but nothing in it moved. It was, however, playing some kind of recording. “I can only assume you defeated this robot, or you would never hear this recording. Arkangel,” the recording said, causing Ark to stiffen. “You’ve managed to deal with this one, but between you and me, this robot was supposed to lose. I’m giving you this chance to come back, and I’m even willing to forgive your companions. You have two days to return to the Stable. Consider your options carefully: you know what will happen if you don’t.” The robot clicked, and fell silent.

Nopony moved for a few moments, nopony made a sound. Finally Gunrunner got his voice back. “Well that wasn’t ominous or anything,” he sighed. Then, with a much more level tone, he asked “what happens after two days?”

“Terminators,” Ark said, staring blankly at the robot. Both Gun and I shared a confused glance, before Ark turned to face us, “Veterans of the great war.”

Author's Note

Footnote: Level up

New Perk: Sniper --- 25% more likely to hit the target's head in S.A.T.S.

(thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story)

Project starter: Fantastic Storm
Story writer: Arkangel
Editor: Midnight Storm
Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024
Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex, TBRAZ56