Fallout Equestria: Fallen Fortress
Chapter 6: On The Run
Previous ChapterNext ChapterWhat kind of animal lives on these railroads? Medic thought to himself as he shot another creature. He couldn’t even determine their origin, it was that unusual. Archimedes soared above keeping watch for other attackers, while Bloody Ruby slept on Medic’s back, leaving him rather alone. He was running out of ammo, and even the corpses of the dead slavers didn’t yield anything useful. They had passed a junction about two hours earlier and now they were heading for a tunnel through the surrounding mountain range. A crashed wagon with no wheels blocks the entrance.
Medic puts Ruby down then tries to push the wagon out of the way. No luck. He tried using telekinesis to lift it, and nearly passed out because of the pressure, “*Pant* Never *Pant* tried zat before *Pant* dummkopf! Of course it wouldn’t work!” Medic stood up again and charged the soul spell, “Jour turn Heavy.” Medic’s cutie mark changed to one of Heavy’s sandwiches with a bullet replacing the olive, “Vell… Zat’s a little silly. Oh vell. Let’s try zis now!” Medic tried pushing the wagon out of the way again, now feeling new strength. The wagon started to slide with a groan of metal like it was stuck on something. Medic looks behind the wagon into the cave spotting the harness stuck on a rock. In response, Medic lifts the wagon as carefully as he can to get it detached and moved away from the cave entrance. Slowly, the wagon is lifted onto Medic’s back and tossed out of the way with a loud thud, this wakes Ruby up with a start,
“Thunder!” She shouts and hides beneath Medic as his cutie mark reverts,
“Oh, nein, nein. Zat vas just me moving zis wagon out of ze vay so ve could head through zis cave.” Medic chuckles,
“C-Cave?” Ruby looked at Medic even more spooked,
“Ja? Are jou afraid of ze dark?”
“No, its what hides in the dark! Feral ghouls love darkness, and caves are where major hoards hang out!”
“Oh… Vell ze mountain’s a little too steep to climb so ve vill have to go through… I suggest ve check ze wagons for supplies. I’m nearly out of ammo.” Medic walks over to a wagon marked Four Stars Technology and bucks the door open finding a boat load of preserved paperwork scattered amongst ammo boxes, “Oh! Vell lucky me!” Medic pulls out all the ammo boxes then spots a sheet of paper with a very familiar stamp. SAXTON HALE, it read, “Mann Co? Here?” Medic grabs the sheet and pockets it to look through later before heading back out to find Bloody Ruby attempting to lock pick a box of explosives. Demo’s soul screamed danger with the way the filly was handling the box so Medic held the container steady in a telekinetic grip as she continued to try and unlock it.
Medic focuses, calling upon Spy’s expertise for the lock picking job of the many locked ammo boxes, hoping the filly was distracted enough not to look. Unfortunately, she wasn’t. Ruby gasped just as a click was heard from the explosives box, successfully disguising the noise. Medic mistook the sound of her gasp for one of joy instead if shock and smiled as he began to lock pick the first box. Ruby was startled but managed not to say anything. She decided to ask him later if she had the chance.
Snarls start to come from the tunnel as Medic opens ammo box three of seven. Ruby cringes while Medic smiles, his original cutie mark returning, “I zink zese house guests overstayed zeir velcome.” Medic reloads the shotgun, “Aim for zeir heads. It’ll kill zem quickly.” Ruby is confused due to Medic’s confidence and knowledge on ghouls but decided to save the questions for another time. Medic shoves the last four ammo boxes aside, and Archimedes lands on his head. Medic then turns on the lamp function of his Pip-Buck, “Alvight… Here ve go!” With that, the two ponies ran into the dark tunnel. The sounds of hungry feral ghouls only getting louder.
Medic vaguely wondered when was the last time he had done this. He couldn’t remember all of his fights with the wizard, but he could remember what he fought. He smiled at some pleasant memories, as he shot one zombie above the neck, blowing it off and sending its head into another ghoul, who promptly tore it apart. Ruby stood back as Medic performed an orchestra of undead death, blasting and chopping corpses back to the infernal hell they had crawled out of.
One ghoul managed to get closer to medic then he thought it would. Snarling, it dashed at Medic, but he managed to shoot it in time. He broke it’s deadly charge, killing it in the process, but it still slammed into him, sending him sprawling. Ruby dashed forward, killing the last ghoul, and helping Medic back up. Medic thanked Ruby and they continued to run down the train tunnel, killing ghouls along the way.
As Medic ran he wondered if any of this was real. He wanted to discern if this was the real life or just a fantasy that his mind had conjured up, but no matter which it was there was a high chance he would die and knowing that Medic only had one real goal… Survive.
The two ponies and the robotic bird ran/flew out of the tunnel, shooting and killing the last of the ghouls that were following them. Medic and Ruby then slumped up against a rock, breathing heavily, “Vell… Zat vent vell.” Medic commented after a few minutes, “Ze three of us just defeated hundreds of zombies, exhausted our ammo supplies, und lived to tell ze tale. Und it’s not even Halloween!” Medic laughed for a little bit leaving the poor filly confused. Before she can ask however an apple shaped grenade lands next to the team, “OH SCHEIßE!” Medic shouts as he grabs Ruby and hides behind the rock. The grenade explodes making the team’s ears ring and showering them with shrapnel and dirt. After a bit, Medic peeks over the rocks looking for their attacker
“Didn’t you see the bloody bombs?” A voice Medic knew asks,
“Demoman?” Medic turns around to see a Demoman unicorn clad in purple armor with two eyes, instead of one and an eyepatch, standing not far from him and Ruby. The E.F.S was marking him as hostile and Medic believed it, “Uh, ve can talk zis out, ja?” [Charisma fail.]
“No Doc. I’ll see you in Hell.” He fires a grenade from his grenade launcher and Medic’s instincts kick in charging a shield. The grenade struck the shield and bounced back, “Ah cripe!” The Demo ran to get out of the blast range, but he still managed to get hit and tossed into a pit. Medic stares at the magic shield he had created in shock,
“I-I don’t remember ever making zis zing before!” He cried in joyful surprise. Ruby looked at his flank seeing no change in the mark and she wonders if she had just imagined what had happened before. Medic runs over to the Demo, “So doppelganger of mein friend. Who are jou- AH!” Medic screams when he sees part of the Demo’s skin burned away to reveal metal and wires. Medic takes a step back, “V-vat? A robot? But how!? Vhy!?” Memories were resurfacing, but Medic fought them to stay in the real world. The Demo laughed, its voice now sounding like the machines Medic knew too well,
“I’m what the Engineer calls, a Synth.” The Demo-bot replied. Medic takes a step back in fear as the Demoman ‘Synth’ takes a step forward, “As for why, well the Admin has to get help somehow, and with all of the bots and ruins lying around, Engineer has all the parts he needs to make an army and then some! So enough chatting.” The Demo-bot pulls out a pitiful sword that would cry in shame if it met the real Demo’s cursed sword, “Are ya ready to die Doc?”
Medic, being so close to the Demo-bot, pulled back quickly. He had no wish to die so quickly after his incursion with the Administrator. “Ruby! I need some help!” Ruby dashed out from behind cover and circled the Demo-bot. Medic pulled out his bone saw and charged. Medic ducked as the sword swung, and Ruby jumped onto its back. The Demo-bot, however, was prepared and bucked her off. Medic got up and swung the bone saw into its eye and it got stuck, leaving a long, straight gash across the face, with a bone saw stuck in the middle. Ruby jumped to her feet and pulled out one of the apple shaped grenades she had obtained from the explosives box earlier. She pulled out the pin with her teeth and ran towards the Demo-bot,
“Hey, tin can! I’ve got a present for you!” She called tossing the grenade. Medic jumped out of the way pulling the bone saw with his telekinesis, but the weapon remained stuck. The Demo-bot tried to grab the grenade to throw it back, but because of the yank that Medic did on the bone saw the robot was thrown off balance, causing it to fall over. The grenade landed at the robot’s feet and detonated. With the internal components somewhat exposed, the robot was destroyed by the blast.
Medic’s telekinetic grip fell as the bone saw was lost in the blast. When the smoke faded Medic ran forward trying to find his trusty bone saw. Eventually, Medic finds the remains of the hilt and Medic starts to cry, “Mein most trusted veapon… Gone…” He muttered. Medic checked his pip-buck, just to make sure that when he picked it up, it was truly gone. Medic cried in joy when he found that, instead of showing up ‘Gone’ or ‘Broken’, it just showed 0% on the durability. After all that happened that day, Medic broke down and cried tears of joy, “I can fix zis! I just need ze parts und ze knowledge.”
“I can do that for ya Doc.” A nearby voice stated and Medic screamed, overwhelmed by emotion. He turned to stare at a small, seemingly harmless, red and blue filly, talking with Engineer’s voice, who stood there smiling, “Oh, sorry bout that. I can’t leave the Administrator so I sent out little Gemstone here instead.”
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Level up:
New Perk: Electro Shield: When in moments of dire need or when enough magical energy is charged, you can summon a shield that prevents explosive blows from dealing damage. It can also disable Robots passing through it.
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