Fallout Equestria: Wandering Woes

Chapter 10: Leaving Home
(Rogue)

“Let this be a lesson for you boy; sometimes those closest to you will betray you, and sometimes no matter how easy the mission is... you can still lose everything.” Major Skies’ words to Vision echoed in my ears louder than my racing heart, the warm sticky coating of blood covering the gloves over my hooves, chilling me to my core. The tears flowing down my face obscures my vision and fogs my helmet. How could they think I killed her?

As I start being pulled into the cloud layer by the guards surrounding me, my thoughts fade into what happened on the ground.

The team had just hit the ground and through the radio I could hear Commander Wave saying, “Vision and Stormy, head to the west; me and Rogue will take the east. Spread out, watch each other’s backs, and kill any ponies you see. Most around here have been turned insane, and will very likely try to kill you.” She then nodded at me as we started walking towards the east. It was a simple enough mission; recon and air checks, mostly. We were primarily sent down here in order to check the radiation levels, which Commander Wave was doing as we walked, as well as checking out the fauna and general inhabitants to see if it was hospitable for us.

The next few hours were rather quiet, we walked around, checked a tree, checked the bushes, and kept walking. The endless silence continued as radio silence was in effect; it often was on ground missions, just in case. I had just started to relax as I watched Commander Wave move up slightly to check the radioactivity of an apple hanging from a branch… and then it happened. The sound of that sniper bullet flying through the air and slamming into Commander Wave followed by a constant flow of bullets slamming into her body before she dropped to the ground will haunt me till the end of my days. Without even thinking, I grabbed my assault rifle and immediately started spraying down where the bullets had come from, making sure to conserve ammo while hiding behind the tree next to me. Seconds go by in silence before I step out from behind the tree and start blasting forwards again spraying into the bushes as I near the Commander’s body, my eyes filling up with tears before I blink them away.

Hearing the click of my assault rifle, I realized I had run out of ammo. Shaking my head slightly, I heard hoofbeats crashing to the floor. Turning, I see Vision standing there, looking like a ghost had torn its way through his heart. “I’m so sorry,” I tried to say, but the words choked in my throat before I looked back at the Commander, and then to my still smoking gun. I immediately tossed it to the side. Stormy gave me a cold look, one that shot through my soul before I heard rustling in the bushes behind me, I immediately started dashing towards Vision, but Stormy was faster than me. Good thing too, as I was only about halfway to Vision by the time the bullet shot out from the bushes. Stormy stood up from Vision as blood started leaking onto the ground; it seemed to only be a flesh wound thankfully. As he stood, I looked him in the eyes, and it was at that point I knew.

Even after that bullet was shot, he still believed I killed her.

A door creaks open and I open my eyes with a startle; they burnt softly from the tears I’ve been shedding. I stand up with a shake of my head as I stare forwards, right into those burning eyes of Stormy Skies. I wobble slightly as I feel a burning sensation in my flank, flesh burn wounds making themselves known.

“Why did you kill her?” He stares at me as he walks through the door, slowly closing it as the words leave his mouth.

“What? You heard the gunshot, you saw the wound. Your brother almost got killed too! How can you possibly still think I killed her? She… she was like a mother to me too.” As I finished that sentence, Stormy’s hoof slammed itself into my stomach, all the air in my lungs flew out of me as I started to cough.

“Don’t, you dare say that, Traitor. I know what I saw; my mother’s body was riddled with holes and you probably took her sniper and shot her through her heart yourself. My brother only almost died because you shot at us when we came to find the two of you. Your family would be so disappointed… if they were still alive.” The coldness in his voice and those damned eyes make me so angry, every fiber of my being was screaming to beat him bloody, to turn him into a ruined mess.

But no; that’s what he’s hoping for. He’s hoping to make an example out of me. I know how these interrogations work, I’ve watched more than enough throughout my life. I look up at him before spitting onto his face. “Says the liar. Do what you want to me, but my story will never change. Vision knows what happened, even if you refuse to accept the truth.”

He sighs softly and turns around, wiping the spittle off his cheek before tapping on the door. “So you say, we’ll find out the truth eventually, scum. Normally you would be sent to the world below, forced to live amongst the barbarians and die of that radiation; a slow, painful, excruciating death. But for what you have done to Commander Sun Wave, your penalty is public execution. After you have confessed, or not. If you confess to your crime, however, maybe, just maybe Major Skies will grant you a quick death. Don’t bet on it though.” After that, he shut the door, the resounding bang being the only sound ringing in my head as the darkness closed in on me. With my thoughts I am alone, and the tears start to fall again... why? Why did this happen to me?

A few hours pass in complete darkness, there are no windows in this room to make it so no one can escape. I decided to spend the time walking around the room with my hoof on the wall. It’s a barren room for the most part, the only thing inside of it was the interrogation table. The walls themselves were made out of the usual hardened clouds that we use for almost everything. They may be clouds but they are as firm as stone; even if I did try bashing my way out, I would break more bones than wall. With a sigh, I sat in the middle of the room taking in the silence and turning my thoughts to when Commander Wave died. She was shot through the heart with a sniper rifle’s bullet, although the shot was quickly followed by an assault rifle; that much was clear to me. Having been around Vision for so long, a sniper rifle’s boom is unmistakable. From the speed of the shots and the positioning of the bullet spray, I have to assume it was 2 ponies, likely lying in ambush, although why they didn’t take out both Commander Wave and I is still a mystery to me.

As I continue contemplating who these two mystery ponies are, I hear the slow creak of the door opening. Looking up as the light starts filtering in, I sigh as I prepare for another interrogation from Stormy. Instead of Stormy walking through those doors, I see Vision standing there. He looks crestfallen, his typical happy demeanor stomped to the ground as he looks at me with tears in his eyes. “Did you do it?”

I sigh as I get to my hooves, my flank burning like a hole in my side as I grit my teeth looking him in the eyes. “You know me Vision, she was like a mother to me; of course I didn’t kill her… How could I have?” I wipe my hoof across my face, tears stinging my eyes as he takes a deep sigh and stands to the side of the door. “Come on Rogue, I ain’t letting my best friend die for someone else’s cruelty. We’re gonna find Mom’s killer, and we’re gonna make him pay. Damn all those who try to stop us.”

For the first time since I was escorted to the clouds I smile, and I start to walk out the doors. The air was different out here, in that jail cell there was very little movement for the air while the doors were sealed so it got very stuffy in there very quickly, this air was free, wild, and fresh. “Alright Vision, let's gear up before we go.”

He nods as we start sneaking towards the armory. I was always better at making plans and doing the methodical work than Vision was, so I started making a plan in my head. First we head to the armory, we get our guns, then we go to the storeroom and get some supplies. There’s a lot of food in there and I doubt we’ll be coming back, considering how the pegasi treat deserters, especially traitors. Once we get all the supplies we can, we’ll head out the back entrance; from Vision’s stories, he and his mother used to go out that way all the time when she took him on solo missions. Shockingly, his rebellious antics will actually help us out here. From there, we fly to the ground and just try to survive and get on our feet.

I relay this information to Vision in a hushed voice, my blood starting to pump as we continue making our way throughout the compound. The armory isn’t particularly far from us, although nothing really is considering the size of the base. Even I could probably make it from one end to the other in only a couple of minutes while flying. There was a guard posted outside, like always; not really needed, since nothing comes up here, but you can’t be too sure. I motioned for Vision to stay back for a moment, I was trained for most of my life to fight back, unfortunately, I was never really good at that. Instead, I focused on where to hit and when to dodge by analyzing my opponent before they get a chance to fight back. In this case, the guard was on a small chair made of clouds; a rather common sight in this town, half asleep on this overcast night. The area was shrouded in very little light, but there was just enough to see he wasn’t wearing his armor, just the jacket top most pegasi wore when they aren’t on an official mission, this meant that it was very easy for me to sneak up behind him and slam my hoof down onto his neck at a pressure point, knocking him out cold. He wouldn’t be permanently injured, and I doubt this would work the same way on other species, but for now, he wouldn’t be a bother as I motion to Vision to get into the armory.

Upon entering the armory, Vision gave off a small whistle, no matter how many times we walk in here, it’s always amazing to us. On each side of the room are walls lined with all different types of guns, enough for every pony in the compound and then some. There’s assault rifles, low powered snipers, side arms, even a machine gun for if we ever get into serious combat. No explosives though; it’d be hard to use a rocket launcher without a lot of possible injuries, and landmines would just fall through the clouds.

Vision stepped to the door to keep watch as he said, “Grab what you need and the ammo you can carry,but leave some space for supplies. I’m fine here; I got my trusty sniper and Silver Fang.” He gestures to the handgun on his hip; he has been using that thing for as long as I have known him. A small smile crosses my face before I head deeper into the army. All soldiers in the encampment have been trained to a minor degree with every type of weapon on base; however the only one that I’ve ever had much luck with is the assault rifle, with large magazines to rain down suppressing fire or to rip your enemies apart. I spot a rack of them and grab the closest one to me, along with an extended mag mod and several magazines that I quickly shove into the bag as I sling the rifle over my shoulders and head back to Vision.

Now that we’ve gotten our equipment, our only obstacle left aside from actually getting out of here was food. “Alright, I’m ready to go. While I was grabbing my rifle, I came up with a plan; we should go for the mess hall and then for your old escape point.” He nods in response, the plan was simple, although slightly difficult to execute. The compound was quite easy to traverse; however, there’s a lot of guards on duty throughout the area, so Vision and I had to sneak through it. Instead of what should have been maybe half an hour, it instead took almost 2 hours; eventually, we got to the mess hall and the food storage behind it. After that, Vision’s escape route was just barely ahead of it.

Stocked up on food, water, as well as guns and ammo, Vision and I were well on our way to getting out of this hellhole, even if it was the only home we ever knew. As we finally got to Vision’s runaway area, I looked around; it was at the edge of the wall, way in the back behind almost everything else. When you have a base made of clouds, getting out isn’t very difficult, but considering how thick the clouds are for the walls, it would take several hours; hours that we don’t have. As such, this location was perfect; it wasn’t a big hole in the wall, but it was sizable enough for a single pony to get through, obscured by surrounding thinner cloud layers. I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized we were about to make it out. The burning in my flank made me wince, but we didn’t have time to focus on that right now. I walk over to the hole as Vision starts swiping at it, preparing to leap through it, but then it hit me.

I was about to leave home; it might not have been the best home, it might not have been the kindest, and sure I may have gotten the ever living shit kicked out of me for the last decade, but it was the only home I ever knew. I paused, and I turned around to look at the little area I could see, to say farewell to that which I have known for so long. As I turned around, I realized that it wasn’t the Storeroom I was looking at; it was a mass of armor and flesh. Slowly looking up, I looked into the eyes of Major Blackened Skies, eyes full of pain, betrayal, and hate. I paled as I backed up, Vision walking in front of me.

“What are you doing here, dad?” He asked, his voice carrying a low menacing tone to it as he stood tall ready to protect me, although he barely reached his dad’s shoulders. “I could ask you the same thing, boy. You and this traitor here should not be so far away, tomorrow’s a big day after all.” His voice was cold, calculating, angry. I could feel it through my bones even though he spoke softly. I wonder where his backup was, or if he came here alone.

“We’re going to leave, I’m not going to let my best friend die just because someone framed him for my mother’s murder. We’re gonna find out who actually killed her, and we’re gonna make him pay. If you want to stand in our way, so be it, but we are leaving,” Vision punctuated that last sentence with a hoof stomp. His dad’s facial expressions didn’t change in the slightest.

“So, you’re planning on going on down to the surface, with barely any supplies, for a potentially long journey, that could rather easily kill you, in the middle of enemy territory, to find the supposed murderer of my wife, and then kill him yourself? I knew you were an idiot, Vision, but I’m amazed by this.” He growled in a low tone, not moving in the slightest and yet looking like a wall preparing to crush us with a single flick of his hoof.

“I’m not an idiot, I know what I’m doing. If you want Rogue to die, why not let us go down into the wasteland? Just tell everyone he escaped, kidnapped me, and since you’re so sure it’ll kill us down there, we’ll never be in your mane again. After all, dad, I’m just a disappointment to you anyways, aren’t I?” For the first time in this whole conversation, Blackened finally moved. He raised a single hoof, and placed it on Vision’s shoulder as he winced ever so slightly. Blackened’s voice had an... odd quality to it now, but I am not too sure what it was.

“You were never a disappointment to me. Stupid, yes, and an idiot more often than not, but never a disappointment. If you wish to follow your friend to the pits of hell, then there is nothing I can do about it. After all, even if I capture you and him, you’ll still find a way down there, even if you have to bring his chopped off head with you on a pike. Know this though, boy...” He moves his hoof back and he steels his face once more. “If you leave, you are henceforth banished from this compound, you will be missing in action and presumed dead. If you ever come back here, I will kill you myself. As for you...” He turns to me, his gaze colder than ice. “If you come back again, I will kill you, unless there is absolute, undeniable proof you did not kill my wife. There will be a kill on sight order for you in every branch of the enclave, there will be nowhere in the skies to run, and you will likely be hunted for the rest of your life. Either you will stay here and die the easy way, or you’ll run down to the ground and die the hard way. Either way, you will die, or you will prove your strength.” He bows his head slightly to the both of us, before turning around with a soft sigh. “Leave, before I change my mind.”

With that, Vision and I quickly ran through the escape hole, flying down to the ground below; after several minutes, we hit the ground, both of us breathing harshly; even the air down here burning whenever we took a breath. Radiation was a bitch, it seemed. Shaking my head, I looked over at Vision; he looked quite shaken up, but he turned to me with a sad smile. “I'm glad you’re with me, dude. If I’m gonna face hell, I might as well do it with my best friend.”

I grin at him. “Hey, I’m gonna die anyways, right? Might as well go out with a bang; if you’re gonna fall, make sure you take’m with you.” I look around the area; it seems like a semi-barren wasteland. Makes sense, considering how the encampment moved on its cloud bed that we wouldn’t be dropping in the same forest area; unfortunately, this meant we have no idea where we are going. “Alright, it appears to mostly be barren for at least several miles, let’s take to the skies and fly around, see if we can find a town, and just go from there, I guess.” He nods with a sigh.

It was hot, humid, and painful down here, but at least it’s better than dying. We take to the skies, trying to find any signs of life in this area. All my thoughts are on right now is finding who killed Commander Wave, and making sure they stop breathing.