FoE: Festering Virtues

I looked around wildly, spotted an incorrectly installed door, and darted towards it. Moments later, it was open and I was inside, trying to get the chainsaw ready. Behind me, I heard the deep roar of the shotgun, and pounding hooves as Judgment followed me.

“Dammit,” I spat. “Judgment, get behind cover. Melody, get in here!”

Ponies started firing back, and I heard Melody scream as she went down under a barrage of fire. I darted out, took advantage of the shocked screams, and tugged her through the door.

Didn’t notice much other than blood, but I wasn’t looking hard. Fuck, what can I do? Can I defuse this? “Judgment, get the bleeding stopped, probably a super restoration potion, and pressure where its gushing.” Darting back out into the alcove, I glanced down the hallway. Yep, headless pony. Probably insane, but that doesn’t really count in our favor now.
“Hey, it was an accident! We’ll pay or sit in jail for however long you want us to. Let’s just try to avoid a bloodbath.”

“Fucking raider, there won’t be a bloodbath!”

“Shut the hell up and come out where I can see you!”

“Heh, heh, heh, we got ourselves a bleeder! What? Don’t think you can take us?”

Well, this is productive. Maybe we can defend here? “Judgment, keep track of where ponies are. How’s Melody?”

“I gave her the potion, and it looks like she’s healing up. I don’t see any more blood at least.”

“Good, cover the door, I’ll push some cover together.” I ran around the room and grabbed everything solid looking and heavy. It was easy enough to make a hasty breastworks, and it got even better when I turned the chainsaw on the cinderblock half wall around the kitchen.

The angry shouting died down a bit when they heard the chainsaw, but apparently a “raider’s weapon” was just what they needed to whip themselves into a frenzy. Aww, fuck.

Well, shit. .50 bolt action rifle, not good. Chainsaw, not good, at least in front of a couple dozen pieces of supersonic lead. Flamethrower? Bad bad idea at the moment. And can’t really use it moving, tied down was a fucking bad idea.

Fuck.

“They’re coming!” Judgment shouted, following dozens of hostiles rushing for our position.

Clearing a room works because you decide when to charge. You can put the enemy off balance by coming in in unexpected ways, or throw them off balance with a flash grenade or spell. You minimize the kill zone of the door by moving quickly enough that they can’t react. The goal is to move faster than the enemy can respond and put more bullets on target than the enemy can throw back. It takes hours of repetition to do it properly, and doing it wrong just means you charged a fortified enemy with only a general idea of where they actually are.

As a team, we managed to kill dozens of raiders and the like in a couple days, with only a few flesh wounds in return.

The Colts charging at us? They didn’t have that same skill.

We knew exactly where they were, thanks to Judgment. We had a fortified position, thanks to me. Melody? Well, her shotgun was excellent for tearing through targets, with more than two dozen rounds of low gauge shells. It was going to be a bloodbath.

They came as a group, charging down the hallway from both sides. They were stopped momentarily by the door, and Judgment started firing. Screams as the small caliber ball ammunition punched through the wood. “Reloading!” She shouted, and Melody took up the slack, blasting at the door every few seconds, trying to keep the enemy suppressed.

The Colts started firing back, but they couldn’t get in front of the door, so the bullets went wide. Easy enough to see where they were from the blocked light through the holes; Melody barely had to aim. Couple seconds later, Judgment shouted “Up!” and Melody started loading more shells. They backed off. Not even through the door and multiple deaths will push any unit back.

“Up.” Melody stated.

“Melody, cover the door. Judgment, help me with this battle saddle.” I ordered, pulling off the slings covering up the important bits. I’d threaded the saddle’s straps through parts of my armor’s bandoleer, and used parts of my harness to keep it tight, but it felt off, and I didn’t think I could get it working on my own.

“Ooh, this looks fun. That pole is too short. That wire should be over here. Looks like this is twisted. You really shouldn’t have put it through here...” Judgment threw herself into the rebuild, completely ignoring the door. Makes sense, she obeyed that damn S.T.A.T.S. system almost entirely, while it was up. Definitely a good idea to make her not use it in training.

As she fiddled with the saddle, Melody took a few shots as shadows ran across the holes she had blasted in the door. No screams, and no thuds. They weren’t that stupid, at least they had to be somewhat intelligent to establish control over the building. What were they planning? Exhausting our ammo?

I resisted the need to pace or do something as Judgment started having increasing amounts of fun with my saddle, sticking on my weapons in different arrangements. After she tried to attach the saw on my back (“ooh, if you do a flip over cover and this is here...”), I interjected.

“Could you attach it bayonet like to my flamethrower?”

“That’s completely insane!” Judgment exclaimed, “I love it!” Thank god for universal connection points. Suppose that something this heavy was designed to attach to a counterweight or something. Would be pretty uncomfortable to use normally, otherwise. Still, sort of worried about the designer who decided that a flamer needed a heavily reinforced bayonet mounting point.

“Ok, done!”

“Good, now what the hell are they doing in the hallway?”

“Looks like they’re in two groups. Not sure why.”

“Begin clearing through?” Melody piped up.

“Not yet. They’re going to try something, then we’ll move.” If I was trying to smoke out a fortified enemy, what would I do? Can’t be certain of where they would be, but I have control in all directions. They might hear me getting ponies into position on the sides, but… Shit, the window!

“Judgment! Behind us!” I shouted, lunging to replace her on the front. She turned around and darted towards the window. Wildly looking around, she saw a pony with a fucking minigun being slowly levitated down. A three round burst later, that pony dropped the several stories into the street.

Then hell was unleashed.

The two groups of Colts charged, attempting to make up for the lost surprise through sheer numbers, ramming into the weakened door and slamming through. The pony in front was covered in some absurdly thick armor. Looked like layered ceramic plates. Completely useless for anything other than charging through an initial fusillade of fire. Melody’s shots bounced right off, cracking the ceramic but not stopping them.

My rifle was an entirely different story, one shot and the pony was shredded, falling to the ground in a sodden thump. But it had just one shot.

Fuck, just one shot! Melody took up the slack, pumping the rest of her magazine into the charging ponies. They couldn’t stop to aim, they were firing wildly and randomly, and my breastwork was taking most of the shot. Still, biggest thing in the room, biggest target; I felt bullets bouncing off my armor, and the occasional tug as they tore through flesh.
Really regretting that lack of a helmet. Not much pain, zebra induced mutations were pretty damn good at handling that.
Suddenly, I felt disoriented, and off. Not sure why, all I felt was the second trigger in my mouth. The one attached to the flamethrower. It called to me. Burn motherfuckers BURN.

Ponies died. Ponies died in agonizing pain, set on fire and shredded by pellets. Behind me, ponies fell out of the air, their assistants not bothering to try to save them to get more ponies to the battle. It was futile. Nobody could stand before us, and as the door got clogged by burning ponies, some screaming and rolling, others slowly going still; the new attackers started tripping over the lucky ones, and the slaughter just continued. You fuckers will all pay. This didn’t need to happen!

“CLEAR!” Judgment screamed, pulling against me. I blinked. What the hell? I stopped burning the pile of corpses. Maybe one or two alive stuck at the bottom. What the HELL? I blinked again. It didn’t work right. Was something missing? No time now, keep moving.

“Line up!” I said, and the other two jumped, startled but still reloading. I glanced over them quickly, didn’t see anything obviously wrong, but they were both cowering. That was intense, but can’t stop now. “Ready?”

They gulped and nodded. I bucked, and it started again.

***

They learned to stay the fuck away. They learned that trying to stop us was a bad idea.

That didn’t stop them from trying, but they left the rooms in our path, and they stopped ambushing us. From behind was death. From the sides was death. Only the front, with some defenses, might mean success.

Slow us down, that was their plan. Make something that could beat us. It wasn’t working. My legs were drenched in blood. I only could smell gore. I felt nothing. Only the need to keep going and win.

We stopped for a moment, the other two were exhausted, and guzzling water. I shoved a ration bar into my mouth, and it fell out again. Momentarily confused, I shoved it in the other direction. That worked. I never knew how the muscles in a jaw worked before now. I was aware that everything was deeply wrong, but stopping wasn’t a choice now.

The other two stared at me in worry.

“Ready?” I asked, noticing that my speech was broken and slurred. Everything was wrong. Everything was failing. Melody looked away and nodded. Judgment, nodded, looking scared.

“Line up.”

***

That last room was the worst one yet. Eight ponies shoved in a small space, hidden behind whatever fortifications they could find. My legs were covered in bandages, losing too much blood otherwise. Face and mouth were open, needed to use the saddle.

I had to burn them. Too much. Too many. We couldn’t keep doing this. Too many enemies. Too many bullets.

Those feelings stopped as Judgment called out “Ten.” This was easy. Pull the trigger, do the next one. Clear the room, do the next one. You don’t even need to think. I wanted that combat potion. I wanted it so badly. But…

“Judgment, can you add a bit to my flamer? I have an idea.”

***

You don’t get used to the screaming. Even the modifications couldn’t change that. We weren’t fighting anymore, this was pure slaughter.

Rev the saw…

It was mechanical, dull, and horrifying. Hearing Judgment count down their lives. Hearing their screams snuff out one by one.

Turn on the flow…

Their corpses lay where they fled. No air, they collapsed trying to get to the door. Nothing could save them. Their own armor and desperation to flee trapped them. Burning alive.

Press to the wall…

No mercy. We tried that. And they just turned on us a moment later. Judgment got shot. Melody got stabbed.

Cut right through…

Everything hurt. Nothing felt right. It was all in shambles. I was falling apart. Screams just kept going and going.

Depress the trigger…

All I heard was the number, the slow count. All I felt was the fire as I was the first one through, waiting for the other two to be able to tolerate it.

BURN…

Burn. Let them all burn. Let them all suffer like I have. Let them see their bodies fall apart before their eyes. Let everything they have known collapse. LET THEM ALL FUCKING BURN.

***

“Red?” Melody asked, eyes wide and terrified. I shook my head, and groaned at the feeling. I felt heavy, my skin… my whatever felt stiff, it didn’t want to move. Didn’t matter much.

“What?” I rasped. My tongue didn’t want to move right either. This entire plan, trying to not fight, wasn’t right. They wouldn’t let it happen otherwise.

“How- how-” What would make sense here? How are we going to get out of here? That was obvious. How did I feel? Ditto. How was I still alive? Now that was an interesting one. I looked around. Half looked around. Even the corpses looked weak, scrawny.

“How many?” I asked, then frowned. Half frowned. Should have already asked that.

“Too many to count. Red and yellow. They’re not moving.” Judgment looked sick, and exhausted.

“Any others?” I asked.

“Not that I can see.”

“Alright, line up.” They did. It was the only thing they could do. The only thing I could do.

Rev the saw, turn on the flow, press to the wall, cut right through, depress the trigger, and BUR- the screams were worse than anything I had heard, enough to cut through the protection my damaged brain could do.

Higher, more desperate, pleading, begging for their parents. I was killing foals.

I jerked away from the wall, cutting off the flow of flames, but the damage was done. Plenty of air, at least more than the meager amount of fuel I had dumped could cut off, but a couple seconds long jet of burning alcohol is more than lethal in these small rooms.

Meager, but more than enough to kill everything in that room. Alcohol burns hotter than oil. It soaks and demands as much oxygen as possible. The doors open inward, anti-theft, few inhabitants intended. They’re not getting out.

We’re not getting in in time. We don’t have enough healing potions. We can’t do anything, except stand here and listen to them die.

Judgment sat against the wall, counting as each one died. I wanted to scream. I wanted a do over. I wanted anything except what I had created.

But I couldn’t. I messed up so hard. I ignored everything. I wanted to finish this, and that’s the only thing I could do.

I pressed the flamer back against the hole the chainsaw made, depressing the plunger, and held it there.

The screams rose then cut off, Judgment blinking at the sudden change. There I couldn’t think of any curse, anything that would be worthy of what I had done. There was no justification for what I was doing other than minimizing suffering, in the most horrible and painful way possible.

I looked around the room, crying, begging. The piles of ashes and bones I had seen earlier, small weak, barely older than foals, and the already injured. Their last stand to protect, and I had laughed at it. I felt numb, the realization of how much I had ignored, had focused on what was in front of me, rather than what was obvious. I made a decision, many many times, to kill, when it wasn’t even necessary.

That family back in Mane, pointless.

Trying to save Hope and Grace, meaningless.

Not killing the trader, hollow.

Letting the yellow bars live, empty.

All of that was nothing compared to the crimes I was committing.

I was burning foals alive, because I didn’t think, because I found it easier than actually paying attention to reality, because I used the rage the Lieutenant Colonel gifted me. The power to destroy, it has always been mine, but he offered me the gift of not caring.

The flamer hissed as it ran out of fuel and propellant, and I collapsed to the ground.

The aftershocks of whatever my mutant endocrine system had dumped into my bloodstream ripped away the protective shell, and I felt… nothing. I lay on the ground, looking at the angry, raw, red flesh underneath my burnt and destroyed armor.

I slowly got to my hooves, and looked around. Melody and Judgment stared in open horror, as I shambled to the bathroom, the mirror hopefully still there.

… I’d seen ghouls who looked far better. A shotgun blast had ripped off most of my face, exposing the skull underneath. My empty eye socket twitched and blobbed. Some of the bones were pulped, and twitching snakes of muscle pulsated. I couldn’t see where my coat, what wasn’t burnt off, ended and my armor began, the two fusing together by the extreme heat. On my legs, bone was clearly visible, the muscle fibers torn away by something. I was burnt, tortured, and dying. If not from blood loss, then from infection.

I was a dead pony walking, killed by the very thing I had used to eradicate an entire clan. I collapsed, and tried to curl up in a ball, but nothing would listen to me.

And if I wouldn’t listen to me, how could I expect anyone else to?

Footnote: Level up.

New Perk: Toughness 2 – You’ve learned how to deal with injuries and cope with pain even better. Minus an additional 20% to incoming damage

Footnote: Level up.

New Perk: Commando – You’re getting the hang of your new body. Rifles and other larger two handed weapons are as light as a feather, and you get a 25% boost to hit when using them.

Footnote: Level up.

New Perk: Stonewall – Being on the front lines had hardened you. It might be a mindset, it might be luck, or it might be the number of bullets embedded in your chest, but you take 10% less damage from all sources while blocking.

Level up.
New Perk: Unstoppable Force – Nothing stops your punches, or swings, once they start. 75% of damage goes through enemy defenses.
Level up.
New Perk: Nerd Rage! - You’ve put up with enough. Now when you’re at less than 20% health, you deal 25% more damage, are 25% more accurate, and take 20% less.
Level up.
New Perk: Life Giver – Taking that bullet for a friend fills you with a glow. For some reason, you feel healthier than ever, and can take more punishment.
Level up.
New Perk: Slayer – It is a good day for somepony else to die. You hack, slash, and stab faster and harder. 30% faster attacks with all melee weapons.
Level up.
New Perk: Grunt - Long hours with standard issue, abet uncommon, Equestrian military equipment and tactics have finally sunk in. You deal 50% more damage with prewar military equipment and gain 20% damage resistance while following what your grandfather showed you.
Level up.
New Perk: Sneering Imperialist – Don’t suffer the raider (or tribal) to live. Those backwards savages have what’s coming to them. +20% damage to all raiders, and unique dialogue options are unlocked.
Level up.
New Perk: Nerves of Steel – You’re starting to approach war differently. Either you’ve gotten used to combat or this is a side effect of increasingly acute mental illness, but you can process faster and react quicker under pressure.
Level up.
New Perk: Adamantium Skeleton – Scientists will want to examine your body in detail after you’ve died. Your limbs seem to be supernaturally resistant to damage, and keep functioning nearly twice as long as before.
Level up.
New Perk: Better Criticals – When an enemy comes up against you, they’re even more unlucky. They explode, burn to ash, or liquefy 20% more than before.
Level up.
New Perk: Grim Reaper’s Spirit – It seems Death has taken an interest in you. Now whenever you kill, you’re ready to do it again. And again. And again.
Level up.
New Perk: Rapid Reload – Hours of practicing reloading has paid off. You never stumble when reloading and it happens much quicker.
Level up.
New Perk: Super Slam! - At nearly 4 times normal body weight, your hits hurt. Now there’s a 20% chance to knock an enemy to the ground on melee or unarmed attacks, with a 5% chance to knock them unconscious.
Level up.
New Perk: Purifier – You’re sick of the slaughter, but you know your mission isn’t complete. Now enemies you consider abominations will die quicker and harder.
Level up.
New Perk: Spray and Pray – Did… that bullet just go through your companion without hitting them? Or have your reflexes just gotten that good? Either way, you can no longer harm allies through friendly fire.
Level up.
New Perk: Burden to Bear – The weight of your sins are crawling up your back, and you’re learning to shoulder them. This means that physical pain is less relevant and you can now carry more weight.
Level up.
New Perk: Pyromaniac – Burn motherfucker. BURN!
Level up.
New Perk: Road to Hell - You tried your best, but it wasn’t good enough. You will never move past this moment. Karma is set to Very Evil.

Maximum level reached.