Fallout Equestria: Desperados

Fallout Equestria: Desperados

Stable 24, Part 2

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"To explain to me about how the stable could be self-sufficient, Harp told me about how many were built with underground orchards like a small forest of apple trees, along with other foods they could grow such as carrots and potatoes. Unfortunately, the underground food was often bland tasting despite it being nutritious. But, when living underground, a pony takes what is given.

Personally, I don’t think I could live like that. If I had to go without sugar or honey my whole life, I’d lose my glow without it. But, unlike a pony, I can just move to the bottom of the ocean, and start a farm there… unless there are no abyss crops in this world." ~ Azure Dice

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Several raiders burst in and Star cut them down as she unloaded her SMG onto them. Her wild firing missed a few of them, allowing them to scatter behind several barricades they had set up in the hallway.

“Paranoid fucks! They knew we were coming!” Star shouted as she ducked behind the door control panel as several bullets whizzed past her.

The speakers came to life again. “That’s right bitch! You must be the ones who raided our shroom production garden. You know how hard it is to kill enough ponies to grow that many mushrooms?”

He then, again, began laughing maniacally. “But this time we got you by surprise. Ya hear?! And we will make sure to have fun with ya all, alive or dead. That stallion you have is looking mighty tasty.”

I looked over to see a dread-filled expression on Slowtrots face.

This was bad. Real bad, but we have plenty of ammo, and three fighters with us.

“Say, how long can we hold out here?” I asked out loud.

“Not a good idea, Harp,” Dead Axle responded. “If they were waiting for us, then they must have a plan to smoke us out or something.”

She was probably right. I was wrong about them making this their base, but I also didn’t think they would also make this a trap.

“Order, get a better look at those raiders,” I told my drone as I viewed his video feed through my pipbuck.

The dead raiders were incredibly thin and, other than the bullet holes, they were covered in scars. There were also clear signs of damage from excessive chem injections. In addition, they were wearing dirty rags with the red circle mark that Star said was their symbols.

Order backed up and zoomed its vision down the hallway, getting a look at the raiders that didn’t rush into gunfire. Unlike the dead raiders, these ones had spiked covered armor that likely saved them from Star’s bullets. The rusty armor was made from scrap metal and crudely painted black with red splotches. On the shoulders and flank of the armor was the red circle. Each of the armored raiders also had an armored mask which, underneath, were welding goggles and also an air filter sticking out.

An air filter?

Looking past them, I could see several other raiders armed with some sort of large cylinder pipe...

“FUCK! DEAD IS CORRECT! THEY'RE LITERALLY GOING TO SMOKE US OUT!” I shouted.

Star jumped out from behind the door control box to join us right before a flaming ball came down the hall and into the stable entrance. The door control box was engulfed in flames. Smoke billowed out from whatever hit it.

“So what's the plan then?” Star asked with a grim tone.

“I say we rush them!” Live Axle suggested before getting a smack from her sister.

“That gets us cut down like their cannon fodder,” Dead pointed out.

“How about we send the smoke their way?” Slowtrot asked.

I shook my head. “Even if we could, they have gas masks on.”

Another fireball came flying in. It landed further back. More billowing smoke issued from it.

As the room started to get hazy, filling up with a noxious smell, I knew we needed to act fast. We had to get out of here before we all suffered from carbon dioxide poisoning.

“Shouldn't the smoke, ya know, like fill up the rest of the stable?” Dead asked pointedly.

A third fireball came crashing in which was followed by the hiss and clank of a door closing. The Raiders had now trapped us in a room that was quickly filling up with smoke.

“OH FUCKING FANTASTIC!” Dead shouted in frustration.

Rummaging through my saddlebag, I pulled out my advanced gas mask and put it on. “Everypony, stay low. I’ll get that door open.”

The four of them went prone, staying below the smoke.

With the door closed, I trotted through the hazy smoke-filled room to the door that had the raiders on the other side. I was no locksmith, but I remembered that neither was my friend Vibraphone. She just took a screwdriver to the door’s control panel and crossed wires. I didn’t have a screwdriver, but I did have a super zappy robot.

“Order, I’m going to need you to fry the lock and then help me with targeting my rifle,” I ordered the drone.

“Yes Madam. just tell me when,” it said loudly.

I closed my eyes to focus as I channeled magic into myself. I could feel them, two earth ponies and a unicorn standing on the other side of the door. One close, two further back. There were more, but too far away for me to feel their magic properly.

Moving to stand in front of the door and just a bit to the side so I could more easily get out of the way of any bullets. I then pushed my magic into Order which caused sparks of electricity to come off it.

“NOW!” I shouted.

Sparking with energy, a bolt of electricity shot out from Order and into the door’s control panel, causing it to explode.

With a hiss, the door opened and I entered SATS, slowing time to a crawl.

The raider by the door was on the ground, smoke coming off several scorch marks. As for the other two, they were in my sight. I gave two shots at their necks where they weren't as protected.

With a slow and loud pop, the bolts went flying. The first flew through the air, reaching its target and cutting right through the raider, sending a trail of blood behind it as it made a large hole in his neck. The second bolt flew, but the last raider had grabbed the now dying raider and shoved him in the way as the Unicorn ducked.

As time slowly returned to normal, I watched the raider raise his pipe rifle. It aimed at me.

Everything became a blur as I hit the ground, followed by the sound of gunfire. Looking around, I found Star standing over me as the two Desperados fired down the hallway.

Star looked down at me with anger in her eyes. “That was your fucking plan?! I thought you were going to do something super magical or some technobabble, not blow open the door and start shooting!”

She pulled me up and checked me for any injuries as she coughed a little. “Next time you do that, have us help you with the gun part.”

“You’re… you’re right,” I agreed as I watched Dead and Live Axle fire several more shots down the hallway.

Star spat out her bit and told the gaggers. “Fire a few more shots to get their heads down. I’m going to charge in.”

The twins nodded and fired down the hall as Star drew her sword and dashed out.

Through Order, I saw Star rush in low. She tackled the armored raider. Her blade cleanly cleaving through a leg before thrusting it into his head. More gunfire came Star’s way as she used the now dead raider to absorb the incoming led.

Several more ragged dressed raiders charged as they fired their pipe pistols, closing in on Star.

A loud bang rang out and two of the raiders fell over as their blood went everywhere. Slowtrot held his trench gun up to his shoulder and fired a second shot. As a result, another raider went down as the rest retreated.

Those fleeing raiders were shot in the back by Stars counter-attack.

Following that, everything became quiet other than the ringing in my ears. The smoke flowed into the rest of the stable, dissipating as it spread out.

Loading two more shells into the trench gun, Slowtrot slung it onto his back. “Next time, let's all pack gas masks,” he said with a grimace.

Sending Order ahead, it caught sight of two more raiders loading a mortar with a shell full of garbage and black tar. I had my drone fire on the raiders before they could lob another fireball, impaling them with the metal bolts.

No more raiders could be seen, so we cautiously trotted onward.

The speakers crackled back to life with the angry voice of overstallion, Nocturne Bloodrage. “Oh, we got some lively ones here. I will make you regret not just lying down and accepting your fate when I rape you bloody! But, until then, enjoy this victory. You will need it. The only way out is through me, and I have a whole lot more raiders waiting to have their fun with you. Now pick a door and get fucked!”

I sighed. “That must mean the stable door can only be opened from the overmares office.”

“And that raider boss likely has more traps waiting for us,” Dead added.

Looking around the room, it was clearly a reception and security room. The place once housed a checkpoint for those entering or leaving the stable. But now everything was covered in graffiti and mud. The security room was used as a place for them to throw their trash.

There were also three doors for us to choose from; the Auditorium, Living Quarters, and Maintenance.

“Oh nice. We have a map of this place!” Slowtrot said as he looked at his pipbuck, but then frowned. “Ehh, I barely know what I’m looking at.”

“Let me take a look.” Following his lead, I opened my pipbuck’s map function. When I did so, I noticed that all of the stables map was open to me. Having an overmare’s pipbuck was proving it worth once again.

From what I could see, this was a three-level stable with the maintenance below us, living quarters and the auditorium on our level, and above that was the overmares and security offices with a third room labeled as “backup”. It was a very simple layout with few twists or turns. One odd thing was that there were several hidden passageways. One of them connected the stable entrance to the overmares office, a second passageway connected maintenance to the living quarters, and the third connected the living quarters to the security office.

I didn’t understand why they needed these hidden pathways other than for the quick escape of the overmare. That said, I doubted that the raiders knew of them, so I wanted to take advantage of it.

“Sooo… got a plan?” Star asked as she looked over my shoulder.

I showed her my pipbuck and wispered. “Since this is all a trap, going through the auditorium would be suicide. They would have raiders shooting down at us for sure. The Living quarters are also a no go since there are too many nooks they can come at us from. That’s why we should go through the maintenance and take a secret passage to the living quarters.”

Star cocked an eyebrow as she whispered back. “Didn’t you say the living… Oh, I see! There's a second passage not from the first. By doing that, we'd catch them by surprise and rush to the next passageway.”

I nodded and trotted over to the maintenance door. I pulled on its pannal.

The door buzzed, not opening.

“Wrong door, Bitch!” Noctem shouted over the speakers. “You only have two choices. You can go to the big hall and take part in a gange bang, or go to the sleeping spot and get railroaded!”

Live Axle kicked a piece of junk. It flew up and hit one of the speakers. “Shut the fuck up! Is rape the only thing this pencil dick can talk about?”

I looked over at Star. “Say, you want to see if your overmare status is higher than his and open this panel?”

Star trotted over and looked at it confused for a moment, then her eyes lit up in an epiphany. “Sure thing, sugar.” Drawing her sword, Star took a few swipes. The panel fell off.

With the electronics to the door now open to me, I pulled out a few wires and began crossing them.

With another buzz, this time followed by a hiss, the door opened. The smell of rot and decay hit our noses hard, forcing me to put my gas mask back on.

Nocturn’s voice then blared through the speakers. “How the fuck did you do that?! All you cocksucking shitbags, get down to the maintenance, now!”

“Fuck! Leg it!” Dead shouted as she rushed down the stairwell. We all followed.

What greeted us was cold muddy water in a mostly darkened stable. Worse, the water caused my pipbuck to click, indicating it was radioactive. Oh, our fuckinging luck.

Using Order to light our way, we all stopped when we saw the carcass of some strange creature. The thing was too far decayed to tell what it was. Likely it was dead in this water for years. Whatever it used to be, it seemed to be some sort of snake, but with a head that resembled a cat.

Star pushed the rodded corpse for me and then we began trudging through maintenance.

With the mildly radioactive water all around us, I held back on using my magic to feel for the raiders. Instead, I relied on our E.F.S. to keep an eye on the hostiles. Red markers were everywhere with none able to tell us how close, but we could see that they were above us.

Pushing through the knee-high water as fast as we could, I began to wonder how this place even had power. The water should have been utterly soaked into the systems here, killing the reactor. Likely the backup room near the overmare’s office was a backup generator room. I could only guess at this point.

One of the red markers indicated above us then changed to being on our level, followed by a few more.

“Raiders incoming!” I warned as I pointed in the direction of the markers.

Order’s light shone in that direction as a door opened up. Two raiders, with their eyes shining back at us, jumped through and began shooting.

Order fired back, taking out a raider, followed by Live shooting the second. We could see several more piling along the side of the door, staying out of our gun’s reach.

We all sayed low as two raider unicorns peppered the wide hallway with wild blind fire, thus forcing us to hide behind several rusty steel boxes.

The sound of a lighter caught my attention as I saw Live Axle holding a molotov cocktail, and Dead Axle was lighting it. The firebomb ignited. Live shouted before throwing it, “SEE HOW YOU FUCKING LIKE IT!”

The molotov sailed through the air with violent purpose. It smashed just above the door and rained fire down in front of the raiders. This was the distraction we needed to run around the corner and make some distance between us and the raiders.

“Let’s go!” I told the others and they began trudging through the water.

Then the fire grew… and spread!?

The water itself caught on fire. Only now did we realize that a maintenance floor would have oil all over the place, and that oil clearly was in the water.

“Go Faster!” Slowtrot urged in a panic as he lifted me up onto his back and began galloping around the corner, splashing the oil-slicked water around.

As we got out of the range of the raider’s guns, we heard a loud “Reee!” and several splashings as a heavily armored raider rounded the corner to chase after us.

“Purified by flames so all can be cleansed! I am the fire! I will eat your liver!” the raider shouted as she charged at us with a flaming sledgehammer.

Star quickly responded by unloading her rust gun at the large and armored raider mare. The bullets bounced off the heavy plates or just got stuck in it, though it looked as though some did get past the armor and into the raider. The raider herself didn’t seem to care. She charged at Star all the same. As she got closer, the fire that was sticking to her armor made her look like some fiery monster that had escaped Tartarus.

Drawing her sword, Star readied herself for the fight as we rounded the next corner and into a room where the secret passageway was.

To our bad luck, several large boxes were in the way. Quickly acting, the twins and Slowtrot began pushing the boxes out of the way. The boxes themselves spilt out tools and parts, all rusted by water and time.

Flying into view, Star crashed into one of the flaming spots, sending a wave of fire flying around her. Getting up, she had clearly taken a few blows, and her sword was missing.

“I am the fire! I am the death that springs from the pits of misery and the blackened life!” the fire raider said as she trotted into view. Charging, Star just barely got out of the raiders way as she got shoulder checked. “Embrace the flames, and be reborn!”

Star took a few limping steps backwards into the room then jumped to the side as the raider attempted to tackle Star again. She was clearly on her back hood with this raider and needed help.

Not wanting her to get hurt more than she was, I took aim. I again entered SATS. With time slowed. The bulky raider was an easy target, so I aimed at her head with two shots. Both shots blasted out with loud pops and both hit their target.

Both shots didn’t penetrate the thick amor. It simply stuck to it.

Turning her head to look at me, the raider then shouted. “YOU WILL BE FIRST TO BE BAPTIZED BY FIRE!”

Raising her hammer, the raider began to trot in our direction. Having forgotten about Star, the raider didn’t see her jump onto her back and pull her sword free. With a swift strike in between the plate, the raider screamed in pain as Star pulled out her cutlass and stabbed another soft spot, causing the flaming raider to fall over.

With the raider immobile, Star jumped in front of her and performed a coup de grace as she thrusted the blade through the eye slit, ending the bitch.

Star pulled her sword out and dashed to us just in time for more bullets to go flying. My friend was a little worse for wear, both singed and bruised, but still alive.

“It’s clear!” Slowtrot told us as he buckled the last box out of the way, spilling out a load of worthless damaged electrics.

Totting to the door, every pony else positioned themselves behind the boxers, ready to shoot at the raiders. I wiped off the mud from the wall, looking for some hidden panel I could use. Bullets began flying while I frantically looked as I cleaned the wall in a near panic.

“Fuck!” Dead shouted as she retired behind the box, a bullet having hit her in the foreleg.

Slowtrot quickly responds by opening up his saddlebag and pulling out a healing potion soaked bandage. “This will be quick,” he told her as he wrapped her injury with some skill.

A shot came close, causing me to flinch. But then my hoof hit something, a wider than normal groove. Pushing the mud away, I found what we were looking for. Now we just needed to open it.

Finding an old rusty sign, it was oddly easy to move to the side. A simple panel was behind it. Opening it up, I found a port for a pipbuck connector behind it. Plugging my own pipbuck to it, I quickly got an access denied.

I had a feeling that I needed proper administrative access, so I turned to Star. “I think I need your pipbuck to open this!”

Nodding, Star fired another burst from her second magazine before dashing over to me. With her pipbuck plugged in, I then heard a heavy click as the wall became loose.

Water rushed in as I opened the door. This was followed by everypony piling in. Last was Slowtrot letting out both shotgun and rifle blasts at the raider before following. Shoving the thing closed, Dead grabbed a lever and pulled it which caused the door to make a loud clunk as it locked.

Stepping back, we could hear the bullets impact on the thick wall, followed by a thump, likely caused by one of the raiders changing at the door and failing to even dent it.

Seeing some stairs, we trotted out of the water then sat down to catch our breath.

Slowtrot passed Star a healing potion, but when he attempted to wrap one of her injuries, she held him back.

“I’ll be fine. Trust me. I’ve trotted away from worse,” Star said as she pulled out one of the nature bars and quickly devoured it. “But fuck! I did not expect such a monster of a raider. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she had power armor on.”

“Well, there have always been ponies who were scary strong.” Slowtrot comments as he puts the bandages away.

“I’ve seen this before,” Dead Axle spoke up. “That raider probably was a buck addict, and if she was regularly ingesting radiation, then it could cause a mutation which made her bigger. We got a few Desperados who did that before the radiation cleared up. Strong as a mountain, but also batshit insane.”

Live Axle nodded. “Ya, I heard that one of those addicts killed his family in a rage-fueled madness.”

Shaking the water off my legs, I took a few steps up. “Enough chatter. We need to get moving before they find a way to get through that door.”

“Oh, the little miss is taking charge?” Star teased as she got back on her hooves and loaded her second drum magazine. “You know, Victoria would likely give you a nice position in the fleet. Let you become a real leader.”

I shook my head. “Don’t bring that up again. My answer is still going to be no.”

Trotting up, we came to the door of the living quarters. Luckily it didn’t require a pipbuck to open. Looking back at the others, I came up with a simple plan. “Alright. As soon as we open this door, I need Star, Live and Dead to run in and silence any pony before they can make a noise. After that, we will enter the walkway where everypony will start shooting. Star takes the center and Slowtrow takes to the left. Live and Dead, I need you to go right and clear the way to the next door.”

They all nodded. I pulled the lever to open the door.

Star burst out with her sword in her muzzle. There were three raiders standing around playing a game of dice with chems as the prize. The first raider was cut down. His blood flew onto the wall before he could understand what had just happened. The other two were tackled by the gaggers who began pulling their faces in mercilessly.

When they were done, we had one raider gargling for air and who had their faces carved in. It was all a bloody mess.

The room we were in looked like it was once a standard storage room long ago, but now was used as a crude meat locker with one of the gutted creatures dead and rotting. It was a pony, pieces of their flesh carved out.

Slowtrot wretched at the sight of the hooked pony as the Desperado’s simply averted their eyes.

“By Celestia, they’re that far gone.” Live Axle said with disgust in her voice.

The speakers bleared again with the angry voice of Nocturne. “I don’t know how, but you useless lot have lost the fucking intruders. Everypony, get your guns ready and your knives sharp. They may appear anywhere. I want you to take the little fuckers out when you do. Any pony who captures an intruder can have first go at them, dead or alive!”

“It’s now or never,” I told the group as the door opened.

With a hiss, it opened. Standing in front of the door was a rather confused raider mare. “I-”

Firing a bolt into her neck, the mare stumbled back and was finished with a second shot.

“NOW!” I shouted as I reloaded my rifle with six more bolts.

Star charged out, catching the eyes of a few raiders standing around and being met with a torrent of lead from her rust gun. Slowtrot followed. His eyes clearly showed the sign of SATS, they glazed over and blank as he fired two shots. Next, the twins ran out around the corner, firing their guns as they did.

Lastly, Order and I trotted out. Since the raiders have been caught by surprise, it allowed me to safely follow the two gaggers as they drove the raiders back. Order aided by firing a few shots itself at any raider that tried to counter-attack.

With Slowtot and Star covering the rear, we quickly got to the next room and made our way inside. The other four set up a firing line to keep the raiders pinned as I went to look for the hidden door.

Knowing what I was looking for, I found a danger sign and trotted to it, stopping when I saw a horrifying sight. On the floor were two ponies battered, broken, and covered in body fluid and blood. One looked up at me with hopeless eyes for a moment before looking away. The other seemed to have a glint of hope, but when she spoke, her voice was weak and pained.

“Help… us..” she said, barely able to even say those words.

“Damnit!” Dead Axle gowled, “This is their fucking rape room.”

With shock on his face, Slowtot rushed over, giving one of the mares one of our few healing potions. The battered mare was barely able to drink it down.

“Here, let me help you up,” Slowtrot offered as he attempted to get the mare up, but then she let out a guttural moan of pain. “Sorry!”

I watched as he held his pipbuck over the mare, scanning her heath. The color slowly drained from his face, and he grimaced as a tear formed in his eyes.

“It’s that bad?” I asked.

Several bullets whizzed inside the room. Everypony ducked.

“Can ya hurry it up? The raider’s reinforcements are now showing up.” Star called out before letting out another torrent of bullets, then clicking. “Fuck, I’m dry!”

Slowtrot averted his gaze as he spoke. “Massive internal bleeding, bone fractures everywhere, liver failure, and several diseases I’ve never heard of.” He then held his pipbuck over the other captive. “Dammit! He is in the same condition.”

I looked at the two dying ponies, knowing we could not take them with us. We can’t even save them.

“We need to find a stretcher, then we can take them out of here and get them to Jali.” Slowtrot suggested as he began to frantically look around. “Maybe if we make one.”

If… If… If this… If that. Mother always told me that “ifs” were like fools gold, only having worth to fools. It was what we could or couldn't do. What we must do.

I wanted to save them as no normal pony deserves this fate. Not like this.

A spiked covered raider charged in, attempting to tackle one of the Desperado sisters. The damned pony was quickly cut down by Star who then glared at me to get moving.

“Let me patch them up first!” Slowtrot said frantically as he opened up his saddlebag.

I pulled out my revolver and, with two quick motions, shot both the dyeing ponies in the head, freeing them from their pain.

Slowtrot looked at me with horror as I put my gun away and said, “We neither have the time or bullets to save them, no matter how much I wish we could.”

Turning, I trotted over to the danger sign and uncovered the panel to the secret door. Star rushed over and plugged her pipbuck in, opening it with a click.

Rushing, we all went through the door and slammed it behind us. What followed was an even more violent attempt to get through the door.

Looking at Slowtrot, I could see he wanted to say something, but held his tongue.

Trotting past him, I also said nothing. There was nothing to be said. What I just did was not a good thing, but neither was it the wrong thing. It simply had to be done.

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-Quest update-

Quest, Stable 24: Investigate and clear out the Blood Moon Raiders.Survive! Kill Nocturne Bloodrage.