Fallout Equestria: just Arma things

Chapters

Introduction: Operation Apex
Chapter 2: Unknown contact
Chapter 3: Situational Analysis
Chapter 4: Taking Contact
Chapter 5: Trekking through Manehatten
Chapter 6: Within reach
Chapter 7: Wandering
Chapter 9: Urban Brawl. Part 2
Chapter 10: Maneuvering
Chapter 11: A Simple Job
Chapter 12: Friendly Forces
Chapter 13: Almost Out
Chapter 14: Turning around
Chapter 15: First Battle of Tenpony
Chapter 1: Welcome to... Manehattan?
Chapter 8: Urban Brawl. Part 1

Introduction: Operation Apex

Author's Note

Any speech in orange text is spoken over Hanz and Blackjack's radio.

This is what I’ve been working on, I know I should be working on An AI’s tale, but I had to get this down... I really need to rethink my priorities.

Introduction: Operation Apex

"Hey Hanz, you see the guy manning the .50 cal on the balcony?" I asked over radio.

"Yeah I see him, want me to take him out?" Hanz responds, clearly eager to get this fire fight started.

"Not yet, once you hear shots start to ring out, or he points it in your general direction, then you take him out. Copy?"

"Copy that."

I quickly moved out of the building I was occupying, and ran into they alley, where I could get a clearer shot on the Syndicate guerrilla soldiers guarding the entrance. There were two of them by the front entrance, one with an AK-12 and the other with a Lee-Enfield Mk. III. Aiming down the holographic site, I aimed it at the one with the AK, as he is more of a threat than the one with the bolt action. I really hope the A.I doesn't immediately drop me, but this is Arma, I can't really expect anything else than getting snipped from 7 km away by a dude with an unscoped rifle. I fire a three round burst into the first guy and he drops down unconscious, shortly after I heard the retort of Hanz's Enfield. The trooper with the Lee-Enfield goes prone behind some sandbags before I can take him out. Another shot rings out as I see the ragdoll of the trooper fly a few feet into the air.

Arma never change, this is too good to fix. Tossing a couple of white smoke grenades up to use as concealment, I quickly advanced across the grassy field in between the Town Hall and the alley, taking cover behind a Syndicate supply truck. I ducked behind it just in time as a storm of rounds goes flying in my general direction, the pinging of rounds as they hit the truck made it hard to hear anything. "Hanz, I need help, can you hit what ever is pinning me?"

"I can get one of 'em, but I can't hit the other, I'll need to reposition."

"Just hurry your ass up!" Another shot rings out, and the incoming fire stops for enough time to get a bearing on the remaining trooper, I fire a burst at him and he drops down dead. "Grenade out!" I shout out, tossing a frag through the window the machine-gunner was in. I rush up to the sandbags in front of the building, a guy i didn't see opens up on me, hitting me twice in the arm before I drop him with the rest of my magazine. The A.I is being smart for once, how great. Dropping to a prone position, I open the medical menu and select my left arm, I ended up getting 1x minor avulsion, and 2x medium velocity wounds. I start to bandage my arm, using the elastic bandages for best effect, then I administered morphine to deal with the pain, "Hanz, I've been hit and I'm applying medical, hurry up here so we can breach."

"I'm moving up now, how bad is it?"

"Not too bad, just an avulsion and two velocity wounds." After a few minutes, Hanz comes up behind me and he takes cover next to me, "Glad you can finally make it."

"Shut up, I had to walk down the stairs because you can’t get the damn mods straight." He responds, annoyed as we move to either side of the door. Opening the door, I toss a frag grenade into the hallway, bouncing it off the door, it explodes, wounding a few people and... the game freezes. Great, what broke this time.

“Blackjack what did you do?”

“I don’t even know, maybe something cooked off and destroyed a lot of things, causing the game to break trying to render what the fuck even happened.”

“I guess, that or you...” Hanz starts to say before being cut off by my computer blue screening.

“Fucks sake! Why can’t Arma just be normal for five god damn minutes?” Sighing, I reach my hand out to restart my computer, before quickly pulling my hand back, feeling how hot it is. Damn, that’s fucking hot. Was I seriously playing Arma for that long?

My vision suddenly flashes white, and all sense of feeling disappears. What feels like hours pass as I sit drifting through a white void, not feeling anything or hearing anything other than my own heart beat. My vision flashes again, this time black as I slowly opening my eyes, and I find myself looking up at a cloudy sky, with rain hitting my goggles and pooling on it’s flat surface. Groaning, I slowly sit up , wiping my goggles and taking in my surroundings, on the ground next to me is a Tar-21 with a holographic sight... just like the one I had in Arma. In the distance I can see the burnt out ruins of a city, sitting there lifeless like the bones of a long dead creature. Everywhere else is in sight is just barren, lifeless ground with the occasional dead tree, shrub or hill to break up the other wise mostly flat terrain. Fuck... where am I? This looks nothing like where I live.

Taking a quick chance to look at myself, I see that I’m wearing a light green uniform that has a black chest area, with a darker green carrier rig over that. Checking my side, I see that I have a medical bag, presumably full of medical supplies, I open it and I find a fuck ton of bandages, morphine, epinephrine, and several Saline IV’s. Doing the same with my carrier rig, I find seven Tar-21 mags, and three 1911 mags. I also find two white smoke grenades, a single frag grenade, and two WP grenades. Picking up the Tar-21, I slowly make my way towards the city in the distance. Knowing that this will be a long walk, I start to hum It’s a long way to Tipperary. I don’t know why it’s the first marching song that came to my head, but it did so... “It’s a long way, to Tipperary, it’s a long way to go...”

Chapter 2: Unknown contact

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 3: Situational Analysis

Author's Note

This is probably really bad, and most likely needs to be almost completely rebuilt from the ground up...

Sorry that I put you through my shitty writing. I don’t even know why I write at all, and why you people seem to like the shit I write is beyond me. Sorry for wasting your time with this pointless note, hope you have a good day/night.

Chapter 3: Situational Analysis

It was too dark for me to see well, the tinted goggles not helping my ability to see. Their was just barely enough light to make out the rough outlines of things, and hopefully I didn’t run into any of those bridge ponies, though I guess they looked an awful lot like raiders from Fallout. Maybe I should call them raider ponies, but raiders would work as well. Back to the task at hand, finding somewhere to rest. If I have to, I’ll sleep in a tree, better than sleeping on the ground, just got to make sure I don’t fall out of said tree. Deciding that just climbing into a tree would be easier that looking around in the darkness for probably hours, I climbed up one, resting on one of the branches. Taking off my helmet, setting it on my lap, and pulling down the face scarf.

Taking a few deep breaths, I let my mind catch up to the current situation, and I realized just how fucked I probably am. So lets get things straight Hanz, not only am I in some “Equestrian Wasteland,” I somehow have my Arma kit as well... Convenient, and it also looks like we’ve got raiders except their ponies, and eyebots with wings. What next, am I going to find a Vault? If I ever see Blackjack again, I’m going to kill him for this. Leaning my back against the tree, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

I woke up early the next morning, stretching my arms and legs before dropping down from the tree with a slight thud. I pulled the face scarf back up, and placed my helmet back on, then continued in the direction yesterday, which according to my compass was East. There wasn’t much to see, just trees really, and a depressingly grey, cloud filled sky. Eventually, I came across what I assumed to be a memorial of some sort. A somewhat quiet explosion echo from the town to the south, too loud to be a grenade, and too quiet to be a bomb, so it was probably a mine or HE rocket. What’s going on over there? If something goes boom it’s usually Blackjack’s fault, but the town is still there, so it’s definitely not him. Maybe it’s those raiders and the two unicorns fighting.

Pulling out my range finders and taking a kneel, I observed the town. Most of the buildings were in some sort of disrepair, with pieces of roofs or walls missing. Two buildings struck me as interesting, one of them looked like a large tent in the shape of a carousel, and the other being a building inside a tree, like built inside the tree. Zooming in on a balcony, I saw a raider with a sniper rifle mounted to the railing. Luckily, it was looking away from me, but if it did look in my direction... well I’m in a bright green, I’m not exactly hard to miss in this dark colored environment. I want that gun, but how many more raiders are in that town still? Better be worth the risk. I hid behind the monument, and I considered my options. I could head into the town and possibly die, but I could get some equipment, but the question is if it’s worth the risk of death? Most likely not, they’re raiders after all.

Letting out a sigh, I got up from behind the monument and quickly made my down towards the town, stopping once I got close enough to a second bridge. Like the other bridge, this one had some very, tasteful decorations, how ever this one didn’t appear to be guarded. Putting the rifle on my back and pulling out my 1911, I slowly walked over too and across the bridge, keeping an eye out for any sudden movements. Once fully across, I made my way into an alley, and inched my way further into the town. There were empty bottles littering the ground, but no bottle caps, it was strange. Maybe this place uses caps as a currency as well, that or someone has an obsession to collect bottle caps.

Just as I was about to round the corner, I heard the sound of glass smashing nearby, and a raider ran full speed into me, and I got knocked back from the force of the impact. The 1911 fell from my grasp. The raider shook its head to clear it, then stared at me with a sadistic smile. I’m fucked, I should have been more careful.

Chapter 4: Taking Contact

Rolling to the side, I narrowly dodged the attack from the raider. After grabbing the M1911, I quickly turned around and flicked off the safety, pulling the trigger until the gun clicked empty. The first round entered its left eye, turning the left part of its face into bloody chunks and splattering the wall behind it with blood and grey matter. I hit the magazine release, and the spent mag hit the dirt with a soft thump as I slapped in a new one. The shots most likely attracted the other raiders in the town, so gotta pay attention now. Let’s see if the raider had anything on it.

I kneeled by the body and rummaged through any pouches or pockets I could find. I found a rusty knife, several bottle caps, two mags of pistol caliber ammunition, and a pistol with the weird mouth grip on it. I-it had two weapons it could of used... and it just charged at me, using neither. Know what, I’ll think about it later, I got raiders to kill and a gun to acquire.

I holstered my 1911 and unslung my Lee-Enfield No.4, then pulled the bayonet from its sheath on my side and affixed it to the front. I halfcocked the bolt to make sure a round was in, then pushed the bolt forward upon seeing a round in the chamber. The sound of beating hooves approaching caught my attention, probably checking out the gunshots. The first raider ran around the corner, and impaled itself through the neck on my bayonet. Twisting the blade and pulling it out, the raider fell to the ground and clutched its neck with its hooves on a vain attempt to stop its inevitable death. The second raider ran around the corner with a sledge hammer floating behind it. It had a horn on its head, which was glowing a pale yellow color, the same glow was also wrapped around the handle of the sledge hammer. It swung the hammer, which connected with my left arm with a sickening crunch. I screamed out in agony as the force of the blow knocked me into the wall and sending my rifle tumbling to the ground. Again relying on my pistol, I yanked it out of its holster and popped off a round. It connected with her neck, which exploded into a mess of blood and chunks of flesh. The glow faded from its horn and the hammer, causing it to fall to the ground with a full thud. Its warm blood spurted on my face, and I just sat their, unable to move.

“Fuck! I wish I brought splints, I should have listened to Blackjack... fuck... at least I have morphine.” I panted, struggling not to scream from the immense pain surging through my broken arm.

These are raiders, they almost always have some Stimpaks laying around somewhere, but what if they don’t? If they don’t... then I’m completely fucked over. This better be worth it.

I grabbed my rifle by its sling, pulling it over to me and using it to support myself as I got up. Fuck this, I don’t think this’ll be worth it. After getting to my feet, I slung my rifle over my shoulder again. Creeping up to the corner, and...

BLAMH!

The retort of a high-caliber rifle caused me to freeze, but it seemed the shot wasn’t aimed at me. I waited several seconds for another shot to ring out, but heard nothing, so I took another risk and peaked around the corner and saw an empty street littered with some empty glass bottles. The street was suspiciously empty for this being a raider den, there was a definitive lack of... bloody decor on the walls.

I took the chance to run across the open street to a crudely fixed up house across the way. Pain flared in my left arm again as I ran, but I ignored it for now as my focus was on the shack in front of me. The door didn’t look sturdy, and I could easily kick it in. My sidearm had six rounds left in the current mag, and I had one spare remaining, so if those goes south I’m so fucking dead. Kicking in the door and rushing inside, I had caught a small group of three raiders off guard, a shot to the head finishing them off. Three rounds left before reload. A small tan box with three pink butterflies on it was laying on the floor, unfortunately already unlocked. I opened the container and found a few glass bottles filled with a red, blood like liquid in them. There was also a thing of Rad-Away and a few rolls of bandages.

If Blackjack were here, maybe he’d know what’s in these bottles. I should still take them though. Better to leave the enemy with few medical supplies in case I have to retreat.

I did a quick search of the bodies and finding a small amount of bottle caps, a revolver with a standard grip, six rounds for the revolver, and a couple grenades. The place was really quiet all of the sudden, and I took the opportunity to medic myself. Out of instinct I tried to open the medical menu, and to my surprise it actually came up. My left arm was highlighted in a pale yellow, meaning very little injury. Checking out my left arm, it showed that I had a few scratches, it was fractured, and I had lost some blood. Okay, could be worse. I could be dead or could have had my leg fractured. Quickly bandaging my arm and hitting myself with a stick a morphine, I then closed the medical menu and readied my pistol. Exiting the small shack, I listened for the sound of hooves, but didn’t hear anything. This wasn’t going well, but it’s still better than expected for a plan made on the fly. Coming to the edge of the building, I checked the sight lines, and saw it was clear of the balcony and raiders. I made a run for a building across the street, then quickly stopped when I heard beeping.

Mines. That’s just fucking swell.

There were several mines here, and their flashing orange lights were easily visible. Slowly backing up and heading further down the street; I went down a different alley that wasn’t mined. This lead to an open field with sparse trees and ditches for cover. I just wanted to put as much distance between me and the raiders as possible. If Blackjack got sent here as well, then maybe I could rally up with him. That is, if he didn’t die.

After walking for a while, a notification appeared in my vision. It read, New Objective: Search for supplies.

Where did that come from? Probably important, but finding a splint takes priority. The marker for this objective was 2 klicks to the... uh... North. I guess I have a direction I need to go now. I just hope there’s splints.

Chapter 5: Trekking through Manehatten

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 6: Within reach

I had re-awoken to Anomaly pressing her hooves into my side in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Ow ow ow ow fuck ow. By looking around, I saw that I was moved. I don’t think she noticed I had woken up as she was busy holding a bandage to my wound. Next to her were several bloody bandages, presumably soaked with my blood.
"Hey, I can deal with it now." I groaned before coughing hard, and thick globs of blood splattered onto my hand. That’s not good, that’s not good at all.

"Y-you... h-how?" She asked, seemingly confused that I woke back up. I don’t know how I’m alive either, but thank you Jesus for ACE medical. Quickly, I started to wrap a bandage around the wound in my side, the blood flow soon stopping.

"No fucking clue, I just don’t question it. It just works." I respond before pulling off my helmet, glasses, and headset, then finally removing that damned balaclava thing. I shoved it it my bag and put the rest of the head gear back on. "I should be good..." cough cough "For now at least. I’m going to need something to fix my insides. Alright, how far did you drag me?"

"Just into the corner building, it was closest. That caravan had left as well."

"Well... that’s something. Lets get going... Ahhh!" White flashed in the edges of my vision and my side exploded in agony. Bullets hurt Blackjack, morphine is your friend here. I grabbed a red little autoinjector that contained that amazing drug called morphine, and stabbed it into my leg. The pain slowly faded along with the white flashing, and soon I could get up with out my side exploding.

Anomaly went silent again, then she gave me my rifle and launcher before we continued, though with added caution as there were confirmed contacts in the AO. Our pace had slowed considerably as we moved from cover to cover in bounds. I gave Anomaly that pistol with the mouth grip. She took it and turned off the safety, now ready to kill. We kept moving forward, watching out for signs of ambushes or mines underfoot.

We had come to a stop at an intersection and took cover behind some rubble. I quickly pulled back the slide on my rifle, and it was empty. Fuck, had I fired thirty rounds in that skirmish? Didn’t feel like a mag’s worth of rounds. Alright, so I brought two hundred forty total rounds for the Tar, a frag, two WPs, and twenty eight rounds for the 1911. Thirty rounds of 5.56 and a WP grenade expended, leaving two hundred ten rounds for the Tar, a frag, a WP, and twenty eight rounds for the 1911. Plus that LAW I found, so I have an okay ammunition supply.

I pulled out and discarded the empty mag, before slapping in a fresh one and racking the slide, chambering a fresh round. I was ready for the next fight. We advanced across the open quickly, and kept going for another block before darkness started to settle in. Quickly occupying and clearing the second floor of a shop, we decided to hold up there for the night. I kept watch while Anomaly got some rest, and I knew it would be a long night.

Time: 20:00
Location: Manehatten
Objective: Escort target to Tenpony

Much the same as earlier today, nothing had really happened. The only thing to note was the distance shrieks of animals and light gun fire echoing through the city. I really shouldn't push my luck when nothing's happening, it usually doesn't go well. The distant sounds began to die off, leaving only the soft sound of Anomaly's breathing to be heard. I got up and sat near where Anomaly was sitting just in case something happened, I could quickly move her to cover. Nothing was probably going to happen if I went to sleep, cause I mean, what's the chance that raiders come into this specific building? Can't be high.

Moring came around rather quickly it seemed, and we weren't dead, which was a definite plus. Looking to my right, I saw Anomaly was still sleeping. I re-slung my rifle, and picked up the sleeping form of Anomaly. Again, it'll be another day of walking for god knows how long before finding some somewhat safe place to rest and then rinse, repeat. Anomaly twisted a bit in my arms, but otherwise was still asleep. If I remember correctly, she told me that we had to find a way onto this "Celestia Line", which I’m assuming is some kind of train line. No clue how I would find it in this city, but I’ll find a way... hopefully.

After a while of walking, I laid eyes on what I assumed was Tenpony. The building intact, and significantly cleaner looking than the ruins around it. Connected to it was what was probably the Celestia Line, which stretched off to the right. It stayed off into the distance for a bit before being blocked from view by buildings, and with no clear entrance in sight, that meant more walking. Fun. Welp, best start walking before it becomes night again. I walked in the shadow of the rail line, which stretched on for seemingly ever. As I went on, the line started to decline until is was level with the street, and the only thing blocking me was a wall. Setting the sleeping mare on top of the wall, I then jump and pulled myself over the wall before grabbing her again to continue, now in the opposite direction along the line. Now towards Tenpony. It quickly leads into a tunnel, which is pitch black, making it essentially impossible to see. My footsteps echoed in the darkness as I moved along the line, taking extreme care with where I put my feet as to make sure I don’t trip on anything. I need light. Glad I found those chemlights, or as Hanz likes to call them, "Tactical glowsticks".

With one hand I grabbed one from my rig, snapped it, and then threw it down the tunnel. It landed, revealing nothing but track, and I kept going. Kicking the chemlight further down the tunnel to light up my path, before seeing the soft glow of a fire. Two ponies were silhouetted against the light, and next to them was a cage. I gently woke up Anomaly and told her to stay put and stay quiet. She nodded, and made herself as small as possible in the darkness. I unslung my rifle, and slowly approached, making sure to make as little noise as possible. I got close enough to barely overhear their conversation.

“So what are we going to do with this bitch? We gonna’ sell her or what?” The first one asked. Definitely male.

“We’re going to sell her.” The other one responded, this one also male. “Those brothels out west usually pay a good amount of caps for fresh merchandise.”

I’ve heard enough. I lined up a shot on the first one, then pulled the trigger. The muzzle flash revealed my position as the round went clean through the head of the first slaver. I snapped to the other one before he could react and put a round through his head as well. Targets eliminated. “Come on Anomaly, it’s clear.”

I stepped into the platform before looking into the cage. Inside the cage was an injured, maroon mare. Her chest was wrapped in blood soaked bandages, and her left eye was swollen shut. She was cowering in the corner of the cage. Anomaly had gotten up to the platform, and when she laid eyes on the maroon mare, she gasped. It seemed Anomaly recognized the mare.

“M-mom?” Anomaly asked with a slight stutter. The maroon mare lifts her head and looks at Anomaly. She gasps, and stands up from the corner. So that’s her mother. It’s good that Anomaly still has at least one parent left.

"Hate to break up the moment, but would you both kindly cover your ears? I’m shooting off the lock." I aimed at the lock with my handgun, squeezing the trigger and blowing off the lock. The cage door creaked open a bit on its own, and the maroon mare limped over to it and pushed it open with a hoof. That’s when I noticed the explosive collar around her neck. One of the bodies has to have the remote for it. The first body had some bottle caps, a syringe filled with some kind of drug, and a large combat knife. The other body had some more caps, some bullets for Anomaly’s pistol, and the controller I was looking for! There was two buttons on it, a large red one and a smaller green one. Red buttons always make thinks go boom, so I’m going to take a guess and say the green is it’s power. Here goes a life. I pushed it, and the collar beeped before falling from around her neck, hitting the concrete with a clink.

"Don’t run off like that again, that’s how you get picked off." Anomaly’s mother said to her. "Now, who’s that? Can you trust it?"

She glanced over at me, her eyes pleading for me to step in. So I did. "I’m Sgt. Blackjack of the RSDF, 2nd division, 28th Recon. I escorted your daughter from one end of the city to here, as well as I fixed her broken leg."

Her mother looked at her for confirmation, and she nodded. "Well, I thank you for keeping her safe. I’m afraid that I’m unable to pay you..."

"You don’t have to pay me anything, I’m just doing it cause it’s the right thing. Wouldn’t forgive myself if I let an innocent die when I could’ve prevented it. And you're welcome, Ms...?"

"You can call me Firefly."

"Then you’re welcome Ms. Firefly. Now if you would let me, I’d like to put some fresh bandages on you. You could simply refuse, and I’ll respect that decision."

Firefly shakes her head, and stands up again.

"Alright then. We should be close to Tenpony if I’ve estimated correctly, and then we’ll part ways."

So we continued on again, with me taking point, Anomaly in the middle, and Firefly taking up the rear.
“Is everybody ready?” Cried the sergeant looking up. Our hero meekly answered “yes” and then they stood him up. He jumped right out into the blast, his static line unhooked. And he ain’t gonna jump no more. Gory gory what a hell of a way to die.

Author's Note

This is last thing I’ll be releasing until the new year. Here’s hoping next year is better than this one.

Chapter 7: Wandering

Another burst from my rifle dropped another one of these mutant bat things. The bolt locked in the open position, signaling an empty magazine, reducing me to four mags. They blended in with the darkness, only being reveled by muzzle flashes or by spotting their beady red eyes that pierced through the darkness. Anomaly was low on ammo, with only a few shots remaining at most. I tossed the empty mag, slapped in a fresh one and chambered the first round. I fired another burst into the swarm before they flew off, probably to find easier prey. My heart was still pounding in my ears, but it was starting to slow.

"Sitrep." I ordered out of instinct.

"Uhh... I've pretty much used all of my bullets, but I'm not hurt." Anomaly responded after a second, but Firefly didn't respond. Tossing a chemlight back, I saw Firefly unconscious on the floor. Well that's just great, why does everyone who says they're fine fall uncon? Kneeling next to her and pressing two fingers into the crook of her neck, I could feel a heart beat. Checking the bandages on her chest, I saw fresh blood soaking through them, which means her wound reopened. There was a bullet wound with no visible exit wound, so the round is probably still lodged in her chest. "Anomaly, I need you to grab a roll of bandages from my bag right now." I ordered as I unlatched my canteen and poured some water on the wound to clean it. She grabbed a roll of bandages from my bag and gave it to me. I quickly began to bandage Firefly's chest enough to sop the bleeding, before picking her up. "We need to hurry and make it to Tenpony and get your mother medical treatment."

And we moved as quickly as possible to the objective, trying not to trip up on rubble. Anomaly kept up quite well for running on three legs, so I didn't have to worry too much about leaving her in the dust. We had eventually made it out of the tunnel, and right there in front of us was the objective. Tenpony. As we approached the gate, I saw two ponies standing guard right in front. One was in a fully enclosed metal suit armed with a duel minigun setup, so it's probably some sort of powered armor. The other was a unicorn, who was just about chest height. Judging by its muzzle, I assumed it to be male.

"Halt, I can't allow you through until you surrender you ammunition and grenades. Upon leaving, all your ammo will be returned to you." The guard stallion said in a monotone voice. I set the mare down and unloaded both guns, then putting the mags into my carrier rig, then took off my rig. I gave it to him along with the LAW, and his horn lit up as he took it into a security station I only just noticed. I quickly asked where a medical facility was, and the guard told me it was on the second level, then opened the gate for us. I quickly picked up the unconscious Firefly and carried her inside.

I sat down on the edge of the bed, having spent most of the caps Anomaly and I had scrounged up on paying for Firefly’s medical treatment and renting a room for the night. I don’t know what to do at this point. It doesn’t feel right to just abandon them, but it’d probably be for the better. If they stay with me I’ll probably end up getting them killed.

I looked over to the other bed, and the two mares were both sleeping. Opening my medical bag, I grabbed one of the bottles of Wild Pegasus and opened it. Why? I don’t know, maybe future me will find out when he’s sober. I took one last look at the amber liquid before taking a drink. It burned going down, but I really didn’t care at the moment. Soon, I started to feel this warm feeling on the inside, and my surroundings started to blur. I focused on that warm feeling, enjoying the bliss that came with it. My hands started to feel fuzzy, and I set the bottle on the nightstand before I got too intoxicated.
You better stop Blackjack, you still need to function. Besides, you’re chaotic enough sober, you don’t need to be drunk.

"You’re probably right voice in my head." I responded out loud.

Well I’m glad you actually listened to yourself for once. Anyway, lets talk. Have you noticed the marks on their flanks?

"Yeah I have. I knew what they were called, I just can’t remember... oh what was it?"

Cutie Marks?

"Yeah, Cutie Marks. That’s it. They’re kinda odd, but I’m in a world with talking ponies straight out of a fucking kids show, so can’t really complain."

Here’s something else to think about. Did you notice how little that gate guard cared about some large creature just carrying a wounded, unconscious mare? Someone could easily get the wrong idea.

"I can see your point on that. Well, I’m just glad he had some chill."

Yeah, that’s good for us. I don’t think you particularly like being unconscious. But, what do I know, I’m just a voice in your head. Now, you should do something productive with yourself, tune your radio, clean your weapon, get to know the locals.

"I’ll do something, I’m just not talking to the locals here. Seemed like a few of them were disgusted with me." I took my rifle and began to disassemble it, cleaning the various parts. Why am I here? What brought me here?

POV Change: Pfc. Hanz

The objective marker showed that I was only two hundred meters away, and I pray that there’s a splint. If there isn’t a splint, well I’m just plain out fucked in 90% if combat scenarios. Upon reaching fifty meters away, the marker vanished. Looks like whomever placed it thought I was close enough to not need the marker.

It appeared to be in a large ditch, and inside it laid a wrecked Chinook. The nose of the craft was buried into the ground, with the front rotor blades having been mostly snapped off. Several patches of the hull appeared to have been boiled off, like what you’d expect a plasma weapon to do to something. I grabbed my sidearm, then slowly approached the craft. The markings on the side indicated that it was a US Army Chinook, so either it was brought over from Arma and got shot at by some locals with energy weapons, or the US built some interplanetary portal in the search for oil. The back ramp was open, so I got closer and peered inside. There weren’t any bodies or blood inside, just a singular wooden crate that somehow survived the crash. Maybe it would have a splint in it. I climbed in and opened the crate, which upon opening I immediately noticed a splint. Yes! My luck isn’t shit for once! Now that finding a splint is scratched off the todo list, next is killing Blackjack for whatever the fuck he did that brought me here.

Hurriedly, I opened the medical menu, selected my left arm, and applied the splint. It was no longer listed as fractured, meaning I could actually use my rifle now. With my arm fixed, I looked back into the box. Inside was two more splints, a few rolls of Quick Clot bandages, and four more clips of .303 ammunition. The distant sound of a helicopter could be heard, which was slowly getting louder. Quickly shoving the items into various pouches, I made my way to the ramp and looked out. Inbound from the East was a helicopter, which somewhat resembled a Vertibird, with the overall shape and rotors on either side. I went prone to avoid detection, but made sure I had a line of sight on the craft as it landed. It made its decent into the field, which upon landing a door on the side opened, and three ponies hopped out and began walking in my direction. All three where wearing a similar grey uniforms, along with a grey helmet. On their sides was a boxy object, which I assumed to be some kind of weapon, probably an energy rifle of some kind given the shape. What was strange, (besides the fact that they’re equines with weapons), was the lack of any body armor. I’m not complaining, it makes my job easier. I grabbed my rangefinders to get a reading on the first target. It was three hundred meters away. Perfect.

Switching back to my rifle, I took aim, then gently squeezed the trigger. The round hit the first target in the chest, causing it to collapse. I cycled the bolt, took aim... second one down. Cycled the bolt again, took aim... last one eliminated. You still got it Hanz, now time to exfil. Climbing out the back, I turned West and moved quickly before their bird came back round. It started to storm as well, which would hopefully help hide me from aerial observation.

Author's Note

Looks like Blackjack finally made it to his objective, and Hanz got lucky with that crashed Chinook. Lets see if Hanz’s luck holds out.

Chapter 9: Urban Brawl. Part 2

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 10: Maneuvering

"I've got a rough idea for how to proceed from here. If we keep along this street we should reach Scrap by early morning. There is a raider nest on the route a few blocks from here, but it should be easily bypassable if we use the low lighting to our advantage. How's it sound?" I asked Firefly, who was looking over a crude map of the area. She pointed her hoof to the spot I marked with a cross.

"So that's where they are? How exactly do we slip by, it all seems rather open?" She inquired.

"They've put up a few barricades in front," I gestured on the map with a finger. "Which both provides cover for them, and limits how much a small barrel fire will illuminate. Makes sense to me that you'd want to avoid being seen before you strike if you're a raider."

She thought that over for a few seconds, before nodding in agreement. I put the map back in it's pouch; grabbing my rifle from the wall before stepping out into the streets of Manehatten. I took point of the column, keeping a decent pace to let them keep up. It was still rather dark out; the cloud cover not helping at all. The tactical glowsticks offered very little illumination, and would make us more visible in the darkness. Still wishing that I threw NVGs in this kit. Or at least a flashlight woulda been nice. Damn you me!

Tonight was eerily quiet; no distant shrieks or gunshots. Just the sound of hoof and boot falls on the concert. After we had passed the first block, Firefly spoke up.

"So Blackjack, why is the magazine for your gun in the back of it?”

“Well the rifle is in a bullpup configuration, which means the magazine is in the stock of the firearm, which allows the rifle to be a bit more compact while still having the same barrel length as a standard rifle. I’m not a huge fan of bullpups or 5.56 in general, it’s just what the 1st Army Corps was given by the Industrial District.”

"Industrial District?"

"Yeah. Rohadine is made up of four districts. The Capital District, Industrial District, Rural District, and Expansion District. Each district has its own military force that it supplies and funds, with the Capital being able to call upon the forces from the other districts if need be." I explained. "I’d rather talk about this later, that fine?"

"Fine."

The quiet moments are the worst. You’re always waiting for something to break the silence, with the feeling being worse for me in urban environments. Any window or doorway or rooftop could have an armed enemy waiting to spring an ambush. I’m probably just being paranoid though. The rain had started up again; the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance gave me a slight spook.

We head passed another block without issue, and when we had gotten closer to where the raider nest should be, it had been destroyed. Bodies were strewn about the street, slashed and ripped apart with their blood pooling in the cracked concrete. The stench was putrid. The bodies were still fresh however, which meant whatever it was happened in the past couple hours. What the hell happened? Must've killed them quickly or else I would've heard gunshots. "Wait here for a second, I'm going to see if I can find anything useful quickly."

"Be my guest." Firefly responded while covering her muzzle with a hoof.

I approached the bodies carefully. The first one had three giant gashes going from chest to flank, its head and all four legs missing. Stepping over and heading to the next one showed much the same thing. All the bodies shared the three sets of gashes and the missing some or all limbs. Oddly enough everything of value was also missing. All guns, melee, drugs, and caps were all missing. I turned back around to Firefly. "There's nothing left, everything's already been takin. Lets get go-..."

BOOM

POV Change: Pfc. Hanz

I kept to the low ground between hills, making sure I wasn't skylining. So far nothing bad had happened in between now and when I got teleported. Though now something bad has to happen now.

Around the bend of a hill in a small ditch was another crashed aircraft, this time it was a D77 Pelican dropship. The airframe was heavily scorched on the front end, the writing "MARINES" was barely legible on the side. The left wing was torn off and laying next it. Maybe it would have something useful in it. Pistol drawn, I slowly approached the crashed Pelican, keeping my eye on the top of the hill. Blood was splattered on the dirt around the doors to the troop compartment; An empty can of biofoam was on the ground, showing that there was at least a few survivors of the crash. I guess the UNSC are here now as well.

This was one of the later models of D77 due to the cargo nets above the seats in the back, which luckily still had a gun. I grabbed the M7 SMG and inspected it. Its small, compact design made it the perfect weapon for drop pods. It was still in decent condition luckily, and it was suppressed. A few magazines were up with it as well; not enough to last but enough to get me out of a situation. Unfortunately there wasn't anything else of use. With nothing else for me to find and in need of somewhere safe to rest, I kept going on my original path.

That path led me through more hills. This downtime gave me time to think about this place, the talking ponies with guns, the anomalies. It was strange. Fuck, I forgot about Blackjack. I really should check up on him.

"Blackjack, you there? Blackjack?"

Nothing. All I got was static. Either I'm just out of range, or something bad has happened to him. Well, nothing I can do for him right now.

After a good hour or so of walking, I found myself near a valley. I took cover under a small tree, using it as an observation post to watch the valley. I pulled my rangefinder from its pouch on my chest; switching off the night vision mode. Far off in the distance was a walled settlement, its walls made of scrap meal. The terrain was relatively open, a dirt path going towards the town. The entrance to the valley was to the north.

A caravan was moving towards the town at a slow pace. It was made up of more ponies. They looked to be expecting something to happen, their heads on a near constant swivel. What ever they had must've been important for them to be that jumpy. I put the rangefinder back in its pouch before finding a good spot to dig a foxhole to sleep in for the night.

I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of voices.

"I don’t think it’s worth it, Screw." A deep male voice spoke. "I mean, if it’s as thought as the rumors say..."

"I understand your concern Cobalt, but we need the caps..." A female voice, presumably the one named Screw responded.

I grabbed my SMG quietly, slowly looking over the lip of the foxhole. Through the bushes two ponies were visible, both sat near a camp fire facing away.

"Screw, there’s better ways to make caps. We could scavenge in the old pre-war military ruins, we could join a caravan. Anything but hunting down that... creature." The guy said, trying to convince Screw out of hunting someone.

I aimed at them; my finger hovered on the trigger just in case.

Screw sighed. "I... realize that. But if we do this job, we’d have enough caps to buy a place in New Oasis. We’d be set for long enough to find something more permanent for income."

"But what if we can’t find it? What then?" The guy asked. Screw didn’t respond.

"Then... then I’ll... I don’t know."

They didn’t say much after. Eventually they put out their fire and fell asleep. I carefully pulled myself out of the hole, then quickly sneaking past the sleeping pare before they woke up.

I followed along the dirt path towards that town. The low light made it especially difficult to navigate. The darkness did help with concealment, making somewhat safer to maneuver around.

There was no noise whatsoever. It was rather nerve racking not hearing anything other than your own shallow breathing. Maybe the ponies at that settlement would be more friendly. I really hope so.

Lights from the settlement could be seen once I got closer, which meant it had power generation of some kind. That could be good.

Specimen: Pfc. Hanz

Foot note: Level up.
New Perk.
Perk: Light on your Feet -- You’re surprisingly light on your feet, and people swear you’re a ninja. You gain a bonus to stealth while carrying less that 100 pounds, and pressure based traps are 50% less likely to go off.

Chapter 11: A Simple Job

The night vision feature on the rangefinder was pretty much useless tonight. There wasn't enough light for it to enhance for any sort of vision. I removed my tinted goggles, along with the face wrap and shoved them in an empty pouch. I wasn't going to need them, but better to not leave anything that could be useful behind. As I closed the pouch, a noise grabbed my attention.

It almost sounded like hoof steps. There were no lights visible other than the ones coming from the town; so it was either an auditory hallucination or something was actually walking around out there in the dark. You're just stressed Hanz, it was nothing. Calm down. The sound had disappeared as it quickly as it had arrived thankfully. Keeping a slow pace as to not trip over anything on the ground, I steadily made my way around towards where I presumed the front gate to be. So far things seemed okay. There wasn't any disemboweled corpses or large fuck off spikes, so it was a good chance they weren't raiders.

Coming around to the front gate showed that they had used what looks like an old boxcar as both the gate and front wall. A mix of sandbags and scrap metal lined the top of the gate. Two guards were sat on top behind the fortification, one seemingly on the verge of falling asleep and the other staring off into space. Or more likely the cloud layer. Walking forward into the light, the one that was half asleep managed to wake up enough to point its rifle at me.

"Don't move! State your business here!" It spoke in a very tired yet still authoritative voice.

"I just want to get out of the dark... and maybe find some work."

They started whispering to each other about something. After a few minutes they looed back at me. "Looking for work, right? The Mayor might have something, follow me." The same one said, motioning for the other guard to open the gate. "Watch yourself, start causing trouble and you'll regret it."

It lead me through the main street of the town towards where the Mayor of this town more than likely resided. The architecture was a mix of patched up pre-war buildings and shacks made out of metal. Most of the ponies just glanced at me before continuing on their way or just ignored me entirely. A few of the younger ones gave curious lances as I walked past, though were mostly quickly ushered off by their caretakers. I took note of the rough location of a few stores, a medical place of some kind, and a bar. Blackjack would be proud that I found one so quickly. We entered into a rather sparse lobby of the central building of the town. The only furniture was a few couches, and a desk in the center with a terminal. It told me to wait in the lobby before it walked off through a door on the left. I walked over to one of the couches to inspect it, and it appeared to be in good enough condition. I sat down on it, the frame creaking slightly due to age but it held.

I didn't get long to relax as the Mayor had walked in followed by the same guard from earlier. The guard had stopped by the door, keeping its eyes on me with a glare. The Mayor was also a pony. A standard pony I had assumed at first, though a slight bulge on the sides of its jacket led me to think otherwise. Ignoring that for now, I stood back up to talk.

It cleared its throat before speaking. "So, you're the creature that's looking for a big job?" It, or more accurately she, asked.

"Yeah, that's right. I was told you might have something you needed done."

"And you'd be right. What I need is parts to fix the Sparkle Pack powering our fine settlement. We do know where one is, we just need somepony to go get it from Stable 100." She explained. "The pay will be good, along with extra pay if you can bring back more parts."

"If it's so important, why haven't you had someone else go fetch it for you?"

"I've hired a few mercenaries and sent a few creatures who volunteered to go. None have them have comeback. Not to say they died in the Stable, a million things could've happened in between here and the Stable. They could've changed their minds and walked off, could've been killed by mutated wildlife or raiders, or even got there and walked off last minute. The pay is 800 caps."

"Hmm. Give me the location of this Stable and one night to get my gear ready. I'll take it."

We shook on it, and with a nod, she walked back off to where she was grabbed from. I sat back down to take a look through what was with me at the moment. I had seven rounds for the M1911, a smoke grenade, and one-hundred-eighty rounds for the M7 SMG. It wasn't much but it will have to do.

I followed along the dirt path further east into the valley. At a few points along the path the radio had started making a high pitched whine when nearing anomalies, making it into an impromptu anomaly detector. Thankfully it didn't go off very often. Walking for long periods made me realize how much I took vehicles for granted. The path had brought me into a small village ruin, more of a pitstop place than a town.

As I walked through I spotted a green crate laying next to a vehicle wreck. It was the same kind that was in that Chinook with the splints, hopefully this one would be useful as well. Inside of the crate was one magazine for the 1911, a flashlight attachment for the M7, a gasmask with its carry bag, and a bag of glow in the dark chalk. After slinging the gasmask to my chest and attaching the flashlight to the SMG, the rest of the stuff got put in the chest rig.

The directions I was provided said the Stable was supposed to be near here somewhere. Looking around the few buildings gave me nothing on its location. As I walked over to the final building a manhole cover caught my eye. The detailing on the cover was in the iconic cog of a Vault hidden in with the regular detailing. A wave of stale air hit me as the cover was pried from its rest, and it fell to the side with a slight clang. This was it alright.

I put the gasmask on before activating the flashlight. I dropped down the ladder, hitting the floor with a soft thud. The tunnel stretched on to the west, while to the east was Stable 100. The door was already open, the lights inside were off. Already not a good sign. Alright, here we go into an abandoned stable with god knows what else. Hell, here's hoping I get to see the surfaces again. Quickly drawing an arrow towards the ladder with the chalk before entering just in case it's night by the time everything is said and done. The Stable was still very clean with no rust whatsoever to be seen, signaling that whatever happened was recent. Placing a mark by the entrance to the rest of the Stable with the arrow pointing out towards the door, it was time to head further in. The light couldn't break through the darkness very far, limiting visibility to about four wall panels. Soon there was a T-junction, with the two choices being left towards a set of stairs, or straight further down the hall. Heading left after marking an arrow reveled that the stairs went downwards, and usually the reactor area is on one of the lower levels so it made sense to head down. Taking each step slowly down, testing each step for instability was my way of heading down. You never know what could be ready to give with these places.

The landing at the bottom turned left, which lead to another set of stairs. That set led to an X-junction with all three ways looking the same. Marking my path with the chalk, I turned left. Following it down until hitting two doors and stopping gave me more ways to go. Checking the left door, my light illuminated lab equipment that was scattered upon tables and the floor; nothing of use here. The door on the other side was much the same story, though with an active terminal. Heading over to it showed that it was unlocked. There were two options on screen, an option called Notice from Overmare, and Experiment logs. Opening the Experiment logs, it came up with an error. The files were corrupted. Backing out and opening the Notice from Overmare brought up what was sent.

Notice: MaS Personnel are to report to their nearest containment shelter ASAP. A failure of @#^&@#^&* protocols on Research Sublevel C has lead to a rouge @*%$@^, injuring four and killing @%&#%%&. The rest of the file was corrupted, but with what little there was didn't make me feel good about this situation. It was probably best to hurry. Leaning back out and scanning both directions showed nothing thankfully. Keeping upon the original direction took me to a dead end with a closed door on the left. The controls for the door were broken off; no getting in there it seems like. Turing around and heading back towards the X-junction was all that's left this way. Once back at the junction, I put a cross on the wall to show I've been that way.

Heading down the way across from the stairs led me to another set of stairs. A sign reading Reactor was above the stair well. Traversing down led to another landing. This once turned to the right, leading down to the reactor level. Once again marking my path before venturing further into the reactor level. An uneasy sensation started growing in my stomach with each step further. Fighting past the nausea, I arrived at a T-junction when something screeched from up ahead at me. I shot a burst into it as it leapt from the dark, the rounds tearing it apart. The thing fell apart into black smoke just before colliding with me. So I guess this is what that terminal mentioned, not to tough it seems.

I kept on my toes moving past it, looking out for any more of its kind. The radio had started to emit a constant low squeal, growing louder when one of those things was nearby. This whole level was filled with them. They must've been gathered around the reactor, as the low hum of a reactor grew with their numbers.

The feeling of nausea got worse outside the reactor room, which was unfortunately locked. Right across from it however was a storage room. This door opened up just fine. A half decayed body fell on to the floor, another one of those abominations eating it. Emptying the last of the second magazine into it dissipated it quickly; it was down to the final magazine before having to switch to the pistol. Stepping over the body into the storage room, the nausea was almost unbearable. Luckily there weren't anymore abominations in here. Located on the shelfing unit in the center of the room was the parts I needed. Scooping them up into two pouches, it now meant it was time to get the fuck out of dodge. As I turned I got pounced on from behind.

The nausea got even worse. Managing to shove it off before it got a grip, I sprinted out of the room. I started to fell light headed on top of the nausea. The only audible sounds was my footsteps impacting the metal, my own breathing, and the sound of abominations giving chase to their prey.

Foot note:
Warning, Sanity levels critically low. All memory formation and recollection disabled.

Chapter 12: Friendly Forces

It was early afternoon when I got back to the gate of the settlement, still out of breath from sprinting half the way back. There was a new set of guards at the gate I had to haggle with before luckily one of the gate guards from last night came by and ordered them to open the gate for me. Pushing through when it opened enough to squeeze through, I retraced my steps to the town hall.

Upon entering, the Mayor was standing in the center of the room talking to two other ponies. This must've been the end of their conversation; the two left rather quickly.

I walked over to her, clearing my throat to grab her attention. The mare turned around. "Oh, you're back! We're the parts there?"

"Yeah I did, just don't send anyone else to that place, that place is FUBAR. Anyway, here are the parts you needed." I responded, giving her the spare parts.

She took them and set them on the desk behind her. "Wait here for a quick second while I get your payment." She walked off to a side door. She came back after a few minutes carrying a bag with her. I checked the bag after receiving it; It was indeed eight hundred caps. It was definitely enough for a good while.

I thanked her, and made my way out of the building. It would be really funny if the moment I stepped out the front gate I just got shot. Well if I do get shot I have more than enough to pay for medical supplies.

As I left I made my way towards the entrance to the valley from the other day. The trip there was rather uneventful until getting out of the valley when the sound of an engine reached my ears. I hit the dirt whilst turning towards the direction of the sound. The source of the sound was a pair of BTRs, either the 60PB variant or the 70. The front vehicle had several people riding on top of it while the rear vehicle didn't. The people riding on top were wearing the same uniform that I was, as well as being armed with a mix of G43s and M1 Carbines. Oddly enough they appeared to be a mix of humans and ponies, both wearing the same uniforms. As the BTR's approached the symbol on the side became more visible; it was the RDFs insignia.

Cautiously standing back up and flagging the vehicle, I waited as it slowed to a halt next to me. One guy slid off the back and approached me.

"Greetings, I'm Seconded Lieutenant Jack Peterson, 2nd Mech Platoon. Or what's left of it anyway. It's still nice to see you, sir." 2Lt. Peterson said as he saluted me.

I saluted back a bit confused. "Well I'm Private First Class Hanz. Can I catch a ride?"

The man chuckled, dropping his salute. "Well of course sir, hop on and we'll move out."

POV Change: Sgt. Blackjack

I pulled the bandages tightly around Anomaly's head. The mares' eyes were unfocused and struggling to focus on anything. She probably had a concussion.

"Hey Anom. Anomaly!" I had to snap to get her attention.

"Huh?" She slurred, her eyes trying to focus on me.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Uhh... three."

I was only holding up two. There wasn’t much I could do about it at the moment other than stop her from getting hit in the head again.

"Look, Anomaly, I’m sorry about..."

"It’s okay Blackjack, there’s nothing you could’ve done. At least she didn’t suffer, right?"

"Yeah... you’re right." I let out a quiet sigh, looking down at the ground. "You still want to head to Scrap, or is that plan out the window?"

"I'll just head to Scrap, it's just around the core anyway. Let's go."

I stood back up with my empty rifle. We kept pressed to the buildings till we reached an intersection, where around that corner was the settlement of Scrap. A wall had been made by a few old vehicles with steel plates welded to them. Anomaly gave a small wave goodbye before walking towards her home settlement. I took a turn left, starting on my way to get out of the city.

I bumped into something invisible, the thing dropping its invisibility. It was a tall pony, just around my height. It was an alicorn. No doubt about that.

"Wait! Don’t shoot her!" A voice shouted from my right. "She’s with us!"

A man wearing what looked like an old Second World War US Army kit ran out from an alley. He grabbed my shoulder to stop me from drawing my handgun.

"What?”

"You’re Sergeant Blackjack, right? Blue, the alicorn here, told us she had contacted a Blackjack." The man let go of my shoulder before snapping to a quick salute. "Corporal Flint, RSDF, 3rd Forward Recon Company, Baker Squad reporting for duty sir."

I was even more confused than I was before but just rolled with it for now. What’s the worse that could happen right? Behind him a few more soldiers walked out, one unicorn pony, and two other humans. All of them where wearing the same uniform as Cpl. Flint.

Blue game me a smile, before clearing her throat. "Hi Blackjack, it’s been a while.”

"It has... so you were the voice in my head who wasn’t actually a voice in me head. It’s nice to meet you. Moving on, why did you call me sir, Flint?"

“Well you’re the commander, sir. What else are we supposed to call you?”

"Fair point. Well, your new orders are to follow me, you’re part of the command squad now."

"Yes, Sir."

Cpl. Flint’s squad along with Blue formed up in a staggered column behind me. With that rather confusing situation solved, we started moving again. Soon the weather took a slight turn as a fog bank rolled in. While visibility was still good, it wouldn’t be for too much longer, so I ordered the formation to tighten up preemptively. Hopefully we could get out of the city relatively soon before we all get killed off by raiders or more Talons.

Chapter 13: Almost Out

"So what were your original orders, Corporal?" I inquired.

"We were being sent to investigate a radio station that failed to check in. We believe it was CSAT, but we never got to the radio station as we got sent here." Flint answered. "We originally had an M.O.I spook with us but he’s MIA. As for what’s left of the squad, we have Specialist Candy, who’s our Corpsman. Then we have Private Shepard, who’s the ammunition carrier for our BAR gunner, Private Ackerman."

"Did the presence of a spook tip you off that it might be CSAT and not just some mechanical failure?"

"I don’t know. With tensions so high between China and Rohadine, it’d make sense to assume it’s CSAT."

"Huh. Well whatever it was we can’t worry about it right now. It’s better to just focus on getting out of the city. If the fog stays like this after half an hour, we’ll just have to move through the fog."

Flint nodded as he stood up, then he walked over to the other three. Blue tapped my shoulder to get my attention. "What’s a CSAT?"

"CSAT is an alliance of multiple nations that are working together with the nation of China. The word CSAT is an abbreviation for Canton Protocol Strategic Alliance Treaty. They’re one of Rohadine’s biggest enemies in the current geopolitical situation. It’s honestly a mess I’d rather not explain, I really hate politics."

Blue nodded, before going back to staring straight ahead blankly. Before long thirty minutes had passed, meaning it was once again time to move forward. Unfortunately the weather was still awful. Still, it was better to just get out of the city as quickly as possible.

A blast of laser impacted the Cpl. Flint, the impact turning him into ash. Not that was something I haven’t seen before. We dove for cover as laser fire dropped Pvt. Shepard as well, though he didn’t get turned to ash.

"Ackerman, lay down fire!" I took command. The BAR barked as it spat return fire. I grabbed the frag grenade from his webbing, before pulling the pin and letting it fly.

The incoming fire stopped after the frag went off. I advanced slowly out of cover, moving up until coming across several bodies. They looked like mercenaries to me with their armor. One of them let out a groan of pain. I pinned the still alive pony to the ground with my foot as I pulled out my sidearm.

"Ackerman, Candy, Blue! Get up here!" I pressed the barrel of the pistol against the back of its head as a threat. "Who sent you after us? Who wants me dead?"

"I ain’t talkin." It spat.

"One of you give me a knife. Now." I ordered the remains of my squad. Ackerman gave me his knife. "Now, you better start talking or you’re going to start losing bits."

It just spat again. Fine. If it wanted to be difficult, so be it. I stabbed the knife just an inch into the exposed flesh, then started to drag it across him, carving lines. It let out a grunt of pain. "Come on, just give me the information I want and I’ll release you. It’s real simple."

It broke when the knife reached bone. "Aghh! Goddesses stop! I’ll talk! I d-don’t know who, boss just said he was some big shot slaver. I told ya what ya wanted, hold up your end of the agreement."

"Wasn’t so hard was it? Thanks for the information, now I’ll release you." I fired point blank into it’s skull. Its brains splattered across the concrete from the new hole in its head.

Grabbing what was useful from the dead, we kept on our way towards the edge. The three survivors kept quiet after that. The weather luckily started to clear up; now we could see down the street again.

"Commander? Why’d you do that, you said you’d release him?" Candy spoke up for the first time.

"Well I did release him. I released him from his suffering. He was already shredded by the frag, it was a mercy killing.”

"There’s no such thing as a mercy killing, commander. That was just murder." Ackerman interjected. Blue kept quiet.

"Would you rather I let him bleed to death? Or let him come after us again? I don’t like what I did either, but I’m just trying to get us all home."

"And how are you going to that?"

"We just need to find what brought us here in the first place, then maybe we can use it to get back home. And if it doesn’t work... we’ll cross that bridge when we get there."

It must’ve been enough of an answer as they went silent again. I fucked up didn’t I? No, I was just doing what was best for our survival. Right? I did what I had to do.

Blackjack, I think you did the right thing in that situation. You were looking out for us, that’s all. He was a merc, he could’ve come back with bigger weapons.

Yeah, I guess you’re right. Thanks.

Looking back at Blue, she nodded. It made me feel a little better for whatever reason, but I’m just glad it did. The feeling didn’t linger for long however. Instead I replaced it with some good memories of home.

By the time the light started to leave the sky we had reached the outskirts of the city. A River separated the city from the rest of the wasteland, with a bridge to the west being the only way across from here. Instead of risking traversing in the dark, we set up camp in an old shop. Blue just stared off into space again as I lit a small fire for light and warmth. Ackerman started to strip his BAR, while Candy just stared at the fire.

"I’m gonna head up to the next floor to see if there’s anything useful."

Going upstairs led me to a hallway with a few doors. The first one had already been rotted away by time, revealing it to be a kitchen. As I entered the room a voice from above me caught my attention.

"Blackjack! I found you!" The female voice spoke with a small hint of glee. A crimson colored pegasus dropped down from a hole in the roof. She quickly pounced me and... gave me a hug?

"Uhh... Hi. Who are you and how do you know me?"

The mare dropped back down to the floor, her expression turning to a more saddened one. "You don’t remember me? It’s me, Scarlet. We’ve been fighting together for a year now. You seriously don’t remember me?" She sounded like she was almost on the verge of tears.

"I’m really, really sorry Miss, but I honestly have never met you before."

She sniffled before clearing her throat. "Well, maybe I can help you remember."

Foot note:
Companion added to party.
Companion Perk Added: Obsession: When you are knocked unconscious, Scarlet gains a 20% damage bonus, but takes 10% more damage from hostile fire, along with a 100% chance to suffer a mental break upon your death.

Chapter 14: Turning around

Scarlet was rather jumpy as we crossed the bridge. She kept looking this way and that, trying to find something that wasn’t there, waiting for an ambush to reveal itself. Nothing did happen though. The bridge was abandoned in its entirety.

"Hey Blue, can you cloak yourself and scout the other end of the bridge? I don’t want us walking into the killing field." I asked to the alicorn we’ve come to appreciate.

Blue nodded, before shooting up into the sky as she cloaked herself. The sound of hooves running broke the silence. The sound caught everyone’s attention, but nobody could see where it was coming from. A zebra appeared, and it raised its forelegs in a ‘don’t shoot me’ way. Ackerman kept his BAR pointed at the zebra just in case. It slowly reached into its cloak, before holding its hoof out with a letter. On the front of the letter was written, ‘I’ve got a message I’m supposed to deliver. Your hooves only.’ I took the letter from it’s hoof.

"So was this sent to me or...?"

The zebra pointed at me.

"Alright then. Thanks I guess. You can go now. Ackerman, let him."

The zebra nodded, before it quickly put up its hood and disappeared. Well that was odd to say the least. Who could’ve sent this though. Anomaly? I doubt she knows where I am.

We waited for a few more minutes before Blue returned at last. She glided down to us, before landing in front of us. The only threat she found was a group of raiders further up the road, but we could past them by hugging the river west. After that. Well, we’ll build that bridge when we get to it. She also had found a flipped human vehicle at the end of the bridge, so hopefully that still works.

Scarlet jumped up on my shoulder. "Something feels off, I can feel it." The tips of the blades emerged from the hidden gauntlets on her forelegs. She was prepared for things to go south.

"What do you mean?"

"Something feels off, I can feel it." Scarlet repeated. She just kept repeating that same sentence whenever questioned. Keeping perched on my shoulder, the only movements she made was to balance herself as we walked. What the hell is up with this mare? I still don’t know much, but this definitely doesn’t seem to be normal. First she says we’ve know each other for over a year, then she gets real clingy. I need to figure her out.

My pistol was drawn as we made our way across the rest of it. Candy had her Thompson pointed skyward, while Ackerman had his BAR pointed behind us. At the end of the bridge was the flipped vehicle. It was most definitely a Humvee. On the side door were the letters ‘MP’ written in black. This one belonged to some nations Military Police it seems.

"RDF! Don’t shoot!" A shaky voice called out. The source of the voice walked out from behind the overturned vehicle. It was young earth pony stallion, probably no older than nineteen. He was wearing an old tigerstripe uniform, and an M1 helmet with a tigerstripe covering. An MP44 with what appeared to be a picatinny rail attached to the top of it hung from a sling around his neck. He seemed rather shaken up.

"Sargent Blackjack of the RDF, state your name, rank, and unit." I ordered the young stallion.

"P-Private Soaring Spirit, 1st Homeland S-Security Battalion, Rural District." Private Spirit responded, his voice still shaking. "I got assigned with Corporal Madden to h-help deal with rioters in the Capital. Somehow we got sent here, and we were attacked. M-Madden is... d-dead."

"Thank you for the information, Private Spirit. Help us unflip the Humvee, and we can give him a burial."

He nodded. Scarlet finally got off my shoulder, and with help from two magic users, we managed to unflip it. I pulled the body out of the drivers seat, I then took his rifle, ammunition, and dog tags. He was also equipped with the modified MP44. The tags went in the same pouch as the other two KIA’s. The body was buried in an unmarked grave. All of us who had headgear took them off for a few seconds of silence.

We didn’t have the time to sit here and mourn the dead forever, so after we payed our respect we hurriedly mounted up in the Humvee. Blue had to lay in the back area due to her large horn. Ackerman sat in the center where the hatch was, presumably to mouth his BAR on the roof if need be. Candy took back left seat, across from Spirit who took back right. Scarlet jumped in the front passenger’s seat, leaving me to drive. Been a few years since I’ve had to drive one of these. Let’s see if she still handles how I remember.

The engine sputtered to life, and with that the radio. I started driving us west as the radio played.
"Good Afternoon Fillies and Colts, this is DJ Pon3 with news from across the wasteland. From what I’ve been told by my sources, is that another one of the creatures in green has been spotted all the way out in the Vanhoover region! That’s right folks, and if this one’s anything like the one here in Manehatten, then best keep your weapons in your holsters, as they mean the average pony no harm. If you’re a raider or slaver, then you best hope you don’t get noticed. If either of the two are listening to this, feel free to drop by and give ol’ Pon3 a visit in Tenpony. I know my assistant would just love to get an interview with you. That’s it for news this time children. This is DJ Pon3, reminding you kindness can payoff."

What followed was the opening sounds of some violins. It must’ve been some kind of classical music.

"Creatures in green? Does this DJ mean you?" Candy asked.

"I would assume so, since I haven’t seen any other green uniforms other than Spirit’s and Hanz’s, but I don’t know where the latter is, other than apparently the Vanhoover region. Wherever that is. Hey Scarlet, are you a local?"

Scarlet was silent for a few seconds. "Yeah I am. Vanhoover is on the west coast, and we’re on the east coast." Scarlet replied.

"Good to know. Second thing Scarlet, read this letter. Don’t read the full thing, just sum it up."

She grabbed the letter with her wing, and opened it quickly. "Seems to me like this was sent by Homage judging by the horn writing. She wants to get an interview with you, just like she said on the radio."

"She? Pon3 sounds like a dude."

"No, that’s just a spell that changes her voice. She’s been passed the title of DJ Pon3 by... somepony who I don’t think she ever told me about. Well anyway, she wants an interview with you. You going to oblige her?"

"God damn, we just left the city. Fine, but you’re staying in the Humvee with everyone else. I’m not dragging your clingy ass with me."

Scarlet hit my shoulder as I turned us around. I think that maybe, just maybe, that she might’ve been slightly offended by that statement.

Chapter 15: First Battle of Tenpony

We drove down whatever road that I had went down with Anomaly. As is tradition for when the author doesn't know what he's doing, it rain picked back up again. It stayed at a light pitter pater instead of being pouring rain like it was for some days. Part way down the road, the radio went all staticky for a few seconds before coming back. This time it was playing a different song. It sounded really familiar, I just couldn't place it.

Candy spoke up. "Isn't this Swan Lake? Doesn't the Ministry of Information play this on all civilian channels when some big shit goes down?"

Swan Lake. I knew it sounded familiar.

"Yeah. Russia does it as well. Maybe whatever caused the radio to go all staticky for a sec made this... what was the name, Homage? What ever is going on, maybe this Homage put it on to signal an emergency?" Ackerman put his two cents in.

"Why can't things just go according to plan for five damn minutes. Hell... Get ready guys, we're seeing action again. Candy, give Blue my Tar-21. Blue, open up that box you found back there." I called out with a slight sign.

Blue had opened it earlier, but we just left the contents in the box. Now, we’ll more than likely need it. All of us except Scarlet and Candy attached a flashlight to the side of our guns. The former lacked a gun, with the latter lacking attachment rails. It was more of a just incase thing then a necessity, but it'd be better to arrive overprepared then underprepared. Soon I found a way onto the Celestia line with the Humvee. I floored it through the tunnel before coming to a halt outside the entrance. The two guards that should be standing outside were dead. Switching the vehicle off and hoping out, I went over to inspect the two bodies. Both had singe marks similar to those left by that of the energy weapons used against us. Maybe more of those mercs from the other day? But why attack Tenpony? Back to some good 'ol CQC. My absolute favorite. "Alright ladies and gents, we're here to do some investigating, but there are hostiles in our AO. Normal ROE, shoot bad guys, not civvies. We'll be splitting up into two, three man fireteams to maximize coverage. Spirit, Scarlet, you're with me. Candy, Ackerman, Blue, you're your own team. Blue, keep me updated on hostiles with your telepathy. Any questions? No? Let's move out then."

The power to the lights had been cut, so the group probably has NVG's of some kind. This is going to go poorly. Safety off, a round in the chamber, flashlight on, it was time to clear this level. This area contained some of the shops. All of them were open and abandoned in a hurry. A few security ponies lay dead in the hall. Again, all of them are singed. We had to clear each shop one by one. In each one the place looked ransacked. The lack of the invader bodies worried me at what I was getting my troops into. They enemy must have some decent armor to be able to take this place with zero casualties. In the final shop in this hallway, there was a two bodies in here. One of a security pony, and another of a little grey unicorn with a Pip-Boy for a cutie mark. Some gut feeling told me that, with this pony's death, the thread of fate has been severed. No time to dwell on the dead. We have to clear this place.

"Oh no. Oh no no no. T-this can't have happened." Scarlet whimpered under her breath, though it was barley audible.

"What was that, Scarlet?"

"N-nothing. We have to make those bastards pay."

Blackjack, our side is clear. We're waiting by an intersection near some stairs. You better hurry, we can hear a commotion on the next floor.

Check it out, quickly! We'll catch up!

"We gotta move. Team two hears contact!" We double timed it to the end of the hall. Ackerman’s BAR opened up on something on the floor above. Just around the corner was the intersection Candy’s team was just at; SMG and rifle fire joined along with the sound of energy rifles. "RDF coming up!"

We used the lip of the stairs as cover. Candy’s team was in cover in two side rooms, and the bodies of two pegasi in a dark grey flak armor laid on the center of the hallway. At the far end of the hall were the hostiles; more pegasi in the same dark grey armor, only being illuminated by the muzzle flash of their weapons. Spirit opened fire with his rifle in semi-auto, keeping up a steady fire rate for suppression. I mimicked the fire rate. A start bullet caught one of the hostiles in the throat, leaving only two in this engagement.

I ducked down to reload as my radio received a transmission. "To any friendly forces on this net, this is the commander of the Second Platoon of the Third Company from the Fifty-Second Infantry Division, callsign Hammer, we need orders."

I grabbed the radio from my rig, "Callsign Hammer, this is the Commander. I’m requesting reinforcements with in the Tenpony Tower. Do you know that location? If not, find the Celestia line and follow it East."

"Copy that, Commander. We’ll double time it to you." Hammer Platoon responded.

The last two hostiles had been eliminated by a frag grenade. Scarlet bolted forward to the bodies the moment the shooting stopped. She quickly ripped the dog tags from around its neck. She practically growled. "They’re Enclave. Fucking, cock sucking sons of fucking bitches."

Damn. Just... damn. Right out of left field with that one. "Ease it off there Scarlet, save that anger for the next engagement."

Much the same occurred as we cleared the rest of this level, with more smaller engagements popping up. This time they actually retreated before they got overwhelmed. At the next set of stairs, a squad from Hammer Platoon joined us. This squad was entirely made up of ponies. They must’ve been the same district force as Spirit, as they were armed with MP44s with rail systems. They all wore the same Tigerstripe uniforms with M1 helmets, with only the two support gunners having regular backpacks, and the squad leader having on old Second World War era radio backpack. The squads load out consisted of six MP44s, one M79 grenade launcher, with two M1919s for the support gunners.

"Welcome gentlemen, to Tenpony."

"It’s nice to see you, Commander. The rest of the platoon is catching up. We volunteered to run ahead to rally with you." The squad leader reported as he caught his breath. "Oh, and, Sergeant Snow, reporting sir."

"Nice to have you. Now, we’re fighting a faction called The Enclave, and they appear to have occupied the tower. We’re here to clear it out. Any questions? Then lets get going."

With the additional reinforcements, I pulled my second fire team back into my squad, and let Sgt. Snow clear opposite side. We kept clearing with little resistance until the fifth level, where a lot of the Tenpony residents were being held captive. The lights were on on this level, so no chance of sneaking up on them.

"There’s Homage, in the far back of the group." Scarlet pointed out.

I grabbed the grenadier from Snow’s squad. "Hey, you got flash grenades for the forty mike-mike?"

She nodded.

"Great, I want you to lob a flash round in the center of them."

The mare changed rounds in the M79, before taking aim and launching it. The round detonated, blinding and deafening both the residents and Enclave troops temporarily.

"Alright, engage now!" I ordered. We started to move out of the kill zone, rushing for cover on the sides of the hallway. A few were outside flash range and opened fire on us. A beam hit me in the leg. I fell over into cover.

"Damn. I got hit. Doesn’t look to bad thou..."

Error: Specimen Sgt. Blackjack’s monitoring equipment has gone offline.
Attempting reboot...

Error: Specimen KIA.

Commencing body retrieval for revival.

Chapter 1: Welcome to... Manehattan?

Author's Note

I’m not feeling well, but I wanted to get this out before school starts up for me again. Updates for this and An AI’s tale will come at really slow pace starting in a few weeks.

Chapter 1: Welcome to... Manehattan?

The rain hasn’t stopped, in fact it’s gotten worse. The sound of rain plinking off of my helmet and the soft thumping of my boots against the concrete as I increased my speed to a quick jog was all I could hear. Making my way to the closest building to get out of the rain, I entered through the front of the building, I appeared to have entered in to some sort of lobby area. The floor had some sort of a design on it, but it was too faded for me to tell what it was. On the left there’s some faded or broken furniture, while on the right there’s what looks like a reception desk, with a Fallout looking terminal sitting on it. The thing I found strange was that the desk was only that the desk only went up to my waist. Thats odd, why is it so short? Or maybe I’m just really tall.

I vaulted over the desk and checked out the terminal, only to find the screen broken, revealing the inner workings of it. I let a small sigh before looking around again, and seeing that it’s starting to get dark outside. I also realized how cold and wet I was, my uniform practically plastered to my shivering body. Wish I added NVG’s to this kit, that would make it easier to do things in the dark. I walked over to the old couch, ripping off a leg and some fabric, then proceeded to wrap the fabric tightly around the couch leg. Pulling out my lighter, I lit the fabric and used it as a makeshift torch. With my new found source of light and warmth, I went further into the building, soon coming across a staircase; they appeared to be pretty stable, so I went up them to the second floor. When I got to the second floor, I found my self in a hallway with a bunch of numbered doors. Am I in some hotel? I would think so, considering the area downstairs looking like a reception area with a small lounge.

Something seemed off, like I was being watched. I quickly turned around, and found nothing. I grabbed my 1911 out of its holster, holding it in one hand and the torch in the other. I slowly made my way down the hall, listening for any noises. My heart was pounding in my ears as I walked, adrenaline coursing through my veins as I prepared to run if I had too. Approaching the first door on the left, I tried to read the number on it, but all I could make out was a three and what looked like a zero; I slowly opened the door, and I found my self in a hotel room, through the darkness I could make out a shape on the bed... and it was shaking slightly. I enter the room and approached the bed, I hear the soft sound of terrified breathing. When the figure was illuminated by the torch I stopped in my tracks. Laying there on the bed, I saw a small filly, and when she looks up at me I can see the terror in her eyes. I then hear her soft whimpering, I take a closer look and see her cradling her foreleg, which is bent at an off angle; It’s evident that it’s broken. I stick the handle of the makeshift torch into the nearby nightstand, which grants me enough light to see.

Cautiously, I put my 1911 back in its holster and I unsling my medical bag, pulling out a splint and a morphine. I go to gently grab her foreleg and she pulls it back slightly, before letting out a small yelp of pain. “I’m just going to fix your foreleg, okay? I’m not going to lie that this will hurt as I straighten your leg, but I have something that will help with the pain.” I say, showing her the splint and the morphine auto injector. She still looks terrified, but weakly nods. I reach for her foreleg again, and this time she doesn’t try to move away; I start to move her broken foreleg back into position and she yelps in pain, her eyes tearing up as she tries not to scream. Applying the splint and making sure it isn’t loose, I then inject her with the morphine, keeping a close eye on her breathing. Taking a chance to look over her, I could see that her coat is a grey, with her mane and tail being a pitch black, her eyes were a soft blue, the only part of her that had any color. “Can you tell me your name miss?” I inquired softly, trying to sooth her fears.

“M-my name’s A-anomaly. W-w-who are you?” The filly known as Anomaly responds, her voice quivering slightly.

“Well Anomaly, I’m Blackjack. It’s nice to meet you. Now, how did you break your foreleg?”

“The caravan I was with g-got attacked by raiders. I was really scared, a-and I ran, I slipped on the stairs and broke my foreleg. I-I limped ho here because it was close, and when you came in here, I-I though you were going to kill me.” Anomaly responds, her voice starting to crack. Never though I would be talking to a pony. Nonetheless one that can talk back to me, it’s weird. I don’t think I could know how terrified she must have been and probably still is.

“Can you tell me where your caravan was going?”

“W-we were going to Tenpony tower, it doesn’t matter though, everypony in my caravan is probably dead or worse.” Anomaly says, a grim tone in her voice.

“Alright, *sigh* after I get some rest, I’ll take you to Tenpony if you can guide me there. That sound good to you?” I ask softly. She seems to ponder this for a minute, before nodding. “Alright, first thing tomorrow, we’ll head to Tenpony, where ever that is.” I take off my helmet and set it on the ground next to me, then I grab a pillow from the old bed and place it on the ground, letting Anomaly sleep on the bed. She needs the rest more than I do. I put my helmet, Tar-21, and medic bag in a pile before I extinguish the torch, settling in for the night. My thoughts linger on the fate of Anomaly’s caravan as I drift into a dreamless sleep.

Chapter 8: Urban Brawl. Part 1

Author's Note

I recently got some dental work done, and now my mouth is killing me. That, along with school work doesn’t lead to favorable writing conditions. I’m surprised I was able to get this down, but here you go. My phone hates me, so there’s probably a capitalization error somewhere in here that I missed, along with the other odds and ends that comes with my writing.

Chapter 8: Urban Brawl. Part 1

I came across the ruins of a road, which stretched off to the north and to the south. If I went south, that would lead into hostile territory. Heading east would lead back to those bodies, and west was the direction I left in, so not a good idea to keep going that way. That left north as my only option, so I began heading north up the road. It stretched out into the horizon, eventually wandering into distance hills. It was still rather barren, which would assist the enemy in locating me. Several ruined vehicles scattered the road, so I made sure to keep a bit of distance from them just in case they are IED‘s. One can never be too careful when dealing with IED’s.

Later on down the road, I came across a Humvee flipped over on its roof on the side of the road. There was also a door missing, which looked like it was ripped off. Somethings not right about this. I quickly reattached my bayonet in preparation to skewer anything that gets too close.

On the side of the Humvee was the RSDF’s insignia, two swords crossed over a blue star. That struck me as somewhat odd since not only did we rarely use Humvees, but what was a it doing with a fictional nations’ military insignia? There was blood splattered on the inside. It was mostly splattered on the seats and dashboard, meaning it was flipped after the occupants were killed. That however brings the question of what flipped it. It wasn’t an IED, since there isn’t any shrapnel damage on the underside. Laying on the inside hidden behind a seat was a helmet mounted camera, which was still recording judging by the blinking light on the side. I grabbed it and stopped the recording by pressing a button on the side near the lens. Luckily it had a small screen that could fold out, allowing me to view the recording. Checking my surroundings and seeing nothing had changed, I turned back to the camera to start the playback.

Playback start: 13/6/2035
Time: 14:00

The recoding started in the Humvee I was sitting against as it was driving down a dirt road. It was from the point of view of the driver. I skipped through the first hour or so of it, which was just the vehicle driving through the jungle. At the 16:02 time stamp, the recording became staticky before regaining its focus, showing the wasteland I found myself in now. The audio had broken, so I could only assume the driver’s reaction was that of confusion. He turned to look at the person next to him, who just shrugged. After a few minutes the Humvee started moving again, heading down the road nearby. Eventually the vehicle came across a tall dark blue pony, which had large wings and a long horn. Seconds later the blue pony vanished into thin air. They have active camouflage now?!

Something hit the Humvee, causing the driver to smash his head into wheel, knocking off the helmet. The Humvee was definitely flipped at this point. The camera had fallen in a away so that it could see the the right side of the vehicle. A little later it showed the door being ripped off by a large, bipedal bear looking creature, which messily removed the bodies from the flipped vehicle.

Playback end

So that’s what happened to the Humvee. Hopefully those guys had a quick death. Standing up, I looked around for any signs of shimmering in the air, but there was nothing. Still just empty, mostly barren wasteland.

A notification appeared in front of me. New Objective: Regroup with squad leader. However no marker appeared in my vision anywhere, but at least I know Blackjack is here... somewhere. Actually this is probably a bad thing. He’s probably leveled a city block by now, if not an entire city.

So if I was God, where would I yeet Blackjack? Besides hell that is. I’d probably yeet him into a city environment, which doesn’t help me at all. Wait... I’m an absolute idiot. I have a radio; I just hope he’s in range.

"Bravo actual, this is Hotel 1-1, do you read me, over?"

"Hotel 1-1, I’m reading you 5 by 5. Send traffic, over."

"Bravo actual, permission to cease, over?"

"Sure Hanz, glad to hear from you. Speak your mind."

"Thanks. Anyway, where the hell are you? I got dropped by a small village like area."

"I’m in the city of Manehatten, and yes you heard me right, Manehattan. No clue where that is in relevance to you, but it’s somewhere on the east coast. Any land marks from where you are?"

"Uhh... got a mountain with a pink gas falling from it to my south-west, and I think what looks like some buildings to my far north, nothing south or east."

"Alright... well don’t just wander east. It’s up to you what you do, but... bang ... Fuck, get down! Sniper!”

That was the last thing I heard before the radio went silent. Well, he’s here. But who was he yelling at? Couldn’t have been me, not near him. He’ll radio back if he survives, so I guess I’ll just head north. Just focus on staying alive Hanz. You can’t regroup of you’re dead.

Keeping in the road north, I decided to him myself a tune to keep boredom at bay. I was a Pfc on a search patrol hunting Charlie down, it was in the jungle wars of ‘65. My weapon jammed and I got stuck way out and all alone, and I could hear the enemy moving in close outside...

Arriving on the outskirts, it turned out to be an industrial town; factories towards the north and housing south side. It definitely has raiders somewhere in the city, judging by the colorful decor of skinned ponies on crosses intermingled with spiked heads. Lovely. Quickly rain started to plink onto my helmet as it started to downpour. I hate the rain, it gets you cold and wet, and it’s just awful. Though, I guess it could mask my movement a tiny bit. I advanced to a street corner, peering down the MSR with my range finder. On a distant upper factory floor I spotted movement; it was a raider sniper. Checking for range, it read three hundred eighty-four meters.

Noticing a pile of ruble just in front of me, I ran up before diving to a prone position. I rested my rifle on the rubble, ranging the scope for four hundred meters, and lined up the shot. "But be not thou far from me, O my strength, haste thee to help me." I mumbled, gently squeezing the trigger. The round connected with its skull, exploding like a grape. The shot echoed a bit before fading; the rain to take prominent again. Another raider peaked its head in the window. I cycled the bolt, then gently squeezed the trigger. The round hit just over; it ducked back before its head got blown off. Damn.

Getting up, I sprinted into a nearby alley, climbing an old fire escape to the third floor from the top. The room I entered used to be a bedroom. The old bed had the skeleton of a pony still in it, a long decayed book laying on it. The door was missing from its frame. Probably lost when the apocalypse happened. The next room was the kitchen, with most of the appliances having been rusted over. A table sat in the center of the room, but it was barely intact due to age. Finally getting to the broken window on the north side of the apartment, I set up my rifle. Three raiders were moving down the street, about two hundred meters away.

"O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me." I took shot. It connected with the lead raider, which collapsed like a sack of bricks. The other two scattered. Cycling the bolt; the next shot flew was true as well, striking down my foe. The last raider fled out of sight. It got lucky this time. It won’t be lucky next time.