Fallout Equestria: Ballad of a Rogue Ranger

Chapter ten: Revelation

“Ahh… did I miss something from yesterday?” Deacon asked as his eyes trailed over the new changes to the suit, “Or was I at the bar counter longer than expected?”

Fishing out the bag I’d made that morning, I tossed it to our guide with my horn. Without even counting, the gryphon simply held it in his talon and weighed it out as if a scale. He’d have to have been doing this a while to tell that much from it.

“Let’s just say I’m good at what I do.”

That seemed to satisfy the gryphon enough, and with a shrug the bag went right in to his own stash. “Eh we all got something were good at out here, not like there’s not the time to practice,” in the distance his eyes seemed to follow the path out of town, almost as if judging the journey, “You all set to roll?”

Both myself and Tumble looked at one another, and behind the visor she picked up my expression. With what little things wrapped up that morning before meeting him, it was time to hit the road. With a nod the male swung his head, and we started walking.

***

‘In the lunar princesses’ name, I hate walking…’ part of me groaned after what had to have been an hour down the path. It was a slower pace than probably expected, power armor would do that sort of thing. Though neither of my cohorts were complaining about the tacked-on hours.

Our guide for the most part had kept to himself, and instructed us on different routes as we occasionally made the detour around areas that were unsightly to say the least. Larger Raider dens that had been established, nests of creatures I didn’t want to meet, and occasionally the pond of magical radiation that ticked my meters more than a metronome.

Oh, what fun the world was today.

Though this was getting boring, and boring meant time ticked by slower than space itself… “How far did you say this place was?” we’d never really covered that part of the trek.

“Bout’ a day’s walk… give or take,” he pondered once again with the edge of a wing to his beak, “Though trying to avoid some of the bigger dangers does add on some time to that.”

Tumble still looked skeptically at him, not sure if he was leading us in to a trap, or being truthful to his words. Never the less, my E.F.S. was clear, so for now I didn’t worry too much. “So why is it ya working alone?” she piped up, granted it crossed my mind from what I remember of history before, but didn’t want to go about it so bluntly, “most of the time gryphons would be working in groups, especially in your occupation… group die off or something?”

That wasn’t a question you’d chuckle at normally… but sure enough we both heard the low throat snicker of him coming up. “Oh hardly, though that’d probably would have saved me some trouble on an occasion or two…” cryptic message sure, but still not an answer, “there were contracts, and I just happened to nab up a lot of them on my own. Often enough to piss off some of other members, and certainly enough for them to force me out… been doing freelance ever sense.”

“Freelance… like slaving…?” that term meant a lot of things, actually a little bit of everything. Somepony was thinking of all the possibilities… and it made sense. If I had just gotten out of my group of mercs, I know I’d be wanting to make a quick cap if I could… what better way than to sell off some able-bodied ponies?

Almost as fast as the question left her lips, the clip on her holster undid, ready to relieve Deacons’ head from his shoulders. Calmly though, we both watched Deacon stop in his tracks and sigh. “What does it take to make a cap or two in peace?” I heard him mutter under his breath, really the sensors on these helmets were awesome at times, “No… not slaving, I don’t touch that area of work…”

“Any particular reason?” she asked without missing a beat, “it’d be easy enough to lead others in to a slaver base, only to be captured.”

“You’re as quick with that gun as you are your tongue ya know? Alas, no, only if I had a death wish,” funny, that was starting to seem like a daily occurrence out here. Still, the mare held her gun at the ready, “You look pretty handy with that pistol, and he’s in power armor… how am I supposed to take that on?” … fair point, but can you really blame her for asking? “Plus, most places will shoot ya on sight if they know you’re working with those kinds of groups. I don’t know about you, but I like to enjoy a drink in peace from time to time.”

There was an answer that seemed to satisfy her, even I could see the shoulders of the mare relax a bit. “Forgive the suspicion…” I offered standing almost between the two like a stump, “I suppose it’s just kind of odd to see a gryphon on their own.”

“No big deal,” He seemed to brush it off and we continued walking, “gotten a few barrels pointed at me for the same question before.”

“So how do you know the mine then?” Tumble asked clicking her holster closed.

“I used to go through there for scavenging… you know before it got taken over,” Deacon rolled his eyes for a moment, “back with the old crew, there were a few jobs of getting parts and such.”

“Not far off from back in my day,” everything I read about the gryphons and Zebras from old news clippings had them doing a little bit of everything… could call that Freelance as well, “even with the zebras ya’ll were in gangs of your own, hell almost entire armies… there were all sorts of jobs they had you doing.”

Though one that brought a snicker from our guide, “Back in your day? You some sort of fossil?”

Tumble grinned over to me, waiting almost to see if I would explain or not. How I wound up here wasn’t much of a secret to keep, at least not from one with a smaller gun than me, “In a way… yes,” his head turned to meet mine and gave the same face of curiosity I’d gotten before. “Stable pony, went on ice at the end of the war… woke up not too long ago,” though if I didn’t swap out the Stable suit for a pair of utility coveralls underneath this plating, it might have been more believable. Far less chafing at least.

Yet that comment seemed to give me… Nothing, not a single face of doubt, inquiry, or even suspicion listed on his face. The only thing that greeted us was the laugh of a guy who had heard everything at this point. “Really now? You’re a pony frozen in time?” between words he laughed, and managed to catch his breath at the same time, “And I’m the illegitimate son of Celestia…” through his torrent of laughter, both myself and Tumble just looked at one another.

It was absurd to think so, sure, even she was snickering for a bit at how comical is appeared when said out loud. Never the less, her smirk wiped itself free of her face soon enough, “If you’d seen him work on that armor of his, you’d believe it in a heartbeat,” she backed me up, and together we watched him stop for a moment.

“Next I’m going to hear you worked for one of the ministries or something,” His snickering continued, and I couldn’t help but let him have it for a few more moments.

“Actually yes…” with a snap his beak shut, and slowly with the ticking of the clock his eyes started to grow wider. “Ministry of Wartime Technology to be exact… how do you think I got a place in the stable?”

Just like a balloon bursting, his laugher stopped, and his mind seemed to deflate. Every sentence he tried to say seemed to fall apart at the first syllable, as the gryphon just pointed to myself and the smug grin on the mares’ face.

“… You’re serious?”

“As much as a live grenade…” I extended my hoof to him once more, “real names Wildfire, I used to help work on heavy weapons, and at times help with the armor.”

A second or two later, and the gryphon took the armored hoof and shook, “Well… shit, I ain’t got much more I can say to that,” we turned to, and started back on our way. All with a new wave of curiosity in the gryphon, “So then if you don’t mind me asking… what are you looking for out here?”

“I went in with somepony else, when I woke up, they weren’t around,” slowly my eyes turned and took in the vastness that the world had to offer with all its dull colors, “hoping they’re still out here, somewhere.”

Deacon hadn’t said much after that, taking it all in I would assume. Then again, who could blame him really? Though that didn’t stop Tumble from putting her own two caps in, as she nudge him in the side, “however, instead of fossil, he prefers pony-cicle.”

That garnished a good change to the air around us, as both of them shared their own laugh, letting us walk on in higher spirits.

***

“And they just… gave it to you?” I know it seemed hard to get, but fixing something like this could have taken time for the group… unless you worked on them in the past, so I guess I was cheating in a way.

“Yep… it would have had to been hauled back to where ever they were held up otherwise,” all the better for me, even if it did need some work… and a good share of luck.

We’d been walking for a number of hours after that initial breaking of the ice between Tumble, myself, and our travel companion for the time being. Besides the occasional Roach, Sprite, or even random rat… all of which Tumble removed with the utmost of glee, for later I would assume, our trip was largely walking and talking. Many questions had come from the gryphon about what I’d done in the past, and it seemed to quell some of his doubt. Apparently being able to list off the various parts of a gatling laser conversion, by even number, wasn’t all that common.

What really made him wonder was how a Stable Pony fresh out of the… well, stable, managed to get their hooves on a suit of power armor so fast. “The most I’d heard of others, besides the rangers, using those suits were some who killed the ranger inside and took it for their own,” I watched him ponder for a moment, “not something you run across all too often, given the literal wall of steel they’d have to go through.”

Plus, the knowhow of working the matrix and controls on the inside, seriously… I even had to take a course on it when they were introduced before they even let me put my hooves on one. “Well this Paladin was very thankful for my help saving some of his troops,” really? What commander wouldn’t be happy of that? “he saw it as a loss they could take, and thought I’d do better with it.”

“Been doing pretty well with it so far, I’d have to say…” Tumble commented, as she looked through her bag of goodies.

Okay, goodies might be an overstatement. The cuisine of the wastes wasn’t completely terrible. It was no diner, café, or even the donuts of a Pony Joes. Though given the experience of a donut shop lately, I could take that pass. Still, it was something to get in your stomach and get you the energy to keep going… or die tomorrow, which ever came first I suppose. In a few hours, those bug guts, and rat intestines were going to start looking pretty tasty.

A talon to my collar dragged me to the ground, and had the mare pull her pistol on our guide in an instant. Even with that level of threat, the gryphon didn’t flinch as he stared down the barrel to her, then again, neither did Tumble. I just laid there like a rock in the mud as I wondered what just happened.

Carefully, he held his talon up to his beak beckoning the two of us to shush, as he pointed up. Slowly me and the mare poked our heads over the embankment and to the open grounds that dotted with barren trees, dirty roads… and a single building marking one side.

“That’s… one of the Gunner outposts,” he answered to Tumble more than myself, and we both watched as she pointed her .44 away from him.

“I thought we were avoiding most of the bigger threats along this way?” she almost scorned him, looking out at the structure, as I did the same. It almost looked like some sort of… what? Library? Maybe at one time, a bigger one sure, though those halls were probably laden with something more gruesome than the latest horror novel now.

“We were… buildings I can avoid pretty well… that I can’t,” he pointed with one talon up over our little cover in a different direction, “They didn’t normally send them out this far…”

There walking across some of the smaller hill sides and embankments that gave us cover, both myself and Tumble watched as what looked like a patrol made their way through the wastes. It was only a group of less than half a dozen sure, likely simple guards patrolling the local area, but certainly enough to raise the alarm if they spotted us.

With a slow breath, I even heard the mare release the stress she likely held for our curious companion, “So what now?” I whispered to him, unsure how much ground the group was covering.

It took a few moments, probably one or two longer than I would have liked sure, but in the end, Deacon shrugged his shoulders to the both of us. “We can wait here till nightfall? A few hours, slip by em?” he poked half his head above the dirt, “I don’t see us making a run for it… Gunners are usually armed well, and could probably reach out and touch us.”

Yeah… much like the AMR that dealt a certain Steel Ranger Knight his final blow. “Probably the safest option,” Tumble seemed to agree with that given her nod, “keep still, wait for the patrol to pass, and try to keep quiet before slipping away…” it was a sound plan, a good plan, and one that would keep our heads out of many, many crosshairs. I really didn’t want to know how many members they had in a building like-

“What the fuck?” all three of us looked up from our cover to see the patrol standing there staring down at us.

…that.

Instantly the minigun purred, Tumbles .44 rocked, and Deacons’ carbine cycled. Our rounds tore in to those that stood there in shock at what they had uncovered, unable to get to their senses or their triggers in time. Soon enough all those dropped amongst us as bodies, and off in the distance we heard silence.

Until the sounding of a siren.

Lights lit off of the building, searching the area. Doors opened up on the front, and on the roof, as we saw bodies pile out. Even from here, I could see the distinct glow of a few turret lights click on as they went about their sole duty.

“So… was there a plan B?” Tumble asked with a cocky brow to the gryphon.

We had to be a hundred yards from the compound, still well within range of anything they might be packing. There’s no way we’d be able to get past them on hoof without either losing one or two of us, or some decent luck. Plus, they’d likely be on us for a while afterward, even after our backs were turned.

Best defense was a good offence, right?

“Tumble…” she turned towards me, “see if you can hit their turrets, give us less bullets going our way…” this was crazy, “Deacon? Think you can give them something to look up for?” a distraction would help… but this was still suicide. His face didn’t seem to think so though, “we can’t go past them without some sort of loss, last thing they’d probably thing was a direct assault?”

Yep, clinically insane!

Deacon checked his magazine and swapped it out for one with a black band of tape on its end, different ammo maybe? Hopefully something more effective against harder targets. All the while the mare perched herself up on the edge of the embankment with her gauss rifle, making full use of that new scope.

“Break on three?” they didn’t give any argument, and as much as I wanted to, the count started, “One… Two…” deep breaths, deep breaths… “Three!”

Like that, I burst from the covering of dirt and debris from ages past, to face down a literal stronghold. Just as the gryphon took off to the skies. It didn’t take long for those lights to turn towards me, and less there after that till I saw the first turret go up in smoke. Damn, she was good with that thin- okay focusing now! A few dozen rounds started pining off the new and improved plating, and after that I started getting the readouts in my visor of the damage.

So small arms I was pretty well off against, at least at this volume… let’s not find out how I handled anything bigger. A number of barricades formed around the front entrance of the building, various carts, concrete barriers, and burnt out rubble. Perched above some of the sturdier cover, I saw the faces of those lining up their shots. The minigun spun up and sent a few strafing lines across their ranks, one or two of the bars I saw in my visor dropped. Those that joined them just kept their heads done.

The sound of an assault rifle might have fallen on deaf ears in this commotion, though the few bars that dropped told me Deacon was working for those caps. With every stomp of my hooves I made my way closer and closer to the barriers, as I did their aim got all the better. Tumble might have been making short work of the turrets she could see, but past those lights it must have been hard to tell where they were.

Another spray of my gun later took out a light or two for her, and helped me see the machine that started targeting. Within seconds a number of rounds drove in to the breast plate of the armor, one of the densest parts sure, but boy did that still leave a mark! Being out in the open like this sure didn’t help either.

Armor integrity: 72%.

Across the diagram of the suit it read out to me, Thanks for the update… quickly I slammed in to the closest barrier I could reach, just below the range of the turrets above, and kept an eye peeled towards the edge for any barrels sticking over as I gave my suit a breather.

The mechanized gun above me crackled and blew with its circuits showering overtop me, cheers to that mare on the horizon. Still, that was quite a few red bars facing my direction… I didn’t even want to imagine what it’d be like inside.

Armor integrity: 75%.

Well you’re taking your sweet ass time now! ‘Ugh…’ I groaned, knowing what I’d have to do, ‘can’t stay a sitting duck for the whole fight,’ with an outreached hoof I managed to get hold of the top of the barricade, and started to pull myself up.

Before promptly falling flat on my back.

That extra armor sure put on a few pounds… whelp, going around.

Not so quickly getting to my hooves, I followed around the outer wall. If I could jump worth a damn this wouldn’t be an issue, but it was a barrier for a reason. Never the less, they had to have a way of getting in an out, and… there it was!

What looked mostly made of wood with sheet metal nailed to its outer side certainly had to be the weakest point of their whole wall, and all the better for me, was as flimsy as I thought. With one hind kick from the servo driven limbs the hinges on its sides caved and blew the whole section in to their courtyard. Stepping in welcomed me with the very intrigued, and angry glares of those who defended their position.

Unicorns, earth ponies, both colts and mares of all different sizes, shapes and colors. Gryphons didn’t seem welcome I suppose, and Pegisy were probably hard to come by with what the Enclave had- Oh for Celestias sake, focus!

All barrels turned towards me as the last turret gave way, and with me standing out in the open, their own rounds came to and struck the plating. A drop of the valve from my side brought a stream of fuel their way as the whoosh of flames covered a few of them, leaving a lot of screams to echo through the approaching dusk. Yeah, not so fun when you’re the one being BBQed is it?

The turrets might have always targeted center mass, hitting the toughest part, though these guys and gals just hit whatever they could. Shoulder, head, leg, even the occasional round struck my flank. All of which fed back in to my visor and told me exact details of how close to dying I really was, they couldn’t all be as strong as the chest plate.

Armor integrity: 59%...

Armor integrity: 56%...

Armor integrity: 52%...

Steadily I watched the percentage drop with each round that hit, they weren’t as strong as the turrets granted, but they still took a toll. My own fuel clipped across the barricade and caught some of them in smaller patches. Not enough to kill, but surely enough to give them more concern.

Or enough to hit something else.

One that I licked with the flames dived towards me… melee attack? Against armor? Are you- then he exploded… just my luck I’d lit some of his munitions aflame and he took the suicide approach! That blast left the heavier suit skidding across the dirt and crusty grass of their courtyard, and made my head whirl.

The small pony icon of a colt with bandages around his head told me all I needed to know… that’s why those stars were dancing across my vision. After a few seconds the pump kicked in and trickled in the potions to my system. A welcome dose to take the edge off as I went back to the priority at hoof. With my fuel in that tank starting to run low, the barrels on my mini spun up and mowed those that were just out of reach to the flames.

5mm peppered those that still took shots at myself, yet with their attention turned towards me, that left another to shine. Deacon landed on one of the catwalks to their barricade and immediately drove his barrel in to temple of a colt, before splattering his brain across the very confused looking comrade next to him.

A butt of the rifle from the comrade raised up to strike, though this gryphon was just a tad faster, as his knife pulled from its sheath and lodged itself under the ponies’ jaw and up in to his skull… very well worth those caps indeed. Another looked to raise up his own shotgun to our guide, though before my guns could take care of him, Deacons’ punched through his chest armor.

Definitely packing armor piercing rounds.

One came in too close to myself and tried to strike… nope, not taking that chance again! It didn’t take more than half the strength of the armor to crunch his chest in as I bucked, launching the pony across the area and into another wall. Spraying amongst a few more of them with the mini, I watched small bits of meat tear off and land amid those that charred from the incinerator.

After a few more shots rang out amongst us, the last of them fell to the ground. Leaving myself and Deacon to look over those remains… had to be about a dozen and a half. Who knows how many I’d hit with the flames, hard to tell when being shot. Deacon sure did his fair share of damage with that gun, and the two of us would have been cut to pieces if it wasn’t for our little overwatch.

“Well now, you look like hell…” Tumble commented as she trotted through the gate I’d blown open. She wasn’t wrong, I felt like hell… and my suit wasn’t lying either.

Armor integrity: 41%.

“Eh… I’ll manage, just give it a chance to repair some,” how long it’d take to get to 100%, I hadn’t a clue, but we likely didn’t have that long. Thankfully, with some scrap still in the hopper, I slowly watched it go to work and climb little by agonizingly slow little.

“So… now what?” Deacon asked as he looked over some of the bodies and plucked what goods were quick to nap, “I mean those inside have to know we’re out here… and I don’t imagine them taking to kindly to what’d we just done.”

He was right, even if we high tailed it out of here, there’d be who knows how many on our trail not long after we got back to our journey. The building itself was large, with probably more than enough Gunners inside to do us in a number of times over… that said, you shouldn’t just half ass an assault.

“Clear it, maybe?” they both looked at me like I was on a suicide mission, I couldn’t blame them either, “if we run, they’ll shoot us in the back… we already did a number on them out here, maybe surprising them would work in our favor again, going close quarters?”

I was sitting at about a 47% advantage right now, maybe enough to take on what’s inside? Doubtful, but at least in there I’d also have back up. The two of them looked at one another, debating it in silence on if they should follow my clunky ass inside… I might survive getting shot in the back, but would one of them?

“How long you think till they burst out those doors?” Tumble asked as she prodded the gryphon.

Another shoulder shrug, gotta love that vote of confidence… “a minute? Maybe two?”

Not good odds to turn tail and book it… “So, clearing it is then,” the three of us looked to one another, and just like that each of our arms found a new magazine in them. It didn’t take long for us to position ourselves against the frame of the main door, you know, the one that was probably the most heavily fortified of the whole building…

Grand ideas, am I right?

With Deacon on one side, and Tumble positioned with the carbine out, I found myself in the middle of harm’s way… again. Though out of the three of us I could take the most brunt of damage and keep going.

Oh well, 49% it was then!

A burst from the door yielded us… Nothing?

Nope, not a soul there to greet the welcoming party… never a good sign I suppose. Steadily we made ourselves at home and walked in, Deacon took cover behind every desk, bookshelf and cart we found. As Tumble guided herself in taking cautious steps with her rifle pointed forward. For myself, I stomped in like a herd of buffalo.

Through the walls and halls of the first room, which looked like the checkout area, we could hear the echoes of those inside. Muttering, footsteps, even the clunking of something heavy… or was that just me? Nope not just me!

The doorway across from us that lead to the rest of the building burst open just as we got half way in, as a cart rolled forward. What once held books now was stocked with a machine gun, and a very eccentric mare behind the firing bit, as she racked the round in the chamber and opened up.

Several shots made contact with me, and those were just a tad bigger than the turrets for sure. Chunks of the armor broke off from every shot, and whatever it was they were packing, some instinct knew the suit wouldn’t take much more of it. Giving all the grace of a hippo I meandered behind the checkout desk next to Deacon. He knew to keep his head down, and Tumble across from us had the same mindset. Along each side of miss machine gun, I could see the shuffle of a few more troops of theirs fall in to place from the edges of my cover.

Just as fast as it started, her gun ran dry. Taking the opportunity, myself and Tumble poked our barrels out and managed to tag one or two of those by her sides, leaving me to target the larger threat. 5mm poured out, striking her battle cart… to no avail, what? Did they armor that damned thing?!

By the looks of it, yes, and before long the mare was going at it once more. Those heavier bullets broke chunks off of the wooden desk, peppering both myself and the gryphon in splinters. Deacon though? He was rummaging in his bags for something, out in his talons popped something I was all too familiar with. A tear from his beak later and the apple grenade went over his shoulder.

Followed by a blast that silenced them for a few moments, giving him the time needed to pop up at take his mark. Following suit, we both targeted the mare, as Tumble sprayed with the carbine to keep the others heads down. Deacons own rifle had the accuracy I could only hope for with the mini… what did you expect? It was better for Spray and Pray.

His bursts scattered across the cart and punched a few holes in it, leaving the mare to flinch from behind. Maybe it was a lethal shot, maybe not, either way she stopped firing. Though that didn’t stop her friends. They took it upon themselves to empty whatever they had at us, with that out of the way however, I did my part.

Stepping clear from the desk, I slid in to S.A.T.S. and took aim. Four of them remained from after the grenade, and our own mare doing her thing. I had enough charge to hit all of them, but how accurately? I wasn’t alone this time around though, with the first two targeted in the chest the bursts from my own weapon cleared a hole in their barding, neatly tearing in to that skull decal they wore.

As soon as the spell ended, the other two that remained took mighty offence to that one and started firing at me. A pony in power armor really did make a good distraction for sure, and while their shots might have not done anything close to what the big gun did, it kept those shots off of my support. The couple shots from my side left neat holes in their chest pieces, and the gryphon blowing on the end of his barrel.

Armor integrity: 37%.

Well… that was better than expected, “Everyone alright?” I asked turning to those in the group. Deacon plucked a few of those splinters from his feathers, and Tumble kept her eyes peeled on the door they had come through.

“Never better,” she commented quickly.

“Oh, I missed this…” Deacon looked positively… Happy? That’s a little weird, “If this is the check-out area, then that would mean the rest of them are past those doors.”

Good observation, not one I was looking forward to seeing for myself. A few clicks of the internal controls later and I looked at the suits’ hopper, sitting at less than a third full wasn’t settling well with me. Almost by instinct I went over to the desks and bodies, picking out any scrap that might have been on them or available. Neither of my comrades questioned it, they knew the suit needed to keep going.

I was next to useless without it… I just tested weapons and armor okay?!

‘Now I’m doing a whole hella lot more than testing,’ I hadn’t even thought of how many notches I had on the belt now, ‘Well see how well that holds,’ just above half full, better than what I started with. The hoppers’ hatch closed, and the talisman went to work, the percentage hemorrhaging its way up, “Okay so assuming this is set up like a normal library,” that was an odd look from the two of them, granted they’d never seen one that wasn’t home to somepony wanting to kill you, “long aisles, central reception area, and by the looks from the outside, a second floor with likely the same narrow channels…”

“So… a bottleneck waiting to happen,” Deacon deadpanned.

“Or an easier way to pick em off,” Tumble followed up with.

Thank you for seeing my point, “Stick together or fan out?” almost in sync they looked at me crookedly, again, “I seem to be their favorite target… you two together might be able to take more out with their eyes on me,” now they were looking a little more in agreement, “I’ll push in, draw their fire.”

“Try not to get too shot up,” the mare remarked, working with 50%? How could I go wrong? “And Freelance or not, don’t you try anything funny,” she quickly turned towards the gryphon.

“And spoil all this fun with an impromptu betrayal? I’d never dream it,” that sneer he gave her didn’t quite have the humor I was hoping for, still, the smirk she gave him looked almost as if she was begging for him to try.

Barging in probably wasn’t the best of choices, they knew we were inside, and if they had radios then they’d probably be expecting a call from those we just wasted… Wow! I was getting used to this fast, ‘thank the goddesses for strategy games,’ I shook my head at how much of those simulations were coming true, “Hmm… how many of those grenades do you got?” just like that his bag opened up and he took a quick peak in, pulling a couple out as I took them in my aura. One gentle tug, and all the pins were pulled, as I held the safety handle down with my magic.

Thankfully, the gryphon caught my drift and got to one side of the door as Tumble joined him. using a careful talon, he nudged the door back open and- yep they were waiting for us! Those on the other side set themselves up and aimed at the one spot we could have come in, the door moving was all they needed to open up.

Together we waited for the rounds to wane, before a hefty toss launched those metal apples inside. Soon enough I heard the shouting of those inside, and with a nod to the pair that joined me I jumped inside.

Just in time to see the grenades go off amongst a group of them. Their numbers disbursed for a moment to find their own cover, as I went between book shelves that lined the outer wall. From the number of bars on my screen, this really was a stronghold. Each of them was littered with arms and munitions, and between the pot shots I fired, I could see one standing in that reception area.

The colt there looked to be carrying as much armor as a pony could without keeling over, everything from his head to hoof was covered in a mix of metal plating and ceramic tiles, only the thin slit gave him any sight. ‘If that’s not the leader I don’t know who is,’ it was a fair bet to be made, and one that earned me a just reward.

Thump.

Armor integrity: 32%.

I heard the sound over the other shots before it even made contact, but oh he was a good shot! Even through that visor of his, “That’s him!” he yelled out as I looked up from where the grenade knocked me, and another round was sliding in its chamber, “That’s the ranger!”

Oh, I was starting to not like this reputation!

Scampering to my hooves I rolled, narrowly missing the next round that came my way from the colt. That didn’t stop his goons from taking their own marks however, and just like that rounds started pinging off the plates… why was I going slower? The flashing of my hind leg plates on the diagram told me something else inside was busted.

Granted the suit could fix it in time, but that wasn’t time that I was going to get easily. My hooves more or less dragged the hind quarters from behind me, and plopped myself down one of the aisles. Another thump that blew out a section of shelving a row down told me he wasn’t entirely sure where I’d wound up, or his vision wasn’t as good as I originally thought.

Still, the sound of a gauss rifle not going in my direction was welcome.

Glancing around the corning, I saw some of the 2mm EC rounds hit some of those around their leader. Some dropped, some didn’t, but that gave me a breather. The mini spun up and as me and the tank pony looked at one another we both pulled our triggers. 5mm travels faster sure, but it ricocheted off of his plates just like many of his comrades did mine. Now I knew that feeling of facing a wall of steel…

His shot was different and punched right in my chest, knocking me on my ass again.

Warning: Internal bleeding!

Warning: Multiple lacerations!

Warning: Armor integrity: 12%

Yeah… that’s what it felt like…

Groaning wouldn’t get me anywhere but dead, and as I saw him load another shell my suit kicked in and gave me a number of healing potions. ‘That won’t be enough,’ I knew it, and even through the helmet, he could see I was down for the count after one more shot. Another two injectors triggered, and I inhaled the aerosol deep in to my lungs as the injection shot in to my veins.

One thing was for sure… Dash and Stampede was a hella a combo.

Even past the damaged servos in my hind legs, somehow my body pushed through it and lunged the entirety of the suit up and at the colt. With a bound I went over the counter to the reception desk, planting a hoof square in the plate of the armored colts’ jawline. Normally for one like him he probably would have shrugged it off, even from power armor, though drug infused…

The pony rolled back in to a few of his cohorts, knocking them down with him and by the looks of it crushing one under his weight. His barrel pipped up and went off, but the round was too close to arm and bounced off my armor, detonating somewhere away from me. Several more hooves of mine contacted him in the chest, shoulder, head and whatever else I could hit. 5mm might not do much, but steel against steel did something to make him shutter.

If those others with him were shooting still I didn’t even pay attention, I probably was done with my armor in places and there was no way the talisman was keeping up, not after his shot. As the blood from him underneath the plates started to seep out, he kicked me off him. Even down, this guy still had some strength on him!

Mine on the other hoof was quickly starting to fade, my legs were getting heavier with having to work more for the suit, and the pain in my chest was either from wounds or my heart nearly bursting from the drug use. What little energy I had left was spent kicking a few of those amongst him away, as I focused on the big guy.

His plates were intact, and whatever damage I did was only on the surface, but I had something that could get under that armor… I just hoped the whole building didn’t go up as well. Biting down on the bit, the spray of fuel went over the colt and seeped inside on to his coat, once he was covered, I cut it off. Trying to minimize as much damage to the area that I was still in very close contact with.

Still, it seemed to be doing the trick.

The wails of the colt could be heard reverberating throughout the main hall, and with every step he took, his body shook a little more as he got closer. “Not again!” I ducked back over the desk and got as low as I could, and half a second after, the munitions he brought to the table cooked off.

Plates fragmented off of his body, digging in to some of the shelves around me, and even one or two of those that stood with him. Getting back to my hooves once more, I was welcomed with the sight of a blown-out torso devoid of any resemblance of a pony. Those closer to him didn’t fare much better, as they laid in innumerable manners of agony. Some clenched bleeding wounds, some gurgled their last breaths, and some just lied still as if sleeping this whole time.

I looked around the room, there weren’t any more moving by the looks of it… not a single one stirred amongst the rubble and debris, and it was quiet. Which made me wonder, “Tumble! Deacon!” I shouted, hoping to hear an answer, but got nothing.

I may have heard nothing, but there were still two blue bars on my screen. Looking around the area, they weren’t on the ground floor, maybe upstairs? Quickly finding a flight, I hobbled my way up. The suit was already going to work, and by the time I got up there it hit 10%. A long way to go for sure, but not zero just yet… if it ever did, well that’s a lesson for another day.

It didn’t take long to see the gauss rifle sticking out from one of the book shelves and overlooking the central area, “Tumble!” one of the hind legs kicked in and started moving more, helping to carry the load as I got closer.

There around the corner I found the pair… a little worse for wear…

Deacons’ plating looked dinged up and scratched, across his own coat and feathers were a couple more holes and cuts. Tumble however… “You’re gonna be fine there,” the gryphon had her laying on her back, as he rummaged through his bag for something, “I’ve seen worse wounds before… mostly on me.”

The gaping hole in her side made me question that, you really shouldn’t see that much insides of a pony on the outside of their body. With a pair of forceps, the gryphon went to work on her, crimping off something inside that was spurting the blood as he dumped what looked like vodka across his talons. Grabbing a couple of in the intestines that protruded, he pushed them back in to her torso with care.

“Does it… feel as bad as-” she tried to get out between breaths, though a talon hushed her.

“Easy now, let me work…” a needle threaded amongst his digits, as he punctured the tissue and started to stich where it had been bleeding inside from my view.

“What happened?”

The gryphon didn’t break eye contact with his task as I asked, “Bastard came up one of the stairs… got a shot off.”

Over past them rested a lone colt, the sawed-off shotgun just past his muzzle. Yeah, that’ll do it to ya… “Can’t you use a potion?” they were working well for me, or at least well enough to keep going, but I didn’t really know what they could and couldn’t do.

Gently his head shook so not to damaged his work, “not with her insides exposed like that, plus this’ll help heal it better in the long run,” a few more quick stitches after and he brought the same needle to the hole that was made. The wasteland seemed to turn normally peaceful ponies in to savages, but it also seemed to turn a merc in to a surgeon.

With what looked like practiced ease, the point went in and out of the tissue, slowly but surely closing up the wound. Once that was tied off, Deacon fished out a potion from his bag and brought it to the mares’ lips, holding the back of her head up to it as the purple liquid went down her throat.

“That’s… so much damn better,” she smiled up to the ceiling, before turning her eyes towards the gryphon, and then promptly the bottle, “though that was alcohol abuse.”

I watched the mare go from clenching on her own breath, and outright threatening the guy, to now laughing with him over her wounded body. Okay, trying to laugh at least. The wincing on her face told me that she was still in some deal of pain, and just like that before her a needle was brought out by our guide.

“If you want it,” he held out the Med-X, to which she gladly nodded.

I popped my visor up for some fresh air and looked around the room, the coast was clear for now, so I might as well indulge, “Alrighty… now that that’s taken care of, shall we-” and now that was a look as if I’d grown two heads! “What?”

“Ahh… did you take anything while you were down there?” Deacon asked, as Tumble started to cringe.

“A dose of Dash… and a few potions to patch me up, plus a Stampede,” the makeshift medic just started to shake his head at me, “I took a grenade to the chest! I think that was warranted!”

“Just… be careful with that stuff,” he cleared his nostrils there for a moment, before looking around and finding some sort of tray. Wiping it clean left enough of a reflection for me to take a- eyes were not supposed to be that shade of red! That was more than just bloodshot, those were popped blood vessels, “your heart probably only handled it well because it’s your first time, but keep doing it and you’ll find out what it feels like to have it explode in your chest.”

Not a sight I wanted to picture… and yet I still pictured it. Okay, so mixing and matching chems was a bad idea, I’ll just have to try getting shot less, or get better armor. It’s a work in process. My heart still fluttered a bit, but it hadn’t reached explosion levels yet, and even with the pain in my chest subsiding. The legs of the armor at least bent to my will better than on the walk up here.

Armor integrity: 15%.

Really, no rush now…

Thanks to a helpful talon, Tumble found herself back up, wobbling but still breathing. Deacon gave her a much-needed shoulder to lean on as we walked across the upper floors. Giving us a good view of the operation, they had going on. Some of the bookshelves up here had been broken down and turned in to some sort of bedding for them to reside, while a number of crates dotted along the area.

Even if a group got in to the main hall, they’d have been taken out like shooting fish in a barrel… the Gunners might have just underestimated a group of three individuals. That left us a fair amount to scavenge over, and hopefully something to top off my ammo reserves. Why did I pick the two most ammo hungry weapons in the wasteland?

Though there was one thing that would be more important to find, “Reckon we can find a mare your size out in this mess?” I looked over to Tumble as she cocked her head, “or would you prefer to go at it without armor still.”

Both Deacon and her looked at one another, before she looked to the mending wound on her side, “Yeah… probably a good idea.”

***

It’d taken the better part of an hour, or two, though our search wasn’t in vain. We each hauled a good number of meds, and ammunition from the base. Maybe not enough to top off my reserves, but enough to not complain about. Plus, the grenadier of the bunch sizzled down to a smolder by the time we left, hopefully some other group could make better use of the place than a bunch of thugs.

With what little light from the night sky through cloud cover shined, we found ourselves making camp after walking several miles more in to the dark. It had been slower with Tumble having to take it easier, but with every hour that passed her speed picked up. Now she was just as happily roasting some of those goodies she’d picked up along the way, and doing so in a set of semi-new combat barding she plucked from one of the containers.

Pip-Bucks gave a light off of their own, and while I might have been residing in the suit for the night for safety reasons, I still managed to bring up the data files on the visor to poke around in and work on. That gave me more than enough to do while she cooked, and Deacon went over his own bag of goods.

Each of the meds we pulled from the gunners were placed neatly in front of him. Everything ranging from Rad-Away to RadSafe, things I’d find over the counter and ones I couldn’t pronounce, and healing potions to a vial of sludge called Hydra… something that he just described was an all or nothing bet, and if he was using it, you were on deaths door.

From the corner of my eye I picked up the gryphon being prodded by a stick of Radrat intestines, freshly charred from the fire and still smoking hot. A smell I’d likely take years, assuming I live that long, to get used to… I’ll stick to my bugs. Which was weird enough to say.

“Hungry?” Tumble asked him as he packed up his kit.

“Oh, you know the way to a guy’s heart,” he gladly took the stick with a thankful nod and immediately started chomping down, tearing chunks off of it with his beak.

I couldn’t tell if it was the fire or not, but was that blood in her cheeks from her own body, or earlier today? “I did want to say…” yep, it was her own, “Thank you, for earlier,” the gryphon stomped mid chomp with a hunk of tissue hanging from his lips, “Luna knows I’d be no more alive than that piece of meat if you hadn’t done something.” That was probably the softest I’d heard her talk to him since he joined in on our little adventure.

“Oh… Tiss nothing,” he brushed off for a moment, trying to hide his own smirk that I picked up, “Don’t worry, if it happens again during this next go, I’ll do it all over again,” he winked to her, “Free of charge of course… but let’s try to avoid that, shall we?”

Oh boy did that get a reaction! It took a shotgun shell to the side to get her to stammer before, apparently this did it all the same. Quickly she just rolled her eyes at him and snickered, finding her place next to the fire as she cooked up some more grub.

I popped my visor and took a chunk out of Bloatsprite… hmm yep, roach tasted better. This just tasted like moldy cheese, but some cheese did age with- you know, just don’t think about it. Another bite in and I closed my visor to get back to work.

“Speaking… of this next go,” Tumble much there, Tumble? She did manage to get the sentence out at least, “how far off do ya say we are?”

Deacon looked off in to the direction we’d been going, how he could tell in this darkness I’d never know, but if you roamed the waste enough you did learn a thing or two. “We’ll be there by tomorrow for sure, maybe a few miles, give or take… I’m not complaining,” the crack of his neck echoed there in the night as he stretched, “I’m rather enjoying this honestly.”

“Getting… shot at?” I mused over the numbers, and cocked my helmet to him.

“Oh, not quite, call it a change of pace,” he sunk his beak in to another section of the rat, “usually I get paid to do simpler things… find this thing, kill that thing, clear this area, bring this to here…”

“Sounds like you’re doing all that in one job,” Tumble started to snicker over her own dinner, “We’re finding this one pony, killing and clearing those as we go, and bringing him home.”

A snap of his talons got her attention quick, just as it did mine, “not quite right… the usual jobs are pretty local, I hadn’t left that area in a bit, and going a mile or two then coming back is what gets old.”

I let them go back and forth a bit as I continued, “Like the traveling life then?” she asked.

“That part’s a bonus, assaulting a slaver mine is far more exciting than finding some family heirloom taken by a raider,” he proclaimed with only a sense of enthusiasm I’d imagine a true adventurer having, “I hadn’t had this much fun in years!”

“Gottcha!” I nearly shot up from my seat in joy, which earned me a few odd looks from the pair. For the most part I’d been sitting in silence here working, Tumble probably figured what’d I’d been doing, Deacon though hadn’t a clue. “Oh, I’ve been working on cleaning up some of the data from my stable, figure out what went wrong… and when Winter might have left.”

“Assuming Winter is this pony you’re looking for,” he put that one together quickly, “so? Good news?”

I held up a hoof as I worked, there was a decent amount of data to go through, though I just needed to look at one thing as I clicked through the various menus…

System…

Data logs…

Main Stable entrance…

Operational dates…

‘Oh… that’s not good,’ my heart sank there inside the suit, somehow finding the bottom of my armor and remained there. I wasn’t sure what to find, and I knew it had been a long shot, but what did I have to lose? I didn’t expect this though, “it says for the two times it had been opened, including mine, the only prior one was years ago…” I quickly did the math in my head, “… about twenty-five years to be exact.”

Footnote: Level up.