Fallout Equestria: Ballad of a Rogue Ranger

Chapter thirteen: Earning that bread

“How’d you get this versed in chems anyway?” Tumble asked to our resident medic as we walked, passing the time along the way as the hospital was long gone now behind us.

Deacon just rubbed his talon against the back of his head. Clearly, he wasn’t all that proud of his experiences, “needless to say, I had a decent addiction problem in the past…” yep, I wouldn’t be proud of that either, “you learn your stash well when seeking a fix.”

“And I’m guessing the medic part of healing came from treating your own wounds while going freelance?” with a nod he answered my question. Previous addict or not, he was sure good at what he did now. Though I guess you have to get good at patching yourself up in this world, especially when half of those you run across want to kill you. Still, that did raise another question, “How’d you break the habit? That couldn’t have been easy, especially out here.”

“Tenpony Tower,” he said like I was supposed to know anything about that past its where the DJ worked, and I just waited silently for him to catch my drift. “Larger community, actually more like a city in of itself out in Manehatten… they’ll trade with ya if you got the caps, and even heal you.”

“I thought they didn’t allow violent creatures? Anyone who did raider activity…” Tumbles smirk started to grow while she poked at him, “Merc work doesn’t count?”

The gryphon however held up his talon after that, “Oh there’s a big difference between Mercenary and Raider, doll,” well that wink he gave made her balk, and even earned him a pair of glowing cheeks. “Both will kill ya, but the raider will probably fuck and eat the corpse… we’re a bit classier.”

And blush was gone now! That last one made the mare almost go white, either she hadn’t expected it from him, or because she probably had seen a raider do just that before… I was really hoping for the former. Either way, both myself and the gryphon got a good chuckle out of the mare living up to her name, and failed to make any sort of sentence after that.

Something crawled up in Deacons’ bonnet, as the gryphon started sifting in through his bag, “Alrighty, I got about five things of Med-X, a dozen healing potions, a few choice chems, and a couple hundred caps to add to it,” Deacon rummaged and looked on towards me, “might as well see what we might need whenever we get to town?”

Smart move… “My chem pump is sitting about half full,” having little to no ammo greatly left me burning through potions more than I cared to admit, “and about the same for caps.” Although if Deacon wasn’t complaining about ammo, then he was probably better stocked than myself and the mare combined.

Tumble seemed to follow our lead, and started delving through her reserves, “… And I’m all out of 2mm now after that hospital stay,” she said, checking over Rogues carbine slung over her shoulder, readying it if needed, “plus lets face it, healing potions are always welcome.”

Collectively we all sighed, there was a lot of shopping we had to get to when reaching a town. Speaking of which, the map in my visor clicked open as I trailed across the screen. Mason gave us a general area to explore and a place to seek out next, though I never looked to see how far it had been. Sitting about another dozen miles from us, I saw the outline marker for what would be our next stop.

“Anyone here been to Barkston?” that earned me a few blank stares. Clearly, they hadn’t, and so there’d be no way of telling if it’d even be worth the stop. No matter, it’s not like we had a lot of options here, and with my back laden with things to sell off, I’d be looking forward to shedding the extra pounds, “don’t know how many caps we’ll get for all of this junk, but hopefully I can pull some extra shells and 5mm.”

“2mm is just so damned expensive,” I watched the mare about facehoof at that fact.

“Why not do some contracts?” once again I gave the gryphon the silent treatment, waiting on him, “most places that are a bit larger have some sort of job board… what? You think all mercs get contracts scoping out bars?”

To be fair, it’d probably be a good place to start if you wanted to hear what troubles were weighing on somepony, “So… we’re all mercenaries now?” Tumble asked.

“No, no… not all the jobs are killing and such, sometimes it’s just finding parts, supplies or what have you,” Deacon waved his talon around as he talked, “And simple jobs can add up the caps over time.”

And might give us some breathing room, made for a lot better of a plan than scavenge and sell of scrap to the highest bidder. Plus at least with this we knew how much we’d be getting for our troubles… instead of whatever the buyer says something is worth.

“So, get to town, hit up the job board, sell off what we got so we can actually complete said jobs… and maybe even find some information on other towns in the area Mason had talked about?” that sigh from earlier turned into agreement. We had a plan finally, and one that had a far clearer goal than walk north and hope for the best… granted that’s what we were sorta still doing anyway.

Still, it was nice to have this figured out, and as the pair walked around a crashed sky wagon just a few feet ahead of me-

A single shot rang out.

My shoulder ducked against the edge of the downed vehicle, and with half my visor out I peered around the corner. Deacon was clenching his shoulder, wounded but far from dead. Next to him Tumble already had pulled out what looked like a dirty rag from her bag and started holding it to the wound.

Though who fired the shot?

Oh! That’d be you guys.

There in front of the two, a couple gryphons landed in similar armor to our resident of the same species. Each one had carried some sort of higher end gear, apart from our usual raider group. A combat rifle and shotgun armed one, while the next kept a marksman sniper rifle in his talon, as the third and final kept his beam rifle across his back, what looked like an AER-7.

Ahh, Flash Industries always made such nice energy weapons. Though while my eyes might have been admiring the armament. His eyes what looked to be… square on Deacon?

“Finally found ya, Deacon,” Mister Combat almost growled, though they didn’t seem to see me for now.

“Mucker…” Deacon chimed in, and got back up to his feet, “pleasant finding you out here.”

Beam rifle snapped out of his trance and turned towards what looked to be the youngest gryphon of the bunch, who still happened to be my newest companion, “You know why we’re here… let’s make it simpler,” weapon in his talons or not, I could still hear the venom in those words, “you japed us out of boatloads of caps from those jobs before.”

That explains it… this was some of the old crew he rolled with, no wonder they seemed a little more pissed than some of the other characters we’d run in to. Still, they hadn’t noticed the pony in power armor, and judging by my E.F.S. these three seemed to be the only ones here.

Deacon however, didn’t seemed fazed by the trio that already put one in him. “Last I checked it was first come first serve… so I beat you to the punch,” could you sound any snider to the ones with their guns ready? “Big deal, go find other jobs.”

“Enough!” marksman rifle shouted, pulling the stock up to his shoulder, “It’s hard enough out here as it is, give us the caps you got… and well only hurt you then…” there even from my cover, I could see his eyes roll to another, and it wasn’t towards me.

That was a threat I didn’t like…

Tumble seemed to catch what he meant, and already had her .44 holster undone… before Combat pulled his rifle up and ready, yet in that, Beam kept his cool. Not something I was quite willing to do, at least two of the three looked ready for business, and that was more than I cared for.

Slipping in to S.A.T.S. I kept the gun on semi-auto and lined one shell up on Combat, didn’t need to get any other caught in the cross fire. The marksman rifle would take longer to reload with the bolt action of it, and Beam still had to get his rifle even out to begin with. Given only a 23% chance of hitting from this range, I more or less banked on each pellet doing more damage given their explosive nature.

Something that I really should have had more faith in!

Only about half of the shot landed on target, and from each explosion that went off a chunk of the gryphon was torn from his torso. In the dragging on of time from the spell, I swore I could see the expression on the mercs face change from one of confidence to terror as he was literally ripped apart pellet by pellet.

Soon enough, the spell closed out, and just like that Marksman rifle got to watch most of his friends’ entrails and tissues shower over his armor. Leaving bits of feathers dotting along his face, stuck from the blood and tissue.

“The fuck was that?!” Marksman about tripped over his own talons, and Beam even back paced a few more.

Yep, hearing that more and more often…

To the surprise of the two, I walked in to view, stepping between my companions and them as a shield. Let’s face it, I’d already taken enough shots to cover the pair that they never asked for, what was a few more?

“So… how are we going to settle this?” I asked, waiting to see what they’d do. S.A.T.S. was still charging up, but given the damaged this shotgun had I doubted I’d need it.

Marksman was the first to make his move, and lined his rifle back up on me. Though before he could take the shot, another already had hers lined up. The .44 slug dug deep in to his skull, dropping the gryphon before he even knew what hit him, and left his eyes wide open in shock as the back of his cavity burst out.

Somehow, Beam during all this remained calm, the most reaction he showed was when his cohort blew apart from the shell. Then again, who wouldn’t be surprised from that? With a sigh, the lone gryphon shook his head at us.

“See this is what I told them… I said you were lucky, and somehow you’d get out of this,” the older gryphon almost chuckled under his breath. Somehow, I told you so, just didn’t cut it in this scenario when those you’d say it to were dead.

“How do you think I managed to clear so many jobs so fast, and piss ya’ll off in the process, Staggs?” Deacon asked, and brought himself up to my side.

The gryphon, who I could only assume was Staggs, simple shrugged his shoulder and relented, “Well… it seems this might be a bad time, though I’m still salty about those caps,” given how this conversation was going so far, I didn’t like that…

Spinning up the barrels to the mini, the crusty gryphon took the hint, and fluttered off in to the sky. Far away from us hopefully, I mean he didn’t need to know I was out of ammo for it. Deacon however, placed his talon on the barrels and pushed them down.

“I could probably still drop him from here ya know…” Tumble hoisted up the carbine and started looking at the speck off in the distance.

“Na, let em be…” Deacon sufficed, already getting on the trail ahead of us, forcing myself and Tumble to catch up, “we’d both saved each other’s tail a number of times in the past, he’s a good guy… he’s just particularly stubborn.”

Stubborn, in this world? Who knew…? Regardless, neither myself or Tumble tried to take that shot, leaving us to wonder when we’d be seeing Staggs again. Meh, that was a problem for future Wild, present Wild just had to worry about getting to town already.

***

And by the looks of it, figuring out what jobs would be worth it.

Seriously, with a town this size built in to an old train yard, it far more amounted to a city if anything. With that, came an influx of other ponies hiring for work. Across the crude plywood sheet were different contracts nailed up, all ripe for the taking. Everything from assassinations, to gathering seeds and everything else in-between.

It’d be the first time I’d ever taken a contract like this, no big surprise there, but it’d be the same for Tumble. She had made her living going around the wastes and walking to and froe. Made sense she wouldn’t have been up for sticking to one job and rolling it on through to the end, until she tagged along with the likes of me.

Ponies bustled around us, going about their own business in the market set up. All around them rested shops and various vendors trying to sell off their own goods, so with most doing their business face to face, us three were more or less left to look over the board in peace… besides the few who took an odd look or two at me, for obvious reasons mind you.

“So… where do we start?” I asked the two, hoping at least one of them would have a better idea.

Tumble got the swing of it sooner than myself it seemed, and from the board she pulled off one sheet, “‘Pest problem: nearby subway station, 500c. You’ll know em when you see em’,” she read off… yeah that seemed a bit suspicious. “Might be something simple, like radroaches?” she offered, hoping in our favor.

‘500 caps… for killing bugs,’ I mused there for a moment.

As doubtful as it seemed, for a couple hundred caps, it’d be a hard offer to refuse. With that she slid the parchment in to her bags, and all our eyes went back to the board. One down, let’s see how many more- well you look promising.

‘Parts wanted! Any and all Spark Batteries, will pay 30c per! See crimson building a few miles south of Barkston as a starting point.’ Really? It was that easy to find jobs in this place? Even with guidance. Still, spark batteries were up my ally, and while a name of the building would have been handy. We could work with the description; I mean how many buildings would standout enough to not need any more direction than that?

“And what have we here?” Deacon laid his talon on one sheet in particular.

The first thing that grabbed me was the price listed for the job… a thousand caps seemed like a pretty good buy in! How had this one not been swiped up yet? ‘Gang leader of the Pack, dead or alive! Preferably the former… Held up in nearby courthouse.’ Hmm… that might have something to do with it, though I wasn’t all too keen on killing ponies for money…

“Well, I guess we are mercs at this point,” I grumbled, from designing and testing weapons used by her majesty’s forces in combat, to scraping up bottle caps by killing each other…

“Oh, take it easy now there… it ain’t like that,” Deacon pulled the sheet from the board, holding on to it for safe keeping. “If this is the guy I think, I’d run in to him before, and not in a good way…” what exactly would have been considered a good way to run into a gang leader? “He’d had this coming to him for a while now.”

Okay that did surprisingly sooth it over a bit with me. Hunting ponies for thin punches of metal was one thing, doing so because they were scum on the other hoof was a favor if anything. I could live with that much if I was living up to the reputation that had been given to me. Now we not only had a place to stop off from, but also something to keep us occupied… so we’d probably be here for a bit then while working on them.

My head went on a swivel, and I’m sure some of the residents were wondering if I was targeting them, though I only had my eyes out for one thing. “Think there’s a hotel somewhere around here? Or at least what amounts to one,” I kept looking.

“Why not just camp outside the city?” Deacon offered with a shrug, “I mean we’ll save caps, plus a place this size, most degenerates tend not to get too close.”

There was a sizable number of buildings and burned-out homes that we passed on our way here. Any one of them would make for a decent enough base to work out of for sure… lucky for me I had a pair of experience wastelanders around here with me. From that decision another was made amongst us, I needed ammo, and they each had their own needs in terms of chems and potions.

With a shopping list now given out we decided to split up and see what we could come up with. I’d handle the ammo for the lot of us, and those two would go about seeing to us not dying from wounds in the future. Thankfully, somepony in this time decided to make advertising easy. You wanted armor? Look for the big sign marked Armor! Clothing? For whatever occasion, there was one joint that had different garments nailed to the outside. You wanted things that went bang? Try the place with a big ass bullet painted out on its sign. Every single one of the shops were damn near lined up, neatly cut out of train cars or joining a few together.

Simplicity at its finest… I love it.

Some of the ponies selling? Didn’t love so much…

“Ten caps each,” the stallion griped across the counter, how a pony managed to even get the chunky after eating mutated plants and bug I’d never know. Tumble however was right, ten caps per 2mm EC round was too damned much!

I may not know the price of information, but ammunition was my forte, “You can’t be serious…”

“Same for you as it’d be any other costumer, even if you been doing the wastes a good deed,” okay so he already knew who I was. Maybe that was why I hadn’t had any guns pointed at me yet, word spread quick among the merchants the Rogue Ranger was in town.

“Oh, I’m not pulling that card if that’s what you think…” and time to school a merchant in ammo-smithing! “To make ten 2mm rounds you need about a half pound of lead, some oil, copper, and fertilizer,” already I could see his mind trying to do the crafting in his head. Clearly, he never made it himself, and only bought it, “do you have any idea how easy some of that junk is to come across out here?”

“Well… its more convenient-”

“That I go out, get the materials, make it myself because I know how, and sell it outside your door for a cheaper price…” A type of crafting I’d had plenty of experience in, granted it would take tools I didn’t really have, but never the less his eyes narrowed upon me, and quickly the math started to go off of how much business he’d lose from that. “Not counting how easy it is to make the other rounds I requested as well… so… want to make a different deal?”

I could almost hear the grinding of his teeth from over the counter, music to my ears, “Fine! Six caps each…”

“Splendid!” with that I pulled out some of the gear we procured, and made the trade. He might have been mad at first, but with a few of the pieces that would line his shelf now, I doubted there’d be many complaints from his future customers.

After he stacked what I had ordered along the counter, and I made sure I wasn’t getting taking for a sucker with him forgetting a few extra rounds. My happy armored ass left the shop. Alrighty ammo was taken care of for-

“Oh my!” I heard somepony shout out, and before I could react, out they popped from nowhere while I stepped out with my stack of goods. Instantly I was on the edge of my hooves, watching as the unicorn mare dropped her own bags and started prodding over the suit with her eyes. Taking in what seemed like every bolt and rivet that held it together, “I’d never gotten to see the armor this up close before, usually rangers shoot you if you even dare.”

I watched her hazel eyes flutter in fascination under the grey and black coat of hers… no wait, that was just grease it seemed. Her coat was, garnet? Maybe… though those grease stains were probably hell to get out of a mane that white. Even under that bandana she wore, it didn’t look to have escaped the work that the mare had clearly been putting in. Was I checking her out? Of course I was, though in my defense she was doing the same to me.

“Normally you’d be right,” I offered, and watched her not shriek away but stand firm, “But not a ranger…” she didn’t give off any sign of being a threat, just a very intrigued pony. With that my hoof held out to her, and flipped up the visor to give a friendly face… less ponies seeing this armor as a threat the better, right? “Rogue Ranger.”

Once more her eyes lit up, as she took hold of my armored hoof. “Ahh well then, Mister Rogue, pleasure meeting ya,” could her beam get any bigger? “Especially with all the work you’ve been up to.”

So, DJ-Pon3 really did reach this far and wide it seemed?

“Work that seems to have left its mark…” her hoof pointed to some of the larger dents and scratches over the suit. The repair talisman might have been working, but if it wasn’t causing damage, it could care less for cosmetics.

Something this mare actually cared about.

Before I could protest, her horn pressed against the suit, and from there I saw a very familiar spell. Leeching across part of the plating, the several dings started to straighten out and crisp up under her glow, leaving behind armor segments that looked damn near right off the factory floor. For a moment, I wasn’t sure what to say…

“Well… damn…” Okay probably not the best thing to start off with, “miss…?”

Never the less, the mare giggled a bit at my own blunder and just shook her head to me ever so lightly, “Oh it’s nothing, fixing is kinda what I do,” she turned to, and showed me the grease gun on her flank. Makes ya wonder if those were stains across her body, or if they were natural, “and is Alimite.”

Okay! Hoof in mouth needed to stop now! A few swift kicks to the side of my brain solved that problem, and I nearly bowed to her out of thanks. “Well Miss Alimite, thank you for that… I would have fixed it up myself, but it’s nice to know there’s some ponies out here with kindness.”

“Wait,” her head cocked once or twice to me, “You know the same spell?”

“Ahh… yes?” so apparently it wasn’t that common knowledge, “I’m… good with crafting, fixed this up as well,” I tapped the breast plate, and that garnished me nearly her jaw to join the dirt below.

“So… Mister Rogue,” she finally got out after some effort, by the looks of it giving herself a few good mental kicks as well, “will you be around these parts for long?”

That was tough to say, sure we had some work to attend to, but in the end, who knew how far that’d take us out from the area. Also, for that matter, if we’d be in over our heads and wind up in some ditch somewhere or an unmarked grave… positive thoughts…

“Well, myself and my group are doing some contracts in this area we’d gotten from the board,” random mare pops up out of nowhere and starts asking questions on if I’d be around here long? Seemed kinda suspicious. Then again, why’d she help polish the suit if there’d be a knife in the back of it later? “So, I’ll be in and out…”

“Well then, on that note, I’ll probably run in to ya again at some point,” she brought the bags up over her back and in to place. “Until then take care of yourself, and keep up the good work,” Smiling once more at me, the mare trotted off down the rails. Random encounter, or planned assassination by some gunner or ranger, who knew.

Either way, I had my companions to get back to… and some jobs to get done, ‘sweet mare though…’ I caught my eyes trailing down the tracks.

***

“I say parts first,” Tumble suggested as we munched on some roasted… you know I don’t even know what this is honestly. It didn’t taste buggy, and even with the crunch to it I doubted it was crackers… ah food was food I guess, still, hot sauce would have been lovely in this place, “seems a safer bet than hunting down some pests, or trying to kill a gang leader.”

She had a fair point, plus who knew what kind of goods we might find in the building talked about for said parts. “Then take care of those pests afterwards,” Deacon followed up with.

I didn’t like the description given still… You’ll know em when you see em had an ominous tone to it after all, but on the other hoof there was a good number of caps on the line. Money always would win out in that battle. With no objections to that order from any of us, that left the gang leader as the last one to seek out. Good thing too, because his hideout was the furthest of the three.

“Sounds like a plan to me then,” I stood up and stretched out a bit, as the others finished their dinner and called it a night. With me on first watch, my E.F.S. trailed over the area, noting anything that moved.

It wasn’t long before I heard the soft snores of those that joined me, and my eyes looked out at Barkston, even at night it bustled from the ponies that called it home. Then again, if I was living inside a makeshift city that had walls of shipping cars built up around it, I wouldn’t be worried about what went bump in the night and keeping a low profile either. As for us, just like Deacon suggested we found our little home away from home in an old… well, home.

It may not have been the most intact structure of the lot that surrounded the train yard, but it did have an open view to the area around it. Perfect for seeing if any creature was trying to sneak up, and with my sensors going there was little I had to really worry about any getting the drop on us… though that left me to twiddle my hooves together until I awoke Tumble to take over for the night.

We’d be heading out to the crimson building described, and I hoped it was as obvious as the ad made it out to be. Even still, our guns were topped off, our resident medic had a brand-new swash of chems and potions to work off of tucked away in his medical bag, and even Tumble had more EC rounds than she knew what to do with. As for me? I had my visor popped up, looking over the armor.

“She did some fine work…” I had to admire it, truly. For all the damage this thing had been taking lately, it was nice to see it restored to its glory that Knight Rogue would have kept it up to. Hopefully next time I was in town, the late Knight would be proud of the condition I’d kept it in.

***

That’s a crimson building if I ever saw one.

Considering we’d seen it at minimum a mile away, I’m surprised that job hadn’t been swiped up yet. Though as we got closer, it started to get a familiar feel to it. Almost like I’d seen a few of them in the past. Robco Emporium: Selling Equestrias’ future, today! Was painted across its side, yep… that’d be why it looked familiar. I’d been to a few of the Robco buildings during my work, after all some robots had to be heavily armed, and they all looked more or less the same to me.

This one however, looks to have slipped under the radar, in more ways than one.

Even after stepping inside, for the main reception area there still seemed to be some rather obvious scrap around! A .38 rifle was set out on the counter, beside it what looked like some sort of combat blade was stabbed in the wood, hell even a couple 10mm rounds Deacon immediately procured from the secretary desk up front were found.

If that’s what's at the welcome mat, how had this place not been picked clean yet?

The wall turret’s around the room looked to be dead… or at least they weren’t shooting at us quite yet, so not entirely the same thing. A single ring from a bell brought my head over to the same desk, and a very curious gryphon that stood there ringing the greeter. “Hmm…” Deacon mused for a moment, dinging it a few more times, “doesn’t seem like anyone’s home, usually a ghoul or two would have shown up from that.”

After the ring, a single smack followed, and their Tumble stood with her hoof to her face, “don’t… ever, say that.”

“What? I’m just saying, if any century old irradiated pony was milling around… that’d be a dinner bell for em.”

He had a point, in the empty halls of this place that lined around the front space, that simple ring did echo quite- Wait… What?! “That’s what a ghoul is?!” a few B rated motion pictures flickered across my mind of ponies running in terror and being torn apart. I’d take getting set on fire, again, over being eaten alive any day.

“Yeah, what your wasteland guide didn’t explain that?” Deacon asked, sticking a tongue out at the mare, before ignoring her snicker and getting back to me. “Magical radiation can do wonders on an equine, most it killed… but those were the lucky ones.”

Zombie ponies… on top of chemed up junkies that didn’t know when they’d been shot, robots that were itching to murder a stripe, mutated dogs that could cut me in half, an army of well-armed wasteland soldiers out for my head, and a bunch of munitions riddled tin cans that wanted to turn me inside out by now. There was also Zombie ponies to add to that list.

“Good day to you ma’am!” pipped up the Mister handy beside us.

Tumble left behind nearly a silhouette from where she once stood. Both myself and Deacon snapped to with guns ready and… any attack we thought was going to come didn’t. The bot just hovered there and looked at us, floating on its smaller thrust talisman and bobbing there. Then I looked down to where it stood. At its base was the remains of a placard detailing some of its features that could be used around the home.

“That explains it…” I looked around down the halls and noticed the lights, or lack thereof, “there’s no power to this place, this one only activated because it has its own power. It’s a display model.”

Deacons’ eyes lit up at display model, and instantly started to meander toward the bot, going around it to the panel on its frame. With a quick fizzle and pop, the thruster died and the rest of its bulk fell to the ground. Leaving the gryphon there tossing those batteries in his talons. “There’s only a few of them though… sadly,” he looked further down the hallway we’d started on.

‘Hmm… no power, sales building with display models,’ I started doing the math. The buyer was paying per battery, so if we managed to stumble across a bot by accident, how many must be inside? “If they were selling them here, then they probably had to keep a good stock of those inside,” the building from the outside looked big enough as it was, that lead to only one real solution, “how about we split up from here, cover more ground and loot those display models… shouldn’t be much of a threat.”

The pair with me didn’t have much to argue with that, and before they left along their own path our resident medic poked around my chem pump to ensure I was good on everything from meds to combat drugs… what a wonderful medic he was. Always making sure his patients were pumped full of chems, and potions.

That echo from earlier didn’t last nearly as long as I thought.

After less than a minute the steps of those that joined me on this journey, my friends- huh? That implied both of them were. ‘Well Deacon did say he wanted to tag along for the ride,’ I thought while walking through the tattered halls, ‘Sounds like a friend to me.’ what else would you call it?

Given how seriously he took his medic duties, I knew Tumble would at least be in good hooves… or talons in this case. Plus, I hadn’t heard any shooting from anywhere in this place. Which had me both relieved and a little worried. Around me I saw some more displays for Mister Handys, Protectiponies, and even a Sentry… none of them moved automatically though like that first one. Leaving me to trot up to the latter of the bunch, and probably the biggest threat if it turned south.

Although this bot might have been a bit bigger to run off a simple battery, and while Sentries were designed to hold different types. This one’s weapons were more than suited for the task. Twin prism gatling lasers would do a number to any and all targets in their way, and even though I could feel the saliva start to pool up from the sight of them. I knew their ammo was expensive.

Hence, there being a job to find said ammo.

A couple loosened bolts later and I was greeted by a half dozen cartridges all linked powering the mammoth weapons. Now that that bot was downed to just a cavepony with clubs. The others in the room quickly fell under my horns’ trade. Seriously!? How had no creature gone through this place yet?

Flipping on the helmet light to get a better look around I kept a move on, already noticing a trend here. Even the sales desks to the room nearby seemed to be mostly untouched. Sure, there wasn’t much to be found in terms of salvage, but as I poked through the desks some sort of pay off was usually there. Maybe a cap or two, a few low caliber rounds, perhaps some meds. It wasn’t much in of itself, but if the whole building was like this then this place was a virtual gold mine!

The lights overhead started to flicker to life.

‘Hmm… motion activated?’ it was a good assumption at first, but seeing a couple garage like doors on the side of the room open up made my heart sink.

“Intruder alert,” that voice sounded familiar.

Twin sentry bots rolled out to the sales floor. Across their frames weren’t the standard wasteland garb of spikes and plate metal, these were factory made and ready to go to protect what the company had here… might explain why no pony managed to get in and out of this place very well.

Running now! One might have been armed with the same prism gatlings, but its counterpart was making good use of its dual minis. Office desks weren’t built to be bullet sponges, and while my armored hide darted between the cubical, traces of 5mm and rainbow light danced in the air around me. A few shots hit home and-

Armor integrity 86%.

‘Alrighty, so they’re a lot more powerful than I remember back in the day!’ The thought crossed my mind for a moment, as I poked my head out from the desk and went to another one.

Taking a quick aim at the mini user, several of the pellets scattered over the armored shell. Even at a couple dozen yards, this thing still packed a punch! Chunks of scrap blew off from the small explosions as several sparks flew, one shot might not have done the trick… though the rapid nature of my new toy quickly fixed that. As it tried to close in, my shots just got more effective, and this thing couldn’t take the hint. Mini jerked a few times before crumbling to the ground, that just left…

Yep that was a crayon pack of light, this time around I brought out my own mini and spun it up. 5mm had about the same effect as you’d imagine against something this heavy armored, and it didn’t even seem to faze it. After a number of beams struck across my plates, I slid back in to cover, and glanced at my dwindling percentage.

Armor integrity 65%.

I just fixed it all up too…

Though the rumbling of treads coming closer quickly brought me back to the task at hoof. Ducking back out of cover the spell fired off and time seemed to slow down once more. There only a few feet ahead, both me and the bot stared at one another as S.A.T.S. started lining my shoots up. A pistol would have missed, somehow, but a few bursts from this might do something.

The small caliber dotted along its’ head, earning me off shoots of energy flickering around from something important inside giving way. With its sensors likely gone, as my spell faded that left it to only fire around the room wildly. A room I was still in… not the best of plans, but I wasn’t dead yet. Never the less, that allowed me to slip back away as it poured beams around the room. Galloping I lunged behind its fallen brethren, thankful the plating on it was reflecting the beams off.

‘Turn…’ I waited, ‘come on, keep going…’ almost there, “Gotcha!” I shouted as a stream of 5mm left my barrel on towards it.

There weren’t many weaknesses for these things, either large amounts of fire power, or straight up explosives. Though one thing that many ponies forgot was they were still robots, and in turn had some sort of power source at the end of the day. The burst found its home in the spark pack along its back, protected yes, but with enough bullets…

That struck a nerve, and following the crackling of its systems the bulk of the bot rose and then fell. Smashing against the ground with a crunch much like the one I used as cover. Before I grabbed the goods, any chunk of metal or ceramic I could nab made its way in to the hopper as my suit went to work. Just like I had done the ‘display models’, whatever goods they were carrying quickly found its way to my bags. Along with another hoof full or so batteries ripe for the picking.

So, maybe not the easiest job we could have picked…

Gun shots carried far better down these halls than hoof steps it seemed, and as soon as my bags were stuffed. My hooves started beating against the dirty and stained flooring underneath towards it. These things were giving me a run for my money when they landed a shot, depending on their armament, who knows how the pair might be fairing.

It didn’t take long to follow the echoing as it got louder with every leap and bound, I made. After bursting through a door, I found the- okay this room had seen better days. Sections of the wall and ceiling laid fallen across the ground, exposing what looked like cables for the building, while a few burst pipes filled the lower center with nearly waist-high water. Trudging through it Deacon remained popping off rounds damn near as fast as my mini.

Speaking of which…

The motor spun just in time to light up a Protectipony that got a bit to close to my feathered friend. These ones were far less armored than what I’d just went against, still their beam guns were dangerous. Bullets you can dig out, but it’s hard to heal a pile of ash…

Clank!

A pair of heavily armored arms smashed across my helmet, launching me off my hooves and joining Deacon in the pool for a dip. There weren’t many robots with that kind of strength, and just as suspected… another Sentry. This one thankfully didn’t have any beam weapons, though it still had something to match mine!

The missile it fired might have been targeted, but something caused it to jerk at the last second. Only sending it flying to the side of me, instead of right on target. Certainly not the best outcome, but I was in one piece at least… and only with what felt like a minor concussion. Getting back to my hooves, the barrels on the mini started drawing its fire before the launcher could reload. There’s where I saw the blue streak punch in to its side.

Tumble had knocked its targeting off course with that first shot, though 2mm EC or not. Against this was a different story. Between the two of us, it deemed me more of a target and brought its own 5mm to bare down. Forcing myself and Deacon to find our hideaway behind some of the smaller display pedestals in the center, as both of us crouched and had the water up to our chests.

Still, the charged shots of the mare could be heard over the flashing of different beam weapons from the bots and the occasional shot ringing out from one of the Mister Gusties. As Deacon tended to the former and latter, I tried to get the Sentries attention.

Something tried a bit too late.

A single yelp pierced the room as I broke my cover, and for a second there I thought the fighting had stopped… but alas it hadn’t. Tumble wasn’t fast enough to avoid the swing from the Sentry, but she was able to bring the gauss rifle up between her and the launcher on its arm. I couldn’t tell if the pain on her face was from the hit, or the fact that her rifle looked more broken than last two Sentries were. Before I could even try and get out of the water however, 5.56 started peppering over the shell of the bot.

Deacon landed by her side, and kept on cycling his weapon. At least its attention was drawn away from me… S.A.T.S. fired up, and even with the time slowing to a crawl, I could still feel the different rounds of those still in the room pinging off the suit. Never the less, I started tagging that back panel with all the shotgun shells I could.

Three shells, for all the fine Equestrian engineering… it’d only give me three shells.

‘Better hope they count,’ that was the last thing I thought before letting the spell die out and the shots ring.

The first one went wide, and only garnished a few of the pellets striking its shoulder. The other two however, they found their home right where I needed. With a bang that rivaled that of the shells, the spark pack blew open and sent whatever arcane charge it had out across the its body. Spasming for a few seconds, it soon fell along with the others in the room that had been scrapped.

As it did, Deacon immediately hoisted Tumble up and brought her behind a lone display stand in the corner, leaving me to be the center of attention… again… yay. Still, from there they both had a good vantage of the room, and from the sound of things their carbines seemed to be firing nearly in tandem with one another.

As for myself, some of these bots were getting a bit too- close!

One Gutsy swiped at me with its saw blade, skipping off the plates and earning it a hoof to the chassis. I didn’t feel like finding out the splash damage of the shotgun quite yet, and although I had rounds to spare for once with the mini. If any more of those Sentries showed up, I’d be needing them.

Crunching the next Protectipony with a few punches beneath the water, I let them come in for a swim. I might have sucked at hoof to hoof, but I could still throw a swing, and although I might have been slower in the water. Robots weren’t exactly acrobats themselves. Another Gutsy lifted one of its arms up and sent a small burst of flame across, as I stomped through the water and put it out just as fast.

“That shit don’t work here!” could you blame me for getting a little heated? No pun intended…

Heavy clanking brought my head to a swivel as I turned tail and looked at the door… I had to jinx it with the Sentries. This pair rolled on through the water like it was nothing, joining the hoof full of bots still there, and they were just as content throttling me with their arms as opposed to shooting me.

Armor integrity 52%

Another smack from its barrels forced my head under water for a second, and I realized the ring I’d found myself in.

Armor integrity 48%

As I surfaced my barrels went to work, scattering shots across one’s torso. Though too little effect, and only earned me another hefty swing from its arm. “Wild!” Tumble called out over my boxing match, I wasn’t in this fight alone I knew, but there were just so much their guns could do, “You can reset your suit right!”

“Umm… Yes!” I shouted out to her on reflex, this time neatly ducking one swing from the Sentries launcher that attempted to throttle me. Giving a small opening to rake some fire across the other bots in the pool with me. Though as I shot them, I heard the sounds of a very familiar carbine chiming off of the ceiling above me.

‘What are you- oh crap,’ with that I saw one of the power cables from above, now severed, falling towards me… and the pool.

That level of a short made something in the whole building go wild, as lights flickered, some burst from the surge, and a few of the other cables in the wall started to fizzle and smoke. Though they weren’t the only ones…

The bots that joined me for a swim didn’t fare any better, and once the charged cable hit the water the same current went through them. Causing some of their plating to literally shoot off from the influx of power, as they sunk beneath the surface. As for me… I was in a metal suit of armor; how do you think that worked out?

My armor was dead, the matrix shorted out, display down, and servos locked up… but I was alive!

I could taste copper on my tongue sure, but still alive.

The sparking in the water gave out, and just as it did a friendly face jumped in my darkened vision. “Are you alright in there?” Tumble asked as she tapped the side of the helmet.

Oh, if only you could see my face…

“I am…” I grumbled, not looking forward to this reboot sequence, “but we’re not doing that again…”

***

Not to gloat too much, but it was great being a unicorn, I’d take magic over flying or sheer strength any day. Magic at least could get me out of the suit when its latches didn’t want to work, and although it was heavier with its upgrades. I’d managed to get it to the drier part of the room outside the center.

The room itself seemed to be specifically for those bots intended for war… which might have explained all the resistance. Plus, with the different display platforms and lights around the room, the ones that still worked at least, all made for a good workplace to get my tech back up and running.

“I’m sorry,” Tumble said… again.

“Its fine, I got out of it didn’t I?” granted it wasn’t fun being trapped in it for the time it took to get the latches manually off, but I still got out.

“Still… sorry,” as sheepish as she might try and make herself look with that apology, something told me she’d do it again if needed to save our skins.

Boot sequence started…

Matrix loading…

Please stand by…

“Ahh… there we are,” beside me I had some of the remains from the Sentry that broke Tumbles gun, more specifically, I had its own minigun broken apart. With my suit going to work on repairing itself, it seemed like the right time to do some field work. “I wonder what brought them on line anyway.”

It was curious, something must have triggered them to come on line. After all, if we got this far in the building itself before they came on, it couldn’t have been the security system. Otherwise, those turrets before would have taken shots at us.

Tumble just groaned from the side of the suit as she leaned against it, “That would probably be his fault…” she pointed over to our friend, while he went about going after what we came here for, “he was poking around on a terminal and then the main power just kicked on.”

“I swear I didn’t do it?!” his talons threw up in the air as he tried to defend. Accident or not, I couldn’t be mad at the guy; he was picking the room clean of anything we’d be able to use, allowing me to work. From ammo, grenades, a few flares, to scrap, and everything along the spectrum of useful garbage. The gryphon fluttered up to us as he held out a sack of spark batteries freshly pulled from the bots, and put some of the scrap in my suit, “powers off now though, so we should be fine.”

If he hadn’t just filled my hopper, I might have slapped him… thankfully Tumble had my back.

A quick hoof to the back of his head told him pretty clearly her thoughts on the matter, “Stop saying things like that,” she almost hissed at him.

While they bantered, I put the finishing touches on my project, and with the 5mm topped off thanks to the generous donation from the Sentries… My knew tri-barrel mini was ready for action! I couldn’t help the smug grin from growing on me, I mean who would be able to?

“Hey if it comes down to it, I have this now,” Deacon pulled the missile launcher he got from the Sentry off his shoulder.

Sure, your average gryphon was pretty strong compared to an earth pony, so he’d be able to use it. Considering our pest problem was next on the list, who knows if it’d come in handy. I didn’t have the place for it on my suit, but I’d always appreciate some extra fire power… others, not so much.

“That’s just what you need…” although she groaned, even from under that hoof on her face I still saw the smirk growing.