How A Father Should Act · 8:47pm Oct 13th, 2023
They took her. They took my little Jade.
I don’t know how they knew about her, or how they knew Gwen was taking her to a farm a few miles outside Junction Town to visit some friends, but they were waiting to ambush them. Gwen got shot, but thank whatever’s up there, not seriously.
This wasn’t random. From Gwen’s description, it was a slaver gang I’d been disrupting for a while. Clients from Tenpony had me taking out their leaders and customers. Unsurprisingly, quite a few had connections to Red Eye’s old forces. I guess they’d had enough of me and decided to hit me where it hurt. It was the last thing they’d ever do.
I’d already almost lost her a year ago. A nasty flu swept through most of Equestria, Blue Fever, and my little girl caught it. I was terrified. There was nothing I could do except stay at her side until she pulled through. But this? I could do something about this. That alone, that sense of control, kept me calm. It’s them who are going to be terrified.
*****
I wasn’t going after them stupid, or alone. Regina Grimfeathers and a platoon of her best were with me.
Normally, it wasn’t my style to slaughter whole gangs. Normally, I’d just get paid to cut off the head of a snake. It gave those under them a chance to… rethink their life choices. A lot of times, they weren’t there by choice. This time, however, I was not in the mood for mercy. This time, these fools would find out just how much like my mother I can be. Jade, sweetie, you best keep your eyes and ears shut.
The gang was mostly ponies, so their base wasn’t that far. Bold of them to set up so close to the NCR. Stupid of them to think they could embarrass Gawdyna like this for long and live. To be fair, their base of choice was defensible, especially from the air. It was a stable that had still been under construction when the bombs fell. A wood and scrap fort had been built around the numberless door.
Night and clouds gave us concealment as we picked off patrols. I did my part with a suppressed 9mm. As for the main fort, stealth wouldn’t work. There were too many guards and lights for that. Time to make an entrance.
*****
Mud splashed under my paws and talons, and I trotted into the light. About fifteen guards with machine guns and rifles swung their attention to me while the NCR took hidden positions. Seeing my weapons were stowed, they didn’t fire. That was the difference between slavers and raiders. Slavers had the capacity to reason.
A big earth pony stallion trotted out to meet me, grenade rifles mounted to his battle saddle. “What do you think you're doing here, Trickshot?” He sneered, then grinned wickedly. “Here for your precious little tyke? Ain’t happening. You shouldn’t have screwed with us.”
I stood up on my paws to meet him at eye level, but I was fooling myself if I thought I could physically intimidate anyone. That’s where my reputation came in handy, and the revolver my claw hovered over. “Whatever any of you had done before, what crimes you’ve committed, and what you have against me for punishing them… That is a three-year-old griffawn. That is not the way you do things.”
More ponies stepped out, clutching guns in their teeth, holding them in telekinetic magic, or wearing them on saddle mounts. The big stallion laughed. “You’re going to get the hell off our turf, or she’s going to watch her daddy die before she follows.”
Deep down, I hoped they wouldn’t listen. “...If you’re not going to be civilized about this…”
The stallion, and five others, had new windows in their skulls after a second-long exchange of flash and smoke. Ducking to the side, and switching to my rifle, I helped Regina and her troops mop up the rest.
*****
My long rifle had to stay on my back inside the bunker, and I favored my Hi-Power. Regina ordered her griffons to keep their weapons on semi-auto and watch their aim. Jade could be anywhere down here, and if a stray bullet… I didn’t want to think about that. We kept the sweep and clear professional. Two teams, led by Grimfeathers and I, went door to door, floor to floor, and we did not take prisoners.
My team eventually reached what was supposed to be the Overmare’s office while Regina’s reached the reactor level, which never received a reactor. Everything down here that had power got it from auxiliary generators. Call it a father’s intuition, but I knew my little girl was behind this door. I’m here, sweetheart. Just hold on.
We stacked up on either side, and on my signal the metal slid open. Three unicorns opened fire, striking two griffons, but the rest of us took them out. The medic quickly got to work helping our wounded, but I didn’t pay attention. My full focus was on the whimpering green ball of fluffy feathers tied up on the central desk.
I wrapped myself around her in an instant. “Shh, you’re alright. Daddy’s here, Jade. It’s alright, You’re alright. You’re-” I felt something metal on her neck. A bomb collar.
The other soldiers noticed it too, and scrambled to search the bodies for the detonator. They didn’t have it. My child’s fate was in Grimfeathers’ claws, and we quickly radioed her to inform her.
None of us had the expertise to disarm one of these things, so I did the only thing I could do for my daughter. Stay at her side and hold her tight, until the beeping stopped, or…
*****
The next few minutes felt like an eternity. My constant reassurances were all that was keeping my daughter and I from breaking down. For the second time, her life was on the line, and I was helpless. Regina, please…
The collar went silent. The flashing red light stopped blinking. It was disarmed. Everyone in that room let out a breath we had all been holding, and I fell into a fit of relieved sobs.
Reggie, you could ask me for my room at Tenpony, all my worldly possessions, and half my organs, and I’d happily live the rest of my life as a broke, homeless cyber griffon.
When I met her outside, still clutching Jade in my arms, I was too incoherent to express my thanks so eloquently. She told me she was just doing her job. All part of the service. As soon as I could properly speak, I insisted that all her future drinks were on me. The General just laughed and graciously accepted. We made our way back to Junction Town.
*****
Gwen looked like she had completely ignored the doctor’s orders to get some rest, and further ignored her injury to meet us in the air and pull our daughter in a tight, tearful embrace. I couldn’t understand a thing she was saying as she cheerily rambled in Old Griffish, but I knew she was more than pleased. Jade let out happy chirps as she nuzzled her mother, and Gwen and I exchanged a thankful glance, with each other and with Regina.
The General spoke to Gawdyna in length about the whole ordeal, and it wasn’t long before she decided to implement some policy changes. She’d been getting plenty of criticism about the NCR being too stretched thin to take care of its own, but an incident like this, so close to Junction Town, made it sink in. Settlements already under their jurisdiction now took priority. Expansion would be halted until she had better footing on what she already had. This would never happen again. She promised that to me, personally.
If it's all the same to you, Madame President, I’ll be the one making sure of that. Making this world safer for my daughter was my responsibility.
Pretty brazen of slavers or raiders to set up so close to NCR territory, but at least in time they'd all get run off or cleared out. Hopefully Gritt will be one of the last to deal with a situation like that.
And at least he was capable of at least doing something about it.
5750542
I was replaying RDR2, and had just done this mission when I wrote this.
5750542
If Gritt ever did visit Sunburn to catch up with Kaz, he'd remember Lita mentioning he has a kid and bring Jade along.
Also, in an attempt to alleviate any tension because of who he is, who he's related to, and what he does for a living, he'd start off with...
"Doctor Longtalons, don't worry. If anything, I'm scared of you. Lita has told me so many horror stories about "Cursed Kasimir," I am actually too afraid to keep my weapons loaded in your presence."
5751845
Luckily, he only had one gun explicitly explode in his presence, which was Serge's laser pistol. A few did jam though.
And Kaz and Amy would be happy to leave the past in the past if he did. Still, they'd be happy to catch up with anyone who made it out of Fillydelphia and were trying to be respectable members of society, even if they were related to Stern.
5751886
Gritt's seen enough that he believes luck, good or bad, is real. His concern would be a spontaneous discharge, and he'd rather not have a .357 round in his thigh.
I don't know if you have gotten to the chapter yet, but Gritt wasn't conscious for the latter part of the battle and most of its aftermath. All these years later, he's still largely in the dark about who did and didn't make it out.
For instance, Egon would have been one of the few younger griffons he interacted with as a kid, and he has no idea what happened to him. By the time he checked the clinic, Heidi was gone and most of the casualties had been sorted out, cremated or otherwise.
He's held onto the hope that the people he doesn't know about made it, so finding out what happened would definitely gut-punch him.
5751887
Not yet. I just got to the chapter at Tenpony Tower, but since Crimson was introduced I assume some of that is coming up soon.
I hadn't considered that he'd know Egon or the others who grew up as Talons, like Zella, but they really should have known each other. That would be a shame for him to find out about poor Egon, but maybe not a big surprise.
5751896
Man, I really hope it has come across so far how much of selfish, manipulative, ruthless POS Rosegold is.
He meets Velvet Remedy, the Element of Kindness, and immediately perceives her as a threat. At least, until he realizes he can use her to get assistance with the lighthouse. That should tell you all you need to know.
Not to mention what happened in Limbo.
5751898
Oh, yeah, Limbo definitely sent that message. I actually had to stop for a second to see if I'd missed something or if he was just that determined to get the pearl fragment.
media.tenor.com/Z8ZE7G67b-wAAAAd/wow-what-a-selfish-punk-cosmo.gif
5751934
The Darkness had a grip on his mind, but it didn't have to grip very hard.
Even then, when Rosegold realizes, he isn't morally upset with his own actions. He's tactically upset with them. "Well that was an incredibly stupid and unnecessary way to get what I wanted."
5751886
I doubt they'd do so immediately, but Gritt and Kaz might eventually talk about who they named their daughters after. Specialist Jade Brightwing was both Gritt's sharpshooting mentor and his best friend growing up. He practically saw her as an older sister or aunt.
Her's is a name Amalia might know. Jade was a born-in-a-base, top-of-her-class type of Talon. When Gritt's talent grew past what Stern could teach him, Jade was one of the only people Stern would admit was better than her and better suited to train him.
5751977
It would be sensible for her to know her, even if I intentionally left a lot about her childhood vague since I wasn't sure how to really handle it. It would be a big question of how isolated the kids were in general, though obviously since Amy and Valerie grew up together they couldn't have been totally isolated from other.
5752165
Jade trained Gritt with a very different mentality than Stern did. Stern just wanted Gritt to focus on taking enemies out. Jade taught Gritt to act as a protector, as overwatch. He'd be a different person if his mother had been his only influence.
5751934
I honestly can't wait for you to get to the story's first proper major villain. Rosegold will seem like a saint in comparison.