Chapter 34: We came to buy, not to die.
Chapter 34: We came to buy, not to die.
"the customary exchange of bullets"
Darkness.
That was what greeted Ruby and I when we returned home. Stable Four was totally dark when viewed from the air. That was a good sign, I hoped. It should have taken the caravan around an hour to get from the overpass to here. They should have made it by the time Ruby and I took off in the tank with the intention of finding somewhere to hide it, and that had taken a surprisingly short amount of time. At most, we were an hour behind them now. Had there been some sort of commotion at the stable, I would have expected to see lights, fires... something. Hell, I would have expected to see them still unloading trailers, yet it was so quiet it was unnerving.
"Do you think the others made it back?" Ruby asked. "Should we go looking for them?"
"To go looking for them immediately would be a mistake. The first thing we do is go down to the stable and see if they made it. I once spent hours swimming in deep, cold water looking for Demi, where if I had simply climbed out of the water, I would have seen the note she left me saying she was okay. If we go looking and they are already here, they will get worried about us, and maybe go looking for us, and..."
"Point taken. Let's go down and see what is happening. I can't see any blips on my Pipgirl thingo, so at least there can't be an ambush," Ruby said.
"True enough," I agreed.
Ruby flew us directly over Stable Four's open service elevator shaft, then descended, bypassing all the security (walls) and the little elevator, landing directly in front of the door to the stable, which was quite definitely closed. Hopping down from Ruby's back, I considered just how easy it was to get down here with wings, and just how little resistance that door would offer to Enclave weaponry. An attack from the air was something we had simply never considered pre-Enclave invasion. Even though the door was original Stable-Tec, it was only a heavy bulkhead door, designed for internal security, not to prevent outsiders breaking in. For that, the much stronger vault doors were employed. I would have to address the problem as soon as was possible. Maybe we could levitate the broken slab back down from its current duty as a wall, and get it at least to partially cover the shaft.
But for now, the immediate problem was to open the door and get me and Ruby safely inside. As I was contemplating just how I would go about it, I heard the grinding of gears as the mechanism was operated from the other side. The door pulled back, and out of the way, revealing a very dimly lit corridor, with the shadowy forms of a few ponies within.
"Quick, get inside," one requested. The voice was Shadow's. That answered my question to if the others had made it back safely. As requested, Ruby and I slipped through the open door, and it slammed closed behind us, the internal gears grinding as it was sealed up again.
"Has anything happened I don't know about, or should know about?" I immediately asked, concerned.
"No, fortunately," Shadow replied. "As soon as we got back, we went into lock down. We've been watching the cameras for your return, so that's why we knew to open the door."
"Ah, yes, Lee's security cameras. I'd forgotten about those," I admitted.
"Greetings, Anne, Ruby," Saffron Fields said from a little further up the corridor. He was fully dressed in his armor. So they were serious about their lock down.
"Hi Saffron," I replied. "We really could have done with your assistance this trip."
"So I heard," he responded. "I am sorry for your loss. But after what happened last time, you know we couldn't leave this place unguarded."
"Too true," I responded. "All the same, I hope there was nothing too difficult to deal with."
"Fortunately, it was quiet. Just a few varmints passing. You know, the small stuff we deal with pretty much every day," Saffron informed me.
"Just another day in the wasteland," I commented. "How's Lana?"
"Doing well, thank you," he replied.
"I guess I'd better get Ruby down to her sister," I said. This was no place for a deep and meaningful, and by the feel of the conversation, Saffron was well aware of it. "Where are the others from the caravan, and the trailers for that matter?"
"The others are down on Level Eight, preparing for the funeral. The trailers were knocked apart and dragged further in so nopony can steal them," Saffron answered.
"Thanks, Saffron." I gave him an appreciative tap with my hoof. "Come on, Ruby, we had better get down to Level Eight then," I suggested, walking past Saffron, and heading towards the elevator. As we went, I noticed the parts of the trailers and some of Lee's loot pushed into out-of-the way corners. Funerals weren't something I had attended often, despite the number of ponies that I had seen die. Sometimes they were left where they fell. Sometimes they were buried, but burial didn't really qualify as a funeral. There had been no funeral for the Enclave we had buried. We had spoken over their bodies as we covered them with dirt, but those words had been harsh, and their burial merely to hide them. Back at Stable Lab Four we had held a real funeral for my mad childhood friend, and the others that had died in the lower levels, and at the moment, that was the only one that came to my mind. Oh, and I had been present for the short memorial service for the fallen mare when I had first arrived here, but I had not witnessed her recycling. That, I expected I would witness now, unless we were already too late.
I hadn't missed the funerals. They had started as soon as Ruby and I joined the others down on Level Eight. I had been a little surprised when the service was held for all four of the ponies that had been reduced to ash by the Enclave, my father included, but had held my peace. The mares showed him the same reverence they had their own. Come next meal, we would all be symbolically taking part in the consumption of him. Reality was that the recycler would take longer than that to convert his ash into something edible. So, despite my expectations, he wouldn't be resting in peace next to his last wife. Duct Tape had decided that if she was going to be living with the ponies of Stable Four, she was going to adopt some of their customs, and the first was to do with funerals.
"So, you decided to put Father's ashes in the recycler with the others," I commented when Duct Tape joined me after the proceedings.
"Do you mind, Anne?" she asked. "I saw no reason why we should risk our lives to bury the dead, even if it was our father. It isn't as if he cares where he gets buried, and even if he could care, he'd probably rather be near us, the living, anyway."
"No, I don't mind," I admitted.
"You've forgiven him for what he did to you, haven't you, Anne?" Duct Tape asked.
"Yes, I have." I nodded.
"Did you ever tell him?" she asked, her voice a little concerned over what may have been a missed opportunity.
"I did. And I'm sure he knew I really had, that I wasn't just saying it to make him feel better. I'm glad we could get back together again," I admitted. "And the way he stepped forward at the end, it was clear that he really did care about me." I almost choked on the unexpected sob.
Duct Tape reared, wrapping her little legs around my neck, hugging me. "I'm glad we can both remember him fondly," she said. "It is something we will be able to share. Just us, as sisters."
"Sisters," I echoed, hugging her back.
"So what happens to me now?" Duct Tape questioned after our hug came to its natural end. "We are going to live here, right?"
"It looks that way. I was trying to find a new home for these mares, but that hasn't worked out, and now they don't seem so desperate to leave either. Maybe that is for the best. It is safer here than out on the surface. And now that they call me their leader, I'd better stay with them, hadn't I?"
"You're the Overmare of this stable?" Duct Tape asked, "Even though you weren't born here? Wow."
I chuckled. "Well, they've never called me the Overmare, but they did make me their leader. To me, the role is one of guidance, to lead, not to control."
"Oh, that's nice. Bossy ponies are no fun," she assured me. I wondered what bossy ponies she had experienced! "But what happens when you go out on one of your trips?" she asked.
"Sometimes you can come with me and Demi when we go out. Sometimes you can stay here with the mares because we will need to go and do dangerous things," I answered.
"And your next trip is one of the dangerous ones, isn't it?" Duct Tape asked, pulling a pouty face as I nodded.
"At the moment, any time we go onto the surface is dangerous, with the Enclave pests flying about," I explained.
"You will come back for me, won't you?" Duct Tape asked, tilting her head and squinting her eyes, as if trying to see into my mind.
"As long as I am still alive, yes." The perversity of that comment struck me after I had spoken. It was a distinction that my mother's body hadn't made. She could have come back alive, or dead.
After that, we found ourselves wandering around aimlessly and with bleary eyes. It took Duct Tape to point out that it was very early morning, and that all good ponies should be tucked up in bed. Hopefully the rotten ponies would be too, so we could get some uninterrupted sleep. It was not long before I found myself lying on one of the Level Eight mattresses between Demi and Duct Tape. The wasteland may have taken many things, but it had given me a family, and if I was prepared to look beyond the immediate members, Demi and Duct Tape, it had given me a rather large one.
The next mattress over, or more accurately, the pair of mattresses adjacent to ours, held Ruby's somewhat larger form. Nestled between her forelegs was her young sister Cherry Opal. The ten year old was dwarfed by her alicorn sister. She had been rather wary of the large mare at first, but when she had finally accepted Ruby's change, she was all hugs and enthusiasm. We all hoped the youngster would not try too hard to follow in her sister's hoofsteps, as she had before, because becoming an alicorn was not something to be encouraged, if it was indeed still possible.
The following morning, the mares (okay, and the stallions too) briefed the returning ponies on what had been happening while we were away. Likewise, we filled them in on what we had been doing down in Stable Lab Four, and what had happened in Splendid Valley.
Apparently, during our absence, some of the more mobile had again tried to find where our underground rail line led, and with more success than we had the last time we tried. Admittedly, Demi and I had found a way out, but getting washed down a drain was hardly ideal! Further along from where that had occurred, the explorers had found their way blocked by a giant mound of rubble that had resulted from a collapsed ceiling. That had needed to be cleared to make an opening for them to scramble through, the result of their efforts being a small gap near the tunnel ceiling. It was hardly appropriate for general traffic, but good enough for the occasion.
Further trekking along the line had brought them to the massive underground hangar, now devoid of most of the heavy weapons, or whatever else it was that had been stored there. There were still two huge guns, each so large it sat on two sets of bogies, side by side, one set on each of the up and down lines. These were exactly the sort of thing I had expected would be there, due to the expensive way in which the subway had been built. The guns were not much use to anypony anymore, as there was apparently no ammunition to be found. Beyond them were heavy hangar doors, which when finally opened (just enough for the ponies to squeeze through) had revealed more subway, although this time of minimal length. A few hundred paces along was a second set of heavy hangar doors, which when opened with comparative ease, led out into the Maresty train yard. That, I was told, was littered with the remains of damaged and decaying subway carriages and engines. The most important point of this discovery was that it gave us not only a second way out of the stable, but a reasonably sized underground area in which we could park our equipment - stolen Enclave tanks for example. And when times were more favorable, the outer hangar area could make for a pretty decent bazaar.
Now with a place to store The Brick, heading over to Absolutely Everything for some paint for it was next on our agenda. The Brick would be ideal for moving the less mobile from the stable about. Not only could we take them out to the lab for medical attention, but day trips to other towns would be possible too; well, that was assuming those insectoid Enclave assholes could be contained. After some discussion, the mares agreed that even if the tank was lost to us before we had a chance to retrieve it, the paint would be a worthwhile purchase. It could be used to freshen up Stable Four itself, now that it was becoming increasingly likely that was where they would all continue to live. They seemed happy enough about that prospect too. The whole stable had a fresher, lighter feel to it now that the terror was gone. That the air itself was literally fresher, and that they could now wander around all ten levels of it also added to its homey feel.
With that it mind, my wheelchair-tractor was floated back out onto the surface, along with the associated trailer. All the unwanted and tradable junk we could gather was heaped into the trailer. That included some of Lee's salvaged Enclave weapons. They, we hoped, would fetch a reasonable price. We needed paint, radiation medication, ammunition: the usual sort of stuff. Excess empty bottles were hastily filled with purified water from the stable's talisman, and they were added to the trailer. Demi was going to be riding in the trailer, so we had Gadget cast linking spells allowing each of us to control either the tractor or the trailer should we find ourselves in a situation that warranted such. More convenient control systems were added to my mental list of problems to solve and things to be done. We couldn't expect Gadget to magically link us all to every piece of transport we had.
The third member of our shopping party was Lee. She was going to travel in her motorcycle. I couldn't blame her. The thing was the most effective form of power armor I had seen so far. Saffron Fields was no longer traveling with us. He had fulfilled his original agreement with me, and now had a family of his own to care for. This was something I was more than happy about, because it meant he was prepared to stay at the stable and guard both it and its residents. He also had enough knowledge to help improve its fortifications. Duct Tape, as had already been discussed with her, was remaining at the stable too. Technically, I would have liked to leave Demi where she was safe, but she wasn't having any of that. I can't say I objected to her insistence in joining us, because I felt incredibly lonely when she wasn't about.
The trip to new Appleloosa reinforced just how wrong things were on the surface. While I usually scanned the area as was my practice, keeping a look out for any approaching threats or friendlies, I was being particularly attentive this time. The E.F.S. wasn't much use if you didn't give it information to process, and the only way to get that info was to be perceptive. That was when I noticed a slight change in the profile of the distant hills.
"Bloody hell!" I had exclaimed. "Canterlot is missing!"
And that was just the start of it. Flicking on the radio so we could hear if the 'good' DJ Pon3 could fill us in on the matter presented us with Enclave propaganda. As horrific as it was to listen to, I persisted in the hope of gaining some sort of insight into what was happening. Their claims to have been the ponies to detonate the bomb under the Goddess to save us from her alerted me to just how untrustworthy the broadcast was. There were other hints in their claims that suggested they had erased more than just Canterlot from the surface to save us from the vile scum that lived here. The biggest problem with this was it was becoming increasingly clear that any pony that didn't live in the clouds was a target, either immediately, or when they got the opportunity. This wasn't war, it was genocide.
It was with this frame of mind I approached New Appleloosa. Something was very, very wrong. I brought the tractor to a halt in order to see more clearly. Even from several miles away, as we were, I could see the black clouds maneuvering into position over the town, it looking very much like a version of the flying city we had seen over Splendid Valley. In the clearer light of the day I could see there were actually four craft. By no means did that mean these Enclave craft were small, and like the Enclave tank we had captured, and the armored soldiers themselves, these things were built for one purpose - killing. Even from this far back we could see the weapons these war machines sported. What had been their purpose at Maripony? Had they really been there to kill the Goddess as they claimed? Getting caught in a balefire explosion couldn't have been their intention.
I could see a swarm of what looked like black gnats flying around the war machines. Enclave Soldiers. It was clearly time for me to begin bug swatting.
Lee's motorcycle slid to a stop by my tractor, and its side hatch opened, Lee leaning out. "So what do we do?" she asked. "We're a tad outgunned." I appreciated that she considered something did need doing. Many would have just turned and fled.
"Should we try the Hero routine? Get ourselves killed making a gesture?" I asked. I turned to face the trailer behind me. If it was possible for a white pony to look pale, she was somehow managing to do so. "Demi? You lived there..."
"Anne, we have to save those ponies," she squeaked, leaning from her position in the trailer. Clearing her throat, she tried again. "My ex-parents may have been bastards, but the rest of them... shit... It doesn't matter what they were like, does it? They are still about to get murdered by our enemy. Even my asshole ex-parents, if they still live there."
"True enough," I responded. "And the doctor isn't a bad sort. Ditzy and her foal are worth saving too. I agree, Demi, we do have to help."
"It won't be like fighting a mere squad of Enclave soldiers this time," Lee warned us. "I don't see how we can take down those war machines. The best we could do would be shoot at their weapons in the hope of disabling them, or we could shoot at the winged bastards themselves, although it is likely anything we do will have negligible effect. "
"But if our negligible effect is added to the negligible effects of each of the ponies in that town, together we just might add to enough to be able to throw the balance," I commented. "Why don't we get closer and start sniping?" I suggested. "That is our strength."
"What about me?" Demi asked as I started the tractor moving forward again. "I'm not just going to sit here watching my old home town getting destroyed, and I can't snipe with a 10mm pistol."
"You can be spotter. Lee and I will have our eyes to scopes, and that limits our field of view. You watch the bigger picture, suggest targets, and watch our backs!" I replied. "And yes, that is a real and valuable job. If nothing else, it should increase our rate of fire. Hold on, I'm going to drive fast."
Lee had closed the hatch to her motorcycle and blasted into the distance before I was even moving. I threw maximum power to the wheels, steering for the most level and smooth parts of the road. As the minutes of hard driving passed, the Enclave ships appeared to grow in size, until we were practically under them. Even so, we were at least half a mile from the boxcar walls of New Appleloosa. From this close, the Enclave ships were truly terrifying. Lee had pulled off the road, and was sitting there, her bike's hatch open as she leaned out with one of her gauss guns. I braked, sliding to a standstill beside her, releasing the harness on the tractor and leaping off. Lee tossed me the gauss rifle.
"Use that when you've run out of ammo for your rifle," she suggested as she closed the hatch again. She was going to use the gauss gun built into her motorcycle itself.
This close, we could see the Enclave soldiers swooping down on any pony that tried to make a break for it through the town gates, blasting them with multicolored beams from their saddle mounted magical energy weapons. In fact, we were targets ourselves, this close. Moments later I heard the deep clunks of Lee's motorcycle mounted gauss gun spitting slugs at the soldiers ahead off us. Levitating the gauss rifle Lee had given me, I targeted the first Enclave insect I saw and fired. A spray of blood in the air behind them indicated the shot was good, so following Demi's guidance I targeted the next, and fired again. I'd pull my rifle out when there wasn't something that needed immediate attention. Between us we must have been doing some good, because a mare and a filly made it as far as us before ducking in behind the trailer and hiding themselves.
Nearby, three other ponies flew towards the town. Demi alerted me to them, but a glance was all it took for me to know they were most likely on our side. The Enclave didn't have any un-armored, glowing ghoul ponies in their ranks: they were a wasteland special. Of the two that accompanied her, one, a rusty colored stallion, was being ridden by the other, a little thing, about my size. They pulled up briefly, before the glowing one took off at full speed, her mostly featherless wings somehow propelling her along at a great rate of knots. The stallion unconsciously settled to the ground as he and his rider discussed their next move.
While I was watching them, I took advantage of my break in concentration to pull Victory from my battle saddle, and load her up with the heavy hitting bullets I had originally created to take out Lee's motorcycle when I thought it belonged to an enemy. At Demi's prompting, I raised the rifle and began shooting again, making sure I used my magic to brace myself and Victory well, as with these bullets, she kicked like an apple-farmer. A couple of shots brought down another of the black, winged menaces, unfortunately moments after he had turned a fleeing mare into glowing blue dust. I felt a little guilty at having allowed myself to be distracted.
Meanwhile the glowing ghoul had attracted the attention of many of the Enclave soldiers, and now they were flying to surround her as she flew to position herself between their war machines. Several of them moved towards her, their scorpion like armored tails curling to strike. I took advantage of the situation to shoot another of the bastards in the ass. He plummeted from view, hopefully concluding his descent with a bone crushing thud on the ground below.
As I was targeting another of the pegasi with their backs towards me, the glowing ghoul let go with an almighty burst of light and radiation, blowing back the circling Enclave soldiers physically. I abandoned my shot. The ghoul took off vertically, seemingly launched by her own attack, although I could see her beating her wings. I figured a couple more bursts like that would have the soldiers losing their lunches from radiation sickness. How something that was in effect dead and mostly featherless could fly I would never understand. Perhaps the necromantic magic that kept them un-dead also provided them with un-feathers we couldn't see.
The Enclave soldiers took off after her, opening fire on her again, but each time before they could gain on her, the ghoul would let out another great burst of radiation. Each time she did, she seemed to rocket higher. My eyes automatically compensated for the bright flashes, but it was apparent the pegasi were having difficulties, despite any filtering that may have been built into their armor. I took advantage of their confusion to put a few more bullets into them. I had run out of the special loads, so was now squeezing off regular rounds, not that they didn't pack a mighty punch anyway. As the ghoul rose higher, the flying fortresses opened up with their top-side cannons, but they were too slow and inaccurate to track and hit the comparatively tiny pony. After a few shots they ceased firing, allowing the soldiers to pursue her without risk of being hit. They were getting beyond my effective range, so I returned my attention to shooting soldiers that were buzzing the citizens of the town itself.
"The glowing one has gone into the clouds," Demi informed me. "Some of the soldiers are on their way back down." I aimed high again, and took a couple more shots. "And she's come back out again, going down quick," Demi added.
As the Enclave pegasi reacted to the plummeting ghoul I lowered my rifle and watched. There was too much movement to successfully snipe at the moment. It was almost like watching a funnel of water going down a drain, each pegasus turning to follow, as if being sucked downwards by the ghoul. She'd let go with another massive burst of light and radiation, and those too close to her would explode out like black fireworks, arcing towards the ground until they recovered control of themselves. Some opened fire with those dreadful multi-beam magical weapons, occasionally actually hitting the ghoul, as well as some of each other, although they were armored and she wasn't.
A glance at the bottom of the cloud ships showed they were just about ready to fire, to obliterate New Appleloosa, and I felt so small, impotent. I was just about to drop Victory and grab the gauss rifle in the hope that some lucky shots from it may damage the ships when I saw the ghoul, now with a couple of missiles spiraling after her, plunge into the gap between the four cloud ships... and explode.
Sonic Rainboom was what sprung to mind. I'd read about them in class back in the stable. I had never expected to see one though, and I wasn't entirely sure I was seeing one now. This wasn't rainbow colored; it was the color the glowing one had been, a sickly mix of toxic green and yellow, yet it burst out from its origin as an expanding disc of light and turmoil as the shock wave blew away everything in its path.
And that included the Enclave's cloud ships, their clouds ripped out from below them. Their levitation magic was worthless, no longer having the clouds to rest upon, and the ships fell outward, pushed away by the blast, twisting and breaking as their structures collapsed. I turned and ran, calling Demi after me, the tractor and trailer abandoned, as one of the crippled hulks fell in our direction. Almost instantly the shock wave knocked me sprawling, followed moments later by a second one as the air displaced by the cloud ship blasted out as it crashed to the ground.
Standing, I looked around for Demi in the brilliantly lit dust cloud (or whatever it was) that had resulted, although it was my ears that led me to her coughing. "You okay, girl?"
"Cough. Just a lung full of ... cough... dust. Nothing serious," she answered, climbing back onto her hooves.
"What about you two?" I directed towards the mare and filly cowering behind the trailer, themselves now looking somewhat windswept. The mare just nodded.
"What' s with all this bright light?" Demi asked.
We both looked up and saw the gaping hole in the clouds above us, as if somepony had opened a huge window to the sky. Actually, that was exactly what had happened. The glowing ghoul had blown a hole straight through the cloud fields of the Enclave's farmlands above. "That, Demi, is pure, unadulterated sunlight. Remember this, because we may never see anything like it again."
Lee's motorcycle pulled up near us, and she opened the hatch. "What now?" she asked. "Shall we storm the crashed ship? And what are you looking at?"
"The sunlight, Lee. We are looking at something rare and wonderful," Demi answered her.
"I can't say I missed it," she admitted. "I'm from space, remember?"
I heard the crunch of shattering armor, and perhaps of the leg bone within. Moaning, the pegasus collapsed onto the floor.
"Yield or die!" I demanded yet again, pointing the guns of my battle saddle at him. Dotted along our path from the outside were numerous injured pegasi. They had all yielded in the end, usually after a bullet struck home or a bone broke. We hadn't been trying to kill them - just get past them.
"I surrender," he whimpered, powering down his integrated weapons system.
"What about you?" I directed my question at the second armored pegasus, who was standing to my left, unmoving. The bar on my E.F.S. representing them was amber, and had been throughout the encounter.
"I yield," she responded. After a moment she added, "You three have just fought your way past an entire squad. What are you?" That's right. She asked what I was, not who.
"We are Ministry of Awesome combat cyborgs," I answered. I didn't bother to mention that Demi was not part of "we".
"I can't say I expected that answer. Beaten by Rainbow Dash again," the soldier said. "What now? Do I get out of my armor? Are you going to march us off as prisoners? And what about them?" She indicated her injured companion, and by inference the other wounded we had left behind.
"Well, you could remove your helmets. I'd like to see who I am talking to," I responded.
Both obliged without objection. The one before me was bright red and sported a crimson mane, her companion a dark green on light green combination.
"And?" the red soldier prompted.
"I ask that you kill no more ponies today. Those are families that are dying in this town. They came here to build themselves new lives, to be civilized. To live together for safety. They haven't done anything to deserve execution," I explained.
"This town supplied a balefire bomb to our enemy, and that was used to destroy one of our regiments at Maripony," Red stated.
"That blast also drove my family from its home, and cost me my father and several friends in the resultant encounter with a squad of you guys who were looking for someone to blame. Do you see me killing ponies in this settlement? I very much doubt the whole town is to blame. You are assigning guilt by association. What if only a single pony from this town was responsible for the bomb? Is it right to kill them all? Hell, I'm even giving you guys a chance to stop fighting before I engage you when I could use justification like yours to murder the bloody lot of you for killing my father."
"I see your point," Red stated. "So that's it? That's all you want from us? We don't kill anypony today?" Red asked me.
"That's right. Don't kill any more townsfolk. Perhaps you can help the fallen. Perhaps you could convince others to stop killing. Spend the rest of the day trying to save ponies' lives instead," I suggested. "And when you can do so, return to your friends up in the clouds, and tell them what is happening down here, that the Enclave is murdering the very ponies they have been promising to help for the last two centuries."
"I can do that. There are others that feel the way I do, that this isn't right. That you are requesting the same of me tells me that you aren't all bad either. I'm going to speak to my commanding officer. Just a moment." Turning, she hoofed a button on a wall mounted communicator. “Commander, this is a civilian settlement. These ponies are not raiders. I suggest we withdraw.”
The commander did not respond, but an acknowledgement from another pony indicated the message had got through.
"One question, if I may?" the soldier asked. "What if we do come across some of those pony eating raiders and need to defend ourselves?"
"Shit, even I kill those things," I admitted. "That sort of scum does need to be purged from the wasteland." I thought about it for a moment. "But at least give them the option to surrender first. You don't want to mistake common wastelanders for raiders like you have here."
"You have my word," Red said. "Now will you give me a chance to get my fellow pegasi to stop fighting? Will you lower your guns until you have left the Raptor?"
"Raptor? Oh, this ship. Okay, but only as long as we are not attacked on our way out," I agreed, parking my weapons. It was a risk, but this mare seemed genuine. I wasn't about to waste a chance at a less bloody outcome to the conflict. I looked at Lee, and she nodded, powering down her gauss rifle. Demi spat her 10mm back into its holster.
Nodding acknowledgement, the soldier hoofed the communicator again. "Our wasteland guests are leaving the ship. Do not, I repeat, do not impede them or harm them in any way." She released the button. "Now that I think about it, anyone who tries would be likely to come out the loser in any conflict against you. Good luck, and I hope we can meet again in more favorable circumstances."
Once we were clear of the warship, we had reactivated our weapons, and crept as best we could to where we had left the trailer and Lee's motorcycle. The mare and her filly were gone, and hopefully hiding somewhere safe... well, safer. The noises coming from within the town walls suggested the battle itself was still going on. Occasionally we would see a black carapaced pony rise above the walls and other obstructions briefly, but not long enough for us to shoot at them. Perhaps that was for the best. We were considering what our next move should be when suddenly the attackers took off like a black swarm. They abandoned their crashed ships, stopped fighting, or whatever else they were doing, and flew skyward almost as one. A command had been given. Gunfire continued within the walls of the town, their targets obvious, although they only succeeded in downing one pony before the remainder were too far out of range. Lee and I could probably have brought a couple more down if we had tried, but that would have been in bad faith. I didn't know if the red soldier had managed to sway her commander, or if other orders had resulted in them breaking off their engagement. Whatever. At the moment it didn't matter. What did matter was the fighting was over.
We watched as the black menace became one with the clouds around the gaping hole, then as strand by strand they drew those clouds out, spanning the gap, weaving, no, shuttering the sunlight away again, leaving us poor muck dwellers to wallow in the gloom once again.
"And so a curtain is drawn across another stage in our lives," Demi muttered, almost poetically. "What now? I doubt we can finish our shopping expedition. The town probably needs Ditzy's stock more than we do, assuming it even survived. Shall we see if they want some help?"
"Yes, there are bound to be many injured and wounded that need assistance," I agreed. "Lee?"
"I'm going to see what I can strip from this crashed ship. There may be medical supplies or something the townsfolk can use. I'll catch up with you later."
I turned to Demi. "Well, shall we go see who has survived and what we can do to help them?"
"Let’s."
Footnote: No new level. Perk:
Special thanks to the team of proof readers.
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Another good chapter. Also I see you added Calamity to this chapter. Good one
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IN YOUR FACE, ENCLAVE!
And, yay, toxic rainboom! I love the way you integrate this smoothly into FO:E canon events
I just accidentally stumbled upon the chapter 4 quote again...
"It's sad. I was with her, and I didn't even realize she had died."
You magnificent bastard. That's about Anne's mom, isn't it?
2852922
That's right! I was dropping clues, even back then.
Looks like Demi isn't doing her job, then
Not to mention, ending up at the bottom of the Ghastly Gorge
*looking for Demi
3170171
Doh!