//------------------------------// // The Transmission // Story: Fallout Equestria : MaelStorm of The Wasteland // by Harb //------------------------------// "Loading transmission number 1-2-4, operation frequency: 5 mile radius." I sat on a chair outside SteelHearts. My Pip-Buck had been on the fritz ever since we had gotten back from killing the hydra. The map would not function, and the radio was stuck on a channel full of static. I had been trying to find a station to tune it to. Suddenly out of the static came a signal. "Hello ponies of the frozen wasteland, it's me Hertz, you friendly neighborhood disc jokey, whats a disk, hell if I know, but I'm gonna keep talking anyway. To all of ponies need a bit of hope in the snow, looks like a pony named 'Vanguard' has taken out a group of zebra's recently, I'd have given him an interview, but I did speak with a local bar owner and he said this little pony has been, and get this, killing a hydra. So if you see this kid give him a big thanks for saving your ass out there Then another signal came. "To anypony who gets this transmission, if you see a pony with the number 13 on his flank, I am offering a bounty of technology, medical supplies, and weapons, dead or alive, once he has been captured I will come into you're town in a day or so and receive him." The voice sounded just like 13's. He had to hear this. I opened the door to the bar and looked around for 13. I saw that Calypso had gotten back. "Hey MaelStorm." Well that seems familiar. "Hey Calypso, have you seen 13?" "Hey MaelStorm." 13 leaned out from behind Calypso. "13 listen to this." I played him the repeating transmission. He was about to speak but a brick nocked him unconscious. Calypso quickly took the BloodRose out of the holster I had on my side just as a mob was forming around 13. She held it on her hooves and screamed. "If any of you so much as touch him I will blow you're bucking brains out!!" Well, unknown to me, Calypso was beginning to have fits of rage when stressed, and by fit I mean anypony who was in them was in for a clusterbuck, this was one of them. I drew the 95. Auto from my other. Well maybe it would have been a smarter idea to play the signal to 13 in private. SteelHeart came out of the door to the forge with a shotgun in his hooves. "Get in the back room, now." I nodded then I holstered my gun and dragged 13 into the forge room. Calypso and SteelHeart followed and he bolted the door shut. A wave of heat hit me from the forge and I saw Denny working at a reloading bench. SteelHeart opened a small hatch. "This will lead to a tunnel I use when the bar gets rushed." "You get robbed often?" I asked. "No, as the only bar in town, when we get to many ponies I leave, that or I set off some charges under the floorboards." "Ok, that's our sign to leave." I went down into the hatch then Calypso slid 13 down where I could get him and she came down afterwards. "Ok, so whats the plan Mael?" Calypso asked. "We find the transmission, and stop whoever is sending it out. Hopefully they will stop trying to kill 13." "Sounds like a plan." I tried to turn on the light in my Pip-Buck, but it still wouldn't work. Damn it, SteelHeart, would it have killed you to put up some torches? Suddenly I felt a burst of magical energy come through my. Suddenly a floating magical light came from the tip of my horn. "Well, that is useful." "Yah, magic can be quite useful at times." The tunnel went on for my guess of about a mile. Without the maps on my Pip-Buck, we where blind in a snow storm. Then I was struck by a light of idea. My idea was that maybe the signal was interfering it's function, so, what if I used the only accessible part, the radio to see if I could trace back the signals position. Not only would I stop the signal but it would also restore function to my Pip-Buck, thus I could use the maps. "Ok Calypso I have an idea, I'll trace the signal to it's origin, then we'll stop it." She gave a solemn nod. Well, no use dragging 13 though snow, so I went over to him, and slapped him with my right hoof. He jolted awake just after I let it up. "Where the hell are we?" He asked. "Where in a tunnel SteelHeart let us use, anymore questions?" "Any plan to stop the signal." "He's going to use his Pip-Buck to track the signal to it's origin." "How are we going to get back?" "We'll be able to use my maps to get back." "Okay. Lets get the bucker." "Also 13, what did you want to tell us?" "That I had no idea what the hell it was and that we should check it out." "Well lets get going." I gave a solemn nod then, I saw a ladder and a grate above it. I went first, Calypso second, and 13 last. When we where all out, I closed the grate and we set off, the signal was only a half mile to the north. I gestured with my hoof towards the direction, Calypso with the BloodRose, 13 with his crossbow, and me with the 95 auto. We almost there, all that was left was a snowy hill. I began to climb, 13 and Calypso followed suit. At the foot of the hill I saw a small camp, a tent, a camp fire that was amazingly still lit, and sitting at that fire was a pony who looked exactly like 13, except instead of a 13 on his flank was a 16. He looked up at us, and he spoke into a headset. "Quantum, he is here, start the transporter, also, he seems to have some friends, I take it you'll want some dissection subjects?" Suddenly a blue beam formed around all 3 of us, I tried to move but I was paralyzed in the beam. Within seconds I was over welled by unconsciousness.