//------------------------------// // chapter 4 // Story: Fallout Equestria: project human // by Gaz1997 //------------------------------// Chapter 3 (Flashback continuation Matrix POV) Time; 23:00 pm Date; June 29th 36 hours after the fire fight over the border Location; unknown zebra industrial city, ten miles over zebra borders ‘Operation dagger charge’ Selected Squad; ‘the hell ponies’ Support; specialist matrix, leader of assault Squad status; assumed MIA/KIA for the mood “Well this op was a fucking bust” I shouted in my own head as I skulked through the alleyways of the zebra city with two ponies in tow, both of them friends back from ponyville, silver who you all know and frost storm who was a Pegasus, they were all that’s left of their squad of ten ‘the hell ponies’ as they were famously called, they were some of the most hardest soldiers of the equestrian army and they were called in when the going got tough and I should know…..cause I trained them. Right now we were in some fucking zebra city as part of the first assaults on the zebra’s homeland in the operation ‘dagger charge’. Rainbow had been taken back to pony Ville after the battle almost two days ago and silver and his squad had swept the area around the village which we now owned then he was picked up with his squad to be part of this operation. I was assigned to silver’s squad to lead the attack of nearly one thousand soldiers on the industrial city and let me tell you it was a fucking blood bath. This city reminded me of one of those poorer cities back on earth like Africa or south America with the main city centre and factory’s in the middle and the slum housing on the outer edges, it was now dark, raining and quiet except from the occasional gunfire in the distance, me and silver’s squad had been cut off from the main group in the main attack that were holding the lines on the southern end of the city whilst we had ended up on the northern side. Our squad had been ambushed as we had walked right into a slaughter, losing seven members in the space of five minutes……….five measly fucking minutes…………these zebras have now mercy what so ever, at least subtle rampage had managed to escape but he’s now on his own somewhere in this city, he may be a unicorn but he wouldn’t be able to get outa here easy, he would just get shot or have his magic paralyze………god I hope he’s ok. All three of us looked like shit at this point but we’ve been through worse, I moved up the corner of the building placing my back against the cold hard concrete, gripping Bozar in my hands with a silencer attachment, if only the same could be said for my pistols but who cares if things got close quarters, I always had my knifes and on my back and I had my anti material rifle I had picked up back at the base for the briefing of the op, silver had his twin assault rifles with silencer’s (no fucking surprise there!!) and his dual katanas and pistol, storm had dual smg’s in his battle saddle with silencers, combat knife and standard issue pistol. Even when silenced we were a force to be reckoned with…………but were not invincible I heard voice’s coming from down the street as well as seeing a number of red markers on my E.F.S so I ushered both of them against the wall, weapons at the ready, I peered round the wall and turned on my helmets night vision to see a group of zebra’s in a little makeshift scout outpost, they were all speaking zebrican but I couldn’t hear because I was too far to understand them properly, I scanned each hostile carefully, six zebras, two rifleman, one engineer, one flamethrower, one sniper and a radio operative. 'Well these guys look easy enoughooooohhshit me and my big mouth' I just love to keep jinxing myself as a zebra wearing a colonel’s uniform walks out of the makeshift tent on the right hand side of the street. I pulled my head back around from the corner and sank to the floor resting my rifle on my lap and taking my helmet of, revealing my dirt and blood covered face, I ran my hand through my now greasy hair ‘note to self-get a shower when possible’. “Matrix, what’s up?” whispered silver “Round the corner, 50 metres down the street, six hostiles plus one possible colonel” “What, let me see” he said so I shuffled over a bit so he get a look round the corner then he froze solid “Silver, Silver what’s wrong?” Asked storm “its…….its……” he was just stood there not moving so I pulled him back round from the edge of the building and brought him to face me “Silver what the fuck is wrong?” “It’s him…….that bastard………….colonel zakoto…….he’s the one that………….…..that killed my parents all those years ago……when I was just a foal back in…..back in Karalia” “WHAT, are you sure its him, how can you tell” “I don’t care, I just know it’s him…………and I’m gonna kill him!” “silver no” I stopped him before he gave us away “If you go out there you’ll get killed plus he’ll just call for back up or run so I suggest leave it” “But mat-“ “No. fucking. Buts silver, now is not the time for vengeance, so that will have to wait, you will get another chance but the way we are in now, now is just not the time” *sigh* “ok matrix……..so what now” “Hmmmm I have an idea” I put my helmet back on then leaned over and picked up a small piece of rubble and moved back up the edge of the corner and peered round again, some of the zebras had gone back into the tent leaving only the sniper and the one with the flamethrower. I lobbed the piece of rubble at the collapsed building on the right side of the street; both zebras looked towards to noise as all three of us silently sprinted across the street in the alleyway adjacent to the one we were just in. “Man that was close” I said as well all stopped for a second, I crouched down and brought up my pipbucks map of the city so we could plot a route back towards the main force. “hmm I seems we’ve gotta go down these set of streets and possibly through a small part of the slums to get back to our lines and hopefully that should be easy but we might have to make and overnight stop at some point too” “Roger that” said silver and storm in unison, we then moved down towards the other end of the alley and peered into the street, we looked to the right and saw nothing but an empty street but when we looked to the left we saw a crashed vertibuck, I prayed to celestia it wasn’t the zebra hunter as we cautiously moved down the sidewalk towards the crash site. As we got closer we could see the full extent of the damage done to the vertibuck, it was riddled with bullets holes, one engine was laying a few metres away buried in the ground and there was blood all over the ground We reached the downed bird and my prayers were answered as it wasn’t the zebra hunter, we then quickly scouted the surrounding area, nothing we couldn’t see so we proceeded to check the inside of the craft, the side door was open but it was pitch black inside, silver and frost stayed outside while in went in. When I saw the interior it was just a mess “Damn” I spoke “What you got specialist?” said frost from outside “A last stand……….” I said “Fucking zebras, they show absolute no fucking mercy” replied frost What indeed I was looking at was what seemed to be a last stand, there lay three bodies, two pony’s sitting back two back, one who was aiming down out the door and the other would have been aiming through a hole in the side of the fuselage, the other pony was lying against the cockpit bulkhead in a pool of his own blood, riddled with bullet holes and his gun in his hoofs, eyes wide open still in the same facial expression before he met his end, I moved over and closed his eyes slowly, I walked into the cockpit and to my surprise there was no body’s, This gave me three possible answers to this little mystery; One, they lived and managed to escape and link up with friendlies, two, they lived, escaped and are now somewhere in the city or are captured, three, they died on impact but some pony moved the body’s, but who would do that? While I tried to unravel the mystery the radio in the cockpit started playing static so I snapped out of my small trance and scanned through the channels, nothing, that was until I came across the emergency channel “to anypony out there listening to this on the emergency channels, please help us, this is corporal subtle rampage of the equestrian army, I am trapped on the sixth floor of an apartment building roughly twenty blocks north of a crashed vertibird with its two pilots, we are running low on ammo and medical supplies, one of the pilots is badly injured and I’m not sure if she’ll make it, so please if any pony hears this get here ASAP” ‘Well I’ll be, that crafty bastard managed to ‘not’ get his ass blown up, I’m impressed’ I turned of the radio and head out the cockpit to inform silver and frost of the news “Hey guys I solved the mystery behind the missing pilots and do I have something else to tell ya” “What is it?” asked silver “The pilots aren’t dead, there about twenty blocks up the road on the sixth floor of an apartment building but ones injured……badly” “And what is the news?” storm piped in “well its seems rampage is alive and is holding his sorry ass up with the pilots………….and where gonna get them out but first were gonna get as much ammo out of this here bird, rampage is running low and it looks like he may not survive for much longer if patrols keep coming” “Alrighty then let’s get to it” spoke silver About five minutes later we hade scavenged five boxes of ammo for a few weapons, two belts of grenades and five packs of explosives plus two medical cases, silver and frost carried the ammo boxes while I had the explosive and medical stuff, we set off down the street sticking to the alley ways and the shadows as much as possible to avoid detection, we were about two buildings away from the six story building rampage had described when a patrol of three zebras came into view. “Shit, get back!” I whispered them quickly as we backed up into the nearest alley “What’s up?” storm whispered “A Three zebra patrol, we either take em out now or were fucked!” I replied “Ok let’s do it” “Storm you take the one on the left, silver the right, I’ve got the middle, on 3…………..1…….2……3………..now!” We all burst round the corner, quickly locking onto our targets and dropping them with suppressed fire, once all three were dead I crouched over to the body’s and picked up one of their radio’s ‘Could come in handy later’ I thought After looting and hiding the body’s we finally made it to the apartment building, unaware we were being watched. we cautiously moved through the ground floor making our way up the stairs avoiding the elevator’s, I mean it’s obvious to avoid them isn’t it………right, we made it to the top floor and moved down the main hall in single file since it was quite narrow, we rounded a corner and was met with five dead zebras and a lot of blood “Damn rampage put up a real fight” “Frost, keep it quiet” I said sternly We kept walking down the hall until I spotted one door that was covered in…………..crystal? Oh yeah I forgot that rampage being that he is a unicorn, he has this rare power called crystallokinesis he calls it which gives him the ability to control gemstones and make them grow where he wants them to and how he wants them too. For instance he can coat his hooves in diamond, he must have used it to barricade the door but it looks like the zebras had been trying to get in as there were a few cracks in the turquoise crystal…….stuff We stacked up against either side of the door and I knocked on the wall “The sun rises in the east” came a voice from behind the door “The moon sets in the west” I replied answering the pass phrase “Mat, is that you?” came the voice “No it’s the fucking mailmare, of course it’s me dickhead, now are you gonna let us in or what?” “Yeah one second” replied rampage as the turquoise crystal barricade started to shrink then disappear quickly, then he started fumbling with the many locks on the door, “Fucks sake hurry up,” exclaimed storm “Hey frost, you know when I said shut the fuck up” “Yes” he answered in confusion “Well consider it a standing order” I spoke in my most badass voice just as rampage opened the door “Get your Asses in here” the Pegasus spoke before diving back in the room, silver went in first then storm then me and I shut the door for rampage to barricade it again “Man its good to see you guys” said rampage “You too man, I thought you had gone and got killed back there” I said in a relieved tone “Well you’re wrong because I’m still kicking and breathing” “Hmmm don’t go getting too cocky now, by the way didn’t you say on the broadcast you had the two pilots here?” I asked “Yeah she has an injured leg and is in the other room, you got any supplies?” “Yeah fuck loads” I said as me sliver and frost dumped the scavenged supplies in the living room which was a mess with ruined furniture all over the place and only a few windows weren’t smashed so the floor was slowly becoming one big puddle from the on pouring rain “Frost you’re the better medic out of all of us, you go help the pilot,” I said to him He mock saluted me then trotted off into the other room, I went and sat down on the only untouched sofa in the room where the earth pony pilot was sitting with a canteen in his hooves, he had a dark green coat and white mane and tail but I couldn’t see his cutie mark because of the flight suit he was wearing “Hey you alright there” I said as I put a hand on his shoulder “Yeah…………I’m fine” he said unaware of who I was…….until he looked up at me, letting out a small gasp finally realising who I am “Sorry sir, I didn’t know it was you specialist matrix, sir” he quickly sat up saluting” “no need for formalities here soldier, were all in the same shit for now just call me matrix or mat whatever suits you” “Ok then matrix how do you plan on getting back to our lines?” “Well if we spend the night here, we’ll go through the slums circling the outer edge of the city until we meet up with friendlies, that is if you have a radio, I heard a radio broadcast just before our squad got cut of that we were going to withdraw when the op went to shit” “Right, I’ll take your word for and I know my sister will as she thinks highly of you, she loved you back when you were Dj humanz, probably seeing you here will make her stop feeling crap about this situation” “Hehe I haven’t done that in a while……….Wait! The other pilot is you sister……………and she has…………..a crush on me?” he nodded in confirmation “Damn, well I’m sorry to disappoint her but I’m a married man, but I can try and cheer her up, what’s her name?” “Heh, you do that and I would be grateful, her name is red lilac, I’m hammer wood by the way” “Let me guess, wood carpenter?” “How’d you know?” he asked dumfounded that I knew what he used to do before joining the army “Name says it all” I simply said “Ah right well then I’ll leave you to help my sis” “Ok mate then back in a few” I said as stood up then walked over to the room where his sister was “Wait a sec!” hammer called back “Yeah?” I replied “Who did you say you were married too?” “I didn’t” “Well could you tell me” he asked “Rainbow dash, why?” “The ‘rainbow dash’ I refuse to believe that” “Oh really then how come in know the names of ‘our’ kids” I said back “Mostly everypony does but from what I heard only her husband has her foals name on…….his…….blades” he said trailing of from what he was saying as he looked at me I had drawn one of my lightning blades revealing my daughter ‘blue angel’s’ name on its side “Believe me now” “Yes sir” “Well I think that’s sorted now please excuse me” is said as I re-sheathed my blade then opened the door and I saw frost tending to her leg on the broken bed, she had a pinkish red coat and a light yellow mane and tail, and yet again I couldn’t the pony’s cutie mark because of her flight suit, she looked like she was almost out of it but still awake and she hadn’t recognized me yet, good, now I can surprise her “Hey storm, how’s she doing?” He just looked at me with a blank expression “Oh right, permission to speak, smart-ass” “She’s lost a bit of blood but she’s fine for now, she just need’s to keep of her hind leg is all” “Nice job, say could you give me a few minutes with her, I need to speak with her about something’s” “Erm sure, yes sir” he spoke before moving out of the room leaving me and lilac alone “Hey lilac, can you hear me?” I asked “Uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh who are you” she asked out loud, lifting up her head lazily and opening one eye “Oh come on, how can you not recognise you own idol” I said taking of my helmet revealing my face to her, she opened her other eye and rubbed both of them with her forelegs, when she lifted her head up to me again her mouth dropped open as a smile spread across my face “Hey I heard that a certain somepony has a thing for me and my music” “Ohmygoshit’syouDjhumanzineverthoughtiwouldevergettoseeyouforreal” she said almost rivalling pinkie pie when she’s at her most hyper-ist, then she realises that I’m higher rank then quickly begins to apologize “Oh I’m sorry specialist, sir, it’s just that I’m a really big fan of yours, I had all your songs and went to almost all of your concerts when I was younger but I never thought I would see you up close and personnel” “Hey it’s alright and it’s been a while since I’ve had anypony talk about my previous job but what can you do when you’re at war, is your leg feeling okay? And please call me mat or matrix whatever you prefer” “Ok…………mat and I can’t feel anything,” she said “Good, that’ll be the med-ex kicking in I presume, also a little bird told me that ‘you’ have a crush on me” “W-what! Who told you that was it wood, if so I’m going murder him!” “No it wasn’t him at all, let’s just say I have a knack for spotting things like that, but I’m sorry to say I’m a married man I’m afraid” she put on a saddened face as I said that “But that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends and all, tell you what, once we get out of this shit I’ll buy you a drink sound alright?” I quickly said to get her hopes back up “WOULD IT EVER” she shouted with excitement “Ok, ok jeez keep it down, not exactly the friendliest neighbourhood right now” “Oh yeah right sorry” “It’s ok; just try not to get too excited ok” “Ok but could you please play me a song, its just that I haven’t heard you in a while, if that’s ok with you?” “Sure it is but I’m gonna have to keep it down a tad you know hostile territory and everything” I said as I pulled out my collapsible guitar, putting it together then finally tuning it “So, what do you want me to play?” “That one about the hero of war!” she instantly exclaimed “Ah rise against, haven’t played that one in a while but sure, anything for a fan” I said before I started strumming the guitar hero of war (Intro) He said, "Son, have you seen the world? Well, what would you say if I said that you could? Just carry this gun, you'll even get paid" I said, "That sounds pretty good" Black leather boots, spit shined so bright They cut off my hair but it looks alright We marched and we sang We all became friends as we learned how to fight A hero of war, yeah that's what I'll be And when I come home they'll be damn proud of me I'll carry this flag to the grave if I must 'Cause it's flag that I love and a flag that I trust I kicked in the door, I yelled my commands The children they cried but I got my man We took him away, a bag over his face From his family and his friends They took off his clothes, they pissed in his hands I told them to stop but then I joined in We beat him with guns and batons Not just once but again and again A hero of war, yeah that's what I'll be And when I come home they'll be damn proud of me I'll carry this flag to the grave if I must 'Cause it's flag that I love and a flag that I trust She walked through bullets and haze I asked her to stop, I begged her to stay But she pressed on So I lifted my gun and I fired away And the shells jumped through the smoke And into the sand that the blood now had soaked She collapsed with a flag in her hand A flag white as snow A hero of war is that what they see Just medals and scars, so damn proud of me And I brought home that flag, now it gathers dust But it's a flag that I love, it's the only flag I trust He said, "Son, have you seen the world? Well, what would you say if I said that you could?" I strummed the final chord and I was given a small applause from lilac as she clapped her hooves together “Thank you so much, I feel so much better now” “That’s good to hear,” I said calmly “Yo matrix, get your ass in here” said silver from the living room “Coming, back in a moment lilac, get some rest for now” I said quickly folding away my guitar before picking up my helmet and leaving the room shutting the door behind me “What you got silver” in asked him who was floating a pair of binoculars to his face, looking out the window “Movement, five blocks down, approximately ten zebras, probably just on patrol but they did look our way a few times” “Let me look” I said sternly, he floated over the binoculars and I grasped hold of them and surveyed the street below, silver was right, there were about ten of them, all surveying the buildings around them, I turned my attention away from the patrol and towards the rooftops after feeling a little paranoid, I scanned the building two blocks away from us, nothing there………..'wait what was that glint just then……….ohhhhh shit!' “SNIPER, GET DOWN NOW!” I shouted and ducked at the same time as the snipers shot narrowly missed my head by inches, we all dived behind any available cover as I put my helmet back on and picked my rifle of the floor and aiming through the window at the zebra sniper, I fired of a couple of silent shots but they missed being how far away I was but then what happened next made my eyes go wide, one minute he was there, the next he just turned invisible ‘Shit, this guy has a fucking stealth suit…oohhhh were fucked now!’ “Matrix there’s chatter on their radio!” shouted silver “Gimme that thing!” I said as I snatched the zebras radio from him and pulled it to my head “This is sniper out post 10; I need an artillery strike on the building, two blocks north of my position copy over” “………………” “We read you outpost ten, artillery is inbound” ‘Ok scratch that, NOW were fucked!’ “That sniper’s got a fucking stealth suit and he just called in an artillery strike, everypony get out of the fucking building NOW!” I shouted as I quickly got to my feet and barged down the bedroom door and lifted lilac onto my shoulders in fireman carry and back into the main room where rampage again had unblocked the door and headed for the stair’s but just as we started heading down them the whole building shook as an artillery shell hit the side of the building. We all fell to the floor from the force of the shaking, then the worst thing just had to happen, the section of stairs in front of me collapsed and fell bringing with the next to floors down as well. “FUCK THIS, GET TO THE ROOF” I shouted as well all turned tail up the stairs onto the roof with me still carrying lilac, we burst through the door and looked for a way to get of this building, nothing. 'Well…shit' Then another volley of artillery shells hit the building lower down, ruining the supports, the building started to sway a little a more artillery pounded the building, I looked over the edge of the roof railing and saw another building at least four stories high ‘I must be fucking crazy for thinking this’ The building started to sway more in the smaller buildings direction i moved back into the middle of the roof ready to sprint but not before I tell everypony my suicidal plan “Alright on my go, everypony run and jump behind me of the building!” “SIR, ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY!” shouts hammer “Maybe, maybe not” I said as the building then started to fall towards the lower building “GO, GO, GO!” I shouted as I ran forward at full speed with everypony else doing the same, the building made contact with the other as well all jumped through the air and landed roughly on the smaller buildings rooftop me silver hammer and lilac were dazed slightly but frost was ok,cause he being a Pegasus so he could glide down without difficulty, fucking figures. We regained ourselves with me picking up lilac were I had dropped her during the jump, we then burst through the door that lead downwards, rapidly running down the emergency stairs past the floors and breaking down the door into the alleyway and sprinting of in the direction of the slums before both buildings collapsed under each other. Present time, morning 05:00 am I slowly woke……..wait when did I fall asleep……..ah well it doesn’t matter but god that was a bad dream………..wait, no……..not a dream............a memory, a bad memory, god I hope this isn’t going to happen a lot, not like what happened all those year ago, I slowly opened my eyes to find I’m lying on my side facing silver, it’s still dark since it’s the early morning, I blink slowly a couple of times but then my gaze falls upon something behind silver, a dark figure was approaching silver, that’s when he started to wake as well. he yawned quietly then his eyes fell on me, he saw me staring at something behind him then he saw something that must be behind me, he looked back to me, I nodded at him slowly as did he, he sprung up, startling whoever was behind him while I quickly sat up and threw my arms back and grabbed the figure behind me, flinging them over my shoulders and onto the floor in front of me. I pulled out my combat knife and held it between the hooded figures eyes, whoever this was they smelt life death, I looked to my left and saw that silver was pinning another hooded pony to the floor with his gun in there face, our commotion woke the children and the three other foals, all were wondering what was going on, my attention then went back to the hooded pony I had pinned to the floor “Who the fuck are you?” I spat in his face then ripped the hood away revealing his face, that’s when I recoiled in shock at what the fuck I was looking at “What? Never seen a ghoul before?” hey guys another lengthy chapter for you hope its ok, so now we have left mat's mind for now and back into the waste's and with a rude awakening also introducing griffin starring as his oc subtle rampage cyclone flash with his oc frost storm and as you know silverstien222 as silver (songs belong to there original artist's not me) finally i want to give a shout out to veteranO'awesome check out his storys there pretty good so i suggest have a look or not but it's your choice RM laterz