Equestrian-Diamond Dog Badlands Border
Equestria
07:10 am Panauan Time
11/07/10
The borderline cut through the landscape like a horrific scar, highlighting the totally different landscapes on either side. On the Equestrian side of the border the land was alive and colourful, on the other side it was a brown dead wasteland.
Brown mountain ranges surrounded by brown plains made up most of the Diamond Dog territory. The rest was dead woodland, the trees like skeletal hands grasping at the sky. From the F-33 Rico could see his target, a dusty expanse surrounded on all sides by jagged stone mountains. In the centre of the field was a large, deep hole.
Suddenly Rico’s PDA vibrated, another message from his shadowy contractor.
Scorpion, I have sent messages offering your assistance to all three groups. In return all three groups will provide you with equipment and other forms of assistance in your quest to overthrow the current monarchy.
H.P.
“Great... now I have to help these gangs.” Rico thought.
The F-33 slowly began to descend towards the dusty plain, Rico braced for impact expecting a rough landing, the landing gear folded out.
Rico prepared to leap from the aircraft if something went wrong. The wheels touched down on the surface, and the multi-million dollar fighter plane rolled across the dirt as if it was made out of silk.
“I suppose that’s one benefit of living in a land that looks like a cartoon.” Rico laughed.
Once the fighter had stopped, Rico haphazardly threw the F-33’s canopy open and leapt from the fighter, air propulsion gun in hand, SMG and pistol at his sides. Rico landed with a thud on dead grass, causing a dust cloud to form at his feet.
At the edge of the large hole stood a hulking figure. It had dirty brown fur that was covered with rusty iron plate mail, with an old sword in claw. it’s brown eyes following Rico’s every movement. As Rico began to approach the figure they called out in deep, gruff voice, “Are you the one they call the Scorpion?”
“Yes.” Rico replied.
“Well if you are, then you can answer this question. Who do you work for?” The mysterious figure shouted.
Rico sighed, “H.P.”
“Close enough.” the figure replied, sheathing his sword.
“What are you exactly?” Rico asked.
“A Diamond Dog.” was his response, “Follow me and try to keep up.” The Diamond Dog leapt down the hole, Rico followed, firing his grappling hook down into the abyss.
The bottom of the abyss was illuminated by a single torch mounted on the tunnel wall, the first thing Rico noticed was the amount of dirt tunnels twisting away from the entrance. “Must have taken years to mine this out.” Rico thought. The Diamond Dog grabbed the torch off the wall and proceeded to start walking down the tunnel, Rico ran to catch up.
After about 20 minutes of walking in total silence Rico decided to say something, “ So a sword? Looks quite old.” He asked. The sword itself was made out of iron presumably and was incredibly worn out and blunt, dark crimson stains covered the blade, Rico wasn’t sure if it was blood or rust.
“Yes,” the Diamond Dog snorted, “ I have had this sword for 20 years.”
“That’s a long time, two decades.” Rico replied as he tossed guns away like they were valueless, well except his signature revolver.
The Diamond Dog unsheathed his sword and began, “This old sword has had seventeen new blades and fourteen new hilts.” Before sheathing it again. Rico facepalmed. Hard.
Rico decided to try and one better the Diamond Dog and pulled out his signature revolver.
“What is that?” The Diamond Dog asked.
“It’s a gun, a weapon.” Rico responded.
“Doesn’t look like it could kill...” The Diamond Dog was unconvinced.
“Well looks can be deceiving, hundreds of elite soldiers have fell to this gun.” Rico proceeded to fire a round into the dirt wall. He should have probably thought about what he was doing.
The Diamond Dog covered his ears with his paws and whimpered. Rico could only hear an ear shattering ringing.
“Shit, should have probably thought that through.” Rico groaned.
“You think.” The Diamond Dog replied, still in pain, “ Sweet Celestia look at the hole.”
Rico turned his attention to the hole the bullet had created.
A massive section of the wall was gone, it had been blown apart by the massive .454 magnum cartridge.
“Still unconvinced.” Rico gloated.
“No.” The Diamond Dog replied, “We better get a move on.”
After what seemed like eternities for Rico they finally reached their destination. A large iron gate blocked their route. The Diamond Dog walked up towards the door and slammed his claw on it. After a few seconds a small slit in the door opened and a voice asked, “Halt who goes there?”
“Rockhead and the Scorpion.” The Diamond Dog apparently called “Rockhead” responded. The slit flew shut.
A few moments passed before the the heavy gate groaned open. Dozens of heavily armoured Diamond Dogs on the other side weapons pointed at the Human and Diamond Dog.
In the centre of the Diamond Dogs stood on older looking grey Diamond Dog. His front right claw was made of a silver metal. A large bronze sword hung from his side.
“I am Chief Iron Claw.” Iron Claw’s voice boomed, he held out his front right claw towards Rico, “ I assume you are the Scorpion, I know they said you were a strange one but I had no idea you were this different. What are you?”
“I’m a human. I’ve been sent to assist you.” Rico replied.
“A human? Can’t say I’ve ever met one. No matter, I have a job for you.” Iron Claw pondered, “Follow me I’ll explain on route.” Iron Claw gestured Rico to follow him into the camp.
They walked into a large, poorly lit cavern, large grey stalactites were hanging from the ceiling, many of which were well over 10 feet long, showing the age of the ancient chasm. While stalagmites poking out of the cavern’s floor turned it into a stone forest.
Various caves and tunnels branched off into the walls to create the dwellings for the inhabitants of the hostile cavern. Other structures cobbled out of stone or mud sat in the middle, away from the walls.
“You are probably wondering what I need you to do,Scorpion?” Iron Claw enquired.
“What? Yeah...sure what do I need to do?” Rico asked, even though he really didn’t care.
“The Tunnel Rats have been growing in size for years now,” Iron Claw stated, gestured to the many buildings inside the cavern, “and I want your help to increase our area of operations.”
“So, what do I need to do?” Rico questioned.
“North from here, near the Equestrian border is an abandoned fort. I want you to take it in the name of The Tunnel Rats.” Iron Claw stated.
“Sounds easy enough.” Rico replied, at least it didn’t involve disarming a bomb while hanging from a jeep that’s going 90 miles an hour down a mountain while being shot at the same time.
“I must warn you, some say the fort is haunted.” Iron Claw warned.
“I ain’t afraid of no ghost.” Rico replied, with that Rico dashed back towards the exit with Rockhead in pursuit.
After both Rico and Rockhead had clambered back out of the tunnel Rockhead warned, “All those who go to the fort never return.”
“Then where do the stories come from?” Rico countered, confusing Rockhead.
Rico leaped back on to the F-33 and grabbed the canopy in his hand before tossing it open.
Rico jumped into the F-33’s seat and closed the canopy behind him, he slammed the throttle forward and thundered across the abnormally smooth plain before taking off. Once in the air the F-33 rolled over and soared towards the old fort.
It was a pretty basic fort, stonewalls, square shape, guard towers in the corners, a central courtyard. Even from 500 metres above the fort Rico could see the the state of disrepair it was in. Walls crumbled under their own weight, the wood the tops of the guard towers were made of was waterlogged and rotten.
The old stone fortress sat at on top of a steep plateau, if the Tunnel Rats took control of the fort it would be almost impossible to remove them.
Rico decided to fly over the fort in an attempt to spot the “Ghosts”.
Well what inhabited the base certainly wasn’t a ghost.
No sooner had Rico finished his flyby, than a large khaki four headed hydra walked out into the fort’s courtyard.
“Holy shit! A hydra!” Rico shouted as he turned the F-33 around for a second pass, “Well it’s time to take the fort.” Rico flicked the safety catch off.
Rico fired the fighter’s twin rocket pods and the minguns at the hydra. Most of the rockets missed their mark and slammed into the fort’s walls, showering the hydra in debris. The minigun’s hail of bullets was unable to punch through the hydra’s thick scales, causing them to harmlessly ricochet away. The few rockets that did hit the hydra caused very little damage, just breaking a few scales.
Rico turned again for another pass, rocket pods ablaze. The machine guns haphazardly spraying in the hydra’s general direction. Thousands of bullets flew towards the hydra. They didn’t need to be accurate, with the amount of bullets flying around it was only matter of time.
The hydra let out a screech of pain as one of its eyes was hit by a high velocity steel jacketed round. The head that was hit exploded, splattering reptile brains across the dusty courtyard.
It was a hollow victory for Rico, because as soon as that head had exploded two more replaced it. The few rockets that did hit their target got lucky. Occasionally hitting the hydra in its lightly armoured stomach, splattering scales and dark crimson blood across the gravel.
By this point most of the fort was in ruins, walls had been completely demolished, guard towers had collapsed completely.
Rico inverted the fighter and turned back towards the fort, Just as he passed over the hydra it looked up at him, Rico pulled his PDA from his pocket and took a picture of the pissed hydra. Before flipping back over and flying away for another pass.
Rico fired both the machine guns and the rocket pods simultaneously. The combined fire knocked a few more scales free but failed to do any real damage as most of the fire missed and tore apart the surrounding countryside, turning many of the blackened skeletal trees into deadly shrapnel clouds.
Rico continued to strafe the fort, occasionally killing one of the hydra’s heads only for more to replace it. When the battle had started the Hydra had four heads, now it had eight.
Rico turned for another pass this time, he stunt jumped on to the fighter’s roof. Rico pulled out eight sticks of C4 and stuck them on the aircraft’s wings and fuselage. Rico then climbed back inside the fighter and steered it towards the hydra weapons ablaze. Rockets detonated in and around the fort throwing up chunks of dirt and other debris, bullets threw clouds of dust as they tore through the courtyard.
He wasn’t going to pull up. He could see the greens of the hydra’s reptilian eyes.
The multi million dollar fighter slammed into the hydra’s weakened underbelly. Covered in innards, the fighter’s damaged nose punched out the hydra’s back. The hydra let out a deep moan.
The fighter’s jet engines continued to fire, pushing the hydra back into the wall. Rico pressed the detonator.
The fort was obscured by a large cloud of thick black smoke. Debris rained from the skies for a few moments: aircraft parts, stones, chunks of hydra all fell from the sky.
Rico stood up and dusted himself off with his hands. Just as Rico had finished he heard something falling from the sky. It landed with a bloody splat right in front of Rico.
In front of Rico sat a charred, decapitated hydra head. Rico picked it up from the long spines that came down the centre of its head, leaving a small blood splatter on the gravel and held it up above him heroically before dropping it and letting it splat on the ground.
When the dust had cleared the fort was practically gone as was the hydra. All that was left of the hydra was the lower half of its body with the remains of a spine waving around in the air. The rest of the hydra was all over the place.
There was very little left of the the Dragonfly fighter though, the only thing Rico could recognise was the pilot’s seat, the rest of the plane was an unrecognisable pile of scrap, scattered across the fort.
Rico walked out the fort and pulled out his PDA and opened up the black market supplier window and noticed it was much more in depth than before. He could select the colour of the vehicles or have weapons he didn't have access to before like cattle prods or tasers. But he decided on a crate of remote explosives, and a khaki MV V880.
No sooner had he finished selecting what he wanted, than they appeared in a flash of light. Rico clambered into the MV V880, the crate of high explosives were kickin’ it in the front seat.
“Now it’s time to help one of the other gangs.”
Author's Notes
And that's this chapter of "A Just Cause" I'd like to thank my editor/proof-reader MajorWheat for not only editing this chapter but for Editing all the previous chapters as well.