FoE: Do Robot Ponies Dream of Electronic Bunnies
Chapter XIX: The Catch
"Pants... And ham. Think about it." - Dax, 2Sense #88
System Report: 0000000019
Unit Status: Active
Location:
Satellite Signal Status: Receiver offline. GPS active.
Begin data dump to external off-site memory back-up:
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- - - - - - Done.
Preparing visual report: Done.
Date: --/--/2212, 200PA (+60 days activation)
Time: 0752 Local
Good news.
The trip back into Equestria only took us a few days.And the route we took brought us right to the base of the mountain Watcher lived in a day after. It would only be a few hours travel up the mountain now, and I'd get to meet the voice behind the bot.
Bad News.
The Enclave wasn't just outside his cave. They were everywhere. Seems something poked them in the tail-hole hard enough to get them to move. Listening to DJ-Pon3's station doesn't help at all; they've taken him off the air. He still sneaks in with reports here and there but the music's been replaced by what sounds like pre-recorded bullshit. I sent Swiftpaws to New Appleoosa to get us some news, and told him to rendezvous with us on the mountain. He knew the path up so I wasn't worried.
They claim they're here to help. So why are they attacking towns and leaving little behind? We've already seen their brand of "help." A small village a few miles into Equestria was getting shot up when we arrived. I flew up to one of the pegasi to find out what was up, but I got a laser to the face for my trouble. In the ensuing battle, we all learned a lot about the Enclave. First, their armor is damn tough, and that scorpion tail is definitely not for show. Just ask Scratch. She survived, but we ended up using our last healing pots and bandages putting her back together.
Second, they're hunting ponies they call "dashites," pegasi that have been exiled from the clouds. I had found a dead Pegasus out of armor, and had to ask one of the surviving Enclave (or at least one still able to talk) why.
"She was a fuckin Dashite," was the stallion's reply. "She deserved to be dead. Fuckin ground ponies don't know nothing." I couldn't get any more out of him, even when Night Rose'd held a gun to his head. He held his tongue all the way up to the point where she pulled the trigger. We were going to have one bitch of a fight when we got to Watcher's place.
Third was that an aerial enemy is a bitch to hit. Those suckers are agile as dragonflies. Zipping about above us made it hard to shoot accurately, but also hard to find cover. Frieda and I had gone to air to fight, but our ground-bound friends were forced to dive into houses and shops.
Last thing we learned was that I'm good on the ground in a fight, but I'm at least 20% better in the air. Maybe 30%. Also, air combat is fun! I could dive, climb and turn much faster than the pegasi could, I was better armed, and definitely better armored. I knew I could take a bullet or ten, and had even learned to ignore the pain of the impacts. But when a laser beam came my way, it was like a magical shield erected itself around my body. The hits didn't even touch my fur. I was practically a Super-pony.
We'd relieved the surviving pegasi of their weapons and power packs and left them behind after that battle. The mountain ahead loomed above us and breached the clouds. There was a path up, but it was too narrow for the wagons to use. We were going to have to leave them behind with the Brahmin.
"I really don't like the idea of just leaving our stuff here," AC commented, looking around. "It's wide open, and anypony passing could just straight-up take everything."
"It'll be fine," I replied. I hadn't scanned any life for miles around.
"Still..."
The climb wasn't arduous. A gentle slope upward was our path, and the only danger we saw the first few hundred yards was loose gravel. It was about four hundred yards up where we started to run into trouble.
Three pegasi in Enclave power armor swooped past at high speed close enough to nearly knock Scratch off the path. She screamed, and Night Rose had to grab her mane to keep her from falling over the edge. The downside of that was that they were both exposed to the pegasi's next attack.
They'd broken formation and looked to come at us one at a time. Not a smart tactic. I lined up the leader with my sniper rifle, but before I could shoot, I was hit by a rocket from my left. I fell on my right side as the second Pegasus roared past. A few "from the hip" shots drove him further away, as well as some return fire from AC and Chef. Frieda and Zirc concentrated their fire on the third Pegasus, who had tried to come in on my other side.
Night Rose and Scratch finally joined the firefight, focusing on the leader. The combined fire on the three aerial ponies forced them to retreat back above the clouds. Night Rose ran over to where I was still down.
"Are you alright," she asked, voice full of worry. "How bad is it? You're not gonna die are you??"
"No, love. It's not that bad," I said, wincing as I slowly stood. My HUD showed some internal damage, but nothing that wouldn't repair in a few hours. The worst damage was to my skin. Half of that side had been blown completely off, and metal glinted from below charred flesh and blood.
"Are you sure? It looks really bad."
"Hurts like hell," I replied as I took a few ginger steps. "But I'll live. It's mostly the skin, and that'll regrow soon enough." In truth, it was already regrowing. Bits too damaged would fall off eventually, but for the next hour or so, I'd look like a half-metal pony. Fortunately, my weapons and storage ports were undamaged.
"If they reported we're coming, we're gonna have a serious fight up there," AC said. "Still think this is a good idea?"
"No, it's a shitty idea," I replied. "But we're gonna need Watcher's help if we want to get to Zebrion. He's offering dragon armor for all of us. Theoretically, that should be enough to get us through, right Zirc?"
"It is true that the Invisible Death/cannot take a dragon's last breath. Whether it can penetrate scales though/I'm not sure who would know."
"Not exactly reassuring," Scratch said, looking over my damaged side. "You gonna be alright, Verse? You've got a wicked dent here in your plating."
"I should be."
"Still, we should rest a bit, I think."
"Good idea," Chef said. "It's about lunch time anyway. I'll make us something to eat real quick." Chef went to work with the meager supplies we'd brought with us. We weren't expecting to take a long time climbing up so we only brought a few small pots and pans, and just enough food for them all.
Night Rose kept glancing over at me as she ate. I knew she was worried, so I smiled back at her. "I'm fine, Night Rose," I insisted. "I promise."
She didn't answer, but went back to eating her soup. I looked up at the clouds and wondered what else was waiting for us there.
Three hours later, I was able to move without pain, and my side didn't have a giant hole in it. Now it had several smaller holes. I was ashamed to say it, but my skin was healing slower than I anticipated. Maybe I was damaged worse than I could tell. There was nothing I could do about it though, so I carried on. I could feel Night Rose's eyes on me the entire time.
We stopped to rest again, everypony, zebra, and griffin, tired from the constant walking. Someone suggested Frieda hover along with us, but she replied that to hover used different muscles than normal flying, and she would be just as tired either way.
Swiftpaws decided to catch up with us while we rested. His news wasn't pretty. New Appleoosa had been hit hard by the Enclave, but they'd been beaten back with help from Ditzy Doo and the Wasteland Heroine, somepony named Littlepip. The Hoof was similarly ravaged, not fairing as well but surviving. Equestria was going to hell in a hoof-basket.
It was night before we reached the top of the path. I had everyone wait a little down from the end of it while I scouted ahead.
"You be careful, metal butt," Night Rose warned, an angry, upset look in her eye. I nuzzled her reassuringly, then activated my cloaking unit.
As I figured, as soon as I turned the corner to come off of the pathway, my EFS lit up red. Lots of hostiles. I could see a gun emplacement that had (hastily) been erected, pointing at the path's end. Fortunately a bored looking Pegasus was manning it and clearly had his attention on the mare next to him. Her attention, however, was solely on the path exit.
"Come on, Cloudbreaker," he was saying. "When our shift's over, how about you and me go back to my bunk and drink some of that ground pony vodka? I had it brought up fresh for you. I know how you like the stuff." She didn't answer, doing her best to ignore him. He, on the other hoof, seemed to take her silence as encouragement. I got bored of them quickly and silently trotted past.
The next thing that caught my eye was a large floating platform. My scanner tagged it as a Raptor (how the hell does it know these things?). It looked ugly, sporting a very large array of guns, but was unimpressive compared to the beast next to it.
My scanner tagged it as an Earth Shaker. It looked like a <i>Raptor</i>, but instead of a launch platform on its back, there was a giant canon. Easily several feet in diameter, it looked to be a siege weapon. On the deck behind it, several rounds waited to be loaded. They were about as tall as me, and seemed to be rated to punch through a dragon. Why the hell would they need that kind of firepower?
I'm not a clever pony, but even I catch on when slapped with the bleeding obvious.
"Watcher's a damn dragon," I asked myself quietly, then told myself to shut up. There were lots of pegasi around. I was going to have to formulate a plan for this if we were going to get through it and into the cave. I eyed the canon rounds, and smiled. Oh yeah. It's all comin' together.
I sent a burst message to Night Rose, then silently hovered over to the Earth Shaker, dodging patrolling pegasi the whole way. There were lots of them on the deck, and it was difficult finding a safe landing area, but I got down quietly when most of them headed inside. I snuck up to the cannon, and was unsurprised to see three guards there. They didn't seem to be paying attention to anypony but themselves. One took out a small box of cigarettes and passed them to his friends, then lit them with a low-powered burst from his energy rifle.
Shit. They aren't gonna move. I'll have to move them. I looked around me, but found nothing I could throw. I was about to go into my inventory when I heard a clank from the other side of the deck. All four of us turned and saw a laser pistol lying where there wasn't one a minute before. The three guards chose to investigate, and I took it as my chance.
Quick as I could, I dashed over to the cannon's control board. Hacking in was easy, and I reprogrammed it to self-destruct when next fired. Too easy. I turned to leave when I heard an argument behind me. The three guards were yelling at an orange Pegasus with blue hair. His coat was the same color as my mane and tail, and his own mane and tail were a bright blue. He seemed to be younger than the guards who were berating him. Curiosity got the better of me, so I angled my ears to listen in.
"You stupid fucking foal," the first one spat. "What if this had gone off when it landed?"
"I didn't mean to..." the little one tried to say, but was cut off constantly.
"If the case on this had cracked even slightly, do you know what would have happened," the second one yelled.
I know, and..."
"BOOM! That's what fucking would have happened! Are you trying to kill us all?" The third one had a tone that said "This is hella fun" to me.
"I didn't..." He sank to his haunches.
"Maybe we should tie your wings up and toss you overboard! What'd ya say to that eh?" Number one.
"I..." Curled up.
"Fucking new guy, are you even listening?" Two.
"I..." Began to cry.
"ANSWER US!!!" Three. I grabbed that one by his neck and twisted. Hard. His neck popped sickly as his friends turned to see what had happened. I didn't give them a chance to react, bucking the second one full force in the jaw. I felt it shatter as my hoof went past it into his skull. He dropped hard. The first one was still looking on dumbly at his two dead friends when I kicked his front legs out from under him and stomped his head flat in one move. Three pegasi down. And never came out of stealth. I wasn't even breathing heavily.
The little Pegasus simply stared, traumatized. I dropped my cloak and looked down at him. He finally noticed me, and his eyes grew wider. There was fear there, but also awe.
"You... You're..."
"You're welcome," I said simply, then turned and started to walk away.
"W... wait!" I stopped, and found he was right behind me. I hadn't even heard him stand up. "Take me with you!"
"What?"
"I... I heard what you did for the ground ponies. In that one village the Dashite was hiding in." He looked down at his own hooves, embarrassed. "I'm... a sympathizer. I thought we were going down to help, but all I've heard over the radio is that we're attacking innocents. I want to help you."
"This is a very bad idea, you know," I said, my eye fixed on his. He looked up at me, lifting his head again.
"I don't care. The Enclave is run by liar ponies and winboners." Wingboners again. What did that even mean? "I Joined because I thought we were going to help, not hurt those ponies. I'm barely out of basic, but I can shoot. I promise, I won't slow you down."
I turned and stared at him, trying to judge whether this was some kind of trick. Analysis of his voice showed he was scared but not lying. But there wasn't one hundred percent truth either.
So how's that different than anyone else I know?
This is SUCH a bad idea.
Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk: Shadowstep rank II - You can sneak up on anything that has ears, and bypass any automatic defense system when stealthed. Your sneak skill gains 5 points, and an additional +30% damage bonus when attacking undetected.This stacks upon previous ranks.