“That’s...” Dash struggled to find the right words as Fluttershy explained her plan
“...Inspired,” Garrus finished for the rainbow maned pegasus. Fluttershy had a warm smile on her face all throughout the explanation on how they would be able to fight through the krogan outside.
“Have you, you know, tried talking to them maybe?” Dash asked carefully as she felt slightly uncomfortable with what was essentially a raid on the krogan’s main camp to steal one of their rovers. Fluttershy pointed at the largest scar running across her face, it still looked relatively new.
“I did. They’re not friendly,” She stated. “They’ve been coming in here trying to capture me since the crash, sealed most of the ship in an attempt to keep me in.”
“So the corpses in the hallways...” Dash felt some blood drain from her face at the implication. Fluttershy’s expression, on the other hoof, turned ice cold and her voice hard as steel.
“I am never getting myself captured again. Ever,” she growled, Rainbow feeling a shiver go up her spine at the sheer determination in her voice. Garrus placed a hand on Shy’s back in a bid to cool her down while Dash felt sorry for her best friend.
I should have been there for her... She shouldn’t have had to face all of this...
“I get it Shy, we’re all getting out of here,” Garrus comforted, Fluttershy leaning her head against her turian boyfriend as tears formed in her eyes. “Your plan is solid, and we should still have the benefit of darkness if we head out now.”
“Agreed,” Fluttershy answered as she wiped away the tears from her face, grabbing her sniper rifle from a table behind her and attaching it to her barrel. “Let’s get out of this scrapheap.”
The new trio packed everything they had to, taking everything from rations Shy had hoarded into the CIC to thermal clips that would be very much needed. Dash had a bag of explosives hanging from her barrel. Shy took point. She knew the ship inside out as she’d been defending herself and plotting for a good time now. As they passed more corpses as they made their way to one of the tears in the hull, Dash had to keep her stomach from turning inside out as they passed freshly bleeding corpses. According to the yellow pegasus, the opening was large enough for them to pass through.
“Speed is going to be key here, once we’re seen we’re on the clock,” Shy warned, pulling the hood of her green cloak over her head. “Let’s go steal ourselves a truck!” With those words, Shy faded out of view as she engaged her active camo.
“She’s hurting,” Garrus stated as he made his way through the hull breach out of the crashed starship.
“I know. She might have changed a lot and been a while for me, but I can recognize that fake happiness any day,” Dash agreed, following the turian. “We’ll get to that when we’re off planet.”
“Yeah, let’s get the job done first,” he agreed, getting his assault rifle from his back instead of his sniper rifle. Just like when they’d snuck towards the crashed ship, they now snuck towards the krogan camp. The outer sentries were sitting near to a fire with some meat hanging over it, chatting away with each other.
“Wait up, I’ve got these.” Shy’s voice came over the radio as both Garrus and Dash waited behind some rubble with a good view at the outer guards… and then the ghostly figure of a pegasus materialized between the two and stabbed them with an omni blade. The two krogan were dead before they had even hit the ground, holes in their eye sockets where the omni blade had punctured their skulls and sliced into their brain. “Proceed.” Dash stayed as far away from the little camp where the krogan lay, having already seen enough gore today to fuel nightmares for a lifetime.
The Tomkah trucks, vehicles not unlike the mako but much larger, were parked at the side of the largest camp, surrounded by a significantly larger group of guards wandering around. Fluttershy materialized in cover next to Dash and deployed her sniper rifle. “Move up Dash, Garrus and I have your back.”
“Right...” Dash said slightly baffled, seeing her friend as confident as she was in the situation. Deploying her shotgun, Rainbow moved towards the first truck as stealthily as she could. The pegasus felt her heart beating in her chest as she got to the edge of the parking space, taking a couple of deep breaths she mentally prepared herself for what was to come. “In position.”
“Copy that, engaging.” Two simultaneous shots rang out from behind her in the wrecked wasteland as Rainbow jumped from cover and made a beeline for the krogan’s large vehicles.
“There’s something at the trucks!” one of the guards roared as he noticed Dash shoot by before he was felled by a shot to the head. Adrenaline poured through Dash’s veins as she pulled an explosive from the bag she was carrying and placed it on the inside of one of the weels.
“You’re going to have company soon! They’re mobilizing from the camp!” Shy called out as more sniper fire flew over Rainbow’s head.
“Sounds great!” Dash replied as she sprinted to the next truck, placing another explosive on a weel. She immediately went for the third truck, but as she left the relative cover of the truck’s wheel, fire rained down on her position, forcing her back. “They’re here! I don’t think I can make it to the third one!”
“We’re stuck here as well, they mobilized much quicker than I’d anticipated! You need to get to that thing before we get overrun!” Rainbow cursed to herself as she readied for another sprint over the open ground.
This is going to hurt...
Rainbow opened her wings with a grimace and flapped, the ground exploded all around her as the assaulting krogan fired at her and she took some hits on her shields as well. Her wing throbbed in pain and screamed at her to remove the pressure from it as Dash pushed them to the edge…
Crack!
Rainbow’s speed immediately dropped as she rolled over the ground and let out an agonized scream. The bone in her wing had snapped again on its weakened spot. Dash couldn’t give up there, that would be a death sentence, so she got back onto her hooves and dragged her wing along with her to the last truck. “I... made... It!” she gasped in pain as she opened her omni tool and applied medi-gel to stop the pain from being overwhelming.
“Blow the explosives Dash!” Fluttershy shouted as the roar of gunfire increased even further. Rainbow quickly pulled the detonator from the pouch and activated the device.
“Heads down!”
KABOOM!
The ground shook violently as a shockwave and heat blasted past Rainbow’s position behind the Tomkah. A cloud of dust was simultaneously blown up from the explosion that obscured any view of the surrounding area.
“Atta girl!” Shy exclaimed as the machine gun fire immediately stopped and a lot of krogan were probably knocked onto their ass or killed directly by the blast. This brief lapse in fire gave Shy and Garrus the opportunity to join Dash at the Tomkah, the turian opening the truck up so they could board.
“You have the wheel Rainbow! Shy, with me at turret control!” Garrus ordered as he closed up the craft again.
“What!? I don’t even know how to drive this thing!” Dash exclaimed as she was pushed towards the driver’s seat. Garrus pointed at a couple of switches, buttons, screens, and the wheel, pushing a couple himself which started the engine.
“Gas, speed, steering. Good luck!” Garrus quickly explained, running back to the chair that gave him control of the massive turret on top of the vehicle.
“This was not part of the plan...” Dash grumbled as she punched the gas forward, pushed into her seat as the truck accelerated with remarkable force. “Where do we go?!”
“Away from here! You choose!” he shouted back, the cannons on top of the truck firing an ear-deafening shot.
Where the buck can I go in this wasteland?!
Rainbow looked across the horizon at any landmark she could try and head to, there were a couple of things of note… A tower in the distance that was shooting something into the clouds far on the horizon, a massive cannon of sorts a little closer by, and a large open plain with where on the horizon she could see artificial lights.
How do we even know if this thing will even be able to make it to any of those places? If it breaks down we’re screwed...
1. Head for the tower. [Furthest]
2. Head for the lights. [Far]
3. Head for the cannon. [Closest]