Chapter Three: Radio Free Commonwealth
“Welcome back my lll-ovely listeners to Rrr-adio PC. Pleasure Coast: there’s no place quite like it. I have a special treat for you today, listeners; an interview with the pony who uncovered the plot to assassinate former Mayor Gastón Delgado and current Mayor Gerald von Griff. Doc, is that right?”
“That’s right,” I replied to the Commonwealth Crooner’s question.
The mayoral election had ended in a landslide victory for the head of the von Griff family, once the Sunset Strip Dragons threw their weight behind him and shared what I’d learned about the plot to seize the mayorship. In the aftermath, I’d received an invitation to the Radio PC studio for an interview with the Commonwealth Crooner. I was currently sitting in a room with a microphone and a technician adjusting my sound levels while hearing my host through a headset. According to the staff here, the Crooner seldom left his recording studio or even let anyone else in to visit. It wasn’t totally unusual, since DJ Pon3 in Equestria had done the same thing before Sage had taken his place. However, he’d also had good reason to be worried about somepony attacking and killing him—a little more so, perhaps, than the Crooner did here in the heart of the Pleasure Coast.
“You went to a lot of trouble to identify who was behind the assassinations,” the Commonwealth Crooner said. “Why is that?”
“Curiosity?” I said lamely. “The Family hired me to help find out who tried to kill Family Head—er, Mayor Gerald, and I wasn’t going to give up without doing everything I could to solve the case.”
“You’re a newcomer to Pleasure Coast and haven’t yet established yourself. Do you intend to begin a career as a private investigator after this?” the Commonwealth Crooner asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “As intriguing as that sounds, I don’t know if it’s what you would call steady work.”
“Well, it’s certainly ex-cep-tional work. You not only managed to track down who was be-hind the assassinations, but also brought the Family and the Sunset Strip Dragons together. That’s something that’s never-ever happened before. Tell me, do you foresee future cooperation between the Families? Could we be seeing a marriage in the future that brings the Family and the Dragons together?”
“I can’t say, but I wouldn’t hold your breath,” I told the Crooner. “It’s one thing to band together against a common enemy that’s gunning for both of you, but that’s not always a solid foundation to build a relationship on. I’ve seen stranger things in the Wasteland before, though, so I can't absolutely discount the possibility.”
“And what about the Council of Immortals, and their expulsion and execution of Black Rust? Do you believe she was a rogue agent acting alone when hiring Mayhem and Havoc?” the Commonwealth Crooner asked.
“That’s not for me to say,” I said. “She was the one who signed the assassination order.”
“Thank you, Doc, for your time today. I’m sure the eyes of the entire Pleasure Coast are upon you now, anxious to see what you do next. I myself am eager to both hear about it and report on it. That’s what we do here at Radio PC. Now, back to the music.”
“Commonwealth Crooner, can I stay on and ask you some questions during the break?” I asked as the music began.
The griffin technician with me scowled as he switched off my microphone and reached for my headset.
“Sure, I don’t see why not, as long as you can keep things brief. You have five minutes and twenty-six seconds,” the Crooner said, and the griffin stopped and switched my mic back on.
“Thank you,” I told the Crooner, “I’m curious—”
“As we established in your interview.”
“Yeah. I’m curious how wide of a region you broadcast to.”
“Alas, the transmitter here in the Pleasure Coast does not have the widest of ranges. My broadcast covers the whole city, of course, and the wastes surrounding it, but it doesn’t reach much farther than the first of the coastal mountains. It was never dee-signed for much more than that, but there are times I dream of reaching a larger audience.”
“Aren’t there any other radio stations in the Griffin Commonwealth?” I asked.
“Oh, there are always tiny radio stations with hardly any range run by hobbyists or raiders. For large stations, though, there’s only the Commonwealth Emergency Buh-roadcast System in the Roosts that the Grand Marshal uses whenever he wants to announce something, so it’s dead most of the time. There’s New Pegasus Radio in the south, but that’s very local in its interests. No, I’ve heard tales of stations in Equestria like Radio Free Wasteland, but we have nothing like that here. I’m the closest thing you’re going to get, and I don’t have all that much in the way of range.”
“I see,” I said.
“You know, I might have a job for you,” the Commonwealth Crooner said. “How’d you like to ex-pand the broadcasting range of Radio PC? I’ve offered the job before and haven’t had any takers. But you seem like a real go-getter of a pony, ready to jump into the jaws of danger.”
“Um, thanks, I guess?”
“There’s a distribution station near the edge of my broadcast range, designed to pick up radio signals in order to repeat them and extend their range. It’s currently occupied by a nasty raider gang, but if you can clear them out and set up the station to rebroadcast Radio PC, I would be much obliged.”
“I could give it a look,” I offered.
I’d been looking for some excuse to see the Griffin Commonwealth outside of the Pleasure Coast, and this could be my chance. It wasn’t that I didn’t like this city, but I wanted to see what else there was before I decided to try and settle down.
“Excellent. Let any of my staff know, and they should be able to point the way. Until our next interview, Doc.”
***
Before I headed out into the Griffin Commonwealth, I needed to rearm myself. While going about unarmed in the Pleasure Coast had been fine, it would be suicide if I ventured too far from the city. The Commonwealth hadn’t been ravaged by megaspells as badly as Equestria, and its government was actually still functioning (in a very limited and truncated way); even so, it was clear that society had still largely collapsed. Plenty of griffins had turned to raiding and slaving, just like ponies, making the space between settlements as unsafe as in my homeland. On top of that, I was on my way to oust some raiders from a distribution station, and I very much doubted that I would be able to accomplish that by sweet-talking them. I had no difficulty locating a shop selling weapons, and, as luck would have it, that store was Redd’s Rifles & Ammo.
“Ah, the pony who solved the attempted assassination of my uncle-in-law at my wedding!” a griffin with red plumage and fur greeted me as I trotted through the door. “Just for you, today only, 50% off on everything.”
“Oh, well, thank you,” I said.
I’d been debating what was most important to buy, but this would help me stretch my limited caps even further. I’d acquired a handsome sum of bottle caps from odd jobs and as a token of thanks from the Family; but I’d already spent some of it on saddlebags, healing potions, a bedroll, and food for my journey to the distribution station. With Redd III’s discount, I might have enough left to purchase two weapons and their ammunition. Even with his generous deal in mind, however, I’d have to be choosy as I browsed the wall of weapons.
“Do you have any magical energy weapons?” I asked.
“None of that here,” Redd said with a frown. “Just good, reliable, gunpowder firearms.”
Apparently I’d touched on a sore spot, and I turned back to browsing. For something close-range, I picked up a combat shotgun. This one couldn’t hold the same number of shells as my old gun that had been confiscated by the Steel Rangers, but the handling was familiar, and I was experienced with such a weapon. For fights at a greater distance, I picked out a battle rifle. It wasn’t a weapon I’d used in the past, but Redd allowed me to take a few practice shots in the shooting range behind the shop to get accustomed to it. After buying both guns and enough ammunition to get me to the distribution station and back, I still had enough left over to purchase a couple of fragmentation grenades—equivalent explosives to the metal apples I’d used in Equestria, but without the stylization that made them resemble a piece of fruit.
I could have used some more armor to complement my armaments, but the protection provided by my Stable jumpsuit and doctor’s coat would have to do for the time being. I prayed the raiders at the distribution station wouldn’t be too dangerous and that this would be sufficient. I didn’t know exactly what I’d gotten myself into, but what else was new? Heading back out into the wastes, there were sure to be some surprises in store.
***
The distribution station I was aiming for was located about a day’s journey from the Pleasure Coast. As I moved inland, the desolate wastes began to change. It took a while, but eventually the empty, dusty expanse showed signs of life as I neared the mountains. At first, it was no more than scraggly scrub brush here and there, but the plant life increased dramatically the closer I got to the mountains. The flora was far from what anypony could call lush, and these plants were clearly stunted when compared to their depictions on the billboards that dotted the wastes. But, unlike the blasted forests I’d seen in Equestria, these plants were alive. The Griffin Commonwealth had taken a far lighter hit from the megaspells, which meant its soil wasn’t nearly as poisonous as in Equestria. This allowed plants to grow outside of environments like the carefully cultivated and detoxed fields of Equestrian settlements. My PipBeak helped me to identify some of the fruit growing on the foliage, and I picked some peppers and spiked mangoes to add to my stock of canned food to eat later.
Perched in the nearest mountain in the range that stretched off to the north and east was the distribution station. I could see it from a distance as I approached, a complex built into the side of the mountain and jutting off from it. Atop a cantilevered platform sat a compound of buildings with a tall radio spire rising from the center. Various dishes and smaller antennae jutted from the platform, as well as another tall radio spire atop the mountain’s peak. I realized belatedly that there might be places in the Commonwealth that I couldn’t reach since, unlike the creatures who’d built everything here, I couldn’t fly. Deciding that the Commonwealth Crooner probably wouldn’t send me on a fool’s errand, I continued on toward the facility.
A chain link fence surrounded the patch of ground at the base of the mountain beneath the station, festooned in faded signs warning against trespassing. Having fallen apart a long time ago, however, it was no obstacle. There was a way for non-griffins to get to the station, but it looked like it had been out of commission for a long time. An industrial elevator car sat on a platform, but the cables that had once connected it to the station above were now strung out in a tangled pile nearby, the ends showing signs of explosive damage. Thankfully, there was an alternate way up to the station via a rickety back-and-forth emergency staircase that hugged the side of the mountain. Before heading up that way, I decided to check out the one building at ground level built next to the defunct elevator.
Its door had been torn off and the windows shattered, and the interior wasn’t in much better state. File cabinets had been smashed open, their contents strewn across the floor. A wrecked terminal had been tipped off the desk and its connection to the network entirely destroyed, so I couldn’t even hack in with my PipBeak. A gun cabinet against one wall had been thoroughly looted, leaving nothing behind. Across one wall, in letters that stretched floor to ceiling, was spray-painted a single world: ARISE!
I left the surface building no richer nor wiser and headed to the emergency staircase for the distribution station. I had to follow a tunnel into the mountain to reach the staircase’s base, protected by a gate locked on the outside that I had no trouble picking. I didn’t have to trot very far into the mountain before I began ascending stairs. The staircase emerged from the stone after only a few flights, ascending the rest of the way either against the mountain or suspended out from the side.
I was about two-thirds of the way up before FITS detected another creature around me—or, rather, above me. They weren’t marked as hostile yet, but I kept my shotgun ready anyway. I slowed my steps as I neared them, wishing I’d looked in the Library of Arcana for a spell to quiet one’s hoofsteps so I could silence the clanking against the metal stairs with every step. They came into view as I rounded a corner: a griffin in stereotypical raider attire (erratically stitched poor-quality armor with hooks jutting from wherever the wearer could affix them) was sleeping on the stairs, a sniper rifle lying beneath him. I could easily shoot the guard in his sleep, but it seemed wrong, especially if things weren’t as they seemed. Tentatively, I nudged the griffin with my shotgun’s barrel, prodding him awake.
“Hi there, I’m Doc,” I said as the griffin blinked awake. “Could I talk to you about the distribution station above us?”
“Gah! A groundbound trying to get the Sky Keep!” the griffin exclaimed as he jolted awake and reached for the revolvers holstered beneath his wings. “You’ll make a fine trophy, slime!”
Well, at least I’d tried.
My shotgun came up and I shot one of the revolvers out of the griffin’s claws, crippling his arm in the process. Fighting through the pain, he managed to get his other revolver out and fired at me. Using ERSaTS, I slowed time and managed to get out of the way. I unloaded my shotgun into the griffin from my position beside him, and the blasts tore through his wings and armor. The force also threw him back and he pitched over the safety railing, plummeting down until he struck against the lower segments of the staircase. His pip disappeared from FITS before he was out of range, letting me know he had died.
I could hear shouts drifting down from above, so I hurried up the remaining levels of the staircase, jumping gaps wherever the stairs had broken away or been removed. A griffin with a hammer grasped in her claws met me coming down the stairs, and I stepped back down as she swung the hammer over me. I fired the rest of my shotgun’s shells into her from beneath, taking her down, and hurried on past her body. I could tell from FITS that there were enemies waiting for me at the top of the stairs, but there was no way to go except forward. After I charged ahead and jumped up off the final stairs, I was immediately struck by gunfire from all sides. My doctor’s coat protected me from most of the hits and my other injuries didn’t feel critical, so my gamble had paid off. I dropped one of my grenades as I cleared the circle of raiders, removing the pin with a prosthetic claw. Once I’d landed, I rolled and ran as far as possible to escape the blast. The path I was on took me toward the mountain’s face, and I spun around to examine the griffins who’d sought to ambush me. Six of them had been torn apart by the blast, but there were others rushing to take their places.
I jumped into the alcove around a door and downed a healing potion to knit up my wounds before peeking back out at the approaching raiders. A couple of them were in the air winging their way around, and I cast ERSaTS as I unslung my battle rifle. The spell slowed time and guided my shots to the flying griffins as they tried to flank me. I managed to take three of them down before I had to focus on the others approaching my cover on foot. One was nearly on top of me and tried to bowl me over, but I slashed at his eyes with my metal talons, causing him to reel back into one of his companions. I was still levitating my battle rifle and fired a burst at each of them before emerging from cover.
There was nowhere to run to from my current position except straight through the raiders, so I went for it. I dodged past their close-range attacks and dropped my other grenade, playing the same trick as before. It worked once again, taking out another four of the raiders and giving me some space to wheel around. I managed to shoot one of the flying stragglers with my battle rifle before continuing to the main area of the station, where the radio towers were located.
Besides the main building that I’d emerged next to after climbing the stairs, there were two other buildings in the complex that made the station, each with antennae and dishes galore adorning them. Graffitied on the buildings were more spray-painted slogans like “Drown the World,” “Salvation Above,” and “The Strong Survive.” I didn’t have much time to read them, though, as more griffin raiders swarmed from the buildings to converge on me.
Using the radio towers as cover would’ve been ideal, but I didn’t want to risk damaging them in the fight since I needed to use them to spread Radio PC. Instead, I opted to seek cover behind the scattered containers filled with raided loot and trophies. It didn’t provide shelter from all my attackers, especially as they took to the air, so I focused my energy on those who could best take advantage of my vulnerability. There was one griffin holding onto a radio tower, and I used ERSaTS to line up shots on him before he could fire the rocket launcher he was aiming at me. A rocket fired off anyway as I took him down, but it ended up clearing me and took out a couple of the raiders advancing from behind for good measure.
I tried to keep moving around from cover to cover as I fired my battle rifle as often as I could, trusting that my doctor’s coat could soak up any shots as I exposed myself. It wasn’t a perfect system, but I was so outnumbered that I had no choice. I’d been on my own for years now, but I hadn’t attempted a lone full-on assault on anything in a very long time. It reminded me how much I missed having my friends around to help. There was a very real chance that I’d bitten off more than I could chew here; if I survived this, I would need to be more careful in the future. At the moment, however, it was too late to turn back.
There was no time to bandage my minor wounds as I kept moving, shooting at whatever griffin got in my way. I ducked into one of the smaller buildings as more of them took to the air, and I downed half a healing potion. My eyes darted back and forth watching FITS as the griffins swarmed both entrances of the dormitory in which I’d found myself. The first one I encountered entered through the door I hadn’t yet gone through, and I blew her away with a shotgun blast before she could bring the pipe in her claw to bear. A grenade bounced into the room from behind me, and I frantically galloped ahead.
I was struck by a shotgun blast as I entered the next corridor. It threw me back a bit, but I still managed to keep from falling into the room with the grenade before it exploded. I levitated my shotgun around the corner and fired repeatedly while downing a potion to close up my wounds, watching hostile pips disappear from FITS. I was more careful as I trotted around the corner this time, but there were no griffins still standing to attack me. One on the ground reached for a shotgun lying nearby, and I finished her off with a last blast.
I ran back outside, where the one griffin left perched at the top of the building shot me from behind. She appeared stunned that the bullet glanced off my coat, and I took advantage of the opening to pepper her with battle rifle shots until she died. I quickly checked FITS, and it showed two more griffins in the building I’d just exited and one approaching from the radio tower cluster. That last one was clearly the leader of the gang, covered in clunky armor and wielding a flamethrower.
“You don’t deserve to survive!” she bellowed as she ignited her flamethrower, the headdress of plumage from a hundred griffins shaking atop her head. “This Sky Keep is for strong griffins, not groundbound weaklings!”
I managed to avoid getting crisped by her gouts of flame, but the other raiders just emerging from the dormitory weren’t so lucky. I fired my battle rifle at the raider leader as I circled her, but her armor repelled my attacks. ERSaTS helped me line up a few shots, but most of them missed striking flesh as well. Coincidentally, her armor was her greatest strength and weakness; it weighed her down and stopped her from flying or moving very fast. Even so, she was able to turn surprisingly quickly, and I couldn’t seem to get behind her.
When she paused to keep from melting down her flamethrower’s barrel, I saw my chance and charged in, ready to pry open her helmet and fire my shotgun into her face if necessary. She swung her flamethrower back around, and I used ERSaTS to put on the extra burst of speed needed to reach her before she could roast me. I didn’t have the reach to grab her arm before she fired, but I could grab the flamethrower with my griffin arm. That’s exactly what I did, wrapping the metal talons around the blisteringly hot barrel and pushing it away from me as she let loose another gout of flame. She tried to claw for my face with her free arm, but I held if off with my remaining foreleg and my magic. Her talons grasped angrily at my face but could never quite reach it.
Now that I was close to her, I realized she was wearing a PipBeak on her arm, though it was a little different than mine. A modification was attached to it, and I found out just what its purpose was as she curled her claw back on itself and pulled a lever on the PipBeak’s wrist strap. A blade shot out from beneath her PipBeak and into my cheek. I was staggered by the agonizing pain, and she pulled her arm free of my magical grasp, slicing my cheek entirely open. Blood gushed profusely, but I had the clarity of mind to do one last thing before staggering backwards. My shotgun hovered around behind the griffin and fired into her flamethrower’s fuel tank, causing it to explode and throwing me back forcefully.
My vision was dark and blurry as I pushed myself up. I was burned badly, but the most egregious wound was still the one in my face. I fumbled in my saddlebags for a healing potion and managed to pour a couple down my throat, swallowing a fair bit of blood in the process. I forced myself to keep my jaw still as the flesh recovered, filling in the hole and stitching my face back together.
The raider leader’s armor shifted as she burned within, having mercifully died in the initial conflagration. I trotted past the body, having no interest in going anywhere near it. FITS was clear, so I made my way to the main building of the distribution station. As I did so, I examined my shotgun, which was in rather bad shape. I’d need to get a new one when I returned to the Pleasure Coast or find a replacement around here. None of the weapons the raiders had dropped looked to be in decent condition, though, so I resigned myself to shilling out more caps to Redd.
The raiders had done the typical raider job of decorating the inside of the station, using copious amounts of body parts and safety hazards. There was plenty more graffiti in here, referring to the same things as the graffiti outside and what the raiders had been shouting. There were many calls to drown the world below or the weak alongside commands to arise and be safe in a Sky Keep, which I now thought likely to be synonymous with a raider den. I’d have to ask someone when I got back to the Pleasure Coast if they had any idea what this was all about. The devotion to these ideas seemed to be religious, though I’d seen no evidence that the griffins of the Pleasure Coast worshipped anything—unless it was profit.
The control room of the distribution station was still sealed up and safe from the raiders, for which I was grateful. I would prefer not to work surrounded by body parts and ominous slogans. I picked the lock and let myself in to a room filled with monitors, keyboards, and dials. It wasn’t too difficult to figure out how to use the distribution station, and I set it up to rebroadcast Radio PC once I determined the frequency from my PipBeak.
As I got ready to leave, I spotted a map on the wall of the Griffin Commonwealth with several points marked, one of which was lit up in green with the three nearest points glowing amber. Each of the points was a distribution station, and they covered the Commonwealth, allowing any station to broadcast to the entirety of the region so long as the distribution stations rebroadcast them. There was even one in the far northwest, within the broadcast range of the Grittish Isles’ SPP tower. A plan quickly formed in my mind to use the network of distribution stations to bring Radio Free Wasteland to the Commonwealth. Even if I couldn’t see Sage or hear her voice, I could still hear her as DJ Pon3 and keep up to date with what was going on in Equestria. Maybe I hadn’t figured out my role in the Griffin Commonwealth yet, but I had at least figured out what to do next. I was going to bring the griffins DJ Pon3.
Level Up
New Perk: Slow Down and Smell the Roses – ERSaTS and other time-dilation spells last 20% longer.
New Quest: Good Morning Commonwealth! – Bring Radio Free Wasteland to the Griffin Commonwealth.
Basic Saddlebags added: +20 carrying capacity
Alteration Magic +1 (26)
Athletics +1 (21)
Barter +1 (94)
Explosives +2 (102)
Lockpick +1 (102)
Manipulation Magic +2 (19)
Medicine +2 (113)
Small Guns +7 (107)
Survival +1 (18)
Unarmed +2 (86)