//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Eye In The Sky // Story: Fallout Equestria: S.T.A.L.K.E.R // by aegishailstorm //------------------------------// Chapter 8: Eye In The Sky Nikolai stared blankly at the massive creature in front of him. A few words came to the Stalker's mind. The most prominent one of them all was, 'Phseudo Giant.' back in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, he had once come across such a massive creature. It vaguely resembled a bear, and he had watched from a distance as the mutant slaughtered a group of 3 well armed bandits in just a few seconds. It was only brought down through the combined use of an M82 Barret rifle, 50. Caliber armor piercing ammunition, and PKM machine guns. Things which Nikolai did not have on him. And so, this circles back around to the problem which now presented him. The monster skulking about on the other side of the runway. "I should... Go. Da, is good idea." He whispered to himself, creeping back around one of the hangers. As soon as Nikolai was behind cover, he peaked out to watch it. Off to the side, he could see another form moving. Which, after a quick glance through his new rifle scope. Was determined to be a feral ghoul. He watched as the mutant canine creature charged across the runway and tore it apart, throwing limps in the air like they were toothpicks. And, he assumed that the creature probably intended to use them as such when it was done feeding on the ghoul. Nikolai was about to turn away and search for an alternate route out of the airfield. "Eh, perhaps I will cut hole in other side fence and circle around?" He was about to make a break for it when all of a sudden, something odd happened. A hole opened up in the clouds. It was small, but just enough for the sunlight to cast shadows across the northern side of the airfield. The creature turned away from it's meal and looked up into the sky. " Wow, Tse krasyvo." He murmured. Nikolai hadn't seen any blue sky his whole time in the Equestrian wasteland. It was majestic. However, said beauty was ruined when a bolt of red energy arced down from above and struck the creature in the head. The beam seared the creatures flesh off, it roared. And more bolts of energy flew to meet it. The flurry of red bolts tore the creature apart and set it ablaze, sending it crumpling to the ground in a blackened smoking mess. "What's going on here?" He watched as 4 metallic objects descended from the hole in the clouds. Upon a closer examination through his rifle scope, he realized that they were in fact suits of power armor. Like the one that he had seen back in Salt Cube city, only these ones that these ones were slimmer, more aerodynamic. And they all possessed wings and jagged bladed tails. "Now that, that is amazing." He watched as the power armor clad pegasi- well, he guessed they were pegasi. Flew around the creature, likely circling to ensure that it was dead. They landed, and trotted about. "Eh, what do I do?" Nikolai asked himself, he didn't know anything about these new ponies. But he figured that, judging by the armor and weapons they were packing, that it would be best if he left them alone. He turned and began to sneak away. Made his way back around the hangers. Once he had gotten one closest to the front gates, he reeled out from behind another hanger to observe the creatures. But just as he did, one of them turned and stared in his direction. Rather than act oblivious, Nikolai decided to greet them, "привет! I must say, you did very fine job at dispatching the monster over there!" They just continued to stare blankly at him, then one by one, they all shot up into the air. "Pegasus Enclave! Drop you weapon!" Nikolai took this statement about as well as one would think. "Nyet, nyet!" He quickly turned and ran. He heard the woosh of metallic wings close behind him. He began to look for cover, an old jeep was the only thing substantial around. He took cover behind the engine block just as a volley of red beams came crashing down all around him. " Can we talk about this?" Nikolai shouted as he peaked out from behind the jeep. "Sure we can. What the hell are you!? " Another mechanical voice called out. "Nyet, I ask question! But if you must know- I am Stalker. Why do you shoot at me with the lasers?" Actually, he was fairly they were plasma bolts and not lasers. "The contents of this base are now Enclave property. Leave immediately." "Out of cover? Ha, дебил!" He cried, giving a middle finger. Scanning the area around him for any sign of the pegasi. He didn't know why they had been so quick to peg him as a hostile and start shooting. Up until know, the only ponies to react to his presence like this were the handful of bandits he had come across. " I don't want anything in this godforsaken place. I was just on my way out." He looked up, the pegasi had taken up perches along the roofs of a hanger about 100 meters down from him. They were all easy shots with his AK 101. But he doubted that the ammunition he was using would go through the power armor that they were sporting. And between them, they looked as though they had enough firepower between themselves to make a T 72 tank blush. "You don't look like you're from around here!" He heard the mechanical voice call out. "Da, I am from far away land. I come in seek of treasures and adventure. Sound corny. I know, but I have great success so far. At cost of only small radiation poisoning!" He couldn't hear anything. Only the whistling of the wind and the creaking of the rusty barbed wire fence. "They must be talking! Radios perhaps? Encypted? Closed comms? This I must test." Nikolai thought to himself. Scratching his mask clad chin in frustration. He reached down into his vest and fiddled around with the frequency knop. As he flipped through the airwaves and assortment of available channels, he suddenly caught part of what was clearly a conversation. He swiftly clicked back to it. " What do we do with him? Command ain't pickin' up." He heard a female voice asked demandingly. "Well, we could let him go. Be honest what's some pushover Wastelander gonna do to us? We'll be in and out of this place in 5 minutes anyway." A male voice responded. "Don't go soft, we've already got our hooves full dealing with Dashites. And besides, have you seen those Steel Rangers? No? Well rookie, this isn't the place for it." Another male voice resounded over the others. "Official policy is that surface contact is to be avoided at all costs." A third male voice said. Nikolai grinned smugly to himself, they had no idea that they were being listened in on. Their banter reminded him of Ukrainian Army guards along the Exclusion Zone border. Except those guys were a lot more lenient with letting Stalkers 'slip' out of their grasp. " I usually don't say it, but that armor looks pretty cool. I wonder if they have any human shaped suits? I've always wanted to try an Exoskeleton out!" "What- do you have a radio over there? How did you get access to this frequency!?" One of the voiced asked sternly. This was met with sounds of laughter on Nikolai's end. " Oi blyat! I was held down respond button by accident!" His thoughts filled with sudden regret. "Ok, whoever you are, you're under summary arrest for listening in on secure military communications!" The first voice chided with a callous grunt. Nikolai sunk his eyebrows and began to silently work a way out of his predicament. "Hey, while I'm on the line. Could you tell me where I could get a set of that armor? It looks spectacular! " No response came though, he ducked under the jeep and got a better look at his adversaries though his scope. "Wait, where did the other one- oh Nikolai you дурак!" He quickly rolled out from the underside of the jeep and made a break for the nearest piece of cover. "I refuse to be outflanked!" He tossed his rifle's selector lever down to full auto and rounded a corner. Just above him, at a 30 degree angle from the ground, was one of the pegasi. He turned and ran back around, sprinting all the way to the next hanger. It was exactly at this time that he accidentally knocked the knop on his radio, and as if on que. Bandit Radio once began to play through the speaker. "Now? Whatever!" He reached into a belt loop and pulled out his only flashbang grenade, pulled the pin, and threw it behind him haphazardly, he heard it detonate, the flash briefly silhouetted him, and he was soon fired upon again, the bolts of energy kicked up gravel all around him, and he felt a warming sensation as one flew right by his head. Nikolai rushed across open ground towards a brick building on the south eastern side of the runway, he broke a hole in a window and dove in. The Stalker could hear metallic wings flapping outside, followed by metallic galloping. Nikolai quickly knocked a desk over, then ran over to the wooden door and kicked it. "Ah-" He stumbled back, fighting to keep his balance. "Inside, it swings in from outside." He groaned, reslinging his rifle. Nikolai turned the door knop and peeked out. Sticking his rifle out along with his head to make sure he had cover, he quickly glanced the other way, just as he was about to make a break for the entrance. One of the pegasi came plodding into what looked like a the front lobby. Nikolai quickly ducked back behind the door. "What will it be, hide or fight?" He asked himself. He heard a metal creak down the hall. "Blyat!" He pounced out and activated the flashlight which he had tapped to the side of his rifle, at the same time, he opened fire, the flurry of copper jacketed projectiles perforated the suit of power armor. Sending shrapnel and sparks flying off in all directions. He kept he kept his front rotated towards the pegasus, presenting the toughest part of his armor to the target. The suit of power armor responded with bolts of energy from the weapons mounted under it's wings. Luckily, Nikolai was able to weave out of the way and dive into another room on the other side of the hallway. He slammed the door shut and dragged a heavy bookshelf against it, the creatures tail blade ripped though the door, but didn't knock it down. "Blin, what now- haha!" He quickly unslung and unzipped his pack. He pulled out an RGD-5 high explosive concussion grenade. Quickly he threw the bookcase aside, and the door was torn off it's hinges. Nikolai and the pegasus stood face to face. He got a good look at it's glowing yellow eyes. Before it could react, Nikolai pulled the pin and dropped the explosive at it's hooves. He ran out the front door as fast as he could, just as he entered the lobby, he heard the grenade detonate. But he couldn't know for sure whether or not it had worked. "This will make good story back at camp." He muttered between pants. He could feel cold bile forming in his throat from all the running. Not a big deal, but the mask made it a bit unpleasant. "What camp?" Just as he was about to climb through a hole in the barbed wire on the base's perimeter. He heard the whoosh of metallic wings behind him. He felt the searing heat as a bolt of energy passed right under his arm. A split second later, he felt something strike him in the back, followed by a deep thump noise. Followed by the clicking of his anomaly detector. Nikolai just ignored it and kept running. He slowed from a sprint to a brisk jog all the way back to the highway. He dove under a wrecked car and prayed that the pegasus would leave. He tore off his mask and coughed, spiting the bile onto the ground. Ten minutes went by without Nikolai hearing any wing flaps. Slowly, he crawled out from underneath his rusted out hiding spot. He unslung his rucksack to grab a drink of water, when he saw the black splotch where the bolt of energy had hit him. He noticed that something within his pack was glowing purple. He took another look at the direction the bolt had hit him, then reached into his pack and pulled out one of the lead lined containers. The glow was coming from it. He pulled the container out from his pack and shook it, the air around the container shimmered like pavement on a hot summer day. "Gravitational manipulation. This is... Awesome!" He coughed and put the container back into his pack. He unscrewed his canteen and took a long gulp of water. "Oh! What was I thinking getting!? I'm in no shape to be getting into unnecessary gunfights." He facepalmed, and downed an Ibuprofen tablet. Then got back up and looked at his watch. "I'm doing well on time. I should find a place up the road to rest and rearm." He got up from his spot with a groan, wiped the fog from the lenses of his mask, and resumed his trip north. It was another 45 minutes before Nikolai had come across something resembling civilization. This came in the form of an a dilapidated roadside motel just off the main road. A wall made from old cars ringed the place, and Nikolai could see sentries in the makeshift guard towers. He noticed the red hoofprint mark on a road sign, and decided to get out the cowbell 'pass' which he had been given. "Hello friends!" Nikolai waved the bell above his head. He could practically see the guards rolling their eyes. "What the hell are you?" A unicorn wearing leather pauldons and brandishing a spear asked sternly. "Someone in need of rest and rearmament." Nikolai replied. Tugging on his rifle sling and gritting his teeth. "I won't be any trouble, I've my fill of it today already." "Sure looks like it." A pony wearing a baseball cap and armor the looked to be fashioned from steel and football pads. Nikolai looked down at himself, he was covered in dirt and grime from his fights with the Mutant Crocodiles and the armored pegasi. He looked over at an inviting campfire in the middle of what was a parking lot. Then over at trading post which had been set up in the front office, then over to the bar. "Da, this will be fine."