//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 1/2: Big Fucking Gun // Story: See the Zone and Survive // by RoadRunneR //------------------------------// Chapter 10 1/2 Big Fucking Gun WARNING: MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF GUN PORN. I ruffled my wings in delight. Naps are the best thing ever. Especially under a nice blanket. Especially in the middle of the afternoon. Especially when you are alone with your loved one cuddling you. I let out a satisfied sigh and fluttered my eyes open. The dorms of the Skadovsk were mostly empty at this time of the day except for a group of ‘nocturnals’ sleeping soundly. These nocturnals, according to local stalkers, are groups of veterans specialized in hunting mutants and prefer to go out at night. I felt my lover’s hand wrap around me and pull me closer to him. “Wakey wakey my little snowball ,” he said. “Shut up,” I replied before I turned around and gave him a forceful kiss on the lips. Strider smirked. “Hmmm, I like where this is going. We-” My lover was interrupted by a beeping coming from his PDA. With a sigh, he sat up in the decrepit bed we were sharing and grabbed the device. “Well, looks like the romantic nap is over, Celestia,” he announced. “Awww, but why?” I whined. Strider chuckled. “Nimble is done with my order and will be back in a few minutes. So get up and gear up, love,” he replied, planting a kiss on my cheek. “But I don’t want to! Come back, please!” My lover shook his head. “I swear, sometimes I forget you are over two thousand years old. Come on, we will take back where we left off this evening.” “Promise?” “Promise,” Strider replied, approaching his head from mine. I pulled him into a long kiss. “Hmmm, okay then.” I said as I pulled away. I flashed him a stood up, stretching my limbs and sighed. I already missed my lover’s body heat. As always, I helped Celestia suit up, gently adjusting each part of her protective apparel on her frail form, careful as to not hurt her or damage her equipment. She was much smaller than the average human, and the Zone knows if she needs her suit. Of course, her telekinesis and flight abilities were a plus. I could tell she appreciated the moment by the way she beamed at me once I was done. I stood up and turned around, to see my equipment floating towards me, surrounded by the familiar glow of my alicorn’s telekinesis. I donned my jumpsuit over my undergarments and let her put on my armored vest and the various polycarbonate protective plates all over my body. “Now that I think of it, we’ll be able to snipe together once you’ll have your new toy,” playfully said Celestia. “I feel all giddy,” I admitted. “I cannot wait!” My alicorn chuckled. “You’re like a foal on Hearth’s Warming morning.” “I will take your word for it,” I replied as I turned around and picked up my weapons, giving Celestia a confused glance. “A holiday during winter. Ponies give gifts to each other to celebrate the foundation of Equestria, amongst other things,” she explained. I raised an eyebrow. “Strange. I do not think we have something like that here. I’ll have to talk to Vano about it, seems like a good idea,” I said as we walked out of the room, heading for the stairs to Nimble’s office. To our surprise, the merchant was already there, in the same spot he was before. Nothing in the room seemed to have changed, except for a massive, long object wrapped in cloth leaning on the rusted wall next to the hooded man. I smiled. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! “You arrive just in time, stalker! Your order is complete!” greeted the merchant. I rubbed my hands together. “Great! What is it?” I asked eagerly, to Celestia’s obvious amusement. Nimble lifted the package wrapped in cloth and rested it vertically on the ground before him. I was surprised at the ease he managed to move it around considering the bulkiness of it. “Nobody really know how such a rifle ended up in the Zone. While most basic gear comes from old Soviet arsenals or forgotten US depots, the top-notch stuff gets in with expert Mercs mostly... I’m not too sure where this weapon came from. Only a few things are sure: it’s reliable, accurate and will pierce any armor it comes across. My contact actually had several different guns that fitted your needs and I already had another rifle in mind but when I told my guy who made the order, he just smirked and gave me this one instead, saying that you’d like the latest modification that had been made to it, didn’t tell me what it was though,” explained the merchant. I froze. “Who was your contact?” I asked worriedly “Tsk tsk. Professional secret,” scowled the merchant. “All I can say is that it’s a friend of yours, I suspect this rifle to be worth much more than twenty grand but I wasn’t charged more and still made a profit, so I won’t complain.” “Argh, come on! show us already!” impatiently exclaimed Celestia. Nimble smirked. “Alright then. This, is Big Fucking Gun,” he announced proudly, pulling the cloth off the rifle. “That’s appropriate,” commented Celestia before letting out an impressed whistle. “I mean it, the name of this gun is literally BFG,” laughed Nimble. “BFG-50A to be exact.” I examined the weapon. It was bulky, long and of a deep black color. I could see the tube of a gas system above the fluted barrel, which was fitted with a surprisingly small muzzle brake. On the whole length of top of the receiver ran a long rail system, where a big scope equipped with a small electronic device was attached. The pistol grip of the weapon seemed custom made and it had a piece of cloth wrapped on its rear part, forming a makeshift cheek pad. Under the receiver a heavy duty bipod was attached. Good. These will come in handy in the future. “A simple gas operated design with a dedicated expansion chamber along with a massive bolt assembly and flawless craftsmanship make this thing reliable and very accurate. At least 1 MOA, no buckshot patterns like with a M107,” continued Nimble. “An internal recoil buffer, an amortizing buttstock and a discreet but very efficient muzzle brake makes this thing easy to shoot for its size, even while standing, though I doubt you’d be very accurate then. All of this and the comfy two-stage trigger makes it a pure pleasure to unload down range, just be careful you use cheap MG ammo when you do so or your wallet will be hurting,” he added with a laugh. “You can remove the brake to install a suppressor I threw in along with three magazines. This particular rifle has seen quite a lot of use, but each of its preceding owners took good care of it and even added their own touches to it. The variable zoom scope with its targeting computer, the makeshift cheek piece and the spring loaded bipod are good examples of these customizations. All in all, it’s accurate, reliable, lightweight and perfect for rapid deployment and maneuver warfare that is everyday occurrence in the Zone’s.” “It’s beautiful,” I whispered. Nimble grinned. “It is, isn’t it? All yours now,” he said, handing me the weapon. I leaned forwards and eagerly took the rifle from the merchant’s hands. The first thing that surprised me was its lightness. I expected such a rifle to weigh much more than this. It was even lighter than Vano’s machine gun though much heavier than my regretted SVU. Upon closer inspection, I noticed the wear in the finish and the numerous little scratches in the metal of the rifle, indicating it indeed had seen many owners and on the right side of the receiver, a caption reading ‘BFG-50A CAL. .50BMG SERBU FIREARMS TAMPA, FLORIDA SER. NO. A0035’ was stamped next to a stick figure exploding in a stylized scope. “At least 1 MOA, you say?” I asked. “That makes... less than 2.5 cm deviation at 100 meters... impressive from a semi-automatic platform,” I commented, before frowning in realization. “Where could I get ammo for it anyway? I doubt any trader in the Zone sells high powered sniper ammunition.” Nimble smirked. “That’s why I have this,” he replied, patting the crate next to him. “All kinds of match ammo just for you: FMJ, armor piercing, tracer and even Raufoss rounds. Also bear in mind that just because a trader doesn’t offer something doesn’t mean they don’t have it,” he replied. “Resuppliers in the Zone sell military and civilian stuff alike that they stole. Most of the time, they force traders to buy what they have to get rid of any evidence; I wouldn’t be surprised if Owl has some rounds for your rifle even though I think it would mostly be cheap machine gun ammo.” “That’s a strange practice,” piped in Celestia. “Heh. That’s why I established myself as a rare equipment dealer. Instead of sitting all day long behind my counter, I actually go on some adventures and I don’t have to deal with those damn resuppliers,” said the hooded merchant with a shrug. “By the way, all the mags I provided you are loaded, stalker, should be enough for your short-term needs. But if you need more, feel free to buy ammo from me, I’ll always have some.” I scratched the back of my head. “I would like too; unfortunately, I am short on money so I will pass. For now.” “Don’t worry, I’ll get it for you,” said Celestia, rolling her eyes. “Aww, you are too sweet.” My alicorn smiled. “It’s the least I can do,” she softly replied, handing Nimble the money and raising the crate with her telekinesis. I smiled and stood up. “I must thank you for everything, Nimble. I will make sure to recommend your services to my friends,” I announced. “You coming, love? Let’s see what Vano is up too,” I asked my alicorn, gently laying a hand to the side of her swanlike neck, making one of her wings twitch slightly. “Right behind you,” she replied, nuzzling my side. I sighed and climbed down the stairs to the bar. Strider and Celestia were enjoying their time alone together, God knows what they were doing. Well, I did have an idea or two. But that wasn’t what was on my mind. I wanted to confront Snag about this morning. I had tried to rest in this afternoon but couldn’t bring myself to it. I didn’t know why he had reacted that way, why he tried to talk me into leaving Strider alone. That’s what was on my mind. I wanted to know. Why? “You know where Snag is?” I asked Beard as I sat at the bar. “I need to talk to him.” The barman gave me a concerned look and pointed with his head to a table in a dark corner of the room. Snag was there, joyously talking and drinking with several other stalkers as if nothing was wrong. I gave Beard a nod and headed for his table with a frown. “Snag,” I simply said. The whole group fell silent. Snag took a sip of his drink before he set it down on the table before him. “Well well well, look who’s there. The ex-fuckbuddy!” “What?” “You heard me. It was fun, and you weren’t bad in bed, but since you preferred to stay with your friends... which, by the way, have a bounty on their heads...” he trailed off. I felt a twinge in my chest. So this is it? It’s over? “B-but I thought we had something going!” I stammered. “Well, think again. I had my fun, you had yours! What’s so complicated with that? We never had ‘anything going’ as you put it... it was merely a trial period,” he retorted with a shrug, to the amusement of the stalkers around the table. I felt like if a truck launched at full speed had slammed into my face. I stood there, completely still as I tried to recover from Snag’s figurative punch, my brain working overdrive as I tried to wrap my mind around what had just happened. What the- what? How- why?... wait. “Then what was that act concerning the Mercs, huh? What did you try to achieve with that? If I had followed you, would you have thrown me away after a while like a used toy?” I angrily asked. “Yeah. Eventually, yeah. To be honest, it only was an excuse, and a fucking poor one at that. Should have dumped you before,” Snag deadpanned. “So now hush, go away, you’re importuning me.” I stood still for a few seconds before I turned around and walked back to Beard’s counter, shoulders slumped. “Beard, I’m gonna need a lot of alcohol,” I stated. My beloved in tow and a few boxes of ammunition I had freshly acquired for him in my magical grasp, I climbed down the stairs to the bar aboard the Skadovsk. The crate was fairly heavy but I managed to keep it afloat without too many problems. Strider smiled. “That went well. At least this ammunition was not too expensive.” I nodded. “Such a shame I don’t have access to my full power though, I could just have used a duplication spell and make tons of it already,” I replied. “I could even enchant your magazines with it: no need to reload!” “You could do that?” “Yes. While I am not the most... refined magic user, I make up with raw power,” I admitted. “Well, that’s what I usually do. Here, it’s another story. I just don’t know why the ambient magic field is so weak, I have no thaumatic energy to use!” We walked to Vano, who was sitting on a stool, drinking at the bar. I gave the giant a smile but instantly noticed that something was off. His shoulders were slumped and he was staring at the bottom of his glass, an aloof and depressed expression on his face. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Nothing. M’fine,” mumbled the giant. “You are most likely not fine,” retorted Strider. “What happened?” Vano let out a long sigh. “Let’s say that I’ve been a fool, once again.” “Want to talk about it?” I asked, sitting down next to my giant friend. “Not really, no,” he grunted in response. “Go away,” he added, taking another drink. I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and saw Strider, nodding his head negatively. “If you feel that you need to talk, we will be on the roof,” softly said my lover. “Come, Celestia. Leave him alone for a while.” I stood up and followed Strider to the stairs, giving Vano a last glance before I sighed and reluctantly walked out the room. “Why did you insist on leaving him alone?” I asked as we climbed the stairs to the upper decks of the Skadovsk. Strider pushed open the door to the outside. “It is his way of coping. He will come back to us, worry not.” “Are you sure?” I asked worriedly. “He seemed very distressed to me. He’s always so jovial but there he was almost... crying.” “Yes I am,” assured my lover. “It happened before. You should have seen his reaction when he came to Pripyat for the second time. He went back to Yanov, with Garry, only to find that the Major and all his military friends were gone and had been evacuated. He was heartbroken,” he lectured, climbing the stairs on the outer deck of the stranded ship before stopping at the bottom of a ladder leading to the snow covered roof of the ship. “Even I was downtrodden when I had found their former base, empty and devoid of life. I remember worrying quite a lot, imagining they had been raided by Monolith forces and wiped out.” I took flight as Strider began to climb. “Did Vano have any... you know, romantic interests with any of them?” I asked. “No. He is very loyal though, the Major was a very good friend of him, and even mine. Well, he still is but we have not seen him in months, not since that day actually,” my buzzed stalker explained. “I know for a fact that he would have preferred going with them and help out,” he added, pulling himself on the roof of the Skadovsk. I touched down on my four hooves. “Was his reaction that bad though?” “No, but it was similar. At first he was sad and closed himself to others, but then he got over it, progressively. We were only four people in Pripyat, excluding Mercs and Monolith forces: Vano, Gary the guide and an old man named Uncle Yar,” my lover narrated. “We were more or less forced to help each other to survive and eventually became friends. It was not as bad as I feared it.” “So all he needs is being alone for the moment,” I muttered, nodding in understanding. “Yes. He will come to us if he needs to,” assured Strider, sitting down on the roof of the cargo boat and preparing his new rifle after having cleared the snow for both of us, giving us a space to sit. “I hope you’re right,” I sighed. “What are you doing?” I asked, seeing Strider fumbling around with his rifle. “I am learning how this weapon is made and how to disassemble it, then I will take a few shots to get used to it and get a good feeling of its potential,” he answered. “I do not like this idea of that ‘latest modification. Call me paranoid but I prefer to make sure that my equipment is always working like a swiss watch. Besides, I have never seen this weapon before and even my brainwashed brain has nothing on it.” “Let me see that,” I inquired, sitting down in front of him. Strider froze, then smiled and handed me the rifle. Returning his smile, I took it in my magic, unloaded the weapon and examined it. After a minute of closely looking at it from all angles, I took a bullet from one of my magazines and began to work, under the attentive gaze of my lover. The rear of the buttstock was the first to go after I took off the pin retaining it in place. I carefully stored them away. Then, the recoil rod and its spring were removed from the now opened butt of the rifle. I was about to take care of the bolt assembly pull it out of the rifle in the same way when I noticed I had forgotten to take off the charging handle from the assembly, preventing it to slide out. I shook my head. Derp. After taking off the bolt assembly, I took it apart, careful as to not lose anything and neatly arranged the individual parts around the now disassembled rifle. Strider looked at the weapon with a flabbergasted expression on his face, then at me. I walked to his side and sat down next to him. “What do you think of this?” I asked, nuzzling his neck. “Impressive, love,” he replied, pulling me in a short kiss. “Positively impressive. You managed to figure out how it worked and took it apart in less than five minutes.” “Don’t be so impressed, this is a very simple design,” I modestly stated. Strider chuckled and proceeded to reassemble the rifle: first the bolt assembly, the rod and recoil spring, the buttsotck and then the pin taking everything in place. I was impressed. Celestia had less problems taking the rifle apart than me putting it back together. She really was smart, but also full of life, beautiful, unique, adorable and wonderful. I really, really am in love am I? That I was. And I loved it. I extended a hand and scratched my alicorn behind the ear, eliciting a relaxed moan from her. She twitched her ear and relaxed, leaning against me and nuzzling my neck. We stayed there on the roof of the, observing the sun in the clear sky slowly descending towards the white horizon, enjoying the moment we shared. After a while, Celestia pulled back before she gave me a quick kiss. “Let’s see how this weapon shoots, shall we?” she asked with a smile. “Let’s.” I laid prone on the roof, popped open the caps protecting the scope, loaded a magazine into the magwell and racked the bolt, chambering a round. “Let’s see what this thing can do,” I said as I flipped the rifle onto fire. I looked through the scope and aligned it onto a boulder resting next to a tree frozen by the cold not far away from the abandoned Shevchenko. I zeroed in, let out a breath and squeezed the trigger. *BOOM* With an ear-splitting crack of thunder, the anti-materiel rifle gently nudged my shoulder, letting out a massive blast wave, hot gas making the dust around us fly in the air and a 12.7 mm caliber tracer round speeding up over 800 meters per second towards the inanimate object. A little under a second later, the red trail hit the rock and died as the round disintegrated and tore off a chunk of the mineral, producing a visible report of dust. Celestia let out a breath. “I wasn't expecting the shockwave,” she commented. I let out a breath. *BOOM* Once again, the tracer trail ended as the round hit the rock, but something was wrong. The visual report had been in the very same place as the previous one.I frowned, let out a breath and sqeezed the trigger once more. I knew I may have been wrong, but I needed to make sure. *BOOM* Still dead on. *BOOM* *BOOM* After five rounds, I could not believe it. I reached for my binoculars and incredulously examined the surface of the big rock I had been shooting at. There was indeed only one, sizeable hole in the surface of the mineral and a good chunk of it had been torn off. “I cannot believe it!” I exclaimed. “Something’s wrong?” Celestia asked worriedly. “No, far from it! This rifle is dead on at six hundred meters! Nimble said 1 MOA, I’m calling bullshit. It’s even approaching .5 MOA,” I stated. “Now I know what that ‘latest modification’ was for. Whoever tinkered with this weapon knew what he was doing.” My alicorn shrugged. “It’s a good thing, don’t worry about it.” “You are right. Well, this weapon is definitely my best investment so far,” I said with a grin. “The recoil is almost nonexistent too. I am surprised at how easy it is easy to shoot.” I put the rifle on safe, and removed muzzle brake, intending to try the suppressor next. Once the brake was off, I took the big cylinder and screwed it on the threads of the barrel. It added quite a bit of length to the rifle but seemed perfectly in its place. I laid the rifle on its bipod once again, flipped off the safety and aimed at the rock once more. When Strider squeezed the trigger, the rifle let out a sharp clack sound not unlike a whipcrack accompanied by a big metallic clunk as the action moved back and forth as it chambered a new round; but what was the most impressive was the noise that followed. It sounded like that sound that happens just after the boom of a thunderstrike. “Hear that?” asked Strider. “It is the noise the bullet makes while going supersonic through the air.” I blinked twice. “Impressive. I mistook it for the gunshot reverberating around when you shot unsuppressed.” My lover chuckled and focused on his target once again before he unloaded the rifle with quick follow-up shots. Once the magazine was empty, he racked the action, squeezed the trigger and pulled the magazine out of the weapon. He then took an ammo box from his backpack and proceeded to reload the magazine. Round after round, the box was emptied and the magazine filled. Once that was done, my lover inserted the magazine back into the rifle, set it on safe, unscrewed the suppressor and put the muzzle brake back into place before standing up and chucking the weapon on his shoulder. “Let’s go back inside, yes?” I smiled and nodded. “Yeah. As much as I like the current weather, the cold is beginning to get to me.” Strider gave me a sly smile. “I know a way or two we could get warm,” he said in a suggestive tone before he jumped off the roof of the boat. “Like what?” I asked innocently, perfectly knowing what he was implying. My lover turned around and cocked his brow as he reached the door leading inside. “I have a few positions in mind, I wonder how they would adapt to your anatomy.” I smirked and nuzzled his side. “That sounds very kink-” I was interrupted as the door we were standing in front of opened, revealing a tired looking Vano. His facial features were almost back to normal, except for his usual cheery smile, which was missing. “Hey,” simply said the giant. “Damn. You look like shit,” commented Strider. “I feel like shit. What have you guys been doing?” asked Vano in a raspy voice, closing the door behind him. “We were testing the rifle, and we’re going inside now,” I replied. The giant sighed. “Oh ok. You guys do that,” he said in a defeated tone. “Ah Hell, come here brother,” cursed Strider, opening his arms and pulling his tall friend into a hug. Vano returned the hug and a lonely tear escaped his eye. “Shh, shh. All over now,” soothed Strider. I awkwardly broke the hug, took a step backwards and sighed, wiping the tear that was now halfway to my beard. “Thanks, man. I really needed that,” I said in a raspy voice. “Don’t mention it,” replied my friend. “Now, let’s go back inside.” “Yeah. You-” I was interrupted by a terrified voice yelling over the noises from the outdoor. “GIANTS!” What? A flare was launched in the sky, illuminating the surrounding area in  a faint red glow and an alarm blared, but it was different of the usual air raid alarm. In the weak light of the setting sun, I saw a sight that made my heart skip a beat. My blood froze. Three pseudogiants were heading towards the Skadovsk, their oversized legs propelling their grotesque forms way faster than I could hope to sprint and shaking the ground under their massive weight. Oh God. The sound of the alarm was deafening. Stalkers came up on the deck of the ship to see what was going on. Some panicked and started leaving the ship, jumping over the guardrail as if it were sinking. Some broke down crying, persuaded that their end was coming. Some haggardly looked around while standing still, too stunned to react. Others, rarer, kept their calm and readied their weapons for the fight that was coming. “VANO! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?” I heard a familiar voice yell. I shook my head and rushed to the guardrail, incredulously looking at the hulking mutants speeding towards our stranded ship. “SNAP OUT OF IT!” shouted Strider. “What do we do?” asked Celestia. “KEEP THEM AWAY FROM THE SHIP!” yelled a voice. I turned around. Beard was there, standing in the middle of the deck, barking orders to the rare stalkers that were preparing for the oncoming fight. “IF THEY REACH THE SHIP THEY’LL COME RIGHT THROUGH THE HULL! KEEP THEM AT BAY, THAT’S OUR ONLY CHANCE!” I gulped and grabbed my machine gun, racked the bolt and rested it on the guardrail. Strider and Celestia did the same, respectively readying their LR-300 and Saiga DMR. The beasts were closing in fast. At this rate, they would be under 200 meters of the ship in less than a minute. The deafening silence was only disturbed by the sound the massive beasts made as they ran towards us. “FIRE!” came Beard’s voice. Instantly, the air exploded in a fury of continuous gunfire. Automatic rifles, machine guns, shotguns came to life in a deafening thunder of lead, brass and gunpowder. That didn’t change a thing. The giants kept running, unfazed by the wall of lead thrown at them. Most of the bullets didn’t even penetrate their thick hide and harmlessly bounced off or stopped at the first layer of skin instead. Even the rare bullets that seemed to penetrate had no effect on the beasts’ advance. The fire stopped. We all looked apprehensively as the beasts soldiered on towards us, destroying everything in their path. “I know! I’ll go and lure them away!” proposed Celestia. Not even waiting for a moment, the small alicorn switched to her A2000 and took flight towards the beasts. Once she reached them, she opened fire with her SMG, harassing the mutants with strafing runs while progressively going away from the Skadovsk. I turned towards Strider. I imagined he would be proud of his mate but instead his hand was over his mouth and his brow was frozen in an expression of untold horror “What is she doing...” he muttered. “What are you on about? She’s doing great!” I joyously said. “Look at her go!” Her tactics were dangerous, nearly suicidal even, but she managed to keep the giants at bay while driving them away from us. The stalkers present on the deck of the ship cheered at the alicorn, invigorated by her success. Then everything went wrong. Celestia did one too many strafing maneuver right as one of the pseudogiants stood on one leg, raising the other in the air and bringing it down with enough force to destroy a concrete bunker. The resulting shockwave threw the little alicorn off course and she brutally crashed down on the ground. Right as another giant began approached her immobile form, Strider sprang into action. “OH NO YOU DON’T, MOTHERFUCKER!” he angrily yelled, grabbing his carbine and jumping over the guardrail. God damn it. I jumped over the guardrail and dropped to the ground below, breaking the ice of the frozen swamp under my weight. The glacial water submerged my feet but I had other concerns at the moment. I was not going to let my princess, my sunshine, Celestia, getting stomped to death by these abominations. Immediately, I began to take short, accurate bursts of small caliber fire towards the giants. Unsurprisingly, the armor piercing bullets merely bounced off the mutants’ thick hide. I switched to full auto and unloaded in the general direction of the beasts. Despite being as ineffective, that managed to catch their attention. The mutants had stopped to approach my alicorn and were now turning towards me. “COME AT ME YOU OVERSIZED PIGS!” My assault rifle was useless against the pseudogiants, and my pistols were not going to help either. Grenades were out of option considering how close Celestia was and I could not risk running away, fearing that the giants might find her more interesting than me if I fled. I switched to my newly acquired sniper rifle. I unslung it from my back, stashed away the magazine full of tracer rounds and inserted one loaded with green-over-white tipped Raufoss rounds instead. I did not bother to look through the scope or to even aim. Instead, I spammed the trigger from the hip while moving towards the beasts. *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* With a thunderous roar, the rifle came to life. The Armor-Piercing Incendiary High-Explosive rounds left the barrel of my rifle one after the other, speeding up towards the first pseudogiant. Upon impact, the explosive contained in the rounds detonated, producing a miniature shockwave, igniting the incendiary mix at the tip of the bullet and propulsing the tungsten-carbide penetrator further down the giant’s head, spraying it with hot bits of phosphorous fire and stunning it. Three rounds was all it took to tire out the first mutant. After one more shot it collapsed, dead. I then turned to the second one and once again unleashed hell fire upon it. After four more rounds, it was dead. The last mutant, infuriated by the death of his brethren, roared and stood on one leg. Instantly, I crouched to the ground and turned around, letting the brunt of his shockwave attack wash over me. Right after, I stood up and fired again. *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* To my surprise, my magazine had four more rounds in stock instead of the usual two.  After that, my rifle clicked. The giant fell dead right before my feet. “Yeah...” I muttered. I loaded a magazine of ball ammunition inside my rifle. *BOOM* I did not want to take any risks. I put two more rounds in each of the mutants’ heads at point blank range, making sure they were dead for good. Once that was done, I wasted no time and rushed to Celestia’s side, who was shakily standing back up. I noticed she was shivering. She had broken the ice where she had crashed and was soaked in water. I wrapped my arms around her. “Hey. All over now. Let’s get you warmed up.” “Warm up, eh?” I scooped her up in my arms. “You know it,” I replied with a sly smile. I couldn’t believe he did it! We climbed back up to the upper deck of the Skadovsk under the cheers of the stalkers present. Strider had single handedly killed not one, but three hulking mutants. All by himself. “That was impressive,” I commented, my teeth clacking against each other as I shivered from the cold. “Thanks, I don’t know why I stupidly ran into the fray.” “What you did was stupid, but very courageous and you lasted longer than anyone would have managed against these mutants,” comforted my lover. “Interesting technique, I think I have found your role in this squad.” “And that would be?” “Air support. Your wings are your greatest advantage in here: One second, you can be on the ground, providing sniper fire and the next, you can be in the air, making strafing runs or providing fire support,” I explained. “Of course, we will have to develop a proper team strategy but with you, the three of us can be unstoppable.” Celestia smirked for some reason. “I was the missing element then.” “If only you knew,” I replied, pulling my princess into a loving kiss. As we walked inside, the cheers of victory became louder and music began to play. I gently set Celestia back on her hooves. The stalkers present there had improvised a party and the alcohol was already flowing. Just as we entered the bar everyone present burst into a massive congratulatory ovation. I awkwardly smiled and joined the crowd, occasionally shaking a hand or nodding as the stalkers congratulated me. “Make a speech!” nagged Vano. I frowned. “No.” “Cmon dude!” “No. I just want to be alone with Celestia for now.” “I can only second that,” added the beautiful alicorn by my side. “You’ll get your romantic time together later, you have to make a speech!” he insisted. “You just saved the entire base! When you’re done, just walk out discreetly and I’ll take care of keeping this party running, don’t worry.” I sighed. “The party is the least of my worries, trust me.” Finally, I climbed on a table and raised my hands, signaling the crowd to stay silent. “I know we are all relieved that these pseudogiants are dead and you all want to thank me for helping out. But first, I wanted to thank my friend Vano,” I announced to the stalkers present. “For being a great friend and a major pain in the ass, you deserve recognition brother.” My bearded friend, whose head was protruding from the crowd, raised a fist in the air and grinned. Once again, the crowd erupted in cheers. “I would also like to thank Celestia,” I added, motioning my alicorn to climb on the table with me, to which she obliged with a beaming smile. I picked her up in my arms. “If it were not for her, I would not have dared jumping into the fray. For being an inspiration and so much more, she deserves your praise,” I declared before planting a firm, long kiss on her lips. The crowd instantly shut up and all that could be heard was the sound of silence. Then someone yelled. “YEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” The stalkers began applauding and cheering all at the same time, a few of them whistling loudly over the noise. I let out a chuckle. “And lastly, I would like to thank Nimble who got me this rifle,” I finished, patting my weapon slung across my back. “This is one fine gun he got me that can put down pseudogiants and his prices are actually not that steep. Go check him out!” I advised. “Now, if you will excuse us, Celestia and I have some personal business to attend to.” The crowd erupted in a thunder of laughs, applause, cheers and whistles just as the music restarted. Still carrying my alicorn in my arms, I walked out of the room under the noise of a party already in motion. I climbed up the stairs to the floor where the dorms were located. Celestia gave me a sultry smile. “Personal business, huh?” “It was the best I could come up with at the moment,” I sheepishly replied. “But you know what I meant.” My alicorn laughed. “Everybody knows now... 'positions', eh? Sounds kinky.” “Glad to oblige if you want to.” “Are you kidding? Of course I want to,” came the response. “Come here,” ordered my princess, telekinetically throwing me onto a bed. “Show me what you got, big boy.” “Gladly,” I whispered in her ear, before lovingly nibbling on the appendage.