//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Skyways // Story: Fallout Equestria: Clearer Skies // by TicTac //------------------------------// Chapter 5: Skyways “Oh FUCK!” We all hit the ground as cannon rounds tore through the bridge, pulverizing what minimal cover we had. As soon as the Ranger stopped to reload though, I popped up and put a round straight through his visor. The rest of the red marks were still on the deck below us, but closing in fast. I moved back over to the windows, sniping the first Steel Ranger in the head right before he reached the door up to the bridge. The next two got through, but the fourth did not. This pattern continued as the battle progressed as a seemingly endless stream of Rangers swarmed up from the decks towards the bridge. Scopes and Qindeo managed to keep the Steel Rangers who did make it through at bay, mostly. My flanks burned from shrapnel from those damned grenade machine guns. About fifteen minutes into the battle, my eyepiece began flashing a barrel temperature warning for The Undoer. “Shit!” I swore, ducking as a missile flew through the window and exploded against the ceiling of the bridge. I brought up my Hyperion, putting a couple rounds through the visor of a Ranger as they came charging into the bridge. “Qindeo, Scopes! We have gotta figure something else out! This is taking way to fucking long!” I yelled, emptying the Hyperion’s cylinder into two more Steel Rangers. I dove away from the window as another missile came streaking through it. I crawled over to the doorway where Scopes was, her AA-12 thudding as she took down yet another Ranger. “I’ve got a new plan!” I shouted, waving to Qindeo, who was standing behind cover nearby. He crawled over to us. “Alright, there should be a turret control around here somewhere.” I said, pointing a hoof at an inactive turret mounted in the roof. “Find it and activate them, I’ll keep the Rangers busy while you two do that.” They both nodded and retreated into the room, while I reloaded the Hyperion and fired off another nine rounds at some more Steel Rangers. I didn’t have to wait long. Suddenly the turret in the roof activated, spraying the Steel Ranger in the doorway with beams of magical energy. “Yes!” I dove back into the room, slamming the door closed. Scopes looked up from a terminal she was sitting at, presumably the one that had just activated the turrets. “Well, that didn’t go as well as I thought it would.” I said, downing a healing potion for my shrapnel-shredded flank. I looked around the room. It appeared to be the fire control for the battle ship, the terminals displaying ammo readouts and targeting displays for the guns. “Hey, what’s this?” Qindeo said. I turned to where he was pointing at a section of wall at the back of the room. On a portion of it was faded red lettering that read OFC Fire Control Access. I trotted over to it, Scopes and Qindeo following me. There were no visible handles on the door, only the thin lines running around it letting me know that it was, in fact, a door. Both Qindeo and Scopes tried their hoof at opening it, bucking and banging, but neither of them yielded a result. “Alright, lemme try something.” I said, walking up to it. I gave it a small push, and it swung right open. My friends just stared at me, and I shrugged, descending the stairs beyond the now open door. “Are you two coming?” I called back to them, and they quickly caught up. At the bottom of the staircase was another door, which opened like normal. Stepping through it, I found myself in a small room. In it was a small control panel, with a terminal on top of it and a chair behind it. I looked the control panel over. It had two rocker switches, along with various displays, on it. The two switches were marked Arm and Fire respectively, while all the displays were either blank or filled with static. I now turned my attention to the terminal. I guessed the password on the first try, which was RDOFCCTRL. P:\OFC_Ctrl_3>Orbital Friendship Cannon Control #3: Access restricted to Rainbow Dash and descendents. I stared at the first line in shock and disbelief. I…I was the only one who was able to open the door. I thought, remembering what we had learned about the legendary cyan pegasus back in 199, how she seemed vaguely familiar to me, how I had been the strongest flyer in Stable history. “Hey Desert, you okay?” Scopes’s voice jolted me out of my thoughts. “Y-yeah, I’m fine.” I replied, proceeding to check out the rest of the terminal. Below the top line were two more. P:\OFC_Ctrl_3>Active Fire Mode P:\OFC_Ctrl_3>Passive Fire Mode I chose the Passive Fire Mode option. P:\OFC_Ctrl_3\Passive>Confirmation required to unlock switches. P:\OFC_Ctrl_3\Passive>Orbital Coordinates: P:\OFC_Ctrl_3\Passive>Security Passcode: “Well, how the hell can we find those?” I muttered, returning to the main screen. Scopes shrugged. “I could try hacking the terminal for them, but that could also result in a lockout.” She said. “They could be somewhere back in the Luna Needle too.” Qindeo said. I nodded. “Let’s head on back then. We’ll figure something out there.” I said, moving towards the stairs. I paused, glancing back at the terminal. “Actually, before we go, you two look at the first entry on that terminal.” *** We flew through the cool night air back towards the Luna Needle. Scopes was hauling Qindeo’s cart, and I was flying cover. I couldn’t get the thought that I, Desert Eagle, a security officer from Stable 199, was related to Rainbow Dash, the Mare of the Ministry of Awesome, bearer of the Element of Loyalty, and commander of the pegasi forces during the Great War. Warnings flashing in my vision snapped me out of my thoughts. We were only a couple of blocks away from the Luna Needle, the blacker than black outline of the building rising before us, and my EFS was swarming with red marks. “Shit! Scopes, Qindeo, we’ve got company!” I yelled to them, snapping my eyepiece down. One of the features of it that I never had really used was the night vision, but tonight it would come in handy. I activated it as pink beams of energy began shooting out of the darkness towards us. I traced the path of one of the beams back to its source, a pegasus wearing black carapace armor. It was the Enclave, and they were fucking everywhere. “Split up! I’ll take out as many of them as I can and meet you two back at the Needle!” I yelled. I split off, using SATS to blow an Enclave soldier diving towards me out of the sky. Two more appeared on my six, one of their energy beams burning the tip of my ear off. I turned, drawing my Deagle and firing, all seven shots taking both of them out of the sky. Before I had a chance to reload it though, a five-buck wing appeared above me. Holstering the Deagle I dove, bolts of energy singeing the air around me. I pulled up sharply, turning and bringing The Undoer to bear. I fired five times, downing four of the pegasi and missing the fifth. “Shit!” I snapped up the Hyperion, firing the last round in its cylinder at the pegasi, killing him. I saw Scopes flash past me, Qindeo firing the back of the cart at eight, seven, six, now five pegasi. The Undoer thundered as I emptied the last four rounds at them, downing all but one, which Qindeo took care of. As the auto-reload system in my battle saddle kicked in, five more Enclave soldiers appeared above me. Since my battle saddle was still reloading, I drew the only weapon I had that still had ammo, Radicalness. I turned towards them and activated SATS, targeting one round into each of their visors. Four hit, sending them tumbling to the ground, but the last round glanced off the fifth one’s helmet. As she approached, I snapped out my baton, catching the scorpion tail with it and swinging my back legs into her neck, snapping it. As I pulled away from her body, the armor’s scorpion tail snagged onto the barrel of The Undoer, dragging me towards the ground. I struggled to free myself, but by the time I did, it was too late. I slammed into an open dumpster, the trash inside softening my landing enough I didn’t break anything. My vision swam as I hauled myself out of the dumpster, falling to the ground next to it. I felt the barrel of one of the Enclave’s weapons being pressed into the back of my neck. Well, this is a shitty way to die. Then I heard the distinctive high-pitched crack of Scopes’s IF-47, and felt the pressure of the barrel disappear as Scopes landed next to me. She unhitched from the cart and galloped over to me, helping me to my hooves as Qindeo fired away at the approaching Enclave soldiers with his Hyperion. “Thanks.” I said, starting to reload all my weapons. Before I could finish though, Scopes hugged me. “Don’t scare me like that again.” She said, releasing me, helping me finish reloading. “Well, well, well. What do we have here?” A voice from above us said. Suddenly we were surrounded on all sides by a phalanx of Enclave soldiers, cutting off any means of escape. In front of us landed a pegasus clad in more ornate armor than the rest of them. He, I presumed, was the leader. “Looks like a couple of highly armed pegasi, and a zebra too? Oh, this makes things much more interesting. I glanced over at Qindeo, who was drinking something he had pulled out of his saddlebags. “Who are you?” I growled, targeting him and the nine closest pegasi. “Now now, we can’t have any of that.” He said, seeming to know what I was doing. “I don’t want to waste such a skilled pegasus like yourself.” He said. “And as for who I am, I am Major Striker, commander of Third Battalion.” He paused for a moment, lifting his visor. “But the more important question is, who are you?” “Why should I tell you?” I replied, glaring at him. “Because if you don’t, I’ll turn your marefriend here into ash.” “She’s not my marefriend!” I shot back. “My mistake. Now, there are two possible outcomes to this situation. One, you can surrender and come with us without any further trouble, or two, I have my bucks here turn you all into piles of ash.” He said. “So, which will it be?” I looked over at Scopes. She shook her head slightly, and I turned back to Striker. “We, we surrender.” I said reluctantly. Striker grinned. “Excellent. Now, disarm yourselves please.” He said. I pulled the Hyperion off my back and took off my battle saddle, placing them in front of me. I unholstered Radicalness and my Deagle, placing them in the pile as well. My baton had been busted by my fall, and was back inside the dumpster. I slid my Aviators on and shoved my helmet into one of my saddlebags. I turned back to Striker. “Now, what are you going to do with us?” I asked him. Striker’s grin was the last thing I saw before I was knocked out. *** I blinked my eyes open slowly, a dull pain throbbing in the back of my head. I moaned and sat up. I looked around, taking in my surroundings. I was in a cell, and I could see Scopes and Qindeo in their own cells across from me. The floor was made of clouds, so I knew that the Enclave had taken us up into the sky to wherever the hell their base was. I looked at Qindeo again, but before I could figure out why he hadn’t fallen through the floor yet, and was instead sitting on his bed in some sort of meditative pose, a guard opened my cell door. “Striker wants to see you.” She said. I nodded, following her out of my cell. Scopes gave me a worried look as I passed her cell, which I returned with a half-hearted grin. The guard led me into an interrogation room, where Striker was waiting for me. “Sit.” He pointed a hoof at the chair that was across the table from him. I sat. He placed my Aviators on the table in front of me. “You’ll probably want these if things go the way I want them to.” He said. I shrugged and slipped them over my eyes. “So, what do you want with us?” I asked. “Well first off, I want to know what you did with the ESIR Team I sent down to the Luna Needle.” He said. “And don’t bullshit me and say you don’t know, cause you do.” I shrugged again. “Well, we didn’t kill them if that’s what you’re getting at here. No, actually we helped them. Went down into Stable 198 with ‘em to look for whatever they were looking for and got attacked by a horde of zombie ponies. Only me and Scopes survived as far as I know.” I told him. Striker nodded slowly, unconvinced. “Uh-huh, and why, pray tell, did you help them when they were supposed to capture you on site?” He asked. I shrugged a third time. “Cause I convinced them we were Enclave agents on a secret mission. Wasn’t that hard either, considering how well armed Scopes and I were, and the fact we both still have our cutie marks.” I replied casually. “I see.” Striker said, pausing for a moment before continuing. “Now, you and your two friends put up quite a fight, took down fifty one of my best bucks, so I’m going to offer you a deal. If you accept, you will be branded as Dashites and be placed under my command. If you decline, you will still be branded, and then given a one hour head start before I send the Wonderbolts after you.” “Alright, so what’s this deal you have for me?” I asked, already thinking of ways to escape if I accepted. “The deal is you and your friends will be set free, but must serve the Enclave however I see fit, and obey whatever orders I give you without question.” He said with a grin. I knew exactly what he was getting at, but it would be far easier to escape if I accepted. It was risky, yes, but it was my only shot at getting the three of us out of here. I nodded to Striker. “You’ve got yourself a deal.” Striker broke into a wide grin. “Wonderful! I’ll talk with your two other companions and have you and your pegasus friend branded tomorrow morning.” He said. I rose as the guard reentered the room. She lead me out and back to my cell, and then went over to Scopes’s cell and took her back to the interrogation room. Once she was gone, I turned my attention to Qindeo. “Hey Qindeo, how the hell have you not fallen through the clouds yet?” I asked the zebra, who hadn’t moved from when I last saw him. He looked over at me. “Zebra potion.” He replied. “Drank it just before we all got knocked out and dragged up here. Don’t know how long it’ll last for though. I’ve got some more in my saddle bags.” I nodded and glanced over to where the second guard was standing near the door out of the jail room. “Hey guard!” I called over to him. “Could you get my zebra friend here his saddlebags. He needs a cloud walking potion from it so he, you know, doesn’t fall through the floor or anything.” I said. “And why the fuck should I care?” The guard replied. “Because I just struck a deal with your boss, and if Qindeo here dies because you couldn’t complete a simple request, well, I don’t want to imagine what’ll happen to you.” I said. The guard snorted, shooting me a glare before he turned and disappeared down the hallway behind him. As soon as the guard was out of sight, Qindeo hopped off his bed and simply walked through his cell door. I stared at him, my jaw on the floor, speechless. He simply shrugged, and trotted off in the same direction the guard had gone. Shaking myself out of my stupor, I hopped off my bed and pulled out the bobby pin I always kept hidden in my tail, and tried to pick the lock. The bobby pin broke. “Fuck.” I muttered. The sound of a thump from the direction Qindeo had followed the guard in quickly distracted me from my failed lockpicking attempt though. A few moments later, Qindeo came trotting back into view, dragging all our gear along behind him. He came over to my cell door and opened it with the guard’s keys. I quickly yanked my barding on, slamming my helmet onto my head as I got all of my weapons back into their appropriate places. No sooner had I finished this, when I heard Scopes and her guard approaching. When the guard rounded the corner, I tackled her to the ground, snapping her neck. “Desert!” Scopes said, surprised. I tossed her fedora to her. “Come on, we gotta get outta here!” *** We made our way through the hallways of the base, avoiding patrols and dodging around turrets. The base seemed to be the main base for the ESIR Teams that Banked Curve had been a part of. I had gotten a map of the facility off one of the dead guards, and we were now making our way up to the Vertibuck platform on the top of the base. “Patrol!” I whispered fiercely, the yellow marks on my EFS sending me diving off into an open room, Qin and Scopes following. Once they had passed, we continued on, reaching the platform without further incident. The door onto the platform slid down, revealing a Vertibuck glinting in the sunlight with a single guard standing near the landing gear, smoking. His marker remained yellow though, so I approached him slowly. “Hey!” I said, stopping in front of him. “The fuck do you want?” He asked, taking a long drag of his cigarette, and blowing the smoke out in my face. I coughed, taking a step back. “Well, I’ve been ordered by Major Striker to escort this zebra back to the surface.” I replied, flicking my tail back at where Qindeo was standing. The guard nodded slowly, flicking his cigarette aside. “Uh-huh. Rank and identification please.” He said. I nodded, thinking quickly. “Special Operative Desert Eagle.” I said, pointing a hoof at the 199 on my security barding. “Ground operations, and you’re not even cleared for half that information bucko.” “Ground ops eh? Well the-.“ The wailing of klaxon alarms through the base cut him off. “Attention all personnel! The prisoners have escaped. They are a zebra, a grey pegasus, and a black pegasus. They are heavily armed, and you have clearance to shoot-on-sight. Striker out.” I turned back to the guard, just in time to see him draw his sidearm. Needless to say, Scopes was faster, putting a .308 round straight through him. I took out the two pilots as they emerged from the Vertibuck with my Deagle, watching as my EFS showed red marks swarming towards us. “Alright, time to get out of here!” *** Five minutes later, we were fighting for our lives. We had gotten out of the base right as the rest of the Enclave in the base showed up, and were now essentially pinned down on the skyway that lead away from the base. I was hunkered behind the rusted hulk of an old Vertibuck, while Qindeo and Scopes were hiding behind a metal cart that had been tipped on its side on the other side of the skyway. BOOM! The Undoer thundered, tearing an Enclave pegasi from the sky, only to be quickly replaced by another. “This is hopeless!” I shouted over to my friends. “We have to get out of here, now!” “But – CRACK – they’re – CRACK – all over!” Scopes shouted back, between shots of her sniper rifle. “We’ll have to outfly them then!” I replied, ducking as a bolt of energy grazed my helmet. “Scopes, toss me your shotgun! You take The Undoer and cover our flank with Qindeo!” She nodded, ceasing fire long enough to detach her AA-12 and toss it over to me, while I tossed The Undoer over. The heavy gun never made it, falling about two feet short. I caught her AA-12 with ease, snapping it onto the side of my battle saddle. I turned just in time to see her darting out of cover for The Undoer, and take an energy beam straight to the chest. Time slowed, as she slammed into the clouds next to The Undoer, laying there unmoving. I dove towards her, scooping up The Undoer and firing the massive anti-material rifle unmounted. The recoil nearly knocked me on my flank, but I lined up the scope with the nearest Enclave soldiers and emptied the entire clip at them while Qindeo hauled Scopes into the cart they had been using for cover. Ammo expended, I dropped the rifle into the cart and hooked myself to it. “Hang in there Scopes!” I said, hauling the aging cart into the air. Beams of energy flew around us as I sped away, the only Enclave soldier in front of us turned into red paste by the AA-12 mounted into my battle saddle. *** A mountain loomed before us as I hauled flank down the rapidly deteriorating skyway, which several signs had labeled as Skyway 10. “Desert! Try landing there!” Qindeo shouted, waving a hoof in the edge of my vision towards what appeared to be an entrance of a cave. I nodded, pulling off the skyway and diving towards it, slowing down as I neared. I checked my EFS, and seeing that it was devoid of any marks, neutral or otherwise, came in for a landing. I unhitched from the cart, flying back to where Qindeo had pulled Scopes out and laid her on the ground. He had removed her barding during the flight, and wrapped what appeared to be our entire stock of bandages around the wound. “I’ve used all our bandages, healing potions, even a few zebra remedies, but nothing seems to be working.” Qindeo said. “I’m afraid there’s nothing more I can do.” Tears blurred my vision blurred my vision as my legs decided they would rather not support my weight anymore, and I fell to the ground next to my life-long best friend. “Scopes, no. Don’t fucking die on me. You hear me? Don’t fucking die on me!” “Excuse me, but I might be able to help your friend.” A voice behind me said. I turned my head slowly, my gaze falling upon what was behind us, a giant green and purple dragon.