Fallout: Equestria: A Cut Above
Chapter Five: Early To Rise!
I woke to the door being bucked open, bouncing off the wall and nearly off its hinges.. A greyish unicorn dropped his hooves down, and turned, sticking his head into the room. "Lick your balls later, my little ponies! Suit up and get fed, up up up!"
I came out of the top bunk in a tangle of legs and molerat, with the pillow joining the flight on the short trip down. A flickering red-orange magic field caught me and buffered my fall just enough that I landed in embarassment instead of pain. Burns, head sticking through the curtain on the bottom bunk, gave a braying laugh at my situation, before sliding his curtain open and clambering out.
The second bunk in the room yielded a squat pink earth pony, who looked as if somepony had stopped halfway through carving him out of rock. This stubby specimen nudged me to the side and wordlessly made his way out of the room, stopping at his footlocker to grab a bundle similar to my own, before trotting out the door past the impatiently waiting grey-brown unicorn. The curtain on the top bunk slid open to reveal a shaggy earth pony, who looked down at me and grunted, sliding the curtain closed behind his retreating head. I untangled my limbs and got back on my hooves, stretching up to deposit the still-sleeping Blinky and the pillow back on the top bunk.
Burns had gone to the footlockers at the head of the bed and was donning his armor, thin tight fabric armor with a very strange texture. I went to the foot of the bed to get my gear, and as soon as I was out of the way, the yellow earth pony pushed out of the top bunk, landing gracefully and stretching low before joining Burns at the head of the room. I stretched as well, bending my back at hips, lower, shoulders, and upper. I bent my neck around with a couple of low pops, and wide awake, I began the long process of donning my armor.
As I was reaching down between my forelegs, trying to get the long belly strap in my teeth, Burns' flamey magic aura flickered on my straps, drawing them around the tougher reaches. I snagged the proffered ends and buckled them up, shaking myself to seat the armor correctly.
"Thanks, Burns!" I said brightly. Getting my armor on is always a pain in the butt – sometimes literally. Once, I rolled into a cactus trying to get the long straps ran correctly. The easy triumph brightened my day, and I was feeling good when I tossed my saddlebags onto my back. Burns was the only pony left aside from me in the small room, and he was stretched up to the top bunk, wrinkling his nose at Blinky, who was sniffing enthusiastically at the dark brown unicorn, whiskers twitching. Burns saw that I was ready, and plucked the molerat up in his magic field, cruising him through the air lazily.
I snatched Blinky up and deposited him in his accustomed spot on my shoulders. Burns moseyed past me, and I followed his progression down the hall towards the cafeteria. I had only met the unicorn once last night, and I found him almost fascinating. His movement was loose, almost drunken, but he held a straight line and didn't run into things. The armor I had glanced at earlier looked like some sort of cloth, but it had an almost shiny coating on it, and a full face mask dangling from his side on straps.
I put the questions aside, my stomach letting me know that breakfast was much more important. I passed Burns as soon as we hit the cafeteria, almost cantering in my haste to make it to the food counter. "Ha, relax, kid! There's plenty of chow here!" Burns called out behind me, snickering.
Behind the counter today was a tan earth pony with a dark mane, pinned up and out of the way. It took me a second to make sense of what I was seeing, but she was actually plump, her flanks rounded and smooth, her chest and neck shaped differently from the soft flesh under her hide. She wasn't sickly or unwell, and the strange configuration was quite attractive, if strange in comparison to the wasteland-slender look I had grown up with.
"What can I get for you, sugar?" The delightfully round mare behind the counter asked.
"What's on the menu, gorgeous?" I replied, grinning my best 'cute' look. She laughed and smiled dimples at me, and I beamed.
"We've got eggs, sweet rolls, some haycakes, more than plenty waffles, and some good oatmeal." she said. "The oatmeal's not the best thing going, but I'm sure I can find a sugar lump for you, young man."
I fluttered my eyelashes at her fluttering her eyelashes, which broke us both into hearty laughter. I took a pair of sweet rolls and a bowl of oatmeal, and left with a smile for the buffet line. Cruising down the buffet line, I loaded up on tunnel rat and bacon, adding a high protein, high fat energy spike to the solid food of the oatmeal. My plate didn't draw any stares today, and Engineer joined me with some tunnel rat and bacon of his own. Steaks weren't on the menu this morning, but we made an excellent breakfast out of what was. Blinky put the hurting on an extra serving of waffles, before returning to his normal perch and status, sound asleep and tangled into my armor's straps.
The cafeteria was mostly ponies this time around, with Engineer the only griffin. Finishing the excellent sweet rolls, I felt well fed and content as I gathered up mine and Engineer's plates and brought them back to the shelf dirty dishes were supposed to go to. I dropped the dishes off and, sated, moseyed slowly back to the bench me and Engineer had taken up. Now that I was paying attention to more than the ultimate importance of breakfast and bacon, I took stock of the ponies here. There were three seperate groups, obvious in that they avoided interaction with anyone not in their group. One group looked older, more mature, while the other two looked younger in comparison. Most of the younger groups looked as if they still had a few years of age on me.
I stopped at one of the younger groups, a mix of earth ponies and unicorns. Conversation and eating stopped, all eyes on me as I approached the table, except for one light grey earth pony who kept chewing, staring through me as if I didn't exist, and a peach unicorn with a vibrant green mane, who stared silently at her plate, concentrating on her food. One of the unicorns glanced around the table at her companions, then heaved a sigh, blinking at me through delicate wireframed eyeglasses. I smiled back, admiring the clean tight lines of the braid her pink-and-purple mane was gathered in.
"You're unfamiliar. Are you with the Talons reinforcements?" She questioned.
"Not exactly. I just came in from the Wasteland, my name's Wicked Cut." I offered, smiling at the other ponies at the table. The light grey earth pony raised an eyebrow, but never slowed in his chewing, only stopping occasionally to swallow and get more food. Next to him, a large tan earth pony with a chocolate fuzz of a mane startled.
"Hey. You're new here." He said, shaking his dark brown mane. "Unadorned leather armor. High energy, but not twitchy. Friendly and polite." He trailed off, peering around at my flanks. "Armor covers cutie mark, but odds are that it's noncombat." Another pause, where he traded looks with the other ponies at the table. The little unicorn with the braid had pulled out a book, and ignored him. The light grey earth pony interrupted his chewing long enough to point at his nose, then at me. "Ah!" he continued, sniffing at my chest. "Soap, clean leather. Salt. Meat." He said, flaring his nostrils and snuffling deeper. I obligingly moved nearer and bent down, pulling my lips back. "Fascinating! Dental hygene, no caries or even plaque stains. Keanno, I believe his teeth may be in better condition than yours!" He declaimed. The pony thus addressed proved to be the light grey one with the chewing fixation, who stopped his incessant motion long enough to crane over, looking at my teeth. With a disdainful snort and a negative shake of his head he returned to his breakfast.
"You figured me out yet, big guy?" I asked. The tan stallion shook his head, offering a hoof. I met it with a hoofshake, and stepped back. "I'm Wicked Cut-"
"As you said." He interrupted.
"As I said." I continued. "I'm a tribal-"
"Like you said." He interrupted again.
"Cookie!" rebuked a light blue earth pony mare. The bulky tan buck looked abashed, then shrugged at her. With a sigh, she rose to her hooves. "Unlike some of these imbeciles, I have not forgotten my manners. I'm Chalice, the bookworm is Ilushia, the quiet one is Lyrica. The noisy one is Cookie, the Breakfast Pony is Keanno. We're from Trottingham, here to support the Collegiate."
"Trottingham!" I replied. Everypony at the table brightened up and sat a little straighter. Chalice beamed in pride. "Never heard of it." I continued. With a groan, two of the mares faceplanted on the table. Keanno shook his head, not ceasing to chew, and Cookie buried his face in his forehooves. The little grey unicorn with the bright green mane never even twitched, pushing hay fries around on her plate.
Ilushia and Chalice drug themselves out of their facetable moment, and Cookie shook in muffled laughter. I opened my mouth to add something to that blunt statement, but was stopped by a wing draping itself over my shoulders.
"Stop bothering the Trottinghamsters, kid, let's go introduce you to the chief egghead." Engineer said, and escorted me from that table up to one containing an older group of ponies. This table was exclusively unicorns, and I nodded my recognition to Brick as we approached the table. Aside from the short brown brush and red coat of the Talons leader, nopony at the table was familiar to me, and they all looked slender and fragile next to Brick's solidity. "Honored scholars, allow me to introduce the last piece of our little puzzle. This is Wicked Cut, a tribal from a settlement to the north, across the inner desert." he said.
"He's a strong melee fighter, and sensible." Brick said, drawing the attention of the other unicorns. "With him on the initial team, I'm comfortable going in now, so we don't have to wait the additional week for the reinforcement squad to get here from Shattered Hoof. I have my teams picked and my basic plan setup, we'd like to go this morning." Brick's statement drew a sigh of relief from the curly-haired elder pony sitting to his right. That distinguished pony closed his eyes and rubbed at his muzzle with a hoof, not seeming to notice the affectionate nuzzle from the yellow unicorn at his side. On the other side of Brick, a lighter grey unicorn drew a deep breath, releasing it in a sigh.
"Finally! Captain, your recalcitrance in this matter, while understandable, has been most frustrating." he said angrily. "Curled Scroll, are your students ready for this expedition?"
"Calm down, Arcane. We still don't know what's down there, beyond feral ghouls. The initial penetration team is only going to bring two of your group." Brick replied firmly. "And given what I think is down there.. it would perhaps be a good idea if they weren't terribly important." Brick's rumbly voice dropped into a painful silence. Engineer was watching the other ponies at the table, eyes flicking from one face to another. Brick had pushed his plate away, and was splitting his attention between the curly-maned elder and the agressive light grey unicorn sitting on either side of him. He had the undivided attention of everypony at the table now, the elder unicorns, the yellow mare sitting next to the curly-head, and the twin dark brown unicorns, silent up to this point. Without further word, Brick levitated the journal I had found in the desert out of his saddlebag, and laid it on the table.
Silence and stillness reigned for a moment, then the journal shook as four different magic fields grabbed at it. The journal flickered and jumped on the table, then settled as Brick leaned forward and set a hoof on it. With a gesture to Arcane, Brick settled the argument, and the journal snapped off the table and to the grey unicorn. Pages began flipping, and shortly, Arcane closed the journal and passed it to Curled Scroll, who read through it just as fast. The journal made a circuit around the table, and shortly it settled back in front of Brick, who hoofed it across to me. I tucked the slim volume into my saddlebags and turned back to the table. Everyone there was deep in thought, except Brick, who had pulled his plate back towards him, and was busily forking up the last of his hay fries. I sat and busied myself nibbling at an itchy spot on my foreleg, and Engineer did likewise, nipping one of his talons and polishing it against the exposed concrete of the floor.
As he finished his fries, Brick pushed the plate away with a grunt, and peered around the table. The other unicorns were deep in thought. Arcane was idly stroking his chin, Curled Scroll was staring at his hooves resting on the table in front of him. The twin unicorns were staring at each other, which was vaugely disturbing, and the pale yellow unicorn mare was chewing on a pen. The tableau held for a few moments, before Brick cleared his throat. The first to respond was Arcane, the white stripe in his mane swinging as he shook his head. "So.. this wasn't a desalinization plant." he said slowly.
"Indeed." Curled scroll offered. "You knew, Brick?"
"I suspected. This.. compound.. was too fortified, too overbuilt."
"The entry. We thought that was strange for a civilian building." One of the brown unicorns said.
"It does hold together." The yellow unicorn mare said quietly. "If this facility was meant to produce clean water for the war effort – where was the way to get it out?"
"Ah. No pipeline. No loading dock – no access road, for that matter." Arcane said, nodding. "An oversight, no doubt, by the designers of this.. maskirova."
There was much nodding and murmured agreement around the table in response to that statement. "So, what's that tell you about the, ah, compound underneath?" I asked. Every unicorn at the table turned to look at me.
"Not a damn thing." Arcane said flatly. Curled Scroll nodded agreement, his grey locks bouncing.
"Insufficient data, my boy." He said, turning to Brick. "I think I appreciate your caution even moreso now – we have no way of knowing what's down there."
"I have to admit, the myrmidon is correct." Arcane admitted. "With no foreknowledge of structure or occupants, a group heavy in.. hmmm.. adventureous sorts.. would be advisable."
"Absolutely." Brick said. "I'd prefer none, or one, but two should provide both support and record-keeping"
"I see. Well, from my group, I suggest Lyrical Thesis – that young lady has been haranging our supervisory staff for a field assignment for months, now." Arcane offered with a dismissive gesture.
"And Trottingham will send Chalice, I think." Curled Scroll put in, shooting a look at the yellow mare, who nodded.
"She's quite observant, and follows direction well." She said, to nods from Curled Scroll and the twins.
"That works. I can work with that. OK." Brick said, powering to his hooves. "Engineer. Take the civvies, get them armored. Heavy. The good helmets. Wicked, go with him. If you can find something, upgrade your armor – it's on us." Brick said, striding around the table. As he reached the center of the room, he reared, slamming his forehooves down with a crash. "Talons! Saddle up. You have fifteen, that's one-five minutes for personal prep and readiness. Be outside the armory for weapons issue."
With that, Brick cantered out the smaller door and down the hallway. As the thunder of his hooves moved off, I turned to Engineer, whose face was wrinkled in a griffin grin. "I'm no warrior, kid – but I do love this part." His grin remained as we returned to the younger's table, and with Brick's announcement, all eyes were on him. "Lyrical, Chalice, you two are coming with us. The rest of you get to stay upstairs where it's safe."
"Ok." Was the first word I had heard yet out of the little mare with the green mane. She kept her eyes downcast as she put her plate and utensils in the dirty dishes bin, and trotted back to us. Chalice had already returned her dishes, and sat at the table quivering. Ilushia leaned over and put a comforting hoof on her shoulder, and the light blue mare calmed, her breathing slowing out as Lyrical returned to the table. Engineer lead us out of the cafeteria, past a knot of waiting Talons, and into the armory, unlocking it with a key. The inside of the armory was a paradise of warrior kit. Weapons boxes filled both bottom bunks, and the folded stacks of armor and clothing completely filled the top. Footlockers were racked on rough-built shelf units, four high at the head and foot of each bunk, and Stickbird stood in a corner amongst a stack of other melee weapons.
With a snort, I trotted directly to it. The metal handle was in good shape, and the crowbar was pretty much invincible. I carefully nipped at the wiring, tugging on the fastening system and ensuring everything was still in good order. Happy with the results, I tossed my chosen weapon up, catching it and slinging it into it's holster with a smooth motion. Feeling pleased, I turned back to the rest of the small group. Engineer was struggling with some sort of knit garment, trying to pull it over Lyrical's outstretched forelegs. Chalice stood on her hind legs in front of one of the shelfed footlockers, various plates and straps floating around her on the silvery pink of her magic.
With a despairing cry, Lyrical fell over sideways. I lunged in and was able to catch her, ending up on my haunches with a lap full of tangled unicorn. I bit down on the fabric, and managed to pull the stretchy contraption completely off.
"Thank you." Lyrical said, her quiet voice barely audible, even with her still collapsed in my lap.
"You're welcome. Get yourself stood up and let's try this a different way."
With my and Engineer's help, we were able to pull the stretchy undershirt onto Lyrical's barrel, and then support her while she extracted her forelegs from the fuzzy embrace. Over the doublet, a heavy black nylon vest belted on, and cunning fasteners in the vest allowed us to help attach heavy sleeves for the forelegs, a neck protector, and an extended barrel cover that nearly covered Lyrical to her hips. As each piece of armor went on, the pale yellowish unicorn shook worse. Once he had buttoned the last of the fasteners for the barrel cover, Engineer stepped back and shook his head.
"Have a sit before you fall down, youngster." Engineer said, not unkindly. Lyrical plopped down with a rustle of armor, and before her or me could do anything, Engineer laid a vicious punch square onto her breastbone!
"Hey!" She cried, jumping back from the attack. "What? What!?... wait, that didn't.. " She startled. Chalice whirled from her consideration of curved armor plating, one of the hard plates surging towards the ceiling. Engineer, for his part, had sunk onto his haunches, and had the offending talon raised and open. I thought I understood what had happened, so I stayed silent, watching the scene with interest.
"Didn't hurt, did it?"
"Well... no."
"Thought not – Talon armor is some of the best there is, outside of the Steel Rangers. You'll be safe, you'll be OK, so long as you don't panic."
"Oh.. OH. I get it now. Thank you, sir."
"Call me Engy, kiddo."
"Yessir" Lyrical replied. Her apparently normal placid nature was returning, and she obligingly allowed engineer to help her with the crupper, which would protect pretty much everything back of her barrel. He finished the armoring off with a set of absurdly bright green wristbands, and clapped a helmet on her head. The wide opening in the front of the helmet was protected by a cunningly shaped plastic cover, that pulled up and away when not needed.
With the experience gained from Lyrical's armoring, Chalice was buckled and strapped into her black combat armor in short order, and she got a set of painfully bright orange wristbands.
"What are those for, Engineer?" I asked, as Chalice trotted in place and froghopped, pausing to adjust a strap tighter.
"It's so they can be identified quicker. Usually, we'd add a flag or some sort of shiny on the helmet, too, but Brick doesn't think that will be neccesary."
I eyed the two mares, quietly talking and stretching, comparing the fit of the new armored barding. I hadn't added anything to my armor, and was ready to go. It turned out, the black Talon combat armor was heavy enough that it wasn't compatible with the straps or buckles on my armor, and I didn't have pockets to use the 'heavy plates' that would go into the Talon armor.
"Looks like you ponies are all set." Engineer said. "Let's see if Brick's got these jokers ready."
Engineer lead us back into the hallway, and the milling knot of Talons had changed. Most were wearing the same combat armor as the girls now, individualized through shoulder patches and some custom painted logos on helmets. Burns was easy to pick out, strange and faceless in a full coverage outfit, a pair of cans sticking out of his face and some sort of tanks on his back. I shut the door to the armory when I had followed Lyrical and Chalice out and Burns looked over, waving. His motion attracted the notice of a griffin, who worked his way through the clot of Talons to us.
"Come on, out of the way, out of the way. Hey you kids! I'm Gnash. Brick tells me that we're finally going underground today, and I'm going to be your babysitter." The griffin said. "That means that you listen to me. You take orders from me. You ask questions of me. Do what I say, and I will protect you."
"OK, Sir." Chalice said politely. Lyrical said nothing, just nodding and trying to hide behind the other unicorn.
"Not a problem, Gnash." I said. I nudged Lyrical with a hip. "We'll be just fine, won't we?" The little unicorn stumbled, and shot me a nasty look through the clear facebowl of her helmet. I was saved from having to respond by Brick, who had jumped up on top of a footlocker to be seen.
"Alright, children. You're all dressed, you're all armed. Is anyone in need – do any of my Talons need sharpening?" A resounding silence responded. Brick held the silence for a long second, gazing over the assembled Talons. "Good. You've already got your squad assignments. Squad one, you're blue squad for this op. Squad two, you're red squad, and you're first in." Burns shoved through the massed Talons, followed by a stout female unicorn toting a sledgehammer, her helmet painted like a shattered pony skull, and a male unicorn levitating a pair of wicked-looking guns. His helmet had a dark blue stripe down the center of it, but was otherwise unadorned. Brick levitated a key on a chain over his head, and floated it over to the dark blue unicorn, who grabbed hold of it.
"OK, Squirt. This key will unlock the bottom three floors of the elevator. We are on 2 right now, G and B1 are open. Use the key, select B2. Once the elevator is in motion, press 2, and it will automatically return. Leave the key in the lock. Go secure a beachhead, Blue squad will be right behind you."
"Sounds good. Key the lock, hit B2, once we're moving hit 2 so it comes back, leave the key." the dark blue helmed unicorn replied. "Got it"
"OK. GO." Brick intoned, and with a flicker of magic, the elevator door slid open. Burns slid into the elevator, followed closely by the skull head unicorn. The door slid closed and mechanical noises announced the descent of the elevator. Brick turned back to the Talons.
"OK, Jimstone, Blue Squad, as soon as that car comes back, you're in. Same procedure, same orders. Back up Red Squad and clear some room, I'm coming down with HQ squad as soon as the car returns."
"Got it, boss." replied a male unicorn levitating a curious gun with an absolutely huge barrel. "Todger, you're point. Frybread, you're second." he ordered, gesturing at a pair of earth ponies. One of them was the muscular stub of a pony from earlier, named 'Todger'. His pink coat looked almost obscenely colorful, surrounded by the rest of the Talons in black armor. He stomped past me to the elevator door, followed by a Talon earth pony with a holstered long gun, Frybread, I figured. This Talon had big pieces of bread painted on the side of his helmet.
The elevator dinged, and the door slid open. Todger almost leapt into the elevator, followed by Frybread and Jimstone. Jimstone flipped a salute as the door closed and the elevator grumbled back down. Brick hopped off his footlocker and trotted to the elevator door. Turning, he addressed the remaining people. "OK, HQ squad – I'm going to lead, Windy and Gnash with me. Egglebert, you wait here with Wicked and the eggheads. Once the elevator comes back, bring the kids down, and take the key with you."
"Not a problem, boss." Engineer replied. The other two griffins had closed up with him, and the four of us hung back. The elevator dinged its way open again, and Brick piled into it with the two griffins. As it grumbled away, I took a deep breath, letting it out in a long sigh. "You OK, kid?"
"Yeah. Just.. this could be interesting." I replied.
"I'm scared out of my hide." Chalice offered, shifting on her hooves. "Lyrical?"
"I'm.. I'm ready." Lyrical said in a small voice. It didn't shake or tremble, though, and I looked at her with new respect. The elevator door dinged, and we piled in. The rumble of descent was much louder from inside the elevator, and the cheerful ding when it stopped made me twitch. Blinky, feeling the tension, was at full alert, standing on my shoulders and looking out past my head.
The door slid open into the aftermath of madness. The lighting was flickering and unsteady. Chunks of pony were scattered around senselessly, some smoking and stinking, some just scattered lumps. In the center of the large open room, Todger danced aside from the lunge of a feral, planting his front hooves and neatly kicking through the ghoul, nearly ripping it in half. It crumpled to the floor and didn't move any more after he pulled back from his brutal buck. The Talons were scattered around the room, in their squads. On the right, Frybread sat on his haunches facing a door . Todger nudged Jimstone as he moseyed casually towards Frybread from the center of the room. Straight ahead, Burns stood facing an open corridor, helmet dangling from straps over one shoulder, scratching vigorously at the back of his head with a fork. Squirt slouched against the wall on one side of the opening, sprawled out bonelessly. On the other side, Kettle Bell nibbled delicately at the tip of her sledgehammer's handle.
On the left, Brick sat on a crate, watching both the other entrances. The dark grey form of Windy hunched over a door there. Gnash sat next to the elevator, and greeted us with a wave as the door slid open. "Yo. Boss says this room is clear. Sit tight here at the door for now."
"OK." I replied, plopping down on my haunches. Chalice sat next to me, and Lyrical hung back by the elevator door with Engineer. A triumphant squawk came from the left, and I peered over to see the door slide open, and a ravening pony-shaped fury knocked Windy away from the door in a thrashing pile of limbs and hunger. The ghoul reared back, stomping its forehooves into Windy's chest, and lunged down with its teeth bared. Windy slammed a fisted talon into the side of its head, causing the bite to miss. The monster pulled back to try again, and Brick's charge hit it like a ton of bricks.
My horrid analogy aside, Brick blasted the feral off of Windy with sheer physical force. It bounced off the wall next to the door and rebounded into Brick's forehoof strike, which shattered its jaw, almost unhinging it from the decaying head. Windy had rolled away as soon as Brick had cleared her. Springing back to her feet, she snatched her rifle from where it leaned next to the door. Shouldering it, she screeched 'CLEAR!'. Brick abandoned his followup forehoof strike and threw himself back and sideways. As his body dropped, Windy pulled the trigger, and with a massive blast, her rifle spoke. I fell over, clapping my forehooves to my ears.
Immediately I started fumbling upright, my eyes darting to the feral as soon as I could force them open. I got my hooves under me, and I couldn't find the ghoul anywhere. I looked around, checking on Brick, who was dragging himself back to his hooves. Windy was calmly reloading her rifle. Blinky had fallen off my back when I fell over, and nipped me right below the armor. I tossed him back up on his position, and looked back to Brick. Brick was poking through a pile of limbs and gore, his magic shuffling lumps of meat and unidentifiable gristle around. Turning back with a grumble, Brick trotted over to the group of us in front of the elevator.
"Three bottlecaps and a fork. I hate ghoul loot. Just doesn't make sense." Brick rumbled. "OK, here's the ground rules. Gnash is in charge of you three. You're going to be towards the back of the group if we're all moving. If we split up, you stay with me. Wicked – you're the only fighter in this crew, I want you behind Lyrical and Chalice. Gnash will stay in front of them, and Engineer will go wherever he's needed. Once we've gotten an area secured, you'll be free to explore. Got it?"
"Yes, Brick." We all obediently chorused. Brick nodded, a short chop of his head, then gestured at the recently opened door.
"Go on ahead, then." He said, and we did. I stuck behind the girls as they carefully walked to the door Windy had just opened. I shoved past them and looked inside, seeing an empty storeroom. Shelves stacked with junk and boxes, a few ammo cans, and a glowing terminal. No other ghouls or entries, just a ragged nest of shredded boxes in one corner.
"Looks good to me." I said, backing my way out of the store-room. Chalice ducked past me and went straight for the terminal with a happy squee. Lyrical trotted past her and started opening boxes and pulling things off shelves. I was smiling as I turned into the main chamber. Gnash clapped me on the shoulder, taking position just outside the door.
"Good instinct, kid. I'll keep an eye on them, go poke around the rest of the room." Gnash said. I nodded at him and looked around. The scene was mostly unchanged – none of the Talons had reacted to the brief scuffle Windy had been in. Todger was pacing in front of the right door, snorting and bouncing off his forehooves every few steps. Burns had finished scratching, and was floating the fork in front of his face, bobbing it this way and that. Windy and Brick were in a clear spot in the center of the room, Windy fiddling with her massive rifle, Brick almost motionless.
"Hey, Windy, Brick. You two OK?" I asked as I trotted up. Windy snorted a laugh, and Brick shot me a raised eyebrow look.
"Yeah, a single feral isn't going to even wake this crew from its nap." Brick said. "You OK, though, kid? Gnash said you fell over when Windy shot that feral?"
"It was the second loudest thing I have ever heard." I confessed. "The loudest was a stick of dynamite, and it was outside." I said, rubbing at my ears. Brick laughed, and thumped me on the shoulder.
"You'll be fine, kid. Windy's not gonna whip that big bastard out unless we really need it. That feral just pissed her off." Brick said. Windy and I laughed. I moseyed around the room myself, kicking bits of ghoul out of my way, tossing the occasional bottlecap or small item into my saddlebags. Todger gave me a nod as I approached the right door. Peering down it, I saw a hallway, blocked with a pile of desks and junk. With a snort, I proceeded onward. A lump of machinery was in the far corner, covered in grime and dust. I poked at it with Stickbird, prying at access panels, but couldn't get it open.
The straight-ahead path didn't have anything terribly interesting in it either, a shorter distance of hallway that made a right turn. I made my way back to the store-room door and plopped into a sit, listening to the mutters from the girls at work, sorting through in search of data or evidence. Blinky jumped off my back and trotted into the store-room, snuffling and sniffing. I poked my head in, and watched him as he pulled a packet out of one of the boxes Lyrical had set down, tearing into it with his sharp teeth. The contents proved to be a pre-war snack cake, and the molerat soon demolished the treat.
I smiled at the scene as Blinky pulled another cake out of the box, backing his way out of the store-room. The molerat dropped the cake at my feet then rose to his hindlegs, scratching at my armored leg. I hoisted him back up to his normal spot and nuzzled him as he curled up and went to sleep. Examining the cake, it proved to be a Fancy Buck cake, identical to the ones we'd find occasionally back home. I smiled at the twinge of homesickness as I tore the wrapper open. The cake inside, apple, smelled just like I remembered. I nibbled away, considering the walls around me. The ruins at home were all in similar shape, filthy and worn, with cracks crazing through them in parts. The floor was flat and solid, at least, even if the tiles that had once covered it were mostly missing.
The smell here was different, too. Where anything underground or pre-war at home had a moldy, dirty, 'old' smell, here there was a sharp hint of the same salt that had come on the breeze while I was headed towards the compound above. I took a deep breath, snuffing through my nose and open mouth. I could smell the salt, the rotten meat stink of the ghouls, and the mold-and-old scent of ruins, but there was something else underneath all of that. Something I didn't recognize. I was snapped out of my pondering by the quiet voice of Lyrical Thesis, who had emerged from the store-room.
"Excuse me, Mr. Brick? We found something. We think we have an idea of what this place was."
Footnote: Level Progression: 82%
Character Profile: Lyrical Thesis
Unicorn - Peachy Creme coat, EXTREMELY GREEN MANE. firey orangered eyes.
Cutie Mark – Open book with musical notes.
S P E C I A L
4 7 4 7 8 3 7
Barter 25
Energy Weapons 15
Explosives 15
Guns 27
Lockpicking 21
Medicine 27
Melee 9
Repair 40
Science 42
Sneak 12
Speech 25
Survival 14
Unarmed 9
Good Natured - You studied less-combative skills as you were growing up. Your combat skills start at a lower level, but other skills are substantially improved. Take +5 to Barter, Medicine, Repair, Science, and Speech. Take -5 to Energy Weapons, Explosives, Guns, Melee Weapons, and Unarmed
Early Bird - From 6AM to 12PM, you gain +2 to all SPECIAL stats but from 9PM to 6AM, you suffer -1 to all SPECIAL stats.