Fallout Equestria: The Deserter

by Salvage

Prologue

It was supposed to be a routine mission: we come in, eliminate the threat, take what we can, and leave. However, the execution went wrong. A lot. But it would be better if I start over…

My name is Crossfire. I am - or I was - a Knight of the northern contingent of the Steel Rangers. "Who are Steel Rangers", you ask? Well, there are two answers for that question:
One: the last bastion of Pre-War civilisation, doing its best to bring Equestria to its former glory.
Two: a hierarchic bunch of genocidal thieves in cool armors.
Guess which version is closer to the truth. My hint: it’s not the first one. Honestly, if I had any choice, I would never stand close to them.

I was sitting in the workshop with two Scribes, among whom was my mother - an earth mare whose selenide eyes were the only thing that weren’t white like a fresh snow. She and her colleague were sitting at a big table and were, I guess, crafting some sort of an energy weapon, while I, on the other side of the room, was working on my armor. On the helmet, to be exact. Because they were made almost only for the earth ponies, while I’m an unicorn, I had to customise it a little bit. Of course, I could just cut off my own horn, just like many other Knights, but I thought that making a hole in the helmet and then welding some sort of a shield is way better. And way less painful and traumatic. Like this, I would be able to support myself with magic while being fully covered with metal. 'Cause necessity is the mother of invention. When I finished welding the shield, I put the helmet on to check if my horn fits in. It did! I took it off and put it near my armor.

"Attention! All members of Squad Three, approach the atrium at once, fully geared!" announced Paladin Sandstorm through the intercom. I stood up and quickly wore the armor.

"Cross, but you will come back?" my mom asked me. I just looked at her and smiled. I'm in my twenties right not, and she still treats me like a foal.

"I'll do my best," I replied. I put my helmet on and left the workshop.

Our base of operations was a big, Pre-War bunker. It was built here in case of an attack. Well, at least it was on the papers the Rangers found after they'd moved in, long before I was born. It was about… sixty years ago? Yeah, something like that. In this bunker, there is so much space that we could all fit inside. Back then, it was inhabited by about two and half platoons plus seven scribes, including my grandmother, and their Scribe. Not so many, judging by the number of other branches. Now it was a bit more of us.

I stood in a row, along with other seven Knights. Six earth ponies and two unicorns, including me. All encased in the same power armors with winter camouflage, covering whole bodies along with tails. Before us, there was a large, sandy earth stallion of short, brown mane, as well encased in an armor. That was Paladin Sandstorm. He stared at us like a generic military officer, full of contempt and cynicism.

"Alright, ladies and gentlecolts,” he started, walking before us, standing in an attention position. “The Elder was told that there’s a warehouse nearby, full of intact, Pre-War technology, And he’s designated me to lead you, clear the place out of enemies and bring every single thing we find there, here."

The Paladin turned around and nodded at an unicorn Scribe standing behind him. He replied in a nod and showed us a magical, quasi-holographic map of the wasteland, with the warehouse marked as an X, far on the west.

"As you can see, our target is far away from our position," said Sandstorm, pointing at the X. According to the distance from the bunker and the scale of the map, it would take us... a half of a day to get there? "If we're fast, we will get there in a half of a day." That's what I've just said. "Any questions? No? Good. Now take your equipment and get to the gate. You've got five minutes."

Our whole squad went to the armoury. I put a battle saddle on and mounted two assault rifles on its both sides. As it happened, our contingent - a branch of one of the most technologically advanced faction on the whole wasteland - has never had many energy weapons. Actually, it used to be reserved exclusively for Paladins and the Elder. Four plasma rifles and one laser pistol. All others were simple, conventional weapons and junk that the Scribes were fiddling with today. We were so poor, weren't we?

After those five minutes, we stood in front of the gate, armed to our teeth. Four stormtroops (including me), a medic, a heavy gunner, a technician, and a sniper. Our standard formation. Just a moment later, the Paladin joined us, completely armored and armed with a plasma rifle. He stood before the gate and ordered the pony in the control room to open it.

After a while, the massive, corroded door screeched and slowly opened, letting the frosty air inside. And the snow. Good thing it was early summer because we didn't have to dig ourselves out. That's a charm of living on the north: eternal winter.

"The target is marked on your E.F.S. Stick together and cover each other," ordered Paladin Sandstorm as our nine left the bunker.

As I mentioned before, it was early summer. That meant eighteen degrees below zero, light blizzards, and snow reaching your fetlocks. Almost perfect weather for a border between Equestria, Crystal Empire, and Caribou Dominion. It also meant that many animals would roam around the wastelands. And I don't mean only "normal" animals.

There was no wind. Or there was but so weak that I couldn't notice it. It's hard to tell in this armor. The snow was falling so slowly that everyone of us could see a distant mountain range on the north - it was like a border of two once great, thriving countries. One of us said that "it was good that we operated here and not there". Good point - we didn't have to worry about avalanches and stuff.

On the evening, we reached a big building near some ruins, which were probably remains of some town. We unlocked our weapons as we went inside the building. It looked like that whole warehouse was under some sort of a factory - there were rusty, often frozen pieces of machines all over the place. Also, it was getting colder and colder than before.

"Eyes and Ears wide open, Knights. If something happens, shoot on site," Paladin Sandstorm told us. His voice was full of... anxiety. I can't say I'd often heard him like this.

We were cautiously looking around, to make sure not to open fire and in effect - to warn the others. We also had to be very careful not to shake this place too much. When I looked at the ceiling, it was full of heavy, almost meter-long icicles. You stand under him or step on something, and bang - you're dead.

"Found something!" suddenly shouted the technician. We all moved to hisposition. He was standing before a massive, metal door next to which was a Pre-War terminal. Of coure, they were both as frozen as everything else in this factory.

"Let's break it open and get in!" said - or growled the stormtrooper wielding a grenade launcher and aiming it at the door. In reply, I pointed at the ceiling, at a huge icicle - a stalactite! - hanging exactly above him. "Uh, but on the other hoof..."

"This terminal is still working. If we hack it, we might open the door without blowing shit up," suggested a stormtrooper of a surprisingly high voice, and an yellow horn sticking out of his helmet.

"Cross, do your magic!" Sandstorm called me. Nice that somepony remembers about my talents. Or - abilities. I saluted him and stood in front of the terminal and after breaking through the ice on the keyboard with my hoof, I turned it on. I was greeted with a typical for these machines, monochromatic green.

>Welcome to Stable-Tec Operating System.
>WARNING: an error detected. Password required.

Alrighty then, here go my miracles. I typed, as it would look like, a random row of characters after which the screen showed me a whole bunch of single letters, numbers, characters, and words. One of these was a correct password. I looked for those that would be obvious for this place, like "BULLET", "ICE", "TROT"... Something like these. After that, I found out that the password was in fact "LOOSE". Well... But at least I got inside the main options.

>Open/Close the door.
>Log out.

I clicked at the first one.

>Are you sure?
>Y/N

I typed "Y". After that, the door screeched and slowly opened, showing our squad the dark interior of the warehouse. We walked in, turning on our flashlights. On all the frosted shelves were lying small, slightly corroded, metal crates, as frosted as the shelves. I opened one of them and looked inside. There was no Pre-War technology. No, there was something even better...

"What's this?" asked Paladin Sandstorm, looking at me. I smiled under my helmet.

"Energy crystals," I replied loudly so everypony could hear me. The squad quickly opened the rest of the crates to see it for themselves.

"This whole warehouse is full of the crystals!" noticed the technician, opening crate after a crate out of excitement. I wouldn't be surprised if he was drooling out of these emotions. "With all these crystals, we'd be finally capable of crafting some good energy weapons. Or at least, we'd be able to refill the reactor."

Suddenly, my E.F.S. showed me a red rectangle. And then the next one, two, three... Six red rectangles were closing in! We all noticed it. We quickly prepared our weapons and aimed at the enterance. A moment later, something metallic fell inside. It was in a shape of an apple. Without the cotter. Oh, shit...

"Grenade!" yelled the technician and we all jumped aside. The explosion shaked the whole place so much that the crates with the crystals almost fell on the ground. Good thing they were closed because otherwise, there would be a real hell.

"Get out! Shoot on site!" ordered Sandstorm. He left first, then we, the stormtroopers, and then, the medic and the technician. Apparently, the sniper didn't make it. We stood in the middle of the hall, covering each other. The E.F.S. kept showing six enemies around, but we couldn't see them. Suddenly, I looked up just to check if I was right. I was. Our adversaries weren't some common raiders. They were something much, much worse...

I saw five pegasi in armors whose tails resembled a radscorpion's tail. They were flying above us and aiming at us with their battle saddles.

"Enclave!" growled Sandstorm as we aimed at them. "What do you want from us, you feathery sons o' bitches?!"

"Do you really need to use such words, Paladin?" asked one of them, sure not one of the pegasi above us. After a while, we noticed a white, black-maned mare with purple eyes, wearing a winterized officer uniform. She walked towards Sandstorm. His muzzle didn't show any emotions. "Surrender now and give us everything you've found."

"Huh! If you think we'll ever surrender and give you any-" the stormtrooper with the grenade launcher was quickly silenced by a shot from a plasma rifle straight to his chest. The armor had been pierced to his organs, and he himself fell on the ground, quickly dying. That even increased my wish to shoot these, quoting Sandstorm, feathery sons of bitches.

"Does anypony else have any objections?" retorically asked the officer.

Yeah, I do. I noticed a wrench lying on the table nearby, out of the pegasi' sight. It looked heavy. Perfect. I discreetly picked it up with my magic (annother advantage of this shield on my horn: it hides my magic aura) and threw it on a big, sharp icicle, hanging roughly two meters under one of the pegasi. Please, fall down, please, fall down, please, fall down...

My "pray" apparently worked: the icicle screeched omniously and the Enclave soldier had been quickly impaled and killed in effect. Cross: one, Enclave: zero.

"Attack!!" yelled Sandstorm after seeing the impaled pegasus, and quickly shot the incoming one with his plasma rifle.

"Shoot on site!" ordered the Enclave officer, starting flying around with her soldiers and tring to kill us.

The shootout had gone wild. I, with my fellow unicorn companion, rolled over the nearby tables after which the rest of the Knight hid. A moment after a moment, one of us came out and tried to shoot one of the pegasi above us. No effect - they were too good in dodging.

"Shoot the icicles! I'll try something!" I suggested to the unicorn. He nodded and changed his aim to shoot a little bit above our enemies. Meanwhile, I ran inside the warehouse with the crystals. I levitated one crates out of it and came back to the battlefield. "Hey, bitches! Wanna your crystals?! Then catch 'em!" I threw the crate with my magic. When it was several meters above the ground, I accesed S.A.T.S.

The time had stopped. I sighed out of relief and marked the crate. Three times, to be sure that I'd shoot it. I looked at my brothers in arms who stared at me. I bet they were thinking: "You wanna kill as all?!" or something like that. I closed my eyes and confirmed the shots. Let there be hell.

The time moved again. The bullets left my rifles and soared to the crate. The first one missed and hit the wall, cracking the ice on it. The second and third ones, however, broke trough their target and hit the crystals. Less than a second later, there was a huge, blinding flash, and then, a shockwave that wiped everything around, including me, my companions, and the pegasi. It also made a lot of bigger and smaller icicles fall from the ceiling right on us. I got hit by it myself, on my temple, when I was trying to stand up after that shockwave. Seconds before I passed out, I saw that mare, standing above Paladin Sandstorm, with no emotions on her white muzzle...