Closing the Barn Door

by David Silver

8 - Going Camping

Stan squinted through the one working lens of his binoculars. Did that make it a monocular? It still had the shape of a binocular, and was made to be one, it was just kinda broke. It wasn't time to belabor that philosophical quandary. He could see the rough metal sheets that formed the walls of the bandit encampment. "Looks like they grabbed whatever was layin' around and just propped it up. Classic." Classic bandit architecture. "Good enough to block lines of sight and discourage comin' in the other ways."

Applejack already had her gun out in her mouth. "Can ya see any spotters?"

Twilight was peeking just above the same log Stan was looking past. "Those walls don't look very sturdy to me. We could just knock them over."

"Ain't our job to give 'em a makeover," grunted Stan. "I see at least two spotters." There were two guards at the break in the metal shell, flanking it. "Armed, not drunk. Any others, hidin' decent."

Skyline clenched his metal fingers on the handle of his blades. "Can you take care of the ranged ones? I'll gladly carve up the ones that are up for a dance."

"You've gone savage." Stan tucked away his uncertain eyeware. "Just in case it need be said, robots stay out of this."

"No intention of becoming involved," assured Miss Aunt, hovering a short distance further back out of sight and hopefully the way. "I wish you all the very best, but I'm not a woman that looks for a fight." Technically, she wasn't a woman at all, but pointing that out would have been rude.

Giddyup was less shy. "I am prepared to assist." He nosed against Stan's side. "Permission to engage?"

Stan shoved the metal snout back. "Ah jus' said no. 'ppreciate the thought, but ah care 'bout you too. Don't want you gettin' new holes in you."

Giddyup inclined his head and neck. "I do not want you to receive additional holes either."

Stan looked ready to let out a noise of frustation, but a thought came. "Which is why ya gotta hang back. You got the hole fixer." He thrust a wrinkled finger at Giddyup, even with his mouth. "We get hurt, you can patch us up real good, soon as the bullets stop flyin'."

"As soon as the bullets cease," repeated Giddyup like a sworn oath. "Affirmative."

Daffodil looked around, gun clenched in her snout much as Applejack's was. "So, we just going in the front then?"

Twilight thrust a hoof at the metal sheets. "Gauging from the size of their camp, they can't have more than twenty people, why not attack from an angle they don't expect?"

Stan held up a long finger. "Because their strength is also a weakness. Right now, they done got themselves a choke point that they made up for themselves. They all gotta go through that openin'." He pointed at that break in the wall. "Each and every one of 'em. If we can fill 'em with lead as they do, we could win without much of a fight at all."

Applejack pawed at the earth. "Now that sounds like a plan ah can get behind. Nice an' simple. Not so many movin' parts to fail at the worst time."

Skyline frowned softly. "If you plan to shoot them all, what do I do?"

Stan nodded at Skyline's blades. "If they get too close, you make 'em regret it."

Giddyup played a soft whinny. "I would like to also assist in this defensive action. I will harm any hostile that comes too close."

Stan let out a slow sigh. "Alright, fine. If ah don't let ya go, you'll find a way to in some way ah didn't spell out. So, fine. If they're close enough fer you to hit without goin' past this log--" He pointed to the same log they were peeking out from behind. "Then you can hit 'em."

A new happy whicker issued from within Giddyup. "Order received!" he gushed out with a happy hint to that voice. He was officially a part of the events, and that was more than enough to make him happy.

Applejack inclined her head at Stan. "Ya got the longarm. Yer up first. Ah'm right proud of mah aim, but this is still a pistol. They're outta range fer me to be reliable-like." The big iron she was wielding was a deadly weapon, but it just wasn't a rifle.

Daffodil prodded at Twilight. "Speaking of that. You get the bugs out of that horn zapper of yours? Can you help without passing out?"

"Only one way to be certain." Twilight looked completely ready to try, horn glowing with dread intent. "If I miscalculated, I trust you to keep me safe."

Stan patted the back of the preparing unicorn. "You gonna let loose with me? Ah don't know the operating range on a unicorn, so yer gonna have to fill me in." He lifted his rifle up, one knee down. "If ya can hit 'em from here, tell me which yer aimin' at."

Twilight waved a hoof right to left. "The one on the left. On the count of three." Stan's grip tightened on his weapon. "One." Skyline drew his blades free, hunkering behind a thick tree. "Two." Daffodil and Applejack set their guns at the opening in the metal barrier, waiting for targets close enough to take shots at. "Three!"

The calm peace of the camp was shattered with the sharp pop, the firecracker too large and too close of a rifle's shot. Funny thing about that. Though bullets were fast by design and intent, they could not match the speed of light. So it was that the sentry on the left fell to the ground, grasping at his throat that had a little dime-sized hole punched through it. He was crashing to the ground with wide eyes. His friend barely had time to get out, "What--" When the bullet arrived on the scene, hurrying as quickly as it could.

The delay was enough for the man's head to have moved. It wasn't much of a movement, but enough to bring what was a clean shot to a messy gash across the head instead. The man howled in pain, frantically fishing something out from a pocket. "Attack!" he hollered in the distance, activity suddenly picking up.

"Unicorns are fast shots," noted Stan mostly to himself, adjusting his aim. "Center mass." The time for precision shots had fled them, and they weren't super mutants. A bullet in the middle of someone ruined their day pretty well, much of the time.

Twilight looked far too happy for the situation. "It worked, and I wasn't knocked out. Fantastic." She was clapping her hooves with a giddy joy, at least until a bullet flew past her furry ears. She dived behind the log with a yelp.

Others were arriving, taking wild shots at where the attack was coming from. The original sentry just got out his stimpak, but before he could jab himself with it, the second bullet of Stan's politely requested to join the party. The man fell over, clutching at the fresh wound in his side, his breathing suddenly forced and rattling. The stimpak fell from numb hands. His friends could have gotten him back up. The stimpak was right there, but they were too busy charging towards the attack and not even thinking about the dying man.

Their approach allowed Stan to fire faster. They were coming straight in, at least until a few got a sharp lesson in how bad an idea that was. When they began to zig zag, he ducked back. "Should be comin' into yer range." He didn't specify who, but also didn't need to.

Two pony pistoleers poked their heads up and a new cacophony of explosions rang through the air. "Shoot!" cursed out Daffodil, staggering back. They had the high ground, and some cover, but that was not an assurance, proven by the fresh wound in her shoulder. "I'm alright!"

"You won't be!" shouted one of the men, charging with guns blazing and weapons swinging. "Damn mutants!"

Stan chuckled softly. "Technically accurate fer all of us breathin'."

Twilight popped up from her cover. "I am an ideal member of my species," she called in defiance, a beam of magic lashing out in a thin ray that scorched along one of their arms, forcing them to drop the shotgun they'd been holding with a yelp of pain. She was already diving back for cover as bullets tore at the log, spraying the area with woodchips.

The laughing, jeering mob of bandits were upon them, clambering up and over the log in a stampede of heavily-armored feet.

A shame their legs weren't nearly as guarded. Skyline danced into view, slicing and carving into that front line without a word spoken, allowing his blades to do the speaking for him as blood littered the ground around him.

"This was a bad idea," noted one of the bandits in a moment of clarity. He broke off from the crowd, fleeing from what had clearly become a losing situation. He only made it four steps before he crashed to the ground, a new hole in his back.

"Next to run gets two," barked a man in heavy armor, cigar dangling from his lips. Nodding at the renewed push to wash over the line of attackers, he ratcheted his shotgun. "Let's get busy."

Giddyup crashed into the gut of one man, head down low and rearing up sharply with a dully thud of crushed jewels. The man collapsed, wheezing, as Giddyup snapped out a tightly-corded leg into another, sending him back with a fresh cry of pain. The fight had reached the log, and he was allowed to fight, so he was.

Applejack put a bullet through the skull of the downed man, a mercy kill by some measures. "Ain't that many left."

"Enough." The leader arrived at the logs, a great blast of his heavy gun driving all other sound away for a moment as Applejack staggered back, collapsing with a muted grunt. She suddenly had far too many holes in her. "Bunch of mutants think they can just topple us like that?" He swung the gun at Stan. "Got another thing coming!"

"Aughta reload," snarked Stan, raising his gun up and squeezing a shot. The man was close enough that aiming was not strictly required, just had to point at the man. He had been reloading, but was done just in time for the leader to make his menacing stand.

The man took a step back, but was clearly still standing. "Fuck you." A low thump sounded as his gun proved it had a secondary firing mode, a grenade casually lobbed towards the back row.

But it never hit the ground, or Stan, instead freezing there, in the air. Twilight's horn was glowing brilliantly. With a grunt of effort and a toss of her head, she hurled it right back where it came from. The man's scowl lost its edges as the grenade propelled back at him. His words, lost. There was no time to hear it with the grenade bouncing against his armored chest. Light and heat washed out from him in all directions with the grenades fiery explosion consuming him.

"Child injured." Abandoning the fight entirely, Giddyup was charging. Ducking around the still heated melee. "Child injured." He ducked down as Skyline leaped over him. "Child--" He crashed into a bandit that didn't have the etiquette to get out of the way, but Giddyup's destination could not be edited. He was a mechanical battering ram, knocking the human aside as he veered off only with the momentum adjustment, but not for any amount of dedication. "Make way."

"Ah'm fine," assured Stan, facing the leader that was frantically putting himself out with charred arms. "That's some quality armor, gotta admit." He slid another bullet into the waiting chamber of his rifle, hurriedly cocking it back.

The fight wasn't quite over yet.

Author's Note:

Things are getting real up in here. On the other hoof, they are making quick progress on this bandit camp. Nobody promised that would come easily.

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Comments

[BestinDworld]

Applehorse NOOO!!!!

[Booster Spice]

Thats a lot of shot from too close a range.

Somehow this might not be one of those variants where Earth ponies can not just Push to make things Grow.

But PULL?

[Reese]

"further back out sight and hopefully the"
"further back out of sight and hopefully the"?

Bit behind on my reading, but thanks for writing! :)

[David Silver]

11137857
Fix, welcome back!

[Reese]

11137952
Thanks!
Ugh. Quite a backlog, though...
Oh well. There are worse problems to have!

[PonyofEntropy]

Cool story. Enjoyed it. Added to my read list.

[howard035]

The nice thing about Fallout, like many RPGs, is that when you are struggling to bring down an enemy with a fancy armor or weapon, you can get excited about how great it will be to use that armor or weapon yourself soon.

[tsaukpaetra]

Mostly successful attack, push onward!