Fallout Equestria: S.T.A.L.K.E.R

by aegishailstorm

Chapter 17: Lesson Hard Learned

Chapter 17: Lesson Hard Learned

"Grenades."

"What?"

"Yes, grenades. Here is one, here is another. Oh, how much joy some simple explosive devices can bring a man when he has been stuck with nothing but his rifle and pistol for days!" Flashpoint rolled his eyes, and directed a hint of annoyance towards his overly enthusiastic traveling companion.

"All of the stuff here, and you instantly make a move on- actually, nevermind. It makes perfect sense." Nikolai held up his spoils. Three grey, apple shaped grenades. Of the items left on the dozen or so dead raiders, he valued these simple items the most. Carefully, he stuffed them into pouches on his belt.

"I personally can not stand the idea of carrying around little bombs which could blow me up at any moment." Nikolai let out a laugh as he went back to fishing his way through the bodies. "Suit yourself." A sudden explosion knocked Nikolai off his feet.

"Blyat!" He scrambled up and ran for the cover of a burnt out car. He hurriedly began to look his body over for puncture wounds. And was relived to find none. Flashpoint scrambled behind the car alongside him.

"What was that!?" The two heard a clicking noise, and a grenade rolled past the car and into a nearby crater in the road. Without time to think, Nikolai jumped one way, and Flashpoint jumped the other. As he stumbled out in the open, he felt something strike his 2:00. A bullet had ricocheted off the armor plates in his vest and shattered, resulting in a shower of sparks. Apparently, the village had not been as empty as he had thought. Working quickly, he retreated to another line of cover just by the bridge on the southern side of town. And began searching for muzzle flashes. A series of sharp pistol shots echoed down the road. He spotted the flashes coming from the downstairs window of a house about 30 meters away. Another shot boomed out, wizzing past his cover. He quickly glanced around for Flashpoint, and then motioned for him to run to the burned out cover. Flashpoint franticly shook his head, gesturing to building down the road where the gunfire was coming from. Nikolai grumbled to himself and raised his rifle over the sandbags and rusted out cars to blindly fire off a few rounds in the general direction of the house.

" Flashpoint, cover me!"

"What!?" Nikolai ran out of cover and rushed up the street, pulling his fire selector up to full auto as he did.

"Nikolai, you-" A bullet flew past Flashpoint, who ducked back into cover and began to complain to himself. "I think I will just let him do his thing."

Nikolai let out quick bursts as he advanced, putting accurate fire though the window of the building. Once he was within 5 meters, he fetched a grenade from his belt, pulled the pin, and threw it inside. As the explosion blew the window frames off the house and kicked up dust, he swiftly ran around back and kicked in the back door of the house. Knocking it off it's rusty
hinges and sending it tumbling across the dusty floorboards.

"Here is Nikolai!" The Stalker cried vehemently, getting swept up in the action. He cleared the home's living room, and advanced into the front room. Just beside the front door, lay the wounded raider. Nikolai pulled the trigger and was met with a an empty 'click!', he dropped his rifle and reached for his sidearm just as the heavily wounded Griffon brought his revolver up.

"Bang!"

Flashpoint's ears perked up, that last gunshot hadn't been from one of Nikolai's weapons. Quickly, he began to gallop towards the house. Shaking his head in disbelief. An instant latter, the sound of two .380 ACP rounds fired in quick succession echoed down the road. And the front door of the structure fell apart, Nikolai stumbled out of the building, falling to his knees as he reached the front porch.

"Nikolai!" Flashpoint cried, galloping towards his friend. Nikolai turned, and looked at his left arm. There, an inch above his elbow, blood slowly trickled down his jacket. He cupped a gloved hand around it and groaned.

"Agh, the little пацюк hit me!" He grumbled to himself, reaching into his vest, he aggressively pulled out a tourniquet with his right hand and began to fasten it over his left, once it was secured firmly, he pulled up his sleeve to inspect the damage.

"Какого черта! Does it look bad?" Flashpoint looked closer, and grinned.

"If you fell off a seesaw, then yes. That raider grazed hit you alright, but it was on the very edge of your arm, the bullet went right in and out. Where's your first aid kit?" Nikolai fished around on his belt, and handed the small pack to Flashpoint, who opened it up and fished out a roll of bandages, a dressing, and one of the purple healing potions Nikolai had acquired earlier. He uncorked it with his teeth and then poured a little bit onto the wound, then, with Nikolai's assistance, applied the gauze and laced the bandage around his arm twice, before tying in up.

"Alright! That looks good to go. Good idea with the healing potion. I almost forgot I had those! I can feel it getting better already. I will keep it on for a few hours, and then unwrap it and check on it later." Flashpoint nodded in agreement.

"That was a close call, maybe we should stop rummaging though these corpses while we can and just get on our way?"

"20 minutes, I want some time to calm down after that. My body is still in shock. I can't feel a thing." He reached into his rucksack and took a swig of water from his canteen. "Also, remind me to pick up some more clean water in next town. Do you want any?" Flashpoint looked uncomfortable by the proposition.

"It's ok. Zebras can go longer than most species without it. Besides, I didn't just get shot! And you're sweating like a hellhound. You need to replace that with something. Go on, keep drinking." Nikolai sat there for a few moments, and then begrudgingly stood back up.

"Alright, sobbing time is over. Back to looting and pillaging." He said with a sigh, cradling his arm.

All in all, after the ambush, Nikolai and Flashpoint had amassed themselves a fine collection of what, by 1st world standards, would have amounted to nigh unrepairable trash. But in the Wasteland, one would be hard pressed to find so much spare ammunition just lying around. Nikolai ended up walking away from the small town with 4 shiny new apple shaped grenades. Not counting the one he had already used. Alongside that, he had scrounged up enough low end steel cartridge full metal jacket to restock an entire magazine. He had managed to find Flashpoint a set of rough leather armor, a small sack, and several spare magazines for his pistol, which in of itself now possessed a crude sling which Nikolai had fashioned out of an old belt.

"It is a shame that we could not find your old submachine gun. It was a beauty."

"But we did come away with about two dozen more caps than we had started with!" Nikolai sarcastically clapped his hands, wincing in pain from the still closing hole in his arm.

"Yes, and we should leave before more raiders show up." The two readied their things and struck out back on the highway, still headed north.

After about an hour of walking, when the town they had just left from was but a speck of outcropped ruins in the distance, Nikolai went and decided to try his luck at finding something to listen to on his radio.

"Nikolai, what did I say about keeping your music down!?" The stalker begrudgingly shook his head.

"Nyet. Katyusha is wartime classic. I refuse to turn it down." He crossed his arms and looked the other way. Flashpoint smiled, "No, no. There's nothing wrong with the music, it's just loud." Nikolai sighed, and finally turned it down.

"Might I ask a you a question?"

"Sure...?" Flashpoint replied. "What do you know about, 'Sprite Bots'?" Flashpoint raised and eyebrow. "The little flying robots with radios that broadcast things?"

"Da."

"What about them?"

"Where did they come from- and, who or what controls them?" Flashpoint sighed, and shook his head. "I do not know Nikolai. But they have been here a very long time, and they will continue that way. They do not do any harm. So no one as far as I know actually hates them and wants them gone. Quite the opposite, actually. They enjoy the music they play from time to time."

"Have any of them spoken to you?" Flashpoint paused. "No, never. Is there something more to this?" Nikolai shook his head. "Oh, nyet. I'm sure it's nothing." The zebra bit his lip and nodded. "Alright, you're very peculiar."

"I actually think that I am very normal. Just not for this world." His laugh cut through the accordion and Dorma.

Give or take another 10 minutes of walking later. And Nikolai spotted something else of interest in the distance.

"Hey, hey!" Nikolai pointed to an array of crumbling buildings of in the distance and chuckled." We're coming up to a new city." About 5 minutes later, they passed a bullet hole riddled road sign which read;

"Welcome to Whiskey Springs!"

This name caught the Stalkers eye. Just the prospect of what such a place might entail almost made him drool in his mask. His supply of vodka was almost completely gone. And, a few glasses of Whiskey would be warm present to himself after all the chaos of the past few days.

"Hold up." Nikolai raised his fist in the air, and motioned to the road. He knelt down by Flashpoint and pointed off into the distance.

"See that dirty section? Look closer." He held up his rifle scope for Flashpoint to look through.

"Out there, those blinking lights in the rubble? Those are explosives. I just know it. And those open windows? Oh... They have the sniper written all over them!" Flashpoint sighed, and slung his gun over his shoulder.

"That means another detour, right?" Nikolai laughed, and set his gloved hand on the zebra's shoulder. "My friend, you already know me too well! Of course! Do I look like I attract punishment?" Flashpoint laughed back uncomfortably.

"Yes, it actually does. There's a ton of holes in your vest." Nikolai waved it off. " Ah, is made for it. Come, this sign here says that there is water sewage treatment plant down there. Davay, off we go."

"What could you possibly want with a broken down water treatment plant?" Nikolai wiggled one of his almost empty canteens in the air before stuffing it back into his rucksack.

"I usually carry around 2 liters of water with me at any one time, enough for about 2 days of average Gopnik stuff. Looting, shooting, running, eating. Well, I've had to share one with you for the past 2 days, and I have not refilled them since Dodge City."

"Oh alright. Let's go then." The two turned west off the main highway, and headed towards the water treatment plant on the far side of Whiskey Springs.

From observation alone, the city's infrastructure seemed to be in line with what Nikolai had seen previously. It was a mix of the architecture from Dodge City and Old Olneigh, though with no buildings quite as tall as the ones he had seen back in Salt Cube.

"Oh blin, how many times must I teach lesson!?" Nikolai called out, frantically switching his gun off safe and raising it to engage the minuscule creature ahead of him. Flashpoint eyed the monster with curiously.

"Nikolai, that one is smaller than normal-" Before the zebra could finish his sentence, Nikolai brought the butt of his gun down on the creature's head, crushing its skull and scattering glowing green blood all over the cracked road.

"Eww." Flashpoint shrank back, waving his gun over the corpse. Nikolai went to swing again. But realized his quarry was dead. He smiled under his mask and wiped the remains off his rifle stock by sweeping it across the ground, and then cleaning the rest off with his boot.

" Over there, another one!" Flashpoint shifted his gaze to a decent sized bloatfly minding its own about 5 meters away from them. Nikolai unstrapped his crowbar from his rucksack and knocked the horrid thing out of the air, splattering it all over the coarse dirt below. The stalker laughed, and then walked back to the road. And pointed at the body.

"I hate these things. But at least they are squishy. Toxic, but squishy. You should not go near body."

"Oh don't worry, I've seen my fair share of bloatflies and other such mutants. I know quite well what they can do to a pony."
"Well..." Flashpoint breathed out as Nikolai stuffed his crowbar back into his rucksack, and looked around.

"That felt good. But those things had to have come from somewhere, come on. Let us get to that water treatment plant and see what is going on."

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Flashpoint murmured. Nikolai let out another hushed laugh.

"Oh really!? Well I just fought my way through a valley of horrors, and some really angry colorful horses, and that mutated abomination!" He pointed back at the hemorrhaging corpses of the small radigator and bloatfly.

"Is, fine, is fine!" He assured Flashpoint.

"Trust is everything! Like I said before, I kill few of these things before I meet you. Is not big deal!" He waved his friend along. As the sky began to darken again.

By about what Nikolai believed to be Equestrian noon, the two had finally made it to the front gates of the old Water Treatment Facility. It was a good kilometer and a half outside the city itself, with an open expanse of dead hilly prairie land between it and the city limits. The winding gravel road which led up to the plant and it's constituent reservoir. All of which was behind a barbed wire fence and a gate similar to the one Nikolai had encountered at the airbase. The rusting sign outside read: "Whiskey Regional Water Treatment & Processing Facility."

Or at least, that's what Nikolai and Flashpoint guessed it must have been back before nuclear fire swept over Equestria. The fence, or what remained of it, was in tatters. Any and all semblance of a, 'guard shack' or front gate appeared to have long since been demolished. About a hundred meters past the gate was the Treatment Plant.

"Alright, we will start at the northwestern side of the plant and make our way to the other side, look for any sort of administrative or storage buildings..."

"Nikolai."

"Take an empty canteen and fill it up with any water that isn't murky or glowing. Preferably water stored in bottles or canteens. We can filter and purify it later-"

"Nikolai! Get down!"

"What?" The two ducked down at Flashpoint's request. Nikolai glanced around, and spotted the thing that had worried Flashpoint. A swarm of bloatflies buzzed around the dead corpse of something not 50 meters away from them. There had to have been at least a dozen of the putrid things.

"I can smell them from here!" He exclaimed. Nikolai waved him back. " They aren't in our way, it is best to not waste bullets." Flashpoint looked closer at the body the flies were circling.

"Nikolai, that looks like a griffon." The stalker peered at the dead thing though his PSO scope and nodded slowly.

"Yes, I would say that it does." Now hurry, before they're finished eating!"

"Do they eat everything, bones and all? Or do they just leave it?" Nikolai asked Flashpoint, who spoke back to him as they quickly shuffled their way up the road. "No, but there are creatures out here that will."

"Give me some examples."

"Well..." Nikolai spotted something glowing in the dirt ahead of them.

"That is definitely a landmine. Hold on, I have idea." He fumbled around in his belt until he found the satchel full of nuts and bolts he used to manually detect anomalies. Taking a washer, he crouched down and gave it his best toss. The little piece of metal flew through the air until, about 10 meters away, it struck roughly within the vicinity of the glowing object. He turned to run, but to his surprise, nothing happened.

"Perhaps it is dud?" The Stalker asked with a shrug. Flashpoint shook his head, and reached into his leather satchel for something.

"Here." He passed Nikolai a rusted shovel head with his maw. "You shouldn't do that, you could get the tetanus. Is very painful." Flashpoint grunted. " I probably already have it. Go on, throw it." Disregarding Flashpoints indifference for his own health, Nikolai took the shovel head in his hands and hurled it at the glowing thing in the dirt. This time, there was a beep. And a grenade sized explosion threw dirt in the pair's faces.

"You were right, is bomb. Bomb means defenses, and defenses mean something worth defending. Cap empire, what did I say?"

"Let's go, I am thirsty."

"For blood or water?" Nikolai chuckled, " I am always thirsty for water, blood, it depends." He waved Flashpoint along and continued up the gravel road into the plant. Now more warry then before. He switched his rifle back to safe and sharpened his gaze, watching the facility for any possible glint of a threat.

The ground below Nikolai's boots turned from gravel to concrete. And he began to examine his surroundings. Off to his right, an open area about twice the size of an American football field divided his position behind some rusted over trucks from the a series of 2 story administrative and engineering buildings. Off to his left at about half that distance, was the water purification vats. Massive holes in the ground with canals that ran from one to the other. For as far as the eye could see. The structures themselves were surprisingly intact for 200 years of water and weather corrosion. Nikolai could scarcely even make out the handful of bullet holes that potmarked a few of the buildings. But otherwise, the structures seemed mostly intact.

"Let's get to looking." Nikolai turned and headed off towards the vats. Flashpoint went with him.

The Stalker had no words for the water he found in the treatment vats. They were all an even 80 or so meters or so across, and open to the elements with the exception of some rusting railing around them. Nikolai stared down into the murky water and gave a disapproving head shake. His Geiger counter beeped softly to inform him of what he already knew.

"This whole place smells awful. It's like something has been rotting in this pond since the war." Nikolai motioned to the water.

"That's probably because something has. It is sewage processing, remember?" The zebra rolled his eyes and scrunched up his muzzle to try and avoid the smell.

"Well, this was big waste. Come, let us see if we cannot find something in those buildings over there." Flashpoint sighed, and began to follow his friend as the two walked away from the reservoir. As they left its proximity, Nikolai began to hear a faint buzzing noise coming from behind him. The further he walked, the louder it got. The noise got louder, and louder, until, finally, Nikolai came to the conclusion that he should investigate.

What he saw next would taint his perception of house flies forever. From the water emerged a massive bloatfly, the size of a small hot air balloon. And, if that alone wasn't enough, the whole thing began to shimmer with the glow of balefire.

"Oh BLYAT!" The entire creature's abdomen contorted, and a glow of glowing rainbowish plasma flew from it and splattered on the ground just a few meters in front of Nikolai, whose gaze was now fixed on the disgusting abomination which had surfaced and was now very likely looking for its next meal. It's thousands of pale camera like eyes stared down at Nikolai as it hovered over the vat, its wings sounding like a helicopter in perpetual startup.

"УМРИ, СУКА!"

He screamed, frantically reaching into his belt and pulling out one of his brand new grenades. Using his still aching left arm, he pulled the pin and threw his best curveball at the massive rotting mutant. Coincidentally, the motion of reaching and snatching up the little explosive device also knocked the activation knob on Nikolai's radio on just right. So that cheerful noise of Bandit Radio accompanied Nikolai in his feeling of dread as the grenade fell short of the creature, rolling harmlessly underneath it. The being let out an eldritch shriek of what was probably annoyance, and began to slowly hover towards Nikolai and Flashpoint.

Flashpoint stomped his forehooves in protest. "You just made it made mad!" Nikolai's eyes widened as he slowly began to raise his gun.

"Get ready to run. We are not done with this place yet." Just as Nikolai reached into his pocket for another grenade, the bloatfly was suddenly engulfed in a ball of blinding red fire, followed by a shockwave which blew dust and gravel up into the Stalker's face.

"Halt!" A female voice shouted. Nikolai's brain pegged it as being faintly familiar. He glanced around, and spotted the reflection of light off of something resembling a metallic pony.

"Exoskeleton! Who is this, and what do you want!?" He was met with silence. He activated his flashlight and highlighted the figure of a quadrupedal suit of power armor.

"Steel Ranger?" The Stalker inquired. The figure stepped closer. Nikolai began to worry. He looked over and Flashpoint and whispered.

"If you see wings, run, do whatever you have to get away." The being in power armor halted at his notion, and turned its side to Nikolai, revealing a various assortment of heavy armaments, including a smoking launcher tube for something that looked quite a bit like an RPG. But thank God... No wings, Metallic or otherwise.

"Charming." The being muttered in a dull voice. " I'd recognize you anywhere, Nikolai." The mare slowly removed her helmet, revealing the face of a strange, mare with a coat the color of volcanic ash.

"Did you forget me already? It's me, Scorch Mark! We met in Salt Cube City, remember?" Nikolai jogged his memory by rubbing his forehead, and then squinting harder at the mare.

"Oh, yes. You are her! The robot pony!" A small smile formed on the face of the gruff looking mare.

"You look fine, but holy Goddesses above! Those legs of yours seem more capable then when I first saw you! You sir, are a long way from Salt Cube City."

"How far exactly?"

"75 or so odd miles. And we just met a week ago. Amazing, you made it much farther than me or any of my constituents bet you would." Nikolai laughed uncomfortably and pulled his hood down. " I took a little detour through Splendid Valley. It was... What is good phrase for it? Batshit insane! But-" He patted Flashpoint on the head, which elicited an awkward frown from the zebra.

"I did rescue him from a Slave convoy. We are still getting used to one another. But he is not that bad."

"All the choices in the wasteland, and you chose to befriend a zebra?" The mare scratched her chin with an armored hoof. The shrugged. " You're new to the wasteland, so I won't hold it against you." She shot a glare of suspicion at Flashpoint. Who grumbled something to himself and looked the other way, avoiding the Ranger's gaze. Nikolai stared down at the Steel Ranger.

"So... Have you by any chance happened to come into contact with any clean, preferably bottled drinkable water recently?" Scorch Mark raised her left eyebrow and chuckled.

" Have you checked... I don't know anywhere else in this damn Water Treatment Plant!? There are old vending machines everywhere! I'm not the boss of you! If you want water, you can go and look for it yourself. Don't worry about not finding any, because trust me. You will find some!" Nikolai took a step back, and redonned his hood.

"Ok... Quick question though, would you like to-"

"Oh of course you'd like the fucking Steel Ranger to accompany you!!!" She said, her voice full of bitterness. "Sure, I'll come with, and I won't even charge you for my services!"

"Could it perhaps be out of the goodness of your heart?" The mare donned her helmet, and began to walk away without saying anything else.

"Nikolai, you did not tell me that you met a Steel Ranger." The Stalker chuckled. "Oh, well I did not think it was worth mentioning her. Surely you cannot expect me to tell you every single thing about my time here?" Flashpoint's expression grew more stern.

"You cannot trust her. Steel Rangers value one thing above all, technology. So much so that they will even sacrifice other creatures to get to it. And that is just the organized groups I have can remember. There are hundreds, if not thousands of rouge Ranger's all over the place, most just as cruel and indifferent as any other raider or bandit. Just with the added danger of power armor and military training. You met this mare once in a heavily guarded marketplace, do not trust her out in the open Wasteland." Nikolai switched the fire selector on his rifle back to safe and let it sag on its sling, he put his hands in his pant pockets and sighed.

"She hasn't killed us yet, yes? You just heard her say that she is not interested in money."

"If that pamphlet you have- the, "Wasteland Survival Guide", has information on the postwar world, see if it has anything on 'The Ministry of Wartime Technology and their Steel Ranger Program. They have been around since before the world ended. But... As far as you or I am concerned, they have since shifted priorities. These ponies are dangerous, and they hold a hateful grudge over Zebra's more than most, I urge you to be warry of her."

"I can almost see in her eyes that there is good in her. She saved our lives from that massive bug after all."

"I hope you are right. Otherwise, it will be a hard lesson learned for the both of us." The two walked off towards the other buildings on the plant grounds. Still in search of water, although now almost sure that they would be able to find enough to restock their canteens so they could set back out on the road.

Comments

[Madmadmad123]

new chapter

[WindigogoGadget]

I love this story so much right now.