Bounty Hunters 3: Genesis

by Jasper77W

Chapter 3: Manehatten

The Ghosts de-activated their cloaking devices, revealing themselves to be light-weight close to mid-range combatants.

There was a bright flash, and Dainty felt somepony lay a hoof on her shoulder. She saw a robot pony fire a purple laser at her, and just before it hit her the world flashed again. Now they were in the control room, Nightshade standing on the edge.

"Stay here and don't move until I tell you to. And if I don't return in ten minutes, run. Get out of here, run into the city." she said, and with a bright flash and a wink she was gone.

"What was that?" Lily curled up in a corner.

"I've seen her before... But, not in this reality." Dainty said.

"This reality? What other reality is there?" Lily asked.

"I'm not sure, but I think the other one is the one where we were in the school field."

*

"Search for them! Go outside, they can't have gone far." the lead Ghost said, activating his cloak and disappearing into the shadows.

"No need." there was a bright flash, and Nightshade was already stabbing an explosive knife into his neck.

The blade slid between two armor plates, and despite him being in cloak mode; Nightshade still found every weakness in his armor. The knife went into his neck, and blood gushed out of the small crack in the armor.

Nightshade swirled around, dragged the half-dead commander behind her. With one heavy swing, she threw the robot pony into his squad mate. The explosive went off, turning both into mush.

Her ear twitched, hearing a Ghost charging his laser. Nightshade turned around, throwing the knife at the fired laser. The two hit, the laser reacting violently and sending the knife bouncing into the wall of a cargo container. The laser continued on its way, and Nightshade tilted her head to one side, letting it burn past. The knife bounced off the wall, and as she predicted; slid right between the chest plate and neck piece of the Ghost.

He choked, stumbling back and dropping the rifle. Nightshade ran forward, taking the knife out and stabbing an explosive tip in. She held onto his shoulders, and blinked. The world flashed, and the next second they were high above three other robot ponies, looking around to see where the two might have went.

Nightshade dropped the Ghost and the explosive knife into the middle of the crowd. The explosive went up in a loud bang and an orange flash, destructing three robot ponies and sending a third survivor flying into a cargo container. There was a loud metallic groan as the container was dented and pushed back several meters, leaving a chalk white trail in the concrete floor.

Nightshade blinked again, this time appearing right in front of the robot pony; who was still stumbling up. She didn't need a knife for this one- the armor design had a weak joint at the neck, so it would be easier to turn one's head in emergencies.

"Wanna turn your head? I'll turn your head-" Nightshade lashed out a kicked into the side of the helmet, sending the entire head cracking one-hundred-and-eighty degrees. The dead Ghost dropped to the floor, blood slowly leaking onto the floor and forming a puddle.

That was the rest of them. The entire squad was down- now to get the fillies. Then she stopped as she heard several loud echoey bangs, coming from high above. Then there was a screeching noise, slowly growing in pitch.

The ceiling suddenly fell apart, large metal pods dropping in and crushing the support frames. There were several loud crashes and bangs as the metal pods cracked the concrete on the floor, burying themselves deep in the ground. The surfaces glowed orange slightly with heat, from the air friction when they rubbed against the atmosphere after being fired from the barricade. Smoke drifted up into the sky, and after the bombardment of noises all was silent.

There was a loud and distinct click, and a hiss of air as pressure was released from the pod. Suddenly there was a loud bang, and the door blew out; tumbling across the concrete floors. Smoke poured onto the ground, slowly creeping towards Nightshade's hooves.

A dark silhouette stirred, and with heavy clunks stepped out of the pod and into the open. It was an assault unit- lightly armored and almost two times Nightshade's height. It had an array of weapons stored on its back, and in its large claws was holding a huge assault rifle that contains 30 mm diameter cartridges; only fireable by special robots and extreme gun experts like Magnum- otherwise the recoil is likely to cause unwanted damage.

There was a deafening bang as the assault unit fired the rifle, sending the huge bullet busting through the air. Nightshade blinked, and she was behind the assault unit. The bullet hit a cargo container, went through one wall; tilted onto its side and slammed into the other, sending the container rocking on its edges.

The assault unit turned around, firing the rifle once again. Nightshade teleported behind the unit, sliding a blade along its back and severing several critical wires; deactivating the recoil counter system. She then stabbed an explosive tip into its back, then pulled the trigger of the huge assault rifle.

The escaping gas sent a huge wave of disrupted air exploding outwards, causing Nightshade's mane to whip around in the gust of wind. The recoil sent the unit flying back, skidding into several squad mates. The explosive tip went off, taking down all of them in one big bang.

There was a heavy clunk as an assault unit came up behind Nightshade, the rifle aimed at her head. Nightshade kicked the barrel, sending the unit off aim. She the shoved an explosive knife down the barrel of the gun. The explosion blew the rifle to pieces, shattering and clattering to the floor, soon followed by drifting ashes.

A loud clang echoed around the warehouse as an unseen assault unit hit a cargo container, sending it flying towards Nightshade.

Nightshade ducked down and rolled, the container flying over her head as she sprang back to her hooves. With a flick of her wrist she sent three knives into three critical spots in the assault robot, the first disabling vision, the second movement, and the third cutting off communication between the AI and the rest of the body.

The cargo container smashed into several others, creating a domino effect and knocking them all over.

The other assault units were lingering nearby, and Nightshade was almost over her ten minute promise to the fillies.

She looked up to the control room, blinked, and was there next to the fillies the next second.

Dainty squealed and covered her head, Lily doing the same.

"Girls- we're leaving." Nightshade said, grabbing both fillies by the shoulder and taking them outside. With a bright flash, they were gone.

*

"Bastards keep coming!" Rainbow yelled, turning her cleaver on its side and deflecting the bullet from a 60 cal into the concrete ceiling, raining her with ash.

"They keep sending more from the barricade!" Octavia said, almost out of ammo.

"Barricade?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow.

"Hard to tell ya, but in this world now it's still up." Octavia said, the last of her ammo gone. "Shuck." she cursed.

"Damnit!" Rainbow stomped on the ground frustratedly. Her head still hurt from all this sudden change.

Octavia run out from behind cover, spinning to avoid a stream of bullets headed her way. She grabbed the rifle of an assault robot, slammed the side of its claw and clicked a specific spot on its arm. The claw fell from the arm and onto the floor, also letting go of the anti-matter rifle. Octavia grabbed the rifle, firing a single shot into the robot's chest. There was a purple flash, and when the dust settled the assault unit had a huge hole through it.

"Push forward! The fillies went for the warehouse!" Octavia yelled, firing the anti-matter rifle.

"Bastards are all over the place!" Rainbow cursed, ducking below a purple beam and swinging the cleaver in a huge arc, cutting the assault unit diagonally in half.

More bangs echoed across the dusty wasteland as the barricade fired more pods, all crashing down and lifting up a splash of dirt from the earth.

"Heavy units incoming!" Octavia yelled as a cluster of missile-like units were launched from the barricade.

They crashed into the earth, but instead of opening like the pods, they unfolded into the units.

"The heavies have one heck load of armor! Not much weapons though." Octavia said.
"See how that fares against my sword." Rainbow said, leaping onto one of the units' chest and stabbing the cleaver into its head. It fell back, and Rainbow hopped off, dragging the cleaver out behind her.

She ran ahead of Octavia, leaping high into the air. Octavia fired a beam beneath her, taking down the heavy unit in front of her. Rainbow landed back down, smashing the cleaver dead center and slicing the next assault unit in half.

"They're spreading out!" Rainbow yelled- she needed a ranged weapon.

"Then use your cleaver!" Octavia yelled.

"What!?"

"Oh, right..." Octavia held down the trigger, causing a large explosion to rip out inside a small cluster of heavy units. "Applebloom made some mods to it in this reality. See that handle?"

Rainbow looked at the bottom of the blade- there was a pump-action sliding handle attached to the sharp edge of the cleaver.

"Slide it forward!" Octavia rolled to the side, a purple beam triggering an explosion behind her.

Rainbow did as she was told. There was a loud and solid clunk, and something changed on the blunt edge of the cleaver.

"You gotta be kidding me." she inspected the new mechanism that popped up. It seemed to be the barrel of a high caliber rifle, and there was a trigger that deployed on the hilt... Only one way to find out.

Rainbow pointed the cleaver at the nearest heavy, and pulled the trigger. The boom and release of gas sent smoke curling up into the air around her, and her hat almost fell off. Her mane and tail whipped around wildly in the sudden gust of wind as the recoil forced her to take a step back.

The bullet zipped through the air, shattering an assault pony's head and blowing half of a heavy unit off the rest of its body.

"What else do I have installed?" Rainbow asked, sliding the handle back down and restoring the cleaver back to its normal state.

"Well, you told me it was 'top secret'." Octavia said.

"The me in this reality sounds some-what like a scum bag." Rainbow muttered, charging forth.

"Warehouse is right up ahead!" Octavia said.

"Can't bucking see it- what the hay is with all this dust!?" Rainbow said irritably.

"The dust is thin- but the buildings are probably acting as a dark background and shielding the warehouse from view." Octavia said. "Welcome to wasteland Manehatten."

"Manehatten!?" Rainbow asked incredulously- she never remembered Manehatten having a huge desert in the middle of it.

"I'll explain later. What I can, anyway." Octavia said, ditching the rifle as it had run out of anti-matter. "Head into the city! Once they lose sight of us they don't have anywhere to send reinforcements!"

"Cut through the crowd? Gotcha." Rainbow said, stabbing the cleaver into an assault unit. The assault units were much taller, however did not weigh as much as they looked. Rainbow kicked it in the chest, and it flew back and tumbled across the dirt field.

She darted forward, and with a powerful side swipe cut off an assault unit's legs. She stabbed the cleaver into its chest, and slid the handle forward.

Using the body as a shield, she started firing high caliber rounds in front of her, tearing her way through the Science Faction troops.

"They're flanking us! Make a run for it!" Octavia yelled, picking up a dark matter laser from a downed heavy unit.

"There's too many of them!"

"This might help-" Octavia pulled the trigger of the dark matter laser, sending a dark green beam slithering its way through the crowd ahead of them. Suddenly a large area around the beam became disrupted and distorted, and everything within a five meter radius was thrown all over the place in a horizontal tornado. Some of the assault units were even torn completely apart, but the heavy units and their heavy armor stayed intact- however still took a beating.

The laser beam consisted of special laser light particles to transport the dark matter, and modified dark matter particles, which are essentially micro black holes. Gravitational fields are generated from each of these trillions of black holes, creating a chaotic gravitational distortion within the five meter radius of the beam, tearing apart light armor and sending heavier units flying about. Its destructive nature has to be contained, however; as to not cause damage to the wielder of the weapon. The inner barriers of the rifle are designed to withstand and hold in these modified dark matter particles, however once fired becomes highly unstable; therefore cannot be used twice.

"Move! MOVE!" Octavia yelled, sprinting for the gap she created in the group of robots and ditching the smoldering dark matter rifle.

Rainbow used her wings to guide her, slicing her way through the survivors as she darted for the city.

She could see the outlines of Manehatten now- some skyscrapers were even recognizable. But they all seemed incomplete, and some of the missing pieces looked like they were blown off by weapons. Large columns of smoke trailed up into the sky, the bottom with the barest hint of orange where there may be a fire.

To sum up, Manehatten looked like a war zone.

The first buildings loomed over the pair as they approached, trailed by gun fire and beam weapons as the Science Faction chased after them.

Rainbow kicked down a rusted old metal door of a building, sending it clanging loudly into the darkness and upsetting age old ash. She swung in, followed by Octavia, and the pair started heading up.

"If we travel within the buildings, the barricade can't pin point us and they won't know where to send the troops." Octavia said as they ran up the stairs, taking three steps at a time.

"What the hay happened here?" Rainbow huffed, grabbing onto the handrails and swinging around the corner, her hooves scraping along the floor and dragging dusty trails behind them.

"Manehatten was one of the more advanced cities, still under development. In the war the magic faction managed to hold this city, but then was simply bombed by the science faction. Manehatten is a complete apocalypse now- or so history books say." Octavia's hoof steps echoed off the bare concrete walls of the stairwell, all stripped of their paint and worn down to simple shades of grey.

"That's one messed up history book." Rainbow said as they approached the end of the stairs. "Is there anywhere that is safe?"

"No- not really, anyway. I'll explain once we get somewhere quiet." Octavia grunted as they kicked down the metal door, stuck in its frame due to a slightly caved in ceiling.

Rainbow stumbled into the room, looking around at the grey emptiness.

"An office block..." she reasoned, looking at the desks and chairs and scattered papers, all a dull grey as they were covered in ash. "But where did everypony go?"

Octavia slammed the door shut behind them with a loud metallic groan, the rusty metal door grinding against the frame as she forced it back in.

"Everypony that was ever here is most likely to be dead by now." Octavia said, scraping some ash off a nearby chair and taking a seat.

Rainbow didn't bother- she just looked around her and out the glassless windows, at the new world around her.

"From what?" she asked.

"This is what happened. The science faction won the first war against magic, taking over the majority of the world. There were still itsy-bitsy parts of Earth that magic still controlled, Manehatten one of them. Manehatten managed to prosper in the gloom, but got knocked down when the science faction deployed the barricade." Octavia rubbed a hoof on her face, the chair creaking slightly as she leaned back into it.

"Then what about the rest of the world? There's gotta be survivors, right?" Rainbow turned around, back lit by the orange evening sky outside.

"There are survivors... The science faction took those willing to obey deep under ground, using them as slaves. The rest were left on the surface, and the barricade fired bio weapons down on the surface. There's nothing left here on the surface anymore... There's only the rebellion, which is made up of a scatter of ponies- just under fifty."

"Shuck..." Rainbow took her hat off, running a hoof through her mane.

"The rebellion was made of ponies that managed to escape from underground. There were others too- but they became their own alliance. They don't care who it is, they'll do anything to survive in their own free will out here on the surface. And when I say survive... It's not just about scouring the wasteland for resources. The bio weapons launched turned its victims either into the trotting dead, or just monsters."

"Trotting dead?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow.

"The micro organisms from the weapons invade the brain, taking control. It becomes impossible for them to starve, dehydrate, or even bleed to death. The only way for them to die is to destroy the brain... You can steal the controller from the owner, but once the controller is broken... That's it."

"Shuck... And we're out here on the surface because...?" Rainbow turned away. All this information was too much- way too much.

"Because there still is a thread of hope. The science faction has constructed an entire space fleet... Taking refuge in space and away from the surface. The barricade isn't the only place they live in. Anyway... Sources suggest that the space fleet is also trying to hide something. Something that might turn the tide of this entire universe- and magic might reign once again." Octavia said, rubbing her forehead. It was quite a lot to remember.

"And how do we know whether or not that's true?" Rainbow asked.

"That's what we're here to find out."

Comments

[NaughtSought]

I was going to ask how magic had survived for so long... but at about 50 left I guess it makes some sense. Except after X00 years how do you still go about having the same offspring?