The Gift
“Go go go,” Davidson yelled, trying to get the civilians and former enemy terrorists out to the evac point.
“Davidson, watch your six,” Captain Redrick called, firing at the Photon Drones that were pursuing some of the Iraqi civilians as well as the frightened Terrorists.
“Incoming Negative Rock Mega Walker,” Lieutenant Bakers called out.
As the team watched the giant four legged monster, the Mega Walker fired a photon blast just three blocks from where they were, completely destroying that section of the town.
“We’ve got to get these people out of here pronto,” Captain Redrick called out.
“I’ll go see if I can find something to buy us some more time,” Davidson yelled, running into one of the buildings to see if he could find a quantum particle cannon.
“Corporal Verner, what do you think you’re doing?” Captain Redrick asked, wondering why one of his subordinates was going through the buildings and not helping the townspeople and former enemy Terrorists get out of the town.
Exiting a building while holding a quantum particle cannon, Davidson replied, “I’m going to try and distract that thing. It’s our only shot. Don’t come looking for me.”
Captain Redrick nodded as he directed the rest of the squad to get the remaining people out. Meanwhile, Davidson moved to get some distance between himself and his team.
“Alright, if this works then everyone should be good to go.” Davidson said to himself, making sure to keep watch on his radar for hostile forces. Eventually Davidson found a spot on top of a ruined two story to set up. Propping himself on the ground against the wall, he set aim at the Mega Walker’s head to get a shot.
“Here I go.”
Davidson charged the cannon until he knew when to release the trigger. This has not been done too often as it seldom results in a misfire, where it explodes, taking out everything in a radius of about five yards.
The Red Rock soldier released the trigger, firing a massive white beam striking the Mega Walker’s face, resulting in half of its face destroyed and melted. The massive machine’s head turned toward the soldier.
“How’d you like that, huh?” Davidson called out to the behemoth.
That’s when the machines left eye began to glow and Davidson gave out a curse. “You’ve got to be f…”
The Mega Walker fired its eye beam before the crimson soldier could finish his sentence. And in the aftermath, there was a crater about a mile long. Before the behemoth machine could get back to attacking its intended targets, several artillery strikes hit the machine in the side, destroying the power core. The mechanical monster’s body exploded as it fell to the ground.
“Corporal Verner, can you read me? Davidson, come in.”
“Sir, he’s gone.”
Somewhere in Manehatten
Davidson got up, putting his hand to his head, and looked at his surroundings.
Looks like I found myself in the My Little Pony universe. He thought. When he got a better look at his surroundings, he noticed that all of the buildings were in ruins. Oh, never mind then. Looks like I’m actually in the Fallout Equestria universe.
“Warning, cannibone detected! Contact imminent!” Eve announced, letting Davidson know of the threat that was coming.
“A ‘ed ‘ock soldier eh. ‘Aven’t seens ones of yah in a whiles. Ay’ll go ‘heads an’ kills you nows.” The cannibone said as it burst through a wall not too far from the soldier.
Oh great, a razor back cannibone. Got to hit him with the cannon.
That was when he realized that he no longer had the quantum particle cannon. Frustrated, Davidson activated his arm flak cannons and began firing energy shots at the monstrous skeleton.
“Waz da matterz. Don ‘as any big gun to kills me wif?” The cannibone said, completely unaffected by the energy flak hitting it.
That was when Davidson switched to anti armor mode. This time, the shots were causing massive damage to the monster’s skeletal structure, resulting in it roaring in pain.
“Tha’s it, ay go kills yous nows!” It roared, charging at the soldier.
Before it could get a strike out, Davidson used his jetpack to launch him several meters away. After he rolled to his feet, he made a mad dash to keep his distance from the cannibone. That was when he stumbled across a group of raider ponies.
“Oy,” One of them called out, “We’s gots a good ones over here. Hey boss, what should we do?”
A dull brown one, obviously the leader of the group, came up to Davidson and said, “Might as wells kills it.”
Before any of the raiders could get a shot off, the Razor Back cannibone came crashing in, startling the raiders while Davidson kept his distance from the skeletal monstrosity.
“Waz dis? Mo’z bones for me’s to add to me bodis,” the cannibone exclaimed.
“Wha da hell are yous?” The raider boss asked, only to get all of his flesh removed from his skeleton by a single swipe of the skeleton’s hand. The rest of the raiders watched in horror as the skeleton tossed their former leaders flesh onto the ground and stomping on it, causing one of his eyes to hit one in the face.
“If you don’t want to end up like him, I suggest you run.” Davidson called out.
And immediately, all of the raiders scrambled to get as far away from the two as possible.
Davidson turned to the skeletal nightmare as it began to put the raider boss’s remain onto its body to repair some of the damage he had done.
“Hey bonehead,” Davidson yelled out, getting the cannibone’s attention. “You want me, come and catch me.”
With that Davidson sprinted opposite of where the raiders went. Using his jetpack to quickly go through windows and still keep on sprinting, he kept a safe distance from the Cannibone’s reach. Soon, he went past three manticores that were shifting in the garbage bin only to be caught off guard. They began to chase after him until the cannibone broke through the wall and swipe its hand across one of them, rending its bones of its flesh. The other manticores made a break for it as they realized a greater threat was among them. Davidson watched as the cannibone began to fasten the manticore’s bones into a crude sword.
Oh crap, it now has a weapon to use on me.
Before the Red Rock soldier could get out of the way in time, he was pinned to the wall by the bone sword that the cannibone had made and threw.
“Looks ‘ike ay’s got ya’s nows,” The cannibone said as it lumbered towards Davidson.
“Eve… get… get ready to… eject into the m-memory card… on my mark,” Davidson wheezed, just barely getting the words out while taking off his helmet.
The cannibone was right on top of him. Before he could react, the cannibone quickly pulled out the sword, causing blood to spurt out of the wound.
“Ay’s takes ya’s flesh off and uz ya’s bones. But ya entires bodys wills just turns ta dust, leaving me’s with no bones.” The skeletal monster said, raising its right arm up for a final blow.
Pew
Before either of them could react, a blob of bluish green plasma struck the cannibone at the upper arm bone, causing it to disintegrate into a pile of pink ash and for the bones that were no longer connected to it clattered onto the ground with the bone sword.
“Whos’ shoots me’s and destroys ma’s right arm?” The cannibone roared, turning to the pony who shot the plasma round. “So its waz yous, ay’s goings to kills yous now.”
Pew pew pew
Before the skeletal nightmare could charge, it was hit by three more plasma shots to the face, two to the skull and one to the jaw bone. The cannibone’s head disintegrated to pink ash while the rest of its body collapse to the ground, creating a pile of fused bone bits.
The wastelander rushed to aid the dying soldier. “Don’t worry. I think I have something to heal you up.”
Davidson put his arm onto the ponies shoulder and shook his head.
“No… I-it’s already too late for me. But I think… I think I could give you something in return.” He said, gesturing the device on his left arm.
“You… you want me to have your pipbuck looking thing?” The pony asked.
Davidson nodded, “W-what’s your name kid?”
“My… my name’s Copperhead.” She answered, removing the scarf covering her head to reveal her dull brown fur and copper mane.
“Nice name,” Davidson commented, “Eve, s-switch authorization control to… to miss Copperhead the moment I expire.”
“Request acknowledged. This device will transfer authorization control to miss Copperhead upon expiration of this unit.”
“Wha… NO! You can’t die now. I’ve just saved you and now you just want me to let you die!” She yelled, unable to comprehend what he was saying.
“Hey, I’ve g-got a… a punctured lung and a massive wound on my side. I don’t… I don’t have much time to live, and I think that I can leave Eve in your care.”
Copperhead was in tears. “H-how can you be so calm about this. You’re dying for Celestia’s sake.”
“When you’re a reborn soldier like me, d-death isn’t much of a problem. I’ll be… seeing you again soon,” He said before laying still, his head tilting to the side.
Copperhead was in tears. Not only had she failed to stop that giant mutant skeleton thing from killing any more wastelanders, she failed to save the one who bravely fought it.
“May I suggest that you look away for a moment,” The AI name eve said.
“And why should I do that?” Copperhead responded, completely taken aback at the request she had been given.
“It is just a warning,” The AI replied.
Before Copperhead could get another word out, she watched in horror and fascination as the fallen soldiers face began to decay at an accelerated rate until it turned to dust.
“Wha… What just happen?” She stammered, completely taken by surprise at what had happened to the fallen soldier’s body.
“That is a safety feature for all reborn soldier clones. Commencing suit deconstruction,” Eve announced.
Pretty soon the entire suit, devoid of any occupant, deconstructed until it resembled that of a pipbuck.
“Commencing modification for pony use.”
After saying that, the device changed to where it was user friendly for any pony to use, which in this case was Copperhead. The only button being available being a small blue button. Picking it up in her magic, she noticed that it had holes showing at the inside portion of the pipbuck-like device.
“Okay, so I put you on and…” She said as she took of her pipbuck and equipped the device, to immediately get the feeling of needles being inserted into her flesh.
“Now injecting nano-probes.”
As the display came to life, Copperhead could see some vast similarities between the functions of her pipbuck and the new device, as well as stark differences. She took note of the bars indicating hunger, thirst, blood toxicity, and radiation levels, as well as ones indicating the state of the surrounding environment.
“Press the blue button to activate the suits construction matrix.”
She did as the AI instructed and was immediately encased in red armor, which she found surprisingly light. Once the helmet came over her head, she could see more features that were available that she couldn’t already see from the device’s display.
“Wow, it’s almost like wearing a suit of steel ranger armor. Only this is more high tech and light weight.” Copperhead thought out loud as she looked at the armor that was now covering her entire body.
While she was looking at herself, she noticed five blips on what she assumes is the radar.
“Warning, unknown possible hostiles detected. Time until contact in thirty seconds.”
Before quickly leaving, Copperhead placed the fallen soldier’s helmet where he was once laying in reverence and sprinted off in the opposite direction of the unknown threats that were coming.