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Warning! This series contains strong language, strong sexual themes and extreme gore, it is not for filly's or colt's eyes! It also may contain spoilers to Fallout: Eqestria! If you are are young or uncomfortable with these things turn back FOREVER (or until you are 18)
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Chapter 1: Without a Hitch
"Aim high, kid. But don't aim for the impossible."
Reck Lass felt a sense of gnawing fear and unbearable excitement as she stared at the decaying, grey office building, it's cement almost shining in the red sunset.
The light brown earth pony felt a smile briefly touch her lips as she considered that. According to her mother, she was supposed to feel unrivaled terror and run away from the pre-war building, preferably back to the safety of her makeshift family shack. She loudly snorted and laughed at the same time, causing her messy bright red mane, which was barely contained by her dark brown pre-war fedora, to brush her green eyes.
Her moment of mirth was short lived though, her expression soon evened, and the mare began checking her supplies. She quickly, but gently, laid her worn but reliable leather satchel on the brown, dead ground in front of her. She rummaged through it, thoroughly convinced she had everything she needed, but better that she check and make sure she had anything rather than not checking and running out of ammo in front of an army of angry ponytrons. She felt herself smile as her hoof brushed over her most prized possession, a paperback book. The old cover had a few holes in it and quite a bit water damage, but the daring pegasus on the front and the bold words were still clear, Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone.
After a few moments the mare slung her satchel back over herself and slowly nodded her head, just as she suspected, she had every supply she needed. She allowed herself another smile, and took a quick look at her armaments, to make sure the old things were in good repair. Reck Lass wore a simple set of clothing and barding, a dirty white, long sleeved button up shirt, along with a scuffed up, battered,green combat armor breastplate and bracers. Reck Lass nodded her approval yet again, and naturally, her gaze slowly shifted up towards the grey corpse of the office building.
Ready for another job, she though, but immediately scolded herself after it had processed. The term was not job, the term was adventure. She stubbornly raised her head, as if there were ponies all around her in the hellish wasteland landscape, judging her occupation. She was an adventurer, not a courier. She explored old ruins to pilfer them of their hidden treasures and uncover secrets of the old world, just like Daring Do. She felt herself slightly deflate, her shoulders sagging ever so slightly. Well yes, she did recover things and sell them, usually on contract. And she did do deliveries on occasion. She sighed, sure, maybe she was a courier, but she could be an adventurer too.
Reck Lass narrowed her eyes, digging her hooves into the dead ground beneath her. Regardless of what this was, adventure or job, she needed to get it done. The mare took a few nervous steps forward, and slowly drew her weathered grey .44 revolver out of it's holster on her side with her teeth. To be honest with herself, she was probably overreacting. The office building was probably empty, and only had rows upon rows of dilapidated office cubicles and maybe a few balefire scorched pony skeletons. She snickered through her revolver, putting a metallic taste on her tongue. If she had learned anything from her life in the wasteland, and her book, nothing was ever easy. She carefully studied every detail of the crumbling structure as she approached, she did not trust it. She snorted at the word “trust”. She did not trust this entire job, it had strange written all over it. She found herself standing in front of the cracked, wooden double doors of the office building, her hooves not taking her in. She shuddered as she remembered the odd way she had gotten this job in the first place, though a terminal.
Reck Lass had been scavenging through an old bunker that she thought would contain something interesting, but all she found were rotting boxes in their last stages of their miserable existence. Reck Lass had prepared to leave then, her face etched with the expression of disappointment that she commonly wore after discovering a ruin was devoid of old world treasures. But then she had noticed something emanating from the crates, the sickly green light of a active terminal. Unable to contain her curiosity, the mare rushed over and tore open the crate, finding a terminal in pristine condition. Of course, she was completely dumbfounded, a pre-war terminal, without a scratch? So, she prepared to hack it when text, the color of limes, flashed onto the clean screen.
To whoever just accessed my terminal, the text read. As you read this, I am typing on, possibly, the other end of the Equestrian Wasteland. Yes, typing, this terminal is connected to mine.
Reck Lass had nearly fell on the remains of the box at that, a working terminal! Was this the first case in, well ever, of a working terminal in the wastes? Reck Lass tried to type on the shining keys, but all she successfully did was produce the sound of hooves on metal.
Whoever you may be, I have a contract for you. A very important contract at that, a contract that may affect this hellhole we call the Wasteland for the better. There is an office building, it is south of the ruins of Ponyville, and it holds something very dear to me. In the office marked “Sweet Swirl” there is a safe, it will be unlocked,and you will retrieve the electronic chip marked “NM-MK6”. After you do this you will go to the Manehatten ruins, and I will find you there. As I know that ponies do not do things out of the goodness in their hearts in these dark days, you will be given a reward. To be exact, a reward of 20,000 bottlecaps. Good luck my little pony.
And with that, the terminal shut down with the sound of a spark, and Reck Lass was left staring at the oddly clean screen, a look of bewilderment, confusion, and lust for caps etched onto her face.
Reck Lass pulled herself back the present, her gaze still locked on the cracked, aged entrance to the former office. Reck Lass took a determined step forward, a step that led to a determined trot, and then a trot that lead to a full on sprint that tore at the dead ground beneath her hooves. Reck Lass forcefully shoved the left door open with her shoulder, causing another large crack to appear along it's side with a shower of wood dust. The mare shoved her revolver in front of her, as if she was about to be assaulted by every robot, zombie-pony and raider in the Wasteland.
Reck Lass saw only a ravaged reception room with a rotting half-circle desk, it smelled of dust and death. The entire room was illuminated by a flickering light that hung from the ceiling, one cable snapped, and was full of scorched skeletons of ponies, many ominously glowing piles of ash littering the room as well. Reck Lass felt herself go slightly numb at the horrific sight, she took a deep breath as she slowly counted the skeletons and, other remains one by one. Her eyes went wide as she finished her grisly count. Twenty-two. Twenty-two former ponies were strewn across this room that acted as an impromptu crypt for them. Reck Lass felt her initial numbness fade away into concern. Several of the pony skeletons were not the pre-war remains of a balefire blast, several were white and new.
Magical energy weapons. The mare had guessed that there would be robots here, several pre-war office buildings did, but she had desperately hoped that there wouldn't. Reck Lass sighed and took a trepidation filled step forward, and then she felt the saw the ominous red flicker of the magical energy turrets in each corner.
“Fuck!”She slurred through her revolver, violently throwing herself behind the time and magical beam ravaged desk.
The reception room and improvised tomb became a light show, red beams making it shine as if a red, angry flame were dancing around. Reck Lass was forced to roll to the side when a red beam hit an inch away from her flank, nearly scorching off her cutie mark, a tan satchel stuffed full of gems. The mare felt herself panicking ever so slightly. One touch of those beams and poof, she's a pile of ash! Reck Lass felt another beam barely miss her, the warmth of the beam almost touching her side. Knowing that if she did not fight back she was surely a dead pony, Reck Lass popped up from the desk, her breath slowing down as she lined up her shots. The first turret fired off three more beams of energy, putting more burnt out holes in the wall behind Reck Lass, before it's targeting crystal was hit by a revolver bullet, causing it to turn on it's comrade and destroy it in a hail of energy before both turrets exploded with in a small blue cloud of sparks and electronics.
The mare's vision was a painful white for several moments after the small explosions, but soon adjusted back to the lighting, or rather excuse for lighting, in the reception room. This was a great start, Reck Lass thought, brushing the wood dust off her coat. After a few moments of staring at the former place of the magical energy turrets, Reck Lass let her gaze shift to section of the rotting and chipping, tiled ceiling that had collapsed, right next to the destroyed light. The mare took on a thoughtful expression, and she was unable to stop her eyes from darting to the dark grey and tarnished husks of the destroyed turrets every few moments.
Magical energy turrets. Motherfucking magical energy turrets. She reloaded her revolver, her mind racing at the dangers this place could hold, magical energy turret's didn't exactly grow on trees. She let out and angry sigh, and summoned a small cloud of dust with a stamp of her hoof on the cracked floor. Maybe I should just go, she began to think, but that thought was quickly and brutally put down. This job was too good to just abandon, and what kind of adventurer would she be if she left a ruin full that displays rare relics at the reception desk?
She winced slightly at her own motivational speech, adventurer, courier or whatever she was, she needed the caps. 20,000 caps, that would set her up for life. No more selling her precious relics, no more boring deliveries across the ugly scar called the Wasteland, no more prying armor and guns off raiders corpses. Only her, maybe a house, and a private collection of artifacts and treasure. A hopeful smile found it's way onto her lips under her revolver. Yeah, she thought, that's what I'm going to buy, a big pre-war vault full of shadowbolt weaponry and jumpsuits, Daring Do books , Sparkle-Cola RAD's and...stuff! Lot's of stuff!
The mare took a skip towards the ceiling-made-ramp, her head full of thoughts of caps and artifacts. Reck Lass trudged up the ramp, gravity attempting to slide the determined pony off. She reached the top of the ramp, a note of triumph in her stride, then she heard the low, deep cracking beneath her. Reck Lass looked down at her hooves, and saw the grey ramp methodically fluttering in broken pieces to the floor in pasty chips. Her eyes went wide and, full of panic, she attempted to scramble up what remained of the ramp. That only made the unsteady structure collapse quicker underneath her now frantic hooves. Reck Lass lunged forward as the entire ramp fell to the ground, with the sound that seemed as loud as a balefire bomb hitting a tower of grenades stacked on top of each other.
The mare laid on the ground for several moments, violently hacking to eject the cement dust and stale air that found it's way into her lungs. After a few seconds, Reck Lass raised her head, causing a small waterfall of dust to tumble from her red mane, and looked down the light less hallway in front of her. Nopony had set hoof in this place since before the war it looked like, with the walls not torn apart to get at the wiring and the lack of skeletons. Reck Lass furrowed her brow at that, that couldn't be right. She slowly rose to her hooves, her mind trying to deduce why nopony had been up here, despite the fact that somepony more skilled in the stealth arts could have easily avoid the turrets. She shrugged, there was no way she was going to figure out old world secrets by sitting on her flank, might as well explore.
Reck Lass took a bold step forward, raising a hoof and preparing to plant it on the dark, broken floor in front of her, but then she saw a silver gleam of light. She stopped her hoof before it connected with the cleverly hidden silver pressure plate, and she let out snicker and let a grin splay across her face.
“You thought you could fool me, but you were wrong! I am the best trap finding mare in wasteland, you dumb hunk of metal!”Reck Lass beamed, then she blushed slightly and lowered her voice.
She was yelling at an inanimate object, and on top of it that yelling may attract many other metal objects, but metal objects that shoot missiles and magical beams of energy. Reck Lass carefully and slowly put her hoof down to the left to the pressure plate, still feeling clever with her initial avoidance of it. When her hoof was in place, the mare bucked the floor, sending her into a lung over the dangerous plate, her red mane flowing behind her like a second tail. The mare landed gracefully on the other side, with the odd sound of hooves on metal.
She felt as if her chest has been hit by a train, and slowly lowered her gaze to look at the 2nd old steel pressure plate beneath her hooves. The ensuing alarm was louder than the ramp colliding to the floor, and red sirens the color of her mane erupted about the office building. They even illuminated a poster with the picture of a terrified office grey pony standing in front of a menacing sentry bot. “Wear your badge, it could save your life!” The walls with hissed like a snake and moaned as they slid upwards, reveling worn steel ponytrons on each side, heads glowing a pale yellow. Reck Lass's comment was drowned out by the deafening alarms.
“Well...fuck.”
Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Rapid Reload--All of your weapon reloads are 25% faster than normal.
Comments
Elliott the friendly Deathclaw. Time to write a short story.