The Equestrian Wasteland...a cold harsh place...full of pain and suffering...abundant in death...scarce in life...all because of war...the war, THAT war...war...war never changes... It was supposed to be a typical delivery. Just a routine food shipment to a small town. Things, in the Equestrian Wasteland however, are rarely so simple. Royal Sheild woke up in a ditch. His head throbbed, and he found that he couldn't move.
Steel law walked in to what remained of the the White house ((cant think of a good pony pun)). The whole of equestria was in a anarchic state with gangs everywhere. The president was dead so he made it his duty to keep order in his hometown. Sure some of his methods were more brawn than brains but most of the time he tried to keep continuing the use of pre-war law when trouble came about. "Ahh, the White house once the place of meetings but now just rubble in a ever changing nation". He made his way through the rubble and sat down in the oval office which now had broken windows, peeling wars and doors off it's hinges. He then waited and relaxed his Stetson cowcolt hat covering his his eyes.
(Could have just done the Canterlot Palace, oh wait.) The Everfree Forest seemed to close in on the Commandos going through their usual patrols in the forest. At their head was their leader, a unicorn stallion that they only knew as the Soldier, just like the rest of the Wastelands. All they knew of him was that in five short years, he had built a huge mercenary army that was essentially the only alternative to the Talons. Ponies who came to them often were ones that had a problem with the Talons fighting style and wanted a job done quickly, quietly, and with very little exposure. The brown unicorn stopped them and held up a hoof, "Here we are. You know the drill." he said lowly, as his large lethal knife slid from its scabbard. "Spread out and ambush." the squad spread out, covering a large section of the road just as a large slaver caravan rumbled by. The Commando closest to The Soldier watched as he pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin and tossed it at the center of the caravan. Before the grenade even exploded, the Soldier's knife had found itself buried in the head of one of the slavers and the blue bolts fired from their signature weapons dropped the slavers who survived the grenade within seconds. It all took about 6 seconds. They unlocked the slaves chains and soon, the group disappeared into the forest, leaving only the sea and the burning wagons.
"I'm not very interested in caps today, I want information. Anything you know about Stable-Tec, specifically the stables themselves. And in return, I have some preserved pre-war books, and most of a pip-buck." Ecliptic thought if he could see the Steel Ranger's face, his jaw would have dropped. While pip-bucks weren't exactly rare, the majority of them still resided within the stables, which, being designed to withstand a megaspell detonation, were not exactly easy to break into. "Ahem, uh..well Stable-tec HQ was in Fillydelphia, but has been claimed by the Rangers. You might be able to find something there if you ask nicely and bring another gift," the armored pony replied. "Other than that, I suggest poking around the terminals of the companies they partnered with." Ecliptic sighed and thanked the pony, hovering his loot over to the ranger. He would have to find some more eye-catching tech if he wanted to get into Stable-Tec headquarters. Hopefully he would find something interesting between Manehattan and Fillydelphia. "Well, maybe 'interesting' isn't the best word..." Ecliptic thought to himself.
(Listen to this, this will help set the mood. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z28lwyQjuTY ) Crimson wandered around the wasteland, a piece of his heart was silent since the destruction of his city that he had called home for the last 200 years. His addopted daughter was nowhere to be seen but he knew that she survived, she was a fighter and not a quiter. Crim was halfway between hell and whatever the wastelands were nowadays, he had wanted to belong in a peaceful society since the great war but when he arrives at that society, they were killed by nightmareish creatures and ponys that he refused to believe in their existance. Crimson was 234 years old (not counting ten years later), an immortal augmented solider created before the war. He was implanted with the immortality chip, an indestructable skin procedure and many other augmentations, one of them is that he could see things happen in fast and slow motion. He is the grim reaper of raiders,slavers and many other lowlife scum in the wasteland, but he was 'The King Of Diamonds' to the rest of the world. A legendary Wasteland Figure. He was on his way thowards New Appleloosa, where he could get some rest food, and maybe a whereabouts of his daughter.
(I'm going to divert from Julion's fanfic for this. I think I will work on the Commandos themselves) Julion made his way back into the camp, fresh from releasing the slaves and killing some slavers. It was one of his favorite jobs to do, and the payment for it was all the better. He thought about the army as he walked through just one of the many squad camps in the Everfree, carefully concealed and protected from the outside world. He suddenly remembered that today was Commando Inspection Day, a day once a year that 'inspects' the full might of the Commando army gathered at a fort they rebuilt deep inside the Forest. Julion smiled at that thought, he loved seeing the whole army together, but like any other emotion on his face, it quickly disappeared.
Crimson arrived at New Appleloosa before midnight. He was still wearing his Black and Silver elite riot armor with Crim's cutie mark as its logo addorned on the back. His weaponry conisted of a lever action rifle named 'Final Requiem' , a prototype energy blade known as the Omnihoof (Omniblade) given to him during his times at Big Mountain research center where he lived for many years until it's destruction and a powerful 45 auto pistol. He walked around the down at night, but finally recieved word that his daughter was rebuilding Los Pegasus with the remanents of the citys population. This thought put his mind at peace, but what does he do now. Surely he would be needed to assist somepony else where. He rested for the night and left New Applelossa the next day.
This is precisely why I didn't want to say 'interesting'. Ecliptic thought to himself. At the hoof of an ex-raider, he had just found out what happens when a bullet makes swiss cheese out of a spark battery. Ignoring the clicking of his pipbuck, Ecliptic peeked into the crater, looking for anything salvageable. Nothing. Probably could have sold that spark battery too. Although...they would make a great IED. Or ammunition. He grinned at his murderous creativity and continued towards Fillydelphia.
Royal awoke during the night. His head throbbed and he had no idea where he was. "Gurhg..." he groaned, shifting his weight made his head feel like it was about to split. He gritted his teeth and got back on his feet, leaning on a sign post. He looked around. He saw that he was in a ditch in the middle of nowhere. He went to check his saddle bags, only to find he didn't have them anymore. "Stupid raiders..." he mumbled, only making his head throb.
(Crim sounds like Obi Wan from Episode 3, and yes i did just reference TFS.) Crimson was half way from New Applelossa to Manehatten. He wasnt tired even through he had walked an enormous distance, he stoped on the side of what used to be a road and decided to have a quick lunch break. He opened up a sandwitch from one of his small bags inside his riot gear and was about to take a bite until a 10mm round went straight through the sandwitch, obliberating any trace of the sandwitch ever being there. Crimson then noticed 5 raiders nearby, all but one shaking in fear. "Come on fella's, this guy looks easy to take." The Raider leader said thowards his comrades. Crimson looked at these pathetic excuses of raiders, they wore almost no protective armor and were very unequiped. Crimson got up and grabed out his 45 auto. "You do know how rude it is when you ruin someponys lunch, dont you ?" Crimson said with a small twisted smile. The raiders looked at each other in fear and started to shoot Crimson, their rounds doing absolutely no effect on his augmented skin. Horrorfied, one of the raiders ran away but fell down dead moments later when the raider leader shot him in the back of the neck. The raider heard muttering from his other comrades, about this figure known as the king of diamonds. It wasnt then until he realised who he was dealing with. "So you shot your friend there so you could fight me alone." Crimson said in his tone. "How gutless." The raider leader attempted to act tough "Guttless, how is that gutless?" His attempted to act tough quickly disapeared when Crimson stared directly into the raiders eyes. Crimsons sheer amount of Charisma drowned the raiders. "Because, Suicide is the cowards way out......" Crimson walked thowards them, as the last thing the raiders even seen.
Royal heard shooting in the distance. "Sounds like I'll be able to scrounge up some guns." Starts walking in the direction of the gun fire. He finds the bodies of several raiders, his saddle bag and fresh tracks from an unknown pony. "Hmm, well who ever they are, I'd better follow them. At least their path will be free of any more raiders." He picks up his bag and the guns from the raiders corpses.
"hmm well this is getting boring" steel got up flipping and holstering his twin revolvers and did a sly smile looking tough. He then pushed his steson up and walked out. "now time for some real adventure. Deputy gold scale you're in charge while I'm out".
Julion walked into the castle deep inside the Everfree, only accessible by a bridge that he had built to replace the ancient wooden rope bridge that was already there. This castle was the meeting place of the Commandos, and had heavily rebuilt in their image after finding the ruin five years back, it was in fact one of the main reasons he choose the Everfree Forest as his base of operations. That, and the fact that A): other ponies were scared out of their wits of it, and B): The forest was nearly impossible to attack, but even he was a little superstitious about the forest, but it seemed as if the Commandos and the forest had a mutual agreement; the Everfree would protect and give them a home while the Commandos provide just another reason for ponies or anything else to enter the forest. The stream of Commandos coming out from the forest, across the bridge, and into the castle was a wondrous sight to Julion as some units of the army he never know exist until the Day of Inspection. The castle's permanent garrison saluted him from the castle walls as he walked past and returned the salute with a nod of the head. Soon, the entire Commando army will have gathered in the large, reconstructed fort of Equestria's ancient past.
Crimson was being followed. He heard somepony from the distance and turned around. He had no need for weapons and whoever it was wasnt a threat, he calmed down and went thowards this stranger, eager to meet him.
About an hour after Julion's arrival, the last of the Commandos had arrived and the Inspection could begin. Julion stood on a raised platform that was mainly supported by a strange stone statue with five arms that ended in bowls. The hall they were currently in wasn't originally as big as it was now, but thanks to reconstruction, it could now easily fit the Commando army, which was about 1,000-3,000 ponies total. Julion cleared his throat from the platform and all conversation instantly died as Absoulete attention was given to him. "Hello everypony, I am your Commando, the Soldier, as most, if not all of you, already know. Today, is Inspection Day, so for the newer members, I shall explain: the Day of Inspection is the annual day were I and my two commanding officers, Bloody 2 and the Major, inspect a unit's performance. It is also when we collect each unit's haul from jobs, that is the portion not required for the maintaining of the unit, and add them to the Commando's United Treasury. As with the unit Inspection, all units that can contribute nothing or have to take from the coffers shall be punished accordingly. Units, please step forth and prepare to report your unit's performance. Remember, if you are caught lying, you will find out why my knife is called Head Hunter. May the Inspection begin!"
Royal continued following the tracks of the tracks of the unknown pony. He was hopeful that who ever it was was not a threat, seeing as he was still injured and only had a few working guns. He heard someone walking towards him. Not knowing who it would be, he ducked down behind a nearby truck.
"It's ok, im a friendly." Crimson said as he noticed the figure behind the rock. He had his weapons put away, he might not need them again for the rest of his trip, but thought it would be nice for somepony to join him. "Dont worry, i dont bite."
Royal Sheild stepped out into the open tentatively, looking the other pony over cautiously. "I see you're pretty handy at dealing with raiders." He still had blood on his face and his head still hurt. He must have been hit over the head or something when they robbed him.
Julion silently walked to each of the units, getting their leaders to tell how many jobs they had taken, how many were successful or unsuccessful, etc. It was all going fine until he reached one of the newest units, and he could instantly tell that something was up from the way the unit leader was sweating and shaking. "Performance report?" he asked. "Um...Uh..." the unit leader stuttered. "Come on, out with it!" "Uh, we've taken, uh, 10 jobs...and uh, 4 of them were successful." the nervousness on the unit leader's face was obvious. "Tsk, tsk." Julion said, shaking his head, "As a commander of a unit, you should well know what this entails, correct?" "Um...Yes sir." the stallion replied quietly. Julion sighed, "I'm sorry." then suddenly attacked the unit commander, beating his face into a pulp, and literally beat him to death. After shooting a blast from Silent Death into the commander's face to be sure, he turned to the unit. "Line up!" he said sternly." the unit lined up in a straight line in fear as the troops nearby watched nervously, they all knew what was coming. The decimation, were every 10th soldier is beaten to death by the rest.
"... More updates as they come in, but for now, some music..." Ecliptic pulled his attention from the radio to look at his map. "This seemed a lot quicker coming in, although," He said, extending his wings, "No, I shouldn't. I don't think I would get very far anyways." Suddenly, his EFS blinked with two new entities. They didn't appear hostile, but Ecliptic approached cautiously, and prayed he didn't look like one of those fake-goddess things he heard about. He didn't have the best track record in that respect, but there was always a small chance, right?
