The Battle of Stableton

Kes looked over at Spark, watching as he attempted to heal the near dead dragon on the ground beneath him. A thought popped into the gryphon's head as he looked at them.

"Let her bleed, she'll learn more."

It was a cold, cruel thing to think, but it was what the bird had found to be true about growing up. Pain was an excellent teacher, healing every scratch, or taking the hurt away in a time like this would only give Faith the idea that she could do it again without much reprecussion.

Starry trotted over, frowning deeply at Faithheart. This was a dragon that tried to attack her and her friends, and was probably working with slavers. She felt incredibly out of character offering a hoof of support to one of her enemies, but this was one of Spark's friends, and they did sort of shoot first.

Starry injected the dragon with the painkillers she had forgotten to use on Kes, and began fixing her wings. The painkillers wouldn't completely numb the pain, since a dragon would require a larger dosage than a pony, but it helped a bit. "Don't make me regret this," she told Faith, giving her a nasty look. In truth, she was already regretting this, but she wasn't doing this for the dragon, she was doing it for Sparkfire.

Starry spent a minute or two patching up the dragon, before cantering away back toward Lucky. "There. You ought to take her to the hospital, Sparks, they can treat her fully there. She's going to need a much more intensive care than we can provide for her here."

Starry rolled back onto Trails's back. "Sorry for the delay, Trails, let's go!"

Trails shook his head and started down the path. His gift to the dragon was leaving the job undone. He owed Spark that much. He wasn't too sure how 'heavy' his hitters were. A chem addicted alcoholic with an assault rifle, a skittish little scout packing a pistol, and a mare with a taste for high explosives. Maybe we'll get, no Trails don't invite the pun and jinx it.

He saw the outline of the giant pony he'd shot in the gut earlier on the cliff, along with Cross' familiar red hood. Despite Cross' recent assist in taking down the dragon, Trails wasn't set on how he felt about the buck. On one hoof he was working with slavers, and that was the one thing in the Wasteland he couldn't forgive. On the other he'd been dropping cryptic hints of remorse and a bigger plan earlier. He decided not to fire on the unicorn just yet. Instead aiming for the giant pony, hoping to put the fucker down more permanently.

(Guns: 55)

Stupid pony hurt Roid, Stupid pony try to hurt Roid again!!!! Stupid pony come running up the cliffside towards roid!!!, Roid swallowed a hoof-full of chems and charged

"YEAHHHHHHHH"

(Unarmed 52, intention to throw Trails off the cliff and into the fire below)

Kria nodded in return to Kes as he picked her for his flanking team, if things were like down in the square it would be really good to have the two teams sure she was not much for subtlety but sometime you just had to bring down some walls in a more effective way then sneaking around them.

She just looked at Starry as she got over to the dragon that had just a few moment ago attacked them, in her opinion she was not worth the med-x that Starry gave her. She shock her head a bit, what was she thinking. The dragon might have threaded them but they shoot first but then again she had been attacking Kes and them meant that she was with the slavers, and even if it was cruel to think that way they did deserved to die. But now done it done and she could not dwell on it now when there was better thing to focus on.

She got over to were Kes stood. "When your ready." She said making sure she all her equipment was secure for the task ahead. They had to make there way quickly there to be of any support for Trails and his team.

Ashen nodded back at Kestrel, before taking his place in the griffin’s team, face as blank as ever. He pulled out his prism rifle, removing and replacing the dead spark battery and making sure Cross didn’t do anything to mess it up while it was in his care. Satisfied that it was fine, he slid the weapon back in the holster on his back, before glancing at the dragon he just maimed.

He didn’t see why anypony would want to help it, it just tried to kill them, and it did in fact kill several of the defenders earlier. Considering that it most likely would attempt to do so again, helping it would only hurt them in the end. The only reason he didn’t kill it earlier is because time was, and still is, short.

Regardless, as long as the dragon didn’t make any other attempts to attack, he wouldn’t care. That other dragon would most likely keep it in line anyway, he remembered it resting here before the attack. He wasn’t feeling particularly sorry about the wings either, no matter how long it’ll take for them to be repaired.

Turning away from the scene, he glanced back at Kestrel, waiting for the order to move out.

The first group approached the Surgeon General near the peak of the cliff. The peak was a large, oval shaped plateau, which was about thirty meters long and fifteen meters wide(think a basketball court). The group had approached from a wide, steep hill onto one end of the plateau, while the Surgeon General, Roid Raid, and Cross Roads stood at the other end.

There was practically nothing on the plateau to be used as cover, with the exception of a single hastily constructed shack that had been used by ponies on watch. It stood on the left(southern) side of the battlefield.

The Surgeon General tapped his foot anxiously. There was a visible frown across his face. "Here I am, burning, and murdering their town, about to wipe it off the bucking face of the planet, and they can't even lift a hoof to stop me?!!"

The Surgeon General looked visibly distraught. His high was fading, as the effect of the drugs were subsiding. "This battle hasn't been satisfying, it hasn't quenched me! WHERE ARE THEY?! Cross! Did you kill all of them?! Did you steal my prey?!!" The Surgeon General's nostrils were flaring, but just then, he caught sight of Happy Trails ascending onto the plateau. His expression went from frighteningly angry to frighteningly delighted, as he pulled a needle from beneath his coat and injected it's contents into his foreleg.

"There they are! I've been waiting for you, and the Surgeon General does NOT wait for ANYPONY!" He cackled maniacally, as he pulled on his metal helmet and drew his custom .44 revolver from his coat.

Techno reacted quickly as the slavers' aparent leader whipped out a pistol and readied to fire. Tech put up a short force field that could be used as cover for the group, or at least three and him, and he laid down behind it to focus and pour more power into it. "Take cover and start shooting, and don't let that big one get close!" he called out as he focused on the shield.

Starry quickly rolled of Trails's back, and leaped toward Techno to take cover behind the shield. She pulled three firebombs from her belt, peeked over the cover, and let them fly in Roid's general direction.

Cross stood there with his mouth gaping, he was still stunned that the general had killed the mayor, the one who was suppose to be a 'hostage' but there was no time to co.cern himself with that. Cross used his telekinesis to rip the pipbuck from the corpse and donned it himself.

"YEAHHHHH!!!!!" Roid was already charging Trails, either one of them could be obliterated in the next few seconds, not to mention the fact that Starry threw some firebombs into the mix.

What was Cross suppose to do now? The Surgeon hadn't revealed his final move just yet, there wasn't much he could do, but he could at least try to keep everypony safe until the Surgeon snapped.

*FLASH*
"ROID GET DOWN YOU GITWIG DREG!!!"

(Magic 100, throwing up shield between Trails and Roid to protect them both)

Quickly, Shutter moved to the side, behind the shield as he crouched down out of sight.
Quickly checking his gun, Shutter mentally cursed at the fact that this was all the cover there was...there was no way he was going to be able to sneak up and try and get a stealthy shot off like this! He'd just have to shoot, and hope he hit...

Leaning out from behind the shield, Shutter fired off a few shots from his handgun at Roid, seeing he was easily the most obvious threat. What with him charging towards Trails like that...

(Guns 34, firing at Roid)

Where everypony else started shooting at the massive wall of rippling flesh headed towards them, Lucky began firing at the General. However, he only got two rounds off before a loud click was heard.

'Oh fuck, I forgot to reload!' he thought to himself. He fumbled to get the next clip in, his second to last one, and cocked the rifle once more.

"We better kill 'em quick, or I'm gonna have to use that worthless knife o' mine on them," he yelled over the roar of pounding weapons. "And we know what happened LAST time I had to use the damn thing!"

[rolling to fire twice, 56 gun skill]

"Move out." Kes grunted and began to move along. Unlike the other group, the gryphon led his team through town and around the landscape until they were positioned about one hundred twenty five yards out amongst a rocky outcropping that stood up above the plateau.

From where they were the group was positioned slightly behind the Raiders and they had the added advantage of being on high ground. To hit the enemy below all they would have to do is take up a position and angle their guns downwards towards the massing of raiders that had begun attacking the assault group.

From there all it took was a steady aim and a trigger squeeze.

Kes had picked out this place for its advantages, and had decided one hundred twenty-five yards was enough distance that the less experienced had a chance of hitting the enemy, but still enough of a cushion that when they opened fire they could pick off any raiders that started heading their way.

"Ashen stay low n' aim for the center of mass, then fire. Kira be ready to go, but dont fire yet." Kes said, giving Ashen and Kira their orders. Looking over at Lightning the bird flicked his beak skywards.

"Keep low for now. When I whistle take off 'n hit 'em all from above. Keep mobile 'n try 'n stay out of incoming fire."

Dropping down onto the ground, setting his hunting rifle upon his saddle-bags for support, Kes readied himself for what was to come. He took aim at a pony that was standing back, brandishing what looked like a large handgun, placing the cross-hairs right where they needed to be to hit the bastard just behind his right front shoulder.

Then, he gave his final order for the next little bit, the words coming out just before his rifle barked to life sending its lethal payload screaming down at the gryphons first target.

"Ashen, Fire."

(Will edit if necessary.)

Ashen was silent as he aimed his rifle at the slavers, picking out the big one that he tried to take down earlier. He lined his sights up, aiming for the small of the massive brute’s back, hoping to possible hit him in the spine and paralyze him. He waited for Kestrel’s order, held his breath, and sent several screaming beams of scarlet death flying down towards the slavers.

(50 Energy Weapons, aiming at Roid Rage)

Lightning followed the group silently, grinning to himself as they successfully snuck past the enemy and placed themselves on a rocky outcrop. He would peak over to glance at the raiders and mentally note their positions in his head. Pulling out his SMG, Lightning would look over at their leader, nodding to him when he received his orders. Backing from the edge, he unfold his wings and held them erect, waiting for the order to take off and engage.

Most of the energy bolts from Ashen's rifle missed, hitting the dirt around Roid. One lucky shot managed to hit him on the flank, causing a decent amount of damage, but Roid was easily capable of shrugging it off. Shutter's shots, sadly, missed their mark entirely. They instead embedded themselves into the hull of the watch tower. Trail's shot managed to hit Roid in the shoulder, moments before Cross's shield went up, but that shot too did not manage to slow Roid down. Roid slammed into the shield, shattering it like a pane of glass. Roid managed to gore Trails, and fling him several meters. It was a sizable would, but the resistance of the shield took enough out of Roid's charge to prevent Trails from being flung over the side, or from breaking any ribs. Trails would have trouble breathing regardless.

After goring Trails, Starry flung her firebombs. one of them managed to land on his back, and another barely hit his back hoof. The third missed entirely. The fire might have been painful, but it was insignificant to Roid.

The Surgeon General advanced toward Techno's position, firing two shots from his revolver at the shield. The shield managed to hold, for the time being, but one shot managed to fly right near the edge of the shield, and hit Starry's foreleg, which was sticking out slightly. The shot tore through the leg, crippling it.

The Surgeon General himself was hit by one of Lucky's shots in the head, but the shot merely ricocheted off of his metal helmet. Evidently, Lucky wouldn't get a lucky headshot off twice today. He also barely felt a bullet pierce into his shoulder. It penetrated fairly deep, but the Surgeon General shrugged it off.

The Surgeon General felt the shot enter his shoulder from behind him, and spun around quickly to catch sight of Kes's group up on a hill. He grinned widely, as he pulled up his revolver, took aim down the scope, and fired.

"CROSS!" he barked, after making his shot. "Shield! Behind us! NOW!" The Surgeon General continued advancing toward Trails's group, at a brisk trot.

Crap, crap, crap, Surgeon needed a shield but Cross still handn't found out what he was hiding, what was he to do? Cross sighed and clinched his eyes...

*FLASH* Cross was now behind the surgeon, he kept his eyes shut

"Please Everypony please stand down!!!" Cross's robotic roared over the gunfire.

"Surgeon its no use, we're outnumbered, don't you have a backup plan...of sorts?"

(Magic 100, throwing up shield)

Trails gasped and wheezed as he landed, breathless, several feet away from where he'd been a few seconds earlier. He remembered distinctly how much being shot in the lung had sucked, and this wasn't even in the same league. He rolled onto his back and fired three quick shots at Roid's torch of a body. A voice in the back of his head said a quick prayer as the bullets started their flight. Trails ignored the voice's superstitions and focused agreeing with the sentiment.

"I told you the hurt would go away, my friends trust me, not fear or use me, but enough of that, I need to get you to a hospital. " he said as he embraced his fellow dragon.

"Now this may be a little uncomfortable just hang on. " he finished as he manuvered himself under Faith Heart and begun to carry her away from the battle. Her caked blood already crusting. "we won't need to worry about more gunfire, druglords, or slavers where we are going. Just put on foot in front of the other." he continued, trying to remain postive.

"Starry!" Techno exclaimed, "Saddlebag, front right pocket, drink one and keep shooting!" he called out, trying to put more power into into the shield to keep it from shattering while under fire.

Shutter mentally cursed when he saw not a single bullet of his connect with Roid. He needed a lot more practice for a straight fight if he couldn't even hit that gargantuan pony....

Quickly, Shutter aimed his handgun once again at Roid, and tried to fire for the injuries caused by Starry's firebombs...he didn't have to be a genius to figure that those spots on Roid's body would probably be slightly weaker right now, and shots there would probably have the best chance of piercing this giant's skin...

(Guns 34, aiming for Roid once again)

Kes was not at all intimidated by the sight of the Surgeon General turning towards his group and opening fire with that facy little handgun of his; a gun that Kes most defiantly felt would be an excellent addition to his arsenal.

Apparently his first shot had been ignored by the drugged up unicorn. No matter he had plenty more where that came from. A fact proven when the gryphon worked the bolt on his rifle and loaded another round.

The Surgeon looked to be wearing Metal Armor, not good at all for body shots, Kes would have to engage elsewhere. So this time instead of the round being aimed at the drugged up unicorns chest, the round was to be placed right inside the little opening of the Surgeons helmet that showed his wild, psychotic eyes.

In other words, Kes was going to try shooting the Surgeon General in the face.

Red, aka Cross Roads, had shouted out wanting everyone to stand down. Well, too fucking bad. It was not going to happen. Kes held no grudge against the SG, but he was not going to just sit back and let the asshole live. After all, he had been hired to defend the town, the SG was a threat to the town; thus, he would have to be eliminated.

Just business is all.

Right before he pulled the trigger on his rifle, sending another round screaming down at the Surgeon, he whistled sharply and gave Kira a nod. Both Lightning and Kira were now free to engage.

Lightning frowned as he could hear the sounds of battle raging down below. It must be hell down there right now. He watched the griffon closely, hoping and waiting that he would be clear to attack soon. A loud voice would catch his ear and tell everypony to stand down. Almost immediately after, Lightning heard the griffon whistle and just like he was told, immediately took off into the air vertically, gaining as much height as he could quickly.

Once in the air, he could see what was going on down below. The General. That pony that (appeared) to be trying to help their team and the huge pony that was obviously on a lot of chems. Lightning quickly turned his upward motion to flying horizontal to the earth.

He mentally listed which were the highest threats and which the others could take out. It was obvious the steroid pony was going to do a lot of damage if he wasn't stopped. Pulling upward once more into a loop-the-loop, he would dive down toward the plateau and aim for Mr. Steroid. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, Lightning pulled the trigger and send the remaining half a clip soaring down towards his target.