The Battle of Stableton

Kira had been staying low as she heard the battle raging ever more hectic for Trails group, she were actually happy not to be part of that group even if the direct way in an attack was more or less her style she would not like to meet a brute like that chem addicted earth pony. That pony looked like he could rip her apart with his own hooves.

She had been silently trying to get as close as possible without being noticed before Kes would give his signal, she was not much for this range fighting as much as Kes or Ashen but more up close she could really do some damage. Then she got the signal from Kes strike.

Her mind speed along making a quick analyses of the field of battle, biggest thread was the earth pony but he was to far away and not as much armoured as the Surgeon General. The General on the other had was wearing metal armour that would make shooting him really hard but there was one thing that would hurt him really good, dynamite. Without the shrapnel of a frag it would be less effective against light armour but with the Surgeon General all she had to do is get it close at the shock wave would warp the metal and hurt him more that she could with bullets.

Pulling up her stick of dynamite and the repeater she would do this quick and easy. Lighting the dynamite and throwing it at Surgeon hoping it would get as close to him as possible, then taking quick aim and firing off two shoots at the Surgeon forcing him to choose which threat was greater.

(Explosive 55, Heave, Ho!, Guns 29)

Ashen ducked as the Surgeon opened fire on their position, peaking back up when the shots stopped. He managed to hit the huge earth pony, but the shot barely phased him, as he suspected. He’d need to hit better if he wanted to do any real damage to the beast.

He glanced at the others, Kestrel and the other griffin firing on the Surgeon, and Lightning going in close to attack the earth pony. Ashen silently aimed his rifle again, once again aiming at the massive earth pony’s upper back and sending more prism beams down at him.

(Energy Weapons 50, once again aiming at Roid’s upper back/spine)

Starry yelped as the shot tore through her foreleg. She reflexively grabbed Techno's healing potion, and chugged it down, hoping it would at least dull the pain.

Starry tossed the empty potion aside. The wound closed quickly enough that Starry didn't lose much of what blood she had left. She focused her magic around a grenade in her belt, and tossed it toward Roid. "WHY DON'T YOU TAKE A BITE OF THESE SWEETS?!" Starry shouted at him. She didn't have the time or the clarity of mind to come up with a better taunt. She did at least have the clarity to keep all arms and legs inside the shield this time, though.

Lucky jumped behind the shield just long enough to reload his rifle. As he did so, He looked at the opposing force, and began deciding which target he had a better chance of hurting.

Roid looked like a decently sized target.

"Aim for his legs, mates! He's just a bigger version of that useless bastard with the lance!" Lucky yelled as he fired three shots at the massive beast of a pony's left foreleg.

The last two shots in the rifle went towards the Surgeon General again, not aimed at any particular part of his drugged up body.

Cross backed up, they were getting hammered...and fast, he needed Surgeon to stop and tell him what he was planning.

Trying to hold the shield, Cross crooked his head slightly towards the general.

"We're getting hit hard!!!! whats this grand master plan thats so special?!!??

Cross tried weakening the shield to one side....not enough to get Cross hit, but enough to let some small arms fire get through to the Surgeon General

(Magic 100 shield on Cross)

The Surgeon General's shot, which he fired before Cross put up the shield, managed to hit Ashen before he ducked for cover. The shot tore through his foreleg, breaking the bone above the knee(elbow?). The damage was heavy and crippling, but did not prevent Ashen from firing on Roid Raid.

Ashen's shot managed to fly above Cross's shield, and hit Roid Raid square on a back. It burnt a large area across Roid's back, searing the flesh and actually exposed several of his vertebrae. Several of Shutter's shots also managed to hit Roid, one sinking into his chest and two into two of his forelegs. One of Trail's shots managed to hit Roid's foreleg as well, crippling it. One shot missed, and another tore off the tip of Roid's ear.

Roid huffed furiously, the pain was starting to seep in, despite the numbing effects of the drugs. 'Mean ponies hurt Roid, Roid need more candy, but dumb mean blue pony throw more candy for Roid!' Roid thought, and he leapt toward the oncoming grenade, swallowing it whole. Utilizing the few moments before it detonated, Roid charged forward toward Techno, Starry, and Lucky behind the barrier. His charge was slowed by his one crippled limb, but he managed to reach the shield swiftly, and crashed through it, shattering the shield and flinging several of the ponies back several feet. None of them took any significant damage.

The grenade detonated. Roid may have been lucky, though, because Starry had tossed him a party grenade(a gas grenade). The gas filled his lungs, and Roid finally collapsed, unconscious. He was losing lethal quantities of blood through his bullet wounds, and was still being eaten by flames where the firebombs hit.

Kes's shot aimed at the Surgeon General was dead accurate, but was deflected by Cross's shield. The shot did manage to crack the shield, though, enough so that when Kira fired on it twice, it shattered. The dynamite did land next to the Surgeon General, but the fuse was long enough that the Surgeon General had the opportunity to kick it over the cliff, where it detonated part of the way down.

Lucky's two shots managed to hit the Surgeon General, but ricocheted off his armor.

Trails rolled onto his hooves and aimed for the General. Two shots to the knees, one to the right eye. Each time he pulled back his lever he heard the sound of H's old 'nursery rhyme' in his head. Finally he gave in and sang along with the memory.

"This is necessary,*shot* this is necessary *shot*, life feeds on life *shot*, feeds on life feeds on life."

(55 guns)

Lightning was flying too fast to tell if his shots hit or not but either way, it didn't matter. The large earth pony was down and he was being burned alive from the bombs. As he swooped past the plateau, Lightning ejected his empty clip and loaded in his last full clip as fast as he could. He would smirk as the team continued to get closer and closer and Kes' flanking team was providing excellent cover fire.

The pegasus would pull a fast vertical ascent before gauging where he should strike. Seeing the magical shield shatter from the non-stop gunfire of the other ponies, Lightning aimed his weapon on the last remaining target. The Surgeon General. 'This is for Stableton...' he thought as he pulled the trigger and sent every last bullet flying straight for the General.

(Rolling to shoot General. Gun 50)

Had he been one to celebrate Kes would have been smirking no doubt. However he was not smirking at all, instead he just calmly worked the bolt, took aim at the Surgeons head once more, and fired a round.

Not a blink, not a twitch. Just cold, emotionless efficiency. Work the bolt, adjust for wind and drop, squeeze, bark.

The surgeon would fall, if not by Kestrels bullet then by another. That revolver was still his though, and whosoever was dumb enough to touch it was just as dead as the Surgeon was to be.

(Guns 75. Will edit if anything changes)

(random part of town)

After a walking a while around, Sky could hear the battle in the center in town or somewhere. Sky didn't care, she lost her wings, she couldn't be much help in there anyways. Two sides fought,one for enslaving and the others for freedom. yeah she helped surgeon, And look where that got her. Flightless, the one thing any Pegasus truly embraces more than anything.

Sky looked to hear two voices, one she recognized as faiths but the other didn't. She peered her head around a corner to see faith being helped by another dragon, she had seen only once before. Sky with her dropped wings, walked in to the sides of the dragons hoping they wouldn't notice her. Following them to a hospital, if Sky heard correctly.

Ashen gritted his teeth as the bullet shattered his leg, face actually breaking its usual flatness from the pain. Grunted, he managed to drive the pain into the furthest corners of his mind, before his face took its usual calmness again as he struck the huge earth pony square in the back of the neck with his prism rifle. The beast soon went down after it swallowed a gas grenade, judging by the smoke rising out of its mouth.

Ashen shifted his aim, grunting a bit as he set his sights on the Surgeon General. Besides Cross, he was the only other enemy combatant left, and he wasn’t entirely sure of Cross’ allegiance at this point, and decided that taking out the general was a better option. So, he aimed, locked the Surgeon’s head in his sights, and repeatedly pulled the trigger.

Before Roid plowed through Techno's shield, Lucky saw his two shots bounce off of the General's armour.

After he had been flung back by the drugged-fueled monstrosity, he jumped back to his feet and reloaded his weapon, locking his last five bullets in place. He looked at Cross's shattered shield, and decided what his next plan of action was going to be.

"Mates, I've got an idea, but it's gonna really fucking suck," he said to Techno and Starry. "How many bombs you have left, and what kind are they?"

Starry flew back from Roid's impact, landing on her crippled leg. She winced as she got back up to her hooves. "Two grenades," Starry told Lucky, "Both the exploding kind. What do you have in mind?"

Shutter would be flung throughthe air, his smaller frame meaning Roid sent him flying before he hit the ground.
With a grunt, he slowly pulled himself to his feet...he was aching all over, but he was still in good enough condition to fight.

"...Fine...no cover...no hiding spots...you two really want us to do this head-on, don't you?"
He muttered, as he looked over, and saw his pistol, which he quickly grabbed and began to reload.

Once the clip was secure, Shutter grabbed the gun in his mouth (It was almost starting to feel comfortable when he held it, which scared him a bit...), and slowly began to walk forwards, towards the fight. He had NO idea what he was doing, but this entire battle seemed out of his element...he might as well try the same tactic as the others...

Aiming as he walked, he fired the semi-automatic pistol at the Surgeon, once, twice, three times...Shutter emptied the entire clip at the Slaver, just hoping that he would fall, and this damn fight would be over!

Techno was flying. Or at least for a few seconds, he was. He crashed to the ground and rolled for a few feet, grunting from the impact and the headache from the broken shield. He shook his head as he charged up more magic, ready to either shoot or shield. He did a quick lookaround of his side of the field and saw that Ashen had been hit in the leg, and was bleeding quite badly. He even saw him break his 'cool' for a moment, which meant that he was probably really hurt. "Ashen, healing potion!" he called out as he levitated one out and flung it to him, bringing his total down to two.

After he had thrown the potion to Ashen, he scanned the others on the other side for a moment. The 'roided pony was down for the count, but as for the other ones, the leader, along with Cross both seemed fine. He put some more into his horn, and put up another cover shield in front of his group.

He noticed Shutter trying to be a hero, but in the wasteland, that only got you killed, or seriously injured. "Shutter, get back here!" he called up to the pony going commando-style.

As for Lucky's mysterious plan, Tech was skeptical, but really had no time to argue, and went with it. "And Lucky, whatever your plan is, it'd better work!"

(Magic 45, shielding)

The Surgeon General was bombarded with gunfire. He holstered his revolver, and pulled out a 10mm SMG, which he used to spray gunfire in the direction Techno, Shutter, Starry and Lucky.

Two of the bullets manage to hit Shutter, one bullet hit one of his rear legs, and the other grazed Shutter's flank, leaving a line across his cutie mark. Techno was hit square in the chest, but his leather armor absorbed much of the damage. Techno was bleeding from the wound, but it didn't penetrate deep enough to hit any major organs.

The massive barrage of gunfire knocked him backwards, and he started backing up toward the edge of the cliff. The Surgeon General's eyes went wide at the first authentic feeling he'd had in years; pain. It was excruciating, as blood poured out of his open wounds.

"Cross! It's time!" The Surgeon General shouted, as he pulled a large, square bomb out from under his coat. He activated the bomb, and dropped it to the floor. "Now get me out of here, before we both go up in smoke!"

Techno cried out as he was hit square in the chest by the general's bullet. "CELESTIA DAMN IT!" he yelled as he fell to the ground, his shield dissipating before it was formed proper.

The shot hurt like all Tartarus, and since the pain kept him from concentrating, he couldn't get the shield back up, or at least couldn't make a competent one. He whipped a healing potion from his bags and downed it, after which he gave himself a shot of Med-X.

After taking care of the immediate danger, he levitated out the 5mm handgun that he always kept in his bags and took aim at the General, but he saw him drop a bomb and try to escape with Cross, changing the most dangerous target. "Oh no you don't..." he said, lining up the shot, keeping in mind his motto when shooting, Cripple, don't kill.
He let loose with four shots to not the general, but Cross's legs, hoping to distract him from escaping with the general, unknowing of Cross's indecision.

Kes was just about to pull the trigger and fire a final round when he saw The Surgeon drop his little care package. The gryphon did not worry to much about things though, his posistion atop the rocky out cropping had him much farther away than damn near everypony. All he had to do was duck back a bit and he could avoid the blast.

Hopefully.

For now the bird was busy lining up his next shot, aiming for the surgeon once again. He did not fire yet however.

Cross's eyes grew wide....finally...it was a bomb, he had it on him all this time!
The Surgeon dropped the bomb by his hooves, crackling as he snapped off more shots into the crowd of ponies.

Cross just dropped his shield and the Surgeon lit up with bullets, blood pouring out like a fountain, yet he was so full of chems he didn't even notice.

"No Dreg you think I really give a rat's ass what happens to you?!?" Cross's robotic voice wailed.

The Surgeon picked up the bomb and glared at Cross

""What the Luna damned fuck are you thinking Cross? doesn't matter I got the bomb, we got the city, we even have all the militia now! ...and you choose now of all times to try your luck agaisnt me?!" he crackled, half-furious yet laughing at the same time. The bomb's timer began to beep, letting out a soft glow

Cross just stared at him and lifted the pipbuck on his hoof...

"Enter code "7-6-2-2-3-8-0" Confirmation: "Unity Prevails""

"What the buck was that Cross!??!" The Surgeon General roared

"That.....was the code to unlock all the slave collars in your possesion-*static* This is Cross Roads to all Stableton militia, all your slave collars have been deactivated, Stableton re-" But before Cross could finished the General let out a loud roar and grabbed the bomb, leaping forward and forcing Cross to the ground, and with a loud slam he swung the bomb back and forth. Cross struggled, his head was swinging side to side and quickly his vision was fading....he had to do something...and with a split second when the bomb was coming in for another blow, Cross whipped his head straight and let out a jet of flames, basking the Surgeon's already crimson face

"GAHHH YOU BASTARD" The surgeon didn't get off Cross but dropped the bomb and tried covering his face with his hooves, trying to keep the flames from already scorching what was a well-done entrée.

Cross had his his chance, with a soft glow his baton swung forth from his belt, striking the Surgeon and causing him to lose his balance, but Cross followed up with another backswing completely throwing the Surgeon off him.

Cross struggled to bring himself up...the other ponies stared at him, perplexed by what was going on....Cross tried getting back on his knees but he couldn't recapture his balance. Still the Surgeon only laid by him, rolling, hooves protecting his ruined face.

Cross looked over to the bomb.....[-13 seconds to detonation-]

'No!!!' there wouldn't be enough time to warn the others, and Cross wondered if there would ever be a chance to explain himself but he had to do this now before it was too late.

Cross used his magic to force himself upright and wrapped the bomb in his telekinectic glow and limped over to the edge, staring down into the hell he'd helped create, he th-

"GRAHHHH" The Surgeon had lepted onto Cross's back, destroying what lilittle sense of equilibrium he had left, and over the cliff, both the Surgeon and Cross fell, with only crackling laughter and jets of fire leaping out of the abyss below.

*BOOM*

Starry heard the blast from the bomb detonate halfway down the cliff. It was impossible not to hear, the blast was deafening, it could probably be heard for miles. Starry wanted badly to go see what had happened to the two of them, but she had spotted Shutter, who had been shot and was bleeding.

Starry hobbled over to him. Her crippled hoof was partially recovered from the healing potion, but it still hurt when she stepped on it. Added to that was how pale she was from how much blood she had lost earlier.

"Shutter! Are you okay?" she asked, a look of genuine concern across her face. "Oh, Goddesses, you're bleeding! Lie down, I'll wrap it up for you. I think I still have Techno's gauze, I can wrap you up, and then we can all head to the hospital for treatment, okay?"

"Ugh..." Techno grunted as he got back up to his hooves, but was knocked back down when the explosion shook the earth beneath him, causing another wave of pain to shoot through his chest. Getting up again, albeit laboriously, he slowly made his way to where Shutter lay on the ground, bleeding and hurt.

"Nice move there, mister ponyator." he said as he pulled out his final potion, a smirk on his face. "You managed to be the lucky one to get the last potion, so make it count." he told Shutter, sliding the potion out of his bag and onto the ground in front of where he lay.

He slowly made his way to the cliff overlooking the town to observe the damage done by the battle; the fight won, for now. He sat down by the edge, wincing as the pain shot through his chest once again, against the will of the Med-X in his body. He heaved a sigh and just sat there.

And watched.

Sky stood still as the sound of a explosion, she didn't know where it came from. But it startled Sky that she looked around for the source of it, but it was nowhere nearby.

Trails looked at the explosion with hollow eyes. He lit a smoke and slung his repeater onto his back. So it's finally over. He watched the smoke rise and let out a groan. He was tired and sore, ready for the day to end. I don't understand Cross, doubt I ever will. But here's to you. He took a deep drink from his flask.

Lucky walked over to where trails was and pulled out his own flask.

"Excellent idea there, Trails. After we take whatever little spoils these bastards have and get patched up, I'm hitting what's left of the bar."

He turned to the rest of the group and called out, "Anypony else wanna come with me? First round's on me!"

Lucky unscrewed the cap to his flask and went to take a drink, but then realized his flask was empty.

'Hope the docs'll get us put back together quick', he thought.