Rust Blues[Closed]

Arc floated the uniform from Gunner's bag and tore it into bandages. This will have to to.

"Alrigh Gunner, now be a little more braver than usual foor a moment, okay?" said Arc as he prepared mentaly himself for the thing he was about to do.

Arc's hor shimmered with magic, his field concentrated on the tip of the metal protruding from Gunner's chest. Then he started to slowly pull on it.


(Medicine 30,Luck 6: Removing the shrapnel from Gunner)

(Rolled 62+9)

The metal was jagged, and tore Gunner's hide a little when pulled out, but it seemed that it stoped over his ribs and didnt caused any damage that would'n be healable in the long run. Hoewer, it imidietely started bleeding. Arc pressed a piece of the torn uniform on the wound, and fastened it there by another stip of fabric around Gunner's body. By the mere look of it, it wasn's a good solution, but they had nothing better right now.

"If anyone has some left, the bandage could use a little of alcohol to at least keep some semblance of sterility."

"Gah ! Son of a BITCH !" Even with med-X coursing through his veins, Gunner felt the spike of pain pretty bad.

Then Arc started applying 'bandages' made with part of his old jumpsuit to the wound, and the painkiller once again dulled the pain to manageable levels

"Okay, one out... How many more to go ?" said the earth pony, trying to smile.

"Gah ! Son of a BITCH !"

"Hurt?" He gave Gunner a bit of a mocking grin, his wings flapping at his sides a little as he patted the pony on the head a little bit. As Gunner worked the bandages around his wound, Sound Wave gave the others a rather deadpanned look. "At the rate we're going, we'll be dead by the time we get home."

"Okay, one out... How many more to go ?

"And he jokes still." He gave a bit of a chuckle as he rolled his eyes before ruffling the Earth Pony's mane. "I'm liking you more and more Gunner!" He grinned like a mad pony before turning to the others with a somewhat clueless expression. "But really, how much more...?"

Taking out the old shirt, as well as the bottle of whiskey he found in the security off, Tesla popped open the bottle of hard liquor, as he ripped the shirt into long make shift bandages.

As he worked, the gunsmith, heard what was going on behind him, the yells of pain from Gunner made him twitch a little. He didn't hear what the earth pony said, but Sound's comments he did, "At the rate we're going, we'll be dead by the time we get home."

"Sound, lets not talk like that," Tesla said, as he began to drench the strips cloth in the whiskey, "Always better to assume the best of a situation than it is to assume the worst." Looking back at the thorough drenched 'bandages' the gunsmith quickly nodded in approval before floating them over to where Gunner lay. "Alright Gunner, this may sting...and honestly not the absolute best, we should definitely get real bandages when we can, but for now this is the best we got."

With his magic, the unicorn laid the sterilized bandages on the injuries, quickly wrapping the injuries. As he finished with the current wound, he then waited for Arc to pull out the next piece of shrapnel before repeating the process.

"Alright, now for the rest of them..."

(Medicine 30, Luck 6: removing the rest of shrapnels from Gunner)

(Rolled 70+9)

The remaining pieces of the extinguisher were smaller and not so deeply etched, so Arc had easier time removing them. He used the remaining rags bandaging Gunner, hoewer these wounds would close themselves after a while, so additional healing of them would not be neccesary.

As Arc pulled out the last bit of metal, Gunner started to relax. The pain had simply vanished thanks to the med-X long before Arc had finished, but the feeling of something twisting and moving in his flesh was uncomfortable.

The last bandage finally secured, Gunner got up with shaky legs, feeling ready to collapse under the effect of the drug.

"Okay" said the stallion, leaning on the tank to avoid to fall on its nose. "What's next ?"

Arc finished dresing of Gunner's wounds and looked at him. "Next, we call the elevator again and deal with the last ant tank. If everyone is ready, take a position next to the elevator. We obviously can hurt those things, if we concentrate our firepower enough, we can take him down. Any questions?" said Arc looking at other's faces.

"Any questions?"

"Yeah, how many bullets do we have left?" The Pegasus asked aloud, sounding concerned as he raised a hoof to point that little thing out. "I'm running low on shells and magazines and I'm starting to worry about what else we're going to face...."

(omg so shooort >.<)

Tesla walked up to the pegasus, patting the pony on the shoulder "Sound, there is a reason I've been gathering shells, and casings. If we get to a Reload Station, I can make us bullets and you shells, provided, I find some primer, but as it stands, we should be fine. I mean you proved that you can hit rather hard without weapons, and we have Kipper," the gunsmith pointed to the diamond dog, "And not only that, this place has already proven that it holds a lot. My guess is that deeper down there can only be better finds....so lets go find them, hit that elevator and lets get going."

"Ok then, lets get this rolling." said Arc and moved over to the console. It seemed that it was undamaged by the brawl.

Arc tapped few buttons on the console and the engine of the elevator came to life again. The platform could be heard moving from under the metal plates covering the shaft.

"Everyone take position around, and get ready."

As Arc Weld started pulling the shrapnel out of the goggles pony, Kipper winced and looked away. It brought to mind... unpleasant things. Despite his best efforts to keep his mind on other things, he found himself wondering if Avant Garde was still alive.

When the shrapnel was all out and the bandaging done, Kipper looked back, catching the goggles pony as he stumbled.

“Next, we call the elevator again and deal with the last ant tank.”, said Arc Weld. “If everyone is ready, take a position next to the elevator. We obviously can hurt those things, if we concentrate our firepower enough, we can take him down. Any questions?”

Sounded good; Kipper didn’t feel the need to add anything.

“Yeah, how many bullets do we have left?” The song pony asked. Kipper gave him a short, narrow-eyed glance. “I'm running low on shells and magazines and I'm starting to worry about what else we're going to face....”

“Sound, there is a reason I've been gathering shells, and casings. If we get to a Reload Station, I can make us bullets and you shells, provided, I find some primer, but as it stands, we should be fine. I mean you proved that you can hit rather hard without weapons, and we have Kipper.”

Kipper grinned to himself at the casual flattery, but then he realised they were probably talking about him being the biggest wall of meat on hand. They didn’t even have hands.

Oh, speaking of shells and casings... “Tesla Spark, I forgotten.” He produced the ragged sack of bullet casings from his bag and held it up. “I found much casings in the before room.”

He obediently followed the ponies back to the elevator, clasping his wounded paw. The pain still stung like a radscorpion.

Arc Weld input something into the console. “Everyone take position around, and get ready.”

Kipper did so, drawing his machete and standing far enough from the elevator shaft that he thought he’d be outside of surprise-mandible-grab-range.

Judging from the last time they summoned it, the elevator was probably going to be a while. Kipper looked down the shaft to see how far off it was; sure was a long way down. Suddenly, he had an idea; he raised a hand and immediately felt foolish for doing so. “We can stopping the elevator before top and drop heavy thing at the ant?”


((Sorry for the extended absence!))

The Pegasus nodded his head and gave a bit of a smile towards Tesla's way. Well at least he can MAKE them some more bullets, that's a worry gone and reassured! "Hey it's either that or the ant chews off Arc's hooves and we don't want that now do we..?" His smile grew a little bit as he cracked a joke in an attempt to lift up the group spirits. “Tesla Spark, I forgotten.” Kipper piped up and quickly dropped down a sack FILLED bullet casings and held it up. Sound Wave could almost hear a Hallelujah chorus from the responding look from Tesla. “I found much casings in the before room.”

"We're saved!" He gave a weak cheer, sharing bright smiles with everypony and dog in the group but his expression changed when he spotted Kipper's wounded paw. "Kipper you're hurt!" He exclaimed, pretty much pointing out the obvious as he quickly dug into his Saddlebags and took out a health potion. THE Health Potion, the only one he had left and hooved it over towards the Dog. "Here drink up, I'm sure as buck I don't need it right now."

Mustering up a smile for the Diamond Dog whilst Arc fiddled with the controls, Sound Wave's attention was diverted as Arc warned everyone to get ready. Pulling out his Shotgun, the Stallion spread out his wings, ready to take flight at a moment's notice as he aimed his weapon at the Doors in case there were more ants behind it.

The elevator was slowly ascending to the top. Arc could see the plates covering the shaft start to move to make room for the platform, when he was sure they were open enough, he hit the emergency stop button, and the elevator stopped. Several low banging sounds could be heard from the shaft, and when Arc moved to the edge of it, he could see that the armored ant was trapped there.

"Good plan Kipper, we got him trapped. Now what?"

“Kipper you're hurt!” the song pony almost yelled in alarm. He produced a bottled potion from his bag. “Here drink up, I'm sure as buck I don't need it right now.”

Kipper hesitantly took the potion and then looked at the wound on his paw. Sure, it hurt, but he didn’t think warranted a whole healing potion. “Thank you, song pony,” he said, putting the potion into his bag. “I saving for later.”

A horrendous metallic clank echoed up the elevator shaft. Arc Weld looked down the shaft for a moment. “Good plan Kipper, we got him trapped. Now what?”

Kipper looked down at the huge ant trapped on the elevator platform. They’d probably need something pretty heavy to hurt it.

“Searching something for drop,” he responded, turning around to scan the room for something heavy yet luggable. Something dense, perhaps; maybe pointy and impaley. They certainly couldn’t use another box of bottles unless they wanted to cover the elevator platform with thousands upon thousands of glass shards.

“Maybe taking some crate, empty from bottles, putting some different heavy things inside?” He started looking around for some suitably large objects.

"Well... we could simply fill one box with glass shards and dump it on him, we have plenty of both and it will be pretty heavy..." Arc though aloud.

"Alright, Gunner, Tesla and i will gather the glass, i don't want any of you getting unnecessary cuts. If you could move the box near the shaft, Kipper?"

“Okay, boss,” Kipper said with a nod. He was worried about the glass making the elevator platform effectively unusable, but he supposed Arc Weld probably had something in mind. Maybe he was just planning to clean it up with his fancy pony magic or something.

He walked back over to where that crate had fallen on the other ant, watching the floor for glass shards the entire way. When he found a sufficiently large container, he checked it for damage from the fall – a bit of trauma from the impact, but it looked like it would hold together long enough for their purposes. The lid was resting on a bed of glass shards a short distance away; he picked it up by the corner and dropped it into the container.

He grabbed the thing and dragged it behind him, but the ear-bleeding scrape of the metal-on-concrete – plus the tinkling of glass shards threatening to dance under his feet – gave him pause. He stopped, hefted the damn thing onto his shoulders (damn was it heavy!), and lugged it back to the elevator, where he dropped it to the ground with a reverberating clang.

He patted the lip of the crate’s open top while he gasped sweet, refreshing wasteland air into his lungs. “Box being ready for glass and drop.”

"Got it," Tesla, hurriedly moved over to the the smashed remains of the bottles. Sure they were now simply glass pieces, but matter was still matter so it would still weigh the exact same. Gathering pieces, Tesla began adding the shattered remains to the box, as much as he could care with his levitation before returning again and again.

Acr's, Tesla's and Gunner's effert slowly filled the box with glass, until it was as full as they could stuff it. Arc placed a lid in the box and gestured for Kipper that he can go ahead when ready.

Kipper nodded and turned to look down the elevator shaft at the Brobdingnagian ant, hoping against reasonable expectation that the damn thing would sit tight under the glass-filled box.

He threw a single glass shard down at it, hoping to attract its attention. When it looked like it was most of the way in the target zone, he shoved the box over the edge with (hopefully) as little excess force as possible, so as not to overshoot the target.

Fingers crossed, he waited for the crash and the sound of cracking chitin.

The box hit the ant squarely on his back and fell aparart. When the glass shards set, the ant was still very much alive, but the part where the impact happened was riddled with shards sticking from him, and his exoskeleton there was clearly cracked.


Ant1: Heavily damaged

Tesla looked down the elevator shaft, even after getting struck by crate, the thing was still moving, much more limping then actually moving, the fact of the matter, the thing was still alive. "Damn these things are resilient." The gunsmith said, pointing his Blaster at the insect. "Might as well try and put it out of its misery so we can continue."

Pulling the trigger, the blaster came to life, firing beams of energy at the creature.

AP: 8 (Firing Prism Blaster 4x with +10 modifier)
Trait: (Trigger Discipline)
Energy Weapon: (38)
Luck (5)

"Well, that's one crushed looking bug." Sound Wave muttered as he stared down the elevator shaft, ears pinned back as the very loud crash had managed to pierce his ears from all the way down there. But as it twitched, the Pegasus' jaw nearly dropped to the ground. "How in the-?"

"Damn these things are resilient."

"No shit." He agreed, still in a state of disbelief that the ant refused to die even from THAT. "Might as well try and put it out of its misery so we can continue." With a nod of his head, Sound Wave pulled out his pistol and aimed at the half-dead Ant below and unloaded his weapon into it's already broken form.

Drew 9mm and Unloading bullets into Ant with 9mm Pistol.
AP: 8 Draw (1), Firing with 9mm x6 (6)
Traits: (Trigger Discipline)
Guns: 42
Luck: 3

Arc did a few rough calculations in his head, the bloody box had to impact with force of at least one and half of a kilomac, why was that goddesessdamned bug still alive?

Still, it cracked the things exoskeleton, now they could get some damage done.


(AP:7
Drawing weapon(Prism Rifle):1AP
3x Shooting (Prism Rifle, giant ant):6AP, EW60, Luck6
)

The ant, just sitting in the shaft surrounded by glass shards and remains of the box that was dropped on it, was an easy target. The flood of lead and light from above had easy time obliterating him.

The way was now free.


Ant1: Dead

Arc went to the console and and made the elevator finish its path to the top. Using his magic he swiped the platform clear of glass and ant remains, and motioned the others to get on the platform. When everyone was on it, he tapped the console and hopped on the elevator before it descended down below.

The underground station opened into a simple hallway with a small crossroads leading into three direction, each having its own bulky metal doors.

As the elevator came to a stop on the lower floor, Tesla looked at the three paths, each leading to a respective large sealed door. "Well now, this is intereting," the unicorn said, walking closer to one of the doors, looking for a panel, console, or anything that operated the door in front of him. "I can honestly say this is one of the last things I would have expected from a place like this, I mean one big storage room, maybe two...but three? The basement must be three times as big as the rest of the place, what with doors like these. Then again Arc, you did say it was built like a fortress...so what now, see whats behind door number one and move along that way?"