Sins of the Mother

"Whatever decides it wants to funnel into scope." Trails answered Kes, unslinging his repeater.

Soon as the gryphon was ready, which didn't take long, Trails walked off to the open plains nearby the encampment. Old railcars stood in the distance, the perfect spot of a camp. He nodded to Kes after pointing to the abandoned cars. He chose a red boxcar for his perch when he got to his encampment. It had a large hole rusted into the side of it, perfect for waiting in ambush. No doubt Kes would get a higher vantage point.

Survival Roll: 78 + 20 = 98 Amount Roll: 4 Choices Geckos, Night Stalkers, and Coyotes

A coyote came walking out of their den on the horizon, a hunk of something in their jaw. Trails smiled at the diagram of the food chain as it played out before him, took aim, and fired. The shot was a direct hit to the dog's throat, killing them in seconds. A pair of coyotes came up after this, each running towards the noise of his shot. He took aim and let one round off after each of them, both missed.

Getting the general idea from Trails, Kestrel found a good vantage point in the form of a rocky outcropping just a few dozen feet from Trail's own position.

Pulling himself up the rock face as quietly as he could the griffon quickly set himself up into a firing position and took aim at the kill-zone before him.

He watched silently as Trail's quarry came into view. A small pack of Coyotes. They'd be easy prey, no need to assist Trails for now.

Kestrel's own game came into play a few moments later. Attracted no doubt by the sounds of gunshots. A small pack of Nightstalkers, led by an alpha it would seem. They would make for a good meal.

Taking aim, Kestrel started his breathing, firing four times in total. The first round tore through the Alpha's throat. His next shot went wide bouncing off the ground near one of the smaller creatures. His next two shots however made up for his failure. Both tearing into the chests of both remaining Night Stalkers.

They dropped without a sound.

Trails didn't sweat the misses, just refocusing on the chest of the fastest approaching dog. With a click on the trigger, their chest burst into a crimson cloud. The next shot went straight through the next coyote's carotid artery. They fell into the sand leaving a red skid. Trails was about to holster his weapon and go dress the kills when a forth head poked out over the horizon. He waited patiently for them to go sniffing at the bodies of their packmates, then splattered their brains across the ground.

The only remaining Nightstalker barely had time to react before its head exploded violently, leaving it dead with its brethren.

Pulling back from the scope Kestrel began to look over the field yet again, looking for any more game that had unfortunately wandered into the area.

Noticing movement Kestrel dropped back into his glass and pointed his rifle towards the direction of the movement and let the new targets filter into his line of sight.

Geckos, four of them.

*BANG*

Make that three.

Trails hopped out of the box car and began walking to the freshly slaughter coyotes, trying to decide what he wanted to make them into. He turned his head to see Kes blast the last of his prey, a pack of nightstalkers. Smiling, he knelt next to the body of the first dog and began dressing it when another shot rang out. His ears turned in the direction of the sound before he slowly looked up. Just a few geckos.

He unslung his repeater and took careful aim. *Crack* The sand kicked up in front of the furthest one. *Crack* He made up for the miss by turning their head into a puddle of gore. *Crack* The rock next to the next target fell into two pieces.

Kira had kept quite as she walked and followed Zestari around together with Sky as the zebra talked about many different thing, some of it the gryphoness did not really care about like which plant did what or what their names was she would still not remember what any of them was named when the day was over so during that part she did barely listen to what she had to say.

Still when she talked about zebrica her homeland Kira listen with great interest, she had never really know about her own root she just walked around calling her self a gryphon with out really knowing what that really meant. Still she wounded how it would be if she would ever be able to get to the griffon kingdom and how that place looked like after the war.

"Hm... oh yeah it would be nice if we could see something ells then this rubble." Said as she was pulled out of her thoughts by the sudden change of subject.

Taking aim at the only two remaining targets Kestrel squeezed off the rounds and sent some fresh lead flying down range. The geckos never stood a chance.

The first ones head popped like a melon, the second was slammed right into the chest; knocking both flat on their backs.

Dropping out a magazine, and popping in a fresh one Kestrel holstered his rifle and began making his way down the rock face he had chosen as a firing position.

Time to collect his quarry with Trails.

Trails slung his repeater back onto his back and returned to dressing the coyote's, each producing a large steak for lunch. He decided to leave their hides, the exit wounds ruining too much for it to be of any real value. The geckos were of course more fruitful, each giving them steaks and hides, an the nightstalkers provided their valuable venom and meat of their own. He gave Kes his share before breaking a few branches off a bush and starting a fire.

After a few minutes he broke the silence, asking his friend in the usual staccato manner "Safiya?"

Wordlessly Kestrel had collected and secured his share of game, following Trails to the makeshift firepit that he was making up; taking a seat across from him.

"Safiya?"

The question could have been taken in a couple of ways, being left as open ended as it was. Kestrel figured he knew what the stallion was trying to ask though, and he already had an answer ready for that one.

A shrug of his massive shoulders and a low rumbled "Too soon to tell." signaled that Kes was not interested in 'Rookie' yet; at least not in that way. Maybe that would change one day though.

A few moments passed before Kestrel decided to return the inquiry, his usual cold calm filling the air like a growl. He was already pretty sure of the answer, but hey 'eye for an eye'

"Zestari?"

Trails was unsurprised at the answer Kes gave, they weren't the type to get swept up in first impressions. Neither was he, at least not as far as he knew. Still when the gryphon asked him about the mare it took him a moment of hard thinking before he could answer.

"Maybe," He said, weighing his words carefully, "there's something there, no doubt."

"Good luck then." was all that Kestrel had to say in reply. Once again going silent, eyes focusing on the fire before him; watching the flames flicker and dance as they slowly grew.

Zesty was a good mare from what Kes had seen and experienced in the past. She might be good for Trails, help calm that hard headed attitude of his down a bit.

Sky looked over to Kira as they followed zesty through the rubble, only to have gone exploring with zestari. Never really a nice time to explore back in the wasteland but out here was different, still she just enjoyed to be here with two other friends, one being a zebra and the other being a gryphon. Still Sky loved to hear about zestari and her native lands, Sky would probably go on about her life in the stable. Only to ponder what to tell from it or to just go on and see where the road takes them.

"hey Kira, and zesty. Know where we are headed?"

Zestari looked at Kira, “Something else?” She then looked over at Sky, “We’re not going anywhere in particular.” She frowned. “There isn’t really a lot to do around here, I mean, we could go back to the Khan’s camp, but I don’t think we’ll find anything fun to do there, either.”

She stopped mid stride and tapped her chin with a hoof. “Ooh, I do have somewhere nice. There’s a lake not too far from here; beautiful clean water. On a warm day like today it would be nice to go for a swim.”

“What do you two think?”

Trails tabbed out another smoke from the pack and lit it off the newly born fire. "Thanks," he mumbled "maybe I won't need it. Whole thing's moving a bit fast. 48 hours ago I was a caravanner without a caravan, now I'm a Great Khan. Guess fast is just the way things are moving. What you in the mood for?"

"Food." Kestrel replied calmly to his friend, shuffling a bit and pulling out his rifle, popping out the mag and starting to go over it carefully, making sure nothing had popped loose during its last usage.

Trails smiled and got to work making something substantial for them. No doubt the big gryphon was craving meat after all the vegan catering Trails had done for the other ponies. Cutting the last of the radhog from last night into sections he set it on a pan to fry while he prepared the rest of the meal. Black broth, he had some cold in a canteen but it was best hot and fresh, before the salt cured. When both were ready Trails motioned for his friend to help himself while he got some beers out of his saddle bag, tossing Kes one.

"Thinking about a swim after this, you game, or done with the cardio portion of your day?"

Kes caught the beer with his left hand and simultaneously reached down and grabbed one of the larger bits of Radhog with his other. His talons pierced it with ease, and in moments he'd snapped it up and was reaching for another.

"Sure. Did strength and agility this morning, bit more cardio wouldn't hurt."

"A lake you say, that is something i think i can enjoy out here." Sky said as she thought of a lake is something that she could do and looked to Kira. "I'm in and Kira you up to it also?" Sky said to kira as she was an eager pegasus to get her to go with them.

Kira nodded to the two mares as she thought about the lake, a clean body of water was something that she could not really picture in her mind but if they where going to go to it anyway she really did not need to picture it any longer. "Sure I am up for it."

With lunch finished Trails gathered his gear and headed down to the lake. He expected it to be crowded, the popular hangout for the Kahns, but it was damn near abandoned. With a shrug, he dropped his gear on the shore and dove in.

Packing up his rifle, Kestrel followed after his friend silently. Getting back to where he had begun Kestrel again removed his armor and took flight. A few dozen feet above the water level Kestrel turned and dove down, plummeting into the depths of the lake with a loud splash.

Trails splashed around in the water doing his best to get into a rhythm. He'd never been a strong swimmer, more of one to avoid the giant pools of irradiated water rather than take a dip in them. On the rare occasions he did swim it was like now, mostly treading water until he decided to let himself sink to the bottom before fighting his way back up. It was far from graceful, but helped him cool off at the end of the day, or middle as it was now.

Under the surface of the water Kestrel relaxed himself as best he could and started to slowly swim about; moving blind beneath the murky waters surface. Stroke...stroke...stroke...stroke.

He punctuated his movements with a flap of his wings, working the muscles harder than air ever could. It was by no means an efficient means of swimming...but Kes wasn't here to wind down. He was doing yet another work out as his friend relaxed.

His muscles began to ache, and his lungs burned for oxygen but Kes kept swimming, forcing himself that much further before finally surfacing. He didn't just rush up however, he took his time...easing his skull up and out of the water, eyes scanning about as finally his nostrils came into contact with the air and he exhaled.

Slow. Controlled. Breath in...and out. Kestrel thought to himself treading water from his place in the lake just as Trails came up for another breath.

After a few minutes spent soaking in the lake a loud boom roared across the desert. A second later the concussive wave of the blast followed behind, forcing the water back in a giant wave. Trails did his best to stay above the surge but his minor skills failed him and he was quickly dragged under. When he hit bottom a hard buck against the sand sent him back up, where a thick cloud of smoke waited to greet him. Something was going down, in a big way.

He ran from the lake and pulled on his gear as fast as he could. His mind had made the only assumption it could, NLR, they were attacking. Retaliation for yesterday's firefight, and they weren't dicking around anymore. He slammed his repeater into its battle saddle and ran over the small hill separating them from the field that led into the camp. He could see the circle of trailers, where the chem labs had once stood, was the source of the smoke. The main entrance to the camp was clogged with ponies in tan armor.

"We can't win this." Trails muttered to himself. Surprise attack by an overwhelming and trained force. This wasn't just an attack, this was a death sentence. Quickly the stallion's mind went into minimal loss mode and he started prioritizing lives to save. "Kes, get Zestari out of the combat zone. I'll rally with the Khans and do my best to get everypony else out." He barked without a second thought.

He knew of an old path out of the camp, that needed to be kept a secret as long as possible. The only way to do that was to give the NLR a target in the complete opposite direction, that of the lakeshore. He'd have to do his best to look like a force ten times his size, not a small task for somepony with just a repeater and a .45, he'd have to make do.

He targeted four of the troopers' backs. Not going for kills, just looking to make himself a thorn in their side. *CRACK* One trooper fell as a geyser of red erupted from between their side. *CRACK* Dust kicked into the air intfront of his target, startling them. *CRACK* Another hit, a minor one that left the buck swearing but far from dead. *CRACK* The fourth buck's head jerked as the helmet was torn away. He still breathed but looked more than a little dazed. A good start.

200 NLR Troopers

150 Great Khans

Kestrel had followed a similar path compared to Trails, getting pushed under and then surfacing quickly. Just like his friend he was swimming for shore in seconds and in the process of pulling on his armor when Trails barked an order his way.

"Copy that."

Kes had to get zesty out of the combat zone...only issue was he didn't have a clue as to where the mare was. He'd have to start his search immediately. He decided to take the back way towards the camp, maybe if he was lucky Zestari would be there, if not...well if not things were going to get messy and Kes was going to have to wade into the battlefield to find her.

That was not an option Kestrel enjoyed thinking about.