Answer the Call [closed]

A trail of blood oozed is way down Zuberi's face, staring at the left nostril and dripping off the bottom of his chin. Before him was a convoy of slavers. Ponies armed to the teeth, mushing along the explorer zebra and half a dozen other ponies who had all been taken into slavery. Zuberi was quite shook up, and confused. One moment he was sitting in some ruins, eating an apple and drawing in his journal- the next, he was being jumped, and tied up, and fit with an explosive collar!

All he could do to avoid keeping his head from going boom was be a good little slave, and march when the big mean pony with the machine gun said to. How hard he had just bashed him in the rib cage with the butt of his rifle was irrelevant. Move meant move, or go splat. The slavers had taken away most of their belongings, but Zuberi still had his radio. Well, a walkie-talkie, really- but it still did the trick. He had it stashed under his shemagh (scarf), he had had the chance to conceal it while the slavers were going through his saddle bags. Now all he had to do was wait until the opportune moment when he could send out a distress message.

Night time came sooner than expected. Thick clouds moved in, and threatened to rain all over the wastes. The slavers built a fire, and chained the captured ponies and Zuberi to a tree outside the camp. The slavers sat around, drinking, talking about how they should pass by Stableton on the way back to their head quarters. All kinds of ignorant stable ponies too far out, easy pickings; was one thing they mentioned. When they had all drank themselves to sleep, and the fire was burning out; all the slave still sit wide awake.

Zuberi chose then to slip out his walkie-talkie. As soon as he did, the other slaves took notice and sat silently watching. "I'm going to call for help," he said to them. To which they nodded quietly. Zuberi used his to switch it on, and it came on with a loud chirp. Everypony flinched, but the slavers didn't budge. Too drunk and passed out.

Zubi muted the walkie, switched it to broadcast on all channels, pressed the talk button, and held it up to his lips. "My name is Zuberi, six ponies and myself have been captured by slavers and are being held captive by the river roughly ten miles outsides Stableton. Please, help us, don't let us be enslaved," the zebra pled in a whisper, then let go of the button.

He looked back at the walkie, and dared to turn the mute off- but couldn't. It might wake up the slavers. All he could do, was set it down next to him, wait an hour, and repeat the message.

By sunrise, he had not slept, but had called out for help eight times. Hopefully somepony would answer.

Atriark took out a pair of binoculars and looked around. The sun was setting fast and he wanted to get a good bearing on the landscape ahead of him before night fell. Making sure he at least could remember the majority of what lay before him, Atriark decended the hill. He put his binoculars away and returned to Tesla.

"Alright, five minutes before night fall. Let's hoof it as close to Stableton as we can. But we'll still be at least an half a morning out." Atriark said trotting towards the direction of Stableton.

The two continued their travels in relative silence. Occasionally one would crack a joke and cause the other to laugh or they'd have a short conversation about architecure or about medicine. Despite this, their conversation usually died down quickly and the two friends continued trudging onward. The traveled about a half an hour into the night when Atriark recieved a notice. "Frantic broadcast found." Atriark stopped and hastily tuned in.

"... and myself have been captured by slavers and are being held captive by the river roughly ten miles outsides Stableton. Please, help us, don't let us be enslaved," a male voice said low, but frantic.

"Damn it... We have to help." Atriark said, turning to Tesla.

Rad was out flying early in the morning, he liked flying in the early morning air, the sun was barely rising, so it was still cool outside... Rad didn't know where he was exactly, but from his height he could see Stableton in the distance... Quite far in the distance.

"Dang... I flew far this time... Well, better be headed back. Uhm... Well you done it again Rad... I guess i'm staying in Stableton again."

Rad was hovering in the air, and turned to make his way to Stableton when something caught his eye, a group... But something wasn't right... He could see that some of the ponies in that group were chained to a tree... "Slavers." He thought to himself... Rad knew he couldn't really do much, there was considerably more of them than there were of him... But he couldn't just let then get away either.

Rad thought for a moment... Then decided he would at least follow this group for a while, see if an opportunity came up to free the slaves, or get help... So he dropped out of the sky far away from the slaver group, and carefully watched, they were only silhouettes in the distance, but for now he wasn't willing to get closer, unless they spotted him. He made sure he had kept Stableton behind him, so if anyone was coming from there he could warn them away.

Sky was chained up to a tree in the middle of the night and it was raining, yeah this was not her best day to fly and practice her tricks in flight. when all of a sudden she got tired and feel asleep on a boulder, worst mistake of her life. Now she was captured by slavers with a collar set to explode with practically no way out. Sky sighed as she looked around in the rain, her gear was gone, even her armor. She was just a plain pegasus mare with a collar and pipbuck, stuck beside a slaver camp. Sky saw this day couldnt get any worse, till she saw a lone zebra talking to his scarf. She couldn't make of anything until she saw the device in his scarf, a walkie talkie? Sneaky zebra managed to hide one of those in his scarf, looked like she wasn't doomed after all.

after a while she feel asleep and woke up to sunrise, the zebra was still awake. He was desperate enough to stay awake all night and call for help? looks like he really wants out. Sky sighed and thought she should go and help him out if she could, "Hey Zebra, you been awake all night. You should get some while you can." Sky spoke softly to the zebra.

A light purple pesagi pony was walking around near the out skirts of Stableton, collecting random odds and ends. She was listening to DJ PON-3's radio broadcast when she happened to glance down at her Pipbuck, seeing a new broadcast. Scrap Box switched to the new station with a smile, hoping to hear some new music. What she heard was a pled for help, "captured by slavers and are being held captive by the river roughly ten miles outsides Stableton. Please, help us, don't let us be enslaved," She must have clicked in during the middle of the broadcast but she heard enough. She jumped into the air and flew off to see what she could find.

Gunner was in his 'lab', freshly rebuild once again after his trip to the bottling factory with Arc and co.
As usual, the stallion was up late, this time trying to build a new pump for the water processing plant. Hoping to improve water distribution in the city, the earth pony still faced the mistrust of the citizens of Stableton, somewhat deterred by the supposedly numerous incident he would have, from their opinions, provoked during the last year or so. Not being allowed in the water plant was slowing him down, but he wasn't going to give up any time soon.

Not far from him, on a small table was resting an old two-way radio that Gunner had repaired months ago. Surprisingly, the device still hadn't exploded, and was set on a frequency traditionally used for emergency before the war.

"My name *scrtch* Zuberi, six ponies and *scrtch*self have been captured by slavers *scrtch* are being held captive by the river roughly *scrtch* miles outsides Stableton. Please, help us, don't let us *scrtch* enslaved !"

Gunner head snapped to attention from his works, a screwdriver in his mouth, ears flicking. "Huh ?"

Gunner ran to the radio, took the micro and pushed the button permitting him to transmit.

"Hello ? Are you here ? Where are you ? Hello ?" No one answered.

"Ugh, I was sure transmission worked !" In a hurry, Gunner started to work on the radio, trying to fix it as best as he could. Without spare pieces, it took him tremendous time for him to get it to work. He heard the same message several times between tests and now the sun was starting to rise, but Gunner was certain that the transmission was on.

"Hello ? Are you there ? Where are you ? I'll send somepony to help, where exactly are you ?"

Looking over the diverse instruments on the radio, the stallion was certain that the message had been sent, all he hoped was that whoever was sending this call for help was still able to answer.

The gear in Tesla's saddlebags rattled and clanked as he galloped next to his zebra friend, Atriark. As the two stopped, the sun having set almost an hour before. The pipbuck on the zebra's hoof flashed,

"Frantic broadcast found." the zebra said, looking at his pipbuck.

"Okay...why am I not surprised about this, it seems whenever we get out here there's some kind of problem we run into some kind of trouble. Alright lets find out what it is, play the message." The unicorn said with a sigh. He had wanted to get back to Stableton, and Sunny and his shop...not to mention it was technically Silver's turn to go out into the wastes, after what having abandoned it a few weeks back, but that was neither here nor there.

Ark kindly obliged, turning on the speaker of his pipbuck, as he tuned into the frequency. "... and myself have been captured by slavers and are being held captive by the river roughly ten miles outsides Stableton. Please, help us, don't let us be enslaved," Tesla looked up to his friend as the message ended. Slavers well getting rid of them would be doing the Wastes a kindness...but the fact that the frantic stallion over the radio said us, that meant more ponies, which was great, the unicorn loved doing any good he could in the Wastes, but...he was more worried about the fact the fact that there would be guards, and the more slaves one had the more guards there would need to be. He was a gunsmith...not a gunslinger. {I hope this isn't a bad idea...oh don't think like that! We have to save those ponies!}

"Damn it...we have to help them." Ark said turning off his pipbuck.

"My sentiments exactly!" Tesla said turning on his own pipbuck. he had gotten the frequency as well...why it didn't notify him...he'd have to tinker with this thing at some point. Flipping over to the map, a small icon blinked showing where the frequency originated. Marking it on his E.F.S, the unicorn looked to his friend. "Alright got the location follow me." Without another word Tesla burst into a gallop.

Zubi rubbed his eyes, and felt his ears flick up as a voice started to talk. He turned, and looked upon the mare before him. Zuberi was exhausted indeed, and it looked as though he was out of options now. He went to click his walkie back on, but the batteries refused to give out any more power. He stuffed it back into his shemagh and looked back at the mare.

"I would, but... Any moment now, those slavers might wake up... I think I'd be more tired if I fell asleep and had to wake up than if I just stayed up..." he responded, yawning afterwards.

"Oh come on !" The only answer to Gunner was statics. If the transmission has been sent, it meant that the problem was from the other side of the communication.

Without waiting any more time, Gunner grabbed his equipment, donned his armor, and ran toward the exit of Stableton. The Stallion had already lost too much time trying to repair the radio for nothing, and the slavers could be on the move at any time now. The slave said ten miles from the city, by the river. If he was quick, he could be able to find them before they've got too far, or else, try to track them down from there : seven slaves and enough guards to move them in the wasteland have a tendency to leave a lot of tracks.

Normally, Lightning would be in bed and asleep when night fell. But that night was an exception. He was busy refilling clips of ammunition, piling it neatly on his desk. A beep on Pipbuck would soon catch his attention. Checking it, he realized a new radio signal had been picked up. Usually, he wouldn't care. But again, that night was an exception. He played it and heard a voice come through. Ponies...caught by slavers near Stableton.

That was not good. And there was no way Lightning was going to sit by and let slavers capture ponies near HIS town. Quickly packing the magazines in his saddlebag, he tossed his canteen, knife, and a bit of food in his bag before putting on his armor. Each of his three weapons would be in their respective holsters in a matter of moments.

Stepping out into the rain, he didn't know where the signal came from but hopefully, the pegasus would be able to see the slaver caravan from the air so he put on his special flight goggles and took off into the skies. He didn't waste any time flying away from the town at full speed, keeping his eyes open for anything that might give the caravan away.

Sky only nodded to the zebra, he was probably right. If they slept the slavers might wake up and probably kill them or something, best to stay awake and ignore the call the for sleep. Though she wanted to know who this zebra was, probably someone she could help out later or the other way around but most of all she thought she could be his friend. "The names Sky, Whats your name?" Sky asked softly to him, she nothing else to do but make a friend.

Zubi finished his long yawn and turned back to the mare. He tried to lean back, but his shackled hooves made that difficult. He settled for leaning to one side on his hooves instead.

"Well, my name is Zuberi... Most just call me 'Zubi', though... Nice to meet you, just wish it were under better circumstances..."

"Yeah wish it was a better time to meet but i guess, anytime is as great as any." Sky tried to smiled, "Just hope someone comes to save us, even after the rain with last night." Sky sighed, she knew there was slim chance of anypony to save them but at least she made a friend. That should count for something? if not May Luna strike down her right now.....maybe not.

Zuberi nodded slowly, and looked to the slavers as he heard some commotion.

"Wake up, you idiots! We overslept!" one slaver shouted to the rest. They began to stir, but none got straight up. Lots of moans and grumbling rose up amongst the eight slavers, discluding the one who had just woken up. He appeared to be the leader, wearing thick, metal armor and wielding a sickening looking heavy machine gun at his side on a battle saddle.

He then approached the prisoners who were still asleep. "You too, worms! Out of your slumber you go!" he said, putting a metal boot into one slave's neck. The stallion sat up quickly and grabbed at his throat, gagging and coughing. Zuberi watched, and he noticed. "What are you lookin' at, Zebra? You eyeballing me?!"

Zubi blinked, and kept staring. The slaver pulled his hoof back again and planted it into his chest. Zuberi fell back onto his back, letting out a wheezing sound as he did.

"Yeah, that's what I thought!" the slaver said, turning back to finish waking up his men.

"Wait, how?" Atriark asked, confused. He looked down at his pipbuck and activated his EFS. A blue waypoint marker pointed directly at, and followed Tesla's rapidly disappearing form. "Yes oh omnipotant and all knowing Pipbuck!" Atriark said sarcastically as he galloped after Tesla. "Slow down and tell me how far off are we?" He shouted turning on his pipbuck's light feature, lighting up the area immediatly around him. "Turn on, your light."

Tesla continued galloping as fast as he could, hearing his friend's calls for a light and information, the unicorn began to run on three hooves as he checked his Pipbuck. The brilliant green screen lit up, blinding him shortly. Blinking he stared at the map. "Its about four miles from here!" the unicorn called back to the zebra. Turning off the map, Tesla made sure to keep the light on his pipbuck on. "Come on Ark pick up the pace, we gotta go! We can't lose them, who knows how long this signal will stay up!"

Rad watched from far away, he saw that the slavers had begun to move, so he used the opportunity to get closer, keeping low to the ground he slowly closed on the group... He could now clearly make out the slavers and slaves. "Hmm... What to do?" He mumbled to himself, he couldn't see any way of getting closer short of hiding in the tree... But the tree having no leaves would make hiding in it pretty difficult. Rad looked at the slaves and sighed. "I will get ya out..." Rad just wished he could get their attention somehow, just to let them know that somepony was going to help them, but any idea he had, always left op the high chance of being spotted and killed, or worse, captured. Even being as close as he was risked him being spotted, due to his bright green and black mane and tail.

Ember still hadn't quite come to terms with what had happened... He was now a slave, he hadn't said anything to the other slaves... He was too scared to. But he thought about just what had happened. He had found a good ruin, relatively undisturbed... There had been a decent amount of salvage in it too, but in the night while he was sleeping the slavers came. They took all his stuff, chained him up, and dragged him off... Ember had done nothing but cower during all this, making it easier than they had thought.

So now Ember was cowering at the feet of one of these slavers, as they shouted for the slaves to get up. "I said GET UP!!" The pony slammed a hoof into Embers ribs, causing him to cry out in pain and roll as fair as his chains would allow. But the slaver simply followed, grabbed Ember by his mane, dragged him to his feet and looked him in the eye "Next time, you get up, or I will blow your head off!! Understood?" Ember whimpered and nodded "Good, now stay on your hooves!!" The pony moved on, leaving Ember stood there, shaking in fear and breathing heavily from the pain.

The evening's events had been chaotic, but somewhat similar in fashion for the brown unicorn who was chained up with others who had been caught also. She had just been hiding away from a group of raiders when she found she'd stumbled upon some slavers. She was easily the one who had struggled the most when being caught, but she sort of stopped the moment that she was clamped with an explosive collar and manacles.

Currently stood there, waiting for when the slavers would awake, the unicorn already seemed accustomed to slave life. And the moment they did wake up, she was already stood waiting to walk wherever they led. So she was left alone until they would start moving.

Stay quiet, do what they say and let them do what they want.. She thought to herself as she watched a familiar face, as well as a Zebra, getting harassed by the slavers for different reasons. She hated herself for not doing anything to help either of them, but she knew what they might do if she did try and do anything.

Damn...he's right. Curse night! We have a higher chance of breaking an ankle then we have reaching the spot before the signal. Damn it. Allons-y! Atriark thought, picking up the pace. There was no way he was going to allow the pony calling for aid, to be sold into slavery. He could see Tesla's little bubble of light a short distance ahead. The waypoint marker on his EFS still mysteriously pointed to Tesla. How in the stars do you know what to do? the stable 113 zebra mentially said to the thing on his forearm he had had his whole life.

As the sun began to creep over the horizon, arriving at the marker, Tesla slid to a stop at a base of a hill, before quickly surveying the area. Next to the was the river the pony over the radio had talked about. Just beyond the hill was a tall, long dead tree, and the sounds of angry voices, followed soon after by a weakened cry of pain...yep this was the place. Staring ahead of him, The unicorn began to count the red markers his E.F.S displayed.

Eight...there were eight slavers, and seven green marker, more than likely the slaves...{Fan Fucking Tastic} the unicorn thought...that made eight targets, and seven possible pony shields if the slavers were really that cowardly...but still eight against two...he didn't like those odds. There was one thing going for the two, they had the element of surprise on their side. Which in his opinion could make all the difference.

Looking over to his friend, the gunsmith spoke in a hushed whisper, "Alright then...how do you want to do this Ark?"

Lightning continued to fly, continuing to keep up his speed despite skipping sleep. He was staring at the map on his Pipbuck. 10 miles outside Stableton near the river. His EFS was up and it helped him to know what direction he was flying. The river was a fairly big landmark so he had quite a bit to fly.

Eventually, the sun began to rise and the pegasus was getting close to abandoning his search. Trying to find a slaver caravan flying in the air in broad daylight was not the best idea. He could easily get shot out of the sky or worse, captured as well. According to his Pipbuck though, he was getting close to the source of the radio signal so he pushed on a little farther, hearing the sound of ponies shouting getting louder and louder as he approached.

It didn't take a genius to know that these voices were most likely from the slavers. Lightning didn't hesitate to dive down and come to a landing. Looking around, he didn't see anyponies near him so he pulled out his hunting rifle and began to scout out the area with his scope. His EFS told him already there were at least eight slavers and perhaps seven slaves. Lightning would lay down prone on the ground, resting his rifle against a rock and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike.

She had been flying for awhile now, forgetting to mark the broadcast site on her E.F.S. when she first headed off. Scrap Box had been going the wrong way for about seven miles before realizing it. She had turned around and flew off in the correct deriction this time. Seeing the camp she touched down where she thought she wouldn't be noticed, sixty yards away, 'This should be far enough.' Looking up to see if the had any pegasi guards, she saw what she belived to be a pegasus slaver. 'Poop, I'm no good at arial combat,' she sighed and pulled out her pistol, she wasn't going to use it yet, but she wanted to ready, 'I'll just follow them for now. See what I can learn.'

The leader slaver turned back and faced the slaves, then looked back to his men. "Alright... Cut these pieces of meat down and hook them up to the wagon. We got another ten miles until we reach the main camp where we can dump these worthless hides off and go back out to find better candidates."

At his word, a pony picked up a key and proceeded to unlock a padlock holding the chains around the tree. Meanwhile, the tents were being broken down, and supplies replaced on the wagon.

Zuberi rolled onto his front, and let out a painful moan. As he did, a chunk of plastic fell out of his shemagh. He looked at it, and gave a pout. That slaver put his boot right into Zubi's walkie-talkie and broke it. Zuberi then grimaced at the thought of just how much worse it would've hurt had he not had the walkie as a buffer between the heavy, metal boot and his chest.

Another slaver approached, he had messy hair and a dirty face. He wore a torn up cowboy hat, and cheap shades, along with a toothpick in his teeth. He held a hunting shotgun in one hoof, and let it rest against his shoulder as he looked over the slaves. He had been the one that traveled along at the back of the pack, watching all the slaves, it was his job to keep them in line.

He looked over the seven ponies before him in chains with hidden eyes behind the shades. "I don't get why we don't kill half of these weaklings now," he groaned at the pony fiddling with the lock. "I'd say only half of them would get us anything, anyway! The rest is just dead weight. I mean look at them! That ones skinny as a twig, that one's sick, that one's puny-" He turned and looked at Zubi. "And that zebra, nopony's gonna buy a damn zebra no way no how," he added. Zubi was unsure if he should've felt offended or relieved.

Despite his lack of exercise, Gunner was making good time thanks to his natural Earth Pony endurance, and according to the map displayed on his pip-buck, the river wasn't far now. Slowing his pace, he headed for the location on the last transmission, careful not to draw any unwanted attention to him. No doubt the raider would be gone once he reached the camp site, but from there he should be able to follow their tracks, theoretically.

Then something downed on him : how was he supposed to save seven slaves all by himself ? The best he could hope for was to find their main camp and come back later with reinforcement...