Slaving Away (Group A) [Closed] [Finished]

Mek lifted a rotting finger to his mouth and and shushed the blue mare. They were staring at him. Just like every pony else. He took his finger off of his mouth so he could speak. "We'z here to get ya all out, but da ones wif collas can't leave 'till we find da key." He turned to speak to Ginger about unlocking the cages when he noticed a presence in the room. The scent of pony was already in his nose, but slaves smelled like filth and misery. This smell was cleaner, but still smelled slightly like slave. Slaver. He immediately turned in place and dived in towards the silhouette, teeth bared.

---Charging towards what I think is Custard Apple. Following up with two unarmed attacks (non-lethal) (STR 12 unarmed 55). Also attempting to intimidate him into surrendering.

Xeshir frowned. "What do you mean by most of them?" She took the key and after examining it for a few moments she gave it back to the slaver. She then turned to Ginger, since Mek had slipped inside the room, and due to the lack of gunshots she assumed he was alrighy, and said. "Take him with you to disable the collars. You, Mek and Sanura are staying here to free the slaves. Make sure they stay calm until everyone is freed, then take them through the tunnel and the hill, once there explain that Stableton saved them and all that stuff, then hurry back and help us take down Grace if we are still fighting him." Xeshir then trotted to the staircase and signaled Viktor and Sanctity to come with her. "Stay silent." Was all she said as she began to trot upstairs.

(Make slaver talk. Same stats as before. Trying to trot upstairs undetected. 25 Sneak.)

Diesel nodded at Xeshir as he took up the rear of the fighting group, if anyone thought to surprise them they would see a giant dog ready to chop away. Making sure to step lightly he double checked his gear to be sure he was ready to jump in at any moment. "Ready when you are Xeshir," Diesel whispered as they ascended up the stairs.

(sneaking behind Xeshir attacking if anyone shows up to attack them; Sneak 25, melee 70)

Ale nodded as he enveloped the key in his levitation field. "Right, come on sanuara." ale said as he waved for the newly armored mare to go into the room, "You too family buck." he added as he started to push the slaver POW into the room.

Once inside to room ale's eyes widened at the sight of the seer amount of slaves. "Celestia have mercy." he muttered. "Sanura give me a hoof with this guy." He said as he sat the slaver down in front of the unicorn mare while he moved to open the cage door. "Don't worry everypony, your all going to be okay." ale said reassuringly as he slipped one of the keys into the lock.

(Opening slave pins, all AP for dodges if something goes wrong)

Sanctity burst round the corner as everyone piled in, his gun hovering in front of him as he skidded across the floor. He swung it around as he scanned the room, looking disappointed as he noted the lack of slavers to shoot at and lowered the rifle. He decided to looked at one of the empty cages, playing with the lock that hung unlocked on the door, softly spinning the top of it round and round for a moment, before clicking the top of it in place and placing it in his packs. If Xeshir needed rocks or rock like objects to fake out grenades again, he had her covered.

Sanura nodded and trotted in, letting Ginger handle the key and the gathering of the slaves as she smiled to the first one that was brought to her, "C'mon, let's get you all fixed up and get you our of here hmm? Stableton's come to rescue you." she said, looking over the slave as best she could to make sure he or she was actually fit to make the trip, if the pony was not? She'd start up the pale pink glow of her horn once more to begin trying to heal the poor thing.

"Please do your best to work with us, we're not going ot be able to get everypony's collar's off immediately so the quicker and more quietly we get all of you out the more likely we'll have time to fix that problem up before anything bad happens okay?" she called out just a bit more loudly to the rest of the group. "Just be calm and quiet, we'll take good care of you ponies, I promise."

She would do the same for as long as she could, giving quick looks to make sure everypony could make the walk before moving onto the next.

[Speech 59 to calm and convince the collared ones]

Mek pounced towards the lurking figure, diving atop a panicking mare, maroon in colour, (Mek unarmed: 18+27 = 45, 5+27 = 32 – botch!) who shrieked and flailed in terror. She somehow managed to dodge the pounce and skittered back, screaming in panic. When Mek lunged forward to attack again, he tripped on a raised floorboard and fell on his face.



Ginger quickly opened the cages, most of the slaves within showing carefully restrained joy, as though not fully believing that they were finally free. A few of them slowly shuffled towards the door, still suspecting a trap or ploy. Once a couple had stepped out without any surprise repercussion, and into Sanura’s unexpected care, the mood changed, and they started filing out more quickly, some lining up before Sanura to complain about whatever ailed them.

Suddenly, one of the slaves, an olive earth stallion, yelled and jumped at a navy unicorn, kicking him to the ground. Most of the slaves looked shocked, but were more interested in getting out of here than staying to watch, while a few were transfixed in stunned horror.

“Not so funny now, is it?” he shouted, pinning the navy buck down while he brutally beat him in the face, provoking no defence but a terrified whine. “What’s wrong, jerk? Don’t have anything clever to say this time?”



The slaver Xeshir was standing over (Xeshir speech: 72+32 = 104) dipped his head. “I mean all of them! All of them,” he corrected. He seemed on the verge of panicking. “Some of them just stick when you take them off, is all.”

Before anyone in the group could get more than a few steps up the stairs, a slow, rhythmic thump began descending towards them. Suddenly, a hulking figure rounded the stairs heading towards them, the top half of his face concealed under a chunky metal helmet. In one meaty hand, he held a large, square, bullet-proof shield. His other hand held the throat of a struggling pony.

Hopscotch.

“Hello, my little ponies,” a velvety voice said. “I hope you don’t expect any mercy for this gross infraction.”

Ow. His head was one of the few places where he had nerves, and as the floor came rushing to meet him, he could only think of how he had mistaken a mare for a buck. He lay sprawled out on the wooden floor, content with absorbing his incompetence for a few seconds. "Sorry 'bout dat. Thought you was a Slaver hidin' in da corner." The dazed ghoul sputtered out. This wasn't the first time his special leg had gotten caught in a floorboard, but it was certainly the most painful. He slowly got to his feet and pulled the pneumatic plate out from under the floorboard and reattached it with a hiss of steam and a mechanical whirr. He got to do his very favorite thing today, which was talking to people who were already terrified of him.

---Trying to calm down the mare (Charisma 2). If that doesn't work, then I will physically restrain her and put a paw over her mouth to shut her up. ( Unarmed 55)

Diesel let out a growl from the bottom of his throat as he look at Grace stepping down the stairs. Analyzing what he saw before him he tried to find an opening he could get around Grace with, anything he could use to draw this fight away from the stairs. Finally giving up as the minotaur took up just as much room as him in the small hall. As Grace stepped down he took a step back with him, not gaining or loosing any distance. As soon as he saw he chance he would jump at Grace and try to bite his hand that was holding Hopscotch up.

(Biting Graces Hopscotch arm; Unarmed 60, Per 5, Str 11)

Once the cage was open ale stood back and watched as sanura started to aid the slaves, a warm feeling passing over his heart. His attention was grabbed when one of the slaves jumped onto another, "Prisoner dispute, just what we need." Ale moved into the cage and used his magic to pull the olive buck off and pin him against the wall. "OI buddy what ever he did to you, you can settle it later, right now we need to get out before grace decides to come down here. So play nice or i'll leave your ass here." Ale kept the buck in his levitation field as he turned to sanura, "Hey sweetheart, check on blue." he said pointing to the pony that was just beaten to a pulp.

(Speech-30: attempting to convince the olive buck that now is not the time.)

Xeshir frowned as she finally saw Grace, her rage only increasing as she saw he was holding Hopscotch, the only slaver that had turned to help them. Her body tensed as she waited for an opening to strike, and she got it as suddenly Viktor moved forward and attempted to bite Grace. Xeshir quickly rushed towards him and jumped, her mind started to think of what to do in case Grace reacted.

If Grace was quick enough to attempt to use the bulletproof shield as some sort of barrier against the zebra, Xeshir would attempt to use it as a jumping platform and move behind Grace before bucking him several times on his legs.

If not, she would simply smash the iron hooves in his chest and follow it by several strikes to the arm holding the riot shield.

(Attacking Grace with Iron Hooves. Doing actions above according to what happens. 4 queued attacks. 7 AP remaining. Unarmed 62. AGI 8.)

Sanctity jumped as the voice boomed out around the room. His body reacted before his mind even registered what was happening, the gun jerking in his magical grip as he emptied it towards the voice [Firing 7 shots, 31.5 AP], before moving away from his hulking mass, jumping behind the thickest bit of cover he could find [2.5 AP].

[8 AP remaing, 2 Dodges]

Sanura nodded, having seen it start but she wasn't sure if she should've gotten involved, Ginger thankfully took the time to try and stop it forcefully, "Please everypony try to be quiet." she said as she heard the sounds of what was going on in the other room, "We're in enough danger as it is okay?" she said to them as she went to the injured slave and immediately set to heal him of his broken skin so that he wouldn't be all bruised up and swollen for an already potentially dangerous trip.

"Maybe somepony else should go help them... just in case?" she said, looking to Ginger and Mek, talking a bit lowly, obviously afraid that Grace might hear her...

(Mek speech: 41+6 = 47) The mare continued to scream at Mek, weakly beating at him with her hooves. “Get away from me! Keep them away from me!” she screamed, trying to squirm away from him. “I didn’t do anything!” She tried to get to her hooves and scamper past him.

His diplomacy having failed, Mek had to resort to restraining the mare (Mek unarmed: 41+27 = 68; strength: 83+60 = 143). He managed to scoop her up as she tried to pass him, and with a few moments of struggle, held her in a strong grip, where she was unable to do much more than whimper in terror.

When Ginger tried to telekinetically lift the aggressing pony, (Ginger magic: 2+13 = 15) there was a glow of magic, and... not a great deal else. The olive buck strained against the levitation field – which barely seemed to move him – wrapped his hooves around the neck of the navy unicorn and began strangling him. “Get lost, pal,” he yelled at Ginger. “This is between him and me.”

With the navy pony being throttled by the olive pony, Sanura was finding it a bit difficult to offer him any healing.




The moment that Viktor and Xeshir moved towards Grace, he grunted through a disappointed frown. “Wrong move.” Grabbing Hopscotch’s head in his other hand, he twisted, and there was a sharp crack; Hopscotch stopped struggling and went limp, his head twisted around sideways.

As Viktor jumped forwards, Grace threw Hopscotch’s body, (secret rolls!) which slammed into Viktor, knocking him to the ground. Grace took the opportunity to produce the business end of a chunky flamer from a holster on his side. Viktor got back to his feet and lunged at Grace again, (Viktor unarmed: 75+30 = 105, 49+30 = 79) slashing the minotaur’s chest once before he was pushed away.

Xeshir moved to attack Grace. He watched her determinedly, and quickly interposed his shield. Xeshir was unable to use it as a platform, but did manage to sidestep around the minotaur. (Xeshir unarmed: 72+31 = 103, 1+31 = 32 – botch!, 86+31 = 117) She kicked him once in the side and again in the back; her third strike caught an armour plate and twisted her hoof slightly, causing her to wince in pain.

Sanctity fired seven times. (Sanctity guns: 99+32 = 131 – crit!, 1+32 = 33 – botch!, 100+32 = 132 – crit!, 3+32 = 35 – botch!, 26+32 = 58, 9+32 = 41, 71+32 = 103) His gun was unable to keep up with his movement, seizing between shots. However, those shots that did go off missed the minotaur’s armour and shield, punching holes into Grace’s flesh.

Viktor: 223/253
Grace Under Fire: Moderately injured

Well that didn't work and now he was -yelling- too! The sound of gunshots going off in the other room as she grimaced and looked around quickly before backing up some before shed light her own horn up and try to seize the violent pony strangling the unicorn and fling him backward, as she spoke in a loud hiss, "Do you want to die in here so you can get back at this pony for something that you can fix AFTER we get out!?" she insisted, "Just hold your grudge until after we get out okay? We're in a dangerous spot and they're out there fighting for stupid ponies like you that don't know when to bite back their anger and you're going to throw it away so you can strangle somepony right this second!?" she was trying to do it without threats as best she could.

[Magic 50, speech 59]

Xeshir suddenly noticed what Grace had done to Hopscotch, stopping for a second to watch the body of the ex-slaver as a new feeling started to build over her. Rage. Hopscotch had turned around, he had been determined to help and even when things didn't go as he liked he had sticked with them, maybe because he didn't have another option, but Xeshir wasn't thinking straight and could only think of what the minotaur had done.

Xeshir backed away from the minotaur before delivering another wave of attacks aimed at his goat legs with the intention of crippling him, quickly moving around to avoid begin hit.

(Attacking Grace's legs. 3 queued attacks with Iron Hooves. Use remaining AP to dodge.)

Mek finally had her shushed, but the timing of the folks upstairs was impeccable as always. Just as he had relatively calmed her down, the rattling noise of Sanctity's repeater came from upstairs, followed by the thump of a body hitting the floor. He gave the mare a stern look, and whispered "We'z ain't 'ere ta hurt anyone. Keep quiet an' nothing's gunna happen to you" into her ear. Letting her go in front of Sanura, motioned to Sanura that he was going to check out what was going on upstairs.

He ran out of the doorway and onto the stairs, the scene of the combat with Grace unfolding in front of him. Viktor and Xeshir were on top of him, so he couldn't risk taking a shot with the plasma pistol. Hopscotch was on the ground, looking like a tube of used toothpaste, and Sanctity was cowering behind a piece of wall. He grunted with indifference and barreled towards the thick of it.

---Charging grace. Attempting a shoulder tackle followed up by 1 gauntlet attack, and then an attempt to disarm him of his flamethrower. (STR 12, unarmed 55)

Ale frowned when his he failed to break up the fight, he really needed to work on his magic. Thankfully sanura was there and she proved to be the better diplomat in the past. Still if she failed then they might have to resort to knocking out the olive buck and carrying his sorry ass to stableton. If she was able to wrench the two bucks apart then ale would help the navy pony get as much distance between him and strangles megee. "What's his problem?" he would ask.

Ale would also levitate the slave collar key over to their slaver POW and say, "start getting the collars off these ponies, don't try anything stupid." As he did all this ale would keep an eye on the door. There where still slavers in this building and ale didn't expect them to leave without at least one of them coming in to check on their source of revenue.

(Perception-7: keeping lookout for any slavers. Guns-60: fire one revolver shot at any new threats that come through the door. use remaining AP to dodge and get into cover)

Diesel let out a billowing howl as he watched Scotch die by the hands of Grace. As he charged in he smiled as his claws scarred his underbelly, sliding down the stairs he scoffed as Mek tried to squeeze past him in the stair well. Shoving Mek aside he took back up the stairs hell bent on pushing Grace back up and into a more open combat zone. Digging his shoulder in under Graces chest he pushed up with all he could taking the minotaur as far as he was able to.

(Moving Grace upstairs into the room; Str 11, Unarmed 60)

Sanctity's body began to protest against the speed it was going at as he fed another reload into his rifles tube [Slow Reload, 7AP]. He could feel the fire behind his eyes beginning to die, the embers of it just barely keeping his body in the heightened state. He needed more. He needed it now. He reached into his saddlebags as he huddled down, but found nothing in his little chem pouch. Large amounts of swearing followed this revelation as he desperately searched for something, anything he could use to keep himself peaking, but despite desperate searching, nothing turned up. He huffed and slammed a hoof into his flimsy cover, dust falling off it as he did so. His desperation turned to anger as he brought the rifle back up. This was all Grace's fault, if he'd just stayed away, he wouldn't have had to use his chems up. If he killed him now, the others would let him tear apart the med bay, right?

He popped up from his cover like a duck in a shooting gallery and fired again, emptying the rifle at the hulking mass [31.5AP, Guns 65], half expecting the thing to blow up in his hands, or blow him up. The rifle must've been heavily modified, probably an increased calibre or something. Half the time it seemed to do something between "bugger" and "all", but when it worked, it just tore shit up. If all Slaver guns were like this, he was hitting the armoury right after the medbay. He ducked back down and slipped 3 rounds back into the tube, his concentration fading as he did so [3AP, Slow Reload].

Sanura reached out with her magic (Sanura magic: 58+25 = 83) and restrained the strangling pony’s forelimbs, preventing him from throwing any more blows. (Sanura speech: 95+29 = 124) The angry buck seemed to calm himself slightly, and turned his head towards Sanura. “Yeah, alright, but once we’re outside...” He shot the bloody-faced unicorn a dark look – “he’s gonna get it!”

The slaver trembled as Ginger forked over the key. “But... they’ll kill me!” The slaver stood there, not sure whether to risk injury by following Ginger’s instructions, or refuse and take whatever punishment he might deal out. Meanwhile, Ginger found a nice spot near the door, out of sight in case somepony decided to march their way through. Nopony did.


Xeshir attacked Grace with three vicious blows. (Xeshir unarmed: 60+31 = 91, 100+31 = 131 – crit!, 66+31 = 97) Her rage-fueled attacks hit hard, and for just a moment, she thought she might have dislocated the minotaur’s leg. He let out a bellow of pain.

Mek charged across the room, (Mek unarmed: 17+27 = 44 [shoulder barge], 24+27 = 51) only to stumble on the stairs, bringing his shock and awe to an unceremonious halt. He salvaged what momentum he had left into a swipe at Grace’s throat – only to be foiled with a quick swipe of the minotaur’s shield.

Viktor (Viktor strength: 66+55 = 121) shoved Mek out of the way, (Viktor unarmed: 17+30 = 47, 71+30 = 101), and after finally managing to grapple Grace around his shield, (Viktor strength: 18+55 = 73) he failed to push him farther than a single step.

Sanc reloaded, his magic glowing almost like a small star as every action was performed in a blur. He fired seven rounds. (Sanctity guns: 99+32 = 131 – crit!, 11+32 = 43, 27+32 = 59, 69+32 = 101, 32+32 = 64, 29+32 = 61, 98+32 = 130 – crit!) Four bullets hit the wall or the shield, but one punctured the makeshift brest plate on Grace’s chest, and two more found unprotected flesh.

Grace was surprised by the aggression of the attackers, and gritted his teeth. He backpedaled slightly, and raised his massive flamethrower. (Secret rolls!) All of the would-be heroes on the stairs were hit by a wall of searing flames; Viktor and Xeshir were able to duck under the worst of it, but Mek was caught unawares and hit full on.


Viktor: 191/253 (on fire!)
Mek: 231/295 (very on fire!)
Xeshir: 182/214 (on fire!)
Grace Under Fire: Severely injured

Diesel gritted his teeth as he felt the searing flames licking his fur. Digging his paws down he proceeded to hack at Graces feet hoping to stumble him and make him drop on his back for an easier fight. Flipping his machete in his hand he went lunging forward to slash at his heel while grappling his waist still.

(Attacking his legs; Melee 70)

Xeshir´s eyes grew wide as she felt a burning sensation around her hide. Fire! Even with all her years of training she couldn´t help herself and panicked, letting out a cry and quickly rolling around in attempt to put it out as she was unable to focus on attacking the minotaur, her mind only caring about putting out the fire that covered her in the most terrible pain.

(Using all AP to put out of the fire by rolling around. Remaining AP to dodge.)

Sanctity started to shake, slumping against the wall he'd taken cover against as he fumbled with the bullets he was trying to feed into the rifle. He wanted to scream as his muscles collectively seized or cramped up as reallity caught up with -and then overtook- his mind, everyones once sluggish movements becoming too fast to comprehend. He eyes felt blurry as he blinked against the tears that were coating his eyes as he fought against his lurching stomach. He slipped four more rounds into the gun (8 AP, Slow Reload) and recocked the gun weakly.

He took in a deep breath through clenched teeth, and stood up. His legs burnt like they were bathed in acid, his horn ached dully, everything else felt like it was carved from lead. He threw up in his mouth as he levelled the gun weakly. He couldn't do it. He couldn't do anything like this. He pulled the trigger and ducked back down [9 AP, Guns 51]. He slumped back against the wall, sucking in a few shaky breaths before replacing the round he'd fired [2AP, Slow reload]. He tried to concentrate as he sat their. He could hear the roar of a heavy weapon, but he couldn't tell what it was. He groaned and shuffled around the edge of the cover so he wouldn't have to stand up next time he shot.

[19 AP left, 2 Dodges @ 21]

(Don't worry about taking so long Zesty and Kipper, the results are definitely worth it!)

Fire. The fire must have loved him, because he soon found himself in its warm embrace. He would have disregarded the flames, if not for the sudden realization that the picture of Rarity was protected by nothing more than his armor (which was on fire at the moment). At that moment he was conflicted over whether to go and help finish off Grace, or to run back down the stairs and extinguish himself. Sod it, it's not like he liked any of these ponies anyways, and he wasn't about to charge up the stairs towards a waiting flamethrower where there would be no space to avoid it. He was about to suggest retreat to the bottom of the stairs when he remembered the slaves (and Sanura) were probably still down there, and bringing an irate minotaur with a flamethrower wasn't the best idea. Stepping up the stairs, he would use Viktor's attacks as his opening.

---after Viktor goes, I'll put all of my AP into grabbing Grace by the horns and twisting his neck if Viktor hits at least once. If Viktor fails, then i'll put all of my AP into instead disarming Grace of the flamethrower and firing at him with it twice.