The Beginning of the End [Closed]

Cross just blinked at Starry, he didn't care about the firebombs, he figured he'd eventually die from.

"Hmm....." it wasn't like Cross could use the ammo, but he was more perplexed that she felt the need to back up the threat. So he gave her the ammo

"Well since we got that handled, do you mind if I take the Unicorn uniform?" Cross asked, hoping it was a real deal and not just her trying to mug him.

"I'll trade you my combat barding for a dozen of your party grenades"

"Please let me keep this pistol Starry! I didn't even get anything from the armory I unlocked. Just please let me have this one pistol!" Scrap begged Starry. "Energy weapons are the only type of weapon I can use! Please let me have it!"

Hearing the sound of another door opening, Kes packed up his gear and headed across the hall. When he got there Starry was in the process of trying to convince Scrap and Cross to give up what they had taken, going so far as to completely ignore the locker on the wall.

Starry's loss, Kes's gain.

What have we here? Kes thought, pulling out a rather strange looking suit of light armor. It was well made that much was for sure, interesting design too. Light armor was not usually Kes's thing but hell if it was of any value...

Starry sighed. "Just give me the damn pistol," she said to Scrap. "And Mr. K, that armor is mine, I just haven't got around to taking it out yet. If I'm gonna be running around fighting robots with a sword, I'll need it. Just lemme have it, for my own sake."

"WAIT NO!!!! you can have my combat barding.....just please...let me get the uniform....." Cross's deep desire for clean, nice clothing was becoming a bit too much to hold in.....

As Kestrel examined the armor, he would notice that it had a hood attached to it, with a hole presumably for a unicorn's horn. Several small gems lines the hole, possibly to enhance a unicorn's magic or something to that effect. Whatever the armor was, it was probably made for a unicorn in mind.

Cross glared at Starry, the uniform....was too beautiful, he threw off the old scrap of barding that was called armor

He walked over to Kes and with as much power he could muster, he telekinetically tried to rip the uniform form Kes's grasp, he had his own Cloak, he didn't care if that ripped.

"Thank....ughh....you.....KESTREL!!!" Cross pulled some more

"CROSS!" Starry shouted. She used her own magic to try and hold the armor in place in Kes's talons. "We are not a band of savages! Kes, would you please give me the armor so that I can sort this out?!"

When Starry demanded the pistol, Scrap finally decided to stand up for himself.

"NO I WON'T GIVE YOU THE DAMN PISTOL! IVE BEEN A PUSHOVER FOR LONG ENOUGH! I GOT THE PISTOL FIRST AND THE ONLY WAY YOUR GONNA GET IT IS IF YOU KILL ME. GO AHEAD AND BLOW UP YOUR DAMN BOMB, I DONT EVEN CARE ANYMORE!"

And with that Scrap headed out into the hallway and rejoined the other.

Now normally, Kes would not just hand over something like this. Twas a nice suit of armor after all. Sure it looked like it wouldn't stop much, but armor is armor. The little hood and the specific dimensions of the suits construction sort of made wearing the thing impossible for Kes though.

Look's Like Starry and Cross were in luck.

Cross's desperation garnered no positive reaction from Kes however, not did Starrys attempt as securing the suit. The gryphon had tightened his grip on the armor, and his talons were not letting go.

"Shut up n' stop. Now." Kes said to the group in front of him, his cold, gravely voice laced with enough ice to freeze balefire.

He didn't shout or scream, or even raise his tone above its usual low rumble. He didn't have to. Kes may not have been very charismatic but when he spoke only the foolish and the dead did not listen.

The three before him would be wise to back off for a bit, unless they really wanted to see what Kes did to those that didn't listen to one of his orders.

Cross staggered back, he couldn't beat Kes's grip and Starry's magic combined together, but the griffon made up his mind so there was no point arguing now.

Cross dropped the spell and just sat there looking at Starry and Kes look at him

"What?"

"Fine! Keep the suit!" Starry shouted at Kes, before turning to Cross. "I don't even know why I'm trying to help you! You're a jerk, AND a thief! Now if you'll excuse me, I have a gift for a very selfish little filly, that just stormed out of this room!"

Starry trotted out the door, with the spark batteries held close. When she got to the hallway, she tossed them as hard as she could toward the back of Scrap Parts's head. "I WAS GONNA LOAD THE WEAPON FOR YOU!" she shouted, before wincing at a pain in her shoulder.

She had apparently been left empty-hoofed in regards to the new loot. "Would somepony PLEASE tell me they have a suit of armor they'd like to share? I don't want THIS happening again, and neither should any of you!" Starry pointed her hoof at her shoulder. It had been fully healed, but it was sticking out of a hole in her stable uniform.

Cross's pupil shrank, he hated when Starry started yelling. Since it was usually always her. She just stormed out of the room. Leaving Kes and Cross there.

"Umm Starry, you forgot the combat barding....I don't need it anymore, you can have it?" Cross facehoofed, she wasn't even paying attention, so he just turned to Kes

"May I pleased have the uniform Kes? you can't use it, it'll improve my performance as your teammate, and I'll throw in this plasma pistol I found"

Scrap had just finished storming out when he heard Starry yell that she was just going to load the gun for him, and the spare batteries pinged off him. In a small moment of clarity in his shattered mind Scrap felt sorry, although not quite sorry enough to apologize.

Without looking back Scrap picked up the batteries and headed into medical. Maybe he could find something there to help his sanity.

"I am stuck with a bunch of hatchlings...great." Kes thought to himself his grip on the suit slackening a bit. He had been planning on figuring out who had the best combat abilities and then giving the suit to them. Kes knew Red, aka Cross, well enough to know he was very skilled with his magic. He knew next to nothing about Starry's abilities.

"Cafeteria. Now." Kes said to Cross voice loosing its full chill for now. The big gryphon said setting the uniform in his pack for the moment. It would find a new owner soon enough.

The bird stopped by the Armory and picked up that other set of Police barding before he entered the main hall/cafeteria. The Gryphon was not one for talking, he hated it. But if he was going to survive this little operation he needed to straighten out the others, let them know what was going on.

Kes had been a slave before, he had worn one of these collars for years, he knew what the things did, and it wasn't pretty.

Walking into the cafeteria Kes set the armor down on one of the tables then balled up a fist like a hammer and banged on the tabletop.

*BANG BANG BANG*

"Everypony listen up." Kes said his voice once more growing as cold and empty as the Void. There was no anger in his voice. No joy, no sorrow. Just cold, unyielding steel. Steel that demanded every one of the occupants of the room perk an ear or else. Steel earned over years of experience. Steel that would either provide support the group, or break every one of their backs without mercy.

Sky waiting in the hallway heard the fighting inside the room, was pity they fought for items. She saw Scrap head out and headed towards another hallway, to the other doors. Sky followed him, as she hoped to find something useful with him.

Scrap was heading into the medical room before he heard Kes banging on the table. For some reason he couldn't fathom he turned around and headed into the cafeteria.

Starry followed Kes into the cafeteria begrudgingly. When she arrived, she allowed herself to fall backwards and sat on her flank. She saw everypony listening to Kes, and it bugged her a bit. "This is exactly what I tried to do..." she whispered to herself, under her breath.

Zestari hung around the back of the group as they added Malachite to the group, whom she gave dark looks whenever he looked over towards her, and began making their way through the robot infested building.

When the armoury was opened and equipment began to be acquired by the system of 'dibs'. She waited for things to be sorted, except for something that Starry, Cross and Scraps seemed to be fighting over down the hallway that concluded with Starry pelting ammunition at Scrap Parts, before quietly stepping forward into the armoury.

From the armoury she grabbed the unclaimed reinforced leather barding, and quickly donned it. It was a bit tight on her, but it'd suffice for now, and then she followed Kestrel into the Cafeteria before leaning over to Starry.

"I think there's still some armour left in the armoury if you're interested. I'm not sure how good it is, though." She shrugged and looked back towards Kestrel as he started thumping a table demanding attention.

"I honestly don't want to think about the loot right now," Starry whispered back to Zestari, "I feel like we're traveling with a bunch of stingy little foals. I've never felt so frustrated trying to give ponies things."

Sky heard the bangs of kes's talons, against something. not good, Sky immediately followed scrap, to the cafeteria.

Seeing that he had the attention of most, if not all of the ponies in the Cafeteria now Kes began his little speech. The bird disliked talking, so his speech was short and to the point. Even then it was the longest string of words the gryphon had said to anyone in the past few months, if not years.

"I ain't one for words, so I'm saying this once. We work as a team or we die. I've worn these collars. I know what happens when they go off..." Kes started pointing to the collar around his neck.

"We ain't leavin' till this op is done. Shit like what just happened? Gets folk killed, fast..." Kes continued before tossing the most recent armor he had acquired from the armory, Police Barding, at Starry. Cross got a face-full of officer uniform a half-second later.

"We separate the loot according to who does what, and who needs it most. Meds to medics, ammo and guns to appropriate parties. Armor, tech, n' energy weapons work the same damn way..." Kes trailed off again giving the group in front of him a few moments to mentally catch up before again continuing.

"We need ta' figure out who does what n' get whatever we loot to whoever needs it ASAP. You got a question, ask. Example, anyone here need a gun?" Kes then pulled out his 10mm SMG, setting it on the table along with the ammo for it.

"There ya' go. I have one more rifle to lend, not give. You find a weapon you can't use, bring it back to the group. We'll sort it out from there..."Kes furthering his speech giving Scrap, Cross, and Starry a glance when doing so.

"Now everyone say what you do, what you need, n' what you want. I'm Kes, Sniper. I need .308 n' .357 ammo. I want a side arm, revolver if possible." Kes stated then pointed at the pony farthest to the left; The zebra specifically.

"You next, pass off to your left." Kes said.

Throughout the speech Kes's voice had never wavered or raised in volume. It was cold, it was gruff, and it was not to be questioned. If somepony tried to argue right now, Kes would no doubt pull his shotgun out and take aim at their skull without even the slightest hesitation.

And to think, Kestrel wasn't even angry yet. Annoyed maybe, irked possibly. But not angry.

Zestari nodded at Kestrel, not willing to raise his ire, stepped forward then turned towards the group. "I'm Zestari," she paused for a moment, "I guess I'm an alchemist - smoke bombs, healing pastes, poisons, the usual stuff. So if you find medical supplies that Techno can't use, send them my way. Sleeping potions and poisons aren't going to be useful against robots, but hopefully the smoke bombs will ruin their sensors if we need them." She tapped her chin, and looked away for a moment, "I might be able to make some sort of sticky glue bomb, too. Might be able to jam up the parts that allow them to move."

"Also, if you find any chems and you're not planning on using them, I might be able to work them into something either more useful or less addictive. Or possibly both." She smiled.

"As to what I need?" She sighed, "I don't have a firearm, yet. I'm not particularly good with them. But for what I can't kick or hoofpunch, it'd come in useful." She eyed the SMG. "If somepony has a simple pistol they'd be willing to part with - and some ammo, that'd be useful. The SMG is probably a bit much for me."

"What I want? If somepony finds some shoes or even power hooves, I could put them to good use, and add some sting to my blows." She mock-punched the air to punctuate her point.

"I think that’s everything,” she clicked her tongue, “Starry, uh, I guess you're next..." The zebra resumed her place with the group.

Shutter had absolutely NO idea what was going on, the combat had ended too quickly for him to load his .45 and join in (Which turned out to have about 3 bullets left...), and afterwards, he had just been sticking close to Starry, seeing as out of everyone here, she was the only pony he really knew (Well, aside from Zestari and Sky, but he'd only known Zestari long enough to buy a camera from her, and he hadn't been able to talk to Sky much...).

As far as he could tell, now that the fighting was at a hold, they were supposed to speak up about what they needed...what did he need? He'd have to think about that quick, since it looked like it was now Starry's turn...

Starry jumped up to her hooves. "My name is Starry Night and I like explosions and science and stuff! I don't have many explosives, so once I run out, I'm only gonna have my sword to fall back on. I'm alright with energy weapons, but guns confuse me!"

Starry lifted up the police barding that Kes had thrown to her. "Thank you for this, Mr. K! I need some armor, because I don't have many explosives. Once they run out, I'll have to use my sword. I'm actually an amateur Sword Mare, but the Sword Mare armor isn't very practical against lasers, so armor like this will help."

"Oh, and I apologize to Mr. K, since this really isn't the place for product placement, but Shutter, Sky and I will likely be publishing a new edition of the Sword Mares magazine soon, and I would be delighted if you would be interested in purchasing it. Thank you." Having finished that, Starry sat back down. She wasn't quite over being angry, but sharing like they were doing was certainly helping to cool her nerves.