Nothing but the Shirt on your Back.

Tesla smiled as the group began to leave. "Thank you again guys thank you all so much." checking his gear one last time, everything looked good. Heading toward the door, Tesla looked back one last time at the empty shop. "Don't worry Mr.Powder, I'll bring this shop back to its rightful glory...I promise."

Your group of ponies leaves the safety of the Stableton walls, the day itself is warm, warmer than usual, there is a slight breeze, causing the dreary clouds up above to twist and turn, layers of the grey clouds, ebbing and flowing over one another. Following along the path leading North, your party ventures forth, Along the group walks, Tesla, Silver, Arc Weld, and Spark Gunner, While in the air, taking in the surrounding area fly Lightning, Sky, Jack, and Sound.

From Stableton the trail at first appears to be unmarred and altogether in a rather good condition, (for a dirt road that is), however as the land around you begins to rise and fall, gradually at first, but soon they rise clear above you, the path dependent to do likewise, evidence of fire fights begin to appear. At first they are small, such as casings, bullet holes dug into the ground. The further you get away from the settlement, the more prominent these signs become. Scorch marks from explosives, craters made from close range shotgun blasts, even a discarded limb or two. Before any of you can question what may have happened here, the sound of yelling and gunshots just ahead of you is heard by someone in the group.

Lightning walked ahead of the not-so-little group, using his experience from the herb pickup for Zestari and the caravan trip with Trails to help guide him. The path was relatively easy to travel until the land began to look more like waves in the ocean. Going over each rise and fall, he would stop the group every 30 minutes to send one of the pegasi or just take to the air himself to do a recon flight. So far, nothing of interest happened yet and no news is always good news.

Eventually, the terrain would be narrowed down to one path that the flightless members of the group had to take. The pegasus didn't exactly feel secure being stuck on a single path because that would increase the chances of ambushes but with this many pegasi around doing flights around them, they should be ok...hopefully.

As they pushed farther and saw the signs of battle around them, his ears would perk up when he heard the sounds of gunfire. Holding up his hoof, Lightning quickly stopped the group before any of them tried to play hero and run off without proper guidance. "That doesn't sound good. Sky, Jack, Sound, take to the sky. Find out what's going on. Do not engage if you don't have too. Everyone else, weapons out but don't fire just yet. Move fast and stay light on your hooves. If we're lucky, we can stop whatever it is that is going on. Now let's move!" Drawing out his SMG, the pegasus would start moving along the path a little faster, making sure to keep the element of stealth in mind.

Sky walked down to the path with the others, Nothing out of the ordinary. The 30 minute recon flights were good to keep an eye out for anything out in the wastes, nothing in particular could be seen. Sky trotted down with the group with nothing on her mind, just the to see a couple bullet casings and disturbed land around the group. Something happened here, a firefight of sorts. Some firepower is being used if there were grenades craters to scorch marks found around, the sound of yelling and gunfire could be heard a bit away from the group. They were close to fight, that was when Lightning told the pegasi to go and check out what was going on. Sky nodded to him and turned to Jack and Sound, "You two, follow me." She told the two, with her wings unfurled. Sky took to the sky and went towards to the sound of gunfire.

Gunner took his gun in his mouth and started to move low to the ground, waiting for orders. If a fight broke, he'll finally be able to test his resolve. If he turned back now, he'll never be able to do what he swore himself to before the smoking ruins of 113.

Too bad the stuff in his mouth couldn't zap shit...

Silver floats out his hunting rifle with his magic. He cocks it and keeps an eye on the tops of the hills. Silver mutters "Bring it on you raider bastards."

Jack took to the skies, following Sky and being careful. He didn't mind being in the sky anymore. He followed his orders to the letter.

Sound Wave kept himself in somewhat closer to the group despite being supposed to hang back with Jack. With the steady beat of his wings as he flew along side them. They traveled a good distance from Stableton and everything seemed to be fine, every now and then one of the Pegasi, himself included, would be sent off to scout out the area ahead and come back with just more distance and clean grounds ahead... That is until the signs of firefights began to increasingly show as they went farther and farther away. Ooh, looks like they've been at this for awhile... He mentally grimaced, his gaze befalling a mutilated limb half buried in the dirt.

Sound Wave could already hear the sound of gunfire by the time Lightning had gestured for all of them to stop. Guess he heard it too. "That doesn't sound good. Sky, Jack, Sound, take to the sky. Find out what's going on. Do not engage if you don't have too. Everyone else, weapons out but don't fire just yet."[i] Like we have a choice? The Pegasus nearly blurted that bit out but quickly held his tongue, no time for that now, they have to act! [i]"Move fast and stay light on your hooves. If we're lucky, we can stop whatever it is that is going on. Now let's move!"

With a quick nod of his head, the Pegasus quickly drew his 9mm, his weapon taken from his Saddlebags and tossed in the air for a bit before catching it by the handle with his mouth. As a resounding Ch-chik was heard he waited....

"You two, follow me."

Almost instantly, his instincts kicked in. A small grin spread out across his face as he tossed his mane and grinned at Sky. "Copy that." Spreading out his wings, he immediately took to the skies after her.

As the pegasi grow closer to the distant sounds of gunfire and panic, added to it are the macabre yells and jeers from what could only be Raiders. Soon your group sees the scene play out beneath you. As far as you can tell, there appears to be five raiders, moving toward a ruined house. Three of these raiders fire their small arms at the structure as they advance, while one has a hatchet, the other a tire iron.

(small arms, 10mm pistol, 9mm pistol, saw off shotgun. and i need you guys to post you AP, if you can. Ill try but will help me if you do, and how many time you can fire.)

Jack aimed his 9mm, but stopped. He could ruin the whole scouting mission for a few shots and reveal them in the skies. He flew up next to Sky, and spoke to her. "Should i fire?" He said, looking down to the raiders.

Lightning finally managed to get the group far enough to where the path began to dip and they could see what was going on below them. From what he could see, there were five raiders attacking a building. This was not going to be easy. Everypony in the group's weapons are out of range except for Silver. They had to move closer but that meant going down there and exposing alot of the ponies. He could order the pegasi to start their assault but he had a feeling that the others weren't going to sit idly by letting only pegasi do the fighting.

Finally, Lightning decided to let the group go down and fight. "Alright, there is the raiders. All five of them. I want you all to go down the path fast, don't waste time hang around on it. There's no cover so get down quickly and find cover. If they don't notice you, good. If they do, you are all cleared to engage. Silver, you can stay here and show off some of that sniping skills. I will get the pegasi to provide air cover for us long enough so you can all get down. Now, move!"

Looking up at the sky, Lightning began looking for...well...Sky. Once he found her, he would give her a nod of his head and shout, "Sky! You're clear to engage! Cover us!" Unfolding his wings from his sides, now it was his turn to take to the air. Here we go...

Sky turned to Jack, "Well you got your answer now, lets kill us some raiders." Sky said as she flew towards to raiders. She unholstered her 10mm Smg and took aim whole she flew, She tried to pick her targets. The raiders with the guns, first threat to attack. Sky fired at one raider with a gun, this will be easy.

(Firing at raider with gun, Guns 94, 10mm Smg) x4

AP 9

Draw=1
firing= 2 x4 =8

Five raiders and... Six... Seven of them? Sounds like good odds. Were they good odds? He didn't know but what he DID know was that they had guns and the Raiders had guns and they were here to get rid of raiders, who were attacking some derelict house which is probably sheltering what's left of the caravan. "Should i fire?" He heard Jack ask Sky. "Sky! You're clear to engage! Cover us!" Came Lightning's orders.

Well, Jack DID wanted to know if he should shoot or not. Readying his pistol, the Pegasus rolled his head, his neck joints popping alittle bit as he turned to give a bright smile at his fellow Pegasi through the gun in his mouth. "Whell... Whah're we whaihing furr?"

As Sky took the first dive, Sound Wave was quick to follow, aiming his pistol he quickly aimed at those who with the fire arms and before he knew it bullets were flying towards them. Now THAT wasn't very nice! they were supposed to attack first! Keeping his flight steady as he could, the Pegasus made a turn.

He swerved to the left and dived. Yeeeeehaaaww! The ground was suddenly much closer as he quickly took aim, the wind rushing through his mane and with the flick of his tongue, his weapon made a loud BANG! as he fired at a Raider before rising back up into the air once again.

[Firing at Raider with 9mm 3x; Guns 39, Luck 3

Total AP: Draw Weapon(1), Diving(2), Firing 9mm(1 x 3 = 3)

Trigger Discipline- Your accuracy with guns is increased by +20 to roll but your weapon's penetration is 5DT less.)

Silver sees the raiders ahead. He heard Lightning tell him to stay back and snipe. "You aint gotta tell me twice." Silver looks at the hills. He notices an indentation in one of them. I'll shot from there. Silver runs over to the cover, crouches down, and holds the rifle with his magic. Let's see. I'll take out the raider with the shotgun, he seems to be the biggest threat. Silver takes aim at the raider. Taking into account wind, bullet drop, targets movement. There we go, all lined up with the head. Silver fires.

[Firing at raider with Hunting Rifle, Guns 25]

Ponies were firing right and left, and Gunner, shaking, could almost hear the screams and cry for help that were still haunting him a year after.

No, buck up you mule, don't you dare be helpless like in 113! They need you, if you don't act they will die !

Gunner drew his 9mm and, laying low on the ground, started to move down the hill to find a cover closer to the raiders while they were distracted by the group's flock of pegasi. When behind a sturdy rock, he then started shooting blindly the nearest raider.

(Draw gun = 1AP, Sneak down hill = 4AP, 3 shots = 2AP)
[Sneak 21, Guns 21, Luck 8]
[Fast shot trait : additional shot, -20% accuracy]

When the attack on the raiders began Tesla took the opportunity of the distraction provided so kindly by the groups pegasi, hunkering down behind a large rock, Tesla levitated the 9mm pistol from his saddlebags. Sneaking a peek over his cover, the unicorn looked down the iron sights of his pistol, taking careful aim toward the Raider armed with the 10mm Pistol. Focusing his magic, Tesla fired off four rounds from the 9mm.

(AP spent: 8 (Four shots fired(4) + moving(3) + drawing his 9mm(1))
Gun: 21)
(Trigger Discipline, Luck 5)

The distratction worked, but then again, distracting somepony by shooting at him works most of the time. Arc utilized the distraction to the full, as he dashed to a nerby rock formation along with Tesla and started taking potshots over the rock at the raiders.

(Total AP:7 , Drawn 9mm(1)+ Movement(3)+Shooting 9mmx3(3)
Guns 20,Luck 6: Shooting the closest Raider)

Seeing Sky lead the pegasi for their first attack and the group already heading down so they can get a closer shot with their weapons, Lightning held off on his dive until Sky and Sound already made their sweep over. Drawing out his 10mm SMG, he watched as the raiders already began turning their attention on them instead of the building they were attacking earlier. Smirking slightly, the pegasus would pull into a sharp vertical ascent before flipping around and pulling a sharp dive. Once he lined his dive up with his targets, he let loose a trails of bullets. Hopefully, if one got hit, they would be down for the count. If not, they would at least be distracted and keep their head low.

[Total AP: 10 Drawing out 10mm SMG(1)+Diving(2)+Firing 10mm SMGx3(6):Gun 75, Luck 4:Firing at three random raiders]

[Traits: Trigger Discipline: Your accuracy with guns is increased by +20 to roll but your weapon's penetration is 5DT less.]

As the team of Pegasi swooped in to kill distance of the raiders, Sky was the first to fire her 10mm Smg. The lead bullets tearing into the hide and armor of the raider with the 10mm pistol, killing him instantly. With one raider down, two of his fellow buddies noticed the gunfire and their dead friend. Turning to the small group, they tried to fire their weapons but proved useless as each shot missed each member of the group. With spot open in their firing,sound was first to fire. His first shot hit the raider, second one missed, and third hit. But he wasnt out yet, with silver with a chance to fire. He had enough time to fire one shot, which missed by a long shot. The rifled pushed him back with alot of force, raider seemed to not notice it. Gunner was next to fire, with his sneak skill failed but the raider simply didn't care. But he did when Spark Gunner got two hits into him. Tesla was was the same, he fired 4 times. As two hits dug into the raider and the other two missed, But still the raider stood as he tried to fire back. Arc also came into the picture as he too fired his 9mm but missed everyshot, raider stood bleeding and near death determined to fight. to come into the rescue was Flash, who in the brink of time fired 3 10mm rounds from his smg to the wounded raider and he fell for the count, Flash immediately turned to his buddy next to him and with, two 3 round bursts. The 3rd raider was dispatched, leaving the other two to noticed their buddy had stopped firing at the small structure. Only to notice their raider buddies dead and entire group of ponies the who had killed them, with a simple nod to each other. They ran from the group, as they knew it was a lost cause to fight them with only a tire iron and hatchet.

Break down:
3 raiders dead, no one was hit, last two raider ran from the fight.

OMG this was the most math i did all summer long, last raider left cause that the logical thing to do. And no way im doing it again on something as pointless as those last two raiders, so your welcome for me keeping this thread going.

silver you almost broke Flashs Rifle, only your skills saved it from breaking. and your luck saved it.(actual S.P.E.C.I.A.L. saved it) belive it or not.

Sky looked at the carnage the group caused to the raiders, three of them dead and the last two ran for the hills Sky thought to herself as she holstered her Smg. She hovered just above the ground, to looked at the dead raiders, This group was just enough to survive the wastes. They needed to move fast, probably first check out the shack and get out of here. Before one of them gets killed or seriously wounded, Sky just sighed and hoped these were the raiders the town was talking about. "I really hope you guys ain't planning on going even farther into the wastes, you guys could barley kill one of them. Lets just see if these were the guys and get leave, I don't want anyone of you ponies to die." Sky said to the entire group, a little uneasy about the situation.

"I really hope you guys ain't planning on going even farther into the wastes, you guys could barley kill one of them. Lets just see if these were the guys and get leave, I don't want anyone of you ponies to die."

After the quick fire fight, Tesla began scavenging the used bullet casings, placing them back into his saddlebag, his pipbuck coming to life as he placed them inside. "Well hey now Sky, that isn't really fair to say, I mean yes we both outnumbered them and outgunned them, but even still, none of us were harmed, which is more than likely just simple luck, but again...you gotta start somewhere. I'm certain even you yourself didn't start out as good as you are. You gotta start somewhere." Having placed the four 9mm casings in his bags, he turned to actually look at the pegasus he was addressing. "Besides, five raiders? I don't think only five could cause that much problem for the caravans."

"Boss, did the firing stop?" asked a yellow unicorn mare with a light pink mane in leather armor.

"Don't worry about it Sunny, just keep the pressure on Indigo's wound." A zebra in Armored Stable Barding said to the unicorn mare.

In the floor of small decaying house laid a purple earth pony buck with a short blue mane and tail. He tried to look tough as he looked from his wound in his side to Sunny and then to the zebra. He had a fairly substantial wound on his side which the unicorn was holding a rag to. It still bled a fair amount, but that's all the two could do while the raiders were still shooting at them. But, now the firing seemed to stop.

"Sir," Indigo said through clenched teeth. "What's going on out there?"

The zebra looked at Indigo. "The firing has stopped."

"Maybe somepony has rescued us." Indigo said hopefully.

"I'll go check." the zebra said, trotting out of the old, decaying bedroom.

At the window, he looked around. Not a raider in sight. Maybe somepony had come and rescued them. The chances of that actually happening in the wasteland were slim. Chances were, the raiders left for more ammo or reinforcements, and then they'd be slowly worked at until they gave up, ran out of ammo, or were killed.

The zebra sighed, it was hard enough taking on five raiders by himself, but he also had to protect two others. He wasn't sure he could handle much more if them. Looking out the window, his heart sunk. There weren't five ponies out there, there were seven! And they looked better equipped. Then he noticed bodies. These weren't raiders! Hopefully they were friendly.

"Don't take another step forward!" He yelled. "I got a .308 aimed at one of your skulls and I won't hesitate to fire."

"Atriark!" Sunny Smiles yelled from the bedroom. "Indigo's not breathing!"

Atriark cursed loudly and ran to the back. "Sunny! Go get my medical bag outside. Do you remember where it was dropped?" Sunny nodded. "Good. Go!"

Sunny bolted out of the house, running for Atriark's medical bag.

Well that battle was short lived. Soaring the skies along with the other Pegasi, Sound Wave was somewhat disappointed the Raiders died so quickly but also quite relieved of that same fact. Touching down back to solid ground, his out stretched wings made a steady breeze as they gave a few slow flaps before furling themselves against his sides. Stuffing his weapon back into his Saddlebags, the Pegasus cautiously eyed the bullet ridden remains of an old house. Was anypony still alive in there? Were they hurt? Better yet, are they friendly?

Sky flew down and hovered just above ground, her eyes scanning the now dead raiders as she turned to face the group."I really hope you guys ain't planning on going even farther into the wastes, you guys could barley kill one of them." Well, excuuuuuuse me! Sound Wave narrowed his eyes in offense just a little bit as he gave Sky a subtle glare before putting a poker face on to prevent anypony from seeing. Just cause you got to kill one doesn't mean the rest of us were incompetent! Besides, he was a courier! The only trouble he ran into in the wastes were the occasional Mutant Animal and Rabid Ghoul, usually he could just fly up and lose them.

"Well hey now Sky, that isn't really fair to say, I mean yes we both outnumbered them and outgunned them, but even still, none of us were harmed, which is more than likely just simple luck, THANK YOU Tesla! At least somepony understands!

Lets just see if these were the guys and get leave, I don't want anyone of you ponies to die." With a gentle snort, Sound Wave stepped forward, a somewhat amused smile on his face as he tilted his head at her. "Uhm, Sky? In case you'd forgotten, I'm a freelance Courier I've been traveling across the wastes for quite awhile now and I've been able to handle myself and I'm pretty sure the rest of us can take care of ourselves for a good bit."

Rolling a slight kink out of his right wing, the Stallion paused and thought for a moment before giving a most cheerful grin and said. "But anyway, can we focus our attention to the ponies who are most probably in there?"

Gesturing towards the old house, the Pegasus trotted forth but came to abrupt halt when somepony cried out, "Don't take another step forward!"

"Well whaddaya know? Somepony IS alive in there!" Sound Wave blinked, a surprised smile look on his face as he took a step back. "I got a .308 aimed at one of your skulls and I won't hesitate to fire." And they're armed. Even better!

A moment had only passed when suddenly a pony bolted right out of the house! In his moment of surprise Sound Wave made for a dive to catch the pony. "Get 'im!" He 'oof-d'! Completely missing the pony as he seemed to be running towards something.

Gunner had hit two time with his gun ! I mean, a freaking gunpowdered peas-shooter ! Not bad, for a first time !

But then, adrenaline started to wear off, and the stallion started to feel ill. It was the first pony he ever shot, and with the battle that was raging all around, he couldn't tell if it was him who killed the raider or not, but it doesn't changed the fact that he participated in his death. Looking at the bullet riddled raider, an urge to puke overcame him.

When finished, Gunner looked around, embarrassed, to see if anyone noticed. It seemed that Sky and Tesla were arguing while he was... busy, and now somepony from the house was yelling to stay where we were or suffer from bullet induced headache. Well, that's really nice of him to threaten his saviors...

"A raiders who understand the concept of retreat? Are they actually starting to learn? No matter, the building occupants are probably safe."

Sky's remark of the group's skill left Arc rather cool, he knew he was no fighter with guns, that was accepted fact, and he accepted this errand beacuase he expected to be sothing different, the sooner they were done with chsing raiders, the beeter, at least from Arc's perspective.

Then someone yelled from the house something about calibers and a pony darted outside to grab what appeared to be a bag. She clearly was no raider, and the one inside was either a fool, or very nervous.

"Hey! Don't shoot, mate, we're friendlies!", Arc yelled to the one in the cabin, and then sillently added:
"Or at least i hope so..."