Ghosts of Arlingtrot [Wild Wasteland]

Scraps found himself being blown completely off of hs hooves from the shockwave, his small frame causing the blast to knock him around a bit more then most of the group. He groaned when Bakewell nudged him and gladly accepted her assistance in getting up. He started to respond to Rodeo but was quickly interupted by a bit of debris falling on his head.

"I'm oka-OUCH-okay too Rodeo"

Rodeo's hooves were slightly unsteady as well, he had a hard time feeling the ground under him. He was just doing a great job of hiding it. Suddenly, he looked up just in time to spot the mist spreading as a large, winged figure appeared and was soaring straight at them. As it approached, it let out a mighty eagle's screech, and buried it shoulder into Kestrel's side. (roll d100 got 98 for 18 damage) He wrapped his arms around the larger griffon and sank his talons into his armor and skin. It was the tiger griffon from before; he seemed to be frenzied, somehow. The force of the incoming griffon, combined with Kes' temporary lack of balance and coordination from the blast, easily brought the pair of cat-birds to the ground as they began to roll through the graveyard. As they rolled, they uprooted grass and tossed earth around, even rolling through and destroying tombstones as they did so.

With Kes on the ground, the attacking griffon raised a talon and swung it down at Kes in a slashing motion. (roll d100 got 41 for 0 damage) The griffon's claws scraped the chest plate of Kes' mkII reinforced combat armor, and did nothing to hurt him at all.

Just then, a volley of bullets flew in from all directions. "Get ta cover!" Rodeo hollered, pulling out his shotgun and stumbling to a near-by gravestone. Several green eyes were approaching in the darkness, firing at will at the disoriented group.

Kestrel saw the world suddenly go sideways then tuck into a spin as something slammed into his side. Normally Kes was like a Stonewall and was nigh impossible to take down, but in his current explosion induced disorientation that went straight out the window.

Luckily the griffon failed his follow up attack missed horribly, scratching harmlessly against his thick armor. Kestrel took this opportunity to focus as best he could and launch a quick counter attack of his own, swinging both arms up in a wide arc Kestrel aimed to bring his hands down hard on the sides of the attacking griffons head 'boxing' his ears, inducing a state of disorientation not unlike his own, before pushing the griffon off of himself and rolling away.

That should even the odds a bit, and give him time to get back on his feet. From there this fight could be finished properly.

(Rolled d100 no modifiers to box the griffons ears and then push him off. 96, 71)

Scraps swore under his breath as the group started to get attacked again. It was no fair! Half of them hadn't even gotten back up yet! But then wastes don't care about being fair.

Still a bit disoriented from the blast and the subsequent bump on the noggin, Scraps stumbled a bit as he tried to scramble into cover, resulting in him performing a faceplant. Bakewell would probably have to help him up and into cover.

Bakewell had dived for cover at the first sign of danger, not realizing until she was already hidden that Scrap was having some major issues getting around. Bullets were starting to fly and the earth pony had very little doubt that she would get likely get shot if she moved back into the open to help.

But hadn’t Scrap just risked just as much, if not more, in order to save her sorry hide not even thirty minutes before? She couldn’t just sit here and watch her friend and husband get turned into a bloody, meaty variant of swiss cheese.

The beige mare rushed out from behind the tombstone she had been using for cover, rushing to Scrap before grabbing his mane in her teeth literally dragging him by the hair into the nearest cover.

Kira quickly get up to her feet again after the massive explosion had knocked the group of their feet or hooves for the most part. She watched the crazed gryphon entangled in claw to claw battle, but Kes would have to take care of him self which she was sure that he could handle instead she turned to to see the many green eye glowing in the dark.

The gryphoness took cover behind one of the large grave stone as she pulled out her grenade launcher from where she kept it under her right wing. If the ghouls would want to fight them then she would show them that they would not go down easy.

Jasmine rolled to a stop after the massive explosion. She shakily got to her hooves turning around to see the plume of smoke where they used to be. Who knew life in the wastes could be so dangerous...

Without warning the sound of feathers and clawing broke the sound of her team mates calling out to eachother. She turned to see Kes grappling with that tigre griffin from before. "KETHTREL!" She watched in horror at the creature being engaged in combat, her first instinct was to yell out before she'd run to help.

"GET OFF HIM, LEAVE HIM ALONE-" The crack of gunfire rang out as she screamed at the other griffin. She instinctually dropped to the floor next to Star Shine. Her scanning eyes were greeted with the same ghouls as before. As much as she wished for it earlier she didn't really think she could bring herself to kill the general or his ghouls. However she was nearing the point where her need to survive was over riding her adamant stance against killing.

Jasmine dragged the injured unicorn next to her behind the nearest tombstone and covered her with her own body. Jasmine realized that Shine was considerably more experienced than her however the sight of an injured pony tended to bring out her overly empathetic/ motherly side. She took her 9mm pistol out of her bag and peeked over her tombstone. Her ears clung back to her head as her body trembeled, all the while her teeth clenched the pistol in a vice like grip. She whispered to Star Shine as she prepared to defend herself and the mare if necessary, "thtay down!"

Dash was tossed to the ground by the explosion like a hummingbird in a hurricane, landing heavilt on his stomach. His ears rang intensely as he groaned and slowly rebooted his brain. He dragged himself toward a tombstone just to lean against as his perception of reality worked toward returning to normal. He then heard muffled voices from the other members of the group. He felt himself return to mostly normal, just in time to notice that they were now under attack once again. He got out his new/old... oldnew... old... his Hunting Rifle and aimed it at the one of the green ghost eyes nearby. He squeezed off two rounds, and it was almost as if he was sent into shock again. The .308 rifle bucked like the mother of all mules, but he still managed to maintain control over the weapon.

(Guns 80, Hunting Rifle, Trigger Dicipline, firing at two of the Ghosts)

Night-Shade had a hard time getting up. He was pretty wounded from there shoot out earlier. He had just gotten to his hooves when Kestrel got attacked by that griffon. Shade heard Rodeo scream for them to find cover, and slid behind a big gravestone. He floated out his new Cowpony Repeater and took 3 shots at a Ghost pony.

"Ahhh fuck, they just don't give up!" yelled Night-Shade in anger. His right leg was starting to hurt a lot.

Sky dived to cover as the first bullets started to fly, Only to take cover behind a nearby gravestone and looked around to the being fired at. only to take out her sniper rifle and looked around, only to see the green eyes of their attackers. Sky quickly took out her sniper rifle and aimed around, ready to fire at anything that came or shot at Sky.

(Firing sniper rifle at ghosts)

Bullets whizzed past the ponies and griffons taking cover as they began to retaliate. The ghosts numbers were strong, but much fewer than they were when they began to kill them earlier. "Not so high and mighty now, are you?!..." hollered the general over some kind of amplifier. Perhaps it was in his mask. The voice could not be pin-pointed, it echoed back from the landscape like it were coming from all directions. Also, the ringing ears, and the gunfire made it a slight bit more difficult. "I figured you'd survive the explosion... You just barely made it, I expected better than that... No matter, the time for games is over! Now you shall all be killed..."

As ponies all around the group fired, several ghouls took hits. Some went down; some continued on. One of Dash's shots seemed to vanish into the dark and the mist, but his other shot found its mark in a ghost's shoulder. The .308 round punched through his plate armor and caused the ghoul to collapse with his crippled upper torso and leg.

Night's shots flew toward the ghouls, but none hit. They simply seemed to dance around the ghoul's hooves, causing him to jump around a bit before he continued his advance toward them.

Sky's shot at the first ghoul she spotted who was advancing. His glowing, green eyes bobbed up and down in her scope until the crosshairs lined up on one of them, and put it out. The ghoul's right eye went out, and the shot destroyed the cloaking device, causing the ghoul's dead corpse to tumble to the turf and slide to a stop.

Both of Kes' actions were successful. The slaps on each side of the griffon's head surprised and shocked him, just as Kes had planned on it doing. The griffon's head went a little fuzzy, and soon found it worse when the larger griffon butted the hard mask over his fore-head onto his own. The griffon tumbled off to the side, where he stumbled around for a moment, but regained his composure quickly. He then lunged at Kestrel again, letting out another screech as he extended his claws and flew for another attack.

(rolled 65) The griffon's claws found their place on Kes' armor, and the momentum brought Kes to his back legs where he would catch the attacking griffon. The tiger griffon stood on his own back legs as well, and attempted to push against the stronger predator, but was just not powerful enough, and lacked the proper leverage. Kes' armor received some scratches, but nothing more.

Kestrel grunted a bit as he locked himself against the opposing griffon. Both of their bodies straining. In the end however Kestrels sheer size and prowess helped him win and start up the next round of attacks.

With a sharp crack Kestrel once again head butted the griffon he was wrestling again, another crack soon followed. Two headbutts, slamming hard into the skull of his opponent.

No doubt the other griffon would be in pain.

Should that pain be enough to distract him, as Kestrel had hoped it would be, the larger of the two griffons would take this time to ready his talons and bring his hand around to cleave into the smaller male's gut, leaving some rather nasty wounds behind...assuming Kestrel could get through the young male's armor.

(Rolled a 61, 72, and 98)

The tiger griffon felt his head get smacked again by the larger griffon's hard mask, though this time it didn't have as much power behind it. Another hit soon came, this one knocked him off his toes long enough for Kes to shove him away, and swing his talon at his gut. The tiger griffon's armor did suck up most of the hit, but his claws still managed to penetrate. They dug through the skin and into the flesh. The tiger griffon stumble back, and fell to his backside where he gaped at his wound, holding a claw over it as if it would keep the blood in.

He stood back up, and tried to leap at Kestrel once more, but was just too woozy and clumsy and slow from his injuries now. He hobbled over and swung a claw lazily at the larger bird-cat's chest, which Kes was sure to be able to dodge easily enough. To a pony the swing would still seem fast, but for griffons which had greater perception and agility, it most likely seemed more slow and easily avoidable- depending on which griffon. The attack would seem slow and weak to Kes. Still, the tiger griffon glared with the same frenzied fire in his eyes, even though he was losing. He was still mad, with dilated pupils as he continued his weakened attack.

Sky from behind cover was doing good when she managed to get one of the ghosts in the eye, she mentally eeped when she got him right in the eye. A good hit by her part as she looked around and saw Night didn't get a hit onto his ghost and simply aimed her sniper rifle at the new target that moved towards Night, he needed the help and she wasnt going to leave a pony hanging like that would she? nope, she aimed at the ghost and fired away.

(Firing at ghost going to NightShade)

Without a shred of hesitation Kestrel pulled out the combat knife he had acquired earlier in this mission, and got ready to finish this.

He waited for the perfect moment, just after the griffon had swung at him again, to strike. Batting the griffons arm aside and pulling in close, Kestrel started up the final attack chain. What followed was an act of brutality one would normally hear about in some kind of old war-horror story.

Grabbing the knife first in an common saber grip, Kestrel used his free hand to grab hold of his opponents shoulder before bringing the weapon up in a vicious upwards arc, driving it deep into the griffons chest, aiming towards the lungs and heart. A quick twist and Kestrel pulled it out, repeating the attack twice before reversing his grip and bringing the weapon down into the poor tiger griffon's left eye-socket. Pushing it deep and twisting it back and forth for good measure.

A sickening series of wet pops announced the cracking of bone; the griffons eye-socket to be precise.

Without a sound Kestrel pulled his weapon free and sheathed it; tossing the griffons body aside like a broken toy, a torrent of blood and brain matter oozing from the wound after Kestrel reclaimed his weapon.

Without waiting Kestrel quickly dropped into cover and started crawling forward towards the group. He'd need to be closer if he wanted to get a good angle on the remaining enemies.

Kira was just completely fascinated by the fight the two gryphons had with each other as the tiger gryphon kept attacking the larger stronger gryphon over and over again not caring about his injuries. There was just something about it that scared her more that she wanted admit, she had her self been though the same kind of frenzy as the tiger gryphon was going though but was she really so scary when she did go frenzy as well.

Dash peeked over his cover once again to try and find a target to shoot at, he knew better than to blindly fire at the aether in an attempt to hit something. Spotting what he knew was another one of those damnable ghoul ghosts, Dash brought himself up once again, taking aim and firing the big gun a few more times. After the final shot, he saw the barrel jolt slightly, this gun had some problems, it was likely something he would have to sort out later. First, he had to get through this fight and escape this goddess-forsaken place with the rest of his friends.

(Guns 80, Hunting Rifle, Trigger Dicipline, firing the rifle 3 times at more ghosts)

Jasmine peeked over the tombstone in horror as she witnessed Kes make easy work of his adversary. She averted her gaze after the first stab was made. Soon afterward she thought she could hear a thud mixed into the sounds of battle. All this carnage was too much for her to take in, even after witnessing the horrors of Stable 113. She looked around trying to keep on guard, making sure that no pony was sneaking up on her. She saw her team mates struggling in the heat of battle, now was the time to help them. "Come on Jazz, they need your help..." She skittishly looked popped her head enough to get a good shot and unloaded two rounds toward the nearest enemy. A part of her was still hoping that she would miss.

Pulling up next to the group, Kestrel found himself a nice gravestone and braced against it, listening for the direction of the gun fire, and where it was heaviest before drawing his Revolver and taking aim at the two closest 'Ghosts'.

With a thunderous roar his handgun came to life, spitting out two peices of lead aimed directly at the glowing eyes of the ghosts. That done, Kestrel would once more drop into cover and relax. His breathing calm and measured, and his grip on his gun tight.

(Firing twice, two targets. Guns 100, specs in my sig)

Shade can't believe he just missed all 3 of his shots?! He took aim again, making sure to have the iron sights of the cowpony repeater aimed right at the nearest ghost. Then he took 3 more shots. He then decided to reload, knowing that he had little to no ammo left in his rifle. "I'm reloading!"

Scraps gave Bakey a quick hug despite the situation when she pulled him back into cover. Now that his equilibrium was back in line he decided that he should probably contribute towards the groups survival and shoot back at the ghouls that were currently trying to turn them into a pony equivalent of swiss cheese.

Drawing a couple of his pistols he popped out of cover for a second to locate a suitable target before ducking down and levitating his Lightning pistol and his Plaz- mac defender up and firing them at where the ghoul was, sending a white hot streak of lightning blazing through the sky toward the twin green circles that signified a ghoul.

Bakewell gave Scrap a weak smile from behind their cover, glad that they were both safe.

She sat behind the cover and waited as Scrap started firing. There wasn’t much she could do from behind cover aside from try her best to ignore everything that Kes was doing and keeping an eye out should an overzealous “ghost” should come around and try to flank the ponies with guns.

Night-Shade reloads his Cowpony Repeater. He aims to take another shot, but hears a bullet zip past his ear, missing him barely. This gravestone isn't enough to protect him from incoming fire. Not to mention he's exhausted and injured. He needed more protection. Shade put down his Cowpony Repeater and pulled up a shield in front of the graveston. He made it big enough to protect him and maybe one other pony. He then layed down behind the gravestone and attempted to catch his breath while keeping up the shield. Hopefully it would last long enough for him to recover some strength.

(pulls up shield spell)

Scrap's lightning flew over toward the ghost he was shooting at and struck it in the chest. The power caused the circuits to short out. The eyes went dark, the ghost's body became visible, and then the whole creature's body splattered across the landscape. All this within a blink of an eye. Bake's shots hit a ghost in the leg, causing him to topple over and do a front flip. Then a bullet flew in and skipped off the ground, clipping her back leg and cutting it.

Shade's shield appeared, and instantly became bombarded with bullets. The fire billowing up from where the maintenance building once was was enough to light the entire area they occupied, but the shield Shade created was creating too much light. Soon, most of the ghosts noticed it, and began to fire upon it. It would only be several more seconds before it gave in and crashed from the massive amount of fire coming at it.

The battle continued on, both sides firing blindly at one another. Bullets flew all about, the group was totally surrounded, and there would only be so much time before they were overrunned. Rodeo looked around and took in the situation. They needed a plan. They were already shot to pieces, but Rodeo remembered Kes' plan when they were trapped in the garage of the maintenance building. If he could get all the fliers to take off, the other ghosts would be distracted, and maybe break off to follow them. It was their only chance.

"All the fliers, Ah need ya ta fly up n' head toward the front gate! Draw the ghosts off," he hollered over the gunfire. "The rest uh us will head back yer way once their numbers are split up. Go, go!"

Sky could only look to everypony as it became apparent that they would probably get shot at alot or even die as they kept on coming to the group, Sky still behind the gravestone as she looked to rodeo call out a command. "Sure thing Rodeo!" Sky yelled back as she she fired back at the ghosts, only to unfurl her wings and take off to the air and head towards the front gate. She hoped the others would follow her in time or it will be a slaughter if the ghosts dont follow her back to the front, this can get messy as it already was.