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

Xeshir looked at Sanctity. "I never said to NOT save him. I´ll certainly try my best to do so, but only if he is truly regretful for what he has done and plans to make it up. How? That´s up to him. But otherwise...I don´t plan to leave wandering slavers in the wasteland." She turned to the mare. "I suggest you wait outside Stableton, your brother will most likely not be welcomed here when we return, you might have to move." With that said, she trotted after the white unicorn as she slipped the picture of the stallion in her saddlebags.

Sanctity looked around at the group. He supposed it was the best he could ask for, but he still felt like he should do more for the mare and her brother. He shuffled his saddlebags again on his back, subconsciously readjusting them over his cutie mark, despite it being carefully hidden under his mercenary outfit and cloak. "That sounds fair Xeshir. I'm sorry for misunderstanding what you said" He apologised, his voice even softer than normal.

He fell in behind Ginger as he walked out, slipping the last of the clips into his pack, before placing the thick mat atop them that stopped them from clinking and giving away his position as he moved. He looked around at the other members of the group, watching as they did their own final checks, or little rituals, or just watched the horizon. They were ready as they'd ever be.

Diesel only sighed as the group moved on, they were right however. If the stallion couldn't be swayed there was no point in leaving him alive. "I agree with Xeshir on this, if he wont listen and give up slaving then he will be killed. I'm sorry miss but he did make his bed with his choices." As he walked on with the group he placed his paw on the mares shoulder and gave her a sympathetic look. He could only imagine what his life would have been if Mr. Crate hadn't given him the chance to work for a living rather then stealing.

All Diesel could think about was he would probably be in that unicorns place getting in bad with slavers or the likes. Worse off he might have been dead by now if he didn't get that last chance. Looking back up he adjusted his armor to fit properly while he checked his gauntlet and machete for any dull edges that they may have gained. Happy with the quality he sheathed his machete and fell in step with the group bringing up the rear in case anything tried to sneak up on them. But with him in the back those odds were slim, not much in the wastes were willing to try and attack a giant diamond dog on their own, or in numbers small enough to keep noise to a minimum.

As they walked he looked back one last time at the mare who just stood at the gate looking at them as they left. They were her brothers last hope for a second chance, much as he would hate it, if the stallion wouldn't listen and give up his ways then he would have to be killed. Turning away Diesel gained a look of steely determination that would make even the bravest of creatures think twice about stepping in front of his path.

Sanura looked between everypony, it seemed most of them were on he verge of deciding just to shoot the pony when they arrived if it looked like he might think of resisting. She bit her tongue though and said nothing more on the matter. There wasn't anything else she was going to be able to say to help sway the manner of thinking until they saw what was going on. She still didn't like the way that everyone had shifted on it though. Regardless, after adjusting her saddle bags on her bare back she'd trot after Ginger, trying to stay somewhat in the middle of the party, hoping to avoid spontaneous shots to her feeble bodied self.

Marcus was, once again, confused. The group's mentality had shifted from sparing the stallion to being wary of the stallion very quickly. Marcus began wondering if they even had a stable opinion in the first place. Whether or not they did wasn't interesting to Marcus, however. They appeared to be sharing his views now, so he would go along with it.

Deciding to lighten the mood, Marcus went after the group, placing a large smile on his face. "And once again we march on to victory and the promise of sweet sodas!"

The navy blue mare looked like she was about to break out into tears, her bottom lip quivering dangerously as the group rather casually talked about possibly killing all of the slavers, or how they would deal with her brother. She flinched rather noticeably when Victor placed his paw on her shoulder, took a nervous step away from him, and turned to the rest of the group. “Please try and talk him into coming home,” she asked miserably, her head hanging low as the group began their walk away from Stableton and out onto the north road.

Dust. Dead plant life, the relentless grey of sky. More dust. The Equestrian wasteland is not generally considered an interesting place to sightsee, and as minutes turn into hours, without more clear directions as to what exactly you should be looking for, boredom quickly turns to frustration.

If there is one item of solace, it’s the lack of hostile wildlife. As one of the main trading routes, it was necessary to protect travellers and caravans from being attacked by roving packs of radhogs, which used to be common in the area.

Just as the afternoon arrived, and things were reaching their most irritating, three figures loomed out of the distance and through the haze. Ginger and Sanctity noticed that it appeared to be a single bipedal figure, arms bound, being escorted by two grumpy-looking ponies in a direction roughly perpendicular to that of the group’s.

The girls last words played around in his mind as they had walked, the tense silence giving him far, far too much time to his own thoughts. He thought about ways to get the group to leave him alone, ways to get them to understand what it was like, without revealing why he felt so strongly about it. It was going to be difficult and he wasn't exactly sure how the others would react, as he didn't exactly know too much about them, but if they atleast pretended to be moral it'd work well enough. He just hoped it didn't come to that and that they ended up being able to just talk to him.

Sanctity saw the figures blur into existence from the heat and dust haze that lingered in the distance and raised a hoof in the air, trying to signal for the rest of the group to stop silently.

He backed up slightly, bringing himself closer to the group as he reached out with his magic and pulled his handgun out from his saddlebags and levitated it out in front of him. "There's some people up ahead. I'm going to get a closer look." he whispered to the others, before moving off ahead of the group, keeping his body close to the ground.

[Moving to get a closer look, Sneak 60, AGI 10]

"You ponies are ridiculous." She huffed.

There was a good two seconds before she moved as she sort of flicked her rusty, barely not splintered shotgun toward Viktor from its strap on her saddlebags and she simply trotted forward, casually, making no effort to hide as she moved on direct approach toward the figures in the distance, counting on the fact that those were in fact slavers, and not crazy wild raider ponies, they might actually talk to her, or at worst try to capture her. It was... generally hard not to like Sanura though, that's how she felt about herself anyways. She did know one thing though, if they assaulted the party, they might kill everyone but the big loping biped, who seemed to be their captive. Who likely would have no idea of where they were taking him and thus might extend the length of the search for the slaver party. Also, what if one of the other figures was the pony they were looking for? Anyways... if no one immediately stopped Sanura... and she wasn't shot at on the way in.

"Hello!" she called out to the pair! Hoping to draw their attention in a non hostile manner by announcing her presence as she approached, but waiting long enough that she might be a bit away from the party.

[Diplomacy! RM +12 (+8 if not interested in mares), Speech 58, Charisma 9]

Xeshir only nodded at Sanctity as he moved foward. Hopefully he could tell if those were, as she suspected, slavers or something else. She was not prepared when suddenly Sanura trotted foward and devided to have a chat with the possible slavers, because why not? Hell, she should go ahead and pet a hellhound while she was at it!

Xeshir shook herself out of her stupor. She took out her Cowpony Repeater and layed down, waiting to see what would happen as she mtioned the others to do the same.

Diesel made no move as the rest of the group started to lay down his weapons. After Sanura and Sanc made towards the group on the horizon, Diesel thought he had better do something to help at least. Sheathing his machete he started to dig a tunnel following after Sanu so he would be ready to jump out if they needed to fight. As he dug a thought occurred to him, the diamond dog that was with the new group would be one of the few he has ever seen in his life. Not wanting to have it die he started to dig even faster along. Praying he was going to be ready to attack when the time came.

(Digging underneath towards the group; Str 11, Per 5)

Marcus felt a little dumbstruck as Sanura made her way forward after Sanctity called out seeing figures in the distance. He noted that Sanctity had snuck ahead to view from a secluded location, Xeshir had taken out her weapon and taken a position to watch Sanura that drew little attention to herself, and Diesel had all but disappeared into the earth. Marcus was sure that, as far as these mysterious figures were concerned, Sanura would be alone in the wasteland. That alone breeds suspicion.

She is foolish to have run off on her own, thought Marcus. He shook himself and quickly made his way after her, keeping a close eye on the approaching figures as he did so and silently cursing his lack of skill in using longer ranged weapons.

(Observing approaching figures, PER 5)

Ale could not believe how stupid the unicorn mare was being, He reached out with his magic and grabbed her tail, stopping her in her tracks. "The buck do you think your doing?" he hissed "The last thing we need is our medic getting shot." he pulled out his newly scoped hunting rifle and and crouched down, pointed it at the 3 figures on the horizen. If they were slavers then he would take off the head of the leading pony.

(stopping sanura from doing something incredibly stupid. Using scope to identify figures, perception-7. If figures are hostile then fire at head of leading pony, Guns-60, Sneak-49)

Diesel frowned as he felt a stop in movement from Sanura's location. Going back where he was he peeked his head out and Saw Ginger had used his magic to stop her from moving. Letting out a heavy sigh he sat down in his hole waiting to see what would happen next.

(undoing previous action as it is un-needed...)

Her entire body weight stopped on the strands of her tail? She squeaked painfully and then bit her lip, eyes tearing up just a bit from the sudden, sharp pain as she was stopped dead in her tracks and hissed at by the sniper pony who promptly decided to take aim and in her eyes get ready to fire. "They wouldn't shoot!" she hissed back at him, "You don't shoot things that can make you caps." she grumbled and rubbed her foreleg against her face a moment before flopping down on her tail-end to wait for the fighting to start.

Marcus saw that Sanura had been stopped by Ginger and had actually started complaining and sitting right out in the middle of the road. He gave out a huff and proceeded to pull her into cover.

"You may have a death wish," he whispered to her, "but the rest of us plan on using caution here. Lone fighters are the first to fall."

With that said, Marcus took cover as well, looking over just enough to continue trying to see what these individuals were up to.

[continuing to observe the figures, PER 5]

The good news was that the slavers didn’t seem to hear Sanura calling out to them, as they continued on their current trajectory. The bad news was that they were now beginning to get further away from the group while they debated what to do.

Most of the group could see two lightly armoured ponies – one an earth pony, the other a unicorn – marching behind a figure that appeared be a monster of a diamond dog, whose hands seemed to be bound behind its back. However, through the telescopic scope of his rifle, Ginger could see more. Focusing on the dog, he noticed that it was a greyish green colour and looked kind of leathery and battered; its fur was patchy and matted in places, its eyes glassy and dead; he thought he could see some exposed muscle on one of its huge arms.

The unicorn seemed to poke at the diamond dog with a rifle of some sort. They continued to march away as most of the group hid behind cover.

Sanctity hugged the dusty earth and crept after the three figures; he could hear the two ponies murmuring something between themselves, though the sound of the wind smothered any meaning. Soon, though, he’d drawn close enough to make out what they were saying.

“Hey, Marigold. Once we’ve taken this guy back, wanna finish that game of cards? You still owe me a dozen caps.”

“You sure about that, Hopscotch? I think my luck’s turning – I mean, I spotted this guy; that’s pretty lucky, right? I wouldn’t wanna put you out of pocket!”

“Psh, whatever. Luck doesn’t work that way, and you know it.”

“Oh, okay. I mean, I don’t mind if you want to give up all your caps to me. Hey, keep walking, dog.”

"You're a friggin' shyster, Marigold. You and your zebra voodoo nonsense don't scare me."

"Voodoo nothing! I'm telling you, Hopscotch, I'm on a lucky streak! Maybe when we get back, I'll ask Grace for a raise."

"Hah! Sisters' mercy, you really must believe that junk if you're thinking of doing something that stupid."

The conversation continued along those lines for a while.

Xeshir looked at Sanura. "While it would have been a good plan to talk to them to get them distracted and surround them, what would happen if they got a slave collar in you? Nobody in the group is trained in explosives. If you do plan on going out again, then I´m coming with you." She then turned towards Ginger Ale. "Are they slavers? Or something else?" She held her Cowpony Repeater close. She hoped the white unicorn wasn´t going to just start shooting away.

Sanctity's ears perked up as he hovered the gun in front of him, the soft grey glow of his magic barely visible against the back drop of blasted earth. The pair were talking about cards and luck, pretty typical random shit, but the casual mention of them "finding" the diamond dog was all the proof he needed.

He looked over the pair, quickly judging which was the greater threat. The earth pony didn't seem to have any kind of gun drawn, whereas the unicorn had a rifle pointed at the captive. The unicorn died first.

He hunkered himself as close to the ground as possible, hoping to remain hidden if a firefight occurred as he lined up his sights.

His handgun jerked as it spat out six rounds, the soft "thunk" of the silenced pistol punctuating the slavers conversations, as he aimed at the back of the unicorns head. [30 AP, Guns 65]

[-10 AP, Sneaking]

Sanura was not in any particular kind of mood to have ponies talk down to her as if she hadn't thought about the things that could've gone wrong, as though she hadn't been able to guess that she might've gotten into trouble and so she just flat didn't respond to either Xeshir or Marcus as she let herself be dragged into cover silently and leaned around to watch Sanctity and his sneaking... finally lifting to her hooves as he started getting closer. Aggravated as she was that everypony seemed to think she was stupid and incapable of handling anything about herself. She wasn't quite ready to be so pouty that she wouldn't help and... being that they were all far away and Sanc was up there by himself? She was getting ready to sprint in the moment they turned on him.

Marcus held his position behind cover, watching as Sanctity opened fire on the Raiders. For the second time, Marcus cursed his lack of skill with long ranged weapons. He stayed crouched and contemplated moving in to help, even though he knew that Xeshir and Ginger had Sanctity covered well enough from their positions.

His contemplation was not long, and he decided that he would try to reach the fight in the event Sanctity was discovered. He readied himself for the run and waited for the coming fight.

Diesel had been sitting in his hole while he watched Sanc start to aim his gun at the raiders. And they called Sanura stupid for what she did?. Was all he thought as he quickly slid on his gauntlet and started digging as fast as he could through the earth towards the two ponies. As he dug all he could think was, that Sanc is going to get himself killed doing stupid shit like that. As he got closer he prayed his tremor sense wouldn't betray him and he would climb up on target.

[Digging to the ponies; Str 11, Trying to spot them underground with tremor sense; Per 5]

Ale glanced over to Xeshir, "Yeah, slavers, definitely." he moved the scope over to the diamond dog and was disgusted to see him in such condition. He also noticed sanctity setting up in a position to take out the unicorn. "Alright i'll get the earthpony you be ready to help Mr. sneaky with the unicorn, i don't trust that .22 to get the job done." He took careful aim at the grumbling earth pony, placing the cross-hair right over the bastards head, and pulled the trigger.

(Guns-60, sneak-49, AP-37)

Xeshir squinted her eyes as she looked where Sanctity was hidden. The unicorn really knew how to sneak. She couldn´t tell if he had fired his pistol or not but Ginger´s confirmation that the group were slavers and the noise that his hunting rifle did when firing cleared any doubts about the group. She grabbed her Cowpony Repeater and stood in her hind legs, one hoof holding the barrel while the other one slid into the trigger guard. She put her sights on the unicorn mare and pulled the trigger back. Once. Twice. Thrice. And one more time, just to be sure.

(Firing x4 at Unicorn Mare with Cowpony Repeater. Guns 58. +5 damage with Cherchez La Filly.)

C.R AP cost = 8 AP (+1 AP Trigger Discipline.) x 3.
AP = 38
Total AP used = 9 x 4 = 36 AP
AP remaining = 38 - 36 = 2 AP

Sanctity crept ever closer as the two ponies and what appeared to be their prisoner walked on, oblivious to his presence.

He drew his silenced .22 pistol, a weapon perfectly designed for the task he was about to engage in, and remaining out of sight, he drew a bead on the unicorn and fired – once, twice, three, fo... Wait. For some reason the bullet hadn’t fed properly on the fourth shot, and the breech was half open. Agonising moments were lost as he worked to clear the jam.

Peering down his scope and hunkering down to remain hidden, Ginger saw what he assumed was Sanctity opening fire on the slavers; he quickly aimed at the earth pony and fired a single shot into the buck’s side. The thunderous roar of his rifle suggested that there wasn’t much point in hiding any longer.

Viktor tuned into the faint vibrations coming through the earth in front of him... There they were. His feverish digging rapidly sent him in the direction of the three figures, and within moments he was just below the surface, ready to burst through the ground and spring into action.

Upon hearing the crack of a shot from Ginger, Xeshir knew things were on. Swinging her repeater to bear, she aimed at the unicorn and fired four rounds. Through the sights she reckoned all four of her shots were true.

The others were now well and truly aware that a fight was on.

Marigold screamed in pain as several rounds tore into her body, and blood began to run down her flank and back in tiny rivulets. She swung her rifle around in the direction of the shooters. “Raiders!” she yelled to the prisoner and Hopscotch as she dove to the ground, trying to hug the earth to give her whatever scant protection it could as she looked in Sanctity’s direction in fear.

Grunting through the pain of the bullet wound in his side, Hopscotch violently pushed the prisoner to the ground. “Stay down! We’ll take care of it!” He turned, and with a flick and a twinkle of metal, his hooves were suddenly shod with heavy metallic hooves. With a snort, he began charging towards Sanctity, intent on smashing the assailant into pulp.

Status:

Marigold: Very Badly Wounded
Hopscotch: Slightly Injured.


Notes for next round:

• Sanctity has 2 less AP next round due to botch spillover.
  
• Diesel has pinpointed the location of the enemy, and can emerge near them during his next turn (if he so desires).
  
• Marcus and Sanura can close as much distance as they like on their next turn for no AP cost.



Sanctity's eyes widened as his .22 jammed, the casing of his last bullet ejecting incorrectly and jamming the slide open. He looked up and saw that not only was his gun not working, but there was a very big and angry earth pony running at him, with some very heavy looking iron things on its feet.

Reflexively, a burst of expletives left his mouth as he wrestled with the slide. Every unsucessful yank earning another "Fuck" or "Shit", as he looked up to see his rapidly approaching demise. Eventually, after a final desperate yank, with his thoughts turning to just throwing the damned thing on the floor and facing the thing in combat, the shell finally dropped from the port and the new round fed into the breech.

"Yes!" he said happily, before looking up and seeing his soon-to-be-assailant only a few body lengths away "FUCK!"

He brought the pistol up and pulled the trigger as many times as he could, not even bothering to aim as he prayed a few of the bullets would find their mark. (AP 40, Guns 65, 8 shots)

[0 AP Remaining]