Chapter Four: New Plan

The Master's army was almost invariably armed with heavy weapons in the first and second Fallout game. I figured these mutants would be similarly armed. This wasn't an entertaining prospect; we didn't have hit points to our knowledge, we'd take wounds if we got hit. After all, you can't spam stimpaks while pausing time in real life, could you? Even if we did have some sort of derived statistic line, the damage system could be that of any one of the games. If it were as it was in the Fallout 1 engine games, we'd be in huge trouble if outgunned. On the other hand, the games built on the Gamebryo engine gave some characters enormous sums of health. In neither of the two varieties was there any concept of bleeding or open wounds. However, none of us had a Pip-Boy or anything like that to give us information on the subject.

Regardless of the health system the actual Fallout world used, we'd need a better plan than the Vault Dweller's. As I saw it, we were grossly outnumbered, grossly outgunned, without marketable skills, and not cut out for this kind of work.

"We're going to need a plan, if we just waltz in there, we'll get killed, easily." I said, breaking the air of silence that shrouded us.

"I was thinking the same thing. Do you have any ideas?" Twilight's mindset was quite similar to mine, as it had become evident. I'd always liked Twilight as a character, ever since before I even started watching the show regularly she'd been one of my favorite ponies. She was smart and fairly logical, like me, but unlike me, she was interesting, hard-working, socially capable, studious, selfless, and, well, awesome. I was a bit envious of her.

"Well... the Master holds an ideology, called the 'Unity', that he claims can unite the human race as one- actually quite literally having them all combine into one being. Understandably, we don't like the idea. The humans that don't become super mutants that support this ideology are called the 'Children of the Cathedral'. If the Master has recreated this organization as well as his army, we may have a chance of infiltrating it." This plan wasn't going to be easy to execute, but going in guns blazing would be significantly harder.

"Don't we kind of stand out here? I mean, we couldn't just walk in and ask to join em', right?" Rainbow Dash was, indeed, correct.

"I don't think so. The Children have churches of sorts in major settlements, if I recall correctly. I think we should search for one."

An unknown voice came, seemingly out of nowhere, startling us all.

"Zach, you and your companions have a terrific plan. We can assist you in this. There is a city nearby, aptly called New Metropolis. It's around five kilometers away from your current location, to the east." It was Stross' voice, somewhat muffled, coming from somewhere in my left arm.

"So you put one of your tracking devices in me, too?"

"We did, for the same reason that we're tracking the other man. You are a person of interest, Zach. I advise that you head to that location now."

"Roger that, I guess. Thanks, Stross."

"Good luck." His voice cut off. Well, that was unsettling, the Brotherhood could talk to me through my arm. Useful, but unsettling.

"Who's Stross?" Spike asked, in confusion.

"A friend of ours, we met him in the Vault. The Brotherhood of Steel were in there, those guys I told you about that collect technology and sometimes help the people of the wasteland."

"Oh, those guys! So, we're going to sneak into some sort of secret cult?"

"Yeah, basically. It might be easy or it might be hard, that remains to be seen."

"What do we do when we get in?" Twilight asked.

"Well, I know the Master's weakness from reading guides to the game: electromagnetic pulses. Can you create those, Twilight?"

"What's that?" Oh yeah, Equestria was still industrializing, very slowly. They didn't know very much about such things, as they'd never developed nuclear weapons, and probably had no way to observe the phenomenon, what with the lack of electronics in large number. Even Twilight, smart, educated Twilight, had little idea of what that was, and certainly couldn't create it.

"Uh... nevermind. We're going to need some pulse grenades."

"How are we going to get those? They sound kind of rare." Spike said. He was right, we had no real way of getting pulse grenades; we had no bottle caps. My arm started talking again.

"Meet with a Brotherhood patrol outside of the city, we'll re-route them to intercept you, they have two such items in their possession, and will hand them over. Their method of manufacture is difficult, so use them wisely."

"Thanks again, Stross." The Brotherhood was making this a lot easier for us. We changed direction to eastward, and began our trek. The aspects of the plan were still falling into place, but, fortunately, we had plenty of time to plan as we went along, at least until we got to the church.

Minutes turned into half an hour, and we saw what looked like a very large- by post-apocalyse standards- city on the horizon. Another thing caught my eye. In the distance, a trio of dark-clothed figures could be seen, one clearly wielding a polearm of some sort, probably a spear. One thought occurred to me at that point: raiders. I pointed at them.

"What is it, Zach? Who are they?" Twilight asked. Everyone's attention turned to the point in the distance.

"I don't know, could be harmless traders, mercenaries, or just plain raiders. There's no way to know from this distance." I replied. I'd told them all about how raiders were a semi-common appearance in the wasteland. They were dumb and insane, but they were deadly nonetheless. I noticed that they were intercepting us at a jogging pace.

"I don't think they're friendly." Spike said, and his statement was confirmed almost immediately as one of the figures extended an arm toward us, then I saw muzzle flashes and heard bullets zipping over my head. Twilight did what I told her she should do: put up a shield. I pulled out my laser rifle.

"They want to do this the hard way." I said. Rainbow nodded, and went to do what I told her she should in an outdoor battle: the 'sonic rain-nuke', I'd called it, and she knew what that meant. She sped off into the air. Bullets bounced off the shield harmlessly as the raiders approached. The third one, whose armament I could not discern, threw an object on our direction. A grenade. The grenade exploded in a cloud of dust, and I heard Twilight's barrier shatter. Before the dust cleared, however, I felt a tremor in the earth. Sure enough, Rainbow had knocked all of the raiders off their feet, a small, multi-colored mushroom cloud was left where they had stood, and while they were all breathing, they were in no shape to fight anymore.

"Nice one, Rainbow." I said, and moved to loot the incapacitated raiders. I took a rusty submachine gun and a spare magazine off of one of them and a pair of fragmentation grenades from another. I broke the spear, and took any knives I found on them.

"Without weapons, they won't be able to hurt anyone." The three others nodded in agreement, and we left the battered raiders where they lay. Some of them were obviously quite seriously injured, but none of them would die, I figured. Maybe that'll teach them a lesson.

With New Metropolis growing larger in the rapidly diminishing distance, I was impressed with the ponies' combat abilities. They reacted promptly and managed not to kill anyone. It was convenient not to have the weight of ending lives on my conscience, though I knew that I was inevitably going to kill something, somewhere, somehow. This included the Master, but I didn't think I'd feel remorse when I succeeded, that is, if we did. If we didn't, chances are we'd be dead. It's them or us, I thought, unsettled by the notions as we proceeded onward.