It was another day and a half before we saw any signs of life again as we reached a small place called Junction-11 dwelling under the towering shadow of the Ember Mountains. I was vaguely aware of the place as I had bypassed it decades ago during my sprint to the Gap and all I knew of it was it had been built around an old train stop, the last before the station in the Badlands. Unlike Paletree, this place’s defenses weren’t nearly so ‘polished’ and were mostly made up of hodgepodge wooden fences patched with sheet metal and topped with rusted barbed wire; enough to keep out smaller predators and give the town some semblance of security but not much else. Their front gate however was a near replica of the one from Paletree being formed from a singular train car with ramps leading up and down from each side door. The guards on duty were armed with only pistols and a couple of scoped hunting rifles and seemed uneasy as all hell when we approached, guns raised high and shaking in their grips.

“H-halt! Who are you and w-what’s your business here?”

“Ah’m Firefly ‘n this here be Garand.” Firefly said in as friendly a tone as he could with guns pointed in his face. “Ain’t here tah cause trouble, just need ah few supplies an’ we’ll be on our merry way.”

“A-and like I should believe you?”

“Like we told Paletree, if we wanted to start shit we would have opened fire already. If you haven’t noticed Firefly’s rifle, we could’ve blasted you guys from a mile away and you wouldn’t have even seen it coming.”

The slightly trembling turquoise mare glanced at the .50 on Firefly’s back and her eyes went somehow wider with both fear and understanding. Despite the irritation that came from being accosted like this at every town we stopped by, I did feel a bit bad for her. It was really unlikely the poor chick had ever had to face off against anything like the two of us so I had to give her props to standing her ground even as she was. Those above kept switching between looking down at the two of us and doing their job looking outwards across the Wasteland for any real sign of danger.

“I-I see…and…w-what sort of supplies are you l-looking for…?”

“Some ammo, Cola ‘n maybe ah hot meal. Been on th’ road fer awhile ‘n Ah could use wit’ ah stiff drink. Any small town worth its salt gonna have ah saloon an' Ah knows y'all gots one. Last good one fer miles.”

She glanced at her compatriot standing atop the train car who shrugged before looking back at us and nodding timidly towards the open door. Her nerve still held and I was tempted to congratulate her on it were it not for the fact that me speaking suddenly could easily send her nerves over the top. Last thing I needed to do was piss off the local militia...if anything, it was my goal to try and redeem the Steel Ranger name by any means possible.

“G-go on in then…just…please…don’t do anything stupid, please? We worked hard to keep this place peaceful and safe, the last thing we want is to lose that. This place is decades in the making and we're just trying to survive out here like anypony else.”

“Believe me lady, we know the value of stability out here. Nothing to fear from the two of us unless one of you people starts something.” I replied, moving onto the entrance ramp and past her.

As we entered the small trade town I was amazed by the lack of anything here. While Paletree actually had the population size and buildings to justify being called a town, this place had just a few rough houses, a roughshod saloon, the old train stop the town was named for turned sheriff’s office, and a gazebo looking thing turned into a building with a rough sign stating ‘Town Hall’. The defensive walls were punctuated with the occasional makeshift guard tower here and there made of old telephone poles, rail ties, sheet metal and burlap sandbags. More town guards armed with rifles stood atop them, safe in the shade of their tower with bleary eyes looking over the boring emptiness surrounding us. Other than that, there stood an old dead patch of sun-bleached trees just outside the makeshift town hall as white and withered as Death itself. It was a small town with ponies who wanted nothing more than to make a living and be left to themselves, just like any other settlement not claimed by some larger faction like the Order or NER. 'Quaint' was a decent word for describing it I suppose but 'boring' was also a top contender in my mind anytime I came across one of these little bastions of civilization in the middle of nowhere. Of course...boring and quaint were probably more than enough for these ponies and living behind some walls in a likeminded community was always a safer bet than trying to scrounge a living on the outside.

In the back of my mind I was hoping that if and when the SR broke through the Gap they would ignore this little town. Not that I had any sort of connection to it outside of some vague memories of taking the train from the Southern Front but it would just be a damn waste of life to destroy such an insignificant little place. Just looking around the place there was nothing all that special to it that would warrant an SR team to swing on by for their 'reclamation' efforts. The fresh water this place was built around (like any good desert oasis) was more than likely a well fed by an aquafer deep below ground and their only source of power seemed to be the set of a dozen or so solar panels lining the long roof of the train station turned Town Hall. Could only guess they fed to a central power bank inside as shoddy wiring extended from the station along equally shoddy power poles and into each of the residences in town. Solar panels were a dime a dozen to the Order so a tiny ass town with a few bolted to their roof was hardly worth the time. Well...least in my opinion it was...

We stopped by a tree closest to the town hall and I took off my helmet to look at Firefly, setting it to dangle from its hook at my side. Taking it off seemed like the best gesture of non-hostility I could manage since it let people see my face and exposed me to danger. Aside from that, there wasn't a whole lot I could do about how imposing I looked and if I tried any harder I would just end up leaving my armor behind and just go around in my fatigues and plate carrier. Of course...that would mean foregoing near-invincibility against most forms of physical damage and with a supposed legendary Hitmare on my trail, the last thing I wanted was to give her another advantage to exploit. Was a big gamble letting my head be so exposed as it was if what Firefly had said about her rifle and range of engagement was true. After sharing my large temperature-controlled canteen together, I looked around us and then at my Ghoul companion.

“Alright, so this time you hit up the bar and I'll hit the general store looking thing I saw over by the sheriff’s office. Aside from info, anything you want from there?”

“Naw. Place this small ain’t gonna have much worth gettin’ outside ‘o information an’ even then it ain’t much ah chance there too. Odds are, we be in ‘n outta here within th’ hour. Best check wit’ th’ sheriff ‘n see if he ain’t heard no rumors.”

“Yeahhhh…” I sighed, looking around the dinky little town without much enthusiasm. “Little place like this probably doesn’t venture far from home. Anyone with sense knows mountain ranges tend to be hiding nasty shit that is left well enough alone. Most they probably hear of the outside world is hearsay from traveling merchants which...not exactly the most reliable source of intel to begin with.”

Firefly simply nodded and made his way to the saloon as I meandered towards the general store, a ramshackle building built against the backside of the old train station. As I looked around I noticed ponies looking at me, stopping in their tracks and peeking from their windows to look at the gigantic murder bird walking freely in their midst. Unfortunately any chance my hope that they weren’t familiar with the SR was completely gone by the way they looked at me, a look I was growing all too familiar with. I had the misfortune of being as conspicuous as physically possible for someone to be making me impossible to miss and drawing all eyes in my direction. The only solace I could find was that it drew attention away from Firefly who I hoped would have an easier time because of it. Comparing a Glowing One Changeling and a 7ft Gryphon in Power Armor…I honestly couldn’t decide which would be the more odd one out of the two.

Entering the store, which was gratefully rather lofty with a high ceiling and large doorway made from a repurposed railcar door, I noticed a bell ding from above as the door slid open. Along with your usual makeshift shelving and wooden crates, there was also a radio playing the same tired old soundtrack the Wasteland had been subjected to for hundreds of years on repeat. Behind the counter in the back stood an old burly grey Unicorn stallion with black hair and an eyepatch over his right eye, his body crisscrossed with enough scars to give even my sorry hide a run for its money. He had an air of strength and confidence oozing thickly from where he stood and I actually felt a bit of apprehension while looking at him. He looked like he knew how to fight, the scars only providing proof towards that end and he was only a head shorter than me making him one of the largest blokes I had come across in quite some time. Even if his pelt and mane were greying from age, I could see his muscles rippling under his coat packing enough punch to scare even a Hellhound. This made me a bit more wary about how I acted around him as he would be more of a handful than most if things turned into a fistfight.

“Well hello there, stranger! I hope you aren't here to start shit with our little town?”

I shook my head, trying my best to give a friendly, non-aggressive smile. “No sir, I am not. Friend and I are just here to get some supplies for our trip, maybe get some info from the barkeep and sheriff about the area and head on out. Got a long road ahead of us and you guys are the last place to top off on shit before it's nothing but open desert again.”

I could visibly see the tension in his shoulders relax as he seemed content that I was no threat to him or his shop. “Well alright then! Welcome to Grab and Go, best damn little general store South of that shithole Old Appleloosa. What can we get started for ya today?”

I looked around on the shelves behind him where the food seemed to be kept, more than likely so as to deter petty hunger theft. “Ummm, gimme those five things of Cram, those healing potions on the shelf to your right and do you have any SparkleCola in stock? I’m not seeing any out here on the shelves so I wanted to ask.”

He gathered the items I described and set them down in a bucket by the old fashioned wooden register before chuckling, “Yeah, it’ll just be a second. Gotta keep ‘em in the back or they will go missing…damned foals around here got the biggest sweet tooth I’ve ever fucking seen so all the sugary shit has to be kept under lock and key. Don’t have much of a selection I’m afraid so if you’re looking for any of those fancy flavors like Rad or Grape you better head back North to a bigger town like Paletree. Don’t get many traders this far South so our options are kinda limited out here. Miracle we get as much merch as we do.”

“Heh, actually my friend and I just came from Paletree.” I replied with a chuckle, already digging in my bags for the caps to pay for it all. “Thought I had topped off enough on Cola while we were there but boy was I dead fucking wrong. Don’t worry about the flavors, I’ll take whatever you got on hoof. Just need it to stave off Sparklediction before the symptoms start acting up again.”

He shook his head and laughed heartily, “Heh heh, big guy like you too eh? Guess anyone can get hooked on that shit these days. Gimmie just a minute, sonny.”

He promptly went towards a locked door behind the counter and disappeared into the back while I silently laughed at being called ‘sonny’ by someone a fraction of my own age. While yes, I did look rather young for three-centuries’ worth of life, I was far from being younger than the old merchant. Hell I was probably triple or even quadruple his age with any luck although I decided against telling him that just in case it soured his chipper attitude. After a few moments he came out with four regular SparkleColas floating beside him, caught in his pale ghostly blue magic aura. The contents of the bucket were dumped on the counter in front of him and he did some mental math looking over everything.

“That'll all be about 110 caps even, stranger. And before you ask, no we don’t take NER money out here. Caps only.”

I laughed as I jingled the bag of caps Firefly had given to me ahead of time and replied, “No worries here my guy, I don’t have any NER money on me. Hell, I didn’t even know the Republic had its own currency to be honest. I only came out West here not even a month ago and I’ve been on the move basically the entire time. Only met the NER proper just a week ago outside their Embassy in New Pegasus; friend and I were dropping off a Bounty of theirs and they made sure to pay us in caps.”

“No shit? Huh…explains why you’re the biggest fuckin’ Griffin I’ve ever seen. Didn’t wanna say anything but…damn son, you’re one tall sonofabitch. Seen me plenty of Griffs in my time as a Merc but you’re bigger than any of ‘em.”

I laughed heartily at that and waved a hand dismissively.

“Doubt you know the difference but I’m actually a Gryphon, not a Griffin. And before you ask, yes there is a difference between the two aside from just how you pronounce it. Gryphons like me are just naturally bigger than our smaller cousins from Griffinstone but I doubt there’s any others of my kind on the Continent. Most stayed back home across the ocean to fight the Zebras on our own turf while a small number of us came over to join the fight here. I’m one of them and we live for a long ass time. Seen a lot of shit in my time…”

“Pretty tall tale you’re weaving there but I ain’t got anything I can deny your story with so whatever you say. Long as your caps are honest I don’t care where the hell you came from.”

I dropped the specified amount of caps in one massive handful on his counter and smiled, trying my best to help him count them out just to double check my own math.

“Hey, don’t have to believe a word a stranger says.” I chuckled, prodding my stacks of ten towards him with a talon. “I wouldn’t believe me either at face value, not in this day and age.”

He grunted in response, eying the stacks with a critical eye before scooping them up en-masse and dumping them into his register with a smile.

“Well, either way its been pleasure doin’ business with ya, big guy. Ain’t often we get strangers around here and you’re definitely the most interesting one yet.”

“Heh, might reconsider that if you met my friend. He’s a Glowing One.”

He looked at me incredulously as he shut his register and cocked an eyebrow as he asked, “Excuse me…a what now?”

“Heh, don’t worry about it.” I laughed in response, depositing my purchase into my bags and leaving out one of the Colas out to enjoy on my way back to Firefly “Thanks again! Nice to have a normal conversation with someone without it turning into an interrogation of some sort. Most people only see me for my armor and chalk me up from there so this is a nice change of pace from my usual.”

“Oh please…” He sighed with amusement. “You wear Power Armor like a Steel Ranger but you don’t act anything like those psychos. Could smell it a mile away if you were. Come again, stranger! You definitely gave me something to talk to the wife about tonight so that’s appreciated. Much as I love this little town…it’s pretty damn dull. Almost makes me miss running with Mercs...say, where are you and your friend headed off to anyway? Ain't nothin' around unless you're headed in one of the Northerly directions and anything South, East or West of here is just mountains and the Valley of Death.”

I gave a slightly hesitant laugh and rubbed the back of my head as I replied, "Eh heh...we're headed Southeast actually..."

He gave me a look of surprise and incredulousness, eying me up and down as if gauging how long I would survive.

"The Embers huh? What's a pair of strangers wanting from those accursed mountains?"

"Frankly none of your business." I said flatly. "We can handle ourselves."

"Oh I don't doubt that Mr. Paladin..." He sighed. "Alright, well can't say I didn't try to warn ya."

"What, you know something about them I don't?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.

"Probably nothing you haven't heard already about 'em...nopony explores them for a reason. Feral Dragons are said to still roam them...what's left of the old Dragon Lands that used to be here lonnnng before the Great War. I ain't saying you don't look ready for a fight, big guy. Just sayin' Dragons aren't somethin' anyone should fuck with, especially Ferals. Me and my crew came across a nest of two of 'em about...oh, ten years ago while trying to find a path over the Canterlot Mountains to circumnavigate the NER border at the Gap. We went into them with forty-seven hardened bastards...came back down the other side with only twenty-two of my group left standing."

That...was pause for thought for sure. Ferals weren't a common sight in the Wasteland, sticking to the secluded mountains and only appearing once in a blue moon to gobble up a couple wandering idiots who got too close to their nesting grounds. The Greifenländer had its own Ferals occupying the mountainous expanse at the center of our lands and we all knew to steer clear of those gigantic, ravenous beasts. Only made sense for the Ember Mountains to still be home to some Dragons even after the dissolution of their Kingdom almost a millenia ago. Still...we had to get to Outpost Zeta or die trying. The Steel Rangers would not have their prize and Elder Giorgi was going to be denied the pleasure of cracking the place open. Regardless of if 'The Prototype' worked or was even useful to anyone, we had made it this far and no scaly ass bastards were going to stop us from at least trying.

"Heh...well, I am sorry about the loss of your boys...but we have an important reason to be heading up into those mountains and believe me, I don't take your warning lightly."

"Ha ha! Well...guess that's one thing you still share in common with those Tin Heads. Always on some 'noble quest' or whatever the fuck you guys told yourselves in order to get out of bed in the mornings. Well...can't say I didn't warn ya, stranger. If you wanna go poking around those mountains then knock yourself the fuck out for all I care."

"Oh don't worry, we will for damn sure..." I chuckled before leaning close to tell him, "Look...just so you know...we overheard from the NER when we were by New Pegasus that the Tin Heads are making a run at the Gap soon and they seem capable this time of breaking through. Dunno where but it was supposed to be on the Southern half somewhere so...just keep an extra careful eye on the horizon, eh?"

"U-uh...well...um...shit." He stuttered, taken aback at my insider scoop and eying a set of worn M-CAP Model-3 nearby him behind the counter. "I hope to fuck you're lying but...fuck it, even if it's a false alarm I'd rather be prepared for nothing than be unprepared for something."

I gave a friendly wave in response as I walked out of the door and back into the town proper. Before I made my way over to the saloon to get Firefly, my PipBuck gave a soft series of beeps that indicated an incoming radio transmission. Seeing as only the Ling had access to my private channel, I pulled my helmet from off its hook and onto my head letting my thoughts direct the system to open communications.

“Howdy, Firefly. What’s up? You were right about the store not having much to snag but I still got us some more meat and Cola plus a few more health potions for the medical supply bag.”

“That's good Ah guess...hey Garand, get over here tah th’ saloon would ya? Barkeep has somethin’ important tah tell us an’ Ah want ya here so she ain’t gotta say it twice.”

I chuckled at my Glowing companions’ timing. “Already on my way over. In fact, I’m actually walkin’ in right now.”

As I did, I could see Firefly chatting up with the barkeep and two old grizzled, armored stallions who were shorter than the guy from the general store but no less intimidating looking. Could only guess they might have some sort of connection, perhaps having run with the same Merc crew together in the past. The saloon was much more rough around the edges than Paletree’s with mismatched building materials, shoddy lighting and a general lack of polish but in the end, it wasn’t bad for a homemade business. Paletree had an easy win thanks to having an actual Pre-War saloon to work with as a basis.

“An’ there he is now!” Firefly said over the background noise of the bar, pointing at me and beckoning me over.

I snaked my way around the clustered tables having to hunch way over just to keep my head from hitting the lower ceiling and took a seat beside him at the bartop. The stallions eyed me with the same wary gaze everypony else always reserved for me but I noticed the shiny metal stars pinned to their Model-3 combat armor. Didn’t even have to look at the large letters punched into them to know this was the sheriff and his deputy. Ex-Mercs working as law and order in a small watering hole? This little town could do a hell of a lot worse for itself.

“Soooo, what's this important info you mentioned?” I asked Firefly, to which he pointed to the barkeep who was busy pouring him another shot from a large whiskey bottle.

"Well, I'm here now." I grunted, looking at her as she slid the shotglass of brown alcohol towards Firefly.

“Well big guy, your glowing friend here says you two are looking for some old Outpost in the mountains Southwest of here right? Well, what if I told you I know the exact location of a mountain road that just so happens to lead right up into them?”

I cocked my head in curiosity and once again removed my helmet with an audible hiss from the EVA seal and hung it off my side. “What's the catch then?”

The aging yellow mare in the apron chuckled as did the sheriff and deputy, amused that I could tell already there was a price attached to the info we were after.

“Look stranger, we want you to help our little town.” The sheriff interjected, grunting around his noxious cigar screwed into the corner of his mouth. “Normally we wouldn’t dare fuckin’ ask a pair of random nobodies we’ve never met before to lend a hoof around here but…well, not for nothin’ but you two look like you know how to kick some serious ass which is something we need desperately right now. Ain't like any Companies'll bother coming this far South to help a poor little town like this, not for the amount of caps we have on hoof.”

I glanced at Firefly who nodded with a laugh and responded, “Seen my share of death and destruction, the question is what do you want with us that involves that sorta shit? You mentioned Mercs so I take it this isn't some pansy peacekeeping bullshit, that just ain't their style.”

“Well…when Silver Stream came and told us a pair of heavily armed and armored strangers had entered Junction-11, we thought you were a couple of Steel Rangers who have been giving us hell the last couple months. Thought we’d corner you in here but you ain’t the fuckers we’re after so we decided to try and strike a deal with you two after seeing the heat you’re packing.”

“Hold up, Rangers?” I asked in genuine surprise. “Since fucking when??”

“Like he said, it was a couple months ago…” The deputy sighed, snagging Firefly’s shot for himself much to the Ling’s annoyance. “Long story short, couple of Power Armored asshats showed up and demanded we pay them ‘protection money’ in the form of caps, food and Chems or get destroyed. Sheriff and I used to run with some pretty wild Mercs back in the day so we had enough firepower to drive them off but they’ve gathered some Raiders around them and have been harassing us ever since. Picking off Brahman, taking shots at our buildings, the whole nine yards. We can’t leave to try and hunt them down or we’ll leave the town too undefended and we don’t have the armor or weaponry needed to wipe out the cunts on their own turf.”

“I see…doesn’t sound like the SR I know but if it means we get the info we want then we’ll do it. Knowing all this though, I’m kind of surprised you’d ask me to help out with this. Most just see the Power Armor and think I’m still with the Order. Left them behind a while ago and they want me in a grave almost as much as they want Pre-War tech.”

“Well you can thank your friend here for giving you a…ahem, glowing recommendation. Though now I see you for myself, I can tell you ain’t running gun for them bastards anymore. They just loveeee their goddamned insignias and logos plastered all over their fuckin’ armor and woulda shot you dead for letting yours look like it does. I don’t give two shits about your past with them, all we care about is getting those two shits off our backs and six-feet under. Can’t think of a better person to ask than someone who can take as much damage as they can.”

I nodded and looked at Firefly. “Then say no more, we’ll do it. Those SR or Raiders or whatever the fuck they are will be dead before sunrise. And as soon as we get our info we will be outta your manes for good and you can put all this shit behind you guys. Ain't a reason for us to come back this way once we're done so you can put us and them behind you like it never happened and go back to being a boring little place in the Wastes.”

The three of them, including the barkeep, all sighed in relief. “Well…doin’ it all by sunrise might not be possible, stranger but hey you kill ‘em and we got a deal. Like I said earlier, we haven’t been able to stray too far from town but as far as we can tell they live just South of here. Some old Pre-War scrap dump they claimed as their own about five miles away or so, give or take. Dunno how many cronies they’ve got running gun for them but it’s at least a dozen or so. Shouldn’t be too hard for a couple of hard bastards like you two, right?”

I nodded and thanked them ahead of time for a reasonable enough trade before turning to Firefly. “Well…looks like we’ve got a job to do then. Let's get going before we waste any more daylight...we’ve got some more shitheads to hunt down. Least we can't say this trip has been boring eh?”

He nodded in agreement and paid the barkeep for his whiskey before we bid the two stallions goodbye and began our journey South. The mare at the gate seemed relieved to see us go and soon enough the little town was nothing more than a hazy speck on the horizon behind us. While I would have liked to have gotten the info for free or via a generous bribe so we could be on our merry way all the sooner, the deal we had just made was far from the worst I had been involved in. We got some target practice against a couple of fuckers in Power Armor, practice that would come in handy soon enough, and in exchange Junction-11 got to retain the peace and quiet they wanted. Still…how he had described the two supposed Steel Rangers didn’t fit with the Order’s MO. While they demanded any and all technology be forfeited to them, demanding a tribute of food and Chems was…not standard procedure to say the least. There was something more going on here…

“Damn…and here I was hoping no SR related shit had breached the Gap yet...” I growled under my breath as we walked.

“Yew think they might be SR?” Firefly asked me, to which I shook my head firmly.

“Not a chance. The Order doesn’t just send two Paladins to buttfuck nowhere to harass a small trade town and extort them for drugs and food. They take what they want, when they want and Chems are strictly forbidden for use amongst all ranks. More than likely it’s just a couple of Raiders or ex-Mercs who happened across an SR scouting party and salvaged their PoA for themselves. Either way, once we find ‘em they’re dead for sure.”

Firefly chuckled. “Ahhh…nothin’ like puttin’ some dumbass wannabes in ah shallow grave tah rot eh? Sounds like yer lookin’ forward tah this!”

“Well if there’s one thing I hate more then the SR, its a fucker who think its cool to dress up like them and add to the mess those fuckers made. If I’m gonna clean the Steel Rangers’ old reputation, this is a great place to start.”

It was just reaching dusk when we finally reached their fortress. Boulders, mounds of rusting scrap metal and disintegrating train cars marked the obvious lair of these two SR wannabes and the shitheads who fell in line behind them. There were none of the telltale signs of an SR encampment such as a communications beacon poking out from the middle of the makeshift fort or the awful stench of a bunch of technophiles with massive sticks up their asses. Confirmation came in the form of a lone sentry patrolling the precarious wall of scrap and rock, his armor made of the same shitty hodge-podge of welded metal, leather straps and unnecessary bits of rebar jutting out as makeshift spikes. Even the lowest ranking combat forces, the Knights, were clad in SR branded Model-3s and 4s and carried quality firearms giving some decent bite to all their bark. There was nothing special to these guys and with the lax security, this was going to be a Radpheasant shoot down a narrow hallway. And I was hoping for some kind of challenge…at least it was gonna be easy which was a blessing in and of itself. When I had said it would be over by sunrise...probably could have gotten away with saying, 'by midnight judging by how easy a target this was.

“Well fuck…that’s hella fortunate. Even easier than that nest of Radroaches we passed earlier.” I said as I turned to Firefly who’s red helmet lenses were glowing softly in the growing gloom. “Thankfully the camp seems to be either asleep already or are super confident in that one guy being able to ward off any danger.”

“Or that he’ll give ah shoutout before he gets his goddamned head blown off…” He replied with a laugh, getting his weird lever-action from off his back and screwing on a suppressor before switching out the magazine. “Sub-sonics, won’t hear ah goddamn thing till th’ lead punctures his skull.”

With a soft pneumatic hiss my armor opened up letting me climb out into the warm, stiff breeze of the desert air. I detached my machete in its sheath from the shoulder of my armor and strapped it to the shoulder strap of my plate carrier while switching my revolver to my secondary holster on my hip along with three spare loaded cylinders. On my other leg went my 10 gauge shotty in the event my big ass was discovered and shit hit the fan. I was no Peter in terms of grace, agility or stealth but he had taught me a thing or two about the craft and I was eager to put them to use again. As fun as running and gunning was, a good stealth op was always a pleasant change of pace and kept me up to date with my own skillset.

“Alright, here’s the plan, I sneak in first and catch the body of that guard soon as you take him out and hold the door open for you to follow. They won’t be sleeping in their armor so we just find where they’re keeping them and I’ll use my PipBuck to rig the CFC to blow. Bingo bango bongo and we are a mile away before the whole place goes up. They’ll be able to see it all the way in Junction-11 so we can head back immediately and get what we need. Bar like that looks like it’d be open 24/7.”

Firefly shook his head. “Yew sure, Garand? They could have hella loot in there, big guy. Would be ah waste tah blow it all up…Ah mean, what about gettin’ replacement parts fer yer Power Armor? Ain’t that reason enough tah just shoot th’ place up ‘n call it ah night?”

I growled at his stubbornness. “Look, I know that there might be good shit in there but this is serious Firefly. Even if these fuckers aren't SR, they still took it on themselves to impersonate them and that automatically makes them my sworn enemy. I don’t wanna take any chances if they've got more PoA chassis in their possession and one of them gets geared up. That happens and I’ll have no choice but to get right up on them and make sure you’re outta the range of fire. That…and this is gonna send a message. I will not tolerate any more proliferation of the bad name the Order has made for itself and this is a step towards that. If you don’t agree with that then by all means wait for me back in Junction-11 and I’ll see you by sunrise. This shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes, tops.”

Firefly sighed in response and mumbled, “Sheesh…Ah’m wit’ ya, Garand. Guess it could be ah fun lightshow at th’ very least. Might be neat tah see if we can pull this here gig off withou’ rousin’ th’ soon tah be dead. Excuse meh, neat tah see yer fat ass pull this here gig off.”

“That’s the spirit! And shut the fuck up ya Glowstick.” I laughed, nodding towards my parked armor and helping him up onto its back using the helmet as a convenient gun rest. “Alright, I’ve got an EarBloom so when I’m in position I’ll send three bursts of static to let you know I’m in position. Give me some sorta sign when you’re about to fire and I’ll keep him from making a ruckus on his way down. With how uneven that walkway is, more than likely he’ll crumple to a heap and make every noise known to Terra Firma.”

He nodded and grunted in response, settling into as comfortable a position as he could atop my armor and I crouched low to the hot desert sand. Despite being called a bird by anyone and everyone, there was still plenty of big cat genes in my body giving me more agility and flexibility than someone my size should be allowed to have. Slowly I crawled forward, my paws and talons making little to no noise on the ground beneath me while my keen eyes adjusted to the dying light of the evening. The firelight flickering inside the walls offered tremendous contrast to the evening sky and our lone target was easily visible as a partial silhouette. My ears strained to hear any and all noise in the immediate area but aside from my own light-pawed scampering across the sand, there wasn't a damn thing to listen to and all I could smell was the warm sand around me. Couldn't have asked for better conditions for detonating a couple of Crystalline Fusion Cores under the noses of a bunch of lowlifes who didn't deserve to own them.

I reached the main gateway to the camp without raising any alarms and I glanced back at where Firefly was perched, ready to shoot as soon as I had an angle. There was no gate guarding the entrance, just an opening in the wall with a boardwalk bridging the gap above and not a soul in sight guarding it. The inside of the encampment was pretty barren with a handful of tattered canvas army tents and a lone deteriorating warehouse looking thing with a sign saying, ‘Rusty Brothers’ Scrap ‘n Dump’. Campfires and a few flames in a barrel were scattered around but there was not an asshat in sight. There were alcohol bottles everywhere though and the place reeked of booze, piss and vomit…apparently there had been a long day of partying and everyone was out cold in their tents before 9pm. With the guard’s eyes facing outwards, it took little effort to snake my way along the base of the wall to where he stood. Talons up and ready, I tapped my EarBloom three times sending the signal to my waiting sniper.

There was a burst of static in response, a wet, crunchy slap and the dumbass fell backwards right into my waiting talons cushioning his fall noiselessly as the bullet whizzed off into the night. I ignored the spray of blood and brains on my feathers and set his bleeding corpse in the sand at my paws as Firefly informed me that he was already on his way over. While I awaited his arrival, I checked the dimly glowing screen of my PipBuck to see if there were any angry red ticks on the E.F.S moving around. There were a little over a dozen ‘neutral’ orange ones indicating the sleeping assholes and a singular red tick off to my right that wasn’t moving. So they had two on guard duty tonight it seemed…big whoop. Was still a walk in the park compared to what I put up with back East. The wildlife of the Post-War world was more dangerous than this gang of amateurs and I'd sooner actively choose to fight another Ursa Minor than these idiots. Mostly because at least then the fight would feel worth our collective time but seeing as we were bargaining for potentially useful intel, the small fry would have to do for the night. Looking down at the easily capped Raider on the ground in front of me did remind me however that there was a certain carnal pleasure that came with tearing through minor speedbumps like these. Tearing terrified psychos apart limb from limb and gouging their guts out with my bare talons while the others watch on helplessly was always good for a laugh and it was nice to have a chance to indulge myself again in a temptation.

Within a few minutes, the bold green tick of my Ghoul companion made it around the wall and into the camp. We nodded to each other and he stood guard by the gate to ensure if any tried to flee they wouldn’t make it far. With the only exit covered, I made my way to the warehouse on the east side of the yard figuring that the PoAs would be stored inside for safekeeping. The camp was silent aside from the faint snoring coming from the tents and the crackling of the various fires around camp and the lone stallion standing guard in front of the crumbling warehouse stood as oblivious to the situation as ever. Pulling out my revolver and undoing the latch, I fished out the cylinder and slipped an empty casing from killing the Radroaches earlier into my palm, throwing it in a direction to make sure the stallion would look away from me. The tinkling brass bounced off one of the many rocks strewn around the camp causing a quiet distraction that would alert the only guy actually awake to hear it. Oldest trick in the book and yet, it never got old to see it in action.

“Hey! Who the hell is that?” He called out, turning to face the noise with his gun partially raised. “Rubble I swear to fuck if you’re fucking with me again…”

While this genius pissed himself over a bullet casing, I slowly snuck up behind him feeling a certain, primal pleasure being on the hunt like an apex predator of old. Before he could even get another word out I quickly slit his throat with my index talon; a quick flick of the hand and his jugular was spewing bright crimson blood like a fountain. Before he even fell to the ground I grabbed him around the chest in my large hands and curled my talons inwards, sinking them deep into his lungs and heart killing him on the spot. It was a bit excessive as the throat cut would render him mute and dead within fifteen minutes but I liked making sure he wouldn't make a ruckus from thrashing about in the dirt as he bled out. Double tap applied to impaling bitches too unless the heart or brain itself were hit first and even then you can never be too careful.

”Well look at that, looks like these idiots were dumb enough to let you keep the keys for the night.” I chuckled quietly to myself as I snagged them from off a leather thong around his neck and unlocked the door. "Thanks for your contribution to your own demise, dumbass..."

Inside was a sight to see. To my left was a wall of ammunition boxes, explosive's crates and racked weapons while to my immediate right was a row of Power Armor chassis all devoid of armored plating and seemingly only partially operable with tools scattered all over the floor around them. Even without the protective shell, a PoA chassis gave advantages to the wearer like increased strength, speed and punching power and could still act as a gun platform for a jury-rigged BattleSaddle. Closest to the door was a pair of fully armored T-45s sporting fading SR emblems, war markings painted in blood, shoddily welded on intimidation spikes and necklaces of pony teeth around the neck. Even for an Outcast of the Order I was disgusted and horrified at how they had bastardized such beautiful Pre-War hardware. While Firefly had a point that it would be a waste of relatively good spare parts…this was one form of heresy that I could still get behind when it came to how the Order would deal with such an abomination. They had been irredeemably tainted and needed to be purged from off the face of the earth.

“Alrighty…let’s get this bitch hot and ready…” I mumbled to myself, taking out the universal adapter cord from my PipBuck and feeling around the back of the closest set of armor until I found the socket.

I was lucky as ever that StableTec products were compatible with, if not integral, to the Spell-Matrix that ran the OS that made the damn thing function and move. Normally I used it to diagnose my own armor and run systems’ maintenance but in this case, I was plugging directly into the PB-OS and accessing the so-called ‘Doomsday Protocol’. The orange-toned screen of my PipBuck was alight with numbers and code as it integrated with the armor before the familiar readout sprang to life before my eyes, a simple diagram of the armor with markers indicating different parts and their sub-menus. I fiddled with the controls and selected the Crystalline Fusion Core which brought up a long list of details like serial number, number of days in use and other unimportant information; that being said I laughed that it barely had 15% capacity left in the tanks which was just enough to pull off the stunt I was about to perform. Any lower and I would have needed to find one still capable of achieving supercriticality, something that needed a certain amount of viable fuel to pull off. This wasn't something I had ever needed to do before in the field but I knew the protocol by memory after working on my own armor and spell-matrix over the years.

“Uh-huh…yes I wanna initiate self-destruct. No, I don’t need to reconsider my options and yes I know contact with StableTech HQ and the Ministry of War is unavailable…dumb piece of shit thinking it’s still 2077…”

After several angry clicks of 'Affirmative' on my PipBuck, there was a soft whir and then a subtle but growing whine as the CFC began to visibly glow in it's dorsal housing giving me every reason to haul my ass the fuck out of there. The Doomsday Protocol had been built into the OS from day one in the case a Steel Ranger found themselves surrounded by Imperial troops with no hopes for escape. Leaves the enemy with less soldiers for fighting and no armor for their engineers to reverse engineer and use against us like they had with combat robotics. T-minus two minutes to supercriticality and with a half dozen chassis and the ammo dump…goddamn was this gonna be one for the memory book!

“Oh fuck me, guys wake the fuck up!! There’s an intruder in the fucking camp! They got Sagebrush!”

That was all the extra motivation I needed and I barreled out of the warehouse door, slamming into an orange stallion who was kneeling over the body I had left outside. Before he could even react, I regained my balance and whipped out my revolver, emptying two shots into his chest and neck at near point-blank range sending pieces of him splattering across the camp. The shots roused more of them to poke their heads out of their tents only to be met with .454 Castle lead and 10 gauge scattershot as I ran past them to the gateway where Firefly stood with his rifle at the ready. I could see him hesitate as he noticed I was galloping towards him like a goddamn cat who had fallen into the bathtub, something I almost never did due to how uncomfortably my armor slapped against my chest and back as I ran. That and it just felt…undignified I guess but this was no time for appearances. This was a time for hauling ass and regretting shit later!

“Fly you damn fuckin’ fool!” I shouted as I barreled past him, snagging him by the leg and swinging him onto my back unceremoniously like a sack of flour.

He clung to me for dear life as I skidded to a stop next to my armor, tossed him off my back and flung myself into my Power Armor before charging out into the open desert with him once again clinging to my back. Two minutes was not a lot of time by any stretch of the imagination and I wasn’t in the mood to get caught in the blast range. After bounding a half-mile in less than fifteen-seconds, we came to a screeching halt and turned around to watch the firework show. Not a moment to soon as there was a large explosion of baby blue light followed immediately after by a second, gigantic explosion as the other chassis went supercritical in the blast and the ammo dump went up with it. The resulting shockwave could be felt in the ground below and in the air around us like a padded sledgehammer as dust and sand blew outwards in a visible ring from the blast zone. For one bright, shining moment the desert was lit up for miles around as the Post-War’s largest flare went up in smoke and it was only thanks to our helmets that our ears and eyes were saved from any injury.

“HA HA!! FUCK YEAH!” I laughed joyously, Firefly staring in amazement at the sight of a massive fireball rising in the sky. “That beats that SR ammo dump I blew outside Maretropolis by like ten! No, fifty! Oh gods if only Muller could’ve seen that shit…god fuckin’ DAMN! Wooooo!”

“Sweet fuckin’ horse apples that was fuckin awesome!” He shouted, his jaw still on the floor in amazement. “Take that ya fuckin’ punk ass Tin Head wannabes! I hope ya ride cactus dicks in hell ya cocksuckin’ fuckheads!!”

“Heheh, couldn’t have said it better myself!” I laughed, patting him on the back before nodding in the direction of Junction-11. “Common, that blast was enough to rouse the dead so everypony and their dog’ll be up back in town. Let’s go get our reward and see if we can get a place to shack up for the night.”

“Fuck, let’s go fer some good eatin’!” He laughed, walking beside me with the biggest grin on his face after taking his helmet off. “Ah think they owe us tha’ much!”

Next Chapter: Chapter 7: A Sandy Path of Benefits Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 52 Minutes