"Attention!"

Everypony in the vertibuck looked up at the sergeant I didn't know her name but she was one of those ponies whose mere presence demanded respect.

"You have all volunteered for this special ground mission. And from my understanding none of you have ever been to the ground before." There where nods and agreements in the vertibuck. “So listen closely because it is also of my understanding that you have yet to receive any information regarding this mission other than it being to the ground.”

It was true. None of us had gotten any information about the mission we volunteered for due to it being classified. I was actually surprised that they had managed to get a whole team of volunteers together. I mean everypony knew that the surface was nothing but disease and radiation who would want to go there? Especially on a mission you knew nothing about. But then again not everypony was of that meaning. I could basically feel the excitement radiating from Cloud Swirl next to me. She was totally convinced that the surface wasn't such a bad place as our government wanted us to think. I used to tell her that it was just stupid conspiracy theories. But then we got invited to volunteer for this ground mission and she took it as proof that there existed civilization on the ground and that the radiation had died down. I was however not convinced and so we volunteered just to find out who was right. I guessed the other volunteers had similar reasons.

"Before I go into details about your mission there is one thing you need to know about the surface, the radiation may be there but there do exist some factions."

Cloud Swirl tensed.

"You are going to encounter two of them in this mission. The first you need to know about is the Steel Rangers. They are also known as the brotherhoof of steel and from the intel we have gathered they are a remnant from the MWT's steel rangers.” Well duh. “They have access to the MWT style power armor and very heavy weaponry. They are also well trained in using these. You should by any means necessary avoid engaging them in enclosed spaces since their armor is a lot thicker than yours. Hopefully you will not have to do this if the mission goes according to plan. The other faction you need to know about is the reapers. They are the leading gang under the clouds and they basically control all the other gangs in the Hoofington area. There are not that many actual reapers but they use the other gangs as armies. These lesser gangs consist of ill equipped and half starved wrecks that can almost be called ponies with basically no training at all. They rely on mass and shouldn't be a problem if encountered in even numbers. The actual reapers however should not be underestimated since they are well equipped and very experienced. Luckily there are very few of them. Are there any questions on this so far?"

There were no questions. Cloud Swirl turned to me with a face that just screamed I told you so. Uh I groaned. I was never going to hear the end this now. But the rubbing it into my face would have to wait because the sergeant still had more to say.

"Good, then I will proceed to explaining your mission. Your job is to extract a certain unicorn scientist." The sergeant stepped to the side and let a small projection take her place. It showed a dark grey and quite handsome unicorn stallion who was clad in a lab coat. He had a black mane and tail with two bright yellow dots right behind his ears. "What we need him for is highly classified and even I don't know. But I can say that we are not the only ones who want him. He is currently being held working for the steel rangers in one of their fortresses. Now as I said earlier, the brotherhoof of steel are not to be taken lightly and normally it would take at least a raptor to break one of their strongholds. This is where the reapers come in. You see the reapers are at war with the brotherhoof and our intel has informed us of an assault they have planned and the target happens to be the particular fortress that our objective is waiting in. Now the steel rangers' have intel of their own and they know about this attack so we can on them being prepared to it. Now it doesn't really matter to us who of them wins the upcoming battle. What matters is that under the fight the rangers will be fully occupied and we shouldn't have a problem getting in, acquire our target and get out"

I listened with interest to the rest of the briefing. The rangers seemed to be really good at fortifying building but this stronghold had a very open flaw. It seemed to be several buildings they had connected in a square with only one narrow entrance. That is except if you could fly and fortunately for us we could. I was both excited and very nervous. This was what we all had been trained for but it was still the first time we had been sent on a mission where battle was supposed to take place and we were expected to kill ponies. I talked this over with Cloud Swirl. Both of us agreed that it was for the greater good. And after all they where surface dwellers and it was obvious that they had not become any better since the Great War. The world was destroyed and yet they still fought wars with each other. No these where the ponies that where responsible for the destruction of the surface. They weren't worthy of being called ponies. Cloud Swirl may have found it easy to believe certain conspiracy theories but we were both loyal to the enclave. After all what they did was for the best for ponykind that there was no denying and these where rough times for ponykind so rough measures where sometimes required. At least she said that she agreed with me but from her tone I had a feeling that she was just saying that because she felt that this was probably the worst time to start an argument about it. However I couldn't deny that I was quite nervous and had second thoughts too. Even if everypony should be okay if all went as planned it was still a very dangerous mission. It is only natural to have second thoughts in situations like this. A thought hit me that not everypony would survive the mission. I however quickly pushed it out of my mind thoughts like that served no other purpose than making you feel uncomfortable.

****

"Get ready everypony we have arrived at our destination!" The sergeant informed us. I looked up. Had I fallen asleep? I yawned. Why did I always get so sleepy when I got nervous? It made no sense.

"Now remember your objective, stay calm and this will be a piece of cake. Fly steady!"

The vertibuck stopped and the door opened. Ponies started getting out. Me and Cloud Swirl where the furthest away from the door and would be the last to throw ourselves out except for the sergeant. I tensed. Cloud Swirl threw herself out. I took a deep breath and followed.

The dive that followed I will never forget. The vertibuck was hovering about a hundred meters in the air and was covered by a cloud. We were going to dive practically all the way to the ground to avoid detection and keep our element of surprise for as long as possible. Now we had practiced deployment dives like this before but this was the first time I got to do one when we actually dived to the ground. This was actually the first time I ever saw ground with my own eyes. I surveyed the landscape as my momentum rose. The ranger base looked like a fortress and I was aimed for the courtyard. Battle seemed to be taking place at the narrow choke point which was the only way inside the square of buildings except by air. As I got closer I started seeing details of some heavily armored steel ponies fighting of a horde of pony-like creatures. The sergeant had said that the attackers where ill-equipped and relied on numbers but this was ridiculous. For ones I wished that I didn't have as good eyes as I did. The attackers looked horrifying and my mind immediately sided with the rangers who valiantly defended their home against the horde. It took about twenty gang ponies to take down one ranger but the rangers where outmatched almost fifty to one. I changed my attention to the courtyard as the ground got closer. Most of the squad had already landed and they had secured an area right outside a door into one of the buildings. Some of the rangers had turned away from their battle and started firing on them but the first of us who landed had put up deployable covers so unless the rangers moved away from their positions we would be safe.

I adjusted my course a bit so that I would land behind covers. I deployed my wings about ten meters above the ground and slowed down. It was however not early enough to stop my descent completely and I smashed into the ground with quite a bit more speed than was comfortable for my legs. It took a while to get my orientation right but the suit was built specifically to make drops like this so at least I didn't break anything. My eyes quickly located Cloud Swirl over by the door to the building. Since she was a medic she had a yellow power armor that stood out quite well against all the black ones the rest of us were wearing. I was glad to have her as a medic. You see the army is very respected among pegasi and having served in the enclave's military is considered almost mandatory if you want to get anywhere in pegasi society. Therefore a lot of ponies who have no plans to really stay in the army join only so that they can put it on their resumes for later. So when I signed up Cloud Swirl did too, probably because I was her best friend but also because it would help her medical carrier later. So I was glad because I got to have a medic whose special talent was medicine (which was more than most since ponies with medical talent didn't sign up enough to have every medic be one) and was my best friend. I walked up to her she had a light blue coat with a yellow mane the same color as her armor.

"How are we doing?" I asked her with a grin. I was feeling skittish with the adrenaline from the dive pumping through my body but she didn't look comfortable at all.

"Well everything seems to be going according to plan but I don't know any more than you do." she answered with a forced smile. I understood her feelings. She had never been a soldier. I always got into lots of trouble when we grew up but she had never been a fighter. I bet she regretted joining the army now.

I was about to say something to comfort her but then the sergeant landed. She struck the ground with what looked like twice my speed but she didn't look fazed at all. She had a quick look over of the squad and then immediately trotted up to me. I stood to attention and beside me Cloud Swirl did the same. "True Sight what did you make of the situation at the gate on your way down" She knew I had good eyes normally I was a sharpshooter and trained to operate in smaller scouting squads however this mission had been very different from normal ones.

"The steel rangers are fighting valiantly ma'am but they are grossly outnumbered and the battle is practically already lost." I recited from what had gone thru my mind during the dive.

"Damn, I hate being right sometimes.” She said with a thoughtful hoof to her chin. “We are going to have to be fast if this is going to work. It is imperative that we get out of here before the reapers get in otherwise we are going to get completely overrun. Do you remember your objective?"

"Yes ma'am!" I and Swirl responded.

"Let’s get to it then." The sergeant said as she led the way through the door. I took my position on her left and Swirl on the right as we made our way inside the building.

Our squad consisted of twelve ponies separated into four wings. The sergeant, Cloud Swirl and I were in the commanding wing and the plan was for us to extract the target from the building while the other three wings held the door so that we could get out. We didn't expect to meet any resistance in the actual building since all the rangers would be busy fighting off the reapers except for of course one or two guards who might be guarding our target. Our target was not a steel ranger but a scientist who was being held captive by them. Hopefully he would come freely when we freed him but we were authorized to use force should that not be the case. He was a surface dweller after all and from the little I had seen of them so far their method for thanking ponies might be just to not try and kill them.

When we entered the door we were greeted with a stair that led up to a long hallway. The sergeant proceeded to march forward in what was almost a gallop. "Come on you two we are on a busy schedule!" she called at us.

"Yes ma'am!" we answered and began following. We passed a lot of rooms that seemed as if they had once been small apartments but now they where remade to laboratories. Maybe the steel rangers used this stronghold as a research base. They must at least have more scientists than our target because one pony couldn't possibly need this big of a laboratory. We made a left turn into another hallway and then right into one of the apartments then the sergeant stopped. We stopped behind her and I began to ask her why we had stopped in front of a door that I think once had led into the bedroom of the apartment. What was there now I could only imagine since the whole apartment was full of chemical equipment and even an operating table.

"Sshh!" she cut me off in a half whispered tone before I had even started. "Check your EFS!"

I did. There were two red bars and a white one behind the door. I mentally "Aha'd".

"Okay, so this is how we are going to do." sarge said over the radio link in our helmets all outside voice was muted. "I am going to kick the door open and Trucie is going to flash them. Then I close the door in case they are unicorns and when I open it again we go in. I take the left one and you take the right one. Shoot to kill but be careful not to hit the objective! Are there any questions?"

"No ma'am." we responded.

"Good, then let’s do this!" she paused as I got a grenade ready."On the count of three! One, two, three!" she kicked the door open and I threw the grenade inside. She closed it, we heard a bang from the other side and she kicked it open again. She stormed in and I followed suit. The two hostiles where positioned right by the side of the door and aiming energy rifles right at it. If they had seen us they would have blasted us right as we stepped inside but as it was they where blinded by the flash bang. I slipped into SATS and targeted the pony on the right. She was a pink unicorn with a teal mane. She was wearing some kind of robe which made her look sort of like a priest of some kind. I targeted her head with five shots from my armor mounted energy weapons. The enclave is very limited when it comes to some certain kinds of resources and ammunition is one of them. Therefore many sharpshooters such as myself find ourselves using modified energy rifles for sniping. The upside of this is of course that they work a lot better in close quarters. The first shot hit her right in the face and disintegrated her. I slipped out of SATS and looked around the room and what do you know. It was still a bedroom. The other hostile lay in a pile of goo on the floor having been made short work of by the sergeant's plasma rifle. Cloud Swirl entered the room. She looked like she was going to throw up. I couldn't blame her.

"P... Please don't hurt me." all three of us turned to the source of the voice.

"I am quite a good doctor I can help you. I can make you healing potions just please don't hurt me." the pleading came from a stallion who was huddled up in the corner of the room levitating a clipboard in front of him as if he was trying to shield himself with it. He was gray with a black mane and yellow dots behind the ears and he was wearing a rugged lab coat. He looked absolutely mortified. How nice, we had found our target.

"Shush! We're not going to hurt you." I heard a gentle voice from beside me. It was Cloud Swirl although the effect was effect was ruined by the crackling of the speakers in her helmet. She noticed this and removed it. The sergeant however did not like this.

"Private may I remind you that the helmet is to be kept on at all times during a mission unless your life is danger or you are ordered otherwise." she said in harsh tone.

"Oh come on! Look at him he is horrified and these suits doesn't exactly help our image of kind rescuers. Besides what is he going to do?" I smiled. Cloud Swirl had always been one who looked out for the weak. I had been pretty much the opposite when I was small. It wasn't till I met her that I stopped bullying other kids. She always brought out the best in me.

"Okay I'll let it slip this time but in the future you should at least ask permission from your commanding officer before you do anything similar! Is that understood?" Hah, I bet the sarge was just a big softie beneath that hard facade.

"Yes ma'am." Swirl bowed her head slightly. She could actually have asked for permission first. She turned back to the scientist. I noticed that he had a pipbuck around his left foreleg. He looked a bit calmer but still quite horrified and he was still holding the clipboard as a shield. Swirl approached him and gently lowered the clipboard with a hoof. "We are not here to hurt we are here to free you. We are from the enclave. Do you know who we are?" she said in a gentle tone. It was quite funny since the stallion was quite a bit older than her and yet she acted like a protective mother to a small colt. It seemed to be working thou as the fear disappeared from his eyes but it was replaced with sorrow.

"I don't deserve to be saved." he said and lowered his head and sniffed.

"Of course you do. Why wouldn't you do that?" Swirl countered with a slight frown.

"But you don't know the things I have done." he said.

"Then tell me what you have done! I am sure it can be forgiven. You are among friends and that is what friends’ do." she comforted. Sarge coughed slightly and pointed towards her hoof to indicate that we didn't have much time but Swirl just waved her off. This was important to her.

"Okay I'll tell you." he cleared his throat. Was he crying? "The wasteland is harsh and sometimes it is hard to do the right thing. I have always tried to live by certain virtues and I have tried to stay out of trouble." he continued. I don’t know much about wasteland culture but that sounded a bit cliché even for a child book author. Although he seemed to feel more secure about himself as he got to talk. "Okay so I know that you are in a hurry so I'll give you the short version.” Hmm maybe he could read my mind. “I have killed good ponies, sometimes innocent ponies."

Cloud Swirl was stunned. She had obviously not expected that. To be fair I hadn't either, he definitely didn't strike you as the murderous type. Sarge however did not look surprised at all. I guessed this was common in the wasteland it seemed as if ponies here really where horrible.

"But why?" Swirl asked.

"To protect other ponies. I have only ever done it if it meant I could save others and if they would have died anyway. But it is still wrong and it’s eating me up from the inside." he looked at her with extreme sorrow and deep pain in his eyes.

Cloud Swirl contemplated this for a while. This was not a situation you got into a lot back home. Then she looked him in the eyes and walked up to him and hugged him. He hugged her back and put his head in her mane and cried. "Its okay." she said "We forgive you." they stood like that for a while and then he broke the hug and took a step back.

"I'm sorry I am just so stressed out." he apologized and dried a tear with his hoof. "I am Life Code by the way and I am guessing you didn't come here just because you thought I was a nice guy or because of my good looks." he said with a slight smile. "So what can I help you with?"

Now the sergeant stepped forward.

"You are to accompany us back to the enclave and you are to bring with you anything you need in order to continue working on a specific research project. I have been told by my superiors that you would know which project is in question. In return your safety will be guaranteed by the enclave. And also you have to hurry up since the rangers are going to be overrun any second now." she recited and added the last part in quite a stressed tone. We had been here for far too long.

"Yes I believe I know what project you are talking about and of course I will help you. I'm afraid however that you are going to have to help me collect some test samples from this building." he nodded thoughtfully and levitated forward a few more clipboards. "Since we are in a hurry I'll draw you a map so that we can split up and get everything quickly." he levitated a couple of pencils and started drawing on the clipboards. Now I am not a unicorn but from what I have heard it is very hard to multitask with your magic. I can therefore assume that this stallion was quite talented as he drew three maps at the same time.

"Good but I would prefer to stay with you." the sergeant said in a blunt tone. "I am sure you understand."

"But of course" he responded in a suave manner as he finished with the clipboards and hovered them over to us. Either this guy was an emotional rollercoaster or Cloud Swirl could do magic with her hugs. He didn't seem anything like the emotional wreck he was when we had found him. I looked down at the improvised map. It was not very informative but it gave a basic idea of in which room the samples would be. Then I heard a loud bang and a gasp and then everything went black.

Footnote: Level Up
New Perk: Enclave Sharpshooter – You are a trained sharpshooter of the enclave. You have +10% accuracy with energy weapons and sniper rifles.

Traits
Trigger Discipline -- Wait for it... Wait for it... Boom!! Headshot. Your guns and energy weapons fire 20% more accurately but 20% slower and have a 20% higher AP cost in S.A.T.S.
Eagle Eyes – You have the eyes of an eagle or some other predatory bird which allows you to zoom in one extra time with all ranged weapons. This also allows you to zoom in even with weapons that don’t have scopes. Although those eyes have made you neglect your other senses making you suffer -1 to perception.

Authors Note:
Okay so this is my first fan fic so please go easy on me. Or wait don't do that. I think that this story can get a lot better with some outside opinion so please say precisely what you think. Don't be afraid to comment on trivial things either since english is not my mane (I did that one on purpose) languish there is bound to be some grammatical and spelling errors. And please tell me what you think of the story and how I can improve and what you expect from it and all that whatnot. I will definitely be reading the comments and I am open to suggestions and criticism.

So with that out of the way I hope you have enjoyed this first chapter. It may not be the best your have ever read but I am sure that a lot of you have had a lot worse. I will try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible but I am quite busy so don't expect to much. Hopefully it will be in about a week. I would also like to thank Kkat and Somber since this fic is heavily based on theirs and because they are awesome. Also Mimezinga and all the other FO:E fic writers but I don't think I'll mention their work to much in this fic since that would really narrow down my already very small pool of potential readers.

Also If you actually have read this which I assume that you have since you are reading this. Life Code the scientist is one of the snakes in this story. I have put some clues in that might let you figure out what kind of snake. Whoever figures it out first wins. There will be more clues in the following chapters but if you figure it out with just this one I will be mighty impressed. Good luck and thanks for reading.