private FoE: Aftermath; After the Fact (1x1 with Meson Bolt)

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

"Well, I've never been to the Domain," Kronos replied "so I don't have a bloody clue as to where we'll go from here. Also, if it's gonna be an approximately four day trek, then we'll have to try and stock up on supplies whenever we can. I know that that's basic logic of wasteland survival, but we can't forget that. Also, what landmarks would we be on the lookout for, exactly?"

[Meson Bolt 2,647]

"There's lots of 'em... Shattered Horn Rock, Scorched Basin, Razor Canyon... ah... you won't really recognize any of them, probably, but I will, so don't worry." Foray tossed him a playful smile. "Once we get close enough, we should run into some traders that can help us with supplies," she continued, thinking quietly for a moment. "I don't know if we've enough supplies on hoof to get there, so we may have to hunt quite a bit." Cocking her head, she added, "I don't suppose you're willing to part with that shotgun, are you? We might have to trade it for food, the Domain caravans don't accept caps."

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

Kronos looked at Foray and replied, "No, I ain't parting with this shotgun or minigun anytime soon. If they do bartering, we should try picking up some stuff on the way there. Hey, I am a chronic hoarder and I tend to find really valuable junk very easily, so my habits and seemingly pointless skills might come in handy after all, then."

[Meson Bolt 2,647]

"Hm... lucky, huh?" she snorted, "Well, food is pretty scarce in and around the Domain, and they don't buy any food from the outside. So if you plan on hunting and selling meat, forget it. It's gotta be something of worth -- gold or caps won't cut it since they don't have any practical uses. They'd rather buy something like firearms, ammo, construction materials, plate armor, copper... you get the idea."

 

Checking the campsite to make sure that they hadn't really left any traces, she began walking at an easy pace, trying not to work her wounded hoof too much.

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

"So, basically, what you're saying is," Kronos replied trying to elaborate on Foray's explanation as he followed her, "We just need to loot any armed corpses that come our way and those caravans will trade for those? Am I right to assume it that way, because we can easily find raider encampments all around the wasteland and loot their corpses and storage containers."

Edited September 17, 2016 by Kronos the Revenant

[Meson Bolt 2,647]

"Yep, pretty much," was her answer. "A lot of the traders are firearms-only, or... you know, anything that's super valuable, but I know a couple of them deal in .44 ammo, which is great because I have quite a bit left over from the fight. But ah... yeah, get ready to scavenge a lot." She smiled coyly and added, "It's just how I do things."

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

Kronos smiled back and replied, "Okay, just point out to me whatever seems valuable in our trek and I'll carry it around. I mean, I can carry a shit ton of weapons, armor and miscellaneous crap that we can trade and there's bound to be lots of raiders to loot on the way to the Domain."

[Meson Bolt 2,647]

"Nah, raiders aren't that big of an issue; Domain ponies are notoriously alert and pretty well-trained, so they keep their distance. A lot of our problems come from animals... mostly stingwings and radscorpions. Sometimes we get exotic ones like Yao Guai or Hellhounds..."

 

Foray fell quiet as she focused on something with her ears. "Speaking of..." she added, turning her head in a direction, though there didn't seem to be any noise coming from that direction.

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

Kronos froze and his eyes widened at Foray's mention of Stingwings.

 

"Di-di-did you say S-Sti-Stingwings?" he shuddered as he swallowed.

 

Oh Xerox, he thought, I hate those damn things. And she says that the Domain is basically SWARMING with those damn things!? Oh, crap.

 

He then noticed Foray turning her head a certain direction. Under his state of paranoia and uncertainty, he fidgeted around trying to find a place to take cover and kept his minigun close.

 

If those damn dragonflies try to get close, he thought, I'm spraying and praying that this thing'll kill some of those Stingwing bastards.

Edited September 19, 2016 by Kronos the Revenant

[Meson Bolt 2,647]

"Yep, Stingwings," Foray replied, focused on whatever was making noise and not noticing his current state. "Basically mutated dragonflies... kinda like radroaches, y'know? I'm kinda surprised you've never heard of 'em... they're common pests in the Domain, and... from what I hear, all of the Wasteland too."

 

Taking a short pause and turning her ears towards the noise once more, she glanced up at him and added, "Don't worry, it's just mole rats... I'd ah... advise using your shotgun instead. You ain't gonna hit crap with a minigun." With that said, she whipped out her dual 10mm pistols and backed up, anticipating the creatures pouncing at them.

Edited September 19, 2016 by Meson Bolt

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

"I know what Stingwings are, Foray," Kronos replied to her, "It's just, *sigh*, I hate to admit this, but I'm gonna trust you with this secret of mine. I have a morbid fear of Stingwings. I know that it sounds ridiculous that of all the things that I can be scared of in this wasteland it's Stingwings. You can go ahead and make fun of me all you want, but those things scare the crap out of me."

 

Taking note of what his companion told him, he put his minigun on his back and drew out his shotgun and kept caution to the ground around him, waiting for some mole rats to pop up.

 

Then he recalled what Foray said about Stingwings and said, "Wait, Stingwings are COMMON in the Domain!? As in, they're EVERYWHERE there!?"

[Meson Bolt 2,647]

"Yeah yeah, let's talk about that in about sixty seconds, okay?" Foray retorted, taking a couple more steps back as she heard the burrowing rats about to attack.

 

Five of the fetid creatures emerged at the same time, leaping at the ponies with great speed and ferocious growls, but the three closest to Foray were met with sprays of hot lead from her buster pistols, the 10mm rounds shredding through them easily.

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

Kronos saw the mole rats about to attack them and saw Foray take out three of them. He took his shotgun and blasted the other two mole rats. When they took all five of them down, he went up to the five mole rats and carved out some meat off of them.

 

When they finished off the mole rats, Kronos asked Foray, "You said you wanted to talk about something?"

[Meson Bolt 2,647]

Foray watched in mild disdain as Kronos was carving the rats. It wasn't particularly her favorite, as she found even perfectly-cooked mole rat meat was rather distasteful, but she didn't say anything.

 

"Yeah, ah... about Stingwings," she replied after regaining her composure. "They're 'common', just like raiders, radroaches, and all that, meaning that you won't run into one every day, but you shouldn't be surprised if you do either."

 

Grinning and playfully nudging him, she added, "Why are you so scared of them anyway?"

Edited September 19, 2016 by Meson Bolt

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

Kronos shuddered a bit and sighed before explaining to Foray, "My experiences with Stingwings overall aren't that pleasant. Unless I have a Flamer with me, I would rather run away from Stingwings than fight them. Anyways, why I am scared of them. My first encounter with them, I underestimated them as common Wasteland creatures. That became one of the worst mistakes I made out here in the Wasteland. For one, there were like ten Stingwings surrounding me. I had simply a pistol and an assault rifle and a lot of Stimpaks. Anyways, I was a little bit overconfident when facing them head on. There they were, circling me like vultures. I tried pinning some of them down, but they moved too damn fast. One after another stung me consecutively. I was being stung from the left, the right, from behind, at my chest, it was too much to bear. I pumped at least twenty Stimpaks into my body before nearly running out of ammo and there were still two of them chasing me. I had pistol ammo and only two Stimpaks left. My only option left was to run from them. But these particular Stingwings that were chasing me were those damn Darters. Those sons of bitches are fast as hell and they hit like Super Sledges. I ran as far away from those two Darters as I could while shooting whatever ammo I had left at them. They still managed to get a couple of stings at me and I used my last few Stimpaks running from them until their attention was turned towards a group of raiders that tried to shoot me but incidentally shot at the Darters. I hid behind some bushes, waiting for the raiders to finish off the Darters. When they did, however, they dropped dead seconds later from their poison. From that moment on, I've found out that there are some creatures out there that you shouldn't fuck around with. To this day, Stingwings are still my worst nightmare in the Wasteland unless I have a Flamer." Kronos then a deep sigh before finishing, "And that's my story on my fear of Stingwings, so go ahead and make fun of me all you want, it's not gonna change my perception on those damn things."

Edited September 21, 2016 by Kronos the Revenant

[Meson Bolt 2,647]

Foray listened intently to the entire story, though her ears were also scanning to make sure no more mole rats were going to jump at them. When he finished, she had a slight frown on her face.

 

"Now why in Celestia's massive mane would you think that I'd make fun of you for that?" she replied, a bit concerned. "Everypony has a massive fear of something -- maybe it's something they know, or something they haven't run across yet, but you know mine, and... hey, now I know yours. Makes us even."

 

Nudging him again and forcing a smile, she added, "So as long as you don't tease me about Levi armor, I won't tease you about Stingwings. Deal?"

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

"Well," Kronos replied, "The thing is, I have no clue what Levi armor even is. I know I said I was alive for over one and a half millennia, but I was sort of out of the know when it came to Power Armor development. I may have been their best soldier, but I was only fitted into the Power Armor that the Ministry Mares developed. Anything that the Enclave may have developed I never knew about after the Enclave Civil War when I used to be one of its generals but the Pegasus all went against the earth ponies and unicorns. I'd love to get into more detail about that, but I don't think you wanna know about that."

[Meson Bolt 2,647]

"...Well ah," Foray stuttered, seeming a bit uncomfortable. "Des Manes was home to a pretty important military base, which we now call the Horseshoe, which housed a lot of the experimental gear that the military was creating prewar. The base's automated defenses kept lots of ponies out for a while, until a faction called the Silvers managed to get in and shut down the defense grid. They modified the already massively powerful X-02 models into 'Leviathan' class Power Armor... and as you probably remember from the fight, I... don't react well towards them." She shuddered lightly.

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

Foray's very mention of the words "military base" peaked his interest. "Hmm, I see," Kronos replied, "So, the Domain used to be an old military base? And you say that they have modified X-02 Power Armor there? I can see why you have quite a disdain for power armor. Believe me, I don't like anything that resembles the Enclave as much as you do, so I also have a slight disdain for X-02s, but only because of what they represented. Still, if you say that there's military grade defenses there, we're gonna have to bore quite a large gap in their defenses and I can sort of predict how I can be useful."

 

Geez, Kronos thought, Another non-military faction with access to Power Armor? And it's X-02? Damn, I guess we got our work cut out for us when we get to Domain.

Edited September 21, 2016 by Kronos the Revenant

[Meson Bolt 2,647]

"...Ah... not quite," Foray replied, a bit put off by his answer. "'The Domain' proper is just another name for the Des Manes Basin. Des Manes itself is a town in the middle of the basin, and the military outpost is located about five miles out from the town."

 

Shuffling through the dirt lightly, she added, "And you needn't worry about a hostile takeover or anything. The Silvers are quite welcoming to... well... me, and anypony with me should be just fine."

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

"Oh," Kronos replied, "That's comforting to know, and a little disappointing, but mostly comforting. I mean, you know me, I'm always itching for a fight, but I'll stand down if I have to." Then, Kronos thought about the group known as the "Silvers" and asked, "Hang on, exactly how well do you know these 'Silvers'?"

Edited September 21, 2016 by Kronos the Revenant

[Meson Bolt 2,647]

"Yes, I do know you pretty well. Always the fighting kind... always want to shoot something." She chuckled lightly. "Trust me, there are plenty of things for you to shoot in the Domain, but preferably not other ponies."

 

Foray thought for a moment before answering, "To be honest, I don't know them that well, but they know me very, very well. Heck, if it wasn't for me, they'd still be crapping themselves trying to hold the Horseshoe from the Free Hooves..." Pausing for a moment, she quickly added, "Yeah, that's another faction. The Domain was a mess when I showed up..."

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

"Sounds to me like they're still a mess judging from the fact that there's still other factions battling against one another," Kronos commented, "I mean, back in Ragnarok, sure there are some gangs in there, but they're mostly made up of the family clans. Heck, I'm a descendant of the Reaver Clan in my kingdom, and we Reavers are mostly bred for intimidation and brute strength; however, there are outliers such as myself that posses both brute strength and technological ingenuity." He motioned over to his cybernetics, "Hell, my older sister can easily bench press me, and she's only six months older than I am. But, there were times when she came up to me for help whenever she accidentally cuts or dismembers herself because I had vast knowledge of equestrian anatomy. That and she figured I can make her new robotic limbs, which I eventually did and in terms of those she also came to me for regular maintenance. Speaking of which..." Kronos knelt down and inspected himself making sure his cybernetic parts won't act up again just in case before going back up and continuing to follow Foray.

[Meson Bolt 2,647]

Foray watched in mild interest as Kronos was checking on his cybernetic equipment.

 

"Well, they were battling each other, but as of right now it's rather peaceful..." she replied, thinking through what she was saying and trying not to confuse him. "There's not really a good way for me to explain it all without giving you a full-blown history lecture though, and I don't really think you're into that kind of stuff..."

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

"So, basically, there's some sort of cease-fire between the warring factions in Domain," Kronos guessed, "Am I right to assume that that's what's going on in Domain?"

 

Oh boy, Kronos thought, If that's the case, then Foray may need to keep me in check considering my short fuse when it comes to other ponies I see with guns.