598 replies and 25 files omitted.
>>166586>>166587Silver lets out a quick, controlled burst. One shot hits the creature in it's jaw, one straight through it's skull, one through it's neck, and one hits its shoulder. Silver can see its head nearly explode and spread blue and grey matter behind, slightly lifting up its cap for a moment. It falls straight down on its knees, then over to its left.
[1d20 = 4][1d20 = 9][1d20 = 19] >>166588>>166587Silver hears the sound of gunshots to his right
>>166589As soon as Silver gets the chance, he's getting behind cover before he gets shot, then he'll peak to get a view of the situation in this room.
>>166590Silver hears a
Pew Pew Pew Pew to his right, past the wall.
Silver seems to be the only occupant of this room. Or at least, the only known occupant.
>>166591In that case, Silver goes towards the sound of gunfire, right sounds like it's the next room over.
>>166592Silver exits out of the room and back into the hallway
[1d20 = 12][1d20 = 9][1d20 = 11] >>166592>>166593And Silver can see that there is a firefight in progress. The door at the end of the hall was opened, and Spectral Streak and another homeguard pony have engaged a drone from the hallway. They seem to have failed to kill the drone, and have pulled back to cover at the end of the hall.
[1d20+6 = (16+6) = 22][1d20+6 = (20+6) = 26][1d20+6 = (13+6) = 19][1d20+6 = (13+6) = 19]>>166595Silver pops out into the hallway and gives his own attempt at finishing the drone off, firing a burst towards him.
>>166597>>166596Silver, peering out of the door, has an advantage perspective that Spectral Streak and the Homeguard do not have. As the Changeling is hiding to the right, Silver's position to the left gives him just the angle to hit the creature. The creature seems to be hit in the head and in the chest with a spurt of blue blood splattering out, and then it falling down just behind the doorway.
>>166598"Enemy down. How is everypony?"
>>166599"Okay" Silver hears a Homeguard pony call
>>166600Silver checks the room at the end of the hall to make sure there are no more changelings inside it.
>>166601Silver looks in to see that it is a large, rectangular room that is very wide, and on the far side is almost entirely windows out to the studio. The room is dark with control panels with sliders along a portion of that wall, and a desk visible on the periphery to the left.
Looking in, Silver can see a drone laying up against one of panels on the far side, perfectly still and with a pool of blood around it and with a trail on the floor.
Silver can hear the voice of a female drone speaking. The voice is odd, because it combines an odd humming with the speaking voice of a normal mare. Calmly, though with a tinge of fear, Silver can hear it speaking:
"Fünf. Sechs. Neun. Drei. Herausforderung? Antwort. "Wenn der Wind weht"
But off to the right, and somewhat near where the sound is coming from, Silver can see a drone. The drone is wearing what seems to be an equestrian style coat, though it appears clearly in the form of that black, chitinous creature that even without magic imitates the form of a pony. It tries to level a very, very large rifle with a magazine sticking out of its side towards Silver, though it holds it a little low, and clearly sways with each heavy breath. Silver can hear breath, even from here. It's afraid.
>>166602Silver halts upon seeing the scared changeling. He keeps his gun ready, just in case they do anything stupid, but he softens his expression. He mumbles a bit, getting his mouth used to the skill he learned in the later stages of the War and hasn't used since Kerr and Wesley were around, and speaks a heavily accented, slightly clumsy, but still understandable Changeling.
"Legen Sie Ihre Waffe ab. Wir werden Ihnen nicht weh tun."
>>166603The creature holds the gun up, and levels it at Silver, though it still sways. Silver can see details on the creature like bright spots where pupils would be on its ice blue eyes, and three prongs on its sliced, tubular ears. It tags a ragged breath.
"Aber Sie werden"
And then, far off to the right, Silver hears more speaking in that uncanny voice that sounds like two mares speaking at once:
"Nächste Eingabe. Fünf. Sieben. Neun. Acht."
>>166604"Ich werde nicht. Ich will nur mein Volk retten."
The words off to his right worry him.
"Du sprichst, äh...Ponisch?"
>>166605He takes a moment, before replying:
"So do I"
And from off to the right:
"Sag noch einmal?" Pause "Eingabe. Zwei. Drei. Eins. Sieben".
>>166606Silver motions to the right, and speaks hurriedly. He can't avoid the tone of worry in his voice.
"My family is out there, my children, I would do anything to save them. Help us stop bomb, we will let you go to get your brothers and sisters out of this city and save them, I promise upon lives of my children I love more than anything in this world."
>>166607He blinks, with eyelids that come in from each side diagonally.
"But my family is too. My brothers and sisters."
And then, from the right
Bang[1d20+2 = (10+2) = 12] >>166608Silver feels a violent tug and a knock, evidently grazed along his flack jacket by a bullet.
>>166608>>166609Silver backs up towards cover and turns to face his attacker.
>>166610>>166609Silver looks over to the right to see two changelings. It's hard to find cover, but there may be a desk or chair.
One, on the far side, is a drone in a chair with a cap, who sits over a desk and has a radio near him, with a pencil and a notebook on the desk. He is holding a pistol towards Silver. But the other, closer to Silver and to his left, is a worker sitting upright, holding a telephone in her hoof. She has medium blue wings and "mane," and is wearing headphones hooked up with audio equipment.
The ponies behind Silver bust in
[1d20 = 19][1d20 = 2][1d20 = 18][1d20 = 8] >>166610>>166612>>166611With a
Pew Pew Pew Pew, the drone Silver has been talking to falls
[1d20+6 = (19+6) = 25][1d20+6 = (6+6) = 12][1d20+6 = (14+6) = 20][1d20+6 = (18+6) = 24]>>166611Silver doesn't have time to register the death of the drone he was talking to. He brings his Jenny around and first a burst into the last armed changeling in the room.
>>166614>>166615With a
Pew Pew Pew Pew of his own, one, two, three bullets hit the last drone, causing it to gag, and fall out of its chair. Its wings come open, and it starts twitching on the floor like a dying junebug.
The worker stops speaking, and crouches down in its chair. But it doesn't jump out, and stops moving down when the cable on the headset runs out. It gets back up, and again starts speaking into the phone.
"Sag noch einmal?"
>>166616Silver points his Jenny at the worker and shouts at her.
"Entweder ich schieße auf dich oder ich schieße auf die Maschine. Deine Entscheidung."
>>166617She breathes in, then turns to the machine.
"Fünf neun sechs drei. Aktiv"
[1d20+6 = (12+6) = 18][1d20+6 = (6+6) = 12][1d20+6 = (7+6) = 13][1d20+6 = (16+6) = 22]>>166618Silver fires a burst into the changeling.
>>166619With a quick burst, two shots hit
With a gag, the creature goes down, collapsing on the floor. Like the drone, its wings expand.
>>166622"Well...I hope that stopped it..."
Silver looks back to his comrades in arms.
>>166623They come into the room, and look around.
"Clear."
Spectral Streak comes up to Silver
"Yeah, I hope it stopped it too."
>>166624"I am assuming we would be on fire right about now if it did not, or else we would hear explosion, or just be dead."
With the room clear, he looks around at the carnage.
"Is that it? Is building secured?"
>>166625"The building is secured" the vermillion pony says.
The purple and the white ponies come through a door on the right, near the location of the desk where the worker was sitting at.
"Nothing in this room. They must not have had a device here."
>>166626"Might have been underground. That is how Canterlot was destroyed, yes? Underground nuclear ordinance?"
Silver goes to the body of the drone he was talking to.
>>166627"Yeah, it could be. They must have taken this place for the radio tower. For transmitting a signal. Could have transmitted to just about anywhere from here."
The drone lays on the ground. Either it's dead, or very near dead, laying on its belly, with its head to the side. Alongside it, is the automatic rifle it dropped. It has a scope, a bipod, a sling, wooden furniture, a bayonet mount, and a box magazine
>>166628Silver tries his best to check for a pulse.
>>166629The drone has the barest hint of a faint pulse. It's not conscious, and has lost a lot of blood already.
>>166630Is there anything that can be done for him?
>>166631Hard to say. Stopping the bleeding is the most obvious first step. The magical coagulant may or may not work on the alien biology, and the same with much of the rest of the medicine.
[1d20+3 = (16+3) = 19]>>166632Nopony else seems to be injured, and he still has the medical supplies...Silver sees what he can do to stop the bleeding and hopefully save the changeling's life.
>>166633The bullets seem to have gone through, maybe minus one. Silver applies the last of the coagulant in the open wounds, then closes it with bandages. This may just work.
>>166634It's not much...but maybe he will live. He does his best to offer a silent prayer to the changeling and his Great Mother to keep him alive.
"Time to let command know, I suppose."
>>166635The white pegasus approaches the radio the drone was using, and checks it. After tampering with it, he speaks into it.
"WMARE Station is secured. Infiltrators took it over, we took it back. They seem to have been using the tower for communication. We have civilians for evac and wounded."
>>166636Silver stands up, wince a little from the pain his wounds give him. He thinks the painkillers may be wearing off.
"I wonder how many more changelings are left in city."
>>166637What isn't numb is in pain.
Spectral Streak answers:
"Fewer than there were this morning."
Then the white pegasus speaks
"Extraction is on the roof."