Fallout: Equestria, Project Horizons

Chapter 62: Between the Wolf and the Lion, Part Two.

Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons
By Somber
Chapter 62: Between the Wolf and the Lion, Part Two.

Shadowbolt Tower. Somewhere in here were Lighthooves, his biological weapons, and a couple dozen unicorns I had to get out of harm's way. First, though, I had to find some stairs or an elevator. The tower hummed softly around me as I moved further into the building, Boo following warily behind. I didn't know what defenses it might have inside, but I imagined that I was going to find out relatively quickly. I hurried down the hall I'd found behind the door; if this was going to work, then every second counted.
I reached another sealed door. Well, it'd worked for the last one... I cut a long slice, and a shrill scream split the air as wind blasted at me through the slit I'd carved. Boo covered her ears as I grimaced. Okay, this was unexpected! I made two more cuts, and the triangular slab of door blasted past me, bouncing off the floor as it flew back the way I'd come, spinning through the outer door and into open air. A gale blew through the hole it'd left, and even I had difficulty fighting the force of air. I moved in, braced myself against the hole, and extended a hoof to Boo. The pale mare took it and struggled to climb over me and into the large open space beyond.
I gave her one last push ahead and then pulled myself the rest of the way through. Boo worked her mouth, rubbing her ears, her mane and tail tangled about her head and haunches. We struggled farther away from the hole I'd sliced and the screaming air gusting out through it. "Yeah, I wasn't expecting that either," I said once we were clear, glad synthetic ears could handle the shriek.
On the other side of the door was a catwalk; the interior of the tower was hollow, a massive empty shaft with the catwalk running around the outer wall. Conduits ran along the walls from the distant bottom to the top far above. Dim blue lights provided cold illumination throughout the shaft. A few terminals lay against the wall, but I didn't have time to try and hack my way through them. Made me wish that I'd brought P-21 along. I trotted to the edge of the catwalk and looked down. Below me I could see some kind of colossal weight suspended in the middle of the shaft. The weight blocked my view further down, but from the green glow, I could only imagine it was bad; the shaft must go all the way to the Core. Looking up, I saw more catwalks at regular intervals and another house-sized weight. Occasionally, crisscrossing bars reinforced the shaft.
Then I spotted, curled up against the wall by the terminals, three desiccated pegasus corpses. From their clothes, they appeared to have been civilians. I supposed that meant that nopony had come down this far in a very, very long time.
"So... stairs. Stairs. Where are the..." I glanced at Boo and saw her examining an odd platform against the wall with a set of up and down buttons beside it. "Or, we can take the elevator. That's good too." I trotted over to her and stepped on, kicking the up button with a rear hoof. The platform hissed, whirred, and began to climb. "Good. We'll get up there in no time. Easy peasy."
Wait, I didn't just say that, did I?
"Warning! Unauthorized pony detected. Warning! Unauthorized pony detected," an automated mare's voice called out as crimson lights set in the walls began to flash bright red. Red bars appeared in my vision, and I drew Duty and Sacrifice, glad that Lighthooves had left them with Stratus. Suddenly, a crackling blue beam lanced down from above, the energy burning a hole in my barding and hide and searing the metal reinforcements beneath that. I nearly rolled right off the elevator platform as I got out of the path of the energy and spotted the hemispherical beam turret on the underside of a catwalk. Slipping into S.A.T.S., I put four rounds into it before something within exploded with a cloud of crackling blue smoke.
One down, a whole lot more to go. The elevator was constantly carrying me closer to the targeting ranges of the turrets above, and I couldn't take my time to pick them off at my leisure. Blue beams burned hotter than red, that was for sure. My spine ached, the burn plucking pain with my every movement, but I couldn't stop. The elevator continued to rise, and on the bottom of every catwalk waited more beam turrets. I moved around as best I could in the limited space, pulling Boo out of the sizzling paths of the beams while blasting turrets as soon as I was able. Far too soon, Duty and Sacrifice's hammers fell on spent casings, and my inventory said I was out of spare rounds. I switched to the markspony carbine, but the lighter bullets weren't nearly as effective at chewing through the turrets' plating.
One magazine emptied, and I slapped another home without taking my eyes off those damned turrets. Every time we passed one catwalk, the ones above began to open fire on us. "It's times like this that I really wish you could use a gun, Boo!" The blank covered her face as she cowered at the edge of the platform.
Crack crack crack click click! went the carbine as I worked through my supply of 5.56mm ammunition. I could see the top of the shaft, but there were still a half dozen turrets between me and it. I drew Vigilance and braced myself. Vigilance was a fine weapon, but not at long range. I hissed as blue lines burned my body, trying to make each shot count before I got too close. One by one, the heavy rounds blew apart the blue beam turrets. Five. Four. Three. I became nervously aware that my supply of ammo was rapidly diminishing. I dropped into S.A.T.S. to pop the third turret. Two...
Boo cried out as one of the beams hit near her, the mere heat of its passage scoring her pale hide and peppering her with flecks of melted lift platform. I immediately blasted the turret. One, but Vigilance was dry now, too. As the last turret swung its searing beam towards us, I focused my will and fired magic bullets. It was a hundred feet away. Seventy-five. Fifty.
Finally, the blue hemisphere popped in a shower of sparks just as the elevator began to slow. I collapsed next to Boo. Psalm's operative barding had gotten a few new holes in it. I examined Boo, checking her burns. "I really need a healing spell," I muttered, digging through my inventory for some healing potions. The contents appeared more brown than purple, and I didn't know what they'd do to her. Frowning, I tossed them over the edge. "Hopefully we'll find something, okay Boo?"
She sniffed and wiped her teary eyes with a hoof. I sighed and looked around; we'd reached the top of the shaft, and there was a solid dome above us with a single flight of stairs leading up to it. I drew my sword and advanced up the dimly lit, curving steps. We came to another door and another two desiccated bodies lying at the base of it, their coats and feathers marred by hideous burns. The barding that remained suggested that they were surfacers. Celestia only knew where they'd come from or how they'd gotten this far only to die alone and in pain before a locked door with a terminal beside it. 'System Locked; Contact Sysadmin' glowed coldly beside the portal.
Fortunately, I had a skeleton key. Cutting through the locks, I struggled to heave and shove against idle motors. They gave grudgingly but opened enough that Boo could squeeze through, followed by myself. Soon as I was through, the door, locks or no, slid closed once more. On the far side of the door was a hall filled with musty air and covered with a delicate layer of dust. I walked carefully along; there were no red bars on my E.F.S., but turrets didn't appear until they decided to start shooting.
Someday, I was going to have to find a PipBuck technician and sit on them till they explained slowly enough for me to understand how E.F.S. threat detection worked.
There were a few blue bars in sight, too, so I kept my clanking and clunking as silent as possible. My heavier hooves weren't exactly made for stealth. Next time I saw Rover, I needed to find a way to make my legs interchangeable. When I had stealth augments, I got into combat. When I had combat legs, I needed stealth. That, or he just needed to come up with strong, silent legs. That wasn't asking too much, was it? Okay, maybe a little...
I really could have used a map or an indication of where the next set of stairs was. These rooms seemed used mostly for storage and were linked with identical, crisscrossing hallways. Filing cabinets filled with old paperwork, shelves with arcane and forgotten equipment, chemistry sets coated in dust... I never really was much of a scavenger. P-21 could have swept through in no time and had everything of value without disturbing the dust. Glory might have been able to actually use those chemistry sets to whip up something for Boo's bad burns. Which Lacunae could have just healed. And Rampage wouldn't have been any help with the salvage or the burn, but she would have said something obnoxious and funny. I sighed and leaned over, nuzzling Boo's cheek. "I'm glad you're here. I really miss my friends. Rampage was right about splitting up. Nothing good comes from it."
Boo blinked, then gave a little baffled smile and nuzzled back. Then she sneezed. That simply stirred up more dust, causing more sneezes from both of us. Oh yeah, master of stealth, that was me.
When we stopped, I saw that the dust covering of some papers tacked to the wall had fallen away enough that I could read some of them. 'Support the Enclave. Support your own kind.' I magically brushed more of the dust off the poster, covering my muzzle with a hoof, and revealed a teal pegasus with blazing yellow mane and eyes. Her gaze and smile were the kind of hard smirk I'd come to loathe: arrogant, intolerant, and cruel. Beneath her was printed 'Support Lightning Dust for Councilor.'
There were other clippings beside it, and I exposed them one after the next. 'Rainbow Dash storms out of emergency meeting after failure to obtain aid for surface.' Another read 'Has Rainbow Dash spit her bit? Experts fear for former Ministry Mare's psychological health.' Another read 'Doctor Mephitis confirms surface unfit for pony survival, advocates quarantine of surface for pegasus health.' That name rang a bell. I brushed off more papers with my magic. 'Pound Cake named Councilor of Thunderhead. Promises to serve the pegasus people and lead proudly.' 'Princess Celestia sightings at S.P.P. hub dismissed as hoax.' and 'Doctor Mephitis appointed director of Shadowbolt Tower, named Pony of the Year.'
That title came with the picture of a yellow pegasus stallion, smiling confidently as he eyed the camera in a decidedly smarmy manner. 'Smart, rich, and single: the most eligible bachelor in the skies.' and 'Doctor Mephitis: returning to the surface risks countless pegasus lives. Rainbow Dash's plans threaten to expose pegasus population to foreign diseases introduced by zebrakind.' Zebras. That was why the name was familiar.
"You mother fucker!" I shouted, rearing up and slamming the wall with my hooves, all thoughts of silence forgotten. "You got away with it! You actually fucking got away with it!" My kick had disturbed more dust and exposed other articles. Given my propensity to run into ponies who should have been dead two centuries ago, I really hoped I ran into an undead or robotic Mephitis. Anypony who left thousands of zebras to starve in their camps deserved what I'd do to them. I glanced at the rest of the headlines but didn't take the time to read them. Apparently, the doctor was named some kind of expert in diseases, claimed to be the Ministry of Peace's finest virologist, and backed up the Enclave's every word that the surface was rife with zebra and pony plagues. He'd been given awards. He'd been rich! One article named him one of the top five most pivotal figures of the Enclave's founding. He'd provided grotesque pictures of horrific zebra diseases for the public to ingest right as Rainbow Dash attempted to get the pegasi to clear the skies.
"You were nothing more than a two-bit murderer," I snarled at his image.
Boo whined and nudged my shoulder. I blinked at her and relaxed a little. "Right. Right. He's not worth the time, and I don't have any to waste." I forced myself into the hall again, looking left and right and wondering which way would take me up. Then I glanced at Boo. "Say, Boo, which way do you think we should go?"
She blinked at me, and I waited, then she blinked again, and still I waited. I smiled. She smiled. Then, for a moment, I was sure she was going to understand me and pick a direction... but she only gave another soft little sneeze. I deflated a little. "Never mind, Boo. I guess we'll go..." I trailed off as she started to sniff and then limped away. "That way."
The stairs were located behind an old maneframe casing and a bookcase that'd fallen at an angle against it. Boo disappeared through the gap, and I frowned, carefully pushed the bookcase aside, and followed her up. This floor wasn't quite as dusty as the one below, and the dim blue lights were a little brighter on this level. There was less garbage and more stuff... okay, the stuff was still garbage to me, but it was clearly important enough to somepony that they came down here to dust. There were mostly file cabinets and powered-down terminals. I found one sign that read 'archives' painted against the wall. Boo made a beeline down the hall and nuzzled at a door.
"Mmm... there has to be one of them somewhere around here," I muttered, following more slowly and checking one crate after another for the last thing I needed for my plan. No luck...
I opened the door slowly to a room that showed signs of habitation. There was more clutter here, books lying around unshelved and papers arranged on tables. There were more pictures of the yellow 'doctor' on the walls, and better-preserved clippings of his life. I avoided reading them, as I was nauseated enough already. I really didn't need to read his claims about surface parasite transmission, which apparently would contaminate the clouds. From my glances, he was wealthy, influential, and useful to an Enclave trying to find every excuse not to return to the surface... and I was getting really sick of constantly seeing him in front of me everywhere.
There were also Fancy Buck Cakes on the table, and a few empty wrappers along with some bottles of Sparkle-Cola. Boo, with all the swagger of a Wasteland scavenger, whipped one of the cakes off the table with her tail, caught the package in her teeth, ripped it open with a swing of her head, and set the ovoid snack cake flipping through the air. It fell into her open mouth, where it was masticated with pride. I myself had a bottle of Sparkle-Cola as I surveyed the rest of the room. Maybe it was the tent fort made out of a tarp in the corner, or the foalish drawings on the walls, but this struck me as a kid's den. It'd happened all the time in 99; some fillies would take it upon themselves to claim some corner of the utility or storage level and make a name for themselves. In 99, we'd been the 'Card Club'.
I was just about to head on when I heard a snore from the fort, and not the snore of a colt or filly, either. My magic nudged the flaps of the tarp aside, and I was instantly hit by an uncoltish reek of Wild Pegasus. I saw a pale rump bearing a cutie mark of a camera and attached to a stallion curled up with a bottle of whiskey. I tugged it from his grasp... he could use it as a weapon, after all.
Okay. Maybe I took a long pull off it as well, to steady my nerves.
Unfortunately, my action had awoken the inebriate. He opened two bleary eyes, took one look at me, and shouted, "Don't kill me! I didn't know what the fuck he was going to do! Honest! Hail Neighvarro!" Then he focused somewhat, and I realized that I recognized his wrinkled, slept-in suit and his face, despite the stubble covering his chin. "Oh... hey, Babe."
I knelt before him. "Chicanery? What are you doing here?" His eyes suddenly bulged. "What is it?" I imagined murder implants going off inside him... maybe a bomb. Then he blew, all right. He lurched forward and vomited down my front with impressive force.
Wasn't this such a lovely day?