The Sixth Age

by TacticalRainboom

Intermission: Video Analysis

Intermission: Video Analysis

I always wondered what would become of this one when her time came. In some ways, she was the one best suited to the new world... yet this world also presented great danger for one with her fiery spirit. We had faith that her heart would guide her, but even so, we worried for this little one as her story of awakening unfolded, just as mothers worry for their growing foals.

Spectra, as she calls herself, believes herself a heroine, and she revels in the life of self-sacrificing glory that she has chosen. She does not realize that, while her beliefs and her pride are inspired by the heroic tales of her youth, her spirit and her destiny belong to another age.

A thousand years of rule by violence gave rise to the notion of the victorious heroine, she who prevails against all foes thanks to unbreakable courage, dedication, and righteousness. But this heroic ideal did not exist in our time. Which would be worse, I wonder: for Spectra to fail in her noble goals... or for her to inadvertently discover the older, simpler meaning of “heroine” as a synonym for “martyr?”

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[Transcribed: Video Analysis Session, 8/2/1043, 65th & West Cherry St.]
[Captain “R”> Specialist [redacted]?
[Specialist “Z”> Sir.
[Cpt. R> All right, let’s get started. I’ll call up the window. Is it showing up for you?
[Spec. Z> I got it. So that’s our subject, in the bottom left?
[Cpt. R> That’s her. Questions before we start?
[Spec. Z> Yeah. Any theories on her motives?
[Cpt. R> Several. The leading one is that she’s running with a gang called the Red Street Thunderbolts. Most of the reported incidents are related to street fights and gang wars—that’s twelve of her nineteen reported casualties, and all three of the deaths.
[Spec. Z> Damn. I’m impressed.
[Cpt. R> You’ll see for yourself in a minute. The other theory is that she’s a professional. Along with a few incidents that had nothing to do with the Thunderbolts, there’s also the fact that she’s been identified in two corporate sabotage attacks, and is a suspect in two more.
[Spec. Z> Considering the fact that she’s loaded with enough chrome to buy a small house...
[Cpt. R> We suspect she’s sponsored by some individual or entity. None of the gangs in her area have anything like her ‘ware.
[Spec. Z> With all due respect, that seems pretty obvious. Anyway, that’s all of my questions.
[Cpt. R> Here we go, then. The unicorn on the other side of the table is here to buy stolen goods from the Thunderbolts. That’s a bodyguard, behind him. We tracked the bodyguard here thinking we could snag his boss and a few of the Thunderbolts at the same time. You can see one of our agents approaching from the narrow hallway in the upper left. Nopony knows he’s there yet.
[Spec. Z> No backup?
[Cpt. R> Yes and no. The rest of his team was spread out throughout the building, waiting on his mark to breach other rooms simultaneously. The idea was to hit as many rooms as possible at the same time.
[Spec. Z> Is that a Poseidon MMP on his saddle?
[Cpt. R> Yes, loaded with TV-44 capsules. Anyway, standard assault: He positions the gun, breaches with his rear hooves, and lets the auto-targeting fire while his back is
still turned.
[Spec. Z> ...And he misses. That’s impossible.
[Cpt. R> What do you mean?
[Spec. Z> The agent himself might not have realized it, but his breach was beyond perfect. Our subject’s right forehoof was on the table, she was presenting a side-on target, and she had no idea the agent was coming. Any targeting program would’ve bullseyed her easily.
[Cpt. R> A hacker, then. Wait. We swept the building thoroughly, and—
[Spec. Z> And you didn’t find anypony who would’ve been in range to hack him directly, did you? Exactly.
[Cpt. R> Do you think it’s possible that...
[Spec. Z> She wouldn’t have made herself such a vulnerable target if she knew your guy was incoming.
[Cpt. R> Someone daisy-chaining through the unicorn’s rig, then?
[Spec. Z> Are you saying your division’s gear can be hacked by a daisy-chain through one of the shitboxes that these gangers were carrying?
[Cpt. R> Hm. All right, may as well move on. What happens next is...
[Spec. Z> Whoa!
[Cpt. R> That’s what we said too. I’ll replay it at one-third speed.
[Spec. Z> Pneumatic leg braces. Probably cybereyes and a bionic targeting program instead of automated. And... wait, what was that?
[Cpt. R> Yes, you're seeing it right. Guns in her wings.
[Spec. Z> That’s not what’s confusing me. Play that part again and tell me what you see.
[Cpt. R> Okay... our guy breaches and fires. Soon as our pegasus hears the crash, she crosses the room with one jump, roundhouse kicks the unicorn, then jumps again, tackles the bodyguard. She pins him, lands four low-caliber TVs on our guy’s rear end, and puts one more in the bodyguard’s face. Takes her less than three seconds to make our division look like a bunch of derps.
[Spec. Z> Okay, let me show you what I see. The subject dives straight towards the one guy, right? Watch closely—she doesn’t land the whole time. She spins three hundred sixty degrees in the air as she hits him with her rear hooves, then banks slightly to the left to barrel into the bodyguard.
[Cpt. R> She’s a pegasus.
[Spec. Z> A pegasus who’s packing twice as much cyberware as your average military contractor.
[Cpt. R> I’m not familiar with—
[Spec. Z> Well then, take it from me. I have a friend who can barely hover, because he decided to get a manipulator claw for his work. This pegasus here? She should have been functionally mundane two surgeries ago.
[Cpt. R> Noted. Not much else to see in the video. She loots all three downed guys for guns and pocket change, then leaves with the money and the goods. We don’t know where she went after this, because she didn’t use an escape vehicle.
[Spec. Z> Don’t tell me...
[Cpt. R> Witnesses say she flew.
[Spec. Z> Right. Who’s the kid?
[Cpt. R> What kid?
[Spec. Z> Left side, in the doorframe. Looks like the subject’s talking to him on the way out.
[Cpt. R> I’ll be damned.
[Spec. Z> Any idea who that is?
[Cpt. R> There are quite a few juveniles in the Thunderbolts. Maybe if we go forward a few frames—
[Spec. Z> You’re kidding. Dear Mother, you’re kidding.
[Cpt. R> Maybe it’s just a problem with the—
[Spec. Z> Don’t give me that! That “juvenile” is a foal! A fucking blank flank!
[LOG ENDS]

Comments

[A Random Guy]

I personally hope this gets a huge audience compared to now.

[HeirApparent]

This is one of the most brilliant subversions of "Show, don't Tell," I've ever come across.

[Verdigris]

Yep, sounds just like what I'd expect the Canterlot equivalent of CorpSec (LoneStar)? to sound like.

[McKnight93]

So, was video taken when Spectra was younger? Or is there someone else involved here? The last few sentences confused me a bit.

[Arzoo]

Seems like Spectra is going to have serious hero syndrome. The fact that the fic is aware of it makes me really anticipate how awesome this story is going to be.