• Published 27th May 2012
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Fallout Equestria : New Roam - Delvius



The city of Roam is tortured by ambient and open hostility. Finally, a Praetorian arises to protect the city like the Legionnaires of old, and nothing will stop him. Nothing but himself, that is.

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Chapter 11 - The Music of Harmony

Chapter 11
The Music of Harmony
"You'd think one would find a less perilous place to explore."





After I had explained the whole story to Skyfire, all the way up to our meeting about an hour ago, she looked at me with thoughtful and worried expression. I left out my dream, though. I just didn't feel it important enough to tell them about. I mean, it was just a dream... right?

It was already afternoon, indicated by the orange light that flowed in through our APC's windows. Zaita had kept quiet most of the time, seeming content to just listen. Although, she would occasionally add some details where I had no information, like how Myst and her had found out about the fallen transport.

Thankfully, there had been a few healing potions in the supply box. I drank the majority of those as I told my story, and now I was feeling MUCH better. My wings still felt broken, though. A little stretch confirmed that suspicion. You know, I've been getting these things injured a lot since I got out here. I really should take better care of them.

"What a motherfucking asshole!" Skyfire exclaimed, referring to Predator. "How could he just... do that? How could he just kill all those people and not care?" She seemed far more concerned about the zebra than most of my story, except perhaps the ghouls in Pyro Kinetics coupled with Watcher's appearance, and what happened in the hotel.

"Do I need to quote Balaclava again?" I asked, feeling a pang of pain in my heart over his death. Somehow, I felt responsible for it. That I had been useless and should have done more. It was ridiculous, a part of my brain felt. After all, I didn't shoot him. Yet I still couldn't shake the guilt off.

Skyfire sighed before replying, "No, I still remember his description pretty well. I just can't... comprehend his way of thinking. Well, I would try to if the fuck-tard didn't try to kill me on the bridge. And if he didn't try to murder that filly after what he did to the transport." She scowled, and I could tell that in her mind she too was envisioning ways to kill the bastard. She had begun showing signs of hating him the moment I told her what happened on the bridge, and finally openly admitted she did after the part about the aircraft.

With my story told, I finally got time to rest. Myst had spent the entire duration of the trip asleep, occasionally shifting position. I felt even more guilty every time she did, as each time she would mutter something along the lines of 'don't touch me' or 'no... please no...' I knew what she was referring to, and I felt, yet again, responsible for it.

I had been lying down on the seats for a few moments after the conversation, leaving Skyfire to process all the new info, when a thought suddenly occurred to me.

"Wait," I groaned, tearing my eyes open once more. "Zaita, where are we going?"

"The ZSI Roaman HQ, of course."

"Wait, but... don't you still want to go to the camp?" I asked, remembering only now my AI companion's request two nights ago. Once more, I felt a little disappointed in myself, this time for not remembering the apparently important request of our transport. Skyfire looked to me, and was about to say something when Zaita beat her to that intent.

"Ah, yes, that. There is no need. I have already visited the area."

"What? when?"

"Earlier today." Skyfire chimed in. "When I convinced those people to let me go with Zaita after she had recharged, I went along with her to the camp. Took us a few hours to get there, and the whole time Zaita explained why we were going there and all she could about what had happened since I got knocked out." She turned to me with a small smirk, "We waited there for hours, but when you didn't show up, we got concerned. We went to the crash site, which is where you were last seen. We searched up and down over miles of land, looking for any place that you two could have gone." She turned to look at the sleeping Myst and smiled. "Then we ran into her, and now here we are."

I felt yet another wave of guilt pass through me. I turned to face Skyfire and Zaita's camera, both of which were already looking at me. "Zaita, Skyfire... I'm so sorry. Sorry I made you two search for us. I... maybe if I hadn't went into those buildings in the first place..."

"It is alright. Do not be sorry." Zaita's voice sounded over the cockpit. "The area was nothing more than a few tents and barricades, with only the occasional skeleton. The area was completely devoid of any importance. It was a waste of time." The interior camera looked away from the outside and to the floor. "It was just as I had feared. There was nothing there worth any value."

"There was ALMOST nothing there worth anything." Skyfire corrected. "I did get this awesome tank crew uniform, and it's even armored! Not to mention the memory orb in that one tent, remember? And the ammo in what you said was once the armory?"

"Ah, yes. Those."

"Memory orb?" I asked, the guilt of not being able to completely fulfill my transport's one request fading away from her assurance that it was fine and my curiosity regarding the orb.

"Yeah, I found them in some locked chest beneath some bunk bed. Melted the padlock off and took 'em out while Zaita floated around, looking at stuff. I kept them, since you seem to like going into these things." Skyfire informed me, looking just a touch proud at her find. Then again, she was always proud, so I really couldn't tell if her pride was from her recent find or from something else.

"Can I take a look at it?" At my question, my fellow pegasus looked at me skeptically. "Look, I just want to see what's in it, okay? We're not in any imminent danger right now, so I should look at it while I have time." She continued her skeptical look, the only difference being that this time she raised an eyebrow at me. "Oh, come on. What, do I have to do something just to get a look at it?"

At that last statement, Skyfire gave me a pleading expression and wide eyes. She pouted as she said, "Aw, you really want to go in the thing? Can't we talk first? I didn't get to talk to any of you for the last two days! Can't we catch up for a bit?"

I snorted, "What do you think we've been doing for the last hour? I think we've talked enough for now." I still felt like crap, and all of my hide stung terribly at every move I made, thanks in no small part to my burns. Fortunately, most of the fire had struck my vest and armor instead. If I hadn't been wearing them... I don't even want to think about it. And there was of course my many broken bones, plus all of my pipbuck's warnings that every part of me was crippled. In all honesty, I didn't even know how I was still alive.

She made her eyes wider and pouted, the light reflecting off of her eyes coupled with my own personal desire for conversation almost winning me over. But I was too tired and exhausted for talking. And yet, somehow, the will to sleep was removed from me at the very first mention of the memory orb. I told her as much, or at least up to the exhausted part, and she stopped her pouting.

With a disappointed sigh, she fished the orb out of her own saddlebag and tossed it to me. "Fine. I needed to think a little about what you told me anyway." She lay down on her seat again and looked up at the ceiling with what I perceived as a thoughtful expression.

I rummaged through my saddlebags for that headgear I used to view the previous orbs. Skyfire really did seem like she was thinking, looking up at the ceiling with thoughtful eyes. I pulled the thing out, finding it only a little bit smashed from all I had gone through since I last used it. At most, I was sure the little dents on the side of it wouldn't affect all the memory-viewing technical crap. I took off my own helmet, which needed some serious repairs along with the rest of my gear, before I strapped on the memory viewing headgear.

"How far are we from this place, Zaita?" I asked, wanting to know how much time I could afford to be in the memory. Because I didn't want to make them wait if we got there and I was still in the memory.

"It is exactly twenty-eight point four miles from our location, and will take about another two hours to get there." I took that in with a nod, and was about about to place the orb in the cup-like depression above the headgear's brow plate before she added, "Before we arrive, however, I believe should inform you of the dangers of the area surrounding it." I perked up at that, temporarily diverting my attention from the orb to her statement.

"Such as?" If this place, or at least the area around it, was dangerous, then I needed to hear it all before we got there. I didn't want to be unprepared for what we might face. Across from me, Skyfire had ceased her thinking and was now paying close attention.

"First off," She started, turning her interior camera from looking outside the window to look at me. "There is the possibility that the compound itself is dangerous. Turrets and... 'ghouls' are the most likely dangers, though I would advise you to consider other possibilities."

"Other possibilities?" Skyfire queried, echoing my own concerns.

"Raiders and bandits are also very likely, as well as wildlife. The cliff the compound is constructed on is also very dangerous, as the weather for the past two centuries will most likely have made it unstable. Thankfully, I can hover and you two can fly." Skyfire nodded at that, seeming content with the answer.

"And... the area surrounding it is dangerous how?" I asked, and the APC immediately stopped. Well, not immediately. If it had been immediately, at those speeds, we would have been thrown against the controls at the front.

The vehicle's engine hummed loudly, and we began to ascend. The light flowing into the cockpit became almost blinding, the golden rays reflecting off of the vehicle's shiny interiors. A glance outside showed me that we were in a wide, barren land with the occasional hill and sand dune.

Then, just as quickly as it had become too bright, it suddenly became very dark. In fact, if it wasn't for the suddenly very dim light coming through the window and the little lights from around Zaita's cockpit, it would have been completely black.

"That..." She started, making the APC face a more southern direction and canting the front upward a bit so we could see the sunny sky. Or at least, what should have been a sunny sky.

Where a vast open sky of golden rays and yellow-tinted blue was supposed to be, there was instead utter darkness, broken only by horrible red waves reaching up from the ground. Even more horrible, the shadowy forms of one of the titanic monstrosities I had seen in my dream lumbered close enough to the light of the natural day to become partially visible as a dark silhouette. It was a terrifying sight; like the sky itself had been corrupted by a force of evil, and was employing giants to slowly engulf the land in darkness. "... is also an extremely concerning phenomenon."

"W-what the fuck is that?" Asked Skyfire, looking about as horrified as I was.

Zaita's answer was disturbingly reminiscent to that of one of the voices in that dream I had.

"Bad things. Very bad things. I don't know what exactly, but I am a very powerful AI, at least in terms of cyber-warfare. As such, I have been able to connect with audio, visual, and communicational equipment linked to the still-functional zebra networks. The Legion uses these networks."

"So, what are you saying? You've known what that whole phenomenon was all along?" I asked, a little concerned that Zaita didn't tell me this sooner, especially the whole 'I can connect to wireless devices' part.

As if on cue, Skyfire and I suddenly heard a strange sound, similar to the combustion taking place in engines. I hurried to the window, just in time to see the dark, pinprick sized forms of dozens of aircraft streaking across the sky close to the ground. They all flew in formation, and as they passed over us the vehicle shook roughly, nearly waking Myst up from her slumber with the thunderous noise they left in their wake.

As we watched, they flew close to the dark land and let loose what must have been hundreds of missiles into the darkness. The missiles disappeared as the aircraft flew back, and as they neared us once more there was a horrendous roar that tore through the air strong enough to send normal clouds blasting away and shaking the earth. If we weren't within the APC, we would have gone deaf. And yet, somehow, Myst was STILL asleep.

"No, I did not. I simply know what any linked device knows. One video file, however, has really given me a disturbing insight as to just what may be in that zone..."

All of Zaita's speakers were suddenly blasting the entire cockpit with the noise of bubbling lava, cracking rocks, en masse hoof-stomping, and the engines of vehicles. Myst finally woke up, looking at us wide-eyed, then slowly turned her attention to the sight outside the window. She gasped, and looked to us as if demanding an explanation.

We just gestured her to just watch the video, which was showing on Zaita's screen and to listen to the audio. She did so, squeezing in between us so she could watch.

Whoever was holding the camera was walking down a blackened concrete road, and off to his sides were entire rivers of burning hot lava. In the distance, I could make out the ruined forms of buildings. In front of him was a tank; an Omni-tank, which was rolling along beside even more Omni-tanks. In the air above him and in front of him were several VTOLs, all armed with high-caliber guns, which circled them not in suppression but in vigilance.

Through the sounds of his gas mask-regulated breathing, I could make out the noise of what must have been at least a hundred ponies or zebras marching along with him. The marching had a distinguishable tune to it, like whoever was moving intentionally placed emphasis on certain steps to create a sort of musical beat. The camera-wielder, who I now knew must have had the camera on his helmet, glanced behind him, which confirmed that he was indeed leading a group of at least a hundred Legionnaires; all armed with energy-tipped spears, various firearms, and heavy metal shields and wearing a more modern and less heavy looking version of my segmented steel armor.

Then he glanced off to his sides, across the lava rivers. Through the hellish red glow, I made out the forms of more Legionnaires and tanks and vehicles and aircraft, all moving deeper into what I now knew was what was inside of the black land.

Occasionally, there was the sound of a distant gunshot or explosion. The camera-wielder didn't react much, but behind him and in the other Legionnaire groups around him there were worried and foreboding murmurs.

The next few minutes went on, mostly just showing all the hundreds of Legionnaires moving further, accompanied by a whole regiment of armored vehicles and aircraft. Occasionally, they would slow down due to some kind of environmental obstruction, such as a narrow bridge or some other blockade.

The camera-wielder and the rest of the Legionnaires and vehicles, both of his own group or the groups of other leaders, eventually entered a wide, blackened plain. Further inspection and careful inspection revealed that the plain was once a farm field, if the dried and dead plants were any indication.

And then there was a howl.

Not a regular canine howl, nor that of any other species that I knew of. No scream caused by any emotion could have come anywhere near the magnitude and blood-curdling permanence of that howl. Even to us here in the cockpit, the fright and terror it brought caused Myst to hide and Skyfire and I to take a few steps away from the screen.

Surprisingly, the camera-wielder's only real reaction was to stop and look around for a bit. Even all the other Legionnaires and tanks and vehicles had stopped. There was an echoed shout from the very front of this whole column of troops, and it was yelled back and back again by power-armor amplified voices until it reached my host, who shouted the word 'formationem' at the very top of his lungs and at what must have been the highest volume of his suit's speakers.

Soon, the entire army of vehicles and zebras began moving. Gleaming metal and glowing spears dominated my vision, with the occasional sight of the red-tinged sky through the crowd. It was quite chaotic, but through all the noise of metal-plated hooves and shouting and engines humming, I could tell that they were moving in a rather organized fashion. If you saw it yourself, you wouldn't believe it. But I just knew, somehow, that each movement they made was with a purpose.

Eventually, they stopped. The zebra holding the camera found himself on a pile of rocks, together with other power-armored zebras, all of whom had plumes attached to their helmets. All about them were massive rings of Legionnaires that covered the majority of the visible landscape, and all of them were prepared to fight. The tanks and vehicles had taken positions behind the first ring, forming a second impenetrable wall of steel. Four more lines of Legionnaires were behind that, all holding their weapons. Overhead, the aircraft circled the rings in patrol.

One power-armored zebra, whom I identified to be the leader (due to the violet coloration of his neck guard, along with the 'X' on his power helmet's brow plate. Through my lessons, I had learned that the color violet was often associated with figures of power) then approached the edge of the small hill he was standing on and faced the ring of Legionnaires.

"Scuta!" He shouted.

At once, every Legionnaire in sight slammed their metal shields down onto the ground with enough force that, just for a moment, I thought their was an earthquake. At the same time, each let out a unified 'hawoo' that reverberated and echoed across the blasted landscape. The first line brought up their spears, mounting it over their shields to create a spiked wall. The second line, the one behind the vehicles, brought out shotguns, the third submachine guns, and the fourth and fifth assault rifles.

My jaw hit the floor out of sheer awe, as did Skyfire's. Myst just watched the video from her corner, covering half her face with both hooves while letting one eye watch. This was bravery, right here. Bravery and discipline; the core values that the ancient Roaman legions used to conquer the known world. I may have hated the Legion, but they at least knew what values to instill in their troops. If it were me in their place, facing an enemy I couldn't see or didn't even know about, I would be galloping for the hills.

The leader began giving a small speech, one that I was sure each and every Legionnaire heard, no matter their position on the landscape. I found myself translating each line for no logical reason as he said them.

"Te sunt Legionnaires de Roama,"

"You are Legionnaires of Roam,"

"Civis belli incendia,"

"Born in the fires of war and battle,"

"Tu praesidia. Illustrius defensores crastinum diem meliorem."

"You are protectors. Defenders of a brighter tomorrow, a better day."

"Tu futura cognoscere quia si moriantur, et vos invicem pro tunc tutela mortem futura! Et quamvis haberent res tristes, et non praeteribit."

I was about to translate that when the lava lakes surged up in a brilliant show of fiery orange. Dark, vaguely canine forms appeared out of the shadows and fire. They emerged from every crevice and nook, leaving a scintillating aura of hellish orange in their wake as they encircled the Legionnaires. And they were on fire, too. My mind wracked itself trying to comprehend how dogs could be on fire, yet not die.

"What does that mean, Goldwreath?" Skyfire asked, her voice quivering with anxious anticipation as she watched. Myst had torn herself away and was now a cringing ball of terror in her corner. On the screen, more of the burning hounds appeared.

For the first time since the video started, the Legionnaires began showing signs of fear. I could see it, not in their faces (those were turned away from me), but in their shield wall. It wasn't stable, it was shaking and breaking as they struggled to keep themselves from running. I couldn't really blame them; if it weren't for the fact I knew this was a video, I would have cowered underneath a table. Every few seconds, a hound would lunge to test the strength of a particular shield segment, and each time the Legionnaire was barely able to hold his ground.

I gulped and continued, "It means 'You are the future, know it! For if you die here, in defense of yourselves and each other, then you die protecting that future! And that, no matter how grim the situation, will never change'." As much as I found his words encouraging, the Legionnaires in the video didn't.

In the blazing yet shadowy sky above them, hundreds of small winged shapes emerged from the black clouds. They encircled the flying VTOLs, and some of them even crashed into the aircraft with enough force to send the vehicle off course. A massive aerial battle ensued as the aircraft opened fire, but the sheer number of the creatures were simply too many for the them to handle. All but one aircraft was brought down in the first wave, and that one aircraft still struggling for control in the skies above them brought even more instability into the ranks of the Legionnaires.

Then more creatures appeared, by the hundreds. They were all of too varied shape and size to describe them all. But they were monstrous beyond compare, save for the images conjured in the nightmares of psychopaths. Some were large and daunting, their silhouettes against the orange sky towering above the landscape. Others were small and twitchy, jumping around energetically on the smoky terrain.

Skyfire turned away for a moment, but turned back to the screen when she saw I was still watching. I found my eyes glued onto the screen, anxious to see what would happen next. Myst was shaking in fear, curled up like a fetus as she covered her ears from the sounds blasting from Zaita's speakers.

They were surrounded now, heartbreakingly outnumbered by a swarm of mutants so horrific they would have put ghouls and any other nightmarish creature to shame. The shield wall was absolutely quivering from fear, and the centurions knew. They called out to their groups, calling each Legionnaire by name in an attempt to assuage their fright.

It didn't really help.

The swarm charged, letting out a whole plethora of screams and shrieks and other unworldly noises beyond description. The flaming dogs struck first, using their legs to jump over the first line of energy spears. Most were met with machinegun fire and tank shells from the vehicles and died, but those that landed caused mass chaos until they were put down. Their corpses glowed, fire bursting from their wounds and through their eye sockets. Then they exploded, sending a wave of flame washing over the armored bodies of the Legionnaires, who were at this point beginning to attempt to move their lines back.

Then the rest of the creatures crashed into the feeble first wall of spears, bursting through it easily and trampling the Legionnaire's corpses beneath them as they slaughtered every zebra there. The only casualties suffered by the swarm were the few bodies I saw slump to the ground, the spears ensconced in their torsos. They were met with much stronger resistance on the tank line, though. The vehicles opened fire, sending dozens of missiles and tank shells and a torrent of lead that tore through the oncoming swarm.

I saw one Legionnaire get picked up by a large two-legged creature, then promptly ripped in half. The scream of pain and anguish he let out coupled with the sight of his guts spilling all over caused Skyfire to shut her eyes close and Myst to begin crying. Even though I wanted to, I couldn't stop watching. This was what was inside that land, and I needed to know. If only that knowledge came in a less horrifying package.

My host and all the other power-armored Legionnaires opened fire, sending a volley of machine gun rounds and grenades and missiles into the oncoming crowd and sending all sorts of gore flying into the air.

Smoke and fire billowed up into the air as they finally broke through the second line. And then the third. Now they were in the process of slaughtering the fourth and destroying the last Omni-tank. My host actually heard the leader laugh. It wasn't a sadistic laugh, nor a laugh of joy. Rather, it sounded more like the laugh of someone who views death without fear.

"Et maxime..." He said slowly, moving his head in such a way that I thought he was nodding. Only the fifth line remained now, but they at least were holding out longer than the other four, having the advantage of higher ground. That advantage was neutralized when several dozen of the flying creatures swooped down and broke the shield wall, carrying the zebras into the air by their rectangular metal shields and then dropping them. I was shaking at this point, my mind split into looking away or to continue watching.

"And above all else..." I found myself translating it, even if I already knew the fate of these people. My host and the last remaining survivors found themselves struggling up a small hill, having to step on the faces of their dead comrades to get up. When my host tried to back up some more, slowly ascending the slope together with five others, he bumped into something.

He turned and saw the leader, standing proud and tall at the top of the hill. He looked over my host an the last few survivors without scorn, then turned to look over the swarm only seconds away from killing him.

A tendril of spiky flesh grabbed my host's neck and dragged him back down the hill, along with all the others save the leader. As my host fought without reward to free himself, he looked up once more to see the last zebra at the top of the hill. There was a crunching noise, and the camera screen cracked. The helmet on which the camera was built on rolled and landed on the ground, revealing the headless corpse of what had been my host and the many bodies now being stomped into the earth by the horrific crowd.

"Semper... resistere terram!" There was the sound of a grenade machine gun in the background, occasionally drowned out by a horrific sound of pain from one of the creature's.

Then one of them; a large, reptilian sort of creature, landed it's scaly leg onto the camera. The screen went blank.

I choked, utterly depressed and horrified at what I had seen. All I had the energy left to do was to translate the last line, "Always... stand your ground." Then, just like Skyfire and Myst, I too collapsed and gave in to the tears.

*** Magnus et Potens Roamanus ***

Fear and doubt.

Those two were the reasons all those soldiers died. They feared what they never saw before, and they doubted in their leader's capabilities to lead them and in their own capabilities to protect each other. If perhaps they had kept it to themselves, and had not let it affect their performance, they would have lived.

But they did. They feared and doubted, and they let it show. Those two vices manifested themselves in the form of a weak defense. Those... things broke through because the Legionnaires were weak, not only because they were outnumbered. If they had been more confident, let their discipline and bravery win over them, they would have survived. At the very least, some of them.

Yes, that's how I tried to rationalize it. That's how I dealt with what I had just witnessed. As I lay against the wall of the APC, silently sobbing to myself, that is how I had tried to calm my mind; by trying to rationalize things. It wasn't the best strategy, but I always found some comfort in analyzing things and coming up with conclusions. And sometimes, in my analysis, I would think that, perhaps, the failure or disaster wasn't as bad as it seemed.

Myst and Skyfire were worse off than I was; the two had cried themselves dry out of both horror and sadness and were now staring off into the air with blank expressions. Even though they weren't crying anymore, I could tell that they were still deeply troubled by the video. At least when you cried you were venting the emotion. Bottling it up never really works, unless you know how to control the inevitable emotional outbursts.

"That... that is what is in there." Zaita finally said after our sob session, which lasted about twenty minutes. I looked up, wiping the remaining tears off my face. All the other two did in response was look at Zaita's face on the console for a second before looking away.

"What... what was all that?" I asked, still a little dis-believing. Honestly, what were those things? If they were mutants of some sort, then they must have been exposed to a LOT of radiation to be turned into those... things. I just hoped that they didn't start appearing everywhere, because if the did...

"As I said, I do not know. What I do know is that it is bad, and that the Legion has been fighting it with... mixed results."

Fortunately, about halfway through the video, Zaita had gotten back down to ground level and continued to our destination. I could already see the darkness of night creeping into the sky from the horizon, and the sun was but half an orb slowly receding into the ground. If we were getting to this place, it would be in the evening. And, judging from how long it would take to get back to Verge, we would probably get back there the next morning.

"When was that video recorded, Zaita?" I asked, feeling the need to know when that disaster had happened.

"Three days ago; about three hours after the incident on the bridge."

I hung my head again. So, that's where those tanks had been heading. They were trying to assist in the assault. I still don't quite know whether to feel glad that they didn't die in there, or ashamed that I had stopped them from getting to their destination.

I shook my head hard, clearing my mind. What exactly was I thinking? Was I actually gaining some sympathy for those Legionnaires? They murdered hundreds and leveled towns! They kidnapped dozens and took them away in transports to become slaves! They were the reason the city is engulfed in so much war in the first place!

'Yeah,' Thought Tom, sounding about as shaken as the rest of us. 'They did do those things, yes. They are causing the city suffering. They are the ones killing people by the hundreds for no established reason.'

'But they are also protecting the city and it's people. Not all of them are savage, bloodthirsty killers. There are a few of them worthy of respect.'

'What?' I thought back at him. 'How can people who do those things be respectable in the slightest? They deserved everything they got!' I screamed in my head, shocked that the better part of my fucked up brain even thought this way. And I didn't even WANT to know how Tod felt on the matter.

And yet... yet I found a part of me agreeing with Tom. Maybe I was just generalizing. Perhaps not ALL Legionnaires were bad, but the great majority were. Perhaps a few of the good ones were in that slaughter, trampled and stomped into the dust and dirt beneath them.

Then I thought of the zebra leader; the one that stood his ground and fought without fear. Yes, there were a few good people in the Legion, but ONLY a few. They may have been a tyrannical and oppressive military force, but perhaps not all were bad. That thought lifted my spirits a little, but just a little.

I lifted my head again, having let out all of my emotions regarding that depressing-ass video. Myst sat forlornly in her corner, clutching her nethers as she looked around a little. Skyfire was sitting against the wall on her side, letting out a few sobs from time to time with an angry and confused expression on her face. I decided not to bother her.

Then I remembered I was still wearing the memory-orb viewing headgear. The orb sat next to me, right where I left it before I watched the video. I picked it up and rolled it around in my hooves. My curiosity had not been removed, and we still had at least another hour and a half...

Skyfire wiped her face, then snorted. "Ugh, what the hell did I cry? Those Legion fucks deserved what they got! Every last one of them!" She sounded angry, yet it seemed like a forced anger. Like she was forcing herself to have no compassion at all for any Legionnaire, no matter who it was. I personally found that a little concerning. Then again, I myself was a little confused as to why I had obtained a little respect for the Legion.

I spent the next few minutes pondering how each of my companions felt, especially Skyfire. She looked so troubled right now, and yet I felt like asking her to talk about it was a bad idea. Myst didn't show much emotion aside from sadness, with the occasional expression of thoughtful concern. I couldn't tell how Zaita felt, though.

My attention turned back to the memory orb, which I had readied a while back. Finally, I couldn't take it. "You three mind if I get into this now?" I asked, mainly because I felt that looking into an orb after an emotional moment like that was a little... indulgent. Like I was trying to distract myself and running away from my problems. That and because my curiosity to see what was within was beginning to cloud my thoughts.

Skyfire stirred, shaking her head before looking at me. "Hm?" She sounded surprised, like she had been in a trance and then suddenly I interrupted her. "Oh, yeah. Sure, go ahead. I've... got stuff to think about, anyway." After she has said that, she looked back up at the ceiling.

"Oh... um, go ahead." Myst said, having enough emotion in her voice to at least sound surprised. She looked so dead right now; so blank. It was a little comforting to know she wasn't letting it get to her too much, and still had some emotion in her voice.

"There is no alternative that I know of that is productive, except perhaps making sure your equipment is ready. Then again, you look absolutely exhausted. Perhaps another hour of rest is appropriate." Ah, Zaita. How I love your logical thinking and monotonous voice. No, seriously; I always did find some comfort in her straight to the point and practical way of thinking.

With the approval and consent of my companions, I slipped the orb into the cup-like depression of the headgear.

Oh boy, this is a feeling I'll need to get used to...

ooooOOOOoooo

My host was a stallion. He was sitting down in a vehicle, an APC, from the feel of it. It was not as spacious as Zaita's interior, but through the general darkness of the area which was just barely illuminated by small glowing blue lights, I could see the see the space within was fairly large; perhaps enough for around seven ponies or zebras. I could see others in here, but their shadows together with the bad lighting made the details of their appearance difficult to make out.

There was the occasional whisper between some of the zebras, all of which were mostly drowned out by the loud humming of the engine coupled with the sounds of the vehicle's wheels rolling on the ground. My host himself took no part in any conversation, content to just hang his head and let his body move freely in accordance with the vehicle's rocking. Occasionally, there would be the sound of someone shifting, the rattling of all their equipment making it obvious even if they couldn't be seen.

The atmosphere in here was... tense. Not tense like everyone in here wanted to kill each other, but tense. It was more like the tension brought about by the anxiety of several people all nervous about the same thing, like a school dance or championship game.

The vehicle stopped, and was met with surprised gasps from several of the zebras within. I could hear them gulping as they readied their equipment in preparation for exiting. Their was no sound of fighting, so I didn't think we were being brought into a battle. The vehicle vibrated as the door in the rear of the APC slowly opened...

Agh, too much light! I'm blind! Fuck, blink you stupid host, blink!

My host lifted a hoof to his eyes, feeling the pain caused by the light for just a moment. His eyes adjusted to the bright midday sun as he got up and stepped out of the transport's dark interior and onto the metal drawbridge-like door. From what I could feel, he had a fairly heavy backpack on his back and was wearing what felt like a kevlar vest of some sort. He had a rifle slung across his side, and wore what felt like a hat on his head. As he lowered his hoof to look out at the area before him, I managed to get a look at the place.

It was a wide area, fenced off completely by high fences with barbed wire on top. There were sandbags at the one visible entrance, with two zebras mounting a heavy machine gun on a raised platform above some barricades. Beyond the fence, I saw several raised structures with flat tops that I concluded were landing pads of some sort. There were dozens of tents, all of them either a faded red or a brilliant crimson. The place was also really dusty and sandy, like it was in a desert. Little whirlwinds of sand swept across the landscape, bringing dust and grime over a large portion of the base.

My host stepped off of the metal drawbridge-door and onto the dusty ground, sending even more dust and sand flying into the air. Behind him, I could hear the noise of more people getting out of the armored transport. My host took a few steps forward, looking over the entire area once more. Beside him, his fellows formed a single line, facing the entrance.

He glanced up, and the brightness of the sun nearly blinded me again. A moment later, when his eyes adjusted once more, I could make out the small v-shaped forms of dozens of aircraft miles high in the sky, leaving a contrail in their wake. Closer to the ground, more aircraft in the form of VTOLs hovered about, sending entire clouds of dust blasting off the ground. Everywhere, my host saw dozens of various armored vehicles either parked near large tents or rolling around. Soldiers marched by, wearing a segmented kevlar vest with what looked like a thin metal plate over the segments. They were lead by a similarly dressed soldier, whose helmet had plumes on it instead of being blank.

There was a large sign on the side of the dusty road, layered with sand and dust and other forms of grime.

'Camp Thermopylae' It read. So this is where Zaita had gone? Huh. I wondered if there was a possibility I would see her in this orb. My host stared at the sign for a few moments, when he got shoved from behind.

"Hey, dude, what are you waiting for?" Asked a stallion, who sounded a little annoyed. "Don't you see the others are already heading in? Move it, Tekasho!" Tekasho? You mean that zebra Zecora's husband? Well, this should be interesting.

Tekasho shook his head a little, before saying, "Oh, sorry Kaizius. Just taking in our new home." I felt myself grimace, as if the thought of staying at the camp brought uncomfortable thoughts with it. When he turned his attention to where his fellow soldier had been standing, he saw the zebra already hurrying to catch up with the line of soldiers already within the base.

"Oh, right." He muttered to himself before galloping after them.

When my host got right behind Kaizius, who was at the very back of an eight-zebra squad lead by another centurion, they were suddenly stopped by yet another centurion. The squad's centurion gestures us to wait while he spoke with the other.

"Place is bigger than I thought." Said one of the zebras to no one in particular.

"Tell me about it." Responded another. "Although why we got assigned this far south still confuses me. And this heat..." He exhaled deeply while he used a hoof to pull open the collar of his vest. "Where the hell's the cola machine?"

"Ha!" Tekasho barked, catching the attention of the zebra. "Forget the cola machines. This place needs a cold storage room big enough for everyone here." I could feel my host's sweat mix with all the dust and grime floating around. It made me feel... filthy, to say the least.

The zebra snickered, then looked at the bag on my host's bag. "The hell's in that thing? Just because we're legionnaires doesn't mean we have to cram our bags with a week's worth of stuff all the time." I had to agree with him on that. Looking at the fairly empty and light looking backpacks on the other soldiers, I had to wonder just what was in my host's bag.

"Oh, you know, stuff." My host replied with a dismissive wave of his hoof. The zebra looked a little confused, and opened his mouth to speak. Just then, though, the centurion trotted back.

"Good news," He said while he looked at a piece of paper in between his hooves. "The 'welcoming the new meat' event tonight is going to be attended by none other than Lord Decarius himself." At his words, there was a whole bunch of comments and whispers from the squad, all of which were about 'how much of an honor' the visit would be. The centurion just smiled.

"Also," He started once more, silencing us quickly enough that he didn't really have to pause. "The tour of the camp for all new arrivals is going to be held in another two hours. That should give you lazy sacks of shit enough time to get settled in your barrack." At 'lazy sacks of shit', rather than looking hurt by the centurion's comment, the soldiers, my host included, actually laughed a little. After that there were also more comments on how they would all 'rather sleep through the rest of the day'.

"Alright, uh... that's basically it. You guys get settled in barrack O43. I'm gonna go see if they have a cola machine around here..." The centurion began trotting away, and the soldiers each let out a respectful 'yes sir'. Though one instead said 'yessir, Plumes'. One of us hurried after him, muttering something about how he had enough spare change to buy a whole machine's worth of refreshments.

We trotted down a dusty road, talking amongst ourselves about the camp. Occasionally, we had to stop because the road was blocked by a tank or because an even larger group of legionnaires passed by. Some of us got distracted for a bit by some snide remarks of some older soldiers, but thankfully no one started a fight.

We searched for several minutes, going up and down several roads. One of us suggested we were lost, but then noticed a building marked 'Barrack O41'. We hurried over to it, and sure enough another barrack away was our new home. It was similar in appearance to all the other barracks; one story high with concrete walls, which stopped halfway to the roof and was then replaced by large sheets of grey metal, bent into an arc to meet with the other side of the building. It had a few windows, though they were all too layered with dust to see through them clearly.

We pushed the door open, revealing to us a wide space within, with dozens of bunk beds lined from one side of the building to the next. There was a small drawer-table next to each bed, and next to each was an electrical outlet. Most of the beds were occupied by exhausted-looking legionnaires, all of them either talking to each other, drinking, sleeping, or setting up equipment of some sort on the tables next to their own beds.

My squad rushed to a group of empty beds before they too were occupied, and then we all dropped our backpacks and let our weapons fell onto the bed as we jumped onto the mattresses. My host gasped, burying his into the sandy bed as he lay there out of a combination of exhaustion and thirst. When he got up a moment later, he pulled out a canteen from his bag and chugged down most of the water inside in just a few gulps. The others did the same, though one of us did instead start reading what looked like a military magazine.

When I pulled the canteen from my lips a moment later, the water within was completely gone. It was fine with me; it wasn't MY water that was out, after all. At least the feeling of sandy dryness in my host's throat was gone.

Tekasho put the canteen back in it's pouch, then looked to his backpack for a moment. Looking at it now, it really was bigger than the rest. My host looked at it a little more, then to his squad, then to the others around him. He paid particular attention to those setting up equipment on their tables; one zebra, I saw, had a laptop and was typing something into it.

As soon as my host saw that, he picked up his bag off the dirty floor and opened the largest pocket. He pulled out a laptop of his own, complete with mouse, mousepad, and charger. He began setting it up on the drawer next to his bunk, when one of his squad members noticed.

"Hey guys, look! Tekie over here brought a laptop!" At that, about five of the seven in the squad gathered around Tekasho as his laptop turned on, and they giggled as they watched the screen show the different pre log-in info. When the log-in screen came up, he placed his hooves onto the keyboard and began typing. About halfway through the password, my eyes went wide and he turned to look at my squad with a glare. Most of them had been watching me type, and my host was unwilling to continue.

"Shoo! Back! Back before I pull out the deodorant spray again!" My host warned, and for some reason that caused most of them to back away with a sour put. I wondered why any of them would be afraid of deodorant. In fact, they all smelled like they really needed a bath. As they dispersed, one of them stayed. "You too, Halek."

"Aw, come on! I just wanna see what you'll do!" Halek whined in a surprisingly annoying and shrill voice.

Wrong answer. Tekasho pulled out a small can from one of his vest's pockets and pulled off the cap. Halek's eyes went wide, and he tried to turn away. Just before he could, Tekasho put the can close to his fellow legionnaire's eyes and sprayed.

"Gods, fuck!" Halek stumbled away, falling off the bed in the process before muttering more obscenities. The others laughed a little, playfully offering to help him get to the washroom, but offered no real assistance. I felt a small smile of amusement form on my host's face, before he turned away to look at the screen and continued typing the password.

The screen faded into a blue blur, then reappeared as a desktop background image showing the eight of them in their uniforms and looking much less gritty and tired. They were smiling, leaning on each other as they saluted whoever was taking the picture. On the bottom right was a legion number, 23rd, along with eight different signatures.

My host looked at that for only a moment before averting his gaze to a series of icons at the bottom of the screen. He brought the cursor over a stylized 'S' and clicked, and at once another log-in screen appeared. He glanced behind him, making sure he wasn't being watched. By this time, the others had began unpacking their own stuff or resting. With that, my host logged in.

The screen was dominated by several sections, with the side of the screen having a list of strange names. The top portion had several different options, such as 'profile', 'settings', and others. The bottom was dominated by a number of tabs, each having a number in bright orange next to them.

My host immediately scanned through the names, and stopped at one. 'Umplsdon'tcall' was the name. It was a pretty stupid name, but my host didn't care as he double-clicked on the icon next to it. At once, an icon at the top of the screen appeared, with a series of white pulsating dots beneath it connecting to another icon represented as a green phone. The speakers of the laptop beeped over and over, until someone answered the call.

The speaker blasted out nothing but background noise at first, broken only by the sounds of cracked and fluctuating shouting. After a while, the connection stabilized itself. The sweet voice of a young zebra mare spoke, sounding dishearteningly sad.

"Papa?" The mare asked with trembling anxiety. In the background, I heard the noises of movement and murmuring. Behind me, the other legionnaires suddenly turned their attention back to my host. But he didn't care anymore. I could feel him holding back tears as he responded.

"Eiya, I've missed you so much." I felt myself gulp and bring a hoof to my nose and wipe it. I could feel the tears he was holding in slowly break free.

"Papa!" Two other voices said in unison, both of which also sounded heartbreakingly forlorn and in despair. I gulped again, then took in a shaky breath.

"You too, Eliat. And you as well, Jovit." I could feel myself struggling to keep from openly breaking down. My host wiped his eyes furiously, then turned around to see the others. They looked at him with sympathy and sadness, some of them even going so far as to shed a tear of their own. I turned back to the screen, "How are you three doing?"

The only response were the sounds of the mare crying coupled with two young colts trying to comfort her. That got sullen looks from three of the others, and one of them had even pulled out a photo and was looking at it wistfully. Perhaps it was a picture of his family. My host watched him while listening for his daughter, Eiya, to calm down.

"Don't cry, daughter. Don't cry..." My host tried to make himself sound authoritative, but that effort failed altogether from his own efforts to keep his tears in check.

Finally, she got some words out, "I missed you so much, Papa!"

"And so do we!" Chimed in the two colts, who sounded so alike they must have been twins. Even then, twins didn't always sound the same.

My host shook his head a little and hung it, almost as if he were ashamed of something. "I know." He sniffed, before looking back up at the screen with moist eyes. "Listen, Eiya, I don't have too much time to talk right now. We still have stuff to do, and we're getting toured in a bit." I bit my lower lip, and I suspected my host was hesitant about saying something. "When all that's done, I'll call you again. I promise. I'll bring the laptop with me to a battlefield if I have to."

The only response was a sudden blast of static. However, a few of the mare's words did get through. "-ad?... Wait! I need to t-t-tel... -ing. I..." There was a pause, coupled with the sounds of broken speech. "Eliat! Get off the c-c-couch!"

"Eiya?"

"...-rouble with the connection. Papa, please... -all later. They really... - ant to talk to you. And I do, too."

"Eiya!"

"-... love you, Dad."

The call ended, signaled by a beep and the call window closing. My host tried to call again, but then suddenly the entire program used for the calling crashed. Something about 'no Databank connection, please try again later'. Tekasho slammed the laptop close in frustration, before using his forehooves to support his head as he leaned forward, breathing heavily. The sounds of frustrated swearing in the background told me he wasn't the only one who had lost the Databank connection.

"It's okay, dude." One of Tekasho's squad said as he placed a hoof to my host's shoulder. "At least you know they're alright, right?"

"It's not enough!" My host snapped, causing his fellow to withdraw with a startled look. "We haven't spoken in months and haven't seen each other for two years!" He glared at his comrade with an expression so fierce the legionnaire took several more steps back. The others just looked on with sadness; even Halek was looking at my host with sympathetic, sore-looking red eyes. The little scene my host was starting was attracting the attention of a few others in the background.

The door to the building opened with a gush of wind, and the squad's centurion trotted in together with the legionnaire that left with him earlier. Both had at least a dozen soda bottles in total, which they held with one of their forehooves while they used the other to bring one of the bottles to their mouths. They looked around with satisfies and relieved smiles, which then disappeared when their eyes landed on my host.

My host turned back to the table. "All I wanted was a little time to catch up. A little time to... to ask 'how are you doing in school' or 'how was your day'." My host sniffed, "And now I'm left with the thought of my daughter needing to tell me something... but can't." Tekasho hung my head and let the tears fall freely off his cheek.

That went on for a few moments, when suddenly there was the sound of the door opening again. Through my host's sniffing and choking and coughing, I could make out concerned and surprised murmurs and whispers. One comment caught my attention: "Is that who I think it is?"

I heard slow, heavy hoofsteps approaching. My host payed it no attention as he continued to let out his tears, but the crowd within the building certainly was. Eventually, as the person trotting to me got close enough, I started hearing the sounds of numerous guns and various types of equipment clanging against a surface. When the trotting came close enough to my host to be but a few feet away, the centurion spoke up.

"Halt! My legionnaire is in a moment of emotional turmoil and must be left alone. I don't care who you are, operative or not. I must ask that you..." He stopped short for no discernible reason, and I heard him gulp. The heavy steps continued a little more and stopped right behind my host. A shadow was cast over the table, and my host turned to look.

A Specter?

He certainly looked like a Specter; same heavy vest, same helmet, same ridiculous amount of weapons and equipment all over their body, and even the same respirator. Really, the only difference was that this Specter's equipment looked far cleaner and newer compared to the ultra-worn, dusty, cut, and battered ones used by other Specters. That and his legs were covered with a synthetic mesh instead of leather.

My host looked him over, giving me a good look at him as well. One detail caught my attention: a logo of two broken wings on each side of a black gladius; the same logo I had seen on Specters and on the VTOL in the Autherius memory orb. Below it, on the rim of the logo, were the words 'Veterani Operativa'.

Then a thought hit me. Autherius' words echoed in my mind, "... commander and founder of the Shadow Corps..."

'The Specters are the Shadow Corps?' I thought about that for a moment, slightly disbelieving at the revelation. Were they? The Specters and the Shadow Corps were at least two centuries apart, and I highly doubted that they could have survived the apocalypse. Sure, they LOOKED the same, but they couldn't BE the same.

But then it made sense; if the Specters weren't really the Shadow Corps, then they were at least their descendants. Unless the logo and the similar appearance were deceiving me, I would just have to accept that they were at least related somehow. Besides, it was quite improbable that two groups who had so much in common (including the same logo) were unrelated.

The operative just looked down at my host for a moment, breathing in regulated air while everyone else in the building had either gone back to their own business or was still paying attention to what was going on here. My host stared up at the helmet's opaque visor blankly and without blinking, uncaring about the operative standing before him.

That went on for a few more moments, when the operative suddenly started laughing. Similar to Balaclava's helmet voice, this guy's voice was also deep and booming. His voice also had a sort of effect to it, like two similar voices were trying to say the same thing at the same time.

"Hahaha," The voice chuckled. "Still trying to beat me at staring contests, Tekasho?"

My host's eyes suddenly popped wide open and put on a confused look on his face. He worked his mouth in a manner that suggested he was asking questions silently. "Brother?" He asked with a small tone of hope in his hoarse and rough voice. The others suddenly looked to the operative with a look of curiosity.

The operative reached his forehooves to his helmet and took it off. The eyes of everyone in the area who had been paying attention to this spectacle suddenly burst wide open. Mine would have too, if they could. As it was, my host's eyes being open so wide I felt as if they would have rolled out of their sockets was about as close as I could get to feeling my own shock.

Whoever this... 'zebra' was was completely, utterly... wrong. Where his head was supposed to be there was instead an armored skull-looking structure with just enough space at the front to show the majority of the zebra's face, and even that looked wrong. Instead of natural eyes, this zebra instead had an artificial iris. I could tell it was artificial because I was sure no natural iris could rotate and enlarge like a camera lens could, nor was any natural iris of silver coloration. His face itself consisted of a transparent breathing apparatus, showing his mouth and facial expression beneath, attached to two glowing talismans on the back of his head. His face had stripes, but they were grey instead of black. What I could see of his neck had slender, silvery armor plate segments that probably extended onto his back. And to top it all off, the zebra's coat, while still thankfully biological, looked... cybernetically enhanced. I could see the fur and all, but if I focused enough, I could see what appeared to me as wires snaking underneath the zebra's epidermis.

The zebra smiled, and disturbingly the sounds of hydraulics came from somewhere in his head. "No, no! I'm obviously a legate that dressed up in an operative uniform!" He said in a tone of playful sarcasm. "Of course it's me! Who did you think it was?" He laughed a little and with a smile asked, "How are you, brother?" Even out of his helmet, his voice still clearly had that dual-effect to it, even through his second set of breathing hardware. But now without the deepening effect of the helmet, his voice sounded rather familiar...

My host looked for a moment with his mouth hung low, then slowly got up off the seat. The operative took that as a cue to move in, and my host just barely managed to wrap his hoof around his... brother's... neck during the embrace. The operative's grip was extremely firm, and I suspected that he could have killed my host with a sudden squeeze if he wanted to.

When they finally pulled away, my host asked just what I had been wondering. "What are you doing here? And... what happened to you?" Judging from the looks of complete shock and confusion on the faces of everyone else in the room, they wanted to know, as well.

The cyber-zebra shrugged, "Well, for the first question, I am securing this area for Lord Decarius' arrival. And of course I didn't want my little brother's first official day in the 23rd to be without a family visit." He smiled and lifted a hoof, then inspected it in the same manner a posh zebra or pony would. "As for your second question... oh, you know, upgrades." He took in my host's worried look. "Oh, come on. Last time we met I already had my torso and one of my legs replaced."

"Yes, but at least it wasn't your whole body!" Tekasho said, baffled. "And you had a good reason to replace those; that explosive nearly killed you! Brother, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you're deliberately trying to turn yourself into a machine!" Veltrio put on a confused and slightly annoyed expression.

"No way..." Kaizius murmured. "Veteran operative Veltrio is your brother?" Veltrio? Ah yes, the cyber zebra! I had been wondering just who this guy was! In all honesty, I had to agree with Tekasho; Veltrio had done a LOT to himself since I last saw him in Autherius' memory. For one thing, back then he was at least still mostly zebra. Now... now I could only imagine what was underneath his uniform.

Veltrio snickered. "That's because I AM trying to turn myself into a machine." He said with a relaxed smile and an equally relaxed tone.

'What? Seriously, he WANTS to become a full robot? What the fuck!' I thought, completely revolted by the idea.

'Well, it isn't all that bad.' Said Tod. 'At least he doesn't need to eat.'

'That's just fucking wrong.' Thanks, Tom. At least you agree with me.

Kaizius' jaw dropped even lower. The others in the eight-zebra squad had decided to leave the two brothers to their business. The centurion attended to his subordinates, occasionally glancing nervously in our direction. Everyone else in the building began talking about the operative, doing their best to keep their voices to a minimum.

My host, though, just barely concealed his disgust.

"Brother... WHY?! Why would you do this to yourself? What madness is this?" My host shook his head slowly with a look of sharp disapproval. "Did you even think this through? Did you EVEN THINK about what this will do to our family?" At that, Veltrio's smile faded and was replaced by a sharp frown.

"Brother, understand that..." He started, when he was cut off by his brother.

"Yes, 'Veltrio the robotic zebra'! Oh, I can just IMAGINE the respect and prestige that will get us." My host had now fully shifted from sad to angry in less than a minute, and the operative was not happy about it in the slightest. Despite the clear disapproval he showed to his brother's manner of speaking, he spoke.

"Tekasho, let me explain..." He tried again, and was once more cut off by his brother's rambling.

"And don't even get me started on how I feel about this!" My host was fuming, angered and disgusted with his brother's actions. I wasn't angry, though. I was just completely freaked out. "Have you lost all self respect, brother?"

Veltrio's eyes narrowed to a threatening gaze and he pressed forward, bringing up a hoof to silence my host before he said anything else. "Silence, brother!" After his placid demeanor, I was quite surprised by the amount of threat he put into his expression. At this point, I really thought the operative would have punched my host. In the background, I saw the centurion stand up abruptly and reach a hoof to his gun.

"You know what else could bring dishonor to our family?" Veltrio asked with a glare so hard and focused my host had to blink hard simply to keep eye contact. Well, it was either the glare or the shrinking silver circles in the cyber zebra's eyes. "Young brothers who don't know how to respect their elder's decisions, that's what."

"And I did think about it, actually." He said with a sigh. "And I came to the conclusion that my nation, our nation, needed more from me. More than my body could give. And so I let them improve me; condition me and recreate me to fit our people's needs." He removed the hoof from my host's mouth, and Tekasho's squad relaxed. The centurion glowered, but placed away his weapon.

"Our people's needs?" Tekasho asked as he took in a few breaths.

Veltrio hung his head. "Yes, brother. Our people need to survive, and my regular body can't do the things needed to keep them alive. But with this new one, coupled with Decarius' glorious plan..." He smirked, "I can do more than just ensure our survival. I can make sure we thrive."

"Decarius' plan?" Asked my host, now sounding much more calm and less angry. Those within hearing range turned to us with a look of hope. Apparently, it was at this point during the war that the zebra's were beginning to get desperate to push the Equestrians out.

My host's brother looked back to him with a gentle smile. "I'm afraid I can't tell you. It's some top secret stuff, trust me. But I will, when the time is right. Don't worry." My host put on an expression of thought, then relaxed after a while.

The next few seconds passed by quickly. The others had turned their attention towards their own business, either having decided to leave us alone or they had simply lost interest. The centurion still watched with a hard gaze, though.

My host hung his head. Finally, my host said, "I'm sorry."

Veltrio looked confused. "For... what?"

Tekasho lifted his head and put on a confused expression as well. "For... you know, disrespecting you and whatnot? For talking to you like I did?"

Veltrio looked at my host, and his confusion quickly faded. "Ahh-hahaha. Listen, brother, you know very well I don't give a damn about apologies. If we had apologized to the people we stole from when we were young, we'd still have been sent to jail anyway." He gave me a reassuring smile, "Besides, it's not like we haven't always got something to apologize for. If we said sorry every time we did something that warrants an apology... well, then we'd be dead by the time we finished. So why apologize if you don't have the time?"

My host smiled as well. "So... we're good?"

"We've ALWAYS been good, bro. That has never changed, EVER. Not when I joined the Shadow Corps, not when you got married, not when Mom and Dad died, and not even when I got sent to Equestria a while back. Never." I could feel my host's small smile widening into a massive grin, reflecting what was also going on on Veltrio's face. Still, as heart warming as all this was, Veltrio's creepy-ass electronic head looked really scary with a smile.

Tekasho lifted one of his hooves in front of him. "Brohoof?"

Veltrio lifted his hoof and tapped it to his brother's, "Brohoof."

There was a loud sniff, and both my host and the cyber zebra turned to see Halek crying while leaning on the centurion, who looked extremely embarrassed. Around the two, the other squad members and several others in the building eyed them with a weird expression. Under the guise of wiping his face, the centurion brought a hoof up to his head to shield himself from their stares.

The two of us laughed, then turned back to each other with genuine smiles of joy on both of our faces.

"Thanks for visiting me, bro. I... really appreciate it." My host said, then turned to look at the laptop with a small frown.

"Hey, I figured the legion's ridiculous demand that you not see your family during training would have gotten to you. So the moment I heard where you were being stationed, I got here as quick as I could." Veltrio said, then put his helmet back on. Immediately, around half of those looking in our direction turned their attention elsewhere. I was personally glad he had put on his helmet; it's not that he looked monstrous or anything, he just quite simply looked weird, and that's different from monstrous.

"Thanks. I... miss them so much. It was hard getting through all the training with nothing to keep me going but letters. Truth be told, I almost quit." Tekasho sighed. "And now that I can at least talk to them, the damned Databank goes down." He looked to the opaque visor of Veltrio's helmet. "I'm worried about them. In the two years I was gone, they nearly got robbed twice. Good thing I payed that guard to do regular rounds near my place." A small smile formed on my host's face, then quickly disappeared. "I have to find a way to protect them without abandoning my duties to my nation."

"Well, I could help." Offered Veltrio in that deep, resonant voice his helmet gave him.

Tekasho leaned close enough that the regulated air coming from Veltrio's helmet touched my face. "How?"

"Heh, are you forgetting what I am, brother? I am an operative and a senior member of the Shadow Corps, and possibly the only one to accept their offer of turning me into a cyber zebra. All that coupled with my achievements out in the field warrants some respect... and power." He snickered then said, "If you really want, I could have some of the junior members under my supervision watch out for your family."

"You can do that? Really?" I could sense the hope and eagerness to accept in my host's voice.

"Of course! I could just tell them it's part of their promotional work. And I will reward them for their work, just so you know. My ability to watch over your family is not to be doubted. However..." He cleared his throat. "There is, of course, the likelihood that operatives watching over one particular family will attract the attention of our enemies." I felt my host's heart sink.

"Do you... do you trust your fellows, brother? Would you think them capable of protecting them and watching over them for me?"

"Well, they are recruits, and as such they have much to learn. But... yes, I think them capable. And their performance on their last mission was... impressive."

"Then I will trust them as well." My host said with finality. "Just... please tell them to not interfere with my children's lives unless it is necessary."

"Of course."

My host sighed loudly. "Thank you so much, brother. You have no idea what this means to me. Now I can sleep at night without getting nightmares of what might happen to them."

I heard Veltrio take in a breath to respond, when the door to the outside was opened. Sand and dust blew in with the wind, and amidst the light flowing into the barrack I saw another operative enter. He didn't carry nearly as much equipment as Veltrio was, nor was his vest of similar looking quality. He looked around for a bit, and was met with quick glances and curious stares from the majority of us, including from my host and his brother. When his eyes landed on Veltrio, he began approaching.

"Veltrio, sir." He said with formal politeness as he touched a hoof to his chest; a gesture of respect. His voice was natural. I remembered that people who wore those helmets could choose whether or not they wanted their voices changed.

"Yes, Kalvis? What is it?"

The zebra lowered his hoof from his chest. "I am here to inform everyone in this building, on behalf of Executor Cavius, that the tour has been rescheduled to now." At his words, everyone within hearing range approached. And judging from the size of the crowd, everyone within the building was in hearing range.

My host turned from the other operative to his brother, who asked, "And who is to be giving the tour?"

"The Executor's second, Praetorian Savith. He is expecting all new legionnaires to be outside of their barracks and assembled before the administration building in ten minutes."

Everyone in the building spent the next minute preparing a few things they would bring; mostly water and hats for the heat, but some brought along small notebooks. My host wasn't planning on bringing anything with him, so he just sat down on the bunk with his brother. The bed's mattress sunk quite low where Veltrio sat; perhaps all of the electronics he had made him really heavy.

When all preparations were done and all squads were lined up behind their centurion, my host's included, Tekasho turned around to see his brother on the laptop.

"What are you doing?" Tekasho whispered.

"Playing chess against the best AI this game has." Was Veltrio's simple response, then he clicked on a pawn and the figure moved forward one block. He turned to see my host's baffled and slightly annoyed expression. "Hey, even robotic brains need exercise. Otherwise, they'll slow down."

My host opened his mouth to respond, when all the centurions in the building shouted in unison, "Contubernium, forward!" Ah, yes, so that's what the Roaman eight-zebra squads were called. I had forgotten what they were called.

In uniform motion, all the legionnaires began marching out of the building, following their centurion through the nearest exit. Just before my host went through the door, he glanced behind him at his brother, who was still playing chess on the laptop.

Then he turned his attention forward, and the memory ended in synchronization with the light nearly blinding me again.

ooooOOOOoooo

I woke up from the orb, feeling the vibration of Zaita's engine through my metal armor. I also realized that when I had slumped against the seat, I had landed my side against one of the sharp dents punched into my armor. With a pained grunt, I rolled onto my back and sighed, feeling a little intrigued by what I had seen in the orb.

And then I heard someone crying.

"... and then they said th-that... that they would make me cry out until they were finished with me..." Myst sobbed, grabbing my attention just as I left the orb behind. I didn't even have time to process what I had seen. But she was crying, and I had to help her.

I got up off the seat and saw Myst huddled up opposite of me, Skyfire's wing wrapped around her as the orange pegasus nodded sympathetically. My movement got Skyfire's attention, but not Myst's.

"What's going on?" I asked, already feeling like I knew the answer. But it didn't really hurt to hope that perhaps Myst was talking about something else.

Skyfire looked at me sadly, then opened her mouth to speak. However, my question had gotten Myst's attention, and she spoke first.

She raised her head and looked at me with wide, puffy red eyes. She shivered, "Oh... Goldwreath... I'm so sorry." she shook her head and choked. "If... if I had just listened to you... did what you told me to do... then maybe I wouldn't be so... so weak right now." She hung her head again and sniffed.

"That's not true." I said, then took a deep breath. "You aren't weak, Myst. What nearly happened to you... no one should have to go through that.

"And you're talking as if what happened was your fault, your mistake. That's not how it is, Myst. I was screwed in one way or another, and I knew it." I sighed and continued, "In all honesty, it was my plan that got us into that whole situation. I should be thanking you, actually. If it weren't for you and your plan, all of us would have gotten killed."

She sniffed again and looked me right in the eyes. Then I said, "If anything, I should be sorry to you. And if anything, all this was my fault, not yours." Skyfire looked at me with an expression I couldn't quite make out, while Myst hung her head again as she sat.

"It wasn't your fault." She said after a moment. "If you think back, it was MY idea to go to the place. It was my fault we got into all that." She looked back up at me with hurt eyes. "All you did the whole time was protect me from all the dangers we faced, so don't blame yourself."

"No." I responded sternly, getting me surprised looks from them both. I was not going to let Myst blame herself for this. She had already volunteered to join me on my suicide mission, and in the process willingly left behind her home and only real friend. She had saved my life and Skyfire's life on that bridge; no easy task with having an overpowered tank rolling after you, even if she was in an APC. No matter what she said, all of the bad things that happened to us were my fault. It had to be. I was the one with the damned ambition, and if it weren't for them both I was sure I would have died already. I owed them both.

Maybe it was illogical to pin the blame on myself. I couldn't deny it really was her idea to bring us there. I could feel Tod's questionable agreement with the fact that it was her fault in my mind, tempting me to let her take the blame. But really, fuck logic. I owed her something. Actually, I owed both of them. And I would start paying them back.

"Myst, you listen to me." I said, grabbing her attention. She looked back at me uncomfortably, and next to her Skyfire looked on with an expression telling me she felt useless. "This was my fault, understand? All of it. If you want to think that way, then you can also say it was my fault because it was my plan to come out here in the first place."

"Actually, it was my idea." Said Zaita, her interior camera turned to face us. For just a moment, all three of us looked at the camera strangely. After a while, the camera looked back outside.

"Uh, okay..." I started, feeling a little confused and awkward. It was a little sad that my train of thought was broken by the extremely simple words of a computer. After a while, I got my thoughts back together. "Well, fine. Let me try again. If you want to think that way, you could also say it was my fault because I was the one who came out here and decided to go to the city. You understand?" I looked to Zaita's camera, but it was still turned outside. Good, I didn't want my thoughts interrupted again.

Myst looked at the floor solemnly, then back up at me. "I... can't... I mean..." She stammered, but got herself together. "Look, I can't let you blame yourself for what happened. It wasn't your f-"

"Myst. It was my fault, alright? Do you understand?" I asked with a tone that I hoped suggested I wouldn't have the blame be on anyone else.

"But... but you saved me! It couldn't have been your fault. And my stupid plan got that pony killed..." She protested, but I wasn't going to have any of it.

"Do you understand?" I asked with emphasis on each word and with the most firm yet not offensive tone I could muster.

She looked back at me with a confused and concerned expression, then looked to the pegasus cradling her with a more desperate look. Skyfire just looked back at her with a sympathetic yet slightly pitiful look. Myst hung her head again and sighed.

"I... understand." She said quietly, as if unsure of herself. I wasn't really convinced myself, but I had to take what I could get. Skyfire looked to me with a sad look; one that I returned with a firm gaze.

I leaned against the wall. "Good."

The next few minutes I spent thinking about the orb, while Skyfire and Myst either curled up and lay down or sat up. Zaita was still dutifully bringing us to our destination.

Eventually, though, Zaita said, "Well, now that things have settled down, I believe I should inform you of the final anticipated danger." Oh, right. The video had been part of her explanation for the cloud phenomenon (a phenomenon which, despite it's clear threat, I actually didn't think much about). She didn't exactly get to finish her list of things to watch out for. Still, I found it kind of annoying that there was another thing to look out for.

"And that would be?" Skyfire asked. I waited intently for Zaita's answer, as did Myst.

Zaita's white-line face disappeared... replaced instead by another white line on a black background. The background had little tic marks near the bottom going left to right, and more marks on the side going down to up.

"These..." She said, and at once the line on the screen stabbed up sharply. A piercing, painful note sounded over the cabin, and we all brought our hooves up to our ears in an effort to reduce the pain. It didn't help. In my head, I felt like... like a part of my mind was growing, gaining it's own conscience. It was scary.

Then the noise stopped. The line on the screen was flat again.

But then the line plunged down steeply, and an extremely monotonous, dull 'hum' filled the cabin. Contrary to the piercing note, this one didn't hurt. In fact, the pain caused by the previous one slowly receded the more we listened to the sound. Skyfire and Myst felt it too, as both made no effort to cover their ears.

"... are also to be expected. Based off of analysis I was able to perform of the two signals, I have managed to discern one thing: they are both found in almost every single electronic device that is capable of broadcasting audio-wise. Their source is unknown, as any device that comes in contact with any of the two signals become permanent broadcasters." I took that in grimly. So, that's why I've been hearing those signals from almost every single computer and electronic device I had come across. But what was the source? And so Zaita was now a permanent broadcaster, too? Great. Well, at least she said she was able to minimize them. The only question I had now was why they seemed to hurt my head.

Skyfire was a lot more vocal in her thoughts. "What?!" She asked loudly. "Are you telling me that for the five hours I spent listening to old-ass music from that crappy radio back in that town, I've been exposing myself to that shit? No wonder I had a headache the whole fucking time!"

"I am afraid so, yes."

"Oh... um, Zaita?" Myst asked quietly, but managed to get our transport's attention in the form of the camera turning to face her. "What exactly do the signals... do?" She shivered, then looked at me and Skyfire. "Remember near the bridge? When the signals came up... I... I nearly shot Skyfire, but I don't know why. It just felt like I had no control over myself." She sounded ashamed of herself.

I had to admit, I had found that particular incident disturbing. Why did they look like they wanted to kill each other? Were they angry? Not likely, they hadn't done anything to each other that would have warranted lethal revenge.

"I do not quite know." Zaita admitted. "That is why I will perform diagnostics again, when you three are not within the signal's range. Perhaps later, when I am being upgraded at the station."

"Speaking of that, when do we get there, anyway?" I asked. The orb must have been at least another hour, and it had been almost fifteen minutes since I had woken up.

The camera turned from Myst to me, "We are almost there, about half an hour. In fact, I suggest you begin preparations. And you may need to take the supply box out of me later; this cabin is likely to be replaced."

I looked to my two companions, "Well, then, let's get to it. We don't want to be unprepared."

*** Magnus et Potens Roamanus ***

"... so you all have the Stable Dweller to thank for the new music! I'll make sure my assistant, Homage, gets my thanks across to that heroic little mare." The DJ said, now in the 'addressing the zebras of the south' part of his broadcast again. We had found the DJ's signal after we had equally distributed the remaining contents of the supply box to each other. Myst took any remaining explosives and healing supplies, Skyfire took all the ammo, and I took anything else that remained inside; mostly some scrap metal and electronics (though why Road Town had given us that stuff, I didn't know. Perhaps they thought Zaita would have gotten damaged and would need repairs?), along with a few interesting books. Sadly, I would have to read 'Fallen Caesar Style Illustrated' later, when we had more time. I remembered that Fallen Caesar Style was the martial art Balaclava and the other two operatives used.

"Personally, I like that mare's songs more than the music they got from those recordings." Skyfire commented. "Now, what was the singer's name again? Something that started with 'Velvet'?" She brought a hoof up to tap her chin in thought.

"It was Velvet Remedy, Skyfire." Myst said, and got a thankful nod from the pegasus in return.

"Alright, quiet, you two." I wanted to listen to what news the DJ had, whether it was from Equestria or from the zebra lands. "Let's hear what the DJ has to say." I turned up the volume on my pipbuck.

"Alright, enough of the music for now. It's time for the news.

"Well, I don't really know what to tell you. I'm pretty sure you're all scared to death of that black cloud thing going on to the south. The Legion seems to know about it, but haven't done anything that I know of to deal with it. What a bunch of cowards."

"Hmph." I huffed quietly to myself. I knew better. I knew, or at least saw, what was in that place. I honestly didn't blame the Legion for being more cautious in combatting the threat. DJPON3 just didn't understand; the Legion weren't cowards, they were some of the braver people I had met. Sure, I still hated them for causing the city so much trouble, but I could respect their bravery in facing... whatever kinds of mutants those things were.

"Anyway," The DJ started. "The one thing I can tell you is the obvious: don't go anywhere near the damned place. Reports from the few witnesses brave enough to go near the clouds have revealed... scary things. And I thought a fucking giant squid was enough, but it turns out there are even more... colossal things in there. Just do yourself a favor and stay as far away from there as equinely possible, alright? Maybe go underground to the tunnels; I heard some friendly-to-the-people groups control most of Roam's underground."

"They do?" Myst suddenly asked, sounding a little surprised. "Whenever I went down there, all I saw were giant radigators, radroaches, huge rats and lots of murky water."

"Well, he did say MOST of the underground." Skyfire commented.

"And when did you ever go underground?" I asked, a little intrigued by her statement.

Myst let out an 'eep' and folded ears folded backwards beneath her hoodie as she looked away nervously. "Well... it's a long story. I don't really..."

"Aw, come on!" Skyfire pouted, getting a strange look from both Myst and me. Zaita's camera turned around and watched us. "You know both of our pasts, how we got out here, and we've both saved your life at least once! I think we've earned a little info about you."

I had to admit, I was also curious about Myst. Sure, I knew she was shy yet could talk openly with one person at a time, had a preference for biscuits (biscuits which, I should say, were absolutely delicious), was at least partially suicidal (she was coming with me, after all), and knew the wasteland better than the both of us. But then none of those really told me just WHO she was, you know what I mean?

"I would like to know a little more about you, as well." Zaita added.

Well, I didn't know much about our transport, too. But that would be the subject for discussion later on. Right now we were talking about Myst.

"There, three against one. Come on, Myst. You've got to tell us something. it doesn't have to be deeply personal, just... something substantial." I said in the most encouraging tone I could bring up. From my pipbuck, the DJ was announcing my exploits since his last report; nothing really important for us, as we actually experienced it. And I doubted he knew it was me and Myst in that building, let alone already formed an opinion about it. So I just turned the radio off; all the important news was over, anyway.

She sighed, then looked us over. "Well... you see... I used to be a part of group of nomads that wandered into the boundaries of Roam. Where we originally came from I don't know, and neither did my parents." She looked us over again, this time with a wide-eyed and anxious look. Personally, I was quite surprised at this new revelation. Who would have known the ever shy and quiet Myst was once a member of a traveling nomadic tribe?

Skyfire's only reaction was widening her eyes. Myst looked at her with her own bulging eyeballs, but the two said nothing. Eventually, though, Myst continued.

"So, um, when we got here, we settled on a forested patch of land near the outskirts of the city. It was so boring there; nothing more exciting than the occasional radigator wandering into our camp happened." She sighed and looked at us with a strangely satisfied smile. "So I left. My parents weren't really happy about it, but they let me. They said that I would probably have left anyway, even if they tried to stop me. For the next few days, I wandered closer to the city in search of something exciting to happen."

Skyfire gasped excitedly. "So, you're saying you left because you... wanted to? Because you found your life boring and wanted to do some adventuring?" She asked with a wide grin.

Myst looked to her with a confident smile. "Yup." Then her smile faded and she assumed her much more shy demeanor. "I know I... might not seem like the adventurous type..."

'No shit. Mare looks like she should be a secluded hermit.' Shut up, Tod. I'm trying to listen over here.

"...but, really, I just can't stand being in one place for too long if nothing ever happens." At that, Skyfire yanked Myst closer and held her by the cheeks as she looked her in the eye with a wide smile.

"Oh, you and I will be the best of friends, I just know it!" Skyfire then proceeded to chokehold Myst's head and pull down her hood. "I take back everything I said about you being boring." She said as she ruffled the earth pony's mane with her hoof vigorously, and to my delight Myst didn't try to run away or break free. She actually seemed to enjoy it a little. That made me smile.

"So, how'd you end up in Road Town? Or for that matter, why'd you stay there?" I asked just as Skyfire released Myst from her stranglehold.

"Oh, right. Well, when I got to the city, I kind of... well, fell underground. It's kind of hard to explain. I was just trotting into the city, when there was an explosion somewhere down the road. I galloped to it, but it must have caused the weak pavement to give. The road collapsed underneath me, and I found myself in the tunnels." She shuddered, as if the memories of the underground weren't pleasant ones to recall. "I spent a week down there, looking for a way out. I nearly got killed by the air down there as many times as the radigators."

I laughed, but she didn't seem to be joking. "No, seriously. Some of the air down there's poisonous. Luckily, whatever the poison is doesn't kill too quickly. Now, where was I... oh, yes. Anyway, I finally found a tunnel in one of the old metros that wasn't collapsed. A few hours of wandering around later, and I found Road Town."

"But... why'd you stay? Place looked a little boring to me." Skyfire said with a questioning look.

Myst turned to her. "Well it actually wasn't for the first few years. And then the Legion showed up, and they were a lot stronger back then, strong enough to have a greater presence in the other zebra cities, and it wasn't really surprising to be attacked at least twice a month. Road Town was a little bigger back them too, in fact I think they were the head of an anti-Legion effort in it's area." She sighed sadly. "Of course, when the fighting subsided, Road Town was no bigger than it is today. It's allies in the form of other towns were all but decimated. Legion also refocused their efforts to licking their wounds; efforts which probably aren't going too well, if the fighting being harder now than ever is any indication."

"I have a very hard time imagining the Legion being STRONGER back then than it is now." Come on, they already had tanks, VTOLs, fighter jets ( or could VTOLs be fighter jets?), power armor, and an artillery battery. I can only imagine how they were back then.

"Believe it." Myst said with a small nod. "You wouldn't believe how much explosives we had to use back them just to blow up a single tank. Luckily, the Specters started showing up around here at that time with a whole lot of the stuff. For a while, they even went around selling some of it. Heh, I spent every cap I had on buying whenever they came." She smiled as she pulled out a detonator from one of her jacket's pockets.

"Don't you miss the place?" Skyfire asked.

"A little. I had good memories there, some of the best in my life. But... I never really made a lot of friends there. The few I did either died or went somewhere else. All of them except for Kira."

"Well, if you don't mind me asking... did you leave with me because life there got boring?" At my question, Myst cringed a little and let out another 'eep'. She cringed even more as Skyfire turned to look at her, both eyebrows raised. She was practically prone when Zaita's camera zoomed in closely.

"Well... um..." She gulped, then looked at me with guilt. "Well... y-yes..." She got up off the floor and looked me right in the eye. "Please don't be mad."

I didn't feel offended. Actually, quite the opposite; I respected her a little more for it. Rather than coming with me out of some suicidal impulse, she was coming with me because she just wanted to. While she had told me that before, I never really believed her up until now. Skyfire must have felt the same, judging from the amused smile she had on her face.

But I wasn't going to let an opportunity to tease our shy companion slip. "Aw, that's it? And here I thought you meant all that stuff you said about me being a good pony..." I said with a pout. Skyfire knew what I was doing, and she immediately brought a hoof up to cover her snicker.

Myst's pupils shrank to the size of grains of sand. "I did! It's just... uh... I... well... um..." She whimpered and covered her face with her forehooves. Skyfire had to bring up her other hoof to keep herself from bursting out in laughter. With Myst not looking, I laughed quietly to myself.

Then Zaita's camera looked the three of us over. In one of the times she displayed social unawareness, she blatantly pointed out our little scheme. "I believe he is teasing you, Myst."

Myst thrust her head back up, mouth agape and eyes wide and bulging, with the cutest shade of rosy red on her cheeks. Skyfire couldn't hold it in anymore; she laughed aloud and fell off the seats, slamming her hoof repeatedly against the floor of the APC and getting Zaita's camera's attention in the process. Then I too lost it, and laughed freely as I sat there in the APC. Zaita's camera then faced me, and somehow that made me laugh even harder.

"I do not understand the humor behind this."

Through our laughing, I heard Myst mutter, still with her blush of embarrassment, "I hate you two so much right now."

*** Magnus et Potens Roamanus ***

We were at the foot of a small hill. Myst and I were sitting down in the APC, looking at a blueprint-like image of the ZSI HQ on Zaita's screen. Skyfire had flown out and was scouting the cliff upon which the outer structure was built on, leaving us to plan how we were going to do this. I would have done that myself, if my wings weren't broken. How Zaita got the image, I don't know. Perhaps she had... hacked into a computer somewhere within and downloaded it? Yeah, let's go with that.

The HQ itself was built on the side of a steep cliff, the outer structure jutting out of the cliffside with a path leading to it while the inner super-structure was built within the cliff and reaching below ground level. The inner super-structure consisted of three major wings; each displayed as a large rectangular prism chamber with many smaller cube chambers within them. Each was dedicated to either scientific, military, or medical technological research. They were built atop each other, with what looked like an elevator shaft connecting each of them. According to the image, there were smaller structures exposed near the entrance which Zaita had identified as the update stations.

"...and then we could go down here, to the medical wing. Hopefully they stocked up on medical supplies, because were dreadfully short on healing potions." I pointed to the second chamber, marked the 'medical wing'. Our plan was to scour the place while waiting for Zaita to finish. First we would go to the offices, which were built atop all the wings, for any information on the past or the HQ itself (plus, the offices had the security station). Then we would check out the military wing. Lastly, we would go to the medical and scientific wings, respectively. The deepest part of the structure was a fairly large chamber several dozen feet below ground level, with the only way to it being a long, narrow, diagonal staircase. That place got my curiosity up.

Then I frowned. The last time I went down a diagonal hallway like that, I'd nearly gotten myself killed by... heh, 'zombies'. Ah, that term made me chuckle. Still, nothing good came out of my curiosity ever since I had entered the wasteland.

'Well, there was finding Road Town through Myst.' Oh yeah. Thanks, Tom.

"Well, maybe we should wait for Skyfire before we decide that." Myst suggested, to which I nodded in agreement.

A few minutes later and there was the sound of hooves landing on our transport's roof. A moment later, Skyfire jumped in, looking rather startled and shaken. She was pressing her hoof against her stomach and looked at us painfully.

"Okay," She gasped, sweat beading off of her face as she shakily brought her head up. Her armored vest had a few new bullet holes, most of which had blood pouring out of them. And of all the times for her to get injured, it had to be when we were practically out of healing supplies. Just my luck.

"What happened? The facility's defenses?" I asked, fishing out our remaining meager healing supplies; several vials with enough left in them to form one full potion.

Skyfire nodded as I handed her our last potion. "Yeah. Turrets along the path leading up and along the cliffside. Mostly machine guns... and... and a few missile pods..." She grunted and nearly collapsed.

As she staggered, Myst caught her and helped her onto the seats. "Oh my... here drink it..." Myst helped Skyfire lift the potion to her muzzle, then Skyfire drank the whole potion down in less than five seconds. That was our last healing supply right there. I suddenly felt all of my still-healing burned flesh and sore muscles and not-properly-healed bones. Oh, how I really hoped that the place had healing supplies.

Skyfire breathed heavily for a while, but with her wounds more or less healed managed to continue. "The doors to the facility are closed shut. There's this weird black-screen interface near it. Maybe... maybe you could use it again, like what you did in that building?"

"Maybe... but I wouldn't count on it. I think the only reason that worked was because the systems got fried or were faulty." I actually didn't know why that door had opened for me.

Skyfire took that in grimly but held onto her idea. "Well, it's all we've got. Luckily, the missile pods seem to be anti-air only, so we shouldn't have trouble from them. Zaita can drop is in front of the door, then we get in as quick as possible. After that, she can go to the update station." She took in more deep breaths and rested her head against the wall, still seeming a little shaken.

'This is fucking suicide. Still, it's not like my plans have ever ended well. And even Myst's incredibly dangerous plan had succeeded...' Ah well. I'd just have to hope we got lucky. Which, knowing my luck, wasn't very likely.

"My outer plating is strong enough to withstand the machine guns, yes. If you three manage to get inside, please look for the user-vehicle interface panel within the offices. I will be within the only functional update station: number four. So please hurry to the appropriate panel so that you may choose how to improve me." A section of the main chamber lit up in blue, showing us where this update control panel was.

"What do you mean by that?" Myst asked.

The camera turned to face her. "There are many aspects of my platform, most of which can be upgraded down a certain branch of preference. Several of the S3 Harpies during the war were upgraded from the default software and hardware to become full-fledged stealth and infiltration machines, while others were made into head-on combat vehicles, for example."

"So we get to upgrade you to how we see fit?" Well, this was surprisingly pleasant news. If we could upgrade her to the extent I hoped we could... well, we would have a much easier time in the city if it was as dangerous as I was hearing. And seeing, of course.

The camera turned to me. "Yes, you can. Prestige gained by my former crew have gained me potential upgrades for weaponry, outer plating, AI logic, and software. Only one upgrade can be chosen per category, so I advise you to think carefully before confirming your choices." The camera turned away, and the image of a much bigger, more armored S3 Harpy with what looked like a missile pod next to the turret appeared on her screen.

Skyfire kept up her troubled look and gasped as she pressed her hooves against a part of her that was still bleeding heavily despite her healing potion. That worried me greatly.

"Skyfire? You okay?" I asked in concern. She looked back up at me with a desperate yet somehow confident expression.

"Oh... yeah, sure!" She said, trying to sound better than I was sure that wound was letting her feel. "Just... a scratch..." She tried to hide her expression of pain from us, but I managed to see it. Still, she resumed clutching her wound.

"Let me see it, Skyfire." I told her as I got off the seat and approached her.

"No!" She thrust a hoof in front of her to stop me. "It's nothing, really! Just an old wound that... that..." She gasped for air and winced in pain. Myst approached her with a concerned look, and this time Skyfire didn't try to stop her.

"Come on, Skyfire. Don't be arrogant. If you're injured, let us see it," I urged, and reluctantly she removed her hooves from her blood-stained vest with a resigned sigh. Myst helped her take it off, and I saw a massive scar bleeding in the middle from a gunshot wound. The scar itself was where the jagged piece of the car door had pierced into her several days ago.

Myst gasped, "Oh... Skyfire... I... maybe there's some healing bandages around here..." She started digging through her own possessions, as did I. While the wound wasn't bleeding fatally and would probably stop in just a few more minutes, I didn't want the already tetanus-infected wound to be agitated by further infection. That and because I needed her at her best in case we faced anything in that structure.

We turned up with nothing. Myst whimpered and buried her face in her hooves; perhaps she did not want her newly made friend to suffer. And neither did I.

Then a thought struck me. I started removing my armor, leaving Myst and Skyfire looking at me; the former in confusion and the latter with pain.

"What are you doing?" Zaita asked.

"Myst, see if there's anything, ANYTHING we've got that has any healing properties whatsoever. Zaita, bring us to the front of the compound." I ordered, and Zaita began moving, her engine humming to life from her dormancy. I finished unstrapping the armor and vest and let the two fall off of me; it was the shirt I was after.

Myst looked confused but complied, and brought out a half-empty bottle of what appeared to be whiskey. I took the shirt off and ripped away a piece big enough to go around Skyfire's body, then took the bottle from Myst and soaked the piece with the alcohol.

"This is going to sting a little, but only a little." I said softly as moved the soaked portion over her wound. She looked at me tiredly but nodded, them clenched her eyes shut and bit her lip as I began. Apparently, it didn't hurt 'just a little'; it must have hurt a lot, if her hissing and hoof pounding were any indication. I felt a little like Myst when we were under the bridge, when she had told me the same thing but it turned out the opposite. Myst looked on with concern as I finally finished wrapping the strong-scented cloth around my pegasus friend.

"Thanks," Skyfire murmured as I put my apparel back on. She snickered, "I was being kinda stupid, wasn't I?"

"Yes, you were." I replied calmly, getting a look from the both of them. But I didn't care; what mattered was that I got my point across to my stubborn companions.

"Let's make this clear," I told them as I started tying the straps of my lorica chest plate; I remembered only now that that was what this thing I was wearing was called. "If any of you two are injured, worried, troubled, or otherwise in any kind of distress, you tell me. Don't hesitate, don't hold back. Tell me how you are as you are. As this little group's... 'leader' ( how had I become the leader, anyway? I was sort of the least qualified; Skyfire had been the sergeant of her squad, and Myst had obviously been a fairly high-ranking guard back in Road Town), it is my responsibility to make sure everyone under me is right and proper. And that includes you, Zaita." That got the camera's attention.

Myst and Skyfire looked at me uncomfortably for a while, then Myst said, "But Goldwreath, we don't want to burden you with every single problem or injury... I mean, we can't just let you do everything..."

"Myst, you're troubled. I know it. No one can leave their home, get nearly killed, nearly raped, and generally get screwed over time and time again and be alright. We'll talk about it later, don't worry. Understand?"

She took in a shaky breath, then looked away, eyes cast on the ground. "It's... nothing... really... I'm fine..." Stubbornness right there.

"Do you understand?" I asked with an edge in my voice, and Myst fell silent. Skyfire kept her mouth shut and continued pressing her hooves against her wound. They looked to each other for support, but said nothing. After a while, they both nodded obediently. I slumped against the wall, just like I had last time. "Good."

"This," Zaita said, "Is why I think Goldwreath is the most qualified of us to be the leader."

I took that in thoughtfully, not letting my disagreement to that statement show on my face.

'Yeah,' I thought, 'Of course I am.'

*** Magnus et Potens Roamanus ***

The bullets pinged against our vehicle with enough frequency to match the pattering of rain drops on glass. Myst sat huddled in her corner, eyes wide as she twitched and eeped at every bullet that struck close to her. I didn't, as I was confident of our vehicle's armor's strength. Skyfire was on the turret, firing off a few shots which each reduced the pinging just slightly. I was preparing my shotgun for the task ahead; if we faced turrets inside, next to Skyfire's plasma rifles, Tankbuster was the most appropriate weapon for getting through their armor.

I got up off my seat and wobbled unsteadily to the slightly cracked window; the cliff's upward slant wasn't making any movement inside the vehicle easy. Through the countless bright yellow streaks that struck our vehicle and through the dim light of twilight, I made out the dark metallic form of the door, above which was a large arced roof supported by metal columns.

"Ten seconds. Lock n' load, people." I found myself blinking hard at my own words. Did I just quote Balaclava? Maybe... maybe a subconscious part of wanted to remember the operative for his efforts in saving my sorry flank back in that building?

Skyfire fired a long burst, and the pinging reduced dramatically. She got up from the controls and sat down on the seat next to Myst, who was looking up at the hatch anxiously. Skyfire looked a little nervous, too. I guess even her huge ego could fade from time to time. I got up and readied myself for the vehicle's inevitable stop. I was breathing hard; our lives were hanging on the off chance that I would be able to repeat my success in opening that door.

'I don't really think this is a good idea...' You're right Tom. It isn't. But we're already here, no backing away now. Might as well get it over with.

The vehicle stopped abruptly, almost sending me crashing to the front as the vehicle's nose tilted downward. "Go," Zaita said, and the hatch automatically swung open. I jumped out first and fell to the ground hard in a pile of old skeletons as two large rounds caught me in the chest. Luckily, only one got through.

Skyfire and Myst jumped out next, the pegasus firing luminescent bolts of green from her twin plasma rifles while the earth pony got behind one of the columns and took cover. The APC hovered further down the path and turned, getting shot a few times by the turrets, before disappearing from sight around the corner of the cliff.

I rolled to the cover of a nearby rock, feeling the shrapnel from the rounds scratch at my helmet as they broke against the ground. That one wound I had just gotten was already bleeding, but the adrenaline coursing through me kept the pain at bay. The rock fragmented and broke as the heavy rounds struck it repeatedly, chipping away large pieces of my cover. I couldn't get to the door to try the interface; if I so much as moved for one second away from my already dwindling cover, I was fucking dead.

'Well, this plan is going well.' Shut up, Tod. I so do not need your worthless words right now.

Skyfire and Myst weren't having it any better. Their cover in the form of the two columns were also being pounded with bullets from the nigh-invisible turrets along the cliff's edge. But at least their cover was thicker, and made of metal.

"Skyfire!" I called out over the relentless roaring of the machine gun fire going on all around us. "Cover me!" She heard it and nodded, then promptly got out of her cover and let loose a bright burst from Sally. Myst helped her out, using Skyfire's temporary diversion to pop out of her corner and line up a shot with her scope. Despite the darkness becoming nearly pitch black, she was able to land a hit that caused one turret to explode.

I sprinted over to them, getting struck in a leg and stumbling before getting hit again in the chest. Luckily, with that stumble came the fortunate occurrence of landing right on front of the interface. My leg hurting like hell coupled with my heart pounding painfully in my chest didn't make getting up easy, but I did it. I hurriedly removed my hoofplate and touched my bare hoof to the glassy black surface.

'We're so fucking dead.' I thought as I kept my hoof on it for a second, then withdrew it. I mean there was just no way that I could replicate my success. The wiring was faulty, damn it! And here I got all of us into a situation we couldn't get out of. Of all my plans, this was the most ridiculous, un-thought over, unlikely to succeed...

"Access granted." Oh, ok... wait, WHAT?!

The huge metal door began sliding down, creating sparks at the sides as the unused door scraped away rust and dirt from two centuries of disrepair. For a moment, I just watched in disbelief. Skyfire and Myst likewise looked surprised as they crouched against their cover.

A bullet striking me in my shoulder plates reminded me we were still under fire. I charged back to my cover, blasting Tankbuster into the muzzle-flashes in the darkness. Two explosions signaled the destruction of those turrets. Skyfire once more turned and let out a furious volley of plasma. Unlike her previous effort where she was unharmed, this time she got caught in the gut thrice, and the bullets exploded out of her back and nearly hit me. She screamed and fell down, curling up like a fetus as she once more held her stomach. My heart stopped for just a moment, letting me watch her with disturbing vividness as a cold chill went up my spine.

"Skyfire!" Myst yelled, and charged across the gap between the two columns to get at her. That got her hit in the shoulder, the bullet also blasting out of her with a bloody spray and resulting in her crashing behind the column and next to the bleeding Skyfire. And yet all I was doing was watching.

'Fuck no.' I thought. 'We are NOT dying here because of this stupid ass plan.'

I don't know what came over me at that point. I whipped out my shotgun and, against all logic and reason, and even against my two brain entities, charged straight forward into the open and opened fire. Blast after blast roared from Tankbuster's barrel as the shotgun's power obliterated the only lightly armored turrets. In return they sent a vicious and non-stop stream of burning hot lead straight at me, punching through my armor most of the time and either burying themselves in me or blasting out of my flesh, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that I got their attention away from my injured companions because, unlike them, I could take it. If there was one thing I had learned in the outside, it was that my body could take severe punishment. So if anyone had to be torn at by heavy machine gun fire, it had to be me. No one else had to suffer for my plans.

When Tankbuster was out, and I don't even know how I managed to survive up to this point, I brought out Balaclava's rifle and opened up with that. Two more turrets went down in an electrical pop as I fired. The remaining turret's bullets slammed into my already shredded vest and armor, causing me to stagger and nearly collapse from the burning pain, but I kept shooting. I had to. I had to until that damned door came down.

Then one bullet smacked against my helmet's cheek guards and ripped away the right side of my face. Blood exploded in my face, blurring my vision. That was it for me.

I collapsed then and there, unable to resume my suicidal assault. I managed to crawl into a depression just deep enough to shield the majority of my body from harm as they continued shooting. Even with their severe injuries, my companions were looking at me with a look of utter horror and shock. Either my face looked absolutely terrible right now, or it was something else. I doubted it was something else.

That was it. For the next few moments we sat where we were, bleeding and dying and waiting for death. It felt horrible knowing I had once more lead us into danger, only this time we had no chance of surviving. Already the metal columns were so bent and damaged that eventually they would have to move to other cover, and then they would get shot. The door was only halfway down, moving so tauntingly slow that I wanted to scream. Maybe I did. I couldn't tell.

Then I remembered the zebra leader's words, 'Semper resistere terram!' Always stand your ground.

'Fuck me.' I started reloading Tankbuster and did whatever I could to prepare myself for one more charge. I had to do it. If I died buying enough time for them to get in and maybe find healing supplies, then good. That was all that mattered.

I held the shotgun close and breathed in deeply and slowly. This was it, I thought. One more suicidal charge. I got up and took one last breath and was about to open fire, when I heard something...

'Hummmmm...' The humming noise, one of the signals. The better one of the two. Well, as much as I appreciated the relieving effects of the signal on my mind, it wasn't really going to help me against the turrets.

Wait, speaking of the turrets, where were they? I couldn't see them through the darkness, as I had been using their flashes to know where they were for that whole time. I wasn't being shot at despite my exposure, and neither were my companions. What, did they finally run out of ammo?

I carefully and slowly moved from the depression and trotted forward, landing my hooves on spent and smoking metal casings with each step, until I came upon one of the machines. It was still functional, as it actually turned to face me. It still had ammo, as the belt feeding the bullets to the chamber still had enough rounds left to continue shooting non-stop for at least a few more minutes. A quick look at the other turrets with my pipbuck's lamp confirmed they were all still functional and looking at me. All around me, in the very air, the humming noise was still quite present.

The metal door slid down with a loud clang, and Myst helped Skyfire inside as they both tried to apply pressure to their wounds. Skyfire gestured me to get inside with them before they disappeared into the darkness of the interior.

With one final look of confusion at the turrets, I began limping over the casing-sprinkled ground and over to the doorway.

Just a step before I entered, a painful, piercing note suddenly sounded over the entire cliffside. I clutched my head and winced from the pain, and even nearly collapsed. With the dim light entering the doorway, I managed to see Skyfire and Myst looking at me with worry. I took one more painful step and got inside, and the note stopped... replaced by the dull hum of the other note.

A bullet shot through the doorway and struck the ground near the two, and I turned back to see the turrets resuming their shooting. The door automatically began to close again as I took cover next to it and waited out the sudden barrage. Myst and Skyfire wobbled further inside and disappeared in the darkness, only a few bullets whizzing after them. For the next few moments, as the door slid up, I heard the piercing note attempt to break into the building and get past the other note. It was kind of strange, like two different tides colliding into each other, being incapable of simply melding into a single wave.

The door closed with another metallic clang, and the bullets outside ceased their pinging after a few more scattered shots.

Now I collapsed, exhausted and in more pain than I ever had been in my life. I really felt like I could die at any second, what with the amount of blood I was losing through my many, many new holes. My face's right side felt... ew, just... ew. I was not looking into a mirror any time soon. My armor and vest looked shredded beyond repair, save if we found an entirely new suit. Maybe if we found one of those metal-wearing Legionnaires...

Skyfire's grunt of pain echoed through the darkness, and somehow I forced myself up and trotted into the large, spacious chamber at a brisk pace. All around me, the hum was still there, strong and loud in my ears.

*** Magnus et Potens Roamanus ***

"No... no no no..." Myst murmured as she shook the unconscious pegasus. "She's not breathing!" Oh, that was a line I'd heard before, when I too was on the verge of death. Except this time, dying was a lot more likely for all of us.

Skyfire was leaned against a dusty old table, her blood pooled around her and cooling rapidly. My own blood was dripping off me in large doses, and in fact I could feel the moist coldness of my soaked clothing, but I worried more about her.

"She's not going to die while I'm still alive." I breathed hard and kneeled next to her, and tried to do... something. Honestly, I thought we were screwed. Not only were healing supplies not guaranteed, but I also wasn't sure if they could heal the level of injury I and my companions had suffered. Her tank crew vest did little to soften the impacts, but at least she only suffered three hits. I had suffered more... but I could take it. I hoped.

Myst must have seen my face with the dim light of my pipbuck's lamp. "Oh... Goldwreath, your face..." She reached a hoof to touch my face, but I stopped her.

"Don't worry about me, Myst. I've had my skull cave in on me, a little flesh ripped away isn't so serious." I said with a reassuring smile... one that her eyes widened at. I tried to sound less hurt than I was. I could worry about myself later, when they were accounted for. "Try to see if there's anything here that can help us out."

She looked at me uncertainly, but obeyed. When she had disappeared into the darkness, glancing back at me before she did, I turned my attention back to the pegasus dying before my eyes.

'Dammit, brain! Help me out! I need to think of something! Something that can save her!' I screamed in my head as I removed the vest off of her, hoping to... dammit I didn't know what I was doing! I was absolutely worthless.

Then I felt something in my mind... move. It was... disturbing, to say the least. It wasn't physical, like some worm had gotten inside. Rather, it was like... a part of my consciousness had removed itself from my head. Even more strange was, following that, I felt a similar movement in my head, except that that one... hurt. I suddenly felt... stranger; I was me, sure, but it was almost as if a foreign entity that I had kept in me had suddenly gone away and then an unwelcome guest took it's place.

I suddenly felt dumb and sluggish; so sluggish that I didn't do anything for the next few moments. It made me want to scream. Here was my friend dying in front of me, and I felt like I had come across a hard math problem. If that doesn't prove I'm not a good leader, I don't know what will.

I turned my attention back to Skyfire, when suddenly... I didn't want to. She was dead already, I thought. There was no point in trying to save someone so close to death. And, damn me, I actually believed it. I was actually about to leave her there to die.

As I got up, the noise in the room suddenly sounded... more concentrated. Like the very air itself had turned into sound. And then the sound washed over me, surrounding me like a twister. It hummed in my ears loudly, and I couldn't help but wince from the pain in my head. But that pain wasn't mine. It felt like the pain of something else, and that something was causing me pain in an attempt to reduce it's own suffering.

The sound intensified to such a degree that my whole head began throbbing terribly. Then my whole body. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest like a drum; it wasn't supposed to pound like this. This wasn't natural.

I collapsed, screaming and writhing in pain as I felt my brain being subjected to terrible torture. It was like something was forcing it's way into my mind, and in return something was trying to keep it out. Like that foreign entity was trying to get back in, but the unwelcome guest didn't want it to. My whole body throbbed painfully from the unnatural amount of blood being forced through my veins. I literally felt like I would explode!

Then it all stopped. The pain, the throbbing, hell, even my heart had returned to it's normal pace. The dull humming had reduced to a soft sound that was barely audible. My body felt, strangely, great. Certain parts of my mind felt somehow exhausted, like the unwelcome guest and returning foreigner had called a truce for a while. Only certain parts, the rest of my mind felt fine. It was quite disturbing that I was thinking of my mind this way. But I didn't feel sluggish anymore. Tired, yes, but not sluggish.

Myst must have found the light switch, as the lights turned on. The lights revealed the wide open space that was the offices to be covered in ash. It was everywhere; on the ceiling, on the walls, the ground, and even the cubicles. A few skeletons lay around, there bones blackened and made brittle by whatever caused the ashes. Skyfire was revealed to be leaning against the walls of one of the many cubicles in the area. Even better, she was awake. Tired and exhausted just like me, but she was alive and breathing. And even stranger...

"Skyfire... your wounds," I gasped, pointing to the scars where a while ago had been bullet holes wide enough to fit the barrel of a gun. Skyfire herself looked surprised. Then she looked at me.

"Your face..." At that I brought up my hooves to touch my face. I felt a large, ugly scar... but the wound was closed, and the rest of my injuries had somehow... healed.

"What the..." I murmured as I looked to all the places where I had been shot. All the wounds were closed and healed as well as any healing potion could do. Only my burns didn't show much improvement. "This... what the hell is this..."

'Well...' Tod started, sounding... tired. 'That was... strange.' Yeah, no shit.

As Skyfire and I resumed inspecting ourselves and questioning how this had happened, Myst approached us from the other side of the room. Her shoulder wasn't bleeding any more, as well. The wound had healed.

"Um..." She said, looking confused. "What just happened?"

Good question. "Don't know. But it's probably better to just accept favors when we can." That's what I told her. In truth, I was already beginning to suspect just what all that was. The thought of what it was... it made me... uncomfortable.

Anyway, with our wounds healed under mysterious circumstances, we began exploring. I told them that we would clear each wing together; no splitting up. They seemed to understand, and so Myst went to looting all the drawers and filing cabinets for anything of use or value. Skyfire accompanied me in searching for the security office, which was the place I was most interested in at the moment, next to the medical wing. For the first time, I was almost out of ammo for my heavy shotgun.

We climbed up a set of stairs leading to a balcony overlooking the main chamber of offices. Up here there wee more offices; not cubicles, but rooms. They had glass windows that I could see through, and through them I could see the offices inside. They had nothing that interested me. On the other side of the very long hall was the security office, if Zaita's image of the place was correct.

Skyfire leaned her head close to me, "Thanks for saving my life."

"No problem, Skyfire. As long as you two didn't die, I could endure the pain. After all, you two aren't failures and deserve to live." She looked at me with surprise. "What?"

"What do you mean by that? You think of yourself as a failure?" She asked in a tone that sounded surprised. Why would she be surprised? Hadn't I told her of my fuckups yet?

"Yes, I am. For several reasons. First off, all of my plans go wrong. And yesterday... all those people in the wreckage." I sighed, "I couldn't stop him. I'm supposed to be the Praetorian, Roam's defender. And yet I couldn't stop one zebra from murdering several dozen people." I hung my head in personal disappointment.

She looked at me for several seconds, then said, "It wasn't your fault, you know. You tried, but he stopped you. That makes him an ass and you a hero." A hero? Hell no.

"No," I shook my head. "That's not how it works, Skyfire. They were my responsibility, my charge. I was supposed to save them, but I couldn't. That makes both of us, not just him, responsible for their deaths." Their faces, burning and screaming, were still etched in my mind. It was a sight I would never forget. And I didn't deserve to be rid of it.

"And then," I continued, "there was in the stable. I promised him I would find his killer, Skyfire. I promised him his death and the death of his friends were to be avenged. I promised to kill the son of a bitch who murdered him." I shook my head, "But I couldn't fulfill it. Somehow, he'd impersonated me. Outsmarted me. And it makes me angry because I spent my whole boring life bettering myself, only to have those efforts fail me when I needed them the most.

"And then just now. You were dying, Skyfire! You were hurt, and so was she! And... and I froze! I was weak, slow, stupid. The only reason we're alive is because of blind luck, not because of me."

"Now, hold on there!" She said, sounding altogether disapproving of everything I said. "You DID save us. I was the one who got myself shot, and Myst got shot trying to save me. And you... you just threw yourself out there and took all the fire for us. That's amazing, whatever you say. You're just like Breezetail, throwing yourself in the line of fire for us."

I sighed. Didn't she understand? My ambition of saving this city was going to get us killed. It wasn't her fault; she exposed herself to save me, the pony who was going to get her killed. If anything, I should be down on the ground thanking them for sticking with me.

Instead I just turned away, feeling undeserving for all her words of comfort. "That... might be true. I did throw myself into the line of fire, but that was because you two are more important. You two haven't failed yet. And I still couldn't save those people. I still couldn't fulfill my promise. Both were important, and I couldn't do either. So it's only right that I should suffer for my short comings."

She sighed and shook her head. "You really have to treat yourself better. Not everything bad that happens is your fault simply because you were involved in it, you know. You aren't always to blame."

"And then who is to be blamed, huh? The murderer? Perhaps, but justice starts when the person who promised to avenge the victim suffers for his weakness! Justice starts when the person who failed to keep over forty zebras from roasting alive suffers for his failure!" She looked back to me, shocked at the anger and hatred, self-hatred, in my voice. I hung my head. "Justice begins when I have suffered enough from my mistakes to learn from them. Justice starts when I have suffered what my failures have caused people to suffer. Because if I disregard self-punishment... then pride and arrogance will root themselves in my mind."

She looked at me with a hurt yet understanding, but not approving, expression. "I... understand now. Just... don't overdo the self-hurting, alright? Making sure you don't get arrogant is good, but there's a difference between that and just being a dick to yourself." Then she turned trotted away, muttering something under her breath that sounded like 'and he calls me stubborn'.

We continued trotting down the balcony, and saw Myst on the first floor, rummaging through a box and throwing out all sorts random junk behind her. As we trotted past her, she pulled out a pink sock with her mouth and looked at it skeptically. Then she smiled, and wore the sock over her left forehoof, before trotting off to another cubicle to search for loot.

We reached the security office's door, which was a metal door partially melted by whatever had caused the area to blacken. If I had known that it was just above and to the left of the entrance, I would have just flown up. Granted, my wings were still broken ( again ), but it was just thirty feet up. Surely I could have pressed myself enough to have flown that height.

I tried opening the door, only to find it locked. I pulled out my last bobby pin and tried my luck on the door. The pin snapped. Oh well, I had gotten lucky on those other locks I guess.

"Maybe I can just melt the door. These rifles could melt through power armor, I guess it can melt the door, too." Skyfire suggested. I nodded, and stepped aside.

Two bolts from Mercedes later and the door had a whole in the middle big enough to fit through. But I didn't want to touch the very hot-looking melted door, so instead I reached a hoof inside nad flicked the lock before pushing the door open.

A turret came down from the office ceiling and opened fire. Skyfire bolted to the side, just quick enough to not get another wound. Instead, I jumped inside and blasted the thing with Tankbuster at point blank. The turret didn't even get a shot off at me. That made me smirk.

Skyfire entered, looking about cautiously for more turrets. There weren't any. Inside the office were several practice rooms; one for target practice and another for hoof-to-hoof combat. There were several lockers lined up against a wall, and opposite of that there was a reinforced glass window showing off different assault rifles and shotguns, with the occasional gladius and sidearm. In the corner of the room was a terminal on a rectangular table, and in the seat there was the slumpng skeleton of zebra wearing a segmented kevlar vest. There was another skeleton on the ground, old blood dried up around it.

"Skyfire, you mind taking care of the guns? And give me any shotgun shells and rifle mags you find; I'll go see if this place has anything else." This place had obviously not been looted since the apocalypse, so we were sure to get something else of value around here.

"Sure. Hopefully this place has a few SMG mags too." Oh yes, for her submachine gun.

While Skyfire focused on trying to break the armored glass with one of the metal chairs, I respectfully pushed the skeleton off the seat and got on the terminal, which had remained on for the last two centuries. The screen was so thick with dust it almost blocked all the light coming from it.

At the top of the screen was the word 'REMINDERS' in bold text. The screen showed a number of audio recordings, the recording dates of which had intervals of several days all the way to several years. Some of the, were also marked with a red tag. I was about to click on the first tagged one, when I bumped my leg against something beneath the table. Curious, I reached down and picked the box up and proceeded to read the text.

"Pocket radios, contubernium pack." I turned the box around, and at the very top, on red tape, were written the words 'FOR MILITARY USE ONLY'. I then proceeded to read the rest of the text.

"Instructions: change the frequency of all radios desired to be connected to that of the gold radio. Any frequency marked with a 'C8' broadcasts only to other radios of this package set to the same frequency. Inter-pack and inter-frequency communication is only possible via..." The rest of the instructions were too faded to read, but I had learned all I needed to know.

"Well, this is a useful find." I said as I ripped the box open and pulled the radios out, then took the gold radio out from the eight pack radio holder.

'Any frequency marked with C8, huh? Okay...' I flicked the switch on the side and set the dial on my newly acquired radio to the frequency 'C8 78.2'. A red light flashed to life on the bottom of the device, and next to it a green tinted glass remained unlit.

"Hey Skyfire, catch this." I said as I tossed another radio, a plain black device, over to her. She was still about to smash the chair into the window one more time when she saw the device flying towards her. She dropped the chair with a clang and just barely caught it in her teeth. She looked at me with slight annoyance.

Then I trotted to the door of one of the practice rooms. "Set the frequency dial to C8 78.2, then speak into it when I tell you to." I walked in and then closed the door behind me, separating myself from her. "Okay, now." I put the radio close to my ears.

Skyfire set the dial and spoke into the radio, but I heard nothing. A moment later, when she saw she had not turned the radio on, she did so. The green glass lit up. Again, she spoke into it, and this time her voice sounded from the device's speaker, just slightly distorted.

"Hey," She said, "if you're hearing this, I want you to know that I nearly dropped the chair on my hoof." Well, that confirms her being able to talk to me.

I placed my mouth closer to the speaker of my own. "Yeah, sorry about that." With the functionality of the radios confirmed, I went back outside while Skyfire continued smacking the bent chair against the glass.

'Wait, how are these things powered anyway?' I thought, and trotted back to the box. It didn't have anything on the subject, or perhaps any related text was faded, but I did see a logo of the sun's rays beaming down on a set of solar panels.

Now, without further interruption, I clicked on the first marked recording.

'Oh, hi!' The voice of a young, energetic mare said. 'My name is Jeina, and this is my first day as the ZSI Roaman area security chief. I'm so excited! I can already imagine just how exciting this job can be! Oh, and if the Equestrians try to get in here, and I stop them, it will be the highlight of my career! Jeina out!'

"Riiiight..." Skyfire drawled. "So, a security chief that WANTS the place to get attacked. That'll have turned out well," She murmured as she shook her head. I clicked on the next one. It was recorded several years later.

'I hope Lord Decarius blows that fucking thing back to the to the gods-damned stars!' Now she sounded... angry, mixed with fear. 'It's been here for years! Even before the war! And instead of... of destroying it, they've been... doing things with it! If it weren't for this order I was given to move it to the Forum, I never would have even known.' She sighed shakily, 'Maybe I should quit. A lot of the guys working on the level where the thing is held have had plenty of... mental breakdowns in the past few years. Maybe if I leave, it'll leave me alone or something! Maybe... Then the recording started to get static. Just before it became too much to hear anything in the background, I managed to make out a noise... A sound...

A very high-pitched sound.

When the static passed, she spoke again, now sounding rather... blithe and unconcerned. 'Well, on second thought, maybe it is a good idea to bring it to the Forum. Maybe the Caesar, as the Great Mediator, can clean it or something.' She grunted, and the sound of her bringing up a hoof to touch her head came from the speaker. 'Uh, what's with the headache? Ugh... Jeina out.'

I was very hesitant to click the last marked entry. I was still taking in that whatever we were experiencing now... that signal... was present even back then. And what were they working on? Some kind of experiment or project? Did the zebras of the war create it as some kind of secret weapon of some sort? Oh, great. MORE questions.

Skyfire also looked a little troubled, looking at the ground with the chair next to her. The glass was almost broken; maybe a few more bashes. "What do you think? Should I continue with the last one?"

She looked at me, and bit her lower lip. "I'm not sure I want to... but this is the sort of info we need to know." She sighed, "Go ahead. I'll... go break this window open." She glanced at me one more time before picking up the chair again.

I clicked on the last entry.

'Copy that, all science wing materials have been successfully transferred to Forum stable, over... No, medical's still being cleared. Military wing's cleanup crew's still coming. Uhuh, uhuh... no, I don't know if... No, Forum stable, listen, I... ugh... fine. I'll see to it. Okay, out.' There was a sigh from a mare, Jeina, from the sound of it. 'Gods, of all the times for them to call in important materials, they call it in now?'

'Jeina, come on! The sirens are up, and we're evacuating to the stables. Equestria's retaliation shouldn't come for a few more hours, but we should leave as soon as possible. You got the the passes?' Asked a zebra stallion. Despite the apparent threat of megaspell attack, he sounded rather relaxed. In the background, I heard the noises of dozens of other zebras leaving the area.

'Yeah, just give me a minute. Those asses in the Forum have decided to lay some work on my hooves. I've got to...' That was all she managed to get out, when a would-be deafening sound roared from the speakers. From the outside came screams and panicked shouting as some of the people were either running back into the building or to the outside.

'What... What's going on?!' I heard the stallion shout. He must have been leaning on the railings overlooking the offices on the ground floor.

'Roam... the western side... it's gone.' Came the shaky response from the bottom floor. 'How did this happen? The legates... they said we had hours to evacuate.' There was crying coming from downstairs.

'M-my family was on the bridge! They... they were going to head to the mountains... to the stables... gods...'

'Oh gods, there are more!' There was frantic shouting coming from downstairs, followed by several more thunderous noises in the background. 'That's Canterium... and that- thats Ravennaium! And... gods no... not Herculania! Damn it, my mother was there!'

Apparently, despite the megaspells landing all over, the general consensus was to leave the compound and make a run for it. Then there were more sounds. They were loud, but they weren't megaspells. They sounded more like... artillery, actually.

'That's the defense cannons! They're intercepting the megaspells!That means the stables and the network are still okay! We need to go, now! Jeina, come on! This place is going to go on lockdown the moment even a bit of that balefire hits this area!' Now the stallion sounded frantic. Obviously, none of them had been expecting the megaspells to land so soon.

'Okay, let's... wait... what's that sound?' She was probably referring to this rolling, thunderous roar that was quickly approaching. It sounded... well... like...

'Incoming balefire! Close the fucking door!' A moment later, there was a loud 'FWOOSH' that sounded very close to the office. For the next minute or so, there was only sound of every door in the compound slamming shut and the haggard breathing of the two zebras in the room. One of them must have ended the recording, as it stopped abruptly.

I looked around, startled, at the security office. Skyfire had broken the window and was obviously distracting herself from the recording by getting the guns. I looked down at the skeletons, and beneath one of them I saw a pistol with two empty casings near it. That told me all I needed to know about those two. I wondered which one of them was Jeina. Probably the one with the vest.

In the middle of my contemplation, Myst trotted in, still wearing the sock, and eating a biscuit with such relish that she seemed to have forgotten we nearly died just a few minutes ago. She opened one eye to look at us as she continued munching. "So, what did I miss?"

I looked to Skyfire with a look; one that she returned with a shake of her head. I got the message.

"Nothing really important, Myst. I'll just tell you later."

*** Magnus et Potens Roamanus ***

"Ah, Goldwreath. I am glad you survived. Those turrets obviously did not make entry easy." No they did not, Zaita. They nearly tore us to bits, actually.

"Yeah, they screwed us up bad. Luckily there was that... signal. Something happened to us, Zaita. Something... did something to our bodies. It saved us, sure, but... but now I'm confused as hell." Skyfire responded. Immediately, she reached up a hoof to touch her head as she winced. Apparently, while the side effect on me was sluggishness, for her it was pain. Judging from how happy Myst looked, hers was joy. Lucky mare.

We were in the room containing control panel number four. Zaita was in a garage looking area beyond an armored glass window. On the ceiling of the garage were several dormant robotic arms that I assumed were for removing the old parts of the APC in the station. Myst was on the panel, going through the different pre-upgrade verifications. Skyfire sat down and looked around. I was taking apart the different rifles and shotguns and piecing their best parts together to form weapons of good quality which I could sell later. Any spare parts I would use to repair Tankbuster and Balaclava's rifle; only Vengeance didn't seem to need any repairs. I guess Predator had done something to it that made it degrade slowly.

"Ah, so you three felt that? Yes, it was a rather strange occurrence."

Myst turned to face us. "Okay, for Zaita's armor we have two options: stealth cloaking or explosive reactive. What do you think?"

Skyfire looked at her with cool detachment. "Obviously the explosive reactive one. Who needs stealth?"

"Yeah, well, it won't really help us out much if we get shot by a tank. I go for stealth; I've dealt with several situations head-on, and each time we got into serious trouble. I think it's time to change a few of our tactics." I remembered my very first plan that went horribly wrong: the attack on Decarius'. I wanted to avoid more failed attacks if possible.

"I agree with Goldwreath. Stealth is a better approach in an environment populated by heavy vehicles."

"Me too." Myst added meekly, barely audible from the control panel.

Skyfire sighed and shook her head. "Fine," She said in a resigned tone, and then leaned against the wall. Myst tapped the screen, and there was a beep.

"Okay, now for her weapons. Do you think we should get rocket pods or another 25mm turret?"

"I vote for rockets!" Skyfire said enthusiastically as she jumped up off the ground. I gave her a strange look, as did Myst. "Oh, come on! We don't need another 25mm gun; they're good against infantry, but we'll need SOMETHING against heavier targets!" That was... true.

"I agree with her there, Goldwreath. If we get rockets, we won't have to run from every fight that involves another armored vehicle. Of course, there is the consequence of having to look for more rockets in case we run out."

I turned to Myst, but she just shrugged. Apparently she didn't really have an opinion on this matter. Still, Skyfire had a point on this one...

"Rockets it is." I said, and Skyfire looked at me with a wide grin. Myst tapped the screen once more, and moved on to the final upgrade.

"Last one is for Zaita herself. Here, we can give her greater control over the vehicle, which will allow her to shoot her weapons automatically. It's either that or greater processing power, and I'm sure you already know what that will do."

Okay, now this was the decision I had to think through carefully. If Zaita could shoot for herself, then that meant she could protect herself in case we weren't around. It also meant she could basically fight some of our battles for us, which I honestly wanted. We wouldn't have to do all the fighting ourselves now. On the other hoof, she could also turn on us. Then again, she had had plenty of opportunities to let us die, so I assumed she had no intent to kill us.

On the other side of the bottle cap, greater processing power would allow her greater cyber-warfare capabilities, which she could use to help us out in all things computer. She could, at least in theory, hack into systems and help us with the security of buildings, or even assume control of the systems themselves. And that could also be very useful, seeing as the city had lots of electronics.

"I'm not really sure what to go with on this one." Skyfire admitted. "They both sound really useful."

"Well... um... maybe... oh, uh... nevermind," Myst stammered.

"The choice is up to you, Goldwreath." Yeah, I picked up on that already, Zaita.

After a few moments of careful consideration, I made my choice. "Better processing power; we can fire the guns on our own. Besides, being able to see and know things computers and cameras can is going to be a big advantage if we want to keep a low profile."

"Very well."

"Sounds good to me."

"Um... okay." Then she tapped the screen one more time and there was a beep. Immediately, the robotic arms came down from the ceiling, carrying different brand-new and shiny parts for Zaita.

"This may take a while. Perhaps explore the place a little before I finish. Just be careful." I finished my tinkering and managed to create a fairly pristine rifle and shotgun. Balaclava's rifle and Tankbuster were still better, as the former already had various attachments and was still in better condition than my new rifle, and Tankbuster's power was still greater than the anti-personnel shotgun I had created, but it was nice to know all those boring years in stable maintenance had payed off.

*** Magnus et Potens Roamanus ***

"Well, this sucks." Skyfire commented as we looked over the collapsed ceiling of the military wing. The moment we stepped out of the elevator, we were greeted with the sight of several tons of crashed supports and rubble blocking the arced doorway that led into the place. Even if we could get past this one blockade, the rest of the roof inside the wing must have collapsed as well. So much for looting this place.

"Well, back in the elevator then." I said, annoyed. Well, there was still likely another hour before Zaita finished anyway. Im fact, I thought I could hear the robotic arm's hydraulics through the ceiling...

Back in the elevator, we were descending deeper into the earth. We must have been traveling several hundred feet down, as the heat was quickly making itself apparent. Still, we needed healing supplies, and we were going to get them. That is, if there were any to be found. What annoyed me even more than the broken military wing was the repetitive elevator music that was playing.

The doors slid open with a ring, revealing a thankfully intact medical wing with no balefire ash. In fact, this wing looked in almost pristine condition, save all the dust floating around. In front of us was an arced doorway that opened into the main chamber. Now that we were here, I saw that the layout of the wings were much more intricate than they had appeared in the blue prints, and the general design of the place was a testament to zebra engineering. I was glad for the aqua blue light that lit the place up.

The roof was domed, with four massive arcs stretching from each corner of the chamber to converge in the center of the roof, where a thick marble column stabbed down to support the weight of the entire area. A rectangular prism shaped enclosed area marked where the many different testing sites were, separated from us and from each other by glass windows and armored doors. There were many different sub-chambers, each leading to what was apparently a different testing site for different medical technologies. Further inspection revealed that the enclosed area in the middle of the main chamber was simply the supply room, where all the necessary supplies for the different testing sites were held.

"Thank Celestia for motherfucking healing supplies!" I exclaimed, relieved and jubilant to have found that there were far more healing supplies here than we could even hope to carry. Some of them were still in the armored cubicles, others wrapped in boxes and seemed like they were to be brought away, and others looked like they were being used at the time of the megaspell strike.

"How do we carry it all?" Myst asked.

"We can't." Skyfire responded. "But we can stuff our saddlebags full with them," She said with a wide grin; one that I was all too tempted to share.

"Alright, branch out and restock. Don't wander too far off, and only stay in the main chamber. I don't want to know what they were doing in these sites, especially the one labeled 'muscular regeneration'." I shivered, the mere thought of technologies that could regrow muscles disturbing. While there was no doubt that could have been useful, it was just... gross. "Turn on your radios and tell me if you go anywhere. Just grab what you need and meet me at the elevator; there's still one more wing to clear."

They nodded, then trotted off into the prism to gather up on supplies. Skyfire melted through the perimeter glass with Mercedes, and Myst followed her in. That left me with the job of securing this place.

I turned around and began trotting away, only to find that Skyfire's weaponry must have activated localized security. Two turrets popped down from the ceiling, immediately locking on to me. I dove back through the doorway, the bullets ricocheting off the ground as I landed inside. Myst peered out of the melted glass and tried to fire a shot, but dove back in due to one of the turrets suddenly locking onto her and cracking the glass with a spray of heavy rounds. Deciding to use a silenced weapon in the hopes that no more security would appear, I pulled out Balaclava's rifle and attached the silencer.

A whole mag of silenced firing later and the two turrets were destroyed. Myst and Skyfire resumed their looting, and I resumed my patrol. Luckily, none of us had been injured, and even more luckily no more security came in.

*** Magnus et Potens Roamanus ***

Our saddlebags and pockets and basically anywhere we could fit a healing supply in were stuffed to the brim with our plundered medical goods. Each of us took one just for the sake of healing any injuries the phenomenon earlier might not have taken care of properly. After I had taken mine, my wings and my burnt hide felt oh so slightly better, but the rest of my body felt the same.

The doors once more opened with a ring, revealing the scientific wing to have a near exact copy of the layout of the medical wing. The only real difference was that the prism at the center was being used for... nothing?

The whole place was quite thoroughly empty. Everything you would expect to find in a lab were absent; no tools, no test tubes, no weird green liquid pouring into some long elastic tube, and no computers of any sort. Hell, even the slots in the ceiling where the turrets were were empty. Really, the only things here were the metal tables that were bolted to the ground.

As I stepped further into the room, more of the lights lit up. I told them it seemed safe, and they started trotting around. Skyfire and Myst, ever so adventurous, each went down a different hallway that in the medical wing would have lead to different tech testing sites. I accompanied Myst down her hall for the sole reason of having absolutely nothing to do in the main chamber.

After a stairwell down, we found a circular room with a tall, cylindrical, glass chamber that reached all the way to the roof. Inside was, just like the rest of the whole scientific wing, nothing. The room itself had no interesting features, although there was a patch of wall with a square hole where wires were coming out of, which was where I assumed a terminal of some sort had once been.

I was just about to break the tedium of the place by calling Skyfire and telling her to meet me at the doorway that had the staircase which lead down to the deepest part of this place, when she called me first.

"Hey, Goldwreath." Her voice said from both my radio and Myst's radio. "I found something here that hasn't been looted or otherwise removed. Looks interesting, but I'd rather you get here before I do anything. Out."

I turned to Myst, who looked a little bit relieved to have found something interesting in the place. Honestly, so was I. "Come on, Myst. I saw which hall she went down, anyway."

We backtracked up the stairs and into the main chamber, then went down the hall Skyfire did. Unlike the previous hall which lead down, though, this one was simply a straight hall. We found Skyfire at the end, looking at a wall on which various lockers were built.

"What is it?" Myst asked as we reached her. "And whose names are these?"

I trotted closer and took a look, and what I found surprised me. Skyfire herself didn't seem to care much; although, the place was so empty that she must have been reduced to calling a wall lined with lockers, which she knew absolutely nothing about, 'interesting'. I, though, was quite pleased at the find.

"Shadow Corps Memory Archives." I looked at the different lockers. There must have been at least four dozen of them along this wall. They were arranged alphabetically, which allowed me to find the name I was looking for rather quickly. "Veltrio, Veteran Operative." The lockers all had the black screen interface I was familiar with. With little trouble, I managed to open the locker with the touch of my hoof. I grimaced, still a little confused as to how I was yet again able to access a place I shouldn't be able to. But I was bored as hell, so I really didn't put much thought into it back then.

Inside were three memory orbs; one with a large crack coming from a chipped away portion, and the other two the featureless orb I was used to. Without a moment's hesitation, I picked them all up and placed them in with the rest of my belongings.

"Who's Veltrio?" Myst asked, and Skyfire gave me a look that suggested she wanted to know too.

I didn't really want to share the details with them, so I just told them the truth that would answer her question. "He was an operative of something called 'the Shadow Corps'. According to the memories I've viewed, they were some kind of special operations group. Veltrio was present in the last orb I saw, so he grabbed my interest."

That seemed enough of an answer for them, at least for moment. Good. I didn't really want to talk more about it.

I didn't touch any of the other lockers out of a combination of respect ( I didn't really feel comfortable taking memories that weren't mine in the first place.) and lack of interest. After all, Veltrio had turned himself into a cyber-zebra willingly; if that isn't worth of some investigation, then I don't know what is.

After that, we went back into the main chamber. Jeina was right; they had cleared this wing completely. Although why they left behind the memories of operatives, I honestly didn't know. We explored the rest of the chamber, which honestly didn't have much. There was even a point when I wished a turret would pop down and take a shot at us just for the sole purpose of providing some movement down here.

Eventually, my boredom reached a point where I just couldn't take it. "Guys, it's been almost an hour. There's one more place I'd like to see before we go back up." They both perked up at that; apparently they were also bored and wanted something to do.

Myst smiled at me, "That chamber we saw at the very bottom of the blue prints?" I nodded, a grin of anticipation forming on my face. Whatever was down there had to at least be more interesting than what was up here.

Remembering the layout of the structure well, or at least better than I did, Myst led us to the huge arced doorway that lead down to the bottom chamber. It was at the very back of the science wing, behind the prism. It's arc was rather ornate and well decorated, sporting various emblems and insignias of various groups on it, as well as being supported by two columns on the side. At the center of the arc was the logo of the Shadow Corps, Autherius' creation. Following that logic, I concluded that the other legates must have each formed their own special tasks force, which simply weren't as famous or accomplished as Autherius'. Above the arc was a large logo of two golden wreaths.

Yet again with the black screen interface. Honestly, what was up with this? Not just the interfaces, but me. Why was I able to get into these places?

After I had removed my hoof from the interface, the door began to slide to the side. Except it wasn't a door. No, as I watched, what I had thought was a door was actually two solid slabs of steel several hundred feet thick and extending all the way down to the chamber. Even with them separated, there were little ports on the side of each slab, each projecting a beam of bright red to it's partner on the other side. Those beams disappeared after a while. To my complete surprise, a turret popped down from the ceiling right above the doorway. It wasn't the regular MG turret; it was much bigger and sported what looked like two massive plasma cannons, if the ominous pulsating and green light coming from it's glass components were any indication.

"Wow, if the Enclave had this..." Skyfire murmured. "This place must have taken it's security fucking seriously." She whistled at the turret. Myst didn't share her enthusiasm, as she instead cowered and cringed at the sight of the colossal gun.

"Yeah, and here we are just trotting in," I smirked. "Well, let's just see what's down there."

Okay, say what you will about staircases, but this staircase was LONG. It must have been a hundred meters minimum. I can't even imagine where they got enough metal to make the slabs that sealed this place off from the rest of the world. Every once in a while, the staircase would open into a large mini-chamber for the sole purpose of housing another gigantic plasma turret. At our passing, the turrets ground there swivels turning to point at us, but then just looked away a moment later.

A gold light shone onto the glossy ground through the doorway at the bottom. While the humming had been present throughout our entire time here, now there was this sound I'd never heard before... it... this new sound, it was... music. Several notes, playing together to create a beautiful tune of harmony. Skyfire and Myst didn't seem to notice it, for some reason. I pitied them; after what they had been through, they deserved to listen to this angelic tune. And I felt a little guilt because I felt that, somehow, I was responsible for whether or not they heard it.

We emerged into a crystalline chamber of a reflective crystal of some sort. The gold light bounced and played around on the crystal like light on water, making the whole room look like some kind of golden paradise under the sea. Now Myst and and Skyfire gasped, breath taken as they took in the splendor of the sight before them. I felt strangely... home. Like... I could live here for the rest of my life with content. And from the looks of complete joy on their faces, so did the other two.

And then I turned my head to see the source of all this beauty. There it was, in the center of the chamber, on a pedestal holding it high above the floor. It was this brilliant, golden orb. Like the sun in miniature and without the flames dancing off of it. But now that I looked closer, the orb wasn't merely gold. There were other colors; vibrant red, orange, magenta, violet, blue, and pink. They were significantly less powerful and bright than the gold in the orb, but they were definitely there.

There were two gargantuan statues of gleaming metal next to it, standing tall and proud on their hindlegs and on their own pedestals. They were metal zebras, both wearing praetorian armor, just like me. There expressions were serious and hard as they held their spears with one hoof and a massive metal shield with the other. On their sides were large blades in metal scabbards; gladiuses, from the look of them. Skyfire and Myst trotted next to me, awe etched in their faces, as I let my body naturally carry me towards the orb. It was so beautiful... so perfect... so... harmonious. I felt so happy I could fly... which, you know, I could. It just felt like nothing could ruin the moment.

It only felt like nothing could ruin the moment.

All of a sudden, the orb dimmed to a sinister shade of it's different colors. The light in the room became pale and lifeless. The feeling of serenity instantly turned into tension. The beautiful music stopped, replaced with... oh, no.

The high-pitched note flooded the room with such intensity that all three of us were floored, me immediately while the other two managed to resist for a while. We collapsed there, hooves held to our ears in a fruitless effort to suppress the sound. Somehow it had broken in. Somehow, it had gotten past the more gentle humming note. And now it was stabbing into my brain like a long, hot needle, frying everything inside my mind.

I heard and felt a deafening metallic clang vibrate through the ground. Against all the pain, I managed to open one eye and see the titanic statues step off their pedestals, heads facing us as they lifted their massive spears in a motion to obliterate our feeble forms then and there. It would have been so easy. We couldn't even run, not with the sound being so strong. They began lowering their spears at lethal speeds.

But apparently I had some kind of guardian angel.

They stopped just as I began to hear the noise falter. I could here it pulsating in my ears, and even the very air in the room seemed to wave from what was going on. After a few moments, the high note reduced to such a degree that I could make out another noise. The humming noise.

One of the statues looked at the other, then promptly bashed it in the face with it's shield. The piercing note seemed to fall away and stumble together with the other statue, while the hum became stronger. The other statue approached us and, with one quick motion, turned around, slammed it's massive shield on the ground, and positioned it's spear over the top of the shield. I just watched it along with my two friends, absolutely shocked at what was going on.

The other statue recovered, and with it some of the piercing signal's strength returned. The friendly statue in front of us took a small step back, just enough to be directly in front of us. It turned it's head and, with a voice strong enough to vibrate the room, said, "Run."

We didn't need to be told twice. The close proximity of the statue had reduced the pain of the other signal enough so that I and my friends could get up and begin trotting unsteadily back through the doorway. As we galloped, we each turned to look at the orb with a wistful look. We didn't want to leave, not like this. All of this violence in this chamber felt... wrong. It felt like it didn't have a place here.

The other statue charged, thrusting it's spear into the shield of our new ally strong enough to cause it to stumble backwards and nearly step on us. We got through the doorway as the two engaged in a melee battle so intense and loud each blow reverberated through the entire chamber.

Our friendly statue stumbled in after us, throwing it's spear at it's opponent before drawing it's huge gladius and back stepping after us as we galloped up the stairs. Just as it's enemy entered the doorway, our statue once more kneeled down and assumed a defensive stance. It's enemy thrust it's spear again, but this time our statue side-stepped and body slammed it against the wall before grabbing it and throwing it back out the doorway.

We continued galloping, hearts racing in our chests, as the two titans resumed their vicious battle. Despite our ally's efforts, it was slowly moving up the stairs as it's enemy attacked it savagely with it's own gladius. The turrets on the roof did nothing to help either side, though they did look to us and the statues time and time again, as if unsure what to do. From them, I could hear a combination of the two different signals.

We emerged into the science wing and galloped as fast as we could back to the elevator. Our protector tried stabbing into the side of the other statue, but got countered with a shield bash that sent it crashing into the prism structure.

We entered the elevator and pressed the close button frantically as our assailant sprang across the room, gladius in hoof. We stepped to the side just in time to avoid being impaled as the machine stabbed it's blade inside, preventing the doors from closing. It reached a hoof inside and began forcing the doors open.

Then two metal hooves grabbed it in the face from behind and threw it across the room. It smashed into the chamber's doorway, breaking the arc in the process. The last thing we saw before the doors closed was our ally approaching the recovering statue, both with their blades and shields in their hooves.

*** Magnus et Potens Roamanus ***

"Zaita, please tell me you're done!" I begged the APC, which was having a rocket salvo installed on it's turret. Next to me, Myst and Skyfire were panting so hard they sounded like vacuum cleaners. "There's... there's something down there!"

"I know." Zaita said. "I saw them through the cameras. I just need a little more time; one minute and I will be ready to remove us from here." Damn it, one minute?! We didn't have one minute! Why, those things could be coming up through the elevator shaft any second now...

As if to prove that last statement, a huge metal hoof punched open the elevator doors, and one of the zebra praetorian statues climbed out, entire sections of it's armor ripped away. We ran into the main chamber and began galloping for the main door, when they collapsed. I urged Myst and Skyfire to keep moving for the door, but they couldn't. They were too tired. The statue approached at a brisk pace, now only with it's gladius. I tried with futility to drag them the rest of the way, but I was also exhausted. I collapsed and just watched the statue approach us, feeling completely helpless and useless.

To my complete shock, it walked past us and continued towards the door, only sparing us a glance. The sound of weak humming came from it as it passed by; it was our statue. I breathed the greatest sigh of relief I could as I lay there.

It reached the door and then, also to my complete surprise, began digging it's hooves into the metal. When it had forced it's hooves all the way to the outside, it began slowly but steadily pulling the door down, and the door ground in response. Now we managed to gather enough strength to get up and trot over to it slowly.

Then the other statue reached up from the depths of the compound. It's helmet was caved in and falling off in chunks onto the floor; apparently our ally had given it a serious beating.

We picked up the pace as it began dashing after us on it's hindlegs. Our statue at the doorway had pulled down the door about halfway, and we could get through. Myst reached the door first and was helped up and over the door by the metal hoof of our protector. Then Skyfire reached the door, and the process repeated. Then finally me.

I looked at the statue in it's cold, metal eyes and said with utmost sincerity, "Thank you." It didn't respond, but it kept it's gaze locked with mine before looking away.

I landed hard on my back on the rocks of the cliff just as the enemy statue reached the doorway. Our protector immediately got a savage hoof punch in the face that knocked half it's body outside. As it dangled there, slowly being cut in half by the re-ascending doorway and it's enemy's merciless attack, Zaita, now much bigger and with different outer plating, hovered quickly to us from the corner of the cliff. We got inside the brand new rear doorway with any remaining strength we had.

The last thing we heard before collapsing from complete exhaustion was a deafening, unearthly scream from our attacker's metal throat as the doorway closed completely, trapping it inside.




Footnote: Level Up
New perk gained: Power of the Mind -- Your mind, just like your body, has suffered greatly ever since you arrived outside, but it has adapted. Now you gain +1 to all S.P.E.C.I.A.L attributes within two hours of waking up from an eight-hour sleep.