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Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Summer Lightfall took a deep breath as she entered the steel mill. Stepping inside, she watched as three of the prisoners with protective masks over their faces dumped a bucket of molten iron into a mould for a steel bar. The room was hot, and it was loud. Still, with winter rapidly approaching, Summer couldn’t complain. At least while working in here she wouldn’t have to worry about freezing to death. Summer remembered what it was like working in the mines during the winter; she shivered as memories of the cold came back to her.

She took a look around, casing the area, getting familiar with where the each of the guards patrolled at. Nagadan was a no nonsense kind of place, that she could see plainly. There were four guards in the room, each of them patrolled along catwalks above the worksite, which was good for them, she figured, because the guards would be able to see very little talking going on, and would be able to hear none of it.

Excellent! Summer let out a small smile; maybe this TANTALUS person wasn’t so full of shite after all. This place was perfect for planning something, as long as they kept up their work while they were doing it, the guards would be none the wiser.

Summer turned and began to walk along the perimeter of the room, she needed to find Sprocket, get in on what he was planning with Viktor Karkov, whoever that was. She got no further than five steps before she found herself running into someone. She was surprised when she had discovered that it was indeed a someone, and that that someone was built like a brick wall. Summer stumbled back and looked up to see what was likely the biggest creature she had ever seen. Standing at two hundred and fifty centimetres tall, and looking down on her in slight annoyance was a bipedal creature unlike which Summer had ever seen before. The creature had the face of a bull, with horns that looked as if they could skewer a pony whole. One of his eyes was missing, and in its’ place was a heavily outdated cybernetic replacement. The more Summer looked at him; he was more machine than anything else. What little of him that was still organic was his massive chest, his right arm had massive biceps that looked like he could crush her head with a single flex of them. His left arm was cybernetic, and half missing, it looked to have been blown off at the elbow, likely from a large calibre bullet. Both his legs were cybernetic, and looked to be in the best condition of all of him. Summer knew what he was, this was a minotaur, but she had never thought that she would actually see one. They very rarely left their own country. The minotaur looked at her and offered a scowl.

‘If someone doesn’t start paying attention, they will soon find themselves being corrected!’ The minotaur said with a huff as he pushed past her and went about his business. Summer glanced upwards, one of the guards had taken notice of the scuffle and had his rifle pointed down at them. Summer ignored him and went back to it. No harm, no foul. Now it was time to find Sprocket.

It wasn't that hard, fortunate to say. Summer turned around the corner and that was when she saw him. Sprocket was an old pony, one of the oldest still alive. He had to be a hundred and ten at this point. His body was filled with outdated cybernetics not unlike the minotaur. TANTALUS was right; he had been out here for a while. What was left of Sprocket's coat was a dirty brown, though those patches of those were few and far between. All four of Sprocket's legs had been replaced with cybernetics that had been beaten up and dented for who knows how many years of abuse.

His eyes were charcoal black, with a single red dot in the centre of them. Old style ocular implants had to be the most creepy, unnatural looking part of him. Had she not known who this was, she might have found him frightening.

This had confirmed it. This Sprocket was the Sprocket she thought it was. In the days before the Great Patriotic War, FutureTec had been lead by Sprocket as the company's chief executive officer, before that, he was known as the Techno-Wizard, one of the greatest scientific minds ever to live in Equestria. He had been at the cutting edge of science, his research into robotics and Artificial Intelligence put Equestria on the path to a golden age of science and industry... just not the one that he had intended.

Sprocket had been part of FutureTec's AP/VI project, and had created the first Virtual Intelligence, called Mr. Happy. The prototype VI was, to be frank, dangerous and unstable, and had caused the deaths of seven researchers due to compatibility issues with the robot chassis that it had been operating. Because of this, science shifted away from robotic hardware to VI software.

To say Sprocket was disappointed would have been an understatement. He became recluse, and when the Great Patriotic War broke out, he headed to the continent, volunteering to help the Schäferhund with weapons research, where he was never heard from again.

It became pretty clear what had happened. He must have been taken prisoner during the war and shipped around the gulag camps for the last 60 years or so. That was problematic; the Præsidium had made numerous claims that all prisoners from the Great Patriotic War had been released by Year 42 of the Republic. They lied, clearly, though that really should not have been much of a surprise.

One of Sprocket's eyes turned towards her, he had noticed that she was standing there and let out a deep sigh before turning to face her. He opened his mouth to speak, but then he stopped, and closed his mouth. He stood looking at her for a moment, almost as if he did not believe his own eyes before opening his mouth again to speak. 'You... are... a unicorn', he said slowly, almost as if he had forgotten how to speak his native language.

'Yes', Summer said nodding her head. 'Glad to know you have working eyes', she added sarcastically.

Sprocket let out a smirk at her comment. 'Most of the time, they glitch on occasion thanks to the lack of proper maintenance... the guards won't let me near tools and I don't trust anyone else to do anything with them, so I am kind of stuck there', Sprocket added with a shrug.

Sprocket glanced around the room for a moment before he waved Summer over. Summer trotted up to him slowly, glancing up towards the catwalks to check where the guard’s attentions were at. They were most certainly looking down upon them and that was when Summer realised what Sprocket was doing, he had brought her next to the control console of one of the steel mill's machines, and occasionally gestured to it as he spoke. To the guards, it would look like he was showing her how to work the machine.

'Do you know who I am?' Sprocket asked.

Summer nodded her head in affirmation.

'Tell me of Equestria, it has be so long since I have heard anything of Equestria', Sprocket said, a look of longing appearing on his face. Summer frowned; so much had happened that he had missed.

'What do you want to know?' she asked. Sprocket was silent for a moment, and gestured to the machine twice before offering up an answer.

'Tell me, is Scootaloo still alive?' He asked.

Summer had to think about that for a moment. Scootaloo was the Republic's second Prime Minister. She knew why Sprocket was asking, and she offered him a frown before shaking her head in the negative. 'I'm afraid not', Summer said, offering him a consoling look.

'I see...' Sprocket said frowning. 'Do you know how she died?'

'Natural causes I think? She died some twenty years ago', Summer said with a shrug.

Sprocket nodded. 'Well... at least there is that', he said with a sigh. Summer knew a lot about Sprocket. She had written a paper on him when she was in high school, and she knew that Scootaloo had been Sprocket's wife. He must have known that the likelihood of ever seeing her again was low, but now he knew that it would never be again. 'I suppose that I knew, on some level... but I guess it is nice knowing now, at least she died peacefully... do you know anything about my daughter?'

Summer frowned and shook her head. Both Sprocket and Scootaloo had been public figures, she had known about their daughter. That they'd had one anyway, but unlike her parents, she had kept herself out of public life, preferring to have a normal life and a normal job. If she was still alive, Summer was not sure.

'Fair enough', Sprocket said, gesturing to the machine once more for the guards.

'Now it is my turn to ask you something', Summer said.

Sprocket raised an eyebrow at her, but nodded his head and motioned for her to speak.

'I know you are planning something. Something big', Summer said, offering him a small smile.

'I have no idea as to what you're referring...' Sprocket began before being interrupted.

'Save it. I know you and Victor Karkov are planning something', Summer said, bluffing and hoping that dropping Karkov's name would get Sprocket to open up to her. 'I want in'.

'I see...' Sprocket said nodding his head. 'Well then... I think that's something we can set up', he said offering her a smile, leaning forward and whispering into her ear. 'We are planning to escape!'

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