//------------------------------//
// IV - Complex 
// Story: Half-Hoof: Black Forest 
// by Alfoals Trottenbauer 
//------------------------------//

Ace trotted down the flaming corridors, corpses dripped blood from their bodies while slowly trotting toward Ace and the security guard.

"I didn't catch your name, what is it?" Ace asked, at a rather untimely place.

"Barney Ironbuck." He answered.

Ace shot a corpse behind Barney as it was about to swing it's claws. It spat blood as it fell down. The two carried on. The fire started getting less consistent until they ceased all together. A light fixture had broken and was now firing bolts of electricity at the walls and ground. A vent opening stood just out of the way of the arcs.

"You're going to need to stay here, sorry Barney." Ace told.

"I'll stay here and guard." Barney misunderstood.

Ace trotted to the vent and crawled in. The whirring of fan blades rang in the space, getting closer the further in he went. The                                                                                                                                                                                         
vent came to a clearing, Ace almost stood up, looking up beforehand, the fan was directly above him and would have taken his head off had he not been careful. A crab jumped at his head but he shot it before it could get to him. He crawled on into the interior ceiling of another room. A ceiling tile fell with Ace on it. He fell onto the floor of an office complex. A stallion in a science team uniform galloped around a corner. Ace followed behind. 

A pony in full military uniform wearing a gas mask held a shotgun with magic. The scientist's face lit up.

"Rescued at last! Thank Celestia you're here! You've got to get us out of h-" The stallion was interrupted by the soldier firing a shotgun into his chest. 

The science pony's body flew back from the blast. Ace aimed the pistol as the soldier started reloading. He fired the pistol into the eyes of the gas mask. The glass lenses shattered into the soldier's eyes. The soldier shouted and fired his shotgun wildly. Ace kept shooting until the soldier had fallen. 

Ace trotted over to the body and picked up the shotgun.

An elevator shaft was at the end of the corridor. The elevator was completely missing from it. A single cable dangled from the shaft. Ace trotted back to the end of the hall, calculating to jump for it. He pressed a button on the chest plate on the suit to recede the helmet. He started galloping toward the elevator, jumping as soon as his front hooves met the edge. He grabbed the cable with his teeth, putting his hooves on the opposite sides of it. He inched up the cable, slowly. five soldiers shot  at him from a doorway above. Ace levitated the shotgun and fired while holding on to the wire. One fell. The rest were still standing and levitating their assault rifles. Ace continued up the cable until he was at their level. Once on their level, he swung on the cable, bucking the back wall every time he swung back. The soldiers still fired into his suit. Once he was swinging a few inches away from them, bucking one last time, he let go of the rope, back hooves forward into two of them.

The buck sent them both flying back with broken skulls. Ace landed standing at a slide, with the remaining momentum, he turned and fired both the barrels of his shotgun, sending the other two into the elevator shaft. Blood splattered and dripped off of the back wall.

Ace put his helmet back on.