//------------------------------// // Chapter 64 // Story: Fallout New Vegas: Unexpected Friends // by Sleepyted //------------------------------// Over the next two months Twilight, Anne and the gang had been doing minor jobs around the Mojave, doing things of little note and not much to do towards the goal of Twilight getting home as The Alloy took a long time to refine, painfully long. They helped sort out a fight brewing in Freeside, sorted out problems their friends had and even dropped by a few places they had already visited to see how they were going on. One night, while Twilight was fast asleep, wing to the side since it wasn’t really comfortable to sleep with a large slab of metal. But another thing that made sleeping rather uncomfortable were the loud sounds coming from Anne’s room next door, and while she had made the mistake of walking in when strange sounds came from it before these were quieter, as if she was trying to not be noticed. That caught her attention and climbing out of her bed she made her way out her room and next door. Without knocking she used her magic to push the door open. Anne was wide awake and shoving supplies into a knapsack and from the look of it they looked like they would last a long while. The woman froze and looked over her shoulder at Twilight, wearing her combat armor she wears when she goes out. “Where are you going this time of night?” Twilight asks rubbing her eyes with the back of her hoof. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you…” She said, going back to packing. Twilight spotted a note on the desk in her room, and considering she never used it that drew attention. ‘I need to do this’ is all that read on it. “Do what?” Twilight asked worriedly. “I remember things Twilight…” Anne said after a few moments of silence. “Remember what?” “I remember… just bits and pieces from before I met you… I need to make sure I’m not going crazy and I didn’t want to bring anyone with me.” She said. “What do you remember?” Twilight asks. “A place… The Divide… I remember it being like a home… People there might know who I was before I was shot in the head…” “Alright… Let me go get my things then.” Twilight stated. “No. I’m going alone.” “Anne.” Twilight stated flatly. “I’m going with you or I’m stealing your leg.” She threatened. “Fine. You got ten minutes then I’m going…”       It took a long while for them to get where Anne was leading them to, just going where she had a gut feeling to go to. They had walked fully across the Mojave and after the second day Twilight was about to call it off and get them to head back to the warm kind of comfortable bed. “And that’s how I saved Equestria yet again.” Twilight said tiredly, finishing off a story. “You have… giant love eating bugs where you’re from?” Anne asked in confusion. “Well they used to be bad, until my student helped kick out their queen.” “You never mentioned you were a teacher before.” Anne noted, not bothering to walk around with her weapon out considering she had a double barreled shotgun strapped to her arm. “Yeah, Starlight Glimmer, I was sent here just after that…” She said sadly, looking down at the dirt at her hooves. “Well, were the bugs messy when they sucked out the love?” Anne asked, Twilight looking up at her in confusion as she grinned at the pony like an idiot. “No? They steal the magical love energy inside ponies to eat, that was until they realized if they got permission it was better for them.” She explained. “Ah, never mind then.” She said offhandedly. “Okay…” Twilight said, too confused to really feel too melancholy. “Hey, I think we’re almost there.” Anne said after a few moments. “Almost where, you don’t know where we’re going.” Twilight stated. “There.” Anne stated simply, pointing up ahead. Looking where her friend was pointing she saw a large pile of shredded metal and the bodies of cars, blocking the sizeable canyon that lead somewhere else. She was going to just say it looked like so many other places they had been but one thing that made a small chill run up her spine were the words ‘Courier 6?’ in pant covering the side of the husk of a bus, other markings such as ‘6?’ and ‘Lonesome Road.’ “Okay… I have a feeling we’re not going to enjoy what’s going to happen…”     “I think I tore a hole in my pant’s leg…” Anne grumbled as she dusted the rust off her body after climbing and crawling through the sharp metal wreaks that blocked the way forward. “Poor thing.” The princess chuckled as she floated her way down to the ground, glad that she could just fly over the rubble to avoid all the scratches and illnesses she might get trying to crawl through. The sound of whistling wind broke them from their banter, the cold of the air greeting them along with the metallic taste that seemed to linger the further along they got. “This place is giving me some bad vibes.” Anne noted as she continued to walk. “You can say that again…” After another minute they came to an overlook of the land below, wind bellowing sand across the landscape with angry roaring of a beast, the two not wanting to get too close to the edge in case they fell off the edge to the sharp rocks below. There was a massive gash in the ground, splintering off and causing hundreds of foot drops down below, high rise buildings that once built all around now collapsed and fallen into the large gabs in the earth. Red lights on top of still functioning antennas. “Well… This place has seen better days…” The woman noted. “Did the nuclear bombs do this?” “No, this looks like an earthquake, bombs just wipe the area clean of everything.” “Must have been a pretty huge earthquake for it to rip the ground open that much.” Anne sighed sadly, not knowing why. “Let’s get a move on, this is where we wanted to go.     The two found themselves in an old bunker that was on the edge of the cliff they were on, or as the sign named it, ‘Hopeville Ballistic Defense Station’. Inside looked rundown, wires that were once built into the walls and ceilings now torn and sending bolts of power and sparks down on the metal floor below. The entire base was tilted to the side, the edge hanging off the edge of the rocky face with all the tables and chairs thrown to the side as if by an angry person. There were consoles along the walls and in large control banks but all of them were offline, just dark and lifeless. But one that did seem to work was a computer that was in front of a tall pod that had a familiar looking robotic ball inside. “Is that Ede?” Anne asked in confusion, wiping the dust from the glass viewing way. “Can’t be, this one is built differently.” Twilight stated. It was true, while E-DE in the Mojave had a lot of repairs done to it from extensive damage along with a few decorative plates, this one looked brand new, with a dull metal surface and what looked like a small square radar dish on the top and a metal, three pronged claw underneath. “Let’s open it up.” Twilight stated. Anne nodded, going over to the computer and starting to type away at it. The tube let out a hiss and it depressurized, a gas spraying out the side of the door as the tube opened up. Sparks of power came from little coils on the inside and struck the robot, soon floating itself out with a crackled music playing from it and then a child’s voice. ‘Ralphie! Fly fast, fly far.” It said before letting out a few excited and familiar beeps. “Must be a glitch with its memory files.” Anne noted as she stepped back away from the computer. The bot let out a few confused beeps, Twilight having no clue what was just said but with Anne having a brain that was pretty much just robotic she sort of understood the little bot. “No, that wasn’t your boot up sequence, it was a recording. About someone called Ralphie.” The woman stated, crossing her arms. More beeps answered her reply. “It was probably just some old data floating around, nothing to be worried about.” She explained. It let out a few happy beeps before floating down to Twilight, doing what the pony could only think was what it thought nuzzling might be. “I think we can use your help to move forward, want to come with us?” She asked. It bounced in the air in excitement, flying straight at Anne’s stomach as if it was trying to cuddle her, but with the satellite on its head that was rather painful for the woman. “Experiment log 369248 slash B, Eyebot Duraframe universal interface override system. This is Dr. Whitley presiding. We've boosted signal gain and enlarged the overflow buffer system. That should ensure 100% connectivity and control. ED-E, whenever you're ready.” The bot crackled to life again with the voice of a young man. “Yes! Success! Um, reporting full success on 369248 slash B. ED-E was able to interface with and override the test panel in under three seconds. Great job, team. Now, let's start on the proposal for the full rollout.” “Huh, more memory glitches…” Anne noted. “I guess you’re able to bypass systems. That will be very helpful to move onwards through this place.” The robot let out a happy beeping sound.     Bolts of power joined the three prongs of the claw as it built up a charge, a lance of electricity shooting from the little bot onto a console inside a main room. As the lights started to come to life a little panel opened up and a lever popped out, a once vibrant red now worn away with the years. “Well, nothing can go wrong with this.” Anne stated as she reached out with her metallic hand and gripped the lever. Light burst on throughout the room, blinding the pair for a moment as their eyes adjusted to the bright light. A blaring alarm beeping throughout the facility, echoing through unseen halls. What once looked like a wall with glass plating, pulled back away and exposing they were blast shielding for the other side. Inside was a large cylindrical room, a large white metal tube with markings filling the center with walkways around it. More eye bots floated around its surface and maintained the giant tube of death, shiny and clean compared to the dirty and decrepit area of the tube around it. “What is that thing?” The princess asked in confusion. “That my one eyed friend is the reason the world is so fucked up.” Anne explained as she rubbed the back of her head with her hand. “That’s a nuke?” “Yep, an ICBM, or Intercontinental Ballistic Missile if you want to talk fancy.” Anne explained. “That thing would be able to get from here to China after about half an hour and rain death on the area below.” “Should we be worried?” “Nah, look at the tilt of this place, and this oversized party popper doesn’t look straight in the tube. If it were to try and launch it would just blow up here.” She explained, observing the little robots trying their best to maintain a rocket even though the government that created them was long gone. “But what if it explodes here? And what if we accidently try to launch it?” Twilight asked in worry. Anne scoffed. “You can’t accidently send off a nuke, it’s like saying you accidentally built a shed, you have to put in a lot of effort to get one of these things to go off, it isn’t like there’s just a button you press and everything you targeted in a mile radius gets incinerated.”