The sun was setting when Rainy pushed her way out of the station before closing the doors behind her to conceal the inhabitants inside from any wandering looters. The orange rays turned the overcast sky red and yellow, a pretty sight in an otherwise bleak environment. Small flecks of snow began to fall as she began her journey further into downtown Manehattan in search of the Aerion Technologies HQ building.
That CEO was the only lead they had at this point, and Rainy was determined to find her and keep her safe, even if Command objected to it. She was a Division Agent, given the freedom of autonomy while operating in the field. Why not use it? The spellcaster could wait, her mission had revealed more important objectives than her directive. She would apologize later.
As she walked along the quiet streets, avoiding broken carriages and strewn luggage, she took a moment to fiddle with her equipment. The glitch that had affected her motion sensor had spread to the other functions of her HUD as well. The crosshair lagged, and her health indicator occasionally labeled her as deceased. Rather than try to rely on faulty equipment, Rainy just minimized the entire HUD, leaving her totally in the dark. Maybe this "MagiTech CEO" could help repair it, or at least identify what was happening.
She felt vulnerable without any of her equipment, and with her newfound limitations regarding her wings, she was way more handicapped than she wanted. Add a severed link to command on top of that, and an already tough mission was seeming more and more daunting.
The road to the headquarters was devoid of any life, or death. Perfect. If Aerion managed to avoid confronting rioters in the streets and hole up inside the building, there was a much higher chance of her being alive. It also made her job a lot easier, as she was not in the mood for getting into more firefights than she needed to. A full day's worth of fighting had taken a toll on her, along with a few shocking revelations rattling her mentally; she hoped she had enough left in the tank to deal with any resistance.
The snowfall had thickened by the time Rainy reached the HQ, heavy flakes sticking in her black and orange mane as she read the sign in front of the futuristic-looking building.
AERION TECHNOLOGIES
Building a Better Future - With Magic
The text was splattered with blood and riddled with bullet holes, and all the carriages in the parking lot were either broken into or overturned by overzealous rioters. The outside of the building was covered in graffiti, all calling for the consumption of the ruling class in varying degrees of grammatical competence. The front doors seemed to have fared the best, the magically-reinforced glass protecting against most looters looking for food or weapons. Well, until someone drove a carriage through it. The vehicle had been restarted and pounded through the doors, recently by the looks of it. Maybe she'd see some action after all.
Rainy stepped through the car-sized hole punched through the entrance, careful to avoid the glass shards underhoof. The doorway leads her into a large waiting room, the secretary's desk destroyed by the runaway carriage, sitting there leaking magical smoke. Muddy hoofprints and blood splatters stained the carpet along with overturned chairs and broken coffee tables, the mess leading deeper into the facility. However, before she could step out of the waiting room, there was a crackle as the intercom speakers sparked to life.
"Hello, and welcome to Aerion Technologies," chimed a smooth female voice over the speakers, clearly an automated message triggered when she entered the building. "Please check in with the secretary and have a seat until your name is called-"
The message is interrupted by a mechanical screech, making Rainy flinch in discomfort.
"Goddamn, that thing is annoying..." a new pony said over the speaker, a mare's voice as well, but different from the automated one. "Listen up. You don't look like a rioter... maybe I can trust you. If you don't know what you're doing, just turn around and leave now. There's nothing useful here for you, and you'll just get yourself killed."
Rainy looked right at the security camera mounted on the wall and shook her head. "I'm looking for Aerion Featherquill. Is she here?"
Silence greeted her for a few moments before the mare behind the intercom clicked it back on. "...Right, the microphones must be busted... Couldn't hear a thing you just said. Looks like you've got a commlink though. Hold on, let me connect to it real quick..."
There was a crackle in her earpiece as the mystery mare connected to her commlink remotely, bypassing her secure encryption so easily that Rainy perked her ears up. This mare had to be Aerion, if she was hacking into her equipment so effortlessly. She didn't even have time to object before the mare's voice pumped into her earpiece this time.
"Hello? Can you hear me now?" the mare asked.
"Yeah," Rainy replied, adjusting the volume on her commlink. "I'm looking for Aerion Featherquill. Are you her?"
"Maybe. Who the hell are you?"
"Agent Rainy. I'm with the Division, ma'am."
There's a pause, followed by a sigh from Aerion. "Just my luck. Should've known, with all that equipment you've got. Are you here for me, or just my tech?"
"I'm here to get you out. Agrippa Glimmershine has vouched for you personally."
Another pause. "...Huh, I guess she didn't forget about me."
"It wasn't her fault. The Base of Operations was assaulted, and she was captured. We just now got it back under our control."
"That explains why I haven't gotten any answers to my calls. I've been stuck here... 32 hours now, with no radio contact from anyone. I figured the power must've finally gone down over there."
"It did. Everything's fried; no lights, no heating, no lab tech, nothing. Agrippa says you would be able to bring it back online. Can you help?"
"Yeah... I've been working on a little something since I got here, and as much as I'd love to get out of this place, I can't just abandon it now. Bad news is, this job is gonna require more hooves than I've got, and I'm stuck in my panic room right now. But if you're willing to help... I think we can make this work. You capable of following directions?"
"Of course."
"We'll see about that. Head down to the power relay room, I need you to flip some switches."
"Got it," Rainy replied, stepping out of the ruined waiting room into the building itself, the hallways deserted.
"Oh, also, I'd advise you to be careful. There seems to be some uninvited guests wandering the place looking for me as well, and they don't look the friendly type. Let's hope you know how to use that fancy gun you're holding..."
Rainy just rolled her eyes as the commlink went quiet, and she checked the map posted on the wall for the location of the power relay room before continuing deeper into the HQ. So that was the CEO she was looking for. She didn't seem thrilled to see that she was a Division Agent, which means she had experience or inside knowledge with the Shadowbolts. Hopefully that wouldn't sour their working relationship too much; one mare at the base hating her guts was enough.
Rainy took a shortcut through what looked like a small lab, with all the equipment trashed and overturned by the roaming rioters that had come through here. Almost nothing looked salvageable in the mess; the rioters were thorough in their destruction. However, while she carefully made her way through the room, a small device still laying on the table caught her eye, and she picked it up in a hoof to examine it. It looked like a cross between an epinephrine injector and a laser pointer, with a large red cross emblazoned on the front of it. She could make out an injection needle stored in the end of it, and two buttons near the top: Personal and Ranged. Something that looked like a status bar was green and full, signaling Ready for Use.
As she examined the device, her earpiece crackled to life as Aerion gained access once more. "Take that with you, you'll need it. I’m surprised one of them survived intact…”
Rainy nodded and clipped it into her utility belt before continuing. "What is it?"
"First aid device that cauterizes wounds and promotes healing. Effective against both external damage and internal trauma. Reusable, recharges over time. Options for personal and remote application. Hopefully you won’t have to use it, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared, right?”
“Roger that. Does it work with the virus as well?”
“Pfft, I wish it were that easy. I wouldn’t be leaving the cure just laying around, would I?”
“Fair point, ma’am.”
She poked her rifle out of the open door frame, checking that both ends of the hallway were clear before stepping out and continuing. She was getting closer to the power relay room now, and as she got deeper and deeper into the facility, the destruction got less and less severe, as the rioters clearly lost interest in their mindless rampage by this point.
“Heads up," Aerion interrupted once more. "A lot of my cameras are offline, so I’m more blind here than I would like… but I think you’ve got a gang of intruders headed your way. Looks like they’ve got guns too.”
“Copy. Thanks for the warning.”
Rainy quickly ducked behind an open doorway as incoming hoofsteps confirmed Aerion’s warning. The pattern of the steps confirmed at least six combatants, and the clinking of guns against their sides was also audible.
“Chase, we’ve been searching this place for hours…” one of the ponies, a mare’s voice, started. “How do we know that she’s even still here?”
“She has to be,” a stallion responded. “Gray Heart saw her enter this place herself, and no one has left. We just haven’t found her hiding spot yet.”
“You think the other guys have had better luck?”
“I’m sure we would’ve heard something from them by now if they were… let’s just stay focused. That ransom money is the only thing getting us out of this hellhole…”
Rainy slid the magazine out of her rifle to verify it was full before pushing it back in and flicking off the safety. She waited until the hoofsteps echoed from just outside her hiding spot before spinning out of the door, bracing her rifle against the door frame as she aimed at the rioters.
Six ponies, most of them wielding pistols and rifles looted from fallen EUP soldiers, but two of them still carried hoof-to-hoof weaponry only. They froze in place and let out whinnies of surprise at the sudden sight of Rainy, but before they could react, she pulled the trigger, pumping two bursts into the two rioters nearest to her and blowing them back. The group recovered from the shock and raised their own weapons before she could shift her aim to a third target, forcing her to retreat into the room before they could fire back.
"W-What the fuck was that? Was that her?"
"No, it's probably just some overzealous do-gooder. Push up! She can't take all of us at once!"
Rainy waited patiently just to the side of the door frame for the looters to build up the courage to follow her. As soon as the first rioter stuck their rifle barrel through the threshold, she grabbed it with her hooves and yanked hard, pulling the off-balance pony forward to deliver a cracking headbutt to the forehead, dropping the stallion onto the ground. She quickly leveled her own rifle and unloaded a burst into the fallen rioter. Three down, three to go...
Suddenly, suppressive fire from the hallway drove her back into the room. The Shadowbolt stumbled back behind the desk to take cover as the two melee rioters swarmed into the room, emboldened by the covering fire of their surviving ally. Rainy poked her rifle out from the side of her cover and fired blind bursts, and a bullet caught one of the melee ponies and dropped them. However, she's forced to reposition as the second rioter bared down on her. He swung his fire ax where her head was just a second earlier, and the head sank into the desk. Rainy scrambled back and climbed to her hooves once more, her rifle firing into the advancing stallion. She didn’t stop until she heard a CLICK from her empty magazine, and the rioter was dead at her hooves. One more...
With no time to reload, Rainy quickly shouldered her empty rifle and spun towards the last rioter as he stepped through the door, reaching down to her thigh for the holstered pistol strapped there... only for her hoof to come up empty. A jolt of panic shot through her as she realized: she had left her pistol with Agrippa back at the base. She was left completely unarmed.
As the looter raised his own rifle to fire, Rainy quickly spun back towards the desk to dive into cover, but she wasn't fast enough. Searing pain ripped through her side as she slid behind the desk, unable to hold back the scream of agony. She felt blood quickly begin to soak into her flight suit, staining her white fur red. She scooted back further along the floor before unzipping her suit and tugging it open to see the damage. At least two entry points along her side, broken ribs and internal bleeding likely... but nothing immediately fatal. The immediate pain had faded into burning ache and a tingling loss of feeling, and her breath came in ragged gasps.
"Ha! Gotcha, bitch!" the rioter roared in triumph, snapping Rainy's pain-filled brain back into action. As she heard his hoofsteps approach to finish her off, she quickly grabbed for her last flashbang, activated it, and rolled it towards the end of the desk as the rioter rounded it.
"Shi-"
He was interrupted by a pop and a flash of light. The stallion cursed and stumbled back as his vision went all white. Rainy uncovered her eyes and quickly grabbed a fresh magazine, sliding it into her rifle and forcing herself back to her hooves. Bracing the gun against the top of the desk, she was able to shakily aim at the blinded rioter and fire, dropping him to the ground.
Once she was certain he was dead, Rainy slumped back down to the ground, the exertion of standing taking all the energy she had. She stared up at the ceiling with glazed eyes, the puddle of her own blood beginning to grow underneath her. The urge to close her heavy eyes was so tempting... but she was snapped back awake by the chime of her SPARC, and Aerion's voice filled her ears.
"The injector! Use it quick, you idiot!"
The injector. Rainy's muddled brain took a second to process this, but once she did, she quickly snagged the device off her belt. After a few failed attempts, she managed to press the personal button on the side before jamming the device against the outside of her thigh. The needle punching through her fur, and magical energy began pumping into her body. The burning sensation of pain dispersed almost immediately, drawing a sigh of relief from Rainy. And after she pulled back her uniform to look at the bullet holes once more, she could see the entry points being filled with some kind of biofoam, stitching her body back together in just a few seconds.
"...T-That's incredible..." Rainy gasped.
Aerion chuckled in response. "Impressive, huh? Thanks for being my guinea pig."
Rainy blinked. "You... didn't know if this thing was gonna work?"
"Well, it's worked in controlled tests, but that's the first time it's been utilized in the field. Congratulations, you're part of Aeri-Tech history."
"I'm honored..."
After checking to make sure her wounds were fully healed, Rainy zipped her suit back up and climbed to her hooves, stepping over the bodies of the fallen rioters on her way. She made her way out of the room into the hallway before taking a left and moving deeper into the facility. There was no lingering pain in her side; she felt as if she hadn't been shot at all. She took a glance down at the device - only 20% recharged - as she finally reached her destination.
Rainy activated her SPARC to reestablish contact with Aerion. "I've made it to the relay room, ma'am."
"Alright..." Aerion responded, a shuffle of papers audible. "There should be a switch right in front of you when you enter the room. Big, brightly colored, you can't miss it."
Rainy pushed open the door and stepped into the room, the space filled with consoles and relays, loose wires dangling from the ceiling. In the middle of the room sat a large generator shaped object, a yellow switch clearly visible on the side.
"Yeah, I see it," Rainy said as she moved over to examine it.
"Good. I need you to flip it so it's in the upward position, but I need to flip the switch on my end at the same time, so we have to be in sync for this," Aerion instructed.
"Got it. Just say the word," Rainy said, placing a hoof on the switch in preparation.
"On my mark. 3, 2, 1, mark."
"Mark," Rainy confirmed with a grunt as she pushed upwards on the heavy switch, flipping it into the active position.
As soon as she did, a rumbling noise started emanating from the generator, coupled with the roar of a similar generator somewhere underneath her, vibrating the floor beneath her hooves. The lights dimmed briefly before coming back online brighter than before, her goggles automatically dimming to accommodate for the excess light.
"Hm... that sounds promising..." Aerion hummed through the link. "Good work Agent, your switch-flipping skills are remarkable."
"Yeah, you're welcome," Rainy huffed, now becoming annoyed at the sarcasm dripping off Aerion's voice. "Is that all you needed?"
"Almost. I've got one more thing for you to do before we're done. Head down to the basement, that's where the main generator is located. And please hurry, the noise of this thing will bring any remaining rioters running, and being ponynapped is not on my to-do list today..."
"Yes ma'am. I've been on enough rescue missions today already."
Rainy re-equipped her rifle before stepping back out of the relay room into the hallway, where the maintenance stairway down to the basement was only a few meters away. The downstairs area was dimly lit by a few light bulbs swinging from the ceiling, the light revealing several large generators sitting ominously, only one of them rumbling with power. She stepped up to one of them, brushing a hoof across the surface, collecting the dust that had settled there.
"Alright, I'm here," Rainy said through the link. "What do you need me to do?"
"There should be another switch on the biggest generator in there," Aerion answered. "We'll have to sync our flips again, but it shouldn't be too difficult. Just make sure you're pulling the lever on the one that isn't already powered up and running."
"Got it. Inactive generator, big switch..." Rainy mumbled in response as she stepped into the middle of the room, quickly finding the right lever and placing her hoof on it. "Ready."
"Alright, same thing as before... 3, 2, 1, mark."
"Mark."
As she pushed up on the switch, the generators around her roared to life, much louder down here than up above. She stepped back from the machines and watched them fire up, the panels along the outside starting to glow as the magic inside began to work. These weren't the ancient, hulking generators in the subway; these were sleek, modern machines, like something out of a science fiction book. After the initial loud startup, the generators quieted down to a rumble, efficiently working to pump power through the wires.
Her earpiece chimed, and Aerion's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "Excellent work, Agent. You follow instructions better than I thought. I've got just a few more steps to finish in here, so hopefully we can slip out before the other rioters notice we're here-"
Before Aerion could finish talking, she was interrupted by the basement door being flung open, followed by a squad of rioters streaming out, drawn to the sound of the generators like moths to light. They quickly gathered in front of her with raised rifles and brandished swords, blocking her route to the exit. There were at least ten of them in the group, and by the looks of how they handled their weapons, they knew how to use them.
"Put the gun down now!" the looter in front demanded, his gun barrel pointed at her face.
Normally, she would have the speed and agility to take them all out, even while surrounded like this... but without her wings, she was handicapped. She slowly slipped her rifle off her shoulder and set it on the ground before straightening up, her eyes not leaving the lead rioter.
"...She's a little bit orange... Are you Aerion Featherquill?" he asked her, a little unsure of himself.
"No," Rainy replied simply.
"How do we know you're not lying?" a mare behind the lead rioter chimed in.
"I look nothing like her," the Shadowbolt retorted, rolling her eyes, hoping that was the truth. "I'm just here for supplies, same as you guys."
"We're not here for supplies. We're here to find a way out of this hellhole."
"Well, I'm sorry, but you're looking in the wrong place for that," Rainy shrugged. "Just let me go, and I promise I won't bother you."
The lead stallion didn't respond to her, tilting his head to address his squad instead. "What do you think we should do with her?"
One stallion chimed in immediately. "I say we kill 'er! She's probably gonna stab us in the back!"
"Why not just take her hostage as well?" a second pony asked, a mare. "Look at all that gear she has. She has to be worth something."
"I like that idea. Even if she isn't worth good ransom money, I'm sure we could find some other use for her..." another stallion added, a dangerous tone to his voice.
Rainy didn't like where this conversation was going. If they weren't going to let her go, she was gonna fight her way out. But she couldn't fight such a large group head-on in the open like this; she needed the element of surprise.
"Aerion..." Rainy whispered under her breath into her commlink, hoping she could hear her. "I need you to cut the lights."
"If you insist," Aerion answered. "One second."
There was a brief moment of silence as the faint whirring noise above them cut out, followed by the total shutoff of the lights, plunging the group into darkness. Rainy quickly grabbed her rifle and scrambled to cover, hiding behind one of the generators and out of sight of the attackers as they looked around in surprise.
"Who touched the light switch? Turn them back on!"
"T-That wasn't us!"
"Wait, where'd the mare go?"
"Shit, find her!"
Her goggles, previously dimmed from the bright florescent lights of the main floor, now brightened her vision, allowing her to see in the near-perfect darkness while the rioters floundered around helplessly. She slinked from shadow to shadow, occasionally raising her rifle to take out any looter that strayed too far from the main group, careful to keep moving so the ponies couldn't track her by her muzzle flashes.
"Fuck, she got Tundra!"
"She's gonna pick us off one by one!"
Rainy flinched behind her cover as a rioter blindly opened fire around him, accidentally hitting one of his friends in the process.
"Stop fucking shooting, you fucking idiots! You're gonna kill us before she has a chance to!"
"Take your flashlights out, everyone look for this bitch!"
Several streams of bright light filled the dark room as the rioters pulled their flashlights out, illuminating the hidden corners of the room as they swept for her hiding spot. She couldn't fire now; her muzzle flash would immediately give away her position, and she wouldn't be able to reposition fast enough before their searchlights locked onto her. She needed to go quiet.
Rainy slung her rifle over her shoulder and slid her combat knife out of its sheath, waiting for a rioter to get too close. When one unfortunate stallion poked his head around her hiding spot, she lurched forward, one hoof covering his mouth while the other jabbed the blade into his throat, tugging him back out of sight as he gurgled and went limp.
She tugged the knife out of the dead rioter and slipped out of her hiding spot, hidden in the darkness as long as she avoided the flashlights. Rainy slinked behind the nearest pony and jabbed the blood-soaked blade into the back of her hind leg, just above the hoof. When the mare gasped and fell back onto her flank as her leg gave out, Rainy tugged back on her mane and slit her exposed throat, tossing her to the ground.
The sound of the gasp from her victim attracted the attention of another looter, and the stallion turned to focus his flashlight on Rainy. But before he could raise the alarm, Rainy readjusted the grip on her knife and hurled it at the rioter, sinking it into his eye and dropping him. The beam of light skittered away from her as he collapsed to the ground.
With their numbers sufficiently thinned out, Rainy then raised her rifle and dropped the last three rioters with well-placed bursts, not giving them a chance to turn and return fire. She was left alone in the dark, panting softly as the adrenaline continued to course through her body. Blood soaked her hooves and dripped down her cheek, but it wasn't her own.
"...It's quiet in there..." Aerion said through the link, interrupting the silence. "You alright?"
Rainy nodded, even though Aerion couldn't see her do it. "Yeah. You can turn the lights back on now."
"Phew... all those bullets around my tech made me nervous. I'm opening my panic room now, come on in if you want to see me put on the finishing touches."
The lights in the room flickered back on, revealing the bodies surrounding her, with Rainy standing in the middle of them. A whirring noise from behind her made her turn, and she saw a hidden panel in the wall open up to reveal a hidden room. It was surprisingly large for a panic room. CCTV monitors lining the back wall showing video surveillance of the place, though a lot of the screens only showed static now. Control panels and radio equipment filled the rest of the room, with a work bench sitting in the middle, a lab coat and several MagiTech devices resting on it.
As Rainy carefully stepped past the entryway into the room, she was finally able to see the occupant in the corner. A light orange mare was fiddling with one of the control panels, her fur the color of peach fuzz. Her mane was a deep brown, with a bright orange stripe just above the eyes. She was a pegasus as well, but she had tied her wings against her torso with rope, perhaps to stop herself from using them and getting infected. And when she turned to look at Rainy as she entered, she was able to see that her eyes were a brilliant blue, shining brightly despite the dark rings underneath them. She was exceptionally young for a CEO; she looked like she still belonged in university.
"I guess all the stories about you agents are true... That was impressive." Aerion remarked, leaning against the wall as she looked Rainy over. "I'm just glad you're one of the nice ones."
"What can I say? We're the best of the best for a reason," Rainy said, tilting her head. "What do you mean, 'nice ones'?"
"The stories about your friends aren't exactly flattering, to say the least..." Aerion replied as she walked across the room to fiddle with more buttons on a different panel. "The first wave especially, what a mess that was..."
Rainy blinked. "Wait, you know what happened to the first wave?"
"No one knows what happened. The rumors aren't very flattering..." Aerion said cryptically as she worked. "But that's a story for later. I'm trying to finish this up and get out of here. I've been stuck in this room for too long."
Rainy grunted, desperately wanting to sate the curiosity gnawing away inside her, but she didn't want to press Aerion for information and break their fragile trust. "Sure. What are you doing?"
"I've been stuck down here for quite a while, but I've actually been pretty productive during that time. I was able to connect this building's generators into the city power lines. All that switch flipping you did powered them all back on, and all I need to do now is pump the power into the lines from here to the Base of Operations. That should hold us over until we get the city's main power source back online," Aerion explained as she jumped from control panel to control panel, adjusting dials.
"Is that why you left the Base to come here?" Rainy asked.
"Mmhm," Aerion flicked an ear in response as she worked. "The citywide generators had gone down already, and that dinosaur in the subway was going to fall apart at any second, so I thought I'd go start on something to keep us running until more support arrived. I guess it's a good thing I left when I did, if what you said was true."
Rainy nodded. "Yeah, we're completely dark at the station... this will be a huge help."
"Alright, just give me a few seconds and I'll have power restored to the base."
Rainy tilted her head. "Really? It's that easy?"
"Of course it isn't,” Aerion snorted. “I've spent hours tinkering with this thing, you just decided to show up for the ending."
Aerion walked over to the main control panel and pressed a few buttons before activating it. After a few tense moments, status messages began to pop up on the screen, all of them green.
Rainy stepped forward. "Did it work?"
"Everything looks good on my end..." Aerion responded as she read through the status messages. "But we won't know for sure until we actually see the lights on at the base."
Rainy nodded, sliding her rifle off her shoulder. "Let's get going then."