Access hauled a heavy coil of cable from the back of the van to a sealed up access panel on the Arcology’s outer wall, though not without a certain amount of irritated grumbling and muttering.
The rapid increase in the general temperature in and around Equestria as a whole hadn’t done much to curb the Everfree Forest’s humidity, and if anything it might’ve made it that much worse to work in, especially to ponies that normally had the luxury of air conditioners.
“Keep a look out, I’m gonna need a moment to find a line to tap into.” Access grunted. “With luck, we’ll find some fiber lines we can hijack. It probably wont be stable enough for a deep dive, but it should last long enough for what we need it for.”
“Twenty says he’ll find an old copper landline cable box.” Scarlet whispered to Sheet Rock. “Ten more if it’s corroded to shit.”
It didn’t take Access long to locate a seam in the Arcology’s outer shell, indicative of a hidden utility panel. With a well placed strike on its bottom edge, the dark steel panel deformed around Access’ cybernetic hoof and fell to the ground with a soft thud as it landed in a mud puddle.
“Access Point?”
“Environmental control.” Access said with a shake of his head. “Can you give me a hoof here, this kind of thing is more your area of expertise.”
“A deep dive in the middle of a humid forest is a bad idea.” Sheet Rock nodded. “Makes my plugs itch just thinking about it, actually.”
Sheet Rock looked inside the cabinet at the mess of corroded cabling that ran between a small control panel and a couple of internal plastic conduits and went about tracing where they went with a few tricks she’d learnt from Phantom.
Thankfully, at least a couple fiber pairs linked to an active environmental control system deep underground, and through these cables they could manipulate its functions and access other systems, at least that was the hope.
If that didn’t work, they could always enter through the intake duct above them using Snowy’s array of inbuilt tools, a hardware option that he admitted got very little use despite it being a prominent feature of his chassis.
“I think I’ve got the right circuit pinned down here, but I don’t really know what’ll happen if I start messing with it.” Sheet Rock admitted.
“Only one way to find out, right?” Access replied. “Try to stop the fan in the intake up there.”
Sheet Rock connected a cable to a port inside the box and then sent every command she could think of that an environmental control system might respond to into the circuit she’d isolated.
It only took a few moments before one of the commands appeared to have some effect and the fan slowly groaned to a halt, unable to overcome the decades of corrosion and bearing damage accumulated over decades without its motor.
“I don’t think I’ve ever asked why, but I’ve noticed you don’t always have to use your chairs when running.” Snowy remarked as he went about removing the fan from its hub. “If you can do that without having to be completely vulnerable, why would you inflict that upon yourself at all?”
“Every net connected device has some kind of virtual interface, it’s just part of how the net and things connected to it operate.” Scarlet interjected. “But not all require complete control of your nervous system to navigate, some are simple menus projected as an AR display, others need full immersion, and sometimes it can be somewhere in between.”
“Interesting.”
“Deep dives are Access’ specialty, and his Cyberware reflects that. I’m more of an electronics and mechanics kind of mare.” Sheet Rock pointed out. “If it were up to me I would’ve remained a Techie so I could focus on maintaining our gear, but Access insisted I get neural plugs too, so I did.”
“Strength in numbers.” he stressed. “Besides, you didn’t exactly put up much of a fight when I pitched the idea.”
“It’s all ancient history anyway, our skill sets are pretty much on par with each other now.”
Snowy pulled at one of the fans blades to gradually wiggle it loose, but the layers of rust made this a slow prospect.
“And Scarlet?” he continued, probing further. “As I understand it, she’s far too responsible and level headed to ever consider agreeing with your plans willingly.”
Scarlet couldn’t help but chuckle at that assessment.
“No offense intended, of course.”
“We met through the net, as most Runners do.” Scarlet recalled. “I can’t remember the name of the BBS we were on at the time, but it was offering small jobs to pretty much anybody with a working deck, script-foal stuff, cracking registration locks on software if I remember correctly.”
“It was good money, still is really.” Access stated. “Besides, the clients never specified that we couldn’t keep what we cracked.”
“Pretty much every foal with fresh interface plugs has a deck full of pirated software.” Sheet Rock nodded. “Nobody I knew ever paid for the latest version of Killer or Flatline if we had anything to say about it.”
“Good times.”
“What’s got you so interested in our personal histories all of a sudden though?”
Snowy stopped what he was doing for a second to consider his answer. “Before we embarked on this little escapade, the young miss told me that I personally should consider learning more about you all.”
“Why?”
“When we first met, I was convinced you’d use her as a tool for personal gain, then throw her away once all was said and done.” Snowy pointed out without a hint of emotion. “We knew that Lower Canterlot wasn’t a place we wanted to be, let alone the Sprawl, so when we had to move there I was prepared to do what I had to in order to safeguard her well-being.”
“Course this is where you found out not everyone in Lower Canterlot is a lunatic. You probably should’ve listened to Star when she told you as much.” Scarlet remarked. “I mean there’s a pony on the ground floor of your apartment building who could be called a little nutty, but he’s harmless really.”
“That said, it took some convincing on the young miss’ part to get me to believe you meant no harm, though Access fitting me with some upgrades helped your case, of course.” Snowy remarked. “I realize this might sound ridiculous, but I think you three might actually have done more for her in the short time we’ve known each other that you realize.”
With a final tug, the fan broke away from its hub and tumbled down the side of the Arcology, breaking into little more than rusted pieces of scrap metal as it went.
It would’ve been easier for Snowy to remove had a mesh designed to stop foreign objects entering the duct not been in the way, but since it was almost as rusty and flimsy as the fan itself, it was easy enough to pry loose with the use of his Integrated Toolset and a little elbow grease.
The opening was large enough to stand upright in and just about wide enough for two of them to stand side-by-side, and it seemed to continue on that way for some distance until there was little but darkness.
“I reckon we’ve got a little under an hour before they notice one of their air intakes isn’t pulling in anything anymore.” Sheet Rock chuckled nervously. “Someone should stay here with the van.”
“I’ll go, so will Access.” Snowy stated. “You two cover our exit route.”
“Interesting choice, but okay.”
“I have a feeling there’s a sheer drop or two in the duct, your cyberware will be of use.” Snowy pointed out. “They aren’t designed for organics, some amount of augmentation would’ve been taken into account when they considered who would maintain them.”
“Might actually get some use out of the new legs then.” Access replied. “Fair enough, lets get moving.”
“Environmental control, stage one, node three.” Phantom read off from a rusted sign. “Good enough.”
“About time.” Matterhorn grunted. “I swear if this is another dead end.”
“I still think we should’ve followed the signs I found.” Star added. “But no, Phantom just had to explore every single damned branch.”
It turned out the mess of hallways they found themselves in wasn’t as sprawling as they’d first thought, as many of the hallways were blocked off by heavy steel security doors that looked like they’d been welded to their own guide rails.
Security doors like the one’s they’d encountered, if unlocked and not welded to themselves, were usually fitted with electrical or hydraulic systems that allowed even a single pony to open and close them at will like they would any normal door.
Though try as they might, none of them could be opened, even with Matterhorn’s brutish strength.
“Something’s up.” Phantom said as she stepped through the door. “Listen, notice how quiet it is?”
“What?” Star asked. “No, I wasn’t really paying full attention.”
“Normally, high pressure air would be flowing through these pipes to the air conditioning and filtration systems.” Phantom said, pointing at the pipes in question. “But for some reason all this machinery isn’t running anymore.”
“I mean they were running when we got here, right?” Matterhorn asked, wandering about the room. “Should we be concerned?”
Phantom peered at a dimly glowing terminal screen on a metal desk, at what she assumed was a status readout.
It confirmed what she already suspected was the case. The intake fans which had been very audible until now, had been shut down after the system detected an abnormality with the main intake fan on the outside wall.
The system couldn’t get a reading back, and the intake fan was listed as missing, not off or not operating, but outright missing. It had tried to restart the intake fan over the course of a few minutes, but must’ve shut itself down to prevent any further damage after multiple attempts to correct the issue failed.
“Good news and bad news, which do you want first?”
“Bad news, may as well.” Star shrugged, drawing patterns in the thick dust on the floor. “We already can’t get out the way we came.”
“Standard protocol in the event of an intake or filtration error is to seal the intake and reverse the direction of the flow using auxiliary fans.” Phantom remarked from behind the screen. “Stops contaminants from settling in places they shouldn’t.”
“So, what, we’re stuck?”
“Our only other option is to find an outtake that drops us in the atrium and leave that way, which shouldn’t be too difficult.” Phantom said confidently. “Problem is we’d need to cut our way through the filters if we can’t open the security doors, which might upset the system even more and draw attention to us.”
“How long will it take to find a way?”
“Not long, I am the best runner you’ve ever seen.” Phantom remarked. “I’ll just need to find a blueprint of the duct network, wont take a moment.”
Star didn’t want to admit it, but that declaration made her feel a little more at ease. Matterhorn seemed as unbothered as usual, and had been looking around the room for a little while now, mostly at the mess of pipes and ducting that connected to various bits of machinery scattered about the room
Things were silent for a while, short of Phantom’s taps on the terminal’s keyboard and Star’s incessant pacing, at least until a new set of hooves appeared in the doorway, belonging to an aged and disheveled bat pony stallion.
His entrance hadn’t been noticed at all until he spoke a simple few words in a dry, quietly raspy tone, like he’d spent his entire life without uttering a word until this very moment.
“Visitors?” the stallion rasped. “What are you doing here?”