The group had barely made it more than a few feet before a hail of gunfire flew down the hallway, shredding the already crumbling concrete walls to little more than brick dust and damp paint.
“Smart-guns, see the bullet holes?” Phantom grunted. “Don’t let them get an angle on you, stay away from corners.”
Smart-guns could bend their trajectory mid-flight which allowed them to track their targets even if what you wanted to shoot at was behind cover or around a corner, although there were a number of drawbacks involved.
The weapon relied upon the shooter’s cyberware to provide it with targeting data, and without it the weapon was far more likely to miss more often than not, due to the somewhat slower speed at which the projectiles traveled whenever it wasn’t given a target to track.
The degree to which it could bend said trajectory was dependent on the weapon, the shooter’s cyberware, the targeting software, and environmental conditions. While it could be expected that such a weapon system would work well in areas where the target could not easily maneuver, it instead did the opposite.
The hallways were simply too narrow to allow the weapon to function at its best, but despite this, the armored troopers creeping their way down the hall looked like they’d be able to compensate for their equipment’s shortcomings somewhat.
“Crown Agents, specifically of the Black Hoof unit.” Matterhorn said. “They’re the kinds of ponies you send when someone like me fails to complete an assignment.”
“On a scale of one to ten, just how screwed are we?”
“Probably a seven.” Matterhorn offered. “That one at the very end of the hall is probably the only one out of the whole squad that’s seen the inside of an augmentation clinic, the others are probably just there to make sure this one actually comes back.”
“Like Lucky was supposed to?”
“No.” Matterhorn said plainly. “She was in charge despite how it looked to the rest of you, these ones appear to be subordinate.”
Phantom peered around the corner at the approaching squad, four with Smart Submachine guns and the last of them at the very rear without a weapon which was quite concerning.
Layers of thick jet black bulletproof composite armor plating covered the pony’s body, much of which was dedicated to protecting vital organs such as the lungs and heart, and even more than that protected the horn, head, and neck.
“We’re not punching through armor like that with the guns we have on us.” she grunted. “How’re we doing this?”
“Is the elevator still on this floor?” Matterhorn asked, pushing Phantom away from the corner. “If it isn’t I’ll have to hold them back for as long as it takes.”
He planted his hooves firmly on the ground and summoned a barrier that spanned the width of the corridor and then turned to point at the elevator, as if to tell them to get a move on.
While it was likely pretty pointless to try and make as little noise as possible now, Access crept to the call button and pushed it gently. The elevator whirred to life as expected but he let out a sharp tut as he looked at the indicator, which showed that it had moved away from them at some point and was now three floors away.
One of the troopers peered around the corner and Matterhorn wasted no time in flinging a few magical bolts of energy in his direction as a distraction, many of which ended up in the walls and floor, but one found its way to the troopers right eye.
He stumbled back due to the force at which it struck, although it didn’t seem to have penetrated the trooper’s helmet. Despite that, it struck with enough force to at least do something useful. Whatever that was had been enough to render him a non-threat as he slumped to the floor.
“I knew they’d send them somehow.” Phantom remarked strangely. “I figured they would.”
“You… figured?”
“Eyes forward, Matterhorn!”
A roughly cylindrical object bounced off the wall opposite the hallway the troopers were, which rolled along the floor, and came to a stop at Matterhorn’s hooves. Before he could bark out a warning, the object detonated with a resounding bang and a bright white light flooded the halls.
Before he knew it, Matterhorn was a writhing mess on the floor thanks to the effects of the object, which was more than likely some kind of flashbang.
“Someone drag Matterhorn back here!” Access yelled, trying to light his horn unsuccessfully. “Something ain’t quite right with that stun grenade they just threw, I can normally muster at least a weak telekinesis spell, but my horn won’t work.”
Phantom leapt to her hooves and went to drag Matterhorn to safety just as the rest of the troopers rounded the corner, sans the unfortunate recipient of Matterhorn’s magical assault who now appeared to be in some distress, perhaps the bolt he threw did more harm than was first apparent.
The trooper’s full-face helmets hid their expressions, but the heavy atmosphere made it quite clear that they weren’t best pleased.
They lazily pointed their weapons at them just waiting for them to be given an excuse to shoot, as at this range, their smart guns wouldn’t miss no matter where their quarry thought to hide.
“We’re here to deal with two problems, don’t make yourselves one of them.” Raptor said calmly, then craned his head to look at one of the troopers behind him. “Tend to the wounded.”
“Which one are you?” Star asked. “I don’t recognize your voice.”
“Which… one?” Raptor said slowly. “Ah yes, you ponies are obsessed with names, the briefing said so. I’m Raptor, not that it matters any. Your friends are tied up in their van, so I’d appreciate it if you lowered your weapons.”
“You better not have harmed them, or I’ll rip out your neuralware with my bare hooves.” Access growled.
“Big words coming from such a small, sad, excuse for a pony.” Raptor chuckled. “I imagine that would be quite painful, but it would pale in comparison to what I’ll do to you if you dare try it.”
“Sir, if I may?” one of the troopers said with a cable connected to the port in Matterhorn’s neck. “The device appears to have had the desired effect on his nervous system, it’s unlikely he’ll be a threat even if he does wake up sooner than expected.”
“That wasn’t an ordinary flashbang, was it?” Access asked. “They’re pretty obsolete since most optics compensate for stuff like that.”
“No, it wasn’t.” Raptor replied coldly. “But that’s irrelevant, what is relevant however is that’s one problem dealt with.”
“I’m guessing that we’re the second problem.” Star added. “Since we’re not riddled with holes yet, I’m guessing there’s more to that.”
“It remains to be seen whether you’ll hand it over to us, the data you were sent here to steal I mean.” Raptor remarked with a shrug. “Judging by the look on your face, I don’t think you were aware that the job involved us.”
“Why did you come in here guns blazing then?”
“Ah, well, there was the matter of our lost property which as you can imagine we were quite eager to retrieve.” Raptor remarked, giving Matterhorn a sharp kick in the face. “Thank you by the way, but there’s no bonus in it for you.”
Phantom pointed her sidearm at the side of Raptor’s head as he passed her, but found it being twisted from her grasp. Without looking, Raptor had much of her forehoof and weapon in his magical grip, firmly in his control.
“Don’t think the deal you cut with the bosses will save you.” Raptor sneered. “Try that again and I’ll be sure to tell the Director that you met with an unfortunate accident, wouldn’t that be sad?”
Phantom turned to the others with an unreadable expression on her face. “You’ve got ten seconds, make the most of them.”
Suddenly, the troopers screeched out in pain, smoke billowing out from underneath their helmets. Raptor didn’t seem to be as affected by whatever was happening, but he loosened his grip enough for her to toss a memory chip into the elevator cabin before he regained enough composure to punch her in the stomach and face.
He then tore her gun from her hoof and blindly fired off a magazine’s worth of shots at the elevator as its doors slowly closed, after which a loud thud and a sickening crunch echoed through the cabin which left a large round dent in the inner door.
The elevator continued on its way for a time before either of them noticed that Snowy hadn’t said anything in a little while, as well as the wisps of smoke rising from his unresponsive body which was propped up against the side of the elevator cabin. He’d shielded Star from the majority of the gunfire, and paid the price for it when the bullets hit something vital.
Star was moments from having a full-blown panic attack but Access put a comforting hoof on her shoulder and soon got to work prying off parts of his steel and polymer body, much to her confusion and barely contained rage.
“What are you doing!?”
“Removing his core, obviously.”
“What?”
“Synthetic bodies have removable modules that house their core intelligence and supporting hardware, It’s been that way since… twenty-thirty or so I think.” Access remarked. “Someone will have to carry it though, and it’s a little unwieldy.”
“So, he’s alive, I thought that…”
“Once I remove it, his body will just be a bunch of scrap without a brain.” Access stressed, trying to comfort the mare as best he could. “Everything important for his operation will be on something we can lug out of here.”
“I owe you a full pallet of whatever beer you drink, Access.” Star said, letting a sigh of relief leave her mouth. “If we ended up having to leave him behind, I don’t know what I’d do.”
“I’m the same with Sheet, actually.” Access nodded, pulling the last body panel off. “We’ve been running together for so long it seems crazy to think that it could be any other way.”
“I suppose if you work and live together long enough some things just don’t need to be said, do they?” Star sighed, letting herself drop to the floor with exhaustion. “Sorry if I’m making things awkward, I feel like my head’s gonna explode.”
“Gotta cope with the stress somehow, take some time to breathe.” Access ordered. “Elevator’s got a ways to go yet.”
Access finally managed to get to the dimly glowing collection of wires and circuit boards at the center of Snowy’s body. Like others of its type, his AI Core was a roughly oblong shaped piece of machinery with one side entirely covered in connection points, where it could interface with a Synthetic body.
It came equipped with a carry handle and integrated carry case for situations where it needed to be protected while it was moved between bodies or linked into a local subnet, and as Access was about to assume responsibility for carrying it, Star insisted that she should be the one to carry it which he would not argue with.
She could keep it balanced between her wings well enough, as it wasn’t very heavy. At worst, it felt like carrying a particularly weighty office chair.
“When the door opens, look for a way out, I’ll cover you.”