Fallout Equestria: Clearer Skies

by TicTac


Chapter 4: Research and Development

Chapter 4: Research and Development

I was, quite frankly, bored out of my mind. For the past couple weeks no one, pony or otherwise, had tried to kill us, and Scopes had insisted on only her and Qindeo exploring the various rooms of the Luna Needle, claiming I needed to ‘take it easy’ for a few days.

Staring out the window, where I was supposed to be watching for raiders and the like, I let my mind wander back to when I had first met Scopes…

~~~

Back in 199, I was a loner. I had lost both my mother and father when I was only a young colt, and was ‘raised’ by my uncle. He didn’t do much except give me a meal to eat and a place to sleep when I wanted it. So I grew reclusive, hanging out in the more secluded areas of the Stable, honing my already powerful flying skills and reading old gun magazines.

One day, after school had been let out, I was in my favorite spot in the Stable, a big unused storeroom on the very top floor, reading an old Ironshod Firearms magazine. I was disturbed by the sound of a stack of boxes near the door crashing to the floor. Curious, I flew over to investigate. As I approached, the sound of crying reached my ears.

What I found was a young black pegasus filly, about the same age as me. I landed next to her. She was lying sprawled on the floor, surrounded by fallen boxes and crying her eyes out. I nudged her with my hoof. “Hey, you ok?”

Her head jerked up towards me, her tear-filled eyes staring at me. “N-n-n-no.” She choked out.

To be honest, I didn’t quite know what to do, so when she started to cry into my shoulder, I let her. After a while, she finally stopped crying, and we both remained quiet for several minutes until the filly spoke.

“Th-thanks.” She said quietly, taking a step back. “A-are you gonna m-make fun of me too?”

“What? No! Why would I want to do that?” I replied, smiling. “My name is Desert, Desert Eagle.” I said, extending a hoof to her.

“Oh. M-my name’s Quick Scope, b-but you can call me Scopes if y-you want.” She said, shaking my hoof tentatively.

“Nice to meet you Scopes. So, why were you crying?” I asked.

“I-I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Come on, you can tell me.”

“A-alright, I guess. I-I c-can’t f-f-fly very well, a-and the others were m-making fun of me.” She said.

I shook my head. “Well that just won’t do!” I exclaimed. “I’m going to teach how to fly good and proper.”

~~~

I was snapped out of my daydream by a hoof tapping my shoulder. “Ah!” I exclaimed, whirling around, only to see Qindeo standing behind me. “Oh, it’s you. What’s up?”

“We found this huge room, but neither Scopes or I can get the door open.” The zebra replied, eyeing The Undoer.

“I’ll see what I can do. Lead the way.”

***

The massive metal door leading into the top level of the OFC R&D Center toppled over with a clang, the report of The Undoer echoing through the room.

“Now that’s how you open a door!” I declared, stepping over the door and onto a catwalk that overlooked the main room, five floors below.

Scopes and Qindeo followed me onto the catwalk, Scopes letting out a low whistle. “Let’s get down there.”

As we descended I showed them the logs from Dr. Oppenhoofer’s terminal, which intrigued Scopes as much as they had me, and explained to Qindeo exactly what everypony, and zebra, seemed to be after.

***

When we reached the bottom floor, the first thing I noticed was that it was a lot bigger than the floors above. It extended out in all directions from the main open area, branching off into a maze of hallways.

The main room had nothing in it, so Scopes and Qindeo checked the first room they saw, and I checked the one right next to it.

I pushed open the door, and looked around the small office it led to. The nameplate on the desk inside of the room read Dr. J. Robert Oppenhoofer. Lead Scientist. The only other things in the room were a terminal on top of the desk and the skeleton next to it.

I made my way over to the terminal, the screen flickering to life as I tapped a key on it. Only one audio log was on the terminal, so I downloaded it to my PipBuck and played it.

They’ve hit Seaddle! Everypony outside the Needle was vaporized. *rumble* I-I think something just collapsed, They’re getting everypony down to 198, but the radiation has already seeped through. They’ll all be zombies within a month.

There was a long pause, rumbling and screaming could be heard in the background along with the tapping of keys.

Well, this is the end. If anypony finds this, I’ve set the OFC into selective standby. Only me, the Princesses, Commander Rainbow Dash, or a direct descendant can fire it now, and I heard that both Princesses perished when Canterlot was hit. I pray that Rainbow Dash has enough time to exact a proper revenge with it, or something. This is Dr. J Robert Oppenhoofer, signing off. BANG!

The recording ended with a gunshot, and it then that I noticed the silver revolver lying on the floor behind the desk, next to Dr. Oppenhoofer’s skeleton. I picked it up. The revolver looked like it pre-dated even the war itself, and the nameplate on it confirmed it. It read Smith & Wesson .500.

I flicked open the cylinder, four rounds and a casing falling out onto the desk. There were two boxes of ammo for the revolver in the desk, and I slipped them into my saddle bags, reloading the revolver. I took a closer look at the grip, and noticed it had Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark on it, along with the word Radicalness.

“Damn.” I muttered, slipping it into the normally empty holster that was on my barding. I exited the office at the same time Scopes and Qindeo were exiting the room they had been in.

“You find anything?” Scopes asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, a revolver. What about you?”

“A bunch of medical supplies.”

***

We had moved deeper into the R&D facility, and had discovered to be some sort of control room. Rows of busted terminals filled the room, along with a large screen that had been shot into pieces.

“Hey! I found one that’s still working!” Scopes called out.

Qindeo and I moved over to where she was standing next to a terminal.

I scanned through the entries, and found what everypony was looking for, the plans and information to the Orbital Friendship Cannon. “Jackpot.”

“What is it?” Scopes asked, staring at the screen.

“It’s the plans to the Orbital Friendship Cannon.” I replied. “It’s what the Enclave, Steel Rangers, and zebras have all been looking for.”

Scopes nodded, and Qindeo remained silent as I downloaded the contents of the terminal to my PipBuck, and then shot the terminal with The Undoer.

As the report of my shot echoed away down the hallways, red bars began appearing on my EFS.

“You probably shouldn’t have done that.” Qindeo remarked as a turret dropped out of the ceiling in front of us.

“No shit Sherclop.” I said, yanking all of us to the floor as magical energy beams raked the floor behind us. Thinking quickly, I swung the Hyperion up and dove to the left, the barrel of The Undoer knocking over a filing cabinet. I fired three shots into the turret as it swung towards me, causing it to explode. “Let’s get out of here.”

***

We made it out of the R&D Center mostly unharmed, with only a few burns from grazing beams of magical energy. I was sitting back over by the windows, my battle saddle off. I was tinkering with The Undoer, seeing if there was any way to shorten the barrel. It wasn’t exactly the most maneuverable with a barrel that stuck out two feet. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure it out. I set the gun and battle saddle aside and pulled up the file on the OFC, staring at the text as it scrolled across the screen of my PipBuck.

P:\OFC>Orbital Friendship Cannon Information
P:\OFC>Commisioned for 165 more years
P:\OFC\Status>Passive: Standby
P:\OFC\Status>Active: Standby
P:\OFC\Firing_Ctrl>Firing Controls: 1/3 Active
P:\OFC\Firing_Ctrl>Active Locations: HMS Rainbow Dash, [HMS Luna], [Seaddle NLR OFC Center]
P:\OFC\Firing_Ctrl>Firing Permissions: [Princess Luna], [Princess Celestia], [Dr. Oppenhoofer, Descendants (?)], Cmdr. Rainbow Dash, Descendants (?)
P:\OFC\Firing_Ctrl>EC-1101 Override: Not Activated

Below that was a 3D model of the OFC. It had seven large clear cylindrical containers around the top, each filled with one of the colors of the rainbow. They sat on top of the main part of the cannon, a large cylinder. An inverted trapezoid was on the bottom, the barrel of the cannon sticking out the bottom of it.

Well, that’s not what I thought it would look like. I thought, dropping my leg back to the floor.

And explosion jerked me out of my thoughts. I turned my attention to the area outside the windows, seeing a fireball dissipating over a building about a block away.

“The fuck?” I muttered, bringing up my EFS as Scopes and Qindeo trotted over to me. The EFS display showed one yellow bar, with six red bars surrounding it. More explosions tore through the air as I hoofed open the door.

“What are you doing?” Scopes asked.

“Going to help whoever is out there.” I replied.

“Alright, but be careful. I’ll take Qindeo up into that building and cover you.” She said.

I nodded, and took to the air. Flying over the building, I saw six of what I recalled were called alicorns. They were surrounding a lone Steel Ranger, who was pelting the alicorn’s shields with missiles and grenades from his battle saddle, which was the source of the explosions. I hesitated, staring down at the Steel Ranger as memories of 199 came flooding back. I quickly shoved them away though, as the Ranger took down one of the alicorns. The other five began pelting him with spells from all directions. The Ranger went down.

I let out a yell and dove, kicking API rounds into The Undoer. I emptied the entire ten round clip into the lead alicorn. The first five rounds hit the shield with little bursts of flame, the next four causing it to flicker and then finally fail. The last round tore through the alicorn’s chest, setting her ablaze a moment later.

I let out a little whoop as I pulled out of my dive, beams of magic shooting up around me as the remaining four alicorns turned their attention towards me. I reloaded an flipped over, diving at the alicorns who were rising to meet me. That was a mistake. As soon as I began diving again, one of them was suddenly on top of me, dragging me towards the ground. She released me with just enough time for her to pull up, but for me to keep falling. I hit the ground, and everything went black.

***

When I came to, I was lying in a pile of rubble. I was bleeding from a gash in my leg, a piece of wood protruding from it. I tumbled to the ground out of the pile of rubble and onto the street, falling face-first into the dirt, knocking my Aviators off.

“Ow.” I muttered, getting up. Down the street I saw a single alicorn hovering between ma and the Steel Ranger. Scopes was hovering behind them, Qindeo standing behind her. To my dismay, I realized that The Undoer had been jammed badly from the fall, so I swung the Hyperion off my back and up to a firing position, standing on my hind legs and slipping my Aviators back on. I watched as the alicorn fired another spell at the Steel Ranger, noticing that her shield parted when she cast it.

I began making my way down the street towards the alicorn, an idea forming in my head as I approached. The Steel Ranger seemed to realized what I was doing and began to pour fire on the alicorn, drawing her attention completely. Before I could reach her though, a spell tore the Ranger in half, and the alicorn turned her attention to Scopes, who was looking at the two halves of Steel Ranger, mortified.

Oh no you don’t! I lofted into the air directly behind her and waited for the telltale glow from here horn. There! I saw it. I activated SATS and launched over the alicorn as her shield went down, dropping in front of her. As her shield parted to let the spell through, I fired. The round drilled straight into her head at the same moment her spell slammed into my chest.

I was thrown back with a burst of pain, slamming into the ground and sliding to a stop. Blood began to pool around me as I lay there, the edges of my vision beginning to darken. I saw Scopes appear above me, diving towards me at an antagonizingly slow rate as I blacked out.

***

When I returned to consciousness I was back inside the Luna Needle, lying on the floor of the atrium. I moaned and rolled over, Scopes’s face coming into focus. “What happened?”

“You took an alicorn’s spell to the chest.” Scopes replied, pulling me up into a sitting position. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

I shook my head, my vision still blurry. “How long was I out for?” I asked.

“About a day.” Scopes said, pushing my gear over to me. “You’ve got one hell of a scar on your chest, but other than that, I fixed you up pretty good.”

I looked down at my chest, and sure enough, there was a scar running diagonally from left to right across my chest. I looked back up at Scopes, my vision now clear. “Thanks.” I pulled my gear on with her help, making sure that my barding wasn’t going to tear open the scar.

Qindeo helped me to my hooves. “Now, I believe that Scopes said you had some exploring you wanted to do on the tenth floor.” He said.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

***

We were back on the tenth floor, Qindeo having been carried up by Scopes. I had wanted to explore it more to find out why the hell there was huge amounts of ammunition in what seemed like only hours before the bombs started falling.

I trotted around the walkway, kicking shell casings out of my way as I went. I poked my head into a small room that had had the door completely shot off its hinges. There was an audio recorder lying next to a skeleton that was splayed over a machine gun. I picked it up and plugged it into my PipBuck, playing it through the speakers. The voice was barely audible over the sound of gunfire.

Of all the days they would choose to attack, it had to be today! Fucking Solar Empire extremists, always trying crazy shit after Big Macintosh took that bullet for Celestia and Luna took over. Now they’re trying to get the plans to the OFC, not sure why though. Maybe ‘cause it-. The speaker was interrupted by the sound of bullets tearing the door off its hinges. Oh shit! The recording ended with the booming of a machine gun.

I unplugged the recorder and set it back down, looking around the small room. Behind the desk the machine gun was on top of, was a tall bookshelf, most of the books on it having been shot to pieces. I went over to it and pulled down one of the few books that wasn’t filled with holes. A neatly folded flag fell out of it. It was white, and in the center was the outline of what I assumed to be Celestia raising an orange sun. I placed it in my saddle bags with the NLR flag I had found the other day and trotted out of the room.

Well, it seems as if ponies have been trying to get at these plans ever since the OFC was built. I thought as I trotted over to where Scopes and Qindeo were raiding a medical cabinet.

“Find anything?” Scopes asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, I found out why this whole floor is covered in bullet holes and casings. Apparently, these NLR ponies had this huge battle against some Celestia-loyal extremist group known as the Solar Empire. They were after what everypony seems to be after now, the plans to the OFC.” I said.

Scopes nodded, and Qindeo just shrugged. “Scopes and I found a battle saddle she could mount that machine gun to, and enough parts to make four more. Not to mention all the sandbags, metal plates, and repair equipment.” The zebra said.

Scopes nodded eagerly. “Yeah! Although, the battle saddle needs some modifications, and there’s nothing to mount four new machine guns to.” She said.

“You could make a quad-mount.” I suggested, eyeing the pile of sandbags, scrap metal, machine gun parts, repair kits, welding materials, and medical supplies behind her.

Scopes squeed at my suggestion. “Yes! Then I could mount it onto the reception desk and reinforce it with all the sandbags and metal we found.”

I chuckled. “Yes, now there’s one more thing up here I want to check out, and then we should probably get all that stuff back down to the atrium.” I said. “This way.” I trotted towards a room that I had marked on my PipBuck’s map, hoping it was what I thought it was. Much to my delight, it was.

The door we now stood in front of was marked Armory, and had one hell of a lock on it. I broke a good five or six of my bobby pins on it, but finally got it open. The room was lined floor to ceiling with guns and ammo, but mostly ammo, as the guns were currently scattered around the tenth floor. “Jackpot.”

***

It took nearly ten trips to get all of the ammo and supplied we had gathered down to the atrium, and then It took several more hours to sort through it all.

“So, basically, we’ve got enough ammo for our weapons now to start our own army.” Scopes said, finishing up making the necessary modifications to the battle saddle she had found. She snapped the machine gun onto it with a loud click. “So what are we gonna do with it?”

I looked up from where I was stringing together a belt of .50 caliber rounds for the machine gun. “I think we should go and secure the HMS Rainbow Dash. We can’t have the only remaining fire control for the OFC fall into the hands of the Steel Rangers.” I said. “And I think it’s time we allowed Qindeo to have a weapon. He’s been with us for two weeks now and has only been helping us.”

Scopes nodded in agreement, not seeming to have heard the first part of what I had said. “Yeah, I don’t want to wear this thing anyway.” She said, nodding to the battle saddle at her hooves.

“Hey Qindeo, could you come over here a moment?” I called over to the zebra. He was finishing up reinforcing the reception desk with all the metal and sandbags we had found.

Qindeo nodded and trotted over to where Scopes and I were. “What’s up Desert?” He asked.

“Scopes and I have decided that we trust you enough to allow you to have a weapon.” I said. I held up a second Colt Hyperion we had found in the armory. It was nearly identical to mine, with subtle variations from being hoofmade instead of mass produced, and it also had a silencer. “I think that this would suit you nicely.”

Qindeo took the rifle, his eyes wide. “Really? I always wanted Garnet’s, that’s whose Hyperion you have, but he never even let me touch it. Thanks.”

I shrugged. “You’re welcome. Also, if you don’t mind, I would like it if you could wear this battle saddle if the need arises. We need something to provide a steady stream of cover fire, and Scopes’s AA-12 is too short ranged.” I said.

Qindeo nodded slowly, eyeing the battle saddle. “As you wish. It’s the least I could do.” He said.

“Good. Now I’ve been thinking, the Steel Rangers that you said were investigating the HMS Rainbow Dash aren’t going to find the plans to the OFC, since I have them, but they very well might discover the fire control for it.” I said, pausing a moment before continuing. “So I purpose that we find it before they do.”

“What? We can’t take out an entire platoon of Steel Rangers, that’s suicide!” Scopes protested.

I nodded. “Yes, but I don’t think they would have their entire platoon out on the ship. They’ll probably only have a squad or two. That, I think we can handle, especially when we have the element of surprise.” I said.

Scopes nodded slowly. “Alright Desert.” She said.

“Alright, so here’s the plan. There’s a cart outside the building across the street that seem mostly intact. I will pull you, Qindeo, in it, and Scopes will fly cover. We’ll fly out over the bay and come in from the opposite side, flying low. We’ll land on the stern, hopefully undetected at this point. The file says that the access to the fire controls will be located somewhere in the bridge, so we’ll head up there from the stern, taking out any Steel Rangers we find along the way.” I said.

“And then what?” Qindeo asked.

I shrugged. “I haven’t figured it out past there.”

Qindeo raised an eyebrow. “Is this how he normally does stuff?” He asked Scopes.

“Yep!” She replied.

“So, we good on my plan?” I asked.

They both nodded.

“Alright, we’ll leave as soon as it’s dark.”

***

Several hours later, we were all ready to go. Qindeo had been busy making some of his zebra potions, which were all now tucked into his saddle bags. We got airborne, Qindeo in the cart I was pulling, and made for Seaddle bay.

We flew only a few feet below the cloud cover, pushing far out over the bay.

“Alright, let’s turn around and head for the ship.” I called over to Scopes, who nodded. “Hang on back there Qindeo!”

I dove, leveling out a few feet above the waters of Seaddle Bay, and shot off towards the battleship, Scopes close behind me.

As we approached, my EFS began marking the positions of the Steel Rangers, who seemed to be mostly on the bow of the ship. We landed on the stern undetected, just as I had hoped.

I unhitched from the wagon as Qindeo hopped out the back of it, the machine gun battle saddle on his back and the silenced Hyperion slung over the top of it. “Alright, this way.” I whispered, motioning to a door directly in front of us. I pushed it open, Scopes and Qindeo following me.

The hallway we entered into was lit by the dim red glow from the running lights, and our hoofsteps echoed along the cold metal floor. It seemed to lead straight to the bridge, ending in a steep flight of stairs leading straight up.

I lead my companions up them, and sure enough, they lead to a door marked Bridge. “Alright, stay away from the windows. We don’t want to be spotted.” I said.

Scopes and Qindeo nodded, and I opened the door.

BEEP.

“Oh shit! Run!”

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

We all dove into the bridge, taking cover behind a row of consoles as the mine exploded.

KABOOM!

“Well there goes our element of surprise.” I muttered as the red marks on my EFS began to swarm towards the bridge.

Scopes tapped the row of consoles we were hiding behind. “Qindeo, you use these for cover and mow down any Steel Rangers that come through that door. I’ll cover you from the doorway over there.” She said, pointing at a room off to the side. “And Desert, you can snipe from the windows.”

I nodded. “Sounds like a plan to me. Let’s hold them off as long as we can, and if we can’t, retreat back into that room.” I said, moving to the windows, The Undoer at the ready. “Let’s do this thing!”

No sooner had I said that than the first Steel Ranger came barging through the door, guns blazing.