• Published 13th Apr 2012
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Fallout: Equestria: A Cut Above - Wirepony



A story of a young Tribal pony's adventures in the Wasteland

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Chapter 6: Refuse/Resist

Fallout: Equestria: A Cut Above
Chapter Six: Refuse/Resist

Burns and Todger stayed on station, focussed down their respective hallways. All the other Talons, however, had gathered in close to listen to the off-yellow unicorn. The eyes on her seemed to unnerve Lyrical, and though she hid behind the stringy fall of her bright green mane, her voice was level and strong. Occasional noises from the store room showed that Chalice was still at work as Lyrical relayed the information they had discovered.

"The first thing we need to establish is background information. Mr. Brick has been briefed, but I don't know if anyone else here has. Collegiate files indicated that this was a desalinization plant, one that had almost gone online when the bombs dropped." Brick nodded, glancing around at the assembled Talons and myself. I raised a hoof in question.

"What's desalinization?" I asked.

"Well, are you familiar with saltwater?" Lyrical replied, peering at me from behind her mane.

"Oh, yes – nasty stuff."

"Well, This was supposed to be a place that removed the salt from water, and purified it – leaving only fresh clean water behind." Lyrical continued. "Even now, the vast majority of water available is not clean or safe to drink." She said, before Gnash raised a talon.

"I thought the Gardens of Equestria megaspell took care of that?" He asked, intent on the discussion. Brick stood, drawing everyone's attention.

"It did.. mostly. Think of it as a seige – Gardens took out the invading force, sure, but their dumps and trash heaps are still left behind. Even with Gardens taking out almost all of the Taint and the rads from the Great War, we're still left with plain old normal trash and filth to deal with." Brick lectured. Gnash nodded, subsiding. Lyrical stepped forward when he paused, and resumed her narrative.

"That actually works wonderfully as a metaphor, Mr. Brick, thank you. And it's precisely correct. Even after Gardens stripped the worst of the magical radiation and corruption from the environment, we are still plauged with normal pollution and contamination. A burned building that falls into a river can make the water downstream for miles unsafe to drink. Even worse if it was.. occupied." Lyrical said. I couldn't tell if the green tinge on her face was reflected off her mane, or caused by the thought of burnt bodies.

"So, before the war, and now, after Gardens, this place should still be a valuable resource. During the Wasteland years, this place would have been priceless." Lyrical said, pausing to scuff at the floor with a forehoof. "If it was, in fact, a water purification plant. It's not."

The Talons muttered amongst themselves at this news. I looked over and caught Burns looking back at the group. He whipped back to facing the hallway as I saw him. Todger was on his haunches, considering a forehoof. He put it back on the floor and stared stolidly down the hall. I returned my attention to Lyrical as she continued.

"We're not sure what it is, but the incoming delivery logs don't have anything near enough equipment for desalinization work. What they do show, however, is magical waste delivery. Lots of it."

Chalice trotted out of the storeroom and checked the floor for cleanliness. With a sigh, she sat next to Lyrical. "That's about everything from this room – there's some ammo there, but no other information about the site. We're going to need to go further in if we want to find out anything."

Brick dismissed the Talons, most of them returning to their hallway entrances. He and Windy disappeared into the storeroom, while Chalice and Lyrical stayed outside with me. I was trying to think of something to say to the two educated unicorns, when Brick and Windy came back. Brick had a few magazines floating behind him, which he handed over to Squirt, and Windy was tucking something into her own pouch.

"Ok, Lyrical, Chalice, put together a report on what you've found so far. Engineer will take it upstairs to the eggheads, and we'll continue on." Brick ordered. The two hurried to produce a report, and shortly had a scroll, which Engineer brought upstairs with a salute. The elevator hummed away from us, and Brick turned back to giving orders. He sent Jimstone's squad into the right hallway, which proved to be empty for the short distance it ran before being blocked with a pile of debris. Jimstone reported that he thought it was clearable, but Brick told him they'd come back to it. The straight ahead hallway was next, and Squirt's squad got to take point on that. Squirt mixed the two squads, with Todger and Kettle Bell leading the way. Burns was right behind them, his rubbery helmet back on and his strange weapon floating in front of him, tubes running to the tanks on his back.

We proceeded down the hallway as a group, Todger and Kettle Bell leading in a strange halting rush that had one of them in cover at all times.. Burns walked slowly behind them, dividing his attention between them and the hallway itself. The hallway wasn't excessively long, and ended in a sharp right turn. I watched intently from my place at the back of the group as Todger stopped on the inside corner of the turn, hard against the wall, and motioned Kettle Bell forward. She took the corner agressively, charging ahead. Instead of stopping, she turned her body and just bounced off the wall. As she hit the wall, Burns was already moving, sliding into the far side of the corner in a more controlled skid.

Todger had ducked out of sight around the corner at almost the same time, and the three of them held silent and still for a long moment. Todger shuffled back far enough to be visible, and waved a hoof. "Clear" he said in a surprisingly mellow voice. The lead three moved forward slowly, and the rest of us came up behind them. A guttural howl reverbrated through the hallway, followed by a sharp 'HA!'. I surged forward and whipped around, suddenly very aware of my rearmost position. I felt my flank thump into one of the girls as I whirled, and I kept it there, just to have an idea of where one of them was. There wasn't anything behind us, any critter or feral ghoul moving to attack. Another howl from behind me, followed by a splattering crunch. I couldn't resist tossing a glance over my shoulder, and past the clump of Talons and the shaking Eggheads, I saw Kettle Bell scowling at her sledgehammer, chunky gore dripping off the head.

"OK, Really Clear." Todger called. I relaxed, and turned back to the girls. Lyrical was leaning against Chalice, who was shaking like a leaf. I moved next to her and leaned in on her other side. It took a few seconds, but she stopped shaking, and I stepped away.

"Thank you." She said in a small voice. I smiled at her and nudged her with a shoulder.

Looking forward again, Todger and Burns had disappeared around the corner. Chalice shook herself and we all followed Brick. I shot a glance at the corpse of the feral as we passed it. The ghoul was almost completely headless, its body limp and sprawled, a trail of blood extending out the pulped stump of the neck. I followed the trail with my eyes, and saw a splatter of gore about chest level on the wall. I whistled in appreciation, and heard Kettle Bell chuckle.

At the end of the hallway, the same pile of rubble blocked the intersection with the right hallway. We clumped in front of the rubble, Brick examining it with a scowl on his face. The plug looked tight, but not impossible to move. I hid a sigh as Brick turned around. I had a suspicion I knew what was coming next, and I wasn't disappointed. "OK, we can clear this. Squad one, you're on clearing. Squad two, you're split for guard. Squirt, you're here, Kettle Bell and Burns will be on the other side. Wicked, you're with the clear team. Everyone else hang out in the elevator room."

We put action to deed. Blinky, the traitorous lump, hung out with the eggheads and the griffins in the first room. He appeared to be taking a shine to Lyrical, and I could hear her giggling and talking sweet to him whenever I made it back into the central room, dumping debris into the rapidly growing pile. Todger worked stolidly, his massive strength apparent in his choice of targets. I struggled and sweated, trying to make a good showing. On my way back from hauling a filing cabinet, Todger stopped me. He was barely warmed up, and stood easily with a chunk of desk balanced on his muscular shoulders.

"Don't kill yourself. Pace the work." Todger said. Without pausing long enough for me to even begin to forumlate a reply, he walked stolidly on. On my next trip, I had a moderately sized chunk of concrete balanced on my back, and my steps were much easier. I couldn't help but smile at Todger as I pass him, and he gave me a short nod.

The rubble was cleared in short order, revealing a hallway that extended two or three times further than the short stub before another sharp turn blocked our vision. We took a short break to let those of us clearing rubble rest, and Brick formed the combat squads up and sent them ahead. They leaprfrogged down the hallway as squads this time. It was interesting, seeing the different techniques they used. Before, Todger and Kettle Bell had traded places down the hallway, swinging past each other like they were tied together. Burns had trotted behind them like an obedient pet, alert and watchful.

Split into squads, the procedure had a lot of similarities. Squad one would go ahead, Todger hitting the wall and stopping with Frybread right behind him. Jimstone stayed just off the wall and behind them both, and would wave squad two in. Squad two did similar, and we swiftly cleared our way to the end of the hallway. "Stairs down, boss." Squirt announced, and we rolled around what proved to be a landing, and down the stairwell.

The stairwell was longer than any I had experience with. It paused two flights down on a landing, made a sharp left, and continued onward. The light didn't extend past the landing, and Squad one was in the interesting position of having to charge into complete darkness. Brick halted them with a short chirp of a whistle. I sniffed at the air, noting the heavier scent of salt, and a faint rushing noise. With a snap and a woosh Brick lit a flare, and tossed it past squad one into the darkness. The red light of the flare reflected off of what had to be a dozen pairs of eyes, and the flare landed amidst a clot of ferals. The ferals, packed into the short flat area at the bottom of the stairs, howled in rage and hunger, and charged.

Chalice and Lyrical immediately broke and ran, and I wasted no time catching up with them. The three of us thundered back up the stairs and into the central elevator room. The two unicorns immediately ducked into rough defensive positions we had built from the rubble removed from the pile, and I positioned myself so I could see both hallways, panting heavily.

"Either of you fight – at all?" I gasped, more from tension than fatigue. The sound of gunfire and a wooshing crackle rolled down the hall we had fled down, mixed with ghoulish screams.

"I- I can hit a target. I don't know about this!" Lyrical replied, her voice shaking worse than mine. Chalice wordlessly floated out a small pistol.

"OK. If one comes, start shooting as soon as you think you'll hit it. If it makes it into the room, please don't shoot me." I said, my voice levelling out. Both girls acknowledged, and not a moment later a ghoul came sprinting down the hallway.

The horrid creature resembled the ghouls I had seen at home, but only vaugely. It's mottled patchwork hide was shiny and smooth, its face disfigured and grotesque even by ghoul standards. Whatever had caused the difference didn't seem to slow it down though, and it swiftly closed the distance towards us. I heard the pops of the girls pistols, but I ignored them as I charged forward. I met the ghoul in the entry to the hallway, Stickbird in my grip. My initial lunge missed the throat shot I was going for, but dug into the feral's shoulder, and skated down its body under the skin, splitting it open on the way. I kept the momentum of my charge long enough to clear the ghoul, and planted my forehooves for a buck. My rear hooves caught the whirling ghoul as it came around, and I felt one of its shoulders give with a squishy crunch. The feral reared and howled in pain and fury, which gave me enough time to get back in position for another strike.

I didn't have momentum or distance for a charge, so I swung. My swipe slashed through the ghoul's face just above the bridge of its nose, blasting one of its eyes out of its head. The feral rode the hit, then snapped back to sink its teeth into my neck. Some of the attack was blunted by my armor, but the pain still made me howl. I brought my head and my weapon back across, and speared the ghoul. In one ear and out the other, and the salt and rot stench as it collapsed had me biting vomit back on the shaft of my weapon.

I pushed the re-dead thing off of Stickbird, and slotted my weapon back into my holster. I lost it, then, and splattered the disgusting thing with a spray of vomit. Once my stomach was emptied, I shook myself and took stock of the situation. Brick and company were still fighting down the hallway, judging by the occasional ghoul howl and gunfire. I trotted back towards Lyrical, who was peeking over the top of the filing cabinet she knelt behind. Wordlessly, the little peach unicorn floated a small purple vial to me, and I bowed my head in thanks before I nipped it out of the air and downed it.

I could feel the hot throb of the bite wound fading, and even more pleasantly, the raw sick sensation of puking faded. I sighed in relief, and pulled a canteen out for a drink. The water rinsed the taste of sick and the lingering indescribable 'purple' taste of the potion away. I spat and took a slower drink, then looked over at the unicorns. Lyrical was peeking over the filing cabinet still, watching down the long hallway. Chalice had curled up under a desk that composed the large part of her position, and was sobbing. I made my way towards her, but was interrupted by a squeak from Lyrical. I jumped her and her position on my way down the hallway, as two ghouls clattered up it, howling.

The leading ghoul was slightly smaller, and I hit it with a shoulder block. If this worked, I would knock it over. This should have disabled it long enough to deal with the second ghoul. It didn’t work. My eyes wide and terrified, I fell over backwards instead. Screaming as I fell, I saw the second feral top the barricade. Ignoring Lyrical’s pistol fire, the ghoul leapt over the piled rubble. I thrashed my way onto my side, suffering a few small bites from the first feral in the process, and managed to get to my hooves. Since I was already facing away from the nearest threat, I planted my front hooves and put everything I had into an applebuck.

I felt the ghoul's chest shatter beneath my hooves. Rotted flesh splattered out of it, painting the floor with foul goop. I gathered myself and whirled. There was still some fight left in this beast, it seemed, and I spun right into the ghoul’s hoofstrike, its ragged forehoof catching me in the gap between chest plate and shoulder armor, sending a spike of agony through that joint. I took the blow and rolled with it, using the momentum to lunge down and over in order to collect my fallen weapon. I rolled upwards into a thrusting strike, completely missing the attack at the ghoul’s neck. This time however, Stickbird's hook came into play, driven by adrenaline and furious rage. The hook ripped along the ghoul's spine, blasting apart the shoulder joint and a majority of ribs.

With a clotted inequine scream, the ghoul toppled over. I wrenched Stickbird out of the bloody carcass, and spun to take care of the second feral. As I came around, I felt teeth sink into my hindleg. I screamed, dropping Stickbird, and craned my neck around to see the feral's gnashing teeth embedded into my leg. I kicked it with my free rear hoof, battering at its head while screaming bloody murder. A crunch of bone from the thing’s head and the feral stiffened, then slumped into death. I was able to rip myself free from the creature as I began to hobble back towards the two unicorns, sobbing in agony as each step sent pain shooting up my leg. I pushed myself, limping with my teeth clenched on my weapon's handle as the screaming started. I wasn't quick enough. The second feral was buried to its shoulders in Chalice's belly, gnawing and ripping with wet sucking sounds. Lyrical was screaming, shooting at it as fast as she could reload. I stumbled around the barricade as I hit the corner of the filing cabinet with my wounded limb. The agony doubled, and everything went red.

I lunged forward, howling around Stickbird. I barely noticed Blinky falling off the creature's rump, scampering away, and he was right to. I was Wicked Cut, brutal god of the Wasteland. This howling fucking demon had dared to harm one of MY followers, and I worked vengance on it's disgusting meat with every righteous blow of my weapon. The ghoul jerked itself out of Chalice's splayed corpse, intestines trailing after it. I took the opportunity presented by its erect stance to stab it, burying the entire length of Stickbird's head into the ghoul's chest. The faint resistance of the ribcage parting under my attack drew a howl from my clenched teeth, and the thump of the hook bouncing off the ribs shook across my head like thunder. I ripped Stickbird out of the hole in the ghoul, rearing back to put more force behind my next blow.

My head came up and back, the stretch of my neck going to lend force to the smashing downward blow I was about to drop. Instead of slamming forward and destroying the ghoul, I hung there, balanced on my back legs. The shock, the suddent 'stop' where I expected to smash downward, broke my rage apart. I hung in the air, my eyes rolling, until I focussed on Todger standing next to me. Todger had reared and grasped Stickbird between my grip on the handle and the point, stopping my attack cold. The red haze of fury drained out of my vision, and I released Stickbird. Todger dropped back to his hooves and set my weapon on the floor as I blinked stupidly at him. I looked up at Todger, his pink coat spattered with blood and bits of ghoul. I realized I had collapsed to the floor in a splay of legs. The red haze had been replaced by a grey slime of pain. I struggled back to my hooves, shaking, my eyes wide and casting about the room.

"Wh-what?" Was all I could manage to sputter, my thought processes choked and sludgy. Todger huffed out a sigh, then laid a hoof gently on my shoulders, stroking my back like I was a foal.

"It's OK, Kid. It's OK." he said, and I looked from him to the ghoul. I took a deep breath to respond, but there were no words in me, nothing I could say about my failure. Todger clouted me on the shoulder, then trotted off. I could hear Lyrical sobbing behind me, and I suddenly couldn't take my eyes off of the.. remains. The ghoul had just barely pulled its head out of Chalice before I had killed it. My frenzied attack had splattered the thing into an unrecognizable lump of gore. The only identifiable part left was the ghoul's head, still wrapped in Chalice's intestines like a lumpy grey scarf.

The little blue unicorn, so delicate and shiny sitting at the table with her peers earlier, was spread out like a victim, like a leftover chunk of meat too tough to chew. Her face and horn had escaped damage, and I felt a flicker of gratitude that at least this hadn't been taken from her. Levering myself to my hooves, I wobbled forward and shakily closed Chalice's eyes. I turned away from the fallen, trading a grim nod with Todger. Brick was surrounded by griffins, facing down Engineer with Gnash and Windy on either side of him. I could feel the grey slime fading from my vision as I returned to now-ness, and all at once I could make sense out of the words.

"All right, yes, I underestimated the damn place. But we've got four full squads of Talons here, you tell me what could possibly be down there that could stand against that!" Brick said, low and intent.

"You've got three squads of Talons and a handful of leftovers, Brick! This is a bad call, damnit!" Engineer argued, his normally-disheveled feathers sticking out like a bristle brush in his agitation. Brick snorted, shooting a look at Windy and Gnash, who remained silent. I took a moment to root through my saddlebags, which thankfully had escaped damage. A healing potion and a syringe of Med-X put me to rights. I craned around and blinked in amazement as the gashes in my hindleg sealed shut with the magical speed of potion-assisted healing. I flexed the leg gingerly, and dropped it to the floor with satisfaction. It wasn't perfect, but it would do for now.

"And what do you two think, since Egglebert here has a case of the scareds?" Brick asked. Windy shot a sour look at him, and Gnash had opened his beak to reply when I shoved my way between him and Engineer.

"Hey. Let's get Lyrical back on her hooves and get rolling. We're burning daylight." I said, my voice controlled and level, giving the lie to the tear marks matting my face. Engineer's beak dropped, staring at me wordlessly while his pointy griffin face worked in shock. I shrugged at him before continuing. "Fall apart later. Complete the mission now. Besides, I really want to kill some ghouls."

Windy took a deep breath to respond, but Gnash interrupted her with a raised claw. "The kid's right. Save all this for the after-action, let's clear this place and get out of here." Gnash said. Windy held herself erect for a moment, then subsided. Brick grunted, tossing his head at her.

"OK then. Windy, hang back with Wicked and Lyrical. Engineer, stay between them and me. Gnash, you're with me." He ordered.

As we formed back up, I took a moment to check on Lyrical. She was kneeling at her spot behind the barricade, spent bullets surrounding her. Blinky was standing in front of her, awkwardly patting her face while she cried great heaving sobs. I laid my neck across hers and hugged her as hard as I could from the side, and she jolted in shock. For a long moment she stiffened, then relaxed and curled into my embrace with a final shuddering sob.

"Come on, Lyrical. Let's get through this. We can sit down and fall apart afterwards." I said, breaking our hug and putting a foreleg across her shoulders.

The peach colored unicorn stared down at Blinky, who had fallen back to all fours and was stretching upwards, his whiskers twitching. With a sigh, she nuzzled the molerat and rose to her hooves, wiping at her eyes. "You're right, This needs done. I... I'll be OK."
I left my hoof on her shoulders for a moment more before snatching Blinky up and looking around. Windy was watching us, and seeing my glance, she waved at the hallway.

"If your're ready, let's go. We'll pick up Chalice on the way back."

Squad one lead for the short run back to the stairwell. Chunks of ghoul liberally splattered the stairs and the end of the hallway. Nothing moved save for us and the Talons. The ruddy light of the flare flickered and subsided as we approached the landing, then came back with a fresh snap-hiss. Squad two waited on the landing, Kettle Bell and Squirt waving lazy salutes as squad one joined them. The attitude was completely different now, warier and angrier. Piles of body parts lay scattered on the floor, slime and dark ghoul juices splattering the wall. The carnage got thicker and heavier below the landing, though the Talons had cleared any parts blocking the doors at the bottom.

My nostrils flared at the heavy stench of dead ghoul and salt. Lyrical coughed and retched at the stench, and Blinky had buried his nose, hiding his head under a flap of my armor. The door at the bottom of the stairs was locked and barred, the heavy metal bar visible through the narrow, grimy glass slits that passed for windows. With the bar in play, the lock became irrelevant, and the whole group paused for a second in the foul air of the stairwell, before Burns started laughing. His voice muffled and distorted by his mask and his laughter, no one could understand the rubber-coated unicorn. With a flicker of his firey magic, Burns pulled his mask off, and gestured to the outside edges of the door.

"The bar's on that side.. but the hinges are over here!" He chuckled.

Burns put his mask back on, while Windy and Gnash worked at the hingepins. There were six of them, and the top two were the only ones that could be removed. The bottom hinges were fuzzballs of corrosion, and the middle set were just solidly rusted into one piece. Windy had stepped back from the hinges, muttering with Brick while Gnash scraped and tapped at the frozen door. With a kick on the metal of the door, Gnash gave up.

"If you're done playin', Gnash, let a woman show you how it's done." Kettle Bell put in, shoving past the grumbling griffin. Her hammer held high, Kettle Bell considered the door. She took just a short pause before taking two quick looping strikes. With curious flat clanging noises, the hinges were blasted off the door. Smiling broadly, Kettle turned and considered the second set of hinges. "Yo, boss – I'm gonna blast the hinges off and leave the door hanging on the bar, 'K?" Brick grunted an affirmative, and with two more looping strokes Kettle Bell sledged the remaining hinges. The door sagged inwards when the last hinge went, and Kettle trotted back with a smirk on her face.

Windy and Gnash stepped forward, one on each side of the door, and pulled the bottom inward. The whole assembly rotated over, and hung at an angle. Todger squatted a shoulder underneath the inner edge of the door and pushed up with a grunt. The door screamed as corroded metal parted, and unceremoniously fell to the floor. Beyond the door was a metal grated floor, dark and slick with slime. The floor appeared to be part of a walkway that extended left and right from the door, and the room beyond was too dark to see. Burns trotted forward, with Squirt and Frybread behind him. Burns went through the door pointed to the right, the flickering pilot light of his flamethrower the only light other than the ruddy glow of the flare. Squirt went in facing left, his machine guns floating in the dark blue grip of his magic. Frybread followed, peering into the darkness over the edge of the walkway.

Trying to look everywhere at once, it seemed, Frybread backed up both of his squadmates. For long seconds we waited, but nothing came out of the darkness. Squad two hustled in, taking the left side of the walkway and freeing Squirt and Frybread to concentrate on the right. Brick followed, and a brace of flares slid out of his saddlebags on his magic, and lit as he threw them into the room beyond. The space thus revealed was huge, taller than two of the rooms we had been in stacked on top of each other. The grating proved to be a catwalk ringing the room at the midpoint, and I suddenly understood what 'floors' meant as a measure of height. Peering in from the bottom of the stairwell, I thought I saw lumps on the bottom of the grating, but dismissed them as a trick of the uncertain light.

The red glow of the flares did more to highlight the bulking mass on the floor in the middle of the room than to reveal details. There were multiple staircases leading down onto the main floor from the catwalk, and no movement at all in the room. With short, clipped orders, Brick sent Squirt and his squad along the catwalk. They circled the room warily, silent save for the odd clump of hooves on the slimy metal. Squad one paused at the far end, where a darker rectangle indicated a door, then continued the rest of the way around. They paused and slowed as they passed each set of stairs down, but didn't descend either of them. Soon, they had rejoined the rest of us.

"Nothing moving, no threats visible. The room's big enough to use a star shell so we can see. Stairs look passable, the same growth on them as on the catwalk. Far door's locked." Squirt said, gesturing with his SMGs. Brick recieved his report with a grunt, then turned to his saddlebag. He pulled a bizarre item out, and held it in front of him long enough for me to get a good look at it. A clear globe with a twist of wires and metal inside it, glowing with a sickly green light.

Brick focussed on the globe until it made a 'click' sound, and started to glow a dull red, similar to the flare. He floated the globe out and away, and its light brightened past the red of the flares, through a bright orange, and then to a brilliant white. Brick had the device, the starshell, hanging just under the ceiling by the time it was white, and when he released it, it stuck. A murmuring rustle filled the cavern now, and as the Talons noticed and began to look around, Frybread stiffened.

"By Celestia's incandescent asshole." He muttered, almost lovingly. Squirt shot a look over at this, and blanched at the fixed expression on Frybread's face.

"Oh fuck." Squirt said. "BRICK! BATS!"

Brick jumped, landed facing the door, and charged, sweeping Burns along with his magic. Squirt was already through the door, pushing us back to the stairs. Windy and Gnash were already up the stairs. As he cleared the door, Brick slung Burns into a crumpled heap against the far wall. As Brick spun again, I could hear a rising scream from Frybread, left on the far side of the door. "BATS! Batsbatsbatsbats Aaaahahahahha!!!!" Brick ripped the door inside on a bright surge of magic, slamming it against the doorframe and pinning it into place. Then the gunfire started.

"Frybread has.. a problem." Brick said, holding the door up. Gnash chuckled, and Squirt sighed. Rapid fire gunshots echoed from the room beyond, and one would occasionally impact the door. Brick grunted when this happened, but his magic never faded or faltered, keeping the door pinned against its opening. Through the gap around the edges of the door, I could see occasional motion and flickers of black figures flying.

"That's an understatement." Squirt added dryly. "Frybread has a problem with bats like Todger likes to work out on occasion." Todger grunted, and shot Squirt a harsh look. Squirt shrugged, but looked embarassed.

I sat on the filthy floor next to Lyrical, eyes wide as the screaming and gunfire echoed through the door. Frybread screamed for what sounded like forever, occasionally laughing maniacally, usually wordless howls of terror and rage. The gunfire stopped, as did the screaming. Moments later, the door shook with a thump, and Brick hoisted it aside. Frybread staggered through the opening like a ghoul. Sweat was pouring off of him, his eyes wide and rolling. Brick put the door back, and the Talons parted to let him pass as he made his way up the stairs, collapsing in the first cleanish spot. I sat next to Lyrical in complete shock, as Squirt followed Frybread up the stairs. Squirt checked Frybread over for injuries as he lay in a heap, then rubbed his ears gently.

"Alright, Frybread. You're gonna be fine, just sit tight for a few. I'll stay right here with you." Squirt said kindly, before turning back to the Talons gathered at the base of the stairs. "Burns, you're with first squad until Frybread's back online."

Burns nodded, and shot a look at Jimstone, who shrugged expansively. "Works. Jimstone, sweep the catwalk again, take care of any leftovers." Brick ordered, and pulled the door aside once more. I stretched my neck to look as Burns trotted into the room after first squad. Brick moved the door back into place and set it down. It leaned drunkenly against the opening while we waited for squad one to secure the room. Squirt stayed on the stairs next to Frybread, talking quietly to the crumpled pony. Gunshots and a woosh of fire startled me, and I jerked my attention back to the door, but saw nothing.

By the time squad one returned, Frybread was sitting upright again. He was drooping and downcast, his eyes on the floor. Squirt was still talking to him, and his ears would flick occasionally as he listened. Brick left the door leaning against the wall to the side of its frame, and trooped through with Squad one, Gnash, and Windy. Engineer stayed behind with me and Lyrical. No more gunfire or flamethrower noises came from the open doorway. Frybread came down the stairs, walking gingerly, as if his legs hurt. He flinched aside when he saw me watching him, then drew himself up and returned my look. Squirt stayed right next to him, and they made their way through the doorway.

Burns came trotting up shortly afterwards, his mask off and dangling from its straps around his neck. "OK, we're clear. Come on in, Brick wants you." Burns said, pointing at Lyrical. "To see this."

'This' turned out to be the dark shape I had seen from the hallway earlier, a massive cylinder, squat and solid on the floor of the huge room. Pipes ran from either end of it into the floor, and consoles and machinery nestled up against it like lonely pups. I was struck by a line from the journal I had found, suddenly. "re-ran every control and instrument run to the turbine." This, then, was the turbine which the nameless pony had worked on, and which he and Lyrical believed was never intended to work. Everything was cold and dark, and covered with the same slimy coating that made the catwalk overhead slippery and disgusting.

I stuck close to Lyrical as she moved about the turbine. As we cleaned more of the oozy goop away, Lyrical brightened, shaking off the horrified shock that had held her since the ghoul attack in the elevator room. She started muttering to herself, dribbles of words like "counter-rotating synchronized masses." And "balanced shaft, of course." I couldn't help but smile as she improved, and I almost laughed when she stopped dead, gaping at the turbine like it had just dropped into the room.

"I don't understand – this is the real thing." Lyrical said, stopping in front of a curved access panel. "Mr. Cut – open that, please." She continued, gesturing at the panel. I shrugged, drew my weapon, and thrust it into an open bolthole. I pried and pushed at the cover, bending a corner up, and as I shifted my grip to pry from the gap I had just made, the pleasant green of Lyrical's magic lit up the remaining bolts, swiftly spinning them out and dropping them to the floor. With all the bolts out, my next pry forced the cover open, and with a slurp, it dropped off of the turbine to clang on the floor.

Engineer had caught up with us by now, and peered into the pony-length opening on the side of the turbine. "It's – that's a real blade assembly." He said hesitantly, reaching carefully in. A single push with a talon sent the blades inside the housing spinning, and we stood watching while they slowly stopped. Engineer turned to Lyrical, and they both began talking at once, babbling about hermetical seals and negative pressure gradients. I couldn't follow most of what was said, but they were quite excited about their findings. Engineer flapped off to fetch Brick, who was lurking at the unopened door. Lyrical was rocking on her forehooves, humming happily, as Brick made his way down the stairs and over to us.

"So it's real. That contradicts the journal and the notes upstairs. What does that mean?" Brick asked shortly.

"I don't know, Mr. Brick, but it must mean something. This turbine was not easily manufactured, and to survive since the War in as good a shape as it is, it must have been authentic." Lyrical replied. Brick grunted, and stood in thought, blinking slowly. With a snort and a toss of his head, he turned from the turbine to face Lyrical.

"Well, check out the control room, then. It's unlocked and cleared, there's nothing inside that we're concerned about. See what you can get." With that, Brick trotted off, back towards the entry door.

Lyrical trotted happily off to the nearest staircase, climbing swiftly back to the catwalk on the far end of the room. I followed her, Engineer followed me, and we both stopped at the now-unlocked door into what Brick had called the Control Room. Windows with security glass, cracked around the wire mesh inside them, looked out over the larger room, and inside, consoles lined that outer wall. I noticed large numbers of pipes running down the wall inside the larger room, and checking, they hooked into the back of the consoles here. A few of these were still lit, fitfully flickering their green glow. Lyrical detoured around a pony skeleton, lying in a discolored stain on the floor. I stopped to check this, noting that the unicorn's horn had been smashed completely loose, and pushed back into his skull. With a shudder, I shoved the bones underneath the desk, making sure the skull was hidden. Better for Lyrical to notice garbage instead of a mangled unicorn.

There turned out to be three terminals live and useful. The first one was logged in already, and Lyrical swiftly copied all of the data onto a gadget she pulled from her saddlebags. The second was errored out, "crashed" according to Lyrical, and useless. The third was locked, and Lyrical spent long minutes on it, carefully probing through screens filled with what looked like garbage to me. I was fairly clever, as things went, but this was completely outside my skill set!

With a triumphant squee, Lyrical broke the security on the third terminal, only to discover that it held the same information and options as the first one. Grumbling in dicontent, she settled down on the cleaner section of floor in here and swiftly organized her notes, juggling the gadget from earlier, paper, and a quill pen. I sat near the door, dividing my attention between her, the control room, and the larger turbine room. The control room was still pretty big, easily three pony lengths deep, and six or seven long. The windows would have provided a commanding view of the turbine, if they hadn't been cracked and starred by damage and time. The wall facing the turbine room was lined with terminals, and consisted of one long desk with several rotten chairs tucked under it. Various industrial bits and pieces dotted the room, giving it a very similar feel to the control rooms from the subway system underneath Our Tacksworn.

Lockers hung open on the back wall, next to a rack of cabinets. The Talons had already cleaned these out, and the open doors showed nothing of value left behind them. I was peering behind the door, seeing if there was anything of interest on this last section of wall, when Lyrical announced her victory.

"I got it – this makes sense!" She crowed. I pulled my head out from behind the door and looked into her smiling face, as she waved a scrolled parchement in the air. "Let's go get Mr. Brick and tell him what we've found." She said, and I nodded and gestured to the door. Brick was talking to Squirt and Frybread near a door directly underneath our entrance when we trotted up, Frybread looking more like a pony than a wet sack of oats. I smiled at that, even if I hadn't known these Talons for long, they were good people, and I liked them.

"So, no, I don't believe this is a crippling problem, and I won't take your resignation, Frybread. You can take it to Gawd when we get back, but until then I expect you to do the same excellent job you normally do." Brick said with finality, and Frybread nodded, then trotted off grumbling. "I swear, that guy's got one little problem and thinks we all hate him for it." Brick said to Squirt, who shrugged.

"I've tried to explain it to him more than once. Hey you two, you look excited. What've you got?" Squirt replied. Lyrical nodded to him, then floated the parchement over to Brick, who took it in his magic, unrolled it, and began to read.

"It's more complicated than this being a fake facility. It's a real facility, that's a real turbine there, but there was never any intention of using this as a desalinization plant. The whole purpose of this was to-"

"Neutralize Taint." Brick interrupted, rolling the scroll shut. "They were going to use the turbine and somehow mix Taint and the special saltwater from this lake to neutralize it."

"Yes, exactly!" Lyrical said. "The saltwater here has a very high concentration of iron, and trace amounts of something the logs refer to as 'Lunarium', which they thought would neutralize the Taint."

"I want to send this upstairs. We've got further to go, and we need to make sure this information is safe." Brick said, stomping a hoof. "Engineer! Messenger duty again!" he called. Engineer stuck his head out of the control room and hopped off the catwalk, gliding over to us in short order.

"Yessir?" He asked. Brick explained Lyrical's findings to him, and gave over the scroll. Tucking it into one of his pouches, Engineer flew up to the catwalk and disappeared back the way we had came.

Summoning the rest of the Talons, Brick gave our marching orders, and we considered the remaining door. It was heavier than the door upstairs, and barred on this side. Even frozen in place by the rust of ages and the slime, the bar couldn't resist Kettle Bell's persuasive argument, and soon clattered to the floor. The door itself was not locked, and I hung back with Lyrical. Gnash, Windy, and Brick stayed with us as both squads boiled into the darkness beyond.


Footnote: Level Up! Skill upgrade – Melee +9 (52), Speech +4 (36), Guns +3 (15)

Companion Perk: Sneak Attack. Molerats are the lowest form of wildlife in the Wasteland, and most ponies will ignore them as no threat. Blinky can prove them wrong, often in extremely uncomfortable ways. Provides one free bite attack per combat.

Level Perk: Better Criticals: +50% damage to critical attacks.

Afterword:

As always and ever, thanks to Arcane_Scroll, VolrathXP, and Don'tAskForCookies, pre-readers, editors, soundboards all. This story wouldn't exist without them. All hail Kkat, All hail Dan Shive. All hail Somber.