(20) Roadblocks
*Beep*
A mechanical voice spoke, “Profile not found. Please contact the site Administrator for Assistance.”
Luna slammed her hoof into the ground, the small plastic card sliding as she threw it across the hall. “And here I thought we were making progress,” The older Alicorn huffed, “There must be another way to open this.”
When they had reached the safe, with the card in tow, the two princesses were understandably, in high spirits. As they, once again, inspected the metal door, they had thought they had hit another stroke of luck when they found a strange slit on the right side of the door that the card slid through nicely. Cadance could tell that the Lunar Alicorn was seconds away from blasting the door open with her magic, and likely destroying anything that was in there. Anything useful anyway.
“Aunt Luna,” she walked up and put a reassuring hoof on Luna’s back, “We’ve been at this for nearly an hour, we can try again after we’ve rested and something. ” Cadance could faintly hear the whistling of the cold storm outside the concrete walls of the facility. “We can’t expect answers to just fall into our hooves, even if we want them too.”
Luna huffed again in disappointment, “and here I thought I would be the one needing to comfort you,” Luna magically reached out to the card, “We should keep this, just in case something changes.” She tucked it in one of her saddlebags.
05-3 looked at 05-1 with confusion all over her face. “And you’re saying that the site has been off-limits for a thousand years?” The red-headed overseer flipped through the clipboard again. The power surge and subsequent profile check failures on a secure door being the only things of note. She gave a “Hmph,” before handing it back to the Administrator. “8 hours ago… What changed exactly?” She asked, “It couldn’t have just… activated?”
The Administrator nodded, “Nothing to my knowledge, has changed,” the administrator put a hand to his chin, rubbing the grey stubble, “I thought there was something wrong with the power grid, that you had… I don’t know, turned it back on,” 05-1 shrugged, “That’s why I called you to take a look at this, being in charge of power and whatnot.”
“Sir,” She said stoically, “I am in charge of power production,” she corrected her superior, “I don’t do maintenance on the grid, and I definitely don't decide where the power goes.” The ginger took the reading glasses off of her face, “besides, I’ve never even heard about that site until now.”
“Neither have I,” 05-1 scratched the back of his neck and clicked his tongue, “Fetch numbers 13 and 8, then meet me in my office,” 05-1 knew that 13, who was in charge of maintaining current facilities, and 08, who was in charge of Site Functions, should know what could be going on, but, the Administrator sighed, “If they don’t know what is going on, it could be an insurgency or whoever hijacked Colonel Ross’s radio transmission to us.”
05-3 nodded in agreement, “Yeah,” she said, “It would make a very good hideout, an abandoned site with still-functioning equipment.” Just as 05-3 went to go fetch the named 05’s she stopped and turned, “What… would anybody have to gain from raiding the site, there can’t be anything there that is useful?”
05-1 looked back down at the clipboard, shrugging as he flipped through page after page of the reports from the site before it was destroyed, ‘Ah there it is,’ he thought as he finally found the contained anomalies sheet, he began to read it out, “It is... SC...P…” his eyes widened, his voice faltered and his heart sank to his stomach. Truthfully, he had not known of the site until this moment either. It was destroyed before his time, way before his time. He didn’t even know why it was off-limits, it was something he hadn’t questioned before this. But now he knew why “Get them and meet me in my office. Now!” His voice was filled with urgency.
05-3 stammered out a reply “S-Sir, yes sir.” She seemed to get the message and took off to the other 05’s quarters down the hall in full sprint.
05-1 turned around and walked to his office, he hastily pulled up his computer to double-check his reports, ‘It’s a G-2 site,’ he thought to himself, ‘A fucking G-2 Site!’ he put his hands on his head and began to pull at the graying black hair. He let out a long, drawn-out, “Fuuuuuuucccckkk.” He hunched back down over his desk, moving the mouse across the screen, trying to get more information. ‘If anything, anycreature, returned to a city, or a town after going there,’ He shuddered at the thought of a second zombie apocalypse, ‘Why does this have to happen when I of all people am in charge?’
The Door to 05-1’s office slid open. The other 05’s, 03, 08, and 13, entered the room shortly after, “Sir,” 05-13 said, pulling the Administrator’s attention away from the computer, “Is there something wrong?” he said, concerned for their superior.
“Site 31,” he ignored 13 for now as he turned to 05-8, “What was it before it was destroyed?” His tone of voice made it sound like a command more than a question. ‘Please don’t say 008, say it was 999’s temp holding…’ He knew though, there was nothing else it could be.
05-8 blinked, then she responded, “1000 years ago, right?” 05-1 nodded, “Okay,” she put her hands to her hips and smacked her lips as she thought, “If memory serves me correctly, it was a… research site, researching the natives and their reactions and resistance to various strains of... SCP 008.” She paused, “It was destroyed when a rouge Unicorn escaped, I think. Killed the 05 of the time.” She blinked, “What’s happened?”
05-1 looked at 13, “Have you ordered any maintenance teams to restore power to the site?”
“Of course not!” The man responded, “We-“
“Then we don’t have time,” 05-1 cut off 13, who huffed. 05-1 pulled up a list of the MTF from nearby sites, “That entire sector has been off-limits for over a thousand years, for a very good reason, it has been leaking SCP 008 from the various ventilation systems that were damaged for over one thousand years,” he explained, “And now, someone or something,” he stressed the word ‘something’, “Is there, right now, trying to unlock the containment door to SCP 008. Doing that could cause another GH-Class Dead Greenhouse Scenario.”
“Good God,” 05-13 said with his mouth agape, the shock of what could happen paralyzing him for a moment, “I’ll… I’ll get in contact with Site 13, it’s nearby, I’ll see if they can send a team. I think Beta-7 is stationed there right now.” 05-1 nodded and 13 walked out of the room, he pulled a long-range radio to his hand as the door slid shut behind him. 05-1 turned to the other two.
“We don’t have time to hold a vote, I am going to get some instances of SCP 427 on standby. We can’t risk anyone leaving that facility with the possibility of them being infected. They could all already be infected for all we know, the whole surrounding area is practically flooded with SCP 008,” 05-1 pulled up a list of the locations of SCP 427’s they’ve created. “There are two at Site 26, get the administrator of the site on the radio,” he pointed to 08 and the radio in the corner, who nodded and turned on the radio. He turned her out as she began talking. He looked over the list again of locations of 427 again, “And Inform Thirteen when he gets back to inform the team he sends that there is one at Site 31.” She nodded again.
05-3 looked even more concerned, “Where are the Instances of SCP 500, sir?” 05-3 butted into the conversation, “I could get to the tree and begin to clone them with some staff at Site 3. As a cure.”
05-1 shook his head, “They’re at Site 16, on the other side of our territory,” he sighed, “But order it anyway. I want every avenue opened to us even if it could be too late.” He sighed, “Do it personally, I don’t want to lose anymore SCP 500.” She nodded and took off to the helicopter bay.
He looked at the clock on the wall. Four in the morning. “This is going to be a long day…” he said with a sigh.
She had only just woken up from Luna, and was already dealing with problems. Luna looked over Sergeant Time Wise, who was, for some unknown reason, sick along with the rest of his team. They were coughing, claiming they were hearing things that weren’t there, vomiting, and constantly loopy. Cadance, for her part, had gone full medic and was caring for the entire team, despite the protests of Luna and Sergeant Time himself when he was lucid.
Luna had insisted to leave the healthy guards with Cadance, to ensure her protection. Luna, for her part, had continued to try and was making some progress to open the giant metal door. This time, by tearing at it with her magic. She had figured, whatever the plastic card could’ve done, was no longer possible. “Time to take a more direct approach,” she had told her niece as she walked to the door.
She hit the door with another blast of blue magic, making a large dent in the door. ‘Whatever is behind this door,’ she concluded, ‘Was the cause of their sickness.’ She blasted the door’s dent again, ‘It must be destroyed.’ She hit the door another time, more rage filling her magical attacks. The dent got larger and larger with each flash of blue light.
Then finally, after a dozen or so more fits of rage-induced magical attacks, she felt the door collapse. She fell to the ground alongside the metal door, exhausted from all the use of her magic. But she smirked, ‘Now then,’ she huffed as she stood up on her shaky hooves, ‘Just what are you. She pushed the door out of the way with no resistance.
And to her surprise, it wasn’t safe at all, but a door, opening to a hallway.
She looked up and read the inscription on the side of the opening, ‘SCP: Research Site 31 - SCP 008,’ Luna sighed and felt a sense of accomplishment and pride return to her. ‘Let’s see what secrets you are hiding.’ She walked in the room, ‘that smells odd,’ Luna thought as she scrunched her nose, she gagged, ‘Terrible Actually… like rotting and soiled food.’ She gagged again, ‘Wet, rotting and soiled food,’ she added.
Luna continued to trot forward, the hallway was on a downward arch into the ground. ‘An underground research facility,’ she mused, ‘Perhaps this could yield some interesting information.’ She blinked, there was this strange mist in the air, not that it was easy to see, to begin with, with no lamps or lights anywhere to be found, visibility for anypony other than Luna and her thestrals would’ve required a torch. But this mist, it grew thicker and thicker as she walked forward, negating her night vision.
She lit her horn as she plunged into the mist. It smelled even worse inside the mist. ‘Perhaps…’ she spied another door through the grey substance, a regular door, thankfully. ‘I should check there.’ She turned the doorknob with her hoof and walked inside, thankfully the mist was not present to negate her night vision. There were items, pony items, she idly noted old Crystal Guard Armor, saddlebags, snow-boots and cloaks that were made for ponies. She recalled Shining Armor’s words, ‘Well, he requested that he find us his um… His lover’s things, if at all possible,’ she saw a journal, a golden spiral on its cover, ‘Radiant Hope,’ she took the journal and tucked it under her wing. ‘I’m sure you deserved better,’ Luna thought.
Luna’s eyes wandered over the various other objects, mostly all of them were pony, except for one strange ornate locket. ‘What are you?’ She questioned as she grabbed it in her hoof. It wasn’t heavy, nor was it light, it was just… there. ‘What’s inside you?’ She flipped it open only to see a blinding red light. “Ahh!” She closed her eyes and the slider. She blinked several times as the spots that had formed in her eyes started to disappear.
‘Let’s not do that again…’ Luna sighed and left the storage room. Other than the Journal of Sombra’s late lover and the strange locket, there was nothing else of interest. Luna briefly considered checking on the condition of her sick ponies, but she decided against it, ‘I am too far in now, I should at least see what is at the end of the line.’
By the time six in the morning came around, along with the last report from the facility’s failing and possibly faulty security system, the teams had just been dispatched, and the containment door had just been broken. 05-1 was, understandably, absolutely furious. The time it took to equip both of the MTF MTF Beta-7 squads had taken too long. But there was no use crying over it now, they had been dispatched, and should be arriving there shortly. The teams and their leaders had been briefed by the site commander. But, 05-1 sighed, ‘Can’t having anything go wrong. My orders need to be crystal clear.’
He motioned for the radio, which 05-13 had been using to communicate with the site’s administrator. 13 handed it over, “Doctor Black,” 05-1 spoke to the Site Commander, “This is the Administrator, patch me through to the MTF’s leaders’.”
05-1 continued to look at the screen in front of him. 05-8 and 13 at his sides. They were both distressed to the same extent as their superior. The satellite feed showed the two helicopters flying southwards to the ruins of Site 31. “I have special orders that need to be carried out, Black.” He reiterated.
“Of course, sir,” She replied. Her voice was rigid and the definition of seriousness, “Right away.”
There were a few seconds of silence before he heard a click, the indicator that he’d been patched through to the Maz Hatters. He spoke, “Colonel Nye, Colonel Velvet,” he spoke into the radio, “Are you there?”
“Yes, Administrator.” A male voice responded.
“Yes, Administrator.” Followed a female one.
He could hear the deafening cry of Helicopter's blades cutting through the blizzard and wind in the background of their transmissions. “Good,” he replied, “I want my orders followed down to the letter, even if it breaks regulation, Understood?”
”Yes, Administrator.”
“Yes, Administrator.”
“Alright,” he sighed, “We do not know exactly who is there, we think they might be insurgents wanting to release SCP 008 to the world, this cannot be allowed. You are to take them alive, if possible, but if you cannot, terminate them,” he looked back at 05-2, who had informed him of another possibility, “They also might be, the ponies, attempting to find clues to our whereabouts,” he sighed, “If that’s the case, They don’t know what they are dealing with. If there are any infected, use SCP 427 to save them, otherwise, you shoot to maim and capture.” He saw 05-13, “There is also an on-site Nuke, located under the old 05 Council chambers. It failed to detonate when it should’ve, you will rearm the bomb, we will destroy the facility upon your return.” 05-1 paused for a second, “Understood?”
“Yes, Administrator.”
“Yes, Administrator.”
Despite her best efforts, Cadance was unable to heal the sick thestrals, and all had fallen into a deep sleep. ‘Hopefully not a coma…’ she thought. Dark Shield had stationed her squad to guard the Princess as she attempted to heal Time Wise, while Shimmering Stone had his team on the perimeter of the former mess hall. Bright Night and her team went after Princess Luna, who they had heard breaking down the door. Shortly after she left, a strange smell began to fill the room, causing everypony to cough violently, including Cadance.
‘I need to stay focused,’ Cadance thought as she looked down at the comatose thestral stallion. `We can’t lose anypony else.’
The door to their makeshift shelter opened up, revealing the forms of Bright Night and her squad before they hastily closed the door behind them. “We couldn’t find her,” she stayed, dejected, “By the time we had reached the safe, it had burst open and there was this… mist spewing out of it.” Cadance stood up from her crouched position and made her way over to the door.
“Do we know what it is?” Cadance asked Bright Night, “Could it be causing a sickness?”
“Maybe?” The Sergeant responded, “It smells and tastes terrible.”
“Hmm,” Cadance pondered for a moment, “And Princess Luna is in it…” she looked back at the groaning thestrals laying down on top of their sleeping bags, “Let’s keep our cool,” Cadance state’s as she began to form a plan, “We’ll-“
“PRINCESS!” A guard shrieked, “Get Dow-“
Cadance didn’t hear anything after that, save for the constant buzzing and ringing in her ears. Somepony, most likely one of the guards , pulled her up off the ground. Cadance hadn’t even realized she had collapsed. “Wh-“ she choked on something, dust mos probably, “What’s-“
She blinked her eyes several times and several forms took shape. Her blurry eyes widened, ‘N-no…’ her mind refused to function. The last time she had seen the human that they had captured, all Tartarus had broken loose. She called magic to her horn, intent on making a shield around her and the nearest pony guard. Her mouth moved, Cadance couldn’t hear what she was saying, but it was something along the lines of, ‘Stay Back!’
Cadance finally found her hooves steadied enough to stand on. The guards who were dragging her finally let go. Then, finally, the ringing in her ears began to subside, “I said STAY BACK!” She roared again, “You will leave now!”
The humans, six of them stopped and stood in front of them, their weapons pointed at Cadance. Their strange masks hiding their true faces, their true reactions to her words. Some of the bat pony guards finally got back up and got their spears pointed at the enemy.
It was a stand-off now.
If you could call a hoof full of spear wielding ponies against a well trained unknown enemy a stand-off.
Cadance slowly let her horn fill with blue magic. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another pony moving up to her. “Stand back,” she ordered, to no effect, he kept moving towards her. She tilted her head slightly, to get a better view of the approaching pony. “I or-“ whatever she was going to say was reduced to a scream as she felt them bite into her side.
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*sips tea*
Called it
As the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat, or in this case it might just kill the princess
Whatever happens next will cause chaos. There most likely will be fighting and confusion on the pony side.
I hope the MFT dont detonate Luna, looks kinda bad for her at the moment.
Also semms like she might be immune or have some increased resistance to 008. They were probably all exposed but she and Cadance seemed fine. Maybe Alicorn Powers ? Or it just takes longer, so many possibilities...
I hate cliffhangers, but also kinda love them... its complicated
10334640
Great job luna, you may as well have just let all the SCP's out because you done fucked up Hard
10334857
At least she will understand why humanity is a dying species and why they act the way they do.
10334761
Its shame they were not MTF in MOPP suits
I have a short question, was it explained how good or bad humanity is doing ?
The Foundation exists and stays in the shadows, that normal, however Ponies and other Species roam around. Is Humanity dying or it it just somewhere else?
If Humanity is dying you could possibly work with SCP-2000 a little.
10336345
The Current state of the Foundation, and that of SCP 2000 Is unknown.
AWESOME chapter! Looking forward to the next one!
10336410
after reading SCP-2000's file. Most likely SCP 2000 is still waiting for the all clear. Its location and its defences would have protected it easily and as its file says its to be manned at all times, there could be people there. Worst case scenario, its still waiting for someone to activate the Lazerus protocol in which case, any human can stroll in by this point and push the go button
(for those who wanna read its file http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2000 here it is...for those who don;t wanna read a wall of text. SCP-2000 is basically a bomb shelter against K-class end of the world scenario's based in yellowstone national park disguised as a ranger station and has on site, the facilities to clone humans into a viable population and has knowledge and genetic files on site to basically resurrect anyone they have on file.)
10339770
Maybe 2000 was hit by a computer virus and produced ponies instead.