Chapter 117: Step by Step
Sassi paused, keeping her heart rate steady. Astral was panicking enough for the two of them, the stallion’s vision abruptly having decided to black out.
Not the best situation when they were on a shaky, half-destroyed floor, and above a massive reactor.
“Take a few deep breaths, Astral. You weren’t contaminated by anything. Your body is just under an amazing amount of stress. You are probably just overloaded, for lack of a better term. Just give it a minute.”
“Do we have a minute?” The stallion asked with a waver in his voice.
“We have long enough for you to stand there and start taking slow, deep breaths. That’s an order. It shouldn’t last long.”
“Yes, M’am.”
Her strict tone punched through the fear, Astral managing to collect himself as he breathed.
Sassi was half-guessing it was temporary. She had experienced a few vision blackouts during her modifications when recovering, so it wasn’t a completely unknown symptom. As to the duration, she just had to hope.
“Ok. It’s starting to be better. Still fuzzy, but I can see shapes and stuff. Maybe some writing.”
Sassi bit her cheek. It’d have to do. They couldn’t pause the sequence for long, and she couldn’t even move to help him.
“Ok. The buffer knob is in front of you. Top right, underneath a large switch. Can you set it to decreasing? Two twists clockwise.”
“I think so…”
The beeping on the console changed- and then settled back to its prior tone.
“Ok. I think I’ve got it. Pushed it too far for a moment, but it’s set to decreasing.”
“Good. Two more steps to go. On your left, there’s a giant X-like switch. Toggle the upper left portion to be depressed. It should be labeled Disengage Secondary Safeties.”
“I think…ok.”
Sassi flipped her switch, the console now rhythmically beeping slowly.
“Now the easy part. On the count of three, press the giant red button in the center.”
“I can do that.”
“One, two, three!”
The two ponies punched the button, and the reactor below them shuddered. The light changed from a yellow to a bluish-white glow, like a welder’s flame. It also got significantly warmer.
“Done. Ok, so we’ve got a few hours before the reactor melts down. As long as we’re above it, we’re good. It’ll just melt everything below it and seal off whatever the Princess needs it to,” Sassi said. “Can you see enough to follow me?”
“I think so.” The stallion wobbled over to her, and Sassi could feel the tension humming away over their link.
“Alright. There’s an intact walkway over here, but we’ll then have to cross another girder. Let’s get to that point first.”
“I can do that. I think,” Astral said, “things are still fuzzy. I don’t f-feel so good, Sas.”
The tremor in the usually-steady stallion’s voice put Sassi even further on edge. Not only was Astral dealing with the fear of not having his body respond, but now his sight was failing. Sassi’s HUD gently blinked in warning, the monitoring of Astral’s suit indicating rapidly-increasing stress of all types; physical and mental.
I need to get him out of here. It’ll still take another hour or two before we can get back to the exit tunnel. If he’s fading this fast…
She didn’t let herself think beyond that.
They navigated the decaying section of floor safely, side-stepping a dripping mess of acid that abruptly ate through a metal desk. The reactor below them continued to hum, the temperature now reaching tropical levels.
At least it was a linear increase.
They came to the end of the intact walkway. The girders sprawled ahead. It was a longer route to get back with a few twists and turns. All the while, the path was suspended over the reactor far below.
If Sassi fell, at least she could (maybe) glide to a safe landing. Astral, however…
The warning about Astral’s vitals continued to escalate, Sassi biting her lip in worry. She couldn’t carry him, not without potentially buckling the metal. They didn’t even have any rope.
No, but we do have something else!
Sassi trotted over to an exposed section of wall, ripping out a slew of electrical cables.
“You’re better at braiding than me, but this’ll do!” she muttered, Astral sitting down to try and catch his breath.
He shouldn’t be winded; we’ve only gone a few steps.
After assembling the rope, Sassi tied a few knots into it and then wrapped the cord around Astral’s torso. It wasn’t terribly long; just enough to get across the entire chasm if laid out straight. As it was, it’d at least let Sassi belay him from the section of the girders that joined together.
Not to say those supportive sections were any more stable, but they were at least built with additional rivets and cabling that tied them to the rest of the intact floor.
“Ok, Astral. I’m going to go first. Then once I’m off the girder, you follow. And we just leapfrog across. Don’t focus on moving fast. Just get from one end to the other. Can you do that?”
He nodded, but Sassi saw genuine fear in the stallion’s eyes from behind the visor.
“I’ll do my best.”
“If you fall, I can haul you up. The AI estimates that the cable can hold three of us, based on the wire strength.”
Another nod and Sassi set off after tying the cable around her torso as well. The path was easy enough; a guard recruit would have done this same exercise hundreds of times in basic training.
Of course, the stakes were a bit different this time.
Astral could barely keep himself upright as he maneuvered across the girders. Sassi must have seen the suit’s warnings because his own HUD was glowing a bright red.
After all their running and fighting, the full side effects of the RASP modification were starting to hit. The systems could keep him alive, especially with the healing crystals embedded in his chest and sides. But there was a very big difference between “alive” and “able to fight.”
Or in this case, able to walk.
The medication case on his side was tapped out; there wasn’t more it could do. What he needed was to rest and let his body heal.
Instead, he was walking across a tightrope of death, and the stallion’s vision was barely passable.
But I’ve got Sassi.
The incredible mare on the other end of the tether gently urged Astral on, carefully dodging the dripping acid as she tightrope-walked ahead.
One hoof in front of the other…
Four out of five girders were navigated safely, and Astral had to take a few moments to breathe. Even walking was a struggle. The worse part was how fast it had hit. After his vision went black, his body seemed to be in some sort of shock. If Astral was being honest, he was barely holding it together. With the side effects of the treatment, his usual compartmentalizing of the stress had started to break down.
“Alright, Astral. Final girder and we can get out of here!”
Thank heavens for this amazing mare.
She carefully trotted over the final girder, tying the rope off to an intact support column further on.
“You’re tied in!” she called out, waiting at the edge. “When you’re ready.”
He carefully placed one shaking hoof on the girder, then another. It was wider than the balancing beams at the Night Guard training, so that was a plus.
Halfway there. Two thirds…
As if placed by an eviler version of Discord, a large blob of acid fell from the ceiling in slow motion. It would have been amusing if not for its impeccable aim. It splashed directly across the rope and girder, halfway between Astral and Sassi.
The metal under his hooves began to groan, the girder abruptly sagging.
“JUMP!”
Sassi’s voice roared in his ears, Astral not even hesitating as he took a few steps and leaped. There was no way he’d make it, but he trusted her.
As he fell, the stallion couldn’t help but let out a choked laugh. This was so familiar. Only, the last time Sassi had told him to jump, he hadn’t known her nearly as well.
Now, there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that she knew what to do.
The sudden stop made every bone in Astral’s body ache in protest, Sassi having grabbed onto the armor itself. The excess rope was wrapped around him, the mare grinning.
“I said it once, and I’ll say it again,” she said, slowly starting to haul them up, wings flapping to add some upward thrust. “I’m not letting you go!”
“Never doubted it for a moment,” he said, coughing up some black tar as the stallion tried to laugh.
The rope abruptly spasmed, splashed acid having eaten away through one of the strands. It visibly began to stretch despite Sassi trying to compensate with her wings.
“Well. That’s not good,” she muttered. “So much for weight estimations. We might have to swing, but then it may snap.”
“Can we get rid of weight? You having guns is more important than me. And can’t we remove some of the armor plating?”
She let out a hiss, another piece of the rope snapping.
“I hate that idea, but it’s a good one. AI? Get rid of the primary user’s shotgun and flamethrower. Also, get rid of the armor plating on my sides.”
“Warning. Utilizing emergency-jettison bolts will require the reattachment of armor mounts. Confirm?”
“Confirm.”
The piece of the armor fell off, the rope abruptly sagging significantly less as Astral’s weapons were jettisoned.
“I can dodge easier than you,” Sassi stated bluntly, slowly trying to pull them up again. She let out a frustrated growl as another strand snapped. “Ok, get rid of all of my external armor plating. Leave medical and saddlebags.”
The rope strain lessened, but it still wasn’t enough. The braids continued to fray if Sassi tried to pull them up even a little, and that was with the mare flapping as hard as she could.
“My turn. You need those miniguns, both of them. AI? Get rid of my armor plating. Leave the reactor, medical stuff, and saddlebags.”
The two ponies actually bounced upwards as the large armor plates fell away, Sassi letting out a sad sigh. She easily pulled them up back onto the floor, the two ponies looking at each other. They looked more like gymnasts than soldiers. They wore matching black body suits, the only components now being the reactor, the saddle-bags, and a minimalistic bit of silver armored metal on their chests and sides.
“Funny how even this plating is better than what the Royal Guard has, but I still feel naked with it,” Sassi sighed. “At least the reactor can give us shields if needs be, and now we can fly.”
Astral nodded, abruptly having to focus more on breathing.
“Well, ok, maybe I can fly. Just take slow, deep breaths, Astral. Your body is trying to expel toxins. Part of the way it does that is through respiration. It can overload you. We’ll take it slow on our way back.”
That made him laugh, the stallion letting out a soft whine of pain at the effort.
“S-slow? We gotta get out of here before that reactor cooks,” he gasped, Sassi shaking her head. She helped him up, Astral leaning heavily on her as they walked.
“It won’t hurt us. The sequence is unique. This reactor was actually built with the side purpose of containing any catastrophic spills. I guess the company really did have ok intentions at the start. From what I read in the instructions, it was designed to melt down and seal off the site from the groundwater below in case of a catastrophic containment leak. It’ll leave most floors above it livable.”
“So, just a horde of evil jellyfish, and hopefully not running into Number Two again?”
“Basically.”
Astral let out a painful laugh again as they came to the stairwell.
“Piece of cake.”
Huzzah! Onwards and upwards! 
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So...Equestria's version of Chernobyl?
Tense chapter! So close to the end too; I doubt our heroes will get out of this that easily.
A side note: I was expecting some sort of Halo 3 reference or something, with the chapter number and all, but it probably wasn't necessary. My guess:
Sassi and Astral work through the melt-down sequence together, Astral's impairments get progressively worse until he's on the verge of passing out. Suddenly while the pair finish the sequence Sassi gets hit by a falling steel beam, she's knocked out.
"Sassi! No! AI, what are her vitals?!"
"Her armor is locked-up, the gel layer could have taken most of the impact...status: unconscious. Recovery time: unknown."
Astral trembles, he's weak but tries to move the beam off of her. After trying repeatedly and failing Astral stops and kneels next to her. He has a heartfelt moment about how important Sassi is to him, how they are almost out and want that happy ending they deserve. Astral trembles to his feet, still very weak, the odds near impossible.
"AI, scan for cable, a lift, anything! I'm not leaving her here!"
"Yeah, you're not," Sassi replies as she shoves the steel beam off of herself, revived by the power of love, or something; point being: it would be really romantic.
"Sassi!" Astral hugs her, "I'm so glad you're ok...I swear you're as stubborn as this silo."
The pair get up and start walking.
"Astral...thanks for everything you said, I was out-of-it, but with our neural-link I sorta heard all the nice things you said."
"Oh, yeah? Well, I meant every word."
"I know. You always keep your promises."
11619026
I was tempted to throw in some Halo references, but didn't want to be too heavy-handed about it other than chapter titles!
11619024
.....Eyyyyup.
Too bad about the RASP armour pieces. Had a fun time imagining all the normal stuff they do while being as huge and bulky as Bulk Biceps. Oh well.
The
SCPcreature that only Astral could see... I hope it follows them out. It is a freaky monster to live with. Potentially an interesting future story point where this creature, or full blown psychosis hallucination of it, lives in Astral's world for years, to a point that Sassi is tired of Astrals constant fear. Long enough that Sassi might stop beliving in him for a time.Also, doesn't the reactor need to actually glass the entire area above it instead of causing sea water to fill everything? It seemed like Twilight's warning was about deleting something that could infect the world above.
That infection/limbo dust/biohazzard could spread by water, potentially more contagiously than air since water is everyone's life blood.
11619195
An interesting idea on the SCP crossover idea for sure...
And maybe I should have explained it better- the reactor melts downwards, directing the energy to glass the area below it. Not above. It's meant to seal off the groundwater contamination.
Also:
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/26/b2/50/26b250a738ea4abc7a5af4d42ad93af0.jpg
11619504
That's...that's pretty accurate.
11625177
I'll walk my road of the damned, thank you. Your literary bear traps don't scare me. Limbs are for the weak *gnaws*
11625183
this part reminded me a lot of "keep talking and nobody explodes"
11702207
Certainly some similarities.