86-34: Arc 1: Fight the Power, Fight the Fad

The Alicorp Industries building had more blue reflective glass panes than walls,and they glistened in the afternoon sun. Circuit Cut approached the guard house next to the front gate and saw a unicorn inside reading the newspaper..

“Hi, I’m here to do the server repairs”, he said, trying his best to sound professional.

“Really now? Hold on, I’ll get someone to come pick you up”, the guard said from behind the glass window as he pressed a few buttons on the intercom.. “Hey, Clank! the colt to fix the servers is here, get your flank down to the guard house.”

A few minutes later a brown unicorn trotted up to the guard and greeted Circuit Cut who was in the waiting room beside the guard house. He appeared to have a cutie mark consisting of a wrench and screw driver crossed together in a coat-of-arms fashion.

“Ah, you must be Circuit Cut, and that means....what’s the secret phrase?” he asked intently.

Circuit Cut sighed. “A unicorn without it’s horn...is just a horse”, he in a dull demeanor.

“Bingo”, replied the brown unicorn excitedly.

“That is so lame.”

“But if you said that within the compound, everypony would put some serious telekinetic hurtin’ on ya.”

As the entered the building, a blue unicorn greeted them in the lobby,followed by another one,with dark green skin and black hair. Both were in uniform.

“Hey, Clank, how’s it going? Who’s that new friend of yours?” the blue unicorn asked.

“Oh,he’s the guy I brought in to fix the network."

Circuit Cut gave a greeting nod.”Sup?”

“You know,” Clank added, “he was one of the ponies who fended of the convoy that got ambushed.”

The green unicorn said, “Great,they let everypony in these days,even mercs.”

“Lighten up,Chartreuse.”

“Don’t call me that. It's Snake Knot.”

“Don’t mind him,he’s just a little jumpy around strangers”, the blue unicorn replied. “I’m Blake Flake. I’m the general manager here, and I’m glad you and your friends kept our cargo safe on that last run. I appreciate it. I’ll catch you ponies later.” The blue unicorn then went on this way. Circuit Cut could hear Chartreuse’s voice trailing off.

“I’m telling you,it’s a mista....”

CC and Clank continued past the lobby and down a corridor which led to an elevator.

“It’s a good thing they have only a hoof-full of guards around here. We take this down to the basement,where the servers are stored.”

The elevator took them to the second ground floor. They stepped out of the elevator. Clank went straight and approached a door with a numerical key pad with a unicorn guard standing next to it. Slick greeted him and explained his purpose there. The guard nodded, punched in a code and the door opened. Slick and Circuit Cut entered a room that contained a tower twice their height with many flickering blue and green lights.

“*Whistles* that’s an XJ5 unit. A real powerhouse”, Circut remarked in amazement.

“Yeah. The best bits can buy. Anyway, get to it. The sooner we get the data, the sooner we can leave.”

“Alrighty”,Circuit Cut replied,taking out his hoof-pad from his saddle bag. “Cracking an XJ5. This is a chance of a lifetime.”

15 minutes later...

“I’m in.”

“Wha...?” Clank said in disbelief as he turned around.

“Hey,do you know who you’re talkin’ to?”

“Actually,uh,...I don’t,so...wow...that’s amazing. So what’s on it?”

“Well,they’re mostly company info, employee records,emails. I’ll skip the emails. Probably a bunch of office politics,anyway, aaand oh, customer records.”

“That all seems like pretty mundane stuff. Anything else?”

“Hmmm, not much else....hang on,there’s a folder here. Restricted to only admin access.”

“Can you crack it?”

“Let me try...”

10 minutes later...

“Okaaaaay got it. There are a few folders here. This one is a list of spells being developed by Alicorp Industries.”

“Great”, Clank remarked .“That will come in handy should anyone ever use  those spells against us.Copy it to your hoofpad.”

“There’s something else here. A single folder called ‘Marejestic-12’.”

Clank  turned around as Circuit Cut opened it. “Got a bunch of names and some maps in here. Marejestic-12? Hmmm,why does that ring a bell?”.

“That’s because it’s an urban myth,like Area 42”, explained Clank.

“Oh ya,some secret project,right?”

”Sort of. After the war, there was a lot of unrest, and Princess Celestia gathered the greatest minds of unicorns,earth ponies,and pegasi,to work on something.”

“And what is that ‘something’?”

“Weapons,magic,world peace,the works. There are so many conspiracy theories floating around.”

“What happened then?”

“That’s part of the myth. Nopony really knows. The probably project got shut down. Ran out of funding, perhaps.”

“So the list of names here, they’re the ponies who were part of the Marejestic-12 team?”

“Could be, but why does Alicorp Industries have this li...”

Clank’s face turned pale.

“...holy crap we gotta get outta here", Clank said when he realized it.

“Seconded.”

“Now don’t panic.” Get that data off the servers, and do the configuration which is what you came here to do.”

“Yes,sir”, Circuit Cut said as he frantically got to work on the servers configuring. “Done.”

“That was like 5 minutes.”

“Well, configuring an XJ5 unit is cake compared to hacking into it.”

“Makes sense. Let’s go.”

Clank and Circuit Cut opened the door and Clank informed the guard that the servers were working. The guard nodded and thanked them before they made their way back towards the elevator.

As they entered the lobby, they bumped into Blake Flake and the green unicorn again.

“Hey, Blake, the servers are working now. I was just escorting our friend out”, Clank said.

“Heheh, yep, the servers are fine” Circuit Cut added, trying not to give away any signs. The green unicorn saw his expression and gave him a narrow stare.

“Okay well, we’ll be going now. See ya, Blake”, Clank said as the two left. Circuit Cut looked back to see the green unicorn still staring at him.

“Man, that green pony creeps me out”, Circuit Cut remarked.

“Tell me about it. And to think he’s Blake’s right hand”, Clank said as they left the lobby.

As they approached the guard house, the same guard that greeted them on the way out. Guess he hasn’t been alerted yet,Circuit Cut thought.

The walked past the main gate and into the main street.

“Phew, that was close. Where’s the rendezvous point?” Circuit Cut asked, still somewhat nervous.

There’s an old farmhouse outside of town. Well meet up with Cipher and the rest there”, Clank replied

~~~

The sun was beginning to set,but at last they approached the farm. A small vegetable patch with a barn at the other end. Badger and Hot Shot came out of the bar to greet them.

“Come on, we’ll talk inside the barn,” Badger said to them as Circuit Cut and Clank went past an old fence.

“That’s far enough!”

Circuit Cut heard a voice from behind. They turned to see the green unicorn from before, flanked by two other unicorns. All three had mouth-operated pistols levitated.

“Yeah,you see, I may be a little jumpy around strangers,but that’s why they keep me around. It's cause I’m pretty good at weeding out spies...and fear.”

“Hey, I remember you. You’re Chartreuse”, remarked Circuit Cut.

A bullet went right through CC’s left foreleg. His front legs dropped to the ground as he collapsed.

“As I’ve said before, DON’T call me that. It's Snake Knot!”

Almost instantly, another bullet tore through Snake Knot's left shoulder and he fell to the ground. The four of them took cover behind the old fence as shots whizzed past their heads. Hot Shot took out her MO revolver, and in one swift move, rose from behind the fence and shot both the guards in quick succession,center mass. The force of the bullets knocked them back as they fell to the ground, and the blood spatter from both shots was a safe bet that they wouldn't get up again.

“Its alright, I think I can walk”, groaned Circuit Cut.

Badger and Hot Shot quickly attended to Cipher. Cipher came out of the barn, an MO sniper rifle on his back. He came over to Circuit Cut, took out a syringe and injected him near the wound.

“Medication?” Badger asked curiously.

“It will speed up the wound’s healing process”, Cipher replied.

Suddenly, they heard a splutter. Apparently Snake Knot was still alive...barely. Greycolt walked towards him. Upon closer inspection, Badger noticed that the bullet entry wound went right through his heart,and blood was oozing out profusely.

“*Coughs blood* Whoever you are...you cannot...stop us. The Equestria that you know will soon be lost forever. Directive 34 WILL be carried out.”

“What’s Directive 34?”, asked Greycolt.

“...’I-If it exists...it will be defiled’...”

“Who’s behind this?”

“Dark is coming. You’re done fo....”, said Snake Knot as he coughed one last time. Cipher stared at the dead unicorn’s face.

“Cipher, we found something in the servers. It seems pretty big,” Clank said, shaking Cipher out of his stare.

“We’ll talk on the way back. Let’s bury the bodies and make sure we’re not followed”, Cipher replied.

~~~