My Little Combine: Resistance is Magic

Chapter 5 - Battle at T5"They do some crazy shit over at Ponyville, now-a-days."

Running.

You haul ass over to a wall before anyone (hopefully not) spots you. You feel a shock of pure fear and nervousness. You are actually in a Combine base now. Who the hell knows what might be hidden here. You look around and see crates galore. Towering high, like tall metal buildings. Probably containing tons of weapons, armor, and spare parts to expand the Combine army. Judging by the size of the crates, you estimate them to be about 10x10 feet. A giant crane lifts up a few boxes using what looks like magnetism and telekinetic magic combined. From your right side, Lil' Light points over to a small shack that looks abandoned except for some pre-war materials.

You and Little Light both rush over to and inside the shed as quickly as you can. You breathlessly close the door and sit on your flank in a corner of the shed. The room is dimly lit, and a few cracks in the walls and ceiling of the structure show beams of sunlight fighting to get through the small imperfections. What a rush of excitement you felt when you rushed over to the shed. You could have gotten caught, but that possibility made you stronger. You're heart is beating inside your chest like a race pony at a full gallop. Your breaths are unsteady as you try to regain control of your body. But for some odd reason, you love the feeling.

After around five minutes, you peak outside the shed and look toward an old road. You see a massive group of soldiers, an APC, and a giant tripod beast that must be a Strider make their way along the road. You've never seen a Strider before. It looks like something that would be in a fright story that Resistance members would tell around a fire. It stands tall as it walks with it's three legs that are lined with long, thick hairs. It stumbles and whines as it walks like it's some type of machine. Odd strands of some material hang from it's underside. A giant cannon rests on the front of it's body, ready to strike at any point in time. It's body is cased in a type of armor you have never seen before.

The APC rolls along side the Combine Elite Soldiers with it's heavy armor, giant tires, and menacing turret mounted on top. The soldiers are clad in white armor that you presume is very hard to cut through. It's helmet is not like the others you have seen: It's like a cyclops, with a red eye in the center of the helmet. They carry AR2 Rifles that look heavily modified from where you are standing. Why such a large group? You wouldn't know.

You cower inside the shed to avoid being spotted. The sounds of the Strider's heavy steps echo through the complex. You turn to Little Light and see that she is laying down, sleeping lightly. Her short purple mane falls across her eyes. Her chest slowly rises and falls as she breaths lightly. Her light blue coat lays innocently against the harsh surroundings of the shed and her uniform. You shake your head to regain your train of thought. Are you getting feelings for the mare? You discard the thought as quickly as it came and focus on your surroundings. Best to let her sleep.

You stand guard at the door, AR2 Rifle at the ready. There seems to be little activity in this area, except for the machinery. There's nothing inside this shed that would be useful, so there's little reason to why a Combine would want to go in here. This complex must be controlled from underground. Twenty minutes pass, still nothing that could be a threat. Twenty minutes stretch to an hour, still nothing but the sounds of machinery and the unloading of cargo from the Razor train that you got here from.

You see that the shed door has a wood-holder, so you can slide a piece of wood in and be able to barricade yourself inside. You decide to deal with barricading when the sun goes down. You don't want to be found out too quickly. Come to think of it, wasn't there supposed to be a group to search the train for the you a Lil' Light? They are probably still searching the train and will give up after dark. You peak outside the shed and see that it is growing dark. You shut the door and place a few pieces of metal pipeline on the door's wood-holder to make sure it is closed up tight. Nothing is getting through unless they use a lot of force.

You make yourself comfortable in one of the corners of the shed. For the first time, you wouldn't mind to be back in City 9. In you room, in your decent bed. But this will have to do. The corner is well away from the door, so any Combine that think about looking inside wont find you unless they break their way inside. You slowly close your eyes and drift off to sleep without hesitation.

*****

You wake up the next day, the small beams of light greet your eyes as if they are trying to wake you up. You feel a bit sore from where you were sleeping, but other than that: You feel well rested. With a quick yawn, you turn over onto your side, and find Little Light snuggled up close to you, asleep. She must have move here in the middle of the night. You get up onto your hooves and stretch out. The satisfying sounds of your tired joints popping greet your ears.

You walk to the shed door, remove the iron poles from the wood-holder, and do a quick peek outside. Nothing appears to have changed. Machinery is still working, loading and unloading cargo onto a train. That's about it. Where's all the troops, the Combine, the defense? Besides the robotic, self-controlled A.I of the claw machines, you and Little Light are the only life on the surface it seems. All seems silent, until a faint explosion meets your ears. Then, in the distance, you can make out the wails of Striders being destroyed. Burst of heavy gunfire sound faintly in the distance as well. What the hell is going on?

You cautiously walk out of the shed after grabbing your AR2 Rifle and levitating it by your side. You start to walk into the direction of the battle taking place. After about five minutes of walking, the sounds of battle start to sound louder and clearer. You see a few Striders walking in the distance, getting hit by what appears to be rockets. Each hit causes them to jolt back and wail in pain. You can faintly make out a group of Combine Elite Soldiers following in behind an APC unit, spraying wildly at an enemy you can't see.

A few rockets collide with the APC, showering it in a ball of flame and knocking back a few elite soldiers. You move in closer from the right to get a good look at the attackers. You take cover behind the corner of a building and find that the attackers are something you wouldn't believe: Freemane Resistance. A small army's worth of them. You feel a light of hope in your day as you see that the Resistance is winning the battle. The whine of a Strider echos through the air as it collapses to the ground, nearly bringing a building down with it. What are you doing standing around this close to the battle? Should you go in? No, that's too much of a risk.

The Combine look as if they are taking a beating out there. But why this place? It's just a cargo station. I can see if they need the supplies. Unless this is a prison of some sort. You flea back to your shed to check up on Lil' Light. When you get there, you see something horrible. You see Lil' Light being hauled off into the main factory building by some robotic contraptions, trying to fight away from the things. You yell her name as you pull up your AR2 rifle in your field of magic hastily. The robots notice you standing and act by throwing up some try of force field around themselves. Your bullets do no effect on them as you spray wildly at them.

One lifts up an arm and shoots some sort of projectile at you. It speeds toward you, to quickly for you to act. It impacts into your stomach like a tranquilizer dart. It starts to spark and electrify you to your very soul. It feels like you have been set on fire. All seems hazy as you start to loose consciousness to the world around you. The last thing you see is the robots making off with the light blue mare, bringing her into the factory. You collapse to the ground and soon black out...

"Is he alive?" you hear a voice hazily say.

"Yeah.. I can feel his pulse." you hear another light voice talk.

"You all right, buddy? Hey, wake up." the female voice says. You feel a few slaps on your face, trying to wake you up. You regain consciousness to the world and find that you are laying in the middle of the complex in front of the shed. A sharp pain runs to your stomach, you remember that you got hit there with some type of electric device. "Here, let me get that for you. This might sting a bit."

You feel a hoof run over your stomach, gripping the device firmly. The pony pulls the thing out of your stomach, and the first thing on your mind is sharp pain. After about five minutes of trying to regain full consciousness, you get up on your hooves. You tiredly try to speak. "My.... My friend... shit.... these.... robots. They brought her in there!" you speak hastily. You point hopelessly to the factory. The two ponies nod in agreement.

"You've got to help me get my friend back!" you say.

"All right, we'll help you." says the mare. The stallion accompanying her nods his head.

"That's it? Just like that?"

"Yeah, we'll help anyone that has a problem with these damn Combine. We're not heartless!"

You lead them to where you saw the robots bring your friend in. You fin that the doorway is blocked by a force field of some sort. It glows with a light blue and lets off a low electrical hum when you touch it.  "Great! How the hell will we get in there!?" you say.

"I got this," says the stallion as he pulls out a C4 package out of his uniform. "All you need is a little 'Oomph!'." He sets it on the keypad next to the doorway and beckons you and the mare to stand back. He primes the package and stands back. The stallion sets off the explosion and a small fireball engulfs the doorway, you can see the force field wither away. Satisfied, you step into the factory building. After getting past the hallways, you find that this isn't a normal surface factory. It starts to go downward into a prison like area. A depressing aura lingers around the halls as you pass cell doors that are tightly closed. The place look deserted of any Combine forces. In the distance, you can hear a few sounds of what sounds to be those robots.

Coming around a corner is a menacing robot. The thing is on a uni-wheel set-up and carrying a weapon of some sort on its left side. It has a cyclops eye in the right side of it's head and a giant Combine symbol on it's chest. The thing looks like something out of a nightmare. It approaches closer and begins to speak in it's metallic preset voice. "Bzzt! Hostiles sighted.... Bleesskk! Engaging!"  The bot fires a laser beam in your direction. It barely misses you, and hits the wall behind you. You can feel the heat of the super heated material as it flies past you.

You levitate up your AR2 rifle and fire wildly at the bot. One of your stray bullets hit the thing straight in the eye, shutting down it's visual senses. You continue to fire upon it until it shuts down. The only sure way to get one of these bastards is to shoot out the eye, rending it useless. "Those are the Unidrones," says the mare, "the Combine's prison guards. Their lasers aren't that deadly, but they can kill if there's enough. Damn bastards normally come in groups if there's a threat to the system, so we'll have some company." With that said, you reload your AR2 rifle and get ready for some fire fights.

You're walking the halls of this underground Combine prison. The doors on the sides of the hall are tall, dark, and almost impossible to get through. The hallways are long, occasionally breaking off into a small armory or a control room for that block. There doesn't appear to be any dinning rooms for the prisoners or Combine guards, just endless hallways branching off to reveal more cells. "How are we going to find her?" you ask.

"Well, we break into the main control room, and find her from there. This isn't a very active prison, so finding her will be a snap once we get in there." the stallion answers. "The big problem is getting in there."

"Where is the main control room?"

"It's mostly at the lowest level of the complex, once we find the major armory, we'll be close to the main control room." Lowest level of the complex. Your worst fears are at the bottom of the Combine's complexes. Bio-machines, deadly traps, screams and wails of the tormented. It's like Hell, only living. None the less, you have to press forward for the light blue mare. You, the stallion, and the mare continue your decent into the depths of Hell. After about an hour of continuous walking through the dimly lit halls of the complex, you finally come across what you were looking for:The Main Control Room.

The big, metal door stands tall and wide, extending the halls around you to a large room. The keypad on the far right is a glowing bright red with a symbol of a holographic locked padlock on it. Damn, the complex must be on lock-down. "How are we going to get through?" you ask yet another question, making you look more like a small child than a hardened escapist.

"Well, we can't blast this one open, so we'll have to hack it. Luckily, I have my skills that I picked up. Just give me a minute, and I can get this door open." the mare says. She walks over to the keypad and begins to show her skills in cracking the keypad. She does it with finesse and silence so she can't be detected by the system. In about five minutes time, the door starts to open slowly. The metal squeals as the door opens, revealing a massive control room.

Off to the far left side of the room is some max-security cells. They include comfortable Combine-tech wall mounts to hang prisoners by. They are closed off by a force field. The rest of the room is void of any protection. A giant staircase leads up to a raised platform with tons of computers that you have never seen before. The room has a blue tint to it from all the electronics. The place looks safe enough to explore, but you're mostly interested in those cells. The stallion wonders off to explore the computer systems on the raised platform.

You walk over to the cells and check them out. To your surprise, you find that one is occupied. Even more surprise, it turns out to be your friend. She's knocked out, and hanging from the wall like a decoration, wrapped up in electric chains. The keypad is on the far left of the force field. You call over your keypad cracking friend, "Can you hack this?" you ask the mare.

"Yeah, but it's going to be tough. It might make some noise, so be ready for a fight." she says. She walks up to the keypad and begins to slice it. "I never saw this model before. Must be for some high security stuff. Uh oh.." Alarms sound as soon as she touch. The sounds of heavy machinery fill the control room. The stallion jumps up into combat-ready mode, levitating off a shotgun from his back, and getting into a fighting position. You put your rifle up, battle-ready. The sounding alarm echos throughout the room, and the machines creep closer to where you are. "I think they're in the vents," says the mare, "Keep your eyes peeled." It seems like forever until the first Unibot jumps down from the top of the control room.

It hits the floor with a heavy thud. It pulls up one of it's arms and fire a laser straight at you. You let out a curse and jump out of the way just in time to not get your face melted off by the super heated beam. You quickly levitate up your AR2 rifle and let off a few shots into it's face, knocking out it's sensory systems and rendering it blind. You continue to shoot the metal thing until it falls over. More Unibots jump down to join the battle; the stallion armed with the shotgun joins up with you. You see him sneak up behind one of the approaching bots and lets off a full blast of hell fire from his shotgun. Sparks and metal fly everywhere, and the bot lets off wails in electrical death.

One of the bots turn to the shotgunner and starts to spray fire from it's arm. It's got a damn flame thrower! You shoot at the monster's arm until it blows off. The bot then tries to ram the stallion until it gets stopped by the force of buckshot to the face-plate. A few bots are dispatched on the other side of the room where they have a range advantage. The fire their super heated laser beams in your direction, one nicks your tail and almost sets it ablaze.

The fight lasts for about a half an hour before the last bot is struck down by you and the stallion. "Aha! That's how the resistance does it!" bellows the stallion. The force field shut jail cell finally gives way to the mare's awesome computer cracking skills. The field of energy whines as it powers down and opens up the cell. Lil' Light still sleeps inside the cell, hung up by the glowing chains like a puppet. She looks tired and worn, like she's been through Hell and back. In a few minutes, you manage to get her free form her prison.

She opens her eyes slowly and looks up to you as she lays on the floor. A small smile breaks out on her face. She moves up and gives you a tight hug. You return the favor and continue to hug her for a minute or two. After you break the hug, you help her up onto her hooves. You don't know why you hugged her for so long, but none-the-less, you enjoyed it. "I hate to break up your touching reunion," the mare breaks in from outside the cell, "but this place might just blow sky-high."

Oh god.