The Corporation

Neither of them knew yet what they had gotten themselves into...

"Ferrum, lead the way.", Sunny decided. Ferrum acknowledged the command by sliding his night vision goggles over his eyes and entered the darkness in a single swift move. Weapon at the ready, he intently observed his surroundings, each step routine honed by practice and drill.

An almost inaudible shuffling from his left side caught his attention, but an immediate glance revealed nothing but cold, empty floor...

Twilight though heard the sound, too... but before she could say anything, bright light flooded the room, eliciting a groan from Ferrum as his eyes were suddenly subjected to the enhanced brightness of the ceiling lamps.

The rest of the group quickly followed suit, noticing the sudden change in building material: The walls were made of gray polished and reinforced iron, and added in windows showed pictures landscapes, creating the illusion that they were in a surface building instead of a secret underground facility.

"The Halon gas has dissipated.", Iron Steel reported, taking readings from a pocket analyzer. Halon was not normally found in the atmosphere, as it caused unconsciousness or even death, supplanting oxygen in the air.

"Good.", Sunny Bonds absentmindedly replied while circling the room.

"The perfect illusion.", Crystal whispered as he looked at one of the fake windows. Twilight had to agree. Hadn’t she known she was several hundred metres below the surface, she would have assumed to be in a normal building...

"Guys, I need help with this!", Silver Vest exclaimed, trying to pry open the doors of an elevator. Sunny Bonds came to aid him, followed by Golden Plate. Together, they finally managed to create an opening.

Impenetrable darkness greeted their gazes. Iron Steel took out a flare  and threw it down the elevator shaft...

After a fall of several dozen metres, the flickering light hit the top of the elevator car  with a resounding clank.

"I think we‘ll have to use the stairs...", Iron Steel remarked dryly as he looked down the shaft.

The metallic stairs vibrated under the heavy steps of the ponies. Twilight panted hard, struggling to follow the well-trained SPAT unicorns. Crystal slipped regularly  when Lyra shoved her weapon into his back. The mysterious stallion meanwhile could feel a nasty headache advancing.

"We follow that sign.", Golden Plate proclaimed, pointing at a marker on the wall. "If we cut through the labs it’ll take us directly to the Red Queen! I’d assume she has already taken notice of us." The layout of the whole facility had been studied in advance of the operation, and every corridor, path, room and door was present in the unicorn’s mind, despite the fact that The Hive had more than thirteen stories, including living quarters for the employees.

Where said employees were was still baffling the squad. They still hadn't encountered any bodies even though they had moved a fair bit into the compound.

"Who’s the Red Queen?", Twilight curiously asked, shivering at the thought of a changeling queen or an equally frightening prospect.

"The Red Queen is an advanced artificial intelligence that controls and monitors everything in this facility."

"A... what?" Twilight didn’t quite follow the explanation.

"Do you know what a computer is?" Golden Plate decided to go back to the basics and work from there.

"I know, but I have never used one of them before."

"The Red Queen is a computer, only smarter, far more complex and to some extent self-aware."

"Ahh... okay. So it’s like an automated housekeeper."

They got interrupted by the unknown stallion who was having a hard time trying to keep his balance.

"Are you alright?", Twilight asked worriedly, stretching out her hoof to support him lest he fall over.

"I... just remembered my name... it’s Spyglass.", the swaying unicorn replied as he continued to rub his forehead.

"Well, then... hello Spyglass. Nice to meet you." The purple mare held out a hoof and smiled widely.

"Hello, Princess Twilight-", he began but got cut off immediately, "No formalities, please. Just call me Twilight."

"Hello, Twilight. It's my pleasure." Spyglass shook her hoof politely. "But I still can’t figure out what happened before you pulled me into the train car."

"Don't worry, it'll come back soon enough."

"Move it. Nopony cares about what you do and don’t remember.", Lyra interrupted their chat, walking past and shoving Crystal along in front of her.

As the group reached the laboratories, they were confronted with a gruesome scenery.

Every lab was a separate, spacious room, the windows made of thick bullet-proof glass reaching from the floor to the ceiling. The doors worked like air locks, hermetically sealing the exits and limiting access to the select ponies who had the required permissions. To the nothing comes out fact... the grisly aspect of this being the perfectly contained murky water that completely filled the rooms. Indistinct objects float through the darkness...

A few small holes at corresponding cracks in the thick glass hinted at somepony trying desperately to smash the glass. Water poured out from the holes in unsteady streams.

"By Celestia...", Twilight took a sharp breath and covered her snout with her forehooves in shock.

"That’s the only direct way to the Red Queen. I think this", Golden Plate pointed at the flooded rooms," will cost us time..."

"Lyra, Ferrum. You two go look for a way through the labs that isn’t flooded.", Sunny Bonds decided. Lyra and Ferrum acknowledged the command and quickly trotted off.

"What happened here?"

Sunny Bonds turned to face Spyglass who had put forth the question. Letting out a heavy sigh, the commanding officer set to explain. "Five hours ago, the Red Queen went out of control for reason unknown, locked down every way in and out of The Hive and flooded the facility with Halon gas from the fire extinguishing system, killing everypony inside the facility at the time as far we know. We are not only here to look for and rescue possible survivors, but also to shut down the AI and find out why a computer as advanced as this one malfunctioned."

Upon hearing this, Twilight started to tear up. More than a hundred ponies dead. She hoped that some had managed to survive but she knew chances were slim.

"Why... how did this happen?"

"We don't know, but we hope to find out soon. This might not have been a technical fault, and if there are ponies involved we will locate them and hold them responsible."

Crystal was listening carefully when he suddenly saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head to the side, he spotted the lifeless body of a mare slowly hit the glass. Crystal let out a yelp of fear and jumped away from the transparent barrier, while Silver Vest and Iron Steel had already taken point, aiming their weapons at the corpse in the flooded lab. The dead mare looked almost peaceful, floating in the water like an unborn filly.

Twilight's eyes widened in shock before a loud sob escaped her mouth. The objective part of her mind recalculated the chances somepony survived and told her they were even worse than she had previously assumed. Spyglass looked at the mare, horrified as well, but nevertheless turned to the purple alicorn princess.

"Are you okay?"

Twilight swallowed down another upcoming sob and looked at him, but before she could even say anything, Spyglass wrapped her up in an embrace, trying to calm her down. After an awkward moment, the mare returned the hug and held on tight.

"Feel better?"

"Yes, thank you...", Twilight whispered, giving him a wavering smile as they let go of each other.

"Captain?", Golden Plate announced, "I think I found an alternative route."

"Go on."

"We could pass through the dining hall and take a detour around the labs, which are out of the picture obviously."

Crystal slipped out of his thoughts as his attention was subconsciously directed at a ventilation shaft in the ceiling of the corridor. Listening carefully, he could almost make out something apart from the usual silent sound that moving air produced, something that didn’t belong there…

A something that sounded dangerous, though he could not put his hoof on what made his fur stand on edge...

Crystal could swear that there was subtle moaning and groaning carried by the metal shaft, but just as he was about to notify the others of this…

"Sir!"

He seized in shock at the sudden voice. Lyra and Ferrum had returned from the perimeter check but brought bad news...

"All the labs are flooded, without exception. We need to find a different way.", Lyra reported, pointing behind her down the corridor they had come from. "What the…" She raised an eyebrow questioningly when she spotted the floating body against the glass wall. Ferrum meanwhile avoided looking at the dead mare and instead suddenly seemed to have developed an enormous interest in his own hooves.

"Then we follow Plate's suggestion. We’re already behind on the schedule! Let’s move it!", Sunny Bonds urged them on, "Lead the way, Plate."

Golden Plate nodded and headed off in the direction of the canteen, the rest of the group trailing behind him.

"Poor bastards...", Lyra murmured, giving the dead body behind the glass a last look before turning away.

The mare's body in the flooded room hit the transparent wall again, her eyes snapping open and a hoof making contact with the glass…

"Team, take point and prepare for breach!", the SPAT leader ordered, hoof stretched out towards the door to the dining hall, "As for the others, wait for the all clear!"

Golden Plate put in the door code and advanced through the opening door with the rest of the squad. They prepared to spread out and secure the perimeter, but stopped in their tracks when they realized one disturbing fact.

The dining hall did not exactly look like you’d expect.

Instead of tables and other furniture, the enormous room in front of them contained rusty, metal containers, dozens of cables and pipes protruding from the outside of each and every one of them and emitting a faint humming sound. A small display indicated their status, simply reading "Environment Stable", but not disclosing the purpose or contents.

"Where we are? This is not a dining hall!", Ferrum confusedly stated.

"But that's what the plan says! Dining Hall B!", Golden Plate retorted, consulting one of his several maps.

"Let me look at that.", Sunny Bonds interjected and grabbed the map.

Meanwhile, Crystal drew own conclusion regarding the ‘mislabelling’ of this area of the facility, and the thought was distressing to say the least.

"Maybe the Umbrella Corporation is hiding something... something you were never supposed to see. Something that they want to never see the general populace.", Crystal voiced his concerns, looking the Captain and back to the containers.

Sunny Bonds gave Crystal a glare, not indicating whether he considered this for even a moment but instead ordered Ferrum and Lyra to stay with him and secure their entrance point."

"Sir, there are no Halon residues in the air...", Iron Steel informed the others after checking his device.

"Then there may be survivors. Twilight, Spyglass, Plate, Steel and Vest, come with me.", Sunny Bonds declared, leading the small group further into the hall.

Twilight's mind was racing with unanswered questions. What was the Umbrella Corporation doing hundreds of meters below the surface in a secret facility? What was it that had to be kept so secret? Why did Sunny Bonds issue commands to her as though she was a simple civilian? His status as SPAT captain made him lower-ranking than her being a princess, after all...

Another question forced its way into her mind: What was inside those containers? The monitors indicating their condition had small lights to them as well, but the blinking was oddly rhythmical, similar to an unheard pulse…

Each container had a small window, just big enough to peek inside.

After a few seconds in which her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she was able to make out a lot of thin pipes connecting to and apparently sustaining a somehow living thing with a brownish-translucent liquid, though neither looked like anything she had ever seen. The only indication the creature was indeed alive was a noise like enormous lungs breathing in and out slowly but steadily.

"With all due respect, princess, I said 'Stick together'.", a voice next to her interrupted her train of thought, making her jump in surprise.

"I... I'm sorry..."

"Every action I take and order is first and foremost directed at the safety of my team, possible survivors and of course, yours. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.", Sunny Bonds stated flatly while looking her dead in the eye.

She looked down at her hooves and tried to avoid his glare. "I'm sorry... it's just that... I am curious and at the same time terrified of finding out what happened here..."

"I understand that. Now, please follow me."

The only thing Sunny Bonds really hated was incompetence, but he didn’t think of the alicorn under his care that way. She just was... oblivious of the tactics and strategies employed by the SPAT. She was visibly surprised by their effectiveness as a team, only being accustomed to the basic tactics of the Royal Guard.

The Royal Guard was trained to keep the Princesses safe and defend them in case of an attack, as well as being prepared for the possibility of open, large scale warfare. But they were unable to seize control in case of a terrorist attack, due to their strict hierarchy and centralization of command. Every time they so much as tried to ended in disaster.

The SPAT on the other hoof would be more than able to guard the Princesses, but they preferred to stay independent. Being organized in small groups or cells with short chains of command, they made use of well coordinated squad-style guerrilla tactics. Their individual skill and superior training came in handy when unconventional situations got out of hoof. The SPAT specialized in tactical entries, hostage rescue, acquisition of high risk targets, rapid intervention and others, going through harsh training to be ready for any assignment they were put on. Their operations were kept secret from the population, as well as their current deployment sites.

Both SPAT and Royal Guard had their right of existence, but there was no doubt which military branch was better trained.

"What’s in these boxes? What’s this whole thing about really?" Ferrum paced, only stopping momentarily to look at a container. Crystal sat on a metallic crate, looking at his two guards while deep in thought. He had to get rid of the ring on his horn, feeling defenceless and exposed without his magic.

"Do I look like a clairvoyant?", Lyra retorted, not really wanting to know what Umbrella had been up to down here…