Fallout Shelter Fourteen

Fallout Shelter Fourteen
Chapter 10 - Shatterpoint

I sat there in the library, in my accustomed desk that I had grown quite fond if, reading in the darkness, the only light being the lamp from my generator. I should really think of a proper name for them. They weren’t generators, just a bunch of MF cells in series. They lasted a long time. I was reading through Unstoppable Energy Magazine.

A magazine about energy weapons, and all these tools. I guess these were met for soldiers and what not. Just something to think about, buying, what’s this? A laser rifle? Interesting.

The AER-12, the finest light based rifle around.
Range: Effective - 700 meters. Absolute - 1300 meters.
Ammunition: Standard MF-T2 energy cell.

Whoa, whoa whoa. Stop stop. I put the magazine down and looked at my generator, one of the cells specifically, on the the roll around the side had all the warnings on it. I was looking for a name. Ah there it is!

REM - Standard Type 2 Magical Fusion Cell. Handle with care!

My heart skipped a beat. I was using laser rifle ammunition as a battery. I didn’t know whether to be excited or worried! But this was absolutely fascinating. I kept reading.

The AER-12, the finest light based rifle around.
Range: Effective - 700 meters. Absolute - 1300 meters.
Ammunition: Standard MF-T2 energy cell.
Magazine: (AVMn) 24 rounds/1 MF cell.
Never lead a target again! The ‘projectile’ travels the speed of light, c. All you have to do is line a shot up and pull the trigger.

We here at Arcitech Energy Weapons recommend the Mk. 4 combat engagement saddle. ‘Battle Saddle’ From our friends over at Lyre Manipulation Systems. They’ve built it just for this type of weapon.

“Finesse of a unicorn, built for a work horse.” - Lyra Heartstrings, CEO of LMS.

Battle Saddle? Well, don’t that beat all. I was wondering how they would have normally used that shotgun they showed me in Hunter’s How To: A Guide To Everything Hunting Related.

I kept reading. Well that explained how non-Unicorns would handle the larger weapons, or you know, Unicorns that didn’t know how to, or couldn’t use magic. (*cough cough* myself) That made me wonder how they handled something smaller, like a simple pistol. Still, I continued to read.

Spend some of your hard earned bits on something that’ll keep you alive. Purchase the upgrade from your requisitions office today!

Are you serious? They made ponies BUY these as upgrades? I seriously hope the war wasn’t a pay-to-live tour of duty scenario. Did they have to buy ammo as well? I flicked the magazine shut. But that spiked my interest.

I booted up the library terminal.

Search>Battle Saddle

6 item(s) found:
AEW-0110 (SLF)KTX-7007 (SLF)LRM-2329 (SLF)TWI-0113 (SLF)BSE-0020 (CAB)BSP-0021 (CAB)

Huh, interesting. Cabinet entries and shelves. I went and rounded up the lot. I started with shelves; AEW-0110. I suspected just by the initials in the entry, it was something by Architech Energy Weapons.

It was a pamphlet.

Architech Energy Weapons and Lyre Manipulation Systems

Presents!

The Energy Firearm Combat Integration System

Energy weapons are an upcoming field. And we here at AEW have taken the time to redesign the Mk. 3 Combat Engagement Saddle, which was built to handle only projectile based firearms.

The new Mk. 4 Combat Engagement Saddle has been designed to mount and fire all AEW made weapons. Including the new Model 12 Architech Energy Rifle. As well as any pre-existing projectile based firearms. All you have to do is swap out the mounting and reloading attachments. Everything else stays exactly the same! No new tutorials or surprise changes. And because of such, we invite you to trade in your Mk. 3 CES for a Mk. 4 CES. Absolutely free upon turning in a Mk. 3 CES. Better yet, you keep the Mk. 3 attachments, for any existing weapons .

Turn in your obsolete Mk. 3 CES, your life may depend on it! This is the way weapons are evolving. Don’t get left behind!

Interesting. I bet they took all the Mk. 3’s back because they could refit them, and then resell them.

KTX-7007 was a set of technical readouts on the Mk. 1 CES by Lyre Manipulation Systems. Looks like that they had to design a Battle Saddle for every unique firearm that existed at the time. Meaning you needed a different Battle Saddle entirely to fire a shotgun rather than a rifle of some sort. I put that book back.

LRM-2329 was a book on the evolution of the CES, unsurprisingly by Lyre Manipulation Systems.

The Lyre Manipulation Systems Battle Saddle

Explanations and Readouts

Vol. 1

Published: 2062

I skimmed through some of the book. This covered the Mk. 1 and Mk. 2. The difference between the Mk. 1 and Mk. 2 was that the Mk. 2 could hold multiple weapons at the same time. That completed the link. Mk. 1 allowed you to fire large weapons, Mk. 2 could have multiple weapons at once, Mk. 3 was capable of firing any projectile weapon, and the Mk. 4 was built to fire both energy weapons and projectile weapons, by switching attachments. Energy or Projectile.

The cabinet entries I found: BSE and BSP were individualized Battle Saddles. One for Earth Ponies or Unicorns, and one for Pegasi. I guess they used E for the first entry, simply because it was expected that a Unicorn could levitate their weapon and manipulate it with magic.

I had a suspicion I would end up using a Battle Saddle if I ever got out of here, if I needed to shoot a gun. Engi would definitely need one if we needed to fire a gun at any point. Not that I had any plans too. I read through the cards. It finally explained how one worked.

Battle Saddles for Earth Ponies
The EP-CES is designed to allow finite manipulation of firearms by those not directly capable of doing so. The basic Mk 3. Battle Saddle has two slots for carrying weapons. Although it’s possible to have upto 4 on a single saddle.

Basic functions:
Arm, Aim, Fire, Reload

Arming a weapon is done by stretching out a front hoof on the corresponding side the wanted weapon is attached to. A weapon on the left side is armed by thrusting the left hoof forward, a weapon on the right side is armed by thrusting the right hoof forward.

A weapon must be armed in order to fire. Arming a weapon will move the weapon off to the side of the saddle. Counter weights will automatically adjust allowing for balance to be kept with larger weapons. Arming a weapon will also disengage the safeties on said weapon. This is done from the mount, which will trip the safety. Weapons with more than 2 fire modes can be switched to by stomping the opposite hoof. (Left side fire change - right side hoof stomp) this is to prevent weight from being taken off balance if the weapon is particularly heavy. To disarm a weapon, and return it to stand-by, simply thrust the desired hoof forward that corresponds with the weapon. Left hoof, left weapon... etc.

Firing a weapon is done by thought. This will only fire one weapon, putting priority on the right side should both be armed at the same time. You can link both sides, to be fired at the same time. This should only be done if the weapons are similar.

Aim. Arming a weapon will allowed it to be fired at any time. This is referred to as “From the Flanks” Firing a weapon from the flanks will only ever be able to fire forwards. To aim “Down Sights” tilt your head to the side, the weapon will move further forwards, allowing you to am down the sights. This will greatly increase accuracy. No movement while standing will further increase the system’s ability to aim. Counterweights will prevent loss of balance. While aiming down sights the weapon can track eye movement, allowing the forward facing view to be rotated up to 25 degrees left and right, and up to 70 degrees up or down. Additionally, some weapons can be rotated 180 degrees to be fired backwards. This requires a bearing attachment.

Reloading. A weapon will automatically reload if its magazine is depleted. This is done by measuring the weight of a weapon while it’s fully unloaded. Adding an attachment will require you to re-weigh the weapon. You can manually reload at any time, ejecting the magazine by thrusting the corresponding back hoof out. (Right reload, right back hoof... etc.)

Jams. Should a weapon jam. Simply manually reload. If jams persist. Consider cleaning and maintaining the weapon.

Additional settings.

Arm without loading. This will unload the magazine, and ejecting the round(s) in the chamber every time the weapon is disarmed. Requiring you to manually reload upon rearming.

Thought Automated Systems are included in some Mk. 3 Battle Saddles. They require practice to use. In reality, the Battle Saddle simply looks for a thought impulse. The best way to do so is through actions. Therefore, your actions do not actually control the systems. The act of doing that action is what causes the system to respond.

Assisted Targeting System. This will help compensate for wind, distance, bullet drop, ammunition type... etc.

Assisted targeting system? Sounds like a precursor to STATS.

They had to to all this just to let non-unicorns use a simple large firearm. This was amazing. I assumed it was simpler to train a bunch of ponies, and spend the money to outfit them, then it would be to just train Unicorns with limited numbers. Mass production of a soldier. Cost effective, simple, easy, non-discriminate, few prerequisites.

Reading the BSP cabinet entry was enlightening. Battle Saddles for Pegasi had to be lighter, more aerodynamic, have slots for their wings. All this effort into perfecting a warmachine. What could you have done with all the time and money spent making war technology if you had put it to something better? A cure for cancer? How about putting a pony (other than Princess Luna) on the moon? Getting them back within their lifetime.

How many other planets had doomed themselves to annihilation? Was there anything out there? We were alone?

You’re alone in the library. Also, do you hear that?

Yes, I’m aware I’m alone in the library. And hear what?

That...

Silence. I could hear the sound of my own breathing. My ears perked up. Silence. Silence is... golden? Silence means something’s done broke again. I left the library. Where was the hum from the manereactor? Lights were on. I got to the maintenance office. There was Engi, in a moment; working on something. I hoped I wouldn’t be the guinea pig.

“Engi, there’s no hum from the reactor.” I announced.

Engi broke from his out of phase stupor. He looked at me, then over to the wall. His ears perked up.

“Well that’s not good.” He said, “C’mon lets go.” He grabbed his toolkit. We reported to level 4. The guards let us pass the doorway

We found the reactor running with the containment fields down. Something was odd.

“Okay, the reactor’s out. But the lights are still running.” Engi opened the master control panel, “Reactor output 0%. We may have a problem here.”

“Are the secondaries running?” I asked.

Engi trotted over to the main breakers. They weren’t tripped.

“That’s odd, they should have tripped by now...” Engi was almost done finishing that sentence.

*CLACK*

“Ah there they go.” We were plunged into darkness. I managed to get my light on first. “The turbines must have been spinning long enough by themselves to generate the necessary power required before they fell below the demands.”

“Assessment?” I asked.

“Not sure. They should have tripped right away.” Engi was already pulling the reactor protection plate off.

“Okay,” He said, “Where is core 5?”

“What?” I came over next to him. Core 5 was outright missing. Gone. Fell off the face of the planet.

“Disconnected too. Somepony removed this properly. And we’re the only two that have the experience to do so.”

“Any signs of tampering. What about the coolant pipes?” I recommend.

“Disconnected, properly too. Fasteners aren’t in position, it would have been as simple as pulling it out after all that.”

That’s when we got the announcement, “Maintenance to reactor room immediately.”

Engi went to the staircase calling the guards down.

“Gentlecorts. We’ve got a problem.” Engi said. Looking to both of them.

“How can we be of assistance?” The one on the left asked.

“Has anypony been down here on your watch? Because we’ve got a missing core. If the shielding breaks on it. This entire Stable is gonna get COOKED!” Engi barked.

One of them immediately turned and pushed the panic button on the far wall. The one I had used to get help when Engi electrocuted himself.

“How does somepony steal a magical fusion core? Don’t they weigh like 50 kilos each?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. I wasn’t even aware you could remove them. But from the looks of it, all connections were severed WHILE the reactor was running. So that would explain why the lights didn’t go out. The system didn’t pick up any faults until the end of the output cycle.” Engi theorized.

Engi had motioned his hoof towards the open end of the reactor. Rotating his leg so the PipBuck light would illuminate it better.

The Overseer finally showed up.

“What was problem enough that somepony had to push the panic button. That thing rings alarms in my office, you know.” Wow, she was in a grumpy mood today.

She’s in a grumpy mood. ALWAYS.

Yeah, I guess that’s true.

“We have a bit of a situation. Ma’am.” Even Engi looked nervous trying to tell her.

“I doubt it was important enough to warrant pushing the panic but...” She started.

Engi cut her off, “We have a missing Mag-Core.”

Her shoulders dropped.

“Well. Shit.” She said. She brought a hoof across her face. She was trying to think.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Engi shook his head, lips curled around his mouth, just a bit. He was not pleased.

“Who could have done this?” She asked. Her brows tilting down, she was pissed.

“Anypony who has access to the level 4 reactor room. And it wasn’t us, we found the reactor in it’s current state on arrival. Just closed up instead of open.” Engi stated. He was being honest.

“Where were you before hoof?” She asked.

Shit. I was in the library. Time to lie! I was about to start but Engi had already started talking again.

“We were both in the Maintenance office. We’re each other’s alibi. You can ask some ponies, we walked through the hub together. I’m sure somepony saw us.” Engi lied, partially, damn that was smooth! “Your guards can confirm we arrived together, and whoever was on the last shift can confirm neither of us were in here before now.”

“Is there any way we can track the core?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. Even if we could. I’m not entirely sure the length of an output cycle on the manes is.”

“Thirty eight minutes, twenty seven seconds.” The Overseer said.

I wasn’t going to ask how she knew that. Because I KNEW how she knew that.

“So within the last hour?” I proposed.

“That’s probably a good window.” Engi agreed.

“I want checks from the last shift immediately. We need that core back ASAP. Get the Chief down here. Tell all citizens to return to their quarters immediately and stay there until further notice!” The Overseer ordered, she turned towards us. “That doesn’t include either of you.”

“Yes ma’am!” Both guards turned to leave.

The Overseer pointed a hoof towards one of them.

“You stay here. And you!” She continued

“Yes, ma’am?”

“This is a tier one security breach. You understand me? I want answers within the hour.”

The guard nodded his head. He continued to leave.

“I’m open to suggestions.” She said. She was talking to us! “Is there anyway to easily track the core?”

“I’m picking up some residual radiation. But that’s about it.” Engi said.

“And?”

“I’m not sure if it’s just from having a core removed from the reactor. Yet again, I wasn’t aware you could. That or...” Engi stopped.

The Overseer was getting snappy, “Or... what?!”

I knew what Engi was thinking about, I deadpanned “Or if the core’s shielding is compromised. If only slightly. And it’s leaking radiation.”

Engi turned towards me, “Exactly. If it is leaking, it’s going to get steadily worse. It takes energy from the reactor to POWER it’s own shielding.”

I turned towards Engi, he looked at me. I think he could tell I was worried about well, everything.

“If that’s the case, we can check the entire Stable for areas of abnormally high radiation. I still don’t understand why anypony would steal it. I don’t know what they expected to accomplish.” Engi explained, “I still don’t understand what is so important about the manes. The secondaries can run everything fine.”

That was an outright lie. Engi knew it, I knew it. The Overseer knew as well, just not in the same way we did.

“I get that the problem here is we have a missing core. But the manereactor being offline has never been a serious issue.” Okay, Engi was just trying make the Overseer’s fur stand on end. He was doing a pretty good job at it, “It’s like every two weeks something else in the reactor breaks. The secondaries show no sign of letting up. So what’s the big deal?”

Engi turned to the Overseer. Holy shit, was he actually going to get confrontational with her?

“What’s the big deal. I want answers. Or I’m not doing SQUAT!” Engi yelled at her. I think he had about had it with her, “Why is it so imperative that the mane run the Stable. If we stripped it for parts. We could have enough to keep the secondaries running for another 200 years.”

Now he was trying to talk the Overseer’s language. How imperative was it that this Stable survive?

“Oh and after this. I want this entire level on twenty-four hour watch. Because I’m getting a little SICK of this reactor’s problems. More so now the entire Stable is at risk of being cooked by radiation!” Engi wasn’t even close to done yet.

“One bad fall. From a coffee table. A single misplaced kick. And we’ll be glowing green with radiation in less than an hour!” He was still venting, to the Overseer of all ponies.

“So you tell me. What makes the manes so important?” Engi tilted his head from side to side, making his neck crack, twice. I hated that sound. It sent chills down my spine.

Then silence. Engi was staring down the Overseer. I think he was actually winning. She opened her mouth. Then closed it again. Engi raised an eyebrow. We didn’t actually have eyebrows, but you get the point. Gryphons had eyebrows, sorta.

“Come with me.” She ordered.

We both stepped forward.

“Not you.” She turned to me.

Wow, what a bitch. I can only imagine was Engi was thinking. Engi didn’t argue though. I sat down. Head slightly lower than usual. She trotted back up the stairs, Engi in tow. Once they were both out, that left me and the guard.

“Wonder where they’re going.” I wasn’t really talking to the guard. Rather just trying to get the words out of my head.

“I have no idea.” The guard said. They were hidden behind their helmet and face visor. I couldn’t see who they were because it was so dark. But the secondaries should turn on in... 3, 2... 1!

*clack* *clack* *clack* *clack* *clack* *clack* *clack*

That was the sound the lights made when they were turned on en-masse all at once. The guard shook his head, before he took his helmet off. It was Shade.

“Fancy meetin’ you here.” He said.

Oh great. This was the last thing I needed right now.

“Is this your idea of some kind of joke? Did you set this up?” I wasn’t very pleased. So I outright accused Shade of stealing the core.

Shade took a step back. Okay, maybe that was a bit more harsh than I originally intended. But still, my argument stood. One of the guards let somepony waltz down here, and steal a core.

“What are you trying to say, Dakota?” Shade retorted. Okay, maybe it was WAY more outright and frank then I originally intended. But I stand by what I said.

“I’m saying....” I started, “Your security crew is fucking incompetent.” Yeah, I swore at him.

I stared at Shade. He took one step towards me. I wasn’t done yet though.

“My PipBuck’s geiger counter is clicking just a tiny bit. How could you guys have missed that?! It’s not exactly hard to miss!”

He took another step towards me.

“What are you gonna do hit me?” My right eye twitched, as did my ear. I was mad. No, I was worse than just mad, I was furious. This has thrown a plan I’ve worked towards for half a decade into peril and I’m supposed to suck it up with a smile? NO!

And another step. Face to face. He didn’t look to pleased. I watched as his hoof slowly equipped The Vault Guardener. Yeah he was gonna hit me. I flinched as he raised it. Before he threw it to the ground. Making a clatter.

“Your little stunt cost me a promotion.” Why hadn’t he told me that in the hall awhile back? “I was originally going to turn you in right away. But I didn’t. Why? Because it’s never the whole story with you. And things just don’t add up.”

I reeled a bit.

“So, I sucked up my two week suspension with a smile. Forgot about losing the promotion. Because, I wanna know. I wanna know what you know.”

He was getting at the single line I had told him.

“Ever wonder why I, or any of the other unicorns can’t use magic? Or why any of the pegasi ponies can’t fly?”

“And unlike your damn secret hiding spot. I am NOT taking no for an answer. I turn you in otherwise, and the Overseer is looking for any excuse to take you down a notch right now. Yeah, she knows you’re up to something.”

Of course SHE knew I was up to something. She had for like a year. This was old news to me. I wasn’t impressed.

“You and what supposed ‘evidence’ do you have has proof? I wasn’t even in the hub at the time. I was hiding, and ponies will speak for me playing hide and seek with them.”

Smooth. Soooo smooth lying! Okay, I shouldn’t be that proud I was lying out my ass.

“The fact that Oliver went back later and tried to do the same thing. Not even he can throw that far.” Shade staring me down. It was getting a bit intimidating.

I realized he hadn’t answered my question, earlier. Opening the reactor, or removing the core had resulted in a slight increase in the radiation. How could they have missed it whenever who did it left level 4, presumably WITH the core. That meant, whoever did hadn’t removed it from this level.

Set-up. Clever girl. Get me to admit things in guilt to Shade. He tells BlueVisor. BlueVisor tells to the Overseer, because quite frankly breaking out of the Stable is a BIG DEAL. Shade gets his promotion.

I opened my mouth to talk. I was originally going to say “What you have on me is shoddy at best, more so with no security footage to back you up. I’ll take my chances.”

A little red flag popped up inside my head. Do NOT admit guilt. EVEN in the slightest.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I shook my head.

“Dammit Dakota! I’m trying to help you! I want to help you.”

“Well you sure have a funny way of doing it. And help me do what?”

He just had to let that slip. How did he know I needed help? Oh yes, the Overseer had her name written all over this one. Just trying to confirm her suspicions. You’re gonna have to try harder then that!!!

“I uh.” I think he just said ‘shit’ internally.

I trotted away from him. I had a feeling. Engi had said the manebreaker hadn’t tripped right away. Did that mean? I opened the panel to the breaker board. If it hadn’t tripped right away. Then maybe they had the secondaries running everything previously. Where would somepony had got the expertise to do that?

The Library. DUHHHH. There’s probably complete readouts to the reactor. You’ve seen it before. Than there’s probably a complete sheet on how to transfer things onto the secondaries without dropping the load for any time at all.

In that case, where had the Overseer taken Engi? Too many questions. But if this was the lengths she was going to go-towards to get us to admit something. I’d bet I was going to be followed after this whether I knew about it or not.

She probably finally noticed you in the camera footage, wandering down that hallway towards the Library, only not to appear on the otherside. She’s pretty good at putting 2 and 2 together; if you haven’t noticed that already.

I guess she wasn’t that good at proving it. Even if the Chief agreed, Oliver would have had something to say about it. Speaking of the Chief, he hadn’t show up yet. Who knows what they were doing to Engi.

So, the core was somewhere on this level. I couldn’t imagine the guards on the previous shift were informed about what was REALLY going on here. The Overseer coming down here wasn’t an irregular thing either. I doubted they even bothered to go question the guards on the previous shift.

So we know what she was in the library for. Or at least partly. I still wasn’t sure why she had the 0570 folder. Now to find the core. There was a good chance it was giving off a small amount of radiation. Not enough to be lethal (Unless maybe you swallowed it) but enough to be detectible. Level 4b was rather large.

“Come on, help me find the core Shade. Look for any spikes, no matter how tiny in radiation. It should go steadily up as you get closer to it.”

Shade looked at me, he put his helmet back on. I was asking for his help. Not that I had any right to ask for it. I did after all, cost him a promotion. Even though he came down here trying to get it out of my cold-dead hooves that I was up to ‘something’. The Overseer must have offered one HELL of a fine deal for him to do that; or maybe he was just in it for revenge. He was pretty pissed off, I could tell. He picked up the Vault Guardener, attached it back to the sides of his body armour.

Shade isn’t a hateful pony.

Oh I’m sure after what you did. He’ll have made an exception.

I was torn between telling my brain to shut up at the thought, or agree. I agreed. I’d be pretty damn ticked if somepony cost me a promotion for their own (semi-selfish) reasons. Even if I didn’t know the reason for those reasons. Or did know for that matter.

Unwillingly, or rather VERY hesitantly he followed me out of the reactor room. We took a left, down the long corridor. Level 4 was rather large. It just happened the staircase out of it was right across from the mane reactor. I was keeping an ear out for that glicking-clicking sounds the geiger counter would make. Nothing yet.

“How much did she offer you?” I asked.

“Who offered me what?” Shade answered my question with a question.

“In case you haven’t noticed Shade. I am not stupid. So DON’T play stupid with me. How much did she offer you?” I raised my voice just a tad.

“Not she, he. And more than you ever could.” Well, that was cryptic. I suppose it wasn’t anymore cryptic than the question I left him with in the hall.

He? He must have been partly out of the loop. Enough to know what to do, but not entirely aware of what was going on. Because sometimes, two parts doesn’t make a whole. I gave him a fraction, they gave him a fraction of the reality of things.

Both of us continued down the hall, I wasn’t getting anything. It had been a minute or so since we last spoke.

“Anything?” I asked.

“I got nothing.”

“Than we probably went the wrong way.”

I skidded to a halt, not that we were moving speedy by any sense. Shade turned around on a dime. Is that what the taught you to do in security? Interesting. I guess it wasn’t just standing and trotting around looking a bit menacing afterall. I think Shade must have failed the ‘Don’t blow your cover’ unit or something. A single sentence and I had busted their little plan wide open. Not that it was the only factor towards it. This had been odd since the beginning.

We both made our way back up towards the reactor room, and eventually past it. I wanted to tell Shade I was sorry. As funny as I thought it was at the time. I was quickly realizing the repercussions were starting to haunt me. Shade, one of my many loose ends I would have to deal with.

*click* *click* *click*

Bingo! My geiger counter started firing off. I kept walking. Shade’s started to click too a moment after mine did. It was on my side, the right side, of the hallway. Or mine was simply more sensitive.

I stopped and stared at it.

RAD Scale
0 - 1000
Area Activity: +.2 RAD/s
Accumulated: 30 RAD/s !

I would have to remember to pop some RadAway after this. Give some to Shade as well. Also, RAD Scale. I remembered the RAD x10 from the manifest terminal. That was out of 10 thousand, I assumed it was to be more accurate. Along the bottom of the slide I was looking at was a bar, with a little ticky that had moved slightly off zero. Along the slider there was markings at 200, 400, 600, 800, and finally 1000. I looked back to the display.

RAD Scale
0 - 1000
Area Activity: +.5 RAD/s
Accumulated: 31 RAD/s !
! - Updating
Regular Yearly Exposure (Ext.): 2.15 RAD/yr
Regular Yearly Exposure (Int.):1.02 RAD/yr

Ext. and Int. I assumed External and Internal. As in, outside and inside a Stable. I noted that even inside a Stable, you were still getting a *tiny* bit of radiation. But if that was yearly exposure, I had somehow managed to more than double what I should have had at my age. I should be around 14. Well, I had never taken RadAway before either. We were getting closer though, it was going up.

I kept the screen up, off the screen but still on my Pipbuck, there was a circle meter labeled RAD. Inside of it was a little arm that was moving just a tiny bit. Looked like a glance meter, the scale read x100 and there were the numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 on it. The arm was pushing towards “2”.

“How much have you absorbed?” I asked Shade he was the same age as I was.

“I got...” Shade looked at his geiger counter again, “I got... I got 17. You?”

“More than 30. Mostly likely because I’ve had to open this damn reactor more times than you can imagine.”

I looked back to my own PipBuck, we were now getting a solid RAD per second.

“Lets make this snappy.” I ordered. We had kept walking down the corridor. I went over to the nearest door, the geiger counter clicked up to 1.5 RAD/s

I looked at the sign on the door.

Water Purification Room, System #3

“Is she FUCKING stupid?” I blurted out, “Yeah, that’s real original. Lets leave the fucking radioactive thing in the with water pumps. Remind me not to drink water for the next few weeks.”

Shade for all intensive purposes, could have arrested me for talking smack about the Overseer right there on the spot. He didn’t. I hit the door control. The door hissed open. Retracting into the ceiling and floor. Our RAD’s per second doubled. The noise from the pump wasn’t bad, but not great either.

“It’s definitely in here.” Shade said, slightly louder than normal.

“We’re getting 3 RAD’s per second. That’s thrice as much as we would get in a year. Lets find it and get it out of here.”

“Doesn’t this mean the shielding has failed?” Shade asked.

“It could. But the shielding is also powered by the reactor. There’s a few missing megawatts per year. I suspect that goes back into making sure these don’t let out any lethal amount of radiation. When it was removed, there was nothing powering the internal shielding. It’s been breaking down the moment it was removed. And don’t tell me the Overseer didn’t do this.” I looked over to Shade.

“I think I got it!” Shade shouted. The water pump was making quite a racket now that we were actually inside the room.

I trotted over to him. He pointed at a footlocker. It was locked. I looked over to my geiger counter again, 4.5 RAD/s! I was at over 70 RADs.

I quickly examined the lock. Without the key, there was no way I was getting this open. Lockpicking had been something I read about. One prerequisite other than patience was you needed to be able to levitate and could manipulate objects with finesse. And seeing as the damn suppression system existed, there was no way I was getting past this lock the direct way..

Hey, it’s off remember? Not a priority system.

Yeah, that’s great. If only I knew how to lockpick. Next idea!

Come to think of it, security was off too. With security down, they had to get a confession, which was why they had tried to get my to confess to Shade

I checked the back of the locker, the hinges were exposed.

“Lets get out of here.” I backed up, making my way over to the doorway.

“Can’t pick the lock?” Shade was examining the locker a bit closer.

“Not with that... no I can’t, even with...”

“Not with what? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t worry about it. I got an idea anyway.”

Shade crossed the room. I closed the door. Not that it was helping much. Gamma radiation was kind of a bitch.

Just like the Overseer! Maybe they’re related?!

I laughed a bit. Except she’s not kind of a bitch. She IS a bitch.

“What so funny?” Shade looked over to me.

“Uh.. it’s nothing.” I rubbed my leg against another one of my legs while I walked, trying to scratch an itch.

“So what’s the plan now?”

“Bypass the lock. Engi left his toolbox here.”

We got back to the mane reactor room. There it was, right where he left it. Engi’s red toolbox. I opened it up, and started searching through it.

“Hammer... hammer, hammer. Ah there. And.... screw driver... nope, smaller than that. Where’s the 2 millimetre flat head?

I found it under a wrench, closer to the bottom of the box. I picked both up in my mouth. Then proceeded back down the hallway, towards #3 water pump room. Shade followed.

“So explain to me this plan.” He said.

“Mrmmph! Mrump. Mmmmm.” I said with my mouth full.

“Uh... what?” Shade asked, eyebrow up.

I shook my head. I punched the button to open the door. Making it over to the footlocker, I spat both out.

“Take the hinges off, open it from the back. I mean, who in their right mind would waste their time trying to pick the lock? This is so much faster.”

“You’re going to unscrew the hinges?”

“Nope, just take the pivot out.” I applied the screw driver to the back of the pivot within the hinge and gave it a good smack with the hammer. I did so several times. It eventually came free and fell out, “Rads?”

“3 per second for me. Not sure about you.”

I repeated the process to the next hinge. This one was being stubborn, but I eventually got it. I spun the footlocker around, pushing the lid back, there was just enough leeway room on the front lock to open the locker.

There it was, core 5. I looked at my geiger counter. 5 Rads per second! I rolled the core back. It was lighter than I originally expected. I thought they one would have been like fifty kilos, which was the reason I had brought Shade along with me. I wasn’t rolling this thing all the way back to the reactor room. It was maybe... maybe 20 kilos. I could lift that. Gently, I tilted the footlocker until it rolled out on the floor. I picked it up in my hooves, before placing it on my back.

“Grab the tools. Lets go.” Another glance at my PipBuck, I was at almost 170 Rads! The meter off screen was practically on the number “2”.

Shade grabbed the hammer and screw driver. I walked out first. By the time I got back to the reactor room I was feeling sick. I shoved the core back into the reactor and did my best to reconnect the connections to it. I think I got coolant and the fasteners back in place. The core wouldn’t overheat, even though it had been shut off, and couldn’t be moved now. I was feeling really dizzy. I reconnected the couplers from the fourth core and the sixth core. I replaced the front panel of the reactor with Shade’s help. He asked questions about what I was doing as the process continued, I explained accordingly. I had seen Engi do this process so many times I knew what to do. Then I went and flipped the main breaker, as it hadn’t been tripped. The entire Stable was plunged back into darkness.

I turned my PipBuck light back on, before priming each core from the control panel and restarting them individually, then I went and flipped the main breaker again. All lights came back on. From lights out to restart, it had been less than two minutes.

“That’s enough Engi can finish the rest. If there’s anything else to do.”

I trotted up the stairs, Shade came with. He stopped halfway up, and brought a hoof to his face.

“Oh, I think I’m gonna be sick.” He said, before he put a hoof on the railing.

I stared at my geiger counter. 297 RAD.

“Whaddya you got?”

“Two... Two sixty six.”

We both made it to the top of the stairs... somehow. My PipBuck told me, both of us, had minor radiation sickness. If this was minor, I’d hate to see what moderate and major, or severe felt like. My vision had blurred a bit. There were two guards at the top of the stairs.

“Report!” One of them barked, I think it was to Shade.

“We found the core. Dakota has... successfully replaced it and... restart....ed the mane reactor.” He managed to blurt out before he emptied the contents of his stomach on the metal floor plates.

“Ewww!” The other guard shrieked. I was shaking my head.

Not gonna vomit. Not gonna vomit. Not gonna vomit. Not gonna vomit. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Even though my blurry vision, I saw one of the guards hit the panic button. My breathing started to get faster. I was still awake when the Overseer showed up, along with Engi, and two other guards. Oliver being one and the Chief being the other.

“By Celestia! Somepony go get Cross!” Oliver shouted. One of the guards that was here prior to them showing up took off.

“And a mopping crew.” BlueVisor said. The other guard took off as well.

“Engi!” I looked at him, “We found and replaced the missing core. Manes are back up. We couldn’t stay long enough to turn the fields back on. The... radiation...”

Engi waved his own PipBuck past me.

“Two hundred and ninety seven!” Engi continued to wave it past Shade, “Two hundred and sixty six!”

Shade somehow managed to bring up more stomach contents onto the metal floor plates. Then he hit the floor with a metal clang, landing in his own spew. His body armour adding to the clatter, on top of the Vault Guardener falling off and clanging around. His helmet rolled off into the wall.

NOT going to vomit. How about a bunch of NOPE. A few dozen shipments of NOPE.

“Get that core shielding back on, Engi.” The Overseer ordered.

“I ain’t going down there without an environment suit! So you better have one unpacked for me within the hour.” Engi snapped back, “Or faster, because Celestia knows if she replaced it properly, it could overheat.”

“Treat the Overseer with respect! You...” BlueVisor took a few steps towards Engi, equipping a baton. Oliver stepped in between them.

“ENOUGH! You!” Oliver pointed to the Overseer, “Get him a suit. Actually, make that two, because he’s not going down there alone. You!” He pointed to BlueVisor. “Pick him up and get him to the Infirmary! You!” He pointed to me, “Lets go. You’re coming with me to the infirmary.”

Neither the Overseer or BlueVisor had the guts to get in the way of Oliver’s orders. I didn’t blame them. I’d rather deal with a pissed off Overseer than a pissed off Officer Oliver. BlueVisor picked up Shade on his back, then he left for the Infirmary. Oliver waited a minute, the Overseer had already gone to procure some environment suits for Engi and whoever was the second poor bastard that was going down with him.

“Can you walk?” Oliver asked me, it was his nice tone.

“Yeah, yeah. I... I think so. I can’t see that well.”

Oliver lifted one of my front hooves up, and threw it over his shoulders.

“Okay, lets go.” He said.

I wasn’t sure what happened. I couldn’t see that well, but I guess BlueVisor had taken a different route, because one of the guards returned with Cross while we were walking along. He should have ran into them first.

Cross fell in line with us.

“What happened here?” He asked.

“Dakota and Shade are suffering from radiation sickness.” Oliver replied, I couldn’t even speak at that point. I was putting all my willpower towards suppressing the urge to vomit.

In a single quick motion while we were trotting, Cross waved his PipBuck by me. He stopped cold. Mouth slightly agape, I couldn’t see it very well though.

“C’mon, lets go. Lets go!” He shouted, he nudged Oliver’s back with his head. Oliver took my other hoof, and threw me over his back. It was just a blur, we passed through the Hub on our way to Cross’ office. A group of ponies had started to gather I heard some of what they said.

“What’s going on with her?”

“Is she alright?”

“What happened?”

“You know, BlueVisor walked through here not twenty seconds ago with Shade, the same way.”

The last sentence spiked my interest. But I couldn’t go and ask questions. Oliver just kept on going.

“Get out of the way. Clear the area. You’re supposed to be back in your rooms. LEAVE.” He shouted. I guess the Overseer gave the all clear after power went out and came back on. Oliver just reinstated that order.

When we got to the clinic, my vision was so blurry, I could barely tell BlueVisor was at the door with Shade. I could see he had bio from his vomit around his lips after Cross opened the door and we passed by them. Ewww.

Nope. Nope. Lets just nope-off to FuckThisShitVille. Not vomiting. Not gonna happen.

“Symptoms?” Cross asked.

“Obvious ones on this one. Severe nausea, vomiting.” Oliver said.

“What about her?”

“She can’t walk, or see very well.”

I spoke up, “Trying not to vomit here.”

They put both of us on beds.

“Hey listen up, Dakota.” Cross was looking me dead in the face, he was really blurry, as were the lights above him, which clouded my vision, “You’ve taken a mild amount of radiation. I’m gonna put you out, and then shoot you up with RadAway alright? You’ve been exposed for so long that I can’t just give it to you all in one dosage.”

I shook my head up and down. I never thought I’d be the one on the beds, it was more terrifying after what happened with Engi. I didn’t have any energy left to fight it though. He took his PipBuck and ran it by me once again.

“300 RADs there abouts. What about him?” Cross said.

“Almost 270.” I think it was Oliver. I doubted BlueVisor gave a single fuck about what was happening.

“You wanna go get their families?” Cross said, he was getting a sedative.

WHAT? What was that supposed to mean?!! I started shaking around. NO. Not happening on my watch.

“I think she heard you. And took it the wrong way” I was pretty sure it was Oliver. I had already started to panic.

Cross shouted, “Hold her down!”

Olver came over to the bed.

“No. NO. NO!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. Oliver forced me down with his hooves at my shoulders, Cross used a hoof to get my head. He got me right in the neck, before injecting the entire needle.

My vision started to go, Cross walked away. I was able to turn my head towards the window. There was a crowd of ponies outside. Oliver, I think it was him. It could have been Cross. And flicked a hoof, gesturing them to get lost.

I was crying on the inside. And probably on the outside too. It started to get darker. And darker. And darker. I think I managed to get a final scream off before everything faded out and to black.