Fallout Shelter Fourteen

Fallout Shelter Fourteen
Chapter 3 - Complexity Is My Speciality

2280

I was 13 now, six months ago I told Engi, my mentor for Stable Maintenance about the information I had found, not all of it, but most of it. He didn’t believe me until I pulled a bunch of papers out of my saddlebag and told him to read them all.

At first I was scared that he would go to the Overseer, but I knew he had no love for her. I once heard him say she was a Colossal Bitch, he immediately told me never to say that word to anypony ever.

“Dakota, I believe you. And in fact, I believe some of my friends will believe me. But we can’t just waltz up to the Overseer’s office and demand the door opened. She doesn’t care, because as long as the head of security is in her pocket. We can’t do anything without permission.” Engi explained.

“Yeah, I know.” I said, “That’s why we’re not going to have permission. But still don’t tell anypony, this needs to stay quiet.”

“And how do you intend to get away with that Dakota?” Engi was struggling to keep up with all the information I had just thrown at him. “If she, the Overseer even so much as gets a whiff...”

“I’ve been in a humongous library, that apparently has been collapsed and doesn’t exist, with a window to her office for nearly the last four years. I haven’t been spotted once. If we’re careful we can get out without so much as being noticed.”

“Look, even if we could get to the mane door, we still have a few problems.”

“I know, I found a full technical readout of the Stable awhile ago. The Vault’s door is locked, the terminal to use it is passworded, and doesn’t have a backdoor. We’ll need the actual password. On top of that, the locking mechanism works from the inside, and needs a 9 symbol code to prime the explosive bolts that cut the titanium deadbolts free from the Vault door so the arm can open it. I’ve done my homework.” I explained, I could tell Engi was mildly impressed and equally worried.

Engi continued, “As I was saying, the power to level 1 is permanently off. The main switch breaker is on level 4b. If we flick that on, everypony and their dog will know what we’re trying to do.”

I wondered if that part about everypony and their dog was a crack at me. But as usual, I said nothing on the topic.

“Well, that’s a simple work around!” I chirped. I pushed open a cupboard door and pulled out one of my generators. It was a project I had kept secret from a lot of ponies in the Stable. “And there’s another thing, I know why we can’t use magic here.”

Engi looked at the generator, “Of course we know. Magic was stripped from us after the war, Celestia had no longer deemed us worthy of wielding it, and that one day it would return when we we had redeemed ourselves.”

“No, level 5. There’s a magical suppression device preventing Unicorns from igniting their horns. It’s part of the Stable. It’s also the reason why none of the Pegasi can fly. We’re restricted to Earth Pony capability only. If you’re wondering why the reactor’s having such a tough time with the Stable’s power. That would be why. And for some reason, the Overseer can use her magic while in her office.”

Culture shock. Either Engi was dealing with what I was telling him really, really, well or he was shocked beyond all means.

“To be honest.” He started.

I grinded my teeth, everything was a hinging on this moment...

“I’m not surprised. Intrigued, confused. But not surprised.” He started shaking his head, “We’re breaking out. Not that the ‘suppression’ device means anything to me..Earth Pony here. There ain’t nothing that can suppress me.”

That was Engi. He took a problem and beat the crap out of it so it would know who was boss.

“We begin the groundwork today.” Engi declared.

We both set off to work.

***

2281

It had been another year, I was fourteen now. We had since made 10 more of my generators, it took forever to get enough MF cells for them. We even had to deal with a few inquiries to why we had so many MF cells. Engi covered for us, he was in too deep to back out now. Two weeks earlier I had raided some medical supplies, one of the younger colts “fell” over the edge in the mane hub, I took him to the infirmary and while the Doc wasn’t looking I borrowed some Stimpotions, Med-X, and RadAway. If it wasn’t paradise up there, quote Engi, “We damn well better be prepared for it.”

Engi had me hide it all in the Library, last place anypony, including the Overseer would have looked. Engi also asked me to get several books for him, he said he’d make sure they NEVER saw the light of day, well light of the compact fluorescents that were used in the Stable.

Anyways, we had everything we needed, save two things. What we had was a thing whipped up by Engi himself, they were used on the reactor level to keep ponies away from it, and to contain and rogue gamma rays. Portable particle field emitters. Since the power was down on level 1, we’d need a way to prevent anypony getting in our way when we tried to get out. We also had enough food and supplies to last a week for both of us. Stolen food items from the cafe, and a few boxes of pre-war food I found in the Library. We had medical supplies. What we needed was the password to the terminal on the Vault Door, and the 9 symboles to prime the explosive bolts.

Both were useless if we didn’t have the other.

“I might be able to find one in the Library archives. I think that’s kinda a stretch though. The only sure fire thing would be from the Overseer herself.” I noted.

Engi replied, “I agree, ‘Kota. If we can find one, then we’ll have enough reason to go after the Overseer’s office.”

The next two days I spent in the Library, well the vast majority of those two days. I didn’t live in there for two days, but I had certainly considered it. I went through every search I could on the manifest computer, they only brought me back to the blueprint of the Stable, specifically the Stable door.

I sighed. Maybe there was something I was missing. I turned on a generator light, it flickered then died. I finally had exhausted one of my generators. I put a hoof on the desk I had moved the computers to. I swapped out the generator then it dawned on me.

We didn’t need the password to the door terminal. I could access every function from this computer. I hadn’t dared touch much but the manifest terminal hadn’t denied me access to anything that wasn’t related to the Overseer’s office in the four years I had been using it. We would still need the 9 symbols, but at least we didn’t need the password anymore. We would still need to know the command prompt if we swapped out this computer with the one in the door room on level 1.

I skimmed the technical readouts on the door, it only referred to the door itself, not the computer controlling it. Dead end, we would need the password afterall.

A few more weeks past, one day we got a Stable wide announcement, we very rarely got any of these. It was the Overseer. But I knew what this was, it was May 9th. The anniversary of us, I mean our ancestors, entering the Stable. Same generic announcement every year.

She coughed and then spoke. “May I have your attention please. Today marks the two hundredth and fifth year of this Stable’s service to us. Please give yourself a round of applause. May Overwatch guide our actions and its Administrators smile upon us.”

Overwatch and its Administrators, doesn’t she mean Stable-Tec? I had missed some of the speech in my thought.

“... And remember the ponies at Stable-Tec, because of them we are here now. Alive. Thank you.”

The power wasn’t actually out to the Library. It had taken me awhile to figure that out. The wall outlets were just on a different breaker. And it must have been shut off. The lights on the other hoof, which I hadn’t dared try, may or may not work. But if the intercom does, I didn’t see any reason why the lights, which I had never turned on, wouldn’t. Unless their breaker was off as well.

Overwatch and the Administrators. Where had I seen that before? I vaguely recalled something about Overwatch, but I couldn’t place a hoof on it. I strained as hard as I could to remember.

This message brought to you by Overwatch and the Administrator of the O.F.E

Right, the B.U.C.K.E.T, and what ever the OFE stood for. Curiously I punched it into the library archive terminal. It gave me a cabinet search, so I went after it. I found the sheet related to it filed.

OFE - Office of Future Endeavours.
The Office of Future Endeavours, one of eight wartime offices. The OFE was in charge of securing the future of Equine species given the possibility of a global magical disaster (GMD). The OFE and OTA are the mastermind behind the stables/vaults. Stable-Tec is a front for both of the administrations, so that both could work together under a single banner.

Now I wondered what the OTA stood for, doing another search, at the end of the document there was an emblem representing the OFE. It was in the same cabinet as I had found the OFE’s sheet in.

OTA - Office of Technological Advancement
The Office of Technological Advancement, one of eight wartime offices. The OTA were responsible for the development of many technologies, including but not limited to the Single Trooper Mechanized Defense Suit, the Cleansweep Class Magical Warhead, and *Information Redacted*. . Often worked alongside several other offices at once, especially the OFE.

Damn you redacted text! This was the third time I had ever ran into the stuff. The only thing you ever cause is irritation. What alarmed me was that weapon that could knock out a city was listed, but whatever after that wasn’t. What could POSSIBLY be worse than being able to turn a town to dust in a fraction of a second. Yet again at the end of the document there was another office emblem, different from the OFE’s. I assumed it was the OTA’s emblem.

I put the papers down. I decided to return to Engi, get his advice. We had two things in our way and we couldn’t knock them down. When I had got back, I found Engi, he was working on a contraption of some sort.

“Ah, Windy, just in time.” He mused, I held back the urge to correct what he said. I only let my brother call me that, not even my parents.

To be honest, I hated my name. Silver Wind. It was like they had thrown the two things together and left it at that. The very week I was born, our authorized stable pet, a dog, died. My older brother, who was only 3 years old at the time, started calling me Dakota, the name of our now deceased dog. The name stuck, because I didn’t understand at the time.

He had told me a year ago, that when Dakota had died, a door slammed shut on him. But because I showed up, another one opened, and he went through and didn’t go back. The last year had been brutal not to tell him about the plan, but truth be told, he related to our father a lot more than I did. I didn’t even think I was remotely related to any of my family. It was like I was adopted. But my misgivings about my family hadn’t stopped me from wanting to tell White Knight. His name both rhymed and was a pun, it’s was incredibly awesome.

I wondered if I would ever change my name, I couldn’t bring myself to do it yet though.

“I have something for you to try out!” Engi had whipped up another ‘invention’ again. Oh Celestia, the last one left my face numb for a day. (Super Stimpotions) Engi’s weird contraptions and concoctions always seemed to almost work. Like he was missing just one thing every time. I wasn’t sure why.

Engi showed me the object. An attachment applied to the hoof. Engi was using it hold a dart.

“Whaddya think?” He asked me.

I had no idea what it was, or what to think.

“Uhh... it’s....” By the goddess think of something, “Something.”

Are you FREAKIN’ kidding me brain?

I have a very bad habit of making myself look like an idiot. Thankfully, Engi wasn’t paying attention.

“Here, try it.” He offered.

It appeared to be some sort of extension that was used for better handling of items.

He threw the dart at the wall. He had put up a dartboard and got a bullseye.

I clapped, “Nice throw.”

“Not actually a throw. I’ve managed to tie this throwing device into our PipBucks, it knows exactly when to release any throw. It does use some of the power from the Stable-Tec Assisted Targeting System. S.T.A.T.S for short.”

I wasn’t even aware we had that. Really smooth, I spent four years using a library and never bothered to look up anything related to PipBucks.

This failed to motivate me any further on that subject though. I had more important things to do.

“Here, you can have it.” Engi took it off and tossed it over to me, “It also works well for holding items that are difficult to handle.”

I took the device, Engi stepped over to me.

“Here, let me help you.” He offered, he helped lock it onto my right hoof, the one I wore my PipBuck on, “I think that’s it. Try it.”

Engi gave me a dart, I looked at the dartboard, right at the Bull. I was always so bad at this whenever I had tried playing darts previously. Standing back, I took aim at the dartboard, Engi standing on the side, he nodded in approval.

I thrust my hoof forwards and the dart flew through the air right into the board, another Bull.

“That was just lucky.” I looked at Engi.

“Wanna try again then?” Engi rushed to the defense of his invention, offering me a hoof full of more darts.

Another got launched through the air, another bull. So I decided to aim somewhere else, I aimed for the twenty-triple; the next dart sailed towards the board, and stuck exactly where I had wanted.

“Wow.” I was in disbelief, after all of Engi’s other attempts, he finally got something that was genuinely useful, working.

“I plan to use it at the cafe to get some free food.” Engi explaining his master scheme.

Using the four darts I had left, I threw two more at the board, both landed where I had wanted them to. I got to my second last dart and threw it, it missed and almost gave Engi a pierced ear.

“Whoa! Easy there!” Engi pulled his head back.

“Huh?” I asked puzzled, I looked at my PipBuck. There was an alert on screen.

STATS - Stable-Tec Assisted Targeting System

[08(-26)/86 Action Points]

Engi also came over and looked, “Oh! You can’t use it indefinitely, it takes time to recharge. It’s faster when it’s not being used; give it a couple minutes. That number there, the first one is how much charge you have left, the next number is the charge used by the last use, and the final number is the number you have in total. You have more than I do, by the way.”

“How many do you have?” I asked.

Engi brought his PipBuck up to his face, “Let’s see... umm, uh, eighty exactly. Why do you get more?”

I wasn’t paying attention to Engi, I was watching my PipBuck. The second the charge counter passed 26 I threw my final dart. It went right where I wanted it to. Another Bullseye.

“This is cool!” I exclaimed, “Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Distance, and the weight of the object affect how many points are used. Also, the greater the distance, the less accurate it is, it’s not perfect. At this distance you’re pretty much guaranteed 100% accuracy though. Also familiarity with what’s being thrown and experience with it would also reduce how many points are used. That’s because the system has to compensate less for user error. ”

“So...?”

“Practice makes perfect, Dakota.”

“Oh! Okay!”