Sera, Halvo Bay Onyx Guard Academy

Abby's POV

After seeing all the destruction and damage, the school endured from the attack and the test of time from of the elements outside. I wasn't expecting too much from the labs below the school. Like more shell casings covering the floors, a body here of an old college or Locust there. Maybe a crater or two somewhere around for the extra damage.

What I found was something I was not expecting.

"What the hell..." I said as she looked around. Wondering what was I looking at, I also wasn't alone in her thinking pattern as Starlight voiced the same thing.

"Um... Shouldn't this place be like you know, wrecked?"

Everything was undoubtedly not wrecked, everything was clean. Not pristine clean like the day this place was built but clean nonetheless. The walls were still littered with bullet holes from varies weapons. But the guns themselves and their owners were nowhere to be found.

The hallway that the girls entered expected it to be destroyed like everything else was. Instead, it was clean. It unnerved me. Something was up, and I didn't like.

"Someone is here," I said. "There isn't a speck of loose dirt here, and unlike the hallway we passed back there, this place has all its working lights. Someone is here taking care of certain parts of the academy while leaving the rest out to decay, and I like to find out who?"

Proceeding down to the labs, I had to think back to the first lab that was behind the door. "If memory serves, behind this door is the robotics lab. Let's see who, or what is inside..."

Pressing the 'open' button for the door, it slid up into the ceiling, revealing the lab. Like the hallway, it to was crisp and clean looking. Minus the bullet holes and the grenade crater on the corner, it was clean.

"No bodies, no blood splatters, little traces of battle? It's like somepony just cleaned the place up after all the fighting. Well, most of it?" Starlight said as she looked around the room before looking closer at the crater.

I was about to call off this scavenge and return upstairs to my old room when something catches my ear. Turning to the source, it came from up the steps. Towards the schools firing range maybe or one of the other labs? Whichever one, we were going to find out, "Star, get behind me and ready your weapon." I said as we went up the steps.

Passing through a massive door, we head down the hall to a three-way intersection. The noise that she had been hearing came from beyond the door ahead of them. Looking back at Starlight, she readies her weapon to show she got my back.

Reaching out, I opened the door and swept the room. The room turned out to be the school's garage. I had maybe been inside only once or twice to get a teacher back in her school days. I never really been in here to look around.

Inside had to be the shiniest Armadillo APC I'd ever seen. The six-wheeled armored trucks I've seen before were usually well used and covered in mud while this one looked like it was in mint condition.

"Well, who's ever here. I hope they don't mind if we use their Truck."

Starlight POV

I couldn't stop staring the strange six-wheeled armored carriage. The thing was bigger than the four-wheeled armored wagons that were parked outside. The humans of this world were truly remarkable in their feats of engineering. In almost two hours of being in Abby's world, I had witnessed many kinds of technology that could advance pony kind by decades. Now there's this.

"What is that, Abby?" I asked with wonder.

"That's an armored personnel carrier, Starlight or APC for short," Abby said. "Specifically, an Armadillo APC. And she's beautiful."

I didn't know what to think about the six-wheeled beast. It was big, almost twice my height, covered in thick plates of armor on all sides that would give any awhile to penetrate through There was also gun turrets on its right and left sides that were bigger than Abby's Lancer.

"Um, could we use it?"

"Oh yeah. If the thing runs and has fuel, then it can get us to where we need to go."

I was about to reply back but stopped when we heard a strange sound. Not knowing what it could, I raised the snub pistol I received from Abby earlier and pointed it in the direction of where the noise came from.

There floating above the floor was an oddly shaped ball, There was little to describe it in my opinion, other than the strange blue light coming from its one eye.

"A geobot?"

"A what?" I asked.

"A geobot, they are man-made robots used for geological surveys, some of them can be programmed for using small tools to repair and fix stuff. It looks like we found our culprit in what's been fixing up the labs. I am rather impressed and disturbed it was able to do all this." Abby commented. While I just looked at it in amazement.

This little this was doing jobs that a blacksmith and a maid would do, and has been work for who knows how long, extraordinary. Humanity just continues to be more exciting the longer I stay in this new world, and it hasn't even finished on the first day! "Say Abby, do you think I could take this 'geobot,' and send it back to Equestria? I just know Twilight would love nothing more than to study this."

"Go ahead, but right now lets-"She was then interrupted by the sound of more 'beeps,' turning to the side. What floated by was another robot, this one was vastly different.

It was maybe four times bigger than the geobot and looked more like what I expected from a robot. It hovered in the air using some sort of blue propulsion to keep it in the air. The most notable feature that I saw were its four eyes that looked at Abby and me. It then let out a few more beeps in a rapid sequence that made it sound happy, before flying close to her friend.

"Well I'll be, this explains everything.." Abby said with a happy tone in her voice. "A JACK bot. Must have come from the APC I'm guessing."

"What is it?" I asked in wonder. Abby turned her head to face me. "This is called a 'Jack-of-all-trades' bot, or 'JACK' bot. These guys are handy and can perform multiple tasks and duties thanks to the simple AI that runs it. It must have been working that geobot to repair and restore everything around it." Abby explained before turning back to the bot, "The COG use to issue these guys to a lot of Gears. But due to shortages in recourses, they have been fewer and fewer as the years went by. Only being assigned to command teams and Gears on high-risk ops."

"But if he was being worked on here before the Academy was attacked, then whoever was working on him must have done a few upgrades to him. So... Bill, what can you do?" Abby questioned the bot while I looked at her with a weird look.

"Bill?"

"It's painted on his side see," Abby pointed out. Turning my head the name Bill was painted in white letters on the side of its 'head.'

I just internally shook my head at the odd name and just went with it. "Ok, so what can you do Bill?" I asked the floating robot.

'Bill' made a few quick beeps before its sides opened up and a pair of arms dropped out. One looked like a blowtorch while the other had a two-finger claw with two smaller fingers on each finger. "Alright, a standard grabbing claw and with a cutting torch, that's always useful for getting through doors and gates. Always useful."

The arm's retracted in its small body and then came back out with a different set of limbs. On one held a small knife while the other had a sharp pincer. Like the kind, a doctor would use in surgery.

"Oh, I didn't see that coming," Abby said in surprise.

"What?" Starlight questions.

"There's some sort of rotating mechanism that looks like it can cycle through sets of arms for different tools. That's extra handy, literally." Abby examined and laughed a little at her joke before looking at the new set of instruments, Bill showed. "That would be useful, a medical kit. That will help if either of us gets shot." Abby explained. "It's programming must include some basic first aid functions."

Bill put its arms up back into its body and again out with yet another set, this looked like it was holding a pair of cylinders. "A universal hacking module and repair welder. So you have everything for front mechanized warfare. Well, that's good for me. Do you have a long-range communications uplink too?" Abby asked.

Bill shook its head no with a few negative beeps.

"Damn. Well, it was worth a shot."

"So we can't contact the COG?"

"Yep, but these com units we have only have a range of over five hundred miles. And the broadcast range of the nearest active com's array is not for another fifty miles. But it's been inactive for awhile luckily for us this truck could get us there."

I watched as Abby took Bill to inspect their mode of transportation. I didn't know how such a massive thing like this move on its own without magic. Such things were impossible back in Equestria. Since I wasn't there anymore, I couldn't wait to start traveling and learn more.

"Let's get a quick look around for supplies and check on those doors. Would be a shame if we got this truck but can't go anywhere in it due to some door." Abby said.

I nodded in agreement and started to look around, wondering what else was around. Everything was arranged in orderly rows. Screwdrivers, wrenches and all sorts of tools laid on the workbenches along the wall. Spools of wire and rubber hoses hung coiled up on hooks on iron hooks over them.

"Find anything useful?" I heard her friend ask.

"Nothing but tools over here, how about you?"

"Same over here... With some progress, Ha," Abby said excitedly.

Looking over at the Onyx glad Gear Abby held up a pistol in her hand. This one was different than the snub pistol that she had in her hand, "A Boltok, how this got in here I've got no clue now do I care. This baby is coming with me," Abby said before the cylinder in its middle opened up, "And look, it's still loaded, sweet." She then holstered the new pistol in the empty gun holster on Abby's leg.

"Is that gun different from the one you gave me?"

"Oh yeah, big difference. Different bullet, different ammo capacity and, unlike the snub that was made by the COG and humans. The Boltok pistol was manufactured by the Locust." Abby told her.

I was slightly taken back by that last piece of info. "Why are you using such a weapon that was made for killing your own people?!"

"It's got better acracy and power to it then the snub, Starlight. Nowadays a lot of Gears prefer to use these for protection due to its immense stopping power its got to it." Abby lectured. Those reasons were good points to make a note of; it would differently be useful for stopping an opponent quickly. I put it down on her mental list of things to get when I find one for herself later.

Going down the sets of workbenches I found the unmistakable look of a Lancer on one of them, assembled and showed signs of modification. Hosting my pistol, I picked up the weapon off the table. "Hey, found a Lancer over here."

"Good job," Abby said from across the shop. "Bring it over here so I can check it over for you, make sure its working and all."

Walking over with the Lancer I handed it over to Abby and began inspecting it. "That's neat. Someone put a bit of love into this baby, some padding in the back for cushioning against the recoil, a tactical light on the side for dark places and the hand grip feels more conferrable while shooting. Excellent find Star," Abby praised the weapon before handing it back to me. "Let's find some ammo for this baby, and you'll be ready to fight."

"You don't want it?"

Abby shook her head, "Finder's keepers Star, you found it you keep it."

I followed Abby to a nearby workbench and began disassembling it. I watched with interest as my friend strip the custom Lancer down to spear parts into sections. Abby then started to bring each section up to eye level and insect for any damaged parts before putting them back down. She did this with each piece that was on the table. Then reassembled the weapon and flipped the switch that activated the chainsaw bayonet. I watched Abby rev-up the chainsaw a bit before she handed it back to me. "There you are, one perfectly functioning Lancer ready for service. Don't you lose it now." Abby gave it to me for which I let it hung in my hand loosely.

A little more scavenging later we found some ammo for my new Lancer and began to fill our pouches with it. Abby also found herself a new Lancer to strip and replace the parts that were still covered in sap from the timber wolfs. With her new Lancer bayonet firing up like it was brand new. I could see the satisfaction that beamed off of Abby.

With the help of their new found helper, Bill led the pair over to the Armadillo and opened the front hatch to them. "Bill, start up the Armadillo and prep the gun turrets, Starlight, get in and pick a seat. I'll go and try to figure out how to get the workshops doors open."

Following her friend's instructions, I picked the Armadillos left gun turret and sat in its gun seat. I then spotted what looked like a booklet on the side. Picking it up, I saw that it was an Armadillos manual. Opening up the manual I began to flip through the pages. Reading over the index, I saw that it had information on everything about the truck. Flipping the pages to the section that had information on the gun turrets. Figuring if I may want to know how to use them if necessary.

Looking at the diagrams and the instructions. I then focused my attention on the heads up display and joystick. Finding the 'on' button, the screen illuminated to reveal the outside. my eyes widen in wonder at the COG tech in front of me. Looking at the screen, I noticed a few things right away about it. In the middle, there spotted a big X. From the manual that she read, it must be the Targeting radical. So whatever the gun shoots that's where it was going. On the top right of the screen held a number, eight hundred, that showed how much ammo that the gun I was operating held. On the top left, held a much smaller number that held an 'm' at the end, meaning distance.

Grabbing hold of the joystick I pulled back to see about moving the turret upwards. The gun did just that, thou it didn't go straight up, it did go at a high angle. When I turned the gun to the side. I made a surprised 'eep' that her seat moved with the weapon. I was about to continue exploring more on what the turret when the unmistakable sound of gunfire reached my ears. It didn't sound like weapons that Abby demonstrated before; this one sounded rougher then Abby's Lancer. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of her friends Lancer going off. I was about to go out and help when said Onyx guard friend jumped through the open hatch.

"Star, strap in and hold tight!" Abby ordered as she reached the driver's seat.

"Whats going on out there, who are shooting at us?!" I asked as before flinching as bullets ricocheted off the Armadillos armor plates.

"Locust patrol, a big one and they were right outside!"

"How many?"

"Too many to fight ourselves, strap in and hold tight. This is going to be ugly!" Abby had said before stepping on something down on something that was on the floor, making me fall back as g-forces pushed me back into her seat at the gun turret. I was about to get my first taste of real combat against humanities greatest enemy.

Author's Note

Here are some links to help those who don't know what some of the items in the story.

Armadillo
JACK
JACK (model)
Geobot