Fallout Equestria: Broken Oaths

A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria

Chapter 5: Dark Machinations

By Fallen Sentinel

“Your actions will cost us more than we can afford. They may already have.”

I felt like such a moron, sitting there bound tight as the hours slipped away. I was too tired from yesterday to struggle much, burning myself out after a few efforts to slip free of the knots binding my forelegs. I tried to squirm over to Gunrunner and get his attention, but the merc was sleeping soundly and I couldn't reach his bag for anything that might help me get free. I’d even tried worming my way over to the fire, but unfortunately whatever was in Gunrunner’s fire potion didn’t want to burn my binds, especially since by the time I’d gotten there the flames were nearly out.

Eventually I gave up and lay there on the ground, sighing to myself. How had I let this happen? Had I seriously trusted Siren enough to let my guard down around her? I felt betrayed, but that was honestly a little stupid of me to think: Siren had never been on our side, always been antagonistic to us, always trying to get back to the Stable however she could. How far would she get given the time advantage she had now? Had she already found somepony looking for her, were we too late?

I could only cringe as I thought of what would happen when Arkangel found out I’d let Siren get away. I kept expecting him to appear from thin air, yelling at me and threatening to kill me for letting her get the upper hoof on me. Had he maybe spotted her already, gone after her? He’d surely have caught her by now if he’d had the chance, but there was still no sign of him anywhere. He hadn’t gone ahead to Rock Point already, had he?

After what felt like forever of waiting, struggling with what little energy I had left and muttering about how I could have used my old security training if she’d used hoofcuffs instead, the omnipresent cloud cover finally giving hints of the morning sun rising behind them. Gunrunner eventually started to stir from his sleep, but I couldn’t wait for him to wake up on his own. The instant I saw him somewhat conscious, I kicked him as hard as I could in the side.

“Oww!” he yelled, jumping to attention and probably expecting a fight. It took him a moment to realize what was happening as I grumbled at him from behind the cloth, staring in utter confusion before he shook his head. “What the hell happened to you?” he asked. I did what I could to motion to where Siren had fallen asleep, but Gunrunner was already headed for his bag, digging for something. “Oh...Siren, huh? She took my knife.”

I nodded at Gunrunner as he sighed, shook his head once again, before trotting over to me and starting to work out the knots binding me, starting with my muzzle. He had to struggle a bit without anything to cut, but eventually he’d gotten my mouth and forelegs free.

“Ark’s gonna be pissed isn’t he,” I muttered, mostly to myself as Gun worked at untangling my hind legs. He glanced at me and only shrugged, before finally snapping the last rope off. I got to my hooves and looked around, biting my lip as I expected Ark to be somewhere by now. “Where is he, anyways?” Gunrunner looked around for Ark as well, but shrugged again. “So what now?” I asked.

“Well since you’re asking me,” Gunrunner said, after a moment to think. “If Ark doesn’t have anything to be angry over, he won’t be.” I looked back at him, not quite catching his meaning, making him have to explain it to me. “We go out and find her before he knows she’s gone.”

I nodded, desperate for a simple plan to solve the worry engulfing me. I could already see two big flaws with his plan: we had no idea which way Siren had gone, and she already had several hours headstart on us. It didn’t take long, however, for a third problem to emerge. Gunrunner suddenly was staring right behind me, a look of abject horror on his face. I cringed and turned slowly, seeing exactly what I was afraid of: Arkangel standing there, staring directly at me. I was glad for a moment that his helmet was still on, I didn’t want to see the look of anger on his face: the void of his dark visor was terrifying enough. “I can explain,” I stammered, trying to reason with him.

The next thing I knew I was on my back on the ground, Ark’s scorpion tail smashing down inches from my ear. “ONE job,” he snarled, his voice resonating to the point I couldn’t tell if the earth were shaking, or it was just me. He pressed a hoof to my chest, applying pressure and keeping me from breathing deeply: I started to wheeze a little as he continued. “I told you to watch Siren, make sure nothing happens to her.” The pressure ramped up to the point I felt sure my ribs would crack. “I TOLD you that if we lost her, everything else is meaningless!”

“But we haven’t lost her yet!” said Gunrunner, causing both of us to look at him. “She can’t have gotten too far yet, we can still follow her.” He pointed towards the eastern rock formation, and if my chest weren’t under pressure from Ark’s hoof I would have breathed a sigh of relief. Gunrunner had spotted tracks, partially disrupted but still clearly pony hoofprints; I wasn’t trained to read and even I could tell that had to be Siren’s cloak dragging in the dirt, not enough to clean her trail up entirely.

Ark must have had the same realization, as he immediately leapt off my chest, allowing me to gasp and fill my starving lungs with air. “Grab your bags, we’re leaving now!”

I stood shakily and checked my Pipbuck, making sure I didn’t have any serious injuries from Ark’s intimidation. Gunrunner had quickly gone to his things and started packing in a hurry; I took his lead and went to my bags. “So when we find her,” I said, after coughing to clear my lungs, “what exactly do we do?”

“Rip her fucking wings off!” Ark screamed, his head swivelling to lock red eyes on me in a death glare. I froze as time seemed to stand still, until Ark himself seemed to recoil from his response. He shook his head until his eyes turned blue, only for him to turn away and start moving towards Siren’s tracks. “Just find her, catch her. We’ll worry about the rest later.”

As I hurriedly packed the meager supplies I’d taken from my bag, I couldn’t help but stop thinking. Siren seemed to know something more than what she was saying...back in Black Pass, she’d started to say some other name besides Ark’s. Something that sounded like pay...was that one of the clear personalities he had?

We might have lost Siren.

While her tracks were obvious enough to follow for quite a ways, eventually we noticed more tracks coming up behind her, numerous ponies following her closely. Eventually Siren’s trail ended at a mess of dust and sand, evidence of a scuffle I was sure. Judging from the lack of bodies or Siren’s cloak dragging anywhere, I suspected she’d lost the fight. Unfortunately, after that fight the other ponies tracks split off in different directions, no signs which of them had taken Siren.

Ark looked about set to kill somepony, and I could only hope that he would refrain from lashing out at us. But seeing as we were the only two around here…

“So what...should we just keep going to Rock Point?” Gunrunner suggested.

It was a bad idea. Arkangel spun towards Gunrunner rapidly, his tail flicking forward with the barb aimed right at Gunrunner’s throat. “Do I have to remind you that we need her for any of this to matter?” His voice was modulated by his armor, shifted into the same deep tone that seemed to shake the earth. “So who were they, where did they take her?”

“Why do you expect me to know?” Gunrunner replied, staring defiantly back at Ark’s helmet.

“You’re our wastelands expert,” Ark countered, leaving the two to stare at each other in uncomfortable silence for a few moments.

“Get that out of my face and I might try finding out,” Gunrunner finally muttered, glancing down at Ark’s tail. I cringed, but thankfully Ark lowered his tail and let Gunrunner take a look around. “Well I know we’re outside Reaver territory, but that just means it could be anypony. Although…” Gun rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “There’s no blood. Best guess is slavers then, looking to sell her. Nice mare wandering the wastelands alone, easy target.”

Arkangel glared at Gun for a moment, but finally turned and started walking off. “Uh...where are you going?” I asked hesitantly.

“Rock Point.” I blinked and checked my Pipbuck’s map. Sure enough, Arkangel was leading the way straight there. “Civilization might know something about those slavers, or where they keep captives.”

I glanced at Gunrunner, who only shrugged back at me. I sighed and raised a hoof to my face, but decided against arguing. I didn’t know for sure why Ark still felt we were worth keeping around, but I didn’t want to test his patience right now.

“Looks like the Hoof has just a little more Security than a few days ag-” I switched the radio frequency again, cursing in frustration. I’d hoped that we would have found traces of Siren or the slavers as we got closer to Rock Point, but when there had been nothing I’d turned to fiddling with the radio to pass the time. I didn’t even know what security would be out in the wasteland, or who had decided to go up against it head-on. It was moments like this that made me wonder why everypony didn’t just wait out the wasteland in their Stables, like we were supposed to…

I flicked through radio frequencies to try and pass the time, as it seemed even as we walked time just froze around us. But every time I glanced down to change I saw that time was passing: it had been an hour since we’d left our camp for Rock Point. It felt like far longer to me. I switched channels again. “-o the Security Mare. Looking forward to seeing what law and order you bring down next.” Sounded like somepony was having a fun time, though I had to wonder what chaos they were causing to cause it.

Some particularly sad music started playing, forcing me to change stations again. “-ay that they got just what they deserved. Whomever built that thing, come by for some drinks on the house. Well...if your bot brings that mare back safely, anyways.” That mare? Could that have been Siren? “If anypony wants to get the mare back from the cybernetic death machine that just batted those slavers around, it’s taken her off to the abandoned mines south of Rock Point. You’ll know the mare when you see her: my eyewitness says she’s got a purple cloak, white coat, pink and black mane, and a fine flan- I really need to read these things before going on air.” Oh thank Celestia that was her!

“Ark!” I ran up to his side. Arkangel turned and stared at me. “Somepony just said they spotted Siren. A robot’s taking her to the abandoned mines down south.”

“The mines?” We turned to face Gunrunner as he shook his head. “That place is basically tearing itself apart. Can’t say I know a lot about the bot, but rumor is it turned up and has been scaring off anything that becomes trouble for the locals. But it never sticks around to chat, and anypony who goes into that mine gets dragged back out unconscious and can’t remember a thing.”

“Well we’re just going to have to stay alert then,” Arkangel snapped. “Gun, lead the way,” he gave a curt motion with his head, ushering Gunrunner to the front. As Gun started to lead us towards our destination, I couldn’t help but feel anticipation bubbling in my stomach. Siren probably felt pretty sure she’d never see us again. I could only hope I got the chance to prove her wrong.

It didn’t take long for me to wonder if I could prove her wrong at all.

We’d reached the mines with little trouble, only with a few local desert dwellers on the path warning us not to enter. But once we were inside the dilapidated tunnels and had a look around, I was starting to worry. It was like a maze down here, tunnels branching off every which way, some collapsed due to old age and failing supports. We’d been following a slight trail for a while, but finally the tracks split off into five separate tunnels. They were each disturbingly regular, a precise gait I knew only a robot could duplicate five times over. Did this thing know we were coming? Or was it a precaution against getting followed?

“Well, which way now?” I asked hesitantly.

“Split up,” said Ark, curt as ever. “You take that tunnel, Gun and I can take the other four.”

“Are you crazy? With that robot running around?”

“Actually…” Gunrunner rubbed the back of his head, “I agree with Ark here. We’ve got one more day til those...what were they, Terminators?” He cast a glance at Arkangel, who didn’t respond. “I’d rather not stick around if we have to, we should find Siren and get as much distance as we can.”

I sighed, but gave in. I was still worried about the robot, but I couldn’t help but agree with Gunrunner about our time limit. As I made my way down my designated tunnel, I tried to breathe a little easier. If that bot were hostile surely we wouldn’t have gotten so far into its territory, right? And besides, the tracks could have been old, and there were no signs of activity anywhere: I could barely see anything past the glow of my Pipbuck. “That thing surely needs light to see, right?” I thought.

As if on cue, I entered another small crossroad and immediately spotted a faint hint of light down a tunnel almost looping back on mine. “Why did I say that,” I growled, facehoofing at how stupid I felt in that exact moment. Thankfully I couldn’t wallow in my idiocy for long: I realized that the bot might be active and somewhere nearby. My security training kicked in and I checked my EFS while reaching for my pistol, getting ready to set my battle saddle if necessary. But the EFS only had a single yellow bar up ahead, making me sigh with relief. Maybe Gunrunner was right earlier, maybe this robot was just defending territory? If we didn’t hurt anypony else, maybe it would leave us alone?

I crept up towards the light and peeked around the corner, before moving up cautiously to a pile of stacked equipment I couldn’t quite identify. Past that was a small room offshooting the main chamber, a collection of metal bars hastily welded to form something like a cage door. The yellow bar was indicating the EFS target was in that room behind the bars, and glancing around I didn’t see any evidence of the robot anywhere. So could this be…?

I crept closer to try and figure out what my EFS was sensing: the room looked almost entirely empty, save the threadbare necessities of a jail cell, and for a few seconds I completely missed a mass of purple fabric lying on the floor. It shifted a little in response to my hoofsteps, and as I tapped on the bars a familiar voice I couldn’t decide if I was glad or furious to hear rang through the chamber. “Oh what is it now, you hunk of junk? I told you to leave me alone, don’t you know how to take orders? Damned robot…”

I cleared my throat almost cheekily. “Can’t say I’m much of a robot,” I muttered, as Siren leapt about a foot off the ground. She busied herself disentangling herself with her robe enough to see me as I started examining the bars a little closer.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” she hissed under her breath, casting a nervous glance around behind me. “If that thing comes back and sees you…” She froze, staring in terror straight behind me. I turned quickly, only to find nothing was there.

“What are you looking at?” I looked back at her with an eyebrow raised in confusion.

“There!” she whispered, jabbing her hoof at the ground. I looked again, but didn’t notice anything still. “It’s cloaked!”

I suddenly remembered Ark’s disappearing act and glanced down, finding a fresh set of hoofprints had started circling me. A chill ran down my spine and I quickly raised my battle rifle, trying to trigger my SATS to help me spot the threat. But it didn’t show itself. A second later something struck me hard and threw me to the side, knocking my aim off as the gun discharged, the shot ricocheting off the wall instead. I barely stayed standing and with my SATS fully charged I had an instant to think up a strategy: the robot was cloaked, so I couldn’t get a clear shot on it. But what if I could see it? There was just enough dirt at my hooves for me to grab some and throw it in the direction of the latest hoofprints. Sure enough, a pony-like shape emerged from the shadows as the dirt dusted it right where I suspected the bot was standing.

I leveled my gun at the target and fired at what I thought was a forward joint in its leg. My SATS helped me confirm the shot, but instead of sinking into the target part of the energy bounced off a curved surface and shot straight past the shadow, hitting the wall behind it. I aimed to fire again, but my SATS didn’t have the charge to keep this up, and I had to aim manually. I fired three more times, one deflecting slightly off the robot’s armor, one seeming to hit dead on as I heard a metallic grinding for a second, and the third one passing straight through where I thought it was. “Did I get it?” I wondered, glancing around in case I’d missed it. But I wasn’t fast enough.

Suddenly something was wrapped tight around my neck, pulling me just a bit off the ground. I gasped and reached for the obstruction, hooves finding something and pulling back, but I wasn’t strong enough to break its hold on me. All it got me was thrown sideways against a wall, pinning me down as it tried to choke me out. I struggled to breathe, yanking with all my strength and trying to get a hind leg somewhere to kick at the bot, but I was rapidly losing focus. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, and my thoughts started to slow down and drift off. Was this how I was going to die? The bot’s second hoof came down on my lower back to tighten its grip on my throat, straining me to the point I thought it might try to rip my head off. I could only hear Siren screaming something off in the distance, but I couldn’t make out her words as the world faded into oblivion...

The next thing I knew I was lying on my side with somepony’s hoof on my neck. It was a far more tender touch than I’d just experienced, and as I started to regain feeling in my body I looked around as quick as I could manage, trying to find out what had just happened. It was Siren touching me, checking to see if I was ok, staring at me with more concern than I’d ever seen on her face. As I started blinking, regaining my thoughts, I glanced towards the nearest source of light I could find...on the other side of the bars.

I struggled to my hooves and shook my head as the blood flow started to stabilize in my brain, letting me think clearly again. I looked to see what had happened in the time I’d been unconscious...which hadn’t been long, apparently. I could see where I’d just been choked unconscious and a fresh trail where I’d been dragged into the cell, but more interestingly I could see the robot itself. It had decloaked and was busily welding a bar back into position, probably one it had removed to throw me into the cell with Siren. The first thing that amused me about seeing this bot clearly was that it was using a portable welding torch just like a regular pony might have. But after that realization I started to take in more details about the design itself, that made me look over the thing again in confusion and interest. The robot was small, almost a head shorter than I was, yet it clearly had overpowered me. Its plating was a deep maroon red and surprisingly fluid, a sleek appearance that I might have mistaken for an organic being. Not helping that illusion was the fact it had a mane and tail, a purple matching its optics with pale pink highlights. But the oddest thing about this bot were that it had a very pony-like face, mouth and all, very detailed...and, surprisingly, it seemed to have two white fangs jutting from what I was struggling not to call a lip.

I raised a hoof towards the bar ahead of me, but Siren grabbed me and pulled me back. “Don’t!” she hissed, “you're not marked as a threat.” I pushed Siren back and moved closer to the bars anyways. “Are you trying to get yourself killed? That thing is out of control! It won’t listen to my commands!”

The welder flared suddenly as Siren spoke, causing us both to glance towards the bars. The robot glared at Siren, optics focused down on her with a scowl on its face...it looked angry. I couldn’t quite process what I was seeing, if I didn’t know it was metal I’d have sworn I was looking at a pony’s face. As it turned back to its work of welding us in, I tried to think of a way to interrupt it without marking myself as a threat, only now realizing it had discarded my battle saddle when it dragged me in here. But I knew it wasn’t going to do us any good, so with a sigh I turned instead to Siren with a nervous shrug. She collapsed on the ground with a heavy sigh, staring nervously between the robot and me. She probably was wondering which of us would end her less painfully at that point. I was still furious at her, but wasn’t exactly in any kind of shape to fight her: my body still hurt tremendously from the lack of oxygen and I was still recovering. I stumbled to the wall and tried to rest a little bit, only for Siren to come closer and gently stroke my mane. I couldn’t help but scoff slightly at her suddenly being nice to me, but I didn’t mind not being alone in a strange cell with a crazy robot staring at us outside.

It was only then that I noticed that Siren had tears welling in her eyes. “Uh...Siren, are...are you alright?” She didn’t respond for a second, only for her to start petting my mane again. “Okay Siren enough, you’re scaring me.” I tried to pull away, but Siren grabbed me and refused to let me go, letting me feel how much her body was shaking.

“I’m sick of this…” she whimpered.

I blinked in shock, struggling for a moment with what to do. “Uh...yeah, I guess...the wasteland kinda sucks, doesn’t it?”

“That’s not what I mean...I’m sick of all this,” she waved a hoof at the robot, who had just finished sealing us in and was walking away, grabbing my battle saddle and placing it atop the stack of equipment I’d passed by earlier. “I’m sick of everything I do coming back to haunt me! That thing, Ark, the freak, Redwood, my mother, my father…” She paused for a moment there, giving me a second to realize what she’d just said. Her own parents had caused her some kind of grief? “Even you…”

“Uh...what do you mean?” I said shakily. I was hoping she didn’t notice my Pipbuck was still damaged, or what that meant. Unfortunately, she did, and she pointed straight at it to prove it.

“You broke our deal,” she sniffled, wiping a tear away from her eye. I was shocked to see her so broken up. “I know I should maybe have not done that to you, but I was just starting to trust you. I thought I could finally trust somepony…”

I cringed at her concept of trust: I’d felt sure she’d use that explosive as leverage over me to make me do whatever she’d wanted in the moment. That wasn’t trust, that was abuse. But Siren looked so upset, I couldn’t help but be curious. “Is it really that hard for you to trust somepony?” I asked. Siren glanced at me with teary eyes, but didn’t hold her gaze very long. I decided to change the subject, hopefully help her mood. “Look, we’re not gonna die here. Ark and Gunrunner are…” I bit my tongue as Siren cringed to hear Arkangel’s name again. Bad idea. “Siren, I...I’m sorry. I didn’t know this was…” I gestured towards my Pipbuck for a second, before gently taking one of her forehooves in mine. “I didn’t know this meant that much to you.”

Siren pulled her hoof out of my grip. “It’s not that much, but it was my only chance to try again…”

“Siren, look, I promise you right now,” I grabbed her hoof again. She didn’t react, save looking up at me. “I promise I will get you back to the stable as soon as Arkangel is done with us. I’ll do everything I can to get you home safe.” Siren stared at me in disbelief, though I didn’t entirely blame her at this point.

“I guess I should be glad Ark’s been keeping me alive,” she smirked, sighing heavily as she spoke. “Rather not face the wasteland all alone.”

I thought that changing the subject might help Siren out a bit, but unfortunately the only other thing that came to mind seemed like a horrible idea. I had nothing better to say though, so… “You had something to do with Ark a long while ago? How...how did that go? What happened?”

Siren looked up at me with a bemused smirk on her face. “We were a thing for a little bit, I guess, but...one of the expeditions outside the stable we were involved in led us to...that.”

Siren gestured at the robot, who had just finished welding the bars shut again and locking us in. It gave the both of us an appraising look, a look on its face that I would have almost called “curious,” before it turned and left us alone in the cell. “I don’t know what it’s doing out here now,” she shrugged, “it didn’t have any programming that would make it do this. It was completely empty in fact, memory cores completely wiped. But it was a good design, and we found plans for an entire line of them, plus a perfect way to toy with generating a fresh AI…” She sighed. “But not everypony was happy with it. Not a lot of the other overseers liked the idea of developing a totally new combat robot, however, and I was still just starting out in my own role.” There was an uncomfortable silence for a second as Siren thought about what to say next. “My father...he was the Overseer of the Military at the time, he was staunchly against them...wanted us to destroy it, and the plans. But mother wanted to use them...and so did half the other overseer population. It was down to my deciding vote, everypony staring at me for my first big decision as an overseer.” She sighed heavily, shaking her head slowly as she thought. “Eventually I decided it was worth researching, even if we never decided to use them. Unfortunately, that caused a schism between my parents, so bad that my father disowned me.”

I cringed, hurt simply by hearing Siren admit to that. I knew my family was disappointed by me not joining everypony else with security, but utter disownment? I hadn’t imagined it would be that bad. “So of course, because they had to drive the nail in, the robots were assigned to me for further study and replication. The goal was mimicking some soldier’s minds, create an AI that can act like those soldiers might have, but we never got that far, only taking a few brainscans of some of the researchers for a control batch in that one,” she waved her hoof out the door, seemingly indicating the robot wandering around out there somewhere. “But the scars stayed, my father never really spoke to me after that...not until he died.”

I had to wince again, feeling the hurt that Siren was trying to suppress at the memory. “Siren, I’m so sorry…”

She looked up at me abruptly, a confusing smirk on her face. “Why?” I blinked back at her. “You’re the one that killed him.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

“Repeat, Honor Guard down, terrorists have armor.” My mother’s voice was tense, her fury only barely restrained anymore.

“You have to be kidding me...comm, you got that?” my dad growled over the radio.

“Affirmative Phoenix Squad, worse than we feared. Traitor has his honor guard with him.” As I struggled to regain my composure, our command started relaying worse and worse information. “Possibly eight of them, and there’s only one possible friendly honor guard in there now.

“Comm, how the hell are we going to fight those things?” I tensed up all over again: it wasn’t like my father to sound so...worried. He was generally so cool under pressure, though I couldn’t blame him for it in this case. Honor guard were marked as the best of the best for a reason, how could a small group of security forces go up against those?!

“Well I have good news for you at least, the High Overseer is on her way down for some reason.” I flinched. The High Overseer? Here? On a mission we’d already bungled? But at least she’d be coming with her honor guard, superior to any rogue forces we were going to encounter. “Pick up the pace,” comm said rather half-heartedly. I knew she meant for us to stay calm and try to hold position, wait for reinforcements, but it wasn’t going to look good on security if we admitted to it on record.

Unfortunately, her advice had to go ignored, as at that exact moment my EFS started whining. Red, lots of it, hostiles just ahead around the corner. I quickly fell in line with my squad, as our second squad joined up and mixed in with us. Ten security ponies, my family, up against a rogue overseer and eight honor guard...I really didn’t care for our chances, but I couldn’t dwell on that. We were going in: Indigo was already perking his head around the corner, the rest of us watching from helmet cams.

Though they were a fair distance away, I could just make out that four of the honor guard were attempting to cut through a door, while the other four were watching the corridor. One of them spotted Indigo immediately, and for a brief moment of panic I thought sure my brother was about to lose his head. But the guards did nothing, except I presumed spoke via their internal comms to inform the rogue Overseer of our presence, since he turned to face us. His brown and red modified honor guard armor shined in the light of the welders as he stepped closer to us, one of his guard following him. “Step forward,” he called out, but none of us listened to him. We shifted into a firing line as the honor guard stepped around the corner, followed by the Overseer who glanced bemusedly at us. He seemed to count us off, before looking right at Indigo, presumably thinking he was the leader. “Now, set your weapons down, or I’ll have to kill you all.”

I felt a cold, hard lump in my throat, but I didn’t back down. None of us did. But nopony opened fire either; were we all as scared as I was right now? The Overseer sighed and shook his head. “Very well, kill them.”

“Wait!” I yelled, before anypony had a chance to shift their weapons. The Overseer raised a hoof as the guard charged his weapon and quickly scanned our security line for the voice. I stepped forward, despite my father hissing at me to stay in formation. “Why are you doing this?”

The Overseer laughed a little too harshly for my liking, staring straight at me, singling me out. “I’m trying to save us, of course!” He looked expectantly at me, like I should somehow know what he was raving about. I could only shrug in confusion. “Of course you don’t understand, nopony does, or nopony wants to admit it. We’re content to make the same mistakes as the past, over and over again until we’re all doomed!” I still had no idea what he was talking about. “The damn robots, the more we focus on those the more we outdate ourselves! Some day they’ll even replace us Overseers with dead metal and wire!” The rogue was snarling, almost foaming at the mouth as he stared at me, only for me to stare blankly back at him. He sighed and collected himself, shaking his head. “No, of course you can’t see it...I just wish I could have shown you all…” He waved his hoof and, to my surprise, his honor guard relaxed their stance,at least a little bit. “But very well, if this is really what you think is best for the whole Stable...arrest me.”

I blinked in shock, and glanced back at the rest of my squad. Nopony moved, everypony was still suspect of the entire situation. But if there really was a chance that I could end this situation right now...I just had to take it. So fumbling to grab a pair of hoofcuffs I stepped forward, keeping my eyes focused on the rogue Overseer. He kept his eyes on me as well, helping me stay focused on him...and only too late did I realize why. “Take him alive,” the Overseer sighed. “I’ve seen too many innocents die today..”

I tried to get my legs moving, realizing what was about to happen, but I was too late. One of the Honor Guard grabbed me with a hoof and their tail and dragged me towards their group. I tried to break free, only to have the barbed tail pressed to my throat. “Weren’t you supposed to keep me alive?” I muttered, though I couldn’t raise my voice enough to be heard over the rogue.

“If you want him to stay this way as much as I do, don’t follow us.” None of my family moved, tense with guns still trained on the guards as they shuffled the rogue Overseer and myself back around the corner, just as a new set of Honor Guard stormed into the room, these bedecked in golden armor. The High Overseer and her forces had arrived.

The rogue’s honor guard tailed us as the Overseer himself pushed me along, having taken over threatening me with a gun pointed straight at the back of my head. I didn’t want to fight him, not now, so I let him lead me forward, hoping to offer security or the High Overseer’s guard an opportunity. To my surprise, however, the High Overseer’s guard parted their defensive line, letting an old grey pegasus in golden robes step forward. The High Overseer herself...I knew I should have saluted, but threatened as I was I didn’t make an effort to move, not now.

The High Overseer stepped closer to us, waving her hoof at most of her guards, ordering them to hold position. Her Elite guard followed, however, the horn of their armor glowing and ready to fire at a moment’s notice. To my surprise, the rogue pushed me into the care of one of his guard and stood between two of the others, facing her down. “Why do you still refuse to see it,” he growled at the High Overseer.

“What I refuse to see? What about you? Why do you refuse to see that the counsel has chosen against you? The robots will be built, and nothing you do will stop that.”

The rogue shook his head. “I won’t allow us to be replaced by those mindless machines. You know as well as I do that they’ll do it eventually, if you give them enough work. Better to scrap it all now and be done with it.”

“Even if it means killing your daughter?”

“OUR daughter,” the rouge snapped.

The High Overseer looked startled for a moment, but forced herself to regain composure. “You know as well as I do I can’t show personal bias for a project. But you...you know that she’ll continue. She’s probably already memorized half the schematics you’re trying to burn here. Even if you destroy our data, find and destroy that original one, your daughter will keep the project alive. Is that really what you want, to kill her?”

The rouge overseer paused, staring in silence. The High Overseer’s words had gotten to him, but as he searched for an answer to her comments the cutters finished their work and the door seal was broken. It slid apart easily, a chunk of the locking mechanism clattering to the ground and shattering the silence. “I suppose we’ll have to continue this later,” the rogue muttered, before heading for the busted opening. “Hold the line here,” he told his guard. “Kill them if you have to.” With that, he vanished through the doorway.

We were left in silence for at least a minute, the rogue’s honor guard staring at the High Overseer and her guards, my family standing ready in the back. I was halfway between thinking that I was going to die and blaming myself for the standoff, considering I’d gotten captured like a moron. But as I glanced at the rogue’s guards I realized they were far more focused on their opponents than their hostage. It gave me an opportunity to reach slowly for a pocket on my vest, watching carefully for anypony spotting my motions. Miraculously, none of the honor guard reacted, as I pulled out a small cluster of small spheres from the pocket. Shock grenades, I should have had ten in my kit, each just strong enough to knock out a suit of power armor...if they were close enough. I carefully moved to roll one under the guard at my immediate right, trying not to watch my shot too much or else blow my cover. I could see two more guards on my left I might hit with these grenades, but there were still too many targets. How could I get something under all of them?

Thankfully, I wasn’t alone. The Elite Honor Guard stared directly at me for a moment, before the horn of his helmet glowed very slightly. The rogue guards snapped attention to him as he slowly lifted a sheet of paper that had been strewn on the ground. It was a distraction from what he was really using his magic for, as I felt five more shock grenades leave my grip, as one of them very slowly hovered under a guard in front of me, one I’d felt sure I’d be caught if I rolled it to. I kept staring at him, only for him to give a curt nod in my direction. I nodded back to him and hit the trigger on my armor.

All ten grenades exploded simultaneously, their electric tendrils launching upwards into the targets above them. Five rogues were hit and fell, screaming in shock and pain as their suits shut down and the shock ran into their bodies: it should have been painful, but not fatal, even the unlucky two at the front who had gotten hit by two grenades each. The other three rogues barely managed to dodge the attack, throwing their defense into enough chaos that I could slam my shoulder into the rogue threatening me and make a run for the line of golden guards as they charged to fight the rogues. They parted swiftly to let me dive through, into the waiting arms of my family.

My father instantly pulled me aside. “Are you insane?!” he hissed at me. I winced slightly, the smile from the adrenaline and success of my plan vanishing instantly as he reprimanded me. “You can’t step out of line like that, especially with honor guard around. They could have…” He swallowed his next words, looking somewhere between angry and worried.

Before I could apologize, I heard an explosion over the sound of the honor guards fighting. A part of the wall behind us fell away and the rogue overseer leapt through the new hole. It was hard to make out through the dust and rubble, but there was a shadow of something on his back...a mare in a purple coat, I realized, right as he stared at my squad in shock for a moment. Then he turned and ran back down the hallway. My squad turned to give chase, but just as we did a second figure leapt out through the settling dust: an honor guard. We almost raised our weapons to open fire, but I quickly put mine down: the armor of this guard was purple and badly damaged. “How many overseer guards are involved in this?” I couldn’t help but mutter over comm.

The purple honor guard turn and ran after the rogue overseer, but the guard was limping, his gait was off. He must have been brutally attacked and injured in the fight, yet he was still chasing after the rogue with dedication. I couldn’t help but admire that as I ran after them, ignoring my father’s call to stay in formation.

By the time I reached the corner I could hear the sounds of a fight underway: the purple guard must have caught up with the rogue. I rounded the corner in SATS to try and get a better feel for the situation: I immediately spotted the mare lying in a corner behind the rogue. The tail of his armor flashed in the broken light as he fought with the honor guard. Damaged as his armor was, the purple guard couldn’t withstand the onslaught for long, his tail already slowing down and plates falling from his suit, revealing a crimson coat beneath. If I didn’t act now, we might lose another honor guard.

The rogue slammed his leg into the honor guard’s knee, dropping him to the ground as the rogue raised his tail. I only had one shot to stop it, so I targeted the tip of the rogue’s tail and fired. The impact was just enough to divert the swing, aimed at the honor guard’s exposed neck. The rogue’s tail whizzed past his head, causing the rogue to look up and scowl at me. I gulped in fear, even as my family caught up and took aim. “Don’t move, traitor!” my dad yelled. “Surrender, while you still can.”

The rogue looked at my father, almost upset for a moment. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. I have to do this…” His tail whipped around and suddenly I realized that the barb had disconnected from it, spiralling straight for my father! I tried to aim to shoot the barb down but my SATS wasn’t ready. Thankfully, the barb only grazed my dad’s armor, still enough of an impact to knock him back, but it distracted all of us long enough for the rogue to grab the mare and run further down the hallway. We tried to open fire, but he was too far ahead for our shots to hit, plus the purple guard had gotten back up and was in the way.

My mother took charge immediately. “Razors 1 and 4 will get Phoenix 1 medical attention. Phoenix 2 through 4 will join the rest of Razor and stop the rogue.” I knew my mother was worried about dad, but I’d have felt a lot more comfortable if she’d come with us. “Phoenix 2, you’re in command.”

Apollo nodded and pointed us forward, Indigo and myself being first in the formation to run down the corridor. I was first to notice the rogue and the purple guard fighting again, but the guard was losing. The rogue grabbed one of his hooves and twisted it unnaturally: I could practically hear the bone snap despite the distance we still had between us. I cringed along with the honor guard, though to my surprise he didn’t shout in pain. He was however distracted long enough for the rogue to line up and buck him down the hallway, straight at us. My hoof reached out to Indigo and I pulled him to the ground, ducking under the honor guard as he was sent flying into the rest of the squad. The rogue quickly grabbed the mare and hurried away. “Go!” Apollo yelled at Indigo and I, and I didn't stop to question him.

We rounded the corner just in time to see the mare falling off the rogue: she’d apparently woken up and had gotten off his back, falling on the ground as he turned to face her. Now I could tell for sure that this mare was another overseer, her robes the same purple as the guard outside. Indigo was first to raise his gun. “Overseer, run!” he yelled, as he charged forward, firing on the rogue. I followed suit, but the rogue wasn’t deterred by our shots. His tail whipped around and caught Indigo’s leg, yanking my brother off his hooves and towards him. The rogue’s hoof raised up and slammed Indigo’s head into the ground, knocking my brother out. In the moment I was terrified he’d just been killed, and I locked up, even as the mare I realized now was the rogue’s daughter struggled to escape his slow approach of her.

The rogue’s hoof came down on his daughter’s tail, pinning her down and keeping her from sliding herself away, forcing her to stare at him on her back. She was terrified, not that I could blame her, curled up while staring at her father and shaking. He took off his helmet and looking sorrowfully at his daughter. “I wish I didn’t have to do this…” he sighed.”

Just then, I heard something heavy fall behind me. The purple guard had gotten himself back up, only to collapse again. “No!” he screamed, watching as the rogue pulled out a pistol and held it in his mouth, aiming straight at his daughter.

I didn’t think. I just ran and jumped at him, flapping my wings to push myself into him as fast as I could. I hit him with my shoulder just before his shot rang out, the bullet slamming into the wall mere inches from the mare’s head. The two of us fell to the ground, my shoulder screaming at me for having just bashed into an armored pony like that.

The gun left the rogue’s mouth and skidded across the floor, but that’s about all I’d managed to set him back with my lunge. He easily kicked me off of him, throwing me towards the pistol as I slammed hard on the ground. My back and side joined the chorus of pain that pumped into my brain, as I struggled to stand up. I didn’t have enough time, however, as the rogue rushed forward and slammed a hoof into my stomach, throwing me back against the wall. The air rushed from my lungs as I slid down the wall and collapsed. I struggled to stand, but could only watch as the rogue grabbed the pistol again and aimed at his daughter. But this time, he hesitated. He didn’t want to shoot her, I could see it in his eyes.

The rogue turned to me again, started walking towards me. I stared in fear and locked eyes with the mare cowering in the corner. Only now could I see that one of her hooves was broken: that explained why she hadn’t tried to run before, or now, as the rogue grabbed me by the collar of my armor and hauled me in front of her. “I can’t kill her...but she needs to die. So I’m ordering you to do it.”

I stared at the rogue as he shoved the pistol into my mouth and turned my aim at the mare. She stared at me, shaking even worse than before as tears rolled down her cheeks. I could only stare back, fearing for my life and for hers...knowing I might well end it here. She covered her eyes and shook in silence, waiting for me to obey her father...but I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t kill her, not an innocent mare like this! “Hurry up, I can’t wait any longer…” The rogue stared at me, only something I could see out of the corner of my eye as he still held my head towards his daughter. “For fuck’s sake, you damned security drone, pull the fucking-”

Enough.

I twisted my neck with as much strength as I had, breaking the overseer’s grip on me. I turned straight to him, face to face, shut my eyes, and pulled the trigger.

The shot rang harshly in my ears, reverberated through my teeth to my entire skull. I couldn’t look, I couldn’t open my eyes, even as I heard the clang of an armored pony crash to the floor. I couldn’t believe I’d just killed an overseer of the Stable...in any other circumstance I’d have been shot on the spot. I felt myself shaking, so badly that I dropped the pistol on the ground before I could even think of opening my eyes again. By the time I had, the mare overseer was looking at me. She wasn’t shaking anymore, but I couldn’t tell what expression she wore; ultimately it didn’t matter. I had one thing more I needed to do now…

I knelt down and helped the Overseer up on my back, only for her to start sniffling as she stared at her father. I wanted to comfort her, but I didn’t think I could come up with words or actions appropriate for our difference in stations, not to mention the fact that I’d just been the one to kill him. Thankfully, she didn’t fight me, and I was able to carry her clear of the sector to my sister Glory, still attending to a hostage we’d saved from an explosive device. Glory started attending to the Overseer’s broken hoof immediately, as I went looking for my father or mother to talk debriefing. Unfortunately, my body was not at all happy with the prolonged stress and I collapsed on the ground not far from the Overseer.

It was at least a minute before I could stand again, my sister checking on me to ensure I wasn’t actually injured being the only interference on my moment of panic. By the time I stood up, though, I heard something else, something I didn’t really expect to hear then: armored hoofsteps. The purple guard was lumbering out of the sector as I stood up, looking badly damaged but still alive. I couldn’t imagine how, I could have sworn he’d bled more than most ponies had in their bodies by now! He clanked his way to his Overseer and spoke to my sister. “Is...she...alright?” His voice was labored and raspy, even considering it was coming through his armor’s systems. He was in a lot of pain clearly, but apparently his worry for his Overseer was worse.

“She’s got a broken leg, but she should be fine otherwise,” Glory responded, only momentarily making eye contact with the guard’s visor. He nodded to her and sighed with relief, then looking at the Overseer, who smiled at him.

A moment later he turned and came to me, leaning on the wall next to me as he just tried to breathe. He reached up and hit a button on his helmet. To my surprise, it hissed like it was depressurizing, as he pulled the helmet off and dropped it to the floor next to me. It rolled and bumped into my hoof, but I wasn’t looking at that. I was taking the moment to stare at the pony beneath the armor: a crimson coated stallion with a purple and grey mane, clean cut so as to fit inside his helmet easily. He looked right at me with calming blue eyes and smiled softly, extending a hoof to me. I took it and shook. “Thanks for saving my life, and my Overseer,” he said. “Name’s Pale Shroud.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

I stared at Siren in silence for thirty seconds as she looked at me, teary eyed. “Oh Celestia, Siren I...I can’t believe I didn’t realize…I’m so sorry…”

She glared at me for a moment, still some anger over the incident in her mind. But she sighed and shook her head. “It wasn’t your fault...it was the only thing you could have done then, to save me. Save yourself...the Stable. If he just hadn’t lost his damned mind in the first place!” She slammed her hoof into the ground.

I winced at her anger, but as her emotions became clearer to me I realized something important. “There never was a vote, was there?” She looked at me, confused and a bit guilty. “You set me up to take the blame for Grey Water’s death because of your father, didn’t you?” Siren bit her lip and nodded hesitantly. I couldn’t help getting furious at her for a moment, but I sighed and leaned my head against the wall instead. “Why didn’t you just execute me then? Why drag it out in front of the whole Stable?”

“I don’t know...I guess I wanted it public. Publicly humiliate you and disgrace your name because I was so mad at you…” She tore her eyes away from me. “But that won’t bring him back...Fantastic I’m so sorry for all of this…”

I looked sadly back at her as she clutched her head, trying her best not to cry. I felt awful for bringing up the old memories of her father, of being responsible for almost killing her, and for killing him. And now I’d destroyed her trust in other ponies all over again out here...I needed to get her trust back, however I could. “Your Pipbuck still has that explosive charge, right?”

“Yes, just like all the ones for our Stable. I don’t see how…”

I grabbed Siren’s foreleg and examined her Pipbuck closely, comparing it to mine. Ark had tapped those three points with his tail, I remembered the order he’d hit them in, but I didn’t have anything sharp enough to work with. Unless… “You still have Gunrunners’ knife?”

Siren reached into her cloak and produced the knife, so quickly I was a little worried. “Did she intend to use that on me?” I wondered, as she passed it to my waiting hoof. Then as carefully as I could, I stuck the knife into the same three points Arkangel had, before gently twisting the blade on the third strike. To my surprise, the same small metal cylinder Ark had taken from my Pipbuck popped out of Siren’s, and almost slipped to the ground: I barely caught it as I fumbled to hang onto it, the knife falling from my grip and clattering to the floor. I took only a moment to carefully observe the device, small and unassuming as it might have been, before carefully slotting it into my own Pipbuck, much to Siren’s shock.

“What are you…” she stammered, as I watched my Pipbuck carefully. The screen flickered for a second, but it settled down and I raised my hoof back towards her. Siren gasped as she realized what I was doing, and raised her hoof to mine. “Activate protocol 1138 with the Pipbuck of Fantastic Storm.” Our screens both turned pink, just like before. Her voice a touch shaky, Siren continued. “I, Siren, Overseer of Stable 137’s Soldier Evolution and Research Division, hereby record this agreement between myself and Fantastic Storm. If Storm returns me to our Stable after our journey is finished, I promise to clear him of his alleged crimes, and take personal responsibility for Grey Water’s murder.” She paused for a moment, staring at me blankly. “D...do you accept the terms of the contract?”

“I accept,” I said after only a slight sigh of worry. With that the Pipbucks chirped and returned to normal. Siren looked a little happier for it, and even though I might have just signed my own death warrant at least there was that. “So...what exactly is your job? Soldier Evolution and Research...sounds fun,” I smirked.

Siren laughed and shook her head. “Far from it….mostly paperwork if I’m honest.” She sat herself down against the wall, and didn’t cringe when I sat next to her. “Lots of resource management, making sure everypony gets what they need, sometimes...making problems disappear,” she sighed at the last comment, wincing. I put a hoof to her shoulder comfortingly as she looked up, a little less tense than before. But a second later, she glanced at the cage bars and tensed up.

I followed Siren’s gaze and stared past the bars of our cell

I looked as Siren pointed outside the bars of our cell, straight at the magenta robot. It had returned at some point and was just...staring at us. Finally it approached us slowly, making me tense. I didn’t know what it might do, but it held my gaze for a few moments. “That knife,” it said suddenly, a feminine voice warbling from the speaker that had to be somewhere in its mouth. It pointed straight at the knife on the floor. “Give it to me.”

For a second I just blinked in surprise. I hadn’t expected that kind of response from my experience with robots. But I finally got enough of my senses back to glare at it. “You lock us in here and want to demand that from me? Why don’t you come in here and…”

Before I could blink, the robot dashed across the room towards a wooden crate standing in the corner. In a swift motion it ripped a single plank from the crate’s side and lunged forwards towards the cell, brandishing its weapon. Terrified, I fell backwards, pushing Siren to the back wall as she wrapped her hooves around my neck. The plank stabbed through the bars towards us, but nowhere near far enough to strike either of us...but that wasn’t what the bot had wanted at all. It twisted its head back up, locking the plank against a horizontal bar so the other end of the plank dropped to the ground, right on top of the knife. With a smooth shift of its head the robot pulled the plank further upwards, scooting the knife closer until it shot straight through the bars, under the bot’s waiting hoof.

I stared slackjawed as the robot glared at me for a moment, tossed the plank back towards the crates, and grabbed the knife instead as it turned to slink away into the shadows, its mane and tail swishing as it turned its back to us. With that, we were alone again, one less tool to work with in our cell. “Well...what now?” Siren muttered.

I sighed and shook my head. “I guess...wait for Ark and the merc. It’s the only chance we have now.”

Siren nodded solemnly at me and sat against the wall beside me. I almost reached a wing out to drape it over her, but I wasn’t sure it’d be as well received as I hoped. Instead, I just put my hoof closer to her, hoping to offer her a slight peace offering. She bumped her hoof to mine, and we smiled briefly at each other as we settled in to wait for rescue.

Author's Note

Footnote: Level up

New Perk: Spray 'n Pray --- Your attacks do 75% less damage to companions.

(thanks to Kkat for making fallout equestria and thus allowing us to make this story)

Project starter: Fantastic Storm
Story writer: Arkangel
Editor: Midnight Storm
Proofreaders: ERROR 1024, Mass
Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex, TBRAZ56