Fallout Equestria: Broken Oaths

A fanfiction of Kkats Fallout Equestria

Chapter 7:

By Fallen Sentinel

“I remember when you could walk the streets without fear but now we can’t walk down the road without a zebra striking from the shadows”

Manehattan was still over a day’s worth of travel away, and already the last rays of sunlight piercing the thick clouds above were fading away. At least so far there were no signs of us being followed: we hadn’t seen another pegasus since Rock Point. This time our trick with Siren and Redwood’s Pipbucks seemed to have worked. But that wasn’t what surprised me the most.

I’d been listening to the radio for any news on the attack, but nopony even mentioned Rock Point to begin with, not even DJPon3. We were still close enough that Rock Point’s local stations were available and not even they were talking about it! I could only guess the Stable had paid off their survivors or something. I wasn’t even sure it mattered, though the thought of the retrieval team moving across the wastelands completely unreported was a little worrisome. “More like an army mobilizing,” I muttered, shaking my head in frustration. If they had those kinds of resources to go after us and could be relatively silent moving, we were in serious trouble.

As I mulled over our situation, a single droplet hit my face. I looked up to see the clouds overhead darkening, more than just the oncoming night. “Uh, guys, it’s about to rain,” I muttered.

Ark didn’t seem to care at all, but Gunrunner started to look around the horizon. “Guess we should find some place to bunk down for the night,” he replied, spreading his wings and taking to the skies. Unfortunately, he’d forgotten that Redwood was still leashed to him.

I was about to yell for Gun to stop, but Redwood was faster; Gunrunner was no more than a pony’s height off the ground before Redwood’s teeth grabbed the leash and yanked him back to the ground. “Did ya forget we were attached?” she growled, glaring at Gunrunner as he glared right back at her, hovering just above the ground. He huffed and tossed Redwood’s lead to me before launching back into the air to go scouting.

“Didn’t we talk about keeping these two seperate?” I muttered under my breath, grabbing Redwood’s leash before she got any smart ideas. But as I watched Gunrunner start circling, widening his ring with each pass, I kept a close enough eye on Redwood and Siren, who made no effort to talk to one another. In fact, they were pulling as far apart as they could on their leashes as we walked forward, trying to keep pace with Ark as he started to trot faster.

I glanced over at Vlyka, hoping that talking to a robot would be less awkward than talking to either of the mares tied to my hoof, but she was buried deep in some process in her processor and only just attentive enough to walk without help. So I sighed and glanced back at Siren, dropping my pace down to come alongside her. “So…” I muttered, only for Siren to sigh irritably at me.

“We could have run, you know,” she hissed at me, making my ears droop back. “Why didn’t we just run?”

I glanced forwards at Ark to see if he’d heard anything, but if he had he didn’t react to it. I looked at Siren and cast a significant glance at Ark again as if to tell her exactly why, but she only shook her head and looked away in irritation. I sighed in frustration and kept trying to talk to her. “Siren I know, I know you want to get back home, and so do I. But I think that the more we fight Ark the longer it’s going to take. If we just help him finish this stupid quest of his, we can leave without any problems.”

Redwood snickered, and sighed rather knowingly. “Yeah, once you’ve got no further use to him, he just up and leaves you.”

Siren shot a dirty glance at Redwood, but sighed and drooped again. “You really think he’ll just let us go alive? You heard him back there, he was set to kill me now that he’s got somepony else who can do what he needs.”

“Now why does that sound familiar?” I couldn’t help but wonder aloud, although Siren raising her eyebrow and gesturing towards her Pipbuck wiped the smile off my face pretty quickly. I turned my head away, mildly insulted and biting my tongue from adding “well you are being a personal nuisance to him, and the rest of us too.” But as I tried to rein in my indignation another thought crossed my mind. “What was that earlier too, about your wings?”

Siren gasped, turning her head and stammering. “Look, that’s a complicated thing, I really don’t want to go-” she began, but as her wings flexed reflexively I couldn’t help but be curious. A little too curious, really, as I reached out and grabbed one of her wings, unfurling it as far as it would go as I went in closer to investigate for any deformities. Siren yelped in shock and froze up for a moment, before her wing smacked me in the face and retracted quickly to her side. “What the buck is wrong with you?!” she bellowed, leaping back as far as her leash would allow her. “I didn’t say you could touch me you sicko!”

I stared incredulously at Siren for a moment, eyes darting to the rope leash running to her neck. I figured most ponies would have had second thoughts about that kind of reaction in her situation, but Siren was just as indignant as ever. I sighed and admitted to her point, not keen to make things more difficult between her and myself if I could help it. “Alright then...do you mind if I touch your wings?” Siren shot me a dirty, but slightly curious glance, and I smirked back at her. “You could touch mine too, if you want.”

At that Siren blushed and turned her face away from me again. I heard a snicker from my other side and turned to see Redwood laughing at her sister’s embarrassment. What had happened between these two, they just seemed content to hate each other’s guts on sight! As I glanced back in Siren’s direction, sighing with frustration, my eyes caught sight of Vlyka’s head turned back towards us. She’d finally noticed something was going on, and I was almost tempted to ask Vlyka to interfere, hold Siren down or scan for anomalies in her wings...but I shook my head at the thought of it. I felt things were on a razor’s edge all around, I just needed to swallow my curiosity and let Siren calm down a little.

“Fine,” Siren grumbled. I looked at her as she held her wing out slightly towards me. “But touch, that’s all, understand?” I nodded and stepped closer, trying to not push her if I could help it after she was already bending enough to satisfy my curiosity.

I gently pulled Siren’s wing out and brushed my hoof through her feathers, trying to listen if Siren’s squeaks of discomfort got worse as I looked at her. Her feathers themselves were disorderly, though considering I hadn’t exactly preened myself in the last few days I hardly blamed her for that. But there was something odd about how her wing felt, almost too light even for pegasi wings. I gently pressed my hoof down on one of her major bones, only to feel it shift ever so slightly. Even the hollow bones of a pegasi shouldn’t feel that squishy. “Siren, your...are your bones soft?”

Siren yanked her wing out of my grip and turned her head away from me. “It was an accident, when I was younger,” she huffed, sitting back and looking up towards the sky. “My sister and I, well we borrowed our friend’s power armor for...just stupid things,” she said, smiling upwards at the sky as she remembered what I could only assume were better times.

Redwood chuckled. “Oh yeah, you sure won the award for idiotic ideas from that one.”

Siren’s eyes flared as she glared straight at Redwood. “You were the one who didn’t have to listen to me!” she snapped, jabbing a hoof at her sister. “You’re the idiot who threw that plasma grenade!”

The sisters glared at each other for a second before Siren’s eyes teared up ever so slightly, prompting her to stare right into my eyes for a moment. She sighed in frustration, but kept talking. “We snuck onto a test range and got the live ammo, I wanted to show them how brave I was...I told Redwood to throw the plasma grenade at me. But I didn’t know how strong it would be..it melted through the armor, and my wing, before we could even do anything. By the time somepony managed to help me half of my side was burned, the wing was just gone…”

As Siren spoke I inched around her and started prodding her right wing, something she seemed too drawn into her story to notice. Indeed the bones in her right wing felt normal like her story would have suggested. “So...what happened?” I asked.

“Well the unicorns managed to save me, heal my body,but my wing was just gone...I lived for two years without this.” She flexed her left wing. “Same pony that made that,” she said, pointing at Ark, who seemed completely uninterested n the conversation. “They promised me a new wing, good enough to fly with. Never managed it, but at least I got a display one…”

As Siren took a moment to stare at her apparently fake wing, the rain around us grew heavier and heavier. Thankfully Gunrunner returned then and landed right in front of us. “There’s a building up ahead, pretty large and uninhabited as far as I could tell. Should be good to camp.” He glanced over at Siren, who was actually smiling slightly as she glanced off into nothingness. Gunrunner noticed and laughed. “Well, you sure change your mood quickly,” he said, before waving us towards his scouted location.

We all turned to follow him, but Siren pulled me aside as we were about to head off. “Just so you know, I probably can fly,” she whispered. “But I get nervous trusting...this.” She flexed her left wing as it caught the leash leading to her collar. “Gah...are you sure we can’t work out some better alternative to this thing?”

I almost debated muttering to her about half a dozen other options I’d had by now, but I kept my thoughts in order and shook my head. “None I can think of.”

We made it into the building just before it really started pouring outside, though Vlyka still was grumbling about the risk of short-circuiting as she hurried to cover. I glanced around a little bit and realized we were in some kind of factory, a surprisingly sturdy structure of brick and broken glass that must have been held up for a while. The walls were black with age, even in what seemed to be the reception area we’d entered through. We each took a few moments to dry off before we started to explore further inside. Just past the reception area there was a four-way corridor, leading to a stairwell, the main factory floor and a small room respectively. Ark and Gunrunner headed for the factory floor, taking Redwood with them, while Vlyka had deciphered the word “office” pointing towards the stairwell and went to investigate. Siren and I went towards the small room for lack of a better option, looking around what we started to think was an old break room; wood furniture mostly rotted away, the benches and walls stained with whatever liquids they had acquired since they were last cleaned.

I looked over at Siren, only to see her looking bored as ever. “What do you think they were making here before the bombs fell?”

She glanced around the room and shrugged. “Well I can’t say for sure,” she muttered, sniffing at the air. I sniffed too, only to gag at the rotten stench emanating from somewhere. It seemed like it was a nearby door, and as I went to investigate it I almost immediately regretted it.

The door was almost rotted through, though it still took a solid yank to pull it open. But that wasn’t the only thing that came at me: the skeleton of a pony fell out afterwards. I leapt backwards to avoid it, Siren letting out a startled shriek, as the skeleton smashed into the floor and broke apart. Tearing my eyes away from that horrifying sight, I glanced inside to see a few more pony bodies lying near the door, seemingly piled up in a desperate attempt to escape. Some others were huddled together in what must have been a desperate grab for comfort in their last moments, right before the bombs went off. Just to add misery to the whole situation, there was a faded banner hanging above the scene of horror, and I could just make out what it said up there: “Happy birthday.”

I shook my head and looked at the table, wondering which of the rotted foods on the table had probably been a birthday cake. But Siren looked again at the door as I gawked at the horror. “Storm look, this lock...it’s engaged.” I glanced over and saw she was right: the bolt was sticking fully out of the door, the frame had splintered when I’d yanked it instead. “Somepony locked them inside,” said Siren. I looked at her, the two of us staring in horror at one another. Who would have done this, who would have locked these ponies in to die while the world had exploded? “I don’t like it here,” Siren murmured, rubbing her hoof anxiously, “can we go somewhere else?”

I was quick to agree with her and we turned to hurry out of the break room, though despite my efforts I knew I wouldn’t be forgetting what I’d seen in there for a while. I was hopeful that something in the office might change what my mind was focusing on right now.

Vlyka was busy with her head down, practically buried inside a still-functional terminal. I was curious why she wasn’t trying to directly interface with it, wondering if she even could, but as I watched her she looked up at the two of us. “Find anything?” I asked her.

“According to the remaining records,” she replied, “it seems this used to be a weapons factory.” Well that was getting somewhere at least, now we knew what they were doing. “Although it seems like it was scheduled for demolition before the last record was logged.”

“Well that’s...odd,” I muttered, as Vlyka stood from her terminal and shifted over to the next one. I walked closer and let Siren start trying to access another, choosing to go for any remaining cabinets myself as we continued to search. I was admittedly a little disappointed to only find some well-rotted scraps of paper and a few bobby pins in a drawer. I sighed but took the pins anyways, fiddling with one because I was bored.

Siren snapped me out of my boredom however by whispering something. “ORDIS Mk5?” I glanced at her in confusion as she gestured for me to join her. I trotted over and started reading what she’d found.

Good Morning Management

Today we have the special privilege of designing and manufacturing a new type of power armour that will be distributed to special forces that cannot be named. I know; shocker, right? Anyhow we’re getting representatives of the military in some time today to inspect the staff and conditions of the factory. You will instruct the staff that they may not breathe a word about their new projects; say that we are still manufacturing ranger weaponry, as a cover. For some reason they want to call it ORDIS Mk5 so make sure that’s in your notes.

Now here comes the interesting part. We will actually be competing with other companies for the design. Guess what the material is? Starmetal. Yep that’s right Starmetal will be in this factory, if we manage to win this contract then we will have more Starmetal than we need to make the new armour. The extra could be used for our own projects which in turn could raise your pay rates.

Don’t mess this up: we’ve only got one chance to put a good impression on these guys. If we don’t get the contract then I suggest you start looking for employment elsewhere.

-WarBucks
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“What the heck is Ordis?” I asked. Siren replied by grabbing my shoulders and shaking me slightly.

“That’s not important! Storm, there was Starmetal, here in this factory!” she gasped. She’d lost her cool entirely, extremely excited all of a sudden that her eyes were practically glistening. “We have to find it Storm, come on!”

Siren turned to run out the door but I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back. “Siren wait, do you really think it’s here?” Siren glanced at me, her hopeful expression hanging in an instant. “Let’s be realistic here, do you think it’s really still here? If you know it’s so important, wouldn’t somepony else know?” Siren’s face fell further. “And look at this place, it looks like it’s already been…” My words trailed off as I watched the disappointment spread on Siren’s face. It was too much to look at, I felt so terrible for how fast she was dropping that I had to relent. “Well...there’s a chance not all of it was taken…”

“Then we’d better hurry and find any that’s left!” Siren perked up almost immediately, hurrying for the doorway. I followed her without hesitation, hoping that if I was right she wouldn’t be too depressed that we didn’t find any starmetal. As we approached the four-way intersection Siren started thinking out loud. “If I were an idiot, where would I store something that precious...somewhere near the factory floor I bet,” she smirked and turned to hurry down the appropriate corridor. As we approached however, we began to hear some loud, mechanical grinding from up ahead. Siren stopped dead and facehoofed with frustration. “What the hell are those morons doing now?” she muttered, before resuming her run forwards with me right behind her.

“Lift there!” I heard from just around a nearby doorway. “Don’t pull the whole thing, it’s not gonna work!” As we stepped inside I heard the sound of metal grinding from somewhere further ahead. The only problem was the catwalk had fallen down at some point, leaving a gap that was too far to step over or even jump. “It’s not gonna come off if you keep doing that!”

Curious at what was going on, I spread my wings and flapped off the metal, almost entirely forgetting that Siren wasn’t a confident flier. I remembered just in time and glanced back at her, as she sprawled herself on the catwalk quivering in fear. “What’s wrong?” I asked her.

Siren looked at the gap below and shrunk backwards from it. “Well...since I can’t fly and all it’s just…” she turned her head away from me as she spoke quickly, almost too quickly for me to catch. “I’m afraid of heights.”

I couldn’t help but facehoof as I sighed with frustration. “You’re not kidding, are you?” I muttered, as Siren shook her head. “A pegasus, afraid of heights?”

“I. Can’t. FLY.” Siren hissed at me, as I rolled my eyes and landed next to her. “How about you be so fearless when your wing might just give out over a spike pit!”

“Okay okay,” I raised a hoof between us, “take it easy. Here, hop on my back, I’ll get us over.” Siren stared at me for a moment before sighing and hopping up behind my saddlebag, wrapping her forelegs around my neck. “Just hang on tight, ok?”

“Uh wait wait I changed my-” Siren began, but I had already spread my wings and leapt into the air. Siren’s legs squeezed tighter at my throat and an ear-piercing shriek emanated from her mouth, directly behind my ear. I almost lost my focus and fell into the pit below, but I managed to land hard on the other side, jarring Siren loose as she clattered onto the catwalk beside me.

I was busy trying to regain my sense of hearing when both Gun and Ark appeared from the doorway, weapons drawn and ready to attack. But as they spotted us they both holstered their weapons, Gun staring at Siren with a bemused look on his face. “What, see a rat?” he asked.

“No, worse,” I replied. “A three foot gap.”

Siren kicked my leg as she stood up indignantly, huffing at me as she trotted after Ark, who had already turned around to head back into the next room. Though right as Gunrunner pushed past her and I came up beside her, she put a hoof out to stop me. “Thank you,” she sighed, looking right at me. I blinked in shock as she turned back to walking, surprised by her civility all of a sudden. Was I making progress with her finally?

I shook my head and changed my focus, glancing around the room. It was what must have been a nice office back in its day, probably for the administrator or something. There was a massive wooden desk atop an old red rug, with a set of bookshelves up against the back wall. Redwood was busying herself spinning in a nearby chair that looked about ready to fall apart, but she didn’t seem the least bit concerned, only flashing Siren a bemused smirk as the sisters locked eyes. Siren glowered back at her and turned her focus away. I shrugged and looked at Ark as he tried to get his tail behind a bookshelf on the other side of the room. “What exactly are you two doing anyways? We heard you way down the hall.”

Both Gun and Ark looked at me for a second. “Well, Gunrunner thinks that there’s something behind this bookshelf,” said Ark, as he grabbed the side with a hoof and strained to pull it off. Remarkably, it didn’t move. “But it will. Not. Budge!” he said as he strained to yank it aside, to no avail.

I decided to glance around the room for any kind of computer that might still work, clearly something needed to be unlocked. There was an old desk sitting in the corner, probably once a pretty nice one but by now it was way past its prime. The drawers had long since been looted, except for one that was locked at the far bottom right of the desk, but there was still a terminal sitting atop it waiting for a password. I glanced at it, attracting Siren’s attention as I tried to tick off a few words that might be made by the code wheels I was seeing. However Siren went straight to guessing words and entering them. I was about to stop her, until when she reached only one attempt remaining she quickly powered down the terminal, rebooting it with all her tries available again. Impressed by her ingenuity I watched as she cycled through a few words, rebooting the terminal twice before she hit upon the right word: “Corporational”.

As the terminal opened to its main page, it displayed three seperate tabs: Facility Controls, Journal, and something that had been corrupted with age. “Maybe we can unlock things from there,” I said, pointing at the facility controls, but Siren went straight for the journal instead.

What met us was nothing but a blank folder. “What?! Oh come on!” Siren snapped, smashing her hoof into the desk in frustration. Ark and Gun glanced over at us, though Siren didn’t seem to notice they were staring. “All that work for nothing?! Agh!” she growled, glancing up and finally noticing all of us staring at her. She glanced down sheepishly and, with a little prod from my hoof, she tapped on the controls tab.

The page turned to three tabs again, for different areas of the facility; the factory floor, the office, and the staff areas. Glancing over at the bookshelf Siren tapped on the office tab, only for it to come up entirely empty. We all sighed in disappointment as Siren backed out and checked the other two tabs. Ark and Gun turned back to prying the bookshelf off the wall while Siren looked through the other tabs, only to find they were both empty too.

“I don’t get it,” said Siren, glancing around the back of the terminal in confusion. “Who would wipe a perfectly good piece of hardware like this?” She sighed and slumped back in the chair. “This is why we can’t learn anything about the past, you know,” she muttered, staring at me and gesturing to the terminal with a hoof.

I couldn’t help but smirk a little as Siren continued to pout, fiddling with the terminal screen as though it would magically restore the missing data. I instead went to look at the locked drawer below. It appeared to be a sturdy enough metal, locked so tight that whatever looter had been here couldn’t break it open; there were enough scratches on the lock to tell me they’d tried. Taking a closer look at the keyhole, it seemed pretty intact and functional, though I guessed the key was well hidden or long gone by now. “Anypony know how to get this open?” I asked, only to be met with silence. Nopony said anything, the only sound in the room the rusted squeak of Redwood’s chair as she continued to spin.

“Seriously, nopony?” I turned around in surprise as Siren hopped out of the chair and raised a hoof to her mane. As she pulled her hoof free part of her mane fell loosely towards the ground, having been held up by a bobby pin she now had in her hoof. She leaned closer to the drawer and extended another hoof to Gunrunner. “Screwdriver” she demanded. Gun looked taken aback for a second, but after a moment started digging in his saddlebag while Siren waited with her hoof waving slightly. She finally sighed and rolled her eyes. “Left pocket, other bag,” she grumbled, “or do you not bother keeping that thing organized?”

Gun looked offended at Siren, but checked his other bag and moments later produced the screwdriver. He gave it to her, shooting her a look somewhere between embarrassment and anger, as I simply marveled at how Siren remembered that from her escape attempt. Siren meanwhile grabbed the screwdriver without further acknowledgement of Gun and began working on the lock, flicking her mane out of her face as it fell in front of her eye.

As Siren twisted the bobby pin and screwdriver in the lock, Gun pulled me aside and whispered in my ear. “If she keeps this up we might need more than a collar.” I couldn’t help but nod, watching Siren until I heard something snap.

I was about to rejoice at progress, but Siren pulled the snapped bobby pin out of the lock. “Buck,” she said, slouching with defeat. I felt defeated too, only to remember that I had just grabbed some bobby pins downstairs. I offered the whole collection to her, Siren’s eyes lighting up as she took them greedily and went straight back to work jimmying the lock open. It took her two pins, but finally there was a distinctive “click” and the drawer slid open easily. Siren backed up and refitted her mane with the pin she’d been using, watching as I looked inside the drawer.

Inside there were three books, a few pens, a single bullet for some unnerving reason, a pipbuck, and a small button hooked into the back of the drawer. Siren’s eyes lit up and reached for the pipbuck, but Ark’s tail lurched forwards and stopped her hoof, making her back up in fright. “Don’t even think about it,” he hissed, taking the pipbuck. Siren huffed and picked the books up to look at them closer as Ark turned to me. “Just in case we need it,” he said as he hoofed the pipbuck over. I nodded and put it in my saddlebag, watching Siren carefully before she got any ideas of digging through my bag to find it. Ark meanwhile went back to the drawer and hit the button without hesitation.

Thankfully, it seemed to be what we were looking for, as the bookcase lurched slightly to the side. Then it began to creep along the wall, a loud metallic groaning filling the room as rusted metals pulled the bookcase aside and letting us see the room beyond. It was a narrow hallway leading to what must have been a panic room, complete with a comfortable looking bed, a fridge, a second terminal, a table and two chairs, a stove, and of course your traditional skeleton piled up in the corner. I winced at seeing the skeleton, wondering just how long whomever this had been survived in this room. Looking past that horror, I had to wonder why the single bulb light in the ceiling was still working despite any obvious electricity.

Predictably, Gunrunner had already started poking around for things to loot, Redwood apparently interested enough now to join him. Siren was still nose-deep in the books, carefully flipping the old pages, leaving Arkangel and myself to approach the table and it’s unusual bearings; an armored helmet. I’d seen plenty of armor designs before, but I had to admit this was probably one of the most interesting, even graceful armor I had ever seen. It was a heavy plating, but was designed gracefully smooth with a surface almost like jet-black marble, and each plate was angled just so to ricochet most projectiles clear of the face. Oddly enough, there didn’t seem to be any slits for the eyes or even a visor, leading me to question how you were supposed to see out of it.

“Wow,” I muttered, staring at the helmet for a few moments. But I realized that Ark had barely moved from the tableside, staring intently at the helmet and completely locked up. “Uh, Ark?” I asked hesitant. “You ok? What’s up?”

Ark shook his head slowly and glanced at me after a few more seconds. “Just...it reminds me of something.” He picked the helmet up and tilted it in his hoof, before turning to me. “Here, you wear it. Might give you a little protection.”

I took the helmet a little hesitantly, just realizing I hadn’t considered wearing any head protection despite the alarming number of firefights we’d already been in. I had never pictured myself with a helmet, but I finally shrugged at my own concerns and carefully lifted it towards my head. It was amazingly light in my hoof, yet felt sturdy and comfortably padded as I set it down on my skull. It was a tad too large for my head, but as it slid into place the helmet shifted slightly, small motors confining the helmet just enough to resize it to my head. I lifted it gently to be sure I could still get out, only to realize I was completely in the dark; whatever I was supposed to use to see was not working. I ran a hoof along the jawline, looking for a switch, only for Ark to jump in. “Hold still,” he said, as I heard him move behind me. His hoof hit something in the back of the helmet, which clicked and started to buzz for a moment. Multiple pink hexagons flashed in front of my eyes, one by one as it seemed like the helm was booting, before my entire vision was obscured with pink hexagons. They vanished one after another, revealing the world beyond the helm in surprisingly crisp detail.

“Wow, this thing is incredible,” I said, turning my head to see how the view responded to motion; the image refreshed quick enough I didn’t notice any delay. I did however spot some kind of HUD appearing in the corner of my vision.

ORDIS - MK5.9 HELMET/P ACQUIRED

INITIALIZING

MISSING COMPONENTS

ORDIS - MK5.9 TORSO

ORDIS - MK5.9 RIGHT FORELEG

ORDIS - MK5.9 LEFT FORELEG

ORDIS - MK5.9 WING ARMOUR/B

ORDIS - MK5.9 RIGHT HINDLEG/S

ORDIS - MK5.9 LEFT HINDLEG/S

I glanced at the list of missing parts, peeking around the room for any signs of the rest of the armor set. I could only hope we’d run across them soon.

CANNOT ACCESS AUTO MED SYSTEMS { TORSO REQUIRED }

CANNOT ACCESS AUTO REGEN SYSTEM { TORSO REQUIRE }

CANNOT ACCESS POWER HOOVES { LEG ARMOUR REQUIRED }

CANNOT ACCESS SHOCK ABSORBERS { LEG ARMOUR REQUIRED }

ACTIVATING { SATS, EFS, COMPASS, AMMO COUNTER, STRUCTURE INTEGRITY, HEALTH DIAGNOSTIC }

AVAILABLE SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL

SERVE WELL

As the systems of the armor activated, little indicators showed up in the HUD to show that they were running properly, the ammo counter somehow linking to my laser pistol and informing me I had five shots left. And while it was discouraging to see most of the armor set in the structure integrity window as just an outline, the fact that the helmet was glowing brightly on the pony model made me smile. “This thing is awesome,” I thought, glancing around at the others. Ark had made his way over to Siren, who tried to hide what she was reading from him, neither of them even casting a passing glance at me.

I turned to the other side of the room and approached both Gunrunner and Redwood, still busy digging through cabinets for anything useful. I came right up behind Gun and tapped him on the shoulder to show off the new helmet. “Yeah, what do you want,” he replied, buried neck-deep in the cabinet. I tapped him harder, more urgently, prompting him to sigh and back his head out. “What?! I’m trying-holy!” he gasped, jumping when he saw me in my helmet. He looked me up and down before responding again. “That is you Storm, right?” I nodded, glad that the helmet obscured the smirk on my face. “You know you could give somepony a heart attack doing that right?” I could barely stop myself from laughing at that.

“So what are you doing here?” I asked, trying to change the subject a little.

“Looking for anything worth taking,” said Gun. “But it seems like the only thing worth a damn in here is that helmet,” he snapped, turning back to the cabinet and looking again.

Just as I started feeling a little bad for Gun, I felt a hoof on the side of my helmet pushing it slightly, causing me to glance and see Redwood looking intently at the helm. “I swear I’ve seen this helmet before…” she said. “But I can’t figure out where.” Redwood came closer to me, making me a little uncomfortable and resist flinching backwards away from her. “Eh, maybe it’ll come to me later,” she said with a shrug, before turning to help Gun with looting again.

That left only Siren to impress with the helmet...if she was even interested. I still had to try, so I turned back to her still buried in her books. I strolled up in front of her and stood right in her light, waiting for her to look up. “Go away, I’m reading,” she huffed, not even looking up. Undaunted, I lowered my head into her field of vision, prompting her to look up in annoyance...only for her face to shift abruptly. She jolted upright as she stared at me intently. “Where did you get that?!” she gasped, hooves on my helmet almost immediately. I was about to answer but she began twisting the helm to get a better look at it, turning my head in the process. “Storm, this helmet...it’s the starmetal! Do you have any idea the chances of finding even a gram of this stuff?!”

I yanked my head free of her grip and stepped back a bit, leading Siren to slump in disappointment. “Well fine, be that way. Look,” she changed gears, pointing at the book. I leaned forwards to look at it as she turned the blue-bound book to me. “It’s a bunch of info on something they called the ORDIS program. I haven’t gotten too far yet,” she sighed, and as I glanced at the sheer thickness of the book I couldn’t blame her, “but from what I can tell it was them working on armor from another program.” Siren then flipped open a purple book and raised a pen from the drawer to make some note. “This one was empty, and the last one was just some stupid journal. At least I can take notes without my pipbuck now,” she grumbled, shooting Ark a dirty look from across the room. After she got her glaring in, Siren stood and gathered the three books, reaching for my side. I backed up a step and she sighed, rolling her eyes before speaking. “Storm, can you give me your saddlebag?”

I immediately shook my head, worrying that she’d go right for the pipbuck. Thankfully Siren seemed to know better than to fight me and sighed. “Alright, can I put these in there then?” she asked, a little more politely but clearly still annoyed at my resistance. I finally nodded and turned my right side to her, letting her put the books in the opposite bag as the pipbuck. She stuffed the books away and turned back to the desk as I popped the helmet off. Despite its padding, I was more comfortable not wearing it all the time, and I tried to stuff it in the left pouch of my saddlebag partially to cover the pipbuck in case Siren went snooping.

With Siren satisfied at our searching the desk, I took her lead and headed back to the main office. Vlyka had somehow joined us, I presumed her servos were just strong enough to let her jump the gap, and was currently busy listening to Arkangel as he talked quietly to her. Ark noticed us however and cut himself off abruptly, turning to Siren and myself as we walked closer. He took Siren’s lead from me and hoofed it to Vlyka. “Don’t let her go anywhere,” he said sternly, as Vlyka blinked at the lead. She took it with a little hesitation, and while I was busy realizing that Vlyka actually had working eyelids Ark grabbed me and almost dragged me into the opposite corner of the room. “We need to talk,” he said to me, as I found my hoofing again and walked beside him. “Figure out what to do with her,” he gestured towards Siren, who noticed his attention and shot him a dirty glance, “and Redwood tonight. Gunrunner!” he called, as the two of us entered the back room.

Gun poked his head up from behind another cabinet door, looking a little frustrated as he shut it, shaking his head. “Yeah, what now?” he asked.

“We need to plan how to control those mares tonight, I need ideas,” Ark said simply. At that Redwood was paying full attention, opening her mouth to say something witty as Ark grabbed her lead from Gunrunner and pointed out the door. “Go wait with Vlyka and Siren, no room for discussion.” Thankfully Redwood only looked mildly amused as she listened calmly to Ark’s instructions. As soon as Ark was comfortable she was out of earshot, he whispered to us again. “We’ve got to keep an eye on them, especially after last time…”

At that I cast a shameful glance at the ground, staring at my hooves as I remembered how pissed Ark had been. We couldn’t let that happen again, especially since now we had twice the ponies to worry about. Gunrunner nodded thoughtfully, tapping a hoof to his chin for a second. “Well, we could always shoot her in the leg.”

I winced, and Ark glared at Gunrunner. “We are absolutely not carrying her,” he snapped, causing Gun to back up a step. Thankfully Ark calmed down as Gun kept thinking.

“Have the robot watch Redwood, pin her down. Little thing’s strong,” he suggested next, but Ark shook his head.

“We don’t know how gullible Vlyka is yet...I don’t want to run the risk Redwood turns her on us. It’ll be easier if at least one of them can behave.”

Gunrunner came up with one more idea as I sat there thinking. “What about lock them in here?” he asked, gesturing to the panic room around us.

Unfortunately, Ark shook his head again. “Maybe, it seemed sealed, but there’s the chance one of them will find some way out.”

“Not if they’re tied down.” I finally had an idea, one that Siren would hate me for. As the others looked at me I pointed to the bed in the corner. “If we tie Siren down on that, she’ll have to get free before she can try getting out.”

Gunrunner nodded as he inspected the bed. “Should hold her. Then we just deal with Redwood, I think separated from her sis she won’t cause too much trouble.”

Ark thought for a moment before nodding. “Seems like it’ll work. Gun,” he said. “Gun, you know what to do.” Gunrunner only nodded in reply.

“You bucking perverts are all going to be executed when the stable finds us!” Siren shouted, thrashing in her bonds. Unsurprisingly, she wasn’t keen on our restraint plan, but as it had been both Gun and Ark against her she hadn’t exactly had a chance to rebuke us more than shouting. Gunrunner had just finished tying her forelegs to the bars at the head of the bed, her back legs already secured to the stands at the far end. I watched as Gun finished tightening the ropes around her foreleg, glancing at her wings tied down to her sides. I could only hope it wasn’t crushing her soft wing, as I couldn’t bring myself to speak up for her comfort.

Gun smirked at Siren as he finished the knots. “Eh, just be thankful we didn’t come up with something worse,” he said, watching as Siren squirmed for a moment to see if anything would give. “Not like you’re in a position to resist, anyways,” he added, voice lowering a little as he rubbed his hoof across her stomach. She squirmed with displeasure as his hoof ran across her clothing, her face losing some of its angry edge giving in to worry.

“Gunrunner!” At the cry both Gun and I spun around to see Ark standing in the doorway. “You’ve done your part. Leave her.”

Gun glanced at me, then at Siren, who only glared back at him. “Sure, you’re the boss,” he said to Ark, hurrying for the exit with all possible speed. Ark turned after him and left as well, signalling for me it was time to go.

“This was your idea, wasn’t it?” Siren growled. I froze in place and turned back to her.

“Just...the only thing that came to mind,” I sighed, nodding. “Better than Gun wanting to shoot you in the leg, right?” I was met by a cold, hard glare of Siren’s anger. “Can I do something to make you comfortable?”

Siren continued to glare at me, only for her eyes to catch my saddlebag after a few seconds. “Well...I guess if you’re going to offer, I didn’t get through that journal earlier.” I smiled softly and trotted over to her, digging the books out of my bag and setting them on her chest, only to be met by another glare. Sighing at my own stupidity I started to use the red book to prop up the blue. “No no, the red journal!” she hissed, making me stop. She really didn’t get the hang of being without power, but since her current situation was partially my fault I decided not to bite back and prop the journal up open on her stomach, sitting by her side and turning pages for a few minutes at her signal. None of it was particularly interesting me, I got bored after three pages worth of reading along, simply listening on autopilot for Siren to order the next page change as my eyes wandered.

When nothing in the room caught my attention, I instead turned to Siren’s clothing. Her cloak had been removed, and I wasn’t all that familiar with her uniform; it was more of a trench coat like an officer would wear, confusing me a little. I almost thought it would be from her father or something, but it was patterned with roses, something I kind of doubted her father had been all that interested in. As I followed the stem of one of the roses, I found myself glancing less at her clothes and more at her body. She was quite a beautiful mare after all, her flank had a great curve and I could feel a hair of lust working its way through certain parts of my body. But I managed to restrain it for now by wondering about something else, particularly since I wanted to stay on her good side. “Siren, what is your cutie mark?”

The question seemed to surprise Siren, who abruptly started staring at me. For a second she was puzzled, before she started scowling again. “Why are you staring at my flank! Bunch of perverts, all of you!” she growled, turning away from me again.

I almost snapped back at her defensively, but again managed to hold myself in check to talk calmly. “It was just a question, I didn’t mean anything by it,” I replied, watching her face again.

Siren stared away from me for a bit, her eyes occasionally darting back to me before pushing me out of sight again. “Next,” she finally demanded, and after a moment of silence I turned the page once more and let her keep reading. I tried to keep my eyes off her, trying to respect her at least a little after creeping her out like that. “It’s a rose,” she sighed finally.

“Wow,” I replied. “What did you get that for?”

Siren ignored the question entirely. “Next.” I however, wasn’t satisfied with her answer. “Storm, next. I said…” she looked frustrated at me, but I just stared back at her until her will melted away. “I don’t actually know, it was just...there, one day,” she sighed heavily. “My best guess is when I started blackmailing, bribing making other ponies disappear…” She bit her lip and looked at me, a sad smile on her face. “Guess every rose has thorns?”

I looked into her eyes holding her gaze for longer than I’d done before, as she showed no signs of looking away either. Finally, I smiled softly at her and looked away, only to find the book and turn the page for her.

Gunrunner eventually came back to give us some food; more bread and some water rations Ark had been carrying. “Hey Siren...sorry about earlier,” he muttered. “I was out of line.”

Siren, for her part, huffed at him. “Maybe keep those thoughts in your head next time, merc,” she snapped, prompting Gun to growl angrily at her. He dropped her rations on the bed and turned away, muttering something about something in Siren’s head. Meanwhile I reached across Siren’s body and picked up the rations as Siren smirked, looking quite proud of herself for telling him off. “Alright Storm, get me untied so I can eat.” I just stared at Siren, as her face went from bemused to cross rather quickly. “Oh fine, just my forelegs then.” I shook my head slightly, making her look even angrier than before. “Storm, I’m not kidding here. Untie m--mhh!” she yelped, as I shoved a piece of bread into her mouth.

“Just chew on that a bit,” I muttered, trying to smirk like I’d just delivered the best line ever. Siren looked at me, somewhere between angered and a flat “really?” in her eye as I sighed and shook my head. “Yeah that was just awful,” I muttered, taking a small bite myself. I just couldn’t eat though, leaving most of the rations for Siren to eat despite her barely tolerating the stuff to begin with. As I wasn’t feeling up to eating, I took the time to preen my wings, making sure that my feathers were clean and organized. I still had flashbacks to my parents teaching me, as I checked each feather to see if anything was unusually damaged from all the fighting.

By the time I’d checked my wings out completely, I glanced up to see Siren staring at me. She looked a little sad, but when I met her eyes she quickly grew frustrated again and looked at the books. “Can we go back to reading now? I’m done with the journal, get the ORDIS book.” I nodded and started to set the books up again, but my eyes were distracted by Siren’s wings now. I realized that her wings had looked like they were in worse condition than mine had been, which worried me a little bit. Even in a controlled environment I’d been worried about parasites, but now that we were out in the wasteland I didn’t want to know what might be longing to live between somepony’s feathers. Unfortunately, Siren seemed less than enthused by my attention. “Oh no, don’t you even think about it.”

I reached for the ropes binding Siren’s wings and started to undo the knot. “Siren you know what happens if you don’t preen yourself.” She nodded hesitantly, only to mumble something as the knot came loose. “What was that Siren?” I asked her gently, only to hear mumbles again. “Sorry, you need to speak up. What was that?”

“I don’t know how to preen,” she finally said, hurrying through her words as the shame caught up with her. I looked back at her, shocked to hear that eons of pegasi learning had been lost on her. “I used to have somepony else to preen them, then some maid I hired but now, out here…” She looked down and away from me, ashamed of herself it seemed. I looked at her, pity in my heart as I sighed and gently reached for her wing. “No don’t!” she gasped, “they’re very sensitive!”

I didn’t doubt that her wings might be more sensitive than an average pegasus’, but right now we didn’t really have the luxury of waiting. “Siren, somepony should check on them. I’ve already touched your wings today, and if you need somepony to preen them, out of anypony here…”

Siren looked as though she were considering my words for a minute, before she finally sighed and closed her eyes, nodding. “Ok ok, but only because I don’t want any parasites from up here in my feathers.” I sighed a little at her exasperation, but very slowly reached for her left wing as the right one was on the side of the bed pinned to the wall.

Siren hadn’t been kidding about sensitive wings. I could only make four attempts to clean her feathers, each time with her shifting awkwardly as I tried to move them, with the last attempt her jerking violently to the right just as I’d gotten my teeth sternly on a collection of feathers in the center of her wing. As I felt her feathers hit me in the face I jerked backwards, the two of us recoiling from each other and causing me to yank four feathers right out of her wing. Siren swore and launched a death threat, with matching glare, at me, and I knew that this endeavor was done. With that I went back to Siren’s page turner, too frustrated to look at the book even though it seemed to be related to the program that made my helmet.

Boredom threatened to put me to sleep, and Siren refusing to talk to me save her page turn commands. I went into my bag and pulled the helmet out, carefully keeping the pipbuck hidden from Siren. I took another look at the outside of the helmet before putting it back on, the same wall of pink text flashing before my eyes. I sighed a little irritably, the color too obnoxious for my eyes with every startup, only for my vision to return to see Siren staring straight at me. “Can you change that color?” she asked.

“What? What color?” I replied, glancing around the room.

“That pink visor,” Siren said, staring right at my face. Surprised, I yanked the helmet off my head and looked at the front; sure enough, just starting to fold away behind some panels, was a solid pink visor about where my eyes had been.

“Whoa, that’s how this works?” I asked, as the helmet shut itself again. “So how do I change the color?”

Siren shrugged, before glancing at the book on her stomach. “Flip back about ten pages, I feel like I remember something…”

I shifted the book and flipped it like she asked, reading along with her to find any signs of the word “helmet.” Finally, we hit on something; “Settings may be altered by pipbuck integration.”

Curious, I secured the helmet again and looked at my pipbuck, hoping it would automatically synch up like it had with my laser pistol. There was no such luck, discouraging me for only a moment before I couldn’t help but wonder about something. I turned to my bag and pulled out the spare pipbuck, noticing now that it had a similar jet-black design, slimmed down to the point it was almost skintight on me. Yet it still seemed incredibly strong, and if I wasn’t mistaken looked like it was meant for battle, as it seemed like the left end of it had a place that looked like some sort of retracting blade. After turning the pipbuck over in my hooves for a bit, I finally decided it was worth a shot and powered it up, clasping it around my right leg.

Almost immediately, a new icon appeared in my helmet’s HUD; something was loading. As the pipbuck synched up a massive prompt appeared in the center of my vision.

UNREGISTERED USER DETECTED

CREATE NEW DATA [Y/N]

I glanced at the screen of the old pipbuck, but it remained cracked and offline as ever. “It’s asking something about creating new data, yes or no…”

As soon as I said “yes” the icons vanished entirely, the whole helmet resetting and booting back up with a green HUD. “Well looks like you did something,” Siren muttered, “now it’s not pink.”

ATTEMPTING TO ACCESS MATRIARCH NETWORK

…

…

…

CONNECTION FAILED

UNTIL CONNECTION IS REESTABLISHED YOUR DATA WILL NOT BE KNOW TO OTHER ORDIS DEVICES

“Huh...guess there’s benefits to an apocalyptic world after all,” I thought.

ENTER USER NAME

“Uh...it’s asking for a username now. What do I give it?” I asked, only for Siren to shrug.

USER NAME

UH IT’S ASKING FOR A USERNAME NOW WHAT DO I GIVE IT

ACCEPT [Y/N]

“Whoa no. No no no.” Thankfully the text vanished, allowing me to try again. “Fantastic Storm.”

USER NAME

FANTASTIC STORM

ACCEPT [Y/N]

“Yes.” The prompt flickered for a second, before continuing.

USER NAME ACCEPTED

PLEASE DESIGNATE YOUR COMPANY AND COMMANDER

“Uh…” I was stumped. I could guess names if I really wanted to, but I didn’t know what would get me access and what lock the system down entirely. So I decided to be honest. “No company, no commander.”

NOTED

WITH NO DESIGNATION OR COMMANDER FURTHER QUESTIONS ARE VOIDED

YOU ARE CLASSED AS A ORDIS SPECIALIST

CONTACT A RANKING OFFICER, FELLOW OPERATIVE, TECHNICIAN OR PONY OF INTEREST FOR ASSIGNMENT

SERVE WELL

“Well that got us somewhere,” I muttered. I wondered just what the helmet expected me to do as an ‘Ordis Specialist’, but at least it wasn’t locking me out. Unfortunately nothing had really changed in the helmet HUD, nothing was interactable, and glancing at the pipbuck showed it was still broken and I couldn't get it to respond. “Well, at least it isn’t pink anymore,” I sighed, disappointed that all that had been for nothing, but at least we had gotten somewhere. Siren rolled her eyes at me as I took the helmet off again, setting it to the side as I looked at the book. “Siren, what exactly is the Ordis?”

Siren glanced at the book as well and shook her head. “I haven’t entirely made it far enough to tell, but so far it seems like it’s just an armor project.” She stretched her head down and flipped the page with her muzzle, causing me to blink in shock and annoyance that she hadn’t been doing that before. “What it’s for I can’t tell, and that upsets me.” She sighed in frustration as well. “I should have had some info about this from somewhere, somepony has to have seen this armor around. But there’s nothing like these designs anywhere!”

I had to admit I shared Siren’s frustration. Now that I’d gotten a taste I was eager to know where more of this suit might be, what kind of tech it might hide. This helmet seemed more valuable than anything I’d done in the vault just for the materials alone, yet it was just a fraction of what was out there. There was a lot more going on up here than I’d ever expected, and it frustrated me to know that some answers might well be lost to time.

All of a sudden I felt a hoof on my shoulder. I spun around abruptly, reaching for my gun, only to realize it was Vlyka standing right behind me. She looked almost unaffected by my startled reaction, backing up a step to give me some space. “From my records, you’ve been up for longer than is medically advised,” she said plainly, making me smirk at getting scolded for being up so late by a robot. “It is 12:18AM now, I advise you getting some rest.”

I nodded to Vlyka, smiling gently at her. She’d been volunteered to handle the first and third watch in the night, as she’d said she only needed about 2 hours to switch off her processor and let it cool, leaving Gun to begrudgingly take a shift to let her shut down. However, as she was going to be the only being up, Ark had been worried about something, and told me I had one more task before I went to bed. So as Vlyka turned and trotted to the doorway, I turned back to Siren. “I know you’re going to hate this, Siren,” I muttered, watching as she tensed irritably. “But Ark told me I had to gag you tonight. He doesn’t trust you with Vlyka.”

I expected Siren to start screaming bloody murder at my sentence, but to my surprise she lowered her head and grumbled quietly, as I started to remove the books and stash them away. Surprising me even more, when I gently took a piece of cloth and unravelled it she calmly opened her mouth, letting me place it between her teeth and tie it around the back of her head to keep it secure. I almost wanted to leave it looser for her comfort, but if Ark woke up and decided to check on Siren he might well murder me for taking the risk. “Sorry Siren,” I muttered, as I pulled the knot tight and eliciting a pained squeak from her. “Well...goodnight,” I said, trying to stay cordial, as Siren grumbled something I stood no chance of understanding.

I walked out back into the office to see Gunrunner perched on his nest of bags, looking quite content with himself as he dozed off quickly. We’d finally agreed to tie Redwood to a chair, though she had been far less resistant to it and had already fallen asleep. I looked at her warily, still on edge at how it seemed like she was more interested in helping us than escape. Vlyka must have wandered to a window or balcony to keep watch, as I only saw Arkangel lying down on the catwalk just outside the office. I dropped my bag beside him and rested my head on it, trying to get a little comfortable and just take the time to fall asleep.

“I’m sorry, Storm.”

The words jolted me from my half-sleep as I looked at the source of the voice: Arkangel. “Uh...sorry for what?”

“All this,” Ark sighed, shifting a little. I’d thought he was asleep already, but as he turned his head to look at me I heard a faint hiss of air. He pulled off his helmet and set it aside, his left eye glowing faint blue in the darkness surrounding us. His face was a little softer, more worried looking than other times I’d seen it...he even looked like he was on the verge of crying. “I wish I could explain this whole situation I dragged you into. But, truth be told, I don’t even know half of why it is myself…”

I tried to say something, anything, but no words came to my mouth. I was just thinking about how I now recognized him: Pale Shroud, the pony I’d met so long ago, and still knew almost nothing about. “Promise me something,” Pale said, staring right into my eyes.

In any other situation, I would have just said no. Why would I promise anything to a pony who dragged me through chaos and hell like this without even bothering to explain himself?! “Sure,” I said half-heartedly.

To my surprise, a single tear did roll out of Pale’s right eye, as he took a deep, resigned breath. “Keep everypony safe. If I lose myself again please...please don’t let me kill anypony here.”

I couldn’t say anything for a moment, too lost in my own thoughts to speak. I knew who this was, the insane pony with his heavy armor and incredibly ruthless streak, Arkangel, yet here he was talking about me protecting ponies from himself. “I...I’ll do my best,” I said finally, nodding slightly to him. “But...can you tell me something?” Pale nodded to me, but I could see in his face he was straining; something was deeply troubling him, and I knew that this was a bad idea. But I had yet to talk with Ark at such a vulnerable state, I couldn’t pass the chance up. “Why do you call yourself ‘Arkangel’?”

Almost as soon as I said his name, Pale’s robotic eye flickered, the pony twitching and shaking violently as he shut his eyes. His hooves reached to clutch his head as he shook for a few moments, making me shift towards my hooves. I was about to run for help when the shaking stopped, Pale looking up at me with his eye shining red. The exhaustion and sadness had vanished from his face, leaving only fury. His hooves jerked forwards and grabbed his helmet, slamming it back on his head as he rose to face me, coming dangerously close to me. “Don’t talk about the devil while he’s listening,” he replied.

I swallowed nervously, realizing that I was about to pay for my mistake. Ark was back, and whatever sympathy Pale might have had for me wasn’t applicable now. Ark pushed me aside and stood again, walking into the office with his barbed tail dragging across the ground. It was emitting its acid and gouging a nasty scrape into the floor, and Ark flicked a bit of the acid directly at my head. I tried to duck but his reflexes were too quick for me, though thankfully the starmetal of my helmet proved a perfect defense for the acid as it merely fizzled on the surface before dripping harmlessly off. “You’d better tell no one about that little chat,” Ark hissed, without even turning to me. He glanced at the nearby window. “Or we might be travelling with one less companion. Sure even if you survive you don’t want to be between us and the terminators I know are after us. Tomorrow morning, they’re coming, and I expect your performance to increase in response.”

As he turned back to me, Ark’s tail reared up threateningly, lashing forwards towards my neck. I froze stock still, not out of defiance but because I was so afraid that my body wouldn’t move anymore. I felt the side of the barb brush against my neck, though I didn’t feel any acid left on my coat, leading me to believe Ark was trying to intimidate me. Successfully. “Pale can only keep you alive for so long, but he just doesn’t understand how weak he is compared to us.” I blinked in confusion...us? The best theory I had so far was that Pale had a split personality issue, but was there more than just Ark in his head? Thankfully Arkangel didn’t seem telepathic, as he raised his tail and patted me on the head with it, rather roughly so I could feel it hard even through my helmet. “Now why don’t you get some sleep, because my patience is only going so far.” With that, he brushed past me again, returning to the catwalk and dropping himself on his side again to sleep.

I stood for almost a minute trying to control my heart rate and breathing, before turning to head for the catwalk. Before I laid down though, I shot a glance into the panic room, seeing what looked like Siren already asleep despite her binds. I finally laid down and detached my battle saddle, laying it beside me as I rested my head on my saddlebag again, before casting a glance at Ark’s back nearby.

“Don’t worry Pale,” I thought, “I won’t let anything happen to them.” I smirked, thinking how strange it was that we were both in this together. It helped me a little bit to stay calm, although seeing Ark and his menace still so close didn’t help me sleep easily. But finally, sleep did come to me, and I embraced it graciously after a long and trying day.

Author's Note

Footnote: Level up

New Perk: Nerves of Steel --- 20% faster AP regeneration.

(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
Spelling/grammar checker: ERROR 1024
Supporting people: AkariFolf, Glitcher1987, Cobalt Hex

On another note, I would just like to apologise for the long spaces in between each chapter. Some members of our group haven't been active in a long while. Don't worry, me and the editor are still on board although we can't promise that the chapter will come out quickly as we treat this more as a hobby than a goal.

Anyhow, thanks for your patience and I hope you stick around for our story.

Second note, we should be getting cover art soon thanks to El_mutanto, if you want you can even see designs of some of our characters on his DeviantArt. After the cover art we will also give our readers some more content by including chapter cards in colour and some scenes without colour in the chapters.

Hopefully it won't be long but El_mutanto is a busy guy with many commissions not including the 10 or so character references we commissioned.