Fallout Equestria: Clockwork Precision

164 tries.

It took Gearing 164 tries to get into the locked terminal. One of the most frustrating system breeches he has ever had to orchestrate, and it was for a ‘lowly’ under-appreciated system tech and a maintenance buck. An act that made him start carefully reevaluating his assumptions about the buck in question. One that drew genuine respect from Gearing on a personal level. Even if he was still confused by the juxtaposition of the careful password discipline versus the seemingly careless placement of critical access cards. But, after managing to perform a minor miracle and getting in, things started making way more sense to him, and quickly at that.

Once inside, Gearing gained access to the messaging system that was used to do both maintenance and technical support tickets, along with interoffice communications involving the two. He didn’t spend much time on the ticketing system, just enough to verify what it was, and learned nothing from them except that some ponies were really bad at remembering their passwords. Comically so.

The messages between offices provided far more information. Through them he’d learned that the ‘Network Master’ -the official job title- named Copper Quarts was only a relatively recent replacement for an older buck that had done initial installs of equipment and had kept updating everything as demanded by the upper office. Copper also had an antagonistic relationship with the majority of the ones in charge within the building because, as he would say, and Gearing quickly agrees with, they did not know what they were doing and should not be making the decisions that they were. He had fought them at every opportunity to shore up security better, but they were apparently so ego driven that they did not want to listen to him. Copper had even argued with the HR, bravely at that, asking them what was the point in hiring a professional if they weren’t going to listen to them.

Copper Quarts had been basically told to shut up and enjoy his paycheck.

In those messages Gearing also learned that the pile of retro equipment had multiple purposes to them. First it was because certain members of management were cheap beyond belief. They didn’t want to get rid of ‘functioning’ equipment, regardless of how out of date it became. So there was actually some retro and legacy equipment still installed in various places within the complex. Second, the equipment stockpile acted as backups for some that were still in service. Because many had already ceased to be manufactured by then, so replacements would have been hard to impossible to get.

Gearing also learned through the messages between Copper, who went by CQ when talking with the maintenance buck named Peach Seed, and Peach Seed that they were constantly at their wits end with the incompetence of the management team. Even the maintenance buck, an old timer that grew up before guns were even thought of and preferred to be called ‘Seedy’, couldn’t understand them. So it wasn’t a generational situation. But one of the fruits of their conversation labors was Seedy suggesting they keep all of the leftover equipment in the maintenance room with them. Because it would look so busy that it’d keep most of the nosy managers out. Another benefit was the job security the junk provided them as any sane pony coming in for a potential interview would see the horde, bristle their mane, and run for the hills as fast as their hooves would take them. Plus they could use it as added ‘security’ by hiding their credentials within the messy room.

That’s right, the very thing that had Gearing fuming, the placement of the security cards, was not the fault of the two bucks, but was a direct result of moronic management. Somewhere along the line the rules were changed and anally enforced saying that all Ironshod property had to be left on site at the end of the day. And while that sounds normal, certain new managers pushed it to the limits to even include absolutely everything owned by the company.

IDs included.

They had to leave their IDs at their stations at the end of their work day. By company policy. And that fact caused dozens of messages worth of ranting and back and forth between Copper, HR, and various members of management. Copper took exceptional issue with the policy only apparently really being enforced on certain individuals, mainly him and Seedy, instead of everyone. But, predictably, he was summarily overwritten at every single turn. So the pair of bucks, not being short-sighted idiots, tried a little security through obscurity, by hiding the cards in their office, which was crammed full of dirty dusty equipment that no one would want to snoop through. Because the micromanaging managers had a habit of snooping around and messing with stuff they shouldn’t even be around let alone touching. So their dirty cramped rats nest of an office became the safest place in the whole building for their credentials. They kept the door to the maintenance room locked up, which was enough to deter most snoops, but the real security was the pile of dusty crap that surrounded the entire room and would make it nearly impossible for anyone to really search it and find anything useful enough to harm the company yet quick enough that they wouldn’t get found out. Most espionage folks would be aiming elsewhere once getting a single look at their office. Not Gearing though, obviously, and he feels bad and actually apologizes for his little tantrum he threw at the two.

After all of the nonsense that Gearing read, which gave him both second hand embarrassment and indignant rage, he realized Copper and Seedy had simply done the best that they could with what they had and the situation they were in. And he can’t help but smile as one of the messages mentions Copper documenting everything, so that if shit hits the fan, he can save his own flank by handing the documents over to the government and throwing the incompetent managers under the wagon.

And then there was the disaster just waiting to happen that concerned Copper the most. And, from what Gearing’s been able to see, Copper was nearly prophetic in how correct his predictions had ultimately been.

When the company had upgraded their security, to include combat capable robots and turrets, Copper was left out of the loop entirely. In a move that baffles Gearing to no end, the ‘tech buck’ had been forbidden from having anything to do with it. That it was all under the Security Chief, and not the one who was in charge of the actual network. The higher ups had fallen hook line and sinker by the sales pitches of Robronco’s salesponies about how great the system was. Which, even Copper agreed, had tremendous potential. But his sticking point was that the system would need to be tuned, and the robots tailored to work within the Research and Development building itself. He railed against keeping the settings at their defaults. And he’d gotten nowhere because of the bucks who were stuck in their ways. Not getting anywhere with the management, Copper went behind their backs and taught the security chief how to manage the system. But even that only got him so far. He predicted an absolute horrifying disaster. Copper was terrified that something horrible would happen, some incursion or the war coming knocking on their doors, and then the security system would go live, and all of the defenses would turn on. Because he was absolutely sure that the system’s Friend or Foe settings, by default, would make them target everyone. Especially if they didn’t have their security badges with them.

A fact that made Copper sick as he pointed out the company policy about leaving badges behind when leaving. So much so that he’d conferred with Seedy and they’d agreed that if anything went sideways, they’d immediately abandon the building because they didn’t want to get ashed by the very security system that was supposed to be protecting them.

When Gearing got done reading, he’d simultaneously not learned much useful, but also did. He learned a lot about the company and the interoffice conflicts at the time, for long dead ponies. But also was clued in to the inner workings of the security system, and is certain he can exploit it to his full advantage.

As he’s getting up from the terminal to leave, his mental companion comments, ‘Based on what we read in Dr. Trottenheimer’s logs about why he couldn’t leave his office, I’d say Copper’s predictions about how things would go were dead on target. Pun intended.’

“Yeah,” Gearing agrees as he’s heading towards the door. “They really should have listened to their I.T. No telling how many lives could have been saved if they weren’t so anal.” As he’s going through the doorway back into the hallway, he stops and looks at the door. “Though, I can’t help but wonder… If he was so much of a stickler for hiding the ID keys, and keeping this door locked, even when he took a quick piss break, why was the door unlocked when I got here? Assuming no one’s managed or bothered to get this far that is…”

‘Maybe when him and Seedy took off, they said ‘fuck it’ and had bigger things to worry about at the time?’ the little pegasus in Gearing’s head offers.

“Hmmm… Maybe,” Gearing mutters before continuing on to his target. “Let’s see if these’ll get us through that ridiculous door.”

Gearing strolls up to the set of security doors and then first tries the IT card, but it doesn’t seem to work on the access panel that’s connected to the door. So he goes ahead and clips it onto his saddle bag, before using the card hanging from the lanyard on the access panel. And Gearing has extremely mixed feelings as the door actually opens up for him. As each pin slides out of the floor, and the bars retract to their standby positions, Gearing’s eyes get progressively narrower. “This is ridiculous…”

Gearing stands there looking at it, and after the door opens, he slowly trots into the area as he comments, “Maintenance gets access, but not the tech buck? What a crock.”

Gearing carefully starts sneaking around in the enclosed work area of Ironshod after the security doors automatically shut behind him again. The equipment in this area is not meant for mass production. It’s meant for more custom pieces. For testing, retesting, breaking, fixing, redesigning, and, apparently, hopefully producing a new piece of kit that can be used. A piece that’s enough of an improvement over other options that those in charge of funding would actually spend money on its development and future distribution.

And, oddly enough, in most of the area there aren’t nearly as many robots for security as he’d expected. The few he has to deal with, while annoying, really weren’t up to snuff for stopping a real intrusion. Though, he suspects, that had more to do with the expectation that the security in the rest of the building would be helping to thin the numbers, and that in the cases of dealing with volatile chemicals and armaments, having robots go ‘weapons free’ in close proximity wouldn’t be the best choice considering what might happen because of errant shots. During his exploration trip to verify the number and type of threats, he’d simply snuck around most of them and only took out those that he felt were too troublesome for their own good.

As he’s snooping, he finds a mail bag near an uncomfortably familiar looking pile of ash, and empties its contents out onto the floor. Sure, the few things inside might be useful to someone sometime. Probably especially the poor individual reduced to dust a few feet away. But today Gearing needs to use it for something else. So he doesn’t need the old junk of the violently cremated.

Except the small coin purse he finds as he’s kicking things around. He couldn’t miss that tell tale jingle of golden currency.

“Hey, bits are bits,” Gearing comments as he quickly pockets the purse and smiles as his PipBuck informs him of the exact amount of old money he just collected.

‘You really DO sound like a whore, you know that?’ the little pegasus in his head comments with a giggle.

Having emptied the bag, and trying to ignore the harassment by his mental companion, Gearing scurries around and starts grabbing every hard copy of schematics he can find along the way. He’d like to catalog them, and organize them, and then digitize them so he can keep them to himself. But he doesn’t have time for that currently.

But, thanks to the miracle of Stable-tec technology, his PipBuck takes care of the vast majority of that itself. Providing him with a nice organized list of everything he’s pilfering from the place. Whether it’s a workbench, table, or standard office desk, none are safe enough to keep his snooping from nabbing schematics, diagrams, and notes. Regardless of how finished they may or may not be. He’ll go over all of it later, and sort it then. Now he’s more on a time crunch so it’s far more efficient to simply grab and go. After checking the whole work area, each of the different separate sub areas too, and making sure he has all the hard copies he can carry, he can’t help but realize that none of the things he’s grabbed seem to have anything to do with the monster weapon he’d found the ammunition materials for. On some level, he’d expected to find it in the work area. Maybe behind some kind of shield and held aloft by levitation magic like a holy relic to some god of death and destruction. But, no. Not a single bit of information could be found about it so far. However, when he looks into the computer systems he notices a few irregularities that jump out to him. The room has its own mini manufacturing equipment, much to Gearing’s gallons of drool worth of delight. But, one of the machines he’s noticed has a milling set up that’s a bit out of character for most of what he’d expect. Not from what is currently set up for, no. It’s in the spare parts next to it. He checks and finds that there are cutting heads that have been set aside, and not currently being used. But, the designation for them, and the note attached to them that states they are for making a certain sized shell body gives him a chill in between his shoulders that he wasn’t expecting.

And then, when looking into the computer systems, a few more things start making more sense.

Through his cyber snooping, Gearing discovers a series of memos where they’re discussing the Ministry of Morale showing up and confiscating a wide range of information and data. He learns that all mentions of a certain experimental weapon had been removed from the systems. And Gearing can’t help but frown as the obviously worried ponies recommended to each other that it would be best to not even talk about it at all. Because of what might end up happening to them just for catching MoM’s attention. And in a particularly feverishly sent string of messages he notices one mare in particular practically raving about how it was all because Goldenblood had been arrested and how he was being investigated for treason. And she further postulated that since Trottenheimer was a known associate of Goldenblood’s, that the ministry started looking into him too. Multiple of the mare’s coworkers added in how MoM also seemed unhealthily interested in the weapon he was working on, because they think he was making it to try and kill the Princesses. A fact that Gearing feels a bit of deja vu with as he’d thought the same thing from just what he’d learned about it earlier. Though they admitted that might very well just have been an excuse they were using to justify expanding their searches.

Gearing shakes his head as he lets out a long gush of air. “Wow… yeah… so… I wasn’t the only one who thought that… I hope you didn’t like your mind because if MoM really thought you were trying to kill the princesses you’d lose it pretty quickly…” And then he gets a bit of a surprise when he finds out that despite the microscope attention they’d put on Trottenheimer, they didn’t actually take his weapon. They took a couple rounds of the ammunition he’d made, as evidence and study, but left him with the weapon. And Gearing can’t help but snicker as he learns the reasoning had to do with not depriving a research and development company of the equipment it was making. That it’d be bad for the war effort. And Gearing hypothesizes that the true reason for it was that they were never really after Trottenheimer. They were looking for and wanted more ammo against Goldenblood. That he’d been such an all encompassing target that Trottenheimer wasn’t seen as a co-conspirator, but as a simple source of information to be used against Goldenblood. A fact that Gearing and his mental companion agree was fortuitous for the Doctor.

‘Goldenblood, that’s the ‘GB’ that Trottenheimer mentioned… He’s also Blueballs’ bastard child,’ the little blue pegasus comments thoughtfully.

“Evidence had to be hardcore to stick it to him, if even his slimy ass dad couldn’t get him out of it with how slippery that fucker was.”

‘Goldenblood didn’t strike me as someone falling far from the apple tree… Always felt just as slimy to me as his dad. But more in the ‘typical noble shit’ of trying to kiss up to those in power for their own gain.’

“Fucker seemed to be a master of backroom deals for sure,” Gearing mumbles.

‘And with how connected he was, how many lives were turned upside down when he got nailed?’ the little pegasus asks rhetorically with a frown.

As he’s mindlessly thinking about what could have happened to anyone involved, he keeps snooping through the terminals, and finds the researchers’ shared server where various documents and schematics are being held. And, with a growing smile on his face, he goes ahead and starts downloading anything and everything he can find that might have anything to do with weapons manufacture onto his PipBuck. And that’s a lot.

Once he’s done with that, and licking his lips at the possibilities, he turns his sights onto the physical world.

Unlike what he’d hoped, there’s not a massive arsenal of weaponry hidden in here just waiting for the plundering. No wagon load of boom. No cart load of flank kicking tools. He finds the main security office for the building, along with a small armory to go with it. But it’d already been cleared out, and long ago judging by the dust buildup on the open and empty weapon racks. Which is not only disappointing, but another puzzle for him. Because as he’d snooped around, he’d noticed the place had already seemed to have been ransacked and looted. But, whoever had gone through every single desk, drawer, cabinet, file sorter, box, purse or bag, wasn’t going for weapons or other valuables it seems. He’s found plenty of ammo laying around, which he plans to gather later, along with the classified documents and the bits he’d grabbed. So whatever they were after, it’s not something he’d normally think about given the location. And then there were the various vending machines he’d walked past. Seeing broken vending machines was nothing new to him. But the ones here had been broken into and their contents stolen with a variety of methods. A couple with a simple crowbar. One of which still had said crowbar embedded in the metal. Others had been broken into using some kind of torch that melted the lock into molten slag to get them open. It’s like there was the weirdest riot he’d ever heard of with nothing of apparent value really being taken. He’s even found quite a few more bits among the emptied purses scattered around.

And it’s while picking up another small coin purse to add to his collection, and wondering what he’s going to or can do with the bits, that he has an epiphany. He wonders why whoever looted the place didn’t simply take the money and use the bits to buy the vending machines out if they wanted the contents and didn’t care about the bits. And that’s when the realization hits him. Throughout the entire secure manufacturing area there’s one thing he hasn’t found. He slowly looks around again as he runs his entire quick patrol path through his mind's eyes again, with the little pegasus in his head helping him confirm.

He hasn’t found a single bite of food since walking through the secure doors. No Sugar Apple Bombs, no Fancy Buck’s Snack Cakes, of any kind. No chips. No popcorn. No nuts. Not a candy bar. Not so much as a single stick of gum. Nothing edible at all. Which weirds him out now that he’s thinking about it. He knows office ponies well enough. Even and especially researchers. They always keep food and snacks around them because quite often they’d get too engrossed in their work and simply want something close by to eat quickly so they could get back at it. Like that stash he found in the radioactive closet. So even the kitchenette in the break room having nothing but dishes on it’s shelves is a weird flag for him. As Gearing’s thinking about it, he realizes even the condiments are missing. The little organizers for the sugar, salt, and creamer were completely empty. And he’s not quite sure what the entire category of loot being missing will mean for him and this trip. Since that wasn’t what he came here for anyway, and he’d most likely have other more higher priority items to take anyway. So no food isn’t really a problem, as long as it’s not an indication of some other problem that he’ll actually have to deal with.

But, there are tools. Lots of tools. And a few weapons. Some of which are in various stages of assembly and he’s not even sure if they would even be functional if they were completed. And he’s more than willing to play with some three dimensional puzzles, but that’ll require a lot of time and space. Not to mention actually testing, which will have to be done far enough away that if they accidentally blow up they won’t hurt anyone.

Thankfully Gearing has one giant test bed rifle range known as ‘the wasteland’ to do exactly that without having to worry about anything important getting destroyed. Because nearly everything important has already been left a crumbling ruin.

Gearing quickly scurries around from workbench to workbench as he mentally compiles a list on what he should prioritize as he goes. Along the way of snooping and plotting, he comes across an area that doesn’t have any active robots anymore. In fact, he can see the remnants of a couple that had been destroyed and moved out of the way long ago. Additionally there are tell tale signs of turrets that had also been obliterated some time in the distant past. And as much as that might normally raise his curiosity, that’s not what draws his attention the most this time. It’s the fact that he has stumbled across a giant metal mesh cage taking up apparently one corner of a room and inset into the wall slightly. Like so many that he’s seen before. But this one has a large sign on the metal mesh declaring it ‘Testing Grounds’. And the sight of the armory cage makes the eyes of his little head companion sparkle at the possibilities. Most of what’s around the outside of the cage is mundane in the office setting. There’s a few tables, and a couple chairs, but there’s several of the office file style boxes stacked up against a low counter cabinet combination not far away that he makes a note to snoop through soon. But it doesn’t take long before his excitement makes his eyes jump over to the armory cage, and what it contains, at least what he can see from this side of the mesh.

Of everything that’s in here, there are a few weapons that at least look to be functional. Like they’ve made it far enough past the design phase that they made it into the trial phase of the pipeline. Gearing looks over the couple of weapons that are actually being stored in the adjoining room. Though he does find it strange that the mesh armory cabinets that make up the one wall are all open with what goods they have on full display with nothing hindering anyone from taking them. The security mesh around the small display area seems more to be for keeping accidents from harming the prototypes, than for anything else. Which, given that everyone that has access to this room would also have access to that small security cage, there’s not much reason for additional security he admits. And, hilariously to Gearing, in the worst ways possible, Gearing finds the door to the metal mesh armory cage is not even entirely closed. So whether it was locked or not was a moot point. He heads into the small cage, careful to put a box in the way of the door to keep it from swinging shut on him once he is on the inside, and he starts looking the various weapons over more closely.

The pair on the wall draw his attention. Especially what looks to be a fully automatic shotgun of some sorts. With the extra components of it, his mind can’t help but make comparisons to a minigun. Though the barrel diameter is rather large for that, and it just doesn’t look quite right. Gearing carefully picks it up, and notices its heft, as he starts looking the various parts over and begins conjecturing about what the thick portion around where the action portion could be for. And his eyes trail over to what looks like an ammo feed line from an autocannon which just makes him ask even more questions.

In Gearing’s peripheral vision he can see his PipBuck put a name to the item he’d picked up. And, again, just answers a question by giving him more to ask.

IF-88-M Experimental Added

“I wonder what the dash ‘M’ stands for…” Gearing mutters as he looks over the weapon and right below where it had been stored. His eyes trail over the various ammo magazines, all of which he’s familiar with. He sets the weapon back on its rack and grabs one of the blocky magazines. He turns it over, gives it an appraising eye, and quickly confirms it to be for a combat shotgun. He quickly looks over the others as well, and, again, confirms they all seem to be for shotgun shells. After he lifts up one of the drum magazines, he notices some papers that had been weighted down with it, and quickly grabs them to read. He skims over it, and the more he reads the bigger the smile on his muzzle gets.

He carefully sets the paper back down as he looks up at the mutant combat shotgun. “Multirole? A shotgun that has a modified action to take multiple inputs? And the ability to interface with a PipBuck system to switch ammo types on the fly?! With being able to accept multiple magazine types or just straight up using an ammo feed belt?” He carefully raises a hoof towards it and gently strokes the barrel and then pats the butt end of it a couple times. “Damn you are sexy…” He chuckles a bit before he says, “I gotta watch saying something like that, because Sable might get jealous…” He tilts his head before he says softly, “I bet she’d probably get better use out of it than me anyway… Just gotta make sure these notes are right and it’s functional and I don’t have to tweak the design any more…”

Gearing, after managing to tear his eyes away from all of the candy, looks over to the side and notices that around the lip of the wall there is actually another door. One that goes into the reinforced wall. A door that makes his grin jump that much bigger as he reads the sign above the door.

Experimental Test Range

Gearing noisily licks his lips as he stares at the door. “Oh, helloooo there, you delicious looking hors d’oeuvres you…” Gearing trots over and tries the door. And, annoyingly, finds it locked. He pulls and tugs a few more times. But, the door doesn’t yield. Granted, he’s not using anywhere near his full strength, but he’s really not trying to break anything at the moment. He stares at it and scowls as he asks, “What’s the fucking point of locking the range when the weapons are right fucking here?!” He flicks a hoof off to the side towards the open cabinets where the weapons sit proudly on display.

‘To keep dumbasses from wandering in and getting themselves, and maybe everyone else, killed in the process?’ the little pegasus in his head asks as it shrugs its shoulders. The common sense of it makes Gearing snort as he looks the door over, but quickly finds the access panel where the ID cards are used to open the door.

Again, Gearing tries the ID badge for the IT pony, and, again, the door refuses to yield or even acknowledge it. Gearing holds the ID up and looks at the smiling buck and lets out a sigh. “Damn, they kept you away from all of the fun, didn’t they, Copper?” As he’s replacing the ID badge onto his bag he comments, “Working here musta been its own type of hell…” He uses a wing, grabs the ID from the lanyard around his neck, and tries the maintenance access card this time.

And, again, the door quickly chirps acceptance and opens up for him.

“I bet the reason that old timer was given access was because he had to keep fixing shit they broke during testing…” Gearing groans as he lets go of the ID badge and returns it to hanging from the lanyard around his neck. And, again being worried about the door sealing behind him, he grabs a milk crate from nearby, this one having a variety of other smaller boxes inside that put a twinkle in his eye as he feels the heft of the crate, and sets it on the ground to prop the door open just shy of the door frame.

After making sure his exit is secure, he heads inside the range and starts looking around. And it doesn't take long for Gearing to notice that more than a few of the lights had been outright broken. Not simply had bulbs go out, but were actually physically destroyed. Which is odd to Gearing, given the lab had all of its lights still intact, even if a few of them had burnt out over the years. But, as he’s staring at them, he can see why.

The firing range is rather small by comparison for some of the places he’d been to. Even in the civilian sector. A few of the ones he had used previously were gigantic. And not just the military ones. But this one only has about a dozen firing lanes to it. Like little elongated cubicles of death dealing. Which most ponies would probably see as overkill given its private purpose. He certainly did. Except his mind changes instantly when he looks down range and sees the various objects set up to be shot. Each bay had different materials down range for them to test their weaponry against. Brick. Sandbags. Wooden timbers. There’s even a set of battle dress armor for an Imperial Legionary. Though it’s been shot up so much that it’s not worth much, probably not even worth target practice. And that’s just what he can see from the door.

But, the other thing he can see from the door is where there are many weapons impacts in places no weapons’ safety, nor range master, would ever approve of. And not just down range. The ceiling even has shot marks in it on both sides of the firing line. And that’s the real reason some of the lights are out. They were literally broken by errant shots. And as he starts walking down perpendicular to the lanes, to the right, and headed towards what looks like a small open office area where there’s a computer, is when he starts seeing the bodies. Bodies he honestly wasn’t expecting to find.

Gearing looks around, and sways side to side just enough to look around the individual bay’s divider walls to see around them and further on down range. He quickly goes around, as quietly as he can, to make sure there’s nothing actively dangerous in the room with him. Which given he’s in the wing of experimental weapons, with active murderous robots on his EFS display marked as red chevrons, he feels it’s a good idea. He’s had enough robots trying to kill him recently. And as bad as the souped-up battle drones had been, he can only imagine what would happen if even a small sprite bot had one of those weapons that was so scary that even the Ministry of Morale said ‘not today!’ and took about all of the toys that they could.

After being satisfied that there’s no immediate danger in the room, short of some hidden walls opening up and unleashing more murderous metal at him, he starts checking on the various corpses in the room. From what he can see, there appears to be eight. All of them pony. With most of them being unicorns, and only three earth ponies among them. Two of the unicorns and one of the earth pony corpses lie out in the live fire area of the testing range. And around them, in various directions, are the tell-tale pockmarks of multiple weapon strikes of near misses, and in a trail leading to them from the far right side. Two of the other ponies, a unicorn and an earth pony, have been carefully laid off to the side, near the wall, and have been covered with sheets that look like they’d been taken from the tables in the break room. Unlike the three in the live fire area that seem to have been left abandoned where they fell. Weapons and all. The remaining three are huddled up in the corner where the office desk for the testing range is.

One of the unicorns and the earth pony seem like they were leaning against each other, almost in an embrace, while the last unicorn is sitting across from them a short distance away. Around the area is a variety of ammo, a good portion of it having been spent. But there’s also quite a few empty packages of food. All snack grade and not really sustenance for the longer term. And, as he’s looking around, all of it seems to be empty. Gearing looks over the various bodies. The majority of the bodies seem to have been riddled with bullets, judging by the many blood stained holes in the clothes. But there are three that are different. He sees that the two huddled up next to each other, both have a bullet wound lining up through both sides of their skulls. And, looking at the wall that separates this back wall from the rest of the research and development area, there is a noticeable large pockmark in the reinforced concrete. And the height of it makes it pretty clear to Gearing that a single shot took them both out. Looking over at the other, lone, unicorn, Gearing sees the same wound and trajectory, but, unlike the other two, Gearing can see a weapon laying next to the unicorn on the ground. And judging by the size of the bore on the gun, it’s most likely the culprit for all three fatalities.

“What happened here…?” Gearing muses as he sifts through the items around the bodies. And, after emptying out a bag only to find it full of more empty wrappers, he twitches his ears and looks up at the desk for the range master. He walks over to it and finds the computer sitting powered on, and, strangely given where they are, completely unlocked. Given the level of security in the entire place, he can’t really understand why the thing could be left unlocked for anyone to access.

Until he starts getting into the files that is.

Footnote:

Processing, Please Stand By. . .

Processing, Please Stand By. . .

Sector Discovered, Please Stand By. . .

Retrying, Please Stand By. . .

Retrying, Please Stand By. . .