FoE: Festering Virtues

Eventually, the hatch reopened.

“Oh, Goddesses, what happened?” Judgment said under her breath, coughing. The fight had left blood everywhere, and the vent system had barely been able to stay ahead of the smoke.

“Well, he didn’t die in the fight. Managed to put on a tourniquet before he died. Probably bled out from his torn out trapezius.” Melody replied, pushing past her and jumping down.

“He might still be alive...”

“He’s in a small enclosed room where he used a flamer. He just went through major trauma that magic can’t heal without killing him. He lost a limb, most of his skin, and a major muscle group. He’s literally laying in a pool of his blood. He’s fucking dead.”

“Are you sure? Can you do a diagnosis spell or something?”

“Fine, but it’s… fucking hell, goddesses dammit.” She hopped down and started examining me more closely. “Breathing is good, vents stopped smoke inhalation. Somehow his blood clotted on his back, guess the healing potions restored his clotting factors. Tourniquet was able to stop the bleeding from his leg.” She fumbled inside her bag for a moment, and pulled out a super restoration potion. “No idea if this will work, shock might kill him, but moving him will if we don’t.”

“Do it!” Judgment demanded.

Melody glared at Judgment, and said “You don’t get to give orders to me.” But opened my mouth and poured the potion down anyway.

A few minutes later, the screaming inside my head quieted down a bit and I was able to open my eyes. Two shadowy figures stood over me, heads tilted in a too familiar look. I tried to dart away but fell, cracking the scab that was my back and starting to bleed.

“Goddesses, he’s gone nuts. Help me hold him in the air until he calms down.” Melody said, annoyed.

A field of magic picked me up and put me out of range of the walls or the floor, pressing me up near the ceiling. I tried to push off with my neck, but… it wouldn’t move right. Didn’t take long for me to realize that I was trapped. I slumped against the magic, and listened to my blood drip into the puddle.

“Ok, lower him, I’ll bind his back, and we’ll try to figure out what to do.” I was gently lowered to the floor, and tight cloth was tied across my chest, back, stomach, hindquarters, and flanks. I was practically mummified. After that was finished, a ration bar was shoved under my nose.

Stuffing it down my muzzle, I slowly became aware of my surroundings.

“Well, he seems healthy enough, at least when it comes to food.”

“Eating is basic enough that’s not helpful, especially after getting a super restoration potion. Red? How are you feeling?” I held up a hoof since I was still eating, bar held in my other hoof, then realized the obvious. I didn’t take it well.

Suffice it to say, eventually I got myself under control. At least to the point that I wasn’t hugging my stump in the fetal position and inhaling ration bars.

“Ok, so what did you find?” I eventually asked.

Melody and Judgment exchanged glances. “The tunnel goes to a library. Looks like it was designed to be a shelter, but ran out of supplies. Didn’t see any corpses, so they must have gotten out. Nobody’s there, just books. We found what looked like a Brotherhood of Steel outpost, ammo cans, rations wrappers, stuff like that, but no Paladins.” Melody offered.

“I mean, that group was here a year ago. Makes sense they would have moved on.”

“Yeah, that’s what we decided.” Judgment replied. “What happened with you?”

“Ran into a Specter. Attracted by noise. Tried to eat me. Tasted bad.” I said, trying not to think about it. “Let’s get to the library, and regroup there.”

“How are you going to reach it? You can’t fit down the tunnel.”

“What direction is it? And how far?”

“South East, towards the crater. About 2500 meters.”

“Alright, I’m going to walk.”

“You’re going to walk through the streets? In broad daylight? With more of whatever did that to you?” Judgment asked, horrified.

“Yes. I’ll be quiet. They don’t want to eat me.” I cut off the beginnings of a lengthy, terror fueled, babble.

“Excuse me for a moment.” Melody said, grabbing Judgment. They had a frantic whispered conversation, punctuated with angry hoof pointing at me. Eventually, Judgment nodded sadly, and clambered back into the tunnel. She levitated my gear after her, leaving only the compass.

“When you make it to the library, knock on the main door three times, wait 3 seconds, then knock twice again. Keep doing that until we open it.” Melody said, then clambered into the hole, firmly not looking at me. I nodded, then closed the hatch.

Then headed outside. Naked and alone.

***

Several hours later, I banged on the door. I hadn’t exactly expected to make it to the door, so I hadn’t exactly been paying attention to Melody’s code. Still, enough consistent banging attracted some attention.

“Red?” An incredulous voice asked from behind the steel shuttered door.

“Are you expecting somepony else?” I tried for jaunty, it came out weary. Several panic attacks and false alarms hadn’t exactly improved my mental state much.

“Give me a moment, I’ll open the door.” The shutter rose, barely high enough to let a normal pony through, and the door beyond opened slightly. Crawling through, Melody had her riot shotgun pointed at my, well presumably anything that crawled through’s, head.

“Red, are you immortal or something?” She asked, apparently completely seriously.

“Dunno. Probably not. You lot issue .50 cal rifles for a reason.” She stared for a moment, then asked. “Red, are you alright?”

“In the last two weeks, I’ve been forcibly mutated into a monster, injected with mind altering drugs, raped, burnt alive, lost a leg, beaten several ponies to near death, chainsawed far too many in half, shot a dozen more, incinerated another hundred or so, screamed myself into hysterics on multiple occasions, and was nearly eaten by a monster. Oh, and spent two and a half hours thinking I was committing seppku so you two might make it. No. Emphatically, I am not alright. Will I see this through to the end? Fuck it, it's all I have left.”

Melody seemed more worried at my tone than the words themselves. I couldn’t even muster the willpower to sounds like I was cursing. It came out like I was talking about a grocery list. I really wanted a drink, med-x, buffout, something.

Eventually I coughed and continued. “So, what have you found?”

“Not much. There’s a terminal still up that controls the password system. Not locked itself, funnily enough. Been reading through that. It looked like some of the Brotherhood made it back here and were trying to figure out how to get rid of the Specters. We’ve been reading a lot from somepony called Knife Sharpener.”

“Anything interesting?”

“Looks like she thought that it was the lack of radiation around here that lets them live. Even a small amount of radioactive dirt on power armor made it so the Specters stayed away. Well, at least until they ripped the armor off with their claws.”

“Might explain why that one tried to skin me. Reduce the amount of radiation they need to digest. Where did they come from?”

“A couple hours before the bombs fell, they came out of the subway tunnels, and started killing everything they could see. At least according to a holotape the Brotherhood unit found.”

“Subway tunnels? Some sort of research faculty? Bioweapons? Zebra or Pony? Why didn’t the bombing wipe them all out if they’re affected by radiation?” I reflexively gather information, though I didn’t particularly care. Easier to go with what popped into my head than actually think about it.

“Knife Sharpener wasn’t sure about that. There was a project by one of the Ministries to build a research lab down there, next to a high security mental facility, but there wasn’t anything on what they were doing. So, probably pony. I guess some took longer to get through the tunnels.”

“But why is there a radiation free area?”

“I wasn’t really sure about that. The terminal said something about a firestorm. You have any ideas?”

Firestorm, first documented in incineration of the Zebra city of Coalton. Occurs when a fire gets large enough to produce its own wind patterns, creating hurricane forces that drag anything towards the center of the blaze. I thought idly, dragging it up out of grandpa’s public issue Analysis of Military Strategy, really need to get the classified version.

“So, how does that mean?” Melody said. Huh, didn’t mean to say that out loud.

“Well, when a balefire bomb goes off, it doesn’t produce much radiation itself. Long lasting, at least. But it makes dirt and stuff radioactive.”

“So, everything that was in the crater is spread out over the city?”

“Think so. But a firestorm would drag all that dirt into the fire and concentrate it. So, further in would be more radioactive, and stuff outside the winds would be radioactive. There might be a band that isn’t.”

“Which is where we are.”

“I guess? They could have used less irradiating gems or a different design or something. There’s a dozen possible explanations. What matters is that the Specters are here now.”

“Why didn’t the dust blow around?”

“Same reason the sky’s orange.” Melody looked confused. I sighed. “Look, we’re in a depression, surrounded on all sides by mountains. There’s nowhere for wind to flow.”

“How do you know that?”

“Book from my grandfather. This was a great place to train Pegasus recruits, since it meant they could work on formations and crap without needing to worry about clouds and winds. Main reason why they targeted similar depressions in Zebra lands. Stopped dragons from getting the same training, and killed off trainees early.”

“So, no winds, and a firestorm meant that there’s a band of radiation to keep the Specters trapped?”

“Pretty much. Still, radiation weakens over time. They’re going to get out eventually.”

“Fuck, those Specters would go everywhere.”

“Pretty likely.”

“Can ponies deal with them?”

I thought for a moment. “Probably not. I couldn’t at least.”

“I guess that’s not the biggest problem. Not like they’re going to get out tomorrow. We just need to figure out how to get past them today. Oh, and you should probably talk to Judgment, she’s spent the last 30 minutes crying in the bathroom.”

“And you didn’t deal with that?”

“Crying ponies isn’t my thing. I was trying to scout the place.”

I bit my tongue on “Scouting by yourself?” and “Great leadership choices.” and walked past Melody, looking for a crying pony.

Half caught between marveling at the number of books and concern for Judgment, I alternated between rubbernecking and a three legged trot, but eventually I heard quiet sobbing.

“Judgment?” I called out. The subbing choked off for a moment, then started again, redoubled. “Hey, Judgment, I’m alive.”

“Red!” An orange colored blur wizzed across the room, nimbly darting around bookshelves. She rammed into me, legs outstretched. “Owww…” She moaned, rubbing her head.

“You alright?” I asked, picking her up off the ground.

“Yeah, yeah. I didn’t think you’d be that hard.” She finished rubbing her head, then clamped her legs around my remaining foreleg. “How did you survive?” She asked, drawing out the last word.

“Erm… not totally sure. I guess the Specters are attracted by noise, but I was definitely making some.” Yep, panic attacks and desperately stumbling through piles of scrap metal aren’t exactly quiet. “So, I guess it has to do with my Zebra Alchemy augmentations.”

“Oh, that’s why you’re so big?”

“Wait, you never asked?”

“Didn’t seem that important. I don’t really care about fashion, I just want the stats.”

I stared bemused for a few seconds then shook my head. “Well, I guess they don’t see me as a pony... or smell more likely,” I said, thinking back to how the Specter had stopped trying to eat me alive when my blood covered most of the rotting pony goo from the Brotherhood of Steel corpse.

“So, you’re safe here?” Judgment asked, wide eyed.

“I’m not so sure about that. The Specter might have been confused by me but it was fine with fighting, and I think they’ll notice if I’m escorting two ponies. And I’m not sure if I can get through the Stable-Tech building by myself. I don’t think I can survive being turned into a goo pile.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Judgment said, looking downcast, then brightened. “But at least we’re better off than before.”
Ignoring my missing leg, I mussed up her mane with my muzzle. “Sure, kid.” I turned around and, Judgment still hugging my leg, headed off to find Melody.

***

Eventually, we found Melody at what looked like the abandoned Brotherhood of Steel outpost. Doors barred, two deactivated sentry turrets, tables pushed together with maps of Fillydalphia tacked down. One, looked like the immediate area, had a number of pins and markers on top, as well as a confusing layering of transparencies. Melody was off in a corner, examining a terminal.

“You could have shouted back.” Judgment said grumpily, still holding to my leg. She had gotten off for the stairs, but otherwise… yeah, it had been a bit more of a workout than I expected.

“Sorry, was reading these reports.” She said, not sounding sorry at all.

“Find anything useful?”

“Looks like the Brotherhood of Steel was looking for a way to clear the area of Specters to go further in. Some way of irradiating the entire area to drive them underground.” I waited for her to continue.

“Ok, what was it?” I asked after a few seconds.

“I don’t know.”

“Why not?”

“They’re not very clear… Can you look?” I stepped behind her and started reading the pages of technobabble.

“I think they’re very clear.” I said finally, “Just geared for somepony who has spent a decade learning about this stuff. Well, it includes a list of references, might as well grab them and see if they’re a little simpler.”

“Who includes a list of references in personal notes?” Melody asked, face wrinkling in disgust.

“Somepony who isn’t sure whether it will work and needs to cover their ass?” Melody shrugged and turned back to the terminal, trying to tease out meaning.

“Hey, Judgment?” She looked up at me. “Mind copying down those references into your Pip-Buck? We have a number of books to track down.”

Some copy paste later, we were ready to set out into the stacks. But first…

“Melody! If you turn on the turrets, make sure that you add us to the friendly list.” She idly nodded, frowning in concentration.

***

“Let’s split up, cover ground more quickly. I’d imagine that there’d be a Pip-Buck to hardcopy printer around here somewhere.” I looked around, more out of reflex than expecting to see anything useful. “Probably on the ground floor. Makes sense to put printing stuff there, where there’s more ponies than up in a corner office. Let’s see if we can find a directory, too.”

The lobby’s terminals were still in mostly functional condition. They turned on, and allowed access to the locally stored directory, but getting data to and from the mainframe was a little shoddy. Probably a break somewhere in the line and the checksum wasn’t always enough to repair the data.

“Probably won’t be able to download the search function to your Pip-Buck, fortunately, the references have their Bookworm Reference Number next to them. Do you know how those work?”

“No….”

“Me either. But I think the library is generally set out so that numbers increase from bottom to top, clockwise, and out. At least from what I’ve seen as we’ve been going through.”

“Umm, so it starts at zero at the bottom, over there, and the higher and more to the right you go, the larger it gets?”

“Sort of? You can also come back here and get the room and shelf number from the directory.” Judgment’s face cleared up.

“I think I’ll do that.” She said firmly.

“Alright, your choice.” I looked at the directory. “Ok, printing is in room 1028, which is… over there.” I said, sitting down then pointing. We headed down the hallway, and found the room in question. Looked like it hadn’t been opened in decades. Guess survivors don’t generally need printing services.

We split up the pile of papers in roughly half, and I started sorting them, as Judgment walked through the door.

“Erm, Judgment, it’s probably going to be faster to sort them then just go in order. Going back and forth to the directory will probably take a while.”

“I think I’ll try my way first.” She said over her shoulder, before heading out. Alright, her choice.

***

Bigger, smaller, split the difference. Bigger, smaller, split the difference. I thought idly as I tracked down the last of my assigned books. The newspaper archives had been a bit of a hiccup, but the rest had worked pretty well so far. Just keep reducing the search by half.

“Hey, Judgment! How’s the search going?”

“Pretty well. Just a big library. How is it for you?”

“Got a little lost in the newspapers, but I’m making good time. On my last one.”

“What?! How? Did you have a smaller pile or something?” Judgment demanded.

“Erm, I just need to go from bottom to top. Then I just look for the general place the number should be. I’ve gotten pretty good at that. What have you been doing?”

“Going back to the directory for each one.”

“Why not just get all the locations first?”

“That’ll take so long though.”

“You’ll do it eventually. Saves the walking.”

“I guess.” She trailed off and sighed. “Do you mind showing me how you’re doing it?”

“Sure. First sort all the papers in order… no, that way’s slow. What you should do is sort them into smaller piles then just compare the top two. Makes it a lot quicker. Like this.” I quickly restacked the papers and got them in order. “Then you look for the BRN and keep cutting it in half.”

“What?”

“Oh, sorry. Look for BRN that’s bigger and one that’s smaller, and go to the middle. And do it again. That gives you the direction, and you keep doing it. Its really easy if you stick to the main staircase.”

“But couldn’t that mean that I’m walking past the book a few times?”

“You can keep looking on the way, but this stops you from wasting time on looking at each shelf or something.”

“That doesn’t seem like it would be very fast...”

“Well, that’s your book.” I sat down and pointed. “And there’s mine,” pointing at another.

“Ugh. What’s your cutie mark again?”

“No idea.” I said, ignoring a long time hurt. I grabbed my book and headed out. Judgment stared at the weird pattern of lines, squares, and triangles on my flank, peaking through the slowly dirtying bandages.

***

I was trying to figure out how the pins and marks on the map related to the references when Judgment finally made it back, straining with a saddlebag stuffed with books. I watched her try to force it over a pile of rubble for a few seconds, before crossing over and picking it up for her.

“Thanks, telekinesis gave out after I got it up the stairs.” She gasped, before laying on her back panting. “Moving all your gear and this all day…. Not fun.”

I carried the bag over to the table, and started pulling out the books. Then I started pulling out ones that seemed relevant.

I didn’t really care how the Brotherhood of Steel’s mass irradiation method worked, just how to do it, so any book where the last third was citations was out. Any newspaper clipping without the words “radiation,” “magic,” “mysterious sickness,” or “industrial accident.” was out. Any military manual not dealing with explosives, sabotage, or low level technical skills was out.

Which didn’t cut out that much at all, unfortunately. A couple books on magical radiation studies, a few newspaper clippings on the subway system, a reference book for military map symbols, which I put next to the densely layered map.
I decided to start with the newspaper clippings, since they were the shortest.

Improperly filtered battery exposes workers to high dosages of radiation. Steel mills ordered to overhaul magic recapture system. Magic smog chokes our fair city. That appeared to be general trend. Issues with how the steel mills turned magic power into heat, and how radiation tended to follow the burning impurities up the smokestacks. Didn’t seem too useful for us.

Guessing from the heavily simplified articles, it looked like the batteries were used up quickly and spewed a high, but short lasting, dose. Unless we had somepony to actually keep replacing batteries, not too helpful.

I decided to go through the places referenced in the books and see what was there. Mostly expansions on what the newspaper clippings had. One was a report on the overhaul, noting that a mostly phased out, but still certified, filter system appeared to be deteriorating faster than normal. Another was an archived sales report from a filtering company. Huh, looked like Equestrian Steel purchased a few of those rapidly deteriorating filters. Urban planning report on steel mills, discussing moving specific mills to allow for more housing to be built. I looked from the planning report to the map, and started cross referencing who owned what.

And so on. It seemed that the Brotherhood of Steel paladin had figured out how a way of using the idling, but still polluting, steel mills cover the entire city in a low level field of radiation. Probably would make ponies go insane quicker, but… well, at least there wouldn’t be monsters trying to kill everypony. Well, non-pony monsters at least. That’s a positive.

And the military manual that was left was titled “The Simple Sabotage Field Manual,” with a reference to removing the regulator on a spark battery, allowing a soldier to create a terrain denial system for a couple days. With the note that the same process worked on larger spark breeder batteries, though with less consistent effects.

Certain phrases I don’t particularly like. “Less consistent effects” in a book on how to build bombs is one of them.

“Hey Melody, did you find a reference to a spark breeder battery?” I asked, starting to arrange the books and articles in a pattern I could brief off of.

“Yeah, there’s one right here.” She said, struggling to pull it out from beneath the computer and dropping it heavily on the desk. I cringed, but it looked like the regulator was still intact. I let a breath out.

“Ok, I think I know what their plan was.” Melody and Judgment both perked up, surprised. “It’s not that complex, but I’m not sure how much you’ll like it.”

Footnote: Maximum Level Reached.