Some hours later at the apartment, Access and Titus were chatting among themselves, going over what had happened at Equi-Tech. The apartment was one of the few places they could talk freely since corporate police and Netwatch very rarely came here without a reason.

Titus had dismantled both his and Access’ sidearms and was currently in the process of cleaning them now they had the proper tools, much grime and dirt had built up on the sidearms internals over the last few months.

“Are you really telling me you let him root around in your head?”

“Yes obviously, it was either that or surgery and I can tell you I wasn’t about to let them cut into me!” Access said with an annoyed grin.

Titus tilts his head and glares back at Access.

“Hey, I get that and all but I don’t get why you’d let a corp in like that, they probably planted something in your head for all you know!”

Access shook his head. “No, its fine I checked everything over and all my implants are fine.”

Titus lets out a small chuckle. “If you say so, don’t blame me if you go crazy!”

“I feel like I’m going crazy all the damned time around here.” Access grumbles.

“You know what I mean, shit is gonna get serious sooner or later and we can’t afford any screw ups!”

“I know, now we’re on Equi-Tech’s radar I doubt they’ll let us walk away that easily.”

During this little exchange, Access pondered his choice of a new Cyberdeck, given his old one was now only fit for the garbage compactor since nothing was salvageable he’d have to get creative.

The thought of retrofitting his portable terminal into a Cyberdeck crossed his mind a number of times, but that was just silly talk as the systems were not at all alike, he’d have to get creative with some spare parts and work his way back up.

Both he and Rider could quite easily do any future modification to it so he wasn’t worried about not being able to get the parts he wanted right this moment.

“I’m going out, got someone to see about some new gear.” Access stated flatly.

“You good? You need backup?” Titus responded.

“No, its only a few blocks away.”

Access picks up his now cleaned and reassembled sidearm as he leaves, slipping it into its holster.

As Titus watched Access leave he let out a small sigh, he figured something was going on with home but he couldn’t quite put his hoof on what and wasn’t in the business of prying into ponies business.

Trotting briskly down the street Access called up his AR display, upon scrolling down his admittedly bare contacts list for a moment he started a call to Sheet Rock in the hopes of getting some answers from her about a few things.

He stared at the dialer for what felt like an eternity before it connected.

“Hey! Access, I see everything went well!” Sheet Rock said in her trademark chipper attitude as it crackled through the call.

“Yeah got a question for you actually. A serious one.”

“Whats that? The codes weren’t bogus were they?”

Access sighed. “No they were fine, it turns out we were being tested.”

Sheet Rock took a moment to respond. “By who?”

“I think you know who. Did Equi-Tech put you up to this?” Access said in an accusatory tone.

“What? No? Are you implying you think I’m working for them or something?” Sheet Rock said slightly in an offended tone.

Access was beginning to slow his pace as he was speaking, he tried to hide the annoyance in his voice but wasn’t doing a very good job of it.

“Equi-Tech were the ones who set everything up to test us, they were the ones that straight up WANTED us to break into that hub and YOU gave us the means to do so.”

Sheet Rock was dumbfounded and took a brief moment to respond.

“I don’t know what to tell you Access and all I can say is that we got them from some cracked password lists that showed up on the Net.” Sheet Rock stated.

Access snorted in annoyance, but attempted to cool the discussion a little.

“I see, this situation has us on edge and I’m starting to feel a little paranoid, I am sorry by the way.”

“Don’t worry about it, I totally understand, I’ll give you a shout if I learn anything on our side.”

“Good, Stay safe Sheet.”

Access ended the call, He wasn’t convinced that Sheet Rock hadn’t been involved but with no evidence he’d have to keep his mouth shut for now. All that would come of blind accusations would be losing a valuable friend and contact.

A small, dingy, less than clean shopfront comes into view after some time of walking, it was one of the only places in the Sprawl to stock electronic parts and would have all he needed to cobble together a new Cyberdeck.

The place was called “Bits and Things” a rather on the nose name for a shop that mostly sold junk and random electronics, the inside of the store looked much like a warehouse with metal shelving units holding large bins of sorted parts with the occasional packaged product or refurbished appliance.

Entering and beginning to browse shelves, he quickly pulled together all the parts needed off of the various bins and shelving units, passing ponies looked on in awe as Access grabbed what they had considered mere junk.

He’d have preferred a pre-built deck but that would require some extensive modifications to make it suitable for his style of Netrunning, but right now he needed to be up and running again as soon as possible.

“Memory, CPU, Interfaces… Don’t think I’m missing anything important. No don’t think so.” Access mutters to himself as he inspects each part which earns him a few strange looks from passing ponies.

Some time later, having found what he needed among the various bins, shelving and buckets of merchandise he made his way to the front to pay.

“Money well spent.” Access grumbled as he pushed his Eurobit chit towards a waiting service drone, it was a miracle it hadn’t broken down sooner as whole parts of its chassis and internals were missing.

“Thank you sir!” the run-down barely functional service drone chimes back as it accepts payment.

Access grumbled some more as he turned to leave after putting his Eurobit chit back into a slot in his temple, his purchases safely stowed in his saddle bags.

Trotting quickly back down the pavement leading to his apartment building he found himself lost in thought once more nearly stumbling into a passing earth pony who shot him a rather nasty glare.

It wasn’t long until he made it to the apartment block, heading inside he slowly ascended the stairs to the top floor where the apartment was, upon opening the door and tossing his saddlebags onto the nearby sofa he found that Rider and Red Star had finally made their way back.

“What took you two so long?” Access inquired.

“Sorry we got sidetracked, besides its not as if the two of you even asked where we were anyway.” Red Star responded pointing to both Titus and Access.

“Yeah, I’m especially upset that you didn’t do what I asked either!” Rider chided.

“Must’ve slipped my mind, had other stuff to do at the time.”

“Slipped your mind? Did that overload scramble your short-term memory or something?” Rider shouted angrily.

Access glared at Rider and Red Star for a moment. “Excuse me?!”

“You’re going to have to grow up someday Access, You know how bad things can go for ponies like us and you should keep to your promises.”

“I’m not going to get involved in this, you three sort out your issues like adults” Titus chimes from the kitchen area.

“Speaking of which Titus, YOU ran off and didn’t tell anyone where you were going either!” Red Star said angrily.

Things were starting to get heated as they usually did after jobs, Rider and Red Star were the kind of ponies that would be adamant that plans and promises should be kept to but both Access and Titus regularly forgot this.

“I think we should… just calm down for a moment.” Access states in an attempt to placate the two angry mares.

Both Rider and Red Star nod apologetically as they each sit in one of the free seats.

“I should also mention what happened during the doctors visit too, Titus has already heard this more or less word for word anyway and its just you two that haven’t been told yet.” Access pointed out.

The others nod in agreement.

“Well, he checked all my implants and basically just said that there's nothing wrong, just a simple diagnostic and reboot as well as a burn treatment.”

“That can’t be all though, surely” Red Star responded.

“You’re right on that front, I got out of that ordeal with nerve damage though I can’t say that's entirely unexpected, it’d explain the outright horrific episode I had after the overload happened.”

“Episode?” Rider gently asks.

Access fidgets in his seat somewhat.

“Yeah after the overload and my last message, I blacked out and found myself somewhere that I can only call a void. Really weird feeling all over my body, almost as if I was floating.”

Red Star nods.

“Yep sounds about right, Unicorn Netrunners specifically experience that when something like an overload happens, has something to do with how their neural links and magic interact.”

Access nods in appreciation, then begins to speak.

“Also, My contact reached out again, after a brief fight about it she insists she wasn’t working for Equi-Tech at the time of our little test.” Access states.

“She better not be lying to us.” Titus retorted.

“Doubtful, she’d gain nothing by doing that.” Access pointed out.

Just then, a pounding noise could be heard coming from their barred front door and whoever is currently pounding on it sounds very desperate though they can hear no voices on the other side.

The crew take up positions beside the door with Titus looking around the peephole at a slate gray unicorn mare.

“Unicorn. Mare. Slate Gray. Anyone know this one?” Titus inquired with a suspicious tone.

“Cable for a Cutiemark?” Access shot back.

“Yeah, Coiled and Black, kinda looks like the plugs you use.”

“Open it! That's Sheet Rock. She must be in trouble!” Access said with surprise.

Titus nods and begins to unbar the door with the pounding stopping abruptly, when the door opens the slate gray mare barrels through the now unlocked door and straight into Access landing on top of him roughly.

“Oh thank the moon you’re here, I’m being followed!” the mare says with a terrified tone, her ears sitting flat against her head.

Access pushes her off of him with a grumble. “So the first thing you thought to do was to bring them here?!”

Titus slams the door closed as rapid hoof steps can be heard running up the nearby stairwell and bars the door back up again just as they reach their floor, still looking through the peephole he observes three heavily armored Bat-ponies and one Unicorn walking past. All of their uniforms bare the logo of Crystal Dynamics.

From behind the door the crew can here a faint but still audible amount of chatter.

“You sure she’s here?” one of them asks.

“Yeah, I saw her run in here for sure!” another responds.

“You two blockheads need to sweep and clear before you just barge in somewhere, she’s likely gone by now.” the third barks.

The third voice sounds modulated and robotic and from the peephole Titus can just make out the pony, a charcoal gray coated unicorn entirely clad in black Plasteel Power Armor.

“Retreat, She isn’t worth the trouble.” the Power Armor clad pony states.

“But, sir...”

“No buts. Hey little miss hacker, if you are still here let this be a lesson to you, hope we don’t find you or you’re dead!” the Power Armored pony booms.

They put a few shots from their shotguns into the walls of the corridor, some narrowly missing Titus at the door and setting about creating panic in the building.

As they walk away Sheet Rock lets out a terrified whimper and is practically clinging to Access’ neck, the rest of them sigh in collective relief.

Access taps Sheet Rocks cheeks before saying “Hey, You’re fine. What the hell was that all about?”

Sheet Rock begins to hyperventilate but manages to stop herself after a number of forced long ragged exhales.

“I was snooping around in their systems trying to find anything I could use, next thing I know they are kicking down the front doors of my house!” she whimpers out.

“Did you find anything that could get them to react in this way?”

Red Star runs to grab a bottle of water from the kitchen and throws it at Sheet Rocks stomach, who then clumsily opens it before taking a long drink from it.

“Yes, Turns out Crystal Dynamics were transporting something, servers, OLD ones, to Celestia knows where.”

“How’d you get here this quick? CD don’t fool around.” Rider gently asks.

“My groups hideout isn’t far, a few blocks maybe though last I saw it was in flames, we’ve lost everything and I’m pretty sure a lot of us were killed. I didn’t really stop to check.” Sheet Rock stammers out.

“Who was that stallion in the Power Armor?” inquires Titus.

Sheet Rock shakes her head. “No idea what his name is but I do know he’s a cruel bastard, butchered at least three bystanders while he was trying to get to me!”

“Well you’re okay now, you can hole up with us for a little while if you want?” Titus reassures keeping a close eye on the corridor.

Sheet Rock nods now beginning to calm down.

“Yes, I’d like that, thank you!”

Titus sticks his head out the door and scans up and down both lengths of the hallway, multiple holes had been shot through the corridor’s walls leaving entire chunks missing, not the first by any means but the damage was very noticeable and other ponies in the adjoining apartments were surveying the damage.

His expression hardening, he steps out of the doorway and out into the hall without a single word spoken, leaving the others alone for a moment dumbfounded.

Sheet Rock points at the now empty doorway with a hoof. “Where is he going at a time like this?”

“Probably his instincts kicking in.” Access states.

“Instincts?”

“Titus was a soldier for a while, saw all kinds of things that might’ve sent other ponies over the edge, stuff like this tends to set him off and we best stay out of his way until he calms down.”

The real question on everyone's was why Crystal Dynamics were transporting old equipment as normally it’d just be recycled without a second thought, irregardless of what was on the servers themselves.

Something important was on those servers for them to have been moved that rapidly and the team wanted to find out what, it might just be coincidence but it may also shed some light on some of the things that had been revealed to them.

That would come later however, they didn’t even know where they had been taken and Sheet Rock had been interrupted before she could gain a location.

Author's Note

Oh dear, Now it looks like another corp has it out for our heroes!