Bridlewood: the Cost of Lies

Bridlewood Spectra Power Station, Outside Robotics Command

Solar Blossom looked over as a cargo plane dropped off a large container from its rear hatch before taking to the skies once more. It was as if the pilot wanted to spend as little time in the area as they could. Not that Solar Blossom blamed them, of course. Places like this were hardly on her bucket list of locations to go to by choice.

She turned her attention back to the container, which was now being wheeled over by military personnel. It was pushed over at a slow speed to ensure the contents inside were not damaged, and finally placed down in front of a small crate. A laptop had been placed atop the other crate (not the container that was being moved), and as the soldiers prepared to open the doors the text INCOMING CALL appeared on the laptop screen.

Solar Blossom moved over. "I'll answer this," she said. "You two get the robot unloaded."

"Yes ma'am," the two soldiers replied in unison.

Solar Blossom, on the other hoof, moved the mouse indicator over the ACCEPT CALL button and pressed it down. There was a brief moment of silence before the call finished engaging, before at last the face of the caller appeared on the other end of the monitor.

It was Phyllis Cloverleaf, whose face was seemingly etched into the same perpetual scowl it had worn when Solar Blossom had spoken to her. "I was wondering when we'd speak again," she said, her eyes looking disapprovingly at the world around her. "Tell those soldiers to take care of the robot, as it's extremely delicate."

"They can hear you from here," Solar Blossom explained, glancing over her shoulder at the two pegasi. "They're close to finished, and we should shortly be able to start up the controls and get it moving."

"Oh, you won't be controlling it," Phyllis said, her beehive hairdo somehow seeming to be scowling. "You oafs managed to blow up one of your own reactors. I won't trust you with prototype CanterLogic hardware. We've already flown out an engineer who will operate the machine and ensure all is functioning properly."

One of the soldiers then attached a cable to the harness on the robot, which allowed for a lifting chain to be fitted and attached to a nearby helicopter.

Phyllis noticed this. "Why does that helicopter have no pilot?"

"For safety reasons we're flying it in using a remote control helicopter," Solar Blossom explained. "That way we don't risk any pilots along the way."

"Oh no," Phyllis said. "I'm not having some slipshod, badly built pegasus robot flying in my superior prototype Earth Pony robot. You will have a pilot drop it off on the roof, or my technician will refuse to start the equipment."

The technician, who had just arrived, looked over. "Are you sure that's completely neccesary?"

"Do you want to be fired? It's very easy to find some form of misconduct in the books," Phyllis said coldly.

Solar Blossom shook her head. That mare was impossible.

A few minutes passed before another helicopter, this time with a pilot in it, arrived, and it was soon hooked up to the robot on the ground. The machine could theoretically driven to the roof thanks to its adaptable tracks and smooth, alternating suspension allowing it to drive over rough terrain. However, there was concern that it would take damage if it was driven in this manner, and not only that the connection could easily be lost at this distance. So, they were flying it in.

"Hammer 2 to Command, am closing in on the target site and preparing to drop, over," the pilot radioed.

"Command to Hammer 2, acknowledged. Be careful when placing the drone; the reactor core still has some quite strong crosswinds and reactor contaminants. Make the drop as fast as you can and get the hell out of there, over."

There was no response, apart from an extremely loud buzzing on the radio, making it unclear if the pilot had gotten the message. As they watched from a distance, the swirling smoke made it hard to see what was happening.

"Ham-er 2 to Co-mm--d. Smoke -- thick, will -ee- he-p la-d--g the r-bo-, over."

"Command to Hammer 2, message was not understood. Please repeat, over."

"Ham-er 2 to Co-mm--d. Smoke -- thick, will -ee- he-p la-d--g the r-bo-, over."

The radiation was already causing communication problems, so the team had to try and figure out what was going on from observing through binoculars as best they could. They could see the helicopter in position over the roof, when the cable was dropped. The robot was down and in position.

"The robot is on the roof, and safe from the looks of it," Solar Blossom said, looking at the situation through her binoculars. "We should be able to start the operation shortly. We just need to let the helicopter get clear."

The helicopter began to move away, but navigating through the smoke was difficult. Within seconds, it began to lose control. It smashed into a nearby gantry crane on its way out of the sector, and then fell out of the sky like a bird, its rubble being scattered all over the place.

"That's not good," said one Pegasus soldier, who was monitoring from nearby. "Dispatch a rescue team immediately."

Solar Blossom turned to the monitor with Phyllis' face on it. "It just cost us a soldier to get that robot of yours onto the roof, so it had better work."

"Sometimes you have to sacrifice to make things better for others," Phyllis replied, looking pretty smug. "After all, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. But we have more important things to do." She looked over to the technician. "Prepare the robot for service."

"Understood," the technician replied, trying to wipe his brow underneath the HAZMAT suit. "Energizing Maximus now. Cameras and electric motors on and running in three, two, one... live!"

The screens on the monitor ran into life, and with a rumble Maximus began to transmit data back to the team on the ground. "Systems are looking good. Pressure is good. Batteries are good. Cameras are receiving, loud and clear. We've got white dots on the screen. I'm assuming that's radiation on the monitors?"

"Correct," Solar Blossom said. "You may start the clearing sequence. Be careful the robot doesn't fall into the reactor, as it would be very difficult to get it back out again."

"Understood," the technician replied, who reached forward and pushed a stick forward. Solar Blossom peered at the screen as Maximus began to move forward.

The robot's front dozer blade struck the first piece of graphite, scooping it up and holding it there. Just as the robot began to move towards the core, however, the display suddenly cut out.

"I've lost video!" the technician called. "Still getting data. Dosimeter's failed, batteries are failing, traction motors are offline. I can't explain this, but Maximus is dead. Completely offline. I can't get it restarted from here."

To say Phyllis was annoyed was an understatement. "How did this happen?" she demanded. "That robot is more than capable of handling the 10,000 Starswirl on that roof! How did it break down?!"

Solar Blossom did a double take when she heard that. "I'm sorry, but did you say 10,000 Starswirl?"

"Yes, I did. I said 10,000 Starswirl. That is the measurement system you use, right?"

Solar Blossom shook her head. "Miss Cloverleaf-"

"Mrs Cloverleaf to you."

Solar Blossom witheld the internal urge to punch Phyllis as hard as possible and gave a calm reply. "The reading from the roof is not 10,000 Starswirl. It's 20,000, which is double the amount of radiation. How did you get the numbers so wrong?"

"I didn't. It's what they told me the levels were when they asked me for the robot. Maximus is built to handle a maximum of 15,000 Starswirl."

"Who are they?" Solar Blossom asked.

"The Unicorn authorities, of course. They said that a Pegasus General wanted to borrow a robot that could handle high levels of radiation, and that the area that the robot was going to be working in had a reading of 10,000 Starswirl, well below Maximus' maximum limit. I, of course, agreed. If I had known that the actual figure was a lot higher, I would of course have sent a different robot."

Solar Blossom was in shock. "The authorities intentionally lied about the readings," she said. "That's insane. How does that help anybody?" She turned around to the technician. "Is there any chance of getting that robot running again?"

"Not from here I'm afraid," he said. "I'd need to get onto the roof and restart the machine manually, which for obvious reasons is not a good idea."

"I'll notify the authorities," said a voice. It turned out Alphabittle had been standing there the entire time. "I'll notify them, and ensure they know how badly they've screwed up."