Fallout Equestria: Man out of time

I sat at the admin console of the time capsule, looking over data logs and recordings. I couldn’t sleep. We had already been here a whole day, and surprisingly enough, Redeye didn’t send more ponies to secure this place. Guess he had other intentions. I didn’t care. I was more focused on the data in front of me. I sat rubbing my wrist wrapped in bandages as I used my injured hand to scroll down the list. This morning I needed to use one of the time capsule tools to fix one of the jeeps that had one of the suspension panels cracked. Even though Spyglass insisted I use the Arc plasma welder, that I was the one who invented it in the first place. Even though I told him I had never even seen one ever. Hence the massive burn mark on my wrist. My stimpack was working its magic, but it still hurt. The weirdest part about today though wasn’t even that. It was that every single one of the recordings was from me. My voice describes everything in this time capsule down the wires. And I didn’t remember any of it.

“What the fuck... When Did I record this, And when did I build THAT?” I mumbled, looking at the oversized specter still in the same position as before. I sank back into my chair as the recording I was listening to ended. It... Well, I spoke about the details of the Arc elemental reactor. It was a fourth generation like Spyglass guessed, and how it was completely radiation free. As were all elemental power sources. I knew everything in the log already, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember recording it. I was quietly freaking the fuck out.

I pulled my arm around, opened my wrist, and opened a direct link to Romulus. If anyone knew what was happening, it would be him.

“Sir? I’m surprised you called again. I thought next we spoke, it would be at the Junction-”

“Why the hell don’t I remember recording any of the logs here?” I yelled with more panic than anger, cutting him off before he could say another word.

“Um, Im sorry what-” he started, But I cut him off again.

“And this morning, Spyglass had me use the arc plasma whatever on one of the jeeps. Even when I didn’t know what it was or how it worked, but Spyglass kept saying I INVENTED IT!?” I raised my voice louder, echoing off the walls of the room.

“Sir, try to calm yourself!” Romulus was trying so hard to get words in he spoke over me even though I kept talking over him.

“And THEN there is this big orange fucker in here that looks like a steroid-abusing version of Spyglass that, according to logs in here, I APPARENTLY made! It was supposed to be my ‘Greatest advancement in mechanized infantry.’ But I don’t recognize ANY of it!”

“Sir! Please-” Romulus’s words fell on deaf ears as my slow downward spiral continued.

“Romulus, Im freaking the fuck out right now! It’s bad enough my memories of home were getting foggy over time. But now im downright losing memories! What if I-”

“RILEUS, STOP!” Romulus shouted, shaking me out of whatever trance I was in. I sat in silence for what felt like a century. I hardly ever heard Romulus yell before. Let alone him calling me by my birth name. He hardly called me anything other than Sir. Normally he is reticent, very calm, and always has some wise form to his words. But this time was different.

“Rileus, take a deep breath. Your hyperventilating. Calm yourself,” He said in a calmer tone. Concern still hung in his voice. His words made me realize how fast I was breathing. I took several deep breaths, gaining control of my breathing.

“There we go. Now then, Sir. I believe I know what is happening, or well... What has happened.” He said, his voice returning to its usual tone.

“What? You do?” I asked, rather surprised. Even though the whole reason I reached out was that I thought he knew.

“Indeed. Do you remember when we used a combination of magic and technology to put you into stasis some 200 years ago, yes? So you could survive the initial radiation blast.” he asked.

“I do recall that, yes. We had a pod that used advanced cryogenics to preserve my body. At the same time, I cast a rune that would prevent my mind and soul from decaying over a long period of inactivity, along with preventing the cryogenics themselves from harming me in any way. What does this have to do with me losing memories?” I asked, questioning where Romulus was going with this.

“Im getting there. Now even though we had all sorts of safety measures to ensure that you would wake up safe and sound, there was still a chance that the spell you cast would decay over time. Even though you had put multiple reinforcements upon said spell. I recall after roughly 130 years in, the spells decayed finally showed. Flickering and losing its magical power. I knew what to do in such a scenario and reinforced the spell with a boost from an arc element canister. But not before your mind took a slight bit of exposure from the cryogenics. That was the biggest risk we ran with this form of preservation.” He explained.

Connecting the few dots there was easy, and I quickly understood. “So, there was a slight mishap with the spell, and the resulting exposure to the cryogenics caused me to lose memories?”

“In short, yes.”

“And you didn’t tell me this why?” I asked, very frustrated.

“It was only a few moments of exposure. You never showed signs of mental degradation until now. Other than your PTSD episodes and panic/anxiety attacks. But those were apparent before you went under. Now I fear what else you may have forgotten.” He said worriedly.

“Is there a chance that this could worsen? Under ANY circumstance?” I asked.

“Unless you went back into the Cryopod without the spell, no, you should be fine.” I sighed in relief upon hearing those words.

“However,” he started again.

“Fuck.” I groaned.

“It’s not bad news. I was going to suggest that we run some tests to see exactly what parts of your mind were affected. That way, we know the extent of the issue.” He said.

“It should only be memories, right?” I asked.

“Sir, is the mind only used for storing memories?” He asked sarcastically. His words made me want to facepalm at my own stupidity.

“No.” I sighed. “Alright, once we get back to the Hub, let’s run these tests.”

“Understood, sir.” I heard another voice over the microphone. Another specter from the sounds of it, But I could not make out the words. Romulus’s voice seemed to quiet, as if he stepped away from the mic. Returning a moment later.

“Sorry for having to cut you off like this sir, But we just arrived at our last stop before the Junction.” He said.

“No worries, go make money, and we’ll talk more at the Junction.” I finished. The connection was then ended a moment later from Romulus’s end. I sat in silence for a few more minutes, staring at the logs on the screen before turning the monitor off.

“Sir, can I get you over here for a moment? I need another security bypass.” I heard Spyglass call from of the off-shooting rooms from the main reactor room. I got up and followed the echo from his voice to the main data hub. He was plugged into the main computer going through long streaks of code and data on various screens. I had him try and get some of the specters online so we could take them back to the Caravan. You can never have too many.

I stood next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder and looking over his work. “Please tell me you got some good news for me.”

He turned his head to look at me. “Well, I did find how to get the specters online.”

“Splendid! Let’s get it done!” I announced, clapping my hands.

“The only issue is we need to bring the foundry online, and then I have to reprogram the whole group of specters that operate it. Spyglass explained, seeming to dread the latter.

“Oh, you’ll be fine. I assume the main foundry is the big room with all the tables with parts on them?” I asked, reassuring the anxious specter.

“Yeah, the foundry was working on making advanced energy-based weaponry. So anything pre-built for the specters in the armory is bound to be pretty damn powerful,” he said as the lines of code disappeared from his large eye. A loud rumble echoed through the walls, and the sounds of metallic marching followed shortly after.

“Sounds like they’re heading to their posts,” I stated.

“Yeah, we better head to the foundry chamber so I can get started. I hope you’re not using that terminal anymore cause I kinda need it.” Spyglass said as we began walking to the main chamber.

“It’s all yours,” I responded.

The door in front of us hissed open as we approached the now bustling reactor room. The specters we saw in the entrance hall had filled the room two a table and were assembling energy weapons of all shapes and sizes. Long, short, and broad, they were all present and being built in this room. When they would finish a weapon, a small drone with a pincer arm would fly out of a service hatch and carry it off. To the armory, I assumed.

“I’ll go start reprograming them,” Spyglass said. Stepping away and plugging into the terminal I was using moments prior.

I started walking in between the table, watching the specters work on their weapons. I was curious as I didn’t remember much about this facility. So seeing these weapons was quite curious to me. At the same time, though, you could say I was shopping for a new gun to complement my hand cannon. I still needed to think of a proper name for the thing.

As I browsed, I couldn’t help but notice that most of the weapons these Specters were building were quite large. More rifle shaped than anything. Along with the fact that each of the weapons had a very distinguishing feature of a glowing blue crystal near the trigger. Perfectly carved to line up with the gun so as not to look out of place. It almost made the weapon look futuristic. Considering the time, though, almost everything of mine was futuristic. Hell, some of these weapons were even guns! I passed by a table and gazed upon a gorgeous-looking spear! The same blue crystal sat in a protective capsule on the bottom of the shaft opposite the speartip. The spear itself was beautiful, made from Element Steel with engravings of text and symbols from my homeland that glowed with the same color as the crystal. The shaft was made of a black stained wood that, upon touching it, felt more like metal. It was a work of art. I was very tempted to take it, but I put a hand to my axe that sat on my belt and humbly moved on.

I suddenly heard an error alarm sound from one of the tables near the entrance with a red light, and a specter called out,

”CONSTRUCTION ERROR! MISSING CRITICAL COMPONENT! POWER GEM POWER SUPPLY!”

I sauntered over to the table, which had very minimal parts compared to the rest of the bunch. And sure enough, there was no glowing blue gem to be seen. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the gem I took when I first walked in, and set it on the table. The specter looked down and grabbed the part, and began assembling. It took only a few moments, but the specter put together a very nice-looking pistol. The grip had spots carved out for the finger to sit comfortably. The barrel was long and wide and seemed to meld with the gun rather than be a separate part of the rest of the gun. The exit for whatever projectile this weapon fired was almost rectangular, save for the curved corners. The crystal I placed on the table sat where the bullet shells would normally eject after firing on any normal firearm of this size. That was another thing that surprised me about this gun, the size. It matched my hand cannon’s size, which is no easy feat as it is the largest in its category.

As I was admiring this weapon, the specter made to grab it as a case that matched it perfectly appeared on the side via a small carrier drone. I instinctively grabbed the gun before the specter grabbed it. And was greeted by another surprise, it was surprisingly lightweight. Even my hand cannon had some heft to it and could most certainly double as a blunt weapon if needed, but still.

”ANYTHING WRONG, SIR?” The specter blared. Its booming, deep voice snapped me out of my trance on the weapon.

“Yeah, everything’s fine. Im just gonna keep this one. It’s a damn fine piece of work. You should be proud.” I responded.

”THANK YOU, SIR. BUT I AM UNABLE TO FEEL THIS EMOTION CALLED ‘PROUD.’” he responded, his voice keeping its loud, monotoned feel.

I scoffed, “Whatever, mister grumpy guss. Please resume your post.” I said, walking away before a metal hand grabbed my should and turned me around.

“YOU MADE NEED A HOLSTER FOR THAT WEAPON, SIR.” The specter said, holding up a metal holster with a clip on the side, presumably to attach to a belt.

“Thank you, specter,” I said, taking the holster and hooking it onto the left side hip of my belt. The specter saluted and resumed putting together weapons as another set of parts was dumped on the table.

I turned the gun in my hand a few times, looking it over and getting an overall feel for it. Finding out which buttons are the safety and such. One button gave a most curious reaction. Like the slide of a standard pistol, the top part of the gun slid back, and the gun gave a slight hiss before it returned to its original position.

“You are a curious weapon, arent you?” I said, putting the pistol in its new holster.

Suddenly the whole room erupted into marching as the specters began marching out the main entrance, startling me. “GOT IT!” I heard Spyglass shout from the terminal across the room, holding a thumbs up in the air.

I shook my head and smiled, walking over to him. “Good work! What would I do without you and Romulus’s fantastic programming skills.”

“That’s not all!” Spyglass responded. “Check this out.”

The large specter in the center chamber began hissing as the dull orange lense hummed to life with a firey glow. I quickly stepped closer to get a better look as the large unit raised instead of lowered. In its T-shaped pose, its arms inserted themselves slightly deeper into the unit’s should with whirs of servos. They bent at the elbows and shoulders in all sorts of ways as if calibrating themselves. The head turned left and right as if doing the same as the arms before they all returned to a resting position. There was a release of clamps in loud clicks as the machine dropped to the floor, Indenting it. The knees of the giant specter bent only slightly before returning to its upright stance. Its whole interior body now glowed with the same fiery orange glow as its eye. Its hands were clenching and unclenching as if still setting up.

“Damn, this really is your juiced-up uncle, isn’t it Spyglass?” I said. Walking around the hulking beast of a machine, looking it over.

Spyglass let out a short laugh before responding. “It’s funny you say that, on the logs about it in here. Along with it being the first of a new generation of super specters, it was supposed to be an upgraded chassis to upload myself into once optimized.”

“Really?” I asked shocked, looking at Spyglass. Who responded with a nod. “Huh, I really don’t remember shit from this place,” I added, looking back to the machine.

Then it spoke, “EXPERIMENTAL ADVANCED COMBAT SPECTER ONLINE, CODENAMED, WARDEN.” I jumped back from the machine’s voice. It was definitely robotic and nowhere near as advanced as the other specters. But it was low and powerful that could resonate in even the most stubborn beast’s chest. Something that could intimidate a dragon.

“CURRENT MODE. SCANNER. SEARCHING FOR THE BLOODLINE OF MERLIN.” The machine’s head panned to me, its burning orange lens staring into my soul. “BLOODLINE FOUND, AWAITING ORDERS.”

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding in. I stood up straight and looked into the lens with a stance I hadn’t held since my days in my homeland. “I am Rileus. You will address me as Sir from now on. That over there is Spyglass.” I said, gesturing to the specter that just walked up next to me. “He and Romulus are my two commanding officers. They are the only other two you will take orders from unless I say otherwise. If you will allow Spyglass to access to your personal uplink. We can get you on our network, and he can give you your next set of orders. Copy?”

“COPY.” The machine dropped to one knee and leaned down. He was still taller than Spyglass and me. “PLEASE TAKE CARE IN ACCESSING THE PORT ON THE REAR OF THE HEAD.” I urged Spyglass to get to work, and his nervousness began to show again. Slowly but surely, he made his way to the Warden’s backside and plugged into the back of his head. It only took a few moments for him to finish, and he very quickly returned to my side.

The Warden stood back up, and his voice shook my soul again. “ORDERS RECEIVED, ACQUIRING PERSONAL WEAPON BEFORE MOBILIZATION.”

“Excuse me wha?” I never said something so fast. I watched as the Warden turned around and grabbed the handle of something sticking out of the spot where he once sat idle. He then pulled out one of the most giant fucking guns I have ever seen, matching his size and tenacity. The barrel glowed with rings of orange and heat fizzled off of it, making the air above it wiggle. The whole gun was black. Even in the dim blue light, it was apparent this gun meant BUSINESS.

“PERSONAL WEAPON ACQUIRED, MOBILIZING.” The Warden said before walking between Spyglass and me. Forcing us to move out of the way, he dented the floor with each thunderous step as he walked towards the exit. Spyglass and I stood side by side, looking at each other before I shrugged and followed behind the machine.

I stepped outside and looked upon the small camp my specter group had set up while Me and Spyglass were in the capsule. They had the jeeps parked in a circle around a small unlit campfire. Probably the sun was still up even though you couldn’t see it through the clouds. There were a few extra than the amount we came with, but I brushed it off as a few Spyglass pulled out of the time capsule’s storage. The new jeeps were loaded with large boxes that matched the same symbols that designated this facility. I had told Spyglass to take some of the immediate weapons and have them taken back to the Caravan. It was better to have them with us than have them fall into Redeye’s hooves. I saw the Warden among the specters sitting on one knee, waiting for us to move out.

I took out my new energy pistol again and looked over it several times. I wanted to know what made these energy weapons so different from those I saw around the wasteland. So what better way than to shoot something with it? I looked around for a target I could shoot without repercussions and settled for a nearby tree.

I aimed at the tree and pulled the trigger. There was a small pulse sound as a large Pointed bolt of blue energy blew from the barrel, flew through the air, and impacted the tree with a poof of blue fire. The bolt traveled much faster than most energy weapons I had seen, and the gun itself didn’t give much kickback. What confused me most was that the energy projectile had a point, not a rough one. It looked like a broad-tip blade of blue energy was flying through the air. Most energy weapons I had seen were more rounded and left a trail of energy a foot behind it like a smoke trail. Other than that, it seemed like any other energy weapon.

“Maybe the impact is what makes it so different?” I asked to myself, walking over to the tree to investigate.

The hole in the small tree matched the barrel of the pistol, both of which were still smoking. Small embers encompassed the hole, signifying the heat of the blast. But that was consistent with all energy weapons. I circled the tree several times, trying to find what made this gun so much different that it had its own facility. I was about to give up and accept the fact I had a blue energy weapon rather than a red one. When I noticed a small spec of orange amongst the trees behind the one I shot. I walked over, and I saw the same mark as the first on another tree. I looked back to the original tree, and the trajectory matched. I then looked past the second tree and saw a large boulder with the same mark and a hole that punched all the way through it.

That’s when it hit me. “Armor-piercing energy weapons?!” I exclaimed, looking at the weapon before returning it to its holster. “Sheesh, I never would’ve guessed. How the fuck did I manage that?” I asked myself like I knew the answer. I’d have to look through those files again on my own time. But for now, I just needed to move on.

I returned to the camp and got a blip noise on my wrist pad. I brought my arm around to see it reminding me its sunset. Wait, sunset!? We came in when it was sunset? How have we been here for over a day? I looked around urgently for Spyglass so we could get packed up and head for the Junction. I grabbed the arm of a passing specter and asked it where Spyglass was, and he pointed me back towards the Capsules entrance. I was expecting him to be inside, but I found him tinkering with the busted access panel just outside the main door.

“Spyglass, we ready to go? I didn’t expect us to be here as long as we have been.” I asked, looking over the camp as I leaned against the wall next to him.

“Yes, Sir. I just need to finish fixing this panel, and then we can send this thing back down. After that, we just need to wait for the scouts to come back.” He responded.

“Where are the scouts at?” I asked.

“They reported in about an hour and a half ago saying there was a small group of Redeye’s, around five they said, that were out scouting when we came and cleaned house. Said they were gonna take them out before heading back,” he explained. A spark from one of the wires caused Spyglass to flinch and mumble a curse as he worked. I gave a small chuckle before responding.

“Well, I hope they get back soon. I’d hate to keep Romulus waiting at the Junction. And to be honest, for the rest of this round of trading. Im gonna stay with the Caravan. I need a break from all these expeditions.”

“That’s understandable, sir.” Spyglass started, “and with the whole memory loss thing you have going on. It’s Probably best you take it easy and figure yourself out.”

I looked at Spyglass with a glare, which he quickly picked up on. “I... Never meant to offend, Sir! Romulus already filled me in and asked me to keep an eye on you. Along with the fact that your guy’s conversation inside wasn’t exactly ‘quiet.’”

I softened my expression before responding. “Yeesh, he got to you that fast? Damn, I always forget how good he is at his job.”

Spyglass suddenly gave a triumphant ‘huzzah’ as he finished soldering two wires together and shut the panel. The screen lit up shortly after. “Finally fixed it! For Redeye being the intelligent pony he is, sure does send a lot of idiots to do his job. That thing was a pain in the metal rear to fix.”

“So now you’re able to send it back down, yeah?” I said, pushing off the wall.

“Yup, just need to set a few parameters so Redeye can’t find it again,” he responded, taping his metallic fingers on the screen as he went through multiple settings.

“SIR! SIR!” I looked around, trying to find who was calling out to me, as my eyes met a small group of specters running towards us.

The lead one stopped in front of me and saluted, “Sir! We just returned from our patrol and ran into some Redeyes forces. Im sure Spyglass filled you in on our report.”

“Yes? Go on?” I responded, waving a hand and urging them to go on.

“It was a small group, likely belonging to the one we encountered here. But we found this in one of the pony’s saddlebags.” He held up a folded-up piece of paper with a wax stamp of Redeye’s insignia on it.

I snatched the paper from the specter’s hand and quickly opened it. The text was horrible in quality like a child was the one who wrote it. I began reading.

Ok, dirtbags. Im gonna keep this short and simple for you numskulls. Redeye wants you to raid another one of the bunkers that another team did some time ago. Just go break into it, and grab as much as your puny little legs can carry. Then haul ass to shattered hoof ridge and regroup with the rest of our forces. With some luck, you’ll get there right after we overrun the place. And on the off chance you get there before or during the attack. STAY AWAY from the fighting. If there’s one scratch on the goods, I promise my whip will get to know your ASSES very well!. And one more thing, DONT COME BACK EMPTY-HOOFED!”

I tossed the paper to the ground as anger fueled me and turned on Spyglass, pointing my finger directly at his face. “SEND THAT THING DOWN, NOW!” I didn’t even wait for a response before turning to the rest of the encampment. “EVERYONE PACK UP! WE’RE LEAVING, NOW! HAUL ASS PEOPLE. WE GOTTA GET TO SHATTERED HOOF!” In the sudden commotion and scrambling of Specters, I looked up to the dark grey sky, the pink of sundown nearly gone and replaced by an abyss of black.

”God dammit! It’s already past sundown? I hope that Romulus gets there in a reasonable time. This is gonna be rough.”