Fallout: Equestria - The Storm

Fallout: Equestria - The Storm

Chapter 21: Stable 14

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I stayed the night in the zebra camp, though I struggled to sleep, plagued by night terrors. Zaire startled me by pulling me to her bare body. To my surprise, I didn’t flinch away from her. I wanted comfort and affection. I needed it. The Legate held me gently. In Zimonja, other zebras and I had to sleep bundled together to stay warm, and let each other know none of us were alone. We gave each other the comfort we needed to press on, and not give in to despair.

Zaire woke me in the early morning, before sunrise, with soft kisses. “Up, Zinnia. You must go now, put your plan in motion.” She helped me get my armor on, and led me to the edge of camp.

“I’ll put all of this right.” I brushed her striped mane with my wing. “I promise.”

*****

As planned, Knight and Washout were waiting at the Gull with two full suits of western Enclave armor. The Wonderbolt candidate put on one, and I shifted into a pegasus and wore the other. Knight cloaked and followed us to Stable 14’s entrance.

Purser, Gritt, and Crimson made their way to the far end to scale the mountain’s exterior. They’d need to stay out of sight, so their progress is going to be slow.

Our goal was to shut down the Assault-Mares, and kill Cozy Glow. A Pearl shard and the Dragon Staff were here as well, but they came second.

Knight was convinced that she could modify the jamming signal she’d used in Baltimare and apply it to Cozy’s army, with access to a sufficiently powerful signal booster. Unfortunately, Cozy herself could likely override it. She had to be taken out first.

*****

Washout and Knight, being the wizards with tech they are, added our biometrics to the stable’s security system and the armor they retrieved. I was Corporal Scarlet Wind, and Washout was Master Sergeant Jet Fuel. Of course she’d give herself the cooler name.

Enclave soldiers were bustling about as Assault-Mares marched into formation on a tarmac. Hundreds of the metal pegasi stood at parade rest between wings of griffonchasers. Cozy Glow was already mobilizing. We needed to work quickly.

Stable 14 was massive, about ten times larger than most of the other shelters Stable-Tec built. It was the only one purely dedicated to griffons, so they made it count. 14 was structured like a bundle of regular stables stacked on top of each other in a pyramid, and encompassed most of the upper half of the mountain.

The Enclave had done little to modify the layout, but they had given it a paint job and better lighting. Color-coded lines acted as navigation markers, leading to barracks, showers, utilities, armories, et cetera.

*****

“Final preparations underway. All wings to your stations. Final preparations underway. All wings to your stations.”

Segregated groups of pegasi and griffons trotted and flew through the heightened corridors, some wearing confused expressions as they passed each other.

“Why do they have our units separated?” A griffon asked a pegasus, who just shrugged. “They got all my kind heading to A-M storage.”

“Maybe the General wants griffons acting as support for them?” The pegasus offered, before both were ordered to fall in line.

All the griffon soldiers were being lured into enclosed spaces full of Assault-Mares. I wanted to break cover and warn them, but I couldn’t. These people had been intertwined for over a century, living and working together, loyal friends and loving partners, and Cozy Glow was about to wipe out half of them just because they weren’t ponies.

*****

I slipped into a security station to glance at the monitors, looking for Cozy Glow. As distinct as she was, I quickly spotted her, leading all the highest ranking griffon officers into a meeting room on the top floor, which was once the Overgriff’s office. There was no screen showing the interior. She was going to kill them all herself.

We opted for the mostly unused elevators to avoid the crowds, heading straight for the top. Following the signs, we upped our pace through the empty upper levels. It wasn’t long before we busted into the office, Knight taking charge and decloaking with her claws bared. We were too late. Ashes, cauterized limbs, and diced, bloody griffon flesh littered the room. Cozy had already left.

An elderly female had been sliced in half at the waist and thrown into a wall, and left a trail of blood from sliding down it. After throwing up, I noticed the wall was a glass shield covering an assortment of photos, a pair of medals, and a newspaper clipping. I started with the article, reading its striking headline, which was beside a picture of Luna adorning an injured blue griffon with an award.

*****

Major Gallus of the Equestrian Air Defense Forces receives the Medal of Valor from Princess Luna!

In a harrowing surprise dragon attack on a medical encampment treating wounded soldiers, Major Gallus ignored his own injuries and flew into action. Among the few griffons serving Equestria with rank, Gallus became an example to his kind by risking feather and claw distracting the dragon Spade until reinforcements arrived. In the ensuing battle, a fellow hero and dear friend, Lieutenant Sandbar, gave his life defeating the beast. Sandbar’s mother and father received his posthumous Medal of Valor in his stead.

Another picture in the article depicted Gallus embracing a pair of grieving older earth ponies. Other photos posted on the board were from various points in the griffon’s life. The earliest was of him as a fledgling in Griffonstone, beside an extremely elderly griffon wearing an odd hat. Next was him, somewhat older, in front of an Equestrian boarding school, with his wing wrapped tightly around an earth pony stallion his age, who had a pale yellow-green coat and cyan mane, with three sea turtles on his flank. Following that were a few more photos of the pair in uniform on bases, or in casual clothes on shore leave, with one sometimes kissing the other on the cheek.

In the next series of images, he looked slightly older than he did in the newspaper, and was now clearly retired from military service. Most depicted him in Seaddle with a wing around a gray griffon hen who often wore a postal service uniform and seemed to have a very bubbly personality. The last picture showed him shaking claw and hoof with Sweetie Belle in front of Stable 14’s door as a telekinetically held pair of large scissors cut a ribbon.

*****

I turned my attention to the Overgriff’s terminal once Knight had it hacked, looking for anything useful. The Enclave seemed to have left it untouched out of respect. I read some of Gallus’ entries.

Entry 1, Overgriff Gallus: Gabby finally talked me into meeting her old friends, who turned out to be the President, Vice President, and PR Head of Stable-Tec. I never figured she’d have connections like that. Anyway, they were looking for ‘Overgriff’ candidates for Stable 14, which was apparently exclusive to griffons. They’d already researched my history before we met and considered me a strong option, they just wanted to get a personal evaluation. Long story short, I was hired. I’m writing this as I go over what’s going to be expected of me in detail. Hopefully this will all be unnecessary. The zebras won’t actually resort to megaspells, right? That’d be insane.

Entry 4, Overgriff Gallus: It’s actually happening. Cloudsdale was vaporized. The pegasi are closing the sky. The sirens in Seaddle started going off, and I was lucky enough to already be here and activate roll-call. Registered griffons have been pouring in along with a few pegasi. Security tried to wave away stowaways but I ordered them to stand down. With a stable this size, we can afford to take in strays. I doubt everyone on the official roster will make it anyway. Celestia, Luna, my Gabby is still out there. She was on a delivery run to Cloudsdale. I can’t lose hope. I’m keeping the door open as long as possible.

Entry 5, Overgriff Gallus: She made it. It was close, and I got into a claw fight with a guard to keep the door open, but Gabby made it in. She’s being treated for minor radiation sickness, but the doctors assure me she’ll be fine. Celestia, Luna, thank you. I couldn’t have endured that kind of loss again.

Entry 12, Overgriff Gallus: We’re a few months into our stay, and I’ve already gotten a bit stir crazy. I’ve been getting therapy and medication for my claustrophobia, but it’s been rough. I couldn’t have made it through this without her. Oh, big news, Gabby’s pregnant! Ours will be the first fledgling born in the stable. Wow. Fatherhood. I thought fighting a dragon was scary.

Entry 247, Overgriff Gallus: Tomorrow’s Reclamation Day. Our thirty years down here is nearly over. Doctors have gone over how our kids will probably react poorly to seeing wide open spaces for the first time. They say they’ll have megalophobia, the opposite of what I have. We won’t abandon the stable, since it's still pretty well stocked. It’ll be a foothold as we resettle.

Entry 272, Overgriff Gallus: Some pegasi soldiers calling themselves ‘Enclave’ have made contact. They want to settle the Stable, turn it into a base of sorts. In exchange, they’ve got a lot of tech and knowhow to help protect our settlements from zebras. After everything, I can’t believe those stripes are still attacking us! Anyway, their General and I recognized each other. It was my old XO, Top Bolt! After catching up, I agreed to their terms. His second in command, a sickly little mare named Cozy Glow, I wasn’t so sure about. Something about her seems off. But I trust Bolt with my life. With their help, we’ll be just fine.

I looked up at the griffon viscera splattered around the office. Some of them may have been Gallus’ descendants. He couldn’t have predicted this. I had to stop it from getting worse.

*****

“Any info on where Cozy went?” I asked, as I noticed Knight interfacing with the dead officers’ wrist terminals.

“The control station for the Assault-Mares is in the research sector, one level below us. That’s our best bet.” She cloaked as we headed out.

We quickly started encountering patrols of Assault-Mares that stopped us and demanded identification. All the organic guards were elsewhere. On the fourth instance of this, Washout lost her patience and opened fire with her mounted novasurge rifles. I quickly joined her, and Knight decloaked and joined the fray as well. Most of these things were outside at this point, right? I really hoped we hadn’t kicked a bloatsprite nest.

Knight navigated us to a security door marked as ‘Classified R&D; Authorized Personnel Only’ and I put my ear to it. A faint cheerful humming gave General Glow away. Washout and Knight got to work on a dual terminal lock. I stood in front of the door, weapons charged and ready.

*****

The pink and yellow android was sitting in front of a series of displays, humming and laughing to herself. She was watching as helpless griffon troops were being slaughtered by her robots. The pegasi outside were none-the-wiser, ignorant of the betrayal.

“Golly, that’s unexpected.” She turned her head to an exterior monitor, watching as Zaire and her Remnants flooded onto the tarmac outside from the surrounding wilderness. I made the Legate promise to focus on the Assault-Mares, and try to incapacitate living soldiers as non-lethally as possible. She appeared to be upholding it. “They were supposed to attack the city!” Cozy Glow stomped in frustration.

The room was a lab containing many different projects. Star Metal was stored and studied, corpses infused with cybernetics were suspended in tanks, an Assault-Mare head laser laid disassembled across a workbench, and two artifacts caught my eye. The Dragon Staff was mounted on a vice, with various cables attached to it connected to diagnostics equipment. The area was littered with research notes. I saw a Pearl shard being used as a paperweight, on a note labeled ‘Soul to Program’.

I slowly crept over to them. Washout noticed and held off on attacking. My EFS told me that Knight was slowly moving towards Cozy. Once the shard snapped into place, I tried yanking the Staff from its vice. My eyes were drawn to nearby notes detailing mind control research. Panic filled me until I saw that every note ended with a frustrated rant. Good, Cozy couldn’t finish what Twilight started.

“Hey! Naughty, Nau-” Cozy’s taunt became a yelp as Knight skewed her between her armor. “Ah! Wha-? You!?”

Knight slammed her creator into the floor, and Washout started blasting her. I immediately joined in. We kept firing until we ran out of ammo, but it wasn’t enough.

“GET. OFF.” Cozy’s mouth split open like the mandibles of an insect, revealing that she had a weapon of her own. A hot golden beam drilled into Knight, launching her into the monitors and vaporizing anything that wasn’t Star Metal. Cozy wobbled onto her hooves as her repair talismans got to work, absorbing nearby scrap to rapidly repair her body.

We officially had her full attention. Time for phase two.

***** ***** *****

Footnote:
No Level Up.