(Oki) Snow looked around the abandoned room for a moment before looking at Orchid, "Alright, I'll be honest with you. I wasn't just chatting it up with the DJ...I'm sure you've probably heard of him talking about the "Light Bringer" recently, right? Anyways...Well, I was also talking to her, she knew that since I could get into Mark Co locations, I could play an important role..And now that I think about it,..I probably should have informed her of the back-door sercurity override code programmed into all Stable-Tech software.,.ANYWAYS, we have a part to play, basically, we got to distract the Commandos and Red Eye as much as possible, keep them fighting each other, while trying to activate as many of the automated security systems of Mark Co as possible and send them to fight for the good guys. That's at least the plan for right now." Snow said, "What do you think?" ********* Explosions ripped through Washingcolt Bridge, completely blowing it apart and killing instantly the half of the crossing army that was on its roaddeck. Equestria's Messanger suddenly rippled into visibility, booming out "Zebra Invasion detected, initiating Celestia tier Defense protocol. Likelyhood of Zebra survival; 0%." The Soldier watched smugly as missiles and mini-megaspells and lasers swarmed out from the Messanger, annihilating the entire lead elements of the army in one fell swoop. Then the Commandos began firing. It quickly became a massacre. Not even five minutes later, the entire slaver army, equivalent to 1/6th of the force that originally besieged Tenpony, laid dead at the hooves of 50 Commandos and a giant death robot. The Soldier couldn't help but be proud. Maybe once all his Commandos were in fighting condition, he could attack Fillydelphia, and possibly have a chance of victory....
"Well....alright" Orchid replied. "But i have a feeling that this might not end well for us in some shape or form. Particularly, once the Commandos find out that we are stalling them." Orchid then had a smile on her face as she levitated a pistol, ready for anything. "Where shall we start?" (I'm going to be really busy IRL and wont be able to post for ages. First, I have a massive party that starts tomorrow morning and ends on Sunday night. Then....my school is sending us on 12th grade camp, so I wont be on next Wendsday til Friday. Monday and Tuesday however next week are fine, since they are school days and that I can post, but essentially all of next week the RP will need to be put on hold until I return.)
(Aww, okay, hope ya have fun^^) Snow sighed and nodded, "Yea, but we do have one advantage, me. They have mission of collecting all my tech and figuring out how to use it right? So what better resource than the old CEO herself? And more specifically..." Snow held up the leg her PIN was in, "They're really gonna want this. All Mark Co schematics are downloaded onto this PIN, and guess what, if they want to capture me, and be able to use this PIN? That means both of us will have to be captured, meaning that while they'll be fighting to capture, incapitate, etc, we'll be shooting to kill." Snow said, "The Soldier isn't stupid, he knows this. However, little does he know I put in place a special backup feature on all my weapons and bots, including the Messanger; a special self destruct sequence that could activates the chemical storage that powers all Pulse Energy Weaponry Systems, it basically turns all the energy usually concentrated into a beam into a massive explosion. All it takes is the right knowledge." With that, Snow slipped off her pistol, messed with it a bit, before running outside and tossing it far down the street. Orchid would have had barely had time to get outside to see a massive blue explosion with a blast radius of 20 feet light up the street, "Self Destructing the Messanger, for example, would lead to an explosion big enough to level three or four city blocks, and damage many more. So we have a back up plan, I bet they dont."
Orchid watched as the large blue energy explosion light up the street nearby. She simply looked at awe at the pre-war weaponry and how far technology had really come before the war, before feeling the shock wave of the explosion hit her chest. If a single pistol can only do that...then the Messenger would be history. It was the messenger that the Commandos needed to eliminate Red Eye and take Manehatten, and it was also the message that their power is almost unrivalled in the wastes, and if the backup plan had to be carried out. "I've only seen a few energy explosions in my lifetime...but...wow." Orchid only replied. (I'm back until Wendsday, just got home from my one of my friends party I needed to attend. We ended up playing poker, blackjack and pool the entire time while also listening to Black Sabbath and 70's-80's rock. I was playing Blackjack at said party, and I betted all in every time(We started with 10 chips each), and I got 21 THREE TIMES in a row !!!. I ended up breaking the bank )
(Dude, that's some serious high-luck Courier stuff right there.) Snow nodded, "there's a lot of energy stored in the chemical ammo, the self destruct releases all that energy that could have fired thousands of pulse-bolts all at once." She explained, "That's why you never see me reloading, that's why my sister's commandos were at the outskirts of the Zebra Capital itself before the megaspells fell. Orchid...They weren't scared of the things the ministries were developing to win the war, they were in places like Maripony that a single megaspell would undo all that work, no, they were scared of my sister's Commandos and the ones arming them; my company, Mark Co..." Snow suddenly blurted her relevation
Orchid nodded in approval sadly before realizing that the explosion could have gathered the two of them some attention, particularly in the form of the Commandos. She looked around back and forwards to see if anything was around, or following them. Levitating her revolver, she could catch something out of the corner of her eye to her west. "Red Eye patrol, quite a distance away from us. About 3 of them." Orchid replied, taking cover behind a wall if they fired and peaking her head out. "One of them must have noticed the flash. We should avoid them, don't want to start a fight. Not saying that we cant defeat 3 Slavers, but it's not for the best."
Snow nodded, "Sounds like a good idea...but my coat might make sneaking a little hard if they were to look at us..." Snow warned, drawing out her PEAR, holding it in her mouth to avoid the magical glow, "Suhgehstions?" She asked through the rifle. (Oh; I'm currently doing a Littlepip run through of Fallout 3 :3)
"Nothing we don't already know. Keep yourself low, watch your step and keep to the shadows." Orchid replied. "It's th-....you know what, I have an idea." Orchid then took out a stealthbuck and levitated it slightly above her forehoof. "I'll give you this, found it of the body of one of Red Eyes soldiers that I killed. You just slip it on and you'll be invisible enough. Judging from the distance between you and those Slavers, you should make it easy. Heck, you could make as much noise as you want from this distance and they'll not know your there." "Me, on the other hoof, will take those Slavers down." She said as she brought out another stealth buck. "I was going to use this for later, but this would be rendered obsolete against the Commandos. They'll likely spot me through the HUD on their helmets. They will arrive here in at least 15 seconds, so you might want to get a move on. You know what to do, I'll catch up with you later." Orchid replied with a slight smile before equipping the pre-war invisibility tech and headed towards the group.
Snow rolled her eyes, Orchid now making her feel a little useless, "I'll show you .." She muttered, Attaching the Stealthbuck to her PIN, then teleported up to a higher location. There, she shook her head and got her bearings, instantly freezing, three alicorns were staring down at the street, keeping an eye on the patrol. Luckily she was wearing her Stealthbuck, and they seemed to not have detected her arrival. Swallowing, she aimed down her PEAR and slipped into the SATS targeting nirvana, quickly choosing to send a shot into each of their heads, the short range making hits all but guarenteed. Pzz! One fell, the others began to instantly react. Pzz! The second one was taken down before her shield got up, but the third already had one... Pzz! The blue bolt slammed into the shield and suddenly it erupted into blue sparks before suddenly collapsing, the alicorn inside falling dead as well, "What the hell..." snow muttered, she had been told about how the shields of alicorns were extremely hard to penetrate but...Oh sweet Celestia, the Commandos were armed to the teeth with these weapons, weapons that can take down alicorns with ease, the more she learned about her tech...the more she could see the few hundreds Commandos taking down any one they wanted, especially with the Messanger...
Orchid watched in surprise as the group of enemies she was sneaking to attack from behind suddenly dropped to the ground, thanks to Snow's energy bolts. She watched as the last of them died before looking towards the location of the fire on the top of a building. She raised an eyebrow before teleporting to Snow at the top of the building. "Well...thank you Snow anyway" Orchid replied back, not wanting to make herself look awkward, deactivating her stealthbuck as she appeared right beside her friend once again before looking at the three corpses on the ground nearby. "Celestia...those rifles packed one hell of a punch." Orchid replied, noticing the worry lines on the face of the white mare beside her, quickly realising what she was thinking about as her eyes widened and froze in place. "Oh [Censored] !"
Thoughts raced through Snow's brain as she tried to think of what to do, before suddenly stomping her hoof, "We need to get back to Ponyville. We need to access the Mark Co maneframe at my house. I-I don't know exactly why, but I feel like that needs to be our next step. We got two weeks, two weeks before the Commandos are fully combat ready and they begin to strike out offensively. I...We need to get to the Maneframe..." She stuttered out, staring at the three dead alicorn bodies, except, "Oh sweet Celestia, that one is still breathing!" Snow pointed at the third one that she shot, the one that got its shield up, only...the blank stare in the alicorn's eyes told Snow that she was essentially dead, just not braindead quite yet, "O-Orchid, c-could you...?"
Orchid nodded sadly as she jumped downwards from the building, dropping herself onto a car below with seemingly no injury. She looked at the Alicorn, who had recovered her shield and was desperately attempting to get up to seemingly no result. Orchid walked towards her slowly, taking out a combat knife. Once she got close enough, Orchid watched the pupul's of the Alicorn shrink while the slaver's head began to shiver as cold sweat came across it's face. Orchid, remaining emotionless as possible, pressed the knife on the neck of the Alicorn, simply bypassing the shield like it was nothing. The Alicorn was trying to say something, but whimpered like a puppy. The next second later, the Alicorn remained completely lifelessness as the color drained away. Orchid looked back at Snow and nodded in approval, Silently telling her that the job was done.
Snow nodded to Orchid, sighing at the sight, something told her that the PEAR did something to the alicorn that weakened its shield, that's why Orchid could get through so easily. Snow quickly caught up to Orchid afterwords, "We should probably go before somepony else finds us.." She said quietly, looking around nervously. The more she thought about it, the more she realized she would be a high priority capture target to all sides, as she had the knowledge of using Mark Co, Red Eye would want her to activate the Mark Co manufacturing plants and equip his vast slaver army with her weapons, which would make them virtually invisible, the Commandos would want her because, well, she's their ticket into any Mark Co facilities, and more. There could be even more factions that would want her knowledge for various reasons.
(Sure) Snow led Orchid through her old house in Ponyville, going through her old study, dusty old experiments and faded notes laid strewn everywhere, exactly where they were left more than two hundred years ago; however, Snow made her way past them, going up to a bookcase and wrapping it in her magic. There was a confirmatory beep and the bookcase suddenly opened, falling into the floor, revealing a flight of dusty stairs, "Come on!" Snow urged before galloping down the stairs, lights turning on as she made her way down. A long descent brought the three into a room, with three Stable-like doors blocking the way. Taking a breath, Snow trotted over to the middle one and put her hoof against it, before lightly tapping it with her horn. The door seemed silent for a moment before screeching back and rolling off to the side, revealing a room that reminded Snow much of the surveillance room of the MAD facility, only it was much bigger, and only one solitary terminal sat in the middle, at the bottom of a massive supercomputer that looked extremely advanced. No vacuum tubes, no arcano-focusers, nothing, just an enclosed computer that towered 50 feet in the air, partially dropped into a trench so it could fit, it was also 100 feet long by 75 feet wide. "This...is the most powerful computer of my time..." Snow said quietly to Orchid, "Developed in the last year...It wasnt like the Crusader Maneframes of Stable-Tech, which were autonomous decision makers essentially, this was built for two reasons, raw computing power and memory. It could..." Snow paused as she remembered, "It could perform several terrabytes of data per second, far greater than any other supercomputer of the war. Everything Mark Co knew, all of pony knowledge, and several simulations were stored here." Snow continued before trotting over to the terminal, activating and beginning the log in process.. Celestial DEMAC-4 SC Activated; Welcome Access? User mode: CEOadmin Username: SnowRMd90 Password: ********************************************************************* Processing.... Confirming.... Accepted. Welcome Miss Mark. Snow released a sigh of relief and began accessing the memory stores, but one small file caught her attention first, it was the last user-stored message on the machine, addressed...to herself? Snow opened it and the lights suddenly went out, and behind her, a blue hologram projection came to life, lighting up the room in its dim light...the hologram,...was her...How she looked before going into CFA and the deaging process. "H-hello? Is this on? I think so...Look...I know you...me, probably won't see this, but I must make this with the hope that after I wake up and if I see this, that I don't end up making the same mistakes in whatever hell of a state the world is left in after the coming apocylpse. The Commandos are moving too slow, the Messenger isn't combat ready yet. The war should have been forced to a peaceful end weeks ago...but now,...Well, I know you...I am probably curious how I know; well, Mark Co intelligence spied deep into the Zebra lands thanks to our sister companies based there. We found that the Zebras were getting their balefire missiles ready. And not just ready; but targeted and everything. I..We told my..our sister she had to withdraw, the apocalypse was coming, but she refused to listen, instead she simply came by herself to see me off. Anyways, now to the pie of this message; look me, We were responsible. Blinded by our youthful drive and...yes greed, we started the war by purposely calling the Wonderbolts to "evacute" us from otherwise successful negotiations, calling it a hostage situation. Why? The way we saw it, if we started a war, we could quickly fully equip the Equestrian army with our most advanced weapons and swiftly overwhelm the inferior zebras...but incompetent commanders destroyed that, and before we knew it, the Crescent Moon Massacre...After the ministries were founded, and began subsidizing companies besides Mark Co...well, let's just say that extremely angered us, and we began war-profiteering...selling weapons and armor to the zebra...thanks to us; the war became a drawn out massacre of a stalemate. Then after Fluttershy invented the megaspells...Jealousy struck us again; and we developed a weapon...far, far more terrible than even the worst balefire bomb. The atomic bomb. Which we then gave to both sides at Fluttershy's urging. Luckily, at least as far as I know, both sides were horrified by our weapon, and production remained limited, however, I fear the Taint of their radiation will poison the landscape far worse than any magical radiation, plus their Taint is undetectable to normal magical radiation detectors...and Radaway and RadX dont affect its effects because those meant for magical radiation...And then...The abduction...pulled into space by those...bipedal...things...They seemed likable enough...even offered to help once a translator was found, but they said....they required...something in return...they wanted Equestria...I politely held them off of course, long enough to hack into their database and steal the tech they were offering for free before politely declining their offer. Their response...although calm...proved forboding, "We'll be in contact, Mrs Mark." Sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it...Anyways, no doubt you currently have a PEAR or other Pulse Energy Weapon System, just...be careful with it,..the PEWS came from their knowledge...tests on...eh...zebra prisoners...showed that the PEWS were capable of completely cutting off the connections between Essence and the mind...which would leave the target in a zombie-like state, or comatose, if they're unlucky enough to not die...Well, that's all...please, future me, be careful with your knowledge, don't give it to anyone lightly, dont fall to the same instincts that lead to the Great War in your previous life. This is your chance to start over, to rid yourself of your ghosts, and for Celestia's sake, stay the [Censored] away from those Celestia damned aliens!" The hologram ended...
Orchid was extremely confused with what she was hearing, but she understood the majority of what was happening. Just a couple of things had struck out at her... "Wait...Aliens? The ato....something bomb? What the hell was that all about?" Orchid responded. "And something about the war....someth-" Orchid replied before her eyes widened in shock and simply froze. She looked at Snow again in the same state of shock, horrified of what she had just heard. "I...Ju...I should go.." Orchid said abruptly before galloping as fast as she could out of the building and teleporting back to the surface. While she galloped, tears were streaming down her face uncontrollably. She had just discovered that her best friend was responsible for the apocalypse and all she could do in her mind was scream at herself.
Snow stood staring at the space the hologram, then Orchid's old space, tears verging to break out as memories washed over her all at once, she...she was responsible for this mess...She made the war as bloody as it was...She was ultamentally responsible for the deaths of millions...for personal gain......The PEAR suddenly seemed mighty friendly as her legs gave out and she collapsed to the floor "No.." She muttered to herself slowly, "I...I caused this mess...Then I must fix it! I..Oh Celestia, I...I need to make a plan...Wait...Orchid?! Where are you?!"
Orchid was galloping as fast as her legs could take her, already covering enormous distance after she left the home of her friend. Tears streaming down her eyes as the mare headed northeast out of Ponyville. She did not know where she was going, but it no longer mattered... The purple unicorn was almost out of Ponyville until she ran out of breath. From there on, she only had enough energy to barely walk, yet alone limp. She kept looking behind her, watching if Snow was behind her. Her mind was playing tricks with her, dancing around with her emotions and thoughts to leave her confused and afraid. She was just outside of the town within minutes, covering an enormous distance. When she turned around again, she would eventually see Snow coming after her. This only encouraged her to simply gallop again, afraid of the mare coming after her. She was 'Escaping' not only out of disbelief...but out of the safety of her friend.
Snow followed Orchid as best as she could, lungs rebelling against the putrid, smoky air from the fires in the Everfree, but she needed to get to Orchid...To try to explain...or something like that. Even though Snow was in not nearly as good in shape as Orchid (200 years in cyro does that), she was too determined than to be left behind. She had to catch up...she had to...
