open Fallout Equestria New Beginnings

[Guardian Braveheart 23]

"Huh, Must've forgotten to label Dodge," he said. He then labeled the marker to where he found in Secant's.

 

"Well, our Stable was in a mountain. I don't know how the raiders ever spotted it and went on a full frontal assault. But I know that Stable 15 has the largest armory from all the Stables. Problem there, and the reason why my home is dead now, is the fact that we were too friendly, even with superior firepower, That, and only the security can and know how to shoot. There were so many flaws in our Stable. Can't imagine the other Stable's flaw."

 

He took the direction Secant said, turning right and facing the hills.

 

"Wait, there's caverns there from your perspective?" he asked Vincent. "Well, I think that's the alternative entrance he's talking about."

[Anneal 2,197]

(If we're working with gamma radiation, then I'll just use rads as a conversion in mSV.)

 

"If you think Stable 37 is irradiated, guess what our Stable database says about Stable 87," Secant commented. "Last time I heard, you can't survive there for more than a second without instantly dying from the radiation. In comparison, Stable 37's eight rads isn't all that bad. In fact, it's a bit miraculous that so much radiation can exist in such a small area. I can probably try to find out why, but I certainly don't want to threaten my own life."

 

Secant listened to Knight, thinking about how living in other Stable would feel like, and felt he was a bit lucky to be living in a normal Stable for once. "Stable 65 seemed to be in working condition when I previously visited, though the residents there decided to move all the self-supplies water, food, and electricity to the old Academy of Physics and Chemistry. Most likely the experiment was to install intellectuals, though I'm not sure myself...only lived there for a few years. The Stable's been acknowledged with our current generation; while we don't live there anymore, some historical relics have been there for some time – kind of like what pre-war ponies call a museum."

 

As soon as he finished talking, ominous clicking sounds came from his PipBuck. The radiation shown was minimal, but it gave some hinting suggestions. "Guess we're here," Secant said. At first glance, it looked like abandoned bunkers built into the mountain. Propaganda posters (Beat those brutes! Join the Equestria Army today!) were hung around the place. Some were torn down and shredded. Others were written upon with graffiti, one specific one reading: "End this fighting!" Another one was written in red, saying in capitalized letters the word "BLOODSHED". Secant cowered back; this place was beginning to give him the creeps.

 

The door, surprisingly, was still accessible. With the turn of a knob, the door slid outward, revealing a dusty and dimly lighted room with some beds and a main terminal in the center. The stairs on the right were collapsed and filled with debris. Secant moved towards the terminal, sliding out the keyboard and doing what he does best with his hooves. Typing out various commands, it switched to a regular password coding sequence. "Time to work wonders," Secant muttered.

[Guardian Braveheart 23]

He stopped when he heard another clicking sound. He saw Secant look up his Pipbuck, so he did also. He saw that the radiation meter started to slowly go up.

 

"Great, radiation," he said. "I guess this is the place."

 

He backed up Secant as he tried to hack he terminal

 

@@TheLineTrotter,

 

"Hey Vincent," he called their Talon. "You can come down now. We're here. Mind the radiation though." 

[Anneal 2,197]

Secant took a short glance at his PipBuck's Geiger Counter. 81 rads. So far, it wasn't enough to experience the symptoms of acute radiation poisoning, but he was taking in more radiation than the maintenance ponies in his Stable are taking in a year. Plus, he felt nauseous and had a headache, though he wasn't sure if it was because he was working on the terminal and simply making it up in his mind, or the radiation itself.

 

"Hey..." Secant noted, pointing to his saddlebags. "I got some Rad-X and RadAway in there. If you're vomiting or bleeding or something, then feel free to take a drink."

 

Secant tried to focus on the terminal; the passwords were all scrambled, using both letters and numerals at the same time. Probably made by some artificial intelligence. But overall, it was an eight numeral breeze, and with a little bit of logic and thinking, he hacked through the terminal.

 

But instead of unlocking the terminal commands, only a map of the bunkers popped out, with an unusual symbol. There were two circles on the small map of the hills, connected to each other and having an arrow in one direction, with bent lines coming out on the side. "What is this..." Secant squinted at the screen. When he found out that there was nothing else useful on the screen, he simply tried to add the terminal data on his PipBuck. "That's it," Secant said. "Want to try out luck on another bunker?"

[Guardian Braveheart 23]

"Any place that is not, I'm fine with that," he said, feeling jumpy.

 

He looked at his Pipbuck again. He was not experiencing Radiation sickness. He felt dazed and nauseous. He took out his last RadAway and one of his RadSafe from his inventory. The expired tasting orange medicine didn't help his feel of vomitting, but at least he's not sick anymore, plus the RadSafe would hold him in for a while.

 

"So, where of to next? Was there any useful info there?"

[TheLineTrotter 100]

Vincent, when prompted, flew down aways. Now, he was walking along side the others, trying not to think about the radiation mangling his DNA...  radiation was probably one of the worst ways to go, he imagined. Depending on how it happened, it could be slow, taking hours and hours for it to finally kill you. Or you became a ghoul, which was arguably worse. "Is the Stable itself going to be so irradiated?" He asked curiously. He had his own supplies of Rad-away and Rad-X (which he had a bottle of on his way down), and he imagined the others did, but he wondered if he had enough if the whole Stable they were checking was irradiated. He didn't know if it was open.... He wondered if it could be inhabited. If it was, it would make sense that those living in it hadn't left. It was an irradiated hell right outside their door-step. 

 

He watched Secent work on the terminal... completely confused by it. He wasn't a dumb griffon, to be sure, but his knowledge lied history and minor mechanics more than anything technological... it seemed the terminal lacked the information they needed, as it was mentioned that they move on. "Do we have a choice?" He asked, heading out. He looked at the next bunker, oppening the door... to find a ghoul. He looked at it, wondering if it was sane, when it suddenly rushed the Griffon standing in the doorway, roaring out as it trotted to him. He grabed the ghoul-pony's head in his talons, his claws lightly digging in before smashing its head against the doorframe until it went limp. Seemed the bunker had failed for him. "Clear." He muttered, stepping inside. "So, Secant, what are you looking for exactly?"

[Anneal 2,197]

"Just some random symbol drawings on a map," Secant answered. "Didn't say anything about a Stable here, though strangely enough, there's a marker for a Stable here on my PipBuck map. I'm thinking it may have to be *cough* some kind of secret message or password to find the Stable; after all *cough*, Stables aren't supposed to be easy to find."

 

Secant, cautious about his own well-being, checked his PipBuck Geiger counter again. 126 rads. He really was packing up the radiation in here, and finally drank up some RadAway, and giving himself some protection with his "homemade" Rad-X, which was surprisingly effective. Now he felt slightly less sickly when he left the bunker, following the griffon as he opened up the door. A feral ghoul popped out, but the griffon was prepared, going into a fighting stance and violently crushed the ghoul pony's head, leaving dark red blood on his talons.

 

Secant stood back for a bit, staring away from the grotesque scene and pinching his nose from the awful smell. "What in Tarturus did that thing come out of?" he shouted, covering his eyes with his hoof. Secant, deciding not to say anymore, moved into the bunker, where he was met, yet again, with another terminal.

 

This one was harder – a ten letter password – which Secant had to think for a while before making his attempts. He nearly got locked out, though he decided there to just restart the damn thing and try again, getting another successful match on his second try. Again, it was a map of the bunkers, but this one had a different symbol, with three circles and the bunkers marked in blue. "Looks like the same here..." Secant muttered.

[Guardian Braveheart 23]

Following the group to the next bunker, he saw Vincent take down and killed a ghoul. As they entered, he saw pretty much the same. There was another terminal the Secant again hacked. Again, there was no leads. He did however, overheard him say it was the same.

 

"So, what did you find?" he asked. "The second one has to have some info, right?"

[TheLineTrotter 100]

Vincent heard Secent coughing, looking him over... he wondered if Stable ponies had marginally worse radiation resistance than those that had been born into the Wasteland... after all, those out here were exposed to practically all thier lives, even in marginal amounts, and had been for generations... it was a possibility. 

 

 

"Dunno...." Vincent muttered, wiping his bloody talons off on bit of tattered clothing the ghoul had been wearing. "Maybe the poor buck couldn't get into the Stable, tried his claw- er, hoof, at this bunker in hopes of surviving... doesn't seem like it did him any good..." he muttered, looking at the ghoul, the back of his skull caved in from the trauma. He watched the stallion work on the terminal, getting anxious... every second he worked on this was another moment his cells were fucked up by the radiation... he drank his first pack of rad-away, keeping  mental note of how much it had cost him. Whatever supplies he spent on this trip, he'd either make sure he was payed back for, or he'd personlly loot them from the Stable before informing the mayor. He looked at the map... the sumbols did seem random, but he hoped that perhaps he could find some sort of pattern between this map and the other...

[Anneal 2,197]

"There is definitely some kind of relationship between the two terminals here," Secant muttered thoughtfully, downloading the picture onto his PipBuck. "Might be some kind of code. I'm assuming the rest of the bunkers have the same kind of terminal, so if we could figure out this puzzle, it might lead us to the Stable entrance, if there ever was one."

 

Secant exited with caution, and stopped at the dead ghoul, examining his body. The ghoul was indeed a pony, an unicorn at that, with an already mutilated face that reminded him of the "living dead" he saw in the old world Stable movies. The stallion was still wearing his original clothing, with an ID tag on his shirt, having a blue-coated, smiling pony. The dates were several decades back – definitely a remnant of the war. 

 

"At least it was merciful," Secant sympathized. "Some ponies didn't want to be like this, let alone lose their sentience...at least we've ended his misery." Secant moved the body away from the exit, grimacing all the while, placing it down on a dirtied mattress. "Best we try our luck with the third bunker we meet up with. Let's make this quick; the radiation here is seriously going to kill me."

[TheLineTrotter 100]

"I see..." He muttered,looking over the picture again... the map just seemed confusing to him, but, well, he couldn't just stand there and be useless. He considered flying up to get a birds eye view of what the map showed... but he'd wait until they needed it. He wondered why in Tartanus somepony would use a freaking puzzle with maps to hide the entrance to a Stable... 

 

He realized Secant had stopped at the body, looking it over.... he hand't given it much thought before, but took a moment to do the same... he wondered who he was. What was his story. Why had he been near these bunkers when the megaspells fell? Had he fallen behind when the Stables were closing, and just didn't make it? Did he rush here desperately? Vincent quickly shook himself. Getting stuck in the past was a great way of developing 'old world blues'. He loved history, true, but he was careful not to let it... captivate him. He heard the stallion next to him speaking and nodded abit. "That's how I like to think of it." he muttered as they left. He pulled out a rad-away, chugging it down with a gagging sound. Better than dieing... and unlike these ponies with thier pip-bucks, he had no idea how irradiated he was. "So.What were these bunkers for? I mean, why would ponies build a bunch of ineffective bunkers with a Stable so close by?" He asked, mostly to himself, as they headed towards the last bunker. 

[Anneal 2,197]

"They were most likely not supposed to be effective," Secant replied, flinging open the bunker door. "The Stables were usually hidden in places ponies will least expect – Stable-Tec built it that way so any unauthorized pony – or zebra – have a near-impossible chance of finding the Stable door. As I previously mentioned, my Stable was hidden in a gas station on the highway, so it's unusual if the Stable door was directly outside."

 

Secant was checking his Geiger counter again, continuing on. "Then again, they aren't fool-proof. A few Stables I've heard of were attacked by raiders who camped on the ground above. One had a Stable door that never closed correctly, and every pony in there either died or turned into ghouls. And some just never open up; recently, the ponies at Camp Whitestarr tried to bolt the Stable door of Stable 19 open. No luck as of now; anything Stable-Tec builds can probably survive a megaspell and still remain unscathed."

 

Secant hesitated when a DANGER sign on his PipBuck flashed. When Secant looked up, a feral ghoul jumped onto him, pinning Secant down. Secant tried to push the ghoul's nearing head away, pulling out his 10mm pistol and firing at point blank range. Loud, ear-piercing gunshots were heard, and the feral ghoul's head exploded with gore. Secant was showered in a bloody mess, the top half of his body stained with red. Secant stood there in shock, a crimson substance oozing out of his face. If the radiation wasn't enough, the scene was; Secant threw away the corpse and just vomited at the wall in disgust. 

[Guardian Braveheart 23]

"Well, that was informative," he said. 

 

He thought about what he said about hidden stables. His was well hidden enough, but had to have like a lot of stamina to get up a mountain, go down it's hole to get to the stable, then figure out how to open it.

 

He saw Secant kill another ghoul. Feeling a bit cautious, he looked up his sniper to see if it was clear. Near the third bunker, two more ghouls stand idle.

 

"I got this," he said.

 

He crouched down and took aim for their heads. He let up his E. F. S., only to confirm they are hostile. He took his aim, and shot three bullets. One missed, the other hit the neck, causing the head to get severed, and the other got hit on the head, exploding upon impact.

 

"Clear. Can we like hurry a bit. The radiation is getting to me and I don't want to die just yet. Don't worry about me, I just had RadSafe. It will keep me up for a while."