Slavegear - Part 3

Rain quickly makes her way in, slipping an arm under moons legs and shoulders, picking her up, "you'll be ok... Just stay with me..." she says as she jogs to the hatch, "wavern pick her up! Jeez dude..."

Firewing Heattail wrote:Rain quickly makes her way in, slipping an arm under moons legs and shoulders, picking her up, "you'll be ok... Just stay with me..." she says as she jogs to the hatch, "wavern pick her up! Jeez dude..."

"I'm doing my best!" Lord Wyvern replies "There's not much room to work with in here."

Kaylee Brown wrote://Hey guys, the rp is now back to full activity ^^



(Twilight)

Cassandra is looking at you with concern:
"..Twilight.. are you sure? Its gonna be pretty hectic out there. Stressful even. The robot is marching through the city, wrecking the streets apart. It will be dangerous.

Are you sure you're ready for this?"

She gets up on her legs, wobbling for a moment before standing straight.

"Short answer: No. But what choice do I have?"

She rubs her head again, wincing as she remembers hearing a blood-curling scream from ver close by.

"I just need an aspirin for my head."

(Twilight)


"..okay" Cassandra slowly nodded. She still looks very worried, but she did approach a first aid kit, hanging from a nearby wall and took out a pack of pills from there.

She took out one of the pills and passed it to you, then quietly motioned you to follow:

"Come on.. lets slip out while everyone's busy. I doubt the local security detail would let us head straight to the combat zone.. I'm pretty sure my mother told them not to let me out of the safe house"


She subtly scanned the room, watching the government agents hastily run around and shout something, as they looked at their computer monitors and shared information.

Under the general chaos, Cassandra quietly led you out of the room, without too much noise. As you leave the apartment, you notice that the safe house was located inside some kind of an abandoned apartment complex.


Cassandra opened the nearest window and looked outside:

"Okay.. the smoke is rising from that direction. I think that's where the robot is.
Can you fly us there? I don't have wings I'm afraid"














(Everyone)


As you finally left the maintenance tunnel, Harlequin helped everyone slowly glide toward the ground, into the nearest alley.

The Slavegear slowly marched by, each one of its steps sending a tremor across the area, cracking windows and breaking the asphalt into massive chunks of debris.
With another one of its steps, it involuntarily kicked an empty jeep, sending the car flying halfway across the road. The jeep released a series of distorted car alarm sounds, until it violently smashed into the nearby building.

The robot continued to walk. It was visibly limping.


"Look!" Harlequin pointed at it: "...its dragging its leg. Moon, your spell must have worked, at least partially"



Kaylee was sitting on the ground, still shaking from her ordeal. She slightly curled up, hugging her knees and slightly rocking back and forth. After a moment she quietly said:

"...I figured it out... I think I figured it out.
Every five minutes, the robot stops to vent steam.
When me and Moon went inside, it was cool at first. Then, the temperature began gradually rising. When it became dangerous, the robot stopped and vented steam again.

It cooled off its systems.
Whatever engine that thing is running, its massive. It has to be, to make such a colossus move.
Perhaps... that engine is a little too powerful.

The robot overheats, every 5 minutes and has to cool off. If it doesn't, the rising heat will probably fry its internal systems.. and the pilot.
The robot will start melting inside.

That's the weakness.."



Harlequin looked at the robot. A small remote control fell out of her sleeve, landing quietly into her palm:
".....the robot it walking above our explosives. I have to detonate the charges. Everyone, brace for a shock wave.

Omega, Radiance, Tarmikos, are you clear of the area?"

Kaylee Brown wrote:(Everyone)


As you finally left the maintenance tunnel, Harlequin helped everyone slowly glide toward the ground, into the nearest alley.

The Slavegear slowly marched by, each one of its steps sending a tremor across the area, cracking windows and breaking the asphalt into massive chunks of debris.
With another one of its steps, it involuntarily kicked an empty jeep, sending the car flying halfway across the road. The jeep released a series of distorted car alarm sounds, until it violently smashed into the nearby building.

The robot continued to walk. It was visibly limping.


"Look!" Harlequin pointed at it: "...its dragging its leg. Moon, your spell must have worked, at least partially"



Kaylee was sitting on the ground, still shaking from her ordeal. She slightly curled up, hugging her knees and slightly rocking back and forth. After a moment she quietly said:

"...I figured it out... I think I figured it out.
Every five minutes, the robot stops to vent steam.
When me and Moon went inside, it was cool at first. Then, the temperature began gradually rising. When it became dangerous, the robot stopped and vented steam again.

It cooled off its systems.
Whatever engine that thing is running, its massive. It has to be, to make such a colossus move.
Perhaps... that engine is a little too powerful.

The robot overheats, every 5 minutes and has to cool off. If it doesn't, the rising heat will probably fry its internal systems.. and the pilot.
The robot will start melting inside.

That's the weakness.."



Harlequin looked at the robot. A small remote control fell out of her sleeve, landing quietly into her palm:
".....the robot it walking above our explosives. I have to detonate the charges. Everyone, brace for a shock wave.

Omega, Radiance, Tarmikos, are you clear of the area?"

"So what you're saying is that we need to find a way to stop it cooling off?" Lord Wyvern asks.

Moon was curled up, shivering and shaking. Everything felt like it burned, and even the cool air didn't help. Though her eyes were locked onto the giant robot, and she couldn't seem to focus on much else.

She sets moon down, "everythings going to be ok... We'll get you fixed up..." she whispers, "if i can get into slavegear i can tinker with the engine like i did with the genetator... I just need an escape plan
.. Mabye there is a hatch right in the back for the engine."

(Omega)
"We're clear," Omega's voice crackles in over the radio "We'll meet back up with you once the explosives have gone off"

Twilight takes the aspirin, and swallows it, taking a few gulps.

"Yes, I'll fly us there. Hold on tight."

She embraces Cassandra, holding her tightly. She then makes her way to the window.

"Just a warning, this might be a wild ride!"

She jumps out the window and spread her wings. Soon enough, she flies up. With the grace of a bucket of lard.

(Twilight)


The wind gusted hard in your face, as you rapidly made your way through the city.
The clouds of smoke slowly drew closer and after a moment, the massive colossus of a machine, slowly came into view. Slavegear.


The giant machine was marching through the streets of Adelheid, each step turning the road into large chunks of debris, crushing empty cars and shattering windows in the buildings nearby. Each step accompanied by a heavy tremor.



Cassandra frowned at it, as you flew closer:

"We just received schematics for the robot, courtesy of the Gerran Councilor. It seems that Slavegear has a natural weakness.

The robot is massive. To make it move, they had to construct a massive engine. But they couldn't perfect the power output.


It seems that engine is too strong for the robot.
Every 5 minutes, the robot overheats. When that happens, it has to shut down and vent steam from its back. That process cools down its systems, so it can continue functioning again.

If the cool down process is interrupted, Slavegear will melt from the inside. The robot will break.


Our analysts have managed to find an exact weak point on its back. If an explosion takes place there, the robots heat venting system will become damaged, preventing it from releasing its heat.


The problem is.. we don't have any explosives on us.." Cassandra said, looking at the robot.


At that moment, a distant rumbling came from underground.
The street under the robot, suddenly gave in and with a massive, deafening racket, the robot fell through the street, sinking chest deep into a massive pit.

A large tremor washed over the area. Massive clouds of smoke rose into the air, as the robot released a deafening, outraged roar.

Your vision became briefly obscured by the dust.


"...what the hell? It fell through the street.." Cassandra quietly said: "..there is a massive underground sewer system under Adelheid... was the robot too heavy and fell through the road?
No.. perhaps... a deliberate act of sabotage?
Maybe someone thought they could slow down the robot that way, if they created an underground explosion, making it sink underground...

It won't hold him though.."



Cassandra looked around, as the dust began to slightly settle:

"Wait, Twilight! Look! Look!!" she pointed to the side somewhere, into one of the alleys.


"Its Kaylee! And the others! I see them!
They're right in that alley! Quickly! Land us there!"


























(Everyone)


Kaylee nodded to Wyvern: "Yeah. Exactly. Stop it from cooling off, and Slavegear is done for"

She looked at the massive robot, as it marched down the street: "..perhaps.. we can damage its steam venting pipes somehow.. but.. what kind of explosive would we need? That robot is almost invincible.. how do we damage that part of it?"



Harlequin looked at her backpack: "I only have a single explosive device left. But its not very strong"

She looked at Rain with worry: "Rain, please, wait. I don't think its safe to go inside the robot again. You'll only have 5 minutes to get in, find the engine, sabotage it and get out. Its too risky"

Harlequin looked down, hastily thinking:


"We.. we have to analyze all the data we've gathered so far.. come up with a plan and execute it.. its just.. I really wish we had the schematics for that robot. It would make the whole thing easier.."

She looked at Slavegear again, then slowly raised her remote control device:

"I'm detonating our explosives. Brace for shock wave"



She firmly pressed a button on her remote. The next second, a massive earthquake rocket the area. The ground began shaking hard and then suddenly, the street gave in and with a deafening racket, Slavegear sank through the street and fell chest deep into a massive pit.

Giant chunks of debris flew everywhere. Parts of the road, broken cars, trees and street lights. A massive cloud of dust rose into the air and briefly covered your vision.


Kaylee and Harlequin broke into a coughing fit.


After a few moments, the dust began to settle.
Harlequin looked around, then suddenly pointed at the sky and shouted:

"Look! Its Twilight!!!
She's flying above us! And.. she's carrying someone!"

Kaylee Brown wrote:Harlequin looked down, hastily thinking:


"We.. we have to analyze all the data we've gathered so far.. come up with a plan and execute it.. its just.. I really wish we had the schematics for that robot. It would make the whole thing easier.."

She looked at Slavegear again, then slowly raised her remote control device:

"I'm detonating our explosives. Brace for shock wave"



She firmly pressed a button on her remote. The next second, a massive earthquake rocket the area. The ground began shaking hard and then suddenly, the street gave in and with a deafening racket, Slavegear sank through the street and fell chest deep into a massive pit.

Giant chunks of debris flew everywhere. Parts of the road, broken cars, trees and street lights. A massive cloud of dust rose into the air and briefly covered your vision.


Kaylee and Harlequin broke into a coughing fit.


After a few moments, the dust began to settle.
Harlequin looked around, then suddenly pointed at the sky and shouted:

"Look! Its Twilight!!!
She's flying above us! And.. she's carrying someone!"

"They're not going to make us pay for that, right?" Lord Wyvern asks, looking down into the pit.

Moon curled up tighter and coughed, staring at the dust and the giant robot in the ground. Her eyes were filled with fear, but also worry.

The debris that flew around had taken some toll, as she had lost speed and height. But she heard the command just fine, and looked to see them.

"They're okay... No need to tell me twice!"

She went there as fast as she could, though she tried to do a graceful landing. On the ground, she turned to the group.

"Thank whatever you're okay! I was worried you all had died! Um, that's because... There was radio contact and it was lost, so we feared the worst."

Kaylee gasped, slowly looking at Twilight. Her expression completely stunned:

"...Twi?.." Kaylee quietly mumbled, then suddenly rushed forward and locked Twilight in an extremely tight hug:

"TWILIGHT!" she screamed out. Her eyes shut tight, small streaks of tears began to fall down on her cheeks as she held Twilight in a tight hug, unable to say anything else.




A few moments later, a heavy tremor rocked the ground and the robot roared. Its massive hands slowly rose, crushing the street around it, as it struggled to get a good grip and began to slowly pull itself out of the pit.

"...its breaking free" Harlequin quietly said: "It won't be held there for long.
This is no good. We can't let it advance through the city any more. The devastation it had already caused is catastrophic.
We have to end it. Now"

She looked at the single pack of explosives, sitting on her palm: "..we have to use this, to destroy its venting system somehow.. If only we knew of a weak spot.." she looked away, gritting her teeth in desperation.



A moment later, Councilor Mercer's voice, cut through the radios:

"ATTENTION ALL UNION FORCES! WE JUST RECEIVED NEW INTEL FROM GERRA.

SLAVEGEAR HAS EXHAUSTED ITS AMMUNITION! I REPEAT, SLAVEGEAR HAS EXHAUSTED ITS AMMUNITION! IT CANNOT USE LONG RANGE WEAPONS!



WE HAVE IDENTIFIED ITS NEXT TARGET! THE OIL FIELDS, JUST OUTSIDE OF ADELHEID! IF THOSE OIL FIELDS ARE DESTROYED, APART FROM CRASHING THE REGIONS ECONOMY, IT WILL CAUSE IRREPARABLE DAMAGE TO THE ENVIRONMENT!

SLAVEGEAR CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO REACH ITS TARGET! ALL AVAILABLE UNITS ARE ORDERED TO ENGAGE, MERCER OUT"

"I.....I could melt the exhaust pipes shut.." Moon offered quietly, her hands still trembling.

"Oof! Tight, tight!"

She smiles though, giving a short hug back. "Well, we can celebrate us being alive later. We need to stop that now."

She looked at Harlequin, then at the explosive. "... That won't dent it much... But... Cassandra! We have the scemantics, right? Let's end this nightmare then..."

(Radiance)
Upon seeing that Twilight was alive and Kaylee's reaction, Radiance's expression returned to its original calm state.

(Tarmikos)
"End what never should have started" Tarmikos narrows his eyes at the death machine while he started to charge his magic.

"Right" Cassandra nodded: "According to the schematics, there is a weak point on the steam pipes. If an explosion takes place there, the pipes will become fully blocked. Slavegear won't be able to cool down.
We can place our explosive charge there, then blast it with magic, give it everything we've got.

Whoever has wings, break into teams and take our mages up there. Good luck everyone!"




Harlequin subtly leaned toward Rain and whispered: "..did she say her name was Cassandra?.. I believe Councilor Mercer has a daughter by that name... and the facial resemblance is uncanny..
Perhaps.. we shouldn't push her into the heat of battle.."


"Oi! I heard that!" Cassandra frowned.

Harlequin quickly rose her hands in a calming manner: "I only meant to say.. we only need pegasi and mages for this part of the mission.. there's no need to endanger other lives unnecessarily.."


Cassandra crossed her arms and fixed Harlequin with a frown.
From what you can tell, Cassandra didn't seem to be a pegasi or a mage, but she didn't seem like an earth pony either. Extremely pale gray fur, yellow hair. She looked like one of the Snow ponies you met a year ago, in the snowy planes of the north, during the incident of Toruviel's Mirror.



"Alright, lets begin" Kaylee called out: "Break into teams and head for the robot" she slowly unfolded her wings, took Moon and flew upward.

Harlequin took Wyvern and followed as well.






In the meantime, several more tremors had rocked the city, as Slavegear finally managed to crawl out of the pit. It slowly rose to full height and started walking again. Something was wrong with its knee and it was visibly dragging its right leg.

After a minute, the robot suddenly crashed knee deep through the street again. It attempted to lift its legs and continue its march, but his next step had deeply sunk through the road.


"..what is happening?" Kaylee quietly asked.

"..the street must be too weak in this area.." Harlequin quietly replied: "The robot is starting to crash down to the sewer level, even without our help.. this should slow it down significantly"



The robot emitted a deafening metalic roar, making Harlequin briefly freeze up. The noise visibly hurting her ears.

Slavegear rose its head high, before its eyes suddenly went dark and a massive panel extended from its back. Two massive columns of steam, shot out of there and into the air.


"Now's our chance!" Kaylee called: "Wait for it to stop venting steam. After that, there will be a 30 second delay, as the steam vents will fold back into its carcass.
During those 30 seconds, we plant the explosive and blast the steam pipes with magic, as hard as we can!
Get ready!"


The steam coming out of the robot, slowly died down.
You notice two massive pipes, located on the robots back. They emitted an audible metalic click and began folding back into the robot.


"NOW!" Kaylee yelled at the top of her lungs, trying to be heard over the racket.

Moon's magic curled around one of the pipes and began melting the metal to shut it. Her magic was slightly shaky, but she managed to continue with the spell.

Twilight went up alone this time.

When the vents began to close, she aimed at one of them, energy gathering near her hands.

"Minior!"

She shoots a blast of energy, a purple sphere of energy that had red flames coming from it.

"Slavegear... A fitting name, as it's use is only to subjugate others. Whoever wants to use it basically becomes a slaver... WE'RE RIPPING THESE CHAINS ASUNDER HERE!!!"

As the magic strikes rocked the surface of the robot, steel began screeching and bent.
In one swift motion, Harlequin swooped down, attached the explosive device to the weak point, between the two steam pipes and flew off away from the robot again.

The steam panel slowly folded into the robot and once it closed, a series of muffled explosions echoed from inside the robots carcass.


Slavegear's eyes lit up, it angrily rose its head and shrieked, its piercing voice shattered the windows of the skyscrapers before it.

The robot tried to move, but with each step it only sank through the street, creating one pit after another.
As time went on, its surface began slowly turning hot red. The robot began thrashing.


Its steam panel screeched, attempting to open, but its edges have melted, fusing with the rest of its carcass. The robot smashed its fists into the ground and emitted a piercing metalic shriek, as columns of steam began to shoot out of every part of its joints.

Its surface turned bright red and a series of explosions rang from inside.



Slavegear violently jerked and one of its green eyes exploded, releasing a column of fire into the sky, before the machine slowly hunched over and went silent.








The events following the fall of Slavegear, went by in a haze.

The medics that met you on the ground, once you descended. The Councilor of Equestria wearily looking over your wounds.
The news reporters that soon appeared. The police that began to block off the area, where the massive machine has fallen.



You find yourself on a transport helicopter, on your way back to mother base.

As if through a haze, you heard the post mission briefing, that one of the soldiers gave you.
It seems that, once the robot's cockpit was finally opened, the only thing found inside, was a small pile of ash.

The identity of the person who piloted the robot, remained unknown at this time. But it was clear that a firm connection, could not be established to Marek. Even now, he remained in the shadows, legally innocent in the eyes of the public.





As the helicopter neared Mother Base, another briefing followed shortly thereafter.

Slavegears frame was still holding. What remained of the robot, was to be brought back to Mother Base, where it would be slowly dismantled and finally decommissioned indefinitely, its schematics destroyed, so nothing like this could be constructed again.




As you finally landed at Mother Base, the sun was beginning to set over the horizon.

You were slowly brought to a large conference room, left entirely at your disposal. The staff brought you blankets to warm up and hot drinks, to stave off the cold weather, that began to settle over the region.




At Kaylee's request, a series of documents and new intel reports were brought to the conference room. They now sat on the table, in a large, messy pile.

Those were mostly reports regarding the Private Military Company named Raiden.

Raiden were the ones doing Mareks dirty work and Kaylee believed they were the key to predicting Marek's next move.



Slavegear was out of the game. But Marek still had significant resources at his disposal. Kaylee speculated that Marek predicted a scenario where he would loose Slavegear.
If so, he would have another plan already set in motion.

What that plan was, Kaylee couldn't figure out. That's why she sat at the table in the conference room, wrapped in a large blanket and feverishly going over the documents.




Eva was laying on the sofa, next to the wall, face down. Most of her body bandaged. She seems to be snoring.

Harlequin was looking over the documents as well. Dark circles began to settle under her eyes.

Johan came into the room, shortly thereafter and sat next to you. He attempted to go through the documents as well, but it was clear that the information was going over his head. After a while, he resorted to trying to maintain a positive mood in the room.





After a while, Kaylee loudly yawned and rubbed her face with both hands:

"...there's just too much intel here..." she looked at you, fatigue somewhat reflecting over her face:


"Alright.. from what I've gathered so far, it seems that, during the past four months, Raiden has purchased an alarming amount of laboratory equipment.
Stuff you'd need in a biological - chemistry lab. Centrifuges, spectrometers and other stuff I can't even pronounce.

Where this equipment is going, is unknown, but they're definitely cooking something down there.

I gotta be honest, I don't like where this is going.."

(Radiance)
"Who manufactured the equipment?" Radiance asked leaning against a wall and folding his arms, "Knowing the origin of the equipment we can look at the different companies and see what other services they provide, past records, possibly illegal activities, and accusations put against them."

(Tarmikos)
Tarmikos had taken a seat on the floor at the foot of the couch Eva was sleeping on, opposite to her head. He had a few of the documents spread out in front of him.
"What about that tech expert we were supposed to find? Someone like him would have an easier time discerning any pattern in the information as well as picking out the useless stuff"

(Omega)
Like Johan, Omega wasn't really trained to read or understand most of what he saw. A base level of common sense and few words he recognized from his days in school years ago, but either than that he was at a loss for what it meant.

"Lets see.." Kaylee began digging through the pile of documents in front of her:

"The equipment was manufactured by.. twelve different companies.. very well known throughout the industry, very high quality, very cutting edge stuff..

Looks like the companies manufacture a broad set of equipment for all kinds of purposes, starting from synthetic food development, to hospital lab equipment, to all kinds on nano technologies.

No illegal activity to speak of, at least on record.



It also seems that Raiden heavily relied on the black market chain as well, to purchase its lab equipment. Black market sources are.. unknown completely, unfortunately.

Mmm.. maybe we should pick up that hacker we talked about. That 'Pancake' or whatever his name is... Eva, can you give me a hand with this?... Eva?"



Kaylee called aloud. Eva still seems to be laying face down on the sofa, not really showing any signs of life.

Harlequin lowered her own document and quietly said in a deadpan: "...It appears that officer Eva is dead"


Kaylee grabbed one of the files from the table and hurled it at Eva. The file landed on Eva's back, then bounced off to the floor.


"OOW!!" Eva emitted a brief yelp, then slowly turned and looked at Kaylee: "Oh my god you hack!"

"Stop dozing off and help me with this mess gosh darn it!" Kaylee called aloud.

Eva turned her face into the sofa again: "..alright give me a file"

"Just gave you one" Kaylee replied, turning back to the desk.

"The one you hurled at my shoulder blade?" Eva asked in a muffled voice, through the sofa.

"Yes that one" Kaylee said, beginning to read some other document.






Eva emitted a muffled groan, then picked the file up from the floor and began going through it:
"Alright... um...
A report from last week, they found an Artemis personnel transport vehicle, on the edge of Sanja city, in Nyx. The vehicle was found laying on its side, off to the side of the road. The Artemis soldiers inside were heavily injured. Its unclear who carried out the attack.."


"That's not relevant to the task at hand, keep going" Kaylee called out, not looking up from the table.

"Another report.." Eva continued, in a half asleep voice: "From the Union public news.. its seems that, last month, Dr. Synitsev has died in a car crash.. his remains were so badly burned that they couldn't identify the body.

They only recognized him by teeth implants..

Dr. Synitsev was one of the worlds top professors in the field of genetics. His publications are known throughout the world.."





The door to the conference room suddenly flew open and Elisabeth barged in:

"Guys! You have to come with me, right now! There's been a development!"

"Wha?" Moon yelped as she woke up in an instant. She had fallen asleep on the table, leaving a small puddle of drool on whatever she was supposed to have been looking over. Beside her was several empty cans of beer.

"Oh, important stuff" she mumbled "What is it?" The unicorn asked as she stood up.

Twilight was reading some things, listening with half an ear. She was trying to figure out what he was doing, and how she could go back to her previous life.

At the mention of genetics, her brow furrows. "Hold on a second. This may sound like I'm grasping at straws, but genetics? Why would a omnicidal racist of enslaved origins have need for findings in the fields of genetics?"