Slavegear - Part 4

(Omega)
Omega stepped back from the wall turning to look at the Changeling "The sounds of the place are still new to me, thought I heard something in walls. But forty plus years of living in a Verria Wolf city and a place like this is going to sound off"

(Everyone)

A wave of static crackled in your earpiece, before Mercers voice suddenly came through:
"Stand by, I'm on my way to buuuuuuubububu-----......"

"Again?" Kaylee frowned: "Are you kidding me? I don't remember having this much radio static here, due to poor reception" she said, stepping out of the hangar bay.

A long hallway opens before you. About 25 meters further, you notice the bathrooms. Chambers and her staff were walking in that direction, before Mercer suddenly emerged out of an adjacent corridor and intercepted them.
Mercer released a small smile and began quickly saying something. The staff paused to listen. Chambers frowned and entered the bathroom.


"Harlequin, do you copy?" Kaylee whispered into her earpiece: "Chambers is on her way to you"

"......-------buuuu bubuu bu---- bubuuubu ?---..." Harlequins distorted voice came through and broke into static.


"For the love of-" Kaylee sighed and leaned back on the wall, subtly watching Mercer talk to the Gerran staff.
After a moment, Kaylee looked at you and whispered:
"...okay, we better prepare a safe spot, where we can review the classified files once Harlequin nabs them"

She pulled out her cellphone and dialed a number:
"Eva? Hi" Kaylee smiled: "Can you help us with something? Do you have any secure rooms on the base? Empty ones? Okay th-" Kaylee suddenly pulled her cellphone away and cursed. An audible wave of static came from her cellphones speakers. The call disconnected.

"What the hell is going on?!" Kaylee frowned at her cellphone.

A moment later you noticed Harlequin leave the bathroom, carrying a backpack on her back. She subtly nodded to you and walked away.

Kaylee waved you to follow and began casually walking into an adjacent hallway. After a few minutes, you met up with Harlequin. The mare looked on edge and a little uneasy.

"I got the data" Harlequin quietly nodded.

"Thats good news" Kaylee exhaled in relief: "How did you get it so fast?"

"You don't want to know" Harlequin grimly replied: "Come on, we should head somewhere safe to review it"

"Eva is setting up a room for us on the third floor" Kaylee said: "Lets-"


Your earpiece crackled with static again and a raspy voicecame through:
"Moon Dusts? Miss Runner, do you copy? Miss Sparkle, Radiance, miss Brown? Does anyone hear me? Is this thing working??"


"...Dr. Zaroove?" Kaylee asked in confusion: "Why are you on this frequency?"

"Please you have to listen to me!" Zaroove began speaking in a panicked, stressed voice: "I was having a session with Johan, we were talking, when officer Eva passed nearby and Johan overheard a part of the conversation.
He took off after Eva, I think he wants to help you, or something-"


"Okay umm.." Kaylee said thinking: "Okay we'll find him, he'll be safe with us"


"No! You don't understand!" Zaroove called in a stressed voice: "I have to see Johan again! I must-buuuuuuuu bububuuuu-------"

"Shit" Kaylee cursed.

"------can you hear me?-----" Zarooves panicked voice briefly came through: "-------buuuububu------- Johanbubuubuu" the radio fully fell into static.


A few moments later, the Mother Base speakers came online and a calm voice slowly announced:
"All personnel, good afternoon. Our Electronic Warfare module is experiencing some malfunctions. All radio communications may be temporarily disrupted.
We are working to fix the problem and it should be resolved shortly. Please excuse the inconvenience. And have a good day"


"Today of all days.." Kaylee frowned: "Come on, we need to head to the third floor to review the data"

Twilighht frowns at the current state of the communications, not trusting this a lot.

"What an annoying moment... Okay, you go review the data, I'm going to calm down Johan. Right now he's more of a liability then an aid, and what if that chip starts acting up? He could go after us. It can end the same story as the intorregation personnel with the raiden soldier."

She gets up, checking to see if it's safe to exit.

"I'll run up to find Dr Zaroove. He sounds stressed about something." Moon said before running off to find him. She made sure not to cause any suspicion, and also tried not to get lost.

(Moon, Twilight)


"Okay" Kaylee nodded: "Dr. Zarooves office is in the adjacent building, on the second floor, right at the end of the corridor. See you guys soon"

She nodded at continued onward with Harlequin.

As you head outside and begin to make your way to the adjacent building, you note how quiet the area has slowly grown.
A blue sky above you, a slowly rising sun. The sound of ocean waves and seaguls were the only thing breaking the silence.

As you near the entrance to the next building, two gloomy soldiers in navy fatigues exited and briefly nodded to you, before heading off somewhere.

You enter the building and note a sleeping guard by the entrance. He's sitting on his chair, sun cap over his eyes, arms crossed. Apparently he's supposed to be watching the door, but by the looks of it, he's fast asleep.

You note the silence in the building again. The usual ambient noice and distant voices, were absent.

Dr. Zarooves office should be on the second floor.

You notice an elevator door and a staircase.

For some reason, apart from the sleeping guard, you don't see anyone around.


















(Rain, Radiance, Omega)


"Alright" Kaylee said: "Lets head for that safe spot and go over the briefcase files, see if it was all worth it"

"This way" Harlequin called and went up the stairs.
A few minutes later you arrive at a closed door with a password keypad next to it. Kaylee quickly punched in the code and the door opened, revealing a small, dark room.

It was filled with numerous monitors showing different pictures and videos. After a moment you realized it was the security camera footage from around Mother Base.

A lone hulking pegasi sat behind a poorly lit desk and watched the camera feed with maximum diligence. As you entered, he briefly nodded to you and asked:
"Good morning. Everyone. Captain" he nodded and looked at Kaylee:
"Would you like the room ma'am?"


"No, its okay" Kaylee said: "You don't have to leave. We'll try not distract you"

"Ma'am" the man nodded and returned to watching the monitors.
Harlequin walked in and began setting up her laptop on the desk. Her expression was grim.


Kaylee tried clicking her earpiece for a random check, but only got static again. While Harlequin continued to set up her laptop, Kaylee casually sat on the desk and picked up the landline phone and dialed a number:

"Hellooo, tech support?" Kaylee called: "Hi, Captain Brown here, I was wandering if we have an ETA on that radio fix. I don't want to pressure you but we need our radios back..... hello? Hellooo?..."

She lowered the phone and you could clearly hear the dial tone from the speaker:
"Nothing bloody works in this place, god.." she hung up the phone and looked at the camera feeds out of boredom.

On one of the cameras you could see Fluttershy in the medical wing. She was carrying a clipboard, walking somewhere and excitedly talking to Dr. Riza. Her thoughts were completely occupied and Fluttershy accidentally walked into a table and dropped the clipboard.
She shyly apologized, picked it up again and walked out of frame.


A moment later, the door to the security camera room opened and Eva walked in: "Hey guys. Whats with all the cloak and dagger?"

"We're looking into highly classified files that we illegaly  nabbed from the Councilor of Gerra" Harlequin replied in a deadpan.

"Oh?" Eva replied, her eyebrows flying up: "Oh good"


"Hey where's Johan?" Kaylee asked in confusion: "I thought he was with you"

"No, wasn't with me" Eva said with concern: "Haven't seen him"

"Guys..." Harlequin quietly called: "The files are up. Look" she pointed at her laptop.

(Omega)
Omega drew his attention to the laptop's screen. Pouring over the screen to take in as much detail as he could.

(Radiance)
Radiance took up position against one of the walls, leaning back and folding his arms
"Why do these technical difficulties feel like someone is outright jamming the radios?"

Moon paused by the sleeping guard. Normally, she would have kicked him awake but she figured it would be best to let him sleep. She dashed up the stairs, but listened cautiously for any noise of sorts.

Rain scans over the details, "do we have a camera?" she asks looking around, "we are going to need it, its actually pretty important."

(Moon, Twilight)


As you dash up the stairs, only an eerie silence is heard. The second floor looked empty as well. Almost deserted.

You notice an open door at the end of the hall. Dr. Zarovee's office.


As you slowly come near, you notice that the office is completely empty. The desk sat at a weird angle and the chairs were awkwardly pushed against the walls. A few papers scattered about the floor and carpet.
It seems as if the doctor ran out of the office in a hurry, pushing the furniture aside.


There was still no one in sight. An eerie silence over the area.

Then, some sort of strange smell attracted your attention.


As you look to its source, you notice a small, red colored smear on the floor, just next to the elevator doors. As if something was spilled there and an object dragged over it, into the elevator.

The elevator doors were closed. The smell was odd and eerily familiar.














(Rain, Radiance, Omega)


"I have a camera on my cellphone" Kaylee said, pulling out the phone and passing it to Rain.

After Radiance spoke, Kaylee became grim and looked at the monitors:

"...jamming.. huh...." she watched the security camera feeds from around the base for a moment, then touched the shoulder of the pegasi, sitting behind the monitors:
"Can you.. switch to the external camera's around the base?"


The man nodded and clicked a few buttons. The pictures on the monitors began to change. Kaylee leaned closer and inspected them.
You could see the ocean line, then the underwater shot of the base's support beams, then several shots of the sky, then footage of the hangar bay, the helicopter pads and the walkways between the buildings, inside the base. Everything looked clear or business as usual.


"...looks clear so far" Kaylee leaned back, scratching her cheek and thinking: "Keep monitoring the outside area, okay?"


The soldier nodded and the camera's switched back to their old images.
On one of the camera feeds, you could see the medbay again. Fluttershy was excitedly talking with Riza and accidentally walked into a table. She dropped her clipboard, shyly apologized and walked out of frame.



After a moment, you heard a gentle knock on the door. Eva and Kaylee turned around in confusion and Eva slowly unlocked the door.

The door opened and Johan's head slowly popped into view: "Oh uh... hello.. ehehe..." he shyly smiled: "...is it okay for me to come in? I.. don't want to intrude"


"Johan! Seriously.." Kaylee frowned and waved him inside. Johan tip-toed in and adjusted his glasses, releasing a small, guilty smile.


Kaylee crossed her arms and frowned: "Dr. Zarovee tells me you left in the middle of his session. That's not cool, okay? Dr. Zarovee was really worried. We even sent folks looking for you."


"Oh my goodness, I'm sorry" Johan's ears fell down and he looked away: "I didn't mean to cause so much trouble.. I just... overheard officer Eva talking with you and... I thought I could h-"



"-THAT FUCKING WHORE!" Harlequin suddenly slammed her fist onto the table. Her eyes were glued to the laptop and the files belonging to Councilor Chambers.

There were several pages of text there, copies of emails or personal logs by the looks of it. All written or signed by Councilor Chambers.

The headline on the nearest one read: 'Slavegear theft was a significant setback. But Marek unintentionally gave us a gift in return. See to it that we acquire a sample of the Gene Virus, during the Mother Base visit. Say its to speed up the vaccine research.

This is quite a find, isn't it. All we have to do now is reprogram the Gene Virus to attack only Batpony cells. The 'peacekeeping' occupation of Nyx will proceed on schedule.

For Gerra.'



"...what.. is this..." Johan quietly called. His face was pale. Distorted. His eyes widening in horror.

(Omega)
A low growl escaped Omega's throat as he read the page.

(Radiance)
"It's proof that Marek was telling the truth, and the unfortunate realization we just stopped one genocide for another." Radiance frowned at the new information "Is anyone specifically named at all in the notes? An accomplice or a scapegoat"

(Rain, Radiance, Omega)


"There's a lot of names here" Harlequin frowned: "The Councilors inner circle. She couldn't have done it alone"

"This is not.. this is not possible.." Johan closed his eyes and began feverishly shaking his head: "I can't.."

"Johan, please" Kaylee came closer: "I think its best if you didn't look at this"

"No! I have to see it!" Johan suddenly cried and ran closer to the laptop. The text on it kept scrolling on and on:


'Log 31'
...-Slavegear construction is proceeding as planned. We specifically left a loop hole in its activation systems. A Union government official and a high ranking military officer, both need to be present to activate the machine, but we didn't specify in what condition they need to be.

Viper Team will kidnap two such candidates and use their unconscious bodies to activate Slavegear.

Viper will then use the robot to march into Nyx, and engage any strategic targets, vital to the local populations survival. Power plants, water purification facilities, get creative.
We need to make Nyx inhospitable to anyone. Killing the local population upon opportunity is a bonus but not the goal of this operation.

The batponies are a hindrance, nothing more. We need to force them to leave Nyx, on their own. That's the only way we can claim their territory, without raising suspicion-...



'Log 45'

Our plans may have been compromised. Mareks informant was spotted looking into our files. Killed him.
Marek has no proof, but he knows of our intent. Be careful in further information control. Marek is an unknown variable. A wild card. Continue monitoring the situation.


'Log 63'

The Slavegear incident is a major setback. The money we poured into the project cannot be recovered.
But if we can prove Marek's behind this, we can spin this in our favor. I'm really glad he murdered 100,000 people with that robot. If we can prove a batpony was behind the wheel, well... there's no need to say anything more.



'Log 71'

The Gene Virus. Manufactured by Marek. I couldn't ask for a better gift.
Its embarrassingly easy to spin. All I have to do is pay a small visit to Mother Base. Even throw in the mini-slavegears as a sign of good will. Let them dismantle everything, we will cover the costs in the long run.

Make sure to use the visit as an opportunity to establish good relations with the batponies. Continue pushing the reconstruction projects for Nyx, in the Union meetings. Don't worry about the expenses. These colleges and hospitals will never be built in Nyx. There simply won't be anyone to build them for.

Use the diplomatic channels to acquire a sample of the Gene Virus. That's out main goal. It won't take long to reprogram it to target the Batpony Genes.
No one will even know we released it. And once the Batponies start dying, we can just pin everything on Marek. A freak accident that resulted from his bizarre research.

I really hope we get a hold on Nyx soon. The useless fanged weeds that live there, are starting to really get on my nerves. I hate their hindrance.

All the best.
Councilor Chambers.






The screen faded to black. The room was silent.

And in that silence, a high pitched laugh suddenly echoed across the room.

It was Johan.


He was covering his face with both hands and hysterically laughing. The voice was so distorted, it didn't sound like him at all.
His laughter was extremely uncomfortable, eerie.


Kaylee slowly turned pale and quietly called him: "...J-..Johan?"


"...what... do they want from us?" Johan doubled over, his eerie, high pitched laughter echoed off of every wall in the room: "...three hundred years of occupation, wasn't enough?... forty years of slavery?
The fanged weeds are a nuisance, are they? We're not people... no... we're not even slaves... we're a nuisance..." Johan hysterically giggled and you noticed tears streaming down over his cheeks.



"Johan!" Kaylee called, just as Johan turned around and violently busted the door open, sprinting away.



On one of the monitors, you noticed Fluttershy, bump into a table and drop her clipboard. She shyly smiled, picking it up and walked out of frame.

Moon got down on the floor to try and get a better smell of the smear, perhaps try and identify it. The silence bothered her, but she tried not to panic as she hoped to identify the source of the smell.

(Moon, Twilight)


You identify the smell almost immediately. Its blood.

Looks very recent. It didn't have time to coagulate.
The smell of blood became much worse, the closer you came. It appears to be originating from behind the closed doors of the elevator.

"Blood" Moon mumbled, licking a little of it to see how old it was. She clicked her tongue "Very recent. Fresh, still a little warm." She said quietly before standing up. She then realised that she had no idea how to operate elevators. Bashing the button on the side with her fist, she hoped she was doing it right.

(Moon, Twilight)


The elevator button never lit up, even after being pressed several times. No response or noise came from the elevator system.

As you look around, you notice that the corridor is shrouded in twilight, even though it has several light bulbs on the ceiling.

All the lights were turned off, even though they should clearly be working here.
No emergency signs were lit up. Not even the fire exit signs, above the staircase.

You get the feeling that this entire floor, if not the entire building, doesn't have electricity for some reason.

"Right. Let's try going upstairs" she said and walked out of the room before looking about for another staircase, sniffing in the hope of smelling more blood.

"No time, how much time does he have left in there?"

She takes one step back, and activates her telekinesis. With it, she tries to force open the doors of the elevator.

"BUDGE!"

(Moon, Twilight)


With an uncomfortable screech, the doors slowly opened and the stench of decomposing flesh hit you in the face like a hammer.

Five bodies were carelessly stuffed inside the elevator and left there. Union soldiers, guards uniform. They must have been serving on Mother Base.
Their dead eyes were staring at you, unblinking. The building was eerily quiet.



It took you a moment to try and identify them. It seems doctor Zarovee was not among them.

You note the nature of their injuries, that likely have caused their deaths. Small, barely noticeable stab wounds, likely done by an incredibly thin and sharp sword.

Every wound was made with surgical precision, aimed to instantly kill the target, and leave as little bleeding as possible.
Someone took great care to cover their tracks. You notice that the control panel inside the elevator was broken, another precaution to stop the elevator from working.



A bit off to the side, along the corridor, you notice a large red button, built into the wall.

Large capital letters above the button said:

'ALARM'
'PRESS IN CASE OF EMERGENCY'

Moon ran back and sniffed the bodies "Died very recently I'd say. Someone's here to kill. We need to warn the others"

Twilight visibly reeled from the sight and smell that hit her face, as she looked in little hortor at the scene.

"What the fuck..."

Aft getting over the shock, and noticing the wounds, she began to think.

"They've been here a while, the smell is too rotten to be new... But wasn't the blood fresh? How does that... Maybe medical..."

Her eyes widen. "Zarovee! He must either know or be doing this! Call the others! Use telekinesis if you have to! We got an even deeper mystery going!"

With those words, she readied her arm, and slammed the emergency button.

"Right, telepathy spell, got it" she nodded and started to cast the spell, fighting the urge to make one of the dead guards her snack. The black marks on her neck from when she had used her magic on Tony began to move and curl as she cast the spell.

"Guys, its me, Moon. I'm using a telepathy spell. We found a bunch of dead guys in Zarooves office, and he's nowhere around. Looks like they were killed by someone experienced."

Rain had seen what was happening on the cameras, "excuse me..." she moves beside Harle and begins to snap pictures of the evidence, "kaylee... Your not going to find shit on those cameras... They are repeating... Something bad is happening as we speak and we need to start worrying, Harle can you show me a list of the files? So i can snap a picture of how many there were... We need to hurry up... Because eather the vampire unit is coming in to free mirek, or counceler whateverthefuckhernameis has some sort of plan..." she looks at all of them, a personal radio transmitter on a base in the middle of the ocean shouldnt have such bad feedback, we are being jammed, Just look to the camera where fluttershy was!"

(Rain, Radiance, Omega)


Kaylee turned pale, very quickly. She looked at Rain, then at the looping camera feed. Then, clicked on her earpiece and only heard static. Her eyes widened:

"...we're under attack... We're under attack!" she screamed and jumped towards a large red button, that was built into the wall. Large capital letters said 'ALARM' just above the button.

Kaylee slammed her palm on it, but nothing happened. No red lights came on, no sirens blaring. Only a complete, dead silence:



"...they disabled the alarm system..." Kaylee quietly said in a shaking voice: "...we can't warn anyone... we can't communicate with anyone... who is doing this?
No. More importantly, whats their objective?"




You suddenly heard a voice, speaking directly inside your head. After a moment, you recognized it:
"Guys, its me, Moon. I'm using a telepathy spell. We found a bunch of dead guys in Zarooves office, and he's nowhere around. Looks like they were killed by someone experienced."


"Damn it" Kaylee cursed: "Moon, the base is under attack. We don't know by who, but they've shut down our surveillance cameras, our radios and the base alarm system.


Harlequin frowned, clicking something on her laptop and a list of the classified files appeared on screan:
"Mother Base has several valuable targets, to all party's involved. Marek. Councilor Chambers. The Gene Virus. The Slavegears.
I believe its reasonable to assume that some of them, if not all of them, are the enemies objective.
We need to come up with a plan of action, to counter act the enemies plans"


Kaylee nodded: "Restoring communications should also be a priority. Coordinating our forces on the ground is vital to our survival.
Now, Mother Base does have its own radio jammer. If the enemy captured it, it would explain the static over the radios.
The Jammer is located at the north-east tower. Someone has to go there and shut it down.


Everyone, pick a target and head toward it. We have to counter act the enemies plans!"
She grabbed some kind of lever, built into the wall and a long panel extended out of the wall, revealing a shelf with a dozen standard swords.

"Grab a weapon" Kaylee called, taking hold of one of the swords: "The halls may not be safe anymore" her expression became painful, grim:
"...Johan is in the middle of that mess... its my fault he got dragged into this.."



Harlequin uncomfortably shifted in place:
"...we'll find him" She paused, then looked at everyone: "Who's going where? I don't know if we should split up anymore than we already did"

(Moon, Twilight)


After slamming the emergency button, a second ticked by in silence. Then another. But nothing happened. No red lights flashing. No sirens blaring. Only a deep, eerie silence.

After a moment, you heard Kaylee's voice, talking inside your mind:


"Damn it...
The base is under attack. We don't know by who, but they've shut down our surveillance cameras, our radios and the base alarm system"


Harlequins voice echoed a moment later:
"Mother Base has several valuable targets, to all party's involved. Marek. Councilor Chambers. The Gene Virus. The Slavegears.
I believe its reasonable to assume that some of them, if not all of them, are the enemies objective.
We need to come up with a plan of action, to counter act the enemies plans"


Kaylee chimed in: "Restoring communications should also be a priority. Coordinating our forces on the ground is vital to our survival.
Now, Mother Base does have its own radio jammer. If the enemy captured it, it would explain the static over the radios.
The Jammer is located at the north-east tower. Someone has to go there and shut it down.

Everyone, pick a target and head toward it. We have to counter act the enemies plans!.."


She briefly paused before going on: "...Johan is in the middle of that mess... its my fault he got dragged into this.."




Her voice faded.

The building remained eerily quiet.
As you look out the window, at the end of the hall, you notice five people slowly walking across the base. They wore baggy navy fatigues, sun caps over their heads. Mother Base personnel by the looks of it.

They walked across the base so slowly, it seemed they were completely oblivious to whats going on.

(Radiance)
As soon as Johan had sprinted out of the room Radiance had immediately taken off in pursuit of the hysterical bat pony.