Ch 4 Without restraint....

Ch4 Without Restraint, There Is Chaos

_Shady Smog POV_

Okay, when I thought this sorta thing was a cake walk, I never would have guessed how many armament missile carriers were on the ground surrounding what I assume was a lake filled with bubbling, red water. Or the two-story lopsided gray building stationed nearby with no visible windows or doors. Did I mention that we were under fire? No? Yep, it was fireworks central all over the place as I attempted to switch off the autopilot flying closer and closer to our destination.

-Ack, watch your six! Or seven, whatever! Incoming from starboard! They're swarming in tighter droves!- That bug was starting to frustrate me, even as I swerved the craft up and around the projectiles, releasing heated scrap metal in-between turns to get the lock-ons re-adjusted. Flares were also launched to confuse the heat signature of my Raptor, but they kept following me through miles of barren landscape even at near-ground level at 450 mph (which was the current top speed of Zebrican-made Raptors, mind you).

       "Relax, will you? I have over a thousand hours in training scenarios like this. Besides...after 200 years, even a full-out barrage of hundreds of these missiles wouldn't be a threat. Check it, they're running low on propellant." I chided the freeloader in my skull, watching as the missiles broke down or exploded mere feet away from hitting me due to spending over 10 minutes of sheer chasing. It'd be a pain to replace all the metal scraps though, but the GPS was stating that I was close enough to my destination to plan out a proper landing route. And from what my sharp eyes picked out, all the carriers were tapped out as they need constant rearming and refueling.

-Wait, how did you know they'd break down like that? Normally those ground-to-air missiles rarely miss.- He asked...darn it, what was his name again? Anansi? Yeah, that was it, sounded Prench.

I switched on the auto-landing software, lazing back in my cloud chair as the Raptor settled down foot by foot a half-mile from the uninteresting complex. If there was some hidden CO2 storage inside, I doubted it would still be around, but it did not seem like there was any sign of a battle or looting like the other cities.

   "Eh, that's the thing about zebra weaponry, they break down over time and there's barely anypony to fix them with the skillset. That's why most zebras have turned to farming and merchant selling, making them easy prey for the warlords." I muttered, watching as a bunch of stallions in patchwork Enclave armor emerged from their makeshift trenches, halfway buried in the ground with dirt on their backs and heads. My head jolted forward slightly as the landing gear touched down, and with a bit of remote switching, turned off the Raptor temporarily. Even if the zebras found it, they'd need my voice command to reactivate it. Trotting out, I observed the saluting figures who apparently came armed to the teeth with all sorts of Enclave laser weaponry.

     "At ease, stallions. Although I thought there would be a bigger group, I can make do with this." I said calmly, returning the salute. "I am now Head Commander Shady Smog, and in that building is a rigorous supply of CO2 that the Admirals need to fuel the Ziz and our Thunderheads. I expect this mission should last for about 3 hours at the most, any questions?"

     One of the soldiers came forward, possibly the most ranked, and began to brief me on his observations. "Sir, my name is Timber Falls and I-"

     "Did I ask for your name? No, I did not. All you need to know is my name and that we are on a tight schedule, bonding only comes if you manage to survive this mission in one piece, physically and mentally. I have no interest in recalling the names of those who may die, and I am ticked that you did not disable those missile batteries when you arrived. Now move out and make a hole in this building, I want to get at the control room as soon as possible." I grunted, ending the discussion quickly as the soldiers moved up the side of the building, cautiously burning a round hole into the brickwork.

"-That. Seemed a tad harsh, didn't it? They're barely older than colts.-"

 "And I'm supposed to give them a freebie? If I get attached to a soldier, and they die, the guilt of not being able to protect them upsets me. That's why I request they suit up with the strongest enclave armor we have made recently, as so many who wore the armor of pre-war died quickly. I can't make friends with others because I am expected to keep them alive for future conflicts."

"Ah, good work, I suppose. It may be a tight fit, so everypony switch to night vision and follow me."

  "Another thing about 200 years is that nopony puts in new light bulbs. May as well try the new helmet feature. Ah, much better. Now, stay close and fire only if it's needed."

"-Hmm? Only when needed?-"

"Look, not every equine in Zebrica is a fanatic. Zebras follow the herd and run mentally if they seem to be danger, but these guys are a tad more relaxed being Impala. If I use logic to persuade them with my charisma, they may step aside."

"Freeze, intruders! We will not let anypony go past this corridor, you are trespassing on our tribal lands!" A rustic, blood-shot eyed Impala ran up to me, battle saddle carrying a primitive rifle with a bayonet. Though I was sure my vest could take a small caliber, the blade part definitely presented a issue with impalement. Like the zebra, all the four-hooved herbivores on this accursed continent have glyphs that are similar to our marks, signifying their skills, though I can't make out what they are.

"Um, hi? Technically, we're pegasi, not common earthwalkers. Not that it's a problem if you are, but otherwise, we're just here for a inspection of the grounds." I dug into my pocket with my teeth, noting with wide vision how tense the other Impala who caught up with the lead were, as I showed them my commander badge. "I'm with the Volunteer Division, heard there was issues nearby."

   "If that's true, then why are you all wearing face masks and armed with enclave weaponry? If you don't answer truthfully, we'll sell your bullet-riddled hides on the meat market for rich traders to purchase." Ugh....this Impala just had to remind me of the BonBono Market west of here that consisted of cannibal traders (though they seem to pop up despite us raiding and capturing them).

   "Well, I'm not sure if you have been outside in a while, but the air is thick with noxious gas coming from the lake. We fear that some of the pipes have rusted shut and the rainfall will soon cause the tainted water to surpass the dam wall into the river below. And the deer chieftain asked us to help out so we won't be suffocating." I partly lied, wondering how fast it would take for SATS to trigger for multiple targets.

   "Hmmmph, doesn't explain the weapons. And I'd think I would have sniffed CO2 awhile securing the complex." The other Impala nodded, getting ready for the killshot through our skulls.

 "These are merely a formality, someone here triggered the security system causing missiles to be launched, and we were uncertain if it was the actions of a trigger-happy zebra. And CO2 doesn't have a smell, it takes days in this complex before it would become dangerous." Lies again, man, I wonder why the other pegasi were being so quiet. But I guess they don't want to make waves.

   "Zebras-pfft!"  The Impala spat at the ground, causing a small dent in the thick steel floor, "Disgusting hornless freaks, we don't answer to them, though I do know all the alarms went off minutes before you came and the main control room was completely locked down with nopony inside."


   "Mind if I took a look at the door to the main control room? If anything, the computer network may be stable enough to let me locate the source of the minor eruptions, given enough build-up could cause a catastrophic meltdown." For a second, I wasn't sure why I just said that, only to realize my passenger did.

   "-Sorry about that, but I do know how to hack terminals. Switching back to you.-" The bookworm who apparently should have minded his own business said, as I regained control of my mouth and vocal cords with a brief sigh. The Pegasi behind me seemed to have been impressed though, that they probably thought I could do such a feat. Couldn't even pass a computer programming class, that's all I'm saying.

   "Fine, but leave your weapons here, and me and my men will escort you to the room. Any funny business and we cull you and your men instantly." The head Impala snorted, tapping a button on his fancy watch, as a nearby side-door that would normally be inaccessible slid open. "In any case, you guys were about to go over to the water treatment section, which we are still in the midst of floor repair. With all that armor, you could have fell in."

      "Huh." Okay. Whatever. At least this tunnel he was leading us down was for the most part spotless and clean, save for a bit of rust here and there. Heck, not even ghoul bile on the generally polished floor. "You guys certainly know how to keep this base tidy."


     "Ehh, we try. Honestly, everypony seems to think we're these senseless killers who spear anypony in our way, but we do prefer cleanliness over a gore-soaked base of operations. Given it's been abandoned for almost 200 years, we decided to set up a trade route with the Wildebeest clans so we can get a supply route going." The Impala coldly responded, hoofing at a keypad as numerous sliding doors opened up revealing a labyrinth of corridors and piping. "Without us, this continent would have been lifeless the second all the air vanished and replaced with Carbon Monoxide."

"Why do you wear that mask anyways, Smog? The air is clear in here, despite the smell of rotten eggs." One of the more curious Impala asked me, as we bypassed a variety of Impala and Klipspringer technicians, the latter being small enough to go into the vents to perform surgical repairs to the wiring.

"Ehh...my gas mask also doubles as my glasses, given I have poor eyesight without it." I partially lied, noting the automated gatling guns set up near the entrance of each doorway. There were also burnt shadows along some of the walls, imprinted for all eternity. "Your handiwork?"

   "Nah, wasn't us." The lead Impala nodded as we were passing through a vetting chamber, with a few bored Hartebeest standing guard and standing up straight once they noticed their boss come in. "This compound was overrun with Feral Ghouls, but then the Shamans came around and 'cleansed' them one by one. Didn't even use weapons, the Ghouls just turned into flaming husks with a few chants and released their spirits. We moved in right after. And here's the control room, hope you can make more sense out of the terminal than we can seeing we can't guess the password due to it resetting every 5 seconds and there being over two hundred on the screen." A well-lit room filled with computers, control panels, monitors, switches, levers and buttons of all colors and shapes filled my vision, and I could almost feel the joy the little bookworm was having taking it all in.
     
         Walking over the terminal, which I admit was old school and not cloud-based, I wondered how to bluff my way out of it. Then words came to mind. Then numbers. Coding passed down through all forms of hacking and reprogramming seemed to flash through my brain, as the bookworm seemed to pass on his knowledge to me. It took only half a minute of hoof banging on the keyboard before I was granted access into the system network. A 3-D Hologram of the complex dam was revealed...and from what I could tell, there was a lot more floors that were locked up and hidden away.

       "What is this? This was not in the schematics." One of the ruder Impala soldiers grunted, pointing his laser pistol towards the back of my head. Once again, I held back the need to put them all down with one huge fart before stating the obvious.

"It's because this is technically a joint base, one hoof can't tell what the other is doing. In other words, both the MAS and the Legion had individual portions dug up to put in new sections but didn't tell the other faction about them. Let's see..." Typing in a few commands, a blue box lit up in the next room ahead of us, followed by a hidden door sliding open. "There's a elevator, a working one I assume, that from what I can tell, goes all the way to the bottom. You're more than welcome to come, but I bet there's more to this place if I go down there."   Of course, as soon as I said that, destiny spat in my eye again as the sliding doors opened to reveal hordes of ghoul scientists lined up behind it, armed with bloody office supplies.
"Great...." I murmured, drawing my laser pistol with my mouth, as the other soldiers started their assault on the savage beasts. Of course, the elevator just had to be just 50 meters away with those ghouls in my way. "Target their limbs, not the heads! The front of the cranium is too well-padded!" I shouted, carefully bisecting kneecaps of a ghoul zebra that rushed right at me, then strode over his body with powerful bone-snapping hoof-clomps to disable it further. Given my ammo was limited, I just took out the larger, more mutated versions of ghouls rapid-fire as the others went at it with their own 'unique' attacks, aka crippling, horn-impaling, skull-shattering, that sort of thing, mostly with their bare strength alone. Did I mention that my so-called Enclave soldiers just hung back with their jaws dropped at the bloody carnage those Impala could cause in a narrow passage? Me thinks I should reassign them to desk jobs for a while. Of course, it took about five to seven minutes to clear the rest of the hallway out (and make sure there were no extra hidden passages filled with ghouls), so I pressed the down button first. "Okay, I'm going to go down alone for the time being. If I can't reach you on the comms after a hour, come down after me."  "But-" One of the Impala began to protest when I interrupted him. "Wait. Do not be hasty. Stick with my guys, and I'll map out the bottom floor. A lone person can get a lot done, and it's most likely all those ghouls came from the elevator given how gross it is." "We're on it, boss." One of my guys said, reloading a new cartridge into his plasma rifle. 'Certainly hope so, unless they goof off.' -You really have a low opinion of your soldiers, don't you? They'd lay down their lives for you, but you look at them with distain.- Anansi scolded me, as I pressed the elevator button, causing the doors to slowly creak open due to the gears being rusty and all until I was able to slide through and close it. "I'm not the best person to do matters of making friends, if they respect me, it's because I put myself in harm's way so they don't have to and tell them the best way to survive skirmishes and ambushes. I've lost too many good soldiers making nice." I grunted, as the elevator started it's downward descent...okay...way too fast for my tastes, floor numbers speeding up, my hooves lifting off the floor...."What the heck!!!!!" I shouted given the blasted thing was dropping like an anvil without brakes, my wings awkwardly flapping to stay in the center. Then with a squeal of rusted hooks on a chalkboard, I collided with the floor face-first, shaken but thankfully not dead. "Ehh....that was unpleasant. You okay?" -Yes. So far, though I am puzzled how the elevator took us down so far when you did not even push a button yet.- "Thing must be buggy. In any case, there's a service hatch above, so even if we can't get it to go back up, I'll just fly on the walls." I noted, watching as the doors slowly slid open into a blood-curdling hallway filled with decaying, dead ponies and obscene graffiti talking about the end of the world and such. Too little, too late, I surmised given the irony of the situation as I helped myself towards looting of the bodies, mostly old world bits and ammo for handguns. -Why are you doing that anyways? Shouldn't you leave their possessions be?- "Eh, given what we just encountered, every scrap counts for the repopulating of Zebrica and rebuilding the Thunderhead fleet. Besides, I have no qualms about it as long as none of these were set up by Trappers. Now they put a inactive grenade under a dead body, affix it to some loot, and if someone tries to get a fancy jacket with caps, no more looter. All in all, I don't care." I said calmly, putting some RadAway and a few potions in my inventory, and chewed on century-old Sugar Bombs to keep me active and alert, my Pipbuck switching on it's flashlight option (which as always fading in and out). Of course, the calm was external, inside I was using most of my willpower not to throw up inside my helmet at all the gore and severed body parts splattered on the walls and floor. The ghouls must have been using the bottom floor as their main fridge, given all the bite marks and removed chunks of muscle and bone, as many herbivores are known to eat bone here in Zebrica. "Eeech...stepped in some of it. I'll have to make myself a mini-shower later." I muttered, then froze upon spotting a lone ghoul in hazmat gear chowing down on a wildebeest's ribcage for partial rotted remnants, then quickly discharged a plasma shot just as it looked up, slicing the top of it's skull in twine falling it to fall over. "Whew...that could have gone worse. Much better at hitting a stationary target." I sighed, my ears currently not picking up any hoof-falls or screeching, no doubt the majority went upstairs by accident leaving that one to guard the area. Trotting over casually, I snatched up his keycard, fifty pre-war bits and spare bullets I could sell later on, though I'm not sure why somepony like him was carrying bullets. Questions for later, I surmised, using the keycard to bypass a security door nearby into a brightly lit room full of greenish glass chambers attached to the ceiling. -This is where the main methane collection of the underground volcano is collected. One of these containers has enough natural gas to fuel a hundred hovertanks, or half a Thunderhead ship.- "And it looks sterilized too, no sign of any ghouls here or bloodshed. The workers and scientists probably had no time to get in before the radiation poured in, given the walls are lead-based with a white paint coating." I muttered, analyzing the floor blueprint with my pipbuck. Wait. I stopped for a brief second, my long ears shriveled and twisted to hear the sound of...crunching? "By the order of the Enclave Military, show yourself! I can hear you in here." I called out, hoping this wouldn't turn into a gunfight. The glass of those containers probably couldn't handle a single blast, and despite the fact I'll be safe from the Carbon Dioxide, the gas would spread into the vents and possibly kill everypony above including my soldiers. However, the sight of a long, gray horse head with a sharp fang, along with two different antlers poking out and twisting it's long neck startled me, looking at me with all the disinterest of a waterflea. "What do you want? Can't you see I'm in the middle of watching my soaps? If anything, this is one of the few places I can get decent reception off the remaining TV satellites, and I'm a few centuries behind given my DVR has been recording each and everyone of them since Zero Hour." The weird creature growled, the rest of his misshapen, multi-limbed body walking around the corner carrying a mini-television with a antenna. "Oi, are you the reason why this place is in such disarray?" I said, trying to stay calm despite the fact I was facing down a beast with intelligence. If he was behind the bloody carnage, he could very easily blow me into chunks of venison in a fraction of a second. "Oh, that." The chimera pony muttered disinterestedly, causing a piece of popcorn to appear in his lion paw, before sticking it in his nose and sucking it in, gulping it without chewing. "Check the computers, little Pegasus. I only got here a week ago, if anything, that mess was due to the remaining scientists who were not ghoulifed making a break for it." -I'll vouch for that. Discord here would do far worse to any pony than splatter their guts all over, like merge them into the floor or turn them inside-out and fuse them together.- "Thank you for that vivid imagery." I muttered, then looked at the mismatch of bodyparts again more closely, "...wait....this is Discord? The bringer of chaos and calamity? The former conqueror who nearly crushed the Elements of Harmony?" I muttered, now recalling what little I learned on the pre-war stages before the Ministries took over.  "Oh, I do love a bit of flattery, but do go on." Discord grinned a toothy grin, clapping the TV into a flat disk of aluminum, then began to chew on it like it was a cookie.   "-It's him, and yet it's not. The only reason he hasn't turned us into puddles of goo upon seeing us is because that is not the 'present' Discord. Somewhere down the line, maybe years later, he must have been freed from his prison. One made of Star Metal, as he can manipulate time-space to his whims.- I could tell he was a tad distressed, so was I if Discord was still capable of maiming me. 
"I can hear you, little Bookworm." Discord stated plainly, gazing right through me as if I was a insignificant pest, "Yes, that was rather uncomfortable for the most part, being trapped in a OIA Facility with nopony to talk to save soulless husks of clones. Thankfully, some do-gooders and a rather cute mare broke me out despite the Star Metal coating. However, I cut them a break since as you can see from my body, I'm half the Discord you've once known." He said, pulling on his arm to show it was sagging slightly, "Heck, I can barely do parlor tricks like summon food when I travel back in time."
"-Cut the dung, why are you here then?-" Ananzi asked rather rudely. "I'm here, you worthless bug because a large shipment of my blood was sent here to patch up a leak in this dam. I suppose Onini called it Flux or something stupid. I only had enough power to send myself back in time to this moment...as well as a few other timelines. Even chatted with Princess Luna before the day the Pink Cloud hit, but it seems your 'friend' had swayed her to the cause completely." Okay, I am completely lost at this point, what is he talking about? "-The Black Book...does it still exist in your present?- And what the heck is a Black Book, I wanted to speak up, but Ananzi kept me from adding in my two bits til he was finished. "Kinda, sorta. To be fair, the facility blew up in a Balefire Explosion. But when I checked it out in the future, which took a bit of magic power on my part to clean it up, I couldn't sense even a trace of the infinite dark magic here. It may have been a very clever copy with all the spells written down to give off a light amount of evil since the original could have made anypony who even looked it fall into absolute madness with bleeding eyes and such." Discord shrugged, though I was curious what else this book had. Dark magic isn't something common in Zebrica after all, but I could feel Ananzi's grip slip due to the feeling of being overwhelmed."You're welcome to take these by the way. I've acquired most of the Flux in this container for restoring my power in the 'present' a few year from now." Discord stated plainly pointing to the blue barrels nearby as if the blaster I had leveled at him wasn't very intimidating at all. "I seriously don't know what the heck you two are talking about, but the point is, this Discord isn't a threat and will share that rare resource, correct?" I said plainly, yet forcefully, ready to put a round in the god of chao's skull given he was nearly powerless. -In a way, yes. To go to the past or future, he has to forfeit his powers temporary.- "Hmmph, I don't have to take that lightly you know. But I do know is that there is one other from the past down that corridor. Apparently, she froze her own time or something cheat-like, but I'm sure you can get her out of it." Discord huffed, pointing down a narrow corridor up to a single, white pod surrounded by the skeletons of ponies pushed against it. Several tubes and monitors were placed along it's sides, probably for life support as I trotted past Discord towards it. Didn't even notice he vanished right them and there afterwards, at least for now.   -Huh.- Anansi said, checking over the old-fashioned computer monitors written in old Ghalian. "What? What is it?" I asked, reloading just in case it turned out to be a ghoul inside. -Well, it seems to be a MAS Capsule, locked from the outside. Only a few were ever made given it required a lot of magic to power it, but there was a chance one would go crazy from staying preserved in place. If there is somepony inside, get ready for anything.- I could feel the flow of information being pushed into my mind, allowing me quick access into the terminal and overriding the system controls. "Hmmph...very well. Opening it up now." One push of a button later, the container's front lid went upwards  drawing out a thick white fog of steam, followed by a series of feminine coughs and hacks. "Huh? Ow, the light's so bright. Mind turning it down?" The lavender-haired with teal streaks mare said coming out one hoof at a time, wincing as she gazed at us, her fur coat a light pink, but apparently wearing a MAS Labcoat with a Level 7 Clearance Badge, "Better yet, what are you doing in here? This is a restricted top-secret MAS military facility." "The real question, is who the hoof are you supposed to be? I'm here under the Enclave, Zebrican Volunteer Division." I shot back at her, showing my badge as I was certainly not impressed with her rank at the moment. Then again, most MAS stuff I disliked due to the whole megaspell issue. "Oh...right, honestly thought you guys had died out. Re-froze myself, what, 50 years back? Could've sworn I put in a ton of turrets and such guarding this place." The mare said calmly aloof to my demand, casually trotting to a nearby terminal and jotting down her password to get it working, "A-ha, my project did finish at long last, give or take a few years after decades of waiting and storing energy from the lake. But I digress, name's Starlight Shimmer. Head Zebrician MAS Scientist is charge of Project Cutie Equality." -Starlight.....hmm. Name sounds familiar, but I can't place it.- Ananzi muttered, checking over thousands of employee records instantaneously in his memory without success, of course, I ended up looking at them as well for some reason. -Must have been a new hire before I left.- Crack! Before I knew it, a heavy metal bar smacked me over the head, knocking me out cold...though I could clearly hear her chuckling in a weird fashion. "Foolish, but admirable. I do thank you for releasing me early so I'll spare you for now. After all, I do have all the time in the world to make the world a much more equal place to live in. Ta-ta." She chuckled, stepping over my fallen body and proceeded to go out the door. -NO, YOU DON'T!!!!!- -Heh, having trouble with your host, Anansi? You have much to learn, and not much time to get your comrades back. Hehehehheheheheh.-