“How are we going to tell him that he’s not a real person?” Sarah asked Luna with a deep frown as they exited the broken bow.

“I know not,” Luna said with a shake of her head.

To our way of thinking, he still is a real person, Nim stated within their minds. After all, we have encountered him several times and he has acted like any other person would.

“But he is like a golem if my understanding of this situation is correct,” Luna stated. “Thus he cannot technically be considered living.”

“Golem?” Sarah asked her, glancing over her shoulder at Luna as the made their way over the rickety metal bridge.

A creature made of clay that has had lifeforce breathed into it via magic, Nim answered. They are not truly alive and are used by many highly powerful mages as servants and the like. Mostly because they can always be rebuilt if something were to go wrong with whatever spell is being tested.

“Ah...” Sarah said, grasping the edge of the concept if not the mechanics of it. “So you’re saying that Harkness is a golem, Luna?”

“It seems quite similar,” Luna stated with a deep frown. “Were we in Equestria I would feel pity for him but be obligated by the law to return him to his owner... here though I am not restricted by such a stipulation.”

Sarah glanced at her and found that Luna’s eyes had hardened. “Well, we never planned to do that in the first place,” Sarah said resolutely.

Luna glanced down at her and smiled. “That is one of the reasons why I love you Sarah, you have a good heart,” she said, giving the back of the woman’s neck a quick nuzzle.

“Heh, thanks,” Sarah said with a small smile, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. The pair continued on the road towards the ship’s main section for several minutes until Sarah heard an odd sound overhead. It sounded like something was... reverberating.

What... is that? Nim asked in confusion. It is like nothing I have ever heard!

“There, in the sky!” Luna said, pointing upwards with her hoof.

Sarah followed the hoof and saw four black objects streak through the daylit sky. They were insectoid in appearance, with bulbous front ends ending in narrow abdomen. Two wings extended from either side of the thorax and Sarah saw two large propellers extending emerging from them.

“Is that... a vertibird?” Sarah asked, her confusion waging a war with excitement. According to the war books in the Vault, vertibirds had been prototypes during the great war... but what were they doing here?

“A what?” Luna asked in confusion.

“A vertibird, they act as mobile troop transports and attack gunships,” Sarah replied quickly. “Or at least they should have been. They were never finished if I remember correctly... they shouldn’t be here.”

Strange... Nim said with a mental frown. And is it our imagination... or are they heading towards where your father is?

Sarah’s eyes widened in shock, yes, yes they were!

“Oh no... that can’t be good!” Sarah stated in a low voice. “Come on Luna, we’ve got to get over there!”

“Agreed!” Luna stated. “Shall we fly?”

“I don’t think so...” Sarah replied as she began to run in the direction of the Project. “It would make you an easy target, and anyone with that kind firepower would shoot us out of the sky.”

Luna simply nodded, easily keeping pace with the woman. The two sprinted down the cracked asphalt of the road as in the distance the vertibirds touched down on the large metal walkway outside of the Project. Sarah’s lungs burned as her feet pounded against the asphalt. She didn’t know why... but a feeling of absolute dread had settled into the pit of her stomach.

As they drew closer Sarah saw black armoured figures walking the outside of the Project. They wore armour that dimly reminded Sarah of the soldiers of the Brotherhood of Steel but... darker. It, like their forms of transportation, appeared insectoid in nature; thick black carapaces of steel. In their hands rested tube-like guns with glowing green cores which Sarah suspected were energy weapons. There were not many of the figures, Sarah assumed that most had already gone inside, but those that she did see were clearly on guard.

“Sarah, stop,” Luna instructed suddenly, her magic grabbing Sarah as they reached the small island that the Project rested on. Sarah fought for a moment and then stilled as she looked at Luna with confusion.

“Why?” Sarah demanded as Luna directed her over the edge of the ‘island’ and onto the small bit of ground before the water.

“Because... charging them head on will do nothing except make us targets,” Luna replied simply.

She’s right, Nim affirmed.

“Okay... so what do we do?” Sarah asked.

“We tackle this with some form of forethought,” Luna replied with a small smile. “We have moved onto fighting what I believe is an actual force... so we must use actual tactics.”

“You know, I thought this place would be more... run down,” Frank said as he leaned against the doorway.

“Yeah, I know,” his brother DuFresne replied as he glanced around. “It’s not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Sure there are mutants and the people are disgusting, but give us this purifier and a couple of years and we’ll make this whole city shine again.”

“Yeah, it’s like President Eden says, we’ll save America,” Frank agreed with a chuckle. “So, how are things going in there do you think?”

“The last radio report said things were going alright, they had some security people from that floating tugboat but it was nothing we couldn’t handle,” DuFrense replied as he leaned against the door beside his brother. “Apparently the head scientist put up a fight too, managed to send Tanner back to the vertibird for medivac with an arc welder.”

“Damn,” Frank replied before shaking his head. “Stupid fucking wasters.”

“Yeah, stupid fucking wasters,” DuFrense replied before frowning within his helmet. “Hey, what happened to Sam?

Frank frowned too and looked around the area for their other squad mate. “That’s weird... I don’t see him,” the said as he readied his plasma rifle. “I hope he didn’t wander off too far, he’s got our extra microfusion cells.”

“Knowing him he’s off sleeping somewhere,” DuFrense agreed with a shake of his head. “Lazy ass. Now we have to go look for him.”

“Yeah,” Frank agreed as he stepped away from the door. The two set off and walked over to where Sam had been patrolling.

“Sam, you lazy asshole, where are you?” DuFrense shouted as he looked around the edge of the island.

“I don’t like this,” Frank muttered as he scanned the apparently empty Wasteland. He gripped his plasma rifle tighter between his gauntlets as he suddenly realized that none of his other squad mates were where they should have been, a fact that he quickly shared with his brother.

“What the hell is going on?” DuFrense demanded as he looked around in confusion. He turned back to his brother to see that there was now a rather sizeable silver blade protruding from his chest, armour cut cleanly through.

He didn’t have long to think about that because something slammed into his legs and sent him tumbling to the ground, power armour and all. He landed with a thud and tried to get off of his stomach when he suddenly felt something touch the base of his neck.

Sarah pulled the knife out and got back to her feet.

“That went... way too well,” the woman stated as she cleaned the knife and re-sheathed it.

“Do not count on it happening often,” Luna stated as she collected the plasma rifles. “There were very few of them and thus they were easy to ambush. I imagine that once they realize that their men out here are dead that they will send someone to investigate.”

“Well then, let’s get in there while the getting’s good,” Sarah replied as she took off towards the door at a quick sprint.

Careful Sarah, we must still be cautious, Nim said within her mind.

I know, I know, I’m just worried about my father, Sarah replied stiffly as she reached the door to the Project.

Then rid yourself of that worry! Nim told her harshly. We will not have you die because you burst through a doorway that should have been taken cautiously!

Sarah frowned in irritation but headed Nim’s advice and slowly eased the door open. She looked inside and saw that there was no one there, apparently whoever the troopers were with hadn’t expected anyone to make it that far from the outside.

We are clear, Nim announced for Luna’s benefit.

Sarah crept through the door, Luna following as silently as she could manage on her hooves behind her. The pair inched their way down the corridor, Sarah with her repeater hugging her shoulder and Luna with Daybreaker at the ready. They came to the room containing the gift shop and came to a stop.

Five of the black armoured troops were waiting within it all of them armed similarly to those from before.

“God dammit,” one of them stated. “We’ve lost contact with Blue Team.”

“How?” another asked. “There’s no way in hell that those ‘security’ guards could have gotten out and even less chance of them managing to kill all of Blue Team.”

“I don’t know, but you two need to check on it,” the first one speaker said, pointing at two of the other troopers.

“Aye sir,” they said at once, snapping the man salutes.

Sarah and Luna exchanged a glance.

What should we do? Luna mentally asked the woman.

I don’t know... you’re the strategist here, Sarah replied. I’d say that our best bet is to try and take out the two who are coming this way as they leave and then launch an attack on the other three.

A fair plan, we shall guide your hands, Nim stated within Sarah’s head.

Sarah nodded and let out a deep breath before as the pair of troopers walked towards the doorway. She brought up her repeater to focus on his head, hoping that the bullet would penetrate the armour. Meanwhile, Luna readied Daybreaker for a single decapitating slice.

The two troopers walked through the doorway and Luna’s blade fell. Her trooper’s head rolled one way as his body fell the other

“What the hel-”

*BANG*

The .44 round slammed into the man’s helmet and the other man went down. That however wasn’t enough to kill him, nor did it stop the other soldiers from seeing the very obvious deaths.

Before Sarah knew what was happening the corridor was full of laser fire and bolts of green plasma. The woman screamed out in pain and slammed her back against the wall clutching at her arm where a ball of plasma had ‘grazed’ her. The pain was incredible as the superheated ‘liquid’ burned through her Ranger’s armour and ate at the edges of her skin.

Luna looked over in concern, but found herself unable to do anything thanks to the almost literal wall of energy being sent at them. She wasn’t even able to get a shot off as the troops seemed to be taking turns firing, the other team starting the moment that the first ran out of shots.

Sarah grit her teeth against the pain from her arm as Nim spoke within her mind. We shall do what we can to blot out the pain but we aren’t capable of dismissing all of it.

The woman nodded as a bit of the pain receded and she peaked around the doorframe to see that the troopers had stopped firing. Instead, two of them had green spherical objects in their hands.

Grenades, Sarah thought to herself. Nim, I need you!

We are here, Nim replied.

Sarah brought up her repeater and focused on the grenades. The world seemed to slow to a crawl as the adrenaline rushed through her brain and she felt her hands moving on their own accord.

*BANG*

One shot missed and the troopers turned their guns on Sarah again.

*BANG*

Another shot missed.

*BANG*

P-CHOOM!

The room was obscured in a blast of green and Sarah’s eyes burned as the grenade detonated.

Luna tugged Sarah back behind the wall in case any of the troopers were left alive, though after an explosion like that she doubted there were. Sarah blinked rapidly as her eyes attempted to recover from the abuse and it took her several seconds to do so. The first thing she saw was Luna’s concerned face.

“Are you alright?” the alicorn asked worriedly.

“I... yeah, sorry,” Sarah replied as she blinked ghosts from her eyes. “Let’s keep moving,” she said as she glanced around the corner and saw that the room was empty save for three puddles of glowing green goo.

We want those grenades, we want many of those grenades! Nim exclaimed in Sarah’s head. With them there will be no one who would dare stand befo-

Nim, shut up, Sarah stated flatly, in no mood for that. Nim fell silent, cowed by the woman’s harsh tone.

The pair made their way through the now empty room and Sarah frowned. Where should we look for my father?

I believe that it would be best if we checked the main room, Luna replied with a frown. It would make the most logical place to herd everyone were we in control of this operation.

Sarah nodded and they quickly dashed across through the empty rooms and towards the doors to the rotunda. Unfortunately, before they got there, they ran into another two man squad of troopers.

“Get the freaks!” one of them shouted, bringing up a plasma rifle to focus on Luna.

The mare felt a painful arrow of heat hit her chest but she ignored it and sent Daybreaker lancing at the trooper. The silver blade impaled him through the chest and Luna pulled it out with a clean motion before bringing it around to slash at the trooper beside him. Said trooper dodged to the side and prepared to fire at her.

Sarah’s .44 round tore through the air and whizzed by his head, distracting him and making him turn to the woman. Sarah’s next round nailed him between the eyes but his armour took the hit with ease and he fired.

Sarah rolled to the side beneath a bolt of plasma and felt it skid across her back causing her to let out a scream of pain but she pulled out of her roll in time to fire again. This time the bullet slammed through the man’s throat padding and he dropped like a stone.

The woman panted in place and glanced at Luna. The mare’s chest was visible through her now thoroughly holed armour and Sarah could see several places where the plasma had scorched their way into her flesh. Luna caught her glance and shook her head.

“I will be fine... they are not nearly the worst burns I have received,” the alicorn stated, dismissing the woman’s fears. “Now come, we must move.”

Sarah nodded and pushed open the door to the rotunda. Inside she found Doctor Li and several others staring at the interior of the glass enclosed control room. The woman turned to stare at the pair, her eyes widening.

“Sarah, thank God!” she said, rushing up to give the woman a hug.

Sarah didn’t so much accept the hug as simply stand there and allow herself to be hugged. “Where’s my father?” she demanded once Li had released her.

“In there with their commander,” Doctor Li replied, pointing at the control room.

Sarah rushed up to the edge to see her father, his face bruised and bloody, standing in front of a blond man wearing a large military coat. Two of the armoured troopers were also there, both of whom were pointing their plasma rifles at her father menacingly.

“Dad!” Sarah shouted, rushing up to the glass and banging on it. Her father turned away from the military man and saw her, he gave her a comforting smile as if to say ‘everything will be alright’ and turned back to the man. Said man was staring at Luna, his eyes narrowed.

He asked James something and James replied, Sarah couldn’t hear a word thanks to the glass.

“We’ve got to get in there!” Sarah exclaimed, her eyes not leaving her father.

“I could cut us a way through,” Luna stated, hefting Daybreaker.

“No, you can’t do that!” another of the scientists exclaimed.

“And whyever not?” Luna asked, turning to regard the woman with narrowed eyes.

“Because if you do that then in the event of a radiation surge then this entire building will be impossible to use,” the woman explained. “That room acts as a containment center in case of overloads and surges.”

Luna stared at her before letting out an irritated huff and turning back to Sarah who had been too concerned watching her father to have pay attention to the background chatter.

The military man said something else and James just nodded and replied. The military man frowned and then smiled arrogantly, walking up the the inner control panel. Without warning, faster then the guards could react, James rushed forwards and Sarah saw his fist raised to clock the military man.

However, just before James’s fist could touch him, the military man’s arm shot up and deflected Jame’s fist to the side. James responded by bringing his other fist around for another punch but the military man was faster and his fist slammed into James’s jaw, sending the bloodied man tumbling to the ground.

Sarah let out a shout of dismay at her father’s fall and slammed her hands against the unyielding glass. Her scream only got louder as the two troopers shot her father with a pair of plasma bolts.

“DAD!” she shouted hysterically as she beat against the glass, feeling utterly helpless.

Then there was a flash of light within the room and there was Luna, standing over her father’s fallen form. Before the troopers could react Luna disappeared in another flash of light and reappeared beside Sarah though she dropped to her knees in exhaustion. For once Sarah’s eyes weren’t focused on her, more important was the form of her father who had miraculously appeared beside her.

James was lying on his back looking at the ceiling, there were two large burn marks in his chest, evidence of the plasma bolts.

“Dad! Dad are you okay?!” Sarah asked desperately, falling to her knees beside him, what little of her calmness remained falling away..

James moved his head to the side and smiled. “I’m... fine Sarah... but we need to get everyone out of here,” he said slowly as blood ran down his face. Sarah stared at him for a moment before she reached into her pocket and pulled out a stimpack, quickly injecting it into his chest right above the deep scorch marks.

“We can’t move you now!” Sarah exclaimed as she stared at him incredulously. It was only then that she noticed two things. One, Doctor Li was crouching on James’s other side, two, Nim was currently shouting in her head.

SARAH WE MUST MOVE! Nim shouted. WE MUST MOVE NOW!

Shut up! Sarah replied angrily as her eyes turned back to her father who was being helped very slowly to his feet.

NO I WILL NOT SHUT UP! Nim all but roared. LUNA IS INJURED AND YOU ARE LYING ON THE GROUND LIKE A CHILD INSTEAD OF DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT!

The sheer volume of the mental words was enough to force Sarah’s eyes to look at Luna who was still on her knees, gasping for air, perspiration covering her body. A thin line of white foam puffed around the very edge of her lips and her eyes looked slightly wild.

“Luna!” Sarah shouted as she darted towards her companion.

“I... am... fine...” Luna said, her breaths coming out raspily. “There... just... was not as much magic... as I had hoped.”

Sarah was conflicted, being pulled between the overwhelming sense of concern she had for the two people she cared about the most.

Luckily, it did not fall upon Sarah’s shoulders to choose. The room shook as a pulse of some sort of energy rocked the control room and it tore Sarah’s eyes from Luna. The military man was slumped over the control panel and his two men were similarly down.

Behind her, her father let out a ragged laugh. “Hah... stupid bastard.”

“What did you do?” Doctor Li asked as she steadied James between herself and another of the scientists.

“I told him the emergency radiation flood activation code,” James replied through gritted teeth. “Now... everyone come on... we have to get out of here.”

Sarah turned to look at her father, her eyes shining with tears at seeing that he was alright before turning to Luna who had struggled to her hooves and moved to support the mare.

“Are you alright?” Sarah asked the mare worriedly.

“No... but I will live... this time,” Luna replied, her face haggard.

“I... thank you Luna, thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Sarah murmured as the pair began to limp after the others. “You... you saved him Luna.”

“I would do it again,” Luna said quietly, her voice still raspy. “Even if it killed me.”