After having gone over his plan with Watcher, or at least what he needs from Watcher for this part of the plan, Gearing replaced the sprite bot back at ground level and then continued on his route to the marker OJ had made him aware of.

Finding Ironshod Firearms’ R&D building wasn’t nearly as hard for Gearing as some would have thought. After all, he’s been to this very building before, so he knew what it looked like. Back before getting magically kidnapped and thrown two hundred years into the future. He’d never been past the first floor though, as the meeting he’d had here was only a cursory type thing. And even then he got the feeling that he wasn’t truly welcome and the ponies he talked to felt like they didn’t really have a choice in the matter.

And if that is what they thought, they were correct. Because the alternative would have been far more invasive. Because when Gearing starts hunting for a rat, he doesn’t typically take ‘no’ for an answer.

Upon arriving at the multistory building it doesn’t take long for Gearing to see signs of battle. Some really old. But far more recent fights as well. He takes to hovering in the air where he can to avoid stepping on things and creating unnecessary noise. Judging by his EFS, there are a lot of things trying to be problems for him in this building. Although, given what he knows from back in the old world, there’s far less of them than there would normally be otherwise. Even if it is all security bots with ponicidal tendencies and not just a bunch of over ambitious insects.

He starts finding the relatively fresh wrecks of security robots with impressive regularity. Robronco Sentries. Multi-limbed combat hover bots. There’s also the tell tale signs of many destroyed turrets. Along with the wrecks there are an overabundance of spent shotgun shells littering the ground. All of which still have the faint smell of recent discharge. The bots may have been old, but the damage on most of these is fresh. And so are the scorch marks from detonated mines. But, as far as he can see, there’s no blood, gore, or fur along with it so the mines most likely didn’t claim any victims when they detonated.

All of which lines up with what Gearing was told by OJ.

He follows the wake of fresh destruction up through the second floor and then continues up beyond the catwalks to more solid floors again. After all, if there’s already been one successful trip in and out by someone else, he considers that the most likely path of least resistance. The lower levels were pretty much as he’d expected, with the first floor being mostly offices and the second floor being a series of narrow catwalks connecting various labs and different related rooms, but as he climbs further up he sees areas that are in a bit better condition. Offices and equipment still left where it was last used, instead of scattered around by inconsiderate idiots who get bored and just decide to break stuff like he’s been accustomed to finding in the vast majority of derelict buildings he’s been in since waking up on this side of the apocalypse.

Except the scattered remnants of the trashed security bots. There’s plenty of those. And he can’t help staring at a couple of them and wondering just how much scrap equipment he can fish out of them and how useful it could be if he got it back to the stable.

Instantly he starts regretting losing the sky wagon and debates the merits of getting another one working. Merits such as having the golden opportunity of cleaning out the entire manufacturing wing, and all of the security bots, and taking them back to the stable so he can work and build with them. He can haul a lot, but at a certain point the bulk will make it hard for even him to carry.

It doesn’t take long for him to start having flights of fancy about not needing to go to the Core anymore, if he can just set up a security manufacturing center and repair elsewhere.

‘You’re drooling,’ the little pegasus in his head giggles as he flies around aimlessly.

Typical of his method for clearing places, he sweeps the third and fourth floor for threats as well before he even starts seriously thinking about scavenging. But, what he has seen on the way up is good. Real good. And he knows a particular mare that would be celebrating each time the calculations involving her request add more to the goods’ total value. And after making a quick check list of locations of various threats that are still remaining in the building, he heads back downstairs to where it’d all already been cleared, and heads straight for the second floor labs to start taking inventory.

He walks into one of the labs on the second floor, and quickly looks back and forth as the interior strikes him as being odd. This one’s a bit different. While a few others have had minimal if any real recent traffic, this one definitely has had hoof traffic. He walks over to a set of equipment, and finds the tell tale signs of recent chemistry work in action. Not too recent. But recent enough. Although, whoever did it was in such a rush that they didn’t seem to care about cleaning and putting things back to where they should be. He finds an empty syringe near a spot where it looks like someone had been laying down. He walks over to the used beaker and sniffs the contents. After staring at the material on the inside, and the cast off solids to the side, Gearing gently licks the inside of the breaker to taste the residue.

“Hmmmm…minty” He looks over at the solids that had been strained out and dumped into a metal surgical tray sitting on the counter, and pokes around in them a bit with his wing tip. He holds up a familiar hard chip and brings it close to his eye. He quickly pops it into his mouth for a few seconds, swishing it around with his tongue, before spitting it back out into the rest of the cast offs. “Chitin.”

He looks around slowly as he says, “Healing potion solution mixed with organic material from a scorpion… That’s definitely a piece of carapace from one of those bigger scorpions.” He looks over at the bed and frowns as he muses, “I bet one of them got got by one of the blasted scorpions Bonesaw’s been bitching about and they used the lab to cook up some anti venom antidote…” He walks over and scuffs around where it looks like the improvised bed was and sniffs a bit. He grabs the empty syringe and looks it over before he smiles lightly. “They musta done a good enough job to get them going again.” He sets the syringe back down as he comments, “Good on them…”

He starts walking around the lab, taking stock of all of the equipment as he debates on what would be the best to take with him and in what order. The fact they won’t be taking any of the repair parts, or equipment that they came up here for in the first place, back to the stable from here means he’ll have far more storage capacity for carrying other goodies. Depending on what he finds, he might have to make a few trips.

But the little pegasus in his head quickly starts jumping around and waving a flag as it brings up a very good point.

‘Get the shit we don’t currently have access to first. We already have a chem lab. Leave the ‘would be nice’ shit for later. Grab the ‘needs’ now!’

Gearing nods as he starts to leave the used lab room. But, even so, he quickly grabs the hot plate that someone had been using to cook up anti venom. He checks it quickly, smiles at its flawless functionality, and then walks out into the hall with it. He quickly sets it down, letting it cool, as he turns and heads further down the hallway as he continues his snooping trip. More labs. More offices. More destroyed robots and empty shells.

Along the way he can’t help but notice some of the damage to the robot corpses and other signs of fighting. The tiny rods of steel he knows are used in flechette rounds, meant for lightly armored targets, get a smirk from him. The bot with a splat of green ooze on it draws a genuine smile. And it doesn't take him long to realize that someone must have gotten some rounds that they didn’t know anything about, and simply tested them on the first opponent they came across. Not a bad strategy in his opinion.

In one of the labs he finds a set of boxes that seem to have been organized for the storage of manufactured ammo. Whole crates of them even. He grabs them and looks in with a wide smile, but instantly frowns once he actually gets a look. Every single one has already been taken. The crates are completely empty. And recently judging by the voids in the dust. He narrows his eyes and carefully pushes them back into location as he says, “Aaaaand that’s definitely the work of the mare that did most of the leg work through here. So I’m not too mad about it. Hope she enjoyed them…” He can’t help but looking around as he sees all of the various empty casings and knowing that all of them would be near the end of the list of things he’d want to grab. Since they’d be useful for reloads, but not much else.

‘But they still are on the list, you know,’ the little pegasus in his head giggles as it looks over the practical treasure trove of goodies clinking around against Gearing’s hooves.

As he’s walking down the hallway, he crosses a door that makes his Pipbuck scream as he’s passing it. He stops, spins around, and walks back up to the door as he says, “Well hellloooo there…” He tries the door and finds it held fast. “It’s locked…” He smiles widely as he says, “Considering they haven’t bothered with locking stuff behind them, I bet they hadn’t gotten into here.” He stares at it for a moment before he slowly starts looking around. “Did she have a Pipbuck? Or some other kinda radiation gauge?” He looks at the door lock again as he smirks. “If so, that’d explain why she didn’t mess with this door.” He looks at his Pipbuck as it rapidly clicks its displeasure.

He sits down on his haunches as he looks over the lock on the closet door. For some reason, it seems just a bit off to him. He can’t quite put his hoof on it. Almost like it doesn’t really belong here. Which just makes him want to get into it even more. He casually pulls out some of his tools from his saddle bag, and smiles as he says, “Lets see what you got…”

He starts working on it, and, in short order, his expression changes rapidly. The lock is far more complicated than he’d expected for a mere closet barrier. At first it’s surprising. But, after getting over that initial shock, it starts becoming frustrating. Then, after getting through that annoyance, and multiple broken bobby pins, he actually starts smiling around the tools as his expression becomes far more focused. Determined. And, strangely, out right enjoying himself.

Even more so when the last pin gets nudged into place and he lets out a satisfied groan as the lock’s cylinder rotates and signals its defeat. He leaves the door as it is, as he carefully puts his tools away. It’s been a little bit since he’s had such an annoying lock to deal with. So he wants to savor the win before unleashing whatever is on the other side of the door.

He carefully gets up, steps to the side a bit so he can look in without smacking himself in the face with the door, and slowly opens the door to see what he’s discovered.

Instantly the ticking on his Pipbuck picks up the pace to the point that it sounds like a minigun stuck firing, but has no ammo so it just keeps clicking instead.

‘Oh wow! Just feel that tingle!’ the little pegasus in his head comments as it looks in wide eyed at the interior.

Gearing’s eyes go wide as he checks his Pipbuck, and, yes, indeed, the magical radiation coming from the center of the room is such that a normal pony would have serious health issues just being in proximity for any real length of time. A poster on the inside of the door catches his eye, and he glances over it after opening the door up more.

The poster is an inventory control list. Showing who took what and when. With a string of dates and names that reminded Gearing of old library due date cards. But there at the top was a carefully written memo for whoever could read it.

‘Everypony,
Take extreme care when handling or transporting the materials for the experimental ammunition. Make sure to follow ALL procedures while doing so, or you might just end up killing yourself and everypony around you. If you don’t know what the correct procedures are, you aren’t supposed to be in this closet in the first place. If that applies to you, submit yourself to HR for immediate termination of your employment. Failure to do so will be considered espionage and then you’ll have to deal with the ministries.’

Gearing looks at it and smirks as he says, “Yeah, well… those don’t exist anymore… soooo… suck it!” He turns his head, pokes it inside the closet, and a grin covers his muzzle as he eagerly looks over the contents inside. Although the look of excitement quickly becomes one of confusion. He’d expected rows of cartons of the new experimental ammo. Maybe a couple weapons to fire said ammo. But, instead, the shelves on both sides have rows of cardboard boxes, crates, and other containers, and right in the middle of it all a big military grade crate had been broken open and seems to be leaking out through cracks in the side somewhere.

“‘BioMagical Flux Number thirteen’, huh…” Gearing quietly reads aloud from the side of the leaking container.

Gearing steps in and carefully examines the strange crate. From what he can see through the gaps it seems to be full of standard sized specimen containers, metallic cylinders designed to keep the contents safe from the outside world and vice versa. He leans over the compromised crate to see the back side where a small puddle of the rainbow liquid seems to have formed from leaking out of a pin hole in the back. And it only takes waving his Pipbuck in its direction to confirm that it’s the liquid itself that is making his Pipbuck have a riot on his foreleg. Gearing stares at the strangely colored fluid for a bit as he tries to ponder what it could possibly be. And, just as importantly, how it could be used in an experimental weapon. And, relatedly, why is it actually glowing.

‘Looks like industrial waste…’ the little pegasus in his head says as it flutters around the ominously glowing puddles in circles. ‘Colorful industrial waste at that… I wonder if it’s a mix of a bunch of things...’

“Yeah, but, how could that be used as an experimental weapon’s ammunition?” Gearing ponders out loud. His mind is already running through a variety of scenarios as he stares at the very unfriendly fluid.

The little pegasus in his head frowns at him as he asks, ‘Really?’

Gearing instantly scowls as he replies, “I was trying to think of a good reason… Something better than just using it as a toxic dirty-bomb of a weapon…”

The little pegasus in his head waves around at the container as he comments, ‘If it’s throwing off this much energy, just imagine how wide of an area could be made poisonous with an artillery round of the stuff… Proximity set for air burst would be a wide area denial weapon for sure.’

Gearing snarls. “And add in a high explosive yield with it, and it’d get even worse… Assuming the mix doesn’t combine in a chain reaction for an even bigger boom that is…”

The little pegasus zips back and forth as he asks, ‘What’s in the boxes?’

Gearing grabs one of the smaller wooden boxes from the stack along the side, and looks it over carefully. “Strange… this looks more like a gift box.” He opens it up, and can’t help but stare at the inside.

The wooden box has been cut such that it would snugly hold a very specific item. And it’s not hard to guess what that item is. A large caliber round of some kind. From the silhouette it looks to Gearing to be somewhere in the classification of a small artillery piece. He can’t help but wonder about if he had a weapon that could fire a caliber like that, if he’d be able to just use it like a rifle. Caliber wise and minus the evil materials they were using here that is. He starts checking the various smaller boxes, and finds all of the whole stack of them empty. Like they hadn’t even been used yet.

‘Should I be concerned that they felt the need to individually package each round like this? Just how unstable were these rounds?!’ the little pegasus asks with a worried frown.

“Well, the poster warns you could kill yourself and everyone around you if you fucked up, so that’s a bit of a clue…”

‘These all seem empty…’ the little pegasus says as he flutters around as Gearing goes box by box and determines the status of them all.

“Yeah… What’s in these other boxes?” Gearing mutters to himself as he grabs a briefcase off the right shelf. He opens it up and looks inside without any ceremony to it. And slowly a smile grows on his muzzle as his eyes twinkle.

The little pegasus flies around quickly as he asks, ‘Is that what I think it is? Please say yes!’

Gearing nods as he leans in close to the small pieces of stone that are inside of tiny glass sample boxes. “I think it is!”

‘Moon rocks! Actual moon rocks!’ the little pegasus squeals with delight. ‘I always wanted to have a collection of some! This makes up for missing the geology exhibit at the museum!’

Gearing slowly looks it over and his eyebrow raises as he asks, “But, how’d they get these? And sooooo much of it? It makes no sense…” He carefully closes the lid then replaces the suitcase where it was on the right shelf. He grabs a similar case from one of the left shelves, but the suitcase is empty. He checks all of the ones on the left, and finds that every single one of them have already been emptied. But, unlike the ones from the right, the glass boxes that he can clearly see where they go are missing as well. The last suitcase on the right is a bit harder for Gearing to grab, as it’s not actually on the shelf but on the side of it and on the far side of the shelf almost hidden behind everything else, but he does. And it’s much larger than the others. More like a metal reinforced attache case than the soft sided cases the others were.

He pulls it out into the hallway to look at it, and soon finds this one is actually locked.

“Challenge accepted!”

Gearing quickly pulls his tools out and gets to work.

But, it only takes him a few seconds to unlock it as it is so disappointingly lacking in complexity that he actually deflates a little at the realization that he’s already gotten it unlocked. This time he opens the case without ceremony by flicking it open as he’s putting his tools away. And can’t help but laugh when he looks in at what’s inside.

‘It’s like someone’s hidden snack stash,’ the little pegasus in his head comments with an amused smile on his muzzle.

Gearing starts sorting through the items, and can’t help agreeing that this has little to nothing to do with work. He holds up a box of Sugar Apple Bombs and smiles as he says, “Hey, this looks like one of those limited edition boxes… Still sealed… Couple other things in here too.”

He starts sifting through the case, removing the various snacks that have been crammed into the box, and at the bottom of it he finds a folder with some papers in it. And, of course, with the red text stamped across the side reading ‘Experimental’ and ‘Classified’ Gearing can’t help but immediately open it up and read what’s so important.

Despite what the folder had been marked, the vast majority of the papers inside of the folder read like personal correspondence. Mainly between a pair of mares in the building that seem to be having an affair of sorts. Why they would keep such incriminating evidence at work where it could be found -and thus them fired- he can’t understand. But not everyone is as paranoid as he is, and he can understand and respect that on some level. But, at the far bottom of the folder pile, was something other than detailed descriptions about who was going to lick whom where and when.

He pulls the paper out and can instantly tell that it was an official document. The paper type was even different if nothing else. The rest seemed like it had been pilfered from office printers, but this was more indicative of archived technical documents. He quickly starts going over the small diagram and information along the perimeter of the technical drawing in the center.

‘Judging by the dimensions, that sounds about right for the ammo that’s supposed to be in these boxes…’ the little pegasus comments as it sits on Gearing’s shoulder like a parrot and reads along with him.

“This reads like some sort of artillery shell… but this can’t be right. The diagram looks like it’s nested with various materials. And it doesn’t seem to have anything to control the detonation, so it would just… go off when it was fired… I don’t know what these materials are, they’re all coded… but... Apparently when that center part gets knocked out of suspension from whatever this stuff around it is, it’ll hit the case and… boom?”

‘What if it’s a directed weapon?’

“You mean like a shaped charge?” Gearing ponders aloud as he keeps looking the schematic over.

‘Yeah, like how we talked about doing with mines… but on a bigger scale.’

“But the formulas… The energy produced from such a small amount seems ridiculous. I don’t know a single material, nor combination, that has this kinda output by weight… And if the ignition chamber is to be believed, it’d basically be a bomb. But, judging from their phrasing they aren’t expecting that, they are expecting it to be able to be controlled and in one direction. Fuck… the amount of magical reinforcement that would be needed just to keep it from blowing up in the face of the user is ridiculous. Even I wouldn’t want to use this damn thing…” Gearing’s eyes go wide. “A blast funneled in a single direction… all of its destructive force thrown in the same direction…” He glances to the side and sees the leaking barrel. “And… if that stuff was mixed into the blast, the radiation would go along with it, soaking everything in the path with pure death…”

‘Anything in front of it would be fucked… fortifications… tanks… Hell, if you got the angle right you could probably take out entire battalions if they were lined up and you broadsided them… Depending on the power of the blast, that is.’

“A directed magical mechanical explosion soaked in toxic waste… What the hell could stand up to that? Even shields would-” Gearing stops and his eyes go wide slowly. “No… wait…” He looks down at the schematic, calculating the blast as much as he could based on the formulas scribbled around the margins, and gently he puts a hoof to his mouth. “Fuck… were they trying to kill Celestia and Luna?!”

The little pegasus flops down on the floor as it looks at him with his mouth agape.

Gearing nods as he looks at it. “Look… depending on how directed it is and its output… assuming this isn’t all just bullshit, this could punch through shields. And I mean slice right through them. I don’t even know if those alicorns shields would be able to hold up against such a concentrated ‘fuck you!’ this could unleash. And then there’s the radiation too, traveling at ridiculous speeds.” He looks around as he says, “Oh boy… if anyone saw this… the ministries would be all over this place like flies on shit…”

‘The Caesar would literally kill wholesale to get his hooves on this schematic… Let alone the supplies and the other documentation…’

“Bit of a moot point now, but you’re right,” Gearing comments as he folds up the schematic. He opens the box of sugar apple bombs, and shoves the folded up paper inside it before closing the box up again.

‘We’re not selling this.’

“No shit.”

‘Time to fog up the issue?’

Gearing quickly grabs the suitcase that still had stones in it, and dumps them out before replacing it. Then he does the same with the other cases, until he’s collected all of the little boxes, whether they have anything in them or not. He grabs the folder full of torrid correspondence and sets it on top of the leaking barrel. He puts the empty glass vials in the secret snack attache case, with the full ones being set aside with the rest of the snacks. After he’s sure he’s got all of the glass sample cases, he starts stepping on and crushing them. In short order the once snack filled attache case is now filled with small glass fragments and powder. After getting them sufficiently crumbled, he closes the case and sets it aside just outside the door. “I’ll dump this elsewhere… that way no one’s likely to get the contents and discover the materials by testing the residual dust and fragments.” He starts walking down the hall again as he comments, “The explosive force is potentially bad enough, but the world’s already poisoned enough… So this needs to be a prime scrubbing target…”

‘And if anyone asks about the moon rocks, you tell’em that you found a suitcase with a skeleton from some pony that worked at the Natural History Museum. No strings,’ the little pegasus chimes in.

“Mmhmm.”

Gearing continues his inventorying of the rooms, going one by one on the floor. But the next truly strange thing he runs into is in the office of some researcher. Gearing stops at the door, staring at the old plaque that declares who occupies the room, and can’t help tilting his head at the unexpected sight.

‘Dr. Trottenheimer

Research Lead’

“Trottenheimer,” Gearing murmurs as he stares at it. “Surely it can’t be…”

‘Wasn’t that the name of that scientist that worked for the Ministry of Arcane Science?’ The little pegasus in his head asks as it flutters up and stares at the plaque.

“Yeah… He’d written several rather brilliant papers on various topics… What would someone like that be doing here? Isn’t bullet manufacturing a bit below his caliber?” Gearing asks as he raises an eyebrow.

‘Can’t be the same buck, right?’ the little pegasus asks as he hovers around the sign.

Gearing scrunches his face up a few times before shaking his head. “Can’t be. Don’t see why he’d demote himself like that… As interesting as guns are, Ironshod isn’t exactly cutting edge in the fields he seemed to like and excel in. This would be like making Octavia play a kazoo in a foal’s choir…” He shakes his head and continues on.

As Gearing is first stepping into the office from the hall, there’s a couple things that instantly grab his attention. The first being the hole in the wall, a nearly polished glossy omission in the fortified structure, that seems to lead out into the not-so-clear gray yonder. And the second is the skeleton collapsed in on itself by the desk. Seeing an ancient skeleton has become rather mundane to Gearing, as much as he hates to admit it. There’s just so many in so many places he’s been since waking up. It’s not that he doesn’t realize that each one represents a life extinguished. He does. He’s painfully aware of it. But since getting back from his failed attempt to get into the Core, they just have piled up so much that it’s hard for him to stop and think about each one anymore. Except notable outliers.

Like the ancient corpse in front of him.

Gearing scoots around the desk and looks the skeleton over very carefully. And, as such, also looks over at the hole in the wall. He stares at them intently, looking back and forth, and even grabs a pencil off the floor to get a trajectory from the hole. He looks on the other side of the skeleton, and takes careful note of the general lack of damage. He looks from the skeleton, of a unicorn buck, to the relatively undisturbed condition of the wall. And he stoops down and sways side to side as he looks at the strangely perfectly cut hole in the wall. Until he finds the angle that makes it perfectly aligned: straight through this wall, through the office next door, and out the outer wall on the other side of that office. He replaces his vision with the pencil, and has it pointing along the same axis, holding it there with a wing as he leans back and starts looking around the area where he’s standing. And then, he looks down. And the answer seems eerily obvious to him.

“Someone shot him from here? What kind of weapon could have done this…?” He stoops down and starts looking over the corpse again. And, the more he looks at it the more disturbing it seems to him.

Being a clockwork, he’s always been used to ‘normal’ ponies being far more squishy than he is. More flexible. More malleable. After all, his parts are made from solid brass. But, that only takes one’s logic so far. It doesn’t explain, in the least, why the skeleton at his hooves seems to have part of it practically melted. Bones are, at least to a small extent, flexible. But only to a small extent. Normally. And bones are composed of minerals, mainly calcium, so they don’t just melt when heated. They get hot, they get brittle. And then they either crumble to dust or completely combust. They don’t warp like a candle that’s been left in the window of a closed up vehicle on a hot day.

But that’s exactly how this poor buck’s skull looks. Especially with a hole clean through it that looks like someone took a red hot coin and dropped it onto styrofoam making it simply melt clean through it.

Gearing can’t help but grimace as he’s looking at the skull with the weird hole in it and a whole slew of scenarios play out before his mind’s eyes. “I really hope it killed you quickly as it did that…”

‘You don’t think it was that experimental weapon do you?’ the little blue pegasus asks as it hovers around and looks the body over. ‘The name is the same that was on that poster in the storage closet now that I think about it…’

Gearing frowns as he can’t help but realize the connection points.

He walks over and runs a hoof over the hole in the wall, and takes note of the perfect hole cut straight through the reinforced materials. “It ate right through it like a hot knife through butter.”

‘More like obliterated everything in its path… there’s no rubble on the ground, you see?’ the little pegasus comments as it points at the ground, and the lack of concrete chunks.

Gearing stares at it for a moment before he says quietly, “If that’s what did it, and it did that to his body-” He snaps his attention to the corpse. “It really could have taken out the princesses… maybe…”

‘Too bad it didn’t get into the right hooves and do exactly that, and prevent this whole fuck up.’ The little pegasus in his head grumps bitterly.

“No,” Gearing replies flatly. “No one should have something like this. Look what it did to their body? If you’re gonna kill someone, at least make sure it’s clean. Not, whatever this did.” He leans in and starts looking the hole over a bit more and narrows his eyes. “Wait a second…” He takes the pencil and puts it into the hole, then starts dragging it around the inside edge as he’s looking at the pencil.

‘Uh… is it just me… or is that making a dish?’ the little pegasus comments as he stares at it.

Gearing quickly pulls out another pencil, and puts it along the top of the hole while putting the other at the bottom. He leans back and looks at it, and nods as he slowly directs his head to the right and looks towards where he thinks the shot came from. After some back and forth, and judging by the angle of the shot Gearing steps over the skeleton, and stands near the desk again. He puts a hoof in the air, and holds it up as he says softly, “It makes a conical shape… and the focus comes from right here. But with it being so close to the wall…”

‘He shot himself? But… Why? And where’s the weapon that did it then?’ the little pegasus comments as it flutters around.

Gearing looks to the side and notices that the computer is already unlocked, and he quickly starts reading through whatever is available. Which turns out to mainly be a series of personal entries. Afterwards he leans against the desk with his head buried in one of his hooves as he groans.

The little pegasus sits on the desk, still staring at the computer monitor, as it comments, ‘Well… that was fucking depressing.’

Gearing slowly moves his hoof and looks down at the skeleton at his hooves. “So, you’re really Doctor Trottenheimer. Obviously you got into some trouble if you were worried about MoM. Sounds like this ‘G.B.’ got you into some serious trouble and that’s how you ended up here. And whatever you were working on ended up poisoning you. Whatever that ‘Flux’ crap is, it certainly is dangerous and it sounds like it’s worse than simple radiation. I’m surprised that there’s as much stuff here as there is here if you’ve been raided by MoM. Sounds more like they were just looking for more dirt on someone else than really focusing on you.” He straightens up as he smiles. “But, if they didn’t get the rounds that were in this fabricator of yours, I wonder if the fabricator is still here too…”

Gearing gingerly steps around the slumped over skeleton as he comments, “Hope you don’t mind, but I intend on putting some of your manufacturing goodies to good use… Take it easy, Doctor.” He doesn’t even bother checking the obviously already looted open safe in the corner of the office on the way out.

The little pegasus flutters around Gearing’s head as it squeals with joy, ‘Time to find the real treasures in here!’

Gearing leaves Trottenheimer’s office feeling more conflicted than before. Having powerful weapons is something he needs. But, at the same time, there’s a limit to things that should be in someone’s hooves. Not just ponies. There’s a limit to what should exist in his reckoning. Balefire missiles and Megaspells were on his list of ‘shouldn’t exist’ even before he was proven right via apocalypse. And this weapon, as far as he can see so far, is a weapon that really shouldn’t be a thing. His only consolation is that the ammo seems to be extremely hard to make, extremely unstable if not stored properly, and because of that: rare beyond practical use. And if he has his way, no more rounds will ever be made again.

Being experimental, and having even the manufacturing supplies locked on a secure floor and hidden away, lets Gearing know that they probably didn’t make very many rounds for whatever monstrosity they had made here. Although, that does make him curious about what else they have hidden up their sleeves around this place. Not to mention where that functional disaster of a weapon had gone, since it wasn’t with the body. If it had been claimed by the mare that had cleared the way here, he’s pretty sure he’ll hear about it. And maybe he can get it from them. Without ammo it’s going to be pretty useless, thankfully, but he doesn’t want there being enough crumbs to start reverse engineering more. He’s pretty sure the world can’t handle much more of that kind of wanton poison fueled destruction. So he makes his way through the complex, going down again, until he finds a server room in the basement that seems to be still fully functional.

Gearing walks into the server room, and smiles as he sees all of the old equipment. Even more so as the terminal seems to be already unlocked, open, and with a blinking cursor that seems to be cheerily waving to him to come and have a look see.

And, not wanting to be rude to the pleasant machine, Gearing does just that.

He quickly hops on and, doing what he normally does, checks the logs to see who has been on recently. And, sure enough, he finds where someone has accessed the system, unlocked it, and downloaded a decently large collection of files from it. So, because one good swipe deserves another, he goes ahead and downloads the exact same set of files. After all, if someone paid someone to come and get the data, then, it would logically track, there’s someone who sees the information as valuable. And if they do, others might as well.

Him being the ‘others’ in this case.

And after that file is done, he starts snooping through the other files as well. And, in his snooping for more easily transportable goodies to swipe, he finds the location of an area within the building that he oh so very much wants to get into. All thanks to a random memo from one researcher to an intern on how to get to his office to bring him his coffee and breakfast.

Although, Gearing runs into a problem as he’s trying to get some of the files. The terminal is working, but the connections to the data storage of some of the files seem broken. He checks on the system and walks around to check the maneframe’s connections, only to find that the maneframe has been cracked open, and seems to be missing several components from it. The terminal could access some of it as a dummy terminal, but the lion’s share of it isn’t accessible that way because the maneframe is partially disassembled. Whoever salvaged from it seemed to want a bunch of the primary processing parts of it for it’s functionality, but not the data core sections where the data is actually stored. Which makes Gearing’s eye twitch a few times as he tries to figure out how to get the data off of the system without the rest of the system. Refusing to just give up, especially since he’s pretty sure there is going to be a lot more good data on the system, Gearing starts jury-rigging a bridge between the terminal, his Pipbuck, and what’s left of the maneframe. It takes him a bit of work, and a lot of swearing and finagling, but he finally manages to get a connection good enough to look at the data on the maneframe. But, after transferring a few more files from the system, he comes to the realization that he doesn’t want to sit down here sorting through all of this at the moment. So he disconnects his Pipbuck from the bridge setup he’d made, and quickly pulls the data cores themselves out of the maneframe. He slides the cubic shaped pieces of technology onto the floor as he’s putting his tools away and smiles as he looks at them. “Okay, I’ll root around in your noggin once we’re back at the stable. Besides, another maneframe level data core would always be helpful. A present for Nettlekiss, maybe.” He stows the blocky gizmo and quickly heads out of the basement.

Following the instructions in the file, Gearing heads to and walks around the fourth floor trying to find the area that the memo had directed the intern to. But, it takes a bit. And he’s embarrassed to admit it. But, to get his bearings, he finds the one stairwell that the memo told the intern to take, and then just starts going from there. As he’s going, he notices that there is one area that seems to have a growing number of red markers again. And, he progresses slowly. But, after a few twists and turns, Gearing comes to a secure door that looks like it’s designed to keep not only that which is out, out, but that which is already in, in. The doors have a set of mag locks, but then also have built in reinforced cross bars and a few pins that go into the ground walls and ceiling. Gearing looks the doors over carefully as he tries to figure out how to get in.

A smile crosses his muzzle as he says, “If they went through this much to get it and keep it sealed, it must mean the real goodies are beyond this door.” He reaches up and taps on the door lightly as he contemplates how best to get in. He doesn’t see a terminal that he can hack. There looks to be a spot for a key card of some kind, but he doesn’t have one and doesn’t have the equipment on him needed to fake a correct RFID signature. And while he does have the building’s maneframe data core on him, he doesn’t have access to it to find nor add himself to the roster with it. And after thinking about it he really hopes the maneframe he plundered was the one for research and they did the smart thing and have their security system on a separate system that has yet to be compromised.

‘Got enough boom to make a hole wherever the hell we want… Could blow a hole from the bottom, or the roof for that matter… Take your pick.’ the little pegasus in Gearing’s head offers reasonably.

Gearing frowns as he shakes his head. “Nah, don’t wanna do that. If this is as sealed up tight as this seems it is, then I don’t want to risk fucking shit up on the inside. Besides, remember what that poster said? They were working with shit that didn’t take kindly to being mishandled. And a massive explosion with rubble getting thrown everywhere is the perfect fuck up that could cause a chain reaction and level the whole floor. And, frankly, I’d rather not have my head caved in by another collapsing building. Thank you very much.”

‘Well, then what are we going to do? We want the equipment out of there, don’t we?’

Gearing nods as he replies, “Damn right we do… But, I think I’ll use one of my tried and true methods.”

‘Such aaaaaas?’

“If you don’t have proper access… make proper access…” Gearing comments as he opens his Pipbuck and starts snooping through files. “Now, I’ve been here before, but I didn’t get very far. But, they did leave me in that meeting room, alone, for waaaay too long. So me snooping through their systems wirelessly is a given… Naturally.”

‘Naturally,’ the little pegasus agrees with a giggle.

“Now I didn’t get into any of their real systems, I didn’t want them getting pissy at me and shooting me. That’d suck. But I did do some friendly knocking on a few ports… And sniffed up some low hanging fruit from the network. If I’m right, they should have a maintenance room not far from here. Shared with one of the network guys, if I recall correctly…”

He turns around and starts looking at the other rooms' entryways, and, not long after, he finds another nondescript door like the one that had the leaking container in it on the lower floors. But, this one is unlocked. He slides it open and finds what can only be described as a rat’s nest of an office.

The little pegasus has his hair fray out in a variety of directions as he points at it. ‘What in Tartarus is this?!’

Gearing slowly steps in, starting to step over a variety of boxes and equipment, and quickly looks around. And, while it is full of crap, most of it actually makes sense. To Gearing at least. And probably only because he’s in the center of the overlap of the strange Venn diagram that includes both tech professional, and actual maintenance technician. “They crammed everything in here for both the maintenance guy and their network techs… I see a lot of supplies… and old equipment… Lots of old equipment…” He peeks under a shelf and his jaw drops as he exclaims. “Some of these are first generation switches, what the hell?! Why would they keep this?!”

The little pegasus flutters around as he looks over the various equipment. ‘Wow… this… this is crazy… Some of this was ‘retro’ before the bombs dropped!’

“Yeah, it was. So much so that I could have sold some of these to collectors for a pretty bit… Easily.”

‘I wonder if it’s worth anything now…’

“Besides cannibalizing them for basic components, not likely. Outside of collectors…” He looks over at the door and frowns. “Unless they have some really outdated equipment here and needed to keep these as replacements because they were too cheap and stupid to completely upgrade their systems… I really hope that’s not the case…”

‘Well, that’s all good and well then, but, how are we going to get into the real goodies… Gonna grab that torch and cut your way in?’ the little pegasus asks as it flutters around and points out a torch that seems like it might actually be in working condition as it sits in a crate under the overloaded workbench.

Gearing shakes his head as he looks around. “No, I’m looking for their terminal. If they can give me a view at the functionality of the door, I can probably get it to open by cracking open a panel and using a manual override… or I might be able to hack the circuitry and make it ground fault and trigger it to open… or I might be able to get the access panel card reader to send a false positive to let me in… or-”

‘Or you could just use either the maintenance crew’s master key or the Network Administrator’s access pass,’ the little pegasus in his head comments.

“Well sure I could do that too if I had it, but-”

The little pegasus in his head hits him a few times on the side of his head, and then flutters over by the computer monitor near the middle of one wall.

Gearing carefully steps around more of the garbage in the office, and stretches out a wing towards what his little head companion is pointing out. “That can’t be. Right?”

He grabs the cloth lanyard hanging from the nail that’s been banged into the wall, and pulls it back to himself with one wing. And with his other wing he slides a plastic card off the table from where it was peeking out from under the keyboard for the computer on the workbench. Gearing holds them up in front of his muzzle, and his eyes dart back and forth for a few moments. Completely disbelieving what he’s seeing.

He waves them around and yells up at the ceiling. “What the hell?! Why. Why? Why?! Why is this sitting here? Only a few paces away from the most secure door I’ve seen thus far in this building?! Why?!” He looks at the card that was under the computer keyboard and glares at the smiling face of the buck that’s on it. “And you! You should know better! What the hell were you thinking?! Why would you fucking do this!? Anyone could just waltz in here and swipe your card and just walk into the highly restricted research and development sector. The place where a monster of a weapon was being developed. Something so unstable they had to keep the materials to make the ammo far away from it otherwise some dumbass might just kill everyone in the building accidentally! Why?! Whyyyyy?! This is ridiculous, you know that?! Anyone could have just taken this and strolled their happy ass right in there. I know! Because that’s exactly what I’m going to do, Mister ‘Network Master’! The hell is wrong with you?! I hope they weren’t paying you much!”

He shakes his head as he walks over towards the terminal. “Nah, you know what, this is too easy. I’m going to see what I can find on the terminal to explain this. Maybe find a way to get in. Might take more than just the card… Two factor authentication maybe? Maybe the passwords in here… Wait, there was no keypad…”

He plops himself down in front of the computer terminal and starts stretching as he angrily demands, “Make it make sense!”

Footnote:

Processing, Please Stand By. . .

Sector Discovered, Please Stand By. . .

Retrying, Please Stand By. . .

Retrying, Please Stand By. . .

!!!ERROR!!! Synchronization Failed…