The Skunk Works (Science and Repair Chaplains)

The Skunk Works was a small bunker tucked away in the northeastern corner of the compound. The latch had no visible means of being secured, no way to be picked. What it did have was a terminal and a the message "abandon all hope ye who enter here" painted across the doorway. It seemed Axel and Bit were serious about their little test, and were nowhere to be seen.

Ashen Coat gave the 'message' on the doorway a blank look as he walked over to the terminal. He obviously wasn't intimidated by the foreboding message, although very little, if anything, actually intimidated him. That's just kind of how he was.

Anyway, the unicorn booted up the terminal and searched through the options, overriding any security programs that could potentially get in his way.

[Hack the terminal and browse the options, Science 64]

Arc walked to the scene soon after Ashen. He looked to the message and chuckled, the place started to feel almost homely with the passing time.

He saw Ashen already hammering at the console, and there was no need for two ponies at one keyboard. The latch seemed to be in no way secured, so Arc trotted close to it. His horn shimmered and the telekinetic spell tried to envelop the latch.

(Trying to open the latch.)

Spectrum re-checked the landmarks and sure enough she had made it, as was apparent of the others two ponies that she had seen in the tent that had been in their 'group'. She let out a sigh in relief, not knowing she was holding it in the first place. The white unicorn was making short work of the terminal while the other attempted to work the door, deciding not to bother the unicorn at the terminal she found herself near the brown one who had announced himself as Arc Weld. A quick glance at the door revealed it could not be picked, unlucky for her. The crudely painted phrase made her snort both with disgust as well as a bit of admiration her childish side finding it a bit amusing.

But right now wasn't the time, she needed to be doing something to help rather than just stand around and wait for something to happen or someone to do it for her. Since the other two had the terminal and the door covered not wanting to get in either way she instead started to look around for anything that could be of use.
___________________________

Looking around Skunkworks entrance
-- PERC: 9

Tesla followed the other sciency ponies into what was called the "Skunk works" though he didn't really understand why. The place didn't smell like a skunk. Inside, Tesla simply watched as Arc, and another pony set to work on the single terminal inside. While another pony, a pegasus, searched the room. He probably didn't know what to do, the gunsmith felt the same way.

Resigning himself to simply standby and wait, Tesla moved around the room hoping to find at least something to do or some way to help, that would probably come after the two at the computer finished, for now, he simply walked up to the pegasus, "Hello," the green unicorn started, "my name's Tesla, how about yourself?"

Ashen successfully hacked the terminal, only to find it was another joke setup by Bit and Axel. Instead of unlocking the door it started flashing a picture of the pair laughing at the terminal user, or in this case, Ashen. On top of the image was the text: 'Did you really think it'd be that easy?' Arc had similar luck with just pushing on the door, though it seemed the pair hadn't expected that and left it prank free.

Spectrum, however, had found something in her search. Lying near the door was an oddly green rock, in fact, it was an unnatural shade of green. Next to it lie a red rock, then an orange one, in fact there was a whole series of colored rocks. The entire rainbow sat before them in rocks, what they were for, was left to be determined.

Spectrum looked up at yet another unicorn stallion which had signed up to be working in the Skunkworks, feeling like the odd one out with her wings even more-so than before. But her smile did not show her worry as she nodded at the stallion who introduced himself as Tesla " Shooting Spectrum, Spec for short. Nice to meet you Tesla " Her name was rather a mouthful so she never had a quarrel with people making nicknames for her. Her attention was caught by the terminal as it started to go wild with motion, she let out an audible sigh of disbelief at the two known as Bit and Axel rolling her eyes she looked back to the ground not quite finished scanning the wasteland floor when it seems her efforts were rewarded.

She let out a tiny squeak of excitement almost gushing with joy at her finding. " Hey guys! I found something over here! " She didn't dare mess with it nor have the slightest clue as to what it could be. Hoping that the others could figure out the meaning of the unnatural spectrum of rocks.

Oh well. It seemed that the two were in something creative after all, it seemed. Arc let go of the hatch and looked around.

As it turned out, when he was trying to open the hatch, Tesla and... what was the name... ah, he never asked, did he... 'War' showed up. He was glad that the old friend decided to join him.

'War' shouted in joy over something Arc was unable to see over the rubble, but since Ashen seemed to just be embarrassed by the computer, Arc logically assumed that the next find might have something to do with opening the hatch. Perhaps a riddle after all.

Arc trotted over 'War' and nodded to the pegasus. A set of rainbow rocks...

Arc stepped closer and waved his pipbuck over each rock, checking for radiation. Then he got another idea and casted the spell he learned back in the stable, used for detecting leaks in the reactor.

(
-Checking the stones for radiation with pipbuck.
-Casting Detection of Arcanic energy on the stones.
)

Arc's pipbuck didn't show anything above the background radiation on the rocks. His thought process was interrupted as he cast the spell searching for any history of magical alteration by a loudspeaker cracking to life.

"Come off it," came Axel's voice from the speaker, "the rocks are not fucking magical stones of country from the time of the ancients. They're colorful rocks."

The gunsmith went over to the others, inspecting the colored rocks. "hm...wonder what these are all about?" Tesla whispered to the others, he didn't want those two soldiers, Axel, and Bit, to hear him, didn't want to hear their enjoyment of having confused at least one of the four in the room.

Tapping his hoof on his head, the unicorn tried to think about what to do next, yes there were the rocks...but why were they colored...maybe they needed to be placed somewhere. Getting up, Tesla moved over to the latch, inspecting it, hoping to find something that would help.

Perception: 7 (Tesla is inspecting the latch, and the phrase written on the wall)

Spectrum didn't show it in the slightest, she would never give Axel and Bit the satisfaction of knowing they had scared the feathers off of her. When the loud speaker went off she nearly jumped only her own stubborn attitude keeping her firmly planted on the ground maintaining a 'poker face'.

This was the Skunkworks, where the smart in repair and science were suppose to meet so they really couldn't blame the unicorns for guessing this would be a skill of wit, she assumed the same and felt like she would be left behind but it seemed as if this was in-fact the opposite. She couldn't fathom why there were brightly lit stones and what they had to do with getting into the Skunkworks. She took one last glance at them. A huff in annoyance as they were in the wrong order, color always being an Irk-some subject due to the namesake that it held to the mare .

So not being able to stand the inaccuracy the stones portrayed she quickly re-arranged them to fit into the proper ROYGBIV of a proper rainbow spectrum. A little at easy seeing the colors all flowed now she let out a nod before looking up to see if Tesla noticed anything about the door.

"Bout damn time." the pair chorused from behind the speaker, "Get your flanks to it."

The hatch flew open, revealing a small corridor ending in a lift. After entering the lift and riding it to the bottom of a shaft that seemed to last forever the gates opened and showed the four ponies a massive cavern. The chamber's ceiling was a spiderweb of catwalks, all leading to who knows where. At least a hundred, maybe twice that, ponies ran across the floor, all wearing stained lab coats and coveralls. A staircase led the group down beneath the assembly floor, where the pair waited for them impatiently.

Spectrum was dumbstruck as the task was that simple so it took her a few seconds before she shook off the initial shock of it all and made her way into the the corridor and onto the lift.

Once the door opened revealing the wide cavern she couldn't help but to gasp in awe at what was and is the Skunkworks. Her heart swelled at the sight her head darting from left to right as she looked everything over as she made her way down the stairs until she found herself in front of Axel and Bit, having long forgotten of all the trouble and stress the two pranksters caused her.

Ashen gave the monitor a blank, emotionless stare as Bit and Axel's 'prank' played. He wasn't exactly amused, although due to his usual demeanor he wasn't particularly annoyed either. The unicorn ran a check through the terminal's systems, looking for for any hidden directories or the like, anything the two may have hidden deeper in the computer's programming. Of course his search was completely fruitless, and he soon was stepping away from the computer and turning to the others. They had uncovered some colored rocks, and a pegasi he wasn't quite familiar with was arranging them in...The order of a rainbow's spectrum? A quick check confirmed that there was a rock for every color of the rainbow.

'No...It couldn't be that simple...'

Ashen's concerns were soon realized when the duo's voice came on the intercom and finally let them in. If Ashen was one to feel annoyance, he probably would of sighed, but he wasn't, so he just walked through the door without a word. In keeping with his demeanor he was unimpressed by the massive cavern complex, and simply walked with the rest of the group until they reached their two 'bosses'.

“Come on, we're at the end.” Axel said, jerking his head as he and Bit turned to walk down the hall on their right.

The halls were rather unassuming, just old world concrete with yellow lines leading ponies to various places. The Skunk Works seemed to be running on its ancient emergency grid, leaving everything bathed in a yellow glow. As promised their door was at the end of the main hallway, marked 'Conference Room A'. Bit took out a set of key and swung it open, while Axel waved the ponies into the room. It was sparsely furnished with a cheap table, a few chairs, and pictures of sky chariots on the walls. The two officers started setting chart after chart on the table, mumbling to themselves and nodding every now and again.

After a few minutes of this Bit split off, going to search through a stack of boxes by the door. Meanwhile Axel laid the final chart on the table and looked at it satisfied. He nodded at the table and grabbed a projector in his magic, resting it on top of the charts while it powered up. Bit tossed him the slides, which he found being used as a coaster for one of their dozens of coffee mugs scattered about the room. Smiling, the pair began the presentation.

“Over the years, a total of 4,488 ponies have died in this war.” Axel said in a dry voice. “This figure seems small, especially when you consider that's an average of only about 50 a year. Sadly, this isn't the correct way to look at it. In total there have three periods of 'high intensity combat', they are the incursions. The first was when we emerged from our vault. Our population was 1000, just like it was for all vaults. The numbers dipped here and there, but in the end we sustained ourselves.”

“After one week of being topside we were only 687 strong, with more dying each day.” Bit cut in, his voice seemed to harbor more bitterness as he spoke. “The Enclave took us by surprise, but when we did fight back, they were left reeling. The second was relatively recent, only 6 years ago today. Skirmishes had been the norm for decades, leaving both sides in a state of complacency. Our numbers had swelled, the enemy had grown docile, all around it seemed like we were starting to build a true blue society, not just a military force. Then in one night we lost 180 soldiers. Again a small number on paper, but when you weigh out its real equity, you begin to see our distaste for the war. The Red Winter, the most recent of only 3 years ago, was by far the worst. 1,000 dead in three short months.”

“It's easy to get lost in the numbers, just see them as ink.” Axel said, he flicked to the first slide: a mass grave. “That's 50 ponies in a hole. Just 50, yet it looks like an entire town.” the second slide appeared: rows upon rows of the mass graves. “A total of 90 of those graves have been dug in the course of this war. Again the number seems small.” He clicked to another picture, this time a prewar postcard of Ponyville. “But that's enough to bury every citizen of prewar Ponyville, and still have four graves left.”

“This is the real cost of war, and that is why we're here to end it.” The pair chorused.

“The soldiers in the trenches feed a perpetual motion device every day, they will never find the ultimate solution.” said Bit. “But we have, we need to wipe the Enclave off the map so decisively that there will be no hint of resistance left to give.” the sideshow flicked to a still of one of the first megaspell test detonations. “We don't have megaspells,but we do have something just as effective.” a picture of modern day Manehattan in all it's ruined glory now filled the screen. “A bomb delivery system siilair to what ended Manehatttan, on a smaller scale, will be just what the reaper pony ordered.”

“We have approval from the Commandant to explore three bomb types, that's three projects that the five of us are going to need to see through to completion, rapidly.”

“The first, and most obvious, is a pulse bomb.” Bit turned off the projector and hung up the schematics for one of their 'projects' “Trap them in their own armor. However, the only development we've done on this avenue is purely theoretical. We've been using our limited number of pulse grenades as a base and most of it at this scale is double checking the math and hoping there's no threshold of effectiveness the prewar engineers failed to account for.”

“The second,” Axel hung up another blueprint next to the first. “is cheap, easy, and dirty. An incidiary bomb using the massive amounts of coal oil to be found in the city. Simply create a two stage charge, one to disperse a gelled coal oil, one to ignite it, and watch them all cook.”

“And the final, and frankly most terrifying option, is to weaponize the very taint within our home's borders.” The pair finished each other's thoughts now, alternating between breaths. “We take some of the taint, turn it into an aerosol, and deploy it in the heart of their operation. They'll wish they were dead.” The officers turned to their charges, smiling wickedly. “Go on, grab yourselves a labcoat from the rack, pick a project to work on first, then come ask us about it.”

All players must focus on the same task, each task will have its own unique challenges so choose carefully.

Pulse Bomb


Incendiary Bomb



Dirty Bomb


Loot:

Chaplain Lab Coat:
DT- 5 Effects- +10 Med Rolls +10 Science Rolls

The lab coat all Chaplains wear while on the job. It wont stop a bullet, but it suits their purposes just fine.

Bastards. Arc had to admit he was expecting things much more complicated that just such simple riddle, but that meant meant 'War' was able to think in much more elemental terms than him.

Darn... I'll end up being the stupid one here again, won't I... well, here we go anyway.

The bunker was rather impressive clubhouse, Arc had to honestly admit, and the presentation the two put up for them... well, Arc has seen a Stable murder itself. Nonetheless, it left behind one question.

"Guys... before we choose where to begin, there's something that I would like to know, and it might be important in deciding on the projects. What do you have that Enclave wants, or what have you done to them to rile them up so? And more importantly, why have they not yet glassed this place from high altitude?"

"And as for the projects... reverse engineering bomb from pulse grenades leads nowhere. You know the basic laws for moving wave, or at least I hope you do, though the evidence might suggest otherwise. A pulse grenade has what, 5 meters of blast radius? And you need about 250 meters to put a dent in their forces, and that has to be delivered pretty dangerously close them them. So that's roughly hundred thousand times more volume to fill with static magic. Unless you plan to drive convoy of spark batteries in the middle of their forces or you have a spare reactor or two, this leads nowhere. As for the taint... they can just get up and leave before it gets far. You can't. And even worse, they are pegasi, they can probably still control the weather, what will you guys do when they just make the wind blow towards your positions? Bad time for you."

"I vote for the incendiary bomb. A proper firestorm will give them quite something to look at."

The mare was still awe struck as they made their way down the corridor. Her gaze never stopping for long before drifting off to another thing. But all of her foal like wonder was quickly swept away as the cold hard statistics of the war was placed right in front of her.

Ignorance is bliss, and there was few to demonstrate that better than Spectrum herself, the only difference was that she was willing to admit that fact and, in this case, take the steps to fulfill the wishes of many ponies and end this once and for all, Much like Axel and Bit had said.

As instructed she walked over and put on the lab coat over her own clothing, if it wasn't such a serious matter she would have giggled and swayed around in it finding the white on white to be hilarious. But she needed to focus especially as Arc pointed out his own views on the choice the four had to make. She could never could imagine herself thinking up such ideas, and she felt rather silly for her own choice in the selection, but Spectrum also knew that they would get nowhere if she continued to be shy. " I also cast my vote on the incendiary bomb. Although, I am willing to work on anything we decide, we just need to decide quick and get working." She knew her way around energy weapons, and in fact dreamed of owning her own weapon that harnessed the use of fire. Not to mention the words 'to be found' had captured her attention but she highly doubted it would be as easy as how they got in the Skunkworks but anything was possible and she would remain vigilant. Right now success was the only thing on her mind, to put all ones that had passed at ease.

Ashen was silent as the duo gave an overview of the casualties of the conflict, his face maintaining its usual blankness. He didn’t care about any of this, he was here for the job and the caps, not for a story about ‘How Horrible’ the war was. He didn’t say anything though, as he knew that it wouldn’t come to much, and he’d rather not jeopardize his chances of getting paid. He was patient enough to sit through it.

When the group was directed to the lab coats, Ashen declined. He didn’t see any reason to wear the thing, and his barding would provide much better protection of things got violent at any point.

He waited for the others to put on their own coats, if they bothered, before discussing the details of the bomb.

“If we wanted to avoid friendly fire, the Pulse Bomb would the most optimal choice. It would seriously hamper their own forces, while doing almost no damage to friendlies, at the most disabling any energy weapons, pipbucks, and the like. However, Arc Weld makes a good argument, laws of physics would make the challenge of constructing such a device difficult. The other bombs have problems as well however, as Arc Weld as stated, the Taint Bomb would easily be turned against friendly forces, and the Incendiary Bomb could very well turn into a wild fire that would threaten friendly forces. If friendly fire is not an issue, then the Incendiary Bomb would be the easiest choice, having none of the design problems of the Pulse Bomb while not being as dangerous as the Taint Bomb.”

Arc wordlessly dressed in one of the labcoats provided for them, listening to what Ashen was saying and thinking about his arguments. He looked down on the floor and held his hoof against his chin and narrowed his eyes.

"Yesss... a wildfire would of course be a factor that has to be accounted for, as well as friendly fire. Though I suppose the first one would not be such a problem in a ruined city covered in snow."

Arc fixed the collar on the labcoat and made sure it was fitting properly before he continued.

"What is our delivery system? And rules of engagement for the deployment of the bombs, for the matter? We haven't discussed that yet, Bit and Axel." he asked to the two techponies that were their custodians.

"The delivery system varies." Bit explained, "the fire bomb would likely be deployed using a modified sky-chariot, the pulse bomb would either have the same set up or a manual deployment. The taint bomb is where it gets interesting, a special operations team would deploy it in the belly of the beast. Which one is just chance, but no matter what they'd ensure its deployment."

"There are no rules of engagement." added Axel. "This is war, not a war game."

Arc found a piece of reflective surface and made sure the coat was looking good. He adjusted it on a few places, and while doing so, continued to ask.

"Since you hired us to make weapons for you, I'm merely asking for specifications. By rules, I mean what is considered dangerously close deployment. How precise we have to be, what are acceptable casualties. Since you actually bothered to give us that nice presentations with lots of presumable crunched numbers, I'm only assuming you consider saving the lives of your men to aggressive usage of more potent weaponry."

Arc stood to the side of the reflection to look over the labcoat. Huh, nice, lots of pockets, just as he liked.

Spectrums gaze went between the two, remaining patient, Arc did have some good points, although she wished that the decision would be made quicker there was never any good to be had in rushing things, and she was sure that the others could get a better idea from what Arc was asking. She wanted as little causalities as possible. So despite starting to grow restless the mare just sad waiting for the back and forth game to cease and the project to be started, she had already stated her opinion of her own willingness to work on anything as such she saw it pointless to repeat herself like a broken record.

Tesla listened to the exchange between Arc, the white unicorn, and their two....employers. They all had points about the various ordnance they were presented.

It was true that they each had their finer points as well as their drawbacks. Some more major in certain categories like the Pulse Bomb and its consumption of materials to create one...materials that were already rather hard to come by, which meant making one would be costly and take away grenades from the soldiers on the front lines, grenades that were rather necessary for the fight. Not only that but it had to be deployed manually which just added more and more factors that could lead to failure.

The Taint bomb wasn't much better. Not only was it also needing to be deployed by a special team in the heart of the enemy, but just making it had massive hazards. Tesla thankfully hadn't run into Taint that much, and he didn't really want to change that habit. The whole thing was one big mistake waiting to happen.

The only logical decision left was the incendiary bomb. It was much easier to find, due to the abundance of energy and fuel one could find, especially with the fact that this was a military base, which made things just that much easier, hopefully, but also it was to be delivered via flying carriage, which could be snuck ia cloud cover or something of the like. He didn't have to really think up how it could be transported, that wasn't his issue. The other plus side was the fact that most of the vegetation was dead and gone, thus the fires would have a hard time spreading.

Deciding to speak his mind, Tesla came forward. "Listen guys, we can argue this all we want, if it helps at all, I'm throwing my vote towards the incendiary bomb, its not as hazardous as the taint bomb, and its not as costly as the pulse bomb. We also shouldn't have to have that much issue with the fire spreading towards our lines. Any grass, trees and the like are dead, so where it will drop will burn and thats it."

Arc turned to the rest of the room, smiling, happy that they reached conclusion without much arguing over it.

"Alright then, it is settled, incendiary munition it is. So, Axel and Bit, where do we start? Could you show us to our workplace?"

"The old Coal Oil Factory is on the far east side of the old quarter, highly contested territory." began Bit, pointing at a spot on the map of the city, the final slide in the projector. "It'll take you about half an hour along the northern trench route to get there. Thanks to heavy shelling recently, the Enclave probably wont go poking their noses round their. Course, they could just stay with their old trend of ignoring what would be considered normal and attack you despite this."

"The security systems of the factory are likely still active." added Bit. "So be careful, and expect more than a few locked doors. When you've gotten to the reservoir control station, adjacent to the forestallion's office, activate the emergency overflow dump. We've diverted the pipes from the factory to our own reservoirs here. After that, wait for radio confirmation, and come on back."

The pair sat down and gestured for the volunteers to leave them.

-----------------------------------------------

Just as the two officers had said the way to the old factory was quiet, the Enclave deciding to take the day off. However, just like they had said also, there were quite a lot of locked doors. The door in was locked even. Nearby were twin terminals and a guard shack. Maybe one of them held the key in.