Of Blood and Iron(Closed)

Ashen silently watched as Mona entered the room, his bolt rifle floating in his grip as he took cover by the door. The mare was approached by two protectrons before being ‘scanned’, a feature he had not previously seen in his rather extensive experience. The scan seemed to be focused on race, most likely detecting the obvious characteristics of the different pony races with a visual scan, even the most basic of visual scanning equipment would be able to tell the difference between a pony with a horn, a pony with wings, or none of the above.

"It would appear the plan worked. However, I've never seen a Protectron scan race before." Mona Tones said as she returned, to which Ashen quickly replied.

“No, scanning equipment and race-specific programming like that is not a common feature of any robot. However, considering that this is a robotics factory, it would have been trivial for the factory’s owners to install such equipment into the robots they built for their own use in the factory. However such security measures are...Unusual, especially in a civilian manufacturing plant. Unless they were specifically worried about Zebra Infiltrators the identification cards would have been sufficient.” he explained, before glancing at Zestari.

While it would be logical for the zebra to stay behind at this point, she would be a hindrance in getting past the robots, however, taking their four-equine squad down to three would be a significant reduction in their overall combat effectiveness. Which would increase the chance of their mission failing and their own deaths, which was an unacceptable risk. Especially since he didn’t know how far these cards would take them, there may be a point where fighting was inevitable and the reduction in combat effectiveness could kill them all if it came to that.

On top of that Mona seemed to have no intention on leave Zestari behind, so that matter was settled.

“Shutting the scanners down will not be possible, unless there’s a hub I can access close by that has a specific function to turn off the scanners, which I doubt. However, fooling it is another matter.” he turned to Zestari. “I suspect that the scanning equipment scans for prominent features of the equine races for identification, a unicorn’s horn, a pegasus’ wings, an earth pony’s lack of either, and the stripes of a zebra. So hypothetically, hiding your stripes in some manner, perhaps with paint or a full-body suit, would fool the system into thinking you’re an earth pony. However, there is another issue. The cards appear to be keyed to specific employees, and while body size and facial recognition is apparently not identified, unless Summer Breeze looked exactly like Mona Tones, race and, presumably, gender, are. Mona Tones was lucky that the card she used was from a female unicorn, however luck is not something that I rely on, and the chances of us just happening to pick out two cards for female earth ponies, and another for a male unicorn, are rather low I imagine.”

He turned towards the door, silent for a moment as his mind formulated a plan.

“There are only two protectrons in the following room, they are hardly a sizable threat, unless their custom equipment includes more powerful armaments. I suggest we eliminate them, and while the three of you look for a method to hide Zestari’s stripes, I can take them apart and attempt to access their employee databases. I should be able to determine which cards belong to who, and ensure that everypony has a card that will allow us to get past further robots. I will also check the scanning components to determine how sophisticated they are, and how easy it would be to fool it. Aiming for their legs should disable them without significantly damaging their internal components.”

“We definitely shouldn’t leave Zestari alone by herself.” Bakewell agreed with Mona Tones, getting in a quick agreement before Ashen started a complicated explanation of robot scanning.

“You can’t just turn them off?” Bakewell questioned once Ashen was done. She had decided to stand back in order to allow others to get a good view of Mona, and hadn’t been able to make out a whole lot. Words and discussion served to fill her in on what was scanned and why.

“I’m sure it’s not the quite same thing, but Kiwi runs off of a battery power source doohickey. If these cards can let Mona get right up to the robots, couldn’t she just unhook the battery from one of them all stealthy-like while the rest of us beat up the second? That way one of them definitely would be in one piece and fully study-able even if we accidentally trash the second. I guess you could do it instead, Ashen, but we already know what card will work for Mona.”

The mare paused for a moment, before seeming to realize that her suggestion might be taken for cowardice.

“Not that I’m against beating them both up.” She defended. “If you want to do that, I will. Just make sure I have room getting to the bots. I can't play hoofsies with them if I'm stuck behind you in the doorframe.”

Ashen turned to Bakewell. “That’s not an optimal plan. With robots like these, disabling them is not a simple matter of flicking a switch or pulling out a battery. They are designed so that somepony couldn’t just walk up to them and disable them. While it is possible to quickly disable one, it requires experience with working with robots and intimate knowledge of their design to pull it off quickly and effectively.” Ashen knew from experience, having disabled at least a few robots in his trips to various factories.

“While I could most likely disable one without much hassle if I could get close, but I am not as sure Mona Tones could. I could perhaps guide her through the process, but that assumes that attempting to disable it in the first place wouldn’t cause the robot to become hostile due to tampering with it.” he explained.

Zestari turned her head as Mona placed a hoof on her shoulder and smiled softly, “Thanks Mona.” She nodded at the others and thanked them, too, allowing the smile to broaden. She appreciated that they wanted her along, and she silently resolved to not let them down.

As Ashen broke out into intensive speculation of the Protectrons, their function, their scanners, and how to fool them, she remained quiet, wondering how she’d make it through the robot filled building. Did the Protectrons have a long range with which they could scan? Meaning she’d be forced to somersault over furniture, dodge around corners and hide from the robots as they made their way through the facility. Or was it simply a case of staying just a few feet away? Ashen was right that they needed more to go off before making any further plans.

Continuing to consider how she might go about disguising her zebra heritage to appear more earth pony like, she made an awkward face at Ashen, “But where would we find paint or a body suit around here? I don’t think we’re exactly prepared for dealing with that sort of level of deception.”

Zestari considered Ashen’s plan and then listened to Bakewell’s suggestion, tapping her hooves together gently and finally deciding to add her suggestion to the mix, “Would it be possible to separate the Protectron’s from one another, I mean, if Mona went in and said,” Zestari put on a voice that sounded nothing at all like Mona, “Hey you, robot, I need some help in the bathroom, something is broken there.” Her voice returned to normal, “And then we could all be hiding and when the Protectron follows, we only have one to deal with, making everything a bit easier. If that doesn’t work, then we might have to follow your plan, Bakewell, and go for hoofsies.” She peered back into the room at the patrolling Protectrons, “It’s good that there are only two of them, that’s for certain.”

Ashen turned to Zestari as the zebra spoke up, questioning where they’d find paint or a bodysuit while also proposing that they separate the protectrons.

“This is a robotics factory, typically they apply some sort of paint to the robots once they’re assembled, either a full body coat or lettering stenciled in. Regardless, there should be paint somewhere in one of the assembly areas.” he explained. “Although I will admit that it is unlikely that we’ll find a bodysuit, it was merely a possibility.” he admitted. “As for your plan...That would depend on whether or not the pony Mona Tones is impersonating has the clearance to do that, although there is a simple way to check that.”

Mona would be quiet, as she listened to the suggestions and ideas of her teammates. Each idea seemed valid to her, but right now, with so many ideas to choose from, all she wanted was a quick and clean way to allow Zestari safe passage from the androids. While a few bullets to each robots would probably do that swimmingly, Ashen had already pointed out that this was unusual behavior from protectrons to scan race, and she didn't want to risk them having any extra tricks on them aside from the scan.

...Then again...perhaps if they did turn out to be hiding any hostile abilities on them, there could be way to use them to their advantage?

"Last I checked, a protectron's targeting matrix is installed in the back, correct? These protectrons seem to have a fairly set patrol pattern. What if I put a bullet into one of their targeting matrixes, while it was facing it's cohort? Perhaps we could get them to do the work for us."

Mona would suggest, as she drew her 10mm Pistol and gave it a quick check.

Ashen glanced over to Mona Tones, his mind briefly going over her suggestion.

"Yes, a direct shot into the targeting matrix at the right time would most likely take out at least one of of the protectrons, possibly both if the protectron attacked fires back. However, any number of scenarios can occur that would result in both of the protectrons taking damage to hits internal memory, which may prevent me from salvaging the employee records from one of their databases. Without those we will not know which card is which, and that will inhibit our further progress through the factory. Not only that I will need to examine one of their scanners to ensure something as basic as paint will fool them into think Zestari is not a zebra." he explained.

"A combination of Zestari's plan, to lure one of them away from the other, followed up by several shots to one of the lone protectron's legs would be the most efficient plan, and the one most likely to leave one of them largely intact. Unless of course you are capable of shutting down one yourself, that would be the most effective plan if it is in your capabilities. Regardless, we only need to do one thing to confirm if the first part of this plan will work, or, more specifically you only need to one thing. Order one to a location, and see if it follows the order."

Zestari nodded at Ashen, “Okay so we should look in an assembly area for something like that. Has anypony seen a room that might be used for that sort of thing? Or even suspect where we might start?”

Zestari was slightly puzzled by Mona’s eagerness to have the robots destroy one another. They needed one so they could test just how the scanners worked. Not only that, but there was a chance that the robots would detect the gun or Mona using it, leading to all of the robots turning hostile in response. That would put all of their plans to avoid getting hurt in jeopardy.

Nodding again at Ashen, and grinning that her suggestion seemed to be worthwhile She was only troubled by one thing, and that was how difficult it might be to disable one of the robots without it being able to fire back. Shooting the legs didn’t really sound like it would stop the robot if it attempted to return fire when they disabled it. However, Ashen seemed to know about robots, so she figured she was probably just overreacting, and shook her head and reassured herself that the plan was sound.

With a nudge, she tried to encourage Mona to go and see if her ‘clearance’ would allow her to split the robots up.

A plan seemed to be decided, but Bakewell had one final question to ask while Mona went about trying to lure the robot or whatever.

“Psst. Ashen, hey Ashen.” She whispered, drawing up next to the white unicorn's ear. She spoke in a whisper because the mare felt as though this might be a rather obvious question, and didn’t want the entire group to think she was an idiot for asking it. If they really wanted to, the other two equines could probably hear her whisper anyway due to being so close.

“My hooves have electric talisman things on them. So they shock and stuff as well as punch. Will that matter? Should I stand back and let you guys do all the fighting against the robot we want to capture? Should I fling a knife at it and hope for the best? Will the electric stuff be okay to use?”

Ashen glanced at Bakewell Tart's hooves, and the weapons they were clad in. Truthfully he was not watching the mare during the fight with turrets, and did not notice what weapon she was using in particular. Now that she brought it up however, she raised a good point.

"...Yes, your electric hooves may cause a problem if you used them on the protectron we intend to disable. The electrical discharge from the hooves will play havoc with the protectron's internal components, and while that is optimal if you want to destroy one, it is less so when your intention is to merely disable it. I'd suggest you focus your efforts on the second one, if Mona Tones is indeed able to lure it away from the other, into say one of the bathrooms, it should be a simple matter for you to rush it and destroy it before it can even react. That is of course assuming these models are not built with some manner of electrical resistance that would mitigate the damage your hooves would do, but that is not something we can determine either way without further testing." he explained.

Mona would give a nod. It looked like they were going with 'Try and lure the Protectron away'. It wasn't her first choice, but if it worked, it worked.

"Very well then. Get ready. If this works, we need to be prepared."

She would state, giving her gun a final check, before reentering the cubicle room and approaching the closest protectron.

"Protectron. There is an infestation in the Mare's bathroom. Come with me to deal with it."

The results would be...less then positive, as the Protectron continued to clank along, barely acknoledging Mona aside from stepping around her. Apparantly they either weren't programmed for Summer Breeze to command them, or they didn't recognize Mona's voice to be giving them commands. Either way, this plan was a bust.

Zestari nearly beamed in joy when it became clear that they were going to go with her suggestion. Mostly because between Ashen’s apparently staggering knowledge of robots and their mechanical function, Mona’s piercingly analytical analysis and Bakewell’s bravery and eagerness to jump into action, she was feeling somewhat inadequate.

The electric hooves stuff Bakewell and Ashen just talked about didn't help her confidence much, either.

Nodding at Mona, she once again prepared herself by the door, eagerly waiting to see how her idea would go. She grinned again as Mona basically said the same thing to the Protectron as she’d suggested when explaining her idea!

Her smile evaporated when the stupid thing didn’t listen. Or do anything, or make a noise of acknowledgment. Retreating from the door again, she sighed at the others. “Sorry everypony, my idea didn’t seem to work. Which plan do we want to fall back to now?”

If anyone was expecting a reaction of some sort from Ashen when the plan failed, they would be disappointed. When Mona walked back, the expression on the buck's face was the same as before, flat, emotionless.

"Yes, the initial plan has failed." agreed Ashen. "Assuming we are still intending to disable the robots for myself to study and dissect, the next course of action should be to simply attack the robots, aiming to disable one or both of them by taking out their legs. We should only need to inflict a mobility kill on one of them, although doing so to both will increase the chances retrieving what we're looking for undamaged."

“Soooo no hoofsies, then? Hope the knife is good enough.” Bakewell muttered, reaching back and drawing said trench knife and entering a lowered stance.

“Are we ready?” She asked, mouth muffled from speaking with a mouth full of weapon. “Somepony give us a countdown or something. I’ll charge the one on the left and try to take out its legs while you shooty ponies take the one on the right. Does that sound good?”

“Damage them so they can’t move?” Zestari questioned with a nod, “Let’s see what we can do.”

“No hoofsies?” She was initially baffled by Bakewell going in no-hoofsies. With a quirked brow, Zestari wondered if she’d missed something about hoofs being too dangerous, or affecting the robots oddly, or the robots having secret hoof deflectors somehow, before remembering that Bakewell had those electric hoofshoes that would mess up the circuits on the robots, probably making things too hard for Ashen to determine how the scanner worked.

Pleased that she’d worked it out, she stepped just behind Bakewell, ready to spring into action and go for the legs. She planned on using with her own unshod hooves on the robots.

Zestari would begin to get into position, as she levitated her gun out of it's holster and gave it a check, before moving up on the doorframe for cover. However, a thought then struck her, as she turned to Ashen.

"Ashen. Perhaps we should aim more for the weapons rather then the legs. Even if we knock one over, theres no guarantee it can't keep firing. It would possibly be best to disarm it first, rather then knock it down."

Mona would suggest, before getting into position.

Ashen moved up to the door, drawing his rifle as he got into position.Checking thee weapon’s charge, swapped out the battery in his rifle for a fresh one to maximize his shots. He glanced over at Mona when she suggested they took out the weapons first.

“That is risky, and potentially unnecessary. The protectrons will most likely only have two weapon systems, a prism projector mounted in the head casing, and a battle saddle-esque prism weapon system on the the back. Both are restricted to a limited forward facing firing arc, and should be able to be neutralized with a simple telekinetic push after their legs have been taken out. Not only that, while the back-mounted weapons could be taken out without causing significant damage to the rest of the unit’s components, attempting to take out the head-mounted projector will most likely damage the scanning system that I will need to analyze.”

“Legs. Got it.” Zestari confirmed again, before shifting her weight slightly and passing Bakewell.

With the group primed and ready, Zestari moved first. She raced into the room and clear vaulted a piece of long-derelict machinery. She moved fast, relying on her speed and agility to get her close to the robots before they had time to scan or process her identity and then presumably aim their horrible weapons at her. Landing on her front hooves, she spun, aiming her rear legs at the mechanical legs of the nearer Protectron.

She didn’t like the possibility of being hit by their weapons and so hoped the group would cripple the mechanical guards as quickly as possible.

(Unarmed 52. 40AP. Attacking the nearest Protectron, attempting to cripple its limbs.)

When Zestari ran out, Bakewell was quick to start following suit. The earth pony rushed towards the same target as her striped friend at a less agile pace and tried to move behind it while Zestari had it occupied, and surely the robot would take a zebra threat as priority over other hostiles, right? The robot’s ability and likelihood to act aggressively towards the more striped of the equine race was the entire reason painting Zestari was a reasonable idea.

She slashed at the thing’s legs as instructed, trusting Ashen and Mona to keep the other security robot from putting several burn holes in her and Zestari's heads.


(86 melee, 36 AP. Attacking the same Protectron as Zestari with a Trench Knife. Attempting to cripple its legs.)

As Bakewell Tart and Zestari charged for one of the robots, Ashen Coat took aim with his rifle towards the other one. Taking advantage of the fact that the Protectron would be aiming for the higher priority targets, mainly the earth pony and zebra, he waited until the robot’s flank was facing the doorway, giving a clear shot at two of the Protectron’s legs. This would also put the two melee combatants into the robot’s line of fire, putting them in some danger, but Ashen deemed that to be an acceptable risk, if any damage was dealt the the prism burns would be easily healed.

The unicorn telekinetically squeezed the trigger of his bolt rifle twice, one shot aimed at each of the Protectron’s facing legs.

[Two Shots on Unattacked Protectron’s Legs, Bolt Rifle, -24 AP, Energy Weapons 60]

[Prepare Dodge, -8 AP]

Mona would watch her teammates attack the one Protectron, but she wouldn't join in on this, as instead, she turned her sights on the one protectron that wasn't being attacked! She didn't want that one taking potshots at her companions, so she readied her pistol and fired multiple times at the thing, in an attempt to draw any fire from it away from the melee fighters.

(x4 Shots at Protectron #2, 24 AP)

The results of the attack would be...less then positive. Zestari would strike out at the protectron's limbs, but the robot seemed to, amazingly, absorb every single blow from the Zebra. Even bake's Trench knife was only able to manage one or two stabs, before the metallic thing responded, it's lights turning red before it spoke.

"HOSTILITIES DETECTED. RED ALERT. ENGAGING DEFENCE PROTOCOLS."

With that statement, the protectron suddenly did somethign rather surprising, as it swung a limb out, and collided with Bakewell hard! The force fo the blow was strong enough that it sent the earth pony flying back, away from the Protectron and back into Ashen, causing both of his shots to go wide and miss the robot by a mile! However, due to the solidity of the pony, Bakewell would be able to quickly straighten herself and charge back into the fray.

With this unfortunate turn of events, the second protectron appoached the closest target, the Zebra, as it's lights also went red, and it levelled the built-in battle saddle on it's back at the equine.

"RED ALERT RECIEVED. ENGAGING DEFENCE PROTOCOLS."

However, before it could fire, it's attention was pulled away as two bullets struck it in the side of it's head, leaving a decent crack in the dome, with a third one riccocheing off of it's left barrel. The gun clearly a more dangerous threat, it turned it's attention to the weapon's owner, Mona, who managed to duck behind cover just before it fired two prism blasts from it's barrels, both leaving two decent-sized burns on the wall.

---------

Protectron #1 is slightly injured in one leg.

Protectron #2 is slightly damaged, with a decent crack in the dome on it's head.

Bakewell is at 270 HP due to the brutal drubbing by the Protectron.

Ashen is at 210 HP due to getting a Bakewell to the face because of said drubbing.

Zestari is unharmed (Aside from some sore hooves due to smacking a robot in unarmed)

Mona is unharmed.

Bakewell had just enough time to see how useless her knife was proving to be against tough metallic armor of the machine before her entire world became filled with a temporary feeling of weightlessness, confusion, and pain as the strong force of the impact sent the mare literally flying.

Upon colliding with Ashen, Bakewell wasn’t immediately able to figure out what had happened. Dazed from the massive blow, All the large earth pony knew was that she hurt and was probably surrounding by more things that wanted to increase her pain. The mare kicked and squirmed in what she hoped was the proper direction across whatever strangely soft and uneven surface she had landed upon as she tried to get distance between the pain-bot and herself. It wasn’t until her muzzle was greeted with the sight of a large wrench upon a white furry surface that the mare realized what exactly she had landed on. A look back revealed that her realization was true, and also that the shoe of her rear hoof was firmly shoving Ashen’s face in a way that was probably uncomfortable at best. It was probably due only to luck that the trench knife gripped more firmly in her mouth than ever hadn’t redesigned the unicorn’s flank.

Embarrassed, Bakewell rolled off of the white unicorn, saying absolutely nothing yet face red with the shame of being such a liability to a teammate she tried to ignore the pain where metal had slammed against flesh.

Combat itself didn’t seem to be going particularly well, either. These robots were too strong, it wasn’t worth risking Mona’s face being gaining a large burning hole in the middle of it for some parts that may or may not even help. Besides, as the mare neared she saw that this bot’s head was messed up now. Surely its internal workings were messed up and useless now.

Bakewell rushed Protectron 2, swinging her electric hooves at the robot’s center. She wanted to put it out of commission, sensitive parts be bucked.


(86 unarmed, 36 AP. Attacking Protectron 2 with Electric Hooves. Saving enough to prepare a dodge.)

Ashen groaned as the mare-turned-projectile that was Bakewell laid on him, one of the mare’s hooves being jammed into his face, although thankfully it didn’t damage his goggles. He soon felt the weight of the mare be lifted as she rolled off, giving Ashen an embarrassed look before she ran off to continue the fight, although Ashen didn’t return it. In fact somehow the buck’s expression didn’t change at all during unfortunate incident, that same neutral look staying on his face the entire time.

The buck quickly slid behind cover and out of the robot’s line of sight as he checked his weapon, assessing it to be in still in good condition, he doubted he’d have any problems with it after the impact.

Peeking around the side of the door, he spied Bakewell attacking one of the robots, one that had sustained damage to its head while he was knocked down, probably from Mona, with her electric hooves. That was unfortunate, as now he only had one robot he could hope to take down mostly whole. He would need to make sure the other one was disabled efficiently, otherwise they’d need a new plan if he couldn’t get what he needed.

Pushing those thoughts aside for now, he raised his Bolt Rifle again and lined the sights up on the other robot, the one Bakewell wasn’t ruining. He spotted where somepony managed to damage one of the robot’s legs, and aimed for that, firing once, then twice, at the damaged leg.

[Two Shots on damaged leg of Protectron #1*, Bolt Rifle, -24 AP, Energy Weapons 60]

[Prepare Dodge, -8 AP]

*Note, if the first shot destroys the leg, Ashen will use his second shot on another leg.

Zestari was surprised and disappointed that her blows seemed to have done little to the hulking robot before her. Should she switched to her gun, or put the failed blows down to poor aim? – Stick with hoofsies for now, she decided.

She watched with horror as it swung one of its weighty arms at Bakewell sending her flying across the room, sending a very clear message to Zestari that she should try and avoid the machine. Before she could move and get away from those flailing limbs, the other Protectron lumbered over to her, its lights going red with hostility. Her eyes went wide and she was about to drop to the floor in an attempt to avoid the oncoming weapon fire, however she was saved by a collection of bullet rounds colliding with it, causing it to change focus.

Thanking the others for the respite, she deftly moved around the robot she’d been striking, until she was behind it creating a barrier between herself and the other robot. Once there, she attempted to find a weak point in its limbs that she might be able to work on for disabling it. If there was nothing clear, she supposed she could try and trip it over by jamming something between its legs.

She dared another glance past her hostile barricade to see how progress was fairing on the other robot, and she spotted the spider-web of cracking on the large dome on top. Well at least it wasn’t all bad, then. She turned back to her target and started whacking away on the joints. Surely a robot 200 years old would be dodgy somewhere here, right?

(More unarmed! 52, 40AP, working on the 1st Protectron’s limbs, trying to keep it between myself and the other Protectron )