Of Blood and Iron(Closed)

Ashen looked up at Mona Tones’ announcement, walking over to the mare and the computer station she was at. His goggle-covered eyes were immediately drawn to the blueprint, and curiosity, the only emotion he ever felt anymore, trickled into his mind in small amounts as he lifted up the diagram with his magic, unrolling it and holding it in front of his face.

Ashen instantly recognized the sheer complexity of the limb the blueprint laid out, far more complex than almost anything else Ashen had encountered in the past. The most recognizable part was the power hoof assembly, but beyond that...

An obscured eyebrow quirked beyond one of Ashen’s goggles as he noticed something odd about the design.

“Curious.” he muttered. “While it would at first appear that this limb is designed as a cybernetic replacement, one with a built in pneumatic power hoof, it lacks any of the systems that would actually attach to the nervous system of the user to the limb. Without major modifications this limb would not be usable by a pony, or any other race.”

Zestari nodded at Ashen, and gave a withering glance at Bakewell. “If you’re sure you’re fine…” she trailed off, eyes slightly squinted as though trying to see through the beige mare. “… Then I have no reason to believe otherwise.” She concluded, deciding not to pursue Ashen’s advice of using the pipbuck. Trust was important, after all.

She gave Bakewell another glance before turning towards Mona and smiling. She trotted over as Mona withdrew the blueprints and the computer. “Found one item already. Wonderful!” She said, happily. Not being very adept with computers, she was still curious to see what Mona had found on her computer and trotted close and then peered over the unicorns shoulder to see what the computer had on it.

Her attention diverted to Ashen for a moment, and her ears flicked confusedly. “So what would such a blueprint be used for, then?”

Bakewell swore she could feel herself sweating nervously as Zestari cast a withering squint in her direction. She was relieved when Zestari decided to trust her instead of checking the mare’s pipbuck.

“Uh. No! No, I feel great. Like a spring chicken. Can barely keep myself from prancing!” Bakewell quickly insisted when her roommate gave her a final glance.

The earth pony followed Zestari about halfway to the blueprint before sitting down again. The mare was slightly curious, sure, but she didn’t need to see the blueprint. It wasn’t like she would be able to make heads or tails of it anyway. She could just sit at a distance and wait until the others spoke about it. Bake did take the opportunity to cast a quick glance at her pipbuck screen while everybody seemed busy focusing on the blueprint to make sure what she thought were just horrible “I got punched by a giant robot hoof” pains weren’t actually broken ribs stabbing into her lungs or anything. Her EFS would have said something when she took the wounds, but Ashen’s talking had made her slightly nervous that she had missed an alert on account of flying across the room.

Mona would search through the computer, but would come across little of interest, aside from one particular E-Mail.

To: Checkbook
From: Wire Frames

Re: The new arrivals

Oh come on Check, not everything is a consipiracy! They're probably just some officials here to check on how the factory is doing. You need to stop worrying so much about these silly little things, or you'll become as loopy as that Unicorn down in S&H. She was ranting about several crates dissapearing on her in the break room yesterday, but I did some checking, and those crates she's talking about don't exist in any orders sent to us!

Mona would look over the message, but it didn't mean a whole lot to her at the moment, though she did recognize the S&H as probably meaning 'Shipping & Handling'. That could be a reasonable place to keep searching for more of these items of interest.

Right now though? First concern was making sure the party was alright.

"Ashen, hold onto those Blueprints."

She would state, before leaving the computer, and going back to searching through drawers. This search would prove to be a bit more fruitful though, as in one cubicle, near the back of the room, she found a couple bobby pins and 44 caps. Even if they didn't know much about lockpicking, they might be able to at least give it a go now...

Ashen was silent for a moment as Zestari asked her question.

“Either the design is incomplete, which I doubt considering the complexity of it, or it wasn’t designed to be used by a pony, or any sort of living creature, at all. Possibly it was created to be used by a robot of some kind, some sort of close-combat model judging the power hoof assembly.”

He nodded at Mona, before rolling up the blueprint and storing it in his saddlebags.

Perhaps he could find a way to copy it before they hoofed it over. Mona didn’t say anything about not doing that, and the blueprint intrigued him...

He would have to find a copy machine of some sort in the facility, one that was operable. He would have to keep an eye out for something like that, although at the moment he had other things to be concerned about.

Zestari turned from Ashen’s explanation about the blueprint to raise an eyebrow at Bakewell. Spring Chicken? Bakewell was acting odd, even by normal standards.

She turned and nodded at Ashen, how he was able to determine such things from a drawing was an enigma to her, but it was impressive. “It seems like an odd item to want, don’t you think? Do you think he’d be able to find a use for it?” She shrugged, and turned to Mona who had just finished playing with the computer and had returned to rummaging.

“What did you find?” Zestari asked, trotting over and reading the message on the computer. “Well that’s a bit odd. Think there’s something to it, Mona?” she asked, her brow furrowed slightly as she considered the message. She watched Mona search the room and smiled, as Mona found some caps and bobby pins. “Anypony know how to use those?”

"I am afraid I am not too experienced with locks."

Mona would state, before turning to Ashen.

"Ashen, you said you might be able to manage something with those medical box locks if you had lockpicking tools or some bobby pins. Catch."

With that, she would give the pins a light lob over to Ashen with her magic. An easy catch for a unicorn.

Ashen silently caught the airborne pins, magic field humming as he collected the scattered pins into one bunch. Nodding at Mona, he turned and walked over to the bathrooms.

Stepping into the bathroom with the box, he opened up one of his saddlebags and slid out a screwdriver, one of the tools he always carries with him. Pulling open a pin he inserted it into the lock, followed by the screwdriver head, before getting to work trying to open it.

[Lockpick 25]

Pleased that somepony seemed to know how to use the lockpicks, Zestari followed Ashen into the bathroom, so that once he opened the cabinet, she’d quickly be able to determine what medical supplies were still likely to be good after their 200 year storage.

As Ashen began working upon the lock she decided to stand back and a little to the right. She didn’t want to ruin his concentration so tried to stay silent.

After fiddling with the lock for a bit, it would give way with a satisfying 'click' as the Mare's Restroom medical box popped open. Inside was a Doctor's bag, a Healing Potion, and a package of Rad-X. Not a bad find for a pre-war medical box!

Zestari almost shoved Ashen out of the way the instant the medicine box was unlocked, this was it, not only was the contents of the box her forte, but something unopened for 200 years! Imagine what other exciting medical items might lay within.

Grinning widely and repeatedly thanking and congratulating Ashen for his effort in getting the box unlocked, she began rummaging. Most items within had degraded over their lengthy stay in the box, but she found enough tools and items in serviceable condition that once she combined them into a bag she found in the box, she could probably perform an emergency surgery if somepony really damaged themselves. She also took a healing potion that appeared to be in good condition and a pouch of Rad-X.

With a nod that she’d grabbed everything of value, she turned to Ashen, “This will help a lot, but the best thing is, there’s another bathroom to visit!” She began pushing towards the door. “Trust me, the more medical items I get the better off we’ll all be.”

As Ashen managed to get the medical box to click open he was suddenly pushed aside by an excited zebra, who instantly began rummaging through the box’s contents and gathering usable supplies. Ashen for his part barely reacted, face as blank and expressionless as always as he put the screwdriver and bobbypin back in his saddlebag.

Zestari was soon finished and thanking Ashen for opening the box, which the unicorn only responded to with a short nod. When asked to open the box in the other bathroom Ashen nodded again, before silently following Zestari to the second bathroom. If there was indeed another locked medical box in there he’d get started on opening it.

Surprisingly, the Stallion's bathroom would actually seem cleaner then the Mare's one, with zero radroaches. Though there was clear nesting area that made it clear as to where the extra radroaches from before had swarmed in from.

There would indeed be a second medical box, but the lock would prove to be in worse condition, hving slowly rusted to pieces with age, to the point where the medical box popped open with little force.

Inside would be a second Doctor's bag, as well as a Radaway potion. Handy!

Zestari quickly collected those items that were of value and added them to her healthy supplies of medical items, beaming smile on her face as she did.

‘This is fantastic, Ashen! Thank you for opening these. I feel much better about being in here with so many angry robots. If we’re careful, hopefully we’ll get through this place without anypony being hurt too much and we can give these supplies to the Stableton hospital.”

She secured her saddlebags and gave Ashen a nudge. “Now let’s get back to the others, I’m sure they must be bored to tears waiting for us.”

When Ashen came to the second medical box, he quickly discovered the decrepit condition of the box’s lock. He stared the box for a moment, assessing the condition of it, before determining that a slight amount of applied force would be able to easily open it.

He pulled his screwdriver out, and spun it around to point the tip at the edge of the box. He jammed it in, before pushing the tip against the box’s lid, applying force to it. A moment later the lock snapped and the lid popped open, revealing the contents inside.

Ashen moved aside to allow Zestari to assess the contents of the box and gather what was useable. She once again thanked the unicorn, and Ashen once again gave a short nod in response.

“That would be ideal.” he replied to Zestari’s hope of adding these medical supplies to Stableton’s own. “However, if my assessment of the strength of the robotic forces we will be facing is accurate that will prove to be a difficult goal to attain.”

Regardless of those concerns, Ashen followed Zestari back to the outside room to rejoin the others. It was time to get moving again.