Somber #12.5

[18:52:04]	Somber	The companions had encountered a nasty ambush set by Gator's raiders and were forced to retreat. Unfortunately, with their guide unconcious, they'd gotten turned around in the swamp. It'd looked like it was going to be a last stand when Wanderlust's Pipbuck had come up with an unusual navigation tag: Stable 42. The companions had gotten down to the door,
[18:54:08]	Somber	and after struggling with the mechanism, the vault door opened enough to let them through. Now the five friends found themselves in the admittance area of the Stable. The air smelled strongly of ozone; a vaguely unhealthy tang to every breath. Swampy... though stable, was clearly needing medical care as soon as possible. The lights overhead flickered a
[18:54:32]	Somber	little, buzzing some. What wasn't coming? Any stable swellers...
[18:54:37]	Somber	dwellers*
[18:55:50]	Edna_Stonetalon	re-loads her rifle "Wander, give ush sume light"
[18:57:12]	Shimmershy	gathered herself back up with a frown, glancing up at the ceiling and then the walls with an annoyed snort. "Great. Now we get to die locked underground in darkness." She gives a side-long glare at Edna as she finishes speaking, before turning her nose up with a 'hmph' and moving further into the waiting room to look around a little closer.
[18:57:59]	Swamp_Shadow	moans, pain starting to bleed through her unconsciousness. Her left ear is almost completely gone from one gunshot and her left shoulder, while no longer bleeding, has a strange sunken in look to it.
[18:59:01]	Somber	Through the door, Shimmershy could see two flickering green signs. One pointed to the left that said "Overmare's Office" and the one to the right "Security."
[19:00:30]	Edna_Stonetalon	"We need to get to tha clinik"
[19:02:05]	Night_Wind	shivers a little as she looks around. "I don't like this. This doesn't look like Stable 2, and that means it's probably one of the other types of Stables. Be ready for anything." She adjusts her battle saddle a moment then sets her horn glowing to take a better look around.
[19:03:19]	Shimmershy	frowned as she looked through the window. "Lights are on. But nopony's home. How delightful." She banged on the door with a forehoof a few moments, just to see if anyone would show up to answer. Not that she had high hopes. Or high patience.
[19:03:42]	Somber	There doesn't seem to be any directions to go beside left and right. Definitely a different layout from Stable 2.
[19:09:19]	Edna_Stonetalon	"Batleef mite be wats left ov these poneh. Place probly opned years ago" stumbles a bit as the rooms spins on her
[19:10:27]	Shimmershy	tromped back from where she had been standing to begin looking down the two side hallways. Anything other than being stuck in a mud-filled room with a griffin who she was doing her best not to explode all over at the moment. "You think so? Then who would bother pumping this place dry, hmmmm?" SHe glanced back accusitorally at Edna. "Nevermind, you'll probably just want to
[19:10:27]	Shimmershy	shoot them too." She went back to checking the ways out of the room. or for ways out of the room.
[19:10:29]	Night_Wind	trots over to the door leading deeper into the Stable and hesitates. She's just about to open her mouth and comment when Edna babbles gibberish behind her. "What was that, Eddie?" (o.O)
[19:11:58]	Edna_Stonetalon	"Automatded systms. I've been in Stable b'for"
[19:13:53]	Somber	The hallway lead down a short way to another door with the word "Overmare's office" on it. In the other direction was an identical door with "Security" above it. There was a stair way going down beside the door to security.
[19:15:00]	Night_Wind	blinks. "Well, yes, I suppose there would need to be a lot of automated systems in a Stable. Hmmm...now if this were a more normal Stable, the direction of the Overmare's office would be a dead end, but there could be useful files...assuming we can get at them."
[19:16:10]	Edna_Stonetalon	"They'd have a map"
[19:17:20]	Night_Wind	turned towards the Overmare's office. "It's worth a try. I just hope this isn't a Stable that valued lethal force to protect the security of the Overmare's office."
[19:18:15]	Shimmershy	was already on her way down the hallway towards the Overmare's office, looking grumpy as she was earlier. possibly more so. If that were possible
[19:18:17]	Shimmershy	.
[19:18:21]	Edna_Stonetalon	stumbles off down the hall towards the Overmares office
[19:20:22]	Night_Wind	sighs and follows along with Wander carrying Swampy bringing up the rear.
[19:20:31]	Somber	Going to the Overmare's office, there wasn't any monsters, killer turrets, or other hazards. The door opened and revealed a room that had been... partially disassembled. It looked as if the terminal in the overmare's desk had been removed and there was only one small burned out monitor left in place. Under the overmare's desk was a skeleton in Stable 42
[19:22:00]	Somber	barding. It looked as if the pony's PipBuck had been wired to the old connectors of the missing terminal. Aside from some scrap metal and scrap electronics left on the desk top, there wasn't anything else of apparent value left.
[19:22:45]	Edna_Stonetalon	stumbles over and checks the skeleton "Well... this iz nuu"
[19:24:35]	Shimmershy	approached the skeleton skeptically. "No, I believe that is what we call -old-, Edna. If it were new, it wouldn't be so bone-y." She chuckled a little bit at that. "Not that I can blame you for not knowing what a bony pony might look like. I doubt you've ever had the occasion to get close to one." She tilted her head to one side curiously, reaching down to lift the PipBuck.
[19:24:35]	Shimmershy	"Wonderful, home electronics."
[19:25:28]	Somber	The barding was utility barding with a big "42" on the side.
[19:26:07]	Edna_Stonetalon	"I waz talkin bout the terminal mods. Musta taken lot to do this" swaying as the room spins on her again
[19:29:36]	Night_Wind	trots over to look at the PipBuck over Shimmer's shoulder, but nothing she sees seems to make sense...no, wait...maybe... "Argh, I think someone wiped a perfectly good PipBuck just to get at what's on this terminal. Great. And it looks like they just used it to open the Stable door remotely."
[19:30:36]	Shimmershy	looked up towards Edna, briefly worried before turning back towards being annoyed. "So who opened the Stable? Some kind of ghost? Maybe this place is haunted by the spirits of all the ponies who died in the swamp." She laughed a few moments at that possibility, shaking her head. "Meh. This place is useless." she dropped the PipBuck and moved back towards the door, heading
[19:30:36]	Shimmershy	off towards Security. Anything to keep herself focused on her goal, rather than her anger and hate.
[19:30:40]	Edna_Stonetalon	"Who pushhd the button?"
[19:32:22]	Somber	Wanderlust frowned and then pointed up in the corner of the room. "Maybe somepony watching us through those." He said as he gestured at a tiny black camera in the upper corner of the office.
[19:35:48]	Edna_Stonetalon	eyes the camera then stumbles out of the room off towards security "If deys home they let us in and not the raiders. Cn't bee all bad"
[19:36:13]	Shimmershy	looks back up towards the camera. "Hmmm. Maybe so." She turned around and made a rather rude gesture with a hoof up at that camera, then laughed. "Let 'em watch then. It'll be more of a laugh when we finally find them and get them to tell us what's going on here!"
[19:36:53]	Somber	"One hopes." He said as he made sure Swampy stayed on Nightwind's back.
[19:38:41]	Somber	The door to security was, likewise, not locked. The room beyond, though, was absolutely tiny! There was room for one rack of weapons, a desk, and another gutted terminal. There wasn't a cell or anything that would be standard.
[19:39:11]	Night_Wind	shakes her head. "Great, we're on TV." She waves to te camera forcing a smile. "I wonder if we're getting good ratings." She turns to follow the irritable changeling out of the office and towards Security. Sadly she's not heading towards the pony Security - she'd probably survive that with only a hangover or a bit of embarrassment and maybe some damp, salty, and snot-slimed
[19:39:12]	Night_Wind	fur if she'd been having a bad day and needed a shoulder to cry on. Not that she knew the mare well. More by reputation.
[19:42:16]	Edna_Stonetalon	quickly searches the room "We need ta get Swampy ta the clinic"
[19:42:53]	Night_Wind	gives the room a once over, not expecting to find much.
[19:43:23]	Shimmershy	grumbles a little bit at the tiny room. "What? No jail cells? And here I wanted to lock our attempted murderer up for a little while. Maybe teach her a lesson." She trotted around the room to check and see whether or not there was anything worth keeping.
[19:45:12]	Somber	Night Wind spotted something under the desk. It was the wierdest gun in the wasteland. It was a pistol apparently made of plastic! It had a canister marked 'CO2' screwed in the top and loaded inside was some kind of dart. Only one shot too!
[19:48:29]	Night_Wind	lowers her head and frowns at Shimmer, an expression mixing worry and annoyance. "I do wonder how they maintained discipline without a jail. Was this Stable just so good that they didn't need one, or..." She blinks as she spots something out of the corner of her eye. "What in the world?" She carefully picks up the odd plastic gun. "Hmmm...some kind of dart gun. Swampy
[19:48:29]	Night_Wind	would probably be able to use this best. Want to hold onto it for her, Eddie?"
[19:50:05]	Edna_Stonetalon	shrugs and takes it "Probly a trank gun or something" falling to her haunch as the room gives another spin "Grr... we need to git to tha clinic"
[19:51:40]	Somber	The stairs lead down to the next level. At the switch back, though, were two more skeletons in stable barding.
[19:52:39]	Edna_Stonetalon	sighs and gives the bodies a quick look over
[19:52:40]	Night_Wind	looks worriedly at Eddie before glancing back at her own small burden. "Yes. Yes, we do. Let's go then." She heads for the stairs further down into the Stable. "Just in case, keep an eye out for more of those cameras. It could be useful to know where they are, just in case."
[19:54:54]	Shimmershy	continues on her way down the stairs as well once the others were more or less ready to go. Iritable or not, the changeling wasn't stupid enough to run off alone. She moved up to the skeletons to take a look at them. "I wonder if they just executed their criminals in the hallways. It would save on jail space. I'm sure -someone- here could appreciate the efficiency, too."
[19:54:54]	Shimmershy	She turned to move past the skeletons with a huff.
[19:56:23]	Somber	Then at the bottom there were two more directions, left and right. Left was 'clinic' and right was 'Atrium'. Then a ghostly, transparent pony appeared before Shimmershy at the base of the stairs. The transparent unicorn's mouth moved, her hooves waving as if in warning, before she flickered and disappeared.
[19:57:12]	Somber	Wires and cables were strung along the floor of the hallway; along with various detrius.
[19:57:24]	Edna_Stonetalon	groans and flicks the safety off on her rifle "Damnit.... "
[19:59:34]	Shimmershy	blinked in surprise, pausing on the stairs. This made her really re-evaluate her thought process. Because that was definitely not normal. She closed her eyes and shook her head a few moments. Hallucination? Well then again they'd seen the rain which rebuilt ancient times... Time-travel magic. Some kind of psychic echo? A ghost? Lots of options. Right now she just groaned.
[19:59:34]	Shimmershy	"Well at least we won't be alone when we die."
[20:00:32]	Somber	"What the hell was that?!" Wanderlust gasped, then groaned,"Oh, I SO hate this place."
[20:01:08]	Edna_Stonetalon	pushes on towards the clinic. Nervously humming the infernal song.
[20:04:17]	Somber	After a little zig-zag, they came to the clinic. In contrast to Security above, this room was quite spacious! It had beds for a dozen ponies, an operating room through a door, and two seperate doctors offices. Most stable ponies would kill for a set up like this! Apparently, some ponies did. There were a half dozen bones left on the beds and the place
[20:04:45]	Night_Wind	blinks at the apparition. "Um...maybe that was a magical projection? Ghouls are one thing, but I don't think anyone has ever seen an actual ghost. Still, that was a warning. We should be careful. Let's get straight to the clinic...er, as straight as possible." She sets off trotting.
[20:05:20]	Somber	looked as if it'd been mostly ransacked decades ago. A robotic repair and recharge bay in the corner held some kind of round machine.
[20:05:54]	Shimmershy	rolled her eyes. "How should we know? Maybe it was a ghost! The haunting souls of long-dead ponies lurking just out of sight waiting for the proper moment to take material form, possess your body and murder the pony of your dreams on the cusp of your chance to save her!" She laughed a few moments before giving a wicked grin to Wanderlust. She moved along with the others
[20:05:54]	Shimmershy	towards the Clinic.
[20:07:37]	Edna_Stonetalon	sits her ass down watching the door "Wander, take care of Swamp Thang then the rest of us."
[20:09:13]	Somber	"Makes me wish they'd left some more materials," Wanderlust sighed as he levitated some dropped tools and opened up a doctor's back. "Okay, set her down. I'll see what I can do."
[20:12:03]	Night_Wind	sighs at Shimmer's dark humor. "I didn't say it wasn't a ghost, but I'd rather believe it was some perfectly explainable phenomenon. Anyway, at least here we have plenty of room. Too bad the place isn't in better shape." After setting Swampy on the cleanest available table, she turns and begins searching through the clinic for anything useful.
[20:15:12]	Shimmershy	picked up one of the bones, playing with it a little bit. "Hey Edna. How do you feel about deboning ponies? I mean, it's only a little step up from murder to consumption, right? No big problem for a big, strong predator like you, is it? Oh, wait..." She trailed up and looked to Edna with a smirk. "I guess a little, adorable one must struggle extra hard to get the other
[20:15:12]	Shimmershy	griffins to take her seriously." She tossed the bone at Edna's claws, "Why not make yourself a necklace from the corpses? No one needs to know you stole them instead of killing them yourself. Right?" She trotted back around the room curiously, pausing at the weird thing with the robot-device in it.
[20:18:55]	Somber	Wanderlust looks up. "Shimmer? Shut it. She's got a head wound and so does Swampy and I do NOT need your bitchiness distracting me right now. So go some where and work on getting over whatever's bothering you, because I'm trying to clean out a head wound here."
[20:20:21]	Edna_Stonetalon	glares at Shimmer, taking out and inspecting the strange plastic gun
[20:20:43]	Shimmershy	paused a few moments at that, closing one eye, then the other, then opening both with a heaved sigh. "A-alright. I'm sorry..." She slunk off towards the hallway, trying to put some distance between herself and the others. This was definitely not right. These were her friends, the ones who promised to care about her no matter what! She shouldn't treat them like this. They
[20:20:43]	Shimmershy	definitely didn't deserve it...
[20:22:16]	Night_Wind	hmms softly as she turns up a shot of Med-X and holds it up. "This might be useful for later. Here, Wander." A little more nosing around and she finds a gun like the one before, half hidden beneath old, dirty, illegible papers. "Huh, broken and empty. Just our luck." A bit further is another gun next to a skeleton dressed as a doctor. "Oh, and here's a pony skeleton dressed
[20:22:16]	Night_Wind	as a doctor. This PipBuck's wired to a terminal too. Huh. Surgical robot controls?"
[20:23:58]	Somber	"A working surgical robot?" He looked at the cylinder and then at her. "Definitely couldn't hurt. I'm having a dozy of a time trying to clean out this wound. A robot with integrated healing talismans would be awesome."
[20:23:59]	Edna_Stonetalon	sways a little "Hey Shimmer come here. I need a someone smrt. What do you make of this thing?"
[20:24:26]	Night_Wind	luckily had been searching so hard she didn't notice the exchange between Edna and Shimmer. (>.>);
[20:26:57]	Shimmershy	yawned broadly as she stumbled back down the stairs towards where Edna had called her. "Mh?" She seemed to be barely hanging on to consciousness all of a sudden. Tilting her head as she approached Edna to see what she was examining. "... Why are you asking me..? I don't know anything about weapons. The only pistol I've ever used was the one Swampy leant me..." SHe yawned
[20:26:58]	Shimmershy	again, covering it with a hoof. "Mmmh. If this is going to take a while I think I'm going to get a nap."
[20:27:40]	Edna_Stonetalon	pats Shimmer on the back "Plenty a beds. I'll keep watch"
[20:28:14]	Night_Wind	frowns at nothing in particular, tapping her chin and humming to herself. "So far we've only seen tranq guns, no signs of a jail, and a double-sized clinic. It's weird, but I can't shake the feeling they're related..." Her eyes slowly widen as something occurs to her. "Maybe I'm completely wrong, but we might not want to use that autodoc on anyone until we know it works
[20:28:14]	Night_Wind	right."
[20:29:53]	Edna_Stonetalon	grumbles "If anything says 'Resistance is futile' I'm gone"
[20:30:02]	Shimmershy	yawns again and mumbles something nondescript under her breath to Edna, crawling up onto one of the beds to get a bit of sleep. It wouldn't be terribly comfortable, but anything had to be better than sleeping on muddy floors or dirt like she had in the past.
[20:30:46]	Night_Wind	pokes carefully at the PipBuck to see what files are present on it, and as she comes to text files, she reads them aloud.
[20:34:24]	Night_Wind	breathes a sigh of relief when she looks over the surgical protocols. "Oh good, this clinic was just a clinic. Nothing sinister with the autodoc. I was starting to get worried for a moment. Still, that means we still have a mystery on our hooves. Let's see what the files hold..." And she begins to read them aloud.
[20:35:24]	Edna_Stonetalon	moves over to Shimmershys bed and sits at the foot of it, still watching the door with her rifle
[20:36:21]	Somber	"We've got to get out of here. The Overmare's plan can't work. The labs won't stay sealed forever and the enviromentals are failing right and left. Even if the tunnel to the surface is flooded, we still need to get out of here. Circuit Board figured out a way to used the
[20:37:31]	Somber	PipBucks to access the Stable's systems... too bad she doesn't have a key so we can take them off. I'm going to stay here; help the injured and sick as best I can so that as many can get out of here as possible."
[20:42:41]	Night_Wind	pokes at the PipBuck some more, trying to see if there's any kind of diagnostic function to tell her if the autodoc is safe to use.
[20:44:30]	Night_Wind	blinks and raises her eyebrows. "I think this should be safe, Wander. Stable-Tec seems to have gone all out on this model. I still have some minor injuries. Want me to give it a try to see if it really is okay?"
[20:45:17]	Edna_Stonetalon	"Sounds like a gud deal o them made it out alright"
[20:46:12]	Somber	"Go for it," Wanderer said.
[20:47:30]	Night_Wind	nods to Edna. "Yes, but I wonder what the Overmare's plan was. Anyway, let's do this." She moves into position on a bed and uses her telekinesis to set the autodoc in motion.
[20:47:46]	Edna_Stonetalon	nods "I'll go last. Watch door till everyone is gud"
[20:50:14]	Somber	The pod hisses open and the robot whirrs. It slips out and the hovering machine sweeps its cameras over the medical bay. "EMH activated. What is the nature of your medical emergency?" Then it looked at the debris and bones and said dryly, "I think a call to maintenance is definitely in order, but I don't think it qualifies as a medical emergency. One eye
[20:52:07]	Somber	sweeps a beam over Night Wind. "Superficial injuries. You can wait." Then it moved to Edna and scanned her. "Cranial fracture and concussion. You really should sit down, young lady." It scanned the bones on a bed. "Oh dear. You really should have called me sooner, Doctor. I'm afraid he's dead." And then
[20:52:48]	Edna_Stonetalon	raises and eyebrow "I am sitting..."
[20:54:19]	Somber	shimmershy, "Ah, neutralization compound A. She should be fresh as a daisy in an hour or two." It then came over to swampy. "Oh dear. Massive cranial bleed. Skull fracture. Infectious material. Please stand aside. This will require some hard work." And the three airms lifted, extending scalpels, saw blades, and needles.
[20:59:50]	Somber	It was best not to look on as the robot worked, but a half hour later the robot backed away. "There we go. A simple rejuventation station wouldn't have been able to pull off a complicated medical proceedure. I removed the bullet, but the tissue trauma was excessive. Fortunately I had an XJ-9 neural shunt in my supplies that should make up for any long
[21:01:08]	Somber	term damages she's suffered." The robot then turned towards Edna, "Up on a bed please and we'll see if I can reduce the swelling. It's probably giving you a doozy of a head ache."
[21:02:04]	Edna_Stonetalon	grumbles and climbs up on a bed "Fumblez, Wander watch the door"
[21:05:36]	Night_Wind	nods and positions herself much as Edna had only standing up since battle saddles are fairly useless when pointed at the ceiling.
[21:09:48]	Somber	The robot quickly used a doctor's bag of supplies to patch her up as well over half an hour. When it finished, her crippled head was restored and her brain started working again. "Wonderful. No need for a neural shunt, which is good given that I'm complete out of them. She should wake up in thirty minutes or so
[21:11:00]	Somber	The robot then floated to Night Wish. "My apologies but I don't seem to have your biological template loaded in my database so I can only detect base information. Please fill in missing data. Are you a boy or a girl?"
[21:14:41]	Night_Wind	blinks at the robot. "I am..." Her face twists a moment. "...female and an alicorn. Do you not have biological data for Princess Celestia or Luna on file?"
[21:18:25]	Somber	The robot just stared at her. "Do you really think that the Princesses would submit to a physical examination? Oh! Princess Luna! I need to give you a physical! Don't worry, I warmed up my probes! Oh dear, now I've been banished to the moon!" The Robot sighed, shaking its eye stalks. "Really. Have their data on file..." The robot refocused on her.
[21:19:21]	Somber	"Well I suppose I can just treat you like an exceptionally large unicorn and ignore the command to remove the feathered growths coming out your back. That should do."
[21:22:25]	Night_Wind	frowns at the snarky comment. "Well, how am I supposed to know what data you were given access to. Apple Bloom was supposed to be on friendly terms with Celestia at least. And yes, I really would prefer that you not remove my wings. They aren't a lot of help here in this swamp, but still..."
[21:25:32]	Somber	"Fine fine. Just don't be like Nurse Rachet and go 'oh please give me a pelvic exam! Oh yes! Resonate your sonic sensor probe. Harder! Harder!'" He said in a faux feminine voice. "I swear. Biologicals are so messy!"
[21:32:23]	Night_Wind	stares wide-eyed at the autodoc and a blush begins to creep across her face and up her ears. "Um...r..right, right...ah...I..." She looks around at her companions and imagines ordering the machine to... Nope, nope, nope. Not doing that! "I think a perfectly ordinary exam to determine how closely I conform to unicorn and pegasus standards followed by whatever minor medical
[21:32:23]	Night_Wind	treatments should suffice."
[21:33:31]	Edna_Stonetalon	mumbles something about a riding crop and Night_Wind as she sleeps