//------------------------------// // Part 16: Injector // Story: The Transporter: Second Gear // by Unit_ZER0 //------------------------------// Earth Mover had been alert for at least the past hour, when she’d felt the tingle of the mana surge she had been told to look for. Since then she’d been almost meditating in her cell, crouched on her sleeping pad, silently readying for the inevitable. Gossamer had noticed the change in her assigned charge as well, and knew it was time to make a decision. There was no longer any time to think about it. If she decided one way, she would sever all ties with the only home she had ever known, and plunge headlong into a new world, one where the future was uncertain, and aside from the fragile relationship she had forged, all the rest was an unknown. Or, she could betray that friendship, and remain loyal to her hive, and her queen. A person who had time and again put her own needs ahead of those of the hive as a whole, using the changelings as extensions of her own will, instead of leading them as a people… It was not a comforting position to be in, to say the least, but if she was being honest, at the very least, her survival on the outside could be counted on more than just her new fingers… She was turning the options over in her mind again, when the walls of the cellblock shuddered, and there was a tremendous explosion, mixed with the sounds of falling rock, and a screech that set her teeth on edge. In the cell across from her, Earth Mover was suddenly enclosed in golden fire, as she transformed, and rose to her rear hooves in her full bipedal form. “It’s time.” There was an instant where Goss tried to do too many things at once. It was a split second of deciding whether to charge her magic, summon the guards, or transform into her own bipedal form, and attempt to restrain Earth Mover on her own. The moment passed, and she made her choice. Earth Mover was not exactly surprised, but she was grateful when her former jailer sent several blasts from her horn at the points in the front of the cell where the metal bars were bored into the surrounding rock. As the rock fractured, she kicked outwards, balancing awkwardly on one leg, as the now dislodged front of her cell crashed to the ground. As she exited the cell, Gossamer rose to her own rear hooves, the younger changeling’s bipedal mode being slightly taller, but more slender than her own. There was a pause, and Goss gripped her shoulder with a three-fingered grip. “Please don’t make me regret this.” “I can’t promise you won’t, but I will try.” Was all she could say, before she turned, and began to trot up the curved corridor, away from the direction the explosion, and now sharp, staccato sounds, punctuated by deeper blasts, were coming from. “Wait, that’s the wrong way-“ “I know, but I have to retrieve the Ark first.” “If you can find it, should I go with you, or just try and…” “You should head towards the team sent to get me. It’ll make it clear you aren’t a threat, and it should make your leaving here less awkward.” “This is going to turn into a mess, isn’t it?” the proto-queen commented dismally. “Quite possibly,” Earth Mover said, taking a deep breath. “But I have to at least try.” With that, there really wasn’t anything more to say, and so the two went their separate ways. The way the Optima had slammed through the outer wall into the enemy hive couldn’t be described as anything less than “Dynamic”. If anyling had been unfortunate enough to be standing right in front of the point where the human vehicle entered, they would have been violently blasted across the open space in a shower of pulverized rock and dust. As the wave of debris settled, the Optima’s doors swung open, and Cole and the others exited. The human had his MP7 out, and swept it across the space the team found themselves in. “Clear”, he announced curtly. After a beat, Trixie sent out a pulse from her horn, and turned to her left. “This way.” With that, the trio set off towards where Trixie’s pulse had reacted. Before they set off, Cole took a moment to lock the vehicle down, and the Optima responded with a blink of its running lights, as the locks engaged with an audible “thunk”. The first two corridors and cross passages were mercifully clear of any changelings, but their luck ran out at the third T-junction. The approaching changelings didn’t hesitate, as it was obvious the approaching trio were not friendly. As the two groups approached, Cole spoke up. “We’re only here to retrieve the prisoner. We don’t need to make this difficult.” The changelings didn’t respond, simply charged their horns, and broke into a run. Sergeant Stormcloud didn’t hesitate. “Contact front!” As the first changelings arrived, the sergeant sprang into the air, as Cole took a knee, and opened fire. He had set the MP7 to single-shot mode, and as the first round left the barrel, there was an almost frozen moment where he watched the softly glowing pellet travel across the intervening space, and slam into the chest of the lead changeling. The reaction was profound, almost as if the creature had run into a chest high pole, it’s forward momentum violently arrested, and sending it tumbling backwards, to lie in a crumpled heap. Only the movement of its flanks indicated it was still alive. And just like that, the moment was gone, and the true chaos of CQC began. At the same time, Trixie had charged up and deployed a curved shield, giving Cole something to crouch behind. Her hooves glowed as well, as she anchored them to the corridor floor, and the semiconscious body of one of the oncoming changelings slammed into her shield. “Not the way I’d hoped this would go,” she ground out. “Well, at least it hasn’t been as intense as we’d anticipated,” the human replied. Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, Sergeant Stormcloud, who had flown around the far end of the corridor, came winging back. “We’ve got incoming, at least twenty!” Trixie didn’t bother to glance back, but Cole could practically feel the words: you just had to go and say it… Thinking quickly, he reached down into a vest pouch, and extracted a grenade. After pulling the pin, Cole kept a grip on the spoon with one hand, and gestured the Sergeant over. “OK, just keep a grip on the handle, and drop this on them,” he quickly explained. The sergeant’s eyes lit up, and he nodded once. Taking the now primed device, the Pegasus winged over the shield, dropped the device, and made it back just as it detonated within the first ranks of the oncoming attackers. The resulting detonation sent glowing pellets ricocheting all around the corridor, rapidly stunning the entire group into submission, the violent SLAP of the grenade’s detonation echoing off the stone walls. Moving rapidly on two legs was something Gossamer was still getting used to. Add that to having to hide or transform anytime a group of guards ran past, she found herself approaching the action. The noise from up ahead was especially violent, with sharp cracking sounds, the whine and hiss of released magic bolts, and what sounded like Pegasus wings. After a particularly loud crashing sound, things went silent, and she edged cautiously around the corner. Gossamer felt a sense of sick dread at the sight of her fellow changelings strewn across the corridor before her. After a second look, it was clear none of the injured changelings were dead, only unconscious, but some of the injuries were fairly severe looking, mainly cracked chitin, and shredded wings. She was almost tempted to stop and help, but the memory of how these changelings had treated those of different classes than themselves gave her pause. The sight of the three beings responsible for the current state of chaos was somehow unsurprising as well: A bipedal creature, obviously the inspiration behind Earth Mover’s new form, and now her own. A Unicorn, and a Pegasus. All three were equipped with what was obviously military gear, and the being she couldn’t identify was obviously holding a weapon of some kind. As she eased back around the corner, the Unicorn’s head snapped in her direction. “Got another one!” Instantly, the Pegasus launched into the air, and the other being began to advance. It was now or never. Run? Or reveal herself? As Sergeant Stormcloud rounded the corner, he got his first good look at the changeling that had retreated as soon as Trixie had spotted it. What he found led him to backwing in confusion, before preparing to rush once again. In that brief span the changeling began to speak, and that got him to pause, and settle into a hover. “Wait, Earth Mover sent me!” she said in a rush. “She went to go find the Ark, but I went to meet up with you.” “That’s not exactly a normal look for one of you,” the Sergeant commented. “Were you hoping to replace Cole?” “Who’s Cole? No, I was… I’m not sure what I wanted to do. All I know is that I can’t stay here, not anymore. I don’t… fit in. There are so many who think that what was done in Canterlot was the right thing, but there are more of us who had doubts. And then we were forced to go along with a plan that made no sense!” Gossamer realized she was babbling, trying for anything that would keep the Pegasus in front of her from laying her out like the other changelings she had seen behind him. Here the Sergeant took charge. “Look, you clearly don’t want to fight. Just stay out of our way, and we’ll forget we saw you. You said Earth Mover went to find the Ark?” “I want… take me with you.” “Look, we aren’t really set up for passengers…” It was at this point that Cole and Trixie arrived. The first thing the human did was look the odd changeling in front of him up and down. “Is this supposed to be a new technique?” The changeling looked back with a combination of embarrassment, frustration, and defiance that could only mean it was a young one, likely younger than even the changeling they had been sent to retrieve. Cole had seen that look before, had worn it often enough himself when he was young. The look of: “will someone PLEASE listen to me!” with fists clenched, and on the verge of shouting, crying, or both. “Look, I just want out of here. I’m like this because Earth Mover said it would make it easier to escape. She’s gone to find the Ark, and I want to come with you.” He didn’t understand everything that had happened, but there was no time. Clearly, Earth Mover had made an impression of this (female) changeling, and now she wanted to leave with them. It could be a trick, but the odd bipedal form she had taken made that less likely than he’d first suspected. Equally clearly, Earth Mover had sent this changeling to meet up with them, or given her the option to decide to do so on her own. Either way, they now had another person to extract, and their original objective still needed to be completed. Trixie spoke up: “Are you sure we can trust her?” “Listen, my name is Gossamer. You can scan me for mind magic. You unicorns can do that, right?” “I can, hold still.” Trixie’s curt reply as punctuated by a sweeping ray from her horn, as she swept Gossamer from top to bottom. After not detecting a negative reaction, the unicorn visibly relaxed, and the two males took their cue from that, and focused more of their attention outwards. “She’s clean,” Trixie pronounced. “Sorry for being a little cold earlier.” “I can’t really blame you, I guess,” Goss replied. “I’m sure I would have done the same. We need to hurry. If the guards I ran into are any indication, the main force is still either in confusion, or focused on securing both Earth Mover, and the Ark. If whomever was sent to check on her finds she’s gone, the main focus will be on the Ark first, and you all last.” Hearing this, Cole made a snap decision. “OK, back to the Optima.” Sergeant Stormcloud looked at the human for a second, then glanced at the size of the corridors they had been running through, and made the same connection. “Gotcha,” he replied, and swung into a slow speed flight back the way they’d come, checking the junctions, and finding them clear, gesturing behind himself for the others to follow, as they hustled back up the passageway.