Scootaloo had got a weird book from Twilight, she was able make up a tale while she talked to her about what she was looking for, apparently this monstrosity was the answer. Mythological Creatures and Beings, she knew it was silly; but there might be something that could help her explain what she had seen the night prior. She lied again to Twilight straight to her face about what she wanted the book for, she brought it back to the Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse. She had her own dedicated work space there as well as some paper and some other things she would need.
She decided it would be best to keep a journal of the stuff she was doing here. If only so she wasn’t repeating herself thinking about it later.
The book’s table of contents didn’t provide much in the way of what she was looking for, it was just types of mythological beings so she’d have to guess what it was. She did know it was physical so it wasn’t a ghost or a revenant or anything along the lines of post-mortem beings, which was chapter 3 according to the table of contents.
The few moments she had seen it were burned into her head, every feature she could tell in the split second it was lit up, every detail. It walked upright, taller than most trees she had ever seen, and had this really weird set of two legs. It walked with almost bird like legs... almost. It had a pair of joints above and below the middle section of its legs.
“Where to start?” She thought to herself.
This was something she had to do by herself as well, nopony would have believed her if she told them. Owlicious knew a bit of it... there was no way he’d be able to piece the puzzle together himself. Nopony else had seen it except for her. Hopefully this book would have some answers.
Another thing that might help would be if she drew a picture of the thing while it was still fresh in her mind. Pulling up a notebook out of the drawers of a desk she tried to find one that was empty. There was other notebooks in here, filled with plans they had thought of like getting back at Babs or how they tried to get Big Macintosh and Cheerilee together, neither of those went too well. Most of their plans didn’t work exactly the way they wanted them too.
“Ah here’s one.” She said aloud, it was a green notebook. It looked like another one that Sweetie Belle had taken from class, she really needed to stop doing that. Then again, most of their supplies were ‘procured’ from the school house.
She couldn’t remember exactly tall it was, she needed something to compare it to, a point of reference. It was taller than Fluttershy’s cottage that was for sure. She could do that though, draw the cottage, it would be more fun than having to sit there and read an old book. Scootaloo packed up her things, the book, a pencil, an eraser, and the notebook. It was a heavy load. There would be no way she could to carry that book everywhere constantly. She supposed she have to haul it around in the wagon that she attached to her scooter-skateboard.
Rainbow Dash was nice enough to get her a new one after the old was lost over the Winsome Falls. But this one wasn’t blue, it was green. She missed her old one; they never found the debris after it went over the falls, much to her dismay.
She put on her helmet before she realized she had forgotten to get a new attachment for the wagon to fit onto. She sighed; the trailer hook-up had been in two parts, one for the handle on the wagon and the other part at the back of her old scooter. It was a simple link; an extension on the handle just slotted onto the hook at the back of the scooter, but she didn’t have the tailhook anymore. She also didn’t have any bits to get a new one, maybe Rainbow Dash could help her find the old one or get a new one. Scootaloo put the book, and the notebook she had away in the secret compartment in the clubhouse, the space under a loose floorboard. Thankfully Babs never found it when she temporarily hijacked the clubhouse with Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara. Not even Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle knew about it, more secrets that she kept from the other crusaders.
Scootaloo put her helmet on and then jumped on her new scooter, it was awesome, but it didn’t feel like her old one. It was like that feeling you got when you put on a new pair of shoes, they’re nice but they’re just not the same. With a strong kick she took off, the traffic in and out of the clubhouse had created a path that she could use her scooter on, it was still bumpy and would be until she got onto the main road.
“Where to find Rainbow Dash?” She thought, it was almost noon so she might be napping. It was also Saturday, so she’d most likely be having a nap or sleeping in if she didn’t have any work to do later. Either way she had a fifty-fifty chance of either. Finding her would be easy enough she normally slept over the park, in a tree or on a cloud.
The dusty dirt road from Sweet Apple Acres went right into the cobblestone paved streets of ponyville. It was a 20 minute ride at most, she took the time to think to herself. What could that thing have been? That thing left footprints unlike anything she had ever seen. Definitely not a ghost. So what did that make it? That book had to have something on it, or maybe that book had nothing on it because it clearly wasn’t mythical. She might have to go get a different book. The initial scare it gave her was turning into a curiosity she couldn’t suppress.
It was 11:50 when she made it into Ponyville, the streets weren’t exactly bustling with life or excitement but that’s how it always was on a Saturday, ponies taking their time off to spend with their families, it got busier at night on weekends then it did during the day in Ponyville. The park was just ahead, Rainbow Dash wouldn’t be out on a cloud it was clear today and she wouldn’t be able to sleep if she had the sun shining in her face.
Surely enough there she was in the same old oak tree, she snored really loudly too. Scootaloo didn’t want to wake her up, but she needed that part.
“Um... Rainbow Dash?” She asked quietly.
Surprisingly she woke up, “Hey, something you need kiddo?” She said as she stretched.
“Whoa, how did you hear me?” Scootaloo asked.
“Oh... it’s um never mind.” Rainbow said, Rainbow changed the subject “What did you do to your mouth?”
“Ummm, it’s nothing don’t worry about it.” She lied. Her lower lip had scabbed over, it was itchy but that meant it was healing.
“So you need something?” Rainbow asked.
“Oh boy.” Scootaloo thought. She forgot to make up a story to tell her why she needed that part, she’d just have to wing it again.
“Uhhh.... A bit of both actually. See I was going to hook the wagon up to my new scooter you got me but I realized I don’t have the hook anymore. So I was wondering if you wanted to go back up to Winsome Falls and see if we could find the part?” Scootaloo said, she wasn’t lying... yet.
“Scoots there’s no way we’re gonna be able to find that old scooter, yet alone the parts. I like a challenge, but impossible is impossible, it’s not gonna happen. I’m sorry we couldn’t find it after the trip.” Rainbow explained.
Scootaloo sighed, with a slight frown on her face.
“It’s why I got you that new one. I forgot about that though you do kinda need to hook the wagon up to your scooter don’t you? Come on lets go see if Big Mac can make you a new hook for it.” Rainbow said, “Is there any reason why you need it right now?”
Scootaloo’s stomach churned, now she had lie, “No, but if the other crusaders need to go anywhere in a hurry I’m the pony they count on.” She smiled afterwards. That wasn’t exactly a lie, that was a truth. But it wasn’t the real reason why she needed it at this moment.
Rainbow Dash stretched again and then jumped down from the tree, her cloud pillow floated away when she got off of it. Scootaloo sighed, now they were going back the way she just came from. That was pointless.
“Hey Rainbow Dash.” Scootaloo said.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“Where’s Tank?”
“Oh he’s around. He may look like he’s timid. But he’s got a lot of energy built up. You just can’t stop that guy.”
Scootaloo giggled, but she still had that mish-mash of thoughts haunting her at the back of her head. Until she actually figured out what was going on here she’d probably be even more sleep deprived than usual.
Trotting along her mind wandered to what was next, she wanted to draw a picture before she forgot what it looked like, after that she’d take a photo of the foot prints. Featherweight might let her borrow a camera again... maybe. She supposed she’d have to lie to him as well. After that, read the big book, maybe get a different book; Mythical Creatures and Beings probably didn’t have the answer she was looking for. Then what? She wondered if it was friendly... Scootaloo shook her head; how in Equestria would that thing be friendly? Menacing was more accurate.
“Come on kid, you’re falling behind!” Rainbow called out.
Scootaloo’s thoughts had slowed down her walking speed. “Wait for me Rainbow Dash.” Scootaloo called back as she picked up the pace.
When she caught up to Rainbow she asked. “You alright? You look kinda out of it?”
Now she had to lie again. “Yeah I’m fine Rainbow.” Scootaloo said with a smile.
Rainbow Dash shrugged, “Okay then.”
Backtracking along the road the duo passed the library, Twilight had just stepped out, Spike right behind her.
Rainbow Dash stopped, “Hey Twilight what’s up?”
“The Princess gave me an assignment!” Twilight seemed very pleased about more work. “It’s just a check up on the Crystal Empire, but things have been boring around here lately. I leave tomorrow but there’s some things I need to get before I go”
“Oh, uh. When will you be back? And what’s goin’ on with Spike then?”
“To your first question, a week at the most. To your second, Spike’s coming with me this time. Celestia’s message told me to take him along. I’m not sure why that would be. Last time we were there he had things just fine here. Isn’t that right Spike?”
“Oh yeah! It was all good!” He lied.
Scootaloo laughed, that was a one hay of a weekend when Spike ‘looked’ after everypony’s pets. Spike’s face went red.
“What’s so funny?” Rainbow and Twilight asked in unison.
“Oh nothing!” Scootaloo pipped, then she realized she had lied again and stopped. Spike let out a sigh of relief.
“Oookay then. What are you two up to anyway?” Twilight asked.
Scootaloo went to speak up but Rainbow cut her off. “Scoots and me were gonna go up to Sweet Apple Acres to see if Big Mac could make her a new tailhook for her scooter.”
“Why does she need a new... oh right. I’m remember you telling me now. Sorry about your scooter, Scootaloo.” Twilight said.
“Nah, it’s alright. It could have been a lot worse.”
---
A quiet walk home after work, late at night even, was relaxing. Being a security guard wasn’t exhilarating work, but it paid the bills. Plus he liked the quiet, just pacing around keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. Night Watcher enjoyed his job. It wasn’t exactly glamorous, but every so often something fun would happen that would mix the job up a bit. Because the museum was doing renovations at the moment he had to do some other less than appealing jobs to keep a steady flow of income. Being a doorpony or bouncer, which was the more common term, had to fill the gap for another few weeks while the renovations were completed.
The luxurious VIP parties in Manehattan would take place on rooftops during the middle of the night, late Friday nights and all the way into early Saturday mornings were the worst. The rich ponies would always need some sort of bouncer to keep the bad apples out, or if they had common sense (most didn’t) anypony under age for drinking, or remove any unruly characters from the floor.
Watcher couldn’t argue, the work kept a roof over his head. Fortunately tonight he had been able to get out early, it was only 4:00 AM. It would still be a half hour walk back home but it would be nice to get in while the sun was still down for once. Saturday mornings were quiet in this neighbourhood. It was partly cloudy but not even the light pollution from the city could drown out the moonlight if it wasn’t covered by clouds. Right now one of the larger clouds in the sky had hidden the moon behind it. A newspaper got carried down the street toward him in the wind, he stomped on it to stop it, then picked it up to read it in the street light.
It was The Manehattan Observer, a weekly post. This one was from Wednesday prior. Doing a quick run through, he found there wasn’t much interesting. The was something about a tennis tournament in a week, a medical convention that had started yesterday, the upcoming election for a new mayor, and a Wonderbolts show. Aside from news, there was the comic strips: Batmare, For Better Or For Worse, and Krazy Kolt were the ones in this week's issue. The comics were pretty good this week, other than the typical cliches Batmare pulled, but you learned to love them.
His home was just outside of the downtown area, where it actually got quiet at night. Street lights were on, and the occasional carriage would pass but other then that, nothing. It was as quiet as it could possibly get for a metropolis. The majority of lights in apartments were out. The odd amber glow from a window giving character to the cityscape even if the apartments here were only a few stories tall at the most. Unlike the new buildings downtown, Queens was one the older districts. The buildings here were old style and actually had alleyways between them. Every so often a trashcan might get toppled or a dumpster smacked against.
Watcher was maybe a block from the apartment complex he lived in when one such noise came from an alleyway just ahead of him which made his ears perk up.
Clang. hmmmm.
The hum was so faint you’d have to be trained to hear it. Watcher was trained to pick out the slightest sound. Normally he worked for the museum’s nightshift but they were doing renovations so he wasn’t needed at night for a couple weeks. Other jobs that he could do in the meantime, like being a door bouncer for the parties filled in the gap while he was out of work.
Hmmm. Clunk. Clunk. Vrzzz.
He approached the alleyway, a warm gust of wind blew across his face. Something didn’t feel right, the light in the alleyway dropped off quickly from the opening to the street. The streetlights here were off to the left and right and any light going into the alley cut off fairly quickly. Not even the light pollution from the city background managed to find its way into all the corners of the metropolis, apparently this alleyway was one of such corners.
“Anypony down there?!” Watcher called into the darkness.
Silence was deafening, the only thing that returned was a slight echo and not much else. Taking a step into the alleyway made his conscience scream ‘No! What the buck are you doing?’. Watcher hesitated, curiosity fighting a war with his common sense. He was about to withdraw when he rationalized what could possibly hurt him out here? This wasn’t a crime hotspot. In fact, no area even near here had high crime rates. Curiosity won out with that thought. He took a few steps in.
Clunk. Hmm.
The light ran out after about four metres into the alleyway. Now he was blinded from a lack of light; he hoped that the clouds would be shifted, maybe shine just a little bit of light into the alley. He walked a few more metres in when...
Clatter. Twang. Tinkle.
Watcher bolted around, a pop can rolled into the light at the end of the alley. After that a shape jumped down from the side of the alley, maybe from a box. It also wandered into the light at the end of the alley.
It was a cat, just a stray, there were lots of them around here. It looked over at Watcher; cats could see really well in the dark. It looked at him, the reflective eyes made the cat that much creepier because they ‘glowed’ in the dark. then it hissed, it was loud even from this distance and he was maybe 6 metres from the cat. Then it recoiled before bounding out of the alley. Watcher grinned, it was nothing to worry about.
Hmmm. Clunk. CLUNK. HMM.
Or... maybe not. Watcher was still looking at the exit to the alleyway, but green light was creeping its way from up behind him, on the walls but it was on the ground as well. Watcher spun around on the spot and went back on his hooves. He was greeted with a large metal bat slamming into him right in the ribcage. The impact winded him and sent him flying out of the alley and landing in the middle of the sidewalk. Watcher landed on his back only to have that noise getting closer.
Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Hmmm.
He didn’t even know what his attacker looked like, everything he could see was just a blur. The faint green light emanating from the alleyway was getting closer to the street. He tried to flip himself around, but it felt like every bone in his chest was broken.
His attacker had stepped into the twilight zone of the alleyway where it was just bright enough to make it out; Watcher had landed in the more intense area of effect of one of the street lights, his vision was compromised by the excess light. His pupils slowly adjusted themselves to the amount of light he received from the street. After a few moments he could see his attacker.
This... thing was tall, at least three metres tall. It was bipedal, it stood on two extremely powerful legs. Green light emitted from its joints, lines across its body, and from two extensions on what he assumed were its shoulders. On its right shoulder there was some sort of extension attached to it. Its left arm ended in a huge claw, like a gryphon. Its other arm, had nothing, it ended in a stub. His mind went back to the attack, it wasn’t a bat that had hit him, it was its arm. The body was green, except in some places where it was scorched black. The head, or what he assumed was its head had no eyes, no mouth, and no visible ears, just a faceless, expressionless stare. How did that thing see or eat for that matter?
The weirdest part about it was, it was metallic. Light from the street lights reflected off of the parts of it that weren’t blackened extremely well. The entire creature top to bottom was made out of metal. When it moved it sounded like a robot, but its motions were too fluid, too smooth to actually be one. Then it raised its right arm, and pointed it at him. It didn’t end in a stub like he originally thought, there middle portion was hollow. It almost looked like a cannon.
He had managed to shuffle backwards a few feet, he was on the street now. The pains in his chest was suppressed by the adrenaline rush that went to his head. The thing pointed it’s right arm, using it’s claw to hold the right arm. What only lasted seconds felt like hours; Watcher didn’t know what was about to happen. The uncertainty would have made him panic if he could move without hurting so much.
Pew!
The sound it made was quiet, it broke the silence of the night, but was still very quiet. It shot some kind of magical green bolt, but it missed him and hit the cobblestone road at the base of his hooves. The stones that made up the street exploded outwards, crumbling when they hit the ground some came down on top of Watcher hitting him in the chest and spiked the pain again. He wanted to scream but he couldn’t get any air into his lungs. The creature took aim again before it hesitated, Watcher became aware of a new sound coming from up the street. It was a carriage. His ears were ringing and a few lights in the nearby buildings were turning on.
The creature turned its entire body to look up the street, it couldn’t move its head freely by the looks of it. Before it turned around and bolted back into the alleyway. Watcher looked at it flee, its back was scorched black and there were dents in it just below the shoulders, down its back, and even parts of it looks to have been torn off. The sounds it made while it was running were bizarre; the clunking was its feet or hooves or claws, or whatever it had hitting the ground. But it hummed and sounded like mechanical parts moving otherwise.
Thankfully the carriage stopped and a pony got out of it, the two other ponies that pulled it unhooked them selves. The one that had been in the carriage had already approached Watcher. Had he still been in the alleyway nopony would have seen him until morning because his fur was mostly carbon black, and he was only an earth pony, so he had no way of indicating he was there. He tried to yell but he didn’t have the breath for it. The pony that had approached him was older than he was, in fact he looked very elderly.
“You alright, son?” The old pony asked.
“Do I look like I’m alright!?” Watcher coughed. He was struggling to breathe and it felt like somepony had jumped on his ribcage.
“Hey be nice.” The older pony replied.
Another pony had gotten out of the carriage at this point, and the two that had been pulling the carriage had formed up around him. This new pony was white, a mare, wearing a coat, and had a red cross on her flanks.
“Move aside!” She barked.
The two that had been pulling the carriage got shoved away, she was a nurse.
“What happened here?” She asked.
“I got jumped.” He was barely cognisant at this point.
One of the ponies was examining the ground by him. “What could have done this?”
There was a hole at maybe a foot deep into the cobblestone road, molten slag in the bottom of it, and the rocks around the rim were red hot. There wasn’t enough scattered material around them to fill in the hole, so a major portion must have been vaporized. The second driving pony had a camera and took a photo.
The mare rejected what he had said. “Pfft. Jumped? You’re a damn mess. Help me move him.”
“No wait!”
The older looking pony had tried to flip him over by pushing his ribcage, which made Watcher shout in agony.
“GAHHH!”
More lights in nearby houses came on, somepony even opened a window and shouted out.
“What’s going on down there?!” It was a male voice.
“We could use some help!” The elder pony called back.
The pony from the window jumped out, he was a pegasus.
“What happened here?” He asked when he touched down.
“That’s exactly what we asked.” The older pony said. “Who are you?”
“I’m the superintendent of that building.” He gestured towards the building he had flown out of.
“Enough small talk, we have to get him out of here.” The mare said.
“We have a stretcher in the main office. Let me get it.” The superintendent left and returned a few minutes later with another pony.
“Ready to move him.”
The white mare found a stick nearby and put it sideways into his mouth.
“Bite that.” She said.
“One.”
This was going to hurt... a lot.
“Two.”
By Celestia, here it comes.
“Three”
Watcher bit the stick as hard as possible but the HHERRMMMM sound he made only gave hint to how much pain he was in. They had pulled him onto the stretcher. The adrenaline was wearing off, which had numbed a bit of the pain.
“Alright, lets get him out of here. That wasn’t too bad was it?” She asked.
“Whadda you think?” He scoffed.
“Be nice.”
The two ponies that had pulled the carriage grabbed the stretcher.
“I think the nearest hospital is Calvary.” The superintendent said.
“Do know how to get there?” The white mare asked.
“Yes.”
“Then tell them how to get there, you two.” She ordered, “Get us out of here.”
The two driving ponies hooked themselves back in, after they deposited the stretcher in the back of the carriage and the older one took a seat upfront, beside the superintendent. Watcher’s trouble breathing turned into a complete inability to breathe. He wasn’t sure if it was the pain, or maybe his lungs had collapsed. The bumpy roads made it that much more difficult to breathe with all the jostling and the shaking.
The white mare looked at him. “What’s your name?”
He tried to speak but couldn't.
“Collapsed lung, or lungs. Just stay still.”
---
“There you are, good as new.” Applejack said, as she handed the upgraded scooter back to Scootaloo.
Scootaloo would have complained about the colour, but she was too thankful to Rainbow Dash to say anything about it.
“Thanks Applejack, you too Big Mac.” She squeaked.
Big Mac... the strong silent type, he simply nodded.
“Hey, thanks A.J.” Rainbow said. “Do I owe you anything?”
“Not at all. It was no problem at all.” She said, “Ain’t that right Big Mac?”
“Nope.” Big Mac said.
“You sure you don’t want anything for it?”
“Rainbow, it’s what friends are for. No worries.” Apple Jack replied. She could be pretty humble when she felt like it.
Scootaloo gave the upgraded scooter a test run, it didn’t feel any different; but it still just wasn’t the same as the original.
“Looks good to me, c’mon lets get out of here.” Rainbow said as she opened the barn door.
Scootaloo zoomed out of the barn, it was a green and orange blur to Applejack.
“Wow, that kiddo can go!” Applejack laughed.
“Eeyup.” Big Mac said.
“Whoa, Hey! Wait up for me.” Rainbow shouted after her before taking off, she laughed a bit.
Applejack sighed. “Maybe she’s more cut-out to be sister material then Ah thought.”
“Eeeyup.”
---
Now that she had everything, she could finally get back to work. Scootaloo zoomed off, the crusader’s clubhouse was just down the road. Scootaloo couldn’t even hear the flapping of her wings over the wind going through her ears
“Whoa, Hey! Wait up for me.” Rainbow shouted.
Seeing as she didn’t slow down, she probably couldn’t hear her. Wherever she was going, she was going in a hurry.
“Ah forget it.” Rainbow thought to herself, “She can take care of herself.”
Rainbow touched down and yawned, she was still tired. She’d take a power nap before clearing the sky out for tonight.
Off in the distance Scootaloo had already take then left down the dirt road to the clubhouse. When she got there, she found Apple Bloom was working on adding a rope and pulley to the side so they could haul big items up better. Scootaloo wished that had been there when she had arrived earlier, pulling that book into the clubhouse was no small feat.
“Oh, Hiya Scootaloo. What’s up?” She said.
“Rainbow Dash just got me a new tailhook for my new scooter.” Scootaloo said.
“That’s great. Now we can actually hitch a ride with you now.” Apple Bloom pipped.
“Yeah, but I have some stuff to do, so... I’ll talk to you later?”
“Sure. Ah was nearly done anyway.”
Scootaloo went into the clubhouse, she looked out the window. Apple Bloom was still working on the rope and pulley looking away from the window. Scootaloo quickly pulled up the loose floorboard and pulled the book, the notebook and grabbed a pencil from a desk.
She went back outside, Apple Bloom had jumped down and tied herself onto the rope and was hoisting herself up for fun. She tried to keep what she was carrying as concealed as possible. Fortunately Apple Bloom never said anything.
“Well that’s one way get up into the Crusaders Clubhouse.” Scootaloo snickered.
“Hey! It’s fun.” She retorted.
“Whatever you say.”
Scootaloo hooked up the wagon to the new tailhook on her scooter, loaded the book, pencil, and notebook then took off. Her next stop would be the school. Hopefully Featherweight was there.
The school wasn’t far, but it was still a 30 minute ride, 20 into Ponyville and then 10 to the school. She took the same way she had before, but took a right when she got to downtown instead of a left to the park where Rainbow may have gone back to sleep at.
Even though it was a Saturday, Featherweight was probably around at the school. Getting ready for their ‘news’ coverage next week. Despite all the controversy they had done with the Gabby Gums column nopony ever denied that it hadn’t sent them to the top. She hoped he would look past that and would lend her a camera, even if it was only for half an hour. She pulled up to the school, there were some ponies on the playground, parents around them. Now that it was afternoon, ponies were starting to come out to enjoy the weather.
The studio, headquarters, whatever you wanted to call it was under the school accessed by an external set of doors at the back. Scootaloo jumped off her scooter, which was still moving forward and bolted over to the doors. Giving a good tug, they were unlocked.
When she went down the stairs, surely enough Featherweight, the current editor-in-chief was at the big solid oak desk, filling out some papers. Scootaloo approached the desk.
“Hey... uh Featherweight. I got a favour to ask.”
Featherweight looked up, he was still really skinny, even though it had been a few months since the Gabby Gums incident.
“Yes?” He squeaked.
“I need to borrow a camera, insta-dev would be good.” Scootaloo said.
Even though she had been out of it for awhile she still knew the industry lingo.
“You’re not going to be doing anything you shouldn’t be are you?”
“No. Because you still have those photos.”
“Yes, you’re right.” He said, they were in the desk’s top drawer. “Okay, I’ll lend you a camera, but I want to see the photos when you return it.”
Scootaloo gulped, but then realized he wouldn’t know what the photos she took were.
“I can agree to that.” She said.
Featherweight pulled an instant developing camera out of the desk drawer. Shady Daze, who had been promoted to staff photographer came down the ramp.
“Hey Featherweight, any suggestions for ‘Postcards from Ponyville’?” Shady said.
“Yeah actually, I heard it was supposed to be really clear tonight. Can you get some good photos of the hills to the south. Maybe get the night sky in on it?”
“Postcards from Ponyville?” Scootaloo asked.
“Something had to fill in the Gabby Gums column.” Featherweight shrugged.
Scootaloo picked up an issue of The Foal Free Press, it was from last week. Shady had taken a panorama shot of city hall. It actually looked half decent.
“Oh hey Scoots. What’s up?” Daze said.
“Just borrowing a camera.” She said.
Scootaloo picked up the camera, it didn’t have a lanyard so she’d have to stow it in the wagon.
“Scootaloo, take this.” Shady said.
Shady had the lanyard, but it looks like they had upgraded to removable attachments. He unclipped it and tossed it at her. She couldn’t drop the camera but fortunately it had wrapped around one of her wings.
“Hey thanks.” She said, her voice was muffled by the camera.
When she got back outside, she put the camera down before attaching the lanyard. She wore the camera around her neck before speeding off towards Fluttershy’s house. The trip would take maybe 20 minutes at the most.
Some of the ponies she passed recoiled when they saw she had a camera on her, clearly thinking she was up to no good again.
“No worries, not gossiping today!” She called out.
Some of the ponies breathed sighs of relief, others just smiled. That was okay with Scootaloo last thing she needed right now is unwanted attention. Not that any of them would understand, but the less anypony knew about what she was doing the better.
According to the clock tower on top of city hall said it was half-past three. Hopefully she could get some work done before sundown. Or maybe even after it? She couldn’t believe how much time of her day she had already wasted. The day just zoomed by.
By the time the cobblestone road turned into dirt she had reached the bridge and creek that were out front of Fluttershy’s house. She looked at the cottage, it was a very open view. You got to see how tall two stories was from where she was standing at. She continued on past and then left the scooter on the side of the road. Nopony would steal it, more so because she was at Fluttershy’s and almost nopony ever came out here.
Scootaloo jumped off the scooter and trotted a bit faster than she normally would have off to the side of Fluttershy’s. The tracks were still there, but the Everfree had claimed that gap in the foliage within a few hours. The tracks had dried out, the soft mud at the bottom was cracked and the one she had fallen in earlier had her body shape still in it where she had landed.
Taking a few good photos wouldn’t be too hard but she wanted a birds eye view, along with a few other views. The birds eye view would be difficult. Deciding to get the hardest over with first, she took the camera and jumped off of the ground, clicking the button once. The photo was ejected from the slot.
Perfect. Just what she needed, on the first try too. A nice overhead view of the footprint, it was very distinct, it was impossible to not see it. She took some other photos one from inside the track print, another from the edge looking across and one looking in at it then took a photo of the entire area, and one looking towards the trees. Totaling six photos, a birds eye, one on the inside, one from the side looking in, one looking across the field, one of the entire area, one looking at towards where it went.
They were all developed and not blurry, which was good. She’d return the camera later, but now it was going on four o’clock. She took a photo of Fluttershy’s house, then realized that might look too Gabby Gums like and tore it in half, but kept the photo parts. She’d draw Fluttershy’s house and then that thing she saw beside it, for scale. That image was burned into her brain, and even though she was concerned about forgetting about it, she knew she couldn’t.
Going back to just before the tiny bridge that lead up to Fluttershy’s cottage. It was a good photo, that she had taken, but she’d draw it out instead. After a few hours, she had finished a drawing of the house in her notebook with her pencil. She figured it was about half-past six, then she remembered she had to return the camera and show the photos to Featherweight.
She put the photos into the notebook and put the notebook in the wagon. The camera had stayed around her neck the entire time and it was starting to become a painful. Taking off yet again, back towards Ponyville; it was 7:00 on the clock at city hall, so it was later then she thought it had been. Going everywhere was really wearing her out. Hopefully Featherweight was still at the school. When she got there the school house was vacant, the playground deserted, but the external basement door swung open. Featherweight emerged with Shady Daze.
Scootaloo jumped of the scooter and approached the press duo.
“Finally, I expected you an hour ago.” Shady Daze said, “I need that lanyard for tonight.”
Shady took the the camera off Scootaloo, but didn’t bother changing cameras opting just to keep the lanyard on one. He flicked the flash button to check if it worked. He caught Featherweight with the flash.
“Oops, sorry!” Shady Daze said.
Featherweight shook his head violently. “Erhem?” Featherweight looked at her.
“Oh right.” Scootaloo said, she took the notebook and went through it like a flipbook, all the photos fell out, including the torn in half photo of Fluttershy’s cottage.
Handing the photos to Featherweight, he skimmed them and raised an eyebrow.
“I have no idea what you were doing, but I don’t see anything wrong here.”
“You can keep the ripped photo if you want.”
“Uh... alright.”
Without a second thought, Scootaloo put the photos back in the notebook and once again, hopefully the last time today took off. This time off to the Crusader’s Clubhouse.
“Time to do some reading.” She thought to herself.
---
Orbiting was weird. Falling, yet never hitting the ground. Or so Samantha thought. Being able to stare down on a world was exhilarating, it really put how tiny you were in perspective. This world was bizarre, there were clouds of ionized gas surrounding it, which made it look the the entire upper atmosphere was in a permanent aurora.
After making it free of the Cascade when they were ordered out, she had to navigate the debris field from the Atlantis. The ship hadn’t disintegrated, but tore into three larger pieces with thousands of tiny metal fragments flying everywhere. She wondered if any of the lifeboats made it free before the jumpship tore itself apart. There was definitely no atmosphere left the ship. Poor bastards either got exposed to vacuum or suffocated. She shook her head. When she had jumped in the pilots seat she had to jump the throttle to break the clamps securing the VTOL to the dropship.
A VTOL may be capable of being an SSTO (Single Stage To Orbit) But it wasn’t built like an aerospace fighter. Armour wasn’t as thick, so it was lighter. Its purpose was ground to orbit lifting and supply runs. It was too bad she didn’t have the oxygen to keep orbiting, the view was breathtaking, as always, but it lost some of its shock-and-awe appeal after the first few times she had been into space. She had done four orbits in slightly less than 6 hours. Her altimeter showed she was slightly over 250 Kilometres from sea level, with orbital velocity at 7700 m/s, or around mach 23 had she been in atmosphere. She had seen the reverse sunrise and reverse sunset. Beating the planet’s rotation wasn’t a small feat in any sense.
The oxygen levels in her cabin would still last another three hours, but needing to avoid too many g’s on reentry was the current problem. Fortunately, after a single orbit, the computer could calculate a survivable reentry angle and path of descent. Pilots were trained to withstand up to 8 or 9 g’s, 7 if you were doing combat maneuvers. The planet was very, very similar to Terra in diameter and effective gravity. At 1.001 g’s it was the closest thing to Terrain gravity without being Terra itself.
Getting back down to the surface would require a retrograde burn. That meant she had to fire the engines in the opposite direction she was traveling. For most craft that required a spin around. Fortunately, the VTOL was designed to move its jets. Most VTOL’s had aerospike box jets which were more efficient in lower atmosphere, but doubled as rockets when in orbit.. The VTOL’s rocket jets, were on bearings, this allowed them to be rotated. Putting the vertical in Vertical Take Off and Landing. There wasn’t a need to spin the craft around for a retrograde burn. The stabilizer engines at the back, which were tiny and insignificant compared to the two box jets, existed to keep the craft horizontal when hovering, taking off, or landing.
There were only four continents on this planet, the largest one is where she suspected most of the survivors would have landed. Maybe her wingmen, Alex and Zach made it down in one piece. Though they, unlike her, were carrying cargo. Each of them had a 15 metric tonne tank in the suspension lift. Plus whatever other cargo they had in the bay when they abandoned the Cascade.
She wanted to come down in the middle of the largest continent, it was too bad long range radio didn’t work here, too much EM interference. She could have talked to anyone listening had it not been there. She activated the radio again, nothing but static on all channels. Given the coordinates she wanted to land at, her burn would start in less than twenty minutes, then half an orbit later she’d be on the ground again.
The glass in the cockpit polarized when the local star came back into view. Four minutes until the burn, turbulence wouldn’t start right away but the hum of the engines would get progressively more annoying while reentry heating would warm up the cockpit like a frying pan over an open flame. Taking one last look stars, she rotated the aerospike jets 180 degrees and started the burn. The highly efficient hydrogen fuel mix with the internal supply of oxygen made superheated water vapor which instantly froze, making mist in the cold background of space. It would have been pretty to look at had she not had to concentrate on keeping the VTOL flat.
The burn stopped within thirty seconds and orbit started to decay, the altimeter started to count down, slowly. The reentry angle was 23 degrees which was more than survivable, but the g forces could still be upwards of five or six, still enough to make any pilot woozy. Another forty five minutes and she’d be on the ground again, or at least in low atmosphere.
Reentry effect could heat the external plating up to three hundred degrees celsius, the cockpit was supposed to be heat shielded, but it could still reach fifty degrees celsius in the cabin. Going that fast through even thin atmosphere was still like trying to swing a bat underwater. The polarized glass got steadily darker, after the first forty kilometres down speed started to drop considerably and the turbulence picked up. Keeping a hand on the control stick proved more difficult as the amount of g’s she was pulling got progressively higher. Three and a half g’s, most people would pass out by then. Speed had been cut, less than mach 15 now, and another 210 kilometres to the ground.
Turbulence got so bad it was comparable to was an earthquake, grabbing the control stick with her off hand to keep the craft steady. It would have been worse had she been doing a cargo run, which required you to fall perpendicular to the ground, that could push g’s right up into the nines and tens. That was the point most people would black out, though you’d probably be physically unharmed at those levels.
120 kilometres to go, she was over half way down now, mach 13. Turbulence had peaked, it was getting a bit less rough now. The polarization had also started wane, the important thing to do was breathe, don’t hold your breath like so many would. A lot of training was based around that, control your breathing, unless you enjoy passing out behind the joystick. Which would probably be followed by a clumsy pitiful death.
90 kilometres to the ground. Once her speed fell below mach 12, the polarized glass lifted partially. The reentry heating wasn’t burning along the outside of the VTOL anymore. Reentry burning on the outside had disappeared, which allowed her to see. It was night time, the night sky around her was filled with stars, there wasn’t any light pollution this far up. From orbit she had seen several cities when she was on the dark side of the planet. There weren’t that many, she figured maybe at the best this planet had a population of a two billion at the very most.
After another 10 minutes she was down to 30 kilometers from the ground, space planes could get this far up. Once she passed the 10 kilometer range she’d be able to apply the airbrakes, if the engines went horizontal at this speed they’d be torn clean off from drag. Still cruising along at mach 7, the polarization in the glass had left completely. 20 kilometres, in just a few more minutes she’d be able to stop. It was so exciting to go from ground to orbit or vice versa. A chance only a small percentage of people would ever experience.
After passing the 10 kilometer mark, the atmosphere had become a lot more dense. This killed her speed going from mach 5 at twenty kilometres to just mach 2. She was slow enough to use rotate the aerospike engines horizontally. The intakes had been shut while in orbit, but now they could be opened and she didn’t have to use up precious internal oxygen anymore. There were intakes for air physically on the rotatable engine, and then were a set fixed just behind the missile packs to the left and right of the cockpit, the ones on the engines were for hovering purposes, the fixed pair were for actual flying.
There was enough hydrogen fuel left to make orbit several times, or fly for weeks, even months on end without having to refuel. What the problem would be was the oxygen needed. That would run out way before the hydrogen did, if she needed to make orbit again.
As a VTOL you could be at pretty much any height off the ground. You didn’t even need a runway, just a flat patch of ground about 10 metres squared to land easily. So basic jobs for VTOLs crossed the gap between helicopters and transport planes from lifting things on the battlefield to delivering supplies. Each of these were at vastly different altitudes, from maybe a hundred metres to over eleven kilometres from the ground. The VTOL was the pinnacle of multipurpose use and tasks it could carry out. Even used as military weapons platforms.
Samantha’s VTOL armament was fairly standard, two medium range missile packs, MRM 10’s, just behind the cockpit on each side, a mounted medium pulse laser under the cockpit and two sets of twin machine guns to the left and right of the medium pulse laser, though above and closer to the cockpit.
It was enough firepower to rival some lightly armed ‘Mechs, though ammunition was the main problem. Only enough machine gun ammo for a couple minutes of firing, and just a few dozen trigger pulls for the missiles. The medium pulse laser wasn’t a sure thing either, unlike ‘Mechs which had a virtually unlimited source of energy, the medium pulse laser on the VTOL was powered by the an internal battery. A microfission battery could last for a few months before needing to be replaced, though they were larger than a set of car batteries and very expensive.
Less than a kilometre up now, the aerospike engines fired vertically while the stabilizer engines moved their nozzles to bring the VTOL to a halt. She had stopped fairly close to one of the cities, it was four or five kilometres in the distance, probably one of the many she could see from orbit. It was built unto the side of a mountain, and was absolutely spectacular. The place was lit up, some parts appeared to be walled up, and if she could see properly there were turret towers which implied an old castle or fortress.
The newer parts of the city expanded away from it, getting progressively more modern, though nowhere near as high as the skyscrapers she had seen in the Inner Sphere. These ones were maybe a dozen stories tall at the most. Definitely had a nightlife to it. What had surprised her was that no aircraft had been launched to intercept her, nor a communications attempt. It was way too quiet, maybe they hadn’t spotted her on the way down using radar?
That was unlikely, it possible that they were going to shoot her down at moment, without a second thought. Shoot first and ask questions later was a way more common mind set then she would have liked. But the longer she waited the less seemed to happen. It was almost as if they had never seen her to begin with. She wasn’t sure how they could have missed the supersonic reading the display. Or the large blip on the radar with a weird IFF marker. In orbit she had nothing to worry about, here it was just way too quiet for her liking.
---
“It’s too fucking hot.” Casey complained, “It’s a million fucking degrees in my cabin.”
“Celsius, fahrenheit, kelvin, or rankine?” Sara asked, “Actually, wait. Don’t answer that. Because if that were true you’d be dead at a million degrees in any of those scales. So quit complaining!”
Sara had no idea how Ethan could deal with Casey’s constant bitching.
“You don’t have busted heatsinks.” Casey retorted, “Also, what the hell is a ‘rankine?’ ”
“It’s like kelvin for fahrenheit.”
“And how’d you find that out?”
“My ‘Mech’s an omnibuild, literally. They accounted for everything, including being able to move the seat back so it’s flat. You know, for sleep.”
Her Shadow Cat may have been old, but it was a hell of a lot more accommedable than the current era built ‘Mechs. The AC in her cabin was starting to win out now that the sun wasn’t directly overhead anymore. It have been at least four hours since they had started running. The badlands were flat in every direction. Fortunately they had been able to outrun the oncoming train within an hour and a half.
Since then, Casey had been complaining about how hot it was. He made it sound like his air conditioner was blasting hot air into his cabin instead of cool air.
“Casey, where are you from?” Sara asked.
“Fletcher, most of it is an ice ball. I miss the skiing and snowboarding there.”
That would explain why he was complaining so much, cold climate like Fletcher, you get used to it. It’s what you expect.
“Casey, you did change your AC over to cool didn’t you?”
“What a stupid question. Of course it di....”
He hadn’t, their time on Northwind was a lot like Fletcher. He hadn’t moved the dial over to warm by much but it was still putting heat into the cabin nonetheless. He sighed, this wasn’t the stupidest thing he had done. Far from it, but it was still embarrassing.
“Problem solved.” He said.
Sara laughed, Avery would have mocked him had been here. The duo continued to follow the tracks, they started to veer back to the north.
Casey checked the radio frequencies before he answered her, other than Sara, who was literally right next to him everything was silent. Not a peep from anyone. Not even a friendly IFF tag on the long range.
“Why are the tracks going back north. Isn’t that where the canyon railway went?” Sara asked.
“Here’s my chance to redeem myself! They probably meet back up with the canyon set.” Casey explained, “Back on Fletcher, when they were setting up a cross country railway. They only made one set going from east to west.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, why not make two rail lines from west to east?” She asked.
“That would make sense right, but it’s not cheap. So when two trains are going different directions on the same line, they can break off and pass each other on the lines that veer off and reconnect later, freight trains do that. Passenger trains are the ones that get the right of way.”
“You’ve redeemed yourself. Anyways, looks like we’ve ran out of track to follow. Dead end.” Sara said, “Well, not exactly a dead end.”
The railway went into a tunnel, presumably this was the mountain range that encircled the entire area. Casey had climbed over it. Oddly it had just gone from desert sand to rocky cliff face in less than a couple hours. This entire area was desert pavement, whereas they were just running on sand not twenty minutes earlier. They must have traveled further north east than they originally thought.
The rocky cliff face wasn’t on a shallow enough angle to be climbed by the Shadow Cat. Not that it mattered, even if they could the rocks were too ragged to get a good step anywhere Furthermore, the rock just crumbled because it was so brittle. A good smack would be enough to break these rocks into pieces.
“Still no signs of any cities, settlements, anything. Other than this damn railroad” Sara said, “ And those are supposed to be steam engines. Where are the water towers for them?”
“Maybe it’s just ghost trains and we’re hallucinating the railways.”
“That tunnel is as real as it gets.”
“Well it has to go somewhere.”
“How the hell are we supposed to find out? You wanna get out and walk through it?” Sara deadpanned.
“You know...” Casey thought about it. “That’s not a bad idea actually.”
“That wasn’t an order.”
“Hey you can stay here until I get back then.”
Casey’s Thor knelt down, one leg going flat to the ground on it’s knee joint, the other moved forward and was perpendicular to the ground turning 90 degrees at the knee toward the ‘Mech. It looked so human doing that. A moment later the hatch to the cabin opened and a rope ladder was thrown out of it, followed by a backpack that fell 9 or so metres before hitting the ground.
Sara thought he was nuts. Until she found herself powering down her own ‘Mech. There was no way they were driving the ‘Mechs over this mountain range. Paradise could be on the other side and they’d never know it. There were off to the right of the tunnel, and the sun was starting to set now. They could hide their ‘Mechs under the cover of darkness and be back for them in the morning.
The Shadow Cat’s leg assembly unlike the Thor was reverse jointed, when it powered down its left leg moved forward and the other had its foot stay right below the ‘Mech’s giant barring the torso spun on at the waist. The right leg had the joint at the ‘ankle’ and the one at the knee stick out diagonally, going towards the back of the ‘Mech It looked pretty ridiculous. Bird leg ‘Mechs always had weird ways of sitting. At least when they were in the ‘Mech bays of the Cascade they could be standing upright; making her old ‘Mech look a bit less out of place and slightly less ridiculous.
Casey was already on the ground when Sara had popped the hatch on her ‘Mech. She took her helmet off and discarded it back into the ‘Mech. She could see her reflection in the polarized glass, she had a bad case of helmet hair.
Casey looked over to her. She was a head shorter than he was, but still had that aura of authority around her, intimidation, and that sense of demanded respect.
They were in the shadow of the canyon wall. The rocks here were all flat, having been buffeted down from the wind over a few years, perfect for skipping them across a pond. Had they actually had water. Speaking of which...
“Do you have any water?” Sara asked.
“Huh? Yeah.”
“Can... I uh. Barrow some.”
“You didn’t pack shit-all did you?”
“Not exactly.”
Casey groaned. “Give me a moment.”
He walked back to his ‘Mech. Then he realized they had shut them down right in the middle of nowhere; they weren’t exactly out in the open but he was sure they could have found a better spot. He supposed beside the tunnel was as good as it got here. It was at least a 50 metre climb to the first ledge of this range, beyond that it was just flat everywhere else. Perfect for snipers to pick people off, had there been any.
The dozen or so bottles of water he had were lukewarm, sadly. But water was water.
“Here catch.”
Casey chucked the bottle from the top of his Thor, even in it’s kneeling position it was easily 10 metres from the ground to the top of the missile rack on the left shoulder.
Sara who had caught it was one hand watched him jump off the last two metres of ladder to the desert ground.
She took a sip. It was wasn’t cold, but whatever. It was at that middle point of not being noticeably cold or outright hot.
When Casey got over she had drank nearly all of it, then stopped at the last quarter and dumped it on her head. Her short dirty blond hair flattened. Helmet hair was a pain in the ass. Casey unlike her had given up and just buzzed his head a few weeks prior, he just had to be a bit more careful about sunburn. Unfortunately, she was clearly a woman with fashion standards, no hair was a no go.
“Ah, that’s awesome.”
“I’ll keep the the water bottle.” Casey said, he may be able to refill it later, if they could find water.
Sara smacked the cap back on before tossing it back to Casey. He put it in his backpack.
“So why are you down here?” He asked.
“Not stupid enough to let you go alone.” Sara said, “But I reserve the right to the ‘I told you so.’ If we do go down there and a train comes blazing after us.”
“I’m okay with that.” Casey smiled. “Time for something fun, put some bets on the table and beat the odds.”
“You’ve done this before?!” Sara was unsure. But it wasn’t like they had accomplished anything in the last few hours lately. Hell, a utopia could be on the other side of this tunnel and they would never get to it because this damn mountain range looped around and came back.
“Uh, a few times yes.” He replied.
Casey crouched at the train tunnel opening, looking at the ground.
“What are you doing?”
“Alright, looks like most trains exit from this side.”
“How do you know?”
“Look at the ground, there’s sand everywhere. But this side is all rocks. So it must be pulled through from the other side, another thing is that it spans out from the opening see.” Casey pointed to the ground.
“Couldn’t that just mean a train could be pulling sand from out there, going into the tunnel?”
“Fair argument. However, if that were the case it would be piling up at the sides, which it doesn’t.”
“Where do you learn all this?”
“I used to hike a lot. Then I got lost, then I had to go through train tunnels. And you learn things the hard way, only happened once.”
“How’d you get out of that one?”
“Ran my ass out of the tunnel, let the train pass, then ran after it and jumped on the back.” Casey let a good chuckle. Living life closer to the edge than most. Thought it cost him a few times, he maintained it was worth it.
“Sara where are you from then?” Casey continued.
“I’m Terrain born. Ex-Comstar affiliate. Father and I had some issues with my career plans, and other things.”
“You gonna spill the story this time?”
“... Later. That’s all you need to know for now.”
“Alright, lets get cracking then.”
Casey peered down the tunnel, he couldn’t see the light at the far end. Connor would have made a joke about the light at the end of the tunnel here. But then again, they all had their brushes with death time and time again. He had never seen the light, and he didn’t intend to be seeing it anytime soon. The air coming out of the tunnel was cold. In fact it seemed damp. He unslung his backpack, and scoured through it.
“Where is it? Ah here it is.” He said before he pulled a flashlight out and flicked it on. It was incredibly bright, maybe 300 watts.
“You got extra supplies, we could be going a while.” Sara said.
“Yeah, it’s all in here.” He said as he gestured to the backpack, “Okay lets have some fun.”
“Why are doing this again?” Sara asked.
“Because it’ll take too damn long to walk around in the ‘Mech. Plus it’ll by nightfall in a couple hours.”
“Should we really be leaving out ‘Mechs unattended?”
“Who the hell is gonna find them? Besides, mines locked. Voice-print to start up, PIN to open the cabin. Why, isn’t yours?”
“Of course, that’s a few million C-Bill investment right there. Not that I actually paid for it.”
“Who bought it?”
“I like to consider it a final up-yours to my father. It was a generous donation to my ‘Sara wants to be a merc’ fund. I still have the C-Card, somewhere.”
Casey laughed, her story wasn’t the weirdest he had ever heard. Not by a long shot, but he pitied her nonetheless, but not everyone had a happy family life.
“Alright, lets do this.” Sara said.
Casey thought she seemed a lot more talkative than she was earlier. He welcomed the change of pace with open arms. The duo entered the train tunnel. It would be awhile before they got to the other end.
Sara noticed condensation on the sides of the tunnel, she put a hand up against it. The walls were bored out, but had reinforcements lining once every 10 or so metres to stop the rock from collapsing in. The air was pleasantly cool, unlike the dry humidity deprived air where they just came from.
The train tracks had been built over top of gravel, whereas the ones leading upto the tunnel had been built on sandstone or desert pavement. Casey’s flashlight scared critters that had taken up residence in the cave. Snakes weren’t uncommon; she checked her side arm. An ARC-14 laser pistol. Standard Highlander issue. The battery pack was fully charged ready to fire on demand. She also had her combat knife in its sheath on her belt. Casey had the flashlight in his right hand holding it next to his shoulder. His left hand was vacant.
Her pilots suit was grey with stripes of white, Casey had a similar style but with matte black stripes instead. She regretted not packing anything. Her lance, Echo, were the last to be repaired when they were on the Cascade. She never had time to check what she needed to resupply, an explosion later she was here. Wherever here was.
The environment in this area was brutal, she wish they had landed somewhere else. But it was by a stroke of luck she hadn’t landed in a large body of water, like an ocean or a sea, on her way down. ‘Mechs were water tight, but far from withstanding the pressures on the pilot; say she had landed in the middle of an ocean. What would it have been, a kilometre down, that was optimistically shallow. What would that have been? 1000 pounds per square inch? (Is there a metric way of saying that or another way. I’m trying to stick to one system here.) She hoped everyone got lucky enough to hit land or shallow water if they were in a ‘Mech.
But still desert traveling ranked about as high on her list of ‘this thing sucks’ as urban ‘Mech battles. There is nothing to enjoy about it. At least in the middle of a snowpack you can melt snow for water. What the hell were they supposed to do here once they ran out? Melt the sand? That would end up making glass...
This entire situation was a mess. Lost, stranded, and they would run out of supplies eventually. She put the problem out of her mind. There wasn’t anything they could do but keep pushing forward. She saw green on the continents during the drop, there were forests somewhere, just not here.
Her wrist attachment, or ‘tacpad’, on her pilot suit came equipped with a clock, mission time hadn’t even been set, yet alone started. She would have sync’d with the rest of the team, but she hadn’t had time for it. Her 24 hour watch said it was 16:00 GMT, 4 O’clock on Terra at Greenwich. It was later than that here, or at least in this time zone. It was probably after 20:00 hours now. Another day lost, is what it was. The group was scattered, vulnerable, out of contact range, it was by a stroke of luck that Casey had been nearby. But she had no doubt at least some of the others had made it down in one piece.
The tunnel was cold, which was a welcome change of pace from the scorching heat out in the open. They had been walking for at least half an hour. Casey was surprisingly quiet.
“Casey you’re not running your mouth off... what’s up?” Sara asked.
“Quiet down, I’m trying to listen.”
Instead of getting on his case for telling a superior to shut up.
“What are you listening for?”
eeee-eeeee.
“That sound exactly.” Casey said.
“It could just be wind.”
“You willing to stake a bet on that?”
“Uhhhhhh... no.”
eeee-eeee.
“Okay, maybe it’s not wind.” Sara was starting to panic, this was a bad idea after all, “Which way is it coming from?!”
“I can see the end of the tunnel up ahead. Run for it!”
Casey took off at a sprint, Sara did the same. That better be the end of the tunnel like he said, else they were running face first into the train. Casey was on the left, running on the train track planks, Sara was on the left running on the gravel on the sides of the tunnel.
“Oh please be the end of the tunnel.” Casey said quietly. “That better freakin’ be the end of the tunnel.”
“What?!” Sara was sort of semi-panicking, she was supposed to be the leader.
“Nothing! Nothing!” Casey reassured.
The two continued at their full tilt sprint, they were maybe one hundred metres from the end of the tunnel.
Whoo! Whoo!
Sara never associated a train whistle as terrifying, but this was by far the scariest experience she had been through in awhile. Even getting behind a ‘Mechs controls was less unsettling than this.
Casey looked behind them, there it was. A huge steam engine, the clackety-clack noise of the train wheels going over the sections of railing getting louder giving hint to how close it was getting. It had been where they had just been 10 seconds ago.
“Must run faster, must run faster, must run faster.” Sara thought, but she got wrapped up in her thought that she tripped. She hit the gravel instead of the solid metal train rail, which was much more preferable. But the fall knocked all the air out of her lungs. They were less than 20 metres away, Casey noticed after he had gone another few seconds, he turned around and pointed the flashlight down the tunnel. Sara wasn’t up yet.
Casey sighed, before he took off back into the tunnel to go get her. She was fine, but winded.
“Come on, get up!” Casey yelled as he hoisted her back unto her feet. She took a big breath in. They had swapped spots now, she was on the left and Casey was on the right. The light at the end of the tunnel disappeared.
Whoo! Whoo! Chuff, Chuff, Chuff, Chuff.
10 meters to go, come on, lets go! Casey wasn’t a very speedy person, that medal went to Ethan. The duo breached the tunnel exit, Sara was first, it was night time out, the sun had just set. Casey who was on the outside of the rails pulled Sara off to the right side. Diving into the ground as the train broke free of the tunnel. It was a large freight train, lots of cargo cars. Although the sun had set, it was still twilight out. You could see anything clearly so long as it was close.
Casey took a deep breath. Phew. That would go down in history as the 5th stupidest thing he had ever done. The 4th stupidest thing was the last time this happened, back on Fletcher, 13 years ago. The shit he had done as a teenager. He brushed himself off and got onto his feet. His pilot suit was a bit worse for wear, but other than that he was fine. His flashlight had landed a metre away, it was flickering; Sara was on the ground, maybe a metre from him; he whisked her off the tracks fairly violently. It was that or being turned into paste on the tracks. She was face down in the dirt, which was strange because there was actual dirt here, not sand or desert pavement like on the other side of the tunnel.
Casey pushed Sara over, she was out cold. Must have smacked her head on the ground, fortunately the ground was soft(er) here then where they had just been, but he found it hard to believe that just by moving through a tunnel the environment changed. This place was weird, the locals, whom they had just nearly made contact with (literally) must have terraformed large sections of the planet. That was an achievement even by the Inner Sphere’s standards.
He picked up the flashlight, only to have the light go out completely. Shaking it achieved nothing. Feeling down the side of it, the on/off switch was still in the on position. Going down to the base, where the battery cap was, it was gone. Well that was just great. It was in the dirt somewhere, Casey groaned. He got down on his hands and knees and started patting the dirt, he found one of the three D-Cell batteries, and the cap. The others he probably wouldn’t be able to find until day break.
He put the flashlight parts in his backpack, which had fortunately remained on his back during the ordeal. After that, he dragged Sara off the ground, she started to come too. She raised a hand and swatted him away.
“Urgggg, what happened?” She asked.
“We lived.” Casey replied, “That’s what happened.”
“Note to self, never follow you again. Oh and another thing...”
Casey sighed.
“I told you so.”
“I’ll leave the leading to you next time then.”
“Hey, the grounds soft here.”
“Yeah, I think it’s dirt. But I can’t see, flashlight is missing its batteries.”
“And what the hell am I sitting on?”
Sara moved over, before she patted the ground, it was another one of the batteries.
“Here you go.” She said.
Casey reached out, missed her hand, but caught her arm, then he got the battery.
“Two down, one to go.” He said.
“It can wait until morning. Moons behind the cliff face, which would be why I can’t see shit.”
“So we’re back on the side I landed on?” Casey asked, he checked his radio again. He brought his pack radio. He check the frequencies, before he did a wideband broadcast. No one was within range.
“Still nothing?” Sara asked.
“Yup, we’re gonna have to suffer the silence a bit longer.” Casey replied, “Hope the ‘Mechs are okay.”
“Why did we leave them again? I’m still not entirely clear on that.”
“ 'Cus that fuckin’ rock wall goes on for ever.”
“It’s not a canyon wall, we... I landed in a basin. We just punched through it.” Sara said. There was no other explanation other than they had landed in a huge mountain basin that circled around the entire area, a few hundred kilometres radius.
Sara continued “Probably... but much further north. We’re going to have to find a breach in the mountain range to get our ‘Mechs through, or a really shallow path to climb. How did you get through?”
“I went over... very freakin’ carefully”
“So maybe you’re not that bad of a pilot after all.”
“Never said I wasn’t.” Casey retorted, “Any idea on how to get our ‘Mechs back on THIS side?”
“I’m sure there’s a passage somewhere.”
“That would be the canyon wall you took down?”
“I was thinking that too.”
“Locals, whoever the hell owns this planet ain’t gonna be too happy about that...” Casey smirked.
“Yeah well, they have excavation equipment. Right?”
“If they terraformed this entire area, I don’t see why not?” Casey shrugged.
“Maybe they’re just really good at agriculture.”
“I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna get some sleep. I’ve been up since the sun came up.”
“I’ll stand guard then.” She said.