Rainbow Dash: Space Pirate

by Wooden Entity

Escape

Cold Bone didn't know if he was more confused or scared. He had an arrangement with the bounty hunters. Their appearance here didn't make any sense ... or well it did make very much sense if they knew about the artifact. In that case they were screwed ... totally screwed. That was absolutely sure for him.

"Open a comm channel to the ships." He said to the pony in the administration bureau.

This has to be some kind of misunderstanding.

"To the ships of the bounty hunters guild, this is Cold Bone, governor of sanctuary. Your visit in this sector is against the terms of our contract. So what brings you here?"

It took some seconds before an answer came. Seconds that made Cold Bone only more nervous.

"Hello Governor." A Dark male voice answered. "My name is Silent Mayhem. We are here to tell you, that we are cancelling the contract and about to board your station."

Shit ... but mabye it's not too late for diplomacy.

"Any way to solve this unbloody and without destroying the station?"
"Well if you would hand out me the pegasus named Rainbow Dash with her ship and her crew and everyone on your station with a bounty higher than 100.000 Credits, I would be willing to just leave."

Cold Bone had to chuckle.

"You know that that applies on half of the inhabitants of Sanctuary, don't you?"
"So this is a "no"?"
"Over. My. Dead. Body. Asshole!"

Could Bone closed the comm channel and talked to the administration bureau again.

"What are you instructions, governor?"
"Give'em hell, my dear." Cold Bone said.

Sanctuary's auto cannons might buy us some time.

He almost deactivated the terminal but then he saw that there was a call on the other line.

"Rainbow Dash, are you there?" A familiar voice asked.

She went immediately over to Cold Bone to answer the call.

"What's up, Scoots?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I think, we might have a plan to get everybody out -" Suddenly she was interrupted by another familiar voice.
"Hold you dick for one second you fungal rimjob and let the grown ups talk about the important business."

Cold Bone already asked himself about what he had done wrong to deserve such a day. First bounty hunters and now Haze. He should have just stayed in bed this morning.

"What do you want, Haze?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Well as you might remember, I was head of the griffin weapons research program and constructed many fine - the rules of war and decency ignoring - weapons there."

Well when he thought about it exactly it still had something good. The day could hardly get any worse. That wasn't much but it was enough to force a little grin on his face.

"And what are you planing to tell me with that?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I still have some of them."

That caught up Cold Bone's attention.

"What kind of weapons are we talking about" He asked.
"Weapons big enough to destroy entire cites ... with its inhabitants, mwahahaha! Which was exactly the reason why we build them! Hehehehe!"

Cold Bone just couldn't understand what had to be wrong in the head of someone that he could laugh about stuff like that. But well, this wasn't the time for to analyse the mind of this psychopath.

"Meet me at my lab. These bunch of dick maggots are going to get the surprise of their lives! Mwahahahaa!"

Cold Bone deactivated the terminal and went over to a security locker. It still used a simple lock - somehow an anachronism he often thought - but it was only intended to keep his guests away from its content and not to stop robbers.
After he opened it, he pulled out two rifles he handed over to Applejack and Rainbow Dash and a third one which he kept for himself together with a little rucksack filled with personal stuff.
As he got everything he noticed the somewhat sceptical gaze of the two mares on his rifle. He had given the the two some fancy high tech plasma rifles while he took a projectile based one. Though these kind of weapons were still very common because they were cheap and reliable, his one was more something for a museum - the two mares must have thought - with its wooden grip and iron sights.

"Yah serious?" Applejack asked. "I could still use my old police pistol if yah don't have enough weapons."

He had to chuckle. If they knew, what this thing was capable of ...

"AJ, believe me. This thing will be more than enough."

*******************************************

Rainbow Dash really thought that with a bit of luck they might be able to just walk over to Hazard Haze's lab. Seemed like this wasn't her lucky day at all. They only walked somewhat around 500 meters until now and already ran in three boarding commandos. No one of them got hurt until now but she was afraid that that might change sooner or later. She might have been often in bad situations already but this one seemed like the new place one on her fucked-up-list.

"How far till we reach it?" She asked while they ran along a corridor.
"200 Meters." Cold Bone answered.

So mathematically there will be another - wait mathematically? I almost sound like Twilight ... but still, we are probably running into another boarding commando on our way.

As they kept following the corridor her gaze wandered to Cold Bone.
Though they knew each other for years now she never really understood him. She always wondered what he might have done in his past that he ended up in Sanctuary but when she asked him he never gave her a real answer. Seeing him now fighting these Bounty Hunters while trying to save the people of his station made her think about it again. He could have been in the military. That would have explained his skills but she couldn't imagine that someone like that would choose to run a place like Sanctuary. Honour usually meant much to such guys. But maybe his weapon could be a hint. That thing might look old as hell but to AJ's and her surprise it was in fact upgraded to a rail gun. Maybe he was some kind of technician or engineer. If he was in a higher position that would also explain his organization skills.
The corridor ended in a crossover. In front of them was the entrance to a hangar. To the left was another corridor and to the right were stairs.

"Damnit!" Cold Bone said next to her.
"What is it?" She asked.

He pointed with his hoof carefully to the left to other edge of the hanger. There were bounty hunters walking out of a small vessel. As the three saw them they immediately took cover behind the walls next to the entrance.

"They will see us."

He pointed to the right to a ramp which lead to a higher path which went through the hangar.

"If we want to get to Haze we have to walk along there."

He took a cautious look in the hangar and after that he looked over to the left corridor.

"I think I got an idea." He said. "This one ends in the hangar, too. I will go to its end and divert them while you run over to Haze. Just follow the stairs and you can't miss him."

Before Rainbow Dash or Applejack could even protest he already ran over to the other entrance.

"Damnit, Cold Bone, come back! We won't leave you behind!" Rainbow Dash yelled at him.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine." He answered before he began to aim with his weapon.
"But-" Rainbow Dash was interrupted by a shot from Cold Bone.
Now move! He formed with his lips.
Be careful. She answered without saying anything.

If you were most of the time in space you had to know how to read lips sooner or later Rainbow Dash had learned. If you were stuck in a ship wreck without atmosphere in a space suit with defective communication systems you appreciated this ability.

As they reached the path they hid behind the parapet and looked cautious over it.
Some of the bounty hunters took cover behind some barrels in front of Cold Bones position while some others tried to reach the other entrance next to him.

"Cold Bone, they are trying to flank you!" Rainbow Dash said to him over the radio.
"Just get out of here." He shot another salve at the bounty hunters.

Suddenly she felt Applejack's elbow in her side.

"Over there!" She pointed to some bounty hunters coming out their vessel wielding ...
"Cold Bone, you have to get out there! They got rocket launchers!" Rainbow Dash yelled at him.

Before she got an answer the first rocket hit Cold Bone's position.

"Cold Bone!" She waited a moment but no one answered. "Come on Cold Bone, say something!"

She didn't even try to stop the tears from coming out of her eyes. She war so full of anger. She just wanted to give these bastards hell. She was already about to grab her rifle but Applejack stopped her.

"Don't." She said to her sniffing.

"Would you please be so kind and go now?!" Suddenly some yelled at them over the radio shortly followed by some kind of cyan energy projectiles coming out of the cloud of dust around Cold Bone's position.
"What the?!" Rainbow Dash and Applejack asked simultaneously as what seemed to be Cold Bone walked out the dust. He walked on his hind legs and shot with some kind of energy weapons attached to his fore hooves on the bounty hunters. They kept firing back but it didn't seem to have to the slightest impact on him. One of them fired another rocket but before it could hit him it was stopped by some kind of energy shield which surrounded him and exploded.

"Fucking go now!" He yelled at them over the radio again.

They obeyed and followed the path out of the hangar.

"What the hell was that?" Applejack asked as they were far enough away from the battle.

"I have no idea." Rainbow Dash answered shaking her head. "Have you seen these guns?"

"Yeah, never seen something like that. They looked like they were attached to his body but why didn't we see them earlier and why didn't he use them before?"

"And was that really an energy shield protecting him? A personal shield? Damn even Tank hasn't a shield!"

"Scootaloo would go nuts if she saw this!" Applejack joked.

"Yeah."

Rainbow Dash couldn't stop herself from thinking about what she just saw. Was Cold Bone just some guy enhanced with a bunch of high tech stuff? No that was too simple. These weapons weren't there before. Did he have them in his rucksack? And why didn't he ...

"Is it just me or did the bullets of the bounty hunters didn't hurt him even without his shield?" She asked Applejack.

"Eh... yes, I think. The shield only activated when they used rockets. Why?" Applejack asked back.

"I'm just thinking."

That meant he needed some kind of armor system. Something he definitely didn't have before and what would never fit in his rucksack. But the thing with his shield still made her curious. It only activated for the rockets. Did it have some kind of threat activation? That would require some kind of very high developed sensor phalanx. Otherwise it wouldn't be able to know when it needed to activate. Could all this stuff even fit in a single pony body?

As they came closer to the position of Haze's lab the sound of shooting brought Rainbow Dash out of her thoughts.

"You can suck the tears off my dick, you ugly mudfuckers!" A familiar voice yelled.

The corridor ended at the edge of a greater place similar to the market but filled with containers. As they looked to their left they saw that some of the bounty hunter were hiding behind them and shooting at another entrance on the wall.
The two mares managed to sneak behind some of the containers close to their entrance and went in silence through the labyrinth of containers closer to bounty hunters to attack them from behind.
For their luck it were only three attackers. Two of them stood at the ends of a container while the third one was sitting in the middle with his back against its wall. He had a wound on his arm and was trying to bandage it. Suddenly his head lifted. He must have noticed them but before he could alarm his friends Rainbow Dash put a bullet into his head. Well it was more like melting it away. These plasma rifles can be very nasty. After that she and Applejack took out his buddies and walked over to the entrance where a certain griffin was already awaiting them.

"Always let underlings take care of the shit moppin'!" Haze said.

"You're welcome." Rainbow Dash said.

"Aw, getting sensitive, girl? Need papa to give you a hug and tell you're doing a good job?"

They went into his lab. In contrast to his lab coat it was absolutely clean and tidy. Their were some tables with all kind of devices. Rainbow Dash couldn't name the most of them. What she recognized were a microscope, some stuff that looked like surgical tools and many, many computers.
He went with them to a door with a keyboard on its side where he entered an almost endless password before the door opened.
Behind it was a smaller room which contained some other rather big devices.
As Applejack went closer to one of them to examine it she spotted something written on them.

"D-D-D?" She asked.

"Dooms.Day.Device." Haze explained with a sinister grin.

They were three devices with this inscription. Behind them stood a bigger one. Applejack tried to get closer to it to read the inscription on it but the other devices were blocking her.

"What's that?" Rainbow Dash finally asked before Applejack would dislocate her neck.

"Oh that one is my favourite. A disintegration bomb. Dissolves everything in its reach. Very painful and extremely useful. Mwahahahaha!"

"How do we use them?" Applejack asked.

"The DDDs have a drive system. They are like torpedos. We put them into one of the torpedo bays of Sanctuary and shoot them at the bounty hunters."

"What stops their ships from just shooting them before the impact?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"They are stealthed. Evil, ain't it? Mwahaha!"

The transport of the weapons went very well but sadly the control of the torpedo bays was in the administration bureau. They already tried to contact it but nobody responded. The workers there probably fled or got killed. They also send Cold Bone a message to meet them there but he didn't respond either though Rainbow Dash could hardly believe that he got killed or something like that.
They were almost at the bureau, only a small hall was in their way now. A small hall full of bounty hunters protecting the bureau.
The three took cover in the room next to the hall.

"Well we got around 15 soldiers, 11 of them with rifles, three with rocket launchers and one in armed mech. Any ideas?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Hazard Haze put down his rucksack and took a look into it.

"Well I've still got three of my little face melters here." He took out a belt with three grenades. "Built them on my own. They send out a cloud of ultra hot plasma that melts everypony in its way but they are no use against the mech."

Rainbow Dash looked over to Applejack in hope that she might have an idea but she didn't even react to her gaze. She seemed almost spacey.

"You alright, AJ?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Applejack shook her head and turned to Rainbow Dash.

"Just a little tired." She answered.

"Yeah, it was a long day."

"You have no idea."

Rainbow Dash activated the radio to call Cold Bone again. Without him they weren't going anywhere.

"Damnit Cold Bone, were are you? We could really use your crazy abilities now!"

There was only static.

"... on my way ... just a moment ... " Someone answered after some time.

*******************************************

Cold Bone kicked in the door and ran into a hall while firing at everything he could see. He caught the bounty hunters by surprise and was able to took out three or four of them before they could react. He had to use this advantage to take out as many soldiers as he could. Then he could focus on the mech.
Cold Bone teleported some meters in front of him directly behind the soldiers and fired in a circle around him as he was suddenly hit by a bigger projectile. He jumped back and took cover behind a crate from where he examined the environment. There were only two soldiers left which tried to hide behind a crate behind the mech. He would have liked to just teleport behind them again to take them out easily but his teleporter still needed to recharge. He tried to find another way to get around the mech and take them out but before he came up with an idea they were already shot from behind. Cold Bone looked up to find the shooters and saw that Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Hazard Haze were hiding behind the parapet on the other side of the room. His gaze wandered to the mech which seemed to have spotted them too and went out of his cover.

"Hey, fat one? Want to dance?" He taunted him.

The mech was almost 3 meters high. It was a bipedal model and used could use its hand for additional weapons. Its driver sat in its torso behind a big armor. After it turned over to him it threw its rifle away and ran towards him. It tried to hit him but Cold Bone just jump back and so its fist just smashed the ground. Before it could come up again he jumped towards it and kicked it into its torso overturning it backwards with the force of the impact. Staying on the mech it tried to punch Cold Bone away but he just blocked the incoming fists with his hooves and reformed them to hands to get a firm grip on them. He could feel that it was trying to pull its hands back but he didn't let go of them.

"Well let's see what's stronger, the arms of your mech or the armor between my feet and your body." Cold Bone said looking into the terrified face below him.

He began to pull slowly on the right arm. After some seconds he suddenly sunk in some centimetres into the armor.

"Man, I'm afraid your mech is working against you."

He kept pulling and pulling while the hole mech was creaking as suddenly he ripped of the arm. It came so unexpected for him that he almost fell down but for his luck he still got the left arm to hold on to.

"Seems like this is your lucky day." He said before ripping out the left arm of the mech.

He jumped off the wreckage to walk over to his friends as he heard some kind of noise behind him.

"Boy, you really don't know when you've lost, huh?"

He turned around and shot a concentrated energy beam which penetrated the mech stopping it at its place and leaving a hole in its torso. It fell like stone down to the ground. Around it a little puddle of blood began to grow.

"Stupid idiot."

As no enemies where left Cold Bone followed the others which were already in the bureau.

Haze gave him an irritated gaze.

"Damn what happened to your friggin' face, Bone?" He asked him.

Rainbow Dash's and Applejack's eyes widened as they saw him.

"What in tarnation?" Applejack asked in shock.

Cold Bones examined his face with his hoof as he suddenly felt something cold - metal. He activated the regeneration process and some seconds later it was covered with a warm fur again.

"Better?" He asked Haze.

"Eh ... yes ... fuck, you're creeping me out!" Hazard Haze said.

"Damn what the hell are you?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yeah ... well that's complicated -" Cold Bone was suddenly interrupted by Haze. "Yeah, yeah, can we talk about this later and take down these fucking cruisers so we get out of this shitty situation alive first, please?"

"Though it's hard to me to say that but I'm afraid I have to agree with Haze." Cold Bone said.

He went with Hazard Haze to one of the terminals in the room and entered a code to unlock it for him.

"Ruin their day." Cold Bone said to him.

"Finally an order from you I like!"

Hazard Haze clicked around on the terminal and activated the main screen in the bureau which showed the vessels of the bounty hunters.

"Ruining their days ... now! Mwahahahahahahahaha!"

Suddenly three explosion appeared between them. The hole station began to shake for a moment. The explosions were so huge that for some time the cruisers weren't visible at anymore. As they finally vanished they revealed a field of debris.

While the others were still stunned by the explosions or like Hazard Haze laughing their asses off Cold Bone walked over to another terminal and called the security.

"This is governor Cold Bone, the enemy fleet is destroyed. Take out any surviving boarding teams and prepare for exodus. We are leaving this station."

*******************************************

Applejack really could have used a bed right now. This day was becoming way too long for her. She was already tired when they went to Cold Bone - hell, she was already tired while was still sitting in her hold police ship - but now she really had to struggle with keeping her eyes open. But they were still on the station and so it wasn't save to sleep. The only thing between her and her pillow now was Cold Bone. Rainbow Dash agreed to take him with her because he had no ship which Applejack was perfectly okay with but sadly he insisted on staying till everyone else was gone and save. Well she had to admire that - really - but in this moment she couldn't hate Cold Bone more for his stupid sense of responsibility.
She was sitting on Tank's bridge waiting for him to come back from saying good bye to the last ship as suddenly Rainbow Dash came in. She looked stressed.

"Everything alright?" Applejack asked after a long yawn.

"Nope." Rainbow Dash activated a holographic screen in front of them. It showed two giant battle cruisers.

"Oh, come on ..." Applejack said bugged.

A moment later Cold Bone and Hazard Haze entered the bridge. Haze sat down in front of one of the terminals.

"I managed to move the torpedo controls to here." He said. "I recommend to start your engines, ladies. When this baby explodes we have to get away from this place very quickly."

"What range has this disintegration bomb?" Cold Bone asked.

"One big enough to destroy the hole station. But for our luck it's spreading not so fast, giving us around thirty seconds to flee."

Applejack knew that this was some kind of important and dangerous thing they were trying but she just couldn't care less in this moment. She just wanted to sleep.

"Launching warhead!" Hazard Haze announced excited.

Applejack forced her eyes to stay open to see what was happening. After some seconds a tiny green sphere appeared between the ships and began to grow. It took only some seconds for it to consume the two cruisers. Suddenly she felt the ship moving.
As they left the hangar and went out into the space the holographic displayed deactivated itself and was replaced by the view offered by the windows.
The sphere was still growing and getting closer and closer to them while Haze kept laughing like crazy.

"Starting FTL-drive!" Someone shouted.

The last thing Applejack could see was the sphere vanishing behind the colourful lights of the FTL-travel. Then everything went dark.