The Transporter: Second Gear

by Unit_ZER0

Part 12: Rotor

As the human vehicle pulled silently into view, the first thought through Sergeant Stormcloud’s head was that he regretted not being in his natural form. He should have been able to hear the human machine coming from a good distance away… But then he realized that the only sound he could hear was the gravel crunching under the machine’s tires. There was nothing to hear… Perhaps it used a different engine than Cole’s machine? Or an effective sound suppression spell? Strange, but worth noting.

The ride was a pleasant one, Princess Luna noted, although after observing Mr. Cole’s vehicle, it was different in several respects. First, it was larger, with plenty of room in the rear seats for herself, and Sergeant Stormcloud. Second, there was little noise, mainly the hum of the vehicle’s rubber tires on the pavement. Lastly - and most interestingly - was that the instruments at the driver’s position, when compared to Mr. Cole’s vehicle, were largely absent, with several flat panels providing most of the visual display. She couldn’t be certain, but it appeared that they had more in common with the little device the human had displayed earlier, than with traditional gauges…

For Cole, the ride was a reminder that his own transport - at least the vehicle he had started this job with – had been utterly destroyed. It hurt, losing a machine he had put a lot of time, money, and loving care into making his own. In the end, it had saved his and his passenger’s lives, and it would serve as a teaching tool for a people just coming into their own when it came to technology, so even in its death, it had served well, which was something.

The driver of the Tesla noted that his passengers, while well dressed, said little, other than a few basic greetings. It was clear they were tired, so he didn’t pry, especially since the two men had been clearly in a serious frame of mind. Whoever these people were, they clearly meant business.

After several minutes of driving, they arrived at their destination, which the Sergeant noted was in what appeared to be a warehouse district, near a harbor or shipping port. All in all, the place felt a lot like the Manehattan docks, albeit a lot less noisy, with the long, colorful boxes he glimpsed in stacks and rows clearly cargo crates of some kind, but crates big enough to each require a vehicle of their own to move! The building was a warehouse, that much was obvious, with the typical large main doors, and a smaller door off to the right, lit by an overhead lamp.

As they exited, Cole took the time to thank the driver, and rate their trip well, to which the driver responded with a friendly wave, and departed. Makin his way to the warehouse door, Cole removed his phone from his pocket, and brought up another app. Pressing it to a flat patch of the wall next to the door, he was rewarded with a faint click, and the door opened slightly. Turning to his two associates, the human pulled it open, and gestured to now open doorway.

“Shall we?”

---

“You can’t escape, you know”

The voice, which sounded bored, and a little sullen, in that way teenagers often are - regardless of their species – startled Earth Mover, as she completed a more confident “lap” – if you could call pacing back and forth a lap – of her cell. The changeling princess looked toward the source of the statement as she carefully turned around, noting that with her bipedal stance, it was much easier to track potential threats without turning her whole body.

The voice had come from a female drone, clearly not fully grown, but no longer a nymph, standing outside her cell. Her eyes were the usual blue of this particular hive, and her overall attitude matched her voice, sullen, but confident she had the advantage.

“What makes you think I’m trying to escape?”

“I saw you try to change into… Whatever it is you’re trying to change into. If you can’t even get whatever you’re trying to be right, I don’t see why I’m even down here.”

Clearly, this drone thought she was still addled from the crash, and couldn’t transform properly… Here she had two options: A: Convince the drone she was trying to change into something that could escape, and couldn’t get it right (yet), or B: Tell her what she was actually working on, and buy time…

“Who says I’m trying to change into anything?”

“Why else would you start and then stop halfway between your true form, and… whatever that is?”

“Maybe I like this form. It’s pretty versatile, don’t you think?” Earth Mover asked, as she bent down and picked up a chunk of resin, tossing it in one hand a couple times.

Here the drone backed up, and lit her horn. “If you throw that at me, I’m calling the guards. They’ll stun you before you can break out.”

Regarding the item in her three-fingered grip, Earth Mover shrugged, and tossed it off to one side. “Wasn’t planning on it, because of exactly what you described.”

Here a look of recognition flitted across the drone’s face. “You’re altering your base form…Creating an alt form with features similar to something else…” Here the recognition took on a tinge of disgust. “Your hive truly has strayed far, if this is something you choose to do immediately on capture. It must be nice to be so decadent that you can spend energy altering your forms at will.”

Earth Mover bristled at that last remark, but remained calm. “Yes, my hive does practice unique forms. Is that a problem?”

It was clear that of all the defensive reactions the drone had been expecting, this wasn’t one of them. “What do you mean? Of course it’s a problem! ‘Wastage of energy on personal alterations is not permitted. All energy is to be used for the Hive.’ How could you not know this?”

“In your hive, perhaps. But in mine, we seek knowledge of many things, and sometimes the best sources of knowledge are found through self-discovery.”

Here the drone revealed more of her age, choosing to respond with a sullen “It’s weird,” and looking away.

Here was an opportunity – one Earth Mover could capitalize on. She could keep this drone occupied by showing off her body’s abilities, and at the same time, gain some information on where she was being held.

“Oh, and how is ‘this’ weird?’ She asked, picking up the chunk of resin from earlier, softening it up with her magic, and drawing and twisting the softened lump of material in her hands, turning it into a latticework, which she then solidified, before crouching, and placing the abstract sculpture on the floor of her cell.

The drone had been watching her work with ill-concealed fascination, and now regarded the object with naked curiosity. “What is it?” she asked.

“Nothing much, I’m just trying these” – here she wiggled her fingers – “out”.

It was clear that her jailer was having an internal struggle, trying to seem aloof, but finding her brief project fascinating, but also trying to keep in mind that she was a prisoner.

“Do you want to see me do it again?”

---

As they entered the warehouse, the first thing Princess Luna saw was that they were in an atrium of sorts, with a set of coat hooks, and assorted items along one wall. Soft lighting had switched on the moment they had entered, and Cole had shut the door behind them. Making his way to the door at the end of the atrium, he placed the flat of his hand on another flat patch, this one a green rectangle next to the door. A green line swept down his hand, and then the door opened. Here the human again gestured for them to precede him into the room beyond.

Upon entering the cavernous interior of the warehouse proper, a series of hidden lights snapped on, their diffuse illumination coming up slowly enough to avoid dazzling the entrants. What lay revealed was clearly a storage facility/workshop:

The far wall was taken up by a workbench, and an entire wall of tools, ranging from ones that could be clearly recognized like hammers, pliers, and what looked like a blacksmith’s anvil, to several mysterious boxes connected to tall tanks of some kind of stored liquid or gas.

The near wall to their right backed a small kitchen and food prep area, with a sink, refrigerator, cabinets, and other sundries.

The back wall held what appeared to be narrow cages with what looked like weapons, armor, and other supplies of a far more dangerous nature.

In the center of the space, sat a cloth-covered object, with crates neatly arranged in clusters to either side. The labels were easy enough to decipher, with the symbols for “Explosive” and “Flammable” visible on some.

Her gaze drawn back to the object that was in the center of the room, the Princess asked the obvious question: “Is this our new vehicle?”

Here Cole paused. He had been intending to get his guests settled in, and then begin assembling what he’d need for a hostage rescue mission, from infiltration, to search, and finally exfiltration, and he was still mulling over the pros and cons of going in quiet vs going in loud/lethal force vs non-lethal...

“Yes Ma’am, it is, but first I have some questions for you and the Sergeant: How do you want to proceed? Should we go in quiet, or loud? Should we use lethal, or non-lethal force? Your world, and your kingdom in particular, seem to value avoiding bloodshed if at all possible, so I’m willing to be flexible. I am trained in hostage extraction, but our primary focus was securing the principal, and protecting ourselves, so we tended not to concern ourselves with the welfare of hostiles too much.”

Here the Sergeant took up the thread of the discussion: “If I’m interpreting your words right, Cole, you mean should we try to sneak into the hive where Earth Mover is being held, or should we fight our way in, and should we incapacitate any threats, or simply kill them. I think I stand with the Princess in that I don’t think we’ll be helping ourselves, or any future negotiations if we simply kill the bugs indiscriminately. That having been said, changelings have a very good sense of their hive, and especially when something is out of place, so sneaking in won’t work for long. We need to be able to move quietly, but also have enough force at our disposal to be able to incapacitate any resistance short of killing. Although, to be fair, if it comes down to a confrontation where it’s them or us, I’d rather it was us who walk away.”

“I concur with the Sergeant’s assessment,” the Princess commented. “Although my sister is the consummate diplomat, I will be handling negotiations, such as they are, with the hive holding Earth Mover. Although it will mostly be a holding action, as I suspect whomever the hive sends will be stalling for time, whilst they attempt to open the archive they took. Naturally, recovery of the archive, and Earth Mover would be preferred. Both mine sister and myself take a rather dim view of thieves, no matter their justification.”

“All right, that’s something I can work with. Thank you both for laying things out so clearly,” Cole said. “You would not believe just how many times we were tasked with retrieving a person or item, and were then saddled with truly unreasonable restrictions.”

Here, the human began walking towards the weapons area, and opening the cages, pulling out several large duffel bags, and setting them on a worktable. Next, he removed an “L” shaped object about the size of a large banana, and put it down, as well as several cylindrical objects about the size of his fist.

“These are Airsoft weapons. They look identical to real firearms, but instead launch a small plastic pellet, or, in the case of these grenades, explode, and release a spray of pellets over a wide area. They won’t kill you, but they sting a Lot. I’ll keep a real weapon on me, but only as a last resort.”

Rapidly, Cole began assembling his arsenal, pointing out each piece, how it functioned, and how to load, charge, fire, safe, and maintain it. The two ponies-turned-humans were impressed by the sheer variety of “fake” weapons that clearly had far more lethal counterparts. It was readily apparent that humanity were well-versed in the art of war.

Comments

[Lord Legion]

Keeping the concieled vehicle a surprise I see...very clever. As for pellet guns...I think going with rubber bullets would be more effective. They actually knock the target down painfully for a bit. With airsoft pellets they will most likely just piss the captors off based on what they are.