//------------------------------// // Breaking Stuff to Look Tough // Story: Extra-Vehicular Activity // by alamais //------------------------------// You hit the pressurization button, and air begins to stream into the section as you wing your way down the hall to the storage room. 53 seconds left on the timer. The room is well-built, and everything is solidly racked, so you just grab onto a support and wait for the timer to count down. It's anticlimactic when it happens. The ship shivers as the gravity tether beams lose contact with the ring itself, and start sliding faster over various projections of the ring, and the ship. A series of small yet stomach-churning wrenches shake the ship, but the artificial gravity compensates for the worst of it. Finally, a message flickers by on your overlay, 'projections 99.7% accurate', and the timer resets, to 37.2 minutes. You jump up, and look over the racks. There, the oddly small cylindrical items, next to that same 'explosives' symbol. You poke at them, and manage to flip a cap up, revealing a button. Okay then. You get out the now-empty cloth bag you'd swiped from that locker, and fill it with the explosives, as well as some others you find in the room. It takes some fiddling to get the closure to work, but it makes a satisfying 'zip' when it does. The bag gets one leg through a strap, then slung over your withers. Moving to leave, you notice the long, dark-metal object whose clones you've seen lying scattered and broken around battle sites. You retrieve your pry bar, and yank one out of its rack space. It looks tough to handle with hooves, but maybe not impossible. There's a tiny digital display on the side, currently reading '0'. Looking the thing over, you note a piece is missing, and recognize a stack of such to one side. You pull one out, squint at the dozens of projectiles stacked in it, and slide it home. The display changes to '95'. Well alrighty then. You jury-rig some straps to carry it at your side. You flit out into the hall, then down to the galley. A quick check of the weapon finds a small switch with understandable pictograms, and you flick it to the setting that looks the most dangerous. You hover, back braced against one wall, and after a moment's consideration, you put your off-hoof over the weapon to control the recoil. Your pry bar snakes over the firing trigger, and you give it a short pull. It's noisy, and you feel like you got bucked in the ribs, but your aim at least stays pointed generally forward. At least one of the shots hits a meal-dispensing machine on the far wall, and it basically explodes. You stare at it for a moment, then gently hug your new best friend, hoping your grin isn't too manic. "I'mma call you Spitfire the Second." With Spitfire tested, you head for the forward elevator, eyes dancing between air vents. Nothing happens. The elevator shaft is likewise still unoccupied. You're almost starting to feel impatient as you hit the buttons to open the door to Deck 3. You're peeking around the corner, not even able to see yet, when some hint of movement tickles your senses and you pull back— Just as a claw shoots out of the doorway, followed by an alien. You flip your wings slightly to add force to a kick, adding a bit more momentum to the creature as it flies across the elevator shaft. Before it hits, you're taking aim, and you send a burst from Spitfire its way. To your mild surprise, it reacts much like the dispenser, several points on its body exploding. Unfortunately, this sends numerous globules of yellow death flying through the zero-g shaft. You dodge one, then take a chance and swoop through the door into the forward cryovault. It's a mess. A lot of fighting went on here, shredding many of the lockers and empty cryotubes. You duck around what cover is left, your head constantly swiveling to look for any sign of more monsters. You almost fire a burst at nothing when your radio crackles. "-ash? Rainbow are -u there?" It's…Fluttershy? You roam slightly more towards the starboard side of the room. "Kinda busy, Flutters, what's up?" "I, um, the others are working on the power, but I'm watching the ship, and, um, you're pretty far away now, but I think you might be in trouble." “Ha!” You grin crookedly. “More trouble? How?!" "Well, Rarity said something about monsters?" "Yeah, they killed a whole buncha people over here, girl. Sorry, but they're going down with the ship." "Oh, I...I understand, it's just that, uh, are they bony and black and carapacey and terrifying?" You freeze. "Yes? Why?!" "Well, a whole bunch of them are swarming the outside of the ring now, from the far side of it. They're heading towards the ship." Even as the last piece of the puzzle clicks into place, you duck under a swinging claw. A smack from Spitfire puts the thing off-balance, a flick of your wings gets you some distance, and a pull of the trigger turns it into a floor hazard. Backed into an aft corner of the vault, you hear a muffled squeak through the radio. "Uhhh, sorry 'bout that, Flutterbutter. But thanks for the warning—you've solved one mystery over here. Gotta go!" You get some height, and fly towards the center of the room. Nothing else accosts you as you enter the central section, and you shut the door behind you. A glance at the aft vault, and you shut that door too. You try to take a look through the small airlock windows, but can't tell if there's anything waiting or if the critters are all taking the scenic route. Regardless, you hit the open sequence, and sigh at the countdown. You sit on your butt for sixty seconds, staring up at the air vent, waiting for something horrible to drop through it. You try not to think about what’s headed your way, but you can’t help it—no wonder closing the airlock didn’t save the ship if these monsters can space walk without a suit! Finally, the giant doors hiss, and fold away, thankfully revealing an empty shot into the ring. The ship shudders, and a glance at the orbital projection shows that you're really starting into reentry now, though the ring is helpfully shielding the ship from the worst of it. You wonder if the monsters could be so kind as to burn up, but shake your head—it won't matter in a moment. As soon as the airlock is open, you immediately start the closing sequence. This time, though, while trying to watch the vent and the airlock, you remove the sack full of kaboom, and open it up. When the countdown reaches 10, you open the aft pressure door. When it reaches 5, you flick the top off of a still curiously small cylinder. And as it reaches 0, you fly up to the center, where the door seals up last, and wait. At the last moment, you press the little button, throw the cylinder back in the bag, and fling the whole shebang into the airlock. Then you fly like you're gettin' paid for it again. You don't even bother with the central door, just speeding quickly through the aft cryovault, trying to look in every direction at once. You're almost at the aft elevator door when you hear a muffled thump. A half-second later, another. After that, they all start to blend together, and you've hit the door controls. Just before the door seals you into the elevator shaft, you hear a much louder thump, and a slight decompression occurs, closed off a moment later by the door. You wait for anything else, but then move down, and enter Deck 4. It's in vacuum, and it's easy to see why. The first room aft is filled with rows and rows of what you're pretty sure are computer cores, but the starboard side is torn to pieces by damage from a breach. There's a body collapsed against one of the piles of tech—it's missing one of its forelimbs. As you pass forward, you start seeing pressure doors just like in the forward part of the deck. You look through the first port door's window to see a large empty space, and beyond it…the ring. "Awww, CRACKERS!" you yell at the door. "How could it decompress the section, but not get rid of you?" You kick at the door. "JUST BREAK ALREADY!" The ship shudders, and you think you actually see a ripple pass over the surface of the ring you can see. The view of the ring’s side starts to list, and reentry plasma becomes visible around it. Then, the whole ship starts to shiver, and you feel deep, wrenching vibrations through your hooves. You quickly stumble forward, and through the open the door into the mystery section. Above and below, the central section contained the airlocks. Here? You look at the computerized deck maps on the walls. While the starboard side is all red and crossmarks, the port side shows many dozens of green lights, spread among seven green outlines. "Alright, welcome to Shuttle Control." You stare at the absurdly complex control panel, full of buttons, toggle switches, and computer displays. "Now what the hay do I do?" Another ship-wide shudder reminds you that it doesn't matter just yet. A closer look at the map shows red crossmarks at the outer boundary of each green outline. The room shakes again, and then red lights start flashing. "Uh-oh." You dive towards one of the legs supporting a control station, and hold on for dear life. It's like someone picked up the ship like a baseball bat and decided to play Dashieball. The deck bucks around, even through the artificial gravity, and you're slammed into the floor several times. You keep your head up despite the whiplash, just trying to protect your faceplate. Finally, there's one last wrench, and it…stops. You're not sure how long it is before you can focus your eyes again, and you stumble to your hooves. You look up, and the board is green. Great. Now you look at the controls. No happy, friendly icons. Nothing flashing invitingly. Nothing…oh hay, a big red button, covered in a clear plastic guard. You glance around, hesitating, then lift the cover. A red light starts flashing and something pops up on the nearest display, but it's all gibberish. You bite your tongue, and push buton.