//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 Questionable Ethics // Story: Black Bloom // by Bronycommander //------------------------------// Chapter 5: Questionable Ethics As they entered the Lab, they first saw some Houndeyes that were asleep. “Michael, Satchel charge,” Tanner whispered. Michael threw a satchel charge between the Houndeyes and detonated it. The Houndeyes died and the electricity was off. They saw a big alien in armor trapped in a tank. “What’s this?” Apple Bloom was curious and tapped the tank. The Alien responded by trying to break through the tank, causing Apple Bloom to yelp and backed up into Mia’s arms. “I think it is some kind of Soldier. A… Alien grunt. Get it?” Konrad joked. “I wonder what this button does.” Jacob pressed a button. It filled the tank with green gas, killing the Grunt. “Well this is some…Questionable Ethics.” “Yes, Jacob. Let’s move.” Gordon took the lead. The next room had a caged up Bullsquid with a Sterilization Chamber. Gordon walked into the control room. “Do you thinking, what I am thinking?” He asked Konrad. “Oh yes. This should be interesting.” After all were in, Konrad released the Bullsquid, while Gordon pushed the fire button. In a white light, the Bullsquid was disintegrated. Tanner let out a whistle. “Wow. You better not be on the wrong site when this thing is on.” "Alert. Topside Containment Force, Freeman may approach your perimeter. Attention. Hostile alien military force detected. Advanced Biological Research Laboratory." The Announcement System warned. A Security guard in the next corridor explained the situation. “It ain’t good up there. It’s all sealed off. The only way out would be to find someone with scanner access who can open the front door. I’m pretty sure there’s a few scientists hiding out somewhere in the labs. Maybe with the all of us looking we can track them down and get ‘em to let us out of here.” “Alright, let’s go.” Gordon took the lead again. They came into the lobby where the filly tried to read a sign “Hey what’s this sign say? ‘Super…Bus…via’” “It’s Latin, Apple Bloom,” Mia explained. “Oh…foreigners.” "Gordon, all science personnel will be terminated until you surrender." The System said but Gordon just replied, "It's too late to do that, and they shot at me without giving me a chance to surrender." They moved into the next corridor. Jacob and the marines took some ammo from a security office, while Gordon took a crossbow. The next room was filled with trip mines. Gordon destroyed them with a shot of his pistol. “Retreat!” Tanner shouted as two Alien Grunts appeared. Lucky for them, a squad of other Marines was fighting them. They were losing but killed one Grunt. The Security guard killed the last Alien Grunt. “Got one! Well one down… If I know how many left.” “I think Ah can see the scientists!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. The guard looked at the door. “Well, I’ll be damned. I think we just found our scientists.” He was thinking as he saw the turned on surgery unit. “Hmm… Doesn’t look like the front door is an option." He turned to Gordon. “I’ll tell you what – I’ll stick around here and keep an eye on ‘em, if you want to go find a way to bust ‘em out of here. Don’t get lost, eh?” “Konrad and Tower, you will go with him.” “Yes, sir.” They replied and left with Gordon. The guard noticed how scared Apple Bloom was. “You’re scared, aren’t you?” “It’s just… this surgery unit… it looks so…intimidating.” Tanner had an Idea He took his beret off and putted it on Apple Bloom's head. She giggled. Gordon, Konrad and Tower were searching for a way to free the scientists. They found a room with a laser in it. “If we power up this laser, we should get to the scientist below us.” “Alright Konrad, let’s go.” Tower was ready. At the first auxiliary laser, Konrad was almost hit by a beam. “Woah! This was close!” “What is this thing? Some kind of weapon?” A guard talked with a scientist in the room. “Oh man! Why aren’t we using this thing?” “Put that down! It’s a prototype…” “Why aren’t we using this thing?” “It’s much too unpredictable. Don’t let it overcharge!” “Wha…? What d’ya mean overchar---“ An explosion killed both and the way to the room was open. Gordon took the weapon of the remains of the guard. “A Tau cannon. Awesome.” “Whatever you do, don’t let it overcharge like the guard did.” "Don’t worry, I won’t.” Gordon turned the first laser on. "Alert. Remaining Containment Force, Freeman may have experimental weapon." "How did they know that? Never mind, back to work." Gordon walked ahead. They moved on to auxiliary laser 3. The room was full of Houndeyes. Gordon took some damage and was thrown against the wall. “Seek medical attention.” The suit voice recommended. “Take this medkit.” “Thanks, Tower.” After this laser was activated, they moved to auxiliary laser 2 and 4 but meet no resistance on the way. In the primary laser room, Konrad pulled the plug to deactivate the shield. "I hope this works." Gordon activated the laser. The laser cut through the wall opening a way to the scientists. "It looked stupid but as the Murphy's Combat Law in our handbook says: If it's stupid but works, it isn't stupid. Can't believe I'm actually saying this," Konrad commented. They carefully climbed down the pipes. “Leave the talking to me.” Gordon walked in. Inside were a female and two male scientists. “A follow scientist!” “Oh, thank God!” The woman cheered. “Get us out of here, before those military drones figure out where we’re hiding!” “They know already, but they are on my side,” Gordon explained as Konrad and Tower moved in. “Ok. We all have retinal scanner access. If you escort us to the lobby…” “We can finally get out of this damn lab!” “Yes, but you’ll have to shut down the surgical unit first. That fool Peters switched it on, but…” “I’m afraid he…never made it back.” The woman started to cry but Tower comforted her while Gordon switched the unit off. “This is a surgical machine?” Konrad couldn’t believe it. The guard walked in after the unit was off. “Nice work, doc!” “Yes!” “Fantastic.” “Alright folks, let’s get out of here! Damn, that was a close shave.” “Let’s go, marines!” They moved all to the lobby. One scientist stopped as they reached the blast door to the lobby. “Wait! Wait!” “What? What is it?” “Anybody else think this is a bit TOO easy?” “Somethings not right…Gordon, you don’t mind taking a look, do you? We’ll stay here for a moment.” “Of course, no problem.” “You’re scout ahead Freeman, we cover them,” Tanner replied. “I smell an ambush, be careful.” “Yes, Jacob.” As the door opened, a marine grabbed Apple Bloom from the other side. “Hey! Let me go! Help!” Gordon sprinted out. The door closed. “Freeman? Freeman! What’s happening in there? Oh God, they’ve set a trap for him! Freeman! Freeman!” Gordon killed the marine that had Apple Bloom. She was crying. As much as Gordon wanted to comfort her, he couldn’t as marines prepared to rappel down from Ospreys. Instead, he got Apple Bloom to cover behind the desk. “I will protect you with my life. You will make it out of here alive, I promise.” She didn’t say a word just whimpered and cowered scared. “SQUAD! NEUTRALIZE FREEMAN!” a marine shouted in his radio voice as he rappels down. Gordon returned fire with his MP5. The first wave was 8 marines. Gordon was running around while killing two marines. Behind cover he reloaded but two marines were shooting at him from the roof. He took the crossbow, aimed down the scope and fired. Both marines were hit. One took an arrow to the knee. Gordon switched to his revolver to shoot two marines that closed in with shotguns. Then he took one shotgun to kill the remaining marines. Gordon didn’t feel pain thanks to his suit, but the power was gone and his health was drained to 50%. The door he used to find the scientists opened and 5 marines stormed in. “WE’RE GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!” To avoid being killed, he killed the marines with the Tau cannon. It was quite effective as it killed a marine in only 3 shots. After he battle was over, he noticed that his health dropped to 30%. Jacob was worried about Apple Bloom. He heard screaming, shots and worst of all, her crying. The door opened. The marines and he stormed in to secure the area. Konrad was impressed. “Look what you did. With that suit you are a one man army.” “I… can’t believe what you did!” the woman said but turned to Apple Bloom. She was covering her ears, her eyes shut. Her right leg was bleeding as she was hit by a stray bullet. “You poor child. Let me take care of that wound for you.” She treated Apple Blooms wound and gave her a syringe with painkillers. “This should make you feel better.” Apple Bloom looked only at Mia. “M-mommy…” “Shh, it’s over.” She gently scooped the filly in her arms. She buried her head in Mia’s chest. The female scientist was fascinated. “I never saw a species like her before. Still, she doesn’t deserve to die here.” “That’s why we want to get her out of there. As this resonance cascade happened, a portal to her world opened and brought her into this mess.” Mia stroked her mane. “How’s your name, little one?” “Apple Bloom.” “You’re really a cute filly, you know that?” “Thank you.” She replied at the compliment of the woman. A jet fighter flowed above them. “My God! It’s a warzone!” “The facility must be under complete military control!” “But with our help, they will get Apple Bloom out of here.” Konrad felt a tear come out of his eye, but it could barely be seen through the mask. “Ok. Good luck.” One scientist opened the door for them, while another told Gordon about the Lambda Lab. “I’m gonna hang back a bit and help out these two. You take care of yourself out there.” “We will,” Jacob replied to the guard before they left. Outside, Michael destroyed two turrets on the roof with a grenade. On the parking lot was a M35 cargo truck. Konrad took the driver seat, Tanner the co-driver seat while the rest got into the back of the truck. They passed a checkpoint. The marines let them pass. The blast door to the surface opened. Mia smiled at Apple Bloom. “You know Apple Bloom, since we wanted a child after this was over, and we see you as our daughter, we don’t mind if you call us mommy and daddy.” She nuzzled her nose. “ "You’re like parents to me already. And Konrad is like an uncle for me.” She returned the smile with a giggle. “Good luck out there. You will need it.” A marine saluted as the truck passed the checkpoint.