A Forgotten Trooper

by TheIronPone035


Chapter 42: Winter Contingency

As it turns out, it was still a good thing that Strider had packed things for Canterlot. This was because he was still going to travel, just not to the city anymore. The holoprojector had pinpointed the closest possible area that a base could of been built. It was up in northern Equestria and the train in Ponyville had a route that led almost directly to the spot!

After bidding Fluttershy farwell and switching tickets, (with the price of a few more bits) Strider was now on the train heading towards the spot.

The train ride was as eventful as it could get, considering the situation. Several ponies were quite shocked to hop on the train only to spot a bipedal homosapien in white armor casually sitting next to a window with a strange device in their hands.

Strider kept his eyes on the holoprojector, seeing the orange dot getting closer and closer to his current position as the train advanced towards it. Strider had never rode on a train before, mainly due to the fact that his main form of transportation would usually be a Gunship, ATTE, Venator Class Cruiser, or just by foot. Trains also weren't very common on the planets he had been stationed at, nor did he need to use them if they were common.

Strider glanced out the window, watching as the train rattled against the tracks that were laid out across a long stretch of open plains. The further the train went down the tracks, the more clouds seemed to appear in the sky. Soon, the train started going through several tall mountains, some having peaks that broke the cloud level.

Not long after, the train was wrapped up in a mini snow storm. It wasn't crazy enough to make an emergency stop, but it wasn't calm enough to go the usual speed. Snow battered against the window Strider was looking out of, now only revealing a few blurry images of what seemed to be even more mountains.

A loud whistle announced that the train had reached its destination. Strider waited for the train to stop before he got up and left the train car he had been in. A blast of cold air hit him like a plasma bolt, his armor not offering much protection against the elements.

"Why did the Republic station a base in this frozen tundra and not in those plains?" Strider questioned out loud, but he already knew why. This weather proved to be a good natural protection against enemy attacks, if they weren't prepared for the cold that is.

Strider checked the holoprojector again, seeing that the location of the base was around 16 kilometers from his current position. He put the holoprojector away in his utility belt and grabbed the DC-15S he had brought with him.

"It's gonna be a long journey..."


Strider's boots crunched the snow below, leaving footprints in the white landscape. Strider's armor was much harder to spot in this weather, further justifying why a base would of been built here.

Strider trudged through the snow, every few minutes he stopped to check the holoprojector to see if he was still going in the right direction. The snow storm hadn't lightened up at all from when it started at the train, snowflakes landing all over his visor, causing him to wipe it clean multiple times just to be able to see in front of him.

"I should of prepared for this type of weather!" Strider said to himself as he continued to battle the storm. His armor wasn't modeled to fit this snow, offering only a little more protection than if he was just wearing his jumpsuit beneath it.

Strider reached the top of a small hill and looked out across the horizon, making out a few mountains in the distance. Then, Strider spotted something against the snow covered landscape. He focused on the spot, barely making out what looked like a strip of silver between the falling snow.

Strider leered at the strip, slowly making out an outline of what seemed to be a snow covered bunker. He found it!

"Haha! YES!" Strider cheered, before making his way down the hill and towards the bunker.

Strider's happiness at finding the base froze, along with his body, as a strange sound filled the air, rivaling the noises of the snowstorm.

Strider heard the sound again, realizing that it sounded like a howl of some sorts. Strider looked around the area, trying to spot the source of the howls, but all he could see was snow, and the storm wasn't making it any easier.

The howls rang out again, sounding much closer than before. Whatever was causing those howls was advancing on him, and it was gonna be near impossible for Strider to fight in this storm. That didn't stop him from aiming the DC-15S in the general area the howls had come from.

Strider crouched down, making it harder for anything to see his already hard to spot armor. The howls got louder and the snowstorm also seemed to pick up, but only slightly.

Another loud howl shot through Strider's ears, this one sounding practically on top of him! Strider looked around the area from all sides, still only seeing the falling snow against the white landscape.

That was, until a thought struck Strider's mind, making his blood run even colder than it already was. Slowly, he focused his gaze up towards the sky, eyes widening at what he saw.

A massive blue transparent creature with glowing blue eyes was glaring down at him, the clouds seemed to be flowing around the creature as well as the snow, which quickly began picking up.

"By all things in the Force..." Strider muttered, slack-jawed at the sight of the creature.

The creature let out a booming howl, shaking Strider to the bone. The Trooper quickly took aim at the creature and pulled the trigger, sending a blue plasma bolt flying from the DC-15S and towards the transparent creature. However, instead of striking the creature's head, it just went right through it, striking a cloud behind it.

Strider took a step back, eyes locked with the creature. But he did spot something out of the corner of his eyes. He needed to get to that bunker.

Strider wasted no more time, taking off from his original position and ran towards the bunker. He wasn't going nearly as fast as he wanted to due to the terrain, but he kept going, firing a few shots blindly behind in hopes that they would at least distract the creature which had begun to chase him.

The snowstorm got even more intense, the snow battering against Strider like water being blasted from a Z-6. Strider looked over his shoulder to see the creature flying towards him, storm clouds following it like a smoke trail.

Strider fired another shot at the creature, before returning his gaze to the bunker which was getting bigger and bigger as he got closer.

Strider reached the bunker, instantly spotting the outline of a door which he rushed over to. Strider tried to open it but the control panel next to the door had been frozen over a long time ago.

With no other options and time running out, Strider just shot the control panel, causing a few sparks to fly from the now fried piece of equipment. The door creaked open a little, before being thrown the rest of the way open by Strider, who frantically shut them the second he was inside.

The last thing Strider saw from the winter tundra was the set of blue eyes from that creature, which had been just a few feet away from him before he shut the door, sealing both the creature and the elements out.

Strider let out a sigh of relief and slumped down against the door, taking in his new surroundings. The bunker was pitch dark due to the lack of power.

Strider flicked on his helmet's lights which quickly illuminated the room. The room looked like a standard control point for the entrance to a bunker. A few dusty counters were lined up on the other side of the room, each one had at least one powered down holo-computer. The entire room was coated with a thin layer of snow as well as all the dust from lack of management.

"Alright, let's see what supplies this place has left." Strider told himself as he advanced over to the only other door in the room.

As Strider went into the next room, he failed to notice a faded frozen over symbol on one of the walls. The symbol held the resemblance to the Grand Army of the Republic's standard symbol, but this one had a hexagon around six arrows pointing outwards.