//------------------------------//
// 22. [Sunset Shimmer] Dance of the Dreadnought 
// Story: Deep Rock Equestria: Into The Abyss 
// by The Atlantean 
//------------------------------//




Full Mission Roll:
Kill 2 Glyphid Dreadnoughts, 10 Fossils, Haz 3, Sandblasted Corridors
Warning: N/A, Anomaly: Low Gravity
Machine Event: Kursite Infection
Encounters: Golden Loot Bug, Crassus Bulk Detonator
Extra Resources: N/A
Mission Special Beer: Pots O' Gold
Roll System in Final Phase




“This is it, girls,” Sunset said. “The last mission of the assignment. Remember the end of the Point Extraction? Well, now we have to kill one of those things. We have to kill a Glyphid Dreadnought.”
The four stood around the Mission Assignment console with the hologram of Hoxxes IV floating above the table. They’d spent their entire careers at DRG for this moment. The lights around them were dim with the “early morning” time aboard the station, but the Drop Pod glowed brilliant and proud. Tomorrow, if all went well, it would be painted with their symbol of choice: a pink butterfly.
Rarity leaned against the table with her arms crossed. “This is statistically the most failed mission for normal miners. Unfortunately, as this is our graduation mission for the training assignment, a Combat Recovery Team will not be sent to rescue us should we fail. We either do this--” She paused to take in a deep breath as she stood straight again. “Or we die.”
Applejack set her hand over the hologram. “For home,” she said, her green eyes strong and determined.
Rainbow Dash was next, placing her hand on Applejack’s. Her newly cut hair whipped around her head. “For family.”
Rarity placed her hand on Rainbow’s. Her armor rig beeped, and the purple diamond on her chestpiece glowed softly in the dim lighting of the station. “For friendship.”
Sunset was last, placing her hand on Rarity’s. A tear escaped her eye and ran down her cheek. “For Fluttershy.”


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“Listen up, Team,” Mission Control said as the Drop Pod descended into the tan wind-swept depths of the Sandblasted Corridors, “we’ve located a Glyphid nest. The Dreadnoughts go there to pupate, so your primary objective is to locate the cocoons and destroy them and their occupants by any means necessary. Bring plenty of ammo--they can take a punch!”
“Yes, sir,” Rarity said as she adjusted her headset. “Do we know what they’ll become if we fail?”
“Something even worse. We don’t know exactly what it is, but our X-Teams report finding Dreadnoughts in more terrifying stages of pupation. Know that this is the last day when you’re guaranteed the standard variant. Good luck!”
“We’ll need it,” Sunset grumbled. “Alright, girls, you heard him: let’s get to work.”
The Drop Pod crashed to the cavern floor, its doors hissed open, and the ramp reached down to the ground. Rainbow was first, then Applejack and Rarity. Sunset grappled across the cave to a glint of gold she saw reflect off the pod’s lights and went to work.
The cave was sandy tan and abnormally tall with windswept lines along the sandstone walls. Sunset’s flare arced higher than she was used to before impacting the ceiling, bathing the room in light and illuminating two patches of compressed dirt.
As Sunset mined her bit of gold, she heard a distant echo. It sounded like a deep warbling growl, like a Bulk Detonator, but it had a metallic twinge.
“Hey, Rarity, are we in a haunted cave?” she asked over the comms.
“No. This cave has no Warnings at all, but it’s Low Gravity,” Rarity replied. “Why do you ask?”
“I thought I heard a Bulk. It’s not far off, but it’s behind rock.”
“Are you sure it was a Bulk?”
“No, but it was my first thought.”
“Okay. Keep your guard up, girls.”
Sunset grappled back to the group. Before she went all the way, she released the hook and flew the remaining distance, skidding to a stop next to Molly. She looked up and saw Rainbow leap into the air and do a triple backflip before landing. Rarity twirled like a ballerina, and Applejack bounded across the cave.
Low Gravity was amazing. It broke every law of physics Twilight Sparkle could remember, but it was fun.
Applejack broke through one of the dirt patches with her drills and immediately paled. She turned around and bolted as she switched her drills for her flamethrower.
“We got a Bulk!” she yelled. “It’s all glittery and gold!”
You’ve gotta be kidding me, Sunset thought. We do NOT need a Bulk Detonator right now!
The creature erupted through the tunnel Applejack had dug, making the hole much bigger and sending embers float around it. It was, as Applejack described, glittery. Its entire body appeared to be made of gold, and the three bulbous tumors were gilded. No matter its looks, it had to be at least as dangerous as a standard Bulk. Sunset aimed at one of the tumors and fired.
Rainbow’s minigun burred at the beast’s other side, and one of Rarity’s grenades exploded against its metallic armor. It roared in reply and slammed its claws into the ground, raising a cloud of fiery particles around it. Applejack’s flamethrower spewed a line of sticky flaming oil that splattered on its armor, but it seemed unaffected.
Sunset sprinted out of the way as it turned to attack her, leaving the tumor she’d been shooting to dim. The ground behind her exploded, and the shockwave knocked her off her feet. She picked herself back up and kept running but left her rifle on the ground. Switching to her double-barrel shotgun, she blasted a full load of pellets into the gold Bulk’s face and continued to run.
One of the tumors exploded under Rainbow’s continual fire, and the Bulk howled something horrible. It turned its attention from Sunset to Rainbow, lumbering across the cave to attack her. Rarity and Applejack scattered while Rainbow was forced to back away.
Its distraction gave Sunset enough time to retrieve her rifle. She grabbed it, reloaded, and tossed one of her grenades. It created an electric field that slowed the Bulk’s movement to a standstill.
The second of three tumors exploded from sustained flames and rifle fire. Another inhibitor grenade kept it from moving, giving Rainbow time to move and shoot the last tumor while Rarity pelted its face with grenade after grenade from her launcher.
When the Bulk stopped moving completely, everyone ran and it exploded into a… gold crater? Sunset rejoined the others at the crater and scratched her head. Bulks didn’t turn solid rock into gold.
“A Glyphid Crassus Detonator,” Rarity read from her bestiary. “It’s every bit as lethal as its cousin. However, unlike the standard Bulk Detonator, it turns everything within the radius of its explosion to gold by way of some chemical reaction upon death.”
Rainbow whistled, and Sunset had to agree with her unspoken statement. It was incredible.
“You know, Ah think we coulda gotten more gold out of it if we’d killed it in a tunnel,” Applejack said.
“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed. She tossed a resupply beacon, using nearly all the Nitra they’d gathered before the Crassus. “Ammo’s down to a third. That thing soaked bullets like… I don’t even know. It was harder than the other Bulk we killed.”
“Good call, then,” Rarity said. “Everyone, take a resupply leaf. We’re going to need all the ammunition we can get to kill the Dreadnoughts. And don't forget to mine all this gold Hoxxes so kindly gave us.”


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When they reached the first of the Dreadnought cocoons, Sunset fired a flare into the ceiling. It sat on the far end of a large cavern several dozen meters tall and nearly a hundred wide with only the occasional gray rocky spire to break up the endless tan sandstone.
“Wow,” she breathed.
“It’s half the size of an Egg Hunt cave, and it’s just for the one Dreadnought,” Rainbow said. “We can kill it, right?”
“We have to,” Rarity said. “Who has ‘See You In Hell’?”
“Rainbow and I,” Sunset said.
“Okay, if either of you go down, we’ll try to lure it over to you. Use your pulse to damage it.”
“Ah have ‘Iron Will’,” Applejack volunteered.
“Then if everyone goes down, you get up and revive someone. Go for the person nearest to you. If you can get Sunset before you go back down, that’d be great since she can grapple across the cave.”
“How do we kill it?” Rainbow asked.
“Greg told me to hit the abdomen. It has an armored shell that regenerates after a few seconds, so once we break it, you don’t stop shooting. Sunset, your inhibitor should keep it slow, and don’t forget to light the cave.”
Suddenly, the wind picked up, quickly turning into a blinding sandstorm. Sunset’s suit shields protected her from being sandblasted without trouble, and after a couple minutes, the storm cleared. Rainbow fired a zipline across the cave and hooked herself, ascending over the floor like a flying gun.
Rainbow aimed her revolver at the cocoon. “Ready?”
“Ready,” Rarity confirmed after she set up a turret to shoot anything that came down the tunnel while they fought the Dreadnought.
“Ready,” Applejack said.
“Ready,” Sunset replied. Inwardly, she gulped. The one during the Point Extraction was terrifying. This time, she couldn’t just run away and leave in the Drop Pod. This time, she had to fight.
The cocoon popped, and the Dreadnought crawled out. It pressed its claws into the ground and roared. Sunset froze in fear, her eyes locked onto the hulking carapace and evil pointed teeth.
Rarity lobbed a grenade at the Dreadnought’s abdomen. It turned to her and vomited a fireball, which she dodged with a quick roll to the side. Applejack’s flamethrower lit its armor, but for all her effort she did almost nothing. Rainbow’s minigun whirred to life once again, laying lead rain on the beast.
It took a fireball going for her head to snap Sunset out of her freeze. She grappled out of the way just in time and rolled to her feet. Her hands automatically switched to her rifle, and she sprinted behind a rock spire to catch her breath.
First rule of combat: don’t stop moving.
She risked a peek and saw the Dreadnought slam the ground, throwing up lines of spiky rock that sliced Applejack’s legs. She collapsed to her knees but stood back up and fired her dinky little pistol.
Rainbow’s support from the zipline was doing the most work. The abdomen armor cracked open. Sunset threw an inhibitor grenade to keep it from moving and grappled behind it. She first slammed its fleshy bits with a power attack from her pickaxe, then rapidly unloaded her shotgun pellets. The Dreadnought turned to face her. She ran.
Rarity dove in from behind with a power attack of her own followed by several shots from her combat shotgun. The shell regenerated before Sunset could shoot it again, and they were back to square one.
Sunset aimed her rifle and fired again. Now that the Dreadnought was focusing on someone else again, she had time to hurt it.
Rainbow screamed and fell from her zipline as the air around her exploded. She landed hard, and before she could recover, the beast was already on top of her. It slashed her across the chest with its claw, and she went down. As she did, a large electric pulse blew out from her suit, which made the Dreadnought angry. She had to have hurt it badly.
“Sunset, revive her!” Rarity ordered. “Applejack, help me distract it!”
Applejack threw a block of explosive on the ground and backed away. When the Dreadnought crawled over it to attack her, she clicked her remote, and the abdomen’s shell cracked again.
Sunset bolted behind it, but not before Applejack cried out and collapsed, too. The Dreadnought then focused on Rarity, giving her enough time to revive Rainbow, who immediately threw down a shield to protect them. Just in time, too--Rarity wasn’t fast enough to outrun the Dreadnought, and it sliced her down with a couple staggering hits.
“Get back on the zipline and kill it!” Sunset yelled. “I’ll get the others!”
Rainbow threw a mock salute and ran to the zipline’s lowest point, where she hooked herself back on and became mostly safe from its attacks again. Sunset fired into the fleshy bits, but too much time had passed, and the shell regenerated before she could do much damage.
She ran to Applejack since she was farther from the Dreadnought and quickly revived her. The farm girl took out a small handle that grew into an axe and threw it at the beast, distracting it and giving Sunset a shot at Rarity.
Sunset grappled across the cave to Rarity and went to work again. Rainbow’s lead rain continued to pour, and the Dreadnought was focusing down Applejack again, so she had another chance to shoot the shell.
The third time the shell cracked, everyone threw everything they had at it. Rarity fired her grenade launcher, Applejack set off her explosives and threw her axes, Rainbow threw her own grenades and kept up the fire, and Sunset pelted it with her rifle. It still wasn’t enough, and the shell regenerated.
Oh, Celestia, this is RIDICULOUS!
Much more coordinated now, the group managed to break the shell a fourth time without much more trouble. This time, their damage brought the Dreadnought to the ground. It roared one final defiant time before collapsing, dead.
Sunset let out a huge sigh of relief. The adrenaline that coursed through her veins dissipated. Her arms fell limp, exhausted, and she sat down to recover her breath.
“Rock and Stone, Team,” Rarity said. “Just one more, then we leave.”
Three “Rock and Stone”s echoed in reply. Sunset wasn’t sure if one of the voices was hers or not.
“I thought we were gonna lose,” Rainbow panted. She unhooked herself from her zipline and rejoined the group. With Low Gravity, that entailed falling twenty meters without a care in the world.
“Me too,” Applejack said. “When the Dreadnought hit you off the zipline, I figured we were as good as dead seein’ you were doing all the damage.”
Rarity sat down next to Sunset. “I went down after Applejack, but I don’t know what happened. When Sunset revived me, I saw I was the last one down.”
“Sunset carried,” Rainbow said and patted Sunset’s shoulder. “She got us all back up.”
“Excellent work, Sunset. How are we on ammunition?”
Rainbow shook her head and Applejack frowned.
“Not good,” Sunset said. “I spent half my rifle ammo on that thing. It just wouldn’t die.”
“Right. Let’s find some Nitra and call in another resupply.” Rarity placed a flare in front of her, lighting up their small corner of the cavern as Sunset’s flare bolts dimmed. She took a deep breath and sighed. “We need to start bringing food down here with us. After the Crassus and Dreadnought, I’m starving.”
Sunset’s stomach rumbled in agreement.
“If we make it back up,” she said, “the first round is on me.”


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As the doors clanked open to the Space Rig, Twilight Sparkle ran up the boarding ramp before any of them could leave. “Girls, you are not going to believe this,” she said, her normally precise voice breathless.
“What?” Sunset asked. “We’re a little busy, Twilight. Drinks on me, girls!”
Rainbow and Applejack cheered, while Rarity looked like she was going to be sick.
Twilight shook her head. “No drinks. Not yet.”
Sunset’s eyes narrowed. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”
Twilight nodded. “While you were down there, satellites picked up a tracking beacon in the Glacial Strata for a split second before the signal died. It’s an old cave excavated a year ago, and all dwarves made it home, so it’s not from any of them.”
“Well, whose was it, then?” Rarity pushed. “Surely it can’t be… no. That’s impossible.”
“It is. The frequency corresponds to Fluttershy’s emergency tracker, and her ID was embedded in the signal. She’s still alive down there.”