//------------------------------// // Shipping Out // Story: Equus' Unexpected Future // by Robert Emerald Fountain //------------------------------// Once the entire Squidbeak Army had boarded the shuttles, it was time to lift off for the Inkblazer and set their course for the rendezvous point over Ryder’s home planet. Right before the countdown began, Callie and Marie were given special wishes by their parents. “Babydoll, we wish you good luck. Teach that evil Humdinger what happens when he messes with the wrong people at the wrong time.”, Sally and Jerome told Callie sternly. “Thank you, Mom and Dad.”, replied Callie. “Sweetie, you know that what Humdinger has done is wrong. You go and put him in his place.”, Iris and Michael told Marie intently. “I plan to. We will see you when we are all done.”, replied Marie. As the crew members fastened their seatbelts on the shuttles, Craig called out to Callie and Marie. “I have known, ever since you were newborn squids, that you would do great things. You go and do what has to be done in order to stop that evil mayor’s wrongdoings.”, he said. “We will, Grandpa!”, they replied. “We are go for launch.”, said Marina over the loudspeaker after Mission Control confirmed all systems were go. “COMMENCING COUNTDOWN!”, yelled Lizzie. “T-Minus: fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, ignition sequence start.”, cried Taylor. Fuel began spewing from the shuttles’ takeoff boosters. “Five, four, three, two, one, IGNITION!”, Taylor continued. A loud roar broke the quiet atmosphere as an ignitor fired off a single spark to light the fuel. After lifting off from the launchpad, the shuttles flew high into the sky until they had cleared Earth’s gravity. After docking on the space station, everyone started boarding the Inkblazer and getting into their crew uniforms. Once the star coordinates were set for Ryder’s home world, Callie and Marie told their kids to fire the warp drive. “Taylor, Lizzie, punch it!”, they shouted. Taylor and Lizzie gave their moms a salute and then turned their seats around to engage the engines. The engines blasted the ship deep into space, bound for the rendezvous point. ** Once the Disney Fleet’s soldiers were strapped in their seats, the 30-second countdown began. Fuel spewed from the engines when the timer was five seconds away from zero. When the fuel caught, some of the crew members were shaken to the point of dizziness by the intense vibration. After clearing the atmosphere and docking on the space station, Daisy set the star coordinates for Ryder’s home after boarding the Disneystar. “All crew members, this is Captain Mickey. Brace yourselves for maximum acceleration.”, said Mickey over the ship’s intercom. Millie and Melody fired the warp engines and propelled the Disneystar into deep space, bound straight for Ryder’s home world. ** Once Twilight and Ryder had received word that the other two fleets were on route, they set their coordinates for Ryder’s home world. “Warp speed in five seconds.”, said Ryder. “Five.”, said Twilight. “Four.”, said Chase. “Three.”, said Ocellus. “Two.”, said Skye. “One.”, said Smolder. “ENGAGE!”, yelled Marshall. The warp engines fired off and the two ships shot forth. ** At this point, all four ships had set their course for Ryder’s home world and sped off. Two hours after going to warp speed, the fleets reached their meetup spot, which was between the planet and the moon. As soon as all of the ships were visible, Ryder called out to them from the PAW Patroller. “All fleets, this is Ryder. Report in!”, he said. “E S S Harmony standing by.”, said Twilight. “Inkblazer standing by.”, said Callie. “Disneystar standing by.”, said Mickey. With confirmation that all of the ships were present, the cloaking devices were activated and Ryder called out for a security sweep to check for probes. This would tell them whether or not Humdinger was waiting to catch intruders. Callie and Marie volunteered to scan for the probes, and they had Lizzie send out a scanning wave. Seconds later, they radioed back with their results. “Ryder, my scan shows positive results. Humdinger has launched defense probes to shoot down any ships that pose a possible threat.”, said Lizzie. “Copy that, Lizzie. We need to find out a way to take them out without being seen. Using energy beams would give away our location.”, Ryder replied. “We could release rocks and simulate a meteor shower.”, suggested Minnie. “Good idea. Humdinger won’t suspect intruders if a meteor shower takes out his probes. Meteors pass through naturally.”, said Chase. After the ships had laid out their plan for landing, Twilight called out over radio to inform Ryder’s spies that they had arrived. “Tuck, this is Twilight Sparkle. We have arrived in orbit. Get ready to specify your location so we can land without being seen.”, she said. “Twilight, this is Tuck. I hear you. We are preparing to activate a beacon to show you where we are.”, he replied. Ella proceeded to activate a device on the ground which started transmitting radio waves. After spotting the beacon on radar, the crews started cloaking their ships in order to hide from Mayor Humdinger. Then they started preparing to destroy the security probes that had been launched into orbit. Spotting the probes on the view screens, they shot them down by placing meteor shards from a recent shower in their airlocks and then shooting them out with the air pressure. After lining their ships up in the entry corridor, all of the ships’ Captains called out to the crews. “All hands, prepare for atmospheric entry.”, they said. The ships moved closer to the planet until they felt gravity pulling them downward. Friction caused flames to appear around the ships as they dropped faster towards the ground. Humdinger saw the flames in the sky and suspected that a few large meteors had gotten pulled down, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. He was seeing the four ships, which included the Paw Patroller, coming down to the ground. Thanks to the ships being cloaked, he did not see them on radar after the flames had dissipated. After getting through the most dangerous phase of reentry, the ship’s officers took manual control and Ryder told Ella they were ready to perform final landing. Ella acknowledged and had the Cat Pack shine a light into the sky. Once the ships had spotted the light, flown to the area, and touched down, they met up with everyone who had stayed behind to spy on Humdinger. After an introduction, everyone got down to business. “Humdinger’s kittens have allergic reactions to the vegetation in this area, so they don’t know we have a secret place here to spy on them.”, said Tuck. “The tracker we put on Mayor Goodway’s purse has given us her location. Tomorrow, she is being taken by train from this detaining area in the jungle to a tight-security prison high in the mountains. This prison is nowhere near Jake’s ski resort, so we don’t know how much Everest would be able to help out with rescuing her.”, explained Ella as the Cat Pack projected a holographic map of the area. “I might not be able to get involved in much of the actual rescue, but I can help with ascending the mountains.”, said Everest. “You’ve got a point, Everest.”, said Rory. “Which car on the train is Mayor Goodway being held in?”, asked Ryder. Wild Cat said that Goodway was being held in the rearmost car, and this gave Octavio an idea. He had Ryder zoom in on the mountain portion of the tracks and then he stated his ideas. “I will send two of my best octolings in covert ops to a ledge overlooking the tracks. They will zip-line from the ledge and get on top of the train. They will climb down to a door and get inside to free Mayor Goodway and then detach the car from the train. In case the train has security cameras, my soldiers will use smoke as a cover. I will monitor communications from Skye’s helicopter during the rescue.”, he explained. Ryder was shocked at how well Octavio was able to plan out the rescue mission. Callie said he used to be their enemy, but now he was reformed. Leo stepped up to say they had also spotted several citizens from Humdinger’s home city, Foggy Bottom, coming to Adventure Bay and forcing harsh curfews on the citizens while telling them to ignore emergencies. Ryder became enraged and demanded that something be done to make them leave. “I have an idea on how we can do that.”, said Marie. “What’s your plan?”, asked Skye. “Once Mayor Goodway is rescued and brought back here, our squadrons will parachute down to the water and swim to shore. Then we will stun them with ink blasts.”, Marie replied. “Once we have them taken care of, we will track down Harold and put him in handcuffs. We suspect that Humdinger will be in the city as well, so we will knock him down with ink as well. However, we will not be the ones who will arrest him. You will be the ones to do that.”, Taylor said to Chase. “How will we keep our identities concealed?”, asked Chase. “That’s easy, we will modify your suits so they turn black and Humdinger won’t recognize you. Once Humdinger is handcuffed, you will reveal yourselves.”, said Lizzie. Accepting the plans, Ryder informed everyone that it was time to gear up.