//------------------------------// // Seeing red // Story: Lost planet: Equestria // by MoonShine //------------------------------// Seeing red Moonshine, Treacle, Nix and Claire are all sat in a large mess hall in the Snow Pirate fort, in front of them are bowls of orange glowing slop, the possible remains of an Akrid. A merc dashes over to them and announces that the Commander wishes to speak to Moonshine, she gets up and immediately heads off, stopping at the door to comment, “Anything to get out of eating that shit.” When she opens the door to the stairwell she looks up and sighs before starting her laborious trek up the many flights. Once at the top she stops for a quick breather only to have a thick Scottish voice call out from behind her, “You’re getting’ a wee bit out of shape lassie.” She scrunches her face as this pony was the last she ever wanted to see, she turns around with a blank face, hiding the hatred for him. “What do you want Colin?” she asks him as he walks up to her and towers over her, she looks back to avoid looking at the fact he was very tall and build like a Dongo. “So, the Commander wants t’see ya. Can’t be nothin’ good for ya lassie. Aye that’s right, I’m ‘ere because she wants me to go with ya.” He says to her, she quickly turns to look at him forgetting he was right up to her and jumps back in fright then looks up, straining her neck a bit to see him face. “You’re coming with us, what do you mean come with us, where to and what for?” she questions. “Well, if ya go see the Commander, I’m sure she can full ya on the info.” He replies before heading down the stairs, “I’ll be meetin’ ya downstairs.” She turns to head right for the Commander’s office. She knocks on the door and a voice can be heard just after an electrical shutdown kind of noise emits, “Come in Moonshine” the voice calls, she pushes the door open and steps inside. “Commander, I heard that you are sending us off somewhere already?” she asks. “Yes, we have just got a distress call from some Desert Raiders that have captured a thermal energy supply train from the Carpet Baggers. They have come under attack by a Cat-G Akrid, unknown designation. I want you to go in with your team, but I have assigned Colin and one other pony to go with you….” She explains before teleporting to the door and opens it, a tall pony, about the same height as Moonshine enters the office; he is navy blue with jet black hair having a sky blue streak running down his hair, his cutiemark being a heart with a knife piercing it. “This is Friedrich, he well be going with you also. I believe you having a six member team will be much better than four, especially if you…….never mind that, you need to go now.” She stops herself. “If what Commander?” Moonshine asks but Luna says nothing and forces them out. “Ha, sie sagt nichts.” He says in a foreign language. “You what? Come again handsome, I mean Friedrich…is it Friedrich?” she asks to confirm. He nods, “Ja, my name is Friedrich, you must be ze….well, I’ll just leave it at Moonshine.” “Yeah, that’s me. My sis’ is downstairs, she’s a nice filly to meet once you…” she stops as she’s interrupted by an alarm. A computer voice calls out, “Warning, unauthorised departure detected, one Fastray taken.” They both look at each other before dashing down the stairs as fast as they can. Once at the bottom they open the door and can see Colin waiting at the end of the corridor with Treacle and Nix rushing past him towards the landing deck, “Hay Colin, what’s going on?!” She shouts as they catch up to him as he begins running for the deck too. “Well lassie, we’re in a wee bit of bother, our mission was to go to the desert, aye? Well Claire has a brother in the Desert Raiders, she now gone an’ rushed off.” He explains, they reach the deck to see Nix and Treacle in full armour, Colin now putting on his helmet and boots but leaving out the rest. They all look about as they hear a roaring noise, not creature but more mechanical, Moonshine puts her thermal pack and helmet on, and while she is putting her armour on, Friedrich presses a button on his backpack that causes his armour to unfold round him in an instant. “Nice suit ya got there laddie.” Colin compliments, just then an Osprey pops out of nowhere and swiftly lands in front of them, the propeller engines missing and been replaced with the boosters packs off a PTX-40A, the boosters in pairs at each corner of the vehicle. The pilot opens the door and comments, “Had to do some major remodelling, do you like it?” they all jump in and the door closes behind them at the boosters come to life and the Osprey shoots up into the snow storm over to the city where Claire is riding through the streets on a Fastray whiles being chased down by a couple of Dongos and an Undeep that is diving in and out of buildings to try and cause them to collapse on her, the Dongos dive-bombing her by rolling up ramps and cars and falling down at her. Moonshine opens the door and grabs a pair of binoculars, she looks over to a street where she can see faint flashes of light, she zooms in to see Claire firing her machine gun at one Dongo that has rolled past her and she hits the weak spot, it immediately turns to ice and she uses it to jumps up onto the tops of the buildings. “Over there, she’s in trouble, we’ve got four Dongos, 30 plus Trilids and an Undeep after her.” She says as she points down at them, Nix looks over her shoulder to see only for Colin to move them both to the side and swing round a VS rifle, he takes aim of a Dongo and fires, the round instantly killing it, the buildings now starting to collapse as the Undeep digs through them. He takes aim of the Undeep just as it pops up in front of Claire and fires art one of the spots on its side causing it to shriek in pain and fall back into the building, Claire confused looks about for the cause of the shot, she see’s nothing from the storm and continues to head for the exit to the city. Nix climbs up out of the side and onto the top of the Osprey, “NIX, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Moonshine shouts to him but he doesn’t reply as he can’t hear her, he heads for the front and climbs into the gunners seat, he closes the hatch and takes aim with the two Gatling guns at the Trilids which are diving at Claire, he squeezes the trigger and the guns open fire at a fast rate, the rounds flying past Claire into the snow covered roofs, the Trilids getting shot down one by one from the spray. Claire punches the boost and flies off as amazing speed, the Osprey being left behind, “Hold on to something.” The pilot says before hitting the boost, the Osprey is thrust forward at three times the initial speed, they soon catch up to Claire while Nix picks off the Trilids and holds off the Dongos, Colin taking pot shots at the Undeep as it surfaces. The Osprey lowers to be just meters above Claire who is ignoring the fact it’s there and concentrating on getting out of the city. The Undeep emerges and heads right for the Osprey head-on, the pilot quickly reacts and evades the attack, Treacle opens the other side door and aims her hoof at Claire who is heading right for the giant Akrid, she shoots her anchor which attaches to the Fastray and pulls her out of the Akrid’s wake. Claire grabs hold of the wire and Treacle detaches the anchor causing Claire to be pulled up to the Osprey, once aboard they close the doors and the Osprey heads for the desert.