2044
“So, what in the hell did you bring us here for, sir?” Said Artyom.
“24 days ago we outfitted this here ship with the first ever L.S. Fumantari engine. This engine is the most revolutionary invention ever, period. Not only is it capable of light speed travel, but it is more fuel efficient than the Prius.” Replied General Glukhovsky. “You, along with two other fire teams have been chosen to escort ‘The Red Dwarf’ and her crew to a possibly habitable planet 42 light-years away. You will be in cryo for the entire trip. Lastly, you will be charged with protecting a science team as they survey the planet.You will then return to earth and report your findings."
“So basically we’re going to be gone for 84 years?”
“More like 85”
“With all due respect sir, why did you choose us?” Interrupted Dima, the fire teams medic.
“Due to the duration of this mission, we opted for soldiers with no families. And it just so happens no one on your fire team has one.” The 4 soldiers nodded. “You will be rewarded handsomely upon your return, not to mention being remembered throughout history. Any questions?”
“Can I bring my xbox?”
Artyom sat down at the table. He was flanked by Dima, who was around 6’7”, with dark brown hair, a muscular build (Like all of his squad mates) and 3 long scars stretching down the left side of his face. In front of him sat Dmitry, the blonde support trooper. To his left was Sasha, the engineer. Finally there was him, the fire team leader and marksman.
They were all busy eating dinner before the launch, most of them wanted to eat as much as they could before their 42 years of cryo sleep.
“So you seriously brought your xbox?! Oh man you’re so addicted, when do you even plan to be able to play it?” Exclaimed Sasha.
“It was my father’s, I’ll feel a lot more safe with it here than in storage back on earth” Replied Artyom.
Another soldier walked up and sat down next to Sasha.
“Hi, you’re fire team crimson, right?” he said.
This guy had obvious issues.
“Uh, yes”
“I’m Bourbon, from fire team Majestic. Are you nervous? Because I am.”
“Not really”
“But what happens if the life support fails while we’re in cryo?”
“I doubt that will happen”
“You never know.”
“All personnel, please report to your designated cryo chambers, we will be launching shortly” A loud voice called over the intercom. All of the people in the cafeteria stood up and began to funnel out the nearest exit. Artyom and his team followed numerous signs until they reached their destination, ‘Cryo chamber B’
Artyom felt the thrusters kick in as they propelled the ship to light speed, and then cut out as they continued to drift at light speed.
The four men all undressed and stepped into their respective pods. The door sealed shut with a hiss infront of Artyom. His vision began to blur as he started to loose consciousness. He could feel the air around him get colder, a lot colder. The last thing he saw was the glass of the tube freeze over before everything went black.
42 years later
The glass doors of 4 cryo pods swung open, and their occupants slowly floated out of them. They were met by the same ship, now lit by the red emergency lighting and locked in an eternal winter.
“What happened?” asked a confused Dmitry.
“Power probably cut out to the lighting and artificial gravity, life support seems intact however.” Replied Sasha.
“How long until we freeze to death?”
“A couple minutes, tops”
“well we better get moving then”
The squad geared up, which was surprisingly hard in micro gravity. Their insulated combat uniforms would at least provide them with a couple of hours before hypothermia sets in. Artyom grabbed the bag containing his xbox and tv screen before heading out.
“Really?”
“Fuck off”
Artyom floated over to ‘Cryo Chamber A’. None of the pods had opened yet. He floated to a random pod, he looked over to the status pad and noticed it was covered in ice. He looked around and noticed a chunk of metal floating around, he grabbed it and chipped away the ice from the screen.
‘Life Support failure, Occupant: Deceased' it read. Artyom looked up at the pod and chipped away the ice from the glass lid. He immediately recognized the face of the frozen corpse still inside the pod.
“Sometimes, I fucking hate it when you’re right Bourbon”
The team swept all the cryo chambers, but none were alive. They regrouped back at ‘Cryo chamber B’.
“Status?” asked Artyom.
“We are the only survivors, what next?” answered Dmitry.
“Okay, let’s head to the observation deck, see if we’re over the planet”
“And then what?”
“We land on it.”
Crimson made their way over to the observation deck, it was a glass capsule located under the bridge. It took a while to chip away an area large enough to see through. They were infact orbiting around the dark side of their destination, the planet dubbed ‘Equus’. The planet was the same size as Venus, along with the same atmosphere make up and gravity as Earth. The moon was different though, however the same size as Earths, was much closer to the planet.
“Alright, let’s get to the armory, arm up and then get to the drop pods. Sasha, how much longer until hypothermia sets in?”
“About 30 minutes, sir”
“You heard the man let’s get moving!”
The team floated to the armory on the opposite end of the Hallway. The walls of the armory were all adorned with a variety of ordnance, from RPG’s to pistols, it had everything. Dima went for an AEK 971, along with a P90, side arm and 3 M67 fragmentation grenades. Dmitry dawned a PKP PECHENEG, AN 94, C4 and a side arm. Sasha had a AK74u, AS VAL , FGM JAVELIN and a side arm. Artyom carried a OSV-96 sniper rifle, AK47, target designator and a side arm.
“Sasha! What the hell are you going to need a Javelin for?” complained Dmitry.
“Shut up, and let’s get to the drop pods” retorted Sasha.
The drop pod bay was right next to the armory, and the team wasted no time climbing into their respective pods.
“Let’s hope the release latches still work” said Dima, over the teams radio.
Each person pressed a green button on a pad on the right side of the pod. The door’s of the pod swung down and sealed, the pod hissed as the interior pressurized. Dozens of screens came to life as the pods lowered and the rotated. Artyom looked out the one central window, they were over the planets northern hemisphere, the surface began to brighten as dawn approached. The pod’s lights flashed red, signaling three seconds until launch. With a large thud, the four pods detached from the ship and began to careen towards the planet’s surface. The outside of the pod became engulfed in flames as the planet got closer and closer. The acceleration thrusters activated, giving the pilots control of their vessels.
“How’s it going, Sasha” asked Dima. Sasha’s voice came through the speakers, heavily distorted by the sound of static.
“THIS THING CONTROLS LIKE A WHORE FULL OF DICKS!”
As if on cue, the de-acceleration thrusters kicked in, making the craft more maneuverable. The ground came into view as the flames around the exterior died down. Dmitry looked at the pad on his right ‘50ft, 20ft, 5ft’. The pods hit the ground with a tremendous bang. The doors hissed and flung off their hinges, landing 50 ft away. Out stepped four soldiers, guns raised. The snow crunched under their boots as they began to move around.
“What’s the matter?”
“MORE FUCKING ICE!”
Twilight had been up all night, not reading but celebrating. Pinkie threw a party in The Crystal Kingdom in celebration of Twilight’s A and the defeat of king Sombra. The party started at 10:00pm the day before and was still raging, even when the sun would rise any moment. Damn these crystal ponies knew how to party.
“Twilight look!” screamed Pinkie.
Four lights appeared on the Horizon and streaked across the sky, disappearing behind the opposite end of the horizon. Four loud booms were heard seconds later.
Twilight shoved through a crowd of ponies, searching for her brother. She found him dancing with his wife, Cadence.
“Twily!” he exclaimed. “Did you see that?”
“Yes, Shining. Those meteors landed in the tundra somewhere. Would you mind if we went and found them?”
“Sure” Shining turned to Cadence. “Stay here and rest, okay?”
Cadence nodded and trotted off to the castle.
Twilight gathered the Elements.
“Alright girls we are going to find those meteorites, anypony want to come?”
“Of course” they all responded. And so the pony’s put on parkas and marched off through the snow.
The four soldiers had been walking for three hours now, the sun was now just over the horizon, making the smallest of bumps in the ground cast a large shadow. Artyom looked at his compass, the needle was spinning all over the place, still trying to find a magnetic north. He was beginning to wonder if he was even heading south, but the rising sun at least gave him some sense of direction.
“I didn’t grab any food rations on the ship, what the hell are we supposed to eat?” complained Dima.
“We’ll find something sooner or later.” Replied Dmitry.
A couple of minutes passed, the only thing to look at was the bland, all white landscape. However there was a abnormality in the distance.
“Sir, there are seven silhouettes in the distance.” Announced Sasha. Artyom examined his surroundings, his eyes fell upon a ditch to their left.
“Get to cover,” he said.
The four jumped into the ditch and laid against the side of it. Atyom poked his head, he then unfolded the OSV-95’s bipod
and rested it on the snow. He pressed his right eye against the rifle scope and shut his left.
At first the image was blurry; he could make out seven multi-coloured, small and long figures. He reached for a dial at the top of the rifle scope and turned it, focusing the image. The scope revealed seven small horses wearing what looked like a horse’s version of a parka. He noticed a strange object protruding from three of the horses head, he soon realized it was a horn. He quickly turned to his teammates.
“Guys, fucking unicorns!”
“Are you sure you didn’t hit your head on the way down?” joked Dmitry.
“Guise, srysly, take a look” He motioned to his sniper rifle.
Each of them took turns looking through the scope, their face faces turning from disbelief to shock.
“What do you want to do?”
“Get close to them”
“We’ve been walking for three hours and found nothing, can we please turn back, the snow is soaking through my boots!” whined Rarity.
“Just a little more...” begged Twilight.
The group had moved along an ice wall to protect themselves from the harsh wind, but staying in the shade of that thing made everypony colder. Nopony got sleep the night before, and once all the alcohol and sugar wore off they were miserable.
“What do you reckon we’d even find, Twi?” asked Applejack.
“We should turn back, I doubt anypony has the energy to go further.” Said Shining.
Twilight finally gave in, “Fine” she muttered.
The group turned around, only to spot four strange creatures approaching them. With nowhere to go the group backed up against the ice wall, they were cornered. The creatures were bipedal, wearing parkas with their face’s covered by masks and hoods, they also held strange metal objects in their hands and were obviously sentient. The creatures began to talk amongst themselves. Their language induced fear in the ponies, so guttural and savage, with each word making them sound angrier and angrier. Eventually, Twilight had enough. Her horn glowed and then turned into a blinding white light that lasted for a couple of seconds. When the light died down, the creatures had the metal objects pointed at them.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?” one screamed.
“A translation spell” Twilight watched as the four creatures all recoiled in horror.
“You talk?!”
“Well, yeah” The four creatures started inching closer.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Twilight Sparkle, the element of magic”
“And ahm Applejack, the element of honesty”
“I’m Rarity, the element of generosity”
“I’m... Fluttershy... the element of kindness...”
“I’m Pinkie Pie, the element of laughter”
“I’m Rainbow Dash, the element of loyalty”
“And I’m Shinning Armor, captain of the royal guard, may I ask who you are”
Artyom glanced back at his men and shrugged.
“We are members of the Russian Vympel Unit, I am the commander of fire team crimson here. Sergeant Artyom, sniper, at your service.”
“I’m Corporal Dima, medic.”
“Private Dmitry, support gunner”
“Private Sasha, engineer”
Twilight smiled. “Great now what are you?”
“Humans, and you?”
“Ponies”
“If I may ask” interrupted Shinning, “what are those things your holding?”
Artyom swung his weapon to his left and fired. The 50 cal bullet impacted the ice wall five meters from Shinning’s head. The sound from the shot deafened the ponies as ice shards from the hole it made in the wall showered over them.
“WHAT THE HAY WAS THAT?” screamed the orange one as they stumbled backwards. The ponies shook their heads as the ringing stopped and their hearing came back. Their faces drained of blood as they saw the hole left in the wall.
“So”
Their eyes shifted from the hole and back to Artyom. “You said elements, what are those?”
“The most powerful magic in Equestria, what the hay was that.”
“Magic?”
“Yes, magic, what the hay was that!”
Artyom sighed, normally he would argue with her that magic doesn’t exist, but then again, he’d be arguing with a purple unicorn.
“That was a 50 cal round, shot from an OSV-95”
“Do all humans have that form of weaponry?”
“Yes, ranging from lower caliber, full auto weapons to highly destructive rocket launchers”
“OOOH what’s this?” interrupted Pinkie.
She was rolling a M67 grenade on the ground, rolling it to each of her front hooves.
“Is it some sort of ball game!?” she asked as she pulled the pin on the grenade.
“Aw fuck”