//------------------------------// // 3 - Combat Drop // Story: Bug Hunt // by Swamphunter //------------------------------// "Switching to DCS Ranging..." Parker's voice continued to rattle off the usual pilot speak on the intercom, "2-4-0, nominal to profile." "Goose One, this is Baseplate. Be advised, we just took some weather scans and we're looking at a rather hairy storm that's smack dab in the middle of your flight path. You'll be in for some chop." "Understood Baseplate. Rough air ahead, guys! Make sure you're all strapped in." I was softly buffeted back and forth in my seat. The clattering of my plate armor signified this. I felt the dropship make a slow banking turn as it broke off from the straight away fall. I gaze over to the Captain, who is observing the mountainside through one of the numerous screens on his display panel. "Coming around for a 709er," buzzed Parker, "Locking in on the Alhambra's beacon. Range: thirty miles... wait a minute... uh, Baseplate, we're seeing some lights along a mountaintop here. I thought that this landing pattern was secure." "Goose One, what do you mean by, 'lights?'" "Good evening, Tia." "Good evening, Luna. Did you sleep well?" The Princess of the Night approached her older sister on their grand balcony. The sun had set and night had taken its place across the land. The air was brisk as the cover of rainclouds settled across the land as seen from Canterlot Castle. The smell of wet soil was blowing in as the storm can be seen off in the distance. "I guess. I had been thinking about what we talked about this morning, and I am split on what to do." "Oh?" "You're right about going off into the Badlands, especially in light of how aggressive the Changelings have been. However, I still yearn for something out of the ordinary! I tire of the same night-to-night rigmarole. For instance, I already know how your day went." "Really, now?" said Celestia in a sarcastic tone, "In that case, Luna my dear, how did my day go?" "Well-" Luna was cut off by an odd noise that cut through the air and echoed off of the walls of the mountainside. It sounded like it was a combination of the rumbling of a stampede with the whine of machinery. It started off quietly, just barely noticeable, but it continued to gain in volume. "What in Equus is that noise?" asked Celestia. She and Luna briefly glanced around as the noise seemingly came closer. Suddenly, the windows all along their balcony began to shake. The shaking increased, cracking several plates of glass that were along the balcony doors. The noise then peaked above them. The regal sisters quickly looked up to see a massive black object soar through the air right over the castle, with two beams of light pointing forward from the front of it. The object itself could best be described as a gigantic, flying seal. The numbers "01" were painted on its side. Two glowing discs were seen on its behind, near its tail as it flew over the rest of Canterlot and off towards Equestria's southeast. The sound coming off of the object died down as it flew off, and a new sound took its place in Canterlot... the sound of every resident in the city waking up in a fright. For the first time since Discord's reawakening almost a year ago, Celestia was beside herself. "What WAS that!?" "Sister, is this some sort of joke of yours?" "Luna, I have had no hoof in this. I have no idea what that thing was." Celestia trotted up to the railing and looked below to the rest of the castle. Lights started blinking on in the windows of homes throughout the city. Ponies of all sorts were running out into the streets and bumping into each other in a mad panic. Guards in the courtyard were running from building to building, waking any troops that might have slept through the ruckus that just shook Canterlot to the foundation. Celestia sighed, "Oh, where is Shining Armor? He needs to get his flank up here right now, and take charge. " Meanwhile, Luna was piecing together the puzzle of just what that object was. "Wait... Tia, wait!" Celestia turned from the balcony back to the inside of the room, "Luna, what is it?" "It must be another one of those things that landed in the Badlands! It wasn't a meteor or anything like that... it could have been a ship!" "Luna... No. No, you're not." "Oh yes, I am. Who is the one that watches over the night? And what just happened to enter Equestria's borders unannounced? This falls under my jurisdiction!" "'Jurisdiction'? Luna, who knows what that was! I will not allow you to-" "Your Highness!" Shining Armor practically busted down the large double doors that led into the room. His armor was thrown on in haste, as his helmet appeared lopsided atop his head. He stumbled over himself for a few seconds before recollecting himself and getting into an attentive position and saluting, "Uh, Captain Shining Armor reporting for duty, ma'am." "Shining Armor, what I need right now is the Royal Guard to stop running around like crazed chickens. Get on that, then await my next order. Right now, crowd control is top priority." "Understood, your highness... um, any clue on what that thing was?" "None. Luna seems to think that it was a ship but- wait..." she looked around the room and back to the balcony. Shining raised an eyebrow. "Where is Luna?" "HOO-WEE! That was a close one! Y'all having fun back there, flying Parker Airlines?" "What the fuck was that, Goose One?" said the Colonel in his gruffest, "serious" voice yet. "Baseplate, I'm just following standard procedure, here. Maybe if you got us into a better landing pattern before initiating the drop, I wouldn't be almost crashing into any mountainside castles now, would I?" "Goose One, just get to the Alhambra without scaring the shit out of any more locals." "Hehe, I'll try my best, Baseplate." "I mean it, Parker. Mathers, if he pulls something like that again, you can shoot him." The Captain cradles his head in his hand, rubbing his forehead and chuckling at the Colonel's distress. "Oh, understood Baseplate. Hotel out." "Scratch! Claw!" Two snoring bat pegasi were suddenly awoken from their sleeping in by their princess. They were napping next to Luna's chariot in the castle's pegasi outlook, where they are not only her personal chauffeurs, but her personal guard as well. "What are you two doing? Didn't you hear the object that flew over Canterlot?" The one with a scar over his left eye took a hoof and wiped away the sleepiness from it, "Guh... your highness?" "Scratch, surely you didn't sleep through it." "Sleep through what, ma'am?" Luna groaned, and then gave the second guard a poke to the gut. "Uuh, just five more minutes, mom..." "'Mom?' Claw, your services are required. Get. Up." "Mom, I dun wanna go to school today..." Scratch was about to try and get Claw up himself, but as he saw Luna take a deep breath, he instead backed off and covered his ears. "Oh boy, here we go-" "CLAW. YOUR PRINCESS ORDERS YOU TO GET UP." Claw immediately sprung up, his armor about to pop right off of his shocked body. He hated it whenever Luna used the Canterlot Voice, because it normally meant that he screwed up in some way, shape or form. "YOW! Ma'am, yes ma'am! Just tell us where to go, ma'am!" Scratch said shakily. "That's better. You two should really get an alarm clock. Such wonderful devices, they are." "Noted, ma'am." Scratch hooked himself up the chariot as Claw took his place on his right, "Where to, your highness?" Luna grabbed her hooded cloak from a rack along the wall and got on the back of the chariot, "To the south. We have something rather, um... extraterrestrial to investigate." "Mmf... uhh... huh?" Twilight stirred under her bed sheets. The storm outside had been both something that lulled her to sleep, and something that awoke her several times throughout the evening. This time, an oddity of a sound in the middle of the storm got her attention. She got up from her warm bed and approached the doors to her balcony. She peered through the sheets of rain that were dousing Ponyville, to quickly get a glimpse of a fast moving object that was quite literally out of this world. "... I knew it." The object moved through the storm into the territory of the Everfree before it was out of Twilight's sight, getting lost in between the sheets of rainfall and the thick storm clouds. Twilight quickly went over to her roll top desk on the other side of the room, lit a candle, grabbed a quill and pad of paper, and initiated a spell that she was saving for just an occasion... A memory-to-paper sketch spell. "Now that's some gnarly bush down there." The Captain went back to his row of screens and looked at one of them. It was the screen showing the ship's front camera view of the dense forest below. "Yeah, I see it here, Parker. Please do your best to ensure that we don't end up anywhere near it." "Sure thing, Cap." "Hotel 1-1, we have a quick weather update for you. That storm you're flying through just reached the valley where the Alhambra is. Hope you all packed the umbrellas." Various groans could be heard throughout the cabin. I didn't mind, I actually like the rain. "We're coming up on the valley," said Parker, "Keep your eyes peeled, Captain, I am locked onto the Alhambra's beacon." The lush green of the forest faded from view on the screen, and was replaced by the brown of rocky terrain. The camera panned around and then locked onto a figure in the far corner of the valley. As the dropship went in closer, the unmistakable outline of an original Weyland-brand FTL ship came into view. "Now that's a model I haven't seen in a long time," said the Captain, "Baseplate, that is one of the original Weyland Faster-Than-Light ships, correct?" "You're correct, Captain," squawked the Colonel over the radio, "the USCSS Alhambra, originally commissioned in May of 2100, by Weyland Corp. Only ten other models like her were commissioned, including the originator of the class: the USCSS Prometheus." "Wait, sir, 'Prometheus'? THE Prometheus?" "Right again, Captain. The Alhambra spent most of her years as an administration vessel. Then, at around the year 2150 I believe, she was originally going to be decommissioned. However, the colonization of Thedeus changed all that. She was stripped, retrofitted, upgraded with some newer FTL engines, and stocked with the latest in mining utilities. Weyland-Yutani successfully gave her another thirty years of shelf life." "Let me guess, sir... cost-cutting?" "Desperate times called for desperate measures, Captain Mathers. The great mines of Thedeus weren't carved out in a day." The Marine next to me, who I learned goes by the name of Barry Rashaad, asked his friend across from him, who I gathered was named Joseph Brewster, about the Prometheus. "Nah, never heard about it before, man. Probably just another fancy Wey-Yu expedition." "You guys never heard about the Prometheus?" I interrupt. "No... what about it?" inquires Barry. "It was the last thing that good ol' Peter Weyland was a part of. He died during its last voyage." The two sat in silence, expecting me to continue. "The stories say that about a hundred years ago, he funded some expedition to a planet out beyond the range of what the frontier was at the time. He apparently had some scientists that knew where some aliens lived that visited Earth way back in the stone age or something. Once they got there, they got their aliens alright. They apparently killed the crew and Weyland himself." "Jesus," gasped Joseph. "Yeah. There was also a rumor attached to that, that one of the scientists and even their synthetic somehow survived, and they're still stuck on the planet. I dunno, that part's all fuzzy. It's all hear-say, anyway, so I wouldn't sweat it." "Sounds like fun to me," chuckled Barry, "I'd like to see these aliens try that on me!" A couple other Marines in the cabin cheered, and he gave Joseph a fist bump. "None of the uglies are expecting some ten-millimeter slugs heading their way!" The Captain ignored the cheering and continued observing the outside of the Alhambra from the view screens. The dropship was circling around the ship, doing a once-over on the status of the outer hull. "Hull looks stable, Captain," said Parker, "But there aren't any running lights. Or any visible lights at all to speak of." "Yeah, hopefully the core isn't shut down. Okay Parker, go ahead and land when ready, then provide air cover. Allen, get ready to roll." "Yes sir," said Parker. "On it, sir!" yelled Allen. "Alright Marines, gear up and get hot! Get ready to de-board!" The crossbars unlocked with a loud click and we all proceeded to stand, grabbing onto a grip bar along the roof of the APC. The dropship panned around before the moaning of the landing skids lowering was heard. The APC's engine was revving up, the smell of burning gas permeated the cabin. Then, the grinding of the ramp returned. Suddenly, there was a KLUNK noise as everything seemed to stop moving about. "Down and clear!" yelled Parker over the radio. The APC then jerked forward, all of us in the cabin holding on tight as the APC jumped out of the dropship and into the rocky valley. We were finally on LV-1349. "Ten seconds, Marines! Look sharp!" barked the captain. We grabbed our weapons. The sound of some charging handles being pulled and slides locking back echoed as I grabbed my shotgun. I extended the folding stock, and pulled back on the slide on the right side, triple-checking to see if I had loaded it already. Inside the chamber, I saw the red plastic of the shell and the quick gleam of light reflecting off of the brass. I closed the slide and threw the sling across my body. I was cocked, locked and ready to rock. "I want a nice and clean dispersal. Remember your training." The APC's breaks squealed as it came to a stop. Martz was at the door, and pulled it open. "Let's go! Move it out!" Martz led the pack as we filtered out of the APC. Stepping out, I was greeted by the smell of fresh, wet Earth. The rain pattered on my helmet as we formed up into our two squads. Looking around, on our sides was the wide open valley. Behind us was a distant slope leading up and out of the valley. In front of us was the main cargo bay door of the Alhambra, numerous cargo containers and several mining buggies littering the perimeter of the ship. The dropship set us down practically right in front of it. "First squad, up on line! Steedman, you're up, soldier!" I took point ahead of the rest. The company fanned out into a half-circle, facing out towards the valley. The APC driver, Dan Allen, was the last out as he grabbed the Smartgun that was mounted right next to the APC door. I got out my ComTech Hacking tool and approached the keypad on the right of the large bay doors. I unhinged the top and pulled down on the front, revealing the wires leading to the buttons on the keypad. I clipped on the two leads and waited for the tool to show a signal. Normally, an LED would light up on the front showing that there was power. No LEDs were lighting up. "What's the deal, Steedman?" "Sir, there's no power. I'm going to try and jumpstart the servo control." "No power at all?" "No sir." I heard the Captain sigh and curse. I understood his feelings. If the doors aren't even powered in the slightest, that means that the ship's core was shut down. That just made our job about five times harder. Using the tool, I clipped one lead onto a main line cord. I scrolled down the buttons on the tool, and pressed a red button with a yellow lightning bolt on it. The tool whined not unlike a set of chest paddles, and then a thump sounded off in the back of the keypad. I immediately took that other lead, clipped it back onto the keypad, and quickly bypassed the security. A chime then sounded off from both the tool and the keypad as the doors started to groan open. "Good job Steedman. First squad, take point. Second squad, move up." The large bay doors finally opened and we took point inside. I reached back and switched on my shoulder lamp, providing some much needed illumination since the overhead lights were not working. "Ah, feet dry," stated Martz as he walked past. Allen stomped right behind him. "Oorah, Steve, "he responded. "Knock it off... oh, h-holy shit," the Captain stuttered. As we gazed upon the cargo bay, we knew why. Inside the bay, were dozens of massive ore hoppers, each about the size of a cargo container. Each one was overflowing with gemstones of various sizes and colors. Barry was at a loss for words. Joseph was having a hard time containing himself. "Dude, Captain... there must be trillions of dollars worth of gems in here. Wey-Yu was right to drill this rock... this planet is a gold mine." First squad, along with myself, began walking through the rows of containers, picking up and observing some of the gemstones that have fallen out of the overloaded hoppers. My boot knocked against something on the ground. I looked down and nearly lost my breath. Just sitting there, was a brilliant blue sapphire the size of my fist. "Hey Joseph, one of these containers could buy a pretty nice summer home on Mars now, could it?" I reach down and pick up the sapphire. I turn it around in my grip, the light of my shoulder lamp reflecting off of it and illuminating the walls of the hoppers next to me in a blue shade. It's damn near perfect for being uncut. Are all of the stones like this? If that's the case, Weyland has got themselves a real boon here. "Barry, man, you could probably buy a thousand acres of land on Mars with one of these. Hell, you'll have more than enough to build a mansion with what's left over." "Alright, cut the chatter!" I quickly pocket the sapphire in one of the extraneous pouches on my belt. "Hey, I want to get something out of this beyond regular pay!" "Nobody touch nothing! Steedman, get over here and check out the door to the rest of the ship." I double time it to the right of the bay where the pressure door to the heart of the ship is. Second squad stacked up behind us at the door. I give the door the once-over, and turn to the captain. "Sir, I don't think bypassing it will do any good." "Why's that, Corporal?" With both hands, I grasp the side of the sliding door and put up my right foot on the door jamb for leverage. I then pull with some force, and the door slides open with just a whisper. "If the core is shut down, then the internal locks are all turned off. Standard safety procedures." " Alright, in that case let's get to the bridge. See if we can turn this baby over." We proceed into the ship. The air is somewhat stale, with a lingering, foreign stench that isn't strong, but is there just enough to tell you that there's something amiss. Inside, the only illumination beyond our shoulder lamps is the emergency running lights that periodically light up, showing where the walkways are. These always turn on when a ship's core is shut down. "I want motion trackers out. I don't want to run into any uninvited guests in here." The ship is like a tomb. The only sound to be heard is the footsteps of our boots, and the sharp thumping of the motion trackers sending out their ultrasound pulses. We make our way through the living quarters, the beige walls and the matching tables in the galley flank us on both sides. As we get to the double doors leading to the bridge, Barry and Joseph grab each door, and then pull at the same time revealing the bridge to the rest of the squad. Like the rest of the ship, the bridge was deserted. Rain was seen trailing down the cockpit glass as the storm continued its business outside. The squad fanned out, some walking up to the edge of the cockpit to gaze out upon the rain soaked valley. The Captain looked over the pilot's seat, and then back against the far wall control panels. "Brewster, see if you can get anything up and running. Baseplate, this is Hotel 1-1. We're at the bridge. Advise, over." The Colonel responds, his voice being filtered through numerous waves of static. "Hotel 1-1, glad to see -- made it. Is the Al--bra's core compl-- offline?" This is weird. Normally the shortwave signals are strong enough at this range from the APC. Why is the reception so weak? We turn to Joseph who had been hunched over one of the control consoles, typing away furiously. He then faces us, and nods his head with a frown. "Yes sir, it is," continued the Captain, "Why would they shut down the entire core? That doesn't make any sense." "Don't worry abo-- the 'why' --ght now," says the Colonel, "They're offline, so that means we need to s-- down the e--neers, and we can't because we have our own problems up he-- at the moment." "What problem is that, sir?" "Remember those --ported vibrations we recorded up here ri--t before your drop?" "Yes?" "It turns out that those --brations were the servos in drop stations two and four giving up the ghost. We have crews --king to repair them, but since they're o-- of commission, we cannot launch the second dropship until they are rep--red." Both squads, including Barry, Joseph and Martz groaned at this news. "Are you serious, bro?" exclaimed Martz. "Great," sighed the Captain, taking his helmet off and rubbing the buzz cut fuzz on his head, "Now we gotta wait around in this dead tin can for a couple of hours. Set up a perimeter, and hunker down, I guess." Sighing, I reach behind my chest piece to my BDUs, feeling around for my left breast pocket. I find it and pull out the pack of Marleys I grabbed from my locker. I pull out a stick and pocket the rest into one of my numerous pouches on my belt. I bring it up to my nose and inhale, taking in the scent of sweet, sticky bud. Putting one end in my mouth, I reach down to my belt and feel around for my lighter. "Was it in the spare radio pouch? No, that's where I'm keeping that mother of a jewel. Was it in this one on my right? No, that's where I have my M40 grenades. Shit, did I really forget it back on the Constaguana? Maybe I can borrow the pilot flame from one of these guys' M240. It's not they're using it-" "Sir, I've got something."