Chapter 1: Going Down Hard
The rush of air eventually stopped, the entire dropship was depressurized. The poor bastards who were outside either got whisked off into space or suffocated. He wasn’t sure who had it worse off.
“Anyone else alright?” Ethan asked.
“Ethan, I’m fine, but I can’t say the situations any better we’re lost in space now. Atlantis must have partially jumped when it got destroyed. We’re stuck out here.” Planners said, “I’m locked up in the command room. It’s air tight.”
“Alex here, I’ve got Nick’s Rommel Tank with me. I hope that hatch was secured, else he’s got no air.”
“I’m fine. I’m fine. Now we get to suffocate from what I can tell.” Nick said.
“Actually maybe not.” Planners said, “Habitable planet in range.”
“We might have a chance after all. You guys seeing what I’m seeing?”
“What was plan B?”
Ethan couldn’t tell who was talking anymore, it was all just voices now. He only cared about getting his feet on the ground again. No matter how many g’s that planet had it would be better than nothing. Loose items in his cabin were in his way, floating in front of his HUD, and his helmet.
“I trying to find my pistol, but I can’t because all my shit is floating around in my damn ‘Mech.”
From where Planners was looking they were slowly drifting towards a planet it had a single moon, hopefully they wouldn’t get caught in the moon’s gravity. Even then, they could probably make orbit on the moon, if they could fix the engines. Ethan’s reactor temperature spiked for some reason. He wasn’t sure why. Hopefully the VTOL’s could make it down alright.
“Ethan, the dropship isn’t going to survive reentry not with the hangar doors gone. Get out of here!”
“You heard the lady, prepare for hotdrop.” Ethan’s ‘Mech was detached from the bulkhead that it was fastened too. They had entered low orbit at supersonic speed, they already had enough gravity to walk their ‘Mechs out. Ethan piloted his ‘Mech out of the hanger taking that set that lead to nothing as the dropjets engaged for a split second to stop the ‘Mech from tumbling forwards then shut off again.
Looking down on a planet was an exhilarating experience, but when the ball of fire that was the dropship went over head grabbed Ethan’s attention rather staring at the ground that was at least 20 Kilometres down.
“What the hell is she doing?” Someone called, it was a female voice.
“The Cascade is accelerating, Planners must be taking the dropship in manually. Is she crazy?”
“Falling out of.... rad... ontact. Something’s mess... the sig...l.”
“Radiation spike screwing up the radio! Don’t fire your dropjets too early or you’ll smash into the ground!” Ethan yelled into his headset. Hopefully everyone heard him.
Ethan’s instruments had gone dark, he still had manual but he wasn’t sure how many g’s the planet had. He assumed more than Terra, so he’d fire at 550 metres from the ground. His ‘Mech had jumpjets, so it was nothing to worry about.
A ‘Mech was an elegant machine, despite it’s intended purpose. Rugged, tough, and very intimidating. They could fall from nearly any height so long as they didn’t hit the ground too hard. The leg assembly on the Uziel gave it almost a bird like appearance, it was fast and the centre of gravity was fairly low for a ‘Mech of it’s weight; 50 metric tonnes of ferro-fibrous reflective armour including weapons and ammunition. The pilot was safe from deadly forms of radiation, but the falling paper weight burning through the atmosphere heated up the cockpit very quickly. Inside the cockpit the built in cooling system was fighting a losing battle as Ethan tried to keep his ‘Mech upright. Even the cooling pumps that attached to the pilot uniform some Mechwarriors wore did little to help the convection oven of a cockpit. Some of Ethan’s instruments had came back online, including the altimeter, and accelerometer which showed him accelerating at about 10 metres per second squared.
“If you guys can hear me, assume 1.0 g’s.”
“....Oger”
Ethan thought it was Elizabeth, but he couldn’t tell, too much static. They had drifted fairly far apart in space, as they had vacated the dropship at different times. Ethan was just thankful that they hadn’t been obliterated by the collapsing hyperspace field, not to count they just so happened to emerge part way through the hyperjump at a habitable planet. They got lucky, no other word could describe their chance. They could have been ripped apart in the hyperspace field, maybe an 80% chance of that, got stuck in space and died for whatever reason (suicide, suffocation, starvation, ramming into something, swiss-cheesed by high velocity particles, or torn apart by grav-distortions from the jump, maybe another 50% chance of any of those.
The Altimeter kept counting down, 1700 meters... 1400 meters... 900 meters. Eventually it passed 550 meters from the ground and Ethan fired the dropjets, which attached to the ‘Mech’s limbs and torso. The counter-acceleration shook the ‘Mech violently as it slowed down. 200 Meters from the ground, it was still descending faster than he would have liked. Ethan couldn’t fire the jumpjets quick enough as the ‘Mech slammed into the ground, throwing him forward and smashing his head on the consoles in front of him, knocking him out.
---
It was night out and Twilight had been practicing her set of spells, it was a quiet Friday, and nothing interesting had happened as of late. Twilight was left bored having only her quickly diminishing gold mine of reading material to go through. She had almost gone through her entire library.
“Hey Spike, find any books I haven’t read yet? I don’t care if it’s repeat material.” Twilight asked.
“Not yet, but I’ll keep searching.” Spike said.
Owlicious hooted, “Whoo.”
“You think you got one there?” Asked Spike, “Well lets see it.”
Owlicious had pulled out a book, Spike recognized it. Twilight had read it before he had shown up.
“Sorry, she already read that book.”
“Whoo....”
“I’ll gladly read it again... Just not right now.” Twilight said, magiking the book onto a side table that had a tower of books building on it.
Spike was about to start searching another shelf. Twilight needed to stop reading as many books as she did. Equestria might run out of literature for her to read at this rate.
The crowd outside, which were normally fairly quiet, even on a Friday where it was bit-you-call-its at Berry Punch’s cafe/pub, were a lot louder than normal. Twilight’s curiosity got the best of her, going outside and looking up in the sky. A harvest moon had been out, but that’s not what everypony had been looking at, to the left of the moon was a light, to far out to be a meteorite, too close to be a star. When it suddenly exploded, and fizzled out before it exploded again, left the crowd baffled wondering what was going on.
Spike had come out to see what was going only, only to be as confused as the rest of the crowd, Owlicious landed on his head.
“Umm do you mind fillin’ me in here, Twi?” Spike asked.
“Spike, fetch me that book on astrological and celestial occurrences and events.” Twilight said.
Spike zoomed off backwards into the house so quickly Owlicious had been left in midair when he dashed away, forcing him to take flight and land on twilight, careful not to dig his talons into her fur. Spike’s scales protected him and allowed Owlicious to get a firm grip so he could land and not fall off.
“Whoo.”
“My thoughts exactly Owlicious.” Twilight said.
Spike returned with the book, Twilight levitated it in front of her face scanning the table of contents and turning to a page.
Unexplained Astrological Occurrences, Jump Nova.
This strange anomaly has only been observed twice, in recorded history. The first of which was in 1101, exactly one hundred and one years after the banishment of Nightmare Moon. The second of which was recorded in 1701, seven hundred and one years after the banishment of Nightmare Moon. Strangely enough both were on the anniversary date, now more commonly known as the Summer Sunset holiday or celebration.
The dates are clearly not a coincidence, however, this anomaly is normally associated with bad luck and misfortune. As terrible events have happened shortly after the Jump Nova is observed. Folklore implies that it is a warning and reminder of Nightmare Moon’s continued exile, and the unfortunate ‘accidents’ are in some way caused by her.
Note: Most information on this anomaly, other than dates, are purely speculation or 2nd hand information. The validity of the information here is second rate at best. - Author and Researcher
Subnote: For further information, please read ‘Lucky Card’s A Guide to Luck, or Bad Luck.’
“Huh, do you think Princess Luna can shed some light on this? Well that might be poorly worded but whatever.” Spike suggested.
It had been about a year since Twilight and her friends had harnessed the power of the Elements of Harmony.
“Spike, get me that other book it mentions. I don’t think I’ve read that, it didn’t interest me, for obvious reasons.”
Owlicious had beat Spike into the house this time, and had returned with it. Spike sulking and feeling useless.
“Don’t be so down, Owlicious can’t right letters to the Princess.” Twilight said.
Spike looked up at Twilight, a smile restored on his face, but he clearly didn’t get the hint.
“Umm... hint hint...”
“Oh sorry!”
Spike pulled a piece of parchment and quill out of nowhere, ready to scribe for Twilight.
“Wait, how did you do that?”
“Pinkie showed me how to do it. Took a ton of tries though.”
Twilight rolled her eyes, Pinkie could be hard enough to interpret even without all the ‘how did she do that’ stuff. Now Spike could access an unlimited supply of parchment paper and quills that had ink on them already.
“Alright.” Twilight cleared her throat, “Dear Princess Luna. I have a few questions for you. Surely you have in your free time caught up in recent advances and new things that hadn’t been around when you were first... exiled. Hopefully you have read or at least heard about the occurrence of what ‘Jump Nova’ in Astrological and Celestial Occurrences and Events. I have just witnessed what is described here and request that you please fill in the lack of information in the book. According to Lucky Card’s A Guide to Luck or Bad Luck... it says that.”
Jump Nova’s, what are they?
To be honest I’m not entirely sure what these are. I’ve only heard about them, but clearly these are bad omens. Shortly after such an event happened, and apparently only two have ever been recorded, whether more has happened is up to speculation. The events following this observation of a Jump Nova have been catastrophic. 1101, a large mass of land hundreds of kilometers in diameter was blasted with power so extreme that it is now uncontrollable. The area was a very prosperous and wealthy country which is now still home to ruins of the once great cities and ponies of Everfree. We now refer to this place as the Everfree Forest, which has uncontrollable amounts of magic that flow through even today. Any attempt at controlling the power has been unsuccessful.
In 1701, the Zebra Republic underwent a brutal civil war that broke the great country in half. Why the war started is a mystery, however it’s notable that the war started shortly after (within a matter of weeks) of another sighting of a Jump Nova. Apparently over an argument if they were white with black stripes, or black with white stripes. (Personally it doesn’t matter, as it nets grey anyway)
The resulting war broke the Zebra Republic in half. Although collateral damage was kept to a minimum, the Loyalists and Separatists still retain their high tension towards each other. For more information, find a history book related on the subject.
“This looks like a really bad sign Twilight.” Spike said.
“I don’t generally believe in omens, but the correlation between the events is compelling at best.” Twilight said, “Spike, I also need to write a letter to Princess Celestia.”
“Okay, so it the letter to Princess Luna finished?” Spike asked.
“Sign my name, your name and the date at the bottom.”
“Done.”
“Good to go!”
Spike sent it off to Princess Luna, his breath was blue instead of green, it’s was an ability for him so he could recognize who had sent it if they got a return response.
“Next letter, to Celestia? I’m ready.” Spike said, who had already got another piece of parchment out of no where.
“Ehem....” Twilight cleared her throat again, “Dear Princess Celestia: I have just witnessed the event known as a Jump Nova. As has most of the populus here in Ponyville. I request clarification on the matter, if you have any information my books don’t. Additionally, from what I have read leaves me worried that this may be a sign of ‘bad things to come’. I have already written to your sister, Princess Luna, on the matter.”
“Name and date signed. We good to go?”
“Yep.”
Spike sent it off with green breath this time, to Princess Celestia.
“Now what?”
“No sense standing out here. Lets go inside, I’m getting cold.”
Not two seconds after the pair stepped inside, Spike got a letter back from Princess Celestia. Spike started to read it.
Twilight, thank you for bringing this to my attention. However I must reassure you that what you just saw and the events supposedly related I have assumed to coincidental. However, I will look into it. Please do not stress yourself on the matter, I have an assignment for you and it will require your full attention. As for your assignment, more details will come soon.
Celestia
“See there’s nothing to worry about, Twilight.”
“I hope you, and the Princess is right. However! The Princess has an assignment for me, and I will not fail. I have some studying to do”
Twilight returned to library and Spike followed her in, closing the door and accidently leaving Owlicious outside.
“Whoo!”
Owlicious looked for another way in, but all the windows were closed. The noise in the streets were overpowering his attempts to get Twilight or Spike’s attention. Annoyed, Owlicious flew off. It hadn’t been the first time they had left him outside before, but it looked like the night-shift pegasi controlling the weather were mounting up for a rainy night, as they had already blocked out the moon. He had been living indoors too long and had gotten fairly oblivious to living outside.
Owlicious had traversed the entirety of Ponyville in just a few minutes. He had an idea of where to go, Fluttershy was always home. Owlicious was nearly there when it had started to rain. His wings quickly became soaked which made it hard to keep flying. By the time he landed on Fluttershy’s window sill he was completely drenched from the rain.
Looking in the window, it looked like Fluttershy was supervising the Cutie Mark Crusaders again. They were all in her bedroom, playing a boardgame. Tapping on the window repeatedly with his beak.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Fluttershy immediately heard it, looking over seeing the barn owl outside her window, cold and wet. She rushed over and opened the windows for him, pulling him inside, and closing it before too much rain got through the window.
“Whoo!”
“Oh Owlicious, I’m so sorry. How long were you there for?” Fluttershy said.
“Woot.”
“Twilight leave you outside again?”
“Whoo.” Owlicious said, ruffling his feathers in an attempt to get the water out of them. He only succeeded in spraying the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“Hey do you mind?” Scootaloo pipped.
“He got my paper all wet.” Sweetie Belle said, as she had been tracing something out.
“Now girls be fair. He was outside in the rain.” Fluttershy said, “Sometimes I wonder why Twilight even bothers with a pet. This is the fourth time this month she’s forgotten about you.”
“Whoo, wooo.”
Fluttershy got a towel and did her best to dry Owlicious, trying to avoid pulling any of his feathers out by accident. The winds outside picked up and the whistling sounded almost like he did. The group of fillies would have fun for a few more hours. It wasn’t late yet, only 10:00 o’clock. When the clock past 2:00 Fluttershy put an end to it.
“Girls it’s getting late. I think it’s time for bed.”
“Awwww.” All three of the Crusaders said in unison.
“No arguments. I don’t want a repeat of last time. Owlicious you can sleep downstairs. They get my bed. If Angel gives you any trouble let me know.”
Even though he was nocturnal, he was completely worn out from his flight in the rain. At the mention of what happened the last time, the Crusaders complied. Best stop before something bad happens.
Owlicious flew down stairs, and surely enough Angel started with an assortment of problems. Angel jumped at Owlicious right after he threw a carrot at him, Fluttershy intervened.
“Angel. That’s quite enough. Um, if you don’t mind.” She said.
Fluttershy had just put the Crusaders to bed, and dealt with Angel harassing Owlicious. She jumped up on her couch. Owlicious had taken refuge on a coat rack and put a wing over his face to go to sleep. All the lights in the house were out, and Angel had been ‘persuaded’ by Fluttershy to settle down, she stared at him.
Upstairs, Scootaloo was in bed, next to the other Crusaders. Unlike them however, she never slept well. She lay there for hours, drifting in and out of slumber. She had been on the side where Fluttershy’s alarm clock was. It had glow in the dark hands on it so she could kinda tell what time it was. It was around 4:30 in the morning when the house shook ever so slightly. Like a thump in the distance that you felt through the floorboards. It had snapped Scootaloo out of her trance. At first she was confused, that maybe Angel had been downstairs and had pushed something over. Then it happened again, but it didn’t feel like it was coming from inside the house. Scootaloo sat up, the wind has died down a bit, but it was still raining, and the occasion strike of lightning lit of the sky, but it was too far away to make any serious noise.
Thump.
Scootaloo was curious, she slowly got out of the bed. Careful not to wake up the crusaders and/or alert Fluttershy.
Thump.
Moving over to the window, looking outside showed that the rain had reverted to a mere drizzle. It was only a lightning storm now.
Thump.
As she looked out the window, the sound of trees moving and creaking could be heard. But there was no wind to do it, Scootaloo couldn’t tell but it was fairly far away maybe 100 metres.
Thump, thump.
It was getting closer, not being able to see anything, whatever it was must have been in the Everfree. A strike of lightning lit of the sky for a moment, enough for Scootaloo to see the tree tops moving in the distance.
Thump, thump, thump.
A creak from downstairs got Scootaloo’s attention for a moment, looking away incase Fluttershy had woke up. She turned back to the window, whatever it was finally broke the treeline. But it was so far in the distance, and it was so dark out she couldn’t tell what it was. It was about 100 metres away from her, her heart began to beat faster. But the noise was so quiet it was still at the edge of hearing.
Thump, thump, thump, thump. Vvvvrrrr, hmmmmm.
Lightning struck behind the cottage, opposite side of where Scootaloo was looking. It lit up the entire field for just a split second. A split second, a single fraction of a second is all it took for Scootaloo to see the most terrifying sight in her entire life.
For that quick moment, a single fraction of a second Scootaloo saw the biggest creature she had ever seen. It was out of the Everfree, 100 metres away maybe more. It stood stories tall and walked on two massive legs and it was staring right at her. Scootaloo repressed the urge to scream. This monster was nothing of like she had ever seen or heard about. She bit her lip to stop herself from screaming, so hard it started to bleed. Another lightning flash and it lit up again, the monster's upper body turned around almost 180 degrees without moving it's legs at all.
Vrrzzzs, thump, thump, thump... thump... thump... ... ... ... thump ... ... ... ... ... ... ... thump
Another lightning strike and it was gone. As it it had never been there. Scootaloo found herself back in bed, confused. She had blanked out.
“Whaa?” She thought to herself. “Was it a dream?”
Sweetie Belle who was sleeping beside her stirred a little bit, and Scootaloo convinced herself it was just a dream. She lay there for the rest of the night, sort of asleep, sort of awake.
The next morning, Scootaloo had been the last to wake up, or so she assumed when she found the bed vacant of Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. It was 9:00 AM. Heading downstairs, Fluttershy had prepared breakfast. Scootaloo sat at the table. She got confused when Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle started looking at her funny.
“What are you guys lookin’ at?” Scootaloo asked.
Fluttershy had came over, put a full plate in front of her then stopped cold. “Oh Scootaloo are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. What are you talking about?”
“What did you do to your chin?” Apple Bloom asked.
“I didn’t do anything to it.” Scootaloo said.
“Yes you did.” Sweetie Belle said.
Fluttershy took one of the mirror’s she had in the kitchen down, passing it to Scootaloo she looked into it. She was shocked to the core when she found it covered in dried blood, and her lower lip scabbed over. Scootaloo immediately dropped the mirror as the realization hit her. The sound of the mirror breaking on contact with the floor didn’t even register with her. She fell out of the chair.
Sweetie Belle couldn’t tell what she was saying, Apple Bloom instantly panicked.
“What’s wrong with her!?” Apple Bloom shouted.
“She’s in shock.” Fluttershy said, keeping her calm. "What could have caused this? Does she not like the sight of blood?”
“She doesn’t really like it that much. But she’s never freaked out this badly before.” Sweetie Belle cried. She wasn’t as worried as Apple Bloom simply because she had seen her sister, Rarity, breakdown a few times.
Fluttershy tried multiple ways to get her to calm down, but her mumbles became shouts as she started to drool.
“I’m so soo sorry for this Scootaloo.” Fluttershy said as she gave her a good smack across the face.
Fortunately it worked, Scootaloo instantly snapped out of it. “Ow. Who hit me?” She said as she rubbed the side of her face.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle pointed at Fluttershy who was very red in the face.
“I’m... sorry. I didn’t want to. But you weren’t responding to anything else and... and.” Fluttershy said as she tried not to cry over what she did. At least it worked.
“It’s okay. Not the first time I’ve been hit in the face.” Scootaloo said, staring at Apple Bloom.
Fluttershy had tears in her eyes but fought them back. She went over to the sink and grabbed a damp cloth, then returned to Scootaloo.
“Look at me.” She said.
Scootaloo looked up at Fluttershy she was greeted with a damp cloth pressed heavily into her face. She shook her head around a bit because Fluttershy was pressing too hard. Apple Bloom was still sitting at the table, but Sweetie Belle had found a broom and a dust plan and swept up the broken glass from the mirror and thrown it in the garbage.
“What was that about?” Fluttershy asked.
Scootaloo didn’t want to talk about it, she tried to think of an excuse.
“I do not like blood.” She lied.
Fluttershy could tell that she was lying. Her tell was that she spoke formally.
“Well it’s alright now. Here eat something, you’ll feel a bit better.”
Scootaloo wolfed down her breakfast, it failed to make her feel any better. One of the windows in the kitchen looked out the same direction as the one upstairs. Curiosity was getting the best of her. There was one final confirmation that needed to be made.
“Feeling better now?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yes.” Scootaloo lied again, “I have to go do something...”
Scootaloo had her repaired CMC cape on the coat rack that Owlicious was still sleeping on. Taking the cape off shook the rack and woke Owlicious up. Which reminded Fluttershy that Owlicious needed to go back. Normally she’d just let him fly home, but it would get the girls out of the house and into something they possibly couldn’t get in trouble for doing.
“Oh, Girls.” Fluttershy said.
Sweetie Belle turned her attention to Fluttershy instantaneously, Apple Bloom was also going to get her cape. Scootaloo was putting hers on, it was the only thing that would comfort her at the moment.
“I have a mission for you.” Fluttershy said.
“Oh what is it? Time to do some crusading!” Sweetie Belle chirped.
“It’s not overly exciting, but can you escort Owlicious back to the Library. He’s needs to go home now.” Fluttershy said, she went over to the coat rack where Owlicious was still perched at, “If she forgets about you, just come on over.”
“Whoo.”
“Cutie Mark Crusaders, Pet escorts!” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle jumped on the opportunity, Scootaloo was clearly less enthusiastic about the matter. Both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked at her.
“.... Hooray.” She mumbled.
Fluttershy could tell something was bugging her considerably, since it was inhibiting her energy for Cutie Mark Crusades. Owlicious thought that riding with Scootaloo would be a smarter idea, she was clearly less energetic about the matter and maybe a bit less jumpy. He took off from his perch and landed on her back, he rubbed his head up against her as she was notably ‘out of it’. She returned the gesture with a slight smile. Sweetie Belle took off out the door, Apple Bloom hot on her hooves.
“C’mon Scootaloo lets go.” They both yelled back at her, as they had left the door ajar.
“You guys go ahead without me. I’ll be there soon!” Scootaloo yelled back, as she walked out the door and closed it behind her, “Owlicious, there’s something I have to check. Sorry.”
Scootaloo trotted off the beaten path in the direction of the Everfree, looking behind her she saw Fluttershy’s bedroom window, the point of where she had been looking through. Owlicious gave a hoot.
She thought she was getting close to the spot where she saw that ‘thing’ last night. She didn’t even realize it as she fell into a metre deep hole in the ground.
“Waaa!” Scootaloo screamed as her wings instinctively flew open and slowed her landing. Owlicious had taken off, but he was still just waking up so he couldn’t flap very well yet. He was out of shape for an owl, despite his book runs for Twilight.
Landing with an audible ‘Oof’ Scootaloo, all the water from yesterdays rain had filled in and it looked like the water had only recently drained, the ground was still extremely waterlogged. Squelching noises from her movement as she climbed out of the hole, except it wasn’t a hole. It was a large ring in the ground, when she actually bothered to look. Skirting around the outside, she finally realized.
That thing had turned around on the spot, leaving this huge ring in the ground. Paying attention to the Everfree, there was a gap in the trees, one just had to look for it. It must have been where that thing was walking, the vacant space was quickly being reclaimed by the forest. Scootaloo wasn’t stupid enough to follow, but there were some legitimate tracks not all stamped over one another. They were weird, each individual step had two pronged ends where she assumed toes would be, but it was symmetrical, prongs where on both sides, and a larger connection through the middle. The print itself was easily 2 meters long, maybe a bit less than half that wide. Reassuring herself that it had retreated into the Everfree was the only refuge.
“Hoot.”
“Huh?”
“Whoo... Hoot.”
“I don’t know, if I did I wouldn’t be worrying about it.”
“Hoot.”
“You weren’t even awake to see that.”
“Whoo.”
“Oh you heard what happened this morning? Well, I got a job to do. Oh and not a word to anypony. They’ll think I’m crazy.”
“Whoo.”
“Owlicious I’m serious. Pinkie Promise “
“... Whoo.”
“Thank you.”
Scootaloo set off, taking one last look back at the area, she shivered at the thought of that thing and picked up the pace.
---
“Hey where’s Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle realized she wasn’t with them finally.
“Huh? She was right behind us.” Apple Bloom said.
“I’ll bet she’s off doing whatever. She always gets distracted.”
“Didn’t she have Owlicious?”
“Yeah. So?”
“Well who’s gonna take him back?”
“He can fly. No worries. If he has to he’ll fly home.”
Passing the Library, the group was reduced to a duo. Not giving a second thought about Scootaloo, it wasn’t the first time she went missing for no reason.
---
Scootaloo finally made it to the library. Knocking on the door, she was met with Spike, which was unusual in that he normally slept in to un-celestial hours. He instantly noticed she had Owlicious with her.
“Found him Twilight!”
“Oh thank goodness.” She called from the back.
“Does she normally forget about him?” Scootaloo asked Spike.
“Oh yeah, she forgets about him all the time. I’m generally the one that looks after him.”
“Hoot!”
“I get that you can look after yourself. Still.”
“Hoot.”
“Yeah, fair enough.”
“What?” Scootaloo asked.
“He helped me with looking after Peewee. But that’s beside the case.”
Twilight showed up at the front door, Owlicious looked at her. He was clearly annoyed with her.
“Hoot.”
“Look I’m sorry alright. Nothing I can do about it.”
“Hoot!” Owlicious landed on Spike’s head.
Spike turned around and looked at Twilight, which had reversed the way Owlicious was looking, but he looked around with his head being able to turn it almost 180 degrees in either direction.
“Twilight, he has a fair point. You’d never forget about me, and he’s your number one assistant’s, assistant. I don’t forget about him.”
Twilight was getting annoyed, now both Spike and Owlicious were getting on her case. Scootaloo staring at them wasn’t helping.
“Scootaloo if you don’t need anything run along.” Twilight said.
“But I do need something.” She said.
“Spike, Owlicious inside. You can be mad at me later.”
“Hoot.”
“Hey, I didn’t say I was mad at you.” Spike said.
Twilight rolled her eyes, jerking her head in the direction of the door, “Inside. Both of you.”
Reluctantly Spike retreated into the tree library, Owlicious on his head. They were talking to each other, probably complaining about her.
“Alright, come on in. What book are you lookin’ for Scootaloo?” Twilight asked.
---
Casey’s hard landing had done a number on him. His entire body was in pain from the smackdown, which fairly accurate as one of the dropjets failed at the last moment, sending his ‘Mech plummeting the final 50 or so metres to the ground back first. Fortunately the force of the crash was distributed throughout the entirety of his Thor, which had a mostly flat back and legs, so no permanent damage was done. Getting the ‘Mech back on it’s feet would be the challenge though.
A ‘Mech was a very stable machine, gyroscopes doing their job to keep it from falling over from weapons fire, particularly gauss rifles and auto-cannons, and as Ethan had shown a few days earlier, other ‘Mechs when applied appropriately. However when a ‘Mech got knocked over, getting it back up was a demanding task to say the least, and it was extremely hard on the bearing joints on the ‘Mech itself. The best way to flip a ‘Mech over was to pull it back up via VTOL, but that wasn’t an option. The next best way was to get the front facing down and keep the legs facing up right, putting them as close into standing position as possible and then pulling the torso up. Scout ‘Mechs could do this easily, a heavy ‘Mech not so much.
Casey put the cannons on the arms into a flat position parallel to the ground and flipped the ‘Mech’s torso over, at one point having the entirety of the weight on the left shoulder. Following the rest of the procedure was easy enough and went fine, the gyroscopes pulled the near 14 metre tall ‘Mech into an upright position. It was night time out, Casey flicked the switch to turn on the flood lamps, they lit up the area in and around his ‘Mech. He had landed in a desert, sand going on for miles, with mesa’s and mountain ranges around him.
“Hey, is anyone else out there?” Casey spoke into his radio only to be replied with static.
Talking to himself, “Damn. Must be out of range.”
Doing a quick recap in his head Casey ran through what he knew. He was alone out in the middle of nowhere, no allies within radio range or not responding, and had no idea where to go. Ethan lectured him on how to react in this situation.
“Don’t alert anyone to your presence. That means no radio, no radar, and definitely no engaging hostile forces. Assume everything locally is hostile until proven otherwise. Remain as stealthy as possible and look for friendly forces to link up with.”
Switching his radar off the onboard computer chimed “Radar off, passive sensors engaged.” The moon was fairly low in the sky, but looked to be rising meaning it was fairly early in the night. It looked like his compass was working fine so he wouldn’t be wandering in circles aimlessly. As a ‘Mechwarrior he packed extra rations, so he was fine for food and water at least for a few days.
Choosing to go west towards the mountains in the area so he could get some elevation on the entire region Casey set off in his Thor. Locking the speed in at 50 kilometres an hour, the ‘Mech lurched forward the mountains were off in the distance, 200 kilometres away, maybe more. He wouldn’t be there until sun rise that was for sure.
To pass the time, Casey did a full diagnostic on his Thor. Two of the heat sinks in the ER Laser in the right Torso were damaged, and the loading mechanism for one of the LRM 10’s he was now sporting was jammed. The heat sinks could be replaced easily, but the loader for the LRM 10 might be a difficult to fix. He hoped the rest of the lance made it down alright, but they were now faced with a new problem. They had no jumpship to take them home; Planner’s had taken the dropship in manually, but Casey suspected it crashed and burned all the same. Their dropship wherever the hell Ashley had landed the thing didn’t even have cargo doors.
As time went on, the moon finally made it’s decent in the west, but it had fallen behind the mountain range that Casey was heading towards a few minutes before. 15 minutes later, the sun crept up on the east and the badlands was fully lit up. It just went on, in every direction to the horizon line, and logically further than that. He had covered a lot of ground, the mountain range had appeared to get significantly bigger.
By mid morning, Casey was at the foot of the mountain range. His Thor was baked in the sun, that was becoming more intense by the moment. This caused his reactor temperature to be slightly higher than normal. That would be a problem if he was forced into any engagements. Checking the relative heat dissipation, it was below where it normally would have been. Absolute heat efficiency in his Thor was around 70%, which meant that if the reactor spiked up 1000 kelvin over five seconds, 700 kelvin would cool down in the same time frame, as it stood, relative heat efficiency was around 60%, just because of the temperature wasteland he was in.
Climbing up the mountain proved difficult, Casey’s Thor didn’t have jumpjets, which made it difficult to move vertically on anything 55 degrees or greater on an upwards slope. The mountains were ragged, but the material they were made out of crumbled easily adding that much more difficulty trying to take a step up. Not that it actually mattered much, he had just fallen from space a few hours prior. Upon reaching the top, about a thousand metres up from ground level in that area, the new field of view only showed more limitless desert or badlands.
Casey sighed, the AC unit in his cabin and his coolant supported pilot suit were fighting a losing battle against the slightly above normal reactor temperature and local climate. Casey opened up the survival set to fetch water, he’d have to ration it, at least until he found somewhere to refill. Immediately after looking up from some water, he saw it in the distance.
A single puff of smoke, not much but something; he set a nav marker for it. He threw the water bottle aside, it landed somewhere he didn’t see where and eased the 70 metric tonne ‘Mech back down the cliff face. Going down was a lot easier said than done. The rock cracked and turned to dust under the enormous weight of the walking giant. On occasion, rocks would seemingly explode when jostled or pushed around, after an hour of travel, the sand made a gradual change to desert pavement, which crunched under the stress of being walked on by so much weight.
Casey’s Thor didn’t blend into well, he had the techs repaint it to his favourite colour scheme; a Steiner Arctic paint job without that damned Steiner logo. Most of the rocks the pavement was made out of had undergone desert varnish which turned the upside black. His Thor stood out like a sore thumb. At least the colour layout he chose didn’t absorb light and turn it to heat like black would have; that was the only positive thought he could draw out from his current situation. He had reached the approximate location of where he set his nav marker, the computer chimed ‘Nav point alpha reached.’
To his surprise hefound a railroad track, it wasn’t smoke he had seen, but steam. It went off in both directions, north and south off into the horizon. The sand around the track was hard, it had been compacted down by the repeated stress of trains passing over it, which meant that it was commonly used, or had been just recently built. This was worth mentioning to the others, if anyone was listening.
“Delta three, we’re not alone out here be on your guard. Does anyone read me?”
Actually, this was good news. They might actually have a chance of getting off this planet now. Though, steam engines? That was ancient technology, maybe they used them for tours or something. That tech was prehistoric era, they hadn’t been actively used by anyone for more than a 1100 years. Casey shook the logical thought out of his head, at least that meant they weren’t stuck on an uncharted world. He was over analyzing.
“*Sckkkkk* Casey? My god is that you? This is Echo one, I read you. It’s Price!”
“Holy shit! Sara. Thank Christ. I thought I would be stuck out here alone for weeks. Where you at?”
“My radio’s... ucked up and my ‘Mech is... tuck... but I made it down alright.”
“Where you at? I need some coordinates.”
“Transmitting now.”
According to the nav point that just appeared on his heads up display, she was 17 Kilometres north approximately. Which meant he was going to have to follow the tracks in that general direction.
“What did you mean we’re not alone out here?” Sara asked.
“I’ve found something that hints we’re not the only smart people out here.”
“You mean, the only smart person out here?” She cracked.
“Oh, har har. Anyways there’s railway tracks out here. I’m following them north. Towards you.”
“Hm. Alright. That’s good.... I think.”
“If not. Well, we’ve got enough ammunition to supply a small army. So we’re up for anything if this goes sour.” Casey reasoned. In reality he was just telling himself what he wanted to hear.
“Anyone else make it?” Sara asked.
“Not sure. But if you made it down, who's to say no one else did.”
“Copy.”
“Anything else you want to add ma’am?”
“Yes.”
“... Well?” Casey asked.
“Where the hell are we?”
“That’s a damn good question.”
Stranded on an unknown world was the least of their problems. MechWarriors were trained to survive out in the field for months. The problem was they couldn’t get off planet, and had no means of contacting anyone off world. Their radio packs weren’t strong enough to break through em interference out of atmosphere, which is why they lost contact on the way down.
Casey’s Thor trudged along side of the railway, the sand was a lot more compacted in around the tracks making it easier for the ‘Mech to walk. He also noticed that another line of track forked off and went north east, the line he followed kept heading north. He pushed the ‘Mech upto 50 kilometres per hour, which was as fast as his Thor would go before it got too rocky in the cockpit for Casey to keep his lunch down. The Thor did it’s best to keep itself level while going extremely quickly by taking longer strides. This only worked up to a certain point, Casey figured out that was about 55 kilometres an hour; though he could if he wanted to push the Thor right up into the low 70’s if he needed to.
Casey also noticed the reactor temperature was rising faster than it usually was at this speed, most likely because of the local climate. It was now almost noon, the sun beating down on Casey’s Thor, relative efficiency dropped even further, now just 55%. That was very terrible for a heavy class ‘Mech, that would be something you’d expect from an Assault ‘Mech with no heat sinks. Which reminded Casey. Lauren was out there somewhere in ‘Mech that dwarfed his Thor. Her Blood Asp would stick out like a sore thumb, not even passive radar would be able to hide a ‘Mech that big if it was moving too quickly. But then again, Lauren was part of Sara’s lance, he wasn’t sure what her protocols were on the matter.
“Sara, what’s the stealth stuff for you lance?”
“Why do you ask? Also incase you’ve forgot my ‘Mech is trapped.”
“Firstly my ‘Mech is running hot, so your complaining isn’t helping. Secondly, Lauren’s Blood Asp can’t hide under passive radar if it’s moving at, well a good speed.”
“Hmm. Haven’t thought about that. The Highlanders liked the direct approach, I didn’t bother giving them a lecture on being separated from the lance. Anyways, my radar’s on so you’ll be able to pick me up when you get here. Believe me you’ll need it.”
What the hell was that supposed to mean? ‘Believe me you’ll need it.’ Casey’s nav point tracker showed her marker was less than a kilometre away. The landscape had changed from desert pavement to hard sand and mesa’s. It had been about twenty minutes since Casey set off in Sara’s direction.
Arriving at the Nav Marker only showed what was left of the side of a canyon wall, and a huge pile of rubble, Sara Shadow Cat had it’s upper torso sticking out of the and the legs buried under the rock. The exit to the canyon had been filled in by the debris.
“How the fuck did you manage that?” Casey laughed.
Sara got annoyed, this wasn’t funny. It had been the worst ‘hot drop’ of her life. If you could count being dropped from orbit after your dropship went up in flames.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up fuck face. When I came down I smashed into the top of the canyon wall, damn thing collapsed and now I’m here, I can’t aim that low from this position.” Sara barked.
Casey noticed that the railway tracks had been covered over with debris from the canyon wall. She had taken a good chunk out of it, and fallen at least 70 metres from the top only to have the rockslide catch up with her and cover over her ‘Mech. That also meant that train he had seen had gone south, or it followed the north east route where it forked off awhile back. Either way, there was civilization in at least one of those directions.
“Hey! Can you hurry it up, It’s like fifty fuckin’ degrees in my cabin.” Sara barked again.
“What the hell do you want me to do? It’s not like I can just shoot them away. The majority of my weapons are energy based. I’d end up turning the stone to glass and fusing it to your ‘Mech!.” Casey shouted back through the radio.
“I was thinking more on the lines of missiles.” Sara suggested, “Blow the rocks away.”
“Yeah, that’s too bad the loader for my LRM 10 is jammed, also two of my heat sinks are damaged, you’re not the only one burning alive from the heat.”
“Yeah, but YOU’RE not the one that’s been buried with their cabin facing the sky so that the god damn sunbeams right through the glass. Now find some way to get me OUT of here. Please!” Sara begged.
Casey could tell she was getting upset, hesitantly Casey shot the pile of rubble with a gauss round. The rocks shattered and his reactor temperature spiked a bit, only an additional 100 degrees Kelvin, but it wasn’t helping either way. The heat slowly dissipated off from 400 kelvin back down to 300 kelvin. It was so hot out that the reactor was running 300 kelvin above normal. Which was alright, as it was designed to operate at temperatures that were upwards of 8000 kelvin above normal operating temperatures.
The round the light gauss rifle shot itself didn’t create much heat, it was the amount of energy the miniature railgun required to shoot an object out of it. The discharge from the capacitors was what created the heat. Nothing compared to the heat created when you fired a pair of PPC’s, Ethan had told him stories of times he had nearly melted his ‘Mech because of repeated PPC usage. If they weren’t cooling properly, they could add 1200 kelvin to your temperature dial in a single shot.
Another gauss round released the Shadow Cat’s left leg, which allowed Sara to kick the remaining rubble off. She followed with the not-so-pretty way of getting your ‘Mech back on its feet. Gyroscopes screeched as the ‘Mech righted itself. As it stood, Sara’s Shadow Cat barely came up past the Thor’s middle torso.
“Oh thank god. You have no idea what it’s like to be woken up by the sun blasting in your eyes. It’s terrible.” Sara said.
“Oh yeah, I can imagine.” Casey laughed, “You got word from anyone else?”
“No and... DAMMIT.”
“What’s up?”
“Diagnostic just completed itself, Shade’s busted up.”
Shade, that must of been what Sara nicknamed her ‘Mech Casey though. A suited name, even though it was coloured white and black.
“Alright, I’ll bite. What’s the bad news?” Casey asked.
Sara sighed, “Two of the MG arrays are busted, one’s jammed. One of my LRM’s isn’t even showing up as existing on my ‘Mechs loadout, wiring must be screwed up. Left arm took a number too. Also, I’ve thrown out my right shoulder. You have no idea how much it hurts.”
“Damn. I came down with some scorched paint, a busted heat sink, oh and a jammed missile rack loader.”
“Lucky. AH. Anyways, lets get OW moving. You... GAHH”
“Uh you alright?”
“Alright, so what’s the deal lead?”
Sara wasn’t sure what to do, “Sit rep?”
“We’re stuck on an unknown world, somewhere within colonized space. No idea where we are, separated from everyone else and we have no dropship at our disposal, or a jumpship to take us home.” Casey explained.
“So we’re fucked it what you’re saying?” Sara asked.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“Hmm... Lets go make contact with the locals. It’s not like this situation can get much worse. You said there’s likely to be civilization Northeast, or South? I say we go North, it might take us out of the desert, into a place where it’s not so fucking hot. But that’s just me bitching. No, I’m not in a very good mood.” She said sarcastically.
“Alright, you take the lead. I’m linking into your HUD. Designate as Delta 3.”
Casey wasn’t suited for lead... yet. Ethan told him he was a damn good pilot but better at doing what he was told to do rather than tell other people what to do. It was an honest opinion, Casey didn’t deny it. He’d rather help out then give direction.
Sara set off Northeast, the Canyon walls simply faded into nothing. It was weird how it did that, like it wasn’t natural. Unfortunately, after about two hours of heading north the random conversation Casey was bringing up was getting on Sara’s nerves..
“So how’d you end up as a lance lead? Or do I want to know?” Casey asked.
“That’s.... a long story.”
“You gonna share, or feel like sharing?”
“No. Not really.”
That was fair, a good majority of ‘Mechwarriors had a troubled past. Leaders generally had the worst of the stories to tell. Casey recalled Ethan’s story, it still sent chills down his spine to think that....
“Well what about you? How did the cocky as hell ‘Mechwarrior get into a lance lead by one of the best leaders I’ve ever seen?”
“Well you know. When you’re on a backwater rock and options are limited...”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s what I thought. He scooped you up from nowhere.”
“Whatever.” Casey shrugged.
“You know you should really come up with a better excuse.” Sara pestered, “Or that’s gonna get old real quick.”
“Sure, I’ll get *right* on that.”
The chatter was annoying the hell out Sara, she liked her lance quiet she remembered that one time...
---
“I am so sick of this crap.” Demetri complained.
“Demetri.” Sara said.
“I cannot believe we’re having to do this. This is bullsh...”
“Demetri!” Sara shouted.
“What?!” Demetri shouted back.
“Drink some vodka.”
“Why?”
“Because you get a little bitchy when you’re sober... ”
Avery and Lauren laughed, Avery who was still a kid by Sara’s standards could stay up until ungodly hours or better yet pull consecutive all-nighters. Lauren knew well enough to just shut her mouth.(There’s your damn snickers joke, I got tired of seeing these everywhere. Now I’m just helping put it in it’s grave.)
---
Ethan’s group on the other hand seemed to be having a box social whenever they jumped behind the controls of their ‘Mechs. Sara liked the idea of ‘No news is good news’ so she had her lance be quiet as much as possible, another bonus was there wasn’t much information to intercept from them if anyone was on the same radio frequency as them.
Sara considered that Casey was Ethan’s third in lance, and he also had the heaviest ‘Mech of his lance. She hadn’t seen him in action, but Demetri had made a few positive comments about his piloting, which was rare for him to comment anyone. That was after they had taken down the Atlas. He must be a hell of a pilot for Ethan to put up with him, or maybe different things irritated them, Ethan seemed a lot like her from their conversations over the last week or so.
The pair continued northwest for a few hours, Casey finally shut up after fifteen minutes, much to Sara’s relief. Sara was constantly checking to make sure they were still following the tracks, if they got off course they might start going in circles. After four hours, Casey had a ping appear on his radar.
“Lead, got a contact, coming in from the south east.” Casey said.
“Probably a train, lets break off. Find some cover.” Sara ordered.
That was the problem, they were in flatlands now, they could see to the horizon in every direction and there was nothing to take cover behind. They were completely exposed.
“Contact, 750 metres out. It’ll be here in a minute or so.” Casey said, “What do we do?”
“Looks like we’re gonna have to outrun it until we get some cover.”
Casey accelerated his Thor as fast as it would go, it was just after 17:00 according to his heads up display but the sun was still fairly high in the sky, Casey’s reactor temperature didn’t raise much although it was already running hot. Casey’s Thor lurched forward, quickly reaching it’s 73 Km/h top speed, Sara’s ‘Mech, her Shadow Cat which she nicknamed “Shade” could outrun Casey’s Thor. Being able to push 87 Km/h but made for an unnecessarily rocky ride, Sara locked the speed in at 75 kilometres per hour. Hopefully that train wouldn’t be able to catch up to them. The Shadow Cat’s leg assembly allowed it to move quickly without shaking the pilot up too much.
Sara’s Shadow Cat was running even hotter than Casey’s Thor, her weaponry wasn’t as energy dependant so she had little need for heatsinks. The few energy weapons Casey had made a lot of heat if repeatedly used. Shade’s reactor was running 650 degrees Kelvin above normal. Which cut heat efficiency from 72% to 60%. On her radar, Casey was keeping up, her HUD showed that he was moving at 73 Km/h.
“Casey, you’re gonna lag behind push your ‘Mech.” Sara ordered.
“73’s her limit. Can’t push her any faster.” Casey responded. “That’s the drawback of 14 Metric Tonnes of armour.”
Casey’s words were stuttered, unlike the Shadow Cat, his Thor got very rocky as it moved faster he was shaken around semi-violently. The leg assembly on the Thor was fairly human like, outward joints at the knees, and a set at the hips and ‘ankles’ of the ‘Mech. Sara’s Shadow Cat was an older style ‘Mech but used the backwards inner joint assembly that looked like a birds legs. It made for a smoother ride but that style couldn’t be used on any heavier ‘Mechs at the time. Recent Heavy ‘Mechs that came to mind for Casey right away was the Catapult and the MadCat, which used the bird joint set to move.
Turning the torso around 180 degrees showed that they were outrunning the incoming train, it wasn’t on radar anymore. But there still wasn’t any cover to move off to or hide behind. Flatlands went off in every direction off into the horizon. The shaking of his ‘Mech was giving Casey nausea fortunately he hadn’t ate anything in the last few hours so he wouldn’t be spewing his lunch all over his cabin. The loud thumping noises made by the ‘Mechs feet smashing into the hardsand and rocks around the track only made a growing headache worse as time went on. Casey put his ‘Mech into autopilot mode following a single vector until otherwise stated. He searched around the cabin for some pain relievers, or at least his bottle of water that he had discarded aside earlier. Looked like they would be running for the next few hours.