Voidrunner

by The DM


May 23rd, 2559

//Begin Personal Log
//
//May 23rd, 2559
//
//16:11 Local Time

I am proud of my crew. I know that is blatantly obvious, but I am even more proud of them right now. They aren’t some cliche group of people who simply support the captain in his heroic endeavours. Not even close. They are all heroes as far as I am concerned. Hell, I even owe a few of them my life.

//End Log

The scene at the observation platform was a scene of pure chaos. Most of the ponies inside the collapsing building had already rushed out into the adjacent park. Word of the incident was quickly making its way around the city and to the ears of every emergency responder. Already a handful of guards had arrived to help control the panicked crowd. By this time, the entire platform was tilting at a thirty degree angle. Large cracks had already began to form where the first support beam had given out. It was becoming clear that the structure would soon tear itself apart.

Ahmad, Kelly, and Philip were standing at the entrance of the dying structure, intent on making sure everyone was out.After a few moments, the three ODSTs slowly made their way through the mass of ponies and toward their aircraft. Victor was easy to spot among the sea of ponies. The massive SPARTAN stood by the Falcon with Gary and two groups of schoolkids. The school teachers were busy counting their students as the ODSTs walked up.

“Alright. I think everyone is out.” Kelly said aloud.

“We shall see.” The SPARTAN replied. “Mrs. Garnet, are all your students accounted for?”

The red mare looked around at the students and then to the SPARTAN. “Yes, all mine are here. How about you, Cheerilee?”

The purple school mare was still in the process of counting her students. She seemed to pause at one point and began looking around frantically.

“No... no, no, no, no! I’m missing three!” Cheerilee exclaimed in a panic.

“Alright, tell me what they look like. Perhaps they are just mixed in the crowd.” Victor said reassuringly.

“One’s a white unicorn filly with a purple and pink mane. The other is an orange pegasus filly with a magenta mane, and the other is a yellow earth filly with a red mane and a large bow.” She shakily replied.

“Where did you last see them?” Victor asked calmly.

“Inside the building.” The school teacher pointed to the collapsing building with a hoof.

“Ahmad, you said everyone was out?” The SPARTAN asked.

“I think so. No one else has come out.”

“Did you search the building?”

“Kinda dangerous in its current state.”

The SPARTAN gave him an incredulous look. “And when has that ever stopped you?”

Silence.

“Good point.” The ODST climbed into the cabin of the Falcon and began pulling out equipment. “Kelly, Philip, lets go do something incredibly dumb and dangerous.” Ahmad handed the other two ODSTs a pair of backpacks and began walking back to the structure.

“Uhh... parachutes?” Kelly asked with surprise.

“Yeah. Being in a collapsing building a few thousand feet up makes me think it would be a good idea to have them.”

“Good point.”

The three continued their walk until they came to a group of pegasi standing around a table with a handful of unicorn guards. A yellow pegasus with a fiery orange mane seemed to be barking orders at the others at the table.

“Look, that whole bucking building could come down at any second. I couldn’t send any flyers in there without the possibility of them becoming trapped should the thing fall.” She then looked to the closest unicorn guard. “If you can get some unicorns to help hold the building up then I can send in some ponies to search for anyone trapped inside.”

“I’ll see what I can do, Captain.” The unicorn said with a salute before walking off. A light blue pegasus turned to his counterpart.

“So Spits. What’s your plan?” Soarin asked.

“It all depends on if those unicorns can hold up the building long enough for us to get inside.” She let out a long sigh as she looked to the building. “Soarin... how could something like this happen...”

“Excuse me ma’am. Are you in charge here?” Spitfire turned around and came full face to face the three ODSTs.

“Unofficially, yes. And you are?”

“Master Sergeant Ahmad Anas. This is Staff Sergeant Kelly Verrez and Gunnery Sergeant Philip Ballas.”

“I’m Captain Spitfire of the Royal Air Force and this is Lieutenant Soarin. You three here to lend a hoof?”

“Yes ma’am. So I take it the building hasn’t been cleared yet?”

“No, it’s too unstable for us to send anypony in there to check it.” The captain said with a shake of her head.

“Do we really have time to wait? Especially if there is anyone trapped inside.” Kelly asked with concern.

“I’m hoping that some of the unicorns here could help keep the building from falling. Though I’m not holding my breath.” She said with irritation.

“Alright, while you wait for the unicorns to get it together we’ll go check for anyone who's trapped.” Ahmad replied.

“You're kidding... right? That entire building could come down at any minute, taking you with it.”

“Then there isn’t a moment to lose.” The three ODSTs began jogging to the front doors with Spitfire and Soren hot on their heels.

The group stopped as they looked inside the broken structure. It had begun to crack down the middle as it continued to lean to the side and forward. Anything that wasn’t bolted down to the floor had slid across to the far wall in a massive heap.

“Well this should be fun.” Ahmad cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted. “Is anyone in there!?”

Silence.

“In here! Somepony help!” A faint voice called back.

“Well fuck. Who wants to go first?” Kelly asked.

“Dibs.” Ahmad said as he slipped his helmet on. He then checked his harness to make sure the parachute was secure before making his way inside.

“He’s insane...” Soarin commented in utter shock.

“Would you be surprised if I said he was one of the more level headed of us?” Kelly said with a grin. Soarin was at a total loss for words as his jaw hung open. Spitfire just shook her head with a sigh.

Ahmad carefully made his way through the ruined interior of the platform. Large cracks and holes had formed in the floor and ceiling, all results of the incredible strain the building was under. The ODST had to be careful to only walk near the walls where the floor was the strongest.

“Say something if you can hear me!” The ODST called out.

“Back here!” The small voice replied once more.

He took the next left and continued down the hall to what was once the gift shop. This area of the building had been seriously damaged when the supports gave out. Parts of the ceiling had fallen and the floor felt especially unstable. Unfortunately, the entrance to the gift shop was mostly blocked by a fallen piece for ceiling. However, there was a small opening near the base of the door that the ODST could crawl through. It would be a tight fit, but it wasn’t impossible.

Dropping to his belly, Ahmad began to crawl through the opening. Inside the gift shop was very similar to the rest of the building. Display cases were smashed, racks were toppled over, various items littered the floor, and pieces of large debris covered the area. As Ahmad turned on his helmet light, his goal came into sight.

Huddled in a corner were the three missing kids. Unfortunately, one of them seemed to be pinned beneath a piece of concrete.

“Over here!” The yellow earth pony called as she waved her hooves over her head. Ahmad carefully made his way across the room. The three fillies stared in utter shock as the human entered the room.

“Y-y-you’re one of those humans, right?” The yellow filly asked shakily.

“Indeed I am. My name is Ahmad Anas. What are your names?” He asked calmly.

“I-I’m Sweetiebelle.” The unicorn said nervously.

“And Ah’m Applebloom, and this here is Scootaloo.” She said pointing to the trapped pegasus.

“Wonderful. Tell me, are you in Mrs. Cheerilee’s class?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?” Sweetiebelle asked.

“She was worried about you and asked us to find you.” The building gave a loud groan as it shifted slightly “Why are you kids still in here? This place could come down at any moment.” The ODST asked.

“Its Scootaloo, she’s stuck.” The unicorn pointed to her friend. Sure enough, the ODST could see the debris keeping the filly pinned to the ground.

“Alright.” He began looking around before noticing a large hole in the ceiling. He stood up and pulled a blue smoke flare from a pouch on his armor. Ahmad grabbed one end of flare and broke it off. Seconds later, blue smoke began spewing from the open end. He threw the flare out the open hole and onto the roof above.

“Lets get you unstuck.” The human grabbed the sides of the slab of concrete and slowly lifted it off the filly. She let out a cry of pain as the weight shifted on her back leg. With a final heave, Ahmad flipped the debris onto the floor. Unfortunately for the human, the small section of floor gave out. He watched the slab fall through the floor and continue to fall to the valley floor below.

“Hey, you found em!” Ahmad spun around to see Kelly looking in through the open hole in the ceiling.

“Yes, this one is injured. You bring a rope?”

Kelly reached to her side and produced a black nylon rope. “Of course. What kind of girl would forget her nylons.”

Ahmad chuckled as she lowered one end into the building. He grabbed the rope and brought it back to the injured filly.

“This is going to hurt a bit, but we need to get you out of here quickly. Okay?”

Scootaloo only offered a nod as she closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. The ODST began to tie a makeshift harness out of the rope. Occasionally he would touch a sore spot, earning a pained yelp from the filly.

“Alright, pull her up.” With Ahmad holding her, Kelly began to slowly pull the pegasus filly up through the opening in the ceiling.

“Got her. Next one?”

“Toss it down again.”

There was an ear splitting crack as the building began to pitch downward even further. Kelly was caught by surprise and began sliding across the roof toward the edge of the building. She was able to stop herself from going over the edge by grabbing at one of the many holes in the roof.

“Kelly! Are you okay!?” Ahmad called out to his partner.

“I’m fine!” She replied.

The building lurched again as a powerful jolt signaled the collapse of a second support beam. With little time to spare, Ahmad began to improvise. He picked up the rope and began tying it to both of the remaining fillies. They looked at him in fear as he quickly finished tying them together.

“W-what’s going to happen to us?” The unicorn asked.

“We’re going to be fine. I promise.” He then turned to the now open doorway. “C’mon, we need to go now!” He got up and quickly made his way to the door. The two fillies only inches behind him. The three continued down the hallway back to the main observation room as another loud groan echoed through the air. Ahmad stopped at the back wall and picked up the rope. He then clipped both ends to his harness. He knelt down to the two fillies.

The building gave one last loud groan before it shook again. Ahmad looked to the large window across from him as he unholstered his pistol.

“W-what was that?” Applebloom asked with panic.

“Girls. I want you to know something. No matter what happens, you will be okay. I promise you I will get you back to your families. I just need you to trust me. Okay?”

“O-o-okay... promise?” Sweetiebelle said as tears flowed from her eyes.

“I promise. Now, cover your ears.” The two fillies did as he said. The ODST then leveled his weapon at the window and fired three shots.

The bullets instantly shattered the large window, leaving only open sky. There was another loud crack as the building pitched forward even more. Furniture and other debris began spilling out through the open window and into the air. Ahmad checked the harness one last time before picking up both girls and running forward. The angle was steep enough that a single jump was all it took to launch the ODST and two fillies through the shattered window and into the open air.

There was a moment of peace as Applebloom looked back. She could see how much the platform was leaning forward and the massive crowd gathered at the edge of the mountain. Numerous pegasi were hovering just over the collapsing structure. She could make out a black figure on the roof, trying to climb it’s way to safety. She was startled when the figure began quickly sliding down the steep angle before going off the side.

That was when gravity kicked in.

~~~

Victor watched as the pegasi team hoisted an orange filly from a hole in the roof. He breathed a sigh of relief as he recognized her as one of the missing kids. The SPARTAN touched the side of his helmet to radio back what was happening.

“Captain Ryan. Do you read me?”

“I hear ya Victor. Hows the overlook?”

“Sir, we have a major situation here.”

There was a pregnant pause. “Victor I have you on speaker with the Princess. What kind of situation are we talking about?”

“Sir, the entire building is in the process of collapsing. Something happened to the support beams holding it up and now it is leaning at a twenty eight degree angle.”

“Is anyone trapped inside?” Celestia asked.

“Yes ma’am. However, Master Sergeant Anas is currently inside the building and is in the process of rescuing them. We believe there to be three children stuck inside. The first one was just lifted from a hole in the roof.”

“I see. I will have all resources diverted to helping with the rescue effort.”

Everyone jumped back as a loud bang was heard followed by what sounded like three gunshots.

“Sir it’s getting worse. We just lost another support beam. There are at least three individuals still inside.”

“Shit. Alright, I’m on my way.”

“Aye sir.” Victor turned as he heard a series of screams and gasps. He quickly ran to the side of the platform at got a perfect view of what was happening.

He watched as Kelly lost her grip and slid down the roof and over the side. He then saw Ahmad go flying through the main window with two children under each arm.

“Captain! Kelly has fallen and Ahmad jumped off!”

“What!”

Victor watched as the structure gave one final shudder before breaking off and plummeting through the air.

“Sir... we lost the building. Ahmad and Kelly are currently in the air with what I believe to be the missing children.”

“Are they wearing any kind of gear?” Daniel asked frantically.

“Yes sir. Both are wearing parachutes.”

“Of thank Odin.” He said with an audible sigh. “Keep track of them. I’m grabbing a Pelican and will be there in minutes.”

“Copy that. Sir... it seems a pair of pegasi are in pursuit. Orders?”

“Nothing. Stand by until I arrive.”

“Aye sir.” Victor continued to watch as the structure got smaller and smaller. He then turned to the nearby ODST. “Philip. Go after them.” The SPARTAN ordered. Philip just looked at him with astonishment.

“Seriously?”

“Either you jump off this cliff after them, or I throw you off this cliff. Your pick.” The SPARTAN said dryly.

“Well when you put it like that...” The ODST slipped his helmet on before running past a group of unicorn guards and doing a front flip off the edge.

~~~

Ahmad continued his rapid descent toward the valley floor. Sweetiebelle and Applebloom had been screaming in terror at the first few seconds of their fall, but had now fallen silent. For Ahmad, this was easy. He had made hundreds of jump before in every weather condition imaginable and in almost every combat situation imaginable. So doing a tandem jump from a collapsing building was a piece of cake.

A few seconds into their jump, Kelly had managed to catch up. While they would never hear each other over the rushing wind, their radios still worked fine.

“So Kelly, how’s it going?” Ahmad asked with a chuckle.

“Oh ya know. I was just hanging out on the roof then decided to take a dive.”

“That was a bad set of puns and you should feel bad.”

Kelly laughed. “How are your passengers?”

“Better. They were screaming for the first few seconds, but I think they are just along for the ride now.”

“Neat. Speaking of which, how much altitude do we have left?” Kelly asked.

Ahmad looked to the left of his HUD. His altimeter read 6,421.

“We got about six thousand feet to go.”

“Wow. So we have a few minutes of this crap?”

Ahmad nodded. “Yup.”

Kelly looked over her shoulder and watched as the fallen building scraped against the mountain and broke into thousands of pieces.

“Glad we weren’t riding that thing.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

As the pair continued their descent, Ahmad noticed something approaching on his motion tracker.

“Hey Kelly, something’s coming this way.” Ahmad looked back and noticed a yellow and orange spec becoming bigger and bigger. He soon recognized it as the form of Captain Spitfire.

The pegasus pulled along side the ODSTs as she matched their descent speed. She tried yelling something to them, but her words were lost to the wind. The Captain gave up trying to communicate and settled for just following closely. Occasionally Spitfire would look over her shoulder, as if she was expecting something to be behind them. Each time her gaze was met by open blue sky.

A minute and three thousand feet later, Ahmad was contemplating where he would try and land. The only obstruction was the forest, but that was about thirty miles to the west. He then looked to the south and saw only rolling green hills. To his east was the sheer face of the mountain he had just jumped from, and to the north was a single large airship.

He did a double take as his mind processed that there was a massive elegant airship coming low from the north. He noticed it had a pair of banners that seemed to resemble some of the flags he had seen around the castle. His attention was grabbed once more by Spitfire, who was eagerly motioning toward the airship before making her way to it.

The airship was unlike anything Ahmad had imagined. The entire vessel was almost four hundred and fifty feet long and sixty feet wide, making it almost as long as the Tuscany. Rather than the airship be suspended from a single large balloon, this one seemed to have a pair of purple balloons attached to the side of the hull.

“I think she wants us to land on the airship. Thoughts?” Ahmad asked over his radio. Kelly said nothing as she quickly changed course. Ahmad sighed and followed.

Both ODSTs were now on a collision course with the massive airship. As they got within six hundred feet of the craft, both humans pulled their ripcords, causing their parachutes to deploy. Spitfire turned to make sure the humans were still behind her, but nearly stopped when she saw they had slowed down considerably and were now suspended beneath two massive cloth canopies. She decided to hoover is place for a moment as the pair caught up.

Applebloom and Sweetiebell gave out a small yelp as Ahmad was jolted by his parachute opening. They both looked up at the canopy and then at the ground. Ahmad looked down at them.

“I told you we would be fine.” He said with a chuckle.

“What is this thing?” Sweetiebelle asked.

“It’s called a parachute. It lets me safely fall from really high up.”

“It looks like it’s made out of some kind of fabric.” She replied.

“That’s because it is. It’s a material called nylon.” Ahmad said back.

Soon Kelly and Ahmad caught up with the waiting pegasus. She looked confused, worried, and a bit irritated all at the same time.

“You alright there Captain?” Kelly yelled.

“Yeah, well, kinda. I gotta say, I wasn’t expecting... these.” She said while motioning to the parachutes.

“They come in real handy.” Ahmad responded. “You keep looking over your shoulder. Everything okay?”

She paused for a moment. “No. I lost sight of the other pony that was with me.”

“The Lieutenant, right?” Ahmad asked.

Spitfire nodded before looking back at the airship. She noticed a number of armored pegasi guards on the upper deck, all eyes were fixed on them.

“Seems our welcome party is ready. Just let me do the talking alright?” Spitfire said while looking to both humans.

“Yes ma’am.” Both ODSTs replied in unison.

Spitfire flew ahead of the humans and prepared to touch down on the deck. The soldiers on deck seemed to tense up as she approached. As she prepared to land, she was able to spot the one pony she had hoped was aboard. With a sigh of relief, she touched down.

A white unicorn with a two-tone blue mane stepped forward to meet Spitfire. He held himself with authority and purpose. Spitfire instantly snapped a hoof to her forehead in a salute.

“Prince Armor, I’m sorry for dropping in on you like this.” She said in her best officer tone.

“Relax Captain, it’s quite alright.” Shining Armor said as he looked over her shoulder to the approaching humans. “Are they with you?”

“Yes sir.”

“Let them land!” The Prince commanded. Instantly the guards all cleared the deck to allow the ODSTs plenty of space to land.

Kelly was the first to touch down. She had come in much too quick and had hit with a loud thud. She was forced to roll as to avoid injury.

Ahmad was able to land with much more grace and control, mainly due to the extra weight on his sides. Both ODSTs quickly grabbed their parachutes and rolled them up. Ahmad then unclipped the two fillies at his sides and set them down on the deck. He then looked up to the unicorn standing before him.

“Thank you for letting us land, sir.” He said politely.

“It was no problem. Although I am curious as to why you have two fillies with you.”

Ahmad let out a nervous chuckle. “It’s... it’s a long story.”

It was then that another pony walked onto the deck.

“Shining, is everything alright?” A female voice called out.

“Everything’s fine dear.” Shining replied.

“Princess Cadance!” Spitfire said with another salute.

“Hello Captain. Who are your friends here?” The pink alicorn asked.

“Princess Cadance, Prince Armor. This is Staff Sergeant Kelly Verrez and Master Sergeant Ahmad Anas.”

Both ODSTs snapped to attention and saluted. Cadance let out a small giggle as she looked to her husband. “Please relax. There will be a time for formalities later. What I am interested in is what brought you here, and with two children?”

As Ahmad was about to begin his story, he was interrupted yet again.

“Clear the deck!” A voice called from overhead.

All eyes went skyward as a third ODST was parachuting in. This one however, had something much bigger attached to his chest. Spitfire paled as she recognized the limp form of Soarin. Seconds later, the third human and Soarin touched down on the deck. Spitfire rushed forward to her fallen friend and began to check him over. The only thing she could see was the deep gash on his head.

“What the hay happened!?” She demanded.

“I’ll tell you exactly what happened.” Philip replied.

~~~

“Well when you put it like that...” The ODST slipped his helmet on before running past a group of unicorn guards and doing a front flip off the edge. He quickly folded himself into a streamlined shape and plummeted to the ground below at over a hundred and fifty miles per hour. As he fell, he noticed two shapes ahead of him. He recognized them as Spitfire and Soarin from earlier. Both seemed to be following Ahmad and Kelly.

A minute later, Philip was just behind the pair of pegasi. They had just reached the falling building and were navigating through it. Philip watched as the golden pegasus nimbly flew through the debris without any effort. Soarin was hot on her tail as he tried to follow her maneuver. He was doing well up until the point where the entire falling structure slammed into the cliff face, causing the massive structure to explode into millions of pieces.

He tried to twist and dive around the flying debris, but was met with limited success. He managed to avoid the first large chunks, but was caught off guard by a much smaller slab of concrete. Unfortunately for Soarin, the slab connected with his forehead, leaving him unconscious and bleeding at seven thousand feet.

Philip was far enough back to avoid the debris, but was still close enough that he could grab the falling pegasus. He quickly pulled himself into a steeper dive until he was just a few feet away from Soarin and the now smashed building. With a free hand, Philip grabbed the falling stallion by the tail before quickly redirecting his body away from the destroyed structure. It took only seconds for the ODST to move clear of the falling building.

Now clear of instant death by falling concrete, Philip loosened the lower strap on his harness before slipping Soarin through the open loop. He then quickly tightened the lower part of his harness over the unconscious stallion. Philip continued to secure Soarin by passing him under the upper part of the harness.

With the unconscious Soarin now safely secured to his harness, Philip began searching the sky for his teammates. Looking to the west revealed only a large dark forest, while the east revealed the stone face of the cliff he had just jumped from. As Philip looked to the south, he was met with a lovely view of rolling green hills that eventually led to what looked like a small village off in the distance. However, looking to the north finally yielded the targets he was searching for.

Not more than seven hundred feet away were the canopies of Ahmad and Kelly. What was odd though, was that they seemed to be heading toward a massive airship. Philip looked down at Soarin who was still bleeding from the wound on his head. The wound looked fairly deep, but hopefully his skull wasn’t broken. Though Philip was quite certain that the pegasus would have a nasty concussion. The ODST then put a hand under Soarin’s jaw and held his head back against his black armor. WIth his free hand he reached over and pulled the ripcord.  

His entire body jolted as the parachute opened. Philip slowly released Soarin’s head and grabbed ahold of both control handles. He then looked back to the airship and noticed that both Ahmad and Kelly had already landed.

“Well then, here we go.” Philip said to himself. “Clear the deck!” He shouted for all to hear.

~~~

Spitfire and a team of and the ship’s medic were tending to Soarin’s wounds as Philip recounted what had happened. Cadance and Shining stood in awe as the ODSTs recounted what had happened in the past hour.

“So... what brings you two to Canterlot?” Kelly asked.

“Well, we and many of the other national leaders are coming to meet with Captain Ryan and Celestia. Shining and I wanted to arrive a day early so we could get some time in with friends and family.”

“Neat.” Kelly said with a grin.

“What about you? Were you visiting the outlook?” Shining asked.

“Yeah. Princess Celestia and Captain Ryan let us take some shore leave in the city. So five of us decided to take the day and visit the platform.” Ahmad answered.

“Wait... there were five of you?” Shining asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes sir. The other two stayed behind to help with the survivors.”

“I see.” The deck went silent for a moment. “Well we should be in Canterlot in about an hour.”

“Great. I’m just gonna lay here on the deck.” Ahmad said as he walked to the edge of the deck and promptly laid down.

~~~

Daniel stood with Celestia and Victor stood at the edge of the mountain. Most of the civilians had left the area as emergency crews began combing over the area where the observation platform once stood. Pegasus teams were flying around while inspecting the area that once held the three massive support beams. So far the investigation had turned up nothing.

Celestia sighed as she shook her head. “How does something like this happen...?”

“I would love to say it was an unfortunate accident. Though I have my doubts.” Daniels replied as he turned to the massive SPARTAN. “So other than the three kids in the building, were all the children accounted for?”

“Da. Mrs Garnet and Mrs. Cheerilee can account for all their students. It seems that Scootaloo was the only one who sustained significant injury.”

“Well I guess we got lucky in that regard. Now all we need to do is find our missing ODSTs.” Daniel stated.

“We won’t have to look far.” Daniel turned to see Celestia reading a scroll. “Actually we won’t have to look at all. They were picked up by my niece and her husband and will be in the city within the next two hours.”

“Wonderful. Saves me the trouble of having to search for them.” Daniel replied.

Victor slowly turned his head to face the Captain. “Right, because the homing beacons in their armor make that soooooo hard.” The SPARTAN said sarcastically.

Celestia softly chuckled at the remark while Daniel just glared at the massive SPARTAN. The three continued to sit in silence as the midday sun was transitioning to the late afternoon. So much had happened in the last few hours that it just didn’t feel real. So many lives could have been lost, thankfully that tragedy had been avoided.

“Well then. Might as well head back to the ship.” Daniel stated.

“I agree. There is nothing we can do but get out of the way.” Celestia replied.

With that said, everyone returned to their respective aircraft and headed back to the castle.

~~~

Daniel stood in the lift as he waited for the upper airlock to open. It was still a lovely sunny day, and because of this, a number of crew members had opted to spend it just enjoying being outside. As he stepped out onto the hull he was met by a handful of sailors and marines, all just laying in the sun. Most were either reading on beach towels or were napping. Daniel spotted one individual in particular and made his way across the hull toward her.

Commander Dior was happily reading while enjoying the sun. She wore only a bikini top and exercise shorts. A stark contrast to her half ton body armor.

“Enjoying shore leave?” Daniel asked with a chuckle.

Lisa lifted her sunglasses to look at Daniel. “Yes actually.” She said as she returned to her book.

“I take it you heard about what happened at the overlook?” Daniel said as he sat next to the SPARTAN.

“I did. Sounds like a bad situation that was salvaged at the last second.” Dior pulled a piece of red ribbon from under her towel and placed it in her book to mark the page. “So there were no serious injuries?”

“There were two. One child and one rescuer.” Daniel said with a sigh.

“But both are alive?”

Daniel nodded. “Two other kids were hospitalized, but only as a precaution. They’ll probably be released later today or tomorrow morning.”

“Does anyone have a clue as to why the whole damn thing fell off?” Dior asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Not that I am aware of. They were just beginning to investigate when we all left.” Daniel said as he looked out toward the valley.

“Well what do you think? Sabotage or just a freak accident?” Lisa said as she sat up on her towel.

Daniel sighed. “While I don’t have a lot of information to go off of... I am leaning toward sabotage. It’s just a bit too convenient for this to happen just two weeks after the castle bombing.”

Lisa shifted her gaze over the valley as well. “Lovely view.”

“Yeah. Not sure how long it will be like this. I can hear the drums of war beginning to play. I just hope the Princesses are ready to do what’s necessary to protect the nation.” The captain sighed.

“Well then. Better savor these moments.” The SPARTAN said as she picked up her book and began reading again.