Two days later, after a long journey over land and sea, the huge bulky form of the Daring drifted toward the coastline of the Olenian Ocean, with only a kilometre or so to go before a landing-place could be chosen. The spires and rooftops of buildings on the outskirts of the Crystal Empire below were shrouded in shadow as the airship cruised over them. Thunder boomed across the sky, and heavy rainfall assaulted the rigid frame of the balloon. On the Bridge, Dust and the Captain were talking over the location of the ruin and how it would be reached, being under sea level. Dust listened intently to the Captain's proposal.
"I assume that we have sufficient scuba gear to survive beneath the ocean waves, do we not? Well, our task is made easier then. We may be able to spare sonar equipment on a small scale to aid you in locating the ruin, but the technology is costly." Dust nodded.
"I understand. We'll only need the minimal equipment anyway, my mother's notes coupled with the location we recovered at Solum should give us most of the information needed." At this, the Captain smiled and nodded, then turned to speak with the officers on the bridge.
"How far until the drop zone, Number One?" She called. Another officer cut in.
"Captain.. We have incoming aircraft." The officer's panicked voice broke out. "They are on an intercepting course, heading straight for us."
"How many of their number?" The Captain asked calmly, sitting at the control seat.
"Multiple units. Very small, very fast. Highly manoeuvrable." The officer returned, her voice becoming more shrill. "They're gaining on us rapidly, Captain.." The Captain replied quickly.
"Understood, officer. Kindly return to your duties. All hands, man your battle stations.. I feel a confrontation brewing." She smirked a little, overseeing the officers on-deck. Klaxons began blaring across the airship on all decks and ponies scrambled through the corridors, ready to do battle and win, or die trying. In the broom cupboard, Cistern poured herself another mug of cocoa nonchalantly and grunted to herself.
"Crud-buckets." She uttered, taking a sip.
Dust grabbed onto the railings of the bridge as best she could, hooves grasping the cold grey lifelines as the airship banked sharply. Through the thick windows spaced about the Bridge, she managed to catch a glimpse of the attackers as they finally caught up with the Daring. Small, extremely fast black shapes, flying on insect-like wings and wearing what appeared to be saddle-mounted machine guns darted past the portholes.
"Those aren't aircraft." Dust managed to utter, as the muffled sound of gunfire and bullets ricocheting off the hull sounded loudly. The Captain took note of Dust's observation.
"Number One, I want all gunners to open fire. If we have additional aircraft or Pegasus troops, send them out now." The officer in question nodded sternly, and gave the order across the speaker system. On the underbelly of the Daring, the entry ramp slid open shakily to allow a troop of Pegasii, clad in armour and carrying weapons of their own, to dive out into the air and engage the changelings. After the Pegasii, came the Unicorn and Earth Pony combatants, piloting small, armed one-pony aircraft. The planes soared across the sky around the airship as the battle began. Rain made navigation difficult for those in the planes and for the Pegasii, though the changelings were more adapted to harsh flying conditions. Gunfire lit up the sky, and the first casualty occurred. A Pegasus pony, cut down by a hail of changeling gunfire. The second casualty, one of the aircraft. The small plane crashed headfirst into a dazed changeling, the unfortunate rival being mangled in the rotors as the engine stalled, the plane dropping out of the sky and plummeting out of sight. A rumbling boom from below echoed all around as the savagery continued. On the Bridge, the Captain remained calm and resolute despite the bloodshed and danger surrounding her.
"Keep us on-course toward the Olenian Ocean, Number One. Make evasive manoeuvres as needed. I will be in my quarters, keep me informed via personal radio." She ordered, to which Number One only nodded. Dust stared out of the window, watching the battle rage further as the Captain disappeared into her quarters. After a tense few moments of battle, in which the airship shook and rattled in the heat of conflict, she made her way back toward her own quarters to get her mother's pistol.
The Daring shook violently as Dust proceeded along the corridors, and a worrying announcement was made over the speakers.
"We have sustained a direct hit, puncturing the gas supply.. Try to remain calm, everypony." All it took was another shudder of the craft, and Dust's maddest ideas were thrown to the forefront of her mind. Dashing back down the corridors, she headed for the hangar. If another direct hit or two managed to hit the engine or rupture the gas supply properly, the Daring would surely crash - or worse. And she couldn't let that happen. Before she even began to question what she was doing, Dust had clambered inside one of the aircraft in the hangar. Firing up the engine, she drove the plane forward and dropped out of the airship, into the stormy sky. The rotors blasted into a rapid spin, and the engine roared into life as Dust soared out into the murky aerial battlefield.
Visibility was horrendous, and Dust found herself quite lost among the darting shadows which leapt in and out of the clouds. But as she was losing hope, the clouds began to shift on the wind. The sun shone through cracks in the grim sky, and she could just make out the shape of the Daring - As the gas-bag ruptured, the glorious airship began leaning downward and drifted toward the ground. There was still a good kilometre and a half to go before the airship would have hit the coast of the Olenian, and Dust felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach at the possibility that this could be the end of the expedition altogether - let alone the end of her life.
Aboard the ship, Captain Rhododendron galloped across her now-vertical room and scrambled through the doorway, climbing onto the bridge. Inside, some of the engineers lay injured and unconscious on the far wall - which had now become the floor, far below. Taking a leap, the Captain landed nimbly on the handrail by the command seat, and scurried down to tend to the wounded. Through the window below her, she observed as the ground drifted closer. Though the descent was reasonably slow due to the fact that gas still remained in the airship, impact with the ground below could mean the total destruction of the craft, and its crew. As she spotted Dust blazing beneath the descending airship in a plane, the Captain darted over to a control panel and began working on a plan.
There was a clatter of gunfire, and bullets began ricocheting off the wings and body of her aircraft. Dust pulled up hard, soaring skywards and rolling to avoid the shots. Feeling nauseous from the motion of acrobatic flight, the events which had just occurred and not knowing exactly what she was doing, she hazarded a glance down at the multitude of controls. To her relief, this model of aircraft had an easily-accessible firing mechanism set into a simple panel of controls right in front of her. She slammed a loose hoof down on the button, and the machine-guns built into the plane's bodywork blazed with crackling explosions of gunfire. bullets ripped through the air, and managed to hack down one of the changelings. With no specific formations planned beforehand, the aircraft battle grew incredibly hectic. As Dust pulled around to fire again, the radio on the dashboard began emitting an incessant beeping. Grabbing the headset and fitting the headphones over her ears, she flipped the switch and answered the call.
"Dust! Desert Dust, do you read me?" The Captain's voice came crackling over the radio.
"I read you loud and clear, Captain!" Dust replied, swerving around to avoid a burning plane wreck which darted past her toward the ground. "What's the plan?"
"I know this is near-impossible, but I need you to try and find a way to slow our descent. Without help, the Daring will crash and burn. I know I can count on you." And with that, the signal broke up and fizzled away. But as Dust felt panic rising in her breast, a familiar voice came over from another plane's radio.
"Come on, Dusty.. We got a job to do." Came Fuse's voice. Apparently, his wounds must have healed enough to permit him to fly a plane. Or, more likely, he had piloted one anyway.
"How are we going to-" Dust began, but fuse cut her off.
"Follow my lead, and cover me!" He yelled, and with that, she spotted his aircraft soaring across the sky in front of her.
As the battle began to die down and changeling numbers began to dwindle, the job became easier for Dust and Fuse. But now, a near-suicidal plan had to be put into action. Knowing full well the consequences of a possible failure, Fuse dropped his plane into a nose-dive and blazed downward, catching up to the descending airship. In an incredibly risky move, he flipped a switch on the dashboard, and lowered his landing gear. The sturdy frame lowered from the underside of his plane, and a second later, Dust realised his plan. Her heart pounded in her chest as he flew the plane as close as he dared to the rigid frame of the balloon - maintaining a steady speed as he attempted to tangle the landing gear around the restraining ropes which snaked across the balloon's surface. Retracting the landing gear again, she could only watch in awe as Fuse pulled up hard, managing to help slow the airship's descent and begin angling it horizontally for landing. Over the radio, Dust heard Fuse's triumphant laughter loud and clear.
"Your turn, kid!" He yelled, and with that, Dust gulped down her fears and tried the same stunt. Powering downward and angling her aircraft to match the diagonal sloping of the airship, she drifted closer to the ropes and slowed to a steady glide. Flipping the switch, the rattling metal landing gear extended below. In a heart-stopping moment, she shakily managed to tangle the ropes around the gear's frame. No sooner had she done this, she retracted the gear. But with a juddering snap and a screech of metal, the landing gear broke away. As she watched in horror, the wheels, frame and all fell away, bouncing down the side of the balloon and dropping toward the steadily-nearing ground below. "There was too much strain on the gear!" Fuse's voice came, panicked, over the radio. "You tried pulling up too fast.." Dust formulated a new plan in her head and, with more confidence than she had ever shown before or thought possible of herself, replied simply over the radio with,
"It's not over yet." She pulled up and away from the descending balloon. Though the Daring's velocity toward the ground was indeed slowed considerably, without her help it would certainly not survive without a high level of damage - and a high death toll. As the plan finalised within her head, Dust breathed a beg of mercy to Celestia, and nose-dived below the slowly-falling airship.
Once she had descended beneath the underbelly of the ship, she blazed forward along the ribbed underside of the cabin section itself and, as she neared the front end, slid the cockpit of the plane open. Steeling herself, she cautiously leaned upward and out of the plane. Using a hind hoof to slow the plane, she readied herself. As the underside of the airship continued to dip toward her head, she grabbed hold of one of the support ropes which hung loosely along the underside of the craft (having been severed from the balloon by enemy gunfire) with a hoof and, with lightning-quick reflexes, wrapped the rope around the metal frame of the cockpit, double-tying it tightly. Swiftly dropping back inside the plane, she revved the engine up and flew straight forward, pulling upward. The rope held fast, and the mixture of Fuse's upward pulling from above and her 'towing' the airship in front slowed it to a safe speed.
On the Bridge, the Captain beamed with admiration as she spied Dust out in front through the forward window. The usually-timid young mare turned and saluted to her before setting back to the task at hand. The airship had levelled out, and now drifted slowly, safely down.
"Maintaining a safe landing speed, Captain. Impact will cause some damage, but no estimated casualties beyond a few bruises and scrapes." One of the Bridge crew called out.
"I'll be damned." The Captain spoke aloud, staring at the plane which towed the airship to safety. "What a remarkable filly."