//------------------------------//
// Chapter 36: Winter Wrap Up 
// Story: Once Upon a Time, on an Alien Ring World 
// by Hi World 
//------------------------------//

Fluttershy journeyed behind a tall mesa and dismounted her Ghost.
"Ok... this is a good position," Twilight enunciated.

She remembered the first time she'd arrived in this valley with Pinkie Pie and Derpy, and how there had been a Shade turret stationed atop this particular mesa. She also remembered hearing Lightning Dust's voice for the first time as she soared her Pelican over the bridge above, and meeting Vinyl Scratch with her overturned Warthog. Flipping the Warthog over to take on a Wraith tank.

Taking on a Wraith was exactly what Fluttershy was doing right now, only she didn't have a Warthog at her aid, and as for teammates, well, they were all busy doing their own thing.

From her position behind the frosty rock, Fluttershy spied the first of two Wraiths, pivoting to launch plasma mortar at the attacking Flood. Those plague carriers could be heard clearly in the valley, shrieking and roaring and returning fire with stolen weapons.

Fluttershy had never fired a rocket launcher outside of her accidental Spartan training, and the pressure was overwhelming. So was her fatigue.

Shuddering under the weight of the anti-vehicle weapon, and in the freezing cold, she kept the aiming reticule pinned to the purple alien tank, and as soon as Twilight yelled, "Fire!" she let a rocket go streaking out towards the side of the vehicle.

BOOM! Direct hit, but the tank was not destroyed. One side of the vehicle had become immobilized and sunken into the snow. The other half was still hovering off the ground, and the tank was still able to pivot to face her.
"Aaaah!" Fluttershy screamed, galloping away as a blue ball of hissing plasma came arcing after her.
It detonated against the rock with a bone-rattling explosion, shaking snow from the high cliffs.

"Yoohoo!" sang a recognisable voice from somewhere in the sky. "Over here!"
"Lightning's got their attention!" exclaimed Twilight, full of competitive joy. "Take another shot!"
"Oohh," Fluttershy moaned, the ache in her gut intensifying.

She had five rockets left with her, and two more back with Fleur de Lis. One of the rockets was already in one of the bazooka's two tubes, and as she repositioned her crosshairs on the alien tank, she emptied the weapon.

The tank had its entire hind presented as it attempted to take down Lightning, who could be seen whizzing around in the air like an orange and turquoise wasp, killing Grunts with her pistol. The rocket hit the floor just under the Wraith's rear, and the explosion was enough to destroy it.
Fluttershy actually ended up smiling at the win, and she cheered, "Yay," with all the volume of a mouse.
Twilight was a little more enthusiastic. "Woohoo! Great shot, Fluttershy!"

The celebrations were short lived however as almost every single Covie rotated to put fire on her.
"Uh oh!" Twilight chortled like a mischievous school girl, Fluttershy on the run. "We got their attention!"
Fluttershy didn't find it funny at all.
"Get back on the Ghost! Now it's time to take out the second Wraith."
"Oh goody," Fluttershy said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
Once properly seated in the little purple Ghost, she summoned its alien engine and zoomed back the way she came.

*****

Meanwhile, in Fleur's world, all was relaxed as she laid on her belly... and sniped the hell out of every Covenant scoundrel that had the misfortune to stand in her crosshairs. Blood and limbs went flying off the armoured aliens, splashing the pristine white snow.

As for the Flood; they couldn't care less if her sniper slugs were passing through their spongy bodies. They were too busy fightning the Covenant, and simply didn't have time to fall at her hooves.

She had taken out the two Shade operators, but Grunts and Elites kept coming to take their places. Still, they didn't move around as much on the stationary tripods, so that made them easier to assassinate.

After four lethal rounds had been ejected from the S2 AM's elongated barrel, she had to reload, but before she did, she caught sight of a Flood infected Elite beating away at thin air. The weirdest thing about that was that the air actually bled purple blood, and the stuff splattered all over the sick Covie.

Multiple flashes of blue plasma and pink needles came materialising out of nowhere, and the combat form was dropped. Then a row of chunky, two toed boot prints imprinted the snow, marching straight up to Fleur's position. Stealth Elites. The Covenant must have had enough with her, and the officer in command had sent a stealth squad to eliminate her. She couldn't blame them; she was a pretty hard-core sniper, and a faint smirk touched her lips.

With practised ease, she reloaded the sniper in under five seconds, and peered through the sights once again, trying to relocate the approaching footprints. She noticed the snow splashing up from the ground where the invisible warriors were running, and she aimed roughly seven or eight feet up from them.

Crack! She took the first shot, and hit the first invisible Elite, taking his head clean off in a fountain of purple blood. His headless body faded into existence as his life faded out, and he collapsed to the snow.

She had never sniped a stealth Elite before, and it was a true test of her abilities. With every kill, a drop more elation filled her spirit, and her faint smile soon grew into a huge grin. She was having fun.

Taking aim just above the last set of footprints, she witnessed Fluttershy's Ghost whiz by and splatter the invisible Elite all over its hood. She heard a startled squeal from Fluttershy echo all around the canyon, and she had to stifle her giggles.

Soon, she didn't have to stifle her giggles, because she saw the Flood infected Elite become re-infected by a lone parasite, and the resurrected corpse came flailing in the direction of the stealth Elites. In the direction of her.

Knowing her sniper rifle would be useless on the beast, she unlimbered the MA5B Fluttershy gave her, and waited for it to come within range.

*****

Things weren't going so well for the Covenant. The Flood were the biggest problem, but now they had a team of Ponies prodding them in the side. Come to think of it, the Ponies were using their brains, rather than their numbers, and had successfully defeated one of their Wraiths. They were the biggest threat now.

"Hey! Look at me!" one of them shouted, flying over their heads and shooting the Grunts and Jackals dead.
The Zealot in charge knew it was just a ruse for their cursed sniper, and he ordered the Hunters not to turn around.

However, since the Hunters were keeping their backs hidden from the sniper's view, that left them exposed to the distracting winged Pony, and she discharged rounds from her pistol into one of their flanks.

The Hunter in trouble reared and howled, spinning to protect his bleeding behind, and then a sniper round put him down.

"Wraaargh!" the Zealot thundered with fury, thrashing out his energy sword.
The blade would be useless unless his targets were within stabbing range, so he marched up to one of his Jackals and yanked a needler out of his claws. Scooping up some needler ammo from a dead combat form, he rushed off to the side of the valley where the towering mesa offered him plenty cover, and called back over his shoulder. The remaining Hunter nodded and refused to turn his back to the sniper. As for the annoying little Pegasus, a team of Grunts and Jackals came to defend the last Hunter's rear, letting loose their array. Yelping, the Pony shot off, being chased by many pretty colours.

*****

Taking cover behind a large boulder topped with snow, Fluttershy crouched and reloaded her bazooka. Discarding the empty rocket case, she was left with four rockets; two in the launcher and two in the other case.

She poked her head out from behind the boulder, using her left hoof to support her mechanical arm in holding the weapon. She had a good view of the second tank, and the Covenant foot soldiers that defended the thing with their lives, but then something else entered the shot.

A Jackal went surging up to the Wraith, dragging a fuel rod gun through the snow. His head hung down his back and his eyes hung out his sockets. As he and his fellow freakazoids absorbed the blow of a dozen Covenant weapons, he pounced high into the air, firing FRP after FRP at the lumpy purple tank.

After being shot to death by the Covenant ground troops, his mutated carcass found its landing spot, right in the Wraith's main gun. The troops yelled and waved their arms at the Wraith, shouting for it not to fire, but it was too late. The operator pushed the pedal, and the top of the Wraith bloomed open like a spring flower. Blue flames wavered around in the breeze, burning away at the purple metal.

Puzzled, the spying Fluttershy brought up a hoof to shield herself from the heat, hesitant to pull the trigger. "... Oh, good, it's down. One less job for me, hm-hm."
"Think again, Fluttershy," pronounced the AI. "It's still operable."
"Huh?"

Fluttershy didn't need to look down her scope; she just needed to wake up more. The Wraith MBT was indeed still on the move, with massive blue fire reaching high into the air. The secondary gunner had been pulverised, but a rookie Elite came jumping up to take the dead Grunt's place, firing down into a swarm of Flood. Once he was seated, the driver did the only thing he could do, and used the burning hover tank as a battering ram.

A Jackal was submerged in a sea of the ruptured beings, but luckily for him, he didn't have to suffer the fate as the Wraith surged into the gathering at full velocity, completely massacring everything in its path, including a tall tree that toppled over under the Wraith's power. It shook the snowy ground as it came crashing down, crushing three hapless combat forms. One of their arms twitched under the tonne of lumber, still alive.

Taking careful aim, Fluttershy kept the reticule locked to the Wraith, and let a rocket fly. But the Wraith moved out of shot, and her rocket flashed past every single Covie and Flood, only to detonate harmlessly against the mesa at the opposite side of the canyon.
"Oops."
Unbeknownst to her, she'd almost hit the Zealot, and the gold armoured Elite shielded himself from tumbling debris.

As she turned to take up a new position on the other side of the boulder, Twilight alarmed, "Enemy contacts, in the corridor behind us! There's a lot of them, so you know what that means!"
Giving the Wraith a break, Fluttershy spun back around to point the launcher at the high Forerunner door in the cliff to the left. 'Twas the door she'd exited to gain access to the valley the first time she was here.

Too dumb to use the controls, the obvious hostiles pounded at the metal door, denting it outwards and cracking it, revealing their hideous tentacles.
"As soon as that door opens; let em have it!"

A piercing crash marked the door's destruction, and sure enough, the Flood came out to play, and were immediately under fire from the Covenant. Fluttershy's rocket put all the plasma guns and needlers to shame however, as she succeeded in eliminating over a third of the gibbering horde.

But that was the last rocket in the chamber, and she relied on the Covenant to divert the Flood's attention as she reloaded.
"Hurry, hurry!" Twilight strained, not helping her nerves.
She sweated as she dithered about ejecting the spent tubes and adding the new ones. The last ones. Not unless you counted the ones Fleur was keeping back at her sniper nest.

With two fresh rockets in the tubes just raring to be fired, Fluttershy pointed the bulky weapon at the pouring Flood and blew them all into scraps. Scraps that came raining down over her head and wetting her pink mane with horrible green blood.

As she swished her scruffy hair in an attempt to shake the pieces of rotten flesh out, Twilight spoke, "That's that taken care of, but now the Covenant have our location! Fall back!"
Panting, the yellow Mare dashed back to her stolen vehicle, powered it up, and abandoned the boulder, just as a Jackal announced his presence and needler rounds smashed into the back of her shielded head, making her grunt each time.

Out in the open on her teeny Ghost, Fluttershy had many problems to deal with. She was in the thick of the Flood, and they came leaping up to crush her, firing Covenant and UPSC weapons in her general direction. Two infected Ponies launched themselves up and bumped into each other mid leap. Together, they fell back down to Halo, and were splattered to death by the rogue Wraith.

"Aaaaah!" Fluttershy screamed, speeding through the snow, the Wraith right on her tail.
"Don't worry about the main gun!" shouted Twilight over the clamour. "Just don't let it run you over!"

The Ghost was faster than the Wraith, and Fluttershy was able to get clear of the flaming titan easily enough. However, when the secondary gunner opened up with the plasma cannon, things became a little complicated.

She screamed as her Ghost was hit by the plasma bolts, and her shields began to flare as well.
"Evasive manoeuvres! Evasive manoeuvres!" urged Twilight, making the frightened Mare zigzag the Ghost left to right, left to right, slowing it, letting the Wraith catch up.

Up ahead, the mesa came up fast, and Fluttershy performed whatever the equivalent of a power-slide is for a hovercraft. Hitting the pedal, she was able to squeeze out from between the rock and the Wraith before being converted to a sparkly purple and yellow pancake. She almost ran down the gold armoured Elite that'd strayed away from his army, and instead ended up making his life easier by running down a Flood infected Pony.

The pursuing Wraith crabbed sideways whilst rotating after the Ghost, allowing it to stay in the chase. The Flood came racing up to latch on to the tank, and the secondary gunner lived a nightmare as he was forced to murder what had been his own brethren.

Using the plasma cannon one handed, the rookie Elite used his other hand to grasp the invaders' appendages and hurl them off the tank. This was helped by the driver suddenly hitting the brakes, and most of the malformations went tumbling to the snow. Before they could rise and make a second run on the tank, he hit the gas, and ran them all over. Any Flood that were left on the burning vehicle were tossed overboard by the secondary gunner.

Fluttershy had gotten away, and was safe for now. She parked up by Fleur, who was still humiliating the Covenant in front of the Flood.
Panting, she reloaded the rocket launcher and asked, "How's it going, Fleur?"
The stick thin Unicorn didn't answer; hard at work. Her sniper's reports echoed all around the canyon, ringing in their ears.

Wordlessly, Fleur used her magic to give Fluttershy the last case of rockets, making her have four rockets in total.
"Thanks, Fleur," she gratified before hopping back onto her Ghost.
As she drove away, Twilight hollered, "Keep it up, Fleur, you're doing terrific!"

The AI's praise didn't register much with Fleur; she just kept her head down and did her thing. One thing that did register with her though, was the deep grumble that came from somewhere behind her. As soon as she glanced back, the golden Zealot lashed out at her with his energy sword.

*****

As for Fluttershy, she was back in the thick of the Flood, that just seemed to spawn in the crevices of the cliffs and rush into the middle of the valley.

The Wraith was still her top priority, and as it hurtled by in front of her in a burst of speed, making road kill out of a couple of combat forms, Twilight broadcasted, "We won't get a chance to take position and destroy the Wraith. If we're gonna take it down, we're gonna have to fire a rocket while we're on the move."
The idea didn't sit well with Fluttershy. "Um, Twilight? You're not going rampant, are you?"
"No, Fluttershy, I'm not going rampant. This is a good idea."
A good idea? Really?

Fluttershy wasn't sure if she could pull off what Twilight was getting at, but then the AI said, "Pinkie Pie did it," and made Fluttershy think for a sec.
The late pink Earth Pony was notorious for breaking physics, but some of the stuff she did was actually doable. Was firing a rocket launcher whilst driving a Ghost doable? There was only one way to find out.

The Wraith MBT spun on its axis, the blue firenado swirling around on top. A Flood form jumped up on the tank, but only succeeded in burning itself to death within the mobile inferno. Facing Fluttershy's Ghost, the Wraith boosted, and the secondary gunner sprayed her with plasma once more.

Dodging, Fluttershy steered, and the whole vehicle leaned into the turn, her hock brushing through the snow. Fear became pasted to her face as she was back playing cat and mouse with the all-marauding Wraith.

Twilight jumped at the opportunity that Fluttershy didn't even know was there. "Now's our chance! Aim back and take it out!"
Not sure if now really was their chance, the young Pegasus twisted her torso as much as she could without hurting herself, putting extra strain on her aching stomach, and drove the Ghost one hoofed, with her head turned away. Could things get anymore dangerous?

Of course they could, according to the Flood. One of their Jackal forms came to a landing on the Ghost's hood, shrieking a shriek that no Jackal could make.
"Quick, Fluttershy! T-" the rest of Twilight's words were drowned out by Fluttershy's panic fire.
She set a rocket loose, and it streaked back on a column of smoke, straight past the lumbering Wraith.

The driver of the tank took the hint, and veered off course to tackle the Flood. He'd be back.

Facing forwards, Fluttershy was face to face with the rude hitchhiker, and she screeched at the sight of him. His lower jaw was no longer existent, and the front of his throat and torso had dissolved due to excessive puking, revealing his set of ruptured organs and the parasite nestled within, its tentacles stretching out around his body.

There was no way she was going to use the rocket launcher on a target this close. Clueless as of what to do, she let go of the Ghost's controls completely and thrashed her hooves around, closing her eyes, screaming, praying to knock the Jackal off.

Swooping down from the heavens, Lightning swiped the poorly Covie off the speeding Ghost. "Gochya!"
"Huh?" Fluttershy opened her eyes, confused as to where the ex-jackal had gone.

"Fluttershy! Watch out for that tree!" squealed Twilight frightfully, and Fluttershy's vision blurred in and out of focus on a tree that seemed to be getting closer.
She yelped, "Wah!" and wrapped her hooves around the controls, putting all her strength into hitting the brakes and steering.
Crash! She failed of course.

Smashing head on into the tree, Fluttershy was flung off the Ghost and up against the brown bark, splintering it. Her head became lodged within the wood, and it took a lot of effort to pull herself free. Once her head was out of the trunk, she dropped down onto her dented Ghost. Her shields had been fully depleted, and now she had to wait for them to reach fully charged.

"You ok there, Fluttershy?" checked Twilight, worried.
Shaking the stars free from her mind, the young Mare replied, "Uuhh... I... I think so. Ow!" A delayed twinge made her bring a hoof to her head.
"Good... The Flood are on their way."

Problems, problems, problems. Was there ever not a problem? However, the AI was right, and a whole bunch of the evils came staggering through the snow, raging and twitching.

Not enough time to switch weapons, Fluttershy made use of the last rocket in the launcher and got back on her Ghost without spectating the results.

Her rocket did wipe out a few of them, but there was still much more that came hooting over. Now, it was just a race between them and Fluttershy being able to get the Ghost started. With every turn of the switch, the Flood grew closer, until they were right at her back.

Thanks to whoever was watching over her, the Pegasus was able to get the Ghost RAV up and running, and she spun to mow the lawn with the Flood, heading back to Fleur's position so she could reload. In a flurry of gold light, her shields recharged.
"That was close."
"Can we please not do that again?" whimpered Fluttershy.
"Not unless we have to, and we do have to."
Fluttershy was disconsolate, and she wept a little on her way back to Fleur.

Once she got there, she found that a pitched, one on one death match was underway between Fleur and a Zealot Elite. The Unicorn magiced her sword around in the air, trying to get a stab on the alien, but he was too skilled, and just blocked every attempt she made. Her sniper rifle had been smacked to the ground, so there was no way she could cheat.

"What in the world!"
Twilight didn't have to say anything else for Fluttershy to boost the Ghost right at the Elite. She tensed, bracing for impact, bracing for the guilt of murder she would feel.

Hearing the approaching RAV, the Zealot ducked and side stepped, avoiding both the Ghost and a swing from Fleur's sword.
He even had the cheek to boot Fluttershy out of the Ghost, and she went tumbling to the snow with an "Ouch!"
She landed beside a needler that lay abandoned in the snow, and her shields beeped in warning. That had been one powerful kick!

Continuing the sword fight, the two combatants snarled, trying to kill each other, unwilling to let themselves get killed.

To the second rescue attempt, Fluttershy brought up the shotgun, and pranced over Fleur's parked Ghost to get into position. Boom! She fired. She missed! The Elite had smacked her shotgun aside, and he now held the yellow Pony against his armoured chest with his left arm.

After bonking her on the head with his fist, draining her shields, he moved his sword into position by Fluttershy's throat, threatening to cut her. An evil grin touched his four mandibles, and his teeny sharp teeth were on show for all to see.

Fleur stopped herself before the Zealot and his hostage.
"Kalkeh he'amun ul muno," she demanded in Elite language, stomping her hoof.
The Elite replied back in the same old gibberish, Fluttershy not understanding a word of it.
Terrified, she started, "Um... T-t-twilight? C-c-can you - aah!" the Elite moved his energy blade closer to her skin, and she could feel the heat singing the yellow coat on her neck.
"I can't EMP him; our shields are fully down!"
Twilight sure knew how to read minds.

*****

So, Lightning Dust had just bucked the hell out of an infected Elite, when she turned to check on Fleur. She saw her, along with the Zealot and Fluttershy in his embrace, and grew an uncontrollable urge to crash the party. She heard a slithering sound, and looked down to behold a couple of infection forms crawling out of reach. They gave her an idea.

*****

Back on the mesa, Fleur and the Elite continued to exchange weird alien words. The Unicorn was trying hard, bargaining for Fluttershy's life. She would've learnt how to speak Elite with PONI. Lucky Mare.

"Come on, shields, recharge already," strained Twilight, gagging to unleash an EMP that'd throw the Elite off.

Just then, Lightning sounded her dramatic entrance. "Hey, split-lip!"
The Elite looked up. "Huh?"
Clutched by the tentacles in Lightning's hooves, a Flood infection form struggled for release, being tortured by the amount of food that stood before it.
"Eat this!" She let the parasite drop, and it wrapped its tendrils around the Elite's shiny golden helmet.

Panicking, the fearless Zealot of the Covenant threw away his pink maned doll, just as her shields started to recharge. He swung his sword over his head in an attempt the kill the parasite, but he was miles off. The thing scuttled around his body, and he whimpered affrightedly as he flailed around, trying to remove it.

Since he was distracted, Fleur seized the opportunity to stab him in the gut, and the alien biped howled in agony, falling to the floor. He wasn't howling over the stab wound though. He was howling over the nasty little bug that shot a tendril down his oesophagus and wormed its way through his mouth and inside of him. He choked on the little monster, gipping, unable to puke, until it all came spewing out in commingled purple lumps.

His throaty Elite cry morphed into a horrific Flood shriek, and he sobbed away helplessly as his body became redesigned. His durable gold armour cracked and flew apart to make way for new body parts that the Flood felt he needed.

"Kill him!" cried Twilight urgently.
Fleur raised her sword, but then Lightning stopped her and said, "No! Let him suffer."
"Are you insane?! Kill him now, before his transformation is complete!"
That was enough to motivate Fleur into slicing the mutating pile of flesh, organs and alien armour into two bloody pieces.

Once her messy work was done, Fleur put away her sword, retrieved her sniper rifle, and gave Lightning the evils. "Let him suffer? Are you kidding me?"
"Hey, he was a Covie, alright!" Lightning motioned her braced hoof and winced with the pain. "Seeing Covies suffer makes me all warm n' fuzzy inside."
"What's wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with me?" Lightning repeated, getting in the thin one's face. "I lost half my family to the Covenant, and you think there's something wrong with me for wanting to see them suffer?!"
"I lost family too, but you don't see me toiling with the parasite." Fleur gave the Flood corpse a kick. "Do you have any idea how dangerous these things are?"

Nervously, Fluttershy gratified, "Um, thank you for saving me."
"Does it matter?! We saved Fluttershy!"
"You told me to wait. If I'd've waited any longer, that thing could've killed all three of us, then there'd be no pony left to stop Halo, the Flood."

Fluttershy awkwardly turned away from the row, and saw the burning Covenant Wraith heading straight for them.
She gasped as Twilight articulated, "Uh, guys? Y'might wanna move out of the way."
"Pffft! That thing wouldn't have killed all three of us!"
"You are a fool."

The Wraith tank grew closer and closer to the snowy mesa, on a collision course with the three Mares.
At the top of her artificial lungs, Twilight cried, "Everypony diiive!" thus catching the attention of the arguing duo.

Noticing the boosting Wraith, Lightning and Fleur joined Fluttershy in leaping epically to each side. The heavily armoured behemoth blasted by, exploding the two Ghosts on impact. The top half of the infected Zealot had just risen, three gross wires sprouting from its sheered torso. It became vaporised in a cloud of its own green and purple blood as the burning tank rocketed off the top of the mesa and nose dived into the ground with a jarring crash.

It performed half a front flip before coming to a rest on its roof, crushing the secondary gunner. As for the driver, he punched his way through the hatch and fell to the snow, dragging himself free of the wreckage. He moaned on and on in his language, miserable, trailing blood, holding a hand out.

As the Ponies regrouped atop the mesa, Lightning brought up her pistol, but then Twilight stopped her.
"Let him be."
Glowers from Fluttershy and Fleur made the turquoise Pegasus obey, and she lowered the pistol.
"You wanna see Covenant suffer? There you go."
Watching the miserable Elite sob away was quite depressing, and Lightning said, "Yeah, I don't really wanna watch this."
Fleur turned her head to look at Lightning. "Why not?"
Before the Pegasus could answer, Fluttershy announced, "I'm glad you said that. We're running out of..." yawn, "... Time."

Putting all that bickering behind them, the three musketeers trudged slowly away, leaving the Wraith driver crying to death.

During the walk  to the pile of rocks at the back of the valley where the Banshees had been very sloppily landed, Fluttershy reloaded the bazooka. Two rockets left.

The last batch of Flood came running up. One rocket left.

A lone Hunter was the only Covie to still be alive, and he guarded the Banshees. No rockets left.

Well, that was the end of the rocket launcher, and like a fallen soldier, Fluttershy bid it farewell and left it in the snow.

"One of these Banshees was in an adjacent canyon," Twilight lectured. "A Flood got on board, the pilot lost control, and he crashed into the other Banshee just as it was taking off."
"And they're both still intact?"
"Yep. You'd be surprised at how durable the Covenant's toy box is."
With the encounter with the burning Wraith fresh in her memory, Fluttershy spoke, "Maybe not that surprised."

At once, Fluttershy and Fleur climbed into their chosen aircraft and joined Lightning in the sky. After a calm flight through the snowy canyons, they came up to the landing platform that marked the last pulse generator. The end of the mission.