My Little Vanguard
-1:Rapid Unplanned Disassembly-
Thomas stumbled as some pipes blasted themselves often, firing has into the ship's decaying air, before the very wall they were sat on exploded. Vanguard Mega-Cruisers were among the most lethal of Vanguard ships, but even they weren't prepared for sudden atmospheric entry. 'Sudden atmospheric entry' meaning 'exited Jump in atmosphere at nearly 30 times the speed of sound'. To make matters worse, this planet's atmosphere hardly thinned at all, right up until it actually stopped and became Space. Where the ship was meant to be. The comms system turned on again.
"All hands, this is Captain Gordon, abandon ship! VONS Ram Of Your Gates is losing structural integrity fast and will break up in 15 minutes. I repeat, all hands, evacuate ship, 15 minutes until the VONS Ram Of Your Gates breaks up." Was all that came through before the comms system sparked and the speaker broke off the wall. Thomas hurried through the computers room and slammed his fist into the keypad. Emergency situations were awesome, you could punch anything and it would work. He charged through the door before a piece of ship got torn free and flung into the distance in the room behind him before the door slammed shut. He started to hurry across the -unfortunately- glass exterior walkway, before the opposite door opened to reveal another Vanguard Marine. The Marine gestured for him to hurry, before a piece of the walkway came loose and sucked the Marine out. No going through that way. Stumbling and holding on desperately for dear life, Thomas stepped down and opened the door halfway down the path, throwing himself through before the door shut. Rolling and bringing himself to his feet, he shielded his face as an electrical panel exploded. Or, rather, Diluxum Charge Panel, the Vanguard stopped using electricity several thousand years ago. He half ran, half crouched through the deteriorating room and threw himself through the door, before being hastily hauled to his feet by an Assassin. Escape chamber. He could fire out in a lander pod and have an assured landing, or take his chances and deploy the Mobile Base further towards the back of the ship. When a piece of ship, including four rooms and a couple of unfortunate Marines, got torn free from the chamber, he decided it'd be best to leave now.
He hurried over and quickly dived into one of the escape pods. A couple other Marines and the Assassin followed suit before the hatch closed and sealed itself. A Marine Sniper clambered into the cockpit seat and flicked some switches. Every marine either just sat down or actually strapped him or herself in. The Sniper grabbed a lever, the kind you pull.
"Hold on tight, people!" Was all he said before ripping the lever outwards with all his might. What felt like forever passed before the pod fired out the bottom of the deteriorating cruiser, followed quickly by several dozen more. As the pod shook violently, ripping through the planet's ridiculously thick atmosphere, he saw the Mobile Base fire off too, shortly before the ship actually broke in half. At least they had that. Now concerned with where they were going, he would've hoped to god they weren't falling into a gas giant. Except religion had died also several thousand years ago. So he just hoped.
Luna watched over the kingdom from her balcony. It was a beautiful night. In the distance was Ponyville, the semi-rural town home to Princess Twilight. She could just barely make out the treehouse where said Princess lived. But something seemed amiss on this night. Nothing in the actual kingdom, just her viewing of it. Stepping forward and looking up, she realised what it was-There was a bright orange light some distance away behind her. That was when the booming roar started. It grew louder and louder, and the Palace began shaking. Luna backed off from the edge of the balcony. After a moment of terror a large object, the source of the noise, flew overhead, quite some distance above them but nonetheless massive. It was big, it had a lot of sharp edges, it was noisy, and most of all, it was on fire. Eight dish-like objects sat on the back, none appearing to be doing anything. The massive object illuminated the kingdom as it passed overhead. Several small objects, somewhere around fifty, flung themselves from the bottom of the ship, these ones not flaming and descending at a relatively safe pace. After a short pause, a somewhat larger one separated itself and followed its smaller comrades. The massive creature, or thing, from which they originated flew past the mountains, showering Cloudsdale in a bright orange shower of light as it flew past, vanishing behind the mountains, but not before finishing its show of grandeur with a giant ball of fire and a thunderous boom that shook the palace yet again.
Thomas felt relieved when the lander thumped on solid ground, sitting his head back. The Assassin next to him, however, didn't seem all too bothered. Unstrapping herself, the sleek, black armored supersoldier walked over to the hatch.
"Pilot. Atmosphere readings." Was all she said.
"Uuuh, scans read green. Safe to breathe. Planet's also green too." The Sniper who had landed them commented. Without another thought the Assassin opened the hatch and stepped outside.
"I doubt its green where the Ram landed." One Marine muttered. One by one the ten grey-armored soldiers stepped out of the lander. Unlike Assassins, Marines were not supersoldiers, just normal humans, but the fact their armor both had shields and was a powered armor suit more than made up for it. Thomas observed their surroundings. Almost exactly like Terra. One Marine apparently displayed the same level of confusion as he did, and was scratching the top of his helmet. The Assassin had wasted no time and was atop the lander, scanning the surrounding terrain with her binoculars. After a moment she stopped.
"Civilized colony, south east, three to five kilometers." She muttered to herself.
"Any signs of the Mobile Base?" One Marine asked. Thomas recognized the symbol on his shoulder plate, he was a Sergeant. The Assassin kept turning, and when essentially facing the opposite direction, stopped again.
"Vanguard Deployable Base spotted. North east, two kilometers." She called.
"Okay, Marines, you know the drill, let's head to the base." The Sergeant ordered. The Marines slowly started to troop over in the direction of the base, the Assassin nonchalantly tagging along behind. While he didn't get much of a look, Thomas clearly made out 'Anderson' on the Sergeant's chestplate. Thomas shrugged. Never heard of him.
The Marines had been trekking for quite some time before they reached the base. The fact they were trekking through woods was not helped by the fact it was night time. As they approached the base, which had crushed or plainly knocked over quite a few trees on landing, a Marine Sniper saw them, only visible by the faint red light coming from underneath his sniper's scope. After a pause he saw the man stand and perform a symbol above his head with his arms. The Sniper next to Thomas did the same. The sniper standing above the base turned.
"Marine Squad! Outside the main gate!" He called, before turning back around. The troop of Marines continued as the main gate, which looked like a combination of a 21st century garage door and a battleship blast door, unlocked with a wheeze and began to open, the segments of the door clicking and rotating so as to slide into the door receptacles. The Marines walked through, the door reversing the process once they had passed the threshold. A Marine Captain greeted them as the lights flickered.
"Welcome home Marines. Sorry about the lighting, the Base's Diluxum Core got damaged when the ship was, y'know, exploding. You'll live." He shrugged, gesturing over his shoulder. Anderson stepped forward.
"Right. Anyone else arrive? What about the Ram?"
"Uuuh, another squad arrived less than fifteen minutes ago, they're helping the deployment crew fix the Core and get everything running, we're operational, but barely. As for the Ram, we've got nothing so far. Individual suit radios don't have the range to reach it and the Base's antenna isn't up yet, the one already installed got broken by a floor." The Captain scratched the back of his helmet.
"Right. Any way we can help?"
"Ah, no, the squad that arrived earlier is doing just fine. Go lie down or somethin', one of the crew told me the Base's cafeteria is functional if you're hungry." The Captain pointed to another door. Immediately one Marine holstered his shotgun and ran off. After a pause, everyone started to disperse. The Captain came over and walked with Thomas.
"You good, Marine?"
"Yeah, just fine." Thomas responded.
"Okay. Say, your armor hasn't got a scratch on it. You new to the Marines or are you just really good at dodging bullets?"
"Uh, passed training last week. The Ram was actually my first deployment."
"Oh, well, I can tell you that this kind of thing isn't normal, we don't normally jump into atmosphere."
"I guessed, seeing as all that came through the comms was the AI going 'Crap' as soon as she realised what happened."
"Yeah. I wonder where she went. We don't normally let AIs go down with their ship, they're too valuable."
"Maybe someone in one of the landers got it."
"Let's hope so. Well, see you around, Marine." The Captain waved before heading off. Thomas opened a door and headed up a flight of stairs. There were markers all over the base dictating where different parts were, so it wasn't hard to find the dormitories. Picking one at random, he headed in to find a Marine there, clicking her boots on. From the fact her armor was heavier than the normal Vanguard Armories Powered Armor, he guessed she was either a Heavy or a Sapper.
Twilight stared out her window in confusion, as she had been for about half an hour. The entire town had been woken by a bright light and a loud thunderous roar passing overhead, and she'd been harmlessly stargazing when a massive metallic thing, engulfed in flames, had flown overhead and landed somewhere in the mountains. The boom had not been quiet. As she tried to see if anything was left there, somebody knocked on her door. Snapping out of her thoughts she headed downstairs to see not one but three ponies, Ranbowdash, Applejack and Lyra, of all people.
"Hey, Twi, you see the big thing that passed over town?" AJ asked.
"I don't think anyone missed it."
"Know what it is?"
"Not a clue. Certainly didn't look like an asteroid, too uniform in appearance."
"Wait, what?" Lyra asked.
"I saw it clearly as it passed by, I was...observing. The stars. Yeah, that works."
"Right. So, it's not a space rock?"
"Didn't look like it."
"Aliens?" Rainbow asked.
"Don't be preposterous, aliens don't exist, at least not within such as ridiculously, unfathomable distance that-" Twilight started.
"Okay, Twi, we get it." Applejack raised a hoof.
"What should we do?" Lyra asked."
"We should probably alert the Princesses, but I get the feeling they already know." Twilight shrugged, looking over at Canterlot in the distance. At that moment Spike, burping with every step, tumbled down the staircase, landing with a thump at the landing.
"Twilight, I got a-" he moaned before burping again, this time louder, a letter ejecting from his mouth in the usual fashion. Twilight turned and walked over, picking up and unrolling the letter with her magic, her friends following.
"Uh, ok..." Twilight blinked.
"What does it say?" Rainbow asked. Twilight turned the letter to allow them to read it:
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
As you most likely know, a large, strange object passed over Equestria less than an hour ago. Consulting Princess Luna, I have discovered this object is by no means natural, and she did not create it. She also said it was artificial; someone not of this world created it. To make things stranger, she also said she detected no magic of any sort in it, which makes no sense at all. Princess Luna has also told me several small objects separated themselves from the object before it crashed and, in all essence, exploded. I am assembling a force of guards to head to the site of the largest object, and I would like you to come with me and my sister tommorrow. If you must, you may bring your friends as well.
The trio in front of the letter blinked in mild confusion.
"So it is aliens?" Rainbow asked again.
"So it would seem." Twilight shrugged, putting the letter on the table. There was a pause.
"Anyone want to come?" Twilight asked.