Chapter 19: A Daring Plan
It was the third day being cooped up in their rooms. Ruwa had taken to pacing impatiently back and forth in her room. Tiran worried that she might run a trough in her floor if she kept it up much longer.
He had taken to a slightly different way to pass the time. Namely, nursing the warm beers still left in his own room, out of her sight. She didn't like him drinking, especially now. She'd expressed as much when he'd first cracked open a beer, so he'd been doing it without her knowledge.
Occasionally, he would risk a peek out his own window. The lights in the forest were getting closer, they were almost against the mountain's walls. The pop and rattle of gun fire louder. To him, it seemed like it was becoming a siege. But to what end?
Tiran silently contemplated this as he enjoyed the small buzz of the alcohol. As far as he knew, this wasn't his fight. If he could just get out of this room and down to the hangar, he might be able to jump in the Cloudburst and get away. Maybe the M-drive still worked and would get him back home.
But that would also mean leaving Ruwa behind to whatever fate awaited those here. Tiran felt odd that he would consider that, he still barely knew her. And yet, she had helped him so much without even the slightest hesitation.
Then there were the questions. Questions pulled from the deep depths of his mind by the hooks of information cast at him by that Princess Luna. The ones about alleged family previously arriving in this place. Tiran had to admit, it did explain some things, if he could believe it. But he wanted more.
Tiran knew one thing. He wouldn't get any answers rotting in this room. He needed to get out. He needed to fly, all the way to Canterlot and yank the answers from the Princesses' mouths if need be. But how to go about doing it?
Knocks on his door. Weighty and familiarly imposing. Tiran put his drink down and stood up as the door unlocked and swung inward without prompting. Sparks stepped inside. Tiran smiled.
He might get out after all. If he wasn't there to imprison him further.
"We're moving you." Sparks said without preamble.
"Oh?" Tiran replied, his spirits confusedly rising and falling as he tried to figure out which it was.
"Yes, our location is compromised. We need to get everypony out and destroy everything, scorched earth policy."
Tiran's heart froze. He thought he was about to keel over. Scorched earth could only mean one thing. They were going to destroy the Cloudburst behind their retreat, total asset denial. He couldn't let that happen. Wouldn't.
"You can't!" Tiran protested.
"We don't have a choice!" Sparks shot back. "This station only had minimal staffing to begin with and we don't have a viable means with which to defend it," he put with a tiredness Tiran hadn't heard from him before. "We've underestimated our enemies."
That was something to take in. Tiran grabbed his drink and downed the rest of it in one gulp. If Sparks cared about him drinking alcohol at a time like this he didn't show it. Tiran tossed the empty bottle into the bin, not caring when it shattered against the rim.
"You destroy the Cloudburst, then you destroy any chance of me getting out of here!" Tiran shouted.
"I'm sorry," Sparks said, shocking Tiran with words he had never expected to here from this stallion, given their short time knowing each other. "We just don't have a choice. Our enemies are about to breach our defenses at any moment now and I can't waste more soldiers in a battle I know I'm not going to win. You and Ruwa have half an hour to get your effects together, then we pull out," he added with a grave finality. The door slammed shut behind him as he left.
Tiran almost thought he could feel an actual blanket of despair fall over him. It was so thick, he felt as if he needed to physically throw it off. He settled for punching a hole through his desk.
The thick wood gave easily away as the fist of his left hand plowed through it in a burst of shards and splinters. He pulled his hand back up, inspecting the damage to it, not caring for the desk. Slivers of wood still lay embedded in his artificial skin. Something leaked out of one of the wounds and Tiran almost went to lick it when he stopped himself at the sight of the sickly green sealant dripping out like tears. Quick Fix really had done a good job on his arm in the lab.
But she still hadn't adjusted the force feed back.
Tiran's left arm and hand were still much stronger than their counterparts. He imagined he could even break the thick door of his implied cell down. Then he could get down to the labs. But there were still guards out there. He needed them gone.
"Tiran?" Ruwa called from the next room. "Everything ok in there?"
A devilish idea formed in Tiran's mind, "Ruwa. I need you're help with something."
* * *
"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Ruwa asked with justified skepticism.
"Just follow the plan," Tiran said. "Do your thing, I'll bust out, you tell them I said something about getting my gear from the armory and when they leave to chase after me, you go to the hangar where we'll meet up. Li, I need you to access the Cloudburst's systems as soon as we're in range."
"Affirmative," she chirped.
Ruwa still gave him a doubtful look. He had to admit, it wasn't the best plan, but it was the best he could come up with at the moment. Plus, it didn't need to work for very long.
"Alright," Ruwa conceded. "But after this, you owe me."
"Sure, sure, whatever." Tiran said, turning away so she could get ready for her performance in private.
Outside, the sounds of battle drew closer.Sparks was right about them running out of time. Tiran even thought he heard a few stray bullets strike the walls outside his window a few times. If this plan didn't work, he'd probably be screwed any way.
"All right, I'm ready!" Ruwa called from behind him.
Tiran went back out into his own room and closed the door behind him, locking it. He crouched by the door to the hall, loosing his balance a little and steadying himself on the wall with his hand. Tiran suddenly regretted drinking all those beers. He might trip over himself and throw the whole plan to shit.
He stiffened as he heard Ruwa's door creak open, imagined her poking her head out with her get-up barely visible behind the door. A wet mane and a loose towel draped around her midsection.
"H-hey b-boys," he heard her say. "I-I uh, c-could use a little h-help in here. I-If you don't mind."
Tiran rubbed his hand on his face in embarrassment. The whole plan hinged on her performance and on how disciplined the guards outside his door were. If she screwed it up...
"U-uh, sure, I can help, miss." Tiran was surprised to hear one guard say, nervousness in his voice.
Tiran's breath caught. This might actually work.
"We can't leave here, Flex!" The other guard said, causing Tiran's hopes to shatter. "Plus, you went last time something like this happened!"
"Oh, please!" the other argued. "It's not like that big monkey's going anywhere. And since when has this ever happened?"
"B-boys..." Ruwa said timidly.
"Back in Manehatten!" the second guard said, ignoring her. "On the extraction job, I sat on the package while you went off with those two mares!"
"Boys..." Ruwa said a little louder.
"I went with them for appearances!" the first guard countered, also ignoring her. "We were under cover!"
"Oh, bullsh—"
"Boys!" Ruwa shouted, causing them both to fall silent. "You can both come in and help," she offered with a sweet and enticing voice.
The silence lasted another minute and Tiran wondered if the whole plan was blown. Then his spirits instantly lifted.
"Sounds good..."
"Yeah..."
Two sets of hooves moved off, joined by Ruwa's as they all entered her room and closed the door, locking it behind them.
"So, what can we help you with..."
Tiran didn't wait to listen to the rest. He immediately stood up, cocked his arm back, and drove his fist with as much force as he could muster against the door jamb. The wood split like an overripe melon and allowed the door to crack open a little. Tiran speared his fingers in through the crack and wrenched the door back, eliciting a piercing squeal from the hinges.
In a flash, he was out the door and running down the hall. The synthetic skin of his left hand slapped loosely against Tiran's knuckles, those hits must've really torn it up. But he didn't stop, he couldn't, he had to find the way down to the hangar. Fast.
Most of the empty halls and intersections were a blur and for a moment, Tiran worried that he'd taken a wrong turn some where. But then he started to see some familiar things; a scuffed door he remembered, a crack in the ceiling. he kept following the clues until he happened upon a narrow stair well.
Tiran dove into it without a moment's hesitation. Either it was the right one or it wasn't.
Fortunately, it turned out to be the right one.
After nearly falling down the stairs over his own feet a few times, Tiran burst into the narrow back hall of the hangar. Inside its cavernous space, the echoes of the rapidly approaching battle seemed deafeningly loud. Tiran knew they were going to be louder soon. Much louder.
He wasted no time, running to the door to the lab and tearing it open.
A shot rang out, deafening Tiran, and part of the door near his head exploded in a shower of splinters. He dove to the ground and slid under a table in the corner, "Wait wait, don't shoot!" he shouted.
"Tiran? Is that you?" a familiar voice responded with a quaver in it.
Tiran pulled himself from under the table and stood with his hands up in the least threatening posture he could manage. Quick Fix was in the other corner. A gun was held in a shimmering aura created by her solid and steady. Her body, however, was shaking like a rock tumbler.
"Easy now, Q," Tiran said. "I'm a good guy, remember?"
"Oh, thank Celestia!" she said at the sight of him, eyes still wide in fear. "I thought. I thought-"
"It's ok, Q. Give me the gun."
"The gun?" She looked at it as though she had only just noticed it. "Oh. Yeah. Here." She floated it over to Tiran and he took it, inspecting the ancient weapon. "What's going on out there?" she asked him. "Are we leaving? Did they let you go?"
Tiran glanced out into the hall. It didn't look like he'd been followed yet. "Uh... I wasn't exactly let out."
"It's just as well." Quick Fix said, turning from him and tossing some items from her lab into a bag. From the looks of it, she had just started when he barged in. "I got Flicker out on the pad in one of the airships. He's going to fly us out." She turned to him, deep concern on her face. "Where's Ruwa?"
"She'll be here in a minute." Tiran assured her. "I need my suit, Quick Fix, where is it?"
"Your suit?" She paused, thinking to herself. "Oh, yes. Your suit!" She hurried over to a large cabinet, packing temporarily forgotten, and threw it open. "Fortunately, I thought to put it back together. I took a few liberties with it, hope you don't mind." She left it open and went back to her packing.
Tiran went over to the cabinet and pushed the doors open a little further. There was his suit, complete and whole. The under garments were hung up right next to it. Tiran immediately grabbed them and started stripping down. His thoughts briefly flicked towards the unicorn mare still in the room with him, but he didn't know how much time he had. Modesty didn't matter much in this situation, he decided.
Just then, the sound of galloping hooves race up the corridor, accompanied with Ruwa's angry voice, "Tiran, I swear to Luna's moon if you ever make me do something like that again, I'll— Oh my gosh!! Tiran!!!"
Still pulling his underpants from his ankles, Tiran turned to find Ruwa staggering back and frantically covering her eyes with her wings, her mane still wet and matted.
"Oh, it's not that bad!" he snapped. "Now hurry up and help me with the suit!"
"H-help y-you..."
Tiran glared back at her as he pulled the under suit up his legs and saw through the gaps in her feathers that she was desperately trying to control a deep red blush that had come unbidden to her face.
"I'll help you." Quick Fix said, having finished her packing. "Ruwa, watch the hall."
"O-ok."
With Quick Fix's help, Tiran was suited up and ready to go in no time. He carried the helmet against his side in one arm while the other check the pistol Quick Fix had given him after nearly blowing his head off. They all walked out to the hangar to a waiting airship spun up and ready to go, filling the hangar with a loud drone. Quick Fix was to Tiran's right with a bag over her back and Ruwa on the left, trying not to catch Tiran's eye.
When they were half way there, Tiran stopped and put a hand on Quick Fix's shoulder, "Take Ruwa with you, keep her safe," he said over the buzz of the propellers
"That goes without saying," she scoffed. "Wait, where're you going?"
"I'm getting my bird outta here!"
Quick Fix looked at Tiran like he'd suddenly gone crazy. Then turned to the frightened Ruwa. Behind her, Flicker stepped leaned out the open side door of the airship. "Hurry up!" he shouted at them.
Quick Fix dropped her bag and dug around in it. "Here," she said, tossing Tiran his gauss pistol. "Make it out of here, got it?" she said sternly.
"You got it." Tiran said with conviction.
Quick Fix turned away from him and pulled the still shocked Ruwa along. Tiran watched them go for a moment, reassuring himself, watching them climb into the airship. As soon as they were in and the airship began to lift off, he sprinted for the Cloudburst.
The airship slid out the hangar bay doors and Tiran bounded up into the cockpit, hitting the button to fold the ladder. "Li, are you integrated with the cloudbust's systems?"
'Affirmative. Diagnostics run complete. Starting boot...'
Tiran began to route power and jack the reactors as Li got the computers up to speed. The Cloudburst seemed to happily hum and whine with new energy, like it was a young pup about to set out on its own for the first time. He finally reached for the last set of switches, the ones that would put a burn in the engines, and flipped them all up.
All the displays went painfully bright and a keening rattle and wail pierced the air. Tiran immediately shut the engines down, alternating between that and blocking his ears. He wished he'd had the foresight to put his helmet on first, to at least spare his hearing.
"Li, what was that?' Tiran asked.
'Wait one...'
Tiran waited, albeit impatiently. He leaned out the cockpit, glancing towards the hangar doors and the back stair well. If he listened carefully, he thought he could hear the sounds of battle approaching. He wanted to be out of here well before then.
A status alert chirped, the right engine flashing yellow on its display, 'I'm detecting debris in the intakes,' Li announced.
Tiran cursed under his breath. The engines wouldn't start with crap stuffed up in them. Even if he overrode the program, they would be torn to hell.
Cursing even more, Tiran swung out of the cockpit and ran around the side runners, leaving his helmet sitting just outside the cockpit. The main intakes were settled above the roots of the wings, along the dorsal fuselage. he carefully climbed in, gently sliding up the intake tube, barely wide enough for his shoulders.
It was dark in there, and being in there with the reactor running made Tiran very nervous. Thoughts of the engines suddenly firing on their own and sucking him in, chopping him up and roasting the pieces clouded his mind.
Tiran crawled up as far as he could go to the large fan blades. He flipped a light attached to his suit on and peered inside. Something shiny and metal gleamed in the light behind the slats. Tiran reached in with a hand and groped around, grasping the object as his fingers bumped it. He pulled it out.
It was a wrench.
Tiran muttered something foul under his breath about a certain mechanic and started to wiggle out from the intake, wrench still clenched in his hand. A staccato of gun shots echoed out in the great space behind Tiran. He paused, listening.
Those were too loud to have come from outside.
He waited with bated breath. Listening as a clatter of hooves echoed throughout the hangar. Tiran wondered if they were from the soldiers stationed here. Or if...
"Rocky! Secure the stairs! We don't want any of those RSTG flank holes coming up behind us."
"But don't we have other teams up there?" another voice questioned.
"You questioning me!?" the first said, exploding with anger. "These guys are pros, you want one we missed coming down here and blasting out the back of your skull?'
"N-no boss, right on it!"
A set of hooves rushed back towards the stairs. The rest continued into the hangar.
"Aw, hay, looks like some got away in one of the airships." the voice in charge said with disappointment.
Tiran figured these were definitely not some of the good guys. He gently placed the wrench on the floor of the intake and reached for his pistol. He thumbed the battery on, hoping its short whine wasn't loud enough to be heard.
He tried to guess how he could make it out of this decidedly pear shaped situation. he didn't know how many were out there, but at a guess, the voices indicated at least three, but the number of hoof steps he was hearing pointed at more. Tiran hoped beyond hope that they would see the hangar was empty, get bored and leave.
"Hey boss, check out this weird airship!" one of them said.
Tiran silently cursed his luck.
"Well, would'ja look at that..."
Tiran heard the group of them approach. one of them pounded on the Cloudburst's side, causing Tiran to flinch with each impact. he winced as he heard his helmet dislodge from its precarious position on the side runner and crack onto the deck.
"Li," Tiran sub vocalized, "lock it down."
"What the?" Tiran heard one of them exclaim over the whine of compressors and hydraulics as the Cloudburst shut its canopy and locked all the flight controls. "This thing's movin' on its own!"
"Quiet!" the boss voice growled. "Somepony's still here. Spread out!"
Tiran listened as the group dispersed, heading off in different directions, away from the Cloudburst. if they moved far enough away, if he could keep out of sight, then maybe he might be able to make a run for it, try to get to the hangar doors. Then... then what? There weren't many options after that.
Still, he had to try something.
Tiran clipped the pistol back into its place on his leg. He tried slowly, ever so slowly, to back himself out, making his way inch by inch. His feet were close to the mouth of the intake. He just needed to slide out onto the fuselage, drop to the deck and run like hell.
Tiran felt his elbow bump something loose. He looked down and saw the wrench start to slide down the intake shaft. He panicked and clawed for it, but wasn't quick enough.
The molded bar of steel skittered down the intake, much too loudly, fell over the lip and dropped to the ground, landing with a violent and echoing clang.
"What was that!?" Some one said from one corner of the hangar.
"Over there!"
Tiran went for broke. He pushed himself bodily out of the intake and fell straight to the deck. He landed hard on his ass and immediately bounced to his feet, scrambling for the hangar doors, swiping his helmet up from where it had rolled under the aircraft.
"Stop right there!" A gruff voice said behind him.
Tiran considered ignoring the order, but the familiar clack of a slide being rocked back made him stop. Tiran slowly raised his hands and turned around as a cacophony of clattering hooves ran over to where he was; almost to the doors, but not quite.
As Tiran came about, about five stallions ran up to greet him, knives and guns in hoof and shimmering aura. They were a ragged bunch, armed with mismatching weapons and what looked like really old body armor. The type of armor that would be useless against more modern weapons, but would work just fine against the type of firearms he'd seen in this world so far.
The one Tiran assumed to be the leader stepped forward. He was taller than the others and appeared to have a scruff of stubble around the muzzle.
"So, what do we call you?' he said.
"Tiran."
"Tiran, huh? Funny name. What's with the fancy get up?" He prodded Tiran's chest with the barrel of his weapon.
Tiran took a few tentative steps back.
"Whoa there, where you think you're going?" The stallion responded by pointing his weapon at Tiran's face.
Tiran jammed his helmet on his head and did the clasps, the stallion jumped back and adopted a snarl.
Tiran put his hands back over his head, wondering if his suit would stop bullets. "Easy, now," he said in the calmest voice he could, which didn't translate well through the helmet's speakers. "I don't wanna get hurt. I just wanna go home."
The stallion's face took a look of malicious amusement, "Go home? Oh no, you're not going anywhere. Big boss gonna wanna see you."
"I'd really rather not," Tiran said, slowly lowering his hands and taking another few steps back.
"You ain't gotta choice, son. Now why don't you hand over any weapons you got and come along nicely." He glanced to the others to his side, "Roper, Slide, restrain our guest."
Tiran had heard enough. He wasn't about to be taken prisoner again. The days spent cooped up in this place were enough. He took one last longing look at the Cloudburst and spun around.
He heard one of them shout behind him. Tiran took the pistol from his leg and fired blindly over his shoulder as he ran, sprinting to the hangar doors. A pained bellow, gun shots, they opened up on him.
Chunks of rock and concrete exploded into the air off the floor around him. A large sledgehammer struck his left shoulder, causing him to stumble, but he kept going. He'd almost made it past the doors when something picked him up off his feet and dangled him upside down in the air.
"Stop shooting, we need him alive!" the leader hollered above the belching guns.
Tiran craned his head and saw it was the leader who was holding him aloft with his strange sickly magic, the rest were advancing on him. Tiran pulled up his pistol, took aim and fired.
The boss shouted in unimaginable pain and dropped as the round tore through his side. Tiran dropped at almost the same moment, the magic abruptly releasing its grasp on him. He landed on his head with a loud crack that echoed in his ears, but was saved by his helmet.
Tiran jumped to his feet and continued his sprint out the wide doors. If he could just make it out, get to some spot he could hide.
The edge of the cliff advanced, hard to see in the dark twilight hours. Tiran planted his feet and slid to a stop at its edge. He looked down at the roiling forest of midnight green far below, the forest dark and foreboding.
Maybe he could find a place to climb down, disappear into the woods. He was sure there would be some kind of escape somewhere, if only he could—
A loud bang, Tiran's back arched. Pain, searing unfathomable pain erupted in his side. He stumbled forward, teetering on the edge. Tiran turned around in a haze of hurt, tried to step forward, back to solid ground. Another bang, a bright flash and something heavy and invisible punched him in the chest, blowing him back.
He fell.
Weightlessness over took him. The edge of the cliff receded, seemingly of its own accord.
So that's what it feels like to get shot, Tiran's pain filled mind thought as he fell though inky nothingness.
He lazily enjoyed a few more moments of weightlessness through the fog of pain as he fell, the sensation churning his insides in odd ways. The air clawed and tore at his helmet, becoming a rushing, roaring howl. The noise of the end of the world in his ears.
Suddenly, he felt his armor lock up, rendering him unable to move. Then pain worse than the gunshot spiked through his body as the pressure increased all over. Tiran felt organs squeezed, the blood forced to his head clouding his mind in a red haze.
And then, the world shut off.