“Stop the pony!”
“It's making its way to the engine room!”
“Incoming! I c-can't—Aaaauckkk!”
Roarke's helmet headbutted into a sprawling goblin guard. His body crumpled to the battleship's lower deck with a sickening crack.
A throng of imps lined up and fired their rifles all at once.
Roarke deflected one bullet, dodged the rest, jumped, kicked off the wall, and sailed at the group.
One goblin ran off, shrieking. The other two swung their weapons at her like clubs.
Roarke raised a hoof, snapped one rifle in two, then slammed the first goblin's face with a right hook. Next, she spun, tripping another goblin with her sweeping tail-cable. Just as she prepared to advance, a wall of bullets from further down the hallway made contact with her. Sparks flew from her suit as each projectile made contact. A panel or two of armor sparkled, and she lurched forward, cracks forming across her helmet.
“Scrkkkkt!” Roarke's helmet hissed as she struggled for balance. The metal mare looked up in time to see several goblins charging her way, swinging staves and electrified wrenches.
Roarke blocked one attack. As she deflected the goblin, she popped loose a miniature rocket launcher from her shoulder and fired. A slug fired into belly, propelling his screaming body far across the hallway where he exploded into his yelping comrades. Before Roarke could move, another attacker swung low at her legs, sending jolts of electrical energy surging into her suit from his wrench. She stumbled to the side, her systems failing sporadically as the electricity ran its course. Two more imps came in, slamming her across the helmet and spine.
“Get her!” the imps shouted.
“Kill the bitch!”
“Rip her stinking heart out!”
Roarke collapsed on her armored belly. Her limbs spasmed from within the failing armor pieces. She wheezed and panted inside her helmet as the goblins hammered and impacted her from all sides. Just as vents of steam burst from various parts of her outfit, she looked ahead, spotting a heavy pair of armored doors closing towards a brightly illuminated chamber. The engine room loomed straight ahead, and its seal was closing.
Snarling for strength, Roarke swept her hoof up, tripping one goblin as she reached for a panel on her shoulder and twisted it. A backup energy core in the flank of her armor hummed to life. Mana conduits redirected heat through her suit and erupted at the bottoms of her hooves. Just as they ignited, she hoisted her forelimbs around two gasping goblins.
With a blast of flame and exhaust, Roarke glided down the claustrophobic corridor. She carried two flailing goblins with her, using their bodies as battering rams as she smashed and slammed through throngs of shrieking crew members. Blood and bone kissed the air. At last, with an ashen burst of fire, she squeezed through the tiny space within the closing door. Roarke entered the engine room whole. Her two goblin combatants didn't; their limbs and organs drenched the immediate engineers, paralyzing them in abject terror.
“Grkkk!” Roarke flung her blood-drenched forelimb to the side. Cl-Clak! She produced a manablaster and aimed it at the stunned engineers.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat! A steady stream of bullets poured into her armored body from the side. Roarke toppeled over in a shower of lead and sparks.
Two security guards with miniguns marched down from a higher deck's stairwell, firing relentlessly into the Searonese mare.
She stumbled, quivered, and struggled to get up in her smoking armor pieces. The bullets ricocheted off her helmet, knocking her back so that she toppeled violently into a stack of supply crates. The metal structures imploded and caught aflame from the merciless bullet stream.
Slowly, the two guards closed in on her, punishing her suited body with all the projectiles they could muster. Several feet away, open and exposed, lay the brimming skystone core of the goblin battleship.
“Hrgggh!” Rainbow Dash kicked off the ceiling of the underground corridor and slammed her front limbs against a reindeer's skull. Wham!
As the guard fell dazedly to the floor, Rainbow slumped in place, panting. She looked up through thin ruby eyes. Her vision was becoming hazy. In the foreground, she knew she could make out the surging shadows of Jake, Floydien, and Midnite Bastion. But, from an incalculable distance, a lavender symbol pulsed and shimmered. Gnashing her teeth, Rainbow ignored Yaerfaerda, instead choosing to shout:
“The cocoons! Forget the guards! We gotta smash as many of those as we can and get out of here!”
“This is only a sliver of the soldiers they'll be sending after us!” Midnite hollered, deflecting one guard with a staff before knocking the wind out of his lungs. “We need to make a hasty retreat before they overtake us!”
“Overtake us my fat flank cakes!” Jake shouted, blocking several manablasts with his widespread antlers while Floydien shot crimson blasts past him. “I've got this in the bag like kittens and STDs!”
“This is no joke, Constable!” Midnite shouted, knocking a pair of guards back and blocking their blasts with the polearm. “Grnngh... We're useless if we're stuck down here!”
“Arcanista needs us! All of Val Roa does!” Rainbow shouted. “Floydien, take them out, and let's move!”
“Yes yes yes...” Floydien squatted beside Jake, squinting his eyes as he aimed his antlers forward. “Less spit and more hit!” Fl-Flash! Electrical beams flickered across the tight chamber like red lightning.
Bruised and groaning guards limped out of the way as the mana-blasts found themselves into the first several remaining cocoons. The green shell melted, bursting from the inside with emerald flame.
“Grrrnngnh!” On the floor, several yards away, Saikano groaned and clutched his head. He tilted his face up, seething with flickering eyes. His gaze fell on Floydien, then on Rainbow. Struggling up to his front hooves, he crawled his body over towards a metal panel in the wall. Using his antlers, he yanked the thing open, exposing several buttons and levers. The General slapped a hoof over a quartet of buttons in a specific pattern. Dim lights flickered in response, and then he grasped a lever, yanking it.
Schwissssh! SLAM! A solid metal wall slammed down at the furthest end of the corridor, blocking off the last two cocoons as it separated the end of the chamber from the rest of the hallway.
Midnite gasped. “Oh no!”
“Oh no what?!” Rainbow sputtered, teetering from a dizzy spell. She clutched her head. “Nnngh... Celestia...”
“He's sectioning off the corridor with fire barriers!” Midnite hollered. She smacked another guard aside and galloped across the battle-strewn corridor towards him. “We gotta stop him!”
“No! The cocoons! Take out as many as...” Rainbow's eyes rolled back. She fell to her chest, overcome with nauseous dizziness. “Mmmmf... Celestia, please... not now...”
“The Hell is wrong with femme-fuzz?!” Jake grunted, sweating.
“Floydien!” Midnite hollered in mid-gallop.
“Floydien sees it!” The elk fired at the next cocoon.
Saikano pulled another lever.
Schwissssh! Guards rolled aside—gasping—as another metal wall slammed down, nearly impaling them. It blocked Floydien's last blast before he could incinerate another cocoon.
“Sp-spit!”
“Girl, your dad's really harshing my moose buzz!”
Midnite snarled. “He's not my father!” She charged straight at him.
Saikano made eye contact. With a pulsing green gaze, he sneered, “The only thing a father would feel for you... is shame.” And he pulled the next lever—Schwisssh!—separating them.
Midnite skidded to a stop, her panting muzzle nearly slamming into the barricade. With half of the corridor sectioned off already, the quartet was separated from the bulk of the guards on the other side. She slowly turned around, gawking down the rest of the corridor. Her eyes traveled up to the ceiling. She saw the next seam above them where a wall would come down, sealing them off with no exit.
“Constable!” her voice cracked, just as a hum of mana ran through the ceiling's manaconduits.
Jake was already twirling around. “Politics!” He galloped at full speed, storming over the bodies of Rainbow Dash and multiple guards.
The wall ahead of them slid down. Schwissh— CLANK! The moose caught it with his heavy antlers.
“Rrrrgh-grrrggggggh!” Jake's muzzle contorted in agony as he locked his legs, battling with the servos and gears of the door mechanism. “Aaaaaagh—God... DAMN I gotta get that hernia operation!”
“Nice catch, Constable!” Midnite stammered, galloping past him. “Rainbow, Floydien! There's an exit in the next chamber! We've done all we can here! Let's move before—”
“Color wheel boomer!” Floydien stammered.
“Huh?!” Midnite's gaze spun. She gasped. “Rainbow!”
“Guhhhh...” Rainbow curled up in a fetal position, her pendant flickering as her eyes rolled back in their sockets. “Luna poop... fight through it... fight through it.”
Midnite skidded to a stop beside the mare. “What in the Hell is wrong with her?! Did she get hit?”
“Yes yes yes...” Floydien's nostrils flared as he trotted over, sweating. “Hit in the gut gut with harmony.”
“Huh?” Midnite gawked at him. “Is this something that happens to her normally?”
“There's nothing normal that rides Nancy Jane's backside.” Floydien frowned. “Floydien's surprised it hasn't happened already.”
“Will she be okay?!”
Floydien had no response.
“Rainbow... Rainbow!” Midnite leaned down, breathless. “Can you hear me?! We have to get out of here!”
“Can't... c-can't feel...” Rainbow hissed through her teeth. “Too much... j-just go...” She wheezed, ears folded back. “Yaerfaerda... so bright...”
“Yaerfaerda....?” Midnite made a face.
“I hate to break the already sour mood,” Jake growled. “But I'm rather f-fond of my antlers...” His legs buckled as the wall shoved down against him with a grinding of motors.
Midnite Bastion gulped. “Floydien—”
“Floydien could use a hoof from charcoal boomer.” The elk was already lifting Rainbow up with his muzzle.
Midnite reached in, hoisting the pegasus up and over Floydien's flanks.
“Go go go!” Jake sputtered.
The three scurried out from under the collapsing wall. Once they were clear, the Constable gave a prolonged yell and rolled aside with them. SLAM! The wall impacted the metal floor behind them.
Shuddering, the moose stood back up, wiping his brow beneath aching antlers. “The next time we raid a place, let's choose a sorority slumber party instead.”
“This way, Constable!” Midnite motioned to him and Floydien as she dashed through a side exit in that part of the chamber. “I know a way out of the facility!”
“Well of course you do.”
“Move the boomer's hairy legs!” Floydien snarled, Rainbow flouncing on his backside. “The color wheel is reeling between shimmers!”
Rainbow groaned dizzily as she was draped over his back.