• Published 9th Feb 2012
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My Little Old Republic: The Ord Mantell Deception - AidanMaxwell



Rainbow Dash, Republic trooper, is forced to work with a notoriously odd smuggler named Pinkie Pie.

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Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Fort Garnik, Republic Command Post entrance


Dash waved goodbye to Surprise as her speeder zipped away from the fort, leaving her alone on the busy streets of Fort Garnik. To her immediate left was the Command Post, probably the last place on Ord Mantell Dash wanted to be, but she marched up the concrete ramp and through the doors anyway. Twilight Sparkle was waiting for her inside, sitting in an armchair reading a book. She looked up only when Rainbow approached her.

“Oh, Sergeant. Welcome back. Take a seat with me, relax.” The unicorn set the book down across her legs to hold her page and brushed her bangs away from her eyes before motioning to a chair beside her. “Sorry about your smuggler friend.”

“Pinkie?” Dash clarified, bewildered.

“No, Dash, I meant Lieutenant Wraith,” replied Twilight with a grimace.

“Oh.” She sat down next to the Lieutenant and sighed. “I’m sure she’s okay. I kinda wanna go back and try to find her though.”

“Later, perhaps. Right now we have orders to wait here at the fort, and I don’t intend to deviate from that order. So rest would do you well, too, Sergeant. Sit with me. I’ve got a book that might interest you.”

“Nah, I’m not into reading. Not whatever you’re reading, anyway.”

Twilight shrugged and picked her book back up, scanning the pages at a lightning pace. It seemed peculiar to Dash that her commanding officer was reading an actual paper tome rather than a holobook or listening to an audio file. In fact, a lot of the things around Ord Mantell seemed to be rather old fashioned, like the metal jail cells back in the Separatist base at Mannett Point, or the paper blueprints Surprise had shown her under the hospital.

“Twilight, why is everything here so... old?” Dash asked finally after an awkward moment of silence.

“What do you mean?” Twilight replied, glancing up at the Sergeant warily.

“Your book, for example. It’s paper. Why not a holobook?”

“We use what we have access to, Sergeant. The Republic doesn’t give us diddly-squat for funding out here, so whatever old books are lying around is all we have.”

Dash stood for a moment, mouth agape, staring blankly at her CO. “...Seriously? Twilight, does the Republic even care about Ord Mantell?”

“Enough to station troops,” came the stoic response. “Not enough to station them comfortably.”

“Do you, like, care, at all?”

“Of course I do,” Twilight said, glaring intently into her book. “The Republic shouldn’t just leave Ord Mantell to fend for itself, and the troops we have here deserve far better. But I don’t have the administrative power to do anything it about, so I sit here and follow orders, like a good little soldier. Like you, Sergeant.”

“You feel strongly about this, huh?” Dash asked sympathetically.

“Well, it’s hard not to, with all the unnecessary suffering and pain the troops out here have to deal with because the Republic can’t afford to send a few measly doctors or holobooks. But you do what you can and soldier on, right, Sergeant?”

Dash was about to agree when a squeal from somewhere beyond the room drew both soldiers’ attentions away from the conversation. Another one followed closely after, causing both ponies to stand up and move toward the sound. In the hallway stood a burly Republic officer holding a young Pegasus filly in one hoof and reeling his other back for a punch. On either side of him were two soldiers still in uniform, holding their guns at their sides.

The young filly Dash instantly recognized as Private Scootaloo, the concerned young soldier that had approached her last night.

“And this must be Lieutenant Virk,” Rainbow thought aloud, crossing her hooves across her chest menacingly.

Virk’s head cocked toward Dash and a smile broke out across his face. He dropped Scootaloo and turned toward the Sergeant. “Well well well. A Wonderbolt. Yeah, I’m Lieutenant Virk. I see you’ve heard of me, but then again, we wouldn’t be chattin’ with the Private here if you hadn’t, huh?”

“Lieutenant Virk,” Twilight chirped, “I’m placing you under arrest for murder, assault of a Republic soldier, and dissension of ranks.”

“Oh yeah, Twilight?” Virk sneered. “You and what army?”

The two ponies escorting him raised their rifles toward Twilight, who put her hooves slowly on top of her head. Dash, however, instinctively grabbed her own gun and likewise leveled it with Virk, who also put his hooves up.

“I ain’t scared of you, Virk,” Dash said defiantly. “This ends here.”

“You tell ‘em, Sergeant!” squealed Scootaloo from where she lay on the floor.

Virk’s henchponies trained their rifles on Dash, who, realizing she was outgunned, hesitated from shooting. In the moment of hesitation, Virk himself shot his foreleg down to his holster and whipped out a pistol, aiming it at the Sergeant. “I don’t think you get it, punk. This little island is my kingdom, and you ain’t gonna mess that up for me, ya’ hear?”

Dash rapidly looked from the henchponies to Virk and back again several times before she sighed and dropped her rifle on the floor next to her.

“Much better.” Virk took a step toward Dash and pushed the barrel of his rifle against her neck. “Now, I’d hate to let such a pretty face go to waste, yeah? How’s about you and me go to the back room. I’ve got a few extra credits lying around. We can buy some drinks, have a little party, just you and me. What do ya’ say?”

“Kiss my flank,” Rainbow whispered. Then she spat in the stallion’s left eye, causing him to take a step backwards and scream in surprise. Twilight instantly rolled forward and picked up Dash’s rifle, spinning in a crouch to look at the very confused underlings that watched the scene unfold in dumbfounded silence. She pressed the trigger twice and released two bursts of fire, downing both ponies in a matter of seconds.

Rainbow Dash followed up her surprise spit attack by ramming her hoof into Lieutenant Virk’s chest, causing him to double over in pain. Then she brought her hind leg up and crushed his chin on her knee while his face was low to the ground. In a fit of pain, Virk stumbled backwards onto the floor and screamed for a few seconds before Twilight brought the butt of Dash’s rifle down on his forehead, knocking him unconscious temporarily.

A bruised Private Scootaloo stood up shakily and smiled a toothy grin. “Thanks for the help, Sergeant. Lieutenant. I really appreciate it.”

“No pony in this base should ever get away with that level of corruption,” Twilight responded with a resolute smile. “We just do what we can-”

“-and soldier on,” Dash finished, winking at Twilight. “Well done, Lieutenant. I didn’t know you had moves like that up your sleeve.”

“I may have told you before that I’m not much of a ‘combat’ type, but I certainly didn’t get to where I am today on good looks and intellect.” Twilight bent down and flipped the unconscious Lieutenant Virk onto his stomach before slapping electrocuffs around his hooves. “And, please, not so formal. We’re on break, remember?”

“Yeah, I forgot.” Rainbow looked over at Scootaloo and returned the admiring smile she saw on the little filly’s face. “You gonna be alright, kid?”

“Yes, sir, Sergeant Rainbow Dash, sir! I feel good.”

“At ease, Private. Go clean yourself up and alert somepony that there’s been a fight upstairs.”

“Sir, yes sir!” As Scootaloo started to walk away, she looked back briefly and smiled another toothy smile before disappearing around the corner. Twilight stalked up to Rainbow Dash and put a hoof around her back.

“Feels good, doesn’t it, Dash?” she teased.

“What?”

“Having a fan. Somepony who looks up to you for your heroics and your accomplishments.”

“Oh, that.” Dash’s mouth slowly crested into a full smile. “I have a fan?”

“The Private certainly took a shine to you,” Twilight replied.

“It does feel good. Who knew that doing the right thing could feel so rewarding, huh?”

Twilight rolled her eyes and let go of Dash. Together they walked into the briefing room, where a few medics were busy preparing a stretcher. At the far end of the room was a large console with a blinking red light in the center. Rainbow wandered over to it and stared at it vacantly for a few seconds before turning to see what Twilight was doing. The Lieutenant did not appear to notice the light. Beside the console was a decrepit old headphone unit, which Dash did not hesitate to pick up in her curiosity.

“Hello?” she sang into the phone mockingly.

Twilight wheeled around to look at Dash at the sound of her voice.

“Hello? Who is this?” came a voice on the other end of the phone. Dash jumped in surprise. “Where’s Lieutenant Sparkle?”

“Oh, uh, she’s right here.” Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Rainbow held the phone out to Twilight with an apologetic frown on her face. “For you, Twilight.”

Twilight snatched the headset from Dash quickly and held it up to her ear. “This is Twilight. Uh-huh. Wait, slow down and repeat that... WHAT? Then send everypony else in after them... What do you MEAN there’s nopony else? What about our garrison at the volcano camp? Find somepony and get them in there!” Then she slammed the headphones down on the receiver and sighed. “The Wonderbolts are out of comm range. We’ve lost contact.”

“What?!” Dash yelled. “What happened to them?”

“Unknown. Last signals were promising, but then everything went dark. They might have found the bomb and walked into a dead zone.”

“Oh my gosh, we need to help them!” Rainbow started toward the door, but stopped halfway and turned back to Twilight. “Or are you going to stop me?”

“Why would I stop you?” Twilight responded, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

“Aren’t you going to spout some nonsensical reg about how I’m disobeying a direct order? Or about how it’s too dangerous to go alone?”

“Both statements are true, so it seems fitting that I go along with you.”

Rainbow Dash blinked back at Twilight, who took the silence as a hint and reached down under the console for something. After a moment, she popped back up holding a massive autocannon in both hooves. The gun was nearly as tall as Twilight was, and looked strong enough to punch a hole in the command post wall. Dash’s jaw dropped.

“I want one of those!” Dash cried, reaching her hooves toward the autocannon with a dab of saliva running down her tongue.

“Perhaps with a little money and some training,” Twilight reassured her. “The Republic takes care of her Commandos when it comes to things like equipment requisitions.”

“Wait, you’re a Republic commando?”

“Sure am.” The unicorn tapped her earpiece and a small probe leapt from the storage unit on her autocannon. It immediately floated over her head and showered her in a mist of kolto. “Lieutenant Grade 1 Twilight Sparkle of Wonderbolt squad, and Republic Commando first class, medical support and advance reconnaissance specialization.”

Dash’s mouth twisted into an impressed smile as she basked in Twilight’s awesomeness.

=====

The speeder bike zipped out of Fort Garnik and sped across the rugged mesa of Avilatan Island. Rainbow Dash, hugging Twilight as she drove the speeder, took the time of transition to look around the island as they drove past it. Sharp gorges and long stone plains seemed to be what Ord Mantell was made of, despite having such a colorful and vivid blue sky and sea all around the tiny slice of land the Republic had planted the fort on. Even the buildings of the fast disappearing Fort Garnik looked like rusted heaps of metal and stone to Dash, blending into the dreary landscape as she drove away from them.

Just beyond the village was a monstrous volcano, large enough to be seen from all around the island, but only truly frightening when within proximity of the base. It was spewing smoke into the sky at a higher rate than what Dash considered safe, and every so often a trickle of molten lava flowed from the summit toward the white beach below. The sharp contrast of the tranquil blue ocean against the fiery, ashen pinnacle caused her throat to tighten.

And Twilight was driving right toward it.

“Uh, Twi?” Dash yelled from the back seat as the speeder continued on towards to volcano. “We should probably avoid that.”

“The Sep base is inside the volcano, Sergeant,” Twilight replied equally loudly. “We set up an encampment not far from the entrance.”

“But it’s an active volcano! That can’t be safe!”

“No one ever said the Seps weren’t crazy. What better place to set up a secret base than in a volcano, the last place anypony would ever go looking for them in.”

Dash rolled her eyes. “Obviously it’s not a secret anymore.”

“We sure didn’t know about it until today,” Twilight said. “Your tracking device led us here, Sergeant.”

At first, Dash felt proud to have performed such a heroic and wonderful act. When her chest stopped puffing out, her heart sank. “I would never have gotten here without Pinkie Pie.”

“We’ll look for your Smuggler friend later, Sergeant,” Twilight barked. “Focus on the mission right now. I need you on top of your game. If the Wonderbolts couldn’t tackle this alone, then we won’t have an easy time of this ourselves.”

A cocky smile crept onto Dash’s mouth. “I haven’t met a Sep who could kill me yet.”

Twilight smiled as well, reaching her hoof up to her ear and lowering her mouthpiece that hung there. “This is Lieutenant Sparkle calling Volcano Base. Requesting clearance to hot-drop.”

“Copy that, Lieutenant,” came a voice from over the microphone. “You're cleared to drop. Glad to see you outside in the fresh air for once, Lieutenant.”

Dash heard an annoyed snort from Twilight before she cut the call off. Twisting her other hoof back, Twilight pushed the speeder bike a little faster and zipped around a tall rock spire at the base of the volcano. A hidden path spiraling upwards into the mountainside became visible for the first time, carved into the rock by centuries of lava flow. The bike sped up the path for what felt like an eternity to Dash until a small clearing came into view, where an earth pony in Republic armor was waving a hoof.

Twilight whipped the bike to the side and came to an abrupt halt, leaping from the driver’s seat before it had stopped moving. A very unprepared and startled Rainbow Dash could do little more than grasp her friend’s waist and hold on tightly. Both ponies fell to the ground in an ungraceful manner, eliciting a few chuckles from the nearby soldiers watching the scene unfold before them.

“You need to work on your dismount,” Twilight said as she stood up, brushing Dash off of her.

“You need to not jump off of moving vehicles!” she fired back.

The unicorn rolled her eyes and looked at the armored earth pony that had flagged them down. “What’s the situation, Corporal?”

“Entrance is just up this hill,” rattled off the soldier quickly with a haphazard salute. “Alarms have been blaring all morning, ever since that shuttle arrived. The tracking beacon is still active inside the volcano, ma’am.”

“Still active?” Twilight repeated, putting a hoof to her chin thoughtfully. “Either they’re dumber than we give them credit for, or they want us to follow them inside. How many guards outside?”

“None, ma’am.”

“It’s a trap!” Dash interjected suddenly. “Nopony would forget to station guards, not even these stupid Seps.”

“Unless they need everypony inside to haul supplies,” Twilight countered. “Or, more likely, one really big bomb. But you’re more than likely right, Sergeant. Something’s amiss, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”

“And rescue our squad,” Dash added.

“Of course.” Twilight pulled her autocannon off her shoulder and pulled back on the release lever. A large cylinder popped off the front of it and landed on the ashen stone below her, but was quickly replaced by a new one from her backpack. “Lock and load, boys. We’re moving.”

Dash nodded and slung her own rifle up to her shoulder, pointing it ahead of her. Twilight gave a motion of her hoof, signaling for Rainbow to take point, and the remaining three soldiers filed into a line behind her as she started moving. The path bent around the corner of the volcano, obstructing the large metal archway that proceeded from view. Just under the arch was a large metal blast door, left deliberately ajar.

As carefully as she could, Dash crept up to the metal door and pressed her back against it, peering inside with her nose and her rifle. Jets of fire and molten lava arched and bubbled from underneath a series of heat-shielded causeways that zigzagged to the other side of the mountain from the inside. Near the top of the stairs was another entrance leading deeper into the compound. Dash took two steps inside and gave the all-clear to the four soldiers behind her.

The ascent was painstaking and slow, with wary glances and cautious corner-creeping after every step. Not a single pony could be found as the five brave Republic soldiers climbed the metal stairs. A jet of magma arched into the railing beside Twilight as she was walking, impacting on the heat shield and ricocheting back down to the lava pool below.

“Hey, Twilight?” called Dash from the front of the line. “Isn’t it odd that the Seps use all this outdated equipment around the island, but they have heat shields here?”

Twilight froze for a second, then nodded slowly. “It is.” She instantly bent over and inspected the purring shield generator underneath her bridge. Printed across the top of it was a bright white Imperial insignia, slightly faded but still clearly visible. “How very peculiar...”

Dash stepped up the last stair on the causeway and marched across a solid stone platform to the door that led further into the volcano. Ahead was a bright light that seemed to lead outside again. “Lieutenant, there’s light ahead!”

The three troopers that had accompanied them up the volcano quickly formed up behind Dash, pointing their guns down the hallway towards the light. Twilight caught up after a moment, having taken a moment to inspect the Imperial insignia further. As a squad, the five troopers moved toward the light of the cavern with weapons raised and eyes ahead. Dash, still at point, stepped into the light and jerked forward as her plated hoof hit metal. She looked around and couldn’t believe her eyes.

As far as she could see was ocean, ocean and more ocean. Looking straight down, it appeared that she was standing on air. Boxes and objects nailed under tarps levitated on either side of her, as though they cared that there was nothing underneath them. Confused, Dash took a step forward and sent a wave of ripples out from the spot where her hoof landed, flickering an invisible shield to life and revealing metal plating below it.

Twilight pushed past the three frightened and hesitant soldiers and joined Dash on the invisible platform.

“Stealth technology,” Twilight said, as though answering an unspoken question. She held her autocannon up and fired into one of the floating tarps, which sent sparks into the air and eventually burst into flames. A large metal landing pad flickered to existence underneath Dash. “Easy to tell what it is after you’re already standing on it. You took a risk stepping into the light like that without looking ahead.”

“I’m a pegasus,” Dash replied with a shrug. “I’d’ve been fine.”

“Not with all that armor, you wouldn’t have.” Twilight looked back toward the mountain and tilted back to peer toward the summit. “I’ll bet this volcano is covered in landing pads just like this. Undetectable from orbital scans. How did the Seps get this tech way out here on Ord Mantell, though?”

Dash sauntered toward the flaming tarp and peeled it back carefully with her hoof. On the smoldering machine was another white Imperial insignia painted onto the metal. “Imps, Lieutenant. See?”

“Imperials?” Twilight said sharply. “This close to the Core? If that’s the case, the Republic is in way more trouble than we previously thought.”

At that moment, rappel ropes dropped onto the landing pad from somewhere above. The distinct sound of descender carabiners rubbing against metal filled the air as soldiers began pouring onto the deck from an invisible platform higher up the mountain. A moment later, the three soldiers still standing in the hallway rolled for cover as ponies in tan uniforms swarmed into cavern behind them. Blaster fire erupted across the pad as they took potshots at Twilight and Dash.

Twilight reacted first, tapping her earpiece and whispering a voice command into it. Her armor began glowing, and soon after a bubble of energy lifted off of her body, encircling her completely in a shield. Shots rebounded upwards as they connected with Twilight’s reactive shield as she began to return fire with her revolving autocannon, putting her line of fire straight down the hallway. Separatists began dropping in quick succession as she mowed them down.

“Sergeant, above me!” she cried without looking around, too focused on make eye contact.

Dash looked up and saw ponies rappelling down the ropes above. She raised her rifle and started firing at them as she scurried toward the nearest cover, a durasteel crate large enough to hide behind. One pony coming down the rope took a bolt to the chest and slid down the rope, slamming into two more with his dead weight, causing all three to crash into the platform with a sickening snap. They didn’t move to get up.

Realigning her sights from behind cover, Dash fired two quick shots with as much precision as she could muster, popping two more ponies high up the rappel cables, causing them to fall on their comrades below them. With every Sep that fell, however, it seemed that two more would take their place. Rainbow Dash kept firing anyway, but she couldn’t help but feel a little overwhelmed.

One of the Republic soldiers had taken shelter behind a crate like Dash had, and was also firing up into the rappel lines. A rope dropped in front of his face, causing him to lose his focus momentarily to identify the object. Within two seconds, a hulking Separatist with an autocannon of his own landed in front of him and kicked him hard in the chest, sending him screaming down to the ocean several hundred meters below.

Dash took notice of the pony and instantly recognized him as the stallion that Pinkie had encountered earlier at the Mannett Point base. He had a long scar across his eye that had not been present before, but when he turned toward the Sergeant and smiled grimly at her, that detail seemed less relevant. Instantly, Dash reached to her belt and primed a thermal detonator, hurling it toward him with all her strength.

In response, the stallion lifted his rifle up and caught the semtex against the body of his gun. Then he threw the rifle to the side, where it came to rest beside of the remaining two Republic soldiers. A violent explosion rocked one off the side of the pad and put the other into the wall, bleeding and full of shrapnel. Weaponless, the stallion pulled a dagger out of his belt and charged toward Rainbow Dash.

Instinctively she took a step back and nearly tumbled backwards. A quick glance behind her instantly alerted Dash to the fact that she was teetering on the edge of the deck. Without any good options remaining, she braced her hind legs and pretended to ready herself to receive the charge fully. She watched as the stallion dropped to all fours and charged recklessly toward her, waiting until he was too close to stop. Then she fell backwards off the deck and spread her wings out, lifting her weight up with much difficulty.

Surprised, the stallion tried to correct his course, but careened off the side after her regardless of his efforts. He plunged down to the ocean below as Dash struggled to maintain her flight. Her armor was not designed to be flown in, and as Twilight had said, it was not a doable task for any period of time. Her wings ached after only a few seconds of flight, and her strength began to fade after a few more. Just as they were about to give out, Dash felt something hard tackle into her and pull her down toward the ocean below.

Thinking it was a Separatist trying to bring her down, she struggled and squirmed to get free. But a sudden sensation of sickening pull and tug snapped her to, and she realized it wasn’t a Sep holding onto her, but Twilight. The unicorn cast her teleportation spell and materialized both herself and Rainbow back onto the landing pad above. When they looked around, they were surrounded by Separatists, all holding their guns level with them.

“Freeze, Republic scum!” one of them cried. “Put your weapons on the ground and your hooves on your head, now!”

Dash’s hope started to fade and her body began to tense. She started to comply when the sudden sound of engines revving drew her attention toward the horizon. A Republic troop carrier, with passenger bay door wide open, suddenly settled just beside the landing pad, and a dozen heavily armored ponies with rifles, one of whom Dash recognized as Private Scootaloo, lept from within and opened fire. The crowd of Seps scrambled, fearing the cavalry was arriving. Some fired on the transport while others scurried back inside the volcano for safety. A few took shots at Twilight and Dash. While the Sergeant was distracted by the rescue craft, the lieutenant was well aware of the incoming fire. Her reactive shield was still recharging, but a field of energy enveloped her and Dash all the same, this one powered by her glowing horn. Magic, rerouted through her suit’s reactive shield system, allowed her to project a barrier at a moment’s notice.

This second shield, however, was still as reactive as the first. Within seconds, the barrier of magic began to shatter and weaken under the suppressing fire. Even with the aid of the Republic troopers at her side, Twilight’s power was not great enough to withstand point blank fire. Noticing this, Dash stood up, put her shoulder against Twilight, and fired her gun into the crowd of Separatists ahead of her. The shield collapsed and the fire poured around her, but she didn’t relent her counterattack.

The troopers that formed up around Dash began to take hits, and one by one they collapsed in pain or fled to cover. Resolute and determined, she pushed Twilight to the side and stood her ground alone, picking off the few brave, or possibly insane, Seps that stayed to defend the platform. A bolt connected with Dash’s shoulder pushing her back a half-step, but she regained it a moment later. Two more hit her square in the chest, scoring her armor with searing heat, but she merely took another step forward and kept firing.

Twilight, seeing her friend fighting alone, raised her own cannon and began pouring fire into the crowd. It quickly dispersed, many Seps fleeing back into the base or dropping dead in transit. Using her headpiece, she summoned her medical probe and commanded it to administer first aid to the wounded Republic soldiers. Dash took a few steps to the right and stood between the enemy force and Twilight, feeling a sense of courage and empowerment overwhelming her.

A wayward shot dropped a healthy Republic soldier standing next to Dash, who twisted her neck to see what had happened. The next second, two shots impacted on her chestpiece, and a burning pain sent her to the floor. A shot ricocheted past her hoof, reminding her she was still exposed, and she rolled to the right behind a crate. Wounded and grounded, Dash yelled out in pain and clutched her chest with a fumbling hoof, trying to locate any bleeding. Just when she thought no one had heard her, the sound of another, more distinct blaster filled the air with several rapid shots, and an explosion rocked the cliffside behind the crate Dash had taken cover beside.

Shots bounced in all directions as Seps began either dropping dead or fleeing. A resounding cheer issued through the crowd of troopers as one final pony lept from the hovering Republic transport. A mare, wearing brown leather vestment and wielding two ornate hold-out blasters in either of her front hooves, looked up at Dash from under her rugged, wide-brimmed hat with a smile that spread from ear to ear.

“Dashie!” Pinkie cried.

“Pinkie...” The infectious smile spread to Dash’s face, despite the pain she was in. “You came back.”

“Oh, silly! Of course I came back! You hired me to protect you, and I still haven’t gotten paid. Hey, Lieutenant! This pony needs medical attention, ay-sap!”