Cryo-7

by Metal Pony Fan

That had to HRT

"That's three possibilities," Quick Chop sighed. "I don't think we can narrow it down anymore."

"Yeah," Astral reluctantly agreed. As the only pony around with experience in jump equations, he was best qualified to help Quick Chop with her simulations. But even then, she had done most of the work. He wouldn't want to face off against her at Karno, that was for sure. "The distance of the first teleport makes it hard to narrow things down any more than this."

The chief, hearing the exchange, set down the hay fries and sandwich Grey Hound had grabbed from a nearby restaurant, and walked over to the cloud table. The old unicorn, having finished his meal, was taking a nap in the corner, and Home Brew was sorting weaponry and gear into sets for everypony on board, including defensive gear for Mr. Plane and and Miss Kettle. "Do you have a location yet?"

"Three of them, chief," Quick Chop answered. "Unfortunately, they don't make much sense. We have one set of coordinates underground, one in open air, and one in the lake middle the city."

The chief nodded her understanding. "How underground? How open air? And, how far underwater?"

"Two meters down, on the southern edge of the city," Astral answered the first question. "And a kilometer North of here, and the same elevation as the cloud slums," he answered for the second.

Quick Chop interrupted him before he could answer the third. "The weather station! It's the automated station owned by Inland Holdings. They had that big public party when it went zero crew for the first time. My class attended, and I remember it passing by the cloud slums. They were about the same altitude."

"Black Pot used to hold a board position with Inland," Miss Kettle called back from the driver's seat of the command unit. She made her way back. "Automating the weather station was his idea."

"Sounds like a good place to start, then." The chief gestured to where Miss Kettle had been sitting. "Were you able to contact the chairman?"

"Yes, and he's worried. Dinky's asking questions, and the staff is starting to notice my disappearance. We need to find Ditzy before it gets out that she's the one missing. The chairman will do anything to make sure those two are safe, so best case scenario, she's a bargaining chip. Worst case, her blood paints a target for a unicorn that could make the Storm King look like a cartoon villain."

The chief nodded her understanding. "Would his security forces really follow him in seeking revenge for a pegasus?"

Miss Kettle shook her head. "They wouldn't have to. If he's pushed far enough, he could change the face of the planet on his own."

"I heard Steel Catch was supposed to be the strongest mage on the planet," Astral interrupted. "Just how strong is he?"

"Strongest at the moment, no doubt," answered Quick Chop. "But possibly the strongest in our history. He's most famous for an incident involving the Ogre's Cauldron, the volcano that plunged Tirassa into the cloud age a millenia and a half ago. It was about to erupt, and he was a soldier sent to help evacuate the area. There was an unexpected shift in the mountain, and it erupted ahead of the predictions. He held the lava flow and ash cloud back, fighting lightning and earthquakes the entire time, until the evacuation was completed."

"That is impressive," Astral admitted.

"The evacuation took three days," the chief added.

"Holy shit." Astral shook his head. "He might be able to give Twilight a run for her money."

"You think your friend is that strong?"

Astral shrugged. "She teleported us from orbit, after protecting a ship from a missile attack, and she permanently closed a void strand less than a day before that." He saw some confusion, and clarified, "Void strands are kind of a big deal."

"Well," Miss Kettle spoke, "he also averted an asteroid collision several years ago that could have plunged us right into a second cloud age. Tirassa had a ship waiting on standby to vaporize it, but the chairman at the time wanted to test the extent of Steel Catch's power."

"He also set the record for marathon teleports," Quick Chop added. "And resets it every year. It's currently at a hundred in two minutes, circling the entire planet."

Miss Kettle nodded. "He made me join him last year. I only made it to eighty, and ended up taking a swim in the polar ocean."

"He can be anywhere on Tirassa in less than-" Quick chop trailed off, eyes locking on to one of the smaller screens on the wall. "Is that the Mayor's Mansion?"

Miss Kettle turned around, and looked at the screen that was muted and tuned to local news. It showed a building in flames. "It is!" She quickly turned the volume up.

"-unidentified assailant. As you may or may not know, Green Hoof's controversial pardoning of the group Wingless Dawn has drawn attention from both sides of the pegasus rights issue, and it remains to be seen if this attack has some connection, but it is hard to believe it was a coincidence." The unicorn on screen, a mare dressed in an official looking suit, pressed her hoof to her ear. "Just in! Mayor Green Hoof is unharmed. For those of you just joining us, the mayor's mansion was attacked by an unidentified assailant. Fire crews have confirmed that there have been bodies found, but have not given any official number. We don't know anything about the motives behind the attack, but mayor Green Hoof is unharmed and in a secure location."

The door opened while everypony was focused on the broadcast, and Red Hoof stormed in. Some looked up at him, but most looked back at the screen quickly. He heard the reporter say his father was safe, and for a moment, wondered if that was a good thing, or bad. "Shut that off!"

"If you have any information regarding this bombing-"

"Shut it off! Shut it off!" Red Hoof smashed the screen with his hoof. Over and over. "Shut! The! Fuck! Off!"

The screen finally shorted out, going black. And, Red Hoof was left huffing and bleeding, tiny shards of glass in his hoof. Nopony said anything, and Red knew they were waiting for him to talk.

He looked up at the pony closest to him, Miss Kettle. "You were right," he admitted quietly. "Black Pot was there, they were drinking together, toasting the kidnappings. They called it a business venture. They were selling ponies. How did I miss it?"

Miss Kettle wanted to snap back with a snarky answer, some variation of I told you so, but there was too much pain in the stallion's face. Helpless confusion. "I don't know," she responded quietly. "The explosion?"

"Wingless Dawn's weapons cache, the one we seized." Red swallowed hard. "I set off the bomb they were going to use to kill the chairman."

Miss Kettle nodded slowly. "And Black Pot?"

"Dead," Red Hoof responded, gingerly lifting his hoof out of the shattered viewscreen, "I shot him myself."

The black unicorn barely reacted to the news. "Good. It doesn't fix what he's done, but it's good that he can't hurt anypony else." She gestured to the main table. "Can I video call the chairman on here? He needs to know what's going on."

"Of course," the chief replied with a nod. "Miss Chop, if you would?"

"Yes. ma'am." The unicorn manipulated the cloud table's controls. A chunk of cloud flattened into a rectangle half a meter tall, and a full meter wide. "Miss Kettle, if you could enter your codes on..." The motor pool pony realized she was about to point at a busted screen, and quickly pointed at another. "On that screen there."

Miss Kettle entered her personal identification code, and then the Chairman's. "He was in his office, so he should answer quickly."

When the Chairman's image appeared on the cloud screen, he was most definitely not in his office. The video was shaky, but he was in a dark room, with harsh lights, and lots of dark and contrasting metals. "Spit," he commanded, "hold your wrist still!"

"Sorry, sir," came an apology, and the video stabilized a little.

Miss Kettle's eyes went wide. He was surrounded by weaponry, secured in black metal racks. Everything from crystalline blades to anti-materiel rifles. "Sir, are you in the armory?"

"Obviously," said the silver-eyed unicorn, as he strapped himself into traditional Tirassan Battle armor. It wasn't like the ballistic vests and energy adaptive cloth found in standard issue armor, it was dark and crystalline, carved to fit him around the shoulders, chest, and haunch, connected with a woven metal mesh underlayer. It was heavy armor from the war, designed to protect its wearer from lightning and blades, the pegasi's favored weapons. He had a grim look on his face as he worked. "Ditzy's been located."

"That's why I was calling. We believe she's being held on the inland weather station." Miss Kettle shook her head. "How did-"

"Get there as fast as you can. I'm heading out with Spit and Polish, and put a call out to the police force, but there's no time to wait. If there's a fight, we might need your help. Is that Red Hoof beside you?"

"Yes, sir," the earth pony answered, "Chairman, about my father-"

"He's fine, don't worry," the chairman reassured. "I'm sorry about what happened to your home, but the important thing is Black Pot's assassination attempt failed."

"What?!" Red spared a glance at Miss Kettle, who was looking back at him in confusion. "No, sir, that's not-"

"Is he there?" Miss Kettle interrupted.

"Yes, he's volunteered a transport and some bodyguards to help save Ditzy."

"You can't!"

---

Green Hoof grabbed Spit's hoof, and dragged his watch over so he was looking straight at the projection of Red Hoof and Miss Kettle. "We have to!" There was a tear in his eye as he looked at his son. "For the good of Tirassa, there are wrongs that must be made right. You'll understand someday." He grabbed the watch, cutting the call. Then, carefully held the button in, powering it off so it wouldn't receive anymore calls. He did all this while taking a deep shaky breath, hiding his action behind the weariness. "Catch, you and I have had our differences, but thank you. You're giving me chance to strike back after a betrayal, and I'm sure Tirassa will be stronger for it."

"Don't mention it, Green Hoof. Still, I can't believe that Black Pot wanted to kill us both." He finished with his armor, and grabbed a pair of weapons, finely crafted emerald khopesh, tuned to resonate with his energy blade spell. Under power, they were indestructible, and would cut through mithril if he swung hard enough. "I admit, I may have misjudged you."

"You sure?" The earth pony walked over to a display of armor and started fitting himself with a standard issue military vest. "I wouldn't go to these lengths to rescue a pegasus, if that's what you mean."

"Even if you wouldn't," Spit stepped forward to help with the Velcro closures as Green Hoof held the vest in place, "there's the principle of it. Would you sit idle after somepony was taken from your home? Even a pegasus?"

With a smirk, the earth pony replied, "I don't let pegasi in my home."

---

"Damn it!" Red Hoof Punch his second screen for the day.

"Red! Control yourself!" Chief Cirrus sighed. Everypony who knew how was trying to call the Chairman's office, or police headquarters, with no success. "We can't do anything if you destroy every screen in our command center."

"Does it matter? We can't do anything now!" Red brought his hoof to his head. "Because I couldn't pull the trigger on my father, he's alone with the chairman." Swallowing hard, he admitted, "and, I can't be sure he didn't take any of the explosives."

"He wouldn't even need it," Miss Kettle tossed her headset after it failed once more to connect to the security office. "He has access to weaponry, and soldiers, and has probably convinced the chairman that he's a victim in all this. Catch is in the Roc's nest, and doesn't even know it."

"No amount of magic can save you from gettin' shot in the back," Grey Hound mused. "So, what's the plan?"

"We head for the weather station," the Chief said, looking around, "and pray the Chairman's still alive when we get there. Miss Chop, get us there as fast as you can. Everypony else, gear up, including you two, Plane and Kettle." Everypony nodded or voiced their understanding, except for their pilot. "Miss Chop? Did you hear me?"

"Ma'am?" She said as she stared at something on her small screen. "I think we're screwed."

---

"How's my mane?" A pink unicorn with a blond mane fussed over her appearance a moment, a microphone floating in magic beside her. "I can't believe we're stuck out here while the mayor's mansion is burning."

"Mane's fine," answered a blue unicorn, pointing a camera at her. He lined up the Hurt One Mobile Command Center behind her in the frame, careful to get a clear view of the police logo. "Look at it this way, even if we're filler, everypony's watching right now, so we have guaranteed view counts in the millions. And, we're live in five, four, three, two, one!"

"This is Dawn Rise with the Capitol News Channel, coming to you live, from the South Cross Shopping Center, where earlier today, a magic explosion prompted the evacuation of a clothing store in the middle of- Proud!" She pointed behind the camera. "Proud, turn around!" She stepped towards the camera and pushed it so it was pointing skyward.

Four ships were on low approach through the buildings of the city. Two small, armored personnel carriers, another mobile command unit, and one light fighter vessel, all bearing the same police emblem.

"Ponies of the Capitol," Dawn continued, "it isn't clear what's going on, but it seems that reinforcements are arriving despite the all clear given by Hurt One's Chief Cirrus. You may remember the name from the controversy surrounding the recent pegasus curfew, as many disagreed with her suggestion to solely use the heavy response team under her command to enforce it."

The Command unit and one of the personnel ships touched down a short distance from the reporters. The personnel ship stayed on the ground just long enough for three armed and armored officers to jump out.

"Is that another heavy response team?" Proud asked, focusing his camera on the leader of the three ponies.

Dawn shushed him as the officers approached. "Good evening," she greeted once they were close enough, "I'm Dawn Rise with Capitol-"

"Captain Shore," the lead officer interrupted. He was a grey earth pony, with a voice as gruff as his beard was wiry. "You need to shut down and clear the area."

"What? Why?" Dawn watched in shock as one of the other officers set up his sniper rifle behind a planter, aiming at the Hurt One MCU. "Captain, did this explosion have some connection to the explosion at the Mayor's mansion?"

"Dawn?" Proud had followed the other ships with his camera. The personnel ships had set down on either side of Hurt One's command unit, and the fighter vessel hovered a short distance away on antigravs. "I don't think-" The third officer grabbed for Proud's camera, but he ducked back, twisting away. He raised the camera up at the officer just as he raised his stunner at the reporters. "Go ahead!" Proud shouted. "We're live with three million viewers!"

The captain waved the other officer back. "Calm down, corporal, we're only here to talk."

"You say that." Proud brought his camera back around as a dozen armed ponies left the personnel carriers with stun rifles and riot shields, surrounding Hurt One. "But, it doesn't look like it."

"Captain," Dawn Rise raised her microphone towards the grizzled earth pony, "What is going on here?"

With a scowl, he answered, "we're not entirely sure ourselves. As you surely know, a police hoverbike was spotted at the Mayor's mansion." He pointed at the one parked near the Hurt One command unit. "Theirs is the only one unaccounted for."

"Are you saying a police heavy response team may have been involved?"

"No, I am not. I will comment when I have something to comment on. The mayor's son is a member of Heavy Response Team One, so there are a number of legitimate reasons for their hoverbike to be at the Mayor's mansion." He gestured to the sniper. "We have lost contact with the unit, and are merely taking precautions. With the exception of the Lieutenant here, and the fighter craft, we are only armed with stun rifles," he gestured to his belt, at a trio of spherical devices, "and flash bangs."

While he was pointing, and while the camera was pointed at the nonlethal grenades, the pins popped out all three of them. The two reporters, either used to dealing with the unexpected, or by virtue of being half the captain's age, managed to dive away while he stared, dumbfounded.

The loud, cracking explosion, and bright light behind them, drew the attention of every officer in the square.

While they were distracted, the door to the Hurt One command unit burst open. Red, sniper rifle of his own in hoof, was ready and waiting. The stun blast caught the other sniper in the face before he even had a chance to look back through his scope. The other officer near the reporters was next.

The flash of teleportation followed, and the dozen officers closest to the command unit found their unit flanked by a unicorn on either side.

"Stand down!" Shouted Home Brew, fur glowing with traces of orange aura. Greyhound glowed with a similar aura, only lemony yellow. "We are acting under orders from the Chairman's Office!"

Some of the ponies looked confused, but others raised their weapons, ignoring him. Within seconds, all dozen officer's had their weapons pointed at either Home Brew, or Grey Hound on the other side. Except for the two closest to the command unit. They had their weapons drawn on Red hoof, who raised his hooves away from his rifle.

All according to protocol, and all according to plan.

Astral and Chief Cirrus, pressed against the walls on either side of the door frame, ducked out and stunned the two officers, hitting them with electrified darts designed to pierce standard energy dissipating armor. At the same time, Home Brew punched the ground, shattering the concrete, and pelting officers with debris. Grey Hound tackled the nearest officer, moving faster than most ponies could, and threw him at the next, flinging the young stallion like he was a toy. Together, he and Home Brew drew all remaining attention, clearing the way for Miss Kettle to leap out from behind Red, and out the door.

She hit the ground, rolled, and as she stood, flicked her head towards the fighter craft that was no doubt ready to deploy a wide range acoustic suppressant. A whisp of magic escaped her horn alongside twin blades of air. They shot forward, slicing deep into into the fighter craft's wings, and with a shout, Miss Kettle grabbed the craft itself. She dragged it down, overpowering its engines, and thrashed it side to side, tearing its wings, and the antigrav generators at their tips, off the vehicle.

Astral and the chief started tasing any remaining officers from the door as Grey Hound and Home Brew kept them distracted. Miss Kettle tore into each of the other ships, ripping out engines and other necessary components before running back through the battle and into the Hurt One command truck.

Two of the officers disappeared from the skirmish with a flash, reappearing inside the command unit. Astral kicked the one that appeared closest to him, and twisted to bring his dart launcher around. But, Miss Kettle tackled the officer first, wrapping her hooves around his neck in a choke-hold as her legs trapped his.

The other officer had appeared behind the chief, and grabbed her. She jabbed his horn with her hoof as it started to light up, most likely to teleport them both away. Her second and third jabs were to his face, as she yelled, "I'm not disappearing today!" She twisted, pinning her attacker, and managed to get her dart gun pressed against his side. "Listen to me! The chairman is going to be killed unless we stop it!"

He smiled, spitting at the chief. "Then the birds lose for good!"

The chief stared at him a moment, not believing she heard that from a fellow police officer. "You're working for Green Hoof," she said as she slowly pulled her dart gun away, "keeping us from going after him."

"You can go wherever you want," he sneered, "we're just keeping ol' Red out of things. If he stays with us, we'll let you leave."

Chief Cirrus smiled as Grey Hound and Home Brew walked back into the command unit. "I guess you don't realize it, but you are the only member of your team still conscious." She rectified that situation by bashing him in the face with the butt of her dart rifle. "Miss Chop, get us out of here!"

"Yes, ma'am!" The unicorn called from the front, as she fired up the command trucks engines.

"Actually," Miss Kettle grunted, as the pony in her headlock struggled, " my guy's the last one conscious. I didn't get a good grip on him, could somepony just stun him?"

"Ponies these days," Grey Hound sighed, walking over with a smirk. He tapped the the struggling pony on the chin, and he went limp. Once Miss Kettle let go, Grey Hound lifted him by the collar of his uniform and tossed him out the door like a sack of trash. "Making the old stallion do all the work."

"Good thing they're wearing helmets," Miss Kettle muttered as he walked over and tossed the Chief's attacker out as well.

Red leapt out right after.

"Red?!" The chief called after him, as the command unit started to lift off the ground. "What are you doing?!"

"I have a plan!" He called back, running to and hopping on the hoverbike. "I'll be right behind you!"

"You better! Everypony, gear up! That was HRT Three, if they're in on this, there's no telling who else is. We may well be fighting alone." The chief shut the door, just before the command center started moving forward, climbing and gaining speed as it started away from the shopping center.

Red revved up the hoverbike, and launched forward in the opposite direction, where a pink mare was narrating what she just saw to the camera, even though the camera captured all of it. He shot between them and grabbed the camera from its owner, shouting, "Sorry!" as he sped off into a climb. He leveled out above any obstacles, and started towards the weather station, locking the hoverbike to cruise on its own.

He then took the camera and pointed it at himself, steadying it on the handlebars in a way he hoped centered him in frame. He took a deep breath as he looked into the lens. "Tirassa, My name is Red Hoof. You may not know me, but I am the son of Mayor Green Hoof. I am a lieutenant in the capitol police force, assigned to Heavy Response Team One. It is my duty to work for the safety and good of the ponies of Tirassa. To that end..." He swallowed hard, thinking about how many ponies would see this. "To that end, I must inform you all... My father is a traitor."

Author's Note:

Last one this week. I'll try to stick to schedule for a while.

Comments

[Ytak]

Ahhhhhh! Three action packed chapters and now I have to suck it up and wait. I can do it. I don't like to but I can. Patience will be good for me. I think.

[cheetored20]

That ending is such a CLIFFHANGER.

[KeePony]

Three three three Cliffhangers in one.

[N4rwh41]

TR-TR-TR-TRIPLE COMBO! *dramatic echo*

[Batling]

He held the lava flow and ash cloud back, fighting lightning and earthquakes the entire time, until the evacuation was completed."

"That is impressive," Astral admitted.

"The evacuation took three days," the chief added.

Holy Molly, that plus asteroid deflection and circling the planet with teleports? Yeah ... they better hope they can catch this guy off-guard somehow, because their chances in a straight-up fight don't seem good. Is he a secret Alicorn ascendant? A real one, unlike Twilight? Because she sure as heck isn't anywhere close to that level based on what we have seen her do before becoming completely exhausted and collapsing for several days afterwards. I wonder whom he might have been related to back in Equestria, if anyone ...

And yay, looks like it's Civil War time ... kind of. Why hasn't the Galactic Assembly interfered in this planet a long time ago? It's quite possible that has been mentioned somewhere and I have simply forgotten, but the more we learn about this planet the more it seems like the kind of place where the Assembly would have no problems finding a dozen justifications for intervention and come out looking like heroes at the end of it.

[Dabstregous]

9342091
they were xenophobic when the first group from the assembilly met them and then the ponies on the planet at the time made the group from the assembilly slaves/servent. along with reverse enginnered some of their tech so by the time they came to help the first contact group it was verse a rather aggressive group of isolationanists

[Metal Pony Fan]

9342136

9342091

Pretty much. In the chapter, "A History Lesson," Catch tells Dinky about the history of Tirassa. First contact was made when the pegasi ruled the planet. The despotic ruler at that time didn't allow the ship to leave. Catch's ancestor grew up around the Assembly prisoners, listening to their ideas of freedom and equality, and eventually organized the overthrow of the pegasi. But, he failed to hold back the more ruthless factions of his own allies, and instead of equality for all, the pegasi were enslaved instead. Then, nearly two hundred years passed, leaving them where they are now.

As for his equestrian ancestor, I've dropped hints, and will try to drop a few more.

[Batling]

9342233

Thanks for the refresher, guess I should re-read the previous chapters at some point to jog my memory ^_^

Though speaking of the Assembly and this godawful planet ... given how seemingly large the Assembly has grown, shouldn't it be a relatively easy task these days to take over the planet and put an end to the atrocities going on there? Especially with a sizable part of the population ready to raise up and support the end of the old system to boot.

Granted, depends on how the Assembly looks at intervening in other planets and their foreign policy, but this sounds like a task that both shouldn't be too hard to accomplish and, given the crap that goes down on this planet, generate boatloads of good PR at the same time as well.

[Metal Pony Fan]

9342395
Unfortunately, that's like saying, 'given the size of the U.N, wouldn't it be relatively easy to put an end to the atrocities in(insert any number of places here). Remember, the things happening to Twilight, and Coffee, and any unfortunate souls who have been captured by the weather station, are illegal, even on Tirassa. There are places in the galaxy where slavery is still a thing, like Tankra, Si'irtos, and Taraxia, and the Assembly, although large, is still just a small part of galaxy in whole. At the moment, pegasi are second-class citizens on Tirassa, but they are still citizens(barely). And there is resistance to the current rate of change. Any sort of armed intervention may undo things entirely, pushing progress back and creating resentment, if not leading into another bloody conflict. In the long run, is that going to lead to a greater loss of life than letting things take their own course, or by intervening quietly?

[Joural]

9357851

Yeah, that'd make sense. She has giant fangs that impede her closing her mouth, and presumably an entirely different set of teeth behind them to help with the consumption of meat- even if she could fix it 100%, she has to learn entirely new ways of making some sounds.

PS enjoying the story a lot. Characters feel very natural, and things always feel like they're pushing forwards, even when the characters take a break. A lot of potential in the idea, too, and you're making use of it very well!

[Metal Pony Fan]

9357902
Thanks!

[-Brutus]

9370125
See you, Space Cowboy

[dah884]

okay given your description in the author's note it sounds like Astral will eventually run into a celestrial with it's magic artificially restrained.(possibly as a test subject for who every made the arm of that attacked Serus)

i wonder if Delta's anniversary is the same day as the summer sun celebrations.

Though, nopony who survived Sevus could ignore the combination.

- in 'Atop the Sliver Tower' i think you meant Serus here.

time for my guesses:
Rarity is the co leader of the White Flags. and she will meet up with Twilight when they go to sort out Astral's bounty.
Zephyr is Minuette's father and has been going out to look for Fluttershy