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Big Red One

Chapter 5: Big Red One

The Osprey reaches the desert area rather quickly, the vast landscape littered with large boulders and cliffs, in the centre of a cliff valley is a single pair of train tracks, along it as a long train going at high speed, the Osprey changes course as it passes right over the train, Moonshine opens the side door after feeling the sharp turn, “There they are, we found them, they don’t seem to be in trouble at all.” She says but just then as if she had jinxed it, a huge Akrid, Cat-G, emerges from the sand behind the train, it charges forward, the mouth opening wide, the many teeth and bristles showing before clamping shut taking a carriage with it, the thermal energy in the tankers exploding causing the Akrid to roar in pain then dive down in the ground.

“I’ll take it back; they’re in huge trouble…” Moonshine corrects herself, she turns only to be shocked as nix and Colin jump out of the Osprey and fall down towards the train, “What a pair of jackasses.” She says only to be grabbed by Treacle who jumps out with her in grasp, Moonshine screaming all the way down with legs flailing, Claire staying behind to give air-support as she climbs up and into the gunner seat of the Osprey.

Nix and Colin land first and immediately check on the Desert Raiders, Treacle and Moonshine after them who use their anchors to get higher up to get a better tactical view, “Where’s Friedrich?” Treacle asks as she looks about, just then he shouts as he jumps out of the Osprey and lands on the train with a huge thud, he is wearing full battle armour and holding a VS Laser rifle.

“I’m right here, ze Akrid won’t be hurt too much by those silly little weapons, and we need ze big guns.” He says as he takes aim with the gun and waits for the Akrid to re-emerge.

“Oi, Moonshine, I need ya to hold of the beastie, we can’t kill it…” he orders before turning to the Raiders, “And you lot, get as much thermal energy gathered as ya can, you’re getting of this piece of crap.” He orders again, Moonshine and Treacle start rushing about to gather any weapons that can help that are laid about, as well as weakening the supports to the crates, the Raiders head for the front of the train where they have a couple of standard Ospreys and they start channelling the thermal energy to them.

Just as they reach the front everypony stumbles as the Akrid emerges again, Friedrich charges up the rifle and fires at it only for it to not even notice the shot, he charges again but waits, Moonshine fires on the a crate holding bolt and it smashes to pieces causing the barrels of T-Eng to fall out and roll to the Akrid, the impact causing them to explode and the Akrid roars with pain, just then Friedrich fires the rifle into the mouth and the Akrid recoils back into the ground.
“JA, that’s it everypony, aim for ze mouth, that seem to be ze weak spot.” He advises everypony who knod in acknowledgement.

The T-Eng starting to flow into the Ospreys as they work their best to get it flowing faster, the Akrid emerging again and the Pirate’s Osprey hovering over the train while Claire fires round into the Akrid’s mouth only for it to slam shut and eat one of the carriages and then submerge.

“HURRY IT UP BACK THERE!” Moonshine shouts as she takes position next to Friedrich with a VS Rocket launcher in hoof, Treacle holding a Gatling gun, the three of them waiting for it to come up again.

One of the Raiders in running back to them when the train is shook about by the emerging Akrid, this time from the side causing the Raider to unfortunately tumble and collapse then roll off the train and onto the sand bellow where due to the shear speed the train is travelling the impact kills him instantly as he rolls and tumbles across the sand soon coming to a stop.

Friedrich watches as this happens and then turns to face the Akrid which is firing pods at the train while it travels side by side with it, he pulls his gun back and runs forward towards it, he gets a good jump and leaps for it, his trajectory showing he won’t make it.

“Friedrich!” Treacle shouts as she spots him ‘flying’ across the gap between train and Akrid, literally just before he hits the ground he raises a hoof and fires his anchor pulling him to the Akrid, he shoots up and into Akrid which doesn’t even notice him, shows no reaction.

Once aboard, he climbs his way up the Akrid with the weapon on his back, he soon reaches a large, red spot on its side, he fires the anchor into the side of it and uses it to keep him upright while he wields the rifle and aims it into the spot then starts to charge it up.

The others fire at the pods to stop them from hitting the train, the Osprey doing a flyby to get airstrikes on the other weak spots using the Gatling guns that Claire is using.

The Laser rifle is fully charged and he shoves the end into the spot then releases the trigger, the blue explosion causing some minor damaged to it but enough for the Akrid to feel it, the explosion also causing Friedrich to be knocked back enough that he lands back on the train as the Akrid starts to submerge again.

“And the whole point of that was…?” Moonshine asks him as he gets up and pulls out a machine gun.

“Well, it would seem that it has caused it to submerge, and ze Akrid has been hurt a little, might not come up again, with a bit of luck.” He answers just as a Raider runs up to them all.

“Let’s go, the Ospreys are fully loaded, we’re ready to go, we’re going to disconnect the rest of the carriages to ‘feed’ the Akrid.” he explains before running off with Moonshine, Treacle, Nix, Colin and Friedrich right behind him.

As they get closer to the front an ear-bursting roar emits from behind them as the Akrid rises from underground with mouth wide open and makes its way towards the train.

“Hurry, it’s coming to get us!” Treacle shouts as they rush over the last carriage, the Akrid ripping up one of the carriages and throwing it to the side the advancing towards them, they jump aboard as the engines start up.

“You lot got on, I’ll stop the beastie…” Colin orders as he turns to face the carriage coupling.

“Separating now.” A voice over the intercom says.

Nothing.

“Damn it….looks like we’re doing this the hard way.” He says before aiming the Gatling gun at the coupling and opens fire, the rounds taking chunks out of it but to no effect. He soon runs out of ammo and throws the gun as it, the coupling slowly starts to separate after the impact.

He jump onto the other carriage that has the Ospreys and turns to watch as Moonshine and the others race up the carriage, Treacle runs up ahead as if to have a run up to the increasing gap, she reaches the edge and her horn glows bright as she teleports onto the other carriage as if they weren’t disconnected.

Nix runs up next and leaps up into the air then spreads his wings allowing him to glide onto the other carriage, Friedrich lowers his head and steps on the gas as he runs at full speed to the gap which is almost now twice the gap it was when Treacle went over it.

He jumps with legs sprawled out wide as he nears the edge of the other carriage but he slowly starts to fall looking as if he won’t make it but then Moonshine suddenly grabs his armour and pulls him forward as she flies over the gap and they both land on the carriage, all of them rush over to the Ospreys as the left behind carriages are swept up but the Akrid causing them to explode and it rears up in pain then advances again, it’s mouth opening as the Ospreys take off.

They just make clear of it as the Akrid slams shut on the remains of the train, “Let’s go home.” Moonshine says to everypony who all finally have a bit of time to rest.

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