• Published 25th Jan 2018
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XCOM: Ranger - Wanderer D



Sunset Shimmer escapes Equestria... with unforeseen consequences.

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Chapter 14: Destinations

Ranger

Chapter 14: Destinations

By Wanderer D

"Central, this is Firebrand," Rainbow Dash reported into the comms. "Menace is on the ground."

"Confirmed, Firebrand," Bradford's voice responded. "Menace, the ADVENT facility is currently empty of civilians and you have tactical advantage, remain concealed as long as possible."

"Understood, Central," Sunset replied, kneeling next to her team in the lightly wooded area around the facility. "Moving in."

She took a deep breath. "Elena, we need recon."

"Understood." The Reaper took off, running quickly through a small, open area, before finding herself at the base of a nearby large rock, which she nimbly climbed up and dropped on her stomach, crawling over to the edge. "I see you..." she whispered. "There is a patrol, walking eastward. ADVENT Captain, a trooper and a Stun Lancer."

"Not much of a patrol," Sunset muttered, "Come on."

They made their way from cover to cover, until they could all see the patrol Elena had warned them of. Sunset noticed with some relief that they all were spread far enough that a grenade would not take them all down if it was used.

"I have another patrol coming on my 2," Mox reported.

Sunset crouched behind a large rock and looked his way. It was almost a straight line: Jane had her back against the thick trunk of a large tree; Laetitia was down on one knee, peeking over the edge of a fallen one, and finally Mox had slid down the edge of a small brook, and was crouching, staying mostly out of sight.

This patrol was different, however. It consisted of a white robot, the type that she had seen guarding certain buildings in the new cities. The first time that she had seen one, she had been almost entranced by the idea of such an automaton. Her imagination had run wild with possibilities of what she could do with an army of those. Now, she had one roaming about, ready to kill her on sight. It was accompanied by another two ADVENT Troopers, one wearing the regular black and red armor, the other wearing a white, bulkier version.

"I've never seen one of those before," Bradford's voice came up in the comms.

"Brakt."

"Mox, language," Sunset whispered, earning a snicker from Jane. "What's the problem?"

"That's an ADVENT Shieldbearer," Mox replied, watching the patrol stop and overlook the area. "They can project localized shields to all ADVENT units within a certain range, doubling their armor's resilience."

"Well, shit."

"Sunset!" Laetitia whispered. "Language!"

"Ugh, they're doing that thing again," Jane whispered. "You know, that thing ADVENT troops do when they don't stick to a normal patrol route and randomly start moving about?"

"So much for us staying hidden," Elena responded. "They're almost on top of Mox. Orders?"

"Take out the Shield Bearer." Sunset glanced around at the troops, then moved closer, hiding at the base of where Elena was hidden. "Jane and I will focus on the Captain, Trooper and Lancer. Mox and Laetitia, you guys focus on the others."

"Roger that."

The shot echoed through the night, the bullet hitting the Shield Bearer in the forehead, almost splitting his helmet in half, throwing his head back, and a second shot went through his chest before anyone else reacted.

"We've been spotted!" Jane shouted the instant the Captain and the troopers started running.

Sunset leaned around the rock and took a shot straight at the Captain's chest. The ADVENT officer whipped around from the shot, stumbling, before Jane mowed him down with her automatic rifle.

Sunset cursed. The officer's slow death had given the Trooper and Lancer a chance to take cover.

As soon as the Shield Bearer was down, Mox had jumped from his location, planting two deadly bursts of his Kal-7 Bullpup straight into the ADVENT MEC's armored head. The robotic enemy shook as electricity crawled outside its armor, before a small explosion inside it made it collapse into a pile of metal.

Laetitia also hadn't been idle. Trusting Mox's ability to bring down the MEC, she was already rushing towards the accompanying Trooper. She seemed to be in a zone of her own, an intense look of focus crossing her face as bright blades made of pure psychic energy emerged from her gauntlets. The trooper was completely stunned by this, as he didn't even attempt to raise his rifle before both blades cut through him like hot knives on butter. Not even sparing the body a glance, as she quickly took cover behind another tree.

That left only the Stun Lancer and Trooper closer to Sunset. The former decided to try his luck, rushing away from them towards Mox, who was the most exposed of the group. Jane reacted immediately, shooting at the running ADVENT agent, and managing to hit him in the legs. The trooper stumbled, but still got next to Mox.

The Lancer tried to jab his stun lance at the Skirmisher, but Mox dodged the attack, which left the Lancer open to a quick burst of bullets, that took him down.

Deciding that it wasn't such a bad idea, Sunset charged the last trooper, which seemed surprised at the sudden move and didn't take the opportunity to shoot her. Her blade came down, doing a significant amount of damage, and showering her in alien blood. However, the trooper managed to raise his weapon, blocking Sunset's downward swipe in part, at the cost of the weapon, and stopping her from slicing through him completely. The damage was done, however, and it staggered back, clutching his chest as if he were trying to stop the blood from flowing with his hands.

An almost lazy shot from Elena finished the job.

"Come on, guys," Sunset wiped her face with the back of her hand—smearing the blood across her face—and sheathed her sword, looking towards the nearby building. "They know we're here, other patrols will be moving towards us."

"We seem to be clear for now, I can see the entrance to the facility straight ahead," Elena reported.

"Let's go," Sunset said, running forward to duck behind the outer wall of the facility.

ADVENT facilities such as these had a low outer wall with holographic markers that served less as a deterrent and more as a simple warning that someone was entering a restricted area. During her travels with Bradford, they had encountered such facilities from time to time, and it had always confused Bradford on why the aliens had comparatively light security to what a comparable Earth installation would have.

It had surprised him when Sunset had offered an explanation: arrogance. To be fair to Bradford, the only reason the thought had crossed her mind was because of one of her lessons with Galahad, back in Equestria.

Galahad had discussed how griffons protected their kingdom; with high walls, patrols ready to respond the moment something happened. In contrast, ponies had all but ignored such steps, building castles with wide open areas, barely any protection and lax performance by the Royal Guard.

At the time, it hadn't made much sense to Sunset either, especially not after having gone over how other cultures handled it, but he had pointed out that with Celestia's immortal reign, and the power of unicorn magic, coupled with pegasi and to some extent the brute force of earth ponies, years of peace and several treaties, ponies were simply… not expecting to be attacked, as it should be fairly obvious that they had the distinct advantage of controlling most of the magic, the skies and crops. Not to mention the Sun.

Thus, Sunset had made the connection. The bases were designed as such because the Elders… just had nothing to fear.

Sunset's mind was brought to the present when she was joined by Laetitia and Jane. Mox remained at the edge of the wooded area, and of Elena, there was no indication, which was a good thing.

Sunset nodded to the other two, and jumped over the barrier and through the hologram, running quickly to flank the door. Laetitia followed suit, flanking it across from her, while Jane took cover behind some crates right across from it.

"Area is currently clear," Elena's voice reached them on the comms.

"I'll be on overwatch," Mox stated.

Jane nodded at Sunset, who pressed the button to open the door. It slid open with an efficient hiss.

"It looks clear," Jane reported.

Laetitia nodded and she ran in, taking cover behind another door. "Clear!"

Sunset followed in, dashing into the main lab, and crouching behind one of the several dashboards. "Menace, that large server is the objective," Shen's voice came in through the comms.

"I got it," Sunset responded, kneeling next to it and pulling out the explosives. She attached them to the device and entered the remote code. "Done."

"Menace, get the hell out of there," Bradford called in. "As soon as you evacuate, we will—"

"Sunset," Elena's voice interrupted. "New patrol! This one's strange, it—"

Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by the sounds of Jane and Mox's guns going off.

"Crap!" Sunset shouted, running past a startled Laetitia. "I knew this was too easy!"

"Tygan, what the hell are we looking at?"

Sunset ignored Tygan's reply, barreling out of the building to find Mox, Jane and Elena having taken defensive positions behind crates and vehicles as several vipers shot at them. Among them, a much bigger viper, colored blue and white instead of the warm yellow of regular vipers hissed and shot back with a plasma weapon.

Sunset's sword was already in her hand as she charged straight at one of the vipers, not giving it a second to react before it split in half in a shower of blood. A second viper approached, but Laetitia was already there as well, slicing the next viper, just as Elena took another out.

The biggest viper dodged the shots taken at it, hissing angrily before its tongue shot out and wrapped around Sunset's waist, pulling her up to it and wrapping himself around her as the last of the vipers fell dead.

"Hold! Don't hurt Sunset!" Mox called.

She could feel them moving around them, trying to flank the viper… but she found herself pressed against his body, hands against his chest. And it was a him. There were no feminine features about this one. His coils wrapped all around her, and she could feel his powerful heart beating through the thick scales.

The viper hissed in her face, venom dripping from his fangs, and eyes studying her own.

"This is amazing," Dr. Tygan's voice said on the comms. "It's an actual, male viper… I have never seen or heard of such a thing."

"Neither have I," Bradford added.

"Nor I," Mox reported. "All Vipers have always been female."

"And the Thin Men of years ago were all sexless," Bradford pointed out. "Doctor, what could this mean?"

Sunset could almost feel the lenses of her body cam adjusting. "Um, guys? I hate to state the obvious, but I don't really think this is the best time to discuss this. I'm literally about to be crushed to death."

"But it hasn't killed you," Tygan spoke up. "I wonder why."

"It seems smarter than the regular Vipers," Shen spoke up. "Maybe it knows that if Sunset dies, he'll get shot by the others."

The viper started sliding back, Sunset still in its grasp… and extended a claw, a shimmering, glowing orb of energy expanded near them.

"Uh… Brad-Central?" Sunset's voice rose. "I don't like this!"

"It's making a break for it!" Bradford shouted. "Shoot it! Don't let it take Sunset!"

Sunset felt it tense. "Oh, shiiiiiiiii—"

The others opened fire, but the viper dodged them, wrapping its arms around Sunset as he dashed with incredible speed past the startled group, knocking over Laetitia and Mox, who had tried to get closer to it, and dove into the energy field.

In the Avenger control room, Bradford slammed his hands down on the console. "What the hell was that? Where are they?"

"Scanning, sir," an agent reported. "One of our satellites has pinged a device matching Corporal Shimmer's ID. Marking on the map."

"This is… unbelievable," Tygan spoke up, looking up at the globe, where a red triangle had appeared. "I did not think such a thing would be possible for… creatures their size, much less for the energy to be available to this creature."

"But…" Bradford shook his head. "That's impossible! Check the readings again!"

"Biometrics are confirmed, sir," the agent's voice was hesitant. "Sunset Shimmer's location is in North America, in what used to be Arizona."

o.0.o End Chapter 14 o.0.o

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