Chapter 234: Advance
Ranger
Chapter 234: Advance
By Wanderer D
"We had enough firepower to deal with any one Alien Ruler, or even stand up to a Chosen long enough to escape."
"I know, Commander."
"I had one of my most trusted Captains in charge."
"Yes, Commander."
"Shen and the Crusaders should have been protected! That was the whole point of Dragon Team and a troop of mercs!"
"Yes, Commander."
"How did shit hit the fan so badly?" Chrysalis growled.
"You need to calm down," Counselor Luna said, while next to her Lunatitia nodded.
"My counterpart speaks the truth, Commander, you must not let this—"
"What, put me down?" Chrysalis interrupted. "Of course it won't. I'll make plans and readjust and deal with the fact that I lost so many irreplaceable assets! I don't have the luxury to feel bad right now… I lost Shen and Sweetie Belle. Those two were incredibly useful assets, and let's not forget the loss of intel and insight from both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. Or the resistance force that was supposed to join us. Or my urban combat specialists. No. I can't just roll over and whimper, but I'll be damned if I'm not pissed!"
"No one could have predicted the type of assault that landed on them, Commander," Bradford said gently. "The Berserker Queen, The Archon King, a new breed of Sectoid. ADVENT. Julian. And Chimera."
"That bitch," Chrysalis hissed. "Wearing Twilight Sparkle's face, no less."
"Estella and I had wondered what had happened to Twilight's double," Lunatitia said. "we always assumed she had died during the attack. It seems her fate was much darker."
"At least we know who is behind the Rulers," Bradford said, "but that leaves me wondering what happened to Vahlen."
"Probably dead," Chrysalis said, sighing and sinking into her sofa.
Tygan, who had remained silent through the previous rant, shifted in place. "Still, this Twi—Chimera thing didn't just stumble on the Rulers and declared herself their empress. From her own modifications, I am certain that Chimera worked with Vahlen at some point, and might be the cause behind the Ruler's escape." He shrugged. "From what I know, my predecessor wasn't prone to make the sort of mistakes that would end in those things running loose."
"Great, another traitor," Chrysalis sighed. "Look into it, Tygan, if we can figure out some information from old files, we can perhaps gain some insight into where she's located. She wasn't part of our team in old XCOM, but I know that Vahlen kept a log of possible inductees from all around the world."
"I'll get right on it, Commander."
"All we can do right now," Chrysalis said, "Is keep moving forward. Keep advancing. We'll get our revenge, for the fallen and for Earth."
"I can't believe they're gone…" Rainbow Dash whispered for the umpteenth time. "They can't be… the crusaders wouldn't just… die." She sank down placing her forehead on the table and covering her head with her hands. "I promised the other Applejack I'd watch over Apple Bloom. What the hell am I going to tell her?"
The bar was completely quiet and empty, save for a small group of people.
"Shen, Ember, Dragon Team, Sweetie, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom… the mercs from the resistance..." Deadwood listed, taking a swig from his beer. "Too many."
"I should escape. Fly east. As far east as I can go," Rainbow Dash muttered, dragging her hands down her face.
"Yeah… too many. And for what? To get back someone that just happened to know the Commander's old lover," Jane muttered. "Chrysalis could just get over it." She had just come out of some forced sleep and a long session with Luna and had looked much better than she had the day before… however the news about Scootaloo's loss had also hit her hard.
"The Ghost could give us a lot of answers—" Estella spoke up from where she was sitting close by, a glass of whiskey in her hand, she closed her mouth when Jane glared at her.
"Are they worth all of them dying?!"
Estella fidgeted. "...I—it's the only way we can learn enough to save Sunset…"
Jane snorted. "If Sunset wanted to be saved she wouldn't have left us those death bullets."
"Am I missing something?" Deadwood asked. "I thought you were friends?"
"Don't you think she's worth saving?" Elena asked Jane, ignoring Deadwood. She had joined the others out of solidarity and respect for the deceased, but her body language spoke volumes of how she felt about Jane's attitude. She wasn't exactly coiled into herself like a spring, but her body was tense, as if she were ready to cross the distance between them in the blink of an eye. "You're saying Mox should have let her die in the jungle? Or that Angel and I should have continued the mission on our own back then?" She tilted her head. "Should she just have dropped your body when you were shot in the ADVENT Communications base?"
Jane's brow darkened and her eyes shone with fury and traces of magic as she rose, slamming her hands on the table. "If it's a fight you're looking for—"
"Is this really necessary?" Deadwood asked, stepping between them. "We all lost friends today."
"It's Applejack all over again," Rainbow Dash said. "I left them behind, I couldn't do anything…"
"Maybe if this Reaper takes her head out of her ass, she can then smell the daisies and realize that risking so many lives for the sake of one crazy idiot is not worth it!" Jane snapped.
Elena didn't back down. "You seem eager to go back to sleep, I think I can help you with that."
"Guys?"
"Listen, you two should calm down, remember who we lost today an—"
Jane shook her arm free from Deadwood's grasp. "That's exactly the problem, we shouldn't have… we wouldn't have lost anyone if the Commander had her head screwed in right!"
"Guys?"
"You understand that this has nothing to do with your pity party over—"
"GUYS!"
The trio stopped bickering and turned to look at Estella, who sighed, exasperated. "Where the hell is Rainbow Dash going?"
o.0.o End Chapter 234 o.0.o
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Oh no you don't.
Oh shit, not Rainbow. She lost too much, too fast, again, and she's right in that state were people make extremely stupid mistakes.
9568645
I, too, see what he did there.
Too fast - just two quick phrases, like 7-10 seconds, between RD's voice and already formed question "Where the hell is Rainbow Dash?"
Also dot after "snapped".
F****** Austreaoh. I still haven't gotten around to finishing that mess XD
That takes a very long time, so be prepared for the commitment of it.
Oh crap, she really is flying east.
Dash, don't. They hadn't Wanted that.And hope dies Last
Hell. Yes.
Cue the montage of RD taking off and flying out to search for the CMC.
When all hope is lost, when even extraordinary efforts fail, success may require one to do the absurd.
Oh man, time for a three million word side project!
Seriously how fucking long is Austreoh? I tried to get an idea once and looking at the word counts started giving me a headache
9568814
But it dies.
9568868
Too long. Like seriously way too long. And the worst part is it seems like all those words don't mean anything, because halfway through the next story nothing is relevant anymore.
"Maybe is this Reaper takes"
"Maybe if this Reaper takes"?
"worth it!" Jane snapped"
"worth it!" Jane snapped."?
9568736
Fly east, till she hits the edge of the flat world.
Oh boy. Everything is crumbling.
9569141
Then go around the other side! The journey never stops!
Seriously D,
Did you have to ring the East Horse bell? Because call me Pavlov's Pony, I'll come running every time.
Well shit, she's actually going to fly east.
9569066 Fixed, thank you!
9568741 Tweaked, thanks.
Oh boy. Dash has gone and imploded her colon. This won't end well.
9569407
You're welcome. :)
9569417
Somebody find a proctologist before we end up at a billion-words before the end of the story!
Too much time being stressed. Where's that darn R&R! Focusing on that second r!
Hadn't really thought about it but yeah, Chimera is both Twilight and a traitor. Twilight-Actual has some pretty strong feelings about traitors, so that could be an interesting encounter down the line.
Guess I forgot a few people that are with XCOM still, but that last op is still a big yikes. Maybe a few major characters are okay? Captured and the like? I can't imagine Shen being well and truly gone at least.
Don't worry, they should have Plot Armor rated for death!
... I won't guarantee that they'd escape without mental or physical trauma, though, and it may be permanent.
Meh, it's not like there's a mythological flying city waiting for you.
I still haven't finished that series, and I do not want to deal with another epic-length story right now.
9568868
I once calculated it for a YouTube comment, and as of seven months ago, it had a grand total of 3,641,220 words spanning nine 'books', and the plan is to make twelve of those things.
*shudder*
It takes a concentrated amount of willpower to get me to start reading that.
Moh. Poor Rainbow. And everyone.
I don't get the Austraeoh reference and I don't think I want to.
Need a capital letter on "we".
"Ruler's" -> "Rulers'"
Finally caught up. It took me a long weekend of reading but I’m here now. This has been a pretty fun ride so far, looking forward to another 234 chapters haha.
That way lies even more pain and suffering RD. Don’t do it.
The multiverse resonates in mysterious ways...
Jane lost it, if ever i only put her in mission away from Sunset dark side ego. Perhaps even after...
Let's be honest, most players leave a iron man campaign for less.
Unfortunately this is real life for them, no retry