Chapter 40: Signals
Ranger
Chapter 40: Signals
By Wanderer D
o.0.o Two Years Earlier o.0.o
"I wish we had stayed back in that settlement," Sunset said, grumbling as she followed Bradford through the jungle. She felt sweaty, hot, annoyed, and itchy. "They were already starting to worship me, Bradford. They liked the way I handled things and they were a lot less creepy than the Templars."
John Bradford rolled his eyes. "That was not our objective, Sunset." He checked his compass, and pulled out an old fashioned map, folding it so that he could place it under the device. He was also sweating and clearly uncomfortable, but there was a new life in him ever since they had arrived in the area, and he didn't seem tired at all.
Once he had established their position, he nodded and motioned with his hand for her to follow, putting the map away into a pocket.
They trudged on the soft ground for another couple of hours by her estimation, until they reached the edge of the trees. Sunset gasped, sucking in breath in surprise at what she saw.
It was like nothing she had ever seen before. Made of metal, several stories high, with short wings that had some sort of propellers, two bigger at the front, the thing stood much bigger than any airship or boat she had ever seen in Equestria. It could contain thousands of people inside, just by the sheer size alone if they decided to pack it to capacity.
Several people worked endlessly all over it, with welding flashes visible here and there on its surface.
"W-what is that?" she managed to ask after remembering to close her mouth.
"That is the Avenger," Bradford said, looking over at her and smirking before turning around and starting to walk towards it.
"That's what we were looking for the whole time?" Sunset asked, falling in behind him without much thought. Her eyes strayed over the whole thing with open wonder. "Why didn't you say so? I would have been more eager to get here!"
"That might be because it's as secret as it gets," a new voice said, making Sunset stop.
She hadn't noticed the man sneaking up to them, and he wasn't alone. Several other armed individuals were around them, weapons raised and pointing at them.
The man grinned and made a motion with his hand, looking at both her and Bradford. The soldiers lowered their weapons and all but two ran back into the jungle. "Central." He glanced at Sunset. "I just can't believe that—"
"Galahad," Bradford interrupted. "This is Sunset Shimmer. Sunset," he turned to look at her, finding her wide-eyed. "This is Robert Bree, codename Galahad, one of my old acquaintances."
"...that Shen said you'd be here…" Galahad finished lamely. Looking from her to him and back. He coughed, then extended his hand. "Nice to meet you."
Sunset shook it. "Same."
A few moments later they were strolling up to the impressive machine, which Sunset had just learned was a downed UFO that XCOM had managed to knock down without destroying it completely.
Engineers and scientists walked all over the place fixing things or moving equipment. The operation was obviously a long-running one, with the encampment having developed into a miniature settlement.
Galahad guided them to one of the larger tents, where an elderly man, and a younger woman stood, looking at several screens, printouts and pads.
"Shen," Bradford spoke up, making the pair turn to look at him.
The elder of the two smiled. "Ah, John!" he made to stand up, but Bradford beat him to it, placing a hand on one shoulder, the other shaking the elderly man's hand warmly.
"Don't get up, old friend."
"John, you remember my daughter, Lily?"
"A lot shorter," Bradford said, nodding at her. He turned to motion at Sunset. "This is Sunset Shimmer. Sunset, Dr. Shen was the lead engineer for XCOM…"
"He still is," Lily said firmly. "This whole place? It couldn't have been done without him."
"Lily…"
"Is right," Bradford said. "And I'm glad we arrived in time to see it take off for the first time."
Shen grinned. "Quite." He smiled kindly at Sunset. "John messaged me about you, he said you're quite the fighter."
"I try," Sunset said with a smile. The man had a gentleness that was unusual to see lately.
"That's very fortunate, for we are in need of the best of the best," Shen said. "In fact, Galahad was about to get the other rookies, if you're going to be part of XCOM you could get started sooner than later."
Sunset smirked. "Just give me some time and even Bradford here will be calling me Commander."
That remark strained some smiles, but with a shake of his head, Galahad motioned her over. "In that case, Commander, why don't you come meet the other duckies?"
Sunset blinked. "You're training ducks?"
Galahad faltered. "Y-what?" They stared at each other for a moment before Galahad broke off laughing. "Ah, I see! You got me there, duckie! I thought you were for real!"
Sunset laughed too, although to her ears it sounded forced. "That's 'Commander' to you. Better get used to it."
Galahad shook his head and motioned for her to follow. They parted ways with Bradford and the others and headed down to the base of the Avenger, where a single young woman of about Sunset's age waited.
Galahad blinked. "Where are the other two?"
The woman shrugged. "Joined the engineers."
Galahad sighed. "Figures. Well, then, it seems it's going to be only the two of you for a while. Jane, this is our newest recruit. Sunset Shimmer."
Sunset and Jane sized each other up.
"What type of name is Sunset?"
"The type that people remember."
o.0.o Present Day o.0.o
Sunset slammed on the accelerator, driving out of New Appaloosa as fast as she could. One hand was on the steering wheel, the other clutched Jane's gaping wound, glowing red with blood magic that kept her friend from outright dying out due to blood loss. However, that wouldn't stop her from dying from shock or something else.
The van tilted precariously as she took a steep left turn and accelerated again, driving out of the city and towards the safe house. It was still a few minutes away, but at least they weren't being shot right now.
The drive was strenuous for Sunset, not only was she syphoning magic to keep her friend alive, but the constant bumps on the road made it difficult to keep her hand in place to concentrate her magic. It was as Scootaloo had said a few days prior: ADVENT really wasn't into fixing the roads of old national parks.
Sunset slowed down and stopped among the trees, running around the car so she could lay Jane down in the back of the car. She rummaged through the backpack and found a medikit, quickly using her magic to keep the blood contained as she sprayed the wound.
It was pretty bad. The adhesive properties of the medikit seemed to work, and she staggered back, almost collapsing before a surge of adrenaline snapped her awake. Body trembling with uneasy energy, she boarded the van again and set off.
In the distance, she could see ADVENT patrols widening their circle outside of the city. It was just a matter of time before they included part of the forest.
And even longer for them to give up.
She kept driving, her energy reserves low and only the adrenaline keeping her going. The pad's GPS eventually told her to get off the road and into the forest itself. It made the bumping worse, but they were really close now. She drove further in, going around the base of the mountain and following the road into a ravine. As the mountain and forest rose around her, the way finally ended, and Sunset looked around, confused.
She was in the middle of nowhere.
Slowly, she made her way out of the van and paced around her position. The GPS said that was the exact spot where she needed to be. "No. Nonononono!" she hissed. Had the GPS failed? Were the orders wrong? Had someone in intelligence messed things up this badly?
"Gah!" Sunset shouted, kicking a small rock out of the way. It flew onto the side of the mountain, hitting the rocky surface with a small clang before falling down harmlessly to the soft, floor.
Sunset smashed her fists on the hood of the van, glancing desperately inside, barely catching sight of Jane's ragged breathing.
Wait.
Clang?
Sunset walked over to the mountainside of the ravine and touched the rock. It was cool, slightly humid… but it wasn't rock. It was metal.
"What the…"
Eyes wide, she followed the metallic "rock" from one side to the other, and eventually she found a small encrypted pad, hidden under fake moss.
Gulping, she ran to the car to fetch her pad, and a few seconds later, she was trying to connect to the system.
It turned out her hacking skills were not needed again.
With a bleep-bloop of recognition the pad flashed red, then green. Sunset stepped back as the rock formation slid upwards, while the ground beyond it tilted down. Old engines wheezed and protested, creaking and clanking, but it opened up, revealing a clean, concrete tunnel going down into the mountain itself.
Long, fluorescent strip lights in the middle of the roof blinked on. Or some of them did, and suddenly she had a random building entrance in the middle of nowhere.
A warning beep made her jump, the GREMLIN was monitoring Jane's signals, and warning beeps were not good.
There was no time to waste.
Sunset got into the van and descended into the depths.
Behind her, the rocks slid down and water emerged from the end, as if a stream had suddenly decided to flow through. And soon the ravine was partially flooded, and there was no sign of an entrance ever being there.
o.0.o End Chapter 40 o.0.o
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The entire hideaway concealment system is amazeing.
...Why do I get the feeling that the safehouse used to be an old XCOM bunker?
8811795
My guess is that it's actually the old XCOM HQ.
8811856
It's possible. Bradford did say in one of the Flashbacks that the base was located under a National Park.
He did say something like that, right?
Dude, a stream is genius.
It will wash away the tracks leading to the cliff face and anyone following said tracks will follow them down river expecting the vehicle to be following the river.
Someone has be using their head... The question becomes who?
8811795
Because with a secret entrance like that, what else could it be?
Wow!
Smart with the Stream washing Away any traces. I Really Hope Jane makes it.
Holy shit the old xcom base. Let's hope there's still some medical supplies there...
Although I'd find it hilarious if that's were Moira was hiding when not creating monsters.
Neat!
Oh, and I hope Jane pulls through.
Ooh!
An old, incredibly well-designed safehouse. Now to see if it's enough of an opportunity to save Jane...
So Jane got shot behind the moment she tried to climb into the van. That suck.
Anyway that's a great hiding spot. Is it the original X-COM base?
8813003
Apparently so. Again, i think there were tweaks made so might want to research that first.
The launch of the Avenger, neat.
8812731
Because we would all be dead in that case. Just drop a few asteroids of sufficient size from orbit. Terraform in the aftermath. And that's only if you're interested in colonizing instead of just strip mining the star system.
8813332
And I would like to think that paradise was earned, instead of somehow being an inherently Pony thing. Which most of the backstory implies, what with Hearthswarming and Sombra.
8812491
Griffonstone depicts NOTHING realistically, unless you're going full "it's all metaphor!" on me. You CAN'T have civilization with no concept of Friendship or family, and that applies to even the most brutal and evil of societies. Not to mention the Griffons are not shown to be a warrior race, but a militaristic MERCHANT race. Ferengi who can fight.
As for the whole "warrior honor was never real!" are you seriously suggesting no one back then actually bought into the idea? Sounds statistically impossible.
8813544
Ofc the MLP eps wasnt realistic. Duh. However, the revelation that a militaristic kingdom sees greed as a virtue is an entirely realistic anthropological observation.
And ofc any anthropomorphic society would understand friendship and family. But not the way ponies may understand it.
"Ferengi who can fight" is basically the definition of every warlike tribal society ever, before the advent of industrialized warfare and modern military hierarchy. Those who can take other's bling by force, do so and are lauded. Those who cannot, seek to obtain it thru haggling and conniving, with no sense of "fair trade" as we understand it. That is true Warrior Culture. Hell, you can see it in modern street gangs, modern pirates, and guerillas.
And are you thinking of knights and samurai? Surely their true history is common knowledge in this day and age?
8813582
So your saying not one of them ever bought into it? Seem statistically improbable.
8813592
What does that have to do with talking about societies?
Whoops, I let this build up in my updates again. Some belated nitpicks:
I am not sure what "warning were not good" was intended to be, but it is very unnatural as is and barely makes sense.
And I don't think "Van" should be capitalized.
Found old XCOM HQ I bet!
>It was then Circuit realized where they were.
8817864
Obviously you don't understand the ADVENT Automotive Company (the AAC) very well.
In effort to streamline management and production interprocess communications efficiency, separate entities were formed to singularity deal with all matters relating to their assigned product. The Van entity was assigned the production project for a variable light cargo, civilian transport unit.
The Van, Variable Ancelliory Navigator is not only the manufacturing identity, but also the identifying descriptor of the unit, the brand if you will. It is the Van, in every conceivable way. Entity's that resemble the Van or VAN in either form, function, organisational structure or ideology1 are destroyed as they do not match the assigned ADVENT Single Transport Proximity Identification Protocol ( ADVENT STPID) designated descriptor for the entity Van.2
Therefor, capitalisation of the the V, in van, is appropriate if used a general noun or descriptor of said unit.
Note: This is not to be confused with van or V.A.N. which are complete unrelated projects and entities pertaining to artificial insemination of terrestrial pollinating insects, and the official guidelines for the ADVENT child artistic training simulation package respectively.
Side note 1: This change decreased total word usage in relations to van's, and other civilian transport discussions by nearly 1.3%, a marked increase in efficiency of communication. Glory to the Elders!
Side note 2: This also conferred a nearly 18% decrease in efficiency when communicating anything van, Van, VAN or V.A.N. related to non ADVENT personnel, including the Elders and their associated member races.
1 Don't ask.. it's remarkably stupid.
2 ADVENT does not have a understanding of classic cars, or last year's model. As they are soon destroyed as newer models with an updated ADVENT STPID designated descriptors are released.
9681314
.
That. Was beautiful
Old X-Com Base? What a twist!
Well she is still kicking. Hope it stays that way.
With a two member team and one of them mortal wounded? Things look very bleak indeed.
Would look bad even without one of the brink of death, but that of course raises the odds of things going from south to hitting ocean bottom fast.