Where Nopony Has Ever Gone Before

by Bronycommander

Chapter 4: Hunter and Hunted

Chapter 4: Hunter and Hunted

The Warp Jump went without any complications as the shuttle came out of warp. “Report.” Midnight looked at Wolf.

“We’re dropped out of Warp. Systems are stable. Warp drive is fully functional.

“Excellent. Now, let’s test the impulse engines.”

“Aye, sir.” Wolf acknowledged and carefully moved the joystick of the steering column forward. In response, the shuttle accelerated to high speed.

At the same time, the children looked out of the window, enjoying the flight. Yet, Dinky noticed that Tungsten was slightly trembling. “You’re okay?”

“Huh? Oh, I’m fine. I just hope Wolf knows what she’s doing.” He replied with a hint of fear and Dinky wrapped a hoof around him.

“I’m sure she does. After all, they’re the most experienced guards of Princess Luna and do everything they can to keep us safe and sound.”

The colt sighed. “Righto. Maybe I worry just too much.”

“Impulse engines are fully functional.” The Pegasus reported after a few minutes of flight.

“Very good. Fletcher, scan the surrounding area.” Midnight ordered and the unicorn nodded.

“Initiating scan.” He tipped on his console and it buzzed for a few seconds. “I’m detecting an unidentified ship on long range sensors.”

“What sort of ship?”

“Sensor readings are very limited at this range. But the Vessel appears to be stopped directly into our current flight path.”

“Get us into visual range, Wolf.

“Copy that.” The mare replied and a few moments later, Fletcher’s readings became clearer.

“We are now in visual range.”

“On screen.” Midnight said and they all looked in surprise and shock as the vessel got shown.

“It’s…” Fletcher stuttered. “The Gabilan…”

The wreck was drifting in space, having several hull breaches.

“How…Why would they give us coordinates that would lead us back to it?” Wolf wondered in confusion.

“I doubt they did it on purpose, Wolf. I guess they forgot in the preparations. But…” The bat pony thought for a moment. “This gives us an opportunity.”

“And that is?” Fletcher asked him.

“When we met Lemp, Spring managed to get some fuel, remember? We should check the wreck for any resources the Voyager could need in the journey home. Can you scan the wreck?”

“Sure.” Fray tipped again on his console. “It appears the fuel cells are still intact. And there are still some other supplies intact.”

“Perfect. Inform the kids, we go on an away mission. Is also a good opportunity to test the spacesuits.”

Fletcher saluted. “Right away.” He walked into the aft compartment and the children smiled at him. “Get your spacesuits on.”

“Okay, uncle Fletch,” Dinky replied and they all did as told.

Of course, they were specially modified to suit the horns of the unicorns and wings of White Wolf, fitting perfectly. “Don’t forget the phasers.” Midnight pointed out as he took a Phaser rifle, his two friends did too, while the kids grabbed type 2 phasers, secured in belts attached to their suits, set to stun.

“Why do we take them again? We got our own weapons.” Wolf asked with doubt in her expression.

“Throwing knives, arrows and boomerangs need gravity to work, right?” The grey stallion asked and she nodded. “There’s no gravity on the wreck and we never had experience when it comes to fighting with no gravity.” He pointed out.

“Fair point. Let’s get this over with.” She said as she activated the transporter, beaming on the wreck through one of the hull breaches, closest to the supplies.

In a blue flash, they found themselves on the wreck. “Magnetize.” Midnight ordered and all pressed a button on their suits and they all felt how they were pushed down, felling a bit heavy.

Unlike with humans, only their hind legs magnetized, so they could still grab things and push buttons. “Alright, the storage room we need to go is right at the end of this corridor.” Fray took the lead.

Pip took notice that Tungsten was slightly trembling as they moved. “You’re okay?”

“Just…my fear of heights…” He mumbled as he looked at a tear in the hull.

“Keep your eyes on the intact parts, that helps. For me anyway.” Noi said in an attempt to calm him down.

The corridor was dark, only the flashes from the red alert made a bit of light, bodies of the crew were scattered around, with Ruby looking at them in pity. “We were lucky to survive this. How came it that nobody else survived?”

“I don’t know. I wonder though why the Borg destroyed the ship than to assimilate it as they usually do?” Fray mumbled, not able to figure out why the Borg had done this.

“We can think about it later.” The Lord Commander said, wanting all to be focused on the task at hand as they arrived at the storage room. “Door’s locked but that shouldn’t be a problem.” He added and carefully pushed his blade through the slit of the door and wiggled it a bit, slowly force opening the door. “Enter.”

And to their joy, the fuel and other supplies were there, untouched. “Good. Let’s get it on the shuttle.” Fletcher looked at the supplies with a smile as Katja and Blau grabbed a fuel cell together and beamed themselves with it on the shuttle.

“Okay, now the next one,” Blau mumbled before the tactical screen beeped and he took a look. “Uh, guys, we got a ship closing in.” He informed the others on the communicator.

“What sort of ship?” The bat pony wanted to know.

“It’s coming into visual range now,” Katja replied and both siblings saw a black-grey sphere, their eyes went wide. “It’s a Borg sphere!”

“Copy, we are heading back now.”

Yet, Blau noticed something odd as he took a closer look. “The ship appears to be damaged, the upper part has a hull breach, weapons and shields are offline.” He reported before the sphere scanned the shuttle and wreck, they all held their breaths.

For a moment, the Borg Ship did nothing, making them wonder what was going on.

“They ignore us…I guess.” Katja suspected before the scanners showed something else. “Scanners detect a group of drones near the deflector dish.”

“Okay, we take a look. Stay on the shuttle.” Midnight replied and turned to the other children. “Stay here for your own protection.” He then turned to Wolf. “Remember when you trained to fly at high altitude?”

“Yes, it made me sick in my stomach. ...What are you suggesting?” She asked with a slightly unwell expression.

“I think it's time that we took a little stroll.” He said and they went to a Jefferies tube.

“Be careful, uncle.” Dinky hugged Fletcher, who smiled.

“I intend to.”

The Knights then walked on the underside of the ship.

It was a slow and long walk, black and stars as far as the eye could see, but they all stayed focused.

Yet, it was a fascinating and new experience for the knights, with Midnight and Fletcher briefly looking at the stars, admiring the view.

None of them could have ever imagined doing something like this, being in space, on the outside of a space ship. Or what was left of it.

They all took deep, slow breaths, trying to stay calm as they all shivered slightly, it was a completely new experience after all and even they had limits.

There was a first try for everything, even for something unique as this.

“How are you doing, Wolf?” Midnight asked her.

“Not well.”

“Try not to look at the stars. Keep your eyes on the hull. ...Let's go.” Midnight advised, with the siblings watching them worried on the screen as they slowly came closer to the dish, seeing that the drones were building something that looked like a small cylinder.

“It looks as if they're building the beacon right on top of the particle emitter. Once all the transponder rods are in place the beacon will be activated.” Fletcher concluded, having informed himself about Borg technology. “I guess whatever damaged their ship, cut them off from the collective and they try to reestablish contact. If they succeed, they might detect us.”

“Then we should destroy it,” Wolf suggested.

“There's a risk that we hit the dish. It's charged with anti-protons. We could destroy half the ship. We have to find another way.” The unicorn warned and they scattered around the dish, seeing that the locks of it were still working. “For this to work all three maglocks will have to be released.”

All three knights looked at the panels that were offline, tipping on the screen, only to get an ‘ACCESS DENIED' message. At that moment, one Borg drone saw Midnight as threat, who fired his phaser in response, scoring a direct hit, sending the drone into space.

Wolf at the same time managed to override the lock, engaging the manual input, just in time to see a drone coming towards her way.

In response, she fired her phaser, but the Borg glowed green. “They've adapted.”

As Fletcher managed to engage his input, grabbing the handle of the portal servo control and turned it, disengaging the first lock, he saw also a drone coming for him. Knowing they had adapted, he fired at the dish, blasting the drone into space through the released gas.

He saw how Wolf ducked to evade a strike by her attacker and drew one of her knives, slicing the drone into the threat and cut one arm off, but as it stumbled, the tools on the other arm struck her right hind leg, puncturing her suit. She groaned as she held her hoof on it in an attempt to seal it.

“Warning. Decompression in forty-five seconds.” The female computer voice of the suit sounded.

Noticing that his fellow knight was in distress, Fletcher deactivated his magnets and somersaulted over his attacker, barely managing to catch himself by grabbing the console and managed again, disengaging Wolf’s lock.

At the same time, Midnight managed to disengage the last lock. The restraining catches opened and the interplexing beacon floated free, with the Borg looking at it in surprise, yet the beacon flashed, in progress of powering up.

“Watch out!” Fletcher yelled at Midnight, the batpony looked up, only to get thrown over by a drone, attempting to assimilate him as the needles came out of the arm, before it was blasted into space, a leak in the hull had caused it as far as Midnight could see.

He turned around to see that the saving shot had come from Wolf, who had used a cable from the severed limb to seal her suit. The Pegasus then fired at the connection of the beacon, fully releasing it.

The bacon turned off as the power was cut. Once the dish had drifted far enough away, Wolf yelled, “Assimilate this!” And destroyed it with a well-aimed shot.

“Great work. Now, let’s return to the shuttle.” Midnight stood up after everything was over, with the children also returning to the shuttle, having carried all the supplies they could get.

“I was so worried about you.” Dinky looked at Fletcher in relief.

“It was sure something new to experience but not impossible, Dinky.” He replied before doing a scan on the Sphere. “Strange, the entire ship is offline.”

“I suspect the drones we fought on the dish were the only ones left of the crew. It gives us a good opportunity to test the weapons. Fletcher.” Midnight looked at him and he nodded.

“You got it.” The unicorn activated the shuttle’s weapons and fired the phasers after Wolf flew to a safe distance, creating small explosions, heavily damaging the Sphere, then finished it off with a photon torpedo. The Borg ship exploded in a bright green haze.

Midnight whistled. “Quite powerful weaponry for a shuttle. But now, let’s return to the voyager.

“Sure thing, Midnight.” Wolf acknowledged and she charged up the Warp drive. “It will take a few minutes.”

“Okay. It was a very exciting experience to fight in zero-gravity, wasn’t it?” Fletcher asked his fellow knights.

“Yes, it was. I just hope we don’t have to do it again so soon.” Wolf replied with unease in her voice.

“I thought you like new exciting things.” Fray looked her slightly surprised.

“I do, but to this one, I need to get used to it. And if Equestria ever considers a space program, remind me not to take part in it.”

“Duly nodded, but I think it’s unavoidable for us to be the first ponies on the moon if there would be a space program,” Midnight added with a chuckle.

“Well, it was quite interesting, wasn’t it?” Dinky asked her friends.

“Yep, it was. Though I felt a bit…I don’t know, heavy? Tight?” Pip couldn’t think how to describe it.

“Still, I think we all did great, especially you in handling your fear, Tungsten.” Ruby complimented the older colt, who blushed slightly.

Suddenly, Fletcher’s console gave off a warning sound. “I got another ship on screen, closing in fast, it’s powering up weapons!”

“Shields up, take evasive action!”

“Yes, sir!” Wolf did as told, the kids looked out of the window, seeing a rust-brown colored ship, shaped like some kind of tram-train with bulbs at each corner from behind, firing torpedos and the shuttle rumbled from the hit, with Noi, Ruby and Tootsie screaming in fear.

“Shh, It’s going to be all right, Tootsie.” Dinky tried to calm her cousin down, Blau and Katja did the same with Noi and Ruby. Tungsten just looked at the enemy ship in fear, Pip did too.

“Shields are holding!” Fletcher reported. “Wolf, get us around, so I can target the engines!”

“Aye, sir!”

The children watched as the shuttle turned around, facing the enemy ship. “What are they doing?” Tungsten asked.

“Trust me, they know what they are doing,” Dinky said confidently.

They saw how Wolf managed to get behind the ship and Fletcher fired 2 torpedoes. He scored a direct hit and the ship drifted off by the damage it took, but not before firing a blue beam at the prototype.

“What happened?” Midnight asked.

“Whatever they fired, it disrupted our propulsion and navigational sensors!” The mare reported with surprise in her voice. “But I detected a nearby jungle planet, the power should be enough to land there.”

“Then do it.” The captain quickly decided and Wolf did as ordered. She managed to bring the shuttle down near a glade.

“Good landing.” Fletcher complimented her. “We can start repairs and hide until the enemy calls of the search. Maybe even contact the Voyager.”

“I doubt it will be so easy. We should prepare for them trying to find us.” Midnight concluded. “Wolf, keep an eye out.”

“Sure thing.”

She took off into the skies, using the clouds as cover. It took only minutes until she saw the enemy ship in the sky, landing at another glade. Five humanoids in blue body armor walked out, being quite large.

“Not good.” She then flew back and reported.

“Hirogen? Just what we needed.” Midnight deadpanned, having informed himself about them.

“You mean…h-hunters?” Noi shivered in fear and Wolf gave her a hug.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be safe with us. How should we proceed?” She asked Midnight who thought for a moment, putting a hoof to his chin.

“I could locate them, Fletcher draws them out and you take care of them.”

“Is there a way we can be of assistance?” Dinky asked, interrupting them.

“I appreciate your helpfulness, but this is too dangerous for you.”

“Maybe not.” Wolf raised a hoof. “I noticed a cliff not far from here, it’s a good vantage point with good cover too. They could suppress the Hirogen with their phasers.”

“Could work. Do you really want to do this?” He asked the children.

They slowly looked at each other with insure expressions. It was risky, but their help could turn the tide.

“We do it,” Ruby spoke for them all, having determined expressions.

“Okay, I lead you to the cliff,” Wolf said and they followed her.

“While the internal life support of their armor can protect a Hirogen hunter while seeking prey in most hostile environments, including the surface of a collapsed star, I doubt it will be a problem for us.” Fletcher thought out loud as they took a prone position.

Midnight positioned himself on a cloud instead, keeping watch. It seemed tough the hunters had quickly picked up the trail, as he saw them coming towards them. “Here they come!”

The Hirogen moved carefully, knowing what their prey was capable off, as suddenly, something hit the ground next to them. “Hey! Over here!” they heard a voice and saw the unicorn stallion on a cliff. “Come and get me!”

In response, they raised their weapons to fire at him, yet were never prepared for what followed next.

Several phasers fired from above and they instinctively went to cover behind rocks. “Ambush!” One of them yelled.

“Return fire!” The Alpha ordered, turning to his fellow hunters. They flinched, blood leaked from their armor and they fell to the ground. “What the?”

Tungsten slightly smiled, relieved their plan had worked so far. Being distracted, he came to close to the age and slipped the slippage down with a scream.

“Ouch!” He cried in pain as he came to a stop, looking up to see the Alpha walking towards him. Out of instinct, the colt crawled backward until he was trapped against the wall. “Please don’t!”

“A Smart idea. It will be quick.” The hunter raised his rifle and Tungsten closed his eyes.

I’m so sorry, Mum…

His heart raced at his unavoidable death, knowing he would never see his mother again.

A sudden cry of pain, followed by a clanging noise sounded in his ears and Tungsten slowly opened his eyes.

Midnight had thrown the hunter to the ground, his blade drawn. The Hirgon drew his scythe-like knife. “A worthy prey, I wasn’t wrong.” And attempted to strike the stallion who blocked every strike with ease, before counterattacking, which the Alpha blocked in return.

Suddenly he felt pain in his back, as if someone had stabbed him turning around to see the Pegasus with her knives drawn, the other stallion next to her with his spear. “I appreciate every challenge!” He sounded quite eager about it, though the mask hid any expression.

Wolf dealt quick strikes, yet the Alpha blocked it without any effort, before barely blocking a strike of Fletcher and managed to graze Midnight around his left shoulder, the bat pony cried out in pain.

“Yes! That’s it! The thrill!” They heard their opponent shouting in joy before Wolf scored a direct hit in the back with quick strikes, making him stumble, followed by a swift strike of Fletcher.

The Alpha barely had time to recover before feeling great pain in his chest, groaning. He looked down to see the batpony having impaled his chest.

In the moment Midnight pulled it out, he collapsed against a rock, still alive. “You…are the victor…”

Fletcher walked up to him, preparing a healing spell. “Hold still. I can heal you. Live to tell the tale of your hunt.”

The Hirgon pushed him away. “No…you are the victor…May your hunts bring you….” He spit blood. “Great honor…”

Upon having said those words, his body succumbed to his injuries.

Fletcher then walked over to Tungsten, who was breathing heavily. “Are you okay?”

“I’m…f-fine.” He stuttered as the Knight helped him up.

“Let’s go.” Midnight said and they all walked back to the shuttle. “You did all great.” He complimented the children, they all smiled in appreciation.

“Glad that’s over. I checked the power, everything is fully restored.” Wolf reported as they stepped back into the Prototype.

“Send the Voyager a message that we are on your way back.” Midnight ordered.

“You got it.”

Again, the Warp core took a few minutes to power up, so the children played a game of cards, while the Knights played a round of poker.

“I raise ten.” Midnight said as he planned his next move.

“I see your ten and raise you…twenty.” Fletcher reacted in response.

“Quite an interesting move, boys,” Wolf commented with confidence. “What about we make this more interesting? Whoever wins this game gets a spa visit paid by the losers.”

“I’m in.” Fray grinned.

“You’re on!” Midnight added, “Two Pair.”

“That beats me. Wolf?” Fletcher asked, but the mare didn’t reply, looking surprised at the screen. The others did too and were shocked at what the saw.

A Borg cube.

“Battle stations!” Midnight yelled and they scrambled to their posts.

“And I had a full house,” Wolf mumbled, trying to evade the cube but he stayed on their tail, firing, with the shields holding, but the shuttle rumbled from every hit. “I can't shake them!”

“Return fire.” Midnight ordered.

“They must have come back for their sphere and masked their approach.” Fletcher suspected as he fired phasers. “No damage.”

“Warp drive?” Midnight asked.

“No luck, they disabled it, as well as our weapons,” Wolf reported before the Prototype took another hit. “Engines are offline. They've got us in a tractor beam.”

“We are the Borg. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.” The monologue voice sounded as the shuttle was dragged towards the cube.

“Engage the transporters!” Midnight quickly decided and Fletcher wasted no time to do so as the kids looked at the cube in fear and saw the blue flash.

Dinky groaned, her vision was blurry as she slowly got up, looking around. She found herself with the other kids and Fletcher in a dark metal floor. It was very cold, she could barely see anything, except the eerie viridian glow of rows of small lights on the walls which she found particularly unnerving.

A light was flashing, it was like lighting, causing all to close their eyes, as it was very bright

Also, it was very warm, the air was heavy, like being stuck inside on a summer midday.

“Where are the others? And where are we?” She asked in fear.

“On the Borg ship, I suppose. And it seems something went wrong with the teleport, Midnight and Wolf were separated. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe.”

“F-Fletcher…” Tootsie pointed ahead and he saw a group of Borg Drones closing in.

In response, he struck one with his spear, it sparkled and fell to the ground. The second tried to grab his spear but he managed to knock it back and it the drone into the face with the back of the spear, taking it out.

As the next drone tried to attack, he lifted it up with his magic and threw it into the group, throwing all Borg over.

“Behind you!” Dinky yelled as another drone appeared with a green flash and he turned around.

This drone, however, blocked his attack by grabbing it and shoved him against the wall. He struggled before he suddenly felt a slight stabbing pain in his neck, groaning.

Looking down, he saw how the drone had managed to inject him with a pair of needles coming out of its wrist.

Within seconds, he felt pain on in his entire body, like it was cramping, as if something inside of him was changing forcefully and in a pain he never experienced before, letting out a cry of pain, trying to break free, but the drone had him in a tight grip.

Slowly, he felt how he got weaker, his vision became slowly blurry, the pain was getting stronger.

No…

The kids watched in shock as Fletcher fell to the floor, his skin becoming grey, deforming.

As the same drone looked at them, Blau tried to buck it, only to cry in pain from the force of hitting the armor before the Borg grabbed him and injected him too. “No!” Katja yelled and out of desperation tried to punch the drone. It swiftly grabbed her wrist and injected her with its pair of flexible needle-like devices.

The others, upon seeing how the siblings fell unconscious to the floor looked around, seeing another pair of drones coming from the other direction.

Dinky in her panic saw a small opening and made a run for it, hearing how the others screamed in pain before coming to a dead end. “No!”

The filly turned around to see 2 drones coming for her and she cowered in fear. “No…please…no…”

---

“That…went not as it should. Where are the others?” Wolf asked as she looked around.

“Separated from us. We must find them.” Midnight concluded and they started to walk through the cold, metal corridors of the ship.

“So this is how a Borg ship looks from the inside. Scary.” The Pegasus commented as she looked around.

They walled for a few minutes, strangely not encountering any drones before Midnight heard Wolf yell, “Look!”

He turned into its direction, facing what looked like an Assimilation chamber, the entrance blocked by a force field. This wasn’t however what shocked him.

He and Wolf saw the siblings restrained on what looked like an operating table. The colt had his right foreleg surgically amputated and replaced with the same cybernetic hand they had seen Domino and Saracen, it did a grabbing move upon being attached.

Katja had her left eye replaced with what resembled some kind of cold, eerie metallic mosaic before it was augmented with what was known as Eyepiece as far as Midnight and Wolf had read about the Borg, rectangular in form, both children had empty expressions.

“Fletch!” Wolf called out as she spotted the unicorn on another table. His skin was lightly mottling, mane was gone, his right eye also replaced by a rounded eyepiece, the still organic eye was weeping constantly. He screamed in pain as a drone surgically worked on his body. “We must save him!”

“No.” Midnight replied and Wolf stared at him in disbelief.

“What?! Midnight, you can’t be serious!”

“I’m sorry, Wolf, but there’s no way we can get past the force field. We must find another way.”

“Can’t…can’t you use your blood magic to teleport in?” She asked, sounding desperate to help their fellow knight.

“I could, but this would alert the Borg and I have no idea how to deactivate this force field.”

“But…but…”

Midnight put a hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, we will find a way, just give me time.”

Wolf looked at him, then at Fletcher and sighed. “Okay.”

---

A Borg drone was tipping on a console as the collective contacted it.

10 OF 10. ALERT. TWO LIFEFORMS. ASSIMILATE.

The drone turned around and moved out, together with a few fellow drones.

---

The other knights walked aimlessly through the corridor as suddenly, they felt as if they had walked into something, hearing a buzzing sound. “A Force field. Let’s find another way.” Midnight turned around, only to be stopped by another force field just a few meters away.

“Midnight.” Wolf pointed to something.

A group of drones walked towards them and both stared in shock at them.

It was a group of ponies.

All were covered in the black metal, exo-plating as far as the knights knew. The skin was pale grey, the manes gone.

Four fillies, three of them were unicorns, their horns covered in metal. The other one was an Earth pony. All of them had their left foreleg and eye replaced.

The other two were colts, the first was smaller than any of the other foals. The other one was much taller than any of the others. Both had the right eye and foreleg replaced with cybernetics.

“No…” Wolf couldn’t believe it as she and Midnight recognized them.

Dinky and her friends.

They passed through the force field without trouble.

Midnight and Wolf stood there frozen, they couldn’t hurt the children.

As Tungsten came closer, Wolf attempted to punch him into the face, but he swiftly grabbed her foreleg, forcing her down, Ruby lit up her horn, holding the mare in place, with Pip walking close and from his foreleg came a pair of flexible needle-like devices. Wolf struggled before she got injected and everything became black.

Midnight stared in shock at what he had seen before he felt someone grabbing him from behind, struggling.

It was a human girl, he had seen her before.

Katja, now fully assimilated, forced him to his knees.

Dinky and Tootsie lit up their horns, also trying to hold him in place, yet he managed still to struggle, requiring Noi to help Katja holding him still.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Midnight spotted another Earth pony colt coming into view and he knew at once who the boy once was

Blau Streifen.

The colt moved towards him and he tried to move away, yet it was in vain as the colt managed to reach his neck, and the stallion’s vision became slowly blurry.

Before he passed out, he heard all children say in a monologue tone,

“Resistance is futile.”

Comments

[Makerofthebuttswagger]

9474191
Of course!

[Makerofthebuttswagger]

In a blue flash, they found themselves on the wreck. “Magnetize.” Midnight ordered and all pressed a button on their suits and they all felt how they were pushed down, felling a bit heavy.

I feel that parts in your story such as this could use some more description - this is a bit bland, to be honest. Go into depth about what they're feeling - use J.K. Rowling's method, for example. She used metaphors and juxtapositions to describe the specific feelings or surroundings that were used in her stories.

Other than that, not bad. On a less serious note, where are the redshirts? 🙃

[Bronycommander]

9791289
well, given it is a short non-canon story, it's more focused on the ponies than the star trek characters. Plus, I can't remember Voyager had many redshirts