(22) Last Resort
Colonel Velvet wasn’t having the best of days. First, just after six in the morning, she is informed by Colonel Nye, that they’re being deployed on an emergency mission to an abandoned site. That was bad enough. A site is never abandoned and left as a hulk unless the 05 plan to eventually repurpose is. Or so she had been told.
Second, she and Nye get called by the Administrator himself, 05-1, and are given direct orders. Displeasing the man is one sure-fire way to get demoted to D-Class, no matter how high up someone is in the foundation. And she would rather not be used for suicide tests.
Thirdly, when they were on their way to the site, she is informed of the reason why the site is abandoned. It was a G-2 site. A place where the deadliest plague to ever scorch the face of the planet was housed. To say she was under pressure, would be an understatement.
Fourthly, when they got there, while Nye and his team took down the ponies of all things, she and her team were unable to de donate the on-site nuclear bomb. A complete failure of the Administrator’s direct orders.
And finally, this…
She grabbed the frozen form of Corporal Lambert by the shoulder and whispered in a hushed tone. “Keep them away from the windows and viewports. Nye and I need to discuss our next moves,” Lambert nodded.
“Consider it done, Colonel.” His voice was numb, Velvet moved away from the Corporal, he always had a keen sense of when to question things, and when to keep his mouth shut. This was one of the times he really needed to keep it shut. She looked back at the two pilots of the chopper who had shown her their current predicament. She heard the door to the cockpit close behind her. She pressed a button on her earpiece, tuning it into Nye’s squad channel.
“Nye, get on channel three, we need to talk,” she didn’t take her eyes off of the sight in front of her.
“Yeah,” he replied. His voice was tired, almost like he had stayed up for the entire two-hour journey, “I was just about to ask you the same thing.” She heard the click in the radio chatter, indicating that he had left the channel and moved. She did the same.
“What do you think happened?” She asked, “To the site?” Velvet continued to look out at Site 13, or at least what was left of it. The server room, the small building off to the side, was destroyed; there were giant gashes on the sides of the facility. The helipads were unrecognizable and much of the roof had collapsed in. Fires could still be seen on the sides and spewing out of the few windows.
“They were attacked, obviously.”
“No shit Sherlock,” Velvet seethed, “but by who?” She paused, “Wait, you practically ordered the takeoff and pushed us here as fast-“ her eyes narrowed, “Did you know?” She asked.
Silence. She muted her mic and turned to the pilots, “set us down on the field next to the facility, we might need to make a fast exit.” She turned it back on.
“Yes… my pilots informed me the distress beacon for Site 13 was on,” he answered, “But neither they nor I knew what actually happened.”
“Then why didn’t my pilots-“ she looked down at the two people, the co-pilot turned back and narrowed her eyes. “-pick up the distress beacon?” The co-pilot’s face turned pale and she whisked back around and flipped a small switch. She stared intently at a, previously black small screen that now listed all active sites in the foundation.
There was a red triangle next to Site 13’s name.
And Site 3.
And 10.
“What in the…” Velvet started to say, “What do you think this means?” She turned around and looked at the cockpit door, “do you think it could be the ponies?”
“I have no idea, but I doubt it was them, they don’t seem to possess the tech to do this,” his voice became choppy, “We need to check it out... see if we can contact anyone.” The helicopter lurched as it touched down. She looked to the right and saw Nye’s touch down next to them, “get your team outside except one, and tell the pilots to leave the choppers running, we might need a speedy exit.”
“Yeah,” Velvet agreed, “good idea. See you outside.” She turned off her radio.
“Keep the chopper going, we might need to get out of here fast.”
“Yeah, no problem.”
Velvet turned and walked out of the cabin, she had more important things to do than chastise her pilot. She opened the door, walked through, and closed it as fast as possible. She looked over at her team and the ponies, all of whom were looking at her. She tapped her ear and turned the radio back on.
Immediately she was assaulted with questions from her team. “What’s going on Colonel?” Corporal Davis asked, “Lambert wouldn’t budge.”
“Yeah,” Pinckney huffed, “Someone’s a suck-up.”
“Hey, Fuck you, Pinckney.”
“Shut it.” Velvet said, “Pinckney keep an eye on them and keep them away from the windows, you two with me.” She started to move towards the back ramp which had started to defend. She turned off her radio and turned to the pink Alicorn, who had started to get up, “Don’t bother. You and your guards stay here.”
She saw the pink princess gulp in fear, “Can you at least tell us what is-“ Velvet didn’t want to hear the rest of it and walked away. She felt her boots hit and sink into the deep snow and, with Lambert and Davis at her side, began to trudge towards Nye and his team. Velvet looked back for a moment at the Pink creature. She saw the defeat in her eyes, she could practically taste the defeat radiating off of her. She turned away, ‘They’ll just have to wait,’ She told herself, ‘I want to know who killed my friends.’
They met in the middle, with a good view of the site, “So…” she heard Davis say alongside the various gasps of Nye’s team as they all saw the horrid state of Site 13. “Any theories?” He asked to no one in particular. Velvet glared at her subordinate, shutting down his attempt to break the ice.
Nye silenced his team, “First things first, answers,” He stated, “We need them, I think we should look for survivors to see if anyone can tell us what the hell happened here,” Velvet and everyone nodded their heads. “And we should see if there were any anomalies that got out.”
Velvet perked up at this, “I don’t think anything was stationed at Site 13, just the 427’s we took,” She bit her lip as she perused her mind, “Yeah, no anomalies.” She concluded. “173 was transferred back a few months ago.”
Nye turned his head to the site, then back at everyone else, “Alright, then,” He said aloud, “That will make this all a lot easier then.” He looked at his three men, Green, Alex, and Sanders. “Green, Alex,” The two men immediately shot up, “Take the Barracks and armory, see if there is still anyone there or if there is anything useful. Sanders and I will take the Administration offices.” He looked at Velvet.
“And I’ll take Davis and Lambert to the command and control room,” Velvet caught a glance of the room through one of the holes in the side of the facility, “Or what’s left of it.” Velvet sighed, “Rose and Pinckney will stay to guard the ponies.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Davis said with a nod. Earning another glare from Velvet.
“If anything goes wrong, we get out and take off,” Nye said, “Stay sharp.”
Velvet listened to the broken hum of the broken site. She, Davis, and Lambert walked through the site’s control room, no one was there. Just broken glass, destroyed monitors and hardware, and plenty of bullet holes. “You think any of this stuff still works?” Lambert asked, hopefully not to her, she never was the best with technology.
“Maybe,” her other subordinate replied, “I might be able to establish a connection through to ther sites,” He turned to Velvet, who was busy looking around the square room. In the center of the room, there was a square table. She was very familiar with it, being an MTF Colonel she had access to this room while she and Nye were stationed here. What was supposed to be on the table, was an ever-updating electronic map of all the current Foundation Sites.
She stepped over an overturned chair and walked toward the table, the map was broken, but maybe… just maybe… She turned on the flashlight attached to her headlamp. “Ma’am? What are you doing?” Lambert asked as he walked over to her.
She began scouring the sides of the giant glass and electronic table for a button. “Looking for something that could help us.” She replied, “Davis if you think you can get comms back up, go right ahead.” She reached onto another side of the table. ”There it is!” She pressed in. Behind her, a loud unlocking sound sounded off behind her, back where they came in. “Black always was a paranoid type, and hid this little cache of supplies and documents.” Velvet looked under the corner table in the room, a small hatch had opened up.
Inside was a stack of manila folders, a copy of Black’s credentials, a map of the north, and a fully loaded Glock 17. She stashed all the papers into her vest and strapped the Glock to her side. “Any luck with the comms Davis?” She asked.
“Some,” He replied, typing into what was probably the last non-broken computer in the facility. “I think I can get an open channel out to any nearby site, nearest one is… Site 3.” He typed more into the keyboard. Velvet tried to keep up with whatever he was doing, but all the numbers and letters that were whizzing by were lost to her. “We should be… open now.” He pulled up a headset from the computer and removed his helmet.”Hello, Site three, this is Corporal Austin Davis from MTF Beta 7, does anyone copy?” He pressed the earmuffs into his ears
“Hello? Is anyone there?” He asked again before pausing, “Who is-” He paused again, “Corporal Austin Davis, MTF Beta 7.” He replied to the person on the other end “Yes, MTF Beta 7. You are… Oh okay…” He took off the headset and handed it to Velvet. “Oh, you’re gonna want to take this.”
“Who is it?” Velvet asked skeptically, “Someone with answers?”
“Yep, 05-3.”
Velvet had never grabbed a radio faster, “Hello?” She asked into the microphone as she put the earmuff to her ear. “Overseer?” A call from anyone on the 05 Council had to be answered immediately by the most senior member of the team.
“Yes, I’m here, you are?” Her voice was tired, broken.
“Colonel Velvet,” She answered as calmly as possible, “we are a bit confused here Overseer.”
“Yes, I know,” She sighed into the radio, “This situation is an utter shitshow.”
“Ma’am?”
“There was a coup, Colonel. Lieutenant Commander Shawns, MTF Alpha-1, he terminated the other 05’s,” She continued, “Except for maybe nine, I haven’t seen him in a month.” There were shouts and calls from the other end of the call, most likely doctors, guards, and other personnel shouting orders. “He seized Site Alpha-1, some of the loyal science and guard teams ran, taking many of the choppers to here at Site 3. From what I can see, he’s going after all external Sites and their personnel.”
Velvet was frozen, “Are we facing a civil war, overseer?” The prospect horrified her. Fighting Eldritch Horrors was one thing, but her fellow comrades? Her friends? And for what?
“I am afraid we are, Colonel,” the Overseer paused again, “And I don’t think we can win it,” She said in a hushed tone, “Not without support.”
“We’ll leave immediately, Over-”
“Colonel, I mean support. I’m Enacting Protocol Epsilon-Tau.”
It clicked in Velvet’s head, “You want, them to assist us?”
“They either help us, or we die, then they die,” She answered back, “Put it to them like that, maybe then it will convince them.”
Velvet paused, ‘We need to convince them?’ her mind reeled. ‘We haven’t really been too hospitable to them.’ She sighed, “I’ll See to it, Overseer.”
“Have you found anything yet?” Nye asked Alex over the radio.
“Other than bodies?” He sarcastically replied, “No. Not a damn thing.” His voice was beaten and broken. “It looks like they were lined up and shot.”
“All of them?” Nye asked back breathlessly, “What about administrator Black? Was she also terminated?”
“Executed,” Green said, butting in on their conversation, “They were executed, sir.” A pause in his voice, “and yes, we found her body, all of her credentials were taken off of her.”
“These definitely weren’t ponies,” Nye said to himself, “They aren’t built for this level of violence.” He turned his mic back on, “Start searching for useful supplies, fuel, ammo, food… the essentials, understand?”
“Yes sir,” Alex replied, “Were on it.” There was a click and Nye muted his microphone. He looked at Sanders, who was currently going through what was left of the office of Administrator Black.
It had been ransacked.
Thoroughly.
They had known where to look and what to look for.
The attackers were MTF.
Nye turned his radio back on, switching it to his peer’s channel, she wasn't going to like this, “Velvet, the attackers, they were-“
“Mobile Task Force, I know,” she cut him off, “I was able to get in contact with oh five three. She was able to escape,” she sighed into the radio, “There was a coup, MTF Alpha-1 killed the council, save her.”
“And now?” He asked in a tone he rarely used, a terrified tone, a desperate tone, a fearful tone, “What happened to this site?”
A pause, he heard Velvet in the background talking to someone else. “We need to leave,” she replied, “I got my guys on getting comm equipment, but we need to leave. Davis says the nuke is still hooked up to the remote network, it’s not safe for us to stay.”
Now it was her tone that was desperate, “Especially since we just turned on the comms.”
Cadance usually didn’t get sad or angry, but this year has given her more tears and outbursts than at least the last decade put together. Between her daughter three being foalnapped, a massacre of bat Pegasi, and now she was on the killer's vessel, and they won’t talk to her or let her leave.
“Can you just tell us what is going on?” She asked the human guard, who didn’t do anything else in response. In fact, he didn’t show any sign that he had heard her. She tried again to move past him.
He immediately stepped in front of her and pointed his weapon to her face, “I can’t kill you, but I can still knock you the fuck out,” he yelled, making Cadance stumble back and the bat pony guards move to her aid. “And stop asking.” He sighed, “I already find you annoying so don’t-“ he stopped mid-sentence and put his hand to his ear.
“Yeah Pinckney here,” she heard him say with a muffled voice. “Okay, what-“ he stopped again, “We should have enough time, right?” Cadance saw walked back up to him, she saw his bright eyes through the mask. “Alright, I’ll get the chopper ready for takeoff. What about-?” He paused, “Understood. See you in about a minute then.” He took his hand off his ear, “Sit down, we’re leaving.” He began walking towards Cadance.
Then, some sort of siren started to sound off.
“Cadance looked around at the interior of the ‘chopper’ it wasn’t coming from inside. “What is that,” She asked the human as she turned back to him, then she was on the ground as he ran past her.
“Get ready to get outta here,” he yelled at the pilots, “They’re coming back.” He closed the door and turned back to her, “It means we’re all gonna die if we don’t get out of here fast enough. So sit down and be ready to leave.” He shoved her into a nearby seat.
The rest of the team began to run in and take various seats. Two of them were carrying various boxes with strange strings coming out of them. The other, the leader, threw a bag on the floor. Then the ‘chopper’ began to lift off of the ground.
As it turned around, she saw what was kept out of her and the guards’ periphery. The ‘site’ was completely and utterly destroyed. “I’d strap in if I were you,” a voice came from her left. It was their team’s leader, “It’s about to be a bit bumpy.” The ramp raised up, but she could still see the building from the crack in the top.
She kept her eyes on it and, as they grew farther and farther away from the building and as the sound grew ever fainter, she began to ask, “What are we running-“ there was a bright blinding split second of light coming from the building that caused her to squint. “From?” The vessel lurched forward and she fell onto the opposite wall.
The first thing she noticed was that her head hurt.
A lot.
Her ears kept ringing, her eyes were seeing stars, and her head kept thumping. Cadance sat up, she was on the ground. Real ground. White puffy and fluffy snow wit ha a blanket under and on top of her. Still cold, but not some metal contraption. She was sitting around a small fire with several of the Lunar Pegasi guards. She saw both Bright Night and Shimmering Stone talking to each other. Dark Shield was alone off to the side, looking at the stars.
There were humans there two. They had since taken off their strang face coverings. They were sitting around another fire next to one of their flying machines. Two of them, a male and female, were off talking to each other. ‘I should…’ She got up and onto her hooves, she was immediately hit with a wave of dizziness.
“Princess!” Shimmering Stone spoke as he and Bright Night rushed to her side. “Please, lie back down,” He pleaded, “You were injured in the blast.”
The blast. The bright light that knocked around the ‘choppers.’
“I know, but…” She looked down at the thestral stallion, “The blast?”
He nodded. Bright Night pointed with her hoof to the female, “When we landed, she told us that it was a giant bomb. It knocked down Princess Luna too.”
Her mind irked, “Luna.” She glanced around the fire. Luna was right next to them, sleeping soundly and softly.
“She got a larger dose of 008,” A voice said from behind, Cadance turned, it was their leaders, standing there, “It took longer for her to recover than you lot.” He paused, “I’m sure you have some questions?”
“Yes,” Cadance said straightening herself up, “I do.” He nodded to her, “Do you know where my daughter is?”
He blinked, “I heard that 106 took a pony hostage back in January,” Her heart fluttered, “She was last seen… at our command facility, Site Alpha-1.” She smiled, so that is… he’s not happy. “Is that not a good thing?”
The female shook her head solemnly. “No, it isn’t. A lot has transpired in the past day.”
Her heart started to sink, but she tried her best to remain positive, “What?” Her voice said, strained with sadness, “What happened?”
“We’ll tell you when we get back.”
“What was it that infected Sergeant Time Wise? He was one of the best thestrals I’ve ever met, dependable, loyal. What happened to him?”
“If you are referring to the pony that bit your flank,” He answered, “He died, then came back. Zombie plague. Again, we’ll go into detail when we get to our location.”
“Our Location?”
“Yes, I’m sure you’ll be happy to know where we are going.”
“I don’t suppose it is the Crystal Empire?” She asked sarcastically.
Stats
Page generated in 0.019 seconds
Total duration
1,012 users online
1,430,449 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
>>> Begin Log
>>>Location: Site-13, Room-104
>>> Time: ERROR_404
Researcher Schwabauer: Hey there Stephens, how is my adorable little Security Officer doing?
Security Officer Stephens: Shut up, I need snuggling. Now.
RS: Okay, okay, but wh-
SOS: Snuggle first questions later.
*snuggling sounds continue for several minutes*
RS: What wrong I haven't seen you like this since Riley got transferred.
SOS: I'm getting-
*Room-104 exterior door is blown open*
*RS draws his 1911 and stands*
RS: What the hell!?
???: Drop your weapon.
*SOS Stands and grabs her P90*
SOD: No, you just blew our door open and interrupted our snuggles!
*??? fires a P90 34 times*
*A thump is heard*
RS: FUCK YOU MOTHER FUCKER!
*1911 is heard going off*
???: How the hell are you even alive?!?
*P90 burst*
*Another thump is heard*
RS: 'cause it takes more than a fuckin' weak ass 10 rounds to kill a former MTF-Omega-17
*Footsteps are heard*
*A massive boom is hea-
>>>End Log
Great job with the chapter, I noticed a few grammatical errors but other wise it is fine.
Things have now become just the way I like it! Xd
Bring on the war!
Are there any questions that you guys need answered? I realize there may be some continuity errors in the story, if you find one, point it out and I will try to address it in the next chapter.
10409104
Not right now, loved the chapter tho, please keep up the good work