3. [Sunset Shimmer] Crystal Morkite, Part 1
Full Mission Roll:
200 Morkite, Haz 2, Crystalline Caverns
Roll System still in initial phase at this point
Sunset woke up in a comfortable bed and rolled to face the wall, hoping she could get a few more minutes’ rest. But sleep still eluded her, so she pulled herself upright and swung her legs over the side of bed.
Her room was small but well-lit, and the wall across from her bed popped open with a coffee maker already brewing and a small screen detailing her outfit. Rubbing her eyes, she waited for the coffee to finish before pouring herself a cup and read the message on the screen:
“Welcome to Deep Rock Galactic, miner! If you’re reading this, then you’ve survived the initial training mission with most of your limbs intact. No doubt the experience was traumatizing for you, but here at DRG, we pride ourselves with our entirely hands-on approach to training new employees!
“In any case, congratulations on your sound decision to join DRG! In the following set of missions to the surface of Hoxxes IV (or subsurface, really), you will familiarize yourself with Company mining procedures and on the proper handling of Company gear and resources.
“Be aware that only the absolute best make it here at DRG. This course has a drop-out rate of 67%, but we are proud to say that only 74% of dropouts are a direct result of applicant fatalities!
“Don’t trouble yourself with such dark thoughts for now, though. Welcome to the family. Together, we dig for a better tomorrow. See the Assignment Terminal and the MIssion Selection Terminal for more information.
~Regards,
Management.”
“Only 74% of dropouts are the result of applicant fatalities?!” Sunset had to double-check in case she read it wrong. She didn’t: out of the people who started out at DRG, only one-third of them made it past the first assignment, and three-quarters of those who failed had died down in the caves. Some quick napkin math told her that 50 of every hundred people died, 17 failed some other way, and 33 made it to the next assignment.
“Sweet Celestia, what have we gotten ourselves into?” she asked herself. She donned her “Fox” armor rig (cleaned during her nap) and walked out into the main area of the space station with a nice, steaming cup of coffee in her hand.
Rainbow Dash was already awake, standing with her arms propping herself over the hologram table by the drill pod. Bags hung under her eyes, and multiple empty cups were strewn across the floor. Sunset could see what remained of Rainbow’s first few coffees in drops next to the fallen cups.
“Rainbow, you need to sleep. You’re no good to us half-dead.”
“You heard Pinkie. We’re paid by the mission.”
“And you’re looking for the perfect mission?”
“I don’t want it to be too dangerous, but we’re so limited! All we’re allowed to do is Morkite runs. I can see other mission types, but I can’t select them. I wanna do all these awesome things, but how am I supposed to do this? You saw that message from Management--we’re pretty likely to die!”
Sunset sat down on the hologram table next to her uncharacteristically worried friend. “Rainbow, it’s not like a video game. You can’t be expected to carry the team or save the day every single time. We all have a role in this, and we have to work together to survive. I know it sounds tough, but… it’s the only way we’re getting home.” She sipped her coffee, set it on the edge of the table, and gently pushed Rainbow Dash. “Off to bed with you. I’m not letting you in that pod until you’re rested.”
“But--”
“Not buts! You have the big gun. You need to be ready.” Sunset guided Rainbow to her room and gestured inside. “Go on, we won’t leave without you.”
Rainbow sighed, nodded, and closed the door behind her.
---------------------------------
Sunset was chatting with Pinkie Pie over breakfast when the others finally came out of their rooms. As expected, Applejack was first, windmilling her arms to get the blood flowing. Rarity was next, fussing with her armor rig as she walked over to the bar, finally followed by a zombie-like Rainbow Dash, who tiredly sipped some more coffee.
“Pancakes?” Pinkie asked.
“Yes, please, darling,” Rarity said. Applejack nodded agreement, but Rainbow only sat down quietly.
“Somethin’ wrong with her?” Applejack asked.
“I made her get some rest earlier,” Sunset replied. “She was awake practically all night, worrying about our next mission.”
“That doesn’t sound like her. She hit her head or somethin’ on the way up?”
Sunset frowned and shook her head, hoping Applejack would get the warning. Thankfully, she did.
“So,” Rarity said as Pinkie served blueberry pancakes, “what is our mission, exactly?”
“Morkite run,” Sunset answered. “It’ll either be in the Crystalline Caverns or the Salt Pits. Once we finish this one, we’ll unlock Egg Hunts, whatever those are, and advance our assignment further. Management will also give us access to two new biomes: the Fungus Bogs and the Radioactive Exclusion Zone.”
“Sounds dangerous.”
“Yeah, but we’re looking at probably 200 Morkite and a secondary objective, too, so it can’t be that bad.”
“What is our secondary objective, exactly?”
“Mine some Hollomite, whatever that is.”
“Do we have to do it?”
“No, but it’ll net us more Company Experience and money, both of which we need. I’ve been looking into it. You need so much Experience to gain a Miner Level, and for every three Miner Levels gained, you go up one level in Company Rank. however, once your Miner Level hits 25, you can’t gain any more levels. You’re eligible for a Promotion Qualification Assignment, which, when completed, lets you get promoted, obviously. Promotion resets your Miner Level back to one, but you can gain levels again. Rinse and repeat basically forever.”
She sighed. “Girls, I don’t know if it’ll work, but if we can get a high enough Company Rank, we might be able to go home.”
The prospect of going home seemed to rejuvenate Rainbow Dash. “Well, what are we waiting for then? Let’s go!” she said, standing up and starting to head to the pod.
“Pancakes, Rainbow. Eat first, go to the planet later. I’ve already selected the mission.”
“Fiiiiiiiiine.” Rainbow sat back down and picked at her food.
---------------------------------
“Ah still don’t like this,” Applejack yelled over the drop pod’s drilling as she equipped her drill arms. “Are you sure the Crystalline Caverns are safe?”
“As safe as Hoxxes can be, I’m told. This is only a Hazard Level 2,” Sunset replied as she checked her rifle’s ammo. Three hundred fifty bullets with 25 in the already-loaded magazine. She switched to her secondary weapon, a jury-rigged sawed-off shotgun, and checked its ammo too. Twenty-four with two ready to fire. Her flare gun was full, too: twelve with three.
As the pod clanged to a stop, she hoisted her rifle, and her face turned grim. “Ready girls?” she asked.
“Let’s go!” Sunset slapped the dice hanging in the corner of the door for luck and ran out, throwing a flare as she went right. A quick glance back told her that Applejack had gone left, Rainbow took the middle, and Rarity followed her, holding her shotgun as far away from her as possible.
The pod started ascending after all four had left. Over the comms, Mission Control said, “We’re sending you in deep, so be on your guard. Scans indicate particularly rich veins of Morkite and Gold farther down. Bring it back, miners.”
“Anything here before we move on?” Rarity asked. “I’d like to bring as much back as we can.”
Sunset looked around and threw another flare. The Crystalline Caverns were made of a kind of sturdy pink-white rock (with some bluish tints here and there) and littered with deep-purple silicate crystals that reflected her flare light all over the room in which they’d landed. Over by Rainbow Dash, the cave continued down into the dark.
“Ah found some gold!” Applejack called, using a laser pointer to indicate her find. “Ah’ll get it. Sunset, Ah also see some Nitra up there.”
Sunset looked up and fired a flare into the ceiling. Applejack was right: there was a vein of the red crystalline ore near the top. She looked at Rarity and gestured. “Platform?”
“Of course, darling, let me see.” Rarity switched to her platform gun and shakily held it at an angle, aiming as high as she could without losing her balance. She fired, and a yellow goop flew to a spot near the midpoint of the vein.
“Thanks.” Sunset equipped her grapple gun and zipped to the platform, almost missing it completely when it pulled her along. She grabbed the platform and pulled herself up, rolling onto her back.
“Are you alright, Sunset?” Rarity called.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Just startled, that’s all.” She stood on shaking legs and started mining the Nitra. Darn, I’m gonna have to get used to that.
When the vein was empty, she noticed her armor rig gave her a readout of the minerals in its pockets. It looked like it could hold 40 units of each mineral (who knew how many different minerals it could hold at once) before refusing to hold any more. Luckily, she only had about 30, but she still felt the need to deposit into Molly. She grappled down to the ground, expecting to hurt like hell, but surprisingly, she was totally fine--just like her first grapple the other day. She’d completely forgotten about that!
Applejack was already depositing her gold when Sunset joined her. For a second, they simply dumped their minerals in silence while Rainbow and Rarity went on a little to explore.
“It’s kinda beautiful down here, don’t you think?” Sunset asked.
“A tad,” Applejack replied. “Ah like the colors and the crystals, but it’s too quahet, don’t you think?”
“Yeah. I don’t like it either.”
They jogged to join the others at a dirt wall, stumped. Rarity held a tablet with a scanner map while Rainbow leaned on her minigun and fussed with her armor rig.
“The scanner says the cave is through the dirt, Rainbow Dash, which means we have to dig in that direction,” Rarity said, pointing.
“They can’t expect us to just use our pickaxes on this!” Rainbow protested. “It’d take way too long.”
Applejack sighed and shouldered between the two girls. “That’s what Ah’m for. Ah have the power drills.” She extended her arms and twisted them a little. Her drills whirred to life, and she started digging in the direction Rarity had pointed. It didn’t take long for her to breach the cave beyond.
After they all had filed through Applejack’s tunnel, Sunset took the lead with her rifle in hand. She swiveled from left to right, scanning as she went, and her eyes were constantly darting about to watch for dangers. Her nerves were on overdrive right now. Any dark space could be a Glyphid waiting to strike, slicing through her defenses and ripping her apart before the others could respond…
She screamed at the slightest noise and emptied her magazine into a small alcove in the wall. Rainbow Dash, right behind her, aimed her minigun at where she shot, but didn’t fire. Instead, she threw a flare into the space.
Sunset, still panting from her panic, blinked in surprise. There had been something there, but it looked like a bag with a head attached to one end. Certainly not a threat even before she’d filled it with holes. It shuddered and exploded into gold and Nitra before anyone could react.
“What’s a loot bug?” Rarity asked. “My bestiary just got a new entry.”
“Probably what just blew up,” Applejack answered as she placed her hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Y’alright there, Sunset?”
Sunset didn’t respond for a second, but quickly shook her head. “Yeah, I’m fine. Nerves just got the best of me.” Her heart was still pounding in her chest. She shakily reloaded her rifle and looked around.
“How about Ah take the lead?”
Sunset nodded and let Applejack go in front of her. Rainbow went second. Rarity gestured worriedly, and Sunset took the invitation, going third while she held up the rear. Sunset’s nerves were still a little frayed when they came across a larger cavern, but she’d recovered enough to fire a few flares from her flare gun into the ceiling. In the back of her mind, she called them “flare bolts” to differentiate between the two types she carried.
The sound of a revolver echoed off the walls as Rainbow fired into the dark at a brown shape, which immediately turned and screeched, baring a set of sharp, pointed fangs for teeth. It scurried closer as Rainbow fired again and again, missing every single time until it was practically in her face. She couldn’t possibly miss now, and her bullet found its mark in the thing’s head.
“A Glyphid,” Rarity remarked, shivering. “Disgusting.”
Sunset gulped. Now that she’d seen the Glyphids again, she wasn’t as worried, but her fear still didn’t recede. Where there was one, there was probably more. But with the flares lighting up the cave revealing no more enemies, she focused on the glinting ores along the walls. Some Morkite, some gold, some Nitra, all in easy reach.
A dark purple crystal stuck out from the floor near the tunnel onwards. It was too dark and too small to be another of the large silicate crystals worthless to DRG. It was pretty, too: it reflected light all over the room (to a lesser extent than the silicate crystals) and had a dark sheen that moved over the entire crystal like stripes.
Rarity mined it experimentally, flinching when her pickaxe struck. She glanced at her armor rig’s mineral readout. “This particular crystal is Hollomite, girls,” she said. “I’ll get it. You can move on.”
Applejack nodded and headed down the tunnel. Rainbow threw a flare, and Sunset followed them down. They reached another large room, and Sunset fired a couple flare bolts into the ceiling while Rarity returned, panting from her jog.
“I swear, I am not the ideal person for this job!” she said between breaths.
“You’re doin’ fine, Rarity,” Applejack replied. “Just dump into Molly and we can get outta heah. There’s some more Morkaht and Hollomahte around.”
Rainbow was already digging a Hollomite crystal, and Sunset had recovered her senses enough to mine a vein of Nitra. She heard the sound of Rarity’s platform gun firing and stole a glance. Applejack started digging her way to the platform, where a fairly large Morkite vein glinted in the flare light. Sunset smiled warily and finished digging.
She met Rainbow back at Molly, who’d come down to the center of the room. Rarity had gone after a Hollomite crystal almost entirely buried in the rock. Sunset checked their mission requirements. Most of the Hollomite had been collected, but they were still short by nearly 150 units of Morkite.
“Contact!” Mission Control suddenly said over comms. “We’ve got four, wait six, no, twelve… a lot of aliens headed your way!”
“Crap!” Rainbow yelled. “Everyone, get over here!”
Rarity arrived first, taking a second to quickly dump her Hollomite into Molly. Once she finished, she pulled out her shotgun and gripped it tight.
“Nicely done, team! You’ve secured yourself a nice bonus,” Mission Control said.
“Why’d he say that?” Rainbow asked.
“We’ve mined enough Hollomite, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity replied.
Just as Applejack reached them, Mission Control called out, “Swarm! It’s a big one, team!”
Sunset shrunk back and adjusted her grip on her rifle. The caves began to dim as hre flare bolts died, and she quickly fired one into the ground in front of her and one into the ceiling above. Rainbow’s minigun started hammering her ears.
“Rarity, build your turrets!” Applejack yelled over her shoulder as she pulled out a weapon that looked a little like a cannon version of Rainbow’s mingun. She pulled the trigger, and a gorgeous orange flame burst out from it and into the wave of incoming Glyphids.
“I don’t know how!” Rarity cried. She blasted a nearby Glyphid with her shotgun and set out what looked like DRG’s version of a Lego kit. “All I have is this hammer!”
“Then hit the turret with it!”
Rarity smacked down hard on the build-a-gun and watched as bits flew into place. “That did something!” She hit it again and again, her eyes wide with fear as more Glyphids crawled out of the walls around them.
“I’ll cover you!” Sunset yelled. She pelted a bug with her rifle. Her first few bullets ricocheted off its armor, but the next few dug deep into its face. It collapsed to the ground with a screeching wail. She pulled out her own shotgun, a stubby double-barrel one with half the barrels sawed off, and fired at two more.
One of them backed up, screeching, while the other bared its teeth and charged. She fired again and fumbled through the reloading process as quickly as she could. It was two feet away now. She fired again, point-blank range, straight into the thing’s open mouth.
It staggered back a step, but bounced back at her with renewed fury and chomped down on her exposed arm.
“Ahh!” Sunset smacked it with her shotgun and blasted it again as it fell off her arm, but it still didn’t die, and the one she’d staggered earlier was coming back up. There wasn’t time to think: more bugs were coming her way. She reloaded again and killed the one that bit her, then fell to her knees as the other slashed at her thigh. Before it could do anything else, it flew to the side from repeated bullets.
Sunset looked at the bullets’ source and smiled warily. Rarity had finished her turret, and it had immediately killed the bug attack Sunset.
“Are you okay, darling?” Rarity asked.
“I think so, yeah,” Sunset replied. “Just a cut.” She stood, swapped to her rifle, and started shooting bugs a little farther away. Now that Rarity’s turret was online, she was able to help Sunset while it covered their side.
“Grenade!” Rainbow called, taking a green pineapple-shaped device from her belt and throwing it at a group of Glyphids on her side of the swarm. A brief moment after it impacted the surface, it exploded, sending nearby bugs into a fear-induced panic for a couple seconds, giving Rainbow enough time to reload.
Applejack’s flamethrower burned gloriously in the darkening cave, setting bugs afire and causing some of them to skitter around in panic until the flames died. Others screeched ear-splittingly high notes of pain and charged.
“Good news, team! The wave is thinning out,” Mission Control said.
“Aw, yeah!” Rainbow cheered. “We got ‘em on the run!”
Then, as the Glyphids seemed to back down, a deep, growling, earth-shattering roar echoed off the walls.
“What was that?” Rarity asked. Her voice seemed to wobble with each word.
“Sounds like a big’un,” Applejack replied. “Ready?”
“Yeah. Let’s show this guy who’s boss!” Rainbow reloaded her minigun again and tossed a flare.
“Sunset, dear, do be careful,” Rarity said. “We do need to take a look at your leg once we’re safe.”
“I’m fine, Rarity. Honest.” Sunset fired a flare bolt into the ceiling, illuminating a large greenish shape approaching from the tunnel beyond. It roared again, sending chills down Sunset’s spine.
“Let’s get him!” Rainbow yelled. Hre minigun whirred to life once more and began pelting the beast’s front. In response, it opened its jaws wide and vomited up a spray of bright green fluid.
Sunset didn’t take any chances, immediately bolting to the left with Rarity on her heels. A quick glance around told her that Applejack had gone right, but Rainbow wasn’t so fast. By the time she’d begun to move, the spray was already hitting her. She screamed.
“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity cried.
The spray stopped, and the beast marched closer to their injured friend, slashing at her until she lay still on the ground. Its exposed abdomen glowing bright green, it turned towards Applejack and sprayed again. Thankfully, Applejack ran to the side before the spray reached her.
“There, hit its back!” Sunset ordered. She aimed down her sights and emptied her magazine into the thing.
Rarity switched to a large gun she’d previously never held aside from strapping it to her back to carry it along. The beast turned around to face them and roared, apparently angry at Sunset for shooting it.
“What’s that gun do?” Sunset asked as she quickly reloaded, ignoring the slight pain in her leg.
“It’s called the ‘Deepcore 40-millimeter PGL’,” Rarity replied. “I believe it’s a tad more powerful than my normal weapon, but it has severely limited ammunition.” She aimed for a second and pulled the trigger, lobbing a large object straight at the beast.
The object exploded on contact, covering the beast in a large orange cloud that quickly dissipated. The beast staggered from the hit, then roared again as it sprayed even more green stuff at them.
Rarity fired again, from her hip this time, as she ran to the side to avoid getting hit by the beast’s attacks. Sunset, on the other hand, quickly switched to her grapple gun and pulled herself out of danger at what felt like lightspeed.
Applejack pelted its glowing abdomen with bullets from a relatively small pistol. Sunset joined her with her rifle, and after a few terrifying seconds of shooting, the beast roared its final breath and collapsed to the ground. A sickly green cloud emerged from its corpse which slowly dissipated over several seconds.
Once the chaos had ended, the three regrouped and found Rainbow Dash unconscious on the ground. She didn’t seem to hurt, but there was definitely evidence of acidic damage to her clothes and armor rig as well as several large gashes in her armor.
“Rainbow, are you okay?” Rarity said quietly, kneeling to check her friend. She pulled out a canteen of something from her belt.
“What’s that?” Sunset asked.
“It says it’s ‘revival juice’. The instructions say to just dump it on an incpacitated teammate until the canteen is empty. Once returned to your belt, it will automatically make new juice from elements found in the local atmosphere,” Rarity answered as she opened the canteen and dumped its contents onto Rainbow Dash.
As if by magic, Rainbow’s eyes fluttered open, and she groaned. “What… happened?” She pulled herself upright and held onto Rarity to keep steady.
“You were incapacitated, darling,” Rarity said. “That large beast attacked you with a sort of acidic spray, and while you were hurt, it slashed you. You were lucky it didn’t go through your armor.”
Rainbow’s eyes widened with fear, and her head jerked around, looking for the creature.
“It’s dead, Rainbow,” Applejack said. “We got it.”
Sunset pulled up her bestiary. “A Glyphid Praetorian,” she read. “It’s extremely aggressive and highly territorial. Its preferred attack is to vomit corrosive acid, and it’s very well protected from bullet fire in the front. Recommended form of attack is to flank and shoot its exposed abdomen. Its poison sacs tend to rupture upon death, briefly covering the immediate area in a deadly cloud of poisonous vapor.”
“Wow,” Rainbow said. She let Applejack and Rarity pull her to her feet, clearly still woozy from being knocked unconscious. “How’d I even survive that?”
“Your armor rig might be designed to knock you out when you take enough damage, preventing further Glyphid attacks from actually killing you. I think it’s safe to say the same goes for all of us.”
“That’s nice,” Rarity said, handing Rainbow her minigun, “but what happens if all of us go down?”
Sunset thought long and hard but couldn’t find an answer. “I don’t know.”
“Let’s get this Morkahte and go home,” Applejack said. “We only need a hundred more units of the stuff.”
Sunset nodded, but Rarity stopped her.
“We need to check your leg, Sunset. You were hurt, too.”
“I’m fine, really.”
“Sunset, dear, you have the most powerful lights out of all of us. If you go down, we won’t be able to see.”
Sunset rolled her eyes but let Rarity take a look at her leg. It wasn’t too bad: just a shallow cut. Maybe she should follow Rainbow’s lead and wear the undersuit assigned to her. It protected Rainbow Dash from several seconds of acid splattering for sure.
“Sunset, please don’t tell me you’ve brought your day clothes down here!”
Sunset flinched from Rarity’s admonition. “Sorry. I forgot.”
“You forgot?! Darling, we’re not in Canterlot anymore! You’re not coming on our next mission if you don’t wear the proper protective gear. No buts! I’ll have to repair your clothes as it is, and who knows when I’ll find the proper fabric?”
Rarity shook her head. “No, it simply won’t do. You wear the gear just like the rest of us. You’re not special.”
“Alright, Rarity, I’ll put it on when we get back.”
“You’d better. I don’t want to have to tell Princess Twilight how her student was killed in the depths of an alien world.” Rarity dusted off her knees and stood, hefting her combat shotgun. She recalled her turret, which flew into her pack, and joined Applejack and Rainbow Dash at the next tunnel.
Sunset shook her head and followed her friends. It was certainly going to be a long day.
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....i get the feeling we'll be seeing chapters from the perspective of the other Rainbooms....
And Rainbow is the kind of idiot to spend her night chugging coffee and looking for a mission instead of SLEEPING like she should be.
10434336
I was mostly worried that Rainbow staying up would seem like a mischaracterization, but it seems okay.
And yeah. Seeing missions from the others' perspectives is a distinct possibility.
10434355
That's actually quite in character.
It's also important to note that praetorian fumes are highly flamable so if you kill one in the middle of a swarm, light it up and blow the little buggers all over the cavern wall.
Cool to see the gang familiarize with their gear, but already they are making greenbeard mistakes.
The PGL for example is actually not the best option for praetorian dispatching, it's designed as a massuve group clearing weapon and while it can scare off or stun a big one temporarily it's too costly ammo wise to use more than one lob on a single target.
That said every engineer makes this mistake from the start before learning better in higher hazard levels so points for maintaining realistic character progression!
Rock and Stone
How do I do this in a story? Can anyone tell me?
11652109
I got this formatting by using the quote and center align functions seen in the formatting bar at the top of the text editor.