9. [Fluttershy] No Dwarf Left Behind
“Alert: Crew 17-B is incapacitated. Combat Recovery, to your pod. This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill. Drop Pod 17-B is transferring coordinates now. Situation deteriorating. Cave is a Hazard Level 4 in the Fungus Bogs with extra lethal enemies. Cave leeches were sighted before crew incapacitation. At least one Glyphid Oppressor is in the area. Proceed with caution. Repeat, this is not a drill.”
Fluttershy jumped at the sudden announcement. Normally, Mission Control alerted Medical to the comings and goings of mining crews, but she’d never heard an alert like that before.
“Heidei, what’s going on?” she timidly asked the large, muscular female dwarf that was her supervisor and Combat Recovery trainer.
“Didn’t you hear? Crew 17-B is down!” Heidei replied as she grabbed an armor rig from a fold-out armory on the wall. “Get your gear, Flutters, we’re goin’ in!”
“But I’ve only just started my training!”
“Listen,” Heidei growled, grabbing Fluttershy by the collar and pulling her close enough to smell the sweat underneath her clothes, “Our main Number Four died last month. If you don’t come down with us, we’ll be missing a member of our team. Our job is get down there as fast as possible and recover the bodies of incapacitated miners before the bugs get through their reserve shields. There are lives--and more important to the Company, experience--on the line here! Now don your rig and get to the pod! The rest of your equipment’s already there.”
With a frightened eep!, Fluttershy hurried to the last unoccupied fold-out armory, where an armor rig built specifically to her size and physique hung under spinning yellow warning lights. She frantically donned the rig and ran after Heidei down a hidden hallway to a large room she’d only seen a couple times before, at initiation.
The Drop Pod before her wasn’t substantially larger than the one used by normal miners, but it was a little taller, painted in bright white with a red bottom, and squeaky clean in comparison (although fuel leaked from its secondary tanks near the bottom). It was also apparently much roomier: Nearly all equipment pertaining to the mining teams was ditched in favor of more fuel, some medical facilities, and seven cryogenic tanks.
As soon as she entered the craft, the multi-layered door clanged shut behind her. She strapped herself into her seat and clamped her eyes shut, holding on to her over-the-shoulder restraints like she was riding a roller coaster. Her seat rotated until she was hanging from the ceiling…and then the engine started. As she felt her heart press into her spine, her vision began to go fuzzy, and she thought she heard Heidei calling out numbers.
“Three g’s! Three and a half…four g’s! Don’t give up on me, Flutters, it should peak out at five!”
“How…much…longer?”
“Just a few minutes. Four and a half…five g’s!”
The rocket held at five g’s for a considerable amount of time, turning Fluttershy’s insides to jelly as the machine began to shake, and a loud clanging noise started up. She looked around nervously as best she could under the stress.
“That’s the drill. We’ll be landing a little ways from the crew so we don’t land on top of them. Just a few hundred meters to go!”
I don’t like this! Fluttershy internally screamed. I want to go home!
Suddenly, the noise stopped, and the drill came to a halt with the thunderous clang, throwing her forward against her seat restraints. Her shoulders hurt, her arms ached, her chest felt bruised, and her brain was dizzy as the seat rotated rightside-up and unlocked.
“You alright, Flutters?” Heidei asked. “Normally, we’d have you go down with a couple non-emergency missions to give you the hang of it, but we don’t have time.”
“It was a little rough.”
“Yeah, I saw your suit didn’t inflate. It’s supposed to cushion you during descent. I’ll have R&D look at it when we get back. Don’t worry too much about the danger--I’ll make sure you get home safe.”
Fluttershy dizzily grabbed her equipment from her onboard locker. There were several grenades, a mini flare gun like the one Sunset carried, an automatic rifle, and twin machine pistols. “Thank you.”
“Got your gear? Good.” Heidei herself carried a shoulder-mounted communications array and a pair of light rifles with ammunition chains that snaked down to large, bulging cargo pockets on the sides of her pant legs. She also carried a platform gun, flares and some grenades, but no flare gun.
Tarkvel, a scrawny dwarf that looked to be in his thirties, carried the team’s special medkit that could rejuvenate a downed dwarf enough to instantly get them back on their feet. His weaponry consisted of a very deadly-looking grenade launcher, and he had a rechargeable shield generator, flares, and grenades.
Finally, Uhklot, the oldest and strongest of them all, carried a heavy autocannon and revolver, as well as a zipline launcher and several resupply beacons.
“Remember, no dwarf left behind!” Heidei yelled as she ran through the opening pod door and down the extended boarding ramp. “Flutters, lights!”
Lights, right. Fluttershy pulled out her flare gun and fired into the dark, feeling the recoil kick her shoulder like a grumpy mule. The flare shot out and arced beautifully across the cavern, illuminating a sickly green environment. A geyser belched out steam out of the earth, and with the whole ecosystem being underground, helped to create a bogged-down marsh of a biome.
Fluttershy followed Heidei down the tunnel, throwing flares and generally staying in the middle of the group with Tarkvel. Her feet squelched in the muddy rock, and her arms tired from carrying such heavy weapons (for her, at least).
The first person they came across was Rarity, her suit beeping in distress. While Heidei and Uhklot guarded the entrance and exit to their cave, Tarkvel pulled out his kit and injected something into Rarity.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she groaned. “What…happened?”
“We’re here to rescue you,” Tarkvel replied gruffly, pulling her to her feet.
“Oh, you’re alright!” Fluttershy embraced her friend. “Come on, we need to find the others.”
“Fluttershy? What are you doing down here?”
“I’m on the rescue team.” Fluttershy guided Rarity through the cave at the center of the group and fired another flare at Heidei’s request.
They quickly entered a large cavern. Heidei fired into a tentacle reaching down, destroying it before it could grab her. “Damn cave leeches. Watch out, everyone, there’s the Oppressor.”
The Glyphid Oppressor looked just as terrifying as the orientation images claimed. The thing was nearly five tons of practically-unbreakable chitin armor with only one weak point at its exposed fleshy abdomen. Beside it, several Praetorians, two-ton beasts covered in heavy chitin armor, circled a panicking M.U.L.E.
“There they are,” Heidei muttered. “Uhklot, fire from above. Fluttershy, give us light and keep your friend safe. Tarkvel, let’s end this Oppressor’s reign.”
Uhklot fired a zipline across the open cavern, hooked himself to it, and began pelting the Praetorians with the thunderous boom-boom-boom of his autocannon. Fluttershy fired some more flares, then quickly reloaded like she’d been taught. Meanwhile, Heidei and Tarkvel split up and attacked the Oppressor from the flanks, covered by Uhklot’s gun.
Rarity fired her shotgun, and Fluttershy turned around to see a small crowd of Glyphids swarming through the tunnel they’d just left. She emptied her guns into the mass. Both girls backed up as they fired, trying to keep as much distance between them and bugs as possible.
Rarity switched her weapons and thumped a large ball at the swarm, blowing them all away with an orange cloud of smoke.
“I forgot to thank you for coming for us,” Rarity panted. “I didn’t know if we’d be left down here.”
“Well, this is my first mission in Combat Recovery.”
“Crazy, isn’t it?” She smiled tiredly, craning her neck at the screech of Glyphids dying. “Our first failure is your first mission.”
“Do you know where the others are?”
“No, I think I was the first to go down.”
They jogged to the now-cleared area near the M.U.L.E., chatting about their experience so far. Rarity sighed in relief as Tarkvel revived Rainbow Dash.
“Those freaking Praetorians keep getting me,” Rainbow grumbled. “I’ll show them!”
“Let’s go home first,” Rarity said. Fluttershy nodded agreement.
While they caught their breath, the others in the Combat Recovery team found and revived Applejack and Sunset. Heidei called a regrouping at the M.U.L.E. When everyone was there, she grunted. “It’s good to see everyone alive and kicking. Uhklot, you’re in front, Tarkvel second. Flutters, you’re third. Remember your flares.” She pointed at Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Sunset, and Rarity. “You girls are after her. I’ll bring up the rear.”
Fluttershy ran after Tarkvel as fast as she could, knowing that the longer they stayed down here, the worse their situation would get. She hurried across the room, down Rarity’s tunnel, and through a smaller room. Then the Drop Pod appeared around a corner, its lights showing that the area around it was clear of bugs.
She panted. We’re almost there. We’re safe.
A field of embers appeared around the Drop Pod as Uhklot and Tarkvel reached the top of the ramp. Almost immediately, a pair of large claws slammed down, throwing a huge fire into the air--and into the pod’s leaky fuel tanks.
Fluttershy didn’t even have a chance to get out of the way before the resulting fireball blasted the entire pod to bits, throwing her against the cavern wall.
---------------------------------
“Flutters, you still alive? Wake up, girl!”
Fluttershy’s eyes fluttered open to a scene of utter chaos. Burning fuel and flaming metal filled her peripheral vision. The white paint of the medical team’s Drop Pod was gone, replaced by a scorched, blackened skeleton. On top of the wreckage stood a great orange beast, surrounded by flames licking its horrid, bulbous torso.
“What is that thing?” She winced, realizing her arm must’ve been burned by the explosion.
Heidei frowned. “Glyphid Bulk Detonator. It must’ve blown the fuel tanks and destroyed the engine with its Hellfire attack. Hurry, the other pod’s coming down!”
“But Uhlkot…Tarkvel…”
“They’re gone, Fluttershy.” Tears streamed down Heidei’s otherwise stoic face, and she panted, glistening sweat dripping off her nose. “They were in the pod when it blew. Come on, we need to complete the mission!” She dropped her equipment and picked up Sunset and Rarity. Both girls had probably been knocked out by the explosion.
Rainbow Dash was still pretty woozy, but she could move. She picked up her minigun and started following Heidei down the tunnel.
Fluttershy scrambled around for a second, finding Tarkvel’s last kit. Without hesitation, she pulled the safety off the syringe and injected its contents into Applejack’s arm. It worked almost immediately.
“Ah… What? Fluttershy? What happened?”
“Come on, Applejack,” she grunted, lifting her friend off the ground and helping her to her feet. “We need to get out of here. Your Drop Pod is already on its way down to meet us.”
“Mah pod? What about yours?”
“That’s why we need to run! Hurry!” Fluttershy pulled one of her machine pistols from its holster and fired into a Glyphid Grunt about to bite at them. It recoiled from the attack and screeched.
“What’s this fiery stuff around us?”
“Just run!” Fluttershy fumbled with her magazines, trying to reload as she ran. The echoes of Glyphid screams and wails assaulted her, terrified her. By the time she’d reloaded, she had to empty her fresh magazine into another Glyphid. The reloading process was a little easier, though, and she managed to do it a little quicker.
She pulled out her second machine pistol and emptied both into the Bulk Detonator. The thing was massive, and it soaked up her bullets like a sponge. It slammed its legs into the earth, destroying a large chunk of earth blocking its path and throwing flaming rocks into the air.
The clanging of a drill echoed from up ahead, and the open cavern around it suddenly lit up with spotlights. Fluttershy turned back and sighed in relief even as she panted from exhaustion. Heidei, still carrying Sunset and Rarity, bounded up the ramp as soon as it lowered, with Rainbow Dash a couple seconds behind her.
Applejack stood just outside the pod door when Fluttershy reached the bottom, steadying herself against the wall. The orange ember-like particles of the Bulk Detonator began to appear again as she ran to her friend.
“Come on, Fluttershy, we need to leave!” Applejack yelled, her hand extended.
Fluttershy looked back and gasped. She froze for a second, trying to find out how to keep the Detonator away. Slowly, she realized that there was only one option: she had to stay behind and keep it focused on her while the Drop Pod launched.
“No,” she said, “you need to leave.” She yanked her butterfly gem from Camp Everfree from her neck, wincing from the snap, and planted it firmly in her friend’s hand. “I’ll keep it distracted. If I don’t, it could blow up this pod, too.”
“But--”
“Take care of Angel for me.”
Fluttershy turned around and jumped to a rock outcropping near the ramp. She emptied her twin pistols into the Bulk Detonator again. It turned and screamed, slamming the ground in an attempt to take her out. She ran from its attacks just in time and reloaded. Her eyes widened into the Stare that Princess Twilight had told her about years ago, challenging the Detonator to attack again. It screeched and howled and circled her, but it stayed just out of range. The other Glyphids circled her, too, as if her Stare kept them at bay.
In the background, the Drop Pod began its ascent back to the surface with an empty seat.
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Rock and stone.
You have some great ideas hidden in this Little chapter.
like the pod actually having a health bar? I could see that being quite good on some missions because usually the glyphids just stop at the entrance like some glitched NPC
Also This Chapter made me think of a new mission type Combat Recovery I don't know how this would work since you'd have to have NPC dwarves downed but its the thought that counts right?
10502724
I thought of Combat Recovery as the team that gets you out when you've screwed up, but yeah, seeing it as a mission would be cool. Probably like Salvage Operations with the added bonus of recovering the dwarves.
And invincible things always nags me a bit. I love that the Drop Pod is a "safe zone," but giving it a health bar would add to the hectic feel of a close-call extraction. Sounds pretty fun.
10502640
Yeah, I love the mission generator I had to create. It's really fun but also horrifying as I realize the kind of crap I've rolled for them. In this case, they went down in the first Praetorian Swarm, but I actually rolled 2. I'm surprised RNJesus didn't spawn a Dreadnought on them.
Well, looks like Flutters is going to be presumed KIA but likely become the Glyphid Queen.
I'm calling it! This'll be interesting.
10503362
We'll have to wait and see.
10503869
Maybe she'll meet Karl...
10502650
to the bone.
Combat Recovery is such a cool idea. I'd thought Bosco units dragged you back to whatever fortified position they're locally based at. They don't come back up with the Drop Pod, after all.
Well, dang, your random generator is lethal. Rock and Stone, Flutters! Rock and Stone.
How long before she speaks Glyphid and an army of Steeves?
You know, a mission where you have to rescue fallen dwarves and escort them to safety sounds kinda cool, like it could be npc's or real players that are all downed. Then an extra team of dwarves comes in and rescues them