Bounty Hunters 3: Genesis

by Jasper77W

Chapter 36: Through the Battlefield

Everything was quite calm, however the medic team was on full alert; every muscle in their body tense and ready to spring into action the moment they fly through and under the clouds.

"Shush, hear that?" Thyme held up a hoof, ears pointed and searching for any trace of noise.

"Shuck..." Pulse muttered, the cardiovascular specialist in the team. "There's a whole bucking battle going on down there..."

Thyme's ears twitched. Yes, she could hear distant gun shots and explosions.

"This is not good... Not good at all." she muttered. The sounds of battle were still too far... They might've waited it out if they didn't have an emergency on their hooves.

"Should we call Spitfire?" Pulse asked.

"Just tell her." Thyme shook her head. "But we're going straight in. Those patients can't wait." she said, and walked into the cockpit. "Pilot, keep going. Watch out for enemy fire- there's a fire fight going on below us."

*

"Shuck... What the hay is going on here!?" Vinyl gaped at the distant city of Manehatten. Frostbite had flown the both of them onto a roof top in Fillydelphia, with a clear view of Manehatten. And right now, it was engulfed in flames.

"Hmmmm." Frostbite mumbled thoughtfully, studying the battle.

"What is it?" Vinyl looked up at her partner.

"You see those?" He pointed at the city.

"Yeah, no. I don't have those eagle eyes of yours." Vinyl sighed frustratedly.

"Well, they're science faction assault walkers. Remember, the pirates only stole scout walkers." Frostbite pointed out.

"Uh-huh... So this fight is between the pirates and the science faction?" Vinyl raised an eyebrow. "Seems a bit too convenient for us."

"Indeed." Frostbite nodded. "But why were the scout walkers fitted with anti-aircraft missiles? The normal models don't have those."

"I would theorize that they were used for defense..." Vinyl said slowly, then her eyes widened with realization. "Defense! Guarding! They were guarding something!"

"My thoughts exactly." Frostbite said, turning away to get down. "But guarding what?"

"Or maybe, HIDING what?" Vinyl allowed his claws to dig into her shoulder, and felt that familiar sudden rush of wind as Frostbite's powerful wings beat against the air.

"Contact Haven and Spitfire. We MIGHT be onto something big." he said, curved through the air and dove down towards the ground.

*

"I was hoping for some rest."

"You don't need it." Spitfire pointed out. "And neither would it appear pleasant to you."

"Fine. I'm the reinforcement, with these... Guys.... And mostly girls. Why us again?"

"Because, you performed exceptionally well last time." Spitfire nodded her approval, then received a text message. She took her time reading it, a frown slowly creeping onto her face. "Alright, change of plans. Objective and priority one, cover the med team. Objective two-" she handed Soarin the text document. "-We believe there might be something the pirates stole from the Science Faction. Something that was meant to be kept secret. Find out what it is, and bring it to Haven if possible."

"Haven?"

"Yeah. I'm sending you guys to pick up Rainbow and her team and head straight for Haven, including the med team. The drop ship that was meant to pick them up got shot down about half an hour ago." Spitfire sighed. "And Haven is a safer choice than the OASIS, as no one knows where it is yet."

"Roger, captain."

"Give me an ETA?" Spitfire raised an eyebrow.

"Ten minutes behind the med team, ma'am." Neon said, a claw holding firmly onto the handrails of the gun ship.

Around her stood the cadets, Inkie, Blinkie, Asty and Rig.

"Remind me why we have to use jet packs again? You do know that almost thirty percent of training accidents involve jet packs, right?" Asty raised a wary eyebrow.

"I do. And it's still the best decision." Neon said, and Asty could only nod a forced approval.

Rig checked his rifle one last time. "This... Is actually the first time we enter a PROPER war zone, not a small firefight."

"Sure. Where's the fun in small firefights, right?" Asty grinned.

"Sure, sure." Rig sighed.

"So remember cadets, and soldiers-" Neon addressed the Pie twins, and Asty and Rig rolled their eyes. "Problem?" Neon looked at them, and they shook their heads somewhat forcedly. Neon went back to going over the plan. "We're deploying in four minutes. The gun ship will provide cover fire from the sky for us, and we will protect the med team. Kind of like a cover-ception. But remember- the med team is our priority, not fighting the enemies. Also, anyone who isn't on our team is hostile- so shoot the pirates AND the science faction troops. Clear?"

"Clear!" the soldiers and cadets yelled back.

The gun ship they were in wasn't any ordinary one. Its design was based off one of the ancient AC-130s, with completely updated equipment and weaponry. Two launchers with cluster missiles take either side, accompanied by five 50mm high-fire rate cannons to take out infantry in an over-kill kind of manner. Each side is also fitted with two Reaper-class cannons, each capable of firing shells with 300mm diameters. The ship itself is defended against arial predators by two prism-gun turrets, one on its belly and one on its roof.

The gun-ship's engines have been replaced with magnetic ring anti-gravity generators, and as its name suggests- every engine is ring shaped, and the gun ship has four with two on each side keeping it aloft. It uses a forcefield that sucks in air from the top of engine and propels it out the bottom of the ring. Additional engines that use fuel instead of energy are built into the anti-gravity engines, for use in space when there is no air to suck in or propel. Because of the forcefield, it is actually ultra-silent because the sound gets sucked into the engine. Unless of course, you stand right next to the damn thing- then you'll hear it. But otherwise its almost impossible to detect by hearing.

This should give them a slight edge against a whole army.

*

"Uh-oh. Uuuuh-oh." Thyme muttered as they slipped into the clouds.

Something was muffling the sounds coming from the battle- and this was quite odd. Can't possibly be the clouds or distance.

Then something cold crept across Thyme's skin, and she almost jumped and hit her head. Then suddenly the sounds of battle were able to reach their ears, loud and undoubtedly terrifying.

They held on the best they could as the drop ship dropped into a steep dive, and they felt the heat of an explosion nearby as they flew past a fireball.

"They haven't spotted us yet- but the whole place is filled with missiles flying everywhere!" the pilot exclaimed.

*

"The med team has reached the battle." Spitfire said.

"What? That's odd..." Neon sighed. "We don't hear anything yet. And we're only seven minutes away from them."

"Don't know. But they've reported entering the war zone." Spitfire bit her lip.
"Odd..." Neon muttered again.

*

Vinyl shuddered as something cold passed over her. The next thing she knew her ears were being bombarded by the noises of a battle, explosions and gunshots echoing across the city. She covered her ears, her head aching.

"Shuck! What the hay!?" She growled, her ears slowly adjusting.

Frostbite was carrying her by the shoulders, flying them towards Manehatten.

"Some sort of shield- they kept the noise contained. Looks like they didn't want us finding out. Suppose that's why we didn't notice sooner- the clouds are probably Science Faction weather control too." He nodded.

"Looks like whatever the pirates stole, they really don't want us noticing." Vinyl sighed, and Frostbite dropped down behind a building. "Only one way to find out what it is I suppose."

"Correct." Frostbite nodded, pulling out a light assault rifle. It had a brutal looking serrated knife mounted at the end, underneath the barrel. It classified as an energy weapon, as it fired semi-auto shots of highly concentrated beams of Kappa radiation. Kappa radiation was known for being highly destructive, however doesn't last long as it uses itself as fuel for reactions to occur. Thus perfect for infantry weapons- as they don't leave deadly beams of radiation drifting in the air afterwards. Each beam is clearly visible as bright white however, therefore stealth wasn't one of the things it was known for. However, it barely makes any noise when fired- only a soft click. One clip lasts up to almost two hundred shots. The weapon was quite delicate to produce, and many times lethal accidents have occurred during production. Few remaining producers of this weapon refuse to risk the lives of their workers- or the billions of dollars in equipment costs after they get destroyed beyond use in industrial accidents, so production was ceased. DIY clips of ammo are quite easy to produce, thus making the weapon a rare but popular choice among scavengers, pirates and survivors.

"Report findings to Spitfire and take the roof. I'm gonna go take a closer look." Vinyl said, putting her discs on standby and peering around the corner. She heard a whoosh behind her as Frostbite flew up to the roof of the sky scraper.

"Vinyl? This is Spitfire."

"Ma'am." Vinyl replied as acknowledgement, peering around the corner. She instantly shrank behind cover as a walker stepped into view ten meters away, its steps making the earth tremor and the sound waves from its launching missiles shaking dust off the buildings.

"I've got an unconfirmed report that the medical team has entered the battle zone. Do you have visual?"

"Medical team?" Vinyl raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. We received a distress signal from a top priority target in the local region. We sent a medical retrieval team for them, and reinforcements to support them. Do you have a visual?"

"Affirmative." Vinyl said, looking up at the sky. A majestic white drop ship with red highlights was flying down, a medic drop ship. "It hasn't drawn any fire yet."

"Good." Spitfire said, nodding. "They don't know you're here yet. You can definitely help."

"Yes ma'am." Vinyl peered around the corner again. The walker was still there, firing long range missiles. Recon class, obviously a pirate.

"Take down anything that might threaten the medical team. That is, anti-air. Try be as stealthy as possible- I don't want them knowing you're here." Spitfire said. "You got anything to take down walkers?"

"Yeah. Some magnetic grenades Applebloom gave me. Specifically for walkers. She said target the legs, and take cover."

"Did she say they pack a big punch? It certainly sounds like it."

"She said it was a prototype." Vinyl raised an eyebrow, plucking out a small disc-like object from her belt. It was about half the size of her hoof. "It has a timer."

"Probably for you to get out of range." Spitfire noted.

"It only goes up to five seconds though." Vinyl said dryly.

"Just throw it and see what happens." Spitfire sighed.

*

The walker's pilot was fully concentrated on pushing the science faction troops back, when his concentration was cut off by something in the sky. He looked up, and spotted a drop ship slowly descending from the skies.

"Reinforcements aye... That looks valuable." He grinned, showing a few golden teeth. He aimed up with the walker's anti-air systems, acquiring a target lock.

His HUD beeped as it locked on, and his grin broadened. He rested a hoof on the trigger, when he was interrupted by a loud noise.

Something had hit the hull of the walker, and made a solid metallic thunk. He raised an eyebrow at the sound, and at the beeps which were coming from that same spot.

"The hay...?"

*

Vinyl was ten meters away, watching what would happen; but obviously did not expect the result. It was a literal case of 'now you see it, now you don't.' The next second after an extremely loud boom and bright flash, the walker wasn't even there. Disappeared along with it was a large chunk of earth.

Vinyl had been knocked off her hooves by the shockwave, and her ears were ringing.

"I was not expecting that, I can tell you." She said through the radio.

"I kind of saw that on my monitor." Spitfire face-hoofed. "The bright flash went through the darn clouds. How can you still see, even?"

"I have my tactical mask on." Vinyl said.

"Remind me to place a large order for those." Spitfire said.

"Will do. Gotta run. Vinyl Scratch out." Vinyl said quickly as she heard some shouting, and quickly scurried to her hooves and slid behind cover. She could zip through this building and attack them from the other end. After all, the laser discs are pretty much soundless.

She quickly leaped in from one of its glassless windows, ignoring the dust that was sticking to her hooves as she ran through the dark corridor, lighting her way with a disc.

*

Bluefyre looked around her. The Everfree was as dark as ever, and as silent as ever too. Oddly silent. She could hear her own irregular breathing as she stumbled through the woods, clutching a wound in her side.

She had heard the crack of a gunshot, and the next thing she knew she had a bullet wound in her side. She covered it the best she could with her hoof, trying to stop the blood from flowing out- but she could feel it trickling down her legs. She had no idea who attacked her- but this wasn't good. The gunshot sounded like a standard issue one- probably one of those secondary pistols.

She checked behind her, but found nothing but dark forest. She was surrounded by trees, with no direction to go in what so ever.

Then she heard hoof steps a little bit to her right, and quickly turned left and sprinted away.

She arrived at a clearing, and she slumped down to catch her breath. Warm sunlight poured onto her neck as she knelt, taking in huge gulps of fresh naturally filtered air. She tried to regulate her breathing, but it wasn't working very well. She was completely shaken- the attack came out of nowhere.

Using the ghost-fires wouldn't help much. She'd just lose control again- and this time Magnum won't be here to help.

She looked up, and was horrified to see an armored figure striding through the forest. But then that panic faded away as she recognized the armor. She quickly scrambled to her hooves, and started stumbling towards the figure.

"Shuck... Anvil! Anvil... I thought you were dead!" She let out a relieved laugh. "Thank god you're here... Someone shot me... I don't know who but, he's probably back there." She turned around and pointed behind her at the trees, as mysterious as ever. Anvil didn't seem to notice her at all though, and didn't even talk. "Anvil...?" Bluefyre turned around, but was met by the barrel of a pistol.

There was a loud bang, and she felt a bullet tear through her stomach. She stumbled back, her expression full of shock and surprise. Slowly from her wound she looked up, with a face full of confusion.

"...Anvil....?" She managed, before Anvil sent another bullet through her shoulder.

Then there was one final crack as a pistol bullet shattered her skull, tearing through her brain and stopping dead at the back of her head. She fell back, wide-eyed and dead, blood leaking out of her wounds.

There was a dull thud as she hit the grass floor, her eyes staring emptily up at the sky.

Anvil walked forward a few steps, and dropped the empty pistol on her chest. He looked down, and his helmet unfolded and parted to be packed away in a small compartment in the back of his armor. But it wasn't Anvil in the suit.

Starshine grinned down at Bluefyre's dead body.

Oh, pathetic. So trusting.

"It was a pleasure working with you." He laughed, and walked on.

*

"Hold on everypony! Here we go!" Thyme yelled as her stomach lurched, the drop ship breaking into a steep dive. Suddenly they were yanked to the right, a missile grazing past their right wing.

"I'm gonna put us right above the surface. That way we could use the buildings as cover- and you could get that turret running." The pilot called from the cockpit.

"Pulse! Go help him out and watch the missiles!" Thyme waved a hoof towards the cockpit.

"Yes ma'am." Pulse quickly ran into the cockpit, his heavy clunking hoof steps slowly fading as he joined the pilot.

Abruptly the drop ship pulled back up, parallel against the ground. It weaved through the buildings, barely fitting between avenues and streets.

"We're headed straight for the distress beacon! It's near the top of that cliff!" Thyme yelled, pointing at a cliff in the distance.

"We'll need to land on the top and have you guys rappel down. The beacon's coming from a cave in the cliff face- I can't land there!" The pilot yelled back.

"Ah crap. Walkers!" Pulse warned, and held down the triggers for the drop ship's two main guns near the nose.

Clouds of dust exploded into the air as the high-caliber bullets struck the earth around the walkers, lifting up rock and ash. A few struck the walkers, tearing them to tatters.

"They're returning fire!" The pilot banked right, a stream of bullets passing by. They went right between two buildings, the engines disturbing the age-old dust settled over them.

"We've been targeted!" Pulse yelled, seeing a red indicator flash on his side.

"From where...?" the pilot looked around, confused.

"Shuck. Roof tops." Thyme cursed, looking up.

One of the walkers jumped up, and suddenly two huge booster engines under its feet flared up with a loud boom. It flew through the air, and landed heavily onto a different rooftop; easily clearing a seven-meter gap. Dust shook off the building's surface with a light tremor, but the structure held.

"Looks like nowhere is safe then." Pulse muttered.

"Two tracking missiles!" The pilot yelled, pulling the ship hard right. The right engine scraped along one of the buildings, sparks exploding into the air as it dragged along.

The med team struggled to hold on as the plane tilted almost ninety-degrees, some stocked supply crates tumbling across the compartment.

The first missile failed to turn in time and struck the building, plowing right through it with a fireball. The building collapsed in a violent manner, spewing out bricks and metal and concrete out from the explosion. It fell down into an ash cloud with a huge rumbling that filled the air- but the drop ship had long flown past.

The last missile was much more persistent. The pilot tried his best to shake it off, swerving left and right- but the missile seemed to predict his moves and kept following him.

"Shoot it, damnit!" He yelled behind him at the med team.

"Can't get a shot!" Thyme yelled back.

"For buck's sake." Pulse muttered, undoing his seatbelt and quickly getting out of his seat. He pulled out his compact rifle, which with several clicks flicked out and unfolded into a full light-weight assault rifle.

He reached behind his back and pulled out the rappel cable that came with all the suits, and slammed the hook down on one of the handrails on the roof. Making sure it was secured, he slammed a hoof on the manual 'open' button for the side door. It blasted open, and he almost fell over as a huge gust of air hit him full in the chest. He stumbled back, but then quickly went forward and knelt down at the edge.

Watching everything pass by down bellow at almost 200 kilometers an hour didn't help boost his confidence- and neither did the huge engine at the back that was trying to suck him in help either. But they'd all be dead soon if someone doesn't take care of that darn missile.

Using flares at this point wouldn't be much help. This model of missile had the clear distinct ring of red light around the tracking camera- this was something new that science invented. Once the missile locks onto the one heat signature, all others become invisible to it as the special red light shuts them out. A filter software also shuts out all other distractions that might be cast its way.

Pulse tried to take aim, but the aircraft was moving too much- and the missile was a small target. It was near impossible to shoot it at this rate- let alone he was trying not to hit the back engine. He let out a short three-round burst, but they all hit empty space. The second burst wasn't much luck either.

Then something on the opposite side exploded, the blast knocking the ship sideways and the flash sending shadows scattering across the floor.

A missile meant for someone else had missed and struck a nearby building, the shockwave knocking the drop ship off balance- and Pulse.

"Shuck-" he cursed as he was shaken off the plane and out the side, a loose cable whipping around him as the engines sucked him towards the drop ship's tail. His eyes widened with fear as he realized that he didn't secure the cable on his side- and that the engines were going to swallow him up and spit him out in broken pieces.

Then his arm caught on something, and it felt like a python had wrapped around it and crushed it. He screamed as he was yanked to a stop, his arm popping out of his shoulder.

His back hooves were only feet away from being dragged into the engine, and he was slipping. The cable had wrapped around his arm, which stopped it from deploying any further. He quickly reached back and flicked a switch, locking the cable so it wouldn't deploy any further and would only retract. Sadly the automatic retract option was only meant for tidying the cable, instead of pulling someone up to the location. The motors simply weren't strong enough.

"Damnit- Pulse! Come on!" Thyme yelled, peering out the cabin door. Then she turned behind her and yelled at the med team. "Secure his cable damnit!"

They could try pulling him in, but that would mean they would have to unhook the cable first- which wasn't the safest option. Pulse should be able to pull himself in- they just have to make sure the cable stays secure.

Pulse ignored the pain in his left arm, and reached forward with his right. He made the cable wrap around it, freed his left, and tugged himself forward. Now just two meters to go.

He repeated the step, but the pilot had to make a hard left to avoid getting hit, and it flung him away from the side of the plane. The g-force that slammed onto his body almost suffocated him, the full weight of his body and suit slamming into his hip where the cable was connected. Then the ship steadied, and he was flung back again, slamming his shoulder against the hull.

"Shuck! The missile!" The pilot warned. "It's gonna hit us!"

Pulse looked down, ignoring the agonizing pain in his side from when he hit the hull at full force. He still had his rifle- it was secured to him via a rope, which was only meant for quick deploy but not storage.

He grabbed onto the rope, and yanked it forward. He caught the rifle, and took aim once again.

Third time lucky, he thought as he pulled the trigger.

The bullets struck the missile, tearing it down the center. It sparked and caught flames, and veered majorly off course. It started spinning, falling behind. Then it clipped an office building and blew up, the sudden expansion of gas blowing a fireball twenty meters in diameter in under 0.4 seconds. The shockwave gave Pulse a considerable lift, and blasted him towards the entrance.

But still not close enough. He tucked away his rifle, and began his agonizing climbing process again.

"Walkers on the roofs!" The pilot yelled, turning right as a rocket flew past them.

"Damnit!" Pulse cursed. His rifle won't be doing anything against those.

"Buck- turret doesn't reach that angle!" Thyme pulled down the turret, but it wouldn't aim high enough. Understandable though, since the walkers were pretty much right above them.

Then there was the distinct sound of a rocket being launched, probably already on a collision course with the drop ship.