• Published 10th Mar 2013
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The northern incident - Trigger_Finger



Shining Armor and his squad get in over their heads while on guard

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Chapter 6: The darkness

Firefly went to trigger the flamethrower but suddenly Lilac’s face split in two and the tentacle beast purged from his body. It spat a load of acidic saliva into Firefly’s face which immediately affected his right side, burning his face and blurring his vision.

Firefly screamed out in pain and the others immediately rushed out to see what the commotion was about. As the creature spotted the group it immediately retreated. Firefly was pushed down by Bear so he would be out of the line of fire and the others began to fill the hallway with lead death.

Gunfire echoed in the base and brass casings bounced and chimed off the floor. In seconds the group ceased fire but there was no body, no blood, no evidence that they had even hit anything.

Shining pointed to Bear. “Check it out” he ordered and Bear immediately went to investigate the scene while the others examined Firefly’s wounds. Firefly groaned in utter pain as Shining examined the caustic wounds.

“He’ll live, but he might have some pretty bad scares” Shining said just as Bear returned. Shining turned to Bear, “Anything?” he asked but Bear shook his head.

“Well… looks like I won’t be sleeping tonight… and I was just about to hit the sack” Johner said sarcastically. Shining shook his head from Johner’s poor choice to make a comical entry.

Shining looked to the others. “Okay… we gotta do something about this…” Shining trailed off as the lights flickered off. “Reese… what the hell’s going on?” Shining asked fearfully. The emergency red lights came on.

“The power’s out… maybe a fuse is blown or… or it cut the power” Reese said. Golden Shield started to panic from the whole ordeal.

“What do you mean ‘it’ cut the power? How would it know what to do?” Golden asked frantically. Reese simply shrugged.

“Well… it’s probably just a fuse. I’ll go take a look” he said and began to wheel himself away when suddenly Firefly put a weakened hoof on his chair.

“You ain’t goin alone old stallion” he said groggily. Reese chuckled from the young stallion’s bravery. Firefly stood up, medical gauze now covering the majority of his face thanks to Shining’s somewhat decent first-aid treatment. Firefly flicked the flamethrower back on.

“Got a vendetta with that thing. Eye for an eye, know what I mean?” Firefly told them. Johner chuckled.

“Then the whole world would be blind” Johner said as he scratched the back of his head. Reese and Firefly made for the exit and the others looked to one another as they flicked on lights on their battle saddles.

“Alright: Golden Shield, Star Dust, I want you two patrolling the west wing. Shining, Bear: the east. I’ll take the middle with Pippy and we wait for Firefly and Reese to get back.

Golden Shield was obviously not impressed with the idea. “What!? Are you crazy? That thing’s gonna wait for us to split up and when we do it’s gonna come back and then it’s gonna kill us!” Golden said frantically, fear literally coursing through his voice.

Johner grabbed Golden by the collar of his jacket. “You listen here Golden and you listen good. I don’t need some prissy little colt-scout buckin us all over cause he doesn’t want to put his neck out on the line. We’re all in balls deep and the only way we’re getting out is if we pull each other out. So suck it up and let’s do this” Johner said and Golden gulped then nodded.

They all began their patrols just as Firefly and Reese entered the storage shed. Firefly looked to Reese and nodded. Reese looked to him with a smug look, “Cover my flank, anything comes through that door… torch it” Reese said then began to fiddle with the fuse box.

As he continued to screw with it, Firefly stood watch, the pilot flame on his flamethrower flickering about in the cold gusty wind. “Hey old stallion… you got that thing fixed yet?” Firefly asked as his motion tracker flickered then beeped.

“No just give me a second… sweet Celestia, it looks like something just ripped the fuse box apart” Reese muttered to himself. The blips on the motion tracker informed Firefly that the motion was getting ever closer, and at a very fast pace.

“Okay Reesy, now or never” Firefly muttered as he readied the torch. Reese continued to fidget with the fuse panel. “Twenty-five feet… Twenty… Fifteen” Firefly said and Reese frantically began to jury-rig the fuse box.

“Oh… this thing is impossible… oh wait” Reese said as he began to convert energy flow from exterior air flow controls to the lights.

“Ten… man, they’re right on top of us” Firefly yelled frantically as the motion slowed. “Nine… Eight… Seven” Firefly said. “Six” he muttered and Reese spun around. Six feet away meant it was inside the room but there was nothing.

“That can’t be right… it’d be in clear view” Reese said.

“Hey man, it’s reading right okay” Firefly said, almost in absolute fear. Reese grabbed the motion tracker and took a look at it. The tracker read motion just over five feet in front of him.

One of the wooden floorboards creaked and moved ever so slightly. Firefly gasped. “Oh no… it’s underneath us” Firefly whispered as he slowly and cautiously crept over to the floor board that had moved.

In a flash of motion Firefly booted down hard on the floorboard and snapped it. The disfigured body of Lilac screeched and hissed at him. Pointing his M2 flamethrower straight down into the hole, Firefly ignited the blowtorch and engulfed the hideous creature in sizzling hot flames.

It lept up and knocked Firefly back towards Reese. Its body now entirely engulfed in flames, the creature immediately rushed outside into the cold and both Reese and Firefly pursued it.

The creature began to roll around on the ground in agonizing pain as Firefly squeezed off another spray of liquid flame that encased the creature in more burning hot fire.

The creature squealed then turned its face tentacle to Firefly and spat at him again. Firefly moved his face to the left and dodged the acidic spit. “HA! Stupid creature, I won’t fall for that one ag…” he began but was cut off as the acidic spit, which had connected with one of the fuel tanks, set off the highly flammable fluids inside the fuel tanks.

“Get do…” was all Reese managed before the M2’s fuel tanks erupted in a ball of flame that engulfed both their bodies. Their screams were drowned out by the terribly powerful gusts of winds from the artic plains.

Inside the others continued their patrols. “Man… what’s taking them?” Golden said in fear. Star Dust gave him an irritated nudge.

“Shut-up, they’ll be back just you…” she trailed off as Golden’s motion tracker flickered. “That must be them” she said and Golden looked to his tracker.

“No… it’s only one… oh shit” he said as he cocked his M1.

“It’s them… they’re probably just so close together that it’s only picking up one signal” Star Dust assured her very close friend as she tried to radio for Reese and Firefly. “Hey Reesy, Firefly? You two reading me… guys?” she asked over the headset but Johner answered instead.

“I have a bad feeling about this… every-pony regroup in the middle hallway” Johner ordered and they all agreed then rushed for the middle hallway. As Star Dust and Golden made for the rendezvous, a hideous creature burst out from a wall and stood in their way.

“BUCK!” Golden screamed as he fired several shots at the creature. Multiple 7.62x63mm rounds slammed into the creature but the bullet wounds didn’t faze it at all. The mass of grotesque tentacles simply charged at Golden Shield and tackled him through another wall.

Star Dust screamed as she held back the trigger on her MP5. 9mm bullets sprayed through the air and several clipped the beast but failed to stop it. As it crashed through the room she heard the gurgling screams of Golden.

She cried out from the loss of her loved one and rushed to the others who were waiting for her. As she met them she was already in tears. “Golden… it got Golden” she sobbed and Bear grabbed her then put her behind him.

The horrific screams of Golden could still be heard as they echoed through the hallways, sending shivers down the spins of the entire group.

Johner pumped a round into the chamber of his shotgun. “Whatever it is it’s about to die… hard” he muttered as they all proceeded towards the source of Golden’s screaming.