When Earth is no more, what measures will humanity take to ensure their survival?
Earth, the birthplace of humankind, is dying.
Full-scale nuclear war has ravaged its surface, killing billions in the process, leaving Earth a glowing radioactive wasteland.
Years before the war, colonization of Earth's natural satellite, Luna. Was well underway to the point that dozens of domes dotted the lunar surface. When the war started, colonization funding was greatly reduced, bringing the effort to a halt.
Now, years after the war, the colonies find themselves with two options.
Die from starvation, or try to find a new home.
They chose the latter.
Old cargoships, once used to transfer supplies, were hastily retrofitted to the best of their abilities and outfitted with experimental warp drives salvaged from testing stations scattered around Earths orbit.
Three ships, the ULC Coral, the ULC Nightmare, and the ULC Amber in Arms were outfitted with these experimental warp drives and sent filled to the brim with everything needed to start over.
Humanity reaches out in need of a home, but what they find turns out to be a little too much for what they bargained for.
November 23rd, 2054 Lunar Orbit ULC Nightmare 0600 Hours
Captain Vergil Milford sat in his chair and looked out from the bridge's viewport down to the Moon below, observing as shuttles arrived and departed from the ship, making constant trips to bring supplies up. Building supplies, food, water, weapons, you name it.
After the bombs had fallen, the little supplies that they had been getting from Earth had stopped coming in. No one knows who fired first, most knew it was going to happen eventually, even before the war started, rising tensions between Earth nations were reaching the boiling point, people had always feared nuclear annihilation was a very real possibility, no matter how hard they tried to convince themselves otherwise. Not that it mattered now, without food or water to sustain themselves, the colonies faced a terrible decision, one which would possibly decide the fate of the human face.
Starve. Or leave.
They hadn't heard from the Martian colonies for years, as far as they knew, they were the only ones left. And so they decided.
They were going to leave.
This was no small feat to accomplish, of course, they were small colonies, not nations, they didn't have access to the resources needed to build a starship from scratch and most of the mines on the Moon were Helium 3 mines. They had plenty of fuel, but little ship building materials.
So a decision was made, to unite the colonies, and pool every recourse to ensure the survival of the human race. First, three massive cargo ships, used to transport helium to Earth and supplies to the Moon, were docked at the only ship port on the moon and were retrofitted with computers. Storages were implemented to house water and food for extended periods of time, weapons such as rail guns and heavy laser batteries taken from defense stations from both in orbit, and on the surface, and implemented onto the three cargo ships to defend against asteroids and debris. Cryo Pods were brought up from emergency bunkers located on the outskirts of the domed cities, which were placed there for protection against orbital bombardment.
But most importantly, the warp drives.
The warp drives, or commonly known as the Alcubierre drives, were in the final stages of testing before the war began, although they faced serious cutbacks as money was poured into military research. They were recovered from scattered testing stations near Earth's and Luna's orbit, and with the help of the residing staff, they were installed in the ships.
The three ships had designated roles; the ULC Coral was used as a farm ship, to carry all the food and water. The ULC Amber in Arms was used to store vehicles, shipbuilding materials, etc... And the ULC Nightmare was used to keep all the civilians in cryo until they arrived.
This process took a full year, a full year of nonstop work. But finally, on November 23rd, 2054, they were ready to.
The three 3.7 kilometer long ships floated gently above the lunar surface as the last of the supplies and people were loaded into the ships.
One million, thirteen thousand and eighty-five people. All of Luna's population were crammed into the ships and getting ready for the long Journey ahead as Vergil started blankly at the surface below, hidden emotions clouding his mind as he took one last look at his home, before being broken out of his trance by the communications officer.
"Sir, the last of the supplies have been secured, and the shuttles have docked, we have the green light." The communications officer reported.
Vergil nodded as we placed his arms on the armrest of his chair. "Acknowledged, put me through with Admiral Tyson. "The officer nodded and tapped on a few holographic keys before a video feed of a grizzled, middle-aged man appeared before him.
"Admiral, we are ready to go. "
"Affirmative, all ships are ready for warp, Take one last look at our home captain, this is the last we'll see of it." The Admiral said as he looked at Vergil, although the man didn't show any facial emotions, Vergil knew that the same thoughts that currently clouded his mind also clouded Tyson's.
"Understood Admiral, when you give the word." Replied Vergil as he prepared himself, the scientists said that warping could have troubling effects if one was not properly secured, although the captain did not know how it felt, he didn't want to find out.
The admiral nodded one last time before the video feed went out, the view ports on the bridge closed, encasing them in several inch thick titanium hull plates.
Vergil took a deep breath as the ships started rotating in place, using their reaction control system (RCS) to orient themselves towards the designated destination.
Their destination was Ithacae 20, a Solar System around one thousand light years away, it would take the ships ten years to reach the system, but previous tests that had been conducted with the warp drives in 2041 had shown very promising results. Scans conducted by the previously sent drones had shown an Earth-like planet, orbiting a star similar in size to our own, it is unknown if the planet contains intelligent life, but they simply did not have the luxury of trying to find out. And so, the planet was picked.
A gentle humming sound filled Vergil's ears as the ships warp drive powered up, they had a long journey ahead of them, but once it's over, humanity will have a new place, to call home.
Vergil suddenly felt a strong force, like if he was a ball of metal in front of a magnet for a split second as all three ships went into F-T-L, as soon as the feeling came, it was gone, leaving Vergil to stare at the sealed viewport.
Captains log, November 30th, 2054:
"It's been about a week since departure, crew's holding up pretty well, It's quite cramped in here too. But I guess that's what happens when you shove hundreds of thousands of people into a four kilometer long cargo ship, we still have a full month left to go until we can go into the cryo pods. Well, the crew at least, the civilians are already getting ready to enter the pods, while we have to stay out here for a few months and make sure we don't blow up, I would have just let the A.I take over, but hey, admirals orders..."
Captains log, December 12th, 2054:
"It ain't so bad now that the civies have gone in those freezers, everything is going fine and dandy, although, I wish there was some way to pass the time, all we've got are are a few Hokey tables and whatnot, still beats nothing I guess."
Captains log, December 25th, 2054:
"Happy Christmas! Everyone stopped working and left the A.I take over for a couple of hours, we threw a big ol' party! Well, not exactly big, more like a bunch of get togethers all over the ship, Itis good to finally relax, and let all the stress melt away for just a few hours. In five days we'll be hitting the freezers too. Honestly, I'm excited, to see our new home, and to see if there are any hot blue alien space babes."
Captains log, January 1st, 2055:
"Happy New Year! we decided to stay up until the new year and have another one of those get togethers, and it raises morale among the crew as well, so that's a plus.
Well, Anyways, this is the last log I'll probably post for a long time, even when we get there, there will be a lot of work to do, This is Captain Vergil Milford, signing out."
Twilight Sparkle looked into her telescope and into the night sky, occasionally taking notes on various things, she was determined to prove her friends wrong, to prove that aliens did in fact exist. So far, she hasn't found anything, but her full attention was not at the search, but rather to the sprawling span of stars that littered the night sky, with the background of the Milky way seemingly hanging there, adding more splendor the already beautiful night sky as the stars glowed softly, providing its share of light to the world below.
She couldn't help but admire it all, such a vast and beautiful expanse; this truly was the final frontier, one that only those who earned it could traverse its galaxies and nebulae, She hoped that whenever Ponykind ventured into space, they could enjoy it in all its glory.
She sighed and looked away from her telescope to the notepad on the night stand next to it, she picked it up and read through it briefly, not that there was much of anything, she just simply didn't have the equipment to do this kind of research, and the Canterlot Observatory was out of the question, despite her Princess status, she understood that they had their work do to, and she couldn't burst in there and declare that she was going to use their telescope to look for extraterrestrials... Well, she could, but they would probably think she was crazy.
She set the notepad down and yawned slightly, tired from staying up so long into the night; Spike was still awake surprisingly, he was immersed in his comics she couldn't get him to drop them.
'He'll fall asleep sooner or later, he always does.' " Twilight thought with a smile and a shake of her head, even if Spike doesn't want to sleep, she does. She walked over to her bed and got under the covers, pulling them over her with another yawn.
"Tired after all those hours of searching for aliens, huh?" Spike's voice rang throughout the room, startling Twilight, causing her to jump slightly.
"Spike? When did you get here? Asked Twilight as she turned her head to where the voice came from, only to find Spike sitting on her arm chair, reading one of his comics.
"I got in while you were working with the telescope. I was going to ask if you found anything, but you seemed to enveloped in what you were doing so I kinda sat here and waited for you to finish" Replied Spike as he flipped another page of his comic.
"How long have you been there?" She could have sworn she hadn't seen him enter, after all, she thought he was busy reading his comics.
"About three hours."
Twilight raised an eyebrow in surprise; she didn't notice him sitting there this entire time?
"Aren't you tired, Spike?"
"Not in the slightest! I'm more awake than you when you start making all those weird noises at ni-" Spike's face was suddenly assaulted by a rampaging pillow as it slammed into his face.
"Spike!" Twilight yelled as her face turned redder than a tomato.
"What I'd do?! I didn't say anything wrong!" Spike yelled back as he scrambled off the floor, startled by Twilight's Sudden outburst.
"Er... Nothing! I just saw a... A spider on your face! Yeah! Don't worry; I got it... Hehe... "Twilight nervously said as she rubbed the back of her head.
"Yeah right, I'm going to my room, where ponies don't throw pillows at me!" Spike stormed out of Twilight's room with his comic book in tow.
"No wai-... " Twilight sighed and leaned back into her bed and stared up at the ceiling.
"I should really put sound proofing spells in my room.... " She said to herself as she drifted off into sleep.
November 23th, 2064 Equestrian orbit ULC Amber in Arms 0800 Hours
In orbit around Equestria, unbeknownst to the inhabitants of the planet, space was suddenly distorted as three large objects appeared, leaving behind a trail of warped space-time.
"Scanning... Warning, advanced life forms detected. Waking up crew..."
November 23rd, 2064 Equestrian orbit ULC Nightmare 0900 Hours
Alarms sounded throughout the Nightmare as its crew raced back and forth. Most of them had recently been woken up from Cryo, and they still felt the after effects of 'freezer burn,' an effect that still hadn't been fully explored. It’s caused by going into cryo while wearing any type of clothing. Most of them were also wondering why the hell they weren't told of it before hand.
After the ships had come out of warp, they were immediately woken up upon the discovery of advanced alien life spanning one continent entirely and two others partially. There was also one more continent on the other side of the planet, which was strangely completely coated in ice despite the fact that the rest of the planet did not appear to be affected by any known ice age.
The planet itself has the mass of two Earths, with a radius of one-point-two-five and a surface comprised of sixty-one percent water and thirty-nine percent land. Its atmosphere was remarkably similar to Earth's with seventy-seven-point-nine percent being nitrogen, twenty-one percent being oxygen, and one-point-one percent being comprised of other elements.
None of that seemed particularly remarkable compared to what the scans had discovered next.
The entire planet was radiating some kind of energy, from the smallest creatures to the highest mountains. Further scans had detected a few other variables of this new found energy as well; some were even speculating that it could be used as a power source.
"All ships reporting a green light, Captain."
"Affirmative, Adan. Patch me through with Admiral Tyson."
Adan was the ship's main AI and was recovered from a crashed military ship on the surface of Luna. Although most of the ship and its armaments were destroyed, the central AI cores were always kept within the center of the ship, miraculously protecting her from the damage done by the impact and the battery of gunfire that had brought the ship down in the first place. She liked to be referred to as she, but AIs can change their voice and the physical appearance projected by holograms.
"Roger that, Captain."A holographic projection of the admiral suddenly appeared in front of Vergil. He noticed crew members running back and forth in the background as well, no doubt doing the same thing they were.
"Admiral, I’m sure you have been presented the results of the scan." Vergil said as he straightened himself out.
"Indeed I have, Captain. And these results are very promising, but this... energy could be dangerous to us. Automated drones are currently being prepped for launch to study this thing more. Civilians should be taken out of cryo once it is determined that it is safe for human habitation. The probe will be sent to a vast forest that seems to span half of the main continent. The energy readings within this location and its surrounding areas are unusually high. Luckily for us, the forest itself seems uninhabited by any of the advanced residents of this planet." The admiral explained as he read off of the holographic tablet, displaying all the current information about the planet.
"What of the natives themselves, Sir? They seem to present a problem if we ever wished to expand beyond this single continent in the future." Vergil stated as a crew member handed him a report, which displayed the same information the admiral had just explained.
"For now we will avoid contact with the natives. But sooner or later we will need to establish first contact with them. Our best bet for a colony would either be the untouched continent, which is completely isolated as far as we know. Or the large forest, which seems to cover enough land and be far enough away for us to go unnoticed until contact is made, given the local’s technological stance." The admiral replied as Virgil put the report away.
"Affirmative, Sir. Standing by for further orders."
"Prepare an exploration team to be sent to the uninhabited continent. The Mark IV MPA Armor should keep them safe from this mysterious energy."
"Roger that, Sir. We'll have a team down there by 1600, Captain Virgil out." The connection was cut and the screen faded away. "Adan, prep a team of marines for planet side"
"Yes, Sir."
Commander Jason Broadway, along with the rest of his squad, had just been taken out of cryo five minutes ago. They had been told to get ready for planet side; needless to say, he wasn't very happy with being stuffed into armor with fresh freezer burn. It wasn’t exactly the most pleasant experience.
They had been stationed on the moon before the world went to hell in a handbasket. He along with his company were to serve as garrison if any wise guy thought it would be a smart idea to attack the moon, which at the time was still vulnerable due to it being nothing but a mining colony. After the war had broken out, the moon saw an increase of investment from nations and companies alike for the purpose of more H-3 being extracted, and with increased size came more protection. While the moon was neutral in the whole ordeal, similar to Sweden during world war 2, there were still countries that didn't like them supporting their enemies, but they had to do what they had to do.
"Hey, Jason, you think we'll see some aliens down there?" asked Michael, the heavy weapons specialist of Alpha squad, as he equipped his armor.
"I doubt it; We've been told not to expect any sapient life. but we’ll still have to watch out for any indigenous lifeforms roaming around anyway." Jason replied as he finished putting on his armor before grabbing his M92AS Standard Assault Rifle, his Y23B multi-barrel rocket launcher, and his standard equipment.
"I think they should just send those eggheads that tagged along for the ride too; they need to actually do something for once." A voice grumbled from the far corner of the room.
"We need to clear the LZ first before they can go. You should know this, Jane." She huffed and went back to checking her weapons and armor, making sure they were in peak condition. She was the medic of Alpha Squad.
"I say we go and take the land that’s already there from these things. They're still probably using pointy sticks for stabby-stab." Added another voice coming from the doorway.
"Jesus, Luna... did you all hit your heads inside those tin cans or something?"
"No, they're not the ones who need to start fucking immediately. While we, on the other hand, do. If we want to actually get to reasonable population levels, at least." Luna replied with mild annoyance as she began to equip on her armor. She was the sniper of Alpha Squad and had just been checked out of the med bay.
"Enough, you three. We're oscar mike in thirty; meet up in hangar bay Z1. We're taking a hawk down planet side."
The Hawk was a multi-purpose dropship with a sleek design meant to serve as a transport and provide air support to ground troops, it was salvaged from a military base near the main city of the Lunar colony and it possessed a 30mm auto-cannon on its nose and powerful F1-5 propulsion engines to propel it along with additional equipment such as active radar and scanners, it made the dropship quite the powerful opponent to face in combat.
"Roger that, Sir!" They said as they snapped to attention.
"At ease, now hurry up and stop talking shit, marines!"
November 23th, 2064 Hangar bay Z1 ULC Nightmare 1500 Hours
"All systems check... we are ready for launch."
"Affirmative, Badger One. Approach with caution, several anomalies have been detected within the LZ."
"Roger that, Fortress. We are go for departure planetside."
The drop ship's engines lit up as it started to hover inside the hangar. After a few seconds of hanging in the air, its engines shifted backward, slowly propelling the drop ship out of the hanger and to the planet below.
November 23rd, 2064 En route to LZ Hawk Dropship 1600 Hours
"We are approaching the designated LZ. Ready up Marines!" Commander Jason shouted over the sound of the dropship's engines, their roaring drowning out all sounds apart from his voice.
"Oohrah!" The Marines exclaimed as they readied their weapons and stood up, using the handrails located on the ceiling of the drop ship to keep them from falling. The turbulence shaking the dropship would easily throw them into a wall if they didn't.
The ship started to shift its engines downward as it began circling the LZ, the rear door opening and giving the Marines a clear view of the vast plain with an outcrop of a forest a hundred meters away.
"Our objective is to clear the surrounding area so that the space boys up there can setup an FOB in this area. If you encounter any hostile wildlife you are clear to engage, understood?!"
"Sir, yes sir!"
"At ease, now move out!" Jason tapped the side of his helmet, causing the visor to drop down and bring up the heads-up display as the dropship moved downward into a hover above the plain, letting the marines drop down to the grassy floor below.
As soon as the last of them dropped to the ground the ship’s engines shifted back into their original position and propelled it forward, sending it upwards and back to Fortress.
The Marines scanned the area for any hostile life forms; once it was confirmed that no hostiles were within the LZ, they prepared to give an all clear for the FOB. Murphy's law had other things planned it seemed.
"Sir, we have movement on the treeline!" Lieutenant Luna said over the comms as she crouched down and raised her weapon, directing it towards the trees in the distance.
"Roger that, Lieutenant. We see it." Replied Jason as the rest of the squad moved up behind him.
"Fortress, this is Alpha Actual. We have movement near the treeline; please advise."
"Roger that Alpha Actual, approach with caution and engage if hostile. Don't take any chances. We don't know what the indigenous lifeforms on this planet are like."
"Affirmative, Fortress, approaching the tree line now." Jason cut the comms as he cautiously moved up to the wooded outcrop, his rifle tracking the movement still present behind the vegetation.
"Contact right! Coming right at us!" Sergeant Jane yelled over the coms as she pointed her AR-34 at the incoming target.
"Shit, Alpha, light it up!" Jason yelled as he turned to face the creature with the rest of the squad. He took the first shot and fired at what he assumed to be its head, followed by the rest of Alpha.
Jason had never seen anything like it. It looked like a lion, a bat, and a Scorpion was jammed into a blender, and that thing is what came out. It had large, bat-like wings and a long, menacing-looking scorpion tail in place of where the regular one should be.
The creature had run out of the forest and was now coming at them quickly, gunfire doing little to slow it down as it closed in with more speed than something that large should ever move.
"Fuck, Jason, use your goddamn boomstick to blow that motherfucker up! I’m not going to become its damn meal!" Luna yelled as she emptied her entire magazine into the beast.
Jason responded with a nod as he threw his rifle to the ground. He then reached around his back with lightning speed and grabbed his Y23B, aiming it at the incoming monster as the rest of Alpha dropped down.
"Boom, motherfucker," Jason muttered as he lined up the shot and pulled the trigger, sending a deadly G21-F rocket straight into its face. The rocket connected with the thing’s face a second later. Needless to say, it wasn't a very pretty sight. It penetrated it were eye socket and went straight through the back of its head, exploding inside of it and sending chunks of gore and blood in every direction, showering Alpha in a wave of viscera.
"Ugh... fucking gross," Jane muttered as she stood up and tried to wipe the blood from her armor, failing miserably at it.
"Agreed," Luna replied as she brushed pieces of gore off of her shoulder, clearly disgusted.
Jason stored the Y23B securely on his back and walked over to his assault rifle, casually picking it up and wiping off the blood that splattered it’s side.
"What the flying fuck was that thing? It took those bullets like they were water droplets!" Michael said as he picked himself off the ground and looked himself over.
"I don't know, but Fortress needs to know what kind of fucked up shit is going on down here."
November 23rd, 2064 Equestrian orbit ULC Nightmare 1700 Hours
"Can you explain this to me one more time, Adan? I'm not sure I'm hearing this right." Captain Vergil said as he leaned back in his chair and took a sip of coffee.
"Well, sir, Alpha team seems to have encountered an indigenous life form that proceeded to attack them shortly after. Their description of the creature appears to match that of a 'Manticore': a mythological creature from ancient Greek mythology. The drones we sent down have also detected numerous life forms. Some of them we recognize, such as rabbits, deer, snakes, zebras, and three different variations of miniature ponies. Other unknown species have also been discovered that match no known records. Further analysis is required, sir."
"I could understand the unknown species with this being an entirely unknown planet and all, but animals from ancient Greece? I find that hard to believe." Vergil replied as he looked down at his coffee and gently swirled its contents around, mixing them.
"Has this information been presented to the Admiral, Aden?"
"Affirmative, sir, he has already been briefed on the situation."
"Good, is Alpha 01 reporting any more hostiles?"
"Negative, sir, they're reporting an all-clear."
"Acknowledged, we have a green light for the FOB."
"Affirmative, sir, relaying the all-clear to the Phantoms for immediate deployment."
November 29th, 2064 Great Plains Forward Operating Base 0510 Hours
Commander Jason leaned back on his bunk with a sigh as his eyes scanned through the holographic tablet in his left hand.
He and his squad had been stuck inside the FOB for the past five days after they had blown up the Manticore (which they had learned what it was later on) sky high, they've been ordered to stay there and wait for further orders. So far they've just been enjoying their little time off after what happened.
After they had killed the Manticore, the F-15 Phantom heavy dropships had begun their trips along with some engineers; they had gotten the base up in a day or so surprisingly. The base had been set up in what is now dubbed the great plains, due to it stretching over one thousand and five hundred miles and in honor of the great plains of North America.
Not to be confused with the late 20th-century fighter, the F-15 Phantom was a space superiority fighter developed by the United North American States during the Columbian Wars of 2038.
It was later repurposed by the Lunar Colonies after the war to serve as a small cargo/drop ship due to its relatively large frame.
The full name was currently 'Furry MPCS/DS -15", MPCS standing for "Multi-Purpose Cargo Ship" and the /DS for Dropship
Jason shook his head and sat up on his bunk, if what he had just read was correct, they'll be redeployed once more to one of the other continents for further recon. He was supposed to be in the briefing room in five along with the rest of his squad.
"Psst... Hey, Jason, Hey..!" Jason blinked as he leaned forwards and looked towards the source of the voice.
"Yeah?" Jason replied as he saw Jane on the bunk beside him, leaning over it and looking at him.
"Did you get the memo? They want us to go on another recon at some forest on another continent." Jane replied with slight annoyance as she hopped down from the bunk and motioned for Jason to follow with a wave of her hand.
"Come on; we don't want to be late unless we want to get our asses chewed by some higher up." With a nod, Jason set his tablet down on the bunk and hopped down after Jane, following her to the briefing room.
They passed through a series of rooms still under construction on the way to the briefing room, most of which were crew quarters or storage rooms.
They arrived at the briefing room five minutes later, with Luna and Michael already inside and sitting in the chairs neatly put together in the center of the room with a table and a holographic display behind it.
Jason took a seat in between Luna and Michael, the former who was using a toothpick to try and get something out of her teeth, and the ladder which was sitting with the chair facing backward, chewing what Jason guessed was a life of gum. Jane sat down behind the three and proceeded to stare at the holographic screen in front of the room.
They didn't have to wait long for a man to walk into the room with a data pad tucked in-between his arm and torso. The man was dressed in a slightly armored officer uniform with more than a few stars and medals on his chest, he had various scars across the left side of his face, along with whiteish fair and a glowing blue left eye, no doubt a bionic eye due to whatever left those scars also taking his eye as well.
The man was well built, with a tall six-foot frame that could rival those of Earth weight lifters, he was no doubt a high ranking official. But of course, Alpha squad knew who this was.
This was General Armstrong.
General Armstrong had a history with Alpha and the rest of the company on the Nightmare. He served in the Columbian Wars of 2038 and the African Conflict of 2041, along with many more major battles and conflicts, he was promoted to General during 2047. Shortly after the war began and stationed on Luna in 2048, he took command of the Lunar colonies after the bombs fell to deal with the riots that broke out across the lunar surface.
The General stopped in front of the table and set his datapad down as alpha squad stood up and saluted him, he glanced over the squad for a few seconds before speaking up.
"At ease, Marines." He nodded to them as they sat back down.
"Now, as you may know, the boys up on the ship decided that we needed more expedition and recon parties to go out there and do some recon on certain selected areas. The problem is we are short on man power to accomplish this task. That is when you come in." The General tapped a few times on the data pad, after a few seconds the holo screen lit up and displays one of the continents that has yet to be visited by manned expeditions.
This is where you come in; a Phantom will pick you up at Oh-six hundred hours and will take you to the outskirts of the vast forest that spans the entire continent. From there you will set up basic monitoring Equipment and await further orders, understood marines? "
"Sir yes sir!"
"At ease, now go get yourselves suited marines!" The squad saluted one more time before picking up whatever things they had brought with them and walking out of the room in a straight line, heading straight to the armory to get themselves suited up.
"Hey, Jason. You think we'll encounter any more of those things?" Luna whispered to Jason as he walked up beside him, keeping with his pace.
"No idea, but I'm packing some more rocket ammo this time around."
"And some bigger guns.." Luna replied under her breath as she slowed down, letting Jason pass by her.
"At least we won't get caught unprepared this time around.." Jason muttered to himself as he continued the walk towards the armory.
November 29th, 2064 Equestrian Stratosphere F-15 Phantom dropship. 0550 Hours
Far above Equestria's surface, a sole F-15 Phantom strode across its stratosphere, making constant trips to its mother ship and down to the base below, bringing valuable construction materials so that the building of the FOB could continue.
The area that the FOB was located in was also one of the more likely spots for the colony to be founded, with a lush green forest on one side, and a long, thick river stretching over one-third of the entire continent from one end to another.
"This is Firebird Actual, we are detecting some strange readings over here, is this showing up on your scanners, over?"
"Solid copy Firebird, redirect course and continue with these coordinates, we will continue to monitor the activity in this area."
"Roger that Fortress, redire-... What the hell? We have a sudden spike in activi-... OH GO- "
"Firebird come in, Firebird this is Fortress, do you copy?"
"Static..."
If anyone were looking out of a window in any of the ships, they would have noticed a bright flash coming from the surface, and another bright flash engulfing the F-15.
November 29th, 2064 Equestrian Orbit ULC Nightmare 0551 Hours
"What do you mean we lost a drop ship?!" Vergil said as he slammed his hand down on the arm of this captain's chair.
"Sir, we detected a sudden spike of energy originating from the planet below, whatever caused it is was either aiming at the Phantom, or it was within the radius of the energy pulse. Whatever happened wasn't picked up by our sensors either, the energy pulse seems to have somehow blocked any sensors from seeing anything."
"Ah shit.. Do we have any teams ready for a search and rescue?"
"Only alpha squad sir, they should be preparing for another recon mission."
"Do we have a rough estimate to where the ship would have crashed at?"
"Affirmative, sir. The ship would have crash landed somewhere in the outskirts of an Alien settlement. Best case scenario the ship kept going into the forest. Worst it crash landed inside the settlement."
Vergil sighed and leaned back in his chair. "You know what to do, Aden."
"Aye aye, sir. Relaying new objectives to General Armstrong and Alpha squad."
November 29th, 2064 Great Plains Forward Operating Base 0553 Hours
"-nd then I told him to go fuck himself!" Michael roared in laughter at his inside joke while the rest of Alpha Squad Sat there, watching him with all sorts of confusion plastered on their faces.
"..What?"
Michael laughed once more and waved them off, going back to cleaning his gun
Jason shook his head in mild disappointment as he turned to look at the others, not bothering to comment on what just happened."Alrighty then... The drop ship is leaving in a few minutes, so you better get yourselves ready for another long ass trip half way around the wo-"
Jason was interrupted as the automatic door slid open and the General stepped through with a scowl on his face.
"Alright, listen up. We have new priorities, at approximately five hundred and fifty hours, we lost contact with an F-15 Phantom. From what we know so far it was brought down by some sort of energy spike near the main continent of the planet. You are now serving as a search and rescue team. Your objectives and HUDs have been updated with the available Info. We cannot let the natives of the continent find it first, is that understood marines?" He explained as he stopped in front of them and surveyed the room, his cold, hard eyes glancing over them with unparalleled, controlled fury.
"Sir yes sir!" Alpha Squad replied as they saluted and stood at attention.
"At ease, you have seven minutes to get ready and have your asses inside the drop ship. Understood?"
"Sir yes sir!"
"Good, two more squads will be accompanying you in different drop ships down to the surface, check for friendly fire and try to avoid contact with the locals, we don't want any more problems to deal with." Said the General as he took one last glance over the room before giving a brief salute and exiting the room, leaving Alpha squad alone.
"..You gotta be fucking kidding me.."
"Ugh..."
"Does that mean we have to rescue some guy AND recon?"
"Hey! Enough." Jason finally said as he stood up and looked back at the rest of his squad.
"You didn't sign up just to sit on your asses in a base and complain every time you get a new OP, did you? Because I sure as hell didn't. We're fucking marines goddamn it, act like ones! Now get your asses up and moving towards the drop ship, A.S.A.P!"
Luna and Jane rolled her eyes at Jason's little 'inspirational' mini-speech and stood up, giving him a half-assed salute before picking up their gear and heading towards the hangar. Michael was the only one who gave him a decent salute before following Jane and Luna out.
Jason lingered around the room for a few more seconds, his mind wandering to what they could encounter down there. After the last incident, he didn't want anything else catching them off guard like that thing did.
Jason shook his head with a heavy sigh, he bent over and picked up his helmet before sliding it back over his head before stepping out of the room and following the rest.
