Fallout Equestria: Rough Water

Forenote: you might want this:

http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html

Chapter 5: Rising Action

-The following events take place three days after the events of ch. 4-

I lay on my back in the galley, Contingency lay on top of me, and despite the late hour wasn’t asleep. “So tomorrow we drop by HMNS Boomer…” I started.

Contingency gulped and cringed at the thought, “Yeah, have fun with that, I’ll be hiding below deck.”

“Come on, don’t be that way. We need a local to show us around.” I stated, “A local who we can be sure isn’t working for the Enclave.” I added to cut off any counter suggestion she may have.

“Hey! The ponies of Alpacadonia are good ponies!” she stated. “Even if the Enclave managed to convince some of the hire ups to work with them, dad wouldn’t let that go on.” She added. Really now, she has a dad? Well I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, just because both Swordfish and myself had been orphans didn’t mean all Marines were, although it wasn’t exactly uncommon. Mulling this new information over a bit I decided that this might be good leverage.

“So, you have a dad? I used to have a dad.” I said. “I don’t remember much of him, and what can I say, you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.”

Contingency looked taken aback by this, “Are you trying to guilt me into coming along just to see my dad.” She questioned. Hit the nail on the head there.

“If I received news that my Dad was alive and well back on the Patriotic Fire I would hijack a RHIB and make my way across this bloody ocean just to run into his embrace.” My words seemed to hit her like a hammer, so I continued, “You know, you’re one of the lucky ones, I knew a lot of ponies back on the Patriotic Fire who were orphans. Parents were marines, had kids, were killed in the field, kids grew up to become marines, had kids, died in the field, rinse and repeat. It’s a vicious cycle you know.” She was actually trembling, “If I were you I’d like to see my dad at least once more before he kicks the can.” She got up and made here way to the corner of the room, where she proceeded to curl up and make sniffling noises for the rest of the night.

--

I woke up the next morning and felt pretty awful, I had made one of my friends cry. I ignored my grumbling stomach and decided to look around for her. She had left her corner, and the galley for that matter. I stepped out side into the morning sun and began a quick look around the ship. It wasn’t hard to find her, right at the bow. I hesitated before approaching, when we first met she bested myself, Xager, and Brawny in CQC, so I wasn’t liking the idea of getting to close while she was mad. “I know you’re there.” She said and I decided to suck it up and approach her.

“Um… about last night-” Thankfully she interrupted me before I had to continue my awkward apology.

“No, don’t bother, you where right. I miss my dad. I miss my sister. I miss the Boomer. I miss the openness of Alpacadonia.” She motioned to the open expance of ocean surrounding us, “You can go for days with out seeing any sign of life, 5 tiny islands are the only land in the entire segment. Great Alpacadonian Fuck All. Perfect place for a carrier group.” She said and moved from her spot. “Ok, let’s get something to eat.” She said and as she lead the way back to the galley I noticed a faint jingling noise coming from her.

Out of curiosity and concern I asked, “Uh Contingency? Do you need maintenance or something?” The last thing we needed was her literally exploding.

“Nah I’m fine. It’s just my dog tags.” She chuckled and trotted on ahead.

I gave a little frown, dog tags typically don’t sound like that, but then again, Contingency was a treasure hunter, so she probably just added some souvenirs. I trotted into the galley after her; I got myself some breakfast, then found a seat at my squad’s bench and enjoyed the taste of my coconut water. It wasn’t long before my squad started showing up.

“Sup.” I greeted Signal Fire as he trotted up.

“Nien! Ze god Rio shall only be addressed by his true name!” he replied, then noticing me cringe he took his seat, “Let me guess, the god accent was too thick.”

I facehoofed, “I don’t think gods are supposed to have any one specific accent.” I replied.

“Ah yes, if I just be myself I shall be able to convert the ponies of Alpacadonia to Rioism.” He said out loud, in a way that made me inclined to believe that he was seriously considering it.

“Eh, religion isn’t really their bowl of rice, if you catch my drift.” Contingency piped up. “For the most part all Alpacadonians do is try to not get eaten alive by the bities.”

“Please tell me there aren’t that many bugs here.” Contingency said as she trotted in, there was an unusually well rested air about her.

“Yeah, there’s so little land out here that migrating swarms stop on out flat tops for a rest.” Contingency replied. “Sometimes there would be enough to put the carriers out of bizzo until an extermination team can get rid of them.” Swordfish groaned at this news.

“Hey Sword you look well rested, sleep well?” I asked.

“Rip, Contingency, the thing I have with Shanty has so far been pretty sexless, and since you two form the most awkward sexless relationship I know of. So tell me how you guys get by.” Swordfish answered.

“Ugh…”

“Relationship?”

“No no no we don’t.”

“Yeah nothing going on. At least I don’t think…”

“Really she’s more like an electric blanket if anything.”

“Ow, that’s rather harsh on my self esteem.”

“Wow you two are the biggest virgin’s I’ve ever met.” Swordfish remarked, and cracked open her canteen.

“Wait, you’re a virgin too?” both Contingency and myself exclaimed at each other.

“What sickie has kept you back?” Contingency inquired with a smile.

Feeling rather uncomfortable a sputtered out the truth, “No reason, I just never did it… So what’s your reason.”

She blushed herself, “Well, I never got around to it before, then the operation happened, and now my… region leads right into my engine block.” She paused a bit, then noticed how we failed to grasp the implications, “You know how an electric pencil sharpener works?”

“AH! FUCK!” Signal Fire exclaimed.

“Damn. That’s actually... horrifying…” I trailed off.

“Not hot.” Signal said and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

Xager crept in and after a quick look about the room made his way over to Signal Fire, “The package has been delivered.” He said cryptically.

“Good, good, wunderbar.” Signal Fire chuckled to himself and grinned slyly. It wasn’t long before he noticed the rest of us giving them odd looks. “Matters pertaining to the Rioistic church, gods and bishops only.” he replied defensively and gave Xager a pat on the back.

Before I could even cock an eyebrow at this development the loud speaker crackled to life. “Sea Lion Squad to the bridge, for briefing about today’s op.” Shanty’s static infused voice ordered, and we go up from our table.

Once in Shanty’s office we gathered around a crate, “This here’s our cover for today. Ya’ll are going to be sent in pretending to be an MCIS team, looking into reports of stolen ordinance.” She explained and bucked open the crate to reveal a plethora of MCIS equipment ranging from badges, to over coats, to their signature PDWs and breaching kits. “Just before we crossed into Alpacadonia I had the maintenance team put some stickers on the ship to make it look like an MCIS ship rather than our normal unmarked vessel.

MCIS, or Maritime Criminal Investigative Service, was a cross segment intelligence agency used by the Compact Agreement to settle incidents that were too delicate to make a marine task force viable. So in theory going in undercover as them was the perfect plan, if there’s Enclave we don’t outright tip them off that we’re on to them, if there’s not then there won’t be any hurt feelings between Alpacadonia and Thermodon… Wow I just realized that this makes me a spook… fuck.

“So that’s that?” Contingency asked and nervously inched towards the door out.

“No, I’ve yet to remind y’all of the stakes.” Shanty stated then cleared her throat, “Our ‘genius’ leaders over at Thermodon would like to remind us that Alpacadonia is very important. In the Alpacadonia and it’s neighboring Xer and Albatross segments, who the Alpacadonia a very close to, there are 3 carriers, 3 guided missile cruisers, and 3 amphibious assault ships. AKA a fuck up will turn the war in the Enclave’s favour.”

“Why is there such a big military build up here?” Swordfish asked in confusion. I had to agree, this many high value vessels with full compliments just sitting around here, when Xooland was getting by on tramp freighters, Central Umbria had a ship of the line as it’s flagship, and Abundance had a beached troopship? It was odd to say the least.

“Well no pony minus Thermodon really knows, but it’s always been my theory that they are supposed to act as a wall between the Compact Agreement and the Equestria mainland. You know, in case all that stuff about the mainland being uninhabited isn’t true.” Shanty answered and gave a shiver at the thought.

Before long I found myself waiting to climb down into our awaiting… not a RHIB, awaiting us was actually the attack boat Viking. Well that’s interesting.  Contingency trotted up, still making that jingling noise. I noticed that she was wearing her helmet and gasmask; the rest of us had been carrying our headgear with us the way MCIS marines do. “Uh, what’s with the helmet?” I asked.

“Yeah, you know MCIS thugs only ware helmets during combat.” Swordfish added.

Contingency rocked back on her hooves, “Well I wanted to see the bastards back home home again, I don’t particularly want them to see me.” she replied, and I noticed that her gas mask effectively muffled her voice beyond easy recognition.

“Pathetic.” Brawny remarked. “I’m starting to think that you deserted out of fear rather than any need for adventure, and the only thing worse than a zebra is a coward.” Of course Brawny would say something like that.

Without any further words we climbed down into the Viking.  Once inside the small craft I was delighted to find that it was dry, no ocean spray meant no radiation. Being inside an armored attack boat certainly made me feel safer, but I still felt that the PDW I was carrying with me was pretty subpar compared to my LMG. I peered through the fogged forward window of the craft and noticed the behemoth ship slowly appear through the morning fog. The radio slowly chattered to life, “Unknown vessel please identify.” The ship hailed.

Brawny took the radio and replied, “HMNS Boomer, this is MCIS investigation team Sea Lion, we are here to investigate reports of missing ordinance.

“Oh, well then, proceed to ladder five, and G’day mate, welcome to the GAFA.” The addressor replied.

“Roger, roger.” Brawny replied.

It wasn’t much longer until we were passing under the hulking ship’s shadow. HMNS Boomer made HMNS Patriotic Fire seem reasonably sized in comparison. Signal Fire brought the Viking to the ladder. After climbing out of the cabin of the Viking I finally got a good look at the ship. The ship wasn’t painted; instead the entire hull was coated in coloured variants of the same Ceramics in our combat armour. This not only boosted the shock and heat resistance of the outer hull, but also made the ship extremely rust resistant. I waited for Brawny, Swordfish, and Signal Fire to climb up the ladder, and then climbed up myself followed by Xager and Contingency. The ladder brought us to a fire escape-like balcony roughly four stories above where the Viking was being towed away to storage. The balcony was clearly some sort of processing area to prevent unwelcome guests or contraband from making its way onto the ship. Running the station where two marines… or at least what I assume to be marines, Their helmets didn’t look like the typical marine combat kit.

“Ok, so you’re the MCIS guy here to find out about those stolen bombs? Well that all checks out, mind if I inquire about the identity of the pony in black?” The yellow-coated earth pony male with sun glasses asked.

Brawny sighed then answered, “she is an ex-local we took on to act as a general guide around the ship.” Brawny stated. “Her identity is to remain anonymous.” He added.

“Ok then, I‘ll just let you in then…” the stallion said and unlocked the hatch in.

As we made our way towards the door, the other guard, a lime green coated unicorn mare, tackled Contingency to the floor and ripped off her gas mask. “Contingency you fucking bitch!” The mare growled. The rest of us quickly took aim with our PDWs, and Brawny pinned the first guard against the hull of the ship to keep him from assisting his partner.

“Uh… hi Inconvenience… long time no see…” Contingency said, barely above a whisper- wait what kind of bitch names their child Inconvenience?!

Not entirely unsure of what was going on I used my emotion reading spell, From the mare I could feel… rage, hatred, confusion, but at the same time above all else happiness and relief. Now I was confused!

“I- I’ve missed you.” Inconvenience sobbed out.

“Oh hey Contingency!” The other guard called over from where he was pinned against the wall.

“G’day Sea Weed, haven’t seen you in a while.” Contingency replied. Then she addressed us, “Guys, these are my friends Sea Weed and Inconvenience, we went through basic training together, and served together in a fire team. Speaking of which where is Clear Skies?”

“Uh… well… dead.” Sea Weed stated as bluntly as possible.

“His last words were “Contingency where the fuck is our sniper support?!”” Inconvenience elaborated.

I noticed Contingency’s face contort into a look of horror, but thankfully Brawny decided to advance the mission, “How about you guys let us in now, and I don’t unload this gun’s fifty rounds of armour piercing ammo into you two.”

Sea Weed grimaced and replied, “Uh, the door is already unlocked…”

As we made our way in to the halls of the ship I noticed Contingency momentarily hag back having a seemingly friendly chat with Inconvenience before she trotted up to guide us along.

Contingency guided us through the ship, pointing out various features as she went, “the fire extinguishing systems on board the Boomer are probably the best in the fleet, there are convex mirrors at every corner to let ponies know ahead of time to get out of the way, cameras at the mid point of every hallway for added security, the bulkheads are all bullet proof, the ship is powered by a pair of A1B mega spell reactors, the aviation facilities maintain roughly 75 aircraft of different roles and weight classes, and the ship also functions as the barracks for Alpacadonian basic training.” Contingency explained. I had to admit, it was impressive. “I only wish that the designers didn’t incorporate genderless washrooms that didn’t have stall doors.” Contingency added with a slight gag. As we continued on Contingency brought us up a flight of stairs to the flight deck, “Ok, if you want to get a meeting with the admiral or any other higher up then you should head over to the bridge she said and pointed to the forward super structure. Contingency surprising then walk off. “I’ll be out here when you’re done.”

Just before we entered Brawny passed me something, a black box with a button labeled “copy” and a USB cord.

Once I side we were greeted with a very official looking desk and eight guards all wearing that helmet. The mare at the desk looked us over then addressed us, “G’day, welcome to the office of High Admiral Aero, do you have an appointment?”

Brawny responded, “We’re MCIS, we don’t need an appointment.” This blunt statement seemed to gain the ire of every pony in the room, I choose this disturbance as the time to hook the USB cord into the computer and activate the copy function.

“The Admiral is busy at the moment I suggest you try later in the Arvo.” The secretary replied coldly, and a number of guards shouldered their rifles. I felt the machine vibrate signaling that the transfer was complete and pulled the cord.

“Fine.” Brawny responded and turned towards the door.

“And just remember,” Swordfish said after lunging over to the desk, “I’ll be back!” She stated, with the fakest Thermodonian accent I’ve ever heard.  I quickly dragged her away before the secretary could get a whiff of her breath.

Back outside I took my first really in depth look at the flight deck, it seemed to be in active at the moment, with engineers working on a few aircraft, and what appeared to be a cadet class doing some sort of marksmanship test with a buoy as a target. I also notice a lack of Contingency, her silver mane and black uniform typically stood out like a sore thumb against naval personal.

I trotted around looking for her, and then stopped when I heard that jingling noise coming from under the interceptor nearest me. I looked under it and found Contingency curled up watching the cadet class. “Uh Contingency?” I asked

I must have startled her because she jumped a bit and hit her head as a result. “Ow… Yeah what do you want? I’m watching the cadet instructor.” She replied.

“What, you like, hot for teacher or something?” I asked.

In response, she bucked me. “No! He’s my dad!”

Every eye on the deck was on us, and I noticed that the instructor was making his way towards our interceptor.

“Well looks like you’re getting that reunion now rather than later.” I said and backed out from under the plane.

Contingency seemed to hesitate a bit then gulped and stepped out, nervously looking the tall stern looking, blue stripped stallion in the eye. “Uh… hey dad… I’m home…”

The stallion stared at her, “Contingency, it’s been 4 years, 4 years. Now you just show up, in a defaced uniform, your mane, mane dyed, and tail between your legs.” Contingency’s legs seemed to be on the verge of giving out. “I’m… glad you’re back.” He said and embraced her in a hug. “Finally, the daughter I’m not ashamed of is back.”

Contingency pushed away at that remark, “Speaking of her, how is Flux?” I took a wild guess and assumed that this Flux character was Contingency’s sister.

“Flux is Flux, funny how despite her name she never seems to change much.” He stated. “So, I was about to have this bunch of Cadets demonstrate their marksman skills to me, but I remember you being a decent sniper, so why not you show them how it’s done?” Her dad suggested.

Contingency contemplated it for a moment, “If I manage to break the window on my first try I get to use the rifle, you know which one I’m talking about.” Contingency asked.

Her dad groaned, “Contingency I swear you have a fetish for large caliber rifles.” I had no idea what they were exactly talking about, but I decided that it would be amusing, and followed.

Contingency telekinetically grabbed a battle rifle from one of the Cadets, lay prone on the deck and peered through the gun’s iron sights, bobbing along a few hundred meters from the Boomer, a fishing skiff had been set up to act as a target. The small window meant to shelter the operator from ocean spray appeared to be a decent challenge, but then again, I wasn’t a sniper. I watched her shift about, then hold her breath, for a while she seemed to be motionless while the boat bobbed up and down. Then there was a crack, and the shot only grazed the window.

“I’ll call that close enough,” Her dad said, “come back in the arvo if you want to use that rifle, I rather give my new recruits a chance at the target before you send it to the bottom of the ocean.”

Contingency trotted over to me, “Well ok, where do you want to start your search?” Contingency asked.

I pulled out the radio, “Where are you guys searching?”

“I’m searching the galley for Enclave alcohol.” Swordfish responded.

“I’m checking fuel records, if the enclave stopped here, a few thousand misappropriated magical gem cells would be a pretty obvious sign.” Signal Fire stated.

“I’m asking the crew.” Xager said.

“Xager, don’t do that, you’ll give us away, just go with Signal Fire. I’m going to use the MCIS right of requisition, and look at some files.” Brawny stated.

“I’ll check the armoury.” I said.

“Armouries.” Contingency corrected me. “We have two standard armories, one for flight equipment, and the grand magazine, so that’s four armouries.”

I scribbled that down in a little checklist. “So what will you be doing?” I asked.

“Well, I’m going to check with some of the ponies I used to know, and see if anything strange has happened as of late.” She said.

Before trotting off I had two more questions I wanted to ask. “Hey contingency, what’s your dad’s name?” I would feel silly if I had to greet him with ‘Hello Contingency’s dad’. “Also, why is he striped like a zebra?”

“His name is Bottler, and he has stripes because his mom was a zebra.” She replied. “Well go on digger boy, go check that armoury.” I was about to ask what ‘digger boy’ meant, but she trotted off before I could.

I found a way bellow deck, and was delighted to find that the hallways had a nice system of colour coded arrows directing ponies around the ship. I found the one for the forward armoury, burgundy, and trotted along in the directions it lead me. A few hallways and a stairwell later, and I was out side a room titled ‘forward armoury’.

I walked in, since when has MCIS ever knocked, and made my way to master-at-arms. “Hey, I’m with MCIS, I’m here to check the armoury, and storage records to see if anything other than the heavy ordinance has gone missing.” I said, hoping it sounded passably official. I showed my identification and badge to provide substance to my claim.

The master-at-arms looked at my badge, gulped then nodded, “Sure, sir.”

I grinned inwardly, so his is how Signal Fire felt with that fake ID of his.

He went over to his desk to retrieve the manifest of weapons here, and I took a quick look around. One of the first things I checked out was the helmets that they were using. The helmets were distinctly different from standard Equestrian/Zebra design, and seemed to have been made with intimidation in mind.  The next things I checked were their energy weapons. Yes they had some. Although I doubted that they were Enclave weapons, due to the layers of dust and cobwebs plaguing them.

I trotted over to the desk and received the manifest from the master-at-arms, and cross-referenced a few things. I went over the list, checking the various gun cabinets as I went. Everything seemed to be fairly normal, the only major event that happened in the last year was the swap to the new helmet four months back.

After a good hour looking over the place, I headed to the second armoury. Once again I ended up following a coloured line, lime green. The path to the rear armoury was pretty much straight. Once there I found a room that was almost identical to the one I had just left. The master-at-arms at this one was actively inspecting the weapons this time. I cleared my throat to gain their attention.

“Oh, G’day!” the mare greeted me. “My counter part radioed me an notified me that you would probably drop by. The manifest is there on the desk.” That was bad news, the mare may have had time to hide something. I smiled, took the manifest and gave this armoury and extra long in-depth inspection.

I noticed a lever-action rifle hung up on the wall like a trophy, and figuring that it’d be the mostly spot for a lever to activate a trap door. I reached out with my telekinesis to give it a test, and the world fell away…

oooOOOooo

I was in a somewhat familiar body, unicorn male, then again I have only ever been a unicorn male. I observed my surroundings; I was in a ship cabin of some kind, with that rifle, a faint churning noise, and some lavender unicorn mare. “Thanks Twilly, I’m sure it’s a great invention.” That voice… Shining Armour. I knew this body was familiar.

“Well, Applejack designed the mechanisms, who knew she knew about mechanics, and I came up with the chemical composition of the powder, I theory it will produce considerably less smoke.” The mare elaborated, Applejack… That name sounded familiar, I’m pretty sure I heard it in one of Contingency’s history rants I half sleep through.

“So, Twilight, how is the royalty doing without me around?” Shining armour asked.

The mare giggled a little, “Brother, they are the princesses, they can handle themselves. Luna has personally taken charge of palace security.” So, Twilight and Shining were brothers. Good to know my family wasn’t the only one using naming conventions.

My host lead his sister out of the cabin, and out on to some sort of deck. The ship we were on looked like a crossbreed of an old second rate, an early iron clad, and a paddle steamer. My host turned to face her, I know Celestia will want a report, so you can tell her that our fleet has unrivalled control over the waters leading up to Thermodon thanks to these ships the Japonies made us. That and the destruction of the Zebra flagship, now that gave a massive morale blow to the Zebras.” He said, and made a sweeping gesture showing a good 15 other such ships. He then dropped the rifle when his sister hugged him unexpectedly.

oooOOOooo

I returned to my inspection, rather unamused by the memory.

My inspection must have gone on quite a while, because midway through checking underneath a cabinet, I had to stop when a Cadet class marched in and began returning their battle rifles to their gun lockers.

I got to my hooves, and turned my attention to the class leader, Captain Bottler. I felt the need to show Contingency that memory… rifle, and I was still interested in seeing that ‘one rifle’, to get an accurate judgment of the ship’s armament of course. So I approached him. “Ahem, Captain Bottler, I have a few questions for you.” I said as formally as I could.

The older stallion looked at me, clearly seeing me as a spook, then nervously replied, “Uh huh, sure, if it’s ok with you mate, can we have this chat in the hall, I need to drop by my cabin to pick something up.” I nodded to him, and on our way out I noted worried whispers among the cadets.

“So the first question I will ask will be about your daughter.” I said once we were out in the hall.

“Holy dooley! Did flux try to fornicate with one of you’re ponies.”

I was a little taken aback, but quickly clarified, “Uh, no. I would like to know about Contingency, particularly how trustworthy you feel she is.” I trusted Contingency, I just wanted to be sure that trust wasn’t misplaced. She was a deserter after all. To get a better read on him I activated my emotion-sensing spell.

“Oh, well, I’ve always considered her trustworthy, she tends to get rather flustered when she lies, so she typically doesn’t.” He replied. “Mind if I ask why you’re wondering about my daughter?”

“I’m asking the questions.” I replied. “Next question, you train future marines, so tell me what anti-Enclave tactics you have added to your curriculum?”

He seemed surprised by this question “Well Alpacadonia feels that the Enclave is a non-issue, I mean they are a single regiment, and they’re ponies so they can probably be negotiated with.” I sensed that something was off, before I could consider the implications, he asked a question I had to answer, “What does that have to do with the stolen ordinance?”

I had to answer this one, else I’d blow the entire mission. “Thermodon wants to be sure that all segments will be ready for deployment in the event of an escalation in the conflict. From what you’ve told me, Alpacadonia will receive a sub-par review, and a recommendation to be held in reserve for the initial few months of combat for retraining.”

“They’re really that bad?” He asked.

“Oh, they’re worse.” The mind control… Virus? Bacteria? Fungi? Protist? Whatever it was, wasn’t public yet. “Next question, have you noticed any of the Cadets acting strange? Cadets are prime pirate plants, could any of them have potentially been involved in the ordinance theft?”

He seemed to think for a moment, then replied a flat, honest, “No.” By this point we were making our way around the crew rooms. From a room on our left, came an erratic thumping noise. Bottler gave an exaspirated groan, then approached and knocked on the door. “Flux, you don’t have the hat on the door knob, therefore you aren’t doing anything private. So you and your friend cover up and-” The rest of his loud exasperated train of thought was cut of by a loud gunshot.

“What the fuck?!” I questioned in alarm, the next thing I knew Bottler had stolen my side arm and was stacked against the door.

“We breach on 3!” He shouted and I readied my PDW, and stacked up beside him. He counted, and on 3 the door was kicked of its hinges, I guess with the entire funding going towards keeping the planes airworthy the hinges had been allowed to rust.

Inside we got a look at the cause of this issue, Contingency and another mare, locked in some sort of CQC were at the center of the room, both exerting their telekinesis on a revolver, Contingency trying to keep the barrel out of her face and the other mare trying to aim it at her. Bottler and I quickly rushed forth and separated the two before this could go any farther.

After pulled the mares apart, pinning them against opposing walls and knocking the gun out of their telekinesis, Bottler had some choice words. “What the fuck?! Are you trying to kill each other?!”

“Yes.” The other mare replied.

“Uh… she started it.” Contingency said.

I took a look around the small space that was their cabin, there was blood, dents in the metal walls, and a bullet hole in the upper back corner of a wall. “Why?!” Bottler screamed.

“When you’re a marine you have duties, and oaths, Contingency abandoned those. She abandoned the Boomer, she abandoned her friends, and she abandoned us, her family. So yeah I decided that I want to kill her.” Flux replied.

“Uh dad… you just broke the door.” Contingency said, apparently just now taking in her surroundings.

“Flux that’s wrong.” Bottler said, ignoring Contingency.

“Strong feelings call for strong actions. Besides, by Agreement Law, Contingency should be executed.” Flux responded.

Bottler didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, “Well that’s-”

So I helped him out. “That’s where I come in.” I said and pulled out my MCIS badge.

Then again mentioning the Contingency was working with MCIS probably was about the worst thing I could do, and Bottler had to physically restrain her as she tried lunging across the small room. “Contingency! You fucking cunty, bitchy, sellout!”

Flux continued yelling, but by this point Contingency was screaming back, “Slutty, faggy, fucking cum dumpster!” I had to restrain her as she made an aggressive step away from her wall.

They continued screaming at each other and Bottler made a head gesture urging me to get Contingency out of there. I dragged her, kicking and screaming, out of the room, and down the hall for quite a while before she simply collapsed against a wall.

“Uh… Are you alright?” She had a black eye, a limp, a cut on her forehead, a fat lip, and numerous bruises, not the mention the probable emotional trauma. So I’m not sure why I even bothered with that question.

“My sister, who I grew up with, and always loved, whose affection I probably missed the most, just tried to kill me, and has openly admitted to outright hating me.” Yeah I shouldn’t have asked. “No, I’m not ok. I’m not sure why I’d be ok. I don’t think I have much reason to be ok.” I really shouldn’t have asked that. “You’re a real piece of whacker, you know that. You guilt me into coming along, and then just expect everything to be OK. I am not OK, I don’t think I will be OK for a while.” She was crying now. “If you need me I’ll be in the facilities. You’d better not need me.” She sobbed/seethed. Then got up, and limped off on her own.

Well, that stung. I found a sign, and followed the designated line, blue, to the magazine. I honestly didn’t think much of the walk there, after seeing Contingency like that, I preferred not to think. So I followed the blue line, and occasionally moved aside to let others by. A few turns and a flight of stairs latter, I was at the magazine.

The magazine, or as the sign called in, the ‘Grande Magazine’ as I gazed around the massive ordinance storage facility, I was shocked at the shear size and scale of it, it was not just the largest weapons depot I had ever seen, but the largest enclosed space I had ever seen. And the entire thing was racks of missiles, torpedoes, and more conventional bombs, as well as numerous crates of 20mm and 30mm high velocity armour piercing incendiary (HVAPI) rounds, and a few oddities.

I walked around until I found the supposed site of the ordinance theft. As I approached the location, which had been sectioned of with yellow tape, I showed my badge to the pair of marines guarding it. I surveyed the scene, took some photos with the camera I had been equipped with, carefully moved some things, took some ‘evidence’, mumbled calculations vaguely under my breath, then left.

I then made my way to the flight gear storage area, the last ‘armoury’. I found a sign, and then followed the designated line, red, to my destination. My destination was another large storage area (abet not as large as the last). I noticed that there were four guards around the storage room. I approached the master-at-arms and acquired a manifest. I trotted around and checked to see if anything was out of order. I noticed a lot of pressurized flight suits, used for pilots and high altitude combatants, what appeared to be those battles saddles Brawny mentioned once, some miniguns, and air-to-air missile launchers. Since this was an aircraft carrier, this room probably formed the backbone of much of the ships operational capacity. Nothing seemed out of order until I came across a locked door. “Hey, would you mind unlocking this room for inspection?” I asked the master-at-arms.

“Uhh… Buckley’s chance of that happening.” He responded. So I instead simply used my PDW’s 900 RPM and fifty round mag of 5.72x28mm AP ammo as a saw to separate the door from the bolt. I turned my back to the door, and shifted my aim between the marines who had taken positions around me. “Do you really want to do this?” I questioned, and noticed their guns trembling. “What, you’re ready to guard but not ready to protect?” I pressed. Clearly, regardless of the room’s contents, these marines didn’t like the idea of killing another soldier of the Compact Agreement. I silence the marines lowered their rifles, and carefully backed back to their positions.

I entered the room, and didn’t like what I saw. In the dim room, the light occasionally released by a spark from an old magical energy generator, revealed the angular metal of the single most damning piece of evidence in history. There before my eyes was the Enclave’s signature black power armour. I grabbed the helmet of one and brought it into the light, I noticed a crest on it, not a naval crest or even the skyguard crest, it instead bore the distinct likeness of the symbols I had seen adorning Enclave Power Armour, and their cloud ships.

“Took you long enough mate.” A deep voice cooed from somewhere in the room.

I immediately went for my gun and returned my attention to the room. “I’m sorry, who are you?” I asked, and heard the slight movement of hooves from the other side of the armour rack.

“A friend, that’s all you need to know.” The figure who I could occasionally catch a glimpse of through small spaces between the armored suits.

“Now why should I trust you?” I said, and quickly ran a calculation on whether or not the AP rounds of my SMG would be able to penetrate through the armour, the rack, the armour on the other side, and what ever this other guy was wearing.

I heard more movement, “I haven’t shot you yet.” The voice cooed, come around the rack and see what I could have dropped into your chest.”

I care fully made my way down to the end of the row, and turned to look down the next. There roughly across from where I had previously been, lay a rifle, a literal monster rifle.

When I got a closer look, I discovered to my extreme displeasure, that the weapon which had been aimed at me was some sort of anti-armour rifle chambered in 20mm, semi-auto, with a bullpup configuration. I mentally made a note that this must be ‘that rifle’. I gulped and turned to face the next row of racks. “Ok, fair enough. What do you want? Friend?”

“You’re not going to like what comes next. Just quickly take that helmet you took to you team and be ready, not even I know exactly what happens next.” He replied, and then with the sound of hoof steps he was gone.

I turned my attention to the helmet, and then turned on my radio. “Uh guys, we need to meet.” I spoke into it.

“Where?” Brawny’s raspy voice questioned over the radio.

“There are cameras everywhere.” Signal Fire responded.

“Genderless washroom, living quarters. There are no cameras in the washrooms” Contingency’s voice replied over the radio.

“Wait, you didn’t get a radio!” Brawny snapped at her.

“Oh sorry, you want to talk to Swordfish, here she is-” Contingency replied, and the sound of heavy breathing and vomiting came through the channel.

“Ok, we’ll meet you there.” I said and made my way out.

As I made my way to the meeting spot I noted that the atmosphere was considerably different. Where previously the ponies had been lazing around, they were now in full kit, giving paranoid looks at each other. None of them stopped me, yet I was getting a feeling that if a feather dropped the entire place would explode. The air was charged with such suspicion that I began to slow my pace. I noticed a few ponies setting up a metal barricade and sand bag guard post, complete with a mounted HMG, and I passed by as quickly as possible.

As I made my way down the last hallway to the meeting place, I noticed a pony armed with a collapsible anti-tank rocket launcher, and ran.

I reached the washroom, and inside my companions greeted me. Brawny, Xager, and Signal Fire seemed ok but anxious to hear my news, Swordfish was standing but still looking a little green around the gills, and Contingency although she appeared mostly fine (probably the result of an extra strength healing potion), she held her injured leg, and her eyes where bloodshot (likely from crying).

“Ok, now what is it?” Brawny asked impatiently.

I simply set the helmet out before and stated where I got it. “Aerial Combat Gear storage, there where entire racks of them.” The room was silent for a while, until Swordfish made a dash for a stall and returned to emptying herself into the toilet, and Contingency who seemed to start hyperventilating. “So, any ideas?” I inquired.

“We should run.” Xager suggested.

“Sink it.” Brawny said.

“Take hostages, all is fare in a war fought in the name of Rio.” Signal Fire stated, earning him a slap to the back of the head from Brawny.

“Why?” was all Contingency managed as she continued to look at the helmet in horror.

“I have no clue.” I said. We knew this was a possible discover, it was our mission to discover this after all. However we hadn’t come up with an actual plan for ‘if compromised and the ship has defected’. Then I had an idea, “Well we might as well just march onto the bridge, radio for help, and hold it as long as possible.” I said. I noted their skeptical expressions and added, “Well does anyone have a better idea?”

“I like it.” Swordfish stated as she walked out of the stall.

“You’re a drunk, a suicidal drunk.” Brawny replied.

“Fuck you I’m tough enough! You’re just scared! I would have thought someone as old as you would want to die by now.” Swordfish retorted.

Brawny paused before answering, “I still have stuff to do in this life, but you know what fine, seeing you die would make my day.”

“Ok… Let’s just get this over with.” Contingency moped then began limping into the hall. We followed her.

We hadn’t made it far down the hall when the unexpected happened. “Hey Contingency!” Flux, in full kit, called after us. “Dad’s doing something stupid, come on we gotta talk him out of it.”

“So you aren’t trying to kill me?” Contingency asked skeptically.

“If I was to try again, do you think I would do so, with your MCIS friends around?”

“Ok, fine where is he?” Contingency asked.

“The flight deck laying siege to the bridge.” Flux replied.

“Copy-cat…” I muttered under my breath.

“Well then, it would seem that we are going there anyways.” Brawny replied, and we continued on.

As we continued on I decided to ask Contingency a question, “Why do you guys have a 20mm rifle?”

Both her and her sister replied, “because ’Donia Cunt!” then returned to giving each other suspicious glances. I don’t get Alpacadonians…

On our way back we passed by the sandbag barricade again, the HMG had been stolen, and there were two dead ponies on the floor, stabbed from the looks of it. Our Kevlar could stop a bullet with ease, and out ceramic plates were highly effective against energy weapons, however a well angles knife could jab through our armour with ease.

As we continued we came across a few more bodies, the mutiny had already started, or was already being crushed.

Upon reaching the flight deck we entered what appeared to be a stand off. Bottler, his cadet class, and a sizeable contingent of marines and other officers had taken up positions around the bridge, and had barricaded the runway.

“Dad! What are you doing?” Contingency asked as she ran up to her father.

“I’m stopping this, I did my research, I know exactly what’s going on.” He answered, not taking his eyes off the towering bridge. “Oh, and incase this is the last time we see each other, have this.” He said and passed her a book in a plastic bag.

There was a commotion, and a pony emerged on to the bridge balcony. His uniform denoted him as… a grand admiral… “Bottler, what is the meaning of this?” He demanded.

“Aero, you know as well as I what this is about!” Bottler yelled up. “You have been compromised, and I hereby relieve you of duty!” Wait, did Bottler somehow find out about the mind control?

“Oh really? Well then… let the hammer fall.” In an instant latter, and the ship’s point defence weapons were trained and firing, the windows of the bridge were broken and assault rifles poured bullets out at us, finally a crack of thunder from an overhead storm cloud turned out to be some sort of plasma artillery shot as a raptor descended from the clouds.

I made a dash to cover, and fired my PDW up at the bridge. The constant stream of 30mm rounds from the point defence weapons only stopped when Brawny managed to toss a grenade through a smashed window.

With that down I returned to firing at what ever fired at me. From to looks of things Aero had gotten some marines loyal to him up on deck for clean up.

I quickly glanced around, most of Bottler’s supporters had been killed, things were pretty bad.

Mid way through reloading my gun, I heard a prominent crack from nearby. I didn’t think much off it until I noticed that all the shooting had stopped. I turned to face where the noise had come from. There, Flux stood over her father’s body, smoke still escaping the barrel of the revolver held in her telekinesis, her father’s brains spattered over her. Contingency dashed over and hugged her dad, tears pouring down her face. My ears were ringing too much for me to hear what they said to each other, but their mouths moved, then they began slugging it out for the second time that day.

Signal Fire, who was in cover next to me spoke extra loud for me to hear, “This would be pretty hot if it wasn’t so fucked up.” I gave him a disappointed look, then he gave a slight gin raised his forelimbs and screamed “RIO WILLS IT!” and then that baby Rad Lion plopped on the deck before us.

Followed shortly by that giant Rad Lion. "BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" it bellowed as it attacked the bridge, causing the fighting to resume.

The battle continued for… I don’t know how long, but somewhere in there, the bridge got pushed into the sea, the Cadets managed a successful bayonet charge on an MG position, one of our guys got a PONPAD (PONy Portable Air Deffence) working, and fired a few rockets at the Raptor and it’s support craft, and The Salvation successfully sank a frigate that moved into assist the Boomer.

I turned to Contingency to see how her ongoing fight was going, just in time to see flux drive a knife down into her, and not penetrate. Contingency smirked and delivered a roundhouse buck to Flux’s chest. As they squared off once more a plasma shot from the raptor crashed into the center of our defensive formation. The next shot removed the Rad Lion’s head. The bombardment increases in intensity and scale, and we were forced to fall back, I scooped up the baby Rad Lion, as it franticly prodded it’s father’s corpse with it’s nose, and made sad noises. “Looks like you’re like me now.” I said  as I ran with it to keep up with my team.

All across the ship ponies on both sides were driven from the deck by the massive onslaught. As we ran for a way to escape the bombardment, Inconvenience and Sea Weed waved us over to where they were crouched. We ran over, and Inconvenience fired a grenade to the under barrel grenade launcher on her assault rifle into a panel on the ground, and with a tremendous grinding noise, the entire section of deck we were on the fell. Judging on how we ended up in the hanger, I guess that we had been standing on the aircraft elevator.

The room we were in now was massive, multiple openings, and a battle going on here to. I was out of ammo.

“Ok, what is going on?” Swordfish panted.

Sea Weed was the first to reply,  “Well… We… like… what’s that word… you know like-”

“Your dad held a meeting with those he thought he could trust, and we organized the coup, well obviously that failed. So now we’re doing this our way, going to go get your boat, and get out of here.” She answered and motioned for us to follow. The two of them led us through many winding corridors, having to stop often as fighting blocked our path, and having to fight through Aero’s ponies on occasion.

By the time we reached the boat, in some sort of smaller vessel storage facility, the ship was creaking. Signal Fire and Sea Weed went to wok getting it ready to go.

“So what’s the plan? We can’t leave the ship in enemy possession.” Brawny inquired.

“Well you know that stolen ordinance…” Inconvenience said, and tossed Brawny a detonator. “We found it a couple days back, but we didn’t trust the Enclave so we kept it.” She said.

“You knew about the Enclave ahead of time?” Brawny asked.

“Yeah, they stopped for a refuel here six months ago, when we got word about Windway there was a referendum held on declaring independence, apparently Thermodon’s aristocracy has annoyed enough ponies to make succession popular.” Inconvenience replied.

“Ok, done, let’s go!” Signal Fire shouted from the wheel.

We jumped aboard and motored out of there. “Ok, let’s just wait to se if any pony else on our side makes it out.” Inconvenience insisted. So Brawny went ahead and hit the detonator. “You ass-”

The explosion that followed threw me to the floor. I glanced back to see the ship, flames pouring out of every part of it, buckle and break apart.

As we made our way around the sinking hulk to where Salvation was, it seemed that we were trudging through hades. Flaming wreckage fell from the black smokes sky, the occasional oil slick allowed the water itself to burn, the occasional explosion from the wreck, and the screams of the survivors carried on the wind. Overhead the Raptor broke off and few away.

By this point Contingency had reverted to little more than a twitching mass, babbling, and crying on the floor, the emotional stress must have finally broken her.

Thunder cracked, for real this time, and a steady downpour began.

When we reached the Salvation, Mooncalf used the crane to get us up and dropped us on deck. I gave the whimpering Rad Lion to Signal Fire, and then helped Contingency get to our usual sleeping spot in the galley, and lay her down to rest up.

I took her machete and gun away incase she got any of those thoughts, as I did so she managed one coherent sentence, “I loved her, why would she do it?”. I then returned out side to where Shanty was meeting with the rest of us.

“Well good news, bad news, and really bad news, what first?” Shanty asked us.

“Bad news.” Brawny replied flatly.

“Well first off the Xer and Albatross segments have joined Alpacadonia in defecting. Worse, is that some flaming wreckage made its way down our smoke stack, I was able to cut the fuel supply before we exploded, but we are now with out power. Finally, in the good news, Abundance, Nova Oxum, and Galvinhoof are mounting a mission to get us out of here.” The news was grim to say the least.

“Galvinhoof would be helpful if it wasn’t so far away, and really what are Nova Oxum and  Abundance going to do, play floor hockey with them? Be poor at them?” Brawny replied. It was true, Abundance and Nova Oxum were rather outclassed against the power of Alpacadonia, Xer, and Albatross, although if they could get here in a timely manner, Galvinhoof would be terrific.

“Yeah that’s exactly what I’m saying.” Shanty replied. “Now get inside, the fumes smell pretty foul.”

That’s that. There we were, adrift in the sea, waiting for rescue.