Code 5: Maximum Has Fallen

Chapter 2: Fort Helix

Dusk had gone to night during the helicopter ride. The only light shining within the large aircraft was the stars and the glow of the control panels where Buckshot and Sweetie Belle were piloting. Though the machine had three loud powerful engines, from the inside it was only a faint low hum. The four ponies sitting in the passenger seats behind the pilots were sound asleep, the vibration given off by the helicopter keeping them comfortable. Sweetie Belle looked down at the green glow of the radar map.

“We’ll be at the fort in a little bit,” the white unicorn confirmed. She turned to Buckshot, the navy colored pegasus beginning to fall asleep. He dozed off and accidentally leaned forward, his hooves pressing against the joystick. The helicopter gave a slight tilt. Sweetie Belle shook him, getting him to suddenly wake up. She then nodded down at a control panel between the seats. He understood and flipped two of the switches on the panel. A small red light came on the right side next to the switches, confirming that Sweetie Belle now had full control of the helicopter. Buckshot then leaned his head back against the seat and fell asleep. Sweetie looked ahead out the windshield. Far off in the distance she could see the bright lights of the installation.

About a half hour later, Sweetie Belle flew the helicopter above the airfield and crossed over doing a standard fly-by above the buildings near the airfield to get a clear landing, hopefully not disturbing anypony sleeping. She reached over and gently shook Buckshot, who awoke after a couple shakes. He reached down and flipped the switches again, giving him control of the chopper. Sweetie Belle could pilot just fine, but landing and taking off she still needed practice on. Buckshot flipped on the headset.

“Stallion one to base, permission to touch down,” he said into the mic.

“Base to Stallion one, you have full authorization to land, touch down in your designated zone,” a reply came through the headset. Sweetie Belle unstrapped herself from her seat and made her way back to the other four. She woke them up as Buckshot guided the aircraft towards the landing. The helicopter gave a small bounce as the tires touched the surface of the marked area. He reached up and flipped the two switches, the Super Stallion’s rotors slowing to a complete stop and the engines going quiet.

“We’re here guys,” Sweetie Belle said to her two friends. She opened a door on the right side of the aircraft and led them outside. Applebloom and Scootaloo stepped out of the helicopter onto the helipad to get a glimpse of the fort. It was clearly very large and lights from buildings and street lamps were on, seemingly enlarging the area at night.

“I welcome you to…” the white unicorn paused, “Fort Helix.” She led her two friends off the helipad and onto the hard concrete of the airfield.

“Lockheed will show you where you’ll be living, I need to get to bed,” Sweetie Belle said before heading off towards the numerous brick buildings. The tan pagasus then came off the helipad as well and up to the two fillies.

“Just follow me,” he said before beginning to walk towards the buildings as well. The two fillies began following the Air Guard pony, looking around at the many large structures.

“What is this place?” asked Scootaloo.

“It’s Fort Helix,” replied Lockheed, “A very well known Navy Medical Command installation.”

“Ah’ve never heard of this place,” remarked Applebloom.

“Not many ponies who don’t live in Mareland really know about it,” said Lockheed, “But it has done some pretty impressive things.” They were now walking along a sidewalk next to the street, the airfield now to their right on the other side of a wired fence.

“Like what?” Scootaloo asked, curious about the large installation.

“It was the center of the pegasi- weather weapons program, before it was discontinued. Also, since EIH facilities are here, this is where a cure for the infection is being researched,” explained Lockheed. He paused and looked up at a UH-60 Blackstallion helicopter passing overhead. “Which means the installation needs lots of protection,” he said, pointing a hoof up at the chopper.

“Ah’d say Helix is more protected than Canterlot was,” exclaimed Applebloom.

“Pfft, it is,” scoffed Lockheed, the tan pegasus waving his front hoof downwards, “Force-fields? We saw how well that worked on the Changelings and we saw it didn’t work again on zombies.”

“You make a valid point,” agreed Scootaloo. Magic did always have flaws, the military, not as much.

“Anyways, Silver Spoon has probably already let the ones in charge of ponyyel files know you’re here, so you may actually start working as soon as tomorrow even,” Lockheed explained. The tan pegasus continued walking down the sidewalk, beckoning the fillies to follow. They were far passed the airfield now and walking past a parking lot towards four brick structures arranged in a square.

“So, for where you’ll be sleeping,” he continued, “Fort Helix has plenty of housing.” They walked up to the buildings and Lockheed began ascending a light green metal staircase on one of them. Applebloom and Scootaloo followed him up the staircase to the second landing. He stopped in front of one of the doors and turned to face them.

“This is your place right here,” he said, gesturing to the door, “If you have any questions, I’m working at Aerial Command on the airfield tomorrow, in the tower. And Buckshot is also going to be on the airfield working on the modifications to his helicopter. Sweetie Belle, however, is taking a PT test with a Naval Guard unit tomorrow, but basically, most of us will just be doing whatever,” Lockheed finished.

“Okay then, thanks,” said Scootaloo, “Night.”

“See you in the morning, or whenever you get up, doesn’t matter,” said Lockheed before making his way back down the staircase.

**************

The next morning, the two woke up to the sound of a knocking at the door. They both exited their individual bedrooms into the living room of their place. Applebloom opened the door to see the familiar silver furred filly known as Silver Spoon standing in the doorway.

“Morning,” she said, “I’ve got a couple things for you.” She opened her saddlebags and pulled out a few official looking papers.

“What’re those?” Applebloom asked, looking at the forms.

“It’s just some job information for you to fill out,” she replied, giving the forms to the two, “Fort Helix heard about what happened at Canterlot and they looked into everything about, what was it called? Maximum, that’s it,” she explained.

“So what does this have to do with it?” Scootaloo asked.

“Oh right, they saw that everypony there had close to the same jobs, which the ponies who researched Maximum say may have been a reason it fell so easily. So when new ponies are recruited into Fort Helix, they fill out these forms and they’re given a job that best matches the way it was filled out,” Silver Spoon said, “It makes sure everypony can do their jobs well and keep the installation running smoothly.”

“Makes sense,” said Applebloom, looking over the form.

“So whenever you’re done with those, just find me or drop them off at the front desk of the building,” said Silver Spoon,

“And then you can just take a look around the fort until you’re assigned your jobs.”

**************

The two fillies were now walking down the sidewalk of one of the many streets within Fort Helix. They had passed many buildings, a couple that looked fairly old but some were amazing, like the EIH facilities with their nearly entire glass exterior. They had long since dropped their job forms in an inbox at a desk in the main room of one of the buildings where they were living. Now all they had to do was wait for some directions to what their jobs would be.

“What kind of work do you think we’ll have to do?” Scootaloo asked. They were walking next to the airfield now, the sound of helicopters and a few planes meeting their ears.

“Ah don’t know, but Ah hope it’s different from what ZPTF was like,” Applebloom replied. In all honesty, working as an agent for the Fillies and Colts Division was pretty boring. All she did was sit at a computer all day long and occasionally had late night watches. With the number of agents there were, it was a bit rare to be sent out on a supply hunt. The two looked towards the airfield to the sound of engines louder than the ones they had been hearing. They watched as huge light grey airplane with four propellers and high-powered weaponry on the sides land on the runway. The airplane’s tires screeched as the large AC-130 quickly lost speed until it turned and began taxiing along the airfield towards a space marked with diagonal red lines.

“Wouldn’t you want to fly one of those?” a new voice suddenly startled the two fillies. They jumped to the side before looking to see who it was. It was none other than Silver Spoon.

“Oh sorry, didn’t mean to do that,” she said, “Anyway, I’ve got your jobs for ya’.” She yanked open her saddlebags and pulled out two papers. She looked them over until she found the part she was looking for. “Oh wow, luckies, you’ve got the best jobs.” She handed them the papers.

“Assault Force,” Scootaloo read aloud, “Awesome!”

“Ah know I filled out that form mostly with fighting abilities, but Ah didn’t know I’d get a job like this,” exclaimed Applebloom with amazement.

“I’m glad you’re happy with em’,” said Silver Spoon. She began walking away again but was stopped by Applebloom.

“Wait, Ah’ve got just one question,” she said. Over the last two days, she hadn’t received one insult about her still bare flank from the silver filly. “Ah have to ask, how come yer’, well, being nice to us?”

“Huh? Haven’t I always been?” Silver Spoon asked; only to get two confused looks. “I know, I’m just kidding. I know I was being a jerk in the past and, I’m sorry about that,” she said, “Oh and for your reassurance, Diamond Tiara isn’t here, she’s at an Air Force base in Las Pegasus.” Silver Spoon gave the two a wink before walking of once again.

“Wow, and it only took an apocalypse to change her,” said Scootaloo with a comedic tone. She looked back down at the paper again. “So what exactly do we do now?”

“Ah don’t know,” replied Applebloom. She turned towards the airfield again to here rock music beginning to play, the source coming from the same large helicopter still on the helipad. “Maybe he can tell us.”

The two fillies walked up closer to the Super Stallion helicopter, the rock music, which was now recognizable as Falling Down by Atreyu, being louder as they came closer. The back ramp of the aircraft was open, tools and parts strewn about the inside, on the ramp, and around the helicopter. An NWU uniform top and eight-point hat were hung on one of the blue lights at a corner of the octagonal helipad.  The two fillies climbed the steps onto the helipad just as the familiar navy blue pegasus colt walked out the back. Noticing the two, he pressed a button on the speakers sitting on the ground, causing the music to cease.

“Hey Buckshot,” said Scootaloo.

“Hello,” he replied, “Oh, hey, you got your jobs,” he said, noticing the light blue paper. “What’d ya’ get?”

“Assault Force,” said Scootaloo. The blue colt beamed at this.

“Awesome, best job in my opinion,” he said.

“We don’t really know how everythin’ runs here, we was hopin’ you may be able to explain it to us,” said Applebloom.

“Sure, there’s actually a job description list somewhere but it’s really long and confusing so I’ll just give you the important stuff,” he replied, beginning to walk back inside the helicopter, “Walk and talk, well for me, work and talk.” The two fillies followed him inside the chopper, which the floor was covered in whatever the pegasus was working with.

“So really, and it’s pretty explained by the title, your job it defense and assault,” he began, sitting down and beginning to search through a pile of parts, “Unlike ZPTF, where you were on a schedule full-time, here, the whole time piece of it all is more free.” He pushed a couple things off the pile and grabbed a red electrical cable in his hoof.

“For the Assault Force, since there isn’t much undead activity happening near Fort Helix, anypony on it is on an ‘on call’ mode twenty four-seven,” he explained, walking over to an open panel on the left wall of the aircraft, “So you can be called in for a job at any time during the day or night.” He plugged the cord into someplace within the other wires of the panel, only resulting in flying sparks.

“Well that didn’t work. Anyway, though being on call can seem pretty annoying, like I said, nothing much goes on around at Fort Helix, so for some jobs….” He began messing with some of the wiring again, “If you’re not busy with any tasks being assigned to you, which you usually won’t be, you’re basically just being on the installation and what you do is your choice,” he finished, “Such as modifying a helicopter.” He said as he gestured around to the aircraft.

“Okay then, easy enough,” said Scootaloo.

“If you’ve got good fighting skills, then it is,” Buckshot remarked. He looked back at the two from where he was sitting on the floor of the helicopter. He then took notice of one thing missing on both of the fillies.

“Do you two have weapons?” he asked. Applebloom and Scootaloo both shook their heads in response.

“Huaaah,” he gasped, “That’s a crime!” he said in a silly fake tone of astonishment. He got up and walked over to a small fold-up table by the right wall of the helicopter. He opened a large binder, one with pockets on the side big enough that they were holding notebooks. He looked back towards the two fillies.

“Allow me to arm you,” he said, “Let me guess here, Applebloom, based on your country heritage, I can guess that you’re a good hunter?” he asked.

“Absolutely!” the farm filly replied, boasting her amazing ability with hunting, “Especially with rifles.”

“Ah, classic way, I’ll get you a….” he rubbed a hoof under his chin for a moment, “Hmm, M14 Sniper Rifle,” he said, scribbling a note down in the binder. “And Scootaloo, I remember your passion for that shotgun.”

“Yeah, it was a nice one,” she said, remembering her prized possession of weaponry. That over-and-under shotgun had actually been with her far before Code 5. Unknown to many of her peers, unfortunately including Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon (if they had known, those two would have definitely left her and her friends alone) outside of Cutie Mark Crusaders and school, she was usually at the shooting range, doing skeet shooting. (And she was a pro at it as well.) She lost the gun in the train wreck.

“Okay then, I’ll give it back to you,” Buckshot said, surprising the orange pegasus filly. He scribbled another note down in the binder, and then closed it. “Okay then, you’re all set.”

“Thank you Bucky,” they both said, turning to leave.

“Any time, and trust me, this is gonna be fun.”