Knights in Kevlar Armor

Chapters

What's A Little Rain?
C'est La Vie
Sir, We're Surrounded...

What's A Little Rain?

What makes you feel better? Knowing you're going to die on a certain time and date, or knowing it might happen at any moment when you least expect it?

August 17, 2020 20:17~Somewhere over the Mediterranean; heading from France to an outpost in Yemen.

Miles Pasc, Dustin Tyme, John Clark, and Bryan Turren were being moved to Yemen for purely safety purposes. They were that extra pad you wore in case your stupid stunt, and you, went south. They weren't currently in any war, but that didn't mean everyone was nice to each other. After the last wars ended the planet has been in a constant state of unease and had their hand on their hip. But that's also not to say that they didn't make any massive breakthroughs with previously undecided or even past opposition. They hadn't, but that wasn't clarified earlier, now it is. Moving on, they were all good friends who had, mostly, known each other mainly from the beginning of each of their enlistments.

But Bryan and Dustin were both blood brothers from different fathers, and John and Miles were the outsiders from their little clique. It didn't really interfere but its presence was resonated throughout their decisions. Them being outside Bryan and Dustins' special bond resulted in them forming their own connection of a sort. They were occasionally left behind during their brief times of R&R and spent it with each other as the T's did, of course referring to their last names, while they didn't share the same one they did share the same letter' leading them to take that one similarity in full stride. Again, these were subtle actions that none of them took any real note of, but it formed the basis of their friendship. They would all die for each other without a second thought, but, that didn't mean that they didn't choose sides in a biased way. Little, insignificant, things like that had a way of engraving their ways into your mind, altering your thoughts in subliminal ways.

But I digress, about the men in question. Well, Bryan was a funny and easy-going guy. He was 5'10 with soft oak brown hair with piercing golden-brown eyes and the tattoo of a 'K' on the back of his neck, a little off to the left and downwards from the center. John though was a man whose past was riddled with disruption and shrouded in government covers. With a 5'11 stature, brown hair, and steel grey eyes. He was a serious yet comedic man at the same time. The conflicting traits often making it hard for the others to tell if he was meaning what he said or if he was just messing with them, much to his chagrin. Dustin acted as the final say if the rest of the squad was at an impasse and as his thoughts had such merit, he was their second in command, electively, oldest, and easily the biggest man in the group with his body towering 6'4. He was exceedingly proud, naturally, of his good fortunes and refused to let his enviable and envied body go to waste resulting in him dominating any sparing match, if any were so stupid as to challenge that is, and easily carry a healthy load of equipment for himself and the others.

"Hey, how much longer until we get to this shitty place?" Dustin asked as he brushed a hand through his dirty blond hair.

"Well were only ten klicks out sooo, about thirty more minutes." Miles answered, his blue eyes looking up back to Dustin from their rooms navigational system, clearly upset that he couldn't have just looked himself.

"Why can't we just be their already?" Bryan complained mockingly.

"Can it Turren, just sit back and wait." Miles' responded with a sardonic tone, picking up on Dustins' habit and running a hand through his tar-colored hair. Shifting in his seat to find a comfortable position, unintentionally causing a few pops in his back.

"Maybe we have been on this thing for a while." He stated more than asked.

"Yes! That's what I've been trying to say!" Bryan somehow managed to make that sound like an order than a real offhand remark.

"Yeah? And what do you have in mind to getting us there faster?" Dustin countered to success. Bryan had nothing. "And I think my victory stands for itself." He finished smugly.

Bryan being impossible had to respond, "Then why'd you-"

"Alright that's enough," Miles interrupted, "both of you just stop. The trip is bad enough without you two at each others' necks."

"Finally, a voice of reason." John finished.

Miles had decided he had in fact, grown tired of the trip as well and left to check on the pilots and their progression. He stood up and left through the halls of their militaries largest airship. Before leaving the room he gave its solicitors a final sweeping look and left without a word. He maneuvered through the ship with practiced ease and had to sidestep a few engineers or wait altogether as it was difficult to wend through them with his 6' frame. He quickly made it to the control room and looked at the screen, allowing him to see the uneasy stormy sky outside and the occasional flash of lightning, windows only being used if their surveillance and directory cameras were somehow disabled, allowing them to fly in all directions with their four massive yet near-silent propellers that alone were engineering brilliance resulting from years of nonstop developments and discoveries. Again, I ramble, but the ship as a whole was a truly awe-inciting apparition, capable of raining variants of death discreetly from over 13 klicks with their projectiles. At first they were launched from an air-cannon and once they were a healthy distance away their propellants would ignite increasing their velocity, maintaining their altitude, and hurtling towards their designated target. Such was the blessing of a fire-and-forget round. Again, rambling.

As Miles approached the pilots' center of operations he could hear chaos abound and feel the unease being generated and see all the statistics and progress first hand as he progressed down the steep stairs of the colosseum like infrastructure of the room, leading to the 'pit' at the bottom where all the major projectors and consoles were located. And it. Was. Shit. He couldn't read a damn thing! He decided to see if it was him, or the console, "Excuse my intrusion but, what is this?" He decided the blunt way was always less painful.

"Well, you see," that's not good, "we aren't exactly sure ourselves." The technician answered, clearly distressed.

I knew it! Always something wrong! "And what, exactly do you mean by you 'aren't exactly sure'? Do you have any idea or are you just saying that?" He put it level-headed enough, but with the kind of anger and disdain only a person in charge seemed capable of, making the technician recoil as if Miles had actually yelled.

"W-well yes we do actually," sweat starting to bead his person as he tugged at his collar, "but it's, it's unheard of!"

"Go on."

"We-well it's just a lightning storm with F2 winds and our compensators have been effectively working against that! But that's all there is! There's nothing out of the ordinary that could be causing the disruptions! Lightning isn't even a possibility either! Our re-routers located all over the hull and exoskeleton absorb the blasts and run them through enough to manageable levels powering our compensators! There shouldn't be such distortions!" He concluded, giving Miles no 'whys' or 'hows', leaving him thoroughly pissed, but you had to be gentle with these eggheads, 'less you break them.

"Ok, what I'm hearing, stop me if I'm wrong, is that you don't know what's wrong? Yes?"

"Um, well not just me b-"

"Yes?" Miles repeated more forcefully.

"W-yes." The technician finished defeated.

"Ok, now, if nothing else is present that could cause this, it must be the machinery."

"Now wait just a minute!" They always got so protective of their robots, "This is an HART-72! The latest in war technology! And just technology in general for that matter! So no, it isn't the machinery!" He finished in an extremely indignant tone.

"I know what it is, I want to know how it is." Miles said in a mock threatening voice, "Because if it isn't any outside force than it has to be something inside." He finished in a lighter tone.

"Allow me to reiterate, we, don't, know. But what we do know is that you can expect some turbulence later on."

'This guy's getting a little full of himself.' "And allow me to quote a jackass, 'our compensators on this latest in technology have been effectively working.' Any of that, ringin' a bell?"

"Yes and no," oh you gotta be kidding me, "while they have been working, the displacements caused by the increasing F2 are causing some...some unexpected blips."

"Blips?" Miles sprayed with ill-hidden displeasure. "How could an F2, minus the lightning, be causing, 'blips'?"

"Well our, uh, our compensators have been , showing signs of failure."

"Going out?" Miles was nearly yelling by this point and drawing the gaze of any others in the room who hadn't already been watching with mild amusement as the techy was getting grilled by the Marine. "What do you mean-"

And at that exact moment a burst of rounds went off and was followed by brief screams before those too were silenced and a man barking orders took their place.

"What was that?" Miles shouted before leaving without waiting for an answer.

Back in their hangers

"Holy shit! What was that? I didn't know we had a shooting range!" Dustin boomed.

"We don't!" John answered, "Gear up men! I think we're in for some action!"

"But who would be stupid enough to attack us!" Bryan said as he stumbled to his feet.

"Some M.E.'s who don't notice an American 72!" John replied with a hint of pride as he put on his gear. As they were getting prepared Miles came through the door with an insane claim, "They're inside and were friendlies, the Stormhunters are subjugating!" The irony was lost on him for the moment as he explained what he had heard and seen on his way there.

"What?" Shouted Dustin. He was answered only by the dutiful clanks of charging handles being successfully drawn and the click of magazines striking home. "Well fine then if we're gonna do this," he began as he too grabbed a gun, an M27 in his case, from the unceremoniously opened weapons rack, "we're going to do this right!" He finished while slamming his personalized 100 round mag in place. He obviously had no care for defectors, once Brothers in Arms or not.

"And what the hell are you going to do with that clunky piece?" Bryan taunted, already knowing the answer his brother loved giving, while he himself was already equipped with a clever comeback.

"It's called cover and suppressing fire! I get paid to waste an unnecessary amount of rounds as long as I've got them to shoot!" Dustin laughed with an obvious amount of giddiness. He always loved to say that was the whole point of his position, and it sounds like it too, but everyone present knew that wasn't the case so they didn't bother responding to what seemed to be a ritual between the two. That and they didn't want to irk the wrath of a protective, trigger-happy, tank.

"Well in case you forgot, we're on an airship! You can't just be dropping lead curtains on them here!" If there was one safe way to counter Dustin it was a healthy dose of Common Sense. Anything else will have...less than desired effects.

"Oh, yeah. I just got carried away is all." Dustin finished, noticeably deflating.

"That's alright Tyme," Miles began, "you can still use the nonlethal rounds we've got. And don't sound so happy about taking down these insurgents. They were once one of us too you know."

"I don't give a damn! They took an oath! They swore their allegiance! And they just shat on the honor of our entire purpose!"

"Be that as it may," John intervened, "but we are still required to use nonlethal force unless required or met with deadly opposition. That's why my last mag is all hollow points." He said with a resolute latch of his Scout Tact.

"Nonlethal? I didn't even know we had those.' Dustin said, thoroughly surprised, with that old battle flame reigniting, "Well I like your thinking. To bad they don't have rubber rounds in my caliber. Well I'll just have to use my Nitro! If the 15 pellets of rubber doesn't stop them," he explained, "I've got 27 pellets of buck and one big slug to change their mind after that." It's a thought. "And I've always got my M4 to top it off."

"Well played Dustin, you've successfully found and exploited a loophole in the law used to prevent the unnecessary taking of lives." John said without sounding happy in the slightest. Of course he was being sarcastic, but he sure sounded and looked serious.

"Well John, when you put it like that, I frankly don't give a damn either way, and coming from you-"

"Knock it off! We need to move out!" Miles said with a resounding snap of the charging handle on his MP5 and the final slam on their standard 1911, however his was engraved with symbols translated into 'unknown' or 'unfound' by some ungodly existence. "All right helmets on masks off!" They all donned their helmets and secured them with their air-lock to prevent any awkward sliding around and then pressed a button located on their neck, causing the bullet proofed piece of armor into a discrete position inside their helmet. "Radios on masks down!" They then pressed the same button without a word and activated their local broadband radios which enabled them all to talk to each other, only to each other unless unanimously changed to an open receptor setting, they can talk at the same time, and not be heard outside unless their speakers are turned on, with different levels of amplification when on, or they could open a vent located right in front of their mouths. They each had a different colored shield, Miles with the leading black, Dustin with gold, Bryan with red, and John with white. Each of their full body suits, or exoskeletons, were each accented with their appropriate color, to match their visors. Besides Miles who went the whole nine yards and wore a full black suit, truly trippy.

As they left the room it was all quiet except for the obvious sounds of movement happening at most only a hundred feet from their position that the average ear would've missed, but as their helmets amplified their voices, it also increased their vision and detected the slightest noises, doubling as a muffler droning out anything loud enough to cause discomfort. They covertly slipped through the halls and checked around corners following the sound of more shots and screaming before they went down an exceptionally long hallway and heard, "Armed loyalists sighted! Open fire!" Before they even had a chance to look for cover Dustin, the largest target, was struck in the back of his chest. "Dustin!" The three of them shouted, as they turned around in formation to return fire, their speakers being set to normal in case they met any bystanders to tell them to find a safe place and lay low. "Argh! Holy shit that hurts like a bitch! Thank God this guys only using small arms!"

"He's not! He just skinned you!" John said, "You're bleeding all over the place! Get down and out of sight!" He finished with a quick shot to their oppositions leg, straight to the knee, causing a jaw-grinding snap as the hostile was incapacitated, moaning on the ground. "Quick! Go over there and restrain him before he tries any final stand bullshit!" Miles ordered. And Bryan complied. As he began walking over there Miles said, "Be gentle with him, we still need to run him through the system."

"I am the system Miles," Bryan said, seething as he passed, "Judge, jury, and executioner. And don't worry, I'll get some questions in, I'm a fair reaper."

"No, seriously don't. That's an order and you are not to go against directive." Miles barked warningly.

"Fine, I'll restrain him." He left, leaving the others to patch up his brothers wound. And when he covered the distance to his prey he was more than happy to see that the standard's unit of defense wasn't built to withstand such an attack. Meaning his leg was definitely broken, and what appeared to be two places surprisingly enough, the knee obviously, and the ankle appeared to be, shattered rather than broke. 'The power to his leg must've cut when he got blasted and he dropped on it as he tried to go back around the corner' He thought. "Hey smartass what did you think you were going to do against a squad of Pacifying Marines?" There was no response but ragged breathing and grunts of pain. "Well it certainly looks like Pacifier damage been done to you. But looks aside, how's it feel?" He continued with a savage grin. "Because it definitely looks like it hurts, a lot!" He then proceeded to kick the idiot's gun to the side, "Hostile restrained!" He shouted over his shoulder. But his weapon was just far enough to give him the ghost of an idea to grab it. That becoming the case Bryan would have to eradicate him in self-defense. After that bit of devious thinking Bryan stepped closer to the wounded man and mimed stepping on his knee. "NO! Don't! Please don't!"

"Are you honestly begging me not to hurt the fucker who went against his flag, killed innocents, and shot my brother! What's your name!" He furiously demanded rather than asked.

"My brand is Trevor," He spat, "and what do I have? A wife, three hungry kids, and enough unjustified debt to put a dent in a small countries treasury. I needed this. They needed this. They promised me a way to change that. You are blind and your leaders are corrupt! They promised me freedom from the deluded existence of your country! They offered me a deal no sane person would refuse!"

"And look where it got you, a broken leg and a stab to your dignity." Bryan quietly put it.

"And look where this got you. You didn't actually think I could be the only one smart enough to see over the wall of transgressions your government has built around you." Wheezed Trevor.

"Re-routers and exoskeleton powering off" A monotonous computerized voice stated. And at that Trevor took one last breath and put the end of his recently moved 45. into his mouth. He noted that the last thing he'll ever taste was the cold steel of his gun, not the sweet taste of his lover's embrace. Live by the gun, die by the gun...But Bryan was too occupied with the meaning behind the announcement to notice his 'restrained' target's deft movements before the universal language of a gun going off and the telltale sound of a skull imploding followed by the distinct noise of brain to floor/wall combo. "Well nice job!" John said from his advantageous view point, over Bryan's shoulder. He had seen enough, Bryan got up, fumigated the pink mist gathered on his visor, and turned around to check on his brother. As he approached Miles had something to add, "Why'd you do that? I told you to restrain him and to not deal with him! We have systems for a reason, this isn't the wild west where the law is made by the toughest guys on the block!"

"I didn't, I had restrained him, and I know." Bryan responded without much thought, why was the truth so easy to say?

"Then how'd that mess get there? He make it himself?" Miles said almost laughing.

"Yes. He offed himself." Bryan bluntly put it.

"And how'd he manage to do that? 'Restrain' means that you take away his weapons and subdue the target!"

"There's the kicker," Dustin moaned, "what'd you do this time Bryan? Leave the gun next to him."

"Shut up D!"

"I said stop calling me that!"

"Anyway, yes, I did. But only because his knee was busted and his ankle was shattered. I'm not saying any names but I am looking at you John."

"And?" John pointed out, as he was playing watch at the end Trevor was at.

"Good point, that prick had it coming." Bryan reconciled. "But a rather unnecessary amount of force don't you think Miles?"

"Turren, I'm only going to tell you once," Miles began, deathly serious, "a few broken bones we can mend. But a dead body is a useless informant in an interrogation."

"Well how's it my fault the cadaver won't cooperate?"

"IT'S YOUR FAULT THAT HE'S A CADAVER!"

Suddenly a jolt went throughout the craft as the lights flickered and the automatic doors open and closed sporadically.

"What was that?" Bryan pursued.

"The shields are down smartass! We're open to the elements now!" Dustin shouted.

"Screw you Dustin, you better now? Let's move." Bryan finished while picking up his brother.

"Argh damn! Why would you do that?"

"Because you haven't passed out yet, you're standing just fine, and there's an unknown number of defectors on the loose as well as potential survivors from their onslaught waiting to be rescued AND we might be shot down by the M.E.'s or sweet mother nature."

"Stop, just stop." John said, returning from his uneventful scout ahead as he loaded in a new mag of nonlethal rounds that seemed very much so in fact, lethal. But with a much more interesting effect on the body.

"Well, I'm up now so let's go!" Dustin proclaimed. And they moved through the halls, eventually weaving their way into the central control room only to find, it was packed with insurgents. But unbeknownst to them the Pacifiers were quietly filling up each of the four exits and quickly and silently dispatching any who came through, discarding the bodies in a pile nonchalantly. With their helmets set and radios on they counted the total within the room and tallied their kills to keep track of the total count, as well as creating a sort of competition between them. Resulting in some risky advances such as making noises to draw the opposition or waving an arm with said oppositions' body as a hand gesture to draw them nearer. Obviously the last crashed and burned, and speaking of crash and burns, no, we'll get to that. As Bryan, that dumbass, tried his most recently thought idea he lost his grip, letting the body drop with a horribly echoing noise. "Uh, guys? I think shit just hit the fan."

"WHAT?" Three, angry, loud, distorted, and simultaneous voices doesn't agree with ones ears. And since they were all connected they could feel it, less intense but still shit.

"DAMN!" The four of them sounded. "Yeah I know! I was caught! I repeat they found my ass!"

"THERE GOES THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE!" Miles roared as his brilliant plan went up in flame, I'm getting there.

"Let's at least try to get the first shots in! Lethal or not these lay enough pain on the receiver's end to dissuade any retaliation!" And with that John opened fire with a single, skilled, practiced, and precise shot straight to the Hunter nearest Bryan. Landing squarely at the base of the neck. The assailant dropped without skipping a beat. "Seventeen to go!" He yelled as he pulled back the bolt on his customized rifle, allowing a swift and clean extract for the spent round and an opening for the new shot patiently awaiting its departure as well.

"Sixteen!" Dustin called as he dropped another with a quick spread shot to his front scattering over the top half of his chest and peppering his face with rubber shot. "Onto the beanbags!" He joyously stated.

"Fourteen!" Mile claimed

"You skipped one!" Bryan reprimanded.

"Like hell I did! I got these bastards in my sights!" He smugly claimed recalling as he double tapped the defectors who tried to run though his entrance. 'Surprise! I told them it would work!'

"It looks clear from my end! I'm going to try and run to cover to get a better sight on them!"

"Bryan no! Just stay there and wait for them!" John ordered, he always took the reigns of the situation, besides Miles, when it came to a firefight. Even more so he could because he was placed in their group! Hand picked by the big man!

"Too late!" He said as he sprinted behind the nearest wall.

"Damn you, you idiot!" Dustin yelled, already aggravated from his hit with the first beany round failing to instantly drop his target, of course he'd never tell anyone about that.

"Then I guess I've got nothing to worry about!" Bryan repeated his favorite comeback for that particular insult.

"Thirteen, *click* twelve, *clack* and eleven." John calmly stated as he drew back on the bolt yet again and let another 'nonlethal' round at another insurgent's stomach, successfully doubling him over and making him immobile. Taking aim again from his perfectly covered spot at the second to top row, a small gap between two terminals allowing him to view the entire scene.

"What?" Miles shouted, crushed that his double-strike was belittled so easily.

"Ten and nine!" Bryan exclaimed clearly happy his small-scale invasion worked. "Close in they've lost it!" He finished as watched their dwindling militia got smaller and smaller as they were stealthily taken down.

"Why? Won't? You? Stay? Down!" Dustin raged as his beanbags simply gleaned off their armor. "John's rubber bullet BROKE one of your guys' knees and I can't even touch you? Fuck this!" He finished as he gave up on the bean bags and switched over to his M4.

"Eight-seven-six! Take that you bunch of traitorous fucks!" He laughed as his rubber bullets made repeated contact, as they dropped, and after they fell.

"Ah shit they've seen me again!" Bryan perfectly stated as he attempted another delve through the frontline.

"What is wrong with you?" Miles demanded as they finally found the sources of their demise and returned fire.

"I thought I-"

"No you didn't! I never said you could move up! We were making perfect progress without advan-" He was cut off as one bullet cut through the center of his throat.

"Miles? Miles what happened?" Dustin called but received no response.

"He's dead Dustin, one to the throat and out the back. Clean." John deadpanned. "It was painless."

"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN IF IT WAS CLEAN OR PAINLESS! IT SHOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED!" He thundered.

"That doesn't matter though, we need to keep going and clearing out the defective." John again deadpanned, "As the previously second highest rank here you'll be taking orders from me, and I'll remind you that I've got a snug little spot hidden away up here with both of you in my sights." This was cause for a moment of silence for both Miles and their uncomfortable new head of command. John was not one to cross, especially when he had you in his sights with 'nonlethal' rounds in the chamber.

"Just sit tight and let me clear what I can, and watch my back in case any of these guys decide to play the clever idiot." He said in that same robotic voice.

"Yeah, ok." Was the most Bryan could say as he was battling with conflicting feelings, had he gotten Miles killed?

"Five...four......three, two aaaand one." John finished, ejecting his third spent magazine, inserting the next and cycling the first round in.

"Well that was a lot easier. Why hadn't you done that bef-" Multiple lightning bolts struck the HART-72, interrupting Dustin with a massive power outage causing the massive aircraft to plummet towards the Earth.

Emergency windows open that same voice said as it too went out. Allowing the remaining conscience men onboard to see the happy border of sturdy looking country ground, via clever but simple mirror system throughout the ship. "Great! Instead of going to the depths we're going out in an enormous explosion! Just fantastic!" Bryan said, always the pessimist.

But John being the realist said, "No, we won't just go in an explosion, first the ship will burrow into the ground a couple of miles, leaving behind a trail of burning debris judging from the angle. Then as the fuels and munitions towards the center get tossed about first we'll burn, then we'll explode."

"Thanks John, just the words I wanted to hear before dying, real positive." It was Dustin's turn to deadpan.

"Did you want me to lie to him? Supportive words won't do anything for us." John said as he sat and put the chair's seatbelts on.

"And what the hell are you doing?" Bryan asked confused and mad.

"Significantly increasing my chances. The center of a vehicle is the safest place to be after all. And another point to my survival." He finished as he began clearing debris from behind him.

"Really? And that now is?" Bryan commented, apparently with enough life in him to contradict his friends.

"Well I don't want to be struck with these, you know that's how most automobile deaths happen, not from the crash itself but the flying debris turned missile." He finished with extra emphasis on the last 'i' in missile.

"You're unbelievable," Dustin began, "but the man speaks truth." And he too sat down and put on his seatbelt, all debris to have fallen to the floor as their incline increased.

"Well if everyone's doing it!" Bryan spat while he tossed his arms into the air, "I might as well too!" He had a harder time as row had two unconscious defectors. He spared them each a swift kick to the head as he passed. "Now what?"

"Now we wait." Dustin stated simply.

"Wanna play twenty que-" Bryan started seriously. But it appeared the universe did not want to play such games, it has had enough! Because as he asked another surge of power worked through the HART, coupled with another barrage of lightning, they all took a breath and everything went dark.

The light has returned. Lot's of light. 'I better not have been in a coma.' Bryan thought brusquely. He opened his eyes to find even more stunningly bright light, and he sat in a room with a flashbang, it was strictly a dare. But trivialities aside, when his eyes and visor adjusted to the light, he saw something that took him back. Making sure his suits broadband was still on he called to his brother, "Dusty. Dustin! I see...I see mini horses...in hazmat suits! And they're rifling through our things!"

"I told you to stop smoking that shit Bryan! And stop calling me 'Dusty'!"

"But I'm not! Just look! One's looking the other way! At a fucking chair!"

"I'm serious Bryan! You wake me up when still playing with that I'm going to run you through, and beat the shit out of your flying ass! Now, I'm going to humor you so you don't lose it, again, and when I see the room full of nothing, I'm going to make you promise again to quit that, for the last ti-" He stopped as he saw them too, even the one his brother specified. "I swear on Miles' fucking memory that if you slipped some of that in my drink I'm gonna kill you." He said, failing to notice they weren't at home anymore.

'Such...such advanced technology! It's a scientists dream here!' He thought, absolutely ecstatic at the thought of foreign life. He began furiously scribbling down notes in that familiar scrawl that all 'advanced' minds seemed capable of. 'Even the most inane purposed tool is fascinating!' He continued with his chicken-scratch as he observed...a screwdriver. 'Simply fascinating! Such craftsmanship! It's a shame none of the subjects had shown signs of life.' Of course he was referring to the deadlocked armor suits they wore that was personalized to each of their bodies, otherwise they would have seen that they all, well most, had shown signs of life and they were very much alive. A few even reaching consciousness. He continued to walk through the many rows of consoles, computers, and bodies, noting how strange it was that they all had the overall same...exoskeleton, as they came to call them, with only slight variations on three of them. 'It appears there was trouble in here before they crashed,' he noted, observing the bruised body of one of the insurgents Dustin had unloaded on discovering the effectiveness of the rubber rounds the size of a large cork. Subjects are suspected to have been violent, even amongst themselves. One would almost be relieved none survived as they might have attacked innocent ponies. A cold thought but valid given the evidence. He continued to wend through the fallen debris strewn about, 'But a true shame nothing has made it unscathed.' He was, of course referring to the machines, but those just aren't hoof compatible and some require a passcode. 'By Celestia, what was that?' He thought as movement occurred out of the corner of his exceptionally large vision.

"JOHN!" Bryan continued to try and reanimate his unconscious comrade from his same position he woke up in, his suit's display unit within the visor showed him as alive, and with a steady heartbeat, but he couldn't trust that because it also showed Miles as alive, and he watched him die, and even had it confirmed. "JOHN GODDAMN IT ANSWER ME!" His brother having long since muted him.

"What Bryan? What could it possibly be this time?" John moaned, too lazy to move.

"Stay absolutely still John, because I've got something to tell you. Stay still ok! Promise!"

"Several armies couldn't move me right now."

"Good," Dustin said, "because we're trying to remain inconspicuous."

"We died remember?"

"...."

"John?" Bryan prodded.

"...."

"John you ok man?" Dustin asked.

"Hoh-lee SHIT!" John yelled, still not moving, taking orders and promises seriously. "The seatbelts! I told you!" John exclaimed, uncharacteristically verbal and...genuinely happy. "And? Anything else?"

"Well yes actually," Dustin began, "I would like a third opinion on whether or not Bryan spiked my drink."

"Again? And why?"

"Because there's mini-horses in hazmat suits going through out stuff." Bryan finished matter-of-factly.

"I think I'm going to need a drink now."

"Nonono! We're serious! Look at the one on your left, IT EVEN HAS A HORN!" Dustin exclaimed, all serious, all surprise.

"I swear if you guys are fuckin' with me I'm going to shoot you both in the ass with a few of my rubber bullets."

"Good thing we're not then." Bryan said exasperated.

John ever so slowly turned his head over, and when he finished he nearly choking on all the dust from his shattered beliefs. "What is that?"

"Well judging from the horn I'd have to say it was a unicorn." Dustin finished smugly, however when he saw just the mini-horse in a hazmat suit he nearly shit a brick. Only after much needed silence, contemplation, and self-searching did he come to terms. He didn't have the faintest clue and he would have to deal with it.

"Well?" Bryan asked.

"Well what, stop screwing around!" John said not the one to play around.

"Well, anyone got a plan yet?"

"I think our friend there already has one" Dustin announced.

"Our friend?" Bryan questioned as the room cleared of any other ponies besides the one at the bottom.

What-what happened? Did we win? He thought as he got up, grabbing the nearest weapon by him, a UMP in 45., feeling the multiple bruises on his body where the giant's bean bags (fuck you) had hit him, and then inevitably ending his awareness with a brief and sloppy butt stroke (fuck you again). "I'm gonna kill that piece of shit when I find him. Him and all his loyalist friends!" He yelled into the oppressive silence of his mask, reminding him no one else could hear him, and of all he'd lost because they couldn't handle four ignorant people. Wh-what's that? He thought and froze as he too saw the ever-popular mini-horse. And why's it in that ridicules getup?

H-how? He thought frightened by the towering giant, dominating over his own previously considerably tall stature of 4'2, They had no signature! He noted again remembering their thorough scan of their 'exoskeleton', their magic not being able to bypass the dense material. He shook himself back to reality and took a step back consequently resulting in the giant to take a step forward, his hydraulic parts hissing ominously, visor reflecting menacingly, no sign of life, just a dead, uncaring gaze. I-it's ok Radon, maybe it's just cultural differences or it just wants to interact. Yeah! It just wants to communicate! Radon moved closer to the strange anomaly which caused it to take a step back as well. "Hell-oh th-air! Well-come to E-quest-ria." Radon's first words to foreign life.

"What was that?" Bryan asked as the pony made a noise, its suit muffling its voice to their distance.

"What was what? It looks like they're just having a stare down from up here." John inquired.

"Yeah I think I heard something too," Dustin added, "do you think it was...talking?"

"I wouldn't put it past them." Bryan answered tiredly.

"I'm pretty open to anything right now," John began, "Keep an eye out for anymore, and watch him!" He finished.

"Did it really just talk to me?" The man said into his visor as the pony continued to watch him, tensed to run if he tried anything. "Hello my name Ste-" He started before remembering his helmet was still locked. "My name is Stephan. Welcome aboard the HART-72." Stephan said after he had released the vent with a hiss.

It can TALK! And fluent Equish! Radon thought caught completely off guard. What should I say back? I don't want to seem like an idiot! I don't want to start a *war*! "Um, hello St-Stephan was it?" He began, having trouble with such a strange name, "My name is Radon, and you are in Equestria, a large country on Tellus united under the two princesses, Celestia, the princess of the day, who raises and lowers the Sun, and Luna, the night princess, who raises and lowers the Moon." He finished, giving a lot of their world's boundaries away without even noticing, but their recipient had no foundation to put it on, leaving him even more clueless than before.

Royalty? Pagans? Horse puns and inane names? Well let's play it sa- Was the furthest Stephan got to think before he heard movement behind him and whirled around to find its proprietor. Upon noticing the very same techy Miles had been yelling at he fell into his old training and fired on sight. One echoing crack, two bodies, and the rushing of feet and hooves resounded through the halls of the HART-72.

C'est La Vie

God? For me God's only ever been the beginning of goddamn. But this is me and mines' story, one that got me to seriously question and reconsider my religious standpoint. Because things like this don't happen often, if ever.

Dustin was caught off guard when the Insurgent turned around and fired at something the couldn't see, he was even more surprised when the horse fell as if it had been shot itself. Dustin had reached for his rifle but found it had slid out of his reach during their impact. He found it under the desk he was seated at, all the way to the left in the corner. He went to reach for it but his seatbelt kept him seated. He quickly unlatched it and grabbed his M4 and surfaced from below the desk to find he was gone, but in his place was a dozen horses in golden armor, he quickly ducked under the table after that little revelation and tried to thin of a plan.

Bryan was shocked when, from his location, he saw a man in a lab coat round the corner where the agitator was, he could see the fear and recognition on his face as he took in the armor's appearance of the man ahead of him was wearing before a permanent comatose state took over him, and then proceeded to run ducking out the door frame behind the engineer and down the left hallway, but not before a group of guards(?) saw him and pursued. While they went on after him down the left way Bryan could swear he heard the distinct rattle of gunfire and shouts. In the plural, so either there was more people, or the horses really could talk. His question was soon answered when he overheard their conversation involving the unconscious horse, this was going to be a...a goodish day.

John saw everything from his perch near the top of the behemoth's main-room and was just a second too slow on the shot that could have stopped the instigator due to the unusual tilt the HART maintained after the crash, resulting in a little bit too long of an echo throughout the room, but no one else seemed to notice. Better keep that to myself. He saw the quick pursuit of a small group containing golden clad horses chase after the renegade and felt a little relieved, and a little worried. He could not hear the shots and shouts that Bryan did due to his height. Nor did he hear them conversing amongst each other over their fallen comrade.

"What happened here?" The biggest amongst them barked. However, he was average as their guards went, same white coat, blue eyes, and blonde hair. Besides the occasional grey one of course.

"We aren't sure Gilded sir. He hasn't taken any physical damage but he's undoubtedly out of it so to speak." A smaller pony reported.

"Well, I can't tell whether that's good or not Neol. On the one hoof he's out, but on the other, we have no idea what caused it."

"Yes, most frightening. But should we try to wake him?" Neol asked.

"No not here. Somepony please take him to the castle, the rest will stay here with me and inspect the rest of the ship, keeping an eye open for any more...of those." He finished with disgust being his most prominent tone.

"Hey are you guys seeing this?" Bryan asked, disbelief clear in his voice.

"Yes, but what am I seeing?" John answered, frustration at his previous failure lingering.

"No. What? I'm trying to come up with a plan here so we can find this forsaking ingrate." Dustin pronounced, clearly not in the mood for talking horses.

"Well it appears that the assembled horses have formed an...a committee. They were circling around that one unconscious horse until another sketchy horse took away the former horse." Bryan answered, meeting his 'truth' minimum for the day.

"What he's avoiding is that they're...no, I'm in charge now. Dustin sit your ass up and just look." John ordered.

"Wha-goddamn it...yes? Many many horses for my son's, and twice for my daughter's husbands. No, switch that." He said, faking a middle-eastern accent and not giving a single fuck, he's saving for the future, when he's old and decrepit. Stingy bastard.

"Hey Abdul cut it out!" Bryan said, quite racistly, "we need to go before they see us!"

"Yes, that's what I was planning before you had me look at gilded horses. Now, now I can't remember!"

"Stop it Dusty, I already have a plan. We just go out the back while they're down there." So simple! John is amazing!

"That's stu...fuck you." Dustin finished heatedly. They began to move, but the prolonged stillness mixed with the genereally quiet atmosphere resulted in distinct creaks from armor and chairs, as well as the echoing throughout the room causing the guards to look up and gape in awe at the perfect beings horror as three metal bound giants stood from all angles and began to move, freezing as their reflective visors locked onto their party.

"What do we do sir? Magic has proved not effective against the other beast." Neol both asked and informed Gilded Spiral.

"What?" Spiral asked, furious with the news, "Well, if magic doesn't work, steel's never failed the Guard. Formation!" Gilded finished with a directing shout. The ponies formed an arrow pointing towards the middle of the group to provide the most cover and aimed their spears upwards and Gilded formed a grey bubble shield around them, "Stick 'em on a pike!"

"What are they doing?" Dustin asked.

"It appears they've formed a defense against us." John answered amused.

"A defense? So they don't want us here? Let's just go then!" Bryan concluded, happy that something was finally going right although the situation was still dire.

"Yes, let's split ways for n -" John was cut off as he saw another insurrectionist began to rise, weapon in hand, "Oh, well shit."

He was groggy at appearance as he struggled to stand, using anything within reach as support. But 'groggy' didn't cover the wasted state he was in, "What the hell? Who -" The survivor asked to no one before a someone answered.

"Holy shit thank God another made it! Quick, what's your name?" A person shouted, desperate for another human in these confusing times.

"Who is -"

"Stephan, what is your name?" Stephan yelled, near hysterics from the drastic change in scenery.

"Alex, wh- what, where are we?" Alex asked as it felt like hammers were banging around in his head , oblivious to the stares he was getting as the entire room's population focused on him.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Stephan finished as his fragile walls of sanity began to break, "I DON'T HAVE A FUCKING CLUE! THERE'S TALKING HORSES THAT TRIED TO KILL ME AND I SHOT THEM! PLEASE JUST COME HERE!"

"Uh, ok. I'll come get you." And close this 'horse' nonsense, Alex finished in his mind not wanting to further upset his comrade who remained silent, must've hit his head pretty damn hard if he's acting up like this. The silence allowing him to think and come up with a rendezvous plan or some way to signal their providers. Because while some looked to them as some sort of religious relic, Alex and many more connected were in it solely because they paid very handsomely.

"S-sir! There's another one!" Neol shouted, pointing to the rising figure behind them.

"Another? Where are they coming from? Cover!" Spiral finished with an order to cover their back.

Finally Alex finished his plan to reconnect with his paycheck, and looked up. "What the hell!"

"Dustin! Bryan! Get your sights on this one in case he tries to pull another quick one!" John ordered as he too set his sights on the potential hostile.

"Already sighted!" Dustin replied.

"Yes dear." Bryan answered sarcastically, but as he drew up his rifle and sighted in on Alex his laser had been on, attracting every other beings' attention with it.

"Turn that shit off Bryan!" John yelled as he noticed the flash of green squarely on the offender's chest.

"Damn it Bryan, are you trying to get us killed?" Dustin yelled with a look and wave to Bryan, but below the ponies were staring in a mixture of awe, confusion, and fear as Bryan's piece of metal spewed forth the cool light right over their very heads. Normally any laser that bright and concentrated would have burned straight through any other being, but Alex just stood there, albeit with the fear of death plain in his cowering posture as he tried to avoid it without tempting the producer's finger.

"What is it Spiral? We should at least feel heat, or smell the ozone!" A medium sized stallion asked.

"I don't know." Their captain said, trying to keep his cool, "It is probably their own twisted form of magic. Don't let it touch you and watch for any more!" He finished, pumping more magic into his shield, hoping that even if magic didn't work on them, theirs couldn't permeate magic.

"Why did that bubble just get bigger?" Dustin asked, momentarily drawn away from the green laser giving away their position and closing their chance of a clean getaway.

"Well given the fact that that one in the middle there is the source, I'd say it was a means of defense." John answered, always one for answers.

"Yes, a shield, of light." Bryan began, "Oh! My light!" He tilted his gun ever so slightly to flip the laser off, but that little tilt caused the laser to go through the shield, and dance through the shield, completely unaffected by its magic, swerving over the entire squad.

The ponies observations of the beasts who were making gestures with their arms that weren't occupied with a brick of metal as the nearest one's laser went through their shield without hesitation or distortion, "Evade! They're attacking! Counter strike!" Spiral ordered as he dove with a roll to 'avoid' the laser that had already danced all over the group, "Attack!" The group of ponies split and the Pegasi had taken to the skies.

This, has taken a turn. Alex thought as he saw the ponies disperse and try to flank his would-be-killers. He decided to beat a grateful retreat and left to regroup with Stephan. "Stephan? I'm free now, where are you?"

"Well I'm actually in our room, restocking before we leave."

"Good, we need to go now, at least until we raise enough in His way to retake the ship, the Pacifiers are still alive." He spat the last part with vehement disgust.

"What? Those Loyalist pigs survived the crash?" Stephan raged, his hate for the Objectives breaking him from his short-lived mental collapse, "Get your ass over here! Stock up on equipment and let's move!"

"Yes, I'll be there shortly." He sighed as he rounded a corner through the steel plated hallways, his reverberating footsteps catching the sensitive ears of a small patrol at the entrance to scare off any potential solicitors or halt unauthorized personnel entrance to the alien hulk of metal.

"Sting, you hear that? It didn't sound like hoofsteps." The left guard asked, his ears swiveling to better discern the noise.

"Yeah, come on let's go check it out, our orders wereto check on any and all suspicious activity, besides, nopony is going to come into this haunted piece." Sting answered as they turned away from their posts, to the strangely high ceilinged hallways, their armor clinking with their jostling hosts, betraying their stealthy approach as they began closing in on a recently shut door.

"-gether! We need to move out! These things are armed and dangerous!" Alex shouted as they rushed around their quarters grabbing anything essential to a prolonged survival in an unknown world with different metaphysical laws over its inhabitants.

"Yes! Grab the bags and stuff as much food and guns in them as we can! The cafeteria is unlocked still, but the food is a mess!"

"How do you know that? You stop their before you came here?"

"In a sense. Remember when I said I shot a group of those armed horses? Well as I was on the run I stopped in the fridge to catch my breath." Stephan huffed as the load he was carrying increased rapidly, rounds, explosives, and extra rifles clinking dangerously. Their immediate future proving to be more of a concern, "Would still be there if I didn't have my gun to 'unlock' it for me."

"So were they tough? The horses. Were they hard to take down?" The late waker asked as he fitted his helmet on.

"No. Hilariously simple." He chuckled as he too zipped and clasped his go-bag and slung it over his shoulder, "They wear gold armor! Sure it looks good, but it's fucking gold! My FMJ rounds easily cut through them. I never would have wasted them though if I wasn't prepping for those damn Pacifiers, they dropped instantly, except for the first one, he got smart and broke from the group, cutting through a different hallway. Bastard took a shot to leg first then was trampled by the pursuing group. I almost felt bad for him when his leg was stomped on but hey! They're just horses!"

"Damn Steph that's...that's just brutal!" Alex said faking disgust but honestly not giving a damn either way if it was painless or not for the thing, "But seriously, if they use spears and that glowing shit shouldn't they know by now that gold is a bitch when it comes to defense?" He finished as he slung twin duffle bags across his front, back, and left side.

"Yeah, they should. But that reminds me, I...I kinda talked to one before the shit got hot." Steph hesitated to talk about his encounter while he double checked and fastened his gear with a final once-over.

"What? Did you beg for your life?" Alex joked as he walked over to his only surviving partner.

"No, I'm-I'm serious now. We held a steady conversation until..." He drifted thinking of the engineer.

"Until what? Nope, never mind." Al cut as he remembered their more pressing situation, "We need to get the food and leave, now."

"Right right. Let's go then." Stephan answered with a sigh, relieved he didn't have to rethink his actions. Self-doubt on orders or in general was not tolerated among the Elevated. They headed to the solitary door and it opened before them. They walked out and left through the right hallway, never checking the other way, assured the rest were caught up with the standoff held in the main room. But in doing this they failed to notice the golden clad and spear toting duo that had froze as the door rose into the ceiling of its own accord to allow two metal bound, bag carrying giants through!

"W-what was- were those the -" Unnamed sputtered.

"Yeah Grind, I think those were the makers of this...this thing." Sting whispered with the hushed voice of a ghost as he saw their featureless face surely a mask, but what is it? Needless to say, loyalty is a damning thing, and being sworn to the Princesses didn't do one any favors when they had to actually investigate. They shadowed the two through the ship with uncanny silence considering their apparel. The following was uneventful and they came to the ruins of a cafeteria.

"Dustin, Bryan! Avoid lethal force with the casuals! We don't need to start an interplanetary war!" (As if they had a chance in Hell!) Thankfully they were already loaded with 'safe-shots' but they were taken dangerously low. Dangerous for the ponies at least. Because while they were running low on riot rounds, remember they each brought a spare mag of lethals.

"Shit that laser really set 'em off!" Dustin began, "Well if it scares them, I'm lighting them up!" He finished with a flick of a switch, the rest followed suit. The room was raved with acrobatshit ponies and flashing lights, "Shine them off!"

The ponies were...unnerved to say the least by their opposition's lack of speech but perfectly synched formations and counter measures, "How are they doing that Fodder?"

"I don't know Cannon! They might be telepathic!" Fodder answered as he swooped low with a quick bank as he glazed through the air to dodge a laser, "But they've got a lot more of those things!" He shouted as he attempted to drop onto one of their assailants before having to dodge another light.

Bryan was thoroughly enjoying himself as he had unholstered his sidearm as well and was doing a little dance, efficiently coating his surroundings in ultra-violet rays, "It's like with dogs but they run away!" He laughed as a flying one careened of course and landed with a cloud of dust and debris.

"Cut it out! This is serious!" John yelled, although he thought it was extremely ridicules as well, finding himself happier surrounded by talking horses who most likely wanted to imprison them if not kill, then at his own wedding maybe I'll find my next ex-wife here he had joked as they entered the bar Stupid stupid John! Why would you bitch slap the universe like that? He had thought as she packed and left with his her new car and the furniture following in tow.

"Lay off John." Dustin laughed as he successfully cornered the biggest of the bunch and outlined his body with the laser, "It's not often we get to terrorize our enemies with lasers alone! Usually it's what follows them!" He finished as he elicited a fearful cry from the pimped out beast0of-burden.

"We're a buncha bastards is what we are!" John finally laughed as his stony front crumbled when he shone the laser on a particularly small one, it passed out!

"They killed Haube!" One called as he was being erratically assaulted by the nearest one's strategic and calculated swipes.

Gilded Spiral, the stallion in charge of their tight-knit group, had let one die in battle. As he did what? Sit petrified in a corner as a light skirted around his frame? No more, "LASERS OR NOT! WE WILL AVENGE OUR FALLEN AND MAKE SURE IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN! FOR HAUBE!" He yelled as he took advantage of the momentarily frozen light.

"HAHAHA! Wait what? Did he just say 'avenge'?" Dustin asked as his spree was cut short, only hearing the raised voice of his current 'subject'.

"And another said we killed one!" Bryan exclaimed worriedly as they all became an unhealthy amount of 'hostile', his rave dance halted as he tried to fend off the oncoming swarm.

Spiral inhaled and shut an eye to brace for searing pain as one of the erratic one's lasers zeroed in on him, he was prepared to die if it gave his allies extra time. But nothing happened but a quick flash of green as it skated over his eye and the monster began waving it menacingly through the air at him, "Wha -? Their lasers are safe! They do not burn! Attack!" Their captain ordered, all of them somehow missing the connection between the cold lights and fallen friend. The unicorns powered up, the pegasi took to the air, and the regulars made a mad dash to the posers. As a swooping pegasus dropped down with a hind hoof taking the lead, a quick duo of muffled cracks went off as it made contact.

Once the maelstrom had peaked and the ponies were learned of the lights they charged and took to the air, sides, and front. Three of the four unicorns had launched a volley of energy at them, the fourth and biggest rebuilding and maintain the steady and pulsing orb around those nearest him. The pegasi had reached the ceiling and began circling, scanning the three remaining aliens who had been flashing purposeless lights at them, they should have ran when they had the chance. The earth ponies had their spears locked in place on their shoulders as if they were in a jousting match. One of the Pegasi had broken from the rest upon noticing one of the beasts higher up on the tiers distracted by the charging land-bound ponies. He took his chance and dropped like a bag of lead and collapsed his wings for less resistance, but as he barreled towards his target he turned around and looked right at him as if he could feel his very being approaching, but he was silent!

"-in I said you watch the skies!" John yelled as he crouched and rested his rifle on the desk and resumed his position when they were whole and facing humans, not these things. Life is like a wheel, and it always comes back around, one way or another. "Dustin behind you! Dropping at a 45 angle!" Dustin turned around just in time to give his attacker a scare and a brief glance at his reflection in his visor before hoof met helm and instinct met trigger. The crash as his mask gave in under the weight was heard, also catching the pegasi's hoof in the shards of his remaining protection gouged into it, nearly drowning its host with the blood of its prisoner. The wheezing gasp of the horse was missed and replaced with the low chuff of Dustin's enclosed rifle as its recipient covered it with his body and was fired upon.

"Get- get this thing outta my helmet!" Dustin cried between spastic coughs and gasps for air as they collapsed behind the desk and he tried to dislodge the offending hoof as its host weakly cried in pain and lack of air, "He's bleeding and it's flooding my shit!"

"Damn it Dusty why?" Bryan cried as his lasers were rebuffed with courage and reflected by gold.

"Use the purge emergency release! It's to release anything like if you threw up in it, but it wont clean your face!" John informed as he clocked in on one inside the bubbles, the front regulars were just vaulting over and through the front rows and closing, but the bubbled ones were actually shooting at them. Dustin used the purge button and caused a valve and his suits emergency supply of oxygen, in case the air became toxic or lack of, and sprayed the ponies blood out with a loud and wet sputtering sound, mortifying the pegasus further as either the beast's blood or its own was launched at him, soaking him. All while the steely giant remained silent, and that by far scared him worse than blood, any natural thing would have made a sound anytime within their brief and fueled encounter. This combined with the pain emanating from his hoof, and the unexplained pain resulted in him to stare entranced and scared for his life as the fluids kept pumping.

"Gah, shit!" Dustin began as he spat the remaining blood from his mask and into the tube to his immediate left, "Thanks John! I had forgotten about that! But this thing is still on me!" He finished as he continued to pry the hoof from his vision, caught and pressing onto his nose, nearly to the breaking point. They rolled on the floor as Dustin repeatedly crushed the terrified, unprepared, and powerless pony as it began quietly crying and whimpering uncontrollably. Dustin felt bad for him, he had his foot stuck in glass and took a shot to the undercarriage. Poor bastard. However 'Poor Bastard' could feel something inside, his hoof however completely filled the hole and prevented any sounds from escaping, wh-what's inside?

"John what do I do? They're getting awfully close!" Bryan yelled as the regulars were just two rows below him.

"If they don't stop weapons-free!"

"Where did Avi go?" Spiral asked as he noticed his circle minus one.

"He took off after one and they both went down!" Another wind-walker answered as he scanned for them, "He's caught! The big one's got him!" He finished as he saw them rolling on the ground, "He's bleeding bad! His entire coat is caked in it!"

"Is he moving?" Spiral demanded, "He can't be dead! Not another!"

"I-I don't see any movement on his part, but the thing is moving again!" He told as he swung low near Spiral to tell him and wait for orders.

"Get. Him." The nameless left and tried to recover his friend, or at the very least avenge him.

Between the cries of his mask's prisoner and his own grunts of effort, Dustin came up with a rhythm of sorts. Whenever the thing seemed to have finally passed out, he would yank on the fuckers leg until he woke up. It worked, eventually, almost. Because when there was only about half an inch left he could feel a displacement in the air that was followed by a thump behind him. His parasitic pal gave a sigh of relief and acknowledgement, whereas Dustin immediately took that as a 'shit gon happen' sign and swung his left arm blindly behind him, his upper arm making contact with a solid surface, he was closer than I thought. As the ponies sneak attack had been apparently been compromised, is there no surprising them, he staggered from the blow to his chest plate which had been dented and rendered both uncomfortable and a potential hazard, how could it *do** that!* It thought as he threw off his useless piece of scrap metal.

"Stop right there beast!" He managed to say after catching his breath, "I've got you off-off guard and am armed! Rise against me again and you will regret. And don't even try to grab your light box."

Light box? Oh! My gun! Oh, my gun. "Wh- what? Guys. One of them is behind me and I've got a hoof in my helmet. Can one of you do something, but be quick he says he's armed and I don't think North-Central Positronics made this issue for that." He whispered as he feigned compliance, waiting to be bailed out by either John or Bryan.

"Shit I'm sorry man but I've got a group advancing on my position!" Bryan answered as the vaulting ponies encroached his safety zone.

Or John

"I'll try but just go with it for now! I've been batting away at these winged ones and dodging the horned ones!" John replied as he ducked both a bolt of energy and rolled away from another dive-bomb attack.

"Fine. Fine! I'll play prisoner with it!" Dustin finished as he put his arms behind his back, his hand rushing against a small, hidden lever, built into his system. Well well, looks like you're not the only one with a blade.

As Stephan and Alex made headway towards the mess hall they were unaware of their pursuers who had the sense to remain hidden rather than charge ahead and fight blindly, "So you're sure they have emergency packs here? And bags to carry them?"

"Goddamn it. For the last time Alex, YES!"

"Ok just wanted to make sure. I don't want to have to leave without any food, because we are not going back. After here we are out."

"Yes I know. We can't take on Pacifiers and an armada of geared horses. Now come on and let's grab some supplies." Stephan finished as he easily vaulted the counter dividing the kitchens from the rest of the room. Alex followed his example and did a showy flip over the edge, "Oh piss off Al, now's not the time." He said with a roll of his eyes and was only met with a loud snickering that covered the audible gasps from their followers, their vents were open. They went through. The double swing doors and began to pack the various pre-packed meals strewn over the floor and counters, as well as a few cans and plastic wrapped cuisines that they just couldn't pass up.

"Hurry up Steph, we need to leave before I get to even the score with you and dispatch my own merry band of furry individuals." Alex joked as he tied of his first bag and started on another.

"D-did you catch that? They spoke."

"Yeah, I did." He finished darkly, "And now we have a job to do."

Sir, We're Surrounded...

It's my gun, but I'm willing to share the bullets.

As Alex and Stephan finished up their preparations for departure, two golden donned ponies came through the storage room's double swing doors and snuck around the rooms edge until they could get close enough to hear, as they hid behind an untouched shelf and Grind whispered, "What are we doing here? Shouldn't we be apprehending them?"

"As much as I would love that, words aren't enough, we cant prove what they said. And this is most likely their own craft, technically speaking, we're intruders." Sting counterintuitively answered.

"But they crashed within the Castle's boundaries! They're intruding on Equestria!" Grind countered.

"They're aliens," he deadpanned, "I doubt they know the very utmost fundamental and basic laws of Equestria. For all we know it could be against their laws to not crash in the boundaries of a nations capital." Sting finished somewhat weakly noticing his idiocy.

"And why are you defending them now? Just a few seconds ago you were contemplating an ambush!" Grind whispered, furious and confused.

"I cannot stress the fact enough that I do what I do for the sake of being contrary." Sting replied with sarcasm nearly forming a presence between them.

"Really?" Grind asked not feeling the pulsing incarnate of derision lunge for him.

"No! I do what I do because I do it! Now watch and be quiet!"

They had just finished stuffing their bags when Stephan's helm picked up on the most minute of noises from a corner that had been relatively unscathed from everything that had happened, "Alex, I'm going to go see if there's any variety over here." He said as he shut the vent to prevent his voice from leaving the confines of his suit.

"Yeah yeah sure. I'm gonna go out and play lookout." Alex said, he was sure they'd get tired of their current supply soon enough, "Get some graham crackers if you find any, the honeyed ones." Then he left out the double swing doors, failing to notice that they were still insignificantly waving. When he went through all he saw was the same galvanized intersection hallway ahead and the same upturned tables, broken chairs, and contorted debris, in the room. A few panes from the ceiling had fallen and either were hanging from the rafters or laying on the cracked linoleum floors along with a healthy number of unlatched lighting fixtures, Good thing no one was in here. That could have been a messy accident. But that brought back the memory of their grandest failure and reignited his wavering flame of hate that had dwindled during their time on the run. Before he could get anywhere with his thoughts he was shaken as he saw a tail flicker down the left hall. He was about to run to see what it was but he was called back as he heard metal strike metal.

"Shh! They'll hear us!" Sting scathed as Grind made to rebuke his point, which was rather a dull point. He chanced a glance underneath the shelves in time to see and hear one of the beast's walk through the door they had just barely managed to slip through, his gears and gyros whirring, faint but distinct. But while the one left another cautiously approached and he apparently was on the same line of thought because first he lowered his metal companion to the floor, making sure to have the narrower end pointed towards them, and began to kneel down. First his other hand came down and gently rested on the floor, then one knee quickly followed by the other came down, all eerily silent, no noise unlike the other, then his head came down to peer underneath as well, lense tinted and reflective, betraying nothing of the hosts features but perfectly mirroring...a blank tile wall.

I would've sworn I heard something. He thought as he began to stand slowly again, Well that's the last time I take of the Assistors. Those being the handy inhibitors that helped whoever was using the suit to move without any resistance or extra exertion. When Stephan drew to his full height he rolled his shoulders and slung his rifle over his chest. As he did so a sharp pain came from his right he instinctually pulled away and drew his sidearm and fired, but his training being for humans his shot flew far too high and his hand was struck again by a sword, thankfully it only hit sideways as he turned his arm, bullet proof does not equal resistance from a five pound piece of sharpened metal. The hit however did successfully knock the pistol out of his hand with an otherwise compromising clatter. Alright I've had enough of these Goddamn horses on this motherfucking plane! I don't care if they're not all bad, the golden ones are a pain in the- but he was interrupted as he was slashed yet again in the side by a different horse, this time a unicorn rather than being a regular, bigger one like the other.

Sting was recovering from the noise after he came behind the thing while Grind looked like he'd just stared down the Express, "Come on Grind let's GO! Hold him down!" He swung his sword around with his magic to pin itself against the creatures neck, he saw the blood of the creature fairly cascading from his duo of slashes, Sting's blade was coated in the crimson life on one side and he angled it so the giant could see it for all its glory, "Stop rig- "

" -ht there!" Alex ordered as he came through the doors and pulled out both of his firearms to equally cover both of the assailants, "You," he shouted with a suggested shake of his pistol to Sting, "drop the sword! And you! Stay put or I'll put both your insides on the outside!" The depravity of what he had said coupled with his relatively casualness considering made both of the guards visibly blanch and comply. Sting dropped his sword and moved slowly over to Grind who had assumed an 'at-attention' stance with his weapons set in a neat pile next to him, "We don't want any trouble now ok? We just want to head our happy ways outta here. But in order to do that, we're going to need some proper chips," he said as he approached the two, "and I'm terrible at poker." Alex whispered as he pressed the barrels against the back of their necks, with a sharp kick to Sting signaling them to get moving.

Dustin was* again poked by the guard directing his progression to wherever they took terrorists. Because that's what they could be summed up to right about then. Not only did they inadvertently start a fight with foreign powers, severely injuring a few surely, but now that the weren't on Earth (they felt it was safe to assume at least that much) their hostile counterparts would set the margins of what to expect from humans, Ugh, shit. This is a *MESS*! He thought as he began to slow down again, only to be pushed by the sharp tip of his host's lance, this time however the irony was settling rather smoothly as a sedative to the otherwise unrelenting giant. That and a blade to the back is a hell of a motivator. If you had asked him if he was scared for his life he'd probably say, "Well I wasn't scared so much as concerned for it. Sure I like living but- "

'Come on, hurry up! Stop stalling your friends are too far behind to save you now." Brazen said with another thrust, "We need to take any and all hostile foreigners to the court of the Princesses. And as you're the only one we've been able to apprehend so far, you get the honor of being subjected to the courts all on your lonesome." He finished with open opinions. Dustin had not spoken nor given the pony a look inside his helmet, he felt as if it were an unspoken rule to not let your captor see your face until the inevitable unveil, but until then the most he'd get would the silent hiss of his suit's hydraulics as they marched through the halls. It was much faster than Dustin had thought but the crews who had first ventured forth had apparently taped arrows and other directions onto various walls, floors, and appliances.

Soon enough though they came to the melted and warped...hole in the side of the craft, Huh, could've sworn there was a door there before. An uneven splotch of light came through the door and as they stepped out into it Dustin realized that it was not sunlight, but the light of 100 odd unicorns forming a massive shield around the...even larger crater they were in. Dustin felt his stomach drop, "How much, how many." He spoke for the first time, catching his guard, off guard, with his deep voice.

"What do you mean?"

"How much land did we total, and how many were hurt."

Brazen thought he knew what he was thinking and quietly answered, "A little over an acre, nopony was hurt thank Celestia." He had never seen such destruction to anything in his life, least of all to a lush and vibrant meadow filled with flowing rivers.

The human still didn't know who 'Celestia' was, Maybe their version of God perhaps? But he thought their 'nopony, everypony, etc.' meant that they were in a land were they were the majority, Fantastic, now we're lost *and** alone.* He decided to let their conversation lay and instead get a better grasp on their surroundings. As he noted earlier, they were in a large crater, the walls were burnt and there were small fires still being put out around them, it was a sheer cliff around them whereas a single side had a very angled slope, the direction they came in from, there was the hull's armor scattered around their little divot reflecting the techni-colored shields light dully off their bent and twisted edges, sharp to the touch it would seem as Dustin noticed a small pool of blood underneath a crimson tinted corner, he stored that away as potential defense for later on, then he saw the various other ponies swarming around, some wearing suits like the first they saw be taken away, most in golden armor, and one very dignified and royal looking...pink one. She, Dustin just had to assume it was a she, was gratefully looking the other way and had gone around a corner of the ship, her horn, significantly larger along with her body when compared to the others, occasionally lit up only to pathetically sputter out whenever she pressed it against the outer shell of the HART, causing her wings to give off an irritated ruffle as she pushed her purple, yellow, and magenta mane out of her face. Speaking of the HART, when he looked at the space between the front right and back right rotors he saw nothing, the name had burned and peeled away during their fall. The nose was successfully flattened and a surge of electricity jumped around every once in a while, at least one rotor was destroyed, and small, harmless blazes were igniting all over it, Overall a lot better than I had thought. A few, quite a few, ponies had stopped to gawk at Brazen's prisoner and Dustin was only returning the favor when he turned to let them see the black hole in his helm, the blood stained glass, and the further blood soaked front he had from purging it before it could drown him. They stopped staring.

Brazen and Dustin worked their way up the sloped side and came to an impromptu security checkmark, the guard inside it was scanning the scene with a mix of wonder, excitement, and something else, but as they rounded the hill and came within vision, well Dustin came far in the lead with his size towering over Brazen, the posted watch...pony nearly fell out of his unseen seat after he raised a hoof to wave at somepony else he had been expecting. He was near panicking when Brazen came up and out too, his face looking all smug as hell, "I got one Zaštitar! Look at him, he's huge! And it only took two of us!"

Before the guard could look anymore impressed Dustin just had to intervene, "Yes, only two. And where's the other? Oh, right, being carted off with a broken hind leg, severe blood loss, two contusions, and a concussion. Nicely done collecting his pay by the way." He said without any hint of emotion, riffing the guards even further, "Now please, let's keep moving." Brazen came up to Zaštitar and filled out the appropriate forms and a small hole was made in the shield, allowing the accumulated ash to blow in and fall on them. They stepped out and as far as they could see it was either uprooted trees or an occasional plate of metal sticking up like a pike, "This is...expected." Dustin decided to turn what he was going to say around, he didn't feel comfortable with letting Brazen in on his thoughts too much.

Brazen was caught off guard, the way he said it, it sounded like they had planned for that to happen, "So wait are you saying you meant for this to happen?" He asked incredulously.

"I plead the Fifth." And that's the last thing Dustin said before they began their trek to the castle, to the court of the Royal Sisters.

The last three Pacifiers** were left in the room and all hell had broken loose, after Dustin had taken a hoof to the face the other ponies had invested themselves to the fullest and Bryan panicked when the charging ones finally got on his level, one to each side, and he had decided to fire back when a crossbow bolt had wedged itself between one of his back-plates, barely piercing but still causing severe blood loss and pain, "AH goddamn it! John, they hit me with something! Dustin you ok?" He yelled as he shot the most relevant offender in the side as he turned to draw his sword, except this one was an Earth Pony so while it winded him and left a dent in his armor, he just pushed through and went to charge again. But while Bryan was distracted by the charging jouster, the other behind him decided to let him play into it and when the charger came near Bryan he bucked him into him. But when he did he kicked too high and Charger (that's his name now, thank you) was coming in low, aiming to swing at Bryan's legs and he completely missed.

John was getting tired, it was still easy to dodge their weak attempts but he'd kept it up for a while, he had to run to three different desks after the others collapsed from repeated impact. Once while he was running he had been hit struck the back by one of their spells. It had felt like he was being injected with adrenaline as he felt his energy momentarily reestablish itself as he sprinted to his next make-shift bunker, but that was long over now and he didn't really want to see what would happen if he was hit by another.

After Bryan had been successfully flung over the rampaging normal horsy he had landed with a soft, softish, thud on the body of one of the other down and out Insurgents, while at the same time the bucking one turned around to nearly meet his end from Charger who had kept plowing through until he felt his target's foot barely scrape his back as he flew overhead, "What was that for Roundhouse? I almost had him after he, he shot me!"

Roundhouse was just as surprised he had messed up, "I didn't know you were coming in so low! I thought you were just going to slash at him!"

"When do I ever slash?" Charger asked, but before he could answer Bryan got up and took his chance to run up to John, strength in numbers.

When he ascended to the top level he could clearly tell John was still alive, on account of the burning furniture, rifle casings, that one unconscious pegasus, and his boot prints leading the way. Since he was at the highest ring it was the biggest and looked down on the rest of the amphitheater like room, he could see the two ponies that had jumped him, a pony being led out on a gurney as the suited ones around it put on a generous amount of gauze around its bleeding hind leg, and Dustin...no, Dustin was gone. Bryan looked frantically for John and saw him nearly exactly opposite him, "John! John they took Dustin! We have to go find him now!"

"What? No, no he'll be fine. But we do need to go now! We need to leave now!" He yelled as another pegasus and unicorn double teamed him, one from above and one from afar. They had been closely watching him for patterns and finally found that every other time he dove from the pegasi, he jumped to the right every time, so when he did this time the unicorn was prepared and shot at him, dead center in the chest. This time wasn't like the last, last time he was hit with a stun spell, this time it was a telekinetic grab one, but instead of grabbing him it caused the electronics in his suit to short and it locked up in mid-step, "What?! Ok Bryan we can go now, come get me!" But Bryan was busy with his own malfunctions as his helmet began emitting a loud screeching noise and he was fumbling to take it off before he became deaf. When he finally got it unlatched everyone and pony looked directly at him. It was stuck though on the safety cord and prevented him from fully taking it off and before he could unhook it the noise stopped and John was free to move again, this however sent a strange and confusing message to the ponies, they talked like that?

"What the hell was that Johnny? Did you really have to do, whatever you did?" He shouted after his suit conducted a quick synopsis of its condition, "We still need to move it you know!" Then he made for the other side where the frozen pegasus and unicorn was, just feet away from the prone being they managed to take down.

"What? Get hit by a bolt of magic? Are you really saying that was my plan? No, it shut me down man but I'm good now!" And with a quick hop up He managed to surprise the two guards and he Bruce Lee Kicked™ the pegasus into the unicorn and ran down the staircase between them.

He left down the hallway after Bryan who had noticed his change in direction and stopped to think of which way to think, down the left way was the exit, they knew that, but directly in front led to much needed munitions and even the vehicle storage room, down the right led to the mess hall, food was also vital to life, but then a voice crackled in, "- the fifth." And they knew what it meant, Dustin needed help. They went down the left way noticing the fast approaching group of guards approaching their position and checked their weapons to take stock of their available equipment, one mag each, two smokes, a fragmentation grenade, their laser sights, and their tricked out helms. As they sprinted through they could here what sounded like a mix of hoofsteps and boots clashing onto the floor, yelling, and a single gunshot. But none of that mattered when they reached what was left of the doorway, "Are you sure we have enough?" Bryan asked.

"What the hell?" A member of squad Vivisection*** asked as he sat up, reaching for a weapon that was nowhere to be seen, "What happened here, agh!" He shouted as he fell from the angle, "What happened here? Zack come on man where are we!" But he got no answer. He looked around and saw the scattered and spent shells and casings of their inside fire-fight and hissed, "Damn it Zack, if you're dead, mercy be with the next person I meet." He then started to sift through the debris for anything useful as he rubbed his side, it felt like someone had fallen on him. Eventually he found something useful, a sword! He laughed, "And who was the smart ass who smuggled a sword of all things on board?" He thought on that as he pried it from between two desks Charger was engraved on the base of the short-sword, "Poor bastard, this is really a nice sword," he noted as he gave it a few experimental swings, "Perfectly balanced too, even looks like it was used in something important." He finished as he saw the hilt, a single amber gem in the middle of a copper hilt, with a finish of intricately inlayed patterns all along the handle and edges of the blade, "I actually feel bad for him, this has got to be worth a fortune." He finished somewhat sadly, but then that thought was blasted away as he saw the other man in row with him still lying on the floor, his dark green armor telling him the only thing that really mattered then, He's not a Pacifier. He walked over to him but then he began getting up on his own, he was already awake, "Zack?"

"Yeah, Devin?"

"Yes, you alright?" Devin asked as he tried to pick up on anything hinting at his condition, but the suits were flawless.

"Have a headache, but the painkillers should kick in soon," He looked around him and popped the question, "Where are we?" He asked emotionlessly.

"Don't really know myself, but look at that angle! Looks like we crashed!"

Zack let out a sigh, "Damn it I knew we should have never trusted the Stormhunters."

"And what? Keep working with the Pacifiers? No, we both wanted to break from them and they had the numbers we needed. But I do agree with you, we draw the line here. From now on we work only for Vivisection, no one else."

"Agreed, have you seen anyone else?"

"Didn't have the time, you were closest but I do think I saw some one the bottom level."

"Alright then to the- where'd you get the sword from?" He asked as they began to turn down to the stairs.

"I uh, I found it, over there," He answered with a point to the general wave with the weapon in question, "Between some desks."

"Bullshit you found a sword! Where'd you really get it?"

"If you don't believe me that's too bad, but that's what happened."

"Fine whatever, here," Zack began as he picked a can of black spray paint from one of the shelves in the wall, "for identification, so we don't kill each other if we get split up." He finished spraying their teams insignia on his suit's upper right arm.

"Alright fine, what about you?"

"Way ahead of you," Zack answered as he pulled a near invisible cloth off of his entire chest that covered the same symbol, but on a much larger scale, "had this done before we took off."

Devin had nothing to say to that but, "Come on let's go search for any survivors." And then they took advantage of their moments of relative peace as they searched through the unconscious soldiers, checking them for any dead giveaways before ultimately waking them up. The ones they found loyal to their cause were marked and aided, the ones who weren't and were not complacent, well they were dealt with the Roman way, but not forced to give up their beliefs. However the ones who originally Stormhunters but then converted to the V were treated with honors, like the Nazis. Once they were through their sort they were eight men stronger and the better for it. They paraded through the hallways and after they had all switched their channels to Vivisection, split into three separate groups, one to the armory, one to the vehicle containment center, and one to search for answers and supplies.

Unless the other squads can find ample support, well they're fucked.