The supervisor’s days were normally dull and boring as he sat in his leather chair sipping his third cup of coffee (black with just a dab of sugar). His office was large and had a blue color haze to its walls and floor.
The oak wood desk he did his duty at was decorated with computers and paperwork files. The flag of the United States of America stood behind him along with the logo of the US military.
Next to his main computer were two pictures: one of his wife and his two sons back at home in New York while the other next to him was an old photograph taking over twenty years ago, back when he was a sergeant in the US Army Rangers. That was before he became a supervisor of START, a joint United States and Equestrian intelligence organization.
The supervisor sat down and was taking some look at some paperwork. Nothing too special today; mostly just files about missions in the Middle East, South America, and a few from agents in North Africa. Suddenly, his computer gave a distinctive and loud bling sound.
“You have mail!” the feminine computerized voice announced.
The supervisor turned his head towards the computer. He wasn’t expecting any mail today. He turned his chair towards the computer with a curious look on his face and placed his hand on the mouse; moving the cursor to the Inbox icon.
Beep beep beep, the computer rang as he clicked on the inbox. The icon led him to a list of reports filed by various agents and field operatives. Now he had read most of them but there was one that stood out being placed in his Unread inbox.
He moved the mouse over and clicked on the message. The computer made another beep followed by the computer’s feminine voice again.
“The audio report from Ibis Island by the Equestrian Ministry of Arcane Science.
Agent Name: Stealth Wing”
The supervisor nearly jumped at this message. Recently the isle of Ibis Island was being investigated by both the US and the Equestrian government as it was believed to be manufacturing powerful weapons for known terrorist organizations.
The Equestrian Ministry of Arcane science sent one of their pony agents in to infiltrate on the facility and the US government was to keep taps on him.
For security purposes, the supervisor installed his headphones on the computer so only he would hear the message. He clicked on the “Play” button which opened up Stealth Wing’s profile and audio recording.
A picture of a orange fur Pegasus with a brown mane appeared on the screen along with a few pics of what the supervisor could only assume was the Ibis Island weapons facility.
The audio message began, “I have successfully infiltrated the facility under the guise of a researcher as planned.”
The supervisor nodded to himself and examined the photos Stealth Wing had sent. They appeared to be the inside of some sort of military facility.
“I have found no information regarding the top secret development of new type weapons.” The audio continued.
The supervisor tilted his head. Odd? Then why did he send this message.
Either Stealth Wing discovered nothing and was merely reported in, or there was something else in the report. The supervisor clicked “Continue” and the audio report pressed on.
“But I have discovered, there is an unexpected individual at this facility.”
Just then, a new image appeared on the supervisor’s
screen. It was a photo of a young white Caucasian human with blonde hair talking with what appeared to be a Zebra soldier. He was wearing a white lab coat and appeared to be a scientist of some sort.
The supervisor scratched his chin with curiosity. That scientist looked very familiar but he couldn’t place his finger on it.
“The man is Doctor Edward Kirk; the leading authority in the field of energy study.” Stealth’s report explained.
The supervisor put down his coffee cup and gasped with amazement. Now he knew that name! He clicked “continue”.
“Doctor Kirk was alleged to have died in an accident during the course of an experiment over three years ago.
Now the plot was starting to thicken and the supervisor just stood in silence waiting for the report to finish.
“The reports were premature and it appears he is currently working as the head of a non weapon project at this facility.”
The supervisor pressed “continue”.
“The experiment is in the late stages of development.”
The supervisor again pressed “continue”.
“Regarding the staged accidental death; it appears this country is somehow involved, recommending that necessary actions be taken immediately”
The report ended and the supervisor clicked exit on the message. This report sounded very serious and he needed more data before making a final decision.
He clicked on the icon for the database on important persons and ponies in START’s database. He clicked and tapped the keys of his keyboard typing in a few instructions to the data base.
“Refer to the data on Doctor Kirk” the computer voice said as a picture of Doctor Kirk popped up on the screen.
Below the picture was a label.
Status: Deceased
Then a few dossiers and newspaper articles popped up on the computer screen with details on Dr. Kirk’s background.
Doctor Edward W. Kirk was a Canadian physicist who gained notoriety when he first proposed a theory on an idea of a nearly endless supply of clean energy, a program he dubbed “Third Energy”.
Believing it would create a new future of better fuel efficiency, many worldwide governments began funding his research, in particular the US and Equestrian government.
However, Dr. Kirk was failing of produce results and Washington decided to cut his funding which obviously didn’t please the doctor. He sued the US government believing they betrayed the contract he had signed with them but lost. Less than six months afterwards, an explosion occurred at Dr. Kirk’s Nova Scotia research base.
According to the local news, Kirk was among the one hundred and fifty casualties reported. But what was odd was that his body was never found among the wreckage. What was also bizarre about the accident was what caused the explosion.
According to the investigations by the Canadian government, it caused by a failure of one of the experimental generators but they didn’t report any more details.
While he was officially labeled as deceased, the US and Equestrian government kept an eye out for him as if he were still alive as he could prove to be of some use.
The supervisor exited the file and went to his phone, he needed to make a few calls. Meanwhile at the same time, he pressed the “Send Message” button on his computer and typed:
Operation Instructions
Arrival on the Island.
The skies over Ibis Island were cloaked in a thick layer of storm cloud; thunder and lightning rumbled and flashed revealing the silhouette of a large C-130 transport plane. It was soaring through the clouds cutting through them at speeds of three hundred and twenty knots (four hundred and seventeen miles per hour).
Despite its size and ability to transport a small army, the C-130 only had a small team inside.
Inside the C-130 was a small Special Forces team composing of three humans and two ponies. They were all operatives working for START. The leader of the team was a large pegasi with white fur and a blonde mane named Gale Winds. He used to serve in the Royal Equestrian paratroopers before START recruited him.
The other members of the team included Alan Schneider, a 29 year old human START operative. He had formerly served with Delta Force and was an old friend of Gale and Regina Hopkins. He was fairly tall and had blue eyes with a brownish hair color.
Regina Hopkins was a 27 year old red headed woman who had served with the US DIA before being reassigned to START. She was very attractive but she didn’t let her gender get in the way of her job.
A 25 year old African American human named Rick Conners was the team’s computer expert and hacker. He was relatively new to START and this would be his second combat mission.
And finally, a unicorn pony named Static Signal who was the team’s communication’s expert. He was a friendly guy who was only willing to lend a hand (or hoof in his case) to help. Because he had the radio which would signal their evac chopper, he was their life line if their mission became SNAFU.
“Approaching drop zone!” the C-130 pilot announced over the intercom in the plane.
The team unstrapped their seat harnesses and collected their weapons and equipment. Because they would be jumping in from a high altitude, they were wearing special suits and masks to protect them from the cold and low oxygen.
Gale then strapped on his battle saddle and pressed the C-130’s cargo door button. The door opened causing a large gust to enter the hold. The team struggled to stay supported.
“Feels like we got a little turbulence!” Rick called his voice barely audible through the wind.
Gale checked the stop watch on his right hoof.
“Once we hit the ground head straight for the rendezvous point” he commanded as he pressed the timer on his watch. “Got it?”
The entire team nodded in agreement. With that, they did a quick check on their equipment making sure everything was in working order. Once it was clear everything was ready, the team prepared for their dive.
Gale being the squad leader was the first to jump out of the plane. While he had a backup parachute in case of an emergency, he didn’t use it, instead using his wings to guide him to the island.
Alan was next to jump out of the plane followed by Regina, Rick, and Static. The mission was simple: infiltrate the island stealthily
and obtain Doctor Kirk alive and unharmed and also pick up Stealth Wing.
Once the Doc and Stealth were retrieved, they were to head to the helipad that was located in the facility (Stealth had taken a photo of it) and call in the evac. It was supposed to be a simple mission. Or so they thought.
Gale had landing at the coast of the island beside a large cliff. According to the map that Stealth had provided, the backyard of the facility would be on top of the cliff. Thankfully they had climbing gear.
Alan and Regina were with Gale too. Regina was just standing waiting for her orders while Alan was getting their equipment. He approached Regina and handed her her gun; a Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine gun.
“Thanks Alan.” Regina thanked as she took her weapon.
Alan carried a Colt M4A1 carbine which was the gun he had used in Delta Force. He loved it and never attached himself from it. Gale also carried an M4 but his was mounted on a special battle saddle designed specifically for him.
The island was very quiet than normal, other than the sound of the wind, ocean, thunder, and a few small creatures, it was quiet.
However that silence was broken when they heard the sounds of someone’s footsteps behind them.
The three soldiers turned around to spot Rick running towards them with an M16A4 strapped to his back.
“Sorry I’m late!” he apologized with a bright smile “A wind gust blew me off course.”
“It’s time!” Gale quickly announced not caring for Rick’s story. “Let’s move out!”
He then headed for the cliff preparing to climb it. Even though Gale was a Pegasus, flying head first into an enemy base was not a wise choice. The enemy would spot him in an instant so he had to do things the old fashion way.
“Hey wait a minute!” Alan exclaimed to Gale. “Stactic is missing!”
Regina looked around and noticed that Static was indeed missing. This wasn’t good as he was their radio pony.
But Gale just kept heading for the cliff his hooves making a clip clop sound on the island’s rocks.
“Come one let’s go!” he ordered as he reached the cliff and took out a hook and cable.
Alan approached Gale and taped him on his right hoof shoulder.
“What a minute sir, shouldn’t we wait for Static?” Alan asked with concern. “He must’ve got blown off course.
“Forget him!” Gale stated as he wrapped the climbing cable around him
“But what about Static?” Regina questioned wondering why Gale wasn’t caring about that fact that their radio pony was missing.
“I said forget him!” Gale just snapped back without even looking at her. “Time’s up.”
Gale then began to climb leaving Regina, Alan, and Rick dumbfounded.
“Wait wait!” Rick cried out reaching out his hand and moving towards Gale but it was too late
Something just seemed out of character there for a moment. Regina had known Gale for quite some time and sure he could be a hard ass but he would never leave a team mate behind. Something was up.
She turned to Alan and Rick who just shrugged his shoulders in confusion.
“Come on guys you heard the Captain.” Alan answered as they headed to follow him.
Regina and Rick had no choice; they had a job to do. Who knows maybe Stactic might already be at the facility.
Static was lost, hopelessly lost. He had been wondering around Ibis Island’s thick forest woodlands trying to find his way. Unfortunately his parachute crash landed him in the middle of island’s thick woodlands and his radio was dead so he couldn’t contact his team.
“Dammit where in Celestia’s name I’m I!?” he cursed to himself stomping his left hoof on the ground in frustration.
He was still trying to find his way around but with no luck. While it was against his stealth protocol, the unicorn raised his horn and casted a light spell illuminating the dark shadows of the forest.
He carefully crept around his position trying to find out his position and location.
“C’mon Static, you’ve been in worse situations.” He assured himself. He just needed to remember his training and stay calm. He’d find his way back to his team; eventually.
Boom
Static suddenly felt a vibration on the ground that made his fur and mane stand on edge.
“What…what was that!” he gasped quietly as he shined his horn in the direction of the noise. He didn’t see anything though as whatever was making the noise was block by the thick brush and tree tops.
“Is somepony there!” he called out hoping that it was just nothing. Maybe he made up the sound in his mind.
Boom…boom.
The sound came back again, only this time, it sounded closer! The scary part was, they sounded an awful lot like footsteps. Giant footsteps.
Creeeeek CRASH!
Static jumped and whimpered at the sound of a distance tree crashing to the ground followed by a sound that made him shake in his horseshoes.
Rawwwrrrrr!
Static didn’t stick around. Quickly, leaving most of his equipment behind, he galloped away as fast as his hooves could carry him.
Something was out there; and it was hunting him!
Static heart’s was racing faster than he was running and he was whimpering like a filly that had just been separated from his mother. He dare didn’t look behind him but he could hear the creature behind him.
The booming sound of its footsteps combined with the rustling of the trees and falling trunks behind him. What was worse, the thing was catching up to him!
Raaawwwwrrrrr!
The loud roar made Static give out a crying whelp. He was panting and crying as he sprinted for his dear life! Adrenalin and endorphins pumped through his body and he sprinted trying to get away from this place.
He didn’t even watch where he was going he just ran
While still running, he turned his head back to see what was pursuing him.
“AHHHHHHH!!!!” he screamed at the top of his lungs at the sight he saw.
Behind him gaining up with him was a large bipedal reptilian creature! Larger and more vicious than a dragon and even hungrier! It was slender but very muscular and had a large wide head and a mouth filled with large pointed recurve teeth! It looked almost like a dinosaur!
Static desperately tried to get away but it was pointless and it was a useless fight. Petrified with terror, Static froze in his position watching helplessly as the giant creature charged up to him opening its mouth.
“AHHHHHHHH!!!!” Static gave one finally cry.
The last thing he ever saw was the creature’s large mouth enclosing around him as the beast silenced Static by gobbling him with one vicious bite!
Blood and guts sprayed everywhere as the creature chomped down on Static’s lifeless body making a crunching sound. Some of Static’s hooves and clothes came off as the creature swallowed him with one gulp.
Having caught its prey, the giant prehistoric beast arched it’s head back and gave a victorious roar at the full moon!
RAAAAWWWRRRRRR!!!!!
Welcome to Bloodbath Island!
Welcome to Bloodbath Island!
The START teams had infiltrated the base now and were in a small fenced in court yard. The moon stood full in the sky as the wind gave a loud breeze, hopefully it would help cover them.
“Okay this is the first checkpoint. Playtime is officially over fillies!” Gale Wind quietly addressed his team. Even though he was the only pony on the team due to Static being MIA, he still used his pony slang.
Gale turned out and carefully crept towards the door in front of them. The area they were in had three fenced in doors. One led to the facility’s backup generator while the other led to what appeared to be some sort of large service elevator. At least that is what the sign on the door said.
Gale, his battle saddle read for action, carefully observed the outside of the fence.
“Something’s wrong, the lights to the guard house are out.” Gale announced with alertness.
That was strange indeed. You’d think that an important military facility would be crawling with armed security, not that it was too much of an obstacle for them, but still, that was unusual.
In fact, not only was the guard house lights out, it appeared to be abandoned. The whole place’s power seemed to be out except for a few lights.
The windows were smashed open and shards of broken glass were lying on the ground.
Rick lowered his M16 and said “Ummmm, maybe this has been a wild night of partying for the guards?” he joked around. “You know a little song and dance?”
Gale just shook his head and silently signaled Alan to follow him. Alan nodded in compliance and took his M4 and carefully walked up next to Gale. Rick also came to but Gale shook him off.
“Stay here with Regina junior, leave the guards to me!” Gale bragged with a smile.
He went to the left side of door while Alan covered the right.
Gale silently counted to three and with that, he kicked open the door and stormed in the courtyard ahead, Alan following right behind him.
The sound of their hoof and footsteps and their guns clicking were audible but surprisingly there was no gun fire. Guess the guards were gone for whatever reason.
Regina walked up to Rick you appeared to be angered by Gale’s comment.
“Ha…hey! Did you hear what he just called me?” Rick answered very angrily keeping his M16A4 low.
But Regina shook her head and signaled Rick to calm down.
“Forget about it, just let Gale and Alan handle this.” She explained. She had been on several missions with both Alan and Gale.
Gale was a veteran and took a no nonsense approach to missions. To him, a mission was like a game of chess. He could be abrasive and brash at times but that’s just who he was. Alan on the other hand was much more casual and friendly. However, don’t let his young handsome age and friendly demeanor fooll you, he was a skilled soldier and had years of combat experience.
Ba beep boop, Rick’s wrist radio beeped signaling that the area Gale and Alan had just entered was okay.
“Alright, it’s clear!” Rick said with enthusiasm.
He and Regina headed out to the door and entered the backyard entrance of the facility. The ground was had three paths, one led back to their entry point, the one to the left was into some carry out area, Gale and Alan were examining the ground. The path ahead led to a door which entered an area of the facility.
“Okay let’s do this!” Rick announced with excitement. Because he was a rookie, he had a lot more enthusiasm than Regina had. “I’ll infiltrate the facility and occupy the control room on the first floor.”
Regina lowered her MP5 and nodded. Rick was a master computer expert and hacker. If you needed someone to crack a security clearance system, Rick was your main.
“I should have access to the security codes from there.” He explained. He then picked up his M16 and headed to the door to the facility.
“I’ll contact you guys as soon as I’ve cleared the room!” he addressed although Regina was the only one who heard him.
He opened and closed the door with a clank.
Regina, knowing that Rick could easily handle the inside of the facility checked her surroundings. She looked to her left and saw Alan next to Gale searching the area for any clues. Behind them was a large door which led to what appeared to be some sort of storage facility. Regina then noticed that Gale was squatting and touching the ground with his hooves.
What does that bronco thinks he’s doing? She thought to herself and headed to Gail, her MP5 in hand.
Alan went to a corner of the area where a chain linked fence and a door were at. The door led to what appeared to be an underground generator room.
Alan approached the door and tried to open it but it was locked. Alan shouldered his M4 and pulled out a lock pick kit from his uniform and tried to pick the lock.
Regina let Alan continue his busy and she went up to Gale. He was by a barbed wire chain linked fence which had a large hole in the middle.
Knowing Gale’s reputation, Regina put her left arm on her hip and said “Let me guess, this is some of your handy work right?”
But Gale ignored her and continued to touch the ground with his hooves. In his left hoof, he had what appeared to be a couple of 9mm brass casings.
“Hmmm, the brass is still warm.” He observed with a stern look. “These guards were shooting at something very recently.”
Regina took a look at the hole and noticed what Gale was talking about. Next to the hole were a few other pistol rounds besides what appeared to be blood stains. However, the blood was still moist and fresh.
It appeared someone was in trouble not too long ago.
“So who do you think they were fighting?” Regina questioned raising a hand with curiosity.
Gale shook his and head and answered, “This wasn’t much of a fight. I don’t think these guards hit anything before they got sliced and diced.”
He then pointed at the fence’s hole.
“Whatever they were shooting at came in through there. Then just ripped right through this steel fence.”
Regina took another look at the hole. The broken links were pointed outward towards them indicating that whatever created the hole came out from behind it. While it didn’t have any explosive residue on it, it did have what appeared to be fresh blood stains.
“Well other than some blood, it appears the hole is nice and clean.” She then looked at Gale “but I still say you could’ve done this” she teasingly accused.
Gale raised an eyebrow with a rather serious look on his muzzle.
“Very funny.” He said back sarcastically. “We still need to figure out what happened here. Let’s continue to sweep the area.”
He then turned to Alan.
“Lieutenant!” he called Alan by his rank.
Alan put away his lockpick and stood on both legs again.
“Yes Gale?” he called back.
Gale knelt back down and continued to examine the shell casings.
“You and Regina go inside that storage room and take a look around.”
“Roger!” Alan answered with a nod as he grabbed his weapon and headed to the sturdy door.
He and Regina carefully took positions on both sides of the iron door. Regina held her MP5 in both hands while Alan kept his right hand on the M4 and his left on the door’s handle.
Regina gave the signal and Alan opened the door. Alan stormed in followed by Regina and the two drew their guns just in case there were any enemies hiding in the place.
They lowered their weapons though as the place was free of any enemy guards. The storage room appeared to be untouched and was stuffed with boxes and stands piled with useless tools and other knick knacks. Next to the opening door was a small forklift along with a few bags of cement.
Alan and Regina began to inspect the area. Surely there had to be something useful they could use. The shouldered their weapons and began searching through the boxes and crates. They also checked out a few documents they found scattered around there.
Nothing of much use though; just a couple of security and repair reports.
“Hey Regina did you find anything yet?” Alan asked as he closed the lid on an empty fuel jar.
Regina shook her head as she searched through the nearby shelf.
“No,” she replied “nothing yet…wait a minute.”
She moved aside a couple of power tools and worker’s files was a small key labeled “Generator G1”.
It must be the key to the area that led to the ground level’s backup generator. Well there was nothing left to check in the supply area so they headed outside.
Gale was still investigating the hole in the fence trying to figure out what could’ve ripped through such a hard fence.
Regina was heading to the door where she had entered through from the backyard when her wrist radio signaled with a distinctive “ba too toop” beeping sound.
Regina put her radio to her ear. It was Rick.
“Rick here I’m in!” he reported. “The place is deserted though! I have a very bad feeling about this.”
Regina raised an eyebrow at this information. Indeed, just like Rick, she too had a bad feeling. It is quite possible a third party had infiltrated the island.
But who? The Russians? The Chinese? The North Koreans?
“How’s the progress going with that security program?” she asked Rick. Maybe the security system could provide them with more info.
If a third party had infiltrated the island, they were most likely also after the doctor.
“Well I don’t know what’s been going on her but… it looks like all the power in this facility’s been cut!”
Regina nodded her head and replied “Same here.”
“Well as long as that’s the situation, there isn’t a lot I can do.” He explained “Why don’t you see if you can gain access to the backup generator on the ground level.”
“I’m on it.” Regina answered. She then turned back to Alan.
“So what did Rick have to report?” Alan asked.
“Well it appears the place is empty and the power has been cut.” She explained.
Alan’s face suddenly turned to curiosity and disbelief.
“Damn!” he cussed back. “Did he explain how or why?”
Regina shook her head. “No, not a clue. He wants me to restore power to the backup generator.”
Alan nodded his head with understandment.
“Okay, then you head to the backup generator and see if you can turn it on,” he explained “I’ll head into the facility and try to do some recon of the place. If the place is deserted it’s very likely a third party may be involved.”
Alan then handled his M4 and left to entrance to the facility.
“Hey wait a minute!” Regina called to him. “Are you sure?”
But Alan turned back with a smirky smile.
“Relax Regina!” he practically laughed. “I’m point man, it’s my job to charge head first into an unknown area!”
Regina smiled and laughed back.
“Alright, just don’t try to get yourself killed before I get back.” She joked back.
Alan giggled and entered the facility. As Regina was about to head outside, Gale stepped in front of her from finishing his investigation.
“What are you doing here?” Regina asked sarcastically.
But Gale kept his same serious expression and tone. Regina and Alan often tried to play jokes on Gale from time to time. A popular game was “Get Gale to smile for more than two seconds”. Winner had to buy the loser a drink.
“I got the last part of your conversation.” He explained.
“Okay.” Regina said. “By the way I found a key.”
She held out her hand and showed Gale the key to the backup generator.
“Hand it over.” He practically demanded as he took the key from her hand with his hoof.
“Let’s head outside!” he ordered as he tilted his head towards the door. Gale entered the area where they had just come in and Regina followed with him.
Back in the area where they had first dropped into the backyard, Regina turned to her right and approached a door next to a notice which read “Restricted Area: Pathway. Backup Generator G1”.
Regina carefully opened the door and entered the area which led to the background generator.
The path to the backup generator was largely empty with an empty fuel tank in the corner. The ground was covered in what
appeared to be brown stone while more steel fences kept the boundaries enclosed.
Behind the fence to the right were crates and to her left was the cliff they had climbed to get up there.
Regina walked down the pathway and noticed that it was very twisted and curved like a snake. But the thing that she noticed the most was that there were large stains of blood on the ground.
With her MP5 carefully in tow, she kept heading down the path noticing there were larger stains of blood as she went on.
The path ended in what appeared to be a large square area with another small path to the upper right corner which led to a medium gray building.
Regina then saw Gale, he was kneeling down on the ground staring at some sort of red blob.
Regina walked up and approached Gale cautiously. Soon she smelt the smell that you never forget once you have smelt it and she then realized what Gale was examining.
Right next to Gale was the torn apart body of a dead zebra soldier.
He appeared to have been torn to shreds as his rear hooves ripped off and tossed aside. His throat and underside torn open reveling his ripped jugular vein which was still leaking very fresh blood. The zebra's black stripes were replaced with blood and tooth and claw marks which were huge and tore straight through to the zebra's exposed bones.
His organs were hanging out, barely clinging to what little tissue and ligament was left while his lifeless tongue stuck out all dry and stiffen. Flies were buzzing around feasting on the corpse and coagulated blood leaked from his lacerations.
A jammed AKM rifle was lying next to his hooves.
“That’s disgusting.” Regina stated very jokingly.
It wasn’t that Regina didn’t have respect for the dead, she did, it’s just that in her line of work, you see men and ponies get blown to pieces and torn apart all the time. You become desensitized to graphic violence.
Gale just stood there and shook his head at the body.
“This zebra’s been eviscerated.” He stated. “Something tore his jugular right open.”
Regina knelt down to get a closer look. That was when she noticed that many parts of the zebra had signs of claw and teeth marks. It was also coated with some sort of saliva residue.
“Look at those tooth marks!” she showed Gale. “It had to be some sort of animal.”
Some bits of the zebra’s flesh were chewed and gnawed on. It appeared that whatever had killed him had also eaten him. What could’ve done this to a zebra soldier?
There were so many possibilities. Maybe the base was attacked by an enemy special forces team that had attack dogs.
But she had never seen dogs with teeth or claw marks that big.
She also noticed several bloodied track prints which were obviously non human and pony.
They were square shaped and almost had a reptilian like appearance to them.
Gale got up and shook his head.
“Okay, let’s move on.” Gale said with a cautious look in his eye.
Regina got up to and followed Gale to the path which led to a door. Gale then stood next to the door and kept the M4 on his battle saddle mounted in ready.
“I’ll stand guard here,” he explained as he pointed his hoof at the door. “You go on inside and take a look around.”
Regina nodded and walked up to the door and opened it, heading inside.
The inside of the backup generator room wasn’t actually very big. It was cubed shaped and the walls and floor was gray colored with electronic gadgets and devices coating the walls.
At the center of the place was a large cylinder shaped brown generator which had enough energy to power the ground level of the facility in case of an emergency power outage.
All she needed to do was figure out how to reactivate the generator. She walked down the square pathway until she reached the far corner to a glass casing which inside contained several electrodes and four cylinder batteries.
What was interesting was that the batteries had these weird colored rings around them. There were four colors: white, green, orange, and blue in that order.
She then looked to the right and saw a large panel with buttons and switches on it.
She then noticed at the top were four lights: orange, blue, green, and white in that order.
Bellow the case was the batteries were stored, were four buttons.
Out of curiosity, Regina pressed one and with a loud whine, and apparatus shifted the white and green battery around.
That was how she noticed the pattern. In order to activate the generator, the batteries had to be inserted into their outlets in the same order as the colored lights correlated on the activation panel.
A little complex and puzzling but hey, she didn’t build the facility.
She pressed the buttons and rearranged the batteries so they were placed in the correct order; orange, blue, green, and white.
Once that was done she turned to the activation panel. She scanned the panel looking for a way to activate the backup generator until she saw a small notice.
“In order to activate the backup generator Press ‘Push to Close’”
She looked at the bottom of the panel and saw a round green button which read “Push to close”. She pressed it and with a loud whine and hum, the batteries were automatically inserted into their outlets.
While at first nothing happened, Regina noticed several small lights on the panel located on the side of the generator lit up and the generator gave a loud rumble and began vibrating. This indicated the generator had been successfully activated.
Regina smiled to herself.
“Rick I think you’re in business!”
RATATATA RATATATA, RAHHHRRR, RATATATA
“AHHHH!!!”
Regina jumped when she was suddenly interrupted by the sounds of gun fire and a male scream.
Regina gasped at this noise because it came from right outside of the generator room. Gale was outside!
“Gale!?”
Without hesitation, she ran to the door and exited the generator room.
The outside was the same as usual but Regina’s fears were confirmed when she noticed Gale was missing! Where he had stood guard was small splats of blood and several 5.56 NATO brass casings.
“Gale!” Regina called. Hopefully Gale was still alive.
If he was dead, there would have been a body but there wasn’t.
When Regina was scanning the area looking for Gale, a very loud snarl made her jump. She lifted her MP5a3 and kept it at
shoulder aim.
She walked down following the trail of blood.
Oh please Gale! Please be alive! She begged in her head. Despite his tough attitude, she and Gale had been working together quite a ways. He was almost like a father figure to her.
But her heart skipped a beat when she saw that to her right was another ripped hole in the steel fence.
This hole however led to a very steep cliff. Regina gasped and stuck her head out the hole.
“GALE!” she called out desperately. Sure Gale was a Pegasus and could fly, but if he was injured, his flying could be severally handicapped.
“GALE!” she called again this time louder.
Little did she realize, in the distance, a hungry beast had heard her calls…
The reptilian beast was gorging on its dead zebra prey when he heard the call of “Gale”.
It lifted its head and sniffed the air. The scent of another human was in the air. Intruder!
The beast bared its fangs and snarled as he headed towards the direction to kill the intruder.
Regina lifted her head out of the whole fence and turned around towards the path. That was when she noticed that not only was Gale missing, but so was the dead body of the zebra!
Where the zebra soldier had once lane was now a larger pool of blood followed by a trail of blood which appeared to have been caused by drag marks which practically went down the entire snakelike pathway!
Regina suddenly heard the sound of something approaching her. It sounded like something fast and swift was jumping along the crates behind the fence.
Regina looked up and gasped with horror as she saw a large creature snarl and jump with great height from the crate and down on the ground right in front of her!
The beast was reptilian and bipedal standing on two strong muscular legs. It was slim and muscular and covered with scaly skin and supported by a long whip like tail. It’s back was a darkish brown color while its underside was a brownish tan.
It was armed with a long snouted head with jaws which were filled with razor dagger shaped teeth which had fresh blood and the smell of meat and death on it while it’s two arms ended with three sharp clawed fingers. The creature arched it's back and lowered its reptilian head as it gave a threatening growl.
On the creature’s feet were three toes each having a razor blade claw.
But the most distinctive feature was the middle toe had a larger crescent shaped claw which also had fresh blood on it.
The creature’s predator eyes stared at Regina with primal hunger and snarled at her giving her another good look at its teeth.
Regina slowly backed up and raised her MP5.
“What is this!?” she gasped to herself at the creature. But she knew what this thing was.
She had seen a skeleton of this creature many times in a museum and most memorably, in that Steven Spielberg film she saw in the theaters with her first boyfriend ten years ago.
As hard as it was to believe, she was staring face to face with an actual living dinosaur! More specifically, a velociraptor.
Regina lifted up her gun and tried to fire but the creature was swift and charged at her screeching and snarling with its claws displayed.
Regina lept and rolled out of the way barely escaping as the creature charged past her crashing into a nearby wooden box. In the process, Regina lost her sub machine gun.
Having no time to retrieve her lost weapon, she quickly got to her feet and entered flight mood.
She panted heavily as she sprinted faster than she had ever sprinted before, while the path was only a few meters long, it felt like several miles. Her heart raced and her vision was tunneled, her only focus was on escaping.
She could hear the raptor’s footsteps and snarls behind her but she dared not look back. The only thing on her mind was getting to the exit and heading to the facility.
Maybe she could find shelter in there.
She finally reached the door and quickly opened and shut it. The raptor was still right behind her as she could hear it breathing.
She then ran to the next door which led to the backyard entrance where she and Gale had first begun investigating. Once she got out there, she would run into the facility, hoping to find Rick and Alan.
She practically sprinted into the area, slamming the door behind her and locking it. As she took a few steps forward she heard the raptor’s snarls behind her. Turning around, she saw the raptor creeping her behind the fence still vicious and bearing it's teeth.
Regina pulled out her Sig Sauer P226 (the standard issue sidearm of START) but thankfully the entrance fence was too large for the creature to climb or jump over. The raptor made multiple attempts at trying to jump over the fence but it was unable to find a way to grip the holes to climb.
The raptor snarled with anger and gave one final roar and before turning around and fleeing.
Regina breathed a big sigh of relief as her adrenaline began to lower. In all of her days as a professional soldier and spy, she had never seen or been through a situation like that. Her moment of relief was interrupted however by the sound of the beeping of her radio. She put it to her ear; it was Rick.
“Good news! I got the control system back online!” Rick exclaimed on the other side of the signal. “What’s the situation over there?”
“It’s Gale!” Regina immediately panted back. “I lost him!”
“Huh, so what’s the bad news?” Rick said with sarcasm. “Did you run into some guards?”
Regina hesitated for a bit. Still in disbelief, she finally had to explain what happened.
“Y-you’re not going to believe this but…” she struggled to explain “He was attacked by some kind of…DINOSAUR!”
She practically yelled. On the other line, she heard Rick howling with laughter.
“Whooo hooo!!!” he laughed “Now that’s a good one! So, who was it? Barney?”
Regina bared her teeth and growled, “This isn’t a joke you idiot! We were just attacked by a big assed lizard!”
Rick sighed and answered “For real, what’s going on over there. Alright, meet me at the control room and we’ll sort out this whole situation.
Regina nodded as Rick electronically transmitted the location of the security room to Regina’s radio.
Regina swallowed hard as she approached the door to the facility. She couldn’t believe this. First Static, now Gale! She hoped Alan was still safe.
With hesitation, she turn the handle to the door and opened. The scary part is, the whole facility could be crawling with those prehistoric reptiles. But she still had a job to do.
She breathed deeply and entered the facility. But still, a part of her brain told her that something was seriously wrong with this mission.
