The Dauntless

The Dauntless: Two weeks after The evacuation of Helgan: One hour too destination.

The lone cruiser made its way through the vast void of space, Nothing but darkness and the cold greeted the ship on its journey. The dim glowing blue engines slowly pushed the large meal beast toward the distinct planet although there ware no more fires it was clear as day to see the gaping hole that the MAWLR had made for it on its escape attempt, successful but at a cost. The men aboard the ship we're tired, miserable and sill shaken up from the events before but eager to see there family's again.

Charleston walked down one of the ships corridors at a moderate pace not having to be any ware at the moment he had time to think some things over. He was just as eager as everyone else on the ship to see family again but there was a lot of things had to be done before than. The ship was in poor condition and was undeniably going to be a rough landing and that was only the first step, After a lot of checks had to be done before anyone could leave the launch base and go home and that was only going to be for a short time. Sooner or later the Helghast would launch anther attack on Vekta, enraged by the fact that the ISA killed there soon to be emperor.

Walking past two marines one on a ladder the other next to it with a clipboard and leaning on the wall behind him, they we'er fixing a few components that lay hidden in the sealing of the hall. "Please don't tell me that all that navigating and thruster cooling shit's not on us to fix?" The one on the ladder asked.

"Na don't worry navigating systems are buggy but working and same go's for thruster cooling" said the other marine "But Major Donaggio's taking it easy on the engines other wise we would have landed a few hours ago" As Charleston was just passing them the one with the clipboard acknowledged him "Captain" he said looking up at him. He only responded with a nod as he continue down the hall.

The PA system flared to life with Donaggios voice. "All personnel prepare for landing in one hour I repeat prepare for landing in one hour"

Charleston couldn't help but hear muffled cheers form the crew as the amusement ended. Continuing to walk down the hall sill over hearing the marines talking about repairers as they worked.

Charleston almost collided with Rogers all he stepped out of a door way with the sign rec room above it. the only time's anyone was aloud in the room was when it was traveling from planet to planet with low risk of enemy encounters. After two weeks of no signs of Helghast Donaggio authorized it after one week when repairs we're done.

The two greeted each other well making there way down the hall. The hallway ended no to far from where they we'er, it than opened to the left and right with both with halls that wrapped around the cruiser with big glass windows that looked out into space. Charleston and Rogers stopped in front of the window and looked out at the green and blue planet that slowly got closer with every passing minute. The two only stood there in silence and watched the planet below slowly spin.

"I honestly never thought i would see it again" said Rogers

"See what?" Charleston asked

"Vekta... I'ts... i don't know... weird to see it again"

"I know what you mean"

"Look" Rogers stated as his eyes moved to the floor "I'm really sorry about what happened a month ag-"

"Don't" Charleston cut him off not wanting to think about what happened.

"But-"

"I said don't... i don't want to think or talk about it"

"Alright ... but i think you should talk about it to someone when we land"

Charleston didn't say anything but tuned and stated walking again, heading into a door that led to one of many sleeping quarters. Rogers didn't follow, continuing to look out the window with his hands behind his back. Charleston fond his bed and laid down, normally captains would have private quarters but since this was'int the ship he was assigned too there was none available. The cruiser that held his room with all his belongings was long gone having been destroyed once the Helghast attacked the New sun. But he didn't mind not having a private bed and it was only for two weeks. Charleston rested his head down on the pillow not bothering to remove his helmet as some would disagree he found the helmet to rather comfortable. Closing his eyes Charleston slowly drifted to sleep.

BOOM an explosion rocked whole cruiser followed by a series of consistent alarms as the room went dark soon filled with orange emergency lights flashing as they spun on the wall. The explosion rattled the whole ship and awake Charleston form hes slumber could hear muffled voices just out side the door all ready trying to figure out what just happened.

"What the hell was that!?"

"Are our own guys firing on us!?"

Than the speaker come on and answered. "THIS IS CAPTION DONAGGIO, THE LANDING STABLES GAVE OUT WE'ER GOING DOWN! GET OFF THE LOWER LEVELS AND BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

Charleston Could feel it now, the ship was falling, tilting slightly to one side almost dumping Charleston off the bed as the ship built up speed in the planets gravity heat and eventually flames in cased the whole ship as it rapidly plummeted to the ground but it was a ship built for war and long space travels so it only made since that it had a great resistance to heat and cold. Enough to stand falling out of orbit at lest.

Charleston was quick to react and grabbed the closest rail to him. Clipping a strap that hung from his waist to the rail and waited for impact. Charleston didn't see how this would help but its what they were told to do in the event of a crash landing, the ship had loops all over that you cloud clip into if need be. This was Charleston's first crash landing in a cruiser that wasn't a drill but it wasn't likely to happen to someones who's infantry and spends most of their time on the ground close too or on the fronts lines. Although he had hes fair share of intruder crashes. By some small miracle Donaggio managed to slow the speed of the fall greatly increasing the chance of living. Charleston just stood there with nothing but a strap and his own grip between him and death hoping for the best. Hearing a deafening crash as metal ripped, screeching as it tore apart, Charleston was flung from his braced position. Then nothing ... absolutely nothing, But darkness.

The Arcturus shortly after the evacuation of Helgan:

"Sir we're out of the MAWLR's weapons range" said one of the bridge crew as he worked away at the console that lay in front of him.

"What about the other cruisers?" Asked captain Dallas.

"The others didn't make it sir"

"Wait. Captain!" said an different crew member getting his attention.

"What is it?"

"The Dauntless made it but..." He begun to trail off.

"But what?, Soldier" The captain responded

"It's going the wrong direction and doesn't seem to be turning around"

"Can you contact them?" Dallas asked

"Iv'e been trying but I'm not getting an response" Answered an another crew member"

"Shit, No one gets left behind track the ship as soon as we reach home well get anther cruiser looking for them. But for now I'm afraid there's nothing we can do. We have to leave before the Hig cruisers find us"

"Yes sir, Setting course for Vekta now"

By all means Dallas never wanted to leave the other ship behind but he had no choice, It was ether that or risk being destroyed by the Helghast just like the others.

Equestria:

"Oh no..." Twilight said under her breath as she watched the burning object crash into the ground not far from her home town. All of her friends watched in mute horror not wanting to think what if it hit ponyville. What would happen to their family's, homes, friends?.

Rainbow dash took off sprinting toward the crash with out warning' only stopping when her name was called. "Rainbow wait!" Called Applejack after her.

"I'm going to fly ahead and make sure noponys hurt!" Rainbow said taking to the air before Applejack could slow her down any more. The rest exchanged looks before running after Rainbow who was ready way ahead.

"Twilight wait up!" called Spike how was behind the rest trying to keep up with his short stubby legs .

"Come on Spike!" She called back to him, Using her magic to pick him up and place him on her back well running.

Rainbow dash flow as fast as her wings could take her she had to make sure nopony was hurt. As Rainbow was getting closer the object begun to look more like metal and less like rock as she expected it to. What ever it was it was tall, towering way above the trees at a odd angle. When she was all most there something caught her eye, something that made her stop and look, something that wasn't right, it looked like a name written on the side in bold white letters "Dauntless" said Rainbow as she let it roll around in her mind confused as to why and what is this thing?. After Rainbow snapped out of her daze something in her mind told her it wasn't a good idea to stay in the air and she agreed. Diving down in to the trees Rainbow barley even realized it was the ever free forest even if she did curiosity had the best of her. Rainbow dash slowly made her way to the crash site it was easy to tell where it was due to the smoke she wasn't moving nearly as fast any more and the thick foliage wasn't helping.

'Thump' 'Thump' 'Thump'

Rainbows blood went cold at the noise, It was getting louder witch meant it was getting closer and judging by the sound it was big. Rainbow jumped off the trail and went straight for a bush a large one too, not wanting to take a chance of what ever was coming to see her rainbow mane and tail only letting her eyes show. She waited of what ever was coming, hoping it wouldn't see her and keep going but what Rainbow saw not even the wonder bolts academy cloud have prepared her it. Two large figures that seemed to be made of metal came in to view one in front of the other. They walked on two legs of which seemed to reach over what Rainbow assumed to be its head, Its torso was long with two arms coming out of it one arm seemed to be larger than the other as well. On its forehead was the numbers '371' the other '378'.

Than it spoke "Exo one hold up I'm getting multiple life forms"

Dash froze 'Life from?' she thought hoping what ever it was wasn't refereeing to her.

"Exo one to Exo two, of curse you are, its a forest I'm getting them to" said the one in front. Dash relaxed at this letting out a breath of air she had been holding in.

"I know but this ones ...different" She tensed back up at this.

"What do you mean, different how?"

"Its allot ... bigger"

Than something leaped out of the bush next to Dash and smashed into the one in front letting out a roar as it did so. The metal beast was taken by surprise and was forced to take a few steps back with the fore of something hitting it. Only wean it stood still could Rainbow Dash see what it was, a manticore stood facing the Exo in a defective position ready to attack at any moment, and it did just that the manticore clawed at the medal beast seeing that wasn't doing much it brought its tail down on the its right arm, the smaller one Dash noted. She would have found the fight exciting if it wasn't for how serious it was, it wasn't like the daring dew books. Rainbow noticed its arm was not bleeding like she thought it would have but instead it was sparking.

"Get it - Get off me!" The metal beast called to its companion. The other one moved fast and quickly to get a better view of the attacker, far faster and agile than Rainbow Dash thought possible for its size and bulk. Then the end of its right arm flashed well letting out aloud crack witch made Rainbow jumped in shock at the noise as her ears went flat on her head. The manticore let out a cry of pain but wasn't going down with out a fight, it grabbed the left arm the same one it had attacked before with all its strength ripped its arm off using the creature own leg for leverage. Once it was off it was weakened but the manticore no longer had a hold of it ether, the Exo used this to its advantage stepping back than lunged foreword as what seemed to be blue flames shot out from its back, Rainbow Dash could not make any sense of what she had just witness it was by far the weirdest things she had seen one of this things do. The metal best slammed into its attacker sending it back a few feet on its side as the other one let out anther loud burst into the manticore as blood spared form the body.

Rainbow Dash only watched in horror not even sure what just happened. She looked to the metal monster that only had one arm left and the other hanging loosely at its joint with claw marks all over its main body. Rainbow's only thought was how much it must have hurt to have cuts that deep and one arm missing but it didn't seem to be phased by it, it didn't scream didn't cry and it didn't bleed unlike the manticore who wasn't moving any more but in stead it was sparking.

"This is Exo two I've sustained heavy damage, critical weapons failure" Said the now one armed creature. Then a different voice spoke that didn't sound like the two present, faint but still loud enough for her to hear.

"Exo Two this is command I head shots what the hell just happened?!"

"Not sure sir, something just attacked us, it looked like some kind of animal"

"Copy Exo Two, Exo One what's your status?" The other spoke this time.

"Fully operational command"

"Copy, Exo Two fall back to base, Exo One continue forward sweep"

"Yes sir, resuming forward sweep"

Rainbow Dash waited until both of them were gone before moving. She approached the motionless manticore, as a thought crossed Rainbows mind one that should have passed awhile ago 'did...did they just kill' she swallowed 'a manticore?' She only looked at the dead body not wanting to get any closer. Dash looked to the arm that was laying on the ground so she decided to get a closer look at it. The arm basically looked liked two hollow cinders stacked on one anther with metal sounding it. Despite it only being an arm it was all most bigger than her. Dash kicked it, the only response being dull metallic thud not soft as she expected, no blood no smell no nothing and it was cold not warm, it was just a hunk of metal. 'maybe' Rainbow thought 'maybe it was not a living been ...but how would that work? what in Equestria is this thing?'

  A wave of fear washed over dash as she remembered that one of those things were heading straight for ponyville. And if those things could kill a manticore that easily she didn't want to think what it would do to her home and friends. But there was no way she was going to let that happen Dash raced into the air and bolted to where she left her friends.

It didn't take long for her to spot them, they were not to far from the town now all of them running side by side. Than she spotted the 'Exo' as she heard them referred to, It wasn't far away ether soon it would be at Fluttershy's cottage she only hoped it wont hurt her animals for Fluttershys shake.

Rainbow landed with a thud in her friends path as they skidded top a halt kicking up some dust as they did so each on of them panting heavily but spike who got a ride in stead. Rainbow spoke first in a almost panicked tone with fear in her now wide open eyes. "Twilight you have to get princes celestia right now!" she spoke all most to fast for Twilight to hear her clearly.

"Woh slow down Rainbow is it that bad?, What was the noise?" Twilight responded her voice now sounding panicked.

"No time to explain we have to stop it before it gets to ponyville!"

"Stop what!"

"Rainbow! slow down and tell us what happened" Apple jack interjected.

"Okay well" Rainbow stated trying to find the words to explain what happened. After Rainbow explain what she saw in detail but brief, Fluttershy tensed up during Rainbow's explanation but she had left out the part about the manticore being killed.The rest just looked confused before fully understanding what Dash said.

Twilight took action "Spike take a note"she said.

"I'm all ready on it" said spike.

hr]

The Dauntless: After the crash

"CA--IN-!" Every thing was a blur nothing more nothing less only a dull persistent ringing in his ear. "CAP--IN CAN YOU H--- ME!" A figure blurred in and out of focus but Charleston couldn't make it out as his head throbbed and hurt like hell. "CA--AIN --U HAVE TO WAK- -P!" Someone was screaming as the voice burled in and out but what it said he couldn't tell "CAPTAIN W--- -HE FUC- UP!" Charleston found a new pain hes face it stun like something slapped him and hard. But It helped make every thing become clear as he saw that it was Caparza that had hit him well standing over him Charleston could see smoke behind him witch reminded him what happened form the crash to now. But he couldn't remember the impact, just falling and waking up.

Caparza turned around and shouted to someone well waving his arm on the air. "The Captain's awake!"  He tuned back to Charleston as he made a move to sit up. "Easy, you took a pretty nasty blow to the head but lucky for you your helmet saved you, split in two"  Charleston moved his hand to fell the bandages around his head, it felt wet. Removing his hand and looking at it to find a small trace of blood on his finger tips, looking to the side he saw a helmet that had a large crack down the middle but was not in to pieces. Miller ran up beside Caparza with a white helmet and red cross on it, he looked down at Charleston and knelled all most immediately replacing the dressing on hes captions head with fresh ones as well as disinfecting the wound.

"The good news is you don't have a concussion or at lest not big enough to be noticed" Said Miller well he worked with the gauze.

"Where's Rogers?" Charleston asked not caring about his state.

"Same as everyone else, running around like chickens with there heads cut off" Replied Caparza clearly stressed out.

Wade rolled his eyes "He means trying to save survivors and savage equipment sir" Millers fist name was wade. Wade's all ways the caring and nicest one, he puts up with Caparza like the rest of the platoon with was more of a squad now.

"And Jackson?"

"Don't know sir, haven't seen him since the cruiser"

"Sir!" Called a voice seeming form nowhere.

"Well look who decided to show up" Caparza said in a mocking tone to Jackson.

"Unlike you I was helping to save lives instead of standing around!"

"I well have you know I'm the one who pulled the caption out of that burring pile of shit!" Caparza retorted well pointing at the wreckage of the dauntless which was now sicking out of the ground at an odd angle like a spear thrown into the earth form a distance. Its bridge was high in the air with shattered windows that poured smoke into the ski.

Jackson open his mouth to speak but was cut off by Charleston before he could say anything. "That's enough!"

"Yes sir, Sorry sir" Replied Jackson.

"Kiss ass" Caparza said well turning away form the group well Jackson stared diggers into his back.

Only now did Charleston noticed they we're in a opening of a forest, a dense one at that. Luckily the crash didn't set it on fire which he was glad for not only because it would add to the list of problems but because he was tired of seeing fire and a black and grey landscape,  ...so tired. "Help me up" he said to Miller. Hesitant at first he reached a hand out to his commanding officer

"What are your orders sir?" Asked Miller as the rest turned to look.

"My orders?, what did Caption Donnagio say?"  All of them just looked down or avoided eye contact.

Miller was the first to speak "I'm s-sorry sir but ...Donnagio... he d-didn't make it" His words stun like ice "None of the bridge crew made it"

"They were fried in the landing, your in charge now sir" said Caparza in a all most sympathetic tone. Charlston didn't know what to think or what to feel at the time everything felt empty he didn't feel sad or mad, just nothing.

"We need to set up medical tents and maintenance bays, use the scarp metal. I want all available engineers working on surviving armour"

All of them stared at him. "Sir with all due respect" Jackson started "Is that necessary? they will come and get us in a matter of time"

"Now's not the time to question orders!" Charleston snap at him "I want a full sweep of the area, use the Exo's" as told everyone left to spreed the order giving. Rogers was jogging up to Charleston from were he had being standing and he had a spare hamlet in one hand with the two silver bars that represented caption.

"I think you will be needing this" He said with the hamlet out stretched. Taking the helmet and placing it on his head he was happy to see that it covered the bandages.

"Thanks, what's our status?"

"Better than I thought, most or the armour survived including AAPC's, Archer's, Exo's, Jeep's, Intruders and a few HAMR's" Rogers responded.

The last one he was happy to hear, the HAMR IFV a heavily armed combat vehicle designed with 8 large all-terrain wheels with the rear doubled with two, which in conjunction with its powerful engine gives it a reasonable amount of manoeuvrability and enables it to traverse rough terrain. Reasonably strong armour, and can survive an impact from a dedicated anti-tank weapon like the VC9 Rocket Launcher and continue to operate. We didn't or did we ever have a lot of them but its our best bet at what ever the higs put in our way.

"But sir, do you really think were not on Vekta?"

Charleston sighed "No I don't, Now I want a full seep of the area, I want to know whats out there before it know were here"

"Yes Sir, right away sir" Rogers said and with that he was off.