A Danger in the Stars

Chapter 3

The drop pod shook as I felt my seat vibrate, making it seem like a massage chair. If it weren’t for the metal straps that were keeping us attached, we would most likely have been thrown around. The entire thing shuddered and jolted, causing me to shriek in fear as I went through the bumpiest ride I could ever imagine. The inside of the capsule was now dark, its lights turned off as part of procedure since they believe the light could escape when the hatch is opened during night operation, leaving me in utter darkness.

Sure, my suit’s helmet had thermal and night vision, which would have enabled me to see through the dark, but I was too busy panicking at every sound of metal bumping to figure that out. Although now that I think of it, it would have been really cool to see the flames, using thermal vision, as we streaked through the atmosphere.

I could feel my stomach lurching at every movement as I fought the urge to let my lunch from seeing daylight. Luckily for me, I won the battle, but that didn’t mean the weird feeling left me. There was something about having your body be messed around by gravity that made one feel like they were in a blender.

It felt like that somepony was shaking the pod, trying to mash up the contents inside. The echoing of metal sounded inside, giving away an eerie feeling, as if the pod was about to burst apart and burn us in the flames. Good thing it didn’t, since it managed to stay in one piece. Although if it did break apart, nopony inside would have felt it, since it would do so in such great speed that everypony would have died instantly.

A loud bump echoed from the top, and I again shrieked in panic. It was the sound of the drag shoots deploying, as it tried to slow the drop pod’s speed to a lower value. This action would bring a sudden shudder and decrease of speed to the pod and its occupants.

I then felt a sudden jolt as I felt my stomach and body weight shift to my head, creating an irritating feeling that can be comparable to a massive cramp. If that said cramp engulfed the entire body.

This sudden shift of weight was one of the many effects of sudden entry to a planet, as your body is played with by the gravity and sudden change of speed below. A normal soldier would have experienced this thing at least five times, during training drops, before actually doing it in combat.

But for me, this was the first time I experienced a drop. Having no time to train new recruits, the E.S.F. decided to do something called ‘on the job training’. In short, it meant that I and a bunch of unproven and ill trained ponies had to experience things like this without proper guidance.

I suddenly felt light headed as another bump echoed from above. I felt that I was having difficulty on focusing on things as I saw a flashing light alarm on my heads up display. I tried to read what it said, but my light headedness made that too difficult, as I had trouble interpreting the words.

“Hey, Silver Shine, did you switch your suit to drop mode?” I heard the Sergeant’s voice say in the intercom. “Because my P.S.I.S. is telling me that you are in the threat of passing out.”

The Platoon Status Interlinking System or P.S.I.S., was an wireless interlinking system that connects all the suits in a platoon. Each Mk. 10 suit was designed to have equipment that would keep an individual pony’s vital sign in check. It would tell them their heart rate, perspiration status, and would direct the suit’s healing system to any injury the pony takes. This system is connected to a larger system, which is the P.S.I.S.

The P.S.I.S displays the basic vital signs of each individual pony to the platoon leader, so that he or she would be able to know the status of all members of the platoon. It would inform the platoon leader of the location and health status of everpony in the platoon. It makes for an easy way to know if that pony is alive or dead, with only a glance at the helmet’s display system, rather than trotting up to him or her and checking.

The P.S.I.S in turn is part of an even bigger system which is the C.C.L.D. or the Command Control Lead Display. The C.C.L.D is a system available to company commander, who would have an entire overview of their company. Thanks to the C.C.L.D, they are able to know the status and location of each platoon, thanks to the information given by the platoon leader’s P.S.I.S.

A single company is composed of three platoon, each led by a platoon leader (Usually a sergeant) and composed of a dozen ponies. This gives the Company Commander a total of thirty-six ponies to command, which would be difficult to track in a fast pace environment where cohesion and organization would be difficult to keep.

So with the P.S.I.S and C.C.L.D in place, leader would be able to keep track on their unit’s progress, without having the trouble of losing a single pony.

But right now, as the drop pod descended towards the planet below, my suit was sending a cry for help towards the Sergeant, requesting for some assistance.

Realizing my mistake, I mentally switched my suit to drop mode. It took all my best effort, as I was at risk of fainting, but I managed to do it. I sent a message to my suit, via neural sensors, telling it to go to drop mode.

I immediately felt the effects of the switch, as pads on the legs began squeezing, tightening on my legs and pushing the blood up. The squeezes given defer for the need, as it identified the amount o pressure needed. Turning the suit to drop mode helped the user in this high gravity situations, since it tried to keep blood going to the brain. Normally, a suit must be turned to drop mode before the drop pods were detached from the ship. But in my great fear and panic, I must have forgotten to do so.

But despite that fact, the system helped me a lot, since I didn’t know the muscle contraction maneuver to keep blood heading towards my head; the suit did the job for me, by squeezing blood to my head preventing me from losing consciousness.

“Umm…it is now, Sergeant.” I said sheepishly.

I could hear him sigh through the intercom. “Sometimes I think that these new recruits are made to kill themselves.” He muttered.

“Alright troopers…” He called out to everypony in the platoon. “…get ready. We only have five hundred feet to go before the main chute deploys and when that happens I want everypony to get out as fast as possible.”

Only platoon leaders and officers had their suits connected to the suit, enabling them to know the altitude in which the pod was currently was. I wished I was able to see it too, but unless I make platoon leader, which was highly unlikely, it was not going to happen.

“No hesitating, and when I say that I mean you, Silver Shine.” He called out.

“Y...yes, Sergeant.” I replied, already feeling nervous. To be jumping from five hundred feet and with nothing but your two jets to stop you from going plat was something I didn’t look forward to.

A sudden jolt took hold on the pod, as the pod went to a sudden decrease of speed. If I wasn’t strapped down to my seat, I would most likely have been flung around.

That was when my metal straps, the ones that kept me attached to my chair, cut off, as it removed its hold on me and freeing my from its restraints.

“Alright, let go, go, go!” The Sergeant shouted, as a sudden bursting sound echoed inside. The sudden burst brought another jolt, shaking the pod.

I turned my head towards the source and could see light entering the pod, as the large hatch on the end was blown away.

The sound of metal hooves tapping on metal could be head, as one by one, the members of the platoon jumped out into the unknown. I nervously followed, using my hooves as a guide as I followed the patch of light. If only I remembered to turn of the night vision, then I wouldn’t be going through the trouble of bumping into the bits and pieces that protruded inside the capsule.

After tripping once in a while, as I made my way to the hatch, I finally got to my destination. Without a second glance or hesitation, like the Sergeant ordered me, I jumped out into the open air, falling towards the ground at high speeds.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” I screamed as I fell, spinning around like a helpless piñata. Flinging my hooves around, I felt helpless to the effects of gravity and the forces of nature.

“Hey!” I heard Ruby Cloud call through the intercom. “I know you’re new to the job, but could you at least remember what they thought you. You know? Deploying your jets.”

“Yes…” I said as I nodded, although I doubted she could see that. “Jets, yes that would be a good thing right now.”

The air streaked by me as I, a pony wearing a heavy metal suit, fell from the sky at great speeds. Remembering the crash course session I had about this, I deployed my jets, by using my neural sensors so that I could activate them. Immediately, two one foot sized cylinders deployed on the side of my suits and fired up.

I gave it a ten second burst, enough to slow down my speed substantially. This reduced the speed of my fall and gave me control on the direction I was going. The gravity of the planet we were landing on was equivalent to the gravity of Equestria Prime, so it would need a lot of thrust to push me through the air and bring me to a gentle landing.

A red cross appeared on my heads up display, indicating that this was the spot marked, by the Platoon Sergeant, as out landing zone.

As I sent a fifteen second burst on my jets, letting it push me closer towards the landing zone as I started to get closer to the ground, I noticed a powerful and magnificent sight above me.

Falling from the sky were hundreds upon hundreds of drop pods, parachutes deployed as they slowly descended towards the ground. The grey parachutes spread open, as they remained attached through a strong cables that manage to carry the weight of the metal pods. There were so many of them that it looked like it was raining pods.

Deploying from the pods were thousands of armored ponies, dozens coming out of each pods. They only came as green dots on my helmet’s display, marking them as friendly, but that didn’t remove the effect of the sight.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m doing a PR mission, but there are no the words to describe the sight.

What I saw was the might of Equestria, the Equestrian Space Force and its planet side branch, the Troopers. The ones in charge of taking a planet and holding it till the last pony. This was the strength of our space faring nation, as every member of its colonies join up as one. Join up to be the powerful Equestria we are. Just goes to show how powerful Equestria and its colonies are. Too bad we aren’t strong enough to defeat the enemy below us.

As I continued to stare at the large force with great amazement, looking left to right to see armored ponies zipping to their drop zones, I didn’t notice how close I was getting to the ground. I was too busy looking up, that I didn’t even bother to look down till my helmet’s display flashed red and alerted me of my possible impact to the ground.

Panicking and sweating, I brought my jets to full thrust, hoping that it would be enough to slow down my fall. The jets worked at maximum power, trying to slow down my speed as flames spurted out of them.

Luckily for me, the sudden thrust and push brought me to a less deadly speed when I finally hit the ground. I manage to activate the jets just in time, so that I would be able to slow down my descent.

With a loud thud I landed on the ground, tumbling down to my hooves and plotting myself, muzzle first, on the dirt. I manage to bury the tip of my helmet on the ground as I landed with my fore hooves down and rump in the air. I didn’t feel any pain from the impact, as the shock observers took the brunt of it. Although I have to admit that my landing was not a text book maneuver and was practically embarrassing.

I felt dazzled and confused, and remained so until Ruby Cloud came by to help me up.

“Not as graceful as us pegasi...” She said, offering her hoof, which I accepted. “…but for a rookie, like you, I would say that it went well, one hundred percent.”

“Thanks, I think?” I said, as I got up.

Well, her I was, on a far off planet, ready to claim it for Equestria. Although I wanted to explore the stars and land on far off planets when I was a filly. I would have preferred a way to achieve it without getting myself killed or scared half to death!