Cosmonaut

Chapter 2: New Faces, New Obstacles

"Ok, you can be the Arach bad guy. And I'll be the ECD soldier!" said Jade

"Why am I always the Arach?" Cosmo pouted.

"Because I said so." she replied with a taunting tone, "Now you'd better run, 'cause I'm gonna blast ya!"

She took to the air and flapped her little wings. Cosmo ran and hid behind a tree. Jade flew around and pretended to be holding a gun in her hooves.

"When I find you, you rotten Arach, I'm gonna throw you into an airlock." she said playfully in his direction.

She flew near a bench that was sitting nearby. Cosmo jumped out from behind his tree and let out a shrieking whinnie. He jumped on top of the bench and then launched himself on top of the green Pegasus. They fell to the ground and began rolling and wrestling. Cosmo managed to pin her down.

"Aha! Gotcha, you nasty Equestrian!" He pretended to slash her neck with an invisible knife. "Now can I please be the soldier?" he said using his regular voice.

He loosened his grip on her and she flew up into the air.

"That would be unfair to you because I can fly and you can't so that would mean that..."

He didnt hear the rest of her explanation. Cosmo looked behind her and saw the wreckage of a flaming Arach Switchback barreling towards her. He jumped up and tried to get her attention.

"Jade!" Cosmo sat up in his bed and hit his head on the roof again. He winced from the pain and placed his forehooves onto his aching forehead. After he was done groaning from the pain, he reflected on the dream he just had.

A ping sounded in his pod, shortly followed by a calm male voice.

"Private Cosmo, it appears that you are awake."

Cosmo rubbed his fore head and said, "Yeah..."

"Affirmative. It is under Commander Mustang's orders that you report to the armory today rather than the starboard turrets, since your gun and platform were damaged."

"Sure. Whatever you say."

The voice switched off. Cosmo pressed a button and the bed slid out of the wall. It was a casual day more or less. Ponies that didn't have any duties at the moment milled about and chatted with others. Cosmo slid from his bed and trotted towards the armory. Before he could leave the stasis section, Ratchet caught up with him.

"'Ello! How's your day goin'?"

"Good. I can't do anything right now though. I gotta report to the armory." Cosmo replied

"What the hey, I'll follow ya!"

"Don't you have turret shift?"

"Eeyup." he smiled mischievously

Cosmo nodded and continued towards the armory with his friend. They made random small talk on the way there.

"So you come from Ponyville?" asked Ratchet.

"Yup. My mom has lived in Ponyville for over ten years. My dad, well... He doesn't really talk about his past."

"Hm. I'm actually from Sagitar IV. From Cloptropolis."

"Whoa. That's like the biggest city known to Equestrian history!"

"Yeah. Sometimes it gets pretty overwhelming, the volume of ponies that are around. It often feels like Cloptropolis is the only place in the universe that ponies inhabit."

"That sounds like a cool place to visit. When we get out of this place, you should remember to invite the Sparkle family."

"Forget you coming to Sagitar IV! I'm coming to Ponyville! It sounds peaceful."

Cosmo smiled, "On the occasion."

They had reached the armory. The door was sealed shut so that ponies couldn't get in and mess around with the weapons. There was a camera installed in the door. Cosmo peered at it.

"Um, Hello...?"

"Yeah? Whaddya want?" crackled a voice from a speaker below the camera.

"Um, I'm private Cosmo. I'm supposed to report here because my gun turret was damaged."

The camera panned over to Ratchet, "And who's he?"

"He's a friend." He quickly added, "He won't mess around. And if he does you can report him."

Ratchet shot a glare at Cosmo as the camera voice said, "A'ight. C'mon in."

There were some heavy clicks within the door, and it began to slide open. The two colts trotted inside. The armory wasn't what Cosmo had expected. It looked more like a gun shop then an armory. A dark gray colt trotted from around the counter.

"Welcome to the armory, boys! I'm Brass by the way."

"Hi. Cosmo." he said even though he introduced himself at the door. He realized his repetition and mentally face-hoofed.

"Name's Ratchet."

"Good t'meetcha! Let's get to work, shall we?"

Brass motioned the two ponies into a side room as he pressed a button on the counter. The door began to slide shut as Cosmo and Ratchet entered the side room. A mare was sitting at a table, cleaning a gun. She looked up from her work at the newcomers, as Brass walked in.

"Fellas, this is Violet." he gestured to the light purple mare.

"Oh, hello." she said quietly, giving them a small wave. The two colts introduced themselves.

"Now that all the pleasantries are over with, let's put you two to work." he pointed over at some guns that were lying on the table, "We have only a few left, but we need to clean these guns, so just grab one and me and Violet'll show ya how it's done."

Cosmo grabbed a gun and went over to were Violet sat and sat next to her. She began demonstrating how to disassemble the gun and then clean it.

Cosmo began to observe the mare that was teaching him. She had a short, straight lavender colored mane that obscured her eyes from view. Her fur was a dark pink or a light purple, either one. She noticed him looking at her.

"W-why are you looking at me?"

"Just making myself remember what you look like." she looked at him weirdly before continuing on with her explanation.

"Alright guys." said Brass, addressing Cosmo and Ratchet, "Violet can finish up these last guns. Why don't we head out to the range and make sure these babies work correctly?"

"Hell yeah!" shouted Ratchet

Cosmo had only shot a gun before at the recruit training center. It wasn't the most pleasurable experience. But he still nodded.

The three colts carried the cleaned guns through a door and placed them on a table in the firing range. They each took a gun and loaded a clip with five bullets into each one.

Cosmo noticed that Brass was wearing a metal frame around his chest and back and had holes for his Pegasus wings. It had a rack on it that was meant for a gun. Brass slid the gun onto the rack and then focused on the target down range. Suddenly the gun fired on its own. It appeared that Brass had a machine designed for Pegasi that allowed them to carry guns.

Cosmo pulled his attention to his own target. Using his magic to hold up his gun, he aimed and pulled the trigger. The kick from the blast nearly wrenched the gun from Cosmo's magical grasp. Still he continued firing. The clip ran out and he set the gun down in the "Working" pile.

Ratchet was already on his third gun. And he was having a lot of fun with it.

"Yeehaw!!!" he screamed over the gunfire

Brass smiled and said, "I like this colt! He's got spunk!"

They continued to fire the guns until they had checked them all.

"Alright boys, let's take the working ones and put 'em in the racks."

Curious about what that meant, Cosmo and Ratchet carried the working guns back into the side room. The laid the guns down on a table and then focused on Brass, who was pulling out a plastic rack of sorts.

"This 'ere's a rack. We place the guns in the slots, and then we put the full rack into that tube." he pointed at a tubelike compartment.

"What happens to the rack?" asked Cosmo

"Glad you asked! The tube sends the racks all around the ship. The guns land in the dispensers that are located about the ship."

Cosmo nodded. They began loading the guns into the rack. Each rack held five guns. When a rack was filled, Brass hoisted it up into the tube. Much to the delight of the two colts, when the rack was loaded, it went shooting down the tube with a "wooosh" noise. They continued to do this until they ran out of guns.

"Phew. That's all of 'em." said Brass, wiping his sweaty brow, "I guess that means your work here is done boys!"

The two low ranking colts beamed with pride and satisfaction.

"You two are always welcome to the armory." said the gun Pegasus with a smile, "That is, of course, only when you're free from any other duties." he looked at Ratchet, who blushed.

"Now run along, you two. I gotta find out where the hay Violet went. I'll see Cosmo tomorrow, not sure about you though." he pointed at the silvery earth pony.

The two recruit colts left the armory and trotted back to the stasis rooms.

The Next Day

Fortunately, Cosmo didn't slam his head into the roof when he awoke. He got out of his bed and stretched. Ratchet walked up to him, his silvery hair was messy and uncombed.

"G'mornin'." he said sleepily.

"Hey." Cosmo replied through a yawn.

"My legs are still sore from all the work from yesterday."

"Yeah. Me too."

The two sat in awkward silence for a moment. Then Cosmo said, "Well, I'd better head to the armory again."

"Yeah sure, you do that. I got busted for ditching yesterday, so I gotta report today. I'll see you later." he waved his hoof as he turned to leave.

"Bye." Cosmo turned and headed to the armory.

When he arrived, Brass gave him a warm welcome and brought him back into the side room. Violet was there again, this time loading up the plastic racks with guns.

"We have some more guns that need to be sent to the dispensers." said Brass, "Why don't you go help Violet since you have some experience."

Cosmo nodded and trotted over to help the purple mare. Brass left the room and headed to the counter. Cosmo and Violet filled a rack and then placed it in the tube. Cosmo noticed that Violet was really struggling with the task.

"Why are you struggling?" he asked

"Because, this is a pretty challenging task." she said without any irritation.

"Wait, haven't you done this before?"

"No."

"But, don't you work here?"

"No. Normally I would be working in communications, but the receiver was damaged, so I was sent here."

"Oh, that makes sense." he said, "Sorry. I thought you actually worked here full time."

"Nope. I'm actually somewhat glad to be here, because I give company to Brass. He must get pretty lonely here."

"Oh yeah... He does work here alone."

They resumed their work and began filling a second rack. As they were placing the filled rack into the tube, the entire ship suddenly shook. The vibration from the ground caused Violet to stumble and drop the rack. Brass came running in as the guns clattered across the floor.

"What the hay was that?" he said

Before either of them could answer, a voice crackled over the intercom.

"Attention all crew! We have been breached by multiple Arach carriers. Please take up arms and make your way to the escape pods. Be advised, Arach soldiers have penetrated the ships interior. Please avoid the following areas: Cargo bay C, Cryogenic Stasis D, Starboard Turrets,  and Hallways 13, 14, and 17." The message then began to repeat in a recorded loop.

Cosmo felt a wave of worry rush through his body at the mention of the Starboard Turrets. Ratchet was there. Cosmo shook his head. Ratchet was a tough pony.

"He can take care of himself." Cosmo thought

"Damn... Hallway 17 is in between us and the airlocks. We'll  have to go around." said Brass

"Where? All the other hallways are cut off as well!" said Violet, her voice was rising in pitch with worry.

"I don't like saying this, but it looks like we gotta go outside and make our way around to the pods." Brass said grimly

"Wait, what? You mean out there?!" Cosmo pointed towards a thick window that showed the expanse of space beyond.

Brass nodded and Violet began shaking in fear.

"We should all probably grab a gun, just in case." said Brass

Before either of the frightened ponies could respond, Brass rushed into the other room. Cosmo frantically pulled a gun off of the wall and grabbed as many ammo clips as he could. He noticed that Violet was still shivering in the center of the room. Cosmo cantered up to her.

"Hey Violet, you okay?"

She shook her head. Cosmo placed his forehooves on her shoulders.

"Listen, you gotta do this. I know you're scared. I am to! But we can make it through this."

"I don't have any weapons training... I can't use any of these." she gestured to the collection of guns around the room.

The ground shook again. Violet let out an "Eek!" as she flinched.

"Alright. Uhhhm..." Cosmo looked around for a something that the purple earth pony could do, "Why don't you carry extra ammo for me?"

She looked up at him and nodded. She quickly grabbed some saddlebags and filled the pockets with clips. Brass ran back into the side room, carrying a giant gun in his gun attachment thing.

"We'd better get movin' soon. The Arachs are probably going to spread through the ship."

Violet returned with her bags entirely filled with the bullet containers. The three ponies nodded to each other and left the armory. It was somewhat chaotic outside. Ponies were running down the hallway, grabbing guns from nearby dispensers, or motioning for others to proceed. When the armory doors opened, ponies swarmed inside to get a weapon. Brass, Cosmo, and Violet side stepped the stampede and proceeded down the corridor. The number of ponies thinned, as most of them went in different directions.

"They probably have a good reason." thought Cosmo

The group turned a sharp corner and headed towards the maintenance airlock. Several other ponies were already there, putting on spacesuits. Cosmo set his gun down and put on his suit as quickly as he could. Once all the ponies had their suits on, they opened the airlock door and stepped inside. The door slid shut and sealed. Then slowly the door in front of the group of ponies opened.

The entire feeling of space was very strange. It felt like Cosmo was walking through a muffled cloud. He could hear the breathing of the other ponies through the speakers in his helmet. Cosmo could hear and feel the muffled sound from the ship's cannons. The ponies started trotting forward, the lower gravity propelling them through the smallest steps.

As they glided above the surface of the ship, they saw through some windows, several Arachs moving down the corridor with large guns in their grasp.

"Oh sweet Celestia! This can't be happening!" said a yellow mare.

A brown colt spoke up in response to the mare, "I'm just glad that they're in there, and not out-"

He was cut off when his helmet suddenly shattered, exposing his head to the empty void of space.

Cosmo watched in horror as the ponies eyes bulged from his head. His mouth was gasping for air that wasn't there. Because of the proximity of a nearby star, the veins in the ponies neck began to writhe. The radiation from the sun was, literally, causing the colt's blood to boil. The ponies lifeless body slowly floated away from the surface of the ship.

Cosmo turned and looked at the thing that destroyed the colt's helmet. Several Arachs in space suits appeared over a large duct. Brass pointed his gun at the aliens and fired. One of the Arachs went limp in the almost zero gravity. The group of ponies scrambled to take cover as the Arach soldiers began firing. The spacesuit of a mare was torn to shreds as she was hit with a barrage of bullets. Cosmo aimed his rifle at the head of one of the Arachs and fired. The lens of the Arach's helmet shattered and golden blood sprayed from the bullet wound.

The last two Arachs looked at each other and then jumped towards the cowering group of ponies. One of them was taken out by Brass. However, the other jumped on top of a colt and punctured his suit and skin with a wicked blade. The Arach then turned its attention towards Violet. It leaped forward and brandished the knife at the purple mare. She stood, frozen in fear. Cosmo quickly drew his own knife and jumped to intercept the Arach's attack. He slashed at the Arach and cut a tube that was connected to the creatures nostril/chest. It began to writhe in the low gravity and then went limp. Cosmo continued to glide in the direction of his jump until a unicorn colt with neon orange fur used his magic to catch him.

"Are you okay?" Cosmo asked Violet

"Yes, I think so. Just shocked." she replied shakily

"C'mon." he said to the entire group, "We'd better keep moving.

Some of the ponies were observing the floating bodies. But their attention was gained and they continued on. When they reached the other airlock on the opposite side of the ship, everypony let out a sigh of relief. Some of the ponies were still grieving about their fallen friends outside.

"C'mon everypony! We gotta get to the escape pods!" yelled a mare in the group as they removed their spacesuits. They all ran down the hall and saw the corridor with the escape pods ahead.

As the first pod was being filled with ponies, sounds of gunfire came from down the hallway. They turned and saw a wave of gunned Arachs heading towards them.

"Get into the pods!" yelled Brass who was pushing ponies into the pods

When all the other ponies were in, Violet, Cosmo, and Brass jumped into the last remaining pod.

"Close the door!" shouted Violet, as the sound of the Arachs' hoof steps grew louder.

The door clicked shut as the head of an Arach became visible. The three ponies audibly exhaled and slumped to the ground in relief. Brass quickly got into the pilot seat and flipped a bunch of switches.

"I'd sit down if I were you. This ride is about to get pretty bumpy." he said

Violet and Cosmo sat in the many passenger seats and strapped themselves in. Brass pushed a button and the pod jettisoned away from the E. S. C. Pontiac.

"Looks like the other pods are heading towards-oh SHIT!!!" Brass said.

An Arach Vulture suddenly appeared. It fired several shots at the escape pod. One of the shots connected and caused one of the three thrusters to explode. Cosmo was thrown forward. The small craft turned and began spiraling towards a small green planet. Cosmo was plastered to the wall as the g-force tugged at his face. He opened his already clenched eyes and looked at Violet. She was screaming her throat raw.

Cosmo then blacked out from the immense pressure of the g-force.