Flight of the Avali: Season 2

Initializing Combat Scenario #1:

Boot Sequence Initialized…

Loading Plane:

Plane Loaded….

Planet Name: Avalius Prime

Danger Level: 3

Loading Dungeon: UNCS Planetary Prison 3

Mission Goal: Escape to the local Orbiting Body where Evac is waiting.

The large gathering of Equestrian Soldiers, including Shining Armor, were prepared, alongside the others who had come including, Spike, Ember, Trixie, and Gilda. Enuili and Nightbloom were inside as well. Although the rest of the crew didn’t come to the training, they were preparing the equipment and any foodstuffs they’d need for the main mission.

“Alright, gather around, you wanted a mission… here we are. Something… ‘basic’ for the most part. Probably far less dangerous then whatever we’ll get into on the planet… but, it’s always better to be over prepared for things like this.” Enuili began, the security room now loading in around them. On the video monitors on the security rack they could see the back end of whatever riot occurred, some areas were rather bloody and coated in gore, others still had prisoners beating guards to death on them. The more sickening ones were flickering before going out, alongside the rest of the cameras as they were taken out.

The glimpse they got of what could be considered the worst included prisoners ripping into guards and…

“This is a Level Ten riot. The rest of the guards are dead. We’ve been cracked out of cryosleep… the last resort, but our goal isn’t to shut down the riot.”

He pulled up a holoscreen and everyone was treated with the sight of a simulated orbital bombardment… except it didn't seem to simply strike from the air.

“A-are those engines on the moon?” Gilda muttered quietly.

“That isn’t a moon.” He smirked. “There are tractor beams on the planet, meant to prevent ships from leaving without permission from the orbiting satellite. We have to make it to… here…” He pulled up the cracked and nearly gone surface of what was once the moon. “The moon of this planet… the other orbiting device is a failsafe. In this prison are some of the worst prisoners in this sector… Cultist, cannibals, rapists, you name it… they’re locked up here. They stopped worrying about mental health when the UNCS fell. Then everything else fell apart after Earth was annihilated.”

All the creatures present blinked a few times as it set in. “What… the hell are we doing here?” One of the guards asked quietly.

“Escaping… of course, you’re not in any real danger. Should you reach your physical limit however…” He tapped a few controls and now right in their helmets vision was a bright red bar. It remained just in the top left corner of their vision, almost like a HUD from a video game. Underneath it was a blue bar. “Those are your health and energy bars. Weapons you pick up no longer require ammo, your armor and suits can replicate bullets but they require power to do so… Of course there are ways to increase that power supply, and how quickly it recharges, but… we’re doing here won’t require it.”

“So, if the health runs out?” Ember inquired.

“You’ll be kicked out of the simulator. Well more like… teleported out. You aren’t in any physical danger here. Unless you push yourself to your limits and do things you shouldn’t do.” Shining answered. “Am I right?”

“Yup. And to add on… there are ‘medicines’ that are in here that can regenerate your health, or allow you to ‘heal’ rapidly.” Enuili continued on, “There are different ways of getting out of here… we can take the most direct path, and cut a swathe through the prisoners… going from cell Block Z to A, or find a more stealthy way of doing it. Of course, plan so you can react if the plan fails… as really, no plan survives direct contact with the enemy.” He chuckled quietly, “Any questions?”

The others looked around and started arming themselves… except Trixie who was realizing she was out of her element… like, incredibly out of her element. “or does anyone want to leave?”

Trixie was about to raise her hand…but she didn’t. Instead, she shuffled over to a weapon case and pulled out a strange looking weapon. “What’s this?”

“That is a laser repeater… it’s a bit different from most guns that fire actual projectiles. Instead this fires a highly concentrated beam of energy that’s capable of turning biological matter to ash, or melting electronics.” Enuili answered. “We’re running this scenario and one other. Hopefully both are unnecessary but, we need to be prepared for more then just a safe and easy trip to whatever is creating the nanites.”

“Right! And who actually knows what we’ll be facing anywhere…” Shining nodded, glancing to the other guards with them who were prepared for a fight.

“Hm. I’d like to see whatever’s causing this stand up to a dragon.” Ember smirked, giving Spike a nudge. He was less enthused, checking his gun and muttering quietly to himself.

“I’ve got enough energy in my tanks to take down a small army… why doesn’t it feel like it’s enough?” He grumbled to himself.

“Depends on what you mean by small… the last recorded population of this planet was Four and a half trillion. So… let’s take that down to a tenth at the very most… We’re dealing with at least four hundred and fifty billion prisoners if we executed each and every prisoner by hand.” Enuili said, his voice unwavering. As if that many lives in a prison were… normal.

“F… four and a half trillion?” Gilda murmured, all of the others freezing up and looking to him.

“We should only have to deal with…. around fourty thousand up through the path we should take. If even that. If we’re stealthy and don’t engage groups, or take out everyone… then we shouldn’t alert them further to our presence.” Enuili nodded, checking his gun, “Whenever you’re all good to go… we’ll head out.”

The silence in the room was palpable now, the bravado some of them had was melting away as the gravity of the training they were about to undergo hit them.

“Well… we’ll do our best. Let’s get our asses in gear, yeah?” Spike stood up, shouldering his gun.

“Yeah.” Shining and the guards nodded, joining him in finally standing up with their new weapons. Gilda and Ember were next to join them.

Trixie let out a sigh. “I’m going to regret this… but it’ll be worth it in the end.” She mumbled to herself. She lifted up her weapon and walked over.

Under his helmet Enuili’s ears twitched, he knew none of them were prepared. Not even he was… not missing an arm, or with his current mental state. But, this rag tag group would be going in regardless. No matter how much he tried to weed them out.

“Good.” He walked over to the door and pried it open, peeling the reinforced steel back to give them an opening. “Then, let’s be on our way… we’ve got little time to waste!”