Chapter: 2. Gear up

Chapter 2: Gear up

Spike and Isaac were feeling quite good to be honest. The juma juice that they were drinking were like alco-soda on earth, but a bit stronger, and they have been drinking quite a few of them. When they decided to walk back to Spikes room they stumbled about a bit, but nothing worse than that occurred, other than Isaac groaning in pain as he bumped his leg into the door frame walking into the room. Isaac looked around the room, it wasn't the biggest but it was enough of course.

"So..."

He started as he leaned against the wall.

"Where's that spare bed you talked about? "

From where Isaac stood there seemed to be only one bed in the room, which was correct, there were only one bed in the room. Spike walked over to his bed and pressed some buttons on an interface next to it. A robot arm came out from under the bed, holding what looked like a big metal tray and with a buzzing sound it opened, like a hatch and a mattress came up.

"There, I have a pillow and a blanket in a cupboard over there if you want them, some people sleep without any, oddly enough. "

As he said this he pointed to a cupboard above the desk where he had his computer. Isaac walked over to it and opened it taking out a pillow and a blanket, putting them on the bed.

"Thanks for letting me stay here, by the way. "

Spike smiled at him. " No problem man, I started to get lonely in here anyway. "

They both chuckled and undressed as they were heading to bed. Spike looked at
Isaac with a question in mind as he was reminded of his cyborg eye.

"How does that thing work?" He asked straight out.

The juma juice had made him a bit less careful about asking since normally he would put Isaac's feelings into consideration, and that loosing an eye and having to get that cyborg eye could be quite a horrifying ordeal in itself.

"Oh, this?" Isaac answered and pointed to his cyborg eye.

"Yeah, how do you see with it? I mean does it look like the other eye? And is
it on all the time or can you blink with it?"

These were all questions that Isaac could both easily answer and he also understood
why Spike had asked them.

"It sees like the other eye, its just modified so I can choose to see heat signatures, night vision or normal sight. And it’s on all the time, but i can shut it off when i go to sleep and it automatically switches on when i wake up."

To show Spike that he could turn it off on command he turned it off. The eye shut down, the blue light that emanated from it stopped.

"There." He said, smiling at the "Cool!" expression that Spike had on his face.

"Now its like I would be having my eyelid close." He explained as he went onto the bed and wrapped the blanket around himself.

"Ah, cool. So how did you lose your eye?" Spike asked him, hoping to get an answer to this question too.

Isaac yawned and turned around facing in the other direction away from Spikes bed " I’ll tell you that story some other time. Goodnight, Spike."

"Goodnight."
...

When Isaac woke up Spike wasn't in the room, he guessed that since Spike was working and had to do the duties assigned to him. After he had taken a shower and memorized the room number he went out to explore the ship for a bit and to find out where the liner were heading. First he thought of visiting the nurse, Fluttershy. But he thought that she probably had patients to deal with and his leg wasn't hurting so he skipped that idea.
He did feel a bit hungry though, so he decided to try to find the dining hall and to get something to eat.

The liner weren't the easiest ship to navigate with its elevator and colour systems. And the ponies that tried to help him didn't succeed very well in teaching him either.

"This is the red west section, so you'll want to take elevator 10 to blue
west and then go to blue east, and take one of the elevators there down to
yellow east. When you’re there you’ll find it for sure. The dining halls are in the middle of the yellow section."

A brown pony who looked like a doctor, since he was wearing a white coat, and also had orange hair that funny enough looked like a muffin, explained to Isaac how to get to the dining area. Isaac still didn't quite understand the system, but lucky for him there were a soldier pony that had overheard their conversation and offered to lead him to one of the dining halls, which he accepted.

The main difference that Isaac noticed with the ponies, compared to the horses on his home planet Terra were that, for one, they spoke, and they walked on their hind legs and had hands. In every other feature they seemed to be similar to the horses back on Terra.
When they arrived at the dining hall Isaac thanked the soldier, the soldier went on with his patrolling.

Isaac went into the dining hall and looked around. There were ponies everywhere and he noticed a line along one of the walls leading to where they got their food. He grabbed a tray and stood in line, he noticed that he got a few looks but he didn’t let it bother him, the most logical guess he could come up with was that he was the news of the ship. He did set off both the patrols and the whole liners slip-stream alarm, and not only that, he met more than twenty soldiers showing no fear at all and as he did, it seemed like he was the one giving orders.

After he got his food, he looked around for somewhere to sit. As he turned around with his tray and plate he noticed a pony, or unicorn to be precise, who sat alone as she were eating, she seemed to be reading something on a holopad, but he couldn't see what it was. He walked over to her to ask if the table was available.

"Can I sit here?"

She looked up and when she did, he recognized her, she was the purple unicorn that had commandeered the soldiers when he arrived at the liner in his fighter.

"Oh, hello there!" She smiled at him and closed a window on the holopad that she had
next to her tray of food.

"Yes, you can sit here if you feel like it." She continued, giving him a smile.

Isaac nodded and sat down, placing his spoon in the synthetic mashed
potatoes that he had chosen. He had also chosen something that looked like a
live squid, slowly waving it's tentacles around, unable to move away from the
plate.

" I didn't really expect to see you here Isaac, getting to know the ship? "

He shrugged and started to eat, taking a spoon full of the mashed potato before attacking the squid creature with a fork and a knife.

" I was just trying to get something to eat and then sit down somewhere and
relax, might go to the cantina later. "

Twilight looked at him, still smiling. She seemed to be interested in Isaac
himself in general, and she listened to what he said with a clear interest.

"How is the pay here by the way?" Isaac asked and looked over at her. She
giggled, he had the end of a tentacle sticking out the edge of his mouth. he noticed that himself and chuckled, slipping it back into his mouth before he started to chew.

"Well... " she started, her tone having a very ‘it’s not really worth the effort’ feel to it.

"To be honest, pay is quite low and we work a lot for little pay. But we need
the work, and goodness, we need the credits even more! " She sighed.

"I have a good position though, I do administration so I have it alright in the credit department but, it's boring. I want to be more, on top of my job and really do stuff, you know? "

Isaac nodded slowly, he knew exactly what she was talking about." Yeah, I get it. Want to do stuff hands on, work with your friends and you want to have a little excitement, right?"

She lit up as he said this, a bit shocked that he managed to be so correct " Yeah, totally! that's exactly what I want to do! "

Isaac nodded again, for the same reasons as she have now, he quit what he used
to do and became a mercenary, he couldn’t stand the boredom and the people he worked with at the ship mechanic company he worked at.

It was a dangerous change, sure, but he and his gang of mercenaries earned a good lot of credits and with the credits they bought better weapons and equipment, which heightened their chances of surviving and finishing missions they were payed for.

He noticed that Twilight were looking at him again, and that she had said something.

" I'm sorry, I was inside my own head for a second there, what did you say miss twinkle? "

" Sparkle. " She corrected him. " And, I was asking what you are working with. "

" Oh, how weird, I was just thinking of that! " He answered.

" I work as a freelance
mercenary."

This statement made Twilights eyes get wider.

" Mercenary? Like in getting payed to kill? "

" Amongst other things, it's not just about killing, many times we have to retrieve information,
people to think your way and lots of other things. "

" Aha. " Twilight looked like she understood. " But isn't it dangerous? "

" It can be very dangerous at times, but if you have a quick trigger finger and cool nerves, you’ll survive.”
Isaac though for a little while, and then he got an idea.

" Twilight? Could you and your friends meet me and Spike later in the cantina
after the work shifts? " He asked, building on his idea in his head.

" I think so..." She scratched her chin. " Want to have a friends night out? "

He smiled at her. she’s so willing to get a new friend.

" Kind of, I think I have something we can talk about. "

...

They both finished their meals while they were chatting, and when they were done Twilight had to go back to her shift, leaving Isaac alone in the dining hall. As Isaac put his
empty plate and tray on a conveyor belt that lead to a big dishing machine he started to think about Spike.

" Yeah... he will want to be a part of this too! "

...

Spike sighed, these mechanics were so fucking stupid.

" I've already told you, my supervisor told me that she would pay for the repairs on the human ship as long as you proper repairs, all right? "

" But we can't really do this due to regulations, since it's not a ship that is used in the liner for work or patrols. "

They tried to use excuses for not having to do the job, even though they already started to do some repairs on the ship, so Spike couldn’t see what the problem was.

" Just do it or else I'll make sure that officer Sparkle will give you overtime
with no pay, got it? "

They sighed and went back to work, they were tweaking with the engines since they noticed some damage on them that kept the ship from flying at maximum speed.

Spike turned around and walked away, writing a message to his supervisor,
Twilight sparkle on his holopad.

" We have to get firmer with the mechanics! Even though I informed them that you said that the pay for their work on Isaac's ship will be taken care of, they still came with excuses! They have already started the repairs too. I guess they found more damage than they thought they would and got lazy! We have to get better people down here! Damn this cheap trading guild with its low pay and cheap people!"

He sighed and put the holopad in the belt he had on his overall. He walked out
the hangar and started to head towards the elevators going to the red section,
he wanted to go back to his room and check on Isaac. To see if he were doing
all right and had gotten something to eat. The corridors were as filled as they usually were at this time. The whole liner were getting ready to arrive to the Sander trading docks ahead of schedule. There were actually going to arrive the next day instead of 3 days. He heard a bleeping sound from his holopad and picked it up. It was a reply on the message he sent to Twilight. He opened and read it.

" I am fully aware of the problems with both the workers and the pay. Believe me, I am just as annoyed as you are Spike, I will try to get better people, if the admiral is ready to get the message. On a side note I just had lunch with Isaac, he told me that he was a mercenary. Here I though it just meant guarding important information and getting payed. But he does all kinds of things, or did. He seems to be a nice person, he wanted to meet me and the friends at the cantina after hours, will you be coming along? "

" Meet at the cantina after hours?" Spike thought to himself. " Maybe he wants
to get to know us a bit better? Doesn't seem like a bad idea. "

The elevator opened and he noticed that Isaac stood inside it.

" Hey Isaac! " He greeted and went in and stood next to him.

" So, I heard you ate lunch with Twilight today? "

Isaac chuckled. " Yeah, I just wanted to sit next to someone and it happened to be her. "

The elevator door opened and a robotic voice said. " Red zone west. " They stepped out and Isaac followed Spike, heading down the hallway.

" You have some weird things going on with your food though. " Isaac continued the conversation.

" What do you mean? " Spike smirked at him and took out the keycard to his room.

" If I were here and worked hard every day, I'd want DEAD food! "

Spike laughed as he opened the door, he understood what Isaac meant. But you
get used to things when it's the same every day. He flopped down on his bed as they got in. Isaac went to the window and looked outside.

" When are we arriving at the next stop? I need to get supplies and stuff before
leaving you know?"

" Yeah, we'll arrive at Sander tomorrow, we actually are ahead of schedule for
once! "

Isaac turned around. " Sander ? So much better! "

Spike stood up and started to take off his work overalls.

" I'll be heading in the shower. After that we can go hang around in the cantina or wherever you wanna go. Heard you wanted to drink with me and the gang later. "

Isaac turned back around to the window and he looked out of it again, checking
out the view that the room had. The distant stars, nebula's and planets. Once in a while a fighter ship or two on patrol flew by with swooshing sounds.

" Yeah, why not, I'm sure we'll meet the girls down there, since I asked Twilight to get her friends. If we're early we could just hang out for a while. "

Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow dash, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie pie had
gotten off their job for the day and they were sitting at their usual table in
the cantina, waiting for Isaac and Spike.

" So, will he be here soon? " Pinkie pie asked, taking a sip of water from
her glass, looking very bored and impatient.

" I hope so, I would love to spend some time with him along with you guys! "
Twilight answered and looked around, hoping to notice Isaac somewhere.

" He was going to bring Spike, I think, so they might be on their way"

After a little while of more waiting and more drinks, Spike and Isaac arrived.
They too bought some drinks and sat down to chat with the girls. After a while of drinking, chatting and laughing at jokes and stories, Isaac remembered why he had gathered them.

" All right guys. " He started. taking a last sip from his glass of juma juice.

“ Girls. ” Rainbow dash corrected him with a smirk.

Isaac looked back at her with a smug look on his face.

“ I’m not so sure about you, you know?”

This made Spike and Applejack laugh, and Rainbow dash just chuckled. When the laughs had died down, Isaac continued where he left off.

" I wanted to talk with all of you because, from what I've heard, all of you
are bored with your jobs, have a bad pay and wish that you could do something
with more action. "

The girls looked and each other, they were not very happy to admit it but they
nodded, they were tired of their current jobs.

" Yes, that's true. " Rarity answered. " Even I am starting to get bored of this, doing the same all day. And the pay, ugh! Barely enough to buy anything smashing for myself! "

" Me and Twilight have quite the good pay though" Spike filled in, tapping the
side of his glass, making it cling. " But we have to work with
idiots, and it's really infuriating! "

" In any case. " Isaac continued and they could almost feel his cyborg eye zooming in on them all.

" I have a suggestion for you, and I want you to hear me out. I need a new group of mercenaries, and you guys seem to have nothing to lose, plus it is definitely a change of terrain. you'll get action and good pay, well you'll be amazed at the sums some people are ready to pay for special services, so what do you say, want to start a mercenary group with me? "

The girls and Spike looked at him, it was almost like they had expected this
but still weren't ready for the actual question. None of them wanted to be the
one that answered first even if the answer was a no. Isaac sat down and kept
drinking from his glass, waiting for any answer.

" I will do it!" The soft voice of Fluttershy was heard from the other side of
the table.

" I am tired of this ship and my job! I need change" she continued, her face
having a stern look on it.

" If Fluttershy is going with it i am too!" Spike filled in. " I will stick to my friends 'till the end!"

" I can't let you guys go alone! " Twilight sparkle stood up, with a confident
tone in her voice.

Applejack laughed and drank the last of the beverage in her glass. " I guess
that we all have decided already. You can count me in. "

" Yeah, lets do it! " Rainbow dash shouted out with a big grin.

" If i am supposed to buy myself some really amazing outfits I need to earn
big credits. I am absolutely in, dears! "

Last were Pinkie pie, she didn't answer right away. but the smile on her face
got wider and wider and her eyes started to twinkle.

" WHEEE! I'm gonna buy me so much cool stuff! rifles and cool armour and
those goggles that can see in the dark! I'm so in! "

Isaac grinned, as he thought, they had all been positive to the thought of
getting more excitement and pay at work.

”Uhm. I have a question though... if you don’t mind me asking.” Fluttershy looked at Isaac, a bit unsure how to put the question.
“Well, i wondered. Won’t it be dangerous? And, i don’t like the idea of killing people. what if they are good people and have nothing wrong and someone want us to just kill them?”

Isaac cleared his throat again, he had to tread carefully here.

“I wont lie to you, if you join me you WILL get hurt, and you might be killed. You might be held prisoner and tortured. But your friends, your crew will have your back. For each shot you take, they will be ready to receive the double to save you. Even if you are killed, or if we all are killed. We will have died with our friends, our brothers and sisters, ready to give their lives to save eachother. To answer your second question, you have to learn to do what you are payed for, and even if the people are good people, it’s not our place to judge anyone, or to feel. We are there to do our job, whether it’s to save someone, kill , protect valuable goods or information. We are there as mercenaries, soldiers that puts our job before anything else, and sadly, sometimes people die even if they are good.”

Fluttershy and the others looked at him for a little while, his speech had got their thinking. some of them looked like they regretted that they had spoken out so quickly. But Fluttershy finally nodded and said that she understood. That things happened for a reason and that no one could stop it.

Isaac could finally feel victorious about his recruiting skills. He turned to Twilight and gave her a smile. " I guess you'll hand in your resignation papers as fast at you can? "

Twilight giggled. " Resignation papers? That would be doing the administration
a favour! No, fuck them! We'll just leave! "

Isaac didn't expect Twilight to be such a powerful lady, but he had to admit that he would have done the same if he was in her shoes.

" Well then girls, and Spike. " Isaac leaned forward and spoke with a lower
voice. " I know a guy at sanders who runs a... less legal shop where we
can buy some basic equipment. "

Spike chuckled, this was really amazing, this guy thought about everything.

" That's a very fitting coincidence, and a very good one to boot! "

Isaac shrugged and smirked " Just luck! "

...

The liner had docked at Sander and the gang had gotten off, they had gotten all
of their stuff and were heading into a more, questionable area of the docking
station. They got a few mean looks from all the thugs they passed on the way
to the friend of Isaac's black market shop. luckily it seemed like the dight
of Isaac and Spike was enough to not get any trouble. if the ponies had been
there alone there is no telling what could happen to them. Isaac took them to
a dark alleyway and then to a door. he pressed a button beside it on a small
computer panel, after a few moments a voice answered.

" What do you want?" Seemed courtious enough.

"It's Isaac, I need some special supplies"

The voice coming from the panel chuckled, and seemed to be amused.
"You go though your supplies quick, old friend, I'll come down and meet you."

The door opened with a hissing sound and they walked in.
it was dark, the lights weren't on. They heard steps coming towards them and then a click, followed by the lights turning on. In front of them stood an alien, a rodian to be exact, his skin had a dark green tone the girls couldn't really read any expressions on his face, but they thought he was smiling.

" Hey there Isaac!" Isaac and the rodian stepped forward and shook hands.

"Esten! It's a wonder you are still alive, you bastard!"

Isaac turned around to introduce the gang.

"This is my new mercenary group, Spike, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity,
Rainbow dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie pie. They will make any enemy shake in their boots."

Esten smirked and walked over to a counter and turned back around to the gang.

" I think that I can supply you properly, and since you're a friend I think I
can give you a discount"

He put in a code on a computer panel on the counter and the shelves on the
walls that had been empty spun around and were now filled with different
weapons.

The girls and Spike were shocked and were staring on all the things around
them.

" Go find something you like, guys"

They all walked around looking at the rifles and the different equipment
around them.

Isaac stood around, looking at what the others tried out, since he already had
his own equipment.

Spike had found a flamethrower that he were currently trying out.

"Woah! this one is awesome! I’ll take it!"

Isaac chuckled and patted his shoulder.

"Now, don't forget your secondary weapon Spike, you'll need it when you're in
a pinch. Myself, I would recommend having a rifle as a secondary rather than a
blaster, especially if you have a flamethrower as your primary weapon"

Spike nodded. "Yeah i guess you're right. What about this one?"

He put flamethrower on the floor and picked up a smaller lazer blaster. He aimed at
one of the shooting dummies and opened fire. The blue lazer shots hit the
dummy with perfect accuracy and the sparks from the impact flew around it in a
blur.

"Damn! Count this one in! This was only holding it with one hand!" Spike exclaimed and put the blaster in a holster at his hip.The girls seemed to have found weapons and equipment they liked.

Pinkie pie were still wearing her uniform from the liner so she didn't need to pick out a
uniform from the ones on display, but she were looking on some nightvision
goggles, but couldn't really decide which one she wanted.

Isaac remembered something and turned to Esten.

" I need a new shotgun, do you have any in stock?"

Esten smirked, Isaac were very attached to this sort of weapon, might be that
it was human made and shipped from Terra itself.

"They are where they used to be" he pointed to a special shelf that had a few
different designs of the shotgun weaponry.

"I have some new designs in, if you care to take a look." He stepped forward and pointed at a smaller version of a shotgun on the top shelf.

"This one is a small one made for having one in each hand, they are automatic,
they don't need to be pumped to load the next shell. And this one."He pointed at the one below it, much larger clearly made for two hands.

"This is a normal sized automatic shotgun, this was made for rapid fire and
has a big cartridge, the cartridge is larger and fits more shells. Now this one here!" The one he held his hand on now, looked almost like a normal lazer blaster but
with slight differences.

"This, my friend, is a model "E-11e" blast cannon. A lazer blaster version on the shotgun, and this one actually utilize the use of ammunition clips, for easy reloading"

"That seems like a good choice, since barely no one uses actual projectile
weaponry anymore". Twilights voice was heard behind them. She stood there, holding the gear she had chosen in her arms.

" OHHH I'LL TAKE ONE OF THOSE!" Fluttershys voice echoed in the room as she
hurried toward them, grabbed the blast cannon and squealed. Then she blushed
and looked down.

"Um.. I mean... If that's okay."

Esten smirked at her reaction when she saw the weapon.

"I see we have a blast cannon fan in~"

Isaac chuckled.

"You take it."

He turned back to Esten.

" I want one with good accuracy and power." He looked over the shotguns
in store.

"I think this one will suffice" He grabbed a normal sized shotgun with pump action.

" And i want to have a supply of ammunition for every weapon we buy."

" I would be a bad salesman if i wouldn't be able to fix that."

After a while they had all found some basic equipment and they had payed for
it they were ready to leave but, Isaac still had some unfinished business with
Esten.

"So Esten, I need another favour from you."

Esten crossed his arms and leaned against the counter.

"What is it this time? Will I get another near death experience from
this?"

Isaac smirked and placed his hand on Estens shoulder.

"I need The Nordin back."