Crashlanded Phoenix

Object C-04 "Rex"
HIM Phoenix

Crackling of fried electronics and the static of what I presumed to be a broken radio filled my ears, my eyes sprung open and I began to look around frantically. I couldn't move my body at all and could barely see anything due to the lack of light in what used to be a cockpit, save for the occasional spark from the devastated comms console. I decided to wait for my regeneration to kick in before I tried making any meaningful moves to dig myself out of the crashed vessel. It took at least half an hour of laying underneath a heap of scrap and gutted cockpit systems where I woke up in order for me to regain any feeling in my limbs, this means my spine must have been in pretty bad shape after the crash. I began to writhe and struggle, trying to wiggle out my legs or arms only to be met with fierce passive resistance from the heap on top of me."Nnghh...hnnghh!" I grunted and groaned the whole time while attempting to liberate at least one limb.

Another half an hour later I regained more of my strength, though it didn't make it any easier to remove an arm or leg from underneath the metallic junk. I struggled the weight pressing onto me and put all of my current strength into pushing it off of me, this time with great success. The pile moved and soon after my primary arms were free to get rid of the crushing hazard on top of me piece by piece, clanks of metal against metal filled the cockpit as I got to work. "Yes! Finally!" I shouted ecstatically after pulling myself out once the pile was sufficiently small for that and took one quick look around the cockpit. The occasional spark that served as the only source of light here stopped a while ago and with myself being free at once I attempted to switch my eyesight mode instead of relying on the now-gone spark...except it didn't work. "Gah, why won't you work.." I gently hit the side of my head in hopes of it fixing the issue with my modified eyes to no avail. "The crash must have done its fair share of damage to m-nghh!" I found myself clutching onto the right side of my chest or rather the chest portion of my armour as a response to the stinging pain I felt when trying to breathe. "Ngh..agh f-fuck.."

I began desperately removing the battered and dent power armour I wore during the flight, piece after piece fell to the ground and I immediately felt a sense of relief, though the pain in my chest still persisted. "Hnngh.. something inside must have broken." I held a palm up to the aching spot, only to yelp in pain as touching it hurt even more now and for some reason my built-in regeneration wasn't working right. "I better ge-ngh-t out of here" I said to nobody in particular and slowly moved step by step to a mostly intact door out of the cockpit, with some luck I won't have any problems leaving using the boarding pad. I stopped in front of the cockpit exit door and tried opening it using the biometric scanner, with no response from the scanner.

Out of frustration I slammed the scanner with my cybernetic fist, causing the surface to shatter and the scanner itself to spill out its precious innards composed of microelectronics of all kinds. In return I received a painful reminder that I am beaten and bruised after the crash, causing me to once again grip my side as I groaned in pain. I stepped away from the door and began to think. "Maybe I can open it differently" I exclaimed while secretly hoping that there was nothing behind the door. Began trying to activate some of the tools within my synthetic arm, especially the laser cutter, though after dozens of failed attempts I sat down on the ground, distraught at the lack of results. Suddenly, an idea appeared in my mind. I could use some of this metal like a crowbar to force the door open or at least make it budge enough to let me pull it open with my own hands.

After a couple minutes of scouring the ruined cockpit, I found a piece of metal thin and long enough to be slid into a side of the damaged door. After doing exactly that, I began pushing and pulling the piece of metal like one would do with a crowbar using as much strength in my arms as I could muster. The door began to budge ever so slightly, accompanied by the creaking of metal. This filled me with motivation and I intensified my efforts, which rewarded me with the door suddenly jumping open while I was pulling at the DiY crowbar. I fell down onto my back and onto a small stack of sharp metal, causing me several lacerations. Warm blood flowed out of these wounds, covering my back and staining red whatever remained of my shirt, this also meant that my sub-dermal implants weren't working correctly as such incidents shouldn't be able to wound me.

I got up and realised that I suddenly couldn't move my lower arms, in fact I couldn't move my tail the entire time either. The urgency of the situation must have distracted me so much that I didn't notice it at all. I panicked and tried to move my lower arms using my regular ones, I began to worry even more when I found out that I couldn't even feel anything with them. "N-no! This can't be happening! I can't feel my arms, they are numb and-and-and this just cannot be! Where is everyone!? Why is nobody looking for me!? The Empire should have found me a long time ago!" I collapsed onto the ground and tried to calm myself down, reassuring myself that everything would be alright and that this was just temporary. That I am a soldier and my fear only brings me shame. I shakily stood up and slowly stepped through the door.

A small ray of light shone through a crack in the ship's hull, which comforted me somewhat. It was nice to know the ship didn't end up in an even worse situation and that it was daytime right now, who knows how long I was unconscious. I held my side with a hand as I slowly waddled towards the boarding pad, quietly praying that it worked. If it didn't, I'd have to find a different way out. The silence was broken by the sounds of my blood dripping onto the floor in regular time intervals...tip...tip...tip...tip...

I arrived at the boarding pad and tried to open it using the biometric scanner, but there was no response just like I expected, though in this case there was a failsafe built in should the pad get stuck. A lever hidden underneath a floor plate would manually eject the pad, this could allow me to get out of here. I slowly and carefully got on my knees, so as to not further agitate my inner injuries then began knocking on the floor all around me. This was also when I realised that my tail was also heavily damaged, missing around 1/2 of it's length, though I should have noticed it earlier, at least all my damages and injuries should heal over time.

After a couple rounds of knocking like on the floor like a Mormon missionary I heard the distinctive sound of there being space underneath it, which could only mean that I found the lever. Using my hands, I removed whatever junk was left on top of the plate and found a bent corner. I pinched it using my synthetic arm and began to pull with all my current strength, still desperate to get out of here. The rest of the metal floor plate came off easily like a tin can lid and revealed the object of my search, the release lever. I immediately grabbed and pulled it. I heard the sound of locks being released, but the boarding pad refused to come off.

I got up from the ground and walked onto the pad without second thought and jumped. When nothing happened I jumped again and again. "Fall thud off thud you thud stupid thud thing!" Every jump hurt, but I had to do it to get out. The pad began to budge as I kept jumping and soon enough it fell off and with it I went down too. After falling roughly three meters down, I found myself outside and standing on the damaged pad. I looked around and saw nothing but trees everywhere. Surprisingly "HIM Phoenix" didn't cause any damage to the surroundings or even broke any trees, I had no idea how that could be possible. I walked a short distance away, roughly 5 meters and laid down on a patch of grass. Looking up, it struck me that this wasn't a regular forest, I crash landed into green hell, into a jungle. Too tired and aching to care in the slightest about this, I closed my eyes and dozed off.

Feldleutnant Flügel
Everfree Infiltrator Camp

I returned to my tent after a long day of guarding the camp and keeping the soldiers in line, I didn't know how much longer we'd have to stay here which is why it was important that as many of them stay alive and motivated as possible, I didn't want to have young lives on my conscience. I sat down at my desk, grabbed a pen with my magic, opened my journal and began to write while reading what I write out loud to myself.

"17.06.1012
Commanding Officer: Feldleutnant Flügel
Location: Everfree Forest

This is day 136 of my squad's expedition and subsequently deployment in the accursed Everfree Forest. After so many weeks of being away from home, from Vesalipolis, I begin to doubt if we will ever come back. Only now I am beginning to think that the Queen might have sent me on a suicide mission, because why else would I be ordered to conduct surveillance on Ponyville from the Everfree and then get rookies assigned when I clearly requested seasoned Infiltrators. These soldiers look like they barely got out of boot camp and this is the only field experience they have ever gotten. On top of that, we are running low on supplies. Love, food, ironically water too despite it being pretty much everywhere in the jungle part of the Everfree. We have an abundance of weapons and ammo, which so far we didn't have to use at all. Uniforms are unwearable here, they get drenched in sweat and environmental moisture and become uncomfortable. Even with extreme rationing we might be able to stay here for two more weeks at most. I hope everyone can make it out in one pi-"

My writing was interrupted by one of my underlings bursting into the tent. "Sir!"

"What is so important that you had to enter my tent yelling?" I put my pen down and turned to the changeling behind me.

"Something crashed in the Everfree, sir. Did you not hear the impact?" the changeling responded, sweating somewhat due to the jungle climate.

"No, I did not," I stood up and walked out of the tent with the messenger 'ling beside me. He pointed in the direction of the crash and spoke.

"It crashed a fair distance away, if we send a scout then maybe-"

"Send a scout? Are you out of your mind? We cannot afford to send any soldiers away." I interrupted him upon the mention of a scout. "We do not have any equipment for a scouting trip deeper into the Everfree. Even now we are lucky that no manticores attacked us!"

"But sir, the opportunity of finding something useful to us is way too big to pass it up. Especially when there's a chance that the ponies could find it before us!" He responded to me.

I had to admit, the slight glimmer of hope of making it out of here with something to bring back home, assuming there's anything there at all, was something we had to pursue. Whatever is there, ponies cannot get their pastel hooves on it.

"Fine," I said and the changeling's face immediately became happier. "but you are volunteering for this," his cheery face was replaced with a look of dread.

"B-but s-sir-"

"You'll go there, investigate the crash site and make your way back here as soon as possible, understood?" I ordered him and he just nodded. "You'll travel light, this means no equipment at all. If you are in danger, just get the tartarus out of there. You may requisition extra rations before leaving," I continued my order and the changeling nodded before galloping away. I sighed then returned to my tent after he left.