FTRD: Faster Than Rainbow Dash

Once again they were sitting in the brig.
The once trashed room had been cleaned and they were sitting at the table again.
"Why?" Duke asked solemnly.
Steel just sat there, his eyes avoiding Dukes.
Duke slammed his hoof on the table and in bent leaving a large dent in it.
Steel jumped and found him looking at Duke.
"Why goddammit?!"

"Have you ever heard of a pirate that surrendered or let his prey go?!"
Duke sat there in silence.

"Exactly, you would've fallen for that trap."
They both became silent again.

"But why. Why help us. You could've ran out that room and teleported to a nearby station."
Steel diverted his gaze away from him.

"Because... Because, you didn't kill me when you had the chance. I felt like I needed to repay the favor."

Duke sat back and he chuckled.
"So... I'm going to give you a choice now. We fly to the nearest station and drop you... Or, you stick around for a while longer."

Steel smiled.
"I thought you said there wasn't enough time to drop me off."

Duke shrugged.
"I took a shot in the dark and it turns out we were, but, not anymore."
Steel looked out the window at the weapon mounts on the side of the ship.

"If I leave you guys are going to blow yourself to pieces with the way I saw you using those missiles."
Duke smiled.
"And that blast laser, it was practically begging you to stop."
Duke laughed.

"I'm taking this as yes you'll stay."

Steel nodded.
"Of course."

Duke stood up and stuck out his hoof.

They shook hooves.

"Welcome aboard the Kestrel."

*

The Kestrel was gliding across the black abyss of space.
A large blue planet with several rings was nearby.
Several moons orbited it.

Duke had just finished filing Steel into the system.
Duke let out a enormous sigh.

"That's another problem off of my plate."
Duke turned to Presidio.

"How long till the next jump?"
Presidio brought up a screen with lists of numbers, all changing.
Duke struggled to understand what any of them meant.

"2 hours."

Duke stared at Presidio with a puzzled look.
"How did you understand all those numbers."

Presidio laughed.
"I don't understand any of them, I just look at the bottom of the screen."
He looked to the bottom of the screen.
It read FTR: 2 hours.

Duke snorted.
"Could've fooled me."
Duke looked back out into space at the large planet.

"Might as well look around for a bit.
Cam, any signals around."

Cam responded almost instantaneously.
"A distress signal on the planet below. Signature: Mining Base. ID: 111
Duke sat up.

"Message along with it?"

"Negative."

Duke slumped back down into his seat.
"Presidio."
Presidio's ears pricked and she turned to him.
"Keen for a little field trip?"
Presidio grinned from ear to ear.

"Of course you are." Duke muttered to himself.

*

The sound of the teleported soon died out and the three crew members were standing in a giant plain of land their rifles aimed ready for enemies waiting

The sky was an unusually light blue, looked like ice.
The ground was hard but thick expanses of grass were laid in front of them.

There were giant mountains all around them, it seemed they had landed in what seems like a giant crater, flat but due to the mountains it felt like it.
They began walking across the plains.

"Where is that signal coming from?"
Duke asked Presidio.

Presidio tapped her implant and the green glass passed over her eye.
She looked around and pointed towards one of the mountains.
"East, 2 clicks."

Steel groaned.
"Why did we drop here then, why not somewhere closer to there?"
Presidio laughed as she walked forward.

"What, can't take a bit a walking?"

Duke chuckled as they all started slowly walking.

*

They had climbed over a small hill when their objective was in sight.
They all stopped and stared at the view in front of them.
A giant building was built on the side of the mountain.

Twisted metal from several ships littered the ground.
The building was half missing and a large amount of rubble was on the ground.
A cave sat underneath the half ruined building.

"A ship graveyard." Duke sighed.

Steel started to look worried.
"Were we lured here?"

"If we were lured here, our ship would already be down here. No , it's something else."
Duke replied.

"Let's go, 2 meter spread, safety off, return fire only."
They slowly moved forwards and they passed through the ship graveyard.
Skeletons lay underneath metal or strewn out across the piles of ships.

Presidio turned slowly around to check their behind.
She looked up to the mining base and saw a small glint.
"SNIPER!" He screamed as she tackled Steel to the ground.

A round hit the ground next to them.
They all scrambled for cover.
"Bullets, now those are old fashioned." Presidio remarked.

She peaked over the cover but quickly ducked as another shot just missed her head.
Duke peaked over and ducked.
"There's a cave over there, we can make it."
They all looked over to it.

"Zigzag running, on my mark."
Duke counted down and shouted the final.
They all started running towards the cave In a zigzag movement to avoid sniper fire.
A bullet hit Steel in the hind leg and he collapsed.

Presidio skidded to a halt and charged back to him.
She sprayed laser fire up to the snipers position.
Se grabbed his collar ad started dragging him. Presidio dragged him all the way to the front of the cave and threw him in before rolling in herself.

Steel clutched his leg In agony.
Blood was pouring out of the hole in his armor.
"Shit, went right through me."

He was breathing quicker now.
They had both crouched near Steel.
"Did you bring the medical supplies?"
Duke asked Presidio.

"No, I wasn't expecting to get shot by 800 year old bullets today."
Presidio snapped back.

"Buck." Duke breathed.

"Presidio stay with steel, I'm going to find this Bucker."
He stood up and walked to the back of the cave with his rifle slung over his shoulder.

"Duke, this is a cave, there's nothing back there." Presidio said.

Duke didn't turn he just mumbled back to them.
His voice echoed off of the walls.

"This isn't a cave. It's a mine."

*

Duke had traversed most of the mine looking for a way up.
Dust slowly seeped from the ceiling and the air was damp and dusty.
Several laser cutters were strewn across the floor.

"Where the buck are all the workers?" Duke thought to himself.
Dukes finger was on the trigger of his rifle.
He looked around in the darkness.

"Can't see me own hoof in front of my face." He muttered.
He pulled out a torch and shone it in front of him.
It didn't light much, only about 3 meters of ground was visible in front of him.
His hoofsteps echoed throughout the mine.

He didn't know how long he walked for, felt like 20 minutes had gone.
A small cage soon came into view, it's grating rusted.
There was an opening at the front.

The top of the cage had thick wires going straight up.
A green button was illuminated next to it.
"An elevator?" Duke said aloud.
The elevator seemed a little too old for Dukes liking but he had no thee choice.
He climbed in and hit the button on his way.

A hum of a generator and whirring if gears started and the elevator jolted and slowly ascended the mine.

*

Light came into view and Duke shielded his eyes.
He lowered his hoof and looked around as the elevator came to a halt.
The room in front of him was purely made of concrete, a large amount of it missing.
It was in the shape of a dome and the center had a giant cylindrical pillar.
Rubble lay across the floor and on top of large crates around the room.
Large sheets of fabric hang from the ceiling.

He aimed his rifle around the room cautiously.
An opening was at the opposite side of the room and he slowly paced towards it.
A small beep was heard and Dukes ears pricked.
One of the sheets hanging for the ceiling fell and a large gun on a tripod was there.
A laser pointer was aimed at him and he quickly dove behind cover as the gun whirred to life.
The barrel of it was cylindrical with more cylinders on it.

It spun and a blaze of bullets flew across the room.
Duke kept his head low as the wall behind him was being torn apart.
It had ripped a whole hole through the wall letting in some sun and a cool breeze.
The gun seemed to fire forever.

Soon a large array of clicks was heard, repetitive and loud.
Duke peaked over.
The gun had run out of ammo.

Duke laughed.
"Is that it?" He asked aloud.
As if a angel had heard him a crate on robotic wheels rolled over and it reloaded the gun.
"You've got to be kidding me."

It whirred to life again and duke rolled across the floor, bullets cracking the ground behind him.
He rolled behind another crate.
The gun was still blowing half the room to pieces.
He patted his chest looking for anything to help him.
He finally found his belt of grenades.
He ripped an ion grenade off of his chest plate.
He pulled the pin and threw it over the crate.
A blue lightning emitted around the room and the gun stopped.
Duke looked over and a fury of sparks was flying from the back of the gun.

He slowly walked out from behind his cover, rifle raised.
He pushed the gun over and it made a loud crash as it hit the floor.
He looked impressed.

The gun was weakly wired but was meant to take out intruders quickly.
It was wired to all the other crates for ammo.
He turned away from the gun and walked out the room.
He entered another room, but this one seemed more as a living space.
There was a fire and some chairs pulled up, the wall covered in crazy algorithms.

Duke raised his rifle.
"Someone was here recently." Duke thought.
He panned the room looking for more evidence of life or where he or she went.
He heard a clatter of metal coming from around a corner.
He slowly walked around the corner.

A red earth pony was sifting through a pile of junk.
He had bandages around his hooves and head.
His mane was a dark silver.
Duke raised his weapon.
He didn't know what to say.
He thought about what to say and not scare him away.
Duke stumbled and accidentally kicked a wrench across the floor.
The pony ears pricked and he span around to see what was there.
Duke stood there frozen with an awkward expression on his face.
"What is this?" He said In an unusually high pitched voice.
"Another pony to join poor Sparky?"

Duke tapped his ear piece.
"Cam, what info have you got on this guy."
The pony was shaking his head back and fourth and mumbling to himself.
"Cursum Scream, apart if the 17th exploration force, engineer, presumed dead 27.4 years ago."
Duke stared at him.

"You poor bastard."

*

Presidio sat next to Steel, keeping pressure on his wound.
"Thank you." He coughed.

They managed to find some cloth soon after Duke had left and they bandaged his wound.
"So, what's it like to be shot with a 800 year old bullet."
Steel laughed.

"It hurts like a bitch if that's what your asking."
Presidio stopped putting pressure on the bandaged wound.

"There I think it will hold." Presidio said.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

A loud shock wave was heard that made them both twist their heads.
"What was that." Steel asked.

"Let me check."

Presidio ran outside and looked around.
"There's nothing here..." She fell silent as she looked to the skies.
3 rebel warships loomed over the planet.

She tapped her earpiece.
"Duke we got a bit of a problem here."