Crysis; EquestriaPrologue
“-hear it might be the Griffons, you know? Fly into Fillydelphia, start raising hell. Nopony there could fight back! That’s why we’re getting sent in,” the wonderful world of awareness flooded back to me, or at least, what could be considered ‘aware’ with a hangover to kill a Manticore. Where was I? And why was I so hung over? The world around me jerked suddenly. Oh yeah, I’m in an air transport carriage. Now I remember why I drank myself into a stupor. I felt my muscles tighten under the belts meant to keep me in place until we landed, and the flashing of bright electronic lights aagainst flat grey metal didn’t help my hangover. And to top all of it off, as if it wasn’t bad enough already, Blackjack was running his mouth again. Luna please, just kill me. I’m not gonna lie, the tan stallion with the black mane is a great soldier, excellent with a rifle, any ranged weapon really, he just needs to get his head out of his ass, and start focusing on reality.
“Enough of your insane theories, this is a simple package retrieval, that’s all,” my commanding officer, the only other mare aside from me in this Company ordered, hopefully shutting him up. Thank you, True Shot. I wondered if her grey color scheme was natural or if she dyed it to make herself appear more menacing.
Whichever it was, it didn't deter Blackjack from continuing to run his mouth. Never could quit while he was ahead. “Come on True, you don’t send in a whole battalion of Royal Guards in just to pick up a present. I mean, really True, not even you believe that. There’s something else going on here, something they aren’t telling us, isn’t that right, Gunpowder? Or is the hangover impairing your thinking skills, not that you had any before you were drunk anyway.” He chuckled at his own lame joke, which I, if I was in any more sober a condition, would have hit him in the face for. The rest of the squad turned to look at me. I didn’t want to talk, I really didn’t even want to be awake. So I replied with a slight nod to shut him up, not realizing I just fed into his stupid little conspiracy theory until it was too late. True shot me a very disapproving look, as if to say ‘you have just fed the beast’. Yeah, I figured that one out.
“See! Even Gunpowder gets it!” he continued to ramble, but I was able to tune it out, instead focusing on keeping the contents of my stomach where they belonged. There was just no reasoning with that pony
“True, this is Barrett, we are ten minutes out from our destination, so gear up and get ready for deployment,” one of the Pegasus outside flying the deathtrap informed us over the loudspeaker, cutting Blackjack off mid rant. He didn’t even try to continue after the announcement was over, if I wasn’t sure Barrett would put a bullet between my eyes for it, I would hug him the moment we landed. If we landed. Did I mention I hate flying? We were all clad in only our B.D.U.s, so we would have to suit up in the armory, as well as get our weapons. “Alright fillies, you heard Barrett! I want a clean in and ou- AH!” True screeched as the ship (and my stomach) lurched, sending her into the wall. That sure as hell wasn't normal turbulence! Her head made contact with the unforgiving metal, knocking her out instantly. Everypony else strapped in, as the air transport began to tip. I know we are trained for this, but I was still surprised just how calm everypony was. Or at least, everypony but myself. If I was capable of screaming, I would have. I knew we were headed straight down, most likely into solid, and unrelenting ground. I hoped the impact would knock me out, and I wouldn’t have to feel death by fire, which is what would happen, no doubt, when it crashed.
When we hit, I was unlucky enough to only suffer some whiplash, instead of being knocked completely unconscious. But the tube of an airship didn’t crunch in on itself, instead it tipped back upright, or, at least flat. Not quite even that. I was on what was now the ceiling, still strapped into my seat. Everypony else unbuckled themselves and started to swiftly move out of the transport area, and I could hear somepony giving orders. When I realized that everypony had escaped, including our unconscious commander, I entered extreme panic mode. We were in the water, most likely sinking considering the tilt of the thing, and I was trapped. I thrashed and struggled, trying to simply break the straps instead of unbuckling myself. By some stroke of luck, Blackjack heard me, and came back for me. I had never been quite so happy to hear his obnoxious voice.
“Gunny!? What the hell are you doing!? Come on!” He unbuckled me, and I hit the newly turned floor, hard. Hard enough to cause everything I ate or drank in the past twenty-four hours to make a new home on the seats. I really, really wanted to just roll over and die. Blackjack on the other hoof, didn’t seem to notice or care that I had just vomited all over myself, more worried about saving my flank than whether or not I had just embarrassed myself so thouroughly, as he took my collar in his teeth, and began to drag me out. Once we were sure I could carry myself, he let me go, and we made it to the secondary bulkhead, right outside the escape hatch. I didn’t realize it until just then, but there was about an inch of water on the floor, and it was rising steadily. Due to our newly made boat being on its side, they ponies who escaped before me couldn’t get the door to swing open. All of them being earth ponies didn’t help either. I began to scan the area, looking for anything we could use to pry it far enough open that they could then use their hooves to open it completely. I saw True’s body, at this point the water was nearly over her head. I immediately forgot what I was doing, and jumped to her aid, lifting her head out of the water so she wouldn’t drown. That’s when I saw the prybar, hidden right behind True on the wall. I smashed the glass with a hoof, and threw it over to Blackjack, who helped the three other earth ponies in prying it open. I was beginning to get worried, if the water level rose any higher, we would all be under it, luckily, with the door now open, we didn’t have to worry so much. As Blackjack held it open, the others climbed through, and I made my way over with True. Once we were both through, he let the head slam shut behind him.
“The emergency escape hatch is jammed we can’t get it open!” Somepony yelled. How I wish I didn’t have a hangover now. The warning lights and sirens were not as sobering as I would have imagined, and I may have burned my adrenal glands out with all the booze. We had to keep moving, the water level was slowly rising, rushing in from- of course! If we followed the source of the water maybe we would find the hole, and we could get out. If not, well, we were dead either way. Before I could speak up, Blackjack seemed to understand why I was eyeing the water with such joy.
“Come on everypony this way!” He led us down, the water was almost completely filled the hall at this point, and keeping True’s head above water was getting hard. Another pony went first, and came back. I was worried he was going to tell us it was too small, or that it was too far, but instead he came to inform us that we could all get through. I grabbed True in my teeth, took a breath, and dived. I sent out a prayer to Luna that I could get us both out alive. I had to follow the flank of the pony in front of me or risk getting lost, and it was getting hard to continue holding my breath. I could feel my lungs gasping for air, and my vision began to darken, I clenched my teeth tighter around True’s collar, and kept swimming down.
There it was, the giant gaping hole, and our ticket out. It was only seconds, but it felt like it took hours to get there. My lungs burned, my eyes felt like they were going to pop right out of socket, but I was so close. Just a few more kicks and…
I blacked out. Not for long, but long enough to lose my grip on True, and for Blackjack to have to save me. We both emerged on the surface, and I began to cough out the water that had entered my lungs. I searched frantically for the others, but it seemed that only the six of us made it out. Yes, six. Somepony else grabbed True when I blacked out. I was about to start swimming to shore when I felt the water vibrate. I looked down, and there it was. A huge, red light, and it was moving toward me, toward us. I tried to get out of the way, and felt myself get lifted out of the water, and thrown back down. I was pretty sure I felt my spine snap. I couldn’t move, I was either paralyzed in fear, or worse, I couldn’t tell. I was however, able to look up, and see the strange vehicle. Longish black tubular body with spinning blades on either side. And a turret. A Turret that was turning to aim at my fellow guards. I heard the familiar sound os bullets piercing the air, as they ripped through me and the rest of my squad. I think I felt one puncture a lung, another embedded itself in my lower intestine, and another hit me in the flank. I gasped, still unable to even muster a scream, and never able to again most likely, as a bullet tore through my neck.
Well, that was it, that was the end of me. Even if I somehow managed to survive all the rest, there was no way I would survive not breathing. resigned to my fate, everything went dark, I closed my eyes. But my body wasn’t ready to die just yet, I reopened my eyes for a moment, gasping for oxygen my lungs so desperately craved, and saw, I don’t know, a Cyclops? A Golem? Maybe a Cyclops Golemn. Its muscles were exposed, and all an ugly, gunmetal grey. The thing was a robot. A walking robot muscular system. It looked like somepony built a pony, and ripped it’s skin off. Or maybe I was hysterical. Whatever it was, it was levitating a mounted turret, firing at the thing that killed my entire squad. I fought with my body, commanding it to let me die, as my eyes drifted closed again. And once again, I regained consciousness. I guess simply willing oneself to die just doesn’t work. I was being dragged, by what, I don’t know. I guessed it was the muscle robot and that it was taking me off to either eat me, or torture me before I died. I forced my eyes closed once more, this time, I hoped, for good.
