Fallout Equestria: Rangers North

Fallout Equestria: Rangers North

Chapter 001: Saddle Up

AE0090.03.24.0931

“Dreams are dreams for a reason, just don’t forget why.”

A Pegasus. A familiar Pegasus. She swooped low and skimmed over the clouds in the evening sun, banking just so that her wings could slice the reds and oranges of that endless blanket. I wished I could join her, flipping and turning, dipping and diving amongst a domain that was solely hers. Sorrow and want was dashed, however, as she came to a hover and approached me, still floating in the crisp air of a fall afternoon atop the Spineyback Mountains, the place I called my home. With a smile it all disappeared, and when she alighted the ground next to me, and stared into my eyes with her amber own, my soul felt akin to what she must feel when she soared above us all.

“You are troubled?” she asked, folding her wings and scraping at the ground with her hoof just ever so slightly. “You wish to fly?”

I nodded. “I do wish to fly, but I can’t. I’m not a Pegasus.”

My Pegasus, gray in color with hair as black as the night, only smiled at me and playfully hoofed at the ground once more.

“Perhaps some day your magic can help?” she asked a few moments later, fluttering her wings and drawing my eyes purposefully towards them, “Could you not fashion some from your spark?”

I shook my head, “Only once in history have wings been fashioned from magic, and they burnt away in the sunlight.” my sadness betrayed by the tone, “I could not fly above these clouds.”

Silence filled the air between the two of us as a light breeze rustled the blue, strangely warm grass beneath our hooves. Her hair fluttered majestically in the wind, as if it were made of strands of shadow.

“I think you are wrong.” she stated bluntly, “I think you could fashion wings from your spark.”

I did not respond, instead staring at her thoughtfully. She smiled and tilted her head stepping back for a moment, and then launched herself into the air. Watching her fly was good enough for me, as my heart went out with her every time those graceful wings caressed the sky.

A voice I had never heard spoke suddenly in my head, “There is no happy ending to this.” it told me, hissing in my skull like a snake.

Something grasped my legs, as if trying to pull me down. The feeling startled me and I tried to jump, failing miserably and smashing to the ground face first, hooves still planted where they had been before. What greeted me was a toothy skull with red eyes hidden behind a dark hood. Panic rose in my chest as I cried out to my Pegasus companion, with the world growing darker and more grainy with each passing second as if an immense pressure had suddenly filled the world. I was being pulled into the ground! Tendrils of black lightning flashed and split the sky before my eyes, crawling upwards as the clouds rose up and filled the mountaintop sky, blotting out Celestia’s sun. Wind and the sounds of wailing filled the air. My Pegasus mare swooped down low with a look of terror filling her eyes as her head turned towards the sky, then back down at my slowly sinking body.

With all my might I swam, coughing up the black matter that surrounded me and fighting its downward pulling current. My Pegasus tried to reach for me but it was no use as the tendrils of black lightning kept striking at her, attempting to bring her down out of the sky so that she too would be trapped by the darkness surrounding.

“Death.” the hissing voice spoke, the red-eyed skull revealed from under its hood, “My name is Death. And there is no happy ending to this. To any of this.”

The bones of dozens of ponies who had also been felled by Death rose to the surface and began clawing at my face with their bleached hooves, trying to take me with them. I fought with all my might all the while swimming against the dark, sinking power and grabbing hooves, batting them away when I could with my own.

I saw my Pegasus friend fly away and my heart sank. The last thing I would see would be her leaving me.

But then her voice echoed through the wails of the damned and the winds, breaking the clouds and bringing back the sun, “No!” she cried as she dove for me, my hoof outstretched for hers.

Death roared and the pressure in the air increasing to the point of suffocating, but my Pegasus fought through it unphased. Our hooves touched-

“WAKE UP, YOU COLTS!” a loud, deep and authoritative voice similar to one you might find on a specific auto-insurance commercial called out through the fog of my dreams, “IT’S TIME TO GET TO WORK!”

I sat up straight and smacked my horn against the ceiling making me elicit a surprised cry of pain. Slightly off balance, my body started to make a tumble for the ground, but I grabbed the mattress beneath me and clung to it like a cat, still groggy from the rude awakening. Shifting my gaze, I spun my head almost completely upside down and backwards to see who had brought me out of my nightmare and back into reality.

“What’s going on?” a dark red, almost blood colored Earth Pony with a lighty-brown colored mane on the opposing top bunk from mine moaned with a sleepy yawn.

His bunk was accompanied by another Earth Pony, a gray mare who I had been privy to him making “relations” with many, many times before. Not that I had much of a choice. In the bunker we lived in, 90 years after the megaspell apocalypse, there really were not very many private places one could go to screw. At least not without getting into serious trouble. She yawned and stretched a little, nuzzling back into her night-time companion’s chest with a small smile, completely unaware of what was going on despite the noise.

Crusader Jack-Hammer, the massive stallion of an Earth Pony who was our squad leader, stepped half-into the steel box that we all called home. The room itself could only maybe hold four Jack-sized individuals, but was taken up by the bunks and lockers we slept and stored our Powered Armor in. Except for Jack. His armor was too big to put on by himself, so it was kept in the deployment bay on the floor closest to the base of the mountain we lived inside.

“Elder Opal Tulip has an urgent mission for us. Protocol 02’s all fucked up. She handed me orders stating we have to start work on Procedure 23 immediately.” his emphasis on that last word tipped me off that something big was coming.

Sliding off the mattress from my precarious perch, I lighted to the floor with a soft clop, then settled on the notably empty bunk under my own.

“Where’s Shear?” I asked my squad leader between slightly stifled yawn as the red Earth Pony stallion slid out of his own bed and leaned against its rickety metal frame. He glanced up at his bunk where the mare still slept soundly under his covers.

My squad leader backed out, as he was too large to actually turn around inside the doorframe, and headed back out into the Commons of Level 3, where our barracks were located.

“Shear’s already suited up. I’ve got to go suit up as well.” Hammer’s large hooves echoed within our tiny room even though he was far outside the doorway as his overtly deep voice continued to relay information, “Be in the staging area in half an hour, the Elder wants to give us some updates on what’s been going on before-”

“Wait...” I interrupted, “Procedure 23...?” I asked incredulously, “As in... the Procedure 23?”

Hammer stopped, turned around really, really slowly and looked at me like I had grown an extra leg and was tap-dancing to show tunes with it.

“Yes...” he started, not sure what I might be leading up to and flicking one of his ears somewhat irritably, “...Procedure 23. Is that a problem?” he asked, a little more dangerously than was warranted.

I stood up from the bed and onto my hooves, “Not at all.” my response was a little slow and cautious, “I just... can’t believe we’re actually going top-side. No one’s actually stepped hoof out into the Wastes in 90 years.”

The blood red stallion next to me pushed off the bed with his shoulder and snorted at the notion. My best friend was always a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but never so much that it garnered him any negative attention. He was absolutely certain that somepony had been out there at least once since the doors had closed and insisted that it would defy logic to think otherwise.

“I know you think that it’s impossible that we haven’t sent scouts out, Red Rain, but that doesn’t matter right now, so keep it buttoned up.” Jack-Hammer warned as Red rolled his golden eyes around in their sockets mockingly, something that Jack-Hammer decided to ignore, as he began to address me as well, “As for you, Fallen Shield...”

I deflated a little inside. He had said my name, which meant I was about to get shafted in some way.

“.. just make sure that Rain isn’t late.”

With that, Jack-Hammer trotted off towards the stairwell across the Commons the open area where all the single-pony barracks were located. I breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Red Rain, who was up on his hind-hooves, staring at the gray mare in his bed. It was something I had noticed him doing a lot lately, specifically with her. I didn’t know the mare’s name, but I did know they spent a lot of time together, especially compared to the other mares he bedded with.

“Come on, Rain.” I prodded, “We have to get ready.” I added as my tail flicked the light switch next to our doorway, flooding the room with sickly fluorescent white light.

Rain sighed, and slipped off the bed, turning to me with a somber smile and a shrug of his shoulders. The light revealed the insomnia that had plagued his life since before he could even speak. Bags under his eyes betrayed that much, in addition to the relative thinness of his body.

“I know... I know...” he yawned, turning his golden eyes to my direction, “I was only late once.” he almost whined, “The heck does Jack keep messin’ with me about it for?”

I tried not to ever look into Rain’s eyes. They nearly glowed in the dark and when the lights were actually on they were just downright intense.

“Well, what else is he going to mess with you about?”

Rain just grinned at that. A toothy, shivering grin that was his and his alone and when coupled with those ever-open, never-blinking eyes of his he looked just dangerous. Almost insane. I frequently thought to myself that those traits might be part of the reason that he was so popular with the mares. He could bed two or three in a night without even trying.

I was a bit jealous of that.

Regardless of those feelings, Rain was my best friend. He and I had been together since we were colts in the Academy, all the way up through Knight Training, and now we were in the same squad as one another. For all intents and purposes, we were absolutely inseparable.

“She might be the one, Shield.” Red whispered from his locker, which he had already unlocked with his teeth, and opened to retrieve his armor from. “She really might be the one.”

I rolled my eyes. He’d said this before.

“She won’t stick.” I suggested bluntly, “You’re too interested in all the other mares in addition to her.”

Rain scoffed at me. It was not because he thought I was wrong, it was because he thought he knew something I did not. I telekinetically unlocked it and looked at myself in the mirror that was bolted onto the inside of the door. A steel-blue unicorn with green eyes stared back at me, his black-and-tan mane a disheveled mess on top of his head. I shook my head as questions about how I looked nothing like my parents surfaced. Instead of thinking about it, and wondering why they had always seemed loving but distant from me as I grew up, I grabbed my own suit of Powered Armor from my locker with my teeth, and proceeded to telekinetically strap on the different parts and pieces that made it up.

“But she’s... different.” Rain asserted, “She knows I’m bedding other mares.”

That halted my train of thought for a minute, and I nearly dropped a side-plate which I was manipulating via a telekinetic spell in shock.

“She knows?” I asked while raising an eyebrow at Rain, “Either she really, really loves you, or she’s completely nuts. I’d watch my back if I were you.”

Red Rain sighed, almost done putting on his armor. I’ll never know how he managed to do it so fast without telekinesis. Earth Ponies really were some kind of special.

“Yeah.” he admitted, “I should probably settle down.”

The last clips on my own suit snapped shut as I retrieved my helmet, hanging it on a D-ring that was attached to a section of plate.

I shook my head, somewhat worried for my friend but unable to help him in this specific instance.

“Just watch your back.” I reiterated, and began heading out the door and into the Commons of SR-15.

Rain followed suit, cantering up beside me and then slowing to match my walk as we headed for the stairwell that would lead us to the 1st Level of SR-15.

Let me tell you a little something about Steel Rangers Outpost 15. It. is. big. Maybe the biggest underground bunker that the Steel Rangers ever built. It housed over 1200 individuals before the bombs fell, and still housed about that many 90 years later. Two generations had been born in the wake of others from previous ones dying off, but we were still wary of allowing the number to increase too much even with an excess of food production and space. Soldiers still lived in 4 pony barracks rooms, and families still lived on a floor between Level 3 and 4, which took up a good portion of the adjacent mountain and was called the “Families District” for a reason. My parents lived there.

I hadn’t visited them in at least a year. Not since... well, I’ll get to that later.

Regardless of its size, SR-15 was very well laid out, and as a result Rain and I arrived on the second and then the first level within 5 minutes of setting off from our room. We made it just in time to see everyone saddling up on the AutoSleds; triple-tracked, giant, armored snowmobile-like assault vehicles that could hold a single squad each. At the time, four of them were readied up and prepped for the first action that the ancient MAgiK engine-powered machines had likely seen since the doors to the outside shut.

Jack-Hammer was already prepped and ready with his massive tank-like Power Armor heaving like it was just as alive as the pony inside. The stallion’s voice came out of his helmet muffled and a twinge of electronic static and somehow augmented his already imposing nature even more than it was with the armor alone.

“Are you colts ready to do this?”

Then again it really may have just been the suit itself, which bristled with about 4 rocket launcher systems and a dual auto-cannon system, that added to his already massive stature.

Shear hopped down from the internals of the AutoSled, dressed in a skin-tight sneak-suit.

“I would be, if I knew exactly what we were going to be doing.”

His voice was what you might expect, like a Ghost from a Craft in the Stars. (Shhh.) But we all knew his voice was entirely the sneak-suit’s doing. The breathing apparatus of Scout Suits were noisy when the pony inside spoke, but was otherwise silent. I turned my attention to some of the soldiers around me, most of which were grumbling about it being Saturday morning, and a cancelled Spellcaster’s Rugby match that was slated to kick off at 1300 that afternoon. There was a noted air of dissatisfaction amongst us all. Especially Rain.

“I’m telling you, Hammer... this mare might be the one!” I overheard him angrily insisting, pacing about in random directions.

Jack-Hammer had popped the faceplate on his armor, and had an exceptionally annoyed look on his snout. His suit seemed to echo the sentiment as it hissed and steam escaped from nozzles in the shoulderplates and spinal-spades.

“Do you even know her name?” he asked pointedly, raising an eyebrow at the smaller Earth Pony.

Rain stumbled for a moment. I coughed. He did not even know her name. Rain went silent. Hammer was not trying to be mean, but he did raise a fine point. Unfortunately, he also raised his next question to my level.

“Any luck?” Hammer asked with a slight grin.

I knew where this was going, but damned if I weren’t going to try to prevent it from going there.

I tried to feign ignorance, “Do what now?” I asked.

Hammer just laughed. It was a laugh I was familiar with, but was also one that ticked me off to no measurable end. I stomped my hoof in agitation and fell right into his trap.

“Just because my AER burned a hole-” I started, but was cut off by Hammer’s hearty laugh as his suit heaved with him.

I blushed hard, turning red as a RADish (That’s a strange danish cookie previously manufactured in the pre-war era. They taste excellent. They have caused more than one salad order to become a confused mess.). I remembered the incident too well.

“Screw you.” I muttered just loud enough for that oversized Crusader-level Steel Ranger to hear, which just made him laugh harder, and then give me a slightly apologetic look.

“Awwe, don’t get too plot-hurt over it, Shield.” Jack offered, “Just think about it like this; you got her attention, she knows your name, and after this you’ll have come home from the first combat operation in nine decades!”

That was true. Regardless, I stuffed the T-51b helmet I was carrying onto my head with a rough telekinetic snap. I was immediately thankful that I had practiced enough putting it on in a pinch that my ears had not been crushed going into their coverings. Even under the notion that Sunflower Dawn might finally take notice of all my efforts, my mind wandered elsewhere.

“She’s out there, somewhere.” I whispered, loud enough for Red Rain to hear me by accident.

He shook his head, “Pegasi are dead, all of them.” Rain whispered back trotting over to me, “Give it up already, you’ll be better off.”

I knew he was concerned. I’d already been referred to psychology more than once for my insistence that Pegasus Ponies were still out there somewhere. Luckily, Elder Opal Tulip had for whatever reason kept me out of the funny-farm and in Special Detachment Delta-3. I still often wondered why, but I was not about to question the Elder’s more benevolent decisions concerning my fate within the Steel Rangers.

I turned to him feeling a little betrayed either way, “You were there, Rain... You were the one who told me to watch in the first place.”

“I... I don’t know what we saw.” he told me, blatantly lying.

“You were THERE, Rain!” I hissed, “We talked about it for YEARS!”

Rain looked up at me, a stern expression filling his golden, bag-framed eyes.

“And I moved ON.” the harshness in his voice overwhelming, “I grew UP. Even if she were still out there today, she’d be a fossil, Fall!”

An alarm sounded throughout the staging area, prompting Rain and I to look up and around and halting our argument. Other T-51b plated soldiers and their Scouts were also looking around. Suddenly, everything got quiet as an elevator on the far left side of the staging area, facing the massive door to the outside opened up with a small ping.

“Attention in the bay!” The Star Paladin leading Delta Detachment bellowed back at his soldiers. I immediately stood up straight, and took the position of attention.

Elder Opal Tulip walked across the metal paneled floors, her hoofsteps clanking on their freshly washed surfaces. She was dressed in deep purple robe with plating on her shoulder and along her spine, which covered most of her deep-blue coat and lighter-blue, albeit graying in some areas, mane.

“Guess she hasn’t gotten the windbreaker burn hole fi-”

“Shut UP, Shear!” Crusader Jack-Hammer seethed through gritted teeth.

Midnight Shear huffed a little in his suit, granting him a death-stare out of the corner of our squad-leader’s eye. He went quiet. I was secretly enjoying the little bit of retribution he received for mentioning that event, even if it only because the Elder was in our presence.

“At ease detachments!” Elder Opal Tulip barked with a voice that one would expect from someone of much greater stature and harsher visage as she came to a stop in front of the entirety of Delta, “As you all know, Protocol 02 was put into effect approximately 30 days ago! However, in light of recent developments, we are unable to complete the edict at this point in time!”

A few soldiers grumbled in their suits, while other quietly voiced their concern. Protocol 02 was supposed to save the Equestrian Wasteland, and help make it easier for ponies that would be exiting the Stables in the coming years to settle in.

“... In light of this,” she continued beginning to pace, “We have decided that it is time to enact Procedure 23 and begin preparations towards its execution immediately.”

She stopped and pulled out a large binder, flipping it telekinetically with her magic. She was the first Elder who had spent most of her career as a scribe.Like me, she had shown exceptional aptitude in combat, and as a result, was eventually accepted into the Knights despite her being a Unicorn. Eventually she rose through the ranks to become a Star Paladin, and eventually the Elder of our entire North Contingent.

“Procedure 23 is very, very simple!” Elder Opal Tulip barked, reading through some of the pages of her binder at the same time, flipping her hair to look up at all of us and adjusting her glasses back onto the bridge of her snout, “Because of radiocative and severe cold temperature damage, the terminals that we need to complete the activation of the Manufactorum are damaged. We need to begin securing supply depots and manufacturing plants across Equestria to ensure that if we are unable to activate the Manufactorum, that we will still have some means of assisting the rebirth of our once great nation.”

A few of the soldiers stomped appreciatively at the idea, and the Elder stopped speaking for a moment to allow it. When the ponyplause died down completely, Opal Tulip continued.

“This does not, however, mean we have given up on activating the Manufactorum! The terminals can be repaired, and the necessary power can be acquired to supply the Manufactorum with energy when it is time to activate it. While the rest of the Steel Rangers North is doing the EASY stuff it is YOUR duty, that is Delta Detachment’s duty, to do all the HARD work and take over those lost power plants and points of interest from whoever or whatever happens to be living, operating, or salvaging from, or in, these key points of interest! That being said, I absolutely do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT approve the killing of civilians! Move them out of the area, or imprison them, but do NOT abuse or kill them!”

“What if they-” I started to ask.

“Shield!” Jack-Hammer barked, “That’s the Elder who’s speaking right now! Where’s your military bearing!? Drop! Now!”

I started to get into pony-push-up position when the Elder shook her head.

“Stand, Knight Shield!” she commanded with a slight frown, to which Jack was surprised by and glanced fearfully in my direction unsure of what kind of wrath I had just brought down upon myself.

I could swear I heard Shear whispered “fuuuuuuuhhcked” under his breath, but I pushed my annoyance aside, holding my ground despite the very real fear of being punished openly (again) by the Elder. Red turned his gaze back to the position of attention, directly, but I could see him gulp out of the corner of my eye in trepidation.

The Elder stood in front of me, staring me down with an intense fire that I was far too familiar with. I was screwed. Especially after that incident with the AER-9 rifle that had burned a hole in her windbreaker last month.

“You had a question, Knight Fallen Shield?” she asked with a serious tone that in all probability would have felled me if not for the extra strength afforded to me by my Powered Armor.

I stood at attention, “I do, Elder Opal Tulip, ma’am!” I barked back, more because I was scared of the consequences of the path I had chosen than anything else.

“Rest, soldier.” she commanded.

I didn’t move.

“I said rest.”

I still couldn’t move.

“I’m giving you a direct order to relax, right now. At this moment. So freaking relax!” she barked.

I finally spoke up my voice cracking in apprehension and dread, “Elder, ma’am, I am absolutely relaxed... Right now!” I lied.

Despite the fact that my lie was feeble as hell and I was by no means relaxed, nor had I moved an inch, she let it slide much to my bewilderment. However in the next few moments I gained more respect and adoration for the Elder than I had ever even considered having in the past.

“Everyone except Knight Fallen Shield, At-Ease!” she bellowed, her voice filling the massive staging area like that of Celestia herself (I assume that, at least.), “Let me ask you all something very simple...” she started off, “What has Fallen Shield done, just now, that is absolutely...”

I steeled myself for it, words such as “stupid,” or “wrong,” filling in the blanks before she had even finished.

“...right?” she finished as a smile shimmered at the edge of her mouth.

Silence filled the staging area, the only noise coming from the idling MAgiK engines in the AutoSleds.

“No one?” she asked matter-of-factly, “No one at all?”

Elder Opal Tulip laughed a little. It was scary to see someone with that much power laugh. I prayed at that moment that I would never see such a thing again.

“He asked a question, you hoof-dragging plot-licks!”

A few soldiers looked around at each other, as if confused. Asking a question was a good thing? I assume that never in their military careers had such an idea even crossed most of their minds. It certainly had not crossed mine, despite the fact that I had done it anyways.

The Elder sighed, “Look, you are my top soldiers, set ahead with a specific task. Your Crusader squad-leaders are in charge of 4, not 8 Knights because they show aptitude beyond the normal sergeant class and I believe they can get things done better with half the units than would normally be necessary.”

She paused for a moment, a few smiles breaking through on the faces of some of the soldiers who were not wearing helmets as they caught onto where she was headed with her new tangent. I watched the Elder, enraptured by her speech in a way that I had never been before. This was a leader of ponies, not just a leader.

“You are DELTA. DETACHMENT.” she barked, “The cream of the crop, the elite of the elite! You have earned my respect, and as such, I want to be more involved in your operations than any other unit within the North Contingent.” she took a breath, “So ask some damned questions!” the Elder bellowed with an almost comical stance that just screamed (for whatever reason) ‘yay!’

My best friend flashed his creepily nervous smile at me signaling that he was impressed and happy, maybe even enthused by what I had done. I looked to my squad leader, and an even bigger smile rested upon his face. I guess he was proud of me or something. I felt a little better about his picking at me than before.

“So!” Elder Opal Tulip called out from where she stood in front of the now smiling squads, “Detachments! Rest!”

All the ponies in the bay suddenly relaxed, leaning towards one side or the other, a few even taking some cigarettes from their stashes within the side and chest pouches that they wore, and began to light one up.

“Except no smoking!” the Elder called out.

A grumble filled the air.

She smiled, “Geeze you guys are easy! Fuckin’ smoke ‘em, I don’t care! Just pay attention while you do it, or I’ll have you ASS when you mess up!” she warned while popping out a cigarette of her own, “Now what was your question, Shield?”

I found myself relaxed in her presence for the first time since I’d met the Elder, “Well, ma’am... what if they start shooting at us?” I asked.

Silence filled the room. No one had considered that. Not surprising since there had been virtually no combat in nine decades between the Steel Rangers North and... well, anypony else.

“Why would they do that, Shield?” the Elder asked, no questioningly, but as if she already knew the answer, “If we’re trying to help, why would they do that?”

I had not expected that.

Stumbling on the first few words I began to explain, “The effects of radiation have been known to cause terrible mutations, insanity, or mental degradation.” I began, “Or what if they think we’re invading their home!?”

The elder puffed a whisp of smoke out and got closer to everyone, motioning with her hoof for them to gather around.

“Welcome to an introduction in Rules of Engagement.” she chided, “We’ve never had to set any, but I’ve read enough about previous wars and the atrocities committed under leaders within the ranks of the old Equestrian Army that...”

A half hour later, we knew everything we needed to know about when to kill another pony, and when to attempt to negotiate. My heart was at ease. I did not like the idea of killing anything that got in our path, and the Elder had once again proven she was just as intelligent as her position warranted.

“Alright everyone!” Star Paladin Thread Spool called out, “Saddle up, Gates open in five!”

The Elder had finished her speech twenty minutes ago, and had gone around specifically talking to the leaders of each squad. Now she approached us, as we began to board the rear of the AutoSled we had been assigned to.

“Crusader Jack-Hammer and company, stand-to!” she yelled over the roar of the engine.

We all turned around and surrounded the Elder, taking our helmets off out of respect. It was not a requirement but it just felt... right.

“Listen.” she said demanded softly as she walked us away from the engine’s angry rotating, “Your squad is the most important on this operation.”

The Elder handed us each a folder from the binder she had been carrying earlier, “Within these folders are specific instructions on what to look for in addition to securing Geothermal Station #7.”

I thumbed through them quickly, noting something about a Scout and some lost documents.

“You absolutely cannot fail in this tasking. The documents that I’m sending you after are more important than the plant itself and cost the life of at least one Scout to gather.” the look on her face was deathly serious. “Failure is not an option, make their deaths count.”

I nodded in understanding, as did the rest of the team, with only our squad leader speaking up.

“We understand ma’am, and we will not fail. I’ll have them review these files on the way to number 7.”

She nodded and wished us all good luck, waving at us as we stepped into the AutoSled.

Moments later, the doors to a world that only a few Steel Rangers had borne witness to in 90 years opened up, protesting and screeching against decades of rust and dust. The MAgiK engines in our ‘Sleds roared as the drivers began to inch forward across the metal panelling, heading towards a portal that would eventually spell doom and disaster for almost every Steel Ranger in the North Contingent.

But then, that’s how most stories go, isn’t it?