Equestria: The Final Frontierby BroneyofnoelChaptersT minus 10PreppersStrange MeteorAnd I'm in PainReinforcementsT minus 10"Griffin, you ready?" I asked, my finger on a large red button between the two of us. "Roger." Griffin said to me, locking in his final straps. "Houston, this is team Lunar Republic, we are all checked and ready, proceeding to launch." I said through my headset. "Roger that Republic, skies are clear and mamma sends wishes." I pressed the button, and then very rapidly, the two of us put our helmets on, I could feel the several thousand gallons of rocket fuel below us begin to ignite. "T minus ten." "Nine" said Griffin. "8...7...6...5...4..3...: The mission control head voiced through our communication headset. "Two." Griffin help his control levers. "One." We pushed our throttles forwards, sending a pillar of flame and fuel out of the bottom of the rocket, a tremendous whooshing sound was made as we cleared the tower. "We have liftoff of Lunar Republic, tower cleared, God Bless boys!" the mission control team had said. "Griffin, set speed to increase util point of exit." I said, making sure pressure was being maintained. "Once this baby hits 8800 miles per hour, we're gonna see some serious friendship." he said, evoking a laugh form the two of us. "Griffin," I started, relaxing my grip on the controls, what will we do when we make it to Equestria?" "We'll do as were told, and then return home." he said, he was stone faced. "What do we have here?" I said, muting the headset I was wearing. "Listen, I know, but we have special duties, we're the first humans to travel through another universe!" Griffin threw his hands into the air. "For God's sakes Griffin, we've spent all of our money on this project, our families left us because we tried to do this, we have nothing!" I shouted, losing my cool for a moment. Griffin looked down at his controls, a flashing green light appeared beside the speedometer. He focused on the speed for a moment and then leaned over, "Captain, speed is 8500 miles per hour." I immediately switched on my headset, "Houston, speed is green, approaching travel speed." No response. "Houston, do you copy?" After a few moments of silence, we heard a voice call back, "Roger republic, speed is green, engage slot one thruster." "Check, slot 1 away." Griffin spoke into the headset. "Speed is approaching travel zone, speed is 8750 miles per hour." I relayed back to earth, Griffin and I tightened our seat belts, this should be fun. "Engage thrusters two and three, talk to you when you touch down on the rock." Houston's final message spoke. "Alright Griffin, get ready." I said. "We've got fifteen seconds." I put my finger over my forehead, and moved it across my chest and to my lower abdomen. "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." "Ten seconds." Griffin said, the two of us grabbed our controls. "Go!" I yelled, we hit our Travel switches, the ship was engulfed in a green flame and the area of space around us seemed to turn to a orange-pink color. Time literally slowed as the two of us hit the speed of light and even more, we crossed dimensions. "Griffin?" I looked over, he was just as confused as I was. Silence was not common, but true silence happened just them, maybe the silence of space, of the dark void. "Parker?" his voice seemed distant. And then everything caught up to itself, including an earth-like planet we were zooming towards at nearly mach 13. I reached over for our reverse rockets. "Dammit, I can't control her." I yelled as we entered the planet's atmosphere. "ARRRGH" Griffin yelled as he pulled back on his lever. Red lights were flashing everywhere, beside the speed and heat, the pressure, everywhere. "Engine temperature, 22,000 degrees!" Griffin panicked. "How fast are we going?" I said as the two of us prepared to stop the rocket we were on. "3,000 miles per hour." I pulled up on the controls, sending us towards a highly populated area, well, an area filled with buildings. The two of us looked at the town and at each other, this was now a life and death matter for more than just us. "Griffin, drop, I'm dropping the Communication link." I said, and released the cargo y booster rocket. "Roger." Griffin ejected out of the rocket. The speed in which we were going was approximately 600 miles per hour. "ARRGH!!!!" I pulled the rocket into an arch, the engine went critical, and the rocket exploded with a huge explosion, and a resulting fireball. _________________________________________________________________________________________ BOOOOOMMM! I looked back at the ship, and instead there was a huge fireball, debris was flying off of the initial explosion. "NOOOOO!" I half yelled, half choked. Some of the burning debris was heading towards me and the cottages below me, I knew I had to stop it before it burned down the city. The communications probe had landed safely on the edge of town, I started to yell form my descending parachute. "FIRE, EVERYPONY! FIRE!" I could see the lights that weren't turned on because of the explosion light up, thousands of ponies were running around the streets, several of what looked to be firefighters were preparing for the burning debris to hit the town. Some pegasi flew by, carrying clouds to fight the fire. I noticed that the explosion had grown dimmer, but the ship was falling towards the ground, the flame trailing behind it. Parker had to be dead, there wasn't anyway someone could've survived that. I landed and started taking off my oxygen suit, as I knew that the air was clean here. I ran to the telecommunications probe, after a brief check, I locked it down and placed it in a power save mode. I turned to see several Canterlot guards aiming their spears at me, with out hesitation, I unholstered my pistol and fired several rounds into the air, which preoccupied them enough to let my sprint by them. I sprinted towards the castle, but before i reached the palace, a large, dark blue alicorn grabbed hold of me arm, pulling me out of sight. "Silence Earthling, we would not like to cause thee harm." _____________________________________________________________________________________ I was hanging from my seat, my suit burnt off of my body, yet my skin and underclothes remained perfect. I noticed I was hanging about twenty five feet above the ground, I just let myself hang there, unaware of what to do next. PreppersThe indicators back at Houston went silent, a sense of dread went over the control crew, all but one small screen remained closed. The light screen showed that the transmission probe was not damaged, and was still in lockdown mode. “Colonel?” One of the many men from the control crew spoke up, “What do we tell the public?” “We don’t say a word.” His eyes looked over every person in the room. “Colonel! I want to know why all of the damned indicators are gone!” An astronaut, Lorhanna Childers to be exact, stormed into the room. The entire set of staff looked at her, she was very serious about this mission, and was on the second flight, set to leave tomorrow. “Childers....we’re not sure if the crew made it.” A flash of pain and horror crossed her eyes, Griffin and Parker had to have made it. “I’m going out to find them!” she said loudly, causing some of the staff to back away. “How are you going to do that, the rocket for their flight was faulty, you won’t make it out of the travel area.” The colonel said, disregarding any of her emotion. “Get the rocket ready.” Lorhanna said to her personal mechanics. “Childers, I am in command.” The colonel was in her face now, ready for anything. “But I own the rocket.” Lorhanna ripped off her american symbol and handed it to the Colonel. “Get back here or I’ll.....!” the Colonel was furious now. “You’ll what...strip me of my rank, ha!” Childers and her team exited the station. “Sir!” the crewman over the probe indicator said, “The probe is coming online!” The crew crowded around the monitor, but the Colonel projected it onto a main, very large screen. “Probe 1........now in power save status...” a sigh of sadness washed over the crew. “Manually set by Lt. Griffin Siats!” The entire room cheered at the words, they’d done the impossible. “Set as many crews as you can to the location of the probe, I want them ASAP!” the Colonel shouted. “Yes, sir!” A dozen signals were sent out to the probe and around the world for the other teams to launch as soon as possible. The messages landing in New York, Munich, Florida, London, Victoria, Paris, and Moscow. 16 astronauts and cosmonauts were assigned to the task of finding the lost men. ______________________________________________________________________ My head was throbbing, I looked around me, the burnt out areas around me were either dark grey or black, all but two windows were shattered, and the area where Griffin had been was coaxed in some unlit fuel, I had to get out of the ship now. I was hanging from the straps in my seat, facing the emptiness of the back of the ship, about a 30 foot drop, the only stop was almost 15 feet down, beside our MRE supply and fire and waterproof weapons cache. “Dammit.” I said as I grabbed my knife and started cutting the straps off of my seat. Once I had gotten through my chest and arm belts, I wiggled my way out of the seat and grabbed onto the final strap, the landing was about 10 feet from my feet. “Okay, one chance.” I grabbed ahold of some of the burnt out controls and made it about 3 feet from the wall. I looked down and the two cases were right below me, a straight fall. I let go of the items I was holding myself up on. I fell right on to the cases and recovered from the landing by rolling once. “Good, now weapons.” I opened the locked case, revealing a small, yet powerful weapons cache. Inside were two M4A1 assault rifles, two Beretta Handguns, and an M249 SAW Light-Machine Gun. There were some body armor and vests in there as well, including a grenade belt, a bullet proof vest, and some riot gear. I picked up one of the handguns, grabbed 3 extra clips. Grabbed an assault rifle with 4 extra clips and left the rest for later if I needed them. I pulled out my flashlight from my waist and shined it down, there was another landing below me, once I grabbed some MREs I’d leave the ship. Opening the case, i grabbed a week’s worth and jumped to the next landing, about six feet below, and then I jumped to the floor, another ten feet. At the very back of the ship, beside the fuel tanks, was a door to use in the event of an accident which left the front unusable. I opened the door to reveal how lucky I was that I had landed where i did, If I had landed a hundred feet either side, it would have let me drop more than a mile, which probably would’ve killed me. I pulled my shortwave radio and turned it on, pressed the microphone button, and spoke, “Griffin, Griffin, do you copy?” Silence. “Lieutenant!” Silence, I switched off my radio and took the safety off of my rifle. I’d need protection to make it to canterlot, where I’d dropped off Griffin. I hoped he wasn’t in any trouble, I’d use the light of the city in the distance to guide me to him, from here, high up clouds of smoke were still hanging around, I must’ve crashed less than two hours ago. _____________________________________________________________________ I was in trouble. Princess Luna had pulled me aside and said.... Princess Luna said Earthling, she knew of us? And now I was following her through tunnels below the castle, she wasn’t saying a word. “Princess?” I said weakly. She stopped and turned to face me, she eyed me very keenly, almost inspecting me. Something I hadn’t noticed before is that Luna was a good five and a half feet tall, her horn making it six feet. “Yes Earthling?” “Please, call me Griffin, and why are you taking me here?” “We are taking thee to the castle, we can’t take th....I can’t take you above ground while this is happening.” Luna corrected her King’s English. “While what is happening?” I asked curiously, hoping that what had happened hadn’t done anything horrible. “The massive explosion over Canterlot shook the whole city, there is panic, fires, and the royal guard is barely keeping order over the million ponies in canterlot and the suburbs, where you appeared.” she stated, waiting for a response from me. “I’m sorry.” “I know you are, we have much to discuss, and we need to find your pilot as well.”. “He’s dead!” I choked, I’d already given in. “No....Griffin, he is not, I saw where he landed, we will find him.” Luna stated, and she gestured to a staircase nearby. “Is this the castle?” I said as we walked up the stairs. “We are going to Tia’s chamber, she will want to hear about this.” Luna said knowingly, she had a plan. “Who knows about humans?” I asked Luna, fearing that everypony did. “Just Tia and I, and less than ten elite guards and special ponies.” “Good.” I said, “Now we just have to find Parker." ___________________________________________________________________________ Taking character requests, if you want, message me! Strange MeteorTwilight shifted uneasily whilst looking through her telescope, a strange anomaly was happening very high up in the night sky. After what had happened over Canterlot last night, whatever it was, Twilight had been keeping watch from her own library, only occasionally stopping for a visit or maybe a nap of coffee from Spike. The anomaly was getting brighter, but it didn’t show signs of moving at all, it wasn’t a comet, or a meteor, probably just the Princess’ doing an experiment with her own creation. Yet something still seemed...off, whatever it was...it would climax in some way very soon. The light in the night sky suddenly vanished, causing Twilight to recoil away from her telescope for a moment, but only just. She was back gazing a moment later, but this time something was very wrong. The light was no longer a light, but a rapidly approaching rock of some sorts, it had fire coming from its rear and was made up of squares. “Spike!” Twilight ran from her telescope and leaped down to Spike, grabbing him and covering him. “Twilight?” Spike questioned as the mare held him. The tree started to shake, very violently at that, and the two held each other as pictures and books dislodged themselves from the walls and shelves. “What’s going on?” Spike said as the two held each other for dear life. “I don’t know, it’ll be okay!” Twilight said as she made the decision, she teleported to the hills outside of Ponyville. Twilight turned to see the object causing the commotion around Ponyville, the rock....the ship was soaring very slowly over Ponyville, heading right towards them. Before they had time to react, the ship landed less than ten feet from them, the ship didn’t effect the earth, other than a heavy gate dropping beside the large craft. Two strange looking creatures appeared from the craft and looked around, that was all Twilight needed before she teleported away to the castle. _____________________________________________________________ Lorhanna tensed up as the ship entered the planet’s atmosphere, as smooth as the flight was going, something was bound to go wrong. Her controls became very energized as the ship neared the planetary surface, the atmosphere changed from hope to happiness. “Altitude, 1200 feet.” Lorhanna reported as the ship came closer to the surface, the soldiers and Gabriel started towards the back of the ship to gather their supplies. “Alright , mount up the HUMVEE’s with enough fuel, ammunition, medical supplies, and food for a while, put the excess fuel drums on the probe trailers and hook them up!” Gabriel commanded as he went to the armory on board. Lorhanna looked towards the small town coming towards her, a town she had dreamed of living in when she was a teenage girl, the town she had once called Ponyville. She had almost forgotten the beauty of Equestria, but here it was, as real as she was. She maneuvered the ship to land gently in a field beside Ponyville, trying not to cause too much disturbance to its residents. But what happened next would ba an image she would never forget. Twilight Sparkle and Spike, the two most prominent characters from her childhood, appeared on the hill in front of the ship, they just watched her land the ship, almost as if they were scared to move. She pulled the controls away from the hill and landed the ship in the valley beneath the hill. Lorhanna parted ways from the controls and ran down the halls to the exit ramp, while the rest of the crew were waiting, she and the Sergeant would be stepping off of the craft. She ran to press the release button. “Are you ready Sergeant?” She asked as the door slowly opened, allowing pressure to balance before they stepped outside. The large automated door lowered for several long moments before finally touching down on the soft grass below them. The Sergeant first stepped out with and oxygen measurement device. “Oxygen is 20.55% at surface, nearly perfect.” he said as they panned the device around, admiring the night sky. “Alright.” Lorhanna said as she saw a purple flash come from the front of the ship, a flash from a teleportation. ________________________________________________________________________ Gabriel, followed by the soldiers, unlocked the vehicles and weapons aboard the ship, his first order was to arm the HUMVEE’s and load the ambulance variant with supplies. Once he unlocked the armory, each of the soldiers grabbed their own gear; Weapons, armor, communications devices, all of it. Four soldiers were in the first HUMVEE, 1 driver, the gunner, and two passengers, it was the armament carrier, which would lead out the missions. In the second was two soldiers, a driver and gunner, it held the supplies and medical litters. Lorhanna would be in the front passenger seat in the first HUMVEE, Gabriel would be riding with the probe being towed by that one. The other two soldiers would be on the second probe trailer, making sure the extra drums of gasoline didn't fall from the trailer. “Move out!” Gabriel commanded as the two HUMVEEs drove down the ramp and onto the grassy area. “Establishing Radio contact, channel 12 normality, channel 5 in emergencies.” The Sergeant told the first HUMVEE. “Alright,” Gabriel said over the probe’s radio, “Team 1, head towards the town, set a probe on top of the tallest hill you can find, my team will head to the original drop point and set up Lunar Republic’s probe.” “Roger that.” The Sergeant, who happened to be the driver of Team 1, said. The two teams split ways, team two, where Gabriel was, was approaching Drop point 1, Canterlot suburbs, at around fifty miles per hour, taking the main road going from the small town they had landed near to the large city where their first point was. “Beacon is showing that we’re about 20 miles out.” Gabriel radioed to the driver, who signaled through the room that he copied. As the team started up the mountain, they stopped to set up the first probe. Once they fully stopped, Gabriel jumped from the trailer and unhitched the probe. “Alright, you two head up to Drop point Alpha, I’ll meet up with team one.” he commanded. “Yes, sir.” The two leapt back into the HUMVEE and continued driving. “Alright Private, help me with this.” The two unlatched the probes base, and they dug a couple of inches into the ground, next they opened the solar panels on either side, and then they uncovered the laser transmitting satellite area. “Alright, 1187.” Gabriel said as he punched in the code to start the transmitter. The probe sprang to life, it’s touch-screen interface lit up with life, and the NASA logo appeared for a moment, and then a call screen came up. “Videocall, Houston Space Center.” Gabriel said, and the probe followed his command, in a very short time, Earth’s very first interplanetary call would be made. __________________________________________________________________ And I'm in PainI ran through the castle, avoiding anypony who would get in my way. I didn’t have time to talk to them, that would come later, but my mission now was to set up the first probe. I stopped and slid behind a statue of Princess Celestia and pulled out my communicator, I switched to channels 3, 7, and finally channel 12. “Team 1, probe number 3 is being set up.” a voice, a familiar voice said. “Roger team 2, the tracker shows you are heading towards the first probe.” that voice....Lorhanna? “The corporal and the Sergeant are heading towards probe 1.” the male voice said. “Relay any information on the missing crew.” Lorhanna said. I clicked the speaker button, “This is Captain Parker Owens of the United States Army Space Division, requesting exfil from a thousand yards south from probe 1!” I said into the communicator. “Captain!” the male voice said, “What is your call code?” he continued shakily. “Charlie Papa Tango Papa Oscar” I said periodically. “Roger, send word back home that we’ve found the Captain,” he spoke back into the communicator, “Where’s your co-captain?” “MIA.” “Damn, we’ll find him, don’t worry.” “Team 1 is six kilometers from your location, meet at the probe, relaying message.” “Roger.” I started running, my weapon ready and at my shoulder. I ran through the castle until I hit the chambers and heard a very familiar voice. “Wow.” It was Griffin. I dove behind a curtain hanging by a wall, and then proceeded to listen for his voice again. “When do we find him?” he asked one of the princesses. “We will first look by the crash site.” Luna. “He’d be gone by now, what is around there?” Griffin asked, thinking. “The only direction he could go is towards us, our patrols will find him.” Luna said, putting a hoof under chin. I slipped into the room and let my weapon fall to my waist, “I’m back!” Luna turned and her magical aura consumed me and threw me against a wall, knocking me unconscious before I even fell from the wall to the floor. _________________________________________________________ Parker hit the wall, and then slumped to the floor, Luna was ready to levitate him again, but I stopped her by simply yelling, “Holy shitty hell what was that for?” He ran over to the limp body. “He was about to attack us.” Luna said, pointing a hoof over to Parker’s body. “You could’ve killed him!” Griffin said frantically. “Perhaps we should get him to the medical area.” Luna said, picking up his body. “Yeah.” Parker’s communicator started to buzz, Griffin unlatched it and spoke, “This is lieutenant Griffin Siats, Captain Parker is wounded and being escorted to a medical facility.” “Report number 2, both missing crew members have been found, notifying Lorhanna Childers.” the male voice said. Griffin recognized the voice, it was Gabriel’s, they’d trained together back on earth, their Earth. He hadn’t seen him in a few weeks. “Alright, team number 2 is at the first probe, poppins signal.” a different voice said. “I’m about 600 meters out, reporting as soon as possible.” Griffin said. “Roger lieutenant, we’ll send a ride for you once the Captain is safe.” the radio said, and then only open static. “Okay Luna, how long till he’ll wake up?” he asked, looking at the levitated human. “I think he is now.” “Well, that's awfully freaking convenient.” Parker started to realize what was happening and where he was. _________________________________________________________________________ I opened my eyes fully, and I realized I was staring the Princess of the night right in the eyes, hers looked a little saddened. “What happened?” I looked over to Griffin. “You got knocked the fuck out, that’s what happened.” “I am truly sorry Parker.” Luna said, giving a light hearted smile. “I need to get to the exfil point beside the first probe we brought!” I said, rolling around in the levitated mass around be. “We must tend to your injuries first.” Luna said, not wanting to let me go. “The army medics can do that, can you please set me down?” I asked, preparing to be set on the ground. “Alright.” Luna set me down as gently as possible. Pain. Just Pain. “And....you ...could pick me back.....up?” I seethed in horrible pain. “We must take you to our medical quarters, we are almost there.” Luna said, she opened the door in front of us as well. “Is this the place?” I looked around, seeing some modern medical equipment around hospital beds, some of which held injured guards and townsponies. “Yes.” Luna said, setting me down on a soft bed, which still caused pain throughout my body, but not as much, “Nurse Redheart?!” The nurse, Redheart, yes the one from the show of my youth, approached me with a curious eye. “Yes, your majesty.” she bowed. “This earthling needs special attention, get the team ready.” Nurse Redheart’s face grew into a grim expression. “The team is too busy, thousands of ponies are hospitalized right now, I’m the only one available.” Redheart said, almost crying. “Do you have medical experience?” she asked Griffin. “Well, some field dressing training, but not much.” “That’s all we have, help Redheart, I shall go help the guards and firefighters stop the blazed.” Luna disappeared in a blue flash. “Soldier, help me over here, we have to turn him over and see what is wrong.” Griffin and Redheart turned me onto my stomach, and then she cut open the back of my shirt. “Oh my, ask one of the nurs....I’ll ask for some painkillers, get the wound opened, we have to get that object out of him now.” Nurse Redheart said, running off to a supply room. “Alright buddy, this is gonna hurt!” Griffin said as he washed himself and put on some pony gloves, which he stabbed his fingers through. Griffin showed me a scalpel and then told me to be quiet. “Here!” Nurse Redheart took a needle and stabbed my lower back with it, within seconds I could no longer feel from my shoulder blades to my lower thighs. “Alright,” The nurse said, “Now to get this metal link out of him.” Author's Note Part One is over...............Part two shall begin momentarily, on the same story, so like stay subscribed! ReinforcementsI edged closer to the city, becoming more and more nervous with each step. I could hear construction noises growing nearer; I wondered how I would get around this. Once I reached the opening where the construction ponies were, I noticed that the forest went around the site, so I kept to the woods. I checked my battery life on my communicator, 100% Strange, it wasn’t 100% when we left Earth. As I walked around the construction site, I noticed that more and more houses were everywhere. I kept walking in the most blend able areas of the forest, hoping to make it as far in as I could before having to sprint to the castle. I reached the base of a mountain, and just over the peak I could see a tower, that must be the castle. I pulled out the climbing equipment from my bag and started to scale the side of the mountain, which happened to be nearly straight up. I set a brace every 20 feet or so, just enough to break my fall without breaking me in the process. After about 20 minutes of climbing, I checked my progress by looking behind me. Bad Idea. I was nearly 300 feet above the ground, and only about halfway up, and I was running out of braces, I only had about ten left, not enough to make it up unless I placed them very sparsely. Now I was placing a brace every 40 feet, if I slipped too far form I brace, death was certain. Again, almost ten minutes later, I this time looked up, and to my relief, the top was less than 30 feet above me. Except for one problem, I hadn’t placed a brace in40 feet and I only had 1 left, the one I needed for the very top. I would have to be very careful when climbing the next area, or else it would be a very unpleasant 7 story fall. Okay, there seemed to be a few ledges that I could grab a hold of and mount myself to get to the next one. By now I could see more of the towers, it definitely was the castle, once I reached the top, I would use the beacon on my communicator to locate the transmitter. “Son of a .....Buttermilk.....biscuit!” I gritted my teeth as I pulled my self on the first ledge. I looked above me and noticed that there wasn’t just a ledge above me, but there was a huge cave system below the castle, I’d have to check that out for later. I placed a small locator beacon under the dirt in the middle of the pathway. I went to the side of the wall and started climbing again; it would be mere seconds until I reached the top. The ridge started leveling out as I drew nearer to the top, which let me feel confident enough to place the final bracket about 5 feet from the top. As I rolled over the top, the situation became very serious, there were guards patrolling the grounds, coming around in patrols of two to five. I ran and dove into a bush, and then switched my weapon’s safety off. Peeking out of the bush, I spotted a door, only illuminated by the moonlight; it looked as if the guards weren’t even paying attention to it. I sprinted to the door and tried to open it, no use, the door was locked. But alas, I had a “Key”. I placed the barrel of my M4 against the handle and let loose ten rounds, causing several very loud bangs. I threw my shoulder against the door and it fell open, allowing me to go inside before the patrols could locate the area where the shots were fired. Okay, I was in what seemed to be the west guard tower and about a kilometer from my probe, according to the beacon. ___________________________________________________________ Major Gabriel Aroyo and Lorhanna Childers walked towards their spacecraft, a much larger one than Griffin and Parkers, this one held supplies and equipment for 10 people, themselves and eight soldiers, plus two HUMVEE light vehicles. “All ready sir!” the commander of the squad as Gabriel approached them. “Good, brief the men, we take off in an hour.” Gabriel told the Sergeant. “Yes, sir!” The soldier then walked off. “Captain, the soldiers are being briefed, shall we check over the equipment once more?” Gabriel said to Lorhanna. “Yes, you check the equipment bay; I’ll check food and supplies.” Lorhanna commanded, and then walked off. Gabriel headed to the munitions bay first, where the two vehicles and weapons, including another two communications probes. He first checked the two HUMVEE’s. HUMVEE Variant 4 litter soft-top ambulance W/ mount...tied, locked, check! HUMVEE Variant: Armament Carrier M1025A2 Tied down and locked, Check! Gabriel went into the munitions locker where all of the infantry weapons were held, and looked around. The cages which held the weapons were locked, all except for on particular case, which held Gabriel’s favorite weapon... The M134 minigun, the one that was to be mounted upon the ambulance, that case was not locked, mainly because the minigun itself was attached to the ship be several locks. The minigun wasn’t in a closed case because in the event of an emergency, going through more than one lock would be life threateningly long. Gabriel went into the probe area; both of the probes were locked down and next to each other on trailers that were pulled by the humvees. He closed the entire area and headed towards the front of the ship. “Everything in order Captain.” Gabriel said as he met Lorhanna on the bridge. “Same here, the soldiers are bringing the drums of gasoline on board now, they will go in a fireproof room beside the armory, one that’s not connected to the area.” she said as she was checking the control systems. “How long?” he asked. “Twenty minutes, make sure that you get your suit on,” she gestured to a locker near our seats. “The soldiers are strapping in and are ready for flight.” the sergeant, in his full spacesuit, said to the two of us, his soldiers were in the next area. “Let’s get to it.” I said, putting on my spacesuit. “Control?” Lorhanna said through her headset. “As much as I don’t want to help you, it’s my job.” the colonel voiced through the comms. “All passengers and supplies accounted for, pre-flight checks complete, about ten minutes.” Lorhanna said to control. “Skies are being cleared; new travel speed is 8,500 miles per hour, clear?” “Crystal sir!” Gabriel said through his headset. “Alright, as soon as he skies are cleared, you are cleared to depart from the Kennedy Space Center.” control said. __________Ten minutes later_______________________________________ “WE are clear, Crystal Empire, you are cleared for takeoff.” Control said through their headsets. “Alright Major, engines on, prepare for liftoff!” Lorhanna said. The sergeant ran back to his men and started his own strapping in; his seat was in view of the pilots, and his men. “Engines on!” Lorhanna cried. “Go!” Gabriel said. The ship started barreling down the runway, reaching a speed of nearly 2 thousand miles per hour before it went airborne. “Speed is 5 thousand miles per hour Captain.” Gabriel reported as the hit an altitude of 100,000 feet. “Hit booster number 1.” Lorhanna ordered, Gabriel followed. The craft immediately accelerated almost two thousand miles per hour faster than it had been going, the crew prepared for travel. “Control, our speed is 8 thousand, preparing for travel.” Lorhanna said through her headset. “Roger Crystal, God bless!” As the craft approached travel speed, the crew could only hope they would survive.
T minus 10"Griffin, you ready?" I asked, my finger on a large red button between the two of us. "Roger." Griffin said to me, locking in his final straps. "Houston, this is team Lunar Republic, we are all checked and ready, proceeding to launch." I said through my headset. "Roger that Republic, skies are clear and mamma sends wishes." I pressed the button, and then very rapidly, the two of us put our helmets on, I could feel the several thousand gallons of rocket fuel below us begin to ignite. "T minus ten." "Nine" said Griffin. "8...7...6...5...4..3...: The mission control head voiced through our communication headset. "Two." Griffin help his control levers. "One." We pushed our throttles forwards, sending a pillar of flame and fuel out of the bottom of the rocket, a tremendous whooshing sound was made as we cleared the tower. "We have liftoff of Lunar Republic, tower cleared, God Bless boys!" the mission control team had said. "Griffin, set speed to increase util point of exit." I said, making sure pressure was being maintained. "Once this baby hits 8800 miles per hour, we're gonna see some serious friendship." he said, evoking a laugh form the two of us. "Griffin," I started, relaxing my grip on the controls, what will we do when we make it to Equestria?" "We'll do as were told, and then return home." he said, he was stone faced. "What do we have here?" I said, muting the headset I was wearing. "Listen, I know, but we have special duties, we're the first humans to travel through another universe!" Griffin threw his hands into the air. "For God's sakes Griffin, we've spent all of our money on this project, our families left us because we tried to do this, we have nothing!" I shouted, losing my cool for a moment. Griffin looked down at his controls, a flashing green light appeared beside the speedometer. He focused on the speed for a moment and then leaned over, "Captain, speed is 8500 miles per hour." I immediately switched on my headset, "Houston, speed is green, approaching travel speed." No response. "Houston, do you copy?" After a few moments of silence, we heard a voice call back, "Roger republic, speed is green, engage slot one thruster." "Check, slot 1 away." Griffin spoke into the headset. "Speed is approaching travel zone, speed is 8750 miles per hour." I relayed back to earth, Griffin and I tightened our seat belts, this should be fun. "Engage thrusters two and three, talk to you when you touch down on the rock." Houston's final message spoke. "Alright Griffin, get ready." I said. "We've got fifteen seconds." I put my finger over my forehead, and moved it across my chest and to my lower abdomen. "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." "Ten seconds." Griffin said, the two of us grabbed our controls. "Go!" I yelled, we hit our Travel switches, the ship was engulfed in a green flame and the area of space around us seemed to turn to a orange-pink color. Time literally slowed as the two of us hit the speed of light and even more, we crossed dimensions. "Griffin?" I looked over, he was just as confused as I was. Silence was not common, but true silence happened just them, maybe the silence of space, of the dark void. "Parker?" his voice seemed distant. And then everything caught up to itself, including an earth-like planet we were zooming towards at nearly mach 13. I reached over for our reverse rockets. "Dammit, I can't control her." I yelled as we entered the planet's atmosphere. "ARRRGH" Griffin yelled as he pulled back on his lever. Red lights were flashing everywhere, beside the speed and heat, the pressure, everywhere. "Engine temperature, 22,000 degrees!" Griffin panicked. "How fast are we going?" I said as the two of us prepared to stop the rocket we were on. "3,000 miles per hour." I pulled up on the controls, sending us towards a highly populated area, well, an area filled with buildings. The two of us looked at the town and at each other, this was now a life and death matter for more than just us. "Griffin, drop, I'm dropping the Communication link." I said, and released the cargo y booster rocket. "Roger." Griffin ejected out of the rocket. The speed in which we were going was approximately 600 miles per hour. "ARRGH!!!!" I pulled the rocket into an arch, the engine went critical, and the rocket exploded with a huge explosion, and a resulting fireball. _________________________________________________________________________________________ BOOOOOMMM! I looked back at the ship, and instead there was a huge fireball, debris was flying off of the initial explosion. "NOOOOO!" I half yelled, half choked. Some of the burning debris was heading towards me and the cottages below me, I knew I had to stop it before it burned down the city. The communications probe had landed safely on the edge of town, I started to yell form my descending parachute. "FIRE, EVERYPONY! FIRE!" I could see the lights that weren't turned on because of the explosion light up, thousands of ponies were running around the streets, several of what looked to be firefighters were preparing for the burning debris to hit the town. Some pegasi flew by, carrying clouds to fight the fire. I noticed that the explosion had grown dimmer, but the ship was falling towards the ground, the flame trailing behind it. Parker had to be dead, there wasn't anyway someone could've survived that. I landed and started taking off my oxygen suit, as I knew that the air was clean here. I ran to the telecommunications probe, after a brief check, I locked it down and placed it in a power save mode. I turned to see several Canterlot guards aiming their spears at me, with out hesitation, I unholstered my pistol and fired several rounds into the air, which preoccupied them enough to let my sprint by them. I sprinted towards the castle, but before i reached the palace, a large, dark blue alicorn grabbed hold of me arm, pulling me out of sight. "Silence Earthling, we would not like to cause thee harm." _____________________________________________________________________________________ I was hanging from my seat, my suit burnt off of my body, yet my skin and underclothes remained perfect. I noticed I was hanging about twenty five feet above the ground, I just let myself hang there, unaware of what to do next.
PreppersThe indicators back at Houston went silent, a sense of dread went over the control crew, all but one small screen remained closed. The light screen showed that the transmission probe was not damaged, and was still in lockdown mode. “Colonel?” One of the many men from the control crew spoke up, “What do we tell the public?” “We don’t say a word.” His eyes looked over every person in the room. “Colonel! I want to know why all of the damned indicators are gone!” An astronaut, Lorhanna Childers to be exact, stormed into the room. The entire set of staff looked at her, she was very serious about this mission, and was on the second flight, set to leave tomorrow. “Childers....we’re not sure if the crew made it.” A flash of pain and horror crossed her eyes, Griffin and Parker had to have made it. “I’m going out to find them!” she said loudly, causing some of the staff to back away. “How are you going to do that, the rocket for their flight was faulty, you won’t make it out of the travel area.” The colonel said, disregarding any of her emotion. “Get the rocket ready.” Lorhanna said to her personal mechanics. “Childers, I am in command.” The colonel was in her face now, ready for anything. “But I own the rocket.” Lorhanna ripped off her american symbol and handed it to the Colonel. “Get back here or I’ll.....!” the Colonel was furious now. “You’ll what...strip me of my rank, ha!” Childers and her team exited the station. “Sir!” the crewman over the probe indicator said, “The probe is coming online!” The crew crowded around the monitor, but the Colonel projected it onto a main, very large screen. “Probe 1........now in power save status...” a sigh of sadness washed over the crew. “Manually set by Lt. Griffin Siats!” The entire room cheered at the words, they’d done the impossible. “Set as many crews as you can to the location of the probe, I want them ASAP!” the Colonel shouted. “Yes, sir!” A dozen signals were sent out to the probe and around the world for the other teams to launch as soon as possible. The messages landing in New York, Munich, Florida, London, Victoria, Paris, and Moscow. 16 astronauts and cosmonauts were assigned to the task of finding the lost men. ______________________________________________________________________ My head was throbbing, I looked around me, the burnt out areas around me were either dark grey or black, all but two windows were shattered, and the area where Griffin had been was coaxed in some unlit fuel, I had to get out of the ship now. I was hanging from the straps in my seat, facing the emptiness of the back of the ship, about a 30 foot drop, the only stop was almost 15 feet down, beside our MRE supply and fire and waterproof weapons cache. “Dammit.” I said as I grabbed my knife and started cutting the straps off of my seat. Once I had gotten through my chest and arm belts, I wiggled my way out of the seat and grabbed onto the final strap, the landing was about 10 feet from my feet. “Okay, one chance.” I grabbed ahold of some of the burnt out controls and made it about 3 feet from the wall. I looked down and the two cases were right below me, a straight fall. I let go of the items I was holding myself up on. I fell right on to the cases and recovered from the landing by rolling once. “Good, now weapons.” I opened the locked case, revealing a small, yet powerful weapons cache. Inside were two M4A1 assault rifles, two Beretta Handguns, and an M249 SAW Light-Machine Gun. There were some body armor and vests in there as well, including a grenade belt, a bullet proof vest, and some riot gear. I picked up one of the handguns, grabbed 3 extra clips. Grabbed an assault rifle with 4 extra clips and left the rest for later if I needed them. I pulled out my flashlight from my waist and shined it down, there was another landing below me, once I grabbed some MREs I’d leave the ship. Opening the case, i grabbed a week’s worth and jumped to the next landing, about six feet below, and then I jumped to the floor, another ten feet. At the very back of the ship, beside the fuel tanks, was a door to use in the event of an accident which left the front unusable. I opened the door to reveal how lucky I was that I had landed where i did, If I had landed a hundred feet either side, it would have let me drop more than a mile, which probably would’ve killed me. I pulled my shortwave radio and turned it on, pressed the microphone button, and spoke, “Griffin, Griffin, do you copy?” Silence. “Lieutenant!” Silence, I switched off my radio and took the safety off of my rifle. I’d need protection to make it to canterlot, where I’d dropped off Griffin. I hoped he wasn’t in any trouble, I’d use the light of the city in the distance to guide me to him, from here, high up clouds of smoke were still hanging around, I must’ve crashed less than two hours ago. _____________________________________________________________________ I was in trouble. Princess Luna had pulled me aside and said.... Princess Luna said Earthling, she knew of us? And now I was following her through tunnels below the castle, she wasn’t saying a word. “Princess?” I said weakly. She stopped and turned to face me, she eyed me very keenly, almost inspecting me. Something I hadn’t noticed before is that Luna was a good five and a half feet tall, her horn making it six feet. “Yes Earthling?” “Please, call me Griffin, and why are you taking me here?” “We are taking thee to the castle, we can’t take th....I can’t take you above ground while this is happening.” Luna corrected her King’s English. “While what is happening?” I asked curiously, hoping that what had happened hadn’t done anything horrible. “The massive explosion over Canterlot shook the whole city, there is panic, fires, and the royal guard is barely keeping order over the million ponies in canterlot and the suburbs, where you appeared.” she stated, waiting for a response from me. “I’m sorry.” “I know you are, we have much to discuss, and we need to find your pilot as well.”. “He’s dead!” I choked, I’d already given in. “No....Griffin, he is not, I saw where he landed, we will find him.” Luna stated, and she gestured to a staircase nearby. “Is this the castle?” I said as we walked up the stairs. “We are going to Tia’s chamber, she will want to hear about this.” Luna said knowingly, she had a plan. “Who knows about humans?” I asked Luna, fearing that everypony did. “Just Tia and I, and less than ten elite guards and special ponies.” “Good.” I said, “Now we just have to find Parker." ___________________________________________________________________________ Taking character requests, if you want, message me!
Strange MeteorTwilight shifted uneasily whilst looking through her telescope, a strange anomaly was happening very high up in the night sky. After what had happened over Canterlot last night, whatever it was, Twilight had been keeping watch from her own library, only occasionally stopping for a visit or maybe a nap of coffee from Spike. The anomaly was getting brighter, but it didn’t show signs of moving at all, it wasn’t a comet, or a meteor, probably just the Princess’ doing an experiment with her own creation. Yet something still seemed...off, whatever it was...it would climax in some way very soon. The light in the night sky suddenly vanished, causing Twilight to recoil away from her telescope for a moment, but only just. She was back gazing a moment later, but this time something was very wrong. The light was no longer a light, but a rapidly approaching rock of some sorts, it had fire coming from its rear and was made up of squares. “Spike!” Twilight ran from her telescope and leaped down to Spike, grabbing him and covering him. “Twilight?” Spike questioned as the mare held him. The tree started to shake, very violently at that, and the two held each other as pictures and books dislodged themselves from the walls and shelves. “What’s going on?” Spike said as the two held each other for dear life. “I don’t know, it’ll be okay!” Twilight said as she made the decision, she teleported to the hills outside of Ponyville. Twilight turned to see the object causing the commotion around Ponyville, the rock....the ship was soaring very slowly over Ponyville, heading right towards them. Before they had time to react, the ship landed less than ten feet from them, the ship didn’t effect the earth, other than a heavy gate dropping beside the large craft. Two strange looking creatures appeared from the craft and looked around, that was all Twilight needed before she teleported away to the castle. _____________________________________________________________ Lorhanna tensed up as the ship entered the planet’s atmosphere, as smooth as the flight was going, something was bound to go wrong. Her controls became very energized as the ship neared the planetary surface, the atmosphere changed from hope to happiness. “Altitude, 1200 feet.” Lorhanna reported as the ship came closer to the surface, the soldiers and Gabriel started towards the back of the ship to gather their supplies. “Alright , mount up the HUMVEE’s with enough fuel, ammunition, medical supplies, and food for a while, put the excess fuel drums on the probe trailers and hook them up!” Gabriel commanded as he went to the armory on board. Lorhanna looked towards the small town coming towards her, a town she had dreamed of living in when she was a teenage girl, the town she had once called Ponyville. She had almost forgotten the beauty of Equestria, but here it was, as real as she was. She maneuvered the ship to land gently in a field beside Ponyville, trying not to cause too much disturbance to its residents. But what happened next would ba an image she would never forget. Twilight Sparkle and Spike, the two most prominent characters from her childhood, appeared on the hill in front of the ship, they just watched her land the ship, almost as if they were scared to move. She pulled the controls away from the hill and landed the ship in the valley beneath the hill. Lorhanna parted ways from the controls and ran down the halls to the exit ramp, while the rest of the crew were waiting, she and the Sergeant would be stepping off of the craft. She ran to press the release button. “Are you ready Sergeant?” She asked as the door slowly opened, allowing pressure to balance before they stepped outside. The large automated door lowered for several long moments before finally touching down on the soft grass below them. The Sergeant first stepped out with and oxygen measurement device. “Oxygen is 20.55% at surface, nearly perfect.” he said as they panned the device around, admiring the night sky. “Alright.” Lorhanna said as she saw a purple flash come from the front of the ship, a flash from a teleportation. ________________________________________________________________________ Gabriel, followed by the soldiers, unlocked the vehicles and weapons aboard the ship, his first order was to arm the HUMVEE’s and load the ambulance variant with supplies. Once he unlocked the armory, each of the soldiers grabbed their own gear; Weapons, armor, communications devices, all of it. Four soldiers were in the first HUMVEE, 1 driver, the gunner, and two passengers, it was the armament carrier, which would lead out the missions. In the second was two soldiers, a driver and gunner, it held the supplies and medical litters. Lorhanna would be in the front passenger seat in the first HUMVEE, Gabriel would be riding with the probe being towed by that one. The other two soldiers would be on the second probe trailer, making sure the extra drums of gasoline didn't fall from the trailer. “Move out!” Gabriel commanded as the two HUMVEEs drove down the ramp and onto the grassy area. “Establishing Radio contact, channel 12 normality, channel 5 in emergencies.” The Sergeant told the first HUMVEE. “Alright,” Gabriel said over the probe’s radio, “Team 1, head towards the town, set a probe on top of the tallest hill you can find, my team will head to the original drop point and set up Lunar Republic’s probe.” “Roger that.” The Sergeant, who happened to be the driver of Team 1, said. The two teams split ways, team two, where Gabriel was, was approaching Drop point 1, Canterlot suburbs, at around fifty miles per hour, taking the main road going from the small town they had landed near to the large city where their first point was. “Beacon is showing that we’re about 20 miles out.” Gabriel radioed to the driver, who signaled through the room that he copied. As the team started up the mountain, they stopped to set up the first probe. Once they fully stopped, Gabriel jumped from the trailer and unhitched the probe. “Alright, you two head up to Drop point Alpha, I’ll meet up with team one.” he commanded. “Yes, sir.” The two leapt back into the HUMVEE and continued driving. “Alright Private, help me with this.” The two unlatched the probes base, and they dug a couple of inches into the ground, next they opened the solar panels on either side, and then they uncovered the laser transmitting satellite area. “Alright, 1187.” Gabriel said as he punched in the code to start the transmitter. The probe sprang to life, it’s touch-screen interface lit up with life, and the NASA logo appeared for a moment, and then a call screen came up. “Videocall, Houston Space Center.” Gabriel said, and the probe followed his command, in a very short time, Earth’s very first interplanetary call would be made. __________________________________________________________________
And I'm in PainI ran through the castle, avoiding anypony who would get in my way. I didn’t have time to talk to them, that would come later, but my mission now was to set up the first probe. I stopped and slid behind a statue of Princess Celestia and pulled out my communicator, I switched to channels 3, 7, and finally channel 12. “Team 1, probe number 3 is being set up.” a voice, a familiar voice said. “Roger team 2, the tracker shows you are heading towards the first probe.” that voice....Lorhanna? “The corporal and the Sergeant are heading towards probe 1.” the male voice said. “Relay any information on the missing crew.” Lorhanna said. I clicked the speaker button, “This is Captain Parker Owens of the United States Army Space Division, requesting exfil from a thousand yards south from probe 1!” I said into the communicator. “Captain!” the male voice said, “What is your call code?” he continued shakily. “Charlie Papa Tango Papa Oscar” I said periodically. “Roger, send word back home that we’ve found the Captain,” he spoke back into the communicator, “Where’s your co-captain?” “MIA.” “Damn, we’ll find him, don’t worry.” “Team 1 is six kilometers from your location, meet at the probe, relaying message.” “Roger.” I started running, my weapon ready and at my shoulder. I ran through the castle until I hit the chambers and heard a very familiar voice. “Wow.” It was Griffin. I dove behind a curtain hanging by a wall, and then proceeded to listen for his voice again. “When do we find him?” he asked one of the princesses. “We will first look by the crash site.” Luna. “He’d be gone by now, what is around there?” Griffin asked, thinking. “The only direction he could go is towards us, our patrols will find him.” Luna said, putting a hoof under chin. I slipped into the room and let my weapon fall to my waist, “I’m back!” Luna turned and her magical aura consumed me and threw me against a wall, knocking me unconscious before I even fell from the wall to the floor. _________________________________________________________ Parker hit the wall, and then slumped to the floor, Luna was ready to levitate him again, but I stopped her by simply yelling, “Holy shitty hell what was that for?” He ran over to the limp body. “He was about to attack us.” Luna said, pointing a hoof over to Parker’s body. “You could’ve killed him!” Griffin said frantically. “Perhaps we should get him to the medical area.” Luna said, picking up his body. “Yeah.” Parker’s communicator started to buzz, Griffin unlatched it and spoke, “This is lieutenant Griffin Siats, Captain Parker is wounded and being escorted to a medical facility.” “Report number 2, both missing crew members have been found, notifying Lorhanna Childers.” the male voice said. Griffin recognized the voice, it was Gabriel’s, they’d trained together back on earth, their Earth. He hadn’t seen him in a few weeks. “Alright, team number 2 is at the first probe, poppins signal.” a different voice said. “I’m about 600 meters out, reporting as soon as possible.” Griffin said. “Roger lieutenant, we’ll send a ride for you once the Captain is safe.” the radio said, and then only open static. “Okay Luna, how long till he’ll wake up?” he asked, looking at the levitated human. “I think he is now.” “Well, that's awfully freaking convenient.” Parker started to realize what was happening and where he was. _________________________________________________________________________ I opened my eyes fully, and I realized I was staring the Princess of the night right in the eyes, hers looked a little saddened. “What happened?” I looked over to Griffin. “You got knocked the fuck out, that’s what happened.” “I am truly sorry Parker.” Luna said, giving a light hearted smile. “I need to get to the exfil point beside the first probe we brought!” I said, rolling around in the levitated mass around be. “We must tend to your injuries first.” Luna said, not wanting to let me go. “The army medics can do that, can you please set me down?” I asked, preparing to be set on the ground. “Alright.” Luna set me down as gently as possible. Pain. Just Pain. “And....you ...could pick me back.....up?” I seethed in horrible pain. “We must take you to our medical quarters, we are almost there.” Luna said, she opened the door in front of us as well. “Is this the place?” I looked around, seeing some modern medical equipment around hospital beds, some of which held injured guards and townsponies. “Yes.” Luna said, setting me down on a soft bed, which still caused pain throughout my body, but not as much, “Nurse Redheart?!” The nurse, Redheart, yes the one from the show of my youth, approached me with a curious eye. “Yes, your majesty.” she bowed. “This earthling needs special attention, get the team ready.” Nurse Redheart’s face grew into a grim expression. “The team is too busy, thousands of ponies are hospitalized right now, I’m the only one available.” Redheart said, almost crying. “Do you have medical experience?” she asked Griffin. “Well, some field dressing training, but not much.” “That’s all we have, help Redheart, I shall go help the guards and firefighters stop the blazed.” Luna disappeared in a blue flash. “Soldier, help me over here, we have to turn him over and see what is wrong.” Griffin and Redheart turned me onto my stomach, and then she cut open the back of my shirt. “Oh my, ask one of the nurs....I’ll ask for some painkillers, get the wound opened, we have to get that object out of him now.” Nurse Redheart said, running off to a supply room. “Alright buddy, this is gonna hurt!” Griffin said as he washed himself and put on some pony gloves, which he stabbed his fingers through. Griffin showed me a scalpel and then told me to be quiet. “Here!” Nurse Redheart took a needle and stabbed my lower back with it, within seconds I could no longer feel from my shoulder blades to my lower thighs. “Alright,” The nurse said, “Now to get this metal link out of him.” Author's Note Part One is over...............Part two shall begin momentarily, on the same story, so like stay subscribed!
ReinforcementsI edged closer to the city, becoming more and more nervous with each step. I could hear construction noises growing nearer; I wondered how I would get around this. Once I reached the opening where the construction ponies were, I noticed that the forest went around the site, so I kept to the woods. I checked my battery life on my communicator, 100% Strange, it wasn’t 100% when we left Earth. As I walked around the construction site, I noticed that more and more houses were everywhere. I kept walking in the most blend able areas of the forest, hoping to make it as far in as I could before having to sprint to the castle. I reached the base of a mountain, and just over the peak I could see a tower, that must be the castle. I pulled out the climbing equipment from my bag and started to scale the side of the mountain, which happened to be nearly straight up. I set a brace every 20 feet or so, just enough to break my fall without breaking me in the process. After about 20 minutes of climbing, I checked my progress by looking behind me. Bad Idea. I was nearly 300 feet above the ground, and only about halfway up, and I was running out of braces, I only had about ten left, not enough to make it up unless I placed them very sparsely. Now I was placing a brace every 40 feet, if I slipped too far form I brace, death was certain. Again, almost ten minutes later, I this time looked up, and to my relief, the top was less than 30 feet above me. Except for one problem, I hadn’t placed a brace in40 feet and I only had 1 left, the one I needed for the very top. I would have to be very careful when climbing the next area, or else it would be a very unpleasant 7 story fall. Okay, there seemed to be a few ledges that I could grab a hold of and mount myself to get to the next one. By now I could see more of the towers, it definitely was the castle, once I reached the top, I would use the beacon on my communicator to locate the transmitter. “Son of a .....Buttermilk.....biscuit!” I gritted my teeth as I pulled my self on the first ledge. I looked above me and noticed that there wasn’t just a ledge above me, but there was a huge cave system below the castle, I’d have to check that out for later. I placed a small locator beacon under the dirt in the middle of the pathway. I went to the side of the wall and started climbing again; it would be mere seconds until I reached the top. The ridge started leveling out as I drew nearer to the top, which let me feel confident enough to place the final bracket about 5 feet from the top. As I rolled over the top, the situation became very serious, there were guards patrolling the grounds, coming around in patrols of two to five. I ran and dove into a bush, and then switched my weapon’s safety off. Peeking out of the bush, I spotted a door, only illuminated by the moonlight; it looked as if the guards weren’t even paying attention to it. I sprinted to the door and tried to open it, no use, the door was locked. But alas, I had a “Key”. I placed the barrel of my M4 against the handle and let loose ten rounds, causing several very loud bangs. I threw my shoulder against the door and it fell open, allowing me to go inside before the patrols could locate the area where the shots were fired. Okay, I was in what seemed to be the west guard tower and about a kilometer from my probe, according to the beacon. ___________________________________________________________ Major Gabriel Aroyo and Lorhanna Childers walked towards their spacecraft, a much larger one than Griffin and Parkers, this one held supplies and equipment for 10 people, themselves and eight soldiers, plus two HUMVEE light vehicles. “All ready sir!” the commander of the squad as Gabriel approached them. “Good, brief the men, we take off in an hour.” Gabriel told the Sergeant. “Yes, sir!” The soldier then walked off. “Captain, the soldiers are being briefed, shall we check over the equipment once more?” Gabriel said to Lorhanna. “Yes, you check the equipment bay; I’ll check food and supplies.” Lorhanna commanded, and then walked off. Gabriel headed to the munitions bay first, where the two vehicles and weapons, including another two communications probes. He first checked the two HUMVEE’s. HUMVEE Variant 4 litter soft-top ambulance W/ mount...tied, locked, check! HUMVEE Variant: Armament Carrier M1025A2 Tied down and locked, Check! Gabriel went into the munitions locker where all of the infantry weapons were held, and looked around. The cages which held the weapons were locked, all except for on particular case, which held Gabriel’s favorite weapon... The M134 minigun, the one that was to be mounted upon the ambulance, that case was not locked, mainly because the minigun itself was attached to the ship be several locks. The minigun wasn’t in a closed case because in the event of an emergency, going through more than one lock would be life threateningly long. Gabriel went into the probe area; both of the probes were locked down and next to each other on trailers that were pulled by the humvees. He closed the entire area and headed towards the front of the ship. “Everything in order Captain.” Gabriel said as he met Lorhanna on the bridge. “Same here, the soldiers are bringing the drums of gasoline on board now, they will go in a fireproof room beside the armory, one that’s not connected to the area.” she said as she was checking the control systems. “How long?” he asked. “Twenty minutes, make sure that you get your suit on,” she gestured to a locker near our seats. “The soldiers are strapping in and are ready for flight.” the sergeant, in his full spacesuit, said to the two of us, his soldiers were in the next area. “Let’s get to it.” I said, putting on my spacesuit. “Control?” Lorhanna said through her headset. “As much as I don’t want to help you, it’s my job.” the colonel voiced through the comms. “All passengers and supplies accounted for, pre-flight checks complete, about ten minutes.” Lorhanna said to control. “Skies are being cleared; new travel speed is 8,500 miles per hour, clear?” “Crystal sir!” Gabriel said through his headset. “Alright, as soon as he skies are cleared, you are cleared to depart from the Kennedy Space Center.” control said. __________Ten minutes later_______________________________________ “WE are clear, Crystal Empire, you are cleared for takeoff.” Control said through their headsets. “Alright Major, engines on, prepare for liftoff!” Lorhanna said. The sergeant ran back to his men and started his own strapping in; his seat was in view of the pilots, and his men. “Engines on!” Lorhanna cried. “Go!” Gabriel said. The ship started barreling down the runway, reaching a speed of nearly 2 thousand miles per hour before it went airborne. “Speed is 5 thousand miles per hour Captain.” Gabriel reported as the hit an altitude of 100,000 feet. “Hit booster number 1.” Lorhanna ordered, Gabriel followed. The craft immediately accelerated almost two thousand miles per hour faster than it had been going, the crew prepared for travel. “Control, our speed is 8 thousand, preparing for travel.” Lorhanna said through her headset. “Roger Crystal, God bless!” As the craft approached travel speed, the crew could only hope they would survive.
