Stranded (Private with Lil' Lovebug)

[Twofer 45]

OOC: https://mlpforums.com/topic/165968-stranded-ooc-private/

 

Archeron 9 was, at first glance, an unassuming little green rock in some backwater system. It was a lush jungle world, but due to its remoteness, hadn't been colonized and was generally left alone. Thanks to this, Archeron had become a pirate hub. It was an excellent planet to lay low and was off the radar of most governments, which in turn had let all sorts of criminal elements thrive.

Unfortunately, a civilian transport ship had ended up coming close to Archeron after its navigation system malfunctioned. The pirates had leaped at the opportunity, and before long the transport ship had been shot down. 

And so our story begins with pirates closing in on the wreckage and the poor souls who had survived...

[Lil' Lovebug 1,041]

Satin's eyes slowly opened as she regained consciousness. As her senses came back to her, she groaned in pain. A dull throb pulsated through her entire body. She looked around, trying to make sense of her surroundings. She stared ahead of herself, eyes stuck on the wreckage of the ship and the bodies littering the jungle floor. She tried to get up, but a sharp pain made her scream in agony. She crawled forward, careful not to move her back too much, she heard parts of her chitin crack and felt the flow of blood as she made her way to a piece of the ship that seemed mostly intact.

After moments of crawling, she rested upon the metal floor to catch her breath. Her horn lit up as her magic probed her back. Upon finding the piece of metal that had partially wedged its way through her plating, she gave it an experimental tug and let out another scream. She heard a rustle in the distance and her eyes widened. Panicing, she made her way to her feet, fighting through the pain. She stumbled herself through the part of the ship and searched for anywhere to hide. She could hear the creatures steps resonate against the metal and she hurried herself as much as she could.

Finally, she found a room with a door and ducked inside, closing and sealing it behind herself. she lay down on the floor, tears streaming down her face. "I don't want to die..." she said before finally succumbing to the pain and blacking out.

[Twofer 45]

@Lil' Lovebug

Footsteps could be heard closing in, followed by gunfire and screams. Whoever was making their way towards Satin was certainly trigger happy, and it seemed as though the poor changeling's fate was sealed. The door she was hiding behind took a blow, but did not buckle. Several more followed, as someone was likely trying to kick it in. 

Oddly enough, music could be heard in the distance. It was a faint rock tune, which grew louder and louder until it could be clearly heard from where Satin was. Once the music was close enough, the sound of even more gunfire came. This lasted for about 45 seconds before ceasing, although more footsteps were coming towards Satin.

The door finally gave way, but standing there was no pirate. It was a mare with a red coat and golden mane who was clad in combat armor that bore the markings of extended use and plenty of personalization, with a red bandanna to top it off.

"We got a live one!" Called the mare to someone else.

[Lil' Lovebug 1,041]

@Twofer

Satin's eyes slowly opened as she regained consciousness. As her senses came back to her, she groaned in pain. A dull throb pulsated through her entire body. She looked around, trying to make sense of her surroundings. It felt familiar to her, and the events before blacking out rushed into her mind. She tried to move, but her energy was sapped. The little twitch that she managed sent pain through her body and she held back another scream.

Defeated, she looked up to see the pony standing above her. "Please," she said weakly. "Either save me or put me out of my pain." Her eyes pleaded with the mare in front of her.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Lil' Lovebug

[Twofer 45]

@Lil' Lovebug

"Don't worry, the cavalry's here, sweet cheeks." The mare helped Satin up and managed to get her out of the wreckage, then set her down so a medic could tend to her.

All the pirates had either been slain or had fled, although only a few of the passengers remained. Several others who were wearing armor that bore the same insignia as the one on the mare's shoulder had dealt with them. A gunship was hovering over the crash site too, and was also the source of the music, with the ancient rock blaring from its loudspeakers.

"We're Manticore Company, the best merc band this side of the Grand Antilles," explained the mare. "This rescue is courtesy of the Quill family, whoever they are."

Edited May 3, 2017 by Twofer

[Lil' Lovebug 1,041]

@Twofer

Satin rested as the medics tended to her, trying to calm down and remember what had happened to her and the ship. She turned her head to the mare who had saved her. "Mis.. uh... miss cavalry. Do... Do you think some of the passengers may have survived?" She wanted to believe that someone else had made it out of the wreckage and found somewhere to stay safe. She couldn't be the only one... right? "You mentioned rescuing us for some family, but... I don't remember us being able to send out a distress beacon. I may have missed it though... Panic and all that."

[Twofer 45]

@Lil' Lovebug

"First of all, my name isn't Cavalry. I'm Sergeant Crimson Glare, but you can just stick with Crimson. First of all, I'm not sure just how many made it out. We have a few on the gunship, but some got kidnapped by the pirates. They're probably being held for ransom, or..." Crimson decided to cut her sentence off there. After all, the poor girl had enough to worry about already. "As for how we found you, I don't know. I'm just paid to shoot the bad guys, and I'm not high enough up to get all the details."

[Lil' Lovebug 1,041]

@Twofer

Satin let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness there were some survivors. And.. thank you for saving me. I doubt I would have made it if you hadn't shown up when you did." Satin winced as she shifted onto her back and sat up. She thanked the medic who had tended to her. "So, miss Crimson, was it? What can I do to help you?"

Edited May 3, 2017 by Lil' Lovebug

[Twofer 45]

@Lil' Lovebug

Before Crimson could say anything, she was interrupted by more gunfire. The pirates apparently weren't content to just the mercenaries go, and had come back for revenge. She returned fire along with the other mercenaries, but something bright arced up and hit one of the turbines on the gunship, sending it down in flames.

"Shit, we need to get moving!" exclaimed Crimson as she grabbed Satin's arm and began to run off with her.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Twofer

[Lil' Lovebug 1,041]

Satin stared in horror as she watched the ship fall, but was soon distracted by the mare pulling at her arm. She followed the mare as best she could, but her strength wasn't quite back yet and she kept tripping of slowing down. Her mind was racing and, though she tried to keep all her thoughts on survival, the sight of the gunship crashing down replayed on loop in the back of her mind.

A particularly large root caught Satin's foot and she went crashing to the ground. She felt her face smash against the ground and she winced in pain. She slowly got herself up and chased after Crimson, ignoring the cracked chitin and fresh blood under her eye. "W-wait up!" she yelled as loud as she dared. "Please."

[Twofer 45]

@Lil' Lovebug

Crimson stopped in her tracks and went back to help Satin along again. At this point, she was practically carrying the girl as they rushed through the thick brush, fleeing for their lives. Finally, after what seemed like hours of running, the sounds of death and destruction had given way to the chirping and buzzing of the jungle.

Crimson sat Satin down, propping her up on a tree trunk. She was huffing and panting, sweat soaking her face and bandanna. "Okay... We're safe, at least for now. We'll rest up, but we can't stick around."

[Lil' Lovebug 1,041]

Satin sat down and tried to catch her breath. "This is too much," she said between gulps of air. Here eye went wide as she placed her face in her hands. "The.. the ship. All those ponies." Tears started streaming down her face again. After taking a moment to calm down, she looked up at Crimson. "Thank you for helping me back there. I just... between all that's happened since I woke up, I haven't had time to rest and regain my strength. Oh what I'd do for a sip of love." Tentatively, Satin ran her fingers down her face. "That's not going to heal well. Not like I am now," she whispered to herself.

After resting for a moment, Satin got up and walked over to Crimson. "Do we have anywhere to go?"

[Twofer 45]

@Lil' Lovebug

"Lucky for us, we do. Search and rescue ops like these take time, since there's a lot of area to scour. The mission time frame was three days; after that, all teams were supposed to report to a rendezvous point for exflitration. So, we got less than 72 hours to reach the rendezvous point. You rest up while I see if I can radio for another team to pick us up."

With that, Crimson let Satin rest. She took her radio and pressed a button, flicking it to life. "X-ray, this is Delta 7-7, I'm in need of immediate evac." Crimson waited a few beats, but only static came from the radio. "X-ray, this is Delta 7-7, how copy?" Again, just static. "Fuck me..." she muttered to herself.

[Lil' Lovebug 1,041]

Satin sat back down. "That's.... that's not good, is it?" she ran her fingers through her hair. She finally took a moment to look at her tattered clothing. "Tch. I need to get some better. You don't happen to have some spare clothes or armor, so you miss Crimson?"

[Twofer 45]

@Lil' Lovebug

"Sorry sweet cheeks, but you're outta luck there. Now, get up, we gotta- oh, shit." Crimson ducked down and pulled Sating with her behind a bush, covering the changeling's mouth with her hand to keep her silent.

Just a few seconds later, two pirates walked by, one a burly earth pony and the other a slim unicorn. They walked by where Crimson and Satin had just been, and were barely five feet away from the two.

"I swear, I saw them run off this way," said the earth pony.

"You had better be right. The boss is gonna have our asses on a platter if we don't bring these two back," replied the unicorn.

Crimson turned to Satin, still keeping her mouth covered. "Don't move, don't breath, don't make a sound. You understand me?"

[Lil' Lovebug 1,041]

@Twofer

Satin nodded as she tried to hold her breath. She clenched her hands to try and calm herself. She slowly turned her head to Crimson, a scared look on her face. She wanted to run as far as she could, but she stayed next to the mare, trusting in her ability to keep her safe.

[Twofer 45]

@Lil' Lovebug

Crimson drew a revolver from a holster on her hip. It was a large, intimidating, and even an authoritative weapon with a shining chrome finish to boot. In what seemed like just the blink of an eye, the revolver let out a thunderous crack as Crimson shot one of the pirates squarely in the back of the head, with another crack following as she swiftly dispatched the second one in the same way.

[Lil' Lovebug 1,041]

@Twofer

Satin ducked her head and covered her now ringing ears. Her head felt like it would split from the sound of the gun firing. Once the gun stopped firing, Satin looked up at Crimson then at the two dead pirates. If she were a pony, she probably would have puked by now, but, thankfully, she hadn't eaten solid food in a few days, only love. She hesitantly walked towards the bodies and looked over their clothes and armor. "Should... should we loot them?" she asked.

Edited May 4, 2017 by Lil' Lovebug

[Twofer 45]

@Lil' Lovebug

Crimson emerged from their hiding place as well, promptly ejecting the two empty shells from her revolver and loading two fresh rounds. She could not have cared less about the two ponies she just killed, as they certainly weren't the first, and wouldn't be the last by a long shot. "Yeah, it wouldn't be a bad idea," she said as she knelt down by their corpses. "Besides, you wanted a change of clothes anyways."

[Lil' Lovebug 1,041]

@Twofer

Satin started stripping the bodies of everything useful and took the clothes behind a tree with her. After a few moment's she came back out in a full set of clothes and armor. She rolled up the sleeves and adjusted everything so that if fit as snug as possible. She walked over to Crimson and pointed to the pouches on the vest. "I have no idea what half of this stuff is. Here." She handed Crimson the spare vest. She pointed to the guns the pirates had. "Should I use one of those? I've, uh, never really used on though... Could you perhaps help me, dear?" 

[Twofer 45]

@Lil' Lovebug

"Yeah, you don't wanna be unarmed. Gust gimme a sec to check what we got." Crimson paused and rifled through the vest, pulling out ammunition and a few other useful items. She proceeded to pick up one the guns, which was a moderately sized submachinegun, and held it so Satin could clearly see it. "Okay, I'm gonna assume you're smart enough to know that the trigger shoots the gun." Crimson then pointed to a small switch on the side on the gun. "That's the safety. If you have it on, the gun won't shoot. Normally, if you wanna have good trigger discipline and all that bullshit, you'd keep it on most of the time, but in a situation like this, don't even bother with it." Next, she pointed to a small button by the magazine. "This is the mag release. You press this to drop the magazine, which is the thing that holds the bullets by the way, so that you can reload." Finally, she pointed to a button in the side of the gun. "That's the select fire switch. If you press it, the gun will shoot in full automatic. If you don't, it'll only be semiautomatic. I don't think you wanna go full auto."

[Lil' Lovebug 1,041]

Satin looked over the gun and tried to memorized where all the switches and buttons were. She flicked the fire switch to semi-auto and aimed down the sights. Shrugging, she placed the gun at her side. "Let us hope I don't need to use this, but I doubt we'll be that lucky." She sighed. This all felt wrong. She wasn't supposed to be fighting. She was a musician, not a soldier. She just wanted to get home, relax, have a nice drink and forget this all happened.

She looked up at Crimson. "Same plan as before? Or does the lack of response bring about new problems and plans for us?"

[Twofer 45]

@Lil' Lovebug

"We're still gonna head to the exfiltration point, whether we can hail another team or not. I'll keep the radio on in case we get a signal." Crimson paused and put her hand on Satin's shoulder. "I'm gonna get you outta here, okay? I wouldn't get paid as well as I do if I wasn't good at this kinda stuff."

[Lil' Lovebug 1,041]

Satin nodded. "Okay. I shall follow your lead. I... I'll trist you to get me put of here miss Crimson." She started taking deep breaths to calm her nerves and stop herself from shaking.

"Focus on getting out of here," she said to herself. She nodded to Crimson again. "Okay, I think I'm ready."

[Twofer 45]

@Lil' Lovebug

Crimson gave Satin a pat on the back before she started off through the jungle. She pulled a machete from a sheath on her belt, which she used to cut through the dense and constant foliage that was in their way. Crimson held her revolver with her other hand, ready to use it at a moment's notice.