Blazing Muzzles

Chapter Seven: HIjack

By Blaze Spectrum

The bridge collapsing down like it was made of cardboard and not concrete and wood. It should have easily raised the alarm. But it didn't for some reason. But no doubt that somepony was gonna check.

But apparently the number of those who did notice was very high.

Suddenly, marines were popping out of corners out of nowhere. They must have noticed the disruptions and hid. Anonymous and hidden when they needed to be, they were everywhere. So I went back to the nearest decent piece of cover I could find. Well, it wasn't actually cover, it was running.

I stuck my LRR3 to my back and began sprinting down the hall on all fours. At first I stumbled a bit but it wasn't long before I got the hang of it. For a better portion of my life I was moving on all fours anyways. I could only hope that they went with me as well.

But when I risked a glance back, they weren't running. They had their hooves held up high. And they were taking them away. Looked like I needed to do some rescuing.

In front of me was a large circle shaped opening. But there was a fence blocking the way down the hole that went downwards. Luckily, the inside was more suited for luxury than battle. Because they were made of glass with steel above them.

Looking to the left and right, there were troops everywhere. Some had weapons, some had snipers, some had rocket launchers. All on the floor above me. So I did the only thing I could do.

I charged straight for the fence. I used my front hooves to grab the top and throw my rear legs forward and over the fence. They were beginning to take aim. I needed to go faster. So I smashed my rear legs on the glass. Breaking it and propelling me forward very quickly. Now, they were firing. I could almost see 20 mm rounds passing, the small disruption in the air as missed sniper bullets went by, and the unmistakable rocket shells passing by and causing damage. I had fell two floors when I grabbed the metal top of the fence and used my momentum to smash through the glass and push me to safety. It really kind of hurt, but I had it easy. If I wasn't wearing armour I would have cuts practically decorating my body.

I got up to make sure I wouldn't have more fire under way to me, Kicking the nearest door open, I ran through the hallway that it lead to.I just needed to get away from the fire. Just as I expected, a rocket exploded where I was five seconds ago, totally obliterating the chunk of the floor. Going back would be suicide, as to simply make sure I wouldn't escape back, they fired two more rockets, destroying the two floors below me. If I jumped, than if I didn't land correctly. I would die. If I landed correctly, then the time taken to recover would give a sniper enough time to blow my head off.

So to go that far they must have set an ambush for me across the hall. If there was anything I knew about the AR was that they acted fast. By calling themselves Alliance of Rebels they really do work together really well. And that's exactly why their troops happen to have a higher success rate on missions.

All I knew was that I should be ready for it, but before I could even prepare for it a space marine turned from the corner and began spraying me with lead.

Luckily turning around like that with two weapons wouldn't allow for proper aiming, so just about all of the bullets missed, only the misfired ones hit.

I did the only thing I could do. As the basic instructions from the lecture I got as a substitute for training told me to never hesitate, unless I was thinking of a plan. But in the middle of a firefight, no. So I grabbed my pistol from my left rear leg and shot off three rounds.

I wasn't aiming properly too though, so two completely missed but one hit right between the eyes.

I stood, still slightly startled from the ambush. I was breathing heavily, and the status of me read critical. I would heal but I needed to be on guard from then. I grabbed my RFK4 from my back. I was sure it would be more useful in close quarters than a DMR of course. While the tension levels should have been extremely high I felt no need to hug the walls. Something told me that I wasn't near anything but my logic told me there should be more beyond the right turn. But for once I trusted my gut, and walked forward normally.

Once I turned around the corner, I couldn't find any troops at all, seemed very much like I was right. But I still had my weapon in my hooves. Glancing through the window of a random door marked: Access to main cannon. It lead outside and There were ladder rungs required to go up. If I let go then I probably never would get back, but it seemed interesting enough, so I activated the airtight setting andopened the door.

Just as expected, it was an airlock, so I closed the door, leaving me in a claustrophobic, dark room. However, it didn't take long for me to find the opening. The lock was well oiled and spun easily. I shoved it open. The air escaped and I was left in the vacuum of space. Using the door to carefully guide myself, I closed it and used the opening lock to propell myself up half a foot to the first rung. This wasn't any ladder, it went up for two hundred metres, all the way to the top off the gargantuan ship. And it would be a miracle if a pilot on a fighter or dropship didn't see me.

Since I was basically weightless, it barely took any effort at all to drag my self upwards. I could go several rungs at once, and if I went off a bit I would be slowly attracted back to the ship. Everything that had mass had gravity. so it was only a few minutes until I finally got to the top of the ship.

But I wasn't interested in the cannon. I was going to run about half a kilometre to where the UPSN instructors said where the brig was. The AR naturally acted fast so they should have been there by then.

It took a lot of jumping and running but I would slowly be attracted back to the ship, until I finally found one weakness.

A hatch at the top that lead to the reactors. They were near the brig, but I wasn't interested in blowing the ship up, they said only if necessary.

Again, it was an air lock, once I opened the bottom hatch I found several rungs leaving to the ground, where the reactor loudly purred. I simply jumped down.

Once I was in, I looked at the three doors in front of me, until my eyes rested on a sign that said the hallway lead to the brig.

I kicked through the door and went through the hallway, until I stopped at the sign that lead to the brig. I put my hoof on the handle. It was locked. While it may have ruined my chances of stealth it was pretty much the only way. I pulled the pin of a grenade that I pulled from my leg. It landed right in front of the door, bounced for a second, then violently exploded.

I risked a glance at the door. It was unlocked! I flipped inside, looking for any hostiles nearby. My eyes came to rest on a startled marine recovering from the blast. Just as she was heating up her machine gun I put three 20 mm rounds through her head. While it may have not been necessary, I took the clip out and replaced it with a fresh one. There were two doors with force fields blocking them. Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity were all there. Apparently the ship was more of meant for battle and only had room for few in the brig. Taking a glance at the small calculator like thing at the end of the room, right between the cells. It demanded a four digit code. I tried a few, they were all denied, in the end, I smashed the screen, and surprisingly, the shield doors disappeared!

Apparently the generator was inside it, so smashing it destroyed the generator.

Their armour and weapons were kept at the side, so they would put it on. After a minute of me impatiently waiting for them to slap it all one, We jumped through what was left of the door.

I grabbed my assault rifle from my back, it would be pretty good, although a shotgun would be better.

But I didn't have time to think about it when a squad of marines came in from all sides.

The reaction was instant, we turned around, three on one side, four on the other.

I put my eyes level with my sights. Aiming down them, I burnt through a whole clip, not bothering to stop when switching targets. Probably why I burnt through my clip so quickly there wasn't a reset button in real life. I pulled the switch back for releasing a clip and let gravity drop it onto the ground. I quickly grabbed a new one from my ammo belt and more forced it into the breech than slid. Only using my armour's in built targeting system I began sweeping again. It honestly baffled me to how much trouble they would go to to eliminate a simple seven space marines. But again, we were the only hostile on the ship so they might just want us out as soon as possible. For all I knew, I wasn't about to let them get rid of us. They weren't looking for serious damage. They plain wanted to remove us.

Once my next clip was empty, I dropped it out as well, grabbing a new one and sliding it in to connect with the breech. Since I was replacing an empty clip I had to grab the cocking handle and slide it back, then forward again.This time, I didn't feel like using anymore of what little ammunition I had, so I primed a grenade and threw it at where I guessed the next few squads would be in a second. I was correct. I reduced about ten of them to a pile of gore with a simple, well placed explosive.

By then, we had gotten rid of enough reckless marines charging at us. I had no idea how we were supposed to clear the whole ship. It would have a minimum crew of 300, and a max of about a thousand.

I decided to toggle through my HUD's radio signal to message that if we could destroy it.

The response was almost immediate. While our call may have been intercepted, it didn't matter we were putting a flare up for some troops to charge at us and turn us all into a pile of gore. Because the response was relieving.

"You may destroy it. Hijacking it would require a lot of work to make sure we don't get mistaken for hostiles. Also, land at Fillydelphia Airport. Our base is under siege and we'll send inform you once it's safe to come back."

After that, we began heading for the reactor.

After about two minutes of walking, we finally arrived. But one marine was guarding. She looked startled when she first saw me but before she could draw a weapon I had already forced my combat knife through her throat. I sheathed it and without hesitating grabbed hers, and jammed it into the reactor.

I could hear the humming get louder, the machine getting more critical.

We weren't required to talk to each other, we made a mad dash for the hanger.

Despite the fact we were sprinting, we felt no fatigue. We were fueled with the desire to leave this slag heap behind, shooting everypony in our way. After a lot of sprinting, we got to the airlock. We turned on airtight and opened the door, shut it with us in between, and opened the door leading to one of the hangers, where our fighters lay. I opened the cockpit, and as soon as we were all inside our fighters I went off.

Once we were outside, there was plenty of fighters outside. Within seconds of coming out they began to fire at us. A few hit my engines and some hit the body. Since the engines aren't shielded or else the fighter will constantly pushing against it's own shields. My thrust was hindered because of that.

Finally, after what was thirty seconds but was more like a hour or two I looked back, to see the massive vessel blow apart near the rear, then that part continued to split from the rest of the ship. A few mini explosions tore the whole thing apart and in a flash enough to give one a seizure, it was nothing but a few over sized scraps of metal in space.

But now, I had a different concern. My windshield was shattered. And after all this time I might as well as be burnt in the atmosphere! I had to make a few adjustments to make the bottom side go through. Although it was as aerodynamic as a house brick it was better then being roasted by friction.

Once we had entered the normal skies I waited for a minute and switched off pressurisation. Within a few minutes we were nearing Fillydelphia Airport. While it may be rude to barge into a public airport with a star fighter it was better than being shot down.

I tested the vertical thrust to find it didn't work.

"Damn!" Apparently some stray bullets hit my vertical thrust.

I would have to do a landing with a landing gear complete with wheels. Only meant for an emergency and also some jumbo jet style landing thrust controls.

I was at the back of the pack, going at a couple hundred miles per hour. Once I had touched the solid ground I grabbed the left bar for the left thrust and set it to idle, then reverse.

However, the craft just slowed then sped up. I looked down at the right one. I had forgot to set it to reverse! I grabbed it, no luck, it was jammed there.

Suddenly, as if the fighter had a mind of its own, it veered left. I forced down on the brakes as hard as possible. But then it snapped. Hydraulic failure. And it was happening when the last thing I wanted was it.

In a last ditch effort, I shut the fighter down, It sent a little more before stopping when it crashed into the fence at ten kilometres per hour.

At least I was safe, for the time's being. Next Chapter: Chapter Eight: The Heart of the Enemy Estimated time remaining: 8 Minutes