Chapter 6
The Red sandy ground of the badland was dead silence but the sound of the SS-paladin engine roared the skies. Dusk was observing the data on the screen as the ship pass though some rock and pillars pf the desert, yawning for a half hour flight, he thought something funny. He jerked the flight stick forward, causing the ship to go down for a moment. Cloud yelped with Arc yelling. As Dusk pull the ship back to it original place, he began laughing, pointing at their reaction.
"DUSK, that wasn't funny!" Arc shouted.
"Hey Dusk, you really 'Flew' through your feeling" Cloud laughed with Dusk chuckling and Arc sighing.
"Oh come on that have to be funny now" Cloud said, seeing the lack of laughing in the guardian. All the laughter died away as a red light started blinking and beeping. Dusk eyes widen as he heard the sound of the beeping.
"HANG ON" He yelled as the ship went sideways with a missile missing it from above. More missile soon follow after the ship. A rocket hit an engine of the ship.
"Dusk! The engine, we're hit!" The ship started to fall down into the red hot sand, leaving a bank trail behind it, along with a left side of a wing and some parts.
Dusk lifted himself up, grunting in the process. The control panel and computer screen were either crack, sparking electric, or blinking red. Half of the cockpit was filled with gray smoke.
"Is everyone ok" he coughed, he then sawed a small object appear from a small blue light through the smoke "Yea, I fine. What about Cloud?"
Dusk looked down to find Cloud: He was unconscious; his helmet's visor was crack along with his laser rifle blended by the impact from the crash. "AH shit"
Dusk looked up at the ceiling of the cockpit, punching the roof of the cockpit, making a panel flying in the air. He lifted Cloud out of the ship, dragging him with his heavy armor still on.
"Jeez, exactly how fat is he" Dusk grunted. He shielded his eye from the hot yellow sun as he climbed himself out. He looked out into the red sandy field where Parts from the ship lay across the ground. Dusk carried Cloud to a nearby arch which provided some shades as red dusts pass them.
He breathed in the hot air as he crouches down on the ground, observing the land before heading to the ship "Arc… you there?" As soon he said that, his ghost appeared behind him, noticing but not turning to face him.
"Can you get com-link on? We need an Evac"
The ghost made a twisting electric noise "I can't, it strange though… I… It work last time we were here, I don't know why it isn't working"
Dusk jumped into his ship, grabbing a survival kit from the back. "I guess we have to, well... Make camp here until help arrived" he sigh as he placed a beacon down. The sun was setting as he sat down near the fire camp.
Somewhere near the crash site
The dark figure, with red light armor, walked to a temporary camp, where a group of merc and soldier await him. Most with green armor and some with sandy cloak color. Some were betting and playing cards.
"Hey. Look who came to show." A light brown pegasus pointed, bringing attention to him and the knight, who was walking to the command tent. A Merc Standed up, dropping his cards on the table.
"Hey! I not going to sit here all night and do nothing, you big head wank-" Before he can finish his sentence, A dark fog appear in front in him with void hand emerging and grabbed his neck quickly, lifting him up off the ground as his body came whole.
"Ah, how did you- AH" He choked. "You will do as I say, you get your pay unless-" Voss tighten his grip "You're not going to see daylight again" Most of the soldier were gathering near them. Void then let him go, dropping him on the floor. "You… bastard" the heavily armored soldier can barely talk, thanks to his sore throat as the knight walked into a tent
Inside a large tent, was a long table with a map of the badland and a few small figures. Along with a griffon and a bounty hunter, who stood up in an annoyance manner.
"You better have a good intention why you call us here" The daedric knight walked around the table, picking up a small tank figure. "I need you to take care of someone"
The griffon raised one of his eyebrow up in suspicious. "And what kind of problem is that" He stroked his chin, still keeping his eyes on Void, who tossed the small tank figure to the bounty hunter. "A canterlot guard and a guardian, I don't care how you do it; I want them out of our way. Beside, think about the gears they have, I sure you want it"
The two Soldiers looked at each other before the knight walked out of the tent, knowing the armor and weapon could benefit them.
The night was dark; the only thing showing light on the desert was the moon and the stars, and the small camp fire near Dusk, who was staring at the night skies. The sound of cloud groaning bought back dusk back into reality. "*groan* where… what happened?" Dusk couched next to Cloud, who looked up at him.
"The paladin crashed, and we are nowhere around civilization" He said, pointing into the dark desert.
Cloud touched his head and felted something soft and rough. "What happened to me?" He started to sit up but falling back down in pain. "During the crash, you got some injuries. That is some broken rib and a… bleeding head? I'm no doctor" He shrugged "Fortunately for you, Arc here, can patch you up".
Cloud tried to sit up again, seeing some of his armor on the edge of the makeshift bed "Since we're going to camp here for a while, how did you two meet" Arc and Dusk looked at each other before answering.
"Well… he found me. I know it hard to believe but, I was dead before he found me" He looked at his ghost "They help, heal, and support you. Now, when he revived me, it been a rough ride. He was a normal ghost but was… Taken…" Cloud looked at him with a confused face.
"Taken? W-what like kidnap?" He said, lying on his back with both of his hooves on the back of his head; looking at the couching titan.
"No… He was taken by The Taken. You see, Taken are… living things, taken by force, doing thing against their will. I saved Arc from them but I was too late… He was already taken… fortunately he still gotten his will. It was hard against us and others guardians, they think he was still under influence of the taken. But we made it this far so far" Arc made a happy look. "So what about your story Cloud, how did you ended up in the royal guards, or anything we should know" Arc asked
"Me? No I, well…" Cloud licked his lips before talking again "Well… I joined because… I-it my family tradition, yea… family tradition" He said nervously, rubbing his blue and green mane.
The quiet sound of the night was broken as the sound of a rocket crashing down near the broken ship, exploding. Group of soldiers and a few bounty hunter, came running in, ducking into cover of the ship wreckage.
"Again? Can this get any worse…? Arc, send out a distress signal, and quick!" Dusk quickly rushed out of the makeshift camp, pulling out his assault rifle. There was a barrage of bullets flying over dusk, the sound of soldiers shouting and commanding one another. A soldier manages to get past dusk and behind him, but ended up getting shot by his Chaperone, spattering blood on Dusk chestplate and helmet. Dusk looked over his cover to see more soldiers emerging from the sandy dunes.
"Dusk… Sunbreaker is ready" Dusk looked at his ghost over the sound of bullet raining on them; He nodded and emerged from cover. The griffon Lieutenant of the group lifted his hand up, signaling the soldiers to halt their attack.
Dusk holsters his gun, and then flame of fire started to climb up to him, covering his body. He then jerked his hand side way hard, summoning a burning hammer. He tossed the hammer at a group of Merc near him. It made a burning ring with the sound of screaming and soldiers shouting in pain.
All of the merc stared in horror as they watch their teammate burn in front of their eyes. The Lieutenant eyes widen, stuttering "S-s-SHOOT HIM! What are you waiting for? Shoot Him!"
A few soldier started running for it, not wanting to fight any more, afraid of the terrible fate ahead of them. "TRAITORS" The Lieutenant yelled, noticing that some of his soldiers were running. He started shooting his pistol at Dusk, along with some other soldier shooting. The bullets were burned into dust before it hitted the guardian armor. Dusk summoned more hammer and continue tossing them at the hire mercs.
A voice came over from the griffon radio as he continues to shoot his bullets at the guardian. "This is Eighth Armored, ready for deployment, just point him out and we'll take care of the rest" He grabbed his Radio and shouted the coordinates of the wreckage. "Roger, ETA, ten second" The sound of a cannon shot came from the dune where the griffon lieutenant was. The cannon shell landed inches from dusk, whom flinched on impact.
"That isn't a normal tank" Arc said. Then dusk looked at the tank more closely, He can see that Arc was right. The tank had four legs, walking like a spider. Dusk threw the hammer directly on the tank legs, which kneeled down, due to the heat of the hammer. Dusk quickly tossed more hammer at the other legs and the Merc near the tank. As the spider tank kneeled down again, it slowly aims the cannon at dusk; blasting and knocking the guardian onto the ground.
"DUSK! Get up" Dusk can faintly hear arc shouting. "He over here" Three merc walked up to dusk, pointing their weapons at him before being levitated into the air and toss sideway, grunting on impact. The last thing Dusk saw was Cloud limping to him before a pony-ish figure with bat like wings and ears jumped down in front of him.
"I-It you- what the b-" Cloud voice was cut out before being knock down onto the ground, making him unconscious.
"We got him sir… orders?" The two soldiers saluted the Lieutenant as he walked over. There were bodies being over with black bags, Sound of repair tools, and chatting of other soldiers and Mercenary. "Send them to The Ethereal Wilds to our research base, I sure some of our scientists would like them and their equipment. And be careful with that bloody guardian" He growled before walked away to the tank. Dusk and Cloud were picked up by two soldiers and thrown into a truck.
The bat pony helded his hoof up to his helmet, whispering "There in route to the ethereal wilds, you should get ready mid-way, over" A small static noise beeped though his comms. "Thank for the head up, I going to set up the traps, Be careful where you go once it start… Let hope it worth the pain, over" He letted his hoof hit the ground before walking off to the convoy.
Alright, Two chapter in one day, OK. Also I finally beated Aksis in the wrath of the machine raid, another reason why I uploaded two chapters today and stuff.
