“the thing” survival

[augercorn]

Lightning took a revolver off the armory wall, he held it in his hands and then threw it up in the air grabbing it with one finger twirling it and tossing it to his other hand, he opened up the cylinder and did a trick flipping it over his hand and bouncing it off his knee and back into his hand snapping the cylinder in place and taking aim at an imaginary target

He dry fired saying

“Durabox, one of the finest gun companies in equestria, first they made only ammo but then they made the an l.m.g the m44 light cannon, it worked so well the government asked to make a bigger version for aircraft, after the success of the m 45 air cannon they made these little beutys!

The expeditionary revolver! A gun designed to handle anything! Pretty much unjamable, unbreakable, and un rivaled. It fires 44 cal rounds at high velocity enough to kill anything that moves, got a great trigger pull, low profile target sights with pin point accuracy and despite its heavy weight is perfectly balanced offering rapid fire capability, advanced recoil control and enough power to take down a elephant in 1 siiiingle wel placed shhhhhot!” he said smiling at the gun before twirling it again and putting on a belt wand grabbing a few speed loaders

he looked at Ruby and frowned shaking his head. saying "all right im ready ... still want that shotgun!"

[Travelaway]

Ash tossed an assault rifle at Rift then later out some ammo for everyone, before then himself grabbing and loading the shotgun and sticking his tongue out at Lightning, "Shotguns mine, everybody get loaded up so we can get this show on the road."

[PyroBlaze]

Black eventually found a pistol for himself, grabbing some ammo and loading it up before stowing it away and looking to the others.

"Alright, I'm ready." He said, waiting for the others to get set up.

[augercorn]

Lighting stuck his tongue out at Ash as he took the shotgun.

He was over it and happy at least one pony would have the fire power

Lighting threw his coat on and put on his big flying cowboy hat. He walked past Berry and the others straight in the cold to check the helicopter. He went straight to his helicopter and walked around it, doing a quick inspection checking underneath it also.

He then went into the cockpit and fired it up spinning the rotors. He checked the gauges and adjusted his seat. Once cozy he pulled out his rainbow dash magazine and the microphone

“mic check 1, 2, 3, all right everyone last chance to get ready, smoke em if you got em! jerk em if … if … uh … perk em smirk um … never mind just make sure you all are set ill be waiting!”

Berry watched everyone leave and closed up the armory as promised.

He waited by the door for a moment thinking about what was next. He said a secret prayer to luna that the next event wasn’t as odd as the first one

He didn’t bother saying goodbye to his men, he said what he had to and now went to the radio room to help send the transmission

[Hundashter]

Ruby was leaning against the helicopter when Lighting came out. She blew smoke at him as she took the cig from her face with the back of her hand, twirling it between her fingers and replacing it with the front of her hand, then hopped in the chopper and buckled in.

She snapped her fingers by his head and pointed at the magazine, then gestured for him to give it to her.

[augercorn]

Lighting smiles and says

"you ahhh fan of dash?"

he opens up the magazine so she can comfortably see.

he never talked with Ruby much she seemed like a grumpy old hag to him, but maybe she wasn't as bad as she made herself out to be. maybe they had a chance to bond and to get to know eachother better. ...and stare at plotts togather

[Cainiam]

Unposted Action

[PyroBlaze]

After collecting everything Black thought he needed, he made his way to the helicopter. He climbed in it after he reached it, sitting and buckling himself in before staring out into the icy expanse. What was going on around here? What was up with that dog? Why had the elks been so determined to kill it?

[Travelaway]

After everyone loaded up and got ready Ash rushed them out and locked up the armory nice and tight. He made his way out to the helipad and climbed up into the helo, grinning as he looked around, he didn't get to ride in the helicopter nearly as much as he would've liked. "Got more smokes in for you Ruby, looks like that'll be the last delivery we get for a while cuz of the storm."

[augercorn]

Lighting saw everyone was in the chopter

He handed Ruby the magazine and turned his head

“1, 2, 3. All right this is your Captain speaking! Your about to get a nice smooth ride to; uhhhhh moose ... base where they will have moosey things! When riding me make sure you got the proper protection! And be safe!”

he fired up the rotors and the bird began to take off.

Berry walked outside and gave 1 last salute. A gesture of respect and luck to his crew.

Lighting saluted back and faced the chopter towards Thule. And began singing

“yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m awesome, I’m awesome, awesome as I wanna be!” and sent the chopter flying off!

It would be a long ride, the cold from outside and wind generated would make it very uncomfortable also. The loud motor would make speaking very hard also.

Berry walked inside and shuffled to the radio room he sat down and set frequency to S.O.S he spoke into the mic

“this is Suger Berry commanding officer of outpost 39, our base is in emergency status, had hostile contact with the elk of Thule base, and no further contact. If anyone can here this please reply on frequency 99.3”

he set the machine to loop the message and took a deep breath. He was scared for his men, no one ever died in his command and he hoped no one ever would. He stood up and began shouting

“DOC, muster in here. DOC?”

[Cainiam]

Lancet heard Berry shouting and walked over to the radio room, taking sips from his mug as he went. He walked into the room, before taking a gulp of the liquid in his mug again with a sigh. "What is it, Berry?" he asked, his voice clearer and more bass. He took the largest gulp yet and then shook his head. "The others have all taken off in a helicopter, you're sending out emergency hails, and I distinctly recall you talking about an autopsy. Is it Iditarod?" he asked, his voice holding no emotion other than what sounded like annoyance.

[PyroBlaze]

Black remained pretty much perfectly still, still looking off into the distance as the helicopter took off and he tried to figure out what was going on. He kept asking the same questions in his head, but he couldn't answer any of them, and it was kind of infuriating. He couldn't figure out what was up with that dog, but it seemed to be the focus of the elk's attentions, and it was the only reason the elks had come over, which sent them to go check out the elk base. Everything revolved around that dog for some reason.

[Hundashter]

Ruby starred at the magazine, grunting is acknowledgement at Ash's words, giving him a slight nod of approval. She grabbed the magazine from Lightning when it was offered, using her magic to hold the pages straight and keep them from flapping in the wind.

She crossed one leg over the other at a particularly saucy image of the Spa twins, snorting in approval of the picture and nodding her head in little bobs. She turned the page and smirked, nudging Ash with an elbow and turning the magazine so he could see the picture of Spitfire showing it all on the two page spread.

[augercorn]

Lighting flew the copter towards the base, he checked his instruments and looked to his team

“hey Rainbow dash shows you how to do a squat on page 78” he said with a smile

he kept the copter steady when he saw some black wisps on the horizon.

“oh crap” it was of course coming from Thule.

Lighting leaned the bird forward increasing the speed and soon the smokey buildings came into view.

Everything was black and smoldered, the fires had burnt out by now and the whole base looked destroyed.

Lighting finally came up on it and flew a few circles around the base looking for signs of life and danger

There was no one there,

There was one large building shaped like a square and some large piles of ash, there was a destroyed vehicle to the left, and giant hole in the main buildings wall on the right side.

Some of the ash piles had metal rods and support beams sticking out, indicating they were once small huts burnt down,

The snow around the base was dirty, ashen and filled with other stains, that might of been motor oil from there view up top.

Some of the windows held, but most were broken showing nothing but dark holes where anything could be inside!

Lightning flew around once more and landed in the snow nice and soft. As soon as the propellers dyed out Lighting said

“umm I don’t know about you guys but I’m kind of freaked out, Black its uhh your call, if you want I can get us back up and home right now.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Berry shook his head and lead the doctor out of the base, he began explaining what happened, the Elk, the dog and how they had to shoot them.

He pointed to the bodies of the elk left in the out in the cold. And explained

“we need to give them an autopsy, find out what’s wrong with them, could be rabies …anything, we need some kind of clue, now pick one.”

“and … I don’t know where that slacker Iditorod is probably cuddling with the dogs somewhere. We can find him when were done and do an exam on the dog.”

[PyroBlaze]

Black refocused on his surroundings when the smell of smoke reached his nostrils. The base looked like a large portion had been burnt down, and there were no signs of life as far as he could see. What had happened here? Eventually, Lightning landed the helicopter, saying they could just leave if they wanted to. That might be the smart thing to do, but then they would be right where they were before as far as what was happening was concerned. He remained silent for a bit, thinking over the options.

"Well, we should try to figure out what happened so that we might avoid it back at base, but I'm open to suggestions." He said, turning to the others to hear their input as well.

[Travelaway]

Ruby apparently knew Spitfire was Ash's favorite, he practically lot up when he saw the spread of her. His pleasant ride was soon cut short when they circled Thule however; the entire place looked like a war zone, with charred guts and holes blasted in the buildings. "I shoulda brought the flamethrower...I knew I shoulda brought it. They tried to burn something, they did this on purpose didn't they? All this for a dog? No, no they wanted something to burn, and it was much worse than a dog."

[Hundashter]

"...Holy fuk... " Ruby grabbed the handle by the door of the chopper, leaning out slightly as she spun her cigarette in the air by her head with her magic with agitation. The place was a mess, and she was beginning to doubt that she'd be able to salvage anything, let alone try and repair some of the gear inside. But she couldn't be sure unless they got on the ground and checked out the...burning, desiccated hulks of what had once been buildings.

[Cainiam]

Lancet was quiet as Berry explained it all in detail, the doctor's only reaction being a "Hmm. It's good you didn't cauterise Lighting's wound. Such an emergency measure leaves long term damage," he said before crouching over the Elk bodies. He was still wearing the arctic gear he had worn in the freezer, even the gloves, which he now used to open the Elk's mouth and peer inside. "I can't see any signs of rabies..." he said before standing up. "The other Elk took too much damage from the bomb, his body is near useless. This is the one I'll autopsy. Help me lift him, we want to take him to the medical ward," Lancet explained as he wrapped his arms around the Elk's legs and lifted.

[augercorn]

Berry helped pick up the corpse

"hrrrg" he waddled with him and the doctor to the medical room and plopped him on the table

"huhhhhh huhhhhhh, O.k doc we need to take a look t his brain, look for mental illness, anything else you think could cause this behavor?"

[PyroBlaze]

Black remained silent as he listened to the input of the others, as unhelpful as it was. He sighed slightly, watching the destroyed base for a bit as he decided whether or not they should go check it out. They needed to know what had happened, and to do that they had to go down there. He didn't want to lead them into a dangerous situation though. Eventually, he decided on a course of action, sighing again before turning to look at Lightning.

"Take us down. We need to know what happened here. Just be careful." He said, directing that last part to the entire party with him.

[augercorn]

Lighting nodded and set them down, before he opened the door, he pulled out the revolver spinning the chamber, and cocking it, nodding to his team in the back.

"you got it boss"

He didn’t bother hiding his expression of fear, everyone else was freaked out too it seemed.

He pressed the release on the doors and stepped out

“all right get inside; anything left is going to be in there, not to mention not as cold. ….”

Lighting gulped he wasn’t sure what else to say. Simply looking at his team adjusting his coat trying to keep the deathly cold off of him

[Hundashter]

Ruby took a big drag of her cig to calm her nerves, then hopped out of the helicopter. She took the safety off the rifle and placed her finger against the side of the gun, just above trigger, nervously tapping the housing as she examined the smoking hulk, then jerked her head in the direction of the building. " Well c'mon! The sooner we check out this fukked up place, the sooner we can all leave and get outta this dam cold! "

She then roughly brushed past Lightning, being the first to head towards the base.

[augercorn]

lighting ran forward reaching the main gate to the base before Ruby

he put his shoulder to the wall and looked in then back to ruby and said

"ladies first" his eyes went wide and he stood still for a second then said

"that came out wrong ... ... ill breach"

Lightning opened the door with his revolver,

the inside of the base was just as bad as the outside, shelfs had been thrown about, papers strewn across the icy floors, there was frost built up on the walls and the a few red smears.

"HEY MOOSE" called lighting

the only reply was his own echo

"Clear!" he shouted before fully stepping in, it was still cold but what was left of the walls protected from the wind making it much more tolerable.

[PyroBlaze]

Black followed the group over to the ruined base, hanging back as Lightning opened the door and checked to see if it was clear. Apparently it was, which was good. He entered the base after Ruby, looking around as he tried to spot any sort of clue as to what had happened.

[Travelaway]

Ash cycled the action of his shotgun as he stepped out into the snow with a crunch, he decided to look at one of the burning husks that used to be buildings, moving away slightly from the bulk of the group. Aside from more burning equipment there wasn't much here, seems the elk had really wanted this place dead and gone judging by how thorough they'd been. All in all there wasn't much to see...then Ash stopped as he realized what he'd almost tripped over.

Ash leaned down to examine the smoking, deformed corpse lying on the ground before him, the twisted creature before him almost resembled an elk, but it was far too mangled and far too burned to tell. "HEY! Hey everyone come look at this...thing over here! Bring Black with you he's a doctor right?!"