You know, not many people get to fight aliens. Even fewer survive longer than a few ops. And only one can be the volunteer. My name is Dorian Kharim. I am the volunteer. I'm the one who saved Earth from the Uber Ethereal, me and all of Foxtrot Squad. We boarded that god forsaken derelict, and fought every kind of alien under the sun. Sectoids, floaters, mutons, you name it, they were there, trying to kill us. But we did it. We defeated that Uber Bastard. We won the battle, if only for a few moments. You see, back on the capital ship, there was an orb of psionic energy that was primed to go off, creating a black hole. I tried to contain it, but I wasn't strong enough. I failed. I wasn't able to stop the orb from detonating, all I could do was dampen it, and instead of creating a black hole, it opened a worm hole, sucking the entire capital ship in. I'm not quite sure where we are. It's just me and the others, sitting in the helm, looking out at the vast nothingness of space. We've been drifting for nearly two days now, And still, all we can see is a green planet, probably light years away. Oh well, I guess it's a fitting, considering the previous event. I started to just sort've, accept it. That we were going to die. So, i just solemnly took a seat by the observatory window, looking out, knowing that no help was coming. The alien ship still had working engines, but hell if any of us know how to use em. Mathias has been down in the engine room with Midori since yesterday, tinkering away. I don't have the heart to tell em' it's probably all for naught. So here I am. Floating. Drifting, through god know's where in the universe, contemplating the very nature of the universe. I mean,it had only been a year and a month after the Ethereals had attacked us. Before then, humans were considered the most advanced creatures in the universe, no one questioning our superiority, cus' for all we knew, we never considered someone was coming to wipe us out. But it turns out that we aren't alone. In fact, we're not even close to alone out here. I mean, take all the different ET's we fought, they must have all come from different places, cus NONE of them, save the mutons and floaters, looked anything alike. We're just one cesspool of creatures, confined to our own corner of the universe. But we managed. We lived through it, albeit just barely. But now we know. We know that we've got to get off our asses and start preparing for the aliens. Because more will come. Now they know we're here. And judging from the whole. "blowing up your leader", thing we just pulled, they're presumably quite pissed. In a way, it's almost a blessing in disguise being out here. Not having to worry about the impending extinction of the human race. What was it that Dr. Vahleen had said to the commander? I believe it was, " This must only be a scouting fleet, as large scale invasions have been completely absent. There is most likely a larger, more powerful fleet of vessels en route."
So, yeah, they're probably all screwed. But, being the optimist I am, I'm gonna go out thinking I saved humanity, even if it was for but a moment. It's like that saying , "The Calm before the Storm." What no one seems to realize is that what we just endured wasn't the storm. It was the calm before it. Anyways enough philosophical quandries. I rose from my spot, waving to Bridgette as she removed some alien power cells from a light overhead, humming the tune of ' Major Tom' , to herself.
Ah, that crazy bitch. She seems to be able to use anything for everything. Take this one time, we were responding to a UFO crash, and we found some mutons, so she sneaks around the back of them , and trips over her sniper! She breaks the thing too! So the two mutons are scratching their heads, and turn around to Bridgette charging at them with a freakin' piece of wreckage. She ends up killin' one, and Chrissie shoots the other, but still, she's crazy.
I proceeded down a metal ramp, coming to a large hard light door. I tapped a key panel to the right of it, and kept going. Soon enough, after wondering the mazelike corridors, I found the engine room, where Midori was sound asleep by the bulkhead door. Mathias was tinkering with a large cylindrical object that gave off a feint purple glow.
" What are you doin' here? I thought you and Elise were supposed to be up on the bridge, tryin' to find us a place to set down.", The large assault trooper spoke. He was nearly seven feet tall in his olive green titan armour. His skin was a dark brown, and his head bore no hair, not that it much mattered, since they all wore helmets in combat. His features were innocent and young, like a boy's, yet imposing because of his stature. He had been with XCOM from the start. And though you couldn't tell it by looking at his boyish face, he had seen more horrors than any of them. It was almost ironic, in a way.
"Nah. Bridgette's got that covered. I figure I'd come down here to see how the engine is comin' along, since Chrissie asleep upstairs. So, how we doin'? Any progress?", I spoke plainly.
"Not much unfourtantley .... I only found one thing that might be of use to us, and even then it's ... naw, never mind.", Mathias brushed the idea away.
"Cmon' man tell me. Any idea is better than none.", I encouraged Mathias. He took a deep breath before he explained his scheme.
" Well, I cant get the engines working, they're coded to only respond when a Thin Man operates them, far as I can tell. However, I found a detonation sequence hidden in the code of the operating system. Anyone can use it, but the resulting explosion would leave only the bridge in tact, and thats only if we secure every bulkhead before we get inside the bridge. I know it sounds stupid as all hell, but the force of the explosion would be enough to propel us forward at an astounding pace. We could cover approximatley 1. 7 light years in the course of an hour. After that, we start slowing down , and within 24 days, we're stranded again. We only have one shot dog, we gotta make it count. You in?", Mathias stood up, towering over me, looking at me with those endearing blue puppy eyes of his. I was weak, and I conceeded to this batshit insane plan, as I reached out to shake his hand. I think it was also partly due to the fact that he stood a full foot and a half taller than my short Hawaiian ass. Either way, I had just agreed to let a man blow the ship keeping us alive to kingdom come, because he thinks it might work. Great.
I left the engine room, letting Mathias do his thing , and as soon as I was out of view, i began sprinting up to the bridge to inform Bridgette of our last ditch effort plan. Or our suicide plan, depending upon how this goes over. I burst into the bridge panting, and leaned on my knees as Bridgette came over to me, asking me why I was out of breath. I simply responded, " There's a crazed psycho trying to blow up the ship!"
"What!? I mean who, how is that, we're the only .... " Bridgette tried to formulate a coherent sentence.
"Don't worry Kennedy, the psycho is Mathias, but yes he's still blowing up the ship. If it makes you feel better, its for a good reason though.", I responded, doing my best expression of the :D emoticon as I finished, mocking her.
" Ookaaay. Now would you care to explain, what that reason is, cus' I have half a mind to go down there, and shoot him with my plasma rifle.", Bridgette said sternly. She was always such a buzzkill.
"Stop your fretting, all he's gonna do is intiate a cataclysmic explosion that wuld propel us forwards. preferably towards that green spec over there. I mean, what else do we have to shoot for, unless you've discovered something else that we can go towards, that spec is our best chance for survival.", I told her, silently hoping she would just concede to the plan. I knew better than to do that.
"Have you people gone mad? Detonating the engines would kill all of us instantly! There's no way on Earth that we'd be able to survive it, much less be propelled by it.", Bridgette retorted, exasperated.
" Yeah, well, look around you honey, we're not exactly on Earth anymore are we?" , I shot back jokingly, letting a wry smile spread across my face.
"Look, Dorian, I appreciate your effort in saving us the first time, I really do, but can you leave the whole, ' not dying ', thing to me and Elise?", she spoke, wholeheartedly.
"Nope. Sorry, but this is a matter of all of us survivng, not just you. ", I spoke, getting angry now, pointing my finger accusingly at her. "I'm going to talk to Elise and Chrissie. Me and Mathias are in, and if they are too, we're going through with this insane plan. start determining how far away that green spec is., I ordered Bridgette.
"But ... ", she tried to retort.
"Goddamnit, I try to be nice, but I was put in charge of this squad, and when I give you an order, you do it solider. Am I clear?" , I barked venomously. She raised her hand as if to speak, before she looked down at the floor, and spoke.
"Yes sir ..."
I left the room without a word, and set out to the barracks where Chrissie and Elise were resting. Seem thats everyone is starting to get a bit jetlagged. Or Is giant-ass-space-ship-lagged? I'm going with the latter. I jogged down the long hallway that led to a catwalk that split into two branching paths, each leading to a small hardlight door. I proceeded down the left path, and tapped the panel beside the door, as it disintegrated before me. I stepped through the doorway into the small barrakcs where Chrissie lay passed out on a metal bed in her armour. Elise was sitting in a corner, reading her personal copy of Sun Tzu's art of war. She was the strategist of the group, even though she preferred a front line role, being a heavy trooper and all. Still, she was strong in both mind and body, a force that the aliens never saw coming.
"Whatcha doin' girlfrand?", I said in the most feminine voice I could manage, while I waved at her. Elise was about the same height as me, 5' 6". She has the prettiest orange red hair I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing sway gently in the wind. She wore a suit of customized blue and white titan armour, that had the picture of the British flag on the back of the overarching spine armour. Her features were sleek and well defined, her pale skin complimenting her fiery hair. She had a small, dapper mouth, with a slender nose, and jade eyes that could reduce even the toughest of men to little more than babbling idiots. Not me though, I knew since I first saw her that I'd forever be in the friend zone, and so I just let her beautiful eyes wash over me, as opposed to piercing me. Still, a man can dream.
"Nothin' much, just watching Chrissie sleep, reading. Hoping to not die. Speaking of which, what;s the word on the engines?", Elise inquired curiously, hoping for a non - explodey response. She wasn't going to get one.
"Well, about that. You see, the engines can propel us, but not in the way you'd think." , I responded akwardly, scratching my head.
"What do you- ", Elise started.
" Explode. We're going to blow up the engines to hopefully rocket us forward. ", I revealed, spilling the beans.
"What does 'hopefully' mean. Are you sure that'll work? it seems extremely risky, and prone to accident.", Elise spoke in her cute British accent.
" Well, Mathias told me that there's always a possiblity it could backfire on us. But I mean, in all honesty what would yu prefer? just sit out here, and starve to death. Or freeze. Or Burn. Or suffocate. Or - "
" i get the point."
"Right. Anyways, all I'm saying is we have a choice to make, die out here, giving up. Or die trying to survive. Which sounds more like the Elise Schafer that was the first one to use an prototype plasma pistol, knowing full well, it could kill if it malfunctioned?", I spoke convincingly. I could see her contemplating the choices presented before she, lookaed at the ground, then up at me, staring into me. Through me.
"I'm in.", she said confidently, nodding her head.
"Awesome. Go ahead and tell Chrissie the plan when she decides to stop being so depressed.", I spoke as I began to exit the barracks.
"Wait. I have just one more question.", Elise stopped me, putting a hand on my shoulder. U turned to face her and ask what she wanted to know.
"Where are we going, exactly?", she asked, a bit nervously.
"Remember when were up on the observation deck? remember that little green spec we saw? There. We're headed there. I know it sounds crazy, but it's our only shot. By the way, wake sleepy head up, and start securing all the bulkhead doors you can find, except for the one path between the engines and the bridge. Midori and Mathias are still down there. I'll tell you everything else when we're all safely inside the bridge. Let's get goin." , I answered back, hoping that it would be enough to assure her everything would be all right. For the time being, it had to be.
I exited the barracks, running back down to the engine room to inform Mathias of the squad's ruling. I came through the bulkhead door, just as Midori was waking up. Midori was a legend when it came to all things XCOM. With over 57 ops under her belt, and 109 confirmed kills, she was easily in competition with Mathias for most experienced soldier. You can imagine her disbelief when I was put in charge of the mission. Even after our "sucess", she still doubts my leadership skills. As she picked herself up off the floor, her light purple titan armour glinted from the alien lighting fixtures. Her jet black hair was tied back in a ponytail, and the lighting really brought out her soft brown eyes. Midori was Chinese, and her almond eyes gave this away. Her features were soft and gentle, with an oval shaped face. Her personality reflected her physical features, as she had chosen to become a combat medic, healing her fellow soldiers more than she killed aliens. And that says a lot when you've got 109 kills.
"Yo Mathias, you just about ready to get this show on the road? Chrissie and Elise are securing the bulkhead doors, and Bridgette's plotting a course to the Green Spec. I haven't asked her how far it is, but let's hope it's in range.", I asked humbly.
"Yeah dawg, let's go, just gotta ... " , Mathias was interrupted by a surge of purple energy that zapped the control panel he was tinkering with. " Aww shit ... I must'a done something wrong.", he told me, resuming work on the control panel, sweat forming on his brow.
"What just happened? Is it bad? uhm, Murakami, no time to explain now, but get to the bridge ASAP, and if you see Chrisse and Elise tell them to hurry with the bulkhead doors.", I ordered, observing Mathias fidget with the controls.
"What? What bulkhe-", she tried to question.
"Midori, please, this is really important, just go!", I pointed towards the exit. In an instant, she just nodded and was off.
"Now, about that 'mistake'. What have you done?", I questioned the already stressed engineer.
"I, I think I started the self destruct sequence, see? it's counting down in these weird symbols. Man, we've gotta split, now. Lets start closing off the last five doors. C'mon, better safe than sorry, even if it isn't an explosion that comes."
"Alright, lets get to it. " I responded, worried at Mathias' deduction. Well, I mean, this was what we we're hoping for after all, it just happened to come a bit abruptly. Who was I to question this seeming misfortune? it's a wonder that we even had this desperate option available to us, after we blew apart corridor after corridor defeating the ethereals. Oh well, time to find out if this was a saving grace, or a death wish. Either way, it was gonna be fun as hell riding the shockwave!
Mathias motioned me through the first bulkhead a she secured it into place, and we both ran towards the next one, we repeated this procedure four more times before we finally came to the bridge where Elise was standing in the doorway, leaning against it.
"Bridgette tells me we won't make it to the green dot. She says it's too far away.", Elise spoke solemnly. I didn't know what to say. I was utterly shocked by the revelation, although I sort've knew deep down that this plan was a long shot.
"Let me talk to her, let's go. Inside.", Mathias spoke, herding us through the door. Once inside, I found Bridgette at the helm, looking at a holo map intently. Chrissie and Midori were off to the left, talking about something involving an old op.
"What do you mean we wont reach? That engine's got 1.7 light years of boom. If we don't reach it with that, we'll be damn near close enough to step outside of this ship and land on it. Now tell me, how far away is it, Bridgette?" , Mathias asked, frustrated. Bridgette sighed deeply, and began.
"Look, Mathias, we're in range of it. I lied to the others to keep them from freaking out. In fact, we're more than close enough, in fact, we're too close. That spec out there is 1. 5 light years away. That engine is going to blow us . 2 light years farther than we need to go. We're either going to shoot right past it, or crash into it. We have to find a way to slow our approach, and fast. I heard the electrical surge. I presume Mathias started the detonation sequence." , Bridgette answered back, approaching the doorway, and securing the final bulkhead. "I've found one thing that might be able to dampen our speed, but it would require someone to manually operate it. And that would mean ..."
"Okay, well where is it then? ", Mathias asked, desperate as the beeping coming from the engine room began to speed up. I just took a back seat to the whole conversation, resigning myself to a seat next to Elise.
"It's outside the ship, they're hardlight flaps, airbrakes almost, but designed to withstand solar winds and such. That's why they're made out of energy.", Bridgette said gravely.
"Can't you just access them from here? When I last checked that interface controlled the whole ship.", Mathias shot back.
"Yes, but what you failed to check was if all of them still responded. Like the engine, the interface only responds to alien DNA, or so you've claimed. Apparently that's the case with all the alien devices. So, who's going out there? We don't have much time left before the engines go.", Bridgette retorted sharply. Me and Elise stood up, and walked to stand beside Mathias. Chrissie and Midori did the same. We all Encircled Bridgette, standing silently, staring her down. She shook her head in disbelief.
"No, you can't expect me to- ", she tried to stammer out.
"Look, you're the only one with archangel armour, meaning you're the only one with a jetpack." , Elise told Bridgette coldly.
"But. I could just take off my armour and one of you could ...", Bridgette tried to form a repsonse.
"You know that won't work Bridgette. All of our armours are custom fitted. Please don't make this harder than it has to be. " , Elise spoke sympathetically, trying to coerce her into accepting her fate. I simply watched form the sidelines, a spectator to my own survival story.
"Please, there has to be another way ... ", Bridgette stammered, her voice quavering.
'"You said it yourself not five minutes ago. This is the only way.", Midori chimed in.
"Let's go, Dorian , open the bulkhead, ad lets hustle to the airlock. Fast. Bridgette, Get your helmet.", Mathias said commandingly. I did as he said, opening up the door as everyone filed through, Bridgette in the middle, flanked by everyone. We all sprinted as fast as we could through the deserted hallways, the only sound the clang of our boots on the metal, and the ominous beeping coming from the engine room. After a short jog, we arrived at a large hole in the side of a wall, big enough to fit a muton through. We all stood around Bridgette as she solemnly put on her helmet.
"You can't make me do this. I won't go. I won't die. " , she stated matter of factly. Mathias opened the circular hatch which revealed the small cylindrical hallway that led to another hatch. Everyone just stood and waited, eyeing Bridgette longingly. She stood there, aloof from the situation at hand, arms crossed, looking at us through her visor accusingly. All was silent save for the grave beeping. I couldn't take the silence, and the anxiety, so I just did it.
"Will someone just push the bitch?" , I shouted as I kicked Bridgette in the stomach with the sole of my boot, sending her flying backwards into the hallway. Mathias quickly sealed the door, as Bridgette banged against the metal hatch.
"You bastards! How dare you! You need me! You hear me! Without me, you're all gonna die!", Bridgette assaulted us with her barrage of words.
"Bridgette, we're not letting you back in. So goddamnit, just save us. For the love of god, just go out there, and save our asses. Please. We're begging you. Because if you don't, we all die.", Midori pleaded with Bridgette, as the banging died down. I could hear Bridgette sighing deeply, before she uttered a simple response.
"Let's go.", she choked out, the words barely audible.
"Atta girl. Now, let's get to it, we only have a minute or so left, judging by that beeping, Bridgette, we're heading back to the bridge. You can open the airlock from inside there. We're counting on you Kennedy. Godspeed. " Mathias spoke, a single tear sliding down his cheek. And that's when we all ran like hell. We just managed to slide back into our cocoon of safety, and secure the bulkhead door, when we heard Bridgette saying something through Elise's helmet. From what I remember, she said, " This is Major Bridgette to ground control ... I'm stepping through the door. And I'm floating in a most peculiar way ... and the stars, ... they look very different today ..." , in a tone that broke my heart. Even if she was crazy, I could never thank her enough for what she had done for us. As we all settled into the bridge, fastening our helmets on, Bridgette radioed that she had done it, and gotten the space breaks in place. She told us she could still come back inside. That there was still time.
And that's when the explosion hit. It almost didn't feel like an explosion though. It felt more like a distant earthquake. At first anyways. For the first two or three seconds, we thought we would be fine, safe inside the bridge. That assumption shattered when my entire squad was thrown backwards, as the engines exploded, thrusting us forwards at an incredible speed. I didn't even try to stand up, as I lay against the wall, the universe zipping by faster than I could imagine, my whole world went black. I couldn't see anything. At first I panicked, thinking I was dead, but over time I just let it continue, as I yelled and whooped, enjoying this universal version of a roller coaster. I threw my arms up, thinking that I might as well have some fun if this happened to kill everyone. But you know what? it didn't. I sat there blind and having the time of my life. I didn't even care that I couldn't hear either. And after what felt like a single minute of hurtling through space, my vision and hearing returned, and within a few minutes, everyone managed to pull themselves to their feet.
"Whooo! That was one hell of a joy ride, wouldn't you say Mathias?", I shouted, overjoyed to be alive. He approached me, wrapping his arm around my neck and pulling me close in a brotherly embrace.
"Yeah man. It sure was.", he responded, as he removed his helmet, and let it drop to the floor.. Retracting from the hug, I began to speak.
"Wasn't that ride supposed to be like an hour or something? If it was, I was having too much fun to notice.", I said, removing my helmet, and laughing at simply being alive. I strode over to the observation window, to see if we had even made it, a surge of stress and anticipation washing over me. I wasn't ready for what I saw.
"WOAH, EVERYONE BRACE! Now! Get your helmets on and get down!", I shouted as the other ran over, refastening their helmets, to look at the planet surface that was rapidly approaching us. We could make out a large green continent, similar in size to South America, surrounded by oceans, and linked in several places by large isthmuses to other continents. I sat down and braced myself for the impending impact. I thought to myself that we might die here. I quickly brushed away the thought. If I can hurtle through space at a speed so fast it would rip people apart, I can survive a crash goddamnit! I was speeding into the atmosphere, the friction tearing away at the hull of the ship. I got up to look at how close we were. It was possibly the stupidest idea I'd ever had, fr when I stared through the window, we were but a few hundred feet from a forest below. I began praising every god under the sun that there was air on this planet. I wouldn't come this far just to suffocate, and thankfully, we chose the right rogue planet. It had never occurred to me that this planet was indeed a rogue planet, as there was no star anywhere near it, which begged the question of how life existed here. Much less complex stuff like trees. I pushed away the questions, thankful that I had at least been given the best chance possible to live, and if it was freezing cold out there, oh well, there was nothing we could do anymore. As I came to terms with this i returned to my position calmly, and braced myself, hoping for the best.
And that's when when me made impact. But the impact wasn't a boom, or a thud, or an explosion like I had expected it to be. No, it was a dink. The sound you'd expect a coin to make when you drop it into a cup. And that's when I noticed the yellow and blue glow of energy suspending us mere feet above the surface. We slowly began to descend the last few feet, touching the ground with a dink. What just happened. Like seriously. WAT. We had came in at a tremendous velocity, and yet here we were, the ship still mostly intact. The yellow and blue auras faded, leaving the ship with a reddish glow, the hull still immensely hot from entering the atmosphere at such a great speed.
"We ... We did it! Oh my god, were still alive!", Midori yelled, overjoyed by the series of events. Elise and Midori hugged, telling each other of their former doubts about the plan, and how they had all been wrongly founded.
Still, I don't understand what caused us to just up and stop like that. Was it the hardlight space breaks? Was it some form of emergency breaks this ship had built into it? I couldn't know for certain, and that bothered me. I felt as if the aura's were magical almost. Had god himself saved us? No, that's ridiculous, even for me. I didn't linger on the thought much longer, gathering myself.
"Heh. Alright then, who wants to go explore an alien planet then? Just to be safe, let's bring our weapons. We don't know if this is the ethereal home world. After all, the wormhole DID deposit us in this spot in space, or close enough. Even if it isn't, it could still be dangerous. Let's get organized, and get going." , Mathias instructed us. I didn't mind that he was taking charge, despite my former appointment of squad leader. If there was anyone qualified to lead us into this brand new world, it was Mathias.
We gathered a the damaged bulkhead door, that managed to remain in place all throughout or journey. Before I could say something, Mathias kicked open the destroyed door. Before us lay a scene of indisputable beauty, and horror, all at once. The forest looked like it could harbor all kinds of dangerous life. Maybe this is where the feral muton berserkers were taken from. It sure looked the part. But in a way it was serenely beautiful with sunlight streaming down through the - . Wait what. WHAT. Sunlight?!? I tried to refocus my vision by shaking my head and blinking, but sure enough that was sunlight, illuminating this rogue planet. But how?There had been no star anywhere near it? I also began to realize that I'd seen the sunlight earlier, when we were coming in, I had been able to see the continents perfectly. This didn't make any sense, how had there been light if there was no light source? I continued pondering what the hell was going on here, as we stepped outside the bridge
And sticking to the trend of what-the-fuckery, sure enough, there, hanging in the sky was a bright yellow star, much like our own sun. I began to wonder how any of this was possible. Maybe I was dreaming? Maybe I was dead? I'm not really sure at this point, but I'm going to assume I'm still alive, for my own mental health.
Putting aside the massive question of how any of this was possible, I soldiered on, the last in the group of my squad mates. I wielded a plasma rifle and pistol, and an alien grenade, while Chrissie and Elise carried heavy plasma guns. Mathias carried an alloy cannon, the BFG shotgun of the real world. Over his shoulder was slung Bridgette's sniper rifle. Death makes people you hated in life so much closer to you in a way, for I couldn't help but look away from the gun. It almost hurt to look at it.
"Hold up. We got a contact. Heads down.", Chrissie whispered loudly, signaling for us to halt. We Stopped dead in our tracks, crouching down, guns primed. We saw rustling come from a bush not ten meters away. We all decided to duck behind tress for better cover, and observed the bush, poking our heads out from cover. The bush began to glow with a yellow aura that looked similar to the one that encircled the ship earlier. As the bush parted, I observed a large figure step through the gap, accompanied by a bodyguard of others. The creatures appeared to stand on four legs, and were about as tall as horse. Two of the larger ones had horns jutting out from their heads, and the smaller ones appeared to have wings. All the smaller equines were white, while, one larger equine was a dark blue pruple. the other large one was also white, with a mane and hair that seemed to flow and radiate energy. The blue one also had a similar design, in the sense that her hair flowed without wind, and seemed to be made of energy. In fact, they looked like smaller versions of horses, in regards to their features, proportionate to their size. They were equine in nature, yet their facial features conveyed a higher level of intelligence. I never expected them to be so intelligent as to be able to talk though. Talking alien horse things. That's new.
"Luna, where did you say it came down? I sensed it was near here, but I cant see any smoke or fire. Surely it must have been damaged to some extent, going at that speed. " , the large white equine spoke in a regal voice that were gentle to the ears. I couldn't believe what was happening. Screw being alive, there was no way this was happening. But the conversation continued, as I shifted to hide myself more fully, thanking that my armour was a brownish black, which helped me to blend in with the bark.
"I'm sure of it Tia', just a bit further, and we'll see just what disturbed us. Onwards guards.", The Blue One ordered to the white equines. They obeyed immediately, advancing.They seemed to be wearing a primitive, yet regal, form of golden armour that covered their back and head. The two larger specimens also seemed to wear armour, yet it looked to be more ceremonial in design, as it didn't cover any vitals areas. I still couldn't believe what the hell was going on here. it's too bad not believing something doesn't stop it from happening. I shifted to see Murakami turning to get a better look at one of the guards, and tripped over a fallen branch. She hit the ground with a loud thud, as the guards turned to face her. Shit.
"What ... what is it sister?", The Blue One questioned the larger white equine.
"I'm not sure sister. Maybe it came from whatever fell from the sky. Let's try and talk to it, and see if it can understand us.", the large equine replied. She took a big step forward, looking down at Midori, who scrambled onto her back, and sat up, her arms supporting her. I could tell Midori was shocked that they could even talk, I know I was.
"My name is Princess Celestia, and this is Princess Luna. Can you understand us?", the white pony motioned to The Blue One with a wing. It turns out I didn't notice that both 'Princesses' had large wings. So they had wings, and horns. So according to mythology, that makes them a mix between a pegasus, and a unicorn. Pegacorn? Unasus? I'm not even trying to understand this place anymore. My head ... it's full of fuck ...
"Uhm ... uh ... Ah, yes. I can but ... but how, how are you speaking perfect English ... you're, you're ... horses. ", Midori managed to stammer out brokenly, getting to her feet. She seemed to be surprised that, being as tall as she was, the white pony was still a head taller than her. It astounded me the proportions of the equines. While the larger ones looked like horses, but a bit smaller, the guards, had relatively stubby legs, and large bodies and heads. The eyes also creeped me out. They had eyes the size of saucers, almost as big as a sectoid's. Those eyes man, just ... just ... stared into your soul. I could sense Midori was uneasy. So being the idiot I am, I decided to step out from the tree with my gun held in front of me.
"Ambush!", one of the guards shouted as two rushed me, spear tips facing me. I Mentally face-palmed, letting them ram their weapons into my armour, as they recoiled backwards, falling onto their backs.
"Look, guys. Horses. Ponies. Whatever you are, you need to know but three things. One, were called humans. Hyoo. Manz. Get it? Good. Second of all, yes we understand you, we speak English, and yes, we are wondering how the hell you speak it too. Thirdly, and finally, my name is Dorian. Pleasure to meet royalty.", I spoke, taking control of the situation. Honestly I was pretty nervous, and thank god I had my helmet on, cus' when i get nervous, I blink a lot. Wouldn't wanna scare them with my spazz attack. I slung my gun over my back, taking an awkward bow to show my humbleness. It only felt respectful to do so in the presence of royalty. Even if they happened to be talking horses. Plus, we need all the help we can get, and the last thing we need is another set of aliens trying to kill us.
"Guys, you can come out, we're square. Oh, almost forgot, call your guards off. Even if they tried, they won't be able to hurt us. They're just hurting themselves. And wasting their spears.", I spoke, looking down at the shattered spear shafts, as the rest of foxtrot squad came out of cover slowly.
" It is a pleasure to meet you as well Dorian, along with all of you friends. I apologize for our bodyguards behavior, they're a bit on edge lately from all the debris falling from the sky. But, I would like to know, where did you come from? Were you in the object my sister and I halted?", Celestia questioned.
"Wait, you stopped our ship? How? How is that even physically - ", I began to stutter out, as Celestia interjected.
"Why, with my magic of course. We simply levitated your ship, as it were, down to the ground after we stopped it." it all made sense now. That blue and yellow aura earlier, it wasn't a breaking mechanism. it was magic. As crazy it sounded, according to these seemingly reliable horses, they possessed magical properties. Well, it would make sense, with them having horns and all. Still how was that even possible? Perhaps it was better to hold questions until later though, so I swept aside my inquiries in favor of getting on these ponies' good sides.
"Okay then. Can you answer me this then? Where are we exactly? We sort've crash landed, more or less thanks to you. By the way, thank you for stopping our ship, I'm not sure we could've survived the impact." , I thanked them, knowing that without them, we might be burning corpses.Still, at least then it would've made more sense that what was happening currently.
"Why, we're on Equis of course.", Celestia answered back. Duly noted. Equine inhabitants, planet is called Equis. Weird. It'd be like humans calling Earth homo-sapien-sapien. Eh, at least Equis rolls off the tongue better, but it was still odd nonetheless. "Please come with us, we'll explain everything once we've arrived back at the castle. We'd like to know if you know anything about the sky debris. Follow us, we should be there by 8 if we hurry." Indeed, the sun that didn't seem to exist was begginning to dip below the treeline, casting long shadows along everyone. I motioned for my squad to follow, as they shook their heads in disbelief, and followed me. Midori gathered her plasma rifle, slinging it over her back, joining up with the group beside Elise. We began walking, following the troop of guards.
I still couldn't even begin to come to terms with what had happened in the last hour and a half, and yet we continued to go deeper into the rabbit hole of what the fuck, hoping to find some explanation for all of this. I guess it's sort've like that saying.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I followed silently, behind Chrissie and Elise, with Mathias and Midori flanking me on either side from behind. It still troubled me that these weird ass horse creatures just up and accepted us so readily. I mean, I was expecting them to attack me. I guess the guards attacked me, but that doesn't really count. Still, I'm also wondering what they mean by sky debris. They seem to have dealt with objects falling from space lately, as they'd explained that that's why their bodyguard is so on edge. What space debris? Had there been others here before us? No, that couldn't be, the only people with technology this advanced were ... not people at all. As I began to put the pieces of the puzzle together, we arrived at two golden chariots, the bodyguards harnessing themselves and spreading their wings. I looked at Celestia through my visor with a look of 'Really?', that she couldn't have possibly seen through my helmet. Still, by the way I stood, I'm sure she could sense my distrust of this suicide machine. How could she expect 1000 pounds of metal to be carried by two feeble pegasi. Still, if the thing never got off the ground, we'd just walk anyways. Celestia gestured us into the chariots with the motion of her head, looking at us, and then at the chariots. I sighed inwardly, thinking it would be just a moment before she realized that we were way too heavy to fly.
Mathias came close to me and whispered, " Dude, we'll never get off the ground in those, and even if we do, we're gonna fall out the sky and die." I reassured him that we wouldn't even lift off, and told him to just humor the Princess. I could tell he was still worried. We all stepped up onto the golden chariots, Mathias and I one one, and the girls on the other. I rolled my eyes as the pegasi began to flap their wings, almost laughing at the futility of their efforts.
But before I knew it, we were off the ground, as Celestia and Luna waved to us from below , as they disappeared in a spark of white light. Okay. I'll ask one more time. What. The. Hell. Is going on here?!? I continued to ponder this question all throughout our cruise through the sky, skipping along the cloud tops, as if we weren't wearing half ton war machines. I still couldn't find any logical way to explain any of this. The pegasi weren't even flapping their wings strenuously or anything. In fact , I thought I heard them having a conversation.
"I give up man. Nothing here makes any goddamned sense. Theres a star in the sky, even though this planet is clearly a rogue. The pony things here look way too much like Earth horses, and they speak perfect English. What's your take on it?", I asked Mathias exasperated from waiting for the answers that would never reveal themselves. Mathias didn't respond, holding onto the chariot. Even through his helmet I could tell he was contemplating his answer. I wasn't ready for what he told me.
"I remember this.", he spoke coldly. His voice sounded like someone else's, distant and detached
"What? What do you mean? We've never been here before, how could you possibly know about any of this?", I rebuttled genuinely confused by his response.
"I remember this. All of it. Okay, so you know how I've been with XCOM for a while now? Well, we higher ups got access from a smaller scale alien invasion that happened back in 1993 ... We were supposed to study the files to get a better understanding of some of the aliens. Well, around that same time, I was in college, and I was flipping through the channels with my roommate one day, and we happened upon this girly television show.", Mathias responded, sounding very intense.
"What was the show called? ", I asked, confused.
"My Little Pony." Those words smacked me like a ton of bricks, as I blinked, and nearly doubled over backwards, catching the railing, and righting myself, hunching forward.
"No freakin' way dude. That's so impossible. I know that these things look similar to ponies, but that can't possibly be. It must just be a coincidence.", I tried, trying to rationalize it.
"Nah man, I remember watching like half an episode. I have to admit, these ones look pretty different, but I can totally see the resemblance, if only slightly. They have to be related somehow. Maybe ... maybe this is all interconnected. The ship wormhole warping us here. The oddly friendly ponies, and their resemblance to an Earth tv show. And like I said, the alien invasion happened around the exact same time when this show was airing. It can't be a coincidence dawg. ", he said, trying to convince me of his convoluted theory.
"It just, it ... Okay, let's say these things ARE interconnected somehow, why would the aliens want ponies of all things. They seem pretty useless from a combat standpoint. ", I spoke my opinion. As i did so, the cloud cover broke, revealing a large castle built into the side of the mountain, with observatories and towers at impossible angles and improbably proportioned. Yet another testament to the insanity of this place. Still, it was quite beautiful, even if it did make my head hurt looking at it.
"Man, I think I just made the connection. Now, you're gonna think I'm crazy at how fast I figured this out, and you ain't believe me at first, but trust me, I've got it all figured out. Ready?", Mathias said, looking at me through his clear visor intently.
"Yeah man, shoot.", I said, ready for anything at this point.
" Well, I saw how you shivered back there, down in the forest. I can only presume it was cus of their huge ass eyes. Am I right?" I nodded. " Well, I was just thinking about how we had crash landed and made it alive, and I thought back to this sectoid corpse I saw down in one of the bulkheads. And I just realized something. Remember how back when we first fought the aliens, and Vahleen autopsied the sectoid for the first time? She told us that it had been genetically engineered to be the way they are, not just for their psionic capabilities, but for their appearance too." , Mathias continued as we began to descend. " I never thought about it until just now, but these pony things eyes look about the same size as a sectoid's, if I recall correctly.And, as if that wasn't enough, those two large ponies, Celestia and Luna, they possessed some kind of psionic capability. I could tell that it was them that had saved us when I saw the aura levitating the ship. Not only that, they told us it was them that saved us themselves. Bro, I dunno about you, but I think we're walkin' into a trap with the way they accepted us so fast."
The chariot touched down on a large circular landing pad emblazoned with a golden 'C'. I took into consideration what Mathias had revealed to me, and in a way, although convoluted as fuck, it almost made sense. The aliens attacked in 1993, the same year the MLP show was airing. And then we just happen to get dropped near a planet that harbors the same creatures, more or less. And that readiness to accept us. It was all just too freaky. Then again, I was starting to have regrets about basically kicking Bridgette to her death, so maybe I wasn't in my right mind anymore. Still, I began to feel uneasy, as if I was being watched. The four pegasi unharnessed themselves and trotted down some steps off to the right, leaving the five of us to ourselves. It didn't stay that way for long.
In a bright flash of light, Celestia appeared before us, horn glowing with an ethereal aura. She greeted us kindly, asking us to come along. We all looked at each other, a bit nervously. I removed my helmet quickly and mouthed 'Careful', before quickly refastening it and following Celestia down the steps. I have a bad feeling about this. Still, we walked in silence, the only sound the stomp of our metal boots and of Celestia's hooves on the pristine marble walkways.
It all seemed too improbable to be true. The odd building angles, the sun thing, the talking, cartoon resembling ponies. I couldn't handle all this confusion that somehow made sense in Mathias' mind. As we proceeded inside through a set of wooden double doors, i slowly began to understand just what Mathias was stabbing at all along. Nearly doubling over from the obvious, yet hidden answer, I mentally smacked myself silly.
It made so much sense. More or less. The sun that wasn't there, the talking ponies, the invasion in 1993. I'm not sure if this was the answer, but it was the only thing I could think of, and as such, it's all I had to go on. I edged over to Mathias whispering my revelation as he nodded to me, indicating that he indeed had the same idea as me.
Coming to a large door, made of gold, two guards hoisted the doors open, allowing us through into a huge room, adorned with marble columns and ribbed vault ceilings. It was astonishing the architecture that was employed here. And at the same time, it only re confirmed my suspicions. I whispered to Mathias, " Don't tell the others yet. I know this might be a trap, but if we play it cool, we might have a better opportunity to see if we're right. let's put it on the back burner for now, and roll with the punches, okay?"
"Aight' dog, but if somethin' goes down, I won't hesitate to take action.", he whispered back, shaking his head.
"Welcome, to the royal throne room. Please, take a seat and make yourselves comfortable.", Celestia spoke as her horn glowed teleporting five metal seats embedded into the floor with a flash of yellow light. Woah. That's new. Still, I was open to anything in this impossible place. I could see the look of hesitancy on Mathias' face as he removed his helmet, looking disapprovingly at the seats. We all approached the chairs, sitting down slowly, as if we expected it to bite us. But nothing bad happened. It was just a seat.
We settled in, as Celestia approached her golden throne beside a smaller silver one. She hopped up onto it, laying down on the red cushion atop it. She began to speak.
"So, now that we're all here, I'd like to ask you some questions about these mysterious fragments we unearthed." , Celestia spoke , levitating a shard of strange metal in front of Chrissie. Chrissie held out her hands, as Celestia let it drop into her palm, grasping it firmly. Chrissie examined it before passing it to her left to Mathias, who was sitting to my left. I began to squirm in my seat, knowing full well what the metal was. I knew that Mathias knew too, for he spoke almost immediately.
"This is a weapon fragment, your majesty. It's from a sectoid plasma pistol. Speaking of which ... ", Mathias spoke intently, rising to his feet, grasping the shard tightly. "Earlier, when we were back in the forest, you said it was debris falling from the sky. You just said you unearthed it, implying it was found underground.", he continued.
"Why of course, the fragments fell at such a speed that they imbedded themselves in the ground.", Celestia quickly fired back, shifting in her throne.
"While that would normally make sense, I just told you this was a sectoid plasma pistol fragment, meaning it's not part of a ship hull, or anything designed to be able to withstand re entry. It would've burned up long before reaching the ground, despite it's resilience to the heat produced by the plasma it uses.", Mathias began to pace back and forth, hands behind his back, shard still in hand.
"Well surely you must be mistaken then. It most surely fell out of the sky.", Celestia quickly spoke.
"Your majesty, I'm positive that this is a sectoid plasma pistol shard, I've seen them in person before. Oh and also, you're not fooling anyone. Especially not me." , Mathias turned to face Celestia, furrowing his brow before he wound his arm back before he rocketed the sharp fragment at the equine leader.
My jaw nearly dropped as the shard rocketed through the air, aimed straight at the leader's temple. But Celestia made no attempt to even try and levitate it or grab it with her magic, instead letting it come ever closer. And that's when it all fell apart. The lies. The deception. All the smoke and mirrors, shattering and dissipating before us.
The shard clanged off the forehead of the equine, as she rose with an apathetic look on her face. She looked at Mathias with eyes that penetrated your soul. Celestia began to dissolve, an inexplicable wind carrying away the digitized bits of information as our theories were confirmed.
"Foolish humans. You could've lived here in peace. You could've been happy as we created a new species of alien. Especially you. With a psionic of your power, we could've made the perfect psion soldier. It's a shame your friend had to ruin it. ", the towering ethereal spoke, his metal helmet slightly scratched form the shard. He stood nearly eight feet tall, with a luxurious red robe that was tattered at the base. The ethereal raised his frail arm as he began to channel a psionic attack, the swirling energy forming in his palm.
"Move, combat formation 4! GOGOGO, HELMETS ON!!.", Mathias shouted as he sprinted behind the metal seats, snatching up his helmet and securing it quickly. The others jumped from their seats, fastening their helmets, and ducking behind the metal seats. I dashed to my right, behind a large marble column, tightening the latche son my helmet, before drawing my plasma rifle and poking my head out.
The first psionic blast missed its target by just a few inches, scarring the marble floor where I had stood just a second ago. I took this opening and raised my rifle, returning fire, the excursion of hot green plasma kicking the gun back into my plated arm. I could see the green energy speeding towards the psionic leader. Closer and closer it got, before it hit. However, the ethereal had anticipated this as he raised a shield, deflecting the shot back at me. Shit.
I dove out into the open as the reflected bolt impacted the column, blowing its mid section apart, as it toppled to the ground, scorched and crumbling. Oh my god, these guys suuuuck. I sprinted over to the seats where Mathias was taking a shot at the big guy with his alloy cannon.
"You got any grenades Kharim? It'd really make this a lot easier." , he asked me as another wave of energy blew apart the middle seat. I reached down to my belt, unlatching an alien grenade, and nodded to him. "Alright, try and aim it at that column in front of him. If we can cut him off for a second or two, we can make a break for the exit.", he told me, as I clicked a button on the grenade. It started to beep in a high pitched tone, as I ducked out from cover, rearing back and throwing it at the desired column. I ducked back behind the seats as the grenade went off.
The ethereal turned to his left, looking at the column that began to crumble, and toppled down in front of him.
"Nice throw dog!", Mathias congratulated me as we high fived, making a break for the door. As we kicked open the large double doors, causing the two guards to fall on their backs, I could hear a low hum coming from behind me, as I turned my head to see what the disturbance was. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the smartest idea, as I've heard it dozens of time before.
I got a face full of hot plasma as I was knocked to the ground, the left side of my helmet searing with green energy, and with a large plume of smoke radiating off of it. The impact of the plasma had left my head spinning, as I made out a blur of white smacking Midori in the back with another round of plasma. As I shook my vision clear, I pulled myself together, getting to my feet, and watched in horror as Mathias whacked Chrissie in the chest with a pump of alloy shards.
Chrissie was blown backwards, slamming into the wooden doors. She was down for but a moment, before she began standing up again, as Mathias removed her heavy plasma gun from her hands with one swift retching motion. In response to this, Chrissie charged Mathias, fists raised, as he rolled out of the way. She slammed into the marble wall, her fist shattering the stone like glass. I raised my rifle, taking aim at her and firing off a round of plasma, which forced her face first into the wall.
For a moment I thought she was dead, but that theory was put to rest when Mathias approached her, alloy cannon at the ready. She whirled around and lunged at Mathias as I watched in disbelief. Time seemed to slow to halt as I took in the scene. To my right was Midori, laying limply on the ground, with the two guards regaining their stance on either side of me. And through the doorway to my left, I could see the ethereal, standing smugly, a beam of swirling purple energy linking him to Chrissie.
You bastard. Mathias couldn't force himself to pull the trigger again, for he knew it would surely kill her, so he instead shielded himself, as Chrissie wrestled him to the ground, assaulting him with a barrage of vicious blows. I turned my attention to the guards. Boy did I regret that choice of priorities. Just like the ethereal had revealed himself, so too did the guards, the digitized pixels floating away as they took their true form. I had seen this type of alien before. And they were a bitch to deal with.
The Two outsider aliens stood nearly six and a half feet tall, their metallic bodies coursing with orange energy that seemed to outline their form, and branch inwards to their core. Their head resembled a human's except that it stopped after just above the mouth, and instead a large piece of v shaped metal sloped back to their slightly slanted forward head. They raised their light plasma rifles, aiming at Midori as she began to pick herself up, I shot once at the outsider to my left, the green energy impacting with great force, the alien dissolving into an orange surge of energy before disappearing. I turned my attention to face the other one, who began to fire at Midori, one shot planting straight in her arm, blowing her sideways. I tried to shoot the assailant, but nothing happened, as my plasma rifle went dim, the green light fading. Aw c'mon you piece of shit, you can;t be out of ammo now!
Without second thought I looked at my useless rifle, shrugged, and hurled it at the Outsider, knocking it down and giving me enough time to draw my plasma pistol. I lined up the aliens half-head, and fired, watching as the bolt of plasma caused the alien to dissolve. I sighed, relieved. Oh shit Mathias!
Remembering that this whole day was one clusterfuck after another, I whirled around, to face the ethereal, who was fending off the bolts of plasma Elise was firing at him from behind the wooden door. I raised my gun and began peppering the ethereal with one shot after another, unrelentingly unloading my power cell on him until it ran dry.
"DORIAN!!", I heard Mathias shout in my ear, snapping me out of my tunnel vision.
"Woah ... what? Oh ...", I said looking down at the flaming corpse of the ethereal I had continued to shoot, long after it was dead. " I guess I uh ... I guess I got sort've carried away."
"You don't say?", Mathias said sarcastically, shaking his head.
"Hows Christie then? Midori?", I inquired, turning to see the pool of blood forming around Midori.
"We couldn't save her man ... I ... I'm sorry. She just ... that outsider, it just blew her away, and I couldn't..." Mathias' voice quavered, and I could see the anguish in his eyes through his visor.
"It's alright man. I know you tried. We all tried. It was a tough situation though. At least you saved Chrissie, I saw how you refused to kill her. That was good back there. That was real good.", I spoke, trying to reassure him that what he did was right.
"I know man ... but ... it hurts y'know? You'd think you'd be detached from death when you've been around as long as I have.", Mathias spoke, sliding down against the marble wall, holding his head in his hands. "And it's partly true, I don't fear death anymore ... but Midori was different.She was the only one that understood what this war does to a guy. She was the only one that had survived as long as me. And now she's gone!", Mathias yelled, smashing his fist into the floor, the marble crumbling easily beneath his anger. Mathias stood up, with a crazy look in his eye.
"I don't know why the hell this place is here." , Mathias spoke seriously. " But I'm not leaving till' every last one of those bastards pay." He scooped up his alloy cannon, holding it from the topside of the barrel, and stormed down the hallway, Elise chasing after him.
Woah. I've never seen him like this. He's witnessed others die and never even flinched. But it's understandable. Murakami was the only one left out of the original 25 XCOM operatives, along with him. She was the only who could really rationalize with him, and understand his woes. In a way, she had been the only thing keeping all his anger and frustration towards the aliens pent up, because they talked it out. Well now his outlet was gone, and he was pissed.
I gathered up Midori's medikits and her weapons, slinging her gun over my back and clipping the medikits to my belt. I Strode over to Chrissie, who was badly injured, and set to work spraying the medikit's rejuvinating chemicals in the spots she needed it most, trying to conserve the life-giving mixture.
"What the hell just happened ... all I remember is looking back to see if he was still following us and then , it just all went black ..." , Chrissie spoke groggily, shaking off the effects of the ethereal's mind control. I Just shook my head solemnly, and stepped aside, allowing her a view of Midori's body.
"Did I ... Di-", She began.
"No, it wasn't your fault. Another pair of ET's got the jump on us, and there was nothing we could do. I'm sorry Chrissie but we have to go now." , I said, trying to help her to her feet.
"No. Dorian, we can't just leave her here like this. It's not right. We have to-".
"No Chrissie. There's no time. She'd just weigh us down. Besides, I'm sure she'd want this. For us to get away and survive. C'mon now.", I interjected, pulling her up. She removed her helmet, and looked at me with an expression of both disappointment and frustration.
"Alright ... let's uh ... let's just ... C'mon ...", She stammered out, choking back the tears and starting down the hallway. I followed her after snatching up her heavy plasma gun. We didn't speak until we caught up to Mathias.
Mathias seemed to have simmered down, as far as i could tell anyways. I could still sense he was still hurting though, and I didn't blame him, letting him mourn for the dead in this brief lapse in fighting.
Still though, as we traversed the winding corridors of the castle, I couldn't help but wonder what else was just an illusion. As i pondered this, I also thought about what we had discussed earlier, about the ponies. Was it true? At this point it almost certainly had to be. What me and Mathias had discussed was weird and twisted as hell, but it made sense. This planet, it wasn't a planet. It was a ship. The whole thing is encased in a psionic shield, distorting it so that it looks like a planet from the outside, and once your inside, it looks like there's a sun that's not really there. It was all just mind tricks and illusions.
However, I did know that at least one thing was real. The common ponies that must live on this planet, down in the town they had passed over on their way to the castle, in places like that. They were real. They must have been brain washed into thinking every thing here was real too, by that ethereal masquerading as their Princess Celestia or whatever. It must have happened back in 1993 when the first invasion came. The Thin Men, the spies of the aliens, must have seen the mlp cartoon, and mistook the unicorn's magic for a psionic gift, and convinced the ethereals to experiment with a creature that looked similar to the ponies, horses. Then, after genetically engineering them into something similar to what the Thin Men had described, they pushed the envelope even further, completely altering their form , and changing them into the sectoid variation we've fought before. I've heard from rumors that the aliens did have a sectoid similar to the more current species, but it wasn't anywhere near the psionic capabilities the current iteration possesses, save for the commanders.
Even the types of ponies made sense in a way. I mean how in the world would those pegasi be able to fly with those useless wings? I guess I couldn't really judge my assumptions based upon those guards though, since they turned out to be outsiders. Speaking of which, how did those buggers fly? I've gotta pay those chariots a visit at some point ... Anyways, back to the whole race thing. I'd assume that the pegasi and normal ponies, if there were any, were engineered into normal sectoids, and the more psionically gifted unicorns were made into the commander variation.
However, another thought that continued to nag at me was why the ethereals would go through the trouble of creating an entirely new species, brainwashing them, and then making them into sectoids, as opposed to just lockin' the things up and making them in a lab. I'm sure there had to be a reason for it though, as the ethereals were very logical minded beings. Even if there was an answer that made sense, I doubt it would warrant an undertaking on this scale. I sighed, hoping that the answers would come eventually, and stop stringing me along.
As we came to the set of doors we had entered the castle from, Mathias, pushed the doors aside, taking a left and proceeding towards the landing pad. I guess that inspection was going to come sooner than I had anticipated. We walked down the path in silence, walking up the steps, and we all stood there, looking at each other. Mathias broke the silence, walking over to a chariot, and stepping onto it. Nobody was prepared for what happened next, although with all the revealing acts happening today, we probably should've seen it coming.
The chariot threw Mathias off, as he skidded towards the ledge of the landing pad, falling, but managing to catch the side with both hands. he grunted as he struggled to pull himself up, as Elise rushed over to help him up. Chrissie and I stood there, flabbergasted as the chariot dissolved taking it's true shape, a flatter, larger version of the conventional cyberdisc. It didn't stay flat for very long, as the metal shifted and locked together, reforming into the classic cyberdisc we'd all come to know and hate. From where i stood, I could see two tendrils of energy retracting back inside of it, explaining how it had managed to carry the outsiders.
The other chariot followed the firsts' example, the wind sweeping away its former shape. Suddenly, both discs opened up abruptly, as it bared it's weapons of war. Elise hoisted Mathias up, the cyberdisc closest to her beginning to whirl around vertically. I knew exactly what it meant. And it wasn't good. As the cyberdisc released the grenade, skidding to a stop near Elise, I sprinted over, snatching up the grenade, and chucking it back towards the cyberdisc, as it exploded in mid-air.
The contraption was damaged, but it wasn't done. I pulled out my plasma rifle, aiming it at the disc, as I realized no glow was coming from my gun. Fuck, I forgot to reload. I cursed myself as I quickly swapped to my nearly empty plasma pistol, taking careful aim at the discs inner workings, before firing off my last two blasts, critically damaging the silver saucer, as it fell awkwardly to the floor, detonating in a yellow shock wave a few moments later. I began to pull put Midori's plasma rifle when I was interrupted.
The other disc remained, ready to avenge it's partner's destruction. The disc pointed its dual energy cannons in my direction and fired a swarm of laser blasts. One struck two feet to my left, searing the ground. Another fired off into the distance. Another still scorched the ground beneath my feet. And I swear I could reach out and touch a hundred of them.
I rolled to my left, just barely missing an energy blast, noticing that Chrissie was firing at the disc, taking t out of commission with haste. But unlike the first disc, instead of simply falling, it jerked abruptly in my direction, slamming me in the gut as it detonated with a yellow shock wave, sending me skidding over to the edge of the platform like a ragdoll. The disc's shattered fragments fell over the edge, falling to the ground far below. I managed to stop myself just as I could feel my heel go over the edge, grasping the ground with both my hands and planting my feet in a way as to slow myself down.
Jesus. Anything else wanna go all transformers on us and try to kill us? No? Alright then. Let's get on with our day without the Decepticons trying to murder us. Sheesh.
"And to think we were flying those things all the way here. They could've decided to spazz out and dump us overboard. But honestly, at least falling to our deaths would've made more logical sense than this convoluted place." , I said. "And as for you ... " , I spoke, looking down at the remnants of the shattered cyberdisc. " You mess with the short Hawaiian , you get bitch slapped.", smacking the disc with the back of my gauntlet, angry at all the smoke and mirrors lately.
Everyone remained silent, Mathias and Elise heading over to the steps.
"C'mon , we gotta find another way down.", Chrissie spoke encouragingly, but I could hear it in the tone of her voice. This was place was getting to her. It didn't help that she had been under and ethereal's control just a few minutes before either. But for the situation at hand, I'd have to say everyone was coping better than I'd expected them to in this dystopian Wonderland.
I followed Chrissie, bringing up the rear of our group. As we wandered back inside, we managed to quickly find a stairwell protected by a single outsider. Mathias approached it with a vengeful stance, the outsider raising his LPR to fire, but he couldn't get a shot off before Mathias snatched the gun out of it's hands, kicking it to the floor, and crushing it head with his boot, causing the alien to dissolve.
Forget what I was about him simmering down. If anything, he was even angrier than before. We all stood there, having witnessed the unnecessarily brutal display. he could've just as easily shot it, yet he chose to end it's AI life with maximum prejudice.
"Well?", he spoke in a pressing tone, urging us down the stairwell. We quickly trooped down the stairs, and as I passed him, I could see the change. His once puppy dog like eyes now burned with a hatred that I had never seen him experience before. I moved on, fearing that he might lash out at one of us.
As we approached the bottom of the stairwell after descending what must have been nearly 50 stories of spiral staircase, we came to a room filled with outsiders. There must have been at least a dozen patrolling the gate room. As I had feared, Mathias continued walking, out into view of the aliens, drawing his alloy cannon in one hand, and Bridgette's sniper in the other, fastening them firmly into his shoulders.
And that's when shit got real. The outsiders turned to face Mathias, stopping in their tracks and raising their LPR's, taking aim. Mathias walked nonchalantly through, blasting outsiders as they came into his line of fire. Elise stepped out of cover beside me, shooting one of the aliens with her heavy plasma gun, dissolving it. Mathias continued towards the end of the room, outsiders being blown into dust by his hatred, and within just a few short seconds, the final outsider was dissipating into nothingness as Mathias slung the guns onto his back, and burst through the door at the end of the room, pulling a lever to open the gate as he walked through the door.
I couldn't help but stand there in amazement as Chrissie and Elise hurried to catch up with Mathias. I couldn't believe that he was really this angry. He didn't even flinch when a plasma bolt struck him square in the side. I could still see the armour smoking as he exited the room. In a way, I was glad to have this new rage fueled juggernaut Mathias helping us get to the bottom of all this. But I knew he was just as unpredictable as a Muton Berserker. They were both fueled by rage and bloodlust, and both acted out of instinct as opposed to strategy. All the same, I was glad to have an ace in the hole.
As I jogged to catch, up I felt a slight twinge of pain at the back of my head, and as I winced, I realized something that I hadn't noticed before. I stopped dead in my tracks. Wait. Back on the ship, how did the observation deck just up and decide to focus on this one particular point in space? There were plenty of other places we could've been pointed in, yet it brought us here. Why? What was the point? The whole ' We wanted to make the perfect psionic soldier.' deal from the ethereal earlier felt lame and fake. So what was it? What brought us here? Goddamnit I need some answers, and I need them soon!
I resumed my jog, now sprinting to catch up with Mathias and the others. As they came into sight, another thought popped into my head. What the hell happened to Bridgette? I mean, I'd assume she's dead, but after this mindfuck of a day, I wouldn't put it beyond this place, and this series of extremely improbable events. Maybe she was still out there somewhere. In fact, maybe she had survived the crash, I had never really thought about it, nor had I bothered to check. Of course, back then things at least had some semblance of logic, so I didn't really consider it as a viable alternative. Still, at this point, I'm open to the possibility. I'll have to head back to the crash site if possible. Least there we can hold out against the aliens until we figure out what the hell we're gonna do.
As we emerged from the castle, Mathias pushing the drawbridge open with a great heave, we began to run, as we noticed guards all around us, starting to morph into outsiders.
"Guys, we should head back to the ship! See if we can get a plan goin'!" , I shouted as we ran, and Chrissie and Elise nodded as they ran. Mathias remained silent, slowing his pace so as to fall behind Me, following us to the wreck. We ran like hell for a full three minutes before we finally reached the edge of a small town. Opting to stay the hell away from the mighty morphin' ponies, should there be guards in town, we skirted along the edges of it, managing to reach the treeline of the forest. Slipping away into the forest, I couldn't help but look back to see if we were being followed. We were good. But in the distance, standing on a small hill next to a cottage a saw a buttermilk colored pony, with a pink mane, staring back at me with confused cyan eyes. I took a deep breath and forced myself away from the scene. It hurt to see an obviously intelligent creature created and then enslaved for nothing more than to be cannon fodder. I turned around one last time to catch a glimpse of the pony. But it was only for a moment I stood there, considering the pony. And then I ran.
It was getting dark now, the moon hanging high in the sky. Ah, crap. I had forgotten about the other pony, Luna I think it was. Great, we're gonna have to show down with another ethereal at some point. And judging by what happened the last time, I don't think anyone is looking forward to that. Except maybe Mathias. I can just see it now. Him running towards the bastard, the ethereal trying his best to mind control him as he fails miserably to quell his rage. And then Mathias would stand there, holding the ethereal, as he slams him into the ground. breaking his neck, and then smashing his skull in. It was brutal, but I wouldn't put it past Mathias at this point.
We arrived near the wreck, and were a bit unsurprised to find three outsiders guarding it, patrolling around the hulk of twisted metal. Again, Mathias blew them away, drawing his alloy cannon and sprinting to the one nearest him, and blasting it with shards, sending it flying backwards as it disintegrated.The other two outsiders turned to face him, readying their weapons, and letting off a salvo of plasma.
One shot just barely missed Mathias' chest, as he sidestepped with ferocious precision, as he shot an outsider in the leg, it's form beginning to shake before it dissipated. The final, lone outsider, continued to supress Mathias with a volley of plasma, forcing him to duck behind a tree. He tried to return fire, but judging from the way he was looking at his alloy cannon, he was out of ammo.
Chrisse pushed me out of the way, her heavy plasma gun held by her hip as she unloaded on the outsider who soon found himself nothing more than echoes of energy. I looked in Mathias' direction, as he silently thanked Chrissie with a simple nod.
We continued inside the ship, the destroyed bulkhead door still lying where it had been kicked out by Mathias. Another Mathias. It wasn't the same guy anymore. That much I was sure of. Mathias wasn't with us anymore. He died back in the castle with Midori.
I stepped into the bridge which had been set down by the ethereals, and looked around at the smashed and broken circuits and consoles. I'd be surprised if anything in here was useful. Still, it was a good, albeit totally predictable, place to hold out while we came up with a course of action. Chrissie and I brought the smashed door inside, setting it back into place, and doing the best we could to refasten the smashed wreck. It was more for looks than anything else. It made everyone rest a little easier knowing that some random alien couldn't just stroll by and take a crack shot at us.
As we sat down around a broken holo - map table, Mathias finally spoke.
"I'm not leaving this place until we find answers. Not until we get to the bottom of all this. And most importantly, I'm not leaving without making every last alien on this god forsaken rock pay for what they've done." He rose from his seat, looking around from person to person.
"So this is it. You can either come with me, and discover the truth, and die ... or you can stay here, trying to escape, and die anyways. So choose. Right here. Right now.", He spoke intensely. It caught me off guard, and I recoiled from his ultimatum.
"Now who's in?", he continued, speaking seriously. He held out his hand, putting it in the center of the three of us. We all hesitated, looking at each other for a moment, pondering our chances of escape. Elise was the first to put her hand in.
"I'm ... I'm in.", She said with the sound of desperate hope ringing in her tone. Chrissie was the next to put her hand out, remaining silent, as everyone turned their heads to look at me. I wasn't really left with much choice.
"Ah, what the hell, may as well die putting this puzzle together.", I said jokingly, putting my hand in, as we retracted our arms. We set straight to work cooking up a plan, with Mathias leading the discussion. He spoke passionately about every plan we proposed, pointing out the flaws and revising it. I could tell this was all that mattered to him anymore. Getting revenge. And in the end, revenge isn't worth the price it comes with. But no one wanted to question him, after seeing the brutal displays of killing he had taken to.
I still couldn't unsee him on at the top of the staircase, smashing that outsiders head in. It's not that I pitied it, it was just ... It was overkill. Especially for Mathias. But we all had our breaking points, and Mathias had reached the end of his rope, succumbing to the temptations of revenge, wishing nothing more than to make the aliens suffer. It had turned him into a reckless avenger, with no regard whatsoever to his own safety.
It was understandable, though. Midori was like his safety net, keeping him from falling into the dark places of the human mind. That net was gone now, and Mathias was in a free fall.
I guess it's sort've like that saying :
Beware The Man That Has Nothing Left To Lose
