//------------------------------// // -57- // Story: Coarse Diamonds // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// “You can’t be serious right now! We’re both in the hangar with it and you can’t get a single thing on it?” Despite the haunting sounds flooding her ears and the darkness surrounding her causing her to panic, Rarity had temporarily overcome it with a bout of anger. “At least do something to get us out of here the noises are driving us crazy.” “What do you mean by us Rarity?” Once again Opal and a few others had forgotten Vera existed. “Vera and me, Opal… look can you just distract whatever this is and get us out of here?” Rarity really wished she could move to cover her ears, but she was currently paralyzed with fear that movement might let the darkness get her. “Please come up with something like yesterday, as my sanity is slipping quite fast darling.” “Hold on, coming up with a solution and… okay. Trapeze I need you to join Coco and Chrysalis, you’re going to open up another hangar and I’ll use a drone to lure it away.” If it was to save their trapped crew, Opal would make a personal sacrifice. If her plan worked then the sacrifice wouldn’t be needed. “While you’re getting that in order, I have to tell everyone something. I think this thing is force feeding negative emotions to Rarity… and… that other mare; I’m going to go with ‘what’s-her-name’. We’re outside the area of effect and we can’t exactly hear what they’re hearing in there. This thing feels really awful and for my first time with dealing with a danger in space, I’m really quite impressed with how far south this situation has gone. Is there a south in space?” Tilting her head to look at the hangar Chrysalis thought of something. “Couldn’t you just shoot the atmospheric barrier down and have it suck Rarity and what’s-her-name out into space Opal?” “Too dangerous, plus the explosive release of atmosphere could hurt Rarity when it pulls her out of the hangar control room, the other… I mean… damn it… Vera would be okay but I’m not risking it.” Of course Opal realized that using what she considered the most problematic crew member had its own disadvantage. “Hey, it’s still an option though. Which leads me to asking, why hasn’t it torn down the atmospheric barrier thing for energy yet? I mean I get that it’s important, but if you removed that wouldn’t the thing be incapable of breathing.” All these new experiences were the things that were missing from Chrysalis’s life, that and a promised game of Twisty with Lightning Dust. “Actually this thing might be something that is beyond breathing or it moves too fast to be forced into a vacuum. It’s a guess, but it could be actively avoiding taking any energy to the atmospheric barrier. It’s at least smart enough to possibly realize that that’s a really excessively bad idea on its part.” Greta was joining the conversation from The Shining Jewel. “That probably has happened to it before and it likely learned something from that experience, you say it’s intelligent right?” “Mostly intelligent, I’d say above some animals and below full on sapient. Good instincts at least, responded to a prey in its general vicinity who took one breath of air really damn fast.” That was an understatement and Chrysalis knew it, the reaction had almost been instantaneous and even Chrysalis didn’t think she could respond to something that could entrap you that fast. Feeling something touching her Chrysalis calmly turned to Trapeze who tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to a different hangar, on Trapeze’s back was Bernard who was determined to not be left behind by his partner. “I think the only reason it hasn’t grabbed either of them is because one has that unique ability to be ignored and Rarity is impossible to find because it can’t see her for some reason. Does it even have a physical body?” “Whatever it is, this is worse than what happened to us when this ship was still The Derringer. I can guarantee you that much.” Gilda’s comment was met with Greta’s voice making a confirming noise that this was scarier than what happened to them previously, any entire space colony with something like this on it was likely wiped out in hours or minutes. - The darkness quickly receded from the room and Rarity’s breathing soon became normal, which was when she saw Chrysalis enter the hangar and pulled off her suit to spread her wings and fly up to her. “Hey boss lady, this lovely queen is here to save the day!” Chrysalis carefully flew behind Rarity and slowly lifted her to carry her to the floor from hangar control room. Once she was done she pulled her suit back on after retracting her wings back into herself, she still had her helmet on and that was why the darkness hadn’t come back yet. At least she had hoped that the helmet was the reason why the darkness hadn’t flooded this hangar again at the sound of her wings beating against the air. Sound and movement didn’t seem to attract the infestation, but what did was the pinpoint puller and just simply breathing air within the presence of such a thing. It didn’t react much to her magic usage so there was at least that. “This is my first real danger in space that is not space itself and I’ve never felt so excited to be dealing with something so dangerous!” “Excuse me if I don’t share your enthusiasm, Opal a status report on the drone if you will.” Rarity quickly made her way for the atmosphere barrier and could see that Vera was already flying through the atmospheric barrier of The Shining Jewel. She decided to do the same and leap from the barrier flying towards the other barrier with the adventurous Chrysalis following. “It got out of there in time; all equipment accounted for including the pinpoint puller the drone used for the distraction is also okay. All crew members accounted for, I may not be able to detect Vera directly but her mass and weight still registers to me. Damn it, cancel the file deletion!” It sounded like Opal had her paws full with trying to keep Vera’s name on record. “Why is the system even asking me if I’m sure I don’t want to delete it? I’m supposed to be the one that is freaking running this thing, oh come on, stop trying to delete Vera’s name!” “Thank goodness for that, we can’t really afford to buy new drones or go scavenging more possibly lethal quarantined ships. Thank you for your help Vera. We now know that breathing anywhere in the station is a bad idea now. We already know that the impulse saddles will attract its attention if the pinpoint pullers can, not like they’ll work with the gravity being on anyway.” Shaking her head Rarity was just happy to be back on The Shining Jewel. “At least it doesn’t pick up communications or the low energy usage our lights put off. Are you okay Vera, I’m quite terribly sorry about this.” “Rarity I’m going to be the one to need therapy after this and I am the therapist!” Well Vera was obviously pointing out that it was a bad sign of things to come if the therapist was the one that went mental first compared to everyone else having their little issues. She had given everyone a massage at least once already. “Who am I supposed to go to?” As far as crew members went, Rarity and Bernard were Vera’s favorites, Rarity because she gave her the attention she craved and Bernard because he was an adorable voracious creature that looked like a rabbit. Bernard was probably the sanest member of the crew, his reaction upon entering the Antilur Station, according to Trapeze, was to instantly tense up and freeze as if in the presence of something far more dangerous than he was. That didn’t stop Bernard from following Trapeze into opening up another nearby hangar to rescue them from Rarity’s luring test. “Yes well, that’s quite understandable. I’ll need you far more than that after I go back in there, besides you were in less danger than I was.” The horrified looks Rarity received had her smiling weakly at the prospect of getting stuck in the darkness with those horrible noises again. She was still quite determined to at least save someone. “I’m not willing to leave a good friend in the lurch that once saved my sister from a budding slave trading ring and I’m also quite sure Mr. Spew would like it if Ember came back alive. So does anyone have any suggestions on how we might defeat this horrid thing? Because it seems to be quite a daunting task if this thing is as ghostly as it appears.” “You actually want to go back in there, are you freaking mad!” The grumpiness of Gilda could not be any grumpier, her boss lady and paycheck with a target painted on it was going to go back into the infested station with that Visitant classification level of sifter drifter. “Yes, quite so, because I’m mad that such a monstrosity thinks it can scare me away from helping those in need!” It was determined not too long after that by most of the crew that Rarity was a suicidal idiot. She was the crews suicidal idiot and they would have to come up with a plan to find and eventually rescue anyone that might be alive in there, if that was even still feasible at this rate. Which was easier said than done, because breathing the air or using too much energy at once could draw the thing right to them. “I’ll go with you this time!” Saffron was itching to do something heroic. Family history and being in the blood was one thing, but this was a crisis that needed some professional detective work and she was a part time super hero aside from being a full time chef. Ponies needed rescuing and she wanted to be a part of that. “That is after we figure out what else attracts its presence if anything.” “I don’t think it’ll help too much, but I and Greta can whip up something to at least distract whatever it is.” Gilda didn’t want to die and she felt it safe to say that she and Greta were definitively spooked. “We’re definitely not going in there though!” “That’s okay because I’m not going to ask you to. I do need Chrysalis and at the very least one other pony aside from Saffron who is brave for volunteering her services in what amounts to walking into the mouth of a living nightmare.” Because goodness knows Rarity wouldn’t want to be stuck alone with Chrysalis in a space station that almost felt like it had been abandoned. “I know we’re not exactly military, but we’re learning a lot and I’m sure we can help the people who are trapped here. All who travel in space eventually have to deal with sifter drifters at least once or twice, usually because said monstrosities have infested their ship. I’m no exception; though I’ve only had one sifter drifter problem to deal with and this is the ship that problem occurred on with Greta and Gilda as the only survivors.” “Well I’m game, arm me with a weapon and let’s go find your lost friend boss lady. You’re going to need someone who has seen combat once or twice in her life.” Lightning stepped forward while spreading her wings, it didn’t look like Coco or Trapeze were willing to volunteer for this and Sassy had more than a week left to go on her recovery. Vera was traumatized, though now very thankful for her ability to go ignored in a room where she was the only other sole occupant when someone else trotted in. Seeing the looks she was receiving Lightning responded eloquently enough. “I may not be a Wonder Bolt anymore, but they have always been trained as commandos aside from being top notch pilots and exceptionally good at flying by wing. I may not exactly be fully up to speed, but I think I’m good enough to throw my life into the thick of it and I need an adventure to get the blood pumping.” - (Lost Colony- Sonic Adventure 2 plays) The airlock opened and the four piled into the airlock, they were each equipped with four HE phosphorus grenades for distraction purposes. Chrysalis was carrying a material rifle and material sniper, one for rapid fire and the other single shot. Lightning was armed with two material pistols and had two knives that were given to her by Saffron, her orange and yellow EVA suit with a hazard symbol on it really stood out like a sore thumb among them. Saffron had several knives strapped to her EVA suit that came in Mare-Do-Well’s colors and one material pistol. Rarity was simply still carrying the pistols she took with her on the previous excursion. They slowly opened the airlock into the station and looked around, before letting Chrysalis go first. They proceeded to follow Chrysalis forward. Things were silent and they weren’t talking, they were listening for anything that might be alive or moving. Nothing, but pure silence and it was maddening. This time they weren’t going to lightly probe into Antilur Station, they were going in deeper and they w would start a search in Antilur City. Chrysalis was alert and her eyes tracked the walls and any shadow that looked unusual, she as actually taking this threat seriously. No one could ambush a Changeling, why the very thought of it happening would ruin not only her reputation, but that of her entire race. She was the walking threat detector and she felt nothing coming from the station, which was odd because she had felt a presence here not too long ago and they had entered the station not too far away from there. It unnerved the usually unflappable Chrysalis that she couldn’t feel it anymore. All Rarity wanted to do was find and possibly help Ember, aside from that anything else would need a better reason. They thought they understood the infestation well enough, but did they really? They slowly meandered down the corridor with Chrysalis in the lead their lights sweeping down the dark intersecting halls they passed, all of them without even a single sign of a struggle anywhere. This was spooking them and leaving them all perturbed. There were several more junctions, but they kept going straight from the airlock and accessed several doors along the way without a single reaction from Chrysalis that she felt anything off and that was far more unnerving then knowing the infestation had been close by previously. Nothing happened and even stranger Chrysalis still didn’t feel a thing; they were close to a rather large city access door and nothing. “Okay this is creepy, is anyone else getting a chilling vibe from all this?” Lightning’s voice cut through the silence making both Rarity and Saffron jumpy. Chrysalis just rolled her eyes, but kept her senses on high alert as there was no way an active mind like she felt before could just disappear into nothingness... right? “I’ll admit I’m a little scared too, let’s pop this door and see what’s going on in the city here.” A quiet and wary Rarity marched right up to the door and put a hoof on the panel to access the computer. She saw a symbol come up on the screen, the door wasn’t on lockdown and lockdown would be the first thing someone would do if the station were known to have a lethal or dangerous infestation. There was no lockdown, why hadn’t one been activated? “Opal, how far can your signal reach?” “Once you enter the city I won’t be able to help and we’ll lose contact, the signal to your suits is already weakening as it is. I suggest you wedge that door open; it’ll give me a little bit more range to communicate with. If and when you come back into contact range, I’ll be ready and waiting. Just be aware I cannot find you on my scanners so don’t ask me to try, at least forms of communication aren’t messed up.” There were plenty of things to fear in the universe and Opal had learned to fear this infestation, she couldn’t hurt it and drones were entirely useless against it and even attracted its attention. “I think the rest of the crew are spending their time in the Caravel Boutique because things are certainly too quiet for their liking and an enclosed comforting space works for them at the moment. Please come back safely. In the meantime I’ll see what Greta and Gilda can come with to boost the range of the communication arrays. Hope you have good luck in there.” “I hope so too, because here we go.” Rarity hit the green holographic image floating above the panel; the door creaked and groaned loudly as it slides open. Looking through the doorway the four saw a vast city shrouded in darkness, there was not a single light on in the colony. No emergency lights, no life at all moving around and they began to look at the closest buildings. There were several wrecks and some of the distant buildings had been partially destroyed, but there were no bodies, no sign of anyone dying, no eviscerated organs, not even a drop of blood and only minor damage to the nearby surroundings and tons of empty crashed vehicles littering the roads across the gap before the group. There was just nothing there except empty buildings as Rarity took her first step into the city filled with trepidation about this, at least she can say it wasn’t a sewer. It looked like they just walked into a purposely abandoned colony. “Do you have any idea where to start looking first?” Saffron turned to Chrysalis addressing her as the sole being that could find any life in this place, the city was massive and there were several layers to it. They were coming in at the middle layer of the city that had several layers going both up and down. The area they came in from had a road go past them and eventually turning to the right to enter the city on the left and on the right the road eventually turned left quite a distance away, the road was gently curved and was a distinct ring around the entire city that led to bridges that went into the city proper. From where they stood at the door, they crossed the road in front of them and collectively shined their lights downwards at the railing next to the road. They looked to the lower levels and then upwards toward the upper levels, it was really quiet. They could barely make out several large spiraling pillars that led between each layer of the massive city before them. They were at the city limits and could barely see much of the city at this distance because their lights were dimmed to avoid problems of attracting attention. “Not really and something feels really off here, there’s something tingling in my skull and I can almost feel life here. Maybe it’s someone, but it’s kind of distorted.” Chrysalis moved to the left where the road gentle curved to the right towards the nearby right turn into the city. They’d have to cross that bridge once they reached it and then Chrysalis might be able to get a better idea of what she was feeling. “Let’s go into the city, I might be able to get a better read on some form of life. The infestation couldn’t have just simply disappeared.” “You’re our best chance at finding anyone in this place Chrysalis; let’s just hope we don’t find the wrong sort after what happened here. Anyone who hasn’t been taken by the infestation is someone to be wary of.” At Rarity’s words they turned and followed Chrysalis. Rarity stopped when they reached the bridge leading into the city and looked at the lower level where she saw something shifting out the view of her light, she might be imagining things but she could have sworn she saw a shadowy figure moving among the buildings down below. “I think I saw something moving down there.” A loud groaning sound filtered throughout the city as if something it were shifting about, it didn’t sound like a living creature and it certainly wasn’t a normal sound you’d hear on a space station. The creaking noises and any noise in particular were quite hard to ignore when it was the only sound being produced and echoed around the entire city. “I didn’t sense anything… let’s just keep moving.” Though Chrysalis didn’t want to think or even admit to it that the infestation might have had a way around her ability to sense incoming danger. “This place is all kinds of wrong; we’re the only light here and I also don’t feel safe with my wings stuck in compression pouches…” Lighting couldn’t fly to safety if danger struck and it was disturbing her just as much as this empty station was. They had crossed the bridge into the city proper and there was still no movement. Chrysalis paused and her ears twitched inside her helmet and she turned her head to left and up slightly looking at a building, she felt a sign of life for a second there and it felt disturbed or was disturbed. The feeling was gone as soon as it came and that was quite startling, then a second stronger feeling was coming from straight ahead and up above. Above as far as the city layer above them and it was of a solid emotion, but it was too far away to get a grasp on what that emotion might have been. At least it was more constant than the last bit of emotion she felt. “I think I’ve got someone at least, might be this Ember person we’re looking for.” Chrysalis said conversationally, she turned to the left slowly trotting down the street at an even pace and then right down another street towards one of the pillars to the upper level. The rest of the group didn’t say anything and continued to follow Chrysalis’s lead. They froze when they heard the sound of metal dropping to the ground and clanging behind them. Saffron was the first to turn around and there was nothing there at all. Her light traced the road and then eventually trained on the wrench that hadn’t been there prior and she looked up at the bottom of the layer above them to see nothing, she moved closer to the others and Lightning mimicked her actions looking down an alleyway. “Where did that wrench come from?” Slowly Rarity’s helmet lights swiveled around looking at the nearby buildings tops and the air around them while the others searched the streets. She really wanted to turn up the intensity on the helmets lights right about now, but she was afraid of attracting the infestation to them. “I know this is a cliché thing to say at a time like this, but I don’t think we’re alone here.” Following her statement Lightning slowly drew a knife out form her side into her left hoof, she held it with a tight grip and would continue with a three legged gait as they continued onwards towards the pillar. “The life I’m sensing is active and feels determined, so let’s keep moving toward that.” A thought crossed Chrysalis’s mind that she couldn’t detect things that weren’t alive, but she doubted that zombies or ghosts existed. Unless they did in space and that was a thought that was quite horrifying. You couldn’t get love or good hair from someone that’s not alive. She had to admit that a wrench falling from the air out of nowhere was a highly suspicious thing that had her fur covering her carapace standing on end. Someone could have thrown it or it could have just fallen at an angle for a distance, even then that meant something was around and she couldn’t feel it. “Just in case, be prepared to run or move quickly. I would suggest following me if that comes to pass and not getting separated from one another, I’ve watched enough horror movies and this isn’t a horror movie.” “Right, let’s not tarry to long in one place. I think I’m personally hitting my quota for horror and I will never touch another sparkling vampire novel ever again.” Of course Rarity would get a chuckle from both Lightning and Saffron; Chrysalis on the other hoof was on high alert as they got closer to the pillar. “Watch our backs Lightning and say something if you think something is wrong.” They came to the spiraling ramp and they were a bit spooked out of their minds, the fact that nothing was happening was scarier. Lightning was about to comment on how this place had seen better days, only she froze when her light landed on something. “Guys… Chrysalis, please tell me you can feel that.” The group all turned to Lightning to see what her light was shining upon, what they saw was very unusual. It looked like a pony only something was very wrong with it, it had shiny white teeth and sunken eyes that were equally white and beady where a pony’s eyes would be and those eyes didn’t even fit into the sockets they were in. The head of the creature tilted to the side as it continued to smile constantly at them in a creepy manner, the toothy smile didn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. It slowly started to move towards them at a slow trot, the grey fur looked decrepit and the there were bits of gangly looking flesh covered in pustules and other bits of rotted skin, muscles and sinew. It was gaunt in the fact that it didn’t look like it had much fat on it, it looked sickly; it’s just started moving towards them with that ever present smile. “Whatever that is, it’s not a pony and I can’t feel anything coming from it. So at a guess, it’s dangerous.” Yet it was moving so slowly Chrysalis couldn’t take it as a serious threat given how slowly it was moving towards them and then all of the sudden it slowly started to fade away into thin air before it could reach them. Whatever it had been, it certainly wasn’t a pony. “Okay… that… that’s not a good sign, that wasn’t camouflaging. It’s just not there anymore, are we all hallucinating right now or did we all just see that?” “Yes we just saw that, my eyes can see through illusions and that wasn’t an illusion.” A shiver passed through the group and Rarity was beginning to feel like making a run for The Shining Jewel and escaping while she still could. As they turned and went up the ramp to follow Chrysalis’s feeling towards the one solid sign of life that might know what was going on and what the hell they had just seen. “On a scale of one to ten, I’m at a twenty for how freaked out I am right now.” Maybe they were all just imagining things or at least Lightning could hope they had been imagining things as they made their way up the ramp leading to the next layer up the city. They were all quite on edge as they left the ramp on the next floor. More buildings and dilapidated vehicles, they moved forward following what Chrysalis said she could detect. As Lightning started too peer into an alleyway, what looked like the previous pony figure only without any skin at all that had the same freaky smile lunged from the shadows forcing her to the ground. Lightning screamed as the skinless pony gnashed it’s teeth at her trying to bite her while flailing it’s front hooves in her general direction, she held it off with her right hoof and quickly stabbed the creature in the neck with the knife still held in her left. It just seemed to fade out of existing by calmly exploding into a cloud of dust and said dust evaporated as if it had never existed. The scary thing about all this was that it didn’t make a single sound throughout its entire assault upon her. “Okay that was most certainly not a ghost...” Whimpered Saffron who felt a sudden fear rise up in her, Lightning’s knife had connected with something and then it was just gone as if it had never existed or attacked her. There wasn’t even a scream of pain or even acknowledgment that it had been stabbed. They didn’t even have time to react to the creature having attack Lightning who was still on her back breathing heavily at the sudden scare. “It couldn’t have been…” “What the buck just happened?” Even Lightning recognized that the knife had dug into something and then that something no longer seemed to have existed. “That thing was able to physically knock me over!” “The fact that I couldn’t even sense whatever that was means that we’re definitely in trouble.” Chrysalis pulled her material rifle off her back and checked the ammunition before looking around warily; she shouldn’t be getting scared because she was a brave and proud Changeling Queen. Why was it that she suddenly felt like a little larva that just hatched out of an egg without the protective silk covering her frail form? “We need to quickly find whoever it is I’m sensing, because I don’t think I like it here. There’s not enough latex, whips or sexy mares.”