“Chrysalis is right Rarity, we’ve got one hell of a party incoming down here and there’s no cake to be had. Unless you consider being caked in blood to be a party favor, naturally I can’t help but feel bad about shooting at the flesh of the once living. We need to give all the bodies a proper burial after we’re done.” An upset Ember ducked under a wad of poorly aimed acid that might have clipped her, Rarity was upset enough with her already for letting her suit get damaged by ramming bodily through a half melted door. She took aim with her rifle and the rock flew out into the flames of the second barrel to become molten rock that caused the acid spewing conjoined pony monster to die with a squelching noise as its flesh and bones were melted on top of being set on fire. “The acid spewing ones are mostly still lethal to be within twenty feet of, be aware of that if you come down here. The horror scorpion is still getting its bearings and we’re both thankful for that, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll die until the brain does. So shooting it isn’t going to do us too many favors.”
“Hey speak for yourself; I’ll have you know shooting things is a very cathartic pastime!” The feelings that Chrysalis got after that, from those she could term loosely as acquaintances so far, was that of multiple eyes rolling and what an odd feeling that was.
“I might as well tell you what I have in mind, to give you something to do aside from running around and avoiding that nasty thing. We need to cut those tendrils so that they aren’t anchoring the brain anymore. If you can you take care of the ones down there, it would certainly help a lot.” Rarity turned to Coco and Saffron and the world seemed right side up to her, mostly because they were still in a zero gravity environment and it was going to be a while before they could get out of it. “Coco, Saffron, have either of you been hurt?”
“My barrel hurts from being squeezed Rarity, but I’m okay thanks to you and Saffron.” Though it might have been a bit painful, Coco only received a light bruising from the brain tentacle. That or she was tougher than she thought she was, she was still scared and quivering in her suit even if she was brave enough to even be here for this battle. Saffron put a lot of effort into weakening the tentacle and it could have squeezed her harder.
“I haven’t been outright injured yet. Your injury looks pretty bad… considering your blood is smeared on the outside of your suit, I’m guessing it was compromised?” All Saffron needed to see was Rarity’s nod and then she turned to the tendrils. “Well that’s just dandy, you actually need medical help and here you are being more worried about us. I still have all my knives, a few grenades and I’ve been pacing myself pretty well throughout this mess; I’m only exhausted and faintly bruised. I swear this is worse than anything I’ve ever come across in my time as a costumed hero; I wouldn’t exactly say I’m super, but I’m good to keep going.”
“Give me a minute to sit and breathe, I think I’ve seen my life flash before my eyes a little too much in the last thirty minutes to really be of much help darling.” That she even leapt towards the brain when her friends were in trouble said a lot about Rarity’s character to both Chrysalis and Saffron who haven’t known her for long. They would certainly remember Rarity in a good light, considering her bravery and persistence to put others ahead of her own welfare to a really stupid degree. “I’m just glad you’re alright Coco, you’re an irreplaceable friend and I won’t have you being eaten alive by that horrid brain. Saffron could I borrow a knife?”
“I could use a knife too and maybe a long nap after we’re done here. I don’t relish cutting up the tendrils, but if you think it’ll help end things quickly.” As weary as Coco was after seeing so many horrible things, she was here to help and she was going to swallow the bile that rose up in her throat at the thought of cutting into the sinewy strands connecting to the brain. Leaving that thing alive wasn’t safe for any planet or ship to come across; they’d be saving a lot of lives.
As long as they still had Chrysalis and Ember, Coco was quite comfortable in believing that they could walk away from this without any permanent injury. The large Screamer was giving Coco some room for doubt as to them remaining in good health; at least she could say Lightning made it out alright.
“Okay, here you go. Don’t lose them, clean off any gore that gets on them quickly, keep them sheathed unless you need to use them and then you should probably hold the knife in a tight reverse grip like so.” A short session how to hold a knife ensued and it too Saffron thirty seconds to explain the reason for this particular style of wielding a knife. “Sorry for the crash course, but we really don’t have the time to go into it.”
“Yes, because it appears Ember and Crystal are in a bit of a spot down there.” It was an understatement and Rarity knew it, that thing was definitely something to run from.
Below them Ember and Chrysalis were on the move outside the zero field with the scorpion hounding them, alongside a bunch of floppy or limp Screamers making haphazard attempts to be somewhat successful at pinning the both of them down. The two weren’t shooting at the monstrosity and were mostly trying to avoid it by running, what they did do was shoot a smaller Screamer every now and then.
Rarity’s group watched as Ember fired once at something while running and they saw that she got one of the tendrils, the tendril in question floated away from the point it had been anchored to now ending with burnt stump. Turning away from the action below or from Rarity’s perspective above, she moved towards the closest tendril. Taking her implied prompting, both Coco and Saffron set out for tendrils of their own to take care of.
Rarity and the others didn’t have much trouble severing the tendrils; only they didn’t stay severed as they moved back into position and healed, even after Rarity shot one several times. There wasn’t much danger up there, because the brain couldn’t reach them and the Corpse Scorpion was distracted by Ember and Chrysalis. They each looked at the one Ember had shot and it hadn’t healed because it couldn’t thanks to the burning damage Ember’s unusual ammo dealt. In fact Ember was doing better than the rest of them at severing the tendrils and making sure they didn’t grow back. Every permanently dealt with tendril of flesh caused the brain to let off a pained moaning sound, almost like a hungry stomach that echoed throughout the enclosed stadium.
“Okay, this is getting us nowhere. I have an idea though!” It seemed as if Coco wasn’t as hopeless sounding as she was before, both Rarity and Saffron turned to her to see what she was doing. Coco swiped a knife through one tendril. With a swift flick of her hoof, she grabbed the cut away portion of the tendril and a burst of electrical energy fried the tendril preventing it from growing back.
“Coco, what in the world was that?” Rarity and Saffron made their way over to Coco with curious looks.
“Well… I’m the only one wearing an Impulse Saddle with auxiliary battery modification at the moment; I might have made a few modifications to my EVA suit to allow me to use my hooves as defibrillators. I thought it’d be useful to integrate the battery pack into the suit a little bit better. It doesn’t bother the magnetic clamps at all; I made sure of that with Greta and Opal before I made the alterations.” As meek and shy a pony as Coco was, she had put a lot of effort into manufacturing her Battery Impulse Saddle and finding ways to make it useful. “I thought it would be useful for emergency medical reasons and close up defensive measures. I didn’t think it could be used to do other things, maybe I could even power something this way.”
“I thought that would attract the brains miasma.” The statement required an explanation and Saffron wanted one.
“No the miasma can only get at open sources of energy that it can reach; my suit is a closed circuit and I’m only going to use the feature in small bursts to make sure of it.” At this point Coco could easily think she had proved herself a lot more useful than she previously was. They were having problems with cutting the tendrils up here and having the ability to prevent them from growing back was useful.
“Well that’s rather brilliant of you Coco dear. Saffron I want you to assist Coco in dealing with these other Tendrils and once we’re done then we can begin phase two of my plan.” After that things became far easier, Rarity was behind them as a lookout and making sure the brain wasn’t doing anything unusual. She was on the lookout for an attack, while Coco and Saffron worked together to sever the tendrils permanently. “How are things going down there Ember?”
“I only need to shoot a few more tendrils and I’ve finally dealt some permanent damage to the scorpion thing. Are you okay Chrysalis? You took a nasty hit there.” Rarity looked up at the two moving in the bleachers and Chrysalis looked like she was limping, apparently she had taken a blow in the last few minutes they’ve been dealing with tendrils.
“I’m fine, I’ve had far worse than a sprained leg and a concussion I’m aggravating by moving around like I am.” In comparison to Chrysalis, the scorpion chasing them was worse off as it was missing its left cow shaped claw, the entire thing was unbalanced and having problems moving straight towards the two. “I’m mentally bypassing my concussion. That doesn’t mean I no longer have one, it just means I’m putting off the effects of it until later. I haven’t been shooting much, because personally my aim is shot unless I focus hard enough on something. That’ll be a continuing problem until I heal and I’ve been mostly doing close up spray and pray maneuvers, we’re just about done with the tendrils down here.”
“Get your rocket launcher ready then Chrysalis. Coco and Saffron are almost finished up here and then we can finish this thing off. Ember, we could use those grenades up here for what I have in mind.” If Rarity’s plan was to succeed then they need to hit it with as many grenades at once as possible. Ember put all of the grenades she had on her together in a bundle and tossed them up towards Rarity on the ceiling past the mostly free floating brain. Rarity had to gallop a good thirty feet to catch them, but she manage to get them and smiled. “Right, when you can get a moment, try to get away from the scorpion so that you can be ready to take the shots.”
“Ra… ty… rity…re… right… in… ere… me... respo…. Rarity, are you alright in there, can you hear me? Please respond.” Hearing Opal’s voice was unusual, but not something that was an unwelcome in this occasion. Her voice had been filled with static at first, but now it was clearing up as Coco and Saffron tore another tendril apart.
“Opal, we’re doing fine, but I need you tell me something.” Rarity figured that she had some time to talk, Ember and Chrysalis were busy trying to put some distance between them and Mr. Skull Legs whose form was deteriorating quite badly now due in part to how long it had been on fire for. All the limbs poking out of its back had long burnt away and Rarity was thankful for the helmet she was currently wearing as she didn’t want to know what burnt meat smelled like. “What are the energy readings like? Are you getting anything odd on Shining Jewel’s scanners?”
“Oh thank goodness you’re alright! About the energy readings, they are currently rising out of control and if they aren’t stopped soon the station might go into meltdown… what have you been doing in there? I’m also starting to pick up thousands of life signs along the walls of the station… that’s a bit weird.” This information Opal was spouting was both good and bad to Rarity. Good because it meant they were killing the brain and cutting it off from its food source, bad because doing so is causing the stations power to start building up to critical levels. “Whatever it is your dealing with; take care of it in the next five minutes and then contact me because I need to get into the stations systems to safely stop this burgeoning crisis.”
“I can assure you Opal, we are almost done with killing the cause of the infestation and we’re in the process of weakening it for the final blow.” It occurred to Rarity to ask a pertinent question. “Are those thousands of life signs moving?”
“No they are currently stuck where they are.” The tone of Opal’s voice became rather somber. “There are at least forty thousand life signs… that would mean at least sixty five thousand people have died here.”
“Then you’re going to need to act fast when you jump into Antilur’s systems to save all the ones that we can still help my darling little Opal.” The last of the tendrils were just about shredded and Rarity would have to divert herself back to the task at hoof when that came to pass. “All the captured people that are alive are being held against the walls, the dead ones have sadly had their bodies turned into monstrosities that have been attacking us throughout the station. We’ve had a really bad time with one in particular. Look that’s not important, when we’ve finally killed the thing, those forty thousand survivors are going to fall. I need you to turn off all the gravity throughout the station and run damage control when we kill the problem, do you understand me young lady?”
“I’m hearing you loud and clear mommy, I’m ready when you give the signal or the strange energy readings cease to exist.” From Opal’s perspective the brain gave off some really odd energy readings and that was where all five active EVA suits were. “Either way I’m going to take that as the sign to really get a move on it.”
“The tendrils are gone now what?” Asked Coco who was looking to Rarity with Saffron, before looking to the brain in the middle of the anti gravity field that was starting to rotate listlessly in the gravity field.
“Chrysalis can you hit the brain between a seventy to eight five degree angle from below in any given direction, Ember I want you to make sure Chrysalis has enough time to set up her shot.” Keeping the levitating the bundle of grenades close, Rarity watched as Chrysalis found a position while Ember was stalling the scorpion Screamer that wouldn’t stop moving, the thing wasn’t having much luck stabbing the dragon with one if its legs much less grabbing her with its toothy claw. Once she saw Chrysalis setting up her rocket launcher, she began to move in the direction that Chrysalis was in along the ceiling. “Saffron, Coco, you're with me and we’ll be waiting in the right position after Chrysalis fires her shot.”
“Just a few more seconds, the recoil is the only thing wrong with this weapon and I already have a bad enough headache as it is.” From her position Chrysalis was shouldering the rocket launcher and carefully positioning it at the bottom of the stairs near one of the entrances into the stadium, the angle was a bit hard for her to get considering she was being asked to aim almost straight up. Not to mention the weight of the rocket launcher was beginning to get to her. “You are one big bad belligerent bastard of a brain. So in the immortal words of the Changeling race, what is love? It certainly won’t hurt you no more. I especially enjoy what is Likely Overkill Violently Enacted!”
With a pull of the trigger, Chrysalis was knocked flat onto back and she lost grip on the rocket launcher which went spinning into the air and landed on top of the maniacally laughing queen causing her to grunt slightly. The rocket hit the top of the brain as it was upside down in its rotation and the explosion sent the brain flying straight towards the ceiling due to the lack of gravity.
The screeching brain could be heard throughout the station and the scorpion Screamer faltered in its movements allowing Ember to jump onto it and stab down into what passed for its skull with the blaze bayonet. Ember had already cut off its elephant like feature a while ago, as such she dragged the blazing rifle along the badly burnt monsters back. She seared a path of destruction into it and upon reaching the monsters backside she eventually swept the blaze bayonet up and out of its back, where she then swiped it across the base of the tail when she reached it. The entire monster dropped to the ground lifeless, almost split in half and missing it's tail. Ember sighed and sat down turning off the blaze bayonet, the thing that just wouldn’t die was definitely not getting up from having its entire spine incinerated.
“Wait for it…. wait for it… now!” With that word Rarity, Coco and Saffron all started to throw any grenade in their possession as quickly and as hard as they could. Coco was using one of the magnetic hooves of her suit to launch grenades like a rail gun, while Rarity and Saffron telekinetically kicked multiple grenades into the brain.
The brain having just bounced off the ceiling was hit with a staccato of explosions that changed its momentum; it was in its death throes already and wouldn’t survive what was about to happen. Physics was a cruel mistress, for the brain was knocked out of the zero gravity field and it was falling at an angled towards the stands on the far side from Chrysalis. It was screaming the entire time and trying to save itself with its tentacles, instead the brains tentacles ripped apart upon impact and the brain rolled down the stands and bounced when it hit the rail.
The giant flew back into the gravity field where it shot straight across the stadium. The brain was going back towards Chrysalis, who was already in the middle of scampering off to the side as the brains grey matter splattered everywhere close to her upon impact. What was left was a pile of groaning immobile of mass, three fourths of it spewing strange liquids all over the stairs or simply crushed in that last impact. It now resembled a large wad of chewing gum that was still moving slightly.
“Can I use my last round to make sure it’s dead?” A tentacle reached out for Chrysalis who quickly put more distance between her and the heavily damaged brain that somehow still had the ability to try and fight back. It was scraping at Chrysalis’s mind as much as trying to reach out with its tentacle to grab her. It wasn’t finding any purchase mentally and physically. Chrysalis was easily resisting its attempts to get inside her head and or grab her body, this was with the concussion and sprained leg she had. “Right, it’s definitely not dead yet. Anybody got any spare grenades? I’m going to need a minute to reload.”
The brain tried to drag itself towards Chrysalis who continued to move away at a much faster gait than the brain could drag itself. Ember eventually met up with Chrysalis and started pouring every single round she had into it, her magma rounds started chewing through the mass until she ran out.
“Well I’m completely dry.” Ember hefted Chrysalis and started putting some distance between them and the crawling wad of a ballistics battered brain.
“The strange signal is weakening; whatever is making that signal is currently dying and whatever it is you're doing is working.” Announced a happy Opal, she was happy that Rarity was alright and that she could communicate with her. “I’m ready and on standby to transfer into Antilur Station’s systems.”
“Right then, I believe we’re completely out of grenades having just used the last of them. We’re coming down to help.” Rarity followed by Coco and Saffron kicked off the ceiling heading towards the rail close to the position Chrysalis and Ember were approaching. Notably Chrysalis was firing her material rifle with abandon until she too was out of ammo. The brain was still dragging itself towards them after that. Rarity grabbed the railing and she swiftly pulled herself out of the zero gravity zone. She immediately set about emptying her material pistols into the mass, every small copper triangle and rock she could spare in slowing down the beast by hitting the tentacles. “Well if everyone else is doing it… Ember help Chrysalis load that rocket launcher. I believe me and Saffron can put a few magic missiles into it ourselves to hold it off.”
“Actually I should be the one doing the magic missiles Rarity, you’ve been running your horn ragged and I’m sorry to say this but you don’t look like you were built for stamina when it comes to casting.” A beam of energy erupted from Saffron’s horn and tore into the brains tentacle.
“Yeah, I’m not going near that.” Now was a good time for cowardice in Coco’s opinion as she turned tail and headed towards Chrysalis and Ember.
“I believe we all share that sentiment, considering the fact that it is even moving in the state it’s in!” Uttered a tired Rarity, she followed behind the retreating earth pony and saw that Saffron was on slow retreat and blasting apart whatever she could of the brain.
“Now lock the rocket launcher into position, there… you know what I’m one big bruise after having used this thing three times. You do it Ember.” Chrysalis sighed in relief when Ember took up the bazooka and crouched down with it on her shoulder. “Saffron, get your fine sexy exotic ass clear of that thing!”
Saffron was galloping away and Ember depressed the trigger and was knocked flat by the recoil, the rocket impacted with what was left of a really great ordeal and the last explosion ceased its existence entirely. Seconds later they sat there almost disbelieving every single they had all gone through in silence, nothing moved but the five of them and they were cautiously optimistic.
“I am assuming direct control.” Opal’s voice sounded rather sad and then the gravity throughout the entire station shut down, making the five float into the air slightly. “The gravity might be off, but the survivors are still in motion. We might lose some people due to the impact, some to lack of energy and we’re going to have a lot of hungry mouths to feed soon, a little more than forty three thousand to be exact. Saffron you and your father are going to be needed real soon. I’m trying to flip the gravity to slow them all down slightly, be prepared for that. I’m also going to run as much damage control as best I can from within the stations systems. First off, turning on all the lights and making sure the station doesn’t explode in the next fifty seconds... yeah, that’s a bit of a problem. I’m accessing dossiers on a lot of people who can assist in the recovery of the station. We need to help those people first, now sending that information to Greta.”
“She’s kidding right, tell me she’s kidding? How am I supposed to help feed forty thousand people after all this, I need sleep! On top of all that, the station might explode?!” Saffron turned towards a sighing Rarity who gave her a faint smile. Things would work out; it had to after all that. “I’m certainly willing, but my body can’t take much more after the wringer we were just put through.”
“Then it’s a good thing Coriander and the rest of us are still fresh, come back home and get some rest. You sound like you need it.” The tone Gilda spoke in was rather reassuring, which was odd for her considering she was less than stellar in the good cheer department. “The rest of us can pick up the slack Boss Lady, plus I and Greta get to break out the new vehicles.”
Okay maybe Gilda’s tone wasn’t so odd after all if she was getting a chance to play with some new toys.
-
It had been at least three days and things had been quite touch and go, even after killing the main source of the infestation the station was messed up without any maintenance workers to keep things going. At the start of those three days Gilda unveiled the two newest vehicles that were to take up space in Shining Jewel. They weren’t really all that big and they were made with the express purpose of running hull repairs and or modifications; they were called EGGS, which stood for Engineer Guided Grappling Suits. They were basically giant versions of a CAT drones that could doubled as an escape pod and the oval shaped pods were considered to be aptly named. An EGGS unit only required one pilot and had two arms for manipulating things in various ways with whatever tools they happen to have installed at the time. It was armed with a single forward facing energy cannon as a minor means of defense, the EGGS were not designed for combat and were made specifically for dealing with bigger engineering problems.
Two of them were currently being piloted by Gilda and Greta as they helped people around the station and fixed various issues as quickly as they could. They were working pretty hard and would continue to do so, until the remaining surviving members of the maintenance crew for the station could pick up the slack and get back into good health. Antilur Station wasn’t a very sunny place to be at the moment and lots of family’s were missing members or were depressed about the friends they lost, at least Equus was in the process of sending aid to the station to get it back on its hooves. There wasn’t a bright side to any of the troubles now facing the station and the many various ships coming in to aid Rarity’s crew in their endeavors.
It would take several more days still before the Shining Jewels crew would make any progress into making things better. The survivors were doing poorly mentally, Vera was just one SNUGGLES member and couldn’t possibly account for everyone to prevent suicides and there were a lot of members being flown in on various vessels willing to help those that had been caught in the miasma.
While the miasma might have kept people in stasis, it also gave them horrific nightmares while they were slowly being drained. After a quick recovery, Chrysalis likened the current mood in the air as to what happens to ponies around Changelings that did really bad things in the name of hunger. She then became rather scarce, likely having taken on a disguise to make things go a bit smoother in helping the relief effort.
“No Rarity, you still need time to rest.” Vera was having a bad enough time trying to keep Rarity relaxed and from running herself ragged helping people. They were in one of the stations many city layers and Vera was trying to keep her sanity when everyone around her had a short fuse, there was a lot of stress to be had all around.
“Hey, Vera I found a filly… she could really use your help.” An upset Ember came up to Vera carrying a little filly with short pinkish red hair and slightly dark orange fur. The freckled filly looked listless and there wasn’t much life in her eyes. “We… recently found her parent’s bodies… or at least what they had become anyway. She doesn’t have any other family on the station.”
“We could all use a little help right now; we just have to keep pushing forward.” Standing up from a fainting couch that Rarity had taken a fancy to, she moved over to the filly Ember sat down on the floor and tried to make eye contact with her. “Don’t you have any other family you can go to?”
“Yes… I know where some of my family is, well the planet they are on at least.” The filly sounded quite dead inside as she continued to look to the floor and Rarity’s heart wouldn’t say no to making her an offer, one with a variety of interesting consequences in the future.