//------------------------------// // Ch. 4 The Mediator part 1 // Story: Black Hawk Over Equestrian Skies // by TheronSniper //------------------------------// Ch. 4 The Mediator From the high balcony of the Crystal Castle of Friendship stood the two princesses as they watched in wait, given the best view of what was going on in their recovering kingdom. What was to be a crowning achievement for Celestia's proud former student became a mess of a celebration from what she suspected was a magical anomaly. In hindsight, it may not have been the best idea to have transferred so much magic into her fellow alicorn and use it in a titanic battle against another godly entity who had nearly all of Equestria’s magic at their disposal. There had never been such a high concentration of ethereal energies in the atmosphere since the fateful day she had to fight her own sister, even then it had been only the two of them engaged in struggle. Twilight had been imbued with not one, or two, but three mana wells from the eldest alicorns in Equestria on top of her own magnificent power. It left the alabaster diarch to wonder what else might have come through besides the flying bats that destroyed one another and the two beings that appeared to be going at one another. From the golden railing of the viewing area to the left two very dangerous individuals had caught their eyes as spell after spell had been discharged in an act of violence against the other. Identifiable only by the magic they exuded and expended at such a high rate that the princesses could sense even from afar as they were. Luna seemed to tense up upon feeling one of them in particular, it reminded her of something she'd rather forget and subdue to long lost memory. The Royal Guards seemed to share her reaction as the armored pegasi surrounding Ponyville gazed at the yellow and purple dots that zipped and darted every which way like dragonflies fighting over  a mate. Something sinister wafted from that battleground as well as the mysterious birds that first drew everypony’s attention. The unknown fighting entities which tore up the sky attracted even more fear and worry from the ponies. Pure magic in its destructive form attempted to spear through one another, the lone wolf earning its kill soon dived into the Everfree after a successful hunt with such speed and impact there still lingered a dust trail even after it long since crashed. Every guard was as eager as a fox to jump the rabbit, however their duty bound code meant they had to wait for the command to be let loose and ensure the populace was safe or not. They may have never really seen any action outside the Changeling invasion, but their hearts and spirits were in the right places. Discord had vanished with Twilight only minutes ago with her friends baffled as the fastest flyer among them vanished soon after. Celestia still did not intervene as she studied the ever evolving situation heeding no advisement of her Royal Guard. She knew the eldritch chaos god was truly reformed after suffering from Tirek's betrayal, from him she had nothing to worry about and trusted in his faith in friendship. Though Twilight’s friends were at a loss of what to do about it as they had always gone together to face danger with open hooves. It took both her sister and herself to calm them down before they could arrive at the viewing deck to oversee the growing trouble. Standing proud and defiant against the new threat Luna wore a solemn face as her wings fluffed in anxiousness, "Sister... I believe we have a bit of a quandary on our doorstep do we not?" The larger sibling seemed to show no emotion as her brilliant and benevolent orbs gazed upon the two sites where one tore the forest asunder. Thousands of years had her trained to remain calm in such circumstances and treat it like a game of chess rather than in the moment. A strange catalyst had ruptured the barrier between realms as it seemed and new things poured forth, yet to act on the unknown so quickly would only welcome disaster for that she was sure. One had to know what they were dealing with first before sending in a task force, as at least Discord and Twilight would be powerful enough to make a hasty retreat. If she sent her guards to the other location that battle of magic as they witnessed would likely decimate any contingent they’d send and she would never sacrifice her ponies to gain knowledge of the threat. "Yes... yes that we do my dear sister, but to leap into Tartarus's arms would not be to the benefit of our little ponies. Perhaps we should wait until the timing is right, after all Discord and Twilight are to meet our first guests of tonight. For the others..." she sighed, "I fear we will see them in a later time." Celestia sighed sending her sight upon the blurs of darkness and fire. Princess Luna stood unaffected as if she knew what her sister meant, "Verily my sister, we shall await the proper time to act then even if I disagree with the strategy. Shall I inform the Royal Guard to maintain the perimeter instead?" Celestia nodded solemnly, "Please do sister, this is a fight that cannot be stopped before it reaches maturity. Thus we shall take a back seat till the time is right even if it pains me to do so. Have the other elements of harmony secured before Twilight returns, something is happening for a reason and I cannot let her friends interrupt the progress." Luna noticed the stern body tone taken, “Even if one of them has taken it upon them to go forth alone.” As if sensing what was being alluded to Luna obliged, "Very well, I shall speak to the Captain of the Guard. My Night Guard will step up patrols for those other two, they I cannot let slide. For one... I feel akin too… a very dark kinship." Luna’s hoof steps signaled her departure as well as the later click of the balconey doors, leaving Celestia to herself as she continued to monitor the situation. The Crash Site It took a few minutes of teleportation to reach the smoke columns of whatever came to Equestria, having paid a visit to the other downed objects it took along with it. While little came of interest to Discord, Twilight had become completely enthralled over the metallic vessels rent and torn from falling from the heavens above. From what she remembered seeing, the strange unidentified flying objects had been categorized as two separate factions as it became clear when they attacked each other. When the sole member of group 2 as Twilight organized them into had been chased and attacked, group 1 seemed to be slow to act when the tables were turned. As evident of their corpses and thankfully possessing nothing biological, leading to perhaps being some form of golem or puppet with a singular mission. Everypony who watched saw group 2 receive some kind of aggression whether it was magic based or not she was not certain. Yet it responded by swiftly overcoming them and seemed to simply give up upon attaining victory which perplexed her still. They appeared to have simply darted downwards at terminal velocity and then level out nearing the Everfree leaving the trail they followed in their death fall. When they finally reached the specimens that had attacked group 2 it was only then that she realized the speed and durability the machines had, the crescent shapes had come to rest dug deeply into the rich soil of the chaotic forest with only half the carcasses showing. Even if they were shattered by group 2’s retaliation their forms nonetheless withstood the impact like lawn darts. Nothing survived the thirty feet wide landing zones where trees shattered like glass, shrubs smoldered as kindling, foliage obliterated beyond recognition, and the smell of something rank filled the air. “Wow… these things… machines I think? They are really too alien for even me to make sense of?” Twilight gasped as she closed in on the husks. Glowing blue goo seeped from the innards of the Hybrids which smelled sulphurous with a mix of mint for a combination that gagged the young princess’s senses. To her dismay Discord seemed to enjoy the fragrance and even summon a glass bottle to contain what he could gather for who knew what purpose the chaos god had in store. He noticed how close she was getting to touching the xeno substance even he was unsure of, “Careful there little Twily, I may not be a scientist here…” he summoned a lab coat and glasses while vanishing the container of the goo’s essence, “But I dare say if you touch that awful muck you may be in for a hefty surprise!” to which his head ballooned like an over inflated ball until it ruptured into a spray of muffins that bounced about on the forest floor. The pastries danced on the ground before running away in fear as Discord’s head rose from his neck much to Sparkle’s shock. Looking back at the strange goo, she began to wonder if the metallic objects were somehow alive. Were they a race of sentient machines, how did they even function let alone come into being? “How would you know tha… right, chaos powers.” She shook her head after realizing the redundant question which needn’t be asked, “It appears as if these unidentified flying objects were attacking that large hawk-like one, but it got the better of them. I saw it fire something… maybe a beam of magic…” Using a spell she conjured a small wooden stand with five test tubes in the slots, she then had a special pair of tongs appear before her. Using the tool to clasp the glass containers she quickly took samples of the gelatinous material and fragments of the metal scattered about. Being extra careful to not even let her magic touch the specimens, she soon had what would be a very tricky but enjoyable research mission to study the wreckage. If Discord’s caution was anything to go by then she’d have to ask Celestia to relocate the crash site. Probably even the very ground it fell on to prevent contamination to the environment or the local water aquifer that sat underneath the Everfree. There was no telling what other worldly contaminants might poison their world, to which she realized she was part of the source. “Do you know something I don’t Discord?” she asked as the vials and their stand were encased in a clear glass box she sealed with her magic and poofed it away back at her lab. Discord waved his taloned claw where the lab coat vanished in lue of a safari getup, “I’m afraid I can’t say anything more about the intruders, I was far too busy enjoying the chaos coming from the portal they came through among other things. And MY I must say it was quite the disaster in the making, a shame I can’t tune in and watch it unfurl.” He said as he pulled out a pair of binoculars to spy the still long path of destruction they had to trek. “So my initial assumptions were correct, they were fighting each other…” she gazed sadly at the constructs, the thought of warring kingdoms displeased her natural affinity to friendship and problem solving. What would drive the two parties to seek one another’s end in such a violent way? Could they not have made peace at some point before committing such a heinous act of fighting? Taking a mental note to seek a way of replicating the tears and the variables of accessing the world the UFO’s came from, she gandered at the very ones with a mournful frown. Very large and sleek in design, very foreign in design and in appearance far beyond what she'd ever seen in her whole life and the books of every library she’d been to. They bore very minute similarities to the human world’s cars and airplanes, machines far advanced beyond anything Equestria had and triple where Sunset Shimmer lived in. Upon a more acute inspection her eyes beheld each and every fragment as their shimmering surface undulated like it were alive and well. Something metal shouldn’t be fluid unless molten or possessing a very low melting point, then again armor shouldn’t be as such for it would be weak and worthless. Her horn glowed as a scanning spell was activated, one which would determine the type of material the shards and husks were composed of if they bore any semblance to what Equis had. Twilight closed her eyes and let the spell take effect, the wave of magic snaked out of the tip of her horn and shot towards the samples. In moments she’d have some kind of answer or at the very least a negative to whatever composed them. Discord stood behind her as he barely cared for the details, he had seen where they came from once the tears occurred. His unique magic that was chaos could put an eye and ear anywhere even with his own still attached, there was such disorder going on in that particular universe. Though just as unacquainted with the ravaged machines as Twilight was, Discord had an innate sense for trouble and the lively things which jittered like crazy ants shouted danger more than himself among the ponies. He noticed the young alicorn close distance with the alien fragments, he also noticed how they seemed to be even more active the closer proximity the two parties closed with. Two and two put together and it became all too clear of what to do, chaos was brewing right before the former Lord and his friend need not know the consequence of risk. "Wooooww!! These specimens are definitely not of anything Equestrian knowledge that's for sure! Primary, secondary, and tertiary scanning spells detect no magic on them unlike anything we’ve creat..." she said as she was teleported away from the shaking metal parts vibrating maddeningly faster with each passing second like a rattlesnakes tail. Even as she was pulled away she was able to see the innards of the debris that showed some kind of skeleton made of the same material as the armor plates. Everything moved like water disturbed by a breezy day though what made the young alicorn ever more excited despite Discord’s sudden surprise behavior were the crystal clear sheets within that had lines and dots trapped within their glassy shapes. The only thing she could remember that was in any way similar was the rune inscribed instruments at the Crystal Empire her brother and sister-in-law preceded over. Though they were far antiquated with what she just witnessed, something very advanced and intelligent had entered their world and they were at war with one another. The question was were they friendly to ponies and every other race of Equestria? Once she found herself a few steps away from where she had been she jolted from her thoughts as her head shot towards the draconequis in irritation. Her sincerity bore no roots as the serpent noodle simply smirked and dusted himself off, snapping his taloned eagle claw as his magic went to work. The debris of the destroyed machines were removed with the blink of an eye leaving only their impact craters as any sign of their existence. While that tripped Sparkles alarm bell, before she could say a single word the two were teleported away to the actual landing spot of the black hawk or what was left of it. “Now really my dear, I would have thought you’d have been a bit more careful around the unknown? I’m rather shocked you would risk catching the ‘Blues’ or something worse like I had… if you remember that as fondly as I do?” He grinned at her lack of containment procedures she should have used. It dawned on her like a rampaging Ursa Minor on how unprepared she was to begin with let alone disregarded any potential foreign illness and disease. Vaccines and booster shots in Equestria were necessary annually to stave off microscopic invaders from the likes of the pandemics of yor. The Horn Blight virus, Wing Rot bacteria, Balding’s Syndrome, Hoof Fleas, and every parasite known to the Health Ministry had become the headliners for medical checkups before and after trips outside the kingdom. Her muzzle scrunched up as she mentally berated herself for being so enthralled by the discovery of aliens that she nearly could have caught something incurable. Who knew what they brought with them and what it could do to ponies, her wings jittered before a thought arose as to what happened to the machines. “What did you do with the specimens Discord?” she cocked an eyebrow inquisitively at the deity curious into whether she might still have a chance to study the foreign golemns. He had been too busy taking pictures of the destroyed ship for his own scrap book with an old timey camera with exploding powder for the flash to answer immediately. Of course the camera was what detonated leaving behind a few flapping photos falling like a pendulum tilting side to side ever gracefully towards the ground. His tail scooped them up before the scrap book of numerous shapes collaged into a jagged hard cover, the pages flapped loudly open coming to rest upon two blank sheets. A snap of a claw and the images were merged into the keepsake which soon left the world rocketing away like a firework. “Pocket dimension ohhhh miss smarty pants! Where else did you think I’d put them? I may be the former Lord of Chaos, but even I’m not that careless… besides we still have something else that needs tending to. As you can see.” He snickered before teleporting the two of them further down the crash site to the broken Harbinger, the black hawk all had seen dewing its opposition. Twilight’s wings opened up in eagerness at the thought of meeting an actual alien and what it might look like, stowing away her curiosity for the ravaged vessel, “Please at least promise me you’ll let me inspect the foreign objects at a later date and time?!” she asked looking up to him as her legs and magic wanted to already go after the male or female or perhaps genderless beast of technology and wonder. With a shake of his head he agreed, “What wouldn’t I do for my best friends Twilight?!” Knowing he was at least for then keeping to his word, “Good, now… where was I? Oh yes, to find the operator of this vehicle or airship… aircraft?” she pondered as her hooves took their first steps around the unknown this time instead of right at it. The lover of chaos and its once mighty champion waited a moment before taking an invisible staircase up into the air and above the Harbinger. Though unbeknownst to the young alicorn his antics had reason while giving him a good bird’s eye view of the embedded jagged ball mauled by the torn trees it so hastily balled through. Where it finally came to rest impressed Twilight beyond her reasoning if her quick assessment of what it likely weighed, its speed, the distance it traveled, and the probability of survival both ways intrigued her like a fresh untouched library filled with unread material. Going by the thickness of the tree trunks she was positively floored with discerning and analyzing the metal substance of the new ship. Perhaps if she could replicate it then it would benefit Equestria greatly from new armor for the guards to safer trains and ships, as any that might run ashore or derail wouldn’t be harmed after renovations. She was pretty sure even an Ursa Major wouldn’t even dent town bunkers in case of an attack, possibly even dragon fire couldn’t melt the chassis of the shattered craft. “Wow… unlike group 1 this construct here seems less advanced. There are no crystalline pieces in any of the shorn areas, just circuitry and pipes… so they are advanced yet not as far as the others. It also lacks the fluid nature of the other specimens, though I wonder if that is something to do with degradation of their components? So many factors to consider! I do hope the subject is indeed alive, the probability is not looking good based on my calculations. Even if this thing made it this far relatively in one piece, minus the apparatus.” Sparkle sighed as she rounded where the right wing would be, instead sparked tendrils of wires and leaking fluids which were less interesting than the goo of the other ships. Twilight could sense a magical barrier surrounding the alien craft, Discord was thankfully on top of it all as his signature extended even to the fragments behind them. His containment magic allowed her to continue slowly walking further towards the prow or at least she thought it was. Too much of it had gouged out the earth and vegetation to make deeper investigations of its design, but she pushed onwards with the prize keeping her content with the loss of initial findings. “By Celestia!?! This thing has to be piloted by maybe five individuals with the girth of its core alone!” she marveled at the steps it was taking to arrive where she hoped to reach. Discord however had since beaten her to the destination still standing on his imaginary catwalk, which meowed with each step surprisingly, “Well my dear I think it’ll be safe to assume we are looking for a single thing or unless they are small compact creatures which can fit in this little thing of a throne seat?” He pointed to a disturbed trail of greenery leading from what had to be the compartment for a driver of some kind hinted at the remains of a glass canopy. Twilight had of course teleported over to get a better view only to see the damage of the seat from which she suspected something had operated the airship from. Drawing near she focused not on the metal monster itself but where the grass and shrubs had been broken and trounced upon. A live specimen indeed would yield far greater knowledge than the wrecks themselves and it took over her mind with vigorous joy. The scientist in her noticed no blood trail nor anything off about the foot imprints in the Everfree soil, meaning they had survived and could be interviewed without problems from injury or so she hoped. “Looks like we got ourselves an extraterrestrial organism to find!” she hopped in place thinking about the volumes of books she’d write about meeting and studying the alien alone not to mention the technology and her reverse engineering for Equestria. Somewhere not far in the forest…   “That thing sounded like a teenage girl!?! HOW!!” Goumann shouted to no one as his mind barely held onto slivers of sanity, with heavy footsteps shaking his words. ‘Pilot, I highly recommend you cease your erratic route and rest.’ Alice droned as the man had taken to another mad sprint anywhere away from the talking animal. He had pushed his legs past the point of burning and aching till he managed to clear the choking flora of the environment. The gnarled bushes, clawing branches, dense tree trunks, and hanging coils of thick ivy had given way to umbrella-like ash trees though most were dead and rotting amidst the bubbling mire of wetlands. The transition would have clicked even in his foolishness had he not run into other denizens of the untamed wilderness earlier before Prior to escaping the deeper parts of the Everfree, Goumann had leapt over a downed conifer where he landed both feet onto what appeared to be floating rock in a lazy creek. It had quickly become alive, he did not miss a second in getting further away from whatever that Trokilican look alike was. He barely gave a passing glance behind him as the very rock squirmed as it splashed in the water becoming larger with each thrash at what had disturbed it. A head of something large enough to probably bisect him snapped at the air with jaws long and tapered at the end. A single clamp reverberated even in his helmet as he continued on, the unknown thing hissed at the fleeing human with thankfully no pursuit to be had as seconds went on. It would not be the last of further occurrences as no soon had he left that unknown monster did he collide into another after five minutes of tiresome running. He mistakenly looked back one last time for that camouflaged beast in the creek which in his momentum had earned a hard object to his pelvis, some kind of amalgamation of timber and kindling that scattered about. He quickly fell forward tumbling to a stop against a tall tree root which bruised his back with the misery of shrapnel in a losing dogfight to the Hybrids. A memory he suppressed when multiple growls of menacing nature emanated before him tearing his attention from his busted back. He groaned both out of the agony of his bruised spine and muscle in addition to the enflamed lungs, his vision swam from hyperventilation that lead to a high of sorts. His chest rose and fell  almost as quick as an anti air platform fired at a live target, on his side trying to rise back up with extreme difficulty the animal noise continued to grow louder. The audio of his headset vibrated to the point it became a loud buzz that continued to force more adrenaline into his system out of alarm. The hum of which herald one of the most dangerous intelligent predators of his home out of semblance, in a questionable reality that he was in he couldn’t help but look up to confirm what he heard. ‘Pilot you must rise. I am administering forty milliliters of Modafinil now.’ The computer announced following a sharp sting to the thigh from the thick plate armor protecting it. Goumann’s vision drank in the startling visage of dream worthy entities as if the other things weren’t enough. He winced at the sudden injection but it was not enough to distract him from the new threat before him as ridiculous as it was to acknowledge. In all his life the Trokilican mutant was the most he’d ever think could frighten him aside dying in aerial combat, what put it to shame were the child’s play project equivalent to the terrible Verok of the flatlands. Canids that had evolved on Thanalos II naturally became the most fearful indigenous life forms ever to exist since the colony was established. How these stick built versions might fair in comparison were what filled the pilot’s mind with unquestionable terror. Further paralyzing him was the pile of debris he had rammed which had begun to reassemble itself into another wood constructed Verok. He wondered if they could be killed or were they a nightmare thought which he’d suffer being torn and mauled. Their maws were indeed intended for rending as splintered jagged wood chips that appeared eager to sink their pointed ends in his body. Glowing green eyes made them all the more demonic and akin to some of the shock troops of the Arch Enemy he’d seen in data slates passed around in the mess hall. The pack of seven stood ready to jump him waiting for the final piece of branch to find its place in the angriest of the Verok. ‘Pilot! Move!’ Alice blared into his ears shaking him of his stupor before the illogical constructs who then began to draw upon him ever more tense and ready to leap. Ignoring his back pain the man simply flung himself over the tree root which had caught his tumble, then used it to sprint away with vigor. He could feel the ease of which he could go forth into the clearing mire of the forest, where the limbs of his body barely complained as they powered him on. Throat tasting of blood ceased to send any sensation of fire as his diaphragm went into overdrive. A howl from behind him signaled the start of the next chase by the indigenous life, it was an all too familiar call he knew as a child when he too had run into the terrible furred engines of violence. ‘Pilot, your suit is not rated for combat. I recommend we evade capture by the unknown fauna. Follow the coordinates I mapped out on your HUD and you should be able to escape them.’ Alice said as the moving diagram moved to the bottom right of his visor flashed green to signal his attention. “I’m… not going… to be… anything’s… FOOD!!” he yelled before forcing his run even further, breathing through pursed lips erratically in an attempt to maximize his air intake. Seconds became minutes as the thudding limbs of the Verok fakes behind him grew louder and louder like a chorus of drums. The ground had started to soften under each step into the latest zone he meandered into, wherever Alice figured would save him he had no choice in the matter. ‘Pilot. We are heading into a water laden area. Be advised do not step on any rocks.’ a loud squelch echoed in the audio of the helmet followed the warning, but instead of doing so it gave Goumann an idea. Knowing the plotted course might save him, there was some insurance he could muster up to at least knock a few of the beasts down. He had no incendiary rounds for his weapon nor anything that could kill something that was not biological in nature. Thinking of all else the rock thing he encountered before had to be in this swampy area no doubt from what little he knew of Thanalos’s own ecosystem. Changing directions to the next waypoint he soon found what he was looking for, more floating slabs of slate welcomed his spirits. Throwing all risk to the wind he went for the shore edge where a series of the submerged dangers lurked in a good enough pattern he could use them to get to the other shore past the water’s edge. Planting both feet on the soggy marsh where the water lapped he tensed his thighs and took the bound forward, the drug worked his mind from fear into a more computing line of thought. The moment he landed he went to the next one where once his foot made contact he was off to the next concealed peril, repeating left and right till he rolled over the shoulder into the tall reeds of safety. No sooner had he take back to flight did he hear yelps, hisses, barks, squeals, and rock slamming against rock. Wood fractured and snapped giving Goumann the best hope he could ever wish for in his fight for survival, his luck bank flooded with good luck as his pursuers were done for by the obscured menace of the cloudy waters. Alice spoke up again once he was out of danger, ‘I recommend you not take such risky tactics Pilot.’ Goumann slipped once and then twice after three more giant strides which finally after throwing off his balance just enough he stumbled from exhaustion slowly working through the drug dosage. The human caught the awkward gait on a large exposed boulder with his helmet taking the brunt of the impact that lead to a long crack on the glass visor. An insignificant leak from the breach signaled alarms all over the HUD while the shaken airman snapped out of his frightened madness breathing heavily completely out of it. His arms dragged along the rock as he gave into rest, he fought hard against it though there was no stopping the demands of the physiology that made him. Numerous warnings blared into the man’s ears and for a moment that was all the world to him as if he were in the vacuum of space, of course for him it likely was. The standard suit he was issued was a recycled one and like the Harbinger he flew it was dated and lacked the latest upgrades to prolong certain things. For him he was informed by a blinking timer on the upper portion of the HUD, small text underneath it had labeled the decreasing value of time as the remainder of air still pressurized in the suit leaked out. Once it was gone and vented into the new world he’d have to take off his helmet to breath the other world’s atmosphere knowing the radiation still existed all around him. The layer of metal and polymer that protected him would no longer serve a purpose and he would die a very horrible death. All from being scared by a powder blue animal with spectrum mane that could vocalize his language and had attacked him. ‘Pilot I recommend rest for ten minutes. We do not have a repair kit on hand to seal the breach, however, we can salvage a torch from the Harbinger. The plasma core should still be functional and I can aid in accessing what power it still has to remedy a weld.’ Alice explained though the words fell on tone deaf ears. Goumann released the huge rock and let himself fall to the soggy algae and decaying bacteria floor covered ground where bull frogs hopped along. His back to the granite and legs spread outwards pointed towards where he came back from, reality came back home that never felt more cold and lonely for him. The air leaking unsettled him and welcomed the past he had tried to keep away, he stared into nothingness as his breathing leveled out and the anger of his muscles waltzing in. There was no way other than to ask Alice how far he had run but from how he was beginning to feel it would take more than the Regen serum to help him back to his feet. It was not for the lack of wanting to try, he just kept feeling as if he was already dead and this was his limbo where soon he’d see the next life. A notion accompanied by the other five times he nearly bit the dust in his bird and the one before it. Those five occasions created by himself just like the present because he couldn’t keep his wits together for the better when the table was flipped and the chips were tossed to oblivion. It nearly ended him when he flew through the debris cloud of the Hybrids and now he would die of radiation poisoning soon. Ever since landing he thought he was dead and dreaming, the talking creatures who threatened him only bolstered that idea even though he had Alice talking to him all the while. It would be his luck that such an end was deserving of a pitiful pilot as he. “I never wanted… to be a flyer.” He mumbled feeling sweat flow down his face even as the air cooling system of his suit tried to aid his deteriorating condition. Alice repeated the new objective that might save him, but was it worth it after flying through a portal to another world? “Heh… it was no portal… you dingus.” he reflexively chuckled with no mirth behind it. The forest had opened up into a bog of some kind, the dense thickness of the vile forest off several hundred feet away to which he felt somehow impressed over. Trees were far less in number where he was and he could see that the sun could be witnessed easily though he didn’t bother to look up. His grim coated boots with oozing mud and mud shone in the sun’s light as flies started to swarm over the human’s protective armor. Black winged things just like the ones from home, darted at each other to claim a space and feed. They too saw their ends soon enough as the nearby amphibians hopped closer to the inactive man and fed off the free feast. Their pink tongues darting out to stick onto an unsuspecting fly and drawn in to the waiting stomach. ‘Pilot please respond?’ Goumann took a deep breath, “That was no light… I crashed into something, I had to have.” The timer drew closer to the halfway marker as he sat immobile with the initial soup of drugs injected into him after the crash. He was always the strongest of everyone else in terms of his liver they said, he’d always drunk others under the table. The medics at the med bay joked with him that they always kept three doses of everything should he ever end up on a gurney. ‘You are running out of time Pilot. If you cannot respond I will administer another regenerative dosage instead of Modafinil’ Alice soon turned its complacent behavior into a more aggressive one. He laughed at the threat over the very painful procedure, “I’m dead Alice… so what? I hurt a little and then nothing. I’m a dead man anyways… separated from my flight… lost on an alien world we don’t even know if there are humans here… and my girl… she’s gone.” ‘Pilot, you are not of sound mind. Please rise and head to the crash site. I have marked it on your map.’ Alice still tried once more for the lesser of the painful choices. The crack on his visor grew five more inches with a loud ting, “Alice stop.” ‘I cannot Goumann, I am your charge and you are my mission to keep alive. Proceed to the…’ “Then… my friend we are stuck in space with no ship floating in the astral void.” He quipped shooing away a large frog that tried to bite at his gloved fingers like they were worms. He was never one for the air corps, even being in the Security Force had only been out of necessity when the Arch Enemy had come to target his world. He had been drafted and torn out of his peaceful loving life as an ordinary citizen thrust into the section thirty nine looking for troublemakers trying to make use of the impending doom. So many other colony worlds lost and they had been next, thus the trucking of illegal contraband for those with money became a huge problem for many reasons. He was good at the stick and that was why he was inducted, flying was almost his forte yet his marksmanship skill not so much. No one disobeyed the Imperial Office and when the aliens came as the planet’s initial defenders were swiped aside effortlessly, many like him were pushed in to fill the massive void in ranks. By then he knew his time was borrowed, if the best of their navy couldn’t do a thing, what was a hunter of narco runners going to do to aliens? ‘That does not compute, Pilot I will inject you with another dosage in ten seconds if you do not comply.’ Alice warned for a final time. He giggled like a giddy child, “Do it, won’t change the fact that we’re screwed even if we come across anyone competent to help us. Records showed off planet incidents had years ahead of them before they were eventually returned home if it still existed. Do you want me to live through that Alice? To go back to a charnel husk that they burned?!” One of his free arms groped for something until they came across a large stone that fit into his hand just right beside him. Quickly, Goumann tossed the object out into the swamp waters surrounding the path he was on, it skipped for a bit before halting after the third slosh of the skip. Alice remained quiet as its psychological programming conflicted itself in how to respond, “The Arch Enemy had already gained a foothold on my home planet Alice, where we were both born. They threw folks like me at them and what do you expect the figures to be of success to failure ratio? Give me a good number you stupid machine!” Still no response from the program, he took solace in it even though he knew it mattered not. He wouldn’t let the limbo reality screw him of his sanity even more, for he was a careful man and not one to fool twice. “That’s what I figured.” He sighed giving into a complete restful stance against the stone behind him as the ground rumbled with a body trembling tremor. The bayou around him seemed to come alive as long meters thick scaly tubes rose from the waters slowly yet agonizingly fast. His eyes swam back and forth as both his flanks were consumed by rising objects followed by a ghastly smell which started to ravage his soul through his sense of smell. The churning swamp created plumes of translucent greenish yellow gas that started to accumulate around him encroaching his position. ‘Pilot, you must move from this location if you are to survive. I am detecting another lifeform of massive proportions behind you.’ Alice warned. Goumann laughed, “Like I care! This is all all a lie and I want to die. I just… want to… go away.” Following the end of one of the pipe-like things came a head of some sort frilled with red hair that ended in a serrated jaw like some unruly mandible hair. Five if he counted correctly rose from the disgusting mix of thick soupy muck, the water surged over the land he sat on just enough to barely reach him before receding back into their normal range. His body could no longer tolerate the amount of combat stimulants before it started to give in to unconsciousness. Yet he was able to see where the things went which hovered far above him. Vivid emerald eyes shone with black irises, they eyed him like a god judging a mortal for their sins and that he knew he was full of packaging. All sets of eyes bore into his soul yet he felt no fear, it was befitting of him to be in such a situation amidst the unknown as he returned their ire. “Come… get some!” he smirked. ‘Pilot you need to run!’ Alice called out just as the eyes drew closer to him. It felt as if his body was raised upwards towards the oculars, yet in reality he was meeting them by their own unique approach. Their shadow could not give any visual to their fang filled mouths eager to devour the new morsel which had stumbled upon them. Yet as he sat oblivious to his coming doom a quick blur of blue flashed before his sight just as he faded into unconsciousness from the overdose of stimulants. “Screw… thi…th…thi… up… yours.” He murmured before darkness overtook him.