The next morning...
Wolf barely slept that night. He woke up in the middle of the night, and just stared at the ceiling till the first morning light crept through the viewport in his quarters. He laid in his bed, Twilight resting on his shoulder, her mane a scattered mess, and a smile on her face. Her breath beat against his neck, sending light chills down his spine. He was wondering if he was doing the right thing...
- - - - -
What the hell are you doing Wolf? Do you really want to risk this again?
- - - - -
He couldn't think about this in here. He needed to get outside. He gently lifted her head off his shoulder, making sure not to wake her up. He replaced his shoulder with a pillow. As he made certain that she was still asleep, he opened the door and walked out. He didn't know that behind him, Twilight had cracked her eye open and was watching him...
As he made sure his voice wouldn't be heard, he ordered to Sam:
"Override lockdown."
"Overriding. All hatches openings."
"Disarm all weapon systems."
"Affirmative. Disarming all weapon systems."
Outside the ship, the wide assortment of cannons disarmed and the loaded shells were removed from their chambers.
He moved quickly through the bowels of the ship, making little to no noise at all. After a few minutes, he finally reached his destination. He opened the hatch and crawled out on the top of the ship. The sun's light immediately met his eyes, causing him to squint. The sun was rising, and it was going to be a beautiful morning. He only wished he had come up under better circumstances. He crossed his arms as he neared the edge of the ship. He gazed off into the sunrise, thinking about what had happened the last times he got this close to someone...
- - - - -
A single gunshot ripped through the air.
"COUGAR!!"
- - - - -
He closed his eyes tightly as he remembered that day that scarred him for life. Another flash came into his battered head...
- - - - -
He dove behind the wall, narrowly avoiding the Spinar fire on it. He landed right next to Panther. They had gotten together on the start of their deployment on this God forsaken rock...
"What's our situation Panther?"
"Cut off, surrounded, and almost out of ammo!"
"SSDD eh?"
"Amen to that..."
He looked back to where he came from.
"GIve me some cover fire, I'm going go grab some ammo!"
"You want it, you got it. Wait for my signal."
Panther looked back at her squad.
"Covering fire on my order!"
She waited for a lull in the Spinar rate of fire.
"Covering fire!"
The entire squad leaned over the wall and opened fire on the scattered Spinar positions. As the rounds were still flying, Panther looked back at him.
"Go go go!"
Wolf listened and ran back. An explosion sent him flying into another wall. He looked back at Panther...and she wasn't there. A pillar of smoke rose from where she once where as scattered body parts and blood rained from the sky.
- - - - -
He sighed as yet another, the most recent flash pierced through his head...
- - - - -
Wolf ran down the corridors of the hallway, side by side with Tiger, her brother, Python, and a pilot they rescued, callsign Migraine. They were conscripted together. They were heading towards the hangar bay. They needed to get off planet, now. Best way to do that was the Invasion Transport in the hangar bay, seeing as how it was the only ship equipped with a Jump Drive. The door was in sight. He moved through it, and the massive transport came in sight. These things were built to carry up to 200 foot soldiers, or up to 8 Cerberus MBT's with an 80 foot soldier escort.
"There she is, let's go Migraine."
"We're not going anywhere unless someone disengages those docking clamps!"
Wolf looked to the direction were Migraine was pointing.
"Alright, we'll take the docking clamp, you just get the ship ready to fly."
"I'm gonna need a copilot, and you're the closest thing I've got."
"Me?"
"Yes you, you're the only one who's trained on some other aircraft."
"Yeah, but not a freaking IT!"
"Doesn't matter, you're the best we've got."
Tiger stepped in.
"I guess we get the clamp then."
Migraine nodded.
"Console's over there. Get down there and disengage those damn things!"
"You got it! Come on bro."
Python followed his sister to the console on the other side of the large hangar. Python's skills with machinery were almost legendary. If anyone could work that console, it was him.
While they were working their way to the console, Wolf and Migraine went up to the bridge of the transport. They primed the engines and prepared to lift off.
"You guys finished down there?"
"Patience is a virtue..."
Migraine looked out the window to see a truly terrifying sight. A full grown Leviathan, climbing up the hangar.
"Not right now it isn't..."
"I'm working as fast as I can Migraine..."
"Work faster..."
A low shriek came from the distance. Tiger walked to the other side of the platform the console was on, her rifle ready to fire.
"Drones..." She whispered.
"Could you hold them off while I finish here sis?"
A burst of gunfire was Python's answer. Followed by another, and another, and yet another. By the time Tiger had finished, about two dozen dead Drones littered the floor.
"Yes!" Python shouted.
A loud clang was heard as the docking clamp disengaged from the ship.
"Good, I'm going down there."
Wolf exited the bridge, despite Migraine's protests.
On the console platform, Python threw his arms out and smiled in an obvious boastful display of his skills.
Tiger just rolled her eyes. Her eyes went wide the next time she looked at her brother. A large stinger was portruding out of his shirt, covered in blood. Python whimpered as his lfe slowly left him. The Wasp ripped Python's corpse from it's stinger, roaring at it's victory. Tiger yelled as she emptied her mag into the Wasp's stomach. It fell over dead after over a dozen rounds into it's stomach. She would have emptied more rounds into it's stomach, but her gun simply clicked empty. She threw it away as tears streamed down here eyes. A voice cracked over her radio as a large number of spiked tentacles emerged behind her.
Wolf stood at the end of the ramp as he watched in horror as the tentacles approached Tiger.
"Tiger what are you doing?"
Tiger didn't move.
"Tiger get out of there."
No response.
"Tiger get out of there now!"
Still no response.
"Tiger! Tiger!"
He inhaled before he yelled into the radio as loud as he could.
"JANE!!!GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!!"
Tiger merely looked up at him as the ship lifted off the ground. Wolf never knew if she felt the Leviathans spiked tentacle crush her under it's weight.
Wolf screamed as he fired his rifle in the direction of the Leviathan.
- - - - -
Wolf looked down and winced as the last, most painful flash ended.
"Wolf?"
He looked back to discover that Twilight had come up as well, and was staring at him.
"Are you okay Wolf?"
He sighed...
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Come back to bed..."
She looked up and stared into his blue eyes.
"...please?"
He couldn't resist that look in her eyes. He willingly went back down with her.
Back in Wolf's quarters...
They laid back down in bed together. Twilight immediately rested her head on Wolf's chest. He just continued to stare at the ceiling. Twilight looked up at him, and gently told him...
"Promise me you'll never leave me."
This was it. The final moment. When he would decide if was going to stay or not. The decision was somewhat hard, but he would tell the one thing he had on his mind when she told him that. Something he heard not two weeks ago...
He leaned over, and genlty whispered into her ear.
"Cross my heart and hope to fly..."
Twilight recognized what he was going to say immediately. She inhaled sharply at this.
"...Stick a cupcake in my eye..."
A simpe 'I promise' would have sufficed for her...But a Pinkie Promise? This was it. He was bound for life. She knew, and he knew it very well. Twilight kissed him as she broke into tears.
2 hours later...Canterlot Royal Guard Barracks...
Shining Armor sat in his office as he was writing his monthly report. He hated doing it, and he also wondered why he had to do it. No one read them anyway. A knock on the door.
"Mail call Captain."
"Come in."
A white stallion entered his office carrying the last letter of the day.
"It's a little late sir. The mail mare that was supposed to deliver it got lost on the way...It's a mess in there. We've got letters adressed to Fillydelphia, Manehatten...Honestly sir, you're lucky you got this."
Shining Armor laughed.
"Thank you. Just set it down on my desk, I'll get to reading it at some point."
"Yes sir."
The stallion left the room. Shining Armor looked around to make sure that no one was watching, and immediately jumped on the letter. He tore it open and started to read...
End Chapter 35.