"Secure the breach. Clean. Up. Your. Mess. I will be waiting for you when you are done."
The two brothers nodded and left the warlords sight quickly, in fear that Atriox would suddenly change his mind and unleash his barely contained rage. Even for a cunning warlord, the Jirilhanaes patience was not infinite. As they left, Pavium stole a glance upwards and witnessed the impossible number of sentinel forces speeding towards the lifeless city of the once proud High Charity, using their energy beams to cleanse the area below them of any remaining flood forms. At least now the remaining flood forms were now no longer guided by the dangerous and fearsome intelligence that was once the proto gravemind. Now they should have been no smarter than feral beasts, making them all the more easier to deal with. The Jirlhanae warrior dared to look back to witness Atriox turn from the enormous rotting carcass before jeading back to the Lich he had arrived on. With the sentinels, it would be easy enough to contain the flood and drive them back to the rotten rusting hull that was High Charity. It was a shame that they needed to deal with such a threat in the first place.
Pavium looked to his right. His younger brother, Voridus walked alongside him, also taking in the damage. The pair took in the hundreds of bodies, both banished and combat forms that laid all around the battlefield. Over forty percent of the troops under their command, gone in less than a day. Some known to them by more than name and rank. Despite such a massive setback, the younger brother still somehow managed to keep his confidence as he always did when causing some sort of mistake. Pavium however couldn't help but wonder on how the humans, their primary enemies onboard their ship high above the ark, had coped with the flood. Many times he had encountered several infected humans and flood controled vehicles used against his own forces. They should have caught on almost right away. And if so, they may also have realised the amount of land and number of troops lost to the banished. Fortified positions abandoned to help contain the flood, and even then it was near impossible to defeat the parasite. This was a heavy blow to the brute faction. One that they may still pay for in time.
"Seems as though the sentinels will have no trouble pushing back the flood, brother." Voridus smirked. "Doesn't mean that they should have all the fun though, should it?"
The younger brute checked the large device attached to his left arm. The metal blades inserted into it shifted back and forth twice as Voridus checked its functionality. Even after so much use against the parasite it still managed to work perfectly, without flaw. Voridus quickly found himself eager to do some field testing on whatever live targets were still available.
"Come Pavium! Let's join the fray while we still can!"
Voridus ran ahead, ready to deal with any unlucky victims he could find. Even after everything that had happened, his attitude never wavered.
Pavium on the other hand, kept at walking pace, surveying the area, not as interested as his brother to poke at the rotting corpses of the dead and mutilated. Instead he found himself unsure on what to do or say. He considered himself thankful that Atriox had spared them both instead of killing them on the spot, although it didn't mean that they were out of the woods just yet. They would be lucky to remain members of Atriox's inner circle once this was all done with. The elder brother looked again to his sibling. He could see Voridus cautiously poking the remains of an enormous flood form. Pavium recognised the hulking beast as a vehicle infector. A very dangerous pure flood that could crack open a wraith with little effort and infect the crew inside turning them into a fleshy blob capable of piloting any vehicle. After realising that the disgusting creature was dead and not just playing , Voridus moved away, although not without catching the look on Paviums face. A look Voridus recognised all too well.
It was the face he made whenever Pavium thought that he had screwed up and made a mess of things. Although the younger brother always denied it, he couldn't find himself able to do so this time. Perhaps that had something to do with the entire area being covered in evidence consisting of dead monsters, but even so at least he had fixed the issue, and more importantly, shown that not even the twisted plague could overthrow the banished! Did his brother have yet to realise this? Voridus frowned.
"Just because you don't say anything doesn't mean I can't sense your anger Pavium. Say what you must. Even I can admit I have it coming." He spoke in a manner that showed he had experience being yelled at.
Pavium Felt the need to do just that. To make his rage and anger at Voridus known to all nearby. To yell at his stupidity and lack of concern for following even the simplest of orders. But he didn't. He bit his tounge and held off realising the obvious. No matter how many times they had this conversation, Voridus never seemed to learn. No matter how hard He argued, his brother argued back just as hard. It never solved anything between them. At least they would always eventually calm down and be back working together the next day with a slightly longer lasting grudge. But this time was different. For once, Pavium felt more than mere anger.
"Of course I am angry brother. It's impossible not to be. But this time I just feel more... disappointed."
Perhaps for once in his life, Paviums words had created a small effect towards Voridus. The smaller brutes face softened upon hearing the words and no mocking or irritated reply was heard. He had heard his older brother do all sorts upon addressing his failures. Shouting at him and insulting him. Something that was rare for a brute since usually they prefferred to communicate with their fists, even towards other family members. Although Pavuim had never done such violent acts even once towards his brother, it still hurt to have his failures pointed out constantly. Although this time without the need to raise his voice, Paviums words had unknowingly cut deeper than any telling off could.
"Disappointed?" He repeated slowly as though having difficulty understanding the simple word. "You feel that way even after everything that we have... that I have done to make up for my mistake?"
Pavium didn't reply. He couldn't. His brother, as much as he cared about him lacked the ability to learn from his mistakes. How many times had they done this song and dance only to never progress? Just a never ending cycle of Voridus doing something wrong and Pavium cleaning up whatever mess was left behind.
Pavium soon tried to work his mouth but nothing came out right away. He felt the eyes of his brother looking at him with mild concern. Before either could say or do anything, a rumble could be heard behind them. The two turned and saw something moving underneath a nearby pile of bodies. Rising slowly before falling as though struggling to stand. Both brothers forgetting their little 'talk' readied their weapons and waited for whatever horrific flood form was underneath to attack!
For what felt like minutes the thing repeated its cycle of rising and lowering itself, managing to shield itself with the bodies that laid on top of it. There were so many that it was likely that the thing had piled them on top of itself to keep itself hidden from the sentinel onslaught. It seemed a fraction of the parasites intelligence remained, or rather sensing its end was near, the proto gravemind had perhaps commanded various flood forms to hide and wait in motion like ticking time bombs waiting to be uncovered to cause some irritating resistance tagainst the banished. Either way it was clear that the forunner constructs had missed a few targets.
"Is it coming out, or shall we just force it to?" Voridus growled, eager to stick his blades into the writhing rotting flesh of flood.
However the second he had said it out loud, as though the thing had understood him, the monster exploded out from the pile of bodies revealing itself to be a spawner! A disgusting pure form monstrosity who's only purpose was to create more flood forms! The second it had made itself known to its hunters, its huge iconic tentacles slithered out from its mouth as well as numerous infection forms emerging afterwards.
"I guess that answers that..." The younger brother groaned.
"Put it down, quick!" Pavuim ordered knowing all too well the danger their foe possessed!
Voridus wasted no time and charged, slicing apart and trampling all infection forms that were unfortunate enough to get in his way. The ones that didn't managed to seperate and make their way through the battlefield while the brothers were distracted. When Voridus was close enough he buried his blades deep into the pure forms flesh before brutaly ripping them out along with plenty of green sickly blood and flesh, slowing the beast down enough for Pavium to pummel it with several blasts from his mortar shot. The combined efforts of both brothers was enough to bring it down almost right away.
"Ha! I was expecting more of a challenge!" Voridus boasted. His brother did not seem the same way.
"Focus you fool! There are still the infection forms and perhaps other hiding forms of the parasite to deal with!"
"Then let's not waste any time!" The younger brother was now almost right away back to his original confident self and immediatley darted after the infection forms which had taken up new dead hosts to infect. Any that rose were immediatley cut down while Pavium was able to use his orbital designator to track the ones still roaming about. It didn't take long for other banished forces to home in on the sounds of fighting and assist.
The floods numbers quickly dwindled from twenty to ten, to only a couple and finally to one. Although this one was able to get the furthest from the banished search parties and seemed to be more focused on escaping rather than taking over another corpse like its siblings had foolishly done. Unluckily no matter how far it travelled, Pavium was still able to track it and was closing in.
"I have you now." Pavium muttered, aiming the heavy weapon attached to his arm and fired. The large unstable blast leapt into the air before coming down ready to annilate its prey. And it would have done had not two metalic prongs emerged from the ground in front of the infection form creating a blue vortex inbetween them, swallowing up the infection form just before Paviums shot landed. Seconds later the vortex disapperated and the prongs sank back into the ground.
"What?" Pavium exclaimed, unsure what had happened. "Surely I must be seeing things!"
"That makes two of us then brother." Voridus noted, nearing his brother. "Come, let's get a closer look."
The two cautiosly approached the area, keeping an eye on anything that seemed like it could ambush them at any second. Luckily nothing did. Pavium slowly moved forwards step by step in the general area where he was sure the infection form had dissappeared. When he travelled twelve steps, the two prongs from before re-emerged as did the vortex. Pavuim inspected it for a few seconds before stepping back. The prongs dissappeared for the second time into the ground. After a moment of thinking, the older brother turned to Voridus.
"Voridus, you have a better understanding of the forunners and their machines than most. What are we dealing with here?"
"Come Pavium. I would think that you would know what a portal is by now. We used our own versions before the humans destroyed the portal network, remember?" Voridus smirked, much to his brothers annoyance.
"I know what it is brother. What I want to know is WHY it just opened up for a flood form!"
Needing no more explanation, Voridus stepped forth in front of his brother triggered the portal to open up for him, allowing him to look it over. As he checked the device, the vortex seemed to fluctuate slightly. It took only a few seconds for him to give an answer.
"Looks like it's a self-operating portal that activates when a life form is close enough, including for our elusive parasitic friend. Hmm... It seems this one suffered some damage, likely from our battle up here or perhaps down below where the flood were able to block certain forunner systems with their filth. For one to be here all on its own in an environment such as this is highly unlikely. There must be more scattered around here."
"Which means other flood forms could have escaped to other parts of the ark..." Pavium theorised grimly. "Can you disable them?"
"Not from here. There must be some sort of console to operate them nearby. We can send a team to scout it out."
"Send a team? What about you?"
"What else? I'm going to clean up my mess!"
Pavium quickly caught on to what his brother was about to do.
"Voridus, wait! We don't know where-."
Paviums words came too late as his brother carelessly jumped in through the portal, ready to continue the hunt. The elder brother roar in irritation at his brothers lack of sense. He turned to a nearby team of banished soldiers.
"You! Secure this portal! Make sure nothing else gets through it! Send a few men to inform the others of any other hidden portals and anything that may lead to switching them off! But DO NOT do so until my brother and I have returned!"
Making sure the troops had recieved and understood his orders, Pavium turned and without hesitating jumped into the portal after his brother.
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Meanwhile, halfway across the universe, the sun was stirring on a small yet beautiful town known to its inhabitants as Ponyville. A place known for its simple ways, its friendly residents and perhaps most of all the only member of Royalty who watched over it from her Crystal palace, Twilight Sparkle. The princess of Friendship. As lovely as this sweet little spot of Equestria was, it had been known to be something of a whirlpool for the strange and dangerous, often resulting in Twilight and her companions to deal with such incidents and succeed every time. From a stampede of cows to the spirit of chaos, the outcome was always the same, though the intensity of doing everything to come out on top was not always as straight forward as one would expect. Especially when the cause of the problem was because of Twilight herself or one of her closest friends. Yet through thick and thin they always endured, accepting and fixing their mistakes. Always understanding and always forgiving. Today was no exception.
Outside its borders, a strange blue entity silently appeared and dissappeared in seconds, leaving a small green life form unlike anything from this world. Before long the strange beast headed into the forest behind it unnoticed, ready to search for its next meal. As it did, Equestrias newest princess woke up with a yawn.
Her purple wings gave a slight twitch as she rose up, wiping the sleep from her eyes and exited her bed, although not without neatly preparing it for when she would use it once again when Celestias sun had set. As the horn atop her head surrounded itself in a purple aura, barely lighter than the colour of her fur, the covers of the bed seemed to prepare themselves in a matter of seconds, straightening themselves out. The pillow fluffed itself and sat back down at the top of the bed looking as fresh as ever. Satisfied, the princess gave a smile and headed towards her kitchen, which happened to be a bit of a walking distance from her bedroom. One of the many downsides of living in such a large castle. While not as big as Celestias in Canterlot it was still easy for the unprepared to lose their way. But after living in the crystal structure for so long, it was easy for the princess of friendship to memorise every twist and turn that awaited her, letting her reach the fairly sizable kitchen in minutes.
Having a minor craving for her favourite herbal tea, Twilight grabbed the small wooden box that often contained the delicious brand and once in front of her opened it. Her face fell from its usual cheerfulness to slight disappointment as the box was empty. She even turned it upside down and gave it a shake as though the box was holding out on her. Sadly that was not so. She was out of the tea. Still, no point moping about it. She knew well that there was only one place where she could replenish her supply.
Seemed that she would need to pay Zecora a visit today.