//------------------------------// // 8: Purple Smoke // Story: Homeworld: Equestria - The Silent Hunters // by hiigaran //------------------------------// Disoriented from the face-first ground impact, the changeling stumbled to its hooves, only to lose balance and fall over. It could hear screams overhead, streaking through the sky like fireworks. Hundreds of voices, all followed by distinct dull thuds in the distance as they crashed through trees and shrubbery, landing unceremoniously in their own little craters of soil. Seeing blurry doubles, the changeling attempted to look around, sighting several bodies around it. A trio of coughs caught its attention from the closest body, near a small tree that snapped near the base of its trunk. Using whatever strength it had, the changeling crawled towards the source of the sound. As it neared the body, the changeling found it writhing in agony, with its belly up and back arched. A quick inspection revealed its comrade had impaled itself on the tree stump, with a small part of the jagged edge protruding from its lower abdomen. Gasping, Obsidian opened his eyes, finding himself staring up at the confines of his bed, as another dream interrupted his short nap. Devoid of expression, he remained on his back, taking several deep breaths. After several minutes, he pulled out a small musical device and a pair of headphones from under his pillow, which he had found lying about his quarters after returning from his excursion. Passing some free time with the contents of the device, he kept cycling through the songs, scoffing at the owner’s taste in music. After finding a decent track, he readjusted himself. Though he had already overheard several across the decks complaining about the odd water-beds that served as emergency storage tanks, the changeling was rather fond of his. Despite comfortably fitting even a diamond dog, Obsidian’s favourite feature was the rolling shutter he could bring down to completely encapsulate himself in a confined space of soothing darkness. Setting aside the device after a particularly cheesy country song, he heard approaching hoofsteps that came to a halt by the adjacent bed. Curious, he opened the shutter to find the back half of a dark orange pony. Hearing the shutter open, the pony slid himself sideways, coming face to face with Obsidian. “Hey there, fellow—” was all he managed before choking on his words, freezing as he realised who and what was in front of him. He stared at the changeling … … Obsidian stared back … … Without warning, the pony let out a feminine shriek, fell on his back, and scurried backwards, until he was underneath the table and against its base. Obsidian continued to stare at the hyperventilating unicorn, whose chest heaved visibly. Neither made any move for a while, until the unicorn finally silenced his gasping and spoke. “Umm … Hi?” Obsidian blinked, unsure of how to respond. An uneasy silence hung in the room, broken only by the faint pulsing hum of the destroyer. “I umm, don’t suppose y—you have a name?” the unicorn forced a smile. “M—mine’s Crux.” The changeling raised an eyebrow. “Obsidi—” “Please don’t eat me,” he squeaked. Obsidian made to slam his bed shut, when a tone sounded across the ship. “This is the Captain. Attention crew at stations, situation bravo. Hyperspace jump in two-zero minutes.” The ship-wide announcement caused immediate commotion among the crew, evident when Obsidian heard the scurry of hooves, scratching of talons, and thumping of paws from nearby quarters as others rushed to their stations. For Obsidian, this meant taking his post near the forward sensors as part of the security detail. Seeing the pony still frozen in place, Obsidian spoke, “Well? Are you going to head to your station, or are you planning on defecating yourself?” After no response, Obsidian rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. “Move!” he boomed. That seemed enough to get the pony scrambling out from underneath the table, hitting his head and tripping over himself twice in the process. “Unbelievable,” Obsidian muttered to himself as he emerged from his bed. “How we lost the buzzing invasion is beyond me,” he continued rambling. “Friendship is magic, my shiny, fragrant flank.” Unfolding the BPS from a drawer under his bed, Obsidian squeezed into the tight, elastic garment. The black suit felt rather uncomfortable. Making multiple attempts at straightening, rotating and aligning various sections, as well as adjusting the position of his tail within, the changeling managed to improve the feel of the suit to a minor nuisance. Reaching in to the drawer, he removed the helmet part of his suit, securing it against the neck seal. A quick inspection of himself in the bathroom mirror revealed the overall shape of his body changed little, though he appeared slightly odd with a protective horn cover shaped for a unicorn. While the diagnostics software in his helmet ran through basic checks, Obsidian gave his wings a few test flaps. The suit definitely restricted his ability to fly, though after a quick hover, he seemed to cope just fine, even if the ship was just at half gravity. Landing, he flipped up the visor on his helmet after it had completed its functions, and secured his personal armour atop the BPS. The custom-made set Queen Chrysalis herself had made for him came complete with mirror-finished leading and trailing edge wing blades, tipped with reinforced obsidian bevels. Fitting a small half-hour oxygen bottle to a quick-disconnect valve underneath himself, he re-attached his VMUI and proceeded out. After retrieving his LR-48 from the armoury, he headed to the top deck. Barely any room remained, with the torpedo tubes extending through the floor, and a giant cylindrical structure between them, hiding the forward sensor dome inside. Between the dorsal side elevators, a smaller side dome protruded. Unlike the main sensor dome, this dome was exposed, with thick cables attached at many points along the copper surface, snaking towards ever larger bundles that eventually threaded through a pony-sized conduit leading into the main dome. Moving across the smaller deck, Obsidian observed two ponies at ringed seats, both eyeing him suspiciously. Assuming the deck’s features were mirrored on the ventral side, he looked up at a walkway about half-way up the main sensor’s column. “I don’t believe we were properly acquainted earlier,” Obsidian heard a voice behind him, causing him to tense up. The zebra Infiltrator appeared seemingly out of nowhere, though she made no effort to draw attention to it. “You must be Obsidian, if the name I’ve been hearing from others is any indication. I figured the changeling would be the big conversational topic.” “Nice to know they’re keeping me in their thoughts. And you are …?” “Most call me Shadow.” “Okay. I take it you’re security as well? Any idea what’s going on?” “I know as much as you. Situation bravo, be alert at stations.” “Hmm. Figured an officer might know more. Speaking of, what’s an officer doing on security duty?” Shadow shrugged. “Nothing else for us Infiltrators to do. Might as well supplement security.” “Makes sense. Guess we better take our positions then.” Obsidian extended his wings. He froze, looking back at the zebra. “How exactly are you supposed to get up there, anyway?” Securing her pulsar carbine to her side, Shadow galloped towards the side sensor. Leaping into the air, she took hold of the robust electrical connections, and swung herself up with her momentum. As she climbed higher and more inboard, she eventually pushed off, landing on the walkway with ease. Mildly entertained at the display, Obsidian decided to forego flight, and repeated Shadow’s movements. His lighter frame allowed him to ascend in half the time, reaching Shadow by the time she finished re-attaching her carbine. The amused zebra snorted. “Careful now. I might interpret that as a challenge and get distracted from my duties.” “Perhaps it was.” Obsidian felt a small grin on his face, before noticing several protruding rungs hidden around the corner between the torpedo tubes. “Oh, I guess there was an easier way to get up here.” “This is the Captain. This exercise was a drill. Congratulations for performing as expected. The following will not be a drill. Stand down to situation bravo and prepare for immediate hyperspace. Further information to follow.” Hearing the announcement, Obsidian secured his carbine to his side and floated towards Shadow, securing his mag boots as he got close enough. “Of course it was a drill. Should have been obvious enough.” Shadow shrugged, slumping slightly as gravity returned and Amarok entered hyperspace. “Could have been real. First day out in the field when I started serving for Equestria, I thought I was in the middle of a drill. Didn’t take long for me to figure out it was the real thing once I heard screaming and shouting.” “You fought for Equestria?” Obsidian’s tone grew disdainful. “As what, exactly?” “Even if I had the time to explain my former duties, they would all be highly classified,” Shadow explained. A long silence grew between the pair. “You seem to hold a significant amount of hatred towards Equestria. Might I ask why?” “I have more reason than most of my kind to hate ponies, but I’d rather not discuss it with someone I’ve just met.” “Understandable. I won’t press the matter then. If you’re ever interested in taking out some anger, I’ll probably be down in the gym when I’m off-duty. I wouldn’t mind a sparring partner if you’re up for a session or two.” “I’ll keep that in mind.” “Perfect. Gives me a good excuse to give away some spare sparring PPE I never used.” The familiar tone preceding a ship-wide announcement droned, followed by the Eclipse’s voice. “This is the XO. All crew stand down to situation charlie. Infiltrators, report to the library for briefing in one-zero minutes.” “Let’s not keep him waiting.” Shadow leapt into the air and fell with grace, hitting the ground rolling and returning to her hooves. Glancing once at Obsidian, she walked off towards an elevator with a grin of her own. Obsidian hid his shock. That had to be a fifteen metre drop. Knowing his body wouldn’t withstand such a fall, he spread his wings and dived vertically, levelling off just above the walkway. Gliding, he maintained altitude until his speed could no longer permit it, at which point he landed with a gallop and slowed to a leisurely pace beside Shadow. “Have you two finished showing off yet?” a pegasus shouted from a nearby seat. “Get buzzed!” Obsidian yelled back. Something soft hit Obsidian’s flank, and the changeling whipped his head back at the pegasus with a snarling growl. He stopped abruptly when he noticed the object still stuck to his body. “Did you just throw a cupcake?” “Obsidian,” Shadow warned. “Wrong time. Wrong place.” The changeling stood his ground for a moment. Deciding it wasn’t worth the hassle, he pointed at his eyes, then at the pegasus as he backed away, brushing the baked good off himself. “You know I could have effortlessly wiped the floor with him, right?” he remarked, as he and Shadow entered the elevator. “My concern precisely.” With the last of the six Infiltrators filing through the pressure doors to their briefing room, Eclipse promptly dimmed the lights and powered on a three-dimensional projector between the three tables. “Good … evening,” he started, checking the time on his VMUI. “Before we start, let me see if I can match the names to your faces, seeing as I didn’t get the chance earlier. Sparky seems like an atypical name for a pony, so I will assume that would be the diamond dog. Correct, Lieutenant?” Arms folded, the burly, sandy-brown mass of muscle closest to the officer grunted. Satisfied with the answer, Eclipse moved on. “Next would be our Specialists. Glad to see you two again, Shift and Swift.” Nodding at the twins, Eclipse gave the pair a disapproving look, as both relaxed a little too much in their seats. Neither took the hint, so Eclipse shook his head and turned to the changeling. “You are obviously Chief Obsidian, so beside you would be … Deckhoof Glaring Light?” “Yes, sir,” Glare acknowledged. She quickly added, “Glare is fine, though.” The changeling had to perform a double-take to realise someone—or rather, somepony—had sat beside him, instead of the other empty seats. He dismissed the curious thought as Eclipse acknowledged the final member of the infiltration team. “Then that leaves the zebra. I—uhh …” Eclipse paused, furrowing his brow at the complex name scribbled on his notepad. “I’m sorry, I still haven’t figured out how to pronounce your name. Is it still classified?” “It is. Please, just call me Shadow.” “Lieutenant Commander Shadow it is, then. Right, let’s begin. We have an emergency situation. A civilian luxury liner recently transmitted a distress signal,” Eclipse began. The projector displayed the relevant ship, its profile resembling that of a miniature Vaygr shipyard, down to the ‘bathtub with an engine block’ description used by many pilots. A key difference was the transparent cover sealing the hollow dorsal structure, turning the area into an observation deck. “Vessel’s Captain claimed systems suddenly went inop, including life support, forcing crew to initiate evacuation via lifeboats. While everyone made it safely off the vessel, the liner’s trajectory takes it through a network of asteroid colonies, narrowly missing most, but on a collision course with the most populated one.” The projector image transitioned into a map of the mission area, showing the ship, asteroids, and relevant vectors. The densely packed asteroids appeared to be secured to each other via a series of tubes or supports, forming the base and core of each geodesic surface structure that housed each colony. Displayed beside each colony were four-digit population counts, and following the liner was a countdown timer. “Upon arrival, we'll have a little under two hours before the vessel impacts the colony. As we are the closest ship with sufficient combat capabilities, we have been tasked with handling this threat. Unfortunately, there are some complications that will force us to make difficult decisions. As all attempts to regain control of the vessel have failed, the only option remaining is to destroy the ship and break up or divert any significant debris to minimise collateral damage.” “Collateral damage?” Glare asked, hoping it was not what she thought it meant. Another transition of the 3D imagery showed an explosion of the ship, including arrows from the explosion to the nearest colony. As the animation played out, Eclipse pressed on. “The proximity to other colonies will result in catastrophic debris damage to at least one other colony with a detonation of sufficient magnitude. Analysis indicates this structure to be the least populated we can sacrifice within the available time frame, so this is where we will destroy the ship,” he stated, pointing at the highlighted object on the projection. “Due to the destructive power of our torpedoes, we cannot risk further lives with an external attack. Therefore, we require a team to plant demolitions from within, following a standard seeding mission. Once you return, Amarok will target any larger debris that may pose a threat to other colonies and fire empty torpedoes to push them off course.” “Has any attempt been made to evacuate the colonists?” Glare enquired. “A few civilian vessels have assisted, yes,” Eclipse clarified. “Unfortunately, none have the capacity to rescue more than a few at a time. While Amarok could potentially save several hundred, maybe even a thousand, performing an evac under the time constraints would jeopardise the operation and put thousands more at risk. Even so, by the time such a rescue op could be mounted, the liner would have travelled past and collided with the other colony. Our only two choices are to sit idle and lose a larger number of lives, or take action and sacrifice a smaller population.” Glare continued to look for alternatives. “What about trying to push the liner off-course? You said Amarok will divert debris, but why not divert the whole ship instead?” “According to the civilian ships, several vessels tried. I’m guessing the liner’s auto-nav systems locked on to that colony before malfunctioning. Manoeuvring thrusters simply compensated for any course deviation other ships tried to impose on it. It might be for the best though,” Eclipse explained, turning back to the colony map. “Pushing it off-course might just send the liner into one or more support structures on other colonies.” “Oh. I see,” Glare replied solemnly. Eclipse hummed, sharing Glare’s sentiments.“Naturally, we’ve communicated our intentions to the colonies and have their permission to proceed with the mission. No matter how you look at it though, it’s a horrible situation. We’ll be exiting hyperspace within the hour. Once the Captain makes his announcement, head back here and gear up. I will update you on where to plant your demolitions once we have analysed the ship schematics. Dismissed.” Hitting number five in the elevator, Obsidian returned to the utilities deck to finalise his inspection of a promising hiding spot found during his initial tour of the ship. The relatively quiet deck, combined with dim lighting and hot water pipes, proved agreeable with his affinity for dark and warm environments. He reasoned that the isolated area would be a suitable alternative to his quarters, should any temporary conflict evasion be necessary. The deck was littered with eighteen gas or liquid tanks, shaped like squashed spheres, each painted in a distinct colour. Red for fire suppression, blue for potable water, green for oxygen, yellow for waste water, and purple for standard atmospheric air. An intricate web of pipes extended from the tanks, to the central pipes that serviced the entire ship, while several others connected to other tanks, either directly, or via mixing pumps. Spread evenly closer to the hull were six large power banks, with two ringed seats between each bank. Passing a turquoise earth pony working on a power bank’s circuitry, the electrician paused to look at the changeling. Narrowing his eyes, he disconnected his multi-meter from a pair of contacts, and shadowed Obsidian. The pony did not remain elusive for long. “What do you want?” Obsidian raised his voice, not bothering to look behind him. “Just making sure you’re not up to no good here,” the pony replied, moving up beside Obsidian, but still keeping a reasonable distance. “Good job,” Obsidian responded flatly. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of his follower’s Specialist insignia. “Looking to get yourself a promotion with that proactive attitude, I see. You’ll make Petty Officer in no time. I’ll say this only once. Leave me alone, and we’ll have no problems.” The pony took a step forward. “Yeah, you don’t frighten me, and there’s no way I’m letting you trot around unsupervised if I can help it. As far as I or anypony else is concerned on this ship, you’re the enemy. There’s nothing you can do that any other good nation can’t do. Everypony knows it. Your kind are security threats, and frankly, we could do with a good fumigation right about now. Don’t even know how your queen bee convinced—” The sound of a cracking whip echoed around the pair, and the Specialist stiffened up, before keeling over. Obsidian grimaced, his wing stinging at the point of impact with the back of the pony’s head. Dramatic little shi— “Yo, Amp!” a voice at one end of the deck filtered through the jungle of tanks and pipes. “Did you short-circuit something again? I don’t wanna have to requisition components for at least a month, you hear me?” Wasting no time, Obsidian took the form of the Specialist he assumed was Amp, and replicated his voice. “I heard it as well. Everything is fine here, as far as I can tell. Let me look around, and I’ll get back to you.” “Yeah, whatever. I’ll run some quick diagnostics from my seat in the meantime. I can at least narrow down where you screwed up.” Opting to remain silent, Obsidian dragged the unconscious pony toward the hull, stuffing him into one of the containers in the deck’s stowage ring. Glancing around once more, he nestled the body between a tool chest, and a portable phased disassembler array, and promptly left the deck. There goes a promising spot. On approach to the liner with half an hour remaining until impact, the six Infiltrators returned to the briefing room, shortly after signing their equipment out from the armoury and supply compartment. Swift secured a larger oxygen bottle to himself and checked the flow rate. Looking up, he raised his voice. “Oi, fellas, I wanted to get your opinions on something. Is it me, or are these BPSes oddly comfortable?” “Mate, no idea what’s in yours, but this thing has been riding up my flank like nopony’s business,” Shift snickered, wiggling his posterior in the air, before twirling an LR-48 and securing it to his left side. Obsidian rolled his eyes and shook his head while packing demolitions into his side bag. “And yet you still announce it to others within earshot,” he muttered. Eclipse shouted through the open pressure doors from outside. “Guys, you ready to go? Amarok is in position against the target hull.” Exiting the briefing room compartment, the group gathered around the tunnel’s ramp. Tapping on one of the nearby seats’ screens, eight small spheres of electromagnetic energy materialised. Following the tunnel’s circumference, they whizzed around, faster and faster until they blurred together into an electric-blue ring. In a zap of power, the area within the ring was overlapped with similarly coloured energy. The Infiltrators ascended the ramp and gathered at the edge of the tunnel, awaiting the green light as a probe attached to a telescopic structure on the tunnel’s ceiling extended into the beam. A few seconds later, the probe returned. Reviewing the data from his screen, Eclipse seemed satisfied. “Insertion beam is stable. Probe reports atmospheric density is low and may not be flight-sustainable, though the ship’s artificial gravity still seems to be online. You’re cleared for insertion.” Wasting no time, the team of six headed through the tunnel. The device whisked the group through to the other end, slowing their approach as they neared their destination. Compensating for the difference in orientation between the two ships, the beam dropped the squad upright at their destination as they emerged from the ceiling of their target. Soon after, the insertion beam faded away, and the team found themselves alone in what appeared to be a large dining hall. Judging by the broken plates and cutlery scattered across the floor between upturned chairs and tables, it was clear the passengers were hastily evacuated. “We have our orders,” Shadow’s voice cracked over the comms. “The locations we need to plant the demolitions are marked appropriately on your CNSes. Swift, you’re with me to site alpha. Shift and Sparky, head to bravo down near engineering. Follow the access shaft leading to the ventral longitudinal spar. Obsidian and Glare, a maintenance corridor on this deck runs between the two dorsal spars. Take it to charlie. Once you’ve planted your charges, return here for extraction. Questions? Let’s move!” Splitting into their respective pairs, the six went their separate ways through the eerie silence, broken only by their re-breathers. The groups headed to the key points that would cause the ship to break apart into pieces that would fly off in safe directions, using demolitions designed to vaporise material and minimise debris. As Obsidian and Glare headed aft, they galloped down the observation deck, noting the nearby asteroids and domed structures protruding from the rocky surfaces, along with the unfortunate inhabitants of one of them. “This isn’t right,” Glare spoke to herself. “We are playing with the lives of others here.” “Not something I’d expect you to know, but what’s right and what’s necessary are two very different things,” Obsidian's voice came through Glare's earpiece. Whipping her head around at Obsidian, Glare moved up beside him. “Sorry, Chief. I—I didn’t realise my comms were open.” “They weren’t.” Obsidian said, maintaining focus on the open doorway at the end of deck. “I can hear well enough through the thin atmosphere outside our helmets.” Deciding not to reply, Obsidian and Glare finished their tasks in silence and made to return to the insertion point, informing the others they were finished. “Demolitions set at alpha,” Shadow announced over comms, while Obsidian and Glare walked leisurely through the observation deck. Obsidian paused to look outside. “Shift here. Charges placed at bravo. And we figured we’d try shutting down the primary power-plant from the auxiliary engineering stations. No response. I’m no engineer, but I thought that was supposed to work.” “Acknowledged,” Shadow replied. “Return to the insertion point immediately.” Noticing the changeling was well behind her and still looking up at the asteroids, Glare stopped. “Chief? Are you coming?” Obsidian continued looking outside, his eyes locked on to the liner’s bridge, partially visible from his angle. “Something is definitely not right,” he muttered to himself. He faced the unicorn, “Head back without me. I’ll catch up in a few minutes.” Without waiting for a response, he made his way towards the bridge in the upper decks. Reaching the bridge, Obsidian surveyed the abandoned area, moving slowly between the stations. Creeping past the navigation station, he doubled back when he saw a partially folded paper chart. Opening it up, he found a local area map of the region, with way-points plotted through the colonies. Scanning the map, he looked outside and concluded the vessel was headed in the right general direction. Why would a ship lose all control while on this precise heading? Out of all the marked way-points, it’s the only leg of the route with a collision risk. What a coincidence. Obsidian frowned. Something didn’t add up to him, though he was not sure what. Even a complete restart of all ship systems should have returned at least basic functionality. At least, he thought so, from his limited knowledge of ship systems. Pulling the core, or whatever they call it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something move. It was brief. A small cloudy swirl. The purple smoke had dispersed before he could focus on it. Readying his pulsar, he cautiously approached the station it emerged from and studied the nearby consoles. Engineer’s station, he concluded. Trying for the sake of trying, Obsidian quickly glanced around, then tapped one of the screens in an attempt to activate retrograde engines. As expected, completely unresponsive. “Obsidian!” Swift’s voice blared through his earpiece. Or Shift’s. He couldn’t tell. “Where the hay are you? We’ve got fifteen minutes before this place blows!” “I’m still up in the bridge,” the changeling lowered his voice, exploring other stations. “I wanted t—there it is again!” Swinging around, he aimed his carbine at another set of consoles nearby. “There is what again? Why are you whispering?” “There’s something in the bridge.” Obsidian approached what appeared to be the Captain’s station. “Hard to describe, but it reminds me of a magical aura. I think it’s a little more solid, but it disappears before I can get a good look at it.” “Who cares? Get your bug-butt down here before we leave you behind.” The changeling frowned once more, missing yet another swirl from a third station. Whatever the elusive object or substance was, it seemed—at least to Obsidian—somehow related to the entire situation. “No.” “Huh? What do you mean ‘no’?” “I mean no. We still have a few minutes, right? Go back down to engineering. I want to try something.” “Oh, you’ve got to be taking the piss! What the hay are you doing?” “If I’m right, we won’t need to destroy a colony full of innocent lives. Message Amarok to target any debris that may collide with colonies immediately.” “We’re cutting it close, Obsidian,” Shadow pointed out. “One wrong move, and we miss our window for minimising casualties.” Glare agreed with the changeling. “I’m with the Chief on this one. If there’s a chance we can save every life, I want to take it.” The pegasus sighed. “Shadow? The decision is yours.” After a few seconds of silence, the zebra finally replied, “Okay. Shift, take Sparky back down to engineering.” “Bloody hay, fine,” Shift groaned. “You better be on to something here, Siddy. I don’t get paid by the hour.” Obsidian pulled out the last few demolition charges he had. Setting a sixty-second countdown on their timers, he threw them randomly throughout the bridge and moved to a safe distance. After a hasty retreat, the resulting explosion shook the entire vessel, tearing the bridge away from the ship and leaving several pipes and cables hanging out from what little was still attached to the vessel. “What just happened?” Shift’s voice was barely audible over the howling noise of a rapid decompression. “Try bringing us—ahh, buzzing hell,” Obsidian broke off, as the rush of air pulled him backwards, slamming his back into the pressure door that had just closed behind him. Shaking it off, he continued, “Try bringing us to a stop now!” Returning to the observation deck, he noted a progressively louder hum, and the rate at which the asteroids passed by slowing down. Eventually, the luxury liner had come to a complete stop and once again, silence had filled the ship’s halls. “Does this mean your plan worked?” Glare asked. “Never really had a plan, but I think so,” Obsidian replied. “Honestly, I was not entirely sure if that would work, but something in the bridge definitely interfered with the ship.” “We should disarm the demolitions then,” Shadow ordered. “We can discuss the rest in our debrief.” Eclipse returned to the briefing room, dropping Obsidian’s helmet in front of the changeling. “Thank you all for your patience. We’ve completed our preliminary analysis of Obsidian’s helmet camera.” … “And?” Swift and Shift replied in unison, leaning forward expectantly. “And”—Eclipse shrugged—“we have no idea what we saw. Obsidian’s description of this ‘purple smoke’ is accurate enough. Far as we could tell, the appearance of this anomaly seems inconsistent with the behaviours and sources of smoke, though. We found no evidence of fire or electrical faults that could cause smoke to appear as it did, nor were there any clues in the ship’s data recorders. In fact, the data recorders appeared to have been completely wiped. This, and the fact the smoke dissipated atypically just raises further questions.” “Hold on, I think we need to know the most important information of all,” Glare interrupted. “Are the colonists alright?” “A nearby colony suffered minor structural damage from light debris as a result of the bridge detonation,” Eclipse answered, after skimming over some notes. “However, barring a minor decompression that had been patched up soon after, no colony sustained any major damage. The colonists are all alive and unharmed.” “Good to hear.” Shadow nodded, before turning to the changeling. “Now, back to the mission. What made you decide to destroy the bridge?” “We get called to an out-of-control vessel, and I find strange things in the bridge that, apparently, have never happened before. Seems like an odd coincidence, no? Figured if we were going to destroy the ship anyway, I might as well try destroying the uhh, smoke, or somehow separate it from the rest of the ship,” Obsidian explained. “What’s the worst case scenario? The colony we were going to sacrifice might have suffered a little more damage before getting destroyed.” Shadow raised an eyebrow. “You’re suggesting this smoke was responsible for an unresponsive ship, rather than some malfunction?” “Like I said, it seemed like an odd coincidence. Whatever that smoke was, perhaps it …” Obsidian paused, trying to think of an explanation. “Perhaps it uhh, overrode any commands from primary and auxiliary inputs, such as those from the bridge or engineering section of the vessel? I don’t know how smoke could do that, or why, but if it’s true … Where did it come from? Of course, I could be completely wrong. I’m just speculating here.” “Did either of you notice this phenomenon when you were at the auxiliary stations?” Eclipse asked Shift and Sparky. “Nah,” Shift replied, as he and Sparky shook their heads. “Not like we were on the lookout or anything.” The officer hummed. “Alright, well I can’t think of anything else for now. We’ll need to question the Captain of the luxury liner, and both your camera and answers shall require much thought. Perhaps the Hiigarans might have additional information on this as well. For now, you are all dismissed.” Obsidian had almost forgotten to return to the utilities deck. After taking care of a few things on several other decks, he exited the elevator on deck five. Ensuring none of the other crew were in sight or in earshot, Obsidian pulled Amp out of the stowage. Slapping the pony with his wing, he waited as Amp stirred. After no response, he pulled out a bottle of water from one of his side bags and emptied the contents on Amp’s face. When Amp’s eyes finally opened, he found Obsidian looking down at him. “What—what the hay did you do to me?” he groaned, wiping water out of his eyes. “I gave you a warning. You chose to ignore it. As a result, I decided to take your form while you were out,” Obsidian lied. “Wha—you did what?” Amp mumbled, still in a daze. “Why?” “Let’s just say that it was the most effective way of letting others know that you and your sister had a brief fling before the Navy.” Amp blinked. “What are you talking about? I don’t even have a sister.” “No one on Amarok knows that, though,” Obsidian countered. “Enjoy your new-found reputation.” Amp’s eyes widened when he finally realised the magnitude of the situation. Bolting upright, he started to panic. “Oh, no. No, no, no, you bastard!” “Fortunately for you, that was a lie. Let it be your second and last warning. Stay out of my way, or rumours of familial relations will be the least of your worries.” “You bugs really are evil.” “Funny. After what you did to us, and after all the other events in your nation’s history, you still don’t know the meaning of the word.” Turning around, Obsidian headed back toward the elevator. “Provoke me again, and I’ll be happy to provide a definition.”