//------------------------------// // Trouble // Story: Mass Effect: Vigilance // by Dr.Shiny //------------------------------// Astra came out of the wreckage of her ship. It was one of the finest ships in the entire fleet, now just a pile of scrap metal. Anypony could still read the letters on the port side. Astra walked towards the rear of the wreckage. Everywhere there was wires, lights, monitors, shards of metal decorated the ground. The port side cannons were bent. She then spotted a group of ponies when she reached the rear of the ship. The group was only ten ponies all together. Astra felt much better that several crew members survived. The total crew of the Element of Magic was about fifty. She headed towards the group. "Hey look Farsight, the Captain did make it after all." said a crew member. "I told you Corporal, now shut it." replied Farsight the navigator. Farsight snapped to attention to welcome his Captain. Astra told him to be at ease. "Is this everypony Farsight?" asked Astra. "All we found so far. There may still be more in the wreck." replied Farsight. "Alright," said Astra,"All ponies listen here, I need you to go through the ship and find anything you can that be useful. Medical supplies, weapons, rations, even a tool-kit. If you find another pony, bring them out here. We'll need to hold out here till we are rescued. Now move!" The ponies move in groups around the wreck. Looking for the best hole to go in. Astra asked Farsight, " Do we know where the flight navigation data storage unit is?" Farsight responded, " In a Element-Class freighter, the F.I.N.D. is stored in the engineering room, but that was the part of the ship that broke off when we hit the planet." "We need that storage unit. It's the only way find our way home." said Astra. "Captain, how in Celestia are we going get off this damn rock. The ship is pretty much shit-hammered." replied Naz. "We are going to find a way off this planet, and you best watch your muzzle around me. Once everypony is back, we'll camp out here for the night, and at dawn, I'm going to the engineering bay and finding that storage unit." stated Astra. "I'll come along too," Naz said puffing his chest out,"It could be to dangerous to go alone, and we have no idea where it could be." "Or I could just follow the trail our ship left behind." replied Astra. "Yeah..." said Naz feeling less masculine. He walked toward the group of ponies who manage to get a small fire made from components found in the mess hall. Astra stayed where she was to look out in the horizon. She looked on to the star falling into the horizon. The sky gave a light purple hue around the star, the light made gave the mountains a orange-reddish color. Astra thought to herself,'This is beautiful. I'm not sure if I want to go back to Equestria after seeing this. A mare can dream.'Astra continued to look onto the horizon, watching the star fall. As the last ray of light hits it's mark, the star fell into the horizon, and the sky darkened. Astra went over to where the group had set up some beds. ____________ The star came once again over the horizon to shine anew day. Astra woke from her sleep, stretched out her legs, and woke Naz. It took Naz longer to get up, but he quickly grabbed some supplies for the journey. Astra puts on a hood to shade her face from the star. She picks up a couple of water containers, and places them in a bag. Naz told her that he was good for the trip. The two set off to find the storage unit. Crossing the red sands of the desert, the two ponies drank their water slowly. The land was dry, the air was arid. The temperature was extremely hot. Naz felt sweat all over himself. Astra looked around for some shade for them to take a break. She found a tall rock. One big enough to block a large portion of the star. She walked over to the rock, and sat herself down. She removed her hood, and used her magic to ring out the sweat. . Naz made it over to the shade and collapsed. He was drenched in sweat. "Captain, even if we find the storage unit?" asked Naz,"How are we going to get off this rock?" "I'm not sure Naz. I don't know if Fleet Admiral Dash will be sending ships out to search for anypony who lived in the attack." replied Astra. "We also made a jump through a relay, and now we are in the middle of nowhere. How are they going to find us? Plus if they made it over to this rock, there's no point in finding the storage unit." said Naz. "Finding that unit is essential. Not only does it store all flight data from the ship, but it has a long range emergency signal. It was meant for crews who are lost in deep space missions." replied Astra. "Then why is that not the main S.O.S. signal then?" asked Naz drinking his water. Astra took a breath, " It requires a ton of power to operate. One of the ship's systems would have to be disabled in order to operate. Most crews disable the engines, or weapon systems to power it. Before you ask my how are we going to power it. I thought that part through. There are still energy cells left on the ship at we can still use. I plan on connecting them to the storage unit, and activating the signal. This thing packs a huge signal. They'll hear us back on Equestria." "What are we waiting around here for," said Naz standing up,"let's go find it." Astra smiled and the two ponies pressed on. The star climbed up the sky. The two shook off the heat as they knew they were getting closer. Soon enough, the engineering part of the ship could be seen. Astra had a feeling of relief come over her mind. Soon we will be back home,she thought to herself. The two reached the wreckage. Parts scattered everywhere. It was surprising that most of it was intact. "I'm going in to find the storage unit," said Astra,"stay out here and..." "Wait, what am I going to do out here?" said Naz. "Well I was just going to say out here. After all if this wreck starts crumbling, you can't teleport out." replied Astra. "Since you put it that way." said Naz. Naz found some shade and sat under it. Astra entered the wreckage. Inside the wreckage it was semi-well lit. Mostly due to the daylight. As she descended into the wreckage, it became darker, and darker. A few of the lights would still flicker, giving off sparks as they slowly lit up. Exposed electric wire decorated the floor. Astra used her magic to make a light. She gingerly walked across the floor. One wrong step and she'll fry herself. Going farther in, she found some rather strange marks and rather strange burns on the walls. The walls seemed to have large holes cut into them. Around the edges there were burn marks. The walls had burn marks that made perfect circles. Several blood spatters painted the walls too. There had to be ponies in this part of the ship. If they got hurt, the blood would make sense, but it being splattered on the wall makes no sense. Plus any ponies who survived would have been outside. Why aren't there any of them here? she thought. She came across the room where the storage unit is housed. The doors were already opened. She entered the room. She looked where the storage unit is housed. What she found, put her in shock. "WHAT IN CELESTIA!!! THE UNIT IS GONE?!" she yelled. She walked to the other side of the room and her mouth dropped in horror. It was the engineering crew. Their bodies have been all piled up. Dead. Several have many holes riddled through their bodies.'Who could have done such a thing. Nopony would ever do such a thing. 'She realized that whoever did this was not a pony. It all made sense to her now. The blood splatters on the wall where her crew mates being killed. The burned holes where made for who ever murdered them a way to move across the ship. They took whatever they see valuable. She knew she had to get back to Naz, and the rest of her crew. She ran toward the exit, when she hit something. There was nothing there. She looked closer and what she ran into started to become visible. Standing in front of her was a being standing on two legs. It wore black armor on it's body, and it towered over her. She looked at its face, it was covered by a strange looking helmet. It had parts that pointed out from the back of its head. The being raised something to its shoulder, and fired a shot. A feeling of sleeplessness fell over Astra's body, and she collapsed. "Boss I found another one." said the being on the comm. "Good my lieutenant, it seems there may be more of these creatures here than we thought." replied another voice, "Please tell me, did you kill it?" "No, I kept this one alive. This one may have more information." said the being. "A good choice, bring it out here. I already killed the one we found out here. My scouts found more of the ship south from here." "I'll be out soon. Regar out." Regar got off his comm radio, and looked at Astra's body. "Looks like we are going to see you friends. No need to prepare your ship with all the cleaning work. Oh no we don't need that. I'll say, it looks...lived in." He picked up her body and exited the wreckage. He loaded her onto one of the parked vehicles. Several more beings stood around the vehicle, and loaded up after he went in. The armored-plated machines' engines roared as they drove off to find the rest of the wrecked ship. ____________________ Astra's eyes opened slowly. She took a breath, and started to lift herself off the ground. Her sight was blurry, and her hearing was off. She looked towards her ship and saw her crew lined up with their faces close on the ground. As her vision became more clear, she also saw many creatures that stood on two legs all around. They were various sizes, and colors. There was a purple-bluish one that stood behind the mess hall chef. The thing was holding a rather strange looking stick. Then came a loud sound from it, and the mess chef's head was blown away. The other creatures cheered on. Astra now stood up on all four legs, but was still completely disoriented. One of the creatures kicked her leg, and she lost her balance. She got a face full of dirt. Upon raising her head from the dirt, she saw a figure walking towards her. It bent down, and put its hand under her chin, forcing her to look at him. The figure glared at her with its dark hawk like eyes. It had red paint on its face. When it ever talked, there were two mandibles that moved away from the rest of the face. It was speaking to her. "My, my your a pretty one. Judging from the look of your uniform, you may be the one in charge of all these...hhhmmmm...I believe I don't know who your people, but you might be the first to ever see anything like us. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Barla Vao. I am a Turian." said Barla with a calm tone. He forced Astra to look over at the purple-bluish thing that just killed her crew mate. "That is an Asari. A rather mixed race you can say. They can be very smart people," he paused,"but as you can see they are also very, very violent." He shifted her head over to a large alien. The armor made it look like a living tank. "That's a Krogan. You don't want to piss them off. Trust me" he said scratching under her chin. He took his hand away from under her chin. He grabbed something from his side, and pointed it at her face. "This here is a gun. These tend to...damage anything you point at. Understand me?" Astra stared at him. Barla put the gun up to her face. Pressing the weapon on her cheek. "Understand?" he grunted. Astra continued to stare at him saying nothing. Barla took his gun off her cheek, he pointed it at one of her crew members. It was Farsight. Farsight yelled to Astra. "CAPTAIN, JUST AGREE WITH HIM! WE CAN'..." and a shot rang out. Farsight's body fell to the dust. "I understood him. Now I know you understand what I'm saying. Now tell me where did you come from." said Barla with authority. Astra struggled to get a word out of her mouth.The feeling of seeing one of her crew dying in front of her sent shock waves down her spine. Barla stood over her, waiting for an answer. He lifted his hand and gave a gesture. His gang knew what it meant. They loaded their weapons, and stood in front of the rest of her crew. "Kill them." said Barla. "NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!" yelled Astra as her crew was massacred. All their bodies laid on the ground. Each of their lives cut short. She had a memory rush in her mind. The day she became Captain of the Element of Magic. She worked endlessly to know all her crew. She was thinking about it when Barla grabbed her and lifted her by her throat. "Now tell me, where are you from." said Barla,"Also why is your tech so similar too..." Before Barla could finish, Astra's horn began glowing. He let her go, and she levitated there. He backed away with his gun. "BIOTICS!!!" yelled Regar. The rest of the gang pointed their guns at Astra. Barla slowly approached her. Astra replied," I'll kill you. As Celesita as my witness I will end you no matter what it takes." "Rather bold words. Those are some rather fancy biotics. I never seen anything like it before." said Barla. "I'll stand by my words. If I die here on this planet, I'll make sure I get you." snapped Astra. "Don't be foolish. You clearly can't take all of us on." Barla calmly said. "Watch me try you bastard. I've been in situations where I took on twice as many." said Astra. "You still have much to learn,,,hm, I never got your name." replied Barla. "I'll tell you, but you since you only have a short amount of time in existence. Captain Astra Sparkle of the Element of Magic. I am a protector of my homeland of Equestria. I vow to defend it till the end of my life." said Astra proudly. "Astra, you still have much to learn. For example: your completely outnumbered and surrounded." explained Barla. "That won't make much of a difference. I just need to get you before my life is taken away." snarled Astra. She put herself in a pouncing position. Her leg muscles ready themselves for her to leap right at Barla. "You have completely neglected that we are also behind you. "  Astra quickly looked behind her, and she saw the black armored turian that stunned her in the wreckage. She made a quick decision and leap for Barla. Barla quickly stepped to his left. Regar lined up his shot. Astra landed on the ground kicking up a cloud of red dust. She shot a magic bolt at Barla. A purple beam shot from her horn. It went straight for Barla. He manage to his right, but the bolt scratched his arm. He let out a grunt in the burning pain it left. Astra ready another bolt, but then a shot rang and she felt her right hind leg in horrible pain. She let out an enormous scream in pain. It felt as if a burning torch was pressed on her leg. She dropped to the ground, trying to deal with the pain. She tried to move her leg, but all it led to was more pain. Barla got close to her. She tired to crawl away. Barla grabbed her by her purple mane, and twisted her around so she was looking at him. All she could see was his red painted face, with his dark eyes "Always know where your enemies are. You don't know anything do you? You never faced anything outside your own damn planet. I'll be glad to tell you that the galaxy is a dangerous place you people like you. Peaceful races are only food for  the slavers, pirates, and crime cartels. You're too weak to do anything about it. I know you just want me dead, but I can't believe that you would die just to do so. I've had hundreds want me dead. Every government in the galaxy wants me dead. I'm one of the most wanted in the galaxy." said Barla. He saw that Astra was trying to keep pressure on her wounded leg. "Hurts doesn't it? You may ask for a quick death to end all the pain, or we could leave you here to die. Death is something you want. I don't like letting people having what they want. I take it away. What I'll do instead is throw you in a cell. I'll find your homeworld, and I'll kill every single one of your people, and I'll have you watch. You can die, when your entire race is wiped off the face of the galaxy. Bearing the thought that you were the cause of your kind's demise is torture enough." Barla walked away from her. He ordered his gang members to prepare the vehicles. His lieutenant Regar walked by Astra. He gave a short glance at her, and continued on whatever he was doing. He suddenly stopped in his tracks. He put his hand on the side of his helmet. He quickly dropped his hand, ran over to Barla. "Barla, we have Alliance incoming!" "Damn," said Barla,"You must hold them off here, while I get out of here." "Boss, are you leaving us here to die?" barked Regar. "Regar, you listen to me. The Syndicate cannot survive without me. You should know that being part of the Syndicate, that you must lay down your life when called to. You can fight. If you live, I'll give you own ship." Regar reloaded his rifle, and ran to a position where he could snipe from. Several aliens took up positions waiting for a fight. The convoy of Alliance vehicles fast approached the wreckage. "Makos! Get the rockets!" yelled a krogan. A turian grabbed a rocket lancher, aimed it at a Mako. Before he could pull the trigger. The Makos open fire with their machine gun turrets. The turian got riddled with bullets, and dropped to the dirt. The gang returned fire. Two Makos pulled a hard turn, putting their left side facing the fire. This allowed the marines to have some cover as the exited the Mako safely. The marines threw some smoke grenades. Gray smoke filled the air around the wreckage. The marines made their advance. ________________ "Take that position Delta 2-4." ordered a marine. "Copy that 3-8" replied the marine. "0-7, 8-6, and 3-4 keep a tight formation. Our scans shown some krogan." ordered 3-8. The squad moved together through the smoke. The walked thirteen meters in the thick smoke, then 3-8 gave a hand signal to halt. The squad stood there for a few seconds peering into the dense gray smoke. A figure moved towards them in the smoke, and its angry. "KROGAN CHARGING!" yelled 0-7. 3-8 took his assault rife and put few rounds in the krogan's kneecaps. The alien ignored the pain, still sprinting at full speed. 8-6 took his shotgun from his back. He put a round right in the center of the alien's head. The slug hit it so hard, the krogan fell on its back. Soon rounds came though the smoke. Delta squad took cover. 3-8 tired to stick his head out to see where the fire was coming from, but the intense fire kept him down. "Someone get a sensor up." said 3-8. "On it." replied 8-6 quickly. He tossed a sensor up. The squad's radar showed four blips. There was no way they could get close to them. "2-4, we have four hostiles pinning us down, can you take a few of them out from your positon?" 3-8 said on his radio. "That won't be a problem lead." 2-4 said. He lined his sniper rifle to one of the hostile positions. He held his breath, waited for his heartbeat to slow down. He slowly pulled the trigger and took out one hostile. Quickly reloading, and re-aiming he took out a second hostile. Doing the same thing again, the third hostile was dropped in five seconds flat. He aimed for the final hostile. Before he could pull the trigger, he felt a burning sensation. His vision faded away. He looked at his chest, and saw a hole that went right through his armor. "2-4!? 2-4 do you copy?! Damn," said 3-8," We've got a sniper here." "Shit." replied 8-6. The four men still stood behind their piece of cover, when a round object landed over their cover. "GRENADE!!" yelled 3-8. The men ran out from their cover as quickly as they could. 3-8 ran over to one of the gang's vehicles. He slowly moved down the right side. When he reached the rear, he stopped at the corner. Pulled his knife out of the sheath. With one quick maneuver he planted the knife right in the neck of a turian. He pushed him off, and put the knife back in the sheath. He move away, but was stopped by a purple blast. It knocked him off his feet. He looked around and saw an Asari glowing bright purple. He looked for his rifle, but it was out of reach. The Asari pulled her arm back, ready to give another blast. She got stopped by 8-6 tackling her from the side. 8-6 pointed his pistol at her, and put a round right in her face. "Thanks 8-6." thanked 3-8. "All in a days work." said 8-6. 0-7 found them a few seconds after. "Damn, looks like I missed the party." pouted 0-7. "Where's 3-4?" asked 3-8. 3-4 slowly searched for the rest of his squad. He checked every corner, everything that looked like cover. He spotted a trail across the ground. He analyzed it, and determined that something was being dragged. He followed it cautiously. For all he could know, he could be walking right into a turret. Closely following the trail he came across what was making the trail. To him he saw a lavender colored horse, with clothing on. He was dumbstruck. He seen horses before, but never that color. On top of that a purple mane, and clothed? He walked up to it, with his rifle pointed at the horse. Astra kept trying to move away. She gave up, and turned to 3-4. "Are you going to kill me?" she asked. 3-4 froze completely. He thought he was hallucinating. Right in front of him was a talking purple horse. However he saw that she was hurt, and went to examine her wound. Slowly approaching the wound he gently told her,"Don't worry, I'm going to try ease the pain." From a pouch on his belt, he pulled out a small bottle. "I'm going to first clean the wound. This is going to sting." He applied the spray on her leg. Astra was grinding her teeth. This time it felt like someone put a burning coal on her leg. 3-4 took a gel-like substance from his belt, and applied it on top of it. "This should help you till we can get you to some trained medical operators." he assured her. "Thank you." said Astra with a tear in her eye. Before 3-4 could say anything to that, a grenade was landed right in front of them. He ran over to Astra, put his body over her, and rolled them away from the explosive. The grenade went off two seconds after it hit the ground. They manage to not get hit by any shrapnel, but the shockwave made them move another yard. Astra opened her eyes, and saw the alien that saved her twice. He was laying face down, and it seem like he was dead. She reached her hoof to him, then she saw him twitch. The arms moved to push himself up. He manage to get on one of his knees. His helmet fell off as he full stood up. She looked at his face with awe. His face had several cuts on it, his hair golden, like one of her mother's friends. He took his hand to wipe the blood off his nose. He looked at it, "Damn, just when I think I lost enough blood in the past month." He stood there examining how damaged he was. Astra continued to look at him. Her eyes got wide when she saw a light flicker behind him. She tired to get a bolt of magic ready, but couldn't muster the strength to do it. 3-4 saw her horn glowing. Now he thought he was going insane. A biotic horse? On top of that she was also acting strange. Like she warning him about something. He asked her,"What's wrong?" "Behind you!" yelled Astra. At that moment, 3-4 took one of his fists around, to land a straight punch right on Regar's helmet. The force of the hit, knocked Regar to the ground. 3-4 took up a fighting stance. Regar stood back up, and pulled out his knife. He was swinging it recklessly. The blade went up and down the side of 3-4. 3-4 moved out of Regar's reach. Regar was getting angry. He made a mad charge at 3-4. Giving a thrusting motion with the blade. 3-4 grabbed his hand, pushed it to the side, then gave a good chop to dislocate his elbow. Regar drop the blade, and took a massive uppercut. He hit the ground hard. 3-4 check him. Knocked out. "3-4, come in 3-4. This is 3-8, what's your status over." 3-8 said over the radio. 3-4 put his finger over his ear piece,"3-8, this is 3-4. I've got someone here who is wounded, and needs medical help. I also have us a prisoner. Looks like he's Syndicate. Do we also know what happened to 2-4?" A moment passed by,"2-4 is KIA 3-4." 3-4 clutched his hand into a fist. "We currently have extraction on the way. Can you tell us on the status of the wounded?" responded 3-8. "We're going to need vet. I'll have to explain later." replied 3-4. 3-4 walked over to Astra, and lifted her up. "Get some rest, it's going to be a long ride." He carried her to the extraction point. They loaded on the ship with the rest of the squad. The ship lifted off from the dusty world into the black of space. There it landed in an Alliance frigate. The engines pushed the craft away from the planet. The world were the crew of the Element of Magic will rest till the end of time.