//------------------------------// // Developments // Story: Halo: Contact Equestria // by Dead_Account_0 //------------------------------// “So Luna, what is so important that you almost forgot to raise the moon tonight?” Celestia said exasperatedly as Luna practically dragged her across the castle, earning odd looks from the staff. “Just you wait Tia! I finally have proof!” Luna squeaked happily hopping up and down. “Proof of what?” Celestia sighed. “You’ll see!” Luna giggled. The odd procession continued to the military wing of the castle. Quintus stood at a huge golden doorway with General Gracchus, Commander of the Specialist Division of the Royal Guard. Gracchus looked just like Quintus, except considerably older. The Royal Guard tended to run in the family and sure enough Quintus was Gracchus’s great-nephew. A wizened grey beard sat on Gracchus’s chin, kept trim and square but the wrinkles on his face were unmistakeable. His mane was still cut in the standard style but was an acute grey colour. The only real difference in armour was the purple standing in for the blue in the larger helmet plume and the small blue sapphire being replaced by a large purple one cut in a square shape. Despite his tough look, the General had become softer in recent years, since the Elements of Harmony took over some of their tasks. “Okay, Luna! I have had enough. Why is General Gracchus here? Why are you so excited? Proof of what?!” Celestia shouted. To her credit it was dark outside and Celestia would normally be preparing for bed now. Luna looked a little taken aback but General Gracchus stepped forwards to answer her questions. “Your Majesties.” He bowed eloquently and waited for Celestia to let him stand. Gracchus was such a stickler for tradition, it irked Celestia that anypony could be so old-fashioned. Luna liked the adherence to code however and always switched to the Royal Canterlot Voice when addressing him. “We release you from thine worship, noble knight!” she spoke loudly and slowly. “Don’t encourage him Luna,” Celestia whispered nudging her sister. The Commander stood back up and motioned to the door. Quintus hurriedly shoved a key into a lock then grabbed one of the large ring shaped handles in his mouth and yanked it open, saluting as the trio walked past before shutting the door behind them and joining the group. “As you may no doubt be aware, at precisely 0900 hours today a large explosion was spotted on the moon. At 0905 a large piece of debris crashed into the Everfree forest. At 1200 hours Princess Luna and a small team investigated the impact zone and ran into a group of hostiles and were taken prisoner. At 1300 hours Twilight Sparkle and one of her accomplices located the Princess and engaged the hostiles. In the ensuing chaos one of Luna’s companions was captured but we also took six of the twelve, uhh uhm…” Gracchus hesitated and stopped. Quintus noticed his trouble and pitched in, “Humans, Sir.” “That’s right! Six of the twelve humans are here, in the castle.” Celestia was dumbfounded, it was a lot of information to receive in less than a minute. “L…Luna is that true?” “Every word of it, don’t worry Tia, they’re not all bad. But I told you that aliens existed!” Luna said with barely restrained happiness. “Who did they capture?” Celestia asked incredulously, “why didn’t you send for help?” “A civilian by the name of Earnest Starstruck, Ma’am,” Gracchus replied professionally. “The astronomer?” Celestia replied confusedly. “Don’t worry Tia; I’m sure that he’ll be fine. They took him alive so it makes sense that they’d keep him alive, right?” Luna couldn’t stop smiling. It was rare to see Celestia acting like this and she was savouring the moment. Sometimes Luna could be a bit naïve especially when it came to others. She always saw the good in people, one of the things the miasma took advantage of to take her over. Celestia was old and cynical however, she had seen and done things that would give other ponies nightmares for life. She knew that if push came to shove, Equestria’s defence was considerably more important than a dozen aliens. Still though for Luna’s sake she’d humour her now and speak to Gracchus later. “Yes it does, a hostage is considerably more valuable alive,” Celestia smiled falsely, in truth she had no idea what these humans’ agendas were. The group arrived at their destination, on the left was a simple wooden door with a square lock. Gracchus pushed his jewelled breast-plate onto the door, inserting its gem into the slot. There was an audible clicking as the door unlocked and the Princesses entered. Inside was a small room with a table and two chairs. There was another door on the other side of the room similar to the one they had just entered. Tertius was sat on one of the chairs, when they entered he stood up and saluted. “Sir!” he shouted to General Gracchus, and then turned to the Princesses, “Ma’am!” He bowed this time. “Would you like me to fetch one of the prisoners?” he inquired earnestly. “Yes, I would like to see a human with my own eyes,” Celestia replied, her gaze unusually blank. “Any preference? I got some that’ll cooperate, some that won’t and everything in between,” Tertius attempted to joke but nopony laughed. “I need some questions answered. Bring forth your most compliant one,” Celestia said stiffly. Tertius walked up to the door and shouted through, “bring up the doctor.” After a few minutes the sounds of hooves against the cold hard floor clopped out loudly. The door opened to reveal the doctor, looking a bit worse for wear, someone had slugged him one in the face giving him a black eye. To Celestia though he looked extremely strange, he had a white coat that only covered his torso and legs. His head was rounded and his snout extremely stunted. Most concerning though was the fact that he walked on two legs, most unusual for a fully developed creature. Two grey unicorns accompanied him out ready to restrain him with a spell if need be. Celestia stood at one side of the table ignoring the chair completely while the doctor came and seated himself opposite her. “You are in the presence of royalty! Bow to your superior!” General Gracchus shouted at Stamford who quickly obliged. “Milady,” Francis said politely. “May I ask your name?” Celestia asked with a warm smile that made Francis’s heart melt. “My name is Francis Stamford, Dr. Francis Stamford if you want to get technical.” He returned her smile. Gracchus moved to hit him but Celestia waved him off. “Why are you here?” She asked her every breath felt like the sun beating down upon him. “Our spaceship crash landed when we tried to escape from a battle we were losing.” “We have not seen any of these space ships you are talking about. Are they like regular water-born ships?" “No, they’re more like submarines as they have to create a closed off atmosphere or we would all suffocate while in flight." “One moment,” she said with a smile before turning to Gracchus. “Get Twilight Sparkle here, I’m sure she would love to learn more about these humans. I will be placing her in charge of interrogations.” “No way Tia! This is my case!” Luna pouted. “But your Eminence, this is exactly the kind of case we Specialists should be taking…” Gracchus began at the same time. “Gracchus, go fetch Twilight Sparkle, please,” Celestia ordered “How about her friends?” he sighed giving in. “If they want to come too, who am I to stop them?” Celestia said to the General, “I expect a full progress report tomorrow.” She then turned to her sister. “Luna take over for now, I have a lot of business to take care of, we’ll talk more on this subject later,” Celestia said before her horn glowed and she teleported back upstairs. Gracchus sighed heavily then plodded upstairs to prepare for the journey leaving Luna with Tertius, Quintus and the unknown guards. Luna took the seat opposite Francis and started her own line of questioning. “So, Dr. Stamford, what is the deal with all the others, you seem to be the only reasonable human here?” Luna asked casually. “Well unlike the others, I am trained to save lives not end them. All of them are either soldiers or staff aboard a military ship. I’m only here because a friend of mine requested my help for a few weeks. Otherwise I’d probably still be on Earth, bandaging up the wounded.” “That may be half of it, but I can see the fear in the eyes of a few of them.” “To understand their attitude you’d have to understand what happened to us in recent years. The Human race once spread across the galaxy, billions of people inhabiting thousands of worlds. Then the Covenant came, a conglomerate of different alien species all bonded through their religious purpose. Apparently their religion didn’t have room for Humanity in it so they started destroying our worlds, coating the planets in glass so nothing will ever grown there again and killing billions of people. A war was declared, Humanity tried their best to hold them off but we were losing, badly. Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse, another alien species appeared and started killing Covenant and Humans indiscriminately, they were dubbed the Flood. It’s kind of natural that Humanity would distrust aliens after almost being annihilated by them, twice.” Luna stopped and processed the information, it did explain quite a bit actually but it left one glaring question remaining. “So why are you any different?” she asked slightly puzzled. “Right towards the end, a large host of Covenant split off from the main force and joined us, I owe my life to a Sangheili who threw himself at a suicidal Unggoy to save the lives of me and eight of my wounded charges. We all would have died there if it wasn’t for him. Practically everyone else here are navy guys, this is the first time most of them have seen an alien outside the vids,” Stamford stated truthfully. “What’s a vid?” Tertius said from behind Stamford. “Oh, uh, video, uhh moving pictures, don’t you have television here?” Stamford stumbled. “What is television?” Quintus asked banging his hooves on the table. “It’s like… a box that has a picture in it that moves,” Stamford babbled awkwardly. “What were those weapons you used against us?” Tertius continued. “You mean our firearms?” Stamford suggested. “How do they work?”Quintus leapt back in again. “You’d be better off asking Bunting about that, he’s the gun nut.” Stamford shrugged. “Thank you doctor Stamford, I’m sure we can get this sorted out soon enough,” Princess Luna replied with a smile. "It’s been a pleasure…” Stamford began. “Luna, Princess Luna.” She smiled calmly. Maybe there was some hope for these humans yet, she thought to herself. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Deep in the Everfree Forest, Darrell Johnston was running for his life. “Fuck, Fuck, Fuck. Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!” he shouted as he tore through the trees ducking under low branches and jumping over tangled roots. The ground rumbled from the heavy footfall of the creature pursuing him. A large stinger shot out on the end of a tail and Darrell barely dodged it, almost tripping in the process. “Fuck! Someone take the damn shot! Take it!” he shouted into the distance hoping Whitmore could hear him. This time a razor sharp claw flew out and managed to catch Darrell’s back leaving huge but shallow gashes. “FUCK!” He cried in pain but kept sprinting; if he stopped he’d probably die. The beast roared deafeningly, sending chills down his spine. “CASSANDRA! TAKE! THE! FUCKING! SHOT!” Darrell screamed at the top of his lungs. 200 metres away Private Cassandra Whitmore lay prone on the crumbling roof of a ruined castle. She took a deep breath and focused as hard as she could through the scope, with only one eye she was no longer distracted allowing for a cleaner shot. She almost had a clear shot, the creature’s head sat square in her sights, she gently squeezed the trigger on the 99D-S2 Anti-Matériel Rifle and it kicked back, the tracer round’s path clearly marked out as it blasted forwards, whistling through the trees and embedding itself into the beast’s head. She watched on the scope as the beast tripped over its legs mid-sprint and landed on its chest, its eyes dimming as the life left its body. "Phew,” Darrell sighed in relief, stopping to catch his breath and wipe his forehead. Then the stinging pain in his back kicked in. “Damn it Cass, you had to wait to the last fucking second, didn’t you? Fuck! My back is killing me.” Cassandra climbed down and started walking over. “Aww, did the big baby get a little scratchie from the big meanie cat,” she said in a mocking voice. “If that thing is a cat, it’s the most fugly cat in the universe,” Darrell said trying to change the subject. “Looks to me like a lion got it on with a winged scorpion.” “Yeah I can see that. As long as its claws aren’t as poisonous as its tail, then I’ll be fine. Thanks for asking,” Darrell said sarcastically. “No problemo,” Cass laughed back, “still with that thing dead, the perimeter is now secure.” “Gah, wish both our medics hadn’t been grabbed.” “Stop being such a baby, if you’re desperate we still got the medical equipment. I’m sure Kendrick can do it, she can’t do anything else.” “That’s a little harsh… but true in this case. Without a console she’s almost entirely useless. Still we got the captain, there’s no one I’d rather be shipwrecked with, he’ll see us through.” “You’re blind loyalty won’t serve you well.” “It’s better than constant pessimism.” “Meh, if you always expect the worst, then the times things pan out seem a lot better.” “That’s one hell of a philosophy,” Johnston laughed as the two of them started walking back to the castle ruins. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Sergeant Paul Bunting of the UNSC Marine Corps. Serial number 6-7-8-4-5-2-0-5-6,” Sergeant Bunting shouted loudly, trying to ignore the ponies in front of him. “You’ve already told us that five times! We know your name but what do the numbers mean?!” Quintus shouted slamming his hooves against the desk for dramatic effect. “Perhaps we should bring another one out at the same time, see if they can tell us what he means,” Tertius suggested. “That would probably be best,” Luna sighed, and it had started off so promising as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seed Sower arrived at the small village of Clopton, looking significantly worse for wear. The sun had practically melted her like an ice cube on her long and arduous journey. When the sun had reached its apex and it had become too hot to bear she had rested under a tree by the river, but even after that, the heat had still done a number on her. She managed to drag herself into the village shop, creatively named “Clopton Village Shop”. She entered the door and the bell above rang out with a merry ting. The shop was cluttered with cramped shelves loaded with stock: milk, eggs, vegetables; standard supplies. Seed Sower looked left and right briefly glancing at the items as she approached the counter. “Green!” she called into the back but there was no answer. She walked into the back “Green!” she called again, when she noticed some slick red substance on the floor. Oh Celestia, she was about to scream but then reason bludgeoned itself into her head. Calm down, you don’t know if that’s blood she said to herself internally, and started controlling her breathing. She carefully stepped around the not blood and approached the door at the end of the hallway. The floorboards creaked as she slowly walked over them, one hoof at a time. An audible dripping noise could be heard from behind the door, Seed Sower held her breath, and reached gingerly for the door handle, her hoof visibly shaking. The door creaked open slowly but the room beyond remained bathed in darkness. She could hear a low groan coming from the room, “H…H...Hello?” she called out as quietly as she could. “Help me…” a strained voice replied. Seed Sower screamed and sprinted back to the main shop where she checked behind her. Nothing was following her. She could still hear the low groaning though. She looked outside the window and the sun had started to go down tinting the land a red almost as strong as the pool of blood she had seen inside. “Help me…” the voice called weakly. Seed Sower gulped and took control of herself again, forcing the fear to the back of her mind. What if somepony is ill, eh? What is they genuinely need your help and you just abandoned them! Reason stated once more. She scoured the shelves for a light source and found a lantern with a candle inserted into it. She then found a box of matches and struck it allowing her to light the candle and close up the lantern. She picked it up by the ring on top with her mouth and walked back down the corridor. The flame danced inside its lantern with every step she took, casting malevolent shadows against the wall that moved with her. She re-entered the darkened room at the end of the hallway striking with a sword of light against the darkness within. Sat in the centre of the room, in a crimson lake was Green Bit, the storeowner. He called out meekly once more, “Help me.”Seed Sower approached the once brilliant green stallion. The loss of blood seemed to have decolourised his fur, dulling his once luminescent coat, not to mention the streaks of red running through it, pouring from the open gash in his throat. “Green Bit?” she spoke quietly and solemnly. He was the closest pony she had to a friend out here, the one pony she had broken her self imposed seclusion for. “Seed Sower,” he gurgled back, flecks of blood flying from his mouth with each syllable. “Monsters… Infection… Death,” he tried to say, but with each word he convulsed, contorting into painful shapes. “Tell…Celestia…kill,” he struggled on, each word killing him more as the air escaped his lungs. He tried to smile and said his last words, “miss you…” before his head fell back to the ground. His chest no longer moved and all was still, the only sound was the muffled flicker of the flame by her side. She sat there tears in her eyes, staring at the dead form of her only friend for a considerable time. Time itself was irrelevant for her, she tried to piece together his last words. “Tell Celestia to kill the monsters that spread their infection leading to death,” she repeated aloud after another space of time. She then stood, she would carry out his dying wish but the question now was, what monsters? She picked up her lantern and stepped back into the shop, the sky outside was now dark, lit only by the pallid light of the waxing moon. I’m not going to go out there and run into a horde of monsters without a weapon, she thought to herself, but what? She gazed once more at the shelves, looking for any particularly sharp implement when she spotted a pitchfork mounted on the wall. She exhaled heavily then trotted over to the wall and wrenched the fork off, brandishing it. What monsters? The voice in her head repeated with an echo. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Sergeant Paul Bunting of the UNSC Marine Corps. Serial number 6-7-8-4-5-2-0-5-6,” Bunting repeated again to more sighs from the ponies in front of him. “It’s his name, rank and unique number given to each soldier for identification. Can I please go now? Or get a lawyer or someone?” Okano pleaded. “You ain’t going nowhere, punk,” Quintus said threateningly. “You will all be released once we have judged you’re not a threat to ponykind,” Luna added with another heavy sigh. “I’m not a threat! I wouldn’t hurt a fly!” “You shot Rainbow Dash three times,” Tertius whispered heavily into his ear. “Sergeant Paul Bunting of the UNSC Marine Corps. Serial number 6-7-8-4-5-2-0-5-6.” “I can’t go to pony prison! I’m too young to go away for life. Please I’ll do anything.” “She’s still alive thanks in no small part to doctor Stamford…” Luna began. “Doctor Stamford provided medical assistance to the enemy! I’ll gut that weasel!” Sergeant Bunting burst out angrily. “Oh, Shit! Uhh… Sergeant Paul Bunting of the UNSC Marine Corps. Serial number 6-7-8-4-5-2-0-5-6,” he added switching back to his monotone. “Neither of you are giving me a good reason to let you go!” Quintus shouted at the pair of them. Sergeant Bunting stared him right in the eyes for a few intense seconds while saying slowly and clearly, “Sergeant. Paul. Bunting. Of the U-N-S-C- Marine Corps. Serial number 6-7-8-4-5-2-0-5-6.” “He doesn’t mean it! Look I can’t take small spaces, I’m claustrophobic, and you can’t make me go back in there,” Okano was begging now. “I’m sorry but there is no way I can release you yet,” Luna announced with a sense of finality. Okano looked down dejectedly. “Unless you can tell us how these “firearms” work,” Tertius said from behind them. “Hah! As if that squirt would know a thing about guns!” Bunting shouted out loud. "I know the basics! Uh, you pull the trigger and the uhh, firing pin causes an explosion propelling a bullet towards whatever you’re pointing at.” “Hah! Where’d you learn that, vids?! Everyone who knows a lick about guns knows the bullet is shot forward by a very fast burn that releases hot gas, not a true explosion!” Bunting laughed at Okano before turning to Luna. “You want to know about guns, eh? Then make it worth my while.” “Money or power?” Luna suggested. “Not interested. You help us fix up our ship and maybe I’ll give you the lowdown on guns,” Bunting proposed. “I’m not sure that we could help you repair your ship. The technology of it seems… beyond our capabilities,” Luna replied glumly. “Look, you need Sinclair, that guy is a whiz when it comes to gizmos.” Bunting placed an elbow on the table, relaxing his joints. “You want us to help you with our technology, imagine what you could learn from Vic.” “How do I know you know anything about guns?” “Fine, I’ll give you a brief summary, the most basic gun consists of a barrel closed at one end and an ignition system of some sort. Now the guns we use are a combination of a hammer and firing pin or a striker. The hammer or the striker are spring-loaded and held back by the sear. Pulling the trigger moves the sear out of the way allowing the hammer to fall on the firing pin or the striker to move forward and to smash the primer of a cartridge which produces a flame to ignite the propellant charge inside the cartridge case. The burning powder produces gas, which rapidly expands. The pressure from the gas expands the casing slightly making it seal the breech and pushes the projectile out of the case and down the barrel. Our semi-auto guns and auto guns either use some of the gases generated by cartridge, or energy of the recoil to operate the gun automatically,” Bunting explained, enthusiasm creeping into his voice. “That’s only a basic overview; anything else will cost you one ship,” he stated and sat back in his chair, crossing his arms and smirking. “Thank you Sergeant Paul Bunting, we will think over your offer and give you feedback later. Mr Okano, You’re lucky Rainbow Dash isn’t pushing charges,” Luna said nodding to each of them as she named them. “Next please.” She called to the two unicorn guards. “No, no, no wait!” Okano shouted but then one of the unicorn’s horns began to glow and his arms snapped to his side as the guard picked him and walked him back to his cell. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Victor Sinclair had set up a workshop in the castle ruins. Despite the castle looking like it had been abandoned for years, very little seemed to have been looted. He had found an old study with a, still intact, wooden desk complete with chair. Naturally he had claimed the workspace. Victor relished the opportunity to actually put his hobby of invention to good use once more. Before he was practically forced into the army he had just graduated with honours in engineering. He was currently sat at said desk with an open scroll in front of him; he had quickly located some blank scrolls and pencils and started planning. There were a lot of gems and valuable metals just lying around the ruins which he planned around. The current and, arguably, most important piece that he was working on was the Solar Generator. With a little bit of tinkering, it wouldn’t be too difficult to use the gems to optimise the solar energy onto a small golden base. Then comes the hard part of using the captured photons to excite electrons and generate energy. He had managed to supplement most of the objects but the last step would be the hardest, he needed to substitute the diode but nothing on hand could match it. He was pulling his hair out in annoyance, so focused on the subject he didn’t hear the sound of hooves on the floor. “Have you thought of using magic?” Earnest said from behind him. “Magic? I wish,” Victor scoffed. “Well, I can’t tell what all these golden tubes are for, but it’s quite plain to see that you’re trying to harness the energy from the sun. What for? I can only guess at. But if you look here…” he said, pointing at the paper to the receptor. “Wait a minute! Shouldn’t you be locked up downstairs?!” Victor demanded. “I was but I got bored.” “How in the hell did you get out?!” Sinclair said standing up and backing away. Earnest stepped forward and his horn began to glow. The pencil which Sinclair had been holding mere seconds ago was suddenly coated with a bright grey shimmer as it picked itself up and began to write onto Victor’s scroll. Victor’s curiosity outweighed his fear of the alien before him and he approached the paper admiring the neat, careful lines that Starstruck was drawing. “Hmm, if what you’re suggesting actually works... no wait, what am I saying? You’re breaking the first law of thermodynamics! Energy can’t just be created!” Victor scoffed incredulously. “Magic is different, it isn’t created and it runs in the blood. It… it… gah! I can’t explain it. There was a young unicorn back at the Celestial Academy who was studying magic in all forms. She could explain it much more eloquently. Bah! The point still stands that magic isn’t created from nothing.” “You’re telling me that something in your blood powers magic.” “Yes, on a basic level. But it also comes from around is. It’s the interactions between the magic present in nature and the magic present in us all.” “I’m calling bullshit on that. There is no way that you can harness the low level radiation surrounding us all to create magical fields!” “What’s radiation?” Starstruck finally looked up from the edits he’d been making. “It’s the deterioration of unstable atoms.” “Atoms?” “Don’t you have science here?” “Clearly not as advanced as yours… look,” he pointed once more to the blueprints in front of him. While they had been talking he had scrawled out a set of complex calculations. “The theory is sound, as long as the gold doesn’t burn from the heat, we could do with something more heat resistant.” “That ship we rode in on was made of a material designed to resist the heat of atmospheric entry. If we could find a small plate of it, then it should easily be able to receive the focused beam!” Sinclair shouted ecstatically, pumping his fist in the air. “I’ll go tell Lairsey what we’re planning. There’s more paper and pencils there if you want to design something, I’ll be back soon,” Victor said happily before leaving the unicorn alone in the room. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “You look slightly different from the other humans we’ve interviewed,” Quintus said, his eyebrows raised. “Well, yeah, I’m a woman. Female,” Laura Berneche stated as if it was obvious. “So you get male and female humans as well. So, let’s do this one with a bit more order,” Quintus replied. “Shouldn’t we wait for Luna to get back or Twilight and her friends to show up?” Tertius suggested. “When Twilight arrives, we can give her the basics so she can focus on the important questions. And Luna will be gone for the night, you saw how tired she looked, frankly I can’t blame her. If it weren’t for the frequent coffee breaks I’d have collapsed myself,” Quintus laughed and then yawned widely. He then turned back to Laura. “Name?” “Technician Laura Berneche.” “We already have gender, so age?” “Really? What use could that possibly be to you?” Laura replied her eyebrow ticking angrily. “It’s what normally goes on fact files…” “That’s what you’re basing this on? Normal files? To you, I’m an alien! Shouldn’t you have tailored it more towards that?!” Laura rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair. “Well… how would you have done it?” Quintus wavered, throwing his hooves up into the air out of annoyance. “I would expect you’d care more about things like, uh. Have I killed before? Or how could I benefit you? My tolerance towards aliens, you know things that directly affect you,” Laura shrugged as she suggested. “Sure, that makes sense. So, uh, care to answer those questions?” Quintus asked awkwardly. Laura started laughing nervously as did Tertius behind her. “I’m serious.” Quintus said trying to harden his gaze, which only made the others laugh more. “Hahaha! Heh, okay, I haven’t killed before. I’m a technician so I have a grasp on most basic human technologies. And last but not least, I’m pretty confident that you guys aren’t Covenant. I mean pretty pastel ponies don’t exactly seem the galaxy conquering type. So yeah, I can tolerate you guys. “Good. Hey! Who are you calling a pretty pastel pony?” Quintus shouted angrily and Tertius and Laura burst out laughing again. “Cut it out! Come on, you guys,” Quintus whined. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eriksson stalked trough the trees like a predator, slowly and carefully, practically invisible. Kendrick, in comparison, was like a blind dog, stumbling over roots and walking into branches. Eriksson sighed heavily as Kendrick fell over for the sixth time in an hour. Why did I have to volunteer to pair with her? I always have to feel sorry for the losers, Leif thought to himself. “Leif, are we almost there? I feel like we’ve been trekking through the forest for days,” Kendrick complained loudly. “It’s only been two hours, we’re lucky we haven’t run into anything dangerous. You've heard the noises out there,” Eriksson whispered in reply, “you need to keep it quieter.” “Sorry,” Kendrick whispered, panting slightly, “I’m not used to this much physical activity.” “Just keep close, that road has to lead somewhere so as long as we follow it, we’ll reach the indigenous population,” Eriksson reasoned. “Wait? You mean the horses that captured half of our crewmen! Why would we want to find them?!” Kendrick demanded loudly. “Shh. You need to keep it quiet.” Eriksson dragged the two of them into a nearby cave then sat still and silent for a few seconds while he made sure they hadn’t been heard. “Look. Lairsey wants to recon the area and estimate their numbers. But, between you and me, I think we should prioritise looking for potential allies.” “Allies? Are you serious? Did you just forget about the armed soldiers that assaulted us?!” Kendrick shouted again. “For god’s sake woman! Is it that hard to stay quiet?!” Eriksson shouted as loud as he could. For a few seconds everything was silent once more before a huge roar pierced from deeper inside the cave. “Shit,” Eriksson stated simply. “We need to take whatever that was down, hold together and open fire,” Eriksson said to Kendrick before turning to see she had already vanished. The cave shook as a huge blue bear walked forwards, its fur was like the night sky; full of constellations. Loose rocks fell from the ceiling as the beast unleashed another mighty roar. Leif kept a strong focus as he quickly searched the area for anyway he could possibly escape. Okay, don’t panic, you panic you die, you die well that’s bad. No conveniently loose stalactites, no small side-passages. Think, Leif, think. The bear stopped directly in front of him and roared with such ferocity it threw Leif to the ground. Leif grabbed his shotgun and fired straight upwards at the creature’s face. The shells passed straight through the beast’s ethereal skin with no effect. It did however take the large blasting noise as a challenge and threw out its claw. The claw tore through Leif’s chest plate as if it were paper, tearing deep bloody gashes into his chest. Leif kicked the bear in the chin with all the force he could muster, and dragged himself back up and into a sprint, retreating deeper into the cave. He twisted back and the shotgun was cocked and fired once, then twice with no effect. I never thought I’d see the day where my shotgun fails me; thank god I’ve got the ultimate fallback, high explosives. Leif smirked, shouldering his shotgun and pulling two grenades out of his pockets, one in each hand. There, a rock formation to hide behind .He ducked behind the rocks and the bear thundered past him before he burst out and sprinted in the other direction. The bear stopped in its tracks and turned around, charging in his new direction. Leif pulled the pins out and threw one grenade at each side of the cave’s exit. He dived forward as the explosives detonated and the entrance collapsed sealing it shut. The concussive force from the explosion threw him slightly further than he intended, straight into a tree. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The unicorn guards had to levitate Darius Kowalski into the chair due to him being unable to walk on his leg. “So, who are you and what do you do?” Quintus asked from the chair opposite leaning forwards casually. “I’m Darius Kowalski, and it’s my job to ensure that alien fucktards like you don’t mess with the crew,” Kowalski replied aggressively. “So you’re a soldier,” Tertius said quickly to undercut Quintus’s response. “Security. More like a guard, I’m the last line of defence for the navy techies from you alien pus bags,” Kowalski kept his gaze level with Quintus’s as if daring him to hit him. “Calm the buck down. We both know we’re not the enemies here. You want to live in your little world then have fun but if you want to actually get out of here. Then bucking cooperate!” Quintus shouted angrily at the prisoner who didn’t even blink. “I think you better calm down too…” Tertius began but Darius cut him off. “You think I care. Any moment from now I’m gunna wake up in a fuckin loony bin. You’re literally nuthin, a stray fuckin thought. And y’know what the worst part is? I’ll still have memories of you two fucktards and this sham of an interrogation when I’m liberated from this fuckin insane world,” Kowalski ranted. Quintus and Tertius were literally speechless. How were they meant to convince somepony that this was all really happening? Quintus rapped him on the head. “What the fuck was that for?!” Kowalski shouted wildly. “There, you can feel pain therefore this is real,” Quintus reasoned. “Of course I can fuckin feel pain! My leg is fuckin broken in multiple fuckin places. Don’t you think that’s fuckin painful?! You utter bastard!” Kowalski shouted and leaned forwards trying to swipe at Quintus. He suddenly felt himself pulled back by a strong force and he landed securely back in his chair. He wiggled trying to move when he looked down to notice a grey shimmer surrounding his body. “There, you go. Calm down now and think this through,” Tertius said gently from behind him, “you can feel pain. Your crewmen are here. You can smell, touch, hear and see us.” Darius seemed to take this in and think this through. He then shouted just as loudly and rudely as before, “how about you look at the fuckin facts?! You’re colourful ponies. You speak in clear English. You use magic for Christ’s sake! What part of that is believable to you?!” “Guards! Take this bucking foal back to his cell,” Quintus ordered and Kowalski was lifted into the air and carried back through the door he came in through, shouting abuse the whole way. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seed Sower carefully pushed open the front door to the store with a soft creak. The sun had long gone down but the village was illuminated by a full moon, its soft light casting long shadows across the village square. Seed Sower gulped and crawled out of the front door as quietly as she could, the lantern swinging from her mouth and the pitchfork secure on her back. Okay, Seeds think straight, if anypony could tell you what happened to the village, it’d be the mayor, she thought to herself. Mayor Pencil Pusher drove a hard line but she had contingency plans for anything. Her drive for organization is what had turned a small rabble of arguing famers into a bustling economically sound village. Seed Sower trotted through the town, it was easy to tell that something was amiss. All the buildings were still there but there was something almost sinister about them. This village had brought Seed Sower so much joy in the years since she had left Canterlot, in her mind it had become an island of joy and mirth in a sea of cold indifference. Now the town seemed cold and empty, the buildings towered menacingly over her. She picked up her pace, trotting faster, the only sound her hooves striking the ground despite her attempts to mask them. She was just passing the local inn when she heard a shrill cry coming from the town hall up ahead. She switched to a full on gallop and burst through the front door. Two ponies appeared to be grappling in the corridor. A large, dark blue earth pony colt clad in the uniform of the town guard was trying to fight off another earth pony. The other pony looked sickly, its skin hung loosely and its fur, patchy. The blue earth pony put all of its energy into a hard ram with his shoulders, knocking the sickly pony to the floor and into the light. Seed Sower gasped in shock as she saw the earth pony’s chest was torn open, its insides missing and replaced with a fleshy grey pod. The diseased creature dragged itself to its hooves again and lunged once more at the colt. The dark blue pony fell to the floor trying to hold the beast at arm’s length. “You there! I can’t hold him back! Please! Help me!” the colt yelled as the creature tried to take a chunk out of his arm with its razor sharp teeth. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” Seed Sower shouted with a lot more confidence than she felt. She placed the lantern on the floor and pulled the pitchfork off her back. “Do it! Do it now!” the colt shouted when the creature briefly broke through his defences and took a bite of his wrist. “Argh!” he shouted in pain but pushed back with as much energy as he could muster. Seed Sower gulped once again and closed her eyes before bursting into a charge. Her hooves clattered against the cold, hard tiled floor before suddenly stopping, her momentum being transferred to the fork as it stabbed into the creature’s belly. There was a small pop and the creature collapsed to the floor with a sickly splat. The colt lay on his back heavily, the blood pouring freely from his wrist. Seed Sower put out her hoof and proffered it to the collapsed colt who stared at it intently before placing his own hoof in it. Seed Sower pulled him up and flashed him a smile which he returned half-heartedly. “What happened here?” Seed Sower inquired looking around the ruined office, furniture had been turned over and blood coated the room, despite the lack of bodies. “The townsfolk… they changed into those…those… things.” the colt replied through ragged breaths while grasping his injured leg as tight as he could, shocks of scarlet still poured out blending with the dark blue. “The mayor put a contingency plan into effect… we evacuated to the town hall and locked it down, some of us argued but the mayor said it was for everypony’s safety. Some of the survivors wanted to flee and then some foal, I think it was that secretary opened the doors. It was carnage. A few of us pulled back to the mayor’s office; a few minutes ago we saw all the beasts leave, heading as if one towards Plumtucker Farm to the east. The mayor ordered the two of us to scout out and secure the hall in a second attempt to crack down. Then Hay Bale here finds some fleshy squid thing under a desk which then disembowels him and replaces his internal organs with itself. As if that wasn’t bad enough Hay Bale’s corpse then stood up and lunged at me. If you hadn’t come by it probably would have torn me apart. Thanks for the save, I’m Plough. What are you doing here?” “I’m Seed Sower. I just came here from the village shop. Green Bit is dead.” “I assumed so. Most of the villagers are dead, hopefully a few of them got away but... I wouldn’t get anyponies hopes up. Come with me, the mayor will want to see you.” The dark blue pony turned and tried to put weight on his injured ankle and gasped in pain. He placed it down anyway and winced with each step as he led Seed Sower up the stairs and to the mayor’s office. The corridors upstairs, while still not as bad as the entrance hall, still looked as if an army had torn through the place. Once again there were no corpses despite clear outlines lying in the pools of blood. The double doors at the end of the corridor were covered in scratch marks and a mix of blood and a certain grey liquid. Candles sat on the walls lit the corridor with their flickering light as the two ponies trotted down the hallway, Plough wincing with every step. “Plough! Hay Bale! Is the perimeter secure?!” the Mayor’s voice sounded through the door in her terse officious manner. “This is Plough! Hay Bale is dead! The perimeter is not secure! We’ve found a survivor, Seed Sower.” “Seed Sower? The Farmer from Sugarcube Farm?” the Mayor replied a little confusedly before reverting back to her usual sharp tone, “is she infected?!” “Uhh, I’m pretty sure she’s not. Her skin is still intact.” Seed Sower heard the sound of hushed voices beyond the door before a cry of, “Open the door!” She then heard the sounds of bolts being pulled across and the grunt of heavy lifting before the double door swung open. The two of them trotted in and a purple pegasus mare with a golden mane closed the door and placed a wooden board across some brackets on the inside. She then pulled three sets of bolts across completely securing the door. Behind the desk, sat a grey unicorn mare with a thinning black mane. Emblazoned on her flank was a closed book, much like her personality. Seed Sower had met with Mayor Pencil Pusher before, particularly when she had first moved out here to arrange her place in the community. The purple pegasus who had blocked the door was her personal bodyguard, Violet Breeze. There were two other ponies present in the room, a beige earth pony colt who Seed Sower recognised as Farmer Oats and a mint green earth pony mare who she hadn’t met before. Farmer Oats looked surprisingly casual, slumped in a chair by the fireplace chewing on a piece of straw. The green pony’s eyes were still wet but she looked out of touch with reality, her eyes unfocused and unseeing. Violet Breeze trotted over to behind the mayor and stood behind her at attention. The mayor sighed as the two newcomers wandered over to her desk. “I knew I shouldn’t have sent you both off so soon, now look, we’ve lost Hay Bale.” “I tolds you that these here boys are farmers not soldiers,” Farmer Oats said softly from his chair. “Well, what’s done is done. I made a choice and I still stick by it. Without supplies this hall is already lost. We can’t outlast them here; it looks like after all this, those foals were right. We’re not going to be able to outlast those beasts, the best policy right now would be to fight our way back out of the village. If we can reach Canterlot then we can get aid and Celestia’s troops should be able to take down these creatures.” “Wells I see you finally seen the light, but first we’ll need weapons.” “Weapons? There are no weapons here. The armoury held a few swords and lances but the town guard took them all when the bell first rang. Plough here is the only town guardspony still alive and his weapon is still embedded in Bluegrass’s chest.” “Where did Seed Sower gets her weapon?” Oats nodded to Seed Sower who stammered in response. “I took it from the Clopton General Store.” “If Green Bit saw that, he’d be a mite unhappy,” Oats replied sternly. “Green Bit is dead. Something tore his throat open and left him bleeding out in the back room. Before he died he told me to seek Celestia and warn her about this,” Seed Sower replied matter-of-factly. “I’m sorry, miss,” Oats took his hat off solemnly, “I knows you and Green Bit were close.” “So are we all agreed on charging out there and hopefully breaking out of town?” Pencil Pusher said standing up. “It’s our duty to warn Celestia and restore order,” Plough replied. “It’s our chance to keep on living.” Oats nodded. “For Green Bit., Seed Sower said holding back tears. “I’m with you as always mistress,” Violet spoke from behind her. They all then turned to the green mare. “Mint Snap?” Oats said softly to the pony who flinched at the sound of her name. “I’ll protect her, don’t y’all worry.” Oats added as the six of them prepared to leave. The Mayor pulled a sword from underneath her desk while Violet had one already at her side. Plough picked up a flagpole from the corner with a sharpened top. Seed Sower still had her pitchfork while Oats wrapped a hoof around Mint’s neck and gently walked her over. “Let’s move!” the Mayor ordered. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Twilight Sparkle arrived once more at Celestia’s Castle accompanied by Rarity and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow had a personal stake in this while Rarity would never pass up a chance of a free trip to Canterlot. The three of them were sat on a pegasus-drawn cart with General Gracchus. Twilight had been surprised when General Gracchus himself had arrived to invite her and her friends to Canterlot to assist with investigations. But as Celestia’s student and young prodigy in the fields of science and magic, it was only natural. As Elements of Harmony her friends had also been invited, but with the Summer Sun Celebration starting tomorrow night, they were hard pressed to finish preparations. Applejack was trying to get as many apples harvested and baked into yummy treats for the festivities. Fluttershy was trying to prepare the animals to help with music. And it wouldn’t be a party without Pinkie Pie. They landed just outside the entrance and the party of four entered the castle, the two pegasus guards walked the cart back around. “Follow me to the special operations wing, I’m sure the three of you will have better luck than our agents in this endeavour,” Gracchus’s voice dripped with irony as he led them through the many hallways of the castle. “Argue all you want but there is no locale better than Canterlot for magnificence such as this,” Rarity announced to the other ponies. “This place has nothing on Cloudsdale,” Rainbow snorted derisively. “Quiet down back there, we can talk all we need once we get there,” Gracchus shouted back gruffly. The splendid white marble that lined the corridors let out an almost musical ting at the touch of their hooves. They then twisted off the main corridors into an area of the castle which Twilight had never been in before, the torches became sparser but guard patrols became more frequent. They continued down these corridors until they arrived at a large pair of golden double doors. Stood at attention on the door was a red mare in unusually ornate armour. “Bejewelled? I mean Brigandine Sabre,” He quickly caught and corrected himself. “Slick, Gracchus. Yes I am here on business. Marshal Marius has caught wind of Special division acting rather strangely. He is meeting with Celestia soon but I was ordered to see if I could get some information out of you. However, the gate is closed and, here’s the best part, some genius has changed the locks so the officers’ skeleton keys won’t function without telling the Marshal. So, if you want to retain your role as General, then I suggest that you start talking,” Brigandine Bejewelled Sabre stated a cruel smirk on her lips. Gracchus walked up to her awkwardly and spoke quietly up close. “Uhh, couldn’t this wait a bit? I’m in the middle of something, I’ve got some guests here.” “Well why don’t I accompany you on this task.” “That won’t be necessary…” Gracchus began. “No, no, I and this here signed document from the Marshal would say otherwise,” Sabre held up a piece of paper with a smirk. Gracchus snatched the paper and scanned through it anxiously. “Well, everything appears to be in order,” Gracchus said with an extremely fake smile, before pulling a key off his belt and shoving it into the lock, twisting it and pushing the door open. Sabre walked straight on through haughtily, followed by Twilight and her friends. Gracchus walked through after the group and then locked the doors behind them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Corporal Ming Yao sat down in the chair opposite Quintus, the two guards walking behind him. “Right, last one,” Quintus said to Tertius. Tertius then walked back to his position behind the human. Quintus turned to the human sat before him and said in a routine voice, “Name?” “Corporal Ming Yao, UNSC Marine Combat Medic. I am twenty four years old and blood type A positive,” The marine replied in an equally bored voice. “Blood type? I mean, good yes,” Quintus replied confusedly, “Uh, have you ever killed before? How could you help us? And, uhh, what is your tolerance level to aliens?” Quintus asked slowly trying to remember word for word what he had discussed with Berneche. “I have killed quite a few aliens, but never in cold blood. While not as experienced with weaponry as Bunting or medical science as Stamford, I could still prove useful in both those respects. When it comes to alien biology though, I’m your man. I can tolerate aliens but apparently they can’t tolerate us. Every alien I’ve gotten close to has always struck first and never surrendered. Even today at the landing zone, we had you safely secured where neither of us would have been injured then your friends assaulted us and almost killed some of my comrades-in-arms,” Yao replied with a hint of malice. “Really and you think restraining us would have made us docile?” Tertius asked incredulously. “It was the best option at the time,” Yao replied as if he truly believed it. The door was then pushed open by General Gracchus and his cohorts. Yao recognised the cyan pegasus with the rainbow mane as the assailant who had thrown apart their plans and narrowed his eyes. Tertius and Quintus practically jumped from their chares and snapped off salutes, they then gasped as a red pegasus mare with a blond mane and tail wearing elaborate golden armour followed them in. “Brigandine Sabre!” They saluted again and looked at Gracchus questioningly. Sabre walked over to the human sat in the chair. “You must be what the Specialist division is hiding. A real life, breathing alien,” Sabre exclaimed with a whistle of admiration. “So?” Yao shrugged. “And it speaks Equestrian too, very nice find boys. You are aware though that these aliens could constitute a threat to all Equestria and therefore the Marshal should know.” “There are only twelve of them and six of them are already captured, the remainder won’t take long. They are not a major threat,” Gracchus replied, attempting to downplay the importance of them. “Besides Celestia herself appointed Twilight Sparkle and her friends as head of this case,” Gracchus added his tone slightly angry. “Really? A non-military consultant? as head?” Sabre replied a little confusedly. Twilight then stepped forwards. “Expert in science and magic, Celestia’s most prized student and Element of Harmony,” Twilight said, a little ticked off at Sabre’s ridicule. “Oh, so you are the esteemed Twilight Sparkle and these two must be your friends, Rainbow Dash and… Creativity.” “It’s Rarity darling,” Rarity replied with a smile despite the tick in her eyebrows saying otherwise. “Yes, quite, I’ll be returning to Marshal Marius now,” Sabre then turned and trotted back out of the office. “Twilight Sparkle, I hereby officially relinquish these prisoners into your care. Quintus, Tertius, assist her any way you can,” Gracchus said before galloping out of the door in as orderly a fashion as possible. “Mistress Sparkle, we have already conducted preliminary interviews and compiled a basic fact-file for each human,” Quintus said with a salute. “Mistresses Rarity and Dash, we are also at your service. If you need anything please don’t hesitate to tell Tertius,” Quintus said with a smile. Tertius gave him a dirty look before reverting back to a smile. “I’m sure we can assist you in any way you require,” Tertius replied. Yao was still sat there in silence. “By Celestia, that ensemble is hideous.” Rarity shuddered in horror as she approached the seated human. “Its combat armour, functionality over form,” Yao replied giving the pony an odd look. “Ah but darling, it is possible to have functional fashion, just look at our royal guard.” “That golden armour could be seen from miles away. Snipers would have picked you off in seconds. You want to be light, camouflaged and relatively armoured,” Yao replied factually. “That is not an excuse for that crime against fashion,” Rarity said sharply. “So, you guys are still weird okay. One minute you’re attacking me and the next you’re patching me up. I mean, make up your minds,” Rainbow said oddly. “It’s a doctor’s oath to patch up any injured in need, no matter race, side or species,” Yao replied once more. “Yeah right, you’re up egghead.” Rainbow nodded to Twilight who stepped forwards. “Okay sir, let’s start up the formal questioning,” Twilight said pulling a pair of spectacles from nowhere and placing them on her face. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fluttershy was on the outskirts of the Everfree forest, searching for a red crested warbler to help complete her choir of birds. The sun was shining brightly as if in anticipation for the big day tomorrow. The beauty of nature was prevalent here, but a harsher nature than the soft one she usually worked with. Fluttershy much preferred the Whitetail Woods but the warbler was normally found on the verge of the Everfree Forest. Fluttershy cantered along keeping her ears open for the unusual cry of the warbler or any noise of danger around. After an hour with no sign of the warbler she was about to give up when a loud explosion rang out from somewhere in the forest. She let out a high pitched squeal and leapt into a bush quivering in fright. She concealed herself in her own world shutting out everything but her own internal voice. Oh my, why was the world so frightening? Just when you think everything is safe and sound, something goes completely awry and you find yourself hiding in a bush, again. After a few minutes of complete silence, she carefully peered back out of the bush, nothing was out of the ordinary so she slunk back out, looking around intently. Once she had established the coast was clear she prepared to resume her search. Wait a second, an explosion in the forest could leave injured animals! It wasn’t so far, and oh, what if a poor little bunny got hit, no, no, no. I shouldn’t imagine that. Oh I hope they’re all right, Fluttershy thought to herself. She gathered what little bravery she could find inside herself and pushed forwards into the dark forest, tears streaming in her eyes. The yellow pegasus pony approached the source of the explosion, Bearhollow Cave; a well known Ursa nest, to find that the cave had collapsed. The Ursa’s would be fine, they sleep for thousands of years at a time. The creature that lay sprawled outside however was a different matter. She had never encountered anything like it, clothes coated its skin hinting at some kind of sentience. The metal plating on its back and helmet lying nearby told her that it must be a soldier of some kind. It seemed to have hit the trunk of a tree head-first very hard. She turned it over to find its shirt shredded and long bloody gashes, reminiscent of an Ursa Minor claw, running down its chest. Blood seemed to be seeping from its head and it seemed to have landed awkwardly on its arm, breaking it. Fluttershy couldn’t leave an injured creature in the woods no matter how strange it seemed so she gently lifted it, mindful of its broken arm, and flew towards her cottage nearby. She did not notice a figure in the trees nearby watch her leave before vanishing into the trees. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Captain Seth Lairsey was sorting through the supply crates they had secured, placing items into piles based on their use. He had hoped Sinclair would have given him a hand but he had vanished somewhere into the castle. Eriksson and Kendrick had been sent to scout out the nearest settlement whilst Whitmore and Johnston were securing the perimeter. While their jobs were infinitely more exciting, it was nice to have a task that required his full attention to take his mind off of recent events. He could get used to quiet, quiet was good. He had just finished the first crate when Victor came sprinting down the stairs. “Boss! Boss! We need to secure the crash site again!” he shouted loudly as he came to a stop by Lairsey. “And why would we do that?” Lairsey replied still sorting through the boxes. “Earnest had a brilliant idea of how to make my solar generator work! But we require a metal that will not warp and melt under heat, something like what the ship was made of,” Victor ranted to an uncaring Lairsey. “Ernest? Victor, Ernest Franklin died on the ship. Help me with this box.” “No sir, Earnest Starstruck, the pony,” Sinclair corrected with a laugh. “The prisoner?! You let the prisoner loose?! Lairsey turned at this his eyes wide with surprise. “No, no he escaped his bonds and then helped me with my blueprints,” Sinclair said, too casually for Lairsey’s liking. “The xeno is probably stealing our plans as we speak! To take back to his evil overlords!” Lairsey shouted and pulled out his pistol rushing up the stairs. As if on cue, Whitmore and Johnston returned to see Sinclair chase after Lairsey running up the stairs with a gun. Naturally they pulled out their weapons and sprinted after them. “Wait! You don’t understand! He’s helping, I can’t make that generator without him!” Sinclair shouted as he ran after Lairsey. The two of them burst into the chambers to find Earnest still at the desk scrawling frantically with a quill. “Stop right there and put your hooves where I can see them!” Lairsey ordered, cocking his pistol. “I’ll be with you in a moment. I’m on a roll here,” The pony said dismissively. Lairsey didn’t know how to react to indifference, he had been expecting an aggressive or submissive reply. “See boss, he’s just scrawling on that scroll,” Sinclair said as he walked up to Lairsey and lowered Seth’s gun. The other two then burst into the room and were equally surprised. “Captain, orders?!” Private Whitmore shouted. “Stand down, I suppose this one’s all right. But Sinclair, watch him at all times and always have your weapon on you. If he tries to escape, don’t hesitate,” Lairsey said coldly and turned to leave. Kendrick ran into the castle screaming, “They got Leif! They got Leif!” That was enough to get everyone sprinting back downstairs, bar Earnest of course. “Status report Kendrick!” The Captain ordered. “Private Eriksson got attacked by a giant bear, but he trapped it in this cave with grenades, and then he got thrown across by the blast, and then some yellow winged horse picked him up, and flew into town!” she said quickly without pausing for breath. “What about the town? Numbers, tech level?” Lairsey switched his steely gaze back on. “I only saw a handful of thatched roof buildings but there may have been more,” Kendrick said, holding back tears. “Low tech but unknown number,” Lairsey summarised then turned to the crewmen. “Whitmore, Kendrick, you’re with me. We’re going to scope out the town and maybe conduct a rescue mission. Sinclair, Johnston, secure the prisoner as tightly as you can and then head back to the crash site and get some of that metal. Once you bring it back to the castle, move up and reinforce us.” “Yes Sir!” they all shouted in unison. “Lock and load marines! This time we shoot to kill!” Lairsey shouted. “Oorah!” Whitmore replied and the trio left the castle. Johnston and Sinclair went back upstairs and barricaded the door to the study shut with as much furniture as they could find before heading out to the crash site.