//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Awakening Part 1 // Story: Seeking Redemption // by ShadowRazer2121 //------------------------------// Frozen North Mountains The snow raged on as the storm got worse and worse. The snow willing to punish any of those who dare try to step foot in its raging fury. The wind roared on as a pony trudged through the snow. The pony had a helmet on its head as blue lights came from the visor. Four dots in the front of the helmet simulating eyes. He walked through the frozen wasteland looking in every direction as if was being followed. The pony put his hoof to his the side of his head making the front of it retract upward so that the pony's face was visible. His face was dark maroon color with his eyes being black with white pupils in the center. He had a scar going down his left eye all the way down to his cheek. His mane was a dark blue color that was covered by the armor he was wearing and his tail was not a pony tail rather a similar tail to a felines. He brought his hoof to the side of his head the front of the helmet, retracting once more to cover his face from the snow and ice that was pounding against his armor. As he kept pushing his way through the snow, noticed that the mountains were getting closer and closer. As he approached he pulled a device off of his back and tossed it up into the freezing cold air. The device however did not land rather it hovered over the snow before an single eye popped out from its small body. The stallion walked past the device as it took notice and started to hover next to him. The stallion and his hovering companion both started for the mountain range, but was stopped when he felt like something was watching him. He stopped and put his hoof in front of his companion. Until heard movement coming from the ridge above him. He started to reach for another device on his midsection. It did not take long for he already had a grip on it. He pushed a button on it it clipped to the back of his neck and attached to his forelegs. Everything happened in slow motion, quick on his hooves, he snapped around aiming his forelegs at the intruder and opened fire. The wings on the creature's back unfurled as with its massive wing span. He finished it off by aiming for the eye and fired blowing a hole through the creature's head spilling the inside of its head on the snowy floor which was now starting to turn red. Getting up he dusted himself off and continued as if nothing happened. His companion made an arm appear and picked up a piece of flesh from the dead creature as a red beam of light came from its eye, washing over the flesh pacing back and forth until he stopped and dropped the flesh and spoke. "The nova corruption has spread though out this region and it is as if it refuses to leave. Which I find odd knowing its nature." The robotic vibrant voice said. "I know, that is why we are here. To ask it ourselves and hopefully end it if possible." The stallion said his voice sounding mechanical and static sounding due to the helmet he wore as he spoke in a emotionless tone. As they both continued The stallion stopped and pulled his hoof to the side of his head signaling his companion to stop. He held his hoof there for a second before he unfurled his wings and and flapped them where he landed on a ridge to watch a bunch of Nova sentries walk by. He noticed that the Nova sentries looked like the ponies of this world, with crystals sticking out of their bodies. He noticed that one of them had a crystal coming out of what he could only assume was her eye with the color of the crystal being purple. He waited until they passed before he jumped down tiny thrusters on the bottom of his wings letting him glide quietly to the ground. As he turned around he felt something familiar about this ridge but ignored it for the time being. That is when he saw a weapon Jutting out of the snow with a helmet like his hanging off of it. Then it all came back to him. Pre-Equestrian Era "HOLD THIS RIDGE! WE NEED TO BUY THEM SOME TIME TO FINISH SEALING THE DOORS!" A voice yelled over the countless explosions. He could feel it all coming back to him. "GOLIATH INCOMING!" another voice said except this one was female. "OPEN FIRE!" another male voice said. watching the blood shed before him unfold it had happened. He felt the need to help. He pulled a rifle off of his back and jumped over the barricade meant to hold the enemies back long enough for the door to close. As he cleared it he charged at the enemies he remembered it all. The Swarm they were the cause. He felt somepony grab his shoulder and start shaking him. Yelling his name, but it was muffled so he couldn't hear it. "ANDREW! Andrew snap out of it." a voice said as everything faded away. Present Andrew shook his head, shaking the nostalgic feeling away from him. The swarm all of it, he remembered. He remembered a time long ago when the Ο άνθρωπος finally achieved peace. He remembered all too well that it did not last long. He turned around and kept walking up the ridge. "Lets keep moving we are running behind on schedule." Andrew said through his helmet, his static; mechanical voice hiding the pain he felt. They kept walking every now and then encountering patrols and opted to just avoid them. It then started to hit him. "Why are the Swarm up here." Andrew question himself trying to find any clues. That was until he saw a structure he knew. Once he was certain that the Swarm was no where in sight he jumped down from the ridge and landed making a crack in the rock, the armor making the landing softer than it sounded. He walked up to it and wiped some of the snow off the side of it. As he saw the letters and numbers that were written on the side of the structure as it read, 'Phoenix 0 7-4'. "Sythe. Splice this terminal." Andrew said as Sythe plugged in one of its mechanical arms into the terminal's outlet. He stood there watching Sythe splice the terminal his helmet started to speak. Warning hostiles detected Hostiles incoming. "Shit!" Andrew said as he got behind a piece of the wreckage. "Παρείσακτος! Σκότωσέ τον!" The Creature said as it pointed its arm at him and fired multiple shots all missing and hitting the cover he was hiding behind. He peeked from behind his cover and saw three medium sized bipeds jump from the ridge. As they stood up a arm cannon formed on their arms. "Χαχαχα! Ετοιμαστείτε να πεθάνετε!" The middle on spoke for him still not able to understand what they were saying. He got out of cover and rolled to another piece of the wreckage and pulled his rifle off of his back. "Well isn't this a fine day!" He spat to himself through his helmet peeking over his make shift cover and firing at the one to the left missing it as it dove for cover. "Πάρτε τον εισβολέα!" the one to the right said as it moved up trying to get to cover. It however was unable to as Andrew took the opportunity and opened fire and hitting the creature in the chest and head killing it. He quickly ducked down as more bolts of energy darted just over his head. "Στρατιώτης κάτω!" the one on the left said as the one the right one moved up. "Ρύθμιση ισχύος. θα σε καταστρέψω!" It said in it's language as it hovered and it suddenly turned purple. As it quickly ducked back into cover. Andrew got out of cover and opened fire at the purple one hitting it multiple times in its head, but it only staggered back. He gridded his teeth as he unfurled his wings and jumped up and landed on its head. As he tried to get a hold on it he activated his energy blade, letting out a war cry started to stab it in its head repeatedly, refusing to stop. After stabbing it multiple times, he pulled it back and shoved it right through the head of the creature, where the blade would come out where the mouth should be, and pulled the blade upwards; slicing the creatures head in half as it still tried to reach for him, but kept failing. Andrew unfurled his wings and pushed off of it and landed behind cover. Where the creature would produce an ear splitting screech before exploding. The final creature got out of cover and started to constantly open fire. Until its weapon stopped firing. It started to charge Andrew. "Θα σκοτώσω..." It didn't get to finish as Andrew put a hole in its head as it collapsed to the cold snowy ground. As the once white snow started to turn purple. "Andrew I am almost done, but there's something else." Sythe said as Andrew trotted over to him. Andrew pushed the side of his helmet making the part of the front with the eyes slide up to the top of his head, as the part where his mouth was slide down. As he looked at the some what active terminal as it displayed radio frequencies, the inventory of the wreckage, and other stuff that was in a computer. "Andrew I got it, I am uploading it to your Helmet visor." Sythe said as he got back to splicing the terminal. As Andrew turned around he pushed the side of his helmet making the plates retract back to covering his face from the freezing cold snow and winds. He lifted his foreleg and a holo screen appeared over his foreleg. He swiped his hoof across it as he grabbed what he was looking for and tossed the holographic orb in the air as it burst, many other tiny orbs made a dome around him with lines connecting them together. He then noticed figures appear. They were bipedal and were taller then him by far. He pushed a holographic triangle symbol on his foreleg and everything started moving. As Andrew watched everything play out. Andrew noticed multiple bipeds were walking about as he noticed tall towers with some more bipeds in them hold a weapon similar to his own. he then started to hear talking. "You know we can't push against the Swarm. Everyone knows that." The distress short male biped said as it confronted a taller more stoic one. "Doctor, I do not care of your concerns, I only came for what I requested and that is it." The stoic biped said. "Sargent, I already told you it isn't ready and will not be for awhile, but if you provoke the swarm you won't have to worry about the weapon." The biped named Doctor said as he put his hands on the table and stared down the one known as Sergeant down. The Sergeant not moving a muscle at all. "Doctor I don't have time for your excuses I need the weapon. Now is it ready or not?" Sergeant said as he slammed his hands down and stared down the Doctor. "Y...yes, it is." He said as he hung his head low disappointed in himself for giving in so easily. "Good, I want a shipment of those weapons by next week at sunrise. I thank you Doctor, I hope you can learn to do the same." The Sergeant said as he walked out of the tent. A couple of seconds went by before the Doctor let out a heavy sigh. "I just hope you learn as well. I hope we all do." The Doctor said before everything started to fizzle out until the dots formed the orb again as it went back into his foreleg. Andrew finished watching the old recording and had stopped to think on it. he still had questions on his mind. He decide to think on it later, he still had a job to do. "Sythe what is this thing anyway?" Andrew asked. "This is a transport vessel on route to an unknown location. We maybe able to find out its destination if we continue up the mountains. If this terminal is correct then there should be some sort of facility further up the mountain range. Sythe unplugged from the terminal and plugged itself into Andrew's back where it sat. Andrew continued through the Mountain range encountering multiple Nova corrupted sentries on his way up the mountain. After finishing off another patrol of sentries he put the rifle on his back and continued further up. As he kept walking he came upon what looked like an Outpost of sorts. "Sythe what can you tell me?" Andrew asked his Helmet making his voice sound like static. "This appears to be an outpost, but what kind I am unsure of. Have a look around and see if you can find any terminals you can plug me into." Sythe said as Andrew proceeded to wonder about the outpost looking in every tent until he came across a building. He walked up to it, unfurled his wings, and flapped them once and jumped to give him self some extra air time. As he hovered a couple of inches off the ground he grabbed the door handle, but it wouldn't open. "Sythe can you splice it?" Andrew asked backing up and letting the small floating robot splice into the security system. "Andrew we have incoming hostiles." Sythe said which made Andrew's face fall flat under his helmet. "Activating mobile fabricator. This fabricator can only fabricate ammunition and small arms and has limited energy so use it wisely." Sythe said through Andrew's helmet radio. "Why can't I go to an outpost where I am not attacked?" Andrew asked sounding very very pissed. He heard his helmet start to speak to him. Multiple hostiles detected.. Identifying... Nova Corrupted units Identified.. Code name: Imp Analysis: Imps prefer to attack with overwhelming force, but are very weak to any and all weaponry. "Well ain't that good to know." Andrew retorted, getting out from behind cover and opening fire at the imps and boy did he just now realize how many there were. He shot a group of imps that tried to flank him, but he made quick work of them. He quickly activated his energy blade that was on his right foreleg and spun around and swung slicing a group of three imps in half. He continued for about what felt like an hour, but really it was only about five minutes He finally was out of breath. Sitting on his back legs he pulled the rifle over his shoulder and fired thirty bullets straight above him and watched as an imp fell right in front of him. "All hostiles in the area have been neutralized. I have finished the splicing the security system. You should be able to pry it open." Sythe said as he activated his built in cloak and stuck close to Andrew. "About time." He said before he pull out his side arm and fired to his left as an another imp went flying right behind him. He gripped the crack with his hooves and pulled, with a lot of effort he forced the door open breaking the mechanism that was built into the door. He saw a terminal at the center of the room and also saw a desk with a device on it he had never seen before. He first walked over to the desk and studied the device. He unfurled his wings and hovered above the ground by a couple of inches so he could see the device more closely. He lifted up his left foreleg and pointed his hoof at the device on the desk. As a beam of blue light washed over it pacing back and forth on it. Data Received... Locate a Nearby Station for Log Play Back.. He took notice of a flashing light on a terminal that we has looking for and flew over to it and landed next to it. He pulled the so called Log in front of his helmet so he could see it. As he started to flip it trying to inspect it he put it up to the terminal as it was suddenly pulled into a sky blue beam of light. As the Log floated above the terminal he sunk into it being destroyed as an blue orb floated out of it and into the middle of the room before bursting and the similar creature from before appeared. All the others disappear except for one. As he walked up to the central terminal that he was at he pushed button on the terminal as a ringing sound was heard then a holographic image of a more female looking one appeared. "What do you need this time?" The women said almost letting out a chuckle. "He went through with it." The doctor said bluntly. Which got a concerned expression from the female. The doctor started to pace back and forth rabbling to himself about how its all over. "Michal calm down what did the Sergeant do?" She asked as the formerly named doctor now Michal faced her. "He is going to attack the swarm!" he practically yelled at her when he said it. "What? He can't not without proper authorization. You told him it's not ready right?" She asked with a hint of aggression in her voice. "Of course I did, you think I just gave him the weapon? I am not that stupid Charlie, and you know that. He basically might have had a gun to my head. Even after I tried to tell him not to do it, but of course the dipshit has to pull the "that's an order" card on me and you know I hate to not follow orders." Michal said as he sat down on one of the chairs and put his hands on his head. "Hey calm down, you know when he does that, I understand that you can't deny that. It's apart of being with military officers. Hey, look at me." she said making Michal stand up and look at her. "We will make it through this [Redacted] always find away. We always have, and always will its what we are as a species. It's what makes us [Redacted]." Charlie said before Michal let out a heavy sigh. "I guess your right." He said which made her smile a bit. "Hey, I will call you later and don't worry I am sure he will reconsider it, despite the way he acts. He really takes care in his plans." Charlie said before ending the communications. "I hope your right." Michal said before making his way out, but not making it two steppes before he fizzled out and disappeared as it formed back into an orb. As it finished it flew over to Andrew and disappeared into his right foreleg, as he raised it to inspect it before putting it down again. "Andrew, I got something." Sythe said as it made multiple screens appear. "What is it?" Andrew asked as he looked at all the screens. "This outpost was protecting a mountain base, but here is the interesting part. Look at this recording here." Sythe said making a Hologram appear of the crashed Dropship that was leaving the mountain area. Watching as a rocket came from a ridge and hit the ship forcing it to crash where they had first found it. "Wait, rewind it back to when the rocket was launched." Andrew said and Sythe complied as it rewound it back until he put up his hoof to signal Sythe to stop. "It appears that the rocket wasn't from this Swarm these creatures were fighting. From what I have read in this terminal the swarm was like undead, but with more coordination." Sythe said as Andrew picked up where she left off. "Except, for this rocket was a precision shot. Meaning it was intended to look like the Swarm got a lucky shot." Andrew finished. He started to contemplate the recording. "Download all data on the terminal I want every corrupted, damaged, and nondamaged files downloaded, we will review them later." Andrew said as he both of them had finished up and proceeded further up the mountain. As they both exited started to exit the outpost and go even further up the mountain. The snow still pounding against his armor as he walked forwards. The winds were getting stronger and stronger. As they continued up the mountain range, they started to encounter less and less of the Sentries, which He wasn't complaining or anything. It just struck him as odd. He saw a strange machine frozen in a strange positions. It looked as if it was fighting someone, or something. He ignored it for now and walked right by it. "I am detecting a faint signal within the mountain itself." Sythe said. "So it was true. There is something here after all." Andrew said as he walked to another terminal. "Sythe splice this terminal and this time keep it quiet." Andrew said as Sythe plugged into the terminal until Sythe a made a surprised noise. "Andrew, there is zero security systems in this terminal." She said turning her eye to him. "What do you mean?" He asked walking over to her. "Take a look," She said making a hologram appear in front of him. He took notice that the Hologram was one big square and that there were lines going all across the it. "This is what is inside this terminal and this is the one I hacked into earlier." She said making a second square appear, but he noticed all the red lines there were. "The red lines are what cause alarms to go off. This one however seems to have been made like this on purpose." Sythe said as she examined it further. "So what your saying is someone put this here?" Andrew asked as he looked at the two squares once more. "Yes, Someone disabled the security systems on this terminal." Sythe said as she begun Splicing the terminal. "I got something. Its an audio log not a holo recording. Playing log." Sythe said as static began to fill Andrew ears as the log started to play. This is log Alpha 0 1 1 2 0 8 and something strange occurred today. The swarm you know the problem that all of [Redeacted] for what feels like, well, forever. Been 3 years since it all started, but when your fighting battles, time just, kinda, leaves you. If you know what I mean that is. But today the Swarm had actually retreated and it struck everyone as odd, but for the military they saw it as a sign that there was still hope. That was until we saw an entire mountain just, Exploded. Now all that's left is a never ending desert of snow and sleet. It is now nothing but a flat straight wasteland. I just hope we can actually win this after witnessing that. The log then stop playing and floated into the side of his head. "Lets keep moving." Andrew said as Sythe unplugged and followed close behind. "Did you hear what the log said. The whole entire valley that the Empire sits on was once a mountain and the tallest one at that. The amount of explosives required, well lets just say a lot." Sythe said as they continued further. As they continued Andrew noticed a symbol on a sign. It was a picture of an eagle holding three arrows in one tallon and something else that he could not make out due to the corrosion that was on it. He knew they were getting close. As he approached a wall and looked up and saw a platform. "It seems that there were stairs here at one point." Sythe said which made him look to the side noticing the broken star case on the snowy ground. "Then we climb." Andrew said as he lifted his hoof up to the rock wall in front of him and push a button on his shoulder. Claws appeared on his hooves as he stabbed one into the wall and raised the other up and latched onto the rock wall. "Why didn't you just fly?" Sythe started to shout as the wind roared louder then a lion. "The wind currents would catch my wings and throw me off the mountain!" He shouted back as he reached and latched onto the wall. He started to hear crashing and saw multiple rocks coming down on top of him. "OH SHIT!" Andrew said as he flapped his wings once and lunged to the left narrowly avoiding the collapsing rocks. "I guess the disturbance of this place must be causing climate change to the rocks!" Sythe yelled again over the roaring wind. "How much further?" He shouted. "About 2 meters." She said as he finally reached up a hoof over and pulled himself up. and rolled onto the top laying on his back. He cheered in triumph until he noticed another cliff face. His started to twitch. A crystal pony was minding her own business, watering the flowers that were blooming. As she was putting away the watering can she heard a noise. FUCKING DAMN IT!!!!!!! The noise echoed through out the mountains the crystal ponies just thinking it was another rock slide from the mountains. She too shrugged it off and went back to work. After a lot more climbing he had almost reached the top when the rocks above him started to collapse. As his eyes went widened as he watched as the rocks came down on him. Until Sythe spoke up. "Jump left!" She said and he then notice a collapsed metal path built into the side of the cliff face. With one big swing he lunged toward the catwalk flailing his forelegs as he just barely caught the edge of the metal walk way. "Andrew, oxygen levels are low up here. I am activating your suits oxygen systems." Sythe said as a holographic image of him appear infront of her eye as she used one of her mechanical arms to push a holoswitch to activate the oxygen systems. "Thanks. It was getting hard to breath." Andrew said as he walked carefully on the catwalk. "I am detecting an entrance ahead. It must be the main door." Sythe said as he walked forwards. "Hopefully the main entrance door is still functional after all this time." Andrew said starting to become more aware about his surroundings. "We need to get to the central A.I. matrix. That will be our biggest hope of finding out what we want to know." Sythe said as she tried to pinpoint the location of the A.I.'s Central chamber. "I wonder why they would build the main unit up here?" Andrew question. "If my theory is correct, then it was meant for the A.I. and not for people." Sythe said as she was working on locating the chamber. Andrew knew of the Metal world, but not many ponies knew what was beyond their doors and walls. For some reason he was the only one that was allowed to access other hidden facilities as the one they were looking for. He remembered when he woke up he was clueless until he found the armor. That's when he started to put together the pieces. As they continued walking on the walk way they eventually came to set of stairs and Andrew started to walk up them when the top gave way and started to collapse. Thinking quickly he jumped forward and grabbed the edge and pulled himself up. "These places were obviously not built to last." Andrew commented. Andrew noticed a dropship similar to the one that crashed except not completely destroyed. He noticed the side of it as it read 'Scarecrow 9 8 7-alpha'. Moving on from the dropship he continued to the main entrance . “We have arrived at the main entrance.” Sythe said as she floated over to a console that was on the side of a wall. “I can’t open the door from here. We will have to find another way inside.” She finished. “Then let’s fond another way. Any options?” Andrew asked as he looked to Sythe. “I have one, but it requires some climbing.” Sythe said earning a flat look from him. “It’s like a docking station or a hanger whatever you want to call it, but if we can enter there we might be able to open the main door from the other side.” Sythe explained. “Yeah I’m not climbing again. Any other bright ideas?” Andrew asked. “No that’s about it unless you want to go through the security entrance, but it’s highly likely it has collapsed.” Sythe said. “Is there another terminal we can use to locate an alternate access port?” Andrew asked with seriousness to his tone of voice. “Yes, the alternate terminal.” Sythe said as she pulled up a map. “I can fix the terminal to allow a port to open big enough for me to enter and splice the terminal on the other side.” Sythe said as she floated over to the terminal. Warning.. Incoming Hostiles... Nova Corruption Identified.... Identification: Novitic Demon Analysis: The Novitic Demons are arial units that use the elements around them and manifest them into weapons that may suit their needs. Recommend using anti-air or heavy weaponry against the enemy. “Well I don’t carry a big ass cannon with me so I think I’m pretty fucked.” Andrew said as bullets that were made of ice shot at him. He quickly ducked behind cover and heard the ice hit the crates he took cover behind. Andrew aimed his weapon one of the demons and fired hitting it in the chest and head making it fall to the ground. As it got up, it quickly went to cover and shot blindly over his make shift cover. “Sythe how we doing over there?” Andrew shouted at her. “Almost done.” She said Andrew got out of cover again as did the demon, but Andrew was quicker and opened fire everything into its head making it stager back. Andrew quickly charged it as he put his weapon on his back. Letting out a war cry he jumped on the demon’s back. Gripping one of its wings, he pulled until with a sickening crack, he ripped the wing off making it scream in pain. He then rolled the demon over and with the end where the bone was sticking out of the wing. Stabbed the demon in the eye multiple times in the eye. “I got it. I will be one second hold on.” Sythe said as she proceeded to splice the terminal on the other side. She managed to do it with ease as she managed to open it. “Andrew this is as far as I can get it you’ll have to crawl under it.” Sythe said as Andrew begun to crawl under the door as it shut behind them. “So I guess we have no way out?” Andrew asked. “The door locks are jammed form the freezing ice. I can stay here where I can try to repair them in case we need an exit.” Sythe said. “Okay see you in a sec.” Andrew said about to walk off until he was hauled. “Wait take this you may need it.” Sythe said as she tossed a knife that had a circler hilt to it. “What is it?” Andrew asked her as he inspected it. “It’s a hacking knife. This will allow you to splice any terminals since I will be here.” Sythe said as she turned back to work on the frozen locks. As he continued through the facility he decided to look around and see what he could find. As he searched in a room that had a bunch of crates in them he started to open them one by one. He soon exited and entered the main A.I. chamber. He noticed a terminal in the middle of the room in front of a row of tall server boxes. He walked up to the terminal and inserted the hacking knife as numbers would appear at the hilt of the knife and would slowly start to hack the terminal. As it finished he got the data needed. As he walked down a hallway, he noticed he was in the science and development section of the facility. As he continued he came across a window and when he looked out of it the sight struck him like bolt of magic. It was a video recording and what was on it scared him deeply. In the room a screen was online as it depicted a cat like image as it pointed out certain features of the feline.