The mare’s keen vision then spied some movement- and it made her heart stop.
The door to the medical center had been forced open.
Her hooves thundered on the tile, Sassi skidding to a stop outside the doors. The rebar had been cut neatly into pieces. Shoving her way in, time stretched as the mare’s eyes took in a sight that made her blood run cold.
Three things looked at her. ‘Looked’ wasn’t the correct word though, for the raw, fleshy skulls held no eyes. And they clearly stared at her in surprise.
The pony skeleton had been twisted and warped. Odd fungal growths burst from the bright red, skinless flesh spread tight across a figure that looked more like a skinless corpse. The teeth in the creature’s mouth were part of the skull, the upper and lower jaw portions having been eroded into a nightmarish visage of red muscle and sharp bone.
Sassi’s hoof was already moving even before she had processed the scene. Training dictated a reaction before conscious thought.
One of the creatures was poised over Astral, a blade-shaped forelimb starting to raise. The knife left Sassi’s hoof, burying itself into the creature’s skull with a *thud!*
As it flopped onto the floor, the other two jumped forwards.
Unlike the other experiment, these moved at a ‘normal’ speed. They were fast, but not Sassi fast.
The mare let out a growl of anger as she ducked one of the swipes, the miniguns firing and shredding the nearest creature in half. The third met its end by the mare caving its skull in with her hoof.
Immediately checking on Astral, Sassi confirmed that he was unharmed. She then dragged the corpses out of the room, the HUD starting to fizz with electrical interference. The distant sound of something moving made rage rather than fear fill the mare’s frame.
These things almost killed him.
A dark barb of anger made Sassi’s hooves shake, along with a stab of guilt. So much for thinking he was secure.
She didn’t know what was in this Silo, but she could at least send it a message.
She tossed the corpses over into the dark part of the hallway, save one. Yanking out her knife, she cleaned it before dragging the final body across the width of the hall, then heaved it over into the darker area.
It was now a literal line of blood between the lit and unlit portions. Perhaps whatever this creature was would understand that.
Sassi wasn’t about to barricade the doors again, not when the new creature was just down the hall. There wasn’t anywhere to run out of that medical bay anyhow; just back to a side hallway. Both of the miniguns spun, the mare preparing herself to fill the entire hallway with thousands of magical rounds.
The helmet went dark with a screech of interference.
She ripped the armor piece off, blinking as her eyes adjusted. The lights flickered, something making the electronics strain.
The soft sound of breath then caught the mare’s attention.
The ambient light should have allowed Sassi to see the figure in the unlit portion of the hallway clearly; and yet there was only a vague outline as if the creature itself absorbed the light. The only distinguishing feature was three red eyes locked onto the mare. Two smaller blue lights flickered next to the eyes; appearing to be electronic eyes rather than biological. Whatever it was, it stared at the Thestral with an unblinking gaze. The eyes moved briefly, barely-visible yellow pupils examining the bloody line on the floor at the separation of light and dark. They then returned to stare at the Thestral with a soft growl.
“You all stay over there,” Sassi growled, her hoof pointing to the corpses and line of blood. “I don’t even know if you’re smart enough to understand me. But if you cross that line, you die.”
A soft, guttural laugh was not the response that Sassi had been hoping for. It had an evil tone, a sickening ‘we’ll see’ implication. There was a soft chittering, and Sassi could see dark shapes moving along the floor, wall, and ceiling in the hallway farther down.
The mare snarled, firing off a single burst from the guns that kicked chunks of debris off of the wall. She then aimed the guns at the dark, shapeless creature. The cannons emerged from their recessed sockets, ready to fire.
“Next ones are for you. Back off!” she hissed.
The creature let out a growl; the movement ceased.
So. You can understand me.
If Sassi could avoid fighting, she would. While every instinct screamed at her to fire the odds weren’t in her favor, not if she wanted to keep Astral alive. At least these things could understand either her tone, words, or the situation enough for a form of negotiations.
There was a wet dragging noise, and the three corpses were tugged away. Whatever it was retreated, but the red and blue eyes never left Sassi until they disappeared into one of the offices.
The mare stayed still, waiting a few more moments until all movement had ceased. She carefully picked up the helmet, placed the now-functioning device on her head, and backed into the medical center.
‘Warning. Unknown failure of motion detection software. Interference detected. Attempting to diagnose.’
It was a simple matter to snag some spare rubble and making a forelimb-high wall just behind the arbitrary line. Of course, Sassi had plans for what to do next. If they were going to be stuck here, they’d need a solid barricade.
First, however, the mare checked on Astral. He was still out cold. No doubt those things would be watching, so she’d have to outsmart them. Her cracked, discarded combat helmet was still functioning. Well, mostly.
The motion detection was active. That was enough.
“Pair motion detection with the closest helmet. Standby until motion is detected.”
‘Pairing confirmed. Standby mode.’
A second, smaller motion-detector circle popped up on Sassi’s helmet.
Perfect.
She trotted out to the wall, ramming a piece of rebar into the concrete. The helmet was placed on it at about head height.
Now I’ll know if anything is coming, even if they are on the ceiling.
And if the display abruptly shut off, then a bigger problem was on the way. The standby mode would conserve battery power and still give Sassi a warning if anything came down the hallway.
It would let her work.
Sassi didn’t even try to hide her sounds this time. The mare swiftly darted down the opposite hall and through the decontamination doors. Annoyingly, the final door refused to open, the lights flickering. Since there was no way to separate the door from the frame, the mare began her work.
She used the minigun like a surgical tool, slicing away the anchor points into the concrete. The door fell to the floor, and the mare promptly began to drag it down the hallway. With a heave, she wedged the thick metal door against the wall. The makeshift barricade was now about head high.
Another trip down to the hall, and the mare busied herself with scavenging the various debris left by the explosion from Silo Two. The main blast door was scarred and pockmarked with holes; generally useless. But bits of plating were still strewn about here and there. It took a few trips, but the mare found enough debris for her liking.
In a maintenance room near the end of the utility tram tracks, Sassi made another few discoveries.
Back in the hallway, the darkness was blasted away briefly as the mare welded the metal plating together. The portable welding rig was still half-full of both battery power and flux wire; more than enough for Sassi’s needs. There was an option to plug it in, but that would draw precious volts from Astral’s healing rig.
Besides, even if it was slower, it worked.
Sassi slid in a few pieces of rebar, nodding in approval. She had even fabricated a makeshift hatch to slide through if the fuse box needed to be reset, along with some firing ports. After a few hours, the hallway was covered from floor to ceiling with metal plating crudely welded together to a horizontal security door.
It would do.
Standing outside the medical center double doors, the two intact security hatches were to Sassi’s right; those were still solid. Then to her left, the sealed hallway. The final barricade would be the double doors. Sassi had also welded the barricades on the air ducts closed and reinforced the doors. She had mulled over the idea of leaving the other helmet out by the barricade, but it was the only other helmet with air filters. With a bit of medical tape, the helmet’s cracks and leaks were been solved.
The mare then sat down and took a few deep breaths. She examined their rations and filled up some apparently-clean containers with water, just in case. As Sassi took a few bites of a compressed ration bar, she let herself breathe.
Now, they had a home base.