Ringing.
Nothing but constant ringing.
The only thing keeping Taylor’s ears from bursting was his metallic helmet. An alarm was ringing all throughout the USG Magestic. He barricaded himself inside of the communications room within the massive ship for two days. During those two days he kept looking for signals all over the range of the ship. He managed to get a signal, it was a faint one, from The Sprawl. The video feed turned on after three grueling minutes, the feed revealed a red room. In the background, Taylor heard shots being fired, along with grunts and shouts. The same shouts that he heard for the last two days outside of the communications room, the same demented and terrible shouting.
It took thirty seconds for another human to run across the feed.
“Hey! Hey! Is anyone there,” yelled Taylor.
The figure heard his plea and ran back towards the screen.
“Oh shit! Are you real? Shit you are, okay is the same thing happening there?”
“Wait, what’s happening? I’ve been stuck in this room for two days.”
“Are there any air vents in that room,” asked the mysterious man.
“No, there is an air recycler in here, um, that’s what I’ve been living off of for two days,” responded Taylor in very pessimistic tone.
“Okay, listen right now I have a lock on your location. When I get out of here I’m launching a shuttle right at the room you’re in now. Stay alive for another day if you can.”
“Listen I didn’t sign up for this shit. I’m just a-” Taylor was abruptly interrupted.
“DON’T EVEN FUCKING START! I’M NO GODDAMNED SOLDIER, I’M AN ENGINEER! I FOUGHT FOR TWO FUCKING YEARS AGAINST THESE MONSTERS AND YOU DON’T THINK YOU CAN FIGHT.”
Taylor looked at the ground and then quickly back at the man.
“What’s your name?”
“Isaac Clarke.”
“Alright, I don’t have a weapon here, I dabbled in engineering when I came on this ship, send me a blueprint for any tool you have.”
“That’s what I want to here. I’m sending you a plasma cutter blueprint. It can be made with some things you can find anywhere.”
“Alright. Listen keep this signal on your rig and I’ll call you once I make this thing”
Isaac nodded and signed off.
Taylor nodded to the now gone engineer and received the file. He quickly uploaded it to his rig and began to find the needed materials. He had all of the items at hand and began to make his Cutter. His limited engineering skills forbade him from adding the rotator cuff to the emitter of the weapon. Once it was complete he quickly turned on the console and downloaded a portable communicator onto his rig. He quickly called Isaac.
“Okay, so I got this… thing now. How do you kill these… creatures?”
“If you’re gonna kill them you have to dismember them. Take out the legs first, and then go for the head.”
“Alright, I’m going to open up this room and look for more materials.”
“Alright, I’ll make it there soon. Be careful.”
Taylor then signed off and proceeded to take apart his makeshift barricade. He did so slowly, fearing what he would find outside of those doors.
“Hey, where are you going?”
Taylor heard a voice that was all too familiar. It was his daughter. She was murdered twelve years ago along with his wife. A tear formed on his right eye and he continued to remove the blockade.
“Hey… Daddy… Can you hear me…?”
The now frightened man felt a fire burn in his heart. He looked at the barricade with hopeful look.
“Sweetie, SWEETIE! Hannah! Listen to me, I’ll be out there in a second!”
Using the newfound fire in his heart, along with the kinetic module on his wrist, he tore apart his barricade. It took only twenty seconds to go through boxes, crates, and lockers. He quickly pried open the doors and looked at his immediate surroundings. Blood splattered walls, limbs decorating every corner the room, and entirely skinned corpses lay motionless on the ground. He let out a torrent of vomit and heard a voice.
“Daddy… Help me… KILL THEM… KILL THEM ALL…”
A static burst quickly snapped him out of his stupor.
“Hey, Guy,” Yelled Isaac.
“It’s Taylor, Taylor Harding.”
“Alright, Taylor it looks like I’m going to make it there sooner than expected, look for an E.V.A. suit. We’re headed to the nearest planet after I pick you up.”
“Wait, hear me out, why am I hearing these voices. I hear my fucking daughter and she died years ago.”
“Damn, it looks like it got to you to. I’ll tell you everything in person. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
“Fine with me, I’ll talk to you later,” said the com worker.
Isaac nodded and turned off the com chat. Taylor opened his rig and looked at the layout of the ship that was downloaded there from when he was assigned to the Majestic. He saw were the Repair and Engineering Center was. He knew that a couple of E.V.A. suits were there. He decided to head off in the direction of the Center.
Taylor walked slowly, afraid of what may be around the next corner. For the last ten minutes, he was walking down sets and sets of hallways and he has not seen one of these monsters that he heard for two days. He sighed when he saw the Recreation Center and opened the door.
He entered to see a small group of pale, nearly anorexic children huddled around what he would consider a… body? He carefully maneuvered around the children and once he saw that he was a safe distance away he got up from his crouching position. A long and audible SCREECH was heard and the children noticed the sneaky communications worker and they ran at him at a steady pace. Taylor aimed his tool at the children, his hand shaking uncontrollably, and fired ten rounds at them.
Only four of the ten shots actually hit them. He struggled to reload and decided to run towards a door at the same time. His heart was beating at a ridiculous rate, in the deepest part of his mind he pondered his own death, and he was getting tunnel vision and could only see the door in front of him. His tunnel vision was broken when he realized that he finally reloaded his cutter. His upper body swiveled to see the children and he fired another barrage one ten rounds. The results were similar to the volley of plasma from before, only three out of the ten shot actually made contact. He did not realize it yet, but he was mere feet away from the door.
THUD!
Taylor hit the door with a crippling force. He fell and the children slowed there pace and began to simply walk towards the whimpering man.
Suddenly the door opened and a volley of plasma flew above the hurt man.
“Little shits! Die!”
Taylor then reloaded his cutter, took good aim, and fired all his ten shots. He looked at the man standing above him and began to slowly rise from his position. Once the children were gone the man looked at Taylor and his helmet retracted, revealing a bearded and blue eyed man.
“So, you’re Taylor. Put this on,” the armored engineer threw an E.V.A. suit at the worker, “We better go now, I landed in the engineering room it isn’t that far.”
Taylor shook his head “yes” and followed the grizzled survivor. Isaac had cleared out the hallways leading to the engineering room. They reached the pod in ten minutes. They stood before the pod as it opened.
“Daddy… Don’t go… I… love…you”
“NO, NO, HANNAH!”
“LISTEN TO ME TAYLOR! THAT ISN’T YOUR DAUGHTER! IT ISN’T REAL!”
“SHUT THE HELL UP I KNOW MY OWN DAUGHTER DAMMIT!”
“Daddy… KILL HIM… HE WANTS US APART… KILL HIM…”
Taylor lifts his cutter at Isaac and puts his finger on the trigger. Isaac started to chuckle.
“She’s telling you to kill me, isn’t she?”
“You want us apart, you want me to be away from her. I won’t leave her again.”
“You’re just a fucking pawn. The marker sure as hell did a number on you. She isn’t real Taylor, she’s dead and you said it.”
Taylor began to break into tears. He started to babble on about his family and he put the cutter to his head and pulled the trigger.
Click…
“You can’t die just yet, we both have been in contact with a marker, there is one on this ship, and I went to the bridge and hit the self-destruct. We have about two more minutes before it blows let’s go.”
Taylor gets up and slowly walks toward the pod.
BOOM… BOOM…BOOM!
The door began to cave towards the two men. As instinct took over, they both pointed there plasma cutters towards the
door. Quickly reloading the men were ready for a multitude of creature.
BOOM… BOOM… CRASH!
The automated door was broken down and showed a menacing looking beast. It had hardened flesh surrounding it and charged at the two men. They both widened their eyes.
“SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, GO!”
“YOU DON’T HAVE TO TELL ME TWICE!”
They ran at breakneck speed toward the pod and closed it shut. The creature began to bang at the exterior of the pod, trying to make its own entrance into the men’s safe haven. They hit the ignition and went off. They opened a small window to reveal that they were in the void of space with multiple deformed and mutated creatures following them through space. There were no nearby planets, no moon, no asteroids, not even satellites.
Nearly three days passed and they saw a bright green orb within their pods reach. Isaac set course for the planet and informed Taylor, who had not slept, about the planet. His eyes opened widely and he ran for the window.
“Well shit, I thought I would never see the day.”
BOOM!
One of the creatures managed to make it on the pod and hit the oxygen tanks on the pod.
“Well it looks like we are gliding the rest of the way there.”
“Don’t tell me we’re jumping.”
“Sorry, hope your part flying squirrel.”
They opened the pod door and shot the brute in its head, while it was recovering they jumped and began to reenter the new atmosphere. There suits were being torn to shreds but they were still safe. The monsters were still hot on their tails and they constantly turned back to them in an attempt to do some form of damage. There attempts were futile, and it only anger the creatures even more.
They enter the atmosphere of the unknown planet and slowed their descent with the small jets they had on their heels. It provided enough lift to hit a… cloud? They landed on a cloud and ended up with burns on their bodies and some broken bones but they were able to barely move. Their helmets were torn off from the fall. The headgear was in terrible condition. They looked to the side and saw that the creature fell away from the cloud so they were happy.
“How the hell… are we on clouds?”
“I don’t know Taylor, I might be an engineer but fuck me this is confusing”
“What are you,” a new voice said.
They both got up and pointed there weapons at a flying… pony?
In unison they both said, “What the actual Fuck?”
“Hey! Just cause I don’t know you doesn’t mean that you can talk to me like that,” the flying pony simple flew away.
The burned men began to walk towards a cloud town. They walked on and just as they entered the town, they were bombarded with questions and ponies. Isaac fired off a shot to separate the crowd and hit a bird. It fell and land directly in front of one of the ponies. She screamed and flew away. It took to seconds for the rest of the ponies to realize what had happened. They went into a mass hysteria and headed for their homes.
“Hey Twilight, darling, when are we going to Cloudsdale, I really want to see the new dresses that I read about.”
“In a minute Rarity, I’m trying to learn this spell.”
“Twilight we must simply make haste, those new dresses are not going to wait.”
“I said in a minute Rari-”
A certain gray mare broke through the roof of the library to give Twilight a package. The mail mare left and Twilight opened the letter. It was a letter from Rainbow Dash…
Dear Twilight,
You have to come to Cloudsdale quick.
These things just appeared and they shot down a bird.
These things actually scared ME!
Frightfully, Rainbow Dash.
“Rarity we’re going now.”
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“Damn. Not a single soul in sight, do you think that was to much?”
“Isaac, that thing is on this planet, this is really bad.”
“Yeah, it is, bad for them. I’ve been through this for two years this is the first break that I have ever had. Well, I’m gonna worry about it once I get some food.”
“Isaac, listen to me, this thing will kill a lot of these… ponies. They might not be us but this is bad. I won’t have more death on me.”
“Fine, if there’s some way of getting out of here.”
“Care to glide,” said Taylor with a smug grin on his face.
“Sure thing, Smart ass.”
Isaac poked at his wrist and a blue blade was materialized. He used this blade to cut a decently human sized hole through the cloud. Once the cloud piece fell, they jumped through the hole and activated their jets to no avail as they ran out of juice. They hit the ground with great force and felt their bones shake, they still continued. The duo followed a trail of destruction to a small town that was being ravaged by the armored monster.
“IF ANYONE CAN HERE ME STAY INSIDE OF YOUR HOUSES,” said Taylor as he steadied his cutter towards the monster.
They both pointed their plasma cutters at the Monster. Once in sights Isaac fired the first shot.
“Twilight… what... is… that…”
“I don’t know Fluttershy, Rarity look.”
The two ponies looked out of the small window and saw another two entities along with the ravaging beast. They held
these weird devices that shot out these lines that cut things. They had a puzzled look on their faces as they witnessed the two things fight the giant creature.
“Why would they try to fight it? I think it is suicide.”
“Rarity, they look like they've done this before just wait.”
“Hey Twilight, what are those things. They definitely are not ponies.”
“I really don’t know. I'm heading up and looking for a book on other creatures. Once I figure this out well go out when its safe.”
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“MOVE!”
A giant claw swiped at the duo. The claw hit Isaac in the torso and sent him flying towards a wall. Isaac let out a great scream. This made Taylor’s eyes shoot wide open and he fired all of his plasma shots at the monster.
“Isaac!”
“I’m think I’m dying," said the engineer in a sarcastic tone, "Just wait! Fuck,” Isaac noticed his shattered self.
“Use this!”
Isaac through a small module at Taylor. This was his plasma blade. It materialized a blade made out of pure plasma energy. He put it on his wrist and turned it on.
“Oh, I really like this.”
Taylor ran straight at the monster. He jump and used the small amounts of fuel on his jet heels to smash the blade onto the head of the monster. A very loud and audible crack was heard. Taylor smiled grimly and pulled his cutter out. He fired all of his ten shots into the open wound left by his blade.
“Taylor! Jump!”
THUD!
“Ah! Fuck! Get this piece of shit off of me!”
“I told you to jump,” whispered Isaac as he struggled to stay awake.
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“Twilight, what are they,” asked Rarity.
“They are ‘hew-mans’. I really don’t know what the other thing is. I need to write a letter to the princess. This is important.”
They left the yellow pony to her fear. She crept towards the window to see hurt beings. Within seconds she got her medical supplies and flew towards the weird creatures.
“A-a-are you hurt.”
The creature that was resting on the wall looked at her with rage in his eyes.
“What the hell are you?”
The thing then pointed his weapon at the flying pony. She fell to the earth and began to tremble. The look of hatred on the “hewman’s” face turned to one of remorse.
“Sorry, I’m really sorry. I’m only seen death and a lot of bad shit. I-I-I’m about to fade out,” Isaac coughed up blood, “Hey what’s your name?”
“Fluttershy…”
“What was that,” Isaac began to have his vision blurred.
“Fffllluuuttteeerrrssshhhyyy.”
“Fl…u…”
“Fluttershy…”
“Flu…tter…shy… that’s… a nice… na-” the "hewman" blacked out.