//------------------------------// // 27 - Knocking on heaven’s door // Story: Days of Wasp and Spider // by Luna-tic Scientist //------------------------------// Days of Wasp and Spider by Luna-tic Scientist === Chapter 27 (remastered): Knocking on heaven’s door === Sersjant Ellisif Inga stared through her HUD at the flat plate of the breaching charge. She was halfway down the corridor, just behind the squad designated to act as the entry team. Crouching and ready to spring, wings folded and protected under their armour's carapace plates, they looked more like grey beetles than mammals. "Masters, there is a force field behind the radiation lock door." Ellisif didn't recognise the speaker, but knew it was one of the ponies. She'd never worked so closely with the creatures before -- normally it was a case of 'smash and grab', any ponies only used as pack animals or to keep others of their kind from misguidedly interfering with an operation. Like most gryphons, she held them with a certain amount of contempt; creatures of little apparent free will, always bowing and scraping to the Masters, hanging off their every word or gesture. Not entirely fair, she thought, I know gryphons like that... and it's not like they have much choice. Not for the first time, she gave thanks to the Maker that the Masters hadn't found a way to magically enforce their authority. That had been tried in the past, but hadn't ended well for the unit in question. Watching the team of normally skittish ponies dismantle ten lengths of collapsed corridor almost as quickly as she could have walked it was a real eye-opener. The dust-filled air was alive with pastel lights, as bits of rubble outweighing any two of her squad were ripped up and stacked neatly along the sides of the corridor. The last lump, a section of supporting beam that had to be cut several times before the ponies could free it from other material still attached to the roof, floated past Ellisif's head and vanished into an adjacent office area. She gave a silent wave to the point fireteam, and the lead pair dashed forwards with the breaching charge, covered by the third. This was always the ticklish spot; not quite ready for entry, and if anything did kick off she'd have a third of her force hanging in the wind. One of the pair on demo duty abruptly froze, raising a talon for silence. === Bastion was standing with the rest of the ponies assigned to the radiation lock breaching team, trying to ignore the bone-deep tiredness he felt after clearing the blocked corridor. All four were tucked out of sight around the corner at the end of the corridor, the fifth member of the herd somewhere else helping with the drilling operation. The gryphons were all in position, and he had nothing to do but watch his Master for any sign that he was needed. Like all the ponies, he’d heard only a little about was going on, and had assumed that for the rest of this mission he would just have to be on the lookout for any civilian servitors likely to interfere with his Masters. The thing that really set his stomach churning were the rumours and overheard conversations between the gryphons. This mission was something different; instead of the team going after a group of rogue Masters -- the mere thought of which still made his head hurt, even after all the missions he'd been on -- the target was a pony. Bastion tasted the idea again, trying to get a grip on it. A pony had gone against the will of the Masters. A pony had attacked and injured a Master. The words were simple, but the concept... He shook his head; even thinking the words produced an uncomfortable pressure in his chest. The unsettling thoughts vanished as Handler Elorm finished with whatever she was doing with the gryphons and turned to Bastion, flicking open her visor as she did so. The stallion felt a little burst of gratitude at this simple act; being able to actually see his Master always helped him feel better. "Is the pony ready?" Elorm said. "Master--" Bastion found himself nodding, then hesitated, suddenly aware of the rest of the herd intently listening in on the exchange. His pale green ears flattened against the fullerene ceramic shell of his helmet. "Is there anything specific we need to be prepared for, I--" Parapet, the orange mare who had been tasked with watching the beamline chamber for any signs of activity, suddenly interrupted. "The force field has dropped, target moving," she said in a voice high with excitement. === Gravity paced restlessly, every low frequency rumble from the ceiling adding to her nerves and making progress far slower than it should have been. The arcane pattern was starting to make sense; little modifications here and there allowed the mare to fit it to the standardised techniques she'd been taught. She dismissed the half formed teleportation pattern -- still not quite at the point where she could try it -- from her mind and stood in the middle of the beam chamber. Her ears flicked and she cocked her head to one side, listening to the sound of drilling coming through the roof. Why do you think they are doing that? she thought to Fusion. It will take them ages to punch through. The activity outside the radiation lock made much more sense; there were at least four ponies and nine or ten gryphons doing something out there. I'm not sure, Fusion said, but they obviously think it's worth the effort. The sound had come in bursts from slightly different parts of the roof, like they were drilling a pattern of holes in the concrete. They'll never blast through this much shielding, the best they can hope for is to fracture it -- perhaps it's a distraction? The mare's thoughts turned sour. If that's true, then it's a good plan. The noise and constant desire to check up on the movement visible through her shadow sight was ruining her concentration. Oh, Maker, no! Gravity twitched at the sudden fear in her sister's thoughts. What? What is it? They might not be able to cut through all of it, but I bet they can damage the thaumic crystal array. There was a moment of silence in the mental space. There must be a suppressor on the way. Gravity switched her attention back to the radiation lock corridor, watching the Security troops or whatever they were, move with her shadow sight. The bright flare of telekinesis had subsided; the ponies had finished dismantling her barricade and had pulled back to the far end of the corridor, where it ended in a T junction. The gryphons were more obvious without the other magic in the way; three overhead doing the drilling, three down each side of the corridor, and a final three... The blue mare slumped, starting to feel sick. Three gryphons were doing something to the closed radiation lock. "I'm not so sure it matters. Damaging the roof enough to make a difference will still take a long time, but it looks like they are getting ready to blow the door," she said, opening her eyes and staring at the blank curve of the inside of the lock. Her legs trembled and she took a deep breath. Don't make me do this, please. Just wait another kilosecond and we'll be gone. With the thought came the memory of Salrath's gryphon; the crack of breaking bone when she'd thrown the cage at him back at the animal house. Are you really that far from getting it to work? Fusion said. Too far, Gravity thought. They put me through some engineering courses as part of my pathfinding, before I settled on remote manipulation. It won't take long to set charges; that door is nowhere as thick as the wall. The silence lengthened, both ponies watching the gryphons by the door. "Maker dammit," Gravity muttered, "why couldn't the Masters be in the front row?" She trotted back to the remains of the frame she'd pulled off the control room windows, pulling out a nice straight metal bar. I'm sorry, I wish I could help. You shouldn't have to do this by yourself. You had to, Gravity thought back. You knew that your Master would start work on me next, so you protected me the best you could. Even after I turned on you, you stayed close. The mare trimmed the ends of the bar with quick, flickering planes of violet light, cutting off the fixing bolts to leave her with a fluted metal rod one and a half times her body length and the thickness of her foreleg. She flicked the bar end over end, changing her magical grip from middle to tip and back again. With her new strength she could make the thing whistle and blur, snapping from one direction to another. Even after I hated you. You need me now... besides, what choice is there? None, none at all, Fusion said sadly. I wish-- What I wish is that I never knew any of this, that I still thought there was a purpose to my existence, other than as a disposable component in someone else's machine. The thoughts kindled Gravity's anger, driving away some of the fear and filling her with fire. What I wish is that I could go home, back to our friends and family, back to a normal life. But I can't, can I? The life I thought I had was ruined before I was even born. With the anger at everything she'd lost came an epiphany. Hurriedly, Gravity clamped down on the sharing and withheld her thoughts from Fusion, because along with the fear and anger came a sense of righteousness. I want this. I... I need this. The idea was so unexpected that she paused, suddenly suspicious, and tried to analyse her thoughts. There was none of the crystalline taste that had accompanied her burst of rage back in the animal house, none of the feeling of other. Is this really me, am I actually looking forward to this fight? She buried the thoughts as deeply as she could, as far from the sharing as she could manage. I have beaten a Master half to death, tortured another out of revenge... and now I'm planning to kill as many of their servants as I can. What has happened to me? What are they forcing me to become? There was no answer to her questions and the mare shook vigorously, trying to rid herself of the unsettling idea. "A monster I will be," she muttered. This isn't Fusion's fault, this is all on me. All these gryphons are going to die because of my stupidity. Sister, are you alright? Fusion said. Just thinking how fast love can flip into hate, Gravity replied, I'm already tired of running and hiding, and it's only been a day since I found out. How did you keep this up for a whole megasecond? she thought to Fusion. At least this time there is no ambiguity, no innocents among these Masters -- they must be here somewhere, hiding behind their gryphons and ponies -- they are coming to kill us. Yes, Fusion said, the worry obvious in her tone. It was fear, mostly. Fear for you and fear for everypony else. I understand, I really do, but be careful -- and don't go too far from the lock. What will you do if they turn the suppressor on while you are outside? Run away. There was a little warning, at least. When I get back we'll be no worse off... and maybe I'll have convinced them to leave us alone for a while. Gravity picked up the cut fragments and enveloped them with magic, the razor edged metal collapsing under her irresistible grip to make lumpy, hoof-sized spheres. I'll fight them from inside the radiation lock if I have to. Just have to hope the rest of the shielding makes up for the hole. Her ears flattened, wings ruffling nervously. Hopefully I can do this without hurting those ponies. Fusion didn't reply, so Gravity stacked the metal balls by the radiation lock, then reached out and pulled one of the machines off the ceiling. The thing, a vaguely cylindrical mass of stainless steel and water-clear crystals, came free with a screech of twisting metal, the sound loud enough to rouse Lilac from his arcane trance. His horn light flickered out and his head rose questioningly. "What's happening," he said, "are the bad gryphons here?" "Yes, I'm afraid so. I'm going to go outside to stop them." She placed the machine in the middle of the lock chamber, just behind her force field. "Could you move Fusion over there?" Gravity gestured with the long metal bar at one of the corners underneath the now open control deck windows. Lilac's eyes widened at the sight of the improvised weapon, the mirror smooth chisel tip throwing little sparks of violet horn light across his scarred face. "As soon as I go through the door, put a force field over the entrance. Can you do that for me? The Masters need you to be strong; you'll be their last line of defence should anything get past me." Lilac sat up straighter. "I will," he said, getting up and trotting to her side, staring at the mare with a strange expression that seemed almost yearning. Impulsively, Gravity wrapped her wings around the stallion, leaning in to rub her muzzle against his cheek. "I know you will," she whispered. "Be strong and we'll get through this." One last squeeze and she released him, gesturing with one wing for him to step back. She looked thoughtfully at the inner surface of the radiation lock, pulling apart the machine she'd taken and stripping it down until it was a collection of disconnected pipes and bars. Taking two long pieces, she strode over to where Lagorth was watching her, getting some satisfaction from the look of fear on his face. She drove the first bar deep into the concrete floor, bending the end over into a hook. The second she twisted into a figure of eight, then held it out for the police officer. "Give me your paws," she said, then pulled his arms out from his sides when he didn't move fast enough. He struggled, panting and straining, but Gravity could barely feel his efforts. His wrists went through the holes in the figure-eight, then she squashed the metal to make it snug. One more squeeze and the improvised restraints were firmly attached to the ground spike. "Don't go anywhere," Gravity said, trotting back to the radiation lock without a backwards glance. Standing facing the lock door, the mare picked up her collection of improvised projectiles, setting a few spinning in lazy orbits around her head. The rest she lifted into a hexagonal array between herself and the door. She hesitated, then smiled sadly and plucked the communicator from the fur of her throat. "The last link to my old life," she murmured, "I nearly forgot about you." With a pang of regret, she sent the metal disk to float above her ears. Gravity closed her eyes and dropped into shadow sight, concentrating on her magic. Arcane patterns filled her mind; a spell to block the ear destroying pressure pulses of high velocity projectiles, another to repel anything solid entering a zone in front of her. In front of her the wall of violet light vanished. She took a deep breath, gritted her teeth and pushed. === The warning made something cold crawl up Ellisif's spine, and she opened her beak to order the point team to fall back, but before she could utter a word her thaumic attack warning sensors let out their beak-achingly shrill screech. An instant later the whole door, a two length square of steel and concrete, exploded outwards. Stunning impacts on her head and chest slammed Ellisif off her paws, throwing her into the soldier waiting at her back. She had a brief view of the ceiling, then something big flashed past her, a blurred image of beak and legs, so fast that it was little more than an afterimage. The object collided with the broken ceiling and bounced into the wall at the end of the corridor. "Return fire," she croaked, still trying to get to her paws. The high-pitched whine in her ears gave her voice a muffled sound, like she was being smothered with a blanket, but the order must have been heard because there was a ragged salvo of gunfire from somewhere over her head. The sound built, bringing with it a diffuse flicker of light from the dust hiding the door, violet lightning seen through distant clouds. She was tangled in the wings of the soldier she'd hit, something that she couldn't understand as they should have been safely tucked away behind his armour's carapace panels, and Ellisif cursed him as she grabbed hold of a handy metal bar to get back on her paws. Her gun's HUD had blanked out, but she reached for the foregrip anyway, steadying herself against the bar as she pulled her weapon forward on its rail. The bar, a section of I-beam a good talons-width across, twitched under her claws, and she looked down at it. Her mind filled in the gaps of what she'd seen and the gryphoness recoiled. She had one clawed hind leg on the soldier's chest, and was steadying herself on a spike that pinned him to the floor like a rat on a dissection tray. He moved weakly, one set of talons coming up to touch the metal, as if he couldn't quite believe it was there. Sersjant Ellisif Inga took one step forward, hunkering down to shield her squadmate with her body, then clamped down on the trigger bar with all her strength. Nothing happened and she cursed, ripping the useless weapon from its mounting and reaching into her panniers for a grenade. === Violet light blazed out of the radiation lock, casting stark shadows on the rear wall of the beamline chamber. At the same instant there was an ear shattering crack-boom, the individual sounds so close as to overlap. The array of projectiles hovering in front of the blue mare simply vanished, accelerated past the sound barrier at rates unmatched by any conventional firearm. The wall of the radiation lock, thick and tough as it was, didn't stand a chance. The long, straight corridor, wide enough to take a heavy loader, was turned into a giant shotgun barrel as fragments of door exploded outwards. Once she'd given them their initial push, Gravity didn't let her projectiles have their own ballistic way. Instead she kept a hold of them, nudging each one towards a different target. All three of the door team were blown backwards by the fragmenting door and her own multi kilo projectiles. Their armour was tough and they were not braced, so the fast moving steel threw them down the corridor over the heads of their squadmates, rather than ripping them apart. The others were not so lucky. Two died outright, the golden light from their wings flicking out as they were transfixed in the chest or belly by steel bars longer than they were. Fullerene-ceramic scales able to turn aside a bullet moving a kilolength a second were no defence against the sledgehammer blows; blunt metal punched through armour front and back, only stopping after it had buried deeply in the concrete floor. Their flesh barely slowed it at all. The soldiers recovered with commendable speed and shots started coming back at the mare, first an isolated burst, then a rapidly building crescendo of fire. Something stung her on the foreleg, then another line of fire whipped along her flank. The mare gasped at the sudden pain, jerking her head sideways at the whip-crack of supersonic bullets barrelling past her ears. Close, too close! she thought, struggling to increase the power of the spell supposed to deflect them. The projectiles were just too fast to have their trajectories shifted enough for safety, and the mare hunched down to reduce her frontal area. The power was there, in fact she had to throttle it, hold it back lest it poured through to rip her simple spell patterns asunder. Another wasp stung her on the crown of her head, and the distraction caused her faltering spell to fail completely. For a moment she was defenceless -- any single shot could have killed her outright -- but the fire was still panicked and none of the soldiers were doing any actual aiming. Something exploded over her shoulder, and the sudden sandblast sensation of stone chips and fragments washing over her left flank shocked her into abandoning her efforts to recover the deflection spell. Her floundering mind found another pattern and the bell toll of her force field was loud in the sudden quiet, as the crack and roar of gunfire cut off. The mare took a moment to catch her breath, checking her leg to see the extent of her injury. Lucky again, she thought, a nudge to the right and that would have gone through my knee. The movement of her head stretched the skin over her neck and withers, prompting a sudden burst of stinging from all over that flank; Gravity winced, then straightened up, looking into the dark corridor through the violet flicker of her force field. She'd hoped to avoid this; although strong, this kind of 'physics shield' took constant attention to maintain, especially if a pony wanted to move. Gravity's field had appeared as a violet half dome centred about her horn, nearly filling the corridor from floor to ceiling and penetrating deep into the floor. The sphere was the simplest shape to cast, but it also fixed the pony to one spot. The mare twisted her neck to look upwards, thankful that the roof was so high; a lower ceiling would have been cut by the field and collapsed in on her. Little pulses of fatigue swept through Gravity, timed with the flashes of fast objects hitting her field in an almost continuous wave, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. A moment's thought and a second field appeared inside the first, this one a curved oval, like a section of eggshell that extended almost to ground level. She starved the first one of power, allowing the constant impacts to destroy it, then stepped forward into battle. === The explosion was strong enough to make the floor jump under Bastion's hooves and was accompanied by the sharp sound of fragments striking the end of the corridor. At the same time there was a sudden itching at the base of his horn and someone started screaming hoarse, gryphon cries, then all normal sound was erased by the hammer of automatic fire. Bastion let out an involuntary whinny, shrinking back from the sudden rage on Elorm's face. Something's gone wrong, the breaching charge went off early -- but why are they firing? he thought, wings half emerging from his armour carapace. Elorm slammed shut her visor and leapt for the corridor, leaving the herd alone and leaderless. Along the top of Bastion's HUD a row of green dots flickered, two turning a deep red while others went yellow or orange. The itching got stronger and the stallion suddenly realised what it was, then dropped into shadow sight to see what was happening. The corridor was alive with light. Purple polygons of the soldier's antimagic defences were bunched at one end, the actual gryphon only really made visible by the golden glow of their wing bones and the collection of crystal thaumic systems and ammunition each carried. The radiation lock end should have been almost dark, backed only by the hard colours of crystals embedded in the shielded door. The door was gone, and in its place was something so bright it made everything else pale by comparison. It was definitely a pony, but one that blazed with light. Its whole body glowed like a living flame, a purple so deep as to be encroaching on the ultraviolet. Wings outspread, it stood at the centre of a maelstrom of magic, a vortex of force manipulation designed to repel anything that got close. On top of that was the hard light of a telekinesis so powerful that Bastion almost didn't recognise it, until he realised the magic was wrapped around solid objects. He watched as the pony-shape twitched as if dodging something, then some of the magic evaporated, only to be replaced an instant later by a spherical force field. By now the gunfire was almost continuous, little flashes and ripples of magic spalling off the perfect sphere with each round that struck it. This further added to his confusion; he'd been shot at before -- it was a regular part of their training -- and he knew what it was like to turn aside a high velocity bullet, knew how much it should have cost the pony behind the shield. The glowing shape seemed unconcerned by the attacks, almost like they were not there at all. The field abruptly changed shape, from a purely defensive globe to something that resembled half an egg on its side. She'll be able to move, he thought automatically, then a chill suddenly ran down his spine as he realised that all the rumours were true. This is the target, this pony, and she's killing the gryphons-- The shock was replaced by a sick horror; this was supposed to be a hostage rescue mission, which meant there must be a Master somewhere in that room. She's taken a Master hostage! The thought was nearly enough to make him fall to his knees and beg forgiveness for the crimes of his fellow pony, but a sharp pain at the base of his skull brought him to his senses. Through the pain, Bastion exchanged glances with his herdmates, all of whom held similar expressions of shock and disbelief mixed with discomfort. "We've got to hold her and bring down her force field," he said hoarsely, "knock her out if we can." He could see the doubt in their eyes, and he understood it. The techniques for dealing with a mistaken or misguided pony were simple enough, and with four on one it should have been an easy feat to pin her down and smother her magic. But she's so strong, he thought, the fear of failure threatening to make him weep; his Masters were in danger and he might not be able to save them. No, I've got to try, he thought, and with his decision to act the pain faded away enough that he could concentrate. Green fire bloomed over his horn and he focused on the appallingly strong force field, hunting for some thread he could prise loose. === Captain Rthar heard the explosion and bit back a curse on the ancestry of all gryphons. As much as his first instinct was to blame the failings of the client race, one glance at the thumbnail video window told the true story. The picture was poor, loaded with sparkles, static and dropouts, as the drone network failed under a thaumic load far in excess of its design limits. Other warnings flashed over his HUD, the most worrying a failure of the link to the surface, but all of Rthar's attention was on that video. The radiation lock door had disintegrated into a cloud of dust, embedded within which was an indistinct violet haze. As he watched, objects came flying out of that cloud, fast flickering blurs only really made visible by the telekinetic glow around them. The rattle of gunfire answered, but the flying objects kept coming. Rthar started to get a sinking feeling; a servitor might be able to hold off the fire from one or two troopers, but three full fireteams? If this one finds out this information was known-- he bit off the thought, casting a fast glance at Specialist Agon, still setting up the Bore Snake. The Specialist shook his head, the meaning obvious. Too long. The Captain snapped out a paw, pointing at the first of his two remaining troopers. "End of the corridor," he snarled, then pointed at the second, "flank through the store room on the left. Rthar will take the other side. Go in hot. Move!" Rthar fitted action to order, activating his personal antimagic defences and smashing through the maintenance hatch on his side of the still blocked corridor. The locked door popped open without hindering his movements, the sheer mass and strength of his armour suit breaking the mechanism without noticeable effort. The outside of the beamline chamber was a large square, almost twelve lengths on a side and six high, with the radiation lock and control room access corridors on opposite sides. The space outside the monstrously thick shielding was relatively open, laced with access ways and mesh catwalks allowing workers to install new equipment easily, as well as monitor any leakage through the thick walls. The power armour team had kept away from that volume for fear of detection by the servitors inside the chamber, but this was no longer an issue. As he sprinted down the walkways, the Captain wondered what had happened to cause the pony to attack -- the servitor psychologist had insisted that it would most likely only try to defend itself, or its kin -- then dismissed it from his mind as he rammed a support pillar, using it to turn the corner without slowing. He'd long since stopped wondering the why of anything unless he was inside a bar with something alcoholic; such things were of little use in a firefight where milliseconds counted. His map display showed him the location of each trooper; although the corridor end position was the furthest, that soldier had only needed to jump up one level to have a direct route to his start position and was almost ready. Too many Maker damned catwalks! Ahead of Rthar was a blank wall, the green track of the software generated route disappearing through it. He didn't slow, just gritted his teeth and charged, hoping that some idiot scientist hadn't placed something massive behind a wall his tactical computer thought he could break. Weapon arms tucked neatly behind his back, the Captain pulled his paws up to protect the relatively fragile helmet mounted sensors, striking the wall with his heavily armoured elbows. There was a sudden jarring impact, then he was through, the wall breaking in a shower of mineral dust and plastic fibres. A moment of elation, then he tripped, something catching him on the thighs. Biting back the urge to swear -- the throat mic would pick up even the faintest subvocalisation and the review board would never let him forget breaking comms discipline -- Rthar kicked the storage unit out of his way, casting around for the green circle his tactical overlay projected on the floor. Procedure was to wait until all parts of the formation were in place before starting a manoeuvre, but the situation board showed that most of the gryphons had been incapacitated. Red halos around the ponies' status markers were more of a concern, indicating a dangerously high magical output. If he waited, the rogue might overpower his servitors, and that was probably the only thing keeping the creature from killing them all right now, antimagic defences or no. Leaping up on a convenient crate, he sent the 'attack soonest' order with a coded twitch of his tail through the suit's haptic interface, while simultaneously activating the cannon's breaching mode with a muttered voice command. The gun spun up to speed in a tenth of a second, spitting out a halo of carefully placed shots in less time than Rthar could blink. He froze for a moment, seeing one of his squad's armour suit damage indicators flash from green to yellow, then jumped to the centre of the ragged circle, stamping down with both booted paws. The floor gave way and he fell the two lengths to the level below, drawing his laser from its socket on his backpack as he did so. Normal servitors panicked under combat conditions -- falling into fugue at the conflict between their desire to help one of the People, and their instincts to run from a threat, or actually trying to help the one who Security was trying to apprehend. This was one reason why lasers were carried; a bullet or missile was far better at punching through armour, but nothing beat a laser for a long range take-down. That, and they went straight through a force field. === Gravity felt the other ponies as a fast blooming surge of pressure against her force field, sapping her strength in ways that no mere firearm could duplicate. The faint presence of Fusion at the back of her head evaporated like a snowflake under a welding torch, the delicate magical link snapping in an instant. The Security ponies were easy to locate, a bright flare of pastel light at the far end of the corridor, like somepony had decided to start a fireworks display. The mare took one last jab with her improvised weapon -- the metal bar was long enough that she could keep a hold of it while still reaching the gryphon inside each antimagic bubble -- using it to bat one unfortunate beak over tail down the corridor, then concentrated her efforts on shoring up her defences. The other four ponies -- five now, they had been joined by the one at the drilling rig -- were putting their whole strength into knocking down her field, and Gravity was starting to breathe like she was at the end of a ten kilolength hoof race with the effort it was taking to fend them off. The light in the corridor grew to an intolerable brightness; a magnesium white from the blended colours of the other ponies fighting with the near ultraviolet of Gravity's own horn light. The mare had wondered at the limits of her new strength; now she was starting to identify them. Taking great, gasping breaths, Gravity pushed her magic ever harder, sweat pouring down her flanks as she split her effort between holding off the ponies and continuing her attack on the gryphons. Mind already stretched with the cut and thrust of her magical duel, she felt panic start to rise at the sudden appearance of four more antimagic fields. These were different from the rest; the figures inside were bipedal. One was at the end of the corridor with the ponies, with another sprinting in that direction. Two others were converging on her from opposite sides through the wrecked complex, having started from near the control room entrance. Masters! Gravity thought, grunting as she spared a little attention to flick a grenade back down the corridor, aiming for the gryphon who'd thrown it. I knew they had to be here somewhere. The shapes were similar to the ones she'd seen back at the training centre; bulky things with a surprising turn of speed. Without thinking she threw her metal bar like a spear at the closest; the projectile was badly damaged, the previously sharp tip mushroomed by repeated impacts against gryphon armour, but it still had enough momentum to kill if she could hit with it. The magical attacks on her lessened abruptly as several of the Security ponies switched to trying to divert her attack on the Master; it should have hit the suit high on the chest, but instead struck her target with a glancing blow on the shoulder. Despite this, it had enough of an effect -- the suit slammed backwards into the wall, dropping to the floor. The output of the other ponies dropped further and the germ of an idea grew in Gravity's mind. === Sersjant Ellisif Inga pulled the retractable tow line from its reel in the centre of her chest, trying to clip it to the haul loop on flysoldat Jarli's armour with trembling claws. The grenade she'd thrown had detonated somewhere over the pony's shoulder, but all that had happened was that a dome of violet light had filled most of the corridor. The gunfire continued, the constant crack of supersonic rounds making her flinch like she was a first day recruit. She let out a wordless screech of frustration when the clip slipped again, then resorted to hammering the thing through the damaged loop with her other foreclaw. "I've got you," she whispered in a strained voice, unheard against the boom of exploding ammunition. She took a staggering step to get the line to its full extension, closing her eyes against a sudden flare of rainbow light that seemed to surge and pulse in time with the violet light behind her. Those must be our ponies, she thought, while leaning into her harness and trying to shift the inert bulk, but he wouldn't budge. A new sound intruded on the cacophony, a high pitched droning whine, the sound of something big being whipped through the air. Still straining, she plucked another grenade from her harness, setting the fuze for proximity with a few clicks of her beak through the command interface on her visor. She flung the egg-sized thing in the general direction of the violet light, then hit the floor as her threat alarms highlighted her own grenade flying right back at her. It detonated a few lengths behind her tail, the shock wave knocking her senseless for a few seconds. When Ellisif recovered, another light on her remote medical panel was flashing red, and she realised that Jarli was dead. One quick glance back told her all she needed to know, and more. The blast had flicked him sideways, showing just how deep the metal bar had gone. So that's why he wouldn't move, she thought dully, for the first time noticing exactly how few of her squad remained. Ellisif hit the release to drop the cable at her end, training finally kicking in and integrating the brief, one sided firefight. Every gryphon that had shot at the pony was now dead or injured; the drilling crew and herself were the only ones still showing as 'green' on her medical display. The pony had struck back at any gryphon attacking her; the only reason the sersjant was still alive was that her gun had jammed and Jarli had soaked up the fragments from her grenade. It's managed to hold off five of our ponies and still fight, she thought. The conclusions were obvious. We can't stop it. "Fall back to rally point," she croaked, "travelling overwatch, do not return fire." It was a hard decision to make, but at least this way she could save some of them. Something else penetrated her dazed mind; all the shooting had stopped before she'd given the order. She started to back towards the polychromatic horn light glare from the Security ponies, trying to detect any sign of the rogue's violet glow. Did we get it? she thought, daring to hope. Her answer was a green pulse of reflected laser light and the high pitched scream of a rotary cannon at full rate. === Freed to move by her distraction of the Security ponies, Gravity jumped sideways through one of the holes she'd made in the wall, landing unsteadily in what was once an office area. Here, out of sight of the gryphons, she had even more power to spare. On the other side of the room, just dropping through the ceiling, was one of the suits. It looked just like the ones she'd seen before; insectile and blank faced, with an extra set of arms attached to where the hips were. It was hard to tell body language through all that armour, but she thought she detected a slight jolt of surprise when the thing saw her. One real arm came up holding a stubby cylinder, but the mare flicked a broken desk at the suit, spoiling the its aim. A brief pulse of green light, as bright as lightning and ruler straight, lanced over her shoulder as the paw holding it went wide. The beam just clipped the end of her wing, blowing off a cloud of fine feathers as it did so. Gravity closed her eyes against the afterimages, suddenly feeling a very real fear. She had no defence against a laser. With a horrible display of strength, the suit batted aside the remains of the desk, the multi barrelled gun suddenly spinning rapidly and filling the room with thunder. This the mare could deal with -- although the much higher rate of fire gave her a momentary panic -- and her force field flashed in time with the impacts. The suit was moving again, trying to close the distance, but Gravity used the opportunity to locate something heavy enough to be a real weapon. A chunk of concrete the size of her head, still with a ragged fringe of reinforcing bars, glowed violet for an instant before vanishing with a bang that was louder than the automatic cannon fire. Propelled across the room with all of Gravity's panicked strength behind it, the rock smashed into the chest of the suit, throwing it backwards through the wall. The polygon of its antimagic field vanished and the mare hauled the thing back into the room, dropping back to normal sight and getting ready to smash it into the floor and finish the job. It wasn't necessary. The original impact had caved in the chest plate, forcing great cracks through the hard metal carapace. Something red started to trickle out of the damaged suit, running down one leg. Gravity stared at it, alternately horrified and fascinated, but unable to keep a savage smile from her muzzle. A noise and sudden motion out of the corner of one eye made her jump to the side, pulling the inert suit between her and the opening at her back. The room blazed with stroboscopic pulses of green light, so bright that it was like looking at the noon-day sun, then she dipped back into shadow sight and flung her improvised shield in the direction of the other suit, aiming for the purple glow of its antimagic field. Arms and legs trailing limply, the dead soldier flew through ragged openings in the corridor walls, hitting the other suit square on. She lost her telekinetic grip after it passed through the field, but both suits flew backwards five lengths or more, smashing aside chairs and desks before being stopped suddenly by a big concrete pillar. The other field flickered out. === There was a lull in the gunfire, then a flash of reflected laser light from where the other trooper was advancing from the opposite side of the beamline chamber, followed by the high-pitched scream of a rotary cannon. Rthar hurried forward, trying to get a clear view of the servitor. The floor here was uneven; great gouges had been ripped from the surface, razor edged scoops where material had been used to barricade the corridor. There was another flash, this one violet, at the same time as a great thud that he swore he could feel through the soles of his boots. The second armour suit indicator turned crimson and started to pulse. There was a flash of movement, the shape of something equine silhouetted against a glowing violet wall, and the Captain centred his reticule on the slender neck, slipping slightly as his paw came down into one of the glass-smooth depressions. His target moved and reflexively he squeezed the trigger. He knew something was wrong the instant his visor reacted to step down the reflected glare. Without the protection of this synthetic view he would have lost his sight, even so the sudden flash effectively blanked the middle part of his view, reducing the normal high resolution colour image to a crude monochrome synthesized from wavelengths distant to the visible band. A sudden flicker of motion, a rapidly expanding Person-shape only seen as a brief impression before impact. It was like he'd stepped in front of a levitation train. There was a confusing blur of motion and a series of heavy blows, terminating in a single, sudden impact that nearly knocked him senseless even inside the rigid shell of his suit. Rattled, he lay there for a second, staring stupidly at his damage control display, a wireframe Person that flickered and flashed through the spectrum of colours below green. It's going to kill this one, the Captain realised with a flash of insight. It's going to see this one with that freaky magic vision they all have and finish the job. His external microphones must have been damaged, as everything had a weird muffled sound to it, but he could still hear how quiet it had become. The gryphons have stopped shooting, he thought, making a snap decision and dipping his muzzle to toggle the emergency shutdown switch with his teeth. Breathing suddenly became an effort as the ventilation system shut off, forcing him to use his own lung power to pull air in through the emergency filters. Inside the helmet the darkness was absolute and the sense of being buried alive became very strong; with the muscle amplification off it would be hard to even turn his head, let alone lift the dead weight of the other trooper from his chest. The darkness was filled with the laboured gasps of his breath, every outside noise muffled by his suit's laminated armour and padding. Rthar felt his insides clench at the thought of the creature standing over him, waiting for the slightest movement. === The blue mare gasped and staggered, a line of fire along her flank. The itching smell of burnt fur filled her nostrils and she fought back a sneeze, twisting her head to see the extent of her injuries. Not quite quick enough, she thought, part of the beam must have gotten around that armour suit. She moaned at a spike of pain in her head; all five ponies were back to trying to overwhelm her. Without thinking she lashed out, feeling the pain lessen as the magic from one of the ponies faded and vanished. Shocked by her actions, the efforts of the others grew chaotic. They dropped out of synchronisation to the point she could drive a wedge between them, compartmentalising them without the need to do the magical equivalent of beating each one into unconsciousness. It was like holding onto a struggling foal, one in the throes of a nightmare, neutralising random jabs of magic while stopping them from hurting themselves or others. Guilt stabbed at Gravity. What have I just done? she thought. None of them had any choice, under the lash of the Blessing they would work themselves to destruction, try so hard that it was even odds that they would burn out or pass out. Have l just maimed that pony? She'd seen the effects on her sister, and the thought of condemning a pony to the half-life of an outcast... The mare swallowed hard, remembering her promise not to go too far. I have to know! She swept her surroundings, trying to see what she'd done, and looking for more suits or gryphon troopers. She caught a glimpse of the downed pony, a faint and flickering yellow hornlight in the shadow realm. Still whole, the mare thought with a flash of relief. There was none of the blotchy, fragmented look like her sister's horn on that first night. He'll recover. The bright purple polygons were far fewer in number now -- a couple in the corridor itself, a few more close to the ponies -- and she could only see two of the suits. These are the ones to worry about, she thought, so what were they doing behind the control room? She could feel herself tiring, the effort required to suppress the other four ponies' magic was high, and was coupled with a significant amount of concentration to anticipate and counter the spells without the feedback hurting them. Shaking her head, Gravity trotted a little unsteadily towards the opening used by the first Master, dropping her force field and levering herself awkwardly through the too narrow hole with a mixture of wingbeats and telekinesis. From this angle she could get a clear view of the control room corridor, without the interfering distortions of the chamber's shielding. There was something there, a box filled with a complex spiral of light placed in the middle of the passageway. Something about it made the fur on her back stand on end; why would there be a lump of magically active hardware in the centre of a corridor...? A vague shape, more visible by the way it distorted the background magical signal of the box than any real presence, flitted around the thing. A fifth Master, with no antimagic field? By the time the thought had registered she was moving, a simple cantrip normally used to avoid disturbing a working Master reducing the sound of her hoof-steps to no more than those of a hunting cat. At least I might be able to hear something, she thought, it's not like I'll be able to sneak up on him. Her horn was lighting the area a lurid violet, completely overpowering the dim emergency lighting. Reluctantly she strengthened her grip on the four Security ponies -- it had been getting increasingly difficult to keep a hold of them, as they'd started to work together, focussing their efforts to release just one of their number -- and immediately felt a wave of fatigue wash over her. Another thought and her force field reappeared, a slender vertical oval of gently glowing violet glass, shaped to pass easily through the narrow maintenance ways. Sweating heavily from the accumulated effort, the mare trotted silently along the catwalks. She desperately missed the sage advice of her sister; she'd not tried to rebuild the connection, something that would be fruitless under these conditions. Am I being stupid? What if the Master is waiting for me? It must know she'd defeated the others and was bound to have some sort of thaumic warning system. There was nothing else to be done; if it wasn't for the other ponies she'd have had the strength to strike at him from afar, ripping the intervening space apart or using a more subtle approach and doing something to his suit from the inside. Ahead of her there was an odd rushing sound, like gas being forced through a small opening, followed by an ear shattering bang. === The drone network continued to glitch and sputter, but the tactical systems in Specialist Agon's suit were designed to operate with poor bandwidth and managed to at least give him local area surveillance. He could see the servitor coming. The sudden blinking out of his Captain and the other two People had been a nasty shock, and he'd been working feverishly to complete the Bore Snake's setup ever since he'd been left alone. Agon had just completed the final checks -- the Snake was a great bit of kit, but not something that could be rushed if you wanted it to function correctly -- when his tactical computer had given the alarm. Silently he blessed the emotionless electronics; it didn't care about the apparent impossibility of a servitor coming to kill him, just dealt in cold facts. A miniature video window had shown the creature trotting past several of the hidden camera drones, almost invisible behind a glare of violet light. Admittedly its threat classification flickered between some kind of heavy weapons gryphon trooper, or a never-seen-before chimeric monstrosity from Baur's gene labs, but it was the result that mattered. The Snake finally armed itself and Agon took a hurried step back, resisting the instinctive urge to shield his face with one arm, before giving the thing permission to fire. The front of the Snake's launch case blew off, expelling thick pipe coated in glittering crystals. The pipe uncoiled like a giant spring, the chisel-tipped head glowing with a fierce white light as it struck the barricade and punched straight through it, dragging the pipe behind it. There was a zip noise, then all the crystals along its length flashed red and the world exploded. Agon charged down the passageway, sprinting with head down and arms pumping through the oddly lumpy walls of the temporary opening, simultaneously drawing his laser with one paw. The Bore Snake had done its job perfectly; the explosively pumped thaumic crystals casting short lived spells that enhanced the shockwaves and pushed everything away from the axis of the corridor, turning the razor edged rubble into a one Person wide passageway. The Snake had disintegrated during the explosion, but its magic lingered, coating the packed and crushed concrete with a pale radiance, keeping it in place for the critical seconds it would take an assault team to run its length. At the end of the tunnel was the control room door, also with a neat circle punched through it. The cutting head of the Snake had penetrated the far side of the room, waiting until it was in the middle of the beam chamber before detonating. Agon’s tactical alarm shrieked a warning, and he knew that the servitor was close to the Snake’s launch point. Violet light shone from somewhere behind him, overwhelming the residual glow from the tunnelling magic and throwing the tunnel ahead into shadow. Let’s see how good the pony’s field really is, he thought, baring his teeth and slapping the detonator taped to his chest. There was a hard crack as the shock wave overtook him, more felt than heard, and the light flicked out. Not good enough, he thought fleetingly, then was in the blasted control room, leaping over the ruined consoles and diving through the broken window. His suit knew what to do; gyros flipped him booted paws down and altered his angle of descent, keeping him upright so he would land correctly. The fall slowed to a manageable rate by thrust from his jump pack, he had a little over a second to check the room for threats before landing. His visor displayed the world as an ultra wide angle fusion of optical, infrared and millimetre wave, blending them all and eliminating the shadows to form a clear, high contrast image even under the most difficult lighting conditions. Long training made the distorted panorama natural, letting him see almost completely backwards while not affecting his central vision. Lights flashed on his HUD, colour coded boxes drawn around things his CQB software thought he should be aware of -- the cowering shapes of three of the People against one wall and a pair of ponies against the other. The angle was bad and he couldn’t get a shot while airborne; on landing he immediately jumped sideways while turning to bring his laser to bear on the ponies. One, a white creature with a pink mane and sunburst pattern on its haunches, appeared to be unconscious as a result of the blast. The other was staring back at him, eyes wide and a bloom of pale purple fire igniting over its horn. === Gravity gasped at the sudden explosion, throwing caution to the wind and accelerating to a full gallop, rounding the corner to see the armour suit disappearing down a red glowing tunnel. She was reaching out with her telekinesis to haul it back when the corridor exploded in front of her. The blast wave wrapped around Gravity’s force field and lost most of its power, but still retained enough force to knock her senseless. For an instant she lost control of her magic, concentration slipping. The link to the moons snapped, taking with it the majority of her power, and she staggered at the sudden blast of pain that roared through her head. The Security ponies took full advantage of Gravity’s distraction, breaking free and turning her own tactics back at her. The rest of her power died as what felt like iron bands contracted about her head, leaving her gasping and weak kneed. Polychromatic magic crawled up her hooves, wrapping icy tendrils around her fetlocks. Rooted to the ground she did the only thing she could; stopped fighting. At this range and through so many walls, the other ponies couldn’t hold her physically still without knowing exactly where she was -- that would have required either a real optical view or a clear sensing through shadow sight, something that was very difficult with the edge of the beam chamber's shielded walls in the way. Without the thaumic beacon of her struggles the attacking magic weakened, turning from iron to something more elastic. Moving like she was in syrup, Gravity pulled first one hoof, then the next, free of the cloying spell. Once she moved the magic faded still further, releasing so suddenly that the mare nearly fell forwards. Breaking into a stumbling canter, Gravity accelerated down the corridor. She could feel the other ponies moving, trying to get a clear line of sight. They knew she was there, just didn't have the level of focus required to physically attack her as long as she was in the shadow of the beam chamber. Desperate to reach the Master, she risked one quick attempt to regain her lunar connection. In the brief moment while her power reached out, the others pounced. Their magic coalesced into something amorphous that seemed to cover her coat with clinging layers of spider’s webs, each thread trying to drag her to the floor. Gravity ruthlessly clamped down on her instinctive desire to strike back, and the spell dispersed before it could fully close around her. Ahead there was a lightning flash of pure green. A scream, high and full of pain, echoed up from the control room. === Lilac was lost in the comfortable haze of effort that came with magic use. He lay on his belly next to the white mare with the pretty pink hair, the one that Gravity had called 'Fusion'. Light danced in his mind, the tiny glows of spellstuff worming their way through flesh made translucent by his close inspection, pulling and fusing the strands of tissue on each side of the wound. The trauma spray and wound glue acted together to keep tissue alive until more sophisticated treatment was available. He was intimately familiar with their operation and interaction with pony flesh -- his Masters had been using the stuff on him ever since he'd been able to heal himself -- even the shape of the wound was the same, if a little bigger. The bonding of the flesh to skull was nearly complete, the various blood vessels matched up with their partners. Lilac was completely focused on the repair, making quick progress having discovered how much easier it was working on another pony. He didn't notice the sharp snap of the cutting head breaching the control room door, nor the carefully contained pulse of magic that smashed aside Gravity's improvised barricade. Concentrating on the images inside his head, he didn't see the glittering object fly through the open control room windows, something that probably saved his sight. The thing flashed and flickered as it flew, a deliberate ploy to draw the gaze of anyone unfortunate enough to catch a glimpse of it. The projectile exploded with a flash ten times brighter than the noonday sun, a series of closely spaced pulses designed to disrupt the functioning of any complex brain exposed to it. In that silent, brilliant instant, the shock wave expanded outward at supersonic speeds, arriving a dozen milliseconds after the optical wavefront. The sudden surge in brightness through Lilac’s closed eyes didn’t have time to register before the pressure pulse slapped him viciously across the head and back. His magic died with the flash, arcane feedback adding to the pain that seemed to come from everywhere at once. Eyes open and almost sightless, he saw the figure fly through the open window, any sound hidden by the howling in his ears, saw the misshapen insectile profile and reacted instinctively, his force field dome manifesting before the creature had landed. A stroboscopic pulse of green, almost unbearably bright, reached out and touched him just forward of his sprawled hind legs. Something exploded inside his torso, an unbearable burning pain that went from belly to spine, like he’d been impaled on a white-hot spike. Lilac screamed and his field flickered out, the residual magical effort randomising and reemerging as a surge of undirected telekinesis. The kinetic pulse knocked the creature over, spoiling its aim. Lilac, magic still misfiring, tried to keep a hold of it as the weapon tracked towards his body. Time slowed to a crawl and, try as he might, nothing he did could slow its advance towards his head, his magic sliding off some invisible surface that suddenly lay between them. To one side he could see the cowering shapes of the Masters, collapsed to the floor with paws clamped over their ears, and he knew that they would be next if he failed. At the merest suggestion of the idea, more pain bloomed inside his head. Lilac poured all his strength into stopping that arm, but it was like he was a bug scrabbling at the side of a glass jar; there was nothing to get a grip on. He saw her come through the window like a bird of prey stooping on some unfortunate rabbit. The blue mare’s wings popped open and she wheeled sharply, eyes flashing a terrible white and light speckled tail streaming out behind her like a flag in a high wind. The metal bar floating at her side snapped forwards to catch the creature’s wrist, striking it hard enough to dent the tough alloy and cause the laser to fly from its grip. It tumbled backwards, landing in an ungainly heap. A cylinder made wholly of metal tubes, attached to the creature just above the hip joint, started to spin rapidly, tracking in his direction. Lilac raised one clipped wing in an instinctive gesture to ward off the inevitable, still trying to use his magic. His horn glowed fitfully and little glows seemed to dance around the armoured thing, like fireflies bouncing off a window. A surge of power brushed his magic aside, folding the slick bubble of the thing's antimagic defence field inside a sphere of telekinesis. Force levels rose astronomically, lifting the struggling figure off the ground. The stallion stopped fighting as Gravity’s magic rapidly outstripped anything he’d ever been able to do. He whimpered, turning his attention inwards towards the ragged wound that lanced his belly, looking for somewhere to start. There’s too much damage, he thought, trying to ignore the pain enough to start repairs. Everywhere he looked there were broken and sliced blood vessels, severed nerves and damaged organs. His fragile magic faltered under the continuing battering from the pain, hampered still further by the boom and surge of the blue mare’s own arcane activities. The shape was being held it at the centre of a globe of crackling violet light, spinning helplessly as Gravity’s magic tried to grip the immaterial surface. The lightning flicker abruptly brightened and collapsed inwards, the figure suddenly going still. The glow faded and the thing seeming to be crumpled and folded, smooth planes and bulges turned into dents and craters. Gravity threw the mangled remains out the radiation lock door, so hard that it struck the junction wall at the far end before it hit the ground, then turned and rushed back to the young stallion's side. Lilac opened his eyes again to see the expression of horror on her face, eyes wide and mouth slack with shock. Help me, he tried to say, but all that came out was a keening whine. “Oh, Maker, no...” Gravity said. “I can’t stop it,” Lilac said in a broken voice, his eyes filling up with tears, “there’s too many, what are my Masters going to do without me, the research--“ His voice cut off, eyes rolling back as all the muscles in his head and neck suddenly went taut.