Make no mistake, Aquilla was a battle hardened veteran of war. He had seen his comrades ripped to shreds right in front of him. But what he was looking at currently, was something far more bewildering. Before Aquilla could fully process what lay before him he said to no one in particular "This, this is a first..." trailing off.
Aquilla, although stunned, approached the creature slowly with his knife raised, and just as he was about to get close enough to slash its throat it spoke.
"H-h-hello? Who are y-y-you?" , whispered a shaky female voice.
At this point Aquilla wasn't sure if his suits systems were malfunctioning, he could've sworn the creature just talked. He ran a quick suit diagnostic, which beeped a low sound, causing the creature to back away a little. The suit diagnostic ended along with the beeping, and as a result the creature relaxed slightly. Nothing was evidently wrong with his suit.
"My god..." Aquilla muttered to himself.
"W-What are you?" The female voice stammered, as the sun was now starting to rise and she could make out now, that the pony standing in her room, was definetley NOT a pony.
Aquilla recoiled at the voice again. This time no so much that it could talk, but that it could speak perfect english.
Aquilla, not wanting to risk another blood bath for the time being did something so unexpected, not even the creature was prepared. He spoke to it.
"Who am I?I am Aquilla of Bravo Team.I am a close quarters specialist.I am a soldier for the SPEAR OF ORION
and just WHAT are you?" Aquilla spoke , using the calmest tone he could at a time like this.
The sun was starting to reveal more of itself as the minutes went by. By this time the room was becoming a pale orangey glow which illuminated the room... save for the corner where the mess had been made. Aquilla was quite grateful for that, he didnt know how the creatures would react to violence.. or witnessing it.
"I-I-I'm Twilight Sparkle. I am a unicorn. And I am also the protege of Princess Celestia." Twilight said, gaining more and more confidence as she spoke the sentence.
Aquilla sat down on the floor and pushed aside his shotgun. " Well, I'm sorry Twilight was it? But you have two choices.." Aquilla said slowly bringing his knife into an attack position." You can come with me..." Aquilla spoke "OR DIE!" Aquilla let out a warcry and charged the unicorn with his knife. He closed the short distance between them in less than a second giving Twilight no time to react. Aquilla plunged his knife into her side and then back out. He continued to hold down the unicorn as she struggled to get free. He also covered her mouth with his enourmous metal hand so that Twilight's screams of pain came out muffled and grew weaker every time he slashed or stabbed the small equine.
After 2 mnutes of nonstop slashing the soldier backed away and the body fell limp. Aquilla was still stunned by the creatures that inhabited the planet and was less han willing to accept the thought of unicorns being real. Although he really didnt have a choice considering he had just sliced one up.
"Well, you ain't too damn tough at least...." Aquilla muttered to hiimself as he shook the blood off his knife and picked up his shotty to report back to David.
Aquilla made his way down the small flight of stairs and bck to the room where the other soldiers were now either resting or taking inventory.
Through the crowd of other SPEAR forces Aquilla was able to spot David before he did him. He approached the commander slowly, being sure to step over any sleeping men. Once he had finally reached David he quickly briefed him on what had happened. Quite frankly the captan was just as shocked as Aquilla. Not wanting to startle any of the other men just yet, David decided it was best if they didnt see just yet.
" Corporal, are the bodies still there?" David asked hesitantly.
"Wha? Of course! Why wouldnt they be?" Aquilla whispered to the captian to keep the others from hearing.
"Take me to where you found these two, creatures."
"Very well captain." Aquilla said truning around and making his way back to the door with David in tow.
Aquilla opened the door silently and lead David up the same flight of stairs that he had taken earlier. The sun now shone brightly through the window, and it appeared to be around noon. As they reached the top of the stairs Aquilla was unprepared for what he saw, or rather what he didn't see.
"Corporal, what am I looking at exactly?" David inquired.
"They're gone!They're bloody gone!" Aquilla muttered as he fell to his knees in despair and confusion.
David was confused as to why there were bloodstains on the walls and floor as he watched his companion fall to the floor. He figured they're really must have been a fight between him and the creatures. But that still didn't answere the question as to where they went.
"No..." Aquilla said in an angry tone as he stood up with his shotgun at the ready. " You are not going to get away from us creature. YOU WILL NOT! But it appears that you are attempting to. Just know this!" Aquilla said getting calmer as he went.
"If you choose to escape we will not kill you..." Aquilla said calmy.
"We will kill everyone around you. All who you hold near and dear, and make you watch as the life drains from their eyes. Know this creature! You have doomed your planet by choosing to run! And now..." Aquilla said menacingly as he cocked his shotgun.
"You're all gonna pay."
Aquilla regained his composure after his fit of anger and walked back towards the back room. He opened he door and waited for David. But he didn't come. He figured he wanted to examine the scen so he just closed the door and rejoined his squad.
Meanwhile David surveyed the scene. Not much, just blood stains and... an open window? He stared for a second realizing it was probably the creatures means of escape. David was tempted to look outside the window, but since it was midday he resisted the urge, fearing that the creatures might attack him.
Since all he was left with was blood he scooped up a few samples into viles and clipped them to his belt magentically. He then ran one of the through a scanner which determined which species it was. To his asonishment the scanner came up empty, reading " SAMPLE NOT COMPATIBLE." This had never happend before, even on New Madrid where there were some pretty obscene creatures.
David stood dumfounded for seconds on end until he decided it was best to check in with Charlie and Alpha. Turning his com on he radioed Charlie.
"Charlie this is Bravo do you read?"
No response for a few seconds until a soldier replied over the com " This is Charlie, we read you. Uh hold on Bravo we have some info that might be useful."
"Go ahead soldier." David said calmy.
"Okay. Well last night when we dropped something attacked us. We lost 6 men, so we've taken heavy casualties. Another 2 men are injured with some kind of poison. It looks like they won't make it. But as for the creature we downed, it's huge. Big as at least 3 Ragnarok Assualt Tanks."
David shuddered at the thought of a creature that could single handedly kill of half a squad of SPEAR soldiers. And it didn't help soothe his mind that it was bigger than a goddamned tank.
"Also it appears it has multiple necks, and heads. We ran multiple searches as to what it was, blood, DNA, even brain matter. None of our scanners have seen anything like it sir. One of the men suggested something though. At the timeIi thought it quite silly, but now I'm not so sure."
"Well? What did he suggest?", David inquired slowly, almost not wanting to know the answer.
" Sir? He suggested a hydra." the soldier replied coldly.
David couldn't beleive what was happening. First Charlie gets nearly wiped out, by a hydra of all things. The bodies go missing. Whats next? ,David thought to himself.
" Alright, Charlie, I wan you to rally on Alphas current position. Be stealthy and avoid anymore contact."
"Sir yes sir." The soldier finished as the com went silent.
"Ugh... what the fuck is this planet anyways?" David thought out loud.
David turned his attenion to Alpha and radioed in to them.
" Alpha this is Bravo. Charlie is going to your current location. Watch out for them, they have wounded. Anything to report yourself?"
Almost immediatley Alpha's leader replied. " Alright, and yes we do in fact have something to report. We discovered sentient life early this morning found her in a hut. Says shes a zebra of some sort. I have no idea how that's possible though, considering Zebra's don't talk but Ive learned to expect the unexcpected so i guess i just have to go with it for now. Don't worry we have her captured. We're interogating her as to what this planet is right now. After that, we'll dispose of her. Don't worry we'll keep an eye out for charlie. Alpha out."
'Alright, everything's coming together now. Better get the men prepared to move out.." David thought to himsef as he descended the flight of stairs and re-entered the back room.
Little did he know that they were being watched...