It was very late in his sleep cycle when Shining Armor’s communicator began to ring. He immediately snapped awake and rolled out of his bunk. His entire adult life had been spent in the Imperial Navy, and he had grown accustomed to the lifestyle. Most officers preferred to have luxurious quarters aboard their ships, but he had never gotten used to sleeping alone in a full bed.
Not that I’d take this over my bed at home, he thought with a grin as he jammed his communicator into a small port on his desk. The screen mounted on the far wall blinked to life, and he shielded his eyes until they grew accustomed to the light. “Commander Armor?” a female voice asked.
“We wish to speak with you,” another added. Shining Armor finally managed to look directly at the screen and saw a pair of similarly colored mares staring at him. “You are the highest ranking Imperial officer in this sector. We request that you meet us at these coordinates.”
Shining Armor blinked at the numbers flying across his screen. “Hang on,” he mumbled, trying to shake the drowsiness from his head. “Who are you, exactly?”
The mares glanced at each other. “Aloe and Lotus,” they said at the same time. Shining Armor was reminded of the creepy twins from an old horror movie about a haunted hotel. “We are private contractors for the Blue Moon Corporation. We have authorization from your superiors to contact you if necessary.”
Stupid bureaucratic nonsense, he thought. The Blue Moon Corporation had a stranglehold on the interplanetary economy, and provided most of the technology used by the Empire. The Imperial Navy tended to bend over backwards to appease the megacorporation whenever possible. “Fine,” Shining Armor said. “What’s so important at these coordinates?”
“You do not need to know,” the twins said curtly. “Our assignment is not something that we are eager to discuss with the likes of you, and certainly not over an unsecured channel. Further details will be provided if and when we deem it necessary.”
Another black bag operation, courtesy of Blue Moon. Why am I not surprised? “I’ll be there in a few hours,” he said.
Aloe and Lotus nodded, satisfied with his obedience. “Very good. We are waiting for you aboard a mining station. Contact us when you arrive.”
The image of the twins shook faintly. “Did you hear that?” one of them asked. Her sister nodded. “It seems that we have arrived at an inconvenient time.”
“You have new orders,” the second twin said. “Search for our vessel. It should be clearly tagged by the Blue Moon Corporation. If you cannot find it, then we are already gone and there is no point in waiting for us. Good day, Commander.”
The camera shook again, and the twins began to look worried. “This plan was ill-advised,” one of them muttered. The feed cut to static moments later, and Shining Armor was once again blind in the darkness of his quarters.
*****
One of the many downsides to space travel was that most ponies didn’t like being cooped up in a ship. Thunderlane was usually one of those ponies, and often got restless on long trips. Occasional claustrophobia was just part of being a pegasus pony. There was a reason that he spent so much time in the cargo hold, which was the most spacious area of the ship.
This preference for open spaces did not extend to the endless void of space itself. Thunderlane didn’t particularly mind looking out at the ‘Verse from the safety of a sealed suit, but today he would much rather be inside. This assignment was much more unpleasant than the ones he usually took care of; there was a dead body clinging to Sereneighty, and he had to get rid of it.
“I always get the Gorram luh-suh detail,” he grumbled as he crawled along the access rails built into the ship’s belly. He had clambered out of the EVA hatch below the bridge and was making his way closer to the magnetic clamp. “I got an idea,” he mused. “We should let Tick Tock do this next time. He can float around out in the black, and I’ll sit in the infirmary and look pleased with myself. How’s that sound?”
“Get a move on,” Lyra ordered. “We might need to leave in a hurry. Vinyl’s scanning the Dogworks, but she says there’s a lot of interference. Somepony might still be around.”
“We could always ask Octavia,” Thunderlane said. “She ain’t squeamish. No reason it always has to be me doin’ this kind of thing. Just sayin’.”
“Your whining has been noted.”
Thunderlane reached the auxiliary fuel tank and began climbing over the bulge in the ship’s hull. “I’m not whining!” he argued. “I’m complaining. You want to hear whining?”
“Thunderlane–”
“Thiiiis is whiiiiiining!” Thunderlane moaned in the highest pitch he could manage.
Lyra barked through the microphone and cut off his ran mid-sentence. “Thunderlane!” she shouted. “Your mouth is talking. You might want to take care of that before I decide to sew it shut. Get that hitchhiker off my ship and get your stupid flank back in here!”
Thunderlane could see the diamond dog’s tether, but the maintenance rail didn’t run close enough for him to reach it. “I’m here,” he said, all levity forgotten for the moment. “I’m going to have to let go of the ladder. Tell Vinyl to hold the ship steady.”
The pegasus sized up the distance between himself and the tether. It was about eight feet, give or take. He gently pushed off of the access rail and floated toward the clamp. When he was close enough he wrapped his hooves around the anchoring rings and twisted the locking mechanism.
The clamp came free without a sound, and he tossed it away from the ship. The action pushed him back toward the rail, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to reach it. “Haul me in,” he said into his microphone.
Thunderlane felt his safety line tug against his back as it pulled him toward the EVA hatch. He watched the diamond dog float away and said a short prayer that had become very popular among pirates and smugglers: “Zài jiàn, pal. Better you than me.”
The crew met on the bridge after Thunderlane’s unpleasant space walk. Bon Bon was present as well, and for once Lyra didn’t see fit to order her away. Sereneighty was hidden behind a massive asteroid, just out of sight of the Dogworks while the crew went over Vinyl’s scans.
“We’d have to get a lot closer to do better than this,” the pilot began. “There’s an awful lot of fey tyeh luh-suh floating around out there, and the station’s reactors aren’t being looked after. With all that interference, it’s a wonder we can see anything at all.”
“Do we know if there are survivors?” Tick Tock asked.
“No idea,” Vinyl said. “It gets a little fuzzy toward the center of the station. The lifeboats have been launched, but there’s no way they’d fit the whole crew. I can’t see any of them floating around here, so they were probably picked up by somepony. That’s something, at least. The station’s records mention a private craft docking, but it’s long gone.”
Thunderlane cleared his throat. “So, why are we still here? I say we beat our hooves in the opposite direction with all due haste. Somethin’ bad happened here, and I’m none too eager to see what it was.”
“We’re still here because I’m trying to decide the best way to get aboard,” Lyra said. She looked around at the stunned faces of her crew. “What? If there’s nopony onboard, there’s nopony to stop us. There was probably some kind of industrial accident or something. We’ll get in, take a look around, and try to grab any pieces of precious that might sell. It’s the same routine we always use.”
“I don’t know, Lyra,” Thunderlane said. “It’s a little eerie, ain’t it?”
Lyra looked over the scans and scratched her chin. “We aren’t exactly rolling in it. This last job paid well, but we can’t turn our backs on easy coin. Thunderlane and I are going in. Octavia, stay on Sereneighty and keep an eye on things. Remember to stay far away from Spitfire.”
Octavia nodded obediently. “What shall I do if she makes trouble, sir?”
“You’ll think of something. Hit her over the head with something big and heavy if you like. Just stay alert and let us know if there’s any trouble.”
“I’d like to go with you,” Tick Tock said. “There might be somepony in need of medical attention.”
Lyra shrugged. “Just stay out of the way unless we need you. If nothing else, you’re another pony to carry loot. Vinyl, what kind of atmosphere are we lookin’ at?”
“I don’t know,” the pilot admitted. “There should be air, but with the station’s computer offline I can’t check. There could be a rupture somewhere that vented it all.”
“That’s fine,” Lyra said. “Let’s suit up and get moving. We don’t know how long we have before somepony shows up.”
*****
Of all the things that a pony could be afraid of, a sealed suit had to be the stupidest. Lyra watched impatiently as Tick Tock donned his environmental suit with the kind of apprehension normally reserved for approaching things like live explosives or angry manticores. He was taking so long that Derpy kindly offered to help him, but even with a mechanic he had trouble getting his equipment to work properly.
“He ain’t too smart for a doctor,” Thunderlane grumbled. The pegasus was loaded down with several cargo sleds, and had insisted on bringing a combat shotgun in addition to his revolver. The extra weight was making him grumpy. “He’d better hurry up before we leave him behind.”
“He’s ready!” Derpy announced. She patted the doctor’s shoulder reassuringly, though he probably couldn't feel it through the suit. “You’ll be fine, okay? I mean, you put it on wrong at first, and you almost broke the helmet’s seal lock, and you had the air flow shut off, but I think it’s all fixed now. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Tick Tock forced himself to smile, and Lyra was struck with the strange notion that the expression was about to break his face. He fell into step with the others as Sereneighty made contact with the Dogworks. A hiss filled the cargo hold as the airlock was prepped, and the trio stepped inside. A sliding panel sealed them off from the rest of the ship, and the atmosphere drained around them.
Lyra waited for a light to flash green, then stepped calmly into the mining station. She began punching buttons on a small computer strapped to her foreleg. “Looks like we’ve got air,” she said. “Temperature should be tolerable.” The seal on her helmet popped open and she yanked it off. After a few deep breaths, Thunderlane did the same. Both of them had to help Tick Tock with his own helmet.
“We’re splitting up,” Lyra said. “Thunderlane, start looking through the cargo areas. See if you can find something that’ll sell. Doc, you’re with me on this one. We’re raiding the medical facilities. Be back on the ship in thirty.”
Thunderlane adjusted the communicator clipped to his weapon harness. “Can you hear me?” he asked.
Lyra stared at him, wondering if he was just pulling her leg. “I’m standing right here.”
Thunderlane nodded, satisfied that his equipment was working. He checked to make sure that his shotgun was loaded, and slung it over his shoulder.“Okay, you’re comin’ in good and loud.”
You’ve got to be kidding me, she thought. “That’s because I’m standing right here!” she insisted.
Thunderlane looked down at his communicator. “W-well, yeah, but…the transmitter’s…”
Tick Tock and Lyra shared a bewildered look, but decided not to push the issue. Thunderlane trotted off to plunder the cargo while they made for the medical bay. On the way they passed through the galley and a large dining area. The tables were filled with half-finished meals, and the smell of spoiled milk filled the room. “What happened here?” Tick Tock wondered aloud. “I don’t see any signs of a struggle.”
“Might be that they tried to evacuate in a hurry,” Lyra said. “It happens sometimes with a ship this size; whenever there’s any sign of trouble, everypony rushes to the life boats.”
“I see,” he said. “Captian, now that you mention it, doesn’t this strike you as being rather strange?”
Lyra’s horn sparked faintly, and a corresponding light answered from the grip of her pistol. “Strange?” she asked. “How, exactly?”
“Well,” he began, “the lifeboats are all gone. Vinyl said that they wouldn’t hold everypony. What happened to the rest of the crew?”
The infirmary came into view, and Tick Tock ran ahead to begin sorting through the medication. “Could be anything,” Lyra said. “Maybe a ship passed by and picked everypony up. That would go a long way toward explaining where those lifeboats went.”
“I suppose that’s possible,” the doctor agreed. He hurriedly shoved bottles into the duffel bag Lyra had given him. The Captain stood by, patiently watching as bag after bag filled up with precious goods. Tick Tock snuck a smaller bottle into one of his pockets. “Pills for Derpy,” he said when he realized that she had seen him.
It was several minutes before both of their communicators clicked on. “Lyra!” Thunderlane called. “Get down to the cargo deck. I think we’ve stumbled into a real mess this time.”
Lyra and Tick Tock raced out of the infirmary, the former weighed down by their plunder but still easily able to keep pace with the earth pony. They left the sled at the top of one of the access ladders and dropped down into the station’s expansive cargo area.
Stacks of cargo crates and large metal containers stretched out before them. The lower levels of the station formed a maze of loading ramps and cargo stacked to the ceiling. “Over here!” Thunderlane called from atop a refrigerated container. “Stand back, Lyra. We don’t know what’s inside.”
Lyra saw that the container’s door was smeared with a rusty brown substance. A small, dark puddle had frozen on the floor in front of it. She drew her pistol and motioned for the doctor to stand back. “Ready?” she asked. Thunderlane aimed his shotgun at the doors. “Okay. Here we go.”
The doors were difficult to open, frozen solid and caked with something that Lyra very much hoped was not blood. The inside was obscured by a thick shadow, so Lyra began searching for her flashlight. She finally found it and held it up, but needed a moment to steady herself before turning it on.
Lyra would never be sure how she knew what was in the refrigeration unit. A full second before her magic pressed down on the button that activated her flashlight, she knew exactly what she would see. It was probably her subconscious mind picking up on the scent of blood, or perhaps the shadows in the container weren’t as dark as she had first imagined. Maybe she had very weak reader abilities of her own and simply didn’t know it.
For whatever reason, she had time to shut her eyes before her light illuminated the grisly scene in the container. Bodies were piled against the far end, stripped of clothing and stacked like firewood. Most of them were missing limbs, and some had obviously been savaged before death. The frigid mist washing over her carried with it the faint smell of cooked flesh.
Thunderlane’s violent swearing snapped Lyra out of her trance. “Wuh de tyen, ah,” she whispered. “We landed on the wrong damn station.”
“What happened here?” Tick Tock hissed. He had immediately looked away, and had yet to bring himself to turn around. “What could have done this?”
“No mystery there,” Lyra said. “Reavers.” Tick Tock’s eyes widened in horror.
All three ponies jumped as their radios crackled. “Captain, is that you?” Octavia asked. “I can hear something outside the ship.”
“Don’t open the doors!” Lyra shouted. “Octavia, don’t let them in! Lock it all down!”
The floor shook, and Octavia’s reply ended abruptly. “They… they aren’t real,” Tick Tock whispered. “They can’t be. Reavers don’t exist!”
Lyra didn’t bother to argue with him. She took off at a dead sprint, pistol held at the ready. Thunderlane flew behind her and shouldered his shotgun while Tick Tock tried to keep up. They passed the sled full of medical supplies, but Lyra had other things on her mind. As soon as they saw the corridor leading to Sereneighty, all three ponies stopped in their tracks.
The reinforced hatch leading to Sereneighty’s airlock had been blown open, and parts of it were still glowing with the immense heat of the blast. “Octavia!” Lyra shouted. She charged ahead, her friends following in her wake, and galloped into the cargo hold. The blast had shaken the utility vehicle free of its platform, and it was now lying upside down among a pile of shredded boxes.
Octavia was nowhere in sight. What if they took her? Lyra thought. What if we’re already too late? “Octavia, say something! Where are you?”
Something stirred beneath the all-terrain vehicle. Octavia tried to crawl out of the wreckage, but screamed when she tried to move one of her hind legs. “Get that thing off of her!” Lyra shouted. Her magic, combined with Thunderlane’s brawn, soon freed her second in command.
Tick Tock rushed to Octavia’s side and began examining her leg. “That’s broken,” he said a bit unnecessarily. He pulled out his medical bag and ripped it open, producing a needle and a small bottle of clear liquid. “It could have been worse, you know. The bone isn’t sticking out or anything.”
“No!” Octavia hissed when he tried to give her a shot. “There are Reavers onboard, doctor. I would rather maintain control of my faculties.”
Everypony, including Tick Tock, began talking at once. “You’re in a lot of pain,” the doctor warned. “You’re in shock right now, but once it wears off–”
Octavia’s lavender eyes blazed so brightly that everypony took an involuntary step backward. “Ta ma de! Nimen de bizui!” she shouted. She shut her eyes tightly and stomped one of her hooves against the floor. “Pardon my language, doctor. Please hand me my rifle and prop me up against something or I will crawl over there and break all four of your useless kao knees. Perhaps then you will have a reason to complain.”
Lyra quickly grabbed Octavia’s retractable rifle with her magic and levitated it over to the downed mare. “Thank you,” the cellist said calmly. “Will somepony please make certain that my wife and the others are unharmed?”
“You sure you’re alright here by yourself?” Thunderlane asked.
Octavia stared at him coldly. “I believe that I asked somepony to check on my wife. You are not moving.”
Thunderlane immediately grabbed his shotgun. “Y-yes, ma’am!” He leaped into the air and flew toward the bridge, apparently forgetting to wait for the others.
“Come back here and wait on a catwalk after you’re done!” Lyra called after him. “Don’t let anything past you. That should make it harder for them to get around without bein’ seen.” She pushed Tick Tock in the direction of the bridge. “Go with him to make sure Vinyl isn’t hurt,” she ordered. “Tell her to lock down the ship. I want every door and shutter on Sereneighty sealed tight as can be. We’ll search everywhere, room by room.”
A distant scream echoed through the ship. “That sounded like Derpy!” Tick Tock exclaimed.
Lyra nodded. “Change of plans, Doc. You’re with me. Let’s go.”
*****
Sereneighty’s engine room was a mess by the time Lyra and Tick Tock arrived. They had taken a shortcut through the ship’s water reclamation area, which was a challenging room to navigate in a hurry. Lyra arrived first, and almost stumbled over an open toolbox. Derpy had been hard at work when the Reavers showed up, and they had caught her completely off guard.
The mechanic had crammed herself into the little gap between the reactor and the floor, climbing between support struts until the Reavers couldn’t reach her. One of her hind legs had been sliced open almost to the bone by one of the filthy, jagged blades that the savages carried.
There were two of them in the engine room. One was a griffon with a splintered beak, and the other was a pony with nails driven through his cheeks. Both of them smelled like blood, but lacked the usual scent of infected wounds and excrement. These two didn't change that long ago, Lyra realized. They’re survivors of the original attack. They've probably only been Reavers for a few hours.
Only the griffon noticed Lyra. By the time Tick Tock caught up with her she had already drawn her pistol and put it down with two slugs to the chest, then another to the head. Her pistol’s barrel trailed smoke as she drew a bead on the pony, and killed him in exactly the same way.
Just as the noise died down, the intercom snapped on. “Reavers are on the ship!” Vinyl shouted a little too loudly, causing a blast of feedback. “The Captain and Thunderlane are hunting them down. We’re going into lockdown, so find an empty room and shut yourself in until help arrives.”
Tick Tock knelt down in front of the engine and began trying to coax Derpy out of hiding. She was still panicked from the attack, and shrank away from him like a frightened foal at first. Eventually she was able to crawl out on her own, though it took some creative wiggling to squeeze through the reactor’s struts. Her entire body was still trembling as she stepped over one of the dead Reavers, and her injured leg wouldn’t support her weight.
Tick Tock quickly sterilized the wound and bandaged it. “We’ll need to do a more thorough cleaning later,” he said. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
Derpy shut her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. It didn’t seem to help, but after a moment of silence she was able to wipe her eyes and stand up. “I think one of them went down the access ladder,” she whispered in a voice made weak by screaming and crying. “Mac and Vision are down there!”
*****
Shepherd Mac didn’t mind spending time with Vision, but he wished that she would stop staring at him while he was trying to read. He had been lounging in the passenger dorms, reading through one of Bon Bon’s cheesy novels, when the little earth pony snuck into the room and plopped down beside his chair. She had been watching him for quite a while, and he was finding it very difficult to concentrate. “Is there somethin’ Ah can do for ya?” he asked when the silence finally became too uncomfortable.
“I don’t think so,” Vision said. She finally looked away, and Mac let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he was holding. “I was playing with Derpy,” she said with great concentration. “Then I was tired, so I slept. After that I came here because I wanted to see you. I remember. I remember what happened to me.”
“Is that unusual?”
Vision looked at him again, but this time her stare was much less unnerving. “Sometimes,” she said. “It’s not so bad now. You all don’t think I notice, but I do. I notice a lot of things. Ticky’s finally made some friends.”
“Thank the goddesses,” Mac chuckled. “He still doesn’t fit in out here. Your brother was very brave, goin’ after you like he did. You’re lucky to have him.”
Vision almost agreed with him, but something distracted her. The ship trembled, and she collapsed on the floor as though something had struck her. “Bad ponies!” she whimpered, and scuttled behind his chair. She covered her eyes and began so shiver and sweat.
“Where?” Mac asked. “We’re alone, darlin’. Nopony’s gonna hurt you here.”
Derpy screamed, and Mac slammed his book shut. “They’re here,” Vision whispered. “They saw the endless nothing that hides behind stars, and they let it in. They’ve found us!”
As if summoned by her words, a loud bang sounded from the access ladder leading to the engine room. A ragged, bleeding pegasus pony stumbled into the room, obviously stunned from his unexpected fall down the access hatch. Both of his wings had broken razor blades wound into the primaries, and one of them was beginning to show signs of infection.
The Reaver noticed them and stalked curiously around the perimeter of the room. It eyed Mac with a perverse mix of hunger and lust, snarling and drooling saliva and blood onto the floor. Its broken teeth clacked together as it snapped at him like a rabid dog.
The stench of sickness and refuse soon hit Mac’s nose and made his eyes water. The Reaver’s coat, matted with something dark and sticky, reeked of decay. “Bad pony,” Vision repeated.
Shepherd Mac stood up and flexed his shoulder, grunting as it popped. “Eeyup,” he agreed. Something about the little noise sent the Reaver into a rage, or possibly just helped it pick a target. It erupted into action, galloping toward him with its maw open wide and emitting an otherworldly howl.