“Incoming! Brace for impact!”
Button Mash barely had time to register Scootaloo’s shout over the com system before an explosion rocked the Harmony SR-2. He was nearly thrown off his hooves, but he managed to steady himself and one of the crew even as the G-forces threatened to send them careening all over the place. Scootaloo had apparently failed to evade a projectile, and they were now spinning out of control.
He ground his teeth as alarms blared throughout the ship. Anything that wasn’t nailed down was flying around like a pinball, and he was pelted with various objects ranging from data chips to unsecured assault rifles. He felt something like a coffee mug shatter on his forehead. The chaos continued for what felt like a minute, until another explosion sent a shockwave through the hull, followed by the long, drawn-out screech of metal on metal as the ship suddenly and rapidly decelerated.
With a loud groan, the ship finally came to rest, and he opened his eyes to the sight of flickering lights, smoking electronics and fractured walls in the CIC. He’d fared a little better than that, since his N7 combat armour had protected him from loose flying objects, and his cybernetically augmented skeleton and musculature ensured that he was way more durable than the average pony. His crew, however, weren’t as lucky, and they were sprawled all over the floor of the Harmony’s CIC in various states of consciousness. Wasting no time, Button activated his foreleg-mounted omni-tool and sent a request to the medbay for assistance. If they were lucky, concussions were the worst injuries that anypony had sustained so far. He got an acknowledgement almost immediately, assuring him that Dinky and her staffs were tending to the wounded. They’d be sending help up to the CIC as soon as they got Engineering and the living quarters covered.
Once he was sure that nopony’s life was in immediate danger, he began scanning through the damage report he’d pulled up. His ship wasn’t looking too good…
“Ugh, darn it,” he heard Scootaloo groan over the coms. “Commander, you might want to take a look at this.”
Button tore his eyes away from the damage report and cantered into the cockpit. He stood next to the pilot’s seat and felt his mouth settle into a grim line as he beheld a field of brownish metal with a black hole on its horizon surrounded by a fiery sky of red and yellow, scattered with the debris of thousands of wrecked spacecraft.
“Oh, that’s just great,” he muttered.
The changelings’ main base of operations was a massive, several kilometres-long dreadnought that floated on the edge of the accretion disc of a black hole, and they’d just crash-landed right on top of it. There would be hundreds of changelings in there, no doubt guarding the ponies whom they had abducted for the as of yet undetermined but doubtlessly nefarious schemes of the Reapers. Somehow, they would have to find a way to rescue the captives – if there were any left alive, that is – and disable the space station to deprive the enemy of their assets.
“Kind of makes you wish we’d brought bigger guns, huh?”
Button looked down and saw the Flight Lieutenant looking up at him expectantly from the pilot’s seat. Although she’d not asked, he knew that she was wondering just how they were supposed to take down a ship of that size without atomics or an armada at their disposal. The Harmony’s cannons simply didn’t have the firepower they needed.
Frowning, he turned his attention back to the changeling base and pointed towards a gap in its hull, about a hundred metres from their crash site. “There,” he said. “That looks like maintenance shaft. Let’s get scans of this thing and see if it leads anywhere. Whatever we find, it looks like the rest of this mission will have to be done on hoof.”
Scootaloo snorted. “I’d call you crazy, but you’ve pulled off enough crazy stunts to make that pointless, so I guess I’ll have to settle for ‘good luck, Commander’. We could use the time you spend pew-pewing up the place to patch up the Harmony anyway. Gonna need it to reach minimum safe distance.”
“Hey, our primary mission is to rescue the prisoners. I never said anything about blowing up the place!” he protested. “Although… that would be pretty cool.”
The orange pegasus rolled her eyes and held one hoof up. “Rule Number One about Commander Button Mash: everything he fights in ends up exploding. Everything.”
He grinned and bumped hooves with her. “And with zero casualties! Assemble the gang; it’s time to kick some major changeling flank!”
* * * * *
Button’s kinetic barrier instantly shattered when it was pelted with several dozen green magic bolts and about a hundred or so bullets. He ducked back into cover, cursing silently for being so stupid as to stick his head up when he was pinned down by suppressing fire.
“Button-Commander, circuits are overheating. This unit is not designed to withstand ambient temperatures of this intensity,” a mechanical voice said through his earpiece.
“Hang on, we’re a little busy!” he replied.
Sweetie Bot’s path through the space station’s thermal ventilation shaft was blocked by a reinforced valve, and the only way to open it short of detonating some major ordnance was a control panel at the far end of the engineering deck that they were fighting in. There were at least twenty-odd changelings hunkered down by the crates and pillars up ahead; they’d have to be careful if they wanted to take them all out without any casualties, but Sweetie’s systems would probably fry before that happened. If they didn’t take the risk, there won’t be anypony left to sneak into the next chamber and hack open the security door into the station’s inner chambers.
Button took a deep, calming breath and reassessed the situation. He was in charge of Fire Team One, which comprised of him, Babs Seed, Rumble and Apple Bloom, and they were pinned down by gunfire and spells from the changelings in an entrenched position roughly fifty strides ahead. Fire Team Two was bringing up the rear about twenty yards back; Diamond Tiara was in charge of leading Spike and Featherweight.
The changelings were laying it thick with their suppressing fire, and it was only a matter of time before reinforcements arrived. His team needed to break through quickly or they would be overwhelmed.
His ocular HUD flashed blue at the bottom of his field of vision, notifying him that his shields had regenerated. Good.
“Rumble, get me a potato. Babs, AB, I need you to grab em when they scatter!” he shouted as he set his saddle-mounted M-8 Avenger assault rifle to full-auto. “DT, get your team up here on my mark!”
And just then, he noticed a drop in the frequency of bullets striking his cover. Some of their enemies were reloading, and he couldn’t have asked for better timing.
Game on!
“Go!” he shouted, standing up to his full height. His kinetic barrier crackled when it absorbed a few shots, but it held well enough for him to fire recklessly in a wide arc at the entrenched changelings, forcing them to keep their heads down.
“Fire in the hole!” Rumble hollered.
By the time the changelings noticed the grenade that he’d tossed, it had already bounced amongst them and it was too late to grab it with magic to throw it back. They scattered; some dashed off to the sides, others took to the air. And when they left their cover, Babs Seed and Apple Bloom utilised their biotics to lift them up into the air. The grenade went off, and those closest to the blast were shredded instantly. The rest were picked off by gunfire as they floated helplessly in the mares’ biotic fields.
“Bam. Headshot!” Rumble crowed.
“Hey, I was gonna finish that, you kill stealer!” Babs growled.
Apple Bloom frowned at Rumble. “Yeah, we already had em. Couldn’t ya go shoot something else?”
“Whoa, whoa, it’s a kill assist, not a steal,” the grey pegasus protested as he took aim and fired his sniper rifle again. “Teamwork, ladies.”
“Button-Commander, this unit’s core systems are sustaining damage. We estimate heat-induced critical failure in sixty seconds.” Sweetie Bot’s mechanical voice was uncharacteristically urgent.
We’re out of time. We need to get that valve open now!
“Rush em!” he shouted as he popped the glowing heat sink out of his rifle and swapped in a cold one. There were still more than half of the changelings up for the count, but they would fix that soon enough. He broke cover and dashed forward, spitting gunfire at anything with a black carapace.
“I. Am. Dragon!”
Button felt the floor shake as Spike charged past him, roaring. The tank-bred dragon stood well over twice the height of a normal pony and was about six times the weight, which would have been intimidating enough without the heavy suit of armour and massive shotgun. He barely slowed down despite soaking up lots of spells and gunfire, enabling Button and the rest of his squadmates to advance.
A second later, Babs galloped past Button. Not to be outdone by the dragon, she apparently wanted a big slice of frontline assault as well. Unlike Spike, she was completely naked, unless the crazy tattoos counted. Not that it seemed to matter, since she was completely enshrouded in a field of biotic energy that appeared to be just as effective at keeping out bullets as a standard personal shield.
Six armoured changelings charged out to meet Spike. Two stayed on the ground to toss spells at him whilst four circled around him in the air, pelting him with gunfire. His shield had shattered long ago, but his heavy armour and durable scales seemed up to the task of keeping him alive under that onslaught. But he obviously couldn’t keep that up forever, as there was blood leaking out of a few holes in his armour.
Button shot down one of Spike’s assailants whilst Rumble took out another, and by that time, Babs had gotten close enough to leap into the air and biotic-punch one of the flyers straight into a stack of steel crates. It didn’t get up.
That was all the distraction Spike needed to rip up some grating on the floor with his bare claws and swat the last flyer out of the air. He then lashed out with his tail to send the last armoured changeling flying, assisting its propulsion further with a shotgun blast to the belly.
“Heh heh,” Spike rumbled as he scraped off some damaged scales. “I win.”
There were only four or five changelings left, and they had retreated to hunker down in heavy cover farther back. The coast was clear enough to make a run for the controls.
“Featherweight, get that valve open!” he ordered.
“You got it, Commander!” A moment later, the pegasus had stowed his sniper rifle away and was zipping straight for the control panel.
“DT, Rumble, give him covering fire. Make sure the bugs don’t—”
“Hey Spike, fastball special!” he heard Babs say.
Button stopped talking when he turned and saw Spike grab the biotic mare and throw her like a javelin at the changelings. She flew in an arc, trailing wisps of dark energy like smoke. Babs rolled forward just before impact and struck the ground on her back, just a few strides away from the changelings, but her biotic field and momentum allowed her to bounce up into the air again. She somersaulted once in the air and landed right side up this time. Her hind hooves touched down first, and that was when she brought down both front hooves that had been charged up with ridiculous amounts of biotic energy.
Babs let loose a wild scream as she slammed her front hooves into the floor, and the resulting shockwave blew all five changelings out of cover. Button winced when he heard the sound of their carapace cracking and splitting as they struck walls, debris and crates.
Rumble whistled in awe. “Remind me not to steal your cousin’s kills next time,” he said softly to Apple Bloom.
“Hmph. No finesse, though,” Diamond Tiara scoffed.
“Valve’s open, Commander!” Featherweight called out.
Right on cue, Button heard the dull whoosh of air as the blockage in the thermal ventilation shaft was removed.
“Acknowledged,” Sweetie Bot responded. “Proceeding to the next area. Hacking will begin momentarily.”
Button Mash breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay everyone, form up and wait by the door. We—”
< Assuming direct control >
He recognised that voice, that deep, rumbling, unearthly mixture of psychic and synthetic syllables that penetrated the minds of organics and synthetics alike. The voice of a Reaper.
Harbinger.
As one, Button and his squadmates turned to see a flash of green light and fire blooming from behind a broken stack of crates. He heard the chorus of clicks and clacks as they loaded in fresh heat sinks and readied their weapons. Not long after, an armoured changeling strode out into the open. Its armour was still wrecked, but its body was healed. Its eyes were glowing bright green, and the joints between its carapace segments seemed to be leaking bright flames and cinders of the same colour, as were the holes in its legs.
The changeling was possessed by Harbinger.
“Take it down!” Button roared.
A storm of bullets rained on the possessed changeling, but its personal barrier withstood the onslaught, even with the few warping fields that Featherweight and Diamond Tiara threw at it. Button kept firing until his assault rifle beeped out a heat warning, then switched to his M-22 Eviscerator shotgun and continued blasting away.
This continued for several seconds, and Button felt his jaw drop when their weapons had all burned out their heat sinks. The freakish thing was still standing without a scratch.
< Our power is unmatched. Your attack is an insult >
“We’re gonna need a Plan B…” Rumble murmured.
“Like what, harsh language?” Featherweight asked.
“Graargh!” Spike roared and charged straight at the changeling.
Its horn flashed, and the next thing Button knew, he was sprawled on the ground several yards back from his original position. His HUD indicated that his kinetic barriers were slowly being eaten away by residual dark energy from the possessed creature’s magical pulse. Everypony else had been knocked back by the blast as well.
Spike was the only one standing; the blast had only slowed him down. He took a swipe at it with his claws, but they only produced sparks when they scraped ineffectually against Harbinger’s barrier. The possessed changeling whirled round and bucked out, and although Spike blocked it with a raised forearm, Button heard his armour buckle and crack from the impact. The dragon roared in pain and lashed out with his tail, but Harbinger deftly leaped over the low swipe.
Button and his squadmates had been busy reloading their weapons whilst the two were engaged, and by the time their guns were ready, Babs had already caught up with Spike and leaped into the fray. They kept Harbinger locked in melee combat whilst Diamond Tiara and Apple Bloom kept tossing biotic attacks at it. Button, Rumble and Featherweight took pot shots whenever Spike or Babs broke off to catch their breath.
“Sweetie, we got an ETA on the door yet?” Button asked.
“Pending. We have encountered resistance.”
There was gunfire in the background of the robot’s transmission.
“Well, hurry up! My father’s domestic VIs were faster than this!” Diamond Tiara snapped.
“Acknowledged.”
“Why won’t this darned thing die already?” Rumble growled when his gun overheated again.
“It can’t keep this up forever. Don’t stop shooting!” Apple Bloom urged.
Button silently agreed. He could see its barrier flickering and warping under the strain of their attacks, and it was only a matter of time before it broke. Unfortunately, Harbinger still had a whole lot of firepower in its horn, shield or no.
< I will show you true power >
The changeling’s horn glowed brightly for a second before bolts of black lightning laced with green magic arced from its tip and struck Button and each of his squadmates. His kinetic barrier broke instantly, and pain surged through his nerves. He could feel his skin burning. They all went down screaming.
< This hurts you >
Button Mash grimaced and slowly crawled back onto his hooves.
“We’re not done yet,” he growled.
< You prolong the inevitable >
Button responded by firing a burst of rounds at Harbinger. They bounced off its barrier.
< Pitiful >
Button grinned inwardly. His shot had distracted the possessed changeling, and that was enough for Babs to get up and slam a biotic punch into Harbinger. At the same time, Spike had managed to crawl close enough to breathe a jet of dragonfire from the other side.
Harbinger’s barrier warped and shattered. But before Spike or Babs could attack its physical body directly, the possessed changeling repulsed both of them with magic and zapped them with black lightning again.
By that time, Button had already reloaded his rifle and he fired a few rounds at Harbinger before it could finish off his downed squadmates. His aim was a little off, but a few bullets did strike it in the hindquarters and draw fiery ichor. It hissed angrily and fixed its eyes on him, horn aglow as it charged up another spell. He leaped aside and dodged the bolt of dark energy it sent his way and returned fire just as it was about to blast him again to throw its aim off.
Button then executed a series of short dashes interspersed with small barrages of gunfire whenever he changed direction, zigzagging towards his target. His frequent barrages, although poorly aimed, served well to disrupt its concentration and aim since it had to throw up a foreleg or use its wings to zip off to one side to protect itself due to its lack of a shield. Button found its retaliatory salvos of magic and biotics easy enough to dodge.
Time seemed to slow as he dashed, skidded and dove side to side, all the while lessening the distance between him and his opponent. Sparks and shrapnel exploded out of the floor wherever its spells struck, but he was already less than ten strides away and he tuned them out as he poured all his strength into one wild leap.
He crashed into Harbinger’s changeling puppet, and he felt the heat radiating from its body as they crashed onto the floor and wrestled. They rolled, and Button somehow ended up pinned to the ground. It lunged for his throat, but he just managed to stick his right foreleg in the way before it could clamp down. He grit his teeth as his armour plating was slowly crushed under the pressure of its powerful jaws and punched it in the muzzle with his free fore hoof. It didn’t let go.
Ow, ow, ow, dang it, ow!
Then, he remembered something pretty useful.
Oh, right.
He activated his omni-tool and experienced the longest half-second of his life as it flash-forged a silicon carbide blade over his free foreleg. As soon as the glowing blade was ready, he rammed it into the changeling’s throat. It pierced the plating on its neck with a wet crunch, and the abomination released Button’s leg as it gurgled and choked on its own fiery blood.
< You cannot stop us, Button >
Button quickly leaped off his foe as it burned inside out into a pile of ash and cinders. After Harbinger’s parting words had died away, he scoffed and kicked its ashes into a cloud.
“Yeah, you’re on fire today. I can tell,” he retorted.
“We are at the other side of the gate. Commencing hacking protocols,” Sweetie Bot announced through the coms.
“Right. Everypony regroup at the door!” Button ordered. His squadmates took a little longer to get back on their hooves than he liked, but considering what they’d just faced, he probably couldn’t ask for much more.
“Just hang on, we’ll be through in a—”
He trailed off when the chittering of a million insects became audible.
“Oh crud, I hate parasprites,” Featherweight groaned.
Black clouds burst out of the deck’s ventilation shafts and surged towards them. Button grimaced at the memory of how the Reapers had modified parasprites to tear at flesh and inject paralysing venom. They were sleeker than their original forms, had fangs and were completely black in colour. Absolutely nasty.
“Move it, ponies!” Button shouted. Guns were useless against such a threat, and conventional kinetic barriers were no protection either.
Nopony needed telling twice. They quickly formed a defensive semicircle in front of the door as the swarm descended upon them. Spike’s breath seared gaping holes into the black cloud, and the bodies of charred parasprites rained down like burning confetti. But the dragon’s fire could only do so much; there were simply too many of them.
“Stay close if you wanna stay alive,” Babs announced. Her entire body glowed with biotic energy as she reared up and balanced on her hind hooves, and as she lifted up both forelegs like she was pushing a boulder, a dome of biotic energy expanded around her.
Everypony huddled close to get inside the protective dome, and it was just enough to cover all of them as the parasprites set upon them, thumping against and gnawing on the barrier. Spike continued to flame at them, but their numbers seemed limitless.
“Sweetie Bot, we need that door open, like, right now!” Diamond Tiara was grinding her teeth as she watched the swarm seethe and surge beyond Babs’ barrier.
“Breaching firewall. Standby,” came the monotonous reply.
Babs groaned and swayed as the swarm pulsed and put pressure on the dome. Button put a hoof her shoulder to help steady her as Apple Bloom asked, “How are you holding up?”
“Hey, Cuz, think you could, I don’t know, help me, maybe?” Babs said through gritted teeth. “Or any of you guys, really. Just because I’m better doesn’t mean I want to do all the work.”
Apple Bloom grinned sheepishly. “Oh, right.”
Featherweight and a slightly grudging Diamond Tiara joined Apple Bloom in adding their biotic energy to the barrier, and Button quietly sighed in relief as the dome expanded a little and pushed back the swarm. Meanwhile, Spike was still busy cooking bugs.
“Button-Commander, security has been breached.”
“About time!” Rumble said as the doors hissed and ponderously began to slide open.
“Okay everypony, get ready to make a run for it!” Button announced.
A ray of green light from beyond the swarm caught his attention, and his jaw dropped when he glimpsed the dark figure of a changeling just beyond the barrier. It was twitching and convulsing as parts of its body became molten.
Oh hayseed, not another one!
< Assuming direct contr— >
Blam!
Button felt a concussive shockwave pass through the air inches to one side from his head, and a split second later, the changeling’s head exploded before the possession was complete, and the rest of its body disintegrated into ash and cinders shortly after.
He whirled around in shock and saw that the door had opened wide enough for a pony to squeeze through, and Sweetie Bot was standing on the other side, smoke wafting out of her assault cannon’s barrel.
“Control denied,” the synthetic pony deadpanned.
There were times when Button wondered whether the robot was hiding a sense of humour underneath that monotone, but he set that thought aside for another time.
“Everypony get inside, now!” he ordered.
One by one, they slipped in through the opening as Babs maintained the barrier and inched her way backwards. Even when she’d made it to their side, she kept the barrier up to plug the opening as Sweetie bot worked on getting the door closed.
“Getting tired over here,” she muttered as sweat poured down her forehead and neck.
“Done.”
The doors slid shut, and the orange mare heaved out a sigh as her barrier collapsed. She toppled over, but Button caught her just before she hit the floor.
“Take it easy, you did great,” he said as he eased her to a resting position.
“Don’t baby me,” she growled. “I’ll be ready to kick more flank soon. Just give me a minute.” She put a hoof on her belly, and a loud gurgle became audible. “Ugh, stupid implants are screwing with my metabolism.”
“Maybe this will help.” Spike reached into an ammo pouch and tossed a rectangular object at Babs.
Button stared as it bounced on the floor and landed next to her.
Babs raised an eyebrow. “A chocolate bar, really?”
“If you don’t want it, give it back,” Spike retorted.
Babs snatched it up and tore open the wrapping. “Thanksh,” she mumbled through a mouthful.
“Wait, you brought food on a suicide mission?” Rumble asked incredulously.
The dragon shrugged. “I’m always hungry.”
“Umm… any chance you got some spares?” Featherweight piped up.
“Ahem,” Diamond Tiara cleared her throat impatiently. “If anypony still remembers, we have a mission to carry out.”
Button nodded. “Right. Sweetie, what’s next from here?”
“Our scan indicates that this corridor will diverge three hundred metres from our current position.” Sweetie’s eyes projected a green-hued hologram of the changeling’s ship into the air before her. “One leads to the holding chambers, and we estimate a high probability that our captured crew are being held there. The other pathway leads to the central control chamber, where you can overload the critical systems and destroy this vessel. Given the likelihood of detection, we would advise dividing into two parties to accomplish both goals simultaneously.”
“All right. DT, you take Rumble, Spike and Featherweight to rescue the prisoners. I will take Babs, AB and Sweetie to the control chamber. Once you guys have freed our crew, we’re gonna blow up this place. Move out!”
* * * * *
“Ah don’t like the look of this,” Apple Bloom murmured, cocking her saddle-mounted shotgun as the platform on which they stood hovered into the station’s central chamber. “Why’s it so empty? Ya’d think them bugs would have stationed at least a field’s worth of guards in here if it’s as important as you say.”
Button had to agree. The hexagonal indentations on the walls of the vast chamber reminded him of a beehive, but one that was completely devoid of activity. It was in stark contrast to the swarms of monsters that they’d faced in order to reach the station’s control centre. It wasn’t the massive mainframe with gigantic cables pulsing with energy that he’d imagined. Instead, it was more like a flat hexagon the size of a hoofball field propped up on a pedestal in the middle of the empty space, with a tiny computer console sticking out of the floor in the centre of the platform.
“Think we made a mistake?” Apple Bloom asked as their platform docked at the edge of the hexagonal platform.
“Negative.” Sweetie Bot hopped onto the central platform and began sweeping the immediate area with her optic scanners, emitting two sweeping beams of green light from her eyes. They reverted to their normal state after a few seconds, but her anti-materiel cannon remained primed and ready. They were too close to take chances now.
“Button-Commander, we can confirm that this is the station’s primary control centre. This interface will enable you to access all of the facility’s critical systems and overload them.”
“Whatever,” Babs growled. “Just do what you have to so we can get out of here. Every second I’m not smashing something’s face in is a second they have to set up a trap. This looks way too easy right now; it’s making me twitchy.” Her entire body glowed blue and rippled with suppressed biotic energy for a second in emphasis.
“Once the self-destruct sequence is initiated, we estimate that a conservative ten minutes would be available to return to the Harmony and reach minimal safe distance,” Sweetie added. “Given the high probability of encountering further resistance within that timeframe, the odds of surviving this operation are unfavourable.”
“Wow. Didn’t know I needed an AI to figure that out for me. Thanks,” Babs drawled.
“Gratitude acknowledged. You are welcome.”
Button thought he saw Babs’ eye twitch, and quickly stepped in between them before the implant-laden pony could blow a fuse. Not that he wouldn’t have paid good credits to see the psycho biotic mare go hoof to hoof with the pony-built-around-a-cannon, but this was hardly the best time and place to enjoy such a spectacle. They could settle it after they were done blowing up the changelings’ base of operations.
“Cool it, guys,” he said all three of his squadmates. “AB, Babs, you’re right; this looks a little too convenient. So watch our backs. If anything comes by, keep it distracted until Sweetie and I finish hacking into the system.”
Both mares nodded and trotted off to keep a watch for any activity from the multitudes of access tunnels and ports on the walls of the chamber. That just left him and Sweetie Bot to trot briskly but cautiously towards the console at the centre of the platform. No surprises popped up along the way, and Button had to admit that he was a little disappointed when they reached it without encountering so much as an automated turret defence. It was very disconcerting to find something so crucial so… unprotected.
“Standby, hacking now,” droned the synthetic. Her eyes switched to a dull red that slowly brightened from the bottom upwards to indicate the extent of her progress.
“Gotcha. Let me know when the package is ready.”
Button compulsively reviewed the status of his armaments on his HUD as the seconds ticked by. Hardware was close to optimal, and organic vitals were back in the green.
“Firewall breached. Preparing data package. You can now access the system.”
Button raised his omni-tool and checked the vitals of the other team. “DT, what’s your status on the prisoners?”
“We got them easily. We’re heading back to the Harmony.”
“Copy that. It’s time to light the fireworks.”
“Do try not to get killed.”
“Right. Here we go.” Button interfaced his omni-tool with the console and set to work. After a few seconds, he managed to set the system to manual override and pulled open a data port for the package.
“Is it ready?”
“Ten seconds. Standby.”
Something flickered on the holoscreen of the alien console. It looked like a face, but before Button could give it further thought, Sweetie produced a spherical data module and held it within hoof’s reach. He grabbed it and wasted no time in plugging it into the system. The console accepted the connection without complaint, and the holoscreen began flashing warning symbols in rapid succession as the overriding commands set about turning the ship’s critical systems inside out.
“Countdown initiated. Ten minutes and counting,” Sweetie reported.
Button nodded. “Okay, let’s get—”
The entire chamber went dark. There was no explosion, no winding-down hum to indicate a loss of power, not even a tell-tale click of a switch. It was just a sudden loss of light.
“—horse apples, they were up to something!” he swore as he activated his armour’s floodlights and spun around, but the darkness stretched on in all directions, seemingly to eternity. His squadmates were nowhere to be found. “Sweetie? AB! Babs? What happened?”
He got no answer. A quick consult with his omni-tool indicated that there were no com channels available. No squadmates, no Harmony. Nothing.
Uh oh.