Pain. My body was searing with raw pain that smothered me like a tarp. I tried to move but it felt like I was being crushed by a giant rock. I could hear muffled cries of pain and terror, gun fire and approaching footsteps. I slowly cracked open my eyes but all I could see through my blurred vision was broken stone, fire, mutilated corpses and the grey sky which was painted red as my right eye was dripping blood from its wounds.
"Sir! I found a survivor!" I heard someone shout suddenly, whether or not he was close or far away I couldn't tell.
"Holy shit, is she still alive?" I heard a second voice say, this one a girl.
"You two, get to work on getting her out from under there!" I heard a new voice say.
"Fuck, her face is torn to hell. Can she even see?" the female voice asked.
"I don't know, the medics are gonna have a field day. Hey, if you can hear me stay with me. We'll patch you up kid, just hang in there." The first voice told me as I felt the weight that was crushing me slowly lift off and the feeling of being picked up. As I was picked off the ground my body felt ready to light in fire with the pain that scorched through me, making me black out. I was left floating in a void for what felt like hours and then a soft yet powerful voice seemed to echo from the darkness, seemingly emanating from every direction at once.
"Don't be afraid, for this is merely a dream. Perhaps the last dream you'll have for quite some time, for you are about to enter a nightmare for which I am sorry that you must suffer through… It’s the only way."
Esther
I awoke to the sounds of an alarm ringing through the cockpit. Blinking the sleep out of my eyes I powered up my console.
"Hello Chassis Pilot: Esther Leonas. You have been unconscious for: two hours. Your neural enhancements failed to wake you, technical and/or medical attention is recommended. In addition, your Chassis’ flight module has suffered water damage." A mechanical voice stated as I went through the menus on the various holographic screens.
"Chassis, give me a status report." I said as I continued to go through the menus.
"Ma'am, the chassis is currently submerged under: one hundred eighty-seven meters of water." And with that my fears were confirmed, I was at the bottom of an ocean. Sighing, I opened the metal cover and saw a sparkling blue ocean with schools of multicolored fish swimming around and fields of technicolor corral, much more vibrant than any other I'd seen. As I operated my Chassis to stand and walk forward I powered my scanners and began picking up small Islands, Crevasses, underwater volcanoes and other underwater anomalies which started to cluster my small global map. As I stomped forward with muffled ‘thumps’ the fish swam away in fear. I soon found myself approaching a rise in the sea level as I was approaching an island. Slowly the Chassis breached the surface and I was washed in the afternoon glow of the sun as I neared the tropical island. Water cascaded off the large machine as it moved, different edges and ridges dumping small pools of water as they moved. Past the beach sat a lush, tropical jungle that was sure to be teeming with native life. As I stomped onto the beach I shot a small, circular surveillance drone into the air which began to hover fifty feet above me and scan the large ocean around me. The large, dark green jungle was almost deafening, the sound of various animals and birds moving or calling out,multi-coloured plants and yellow trees swaying in the light summer breeze and the faint slashing of salty blue waves on the grey, jagged rocks. The native creatures here must certainly live a comfortable live.
"Ma’am, It appears a group of native lifeforms are aware of your landing." The chassis' V.I told me.
Speaking of the native life, they looked more than a bit menacing. As they charged through the treeline I was able to get a clear view of them. They stood roughly at seven feet tall, were muscular, had sharp horns, tribal paint and armor covering their bodies and were wielding huge axes and hammers. The closest thing you could compare them to was a Minotaur from the old human legends. They had bull like hooves for feet, fur covering their bodies and large amounts of hair on top of their heads that went down their back, though most of them had their hair either tied back, braided or simply left it hanging. Their fur had various different colors ranging from black, blue, dark red and grey with black or brown hair. All of them had different markings covering parts of their bodies that could range in many different colors, along with horns that were either pristine, cracked or even missing parts in some cases. They all wore primitive steel and cloth armor but left their heads exposed for whatever odd reason they had. When they had reached about halfway down the beach there were at least fifty of the beasts.
'Hopefully they're open to diplomacy or this won't end well for them.' I thought to myself as I scanned to see how much ammo I had left for my multi-gun.
"Metal being, are you from the battle waged in the skies?" One of them asked. He had black fur, grey hair and white markings along his body. He wore steel leggings, leather armor, one of his arms was covered in leather while his shield arm was covered in steel. He wielded a giant stone shield that was more akin to a wall and a giant stone ax with a hardened wood handle. He was clearly a higher rank them most of the other soldiers. I was surprised that they could speak fluent Galactic Common, I would need to question them later but for now I would need to keep the peace. Powering up the external speaker I responded.
"Yes, we came to this world looking to discover something new but we were attacked by our enemies, to save the planet from their assault we sacrificed almost all of our men and women and destroyed our vessels in doing so. I have no idea how many of my people are left or if I'm stranded but I mean none of you any harm." I answered truthfully in a way to not confuse them in case they were less evolved than they looked.
"If what you say is true Beast, then you are an honorable warrior to save those you do not know of. My name is Ovid, War Chieftain of the Cre'te tribe, and this is our home. Why are you here?" He asked me suspiciously, but with a bit more respect.
"As I fell from the sky a great explosion sent me off course. I had planned to land in a forest clearing with my team but I was sent here instead." I told Ovid. He seemed to ponder what I had told him for awhile before he spoke.
"I understand, but next time, try to make an entrance that won't upset the local animals, the Druids have a hard enough time as it is." He told me with a smile as he placed his ax on his back.
"That was quick, no threats against me, no suspicious thoughts or anything?" I asked, surprised how easily it was to avoid starting an international incident.
"We Minotaurs are known for our strength, if we thought you a threat we would attack you, but that doesn't mean we assume the worst of anything we see, we the people of Cre'te are a peaceful kind and seek out those who share our views. like most Chieftains I am expected to know the truth when faced with lies, if I thought you were dishonest I would have said so, but I can tell Beast that you have a kind heart." He told me as his men visibly relaxed. Seeing this I set the Chassis to protect/follow mode and opened the cockpit, allowing the Chassis to pick me up and lower me to the ground. The Minotaurs were shocked at what they saw, aside from Ovid, who merely raised an eyebrow.
"Just as I thought, the Beast was merely a machine, I take it you are the true alien?" Ovid as he put his hand forward.
"Correct Ovid. My name is Esther Leonas, Squadron leader and chassis pilot for the Royal Armada Defense Corps." I said as I looked up at him and shook his hand, signalling that we had a mutual trust that we wouldn't kill each other yet.
"Ha! A fellow leader! The Priestess will want to meet you. Follow me Esther Leonas, the jungles, though beautiful, are quite dangerous." He said as he turned around with his soldiers and began to head into the forest. Smiling slightly I upholstered my pistol and followed after them. Until I could sit down with them and discuss more pressing matters, I was happy to know I would have someplace safe to sleep when night falls and that the locals didn't want to kill me, even if we knew barely anything about each other. If they tried to kill me I would be prepared but hopefully it won't come to that, they seem like cool people.
Ponyville, Equestria, Twilight Sparkle
"If what Big Mac said is correct, the anomaly couldn't have landed far from here." I said to the group behind me. Everyone in Equestria saw the strange sights in the sky, but I was one of the few who happened to be observing it with a telescope and what I saw was ground breaking. Aliens, real live ALIENS were fighting over Equestria.
It was hard to tell but from the looks of it one side was vastly outnumbered but winning, these were the group I had simply dubbed Species A, as I had no way of knowing anything about them aside from their advanced technology, but it was safe to assume they were coming here with a much more peaceful purpose in mind. And then there was Species B. Species B had a few similarity to species A in the sense that there is a similarity between Changelings and Ponies. Appearances and shapes were vaguely the same but at the same time more twisted than the other. This group was scary to look at even from a distance, black twisted armor, strange and menacing looking weapons and more than a few...Disturbing things seem to be around them but it was too chaotic to make out whether or not they were the aliens themselves or merely another strange craft.
I was scared towards the end of the fight when it appeared Species A was going to lose but then, in a surprising move, Species A sacrificed what was left of it’s force to destroy Species B, it was bittersweet. On one hoof Equestria was saved from whatever they had planned for us but on the other hoof we would never know what secrets they could have shared with us. That was until Big Mac came over to my house this morning telling me how he saw and heard something crash into the forest. So here we are with the girls, Big Mac, Spike, a small team of eight royal guards and I making our way through the Everfree Forest. The girls were a bit on edge, whether it be from the forest or the mission at hoof I didn't know, Spike looked scared but insisted on coming, the guards were cautious but unfazed and Big Mac, who was leading the group was completely unreadable. Truth be told I was ecstatic. One: I may be about to discover alien technology, two: I was able to go on another adventure with the girls and three: I was glad to be able to do something unrelated to the war effort. The night would soon be upon us though so we would not have much time to study the site, it was my hope however, that we would be able to come back tomorrow in the early morning, we would have arrived earlier if it weren't for the fact that we needed guardsmen not on duty, a map of the Everfree and the girls wanted to come.
I was wearing a pair of black pants now stained with dirt and grass, black shoes, a violet button up shirt and my tiara, People may treat me like a princess but I never got used to the dresses and regalia. Over the years I have had to focus more and more of my energy into the the war effort, either with research or field tactics.
Apple Jack was wearing a pair of jeans, a white undershirt, an orange button up shirt, black cowgirl boots and her signature stetson, When the war started she joined the royal reserves as a soldier but due to her status as an element bearer she has mostly stayed in ponyville, going out on a few patrols or to deal with a nearby raiding party, she's only allowed to leave if she's desperately needed in a fight.
Rainbow dash was wearing dark blue pants, a black shirt, a blue hoodie, light blue sneakers and her flying goggles, which were currently resting on her head, Like AJ she to joined but as a scout, she rarely sees action but due to her speed she has been a major asset at times.
Fluttershy was wearing a green sweater and grey pants with yellow shoes, she decided to become a medic but mostly treats minor injuries or assists the other doctors if she's needed.
Pinkie Pie was wearing a blue skirt and a bright pink shirt with white stripes down the sleeves along with pink boots, she mostly tries to keep the troops spirits up by doing shows for them or throwing big parties to keep them happy, don't know how she can still be so happy in a time like this. Heh, guess she isn't the Element of Laughter for nothing.
Rarity was wearing a dark blue skirt, a white button up blouse and black high heels, she has mostly been making clothes, blankets and bandages for the homeless and the soldiers. Despite her frail form she was determined to pitch in for the whole community and the bags under her eyes show how dedicated she is.
Big Mac was wearing brown pants, a white singlet, a red button up shirt left open and black working boots, He remained at the farm and hasn't enlisted, though he does help out around the town and often assists the local guards if they need help looking for someone or something. Aside from assisting the guard he often goes to the homeless shelter to help out.
Spike had grown, though he was still shorter than the girls and I by a few inches he was nearly an adult. He wore a purple and green jacket, black jeans and purple sneakers, he's a Savant in the fields of enchantment and fire based magic so he's been assisting me in my studies and been working on his own projects in his spare times.
The guards were all wearing black steel and lavender colored armor that covered them from head to hoof in elegant plated metal, they wore helmets that masked most of their face, their mouths and noses were exposed. Unlike most of the royal guards they used halberds instead of straight swords as it gave them more of a ranged advantage.
"Ah know what I saw Twi." Spoke Big Mac as he made his way through more vines and branches.
"Can we please hurry this along? This forest is too creepy." Spike said to me as he nervously looked around.
"Awww, is wittle Spiky ascared?" Rainbow Dash said in a mocking tone, puckering her lips.
"No I'm not! I'm just worried something's watching us. This Forest gives me the creeps and you know that it’s usually the case." Spike muttered, now annoyed.
"Don't worry man, just teasing." Rainbow said as she ruffled spikes head fins.
"So what kind of aliens do you think they are? Like, nice like us or really mean? Because it would so cool if they were like 'hey Pinkie want to hang out?' and I would be like 'yeah' and then they would go-" Pinkie asked me then rambled as I interrupted her.
"I don't know Pinkie, until we get there we won't know if they're nice or not." I told her.
"Well, I hope they're nice, I mean, it would be really bad if they weren't the nice ones." Fluttershy muttered.
"Don't worry sugar cube, if they're the bad ones we'll keep you safe." AJ said as she put a hand on Flutter's shoulder to reassure her.
"I have to agree with Applejack on this one, we have faced worse before, I see no reason to believe this monster will be any worse than anything we have faced before." Rarity assured with a slightly smug tone of voice. It was then that Big Mac stopped and raised his hand. We were here. Everyone went silent as we looked into the clearing. In the center of the clearing was a huge...thing. It looked like a carriage but it was obviously twisted and broken beyond repair. It had a charred exterior and it seemed to ooze a black substance that smelt of organic decay and rotting metal. The object seemed to have broken apart when it hit the ground as most of it was spread across the clearing or embedded in the trees. The broken machine had a lot of twisted parts and jagged metal jutting from it. I only had to look at it for a few seconds to confirm this was from species B. As we got closer the smell grew much more rancid and when we examined it we were shocked to see it had a corrosive effect on anything it touched as it had eaten away at most of the grass in the clearing, leaving behind brown, shredded plant life.
"I don't think we should be here for long, I suggest we leave soon and alert the Princesses." I said as I looked around the clearing, a sense of dread filling me.
"Agreed, this is too sickening to be around." Spike said as he held his nose. Fluttershy merely nodded from the tree line as she refused to come closer.
"Come on you're just being paranoid...Though now that you mention it this place is kinda messed up." Rainbow Dash said as she flew around the clearing. I could see the rest of the girls and Big Mac shared my discomfort.
"Well, if we're here we might as well take a quick look around, in for a bit in for a silver." I said as I removed my backpack and took out a clear test tube. I knew better than to handle it when dealing with something like this, so I levitated the test tube and scooped out a small amount of the black liquid. As I raised the tube to eye level to examine it something moved in the clearing.
"Did anypony else hear that?" Rarity asked as she looked around the clearing in fear.
"I think it came from inside the thing." Pinkie said as we all turned to the ship and the guards huddled a few feet in front of us and readied their halberds, pointing the spearhead at the torn open craft.
"Come on let’s check the thing out." Rainbow Dash said, clearly suspicious but eager to find something interesting.
"What? What if something dangerous is inside?" I said, shocked that she would consider such a course of action at this time.
"Yeah, sugar cube, this doesn't seem right." Applejack said as she nervously looked around.
"Come on! where's your sense of adventure?" Rainbow shouted teasingly, but the reluctance was evident on her features.
"Rainbow, it is clear we are dealing with something the Elite Guard should handle, not only is this thing disturbing to look at, the whole area just feels wrong. I have a sample of the black substance and we saw what landed, I say we cut our losses and leave." I said as everyone else seemed to agree with me.
"Gaahh, fine we-"
"Look out!" Big Mac shouted as he pushed me out of the way of a giant figure. Out of the shadows of the trees jumped something that could only be described as a monster.
It resembled something that could have once been alive but wasn’t anymore. It's skin was cracked and torn in areas clearly showing the rotten muscle and tissue of the inside and the broken bones that lay deeper. It wore strange armor that hid all of its face except for its mouth which housed rows of rotten jagged teeth. What ever was not covered in armor was gruesomely torn open and had the armor forcefully removed. Its torso had a huge gaping hole which allowed everyone to see into its chest showing a fully functioning digestive system and bleeding organs. Its blood was more akin to puss both in texture and smell. It stood on two legs but was hunched over. It smelt sickeningly of death. I couldn't look away from the monster. I laid on the ground, petrified and transfixed. The world around me seemed go quiet as everyone was shouting at me to run, but all I could do was look at its twisted maw. All common sense left me and all I did was scream in fear as the guards and Big Mac charged at it in an attempt to protect me, the girls and Spike.
Tyler
For the past few hours I had been locating the fallen Marauder craft. Even if none of the bastards survived I would still need to burn and contain the area to prevent the risk of a plague spreading. To conserve power I decided to go on foot instead of with my chassis. I was going hunting for Infected, and the best tool to use is a standard issue Trailblazer. They were bulky, heavy and ugly but powerful. It was a flamethrower that was handled like a shotgun. on the top of it was a groove built into it to place a cylinder full of compressed fuel, when it runs out you merely press a button and the cylinder detaches from the gun. The gun was painted black with a long barrel at the end to concentrate the fire. It was rectangular in shape and had various buttons on the side that functioned as settings to control the fire. The handle and underside of the gun was coloured silver and around the handle and the soft, malleable grip at the front was covered with a light, non-flammable material designed to keep the user's hands from being burned if they weren't wearing protective gloves like I was. The gun was also somewhat wide, needing to hold several litres worth of fuel and a fuel tank. Despite being made of lightweight metals, it still weighed about as much as an auto-rifle.
With my LANS sturdy enough to withstand an attack or bite and with my flamethrower in hand I was confident I could take on anything I might enounter. That confidence was broken however when I heard a woman scream not far from me. I turned to my left and started running through the trees, jumping over rocks, sliding under giant, collapsed trees and carefully jogging through streams till I found myself in a clearing, it was a bloodbath.
I saw four armored natives, a tall red one, an orange one and a flying blue one fighting an infected marine. The Marauder had torn open two of the armored soldiers and ripped the head clean off another one. The natives looked Equine in appearance with their fur coats, manes, hoofed feet and long ears. There was also a group of others that seemed too shocked to react, a marauder’s appearance is usually enough to scare even the most hardened of men so it’s not like I could blame them. What surprised me the most was how there was what looked like a Raknan with them. The Raknan was scared but looked like he was trying to calm down one of the purple equines. Noting it down in my mind as a question I would have to have answered later I charged into the clearing with my supercharged blowtorch in hand.
Big Mac
Everything had gone to Tartrus. I was standing around waiting to leave when something jumps out from the shadows, I push Twilight out of the way but then she just screams her head off. The girls were scared, nearly half of the guards were dead because apparently stabbing this thing in the heart is far from enough to kill it. I had picked up one of the broken handles of one of the dead guards halberd and was currently trying to keep it back while AJ and RD worked on distracting the damn thing and the others worked on calming down Twi. The thing made a mad dash for me, I tried to push it back with the stick but it grabbed it and effortlessly threw it aside. Thinking quickly I grabbed it by the throat when it got close enough and tried to break its neck by twisting the head. It sorta worked. I heard a snap and pushed it back but instead of laying dead, it got back up. I'm not the religious type but if this wasn't a demon then I don't know what is. When it got back up it grabbed its head and cracked it back into position, tearing the skin on its neck open. It ran up to one of the guards but the guard stabbed it in the chest, puncturing its stomach and causing it to try and frutlessly grab at the guard. The guard was having trouble with handling his weapon as the undead thing continued to thrash about. It was about to break the weapon in half when-
"Get clear!" Someone bellowed nearby. A piercing cone of blue flames flew from a weapon in the creature’s grasp. The monster was engulfed in bright blue flames, it screamed a sickening cry of pain as it throw itself about to try and combat the flames but all it did was sent its rotten skin and burning armor flying off. Shocked, I turned to the left to see our savior as the stench of burning rotten flesh filled the air.
What I thought to be a quick thinking unicorn was actually some strange creature covered head to toe in the strangest armor I had ever seen. Its body was covered in a white material with black armor covering parts of it and a strange helmet with a blue panel of glass covering the wearer's eyes. The creature stood at six feet, slightly shorter then me, and was wielding the oddest looking thing I'd seen, aside from the ship...and the creature that was on fire. I went to approach the creature when I felt something grab me from behind and yanked me backward. I turned around to see the burning monster had grabbed me and sunk its teeth into the back of my neck. I pushed it off and sent it to the ground, my heart pounding. I grabbed its helmet and started to smash it into the ground, cracking the broken helmet off and then smashing the monsters skull, eventually, finally, killing it. I rose from the corpse slowly after but suddenly felt light-headed and wobbly. I hardly had time to turn my attention back towards the creature before my knees buckled and I fell to the ground.
"Big Mac!" I heard Applejack shout as she knelt beside me.
"Move." The armored creature instructed as he approached me, tapping something on his wrist.
"Hold on, who the heck are yo-"
"We don't have time! If you want this man to live I need you to-" Was all I heard as my vision started to fade and my hearing become blotted. I felt weak and tired as I started losing feeling all over my body. The last thing I saw was the armored figure look down at me, and before I fell unconscious, I swear I could see the deep brown eyes of the creature wearing the helmet. I always thought brown was a nice color...