//------------------------------// // Chapter III // Story: What I've Done // by Knight Breeze //------------------------------// Chapter III I honestly did not know what had happened. One second I was fine, just sitting there as the doctor ran through what seemed like a routine check up. The next second, my world was suddenly filled with blades and needles, all inching towards my exposed flesh. I'm not sure what happened next, though. I guess I must've blacked out, because the next thing I knew I was lying on the ground, curled up in a ball, shivering in terror. There seemed to be something soft and warm on top of me, while I could hear Moon's voice nearby, hushing to me soothingly. “I-I'm sorry...” I said, as I curled up into a tighter ball. “Fine, you not mean action,” she said softly. I'm not sure how long I spent shivering under that soft warm blanket, but eventually I was able to get my emotions in check, and I slowly uncurled underneath whatever was covering me. The first thing that I noticed were the blue feathers. This confused me at first, so I reached up and touched them with my fingers in an attempt to make sense of what I was seeing. Imagine my surprise, then, when the feathery object I was touching started to giggle. “Um...” I said intelligently. “You are feeling best?” I heard Moon say, though her voice seemed to be coming from somewhere beyond the blue, ticklish object above me. That doesn't make any sense, unless... I thought. However, just as I started to put the puzzle pieces together, the wing above me moved out of the way to reveal Moon's smiling face looking down at me. ...And just like that, everything fell into place for me. I was being wing-hugged by whom I presumed was one of the two leaders of the entire pony nation. At least, if the royal regalia was to be believed. “Gah! I'm sorry!” I said as I quickly withdrew my hand, hoping I hadn't caused offense to the powerful mare. Crap, out of the frying pan and into the- I thought, but was interrupted by the mare's soft laughter. ...Or, maybe I'm misjudging them. Again, I thought mirthlessly as I shakily tried to crawl back into bed, acutely aware of how weak I was. As I made my attempt, however, I suddenly realized that my body seemed to have gotten lighter. In fact, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that I was- “You try hard, let help, us lend to you,” I heard Moon say as I was levitated back into bed into a sitting position, then covered with the blanket that had somehow fallen to the floor. “You, not alone anymore. You, not need face-brave. We here, we help, we support and heal. No need be afraid.” I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing, nor was I sure what to say after a pronouncement like that. All I could really do was bow my head and fight the tears that threatened to overwhelm me. “...Thank you. Thank you so very much.” She just smiled at that, and nodded as the door to the room opened again, revealing the nurse from before carrying a tray on her back. As the mare deftly maneuvered the food laden tray onto my lap, I reflected for a little bit on how radically my life seemed to shift and change. Even though it had only been about a week, it still felt like yesterday when I was running through the woods, fearful of the natives and what they might do to me if I was ever discovered. But they haven't discovered the real you yet, have they? They haven't discovered what horrors you've done, nor do they know what you are truly capable of... I shook my head at that, trying desperately to remove the dark thoughts that plagued my mind. No, they helped me when I was nothing but a monster, when they had no reason to help me, when they had no reason to suspect that a real person lurked underneath my hideous exterior. Just take things one step at a time, no reason to get paranoid over the past. However, as I picked up the fork on the tray, I couldn't help but wonder how these wonderful ponies would react if they knew precisely what they were helping. * * * Captain Hazalk grunted in pain as Doctor Ulia changed the bandages on her patient's back. “I just wish you'd let me put you in one of our tanks. You'd be completely fine in a matter of days, and it wouldn't even leave a scar,” Ulia said as she handed a used bandage to the aid at her side. “A couple of days is too long, especially since I'd have to be unconscious for that particular treatment to be effective,” Hazalk said as Ulia started to spray his wound with a disinfectant. “I need to be on call, just in case the Quzin were to arrive. Plus, I don't really mind a scar. Ladies love scars, especially if you got them doing something heroic.” Ulia just rolled her eyes at that, then jammed a nanoinjector into the wound, ignoring her captain's grunt of pain. “Sure, whatever you say sir. For the record, though, what you did wasn't 'heroic', it was foolhardy. What would you have done if the traitor had shot you in the head?” “I would have died, but at least the traitor would have been thrown in the brig,” Hazalk said as Ulia began to wrap him up. “Besides, I can still perform my duties, I just can't take part in any of the training sims.” “Yes, well, I would suggest you avoid revealing any more conspiracies for the time being. At least until you're fully healed,” Ulia said as she began to redress the captain's wounds. “Is that an order?” “If that's what it's going to take to keep you out of trouble? Then yes, it is an order,” Ulia said as she finished fastening the last bandage. “Yes ma'am,” Hazalk said as he put his shirt back on. As he was doing so, however, the intercom at his belt buzzed to life. “Captain Hazalk, Sergeants Verilo and Casianon are waiting for you in your ready room, as instructed. Also, Lieutenant Wendalaz would like a word with you,” Hazalk heard Lieutenant Talian say over the intercom. “Did he say why?” Hazalk asked. “He said it had to do with the video footage from Team Zen's disastrous attempt to recover Subject-38.” “Tell him to meet me in my ready room in an hour. As for the sergeants, tell them that I will be up in a couple of minutes to debrief them,” Hazalk said as he belted on his sidearm. “Yes sir.” With that, Hazalk turned back towards Doctor Ulia and twitched his antenna a little, while also giving her a little wink. “Well, not that this hasn't been fun and all, but duty calls.” “Just get out of here,” Ulia said, shooing the captain out of her medical bay. “Okay! Okay! I'm going! You don't have to shove!” Hazalk said with a laugh. Once he was outside, he began to make his way to the lift, taking the time to pull out his datapad as he went. As he was waiting for the elevator to arrive, he took a second to review the footage from Ilisk's betrayal. It just doesn't make sense, why would he just tell me who was involved? he thought as he watched Ilisk shoot him again. He couldn't have possibly planned for me to confront him like that, and he is far smarter than that. So why? Hazalk just shook his head as the lift arrived. The answers that he sought were all held by Ilisk, and the traitor hadn't said a word since he had been placed in the brig. “Maybe I'm just being paranoid about this whole thing,” he said as he entered the lift. “Of course, paranoia has never failed me before.” He was so lost in thought over this, that he didn't even realize that he had reached his ready room. At least, he didn't notice up until the point where the two Krin already in the room stood up an saluted him. “At ease, soldiers,” Hazalk said with a wave of an arm. The two Krin soldiers did as instructed, though Hazalk had been a soldier long enough to tell that the two were still on edge about something. “Before we begin with the debriefing, I would like to know what's on your minds.” “Sir, where is Sergeant Inaz and the rest of Team Zen? We've asked around, but each and every person we've talked to since arriving back at the ship have all told us to wait until we've talked with you. Are they on special assignment planet side? or...” Verilo asked carefully. “No sergeant. Inaz and his team are dead,” Hazalk said with a sigh as he sat down in his chair. The two soldiers looked shocked at this news. “Dead sir? What happened? Were they caught by the natives? Because if they were, the natives would have been slaughtered by-” “Soldier, I'm going to stop you right there. We don't know everything there is to know about these people, but from what I've seen, they are far more dangerous than we first anticipated,” the captain said as he typed a few things onto his computer terminal. “Also, it wasn't the natives. At least, not directly.” “What happened then?” “Verilo, Casianon, what I'm about to tell you is pretty shocking, and it completely changes our original mission,” Hazalk said as he brought up a video clip from Sergeant Inaz's armor cam, but did not play it yet. “The ship that we came to the aid of, and the people on board, were the worst our kind have ever produced. They were working in secret, experimenting with genetic and cybernetic enhancements, in order to produce living terror weapons.” At this, he brought up the video clip, pausing it at just the right time to show off Subject-38 in all its terrifying glory. Both soldiers flinched at the sight of the thing, clearly disturbed by what they saw. “Are you telling me that an entire fire squad was taken out by just one of these things?” Casianon asked in horror. “No, but it could have if it choose to. It easily killed both Inaz and Juli, and it had the opportunity to finish off the others, but chose to instead run,” Hazalk said as he reached under his desk for a bottle of water. “The creature got away, and the rest of Team Zen were taken out by the natives on their way out, so I wouldn't be so quick to pass these natives off as simple savages.” “Sir, what do you intend to do? This monster killed our men, not to mention the ones that were killed by the natives, and such an action clearly deserves to be answered in kind. I would gladly volunteer to lead any operation to seek vengeance for the loss of our troops,” Verilo said with a salute. “Stand down sergeant. Inaz went in without the proper information, and I can't rightly blame the creature or the natives for their actions,” Hazalk said with a sigh. “...Sir? What do you mean by that?” Casianon asked in confusion. “What I mean is that we weren't given the whole picture. Inaz went in thinking that he was up against nothing but an unthinking bioweapon, but he couldn't have been more wrong. That thing,” Hazalk said, pointing at the view screen for extra emphasis. “Is sapient.” There was silence at this pronouncement as both of the sergeants in the room tried to process what they had just been told. “Are you telling me,” Verilo said as she stood up. “That the scientists on that ship were experimenting to create sapient bioweapons?” “Oh, it's much worse than that. I confronted Agent Ilisk about this and it turns out that this creature, dubbed 'Subject-38' by the scientists, was stolen from its home world, then turned into a brainwashed puppet soldier,” Hazalk said with an antenna twitch of disdain. Both of the sergeants sat down heavily at that, shocked expressions on their faces. After several minutes of this, Casianon finally spoke up. “Was it... was it still brainwashed when it killed our troops?” “No sergeant, but I still can't blame it for its actions. It was taken from its home, experimented in the most invasive way I can possibly imagine, then let loose on several innocents as part of its 'testing',” Hazalk said as he rubbed his forehead with his two forehands. “What would you do, if such a thing happened to you? If you had escaped, only to find that those who had originally held you captive had come back to retrieve you?” “I would fight back. In fact, I wouldn't have tried to escape, and I would have instead sought out revenge,” Verilo said blankly. “As would I. The natives are equally as blameless. They were merely coming to the rescue of their ally, they weren't actively being aggressive,” Hazalk said, then took a swig from his water bottle. "Are you telling me that it somehow made friends? Looking like that?" Casianon asked in disbelief. "I wouldn't pretend to know how Subject-38 managed it, but yes," Hazalk said with a nod. “Then, who is to blame for this disaster?” Verilo asked as she raised her head. “These scientist couldn't have been working alone, and you said before that Agent Ilisk had some knowledge about what had happened.” “Correct on both accounts. Agent Ilisk is currently being held for questioning, though he is being completely uncooperative at the moment. We also have some leads on who he and the scientists were working for, though those are dubious at best. We have much bigger issues to worry about, however,” Hazalk said with a nod. “Yeah, like 'how is the High Council going to react to this?'” Casianon said as he slumped further into his chair. “I'm actually more concerned with how the Quzin are going to react,” Verilo said with a gulp. “Precisely. This isn't something we can just cover up. A Quzin ship is probably already on its way, and we don't have the time to scrub the site, or to come up with a reasonable explanation for what has happened. Right now, we are just waiting for orders, while also keeping a look out for incoming Quzin ships,” the captain said quickly. “We're going to be in for some rough days, so I need everybody aboard to be up to speed. I've already sent a copy of my confrontation with Ilisk to your personal datapads. Everybody else on the ship is aware of what happened, I just need you two to inform your respective squads of what happened, as well as to show them that footage.” “Yes sir, would you like to hear our reports of what we saw while we were down there?” Casianon asked with a salute. Before Hazalk was able to answer, there was a knock at the door to the ready room. “That won't be necessary, sergeant. I have another meeting to attend, so I'll just read your report after you've finished it. Dismissed,” Hazalk said to the two. Casianon and Verilo nodded at this, then rose to leave the room. They briefly saluted when the door opened to allow Lieutenant Wendalaz entrance, but quickly left soon afterwards. “Hey, Ulzy, did you have something for me?” Hazalk asked his lieutenant as the door hissed shut behind him. “Yes sir, though you're not going to like it,” Lieutenant Ulzark Wendalaz said as he gestured towards the datapad he was holding. “I took the liberty to examine the footage from Team Zen's armor camera in more detail, and what I found was rather... unsettling, to say the least.” With that, the lieutenant's fingers danced across the surface of his datapad, quickly bringing up the footage in question. He then turned the datapad around to allow the captain to see. Hazalk immediately noticed that this particular clip was focusing on was the data picked up by Private Golin's camera, right before the poor soldier's death. Hazalk watched impassively as plasma bolt after plasma bolt struck the flinching equine, only for it to emerge from the storm completely unscathed. “What do you see here, sir?” Wendalaz asked as he leaned forwards ever so slightly. “I see the equine's armor glowing as it somehow projects a field to absorb our weapon's firepower,” Hazalk said with a wave. “That's what I thought at first too, but then I amplified the image. Here, take a closer look...” the lieutenant said as he touched the touch screen a few more times, then turned it back towards the captain. Hazalk watched very closely. It seemed to be a close up of the armor the equine was wearing, but it was kind of hard to tell with all the green fire obscuring the footage. Wait a second... “Ulzy, are those...?” “They are, and they aren't at the same time. Whatever the equine was using to protect itself is very similar to the tech that has protected Quzin troops in the past. The symbols look completely different, but their effect seems to be completely identical,” Wendalaz said seriously. Hazalk just shook his head at that. “I'm not sure how to respond to this,” he said blankly. “Well, for starters, it raises the threat level of this planet significantly. Any teams we send down there have to watch their step, or they could receive the same treatment that they might expect at the hands of the Quzin Void Knights,” Wendalaz said with a shudder. “It would also explain the erratic movements of this system's star,” Hazalk said thoughtfully. “I've seen a Quzin fleet pull a star from its position and fling it at an oncoming fleet, completely destroying everything in its path.” Wendalaz gulped at that, horrified at the thought. “What do we do, sir?” Hazalk didn't respond immediately. Instead, he choose to unscrew his water bottle and take another long, steady drink. I wish the doc would let me have a drink while I was on medication, I could use one right about now. he thought to himself. “This changes nothing,” he said as he screwed the cap back on. “We stay in orbit, keeping an eye out for any incoming Quzin ships, while simultaneously waiting for orders from HQ.” “Yes sir,” Wendalaz said with a salute. At least, I hope this changes nothing... Hazalk thought to himself.