//------------------------------// // Maintenance // Story: Alien: Twilight Signing Out // by TwiRaptor //------------------------------// "Vents, generators, and security controls" Twilight looked down on the floor at the maintenance jack repeating those words so she would not forget the tasks she had. Lowering her head as she leaned against the wall outside the control room. Sunset was tightening the neck of her outfit to make it less droopy, last thing she would want is to trip out here. Fractured was tinkering with all the tools that she was supplied with, seeing how she could make them work better. White was in a tight hug with his marefriend as they all waited for the okay, Iron Will gave them no choice on this matter. He was right, out here they would die eventually and that was a fact. "Twilight, do you want me to be with you? I have experience with working on this ship and you don't. You will need my help out there" Sunset said as she approached her alicorn friend. "Besides, the vents are something I should have fixed before all this" her ears pin back as a soft blush grew on the unicorns muzzle. Twilight smiling up at her friend nods in agreement that she was clueless on the matter. Just as Twilight agreed Iron Will started talking on the speaker again, the speaker was distorted slightly from the power that was draining from the ship due to the lack of maintenance sense the meteor shower and the unwanted guest. "Alright, now remember the vents have to be done first and the security controls must be last. I will keep in contact with you all as you work to keep you updated on the movement and any issues that arise. Of course if a problem occurs while you are still out there I will require you too fix them before I can let you back in" the captain coughs after he spoke this short little briefing, "Now get moving! I am sure your not the only thing out there that heard me. Your expendable to me, remember this" the speaker then turns off and the ship darkens as the captain turns off the main lighting of the ship from inside the control room to better preserve the power that was left. Twilight got up and looked to Sunset placing her hoof on the Unicorns shoulder. "Maybe this will be the end for us, maybe this is were we die or maybe its were we survive...If we are to die there is one thing I want you to know before we go" Sunset shimmer nods and stood still to listen to the alicorn and what she needed to say. "I didn't just come here to fix our friendship Sunset, I came here because..." Fractured Hearts butted in and interrupted the confession before it could be confessed. "Enough chit chat, we have to get moving, right, now" the earthpony moved her hoof to point down the hall, two androids were walking down with red eyes, "We don't want to tangle with those joes" Fractured turns on her headset and begins to press forward away from the joes, the others followed. White Lightning did not have any tools, just a tracker. The device was originally designed to track rats inside vents so they could be exterminated. This one was modified, it was now made to track bigger animals instead of tiny rats. As he looks on the square screen he sees six x's moving on it, those indicated his group. Twilight and the rest had tools to fix the vents and wires to fix the generators. Fractured had the security card to get the advance security access online. "Sweetie, I don't like this. We were doing just fine on our own, inside the duct just me and you" Silverstar was walking close to White not liking the crowd of ponies only for the fact she didn't know them very well, "Why do we have to do this work for when we had everything under control back at the duct?" White looks away from the screen of the motion tracker and chuckles softly before stopping and halting Silverstar, giving her a soft kiss on the lips. "Who are we if we don't help others, does that make us any better than the looters or Gash?" The stallion and everypony agreed to call the creature by Gash. He looked at the tracker, " Besides we ran out of fuel..." He and Silver began to walk down the hallway to catch up with the others who had pushed ahead of them. The tracker begins to beep lightly but White was unsure why, he stopped. "Hey guys I think this thing is broken or something, its beeping" Sunset and Twilight look back and move over to see what was the issue. At that moment a circle dot flew into the center of the screen, as it did loud movement was heard above them. The dot then moved slowly away from them before coming to a stop. Sunset quickly gasped and looked to the others. "Its here, go go go!" immediately after she screamed , the creature jumps down from the vent and roars. A cut was on the shinny dome head of the creature on the side of its head. Opening its mouth it lifted its arms and jumped onto the the wall landing on all fours and ran across it quickly before lunging . The fillies screamed as the creature lands in the center of the group before rising up on its two legs with a hiss. "It can walk the walls!! Move! Move! MOVE!" Silverstar screams and the group quickly runs in different directions, the tail of the creature swings tripping up Sweetie Belle. The little one screamed loudly as her hind leg was grabbed by the creature, Fractured heard the screams of the filly as she was about to take a corner to get away. Her hooves slide to a stop before she quickly rushes back at the creature. The spit of the animal drips as the mouth begins to open, the tail of the creature slithers up in the air and slides across the back of the filly. White stopped seeing one of the x's move back at the dot on the tracker. Looking back he sees Fractured pick up a leg from a broken chair, she quickly smashed it on the arm of the creature. The filly falls from the grasp of Gash, picking up the filly she rushes to a vent and opens it overriding its lock. "Move , get inside and don't stop moving! Go you will be safe I promise little one" The earthpony had a heart for fillies and colts. She would risk her life for them. She was doing it now, for a filly she hardly knew. Sweetie Belle screams and cries as she was placed inside. "Go!!" at that very moment the mares leg was grabbed and she was pulled away from the vent as Gash pulled her away the earth pony landed face first onto the ground. White wanted to help but didn't know how, last time he tried he almost died from that thing. He got up and started heading to the struggle. Fractured reached for the broken leg of the chair and managed to grab it. Noticing White making his way to her she shakes her head and points down the hall as she was then picked up into the air by her hind leg. Swinging the leg into the face of the creature she screams. "Go!!! White run away!! Go NOW!!" She hits the floor and quickly got up and sprinted to the vent opening as the creature let out a loud squeal of pain. White nodded and ran away down the hall leaving Fractured to escape. The creature jumped at the vent and grabbed her by the waste pulling her out again, Fracture kicks the creature in the face with her strongest leg knocking it back. "Come on! Hurry!" Sweetie Belle screamed as she cried from inside the vent. Fractured looked up as she was pulling herself inside the vent to see the tear filled eyes of the filly. "Hurry!" The creature screamed and pulled the large earthpony from the vent , she kicked it again and again knocking it back. Sweetie Belle screamed and moved deeper into the vent. Getting back up Fractured runs over to the vent and smashes her hoof onto the lockdown button, the vent quickly seals and the mare was yanked away from the vent as she screamed. "Run kid!! Run!!" Gash pulls her onto her hind hooves and she looks up at it, the dome head shines and the spit drips as it grins at her. Her eyes widened for the first time in her life she felt a new feeling. She felt the feeling of being slightly afraid. Gash lifted its hand before pressed its claws into her chest. She screamed in pain as he blood began to change her green clothing red. "Fuck you Gash, your going to die you ugly mother fucker" the mare cursed a bloody curse as blood collected on her white teeth. She let out an angry, fear filled scream as Gash shoves its tail into her spine pulling her close as the mouth of the monster opens, the lips shakes as the small dagger tongue slowly exited its mouth before retreating back inside the mouth. As the blood ran down the leg of the dieing mare Gash raised its hand once again and brought its hand down slamming the claws into her eyes and ripping off her head slowly, she was dead at impact. Tossing the head aside and ripping her from its tail the creature screams up at the ceiling. ............................................................................................................................................................................ Pushing themselves into the vent Twilight had the tool in her mouth and headlight on, the vent was hot and now crowded as they headed to the mashed up area of the system. They needed to replace fuses, wires, and remove the fan from the system to pump the air through the area. Sunset had new blades for the fan that she would be placing on the center of the old rotation mechanism for an easy replacement. Silverstar was with Sunset and Twilight but the rest were undetermined to them. "Sunset, I think we are almost there! I think" her voice echoed through the vent and even vibrated the metal flooring of it slightly, Sunset tried to peak around Twilight but it was too tight in the vent to get a look. "Its hard to say, what do you see up there. Describe it to me , okay?" the unicorn said as quiet as she could, Silverstar was moving slowly looking back from time to time hoping to see her boyfriend appear, every time she did she always saw nothing but blackness. "Well I see a golden latter ahead, a sign on it but its hard to read from here" Twilight squints trying to get a look at it. "Thats it! Move lets get out of here as quick as we can" Sunset pushed the flank of Twilight to get her moving. Silverstar was still looking back. As the three reached the latter there was now room for them to stand, the chamber was big and the fan was up above them, there were bars around the top so they could stay up without falling when they got up there. Twilight placed her hoof on the bar of the latter and began to climb up. "Alright, i got the fan, Twilight you get the fuses and Silverstar you can do the wires. Do exactly as I say alright?" Both the mares nod as they all start the climb. Sunset straps herself in and begins to remove the busted fan blades, Twilight gulps as she looks at the already opened fuse box. the fuses were big and color coded. Sunset tears up slightly remembering Soarin died here trying to fix this exact issue, Silverstar's ear twitches as she stares at the tangled wires. "Well this is perfect, way to go you brilliant captain. Send a group of ponies with little to no knowledge of the station to fix the stations issues" Silverstar grunted and hoisted her strap up to the bar and clipped it in so she would not fall, Sunset stopped and looked at her and wiped her head clean of grease from the fan blades and grease gun she was using to lube the prongs of the new blades so they would slide in. "If you just do as I say there will be no problem, now what you need to do is disconnect all the white wires, keep your light on to distinguish the colors so you don't unplug the tan one. Or don't if you like the feeling of being shredded cheese" Silverstar gulped and nodded not liking the sound of what Sunset said. "Pull that and the safety feature will disable and we will be gobbled up by this fan" Twilight was pulling out the fuses as Sunset and Silver were talking about the lingering death by fan. She looked at the fuses she had and the color codes , she was sure she could figure it out. Pushing the fuses in hearing them click she looked over at the light panel to see if they passed. Biting her lip the lights all turn green. Sunset looked over with a smile and shoved the last blade into place. Silverstar was working on the wires and pulled the last white wire with a positive sigh of relief. "There, now thats done, I replace these wires or what?" Silver asked as she flared her wings, her sides were hot from the extra heat her wings made on her. They were like insulation to her body. "Thats correct, after that we can get the hell out of here and contact the captain so he can start up the core of the duct and get the air flowing" Sunset unstraps herself and begins to climb down as Silver plugs in the new wires. Twilight unclipped and follows the unicorn. Silver slowly started to put the last one in before unstrapping herself and climbing down to head to the exit. Placing her hoof on her headset she began to speak. "This is Silverstar! Sunset, Twilight, and myself are done with the vent chamber. White if your out there...please answer me" As the gray mare exits the vent she sees Sunset on the ground tied up screaming through duct tape 'Run'. Looking over quickly she is smashed in the back of the head by a shotgun. Falling to the ground the mare slowly looses consciousness. Sunset screams and the but of the gun smashes down on her head knocking her out as well. A voice rings in Silverstar's ear form her headset. "Silver!! Silverstar its me! Silver its White are you there?" her headset fuzzes up and the voice returns, "I am at the generators, I am going to start them back up, Silver please come in. I am with the fillies, I don't know where Fractured is, she was in a tangle with Gash, I think she had time to make it out. I hope...Silver please answer me"