Into The Void

by General Soarin

Survivor

Corporal Nocturnal
Royal Equestrian Marine Corps
1st Marines, 13th Battle Cruiser Detachment
Aboard the E.B.C Manehatten
Tuesday, March 14th, 2126 CR

The crackle of electricity and small fires were the only sounds to be heard in the Sector 13 Barracks. Under a piece of collapsed ceiling, a black pegasus stallion with a dark blue mane and green eyes stirred, letting out a groan. Every bone in his body ached, and the rubble on top of him restricted movement.

It took the pegasus a few moments to gather full consciousness and when he did, he immediately began trying to get himself out from under the rubble. Luckily for him, the rubble on top of him was rather weak, and broke with a large push. Now free, the pegasus got back to his hooves, and gathered his thoughts.

All the Corporal knew was that the Manehatten had been attacked by an unknown enemy. They had an extremely powerful laser mounted on one of their ships that easily cut through the Manehattan’s thick hull. The corporal had been pinned down by rubble during the initial attack, so he had little knowledge of what was going on in the rest of the ship.

Deciding that the first thing he should do was discover the fate of the rest of the ship, Corporal Nocturnal made a quick look over his armor. Surprisingly his Mark 2 Royal Marine Combat Armor was in good condition except for the fact that the Sparkle MK4 module was badly damaged. The Sparkle module was a miracle invention made by Twilight Sparkle in the year 2090, and basically gave earth ponies and pegasi a small amount of magic to operate different weapons such as rifles, grenades, and machine guns.

Cursing at his misfortunes, Nocturnal pulled off the now useless module off its mount on his shoulder and stepped into the hallway outside the barracks. From a quick glance, the only direction that he could go was left. To the right was a large wall of debris that blocked access to the armory for Sector 13.

Taking the time to take note of his surroundings, Corporal Nocturnal noticed he wasn’t alone. Several dead marines were scattered in various positions around the hallway, all of them covered in a large amount of blood. Inspecting one of the bodies, Nocturnal could notice large claw marks all over it, sending a chill down his spine. Nocturnal then looked at every other body and discovered similar injuries, bringing up a realization that something more serious had happened after the initial attack.

Finished observing the carnage in the hallway, Nocturnal walked down the left side and into another hallway. Again, the right side was blocked by a large amount of debris. The left side of the hallway however had something much more shocking.

Standing there was a rather large griffin with very long claws and blood all over its beak. Nocturnal just stared at it for a few seconds, before the griffin shrieked, and charged full speed toward him. He had no time to react before the griffin bowled him over. The griffin clawed rapidly at Nocturnal’s armor in an intense effort to rip through it, all while Nocturnal fiercely fought back, all while screaming for help. This continued for a second until a pistol shot rang out, and the griffin crumpled. Quickly pushing the dead griffin off of him, Nocturnal scrambled back to his hooves and stared at the door where the shot came from.

The first thing that stood out about the newcomer was his sleek dark purple armor. The design of it was very different from regular Marine armor, and had a crescent moon painted on the chestplate. Sticking out of the top of the helmet was a gray horn, signaling that the wearer of the armor was a unicorn. A dark purple visor covered up the unicorns face, adding to his intimidation factor.

There was silence for a few moments, until the unicorn spoke. “I’m surprised to see a Marine alive down here, especially with so many Berserkers in Sector 13.” Exclaimed the newcomer, as he put their HLP-27 Heavy Pistol back into its holster. Nocturnal glanced at the dead griffin, then back at the newcomer. “Who...who are you?”

The newcomer simply laughed, then raised his visor, revealing his face. “I’m Major Nightwhisper, Royal Lunar Guard.” He replied simply. The major’s face was relatively neutral as he introduced himself, though his crimson eyes seemed to be fixed entirely on Corporal Nocturnal. A confused look came across Nocturnal’s face as he cocked his head to the side a little bit. “Wait, you’re part of the Lunar Guard? I thought they only conducted operations on Equestria!” Nocturnal exclaimed.

Major Nightwhisper laughed again, flipping his visor back over his face. “We do conduct ops on Equestria, but some special cases require us to go off world. I’m here because Luna personally ordered me here. I was assigned to watch the operations of the Manehatten, and made sure things went smoothly. And obviously they didn’t.” Nocturnal nodded and then looked back at the dead Griffon. “Do you know what’s happening in the rest of the ship Major?”

Major Nightwhisper nodded, walking over to the dead griffon and kicking it. “First thing that needs to be known is that we’ve lost most of our communications systems. Therefore, I only know the situation in parts of the ship that I’ve been through. The Griffons boarded the ship immediately after the attack, and deployed a lot of mutated griffons before leaving again. These ‘Berserkers’ are rather brutal, using super speed and extremely sharp claws to kill their targets. Most of the ship is overrun with these things, especially this sector and the bridge.” Major Nightwhisper explained. Nocturnal frowned and then stepped away from the dead Berserker. “So there are more of these things. Do we know if anyone’s coming to rescue us?”

Major Nightwhisper turned his eyes to look at the Corporal, then turned around. “Follow me.”

Author's Note:

From now on, I am aiming to put out longer chapters. And I apologize for the delay/

Comments

[CM12]

Yay, new chapter! It's a shortie, but it's better than nothing.

[General Soarin]

3189996 I have a really bad habit of making chapters short....:/

[CM12]

3190181
Take it slowly. Don't bite more than you can chew. Try incrementing the word count by a few hundred every chapter. For example, the 5th could be 1200, the 6th could 1450, the 7th 1600, etc.

[General Soarin]

3190198 Alright, thanks

[rogermw]

I see that this story is listed in the "Other" folder of the Star Trek Ponies group.

While it does feature a space navy vaguely similar to the Federation Starfleet, I fail to see what this particular story has to do with Star Trek.

Are you planning to have Trek elements appear in later chapters?

[General Soarin]

3575670 I apologize, I honestly don't know how this story got into your group sir/madam. Please, remove it since it has no revalance to ST in any way. Sorry again.

[rogermw]

3576144 Heh, no, it's not "my" group, it's merely one of the groups I belong to.

I don't have the authority to remove a story from a group. I'm pretty sure the author has to do that himself -- but I have no idea how.

[General Soarin]

3576676 I don't know how to remove it either.....