The orange Pegasus filly stood inside of a large and long chamber. Across the chamber were five doors. Beside the filly was a box. The filly stood tense, unmoving, her eyes fixated on the box beside her. She was on two legs while wearing a set of precision gloves. She was five and a half years old now, and had spent most of her time on two legs, so she was perfectly balanced in her stance.
The voice of Stedson Cog came over an intercom to announce her instructions. “This will be a live fire test 522. When the bell rings, you must assemble your weapon and hit the five targets. There is a soft timer involved, so make sure you move fast.”
The orange filly smiled up at an observation room where she could see Stedson looking down at her. Beside him was Upper Rear Admiral Day, who was here to view the progress of the Iron Feather unites. She held her smile and shouted, “I won’t let you down daddy,” before looking back down at the box again.
“Daddy?” asked Happy.
“Well… they are still fillies sir. It’s only natural they’d try to label an adult as their parental figure,” explained Stedson. “It’s nothing you should worry about. Just enjoy the test, I’m sure you’ll be pleased with the results.” He was confident in 522’s abilities. So far every single unit in today’s inspection had performed well.
A bell went off, and the box beside the filly opened revealing a number of weapon components. Across the room the five doors opened, and five zerglings were revealed. The monsters were dog like creatures, with razor sharp claws and teeth, as well as an exoskeleton instead of fur. In addition to four legs, they had two more scythe like arms coming out of their backs.
As soon as the box and doors opened, the filly quickly began gathering weapon parts and started assembling a rifle. The five hungry zerg, seeing fresh meat in front of them, quickly took off sprinting at full speed. The filly felt the sweat running down her fur as she frantically raced against the “soft timer” that Stedson had mentioned. After the weapon had been assembled, there were still five bullets left in the box, along with a magazine. 522 quickly loaded the bullets into the magazine, then inserted the magazine into the rifle and prepped it to fire.
As the filly looked up, the five targets were but ten yards away. Due to the filly’s age and small stature, she was only rated for a small rifle befitting her size. The zerg creatures she was facing however were quite resilient to injury, and with a low caliber rifle, only a head shot would guarantee a kill. Anything else would simply anger them. She aimed in and fired four rounds, quickly bringing down four zerglings. She turned to the fifth zergling, now mere feet away, fired, and successfully landed a head shot.
Unfortunately as it fell to the ground, its scythe arms were already extended towards her. One of the scythes fell on her, impaling her rear right leg through the center. As the creature fell, the scythe fell with it, making its way down her leg and splitting the bone down the middle.
The filly shouted in pain and fell over, the scythe still shoved through what was left of her leg. “522!” shouted Stedson. He quickly ran out of the observation deck towards the lower chamber. Upon entering, Stedson ran towards unit 522 to see her leg was effectively crippled. She would likely never walk again.
“I’m sorry daddy, I wasn’t fast enough,” she said with tears in her eyes. It wasn’t so much the injury that was getting to her, as much as the fact she had just let Stedson down.
Stedson wrapped his hooves and right wing around the injured filly. “It’s ok, it’s ok. You did very good 522. I’m very proud of you.”
“Really?” asked the filly as she smiled, despite the pain she was in. “I’m glad I could… make you happy daddy.” The filly started panting and finding it difficult to breath due to the blood loss.
“Get a medic in here!” shouted Stedson.
Stedson stood in front of the maimed Iron Feather unit as she lay in her hospital bed. Happy was busy inspecting the remaining units, so Stedson had been left alone to comfort the filly. It was a sad sight seeing his once perfect creation in this state. Half of her rear right leg had been amputated, effectively ending her career as a soldier before it could begin. Stedson brushed 522’s purple mane gentility. While an unfortunate fate, he was grateful she was still alive.
“Doctor, you know as well as I do that thing won’t ever walk again,” said Happy as he entered the room. “We can’t sell bad merchandise, and we’re not wasting funds maintaining a damaged IF unit. Get rid of it,” demanded Happy.
“Sir please, she’s just a child!” replied Stedson.
Happy raised an eyebrow. “That’s a rather disturbing statement Doctor. I’m afraid all the time spent on this station has taken its toll on your state of mind. Perhaps we need to relieve you from this project,” suggested Happy.
“Sir no! I assure you there is nothing wrong with me,” replied Stedson.
“Then get rid of this IF unit,” repeated Happy.
“Sir I’ll… I’ll pay for this unit!” said Stedson.
“For that thing?” asked Happy. “Well… looking at the damage I guess you’d buy it cheap. The problem is we don’t pay you. You’re dead remember?”
“I’ll… I’ll…” Stedson had to think of something to say. He couldn’t just let Happy throw her into a waste bin.
“Actually I have a better idea. I think she’ll be more useful to us alive after all,” said Happy.
“Thank you sir. I promise I’ll find a way to put 522 to good use,” said Stedson.
“I’ve already thought of that. I have a contact in Consortium space who is always looking for test subjects. They’re always doing some crazy experiment or another, but finding willing candidates is always an obstacle. I’m sure he’ll find a use for this damaged IF unit,” said Happy. He looked down at the damaged product and thought about how much money had been poured into that thing. “If anything, it’ll help offset set the medical expenses of keeping it alive this long.”
“Sir we can’t do that!” argued Stedson. “If you hand her over, she’ll just be a lab animal to them. They’ll dissect her, expose her to diseases, test weapons on her!”
“And?” asked Happy.
“And… we’ve invested too much into this unit just to throw away like that,” argued Stedson trying to appeal to his sense of logic. “It’d be a waste of a unit.”
“Doctor I appreciate your concern for the project, but we still have 998 functional IF units. One unit will not be missed,” said Happy. “This failure aside, most of your test subjects performed admirably today Stedson, so keep up the good work. I’ll be back in six years, though expect to see other inspectors periodically. As always, cause any trouble, and the guards will put you down.” Happy started walking out of the medical bay. Before the doors closed behind him, he turned around and shouted, “Six years Stedson, don’t screw this up!”
Stedson looked down at 522, who was still passed out. He bent down and wrapped 522 in his hoofs. He couldn’t begin to imagine the kind of horrors in store for her as a lab animal, but he knew he couldn’t let that come to pass.
Stedson began going through the medical supplies, looking for a certain bottle. 522 had finally awoken, though she was still very weak. “Daddy… I can’t feel my leg,” she said. “Can you fix me daddy?”
Stedson filled a syringe with a lethal dose of sedative and approached 522. “Daddy is going to fix you. He’s going to take you away to a better place now. You won’t ever have to do any of these horrible things ever again.”
“Where am I going daddy?” she asked.
“Remember what happened to unit one?” he asked. He was refereeing to the Iron Feather unit that was given to Vincent and Sarah Iron feather as payment for their dead son’s genetic material.
“She went away to live with another mommy and daddy. You said they gave her a name and were going to take care of her,” replied 522. “You said she was adopted.
“That’s right honey. You’re about to be adopted. You’ll have a new daddy, and mommy too. You’ll be given a name, and you’ll have a nice house to live in. You’ll be happy there,” lied Stedson. He hated lying to her face like this. He’d also have to tell her sister’s the same lie when they started to ask him where 522 went.
522 smiled as her eyes filled with tears. “Thank you.” she said. “You’ll still visit right?”
“Yes… I’ll always visit you 522,” assured Stedson. Finally he injected the weakened filly with the sedative.
“Daddy… I feel… sleepy,” she said.
“Go to sleep 522, it’ll all be better in the morning,” promised Stedson.
522’s eyes started to close. She got out one last sentence. “I’ll... miss you… daddy.” 522 finally went silent.
Stedson began to cry as he heard those words. “I’ll miss you too. I’m sorry,” he said as he bowed his head in front of the motionless filly. He wasn’t sure if he could ever be forgiven for what he had been forced to do.
YES IT UPDATED!!!!
522, NOOOOOooooooooo
So, not only is Scootaloo herself a clone, she is an opposite-sex clone of a stillborn foal and was genetically engineered as a super soldier.
Increased aggression, eh? Explains why so many of that clone ended up in the Icehouse. And honestly if I wanted to breed soldiers for some tyrannical empire I'd emphasize obedience over aggression.
Did the Terrans in the source material use cloning? Might explain how fifty six thousand colonists grew to billions in less than 300 years.
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This is from Brian Kindregan, co-lead writer of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and lead writer of Heart of the Swarm.
You would be right about that. There was a heavy cloning effort to establish a foothold in the sector. Much the same way the Imperial Dominion did with their population. Remember the Imperial Dominion still buys genetic material from any parents willing to sell. I'm fairly certain the only reason the Terrain Dominion didn't want to continue cloning was due to the adverse effect it had on psychic potential. But the Imperial Dominion could simply stick to cloning pegasi and earth ponies, while leaving their unicorn population pure.
Scootaloo has a very good dexterity in the story, and in the show. Remember, she took a backhand from a hydralisk that would have knocked anyone on their butts, or out cold, and instead just used the momentum to recover and counter attack the creature. Remember on the show when she spun around like 20 times and landed upside down on one hoof? That takes dexterity! Also keep in mind despite the fact she never had a day of training, she quickly became the best shot in the ice house. She also learned how to fly in her armor without jets rather quickly as well. Point is she has some latent talent. She just never discovered it because she had a "normal" life, while her sisters were trained for war from near birth.
As for obedience over aggression, that's what the Dominion already does with their resoc. Everyone under resoc is pretty much a drone. As its been said in the lore, resocs lose most of their unique skill set, and have next to zero individual initiative. They pretty much walk straight into enemy fire if you ask them too. Quote straight from the books.
With their continued cloning effort, the Imperial Dominion always has enough bodies to resoc. The Iron Feather units don't work however because of their dad's genes. As you pointed out, they tend to end up in the Ice House for that reason.
Stedson wanted to try something new. Aggression and individual thought over obedience. He wanted soldiers trained to be soldiers from the ground up, not drones who just had their skills downloaded and do what they're told. But as stated in chapter one, a lot of people think that is a very bad idea in the long run.
First question - Is the name Stedson supposed to be a referance to Stetman, or is it just me seeing things?
I must admit, they teech them good in the von Rich house. That deal was way more on the downside in the long run.
Well, lookie here, who's gotta apologise to Jet Stream for certain titles.
For some reason, in a sick and twisted way I am liking this Happy guy. Actually I think I have a theory why that is so, given the fact that he is pretty much like Twilight. It's because he doesn't buck with characters I like. EURICA!
So...now we have 900+ (you have no idea how much I wanted to add another 0 to that) Scootaloos running around the sector?
And lastly, about 522's death...
31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4gsp3wDrS1r6aoq4o1_500.gif
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- Same hair, same eyes... it might be. I didn't intend it to be, but it might be.
- Lot's of ponies seem to agree. Obedience over individuality if safer. Then again, they might have just seen one to many robot/clone rebellion movies like Happy said.
- I'm debating if Jet Stream is going to rub it in. That was quite the superiority complex Scootaloo showed after all.
- I made them different in a very big way. Happy just threatens the person directly in a no non-sense way. Let's face it, he crippled poor Stedson left wing on the first encounter.Twilight never actually threatens or harms the person she tries to manipulate. She just finds something they care about, and threatens to take that away instead.
- The first thousand was only the first batch. If Happy is pleased with the results, he'll expand into the thousands. Minor spoiler. They only drew a tiny sample from the original Scootaloo, then put him in cryo. There is lots more where that came from.
- Bulls eye! I almost made Stedson give her a name. But in the end I decided that would have made it seem like he was playing favorites. I figured by making her just a number, she would seem no more or less significant than the others. That way it would seem Stedson cared about the clones in general, instead of clones with special titles.
3016001 So there is a possibility that there are 9000+ Scootaloos in the sector? YES! Thank you so much for the oportunity!
One last question though, regarding the Khalai. Ship wise they are okay, but ground force wise are they capable of this?
3016001
Well, I kinda expected him to give them all names, like in Star Wars where the Legions of clones still had individual names.
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This made me realize how little the Khalai forces have been in the story. We haven't even had some High Templar in there. Starsong's the closest thing to a High Templar I guess.
3016509 Actually not all of them did. Only special ones, like captains, generals, comanders and ect. But the main army was numbered. Regarding your other comment, I agree completely.