Scorched Terra: Cross Contact

by Argentum Fabulam

Chapter 6: Down the Rabit Hole

Author's Note:

Sorry for the long wait on this one, I really hope you guy's enjoy it though. Also I started upping the ante on my descriptive ways, as a result I'm not sure if this is "T" rated material. I had my one friend who preread it say it was about "15+" so yeah... If you think that I need to up the rating due to this please tell me along with any other questions or comments, I'd be happy to read over them and reply. Have a great day everyone.

- Argentum

Chapter 6: Down the Rabbit Hole.

A sharply dressed newscaster looked over her lines as offset bustled in a frantic attempt to get ready for a last minute story. An equally well dressed man took his seat next to her and asked with a British accent, “you doing alright?” His voice was light like his blond hair.

“Not really Richard,” She replied with an Australian accent, “There has just been so many attacks recently, and they are getting closer and closer to here...”

Richard chuckled, “Hey relax, our local Protection Force is really good, they'll stop any threat before we even know about it.”

“60 seconds till we're live,” a camera man said.

“You really think so?” She asked to which he answered with a big smile.

“20 seconds, quite on set.”

The two newscasters looked to the camera in front of them. The woman was the first to speak, “Good evening, and welcome to G.U.P news. earlier this morning in Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, chaos and gunfire broke the peaceful Saturday evening leave 5 people dead along with 26 ponies and countless others injured...”

*******20 hours earlier*******

12:46 Canterlot local time.

A human in a black cloak snuck deeper into a complex tunnel system within the Canterlot mountain. Deeper and deeper it went going along a spiraling mine-cart track and past giant gleaming gems following a faint echo of a damned scream. The stale air and the dull smell of stone made the tunnels all the more dreary.

“Alright Delta-58 you are getting close to the source,” it heard a distorted voice say from the small electronic device just inside it's helmet, “Remember, this is a stealth mission. Get in, get out, and send the auto-mapper data to the Ranger task force so they can raid the Arch hideout.”

“Yes Master.” It replied, voice muffled by the helmet it was wearing.

“One other thing,” “Master” tacked on, “If the prisoners they are holding are being tortured you've been ordered to mercy kill but, do not. Find a way to save them. These are Master's wishes.”

With that the cloaked figure ventured farther into the deep dark caverns, back into a seemingly endless maze.

*****************
13:28 Carterlot local time

Draco Havlar stood talking with a few unicorns within a lab in Canterlot, he was quite intrigued by what they were telling him about a magical energy generator that they were looking to miniaturize it.

“So would you like to see it?” the green unicorn in a lab coat in front of him asked. With a chuckle Draco nodded.

As they walked through the lab he looked to the different experiments the ponies were working on. Occasionally he would see a human working with them which made him smile. “So you guy's just work on energy projects or are there some dark shady projects I shouldn't see here?” he asked.

The unicorn guiding him laughed slightly as she replied, “Oh no Mr. Havlar, other than energy projects we simply work on new defensive spells here.”

“Alright then. Also, Mr. Havlar is my grandfathers name, you can just call me Draco.” He said politely with a small smile.

“Okay then Draco, this way.” she responded with a smile and a hint of a blush.

Once they had made it into the room where the generators were being worked on Draco immediately had a big goofy grin on. He the original generator they were looking to replicate which was at least as big as the two story room it was in and had many pipes going into the walls and floor, and a big glass window in the middle showing the multicoloured energy inside, he thought it looked like a giant heart. He looked to the failed replications which were all following the same design as the original.

“Have you guy's ever considered making fuel cell batteries or Ultra-capacitors?” He asked to the arcane scientists in the room. They all looked to each other with mouths dropped and then fanatically went to chalk boards and began writing equations and drawing designs, shouting ideas to one another as they did so. Draco laughed and turned to his guide, “mind if I get a closer look?” as he pointed at the generator. She smiled and nodded.

As he started to climb a ladder to the catwalks that acted as the second floor he caught a glimpse of something odd on the back of it. Once he was on them he pulled out a small camera from his laptop bag and zoomed into the area where he thought he saw something. Once the camera focused it revealed a horrifying truth; the generator had been rigged with C-4.

***************

13:32

In the Canterlot hospital where Gus sat alone waiting to hear about Sea Breeze's condition, an explosion was heard but not felt. As he looked outside onto the streets nothing was seen either.

“Gus what was that?” a groggy Sea Breeze said as she wheeled up in an electric wheelchair.

“Sea Breeze!” Gus said as he hugged his friend, “I thought you... you...”

“Woah calm down there big guy, I'm fine, more or less, and I've been through a lot worse trust me.” Sea Breeze chuckled, “But really what was that, it sounded like an explosion.”

Gus opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by heavy automatic gunfire ripping through the streets. Screams were cut short in a mater of seconds as crimson ichor began to run down the main street and in a single instant, chaos took full reign.

***************

“It was a whole twenty five minutes before a squad of Rangers were able to lay suppressive fire on the Arch troops, however a few minutes into the gruesome firefight a new presence made itself known...”

***************
13:57

The gunfire had become much louder and more concentrated now that a new side had been introduced and the putrid smell of death and gore that filled the air had become even more prominent. The red cloaked Arch troops had a cover advantage from moving stands and tables to make a mix shift fortification to hide behind where as the Rangers had a raw fire power and strategic advantage. The firefight raged on until a deafening roar that would put a dragon to shame echoed through out the landscape. Everyone stopped for a minute looking around to see what could have made tremendous noise.

They got their answer as a humanoid creature with wings, a horn, and a tail burst out of the roof of a laboratory. Most of its clothing was gone save for its pants which were torn and burned. it had a distinctly male body covered in glowing orange runic tattoo-like markings that were not in any pattern. The wings were a dark grey along with his horn and his tail and hair were orange with a silver streak.

He just hovered there for a few moments until one of the Arch troops shot at him. He caught the bullet with a silvery magic as his matching coloured eyes shot open. He looked down to the mix of troops with different weapons and armour as all of them pointed to the Arch soldier that took the shot.

The creature looked down upon the Soldier that discharged the weapon and let a toothy grin grin fill his face revealing the elongated and razor sharp canine teeth he sported. Milliseconds later the creature blinked behind him and whispered in a distorted voice, “Let's have some fun!”

*************
13:29

Delta-58 crept to an opening into a large cavern filled will light by many flood lights on stands throughout the area. There was the sickening smell of chemicals and death as well as heart wrenching of an abused soul. Looking within it saw many tables that had been set up to work on, lots of machines to which their purpose lay unknown, a makeshift surgery room on the far side, and a 'prison' which was just a few cages in a general area. Every few moments a scream could be heard from the surgery room but nothing seen due to the heavy curtains around it.

It watched the way the guards were patrolling, learning their rounds. They all carried a silenced assault rifle and wore the same red armoured cloak with a gold cross on the front. For the most part they lazed around only glancing around at the scientists that were busy on computers or writing on paper.

Once it was satisfied with his knowledge of their patterns he began to sneak around the underground 'lab'. As it got closer to the cages it spotted a shadow covered area it could hide within to avoid detection by the guards. Looking to the cages it saw four ponies trapped within and a male and a female human. There was one of each kind of pony and an extra unicorn, the humans were both of different races. The man seemed to be of middle eastern decent and the woman of Oriental. They all seemed broken and hopeless, ready to accept whatever fate would become of them in the 'lab'.

Delta-58 began to think of a way to get them out of the caves but was cut short by a loud rumbling from way above o the surface. Most of the guards looked to each other with glee in their eyes as one of them said, “Show time.” and all but one left through a tunnel to Delta-56's left.

After a few minutes and seeing the scientists follow suit, Delta-58 decide to make it's move. Pulling out a pistol it snuck up behind the last guard and pointed the weapon to his head, “Not a peep, understand?” after getting the silence it was hoping for it took the guards assault rifle and keys. Delta-58 made him move into the surgery room, after the guard entered the sickening sound of the guard vomiting could be heard. Delta-58 decided that it would leave that room for the task force to search.

****************
14:28

As Delta-58 and the captivates came out into the surface to see absolute carnage. The main street of Canterlot was painted in crimson ichor and bodies laid lifeless on the ground. The air reeked with the smog of burning buildings, burning flesh, and brimstone.

Delta-58 pressed the side of helmet and the distorted male voice spoke to it, “Delta-58, listen to Master's wishes. A white unicorn with a blue mane is looking for you, his name is Shining Armour, he will be leading you on a hunt. Follow his orders, but remember my voice. These are master's wishes.”

A few moments later Shinning Armour trotted onto the scene, after a quick gag he regained his composer. As Delta-58 looked at him it realized that he was its hunting partner. “So you are Delta-58, nice to meet you I'm Shining Armour.” He said as he extended a hoof to which Delta-58 simply stared blankly at. “Uh,” He said awkwardly after a few moments, “You know what we are looking for right?”

Delta-58 shook it's head, Shinning Armour pulled out a picture from his saddlebag with his magenta magic and gave it to Delta-58, “We got lucky that someone was able to get that before it flew off north past the castle.” It studied the picture of the creature before bolting off in the direction of the castle and Olympic speeds. “Hey! Wait a second! Where are you going” Shinning yelled as he attempted to keep up.

Delta-58 finally stopped at moat of the castle searching the area for a new path to follow down the mountain. Once Shinning Armour finally caught up to it he was panting to try and catch his breath, “Okay... we... we... we're at the castle... now...” He was not able to finish what he was saying as Delta-58 picked him up with one arm and began to jump down the mountain. Amongst the yelling from Shinning a loud release of air could be heard each time it landed until the plains bellow the mountain. Delta-58 put him back on the ground and began to start walking north. Once it realized that it's companion was not following Delta-58 turned around to see him laying on the ground hyperventilating.

“Are you coming?” It asked in it's muffled voice as it continued on the path it had set.

Shining Armour groaned as he stood up, “That human is going to get me killed.” He started trotting after Delta-58 and the two continued on their new quest to find what ever had come out of the lab within Canterlot, hoping to find anything at all.

***************
22:13

High upon Canterlot castle standing in between two statues was the creature that had earlier ravaged the militant forces that battled amongst the peaceful streets. It was as still as a sentential with it's wings curled around it patiently awaiting it's body to become rested enough to strike again.