Coarse Diamonds

by Darkonshadows

-17-

The things Greta and Gilda had read about the MOM’s biological entities left them feeling a little worried. The threat was an unnamed aggressive biological species with interstellar traveling capabilities and they were most certainly not friendly to planets, people or anything except themselves. They ravaged everything of resources and were extremely hostile to all life, there was no chance for diplomacy and the monsters were exceedingly bright. They’d rank as a biological grey goo scenario.

The first bit of information was on the ground based troops that boarded several of the assault fleet ships, most of the boarding attempts were successfully repelled and casualties were on the lower end of things when it came to personnel combat. In comparison there wasn’t a lot of information on the aerial defenses the MOM employed and that led to the higher number of casualties being fighter pilots, whereas the boarding party’s didn’t get very far or close to the larger ships in the fleet.

The main ground forces employed at the assault fleets interception were beings called Ant Heads, large dog like triangular headed furless red skinned creatures the size of cows. They had three purple claws on each wiry leg, the tail looked normal but in fact was covered in fine tiny razor sharp chitin blades and the head had mandibles but no eyes. These creatures came in large numbers and weren’t all too fast for their comparative size, they were mainly used as cannon fodder.

The other type of ground force creature involved in the boarding parties was a mantis creature with a hardened purple carapace and bladed limbs. It could aid it’s movement with two long bladed arms and it had a penchant for lunging or jumping at targets with its three powerful legs that were as equally deadly and as sharp as the arms, its head was part of its upper torso but its vertical mouth was in the lower portion of the body in the thorax in between all of its legs. It was called a Vorager for its ability to quickly consume whole bodies with its mouth and be in the middle of ravaging another body at the same time.

The ground forces the Planetary Protection Patrol already knew of. As for recent newly employed aerial forces, they didn’t know anything about that until they assaulted the MOM and that was the point of the information dump that was released to the public. To inform them of this new threat and what it represented.

As for the newly faced aerial forces the newest mainstay that the MOM had introduced to the triple P forces and the most devastating one brought into play had to be the kamikaze monsters known as a Shamroid.

Shamroids were named for their appearance given they were counterfeit asteroids; they produced multiple stubby starfish based tentacles that provided propulsion by spewing a strange gas like substances into the void of space and had a small protective film of atmosphere around them like the MOM.

While moving about in space Shamroids clearly had two objectives, one was to violently explode when they hit something. The other more devastating tactic was to cling to a fighter or ship and once they had enough of themselves gathered on a target, they’d incite a deadly chain reaction increasing the strength of their explosive power exponentially. Their speed and large numbers was an effective new defense mechanism that brought down many a fighter in the initial assault against the Ewesen invading MOM.

These explosive creatures only look like rocks and are easily destroyed by conventional weapons and in outright destroying them, contrary to their main purpose, they won’t explode. Otherwise they also had problems making quick turns and were on average about a quarter the size of an average Javelin fighter.

The presumed reason for the asteroid like appearance is an adaptation to take advantage of asteroid fields. Life sign and heat scanners would still easily pick them up, but interference from the asteroids mineral deposits might make them difficult to catch. Messages were sent to every asteroid farmer in the nearby sectors to be on the watch for these things as early invasion signs.

The other new aerial unit deployed by the MOM were basically giant wasps that could produce and fire at most thirty stingers made of quick solidifying fluids at incredible velocities, they shared the common trait of having a atmospheric field around them like the MOM and Shamroids. They were called Vasps which was short for Vector Wasp based on their ability to maneuver in a vacuum.

Where the Vasps were powerful was mobility and being able to change direction in space in an instant, on top of having a powerful toxic bite that is injected by their mandibles. They were three fourths the size of a Javelin and primarily seen to use hit and run tactics, it is only theorized that they need an active MOM core to reload their biological ammunition.

Where they were limited was in their ability to fire only so many stinger shots and their strange atmospheric covering swiftly degraded if they make too many fast maneuvers in a short amount of time. Upon losing their atmospheric covering in space they die and swiftly implode. They are as susceptible as the Shamroids to conventional weaponry, provided you can land a direct hit on them.

Aside from various tactics in dealing with each of these creatures individually released by the Triple P, the best suggestion for civilians was to think smart, to avoid battles they couldn’t win and to find a safe place to hunker down if possible.

The situation was a little bit worse than many had previously thought it was. While planet infesters were bad, this was definitely the worst case of an incursion that has been seen in years in any protected system.

-

A massive explosion shook the world and everything was rumbling furniture toppled and flew about the room. The humongous jolt had sent Gilda flopping on to her face with a pained groan as she fell out of the hotels bed, she was awake now and she just knew the earthquake that just hit the station spelled trouble. What also spelled trouble was the fact that Greta was nibbling at her neck and that she had even managed to sleep through the horrendous noise of the massive space stations alarm blaring.

“Greta wake up or so help me I’ll!” Despite shouting rather boisterously at the other griffon that was currently cuddling Gilda like a plush toy with her wings inexorably wrapped around her body, Greta had slept through what felt like the apocalypse had just hit the station and she just tightened her grip whining slightly. “Okay you asked for it for being way too clingy for your own good!”

Curling her right claws into a fist she pulled back and swiftly through it over her shoulder slamming it right into Greta’s gnawing beak causing her to release her hold on Gilda with a yelp.

“Wake up and get your EVA gear on your ass and pack your stuff!” Time was of the essence and Gilda needed Greta coherent and awake. “I need to know what’s going on right this instant, something just rocked Geoptis and your smart enough to know how hard that is to do given the sheer size of this place.”

That got Greta’s brain firing on all cylinders and she was immediately up and pulling her data pad out from storage. The technical wizard quickly started tapping her claws rapidly all over the pad, while Gilda looked out the window. Windows on the hotel gave a very nice view of Geoptis City and there was just panicking in the streets at the moment.

“Okay, really bad news, as in the ‘what silver lining’ variety. The first remaining MOM core has been dealt with, its husk just hit the station and now there are monsters crawling all over the hull around the impact sight. It thankfully didn’t pierce into the station, but it definitely caused a huge dent and the gravity generators were struggling to stay working there for a moment. Several power nodes were blown out throughout the station and there are blackouts in the lower parts.” Greta was going over the data as fast as she could. “The real problem is that the monsters are starting to get in through several hangars atmospheric barriers, all available fighters from Discus to Javelin types that weren’t in serious need of repairs are out there fighting right now. They are trying to deal with both the Vasps and the monsters from the dead core. Aside from that there is an odd lack of the archetype MOM unit known as Shamroids, which might be connected to the cores destruction and a lucky break if it is. At least until the second MOM core passes by Geoptis which is currently dead in space as far as movement is concerned.”

“Yeah, it’s time to enact my plan. What did I say I would do if something like this came to pass again Greta?” Gilda, moving over to Greta, looked over the screen and saw the havoc going on around the station before her best friend switched to a diagnostics view focusing on the impact site. It showed where the MOM’s invading forces were moving and it was a sea of red. “So that’s what, approximately three thousand life signs? Most of that has to be the ground forces.”

“Actually those forces are just the Vasps alone, these are the ground forces.” Then an overlay of yellow coated a much larger area taking up a solid portion of Geoptis, Greta grimaced as she looked Gilda in the eyes. Gilda’s pupils enlarged and a hungry looked filled them, it left Greta wondering if Gilda needed a sanity check because it actually looked like she wanted take part in all the fighting. “They haven’t reached the repair hangar we were working at yet, but it’s only a matter of time. If we want to…‘SAVE’… a fighter, then we’re going to really need to start moving before they can reach what’s been our hangar for the past few days. There are still a few damaged fighters that aren’t out in the combat zone right now for varying reasons, oh and fifty ant heads have already breached Geoptis and more are getting in by the second. Give me three minutes to pack and get ready.”

“You have one Greta, starting now!” Running around and gathering what was important to them, Gilda would leave behind several things she didn’t figure to be of any consequence and was easily replaceable. Idly she shook her head at the fact that Greta couldn’t say the word steal without subconsciously adding air quotes and pausing to think of a nicer word for what they were going to do.

Amidst this rush Greta pulled on her EVA, and slapped her helmet to her face and it folded around her head before sealing, since she was still in a breathable atmosphere the oxygen tank stayed offline until she needed it and just filtered the existing air. She swiftly slung the saddle on to her back and it clamped down to her EVA suit. After she was done she had a duffle bag and Mr. Welder thrust into her claws.

“Let’s get out of here, shall we?” It had taken Gilda all of thirty seconds to get everything together and a few more before she slung her own duffle bag loaded with tools over her shoulder and quickly popped open the window. Why would they bother going through the building to leave when they could fly? The situation was an emergency after all. Greta didn’t even hesitate to follow Gilda as she leapt after her into a dive from the thirtieth floor, forgetting entirely that her EVA suit didn’t exactly allow her to use her wings.

-

Gilda looked particularly angry as she carried a humiliated looking Greta in the air towards the repair hangar.

“Okay, that’s enough of the silent treatment from me, you know what you did. Seriously you couldn’t have waited to put your wings into the compression pouches until after we were in space? Provided we could survive long enough to even get to the hangar and make whatever repairs we can before we’re swarmed and slaughtered.” There was never a bird quite as grumpy as Gilda was at this moment, she wasn’t quite angry that she had to catch her friend. It was a bit of struggle with all the weight she was hefting with her wings, but she was making good time and in the distance one could hear the sound of weapons firing and the screams of people being killed. “You are so lucky your ass is considered lightweight by my standards, now make yourself useful and keep me up to date while I fly us there before they lock it down. You can hack the doors if they enter lockdown right?”

“As your favorite technical engineer of course I can Gilda; I just had a bit of a slip in judgment because somebody was rushing me.” Greta’s cheerful demeanor tried to make an appearance. Looking at her data pad as Gilda flew; she was seeing some rather horrific sights and her cheerful demeanor wasn’t very capable of coming to the forefront. A pony just had her intestines ripped out and two of her legs messily torn off before she was finally killed by having her skull caved in; the Ant Heads were being really quite sadistic before they actually started eating her. In the background of the camera she was accessing, a human Triple P officer was pierced through and swiftly swallowed alive and crunched loudly enough to be heard by the camera. The body in its maw caused the Vorager to start dribbling blood from what looked like its belly. The Voragers were the largest monsters of the destroyed MOM core contingent and some of them had managed to get inside of Geoptis, they were indiscriminate killing machines that even consumed some of their own. “I think I’m going to throw up.”

“Aim away from me then, keep your mind on our situation Greta. How much time do we have here?” It was not that Gilda was cold and unfeeling, she was very much trying not to think of the screams she was hearing from Greta’s pad. Instead she was determined to get at least one flight in her life as a fighter pilot, plus why cry over those who you couldn’t do a thing to save? She was focusing on her own priorities.

“To all bounty hunters aboard Geoptis Station, I am now declaring Hunting Seaon! All personnel are to assist the civilians to the shelters and seal off entrances as quickly as you can; we need to bottleneck them so they can’t use their numbers against us. I know our outer hull turrets are taking a beating; I will soon be activating the inner hull turrets. Get to those safe zones or a good place to hunker down like yesterday!” They could even hear officer Lirutiy giving orders over the station wide com systems, how the Plurt managed to keep her tone even in this crisis was anyone’s guess. “I repeat all bounty hunters aboard Geoptis Station, Hunting Season is officially authorized! All Civilians are suggested to either evacuate to the planet or head for the shelters around the center of the station.”

“Did she just seriously give every bounty hunter, privateer and civilian who understands exactly what ‘hunting season’ means as a carte blanche to use high end explosives?” Now Greta was panicking, as a huge explosion went off less than a mile from their position. It led to her shrieking out. “Especially here, on a space station of all things!”

“Focus Greta, stop getting distracted or so help me I’m going to drop you here and now! See how far you’d get if you have to walk.” Gilda hoped that snapped her to the task at claw, as she flew above the tall buildings of Geoptis City. She took a short glance at the fires in the distance as she angled herself towards the repair hangar and flapped her wings as hard as she could to stay in the air, she was tiring quickly.

“R-right Gilda, they’re not there yet and the station is starting to lock down all the hangars that they’re coming through. Ours hasn’t been closed off yet, but it’s only a matter of time before those monsters reach it, we’ll have about ten minutes to get one of the fighters airborne at my best estimation.” With loud sigh and a bit of a sad grunt Greta added. “It’ll be likely the worst estimate and we’ll have about two minutes to get a fixer upper to fly, hopefully one without too many issues.”

“I like those odds.” There was the sarcastic Gilda that could make Greta smile, if a bit wanly at the moment. “We’re almost there, so I’ll finally be able to drop you like my mom dropped me out of the nest.”

“You say the nicest things about your family and take me to the best of places Gilda.” The sarcasm was echoed by Greta who wondered if everyone they met were surviving alright. At least they knew the boss lady was safe where she was for the time being. How long would that last with the Patrol completely distracted from stopping the last remaining MOM core with the station under attack like it was?

-
Coming in for a landing the griffons were at the door leading to the hallway where the hangar resided and things were spookily quiet around this particular area, the fighting and explosions in the distance were not nearly as disturbing as the silence of where they currently found themselves now. The alarms and sirens blaring throughout the station having become something akin to background noise to them.

“Okay the door should open, as we still have access and it hasn’t gone into lockdown yet.” Greta moved forward to the door after she was summarily dropped on her face by a bored looking Gilda, she accessed the panel and started inserting the code. It still worked and the door beeped. “Right, I am opening it now!”

The door creaked and then swiftly slid open, a shadow immediately stepped out and both the griffons leapt back expecting danger, only it wasn’t something dangerous. The figure still made Gilda jump back even further, since it was Tree Hugger and she was giving them both her patented friendly dopey smile.

“Hello Sky Child and blessings to you and your friend Ever Cheerful. I have been waiting here for you.” As she spoke a second cowering mare poked her head out looking around and whimpering. The shy mare was frightened by all the noises and the sounds of violence going on in the distance. “We are here to assist you; a friend of ours is currently in the process rigging the door to your egress. So when you are ready, fly at it with great speed and it will open and shut behind you. This will prevent a number of casualties from you letting more World Eaters into the station. I must also ask that you take this gift and destroy a group of incoming World Eaters for me with it, I cannot do it as I am a pacifist and my friend Soul Judger is too squeamish to commit such an act as to take the breathe of another from them. Neither of us would wish to hurt anything, even as vile as the World Eaters are.”

“Pacifist, like my ass you are!” Grumbled Gilda who stared at the plasma rifle being proffered to her vertically held in hoof by its midsection, Tree Hugger simply tilted her head and raised her right brow slightly. The griffon really didn’t know whether to accept the weapon or not given who was holding it. “You still keep finding ways to completely freak me out on a number of levels.”

Having said that, Gilda took the offered plasma rifle and checked it over. Tree Hugger then reached into her saddlebags and held out a small satchel to Gilda as she finished putting the strap attached to the rifle around her torso. Taking the satchel Gilda found ten clips of plasma ammunition, she attached that to the strap.

“I hope I did not underestimate your need. Ever Cheerful please swiftly find a vessel while the rest of us wait here for our companion to finish preparations for your egress. Please know I never harmed you intentionally or unintentionally Sky Child, I only put you in a situation where you would harm yourself if you struggled. You did and I am quite sorry that you injured yourself.” Looking more closely at Tree Hugger, she was carrying four medical kits aside from the saddlebags and her yellow cowering companion was carrying a few more than that. Greta had been standing their looking dumbfounded before she set off past them to do just as Tree Hugger told her to and find a fighter worthy of getting them into space. “After you clear a path and our companion joins us, we will leave the area swiftly. The hangar is safely sealed from all directions except this one and your exit, I will now endeavor to align all our chakras so that you may perform with a clear mind.”

“You know what; I’m not going to bother asking how you got here or even why you of all people would buy a weapon and hand it to someone who would just love to aim it at you. Instead, I’ll turn just around and watch your way out for you and then you can go hug a tree or do whatever it is you like when whoever you’re waiting for gets here.” After Gilda’s statement Tree Hugger slowly moved forward and rubbed up against her.

The griffon froze as Tree Hugger placed a kiss on her cheek and then nodded as if understanding something before she moved back to her pink haired companion’s side. Cuddling the pink haired pony, Tree notably made her become less frightened when she hummed a few notes and leaned into her before she turned to address Gilda again.

“I am of the earth and you are of the sky. We are meant to work in concert, Gilda.” The minute Tree Hugger said her name, was the moment the world tilted and turned upside down for the griffon. Gilda was now afraid of the warmth that suddenly exploded everywhere through her veins after the pony airily said her name and she was getting a horrible case of vertigo that quickly ended as Tree started talking once more. “Should you perish today, I will be there to take care of you in your next form. If you live, then I wish you many years to find and fulfill what your heart truly desires and will be there when you will want me for my council. You will never die alone and will have the comfort of the one who walks as everyone’s shadow, that one is very friendly and is whoever you need them to be when you once again pass into the grand circle.”

Gilda really didn’t like the fuzzy feeling in her chest and she certainly wasn’t thinking of snuggling Greta into a pile of happy feathers if she did indeed survive the next twenty eight hours or what amounted to a full Ewesen day. Whatever this mare was on, it had to be highly contagious and she felt entirely wary of almost beginning to understand it. Before she could unleash her grouchiness several shrieks were heard heading in their direction.

“The World Eaters, they come, they will ravage many spiritually as much as physically.” That was all Tree Hugger needed to say for Gilda to take up the rifle against her shoulder and sweep the opening of the corridor leading into the hangar.

-

Angel Rippinicus had done his job; he had hotwired the doors just as the wise one needed them to be. All he had to now, was get inside after having set the door to start closing. Now if only he wasn’t floating away from the station for firing his energy pistol several times, with a flick of his left paw a pencil thin beam grappled the inside of the hangar as the door start closing and he reeled himself in past several dead Ant Heads he had blasted.

Once he was inside he fell to the floor going into a roll as gravity asserted itself on him once more and then just as quickly rolled to the left as a surviving Ant Head lunged at him. It had clawed its way in after him, completely losing the rear half of its body in the process. The rear half of an Ant Head was partly vestigial to its continued existence, however suddenly losing its head to a charged blast of energy outright caused a critical existence failure in what was recently a two limbed creature.

Angel sighed and put the energy pistol that was almost as big as he was away on his back, he didn’t like the quiet of the great abyss and was glad that the wise one saw fit to get him the proper protection he needed before requesting his help. He immediately started running towards the hangars entrance as he heard gunfire.

-

Gilda fired several plasma blasts that ended up ripping apart another three Ant Heads and then the horrific visage of a Vorager stomped its way forward. It was busy screeching from its large mouth and waving its bladed arms in a challenging manner. This thing would later cause Gilda nightmares; right now she brought up the rifle and fired for its limbs to slow down its charge.

Not exactly being trained in the weapon she wielded, Gilda was doing pretty good at aiming her shots as of the ten she fired at least three managed to hit. The three hits being something vital for the monster to continue coming at her at full speed as it had been. She had sent a plasma round through its right blade arm its rear middle leg and its front left leg, tearing the first in half, the second was luckily blown clean off and the last was only damaged.

Even with the damage she was dealing to its torso with the next three shots, Gilda had to back up towards the entrance as it continued charging her with a wide open mouth which she gladly filled with as much plasma as she could squeeze out of her current clip of ammunition. While plasma weapons were technically energy based weapons, some of said weapon did not come in a rechargeable variety and thus required powerful batteries known as power cells.

Even with all the damage it was taking, the Vorager pushed forward on its damaged limbs and it was almost on top of Gilda ready to swallow her whole. Only to have half the nerve clusters in its head blown apart causing it to stumble back slightly allowing Gilda to put it down with a few more shots up close and personal. Another shot then rang out and an Ant Head with a hole in its torso died two feet from Gilda standing at the entrance to the corridor, she turned to the EVA suited Lagotorphin that came running up to her.

“I had them both handled.” The fake rabbit made a flippant gesture of dismissal at Gilda’s words and then hopped onto the shy mare and kicked at her neck while pointing forward.

“I believe that is our cue to be going now, be well Sky Child. Worry no longer for our safety… you should sooner worry about your own now.” With that statement delivered, Tree Hugger turned and motioned Fluttershy to follow her. They galloped off leaving Gilda to lock the last doors to the hangar down.

Author's Note:

I have no notes to author.

Comments

[Razzy]

*hums the Klandathu landing theme from Starship Troopers*

I'm really intrigued what's the history between tree Hugger and Gilda.

Yeah, it's easier to fly with working wings.

Those are some freaky monsters.

Going to prepare my vinyl record of the Top Gun soundtrack for the next chapter.