Cold Scales

by Konatra

Shudder

Spines woke up to the noise of blaring sirens that remind her of a wailing dog. Her neck felt like it was up taking an enormous amount of pressure...she soon realized she was upside down doing a headstand with no support. Like a sack she pushed her body forward enough to lie flat on her stomach. It was dark and her eyes seemed to refuse to shift into night vision, aside from the siren her ears rung and she saw spots of white every so often, her head was killing her. "...Fa-...father?" It came out slurred as a bit of her tongue dropped out of her mouth unable to return. She felt metal prod and poke at her whenever she tried to move, a bit of focus in the dark told her she was surrounded by broken bits of the ship, trapped.

It began to shake again, not as violently as the initial rupture but enough to shake around the ship once again. Bits of metal fell on her head and a large lump of something just narrowly missed falling on her by a few inches. 'Right....the ship...' Trying to figure out what to do now the immobile dragon tried her best to find an exit by focusing on her oddly nonfunctional night vision. A bit more effort and she could just make out the familiar shape of an Android made in her image, yes the form that nearly crushed her seconds ago was one of hers. Without her visor or ability to focus her implant, she couldn't contact the inactive unit wirelessly assuming it was even still functional.

With what little power she had she headbutted her soldier in an attempt to get a reaction but when she made contact something in her brain surged like a lightbulb and everything went black.

___

Spines found herself looking right at her rather dead-looking face, slowly she got herself up to view the more lit room full of broken metal, it shook a little again. This sensation was familiar, no sensation but she could read everything around her like data, yes she was in the body of her soldier. Spines looked down at her metal claws and legs with a feeling of deep loss. But now was the time to act, first thing is to get her body out of here.

It was odd grabbing her own head to see her own face, one of her eyes was massively dilated while the other stuck in slit form. 'Concussion....' The weight on her brain made all the more sense now, being in the mind of the Android felt somewhat restrained, like more complex movements took more effort to control. She had no idea the effects of mentally controlling an Android while concussed but she had to move urgently. Gently she picked up her own body like a sack of potatoes and made her way out of the room. Out in the now tilted hall, she could see other Androids of various types run around to hull breaches and points on fire to douse them. She placed her body down face up.

"Spines?" Turning around she saw her father coming out from the same room with a few visible cuts and bruises but nothing serious. Ignoring the robot in front of him the King went down to address her form.

Spines didn't have time to explain her state as another tremor reminded her of the potentially cataclysmic event unfolding. "Keep her lying down and rested, I'll go stop the quakes." He barely even registered her words and nodded. Then she ran down the hall as fast as her body allows.
___

Being an android was not too unlike being flesh, her state of mind was more or less the same aside from the strain she felt holding onto this borrowed but other than that it was like looking through glass eyes that could see more of everything.

She had a mental map of her surroundings and knew where to go speeding around the long halls of her base, another tremor almost made her lose her footing. She didn't have time to group in forces or create a task force but she let out a wide-ranged message to all who could listen. [This is General Spines ordering all available units to support me in invading the enemy ship. We must stop their takeoff or countless lives will be lost.] Not to mention the anarchy that would be caused by the loss of the Capital and monarchs. The Void ship's engines were positioned near the face of her ship, once they ignite they too would likely be destroyed. All their progress, everyone's efforts would be obliterated in one move.

The Lead Android brought out her arm cannon and fired a powerful burst into the glass viewport in the command deck, shattering the glass. Hopping out the gravity shifted and she began falling down into the base of the hollow mountain. Her boosters kicked in taking her up to the nearest breach on the enemy ship. Looking up Spines could see the massive tri engines charging up a purple hue, rocks began falling all around her, with some easy dodgine she made it to her location untouched. Her booster could only take her so far to the front where she was only close to 20% the distance from the command deck. Some numbers crunched in her head that showed the chances of her making it on time, a quick hundred possibilities loaded in but not one showed a success chance of over 15%, she didn't ask for those calculations but chose to let those grim numbers motivate her to change fate and save her first home and Kingdom of her Father.

Kicking open the already torn metal plate still proved difficult but eventually, she managed to crawl through the interior inside. It was dark inside but it meant nothing for her installed night vision. Just like before the inside was rounder than her ship and had purple walls.

Her internal system brought up a schematic of the ship-based on the design, it wasn't sure to be fully accurate but a good place to start.
___

The biggest worry of the robotic Spines would be the absolute uncertainty when their due date was up, at any second she could run out of time and lose everything. Her body was equipped with a left arm cannon and a glowing green blade, being a freshly built unit gave her an edge over the ancient built drones she fought. These insect-like androids were a different battle compared to the savage Spawn. The Drones fought calculated, going for the best possible strike, blocking and pulling back in order to preserve themselves.

Her body never tired or hurt when it took a nick or shallow slash she could keep pushing forward without hindrance. Signs of rust were shown on many enemy Drones, some were missing limbs or were incapable of moving in ways they should. This let her tear them apart like grass but even with the ease of battle she was getting distracted from her goal, so when there was an opening she would flee or avoid battle altogether. The many holes in the interior made the trek that much easier, now she was about 60% the way there in only 20 minutes.

Now she was in between walls slinking past enemies while climbing up higher to her goal. The tight space full of shrapnel and sparking wires didn't affect her in the slightest. It was lucky the ship is in a far worse state than her's, inoperable Drones scattered everywhere and a cut power supply would explain the darkness and lack of turret defense a warship like this should have. If this kept up for a bit longer she would make it faster than anticipat-! The bottom panel she crawled through made a strained creaking noise and gave way to the weight of her form.

Falling to the ground she landed safely into another hall that had a few differences, namely the side room with the giant containers. They all seemed smashed to bit and some figures inside appeared in bits put one of them looked to be in the nominal condition given the circumstances...

*ZEET ZEET* A odd and startling noise rang out behind her and as she turned to look up at the source of the siren going off the container burst open at a ridiculous speed just missing her by a few feet. What came out from it was a whole lot faster. It was lean, slick and fast as all heck. A towering centipede-like Drone aimed right for her head with its claw mouth but just missed its mark when she blasted its face point blank with a mid charged shot, a perfect riposte she grinned internally.

One of its pincers fell off and its six small eyes seemed a bit soot up but it made another jab at her which she dodged again and again but this was no easy feat as every strike would nick and scratch her bit by bit. This viper-like bullet of a Drone only needed one good strike to make her inoperable. It sped forward again and as Spines made her move to dodge and unsheathe her blade to cut off the head she found herself unable to move correctly, a vicious haze took over.

With what little control she had over her form she poised her blade forward and locked her arm in place, the Drone was too fast to stop itself properly but in an unexpected shift of movement, the enemy coiled its body mid-flight and moved around her blade enough to avoid a vital strike to the head but sacrificed 3 of its eyes getting cut out in the process.

The robot dragon still could not evade and was grappled by its remaining claw. It trashed about the halls full force at high speeds taking her who knew where. She could do little to escape with her current state of mind and when she tried to bring back focus she found her right eye looking at the worried face of her Father.

Words could not explain the feeling of one side of your brain in a calm environment while the other clung to life desperately. Solaris didn't seem to notice her awareness due to that eye already being open. On her left vision, her face impacted a wall hard enough to crack her visor. 'Need to....focus....' But no matter how hard she tried she just could not bring her mind to order, if she lost the signal she would truly be useless to stop the destruction of Canterlot. Her left side showed a warning of structural weakness in the torso area and in the left arm joint. She wasn't going to last much longer like this. 'C'mon....focus! Something inside her brain felt like it was being encompassed by thousands of hands and a cold flush went over her, she found her way back into the system and took full control over her borrowed body, she had no time to think about what just happened.

Back in the saddle she plunged her fist into the bladed mouth of the Drone and fire a mid-charged blast. This was enough to end its rampage.

Getting up Spines began running a short diagnostic on her body she found her left arm was broken from several joint points making it hard to move, her head cracked open in three locations revealing a critical weak point as well as several small punctures and indents on her torso.

No time to wait for backup or to repair even the simplest of damages. Every second was vital. Looking into her internal map she quickly devised a route to make up for the lost....time? To her inaudible shock, she found her destination was only a few meters away, that trashing bug took her exactly where she needed to be a record time. 'Thank Solaris' she thought while hoofing it to her end goal.

Staring at the broken door that led to the captain deck she hesitated for a moment. She knew she was not ready for this battle, Tendrix couldn't stop it at full power, she was a handicapped mess that wasn't even here to do the battle properly. This body she controlled was broken and weak....but she knew she didn't have to fear for her life, no, her mortal body was safe now in Father's care. While she regretted sacrificing this loyal soldier fighting an enemy too powerful to even imagine there was no other option. What she truly feared was losing, not being able to do a dam thing to the Void Demon, failing to save tens of thousands of lives due to her inadequacy...Tendrix should be here but he chose to save her life over his own and now Canterlot is paying the price.
Tendrix should be here, he knew what to expect.
Tendrix should have been leading the defense of Ponyville, he would've saved Bek.
Tendrix should have never followed her out of the Everfree, it cost him his life.
Tendrix should never have saved...her, it was the catalyst for this destruction.

A cloud went over her mind that made her advance stop, it was unnatural but familiar...something she felt in the Everfree. She wanted to run away or at least wait for the backup to repair her body...for someone else to take command. She couldn't do this, she was terrified.

Spines felt suddenly clear, the cloud was gone and the fear and hesitation went with it. 'Go' A distant but familiar voice rang deep within her mind.

She went in.