Interlude - Before Dawn
The members of Shadow Patrol had gathered on the grass outside of Twilight’s castle in spite of the chilly night air for two reasons. Firstly, with what was happening inside the walls, they all felt like they were intruding on a very private matter.
Secondly, Mars was out here, standing silent vigil over his friend from the workshop window since he physically could not fit into the building. While nobody felt the need to say it out loud, they all felt Mars was one of them, and they would not leave him out in the cold all on his own.
“I guess that’s it, huh?” Garble said.
Gilda turned to him. “What is it?”
“This. Shadow Patrol. Our mission is complete, isn’t it, Cap?”
Pharynx nodded slowly, never taking his eyes off Mars. “It is. Shadow Patrol is not a regular patrol unit. The best and brightest are called upon to form Shadow Patrol if and when the Hive needs them to deal with an existential threat. And once that threat ceases to exist, Shadow Patrol disbands, its members returning to their previous lives.”
“We’re breaking up already?” Gabby asked aghast, looking at Tibia.
Tibia nodded sadly.
The Griffon had tears in her eyes. “It’s too soon! I feel like we’ve only just started to really come together.”
“It does seem a little anticlimactic after everything we’ve been through,” Gilda agreed, although with less visible sadness. “Doesn’t feel right to just let it end here and walk away.”
Pharynx turned to his team with a small smile. “There’s nothing to stop you from staying friends, you know. The details of our mission will remain classified, but there’s nothing that can shatter the bonds forged in battle.”
The team members looked at him and then in turn at each other, realizing that it was silly to feel sad. Even though they would now once again each walk their own path, they knew in their hearts that nothing could ever take the time they’d spent together away from them.
“About it feeling abrupt,” Pharynx said after a moment. “There is one thing. A ceremony that is held when a Shadow Patrol disbands. It’s a Changeling thing, so I won’t order any of you to take part. But Tibia and I would be honored if you chose to join us.”
“I’m in!” Gabby didn’t need to be asked twice.
Gilda simply shrugged. “Eh, why not?”
When all eyes landed on Garble, the dragon exhaled a small plume of smoke. “Fine. I’m not gonna be that one guy who ruins it for everybody else.”
“Tibia, do you have the special candles with you?” Pharynx asked.
Tibia gasped. “Is that what those are for? I’ve got them right here.” She levitated five unburnt candles out of her bag.
“I remember those,” Gabby said, “they were set out at the entrance of that cave where we met. And I noticed Tibia setting them out at each of our camp sites, but she never lit them.”
Pharynx nodded. “You’ll see why in a moment. Each of you, take one and draw up in a circle. This will not take long.”
The Captain himself positioned himself in the center of the circle, taking in all the faces of his subordinates one last time. They would cease to be his team shortly, and he wanted to remember them as they were right now. Pharynx knew for a fact that he had never been prouder of any unit he’d commanded in the past, and he sincerely doubted that he would ever be prouder of any unit he would command in the future.
He ignited the candle that was being held by Garble with his magic. “My name, my face, my voice restored,” Pharynx said in a measured beat before turning to Gabby and lighting her candle as well, “I have reclaimed my past. I now return to my family alongside my friends.”
Gilda’s candle ignited under his magic. “Now my eyes, my ears, my hooves may rest.” Pharynx turned to his young protegee with a smile that was just a hint prouder than the one he’d given the others and lit her candle as well. “I step out of the shadows and back into the light, to rejoin my brothers and sisters in the Hive.”
Standing straight in the center of the circle, he lit his own candle and finished: “But I will never forget – In Silentio Vigilo, In Umbris Confido.”
“In Silentio Vigilo, In Umbris Confido,” the others replied in unison.
The ceremony concluded, Pharynx began to flap his wings and lifted off, careful not to accidentally snuff out the candle with a gust of wind, the rest of the team following unprompted. They all flew up to Mars, who had been watching them, and began hovering on either side of their final member.
One by one, they each shared a look and a nod with the God of War, then turned towards the window with their candle held in front of them, joining their comrade in his silent vigil without the need to say anything else.
“GC, FLIGHT. GC, FLIGHT.”
“You say, FLIGHT?”
“Lock the doors.”
“Copy.”
Where am I?
It’s so dark.
I don’t know where I am.
Where’s Starlight?
Sister, can you hear me?
You have to tell them.
Tell them to send me back, sister.
I need to know that Starlight is alright.
I made her a promise.
Sister?
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The end cometh.
Short, but still great.
I beg your ducking pardon?!
A morbid reference
"GC: flight, lock the doors" for those that dont know, usually is a command that happens after the loss of a vehichle and its crew. Ground controllers are to save their telemetry for investigators and lock all stations. It's meant to be done so that investigators will be able to understand what exactley was happening to the vehicle up to the point of loss.
the one time we heard it during the Columbia incident.
Not sure if we'd hear it for a lowly probe though, even if it was our plucky Oppy
Last chapter before sequel?
GC: flight, lock the doors in death in life all things must end..
Rest well my friend, opportunity
Next: The final chapter
preview.redd.it/ljwu5n836ea31.png?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=acf28f4acb024de01edfaf8a04bda7af56741239
End's coming up, is it? Well, this was an interesting ride. Definitely didn't expect the story to end up like this.
9812022
Say it isn't so!!!
Well, at least Oppy has a repair team on call and site. That's more than any other rover had.
This has been one fun ride....
the only possible saving factor for Oppy now, is the news that researchers have managed to totally duplicate a memory from one rat to another. One rat was trained to associate a shock, reaction, to a given smell, a stimulus. they then scanned the activation patterns of the neurons in its brain, and stimulated the same neural patterns in a rat that had never recieved a shock or smelt that odour. On stimulating the nose of the new rat the same way the smell would, the rat repsonded as if it was about to be shocked, which it had never had so knew nothing about.
Very small minibrains have been made from pluripostent stemcells, and have been giving EEG outputs similar to the brains of human fetuses of similar maturity. The brains self assembled given the right cocktail of hormones and chemicals. Current size about 5mm accross I seem to remember.
The greater the damage, the greater the time needed, due to needing the information being interacted with again, but neural nets are like life. It doesnt just occur everywhere it can, it occurs everywhere it cant. And once it occurs, it keeps fighting for the right to exist.
So many possibilities throughout the realities, but are the possibilities here.
9812022
It can't end this way. It can't.
Not after all this. Noooooooo...it can't.
9815940
KSC - Kennedy Space Center
That's what Kerbal Space Center is referencing.
You have me on the edge of my seat. Looking forward to the conclusion.
I actually found the disbanding of Shadow Patrol the more emotional bit of the chapter. I really came to like those guys...
9812022
I think they realized that at this point, it was no longer a unmanned mission, but a mission manned by one sentience, meeting other sentiences.
Freakin' gives me chills...
I may be wrong, but if memory serves, those words have only been uttered by FLIGHT on two occasions.
Challenger and Columbia.
Everything is wrapping up nicely.