> Dead Space: Ascension
>  by Enigmus
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: Whispers In The Dark...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


All things truly wicked start from an innocence. ~Ernest Hemingway


_______________________________________________________________________________

At first he heard screams of pure agony, their pain ripping through his very soul. But the longer he ran down the long, metallic corridor, the more it got quiet. The silence was the worst. His mind already ripping itself apart. He could feel its influence creeping through his head like a damn parasite. It whispered to him, told him to do things. If only he had known what would have happened, if only he hadn't brought that damn rock aboard the ship. All he could do now was run for his life, trying to calm down enough so he wouldn't have a heart attack and drop on the spot. If he died, he'd only end up hurting more people. He couldn't be responsible for more deaths, he just couldn't.

Make us whole...

That same damn phrase over and over. It reverberated through his skull, taking the form of a million whispers. It sounded disturbingly like his dead daughter, whom he had mistaken for one of those things. He had beat her skull in with one of the legs on a metal chair. That damn rock made him do it... it made him kill his little girl. The voices in his head grew exponentially, the whispers turning into screaming. He brought his hands up to his head, "Shut up, shut up, shut UP!"

He rounded a corner too fast, slipping on a puddle of blood. He fell down, slamming his head on the metal floor. His eyes blurred up, his headache much worse than before. The pain shot through his skull when he tried to get up. But he had to, he had to get to the communications center. He had to send out a distress signal. The voices kept telling him to do it. Anything to make them stop, anything...

He got up slowly, crying softly to himself. Blood dripped off of his head, which alarmed him. He used the walls to help him walk along the corridor. He felt so dizzy that he suspected a concussion. After a few minutes of walking, he came upon a large door, sealed away due to the emergency lockdown that was currently shipwide. Lucky for him, he had access to all parts of the ship. He pressed his hand into the holographic scanner, the door immediately recognizing him. It opened, allowing him access to the communications center.

He stumbled in and closed the door behind him, locking it with a level ten security code. One of the advantages of being the chief security officer. He walked weakly to the large console, falling into the chair. He rested his head back, trying to ignore the pain in his head and the one in his arm. One of those things took a damn chunk out of his arm back at the bridge. The bridge was crawling with those monsters. There had been so much red, so much death... he knew he wasn't going to make it out of here alive.

He accessed the communications array, typing in security codes left and right. He wiped his forehead, smearing blood everywhere. He felt so weak, so vulnerable. If he got into a fight, there's no way he'd come out of it. He needed to stay put and wait for rescue.

He opened up a distress signal and said into the video recorder, "T-this is Harvey Duncan, chief security officer aboard the USG Odyssey. We have been attacked by an unknown alien intruder. The bridge has been wiped out. I...I can't hear anyone screaming anymore... I think they're all dead. Please, send help."

He put his head into his hands, sobbing quietly, his body shaking violently. He looked up, his face indicating that he had completely lost his mind, "I-I... I can hear them. They speak to me. They tell me to do things... to hurt people. I don't want to, but..."

He shook his head, tears streaming out of his eyes, the clear liquid making clean streaks amongst the fresh blood, "Make... us... whole."

He leaned into the camera, his crying ceased. His eyes were void of any emotion, "I can hear them... they whisper to me."

He lifted a plasma cutter he had taken from a dead engineer's body and rested the barrel against the bottom of his chin, pointing at his brain. He set the video to end in ten seconds, whispering, "And soon... you will, too."

With a bright flash of light, his head exploded, littering the screen with blood and brain matter. His body went limp, his arm falling to his side. The plasma cutter fell to the ground with a metallic clatter. One side of his skull was intact, his lifeless eye staring back at the screen. 

The video ended, the once brave and honorable man now but a corpse amongst the already thousands who had lost their lives to one act of stupidity. One mistake that opened the abysmal horrors of hell itself. The ship remained relatively quiet after that, save for the inhuman screeches that littered the hallways.

Make us whole...

_______________________________________________________________________________

Another ship recieved the distress call that bounced across space. It changed course, heading for the Odyssey. The crew of this large cruiser were different from the ones aboard the Odyssey. They were an entirely different species, walking along four legs instead of two.

The admiral of this ship brought a hoof, yes, a hoof, to his chin, trying to understand why there would be a distress signal this far out into space, "Helm, bring us, but don't get too close. I want to know exactly what we're dealing with."

After hours of waiting, they had gotten close enough to hear the distress signal. It was in the form of a video, that much was obvious. But the coding to it was entirely different than their own. It took some tweaking before they could watch said video. What they saw would forever haunt their dreams for years to come.

"T-this is Harvey Duncan, chief security officer aboard the USG Odyssey. We have been attacked by an unknown alien intruder. The bridge has been wiped out. I...I can't hear anyone screaming anymore... I think they're all dead. Please, send help."

The rest of the video was disturbing to say the least. This creature was different than they were, but it seemed to speak their language. The admiral went into a thinking pose yet again. After a few minutes, he sighed, "Okay, helm, bring us in. Send a team down there to investigate. Alien or not, they clearly need help."

He rewatched the entire video, his muzzle scrunching up in confusion. The ponies around him worked tirelessly, trying to figure out how to avoid the astroids that floated around the planet that the mysterious ship was next to, "What happened to you...?"

> Chapter 1: Getting Geared Up...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	

"Just think, we'll be the first ponies to step onto an alien ship!" Said a rather excited unicorn. Said unicorn started to strap herself into some power armor. She seemed to be having a little trouble with it, though. Slowly, she got into the suit, but not without effort. 

A blue pegasus, who was already geared up and ready to go, said, "Twilight, whatever happened to that alien, it scared the hell out of him. This isn't a game and you know it. Something happened on that ship. They're not answering any of our hails. You know what that means..."

Twilight looked down at the ground, realizing that her friend was right, "You're right, Rainbow... I need to keep a level head about this."

A team of ten were going to be sent into the abandoned alien freighter to see what had happened to her crew. They were geared with high tech only a commando team would be permitted to use. But, since this was a very unique and delicate situation, they agreed that a strike force wasn't the best of ideas. The last thing the ponies wanted was to upset the aliens.

A yellow pegasus, who had geared up in medic power armor, said a little timidly, "Y-you think we'll be okay, guys?"

Rainbow walked up to her and put a hoof on the yellow medic's shoulder, "Don't worry, Fluttershy, me and Twilight will keep you safe. And, if one of us happens to be gutted, we'll be counting on you. Team work and things like that."

Twilight went to the armory's weapon cache and pulled out a pulsar rifle. She checked the sights out, making sure they were accurate enough to hit with. Satisfied with the killing capabilities of the weapon, she strapped it to her side, the magnetic holster holding it in place.

Twlight Sparkle looked at the other seven squad members, only knowing two of them. One of them was the designated pilot, a funny stallion that went by the name of Shady Daze. He was a nice pony, always polite. But he was a bit of a flirter, everyone knew that. He had a black, messy mane and a brown body. He as normal as they come, just a bit forward when he talked to others. Shady Daze was getting into a pilot's uniform since power armor was restricted to ponies who actually left the ship during away missions.

The other one she knew, who was the commanding officer on this mission, was named Ember Shard. He was as serious as they came. He too had a black mane, but his body was a grey that really popped out. It was dark, but it was also light at the same time. There really was no easy way to describe this stallion. He had black beard that went from ear to ear.

Ember Shard, after waiting for the group to get armored up, said rather loudly, "Okay, listen up! You're not going to get much of a breifing, because everything is on a need-to-know basis only. I will tell you this, however. You may need to use your weapons. We are dealing with an unknown alien race, but command doesn't think that they're the problem. Something else is happening. It is our job to look for survivors and bring them back for possible medical treatment. You do not need to know anything else. Meet me on the shuttle in FIVE minutes!"

He put on his helmet and walked down the corridor. He disappeared around a corner, leaving the other soldiers to get ready. They all knew that to be late was to be severly punished, so they ran down the corridor after Captain Shard.

Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash all walked down the corridor behind the others. Five minutes was more than enough time to get to the air lock. It was just the mere fact that the captain was a scary son of a bitch. The three stepped into the shuttle through the air lock, taking seats next to one another. Twilight saw Shady Daze walk into the cockpit and sit down. She was glad he was the one flying. He knew his way around anything that could fly.

Fluttershy was plainly terrified. She was holding onto her seat straps, her eyes closed tight and her head leaning back. Rainbow, as usual, was the one to cheer her up. The shuttle door closed, the air lock closing after it. With a lurch, the ship came free off of the docking port. The ship used minimal thrusters to get some space between them and the Voltage, which was the huge cruiser that they had been in about six minutes ago.

Shady maneuvered through the asteroid belt, trying to avoid the large rocks that threatened to crush them if he made even one mistake. The ship shook as asteroids passed them at alarming speeds, making Fluttershy whimper each time.

Shady called out to the others in the back, "Okay, we're heading into the docking platform! The hangar's oxygen is depleted, so we need to have our helmets on!"

The ship slid into the hangar, parking next to a metal walkway. The ship stopped with a lurch, just as it had when the ship had taken off. The team got out of their seats and put their helmets on, dreading the mission at hoof. Who knows what would happen to them on an alien ship.

Twilight had an eerie feeling about all of this, as if coming here was a huge mistake. But, it was not her place to question the chain of command. She followed orders, it was as simple as that. She was the first lined up at the side door, waiting for the pilot to open it up. The door opened, a small room coming into view. The soldiers all stepped into it, nervousness obvious on their faces. The door closed behind them, sealing shut. The door to the hangar slid open, the vacuum of space sucking all of the oxygen out of the room. Fluttershy whimpered again, but her face was hidden behind the helmet.

They all ran out into the hangar, making a break for what they assumed was a door. Twilight stopped in frint of it, seeing that this door was obviously much more sophisticated than any of theirs. A blue screen was floating in front of the door, which strangely had the same language as they did. That didn't make sense, this was an alien ship. Why would an alien race be using their vocal and written language? There had to be some sort of explanation, but right now she needed to open this. It turned out that it wasn't as difficult as she expected.

The blue holographic sign said open, so she simply pressed it, seeing if that did the trick. The door opened up, a room coming into view. They all went in and closed the alien door behind them. Oxygen came rushing back in within a matter of seconds. They were in some kind of corridor, but that wasn't what surprised Twilight.

A body hung from the ceiling, having been ripped in half. Blood dripped from the waist, filling up an already present puddle. The guts were caught on a piece of metal that stuck out of the wall. There was a hole in the wall, almost as if it had been ripped open by some kind of beast. The face was what scared Twilight the most. The pure expression of ultimate terror almost made her want to cry. This alien had died a most gruesome death with no one to help him or her.

The captain walked up to the body, but kept his distance, "Keep your weapons ready... we're going in."

	
> Chapter 2: Dark Beginnings...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	
Twilight thought back to the body that had been hung from the ceiling. What kind of monster would do that someone? Whatever it was, it sure as hell was not friendly. There was something more going on here, something sinister and malevolent. It was as if her instincts were trying to warn her away from an ancient evil. But something more was going on, that was for sure.

She had her weapon at the ready, checking her corners even though the soldiers in front of her had already done so. She just felt so damn paranoid about all of this. She didn't want to end up like that poor alien back there, "Rainbow, what do you make of all this?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged, "I don't know, but something happened to these aliens. Something terrible."

Twilight nodded, but didn't say anything further. She watched the shadows for any sign of movement, anything that she could shoot at. The captain hadn't said a word since they had found the body. Then again, he wasn't one to freak out, so he's probably just playing it cool.

Along the way, there were multiple bodies, some mutilated beyond comprehension, some were only mildly mauled. They all wore uniforms of a sort, save for the occassional alien that had power armor on. It wasn't like anything Twilight had ever seen before. These aliens were clearly a decade or two above them in technology. If they couldn't stop this, what chance did this team have?

The captain stopped at a door, which had been ripped open. Above the door, there were blue words that moved across a thin strip of screen. The words said Communications Center. Twuilight assumed that this was where the distress signal had been sent. They went inside the room, the flickering lights already adding to her paranoia. She checked the chair, but there was no body in it like she had assumed there would be. The room was the same as it had been in the video, but where was the body?

All that was left was blood and some meat that had been torn across the floor. She followed the blood trail that started from the side of the chair to a ripped open vent. She peeked her head in, but gasped when she thought she saw movement. She had thought she had seen something move out of the vent through another vent a floor down. She continued to stare down, but nothing else happened.

Just then, something grabbed her back hoof, making her fling herself backwards. She cried out in fear, but ceased when she saw the gapsing and wheezing figure in front of her. It wasn't that chief of security, but this alien was wearing a uniform very close to his.

The alien seemed surprised to see her for some reason. She looked down, gasping to see that one of its legs were gone. It'd had to have been recently, because it would have bled out by then. Well, she didn't know much about their biology, so she couldn't say for sure. She went by his side, trying to get the alien on his or her back.

"Fluttershy, we have wounded over here!" Twilight yelled out, the team already crowded around the survivor. Fluttershy ran up to him and looked at his leg, her helmet off. She frowned and shook her head.

Fluttershy said, "He's already lost too much blood... all of that on the floor is his. Judging by their body mass, I'd say that's a lot of blood to lose."

The alien spoke, but it was very unsteady and shaky, "Please... medkit... compartment..."

Fluttershy looked to a small container on the wall, which the alien had pointed at. She got up and ran over to it, clicking the blue holographic open sign. In response, the container's doors slid open and folded to the sides. Flutterhsy grabbed a number of objects that looked important and ran over to the dying alien. She opened what Twilight could only assume was the medkit. Fluttershy took out multiple items, one a pack of gel, which Fluttershy examined first before shrugging and applying the gel upon the leg. Gasps and mumbles could be heard when the leg started to heal itself, the skin growing around the wound. It was slow, but it was obvious that the alien was getting to be in much better shape every second.

The alien leaned his head back and closed his eyes, sighing deeply. He didn't move any more after that.

Twilight went into full panic, assuming that they had just lost their patient, "Fluttershy, do something!"

Fluttershy checked the pulse of the alien, and breathed a sigh of relief, "He just passed out, but he's alive... captain, we should get him to the shuttle."

Captain Shard nodded, "You're right. Private Trigger, Private Shine, bring the survivor back to the shuttle and stay there. I think we can handle everything from here."

Two soldiers nodded their heads and walked up to the unconcious alien. They wrapped the arms around their necks, but simply walking with it was a tad difficult, it being so damn tall. So, they simply dragged it out of the room, heading back to the ship. Twilight wished them luck. It may not be a long walk back, but whatever did this to these aliens was most definitely still out there. And whatever it was, the same thing that happened here could very well happen to them as well.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The alien's eyes fluttered open, gasping when his head screamed in pain. He tried to bring a hand to help soothe the headache, but he found himself restrained by two armored horse-like creatures. He flung himself backwards, yelling out in fear. The last aliens he had encountered were something straight out of hell. He wasn't about to just randomly trust these ones. His leg wound had been sealed, but there was no way he'd be able to get anywhere anytime soon without effort.

The horse thing raised a hoof... or something up, "Hey, calm down, buddy... we're not going to hurt you. We're taking you to our ship, so you can get help. You can trust us..."

The horse creature had its helmet down, which was very troubling, but it had nothing but genuine concern in its eyes. Despite obvious concerns, the alien reached a hand out and grasped the hoof, getting up on one leg. The pain almost made him pass out then and there, but the two horses caught him and they continued on.

The alien said weakly, "Thank... you..."

The horse that had calmed him down smiled and nodded his head, "No problem, just stick with us. We'll get you to safe- Shine, LOOK OUT!"

The other horse looked to the side, a long corridor flanking him. But what came running down the corridor was something out of his nightmares. It was bipedal like the alien, but it had bone claw things protruding out of its back and hanging in front of it. Shine brought his rifle up, screaming in terror, but it was too late. A bone claw impaled the poor soldier, lifting him up in the air. Blood poured onto the floor, his gasping and wheezing being drowned out by a screech so horrifying, it travelled aong his spine, sending cold chills up it. The other horse dropped the alien and raised his rifle, shooting fast bolts of blue light at the nightmarish fiend.

The alien crawled to a door that was rather close, trying to get there in time. He needed to get to safety. There was nothing he could do for his new friends. Nothing he could do to save them. They were going to die, but he had to live, he just had to. He got up on one foot, the pain ripping through his body like a hurricane. He went to the door, but it was locked. He tore out the panel and began to rewire the security level, so he could get in.

The impaled horse was thrown to the side, having been ripped in half, splattering blood and gore all over his screaming friend. The last horse fired repeatedly into the creature, ripping its limbs off and blowing holes in it. The floor behind them splattered with blood similar to the pony's but that wasn't the issue at the moment. The creature dropped to the floor, his screaming having been ceased. The pony slammed his hoof down, exploding the head into dozens of pieces of skul, brain matter and blood spreading across the floor. He looked to the alien, who looked rather relieved. The pony was swept into the adjacent corridor by something that looked like a scorpion. All that could be heard now was screaming and snapping of bones.

The alien got access to the room and fell in. He got up very slowly, slipping on some blood. He closed the door and crawled to the body of a soldier who had apparently been hiding in here. The weapon was still there, a plasma cutter used for mining. The poor soldier must have ran out of ammo with everything else. The alien, who was a human, grabbed the plasma cutter and kept it pointed betweent a vent and the door. If anything popped into the room, he'd be ready. He had a full clip, which was very lucky for him.

He needed to get to that ship that the two horses had been talking about. But, he needed to wait until the hallways were clear before he made a break for it. The screaming had stopped and all he could hear now was his loud, uneven breath. He was now alone in this, crippled. He needed to be careful every step of the way, or he'd end up just like the other two. All he could do now was... wait.
> Chapter 3: The Incident...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The group had long since left the communications center, now walking through a medical bay. There were bloody rolling beds everywhere. It was clear that there were bodies upon them at one point, but it's as if they were also dragged off. The blood trails ended at a vent in corridor that was next to the medical bay.

Twilight looked over this, "What do you make of this, captain?"

Captain Shard sighed, "It's clear something terrible happened here, that much is for sure. But where are the things that did this? We'll have to keep moving. Twilight, check whatever consoles you find. We need to at least get some type of recording. We need to know what went down here."

Twilight nodded and ran to a small room, glass walls that lay upon metal bottoms wrapping around it. She opened the door, which was thankfuly unlocked, and went straight to the main console. She had seen this room when she had walked in. She tinkered with the programming a bit, but it was rather straightforward. She accessed file after file until she saw one video recording in a file labeled The Incident. There were other videos, but they were all corrupted and broken for some reason, unable to play. A holographic screen suspended itself up into the air, showing the video to the purple unicorn.

There was one of those aliens in what she assumed was a doctor's coat. He looked distraught and rather afraid. He didn't look crazy like the one who had sent the distress signal, but he was obviously troubled by something.

The alien in the video said, an accent plainly obvious in his voice, "My name is Doctor Resonov... I am chief medical officer aboard the USG Odyssey. Ze subjects in question have responded very poorly to treatment. We managed to restrain three of them, but it's a very dangerous job, examining zem. They struggle, whipping those dangerous back appendages around. Zey seem to run purely on instinct. And from what can see, they seem to be under some kind of outside influence. Zat rock is ze culprit in this, I'm sure of it."

Doctor Resonov looked down at his hands, sighing. He looked back up, the video flickering, "I will now show you ze creatures in question. They really are quite fascinating. But... unfortunately, they take over ze dead bodies. Friends that you once knew just aren't there anymore."

The video moved out of the room, his feet the only thing vsible for a bit, the metallic sound of his boots walking along the floor rather annoying. The video moved up to capture some kind monster strapped into one of the tables, the table obviously welded into the floor. It struggled and screamed, trying to lash out at the other aliens gathered around it. It had bone-like weapons attached to its back, but they were tied around the back of the table, unable to harm the doctors and nurses. The aliens all looked terrified, but they continued to analyze the monster.

Doctor Resonov's voice said, "Zis was once an engineer named McMiller. He had died just two days ago, having slit his own throat on the bridge. He had been brought into the morgue. A flying bat-like creature could be seen in the surveilance videos, attaching itself to the body's head. The transformation is what you see before you."

The Doctor's voice turned into excitement, "Ze creature's anatomy is still very much similar to ours, but the DNA itself seems to be morphed into something unknown. We're currently conducting tests to-"

He stopped midsentence when the creature had ripped through its bindings, slicing the throat of one of the nurses. She dropped to the floor, convulsing and wheezing for air. Blood poured onto the floor alramingly fast. It was clear that she was going to die. They tried to keep the monster down, but it had used its bone blade things to slice through the bindings on its chest. It threw its head at the closest doctor, biting through his arm like butter, it flying a few feet away from being throw by one of the bone blades that was twirling around, tearing through the unforunate doctor easily. The nurses and doctors all ran away, screamig, some tripping over one another.

Doctor Resonov ran back into the glass-walled room, closing the door behind him. He kept the video on the creature, but the room had somehow locked itself down, the others unable to get out. The monster ran at them, slicing through them with ease. There was so much red, so much suffering. The sreams of pure agony were not anything Twilight had ever heard before. It's something she'd never want to hear ever again.

Doctor Resonov's voice stuttered, "Z-zey're dying... and I ran. Zey're dying!"

Soon, all of the personnel now dead, laying upon the floor. Their faces were twisted in horror, most of them ripped apart. The creature turned around slowly, facing the video. It ran at the doctor, slamming into the glass, but the see-through wall held firm. It was obviously reinforced, otherwise the doctor would be dead by now. The room's doors all unlocked, the creature having forgotten the doctor completely. It ran into the hallway, screams being heard in the distance.

The doctor put the camera on the table, his face visible. He had his hand covering his mouth, looking to the side, as if he were in deep thought. He looked over at the camera, "Zis is all my fault..."

He reached forward, his look of terror searing into Twilight's mind. The video ended there, the holographic screen having disappeared. Twilight sat in the chair, realizing that coming here was a terrible mistake. They needed to get to the ship, they needed to get the hell out of here. She looked up to see the medical bay was bathed in orange light, the doors locked.

A female voice sounded out, "Emergency lockdown initiated."

Twilight's blood ran cold when she heard horrifying screeches similar to the one in the video. She heard so many of them, that surivival seemed impossible. The team all got ready for the worst, their weapons at the ready. It was clear that they were about to be thrown into the battle of their life. 
> Chapter 4: Emergency Lockdown...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight ran out of the room, raising her pulsar rifle. She stood next to Rainbow and Fluttershy, ready to fight for her life. The monster's screaming had ceased, but the emergency lockdown was still in place. In the video, the room had locked itself and that creature had killed those aliens. She could only assume that the same thing was going to happen here.

Captain Shard kept his rifle up, "Twilight, get rid of that damn emergency lockdown! It's clear we'll need a route of escape real soon!"

Twilight nodded, looking around for anything that would help her. Another console would really help, but the only one was in that glass-walled room. She spotted a panel that was below one of the lights. She may be able to cut off the signal from wherever the emergency lockdown had been activated. She ran to the panel, busting it open. There were lights and wires everywhere, but it was clear that everything had its place. She just needed to find out how to break the power signal. She reached in, feeling around the panel. A smile popped onto her face when she felt a heated circular power fuse. That's what she assumed it was, since all the wires and cables all slid into it. She felt around it, eventually finding a button. She pressed it, feeling that the power source had opened itself up. She grabbed a small plasma torch from her storage compartment and blew out the fuse.

Almost instantly, all of the lights went out in the room, even the orange lights. Only one door had unlocked, but it went in a completely different direction than the hangar. It was their best bet, though. She backed off away from the console, feeling very proud of herself, "I did it!'

A vent above the unlocked door fell to the floor and something dropped in. It was dark, but the light on her rifle illuminated it just fine. The monster's red, evil eyes stared back at Twilight for a moment, as if it was saying, "You are going to die..."

Blue rifle rounds fired into the creature when it ran at Twilight. Its right bone blade ripped off, making it stumble backwards. Twilight fired into the creature as well, emptying her entire clip into it. It fell to the floor, blood having splattered just about everywhere. It twitched a couple of times, but that was about it.

A few seconds later, shapes dropped out of the ceilings. So many shapes that Twilight could only assume that they were now outnumbered. The creepy screaming started up again, chilling Twilight to the bone. Rainbow caught a bone blade with her hoof and pushed it into the chest of one of the monsters. Twilight watched the blue pegasus trip it and bring the butt of the rifle down upon its head. The skull shattered into shards, the blood very hard to see due to the intense darkness of the room.

Captain Shard yelled out, firing his weapon into a crowd of those monsters, keeping them at bay with the assistance of the other soldiers, "Head for the door! NOW!"

Twilight opened the door up and checked her corners, running out into a corridor. The group all ran out, but two soldiers were impaled by two of the monsters. They were ripped apart, still alive and screaming in horrified, agonized pain. She kept on running, rounding a corner and jumping into a room. The Captain, Fluttershy, and Rainbow, along with two soldiers were in there with them. The others, in their fear, had continued to run down the hallway. Twilight closed the door and leaned against the wall, trying to comprehend what had just happened.

Captain Shard glared at the door, "This mission is going to SHIT! We need to get back to the hangar. We'll wait out here a bit. There are no ceiling vents and only one side one, so we can fend them off if they come in here."

Fluttershy shook and cried her eyes out, holding her knees as she sat against a wall, next to a desk of some sorts, "They're dead! They're all dead! We're going to die, we're going to-!"

She was cut off when Rainbow slapped her. Rainbow frowned when she realized what she had did, and Fluttershy was pretty damn surprised, "Sorry... but you need to get your shit together, Flutters. We are GOING to get the hell out of here."

Fluttershy looked down, whimpering some more. But, she didn't say anything further, just kept sniffling every once in a while. The two soldiers kept their guns pointed at the vent, ready for one of those things to come out, screaming in a murderous rage.

Twilight went to a console at the desk and sat down. Luckily, it was not locked, so she could easily access it. The format and programming was still a little weird for her, but she was able to bring up a video. It showed an alien in a uniform very unique. She could only assume that this was a very high ranking individual.

The figure was in a different room than the one the ponies were in right now. Behind the alien was a red, glowing rock that twisted around in a strange shape. There were hundereds of symbols along it. They were only symbols, but they instilled a fear in Twilight much greater than when they had been ambushed in the medical bay.

The alien spoke, "This is Admiral Wu of the USG Odyssey. We have found a strange artifact deep within the planet. And, we brought it up as you can see. It seems to be having some sort of a mental effect on the crew. It's as if they're not themselves. There have been twenty six suicides in a matter of days, and I believe that this rock has something to do with it. I... it's having some sort of an effect on me as well. I suspect that something about this large rock is sapient, much like us humans."

The admiral looked rather disturbed by what he said next, "I'm in this room by myself... anyone else would think I was crazy if I said this. I'm hearing voices from this rock. It says that what we had picked up was called a marker. Whatever that is. But... I keep feeling this sense of impending doom, like we had made a mistake about bringing this damn thing up. I'm going to order that this thing be buried on the planet. Whatever's happening, it isn't natural. It'll be hard to get this thing off, though... the Unitologists aboard are ready to mutinee. They think that this thing is some kind of relic, an ancient power that will... ascend them to a higher level, purify them. Whatever the hell that means."

The admiral brought his hands up to his head, dropping to his knees. A look of ultimate pain crossed his face, "I... I... NO! I won't do it, you hear me?!"

The admiral screamed out in pain as he fell to the floor, crying his eyes out. Whatever was happening, it was hurting the admiral a lot. He seemed to be experiencing a lot of pain at the moment.

The admiral got up, his hands still holding his head, his mouth hung open in agony. The marker behind him was glowing a brighter red, as if it was the culprit behind the assault. He stumbled to the side and slipped, hitting his head on the edge of a metal table. He simply laid there now, his eyes open and wide. Blood started to pool around his head, making it obvious that the man had died. The marker's glow dimmed down to what it had been before.

Other humans ran into the room and checked his pulse. They didn't seem to be very interested in whether he died or not. A human, who Twilight assumed was a female, walked in front of the marker and brushed her hand along it.

The femal hunan said, "The Marker has dispatched the non-believer. Now we can purify the rest of them. Ascension is at hand, ladies and gentlemen."

She turned around, a crazy look upon her face. She brought oher arms, as if she were going to give someone a hug, but she simply held them in the air, "And WE are the tools of this GLORIOUS purification!"

A human with a rather worried expression walked up to the video camera and whispered, "She's fucking crazy... to anyone that sees this, you need to stop her. She has too much support."

The others were too focused on cheering on the woman to notice this obviously male human say this and shut the video off. He had obviously taken the file with him and uploaded it into this console. But why here? Wouldn't this video be easier to see if it were somewhere more public?

The others, besides the two soldiers, had been watching the entire time. They all had realized that there was something bigger than all of them going on here. And if they weren't careful, it would be the death of them all.
> Chapter 5: The Hangar...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	 The human had been watching the door for a very long time now. Since his two escorts had been killed, he'd moved from room to room, getting closer to the hangar each time. He needed to be patient and vigilant, because he probably wouldn't survive being attacked. He had managed to fend off that necromorph, that's what some of those fucking crazy Unitologists called them, with nothing but items that had been around him at the time. He had killed it, but at great cost. Losing your leg was pretty much a death sentence on this ship now. He got up slowly, using the wall to support his weight. He was getting a little used to not having a leg, but that was only because the situation forced him to be.

He hacked into a console that was on the wall, getting access to the hallway cameras. They were all clear, so that was a plus. But, he knew from experience that appearances could be very decieving. So, he kept his plasma cutter close to him, ready for everything that he could be ready for.

The flickering lights scared him the most about these damn corridors. You never knew what would pop out of the shadows. He hopped to another side of the corridor and slid along the wall, rounding a corner. The hangar door was right there, just at the end of this corridor! It was unlocked! He was so close... so very close to that door. A group of necromorphs ran past the hangar door, into the corridor that went off to the left. They didn't see him, but he was so close. He needed to stay a little bit in the room he was next to. He needed to wait until it was clear.

He went into the room and closed the door behind him. There were no consoles he could hack, because he was simply in a  small storage room. Still, there were no vents inside of the room, so he had that going for him. A noise from the outside diverted his attention, making him put his ear against the door. He heard a roar, something that was worse than anything he'd ever heard before. It walked past his room, the footsteps shaking the room. Whatever the hell this thing was, it was big. Bigger than any of those necromorphs he had encountered.

He didn't dare open that door, but he wondered if the ship was still in the hangar, just as those horses had said. Why were they here, anyway? Did an entirely different species pick up on the distress signal? Well, if there's a group, there's bound to be more. They might even have a bigger ship, which would be nice. A big ship without Markers and necromorphs. God, he would kill for something like that.

He waited for about half an hour, having gathered as many supplies as he could from the shelves. If he happened to somehow deviate from his path in mind, he'd need supplies to double back to the hangar doors. And if the ship in the hangar had been destroyed, then he'd need those supplies to hide and formulate another escape plan. But, he had high hopes for this escape plan. He opened the door and checked his corners, making sure that nothing was lurking, waiting to slice him open. There was nothing.

He used the walls yet again to support his weight, the hangar doors only a few feet away. He checked the right and left corridors, elated that they were empty as well. He hopped to the hangar doors, falling against them when he lost his balance. He got into a suit armory, coming out in full engineer armor. He opened the hangar doors and stepped into a small room. The door closed behind him and the oxygen was quickly sucked out, his oxygen meter already going down. He opened the second set of doors and ran onto the walkway.

He was ecstatic to see that the ship was indeed still docked, not a single thing wrong with it. The design was definitely alien, that was for sure, but at this point, he couldn't give two shits. He tripped, falling to his face, still not quite used to the hopping. Well, not completely, at least. He got back up and hopped some more, resting against the door. There was a panel next to the door with buttons on it, which he assumed was how you opened the door. He pressed the most obvious button, which was red, but small. The door slid open, allowing him access. He went in and closed the door behind him.

Oxygen came flooding into the compartment after half a minute. He had almost ran out of oxygen. Apparently the suit he had been using had already been low on the life-giving gas. Or maybe there was a leak, who knew? He didn't care, all he cared about was getting off this hunk of metal they called a planet-cracker. He opened the next set of doors and walked into a big room with a lot of seats. He now assumed that this was a drop ship for soldiers.

Two ponies looked behind them, instantly on high alert. The human got onto his knee, leaning against the doorway. He dropped the plasma cutter and slid it to them, "I don't mean you any harm... I just want to get to safety."

One pony was in full armor, another was only in a uniform. He assumed that the uniformed pony was merely a pilot to this ship. The human had no idea how to fly this, so he'd need their help to get the hell away from here. The armored pony grabbed the plasma cutter, keeping his gun pointed at the human's head, "What's your name?  Why are you here?"

The human's helmet folded away from his head. He smiled, "My name's Michael Thaddock. You can just call me Mike. And for why I'm here... I need to get away, to escape."

The pony sat down in a seat, his gun still at the ready. He looked at the human, "I'm sorry, but we can't leave yet. Not until the team comes back."

The human groaned in annoyance, "They're probably dead by now. I know for a fact that two of them are."

The pony's face contorted in surprise and emotional distress, "W-what? No, they're not dead, they just can't all be dead. Get in the room in front of you. We'll let you come with us, but only when we're ready."

Michael was about to say something, but was cut off when the pony aimed the weapon at him. Sighing, Michael opened the door, which was a small room that probably served as living quarters. The door locked behind him, which was a little annoying. Michael laid on the bed, sighing with impatience. On the bright side, he was safest here than he was anywhere else.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Shady Daze looked to the only pony he had for company, "Do you think we can just trust that alien to not cause trouble?"

The soldier sighed, "Well, it's on a hope and a prayer that he won't. The only thing I can't get out of my head is the fact that the others might all be dead. What if the alien was right?"

Shady Daze nodded in response, but he didn't say anything else. He simply watched the hangar doors from the cockpit, hoping the team would come running through. He really just wanted to see Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow again. He'd known them for years, they didn't deserve to die. But what if they were really dead? The only way to find that out was to go and look for them. But that would leave the ship unguarded, "We'll wait for two more hours. If they're not back by then, we'll go back to the Voltage. We can always send back another ship."

Please, Twilight, at least you be okay. The mere thought of the one he secretly loved being killed was a sickening thought. But from the moment they docked at this hanger, something had been bothering him. He just had this feeling of impending doom... as if something horrible would happen. He guessed that this was it.
> Chapter 6: A Most Glorious Purification...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A woman stood on the bridge, staring out amongst the vast expanse of space. She had watched that other ship roll on in, no doubt here because of that damn distress signal that Harvey had sent out. Oh well, more bodies for the Marker to purify. She couldn't wait to see their faces once they realized that they were ascending to a higher plane of existence. She really did all of this for the hearts and the minds of the public. She, and about a dozen others, had to be left alive so the Marker's glory could be spread across the heretics in the universe. The proof that the messengers of the Marker walked right passed them was proof of that. They knew that these few were true believers. One day, when all of humanity had been purified, she'd be able to ascend, but until then, she was merely the right hand of their god.

The Marker had always let everyone ascend, but this time it needed warriors of a different caliber. It was, after all, the very last of its kind. Luckily, there were those who were ready to serve and spread the good word of ascension. She looked at her most trusted advisor and secret lover, John Hillbeck. He'd been a captain in the military before all of this, but now he was a witness to the glorious purification of humanity and its ungrateful pricks. In truth, she felt jealous of the others that got to ascend, but someone had to stay behind and direct this ship towards Earth. It was difficult flying a ship of this magnitude with such few survivors. The Marker had picked its warriors very specifically.


"It's wonderful, isn't it, John?" She asked her partner, wanting to lean against him. Their new job did not permit contact a relationship might entail, so she did not lean against him, but merely stared at the new ship. So, they waited until the day of purification. They would be entangled in each other's grasp, the ascension making them whole. Oh, she just could not wait.

John nodded, a smile of excitement on his face, "More pilgrims to walk the walk the path of ascension. It is wonderful, Christi, it truly is."

Christi frowned when she remembered the hitchiker they had picked up, "But what about the unholy one, dear? He poses a threat to us all, but most of all, to our god, out savior..."

John glared at the glass, his fists balling up, "We've sent two of our most trusted warriors to dispatch Clarke while he is still sleeping in that damn tank. His... immunity will no longer be tolerated. He has been given too many chances. He has blown them all. He not be purified, the Marker wants him ripped apart, barely recognizable. I agree with this course of action. He isn't worthy..."

Christi asked, "What did you do with his companion?"

John let himself have a smile of self satisfaction, "He had made a mistake once, but we let him be purified. He is whole, just as he was always meant to be. If somehow Clarke somehow escapes his prison before he is dispatched, his companion will deal with him. The Marker has endowed him with a special purification."

Christi stared at him with admiration, her knees feeling weak. She had always been easily susceptible to his influence. The Marker spoke to him in a way she could never dream of. Sometimes she felt jealous, but she respected the holy one's decision. She looked back at the strange ship, knowing that this wasn't like any other human craft. It was different... alien in some regards.

Christi walked away from the glass and went to the admiral's chair, sitting in it. She had always wondered why a man of such a high position would need such a comfortable chair. Of course, his job must have been very stressful. But, he had been dealt with. That bastard had planned on ejecting the Marker back onto the planet. He would have gotten away with it, had the Marker not stopped him.

She said to two of her guards, "Bring in the Admiral's daughter. I want to show her something."

The guard nodded, his face hidden behind his helmet. He walked across the bridge, eventually entering an adjacent room. He threw a table to the side, a little too lazy to walk around it. He then grabbed a prisoner's hair, a woman to be exact. He unlocked her bindings and dragged her while she screamed and flailed around, trying to escape his iron-hard grip. But, it proved to be a futile effort. Whatever they had planned for her, it was sure to be carried out despite her objections.

The guard threw the woman to the ground in front of Christi. Christi got up and bent down to the woman's level, "Did you love your father, Chloey? I bet you did. And as an act of good faith, I brought him back to you."

Chloey looked up from her desperate tears, following to where Christi had pointed. There, her father was suspened by a meat hook that had been welded to a metal wall. His eyes had been peeled open, his pupils almost invisible, the whites dominating most of them. A flying creature landed on top of her father, sticking something in his head, blood splattering across the wall. Within less than a minute, her once loving father had transformed into some kind of monster. Bone blade things formed on the back, flailing around as if they were looking for a target.

Christi said with no emotion whatsoever, "Let her and her father have some quality bonding time."

The guard made his helmet fold back into his armor, his grin almost suggesting that all of this had sexually aroused him. He walked up to the necromorph that used to be Admiral Wu, using a plasma cutter to melt through the meat hook. The necromorph became free, but did not move to attack any of them. It simply watched its daughter, waiting for the moment that he could help her ascend. The guard went over to Chloey, grabbing her by the hair again and dragged her into the same room she had been in. He threw her against the wall and walked out.

As if on cue, the necromorph ran into the room after his daughter, screaming in a murderous rage. The door closed behind the necromorph, leaving the two in there alone. It eyed the terrified woman with hate and malice.

"Please, daddy... don't do thi-... NOOOO!" She was interrupted as her father dove at her, slicing through her arm like butter. The blood covered them both like some kind of sick bath. Her screams of terror, betrayal, and pain only furthered the necromorph's hate for her. It stuck its bone blade through her chest and repeatedly slammed her into the ground, still screaming as loud as it possibly could. She now lay still, her body a mangled mess. Organs and guts lay strewn across the floor, her face fixated in absolute horror. The one who had given her life had now taken it away from her. The necromorph let out one last scream before running out of the room, heading down the corridor, looking for more people to ascend.

Christi watched this all from a video camera, smiling to herself. She watched as the Admiral's daughter was made whole, her necromorph form unleashed, "She now knows what it means to be purified... ascension is at hand."
> Chapter 7: Deeper Into The Abyss...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight and the others had waited for about an hour before moving on. Going back wasn't an option, because the door had locked itself and wouldn't budge no matter what Twilight did. So, they had no choice but to move on, further from the hangar. She knew protocol, though... Shady could only wait for so long before he had to leave. There was an entire cruiser out there, so it wasn't as if they were completely alone. And with those monsters running around, they definitely weren't alone.

Twilight looked behind her, expecting the two soldiers from before to be there. Instead, there was only one. She stopped and asked, "What happened to the other one?"

The soldier stopped, as if he had just noticed, "I have no idea..."

Captain Shard sighed, "We'll double back only a little. If we don't find him, then we'll keep on going."

Fluttershy, Rainbow, Twilight, and the remaining soldier all nodded in their response. The mission at hoof was too important to be compromised by one lost soldier. The information they had could very well save the Voltage. They needed to get the hell out of here, and fast. They walked back the way they came for a bit, but they couldn't find the lost soldier.

Captain Shard shook his head, "I'm sorry, we need to keep moving. The information we have needs to get to the Voltage. No matter the cost."

Rainbow walked into a room, its door having been ripped open. The others looked at her in confusion. She hadn't been given the order to explore that room. The others were about to follow her, but they broke in at a run when they heard gunfire within the room. Rainbow was firing at a pony... no, not a pony. Not anymore, at least. It dropped to the floor, shaking violently, blood smearing across the metal floor.

Twilight looked at the now still body with fear. He had been taken, and they hadn't even known it until it was far too late. They were dying off one by one. Nopony seemed safe, not even Twilight. She wondered if she would ever see her home planet again. She wondered if she'd ever see Rarity, Pinkie, Spike... any of them. She dreaded volunteering for this exploration job so damn much. It was meant to be a seven year journey outwards, gathering as much data as they could. Then, they would use that data to add onto the universe map, furthering their knowledge of the great unknown. Then, they would have built outposts along this newly discovered territory, furthering their great civilization. But no, Twilight wouldn't live to see that. Then she wondered if she would even see Shady Daze anymore... she cast that thought aside, knowing that romantic feelings just couldn't be added onto her job.

But mostly, she thought of this soldier. Did he have family? Did he have children of his own? The saddest part of it was the fact that they couldn't bring the bodies back to freeze them for burial when they got back. No, they would rot on this alien ship, forever lost in darkness and decay. Soon, Twilight knew that she, too, would soon join them. The final darkness before she became evil incarnate. No... she couldn't let that happen. She had  to get out of here with her friends, even if she had to go back barely alive. She was not going to die on this ship. Better somewhere familiar than foreign.

Twilight said, "We didn't even know he was gone. He didn't call out for help... shouldn't he have done that?" 

Rainbow shrugged, frowning, sympathy in her eyes, "What's done is done."

Captain Shard glared at the dead soldier, "We need to be more careful about this. We cannot lose another pony. Stick close to one another from now on. That's an order." 

Fluttershy didn't say anything, but it was clear that she was breaking. Her fragile mind surely couldn't take the mental torture of this situation. She was going to break, and when it did, it will be at the wrong time. Twilight decided to shrug it off, knowing that words of encouragement could not fix this. Wordlessly, they all exited the room and walked down the corridor. This time, though, they stayed very close to each other. One mistake was all that was required for total annihilation.

None of them spoke, for fear of causing yet another ambush like the one in the medical bay. A few of the overhead lights were out, and most were flickering, which added to the already immense amount of paranoia. Up ahead, there was a hole in the wall of the corridor. It was much like the first one when they had found that body hanging from the ceiling. Except this one was covered in some kind of meaty growth. The unnatural thing about it was the disturbing fact that it seemed alive. Twilight wondered if it was independant, or it was attached to something much bigger.

A small creature poked its little mutated head from inside the hole, studying them. It made no move to attack them, but it sure as hell looked dangerous. It reminded Twilight of the Breezies back home. But this thing was very much different. It had to be the size of her hoof, so it's not like it'd inflict very much damage to them.

Fluttershy moved forward and crouched down, offering her hoof, but staying back, "Don't worry, little guy, we won't hurt you..."

It walked out into full view on six small, jagged legs. They looked a lot like tiny blades, a smaller version of what was on the back of those other monsters. It, however, didn't attack, but it seemed to be observing them. It had an eye on its little forehead. What frightened Twilight was that it looked like an eye from one of the humans. There were a shit ton of red veins around the outside border of the eye as well. It seemed to be protruding more than what she had seen on the humans. It walked forward slowly, but it didn't seem frightened at all. It just watched them very closely, as if it were sizing up them for a feast. It opened its mouth slowly, taking up half of its face. There were so many razor-like teeth that being bitten by one of these things must be extremely excruciating. It let out a high-pitched squeal that sounded out through the hallways like a warcry.

Fluttershy backed off and stood next to the team once more, uncertainty plastered upon her face. Almost a few seconds later, other similar screams added to the one already doing so. In a matter of maybe a few seconds after that, more and more screams followed. Soon, what sounded like thousands of squealing voices could be heard. And more seemed to follow after that. The Captain  lunged forward and stomped his foot down, crushing the little guy.

After that, there was nothing but silence.

Rainbow's eyes were wide in terror, "What in the hell was that?" 

Twilight said, her voice shaky, "I-I have no idea... they all just went silent. Do you thi-"

Ember Shard raised a hoof, which meant that they all needed to be quiet. He put his ear against the wall and tried to listen for something. His eyes widened in horror at some kind of realization, "The... the walls are vibrating. They're coming." 

Ember Shard pulled away and began to run down the corridor, "EVERYPONY! MOVE! NOW!"

The others sprinted after him, not wanting to stay around for very much longer. Twilight happened to looked behind her and immediately wished that she hadn't. What seemed like millions of those creatures burst out of the hole like a tidal wave, engulfing the hallway. They climbed on the ceiling, the walls, the floor... they were absolutely everywhere. They skidded around around a corner, the soldier from before slipping and slamming into the wall. Twilight considered going back for him, but her decision-making was cut short as he was covered from hoof to head, his screaming cut off within a matter of seconds. The little creatures had paused a moment to enjoy their little feast, and then they continued on their chase. There was absolutely nothing left of that pony. Not even bones. There was just a massive pool of blood. He had been completely devoured within seconds. All the while, the screaming of these little devils gripped her mind in a vice-like grip of ultimate fear. It was the single most horrifying thing she had ever heard.

They ran into a huge room, a single metal walkway extending from one side to the other, where an open door was waiting for them. Below them was a dark pit that seemed like it went on for a long time. She didn't have time to judge distances, though. Captain Shard stopped at the middle of the walkway, taking an explosive charge and setting it down. He looked around hurriedly for the detonator. He took it out, but he accidently dropped it into the hole below.

"SHIT!" he yelled, getting his rifle ready, "Get the HELL out of here! THAT'S AN ORDER!"

Twilight didn't want to leave him behind, but they didn't have a choice in the matter. The others ran off without him, regretting doing so all the while. Twilight closed the door behind them, and they ran through an even larger room, but this time, there were metal tables all around. It seemed like some kind of cafeteria. Her thoughts were cut short by screams that were all too familiar. Up above on a balcony that overlooked the entire room, wrapping around the inside, were hundreds of the monsters that were in the medical bay. That wasn't what terrified Twilight the most. On the ceiling, there was an enormous abomination that eyed them with a predator's glare. It had two gigantic arms with yellow spikes sticking out. They seemed to be glowing some kind of strange light. Ot leaped down from the ceiling, landing with a huge crash. Tables went flying everywhere that had been around its landing zone.

Rainbow dodged to the left, narrowly avoiding being decapitated by a rogue table. She got up and aimed her rifle at the monstrous creature. Twilight ran to a door, which Rainbow had dived towards. She ripped away a panel from the wall and began to hack like her life depended on it. In this case, it most certainly did. A loud explosion could be heard from where the captain had been left. The room shook violently.

Twilight screamed, "Keep those things off of me while I get this damn door open!" 

Rainbow and Fluttershy both nodded their understanding. Fluttershy adopted a look of determination that didn't seem to fit her very well. Nevertheless, she looked ready and willing to do whatever was necessary. Rainbow fired her rifle at what seemed like the most vulnerable spot. Everywhere else was armored, but the arms seemed like plain flesh. Fluttershy darted to the other side of the room, firing off multiple rounds, tearing into the creature's arm. It let loose a roar so loud it, it shook the room, but not as bad as the explosion. It ran at Fluttershy, swinging a black-spiked tail at her. The yellow pegasus took flight, trying to dodge this attack, She succeeded, but just barely.

Rainbow took off at a sprint, grasping the creature's back leg on the right. She hoisted herself up and climbed along its back. The creature had just now noticed this, now flailing around, trying to grab at her. Rainbow held on firmly, now upon the back of its neck. It opened its huge mouth, trying to snap at her. All the while, it slammed into the walls, trying to get rid of its hitchhiker. When the creature opened its mouth to try to take a bite out of her, despite it not being in a position for that option to even be available, she stuffed a plasma grenade into the gaping maw. She jumped off, crashing into the floor and sliding a pretty far distance. The inside of the creature ruptured, spraying the room with blood, guts, and just about everything else you would find in a stomach. It fell to the floor, screaming as it shook violently, writhing in pain. Soon, the creature lay still.

The monsters on the balcony had been staying out of this fight, but now they seemed enraged. They all started jumping down, the height from the fall no doubt shattering all of their legs. Regardless, they continued to descend upon the ponies below. Twilight got the door open and they all ran through, closing it behind them. They continued to run despite the fact that none of those things could get through the door.

The three kept running, fear for their lives being the only thing that kept them going. They still were not dead, but for how long would that last? Putting doubts aside, knowing that it could be the death of her, she ran with her friends. Deeper into the abyss they went, fear and terror the only things left now.

_______________________________________________________________________________


~Before the explosion... ~


Captain Shard took pried off the case of the explosive, sticking a rag he found in his storage compartment into the charge. He used a plasma torch, which was mandatory for all soldiers to carry, and lit one end of the rag. At this point, almost half of the room was covered in those monstrosities. When he was satisfied that the rag was burning right, he jumped off of the edge into the hole. This was his only chance for survival. He would either die, or he would be saved by some miracle. At this point, he didn't care. An explosion from above indicated that his improvisation had been a success. The little creatures were bathed in fire, but the red death raced towards him faster than he was falling. He relaxed in that final moment, knowing that he had done good with his life. He closed his eyes and did one thing he hadn't done in years... smile.

Deeper he fell into nothing... deeper... deeper...


Everything turned wet and cold... then it was nothing but darkness.


> Chapter 8: A Familiar Face...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The metallic pounding of armored hooves against the floor and heavy breathing from the three as they continued to run was all they could hear now. It had grown quiet for some reason, which wasn't exactly the most calming of things, especially on a ship such as this one. Twilight's mind kept drifting back to Captain Shard and how he had sacrificed himself for their chance at survival. Maybe he was still alive? No, the explosion had gone off with him inside of the room. Shaking off hopeless hope, Twilight stopped at a door, which was locked. Above the door, the sign said tram station.

"Hey, guys, get back here! Look!" Twilight said, pointing at the sign. If there was a means of faster travelling, then Twilight was all for it. It sure beat just running through corridor after corridor, not making any real progress.

Rainbow kept her rifle pointed around them, saying, "Well, hack it, Egghead, we need a faster way to travel."

Twilight rolled her eyes at being called that, "Okay... just keep me covered."

Twilight took the panel off, just like before. Jamming her hoof into the hole. She felt around for the familiar circular power source, her face scrunched up in concentration. Within a couple of minutes, the door opened, allowing them access to the tram system. Hopefully it was still online and functional. Otherwise, fixing it could prove to be a problem, since the technology was fairly different. Doors were one thing, but fully automated tram systems?

They walked into what they assumed was a lobby. There was some luggage strewn about amongst the floor here and there, blood just about everywhere. Why was there always blood? One side of the room was open, tunnels moving away from the lobby, going both ways perpendicular to the room itself. On a single rail inside of this tunnel was a small train-like vehicle, which Twilight assumed was the tram. She walked inside of it, turning right to a small console that was at the front. It was definitely a console, but there were no blue holographic screens, or even an orange one.

Groaning, Twilight went back out into the lobby and took a longer, more careful look. She looked at the tram sign, some letters moving by. Eventually, after some time, it was indicated that the tram no longer had power, and that a team would be sent to deal with the problem immediately. Twilight scoffed at that, rolling her eyes. Fat chance that would ever happen. It looked like they'd need to find the source that supplied this thing with power and somehow fix it."

Rainbow was looking at some advertisements on the wall, grimacing a little at the appearance of these aliens. She walked over to Twilight and asked, "So, can we use that thing?" 

Twilight shook her head, sighing, "No, there's no power to the tram system at all. We might need to manually fix the problem itself."

Fluttershy had went into a glassed-in room, which had some very uncomfortable-looking couches and chairs. There was more luggage inside of there as well. A light flashed inside of the room, making the yellow pegasu squeak in fear and surprise. Rainbow and Twilight, for fear of their friend, ran inside of the room. They had their rifles at the ready, just in case they had to deal with any of those creatures.

"Ah, ze blue and purple pony! I was wonder when you'd show up." A voice said with a rather familiar accent from a floating holographic screen on the wall. Fluttershy looked like she was about to have a heart attack.

Twilight walked forward to get a better look, immediately realizing who this was. It was that Doctor Resonov from the video in the medical bay. Apparently he had survived all of this.

Twilight was a little speechless, so she just stood there with her mouth open in surprise.

Doctor Resonov laughed at that, speaking a sentence or two in a completely different language, then said, "Do not worry yourselves, I am here to lend you some assistance. You need ze tram working, and I need you to get to me. We can help each other out, little ponies." 

Twilight didn't exactly trust Resonov, "How do we know that you won't betray us?"

Resonov crossed his heart, "You have mein word, purple one."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at this, "I don't know how good your word is... but go on, we're listening."

Resonov clapped his hands together, rubbing them back and forth a couple times, "Alright, long story short, I need some assistance on something. In return, I will show you to a secondary hangar, which has a small cargo ship inside. Only I have ze access codes anymore. The rest have been purged from ze system. You want out, I need to get something done before I leave with you. And trust me, there is no way you will be able to get back to your ship. My guess is, they'll leave and come back with an even larger team... you don't want that, do you? Who knows what will happen to zem in zeir search for you. So, I suggest you act quickly."

Rainbow stepped forward, her overzealous attitude getting the best of her, "And what's that, huh?! How do we know that your word is any good? How do we know you're telling the truth?"

Resonov sighed, sounding a little annoyed, "Because at this point, I am ze only hope you have of getting off of this ship alive. Now, are you willing to listen to my proposition?" 

Twilight asked, "Well, what do you need done?"

Resonov chuckled at this, smiling brightly, "Well, first, we need to get ze tram system activated. And to do zat, you will need to go down to engineering and divert power manually. I have a colleague in your general area. When you get over to me, I will explain what it is I need you to help me with. In this hell, we need to stick together."

Twilight was still a little wary of him, "Okay... how far away is the colleague of yours?"

Resonov said, "Surprisingly, he's not zat far away from you. You may have to take a little walk, but I'm confident zat you will find him. First off, do you have a guidance system I can tap into? I have your most basic functions in mein computer... had to do a little hacking."

Twilight groaned in annoyance, "Why am I not surprised? And yes, we do have a guidance system. It's in our helmets. It maps out the layout of what's in front of you and tells you which way to go. But we need to have a map of this place downloaded into it... otherwise, we'd flying blind in a shit storm."

Resonov laughed at that, "Oh, I can tell zat I am going to like you. So, I need you to lower the security on your guidance system, so I can mark the path for you. Don't worry, zat is all that I will do."

Twilight looked at Rainbow and Fluttershy, knowing that there was no way they'd get out of this alive without any help. She sighed in defeat, and took a leap of faith. She took her helmet off and used a small tool from her storage compartment to disable the security on the guidance system. She put her helmet back on, and told Rainbow and Fluttershy to take theirs off. After disabling their security, they put them back on. Twilight looked back at the screen.

Twilight said, "There... now download the map into our suits' systems. We'll take it from there."

Resonov nodded, obviously excited, "Ah, zat is excellent! Okay, I'm hacking into your suit's connection... riding along ze data stream... my, your suits are complex and very much different than our own. Then again, zat is to be expected. Okay, compensating... and... there! Check your suits, you will see a  path laid out for you. Do not deviate from this path. The sooner you get to me with my friend, the sooner you can help me, so I can help you."

Twilight accessed her guidance system, her visor indicating that a path had indeed been lain out for them to follow, "Okay, we'll follow this path... but how will we contact you if we need you?"

Resonov said, "Well, I couldn't get ze video to work on your suits, but due to you deactivating your security, I was able to access your coms. So, you three will be able to hear me. And, you will be able to hear my colleague. I have sent your coms code to his suit. I must take my leave now. I'm sorry, but mein duty calls, little ponies."

Before they could say anything further, the holographic screen shut itself off, and the lobby became eerily quiet once again. The three looked at each other, knowing that they had no choice but to trust the doctor. They began to leave the tram station, following the path that had been laid out for them.

A much deeper voice sounded out through their suit's communications, "Hello? Is this thing on? Can you hear me?"

Twilight had an idea who this was, but she decided to ask anyway, "Yes, who is this?"

The voice said, "My name is Markus Banning. I'm the friend that Resonov was talking about. You need to get to the location that's on your guidance system. I will meet you there... and... try not to get yourselves killed, will you?"

Rainbow laughed, "Don't worry about us, we got this down..."

Markus didn't find that very funny, "That's what all the others said. Just look around you. Be careful... and don't contact me any further unless you absolutely have to. Banning out."

The coms died down, leaving the three to their thoughts and trust issues. One one hoof, they could be allies, but on the other, they could very well be the enemy. They started walking along the suggested path, knowing that they'd die without help. Twilight wondered what their chances were for survival. They now had a goal, which sure as hell was an improvement on the situation. So, they went deeper into the ship.
> Chapter 9: Is This A Dream...?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tap

Tap

Tap

The echoing of something tapping along the pitch black room was all Isaac could hear. Besides that, everything in the room was nothing but pure silence and a whole lotta' nothing.  	He had no idea how long he'd been in this place, as he somehow couldn't seem to keep track of time. Sometimes, the darkness would form vague images, while other times he had full-on hallucinations. He had control of his body, or... at least he thought he did. The longer he stared into the dark abyss, the more he got the feeling that this was all some sort of strange nightmare. The tapping had been there for a long time now, or at least he thought it had been a long time. His mind didn't seem able to comprehend the difference between a day and second in this world. Whenever he walked towards the noise, he was filled with a fear and a nagging feeling that he shouldn't try to approach the noise. He always succumbed to his instincts and, at this point, it was getting rather annoying. Eventually, he'd need to grow a pair and find out just what this noise was, where it originated, and who or what was creating it.

He was sitting down, back to the surprisingly warm and soft wall. It moved and squirmed under his weight, indicating that it was indeed alive and maybe even conscious of the man propped up against it. Though, it didn't seem to be doing anything to him, and though he didn't have the concept of time fully understood in this illogical plane of existence, he knew it'd at least been a while since he'd first sat down. Sometimes, when he was still sitting down, something, be it a bright light or a person he once knew, appeared in front of him and the hallucinations began. Though, it's been a while since anything at all other than the constant tapping happened. Still, he preferred maddening silence to necromorphs and insanity-inducing markers any day of the week. He thought of Nicole sometimes, but his thoughts drifted towards Ellie the most nowadays. Nicole was a distant chapter in his life, not forgotten, but he'd at least come to terms with what had happened. The markers had killed her, and there was nothing he could do about it. But he had no idea what had happened to Ellie... was she even alive?

Tap

Tap

Tap

He looked up, tilting his head a bit in confusion at the tapping noise. Normally, he couldn't give two shits about what happened in this place, but for some reason, the tapping was getting softer and quieter. In his entire time here, it had always kept the same tempo and volume, but it was now slowly getting quieter and less frequent. He wondered if maybe this was the cause of his sanity slowly depleting and becoming nonexistent. But since when did he have any shred of sanity anymore...? He'd lost himself that fateful day aboard the Ishimura and had become an entirely different person. He didn't know why he was the one who always survived the necromorph infestations, but he was glad that he finally was away from it all. Thankfully, his hallucinations were never anything that had to do with the markers and the things that followed in their wake. It was always about his past and what he assumed could have been his future if he hadn't convince Nicole to work aboard the Ishimura. Sometimes, he'd look up at his young mother's face, held against her bosom while obviously an infant.

Casting useless thoughts away and glaring in the general direction of the noise, he got up and started to make his way across the soft and squishy room. He had just about enough of everything in this world. If he was ever going to get out of here, he needed to go against his instincts every once in a while. This place was probably relying on his need for instinctual advice, so he needed to do something stupid. As he got closer and closer to the ominous tapping, he was filled with the same  primal fear as before. But he kept on walking, this time a little angry at his foolishness. He had let this place get to him, giving in to his humanity and letting the darkness control him. He stopped in his tracks, surprised to hear nothing at all now... the tapping had completely ceased in its existence. He glared a bit at the world's new little scheme to turn him away. He then continued to walk towards where the sound had once been with renewed determination.

A new noise altogether started to form in the same direction, which caused the same fear, but stronger than before, to form within him. It was a faint moaning, much like a man would moan if he was in horrible pain and was exhausted, unable to do anything else at all. Still, he walked forwards, knowing that waiting will do absolutely nothing for him, but prolong his time here. He looked down in surprise at the floor, but was still unable to see anything at all. The floor no longer felt alive, but it now felt metallic... but not like a metal he'd ever felt before. He didn't have any clothing or armor on, so he could feel the floor with his feet. When he had first arrived in this place, he'd been disgusted by the way everything felt on his feet. Now, he was feeling an unknown metal... it didn't feel manufactured, but it felt more natural. He had no idea how that made any sense to him in any way, shape, or form, but in this world, nothing made sense.

He stopped when the noise seemed to jump in its position, now right in front of him. He could just barely see the outline of a figure, curled up in a fetal position. Isaac bent down and scooped up a flashlight he knew nothing about, as he had now control over his actions now. His face contorted in confusion as his body was now longer in his control, wondering what this place was going to throw at him now. He moved his hands along the shaft of the flashlight, delighting in the feeling of something new and man-made... it felt like forever since he'd felt anything that reminded him of home. It's not like he had much of a home to go back to, but at least he had something... it was a lot better than nothing at all. He turned the flashlight on, exerting a little more force than he expected when pressing the button. A ray of light shot out from the lens, illuminating the metallic surface. Indeed, it looked more natural than anything man-made... which would explain what he was feeling below his naked feet. He looked back up at the outline of the figure, wondering if he really wanted to do this anymore. But he no longer had control of his body... the best thing he could do at this point was just go with it and hope for the best, though he expected the worst.

His eyes widened in both horror and extreme confusion at the sight before him. The figure was as naked as Isaac was, nothing covering its body at all. The face had the same features as Isaac's... it was a fuckin' clone! The not-Isaac shook violently, as if he was suffering from extreme hypothermia, though the room felt really warm, hot even. The clone was a lot skinnier, as if he hadn't eaten in a good week or two. The ribs were sickeningly pronounced against the pale skin, adding to the already disgusting image. He averted his gaze away from a certain part of his clone, not wanting to look at anything that would dub Isaac as a perverted freak. The veins were extremely visible, the color of black... they were covering the man as if they were some type of fleshy spiderweb. The eyes were gone, bottomless holes that were blacker than even the shadows that enveloped the two.  A trail of blood trickled down from the two eye sockets, brighter than blood actually was against the light of the flashlight.

The figure, who had been moaning in pain and obvious misery, stopped and looked up at Isaac, expressionless and indifferent. There was absolutely no emotion at all on the clone's face... it was rather disturbing. Something flickered within the eye sockets... an image of a first-person view of a small officer's medical bay... at least, that's what it looked like at this point. Isaac crouched down, now having the choice to move, and looked further into the eyes... the clone didn't seem to mind, smiling an emotionless and creepy smile. The lips on the smile were cracked and parched, drops of blood forming from how dry they were... and the smile broke the seams of the damaged lip, making the little amount of blood start to trickle down the man's chin. Isaac ignored this all, too focused on trying to figure out what he was seeing in the clone's eyes. There were three people within the room, one a male doctor, another a female doctor, and another a female soldier. He couldn't make out their facial features from here, except for the male doctor, who was right against the glass... glass?  Yes, the first-person view indicated that the person was inside of a tube, bubbles sometimes floating past the face, which indicated that the person was surrounded by water or some other kind of liquid.

The male doctor had a snow-white beard, though it was a lot like Isaac's, except more clean and pleasant-looking. The doctor's face was aged, wrinkles lining across the skin... the eyes showed wisdom and a raw and indisputable intelligence. The doctor was smiling at the person inside of the tube, saying something. Isaac could hear what was said, and he immediately wished that he hadn't been able to...

The doctor said this in a voice that sounded so very distant and quiet, "Stay alive, Isaac... you still have a part to play in this universe. Wake up soon, Isaac... wake up soon..."

Isaac backed away with horror at this new revelation, the clone's face contorting in perverted joy at his reaction. He always had the distinct feeling that this world was fake, but his mind had continuously denied this possibility. Was he really asleep... in a coma? Was he really inside of a medical bay, being kept under constant supervision? Were they experiencing a necromorph infestation...? No, they had killed off the marker homeworld, that was impossible! The clone got up on shaky legs, the face still showing some sick happiness at Isaac's situation. It opened its mouth and a light much different than the one the flashlight was creating shot out a couple of inches, but not really hitting anything. What truly terrified Isaac was the familiarity of it... the same light that had came out of Nicole's mouth when Isaac was being tested on in that damn station. No... it wasn't over! No, god damnit, NO! This couldn't be happening all over again!

Isaac let loose a roar of anger and lunged towards his clone with murderous intentions. He lashed out with his hands, intent on tearing the clone's skull apart by the eye sockets. The clone backed off a bit, but Isaac was able to stick three fingers in each hole and pull in opposite directions. The figure grabbed at his arms, its facial features now resembling Ellie, a look of fear and betrayal on her face. No, it was a lie created by the marker! Or was he really attacking someone he knew? He was beyond any rational thought at this point, adrenaline coursing through his veins. The flashlight was suspended in mid-air, pointing directly at the fake Eliie's face.

The terrifying creature before him opened its jaws and let loose hell itself, screaming a solitary, yet horrifyingly familiar, sentence, one that validated Isaac's fears, "MAKE... US... WHOLE!"

Almost in an instant, Isaac was alone... the figure had just vanished! It was as if none of that had ever happened, but was merely a figment of Isaac's already insane mind. Thankfully, the flashlight was still near him, but was now in front of him, on the floor as if it had never been floating in the air. He picked it up and spun it around the gigantic room. There was no end... only two walls going in perpendicular directions. He sat against the closest part of the wall and cried softly into his arms, screaming the question in his mind of why it always had to be him. Why did he have to relive this hell over and over?! It wasn't fair! Please... just make it stop! Please!

But all the while he wondered if this was even real... if he was truly even alive. Was this what it was like to be dead, your subconscious forced to relive everything in your life? But if that was the case, why was the creature that had been here only a few moments ago the only thing inside of this hellish nightmare that was related to the markers? Is this really a dream, or had the marker finally gotten to his mind? If he was dreaming, he needed to find a way to wake up... his life might depend on it.

But the real question was... did he even want to be alive anymore?
> Chapter 10: We need to leave...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Michael, the human with only one leg, laid upon one of the creature's beds and tried to get some well-deserved sleep. Well, lay was too nice of a word... he struggled to get comfortable, which in turn ended up with his one leg to dangle over the end of the bed. These horse-like creatures, though closer to weird cartoon ponies, were small compared to human beings. Still, this was a lot than dodging necromorphs and fighting off crazy Unitologists. Seriously, why the hell did they think that letting those monstrosities roam around was a good idea? There was nothing pure about it... they were crazy, end of story. And, for whatever strange reason, the necromorphs and other creatures didn't bother the Unitologists... and that indicated an intelligent being at work here. 

He'd heard of Isaac Clarke, the comatose necromorph-killer, surviving three Marker incidents. And even after three incidents, the human race still brought the last known existing Marker aboard the damn ship. He'd been against it from the get-go, along with half of the ship who actually knew what the Markers could do, save for the insane Unitologists. The cult fanatics had started an uprising, calling the rest of the ship heretics and heathens. In the revolt, about twenty people mysteriously ended up missing, their bodies eventually found in the venting system. Though, a few bodies had disappeared without a trace... and then came back. The admiral had tried to jettison the Marker from the ship into an active volcano on the surface of the planet, but he'd apparently failed. And then the temporary FOB had been taken over, leaving Michael as the only survivor of the last of the resistance fighters. Here he was, useless and crippled... the Unitologists had won.

But now there was actually hope! An entirely new race had shown up in a battlecruiser, and hopefully they would just destroy the Marker instead of making humanity's same mistake. There was nothing to be gained from studying that rock, nothing but death and regret. He got up and knocked on the metal door, sparing a glare at the uncomfortable bed, then waited patiently for the guard or the pilot to open the door for him. He sighed a bit as his patience slowly died away and formed into impatience...

A voice called out from the door in a rather authoritative tone, "Step back from the door and sit on the bed. I can see you in the camera, so don't try anything! If you do, you will be fired upon!"

Michael shrugged and did as he was told, hopping over to the bed and sitting down, "Alright, I'm sitting down! You can open the door now! I am missing a leg, you know! There's not much I could do, even if I wanted to!"

The door slid open with a hissing sound, revealing the same guard he'd seen before. The guard stared at him for a bit, a look of uncertainty and awe on his face. It was like seeing a human was extremely amazing for him, though Michael could certainly understand that. The first time he'd seen the ponies, he'd automatically assumed that the Marker had finally gotten to his mind. Though, it was clear that this was all reality... well, at least it seemed that way.

The guard continued to stare, though glare was a better word for the expression on his face, wordlessly at Michael, so the human decided to speak first, "Hey, I'm not your enemy... can I at least explain what happened here on the ship? You won't believe me at first, but if you get me back to your ship, I can give your superiors the codes to the remote camera feed. I may not have all of the codes, but I know enough.They can see just what happened here themselves..."

The guard's glare softened a bit and he motioned with the gun for Michael to move into the main part of the shuttle. Unsteadily getting up, Michael hopped to the doorway and leaned against it for a few seconds. He then used the walls to slowly make his way to the main room, keeping his eye on the pony with the deadly-looking gun. He sat on one of the seats closest to the cockpit, sparing a glance at the pilot who seemed too preoccupied watching out the windows.

The pilot looked at Michael with a troubled expression, "You can explain everything to the admiral when we get onboard the Voltage. We've waited here for too long already. Our protocol for away teams is set at a certain time limit. Looks like you got your wish... we're getting off this ship. The team we sent out didn't make it to the deadline. I don't want to go, but I have to."

A smile formed on Michael's face at the thought of finally being safe from the Marker's abhorrent abominations. And all he had to trade for his freedom was an entire leg... a little extreme, but it sure was worth it. The thought of his body being mutated into one of those things wasn't a please one. He wondered if it was truly this easy, that he was really going to get off this hunk of metal they called a ship. 

Michael said, a smile still plastered upon his face, "Great! So... when are we going to leave? Right now, or just soon? I mean, I'm all for patience and everything, but the longer we stay here, the more we run the risk of being spot-..."

His eyes happened to glance through the cockpit window, and he was glad they did. On the far wall straight ahead of them, one of those scorpion-like necromorph creatures were scaling said wall. More followed suit, now numbering in the hundreds as they all started screaming almost in unison. Their shrill shrieks were almost deafening, and Michael had to cup both his ears in agitation. There were no doubt a lot more around them, and they knew there were people, er... people and ponies, inside of the ship. He didn't know how he knew, but he just did.

He pointed a finger at the horde of creatures, a look of terror on his face, "We need to leave... now! Get this piece of shit in the air right NOW!"

Shady looked where Michael was pointing, an expression of pure horror and shock forming on his face, "What the hell are those things?! Yeah, I agree, let's get out of here!"

Shady started the ship up, its engines firing up and attracting the horde's attention. Lights flooded out in front of them, illuminating the writhing mass of of scorpion-creatures now launching themselves at the ship. Due to the hangar's current state of zero gravity, they were floating towards the shuttle. The ship slowly lifted itself and floated away from the dock, a few of the creatures already landing on the hull. They hacked and slashed at the metal, but it didn't look like they were making any progress. As they turned the ship towards the opened hangar doors, Michael saw some kind of mutated mass of flesh on the frame of said hangar doors. Some kind of tentacles whipped back and forth, shooting glowing projectiles at them The ship lurched forward as it went to make a speedy escape, strafing to the right and left as Shady desperately tried to dodge the glowing balls of flesh.

The mass of tentacles and flesh continued to fling its dangerous-looking projectiles at them, a few only barely missing the ship. The ship flew straight through a tentacle, ripping it off and making it float off into the pitch black space. The ship shook as an explosion rocked them off of their feet... good thing Shady was sitting. A hole had been torn in the side of the ship and air was being sucked out at an alarming speed. The guard screamed in terror as he desperately held onto a seat strap, his legs slamming against the torn metal. Blood went flying as the tendons in his legs eventually ripped. He lost his grip and went flying out of the hole, being impaled by a scorpion-creature with lightning-quick speed. Michael closed the door to the cockpit and Shady let in oxygen, which surged in through only two operational oxygen tanks.

They were free of the giant planet-cracker's walls, but they still had those creatures attached to the hull. There was no way that they could land in the Voltage's hangar without causing irreparable  damage to the crew. Michael constantly looked around the ship through the large cockpit's window, hoping that those monstrosities wouldn't break their way through the glass. Of course, it was a cockpit's glass, so he didn't think they could break through it, but... still, he wasn't too sure about their safety.

Shady started to press a bunch of buttons, "I'll detach the rest of the ship from the cockpit and we'll run on emergency thrusters. We cannot bring those things onto the Voltage... who knows what they'd be able to do."

Michael looked at the asteroid belt with a look of worry, "Are you sure just emergency thrusters will be able to navigate that? I don't really relish the thought of being smashed on the side of an asteroid."

Shady Daze grinned a bit, still working at the cockpit console, "You're looking at the best pilot on the Voltage... I think I got this down."

Michael rolled his eyes at that, wondering just how big Shady's ego was, "Sorry, but I don't feel like putting all my trust into a talking horse's abilities. I don't mean to be racis... speciest, but those hooves don't really look like they're good for meticulous work like piloting a starship."

Shady chuckled a bit at that, shaking his head, "Oh please, we built the Voltage... I think that's proof enough that we can get by without hands. Alright, enough talk... I need to detach the cockpit."

After what seemed like an eternity, Shady had finally released the clamps that attached the cockpit to the rest of the ship. Shady looked through the door's window, seeing the rest of the ship float off into space, away from the Odyssey. The scorpion-like creatures crawled along the metal surface, no doubt screaming their heads off. But the vacuum of space denied their cries of hate and malice to be heard by anyone. Unlike the hangar, which had an energy field that allowed sound to be heard, space wasn't as lenient. Michael sat in the co-pilot seat and breathed a sigh of relief, allowing his mind to relax.

True to his word, Shady was able to easily navigate the asteroid belt keep them safe from being pulverised. At this point, Michael didn't even care... it was better to die from a rock than die from a a necromorph. He never really had time to worry about his body's needs, but now that everything had settled down... he was really, really hungry. These were ponies... he didn't expect them to have any kind of meat. Though, he had no idea how in the hell they were magical and talking in the first place, so... it wouldn't surprise him if they were omnivores or carnivores. Oh well, he'd know soon enough. He leaned his head against the seat and started to drift off into a deep sleep, finally having hope for his futures. But there was always that lingering doubt... the Marker could very well spread its influence to the Voltage. And if that happened, there would be nowhere to run.
> Chapter 11: Moral Implications...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The waiting was the worst.

Just waiting for a response from the team he sent down was making him extremely nervous. All communications with the team had been cut off about two hours ago, and now it was just silence. There were no messages to the ship, and no one was responding to any of the messages they sent. The admiral stared out of the glass of the bridge, his face about six inches away from said glass. If this kept on, then he'd have to send an entire boarding party to the ship. Whatever happened here, it was definitely not something to take lightly. According to the distress call, there had been an alien attack of some kind. He had to take everything into account. There could be disease on these aliens, both the intruders, and the victims. This could even be an elaborate scheme to sneak aboard and take out the leadership to cripple the crew's morale so they could take over the ship. You never could be too paranoid when you were in the middle of space in a metal box.

"Admiral Torag, we've spotted the shuttle we sent out a couple hours ago. It seems they had to jetison the cockpit from the rest of the shuttle for some reason. At this point, we can only assume that they met resistance. What is our course of action, sir?" His commander said, having appeared at Torag's side. The commander, whose name was Corrus, was fairly young for his rank, but rightly so. Corrus wasn't an idiot unlike some of the ponies working under Torag.

Torag grimaced a bit, "Commander Corrus, I want you to hail them, and tell them to put video up. I want to know who we're letting in. And get a bio-hazard team up there as soon as you can. I don't want any foreign diseases catching us by surprise."

Corrus nodded once and headed off, immediately barking orders at the crew to hail the shuttle. Torag had a bad feeling about all of this, and he hoped that his bad feeling didn't become reality. The last thing they needed was to be attacked by an unknown alien race while on a mission of deep space exploration. All of Equus was depending on them to get back safely by any means necessary. While he stared off at the approaching ship, he couldn't shake off a feeling of dread. Something told him that it was a mistake to let his team back in, but his hooves were tied. Protocol dictated that a scout team coming back from completely unknown territory had to be let in. The information they possessed was crucial to taking the next step forward towards evacuating survivors from the combat zone. No matter what happens in the next twenty-four hours, the combat zone cannot not reach the Voltage.

After about a minute of waiting, a video was pulled up in front of his chair and the enormous command cockpit window. The pilot could be seen, seemingly unharmed and safe. But another creature in the video caused a few gasps of surprise among the crew and a cocked eyebrow from Torag. It was a bipedal creature with masculine facial features, or at least that's what he thought it looked like. He had no idea what these creatures' faces looked like, so it could be a female for all he knew. He had to be the first one to make a move. He couldn't seem weak in front of an intelligent species, as that could have disastrous consequences.

Torag spoke up, his face adopting a look of authority, "Shady Daze, where is the rest of your ship and why are you with one of the aliens?"

Shady Daze glanced over at the alien next to him, who in turn glanced back, "Sir, this is Michael. He has information on what is happening on the Odyssey. We were attacked when we tried to leave after the deadline by some kind of... monsters. If I hadn't ejected the cockpit, we wouldn't be here. Though, we did lose a pony trying to escape... poor guy."

Torag grimaced a bit, "Attacked by monsters, you say? Well, this is certainly bad news... what about the rest of the team? Did they at least make it back to the ship?"

Shady's face faltered a bit, guilt and regret evident on his face, "They didn't get to the ship in time for the deadline. I have no information on what happened to them. I can only hope that they're safe... or at least alive."

Torag glanced around the silent command room, examining the faces of each individual before looking back at the screen in front of him, "We'll get a rescue team out there and get them out when we can..." he glanced over at Michael, "along with your people as well. We'll serve justice where it's due, I promise you that."

Michael's face, as it was at the beginning of the transmission, remained indifferent, "There is no saving the people on that ship. The things that infested the Odyssey are like nothing I've ever encountered. These things possess an insatiable hunger, which seeks only one thing. Blood. I want to ask you a question, admiral. Do you have any bodies in your morgue?"

Torag adopted a look of confusion, not really sure why a question like that had to be asked, "Yes, we have about forty-two bodies in the morgue... there was a disease running amok through the crew about a week back. We lost a lot of good ponies. But we managed to concoct a cure before it got too out of hoof. Now let me ask you a question... what's the point in asking that?"

Michael's face softened, "I'm sorry for your losses, but there's a bigger picture here that you need to see. There's a thing called the Marker... and those bodies are going to be used to kill every single member of your crew. Once it gets in the populace, it's like a plague... the monsters will tear through everything you hold dear without a moment's hesitation. If I were you, I would j-jett-i-so-... bo-... oppo..site..."

The transmission was suddenly filled with a ton of static for about thirty seconds, making words impossible to make out. As soon as it had started, it ended. The transmission shut itself down and the room erupted in a roar of disappointment and alarm. Ponies tried to hail the shuttle again, but nothing seemed to be working. Torag simply stared forward at where the screen had been, knowing that he had to act very soon. A shuttle with just the cockpit doesn't have a lot of oxygen in it, which meant that they would die and the blood would be on his hooves. He stood up and stared at the crew with a stern expression, though none of them had noticed him yet.

Torag suddenly yelled, breaking his silence and getting the attention of everyone in the room, "I want shuttle in the hanger NOW! And do not forget the bio-hazard team! They're going to die of suffocation in there if we don't get them on board. No questions, just do it!"

Corrus responded almost immediately by walking over to the communications panel and sent out a landing signal to the floating cockpit. The shuttle started flying towards the lower hangar doors, which was being filled with soldiers and bio-hazard scientists. Torag wondered what would become of them after all was said and done. Would they make it out of this alive, or would they become another dead ship, floating in the black unknown until some other poor fool found them.  Every fiber of his being told him to deny the shuttle entry into the Voltage, but the rules were very specific. He may be the admiral, but there were boundaries that even he couldn't bypass. Hopefully his hunch was wrong. Unfortunately, they were rarely wrong. But sometimes, you just had to work with the hoof that you were dealt. Even if the odds were stacked against you, it was an admiral's job to persevere for the good of the crew. But that wasn't going to cut it anymore. Something was coming their way and hatred is all that will follow in its wake. The perfect storm.

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Michael stared out the cockpit window with a feeling of relief, knowing that this hell would soon be over. He had fought long and hard to get to this point and it was here at long last. There was a blue field of energy that separated the vacuum of space from the air-filled hangar, which seemed really advanced for a group of horses. He looked over at Shady Daze, knowing exactly what the horse... pony was feeling right now.  Losing the ones you loved was like being hit in the chest with a sledgehammer and it takes a long time before you can move on from a hit like that. The ship passed through the energy barrier without any resistance, allowing Michael a better view of the inside of the hangar. It was a really bright and clean white with shiny, jet black trimming. The room was absolutely enormous. There were ships of many types in what looked to be the hundreds. Dozens upon dozens of ponies in armor and white suits of some kind could be seen erecting barriers and lines of defense.

Michael didn't blame them for wanting to be careful, but this put him in a hard position. They would probably keep him detained for fear of him being the enemy, or simply because he might be carrying a foreign disease. Shady seemed fine around him, but caution was definitely still advisable nevertheless. The ship slowly landed, facing the gathering crowd of military might. Shady seemed a little worried about what was happening, but he didn't say anything about his apparent discomfort. Michael, however, was just glad to see intelligent people... ponies... that didn't want to rip his throat out. Or maybe they did and he was in for an unpleasant surprise. Well, only time could tell at this point.

Shady looked over at Michael, "Alright, whatever happens, you are to follow any orders given to you. My kind doesn't know what happened on the Odyssey... you could be working for the monsters for all we know."

Michael looked down at his missing leg with a grimace, "Yeah, I'm an evil spy alright. I'm so dedicated to mindless monsters that I chopped my own leg off and risked blowing up in a shuttle. Yeah, that makes perfect sense."

Shady shot a look to Michael, telling the one-leg man that he wasn't amused, "Just do what you're told, okay? The last thing you want to do is be a dick to central command. Now, are you going to be a good boy, or should I bring out the paddle to teach you a thing or two about obedience?"

Michael saluted the now slightly grinning Shady, "Aye aye, capn'. I wouldn't dream of being a prick. Well, not right now anyway."

Shady got up and went to the back of the cockpit, entering a code into the door, his hoof now hovering over the release button. He seemed to be hesitating for a moment, as if he was unsure of something. The pony shrugged and pressed the button, which opened the door, letting in fresh oxygen. Michael had gotten a bit light headed from being in the cockpit too long with little oxygen, so this was a godsend. Michael followed Shady out, but were immediately crowded by ponies in white suits and some type of jet black power armor lined with neon blue lights. Michael's eyes glanced up at what looked to be a deep claw mark of some kind on the corner of the back of the cockpit. He frowned a bit, hoping that they hadn't picked up a hitchhiker. Those monsters could be really sneaky if they wanted to be and there was a lot of cover to hide behind in the room. Not to mention, there were small doors along the wall going into different parts of the ship, then there was a massive door at the front of the hangar, which was probably the direction where all of the ship's activity was located at.

No, they had dealt with the beasts back at the Odyssey. There was no way these things were intelligent enough to lay low until they had reached the Voltage. Michael couldn't help but smile as he was put into a wheel chair, happy that the attention he was getting wasn't hostile for once. His eyes tore away from a scientist who was talking to him to a door being opened, his instincts on high alert. He thought he had seen one of the flying beasts, but that was impossible. No, it was just his imagination. One couldn't expect their mind to not play tricks on you when you just survived an attack from monsters that looked as if they came from hell itself. He relaxed in the wheelchair and calmly answered any and all questions that were thrown his way. Things were finally looking up... and he was alive. He might be missing a leg, but it was better than being dead. His wife and child were waiting for him back on Earth and now he could go back to him. Thank god for ponies.
> Chapter 12: A Goal in Mind...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	No one dared to make a noise for fear of drawing out the evil that hid in the darkness. But with their hooves banging against the metal, it was a tad difficult to not make any noise at all. Twilight's eyes had adjusted to the dimly lit corridors and rooms they passed through, but it wasn't enough to keep her from worrying about what she couldn't see. Sometimes, she would hear the screams of the little demons that had taken out Captain Shard, but they were always far off. Or at least, that's what she thought. You never could be too sure in a situation like this one. One moment you'd be fine, and the next, you'd be scattered from one end of the hallway to the other.

The group followed the signs as best as they could, but the layout was a lot more different than they were used to. None of them were sure if they could trust these aliens to get them to safety. But it's not like they had much of choice in the matter. The only way off of this metal box was by shuttle, and the only shuttles were in a locked hangar that only Resonov could open. They'd have to do whatever Resonov wanted, though that might be a little risky. Who knows what this guy's true motives are. He could be telling the truth, or he might just be using them and be planning to live up to his end of the deal. Whichever side he was on, Twilight and the others needed to be ready for the worst.

Rainbow whispered in the quiet darkness, piercing it with her voice, "Guys, the guy we're supposed to meet is four rooms apart from us. Be ready for anything, this might be a trap."

None of them spoke further, as they wanted to be able to hear every little noise. They turned right into what looked to be a locker room of some sort. On the right side, there were lockers, and on the left there was what looked to be shower heads attached to the walls. The shower head farthest from the door they had went through was covered with blood. And so, too, was the walls and floor around it. A single appendage could be seen, which seemed to be an arm, lay still on the ground in the middle of the gore. Fluttershy whimpered a bit, but said nothing in response to this grisly sight. What could one say? The dead remained as they were, a very real reminder of just how easily a life could be taken.

They turned to head into another room, tensing up at the rather loud sound of the door opening. Looking around them for a moment to make sure they hadn't attracted any unwanted attention, they continued on to their destination. According to the blue line that was laid out for them, Markus was in this room. Apparently the guy was heading in their direction as well, closing the distance between them. The group raised their guns, ready for anything, or at least they were ready as they were ever going to be. Monsters from your worst nightmares were stretching it a bit.

The door at the other end of the room opened up, a shadowy figure standing omniously in the doorway. As the man walked forward, Twilight gritted her teeth, her gun at the ready. Whatever happened in the next few seconds, this had to be peaceful. But if worse came to worst, they'd have to be ready to fight. She could almost hear Fluttershy's heavy and labored breathing, which wasn't too much of a confidence-booster. Despite the yellow pegasus's timid nature, she always pulled through for her friends. So Twilight knew she could trust her friend to keep a cool head. Everything depended on it.

The human walked further into the room and lowered his weapon, gesturing for the ponies to do the same. Reluctantly, they did as they were told and stared at each other for the longest time. It wasn't technically first contact anymore, but it was still strange to see an alien. And that went for both sides. The tension was almost palpable.

Markus was the first to speak, his deep and seemingly naturally athoritative voice soothing in a strange way, "So you're the ponies that have been causing such a ruckus. As I said on the comms, my name is Markus Banning. I was with a mercenary group sent to check out a distress call. The government would have sent their own, but we were the closest by a long shot. The pay was, in a word, a fortune. We came by and the rest is an undesirable history. We ran through the ship, losing one person after another. Me and my girlfriend found the doctor and his group. A day later, you show up."

He continued, grimacing a bit, "Now, I know you don't give a shit about why I'm here. But I just thought you'd be more comfortable being around someone you at least sort of know. Trust is hard to come by, but it IS a necessity. If there's no trust, we will all die. You have my word that you have my trust. Can I have yours?"

Twilight nodded a bit, understanding where Markus was coming from, "That makes sense, I guess. Alright, you have our trust. We have your back as if you were on of our own. I'm assuming the same can be assumed of you?"

Markus relaxed a bit, seemingly relieved, "Of course. You have my word, miss...?"

Twilight smiled a bit, though it had to be forced due to recent events, "Twilight. Twilight Sparkle. The yellow one is Fluttershy and the blue one is-"

Rainbow interrupted, puffing her chest out and hovering into the air, "Rainbow Dash! I'm the fastest pegasus in the Equestrian space navy, the most agile soldier there is."

Markus let out a deep laugh, clutching at his stomach to quell the pain of a wound he had sustained at some point, "Oh, that's rich! Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow. Not only are you cartoon ponies, but you have the names that sound like they were made by small children. I already like all of you. I mean no offense, but you look and sound like you came out of a children's book."

Twilight frowned a bit, deciding to not voice her discomfort of being demeaned in such a way, "It's quite alright, Markus. Different cultures breed different reactions on both sides. For instance, you look like you belong in a zoo. No offense taken?"

Rainbow was about to say something in protest, but recieved a swift nudge by the purple unicorn, "Hey, what are-... ow! Alright, alright! No offense taken, l guess."

Fluttershy offered a small, shy smile, "It's alright, mister Banning. No offense taken. As you said, we all need to trust each other."

Markus seemed to be amused by all of this, "No offense taken, purple horse. Well, alright then. I'd like to chat a bit, as this is first contact for me personally, but for now, we need to get down to business. Behind me is the door that'll lead us to an elevator. We'll take that down to engineering and divert power to the tram station. But I have to warn you, there's a reason I chose to get you first. Those things are swarming down there for some reason. I'm not going to lie, what you've seen so far is nothing compared to what's down there."

The group of ponies definitely didn't like the sound of that, especially Fluttershy. But they eventually all decided that in order to return home, they had to do this. Everyone back home was counting on the Voltage and her crew to make it back in one piece. The Voltage itself was depending on the success of Markus and the ponies. If they couldn't pull this off, this horrible parasite would eventually find its way back to the Voltage. And there was no way in hell that this was acceptable.

Markus offered a grin of satisfaction and set off back towards the way he came, making it clear that he wanted to be followed. With no shortage of hesitation, the group of equines followed after the human. If not them, no one would get this done. They were the last bastion of defense for the Voltage. No pressure.

_______________________________________________________________________________

It had been a cold swim, but the pony captain had made it to safety. It had been a while since he had narrowly escaped his makeshift explosion and he was freezing, but on the bright side, he was safe and in the ventilation system. He wasn't sure why there was so much water, but apparently there was a leak somewhere. Where that was is a mystery. He had long since gotten out of the water, which had been a godsend. Hypothermia had begun to be a very real threat. With his helmet off, it had flooded his armor and soaked him.

He climbed up a ladder  along the tall ventilation shaft, looking for a broken vent to climb through. He couldn't risk breaking one, as that would surely attract attention he didn't want. He eventually found a torn open ventilation fan, which proved to be his savior. Just as he climbed through, he heard those monsters fill where had just been. Darting behind a desk in an attempt to hide, he reloaded his gun, getting ready for a fight. He could hear one of those things walking around in the room with him, making small animalistic noises as it searched for prey. It shuffled over to the captain's position, dragging it's long blade arms along the top.

Tensing up at the sound of this, he started to tip the barrel of his gun in the direction of the monster in front of the desk, but kept it out of view. If this thing got any closer, he wouldn't have a choice. He would have to engage. A howl from deeper inside of the ship stopped the creature in its tracks, blood splattering across the desk and on Captain Shard. Apparently this thing had been injured at one point... or maybe it wasn't the thing's blood at all. Tearing other beings apart tends to produce a lot of blood after all.

He heard the creature jump out through the ventilation shaft and join its bretheren in their endless search for murder. Letting out a sigh, the captain let his head rest against the desk. He needed to find his squad and get the hell off of this ship. No pony will be left behind. That and he wasn't confident in his abilities to fight these things on his own. Age had caught up to him over the years, making combat a lot more difficult. He still had a lot of fight in him though, and it would take a hell of a lot more than nightmarish monsters to take this stallion down.

Grunting a bit, he got up and headed towards the office's only door. Opening it, he walked out into the rest of ship with a goal in mind. Find his squad and get them back home. He only had his country and fellow ponies to fight for. They had families, friends, and things very dear to them. He may not have those things, but he would be damned if they lost their lives to this hell. These creatures would soon learn that he was the true demon amongst the shadows. Grimacing a bit, he headed off into the unknown.