A small squad of IPE troopers investigate a distress call on a massive Research vessel given the name: Ut Bellum. What they find there, is something that could end all they know...
High above the world of Equis; the Battleship Carmina Burana was doing its routine patrol run in IPE controlled space when it received a distress call from one of the large Research vessels. The call was rather short and didn't give much information on what was going on. All that is known is it told of a breakout of a Experiment gone south that had spread across the ship, killing its' crew swiftly and brutally. Carmina Burana responded to the late call by sending a small squad of seven to board and investigate this "Breakout" that had occurred as ordered by High Command. Squad number 548 is the seven.
What is on this vessel? And what could have wiped out an entire ship so quickly?
I am going back and making corrections, if you can find any mistakes or typos, please tell me, that would be much appreciated. I am also looking for Proofreaders to help out! Comment or PM me about it. Sorry for the very slow uploads, I'm not the fastest when it comes to writing.
Cover art made by the amazing and my best buddy E-tec.
Other than that, enjoy the ride, leave a like and spread the word on this story!
The sound of hooves hitting metal filled the corridors of the ship as the stallion ran for his life. His lab coat flapping in the air whenever his rear hooves kicked it up. Sweat pouring down his head and body while he winced every time his hooves hit the grate floor, generating loud bangs and scrapes that could attract the things after him. He flinched at every sudden noise, afraid as if it was a threat.
He ran past a corpse of a trooper that had its neck torn open violently, showing the once hollow throat as it overflowed with blood and streaked down the body. A mortified look on the trooper's face showed he had lost the fighting chance at defending himself but managed to take one of the beasts with him, as it lay with gaping wounds on the opposite side of the hall. The stallion made one glance and stumbled in shock and felt bile rise to his throat before regaining balance, swallowing it back down and continuing to run. He nearly lost his stomach right there, and that alone could have marked the end of his relatively short life for they were close behind.
So he redoubled his speed.
Alarms blared throughout the ship as it replayed the same message over and over: "Alert! Containment breach!" Growling and yelling emitted from a corridor cross section where he was headed. He didn't even slow down. For he already knew what was down the hall. What happened next was what he dreaded; the growing made a sudden, abrupt, nerve chilling alert at his hoof-steps before the echo of multiple hooves hitting the floor and roaring was behind him.
Letting loose a gasp of shock, he attempted to go even faster. Ahead was the location he was aiming for; one of the many ShipCom stations. Apparently number 39. Four trooper guards stood with their Magi-rifles by their side, ready to defend to the last. They spotted him running towards them and brought their weapons to bear towards him, with seemingly fearless faces.
"I'm clean! I'm clean!" he hollered before they started firing on him, they began firing anyway at the beasts behind him, narrowly missing him. Loud growls and shrieks of pain sounded behind him as the things got shot at. He made a quick glace back before running forward towards the troopers.
One of them stopped firing to slide a card into the door control panel after looking him over quickly, causing a small beep and a green light to appear above the panel. The door slid open and the trooper shoved him inside before closing it again behind him.
He breathed a sigh of relief for finally making it to the ShipCom center safely. Looking around he saw many of his companions that helped him with many works and test within the labs. Most were sitting by the wall or in the corner, rocking back and forth crying or whimpering, trying to tell themselves that this was all some bizarre nightmare by Luna, to curse them for what they have done.
He saw the ShipCom console and made his way to it, careful to not step on some of the ponies on the ground on the way. When he arrived at it, he pressed a few buttons to turn it on. The console made a small beep, and the panel on it lit up. He sighed with relief, simply glad to see that it online.
Suddenly, hissing gunfire started to emit from outside the door as well as growling and the yelling of ponies in pain, causing just about everypony in the room to jump in shock and quiver in fear. The sounds continued without end as the pony recorded his message, occasionally looking around and towards the door, making sure it has not suddenly broken down. Some of the troopers and guards that were inside with them had moved near the door and had taken cover behind various objects and watching the door as it shook and shuddered at the force behind it.
"....Destroy the ship, I don't care what valuable research is on here, you must destroy this ship!" he demanded as he broadcast the message, practically screaming at the camera. A loud bang stole his attention for a few seconds before looking back at the camera on the console before looking down and taking a deep breath. "If this gets out all life as we know it will cease to exist or be dreadfully endangered, that is why you must destroy this ship." He paused and looked around at some of the faces that were staring back at him in response to his yelling. He saw one stallion holding a mare close to his chest while petting her head as she cried into his now tear-stained lab vest, saying soothing words to her partially deaf ears.
Turning back around toward the camera, he shook his head in sadness before taking one last look at it. "Dr. Testskript signing off," was the last thing he to the camera said before the doors broke open with a screech and the message cut to static.
"You know what's the worst job to be assigned during the war? Winter Night Watch." -First Private Silver Sword.
Blizzard Dust laid upon her bunk bed, above her twin sister Diamond Dust, who was cleaning her Magi-rifle below. Blizzard flopped over onto her back with her head barely hanging off and sighed. She had finished all her daily duties: Polish and clean her Magi-rifle, polish and clean her armor, grab her lunch, exercise in the gym of the Battleships' lower decks, and finally, her karate classes. Now here she lays in her top bunk, gazing up at the steel ceiling bored out of her mind. She let loose another sigh for most likely the 77th time and kicked her forelegs lazily upwards towards the steel roof of the ship in false fighting.
Born in the bat-pony city of Northguard; the Dust twins were both Privates, having served the IPE Star Navy for over three years made them used to most of the fleets' ships, but they choose to stay on the Battleship. They were inseparable, they had such a strong bond that it was impossible to keep them sane if you took them away forcefully. The twins had flipped colors. Diamond, the tallest and considered the oldest, had dark blue coat with light brown hair with a ice streak through it. Her twin just had the coat and brown switched, with the brown being the darkest. They loved to tease each other without end when the opportunity rises. Not to mention they are both Bat-ponies with their fluffy ears.
"If you are SO bored, go do something," said Diamond.
Blizzard groaned and put her hooves in her face, "Like what?" she asked, her voice slightly muffled.
"Like...I don't know, maybe flirt with the stallions or something like you always do."
Blizzard blushed softly at the obvious truth, "I do not flirt with the stallions! What could I gain by doing that?"
Diamond chuckled, "Well...there are a lot of things you could gain."
Blizzard blinked at what she said and groaned in both defeat and embarrassment, earning a short laugh from her twin, "Like always, I still win in our arguments," She continued polishing her rifle, rubbing the cloth over the barrel, making the silver-gray steel shine. "Oh, and yes you do flirt with the stallions, I saw you do it," she added earning another groan from Blizzard.
"Well its not like you don't ether," Blizzard shot back now turning over to look down at her sister's head as she worked.
Diamond paused her cleaning to look up at her sisters' face, which had the red on her coat fading fast. "Indeed I do, because its what we mares are built to do to the stallions; we get them flustered and interested, rut. Then, few days later, maybe rut again. Simple as that," she finished with a smile.
Blizzard flicked Diamonds' ear with a hoof before hopping off her bed and onto the floor gracefully. Grabbing her silver under-armor, which she would wear under her actual suit of armor, she made her way out. She turned to give one last look at her sister, who was still cleaning her rifle but now at the barrel, and gave a small snort before turning away and continuing her way out.
Diamond heard the door open and she looked up to see her sister leaving and raised a brow, "Where are you going?"
Blizzard turned her head to respond, "I'm headed out to walk about the ship for a bit, maybe jog. I'll be back later."
Diamond nodded, "Alright then, have fun flirting," she said with a smirk hoping she will get a rise out of her sister.
"Hah hah hah, very funny." Blizzard retorted before leaving.
Diamond shook her head while smiling before continuing to clean her rifle. "I'll catch up with her later," she murmured softly as she glanced at her small reflection on the barrel.
Deep below and semi-far to the back of the ship, where the reactors sat powering the ship, was where the Tech-Troopers mostly stayed.
Gearbox, one such Tech-Trooper, was fixing a wire that had torn with one of his handy limbs on his back as he observed it, careful to not damage any other wires nearby or the tubing behind it. There were other Tech-Troopers nearby that were working on other parts of the ship and operating the consoles, keeping the Battleship in perfect shape.
Gearbox is considered an "elite" Tech-Trooper, he had done multiple different projects that helped the IPE significantly in the war with Equestria. Gearbox had a gold coat with rust brown hair. He is constantly in his armor and rarely takes it off, mostly due to the fact that he simply likes to be in it. Being born in Ori, made him stronger than the normal pony. Due to the fact of how harsh the fortress city was.
Gearbox breathed a sigh of at finally fixing the broken wire, the damn thing wouldn't stay together. Letting his augmented limbs rest as he placed and bolted the panel back on. He walked away to find something else to fix or assist with fixing, sending the report of the fix via his HUD.
Originally, he wanted to be on a Research Vessel and help the eggheads invent something new. He had been on a few, mostly due to large repairs because a space rock hit them or some kind of failure. Every time he was on one, he remembered it well.
One ship was his favorite: The Mundus Viridi. It was a ship that focused on the wildlife on Equis and created and tested chemicals to better help the crops. The ship had massive domes of jungle, forests and plains as well as many others. It was eye candy that's for sure, plus it acted as a cruise ship for only the richest. Around a few million for five nights aboard. Gearbox was called to it because a vent system for one of the habitats had broke and was preventing clean air from getting through. The way the bio-domes worked amazed him to no end. They were made of reinforced glass and that's all. It was luck that kept it from getting hit by asteroids.
The IPE liked to stick their secret research facilities up high. Though it could've been better underground, where it had a lesser risk of being found by a Equestrian ship. Gearbox always wondered that.
He sighed happily at the memory of that majestic ship as he walked down the corridor, but made a small tilt of his head as the though once more came to him. While he walked, he saw two fully armored troopers chatting together. The one that was facing towards him noticed him and stopped chatting to wave. Doing this caused the other trooper to wave and smile as well. Gearbox made a small nod in return before passing by them.
Finding nothing at all to repair, and nothing from higher command, he made his way to the dining hall on mid-deck via the elevator. When the elevator doors opened, he was greeted by loud noise and the chatter of ponies at the tables. Making his way to a open table, the ponies he passed by noticed him and waved at him as he passed, he just flashed a smile and a nod at them in greeting.
Sitting at the table he selected, he just sat in thought, with nothing to do at the moment, right when he was just about to get up to grab a bite to eat, someone arrived at his table-
"Hey there Gear."
Gearbox looked up to see a green Pegasus mare smiling down at him. He smiled when he realized who it was, "Hey Lightning."
Lightning Striker had a forest green coat with gray and light yellow hair. She was a private much like the Dust twins, only she had a weapon of preference; it was a Magi-sniper rifle. It had a small charge but it could fire incredibly long ranges, combined with a longer, slimmer barrel and a much more stronger blue GemCell than the standard issue green and red. It was a powerful weapon... Though not as powerful when she is on the ship, but still a force to be reckoned with. Her mastery with a sniper rifle comes from the fact she came from a griffin population center in the IPE: Erogos.
"Can I sit with you?" Striker asked pointing a hoof to the seat in front of her.
Gearbox nodded with a small motion of his own hoof, "Sure."
"Thanks, I just got done with my patrol duty, so I'm off till tomorrow. Hell, they work us hard despite the isolation here." she informs while she sits down.
"That's good. I know how you feel too, mostly because I was once a conscript during the early stages of the Second War," Striker leaned forward once he started talking, for she had rarely heard Gearbox talk about his past, particularly the Second Division War and the First Year. "But once they found out I was skilled at mechanics, electronics and the likes; they had me taken away and made me a Tech-Apprentice," He paused to let out a somewhat sad sigh and closed his eyes. When he opened them he saw Striker staring expectantly at him, he chuckled at her before continuing, "The Conscription Camps back then we're so brutal. Ya'll had it easy," he motioned the ponies in the room with a small notion of his hoof. "The Commissars were strict, as they had to be. They would execute cowards or the weak ones, and even the ones who broke the rules. Not to forget they would sometimes kill to make an example. I lost quite a few friends that way."
Striker tilted her head, "Commissars?" she questioned.
Gearbox nodded, "Aye Commissars. They are one of the forgotten branches of the IPE military that formed in the First Year. Though now they don't exist anymore due to the Empress saying it was too harsh on the morale of the troopers and not only that, they had no use afterwards."
Striker had a somewhat deflated look on her face as Gearbox finished his history lesson. She looked down at her crossed hooves on the table, "Sorry I brought up some unhappy memories."
She heard him sigh and looked up at him as he gave her a smile and a shrug, "Eh... It's ok, its not your fault. Its good to tell somepony about the REAL First Year of the IPE. When it first got on its hooves," he replied.
She smiled back at him weakly, still feeling at fault for bringing up those memories. Gearbox frowned at her smile before getting up and moving next to her. She followed him with her eyes as he sat next to her.
After sitting next to her, he stared deep into her eyes as she did to him.
Boop
Gearbox blinked as he got nose booped and went cross-eyed to look at his nose. The reaction made Striker giggle at him while he frowned in amusement at her rather immature behavior.
He shook his head with a smile in response to her giggle, the frown vanishing quicker than when it came, "You are unintentionally cute sometimes you know that?"
Striker flushed with amusement, "I try."
"March in place, you piles of shit with legs!"
"Sir, yes Sir!"
Lt. Orion Blaze watched in clear disgust at the new batch, or cadets, that had just arrived a few days ago. IPESC thought that the Battleship needed more troopers to crew it, even though the IPE had the strongest, other than Equestrias', Star Navy in all of Equis.
Orion Blaze had a dark blue coat with marble white hair. He was also a unicorn. Born in the richer parts of Arthrenia, which was closer to the Citadel, he was no doubt spoiled to no end by his richer parents... However there are those who doubt that theory. Making him one of the most hated, but somewhat respected, members aboard the Carmina Burana. He would commonly throw unneeded insults towards lower ranking troopers when no other higher ranking personnel was around.
And having twin jobs; a lieutenant and drill Sargent, only boosted his ego ten times over.
"Halt!" he bellowed. The cadets came to a ordered halt, with sweat poring down their faces as they stood at attention, looking off into the distance ahead of them. Orion marched up to the line and started routine inspection, checking their stature and doing the same test as before; if they made eye contact with him.
He stopped at one cadet. He caught him looking at him while he inspected the rest. Staring at him right in the eyes, he attempted to make him move again to confirm his eyes that he saw him move. What he got was, a increase in shaking and sweat, before the cadet finally broke and looked at him.
Orion forged a ghost of a wicked smile on his face before he wiped it clean and made a falsely calm demeanor as the cadet looked at him. "What is your name, cadet?" he asked calmly, while he attempted forcing his smile to hide.
The cadet stuttered, caught off guard, " E-Easy Shot, sir."
Orion chuckled lightly at the name and looked down before resting a hoof on the sweating troopers' shoulder, "Well Easy Shit, can you tell me why I am standing in front of you right now?"
Easys' eyes darted around and looked at the hoof resting on him, while resisted to frown at the rather crude abuse of his name, catching a glance at some of the cadets that are looking his way. He swallowed before answering in an uneasy voice, "I looked at you when I was told to stay at attention?" he asked unsure.
Orion nodded and said back calmly, "Yes you indeed did. Now tell whats the punishment of doing that is."
"Umm...No lunch break and more extreme exercises?" he said uncertainly, silently hoping that the Lt. doesn't catch his uncertainty.
Sadly, he does.
Orion puts on a constantly practiced aggressive face before shoving himself into Easys' own face, "NO! This is not boot camp, nor is it the old conscript camps from the First Year!" he bellowed, making the poor cadets nearby and Easys' ears ring. The cadets barely got time to prepare for another assault of words when Orion shoved himself back into Easy's face. "You are on the Battleship, Carmina Burana. Finest ship in the Star Navy! I will not have a bunch of shit eaters desecrate this majestic vessel with your shit clad hooves!" The cadets visibly flinched when Orion slammed his armor clad hoof into the floor, creating a loud bang, making their ears ring again combined with his harsh words. "Now tell me, what do we do on here!?"
"We serve and Protect!"
"What were we born to do!?"
"To fight and win!"
"And what were you trained to do!?"
"To fight and win once more!"
"For who do you fight for!?"
"The Empress and the IPE!"
"That's right! Now because I had to waste my breath and inhale your disgusting stench that your even your fake, imaginary wives would vomit at, you all are going to be doing 300 damned push-ups; with pegasi doing wing-ups," he paused to look at the clock on the wall as it slowly ticked, "Starting, now!" he bellowed for the last time as the cadets followed his orders and began right away, grunting softly, not wanting to invoke his ire again.
Turning around with a sneer across his face, he came face to face with a five foot armor clad pony, except of the head. Which showed the pony in the armor. His sneer quickly fell as he went into a stiff salute before the giant.
"At ease Lt. There is no need to be formal, I'm just here to check on the recruits," the giant spoke.
"Sorry sir," Orion said relaxing. His evil grin now long gone and replaced with a static one as he stood in front of the pony.
The giant, called a Centurion, had a shining iron coat with silver hair. He was a Earth pony; much to Orion's dismay but he pushed aside the emotions when it came to these guys, especially this one. His armor color was fitted to the colors of his choice; a pure white as its main color with gold at the tips. His name was Steel Rain. If you said his name in the cities or armies of the IPE, just about everypony would know him, for he is often hailed as a hero. With a statue erected in the Courtyard in front of the Citadel in Arthrenia with him standing atop the bodies of dead Equestria soldiers while holding the IPE flag in his right hoof.
His hometown is unknown however.
"It's fine Lt." he reassured as he observed the new cadets as they did their push ups. Orion had moved next to him as he watched. "How are the new ones doing?" Steel asked without looking at Orion.
"They are doing alright, still the same as most of the new troopers that arrive on here," Orion informed.
Steel hummed softly, "That's good," He turned his head to look down at Orion, "Try not to go too hard on them. They are still new. Don't want them broken and battered before we can use them for something."
Orion looked up at him and nodded with a small smile, "Of course, sir," He replied before looking back at the troopers.
They stayed like that, watching them do push ups before Steel said his goodbyes and left, his armor clad hooves resonating through the training hall. Orion watched him go with careful eyes till he was out of sight. When he was, Orion turned to face the troopers, who had finally finished all 300 and were breathing hard, the smell of sweating ponies permeating the air.
They all visibly gulped as they saw his wicked grin of glee and savagery and knew there was a whole new world of pain coming for them.
Bellowing laughter came from the med-bay of the ship. The reason behind this was because, Spritze, the medic, was telling her tales of misfortune and pasts to a patient. She had pure white fur with vibrant red hair that seemed like it was glowing, her mark a medical cross with a syringe in the middle. She was from Germane across the sea and came here after the First Year, looking for work.
The patient laughed once again and slammed a hoof on the bed he was on as she finished off her tale. Spritze chuckled and leaned on the edge of the bed while resting her head on her hoof, "...That's how I lost my medical licence," she said with a chuckle.
The patient stopped laughing instantly after she said that and looked at her with a mixture of shock and fear. Spritze noticed his face and patted him lightly with a hoof on the shoulder, which he attempted to move away from. "Aw, don't be such a baby....I won't hurt you...," she brought up a syringe with her magic, she looked down at him with a smile as he stared in fear, "Don't worry Mein Freund, this will only hurt a bit..." she paused again before bringing the syringe to bare on his arm, "Maybe."
The patient had no time to react as the syringe was driven into his skin and through the flesh, narrowly avoiding the veins, so that it touches the bone and goes into it, causing so much pain through his nerves that the poor stallion passed out from the pain with nothing more than a small yelp.
Spritze stuck out her tongue cutely in concentration as she inserted the healing gel into the bone. The patient had a broken bone due to a accident with a Lifter and a crate, so to fix it, it had to be dosed with some bone heal gel...'Expertly'. After emptying it into the bone, she took out the syringe and set it on the table nearby. Finished, she looked at the patient and frowned at him. She poked his face with a hoof and nodded, "Yep, out cold," She sighed and shook her head before turning around and heading for the door. Usually they would numb the limb broken, but Spritze... was not the usual doctor.
Soon after another medic came running in with a worried look on her face as she saw the stallion unconscious. She felt his head with a hoof and breathed out a small sigh of relief at the fact that he had a beating heart. Looking behind her at the door, she sighed before muttering quietly, "When will they ever fire her?"
*****
Spritzes' medic cloak made small flaps in the air as she made her way down the halls of the vessel. She would nod and give small smiles to the nearby ponies that would cross her path, only to get weak forced smiles in return. The reason behind this mostly was due to being so well known for her, "Expertise" in her class.
Finally arriving at the mess hall, she observed the tables. Looking for her friends that would meet up with her everyday here.
"Over here Spritze!" called out Blizzard Dust with a wave of her hoof.
Spritze smiled brightly at her and made her way over, winding through all the tables filled with chatting or eating ponies. "So, vhats up?" she asked after taking her seat across from the twins.
Blizzard giggled, "Oh nothing, just that I got a date with a certain stallion..." she said with a drunk-like giggle.
Diamond blinked in shock at what she just heard while Spritze was smiling proudly at her. "Congrats mein freund, you should have the lucky stallion come by for a 'checkup', as you should come too," she said with a teasing wink and a witty smile. Blizzard thus became an apple and nodded jerkily, all the while Diamond had a shocked expression.
Diamond blinked and shook her head before looking at her sister with a stern gaze, " Are you sure he's a good one?" she asked carefully as she eyed her sister.
Blizzard nodded excitedly, "Oh yes he is," she sighed and leaned on her hoof, "You should have seen him in the training room earlier today. Oh!" She perked up suddenly as she looked across the table to the one nearby, there sat the said stallion. He had a dark blue coat with deep purple hair, his pegasus wings had the same color as his hair. He was sitting with a few friends of his own laughing along with one of them at a unheard joke.
Diamond followed Blizzard's gaze and saw the stallion, and she couldn't help but admit that he was indeed eye candy. With all that muscle under that armor, she couldn't help but think of her with him, but she kicked out those ideas before they took root. Spritze however, really didn't find him her type.
Diamond turned back to a daydreaming opposite, "Ok, I'll agree that he looks nice, but just be careful please, sis."
Spritze turned back too and nodded, "Ja, you should listen to her."
Blizzard looked up at them puzzled, "Why are you both so concerned?"
"Well, we care about you. Not to mention I'm your sister and I"m meant to protect you." Diamond explained, getting a nod of agreement from Spritze. "Plus this is quite out of nowhere. Just a day ago I was teasing you about flirting."
"Ok, big sis, I'll be careful. And a lot can happen in a few days ya know."
"Thank you," Diamond replied with a smile and gave Blizzard a sisterly hug. They sat for a while chatting with the occasional gossip entering into the conversations till a sudden alert came from the speakers, abruptly ending their chatting.
"Squad 548 report to the top bridge immediately at this time. Squad 548 report to the top bridge."
"D-don't leave me a-alone...P-please, I don't want to die y-yet...It's really c-cold in here...."
"Steel Rain reporting, Admiral."
Admiral Miles was looking out of the bridge into the empty space when Steel entered. Miles was in his Black uniform, which was covered with medals from previous operations and combat against Equestrian Space Navy, the uniform also had the strips of royal purple to show his rank and relation to high command. He had a red coat with blue and black hair, his eyes the same color as the blue in his hair. He stared outward before turning his head slightly and looking at the reflection of Steels' form on the window. "Centurion, where is the rest of your squad?" he asked not looking back behind him.
"They are on the way. Should be anytime now, Sir," Steel stated calmly.
Miles made a small grunt of acknowledgement and continued staring outward, studying the stars and their beauty as well as thinking and choosing his words, all the while blocking out the sounds of troopers working on the computers in the bridge. He released a quiet sigh before turning around to face Steel, who was still stiff at attention for him, "Rest Centurion, you know as well as I that you don't need to do that," Miles pointed out.
Steel relaxed visibly and nodded, "I know... It's more of a habit or instinct," He admitted.
Miles chuckled, "Years in the army will do that to ya."
The sound of doors opening sounded through the bridge as the rest of the squad fell in. Miles watched them enter and come up behind Steel, giving small greetings to each other before falling quiet and looking at Miles expectantly.
Miles scanned them to make sure they were all here before beginning the mission debrief, "About time you all got here. We must start immediately," he said before waving them to a table in the middle of the bridge. They stood around it waiting for Miles to start. "Alright," he tapped the table with a hoof, bringing up a massive ship in the middle, it rotated slowly on an axis, "This is the research ship: Ut Bellum. This ship had gone quiet for quite some time, even IPESC messaged me to check it out," he paused to make sure they were listening, "When we just got into transmission range we got a message," he stopped and pressed a few buttons on the table.
A beep sounded from it as the Carmina Buranas' basic AI voice came out, "Message from the IRS Ut Bellum recording being played."
A screen showed up in place of the ship that was in the middle of the table. It show a unicorn scientist along with a few ponies behind him cowering in what seems like fear. "This is Doctor Testskript of the IRS Ut Bellum, along with the surviving crew inside the Coms Center." A loud bang got his attention and the others on screen. He sighed, "I'm running out of time to relay this message, but you must avoid this ship or destroy it..." Blizzard had a worried look on appear her face along with a few other members of the squad as gunfire and screams sounded from the audio background. Steel remained still with a stoic gaze. "I don't care how important or how expensive this ship is but you must understand one thing: If this gets out, all life as we know it will cease to exist or possibly be dreadfully endangered. Like I said, I don't care what valuable research is on here but you must destroy this ship!" The doctor yelled at the camera. Taking a deep breath he looked up at it, as if defeated, "Dr Testskript signing off." Right before the message ended, the sound of doors breaking open and dozens of screams and shrieks sounded throughout the bridge as the screen on the table cut out to static.
Miles sighed, getting most of the squad's attention, "Well there you go. The message of the year." He moved away and stepped up to the higher parts of the bridge before turning to them again. "That's why we must go and figure out what happen on that ship. Disregard what the doctor said on there, you are soldiers of the IPE and YOU will solve this mystery. Not only that but, command it whining at me to send a team there," he said with a hoof gesture towards them. "You will be given a transport to the Ut Bellum hanger bay. From there you will go around to the ships' main parts; The armory, cargo bay, Coms Center, Bridge, the Labs, and then back." The ship hologram had come back in the middle of the table and was marking locations of the said areas with a red dot. "The ship's power will possibly be offline, so you will need to turn that back on. To make things easier of course." A new dot pinged on the hologram at the back of the ship. Gearbox looked oddly giddy Striker noticed, if the almost jittery movements of his augmented limbs were any sign.
After a short silent study of the ship in front of him, Steel nodded curtly and looked at Miles, "It will be done."
Miles smiled, "Thank you Centurion."
Steel nodded once before facing the squad, "Well, lets get going. Pack up and go to Hanger bay 3 when you are ready. You will find a transport with me next to it." The squad nodded or murmured affirmative before leaving with Steel to their respective rooms.
"And Centurion..." Right before Steel could fully leave, he turned to see Miles looking at him, "Good luck and keep them safe."
Steel's lips rose a bit into a small smile, "Thank you, sir and I will."
"You ever wondered what it's like up there? Past the clouds? Endless darkness."
The sound of armored hooves and engines clicking on or off echoed throughout the hanger. The squad, was trying to find their leader in the mess of the hanger like he said. On the way, a few conversations sprung up;
"Hey Diamond," Blizzard mention getting her sisters' attention, "What you think of the mission?" She asked as she clicked the bottom of her helmet together with a hoof and checked the visor on and off to see if it worked correctly.
Diamond looked away and hummed thoughtfully as well as adjust her helmet before looking back at her twin, "Well, I say its quite, confusing and its vague on what this 'breakout' is, based on what the message said."
Suddenly, Lightning Striker popped up in between them, curious, "What-chu talkin' 'bout buddies?" she asked, her armor clinking lightly.
Blizzard recoiled slightly at the green mare that came up randomly between them in slight shock, "We were just talking about the mission," she said plainly.
Striker closed her eyes breifly and nodded, "This mission is weird. Just look at the message that came from it! That poor stallion and the ponies with him were murdered from the sounds of it. From what however is the part I'm confused about."
"Yea, have you seen Steel yet?" Blizzard asked suddenly changing the subject as she looked around for the said silver Centurion.
"Hmm. No I haven't yet."
Blizzard hummed her acknowledgement, "We'll let you know if we find him."
Striker nodded and backed off and headed to her spot next to Gearbox, who was still quite eager. She studied him as they walked, occasionally looking around for Steel. Gearbox's armor was colored a deep standard issue black with gold at the trims. His limbs on his back were colored gray with copper joints, while his visor was a dark blue. Gearbox was fully fitted besides from his helmet, showing his rather still healthy young face.
Often which Striker often adored.
Gearbox noticed her looking at him on several occasions. He knew she liked him, as did him to her, but they rarely expressed it much to Strikers' own disappointment. Often, he would see she was looking at him oddly while they were walking through the halls and the hanger. He was quite eager to get onto a Research Vessel. He didn't forget what happened on the transmission, no, It made him somewhat even more eager to board it instead, and find out what is going on the ship and its purpose. He figured out that each one was used for different reasons on his trips on them.
His running brain was interrupted when the Lt., from ahead of them, decided it was a good idea and time to throw insults.
"Come on you fucking pigs. We got to find Centurion Steel." He paused to turn and face them, his features scrutinizing them in every way possible, and then some, "What? You shits got some in ya? Well, ya shuda' went before we got into the gods damned hanger!" He yelled before walking forward again, "Fucking commoners and Vampires..." he muttered.
Spritze frowned at him before leaning over and whispering into both Diamond's and Blizzard's ears but loud enough for the others to hear, "Wonder what poor mare rejected him last night?" she asked earning small laughs and a guffaw from Gearbox and the troopers around her.
"What poor mare was with him?" added Diamond with a giggle, getting more laughs from the rest of them, "I pity her more!"
Oblivious of what transpired behind him, he finally spotted Steel, fully clad in his shining armor, standing by the boarding ramp of a Sky-Griffin Transport, looking down at and chatting to a slightly nervous engineer. "Get your asses over here, Steel is right here." He turned back towards the transport to meet up with Steel only to be blocked by a stunning white figure. His gaze moved upward to see a certain Centurion helmet looking down at him impassively.
The helmet made a sound that sounded like a sigh bordering on disappointment and annoyance and made a small shake of his head. Steel looked away from the now sweating Orion to the arriving squad mates. "Welcome Stallions and Mares, you all follow me to the SG-T and we will begin to make our way to the Ut Bellum. Once we are in sight of the ship, I will begin the mission debrief. Understood?"
"Sir, yes Sir!"
Steel nodded and smiled from under his helmet, "Good, now lets get aboard and going troopers."
The soft rumble and sound of the four jets outside of the SG-T filled the Trooper's and the pilot's ears as they made their way to the coordinates of the Ut Bellum. Steel sat near the front of the ship, making occasional peaks around the doorway outside the pilot window to watch for the said ship.
The troopers in the back had their air-tight armor in case the air on the Ut Bellum was contaminated. Nothing had sprung up during the trip through space, for there was nothing to talk about. Only Blizzard Dust was bobbing her head to a song playing in her helmet, despite its Equestrian origin. The others could barely hear it over the ship, but they could certainly see it on the screen of Blizzard's HUD.
They mostly ignored it, though one didn't and judged on the spot.
A clank of armor hitting the floor of the transport got their attention. Steel had gotten up and was looking back at them.
"Something wrong, sir?" Asked Gearbox, his voice slightly muffled due to his helmet.
Steel shook his head at him, "Negative, its just time for the debrief."
The debrief was in fact not too long. All they really needed to do was stay together and only break off if it came to it. Watch their fire and all the basic stuff. Orion rolled his eyes in annoyance, somehow managing to not get seen by the white giant, tho Diamond saw him and frowned in disappointment.
Steel moved away and through the rather tight doorway into the cockpit. Gazing out the window, he was greeted by a sight that would give a artist a heart attack of glee:
The Ut Bellum.
They were coming in at a almost perfect angle to see the blue-green planet below the vessel rotating softly. The Ut Bellum had a silver base color with a bright yellow line splitting the ship in half horizontally. A deep red line came from the yellow line under the bridge and crawled up it to the antenna on top. The whole ship was cylindrical with a cone shaped tip and rear. As they got closer, small features were popping up; such as the minor turret defense on the outside and the windows. The hanger bay was near the back, right behind the bridges' second tower. The bridge had twin towers with a cross-way linking them in the middle. However, Steel noticed that the cross-way was broken in the middle, the windows and flooring was gone, leaving jagged metal and cracked glass. Nudging the pilot lightly to get his attention he pointed to the cross-way, "If the hanger doors are not open bring us near there so we can jump off into it," he informed him. The pilot nodded and eyed the broken cross-way, "Affirmative."
The transport tilted as the pilot turned towards the hanger bay. Steel sighed in disappointment at the sight;
The doors were indeed, closed, much to their misfortune.
Steel tapped the pilot again on his helmet and motioned his head to the location of the bridge. He nodded and started to adjust course. Steel turned away and back out the door to the squad. They looked at him expectantly as he sighed again, "We have a small adjustment in the plan, the hanger doors are closed but, there was a hole where the bridge towers connect, we could enter there," he informed them.
"Gods damn it," swore Blizzard as her twin nodded softly in silent agreement. She had turned off her music once Steel came back in.
"Well great, now I'm sad," exclaimed Gearbox earning small chuckles from the squad other than Steel and Orion, who remained stoic. "I wanted to see what they got in the hanger."
Striker rested a foreleg on Gearboxs' armored shoulder and shook it lightly attempting the cheer him up.
Steel looked out of the small portholes and saw the broken cross-way drawing close. "You'll soon see whats there Gearbox, once we reach it of course," he reassured him. Turning back, he nodded to them. They instantly got the message and fully locked their suits, checked their jet-packs as well as their weapons.
Giving confirmation to Steel that they were ready, he nodded again at the pilot, "Alright. Open the door," he ordered the pilot.
The door to the cockpit closed with a slam and a hiss first before the ramp swung open. The squad held on to the seats as all the oxygen rushed out into space and the pressure left them. Once it was done, they unbuckled and pushed themselves off the transport and onto the broken cross-way, making small bursts of their gravity dampeners.
"Use as little fuel as possible, we may need it later," informed Gearbox as he made a small hop of his own dampeners.
In a few seconds, they had made it to the first part of the towers. Steel made his way to the front of them, and assessed the situation. Thankfully, the cross-way had air tight dual doors into the towers and they were still in working order as Gearbox pointed out. Drifting their way over, they entered the rather cramped space between the doors. After forcing the outer door shut, Gearbox activated the oxygen pumps and soon the airlock was filled with clean air from the ship. But once he opened the door however, the gravity came into play, causing everyone to fall flat with a loud thud, with the exceptions of Gearbox and Steel.
Diamond groaned as the breath left her, "Well, at least we know the Gravity Generator is working," she commented as she stood back up.
"Actually, we are lucky the Generator is even working anyway. Considering how the main power is offline, so the ship is running on emergency battery storage," Gearbox pointed out, getting bewildered looks from most of them. He looked around at them, "Did I not tell you all I've been on enough Research ships to know a few things? Plus, it's common knowledge by now. You're posted on a ship for the gods sake," He finished, getting nods and shakes of heads form all but the Centurion.
"Alright," alerted Steel getting their attention, "First off, due to the slight change in plans, we check out the bridge right here first then go to the armory, which should be a little ways bellow us. Keep an eye on your HUD Radar, we don't want any surprises. Understood?" he asked.
Most of them nodded or said 'Yes sirs'.
"Good," he turned back to the empty bridge, "Now split up, find what you can to see if we can piece together what happened here," he ordered.
Entering the bridge, they instantly was met by darkness, "Activate flashlights," ordered Steel. The echo of lights clicking on and the increase of sight was their reward. The lights moved in accordance their owner's head as they split up and went to different areas.
Gearbox went to a nearby control panel. He attempted to turn it on, only to get a flicker on the screen. Sighing in disappointment he moved onward to another area. Lightning Striker made her way to a nearby window, gazing out to the planet's bumpy surface and its beauty...
*THUD*
Striker jumped and trained her rifle on a vent as a sound came from it. She watched it for a few minutes before hesitantly looking away, occasionally giving small glaces back at it. She let loose a small yelp in fear as Blizzard tapped her on her shoulder. Blizzard flinched and narrowly dodged a swinging rifle.
"Whats got you all riled up eh?" Blizzard asked as she pushed the rifle away from her head with a hoof.
Striker let loose a sigh of relief before looking back at her comrade, "It's nothing. I-I just heard something in the ventilation and it caught me by surprise," she stuttered.
Blizzard raised a brow under her helmet, "Ya sure? Cuz' I want to be sure too..."
"Yea. Yea. I'm fine, just a small scare. Might be some critter that got loose," Diamond reassured.
Blizzard looked at her for a few more seconds, studying her face. Striker had sweat forming on her head from within the suit, even tho it wasn't even that hot thanks to the heat pump. "Alright. But, I will have my eye on you. I'm just concerned and I'm the one that's suppose to be scared along with my twin," Blizzard said with a smile before walking away.
Striker watched her walk away to another part of the bridge and met up with her twin. She released a sigh of relief and looked back at the vent, feeling unconformable still.
"Troopers."
Striker turned away as Steel called them out. He was near the open elevator doors, red light flowed from it.
"It looks like we are on a luck streak, this elevator still works as well," he points out as he shines his light into it. The others came closer behind Steel and looked into it as well.
But Spritze didn't. She had found what seemed to be a red-ish substance plastered on a broken panel. It was splattered like someone was thrown onto it and slowly died due to a piece of metal jutting outward. She could tell due to the said spike was covered in red and had small strips of flesh. What confused her however was-
'Where's the body?'
Her HUD scanned it automatically as soon as she looked at it and confirmed it was indeed blood, but what was odd it had another substance in it. One that even the medical expert didn't know.
And it made her even more concerned.
Gazing downward, she followed the blood trail. It was directed around the panels in the middle and towards the elevator before dissipating.
"Spritze, get over here; we're going downward."
She looked at the source of the call out of her name and saw the whole squad looking at her from within the elevator. She quickly trotted her way over to them. She made one last look at the blood seemingly poking out from behind the panels before the elevator doors closed.
However, what they didn't know, was their rather short luck streak was about to run out. And right when Gearbox triggered it by pressing a button on the elevator to begin the decent into the ship.
"Run run little piggies...The wolf is on the hunt and it is hungry..."
There was a split second of stillness before the sound of metal snapping came from above them. The elevator dropped like a stone downward into the shaft, making all inside unwilling start floating in the air as gravity once again, decided to leave them. Blizzard let out a loud shriek as her armored head hit the roof, sending her head throbbing as well as giving the others small migraines due to her shriek. Steel simply held onto the sides as the weight of his armor held him down.
Gearbox watched from where he was in the air as the floor counter ticked down incredibly fast. It was about to reach the lower double digits when he called out.
"Brace for impact!"
CRASH!
Everyone fell to the floor as gravity returned to them with a terrible vengeance. Once the elevator hit the bottom floor, it deformed and twisted the corners inward. Steel was thrown to the ground like the others but suffered much less due to the dampeners and cushioning of his armor, same with Gearbox but only slightly less and his arms were damaged from the whiplash however. The others weren't so lucky. Orion slammed down first and barely caught himself from hitting the floor face first, his armor rattling as he got back up and attempted to fix it, for it had gotten loose in the fall.
The Dust twins hit next, Diamond had just about the same amount of luck as Orion, by catching herself almost perfectly...almost by being that Blizzard managed landed right on top of her and brought her down into a pile as well as knocking the breath out of both of them. When Diamond got up, her sister slid off her back and landing on the floor with a loud clunk. Blizzard looked up at her twin with a sheepish smile from the floor, Diamond returned with a glare of annoyance with a but helped her twin up anyway.
Striker hit third (counting the twins as one) she was the most unlucky one, she hit the ground face first, nearly knocking her out cold. Her visor cracked rendering her HUD useless. Large shards burst, luckily for Striker, outward into the elevator floor tho a few managed to hit her face. Spritze landed last, she simply just hit the ground, getting a few bruises despite her medical armor.
"By the gods that hurt," Blizzard commented as she rubbed her armored head.
"Very," Returned Spritze, "I hope we won't be going on anymore elevators while we are on this ship," She looked about before moving the small distance to Striker. Strikers' bleeding face met Spritze and she winced in pity for the poor sniper. "It be alright Mein Fruend. I will patch you right up," she said as she made to get her tweezers out from her kit with magic.
Striker winced as some blood trickled onto her lips, forcing her instinctively to lick it and earning her a much hated iron taste in her mouth. She sat down and took her helmet off so that Spritze can better get the shards. Striker's attention was stolen as she saw Steel forcing open the doors with his hooves before wincing as Spritze got the first shard of many out of her face and tossing it to the side with no one there. Striker held still, tho occasionally wincing as more shards were pulled out. She watched as the others pilled out of the elevator through the now open door. Gearbox was sitting down and had moved his arm to the front of him and was now attempting to fix it. Striker silently watched him...daydreaming as she sat still.
Spritze noticed her gaze and smiled. "You love him?" she asked quietly so that the others can't overhear and as she plucked out another shard.
"Hmm? Oh! I-I yea...I-I do," she stuttered and winced slightly as she looked back and forth from the Tech-Trooper and the Medic with her eyes.
"Oh don't be so nervous, Mein Fruend. Plus I can tell if anypony has a thing for somepony else," she pointed out as Striker looked back to her curious, "I have seen many relationships to know the faces of lovers and I know he has something for you, most definitely. Based on that face I see him giving you sometimes when you aren't looking," another shard out, and a incredulous look from Striker. "Take my advice, don't take too long in daydreaming about what you could do, do what you want to do now and take it slow," another shard, "Or else you could mess up badly or, it may just go well it just depends on how you guys feel and how fast you want your relationship to go," she pulled out the last shard and threw to the side as it landing among the rest and looked into Strikers' lightning yellow eyes, "So if you ever need some more advice, just come to me. I'll be there for you," Spritze finished with a smile as she gave Striker a T.R.S in the neck to heal the cuts.
Striker nodded after the dose was injected and smiled back, "Thanks Spritze."
"No problem," she replied with a smile and a pat to the neck where the T.R.S was injected.
"Hey! You gals coming? We're moving out," informed Diamond as she poked her head back in the ruined elevator.
"Yea, we are," replied Striker. Diamond nodded and walked off as the duo in the elevator got up to follow.
Once they stepped out and met up with the rest of the squad in a 'T' section of the hallway. The way down the middle lead deeper into the ship center as well as the left. The right hall however, lead to the Engine room, one of their objectives. They could tell where it led by the slightly glowing signs at the corners of the halls mostly and by sense of direction.
Striker and Spritze walked in onto a conversation that Steel and Gearbox were having when they got near, "....Restoring power would be extremely beneficial for us, lighting up the halls and making many doors able to be open," Gearbox pointed out.
Steel hummed in thought, "But if we get to the armory first, and it has a emergency generator inside for the doors and to keep the weapons stored, we can get some useful munitions there. Not to mention the generator's power could be transferred elsewhere."
Gearbox nodded but at the same time disagreed with Steel, "The engine would restore power everywhere, like I said before, we may not even need to transfer power with the Armory Generator."
"Yes, it would...but what if the Engine room's doors are shut? We can go to the Armory to restore the door's power."
Gearbox remained silent.
Steel let out a sigh and scanned the rest of the squad, looking into their eyes through the visors. Releasing another sigh, he made his choice, "Alright, we'll go to the Engine room...Then, we go to the Armory. Understood?"
"Yes sir."
Steel nodded, "Good, now lets move out," he orders before moving down the hall towards the Engine room with the others shortly in tow behind him or next to.
The Engine room door slid open with a hiss and the sound of pistons as the Squad moved in expertly, their lights illuminating the large Reactor room that powered the ship. Gearbox just about immediately went to the console in front of them that greeted them, which hummed and glowed a soft yellow in the darkness, and went to work on the systems. Instantly, red alerts popped up on the screen causing him to frown in disappointment, before selecting each one to view where and what they came from.
"We got some problems with the Reactor," Gearbox informed as he clicked away to another error, "They need to be fixed in order for the Reactor to even work safely."
Diamond moved over to his side to look at the screen as well, "What should we fix first then?"
"Well, maybe the first thing to fix is a leak in the fuel containers. We can't have them leaking. Not very safe obviously," he replied.
Diamond hummed in thought before speaking, "Do you want to come with us, you're the expert on this stuff."
Gearbox was silent for a second as he typed and thought, "Yes, I will come with you all of course, just let me see the other malfunctions before we go," he informed.
She nodded and moved off back to her sister's side. Blizzard had her Magi-Rifle at the ready next to her neck. Diamond made a face of concern, "You alright? You've been acting quite weird lately as well," she asked.
Blizzard turned to her twin with a sigh, "I don't know...It's just..." she paused to look back into the darkness of the Reactor room, "Something feels wrong here...I can tell by how my mane and coat feels like it's on ends."
Diamond hummed and looked outwards as well, getting the same feeling from the dark, "I know what ya mean, sis. I feel it too."
"Something bad is gonna happen," Blizzard exclaimed to her, I just know it!"
Diamond grabbed her sister around the neck in a hug and smiled reassuringly, "If anything happens to you, I'll make sure to make to experience it too with ya. Cause ya know; we're twins!"
Blizzard smiled at that, "Thanks twin sister."
"Your welcome twin sister."
"Alright. Lets move," came Gearbox's voice as he moved ahead of them. They followed Gearbox as they made their way to the Fuel Containers, their lights lighting up the surrounding areas and crevices between the parts of the Reactor.
They arrived at the leak a few moments later. It being found by the blueish dripping at a rather alarming rate onto the floor. Gearbox held up a hoof to stop them before they stepped into the fluid.
The said fluid was toxic and could easily soak into the boots of most of the members of the squad, but Steel and Gearbox's heavy armored boots could withstand it for a time. The Blue Gel (which is made mostly of dangerous magical-chemical properties) is able to pass through certain materials, like the basic armor the Troopers wear, but the reinforced plates of the power armor that was given to many Tech-Troopers and Centurions, could stand in it for a while. If one were to come in contact with it, they would undergo a sickness before ultimately dying or their bodies would transform into a horrific mutation before dying, that's one of the worst ways, some mercifully die from cancer tumors. The metal containment unit was specially made for this purpose in mind alone.
But it also generated ridiculous amounts of power for the ship.
The squad stood around Gearbox as he moved quickly and lightly over the Blue Gel, keeping a careful eye on the darkness surrounding and trapping them. For a few moments, nothing was happening; only the soft humming of the ship and the still working monitors around the inside of the room, and the occasional sounds from Gearbox.
Orion was gazing outward past another fuel container nearby when the faint sound of movement came from the right. Instinctively, he turned to that area of the sound source, his Rife at the ready.
Despite the headlamp from his helmet, the darkness still kept him from seeing fully in front of him. He squinted and leaned forward slightly in hopes of seeing better.
What he got was instead a single shrill shriek then shortly after, more answered it in return in multiple pitches.
His eyes went wide as he stepped backward, his mane and coat standing on ends as well as the others, as they made a slightly tighter circle.
"What the fuck was that?" Blizzard exclaimed into the Coms link, not taking her eyes off the darkness surrounding them.
Even Gearbox paused his ministrations on the repair to look around, eyes narrowed under his helmet, "I don't know...but it don't sound good."
Orion scoffed, "Ya think?"
"Shush, everypony quiet. Keep your eyes open for any movement," Steel ordered in their Coms link.
On a sudden whim that had taken over her, Striker looked upwards towards the wall on her right side, where a container of some of the fluid was stored. Her still working headlamp crawling up it. It caught a pale orange leg of a creature as it fled from the location where her light stopped, Striker barely saw it before it was gone. When she did, she stared at the spot it had fled, watching as if it would make a return. Few seconds later, she took a shuddering breath before looking back ahead in front of her.
Gearbox had finally finished the repair and made his way to a nearby console for fuel control. The sound of him tapping away filled the air around them. "Well, I got some good and bad news," he said after some time.
"Whats the good news?" Steel asked, not looking back at him.
"Well, the ship is falling towards the planet," a small gasp of shock was heard from Blizzard, "Slowly, might I add," he reassured in response to her, "but if we can get back to the bridge we can turn on the orbit stabilizers and stop it from hitting the planet," he said as he continued typing away.
"Well...Whats the 'good news' then?" Diamond asked.
"That was the good news."
Steel frowned under his helmet, "So whats the bad news then?"
Gearbox sighed, "The ship will enter planet-fall in around...47 hours-ish," he answered.
"47 hours? That is a pretty decently long time actually," Spritze remarked.
"Somewhat, but the ship will slowly pick up speed as it starts to fall, most certainly shortening our time that we have now. I'm getting this from a damn BG transfer console. I'm surprised I can even get this info myself," he replied. "Oh, and the power is coming online soon, we just needed to fix this one leak apparently," he informed. "Should be on in a few minutes."
Orion grunted, "Less work for us to do."
"Indeed," Steel agreed, "Let us get out of here and to the armory," he ordered.
The rest of them needed no other reason to leave the Reactor.
When they arrived at the armory, the power had come back on around midway. Lighting up the halls and dispersing the darkness. Right when they arrived at the door to the armory, it was online and able to be opened. With another hiss, the doors slid open letting them through. What greets them is a armor clad red and copper Centurion, hunched over and deathly still in the corner of the room.
Spritze looked around before landing her eyes on the Centurion. Blood covered most of the tables, with some splattered on the walls above and the floors bellow. The blood, trailed all the way to the Centurion hunched in the corner.
"Umm...A-Am I the only one getting a bad feeling about this?" Striker fidgeted on her hooves uneasily at the sight of the blood trail ending.
Steel and most of the rest of the squad, froze when they heard the body release a raspy breath. The Centurion shifted before getting up, not without difficulty, and stood on its hooves in a awkward position. The pony turned to face them and reviled a sight that will haunt the squad for years to come as well as making them realizing that the red is not actually paint;
His armor was dented outwards and inwards as if something was trying to get out of it, and as if it had seen combat at the same time. In some places, the dents had holes where it leaked deep red blood, mostly dried up now. His helmet was the worst of all; the places where the view-ports would be was shattered and showed darkness, as if there was nopony inside as well as it looked like it was crying blood. The bottom part of the helmet was torn open to show a terrifying maw of flesh and teeth, which dripped blood tinted saliva onto the floor.
It took in a deep breath before it let loose a primal roar, red saliva spraying everywhere before charging the Squad at full speed.
Steel was first to collect himself and acted quickly by lifting and flipping a table and slamming it into the living nightmare.
A split second after, the rest of the Squad broke out of their daze and split up to opposite sides of the room, as Steel halted the beast in the middle with the steel table. After stopping the charge, Steel gave a powerful buck to the table with the beast behind it, shoving it back. As soon as the thing slid to the middle, the Squad opened fire upon it.
Sadly, their Magi-Rifles only dinged the armor of the Centurion and enraged it further.
It growled loudly before leaping at the nearest Trooper: Orion.
Orion released a extremely mare-like shriek, as the beast made a surprisingly nimble move at him. He leaped out of the way of the once-pony with only mil-seconds to spare. Once he moved, he shot off a few shots at the face of the beast, earning a bellow of anger. Orion had a smile on his face that fell instantly when the nightmare made another leap at him.
This time, it landed.
Orion was sent flying across the room like a rag-doll into a locker full of weapons from the headbutt and was knocked out cold before he even hit the locker. His body getting covered by Rifles and guns.
Steel swore under his breath and brought his Magi-Cannon to bear. His was a more powerful version than that the others had, but was much more heavier. He got lucky when the beast turned to charge him as well, time slowed for him as he took his shot. Rainbow beams dinged off the armor of the beast majestically and harmlessly into the floor or wall. It opened its maw to bite him as it leaped.
He fired right into it.
The beam shot right through and bounced off the back of the inside of the helmet with a wet splat and the gushing of blood and gore out of the hole and back out onto the floor, leaving a scorched spot in the steel. The beast slammed to the ground near Steel as gravity took over, its maw now pulp as its blood spread all over the floor. Shortly after his Rifle cooled from the concentrated shot, Steel looked at the dead Centurion. Studying it contently.
Meanwhile, Spritze ran to Orions' side as he was waking back up and pushed off some weapons that had fallen out of the locker. She made a small smile, "Welcome back from dreamland," she joked sourly.
Orion frowned at her then grimaced in pain as she administered a pain killer.
Diamond walked over to Steel and looked at the corpse of what they had been fighting just moments ago. Blizzard herself was over by Spritze and Orion as well as Striker. "So.....What you think it is?" she asked.
"Not too sure," Steel replied with a small shake of his head, "I'm going to have Spritze take a look at it."
Diamond nodded softly, "That would be best. I've never seen anything like this before..."
"Same here. Something is going on, and we have to find out."
Diamond was silent for a moment as they stood around the body. "What should we call it?" she asked finally and further explained, "So we can call one out."
"Maybe a Brute?" called Orion, he let out a soft groan, "Cuz it sure as fuck hurts like one."
The squad explored the somewhat small armory. Spritze found a medical storage, which she gladly helped herself to fill their packs with TRS; the extras are ether left behind or put into easy to reach pockets for emergency while in combat.
The Dust twins found a cache of ammo near the back of the room. Only problem was; the ammo was almost completely gone as well as discovering spent Magi-Gems on the floor next to a bloodstained Rifle. They gathered up what ammo there was and carried it out onto the tables for sorting.
Orion, after recovering, but still with a slightly throbbing head, searched the unlocked lockers. Finding random items along with a few unique weapons. One locker that was open, he found a Type 133 Pistol, along with the rounds it used in a box next to it. It had a sleek black look to it, with silver lining. The weapon had a shiny grip that was seemed out of place with most of the weapons; due to the fact that it was a unicorn exclusive weapon. The mag was a 14 shot and was fed into through the top of the pistol. Out of curiosity, Orion looked at the bottom of the grip to find a production code, only to find a name printed in its place:
Victoria.
He hummed softly as he levitated the gun in front of him and loaded it with a fresh mag and aimed down the sights. He put the gun onto his spare holster, opposite of his Rifle, where he could reach it easily. He turned to look at the name on the locker from where he got the gun and grunted at it.
Capt. Firefall
Gearbox moved about to the nearby terminals, exploring their contents for any clues for what had happened on the ship a few days ago. There were no logs that could provide good info about it, other than the fact the Troopers had been growing extremely suspicious of the scientists. If the logs saying "muffled shrieks and gunshots from within" was any indication. After a while he just moved away to help the Dust twins with the ammo.
Steel stood guard and watched them work near the closed door. Raising a armored hoof to his view, he inspected it with calm that still felt alien even to him. With a sigh, he dropped his hoof and resumed watching over them.....
BANG!
Everypony in the armory jumped in place and stared at the door at the sound that came from it. The door had a dent in it like a being threw itself into it. Steel moved backwards behind the flipped table that was used in the fight against the Centurion as more bangs and dents came from the door. Diamond was moving around giving everypony a few spare mags for their weapons. When she finished, she moved to a area of cover and steadied her aim at the door as a multitude of shrieks came from it.
The door started to have a focused point of the dents in the middle. Slowly, the door cracked open to show a being charging into the door the final time. The door burst open as the monsters came charging in.
The Troopers opened fire as they pored through the breach; they threw themselves at the Troopers only to be stopped short by a rainbow beam to the face.
The monsters were extremely pony-like in body, and that's where the comparisons stopped. Their jaws had split into a mouth of sharp teeth, bloodied and dripping, capable of tearing through bone with ease. The eyes were a black void, with only a tiny iris with the color as the once pony's eye color. Many of them had bulges coming out of their coat, they were clear and see through other than the contents inside of it, which pulsed with a light yellow. They were all sorts of colors only it looked more pale then normal.
Steel figured if they could damage the door like that, they can easily hurt him and Gearbox if they got swarmed. His Heavy rifle flashed a charged beam bigger than the rest and it shot straight through the head of a lime green colored monster who looked to be once a unicorn mare, and hit a few more behind it splattering gore and flesh onto the ones charging and shrieking before hitting the far wall of the hallway outside.
Blizzard let out a shriek of fear as one managed to get close to her. Orion hit it with the butt of his Rifle in his magic, knocking the monster over with a squeal of pain before shooting it in the face. Looking up, he saw three of them converging on his position, with more behind.
Blizzard managed to start firing back after clicking a fresh Gem into her Rifle chamber. She managed to shoot down one of them charging Orion before having to fire elsewhere.
Orion made a ready stance as one leaped at him. Bringing his rifle up, he fired into the open mouth of the flying beast and quickly moved to the side to avoid the body landing on him. The second one had a blood stained lab coat, just charged at him with its horn. Orions' eyes opened wide in shock as it slammed into him, the horn barely getting through his armor, but the hard hit made his head throb again and forced him to drop his Rifle. He grunted as he landed on his back with the beast on top. He blocked a bite with his right foreleg, the teeth sinking into the armor and to his flesh, making him cry out in pain as blood spewed forth from the holes around the teeth. It's head shook back and forth, as if trying to tear off his altogether leg.
It never got to, thanks to a shot from Blizzard to its pale yellow head made it drop limply onto Orion and cover his visor in blood. He pried his hoof free from the jaws and shoved the body off him, giving a nod of thanks to Blizzard as he picked up his Rife again, wincing in pain as he put weight on his bleeding leg as he fired once more.
It felt like hours when it was really minutes, when the swarm finally stopped; leaving bloodied and mutilated bodies around the entrance of the door. They remained in their spots for a little while longer before finally moving about, sure that it was safe for now. Striker and the twins moved about the bodies, searching them for any useful items, wiping off the blood on the ones they do find.
Spritze was with Orion. Attempting to stop the bleeding wound on his leg. She hummed softly as her magic looped around the holes, almost instantly becoming crimson with blood. Her medic white armor was stained with blood splotches, mostly around her helmet and neck. She saw out of the corner of her vision, Orion staring at her for a while before watching her work on his leg.
Orion was thankful for Spritze patching him up...but he really was not sure how to express it, mostly due to the fact that others are around and could hear him. "That would make me look weak," he breathed out softly.
"Hmm?" Spritze responded still watching her work carefully and occasionally pressing down to tighten it.
Orion held back a wince at a sting of pain, "Nothing," he said quickly, looking at the three searching the bodies. He felt Spritze skeptical gaze on his head as he looked.
Orion felt a tight pull and a rather large sting on his leg. He looked down to see Spritze finish patching him up. She looked at him with a small smile, "Anything else hurting?" she asked.
"Nothing else."
"Good, don't want you to die on me while we walk," she commented as she got up. She turned and offered a hoof to Orion.
Orion looked at the gesture and took it with his unhurt hoof. She grunted as he rose to his hooves, he made a small nod of thanks to her and walked off with a small limp.
Steel and Gearbox were outside of the armory watching the halls for any incoming 'Lurkers', as they decided to call them, due to the fact that they "lurk about on the ship". There was occasional ones turning the corners and attempting to charge them, only to turn into a mess of gore with their combined fire.
Some time later, the squad was on the move again, this time; to the stairs to advance to the next level of the ship. Orion was dragging a bit behind due to his leg.
"Come on, Orion," Striker called out as they went up.
Orion grunted softly at her as he scratched his bandages at an itch that had started shortly after they left the armory as he followed them upwards.
"I am the sword that strikes down the tyrant. I am the soul of the IPE and the heart of my people."- Empress Black Rose.
"This ain't too bad," Blizzard commented as she walked along on the left-rear side of Steel.
Steel grunted, "Say that now, just wait till later. Who else knows what could have came out of this hell damned ship?" he replied as he shot a charging Lurker, turning its head into red-pink mist that slowly settled to the floor.
Spritze fired a shot at another Lurker that was charging from behind them with a soft 'pish' of her rifle, "We are lucky at the moment that they have not decided to form a horde and attack."
"I swear if you jinx that shit, you will never hear the end of it," growled Orion as he scratched his bandage.
She turned to him, clearly irritated at his actions, "Stop scratching your wound or YOU will not hear the end of it from me," she countered, sending Orion grumbling into the radio.
"But it fuckin itches...."
Diamond rolled her eyes and followed Steel on his right, keeping her rifle ready to fire. They passed a number of doors that had been closed, open or simply shredded open. The latter showing signs of a quick fight for whatever unfortunate soul that was once inside. Those that were closed were stopped at and opened, to check for any signs of life. If none they moved on. One door they came to that was closed, when opened showed two corpses on opposite sides of the room. One was a armored Lurker that had been shot up and bled to death via the viewport. The other being a brown stallion with a spent Magi-Pistol and a combat knife on ether sides of him.
"Ah shit. That's a bad way to go." Striker commented as she noticed the slit throat.
Spritze had moved over to the body and was gathering blood into vials, "Indeed. He was hurt badly in the fight so it seems.....not sure why he would have killed himself though..."
Spritze has been analyzing the blood she collected from the stallion and the Lurker guard, she found that the Lurker had small spots of a yellow-green bacteria on its blood cells, while the stallion had some as well, but not on every single one.
But it still struck her as to why the bacteria was in his blood too, only in smaller amounts. She would need a proper lab to better figure it out, she decided, though it might be more obvious what the answer is.
She stepped over a Lurker they had slain when her radio started fuzzing suddenly. Looking towards the rest of them, she saw they were having the same problem, if the confused looks on their faces was any sign. A sudden pop made just about everyone jerk to one side before the fuzzing cleared up and somepony started talking through it;
"Hello? Is anypony on this channel?"
"Who are you? And how'd you get on this channel? This channel should be locked and only able to be reached by us and us alone," Steel demanded, his voice gone instinctively hard.
"Whoa now, calm down soldier. I'm just looking for anypony who was still alive on this ship," the voice replied. "Don't worry about who I am right now; you have a rather large horde of them coming your way-" As if to prove the voice's point; a howl and the thundering of hooves came from the hall ahead of the squad, getting their attention as the voice continued, "I'm able to get you to a safer area for ya'll to wait for them to pass. There are simply too many for you to fight."
"We can take them!" Orion boasted with a stomp of his hoof. He grunted as pain shot up it.
"Not with that wound you can. Look...just head to this location I've marked on your HUDs. Then we can possibly talk some more there, the location I've marked is one of the many Shipcom stations. From there we can talk much easier; if it is still in working order."
A soft ping was heard from the radio and on the HUDs of the squad (excluding Striker), a small blip popped up to the left of them.
"Good luck, and don't engage the horde!" the voice ordered before cutting out.
A few moments of silence, other than the faint sounds of Lurkers, surrounded the squad before Steel made the first move down the hallway; following his HUD. The others behind him looked at each other and Diamond shrugged before following behind Steel.
Some time later, they came across the doors to the ShipCom room. The bright gold and white sign flickered as they approached. The doors hissed open as Gearbox activated them on the console nearby, also unintentionally turning on everything inside.
Everything.
"Waahhaa!" Blizzard shrieked as she dove behind cover and the rainbow beams scorched the ground where she stood before. The others followed behind her and found cover in the hallway or behind some consoles near the door.
"What the fuck is that?!" Striker shouted and ducked as some of the beams hissed overhead in response to her shout.
"Kkkzz-Come o-ut with yo-Kzzz-apons on th-kzzz-so you ca-kzzz-ie quicker!"
Gearbox dared to look out from where he was hiding behind the doorway, his eyes widened in more shock than amazement as he found out what their enemy is.
It's scratched and dented pony-like head turned to face him along with its right Magi-Cannon, spraying the air and door frame with rainbow light. "The-kkzzz-ress will take del-kzzz- in your death!" It's voice sang out over the screech of metal on metal, as it dragged itself closer with its only two remaining legs.
"It's a fucking Guardian! What the hell is one of these things doing on the ship?!" Gearbox shouted while taking small potshots ineffectively at the damaged body of the said bot.
"I don't know, and I fucking don't care! I just want it dead!" Orion bellowed as he ran behind a console and hid from the beams heating the air behind him. Mid-roll, Orion's bandaged hoof smashed into the console, making him hiss in pain and lose his focus on his magic. His rife dropped with a clatter outside his cover without the magic holding it, and almost instantly got turned to slag by the Guardian.
"Watch it! Even wounded it's still deadly," yelled Gearbox to Orion after he saw his rifle glued to the floor by itself.
Orion groaned, opened his bags and levitated out Victoria, "Well, how'd you figure that out?" he yelled back as he smoothly injected a mag into the pistol.
"Well," began Gearbox as he inserted a new mag into his own rifle, "Considering that we are getting shot at by a bot that is a higher than Steel here; I can estimate a rather small chance of winning," Diamond frowned at him from across the doorway. Gearbox noticed and quickly asserted himself, "We could win easily if there was a miracle, which I highly doubt will happen," Diamond made a face.
"Well you're the egghead here! How do we kill it? We can at least try," Blizzard replied, finally saying something after her earlier exclamation.
Gearbox was silent as he thought, "There is a panel on the back of its head, it's used for recharging. It's less armored than that of the rest of it, a few shots there could short it out and 'kill it'," he informed them.
"Alright you heard him; get behind it and shoot its head," Steel ordered and made his move to another console. He was nearly right on the Guardian, it was only a few more feet away.
"Why are there so many damned consoles?! I mean I know this is a Shipcom room, but damn!" Striker complained out loud.
Orion moved quickly and lightly. The giant bot was still focused on the rest of his squad and blared out insults, unaware of Orion's doing. He was nearly behind it when he tripped on something, luckily not getting the bot's attention thanks to the noise of combat. Swearing silently before shutting up completely at what he tripped on.
And smiled in glee.
"Di-kzzz-Die tyrannic minions!" the Guardian taunted as it turned a console into semi-slag as one of the intruders hid behind it. It heard another one talking and fired upon its location. The bot felt like the ship was under attack by the Equestrian Navy, considering the ponies that attacked it. Even if the said ponies attacked in a very unorthodox, but effective, manner.
"Hey motherfucker!"
The Guardian turned around on a axis from his waist to face the voice's source; the voice came from a armored pony with a bloodied bandage on its right fetlock standing on its rear legs. Scanning the large device being held in its grip awkwardly with its fore-hooves, finding out that it was its' torn off arm cannon. It only had a short time before he fired-
"Meet Boom Boom."
FWOOM!
-right through its chest.
The cannon shot sent the weapon flying from Orion's grip backwards onto the floor. He yelped as he lost his balance and fell behind the console he was standing on, the cannon's unexpected kick knocking him back. His right leg narrowly avoided being landed on.
"Kzzz-ress forgi-kzzz-I-kzz-"
CLANG!
The rest of the squad got up from where they had been taking cover and looked at the bot slumped over; a sparking hole was drilled right through it's torso. The crumpled shell of what caused the damage was on the floor a few inches away, in a small dent in the floor.
They were spreading out when Gearbox hollered out into the radio, "Watch it! It could enter Last Stand mode!" he warned to them.
They all froze and stared at the sparking and fizzling wreck in wait for the warning Gearbox gave to come true.
.....
.....
.....
"Somehow, I don't think it will enter that mode, I think I shot it pretty good..." commented Orion as he stood up with a groan from where he was behind the console. Spritze instantly ran over to him and asked if he was hurt in any way and pushed him to sit back down. "I'm fine doc, just knocked the air out of me. Didn't think it would kick that hard," he reassured her.
Spritze frowned as she continued to check him out, especially his right leg, "Still, that knock-back can cause some heavy damage to your bandaged leg, mostly due to how you were holding it," she paused and stared at him in confusion, "Plus...how the hell could you even pick up that cannon?"
"Ehhhh...luck?" he smiled sheepishly, making Spritze roll her eyes. He spotted Steel moving over to him.
"How you holdin up, Lt?" he asked as he watched her work on Orion's leg.
Orion grunted as Spritze wrapped new bandages around his leg, tugging to make sure to tighten it firmly, "Little winded but alright, sir," he replied with a smile.
"Good," Steel's eyes narrowed from under his helmet, "Where's your rifle?" he asked. Orion pointed to the half-slagged rifle on the floor casually, only the barrel was unscathed as it pointed upward at an angle.
Steel turned back to Orion, "You need another gun? We should have a spare..."
"Nah it's fine," he levitated out the beautiful pistol that caught both Steels' and Spritze attention, "I got Victoria," he said with a smile.
"That's a mighty nice gun trooper. Where'd you get it?" Steel asked as Spritze went back to work on his leg, making the finishing touches.
Orion watched Spritze work before for a second answering, "I got it from the lockers in the armory. It's a pretty rare gun...only like, 50 of them were made. Each one had their own special buffs to them, I believe, thanks to the unicorn enchantment on them," Orion watched Steel take it and observe it in his hooves and answering the question that Steel was about to ask, "I have no clue what this one does....Haven't fired it yet."
Steel observed it some more before giving it back to him, which he in turn put it safely back in it's holster. Steel left them with a nod and got one in return from Orion. He walked over to Gearbox and the twins as they stood around some consoles.
"Press 11 now Diamond," Gearbox ordered and the click of a key was his answer. He pressed a few keys on his before telling another order to Blizzard; "Press three Blizzard," he told her and heard the click of a key to his right.
Steel walked to the front of the console that Gearbox was working on. "How goes the ShipCom controls?" he asked.
Without missing a beat at Steels' question as he worked, he answered; "Should be ready in three minutes. After that you can see who is the voice on that screen over there," he informed and pointed to a screen in the middle, right above and behind the Guardian wreckage.
Steel nodded in understanding, "Alright, I'll leave you three to it," he said as he moved toward the open door where Striker was standing guard in the doorway.
"Nothing yet sir," she informed in their own radio as she heard him coming.
"Am I really that loud?" he asked while switching to her radio.
"Hah, very. I'm surprised myself that the twins didn't tell ya that themselves. Considering that they are bat-ponies with the superior ears," she commented as she watched the hallway.
Steels' face scrunched, even though Striker couldn't see it, "I need to eat less I guess all them good snacks they give us are really making me fat," he jested with a smile.
Striker giggled at him, "What they feed you sweets or something?"
"Somewhat."
She hummed in thought as she looked outward, "Sneak some for me will ya? I wanna try some...." she asked with a smirk.
"I'll see what I can do...no promises though..." he returned with a smile.
"Hey Steel! Got the ShipCom online. Go ahead and stand in front of my console," Gearbox informed over the radio as he looked at him from across the room and around the Guardian.
Steel nodded goodbye to Striker before moving the said position. He watched the static on the screen and frowned, "You said that it's online, Gear."
"It is... It's just trying to find the signal," Gearbox replied as he watched the TV as well. "Should be anytime now."
Orion and Spritze had come around and stood behind the consoles with Gearbox to watch with the others. Orion, his right hoof now bandaged, had dragged the Cannon he had fired and was now tinkering with it. He removed the parts of the cannon that still had parts of the bot on it, those were able to be removed without damaging the gun, while the ones unable to be, would stay there. The remaining shells were on the floor, safely covered in a cloth.
He was modifying the handle when Blizzard came over to watch him; her twin sister was back with Striker at the door, chatting with her while keeping a lookout.
Blizzard watched him remove a plate and move around the wires inside. "What you doing?" she asked as he bolted the cover back on after fondling with the wires.
He groaned in annoyance, "What's it look like I'm doin?" he snarled as he found a spare part and began to take it off with a screwdriver, attempting to ignore her.
Her eyes widened at his sudden hostile tone, "Whoa chill. I'm just asking what you are doing. No reason to get all mad."
He set the tool down to pry off the part, groaning softly as he put pressure on his bandaged hoof, deciding to not use his magic, "Just...leave me alone. I want to work in quiet," he replied as the part was thrown to the side with a clang as it impacted the other pieces on the floor.
Blizzard was silent as she watched him work. Pieces or metal being torn off and put to the side along with a few wires. He attempted to lift it in his magic grip, straining as the mighty gun barely lifted off the table. He set it down, sweating.
"What if you rem-"
"Go the fuck away, Blizzard!"
She flinched under his angry gaze when he turned on her and the force of his words as it assaulted her fluffy but covered ears. She started to back up, watching him before turning around completely.
Blizzard moved to Gearboxs' side as he watched the console screen as it searched for a signal. He grunted acknowledgement at Blizzard's appearance, even though they weren't in their own radio.
"What was that?" Steel asked in response to the sound that just came from Gearbox.
"Nothing. I'm just making a simple reactionary noise to Blizzard coming up beside me," he informed as the console made a soft 'ping!'
Steel turned at the sound of the screen static ending as he turned on his voice transmitter. The screen showed a Stallion with glasses and a lab coat with Silver and copper symbol of a Syringe filled with a lime green fluid on the shoulder, that can barely be seen on the screen. He had a white coat with purple and red hair. Behind him, near the walls, were containers and before that; tables with beakers and alchemy items.
"Hello there. Finally I can speak with you all!" he exclaimed. He had a Northguard accent similar to the twins but overwhelmingly stronger. "I'm sure you had no trouble getting here right? With all those things walking about," he paused with a perplexed look and tilted his head to one side as he finally saw the wreckage of the Guardian.
"Hmp... how that get there?" he mumbled oblivious of the look he was getting from Orion.
Steel turned and looked at the Guardian and shrugged, "It was a tough fight but we managed," he replied as he watched the doctor's eyes go wide.
"You all killed that thing?" All visible nodded to him, "That's impressive, what ya use to kill it?" he asked.
Orion waved a hoof enough to get his attention before pointing to the large cannon on the table and saying, "We used it's own weapon on it...well, I did."
The stallion on screen nodded with a thoughtful look on his face, "Even more impressive, considering you were the one that killed it. I thought it would be the Centurion here," he looked at Orion quickly with a small smile, "No offence of course, but you don't look like someone who could lift that."
Orion chuckled, "None taken Doc, I impressed myself with that too," he started to rub his armor plates on his neck to scratch his coat under.
Gearbox came into view of the doctor on screen with wide eyes from around the wreckage of the bot, "I know that voice! You're Headmaster Heartfelt Heart of the CSD of this ship," he exclaimed with a slight smile.
The Headmaster blinked in slight shock at someone knowing his name despite never saying it, "Yes...It seems I am," he raised a brow at Gearbox, "How'd ya know my name and my Division?" he asked curiously.
Gearbox saw the others look at him too with similar faces, "I found a log on the computers talking about you," he explained.
Harp hummed in thought, "Is that so?" Gearbox nodded curtly, "Then how did you know what I sounded like? Much less looked like?"
"There were a few RECCards that had your voice in them, and your look...." he paused as he shrugged making his armor clink and his extra limbs move about, "Lucky guess? There were no videos."
The Headmaster nodded understanding, "I guess that would work, plus I know of your works as well,"he said with a wink. He turned his head to look at Steel next, who was standing patiently. "So, Steel Rain?" he asked for confirmation which he got with a silent nod, "Where does you and your squad come from, first off," he asked as he moved a few things around.
"We come from the Battleship Carmina Burana, in response to the distress call we got from this ship," he paused to watch Harp move things about before he got a wave from a hoof to continue, "Our squad number is: 548. With Gearbox as our Tech-Trooper, Privates Blizzard and Diamond Dust, Lt. Orion over there by the gun, Spritze our medic, and Lightning Striker our sniper tho without the said weapon." he pointed out pointing to the respective owners of the names even tho some are not visible from Harp's perspective. "Are there any more survivors that you have met?"
Harp put a hoof to his chin in thought, "Afraid not for certain. But I've been getting a number of alerts up here once you turned the power back on. I've been checking some of the cameras from here, but not all of them. You need a proper Security station for that of course. The nearest on-,"
"Can you mark one or a few so we can check it out?" Steel asked, cutting him off.
Harp Frowned slightly at being cut off before nodding and turning away to work at a nearby computer, "Yes. I should be able to from here," a few notifications popped up for the troopers as Harp listed all known locations. "That's all the locations I know at the moment, but I can try to search for more as you go around the ship," he pointed out as he continued to click away.
"Thank you doctor."
Harp smiled when he turned back to the screen, "Of course Centurion. You will need all the help you can get to stop this," He spotted and frowned in concern at Orion scratching furiously at the right side of his neck with a look of pain and annoyance on his face.
Steel also noticed, as the plates made a scratching noise on his under armor. "You alright Orion?"
Orion stopped and gave Steel a look that clearly expressed how he felt about that question. He wiped his face clean as the scratching started again.
"There is a small guard station down the hall to the left. So you can see what's wrong yourself," Harp suggested.
Orion looked to Steel for permission, which he got with a nod.
Moving forward and past Striker as she watched him go down the hall. Striker frowned and called after him through the radio, "You need someone to come with you, Lt.?" She saw him shake his head silently. "Alright then...if you die it's on you...obviously," she said as she looked to the right hall.
Orion turned to make sure she was not looking at him before picking up his speed before turning the corner and entering the guard station door, which was a green and dark blue chrome. When he entered the room, which was not that big, he shut the door behind him with the panel before slumping against the wall panting, suddenly getting tired.
After some time recollecting his breath, he proceeded to take off his armor to see the itch that's been bugging him. Setting his helmet down he began to undo the straps under his pits to take off the shoulder pad on his right. That came off with a click easily and he set it down next to his helmet. Next was the under armor, which was made of light but strong fabric. There was a hidden zipper under the foreleg, thankfully right before the wraps on his hoof, Orion grabbed it and dragged it upward to his neck. The itch intensified painfully and he let out a stifled groan
The cloth was still holding tightly to his arm as he held it out, resisting the urge to scratch it and his upper neck. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, and opening them when he exhaled as he moved his good hoof to pull away the under armor.
Gritting his teeth as the removal was strangely really painful, he was greeted with the sight of a sickly blue coat with his veins visible under it as pulsing light yellow lines. There were small bubbles of the yellow, as it trailed down to his bandaged area, getting more numerous as it got closer. His mouth had dropped as soon as he had seen the lines that are his veins. Curious, he looked at the inner part under armor and saw why it hurt so much-
The bubbles had mended with the cloth.
There were little pieces of the yellow fluid that was on it along with some disgusting parts of his skin under his coat. He winced in pain as he saw one of the missing parts of his coat with slightly discolored blood flowing outward, caking the surrounding fur.
Curious once again, he moved his good hoof to touch the bubbles and feel them. He gasped loudly as he touched his discolored and bumpy coat underneath with his hoof, as the world turned into a point in the middle of his vision before going pitch black.
Steel watched Orion leave the ShipCom room while scratching at his neck awkwardly.
"Is he alright?" he heard a voice directed towards him.
He looked up at the screen to see Harp's slightly worried face. He shrugged, "I just started noticing his change when we were walking around right before you contacted us. He was steadily more and more aggressive towards most of the squad and started scratching more furiously at himself," he explained. He noticed Harp's look on his face, "You know something doc?"
Harp hummed in thought while rubbing a hoof on his chin, "I'm not sure....Did he ever get attacked by one of the infected at all? Like, really closely?"
Spritze nodded as she chewed on a small protein bar she had fished from her pack while sitting on a chair, she swallowed before speaking, "Yes. He was jumped on in the armory we visited and the Lurker bit right through his armor and into his flesh. It took me a few minutes to starch the bleeding so he don't pass out while walking from blood loss."
The Headmaster's eyes when wide as the realization struck him and moved quickly away to work at the computer. Steel frowned at the sudden change in attitude, "Something wrong doc?"
Harp turned to face him with a crestfallen face as she shook his head at their possible blindness at Orions' state and replied plainly-
"The truth is always found out. Even when they lie and hide it extremely well the first time."- Mr. D.
A blinding, painful light was all Orion could see when he opened his eyes and dried, chapped lips what he could feel. Groaning and licking his lips to get them moist again as he blinked several times, each time the light getting slightly dimmer before he could fully see what was going on.
He felt the floor on his back and saw the pale gray roof and walls around him. Lifting his right hoof, he found it undamaged and completely in his armor, he lifted his other hoof as well to make sure as well.
"Guhh... Where the fuck am I?" he grunted out softly as sat up to get a better look around.
He was in a lab filled with doctors in shiny white lab coats, large vats of fluid stood tall near the wall, bubbling with chemicals. Tables covered with lab and science equipment, some with ponies working at them. Orion watched as they seemed so perfectly in sync, like a colony of ants, never once bumping into each other and always getting the job done.
Then something struck him odd.
Why do they not acknowledge him sitting on the floor?
The lab ponies were casually moving about and around him, even once going through him. For some reason almost all the ponies were blurred.
All but one.
A yellow unicorn mare in a lab coat, next to a lime green mare in the same attire, but holding a clipboard in her magic. They were talking quietly, from the distance he was sitting.
Getting up, a little woozy from the change, Orion made his way behind the two mares talking in front of a vat of light yellow liquid. Now behind them a few feet away, he could hear them more clearly.
"-aster would not approve of this, you know," the lime one said with a shake of her head.
The yellow one frowned, "I know, Ozone, but we need to hurry the trials or else we could run dry. Please! Do this for me?"
Ozone, as the lime mare was called, stared at the yellow one's pleading face before sighing in defeat, "Alright," the yellow one did a squee, "But this is your last chance. You can begin pony testing today with the EBW-7," she said as she wrote something down on her board.
The yellow one hugged Ozone, crushing the clipboard between them. Ozone seemed to have gone stiff at her contact and smiled weakly in embarrassment at some of the others that were starring. She patted the yellow one lightly on the head, before she broke the contact and walked off towards Orion where he was standing. She passed harmlessly through him and he turned his head to watch her exit through the door. When he turned back, he got the eyes of a curious yellow mare in his face squinting at him.
"GAH!" he yelled as he fell to his rump, his armor making a dull clang that none seemingly heard, other than Orion. He heard a gasp from the lab-mare in front of him and looked to see her holding a hoof to her mouth.
She began to reach out to him, "I'm so sorry, sir! I didn't mean to-"
She paused as her hoof went right though his own.
He shuddered at the disturbing feeling it produced. The mare was oblivious to his actions and did it again by moving her hoof upward this time, getting the same results. She moved her hoof downward to do it again-
"Stop that."
"Oops, sorry," she pulled her hoof away from him and set it back on the ground. She tilted her head at him as he stood back up, his armor clacking lightly. "Wh-Who are you?" she asked.
Orion looked at the mare from under his visor with an annoyed look, she flinched lightly at his gaze and he held a wince at causing that, clearing his throat, he spoke; "Name's Lt. Orion Blaze of Squad 548, of the Battleship Carmina Burana," she made a face. "What?"
"The Battleship is still under construction. It should not be airborne yet." She paused to gaze at his setup, "You ok, Lt.? Not suffering from any sickness you contracted are ya?"
Orion shook his head, "What do you mean by the ship is still being built? I'm from the ship itself and came onto here with my squad."
"The Battleship you said you came from; the Carmina Burana, is still under construction and has been so since the start of last year. Hmm..." she looked about among the lab ponies in thought before landing her eyes back on Orion. "Shall I take you to a ShipCom room? To find your squad of course," she recommended with a small smile.
Orion nodded curtly, deciding to follow along with it.
"Great! Now follow me," she trotted off towards the door. Orion looked around for a few seconds before moving to catch up with her.
The circular door opened with a hiss as the yellow mare stepped out with Orion in tow. The halls weren't particularly busy, with the occasional small group of either troopers or lab ponies. Orion shuddered as two troopers phased through him, the yellow mare noticed and looked at him.
"What was that?"
"I don't know. It's like everypony can't see me or feel me except for you, well maybe not feel me, but see me," he answered.
The mare looked forward again humming softly to herself, "What do you remember last? Before you got here I mean," she asked suddenly.
Orion blinked and looked down at the mare who was slightly shorter than him he noticed for the first time, "I remember taking off my armor in a guard station, because I was bit by some creature on the ship I was on, that used to be a pony. I started believing I was turning into them by how what was a controlled itch became unbearable, but I never told my squad," he paused to look ahead just in time for another pony to pass through him. In the corner of his vision, he saw the yellow mare gasp again softly. He winced before continuing, "They most likely noticed but decided on not saying anything to me though," he decided not to voice his thought on why.
"Oh, you poor dear." she attempted herself to touch his cheek only to phase through his face making him flinch again. She had a look of empathy towards Orion as she rested her hoof back flat on the floor. "Well, now that I found out about that. Why don't we go to my chambers? I would like to talk to you in a secluded area, and maybe you can better explain your tale. Should not be far actually," she recommended.
Orion blinked before nodding lightly, "Very well, ma'am. Lead the way."
"So let me get this straight, you all made a virus to infect the major cities in Equestria so they would fall quicker and cause chaos and destruction when the ceasefire ended in the three years to come?" Steel asked Harp who nodded at the question.
"Well, not me, even though I was the Headmaster of the division that was developing it, I never really took part in making it much. I even permitted live testing a day before the outbreak from a mare who asked," he informed as he slurped at some dark coffee he had cooked up from nearby. He put his tan cup down as he rubbed his chin, clearly in thought, "That reminds me, someone must have released it on the ship."
Steel sighed, "There is a lot of flaws with that idea. How would you contain it to keep it from becoming out of control? Sure, you could make an antidote to it, but would that be enough? Plus think of all the civilian lives lost to the act," he told the Headmaster. "Also, whoever did release it, had to be high ranking in order to bypass all the safeguards," he finished.
Harp was silent as he sipped at his coffee, staring down at it before looking back at Steel to speak, "We were working on one when we started the project, but time became a larger concern and we ditched the antidote for faster research and development speed. Now looking back at that, that was the worst idea ever," he said with regret clear in his voice. "For the high ranking; I don't know who it could be. You could look at the logs around the ship for those that are high ranking."
Steel was silent for a time as well. With a soft grunt, he turned and looked at the rest of the squad who was either setting up makeshift tables from chairs to play a card game, or lying on the ground such as Blizzard, with her helmet off, as she tossed a little red ball up in the air. With Diamond sitting next to her in a chair reading a book on her HUD. If the words moving up her visor was any sign.
"You care for them, Centurion?"
"Yes, I would willingly and gladly sacrifice myself to save them," Steel replied instantly without looking back at him.
"Even if they were to die anyway? After you died as well?"
Steel opened his mouth to speak before shutting it again in thought, "If it meant for them to live slightly longer than me, yes. Even if for a few seconds," he finally turned to face Harp again, the stallion put a smile on his face when he turned.
"Good," he said, "Protect them well, for you have most likely lost one. At least try to keep their hearts beating for as long as you can while you are on this ship, and maybe bring them home again..." he paused as his smile fell and he looked down at his desk in sudden sadness.
"At least ya'll have a chance at going home..."
Steel's ears perked up when Harp said that and opened his mouth to ask what he meant, only to get the screen going static as the connection was cut abruptly right as the question began coming out.
The rectangular door to the yellow mare's chambers slid open with a soft hiss. The mare fluidly took off her lab coat and set it on the back of the chair she began sitting down in.
Orion entered shortly after, eyes scanning the room, taking in the view. Her room was the stock gray chrome walls with red carpeted floor all the way to the bathroom in the left corner of the room. Her desk, and where she was sitting and rummaging through papers for a clean sheet, was on the right middle of the door. With a little cabinet fort controlling the right corner. His gaze moving directly right of him, was where her bed lay, sheets tossed up and wild.
Right above the bed was a propaganda poster for the IPE recruitment of the Imperial Army. It showed two alicorn like figures shaded in black with white outline. With the tallest on the right with a small sun on her neck and the shorter one with a crescent moon. They were both touching horns and the words displayed boldly above and below them going from gold yellow to moon white:
'The Sun and Moon can spell your doom! Join the Imperial forces today!'
'Join them now and we'll throw you into combat as soon as you can shoot a gun!' Orion thought sourly. His attention was taken from the poster by the yellow mare waving him over from the corner of his vision. He walked over and sat right in front of her. She frowned.
"You can sit on the bed you know."
"Yea, and fall right through it," he returned as he stuck a hoof through one of the cabinets nearby as if in a rather lazy example.
"Wait, if you go through everything; then why are you not going through the ship?" she asked with a tilt of her head.
Orion blinked in confusion as well before shrugging, "Ghost logic," he declared.
"Ghost logic," she agreed deciding to leave it at that.
"You haven't really told me your name." he pointed out as he remembered.
"Oh! Sorry." she cleared her throat briefly, "My name is Sulfuric Flow of the CS Division aboard the Ut Bellum."
Orion's brain audibly clicked at the name of the ship and he looked at her to clarify, "Wait, did you say Ut Bellum?"
"Yes sir. The best research ship in the whole Imperial Star Navy!" she said with pride and a hoof thrust in the air. She paused before putting her hoof back down and looked at Orion on the floor with a sheepish smile, "Why? Does the ship mean something to you? Cause it sounds like it."
"I died on here," he said taking the blunt route.
She went silent at those words and the sudden change in mood, before opening her mouth to speak again, "W-Well, could you tell me how you died? Maybe I could help you."
He snorted in rotten amusement, "Likely not. But I might as well to pass the time." he watched her grab a clipboard with a clean sheet of paper as well as a shiny green pen. He stared at her for a second in slight admiration before speaking, "You seem oddly calm about all this."
Flow giggled into her hoof, "You could say I've had my fair share of oddities in my lifetime. Most of them being on this ship, due to the playing around with chemicals and stuff." She opened a nearby cabinet after setting her board and pen down on the desk. Moving a hoof through the files before she pulled one out and gave it to Orion. "And some being here."
He opened the file and saw a picture of twelve ponies all standing under a broad banner with the words: Graduation of 37th class. Flow was seen on the right side closer to the middle, smiling brightly in her graduation robes. He also noticed another mare, Ozone. She is also seen smiling beside Flow.
Orion heard a sigh in front of him but didn't look up from the file, "Those were the good days. Ozone and I were the best of friends all through school and University. Now, we're drifting farther apart for some reason. Might be our work or that we don't hang out as much anymore."
He flipped to a few more pages, most of which were just projects or reports from Flow's time in the University. One was her graduation certificate. Closing the file, once he reached and finished the last page, he hoofed it back to Flow who still in her chair, put it back in the cabinet where it belonged. She picked back up her board and pen and with a click, opened it. She smiled in wait for Orion to begin.
With a sigh, as he understood what she was conveying, he collected his word choices quickly and began his tale to the strange and rather eager yellow mare, "It began when we jumped off the Sea-Griffin...
Steel led the way for the rest of them down the hall towards one of the stairs to the next floor of the ship. They got quite a shock when they departed and entered the room where Orion should be. After fruitlessly searching the guard room, as Steel decided to do, Blizzard managed to find small storage of Magi-Gemcells for their rifles. None for Steel's heavy Magi-Cannon though.
They did find pieces of his armor on the floor and his helmet.
The cannon from the Guardian that Orion was messing around with was picked up from the table and mounted on Steel's right, opposite of his Magi-Cannon. Only real problem was they only had around 14 shots.
Harp was silent the whole time they navigated through the maze of hallways that made up the ship, till they finally reached the stairway to the next level. But even then still he was gone.
Blizzard decided to voice her opinions on the changes from the last floor to the new in the radio, "Wow. It's much higher than before."
Gearbox nodded absently as he too noticed, "This may be the more popular parts of the ship, so that large bots or machines could carry goods." They passed an abandoned yellow lifter with a bolted shut crate still in its fork-like hold. "This is an area that is connected to the hanger."
"Really?" Striker asked beside him with a raise of her brow.
"Indeed. There is also one of the five main mess halls on this level nearby."
Diamond released a shaky breath in a theory thanks to the info he just gave them, "That might be why we don't see that many Lurkers here..."
"Let's hope not," Steel replied, voicing for them all, though mostly likely knowing the answer himself.
They continued walking, still on alert for any Lurkers that were not apparently in the Mess Hall. A few more turns and long halls, they came across a longer and wider hallway which was covered in bloodstains and a few parts such as legs or the occasional innards of the unfortunate owners of the blood splattered on the floor and near the walls. All of it getting more frequent towards the large twin doors which it too, was covered in gore. There was a flickering sign above the doors...but was unreadable with all the gore on it.
The stench of rotting pony bodies and pieces assaulted Striker's nostrils and eyes, making her tear up and nearly lose her newly eaten food. "By the gods!" she hollered as she attempted to cover her nose with a hoof, thankfully not covered in organic matter, being the only one with a useless helmet.
"I told you. Didn't I?" mocked Blizzard as she stepped around a limb, only to have her armor get bloodied by the red puddle she side stepped into, "You should've used Orion's helmet."
"And find out what he has stashed on his Memory Card? Fuck no please!"
Steel sighed softly at them as they continued and shook his head as his armored hooves crushed and squashed the pony parts with ease, and earning a few grimaces from the squad as they heard it. He noticed something odd about the way the parts were strewn apart, there was no sign of any bite marks or use of weaponry. As well as no actual pony body as one, the only signs of the full body was in small piles where blood was still wet and where the limbs were not far from it.
Spritze picked up a bloodied foreleg without hesitation, earning a shiver from Diamond behind her, as she noticed it as well. "This is most odd...The limbs seem to be clearly cut off cleanly as if effortlessly," She shifted the leg in her grip as she looked at the area where it would have been connected, blood still dripped freely from the limb and onto her own, only now cold.
Diamond shuddered at the floppy leg as she watched Spritze, some reason unable to look away. "C-Could you please do that some other time? Please?" she asked Spritze as she closed her eyes finally.
Spritze pursed her lips at that and put the lime green leg down, earning a sigh of relief from behind her.
"Gearbox! Get over here and help me open this door," Steel ordered as he put his hooves in the red crack he found between the doors. When Gearbox reached him, he followed his lead and grabbed onto the other one opposite of Steel, with his limbs helping too.
The door shrieked as it was forced open by the power armor wielding stallions simultaneously. With a final heave from them both, the door swung open to the squad. Which all had surrounded the door with Magi-Rifles to bear and pointing at it as it opened.
THUD
A upper half of a pony slammed into the ground as the door moved. The look of terror on the face of the corpse sent a shiver down all but Steel's spines. Spritze moved the body out of the way before leaning it up against the wall nearby.
Steel moved in first, his Magi-Cannon swinging with his head as he looked about the flipped tables and chairs, realizing what room they were in.
"We're in a Mess Hall," Gearbox pointed out beside him.
Steel nodded silently as he moved forward between two tables. A whistle was heard from Striker, who had slowly grown used to the smell, "What happened in here?" she added as she climbed on top of a table on their left, with a bit of blood covering the front half.
Diamond and Blizzard came in next on the right side of Steel, navigating the smashed and flipped tables. "Either a really powerful Lurker Centurion is in here or something else, either way I don't want both," Diamond answered.
"So you said they would be here right, Gearbox?" Blizzard asked as she looked under a table and grimaced as she saw a bloodied Magi-Rifle.
"Well, I may have said the should be here, but I may have been wrong."
Blizzard shrugged and hopped onto a table under a large vent, "Maybe somepony beat us to them."
Gearbox frowned with doubt, "Not likely, no Trooper or even a Centurion would do this. Might be a infected."
"If that's so; where is the infected?"
Spritze entered at last and was facing the door when she heard something that sounded distinctly like a blade-on-blade.
*SHING. SHING*
Her eyes went wide as she called out to the squad, "Did you all hear that?"
"Affirmative. Just barely," said Steel as he along with Striker and Gearbox, backed up closer to the door.
*SHING. SHING*
"There it is again!"
"I heard it that time," returned Diamond, her twin gone quiet and was staring at a vent above them. "You ok Blizz?"
*SHING. SHING*
Blizzard was stock still. If her wide eyes of alert and lack of action wasn't any give away to Diamond on her feeling. Her twin's eyes went wide as she realized what was happening as the vent just broke open above her a split second after she shrieked her name in fear.
"There are secrets to be told, and lies to be discovered."
"...That all leads to where I am now," Orion sighed looking down at his crossed fore-hooves to his chest, "A soldier telling his death story to a curious scientist mare who can somehow see me."
The chair squeaked softly as Flow moved side to side absentmindedly with her rear hoof swinging as she finished writing his tale on the clipboard with the pen. On her desk sat a small stack of paper with his tale written neatly on it.
"Tha-That's quite a tale Lt. Orion," the yellow mare stuttered out while her brain reprocessed the story as a whole. She clicks her pen and put the board and writing utensil on the desk next to the stack that had grown only by two pages. "I have some questions of course, if that's fine with you."
Orion nodded, "You may. Ask away," he said with a casual hoof wave.
She made a face at him, "You are really calm about your supposed 'death'."
He raised a brow at that observation, "Is that a bad thing?"
"O-oh no, no it's not. I'm just somewhat amazed at how controlled you seem to be."
Orion chuckled, "What? Should I be freaking out about being dead?"
"I most certainly would be," Flow said simply.
"And what would that accomplish?" he asked with a smirk.
Flow blushed softly in embarrassment at her own tiny mistake, "N-nothing." Orion was now laughing.
She cleared her throat as she choose a question from her mind, "You said you were from the Carmina Burana, right?"
He nods affirmative.
"So, when did you get assigned to it?" she asked.
"Hmm... I think it was like, one year ago. Might be a little more."
Flow nods at his answer as she thinks, "So, it was over a year when the ship finally got airborne. Did you hear anything about us? The Ut Bellum?"
Orion shrugged, "I don't think I cared at the time, I was, and still am, a cruel Lt. for the poor newbie troopers," he said with a light chuckle, "Though right now I'm being a bit more reserved if ya can't tell. Don't want to have the only pony that can see me despise me right?" he asked with a smirk.
"Heh, yea... So I recognized a name you said; Steel Rain was that one of them?"
"Yes. Centurion Steel Rain, he's the leader in the squad as well as the battleships' personal Centurion," he pointed out. "Where'd you hear about him from?" Flow opened her mouth to answer when Orion continued, "Unless he already did that thing, defeat almost an entire Equestrian assault on his own, that being around like 3,000 strong. Just about everypony knows that."
"Actually, he did that just a few months ago," Flow replied finally and then added with a face of curiosity and confusion, "I thought it was only a thousand Equestrians... Well, that's what I've heard."
He simply shrugged, "Honestly, I don't really know either. I never got around to ask him personally."
Flow hummed as she picked back up her clipboard and wrote some things down on before she opened her mouth to ask another question, when she was stopped by a knock on her door, the sound of steel on steel resonating through the room.
The odd sound made Orion tilt his head.
With a sigh she stood up and pressed the panel next the the door, opening it with a barely audible hiss.
"Sulfuric Flow," a distinctively female synthetic voice said her name as she looked at the silver bot.
"Yes?"
"Miss Flow, you are needed at lab-006 at this time, as requested by a staff member," it told her bluntly as its' azure blue eyes stared at her, waiting for a response from her.
"Very well. I'll be there in a bit, just..." she looked at Orion who had gotten up and was now looking at her expectantly, though more curiously at the bot at the door, "Give me a bit to get ready, ok?"
The bot stood still as it processed the question before making a silent nod and walking off. Flow stepped away from the door to grab her lab coat and button it to her along with cleaning her desk with her magic simultaneously with practiced skill.
"Well I'll be damned, never thought I would see one of those on this ship," commented Orion behind her.
Flow turned to see him peering outside towards the direction of the bots' travel. She made her way to him and around him, so to not make him feel unconformable with her passing through him. "Those bots? Yeah they're kinda new here," she began to walk down the hall opposite of where the bot was going, "Got a whole container of them from IPESC. Said they were a gift from a company that makes them."
"Really now?" he asked absently before turning to catch up with her quickly, "How many were in the container to begin with?"
Flow hummed in response before actually answering him, "I think like 20, that's what I've heard."
He grunted as he realized something from before, "Odd, we never encountered one on our travels."
Flow hummed softly in thought, "You said you all fell to the bottom levels right?" He nodded, "That's why then, the bots don't go down that far. They mostly stay from levels 25 and up," she looked up at a glowing yellow-orange sign that simply read: 'Laboratory D3.'
Orion too looked at the signs, but for a whole other reason. The sign with the Laboratory went straight ahead while two others split off oppositely; a ShipCom, apparently number 27, to the left, and a Guard Station to the right, also numbered 27. He noticed he was getting a bit behind from where Flow was and quickly trotted up to her side once more.
Flow smirked at him, "Enjoying the view, Lt.?" she asked as they began passing a window.
He blinked at her, with a slight bit of confusion and suddenness of the question, "Not really, kinda dull up he-" he trailed off once he came to view out into space, which was dotted with a canvas of stars, almost all a shining white, with a few red here and there.
Flows' smile grew greatly at his fallen voice, "How about now?" her grin was now achieving shit-eating rank.
"Well...Umm...mm... It looks beautiful, just stunning," he finally caught her grin and looked away from the view to cough into a armored hoof before clearing his throat and looking straight ahead, now in his soldierly-still state, "S-shall we continue?"
She giggled and began to move forward once more.
Orion couldn't help but break his stiff pose and chuckle a bit at her before following close behind her hooves.
"Here we are," Flow declared softly, more to herself than to Orion though, as the piston doors hissed open to the proclaimed Lab-006.
Lab-006 had large glass pens or containment rooms that held a usually one or two animals of the same type in them. There were a few ponies leading animals away from the pens to another one or one of the three large ones in the center-back part of the room. There was one team leading a bear! However the center pen of the large three was not in use for the animal testing. Instead, it had a group of ponies in labs coats gathered around it, with just about all of them chatting with one another.
When the trio approached them, well more so Flow did, they couldn't see Orion still, they went through the crowd without effort as they seemingly made a path for the yellow mare as she arrived at the door.
She was greeted by a deep blue mare in a lab coat who opened the door and gestured in, which Flow was taken aback by the offer, "Miss Flow, please enter the chamber," she asked.
"W-why me?"
The blue mare blinked at her in slight confusion, "Weren't you told you are to take part of this experiment?"
Flow shook her head rapidly, "All I got from the bot was to report here."
The mare swore under her breath and looked down in thought. Looking back up at the yellow mare she replied, "No matter. You're here now."
Flow blinked smartly before glancing at the mares' lab coat badge before frowning, "You're in ATR, why are you here?"
"Ma'm, the Headmaster of your Division told us to come here. Surely he told you, right?"
"H-he has not," Flow stuttered out. She saw Orion out of the corner of her eye looking at her curiously. She rubbed her nose with a hoof and sighed, "Alright then. I'll go inside...as the Headmaster orders."
She stepped inside of the chamber, Orion followed behind her as well. The reinforced glass door shut and locked behind her as the rest of them moved to the windows on the sides of the chamber, almost all of them with pens and boards.
In the middle of the chamber was a table with various medical tools and equipment placed in a neat, organized fashion. However, in the middle of it all, there was one syringe full of a pulsing sickly yellow fluid, with the occasional flashes of color in it.
It looked to be glowing, Orion noticed. He turned his head to look at the ponies outside as they all had eager faces or their emotion hidden well as any experienced trooper. There was also a certain orange and magenta pegasus pony, who was not in a lab coat, oddly enough, but in full trooper armor behind them.
He heard a sharp intake of pain from behind him and as he turned around. Some of the lab ponies started writing things down as well in response. Orion saw Flow holding the pulsing syringe in her magic as it pierced her left arm, right above her hoof, and started draining to her blood. She set the now empty syringe back on the table with the rest and stood there, as if waiting for something to happen.
Orion watched her stand still for a while before frowning and looking back at the scientists behind the glass, they were too frowning at her, though they looked more or less annoyed.
Finally, Flow slowly opened her eyes. Orion almost laughed at how dramatic she was being, but kept watching her as she checked herself over.
Flow sighed with disappointment and a small hint of relief, "Well, that was anti-climatic," she said as she looked at Orion
He couldn't help but nod in agreement at that.
"How are you feeling, Miss Flow? Any symptoms or pains you'd like to voice?" one of the lab ponies asked through the speaker.
Flow stood somewhat still as if to focus on any possible results that decided to pop up. She shook her head, "Nothing, feeling as good as I was when I got here," she stated simply to them.
The phantom and Flow both watched as the lab ponies turned and began chatting among themselves, with the occasional raising of hooves as if they were doing a vote. Orion also noticed the pegasus trooper again, leaning on the glass and looking back and forth between the ponies and them.
Orion turned his head, his armor clinking softly to him and Flow, "You sure you're alright?"
The yellow mare nodded before looking at him, "Yea I'm good. The dose was possibly purged by my body as soon as it recognized what it was," she paused to rub the bottom of her jaw in thought, "Or maybe it hasn't taken effect yet."
"I hope it's the former," he said.
"Me too."
"Ma'm, who are you talking to?" the pony on the speaker asked suddenly.
"N-nopony. Just talking to myself," Flow replied almost smoothly as she went stiff, "It helps me think better."
The voice sounded skeptical as it responded, "Alright. We'll be opening the door in a sec, so please wait a bit longer."
Flow stood there as Orion made a small motion to message her that he was going to walk through the door. She nodded in silent understanding, as she rubbed absentmindedly at her left arm. By now the ponies had stopped chatting about her and had moved off to a nearby console that scanned the room and were now chatting around there.
The pegasus mare stood almost stock still in a attention very soldierly-like fashion, staring straight ahead at a wall. Orion stood in front of the trooper mare and studied her. Her armor chest plate had the Sargent markings on it. One of her shoulder pads had the 197th Erogos Flyers on it too he noted; and mentally added with a bit of curiosity as to why, and how, there was a pegasus in the 197th. The said symbol pad had the number in the middle under a griffin head with its' beak open as if trying to eat the number whole and twin long rifles out to the side of the head.
Orion moved around her and couldn't find any name tag on her and came back around the front with a frown. The mare's' name evading him and plaguing his mind for possibly the future, much to his displeasure. However, if he can find a computer-
"Sargent Scootaloo."
Salvation from complete insanity!
Scootaloo turned her head smoothly to the caller of her name: a amber griffin in semi-light trooper armor. A Corporal, Orion noticed.
"What do you need Corporal? Did someone take your fish again?"
The griffin blanched at that and shook his head, "No, ma'm. Just a letter," he pulled out a slip of paper and gave it to Scootaloo.
The orange mare looked at it and kept her face flat. She looked at the griffin standing there and folded the paper back up before giving it back to him. "I'll make my way there now," she stated simply and got a nod from the Corporal in return.
As the griffin walked off, Scootaloo first went to the lab ponies to tell them that she's leaving them. From Orions' view, she just walked up and said a few muted words and got two nods in return, before leaving through the circular door. He turned back around to head back inside with Flow, deciding he was done from outside. From behind him, the lab ponies were beginning to go berserk. In being in a massive panic that was attracting the others working on other projects.
Phasing through the door once more, what he saw in greeting, floored him. Flow was nowhere to be found, everything was still the way it was before only that everything was oddly...calm.
Orion felt a mild case of Deja Vu as he scanned the room from what and where he couldn't pinpoint, but he knew that feeling well enough of course to figure out what it was exactly. He began to notice that everything was starting to get fuzzy and blurred, with the sounds now being droned out, but still audible. He turned his head somewhat sluggishly towards the containment entrance, as if time had slowed and the air was water, slowing his reactions-
Blood splattering the walls and floor.
Screams of terror and agony.
Gunfire echoing across the halls.
Alarms blaring deafeningly and blazing red.
Orion stumbled to his knees as he lost balance, suddenly losing feeling. He barely got up to take a few more steps before falling flat on his stomach again, only this time for good as his vision blurred further as it began to fade. Screaming out in pure fear, he was never afraid of the dark before till now-
