Locus

The room was full of stunned silence, everybody was waiting for the pin to drop.  Applejack was the first one to speak up.

"Could you just repeat that." Her voice was tense pronouncing each word carefully as if she was afraid that talking too loud would break the universe.

"I said that the interaction between the two universes could be tearing it apart." Gerald didn't quite understand that nobody understood exactly what he said. "That's probably why those monsters are here, and if we don't close the portal as soon as possible. We could be fighting a super organism."

The room was unnaturally quiet, even spelled out like it was. This was a heavy thought to get across. It seemed like a long time before Roger, with his years of training, finally decided it was time to take action.

"Looks like there's no-time Toulouse then!”  Rodger's face was scrunched up in the expression he had learned from the drill sergeant that taught him that voice. “Everybody pack up, we've got a portal to close!”

Everything was running smoothly up until Rodger noticed the ponies were also getting ready for the trip.

“What do you think you're coming with us?”

Rarity flipped her hair in an affronted way that Rodger would regret if he ever had the chance.

“And what precisely is the reason for that?”

“Well, its uhh dangerous... out there.”  His voice lacked any trace of the certainty it had a few seconds ago.

In answer Rarity's horn began to glow and she flicked her head at a table.  A Pale blue energy wave glided through he table as if it was as thin as air, and it fell in two perfect halves.

“I think we can handle ourselves,” Then she regained a bit of her composure. “Oh sorry Twilight I'll make sure to pay for the table.”

And that was that.

The Everfree Forest was usually fairly unfriendly by Derpy's recollection; even as a pegasus flying well above the tree line it was always bristling with silent menace.  Now walking  directly through it, the forest seemed angry.  The air was stagnant and tense, knowing what the shadows of the forest contained at this very moment didn't help at all.

Just then Three monsters careened out through the overgrowth around them from different directions. Their claws gleamed  effortlessly tearing through the undergrowth.  Just then Gordon Freeman stepped in front of one of them holding something much larger than the other “guns” Derpy had seen.

*THUNK*

Derpy could feel the heat off the explosion from where she was standing.  It was an unpleasant sight, she averted her eyes only to see what Twilight and Rarity had accomplished with their magic.  It wasn't much better.

“ALL RIGHT,”  Rodger was using his drill sergent voice again to great effect. “Gordon I need you to keep us pushing us forward, Twilight, Rarity you keep them off our flanks, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Derpy,” Rodger looked around confused slightly by the apparent lack of Fluttershy who was hiding behind Gerald. “Ah, I need you three up in the air call out when you see them coming,”  He looked thoughtful for a moment  “Applejack, Pinkie Pie what can you do for me here?”

Pinkie pie was rolling out a small circus cannon from Celesita knows where.

“Ok you keep that on anything that looks like it gets too close.”  Rodger turned and didn't look too hopefully at the rest of the civilians.  “Everybody else grab a gun, try not to shoot each other and pray we make it through this alive.”

then orders given he turned around and brought out an unusual looking radio.  Derpy didn't catch much of what he said but she did catch something interesting near the end.

“... Yes I know, yes its a class 9 xeno threat I need a mile perimeter around the locus,  bring out everything,”  He paused to listen briefly before; “I don't care what they are saying damn it bring everything!”  Right after he was done Derpy heard quietly “goddamn morons...”

Rodger realized everybody was staring at him and he shifted straight back into an enraged bark.

“I'M SURE YOU ALL HAVE ORDERS I DISTINCTLY HEARD MY LIPS MOVE!”

Somehow this fall felt so... Natural to Dr. Freeman, almost as if he was born to fight aliens from another universe in a HEV suit.  If he had time to think about that at all he would have seriously thought about a career change.

But there was no time to think.  One of the bastards had got in close enough to cut his leg, through the HEV suit.  Now he was limping and everybody else was depending on him to carve a way through these monsters.

*THUNK*

Dr. Freeman had lost count of how many he had killed at this point, their numbers seemed endless and if anything the backpack full of ammo felt a whole lot lighter than when he put it on.

*THUNK*

He already knew the rest of the group was getting tired, and even now the abandoned temple was just coming into sight over the dense treeline.

*click* *click*

And then there were no more little monsters, they all seemed to have vanished.  Freeman took a moment to take in his surroundings while reloading the last fresh clip of grenades.  It was the only sound in the forest.

It gave him time to wonder what happened and also to remember his leg.  The deathly silence began to get on his nerves.  What were they planning?

And then a tremor ran through the forest.

Gordon Immediately looked to the pegasi to see what was happening, they were frantically pointing to something out in the forest shouting at the top of their lungs.  But they were drowned out by a roar.

Gordon could swear he could feel it in his bones.  The leaves in the forest rustled as if even it gave off a shiver of terror.

“Could that be an....?”  But before [AN] could finish another titanic roar rocked the forest.

“Ultralisk.”

Gordon could already see it towering over the treeline, four gigantic tusks that were too large for any convenient comparison.  It was already bringing its massive armored frame into a menacing run crushing trees into matchsticks.  The very earth shook at its thundering footfalls as it sliced its way through the forest like a tornado.

Nobody had to be told what to do next.

The Ultralisk couldn’t run very fast for how large it was, but it had an important advantage over them.

It could run faster than they could.

Rodger and the group made it to the temple with enough time for the ultralisk to be bearing down on it like a landslide.  He couldn’t squash the temptation to look back just once as he ran into the temple, and stopped dead in his tracks.

Dr. Freeman was standing directly in its path with his back to Rodger.  He looked thoughtful even as hundreds of tons of alien monstrosity bore down on him.

Agonizing seconds passed as it thundered its way closer, a rain of debris began to fly past Gordon who stood motionless.

He raised his grenade launcher.

*THUNK*

A direct hit to its tiny exposed head.

Gordon turned around and calmly began to walk back to the temple grenade launcher resting on his shoulder while behind him a mountain of armored death crashed into the ground dead.

“WHOO YEAH!!”  [Atuhor Name] was showing some uncharacteristic enthusiasm.  “BOOM HEADSH-“  And then he was hit in the back of the head by a zerg projectile.

“From above! More of them!”