Chapter 4: Escape Plan

Time: 11:58 pm
Yr. 2853 // October 30th
Location: Starstreaker

Jake gazed down the hallway outside his room, almost turning away from the sight. Littered everywhere were dozens of bodies, both of human and Verix alike... but mostly humans. The atmosphere had an eerie white noise, silent except for the ever-present sizzling of Verix blood. He steadied himself, quietly limping into the hallway. His eyes darted both ways, checking for any signs of movement as he went. Jake's left hand brushed against the discolored wall as he leaned into it, supporting himself as he walked around each corpse, not wanting to step on anyone.

'They're all... everyone...' His thoughts struggled to comprehend the magnitude of what he was seeing as he tried to look anywhere but the gruesome sight.

The struggle to calm his pounding heart was only intensified by the fatigue he felt from yesterday's procedures, like he was hauling a Verix, or two, on his back. That, and the wound on his leg didn't help much. He just shook his head, gritting his teeth and increasing his pace as he quickly made it to the end of the hall. Sticking himself to the corner he waited, and waited. Just as he went to peer around, he heard a sound that made him freeze. Then, he heard it again, a sudden noise echoing up ahead. Quickly peeking around the corner, he noticed an open door just ahead that would intermittently darken as the florescent light above struggled to stay lit.

In a flurried hobble Jake made his way to the doorway, listening closely... hearing what could only be described as a wheezing coming from inside. With his pistol at the ready, Jake entered the room and brought it up to bear... directly at the collapsed form of another survivor. The man wore a similar uniform to Jake; but it looked fresh, the colors not yet faded with time… now desecrated with crimson stains and purple burns. Before Jake even had a chance to drop his weapon the man brought his own up quick, snapping it right at Jake and electing a surprised look from him. After a moment's hesitation, the man dropped his arm and looked at Jake with a smile.

"G-God..." The soldier started, before a violent hack interrupted him and sent blood spilling down his uniform. "S-Shit… someone else who's… still breathing?" He said in a smug tone, sleepily looking up at Jake's limping form.

Moving to his side, Jake knelled, looking the man over and grimacing.

And he thought his wound was bad…

"…what the hell happened?" Jake asked in a low tone.

The man shook his head, furrowing his brow. “H-How… the shouts- you didn’t hear them?” Jake shook his head as the man shuddered to take another breath. “You must… have been under-“ He began to say something, but stopped as his eyes widened. “J-Jake? Lieutenant, sir!” He suddenly strained, trying to lift his hand again.

Jake held it down, shaking his head. “Relax.” He warned, the private calming down as he let out another violent cough. “…so we got ambushed then. And during a jump… how?!”

The man simply shook his head. “I… I don’t know.” He paused, a few seconds of silence falling between them. “…I was supposed… supposed to be added to your squad, sir.” He said, looking up. “After your enhancements.”

Jake looked down at him. He knew select privates were drafted for the super soldier program… must have been considering him if they wanted them to be squaddies.

"...come on then, I'll walk you to the escape ships." Jake said, reaching down for the man’s hand.

Hefting the limp arm up, Jake struggled to help him stand. With a grunt of effort, Jake let the man down again as he looked over.

“Come on, put a little-“ Jake started, but fell silent as he took in the emotionless look on the man’s face. "Hey, come on stay with me!" Jake commanded, gently shaking his shoulder before putting his fingers on his neck.

No pulse.

Jake’s features darkened as he silently looked at the young man, his young visage ruined by his pale, sunken features. He didn’t even know his name. A lump formed in his throat as he swallowed, the rising anger in his chest masking the pain in his leg as he stood and gripped his pistol.

He ran. Straight down the hallway and towards where he knew escape ships were located. The pain wasn't even an afterthought in his mind as he raced down the halls. As he went, a sudden voice chirped from a nearby speaker as he ran past.

“Unidentified unit #745, please identify yourself before security measures are taken.” The female voice rang out, stopping Jake in his tracks as he backed up and looked at the wall speaker.

“Lucy! This is First lieutenant Jake Carson, give me a status update now!” Jake commanded back, electing an approving beep!

The voice responded back without hesitation, a cheerful disposition in it’s tone. “Of course sir! Leviathan class starship, labeled: STARSTREAKER // during hyperflight towards destination Earth, encountered an electrical anomaly that temporarily knocked out primary and emergency systems.”

“Jesus… so what now.” Jake asked, looking down the halls for any signs of movement.

“Ship has assumed it’s default directive after sustaining a critical failure and rebooting… return to earth.” Lucy stated, causing Jake’s eyes to go wide.

“Stop those orders! We’ll bring them right to earth if we do that!” Jake pleaded, electing a moment of silence from the computer.

“…apologies. It seems major control systems were damaged during the attack.” Lucy admitted, getting a few choice words from Jake. “My database, however, has remained untouched thanks to my core shielding.”

Jake thought hard, rapping his fingers against the handle of his gun. “How many lifepods remain, have they already sounded the abandon ship?”

“The order was never called.” The computer stated back bluntly, “Command deck was the first to fall. I detect… depressurization in the control room.” Lucy answered, a moment of silence going by. “Lifepods remain in bays 3, 12 and 21.”

With a nod, Jake pushed off the wall and began his walk there with gusto. The trip was short, the red 12 on the wall as he passed letting him know he’d found the right place. Every corpse he passed put him more and more on edge as he tried not to look at them, incase he recognized one…

So many dead, almost all humans…

Rounding the corner, he stopped at the gruesome scene he saw ahead. The door to bay 12 sat closed with the control panel just next to it on the wall… covered by the hand of a collapsed soldier with a smoldering hole in his back. Jake swallowed his nausea and gently pulled the man’s hand away, before hitting the control panel getting the door to hiss open. Looking inside, the small room contained multiple doors, each one leading to its own escape ship. Before he could even register the movement in the room, a loud metallic screech cleaved the air.

He turned his gaze to the left as multiple Verix fighters, each holding their own rifles, aimed his way. Jake moved fast, surprising even himself as he dove forward and took cover behind an island in the middle of the room that housed a row of chairs. Just as he did a volley of fire erupt above him. The bombardment was quick, and tapered off after a second or two as Jake pushed himself against the immovable chairs. The first attempt at trying to a peek over was immediately denied, the plastic chair’s headrest a purple, melted mess. Swearing, he reached into his backpack and grabbed a plasma grenade.

He set the safety switch off, and pressed the button on top electing a high pitched whine from the round item. Throwing it over, a few shots rang past in response but missed entirely. The whining sound only intensified as it clattered away, before suddenly going silent. In the second it did, Jake heard the machines clatter to move.

Then a blinding purple light filled the room.

Jake clenched his eyes for a moment, before opening them and quickly looking over. Liquid fire scorched the area, searing everything it touched as Jake took aim at the one still moving. The Verix in the middle looked like it didn’t even have a chance, it’s entire figure melted in place, more statue than machine. The one on the right was partially covered with plasma on it’s side, it’s right arm disfigured and unusable as it lay motionless. The left one had somehow managed to get out unscathed as it tried to take aim back at Jake as it stood back up.

With a steadying breath, Jake unloaded into the soldier and watched as the plasma decimated the monstrosity in seconds. A few shots to it’s chest and one to the head, and it fell into a limp heap.

Jake stood there for a moment, aiming at it in silence, before panting as he took in a breath. As the adrenaline receded he shook his head, moving into the bay and aiming towards the corners of the room as he went. He considered himself lucky this was all he encountered on the way here…

Moving over to the first body, he grabbed it's plasma rifle and whatever ammo it had. Moving to an unused pod’s doors, they hissed open as the lights inside flickered on. The ‘pod’ was actually a fully functional ship, the Starstreaker really went all out. As Jake walked into the sleeping quarters the airlock was connected to, he continued on through a set of small doors and into the ship’s control room. With a few flicks the engines began to purr as the cabin’s many controls lit up.

The speakers came to life with a familiar female voice. "Confirming identity, Ah… Identity confirmed as First Lieutenant Jake Carson. User labeled as Priority 1… please wait for central intelligence assistance…" There was some more silence, until the same voice spoke back up but in a more fluid, lifelike tone. “Lieutenant! It seems you're the only other living crew member I have contact with. This places your authority as temporary helm captain. Your new main orders are-“

Jake interrupted the AI with a shake of his head. “Fuck the orders, Lucy! The Starstreaker is lost.”

“Negative.” Lucy replied bluntly. “Saving the Starstreaker is no longer your priority, current situation requires immediate council attention. I’ve done what I can to reduce engine power with limited working controls, but this ship will reach earth.”

“…fuuck… fuck! Okay… fine, I get it. Anything else?” Jake asked, getting an affirmative beep in return.

“Yes, you are also tasked with keeping the current onboard artificial intelligence, me, safe.” She finished, electing Jake to rub his face in frustration.

"Okay… transfer your core into this ship since the Statstreaker is compromised. Scramble any useful data you cant fit, don’t leave the Verix anything we can't take. When you're done we’ll set course and go." Jake finished with a nod, turning and making his way out of the ship.

"Of course, sir. Commencing download." Lucy said aloud.

As he passed the living quarters, he left the rifle and ammo on the nearby bunk against the wall and re-equipped his pistol. Nearing the airlock, Jake looked around as he exited to make sure nothing would sneak up on him. As he did, he noticed something off about the bay room as he looked at the two nearby bodies. Before he had a chance to piece it together, pain struck him in his back. He fell forward, looking back as he did and taking in the half melted form of a barely functioning Verix. It was the one that had been half engulfed in plasma, it’s right arm melted together and unmoving. It crawled forward, gripping onto Jake with it’s left hand as it dug into his flesh.

Flipping over, Jake kicked at the machine and sent it back into the escape ship’s doorframe. Quickly scooting away, Jake looked around for his pistol, cursing as the fighter gripped his ankle and yanked hard. He couldn’t keep it off him, and struggled to break free as it grappled him to the floor.

“Agh, stupid fucking machine!” Jake screamed, pushing against it’s neck with his left hand as his right held the machine’s good arm off his throat it so desperately clawed for.

Jake felt a surge of strength as he rolled over, sending the bot onto the ground as the looked down at it. As he wrestled it, the machine managed to sneak in one good punch, sending a ringing sound through Jake’s ears as it made contact. Darkness ebbed his vision for a moment, but Jake quickly shook it off and grabbed the Verix’s flailing arm. Pushing it down against it’s throat, he wrapped the appendage around it’s neck and grabbed the wrist from the other side, before pulling hard. A sickening mix of broken metal and blue liquid spurt out as the arm strangled it’s own head clean off.

Jake quickly pulled away from the spray of blood, the familiar sizzling hiss soon after greeting his ringing ears as he watched the ground below the creature start to dissolve. Pushing off the dead bot Jake groaned as his vision spun, that punch had rattled him harder than he thought.

"Transfer complete. Sir, please be aware targeting and location data is currently offline-" Lucy began over speaker, until a spray of sudden plasma fire erupt behind Jake as he hid in the airlock doorway.

Shaking his head, his vision began to darken more as he hit the button. The exit closed quickly, shots impacting the outside as Jake slowly slid down the wall.

“Sir. I cannot target Earth as star data is still rebooting, please engage manual control.” Lucy pleaded as Jake tried to reply, but could feel his consciousness pulling away.

The shots outside ceased, and soon a banging against the door took it’s place.

"I must engage hyper drive… sir?" Lucy voiced again.

“Just... go..." Jake wheezed out.

"…commencing warp. Increasing gravity, please hold on.” Lucy ordered as Jake felt himself stick to the ground.

Moments before his vision gave in, he saw the eyes of a Verix fighter staring him down through the door's window as it thrashed… one last screech filling the air until the ringing in his ears overpowered his senses.

**********************************

It was a late night in Equestria as Twilight walked home, alone… if not for the snoozing dragon on her back. It’d been quite a day, fun… but long. With tomorrow being nightmare night, everything had to be set up perfectly, as Twilight put it. She’d been out with her friends, helping decorate everything in town and ready it for Luna's arrival. As the library came into view, she stifled a yawn as her gaze turned upwards. Pausing, she noticed a beautiful shooting star slowly streaking across the sky. She watched as it glowed bright purple, stretching across the horizon and starting to fade from sight. She’d never seen anything quite like it! As it went by, and before it disappeared completely, she closed her eyes and made a wish.

'I already have almost everything in my life I’ve ever wanted, including my wonderful friends, so… I wish-' She paused for a moment, thinking extra hard. 'I wish for somepony else’s happiness. Any ponies out there that could use a hoof…' She thought to herself as she opened her eyes and smiled.

The star was already long gone, and with it… her wish. Keeping the light smile on her face she looked back at the door, opening it with her magic and walking in. As she walked up the steps she lift the baby dragon off her back with her wings and levitated him away with her magic. Gently, she put him down on his bed and tucked him in before giving him a kiss on the forehead.

"Sweet dreams, Spike." She said sweetly, before making her way to her room.

As she walked in she quietly closed the door, before lightly moving over to her bed and unfurling the covers with her magic. Snuggling inside it’s warm grasp, she sighed to herself in satisfaction.

‘Tomorrow… will be a wonderful day…’

A few moments later, a mysterious object crashed hard into the planet… straight into the dark Everfree.

Author's Note

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