“Welcome to the USG Cruzer, Sergeant, uhh. What was your name again?” The registration clerk said to me.
I replied in my usual stern voice, “Ex- Sergeant. My name's Nuclear Strike.”
He looked at me with a puzzled expression, Perhaps due to me being ex- military. A lot of ponies were surprised that I quit the service so quickly, after rising in the ranks. I knew why I did it, but I kept my reasons close to me.
The registration clerk spoke again, “Ah, Strike, Well, here's your ID Badge. There's a store over there, so you can, uhh, get equipped.”
I took the badge and trotted to the store. I never really got friendly looks from anypony, considering my stature and general demeanor towards others. I was viewed mostly as bitter, with a hint of resentment in my voice. I didn't make friends well.
The reason I was aboard the Cruzer, was to serve as a Utility Engineer. It was the only work I could get after leaving S.C.A.F., considering my qualifications.
The store's monitor flipped open and chimed, “Military personnel detected. Altering inventory. Welcome, Sergeant Strike.”
The hologram screen filled with various tools and utility items as well as various weapons out of my credit range. I accessed my chit and obtained my advanced engineering RIG. My military RIG was available for free, but I definitely didn't need it for my work. The monitor flipped closed and the suit chamber opened. I stepped inside and it threw the shackles. I had never liked these things, too claustrophobic. After a few seconds the door opened and I was let out, donning my new RIG.
“Damn, this thing is tight.” I said while stretching the fabric and testing the thrusters. I kept the helmet down, I didn't need it at the moment, and all it did was obstruct my view.
The lift ride was silent, as I was alone during it. I usually used elevator rides as time to just sit and think. At this moment I was thinking about how my career had shifted from bad to worse, First stuck on the Sprawl, and then transferred without notice to this little backwater vessel. Always fun. Before I knew it the elevator had stopped on the quarters deck, and I was yelled at for staring mindlessly in the lift. I apologized and stepped out to find my room. They took my history into consideration and gave me a decent quarters chamber, no bunk sharing for me. Yay. I had only stopped by to drop off my stuff and check my home-system messages. 'Great, someone already has some crap for me to fix' I thought to myself. It would probably be a simple repair, busted door or something.
Before leaving I stopped into the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and saw my face. Dark grey coat, red eyes, glasses. My mane wasn't exactly ecstatic. Just dim yellow with a few black stripes. My most prominent feature, unfortunately, was a set of 2 horrendous scars across my left eye. All of this made me look like a pony who you wouldn't like to bump into in an alleyway. I turned off the lights and left my quarters. Pulling up my locator's map I noticed someone exit their quarters. A mare, tall, with a light tan coat. She was wearing a CEC standard engineering RIG, and looked quite nice for her line of work. I figured I should at least say hello,
“Um- Hey.” She turned and looked at me, with a meager expression. -Must have the same disposition as me- I thought.
“Hi,” she said, “You, um, you CEC too?”
I must have been staring at her blankly before I finally replied, “Oh! Uh- Yeah. Class VII. My name's Nuclear Strike. Yours?”
She looked at me again and said, “Star Gazer. But my friends call me Star.” She seemed to be looking at my scar.
“Well, it was nice meeting you. Maybe we can talk some more some time.” I said. We both turned and walked in opposite directions, To different areas of the ship.
Dark. That's what most of the halls were. For being such a huge ship the lighting was substandard and made the place feel all that much eerier.
“Must be a less trafficked area of the ship” I said as I pulled up my RIG interface to see about my objective, and find out where exactly the problem was.
The icon on the map was located in an air duct on the main deck. With it not being that far from where I was I decided to take the engineering back corridors. CEC engineering corridors didn't have reputations for being comfortable places. They were usually cramped, humid, and dimly lit. This one was no exception of course, but with a little doing I managed to get to the vent entrance.
The vent's door chimed, 'ENGINEER, CLASS VII' when I stamped my hoof on the panel and opened. I shimmied inside and crawled my way to the obstruction. Suddenly I smelled something awful, not distant from rotting flesh.
“Dear Celestia, do they ever clean these damn things?” I said to myself. Turning a corner I felt something sticky on my hoof.
-Gunk from the medical deck?- I thought. Looking forward I realized how wrong that assumption was. Some sort of organic mass had gathered in the vent. It almost looked like it was breathing. It didn't phase me that much, I had seen much worse. Un-clipping my plasma cutter from my tool belt to use it for clearing I couldn't help thinking about how something like this could end up in an filtered air duct.
-Maybe somepony's pet got sucked into a filter and got splattered in here- I assumed. This, of course, didn't explain the breathing.
Not paying it any more mind, I took aim with my cutter. I fired and the searing plasma tore straight through the blockage. Unfortunately, it splattered onto EVERYTHING, including me.
I made my way out the duct, taking a different exit straight into a corridor leading to the medical deck.
“Great. That's just perfect. First day on the job and I already have to get decontaminated.” I muttered angrily to myself, climbing down from the vent door.
“Is everything okay?”, a mare's voice behind me asked. Said voice startled me and I fell from the vent entrance, hitting the ground with a loud 'THUD'.
“Oh my! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!”, the voice apologized. I groaned as I got up, I had hit my head especially hard.
I turned and saw the mare who had just spoken to me. I had seen her in the docking wing. Light blue coat, yellow eyes, and a sharp, black mane.
“It's alright, I'm fine. Gonna take a lot more than that to put me down.”, I replied. I got back up on my hooves. “I need to get to the medical wing to have this gunk sprayed off.”
She backed up a little when she fully saw my face. “Okay. Well, um. I've got to get back to relaying and navigation. See you!” She turned around and left the hall.
Her reaction was unsurprising. I got that a lot from ponies who didn't know what a scar looked like. I could have had it fixed a long time ago, but I kept it as a token to never go back to that life.
Abruptly, my head started throbbing. It felt like somepony was jamming a screwdriver deep into my skull. Images flashed through my eyes as I fell to the ground. I saw strange text, and images of her. Her, m-my wife. Mint.
“AAAAH!!!” I was shrieking in agony, the images of her flashing through my eyes, as well as a strange structure.
From what I could make out it looked like two monoliths twisting together in unison. After writhing in torment for several minutes I passed out.