Through the portal

Through the portal

Chapter 6

Familiars

It was much harder to navigate the ship then I had initially thought. The gray corridors were twisting in each direction, like a worm had eaten it's way through a block of metal. More then once I got lost and ended up in sections of the ship, that I did not know how I ended up there. One of them in particular was disturbing, on a level that killed me a little inside. After taking a wrong turn for what felt like the millionth time, I was standing in front of a giant panorama window. Looking through it, I saw them. Hundreds of Ponies, chained to the ground with tubes running in and out of their bodies. Other then the ones we freed from the DXs, these ones were fully awake and struggling against their boundaries. Some of them were bleeding, while others had knocked themselves out by hitting their heads against the floor....

As I looked around, I found a big sign, and I knew where I was. This was the generator room. These poor creatures were used to power the ship. I wanted nothing more then to go in there and free those ponies, but I had to turn my back on them. As much as I pitied them, I could not blow my cover right now.

After a while of stumbling around, I finally found what I was looking for. There was a nameplate next to the door, and a smile crept onto my face. After encountering Victor and his squad, it was hardly a surprise to see this name here.

As I got closer, the door opened of it's own accord and I stood at attention. In front of me stood a big wooden desk in a small metal room. Behind it sat a small plump man with a bald patch spreading on his head.

“Come in, come in captain. I don't have all day, and I want to get this over quickly.”, he said, gesturing me inside. I sat down on a chair in front of his desk, but stayed silent. After all, I had not the slightest idea why he would want to talk to Victor.

“I heard about your outburst in the cafeteria this morning. Mind to explain?”, General Anders asked me.

“Sir? I don't know what you mean.”, I answered honestly.

“You know exactly what I mean! We received word of captain Trawnys betrayal yesterday, and you have nothing better to do then announce your personal vendetta against her! The higher ups want her alive. If you are unlucky enough to encounter her in the field, you are NOT to kill her! I don't care what you do with any of her team members, but Selina Trawny HAS to brought in alive! She knows where our enemy is hiding. If we can convince her to cooperate, then we can end this in a matter of hours!”, the old man in front of me monologued.

“Sir. What makes you say, I would be unfortunate to encounter her in the field?”, I just couldn't help myself. I was curious.

“You may have been cybernetically enhanced, but you, better then anyone else, knows that she is not to be taken lightly. I should not even tell you this, but if it hadn't been for her liking for these Ponies, and her service record, then you might not even be here! Captain, you where only the second best choice! Selina Trawny may lead a squad of soldiers that are only one misdeed away from being kicked out, but she is good at what she does. If I remember the last evaluation of your two teams right, then she had a ninety percent success rate in her missions. YOU barely passed sixty! THAT is why I called it unlucky!”, he practically spat in my face.

It made me feel somewhat warm. General Gregor Anders had been my commander in more then one mission. There had been occasions where he had asked for my team specifically. The old man liked me, and I could not say that I didn't like him either. Seeing that he was willing to talk down one of his captains, so I would be kept alive, was a nice thing. The only downside was, that he did not extend that courtesy to Frank or Jane....

“I understand, Sir. Anything else?”, I asked, hard pressed to keep a grin off my face.

“I am glad you understand. You are to report back in hangar four. The mechanics will run a full diagnosis on your units, and I want you to be there.”

“Why is that, sir?”

“You seem dumber then ever, Victor! They need you in the cockpit, so they can analyze how well you can operate the neural interface. They need the data to see if there are damages to the interface.”, he explained annoyed.

I saluted, stood up and turned to leave. The General did not make any attempt to stop me. This could end very bad. I had to inform Jane and Frank as soon as possible. The moment the door closed behind me, I began to shiver all over. This situation was bad.

“Tanja!”, I whispered into my radio.

“What is it?”

“Retreat! I repeat, retreat! DON'T let the mechanics near the DX! There is an inspection planned, and we can't let them get to Twilight and the others.”, I said, making my way back to the hangar as fast as I could.

“Understood.”, came Janes reply, and I could hear her loading her rifle.

“I make my way back as well. Meet you there.”, Franks voice said.

It took me less time then I had thought to get back. To my horror, I heard shots even before I opened the door. Upon entering I saw several dead mechanics, and a few marines that had taken cover. They were outnumbering Jane ten to one. Even as skilled as she was, she didn't have enough ammo on her, to deal with this many. Sighing, I slid behind the leg of another parked DX. The cockpit was open, and so I climbed up, starting the DX. The soldiers looked around as the giant machine began to move. The obviously thought that they had gotten reinforcements. When I crushed the first of them with the things right fist, they realized that there was more then one traitor on board.

All of them turned to me, and completely forgot about Jane.

“Selina, is that you?”, Jane asked via the radio.

“Yes it's me! Not mount your DX and get the fuck out of here! Take Twilight with you. I will be right behind you. Frank, get your SORRY ASS here!”, I shouted back.

“I'm in front of the door, but I can't get in. Looks like the hangar is on lock down.”, he said worried.

“Jane! Get on that!”

“Roger!”

I saw Janes DX crouch down, and carefully pushing the doors in. As soon as the metal was bended enough, Frank slipped through, running for his own DX. The soldiers were giving me a hard time, while I distracted them from the two of them. Just as I could see Jane break open the hatch on the DX I had used to come here, to get Twilight out of there, I was hit by another DX. One of the marines had obviously mounted another one of the parked ones.

It took me way to long to stand up again, after being knocked to the ground. Turning the DX head, I saw that several other units were coming to live, while the one that attacked me, was already on top of me. I tried to knock it away, but I wasn't used to this yet. It was a great difference between simply walking around, and actually fighting.

“Selina!”, I heard Jane shout, and turned around. Her DX was heading straight for me, in an attempt to help, but I stopped her.

“NO! I order you to get out of here!”, I shouted.

“NO! I will NOT leave you behind!”

“If all that “I love you” bullshit you have been spouting over the last few years, meant anything at all, then you get the fuck out of here, and bring them to safety!”

A moment of silence followed, but I was glad to see that she actually turned around and began to run. I could hear her cry over the radio.

“You are very cruel....”, she sobbed.

“We will come for you.”, Frank tried to reassure me, while he began to run as well.

“I will be waiting.”, I responded, still punching and kicking at everything that came into my range. It didn't do much, but I could at least distract them from pursuing my friends... They didn't take long to subdue and pull me out of that DX on the back of my shirt. After that, I went with them peacefully. There was no point in fighting anymore. Jane, Frank and the Ponies were safe, and that was all that mattered to me at that point. Maybe Frank had even been able to get some information out of their mainframe, before we had to make a run for it. The soldiers that escorted me, were awfully nice, which surprised me to no end. In fact, I had killed several of their comrades so I was expecting at least SOME punches along the way. But none of them ever came. Instead they just threw me into a cell, that looked more like living quarters for a low ranking officer. I even had a separate bathroom, which was a nice touch. Sadly though, they didn't let me keep my weapons or electronics. Not even my Game boy Micro, which I had totally forgotten I still had on me!

A few hours later

I was sitting in an interrogation room. It looked so cliché, that I was hard pressed not to break out laughing. There even was a mirror at the other side of the room, that I just knew was a two way one.  The only thing that differed it from any interrogation room I had seen on TV, was the big touchscreen, that was the table. I was itching to try it out, but my hands and feet were bound, so I didn't get the chance. The upside was, that my bindings were made out of some strange stuff that had dispelled Twilights illusion spell, as soon as it came into contact with it. I could finally look down on myself again, without having to look at Victors body.

They kept me there alone for about an hour, before the door behind me opened and a young man came in. From the stars on his Uniform I saw that he was a Lieutenant, most likely from the Crime investigation service. He sat down in front of me, without a greeting of any sort. His short black hair, and blue eyes were surely meant to intimidate me. Instead, I recognized a man who had never seen actual combat. Those eyes, as cold as they may have been, where not those of a killer. Finally, he broke the silence.

“Captain Selina Trawny. It is an honor for me to finally meet you. Did you know that your exploits are almost legendary amongst recruits?”, he said in a pleasant tone.

“My exploits? You mean my habit to do what I want? To bend orders to my liking?”, I joked.

“No. I mean your extraordinary ability to get what you want. That school in Baghdad for example...”

“That was something I couldn't stand for. I was ordered to stay at my post, but I couldn't let those kids die in the crossfire, now could I?”

“And you relocating your squad to a different position, actually led to the missions success....”,

“I couldn't have cared less about the mission! Putting up a firing line, inside a school full kids... I beg your pardon, but my commanding officer back then was a douche!”, I told him, trying to keep my anger out of my voice.

“And what does ANY of that have to do, with me being here right now?”, I added.

“Well.... High command really would hate to loose someone like you. I have been authorized to make an offer to you. An offer you surely can not turn down.”, the young man, who still had not introduced himself, said with a hopeful smile.

“Get to it then, even so I doubt that you can offer me anything that I truly want.”

“I offer you, your life and more. You will be reinstated as a military officer. You will even be promoted. After all this is over, you will be able to retire easily. Your retirement money will be raised considerably, and we will clean out your service record for you. There will be no dark spots anymore. How does that sound?”

“Like a very generous offer. But what about my team mates?”

“Oh I am afraid we can not offer them the same.... If they are caught alive, they will be released from duty unhonorably. They will loose all rights to their retirement money, and will most likely have to go to prison for a while. But I assure you, that we will make sure that their time there will be short and pleasant.”

The offer really was generous, but I could not accept. Not if that meant leaving Jane and  Frank standing in the rain. Besides, the Ponies trusted me and these bastards had killed brother in friendly fire!

“No.”, was my obvious answer.

“I don't think you understand your position captain. You are still a US-Marine!”

“No I'm not. I'm an Equestrian-Marine. The moment our government decided to stab these Ponies in the back, they forfeited every right to demand loyalty from me, and that was BEFORE I found out of our involvement in this attack! So what makes you think, that I would cooperate with you now? You can kill me, if that makes you feel better, but it will not change the fact that you are doing wrong here!”, he listened to me politely, and never loosing his grin. Oh how I wanted to smack it from his face.

“Oh, is that so? Well, you might consider the consequences of your actions, for your family. Your father didn't take it too well when we had to inform him, that his daughter killed his son.”, he giggled.

I looked at him in disbelief. Surely Dad would never fall for that. He knew that Michael and I had our differences, but I would never have shot him!

“What have you told him? What the hell do you mean by consequences? You can't hold my family responsible for MY actions! That's against the law!”, I spat at him. My fuse was short as it was, but now I was close to exploding.

“Well... we told him, that all evidence points to you having turned on your brother, and shot him in cold blood. He has been in coma ever since.”, he said, tapping his fingers on the touchscreen in front of him, to bring up a live video feed from what looked like a hospital room. There was a bed, and in it lay the limp figure of my father. A tube was in his mouth, and several machines were attached to his body. I could tell that he was not awake. I may not have had the medical knowledge of Michael, but I knew artificial breathing when I saw it. A though struck me... When my Dad was in a hospital, then...

“Which hospital is he in, and what about grandfather? He can't take care of himself! He might die if no one checks up on him!”, I said in a panic.

“Your grandfather? Oh yes... Just one moment....”, again he tapped on the screen, and the image of my father faded. It was replaced with a video feed from a sterile looking room. There was nothing in it, except a wheelchair in which grandfather sat. The walls were white, and so were the floor and ceiling. There was nothing to entertain him, and no one to keep him company... He was completely alone... It was the one thing that made him afraid. Usually my father would be around him 24/7. When I was on leave I would do the same. Being alone, was the worst thing they could do to him. I didn't even see a table or something, and the Catheter I saw held barely any liquid. That meant that it had either been emptied recently, or that he didn't have anything to drink in a while....

He began to stir in his wheelchair, and I saw tears running down his face. He was crying in fear and shouting something, though I couldn't hear it. With an evil grin the Lieutenant in front of me turned up the volume, so I could hear what he screaming.

“Paul? Selina? Are you there? Is anyone there? I'm thirsty! Please... gimme something to drink! Please! Selina!”

Tears started to pour from my face, while the grin on the mans face was growing wider. He was lucky that I was bound to a char that was anchored in the ground. I started to thrash against my bindings, like the Ponies I had seen in the generator room. I didn't care that they were cutting into my flesh, and that I started to bleed. All I wanted, was to rip his throat out!

“WHERE ARE THEY?”, I demanded. My voice sounded more like a growl then human speech.

“They are safely on board this ship. We brought them here about an hour after your capture. If you are willing to cooperate, no harm will come to them. We will even clear out that “misunderstanding” with your father, once wakes up. So.. what do you say?”, he went on smiling. He was sure he had me, and I was sure about that as well.... Just then, I thought something to myself... I didn't say it aloud....

“If they were only safe... Somepony.... help them.... please...”

I had barely finished the thought, when there was a bright light in on the screen, before it turned to static. There was no video feed, or audio anymore. For the first time, the Lieutenants grin faltered. Furiously, he tapped the screen again, changing it back to my fathers hospital room, but it was gone. The bed, and all the machines keeping him breathing were gone. He checked and double checked the settings of the video feed, until his grin finally turned into frown.

He left, and I was brought back to my cell only minutes later. That guy didn't say another word to me. Instead, the “guards” now were less then friendly. To their misfortune, there was no way of tying me anywhere in my cell, so their attempt of having a little “fun” with me, ended with a few broken noses and blackened eyes. Obviously no one that thought about bringing handcuffs along, when they brought my family here.... There oversight, and my opportunity to vent some frustration. I would have gotten away with it too, had it not been for the barrel of a M16 that suddenly appeared directly in front of my face.

After they locked me in, I thanked the heavens or who ever had saved my family. Now that I thought about it, it was oddly convenient that it happened right at the moment that I thought about it. The flash of light I saw, before my grandfathers screen went dark, looked oddly like a teleportation. However, it was neither golden, pale white nor was it lavender. So none of the Princesses had come to my grandfathers rescue. It had been gray.... But that was surely impossible. She was an Earth Pony.....

For quite some time I sat there, on my bed, mulling things over in my head. The bars to cell looked fragile, but they were anything but. I had tried to break them, even so I knew even the attempt was foolish. After about two hours, the light in the room suddenly changed. It changed from white to red, and a siren went off throughout the ship. I could hear running in the corridor, and I knew that something was up. The ship was most likely under attack. But.... they surely hadn't come for me.... had they? Jane and Frank wouldn't be so foolish. They only had two DX units, and I had sen about twenty in that one hangar alone....

I listened intently, but it became eerily silent outside. For several minutes it stayed that way. I had my face pressed against the bars, listening for any sound, when I heard shouting and shooting outside.

“Fall back! Fall back! Damn it, what is that thing?!”, I heard a soldier shout. A moment later, I heard that pained screams of another one, and the clip clop of hooves on metal. Strangely enough, that wasn't the only thing I heard. Each time the Pony these hooves belonged to took a step, I also heard a dull clanging sound.

Suddenly the metal door to the brig was struck with enormous force. It began to bend out of shape. I thought that it only made sense. A Ponies hooves surely were not able to use the small button, to open the door properly....

As the door finally flew out of it's frame, blood flowed inside from the corridor. A gray mare, with black hair and tail stood in the door. Her flanks badly burned, and her left hind leg replaced by a wooden prosthetic. She looked at me with her one good eye and smiled. Just as I wanted to say something witty, a soldier came up from behind her with a knife in his hand. She noticed my horrified expression, even before I could say anything. The moment the knife connected with her neck, I thought it was all over, but Octavia just smiled. Her body erupted into gray smoke that whirled around the startled soldier. His muffled screams died quickly, as the mare strangled him to death, just to reform her body a moment later. I could only stare in awe as she smiled at me.

“Surprised to see me I take it?”, she said casually, not even noticing the blood on her hooves.

“Ehm... well... yeah? How did you get in here anyway?”

“That was quite easy. The one you call Frank was so nice, as to disable their early warning system. Princess Twilight and Princess Luna are currently leading their forces against the crew of this vessel. Your team mates are assisting them. I however, chose to get you out of here as fast as I could, so I separated from the group.”, she explained, while taking the keys to my cell from a keyring on the wall.

“That still doesn't explain that smoke stunt you just pulled! I thought Earth Ponies are....”

“Unable to do magic?”, she chuckled.

“In fact, yes. I am unable to do magic, or better I was. I have known it for quite some time now, but there just never was somepony I could bond with. I am a Familiar you see?”, she added as she unlocked my cell.

“A Familiar? What does that mean?”

“Every being in existence has a soul. When you find the one Pony you are destined to be with, some call it finding your soul-mate. For familiars it's pretty similar. Dimensional travel was once common here in Equestria. Back then many Ponies had the ability to bond. They were called Familiars. A Familiar bonds his or her soul with another intelligent being. But that is only possible between two. A Familiar has only one destined partner for bonding. In my case, that is you. It may very well be, that I am the last Familiar alive. Both sides gain something from the bonding. If you need me, like you did earlier, I will come to aid you. All you have to do, is think of me. In return, I can actively use magic. But that is only a small fraction of the bonding process. I will explain to you more throughly once we are back at the bunker.”, Octavia explained while levitating the gun of one of the dead soldiers to me. Her remaining eye glowed as she did so.

“So basically you and I are connected somehow?”, I asked confused.

“That would be correct, even though it is much more complex than that. It is not a simple connection.”, I could tell that she was growing impatient. I didn't know how I could tell, since she kept that pleasant smile on her face, but I did feel it nonetheless.

It took a while, for us to join back up with the others, and I was indeed quite impressed by their handiwork. According to what Twilight told, when we joined her group, there had been an anti magic field surrounding the ship. It blocked all spell casting, but Frank was able to shut it down, so they now had the upper hand/hoof in the battle. I was amazed to see that Twilights forces consisted mostly of Unicorns. Some of them had taken cover, and were shooting bolts of magic at some soldiers that had barricaded themselves behind some storage boxes.

“We don't have time for this. Twilight, can I have your radio for a moment?”, I asked, already reaching out to the device. She hoofed it over to me without complaints.

“Jane?”

“SELINA! Man am I glad to hear YOUR voice again, even so I'll kick your sweet little butt the next time I see you!”, I heard her laugh.

“I'm glad to hear from you as well. Say, are you inside the ship?”

“Of course! There no way I would want to miss out on the action! Frank and Luna are guarding the hangars, so no worries no one will get out.”

“Good to hear. Tell me, can you come to...”, I looked at the floor plan on the opposite wall.

“Corridor 49-B?”

“That's the one leading up to the bridge, isn't it? Why do you need me there?”

“Some idiots are putting up a fight, and I don't feel comfortable trying to shoot them with a shotgun from this distance.”, I joked.

“Will be right there. Jane over and out.”, Jane said, sounding genuinely happy, even so I expected some major kick in the ass for pulling the “Love Card” on her.

“You better be alright! I didn't hack myself into their mainframe, just so I can carry out your dead body!”, Franks voice suddenly sounded in my ear.

“Don't you worry I.....”, but that was all I could say. An immense pain suddenly ran through the side of my neck, and I knew I had been hit. My legs gave out from under me. My weapon fell to the ground, while my other hand clutched the side of my neck. Blood spurted out of the wound, and I could see the shocked expressions on Twilights and Octavias faces before everything went black....