The Last Horseman

“I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death.”

(Revelation 6:8)

UESS Endeavor.

Navlog update…

Time Stamp - 15/07/3028…

System - Unknown...

Local FTL netlink - Error #404 (Buoy may need maintenance. Please notify local system administrators)…

Quantum point communications - Error system unresponsive (M4it3nte…Error)

Master Errrrrr…

System reboot in progress…

System failure…

$@#523%...

Ever since they fled out of the Aegis system and dropped out of Faster than Light Travel the ships primary and secondary systems began to fail. Leaving the armor clad figure that stood on the ships bridge to smash a fist into the navigation console in frustration, causing it to spark. It reached up and placed two fingers against the side of its helmet; activating the radio to speak. “Ghost, this is Hunter. Have you reached the lifeboats yet?”

Another voice crackled over the radio.

“Negative sir, had to take a detour. Corridor seven no longer exists…" Ghost’s reply was interrupted as a low explosion came over the radio. Soon after Hunter felt the reverberation come through the floor as a bulkhead failed; resulting in a massive decompression in the affected area.

Ghost started to speak again, with a slight edge in his voice. “Fuck, that was too close. Please tell me you’re not going keep trying to fly this wreck.”

Before replying, Hunter stumbled to the left, catching himself on the door frame as more explosions rocked what was left of the ship. “Negative this boat is too far gone. I’m falling back to your position what route did you take?”

“Once you hit the junction that takes you to seven take the ladder up to B deck, then work your way through the medical bay. You’ll find a maintenance shaft at the end that will drop you back down to C deck from there the boats are a fifty meter dash down the hall.”

Leaving the bridge behind, Hunter mentally checked the route he was given against what he was able to memorize when they first infiltrated the ship.

He clicked his com again. “Wilco, but won’t it be faster to go through corridor five and through the armory?”

“Ha! I wish. One of the heavy cruisers decided that we didn’t need that anymore; it used its mass driver to relieve us of that burden. Only thing stopping us from breaking in half is the spine and what’s left of the lower decks.”

Hunter swore to himself. He was hoping they could come back and raid the ship after it crashed. But with the armory gone it left very few reasons to risk coming back.

As he made his way through the medical bay of the ship an explosion erupted from his right side and engulfed him in a massive fire-ball, without losing pace he emerged from the inferno a short time later his armor smoldering as he reached the maintenance hatch. Dropping down just as more oxygen tanks and other hazardous medical supplies were consumed by the flames. The weight of his armor and body combined resulted in a resounding thud when he hit the floor in a half crouch. Quickly standing up he took off in a sprint to where his comrade stood, in similar battered armor like his own. He waved him on as the ship around them started to violently shake; bulks heads starting to buckle as the crippled ship plunged into the atmosphere of an unknown planet.

Once Hunter had reached Ghost he pulled him inside before making his way to the pilot seat. Ghost secured the hatch behind him before strapping himself into a seat while talking to Hunter in a mocking tone. “So, you enjoy the sights while taking your sweet time?”

           Hunter shrugged as his hands danced across the control surface; initiating the launch sequence to get them as far as possible from the ship before it crashed. “Well if you want to leave faster, why don’t you fly next time?”

Ghost laughed while holding his seat harness in a vise like grip, the lifeboat jerking around violently in the launch tube. “You know I hate flying these death traps. Besides, you're more qualified to fly than I am any way.”

With one hand on the flight yoke, Hunter looked over his shoulder at Ghost who was seated behind him. “And who says I’m qualified for anything like this?”

Turning back around, he smashed the launch button with his free hand. The acceleration force tossed him back into his seat as the lifeboat rocket out of the launch tube and into the open sky. Before getting caught in the thermal wake of the crashing ship.

Hunter strained against the controls to get the craft to stop tumbling and into a controlled flight, but As soon as the control’s started to respond he spotted a massive piece of debris breaking off the ship that was heading straight towards them.

“Oh fuck, hold on to something!”

Ghost started to yell back a response but his voice was lost over the sound of the impact, his seat harness snapped and he was thrown into the row of seats in front of him. Hunter was thrown forward, his head rebounded off the control console cracking his visor. His vision fading as he fought to stay conscious, before blacking out he watched as a hole formed as the wing broke away taking parts of the hull with it.

With the starboard wing gone the lifeboat entered a chaotic tumble. Warnings inside the cockpit blared as its unconscious pilot was tossed about in his seat. Soon the other wing broke away from the extreme force, sending the battered hull into a spiral heading for a snow-capped mountain side.

__________________________________________

Zeveck Ironwing had only just fallen asleep after taking his turn on watch for the camp when a set of hooves started to pound into his back trying to wake him. Moaning, he lifted his head to look over his shoulder at the forest green unicorn that decided to assault him tonight.

“What is it Diamond? Your watch can’t be over yet.”

Diamond Glitter finally getting the attention of the massive white speckled Gryphon gave him a quick nuzzle, before stepping back with a large grin before he could swat her away.

“Don’t worry, it’s still my watch. But you need to come outside and see this!”

Zeveck gave a loud yawn before getting up and stretching. “This better be important. You know how little sleep I get since we got to the borderlands”

Diamond sighed as she held the tent flap open.

“Just look. I promise it won’t disappoint you this time.” The gryphon shook his head at the last part of what she said.

“Like I’ve said before I wasn’t disappointed, I... I was just caught off guard, you… what’s causing that glow?”

Going outside the tent where a strange glow was reflecting off the crisp snow. He looked up, beak agape, as he saw the sky glowing with a prismatic display.

“See? What did I tell you? Now help me wake the others.” She chimed in with a smug grin on her face.

Diamond quickly moved to wake the Professor, her father, Glacial Winds who was leading this archeological expedition into the borderlands; the area between the Arie mountains were all the major gryphon clans resided and the border of Equestria, where most of her kind was from.

The bluish white pegasus, Glacial Winds followed behind his daughter. Yawning and ruffling his wings to get the blood flowing again. He looked off to his left and saw Zeveck, a very old friend of his, walk out of a tent with the light grey earth pony Quartz Luck, a colleague of his from the Trottingham University. He was quickly puzzled about why they both were staring mystified up at the sky. Looking up, he was dumb struck at the sight above him.

What everyone thought was some atmospheric event turned out to be something much more ominous as a massive fire-ball lit up the night sky, following with a massive rainbow halo blooming out behind it as it streaked across the sky and disappearing over the horizon; followed then by a low roar that permeated the air and shook everything around them.

Diamond was amazed at what she saw. She had seen a rainboom before in the past, but this… this was on a whole new scale. And what was the object that created it she wondered. While pondering, she heard Quartz speak up. She looked back at him and saw him pointing to something in the sky. Following his hoof she saw what look liked a fiery piece coming towards them, but it instead screamed over their heads and impacted the mountain side on the other side of the valley they were in; not even an hour trot away.

“By celestia’s light, do you think it could be some skymetal?! Quartz eyes were wide with the prospects of what a find like that could do to their career and wealth.

“If that entire piece was skymetal then the small bit that landed next to us is more than enough to keep us fat and happy to our end days.”  Diamond offered.

“We will check it out in the morning.”

Glacial said before being cut off by his daughter.

“And let some other pony or gryphon find it?!”

“I’m with Diamond on this one, Glacial. We may be the only ones out here now but something like this wasn’t very subtle and will start a gold rush if others think it’s valuable. What about you Zeveck?” Quartz now looking at the gryphon.

“I think I’m going to agree with the Professor on this one. It’s just too dangerous to go out now.”

“Oh come on, Zeveck, just because you think you’re here for our security doesn’t mean you can’t have any adventures.” Diamond pleaded with her lifelong friend.

Glacial huffed. “Oh fine, you and Quartz can go see what it is. But I want you back here as soon as you look at it. I don’t want you risking your life out here for naught”

Both Diamond and Quartz ran back into their tents to pack some small saddle bags with necessities for the quick journey, while Glacial walked up to the side of the large gryphon and spoke low to him.

“Go with them and keep an eye out, I don’t want anything to happen to them.”

Gently placing a claw onto the old stallions shoulder, Zeveck looked at him.

“Don’t worry. My oath to you from all those years ago still stands. I would rather fall then let anyone harm your family and friends”

Glacial smiled at the reassurance his friend gave.

“You know when we get back to Equestria you could try asking me for my blessing instead of trying to hide your feelings for her.”

The gryphon almost tripped over himself as he moved away to wait for the others at random change of subject.

Stammering and scratching the back of his neck with a talon “I…I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh please, I’ve seen how you act around her. I honestly think you two would be perfect for each other.” Glacial said starting to laugh now.

“You really think so?” The gryphon asked, a bit more at ease.

Before he could get a response the other two were finally ready and started heading towards the impact site.

Glacial walked up to his friend and gave him a pat on the back.

“Yes, I really think so. Now get going before they leave you behind.”

The gryphon gave a smile and took off to catch up with the others before stopping to hover.

“Are you going to be okay up here by yourself?”

Giving a sly smile the old Pegasus nodded.

“I may be old, but I can still put up a good fight.”

With the answer he was hoping for, the gryphon resumed his flight to catch up with the others. Once he reached them he landed down beside them and kept pace on foot.

“So what’s got you smiling and the old stallion laughing now?” Diamond asked.

“Just reminiscing about the older days” The gryphon said replying with a small smile.

“So if this turns out not to be a chunk of skymetal what do you think it is?” Quartz thought aloud the group.

“I guess we're going to have to find out!” Diamond giving a large grin before racing ahead of the group.”

______________________________________________________

Moments earlier

The UESS Orion in pursuit of the Endeavor.

Commander Charles Stone shook his head at the data screens not wanting to believe the readouts that flashed at him, while the ships klaxon blared overhead and the rest of the ships systems going haywire.

Looking over at his Chief engineer he called out to him using his nickname first.

“Hammer?”

Nothing.

“Master Chief.”

The ships lead engineer was still fixated on the damage states and trying to remotely fix what he could from here. Since dropping out of FTL behind the Endeavor everything started to spiral down words: first a massive radiation spike that knocked the coms off-line and just about everything else on the ship, then the main engines dying out. Resulting in them having to overclock the reaction thrusters on the front of the ship; burning most of them out just to slow them down. Since then one by one they were losing critical systems, and out of the thirty crew members on his ship, the possibility that the five others on the bridge with him could be the only ones left alive. And that was way too much for him.

“Master Chief Rodriguez!”

Finally sinking through the Chief engineer jumped in shock at his name being yelled.

“Sorry Commander. Just got a lot on my plate right now.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. But I need to know if we have our coms, netlink or something… anything back up yet.”

The engineer nodded.

“I should have the coms back soon. But as for the netlink I don’t understand why the ship won’t pick up a buoy single its showing green, and...”

“And?” The commander asked raising an eyebrow.

“And I don’t understand how Bowman can’t get a ping with the point link. It’s still attached to the ship.”

Stone scratched at his beard before turning to his coms officer.

“Bowman confirm your still having no luck hailing anything?”

“Aye sure. Still can’t get anything, its saying were out of range...which should be impossible.”

Stone shook his head. None of this made sense to him.

“Barrels. Got any good news for me?”

The helmsmen wiped sweat off his ebony brow as he concentrates on the screen in front of him.

“With the speed the Endeavor is clockin in commander and no signs of lifeboats, their gona be

hitting the dirt pretty hard. Rating at the most a class four impact... Nothin is gona survive that.”

“Don’t write them off that easily Ensign. Those sons of bitches still might be stubborn enough to survive.”

“Let’s hope your wrong commander.”

He hoped he was wrong to, even if his entire crew were alive a single one of Omega team could force them onto their knees let alone if all six of them were alive.

Stone Looked back his helmsman.

“Can you keep us in a stable orbit?”

“Negative Commander. Without the main engines best I can do is keep us in a degrading orbit for about an hour. After that we will have to set down if we want to stay within a class one, maybe an extra ten minutes if you want to risk a class two, after that we’ll just be a smudge on the surface.”

Stone sighed. He hope that they could somehow stay in orbit. But if they landed and could not get the main engines back online there was a good chance they would be stuck until help arrived… if help arrived.

“Launch distress beacons and program one of them to loop a connect protocol for the netlink. Hopefully the thing is just in a shadow with dead batteries for a few hours.”

Stone sat back in his chair and turned to his executive officer that stood rigid beside him.

“You have any insight on our predicament Price?”

“We could try turning off that bloody alarm sir.”

After tapping through the commands on his screen to stifle the master alarm, the coms over the bridge started to crackle to life.

“This is warrant officer Bryant Fields. If you are receiving this please acknowledge, I say again this is warrant officer Bryant Fields. I am locked in the arms locker with three other survivors and life support is offline. Again anyone who can hear this please acknowledge, we’re running out of air here.”

Stone hopes rose after hearing the voice of his security chief. He pressed the coms button in his chair hoping they could hear him.

“This is the commander. we read you and are coming to get you out there, you said you had  other survivors with you?”

Stone started to worry when no reply came but after several tense seconds it crackled to life again.

“Thank every holy thing in existence, it’s nice to hear your voice for once commander, I’m locked in here with two of my marines and smoke’s.”

“Roger. I’ll be opening that door myself so you won’t forget who saved your sorry ass.”

“looking forward to it commander. Fields out.”

Commander stone motioned to his engineer and gunnery officer.

“Hammer, Falmer with me. Price you have the bridge until I get back”

His XO nodded and moved himself to the Commanders seat once he had left the bridge.