Flight of The Avali: Season One

In the Battlecruiser:

“Wait… we’re going to head deeper into the ship?” Twilight scoffed. “That's SUICIDE!”

“It's our best option. They're expecting us to go to the teleporters. Not the bridge.” Dandy stated. “If you want to charge a fortified position be my fucking guest. I'm not risking any of you for something so damn stupid!”

Twilight fell silent.

“The teleporters are connected to the bridge on this class of cruiser. It allows for technicians to easily keep their post, and shift forces around.” Suzy said. “This is a much older class of ship.”

“So… what about the more modern ones?” Twilight asked.

“Be glad this isn’t a more modern one. Turrets would have torn us to shreds.” Suzy said quietly. “Hell, you’d have probably been grabbed by one of the fucking idiots and…” She shivered. “Just be glad this isn’t under USCM control. I mean… yeah these Florans are horrible, genocidal even. But, they didn’t invade your planet and claim you all as scum. Then just… slaughtered everything.”

“W…”

“They’re almost all Xenophobic bastards.” Dandy said. “Suzy, and… when her squad were still with us…”

“Did they die?” Dash asked.

“No. They went home. To their colonies to defend them. Just like the USCM should be doing. Not… barricading themselves in bunkers, in their ships… on entire planets… turning the colonies to slaves…” Suzy shook her head. “Look, things aren’t peachy fucking keen out here. They’re horrible. We have to make our own good. Do things that others will like, make sure those few good souls out here can survive.”

“Enough talk! We don’t have time for this! Let's get to the bridge!” Spike said. “If we make it out you all can talk about this stuff, I just want to live!”

“Alright, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, keep the target in the center of our group. We’ll make sure they don’t make it to you.” Dandy ordered.

“Got it.” The two mares nodded. The group began to head out, the shield spell Twilight had put up falling apart the moment they left. Suzy and Spike rapidly sprayed into the first horde of abominations, only to start scoring kills when a small blinking orb sailed back.

“Shit man, you didn’t say it was silent when I asked you about it!” Dandy laughed, the grenade that had been launched exploded into a cloud of nanites that instantly latched onto the abominations, eating away at the excess plant growth allowing them to actually be hurt.

“The grenades are energy based, they’re created via my own reserves. It’s silent, inefficient, but it makes a hell of a punch.” Einuli growled, firing a napalm grenade further back into the hallway, instantly being alerted to Floran screams and shouts as they were ignited.

Continuing through the halls, they cut, sawed, gunned, and blew their way through weaker, much older abominations. It was a stark contrast to the initial force that they were hit with.

“Something’s wrong…” Dandy muttered.

“The older abominations are probably a lot more numerous… the crew that they didn’t kill right away.” Suzy offered. “Why waste good, strong creatures when they can bury us under a pile of bodies?”

“Good point… but I still don’t like it.” Dandy said.

“Neither do I.” Oxocol said. “They didn’t trap the room Celestia was in. And they quickly blew our shuttle up. They have something planned.”

“Let’s make sure they don’t get that plan off the ground, shall we?” Suzy said, the group managing to make it to the bridge doorway. The door itself was sealed.

“Oxoloc, you get the door open. We’ll cover you.” Dandy ordered, the main group taking up a semi circle position, Akaya, Einuli, and Chotl in the front. Suzy and Spike looking over the front melee group, and then Twilight and Dandy left behind the two wielding assault weapons. “Word of advice. Don’t think about what you’re doing here. Just do. Don’t consider them living creatures. They’re enemies now. It’s us or them. And if they overrun us, it’s your planet next.” Dandy said to Twilight. “The same goes for you two.” He glanced back to Rainbow Dash and Applejack who were in position to protect Celestia. “You might be disgusted with killing, considering it to be a crime, a sin, or something of the like. You have to throw that feeling away. They don’t care for your lives. They’ll turn you into one of those things, or eat you, if they even capture you. They won’t deal with trades, or ransoms. Why do that when they can wipe out your planet, and then just take what they want? Make sure they don’t get that chance. Every single creature we kill before we die, if we die, is one less they have to attack your home with. And a greater chance there will be survivors.”

The three mares were silent, unsure of what they could even say.

“It’s something we’ve all had to get over.” Dandy turned to look down the hall. They could hear the crackling of flames in the distance die down, followed by screeches and unholy sounds. “Everyone get ready. Here they come…”

Einuli, Chotl, and Ayaka hoisted up their longer reaching weapons, preparing to impale or stab whatever got too close.

Suzy and Spike however had plans to not let anything that close, both already firing the second they thought something was coming down the hall.

Thankfully, they didn’t have to worry much about ammunition, nanites rapidly producing it for them, but they did have to keep an eye on their energy reserves, if that ran out, they’d be forced to use melee weapons.

They could hear the sickening sound of bullets hitting flesh or tearing through what sounded like bark. It was a horrendous symphony.

Einuili heard something scuttling above them and immedietly dropped his spear, he aimed towards the source and fired an energy blast.

The strange creature screeched, the sound it made causing Einuli to freeze up completely. The body dropped down behind him. But, he didn’t even need to look at what it was.

“What’s wrong?” Chotl asked, glancing quickly to the frozen raptor.

“N… nothing.” Einuli muttered, picking his weapon back up. “Just… one more packmate sent to rest.” He muttered. “No one gets left behind…”

Twilight looked down, she nearly gagged at the sight of the creature. It was a twisted visage of plant and feathers. Though, immediately she could recognize what it used to be. Though she didn’t know its’ name, or what it did. Only that it was one of Einuli’s pack mates. “Gods…” She muttered, glancing up for the first time she used the wand given to her by Nightbloom. Now, she was no stranger to magic… being the Element of Magic in the past, and basically the Princess of Magic (Though her official title was that of Friendship…) but this definitely had a technological twinge to it. A simple wave of the wand and a bolt of energy sailed down the hallway, lighting up the carnage in a green glow. It made contact with one of the abominations, this one armored in something similar to the skeletons they saw in the hold. At first, all it did was cause it to glow green, making everything completely visible.

Now, that gave Suzy and Spike more targets to aim for, though they both avoided hitting the glowing creature for some reason.

“This is us-” Twilight was cut off as the creature exploded brilliantly. A gory mess of chlorophyll and blood splattering over everything around it. Thankfully it seemed to be far enough back that they didn’t have to worry about the bloody after effects. Several more creatures, at least those without any armor, immediately dropped dead, the radiation rapidly destroying their cells. The others were left much slower than before, some attacking creatures nearby them, causing a brief relapse in the fight as the hall was blocked up with the creatures tearing at each other.

“Holy shit…” Rainbow Dash muttered.

“Oxoloc, how’s the door coming along?” Dandy glanced back.

“Almost… got it…” The avain muttered, the door now sliding open as he connected two more wires. “Go! We’re in!”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack immediately hauled Celestia into the bridge, setting her down in one of the chairs. Everyone else followed, with Suzy and Spike bringing up the rear. The two of them got to work tearing what they could from the ground and piling it in front of the door, creating a makeshift barricade and some extra cover.

Both Oxoloc and Chotl got to work trying to break into the systems of the ship.

“Alright… we’ve got at most two more minutes of peace before all hell breaks loose.” Dandy said. “Make any last prayers to any gods you believe in. We’re going to need as much help as possible.” He said half-jokingly.

“It won’t help.” An unknown voice said over the intercom.

“What th…” Twilight muttered.

“We already have you sssurounded. Or did you forget you’re on our ssship? Did you honestly think we wouldn’t try to crack into your communicationsss?” The voice chuckled. “Foolsss. It’s honessstly too late. We’ve ssshut down the teleportersss… if you want them back on…”

“Shit…” Dandy muttered. That was before he saw Einuli ditch most of his gear, well except for his armor and energy blasters. “W…”

Einuli shushed him.

“Ssshit they do have access to our commsss! But thanks to the broadcast… the visssualsss are way too ssscrambled for them to see!” Femati’s voice cracked through their speakers.

“My, quite the intelligent Floran, aren’t you… Femati’sss your name, correct?” The voice asked. “Too bad you’re with them… sssomeone like you would do well with usss.” He laughed. “But, the visssualsss mean nothing. We know all of your plansss…”

The group watched Einuli crawl into one of the large vents on the ship, vanishing completely from their radars with in a few moments. The raptor was fast, and they knew they’d miss him.

“If you want to leave this ssship with your creature… and your livesss. You’ll turn over the genetic misssfit with you. He’sss worth quite a bit to one of our… clientssss.” The voice said. “What do you sssay?”

“We’d rather die than turn anypony over to you beasts.” Twilight growled. “We’ll kill everylastone of you!”

“Oooh, fiesssty. I’ll enjoy breaking you… we might not even convert you…” The voice laughed. “Fine. We’ll sssee how you do against our true forcesss.” The ship’s communication systems turned off with that.

Twilight threw her want to Dash. “Use that.” She stated as she leaned down and picked up the grenade launched Einuli left behind. She may not have known how to use it. But she’d be sure to figure it out fast. “We’ve got a final stand to make.”

Dash looked down at the wand before an sawed off shotgun was thrown at her too. “Make sure to kill at least twenty before you go down.” Twilight growled. “We’ve got some covering to do.”

The three mares took up positions, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were relatively close behind the main barricade, one at Spike’s side, and the other at Suzy’s.

Dandy took up cover behind one of the consoles, throwing down some devices that created concrete road blocks, giving the two Avians at the main consoles cover as well.

Ayaka took up her own position, now hoisting up her bow, which until now had gone unnoticed thanks to its’ size. But the second she drew the string back, an energy arrow appeared, the arrow glowing a brilliant red.

“Come hell or high water…” Dandy said, clicking the hammers back on his revolvers, the sounds of angry monsters approaching rapidly.