Yarost'

"S-Station Gypsy...Station Gy...Gypsy...come in. This i-is Engineer T-Toaster. En route to docki-ing in five minutes...I am with one other...a c-civilian...we're both injured...respond." Timeless said into the com. Static fills the radio waves in response to Timeless. Timeless felt weak and was becoming severally lightheaded, due to the loss of blood from his gunshot wound. Crimson stained the front of his armor, streaming down his side and into the pilots' seat. Behind him Dash was still out cold in her seat, her head dangling to her right. At this point, Timeless started using Morse Code to start sending an SOS call to the station in hopes of response.

"Hey...!" came a voice through the static. Timeless jerked and grabbed the microphone immediately.

"Station Gypsy? Station Gypsy!" Timeless yelled. "Bolts? Is that you?"

"Timeless! Oh thank the Goddesses you're okay!Yeah, it's me. I see you coming in on my monitor. What's your status?" asked Bolts.

"Gunshot wound to the chest, and my passenger is...out cold...oh god, please tell me I'm almost there..." Timeless groans, feeling his mind begin to shut down.

"Thirty seconds to dock, Timeless. Hold on a bit longer." Bolts said, her voice rising in worry. "Blitz! Judith! Get the medical supplies ready!" Bolts called behind her. "Five second Timeless. Starting docking sequence." Bolts said, the sounds of machinery starting up, followed by a keyboard being typed on. Timeless could see the docking clamps extending, ready to grab the port side of the shuttle.

"Bolts...Dash doesn't have a RIG. Extend the overhead across the platform..." Timeless said, slowing the shuttle down and starting the docking thrusters. He could feel the thrusters gently guiding the shuttle to the clamps. The shuttle jerked a bit and the sounds of slamming metal could be heard, followed by a low humming caused by the ceiling and hall extensions for the platform. Once they were secured and the air was pressurized, a green light sparked on the shuttles' console, signalling that it was clear to leave the shuttle. Timeless could feel his eyelids growing heavy as he sat there, his vision going blurry.

As Timeless' world began to blur and vanish, he could faintly hear the shuttle door being opened, followed by the sounds of rushing foot falls. He could feel the sensations of being shaken a bit, followed by the harness around him being undone. At that point, Timeless began to black out, only regaining consciousness at sporadic points. The last thing Timeless remembered was being laid out on a table and his front armor with HUD monitor being removed.

After that, Timeless' mind checked out.

*     *     *

The first thing to return to Timeless was his hearing. The slow beeping of a heart monitor could be heard to his left, followed by the exchanging air from an air pump. His eyelids began to open slowly, his vision beginning to clear up. His head slowly turned to his left, spotting the machinery that was hooked up to his body. Looking down, Timeless could see that his chest was free of his RIG armor and undersuit, having been replaced by a slightly bloody medical gauze, wrapped snug to his frame. In the corner of the small medical bay, Timeless could see Blitz sleeping in a chair, his garments bloodied.

"Oh Timeless, you're awake!"

Timeless shifted his gaze to see Bolts standing in the doorway, a relieved look on her face.

"B-Bolts...?" Timeless asked, his voice hoarse. Bolts walked over to Timeless, running her hand over his hair, a sad smile on her lips.

"Hi buddy..." she said quietly. "I was scared you wouldn't come through. Good thing Blitz was a medic a while back." Bolts said with a sheepish chuckle.

"Where's Dash...?" Timeless asked.

"She's in the crew lounge. We managed to coax her out of a small coma that she was in. We got her some food and warm coffee and she's waiting in the lounge now. Think you're able to walk?" she asked. Timeless gives a small shake of his hand to show he was so-so. "Would you like some help? A crutch maybe?" she asked.

"I'm not crippled, I'm just weak." Timeless retorts in a quiet, deadpanned tone. Bolts giggled weakly and began to shut off the machines hooked up to Timeless. After the IV drips were removed from his arm, Bolts helped Timeless to his hooves and out of the room, staying close to him. "Where's my RIG?" Timeless asked.

"It's down in Repair. Sarah is taking a look at it." Bolts replied. Timeless nodded and bit and entered the crew lounge a couple minutes later. Just as Bolts said, Dash was sitting at a small table inside a booth, holding a cup of coffee in her hands while an empty plate sat nearby. She looked up immediately with wide eyes, a furious blush coming to her cheeks when she spotted Timeless.

"Hi Dash." Timeless said, giving a small wave. The next thing Timeless knew, he was on his back in the hall, a crying Dash clutching to him.

"TimelessI'msosorrypleaseforgivemeIhadnoideawhatwasgoingoninmymindbackthereohIfeelsostupidpleaseforgiveme!" Dash said rapidly as she buried her face in Timeless' bandaged chest.

"Dash! Pain! PAIN!' Timeless yelled. Dash gasped and bolted to her hooves, wringing her hands as she stood there. Bolts giggled behind her hand as she watched the scene before her. Timeless slowly got back onto his hooves and rubbed his chest a bit. He could feel stitching under the gauze, covering where the plasma bullet entered his chest.

"In case you're wondering, the bullet got stuck in your sternum. No major damage to your heart aside from the impact shock wave." Blitz said, approaching them. "You're lucky I was a battlefield medic in my youth." he added with a smirk.

"Thanks Blitz." Timeless said, nodding to the camouflage pegasus. Once they were all back in the crew lounge, Bolts got Timeless a coffee and sat down with them.

"You guys heard of what's happening down there?" Timeless asked them.

"Yes. Mass hysteria and attempted mass genocide? How could we not hear about it." said Judith with a frown. "What caused this?"

"Some guy came on in a video, claiming a group called Uni attacked New Manehatten. Next thing we know, it's panic in the streets and things are exploding." Dash said.

"Wait...Uni?" Sarah asked. familiarity in her voice.

"Yeah. Ring a bell, Sarah" Timeless asked, looking at her.

"Yeah it does. Mah cousin is part o' this freaky religion called Unitology. Keeps sayin' that we're all destined for Convergence, or whatever." Sarah said, folding her arms and rolling her eyes. "Bunch of bull, if ya'll ask me. They worship this alien thing called 'The Marker'."

"What does the Marker look like...?" Timeless asked, leaning forward.

"Someone hand me a pen an' paper?" Sarah asked. Judith hands her the two items from a small table and she began to draw on the paper. After a couple minutes, she presented her drawing.

Two curving towers, coming to a point at the tips, with odd glyphs around the structure.

"That's pretty spot on." Dash said quietly. "Like the one in the video..."

"Blame mah cousin. We always go ta' his place for Christmas dinner with tha' family. Has a tiny one of them damn things sitting on his fireplace mantle." Sarah said. "Thing always creeped me out."

"So the Uni is actually a religion called Unitology, and they worship this thing?" Timeless asked, pointing to the paper. Sarah nods in confirmation. "Is it possible they'd have sleeper agents?"

"I would not doubt it." Judith replied. "If one person is fanatical enough, it is possible to recruit others to their cause and have them wait for orders within a population."

"Like the Russians in the Cold War." Blitz spoke up. "Integrated them into the American population after a heavy brainwashing process, having them wait for a subliminal message to act out their orders." he continues.

"Seems reasonable. Something within the message must've woke up the sleepers." Timeless said thoughtfully.

"Well, they did show the Marker image for a good minute or so." Dash said. "Maybe that triggered it?"

"It's possible. A sleeper agent can be trained to respond to a key phrase or image." Blitz replied with a nod.

"But there's another thing..." Dash said, her tone going dark. The others all looked at her, raising their eyebrows, then looked to Timeless to explain.

"We...were in an alleyway in New Manehatten and we found this poor mare who was beaten to death. I was checking out he body when Dash, well...she went kind of insane and tackled me. She put a gun to my head and kept going on and on about Convergence and saying that there was a Marker within the city." Timeless said. He glanced at Dash, seeing she was relieved that Timeless didn't go further into detail about her outburst.

"Something else happened, didn't it?" Bolts asked. Timeless nodded silently.

"I managed to get Dash off me with a Kinesis push and got shot in the process." Timeless said, gesturing to his bandages. "But when I got up...so did that dead mare. Only...her body...changed, violently. She became this...thing...and tried to kill me with these massive bone blades. Chased after me and Dash, but ignored us when it spotted new prey." Timeless said.

"Tell me. Did you mange to injure this creature?" Judith asked, leaning forward a bit.

"Yeah, I shot one of its' blades off. It seemed to roar in pain." Timeless said, the creatures' roaring echoing in his mind.

"Sounds like the same thing that happened on the Ishimura" Judith said. The other looked at him for an explanation. "It was a simple mining operation that had gone wrong. They brought this alien artifact onto the ship," he tapped the drawing. "And within twenty-four hours, the entire crew was slaughtered by an alien parasite that brought back the dead as these murderous creatures. A small repair crew was dispatched to the Ishimura after radio contact was lost with the Ishimura. Only one person managed to get out alive. A CEC Engineer named Issac Clarke." Judith said. "No idea what happened to Clarke since, but the government somehow found more of these Markers and began to experiment on them in research facilities within the Alliance colonies."

"So...whatever happened on the Ishimura, is happening here as well?" Dash asked, terror in her voice. Judith simply nodded.

"How did you find out about this?" Timeless asked.

"I had a relative on board the Ishimura. That, and I'm pretty good at getting into classified government files from time to time." Judith said, giving a sly grin.

"Looks like the cook is a hacker as well." Blitz said with a chuckle.

"So, a Marker was brought back to Earth, even though the government knew damn well what it could do?" Timeless asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Looks like it." Judith said simply. "From what I read in the files, the Church of Unitology demanded that Markers are to be retrieved, studied, and worshiped."

Silence reigned in the crew lounge as this information settled in.

"Well. Looks like we gotta stop this." Timeless said simply. Immediately, the others all looked at him with surprised expressions.

"Are you crazy? That's suicide!" Bolts yelled, slamming her hands to the table and standing up in objection. "For all we know, all of New Manehatten is dead and turned! It's only a matter of time until all of Earth is a graveyard! Then Equus will be next!"

"That's why we have to stop it; before it can spread!" Timeless retorted angrily, rising up to Bolts' level.

"I bet you anything that's what Clarke tried to do!" Bolts yelled. "But it looks like the power of the government always wins!"

"Well we can't just stand by and let this shit storm continue!" Dash yelled. Soon, the crew of Station Gypsy was in a massive yelling argument.

"ENOUGH!" Timeless yelled over the din of anger. "We're not accomplishing anything by just yelling at each other! We gotta find a way to stop this thing from going on! One way or another, we're stopping this. Now think of something!"

Silence fell around them.

And for the longest time, no one could think of a way to stop the madness on Earth below.

"We go for the source." Sarah said. "We find that fella' from the video, get some information out of him on where that there marker is, and go destroy it." she continued.

"Easier said than done. We have no clue where this guy is." Blitz replied.

"We could always go and ask Princess Celestia." Dash suggested.

"We can try that. She does have connections within the Alliance. We can ask her if she's received any suspicious information or seen anything suspicious over the past couple months." Timeless said, tapping his chin in thought.

"Looks like we have a plan then, doesn't it?" Bolts asked, popping her knuckles.

"If no one is going to object to it." Dash said, looking to the others. Each of them gave a nod in conformation.

"Alright then. Suit up and get ready." Timeless said, standing from the booth.

"We're leaving in five minutes."