Our Precious moon

“How long until we get to go back to the castle, Emerald Dust?” A young pegasus knight groaned as he and his fellow knights continued patrolling past the safety of the kingdom’s walls.

“Oh please, FireNight. You’ll live..” Commander Emerald Dust scoffed.

Emerald dust the leader of luna’s forces was an earth pony mare that wore a long black cloak and garb covering most of her body except for her piercing emerald green eyes. She stood slightly taller than the average mare along with having a more toned physique from her strenuous training.

“Ma’am, you might want to see this!” Another knight shouted pointing around the corner.

“Lets check it out.” Emerald Dust said, following the other knight.

“Over there, what do you think they’re doing?” He asked, pointing at a herd of monsters charging towards something.

“They must be hunting some larger beast, none of our other warriors are out here…. But it doesn’t hurt to investigate.” She said as she stared at the creatures.

“FireNight, it’s your lucky day. you’re going back to the kingdom. I need you all to inform the princess of this odd activity…” She ordered, chuckling.

“Oh thank the stars..” FireNight sighed. Emerald Dust leapt down as the last beast ran past, and started to follow them.

“Here comes another wave! Fire at will!” Commander Orion Seraphime ordered to his legionaries of Upsilon Legion of Celtacorpes Lunar Brigade, as hundreds of monsters charged over the rotting corpses of their fallen kin, towards the militaristic research outpost.

The thunder and high pitched cackle of gamma decay gunfire with shrieks of beasts filled the ears of the human legionaries as they shot at the countless hordes of monsters.

“Hold your positions!” Commander Orion shouted as he fired his sniper rifle at the oncoming horde.

After the last of the beasts fell, Commander Seraphime looked over the area with his sniper rifle, searching for survivors.

“Alright, it’s clear! I need a demolition squad to get some mines out there!” He ordered, as a small band of legionaries saluted him.

“Sir, yes, sir!” The squad leader shouted before they moved out and started placing plasma decay mines on the corpses of the beasts.

“What the…” Emerald dust gasped as she hid behind a rock formation, watching the strange beings casting some light green beams with strange wands at the monsters, killing them once the lights touched them.

But one of the beings caught her eyes, it was wearing a trenchcoat clad in black with a red tint, unlike the other beings’ blue, orange, yellow and red combined with a white tint.

“That must be their commander…” She guessed as the last of the beasts fell. The commander shouted something to a group of other beings clad in orange and white, they each made a fist and placed it against their chests and shouted back.

Then she got nervous as the beings moved closer to her position and placed odd, glowing disks among the corpses of the monsters, then they ran back to the building.

“I must tell Luna about these things, and fast.” She thought aloud as she moved away, and ran back to the castle.

______________________________________________________________________________

“Coma-urgh-nder..” A soldier groaned. Commander Seraphime spun around to see one of his soldiers covered in a moving, tar-like substance.

“Aagh..” The soldier groaned as he reached his arms out, like a zombie, and ran towards the commander.

Orion raised his rifle, but someone else beat him to the punch. It was his sister, commander Ariana Seraphime.

“Orion! We’ve been breached! Most of our personnel inside the outpost building have been infected by the carion liquid.” She groaned as she clutched her wounded arm.

“Dammit.. this is just what I feared… I need a medic! We’ve got wounded! Are you ok Ariana?” He asked just as a soldier, clad in red and white with a red cross, ran up to them and saluted Commander Seraphime.

“I’ll live..” She groaned. “I’ll do the best I can, sir!” The Medic said as he carried the injured co-commander  to a medical tent.

“Someone, get in contact with the colony, we need reinforcements.” He ordered.

“We’re doing the best we can, sir!” An engineer whined.

“That’s an order!” He growled.

“Sir, yes, sir!” the engineer said as he followed the command.

______________________________________________________________________________

“What do you mean, another castle?” Luna asked Emerald Dust.

“Well, I don’t know if it’s a castle, but it looked like one. There were other beings killing the gigantic horde of monsters.” Commander Dust explained.

“Hm.. Continue investigating, maybe we’ve found a new ally in the fight against Discord. Do not attack them unless they attack you. I need you, and a small party of your soldiers to go to this castle and communicate with the beings, bring them a peace offering of your choice as well. Thank you Commander Dust.” Luna said, as she dismissed Emerald Dust.

The commander bowed and walked out of the throne room.

“Hmm..” Luna sighed and looked out her window at the continent of equestria, she imagined her sister with her royal guards fighting Discord and his manipulated empire.

“Food?” A knight asked, writing a check list for the supplies needed for the trip.

“Check.” Another said, smiling.

“Alright, that’s everything.” He chuckled as he closed the notebook.

“What do you think they’ll be like, Hawkeye?” The soldier asked, smirking.

“I don’t know, the commander said that their defenses were otherworldly, Firenight.” Hawkeye said as he climbed onto the carriage, Firenight climbed onto the carriage as well and sat the other seat.

“I can’t stop wondering about them.” He chuckled.

“We’ll find out soon enough, bud.” Hawkeye chuckled, patting Firenights back.

“Alright, knights! Let’s move out!” Emerald dust ordered and waved her arm forward, the carriages moving after hers.

After a while of traveling through the craters, Emerald Dust stood up and looked around.

“Stop the carriages!” She ordered.

“What is it, ma’am?” A knight asked her as all went quiet.

“I heard something, CyanCorde.” She said, scanning their surroundings and slowly pulling out her sword. Everyone else got nervous, shakingly equipping their weapons as they mumbled to themselves.

Just then, a small horde of monsters charged at the caravan. Scared archers screamed as they released their arrows, killing a few of the creatures, however it wasn’t enough. But before the creatures could get their claws on the ground next to the caravan, the high pitched thunder of gamma decay gunfire caused the knights to squint their eyes shut and cover their ears. When they reopened, they were surrounded by corpses of monsters and odd beings wearing strange, advanced, armor combined with trenchcoats clad in green and white paint.

“Drop your weapons!!” One of the beings shouted at the caravan, all of whom were aiming some kind of metal crossbows, without the bow, at the knights.

“That’s a weird way to say hello…” A knight muttered to Hawkeye, as they did what the beings told them. However, Emerald Dust dropped all of her weapons, except her hidden dagger which he placed her hand over.

“Shut up, Glinting Light.” Hawkeye hissed.

“Now kick them away from you!” They ordered before the knights obeyed. After that, the soldiers moved towards the Knights and made them drive the caravan to outpost Omnicron.

“This is recon squad alpha, heading back to outpost Omnicron. We’ve found a caravan of natives that were about to become a buffet for the wildlife.” One of the human soldiers said, holding his fingers where his ear was, under his full-head helmet.

“Copy that, alpha.” Another soldier on the other side of the communication system responded.

“Hey, what do you think he’s talking to, Hawkeye?” Glinting Light whispered, trying to make sure that the humans didn’t hear them.

“Jus-” Before Hawkeye could respond, the sight of an advanced fortress appeared around the corner.

“My Celestia…” The knights gasped.

The carriages stopped inside the sandbag perimeter, the knights were moved off the carriages. Just as Emerald Dust got off, she noticed the same being wearing the same black, trenchcoated armor with a red tint, walking towards the caravan.

“Who’s in charge of this caravan?” The human commander asked. Emerald Dust moved towards him and nodded.

“I am.” She said, looking into his eyes, even though they were covered by a militarized plague doctor mask.

“Very well then, I need you to come with me… I have a few questions.” Orion explained as he turned and started walking, Emerald Dust not too far behind.

They stopped at, to Emerald Dust, what seemed like a door. He tapped some kind of glowing contraption next to the door and it slid open. Emerald Dust eyes widened as it opened on it’s own, but kept walking behind the human commander. After a little while of walking, they made it to a strange room, there was a table in the center and two chairs on opposite sides of the table.

“Alright, let’s cut to the chase. Who and what are you and why are you here?” He asked as he placed his gloved palms on a white table, leaning towards Emerald Dust.

“Well, may I ask you the same thing?” She asked, scowling under her face wraps.

After a short silence, Orion shrugged and said,

“I guess we’re in the same boat, I’m commander Orion Seraphime of Upsilon Legion of Celta Corporations Lunar Brigade. Our species was given the name ‘Humanity’, I am a Human. As is everyone else in this outpost. We’re here for a mining operation, this outpost, however, is here for militaristic research. Now, I’ll let you ask more questions once you’ve answered mine.” He explained and sat down.

Emerald Dust had many questions already flying about her mind, what’s a human? Why are they here? What are their motives?

“Well, I am commander Emerald Dust of Princess Luna’s royal guard. My species is called equestrians, I’m an earth pony.” She explained, but Orion interrupted her.

“A.. What..?” Commander Orion leaned his head to the side.

“A pony, did I stutter?” She asked, leaning closer to Orion.

“N-nevermind.. What are you doing here and who, or what, sent you here?” He asked, crossing his arms.

“Princess Luna sent us here to negotiate an alliance with you, she made us bring a caravan of food and water. A gift of peace. Princess Luna brought us to our moon, to escape the war and death on our home planet.” She said, looking at the edge of the table that was facing her.

“Thank the stars, you’ve saved us… You have no idea how short on supplies we were. That’s all the questions I have.” He said, sighing in relief.

She smirked and shrugged.

“Now, what kind of castle is this?” She asked, looking around the room.

“This isn’t a castle… This is an outpost. We don’t use castles ever since we’ve started advancing in technology.” He chuckled.

“Wow… Well, what kind of government do you humans have?” She asked, leaning in and wondering how many other planets the humans have been on.

“Do not speak of governments to humans, governments brought us nothing but harm and suffering. The corporations gave us hope, little chance of an economic collapse, protection, infinate jobs and made us a lawful neutral. Our whole race is basically a giant, well funded, highly militarized merchants guild. We abolished governments, killing off all the selfish pigs who lead and believed in the damned idea. I’m not so offended by it, but others are.” He explained.

“Ah…” Emerald Dust nodded.“Why are you here?” She asked.

“Heh, the Global Union, basically the policeman of all the corporations, sent scouts here and saw that this place was resource rich! We’re basically mining this place.” He explained, nodding.

“Interesting.” She mumbled, half worried

Then Orion got up and pushed in his chair after another human, wearing a similar garb, but a bit more curved around the chest and hips, with a militarized Guy Fawkes mask, walked in.

“We need to move, the infected are pushing us back by the second…. Who’s she?” She said, putting her hands over her dual gamma decay pistols.

“Don’t worry, she’s the commander of our new allies army. Her name’s Emerald Dust. Miss Dust, this is my sister, Ariana Seraphime.” Orion explained, gesturing towards the co-commander.

Ariana crossed her arms and looked Emerald Dust over.

“I don’t like being sized up, do not underestimate me.” Emerald Dust growled. Ariana huffed and looked at Orion.

“Hey, you two gotta get along.” He said, looking at both Ariana and Emerald Dust as they sighed and nodded.

“Fine.. But we need to ge-” Just before Ariana could finish, a human legionnaire ran into the room screaming as she tried to slide carion Liquid off of her before it could infect her.

“Aaagh! Help me! Get it off! Aaaaah!” She groaned as the liquid mutated her, covering her entire body and sprouting alien limbs.

“Ariana!” Orion warned as the infected got up and tried to kill her, he shoved his sister out of the way, now it was trying to choke him.

“Argh! Get it off me!” He grunted as he struggled against the creature.

Just then, Emerald Dust snapped. She dashed up behind the creature and pulled her hidden dagger out of her pocket and stabbed it in the skull, the entire blade of the dagger sinking into it. It shrieked and died.

“I guess you owe me one.” She chuckled. Just then, the carion Liquid seemed to crawl off the corpse of the soldier and move towards Emerald Dusk.

“What the?!” She gasped and tried to shake it off, but in the nick of time, Orion pulled out his dual gamma decay pistols and shot the liquid, it dissolved right in front of them.

“I don’t like owing people, but I guess we’re even.” He chuckled and followed his sister out of the room, Emerald Dust not far behind.

In the hallways were injured human legionaries and civilian personnel.

“What’s been happening down here?” Emerald Dust gasped as a human scientist was carried out, missing an arm and a leg.

“Terrible things… We could handle the monsters outside, but the carion liquid is devastating. Infecting our people and turning them into killing machines.” Ariana sighed as she walked outside.

“Look at their injuries…” Glinting Light gasped as he stared at the limbless and torn apart humans.

“Those aren’t like any other injuries I’ve seen.” Hawkeye mumbled, squinting at the cuts and slashes. Just then, Orion stepped outside and spoke to the soldiers.

“Alright, good news is, those carriages are full of food and water for us. Bad news is, we just lost the inside of the outpost to the infected.” He said as all the humans gasped.

“We need to get enough engineers on that coms station, and send out a distress call.” He ordered as a group of engineers saluted the commander and walked towards the broken radio station. Then he turned and walked towards Emerald Dust and his sister.

“What happens now?” Ariana asked.

“We hope that the infected don’t make it outside that door and that reinforcements will come soon..” Orion groaned and rubbed his head.

“Hey, maybe we could send in a band of your soldiers and my knights to help you clear out your outpost, in return we’ll have safe passage back to our castle and an alliance with you. Agreed?” Emerald Dust proposed. Orion and Ariana looked at each other and, after a short while, nodded.

“Maybe… Follow me.” Ariana said as she walked towards a small building with a map of the outpost.

“Alright, there’s going to be eight of us, three humans and five of your knights. Two will be me and my brother, one will be you. The other human will be a combat engineer to guide us through any blockage and repair anything. Agreed?” Ariana proposed.

“No, I can’t afford you two to die. I’m not stupid, those things are dangerous.” Emerald Dust shook her head and crossed her arms.

Orion chuckled, “I’m afraid we are going in, we know the virus more than you, and we’re not dumbasses when it comes to combat. And the Global Union doesn’t have anymore commandos anymore, if you understand what I’m saying.” Orion explained looking at Emerald Dust.

“Fine, have it your way.” Emerald Dust scoffed.

“Alright, let’s do this.” Ariana cheered as they walked out.

“Commanders!” A human soldier saluted the three commanding officers.

“At ease soldier, what is it?” Orion ordered.

“Sir, our radio couldn’t get to Celtacorpe, or the colony, but we managed to contact the Theta Private Military corperation. We’ll have enough soldiers to survive, sir!” She explained.

“Thank you, now return to your post.” Orion ordered as the soldier saluted him one more time and walked away.

“I guess that’s good news, let’s hope the Theta greasers aren’t too trigger happy.” Ariana chuckled as a combat engineer walked up to them.

“Sir and ma’am and… um..” She mumbled, saluting the three but shrugging at Emerald Dust.

“Ma’am will do fine, legionnaire.” She chuckled as the engineer nodded.

“Thank you, ma’am. I’ll be the engineer accompanying you in the outpost.” She explained as Orion and Ariana nodded.

“Also, the Thetacorpe soldiers will arrive in three days.” She explained.

“Damn, well it’s good to know that they will be arriving. We’ll have to wait until they get here to go inside the outpost.” Ariana groaned.

“Orion.” Emerald Dust said as she tapped her hoof.

“Yes?” Orion responded moving closer to her.

“Could I have my weapons back? It seems like I might just need them.” She grumbled.

“Of course I’ll get a soilder in the amory on the line to bring you your equipment.” At that Orion activated to his communication device and spoke into the machine.

In only a few minutes time, a legionnaire had arrived carrying emerald dust’s bow and arrows along with a sword with ancient runes carved into the blade that glowed a light blue. As emerald dust got her weapons back she looked them over, inspecting for any damage.

“What do those symbols mean?” Emerald Dust was startled slightly when Orion asked this question.

“I don’t know what they mean. All I do know is that they surge magical power into weapons and armor.” explained Emerald Dust.

“How did you get that sword then?” Orion asked.

“In a war a few years back, I fought against a tribal group they had a warchief using this sword, when I killed him I took the sword. It’s more than just a trophy though, it’s powerful, I have yet to find a armor that can halt it.” Emerald Dust said as she demonstrated by throwing the blade at a nearby vacant suit of knight armor. This blade easily pierced the suit like a knife through butter.

Orion was shocked by the power of the sword, then he smirked and said, “Well I guess I’ll try to stay on your good side.” He chuckled, then began to leave to brief his team of their objective, as Emerald Dust left to go and do the same with some of her knights.

“Someone get in contact with outpost Omicron!” Commander Kieran Sirachev ordered the operators in a Lunar Brigade command center.

“Sir, we’ve detect a Thetacorpe troop transport ship heading to the outpost!” An operator explained.

“Hm… They know something’s wrong.. Someone get in contact with the colony fleet captain and that Thetacorpe ship, ask them what’s going on!” Sirachev ordered.

“Yes sir!” The operator responded.

“Yes, we have lost radio contact with the outpost, I thought I sent a drone to inform you about that.” Captain Adrian Blisen mumbled.

“You did, sir… it just arrived.” Sirachev groaned.

“Anyway, since our corporate allies are sending a troop transport there, we should too. Get in contact with them, see what’s going on.” Adrian ordered.

“Roger that sir.” Sirachev said as the captain hung up. He went back to his captains chair and sat down, groaning.

“My god… Something just has to go wrong, doesn’t it?” He grumbled, rubbing his temples.

After a few days of fighting off hordes of monsters, the knights grew bored and scared.

“Why is everyone out here in the first place?” CyanCorde grumbled.

“Because of the infected inside of our outpost.” A human medic explained.

“What? infected?” CyanCorde raised an eyebrow.

“The carion liquid, once it infects you, it takes over your body, turning you into a killing machine. They kill and infect everything that isn’t already dead or infected.” The medic sighed.

“By Luna’s glory…” CyanCorde gasped, but before he could say anything else, four blinding lights shined upon them, moving towards a flat area and just hovering there.

“What in celestia’s name!” CyanCorde grunted as he shielded his eyes from the lights, but he got a glimpse of some kind of writing on the hovering hunk of metal.

Thetacorpe

Troop Transport

“There’s the Thetacorpe transport!” The medic cheered.

“The what?” CyanCorde grumbled as eight human legionaries wearing similar armor to the ones in Upsilon Legion, but more intimidating designs & equipment, jumped out of the transport ship and landed on the platform.

They were wearing odd gasmask painted with intimidating designs of sharp teeth were a mouth would be, slash wounds on their chest pieces. But their overall paint jobs were dark shades of red and orange.

What seemed to be the leader of the band, judging by her larger, engraved armor, paintings and larger weapons, walked up to Orion and Ariana Seraphime and saluted them.

“You guys the leaders of Upsilon legion?” She asked, her voice sounding mechanical.

“Yes we are, alright, now that you’re here, we need you to-” Before Orion could continue, the Thetacorpe squad leader interrupted him.

“Yeah, whatever you had in mind, isn’t gonna happen.” She said, crossing her arms.

“What? But we-” The Thetacorpe soldier interrupted him again.

“Before we got here, we were contacted by a Commander Kieran Sirachev. We informed him about your situation and now we’re taking most of our orders from him, he wants us to go in and clear out the outpost and rescue any survivors.” She said, saluting the commanders.

“Fuck..” Orion groaned as he walked towards the team that they assembled.

“Alright, the Thetacorpe greasers aren’t staying out here. They’re going to go inside the outpost and clear it.” Ariana scoffed. Firenight and Hawkeye looked at each other and shrugged.

“But they’ll be able to help us when we need them to right?” CynaCorde asked as Emerald Dust squinted at the Thetacorpe mercenaries as they checked their equipment.

“Of course.” Orion nodded.

“Can we trust them?” Emerald Dust asked as she noticed the Thetacorpe squad leader look back at her and wave.

“Of course, Theta Private Military corperation has been one of Celtacorpes greatest corporate allies for ages, and the Global Union won’t allow any corporation to attack another” Ariana explained as Emerald Dust relaxed a bit.

“Alright, are all of you ready?” Orion asked as he held his dual gamma decay pistols.

“Sir, yes sir!” The engineer said as she saluted Orion.

“You know I am.” Ariana chuckled.

“At ease, soldier.” Orion said as the combat engineer relaxed. Then he looked at Emerald Dust, her knights standing behind her as she nodded.

“Alright, the Thetacorpe mercs are ready as well, let’s go.” He said as he turned and walked towards the Thetacorpe squad.

“Alright, as soon as we get in there, we’ll say our goodbyes. But feel free to call us for reinforcements, we’ll always be ready to assist if we can.” The squad leader nodded as Orion saluted him.

“Thanks for your help, soldier.” Ariana saluted him as he nodded back at her.

Orion opened the door inside the outpost, holding his dual gamma decay pistols up with their barrels facing the dark hallways. As they all got inside, the Thetacrope squad leader saluted them one last time before leading her soldiers down a separate hallway.

“We’ll call you for assistance if we need you!” Ariana called to the soldiers as they slowly disappeared in the darkness. Emerald Dust scoffed and shook her head as she readied her sword.

“We’re so dead…” CyanCorde mumbled quietly.

As they walked deeper inside the outpost, they came across some odd tar-like biomass crawling across the walls and ceiling.

“What is-” But Firenight didn’t finish his sentence due to the pops of gamma decay beams melting the liquid.

“Carion liquid.” The engineer sighed. Just then, Ariana shined her flashlight at some indoor defenses, and the corpses of the defenders.

“Dammit, no…” She quietly sobbed, remembering the fallen legionaries whilst they were alive.

“Hey, it’s ok. They died for our safety.” Orion consoled his sister. Hawkeye moved his magiclight closer to a giant hole in the wall.

“What the… Commanders! Look at this.” He shouted as he moved his magic light slightly inside the hole.

“Well, if I know two things. That hole isn’t a part of the outposts construction and something big made it.” Emerald Dust theorised.

“Oh no... I better warn the Thetacorpe squad.” Orion shivered.

“What is it, commander?” The sound of the familiar squad leaders voice said over the communications system.

“Thank god you’re alright, we’ve found some kind of hole in the wall, we think that a carion berserker is here. Stay alert and be careful.” Orion warned.

“Got it, we’ll do- What the hell is that!? Open fire!” Then, the sounds of deep screeching and gunfire with the shouts of legionaries filled the communications system.

“Aaagh!!” The squad leader screamed as the communications system went to static.

“Oh fuck… The Thetacorpe squad is dead… Whatever made this hole found them.” Orion groaned as he rubbed his forehead.

“Holy shit.” The engineer said in nervousness as the four knights shook in fear.

“One question, what is a carion berserker?” Firenight asked the three humans.

“A carion berserker is one giant killing machine made of multiple infected people.” The engineer explained.

“Well then.. we’re fucked..” Firenight groaned.

Just then, a small blue fire sparked over a metal cylinder.

“What is..” Hawkeye mumbled as he leaned towards the flame.

“The outposts A.I.!” Orion gasped as the flame took on a humanoid shape.

“Hello, commander Orion Seraphime.” It said as it bowed towards the commander.

“F.L.A.M.E. what’s going on down here? did you see what happened to the Thetacorpe mercenaries?” Orion asked. The A.I. displayed a photograph of the thetacorpe mercenaries fighting a hulking mass of carion liquid and bodies, the berserker, it was giant. It almost filled up the entire room.

“My god… looks like all the infected merged into the largest berserker we’ve ever seen…” Ariana gasped.

“F.L.A.M.E. activate all of the outposts turret defenses, and activate arena simulation.” Orion ordered as the ground shook around them, the berserker knew where they were and was heading straight for them. The A.I. bowed once more as a million turrets were activated across the outpost. The muffled rattle of gamma decay gunfire and the low and deep screeches of the berserker were heard throughout the halls.

Just before the monster bursted through the wall, the entire room transformed into some odd arena.

The creature roared at the team of knights and legionaries.

“Open fire!” Ariana ordered as she, her brother and the engineer shot at the beast, it screeched and then rammed into them, knocking them on their backs.

“Dammit!” Emerald Dust groaned as she unsheathed her blade and slashed at what seemed to be the berserkers arm, it fell clean off and sizzled away. The engineer got up and started shooting at the wound as the other three knights charged at it.

It roared and caught an unfortunate knight by the leg with it’s mouth.

“Aaah! Help please!” CyanCorde screamed before the creature tore him apart, blood spraying on the floor near the monsters mouth.

“CyanCorde!” The two other knights and Emerald Dust gasped as he was eaten.

“Don’t just stand there! Avenge him!” The combat engineer shouted as she continued shooting at the berserkers new weak spot.

Then Emerald Dust stabbed the berserker in the wound. It screeched and collapsed as it slowly dissolved into nothing. The remnants of CyanCorde slowly dissolving with it.