Chapters Chapter one: The new colony
The sounds of busy workers and soon-to-be colonists filled the halls and rooms of a Celtacorpe colonization vessel, C.C.S. Arion, the capital ship of a Celtacorpe colonization & mining fleet, searching for it’s next planet to settle on. However, this time it was a moon that peaked their interest, with it’s odd activity and a resource rich environment. The size of the moon rivaled that of the native moon of earth.
“Everything appears to be in order, we’re approaching the planets moon now.” The ship's captain, Adrian Blisen, explained to a service drone that responded with a series of beeps. “Alright, send in the scouts and alert the Global Union that we’re going to make a new colony.” He told the drone before it nodded and floated out of his captains deck. He then took a sip of his coffee and sat back to enjoy the view of the Equestrian moon, just as he closed his eyes, a dark purple flash flew straight to the surface and disappeared. As he reopened his eyes he saw, instead, their advanced scout ships zooming towards the moon. He sighed and went back to his business.
“This is Blue Zeraph one, we are experiencing a gravitational pull larger than the Zenith moon, alerting the fleet.” A scout ships pilot explained to the others.
“This is C.C.S. Arion captain Adrian Blisen, the gravity shouldn’t be much of a problem, continue with the mission.” Captain Blisen ordered through the advanced communication system.
“Roger that, sir. Continuing with scouting mission.” The pilot replied as his ship hovered over the surface of the moon, the spot lights shining down into the many, resource rich craters.
“This is Red Zeraph three, we have found a suitable colonization area with many mining hotspots, sending video footage now. Over.” Another pilot explained to captain Blisen.
“Roger that, pilot. Colonization is a go, return to hangar. Good work everyone.” Captain Blisen explained, smirking and looking at the scout ships flying back to his ship.
Back in the C.C.S. Arion, colonists were getting ready to start their new lives on this moon. Preparing and checking their gear, making sure everything was working correctly. “Group B proceed to hangar C6. Group C proceed to hangar A5...” A accountant announced on the ship wide communication system as the colonists organized themselves into their assigned groups and moved to their assigned hangars. One of the colonists took in a deep breath, the one next to him noticed and said,
“Hey Nick, are you nervous?” Smirking through his visor.
“Oh, more than ever.” He said just as they felt the ship land.
“Closing hangar bay inner airlock doors.” The ship's A.I announced as all sound was muffled until everyone turned on their personal communication systems.
The front hangar doors opened, dust and wind blew in and pushed against the colonists as they gazed upon their new world. “My god.. Welcome home..” Nick chuckled as they started moving forward, drones flying above them, building residence buildings and their new work places.
“Hey, look where you’re walking!” A colonist chuckled as they looked down and gasped at the shining, untouched minerals.
A couple miles away, the colonists could see drones finish building the wall that surrounded the large colony, and Celtacorpes Lunar military Brigade legionnaires already manning their stations with scouts going through the doors to explore the other regions of this moon. Unaware of the nightmarish creatures lurking in the dark. But they still pressed on.
“This is recon squad delta one, we’ve made it to a strange cave, requesting exploration, over.” The scout leader said as the other three readied their weapons.
“Exploration confirmed, Sergeant.” The fleets Lunar Brigade leader, Commander Kieren Sirachev explained.
“Roger that sir, moving in.” The sergeant said as he nodded towards his squad, whom turned on their flashlights as they climbed inside the cave.
“Sir, this place seems so strange.. There aren’t any minerals..” One of the scouts said just before he stepped on some sort of tar-like liquid. “What the- Agh...” He groaned.
“What is it, corporal?” The sergeant asked as he knelt next to the soldier, whom lifted up his boot to reveal the liquid. “Hmm.. I’ll report it to command.” He nodded and stood up. “Sir, this is recon squad delta, one of my soldiers stepped on some kind of liquid. Sending video footage now.” He said as he shined his helmet lights on his soldiers foot.
“Hmm. That looks terrifyingly similar to carion liquid… I’ll report it to the miners and other scouts. Proceed with caution sergeant.” Commander Sirachev warned.
“Roger that sir. Let's move.” The sergeant ordered.
“Wait! I saw movement.” The corporal warned as the rest of the squad froze and aimed their guns towards the area where the corporal was pointing.
“Shine your lights there, now!” The sergeant ordered. When they did, they were greeted with monsters covered in the tar-like liquid roughly the size of a human standing bipedal at the end of each hand laid sharp black claws that looked more like blades then a natural appendage. “What the hell?! Carion infected! Open fi-Aah!” The sergeant cried as one of the creatures slashed at him, cutting his suit and his chest fatally.
“Shit! Alert command and fire at will!” One of the soldiers said as they all began to shoot at the monsters, the light green flashes of gamma decay gunfire burned and disappeared across the walls.
“Delta one, what’s going on down there?” Commander Sirachev asked, a hint of worry in his voice.
“Sir we’re being attacked by foreign carion infected, the sergeant is dead! Sending video footage and requesting mission abort!” A soldier screamed as gamma decay gunfire and shrieks of creatures were heard over the communication system.
“My god… Pull out of there, now!” Commander Sirachev ordered, but it was too late. The rest of the soldiers were killed and the video footage now displayed nothing but static.
“Jesus… Alert the other outposts, tell the scouts to retreat back to the colony. Hurry!” He ordered the other operators as they each replied with, “Sir, yes sir!”
“Luna, I can’t let you leave. It’s too dangerous and I won’t be able to communicate with you easily.” Princess Celestia ordered her sister, princess Luna.
“Please, sister. I need this, it’ll be a safe place for our people if only I could explore the rest of the moon.” Luna pleaded.
“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, the moon is unexplored, and it will take far too long for it to become as such, and by the time we’ve done it, Discord would have won the war.” Celestia explained, wrapping one of her wings around her beloved sister. After a long silence, Celestia sighed,
“I know you’re not supposed to, but maybe you should sleep for tonight. I think it would help you.” She said, smiling. Luna sighed and nodded before heading to her room, secretly plotting to escape to her kingdom on the moon.
“M’lady, your bags are set with enough supplies and a socialisation mirror. Also, the last batch of ponies who want to come with you to the moon are waiting for you at the balcony. Good luck m’lady.” Luna’s servant, Brushing Flower said whilst holding a bag full of supplies.
“Thank you Brushing Flower. Please, stay safe while I’m gone.” She said taking the bag, Brushing Flower chuckled quietly.
“I’ll be fine, m’lady. But thank you.” He said, bowing and smiling.
Luna pulled her hood over her head, far enough that only the shine of her eyes were visible. After a little while of walking, she froze in her place as a royal guard walked by, thankfully not noticing her. “Phew.. That was too close.” She sighed and kept walking, unaware of where the guard was heading.
“M’la-What? Sound the alarm, Princess Luna’s missing!” The guard shouted to his comrades.
Luna froze and turned to see the lights of torches and the sounds of shouting guards down the other hallway. “By my sister's mane…” She cursed and ran. After a little while of running and evading other guards, she made it to the balcony. She rested her hands on her knees, catching her breath.
“Well then.. We’re ready m’lady.” One bulky batpony said, helping the princess up.
“Hurry, we don’t have much time!” A smaller one, obviously an archer, grumbled, looking at the lights of torches shining down a hallway.
“Don’t worry, get close to me. We’re going to make a new colony.” Princess luna said as the last 70 of her caring and loyal servants gathered around her like moths to a flame, the other thousands were already on the moon.
But the guards had already made it to the gates leading to the balcony, thankfully, just before the guards could touch them, they were surrounded by a dark purple aura and then shot towards the moon. However, one of the guards was princess Celestia herself.
Princess Celestia removed her helmet and looked up, with tears in her eyes, at the unusual shooting star that was her sister. She reached a hand up, as if hoping that she could grab Luna and bring her back to her home of safety. Her bottom lip quivered, a thousand words flew about her mind but the only thing that escaped her vocal cords was, “Luna…”
After a little while of flying, Luna, and her subjects, landed onto another balcony. “We’ve made it!” She cheered. Her servants looked around Luna's secret moon kingdom and the stars. “
M’lady, this is beautiful…” The archer gasped.
“We’re not the only ones in this castle, I’ve made this place for my subjects that couldn’t come down to equestria, but now it’s going to be our home.” Luna explained, taking in a deep breath as she looked over the craters on the moon.
Chapter two: Outpost Omicron
“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.
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“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.
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“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.
Chapter three: The Uncharted crater
“Geez… They must be more powerful here..” The engineer sighed as she watched the berserker dissolve.
“What do you mean, ‘more powerful here.’?” Firenight asked a hint of anger in his voice.
“Well, on the other colonies they’re less powerful, we can take care of them easily. But here they’re just more powerful.” She shrugged, taking off her helmet.
“You mean that you brought this virus here?!” Firenight roared as Emerald Dust pushed him back.
“Safeties off..” Orion whispered to Ariana as Emerald Dust ordered Firenight to stand down.
“Hey! It’s not their fault! It’s a virus, a disease! It would have made it here on it’s own!” She shouted at Firenight as he tried to get out of Emerald Dusts grasp to lash out at the humans.
Just then Hawkeye shot an arrow through the Engineers neck, killing her instantly.
“What the!? It’s a betrayal!” Orion shouted as he aimed his dual gamma decay pistols at Hawkeye.
“You fucking bastards! You’re the monsters! Die!” Hawkeye shouted as he readied his bow, but before he could release his arrow, he was shot by Orion and Ariana.
“Hawkeye, noo!” Firenight screamed as he pulled out his sword and tried to stab Emerald Dust, but she punched him in the left temple, knocking him out. Ariana slowly moved towards Emerald Dust, gamma decay pistols aimed at her.
But Emerald Dust turned around and gasped.
“Wait! It’s not a betrayal by Luna’s entire army! Everypony who tries to attack you will be put on trial for war crimes!” Emerald Dust pleaded as she held her hands up.
Orion held the dead engineer and took her dog tags.
“She had two kids...” He grumbled as Ariana lowered her weapons and explained to Emerald Dust,
“Try to control your troops. Attack one human and you attack the corporation that human was in, and you attack all corporations, even the Global Union. You’re one planet won’t stand a chance against our hundreds of galaxies.” Ariana scoffed and helped Emerald Dust up. Orion clenched his fist around the dogtags of the fallen combat engineer, but he held back the rest of his anger.
“Orion…” Ariana said, looking to her older brother for orders.
“We’ll inform the troops and the colony… The outpost is cleared.” He growled.
Once they were outside, a similar ship had landed on the platform, except this one had the words
Celta Corporation legionnaire transport
Other than that, the human personnelle were already preparing to go inside.
“Do you and your people have a court system?” Orion asked Emerald Dust as she held Firenight’s hands behind his back.
“Yes, I was just about to ask you that.” She nodded as Firenight mumbled and struggled against Emerald Dusts grip.
“I’ll be joining the trial, we should also bring the colony fleet captain.” Orion said, just as Captain Blisen walked up to them.
“Agreed, commander Seraphime. Ah, you must be the famous Emerald Dust, I presume?” Said a man wearing white, non-militarized, trenchcoated armor with an odd helmet.
“I am, and you are?” Emerald Dust asked, looking this person over. His helmet, which had decorative curves and wasn’t bulky, not saying that everyone else's helmets where bulky, had a strange blue visor where the hint of hazel eyes and circular and rectangular glowing blue shapes floating around where visible. His chest piece had a strange blue hologram projecting the words,
Fleet Captain Adrian Blisen
.There were also two holograms on his shoulder plates that projected a hand holding a pickaxe with the words,
Celtacorpe mining corporation.
“I am Caption Adrian Blisen of one of the Celta Corporation's moon colony fleets. I will be joining your court trials for… Him?”
Captain Blisen gasped as he looked at Firenight.
“Why would such a young, ambitious man do such a thing?” He asked as Firenight scoffed.
“Don’t treat me like a sick puppy, if you humans didn’t come here, the carion virus wouldn’t have followed.” He growled.
“I’m afraid the virus was already here. It would also be more powerful and dangerous.” Captain Blisen explained, Firenight rolled his eyes and tried not to believe what Captain Blisen was saying.
“So, shall we use your caravan or my transport ship to head to your castle?” Captain Blisen offered.
“I think the transport ship would be safer, let’s use that.” Emerald Dust said, somewhat understanding the concept of the said vehicle.
After a little while of flying, Captain Blisen noticed a horde of monsters on what he guessed would be the path they would have used to get to Luna’s castle.
“Well, a horde of monsters… I guess it was a good idea to use this ship.” He chuckled and Emerald Dust nodded.
“I just want to make sure that this traitor doesn’t escape my sight.” She scoffed as she squinted at Firenight whom mumbled angrily.
“Sir! Some kind of flying creature is-” Before the pilot could finish, the ship was torn in half and tossed down to the surface of the moon, before anyone could scream.
Emerald Dust slowly woke up to the sound of Firenight screaming, as she opened her eyes, she saw some of the monsters eating him alive.
She groaned in pain as she tried to get up, noticing that she’d been impaled in the leg by some of the wreckage.
After the monsters were finished with Firenight, they noticed Emerald Dust, and started drooling saliva mixed with streams of Firenights blood and bits of his flesh.
She growled as she tried to reach for her sword, but it was too far. She closed her eyes and waited for the end, but instead the sound of a gamma decay rifle was heard alongside the shrieks of monsters.
When she opened her eyes, she was greeted by the captain and the corpses of the monsters.
“Don’t move and apply pressure here.” He said as he examined Emerald Dusts impaled leg. She did as she was told as he pulled the pipe out.
“Aagh! Geez..” She groaned once the pipe left her flesh and as he started bandaging her wound.
“Good news is, the pipe hadn’t touched any bones, bad news is you won’t be walking easily.” He said as he helped her up and gave her a bow and a quiver of arrows.
“No really… Where are we going to go?” She grumbled.
“To the other half of our transport ship-Ugh! Disgusting..” He groaned as he looked at Firenights mangled and half-eaten corpse. Emerald Dust closed her eyes and sighed.
“Those bastards, he had so much going for him till these things came.” She said, frowning under her face wraps.
Then, the ear piercing sound of loud roaring was heard as a large flying creature flew over the wreckage, it had glimmering pitch black scales and spikes running down it’s back.
“My god..” Captain Blisen gasped as he stared at the creature as it landed on the edge of a nearby crater.
“We need to move, now!” Emerald Dust said as Captain Blisen nodded, carrying her along. Just then, the creatures eyes shined a sinister light across the wreckage, searching for survivors. Luckily, Captain Blisen was able to hide them both behind a rock formation.
“What is that thing?” Emerald Dust asked as she groaned from her leg injury.
“I never thought dragons were real...” Captain Blisen gasped as he stared at the creature.
“Dragons on the moon?!…” Emerald Dust groaned as the dragon slowly glided over them.
“So they’re native to your planet?” Captain Blisen asked as he carried Emerald Dust to a different area, clear of the dragon.
“Yeah… I used to fight some of them back on my home planet.” She mumbled.“I also don’t like being saved..” She grumbled as Captain Blisen chuckled whilst he continued walking.
“If you want to walk on your own, be my guest.” He chuckled, but he froze and crouched down behind another rock formation.
“Damn, more monsters…” He mumbled as Emerald Dust readied her bow with three arrows, whilst captain Blisen aimed his gamma decay rifle at the beasts.
Just then, they ran off as the dragon landed next to them, catching one with it’s jagged teeth and eating it. Emerald Dust and Captain Blisen lowered their weapons.
“Yikes… That could’ve been us..” Captain Blisen mumbled as Emerald Dust waited until the dragon flew away. But instead of flying away, it shined it’s spotlight eyes over Captain Blisen and Emerald Dust just seconds after they ducked to avoid being seen.
“Shit..” Captain Blisen hissed as he peeked above the rocks to see the dragon moving towards them, slowly.
“Let’s move!” He whispered as he helped Emerald Dust crawl to their next hiding place. The dragon peeked inside where they were previously hiding just minutes after they got away from it.
“Phew..” Emerald Dust sighed as it flew away.
“Save your breath, commander. We might not be as lucky next time.” Captain Blisen warned as they got up and started walking.
As they got into another clearing, they could see smoke rising over another crater.
“You think that’s the other crash site?” Emerald Dust asked, pointing at the clouds of smoke. The captain looked up towards the smoke.
“I guess so, let’s hope they’re alright.” He said as they continued walking, behind the cover of various rock formations. Then the captain looked over some rocks into a nearby crater, it was clear.
“Hey, the crater’s clear, you think we could get across it?” He asked, looking at Emerald Dust as she used healing salve to tend to her injured leg. She looked back at him, then looked out to the crater.
“I guess so, but let’s be quick. We don’t know when that dragon can come back..” She said, nodding.
“Alright, get your bow ready incase we come across the rest of those monsters.” He said, grunting as he carried Emerald Dust out of the cover of the rock formation and into the clearing. Both of them were getting more paranoid by the second, not a sign of life in sight.
Little did they know that the dragon was watching them from the edge of another crater.
“Hurry! I don’t like this silence!” Emerald Dust hissed as the captain rolled his eyes and grunted as he picked up his pace. Then they froze as they saw the dragon swoop down and land next to them, but what amazed them was when it shifted forms into a shadowy humanoid woman with odd shadows flowing out of it like fire.
“Which one of you is Captain Adrian Blisen?” It said, it’s voice echoing through the crater. Captain Blisen hesitated before answering.
“I-I am..” He mumbled as it leaned closer to him.
“I see…. I expected you to be more like the spoiled lesser equestrian kings and queens, but you’re very strong, resilient and caring.” It said as it circled him, his gaze following it as it did.
“Wh-who and what are you?” Emerald Dust asked, holding onto the handle of her signature sword, getting ready to unsheathe it.
“That does not matter all you need to know is I am the ruler of what you call the carion.” It said, giggling and bowing. Just then Captain Blisen gasped and pulled out his gamma decay rifle, only for it to be ripped out of his hands and tossed to the side by the Queen.
“Oh please, don’t be brash Captain.” The Queen giggled, sinisterly.
“What will you do to me and my people?” Captain Blisen asked, leaning towards Mara.
“If you think I’m going to kill you all, you’re wrong. I’m simply going to… take you all.” She cackled as the captain gasped.
“It’s why the carion ‘infected’ are more powerful here.” She explained, smirking.
“This was our home, millions and millions of years ago. Long before the equestrians claimed it as theirs.” She scoffed.
“What will you do to my people?” Emerald Dust hissed, squinting at the Queen angrily.
“If you think I’m going to take your species, you’re horribly wrong. The humans are an ancient species, they have so much knowledge and secrets and potential that I want to control!” She cackled once more.
“But your species is still trapped on your planet, the humans were starbound in their first few thousands of years after they became sentient, faster than any other species. But your species still remains on their planet and moon, millions of years after they became sentient...” She said, looking captain Blisen head to toe and mumbling.
“Asshole…” Emerald Dust grumbled.
Gunfire could be heard over the distance as the Queen looked to her side. “Well, it seems I can’t take you now… What a shame, I guess it’ll be a while before I’ll have you in my control. And when I do, it’ll only be a few years before I can take the rest of your wondrous species, captain.” She chuckled, running a finger down the captains chest before he smacked it away.
“Don’t touch me you murderer.” He growled as she shrugged and turned to walk away dissolving into a black mist as she disappeared, giggling as she did. Then he held a hand to his forehead, although it was under his helmet.
“Jesus..” He groaned as Emerald Dust patted his back.
“You can still fight her. Don’t give up!” Emerald Dust ordered, as she helped him keep walking.
______________________________________________________________________________
“Keep firing!” Orion ordered to the two pilots as another horde of monsters charged towards them.
“Sir, we’re running low on ammunition!” One of the pilots said as the last monster fell, all three of them sighing in relief after they decided that the area was clear.
“What was that thing that downed our ship?” Orion asked the pilots.
“You might not believe me, but it looked like some kind of carion dragon.” One pilot explained.
“I’m sorry, but did I just hear you say, dragon?” Orion asked, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Yes you did sir.” The pilot nodded.
“Oh my god…” Orion groaned as he sighed.
“Well, since we’re going to be surviving here together, I might as well get your names.” He said. The pilots looked at each other, one waiting for the other to go first.
“Well, my name is Kain, sir.” One of the pilots said, the other one spoke next.
“And mine’s Conner.” He said.
“Good to know. I’m going to try to salvage anything to see if I can get in contact with the colony and anyone else who survived the crash. You two stay on guard.” He ordered as he turned and started looking through the rubble.
“Sir, yes, sir!” Both Kain and Connor said simultaneously.
As captain Blisen and Emerald Dust neared the crash they could hear commotion and the sound a metal being moved around. The captain held up his gamma decay rifle, and tapped his lips with his index finger, even though they were under a mask, towards Emerald Dust as she nodded.
Orion heard the faint sound of footsteps, he quietly groaned and readied his dual gamma decay pistols and slowly moved towards the sound.
Then, captain Blisen and Emerald Dust froze as they heard the sounds of something rummaging through the rubble stop. They both looked at each other and raised their weapons, aiming at the crashed ship.
Orion took in a deep breath, then, he leaped out of the corner, ready to shoot whatever was there. Only, he froze and gasped as soon as he noticed captain Blisen and Emerald Dust did the same.
“Oh thank the stars…” Orion sighed and lowered his weapons.
“Are you ok? Did anyone else survive the crash?” Captain Blisen asked as he too lowered his weapons.
“I’m fine, and both of the pilots survived. Hey, where’s that bastard Firenight?” Orion growled, looking around.
“He was eaten alive by the local wildlife.” Captain Blisen explained as Emerald Dust relaxed A bit.
“Good riddance.” Orion grunted.
“Anyway, follow me to the pilots. We were trying to set up a makeshift communications system.” Orion explained as he walked back to the pilots, Captain Blisen and Emerald Dust not too far behind.
As they heard the sounds of footsteps behind them, the pilots turned around and faced the rubble.
“Commander Orion?” Kain called to the wreckage.
“Yes, it’s me. We’ve got company.” Orion said as he turned the corner alongside the captain and Emerald Dust.
“Sir!” Both pilots shouted and saluted Captain Adrian Blisen.
“At ease, pilots.” He said as they relaxed and returned to their makeshift posts.
“Alright, do any of you two have a way to communicate with anyone?” Orion asked, looking at both the captain and Emerald Dust. The captain shook his head as Emerald Dust nodded.
“I can get us back to Luna’s castle.” She said.
Chapter four: The Humans and the Wolves
“Wow.. Man, the carion liquid did a number in here.” A legionnaire gasped to another as they walked through the reclaimed outpost.
“Yeah, I can’t believe that all it took was four of the natives and three of our own to recapture it.” The other legionnaire chuckled as they went into the simulation room. Then, they froze and aimed their gamma decay rifles at the knocked out body of Hawkeye.
“Holy shit, that’s one of the Knights. Hmm… He’s Hawkeye, one of the traitors.” One of the legionaries growled as he readied his rifle, but before he could finish Hawkeye off, the other soldier stopped him.
“Wait, he’s a P.O.W. now. You know how we treat our P.O.W.’s.” He shouted as the other groaned.
“Fine. If he lasts long enough to get to the medical room.” The other legionnaire groaned, the other human nodded and carried Hawkeye to the medical room.
“We have a P.O.W. He was shot with a gamma decay beam.” The soldier said to the medical android and cyborg.
“We’ll do the best we can. Then we’ll transport him to one of the Global Unions prisons” The android nodded as it laid Hawkeye on the operating table.
____________________________________________________________________________
Hawkeye gasped and awoke on the operating table. He looked at his surroundings and noticed he was in an advanced, white room with odd glowing machinery and two beings.
One was a blue, humanoid machine with a filter instead of an artificial mouth. The other seemed to be a human with odd machines strewn about his body. Both were wearing white uniforms. When Hawkeye tried to get up, he found that he couldn’t, so he looked down to see strange blue, see-through lights holding his body to a white table.
But he also noticed there was similar machinery going from his chest all the way to his right arm. He screamed as he got more nervous and struggled to get off of the table.
“Hey! Calm down, sir!” The android called as he rushed over to stabilize Hawkeye.
“Hey, it’s ok! You’re safe now.” The android tried to calm Hawkeye down.
“You’re lucky you were knocked out by that gamma decay beam.” The cyborg human interrupted, causing both the android and Hawkeye to freeze and look at him, his voice being mechanical due to the machinery replacing his throat and mouth.
“Don’t worry, you’re fine now. But I can’t say the same for how the other prisoners treat you.” The cyborg said, his tone changing to sorrowful. Hawkeye finally spoke,
“What are you doing to me?” Hawkeye growled.
“Well, the gamma decay energy was disintegrating your chest and right arm, you were lucky it was spreading slowly. It almost dissolved your heart.” The cyborg explained.
“This machinery is what’s keeping you alive right now.” He said, pointing to an odd, light blue glow coming from where Hawkeye’s heart should be.
“S-so you saved me?” Hawkeye asked, not understanding why they would save someone who killed one of their own.
“But I killed one of your people.” He said.
“Soldiers, knights and whatnot die, sir. But you will be punished.” The android shrugged, moving off of Hawkeye now that he was calm. Hawkeye groaned.
“Execution?” He asked sarcastically.
“Ha! And waste that technology to bring you back? No, that would be cruel and dumb.” The doctor chuckled, the android did too.
“You’ll be spending 30 years in this prison.” He sighed, his expression turning to sorrow again.
“30 years?!” Hawkeye grasped and had a look of disbelief on his face, he regretting killing that engineer. It was all Firenight’s fault. He swore to kill that reckless stallion when he had the chance.
“We’re sorry that your people don’t punish you at this low of a level, but this isn’t too harsh, deal with it. Your armor and weapons have been confiscated, but we gave you everything that seemed personal to you in your cell.” The doctor explained as two guards came inside, wearing green and black armor attached to trenchcoats with the words,
Global Union
on their shoulder plates.
“Mister Hawkeye.” One of them said as the lights that held Hawkeye to the table faded away.
Hawkeye sighed and got up, walking to the two legionaries. He looked at them and nodded.
“This way sir.” One of them said as they both turned around and walked out of the room, Hawkeye not far behind.
As they walked out of the room, they walked through a hallway. To their left was a large, continuous window that showed, what seemed to be, a cafeteria.
There were, obviously, prisoners walking about the large room. Except one thing was off, none of them were human.
There were a few blue ones with tentacles for mouths, a few green ones with horns and some that seemed like they were made of jello.
“What is this place?” Hawkeye asked the two guards.
“This is one of the Global Unions many space-bound, interspecies prisons.” One of the guards said. Hawkeye sighed nodded and looked out the window to his right, showing the endless, beautiful abyss of space.
There were odd rectangular objects and circular objects floating around and floating into other bigger, and strangely shaped objects.
“What… what are those?” Hawkeye asked as he slowed his pace to get a better look at the objects. There were words, written in languages that Hawkeye didn’t understand, on the sides and rectangular lights shining out of spots on the objects.
“Those are ships and stations, from all the corporations, the Global Union and our allies.” One of the guards said and gently patted Hawkeye’s shoulder, obviously intending to get Hawkeye to keep moving, politely.
Hawkeye nodded and kept walking, but then the ground shook and the sounds of muffled explosions and sirens filled the halls.
“What’s going on?!” Hawkeye gasped, but when he looked outside the window, he saw it all.
Curvy, triangular & bronze, ships were casting strange lights at the other ships, causing them to explode.
Hawkeye was smart enough to know what an attack was.
“Oh fuck.. Alright you’re going to become a conscript.” One of the guards said as he rushed the other guard and Hawkeye down the hall.
“What? I don’t even know how to work your weapons or any of your gadgets!” Hawkeye groaned.
“Our weapons are easy to understand. And if you survive this, you’ll be trained to use them.” One of the guards explained.
Just then, what seemed to be, to Hawkeye, the giant head of a bronze spear poked through one of the walls and opened, releasing an 8 ft tall, bipedal, wolf wearing bronze armor. It roared and held up a strange, curved, bronze crossbow and shot strange green lights at the group.
“Get to cover!” One of the guards shouted as he fired back, the lights from his rifle hitting the wolf in the head, killing it instantly.
“Alright, I’m going to trust you. Ok?” One of the guards said as he held a thin piece of light coming out of a small handle near Hawkeyes handcuffs.
“Yeah… I technically owe your people for saving me.” Hawkeye nodded as the guard cut off his handcuffs and handed him the wolves crossbow.
“You know how to use crossbows? That’s obviously similar, except you don’t need to reload every one shot.” The guard explained and rushed down the hall with Hawkeye and the other guard.
When they turned the corner, dead prisoners and a few dead guards littered the floor with wolves, similar to the one they had killed a few minutes ago, picking off any survivors.
“Katya vol!” One of the shouted, pointing at Hawkeye and the two guards. The other wolves immediately started shooting at them. Hawkeye moved behind the other wall with one of the guards, the other guard was on the other side.
“Alright! Like he said, it’s just like a crossbow!” The one next to hawkeye said as he started shooting at the wolves, the other guard doing the same.
Hawkeye took a deep breath and raised his crossbow and pulled the trigger. Thankfully, there was little to no recoil as he launched several green lights at one of the wolves, killing it as the two humans finished the rest off.
“Good job conscript, but our weapons are a little bit more complicated. But very similar.” The guard next to Hawkeye chuckled. Hawkeye sighed and kept following them.
“I didn’t really get your names.. But you obviously know mine.” Hawkeye said. The guard to his left turned and shook his hand.
“Mine’s Kyle, he’s Joan.” He said, nodding to the guard on Hawkeyes left.
“Nice too meet you both, now that that’s out of the way, what’s the plan?” Hawkeye asked. Joan looked at some of the signs.
“We need to find a communications system and alert any Global Union fleet that’s nearby.” He explained.
“Lets hope the Kayonians didn’t break everything they saw.” Kyle grumbled and followed Joan. Hawkeye looked over the crossbow as he followed Kane and Joan.
“What exactly are Kayonians?” He asked. Kyle turned to look at Hawkeye and said,
“They’re an empire based on war, slavery and slave-trading that us humans don’t get along with very well. And they’re the wolves we’re fighting right now….” He explained.
“We lost hundreds of colonies to their ruthless armies, thousands of people turned into slaves.” Kyle growled.
“Get back, there’s too many of them to fight..” Joan hissed and stopped Hawkeye and Kyle from turning around the corner.
“My god…” Joan quietly gasped as he peeked around the corner.
“What is it?” Kyle asked, which Joan replied with,
“Take a look for yourself.”
Kyle tried to peek around the corner as well, then he groaned and managed to combat roll to the other corner, without being seen.
Then he gasped as Hawkeye also peaked. There were about 30 or 40 Kayonians in the cafeteria, killing and handcuffing, and putting collars on certain prisoners. One of the Kayonians was wearing a helmet with bronze wings and a spiked and engraved armor set.
“That’s… Krye’tte T’volous…. One of the Kayonian empire's most slave-bearing general's..” Joan gasped as the general held a legionnaire by the throat and then stabbed him with a green light shaped like a greatsword.
“Dammit.. We’ll deal with them later, we have to warn the rest of the Global Union.” Kyle said, motioning for Joan and Hawkeye to follow him.
After a while of sneaking past the invading Kayonions and assisting surviving legionnaires, Hawkeye, Joan and Kyle made it to the communications room.
“Oh thank god.. None of the tech is damaged… But the operators have been killed…” Kyle sighed and gently moved one of the bodies off of a strange glowing tablet with odd shapes written on little pieces of the tablet. He then started tapping the pieces as the glowing octagon, above the tablet, started glowing and fading.
“Wha… Nevermind..” Hawkeye grumbled as Joan chuckled from knowing that Hawkeye doesn’t understand the human technology.
A little while later, Kyle sighed and turned around.
“Alright, the closest Global Union fleet has been alerted and is heading here now. They’ve also alerted the Global Union about what’s happening.” Kyle explained, but before Hawkeye or Joan could respond, two Kayonians walked into the room.
“Ciya’breeoth’os! Drop your weapons!” They shouted as general T’volous marched between them, holding the greatsword made of light.
The general looked over the three and chuckled.
“Kaman yal’los.... Do as we say and we won’t suffer losing three good looking slaves.” He smirked.
Joan slowly placed his weapon down as Hawkeye did the same, but Kyle kept his rifle up.
“I’d rather not be your next pet you murderer!” He hissed. Krye’ette T’volous groaned and shrugged.
“Fine then.. such a pity..” He said, but before he could order his soldiers to kill Kyle, Joan stopped them.
“Wait!” Joan shouted, holding his hand out, palm facing the Kayonian soldiers. Krye’ette T’volous chuckled and nodded, obviously allowing Joan to convince Kyle otherwise about fighting.
“Kyle, please. It’s suicide.. And a Global Union fleet is on it’s way.” Joan whispered. Kyle grumbled and slowly dropped his rifle.
Kre’ette T’volous laughed. “Ha ha! Wise choice…. Get some collars on them and teleport them to my ship.” General T’volous ordered. The two Kayonians nodded and pulled out three bronze collars with a green glow coming from the center. They each slid them around Hawkeye’s, Kyles and Joan’s necks. Then they were surrounded by green flames and appeared in a bronze throne room.
“Dammit!!” Kyle yelled and stomped on the ground. Joan looked to the ground in shame as Hawkeye observed the room.
It was made of bronze-colored metal and had three cages hanging next to the fancy throne, the front of the throne was facing a large door with two guards wielding larger crossbows, wearing more bulky armor and flags on their backs.
A few seconds later, Kre’ette T’volous appeared on the throne.
“Ha ha… Welcome to your new home, my new pets.” He chuckled and smirked.
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Chapter six: The global union fleet and Kre'ette T'volous
Kyle, Joan and Hawkeye were escorted to the slaves quarters and had their old uniforms taken from them. Within the room were bronze bunk beds and hundreds of other slaves, human and otherwise.
Everyone was wearing bronze coloured cowls and partially see-through face wraps, with a similar coloured skirt with no shirt, with sandals and the collars.
“What will we do now?” Hawkeye asked as they each chose their bunks, making sure they were close to each other.
“Well, I saw one of their engine consoles before we were sent in here, they hadn’t moved far, which means that they’re still invading the prison station. So, we’ll wait until the fleet Kyle called to come in and rescue us.” Joan explained, but Kyle groaned.
“This is T’volous Car’aon, his fleet is undefeated. That Global Union fleet won’t stand a chance.” Kyle sighed, rubbing his eyes with his left hand.
Joan and Hawkeye looked at each other with sorrowful expressions.
Then, four Kayonian soldiers bursted through the doors to the slaves quarters, laughing and holding bladed whips. They each dragged a couple of slaves out of the room and slammed the door behind them.
“I don’t want to know what’ll happen to them…” Hawkeye mumbled, nervously.
“Lets hope we don’t join them..” Joan groaned. But, the inevitable happened. The two large Kayonians, wearing bulky armor with the Kayonian flag on their backs, called all three of them.
Hawkeye, Joan and Kyle each looked at each other with a terrified expression.
The two heavy Kayonian guards lead them to Kre’ette T’volous’ throne room.
“Tayat’ot! Kneel.” The guards growled. The three did as they were told, due to the fact that they would be tortured or killed if they didn’t. A deep chuckle was heard from the bronze throne as Kre’ette T’volous himself walked towards them.
“We saw what you did in that operating room, do you really think that fleet will stand a chance against mine?” Kre’ette T’volous smirked as he glared at Kyle.
“I guess we’ll have to find out.” Kyle spat at the floor next to Kre’ette T’volous.
Kre’ette T’volous stared at the small puddle with a stone cold expression, then he sighed.
“Wise choice, if you had spat on me... Well, there are worse things than death.” He growled and got up, then he looked at the set of cages near his throne and smirked.
The cages were a form of Kayonian torture, the bronze cages could heat up to unknown temperatures, and Kre’ette had a button that could change the temperature of the cages to his desires.
“Put them in the cages.” He ordered the two guards, even they shuddered and hesitated.
“I said, put them in the cages! Now!” Kre’ette roared, the two guards nodded and lifted the three with ease.
When Hawkeye was thrown into the cage, he was met with a painful burning sensation that shot up his body. He screamed out in pain and tried to crawl out, but the door slammed shut, he huddled into a corner and kept squirming and screaming in pain, hidden within the screaming, a quiet sizzle could be heard. Joan and Kyle were doing the same as Kre’ette laughed and sat on his throne.
“Now you will learn to be obedient, or suffer. This is your new home, accept it.” He chuckled and turned to the giant window overlooking the prison-station invasion.
Then he gasped and froze in fear.
“Wh-what… How could this…” He then growled and turned around, but before he could make it to the door, the entire ship shook as the sound of a muffled explosion echoed through the ship.
The explosion had cut off all power in the ship, the cages opened.
“Hawkeye, Joan?” Kyle called out.
The two responded with, “What just happened.”
But before they could regroup, Kre’ette T’volous rushed towards them, he grabbed Kyle by the throat and rushed out of the throne room as more muffled explosions were heard.
“Kyle!” Hawkeye and Joan yelled as they saw Kre’ette kidnap him.
“We need to find him before Kre’ette can do anything else to him.” Joan said as Hawkeye gasped as he looked outside the window.
There were bronze, spear like ships, which Hawkeye guessed were Kayonian, being attacked by silver, blue, green and dark orange and red ships.
The dark orange and red ones were causing the most damage to the Kayonians, Hawkeye got a closer look at the ships. Then he gasped as he saw the word
Thetacorpe
-plastered across the sides.
“You know about Thetacorpe?” Joan asked as he walked next to Hawkeye.
“Yeah… They tried to help me and other humans from Celtacorpe clear out an outpost….” Hawkeye explained as he watched the ship sear through a Kayonian ship with it’s weaponized plow-like hull.
“Really? Well, they were founded when the Kayonians first attacked one of our colonies. Thetacorpe is more than just a match for the Kayonian empire, especially this fleet, the Wolf Hunters.” Joan chuckled and patted Hawkeyes back.
“But we should hurry and find Kyle, let's go.” Joan said as he turned and sprinted out of the door, Hawkeye not far behind.
As they rushed out of the throne room, they were greeted with Global Union and Thetacorpe legionaire finishing off the last of a Kayonian soldier regiment. Hawkeye and Joan looked at each other and kept going.
“Hey, where are you two going? Kre’ette T’volous went that way!” A Global Union legionnaire called to them.
“He has one of our friends captive, we need to find him. We’re going, with or without your help.” Hawkeye explained, the soldier mumbled something and rolled his eyes.
“Alright, fine. There’s bound to be hundreds of Thetacorpe squads, but maybe even more Kayonians following him, you won’t get my help.” He said and returned to his squad as Hawkeye and Joan scoffed and kept going through the halls.
They both picked up Kayonian crossbows and followed the presumed path that Kre’ette T’volous took. Corpses of Kayonian soldiers littered the floor with Global Union legionaries picking off survivors and freeing more slaves.But when they reached a group of Thetacorpe legionaries being pinned down by Kayonian heavy gunfire, in a large room with an open hallway. They grouped up with them.
“Who are you guys?” One of the legionaries asked, firing back at the Kayonians.
“We’re a couple of P.O.W.’s, Kre’ette T’volous had kidnapped one of our friends.” Joan explained as they kept firing back at the Kayonian soldiers, but their heavy gunfire forced them to stay behind cover.
“Lucky for you, he’s hold up in the room behind those Kayonian gunners! By the stars! Stay down! Wait until they’re reloading!” He ordered his troops.
“How can we get in there?” Hawkeye asked once the humans returned fire.
“There’s a broken pillar that we can use like a ramp to get up to the platform that those gunners are on, if you could get up there and take care of those gunners, we’ll help you guys get to Kre’ette!” The human explained.
Hawkeye and Joan looked over the area, across the room there was the fallen pillar that now acted as a ramp to get up to the Kayonian gun positions, and other Kayonian soldiers scattered about the floor underneath them.
“Alright… We’ll do our part, but there are Kayonian soldiers on the ground, we’ll need some of your legionaries to pick them off as well!” Joan said.
“Alright, whenever you’re ready, we’ll give you covering fire so you can make it to the gunners!” The human nodded. Joan and Hawkeye looked at each other.
“Whenever you’re ready.” Hawkeye said as Joan nodded.
“Alright, give us covering fire!” He shouted as the Thetacorpe legionnaires each leaned up and sent a hail of gamma decay beams at the Kayonians, causing them to duck behind their cover as Hawkeye and Joan ran up the broken pillar. As they ran by, they could see the Kayonian foot soldiers getting killed by the humans.
“Open fire!” Joan shouted to Hawkeye as they both shot and killed each of the Kayonians, then they waved at the human legionaries, whom made their way up to them.
“Phew, I didn’t think that that would’ve worked..” The Thetacorpe soldier sighed. Then they took up positions around the door. One legionnaire started to place a mine on the door, but then he was pelted with gunfire from behind it as the door shattered open.
“Shit, Asher!” Another human cried as the rest threw grenades into the room, the sound of electric explosions and screams of Kayonians filled their ears.
“Move, move!” Joan ordered as they all flooded into the room, Kre’ette T’volous growled and crawled towards Kyle.
“Help!” Kyle screamed as he struggled against Kre’ette’s grip. Then, Kre’ette pulled out his greatsword and stood up, holding his sword to Kyle’s throat.
“One more step and he loses his head!” Kre’ette growled. Everyone else froze, but the commanding officer shot Kre’ette right between his eyes.
“They really need to stop doing that.” He mumbled as Kyle gasped for air.
“Alright, we’re getting ready for evac. Follow us, please. Man, everyone would feel relieved to hear that Kre’ette T’volous is dead.” He said as he took a picture of Kre’ettes corpse for proof.
Chapter five: The journey to luna's castle
“Careful, there are monsters swarming this next crater.” Emerald Dust warned as she peeked into the crater.
“Can’t we go around it?” Orion whispered.
“That’s what I’m planning to do, but there are monsters swarming the outside as well. Stay low and don’t make much noise.” She said as captain Blisen, Orion, and the two pilots nodded. Emerald Dust nodded and turned around to scout out a path.
“Hm… Alright, I’ve found a path, let’s go.” She said as she crouched and started walking around the crater, Orion and captain Blisen, alongside the two pilots, not far behind.
After a while of using cover and being undetected by the monsters, something was bound to happen. Just then, the roar of a dragon and howls of monsters were heard in the crater.
“Oh no..” Captain Blisen gasped as he saw the carion dragon spew carion liquid into the crater, filling it like a bowl.
“Is it killing them?” Emerald Dust asked Orion as she peeked over the rock formation.
“No… it’s creating a new army..” Captain Blisen groaned.
“What is that?” Orion gasped as he stared at the dragon.
“Long story short, that’s the leader of the carion and it wants Captain Blisen and your entire species.” Emerald Dust explained as the two pilots sat there in disbelief.
A little while later, the carion liquid was drained out of the crater, revealing thousands of new carion infected.
“Oh great…” Astra groaned.
“What now?” Cato asked Emerald Dust.
“We keep to the plan, they still don’t know we’re here and will probably be distracted with the monsters.” She explained and kept moving through the crater. Cato and Astra shrugged and followed her, Captain Blisen and Orion not too far behind.
“Wait, don’t move.” Emerald Dusk whispered as everyone froze.
“Why, what’s happening?” Orion asked, Emerald Dust responded by pointing at the hordes of new carion monsters, walking past them.
“Where do you think they’re going?” Captain Blisen wondered. Emerald Dust squinted at the creatures, and mumbled a bit.
Then she gasped, “Oh no…”
“Oh no? What? Where are they going?” Astra asked, nervously.
“They’re heading towards Luna’s castle…” Emerald Dust gasped.
“Then we better get there as soon as we can, who knows how long they’ll last against this horde.” Captain Blisen said.
“It’s bows and arrows against lighting….” Emerald Dust said as she lead the group and followed the horde of carion monsters.