Project Anima

by Ice of Spade

Rating: mature
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Horror, Science Fiction
Length: 1870

The old saying is that monsters are made not born.That couldn't be any truer.

When ponies looked at the stars.they dreamed about touching them.Now that is no longer a dream."The First Ascension to the Stars" was the event that marked a new era for ponykind,when space exploration became more than fiction.But after a glorious era of new discovery it came the era of colonization.New solar systems were discovered and new planets were explored,but this very thing became less of a priority.The main priority of this growing colonial empire was infrastructure.The need for infrastructure gave birth of many different corporation that helped building up new colonies and coming up with new tech advancement.All until everything falls apart.Corporations break from the main empire and split into various factions fighting over whatever they wanted.Power,resources,territory and money.After 25 year of war the peace settled in,as uneasy as it was.In the end most corporation reunited with empire once again ,but some just can let go of their pride,fighting in shadows for unknown reasons.
Aurora Firefly is a pegasus safety inspector working for the Peace Keepers Core,that was sent to check out a facility located on the outskirt of the know space, to see what is going on and report back,that is if she…well you will see.

Author:Well to clear out somethings.Yes this scare cake is backed with Dead Space that has a touch of SOMA flavor and the icing consists of Alien:Isolation.There goes the recipe.Its not a crossover tho,it has similarities,i mean horror in space thing,but that's all,every thing else is more or less original.
Also the meaning of Anima in the title,it referred to what anima actually mean in latin and not that Jungian psychology.Look them up on the internet if you like.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2016-03-17 15:46:41 UTC

The Arrival

                                   //13th of May,Year 25 A.G.R//

                        P.K.C,Peace Keepers Core.A prestigious organization that kept peace in time of need.They protected the innocents.Brought new technologies.Build houses and feed the poor.True saints one could say.They were the ones that brought all the divergent factions to the peace table and reunited them all under the banner of one great colonial empire.

                        I always wished to be like that.Helping others out of the kindness of my hearth and all,but unfortunately i checked the wrong boxes and i ended up in what was the worse job,in my opinion that is,you can have in this organization.Oh,by the way my name is Aurora Firefly and i am a ...a safety inspector for the P.K.C. Yes i make sure that space stations and colonies are built with the word 'safety' in mind.Not what i wanted to be,but i was lucky to even get this job.

                         "Day dreaming again,miss Firefly?",a synthetic voice came from a nearby speaker.It was Blue Star.Who is Blue Star? Blue Star is the ship,the ship A.I to be more precised.A very 'charismatic' A.I, if i can say so.Also i forgot to mention that i am on a ship on my way to the next place that needs a good inspection.For those who want to know,this ship is a transport shuttle mark E,the E stands for economical,since all this ship had it's the basics: A deck,an engine room and life support systems as for comfort it had a bedroom,a kitchen and a bathroom.All stuffed in a ship that was considered the most tightest and slim that can be.Not really big,but enough for me,just me.

                          "Shouldn't you watch were are you flying instead of being a smart mouth as usual?",i said very casually.Me and the A.I don't get along.I know arguing with an A.I is like yelling to a sign,but this bucket of bolts was equipped with the most annoying A.I that can exist.I always got the felling that somepony played a sick joke on me when they gave me this ship.We argued so much that  it became no longer interesting.Yet,that damn computer just wont give me a break.

                         "I don't have a mouth and the flight trajectory was already set.Also i'm not the one arguing with the ship's A.I. An action which is usually done by those of a lesser levels of intelligence,if i may add.",Yep that damn computer just indirectly called me stupid,but this is not a fight i can win.Well,given i never did before.I kinda gave up 60 tries ago.I wasn't into any mood to talk back to a being made solely with wires and other stuff,no matter how big of a jerk it is.

                         "How long before we arrive at, whatever the name of that space station is?",i asked trying to get something useful from it.As for my destination.Well ,some idiot thought that it would be a good idea to place a space station out on the outskirts of the known space.That meant an agonizing long trip.

                         "Have you sleeping again during briefing?",i would have groaned in exasperation,but i kinda was expecting that.

                         "Blue Star...",i said not trying to play its game and probably failing at it,because i said that through gritted teeth.

                         "We will reach Eclipse space station in approximately 20 minutes.",well it was fast...hmm .Well i hate to admit that i daydream a lot,but for this long.I need a hobby.

                          Those 20 minutes passed oddly quiet.No snarky remarks from Blue Star's A.I. And there was i,face to face with the space station,which it seems to have seen better days.That will get some boxes checked on my list of things that need to be fixed and i make this statement only from looking out of the ship's window.Now the protocol part,were we do things by the book .Contact the space station.Identify yourself.Give reason for why are you here.Dock.Check everything and leave to report what is what.Plain and simple.Now i need to wack the communications console installed on the ship's deck so it will work properly.Have i mentioned this ship is real trash?They gave me the cheapest they could find.We all know that the cheapest things are bound to break fast.Well in most cases that is.I smacked my hoof against the cold plastic on the side of the console for what it felt like 5 minutes and finally got it working,but nopony picked up.So i tried few more times,still no response.Well they are supposed to know that i'am coming,since every thing is announce with weeks in advance.Well,the communication pony will be replace for sure on this space station.

                          "Blue Star,dock to the nearest docking bay available.",i told the A.I.One good thing about this kind of ships is that you don't have to manually pilot them.The only thing that is good about this ship.

                          "Setting course.",The synthetic voice said through the speaker on the wall.As we drew nearer,i got a weird felling.I mean this space station seems a bit ominous.But if it was dangerous they wouldn't had sent me here.So i assume it just looks creepy.

                          "Docking sequence engaged.",Blue Stars said,followed by the sound of a hydraulic claws grabbing the ship and safely placing in on a docking pad.

                          "Docking sequence complete.",was announce through the speaker.That was shortly followed by the hissing of the ship's door and me pocking my head out to see what i'm dealing with before i start.This docking bay was bad lit.I assume the rest of this space station is as well lit as this one.Which means its a job for the utility jumpsuit since it has a shoulder holster for a flashlight.My work wardrobe consisted of a hazmat suit,a space suit and the utility jumpsuit.Of course there was the 'official' outfit that was more fancy,but practicality beats fancy,In this case at least.My jumpsuit was a dark grey and it had the P.K.C's logo were my cutie mark would be.Well not a big loss there since my cutie mark is two boring clouds.I mean,if it was something more flashy or interesting then that would be a real shame.Although the utility jumpsuit is a pain to put on given that the holes for the wings were a tiny bit too tight and i will not have my wings squished inside a jumpsuit.I am a pegasus after all and i like having my wings free.After a bit of struggle i managed to get in the jumpsuit.With few less feathers.

                               "OK,lets do this.",i said to myself while grabbing a flashlight putting in on place on the shoulder holster.Now lets get to work.When i said it this place was ominous i was right.The whole docking bay was empty and bad lit.Thankfully i had the flashlight fully charged.I could barely see were the door was.After a bit of looking around i finally found the door.The door was automatic which meant it didn't had a glowing terminal right by the door were you would usually press a button or insert a key card.Which made that door hard to see.One thing is for sure there was something going on.This place seemed deserted.I approached the door that slid open when i got close enough for the door sensor to pick up the movement.Behind the door it was a long corridor that was as well lit as the docking bay.By that i mean not well lit at all.

                             "They should change the those light bulbs.",i whispered to myself.Attempting jokes is one way to calm myself.This was like a cheap horror movie.The dark corridor cliche thing.I found such an attempt at horror as laughable,but when you are in that kind of situation...well...I can safely say that if i hear any other noise beside my breathing and my hoofsteps against the steel floor i will totally need to change my clothes and mop the floor.Not to mention that i would scream so hard that i would render anypony in my proximity deaf.The more i walked down that corridor,the harder my heart pounded.I don't know what is going on here,but i don't like it at all.

                             I finally reached the end of the corridor.Then i stopped to look back.The corridor itself wasn't longer that 50 meters,but it felt like a mile.Now i was pondering if i should turn tail and get out of here or should i continue.I continued.And all i got in return was a pitch black room.Fortunately i had my flashlight in its shoulder holster.Being in that holster allowed me to use it it on without having to use any of my hooves.Of course that meant i had to turn my body to point the flashlight in any direction.The room had a long desk in the middle were the receptionist would be and stairs on each side of the desk leading to a balcony and on the balcony was another pair of stairs that went even higher.I'm not a fan of stairs,but i still have to find somepony .This place was huge mess.Most of the staff probably left and the only few remain a thing that i am certain of.Why i am certain of that?Well let's just say i was in a situations like this.Bad ideas lead nowhere and those that remained just gave up and left every thing in disarray.Yet,this somehow felt different.Maybe is the creepiness of the place.

                                     I made my way up the stairs and ended up on the balcony.Its quite hard to do that since the only light source i had was my shoulder mounted flashlight.I did struggled a bit with the stairs.More precisely the steps,but i made it.One thing i noticed was that there are many brownish stains.I don't know what was up with all these stain.Honestly i don't really want to know.When i finally reach the top the whole room flashed red from the emergency lights,but no alarm was heard.The sound systems were probably busted.Then i looked around the room...oh there is the speaker in the corner from which the alarm and announcement were heard from.Of course not being mounted on a wall and...crushed?I guess the alarm sounded and somepony didn't liked it to the point that he or she would break the thing.Then i heard a steel grinding against steel followed by a heavy thud coming from the door i entered this room.Damn it.I turned on the look down.Another would panic since the door that received a nice layer of reinforced steel was the door towards the docking bay which is the only way out.But this happened to me many times.Usually in places were folks forget what a welcoming committee is.I had so many security turrets pointed at me that this is no longer a thing that bothers me anymore.Well since there was not a single ceiling mounted machine of death pointing its death inducing lasers at me i assume the security of this place sucked too.Now if somepony realizes they have guest,they would be kind to turn off the lock down,but i guess i have to do it myself since i've spent 5 minutes and nothing happened.Honestly i don't think there is anypony on this space station.So this was just a waste of time.Thankfully the other doors were not looked up.

                                        "To the security center it is then.",i said sighing,then i went back to stairs climbing.At least now i could see.