"You ever wondered what it's like up there? Past the clouds? Endless darkness."

The sound of armored hooves and engines clicking on or off echoed throughout the hanger. The squad, was trying to find their leader in the mess of the hanger like he said. On the way, a few conversations sprung up;

"Hey Diamond," Blizzard mention getting her sisters' attention, "What you think of the mission?" She asked as she clicked the bottom of her helmet together with a hoof and checked the visor on and off to see if it worked correctly.

Diamond looked away and hummed thoughtfully as well as adjust her helmet before looking back at her twin, "Well, I say its quite, confusing and its vague on what this 'breakout' is, based on what the message said."

Suddenly, Lightning Striker popped up in between them, curious, "What-chu talkin' 'bout buddies?" she asked, her armor clinking lightly.

Blizzard recoiled slightly at the green mare that came up randomly between them in slight shock, "We were just talking about the mission," she said plainly.

Striker closed her eyes breifly and nodded, "This mission is weird. Just look at the message that came from it! That poor stallion and the ponies with him were murdered from the sounds of it. From what however is the part I'm confused about."

"Yea, have you seen Steel yet?" Blizzard asked suddenly changing the subject as she looked around for the said silver Centurion.

"Hmm. No I haven't yet."

Blizzard hummed her acknowledgement, "We'll let you know if we find him."

Striker nodded and backed off and headed to her spot next to Gearbox, who was still quite eager. She studied him as they walked, occasionally looking around for Steel. Gearbox's armor was colored a deep standard issue black with gold at the trims. His limbs on his back were colored gray with copper joints, while his visor was a dark blue. Gearbox was fully fitted besides from his helmet, showing his rather still healthy young face.

Often which Striker often adored.

Gearbox noticed her looking at him on several occasions. He knew she liked him, as did him to her, but they rarely expressed it much to Strikers' own disappointment. Often, he would see she was looking at him oddly while they were walking through the halls and the hanger. He was quite eager to get onto a Research Vessel. He didn't forget what happened on the transmission, no, It made him somewhat even more eager to board it instead, and find out what is going on the ship and its purpose. He figured out that each one was used for different reasons on his trips on them.

His running brain was interrupted when the Lt., from ahead of them, decided it was a good idea and time to throw insults.

"Come on you fucking pigs. We got to find Centurion Steel." He paused to turn and face them, his features scrutinizing them in every way possible, and then some, "What? You shits got some in ya? Well, ya shuda' went before we got into the gods damned hanger!" He yelled before walking forward again, "Fucking commoners and Vampires..." he muttered.

Spritze frowned at him before leaning over and whispering into both Diamond's and Blizzard's ears but loud enough for the others to hear, "Wonder what poor mare rejected him last night?" she asked earning small laughs and a guffaw from Gearbox and the troopers around her.

"What poor mare was with him?" added Diamond with a giggle, getting more laughs from the rest of them, "I pity her more!"

Oblivious of what transpired behind him, he finally spotted Steel, fully clad in his shining armor, standing by the boarding ramp of a Sky-Griffin Transport, looking down at and chatting to a slightly nervous engineer. "Get your asses over here, Steel is right here." He turned back towards the transport to meet up with Steel only to be blocked by a stunning white figure. His gaze moved upward to see a certain Centurion helmet looking down at him impassively.

The helmet made a sound that sounded like a sigh bordering on disappointment and annoyance and made a small shake of his head. Steel looked away from the now sweating Orion to the arriving squad mates. "Welcome Stallions and Mares, you all follow me to the SG-T and we will begin to make our way to the Ut Bellum. Once we are in sight of the ship, I will begin the mission debrief. Understood?"

"Sir, yes Sir!"

Steel nodded and smiled from under his helmet, "Good, now lets get aboard and going troopers."

The soft rumble and sound of the four jets outside of the SG-T filled the Trooper's and the pilot's ears as they made their way to the coordinates of the Ut Bellum. Steel sat near the front of the ship, making occasional peaks around the doorway outside the pilot window to watch for the said ship.

The troopers in the back had their air-tight armor in case the air on the Ut Bellum was contaminated. Nothing had sprung up during the trip through space, for there was nothing to talk about. Only Blizzard Dust was bobbing her head to a song playing in her helmet, despite its Equestrian origin. The others could barely hear it over the ship, but they could certainly see it on the screen of Blizzard's HUD.

They mostly ignored it, though one didn't and judged on the spot.

A clank of armor hitting the floor of the transport got their attention. Steel had gotten up and was looking back at them.

"Something wrong, sir?" Asked Gearbox, his voice slightly muffled due to his helmet.

Steel shook his head at him, "Negative, its just time for the debrief."

The debrief was in fact not too long. All they really needed to do was stay together and only break off if it came to it. Watch their fire and all the basic stuff. Orion rolled his eyes in annoyance, somehow managing to not get seen by the white giant, tho Diamond saw him and frowned in disappointment.

Steel moved away and through the rather tight doorway into the cockpit. Gazing out the window, he was greeted by a sight that would give a artist a heart attack of glee:

The Ut Bellum.

They were coming in at a almost perfect angle to see the blue-green planet below the vessel rotating softly. The Ut Bellum had a silver base color with a bright yellow line splitting the ship in half horizontally. A deep red line came from the yellow line under the bridge and crawled up it to the antenna on top. The whole ship was cylindrical with a cone shaped tip and rear. As they got closer, small features were popping up; such as the minor turret defense on the outside and the windows. The hanger bay was near the back, right behind the bridges' second tower. The bridge had twin towers with a cross-way linking them in the middle. However, Steel noticed that the cross-way was broken in the middle, the windows and flooring was gone, leaving jagged metal and cracked glass. Nudging the pilot lightly to get his attention he pointed to the cross-way, "If the hanger doors are not open bring us near there so we can jump off into it," he informed him. The pilot nodded and eyed the broken cross-way, "Affirmative."

The transport tilted as the pilot turned towards the hanger bay. Steel sighed in disappointment at the sight;

The doors were indeed, closed, much to their misfortune.

Steel tapped the pilot again on his helmet and motioned his head to the location of the bridge. He nodded and started to adjust course. Steel turned away and back out the door to the squad. They looked at him expectantly as he sighed again, "We have a small adjustment in the plan, the hanger doors are closed but, there was a hole where the bridge towers connect, we could enter there," he informed them.

"Gods damn it," swore Blizzard as her twin nodded softly in silent agreement. She had turned off her music once Steel came back in.

"Well great, now I'm sad," exclaimed Gearbox earning small chuckles from the squad other than Steel and Orion, who remained stoic. "I wanted to see what they got in the hanger."

Striker rested a foreleg on Gearboxs' armored shoulder and shook it lightly attempting the cheer him up.

Steel looked out of the small portholes and saw the broken cross-way drawing close. "You'll soon see whats there Gearbox, once we reach it of course," he reassured him. Turning back, he nodded to them. They instantly got the message and fully locked their suits, checked their jet-packs as well as their weapons.

Giving confirmation to Steel that they were ready, he nodded again at the pilot, "Alright. Open the door," he ordered the pilot.

The door to the cockpit closed with a slam and a hiss first before the ramp swung open. The squad held on to the seats as all the oxygen rushed out into space and the pressure left them. Once it was done, they unbuckled and pushed themselves off the transport and onto the broken cross-way, making small bursts of their gravity dampeners.

"Use as little fuel as possible, we may need it later," informed Gearbox as he made a small hop of his own dampeners.

In a few seconds, they had made it to the first part of the towers. Steel made his way to the front of them, and assessed the situation. Thankfully, the cross-way had air tight dual doors into the towers and they were still in working order as Gearbox pointed out. Drifting their way over, they entered the rather cramped space between the doors. After forcing the outer door shut, Gearbox activated the oxygen pumps and soon the airlock was filled with clean air from the ship. But once he opened the door however, the gravity came into play, causing everyone to fall flat with a loud thud, with the exceptions of Gearbox and Steel.

Diamond groaned as the breath left her, "Well, at least we know the Gravity Generator is working," she commented as she stood back up.

"Actually, we are lucky the Generator is even working anyway. Considering how the main power is offline, so the ship is running on emergency battery storage," Gearbox pointed out, getting bewildered looks from most of them. He looked around at them, "Did I not tell you all I've been on enough Research ships to know a few things? Plus, it's common knowledge by now. You're posted on a ship for the gods sake," He finished, getting nods and shakes of heads form all but the Centurion.

"Alright," alerted Steel getting their attention, "First off, due to the slight change in plans, we check out the bridge right here first then go to the armory, which should be a little ways bellow us. Keep an eye on your HUD Radar, we don't want any surprises. Understood?" he asked.

Most of them nodded or said 'Yes sirs'.

"Good," he turned back to the empty bridge, "Now split up, find what you can to see if we can piece together what happened here," he ordered.

Entering the bridge, they instantly was met by darkness, "Activate flashlights," ordered Steel. The echo of lights clicking on and the increase of sight was their reward. The lights moved in accordance their owner's head as they split up and went to different areas.

Gearbox went to a nearby control panel. He attempted to turn it on, only to get a flicker on the screen. Sighing in disappointment he moved onward to another area. Lightning Striker made her way to a nearby window, gazing out to the planet's bumpy surface and its beauty...

*THUD*

Striker jumped and trained her rifle on a vent as a sound came from it. She watched it for a few minutes before hesitantly looking away, occasionally giving small glaces back at it. She let loose a small yelp in fear as Blizzard tapped her on her shoulder. Blizzard flinched and narrowly dodged a swinging rifle.

"Whats got you all riled up eh?" Blizzard asked as she pushed the rifle away from her head with a hoof.

Striker let loose a sigh of relief before looking back at her comrade, "It's nothing. I-I just heard something in the ventilation and it caught me by surprise," she stuttered.

Blizzard raised a brow under her helmet, "Ya sure? Cuz' I want to be sure too..."

"Yea. Yea. I'm fine, just a small scare. Might be some critter that got loose," Diamond reassured.

Blizzard looked at her for a few more seconds, studying her face. Striker had sweat forming on her head from within the suit, even tho it wasn't even that hot thanks to the heat pump. "Alright. But, I will have my eye on you. I'm just concerned and I'm the one that's suppose to be scared along with my twin," Blizzard said with a smile before walking away.

Striker watched her walk away to another part of the bridge and met up with her twin. She released a sigh of relief and looked back at the vent, feeling unconformable still.

"Troopers."

Striker turned away as Steel called them out. He was near the open elevator doors, red light flowed from it.

"It looks like we are on a luck streak, this elevator still works as well," he points out as he shines his light into it. The others came closer behind Steel and looked into it as well.

But Spritze didn't. She had found what seemed to be a red-ish substance plastered on a broken panel. It was splattered like someone was thrown onto it and slowly died due to a piece of metal jutting outward. She could tell due to the said spike was covered in red and had small strips of flesh. What confused her however was-

'Where's the body?'

Her HUD scanned it automatically as soon as she looked at it and confirmed it was indeed blood, but what was odd it had another substance in it. One that even the medical expert didn't know.

And it made her even more concerned.

Gazing downward, she followed the blood trail. It was directed around the panels in the middle and towards the elevator before dissipating.

"Spritze, get over here; we're going downward."

She looked at the source of the call out of her name and saw the whole squad looking at her from within the elevator. She quickly trotted her way over to them. She made one last look at the blood seemingly poking out from behind the panels before the elevator doors closed.

However, what they didn't know, was their rather short luck streak was about to run out. And right when Gearbox triggered it by pressing a button on the elevator to begin the decent into the ship.

Author's Note

Sea-Griffin also called SG-(Whatever variant name). These ships were developed by Arion Air Incorporated and sold to the Imperial military. The Sea-Griffin had many variants; Gunship, Transport, Scout, and Heavy Space/Air fighter. All of which are able to be identified by their size and armament. The one the squad are getting into has a large body with a ramp as its entrance, along with four thrusts to lift the mighty beast.

Let me know of any mistakes...