"Run run little piggies...The wolf is on the hunt and it is hungry..."

There was a split second of stillness before the sound of metal snapping came from above them. The elevator dropped like a stone downward into the shaft, making all inside unwilling start floating in the air as gravity once again, decided to leave them. Blizzard let out a loud shriek as her armored head hit the roof, sending her head throbbing as well as giving the others small migraines due to her shriek. Steel simply held onto the sides as the weight of his armor held him down.

Gearbox watched from where he was in the air as the floor counter ticked down incredibly fast. It was about to reach the lower double digits when he called out.

"Brace for impact!"

CRASH!

Everyone fell to the floor as gravity returned to them with a terrible vengeance. Once the elevator hit the bottom floor, it deformed and twisted the corners inward. Steel was thrown to the ground like the others but suffered much less due to the dampeners and cushioning of his armor, same with Gearbox but only slightly less and his arms were damaged from the whiplash however. The others weren't so lucky. Orion slammed down first and barely caught himself from hitting the floor face first, his armor rattling as he got back up and attempted to fix it, for it had gotten loose in the fall.

The Dust twins hit next, Diamond had just about the same amount of luck as Orion, by catching herself almost perfectly...almost by being that Blizzard managed landed right on top of her and brought her down into a pile as well as knocking the breath out of both of them. When Diamond got up, her sister slid off her back and landing on the floor with a loud clunk. Blizzard looked up at her twin with a sheepish smile from the floor, Diamond returned with a glare of annoyance with a but helped her twin up anyway.

Striker hit third (counting the twins as one) she was the most unlucky one, she hit the ground face first, nearly knocking her out cold. Her visor cracked rendering her HUD useless. Large shards burst, luckily for Striker, outward into the elevator floor tho a few managed to hit her face. Spritze landed last, she simply just hit the ground, getting a few bruises despite her medical armor.

"By the gods that hurt," Blizzard commented as she rubbed her armored head.

"Very," Returned Spritze, "I hope we won't be going on anymore elevators while we are on this ship," She looked about before moving the small distance to Striker. Strikers' bleeding face met Spritze and she winced in pity for the poor sniper. "It be alright Mein Fruend. I will patch you right up," she said as she made to get her tweezers out from her kit with magic.

Striker winced as some blood trickled onto her lips, forcing her instinctively to lick it and earning her a much hated iron taste in her mouth. She sat down and took her helmet off so that Spritze can better get the shards. Striker's attention was stolen as she saw Steel forcing open the doors with his hooves before wincing as Spritze got the first shard of many out of her face and tossing it to the side with no one there. Striker held still, tho occasionally wincing as more shards were pulled out. She watched as the others pilled out of the elevator through the now open door. Gearbox was sitting down and had moved his arm to the front of him and was now attempting to fix it. Striker silently watched him...daydreaming as she sat still.

Spritze noticed her gaze and smiled. "You love him?" she asked quietly so that the others can't overhear and as she plucked out another shard.

"Hmm? Oh! I-I yea...I-I do," she stuttered and winced slightly as she looked back and forth from the Tech-Trooper and the Medic with her eyes.

"Oh don't be so nervous, Mein Fruend. Plus I can tell if anypony has a thing for somepony else," she pointed out as Striker looked back to her curious, "I have seen many relationships to know the faces of lovers and I know he has something for you, most definitely. Based on that face I see him giving you sometimes when you aren't looking," another shard out, and a incredulous look from Striker. "Take my advice, don't take too long in daydreaming about what you could do, do what you want to do now and take it slow," another shard, "Or else you could mess up badly or, it may just go well it just depends on how you guys feel and how fast you want your relationship to go," she pulled out the last shard and threw to the side as it landing among the rest and looked into Strikers' lightning yellow eyes, "So if you ever need some more advice, just come to me. I'll be there for you," Spritze finished with a smile as she gave Striker a T.R.S in the neck to heal the cuts.

Striker nodded after the dose was injected and smiled back, "Thanks Spritze."

"No problem," she replied with a smile and a pat to the neck where the T.R.S was injected.

"Hey! You gals coming? We're moving out," informed Diamond as she poked her head back in the ruined elevator.

"Yea, we are," replied Striker. Diamond nodded and walked off as the duo in the elevator got up to follow.

Once they stepped out and met up with the rest of the squad in a 'T' section of the hallway. The way down the middle lead deeper into the ship center as well as the left. The right hall however, lead to the Engine room, one of their objectives. They could tell where it led by the slightly glowing signs at the corners of the halls mostly and by sense of direction.

Striker and Spritze walked in onto a conversation that Steel and Gearbox were having when they got near, "....Restoring power would be extremely beneficial for us, lighting up the halls and making many doors able to be open," Gearbox pointed out.

Steel hummed in thought, "But if we get to the armory first, and it has a emergency generator inside for the doors and to keep the weapons stored, we can get some useful munitions there. Not to mention the generator's power could be transferred elsewhere."

Gearbox nodded but at the same time disagreed with Steel, "The engine would restore power everywhere, like I said before, we may not even need to transfer power with the Armory Generator."

"Yes, it would...but what if the Engine room's doors are shut? We can go to the Armory to restore the door's power."

Gearbox remained silent.

Steel let out a sigh and scanned the rest of the squad, looking into their eyes through the visors. Releasing another sigh, he made his choice, "Alright, we'll go to the Engine room...Then, we go to the Armory. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

Steel nodded, "Good, now lets move out," he orders before moving down the hall towards the Engine room with the others shortly in tow behind him or next to.

The Engine room door slid open with a hiss and the sound of pistons as the Squad moved in expertly, their lights illuminating the large Reactor room that powered the ship. Gearbox just about immediately went to the console in front of them that greeted them, which hummed and glowed a soft yellow in the darkness, and went to work on the systems. Instantly, red alerts popped up on the screen causing him to frown in disappointment, before selecting each one to view where and what they came from.

"We got some problems with the Reactor," Gearbox informed as he clicked away to another error, "They need to be fixed in order for the Reactor to even work safely."

Diamond moved over to his side to look at the screen as well, "What should we fix first then?"

"Well, maybe the first thing to fix is a leak in the fuel containers. We can't have them leaking. Not very safe obviously," he replied.

Diamond hummed in thought before speaking, "Do you want to come with us, you're the expert on this stuff."

Gearbox was silent for a second as he typed and thought, "Yes, I will come with you all of course, just let me see the other malfunctions before we go," he informed.

She nodded and moved off back to her sister's side. Blizzard had her Magi-Rifle at the ready next to her neck. Diamond made a face of concern, "You alright? You've been acting quite weird lately as well," she asked.

Blizzard turned to her twin with a sigh, "I don't know...It's just..." she paused to look back into the darkness of the Reactor room, "Something feels wrong here...I can tell by how my mane and coat feels like it's on ends."

Diamond hummed and looked outwards as well, getting the same feeling from the dark, "I know what ya mean, sis. I feel it too."

"Something bad is gonna happen," Blizzard exclaimed to her, I just know it!"

Diamond grabbed her sister around the neck in a hug and smiled reassuringly, "If anything happens to you, I'll make sure to make to experience it too with ya. Cause ya know; we're twins!"

Blizzard smiled at that, "Thanks twin sister."

"Your welcome twin sister."

"Alright. Lets move," came Gearbox's voice as he moved ahead of them. They followed Gearbox as they made their way to the Fuel Containers, their lights lighting up the surrounding areas and crevices between the parts of the Reactor.

They arrived at the leak a few moments later. It being found by the blueish dripping at a rather alarming rate onto the floor. Gearbox held up a hoof to stop them before they stepped into the fluid.

The said fluid was toxic and could easily soak into the boots of most of the members of the squad, but Steel and Gearbox's heavy armored boots could withstand it for a time. The Blue Gel (which is made mostly of dangerous magical-chemical properties) is able to pass through certain materials, like the basic armor the Troopers wear, but the reinforced plates of the power armor that was given to many Tech-Troopers and Centurions, could stand in it for a while. If one were to come in contact with it, they would undergo a sickness before ultimately dying or their bodies would transform into a horrific mutation before dying, that's one of the worst ways, some mercifully die from cancer tumors. The metal containment unit was specially made for this purpose in mind alone.

But it also generated ridiculous amounts of power for the ship.

The squad stood around Gearbox as he moved quickly and lightly over the Blue Gel, keeping a careful eye on the darkness surrounding and trapping them. For a few moments, nothing was happening; only the soft humming of the ship and the still working monitors around the inside of the room, and the occasional sounds from Gearbox.

Orion was gazing outward past another fuel container nearby when the faint sound of movement came from the right. Instinctively, he turned to that area of the sound source, his Rife at the ready.

Despite the headlamp from his helmet, the darkness still kept him from seeing fully in front of him. He squinted and leaned forward slightly in hopes of seeing better.

What he got was instead a single shrill shriek then shortly after, more answered it in return in multiple pitches.

His eyes went wide as he stepped backward, his mane and coat standing on ends as well as the others, as they made a slightly tighter circle.

"What the fuck was that?" Blizzard exclaimed into the Coms link, not taking her eyes off the darkness surrounding them.

Even Gearbox paused his ministrations on the repair to look around, eyes narrowed under his helmet, "I don't know...but it don't sound good."

Orion scoffed, "Ya think?"

"Shush, everypony quiet. Keep your eyes open for any movement," Steel ordered in their Coms link.

On a sudden whim that had taken over her, Striker looked upwards towards the wall on her right side, where a container of some of the fluid was stored. Her still working headlamp crawling up it. It caught a pale orange leg of a creature as it fled from the location where her light stopped, Striker barely saw it before it was gone. When she did, she stared at the spot it had fled, watching as if it would make a return. Few seconds later, she took a shuddering breath before looking back ahead in front of her.

Gearbox had finally finished the repair and made his way to a nearby console for fuel control. The sound of him tapping away filled the air around them. "Well, I got some good and bad news," he said after some time.

"Whats the good news?" Steel asked, not looking back at him.

"Well, the ship is falling towards the planet," a small gasp of shock was heard from Blizzard, "Slowly, might I add," he reassured in response to her, "but if we can get back to the bridge we can turn on the orbit stabilizers and stop it from hitting the planet," he said as he continued typing away.

"Well...Whats the 'good news' then?" Diamond asked.

"That was the good news."

Steel frowned under his helmet, "So whats the bad news then?"

Gearbox sighed, "The ship will enter planet-fall in around...47 hours-ish," he answered.

"47 hours? That is a pretty decently long time actually," Spritze remarked.

"Somewhat, but the ship will slowly pick up speed as it starts to fall, most certainly shortening our time that we have now. I'm getting this from a damn BG transfer console. I'm surprised I can even get this info myself," he replied. "Oh, and the power is coming online soon, we just needed to fix this one leak apparently," he informed. "Should be on in a few minutes."

Orion grunted, "Less work for us to do."

"Indeed," Steel agreed, "Let us get out of here and to the armory," he ordered.

The rest of them needed no other reason to leave the Reactor.

When they arrived at the armory, the power had come back on around midway. Lighting up the halls and dispersing the darkness. Right when they arrived at the door to the armory, it was online and able to be opened. With another hiss, the doors slid open letting them through. What greets them is a armor clad red and copper Centurion, hunched over and deathly still in the corner of the room.

Spritze looked around before landing her eyes on the Centurion. Blood covered most of the tables, with some splattered on the walls above and the floors bellow. The blood, trailed all the way to the Centurion hunched in the corner.

"Umm...A-Am I the only one getting a bad feeling about this?" Striker fidgeted on her hooves uneasily at the sight of the blood trail ending.

Steel and most of the rest of the squad, froze when they heard the body release a raspy breath. The Centurion shifted before getting up, not without difficulty, and stood on its hooves in a awkward position. The pony turned to face them and reviled a sight that will haunt the squad for years to come as well as making them realizing that the red is not actually paint;

His armor was dented outwards and inwards as if something was trying to get out of it, and as if it had seen combat at the same time. In some places, the dents had holes where it leaked deep red blood, mostly dried up now. His helmet was the worst of all; the places where the view-ports would be was shattered and showed darkness, as if there was nopony inside as well as it looked like it was crying blood. The bottom part of the helmet was torn open to show a terrifying maw of flesh and teeth, which dripped blood tinted saliva onto the floor.

It took in a deep breath before it let loose a primal roar, red saliva spraying everywhere before charging the Squad at full speed.

Steel was first to collect himself and acted quickly by lifting and flipping a table and slamming it into the living nightmare.

A split second after, the rest of the Squad broke out of their daze and split up to opposite sides of the room, as Steel halted the beast in the middle with the steel table. After stopping the charge, Steel gave a powerful buck to the table with the beast behind it, shoving it back. As soon as the thing slid to the middle, the Squad opened fire upon it.

Sadly, their Magi-Rifles only dinged the armor of the Centurion and enraged it further.

It growled loudly before leaping at the nearest Trooper: Orion.

Orion released a extremely mare-like shriek, as the beast made a surprisingly nimble move at him. He leaped out of the way of the once-pony with only mil-seconds to spare. Once he moved, he shot off a few shots at the face of the beast, earning a bellow of anger. Orion had a smile on his face that fell instantly when the nightmare made another leap at him.

This time, it landed.

Orion was sent flying across the room like a rag-doll into a locker full of weapons from the headbutt and was knocked out cold before he even hit the locker. His body getting covered by Rifles and guns.

Steel swore under his breath and brought his Magi-Cannon to bear. His was a more powerful version than that the others had, but was much more heavier. He got lucky when the beast turned to charge him as well, time slowed for him as he took his shot. Rainbow beams dinged off the armor of the beast majestically and harmlessly into the floor or wall. It opened its maw to bite him as it leaped.

He fired right into it.

The beam shot right through and bounced off the back of the inside of the helmet with a wet splat and the gushing of blood and gore out of the hole and back out onto the floor, leaving a scorched spot in the steel. The beast slammed to the ground near Steel as gravity took over, its maw now pulp as its blood spread all over the floor. Shortly after his Rifle cooled from the concentrated shot, Steel looked at the dead Centurion. Studying it contently.

Meanwhile, Spritze ran to Orions' side as he was waking back up and pushed off some weapons that had fallen out of the locker. She made a small smile, "Welcome back from dreamland," she joked sourly.

Orion frowned at her then grimaced in pain as she administered a pain killer.

Diamond walked over to Steel and looked at the corpse of what they had been fighting just moments ago. Blizzard herself was over by Spritze and Orion as well as Striker. "So.....What you think it is?" she asked.

"Not too sure," Steel replied with a small shake of his head, "I'm going to have Spritze take a look at it."

Diamond nodded softly, "That would be best. I've never seen anything like this before..."

"Same here. Something is going on, and we have to find out."

Diamond was silent for a moment as they stood around the body. "What should we call it?" she asked finally and further explained, "So we can call one out."

"Maybe a Brute?" called Orion, he let out a soft groan, "Cuz it sure as fuck hurts like one."

The squad explored the somewhat small armory. Spritze found a medical storage, which she gladly helped herself to fill their packs with TRS; the extras are ether left behind or put into easy to reach pockets for emergency while in combat.

The Dust twins found a cache of ammo near the back of the room. Only problem was; the ammo was almost completely gone as well as discovering spent Magi-Gems on the floor next to a bloodstained Rifle. They gathered up what ammo there was and carried it out onto the tables for sorting.

Orion, after recovering, but still with a slightly throbbing head, searched the unlocked lockers. Finding random items along with a few unique weapons. One locker that was open, he found a Type 133 Pistol, along with the rounds it used in a box next to it. It had a sleek black look to it, with silver lining. The weapon had a shiny grip that was seemed out of place with most of the weapons; due to the fact that it was a unicorn exclusive weapon. The mag was a 14 shot and was fed into through the top of the pistol. Out of curiosity, Orion looked at the bottom of the grip to find a production code, only to find a name printed in its place:

Victoria.

He hummed softly as he levitated the gun in front of him and loaded it with a fresh mag and aimed down the sights. He put the gun onto his spare holster, opposite of his Rifle, where he could reach it easily. He turned to look at the name on the locker from where he got the gun and grunted at it.

Capt. Firefall

Gearbox moved about to the nearby terminals, exploring their contents for any clues for what had happened on the ship a few days ago. There were no logs that could provide good info about it, other than the fact the Troopers had been growing extremely suspicious of the scientists. If the logs saying "muffled shrieks and gunshots from within" was any indication. After a while he just moved away to help the Dust twins with the ammo.

Steel stood guard and watched them work near the closed door. Raising a armored hoof to his view, he inspected it with calm that still felt alien even to him. With a sigh, he dropped his hoof and resumed watching over them.....

BANG!

Everypony in the armory jumped in place and stared at the door at the sound that came from it. The door had a dent in it like a being threw itself into it. Steel moved backwards behind the flipped table that was used in the fight against the Centurion as more bangs and dents came from the door. Diamond was moving around giving everypony a few spare mags for their weapons. When she finished, she moved to a area of cover and steadied her aim at the door as a multitude of shrieks came from it.

The door started to have a focused point of the dents in the middle. Slowly, the door cracked open to show a being charging into the door the final time. The door burst open as the monsters came charging in.

The Troopers opened fire as they pored through the breach; they threw themselves at the Troopers only to be stopped short by a rainbow beam to the face.

The monsters were extremely pony-like in body, and that's where the comparisons stopped. Their jaws had split into a mouth of sharp teeth, bloodied and dripping, capable of tearing through bone with ease. The eyes were a black void, with only a tiny iris with the color as the once pony's eye color. Many of them had bulges coming out of their coat, they were clear and see through other than the contents inside of it, which pulsed with a light yellow. They were all sorts of colors only it looked more pale then normal.

Steel figured if they could damage the door like that, they can easily hurt him and Gearbox if they got swarmed. His Heavy rifle flashed a charged beam bigger than the rest and it shot straight through the head of a lime green colored monster who looked to be once a unicorn mare, and hit a few more behind it splattering gore and flesh onto the ones charging and shrieking before hitting the far wall of the hallway outside.

Blizzard let out a shriek of fear as one managed to get close to her. Orion hit it with the butt of his Rifle in his magic, knocking the monster over with a squeal of pain before shooting it in the face. Looking up, he saw three of them converging on his position, with more behind.

Blizzard managed to start firing back after clicking a fresh Gem into her Rifle chamber. She managed to shoot down one of them charging Orion before having to fire elsewhere.

Orion made a ready stance as one leaped at him. Bringing his rifle up, he fired into the open mouth of the flying beast and quickly moved to the side to avoid the body landing on him. The second one had a blood stained lab coat, just charged at him with its horn. Orions' eyes opened wide in shock as it slammed into him, the horn barely getting through his armor, but the hard hit made his head throb again and forced him to drop his Rifle. He grunted as he landed on his back with the beast on top. He blocked a bite with his right foreleg, the teeth sinking into the armor and to his flesh, making him cry out in pain as blood spewed forth from the holes around the teeth. It's head shook back and forth, as if trying to tear off his altogether leg.

It never got to, thanks to a shot from Blizzard to its pale yellow head made it drop limply onto Orion and cover his visor in blood. He pried his hoof free from the jaws and shoved the body off him, giving a nod of thanks to Blizzard as he picked up his Rife again, wincing in pain as he put weight on his bleeding leg as he fired once more.

It felt like hours when it was really minutes, when the swarm finally stopped; leaving bloodied and mutilated bodies around the entrance of the door. They remained in their spots for a little while longer before finally moving about, sure that it was safe for now. Striker and the twins moved about the bodies, searching them for any useful items, wiping off the blood on the ones they do find.

Spritze was with Orion. Attempting to stop the bleeding wound on his leg. She hummed softly as her magic looped around the holes, almost instantly becoming crimson with blood. Her medic white armor was stained with blood splotches, mostly around her helmet and neck. She saw out of the corner of her vision, Orion staring at her for a while before watching her work on his leg.

Orion was thankful for Spritze patching him up...but he really was not sure how to express it, mostly due to the fact that others are around and could hear him. "That would make me look weak," he breathed out softly.

"Hmm?" Spritze responded still watching her work carefully and occasionally pressing down to tighten it.

Orion held back a wince at a sting of pain, "Nothing," he said quickly, looking at the three searching the bodies. He felt Spritze skeptical gaze on his head as he looked.

Orion felt a tight pull and a rather large sting on his leg. He looked down to see Spritze finish patching him up. She looked at him with a small smile, "Anything else hurting?" she asked.

"Nothing else."

"Good, don't want you to die on me while we walk," she commented as she got up. She turned and offered a hoof to Orion.

Orion looked at the gesture and took it with his unhurt hoof. She grunted as he rose to his hooves, he made a small nod of thanks to her and walked off with a small limp.

Steel and Gearbox were outside of the armory watching the halls for any incoming 'Lurkers', as they decided to call them, due to the fact that they "lurk about on the ship". There was occasional ones turning the corners and attempting to charge them, only to turn into a mess of gore with their combined fire.

Some time later, the squad was on the move again, this time; to the stairs to advance to the next level of the ship. Orion was dragging a bit behind due to his leg.

"Come on, Orion," Striker called out as they went up.

Orion grunted softly at her as he scratched his bandages at an itch that had started shortly after they left the armory as he followed them upwards.

Author's Note

T.R.S stands for, 'Tissue Repair Syringe' and it does exactly what it says and more, repairs damaged skin and flesh and sometimes cracked bone. It is filled with a dose of a medicine that heals the biological matter on a creature, for small cuts it heals with no scars but large wounds it can leave scars.

If you see any mistakes, do tell me. Also, tell me what you all think of this chapter; do you like the direction this story is going or what do you think should happen in the future?