Chapter 5: Heartfelt Harp.

"I am the sword that strikes down the tyrant. I am the soul of the IPE and the heart of my people."- Empress Black Rose.

"This ain't too bad," Blizzard commented as she walked along on the left-rear side of Steel.

Steel grunted, "Say that now, just wait till later. Who else knows what could have came out of this hell damned ship?" he replied as he shot a charging Lurker, turning its head into red-pink mist that slowly settled to the floor.

Spritze fired a shot at another Lurker that was charging from behind them with a soft 'pish' of her rifle, "We are lucky at the moment that they have not decided to form a horde and attack."

"I swear if you jinx that shit, you will never hear the end of it," growled Orion as he scratched his bandage.

She turned to him, clearly irritated at his actions, "Stop scratching your wound or YOU will not hear the end of it from me," she countered, sending Orion grumbling into the radio.

"But it fuckin itches...."

Diamond rolled her eyes and followed Steel on his right, keeping her rifle ready to fire. They passed a number of doors that had been closed, open or simply shredded open. The latter showing signs of a quick fight for whatever unfortunate soul that was once inside. Those that were closed were stopped at and opened, to check for any signs of life. If none they moved on. One door they came to that was closed, when opened showed two corpses on opposite sides of the room. One was a armored Lurker that had been shot up and bled to death via the viewport. The other being a brown stallion with a spent Magi-Pistol and a combat knife on ether sides of him.

"Ah shit. That's a bad way to go." Striker commented as she noticed the slit throat.

Spritze had moved over to the body and was gathering blood into vials, "Indeed. He was hurt badly in the fight so it seems.....not sure why he would have killed himself though..."

Spritze has been analyzing the blood she collected from the stallion and the Lurker guard, she found that the Lurker had small spots of a yellow-green bacteria on its blood cells, while the stallion had some as well, but not on every single one.

But it still struck her as to why the bacteria was in his blood too, only in smaller amounts. She would need a proper lab to better figure it out, she decided, though it might be more obvious what the answer is.

She stepped over a Lurker they had slain when her radio started fuzzing suddenly. Looking towards the rest of them, she saw they were having the same problem, if the confused looks on their faces was any sign. A sudden pop made just about everyone jerk to one side before the fuzzing cleared up and somepony started talking through it;

"Hello? Is anypony on this channel?"

"Who are you? And how'd you get on this channel? This channel should be locked and only able to be reached by us and us alone," Steel demanded, his voice gone instinctively hard.

"Whoa now, calm down soldier. I'm just looking for anypony who was still alive on this ship," the voice replied. "Don't worry about who I am right now; you have a rather large horde of them coming your way-" As if to prove the voice's point; a howl and the thundering of hooves came from the hall ahead of the squad, getting their attention as the voice continued, "I'm able to get you to a safer area for ya'll to wait for them to pass. There are simply too many for you to fight."

"We can take them!" Orion boasted with a stomp of his hoof. He grunted as pain shot up it.

"Not with that wound you can. Look...just head to this location I've marked on your HUDs. Then we can possibly talk some more there, the location I've marked is one of the many Shipcom stations. From there we can talk much easier; if it is still in working order."

A soft ping was heard from the radio and on the HUDs of the squad (excluding Striker), a small blip popped up to the left of them.

"Good luck, and don't engage the horde!" the voice ordered before cutting out.

A few moments of silence, other than the faint sounds of Lurkers, surrounded the squad before Steel made the first move down the hallway; following his HUD. The others behind him looked at each other and Diamond shrugged before following behind Steel.

Some time later, they came across the doors to the ShipCom room. The bright gold and white sign flickered as they approached. The doors hissed open as Gearbox activated them on the console nearby, also unintentionally turning on everything inside.

Everything.

"Waahhaa!" Blizzard shrieked as she dove behind cover and the rainbow beams scorched the ground where she stood before. The others followed behind her and found cover in the hallway or behind some consoles near the door.

"What the fuck is that?!" Striker shouted and ducked as some of the beams hissed overhead in response to her shout.

"Kkkzz-Come o-ut with yo-Kzzz-apons on th-kzzz-so you ca-kzzz-ie quicker!"

Gearbox dared to look out from where he was hiding behind the doorway, his eyes widened in more shock than amazement as he found out what their enemy is.

It's scratched and dented pony-like head turned to face him along with its right Magi-Cannon, spraying the air and door frame with rainbow light. "The-kkzzz-ress will take del-kzzz- in your death!" It's voice sang out over the screech of metal on metal, as it dragged itself closer with its only two remaining legs.

"It's a fucking Guardian! What the hell is one of these things doing on the ship?!" Gearbox shouted while taking small potshots ineffectively at the damaged body of the said bot.

"I don't know, and I fucking don't care! I just want it dead!" Orion bellowed as he ran behind a console and hid from the beams heating the air behind him. Mid-roll, Orion's bandaged hoof smashed into the console, making him hiss in pain and lose his focus on his magic. His rife dropped with a clatter outside his cover without the magic holding it, and almost instantly got turned to slag by the Guardian.

"Watch it! Even wounded it's still deadly," yelled Gearbox to Orion after he saw his rifle glued to the floor by itself.

Orion groaned, opened his bags and levitated out Victoria, "Well, how'd you figure that out?" he yelled back as he smoothly injected a mag into the pistol.

"Well," began Gearbox as he inserted a new mag into his own rifle, "Considering that we are getting shot at by a bot that is a higher than Steel here; I can estimate a rather small chance of winning," Diamond frowned at him from across the doorway. Gearbox noticed and quickly asserted himself, "We could win easily if there was a miracle, which I highly doubt will happen," Diamond made a face.

"Well you're the egghead here! How do we kill it? We can at least try," Blizzard replied, finally saying something after her earlier exclamation.

Gearbox was silent as he thought, "There is a panel on the back of its head, it's used for recharging. It's less armored than that of the rest of it, a few shots there could short it out and 'kill it'," he informed them.

"Alright you heard him; get behind it and shoot its head," Steel ordered and made his move to another console. He was nearly right on the Guardian, it was only a few more feet away.

"Why are there so many damned consoles?! I mean I know this is a Shipcom room, but damn!" Striker complained out loud.

Orion moved quickly and lightly. The giant bot was still focused on the rest of his squad and blared out insults, unaware of Orion's doing. He was nearly behind it when he tripped on something, luckily not getting the bot's attention thanks to the noise of combat. Swearing silently before shutting up completely at what he tripped on.

And smiled in glee.

"Di-kzzz-Die tyrannic minions!" the Guardian taunted as it turned a console into semi-slag as one of the intruders hid behind it. It heard another one talking and fired upon its location. The bot felt like the ship was under attack by the Equestrian Navy, considering the ponies that attacked it. Even if the said ponies attacked in a very unorthodox, but effective, manner.

"Hey motherfucker!"

The Guardian turned around on a axis from his waist to face the voice's source; the voice came from a armored pony with a bloodied bandage on its right fetlock standing on its rear legs. Scanning the large device being held in its grip awkwardly with its fore-hooves, finding out that it was its' torn off arm cannon. It only had a short time before he fired-

"Meet Boom Boom."

FWOOM!

-right through its chest.

The cannon shot sent the weapon flying from Orion's grip backwards onto the floor. He yelped as he lost his balance and fell behind the console he was standing on, the cannon's unexpected kick knocking him back. His right leg narrowly avoided being landed on.

"Kzzz-ress forgi-kzzz-I-kzz-"

CLANG!

The rest of the squad got up from where they had been taking cover and looked at the bot slumped over; a sparking hole was drilled right through it's torso. The crumpled shell of what caused the damage was on the floor a few inches away, in a small dent in the floor.

They were spreading out when Gearbox hollered out into the radio, "Watch it! It could enter Last Stand mode!" he warned to them.

They all froze and stared at the sparking and fizzling wreck in wait for the warning Gearbox gave to come true.

.....

.....

.....

"Somehow, I don't think it will enter that mode, I think I shot it pretty good..." commented Orion as he stood up with a groan from where he was behind the console. Spritze instantly ran over to him and asked if he was hurt in any way and pushed him to sit back down. "I'm fine doc, just knocked the air out of me. Didn't think it would kick that hard," he reassured her.

Spritze frowned as she continued to check him out, especially his right leg, "Still, that knock-back can cause some heavy damage to your bandaged leg, mostly due to how you were holding it," she paused and stared at him in confusion, "Plus...how the hell could you even pick up that cannon?"

"Ehhhh...luck?" he smiled sheepishly, making Spritze roll her eyes. He spotted Steel moving over to him.

"How you holdin up, Lt?" he asked as he watched her work on Orion's leg.

Orion grunted as Spritze wrapped new bandages around his leg, tugging to make sure to tighten it firmly, "Little winded but alright, sir," he replied with a smile.

"Good," Steel's eyes narrowed from under his helmet, "Where's your rifle?" he asked. Orion pointed to the half-slagged rifle on the floor casually, only the barrel was unscathed as it pointed upward at an angle.

Steel turned back to Orion, "You need another gun? We should have a spare..."

"Nah it's fine," he levitated out the beautiful pistol that caught both Steels' and Spritze attention, "I got Victoria," he said with a smile.

"That's a mighty nice gun trooper. Where'd you get it?" Steel asked as Spritze went back to work on his leg, making the finishing touches.

Orion watched Spritze work before for a second answering, "I got it from the lockers in the armory. It's a pretty rare gun...only like, 50 of them were made. Each one had their own special buffs to them, I believe, thanks to the unicorn enchantment on them," Orion watched Steel take it and observe it in his hooves and answering the question that Steel was about to ask, "I have no clue what this one does....Haven't fired it yet."

Steel observed it some more before giving it back to him, which he in turn put it safely back in it's holster. Steel left them with a nod and got one in return from Orion. He walked over to Gearbox and the twins as they stood around some consoles.

"Press 11 now Diamond," Gearbox ordered and the click of a key was his answer. He pressed a few keys on his before telling another order to Blizzard; "Press three Blizzard," he told her and heard the click of a key to his right.

Steel walked to the front of the console that Gearbox was working on. "How goes the ShipCom controls?" he asked.

Without missing a beat at Steels' question as he worked, he answered; "Should be ready in three minutes. After that you can see who is the voice on that screen over there," he informed and pointed to a screen in the middle, right above and behind the Guardian wreckage.

Steel nodded in understanding, "Alright, I'll leave you three to it," he said as he moved toward the open door where Striker was standing guard in the doorway.

"Nothing yet sir," she informed in their own radio as she heard him coming.

"Am I really that loud?" he asked while switching to her radio.

"Hah, very. I'm surprised myself that the twins didn't tell ya that themselves. Considering that they are bat-ponies with the superior ears," she commented as she watched the hallway.

Steels' face scrunched, even though Striker couldn't see it, "I need to eat less I guess all them good snacks they give us are really making me fat," he jested with a smile.

Striker giggled at him, "What they feed you sweets or something?"

"Somewhat."

She hummed in thought as she looked outward, "Sneak some for me will ya? I wanna try some...." she asked with a smirk.

"I'll see what I can do...no promises though..." he returned with a smile.

"Hey Steel! Got the ShipCom online. Go ahead and stand in front of my console," Gearbox informed over the radio as he looked at him from across the room and around the Guardian.

Steel nodded goodbye to Striker before moving the said position. He watched the static on the screen and frowned, "You said that it's online, Gear."

"It is... It's just trying to find the signal," Gearbox replied as he watched the TV as well. "Should be anytime now."

Orion and Spritze had come around and stood behind the consoles with Gearbox to watch with the others. Orion, his right hoof now bandaged, had dragged the Cannon he had fired and was now tinkering with it. He removed the parts of the cannon that still had parts of the bot on it, those were able to be removed without damaging the gun, while the ones unable to be, would stay there. The remaining shells were on the floor, safely covered in a cloth.

He was modifying the handle when Blizzard came over to watch him; her twin sister was back with Striker at the door, chatting with her while keeping a lookout.

Blizzard watched him remove a plate and move around the wires inside. "What you doing?" she asked as he bolted the cover back on after fondling with the wires.

He groaned in annoyance, "What's it look like I'm doin?" he snarled as he found a spare part and began to take it off with a screwdriver, attempting to ignore her.

Her eyes widened at his sudden hostile tone, "Whoa chill. I'm just asking what you are doing. No reason to get all mad."

He set the tool down to pry off the part, groaning softly as he put pressure on his bandaged hoof, deciding to not use his magic, "Just...leave me alone. I want to work in quiet," he replied as the part was thrown to the side with a clang as it impacted the other pieces on the floor.

Blizzard was silent as she watched him work. Pieces or metal being torn off and put to the side along with a few wires. He attempted to lift it in his magic grip, straining as the mighty gun barely lifted off the table. He set it down, sweating.

"What if you rem-"

"Go the fuck away, Blizzard!"

She flinched under his angry gaze when he turned on her and the force of his words as it assaulted her fluffy but covered ears. She started to back up, watching him before turning around completely.

Blizzard moved to Gearboxs' side as he watched the console screen as it searched for a signal. He grunted acknowledgement at Blizzard's appearance, even though they weren't in their own radio.

"What was that?" Steel asked in response to the sound that just came from Gearbox.

"Nothing. I'm just making a simple reactionary noise to Blizzard coming up beside me," he informed as the console made a soft 'ping!'

Steel turned at the sound of the screen static ending as he turned on his voice transmitter. The screen showed a Stallion with glasses and a lab coat with Silver and copper symbol of a Syringe filled with a lime green fluid on the shoulder, that can barely be seen on the screen. He had a white coat with purple and red hair. Behind him, near the walls, were containers and before that; tables with beakers and alchemy items.

"Hello there. Finally I can speak with you all!" he exclaimed. He had a Northguard accent similar to the twins but overwhelmingly stronger. "I'm sure you had no trouble getting here right? With all those things walking about," he paused with a perplexed look and tilted his head to one side as he finally saw the wreckage of the Guardian.

"Hmp... how that get there?" he mumbled oblivious of the look he was getting from Orion.

Steel turned and looked at the Guardian and shrugged, "It was a tough fight but we managed," he replied as he watched the doctor's eyes go wide.

"You all killed that thing?" All visible nodded to him, "That's impressive, what ya use to kill it?" he asked.

Orion waved a hoof enough to get his attention before pointing to the large cannon on the table and saying, "We used it's own weapon on it...well, I did."

The stallion on screen nodded with a thoughtful look on his face, "Even more impressive, considering you were the one that killed it. I thought it would be the Centurion here," he looked at Orion quickly with a small smile, "No offence of course, but you don't look like someone who could lift that."

Orion chuckled, "None taken Doc, I impressed myself with that too," he started to rub his armor plates on his neck to scratch his coat under.

Gearbox came into view of the doctor on screen with wide eyes from around the wreckage of the bot, "I know that voice! You're Headmaster Heartfelt Heart of the CSD of this ship," he exclaimed with a slight smile.

The Headmaster blinked in slight shock at someone knowing his name despite never saying it, "Yes...It seems I am," he raised a brow at Gearbox, "How'd ya know my name and my Division?" he asked curiously.

Gearbox saw the others look at him too with similar faces, "I found a log on the computers talking about you," he explained.

Harp hummed in thought, "Is that so?" Gearbox nodded curtly, "Then how did you know what I sounded like? Much less looked like?"

"There were a few RECCards that had your voice in them, and your look...." he paused as he shrugged making his armor clink and his extra limbs move about, "Lucky guess? There were no videos."

The Headmaster nodded understanding, "I guess that would work, plus I know of your works as well,"he said with a wink. He turned his head to look at Steel next, who was standing patiently. "So, Steel Rain?" he asked for confirmation which he got with a silent nod, "Where does you and your squad come from, first off," he asked as he moved a few things around.

"We come from the Battleship Carmina Burana, in response to the distress call we got from this ship," he paused to watch Harp move things about before he got a wave from a hoof to continue, "Our squad number is: 548. With Gearbox as our Tech-Trooper, Privates Blizzard and Diamond Dust, Lt. Orion over there by the gun, Spritze our medic, and Lightning Striker our sniper tho without the said weapon." he pointed out pointing to the respective owners of the names even tho some are not visible from Harp's perspective. "Are there any more survivors that you have met?"

Harp put a hoof to his chin in thought, "Afraid not for certain. But I've been getting a number of alerts up here once you turned the power back on. I've been checking some of the cameras from here, but not all of them. You need a proper Security station for that of course. The nearest on-,"

"Can you mark one or a few so we can check it out?" Steel asked, cutting him off.

Harp Frowned slightly at being cut off before nodding and turning away to work at a nearby computer, "Yes. I should be able to from here," a few notifications popped up for the troopers as Harp listed all known locations. "That's all the locations I know at the moment, but I can try to search for more as you go around the ship," he pointed out as he continued to click away.

"Thank you doctor."

Harp smiled when he turned back to the screen, "Of course Centurion. You will need all the help you can get to stop this," He spotted and frowned in concern at Orion scratching furiously at the right side of his neck with a look of pain and annoyance on his face.

Steel also noticed, as the plates made a scratching noise on his under armor. "You alright Orion?"

Orion stopped and gave Steel a look that clearly expressed how he felt about that question. He wiped his face clean as the scratching started again.

"There is a small guard station down the hall to the left. So you can see what's wrong yourself," Harp suggested.

Orion looked to Steel for permission, which he got with a nod.

Moving forward and past Striker as she watched him go down the hall. Striker frowned and called after him through the radio, "You need someone to come with you, Lt.?" She saw him shake his head silently. "Alright then...if you die it's on you...obviously," she said as she looked to the right hall.

Orion turned to make sure she was not looking at him before picking up his speed before turning the corner and entering the guard station door, which was a green and dark blue chrome. When he entered the room, which was not that big, he shut the door behind him with the panel before slumping against the wall panting, suddenly getting tired.

After some time recollecting his breath, he proceeded to take off his armor to see the itch that's been bugging him. Setting his helmet down he began to undo the straps under his pits to take off the shoulder pad on his right. That came off with a click easily and he set it down next to his helmet. Next was the under armor, which was made of light but strong fabric. There was a hidden zipper under the foreleg, thankfully right before the wraps on his hoof, Orion grabbed it and dragged it upward to his neck. The itch intensified painfully and he let out a stifled groan

The cloth was still holding tightly to his arm as he held it out, resisting the urge to scratch it and his upper neck. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, and opening them when he exhaled as he moved his good hoof to pull away the under armor.

Gritting his teeth as the removal was strangely really painful, he was greeted with the sight of a sickly blue coat with his veins visible under it as pulsing light yellow lines. There were small bubbles of the yellow, as it trailed down to his bandaged area, getting more numerous as it got closer. His mouth had dropped as soon as he had seen the lines that are his veins. Curious, he looked at the inner part under armor and saw why it hurt so much-

The bubbles had mended with the cloth.

There were little pieces of the yellow fluid that was on it along with some disgusting parts of his skin under his coat. He winced in pain as he saw one of the missing parts of his coat with slightly discolored blood flowing outward, caking the surrounding fur.

Curious once again, he moved his good hoof to touch the bubbles and feel them. He gasped loudly as he touched his discolored and bumpy coat underneath with his hoof, as the world turned into a point in the middle of his vision before going pitch black.

Steel watched Orion leave the ShipCom room while scratching at his neck awkwardly.

"Is he alright?" he heard a voice directed towards him.

He looked up at the screen to see Harp's slightly worried face. He shrugged, "I just started noticing his change when we were walking around right before you contacted us. He was steadily more and more aggressive towards most of the squad and started scratching more furiously at himself," he explained. He noticed Harp's look on his face, "You know something doc?"

Harp hummed in thought while rubbing a hoof on his chin, "I'm not sure....Did he ever get attacked by one of the infected at all? Like, really closely?"

Spritze nodded as she chewed on a small protein bar she had fished from her pack while sitting on a chair, she swallowed before speaking, "Yes. He was jumped on in the armory we visited and the Lurker bit right through his armor and into his flesh. It took me a few minutes to starch the bleeding so he don't pass out while walking from blood loss."

The Headmaster's eyes when wide as the realization struck him and moved quickly away to work at the computer. Steel frowned at the sudden change in attitude, "Something wrong doc?"

Harp turned to face him with a crestfallen face as she shook his head at their possible blindness at Orions' state and replied plainly-

"He's infected."

Author's Note

Northguard City: Is mostly a military town on the borders of the Crystal Empire and the IPE. It acts as a small tollway for the passage between the two nations. Despite the Crystal Empire's relations to Equestria during the 1st Division War; it likes to remain somewhat neutral to the 2nd war, and supports the peace corps in both nations. Northguard is there just in case they decide to attack.
RECCards: Are recordings of either videos or voices. Still somewhat new in the IPE, only being first introduced a few years after the 2nd Division War 1st ceasefire, these are mostly used for messages or simple ways to remind a pony or anyone about something. They are used commonly in education, mostly for history.

Sorry for being slow at uploading....School keeps getting in the way.
if you see any mistakes do tell me!