"The truth is always found out. Even when they lie and hide it extremely well the first time."- Mr. D.

A blinding, painful light was all Orion could see when he opened his eyes and dried, chapped lips what he could feel. Groaning and licking his lips to get them moist again as he blinked several times, each time the light getting slightly dimmer before he could fully see what was going on.

He felt the floor on his back and saw the pale gray roof and walls around him. Lifting his right hoof, he found it undamaged and completely in his armor, he lifted his other hoof as well to make sure as well.

"Guhh... Where the fuck am I?" he grunted out softly as sat up to get a better look around.

He was in a lab filled with doctors in shiny white lab coats, large vats of fluid stood tall near the wall, bubbling with chemicals. Tables covered with lab and science equipment, some with ponies working at them. Orion watched as they seemed so perfectly in sync, like a colony of ants, never once bumping into each other and always getting the job done.

Then something struck him odd.

Why do they not acknowledge him sitting on the floor?

The lab ponies were casually moving about and around him, even once going through him. For some reason almost all the ponies were blurred.

All but one.

A yellow unicorn mare in a lab coat, next to a lime green mare in the same attire, but holding a clipboard in her magic. They were talking quietly, from the distance he was sitting.

Getting up, a little woozy from the change, Orion made his way behind the two mares talking in front of a vat of light yellow liquid. Now behind them a few feet away, he could hear them more clearly.

"-aster would not approve of this, you know," the lime one said with a shake of her head.

The yellow one frowned, "I know, Ozone, but we need to hurry the trials or else we could run dry. Please! Do this for me?"

Ozone, as the lime mare was called, stared at the yellow one's pleading face before sighing in defeat, "Alright," the yellow one did a squee, "But this is your last chance. You can begin pony testing today with the EBW-7," she said as she wrote something down on her board.

The yellow one hugged Ozone, crushing the clipboard between them. Ozone seemed to have gone stiff at her contact and smiled weakly in embarrassment at some of the others that were starring. She patted the yellow one lightly on the head, before she broke the contact and walked off towards Orion where he was standing. She passed harmlessly through him and he turned his head to watch her exit through the door. When he turned back, he got the eyes of a curious yellow mare in his face squinting at him.

"GAH!" he yelled as he fell to his rump, his armor making a dull clang that none seemingly heard, other than Orion. He heard a gasp from the lab-mare in front of him and looked to see her holding a hoof to her mouth.

She began to reach out to him, "I'm so sorry, sir! I didn't mean to-"

She paused as her hoof went right though his own.

He shuddered at the disturbing feeling it produced. The mare was oblivious to his actions and did it again by moving her hoof upward this time, getting the same results. She moved her hoof downward to do it again-

"Stop that."

"Oops, sorry," she pulled her hoof away from him and set it back on the ground. She tilted her head at him as he stood back up, his armor clacking lightly. "Wh-Who are you?" she asked.

Orion looked at the mare from under his visor with an annoyed look, she flinched lightly at his gaze and he held a wince at causing that, clearing his throat, he spoke; "Name's Lt. Orion Blaze of Squad 548, of the Battleship Carmina Burana," she made a face. "What?"

"The Battleship is still under construction. It should not be airborne yet." She paused to gaze at his setup, "You ok, Lt.? Not suffering from any sickness you contracted are ya?"

Orion shook his head, "What do you mean by the ship is still being built? I'm from the ship itself and came onto here with my squad."

"The Battleship you said you came from; the Carmina Burana, is still under construction and has been so since the start of last year. Hmm..." she looked about among the lab ponies in thought before landing her eyes back on Orion. "Shall I take you to a ShipCom room? To find your squad of course," she recommended with a small smile.

Orion nodded curtly, deciding to follow along with it.

"Great! Now follow me," she trotted off towards the door. Orion looked around for a few seconds before moving to catch up with her.

The circular door opened with a hiss as the yellow mare stepped out with Orion in tow. The halls weren't particularly busy, with the occasional small group of either troopers or lab ponies. Orion shuddered as two troopers phased through him, the yellow mare noticed and looked at him.

"What was that?"

"I don't know. It's like everypony can't see me or feel me except for you, well maybe not feel me, but see me," he answered.

The mare looked forward again humming softly to herself, "What do you remember last? Before you got here I mean," she asked suddenly.

Orion blinked and looked down at the mare who was slightly shorter than him he noticed for the first time, "I remember taking off my armor in a guard station, because I was bit by some creature on the ship I was on, that used to be a pony. I started believing I was turning into them by how what was a controlled itch became unbearable, but I never told my squad," he paused to look ahead just in time for another pony to pass through him. In the corner of his vision, he saw the yellow mare gasp again softly. He winced before continuing, "They most likely noticed but decided on not saying anything to me though," he decided not to voice his thought on why.

"Oh, you poor dear." she attempted herself to touch his cheek only to phase through his face making him flinch again. She had a look of empathy towards Orion as she rested her hoof back flat on the floor. "Well, now that I found out about that. Why don't we go to my chambers? I would like to talk to you in a secluded area, and maybe you can better explain your tale. Should not be far actually," she recommended.

Orion blinked before nodding lightly, "Very well, ma'am. Lead the way."

"So let me get this straight, you all made a virus to infect the major cities in Equestria so they would fall quicker and cause chaos and destruction when the ceasefire ended in the three years to come?" Steel asked Harp who nodded at the question.

"Well, not me, even though I was the Headmaster of the division that was developing it, I never really took part in making it much. I even permitted live testing a day before the outbreak from a mare who asked," he informed as he slurped at some dark coffee he had cooked up from nearby. He put his tan cup down as he rubbed his chin, clearly in thought, "That reminds me, someone must have released it on the ship."

Steel sighed, "There is a lot of flaws with that idea. How would you contain it to keep it from becoming out of control? Sure, you could make an antidote to it, but would that be enough? Plus think of all the civilian lives lost to the act," he told the Headmaster. "Also, whoever did release it, had to be high ranking in order to bypass all the safeguards," he finished.

Harp was silent as he sipped at his coffee, staring down at it before looking back at Steel to speak, "We were working on one when we started the project, but time became a larger concern and we ditched the antidote for faster research and development speed. Now looking back at that, that was the worst idea ever," he said with regret clear in his voice. "For the high ranking; I don't know who it could be. You could look at the logs around the ship for those that are high ranking."

Steel was silent for a time as well. With a soft grunt, he turned and looked at the rest of the squad who was either setting up makeshift tables from chairs to play a card game, or lying on the ground such as Blizzard, with her helmet off, as she tossed a little red ball up in the air. With Diamond sitting next to her in a chair reading a book on her HUD. If the words moving up her visor was any sign.

"You care for them, Centurion?"

"Yes, I would willingly and gladly sacrifice myself to save them," Steel replied instantly without looking back at him.

"Even if they were to die anyway? After you died as well?"

Steel opened his mouth to speak before shutting it again in thought, "If it meant for them to live slightly longer than me, yes. Even if for a few seconds," he finally turned to face Harp again, the stallion put a smile on his face when he turned.

"Good," he said, "Protect them well, for you have most likely lost one. At least try to keep their hearts beating for as long as you can while you are on this ship, and maybe bring them home again..." he paused as his smile fell and he looked down at his desk in sudden sadness.

"At least ya'll have a chance at going home..."

Steel's ears perked up when Harp said that and opened his mouth to ask what he meant, only to get the screen going static as the connection was cut abruptly right as the question began coming out.

The rectangular door to the yellow mare's chambers slid open with a soft hiss. The mare fluidly took off her lab coat and set it on the back of the chair she began sitting down in.

Orion entered shortly after, eyes scanning the room, taking in the view. Her room was the stock gray chrome walls with red carpeted floor all the way to the bathroom in the left corner of the room. Her desk, and where she was sitting and rummaging through papers for a clean sheet, was on the right middle of the door. With a little cabinet fort controlling the right corner. His gaze moving directly right of him, was where her bed lay, sheets tossed up and wild.

Right above the bed was a propaganda poster for the IPE recruitment of the Imperial Army. It showed two alicorn like figures shaded in black with white outline. With the tallest on the right with a small sun on her neck and the shorter one with a crescent moon. They were both touching horns and the words displayed boldly above and below them going from gold yellow to moon white:

'The Sun and Moon can spell your doom! Join the Imperial forces today!'

'Join them now and we'll throw you into combat as soon as you can shoot a gun!' Orion thought sourly. His attention was taken from the poster by the yellow mare waving him over from the corner of his vision. He walked over and sat right in front of her. She frowned.

"You can sit on the bed you know."

"Yea, and fall right through it," he returned as he stuck a hoof through one of the cabinets nearby as if in a rather lazy example.

"Wait, if you go through everything; then why are you not going through the ship?" she asked with a tilt of her head.

Orion blinked in confusion as well before shrugging, "Ghost logic," he declared.

"Ghost logic," she agreed deciding to leave it at that.

"You haven't really told me your name." he pointed out as he remembered.

"Oh! Sorry." she cleared her throat briefly, "My name is Sulfuric Flow of the CS Division aboard the Ut Bellum."

Orion's brain audibly clicked at the name of the ship and he looked at her to clarify, "Wait, did you say Ut Bellum?"

"Yes sir. The best research ship in the whole Imperial Star Navy!" she said with pride and a hoof thrust in the air. She paused before putting her hoof back down and looked at Orion on the floor with a sheepish smile, "Why? Does the ship mean something to you? Cause it sounds like it."

"I died on here," he said taking the blunt route.

She went silent at those words and the sudden change in mood, before opening her mouth to speak again, "W-Well, could you tell me how you died? Maybe I could help you."

He snorted in rotten amusement, "Likely not. But I might as well to pass the time." he watched her grab a clipboard with a clean sheet of paper as well as a shiny green pen. He stared at her for a second in slight admiration before speaking, "You seem oddly calm about all this."

Flow giggled into her hoof, "You could say I've had my fair share of oddities in my lifetime. Most of them being on this ship, due to the playing around with chemicals and stuff." She opened a nearby cabinet after setting her board and pen down on the desk. Moving a hoof through the files before she pulled one out and gave it to Orion. "And some being here."

He opened the file and saw a picture of twelve ponies all standing under a broad banner with the words: Graduation of 37th class. Flow was seen on the right side closer to the middle, smiling brightly in her graduation robes. He also noticed another mare, Ozone. She is also seen smiling beside Flow.

Orion heard a sigh in front of him but didn't look up from the file, "Those were the good days. Ozone and I were the best of friends all through school and University. Now, we're drifting farther apart for some reason. Might be our work or that we don't hang out as much anymore."

He flipped to a few more pages, most of which were just projects or reports from Flow's time in the University. One was her graduation certificate. Closing the file, once he reached and finished the last page, he hoofed it back to Flow who still in her chair, put it back in the cabinet where it belonged. She picked back up her board and pen and with a click, opened it. She smiled in wait for Orion to begin.

With a sigh, as he understood what she was conveying, he collected his word choices quickly and began his tale to the strange and rather eager yellow mare, "It began when we jumped off the Sea-Griffin...

Steel led the way for the rest of them down the hall towards one of the stairs to the next floor of the ship. They got quite a shock when they departed and entered the room where Orion should be. After fruitlessly searching the guard room, as Steel decided to do, Blizzard managed to find small storage of Magi-Gemcells for their rifles. None for Steel's heavy Magi-Cannon though.

They did find pieces of his armor on the floor and his helmet.

The cannon from the Guardian that Orion was messing around with was picked up from the table and mounted on Steel's right, opposite of his Magi-Cannon. Only real problem was they only had around 14 shots.

Harp was silent the whole time they navigated through the maze of hallways that made up the ship, till they finally reached the stairway to the next level. But even then still he was gone.

Blizzard decided to voice her opinions on the changes from the last floor to the new in the radio, "Wow. It's much higher than before."

Gearbox nodded absently as he too noticed, "This may be the more popular parts of the ship, so that large bots or machines could carry goods." They passed an abandoned yellow lifter with a bolted shut crate still in its fork-like hold. "This is an area that is connected to the hanger."

"Really?" Striker asked beside him with a raise of her brow.

"Indeed. There is also one of the five main mess halls on this level nearby."

Diamond released a shaky breath in a theory thanks to the info he just gave them, "That might be why we don't see that many Lurkers here..."

"Let's hope not," Steel replied, voicing for them all, though mostly likely knowing the answer himself.

They continued walking, still on alert for any Lurkers that were not apparently in the Mess Hall. A few more turns and long halls, they came across a longer and wider hallway which was covered in bloodstains and a few parts such as legs or the occasional innards of the unfortunate owners of the blood splattered on the floor and near the walls. All of it getting more frequent towards the large twin doors which it too, was covered in gore. There was a flickering sign above the doors...but was unreadable with all the gore on it.

The stench of rotting pony bodies and pieces assaulted Striker's nostrils and eyes, making her tear up and nearly lose her newly eaten food. "By the gods!" she hollered as she attempted to cover her nose with a hoof, thankfully not covered in organic matter, being the only one with a useless helmet.

"I told you. Didn't I?" mocked Blizzard as she stepped around a limb, only to have her armor get bloodied by the red puddle she side stepped into, "You should've used Orion's helmet."

"And find out what he has stashed on his Memory Card? Fuck no please!"

Steel sighed softly at them as they continued and shook his head as his armored hooves crushed and squashed the pony parts with ease, and earning a few grimaces from the squad as they heard it. He noticed something odd about the way the parts were strewn apart, there was no sign of any bite marks or use of weaponry. As well as no actual pony body as one, the only signs of the full body was in small piles where blood was still wet and where the limbs were not far from it.

Spritze picked up a bloodied foreleg without hesitation, earning a shiver from Diamond behind her, as she noticed it as well. "This is most odd...The limbs seem to be clearly cut off cleanly as if effortlessly," She shifted the leg in her grip as she looked at the area where it would have been connected, blood still dripped freely from the limb and onto her own, only now cold.

Diamond shuddered at the floppy leg as she watched Spritze, some reason unable to look away. "C-Could you please do that some other time? Please?" she asked Spritze as she closed her eyes finally.

Spritze pursed her lips at that and put the lime green leg down, earning a sigh of relief from behind her.

"Gearbox! Get over here and help me open this door," Steel ordered as he put his hooves in the red crack he found between the doors. When Gearbox reached him, he followed his lead and grabbed onto the other one opposite of Steel, with his limbs helping too.

The door shrieked as it was forced open by the power armor wielding stallions simultaneously. With a final heave from them both, the door swung open to the squad. Which all had surrounded the door with Magi-Rifles to bear and pointing at it as it opened.

THUD

A upper half of a pony slammed into the ground as the door moved. The look of terror on the face of the corpse sent a shiver down all but Steel's spines. Spritze moved the body out of the way before leaning it up against the wall nearby.

Steel moved in first, his Magi-Cannon swinging with his head as he looked about the flipped tables and chairs, realizing what room they were in.

"We're in a Mess Hall," Gearbox pointed out beside him.

Steel nodded silently as he moved forward between two tables. A whistle was heard from Striker, who had slowly grown used to the smell, "What happened in here?" she added as she climbed on top of a table on their left, with a bit of blood covering the front half.

Diamond and Blizzard came in next on the right side of Steel, navigating the smashed and flipped tables. "Either a really powerful Lurker Centurion is in here or something else, either way I don't want both," Diamond answered.

"So you said they would be here right, Gearbox?" Blizzard asked as she looked under a table and grimaced as she saw a bloodied Magi-Rifle.

"Well, I may have said the should be here, but I may have been wrong."

Blizzard shrugged and hopped onto a table under a large vent, "Maybe somepony beat us to them."

Gearbox frowned with doubt, "Not likely, no Trooper or even a Centurion would do this. Might be a infected."

"If that's so; where is the infected?"

Spritze entered at last and was facing the door when she heard something that sounded distinctly like a blade-on-blade.

*SHING. SHING*

Her eyes went wide as she called out to the squad, "Did you all hear that?"

"Affirmative. Just barely," said Steel as he along with Striker and Gearbox, backed up closer to the door.

*SHING. SHING*

"There it is again!"

"I heard it that time," returned Diamond, her twin gone quiet and was staring at a vent above them. "You ok Blizz?"

*SHING. SHING*

Blizzard was stock still. If her wide eyes of alert and lack of action wasn't any give away to Diamond on her feeling. Her twin's eyes went wide as she realized what was happening as the vent just broke open above her a split second after she shrieked her name in fear.

Author's Note

If you see any mistakes do point them out for me! Also, I still need a proofreader to help me out.

I'm a bit slow on posting....sorry about that.