The Wreck of the GSS Talonmarch
The ESS Trottingham was out patrolling near Equestria's Moon, searching for enemy activity and if possible pirates trying to steal the cargo of helpless merchant ships. This may seem interesting but to the crew it was boring as hell and all they desired was to get a little action. The Captain of the ship, Cyber Dart, stood inches from the windows of the bridge staring intently and worryingly at a strange object not very far from their current position. Suddenly a crewpony bursts through the doors to the bridge searching for the captain.
"Captain, do you see the wreck of that cruiser over there!" the crewpony shouted out to Captain Cyber Dart.
Cyber Dart did not turn, instead he replied "I see it, can we identify when it wrecked?"
The crewpony stopped for a moment he drooped his head trying to remembering something, suddenly his face turned back to a stoic form and he rose his head back "Yes, roughly 28 hours ago, we believe that survivors are possible but await orders from you to investigate" the crewpony stated.
The captain thought for a moment, every now and then turning his head to the side and back again as if he was contemplating if he should turn to face the crewpony or stay were he was. Eventually he did turn around and gave his answer "We took an oath to always help those in need, even enemies, we will not leave if there happens to be survivors on-board. Saying that i want a boarding party of no more than 4 soldiers, I can't be sending in a large party if this turns out to be a trap".
"By your orders Captain" the crewpony said before saluting and cantering out the doors.
"So, who wants to volunteer for this mission" Commander Red Phazer finished his explanation of the mission to the room of 50 or so soldiers that turned up for the meeting. Nopony spoke after that, for what felt like an eternity later two hooves rose up from the third and fifth row. The Commander nodded at the courage for these two to volunteer. "Anypony else?" the Commander asked.
In the third row, one grey pegasus was thinking the mission over 'Should I do it? I mean we would finally get a piece of action, but the risk is extremely high...ah fuck it' he cursed at the end. "I'll volunteer sir" the pegasus said while raising his hoof.
"I will too" a pale blue unicorn mare spoke up three rows behind him.
Red Phazer nodded at the other two recruits 'Finally some where showing interest in the mission. The captain will be happy' Phazer thought, "Very well, volunteer's come with me for preparation. The rest of you are dismissed, return to your posts" Commander Phazer ordered the soldiers. The remaining soldiers saluted and exited the meeting room. "You four follow me" he ordered the boarding party. They looked at one another for a moment before complying to Red Phazer's order.
Walking through corridors filled with crew going about their tasks, the 5 ponies eventually enter a room lined with equipment, specifically designed for what they were about to do. There were guns, space suits and many different miscellaneous items that were also useful and important to the mission. The first two ponies that volunteered, instantly went for the weapons, only to be halted by Red Phazer. "Not so fast you two, before you go head on into the gear I need your names" he commanded.
Both sigh but follow Red Phazer's command, Phazer turns to the ivory coloured earth pony first "Ivory Pike, sir!" he said.
"And you?" Phazer turned to the moss green pegasus
"Bullet burst, sir!" he replied
After getting the two eager ponies names, Phazer asked the grey pegasus and the pale blue unicorn mare the same question. "What are your names?"
The grey pegasus replied first "Steel wing sir, glad to help out"
The unicorn replied afterwards " Aqua Heart sir, we won't fail this mission"
" That's what i want to hear Aqua Heart and I like your initiative Steel wing, keep at it" Red Phazer complimented them both.
"Now suit up and get anything that can and will help you in this mission, do not take too much or too little because either way, you will die. I will be expecting to see you at docking station 12 in 10-15 minutes is that clear?" Red Phazer ordered
"Sir yes sir!" they all shouted.
As soon as Phazer exits the room, the four ponies went ahead picking out equipment and putting on space suits. Steel wing turns to Aqua Heart who was busy adjusting the suit so it fitted correctly and asks "Do you really think we can find survivors and help them off the ship? What if it really is a trap?" he questioned her.
Aqua Heart after satisfied with the suit replies to Steel's question "I do, if we all pull our weight we can succeed in this mission"
"What if there is no survivors at all?" Steel asked again
"If we search the ship enough and find no survivors, we can just be happy that we tried" Aqua heart replied with a smile
"Y-yeah I guess your right" Steel replied with his own smile.
After getting all they needed (including an arsenal of weapons) they make their way to the hangar. Many ships were being repaired, refitted and some small ones were even being built. Steel wing always did love star ships, that's why he joined the Space branch of the Equestrian military. Steel wing was too busy reminiscing over why he joined the military to see that they finally made it to docking station 12, until Red Phazer brought Steel out of his daydreaming.
"Alright you four, you know the mission: search the wrecked space cruiser for any survivors and bring them on-board the Trottingham. If this turns out to be a trap, exit the wreck as fast as you can. Do you understand!" Phazer briefed the party
"Sir yes Sir!" they shouted in unison
"Then enter your boarding ship and make us proud!" Phazer ordered again
The four soldiers did not need to be asked twice, they bolted into the ship and got into position.
As they gave the green light a pony outside at the control panel ordered Steel wing, who was pilot, to check if everything was OK with the ship. After several tests, the pony at the control panel ordered Steel to activate the engines, Steel complied and after pressing a few buttons the engines whir to life, Steel quickly changed them to reverse before stabilizers could be removed. "Detaching stabilizers" the control panel pony said over the communication device. A clunk sound is heard as the stabilizing clamps release the ship, once the ship was free it began to reverse out of the hangar's open door into space. Turning around the ship was switched into forward thrust and it blasted forward towards the wreck of the space cruiser.
The boarding ship flew through debris of the cruiser, more and more became known as they reached the ship.
"Anypony notice any identification?" Steel wing asked the other three ponies as he controlled the ship through the wreckage in an attempt to identify the ship.
Aqua Heart looked up along the hull of the wreck until she located a name, Talonmarch.
"I found a name, any pony know a Talonmarch?" she asked
"Not one of ours and the names doesn't sound like a merchant vessel but besides that haven't got a clue" Steel wing replied and Bullet burst just shrugged, but Ivory pike spoke up.
"It belongs to the G.S.D" Ivory stated simply.
"The Griphon Space Division? This is an enemy ship are you kidding me?!" Steel wing replied
"I have only heard the name Talonmarch in their fleet no where else" Ivory stated once more
"Even if this is an enemy ship, we can't leave possibly alive Gryphon's to die with their already deceased comrades in this way" Aqua heart spoke up "Remember the oath we took you guys"
Steel wing sighed "Okay let's start the mission, i can see an open hangar just 500 metres from here, we will enter there and get out. everyone ready? Steel wing asked his team mates
"Ready" they replied
With that the mission was under way.
Author's Note
Make sure to be fair, i don't want any mean comments about this story and how its written.
Anyway no gore any of the mature tags are apparent besides one curse word, but don't worry there will be plenty of cursing in future chapters.
The boarding ship manoeuvred through low hanging wreckage as it entered the hangar bay. Once inside Steel wing landed the ship on the most stable of ground he could find, the door on the side of the boarding ship opens with a sound of air escaping into the void of space. Steel wing followed by Aqua heart, Bullet burst and lastly Ivory pike exited the ship fully suited up.
"Keep your eyes peeled guys, if you find a griffin breathing let the rest of us know asap" Aqua heart ordered everyone.
"Yeah sure thing, but we shouldn't go too far apart from each other, keep together if this is a trap we have a better chance of more of us escaping if we stick together" Steel wing replied.
The others nodded and they started to walk to a nearby door that should lead into a corridor, a dark figure hanging by the ceiling of the hangar looks down at the ponies with malefic red glowing eyes before scuttling away into a hole.
Reaching the door Steel wing goes to open it but stayed to the side where enemy fire couldn't reach, he beckoned the others to do the same and they complied. Steel wing opens the door and waits several seconds for enemy fire...that didn't happen, Steel wing comes out from the safety of the wall to see what was on the other side of the door. What he found was...horrific.
"Guys can any of you tell me what the fuck is this!" he shouted
The others ran out to join Steel wing where they found what he was shouting about. Corpses. Corpses everywhere they looked, griphons bodies laid out in horrific positions, some had their mouths open agape, others had their taloned claws outstretched, but all had their insides ripped out and strewn across the floor and blood was spattered everywhere like a very grim abstract painting project.
Steel wing didn't know what to say or do but walk over to a headless griphon corpse and stare at its mangled remains.
"What the absolute fucking nightmare are we looking at, I excepted some to be mangled and some to just be burned or something, not ripped to fucking pieces!" Bullet burst shouted.
"Calm the fuck down Burst, what's done is done, we are here to see if any survived the wrecking of this cruiser, not clean up the corpses!" Aqua heart.
Steel wing after coming back to reality spoke up, "Guys don't you see? These griphons weren't killed by accident, they were killed by some...thing" Steel wing stated.
"Look, do you really think a ship exploding could do something like this? Rip the internals of these fuckers out and decapitate them" Steel gestured to the headless griphon he was looking at.
"Something alive on this wreck killed them?... Are you saying that ..." Aqua heart finished before ending her sentence, which Steel wing finished for her.
"We are not alone here" he said very darkly.
The party continued to walk through the wreck searching fruitlessly for survivors. They did find many more dead (and mangled) corpses and they began to get gruesomer as they went on. Aqua heart was losing more faith that any pony survived what ever killed them as she saw more corpses, eventually she spoke up "I think we should get back to the ship now guys, what ever killed them may still be alive and I don't want to stick around to meet it" Aqua said nervousness growing in her chest.
"Aqua you said it yourself that we need to uphold the oath, so that's what we are doing, grow a pair (figuratively speaking) and stop being a fucking baby!" Ivory shouted at Aqua.
"H-How dare you Pike, I know I said that but doesn't mean that we should risk our own lives if it turns out something can kill all these soldiers without a dilemma! We should just call it over to us right now so it can kill. Us. Right. NOW!" Aqua shouted loudly rattling nearby metal.
A loud screeching roar could be heard from behind them, coming closer and closer. "The fuck was that!" Bullet cursed
"You just had to piss the cunt off now, did you Aqua" Pike turned to Aqua
"Shut the fuck up Pike, i don't want another word from you about that!" Aqua retaliated
"Would you two stop bitching and run!" Steel shouted them as he ran off through another corridor
A shadowy figure was scuttling incredibly fast along the ceiling, its glowing eyes fixated on the party, it leaped off and s launch for Aqua who was lagging behind the others, Steel looked back to see it go for a pounce. Steel turned to Bullet burst "Burst get it off Aqua!" he ordered
Burst turned around and readied his gun "I'm on it" he replied.
Bullet burst fired at the monster in the face to slow it down, it was successful, the monster slowed to a stop shaking its head as Aqua ran to catch up with the others. The monster roared again and started up to a run once more, Bullet burst fired again landing hits in the face and shoulders. The creature dropped to the ground seemingly lifeless. Bullet stopped his fire to see if it was dead.
When he thought it was dead he made his way to meet with the others, only for the monster to get back up and start to chase him.
"Bullet take the other door, if you can lead it away we can follow behind and attack it all together" Steel told Bullet.
Bullet burst ran for the other door with the monster hot on his fetlocks, dodging through fallen support beams and bits of metal sticking up like thorns, Bullet led the monster to a dead end. Coming to a halt at a wall, Bullet turned around to see the monster stop in front of him. Bullet couldn't really see what the creature was as the room had no light to give him a better look.
"What are you, you crazy fucking thing?" Bullet asked the monster as if he expected a reply, the beast instead snarled at him, inching closer. Bullet stared at the monster showing no fear, while staring it down Bullet noticed something in the corner of his eye and smirked at what he saw. "You'd better run if I were you" he said.
The creature turned from Bullet to see Steel wing, Aqua heart and Ivory pike with their guns at the ready pointing directly at it. The creature knew that this would go only one way so it gave one last roar and ran back the way they came.
When it was out of sight, the three ponies put away their weapons and went to meet up with Bullet.
"OK, I think we need to get back to the ship, that...thing has probably murdered what's left of the crew that survived the wrecking of the cruiser, lets not become apart of the fatalities" Bullet stated.
"I would agree with you Bullet but I picked up a distress signal somewhere nearby just before we met up with you, if there is a survivor maybe we can get answers" Aqua replied while looking at her scanner.
Bullet sighed "Fine but we need to wary, that thing will be back and I think it will be successful in it's next attack...that is for sure."
Author's Note
I imagine the monster listening to this when it attacked the gripon's
