Changeling
Cal awoke with a fright.
"Nervous about first contact, Rookie?", Bosco asked him,"We'll be fine for a while. Radars, are still clear, so chill." Life in the UESMC (United Equestria Space Marine Corps) was tough, whether it was Civil War, or the "other" option. Cal didn't like to think about the "other" option. It happened twice, but it was a disaster, the first time was a wedding, harmless, but before the mutation began. The second time was a slaughter. These "things", invisible in the dark, but so vicious and deadly, it was... unbelieveable. Not a glimpse has been caught of the things yet, because the first mutated attack was actually on the first United Equestria Space Center. The things had it overrun so badly, it was nuked of course, but rumours were that they could survive in space. That, was what Cal was worried about. "Huh.", the Brown stallion grunted, "Radar's got somethin." Cal and Bosco looked at the screens, showing space, waiting to see what was picked up. Silence..... A large black object went in front of the camera suddenly ."Shit!", Bosco shouted, startled. As they looked closer, they're fears were put to rest, "Just metal... Sweet Celestia... Scared the crap outta me...", Cal said, slowly catching his breath. "We cool, dude, no sweat." They laughed and teased each other, as the General walked in. They jumped to attention, saluting, "At ease, stallions.. What happened? I heard Bosco scream like a filly.", he said. "We just picked up some metal on radar, went in front of the cam, gave us a fright, sir.", Bosco replied. "Aha, I see.... Carry on.", he said casually and walked off. "Aha! You got burned!", Cal said to Bosco,"Ahahaha, shut up.", Bosco shot back, not taking it to offense. They both sat down and watched the screens. Cal yawned. "Well, I'm gonna hit the hay.", he said. "Go on ahead, I'll do tonight, but you gotta do tomorrow night, deal?", Bosco stuck out his hoof, "Ha, fine, deal", and gave Bosco a bro-hoof.
Cal rose to the sound of people running up and down the corridors and the wailing alarms. Bosco stormed in,"Suit up", he said, slightly scared,"We got contact." They ran to the armory, equipped the back-mounted rifles and the kinetic gauntlets,"How do these things work anyway, the gauntlets.", Bosco asked, to calm the nerves, "It harnesses telekinesis from unicorn horns so we can pick up things with our hooves, weird, huh?", Cal responded, calming himself down,"Yeah....", Bosco responded, shakily. The intercom ring went off as the alarms stopped, "Make your way to the hangar, pronto. We're inbound to the moon Perision 9. Another colony has set up a station there. It is now abandoned and the mutated ones are responsible, as a warning call made it here only yesterday, showing the last survivor killed, so we have one shot to take these bastards down. Let's move..". This was the General's motivational speech. They were in for something big. The hangar was packed with soldiers mounting dropships prepped with guns and everything."Hey, Cal, c'mon, we gotta move.", Bosco said, as Cal snapped out of his daydreams and thoughts and boarded the dropship.
The moment in before departure ended in a flash and suddenly they were inbound for Perision Station." Grab masks and tanks 'cause there still 'aint any oxygen.", the pilot said. They reached under their seats and grabbed the maskes and tanks and strapped them on quick. The pilot spoke again,"Thirty seconds 'til touchdown." And suddenly, they were on the moon, and headed for the gates, "Stay sharp, this could get real ugly, real fast.", the General pointed out. The gates opened with a exhale and they set foot in the bloody airlock. Nobody said anything beacause they knew what had happened there. The gates sealed shut and oxygen entered the room."Flashlights on."
The main door opened up to show darkness everywhere, but the flashlights were used well here. The guns on their backs rotated to every spot they looked towards, as the guns were linked into the neural system of the stallions by wires. Bosco lifted up his front hoof to look at the localised radar,"We're ok so far.". They proceeded to the far end of the main corridor to find out that it spilt into two directions, "You five," as the general pointed towards the soldiers,"Head down right, me,Cal and Bosco, will head left. Stick together don't mess around." The five nodded and began walking."Ok, lets move.". They walked down until they found a med bay."Prep to breach.", the General said. Cal sat to the right of the door, the General kept their backs as Bosco kicked the door in with his hind legs. Cal moved in, rifle quickly scanning the room. "Hit the lights Bosco.", Cal whispered,"Got it.". The lights flickered on, showing dismembered parts scattered around the room, but with a survivior unconscious on the table. Bosco gagged and covered his mouth as the General entered. "One survivor, sir.", Bosco informed him."Cal, scan him.". Cal took out a vitals scanner from his back pouch and began to scan the unconscious scientist, "This guy's been.... infested by something...". His eyes opened quickly and he gasped for air."Calm down, son", the General said to him,"Deep breaths, can you tell us your name?". "Larson", he said,"Terrance Larson, what happened here?", he said quickly, as he looked around the room."You don't know?", Cal asked him. "No", he replied," I was attacked and I must've fell unconscious." He sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the table. They sat for five minutes discussing how they were taken by surprise, and that he didn't know what exactly attacked him. He stopped suddenly and then he screamed in pain, or what they thought was pain. They hoisted him back onto the table, as his ribs were pushed up by something inside as they cracked. They scrambled for medical supplies as a small creature burst out of his chest bloodily, head first. "Shit!", Bosco shouted, as he grabbed the thing with the his gauntlet, keeping it at a range. "Cal! Look at it!", Bosco said. "Whoa...", Cal said, inspecting it, "What?", Bosco asked, "These... things infest the bodies if organic life forms. But they grow at a spectacular rate". "What'll we do with it?", Bosco wondered, "Kill it". Bosco grabbed the other end with the gauntlet and twisted the thing, snapping its spine. A shriek, rang out, not pony, but something else. The grates above them started shaking, and then the lights went out."Shit, flashlights on", the General said. They looked around the room, found each other, and waited. As they turned around to leave, a creature gave a loud shriek right in front of them and prepared to attack, "Light it up!". They riddled it with bullets, and stopped as the lights came bck on. They studied it for a few moments, "You know what?", Cal said "These things look like changelings. Is there something you aren't telling us, sir?", as he looked at him, "Well, it was obvious the minute we saw them, but to confirm, these are, indeed, mutated Changelings, swapping out shapeshifting for claws, teeth and a bad attitude". Cal's suspicions were confirmed so he eased up a little, "Lets keep moving".
They continued in for a while until they heard gunshots, close. Running, they hit a corner and turned to see the two of the five soldiers being torn apart by the mutated Changelings. Without a second thought, they shot them to pieces. One, made a dash towards Cal, but he turned quick, kicking it dead in the face with two hooves, sending it into a wall fan, breaking it. He confirmed the kill, by planting one round in the head of it. One of the two that were attacked coughed and spat blood, he was gone, but they knew they should hear his last words, "The others....", he coughed and wheezed, "they're holed up in.... lab... two others... gone...", he faded. They shut is eyes, and gave a prayer for the now three dead soldiers. "We have to get to the lab", Bosco said. The other two nodded, and they ran down the corridor the other two came from. They hit the lab and saw them shooting a survivor. Cal burst in, "What are you doing?!", "He was infested by those... things". Bosco put a hoof on Cal's shoulder, "We saw it happen to Larson, they knew they should spare them the pain", Cal went calm yet again. "Any way to get in touch with the station?", the General asked, "There was a radio in the control room", one of the two soldiers said, "Refresh my memory, names?", Bosco asked, "We're new so you wouldn't have known us anyway, I'm O' Ryan, this is Jenkins", he replied. "Ok, O' Ryan, Jenkins, on us", the General said, and they started towards the control room.
They were running, they were close, so they ran faster. "Yes! Here", Cal pointed out, "O' Ryan, Jenkins, get our backs", the three burst in and cleared the room, "Bosco, lights", the General said. Lights came on quick, and Cal found the radio and threw it to the General, "S.S. Orion, this is the General, do you read, copy", a few seconds passed before a response came, "Yes we read you, sir", "We require assistance, do we have anything on the mutations?", the General spoke, "Yes, we have a scientist only goes by TS, patching you through". A new voice, a woman, spoke, "John, what do you need?", "Twilight, we're on Perision, the Changelings are indeed here, we need supplies", "Hmm.. okay, is there a light drive at your current position?", she asked, "Yes. Cal,", he pointed towards the light drive,"Okay, I'm going to link my light drive with that one, so, give me a minute", there was a light wooden thump, then tying, "There, I'm sending through rainburst rounds as, they're weak to fire, these will penetrate and will burst on the inside. There's also chips for your radar bands, an upgrade, because Changelings can't be picked up without it. These things have only been tested once, but I'm sure they'll work." "Ok, thanks, Twilight. Out". With that they loade the guns with rainburst mags and fitted the chips into the radar bands. "Here's a note, too "'The Core room- most likely nest location'", that helps. Oh and R-5 explosives?", Bosco looked over, "Focused explosives to minimize terrain damage, we're gonna blow up the nest and keep the station I guess".
They were on their way towards the core room, when a wave of Changelings rushed towards them covering the walls and the ceiling. O' Ryan and Jenkins looked at each other and nodded " You guys go, we'll hold 'em off". Cal gave a weak smile, and they waved them off. They ran around as they heard battle cries and gun fire, along with the shrieking and popping of the Changelings blowing up from the inside. The gun fire didn't stop, there was hope. They kept running, but were ambushed. One hopped on to Cal and tried to bite him, but was kicked off by Bosco. They ran from the Changelings but Bosco was attacked. He cried out and kicked them away. He began shooting them, "I'll draw 'em away. KEEP. GOING." He limp- ran off firing backwards towards the Changeling pack. They finally reached the control room as they entered, they saw black webbing decorate the room, and there, in the centre was the Queen, laying eggs. "We need to stop this Cal", the General said. The queen looked up to dismount from webbing that was holding her up. She got onto all fours and towered above them, "There's an ejection button on the right wall, It will send us into space, then while I distract them, you, arm the charges", Cal thought he was going to have to leave everyone, but he knew it was the only way. "Ok, lets do it", Cal ran as the General, shot at the Queen, "Fight me, you overgrown, ugly-ass bitch!", she shrieked and lashed out as she circled him, quick, running and gunning. Cal hit the eject button and the room shook and the Queen fell on her side. The General, hopped onto her and ran across her stomach, firing at her, " Haha! Who has the upper hand now!". She swatted him off, and got up. The General was downed, not dead, but the Queen didn't see what Cal was doing. "Hey!", Cal shouted at her. She looked at him baring her teeth he pointed out a big circle of R-5 explosives surrounding her. He clicked.
Bosco kept limping until he hit the maintenance room. A flamethrower sat there, on the wall, "Hell yeah", he smiled to himself. He locked the door equipped the flamethrower, and unlocked the door. They burst in looking for him. He stepped out in front of the door, with a mischeivous smile on his face, "Surprise, motherfuckers", he let loose with the flamethrower and headed down and saw O' Ryan and a wounded Jenkins. He directed them into the maintenance room, while all the Chaneglings, ran straight into the flames of Bosco.
The moment after the explosion was peaceful. Cal, lay there looking at the ceiling. The blast knocked him off the mountain of metal crated he stood on, and out of the way of the napalm which showered the webbing, the Queen and the eggs. He gasped. He got up and jumped down from the platform he was on to the stairs the General had been knocked down, "Sir?", he found him, sitting against the door at the bottom of the stairs, "You get..... her?", he struggled to ask, " Yeah, yeah, are you hurt?", Cal replied worryingly. He lifted up his hoof off the claw gashes on his stomach, "I'm sorry...... I'm..... not gonna make it. You.... did me... proud, son", he drifted off, but Cal refused, hoisted him onto his back and carried him out onto the deck as the core floated around. "Sit tight, sir". He ran to flight controls to find a radio, calling his name. "Cal? Its Bosco, I got Jenkins and O' Ryan here, we're in maintenance. Jenkins is wounded but he'll make it", "Bosco, we got it we're inbound. I'm scheduling pick up now. Its good that you made it. Out". Cal radioed pick up at Perision, as the core floated back into the station dock. Power was restored to the station as Cal, Bosco and O' Ryan left the station, carrying the General, and Jenkins.
"You soldiers, went above and beyond the call of duty, put a stop to the mutated ones infestation on Perision, and nearly gave your own lives doing it. We award you the medals of Valour and we say a prayer for the brave stallions we lost". Princess Celestia gave them the medals, as the trumpets sounded. They lowered their caps, to mourn the dead, and they left, to never gave to experience that nightmare again...
