Corruption of Souls

Ch.96

We woke to the transport shaking from a surprising amount of turbulence and blinked our eyes awake. Ah, We must’ve drifted off. Willow tended to do that during flights, partly why Willow kept having no idea where she was while Daring flew the plane around. Oh, well that explains why Willow’s memory back then is so spotty, along with remaining awake for days on end to let Daring sleep in peace at camp. Aw~ We’re all sappy inside now.

With a smile We unbuckled and stood up to look out of a viewport. We felt worried at seeing a scarred stretch of land from a recent battle. Considering the fires that were still being put out and the corpses of the demons, it was an attack by Hell not even a day ago. There were burned out farmsteads and destroyed crop fields that caused a pit to form in our stomach.

It’s like they waited for us to be out of the way or something. This is way too much of a coincidence.

Aside from the standard post-battle cleanup, there was an unusually high number of ponies salvaging destroyed Night Sentinel and Hell equipment in the scorched fields and exposed glassed sand where explosions had torn up the surface layer of dirt. They hauled the damaged gear to waiting trucks that weren’t out of place on the road in Willow’s world while others were tearing apart the hulls of scuttled tanks and other vehicles.

“Why are ponies taking apart damaged gear?” We questioned in confusion, figuring that the Night Sentinels handled all aspects of post-battle cleanup. “Are they your cleanup crews?” We asked the Night Sentinel who came back from the cockpit.

“Hm? No, that’s a local Union that’s offered to clean up the skirmish site for us. Those parts left down there are mostly depleted and destroyed weapons or scuttled vehicles too wrecked to service instead of salvage. King Hydrax gave us the okay to outsource that since it’d cost us more time to do it ourselves when we could be preparing for the next battle.” He helpfully informed us and We hummed in suspicion.

“Doesn’t that reek of all kinds of iffy motives though?” We asked and the Sentinel tilted his head.

“Um, how? What could they get out of it? They said they want to clean up the landscape as quickly as possible so the local farmers can reclaim the land again sooner. We also watched them deposit the waste in the local scrapyard like it should be.” The Sentinel’s response soothed some of our suspicions, but outsourcing didn’t really seem to be King Hydrax’s style.

“Still, this is a bit fishy. We’ll be looking into it personally.” We declared and the Sentinel shrugged nonchalantly. What is it about pilots and copilots being so campy?

“Whatever eases your mind Princess. I came back to wake you all and tell you to strap in since we’ll be landing in the plaza of Fort Fyr soon.” The Sentinel gestured for us to sit back down and We followed his instructions before he returned to the cockpit.

“He seemed fairly unprofessional for a soldier.” Lukus commented in disapproval, her golden whiskers twitching on her rodent snout.

“He’s a pilot. It’s part and parcel for most pilots to be campy and at ease outside of tense combat situations. They’re constantly manning a dangerous machine hundreds to thousands of feet above ground. They have to cope with that stress somehow.” We reasoned to our Reborn daughter as our descent began.

The pups began crying due to the sensation and We spent the rest of the return to the ground trying to sooth them in vain. Even when we landed they were still sniffling and keening. Before We could even unbuckle, We were suddenly pounced on by a mountain of red armored muscle that clutched us protectively and shoved our snout into their armored neck.

“Berk, Berserker.” We groaned and pushed him away enough with our incredible strength to unbuckle ourselves. “We’re fine. Everything's fine.” We insisted as he visibly inspected us while Mirage, Lukus and Hunter took the pups from their baby seats, which We only now considered to be silly to just have on a military transport.

“You need a Bonfire in Unity.” Berserker suddenly declared and We furrowed our brow.

“We do have one. It’s near Harmonia. The Firekeeper always sits right next to it, remember?” We reminded the Doom Marine in confusion. Hm, We should check in on her. Last We heard she was in a relationship with one of the guards of Unity. Hopefully she’s found a reason to want to live.

“So why did you stay all the way out here when you exploded?” Berserker questioned with irritated concern. “You were lucky enough to have spawned relatively close to Tel’Fyr.”

“Well that’s because We didn’t die, Bryan. We turned back into slime moments before rupture, which just splashed us all over the lake. We’re lucky enough that We were in a large enough piece to subconsciously merge back into one body, or We would have died.” We replied in irritation and made a mental note that We’ll need to rebuild our biomass stores. Sorry sacred spunk lake, We need to drain you again.

“Well, then how did you get out there? Why did you go out there?” Berserker demanded with his tone clearly hedged, possibly by our use of his proper name in our irritation.

“We had an orgy with our Wives and became immobile.” We started and he groaned, but We silenced any commentary with a glare. “Eris, our eldest Chaos daughter was also there since she was also immobile and filled up by Cocoa. She warped us to someplace big and open when Pharos had a SNAFU. We inflated when he rapidly grew bigger and We exploded since our Navel Pearl wasn’t in place for once.”

“I started to clean her up and because she smelled sweet back there. I hadn’t expected to slip in and be pulled into her womb. I grew to my full size in panic and after a flash of magic I was suddenly like this, had 4 pups crying, two confused Slime Skaven and a sleeping matron to take care of.” Pharos summed up his end of things from where he was trying to get unbuckled and failing. His big fingers were too thick to depress the button on his buckle and it was somewhat amusing to watch him try not to rip the buckle apart.

Berserker glared at Pharos for a moment before he gave a disgruntled huff and Hunter shook his head. “Well, that explains it.” Hunter commented as he pet one of the two pups that were clearly his by their grey fur.

“It was all just a big series of accidents. Enough about this though, where is Urta?” We demanded from Berserker, the sudden shift in topic clearly took him by surprise.

“Um, Hunter? I don’t keep track of everyone all the time like you do. Do you know where Urta is? I haven’t seen her in days.” Berserker’s words caused a cold pit in our heart to open up.

“She was last with the R&D teams, but a couple of days ago she said she had some things to do and seemed to vanish after her last visit.” Hunter reported and visibly seemed agitated. “My Ghosts haven’t seen hide nor hair of her in the past couple of days.”

“What?! She’s a focal reason for Hell’s invasions! She’s a renewable resource of Argent! Their most important military product! Where else has Hell invaded recently?! There’s been more than this assault on Tel’Fyr right?!” We urgently demanded from Hunter, who nodded in confirmation.

“There’s been assaults on all of the Tels. Tel’Adre, Tel’Fyr, Tel’Dres, Tel’Larian and Tel’Kyn. These were fairly small compared to the assaults launched at Ponyville, Baltimare, Appleloosa and Dodge Junction. All of these targets are major food producers for both Saddle Arabia and Equestria. Our current theory is that they’re trying to starve us. It’s a tried and true tactic. Although, the damage to the fields is surprisingly less than the damage to the buildings that manage those fields.” Hunter reported with a musing scratch of his chin.

“They’re searching for something. Or someone.” We snarled in fury at the fact Hell had a better grasp of the situation than our own forces did in regards to Urta’s location. It was obvious that Hell had means of detecting Argent, but if they really are searching for Urta, that means there are notable quantities of Argent in all of these locations.

Urta’s Argent is usually managed with fluid management systems…

“Are there dairy farms in each of these locations?” We questioned Hunter, who nodded in confirmation. “Send teams, with search warrants in case people try to hinder us, to every dairy, alcohol distillery, or other self-contained fluid production location in these towns and cities. Hell is searching for Urta, which means they’re searching for Argent. Argent they detected in these places.”

“Fuck! Why didn’t we consider this?!” Berserker snarled and looked out in the direction of the fields.

“What Union is doing the salvaging anyway?” We asked while We headed towards the glistening pool in the center of the now properly paved and fortified Fort Tel’Fyr, which had been converted from sandstone to solid reinforced concrete for the sections not carved into the cliff. The pool was actually covered in a metal grate that had open sections to dip into. This isn’t a pleasure pool after all.

“The Unionized Action Co-Op. UAC. They work mostly on infrastructure and are originally from Equestria. They paved the road going from Ponyville to Unity for instance.” A Night Sentinel next to the portal to Unity answered for us.

“Did you just say UAC?” We asked the Night Sentinel in shock.

“Well, it’s what their name abbreviated to.” The soldier replied in bemusement at our shock.

“Oh, for Hell’s sake. Did the king authorize this?” Berserker demanded angrily and the Night Sentinel quaked in his boots. “Answer me!”

“He did. We were told that when We asked. We didn’t get the company name until now.” We sighed before We noticed a guard in what looked like the UAC knock off of Praetor armor. “Hey you! Over there! Where did you get that armor?!” We demanded when We sprinted to the guard, who had come from the barracks and he patted his smooth rounded chestplate.

“This is the new armor being issued to garrisons of the Equestrian Military in place of our old traditional sets. It’s so comfy that I don’t have to worry about getting a wedgie ever again!” The stallion gushed excitedly to us with his voice modulated by the full-helm’s breathing filters. It was really good armor to be sure. It took clear inspiration from the Doom Marines with a visor over the eyes that gave clear field of view while being opaque on the outside to protect from bright lights and flashes. However, it looked much more like UAC armor from DOOM.

“Wait, so the Princesses are Issuing this?” We asked while We noted that instead of the traditional spear, sword, mace, or axe that frontier soldiers were equipped with, he instead had a semi-automatic pistol holstered on his hip and carried what looked like a sort of Gunlance that could still be held like a normal spear.

“Um, I wouldn’t know about that. I’m just a guard. Speaking of which, I do need to get to my patrol.” He tried to leave, but We held up our hands to halt him.

“We’re Princess Wiatr. By our order, you can be late this once.” We declared to the stallion who must’ve been an Earth Pony due to no horn on his helmet. Then again, he didn’t have a tail either, so the armor might have dimensional storage to streamline things.

“Why are most soldiers still using melee weapons?” The Night Sentinel asked in reference to the gunlance the Guard had, which was clearly still a lance first and a gun second. Our ears picked up Berserker having a private conversation on the comms off to the side while We continued to piece things together.

“Mostly because portable firearms are still very new, we had a jump from studying what Canida made, but we had no factories to mass produce them until recent months.” We answered with the knowledge Daring had on guns. Her pistol was a standard side-arm for Dogs in the Canidian Army after all. “Only officers were getting something like a revolver or something along those lines just a year ago. When were we making Semi-Auto?”

“You mean we bought guns from C&H? That makes sense why only police got the good guns while we were left with revolvers and other bulkier and clumsier guns out on the frontier.” The Guard grumbled as he tapped the butt of his gunlance on the ground irritably.

“Have you been trained in that gear?” We asked the Guard, getting curious about his name since he didn’t have it on his left breastplate like he was supposed to. He really must have just gotten it if he didn’t even bother making sure it had his name on it.

“Yeah! Some Night Sentinels taught us when the gear came in.” He told us as he transformed the lance into a bayoneted rifle with a flick and spin of the weapon. It’s a Trick Weapon! Those are native to Ash! Instead of being a long lance, it was now half the length with the staff folded over to reveal it was a second barrel and could be held more like a traditional long rifle. “They wouldn’t let us leave the garrison with a gun until we aimed and shot to their expectations.”

“Orders from the king. I think he knew this would happen, but not so soon.” The Night Sentinel mentioned for our sake.

“Which is why we’re freaking out. We expected our own projects to achieve this level of gear to be four more years!” We hissed as We considered how this could happen. “How much of that scrap is intact enough to reverse engineer?”

“Not that much! I wouldn’t be able to figure out how those chunks of metal work with how slagged they were!” The Night Sentinel shot back.

“Right, well what’s your name Guard?” We asked him, considering We’d held him up and he cooperated well enough.

“Corporal Cool Jets Princess!” The stallion saluted, but his name made us blink.

“But that’s a pegasus name.” We commented and looked at his wingless back.

“They don’t have a version of the armor that lets us use our wings. The sarge told me I had to learn how to ‘walk like everyone else’ at some point, so he told me to get used to being on the ground with this new armor before they upgraded it.” Cool Jets replied and sighed in a slight shrugging stretch. “The storage compartment for the wings is roomy so I barely notice. I’m having trouble not trying to fly.”

“Okay, I’ve cleared you of being held up with your sergeant soldier. You’re with us now.” Berserker told the corporal, who even through his faceless helmet We could tell he was gawking. “You’re as local as someone can get in this town, you know where the nearest dairy farm is?”

“Uh...sure? I’ll lead on.” He did a little hop on his hooves, then stood stock still as We snickered at his expense. “Uh...I meant to do that!”

“Try not to launch into space why don’t you?” We giggled at his failed takeoff like how he hinted just before. “We’ll be taking a ride, you can drive.”

“I get to drive?!” Cool Jets gushed and We felt a pit form in our stomach.

(<3)

An olive drab jeep jumped over the hill just next to the dairy plant, impacted the dirt parking area, did a few donuts and then came to a squealing halt. “Woow!” Cool Jets cheered like a madman and the three of us who had been trapped in the high-speed deathtrap with him jumped out of the jeep the instant it was still long enough to do so to see he’d somehow parked perfectly in a space. “L~like a glove~! That was great! Wanna go again?!”

“No!” All three of us screamed at him from where we were bent over and panting. Thank Sister We had the foresight to send the pups home with Lukus and Mirage! This Ace Ventura clone nearly killed us!

“Aw, nobody lets me drive a second time…” Cool Jets whined as he did a handstand on the door of the jeep and flipped onto his hooves before he summoned his magitech stored gunlance from his armor’s belt and stood like an absolutely reasonable pony.

“That's because you drive like an insane idiot.” Berserker snarled.

“To be fair, he’s a good driver, he just goes way too fast.” Hunter commented with wry disapproval in his telepathic tone.

“We’re having flashbacks to Daring’s college days and Willow’s sister learning how to drive.” We mewled before patting our flat armored chest. We at least had someone run home and bring us our armor considering We’re uncovering a conspiracy. “Well then. Let's head inside. You have the Search Warrant ready?”

“Freshly signed by Mayor Cotton for authenticity!” Cool Jets declared as he flashed the scroll which he summoned to his hand and flicked out like it was a sleight-of-hand magic trick instead of real magic. We’d issued the warrant and Mayor Cotton, yes, the CoC yoga mare herm Cotton, was all too glad to sign it since it might uncover something that attracted Hell to assault her town.

“Let’s just get this over with.” Berserker grumbled and marched up to the front doors, pounding on them with his fist and making a quite loud rumble. We only had to wait a couple of minutes and the door opened before Berserker could hammer on it again.

“Yes? For a second I thought Demons were pounding on the door. Is it safe outside?” Asked the purple-eyed dull blue unicorn in a white utility jumpsuit that answered the door. Odd, his mane was ‘shaved’ and his tail cropped as close as possible.

“It’s been safe for hours now. Why are you expecting demons when the fighting is clearly over?” Hunter questioned, going right for the throat. Good work Hunter!

“Well, they’re demons right? They can show up anytime or anywhere with those portals of theirs.” The stallion replied easily enough, even looking past us as if to look for demons, when likely he was checking for more of us.

“Yeah, right. About that buddy. We know something is up and it’s why it attracted the demons. We’re here to search the place.” Berserker bluntly declared and the stallion visibly paled.

“On whose authority?!” He demanded with a squeaky voice, clearly realizing that he stood no chance of stopping us physically or possibly even with magic.

“Ours.” We declared when Cool Jets went to flourish the warrant, only to flub it, drop it, try to snatch it back up, get it, accidentally toss it back up higher, then finally snag it and hold it up with all the decorum he could possibly manage with that absolute shit-show he gave. Honestly, it was so damn funny that We’re going to laugh about it later, but for now, seriously dude?

“Princess!” The stallion yelped in realization and tried to slam the door with his magic, but Berserker smashed the door with his fist as the stallion sprinted into the suspiciously empty entrance and then darted around a corner.

We gave chase, the four of us following the frantic clops of his hooves. “Stop right there criminal scum! No one violates the law on my watch!” Cool Jets declared with full seriousness to the point We wanted to laugh like a ninny.

“Really?” Berserker asked before he broke down a wall that the criminal had gone around, causing the stallion to scream like a little filly before teleporting past Berserker and continuing to run. “Get back here you little shit!”

“This is all just a big misunderstanding!” The stallion squealed before he ran through a door and his magic slammed it shut. Berserker ran into it with his shoulder first, but shockingly he bounced off instead of bursting through! “This is for the good of all! You’ll see!”

“Get out here!” We demanded, casting magic to smash the door open, only for us to suddenly feel exhausted like We’d just run a marathon. “W-what? H-how?” We gasped as a loud ear-raping cascade of white noise struck all of us for several seconds. When it eventually stopped, the door suddenly imploded as if all the force Berserker and us had caused all hit at once after the delay.

“What in the name of Torngarsuk was that?” Hunter questioned and the four of us entered the destroyed doorway to discover...nothing.

There was nothing here.

No piping, no tools, no storage tanks. It was emptier than an abandoned warehouse. Just what the absolute fuck happened?!

“Did he just teleport everything?” We snarled in frustration, both at him getting away with the evidence, but also that from what We remember reading, such a massive transference of matter via teleportation is Literally Impossible! Not even Twilight, Celestia, Luna and Cadence along with Us could accomplish a teleport this massive! It should’ve caused a resonance cascade that-the white noise! So he did the impossible! “Just what are we dealing with here?”

“Dear. You’re not going to like this, but something similar has happened at all the other sites. A couple of people have been arrested, but they’re not talking yet.” Berserker snarled after listening to his comm and stomped on the plain concrete hard enough to crack it. “Damn it!”

“At least this explains how they could detain someone as powerful as Urta.” Hunter grimly intoned, making the pit in our heart deepen.

Urta. Please, be safe…