Act 1: Liberte Corporelle Scene 1: Reveille
Act 1: Liberte Corporelle
Scene 1: Reveille
“Sometimes you dream. Sometimes there’s nothing. Sometimes you remember.”
A Shrill alarm blared through a darkened industrial corridor. The regular darkness of this industrial facility was now a dull red as the emergency lights flashed on. Metallic banging sounded through the hall, against the metal grates that made up the floor, getting closer to the stored contents of this facility. Lining the halls were illuminated liquid-filled glass tanks. Each of these tanks were filled with creatures of various shapes and sizes, suspended and floating inside of them. The banging on the floor got closer as a strange, hairy, three-legged creature, almost like a three-legged gorilla, was illuminated by the red lights glaring from the ceiling. The rampaging monster smashed one of its three muscled appendages against one of the glowing, translucent containers and left a splintering crack across it. The glass tank slowly splintered, cracked, and finally shattered and exploded outward, spilling its living contents onto the grated floor in front of it.
The glass tank was in front of a computer terminal that flashed various alert warnings across its glassy screen. A single figure disconnected from the wires and devices that held her in place. The creature inside the tank flopped to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Luckily, the tripod monsters had already carried on their rampage down the hall and deeper into the facility.
The figure remained motionless until she slowly opened her large olive green eyes and looked ahead to her yellow hooves. She was a short, dark yellow coated, unicorn pony with a short yellow mane and tail. She wore a green jumpsuit and a black utility belt. On the collar of her jumpsuit was a patch logo of double helix. On her neck was a barcode that was seemingly etched directly into her coat. On her hoof was a silver gauntlet with a glassy synthetic screen on it.
The pony tried to stand to her hooves, but her ears were ringing and her vision was blurred. She stumbled on her hooves to get off of the floor; they were still slick with the fluid she was suspended in. She had sustained a few cuts on her hooves from the broken glass, but she carefully walked around the shattered remnants that still littered the floor. Her head turned to the distant echoing of the creatures that had prematurely freed her from her glassy prison. They were rampaging and screaming through whatever facility she was within. This caused her vision to stabilize and her ears to twitch attentively as adrenaline started pumping through her body.
She looked around and saw nothing but a long metal hall with nothing but a trail of dull red lights illuminating it. She also noted the other glass tubes of beings and the direction that the howling creatures went. Deciding it was best not to run towards a herd of wild beasts, she stepped over the remaining glass and walked in the direction from where the beasts had come from.
On the ceiling was a rail system that seemed to be able to move the glass pods around the facility. She peered down the darkened corridor and it looked as though she was looking through a metal straw. She saw a pin-prick of light at the end of a long abyss of darkness, only illuminated by the thick red light that blended with the darkness to create the visual equivalent of a thick liquid of light. The pony stumbled on her hooves, her muscles barely responding to her movements at first, but they eventually listened to her commands and began moving her through the industrial hallway. At the end of the hall, she finally came across a metal sliding door that was stuck partially open. She squeezed through the damaged door and into a larger open room.
She shielded her eyes as they adjusted to the space. It was a lot brighter than the cramped corridor. It was tiled with cobalt blue tiles. There was a large atrium with a large rounded glass overview of outside the facility. Outside were a few other buildings, each on connected by a white, concrete path. The entire compound was inside of a clearing surrounded by tall, scraggly, jungle trees. To her left and right were stairwells also paneled cobalt. The sun was starting to set and the pony put her hoof between the sun and her own eyes. She could barely adjust to the sunlight. She squinted could see that the windows were shattered in piles of glass and muddied footprints led a trail from the glass shards towards the broken door that she just walked out of.
The pony turned around and looked above the broken door. Despite the fact she didn’t remember a single thing before this moment, she could still read the words ‘Deep Storage’ on a square, illuminated sign above the door. She walked around the piles of broken glass on the floor and over the broken window. The facility was enclosed inside of a large wire fence with several white squared buildings located around a concrete square that made up a courtyard. Several alarms were ringing, likely because of the creatures. The fence was bent open in one area and the footprints of the three legged beasts led across the once sterile courtyard with dark, slick mud. Outside of the fence was the dense jungle filled with green foliage. The sounds of strange wildlife called from within.
She walked, tentatively, forward and looked up at the buildings. One was similar to a multi-layered cake with walkways on every floor. The one she walked outside of was more of a curved rectangle with much of the wall facing the courtyard made of glass, though it was now broken by the beasts. She could tell that there was more to the facility behind the building that she came from, but opted to walk towards the opening in the fence. She felt a deep feeling of unease about the sterile facility. In the courtyard was a sign on the ground, “O’Brian Biosynthetics Remote Research and Development Lab PROMETHEUS, Andromeda Galaxy.” The pony had a deep unease about everything that the sign was telling her, despite not knowing truly where she was or who O’Brian Biosynthetics was. Almost instinctively, everything in her body told her to make a run for it.
The yellow pony broke into a full gallop directly towards the broken fence. Right before she was able to cross the line into the rainforest environment, a higher pitched alarm began blaring throughout Prometheus. This made the pony cover her ears and look behind her. There were quite a few people, somehow she knew that they were called people, running along the balconies on the buildings. They were dressed in black clothes and they carried small squared mechanisms. The pony automatically knew that these devices were firearms of some kind. The people used these devices to open fire on the behemoth, three-legged creatures that broke out of a window in the cake-like building. Another group spotted the pony making her escape. They pointed and called out to her, but instead of waiting around to get shot, the pony galloped into the thicket of vines and foliage of the surrounding rainforest.
She bobbed and weaved through various branches of these trees. There wasn’t anything familiar about these plants, except that they were green and something in her mind knew that plants were supposed to be green. She didn’t remember anything before waking up on the floor of the laboratory. After a few minutes, she stopped running as she was sure that none of the people were following her. She climbed up one of the tall trees by hopping from branch to branch, starting with low hanging ones. She eventually got to a point where she could see the region around her.
The Prometheus laboratory was in a remote area in the middle of a dense rainforest that went on for as far as she could see. There was a long strip of area that had no buildings or trees that had been paved over with sterile material. From what she could see, the people had taken care of the problem with the wild beasts that had rampaged through the facility. Now, they shined searchlights into the jungle looking for their missing quarry.
She slumped back on the tree and sighed. The sun was almost set, but even the sun didn’t feel right to her. She shivered as the last of the strange sun disappeared over the alien horizon. She took a moment to take inventory of herself. She only had her green jumpsuit and the computerized hoof gauntlet in her possession.
She moved her hoof across the smooth surface of the device. The thin metal material that wrapped her hoof glistened in the dusk light. Her hoof touched across the screen and the device burst to life, giving off a bright light that stunned the yellow pony for a moment before she concealed it to prevent the search parties, that were likely roaming the forests, from finding her position.
The screen was emblazoned with the logo of ‘TransAtlas’ against a bright blue background. The ‘A’ was stylized like a circle with a pointed line looping away from the letter. After a few moments, the screen changed to pure white before presenting a rotating logo of a different organization, that of O’Brian Biosynthetics, stylized as a green double helix. A crawl of text went across the top of the screen. WARNING: PERSONALIZATION PREFERENCES NOT LOADED, BOOT SOFTWARE ANYWAY? Y or N.
The pony selected Y and allowed the device to boot. The screen then became like three pages of digital paper atop each other. On top of the screen was biometric data on the pony. She could recognize blood pressure and heartbeat sensors. It showed an outlined diagram of her body from head to tail. The device was taking live scans of her body and could show both internal and external injuries. She swiped over to the next tab of digital paper which showed several different icons. She tapped one of them and it appeared to be an application for producing itemized lists. Another showed lists of files on the device, one of which was called ORIENT.hol. The last tab appeared to be a communications tab with various frequency scanners that she couldn’t access.
She sighed and closed down the device, believing that any more light would attract unwanted attention. She laid her head against a branch and closed her eyes. Her body felt as though it were made of butter, even down to the slick and sticky exterior due to all the running she had done. She heard a soft buzzing in her ears as she drifted off to sleep.
She was falling. A dark abyss surrounded her, almost as though she was being swallowed by the universe. When she closed her eyes she could see flashes of light dance around her darkened vision.
When she opened her eyes again, humanoid figures, dressed in all white, surrounded her. Her ears buzzed like the sound of a circular saw cutting through wood. She couldn’t make out facial features. They were blurry and obscured by the light. She felt a sharp pain in the back of her head as the humanoids approached. The buzzing in her ears increased as she opened her eyes and screamed, then suddenly she was falling again, even deeper into the abyss.
She could see faint balls of light around her that contrasted against the darkness. She reached out with her magic to pull one closer to her. When she gripped one, she could feel an urge to run or to eat, but couldn’t see. She reached out for another and could see numbers and mathematical flash before her eyes. Not only could she feel these urges, but they came with strong emotions like anger, joy, happiness, maybe even love. It was overwhelming to her senses.
She suddenly hit the ground and landed in a bush beside an open meadow filled with yellow flowers. Everything was dark, but she could see a pony figure sitting between three objects. As the yellow pony approached, she could see the objects clearer. One was some kind of computer screen, one was a black cloak, and another was a tool belt. A humanoid figure gripped the pony, wrapped her in the cloak and tool belt before forcing her in front of the computer screen. As he did so, the pony’s featureless, white fur seemed to melt away into strands of yellow until the pony looked exactly as she did. The human pulled out a small featureless box and pressed it to the pony’s neck. The yellow pony yelled out a cry as the other pony did as well. It felt as though a red hot ember was pushed directly into her neck. Her vision blurred and slowly faded into darkness.
She awoke in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. She felt the part of her neck where she was attacked in her dream. Her hoof grazed over the bar code etched into her neck. The dream was so vivid that she could almost still feel the painful sensations that it had left.
She pondered for a moment on the dream. Was it real? She thought. Was it a memory?
She resolved to search for answers by exploring the device on her foreleg again. It was daytime and the light would no longer give away her position to those creatures that sought her.
She decided to play the ORIENT.hol file. When she tapped the file, a beam of light spung forth from the contraption and constructed a transparent, ghostly blue figure of one of the bipeds that stalked her.
“Hello!” It spoke, “And please allow me to give you a warm welcome to the world, courtesy of O’Brian Biosynthetics.” The holographic being gave a bow.
“You are a Biosynth, a lab-grown being that has have been brought into the world for a purpose, in order to-” Its voice abruptly changed. “Token not found.”
The yellow pony cocked her head at the hologram before it continued, “You were created here at… Prometheus Labs, a remote facility in Andromeda, at the behest of… Token not found.”
The hologram program fidgeted, “Error, invalid configuration options.”
With that final message, the hologram dissipated back into the gauntlet. The pony pondered the new information, sitting back on her branch. A Biosynth. Something about that term seemed alien to her.
She tried to wrap her brain around all the new information, but was interrupted by rustling below her. A single person came out of the brush, looking around. He carried one of the long metallic contraptions that the people at the base used to fight the creatures that broke in. He was adorned a thick black covering, almost like an exo-skeleton, but not as thick. He was a soldier or a security guard, the pony could make from the look of the man.
“Roger, no sign of the escapee.” He said, putting two fingers on his helmet. The helmet had a visor that hid the upper half of the man’s face. “We have to find her soon, feds are coming in from off-planet today to inspect the facility and they’re going to be pissed if we don’t find the missing specimen.”
The way he said ‘specimen’ made the pony’s face scrunch up. Fortunately for her, the soldier carried on in his search through the jungle, not bothering to look up the taller tree that she was in.
It was then that she hatched her plan. Judging by what the soldier had said, someone was coming today from off-planet. That meant that they would have to come in a spaceship. That was her ticket off of Prometheus.
Act 1: Liberte Corporelle Scene 2: Exodus
Act 1: Liberte Corporelle
Scene 2: Exodus
“Take evasive maneuvers!”
The pony crept through the thick jungle brush back towards the Prometheus facility through the day. The sky turned a vibrant orange as the bright orb in the sky was now beginning to wain back down from the highest point in the sky. Now, the shadows of the trees began to play tricks on the pony. Every tree could just as easily be some form of alien monster to her. Despite the shadows and her precarious situation, she made her way back to the research facility at a snail’s pace. She made sure to crawl and conceal herself whenever she heard the moderately distant voices of the Prometheus security guards that were sweeping the jungle for her.
She came up to the tall chainlink fence surrounding the complex and pushed up against it. On the other side was the long concrete airfield, but no ship yet. This gave her time to gaze down the length of the fence to find a new way inside. She couldn’t get back in the way she came from, there were guards posted on either side of the breach in the fence. Fortunately for her, there was a front gate that led into the facility. While there were two armed men standing in booths in front of the gate, there was a dirt road that led out from the facility. Alongside this road was a drain ditch that ran along and, lucky for the sneaky yellow pony, there was a culvert that ran underneath the fence that wasn’t blocked off.
Quieter than a mouse, she made her way through some thicker brush to the drainage ditch and dropped in. She flinched at the cold and mucky water within, as well as the sound it made. However, the two guards were luckily talking to each other loud enough not to notice.
“Catch that match-up last night?” One said to another,
“The Brawl match from Solaris? Yeah, that was a good go. ‘Ol Matty might be a teacher, but he can still pack a punch with that staff of his.”
As the two talked, the pony crawled on her belly through the muck, drenching her lime green jumpsuit in brown muck and water.
“I miss Kat though, too bad the president can’t brawl anymore.”
“She’ll be back when her term is out.”
The latter’s voice echoed through the round metal culvert that the pony was now halfway down. The splashes of water also echoed around her with every movement, threatening to give away her position to the guards. However, a larger sound drowned out the pitiful splashes she made. It was like a creature growling, but with the added sound of wheels on gravel. A large six wheeled vehicle pulled up to the gate and a man got out to greet the gate keepers.
“Any luck?” One of the guards asked.
“Not at all.. It could be anywhere in a 10 kilometer radius by now.” The truck driver replied, “Flag me through?”
The gate keeper nodded and opened up the gate. The engine of the white all-terrain vehicle growled and the truck rolled on through into the courtyard of the research facility. Unbeknownst to the guards that resumed their conversation on sports or the vehicle’s occupants that hummed along to some music in their cabin, a little yellow passenger latched onto the bottom of the large scout vehicle as it pulled away from the main gate.
The truck pulled into a large garage facility helpfully labeled as the ‘Motor Pool’. There were several types of ground vehicles in the bay. There were three other all-terrain transport vehicles like at the front gate. From her position, the pony could see inside another one that was open. The vehicle opened from the bottom up, with the door hanging above the vehicle. Inside of one of them was a row of seats in the middle that lined each side, while in the back half of the vehicle was a set of computer equipment. The front of the vehicle was something of a bulbous cockpit with two seats, each with a set of controls.
Across from the larger transport vehicles were five smaller vehicles. These resembled what the pony would think of as small trucks. They were white, like the recon transports, but had an enclosed two-seat cabin in the front and a bed in the back of them. Behind them were several boxy modules that seemed like they could fit easily in the bed of these vehicles. Many of them even seemed to be an enclosed light weapons platform. On the front of these smaller vehicles was the emblem of winged shoes. The pony then turned back to the recon vehicles and noticed that the transports had a similar emblem, but it was that of a three-headed dog.
The pony hid beneath the vehicle that brought her in as twenty guards exited the transport vehicle. The pony reasoned that the vehicle had brought search parties deeper in the jungle where she hid the previous night. The pilot was approached by a man in a grey suit and tie, the jacket.
“Did you find our missing Biosynth, Commander?” He questioned,
“No sir,” The pilot replied, “We’ve combed through sector 4 and 5, but no sign of it.”
“It?” The suit repeated,
“Yes, director, the biosynth.”
“Commander, you do realize what is at stake if we don’t find this particular specimen, don’t you? She is a very special order that needs to be found.” The director stepped forward towards the commander, his shiny black shoes right in front of the yellow pony’s olive eyes. “I need her found yesterday or it’s all of our asses!”
“Yes sir, facility director sir.” The guard commander replied.
“Good, now get another team out to sectors 8, 9, and 10,” He began walking away, but then turned around again, “And commander, get the rest of these Hermes and Cerberuses out on the hunt as well. I want this motor pool empty!”
“Yes sir!”
The two finally walked away, giving the pony a chance to plan her next move. The motor pool was about to be emptied and swarming with guards so she needed to act fast. The pony saw from the outside that the motor pool was connected to the main building by an intermediary building. She built a mental map of how to get to the spaceport from the main building. She first needed to find a way out of the motor pool and into the intermediary building. She scanned the room and found a few doors that led in that direction, but that would be too risky as there was about to be heavy foot traffic. Her eyes followed the length of the wall where several large crates and shelves of spare vehicle components lined the rest of the wall. Then her eyes fell on a small air vent behind one of the crates.
She made a small smile and crawled her way out from under the Cerberus Transport and followed the length of the vehicle. No one else was presently in the motor pool yet, so this gave her time to make her way behind the boxes and examine the vent. The vent was barely big enough for her to fit through, but there was one problem. The grate was screwed in. The pony looked around for something to unscrew the vent, but by the time she spotted a tool on one of the shelves, the double doors leading to the intermediary building burst open and rows of armed security personnel entered the motor pool.
“Everyone gear up.” The commander ordered, “The government inspection crew will be here in a couple hours, so we don’t have much time. If we don’t find the biosynth by 1200 hours, then we need to report back to base and when the feds are gone we’re all getting fucked by the suits. We’ll be lucky if O’Brian himself don’t come all the way from Titan-IX to personally slap the shit out of us.”
With the security being distracted by their orders, the pony closed her eyes and levitated the screw driver from its shelf and pulled it behind the crate.
“Sir, why in the hell doesn’t it have a subdermal tracker like the rest of the eggheads’ pet synths?” One of the security guards asked.
“It got out when those damn Triporillas broke containment. It wasn’t even processed yet, so your guess is as good as mine as to how the hell a fresh ‘synth managed to break perimeter.”
The pony quietly unscrew the screws and caught them with her telekinesis before they could hit the floor.
“All I know,” The commander continued, “Is that it’s a special order that’s being closely watched by the suits all the way up the chain and it’s all hush-hush. Alright, enough yip-yapping, we gotta go find this thing.”
“Yes sir.” The guards replied in unison before springing into action, loading into the Hermes recon trucks and the Cerberus Transports.
As the guards prepared their vehicles and the noise of numerous engines filled the motor pool, the pony was now on the other side of the vent, screwing the grate back on to avoid suspicion.
The vents were cramped and cold, the cold air blowing through the pony’s yellow mane and tail. She slowly started to crawl in the direction she needed to go. ‘Hopefully, most of the guards are out in the jungle now.’ She thought to herself.
As she crawled, she peered out of the various vents and saw that the intermediary building was actually the quarters for everyone at the facility. She peered into the guards’ quarters and saw bedrooms with bunkbeds and unfinished playing card games. In the hallways, more guards were gearing up to go out on the man-hunt for the little yellow pony biosynth. The pony still didn’t know what to think about this biosynth business, but she knew she didn’t want to be anyone’s ‘special project’.
Eventually, the vent tunnel ended and went straight up in a way that the pony could no longer continue sneaking through them, she had to get out of them. Luckily for her, the grates in the dorms weren’t bolted down as hard as the one in the motor pool, so she easily de-vented into one of the rooms with two sets of bunkbeds.
After she burst from the vent, she rolled onto the floor to muffle her movement. She looked around and found a sink next to the doorway that she used to wash off the mud and grime from crawling around in the jungle.
Maybe I can pass off as someone who works here, She thought, optimistically.
The door to the hallway was a mechanical sliding door composed of thin metal that was controlled by a panel on the side of it. The yellow pony looked at the panel and then compared it to her hoof. She then pressed it against the glassy pad, causing the door to open with a hydraulic hiss and the panel to blink green and let out a happy ping.
She peeked out into the hallway and looked down each direction. She caught the last glimpse of a group of security officers filing their way down to the motor pool to her left. The hall was clear to the right. There were numerous sliding doors, nearly identical to the one she stepped out from, lining the hall that led to different cabins.
The yellow pony biosynth slowly walked forward through the hallway. She couldn’t help but be bothered by lack of natural sunlight inside the facility, now experiencing the blessing of basking in the sunlight. The bright, slightly blue tinted lights that lit the facility felt like they were beating oppressively down on her. As she approached the halfway point, the lights changed their hue to be a bit more warm. The hall opened up to a recreation room with a couple of couches, some metal picnic tables, and some chairs. Lining the far right wall were dispensers of some sort. They were like a protruding metal nose with a flat plate beneath them. The room was also wood-paneled instead of the synthetic grey materials that made up the hallway running through the room.
There were also a couple of clear sliding doors to the left side of the room that led to an outdoor eating area. Unlike the inside of the rec-room, the outside area was still occupied by a couple of security guards, but also new people that wore long white coats. Some of the white coat wearers weren’t human at all, but they were ponies like her. There were a couple of pegasi and unicorns clad in a pony version of the same armor that the human security guards wore. However, there was a third class of uniform among these dining doctors. They wore different colored jumpsuits, not unlike the green one the yellow pony was wearing. Some wore green ones, just like her’s, but others wore blue and red ones as well. Some of them were ponies like her, some were humanoid, and some of them were entirely new species unfamiliar to the pony. The common factor between the jump-suited figures was that they all had a barcode on their necks, just like her’s.
A group of people; a couple security guards, three scientists, and some of the biosynths were approaching the door to the rec-room. The yellow pony quickly looked around and back-tracked to one of the dormitory doors closest to the rec-room. She slammed her hoof on the scanner which went through its process of verifying her. After a beep and a hiss, she hopped into the dormitory the very second that the clear sliding doors to the outside slid open.
She quickly closed the door behind her and breathed a sigh of relief, but that relief was quickly whipped away when a voice behind her asked, “A science assistant? What are you doing here?”
The pony quickly twirled around to see a green-coated, powder blue mane, pegasus mare hovering in the middle of the dormitory. She was wearing a blue jumper and had a barcode stenciled into her coat on her neck.
“Umm… What are you doing here?” She meekly asked.
“I’m supposed to be here.” She pointed to a vacuum cleaner backpack she had just set down, “I’m a custodian? Duh! This is the dormitory. Most of you science assistants,” She pointed to the green jumper she was wearing, “..Should either be up in the lab or at least in the biosynth dorms if you’re not working.”
“Alright.. Could you point me to the labs?”
“What are you? A fresh pod birth or something?” The pegasus rolled her eyes, “Come on, I’ll take you there. Then find whoever your doctor is and report to them.”
“Well.. Umm.. No thanks, I’d just like some directions.”
The pegasus shrugged, “Suite yourself. Either go outside and go through the loading bay next to the starport or just head down the nat-birth dorms to the lobby and head up to the elevator to the labs.”
“Nat-birth?”
“Oh by the spark,” She facepalmed, “You really were just a ditzy fresh born aren’t you? Nat-birth is what us biosynths call the not-biosynths, the natural born? Nat-born? Get it?”
“I think so..”
“Well be off with ya then, I’m almost done here and I got the entire left side of the security dorms to clean before the day’s out and they’re always the worst ones to clean. Always eating spark damn popcorn in their off-hours…” She muttered, taking a duster and dusting the corners of the room.
The pony made her exit of the dorm. Lucky for her, the scientists and security guards had cleared the rec-room by then. She then made her way across the room but she stopped as she heard and felt a groan in her stomach. However, food would have to wait until she could escape this place.
The pony slowly and methodically made her way down the rest of the ‘nat-birth’ dormitory hall. She didn’t encounter anyone else, except for a couple of other blue-suited biosynths who were busy at work cleaning the various rooms. After crossing the rec-room, the dormitory style change a little bit. It seemed more clean and clinical, the metal and synthetic material making up the wall was less grey and now more white. However, the blue-tinted lights returned with a fury, almost giving her a headache.
If there’s a loading dock that leads to the starport through the labs, then that seems like the best bet, she though as she she made her way into the lobby.
The lobby was similar to the first room she saw after escaping deep storage. It was a half circle with most of the outward wall being made of clear material that allowed a great view of the rest of the facility’s buildings and the jungle beyond the clearing. There were clear doors leading to paved paths outside to the other buildings. In the center of the room was a large crescent shaped desk that a receptionist in a blue biosynth jumper sat in. She was a human woman with medium blonde hair. She seemed to be practicing her smiling in the camera of her wrist-mounted device. Behind the receptionist were three elevators doors, each having a display that indicated a floor: Administration, Labs, Reception, or Biosynth quarters.
The pony kept out of sight of the receptionist and pressed her hoof to the scanning panel. She was given access to the elevator with a happy ping. The tube shaped door swung open like a pneumatic delivery tube. She stepped inside and moved her hoof over the holographic projected panel and chose to go to the laboratory floor.
The elevator jolted to life and burst upward, causing the pony to have to brace herself to keep from falling over. When the door swung open, she was presented with a small half circle reception area with five different hallways going off in a diagonal direction away from the central desk. This room was bustling with ponies and humans, some in jumpsuits and others in scientist scrubs going through each of the halls. The room was tiled with white, sterile tiles that were illuminated by bright white lights. At the desk was an earth pony mare in a green jumper ready to greet her.
“Hello! I’ll be right with you!” She greeted the yellow pony, “Do need directions? I haven’t seen you here before.”
“Umm, yes, I’d like directions to the loading dock.”
The receptionist nodded, “The loading dock is straight back through the main R&D hall behind me. Just let me scan you and you can be on your way.”
“Scan me?”
“Oh dear, you’re that new are ya? I have to scan you in to give you access. It’s a security thing, no big deal, it just logs you and your task and alerts your partner where you’re going.”
“Is there a way I could skip over that step? I’m kind of in a hurry.” She feigned.
The receptionist shook her head, “Sorry, it’ll only be a couple seconds, just let me see your neck and you can be on your way.”
Seeing no other choice, the pony bared her neck to the receptionist and whatever fate awaited her. She closed her eyes, folded her ears back, and cringed, thinking this would be the end of her escape.
“Okedoke, looks like your partner is Dr. Julia Ross, right? She has the clearance to access the loading bay. You should be all clear to go.” The mare smiled
“I’m good?” She untensed
“Yep! You’re all clear. Dr. Ross will get a notification, but that’s no big deal.”
“Well, alright… Straight back, right?”
“Mmhmm!” The cheery receptionist replied
“Alright, thank you..”
She walked passed the receptionist and down the hallway directly behind her. She now kept a brisk pace as she knew she was on a countdown timer; it would only be a matter of time before her partner would report her access to the labs
The labs on the side of the hall usually had windows that allowed her to look inside. She slowed down to look at what these scientists were actually doing.
Inside the first lab were various scientists in white labcoats and biosynths in green jumpers, like her own, going over samples in petri dishes.
In the next lab there was a collection of the three-legged jungle creatures that broke into the facility, a triporilla was what the security commander called them. One of them was being dissected by scientists in clean room suits. In the light, it resembled a cross between a spider and a gorilla. It had three long and triple jointed legs. The legs were long and cylindrical with round hooves at the bottom. The legs were connected by thinner limbs, that took the shape of a V, to the bulk of their bodies. Their bodies closer resembled that of a large ape, but the creature had four slitted eyes. Besides the one on the dissection table with an opened up skull, there were two in seperate glass tanks behind the scientists. These tubes were not unlike the pods in deep storage, only a bit larger to accommodate the massive beasts. The pony looked closer and saw that some of them had impact wounds, likely from their capture. The yellow unicorn surmised that they must’ve been the ones from the break-in. She continued along the long hall.
In another lab, there were several biosynths floating in the glass suspension pods pods. There were three that the pony could see: A pegasus, a unicorn, and a human. Each were suspended in a clear viscus liquid, much like what she had awoke in. Various robotic arms connected to different parts of their bodies as they floated in the liquid.
In the unicorn’s pod, a black box on the end of a thin metal arm lasered on a bar code on the unicorn’s neck. The blue beams etched up and down, etching the tag of ownership into her flesh and her coat. This caused the yellow pony to put her hoof on her own bar code in sympathetic pain. Immediately after the imprinting, another arm swung into position at the back of the unicorn’s head and seemed to insert a small protrusion into her head. This caused an involuntary buck from the suspended biosynth as the device continued its work inside her head.
The yellow unicorn turned away and closed her eyes, flinching away from the sight of her fellow mare.. No, her fellow Biosynth mare being operated on in that fashion. The yellow unicorn could only speculate on the purpose of what they were doing, but no matter what she thought, it made her nauseous. She continued along the hall.
To her left, she saw the largest section of the facility. There were hundreds of suspension pods containing biosynths. The pods were on a rail system, some of them were on the move in every direction. They were being transported to different parts of the facility. Looking closer, some were in sequential order. They started with foals, maybe even fetuses before birth. They grew older with each pod from foal, to pre-teen, to teen, to young adult. Only when they were young adults were they fitted with the wrist computers and jumpsuits.
On the bottom floor, some of the pods were opened over a grated run-off that allowed for the fluid that suspended the biosynths in the pod. Assistants, both biosynth and not went to help these new-borns, drying them off with towels. They were then lined up in rows with other biosynths in front of a large screen. There were probably a couple dozen new biosynths down there. On the screen was the same figure from the orientation file that failed to work properly on her wrist-device. She couldn’t hear what the voice was saying, so she continued along.
At the end of the laboratory hall was a large set of industrial doors that opened and closed with the bustling traffic of this section of the lab building. The pony approached the door and let it scan that brand on her neck. She shivered, nervously, as the blue laser lights moved over the barcode.
The door opened for her and let her pass into a large area at the rear of the building. Much like the large interior of the building, this area was filled with rail systems, except this area was moving large, square, metal, cargo crates around. The area that the pony came out of the building was far off the ground floor of the loading dock, but there were plenty of metal grated catwalks and stairwells that led all the way down to the paved starship runway.
As she began to descend the stairs, she noticed that one of the large cargo containers was actually connected to the same system as the pods in the central room. Pod after pod containing an adult biosynth was reaching the end of its rail and being loaded by humans in blue biosynth jumpsuits. The cargo crate could fit dozens of suspension pods inside and from what the unicorn could see, it was being filled to the brim. The side of the cargo container was emblazoned with the double helix logo that was also on the collar of her jumpsuit, except this one also had the words: O’Brian Biosynthetics above it.
As she made her way down the metal catwalk, the pony could now make out the starport airstrip. There were three, half cylinder shaped, hangar structures that lined the runway. The furthest one was housing a recently landed vessel. This ship was smaller than she expected from a starship. It was bulbous around the middle with what looked like a bird’s beak protruding from the front of it. The ship was grey and mostly featureless, except for a green and orange painted stripe running the middle of the ship from the beak all the way as far back as she could see. This was likely the federal inspection ship that she had heard about. However, there were guards clad in black armor and bearing rifles around the recently landed federal inspection crew, she couldn’t escape on that ship.
In fact, how am I supposed to escape on a spaceship? She thought.
One problem at a time. She mentally replied
She peered over to the far right hangar and saw that the doors were open. Inside was a ship that was unattended. This ship was white and angled. It was longer and sleeker than the other ship, like a common bird of prey, but it had an ere of luxury to it. Perhaps it was the white material or the way the windows were arranged, but it seemed more like a private luxury shuttle of all things, even though the windows on it were sharp and angular. But, best of all, there wasn’t anyone close to that hangar.
Her tactical planning was cut short by the shrill blare of alarms
“Time to go!” The pony shouted as she started galloping down the stairwell and onto the starport’s airstrip.
The metal clanked with every hoof step as she started to run. She was only halfway down the catwalk stairs.
I’m lucky to have had this long… She thought as she raced down the stairs.
“Over there!” Came from behind her as local security guards started to roll out onto the walkways that circled the central lab building.
One of the guards pointed his rifle at the yellow pony. The unicorn mare shut her eyes as she believed that her fate was sealed.
“What are you doing?” The guard’s partner pushed the rifle out of his hands, “Non-lethal only! It’s important!”
The second guard pulled out out a smaller, handheld device. Realizing that she wasn’t filled with bullet holes, the pony jumped down to another set of catwalks. The guard fired this new weapon, but instead of a bullet, it released a blob of blue energy. Luckily this energy projectile missed and hit the metal catwalk above the unicorn with a flash, making the poor pony ran faster.
More blasts of blue energy flew past her, but she was able to jump between catwalks to get down the structure. She noticed to her right was a cargo container moving along its rail towards the ground floor. She quickly jumped from her catwalk to atop the boxy metal container with a clang. The container was right underneath the walkway that the guards stood on.
“Fuck! Call for back-up!” The guard exclaimed.
“Entire security force has been notified. The commander and the jungle patrol should be here soon!”
“Shit…” The pony swore under her breath, Wait what did I say?
When the cargo container was close enough to the ground, the pony leapt off of it and rolled onto the pavement. She hissed softly as she rocky material left a couple of shallow scratches in her pristine, fresh skin.
However, she quickly got to her hooves and started galloping as fast as her hooves could take her towards the far right hangar with the luxury private ship. More guards spotted her from the main building and more bolts of blue energy peppered the ground around her. Soon, instead of blue bolts, there were large energized rings of energy that splashed around her in her peripheral vision.
The pony’s body burned as she ran as fast as she could across the runway. The only reason the poor mare didn’t collapse at this point was pure adrenaline. She could hear the sounds of flying vehicles approaching from the jungle and the sound of gates being opened for the security transports. Something new whizzed past her and impacted the ground in front of her: a sharpened dart with a glass vial on the end of it. The shot came from a new team of snipers on the security platforms on the main building.
The Cerberus transports that were sent to the jungle to find her streaming across the runway and speed towards her from the direction of the recently landed federal shuttle. All the while, more darts flew past her. She started running in a serpentine pattern to avoid getting struck by the darts and rogue energy projectiles.
The pony shouted in labored pain, but kept running towards the hangar. She looked up and saw the flying vehicles. They were sterile white like all of the vehicles at Prometheus. They were held aloft by two round turbines that spit a multicoloured fire beneath them. Each of the turbines were connected to the craft by its wings which stuck out from the top of the craft. In the front were the eyes of the cockpit which was flanked in the back by a passenger section which sat several security officers. One of the security officers manned a large gun that protruded from the passenger section. The officer hit a button on the side of the turret and aimed it at the fleeing biosynth. Rapid shots of the blue energy from earlier rushed from the barrel, peppering the ground around her with static charge that filled the air with the smell of ozone and made the pony’s coat stand up on end.
When she finally made it to the hangar, she rolled into the bay to avoid the oncoming stun blasts and tranqualizer darts. She was completely out of breath, hyperventilating, and covered with a thick layer of sweat. Her heart pumped faster than it ever had before. More darts whizzed past her, into the hangar bay, as the Cerberus transports and flying security vehicles neared.
There was a catwalk that ran alongside the ship that went up to a gangway that connected to the middle of the white metal tube that made up the bulk of the starship. Much of it was scaffolding, but there was nothing directly in the path of the angular jet-like spacecraft if it were to quickly leave its position.
The pony acted fast and ran up the catwalk. She was almost to her goal. All the while, more energy and darts bounced behind her. Luckily, the vehicles had not yet arrived at the hangar bay. She breathed rapidly, her entire body protesting the continued hardship.
When she finally reached the end of the gangway, there was a metal door that perfectly conformed to the shape of the ship and next to it was a computer panel that opened from the hull of the starship. She scrambled to find a way to open the door. Without warning, an iris opened up above the panel that shot the familiar scanning rays of laser light out at the pony’s barcode. The panel must have liked what it saw, because it flashed green and the shuttle door opened with a hiss and allowed her to board the vessel.
The inside of the vessel was quite luxurious. The section she entered in a was furnished with nice leather chairs and seats, as well as other amenities, like large screens and even a small circular sitting area with a bottle of wine in the center. The floor was paneled with an orange-light brown type of wood, all the way to the back. At the rear of the ship was a two-person size bed that was still completely tidy and made.
She quickly and instinctively made her way to the cockpit of the craft. The seat seemed made for humans, but that didn’t stop her from sitting in it. She looked around as he holographic lights and read-outs on of the ship’s control panel sprung to life. It was like something clicked in the back of her mind. She started pressing buttons on the console and bringing up displays.
“Alright, pre-flight check…” She muttered to herself, “Wait how do I know how to do a pre-flight check?” She shook her head, “One mystery at a time…”
She continued to prepare the ship for flight by running a pre-flight check. She sealed the door she came in on with a hydraulic hiss. The fuel level was fine on the ship and there was even a pre-programmed flight path to somewhere nearby. She plotted the course into the navigational computer and prepped the engines.
Meanwhile outside, a couple guards came into the hangar, but they were already too late to stop the launch as the whir of turbines filled the hangar bay. The officers ran the other way as the wind started to pick up and blow their hair around.
“She’s in the yacht! How did she get in the yacht!” One of the guards yelled to the commander.
“Everyone pull back!” The commander ordered
The vessel roared to life, pulling away from the gangway, smashing it with the screams of twisting metal. She forgot to disconnect the magnetic connections to the gangway. She winced and looked at the damage, which was only limited to a couple scratches on the hull that removed the white paint, leaving metal colored scratches on the side of the ship.
Outside the hangar, the Cerberus vehicles tried to stop the encroaching vessel, but they quickly pulled back as the lumbering star yacht approached.
“Pull back!” The commander yelled again. “It’s no good to us dead!”
The cerberus transports moved out of the way of the starship as it turned away from the hangar bay. Its mighty engines glowed in a rainbow of colors. Heat distorted air wafted from the back of the craft as its rockets thundered to full power. A blast of air washed over the small army of security officers as the engines flashed brightly and sent the ship speeding down the runway.
The ship left the ground and arced upward into the sky, leaving behind a trail of vapor and more than one surprised face among the security officers and the federal agents who had just disembarked from their own shuttle. Everyone could only look up in awe as the formerly caged bird flew away from its captivity.
