Ponies:Colonial Mares: The Derelict
Is this another Standard Op?
"My entire crew is dead," the voice on the recording stated,"And all due to a creature that ive never in my life seen before, or hope to ever see again." The voice belonged to a mare named Derpy Hooves. She had been working on the mining vessel Neighstromo for years and had never had a problem before.
They had gone out on expedition to recover some ore samples and had picked up a distress signal of some kind. The computer "Mother" had determined it was something worth investigating. When they arrived they found a derelict spacecraft of unknown origin. Derpy had never seen anything like it before. What she witnessed afterward gave her scars that would never recover.
"Look at this", she said as she came across a large hole in the side of the ship. It was like something had forced its way out. The hull rupture was large enough to fit a small cottage into. There was something else to it though, she could feel it. It was almost Lovecraftian in nature. If they wanted to find out what caused that breach in the side they'd have to get to the bridge.
The hallway they walked down had descended into a chamber with what looked like something sitting in a massive chair connected to an observatory. It was bigger than they were and clad in some sort of strange biomechanical suit. Derpy took notice that there was something attached to its face. At first, she thought it was a respiratory device until she saw it had a tail wrapped around this being's neck. It looked like a creature was hugging the other one's face with long bony arms or fingers wrapped around both sides of the head.
Just looking at it unnerved her. As she looked on she saw the rupture in its chest cavity. Like something had forced its way out of this being's chest and had broken the flesh and ribs of it in order to do so. As they explored further they ended up in a massive cavern at the bottom. There they saw rows and rows of what looked like leathery-coated eggs just sitting there with a mist covering them.
"I think I see something inside one of them", one of the excavators said. He bent down to get a better look at this thing when the top started to open. The flaps for the egg peeled themselves back as if it was waiting for him to get closer. There was something squirming around inside that made them all feel uncomfortable. As he put his head closer, a flap was pulled back to reveal a spider-like creature. This thing then launched itself out of the egg and onto the visor of his helmet. It secreted some kind of acid that melted through the visor as it then attached itself to his face. He fell backward and landed on his side.
That feeling of uneasiness rushed back into Derpy's mind and gave her the impression that they had to get out of there. Once back on the ship it was like nothing had happened. The creature had fallen off and died as soon as they had taken him to the medical bay. It was revealed later that something had been implanted in him before that thing had expired.
"I swear I'm fine,", he said. They gathered for lunch before deciding on where to go next for mining and salvage. There was a stake to be made after finding that derelict ship. At least that's what the captain was telling all of them. Derpy didn't want to set foot down there again. She started having nightmares that something from the vessel was chasing after her. In her dreams, the corridor of the Neighstromo was coated in something dark. She saw herself with one of those things trying to attach itself to her, forcing a tube down her throat. She'd almost woken up screaming some nights.
In the recording, she states that one of the other miners came back to the ship with some kind of alien attached to its face seeing as the visor that came with the space suit's helmet had been melted off. Almost as if by some kind of acid. They tried to get it off of the pony in question but after less a minute it fell off dead. Derpy had never seen anything like this. She had wanted a better life for her daughter Dinky and the only way she thought she could help out was by signing onto a freighter.
Twilight kept listening to the recordings she had been given by Celestia in order to get a better understanding of what had transpired. She felt bad for Derpy and what she had to endure down there. The recording played out what happened next.
"Oh gods,", Derpy screamed as her fellow miner collapsed at the table and started to grab his chest and convulsed at the same time. The look of fear and pain on his face is what stuck with her the most.
"UGH, my chest!!", he screamed as his chest started to heave in and out in an unnatural manner. She could hear the cracking of ribs and the tearing of flesh as something burst out of the now gaping hole in his chest cavity and scurried off into an air duct. They all jumped back and started to panic.
"What in Tartarus was that!!", a mare screamed out. Suri Polomare had been with this team for several years and not once had she ever seen anything like that before. She was a bit shrewd when it came to interacting with others. Derpy had grown on her though and they became friends over time. She could see the look of horror on the mare's face after witnessing something like that and hugged her.
While Suri was in her quarters she heard a rustling noise coming from one of the air ducts. She went against her better judgment and walked over to see where she could place the noise. Blood hit her vanity mirror as something impaled its barbed tail right through her stomach. There was a distinct hissing sound as a pair of clawed arms lifted her up and punctured her skull with its inner jaws.
It Systematically killed off most of the ship's crew save for Derpy. She used a makeshift flamer to lure the creature away from the Engine room before she finally trapped the thing in an adjoining corridor. She ran to the airlock and scrambled into the hatch. She jumped into the escape shuttle and got some distance away from the Neighstromo. She had set the ship to self-destruct in the hopes that it would kill the creature. She didn't realize it had snuck onto the shuttle with her after launch. She was able to kill it by trapping it in the airlock and jettisoning it into space.
Twilight listened hauntingly to Derpy's message at the end. " My entire crew is dead, killed by something straight out of nightmares. I've set course for the nearest tracking buoy and should be picked up on the sensor networks sometime soon. This is Derpy, the last survivor of the Neighstromo signing, off."
Twilight put down the recorder and tried to lull herself into a sense of sleep. It wasn't working. After listening to that ordeal Derpy had gone through she was now having nightmares of that same thing stalking her and her friends through the corridors of their ship. She finally managed to doze off only for the alert bells of the ship to jolt her awake. The computer sounded off over the speakers: " Alert, Alert a vessel is approaching, Alert,".
Twilight was told to get a team ready in the off chance they had to board it. The calls outgoing to the other vessel went unanswered. Then there was a momentary burst of chatter. It was chaotic. There were sounds of ponies screaming, cracking, and creaking noises. One voice yelled, " CHANGELINGS!!" before sporadic gunfire could be heard over the ship's audio system. Twilight then heard a very familiar if not downright disturbing voice on the other end. "I'm coming for you Starlight". That was before the transmission cut off.
"I'm heading over there," Twilight said as she slapped a clip into her M41A Pulse rifle. They did a standard camera and weapons check before disembarking. The halls of the cargo ship were a mess. There were signs of firefights evident in most the corridors and hallways leading to the bridge. It was covered in some sort of secreted resin. As they approached their target destination. The Bridge was littered with bodies strung up on chains. Some had their uniforms torn off and others were completely naked.
Something about this didn't seem right. Even after listening to that garbled transmission, why would Chrysalis be out this far away from the rest of them? She never struck Twilight as one that would be openly brazen. She was always stalking them from the shadows. Being out in the open and boasting about it is something that King Sombra might have done. This was something else entirely. Twilight took Sunset and headed to the engine room. She had a feeling that they might find more down there than on the Bridge.
A face peered out at them from the darkness and began taunting them. How interesting that they come to her she thought. Twilight could tell that there was something.. wrong with the Queen's eyes. They looked abnormal, to be honest. There was also a slight distortion in her voice as well.
"Tartarus was only a word Twilight Sparkle, " The Queen said," Where I've been was much much worse than even i thought." Chrysalis was taller than Twilight remembered, and her mane had become a deep crimson red instead of her usual mint green.
The room started to fill with sounds. The screams of the crew echoed all around them. Some form of dark energy started to emanate from Chrysalis as she began speaking in what could only be described as either Eldritch or Elder speech. "And One by one your souls will take up the mantle in this ship of the DAMNED!" She screamed as she tried to attack Twilight and Sunset. Both of them ran as fast as they could and told their teams to get off the ship.
Before they could run though, Chrysalis grabbed Sunset by the head, pulling back and speaking, " Now let me SHOW YOU!!" Horrific images flooded Sunset Shimmer's mind. images of her impaled above a burning symbol of the sun. Of Celestia and Luna engaged in depraved sex acts with her and Twilight. Of Starlight and Trixie chained to a cross, cuts and gaping wounds all over their bodies, screaming out in horrific pain. And of Chrysalis sitting on a throne made out of Corpses.
Twilight was able to Teleport in and grab Sunset. She teleported the both of them to a safe distance before running out of the engine room. The queen didn't even bother chasing them down. She just stood there staring intently at the two of them as they fled from her.
As they all made it back to the Sulaco. The mystery ship they had just been on disappeared into a vortex. She could still hear in her mind Chrysalis screaming for her to join the queen in eternal damnation. Chrysalis said that they can only banish her, they can't kill her. If they tried she'd only be reborn through something called " The Red Marker". And that a nightmare would descend on the lands of Equestria if they tried. Something about "Necromorphs".
Sometime later Twilight was getting ready to hit the sack when the alerts started going off over the intercom of the ship. They had just gotten back from a 3-month tour of duty along the outer fringes of Equestrian space. Nothing special in her eyes, just recon, and recovery of some hostages that had been taken prisoner by Lunar remnants. Even though Celestia and Luna had been properly reunited years ago by Twilight and her friends there were still military remnants of Luna's Republic forces that were just now being picked up on Scanners. This was going to be different she had been told.
"My dear Twilight, I need you and your friends to go check up on some colonists that have gone missing. Their last radio message had said something about a strange ship and a salvage contract that had been attempted. There were scattered reports that something horrible attacked them but their unsubstantiated. I'd would like you and your friends to check it out, and if needed make sure its not a threat to the rest of us," Those had been Celestia's words to Twilight before they had been sent out here.
There had been quite the development in technology since the Events of Nightmare NIght. Twilight and her friends were the first in line to join the Equestrian Colonial Marine division. She was a bit nervous at first, but the more they traveled through space and dealt with the problems that were out there, the more she decided that reformation was not always the best tool for the trade.
They were also carrying an extra guest this trip. A mare named Derpy Hooves had just been recovered from an escape shuttle. It seemed that her entire crew and mining vessel she had been working on had just up and self destructed. When pressed for information by The Corporation she told them that some sort of Changling like Alien had killed her entire crew. She used the self destruct to get rid of threat that it posed.
It wasnt until a Representative for them had come forward with a proposal to get her Flight status card reinstated. The caveat was that she had to come along on this trip. He told she shouldnt be too worried, she had the Colonial Marines to protect her. She had been in cryosleep for 50 years apparently. Twilight didnt believe that Rep's words one bit, but she was under orders to bring both of them along on the trip. It would take them at least 17 days or longer to get where they were needed. A planet located on the outer cluster called LV-426.
"I need to get to the mess hall!", she remembered. Rainbow had told her earlier that lunch would be at 0:1230 today and that if she didnt hurry she'd eat Twilight's hayburger for her. That mare she thought to herself, always trying to dare me to stuff. Its almost as if Rainbow wanted to marry me she thought as she made her way to the Mess hall. She passed AJ and Rarity as they were sizing each other up again.
"just get married already," Twilight thought as she entered the room. As if on que she teleported right next to Dash as she was about to put a hoof on her tray. Twilight smacked her in the back of the head before levitating her burger into her mouth, grinning at Rainbow wryly as she did so.
"Ponyfeathers," was Rainbow Dash's response to Twilight's actions. Twilight could only smirk as the burger disappeared into her mouth. She even added insult to injury by levitating Rainbow's hayshake over to her side and taking a drink from it before passing it back to the mare. Rainbow sulked a bit before uttering," alright, thats fair."
" Hey Rarity, even been Mistaken for a Stallion?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow as she quipped. Rarity's response shrunk her ego a bit.
"No Darling, have you?" Dash just rolled her eyes as one of her longtime friends told her that. Rarity and Applejack sat opposite of Rainbow and Twilight, one of them opting to break the silence in the air.
"So Darling any idea where we're headed?" she asked Twilight since she was the one that was in charge of their unit and being a close friend.
"Yea, Princess Celestia wants to check out some Ore processing facility called LV-426. Apparently, the colony that was set up had gone dark and no one knows what really happened. So she's sending us along with a special guest to figure the source of it all." That was the short end of it, to be honest.
"What's with that Derpy chick," AJ said as the mare was sitting at the officer's table with the Corporation Rep and two others that Twilight didn't know that well.
"I don't know really, well from what i have heard her mining ship got destroyed and that some kind of weird bug alien was involved." After she said that last part everyponies eyes shrunk a bit. What had been described Twilight thought it was some kind of offshoot of the Changelings. What she and her friends were going to be dealing with down there were a thousand times worse than Queen Chrysalis and her minions.
"Attention, please report to the Cargo bay for debriefing" came over the intercoms. Time to get to work Twilight thought to herself. Her friends all shared the same look as they got up from the table and walked towards the ship's Cargo Bay. There was an ordinance being outfitted to their dropship when they entered. Right as they entered she spotted Starlight and Trixie moving some boxes around. Twilight rolled her eyes when she saw just what and where Starlight was staring in regards to their friend.
Trixie was bent over a cargo container trying to pick something up. And Starlight just smirked as she quietly stared at the mare's butt. And Trixie happened to take notice and called her on it.
"Stop staring at my great and powerful ass Glimmer, and help me pick this up."To which Starlight tapped lightly on her forehead and moved the boxes with her Magic. Even Twilight had to walk over and scold the mare for that. She told Starlight that while they were out here they had refrained from using magic like that. Glimmer sighed and let out a reluctant," fine".
No pony had seen Fluttershy all day today. Not until Twilight looked down to see a familiar face covered in soot and grease. Fluttershy had been working on the hydraulics for the Dropship. She wanted to do something with hands that didn't involve gardening, so the mare joined the Mechanics division of the Equestria Marines. She was pretty good at maintaining the Electric generator and the other appliances in her cottage so she figured she'd get a side job as a mechanic.
As they took up their spots in the cargo bay a thought crossed Trixie's mind right before Twilight instructed them on what they were going to be doing here.
"Yea, Twilight," Trixie raised a hand as she stared at the mare," Is this a Standard Op, or just another Bug Hunt."On the last mission, they had been on Trixie had gotten herself into a bit of trouble by laughing and opening fire on what looked like some kind of small bug with six four legs. She wasn't laughing when it attached itself to her neck and started to feed on her. They managed to get it off of her because shocking her heart and making the thing think its host was dead. After they pulled it off they used the defibrillator on her again to bring her back.
All it took was one look again from Twilight to shut up her on that little tale. She fidgeted for a bit before settling into her seat on the Dropship. It was going to be a bit before they reached the target zone so she passed the time hitting on Starlight to get back at her for earlier.
"It looks like we're on an express elevator to Tartarus, Going down!" As Trixie said that she let a big WOOOHOOOO!! as the dropship disconnected from the frigate and hurtled itself towards the planet below. That was when Twilight heard a familiar voice over the dropship's intercom.
"IN the pipeline, five by five=a=rino!! YAY!" She facehoofed. Their pilot was Pinkie Pie.