Scream Station

By

Dewdrops on the Grass

And

Da Otter Guy

Shudders ran through the metal deck plating as the main sublight engine switched on for its deceleration burn. The blue-white flare of fusion pulses lit up the viewport as Twilight Sparkle watched, waiting for the asteroid station to come into view. Her stomach twisted into knots as she drummed her fingers on the butt of her light submachine gun. In her mind, she replayed the distress call they’d received.

Spike stared wide-eyed into the camera. “Help us! She’s killing us! She’s turned into some kind of–aaaaaaugh!” Blood splattered the screen as something stabbed Spike through the neck, cutting off his scream into a liquidy gurgle before the screen went black.

Not for the first time, Twilight fought back the urge to shed tears. She didn’t dare show that weakness right now, not in front of her squad.

A hand fell upon her shoulder. “Hey, are you doing alright?”

Twilight whirled as swiftly as her magnetic boots would allow and fired a fierce glare at Sunburst. “I’m fine,” she hissed, tossing his hand off. “Keep your hands to yourself, Lieutenant.”

Sunburst swallowed and took a step back, holding his hands up in surrender. “Sorry, Major,” he replied, frowning. “Just thought I’d… sorry.”

Twilight sighed and softened her gaze. “I know we’re all worried about our friends. But let’s focus. Right now we’re not at the Academy. We’re officers of the ESF. Let’s try to stay professional.”

Sunburst nodded. “Aye, ma’am.”

“Coming up on docking,” called out Moon Dancer from her seat at the ship’s helm.

Twilight trudged over to sit down next to her in the co-pilot’s seat, ready to assist if necessary. Most docking procedures were automated, but with the station’s computers unresponsive, they’d need to do this one manually. “Cutting main engine in three… two… one… now.”

A single loud thump ran through the ship as the engine cut out, replaced by smaller jerks of the deckplates here and there as the ship’s RCS thrusters puffed with minute course adjustments.
As they worked, Moon Dancer called out the distance to docking. “Ten meters. Five. Three. One.”

“Triggering the umbilical,” called out Maud Pie, one of the combat specialists Twilight had brought along. With the possibility of hostile… somethings… aboard the station, Twilight wasn’t about to mess around with half measures, and Sergeant Pie was one of the toughest, strongest soldiers she knew.

A single final puff of the RCS brought them to a standstill as the ship’s docking ring poked out, forming a small tunnel to hook into the station’s primary docking port. Indicator lights rapidly shifted from red to green. “We’ve got a stable lock,” Maud said.

“Hmph,” snorted Trixie Lulamoon as she fingered the scanner slung in her toolbelt. “Finally. And here Trixie was afraid we’d never get to go aboard.”

“Shut it, Lulamoon,” barked the other combat specialist, Staff Sergeant Tempest Shadow. A vicious woman that was reliable in a fight with the best set of reflexes in the ESF, and someone Twilight had been at odds with throughout the duration of her career. “No one wanted you to come along.”

Trixie seethed, her hand moving to finger her sidearm. “How dare you speak that way to me–”

“Trixie!” barked the final member of their crew, Captain Starlight Glimmer. “Get a grip. I told you not to start crap.”

“Wha–but she started it!”

Tempest sneered as she took a few steps towards Trixie, forcing the younger woman to back away. “Pathetic. This is the best trap specialist the Academy had to offer? This whiny little brat?”

“Hey!” Twilight cried, leaping out of her chair. “Quiet, all of you!”

Silence fell upon the ship, despite the matching looks of irritation on both Trixie and Tempest’s faces. “Listen,” said Twilight, “I know we’re all tense. We don’t know what we’re walking into in there, but we’ve got to stay focused. That especially means you, Cadet.” She fired a glare at Trixie for a moment before turning her ire on Tempest. “And you, Sergeant. I don’t care how many years of experience you have, don’t forget that Lulamoon still outranks you. Treat her with the respect her position deserves, got it?”

To her credit, Tempest straightened up and nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. Now, suit up everyone. Get your gear together. We board in ten.”

Precisely ten minutes later, the docking port hatch slid upon with a hydraulic hiss, revealing the station’s hanger bay. Like most asteroid mining stations, this one carried several one and two person work bee pods, suitable for mining maneuvers in space, along with two larger passenger shuttlecraft equipped with a single main fusion engine and twin hydrogen chemical engines plus wings for use in atmospheric flight. While hardly the toughest of spacecraft, they were study, reliable workhorses, and nothing short of military grade railguns, missiles, or point defense lasers could do much to harm them.

At least, that’s what she thought. Twilight barely suppressed a gasp when she saw both shuttles had been torn apart, shorn metal and ceramic torn in twain by some beast's claws like tissue paper. Leaking fuel and other noxious chemicals spilled across the deck plating, making Twilight grateful an NBC breathing mask was built into her combat armor’s helmet. The work bee pods showed similar damage, torn up to the point of uselessness.

Splashes of crimson fluid also stained the deck and walls, sprayed in patterns similar to elegant firework displays.

“Fan out,” Twilight ordered. “Sunburst, you’re on point. Pie, Shadow, watch our six. Keep your scanners up, people. We don’t want any surprises.”

“I’m not seeing anything yet, ma’am,” Sunburst reported as he panned his scanner around, his other hand resting on the butt of his pistol in its holster. “Just a whole lot of spilled fuel and other things.”

“Celestia, is that blood?” Moon Dancer gasped, her voice barely coming through over their suit comms.

“Of course it’s blood, ma’am,” Tempest replied. She’d positioned her rifle so it rested on her left arm, easily aimable even as she held up her scanner in her left hand. “I’m surprised there aren’t any body parts though. There’s enough blood here for at least a few people.”

“M-maybe the bodies were tossed into space?” Trixie suggested, her teeth chattering.

Starlight shook her head. “We didn’t see any on our way in.”

“Then what happened to them?”

Maud cleared her throat. “It’s not important right now,” she said quietly. “We’re here for survivors.”

“And to figure out what happened to this place,” Twilight added.

“Bogey!”

Everyone froze as Twilight turned her submachine gun in the direction of Tempest, who’d stepped away from the group. “Report,” she ordered.

Tempest stopped just past one of the work bee pods, gesturing with her rifle towards the rear of one of the shuttles. “Thought I saw something moving back there.”

Twilight brought her scanner up and pointed it in the direction Tempest indicated. “I don’t see anything. Anyone else?”

A chorus of “No’s” answered her.

“Alright. Let’s get moving then.” Twilight repressed the urge to scowl and looked towards the far end of the hanger to the arterial corridor at the heart of the station. “We’re headed for the command center.”

As they moved, Twilight heard a page from Starlight over a private channel. “Twilight, can we be honest for a second? How likely do you think it is that our friends are still alive?”

Twilight sighed. “...I don’t know, Starlight. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, they’re tough, they could be hiding out somewhere. Maybe with Flash Sentry. Fluttershy and Rarity too, maybe. But… don’t tell Maud, but I’d be shocked if Pinkie were still alive. Not after, after what we saw… hurt… hurt…” Twilight swallowed. “Hurt Spike.”

Starlight let out a quiet groan. “Right… Spike. Celestia, I’m an idiot.”

“No, don’t be,” Twilight replied, though despite her consolary words her tone was icy. “Spike, he… died in the line of duty. I can’t ask for more than that for my… my little brother.”

“...Twilight, are you sure you’re going to be alright commanding this–”

BOOM!

“Aaaaaauagh!”

“Tempest!”

“Oh my Celestia!”

“What the–holy shit…!”

Twilight swapped back to the public channel immediately. “Everyone take cover!” she ordered as she dove behind a nearby piece of fuselage from one of the shuttles. “Report!”

Smoke filled the hanger, obscuring Twilight’s vision. She swapped her heads up display over to thermal vision. Several had taken position next to a fallen fusion engine bell, while two others bustled about a third laying on the ground. Fresh blood pooled around the fallen figure, though using thermal vision made any details impossible.

“Sergeant Shadow’s down!” Moon Dancer replied. “Some kind of booby trap. It bounced up and exploded at torso level.”

Twilight swapped over to her HUD’s readout of their biosigns, barely repressing a gasp. The normally green wireframe figure standing next to readouts of blood pressure, pulse, oxygen levels, and EKG/EEG readings was covered in various shades of yellow and red, with one arm turned completely black below the elbow. “Looks like she’s lost an arm,” she said with a heavy swallow. “Sunburst, med treatment, stat.”

“On it,” Sunburst said as he scurried over, already pulling out one of their first aid kits.

While he saw to that, Twilight turned to Trixie. “Cadet, you’re the trap specialist. What the hell happened?”

Trixie shivered, her response coming through in interrupted stammers. “I, uh… I err, that is, Trixie–”

“Cadet,” Twilight hissed. “Focus. What. Happened?”

Letting out a shuddering sigh, Trixie replied, “It was an IED.” She held up her scanner. “Looks like someone rigged one of the work bee fuel cells to explode, and deliberately coated it in shrapnel. Look.” She pointed to the deck plating nearby, where long furrows smoked with hot pieces of metal at one end. “Shadow caught the brunt of it, but that debris could’ve penetrated anyone’s suit. It’s pretty impressive. Trixie isn’t sure if she could build a better one herself.”

“Right,” Twilight murmured. She moved to join Sunburst and Moon Dancer by Tempest’s side as groans began to fill their speakers. “Sergeant, you still with us?”

Another wordless groan came through the radio channel before Tempest managed to open her eyes. “...yes, ma’am,” she said, every word strained through gritted teeth. “Hurts like a bitch.”

“I’ve managed to stop the bleeding,” Sunburst said as he finished sealing the last of several holes in Tempest’s armor. “But she’ll need a proper medical facility to regrow that arm. It’s been shredded to pieces. She’s got numerous other lacerations from where the shrapnel penetrated her armor, including her right hamstring, which has been completely cut. She’ll be stumbling around.”

“Damn it,” Tempest growled. She started to sit up, only to let out a pained howl and lay back. “Damn it!”

“We’d better get you back to the ship, then,” Twilight said as she nodded to Moon Dancer, who bent down to help in carrying Tempest.

“No!” Tempest snarled as she lashed out with her remaining arm. “...no, please, ma’am. Whoever laid that IED, they mean business. I’m not crippled. Just give me some stims and I’ll be good to go.”

Twilight sighed and looked to Sunburst. “Lieutenant?”

Sunburst reached a hand up as if to scratch at his chin, only to drop it after it bumped the bottom of his helmet. “Err… well… technically I can have her walking around for a few hours. But I wouldn’t recommend it. It’ll only exacerbate her injuries. The longer it takes for us to get her into a med chair the longer she’ll take in a hospital.”

“With all due respect, I don’t give a shit,” Tempest replied, glaring hard enough her eyes were just barely visible even through her helmet’s faceplate. “You can’t afford to be a soldier down already.”

Twilight thought for a moment, nodded, and stood. “She’s right. Give her the stims. We need her up and about.”

Grimacing, Sunburst replied, “Yes, Major,” as he dug into his kit. He withdrew a jet injector, slapped two vials with black labels into its feed slots, and brought it up to the feed port on the neck of Tempest’s armor. “This’ll sting a bit, Sergeant.” His finger twitched, pulling the trigger.

“Not as much as I’m already–guh!” Tempest audibly swallowed, thrashing for a split second before she stilled. “Celestia, I can never get used to that stuff,” she muttered as she slowly climbed to her feet. She picked up her rifle and inspected it, then brought it up at the ready, balancing the end on her stump arm. “I’m ready, ma’am.”

“Good. Anyone else injured? No? Then let’s get moving. Slowly. I don’t want any more surprise IEDs going off.”

“I’ve already got my scanner locked in,” Starlight said. She tapped a button and sent the feed to Twilight’s HUD. “Nothing else. Just a lot of spilled fuel.”

Trixie added, “Same. I don’t see any other mechanisms or anything out of place.”

Twilight shook her head. “That IED was hidden pretty well too. Keep your eyes peeled, everyone.”

As a group they made their way forward, slowly but surely, across the massive hanger until they neared the access corridor. Before they reached it, however, Sunburst held up a fist. “Wait, ma’am, I’m reading something… I think it’s a body.”

Twilight’s blood ran cold. “A body? Where?”

Sunburst briefly spun his scanner through the air until he aimed it in the direction of one of the hanger’s control booths, a sectioned off small room lined with transparent aluminium for viewports. “In here.”

Before Twilight could say anything, Sunburst pressed the open button on the control pad and walked inside the booth. After a brief moment of nothing happening however, Twilight let it stand as Sunburst knelt inside the booth to look at something just out of sight. “Who is it?”

“Not sure,” Sunburst answered. “The body’s been… mangled.” He let out a quiet sigh and Twilight noticed his pulse accelerate rapidly on her health readouts. “It’s… good Celestia, they’ve been eaten. Torn to shreds by teeth and claws and… I can’t tell.”

“Sweet Celestia…” Trixie cursed. “Eaten by what?”

“The same thing we saw in the distress call, probably,” Starlight said. “Sunburst, get a DNA sample and get out of there. I don’t like you being in that little–”

A small alarm rang, interrupting her as a light on the door switched from green to red. “What?” Sunburst muttered as he hopped to his feet and tried the door. “It won’t open!”

“What?!” Twilight rushed over, swiftly followed by Trixie and Starlight. “Get the door open, Captain! Now!”

“Alright, should be able to trigger the manual override easily enough,” Starlight murmured as she popped open the control panel, revealing a lever. She pulled on it, only for it to pop off in her hands. “What the hell?”

Half the lights dimmed in the hanger bay as something made a loud banging in the ceiling above. “Everyone, weapons free!” Twilight ordered as she brought her PDW up. “Get out of the way, Lieutenant, we’ll shoot you out.”

“That’s a good solid half a meter of transparent aluminum, ma’am,” Tempest said even as she took aim and fingered her trigger. “I don’t think we can shoot through it.”

“Do it anyway!” Twilight said. “And someone figure out what’s making that racket!”

“There’s some kind of thermal signature in the ceiling,” Trixie shouted as everyone’s firearms opened up with a hail of bullets at the window. “It’s… it looks vaguely humanoid, but… I–I don’t know what it is!”

After a moment Twilight held her fist up. “Cease fire!” She scowled at the window which showed few to no signs of any cracks or damage apart from bullets trapped within it. “We need a better way. Moon Dancer, do you have some thermal charges?”

“I do.” Moon Dancer dug into her suit’s pouches and pulled out a couple of shining spheres of metal. “I’m not sure we can safely blow the door open without hurting him though. These aren’t shaped charges and I didn’t bring the equipment necessary to shape them.”

“Uh, we might not have a choice,” Trixie stammered. “Whatever that signature is, it’s heading right for Sunburst!”

“Lieutenant,” Twilight called, eying the trapped man. “Get your pistol out and ready. We’re going to try and blow open the door. Be prepared to run the instant it’s open, got it?”

Sunburst nodded his head like a ragdoll, little whimpering noises coming across the comms as he replied, “Y-yes, Major.”

“Everyone else, keep your weapons to bear.” Twilight pointed at the door. “Go for it, Lieutenant Dancer.”

“Aye,” Moon Dancer muttered as she switched on the thermal charge and began to configure its payload.

“Sunburst!” Trixie abruptly shrieked. “Watch out!”

Before anyone else could react, a figure burst through the ceiling inside the control booth and descended, landing behind Sunburst. Long, lithe limbs clad in a purple jumpsuit stretched out from her body, a mass of tangerine and lemon colored hair framing her face. At first glance it looked like one of the other personnel assigned to the mining facility, one whom seemed familiar from the files Twilight browsed… Adagio Dazzle was the name, she realized.

But Adagio never had such razor-sharp teeth, nor did her fingers end in keen metallic looking claws. With a hissing roar that they could hear even through the glass she brought her arms forward as if to grasp Sunburst, only for her arms to stretch like taffy so fast that they could barely blink before they impaled Sunburst through the stomach.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUGH!”

Those claws tore through his armor like it was paper mache, ripping open his guts. Intestines and blood spilled out in gobs as both clawed hands gripped the insides of the hole they’d made and pulled, opening it wider and wider, till most of his lower torso was little more than a bloody wound. Then they reached out and ripped apart his armor in a flurry of fast strikes till he was naked and bleeding from several dozen different cuts.

“HOLY CELESTIA!” Moon Dancer screamed, frozen in place. Trixie and Starlight let out matching wordless screams. Maud and Tempest meanwhile readied their weapons and looked to Twilight for orders.

But Twilight could only watch, her mouth agape.

“H-h-h-help me!” Sunburst shrieked, sobbing openly into the comms as Adagio’s claws withdrew from his body, leaving him falling to his knees. Vomit spilled out from his half broken helmet, mixing with the blood and guts on the floor. “Celestia, help me!”

A sinister, deep-throated laugh, like a high pitched silky smooth voice overlaid with sensual predatory sounds spilled forth from Adagio. “I’ll help you alright,” she beamed.

In the blink of an eye, Adagio was upon him, her teeth bared and biting into his open stomach, ripping a cord of intestines that had yet to spill out and tearing it out of him, unspooling it like a coil of rope. She worked at it like a rabid dog until she tore it apart, spilling more blood. She allowed it to fall from her lips and then launched up, her teeth sinking into Sunburst’s throat, silencing his screams into a blood-filled gurgle.

A momentary solitary beeeeeeep filled Twilight’s ears as she eyed Sunburst’s vital signs. It was enough to stir her out of her torpor and into action. “Everyone, back to the ship! Hurry!”

As Trixie wasted no time pell-mell running away, Tempest stumbled, dragging her injured leg behind her. “I can’t move that quick, ma’am! I’ll cover our retreat.”

“No you–”

Screeeeech!

Everyone froze and stared in mute horror as one side of the control booth door ripped out of its frame, until a single loud punch sent it flying meters away, right past Twilight’s head. Adagio beamed, raising both hands, palms upward, claws extended. “I’m still hungry,” she snarled, flecks of blood flying from her face. “Who’s next?”

Twilight raised her PDW, but before she could open fire, the lights in the hanger flared brilliantly, enough to cause her to squint and instinctively hold up an arm to block it. Adagio cried out like the light was physically painful, falling into a ball and backing up into the control booth.

Then the door to the corridor opened, revealing someone standing there, someone that Twilight instantly recognized. “Twilight!” cried Flash Sentry, waving his arms frantically. “Everyone! This way! Hurry!”

Twilight wrapped an arm around Tempest and helped to hurry her along as everyone else scurried towards the door. Adagio’s howls and yelps, like a mewling cat, grew louder. As Twilight and Tempest passed through the threshold Adagio shrugged off the effects of the light and bounded towards them at inhuman speeds, stopped only by Flash’s swift action in closing the emergency seal.

The twin bulkheads slammed shut, cutting off Adagio from the others. As everyone stood around, panting, Twilight absently noted that a series of six lights lit up on the door right above a card reader.

“Is everyone okay?” Flash asked, turning to face them. “Anyone hurt?”

“Shadow is injured,” Twilight stammered. “And Sunburst, he… he’s…”

“He’s gone, I’m sorry,” Flash said with a sad shake of his head. “He wasn’t the first one she’s… eaten. I keep hoping each victim is the last but…” He shook his head and flashed them a pained smile. “But hey, we’ve got a bunch of properly armed and armored soldiers here now. You can probably take her down.”

Twilight cocked her head, gaping at him. “Flash… not that I’m not glad you’re alive, I am, but did you see what just happened? She ripped Sunburst apart like he was wearing toilet paper! I’m not going up against that until I know more of what the hell happened on this station.”

“Maybe we should take our chances and run for it,” Trixie suggested. “We can wait for her to get bored, then run to the ship.”

“And blow this place to hell after we leave,” Starlight added with a light snarl.

Flash let out a loud sigh, nearly doubling over from the effort. “I wish it was gonna be that easy, guys, but uh… look at this.” He rapped his knuckles on the door, tapping at the lights. “We’re not going anywhere into that hanger now. We’re stuck here.”

Maud took a single step towards him, her rifle raised. “Why?”

“See these?” He rapped his knuckles again. “This bulkhead is almost thicker than the walls around here. Meant as a safety measure. This door won’t open until we find the Senior Officer’s keycards and use them. There’s six in all.”

“W-what?!” Trixie cried, slapping her hands to the sides of her helmet. “B-b-b-but we can’t be stuck here! Did you see what that–that thing did to Sunburst? What if she comes after us?!”

“It’ll be a while before she can break out of the hanger,” Flash reassured her. “Look, I’ll explain everything, but you’ve got to follow me. And hurry. We need to get to a place of safety. I’ve got one set up not too far away.”

Twilight stared at him for a moment, then nodded. “Fine. But I’m in command. You give me the details then I’ll decide our course of action. Got it?”

Flash tossed off a jaunty salute and grinned. “Yes, ma’am, Major ma’am.” He took a few steps in one direction then waved for them to follow. “Come on. Let’s move it.”

Author's Note

Welcome, everyone, to the collab between DaOtterGuy and myself. As you can see, this is horror, which is not a genre I usually touch. In fact this is easily the goriest story I've ever written outside of Danganronpa: In Harmony's Wake.

A few important things to note: I followed U.S. Army/Air Force military ranks for this, and the claim that a cadet outranks an NCO is, in fact, 100% correct according to AR 600-20 Army Command Policy.

We also threw in the idea that celestial terms are used as swears in this story. So for example, when they say Celestia, they're referring to the star in their home system. Luna would be their moon, and so on and so forth.