Hunter Killer 141

2255, and humanity is doing great. We figrued space travel out a while ago, and have started using alternate realities to travel even faster. I can't say I really understand it, but the essence is that we "phase" out of this dimensiln and into another, and then phase back into our normal reality. Pretty genius if you ask me. Well, as long as nothing goes wrong.

When something goes wrong, they call in me. Well, they call me in for a lot of things, but that's one of them. See, a slipspace drive (the object that lets us slip in and out of these spaces, hence the name slipspace) can explode, and when it explodes it explodes violently. Even worse, it leaves reality tears. Now any sort of nasty creature from an alternate dimension can go through these. It's my job to make sure they don't, or if the do that they don't get far.

See, the United Planets of Space don't send military for that kind of stuff. So, mercenaries go instead. We guns for hire kick the interdimensional nasties back to their own hellhole of a reality. Then, we close the hole be blowing the hell out of it with a BHB. These things kick ass. Basically, they're manufactured stars on the brink of supernova, and when we activate them the cross that threshold. Suddenly, you have a helluva explosion, and then a black hole. This normally will close the rift up nice and tight.

That's my job in a nutshell. Kick some ass, and then blow shit up. Pretty badass eh? Well, that's only my day job. Here's what I do on the side.

"Shit, shit, shit, shiiiiit!" Yep. That's me. I don't know how these things work, so you may or may not be able to see the situation. I'm that really sexy guy with a bag on his back currently sliding down the side of the collapsing building. You see the one right? Tall, black hair, lightly armored? I'm supposing you do. That is me, Hunter. Proud leader of Talon Company of the Griffin Legion. I know, horrible name. But you should hear what the Hydra guys have.

See, Griffin is a little different then most merc legions. We all do mythological creatures yes, but most of them only seal up those tears. However, Griffin also does war. Right now, I just took down the capital building on the planet Harvest. It's a simple farming area, but their capital building was housing a few powerful political leaders. To be honest, I didn't really listen. Actually, listening isn't even in my job description. Talon Company are the weapons of Griffin. If you want something to go boom, or don't need a stealthy kill, we drop in guns blazing. Like I said, total badass.

Downside of being in Talon? The people are usually idiots. Take our Demo for instance. He blew up the building while we were inside. Granted, it was a good escape, but I'm pretty damn sure it killed everyone in Talon Company. Well, everyone but me, as I had jumped out the window and started sliding down the collapsing building. Thus bringing us to where we are now...

"Son of a biiiiiiitch! Reaper! Get me the hell out of here!" Reaper is our smartass pilot.

"No, I'm just gonna float around orbit and smoke a cigarette." Like I said. Smartass. Wasn't any better that I had to hear him all the time. Our headsets weren't exactly the best.

"Just hurry the hell up! I do NOT want to be a Huntercake."

"Wait. Where are the others?"

"There are no others now get me the hell out of here!" Was that selfish? No, because all the others were dead. That's what I still tell myself.

Now Reaper was the pilot because he was insane. See, if you ask a pilot to land a spaceship he'll probably go down a bit and open up the hatch to catch you. Reaper flew over me with the hatch open, then continued flying down the falling skyscraper, angling himself to make sure he didn't crash into the building. He slowed down just enough to get me in before shutting the back and flying off into space. He quickly blasted out of the atmosphere of Harvest and we were well into the next system before anyone realized someone had attacked.

Reaper walked into the back.

"I started up the slipspace drive. We should be back to the main ship in 15 minutes."

I nodded my head, content in the silence. Reaper decided to continue on though.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Did I mention Reaper is also a total idiot?

"I just lost the only family I've ever liked, and you want to me to talk about it?"

"Hey! You haven't lost all of us. I'm still here!"

I turned away from him. "I said family I liked." I walked away from him into the small area that counted as my quarters. He walked back into the cockpit and checked on the slipspace drive sequence. Not a word was said.

Now I kinda want to take that back.

_______

Sure enough, in ten minutes the slipspace engaged. It would take us five minutes to drop out of slipspace. I was going to deliver a report on how my entire company died, and I was preparing myself for one helluva reprimandation. And by prepare I mean drinking. So when the warning sirens went off, I was almost too wasted to care. Almost. I quickly rushed to the cockpit and slammed on the door. I opened it to find...oh holy hell.

Reaper had shot himself. He had carved on his chest the words "I miss them too." using his knife, which was now on the side. Oh, and more importantly, the screens were screaming "Slipspace drive overheat imminent. All personell evacuate immediately."

Those were the last things that I remembered before my ship exploded and opened a tear in reality. And to be honest, I'm impressed at what happened. I expected a reality tear to be painful. I expected a giant explosion. What actually happened was a small little boom, and then my ship was crashing. For the second time that day, I bailed. This time it was out the hatch. To some this may seem counterintuitive, but I was still wearing Talon armor. Built in jetpacks is just one of the perks of being Griffin. And then I blacked out.

_______________

I don't know how long I was out for, but when I woke up the first sight I saw was my ship. MY SHIP!!! MY BROKEN ASS SHIP HELD TOGETHER BY A HOPE AND A PRAYER!!! I'M MORE AMAZED IT TOOK THIS LONG! The wreckage was all around me. Nothing appeared salvageable besides metal. Oh, and the navi-com board. Those things could really withstand anything.

I then took a look around. There didn't seem to be any major differences between this and the human home world of Earth. The only noticeable difference was that everything was more colorful here. That's nice. I half expected to go to some hellhole that was full of demons, or worse, spiders. I definitely would have deserved it. However, I was in a forest. Tree's all around. Birds were chirping. Butterflies were eveywhere. It kinda looked like one of those Disney films. I hate Disney movies. I wish those had stopped a long time ago. So obviously, my first thought was to ruin this picture with some good ol fashioned violence. I grabbed my weapon and pulled it out infront of me, ready to fire at the nearest bird. That's when I noticed the talons.

I'll admit, I dropped the gun. And screamed a little. But you'd be scared too if your hand were suddenly claws! I had talons! Then, I started laughing. Of course I have talons! I'm in Talon company! God you wonderful bastard. You have a fantastic sense of humor. It was by this reasoning that I wasn't surprised at all when I saw my reflection in a jagged piece of metal. I was a griffin. An honest to god griffin. A griffin, from Griffin Legion. I swear God's sense of humor just cracks me up.

I was however quite surprised when the muzzle of a gun was pushed into my back. I was even more surprised to hear "You are hereby a prisoner of the Equestrian Empire. You're coming with me griffin!" I was even more surprised when I flipped the gun out of my attackers hands and spun around to see a unicorn.