Phantoms Of The Past

Celestia rubbed the side of her head, for she had just finished up with the last group of ponies looking for insight on what had transpired last night and a headache had set in not too long ago and, to make matters worse, she was also anxious to hear back from her sister. It was late in the morning when she had gotten the first report stating that the Crystal Empire was unscathed by the crash and that her sister and the escort with her had made it with no trouble> However, the crash site had turned up something interesting and her sister was examining it with one of the small science teams sent from the Empire.

*”I wish I could have sent Spike and Twilight with you, so I could at least get detailed reports back in real time instead of waiting for some vague one to be relayed across the country”* Celestia thought to herself. One of her royal guards walked in and bowed, seeking the princess’s attention.

“Your highness, a message with the royal seal has just arrived.” Celestia thanked the guard as she took the message and broke the seal, looking upon the parchment in her sisters script she read:

*Dearest Sister,

I hope you have read in the report sent upon my arrival. Do not worry, the Crystal Empire is well and the object's landing has left no serious impact on the surrounding area. It has, however, greatly complicated matters for us. As much as I would like to divulge into the matter at hand, I must digress and have you send the guards to the Castle’s hospital. It must be secured and emptied of all except the medical staff, and both guards and staff must prepare for the arrival of a high-status casualty.

–Luna*

Celestia was concerned. The only reason for Luna to be so vague, is if the information was too sensitive to fall into the wrong hoofs. What could have happened at that crash site? Also, what of the so called “high-status casualty”? If anypony was hurt, the closest place for medical attention would be the Crystal Empire, not Canterlot. Unless ... something was found at the crash site that was too risky to be brought to the Empire.  Was it possibly a creature from the crash that was still alive? Could it be some sort of alien thing?

    Celestia looked up at the royal guard, who was waiting to be dismissed: “Sergeant, if you please, head down to the hospital in the castle’s west wing, and have everypony but the medical staff led out. Tell the doctors to prepare for a high-status casualty, and secure the perimeter around it with double the amount of guards. I also want the connected courtyard cleared out and all guard training in the courtyard is hereby canceled until further notice.”

The guard saluted the Princess before taking off to the hospital. Celestia sighed, after spending the day calming everyponies fear, she’d have to answer some tough questions tomorrow regarding the castle’s shut-down West Wing.

    Luna looked at the sun, and judged by where it was at they should make it back to the capital right after sundown. That meant she would have to raise the moon on the way there. The good news was that the cover of night would help them get the creature into the castle without too many prying eyes. Luna looked at the creature secured next to her, and she watched its chest slowly rise and fall. She was relieved to know it was still alive. Without the commander berating her on how she was being reckless in her decision on having the creature secured on her chariot instead of his, she was calm. He did make a valid point she was being pretty careless about her safety but she wanted to be able to closely study the creature on her way back to Canterlot without the commander being in the way.

As she studied the creature she took in the detail of his armor. The craftsmanship was beyond what any blacksmith in Equestria, if not the entire word would ever hope to achieve, and it also has seen a lot of punishment scratches, gouges, dents, even small chunks were missing  from all over the armor. It also wore a bandolier that connect to its belt, everywhere on it and the belt where small pouches holding endless possibility of small items and tools the creature needed, to its left hip connected to the belt looked like a kind of hard sheath that held an L shaped object in place and behind it looked to be throwing knifes. On its right hip, secured in a leather sheath, sat a fairly large knife. She used her magic to slowly remove it to give it a closer look, it looked very old and by all the tarnishes along the blade it had seen a lot of use. Luna carefully placed it back in its sheath she continued to look and noticed several more knife handles, a couple of them secured to its greaves almost hidden into the armor itself, another handle jutted from behind its back secured at the waist, and the final handle, she saw, was secured into the back of its armor with the handle set to be easily pulled over its left shoulder. By the size of the handle it looked to possibly be more of a sword than a knife. The amount of weapons the creature had on it unsettled her, what kind of life did this creature have to live to be at the point it carried a small arsenal around with it?

Celestia had just made it outside to see Luna and her escort touch down. She quickly trotted up to her sister to see what required all the secrecy. “Luna what is it you have found that required me to block off almost a third of the castle?” she asked her sister. Luna had concerned look on her face and pointed to the back of the chariot she stood next to.

Celestia looked over the side of the chariot, her eyes widened. “By the Elements..” Luna quickly brought her sister’s attention back to her.

“We need to get him inside quickly and see if we can heal its wounds before it is lost to us.” Celestia ordered the guards to form a circle and had several of the unicorns with them to lift the creature out of the chariot and onto a gurney. By their facial expressions the creature was either incredibly heavy, or largely resistant to magic.

Once they had gotten it inside the hospital, the nurses got to work trying to figure out how to remove its armor. It took several minutes to locate all of the clasps that held the armor plates together and undo them with magic. Every piece that was taken off was put onto the table on the far side of the room.

While in the middle of lifting the chest piece off the nurse that was levitating it let out a yelp as the piece came crashing to the floor shattering the tile underneath. “It was a lot heavier than it looked” the nurse said with an apologetic tone. The final piece they had left to take off was it’s helmet, and it was the most difficult, for after undoing the clasps they had to turn two different rings two different directions. They heard a click and then a hiss as the seal that held the helmet to the black suit it wore under the armor released. Everypony in the room let out a small gasp as the helmet came off, under it was a creature that nopony has ever seen. It had little to no fur on its lightly tanned colored face its black mane was cropped extremely close to the head almost shaved completely off and there were scars and large pockmarks everywhere on its face and head, the most visible being a sickly white scar that extended from the top of its right ear and going down its cheek to end in the middle of its chin.

Once the initial shock was over the nurses began the vain attempt at removing its suit but all attempts failed at locating any kind of seam and they even tried to cut into it but only resulted in breaking the scissors and knives they used.

Giving up over the frustrating attempt at getting the creature’s suit, off the nurses settled in to removing the hard cast that had formed over the wound. Luna had slightly dressed it using the creatures own medical supplies, but were shocked to find most of the wound already healed compared to how Luna found it. After only slight resistance a nurse managed to heal the rest of its wounds with magic. Another nurse managed to find its pulse in its neck and though seeming quite weak, it was steady and with nothing else to do but let the medical team study, Celestia and Luna left the room.

Celestia asked one of the nurses. “I would like you to have the creature secured to the bed in case it wakes. I’m sure it will be scared and confused upon awakening” and with that the sisters left the room.

“Luna, you need to go and rest. You’ve had an extremely adventurous day and I will need your help tomorrow sorting everything out.” Before Luna could protest her sister replied again

“I’ll take your watch tonight and I will personally wake you if there is a development, now go little sister. All will be fine.” Luna, physically drained from today’s events, heeded her sister’s advice and left for her tower.

Hunter started to dream. At first, his dreams wandered everywhere from magical talking horses to his days at basic training, but then his dreams started to settle on one particular moment in time that happened not too long ago.

2 Hours before the crash-landing.

    “Razor, nothing feels right about this mission... Why the hell is the council sending us all the way out here to Epsilon Reticuli on security detail when they have the 16th carrier group and 39th support fleet surrounding Aegis 2 station! Hell, they even got the 189th brigade sitting here with their thumbs up there ass.” The soldier said with a scowl under his helmet.

“Relax, Raptor. I’m not too trusting about this mission either. If our little informant is right then the council is up to no good, then you should be thanking me for talking you into wearing a heavy combat set, and besides, if you get scared you can hide behind Fatal” Razor said while the gun nut Fatal gave a hearty chuckle behind them.

Seconds later another voice came over the radio “Ghost to Razor”.

“I copy, Ghost. Whaddya got for me?” .

“Hunter and I have gotten our gear stowed onboard the ship, your little AI was right. It’s one of the new Breacher class frigates, now let’s just hope she’s wrong about the councils plans… Ghost out.”

“Razor what exactly is our fallback plan if shit hits the fan like Athena is saying?” The massive demolition and engineering expert Voodoo asked.

“If she’s right, and …. let’s hope to hell she’s not, just remember your training and make anyone that gets in the way of us and that ship pay.

    Hunter turned to the sounds of heavy boots hitting the stations floor. He began to reach for his rifle when the friend or foe indicator on his HUD listed them as the rest of his teammates. They rounded the corner and moved to the spot near hunter before dropping some of the gear they were carrying.

“About time you guys showed up, Ghost and I were starting to wonder if you didn’t want to come on this little family trip.” Hunter remarked to the group in the most sarcastic way possible.

“Any way, Raptor, check your map. Ghost is already set up and has located a nice spot for you to set up for over watch.”  Raptor nodded as he unslung his sniper rifle and started scaling the scaffolding to get up into to the spot that Ghost had figured might make a good sniping point to cover the team if things got out of hand.

“Fatal, Voodoo got some of your favorite toys sitting in the crates back there” Hunter gestured to massive crates behind him. Both moved over to the crates and started to rummage through.

“Good work Hunter , you spot anything to confirm Athens Intel?” Razor asked his second in command clasping him on the shoulder.

“Well, several battleships and cruisers have moved into position to set up a blockade around the ship and I haven’t seen the 189th yet.” All of the sudden the heavy weapon expert behind them let out something sounding like a squeal.

“Aw Hunter I knew you would remember, and you even got the right color!” Hunter and Razor both turned to look at their gun nut hefting a massive chain gun while there demo man shook his head.

But, everyone tensed as a voice came over everyones headset. “ This is Admiral Pozharsky of the United Earthen Systems, special task group Omega you are to stand down and surrender your weapons, you are all under arrest for attempting to hijack a UES ship and attempted treason, this is your only warning.”

“Guess Athena was right after all.” Razor said to his team mates standing around him before replying to the admiral.

“This is team leader, call sign Razor, seems we have a little misunderstanding admiral, seems like you got the wrong guys were just a simple special forces team tasked by the council to make sure nobody touches there boat here, and besides isn’t STG Omega supposed to be nothing but stories of phantoms hiding in the shadows.” Razor replied with malice in his voice.

“Raptor to team, ground forces are moving into our position supported by heavy combat walkers!” Massive thuds could be felt as the 189th moved in on the team. “Razor to team weapons are free ,I repeat, weapons free.”  Moments later the gates of hell broke loose against Hunter and the rest of his team.

    It was morning and Luna had met up with her sister to check on the doctors and nurses to see if they had any new information regarding the creature. As they walked in they were greeted by a harvest brown unicorn in a white lab coat.

“Greetings Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna. I am Dr. Sparks” giving each a quick bow.

“Have you any updates on the creature, Dr. Sparks?” Celestia asked him.

“Well with the suit that is on it we aren’t able to determine much other than it is artificial to an extent.” Luna gave the Doctor a puzzled look. “To an extent?”

The doctor motioned them to come over to the side of the creature were it was wounded and pointing to the hole in the side. “It’s slowly been getting smaller like its healing itself, but yet it’s not an exoskeleton.” He lifted open the hole and motioning them to look closer.

“You can see that there is a cloth layer, with wires and tubes, that separates the suit from the creatures skin.” Celestia backed away and asked the doctor.

“Well, besides the intriguing characteristics of its suit have you found out anything else like its gender, diet or possibly something like a cutie mark identifying it?”

The doctor looked back at the creature before turning to the two princesses. “Well it appears to be omnivorous, so it should eat anything it deems edible and hopefully not eye us as a potential meal.”

The doctor ended with a small chuckle to notice both princess’s found nothing amusing, he recomposed himself and cleared his throat. “As for a gender, we can’t really tell with the suit it has on but there is a good chance that it is a male do to the ruggedness and its broad shape. As for any kind of identification the only markings we have found are on it’s armor, the skull painted onto its helmet and another symbol painted onto its pauldrons that seems to show a resemblance to the bow and arrow that griffons favor for attacking at range.”

Celestia turned to look at the pile of armor at the far room and asked the doctor: “Speaking of a bow and arrow, after seeing it last night and what Luna has told me this morning, it seems to have weapons still secured to its armor. Have you or any pony find anything out of the ordinary about them?”

The doctor motioned to have them follow him to far side of the room while answering the princess’s question. “We have found a few interesting things about them if you would like to see.”

30 minutes before the crash landing.

“Ghost to team, there bringing a tank up from the rear… SHIT!!! Its aiming at you Raptor get out of there now!”

“positive mov….”

A thunderous boom could be heard as the ceiling above them exploded. Hunter watched as Raptors life sign faded off his hud and the com system was washed out by white noise.

“Ghost fall back now!” Razor shouted into the radio. Everything was falling apart now. They had held the ground for a good part of an hour before things started to go. First Voodoo got hit by a piece of shrapnel from one of the heavy walkers missiles, tearing open his abdomen. He now sat behind them in a pool of blood trying to keep his insides from spilling out while firing his pistol at the approaching attackers but his life signs were starting to get sporadic. Hunter figured he would only last a few more minutes but they couldn’t let up there fire to give him medical attention. The next thing to go was Fatal’s ammunition. His chaingun was the only thing that kept the enemy suppressed but it ran dry almost 20 minutes ago. They sat within a sea of brass, most of it from the chaingun. Then, they finally lost Raptor and with Ghost. Coming back to help hold their position they had no way to counter the enemy snipers.

“Hunter! Get into the ship and jump it out of here!” Razor shouted over the gunfire.

“Negative sir I’m not abandoning any one.” Hunter said while returning fire.

“Dammit, Hunter that’s an order!” Razor started to move were Hunter was taking cover.

“Sir then you’re going to have to have me court-martialed” Hunter retorted before Razor had made his way to him and grabbed his collar and shoving him against the ships airlock door and ripping his helmet off and glared into Hunters visor with cold grey eyes.

“You’re getting out alive this is a lost cause now, Hunter, and your’re only the only bastard I trust to haunt these fuckers to their grave.

“Pulling out a data core stored within collar of his armor he placed it into Hunters gauntlet. And in a relaxed tone

“Take Athena and go, she has all the Intel needed to start a revolution and free the people of this government’s tyranny, as long as you or both of you survive the council will be paranoid of their own shadows waiting for you to strike out. You’re the bloody grim reaper now, Hunter, and I expect you to have their souls when you meet us on the other side.”

Razor hit the door command to open it and tossed Hunter inside before destroying the door panel locking him inside. Without any quick way back off the ship to so he could die with his comrades, Hunter angrily made his way to the bridge plugging the data core into a nearby terminal. Hunter made his way to the helmsman controls at the bridge, he instinctively hit the controls to bring the ships engine online and released the docking arms before throwing the thrust control forward bending it slightly in his anger. Hunter turned to Athena who had appeared on the holographic table.

“Athena set a random jump coordinate I don’t care where as long as it isn’t here and target the nearest ship and fire all weapons at it!”

“I have fixed a random coordinate but an AI on the station is trying to gain control of the ship, I cannot sacrifice any processing power without risk losing the ship.”

Hunter swore and imputed the code Athena had given him and started the jump drives, as they began to charge up a couple of thumps could be felt as part of the ship depressurized.

“Hunter hull breaches detected near the drive core, they seem to be targeting the engines.” Hunter knew if they got another shot off his teams sacrifice would be for nothing.

The jump cores showed they were at 93%. Hunter decided that it was the best he was going to get and punched the command button dumping the power into the main drive core before the enemy ships could fire again. He watched as the light, the other ships, and everything began to bend in front of him as the UESS Unto The Breach jumped into FTL for the first time in her life using a prototype drive core.

Razor leaned back against the crate and dropped his empty rifle, him and Ghost were the only ones left alive as the enemy retreated from the part of the station they were in. Watching as the enemy ships began to turn toward the station.

“Well, Ghost seems like it’s the two of us who get to watch the show.”

Ghost sat down next to Razor and with a shaky hand pulled his helmet off and let it roll out of his hand onto the floor. “It’s been an honor serving with you these last 15 years sir….see you on the other side” Razor nodded and looked out the stations windows were Hunter had jumped with the ship and gave a salute.

“Godspeed mate” Razor leaned back and closed his eyes as the entire fleet fired their main battery’s at the station that held what was left of Omega team.

Hunter began regain consciousness and he heard people talking,  but froze hoping that no one saw him stir and to think he was still asleep he listed in on the conversation that was across the room.

“Well, the only things that truly stands out is this sword and whatever this thing is. Its sword seems to be made out of the same type of metal that most of his armor is made out of except the chest plate it’s made of something far more dense than iron and steel, also inside the edge of the blade is another type of metal but other than that. This other thing is the only thing leaving us puzzled nopony is willing to study it right now in fear of what it could do.”

Hunter coulda sworn that the person talking said nopony instead of nobody.

“Well, let’s check on it and see if its showing any sign of awakening it looked to be dreaming only moments ago.”

Hunter tensed his muscle ready to strike out, when his right eye was opened and a light was shined into it he lashed out snapping the restraints and grabbing the neck of whoever had shined the light into his eyes throwing them across the room, he heard them crash into a row of cabinets and let out a painful moan. Next he was out of the bed, a split second later the restraints on his legs failed as he rose up, his hands balled into fists ready to strike out at the next target.

His brain finally registered everything in the room. He was surrounded by horses and the one that had crashed through the cabinets was wearing a lab coat. He saw dozens of them most looking like nurses the others were guards, and they had just started readying their spears. The ones he saw in the ship must have be real, Hunter had somehow landed on an alien world of sentient horses. As the guards were almost done readying their weapons, Hunter saw as a larger purple one with a mane that reminded him for the dark void of space, it also had wings and a horn that started to glow with a purple tint. He felt himself thrown against the wall by an invisible force, he tried to resist it but he was too weak to attempt to fight it.