Discord Space

Plasma had mentioned constructing a secondary weapon. That would require some raw materials, and the sort she needed weren't exactly abundant in the medical areas. But maybe there would be other stuff, like healing gel in case she couldn't take those things down fast enough. It was worth looking around a little more. At an estimate there were still thousands of other ponies trapped on the station, they could do with some help too.

Something else occurred to her. Guard RIGs had a stasis module built into them, in case of a changeling infiltration. They were also used for delicate surgery to give patients more time to live between transplants. That would definitely be something worth getting her hooves on. But her main goal was still getting the better suit. For now at least, she hadn't needed to test how much protection her current one provided for herself.

It was silent outside the room, but not in a tense way. The ship repair stations lay between her and the docking bay, where she guessed the survivors were gathering. Undoubtedly, most of the upper class ponies had taken their own private ships out without considering those left behind; there was no telling with the city folk. Hopefully help from Equestria would arrive soon; it was only a few hours journey from the ground up.

"Better get moving then AJ. Wouldn't wanna be left behind on a day like this." As she prepared to step across the quarantine lock, a shudder went through her chest. Something had gone on in the proper medical deck, and it was the heart of the monster outbreak. Even though she was moving away from it, stepping into the sister deck had a very unsettling feeling about it. Like something was waiting for her.

The urge to look back down the corridor at the room of bodies was frighteningly strong. Once again, a part of her said to make sure they didn't come back. But that wasn't her way. She would face them if they came; there was still enough morality in her to let the dead rest. Let's see how long that lasts Applejack... This time it wasn't her own voice in her head, giving advice. It was a low, male tone of malice.

"Who's there?" Nopony was in the immediate area, and it was too soft to have come from the intercoms. A hallucination from the stress of her day so far, nothing more. She turned her back to the corridor and walked into the medical deck. As she had expected, a lot of the immediate gel packs and other items had been taken during the retreat. Some ponies must've made it out from the Inner Ring where the lower class of ponies lived, only to find themselves right in front of the approaching horde.

The one thing she couldn't get over was the silence. Nothing was stirring, and even with the power on she couldn't hear any machines working idly. Why would anypony stop to turn them off? It was a question worth inquiring about. "Hey Plasma, why isn't anything down here running? It'd be easier to find a stasis module if I could hear the laser room going. There's no sound at all."

No reply came from her radio either. She tapped her hoof on the ground to be sure. The typical metal tapping was there all right, so it couldn't be her ears or the speakers. Unless, it could always just be a local shut down of that deck. That was the preferable option at least; it would be disastrous if she couldn't hear one of those monsters coming up behind her.

"Keep moving AJ, you'll find a store, or at least a bench somewhere." Moving from the reception to the emergency ward brought more chills. Another massacre scene, many of the beds showed signs of the patient being torn apart. One bore several stabs that went through the metal sheet beneath the mattress, that particular monster she didn't want to encounter.

And she turned, to a sight that made her turn off her helmet and vomit. A heavily pregnant pegasus, her belly torn open from the inside. Accompanying that, a higher pitched screech echoed through the doorway at the other side of the room. It wasn't even born yet, and still it turned into a monster. Nothing even vaguely sentient could be behind such a horrible mess.

Blood, flesh and fluids from the violently opened pegasus all mixed to make a terrible smell that was overpowering Applejack. Another high screech came as whatever had been inside approached. She couldn't take her eyes off the mess in front of her, seeing the guidance for her cutter kick in didn't help much either. Come on Applejack. This isn't like you at all. Accept the death, and save yourself…

The voice again. It snapped her free of the gripping terror to face what had emerged from the womb. Like all the other monsters she had encountered, the lower jaw was missing. Flaps of skin seemed to cover three tendrils emerging from the back, which each bore a very nasty barb on the end. Applejack only managed to fire once before two of the barbs went right into her shoulder.

It hurt. Fortunately for her it was the left, at least once she could get a look her cutter would fire again. That proved to be difficult as the infant monster moved to another spot. Blurriness was starting to overcome her eyes in the pain. "One more should do it..." A glow seemed to emerge from the remaining two barbs. Enough to glance in the rough direction and fire again. The third shot brought a loud scream from the monster as it fell to the ground.

As far as close calls went, that one was pretty rough. Her RIG measured an eighteen percent drop in overall health. "I sure hope they left one or two packs around, I'm really gonna need 'em." With her left leg crippled from the attack, she timidly continued through the room. The scene remained much the same, patients massacred on their grizzly deathbeds; doctor's torn to bits all over the floor. Fortunately though, there were no other expectant mothers in the carnage. Another incident like that she could really do without seeing.

Her vision impairment receded enough to make out a green light. A gel pack, wedged under a flipped table. Even if it wasn't full, anything would do to help heal the wound in her shoulder. But it would require kinesis to free, and that would be incredibly difficult given the location of her injury. "A little more pain now, for a lot more relief after."

Applejack planted her hooves down and clenched her teeth. The barbs began to feel like white-hot spikes as her kinesis lifted the table away. A swift kick sent the squashed bottle spinning away before her shoulder gave out. Her crash to the floor wasn't quite as loud as the table's. If there was anything else crawling around nearby, they now knew exactly where she was.

"Come on, you can do this. Just pour it in, and you're set to go." It took a few moments to drag herself towards the bottle, and longer still to connect it into her RIG. But the feeling of the gel seeping through over the wound was incredible. The flesh healed, pushing back the barbs that she had left there to prevent bleeding out. All suits self-sealed, already she could see the holes closing up again.

She needed to get moving again. A third of her shots had been used on taking down an infant alone. Any more than three of the adults would leave her cutter completely useless. Now she could stand and run again at least. The silence remained at least. For now, it seemed like that the hard part would be getting through the front lines into safety. That she could live with.

At the end of the emergency room was another corridor that spanned most of the deck. The stasis room was clearly labelled, not far from her. This area didn't show much evidence of fighting at all, just some blood smears from where those monsters had probably brushed the walls. With all the stasis resupplies available, the survivors must've used the canisters to buy much-needed breathing room.

"Just what the engineer ordered." Her confidence had been boosted by finding that gel pack, and now possibly a much needed stasis module. She entered the room without challenge or shock. Here, the carnage that had been lacking outside resumed. Several ponies had put up one heck of a fight to defend the remains of stasis canisters. At least they had managed to carry off several of them, resources like that were invaluable.

One of the control panels still seemed to be active. The stasis module itself was in a machine attached to the ceiling; simply switching that machine over to maintenance mode would allow her to retrieve the module. "Applejack! We lost you for a few minutes there, what happened?" Her video link with Plasma was active again at least. It didn't distract her from proceeding with the controls.

"I thought that power here had been cut off. My radio went dead the moment I stepped across the quarantine lock." A spark shocked her hoof as she misplaced one of the cables. It stung a little but otherwise didn't cause much trouble. "I'm in the middle of retrieving a stasis module, what was it you were trying to tell me about?" Mentioning the foetal monster wasn't something she felt was right over the video link.

"Applejack, there's something on that deck with you. We can't get a proper fix on it, it moves too fast for the computer to get a good scan. We first saw it in the-" Static overtook the message as the machine began to re-activate. All part of the plan, it needed to be working before she could create a problem in the circuits after all. "It's getting closer! Hurry!"

Applejack peered above the panel in caution. For a moment, she saw Pinkie Pie in the doorway at the other side of the room. "Pinkie? What in tarnation would Pinkie Pie be doing on Station Luna?" As she got back down, her elbow bumped the firing button on the module. No problem, she could recharge it at the station nearby. "And there she goes!"

As the machine lowered down, she stepped out to retrieve the module. The figure she at first thought was Pinkie had just crossed a good fifty metres in just seconds, slowed down by the stasis burst. Her plasma cutter reactivated as a precaution. Plasma Blast didn't mention how fast it was actually moving, but to cover that distance it had to be incredibly speedy on its hooves.

"Alright, I'd rather see how fast you can move first, before I put you down for good. It'd be handy to know in future." The stasis effect wore off. To Applejack's horror, the monster was now right in front of her. A lightning fast slash to her shoulder sent her right hoof falling to the floor. Too fast, why had she hesitated in that moment?

"Applejack!" The severed hoof had fallen in such a way that gave Plasma Blast a good look at what followed. Applejack had no chance as the pony tore her in half with a rapid display of stabs, and decapitated her with a single swing. All that remained was the flickering cutie mark on her flank, and a loud blare from the RIG that marked the termination of life signs. Other survivors who had gathered around Plasma could only gape in horror.

Why did Applejack hesitate? Why did she have to demonstrate the death they only just barely escaped?