~~~~Dark Day's Night~~~~
The planet was fairly small. The slightest glance would have it written off as a moon. But to it's inhabitants it was all they have. Or had.
The report came in that contact of the settlement had run dry. The frequency on which the settlement used was blank.
The static had filled the air, the amount of life from the settlement had gone null. At first it was considered likely that it was simply another sandstorm blocking the signal. This event had happened before, so it was not viewed as something deemed troublesome. But after another week had passed, it was clear, something had happened.
The settlement was small, nothing more than an average hamlet. A few buildings, shops, and small sheds clustered in a small radius. The populace were colonists of a rapidly expanding continent. One that had risen newly from the seas. Only this continent was as barren and lifeless as the deadliest of deserts. When it had risen, not even plants from the sea were left to burn under the sun. There was only heat, and sand. Lots of it. Dunes that would rise three stories high and stretch out for miles.
When the settlement was built, there was little chance of success from the start. Yet, there were those who were willing to try. Those who would leave what they had behind, in the hopes of helping usher in a new life. They were mistaken, for where there is death in the beginning, there is death in the end.
After an agreement was reached that action must be taken to receive word of the colonists, they had sent in a drone to scout the area. The thermals had returned no signs of life.
When it was clear that a drone would no longer be necessary for the Reconnaissance, the other towns moved onto Recovery and Intel. To learn what had happened to the colonists, find whatever had caused it, and neutralize it.
Touchdown in the dunes had been botched. Upon contact the sand swallowed my boots up to the ankle. I pulled my legs free, only to set them back onto the sand and start sinking again. In the hopes that it might make travel quicker and easier, I began a light jog. Running on the toes of my feet to give me leverage to keep moving. The temperature during the day can reach well up to one hundred twenty degrees Fahrenheit. Not a problem for my suit, which blocks out all temperature differences, keeping the suit that of my body temperature. My body temperature was regulated by the suit to avoid exhaustion.
I made it across the dune, coming to a stop just before the ledge to look over and see how far up I was. Nothing too bad, only about two stories high. I slid over the ledge and down the side, feet first with my right hand dug into the sand, slowing my decent. Upon reaching the ground I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt the sand was more tightly packed together. I checked the NAV system on the HUD in my helmet pointing myself, again, in the direction of the settlement. I had a few miles to go. I couldn't be dropped into the settlement, so as to avoid arousing the suspicion of whatever had cut off contact with the settlement. With a few more hours of daylight, I set off towards the settlement.
I didn't come across any signs of life along the route, nor had I anticipated to. Night was approaching, and although the heat of the region in the day was alarming, the temperature decline during the night was even more so. My suit could survive temperatures of high heat, but the cold was problematic. The suit would use up all it's energy to regulate my body temperature and fail, leaving me to die before the sun rose and the suit could be recharged. As the temperature reached just below zero I stopped and walked over to a nearby dune, this one was smaller than the rest, only about ten feet high. Which was precisely why I had set it as the first landmark before my arrival out here. I began digging into the side of the sand far enough in to where I had enough room between me and the hole I made. Once inside the dune I switched to my suits oxygen supply, turned to the hole I dug, and covered it up. The sand would shield my suit from the cold, so as not to require much energy to regulate my temperature. Once the whole was covered I lay back, and attempted to sleep.
Night. It was so cold. The sand helped, but not by much, and I could see the remaining system power in the corner of my HUD slowly decreasing. This wasn’t the only thing fresh on my mind. I could hear the wildlife outside hunting. The predators had risen from the sand under the cover of night. The prey weren’t some small herbivores in search of nonexistent produce. They were all carnivorous, predators and prey of the same species, each so much like the other that the only real difference between them was strength and their level of bloodthirstiness. I could hear their howls signaling the hunt, then cries of death, followed by those of joy at a newfound meal. Then I could hear them eating, I could hear the tear of flesh, which sounded like the ripping of a pair of pants. I could hear the crunch of bones; I would have likened it to someone crunching ice cubes.
And then there was silence.
I didn’t sleep much, but I didn’t need sleep when I was in the suit. After slipping in and out of consciousness for what felt like forever, the suit’s HUD notified me that Sun up was in 30 seconds. After successfully excavating myself from my shelter I surveyed the area. The bleach white sand was splattered various shades of red, blue, and green. It looked like an oil painting on a pure white canvas. A mural to the carnage that had taken place last night, yet this was a daily occurrence. As though an artist snuck out in the dead of night to dump buckets of paint everywhere, a monument to this land’s dark art.
A loud beeping alarm caught my attention, rotating through the HUD I scrolled through the notification bar. The suit was notifying me that I needed to deploy the light collecting diodes that were located along the upper portion of my arms and shoulders so the suit could charge.
10 minutes later and the suit’s power at 100% I once again set off in the direction of the settlement.
After a short while I came to it. It was barren of life, as was expected. I began making a quick sweep of the street; also I set up a perimeter in the HUDs mini map of the town in a tightly knitted pattern of thermal tracers that were being monitored by orbital satellites which sent a feed to a receiver in my helmet.
I scanned through most of the homes showing no signs of life. However, there was still one building left.
A small shack.
Thermals were coming back negative, no signs of life. Stepping into the house I activated the bio scanner to make a quick check for any harmful microbes. The scanner showed the bottom floor was clear, but there was a biohazard in the attic upstairs. Carefully making my way towards where the map of the home indicated the attic entrance was I crouched to make the lowest amount of noise possible. Reaching up, I pulled the cord to lower the latter and began making my way up. Walking along the floor of the attic I stepped on a board making an upsettingly audible squeak. All of the sudden two heat signatures showed up on the thermals. Preparing for anything I rounded a corner into the room the heat signatures were emanating from.
PING!
A small metal pellet bounced off my shoulder and skidded across the floor. Looking up, I saw what appeared to be two of the settlement’s inhabitants, both of them very young. The colt was about nine or ten and was holding a BB gun. The filly, his sister presumably, looked around the age of four. Both of them were smeared with dirt. Upon realizing that his first shot had no effect he began trying to load another pellet into the gun’s chamber.
I stepped into the room towards them, and the filly ran towards a pile of rags on the floor and tried to crawl under them to no avail.
The colt was still fumbling with the pellet as I stepped towards them, and in his hastiness he dropped it on the floor. He began blubbering at the loss of his only means of protecting him and his sister.
The sight of them scared to death was too much to bear. “Relax. I’m not going to hurt you; I’m here to rescue you.” I said in an effort to calm them.
The colt stopped crying and looked up at me, his big eyes red and watery, “Y-you’re here… to help us?”
“Yes, I am,” I took another glance at the filly who had stopped squirming under the rags and had her head resting on top of them. “You okay? Are you hurt?”
The filly looked at me with her large hopeful eyes, wiped her nose with a hoof and sniffled, “Mommy won’t wake up. She’s cold, so we covered her in blankets.”
At this I looked closer at the rags and saw that there was a very thin mare wrapped up in them.
I figured it better to not tell her that her mother had passed, “Oh, I see. Well don’t worry, we can get her all taken care of once we get the three of you out of here.”
The filly and her brother looked noticeably relieved upon hearing this, but the colt had a few more questions.
“How are we getting out of here?”
“You two are going to come with me to the edge of town, and then I’ll drop the locator beacon to signal for pick-up.”
“What about her?” He said motioning to his mother’s body.
I rested my hand on his shoulder in an effort to reassure him. “Don’t worry about her, son. I’ll take care of her.”
After getting the two rounded up and down stairs, and their mother over my shoulder it was time to go.
“Alright, the two of you, stick close to me.” Then reaching around to my back I removed the locator beacon from its magnetic housing. I then held it out to the colt. “If anything happens, you take your sister and you run as fast as you can to the edge of town and activate the beacon. All you have to do is pull it apart and insert the green end into the blue end. Extraction should arrive in two minutes. Got it?”
“Yeah.”
“Good, let’s move.”
We headed out the front door and onto the street. Night was approaching relatively quickly. We made it another thirty yards before something slammed into me. The filly began screaming and her brother stumbled in surprise. Their mother was flung from my shoulder and to the ground. Looking at the creature I was in awe. This looked like something I’ve never seen before. Its skin was jet black and it was heavily armored. It stood over two feet taller than me, was bipedal and its hands were seven fingered claws that ended in a fine point. Its mouth was a horrifying maw of bleach white teeth that looked like needles and there were plenty of them.
I had just enough time to look over at the children who were frozen with fear and yell, “Run!” before it was on me.
The creature slammed into me again sending me flying into the side of a building causing wood and dirt to fly everywhere. I pulled myself out of a pile of rubble just in time for it to grab me in its grip and slam me into the ground.
This thing might be big, but it’s also really fast.
I pulled myself of the ground, caught its claw before it could land its next blow and thrust my hand upward at its stomach. I heard a dull thud and looked up at the creature to see it smirk.
And tough
It then grabbed my arm and sent me flying once more. After again picking myself up I switched through the HUD and switched all satellite sensors to scan the creatures’ body and locate a weak spot. Results came back with a grand total of two, its throat and its feet.
Looking around me I noticed a broken piece of wood at least three and a half feet long. Grabbing it I ran into the nearest house. Switching to thermals I waited for the creature to approach. Hearing a noise behind me I swung around to see the thing enter the house and sniff at the air. Moving silently towards the corner behind the door at the entrance to the room, I readied my make shift weapon. As soon as the creature put its right foot into the room I brought the broken plank down onto the creatures’ foot and cut deep.
The thing let out a sharp cry that rattled the walls and it stared down at its foot. It took ahold of the plank and tried to pull it out, unaware that I had crept around behind it. Reaching up, I grabbed the creature by the shoulders and pulled it down. Then, moving over its chest I brought my fingers together like a spear and stabbed it in the throat as hard as possible. The softer armor on its throat gave way with a loud crunch and my hand slipped in up to the wrist. The creature began flailing its arms as it tried to take a breath of air, knocking me away. It brought its claws up to its throat and clutched at it trying to breathe. After a few more seconds of struggling the creatures’ body went limp and a pool of dark blue blood formed around its neck.
I pulled myself up and ran for the edge of town.
“I’m telling you he will be here any minute!”
The colt was trying to persuade the ships pilot to wait just a few more minutes.
“Listen kid, sun goes down in thirty seconds. If he ain’t here by then, we have to leave. He knew the risks.”
Twenty nine seconds later found me running towards the ship and jumping on board just as it began to take off.
“Shit Captain! Almost thought you weren’t gonna make it.”
“Yeah, well I had a little delay, but it’s all taken care of.”
The pilot then nodded towards the back of the ship. “Kids are in the back, might want to let em know you made it. I had to wrestle with them when I told em we had to leave.”
I walked back to my quarters and looked in through the window into my room. The colt was pacing around the room, and the filly was sitting on the floor crying.
I felt bad that in the fight, I lost their mother underneath the rubble of one of the houses. But, it was probably better that way, I would have had to explain to them that their mother had already been gone, and that would have been difficult. At least this way they thought she died trying to save them.
I gathered myself and opened the door.
“Are you kids alright? The two of you didn’t get-“
Before I could finish two pairs of hooves wrapped themselves around my legs. I looked down at the two of them holding onto me for dear life. These were just a couple of scared kids who had lost their mother. Two kids by themselves in a world where death was as common as water in an ocean, where there were things that eat each other for survival. No place for little ponies.
I kneeled down and looked them both in the eyes before wrapping my arms around them.
“There there, it’s alright,” I said as they cried into my shoulders.” Everything will be okay now. You two are safe, we’re taking you back to SARK base.”
The filly pulled away and looked up at me.
“We… We thought you weren’t going to make it. The man flying the ship said we had to leave if you didn’t make it.”
The colt then pulled back as well and wiped his nose with a hoof. “Yeah, we thought that thing was gonna kill you.”
I stood up and tousled their manes with both hands.
“Don’t worry kiddos. It’s gonna take a lot more than that to get me.” I then walked over to the bed and sat down on the corner and motioned for them to lie down.
“You two get some sleep now. We have a long flight ahead of us.”
I slept the rest of the night on the couch by the front door. Once or twice one of them would have a nightmare, but usually after I stood over them and calmed them or wiped the sweat from their foreheads they would settle down.
Once the sun came up the children became restless, so I took them to the ships sensory bridge.
Upon entering, Janos, the ships navigator saluted me.
“Good morning, Captain. And who might these two be?”
“Good morning Janos. These are the survivors we were sent to pick up, only two that were left.” I looked down at them and tousled the colt’s hair. “But, this guy took good care of his little sister.”
The colt smiled up at me and nodded.
“Alright, well kids. Janos here will be looking after the two of you for a little while. I, in the meantime, will be talking with the pilot.”
I turned to leave, but as I made it to the door Janos caught up with me.
“Sir, what am I supposed to do? I don’t know anything abou-“
“Oh don’t worry Janos. Just show them a few planets on the planetary map, or the nearest constellations.” I then patted her on the shoulder. “You’ll think of something”
Rounding the wing to the aft section of the ship that contained the armory the Co-Pilot caught up with me.
“Captain! Captain!” The Co-Pilot was out of breath as though he had been running.
“Good morning to you as well Mr. Anderson,” I said while continuing to walk. “What seems to have you out of breath today?”
“I just got off comms with SARK. They’re denying us permission to land.”
I stopped walking and turned to face Anderson. “What do you mean they denied us permission to land? Under whose authority?”
“Commander Saelim, sir.”
“Ah, Saelim. Get back up to the cockpit and give the order to land.” I then continued my way to the armory.
Once I had made it to the door Anderson asked just what I knew he would. “Under what authority, sir?”
I turned in the doorway to look at him before replying. “Mine.”
Once back in the armory I removed my helmet and plugged it into the ships computer system. I then accessed the HUD’s visor cam, and fast-forwarded to the brawl between that creature and I. I paused once I had a full look at the creature. This was definitely new to me. Dark, heavily armored skin. Those spears that were supposed to be fingers, and the sharp spines along its forearms and biceps. Then the surprising fact that all this was supported by a bipedal stature. The thing had to have weighed over three hundred pounds, but it was still so fast.
I rubbed my eyes as I looked away from the screen. Just then the ships automated warning systems came over the Intercom.
"Warning. Landing course plotted. Initiating in thirty seconds. Prepare for landing."
The warning repeated before silence returned.
I disconnected my helmet and began my way back up to the bridge.
“But sir, what if they authorize AA to take us out?”
“Janos, they aren’t going to do that. We’ve got Intel on what is going on back in the settlement. They couldn’t risk losing that info. And Saelim? He just doesn’t see eye to eye with me.”
Janos began to argue again but a look and a motion for her to be quiet told her that the conversation was over.
Stepping back over to the main control center for the bridge, the filly and colt came back into view. They were staring and a holographic display of a nearby star system and trying to count the planets.
They looked over to me as I walked closer. “Janos keeping the two of you occupied?”
The filly smiled.” Yeah, she showed us these planets, and then she told us that these planets are all within the good place to be so they can have animals on them. It was so cool!”
I sat down in a chair beside the two of them. “I guess you two heard the announcement. We’re almost to SARK. You two ready to be able to get some fresh air?
They both nodded excitedly.
“Well, we should be landing any second so-“
I was cut off by the Warning systems making their final announcement.
“Now docking in hangar bay eight. Welcome to SARK base”
I looked over at the two ponies. “Well, looks like we’re here.”
