Dwayne Ripley is walking down the corridor of the castle by himself allowing his depression to grow; his fellow marine brothers don't want anything to do with a traitor like himself, but what did he do wrong?
All he did was try and show respect to that kind princess and they treat him like a Xeno-Sympathiser
But his thoughts quickly travelled back to his constant head-aches and what those…memories where about, were they his? Where were they coming from?
Suddenly, his head begins to ache again, but this time, it's far more painful
Flashback
He feels calm…..asleep…. as he is, from his point of view, gently rocked back and forth, then he vaguely hears a voice
"Somebody wake up hicks"
But he ignores it and is soon hit in the head with something
"HEY, Get up, we're here"
He opens his eyes and sees a fellow marine helping him out of his seat, though the marines armour appears to be that of the out-dated models
Suddenly everything flashes, and seems to be fast forwarding
"Hey, Hey look, the sarge and the others aren't Dead Man, they're Signals are messed up but they Ain't Dead"
One of his Fellow Marines say while staring at the screen on bored what looks like an Old Model APC
"Then we go back there and we get em"
One of the Female marines replies
"nah Way MAN, I aint going back there!"
The frighten marine replies
"We DON'T leave our own behind!
The female replies
"I AINT GOING BACK THERE MAN!"
The frighten marine replies
"I say we take off…and nuke the entire sight from orbit"
Somebody nearby him says, alerting him to her presence….but it's as if he already knew she was there
"It's the only way to be sure"
She says, now facing the group
"Fuckin' A"
The frighten marine agrees
"Hold on a second…..this instillation has a substantial Dollar value Attached to it"
One of the others replies, a man with Curly black hair, somehow I remember his name as 'Burk'
"….they can BILL me"
The girl replies
"…..okay this an emotional moment for ALL of us, I know that, but let's not make snap judgments, please. This is clearly an important species we're dealing with here and I don't think that you or I or ANYBODY has the right to arbitrarily exterminate them"
Burk replies
"WRONG"
The girl replies
"Maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, BUT WE JUST GOT OUR ASSES KICKED PAL!"
The frightened marine says, yelling at Burk
Suddenly he is blinded by another flash
End flashback
He looks around the room; he's back in the castle
Well…at least that's momentarily over
He thinks to himself
Though it doesn't explain anything; who were those people, who was I and most importantly, what the hell was going on?!
Unknown to Dwayne Ripley he is being watched by a lone figure standing just outside of the window to his right.
As soon as Ripley notices its shadow he quickly looks to his right, but he isn't fast enough as the figure vanishes. Remembering that he was ordered to take part in a mission with the others he quickly hurries down the rest of the hall
Meanwhile inside the room with the dead guards
"So...what are your orders your majesty?"
Shining armour asks Celestia as he slowly approaches her from behind, careful not to make her angry or upset, breaking the silence of the room since Ripley left
Celestia looks down at the dead guards being slowly loaded into a wagon and says in a shaky voice
"…..the creatures that did this….they….Karl was right….it doesn't appear that they feel Fear or remorse….."
She gives the dead guards one last look, a few tears managing to escape her
"…or mercy"
Luna seems to be fighting back mixed feelings as well, sorrow that her sister is depressed, Sorrow that some of their ponies lives had been cut short, anger towards the Xenomorphs
"I hate to ask this of you shining armour….but…I would like you to remain here with Cadence and keep the peace, my sister and I will accompany 'Karl' to retrieve the elements of Harmony, just as Karl said…whatever Reason the creatures had for taking them…it can't be good"
Celestia says turning to face Shining armour who gives her a salute
"You don't have to worry your majesty; I will do whatever you ask"
"Thank you"
Celestia says with sincere hope in her voice as Cadence walks up beside Shining armour
"…both of you"
She says now facing Cadence
"Come along sister, we need to accompany Karl to get them back"
Celestia says, turning to face Luna, who simply nods in silent agreement
Unknown to any of the ponies, they are being watched by a several figures on the ceiling which leave once the conversation is over.
Meanwhile at the drop ship in the castle courtyard
Karl and his comrades are gathered around a Holo-map of the ever Free Forest
"Alright, so you guys search here, here and here"
Karl says gesturing to several areas on the forest
"And I and the others will come from here and here"
He says gesturing to more areas of the map
He clears his throat and attempts to confirm the plan
"Alright so that's the plan, got it me-?"
But he is cut off by a Human and pony walking up to him
"Hey, boss, there are a few ponies here who wanna see you"
The human says, gesturing behind him
Karl doesn't bother to look up, as he has a good idea as to who it could be
"let em pass"
Karl says and the human and pony comply
"What do you lot want?"
Karl asks, still not looking away from the map
"We wish to accompany you on your mission to retrieve the Elements of Harmony"
Celestia says, receiving a slight chuckle from Karl
"Sorry, but I don't think having strippers will help. Xeno's only care about Killing for their hive"
Karl says, still chuckling slightly
"I am more than prepared to fight these foul beasts to protect my subjects"
Celestia says with slight irritation in her voice
Karl grins slightly
"Oh really?"
Karl says turning to face her completely, the humans and ponies nearby him seem to understand what he intends to do and begin to clear out the equipment and stay out of the way, Celestia and Luna look at them confused, and then Realization sinks in as Karl gets into a battle stance
"Then prove it and fight me, if you can stand your ground against me, you might have a chance against the Xenomorphs"
Suddenly without warning Karl flies at Celestia, his horn glowing, his evil smirk growing wide
"I was tired of telling you to piss off anyway"
He says as he unleashes a small green and red beam of energy at her, she blocks it with her shield, but while blocking it she dint notice that he had gotten within melee distance and penetrated her shield with his horn and quickly fires another beam, she attempts to jump the left and the beam grazes her right wing, he then turns and fires a beam at Luna who quickly doges it.
Luna then fires her own blue coloured beam at him which he dodges with ease, he turns back to Celestia in time to see a bright beam coming towards him, he quickly raises his own shield which manages to block most of the attack but is quickly overpowered so Karl uses his magic to turn his shield into a bubble type shield and forces Celestia's beam back towards her, encasing her in a small bubble quickly filling with Celestia's magic, he then shrinks the bubble, causing Celestia's own magic to backfire and burn herself.
As Karl turns back to face Luna he notices a blue beam quickly approaching, so he quickly raises another bubble shield to absorb the attack the result is a small explosion of energy which causes smoke to obscure Luna, Celestia's and Karls line of sight, Karl simply uses his wings to create a powerful gust of wind to disperse the smoke.
As the field clears he sees Celestia and Luna powering up their magic, he quickly dose the same and after a few mere seconds of charging they fire their magic
Celestia and Luna's magic almost seem to merge into one beam bigger beam while Karls remains at its normal size and when the two beams hit there is an explosion as the courtyards ground is ripped and torn apart and the various humans and ponies continue to cheer for Karl as they take cover form the flying debris.
"WOO, GIVE IT TO 'EM BOSS"
"GO CAPTAIN! LIGHT EM UP!"
The humans and ponies cheer to Karl
To the surprise of Luna and Celestia Karls beam seems to be holding out against there's just fine but while Celestia's and Luna's beam is a mixture of Yellow and blue, Karls is a mixture of green and Red after a few tense moments of concentrating their energy at each other Karl sheds a few tears and his beam enlarges and changes to fully red which quickly overpowers Luna's and Celestia's beam.
Celestia and Luna manage to move out of the way, but Celestia is bucked in her rib cage as Karl planed on her doing that, Luna Jumps on top of Karl and attempts to pin him, but he quickly uses her own weight against her and uses all of his legs to flip her overhead and straight into Celestia.
Celestia manages to look up and sees Karl is about to unleash another beam on her, she closes her eyes and awaits him to fire, but he doesn't she opens her eyes and see's that Karl is lying on his back, a small burn mark on his chest smocking a faint colour of blue.
She looks at her sister and like her, she is breathing heavily from the fight, and a few cuts, bruises and burns here and there, but she is otherwise fine, her horn glowing a faint blue.
Karl coughs a few times as he is helped to his feet by the various humans and Ponies that had watched the fight
"Impressive…. using a tactic that I wouldn't have seen coming, maybe you stand a chance against the Xeno's after all, but remember, they are more resistant to magic, so only magic that can harm or kill another being can have any effect on them"
He then walks closer to Luna and Celestia who are giving him confused looks
"But remember, if you come with us, you do what I say, WHEN I say"
Karl says, giving them both a serious look
"Very well, we will do as you command for this journey"
Celestia replies
"Alight then, let's get going, EVERYONE on the drop ship!"
Karl shouts, as the various humans and ponies all gather on the ship, Karl whispers to Luna and Celestia
"And by the way, if you're coming along, for the love of all that is holy stay behind my men unless we say otherwise
Celestia simply gives him a small irritated glare but silently nods in agreement
As the drop ship takes off Karl approaches Celestia and Luna who are tending to their wounds with their magic
"By the way, nice going in that fight"
He says, gently banging his right hoof against his chest in a sign of respect
"I had to use my most painful memory to beat your magic"
He says; the smile not leaving his bruised and cut face
Luna notices that some of his cuts are bleeding
"OH MY…..i didn't mean to do that, would you like me to take a look at those cuts for you?'
She says, inching her face closer to his to better examine the cuts
"Nah its okay, besides the medics would have notified me if any of my injuries where life threatening"
He says gesturing the medics who are talking with the human and pony personnel, and then he notices that Ripley is using his knife to graffiti something on his armour
"Hello again"
Celestia says as she approaches Ripley
"Oh hello, princess"
He says not looking up from his 'work'
Looking at what Ripley was doing Celestia notices that he is using his knife to graffiti a heart with a lock on it onto his armour
"I'm just passing the time by is all, making it so that…..never mind"
Celestia notices the trouble in his voice
"What, what is it? Why are you doing that to your armour?"
Celestia asks again and again, persistent on getting an answer out of him
"well….it's so that, they can identify us…..by our armour if they can't….identify our bodies…..ya' know…..in case our remains can't be identified or found, sort of like a dog tag"
Ripley says, finally giving in to the question
"what's a 'dog tag' ?"
Luna asks, walking up beside her sister
Ripley pulls out a small metal necklace and shows them his dog tag
"this is a dog tag, its so that if we are killed in action, they can take our dog tags back and mark us down as….not coming home"
Ripley manages to choke out the last word of his sentence before crying into his hands
"I-i-i-im sorry! I dint mean to make you upset or bring up any painful memories"
Celestia says, quickly wrapping him with her wings and pulling him into a hug
"nah….*Sob* it's okay *sniff* it's just that…when we bring back a dog tag, we get paid a little bit for our efforts, we even get to keep their dog tags if no family members want them or if they are no longer needed, dog tags are used *sniff* to keep track of who's dead and who's still alive *sob* when you bring back a dog tag, your sort of a hero, your putting your friends to rest, giving their family some closure….for me…"
He pulls out several more dog tags, these ones having a golden cross painted on them
"it's a bad memory…these are my friends….."
Celestia and Luna look at the small dog tags with horrified expressions
Celestia quietly says to him
"y-your friends? …you mean your friends are-"
"Dead"
Ripley says, cutting her off
"What happened?"
Luna asks as she slowly approaches
"It was a few years back…our ship, even though it's basically a massive flying city, is tasked with keeping the peace and colonizing planets…..my friends had volunteered to stay guard on a recently colonized planet….we thought we had cleared the planet of all hostiles…..turns out we missed a few"
He wipes a few tears away from his eyes
"a small number of orks and Xenomorphs survived….my friends were on guard duty in the compound one night when the Xenomorphs snuck into the compound and killed everyone….we couldn't even bury them because the orks had come by and taken everything they could carry and left before the xeno's got 'em…..all I could find were their dog tags"
Celestia nuzzles him on his check in an attempt to cheer him up
"I'm so sorry for your loss"
Celestia says in a quiet tone
Dwayne Ripley is about to reply when
BANG!
BOOM!
SCREEEE!
HISSSS!
"WHAT HELLS IS GOING ON OUT THERE!?"
Karl shouts into his hoof-com as static screams fill the drop ships speakers
"OH MY FUCKING GOD *BANG BANG* WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT *SCREEEEE* *HISS* AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRHHHH-sssssssssssssssssssssssss"
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE TH-ssssssssssssssssssss"
"WHAT THE-ssssssss"
"aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AARRRRR-sssssssssssssss"
"THESE THINGS ARE EVERYWERE, WE NEED TO PULL OUT NO-sssssssssssssss"
The doors to the drop ship open and the marine's expressions of nervousness are replaced by ones of pure shock and horror
"What In the hell?!"
Karl shouts as he looks at the scene before him
Drop ships, like the one they're in, falling out of the sky, some engulfed in flames, others simply blowing up, a massive cloud of smoke obscuring their vision and hiding whatever is attacking from the line of sight, suddenly a massive burst of fire and acid spews out of from the cover of the smoke, suddenly a massive figure can be seen in the smoke, and quickly begins to fly towards them, leaving the cover of its smoke.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?!"
The pilot shouts over the drop ships speakers as Celestia and Luna's mouths drop, Karl simply looks at the massive creature with an evil Grin
"…..well shit.."
He quietly mutters to himself.