Chapter 25: Alternate Solutions
When the tram came to a stop at the flight deck, HK-47 was the first to debark, followed quickly by Zaeed. The two mercenaries knew it was bad policy to agree to help Dr. Kyne and the others return the Marker to Aegis VII. They should have just taken the Separatist officer they were hired to rescue and left, but HK-47 didn't mind a couple of bonus rounds where he had the opportunity to kill more enemies. Zaeed knew his droid was relentlessly bloodthirsty, and letting the droid kill extra organic meatbags now would help stave off future complaining when things got boring and there wasn't so much killing going around. A mission this gruesome, mysterious, or important didn't happen every day, so Zaeed figured it would be okay to see it through until the end. And if he didn't deal with this now, Zaeed had the gnawing feeling that the necromorphs would pop up again to be a thorn in his side later on. Better to do something yourself and get it done right the first time.
Krunch and Yayap stepped off the tram next. The two shared the same weird feeling of vulnerability and invincibility. They both should have been dead already. They would have been, if not for Lyra's and Vinyl's magical powers. The two unicorns were tired from casting their healing and repair spells, but the slig and unggoy figured the pony aliens could cast them again if they really had to. Not that Yayap and Krunch were planning on fucking up again. Being overwhelmed by necromorphs in a dramatic battle seemed unlikely anymore, especially after they had killed so many already. There couldn't be too many of the space zombies left, or so the slig and unggoy thought.
Commander Zako followed right behind his two subordinates. He still thought everyone was crazy for not immediately leaving the moment they had a functional ship. But the more Zako thought about it the more he realized that returning the Marker and solving the crisis would probably make him look better when he got back to the droid army. He was not trying to show off to his comrades, it was better to be alive than be a hero. But since Dr. Kyne and the group majority were in favor of returning the Marker immediately, Zako followed the group mentality. Better to be in numbers than alone, even if it meant extending the mission for a little longer.
The three ponies were next. Though still tired, Lyra Heartstrings insisted she could walk on her own now. She was dead-set on solving the problem with the Marker and she wasn't going to be any help if Zako still had to carry her around. Though still a little wobbly, she could walk on her own. The powerful healing spell she had cast on Krunch had worn her out and hindered her ability to think critically about their situation and how dangerous it still was. Rainbow Dash was no coward, she'd dealt with dragons, Discord, and changelings in the past, and she wasn't going to run from this. Vinyl Scratch wasn't as keen on continuing the fight as Lyra and Rainbow were. It didn't seem such a bad idea to leave and get help, but she never said anything since the other two ponies had already made up their minds about the issue.
Tali'Zorah was the last to exit the tram. Knowing that if Commander Shepard were here, she would complete the mission to its fullest extent was what kept Tali with the squad to return the Marker. And it wouldn't hurt to get some payback on behalf of Penn'Norek. Tali hadn't known Penn for very long, but she knew him well enough to know he didn't deserve to be slashed to pieces by a necromorph. Tali had tried calling Lena, to let her know she wasn't heading for the Ebon Hawk right away, but the other quarian wasn't answering. This wasn't too distressing; communication connections had been spotty the entire time they had been on the Ishimura.
Rainbow Dash groaned. This particular tram station platform was especially cramped—the pegasus got more than enough of that riding around on the trams and elevators. It was apparently too much to ask to travel through more open-air areas.
"Get that store open," Zaeed told Zako. The Separatist went about hacking the store open with is war-axe as he always did, though with more ferocity than usual. Zako was partially venting out his frustration that they hadn't just left.
After the automated kiosk had been gutted like a fish, the survivors were rewarded with a larger-than-usual item. HK-47 bent down and took the item, an IM-822 handheld ore cutter line gun. He hooked his blaster rifle (which was starting to run low on ammo) to his back, holding it in place magnetically. The ammo that fell out was distributed to those with the weapons that could make use of them.
Dr. Kyne came in over Zako's omni-tool: "Commander Zako, I'm approaching the shuttle hangar. You must… you must find your way to the cargo bay! The Marker… it's being stored in there. There's a cargo loading lift there you can use to deliver the Marker up to the hangar. Please… you must help me with this! It's the only way…"
"Right, Doc. We'll get your Marker." Zako was worried Kyne's focus on the Marker had turned into an obsession. There was nothing to be done about it though, they just had to return it to the planet and be done with it.
The circular holographic interface on the door straight ahead was a reddish-orange, indicating that the elevator wasn't working due to a power failure. That wasn't where they needed to go anyway.
HK-47 pressed the blue interface on the door to the left—and was met by an exploder standing right in front of him as soon as the door opened.
Vinyl Scratch fired a magical beam almost solely on reflex. Luckily, she was able to hit the target, rather than HK-47. The necromorph was knocked backwards, but didn't explode. Taking advantage of the distance, HK-47 fired the line gun and detonated the necromorph.
Wasting no time, they walked down hall to and went through the door leading to the cargo bay.
They were emptied out into an upper level of the cargo bay, giving them a clear view of the spacious area.
Looking down, they could see a pregnant and an exploder aimlessly wandering about the catwalks below. It wasn't too often they got the drop on the necromorphs, and Zaeed wasn't going to waste the opportunity. He grabbed his sniper rifle and took aim. Zaeed waited until the exploder was passing right next to the pregnant, and fired at the yellow pustule on its arm. The explosion killed both necromorphs instantaneously.
They all started taking the nearby lift down, two at a time. Rainbow Dash took to the air and flew around the room, looking for any signs of more necromorphs but also enjoying the chance to stretch her wings a bit. The entire hangar bay was empty of further enemies. They were silent and wary as they walked across the catwalk to the lift controls.
There was still no sign of any more necromorphs. It looked like they were in the clear. And that suited Lyra and the ponies just fine. If they could deal with the Marker without having to worry about any more monsters, that would be just fine with them. HK-47 actually preferred a fight.
Tali used the lift controls.
The lift slowly brought up the Marker and set it on the rail track next to the catwalk. For some reason, Lyra thought it would be bigger, even though she had no idea what it was supposed to look like in the first place.
"Delivering cargo shipment 782. Kinesis module required for further cargo transport."
Commander Zako suddenly dropped to his knees, muttering. He soon curled up in a fetal position.
"Karl! What's wrong?" Lyra prodded the armored human with her hoof. She didn't know what was wrong with the human. She was feeling fine, great even. The exhaustion from the healing spell had been completely wiped away. She felt better even, better than she had felt in years.
"The voices! The voices won't stop! They won't shut up!"
"What voices? I don't hear anything!" Lyra looked around at the others. Vinyl shrugged. Like the aquamarine unicorn, Vinyl also felt completely rested and refreshed.
Yayap rubbed the side of his head. "I think I'm getting a headache."
Zaeed noticed that his dead buddy Narko was hiding in one of the dark corners of the hangar bay, but didn't say anything about it to anyone.
"Mother?" Tali suddenly spouted. "What are you doing here?"
"Headaches aren't contagious, are they?" Krunch asked Yayap. "I think I'm gettin' one too."
"What is wrong with all of you?" Rainbow Dash hovered above the group. The pegasus felt great, but her weird alien buddies looked like they were either in agony or confusion.
There was a single roar, but many necromorphs started crawling out of air vents. Slashers, spitters, lurkers, stalkers, pregnants, exploders, twitchers, leapers, feeders and dividers were all present. There were dozens of necromorphs. The survivors were outnumbered and surrounded.
"Shit!" Zaeed warmed up his flamethrower.
Lyra charged up her horn for an attack, and fired. Three necromorphs exploded into several bloody pieces. They weren't knocked back—they exploded.
Vinyl fired the same standard concussion beam, and likely killed a small cluster of necromorphs.
Dash took off with incredible speed, a trial of rainbow-colored fire following after her. She followed the walls of the rectangular room, spreading the fire to all the necromorphs below her until she had set the entire army of monsters on fire.
Tali, HK-47 and Zaeed just stood there and watched, unsure of where the ponies' great powers had come from. Yayap rubbed at his eyes, what he was seeing couldn't be real.
Lyra and Vinyl blasted a few more necromorphs to pieces while the other monsters died in the rainbow flames.
Zako finally came to his senses and stood back up as the last of the necromorphs were dying. "What… the… fuck?"
"You ponies been holding out on us?" Krunch asked.
"No! We're not usually this powerful!" Vinyl's tone indicated she was just as surprised as everypony else.
"Well, whatever you're doin', keep it up!" Yayap said.
Rainbow Dash came back to hover over the others. "I… I… don't know how I did that… I know I'm awesome and all, but… wow."
"Rainbow," Zako spoke, "you just incinerated an entire army. You couldn't have done this earlier? I mean… damn!"
Dash rubbed the back of her head with a forehoof. "There hasn't been enough room to pick up a lot of speed. But… I…"
"And what about you two?" Zaeed asked Lyra and Vinyl.
"I dunno." Vinyl Scratch casually shrugged again. "It just… happened."
"Reassessment: Apparently you colorful quadruped meatbags are not quite as pitiful as I once thought."
"Lyra, I thought you were still tired?" Tali asked.
"Don't feel tired anymore. I feel great!"
A trio of gigantic tentacles sprung up from a lower level further down the hangar bay. Lyra and Vinyl blasted two while Rainbow burned the third.
"Okaaayy. I guess we'll take care of the Marker, then." Zako started to move the Marker along the rail with his kinesis module.
"Here, Karl. I'll help." Lyra grabbed the Marker with her golden magic and dragged the Marker across the track so fast it looked like it was going to derail.
"Where'd you get all this energy?" Yayap asked. "You weren't this strong before."
"How many times we gotta say we don't know?" Vinyl shot back.
"Delivering cargo shipment 782 to the hangar bay." The lift carried the Marker up to the next level and out of sight.
"My headache is gone," Yayap said. "Huh."
"Mine too," Krunch added.
"I feel better too," Zako said, "the Marker's doin' stuff to our heads. The closer we are, the worse it gets, apparently."
"The cargo lift has arrived! The Marker is in the hangar bay. Now you can load it into the shuttle. Hurry!" Kyne said over Zako's omni-tool.
More necromorphs started to appear. They didn't have the same numbers as the earlier attack group but there were still a lot of them. The ponies killed them all in the same manner as they did before, leaving everyone else in the squad stunned.
With the necromorphs eviscerated, they went back up the elevator and left the cargo bay. They went back down the hall to the tram station.
They hit a dead end when they learned the elevator still wasn't working. If it was just a door that they couldn't get through, Zako would have just had the ponies blast it open, but it wasn't that simple.
Zako called up Dr. Kyne. "Hey, we're stuck at the tram station. The elevator isn't working."
"Give me a moment. There, try it now."
The holographic interface changed from red-orange to blue.
"Thanks, Doc. We're on our way."
This looked like it was going to be one of their last cramped elevator rides.
The elevator emptied them into a hall. They ignored the supply crates in the hall and the restrooms on the side. They were too close to getting away to let such frivolous things slow them down now.
The hall led them to the flight lounge.
"Hazardous anomaly detected. Quarantine activated." The VI chimed in as soon as everyone was in the room.
Slashers started crawling out of air vents all around the room.
Lyra fired at the first one, but the magical beam didn't do anything other than knock it backwards. Vinyl also tried a magical attack, and got the same results as her friend.
"Okay ponies, this is no time to mess around," Yayap said.
"We're being serous!" Vinyl yelled.
Rainbow Dash held back. She wasn't feeling the rush she felt back in the hangar bay. Lyra and Vinyl weren't killing necromorphs anymore. She didn't want to chance it and fail. As quickly as the ponies' upgraded powers had appeared, they disappeared. Something odd was going on.
As soon as it was clear the ponies weren't slaughtering the necromorphs HK-47 and Zaeed started to pick up the slack. HK-47's line gun and Zaeed's flamethrower made quick work of the slashers. The line gun would cut off the necromorphs at the legs and the flamethrower finished them off. Yayap was barely able to kill a couple of slashers with his ripper blades while Tali only managed to kill a single necromorph with her contact beam. Krunch, Zako and the ponies hung back out of the way.
"Quarantine lifted." The warning lights went out.
"Why didn't you kill them like you did before?" Yayap turned back to the three pony aliens.
"We tried to," Lyra said, "I don't know what happened."
"You were suddenly super powerful and now you're not?" Yayap knew something was up. The ponies had slaughtered a small army a few minutes ago. Now they couldn't make a single kill.
"Worry about it later," Zaeed walked over to the door.
The doors leading to the hangar bay opened, revealing Alissa Vincent and Chen on the other side.
"What are you doing here?" Zaeed asked. "I thought you two were at the other shuttle."
"Nice to see you too," Chen muttered.
"We need the Separatist to fly it," Vincent said, "so we thought we'd come over and give you guys a hand. We called in to Kyne about it."
"And you didn't think maybe it would be a good idea to stay and guard the shuttle?" Zako stepped forward.
"We thought you might want one of these," Chen handed Zako an E-5 blaster rifle.
"Oh, yes. Thank you. Very much. I finally have a decent weapon." Commander Zako did realize that he had finally managed to get his hands on a weapon he adored only when they were about to leave. E-5 blaster rifles were short and compact compared to a lot of other rifles in their class, yet they were hardy weapons that didn't break easily and carried a lot of ammunition.
Chen and Vincent led the group to the hangar bay. The ponies were in the back of the group but picked up their pace and got up to the front when they saw that the hangar doors were open.
The executive shuttle came in. "Excellent!" Kyne exclaimed over the comm. "I'm going to dock the shuttle. Got to be careful now… careful…"
The ponies watched in fascination as the executive shuttle came in for a landing. It was the first time they had really gotten to see a spaceship in action. Lyra had stars in her eyes while Rainbow wasn't quite so impressed. The shuttle was large, bulky and slow. Though Rainbow Dash had to admit to herself that it flew fairly well for something without wings.
Dr. Kyne came in over Zako's omni-tool again. "I'm bringing the shuttle down now. The automated loading controls aren't responding. You'll have to shut down gravity in the hangar bay and then manually bring the Marker directly beneath the shuttle."
A boarding ramp extended from the shuttle and Clarke, Chic, Temple and Cross got off.
Lyra gave Zako a nudge with her hoof. "Hey, Karl. Could you do me a favor?"
"What is it, Lyra?" Zako had no idea what kind of favor Lyra had in mind.
"Stay here with Kyne."
"What? Why?"
"You… collapsed before. I… don't want anything to happe—"
"Fine. I'll stay with the Doc." Zako knew Lyra was right. He had lost it when they went to fetch the Marker.
Lyra turned back to Dash and Scratch and the three ponies trotted after Zaeed, HK-47, Yayap, Krunch, Tali, Isaac and Chen. They had to go around a side hall to reach the control panel for the gravity.
Tali made sure to switch off gravity only for the lower level where the Marker was, or else several people up with the shuttle were going to be floating around soon.
"Entering zero gravity."
The ponies realized they had no way to counteract the lack of gravity and were left behind with Yayap by the others with magnetized feet.
Everyone who could operate without gravity jumped down to the lower loading area.
Krunch stuck near HK-47 and Zaeed. Isaac, Chen and Tali formed the second squad. The two groups walked down to the far end of the hangar bay.
As soon as they reached the Marker, several lurkers and leapers sprung from the darkness to attack.
"Bastards really don't want us near the Marker," Zaeed said.
"I'm guessing they realize what we intend to do with it." Tali released her combat drone.
From up above, Zako, Vincent and Chic provided cover fire.
Ignoring the battle around them, Isaac started pulling the Marker along the rail with his kinesis module.
Chen noticed a Caterpillar P-5000 power loader off to his right. While the others fought, he went over and strapped himself into the mechanized exoskeleton. Designed for heavy lifting and industrial use, Chen figured he could turn it into a weapon. The power loader hadn't floated away and Chen was able to keep it on the ground with its magnetized feet.
Leapers and lurkers kept coming in an endless stream. Their howls sounded angrier than usual. The closer Isaac got the Marker down the rails, the more pissed the necromorphs became. Many leapers ended up charging down the hangar bay with wild abandon, not even trying to attack the survivors that shot them. Their sole goal seemed to be reaching the Marker—and preventing Isaac from moving it any further.
One leaper managed to run through the defensive line of survivors. No one turned back around to shoot it, as they were too busy killing others. The leaper vaulted forward and pushed itself off the deck with its hands, rocketing itself over towards Isaac. Chen caught it midair with one of the power loader's hydraulic claws.
The angry creature squirmed, its tail thrashing about as the power loader ripped it apart.
Three more leapers got past the defensive line of survivors. From up above, Chic managed to kill one with his pistol while Chen killed with the two with the power loader's powerful claws.
Then the onslaught of necromorphs started to dwindle. Necromorph death screams replaced their angry howls.
The Ishimura's VI chimed in, although this time a second robotic voice joined the original feminine one they had all become accustomed to hearing.
"The white zone is for the immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the red zone."
"The white zone is for the immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the red zone."
Isaac Clarke kept moving the Marker along the loading tracks and positioned it underneath the executive shuttle.
The stream of new leapers and lurkers ran dry. The necromorphs had been beaten. The fight for the Marker was over.
"The red zone is for the immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."
"No, the white zone is for loading and unloading of passengers only and there is no stopping in the red zone."
"The red zone has always been for loading and unloading. There is never stopping in a white zone."
"Don't tell me which zone is for stopping and which zone is for loading."
"Listen Betty, don't start up with your white zone shit again."
Everyone paused, unsure of what was going on.
"I think the ship's VI broke," Krunch looked around, as if he were expecting to find a holographic representation of the VIs somewhere.
"Everything else is going crazy, the VI might as well too," Tali shook her helmeted head in disgust.
"Okay, it's in position. Eh, still having trouble with these damn loading controls. Isaac, restore gravity to the room. I should be able to load the Marker then," Kyne said over the comm.
Chen abandoned the power loader and followed everyone else in jumping back up to the gravity control panel.
Isaac hit the button for the gravity controls. All the dead necromorph parts that had been floating around came falling back to the deck.
"Exiting zero gravity. Loading cargo shipment 782."
"It's on board! Everyone, please, come and join me. Together we can stop this Hive Mind! We can end this nightmare! At last!" Kyne said.
Zaeed and the others went through the door to find that Yayap and the ponies were still waiting for them in the hallway. They all started backtracking towards the shuttle.
Up ahead, Lyra could see that Dr. Kyne had joined the others just outside the shuttle.
"Over here!" Kyne shouted and waved. "Hurry, there's no time to waste, we must do it—"
"Kyne!" Commander Zako saw Kendra standing in the doorway to the shuttle… saw her draw her pistol. Zako reacted on reflex, and tackled Dr. Kyne just as a gunshot went off.
The two humans laid on the deck as the executive shuttle started to take off.
A lump formed in Lyra's throat. She heard the gunshot; saw Zako and Kyne fall. She knew one of them, maybe both of them, had been hit. She ran harder. For some reason, Lyra felt like she should have expected this. Of course one of her new friends would get killed right before they would escape. How could it be any other way?
"What the fuck?" Jacob Temple hadn't seen what happened. But the boarding ramp retracted before he could reach the executive shuttle.
The shuttle was coated in a blue glow as Vinyl Scratch tried to pull it back with her magic. Lyra wished she had thought to do that herself, but she had been too worried about Kyne and Zako. The shuttle's engines whined as Lyra's magic joined Vinyl's. The shuttle pitched and started to roll to one side, but it was still gaining distance away from the ponies.
"I can't h-hold it," Vinyl said through gritted teeth.
The executive shuttle flared its engines and expended more power than the two unicorn ponies could compete with.
Tali, Chic, Yayap and Krunch fired at the shuttle as it left the hangar bay. HK-47 and Zaeed didn't bother to; they knew it was pointless. The shuttle was already away.
Kendra came in over Isaac's RIG. "Sorry, I couldn't let you guys go through with it. I suppose I should thank you for finding the Marker. We even managed without help from the Valor… Thank you for helping me find it, by the way. My department's been looking for this place for a long time. See, what Kyne didn't know was, it was the government's mess to begin with. This whole planet is one big experiment. The Marker? This 'divine relic?' Made by humans. They reverse-engineered it a hundred years ago from the real Marker, a true alien artifact recovered on Earth. They dug it up, studied it, and made it their own. Then they brought it to Aegis VII, and activated it. And you've seen the result. The stuff of nightmares. They sealed the system, and no one would have been the wiser. But then the CEC blunders in and starts tearing the planet apart. The experiment was still alive. Kyne is right about the Hive Mind. The Marker would contain it… but that doesn't matter now, does it? I have the Marker and this entire system can go to hell. For what it's worth, you all did a great job. See you around… or maybe not."
Dr. Kyne had gotten back up to his feet. Despite being a little winded from Zako's tackle, he was unharmed. "You stupid idiot! Do you have any idea what you've done? You've doomed us all! The Marker must be returned!" Kyne's rant didn't matter; Kendra had already cut the communication.
"Kyne! You're okay!" Lyra nearly smashed right into the doctor.
Dr. Kyne clutched at his chest, where there should have been a bloody hole. He should have been killed. But he wasn't. He was alive.
"Yes, I'm alright. Thanks to the Commander…" Kyne trailed off as he looked back at Zako's fallen form.
"Karl!" Lyra rushed over and started nudging the fallen human. Rainbow landed nearby.
"Is the Commander…" Yayap didn't want to finish the question. He didn't want to say 'dead.' He didn't want to be the highest-ranking Separatist left. He didn't want to be the one to inform General OOM-9 that one of his favorite officers had died, especially right at the end as they were about to escape.
Commander Zako rolled over onto his back. "You EarthGov bitch! I'll kill you!" He yelled up at the ceiling.
"Karl! You're okay!" Lyra tackled him into a hug as he tried to sit up.
"Of course I'm okay. I survived getting shot by you, Lyra. You think Kendra's little piss-ant pistol is gonna penetrate my armor?" Zako grunted and Lyra gave him some space. "I'm gonna be sore though. That fuckin' hurt!"
"Not as much as one of Lyra's healing spells would," Krunch said.
Yayap stamped his foot on the deck. "Dammit! I knew it would be an earther!"
"Huh?" Vinyl Scratch looked over at the special ops unggoy.
"If anyone was going to betray us, it would be an earther!"
Zaeed had been wary of a possibly betrayal, but he had been expecting one from the quarians, not one of the humans. "If anyone was gonna double-cross us, I always expected it to come from the quarians."
"And we always kept our eyes on you bounty hunters," Tali admitted.
Isaac Clarke walked away from the main group. Their voices drowned out as Nicole came in over his RIG. "Isaac! It's Nicole! I need you to help me, help us! Now! I'm… I'm in the flight control room! Please, Isaac, hurry! Please… I love you…"
Isaac left the group, no one noticed him go. Clarke was in a near trance-like state as he went on up to the flight control room. He barely paid any attention as he expertly killed a guardian that barred the way.
The haunting whispers that called out Isaac's name grew much louder.
Isaac Clarke made it to the control room… where the object of his affections stood waiting for him.
"Isaac! Is it really you? I never thought we'd be together again! God, I'm-I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry for what I did… I never wanted to hurt you… You need to get it back now, Isaac. You can pilot the shuttle remotely from here! Make us whole again! Make us whole again…"
Isaac tapped at the keyboard, bringing up the remote shuttle controls.
"Isaac, what the hell are you doing?!" Kendra came in over the comm. "You're making a big mistake. This is not over!"
"Escape pod away, crew shuttle 09. Repeat, shuttle has ejected escape pod."
"It doesn't matter," Nicole said, "she can't escape her fate… none of us can. Here it comes! I'll reprogram the shuttle so we can fly down to the colony. We're so close Isaac. Now go! Get on the shuttle! I'll join you in a minute."
Isaac headed back down to the hangar bay.
Rainbow felt a burning anger slowly rise in her chest. She, Lyra, and Vinyl had somehow been transported to a weird alien world, which turned out to be a spaceship filled with monsters that wanted to kill them. But there were also aliens that didn't want to eat them. There was no way to know if she could trust Zako when she first met him. The same could be said when they met Dr. Kyne. Rainbow was taking a risk trusting all these aliens. But the longer they worked together, the less suspicious Dash became. Meeting Yayap and Krunch for the first time was anything but fun, but soon enough everypony was saving each other lives. And then, out of nowhere, one of the group turns on the others. Kendra was an awful person in Rainbow's opinion. Taking advantage of trust in order to betray and kill? Such and idea was sick, and actually carried out before her eyes made Dash's blood boil.
"What a hateful bitch. She could'a just taken the shuttle and left, but no… she had to fuckin' shoot at us too!" Zako ranted.
"She must not think we're very smart," Yayap said, "to give away so much information in that farewell transmission of hers. We still have two other ships, we can still leave."
"She probably thinks it doesn't matter what we know anymore," Temple said. "Who would believe us?"
"Did you know anything about this?" Zaeed asked Chen. Everyone turned towards the mercenary and the crewmember of the Kellion.
"Yeah, you were in the same group as her," Yayap pointed at Chen accusingly. "You in on this too? Maybe Kendra decided to leave you and Isaac behind anyway?"
"We had no idea. I swear!" Chen said, "this was just a repair mission. I didn't know anything about any monster-creating Marker and a government conspiracy!"
"Where the fuck is Clarke, anyway?" Zaeed looked around.
They saw the engineer running up back to the group just before the noise of engine shuttles prompted them to turn back around. The executive shuttle had returned!
"Mr. Clarke remote-piloted the shuttle back to us! Excellent!" Dr. Kyne exclaimed.
HK-47 was the first to board the shuttle, ready to shoot a traitorous meatbag, but they quickly realized Kendra had left in the shuttle's escape pod.
"Okay, here's the plan." Anger and a thirst for revenge had replaced Zako's common sense. "We're all gonna go kill that bitch."
Zaeed nodded in approval. He was up for some revenge.
"That's not a plan," Rainbow said, "you just set a goal."
"You want a plan? Here's the plan. Step One: We go down to Aegis VII. Step Two: We find Kendra. Step Three: We kill her."
"Now you made a checklist," Lyra couldn't help but giggle, despite that fact that Zako was pledging to end the life of another living, thinking, sentient being. Fatigue, hunger and fear had given Lyra's morals and values a good beating. Besides, Kendra had it coming.
"I just got shot. What do you want from me?"
"You forgot about the part where we return the Marker," Kyne said.
"That too," Zako agreed. "And we need to go get the other two ships."
"We have to go get the Separatist shuttle and the Ebon Hawk?" Tali asked.
"Why bother risking more necromorphs? Let's just take the executive shuttle," Chic said.
"We need to be in possession of all forms of transportation. Otherwise Kendra might come back and use one to escape. She isn't going anywhere in that escape pod. I want her trapped," Zako explained.
"Very well, Commander," Kyne agreed.
The there was roar that echoed through the hangar bay, a very familiar roar… The two xenomorphs crawled out of two different air vents.
"Not these things, again," Krunch grumbled.
"Maybe they want a ride with us," Yayap joked.
Before the xenomorphs could even get close to the survivors, several feeders started crawling up from out of air vents. At first there were just four to five feeders but that number quickly jumped to eight, then nine. Over the course of the next few seconds a dozen more feeders showed up. They started fighting with the xenomorphs.
One of the feeders paused to cough up another feeder.
"What the…" Tali trailed off when she saw the feeder puke up another feeder.
"That's how feeders reproduce," Zako explained. And then a realization dawned on him. "Shit! The feeders have been going 'round the ship eating all the necromorphs we killed! There must be hundreds of them!"
More and more feeders started to pour out of the air vents.
Dr. Cross and Jacob Temple wasted no time in running up the executive shuttle's boarding ramp. Chic and Clarke quickly followed them.
"Commander?" Kyne looked to Zako.
"Go! Take the shuttle! We still need to get the other two ships!"
Kyne nodded and retracted the boarding ramp. "Hurry!"
"We've got time. They're busy fighting each other—" Several feeders started swarming over the executive shuttle, proving just how wrong Zako was.
HK-47, Zaeed and Tali killed a few feeders that came to close to the survivors that didn't board the shuttle.
The executive shuttle took off, several feeders still latched on to the hull as it made its way out into space.
"Rainbow, would you be so kind as to torch these montherfuckers, please?" Zako asked.
"Uh, Karl. You remember we lost our super powers, right?"
"Lyra and Vinyl did. You didn't even try. Maybe you still have yours."
"Fine, since you think I'm that awesome." Rainbow took to the air and zipped around the hangar bay, only this time the rainbow-colored flames she produced were much smaller and weaker than they were the last time. A few dozen of the feeders did catch fire, but the multi-color flames weren't enough to keep them from charging towards the survivors.
"Uh, Rainbow. This isn't the time for jokes. We really need those things dead, now."
"I'm trying!" The blue pegasus yelled back at Zako.
Lyra and Vinyl started firing magical energy blasts, but they only managed to knock the feeders back, rather than blow them apart.
"Their super powers are still gone…" Yayap fired a few rounds of his plasma cutter.
"Time to run…" Krunch turned around.
Zako turned to Chen and Vincent. "Take me to that Separatist shuttle! C'mon! Let's go!"
Yayap and Krunch ended up following after Tali, who was headed towards the Ebon Hawk.
The three ponies followed after Zako's group. Zaeed and HK-47 split up. Zaeed went with Zako while HK-47 followed Tali.
Grid hissed as he saw the survivors flee the area. The shuttle had gotten away, and Grid wasn't on it. Grid knew he and his hivemate had to leave the Ishimura. They needed to find a new area with fresh prey. And Grid was very aware that the non-necromorph prey was his only chance of getting away.
The two xenomorphs were done playing with the feeders. They scrambled up the walls and to the ceiling, entering separate air vents. They were going to split up and follow to two separate groups of survivors, see what they were up to.
Grid stealthily followed Tali's group. Grid's feverish pace inside the air ducts made a lot of noise, but the horde of feeders was louder, and the survivors were so focused on the necromorphs that they didn't realize they had a xenomorph tracking them down.
Grid actually managed to get ahead of his prey, and discovered where they were going. Grid found himself back in the hangar bay that held the Ebon Hawk. Grid recognized the freighter as the ship he had stowed away on before. The xenomorph figured the survivors were going to use it to leave. He quickly snuck aboard the Ebon Hawk just before the others made it to the hangar bay.
"Lena!" Tali yelled. "Lena, I'm here! We've got trouble! We've got to go!"
There was no answer. Lena, 4-LOM and the loki mech were nowhere to be seen.
Tali came to a stop when she reached the Ebon Hawk. She saw the pieces of Lena and the loki mech scattered around the deck. HK-47 noticed 4-LOM's concussion rifle lying on the floor by itself.
"No…" Tali inhaled sharply. She couldn't be the last one left. She couldn't go back to the Migrant Fleet alone. Couldn't tell Lena and Penn's friends and loved ones that they were dead, yet she survived.
"No time! Be sad later!" Yayap grabbed Tali by the arm and pulled her towards the boarding ramp. "We need you to fly this ship!"
Tali ran through the Ebon Hawk and reached the cockpit, only to find that HK-47 was already in the pilot's seat and starting the engines.
The Ebon Hawk lurched up just as a sea of feeders swarmed the hangar bay. Its engines flared and the clunky old freighter took off for the bay doors, which opened automatically, allowing the Ebon Hawk to grace the space lanes once again.
Commander Zako's group did not have such an easy time.
"Where is the damn shuttle?" Zako demanded.
"This way." Vincent led them back to a tee junction they had been through already. They had taken a wrong turn and had to backtrack.
Zaeed fired back at the large xenomorph that was chasing them. Though instead of charging forward, the ravenous monster turned back around to deal with the oncoming onslaught of feeders.
"There!" Chen shouted. "It's through this door!"
They left the xenomorph to fight with the feeders. But there was no doubt in anyone's mind who would be the victor.
The door had taken them into a dark hallway, but it was not so dark that Commander Zako could not see what was up ahead.
The Separatist shoved past Vincent and Chen, running towards the remains of two super battle droids. "Why didn't you tell me you found some of the squad?"
"They're just droids," Vincent said. "What does it matter?"
"I know these droids, you stupid bitch! It's 8EX and 5TE."
"How can you tell them apart?" Vincent put her left hand on her hip. "They all look the same."
"Fuck you, that's how."
"We need to keep moving, the goddam monsters are right behind us," Zaeed said.
"I'm not leaving without these droids!" Zako started to pick up the remains of 8EX's torso.
"Here, let me help." Lyra collected several pieces of the super battle droids with her magic. Vinyl's blue magic grabbed the rest.
They walked down the hall. Commander Zako walked right past an electrostaff laying off to the side, hidden in the darkness…
When they got through the next door, they found a small army of necromorphs between them and the Separatist shuttle. They were not the usual slashers either, but slashers born from the koorivar—and considering how similar the koorivar were to humans, that only meant that the slashers had an added horn on their heads.
"Aw, what? We have an army composed primarily of droids, yet OOM-9 sends troops that can be necromorphed?" Zako knew OOM-9 had no way of knowing what was going on; it was nothing more than pure bad luck. He still felt entitled to complain about it though.
Zaeed kept the slashers back with his flamethrower while Chen and Vincent riddled them full of bullets with their SWS motorized pulse rifles. Zako and the ponies stayed behind the three fighters, carrying the parts of the two super battle droids. Rainbow Dash flew above everyone else.
The blue pegasus circled around the hangar bay several times in frustration. "C'mon! You guys are so slow!"
"We don't have wings! We can't just fly around," Zako yelled up at her.
"Well, you're gonna wish you had 'em. Cause the thing's comin' up behind you guys." Rainbow pointed.
Zako looked to see that the large xenomorph had finally caught up to them. He pointed his E-5 blaster rifle and blew one of the monster's arms off.
Then the hangar bay was filled with several high-pitched shrieks as necromorph versions of gossam came running out from the darkness.
"This is getting goddamn ridiculous." Zaeed lit of few of the gossam necromorphs on fire, finding their little death screams to be rather humorous.
Not too keen on being roasted, the other gossam necromorphs turned away from Zaeed and the survivors to attack the xenomorph.
Most of the koorivar slashers had been killed. The xenomorph was busy killing the gossam. This was their chance to get away.
Vincent and Chen got into the shuttle first, followed by the two unicorns magically carrying the droid parts, followed by Zako. Dash quickly swooped down and into the shuttle. Zaeed came in last.
Zako rushed over and started the ship up. It only took a few seconds before the shuttle was lurching off the deck.
The large xenomorph put on one last burst of energy, trying to grab the shuttle before it left. But the xenomorph was too slow. The shuttle made clean getaway, leaving the xenomorph to deal with the gossam… and the dozens of feeders that started to fill out into the hangar bay.
"Yeah! We made it!" Vinyl exclaimed. "In your face, you stupid monsters!"
"They're no match for us!" Lyra hoof-bumped Rainbow.
Zaeed took a seat in one of the chairs. He looked over at the battle droid parts scattered on the floor. Commander Zako was a weird one. Zaeed could understand caring about a droid, he had HK-47 as a partner after all. But HK-47 was unique; these were nothing but a pair of mass-produced super battle droids. Not exactly something a normal person would risk their life over. Zaeed also noticed the pile of E-5 blaster rifles. Vincent and Chen had collected them from the hangar bay and stored them on the shuttle, proving they were indeed capable of common sense and the ability to plan ahead. Zaeed figured he better take one of the blasters for himself, all of his other weapons were very low on ammo.
Alissa Vincent and Chen also sat down. Rather than follow the example of the others, Lyra trotted over to the cockpit. Rainbow and Vinyl followed.
Through the viewport, they could see the stars in space.
Rainbow Dash was amazed by the shuttle they were riding in. They were moving much faster than the air balloons and other dirigibles that could be found in Equestria's skies. She remembered Pinkie Pie once came up with an air contraption that was pretty decent at maintaining a certain level of speed, but it was nothing compared to the machine they were riding in right now. The closest thing Rainbow could think of was that the shuttle was like a ponyless sky chariot.
"So, you're a flyer, huh?" Dash finally said.
"What makes you think I wasn't?"
"The lack of wings, for one. Duh."
"You don't need wings to fly around here."
"I can see that. But I didn't know that you could fly a spaceship. That's pretty cool."
"There's a lot about me you don't know, Rainbow. And there's a lot I don't know about you three. Like the fact that you can suddenly become super powerful and mow down entire armies in seconds. Very weird. Like when Vinyl got those necromorphs to dance."
"Don't start that up again, dude," Vinyl groaned. "I already told you guys that wasn't me."
"And the powers?" Zako asked.
"Don't know how that happened either," Lyra said.
Zako sighed. "Oh well. Can't solve all the mysteries at once, I guess. At least we know Kendra's a traitor and EarthGov's behind all this."
The ponies watched as the cockpit viewport turned red, as Zako pointed the shuttle down towards Aegis VII.
"We're finally going down to an actual planet." Lyra grinned. "The spaceship is cool and all, but the stench and monsters was starting to get old."
"And there'll be plenty of monsters and bad smells waiting for us on the planet," Zako reminded the minty unicorn.
"Oh, yeah. Great." Lyra… kinda forgot about that part.
"Hey, you guys wanted to help Kyne with the Marker. Not me."
"Are you really gonna kill her?" Vinyl asked in a serious tone.
"Who, Kendra? Why not? She tried to kill Kyne, and shot me."
"Kaaarrlll," Lyra whined. When the shock and the heat of the moment had long passed, Lyra wasn't so eager to hear about Zako wanting to kill Kendra. "You're really gonna kill her?"
"I guess we really should capture her. That way she can tell us more about this mess." Yes, thinking about it more, Zako was quite sure that capturing Kendra and taking her prisoner would be more useful in the long run. But if things went bad and he had no choice, he would kill her. He was not going to let her get away. Not after what she had done.
Author's Note: There are Airplane! and Dan Vs. references in this chapter.