Chapter 26: Dead Space
"So, can this thing go any faster, or what?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Yeah, it can go faster. You have no idea, Dash." Karl Zako was thinking about hyperspace when he replied, though he was sure the ponies would have trouble grasping the concept of such a speed. It would be something to explain later.
"Well, c'mon. Show us."
"After we deal with the Marker."
Dash let out an exasperated groan.
"Don't get mad at me. You're the ones that wanted to help Kyne return the Marker so badly."
The ponies watched out the viewport as Zako set the Separatist shuttle down on the colony's massive landing platform, next to the already parked Ebon Hawk and executive shuttle.
Commander Zako got out of his seat and walked to the back of the shuttle, the three ponies following him. Zako couldn't shake a weird feeling that clawed at the edge of his brain. Something he didn't understand, something he felt like he should have been able to figure out. Something about the three ponies becoming so powerful back when they retrieved the Marker in the Ishimura's cargo bay… He didn't know what it was, so he kept quiet about it.
Zaeed Massani picked an E-5 blaster rifle from the pile on the floor. Chen and Vincent stuck with their SWS motorized pulse rifles. Chen and Vincent were security, not trained soldiers or veteran mercenaries. They could not just pick up any weapon they found and instantly use to efficiently. They still had ammo left and stuck with the rifles they were familiar with.
Zaeed was the first off the shuttle as the door opened, followed by Vincent and Chen. Commander Zako walked off the shuttle next. Lyra paused for a moment.
"What's up, Lyra?" Vinyl wondered why the minty unicorn stopped.
"The next step I take will be the first time I set hoof on an alien world."
Zako turned around. "Why are you making a big deal out of that? When I first met you ponies, you didn't care about stuff like that. And if I remember correctly, you thought we were in a giant castle, rather than a ship."
"We didn't have a choice and didn't know what was going on," Rainbow said.
Lyra trotted onto the landing platform's deck. "Ya, just gotta ruin the moment, don't'cha, Karl?"
"Sorry. Well, let's go find Kendra."
"That can wait, Commander," Dr. Kyne walked over to Zako and the ponies. "We must deliver the Marker first."
"Yeah, I think your revenge can wait a little bit," Rainbow Dash trotted out of the shuttle and onto the landing platform.
"What? The bitch shot me. And besides, Rainbow. You know what they say about revenge."
"No, I don't. What do they say about it?"
"Revenge is a dish best served immediately."
"They do not, you just made that up." Lyra hoped Zako was making it up. It must be a bleak civilization indeed if that was a common phrase.
There were several dead feeders on the deck of the landing platform. The other survivors were already spread out.
"Trouble?" Chen asked.
"Yeah," Yayap said, "the feeders that latched on to the executive shuttle never let go. We had to help Kyne and the others kill 'em when we finally landed."
"We need to use one of the loaders to get the Marker off the shuttle," Dr. Kyne said.
The three ponies looked around, more interested in sightseeing than the actual mission. The sky above had a beautiful red-orange tinge to it. From the landing platform, they couldn't see much of the colony, or much of the large crater that had been created by the CEC's illegal mining operation. But what they did see was certainly breathtaking.
"Whoa… this place is beautiful…" Lyra didn't think it would be, especially after everything else that had happened so far. The moderately strong wind felt good on her mane.
"Lyra has a crush on Aegis VII," Krunch laughed. But the slig quickly shut up when he realized that this was the first planet he had been on other than Oddworld.
Rainbow Dash finally had a real chance to stretch out her wings. She had been cooped up on that spaceship for so long.
"Dash, wait!" Zako yelled at her when she bolted up into the sky.
"What?" Rainbow gently glided back down, though she still hovered above Zako's head.
"Don't go too far."
"Why not?"
"This is just a mining planet, it doesn't have a natural livable atmosphere. We can only breathe in the colony's boarders because of atmosphere processors. To put it simply, you fly off too far and you're going to run out of air to breathe."
Rainbow Dash landed on the deck. "You have got to be kidding me."
"No joke."
"This sucks." Dash kicked the deck with her forehoof. "What kind of miserable place doesn't have breathable air?"
"This one," Krunch said.
Yayap shook his head and groaned. He did not like having to hear the others complain about breathable air, not when he was constantly stuck in his breath mask because he never seemed to end up in a methane rich atmosphere no matter where he went. If he ever wanted to breathe without his mask again, the unggoy would likely have to go back to his homeworld of Balaho.
Vinyl Scratch took in a deep breath. "Yeah, the air… it's not quite right."
"Better than the air on the ship," Lyra said.
"Well… yeah. But that goes without saying. It was all cramped and there were dead bodies and puke and monsters everywhere."
"And we'll find the exact same things here," Zako added.
"Will you idiots stop talking about the damn air?" Zaeed Massani grumbled. "Let's do what we came to do."
"So-rry, Zaeed," Lyra snapped. "Celestia forbid we take an interest in the first alien planet we've ever been on."
"Do that on your own time. We've got a job to do." Zaeed Massani could have left with the Separatist officer and been done already. Exacting revenge on Kendra and stopping the outbreak held a certain appeal, but ultimately Zaeed was only here because the others wanted to return the Marker. And here they were talking about the damn air instead of getting to work.
Isaac Clarke was already bringing a loader over the track to the executive shuttle.
"Before we deal with the Marker, we may want to check that escape pod over there," Chic pointed to the crashed pod. It was further down the landing platform, away from the parked spaceships.
"You didn't check it out already?" Alissa Vincent hissed. "There could be people trapped in there still."
"Calm down. We were dealing with the necromorphs that hitched a ride on the hull of the executive shuttle. Then you guys landed."
"Well, let's go check it out," Lyra started trotting in the direction of the pod. Rainbow and Vinyl quickly followed, and so did the three Separatists, two bounty hunters, Vincent and Chic. The others stayed near the ships.
Another gust of breeze danced across the landing platform. Rainbow enjoyed the feeling of wind in her mane; she had been without that feeling for far too long back when she was stuck in the stale, static air of the Ishimura. She took to the air again, reaching the crashed pod instantly. The feeling of the wind in her mane was even stronger when she was flying. She circled around as the others approached. Dash used her altitude to keep on the lookout for any enemies, but there were still none to be found.
"Which ship do you think the pod came from?" Zako asked no one in particular.
"It doesn't belong to the Ishimura," Vincent said, "someone from that military ship must have gotten away."
"It won't open," Chic tried to engage the pod's emergency release lever.
"I'll get this tin can open." Zako started hacking away at the door with his ZK-II war-axe.
Zaeed leveled his borrowed E-5 blaster rifle at the pod's hatch.
"What are you doing?" Lyra was curious about the mercenary's aggressive stance.
"Whatever's in there might not be friendly."
Zako finished cutting and the pod's hatch fell away. There was no necromorph inside, but there was a fully armored Earth Defense Force soldier.
"Who the hell are you people?" The EDF soldier started to point his SWS pulse rifle at Zaeed—but was stopped when Zako grabbed him by the neck and roughly shoved him out onto the deck. He wasn't being gentle, but it was a less harsh response than Zaeed or HK-47 shooting him.
"We'll ask the questions, jackass." Zaeed kicked the soldier in the shoulder when he tried to get up.
"I'm not telling you people anything—"
Zaeed hefted the soldier up and slammed him against the side of the escape pod. "You will if you value your life."
"What's your name and rank?" Yayap asked.
The soldier hesitated for a second. By the look on Massani's face inspired him to quickly answer. "I'm Commander Cadigan."
"Cadigan?" Zako knew he had heard the name before. "Wait… I found one of your audio logs back on the Valor."
"So, this is one of the fuckers who was gonna help Kendra screw us over?" Krunch asked.
"Request: Can I kill him, Master?" HK-47 asked Zaeed. "Please. It would be ever so enjoyable."
"Whoa. Calm down, guys," Vinyl said.
"What's it to you?" Zaeed looked over at the white unicorn.
"Don't you think killing him is a bit much?" The sunlight bounced off Scratch's shades, giving off a weak glare.
"He was going to do the same to us," Zaeed responded, "and he still would, if given the chance."
"Please, I was just following orders," Cadigan pleaded. "You win. I've had enough. I'm all that's left of the Valor. Everyone else is dead. I surrender."
"Don't worry," Zako said, "we're not gonna kill you."
"We're not?" Zaeed asked tersely.
"No. We're going to bring him back with us. Then, he can answer to my commanding officer." Cadigan started to speak again but Zako rose up a finger and interrupted him. "I know you don't want to talk, Commander. But, we have ways of making you talk. But, question and answer time will come later. Right now, we have more important things to do than deal with you."
Alissa Vincent bit her lip. She didn't like the idea of Cadigan being whisked away to the Confederacy of Independent Systems. That would likely be very unpleasant. But Cadigan was partly responsible for the deaths of nearly the entire crew of the Ishimura—so in that respect, he had it coming. As much as Vincent wanted to bring Cadigan to Earth to stand trial and answer for his crimes, she didn't think the Separatists would let him go. She kept quiet about her thoughts on the matter; Cadigan ultimately wasn't worth arguing over. He was going to pay for his part in this mess, one way or another, and that was good enough for Vincent.
They tied Cadigan up and stored him in the executive shuttle to keep him from causing trouble. Lyra brought up the possibility that Cadigan might help them return the Marker if given the chance but that idea was rejected by everyone who wasn't a pony.
"You're going to have to learn you can't trust everyone," Zako told Lyra.
"Yeah, Karl. I already figured that out when Kendra shot you." The minty mare rolled her eyes. She did not feel like being lectured about trust right now.
"Maybe he's telling the truth," Vinyl said, "maybe he really is just following orders. Maybe he's just a poor guy stuck in a bad situation."
"He'll have a chance to explain himself when we get out of here," Zako promised.
As the others talked, Dr. Kyne typed away at the loader control panel. The Marker was finally removed from the executive shuttle and placed onto the rail loader. The process took mere seconds. Efficiency was to be expected when things were automated.
But not everything went so smoothly. "The automated rail system isn't responding," Dr. Kyne tried tapping at the control console a few more times before giving up. "We'll need to manually move the Marker along the tracks. Mr. Clarke, if you could help with this…"
Isaac brought it along the tracks with his kinesis module until he was impeded by a pair of gigantic shutter doors. The Marker clattered to a noisy halt.
"Now what's wrong?" Chen asked.
"The shutter door won't open. It's missing a power cell." Dr. Kyne pointed over at a large, empty power socket in the wall.
"Well, who the fuck took it?" Krunch asked.
"As if anyone has a fuckin' clue," Vincent sighed.
"We didn't come all this way to get stopped by a door," Zaeed said, "there must be a replacement somewhere."
"Let's start looking." Commander Zako opened a nearby door leading to a barracks. Yayap and Krunch quickly followed behind him. And then the ponies, and then the two bounty hunters. The others stayed on the landing platform to look around.
"Wow, not a necromorph in sight," Yayap carefully looked through the rows of bunks. "Other than those feeders that came with us."
"Observation: The hostile meatbags are not yet aware of our presence. They will attack in significant numbers once our activities are discovered. Oh, I will enjoy the battle. The tearing of meat, the shattering of bones, oceans of blood staining the deck. Today has been a good day, and it's not even over yet."
"What's a bad day for you?" Vinyl deadpanned.
HK-47 and Zaeed split up from the others to cover the area faster. The ponies just stuck with the three Separatists, they didn't know what they were looking for looked like.
Rainbow Dash saw a nearby door, and went over to press the holographic touch screen interface. "This is such an odd way to open a door," she said.
"Earthers are odd," Zako said as he and the others followed Dash into the flight control center.
There was a lot of blood, and a couple of dead bodies. One of the corpses was hanging from a noose, a suicide. Through the windows they could see the others still out on the landing platform. Lyra waved at them, Tali noticed and waved back.
Yayap picked up an audio log he found lying in a corner.
"This is Sergeant Neumann, P-Sec! We've lost all the shuttles! One of them just took off, then came straight back down and crashed into the bay! Took a couple hundred people and all the remaining shuttles with it! If anyone can hear this, do not land! Do not land!"
"Aaaannnddd… of course we would land," Krunch shook his head. Trying to return the Marker was starting to look like a bad idea.
Meanwhile, HK-47 and Zaeed had found the Gravity Tether Computer Room. Opening the door released two infectors that had been trapped inside. HK-47 killed the first with his line gun and Zaeed killed the second with his blaster rifle. With their enemies dead, the droid and the human looked around. Luck was with them, for the moment. They found a replacement power cell. HK-47 hefted it up and the two turned back around into the barracks.
The Separatists and the ponies were returning from the flight control center.
"We found a power cell," Zaeed called them over.
They all went back out to the landing platform and HK-47 put power cell in socket, powering up the large door.
"Amelia says we must return the Marker to the pedestal chamber. In order to… make us whole again," Dr. Kyne muttered to himself, though he was loud enough for the others to hear him.
A there was a loud, whale-like moan. Everyone looked up just in time to see single divider drop down from the roof of the barracks to attack.
Lyra and Vinyl both fired their magical energy blasts… and completely eviscerated the creature. Even the little parts that separated after a divider took too much damage were instantly killed in the blast.
Everyone was silent for a moment. Zako, Yayap, Krunch, Tali, Zaeed and HK-47 had seen this phenomenon before… back in the Ishimura's cargo room when they first collected the Marker. But to the others, the ponies' power increase was something new.
"Oh…" was all Vinyl Scratch managed to say. Her powers had suddenly increased again, and she had no idea how or why it happened.
Lyra couldn't help but grin. "This could make things easier…" She didn't know why her powers had increased again, but she could definitely get used to it.
"That's it!" Zako suddenly yelled, almost making Rainbow jump. "The Marker! That's what giving your powers a boost! That fucking thing gives me a headache, it gives you three super powers."
Everyone stared at Zako as if he were insane.
"It is!" The commander defended his theory. "When we first got the Marker in the cargo bay, Lyra, Rainbow and Vinyl suddenly started kicking ass. Then we sent it up to the next level—"
"And the ponies still kicked ass," Yayap interrupted. "Remember? More necromorphs attacked after the lift took the Marker up to the next level."
"But the Marker must'a been close enough still," Zako said. "When the ponies ended up further away from it, that's when their improved powers suddenly disappeared."
Dr. Kyne had suddenly become very intrigued. "Is this true? What do you ponies know of the Marker?"
"Nothing," Lyra said, "we know nothing about this thing."
"Or anything," Vinyl added.
"We've never seen anything like this thing before," Dash pointed at the Marker.
"Alright, I don't care anymore," Zako said, "the Marker's giving me a headache again. Let's just return the damn thing and be done with it."
Tali went through the door and operated the shutter controls. The shutter doors creaked and heaved, as if they didn't want to open and allow the Marker entrance.
Dr. Cross looked extremely skittish. All she did was cower near her boyfriend. "We don't all have to go, do we?" She asked.
"No. We should leave a couple people to guard the ships," Zako said, "in case Kendra shows up and tries to escape on one."
"Elizabeth and I will stay behind," Jacob Temple volunteered.
"Yeah, fine. Stay. Watch out for Kendra. And make sure Cadigan doesn't cause any trouble," Zako said dismissively.
Isaac was about to use his kinesis module on the Marker but Vinyl beat him to it. She grabbed it with her magic and knocked it along the rail quickly (much more quickly than the kinesis module would have been able to do).
Dr. Cross and Temple watched on as the rest of the group went through the door.
When the Marker was in, Tali activated the shutter control and got the shutter door leading to Gravity Tether Operations A opened.
Vinyl dragged the Maker on through again, but was stopped when the loader was blocked by a catwalk that ran over the track.
The air was much staler now, though it still wasn't as bad as when they were on the Ishimura. The lighting was terrible.
"Warning: Quarantine lockdown initialized. Unknown bioforms detected in the area. Security has been notified." The colony's VI sounded suspiciously similar to the Ishimura's.
"The colony's VI is as useless as the Ishimura's is," Tali said.
"It also like to trap us in with the monsters," Yayap added.
A huge army of necromorphs came out to play. The repurposed corpses of the colony workers were just as varied as the Ishimura's crew was. There were slashers, lurkers, exploders, stalkers, pukers, pregnants, and spitters present.
But the necromorphs' numbers didn't matter. The ponies eviscerated them. It was like a horror movie, but reversed. The survivors slaughtered the monsters. Lyra and Vinyl's magical energy beams were as powerful as rocket launchers. Pieces of necromorphs flew every which way. Rainbow Dash put on extreme speed as she flew around the room, leaving trails of rainbow fire behind her.
Dash ended up killing the majority of the necromorphs, vaporizing them in her rainbow fire. Lyra and Vinyl got in a few good kills. All the other survivors were barely able to start attacking before it was all over.
"Quarantine lifted."
HK-47 was less than pleased. He wanted to do some killing, and the ponies weren't sharing.
"Ha! At the rate we're going, we won't even need to return the Marker. We'll just kill all the necromorphs!"
Dr. Kyne marched over to Zako, eyeing him critically. "We are returning the Marker."
"Yes, yes. Of course. I'm just saying there might not be any more necromorphs by the time we get there."
"What's all this, 'we'll kill the all necromorphs' stuff?'" Dash asked as she flew over to Zako. "Me, Lyra and Vinyl are the ones doing all the work!"
"If you saved any, I'd be killin' 'em too! I finally have a real ranged weapon to fight with and everything! Hey, Yayap. Back me up here."
"What?" Yayap looked over at his commanding officer. "I like having the ponies kill everything."
They had to use some nearby bridge controls to lift some of the catwalks out of the way of the rails. But, as might have been expected, there was a malfunction. The bridges would instantly fall back down. So they had to freeze them with stasis modules to allow the Maker to pass through.
This time Lyra dragged the Marker along the rail and through the next set of shutter doors. Once the Marker was in the transition area, they had to wait for the back shutter door to close before the front one could be opened. It was a long, painfully slow process, especially for one as impatient as Rainbow Dash.
"Come on," Dash groaned. "Can't these doors move any faster? You guys are a bunch of space aliens with future technology, yet your stuff moves sooooo slooowww."
The shutter door to the Gravity Tether Core finally opened, allowing them to move the Marker forward along the rails once again. But just like in the last area, the Marker was impeded by two sets of catwalks overlapping against the tracks.
"Why are the damn bridges in the way of the tracks?" Yayap wailed. "Who's the idiot who thought this setup was a good idea?"
They suddenly heard a familiar moan, two familiar moans, in fact.
"Let's move!" Zaeed rushed forward. This wasn't good. Not if he was hearing the sounds right.
And then he saw them… two guardian necromorphs plastered against a nearby wall. The two tubby monstrosities were already releasing pods on the floor. They needed to kill the guardians fast, or they were going to have a very real problem.
Lyra fired a magical blast at the guardian on the left. Vinyl shot one at the guardian on the right. The stationary necromorphs popped like balloons filled with meat. Rainbow Dash did a quick fly-by to incinerate the few pods that were scattered around the floor. What could have been an incredibly difficult battle was no more than a minor footnote on their journey, thanks to the ponies' improved powers.
"The power to the bridges is out," Kyne checked the control panel. "We won't be able to get the Marker through without restoring the power. Amelia says there should be a control station at the end of the maintenance tube, over there," he pointed towards the circular doorway in between the two dead guardians.
Tired of losing out on kills because the ponies kept slaughtering everything, HK-47 was quick to go through the access hatch to the huge maintenance tube. Taking a step in, the assassin droid quickly learned something, and magnetized his metal feet to the floor. He turned back around to address the others coming up behind him.
"Warning: The maintenance tube is a zero-gravity zone. Those without magnetism are advised to stay behind." That included the ponies, and that made HK-47 happy. Perhaps now he could score a few kills. He hoped there were necromorphs lurking around in the tunnel. Only Zaeed, Tali and Isaac followed after the droid.
"Aren't you gonna go with them, Krunch? Commander?" Yayap asked.
"Uhhh, I'll pass." Krunch preferred to stay near the ponies, where it was safest.
"I think four people for the maintenance tunnel is enough," Zako said, "any more and we'll just get in each other's way."
Some of the others started to explore the room, going through a few lockers and supply crates.
"How you holding up?" Chic asked Chen, trying to make small talk.
"I'd be better if I knew what the hell was going on. Necromorphs, an ancient artifact, one of my crewmembers turning out to be a traitor, colorful alien quadrupeds that can slaughter entire armies of monsters, Separatists, quarians, bounty hunters… I'm not getting paid enough to deal with this shit."
"Neither am I." The way Chen had listed off all the craziness had certainly put things in perspective for Chic. The whole situation was massively screwed up.
As HK-47 had hoped, the maintenance tunnel was indeed crawling with necromorphs. Unfortunately, they were just the little lurker babies. As much fun as killing mutant babies was, HK-47 was hoping for something a little more challenging. The line gun he had acquired cut through their tentacles easily. Tali never even got to attack; her contact beam kept taking too long to charge up. HK-47 killed everything that came in sight too quickly. Zaeed let his droid have fun, and merely watched their backs in case anything attacked from behind. Isaac didn't even bother to try and kill anything. There was no point; the other three had everything under control.
They passed by several large fans that were shut down. There were a lot of human body parts floating around, as if the people had been chopped up by the fans at one point. There were also a few supply crates. Isaac grabbed a few of the crates with his kinesis module and sent them smashing against the wall in order to determine what was inside. Mostly it was money, and some ammo for the line gun.
Eventually they reached the end of the tunnel and had to jump down to the bottom of the shaft.
Tali opened up a supply crate while HK-47 pulled down the lever. There was a droning, buzzing sound and a cyclone of wind started to cycle through the tunnel. Zaeed knew what that meant; the fans had turned on.
They started heading back, only to be stopped when they reached the first fan.
"What the hell are giant fans doing in a maintenance tunnel?" Zaeed asked.
"Theory: Their purpose seems to be nothing more than to be obstacles in our path, Master."
"I guess this doubles as an air circulation system?" Tali fired her stasis module at the center of the fan, putting it in slow motion. The four passed by without getting sliced to pieces.
Before they reached the second fan lurkers and leapers came out to play. Tali was surprised she actually got to fire her contact beam this time. HK-47 had his hands full with three leapers. Zaeed was busy with two lurkers and even Isaac was forced to fight. But the necromorphs still never got close to laying a hand on the survivors.
HK-47 used his stasis module on the next set of fans and soon enough they were nearing the end of the tunnel. The human body parts that were lazily floating around the tunnel were now spinning all over the place. Tali wasn't particularly pleased when a severed human head knocked right into her faceplate.
Once Zaeed's small squad exited the maintenance tube they were greeted by the others.
An ear-shattered roar echoed through the room before they could get back to the Marker. An enhanced brute had smashed a hole in the ceiling and dropped down to the deck. The beast wasted no time in charging at the survivors.
Lyra and Vinyl fired their magical energy beams. There was a heavy blue and gold mist as the magic impacted on the bulky necromorph. In a couple of seconds the vapors cleared, revealing both of the brute's arms had been blown off. The creature toppled forward and died.
"Aww yeah! How do you like that, chump?" Vinyl cheered.
"Why couldn't it have always been this easy?" Tali shook her head.
"See? I think it is the Marker," Zako said, "you ponies haven't lost your upgraded powers because we keep dragging the Marker along with us."
"Or maybe, we're just that awesome," Rainbow Dash said.
Dr. Kyne was able to get the bridges up and Vinyl quickly dragged the Marker through to the next shutter door.
Grid's stealth and patience had paid off. His prey had taken him away from the ship and down to the planet. They were supposed to ferry him off to a new area with fresh, untainted prey to hunt, but Grid could already sense that something was seriously wrong. He left the Ebon Hawk to go exploring.
The landing platform the xenomorph found himself on was a mess. The air carried the scent of prey long dead. There were corpses of dead feeders lying around. Their outstretched claws no longer sought after flesh. Grid could sense live prey in one of the other ships. He stalked over to the executive shuttle and started crawling up it.
Jacob Temple and his girlfriend, Dr. Cross had locked themselves (and Cadigan) in the executive shuttle. They thought it would be safer inside the shuttle, just in case a horde of necromorphs decided to appear out of nowhere. But the shuttle would not save them from Grid. He was smarter than the necromorphs. He could find a way inside the shuttle. And if there wasn't one, Grid could always make one.
But Grid noticed something as he was crawling around on top of the shuttle. The xenomorph sensed that he was in great danger. His black form crawled to the end of the shuttle and he silently dropped to the deck. The shuttle's occupants weren't even aware of his presence.
Grid carefully stalked over to the end of the landing platform and peered over the edge… and retreated back into the bowels of the Ebon Hawk. The creature in the crater below was hidden, but not to Grid. The xenomorph knew the other creature was massive. Grid knew he couldn't defeat such a monster on his own. He had no hivemates with him. He had been separated from his only one, and was now completely alone. Grid hid back in the Ebon Hawk's cargo bay, in the same place he had stashed himself before. He couldn't believe his prey was so stupid as to come here. Did they not know of the threat lurking a breath away? This planet was dead. Grid's only hope was that his prey would regain their senses and return to their ships to take him elsewhere.
The unicorns dragged the Marker through Gravity Tether Operations B. Everyone kept waiting for a necromorph attack, but none ever came. There wasn't a single necromorph in sight. There was some blood and body parts, and even some crates and wall safes, but no enemies.
"Holy crap," Krunch looked around. "Did the monsters just give up?"
"Of course they did," Dash said, "they can't compete with our awesomeness."
Yayap sniffed at the air. "I can still smell their stench. They're not too far off."
"Gathering for one last attack," Tali guessed.
"Smells like it," Yayap said.
"Great, I can't wait," Chen said sarcastically.
The Marker was magically moved to the end of the rail, stopped by the final shutter. Alissa Vincent hit the door controls and sunlight started to flare at their eyes as the final shutter door opened up to the excavation site.
There was a very loud roar as they walked outside. It sounded distant. Far away.
"Keep it together," Zaeed told the team. "We're almost done with this."
Vinyl Scratch dragged the Marker along but the unicorn stopped when three large tentacles came up from below the catwalk. And with the tentacles, several dozen necromorphs made their appearances known. This was the necromorphs' last chance to stop them.
Flying at a reckless speed that would put modern starfighters to shame, Rainbow Dash scorched the approaching necromorphs, reducing them to nothing more than smoldering, rainbow-colored embers that drifted away with the wind. Lyra and Vinyl blew up the tentacles with their energy blasts. Everyone else started firing on the necromorphs that attacked from behind—coming out from the building they had just left.
"Hurry! You must return the Marker!" Kyne told the two unicorns.
"Right!" Lyra sent the Marker screeching across the rails in one powerful boost. It was going so fast Lyra was worried it was going to derail. But the Marker ended up all the way over at the end of the rails, safe and sound.
Dr. Kyne had to run to catch up, Isaac Clarke right behind him. Reaching the pedestal site, Kyne used the control panel, triggering the Marker to be lifted up onto the pedestal.
Isaac noticed Nicole walk out from behind the Marker. That was weird. Clarke could have sworn his girlfriend was with the group, behind him. He didn't know how she got over to the Marker without him seeing her. "Thank you, Isaac. I always believed in you. I knew you would return to me. We are whole again, Isaac. We are whole…" Nicole suddenly disappeared right before Isaac's eyes.
The Marker started to glow, as if it were some doomsday energy weapon being charged up for the final attack. The ground started to quake. Dr. Kyne had to shield his eyes. The remaining necromorphs charged after the Marker with suicidal abandon, only to be gunned down. After a few seconds, the Marker released an energy blast straight up into the sky.
"What the buck is it doing?" Rainbow asked over the roar of the blast.
"As if I have a fuckin' clue," Vincent yelled back.
Then the energy beam subsided. The ground stopped shaking. The necromorphs were all gone.
The colony VI chimed in with a new announcement. "Emergency: Geo-orbital gravity tethers offline. Tectonic load released. Impact imminent. Evacuate this area immediately."
"What does that mean?" Vinyl asked.
"It means we better get the hell out of here before we're asteroid paste," Zaeed said.
"Over here! This way!" Dr. Kyne pointed.
They all piled into the room adjacent the pedestal. Glass windows provided them a view of the excavation site, though the blast shields came up and obscured their view.
Chic pressed the interface for the door to open, but it wouldn't budge. "Damn thing won't open."
"You fools didn't really think I was going to just walk away, did you?" Everyone recognized that voice by now. "I can't do that. The Marker's coming with me…" They turned around as the blast shields started to come down, revealing Kendra Daniels on the other side of the glass. The Marker was slowly moving back along the rails again, Kendra had somehow gotten the automatic rail subsystem to work. "It's a shame, I was starting to like you, Isaac. You're not a babbling moron like the rest of these idiots. Even if you are insane."
Clarke remained silent, merely staring at Kendra through the glass.
"What, you don't believe me? Take a look at yourself. Better yet, take a look at the video from Nicole. And this time, watch it right to the end…"
Isaac started up the video, the one he had been playing endlessly back on the Kellion. "Isaac, it's me. I wish I could talk to you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about everything. I wish I could just… talk to someone. It's all falling apart here. I can't believe what's happening… It's strange… such a little thing… I didn't want it to end like this. I really wanted to see you again, just once. I loved you. I always loved you." Isaac watched as Nicole committed suicide by injection.
Isaac put his hand to his face. It was the only hint of emotion the others had seen him display all day.
"See?" Kendra started up again. "You're insane. Just like Kyne, just like the rest of those freaks you're with. Nicole has been dead this whole time. Whatever you were seeing… was caused by that. You were its pawn. But don't worry. It will be in good hands, now. Far away from this damned place. Goodbye."
"NO! You idiot!" Dr. Kyne roared with indignant fury. "We did it! We returned the Marker! We stopped the outbreak! You're going to just undo everything?"
"Shut up, Kyne. I've grown sick of your blathering. If it weren't for that Separatist jackass, you'd be dead by now. Oh, how I wished that shot hit yo—"
"I won't let you do this!" Kyne activated his plasma saw and started cutting into the glass. Zaeed activated his omni-blade and Zako turned on his war-axe, joining Kyne in breaking out of their little prison.
Kendra's eyes widened in shock. They were coming for her! She started running along the rails, following the Marker back towards the shutter door.
HK-47 shattered the glass windows entirely with his line gun. The bounty hunters and Separatists were the first to pile out and chase after Kendra. If they could just catch Kendra, they could still return the Marker again. Rainbow Dash took to the air and sped forward, instantly gaining on the traitorous human.
But the shutter door closed shut just in time, forcing Rainbow to bolt upward to avoid careening into it.
"We'll go this way and cut her off!" Kyne pointed to where they were heading originally.
When Chic tried the door this time, it opened. The hallway ahead was covered in the Corruption.
"Hurry!" Kyne said as he ran across the puke-covered floor.
"Ewww," Lyra was not so keen on that stuff touching her hooves. Rainbow just flew in the air. "Karl, give me a ride!"
"What?"
"I don't wanna touch that stuff."
"Me neither," Vinyl said.
"We're gonna get left behind!"
"Then give me a lift!"
"I don't believe this," Zako bent down and let Lyra hitch another ride on his back.
"Hey, what about me—"
"Up we go," Lyra lifted Vinyl into the air with her magic.
"You ponies are ridiculous." Zako shook his helmeted head and started off after the others.
The hall lead directly to the barracks they had explored earlier, and the barracks lead right to the landing pad.
"Good thing we left guards at the shuttles," Krunch said, "that human scumbag is toast."
They made it out onto the landing pad just in time to see Kendra run up the ramp for the executive shuttle. But when she got to the top, the door wouldn't open; Temple and Cross were still locked inside.
Kendra Daniels wasn't getting into the executive shuttle. Before she could do anything else, a gigantic tentacle shot up from the crater.
"Oh my God!" The tentacle slapped Kendra away from the shuttle and onto the deck. In appreciation for her removing the Marker, it came crashing down on her body and smeared her across the deck until it finally knocked her into the windows of the nearby flight control room. Her RIG redlined.
The tentacle receded back into the depths, only for a powerful tremor to shake the landing platform, though it felt as if all of Aegis VII had suffered a planet-wide quake. A massive creature sprung upward a split-second later.
It was a towering, worm-like creature that possessed a mouth that looked similar to a venus flytrap. It was a grand visage of death and desolation if ever there was one. It possessed several tentacles, and waved them casually in the air. Why the Hive Mind didn't attack when they first set down on Aegis VII no one knew. How they managed to miss such a gargantuan monster was also a mystery. It must of had been sleeping under the plant's crust. But it was awake now.
"What I'd do for a fuel rod gun right now…"
"Fuck that, Yayap. We need artillery for this," Zako said. "I'm sick of fighting giants with fucking tools and infantry weapons." First they fought the Leviathan, then the Slug, and now the Hive Mind.
"Statement: An orbital bombardment would be the most effective way to kill this creature."
"Too bad that's not an option," Chic just wanted to give up. He realized the Separatist officer had been right all along. They should have left when they could and gone for help. Then they could have killed this thing with an orbital bombardment. But instead, they were the ones who were going to die, not the monster before them. The realization stung Chic so badly because this had all been completely avoidable.
The Marker hadn't been loaded onto the shuttle yet. Dragging it all the way along the rails back to the pedestal site would have been an option had the Hive Mind not used one of its tentacles to block the way back, preventing the Marker from going anywhere, and it stopped them from leaving the landing pad.
The executive shuttle started to lift off.
"Temple, you fucking coward!" Zako yelled at the shuttle.
The Hive Mind let out a roar that nearly knocked them to the deck.
"Shoot the damn thing!" Zaeed yelled.
No one needed to be told a second time.
Lyra and Vinyl's magical attacks were still super powered; the Marker was still close by. But no matter how many times they shot it, the Hive Mind wouldn't go down. The ranged weapons from the others were even less effective.
A large tentacle came crashing down to the deck, but everyone got out of the way in time.
Rainbow Dash flew circles around the towering behemoth, trying to get its attention. A few tentacles whipped around the air, struggling to slap her down. But Dash was far too fast. The Hive Mind didn't even come close to hitting her.
"Comparison: This isn't that much different from fighting a thresher maw on foot."
"Aim for those yellow pus bags around its mouth!" Yayap yelled.
Zaeed managed to pop one with his blaster. Then Zako destroyed a second. It was a rather convenient weak point; it was as if they were fighting a videogame boss. But while popping the explosive pus bags around its mouth caused the Hive Mind temporary pain, destroying them all didn't necessarily mean they'd kill the creature.
Lyra took careful aim and destroyed the third yellow growth. The Hive Mind howled in anger, furious that such tiny insects were causing it such harm. The planet shook as the Hive Mind swayed back in fourth in pain and anger.
Another tentacle careened towards the deck, but instead of trying to crush the survivors, it came down and grabbed Zako by the leg, lifting him up into the air.
The Hive Mind pulled the dangling Separatist closer to its mouth.
"It's going to eat him!" Lyra fired more magical blasts.
Rainbow smashed against the tentacle that held Zako. The pegasus' vision blurred. It felt like she had just tackled a mountain of rock. And the Hive Mind hadn't released its grip on Zako.
"That's my paycheck its about to eat!" Zaeed yelled.
Lyra and Vinyl tried to pull Zako away with their magic, but the Hive Mind's grip was too strong.
All the while, Zako was screaming like a madman, shooting into the Hive Mind's mouth with his blaster.
Rainbow Dash circled around the Hive Mind again. She knew trying to attack the tentacle would be useless. She saw the unicorn's magic still locked in a tug-of-war with the Hive Mind. The tentacle slowly managed to pull away from the magic and Zako was slowly being edged closer to a gruesome death. Rainbow knew she had one chance to save him. She couldn't beat the Hive Mind by attacking it directly… so she switched targets.
Rainbow circled around again and put on a burst of speed, smashing not into the tentacle, but into Zako. Combined with the two unicorns' magic, Dash knocked Zako free and the two careened towards the landing platform.
Lyra grabbed them with magic just in time to soften their fall. But they still landed too hard—way to hard. Lyra rushed over to them while the others kept shooting at the Hive Mind. Relief washed over her as she saw Rainbow Dash on top of Zako. The Separatist had taken hold of the pegasus when she crashed into him, and kept her above him. Zako had taken the full force of the impact. His armor and Lyra's magic was just enough to prevent him from becoming a mushy paste. And he, in turn, had kept Rainbow from becoming a bloody puddle.
Rainbow rolled off Zako and he sat up. "Let's not do that again," he groaned.
"What? Save your life?" Dash asked. Zako managed to laugh.
All the growths around the Hive Mind's mouth had been destroyed, but the monster didn't look like it was ready to die.
"Now what do we do?" Lyra asked Zako and Rainbow.
"I'll take care of it," Rainbow got back up.
"What are you going to do?" Zako asked.
"I'm going to end this." Dash took off back into the air. She flew up high into the air, circling around to the Hive Mind's back.
"Rainbow! Not too high up!" Zako yelled after her. At the height she was going, she was risking leaving the artificial atmosphere.
Dash turned herself back around, angling herself down at the Hive Mind. She put on speed. More and more and more. Her wings ached. Her mane flashed in the wind. She started to leave a rainbow-colored streak behind her. Then her form funneled into a cone of colors…
Rainbow Dash hit that perfect speed just as she passed the Hive Mind, creating a Sonic Rainboom. But this was no ordinary Sonic Rainboom; the Marker was still in range, still giving the ponies a power boost. The Rainboom detonated with a force unlike any before it. The rainbow of colors cut into the back of the Hive Mind, slashing right through. Gobs of snotty entrails were blasted out of the wounds, following after the streaks of deadly colors in a grossly beautiful display of power never before witnessed.
"She's a fuckin' bomb?" Zaeed had to shield his eyes from the overpowering rainbow glare. The sheer force from the explosion knocked half the survivors off their feet.
The Hive Mind started to fall; a huge shadow was cast over the landing platform.
"Shit! Move!" Yayap yelled.
The Hive Mind crashed onto the landing platform, dead. The colossal corpse split the survivors down the middle. The corpse prevented half of the survivors from reaching the CIS shuttle and Ebon Hawk.
The large chuck of planet that was falling down from the sky was getting much closer.
The executive shuttle swooped down to pick up the survivors that ended up on the wrong side of the platform. Temple and Cross hadn't abandoned the group. Isaac Clarke, Chic, Chen, and Alissa Vincent, rushed aboard the executive shuttle.
"Get to the ships!" Tali yelled.
"Where's Rainbow?" Vinyl looked around.
"What the hell happened? Did she blow herself up?" Zako asked.
"I'm over here!" Rainbow fluttered down from the sky and fell to the deck. She was exhausted, too exhausted to move. "I need some help!" She managed to sputter out.
Zako ran over and scooped her up, running for the Separatist shuttle.
"Hurry! C'mon!" Lyra waved them on. They reached the shuttle and got in.
"Is that everyone?" Dr. Kyne asked from the cockpit.
Zako placed Dash on the floor. "Move over, Doc. I'm driving!"
The Separatist shuttle lurched off the landing platform at the same time the Ebon Hawk did.
Both ships followed the executive shuttle back into the sky, clearing the radius of the debris impact just in time.
Though everyone was exhausted, they managed to get through a headcount. Zako, Lyra, Rainbow, Vinyl, and Dr. Kyne were all onboard the Separatist shuttle while Tali, Yayap, Krunch, Zaeed, and HK-47 were all safely on the Ebon Hawk. Isaac Clarke, Chic, Chen, Alissa Vincent, Jacob Temple, Dr. Elizabeth Cross, and Commander Cadigan were on the executive shuttle. It was an amazing feat that so many had managed to survive the ordeal.
"Let's get back to Oddworld," Commander Zako transmitted to the two other ships.
"How to you know you're army's still there?" Tali asked over the comm.
"If there's one thing I know, it's everything. And besides, shut up. Zaeed, makes sure Tali follows me."
"Can do."
Zako switched off the comm. "How you all doing back there?" he turned around in his chair a little.
"We're not dead, that's a plus," Vinyl said, her tone indicating she was very tired.
"I'm sleepy…" Rainbow started to doze off. "You guys can thank me for being awesome… later…"
"Yeah… a nap… sounds good…" Lyra learned her head against Dr. Kyne. The annoying stone of fear and worry that was lodged in her chest had finally dissolved. Lyra Heartstrings still didn't fully understand what was going on, how she, Rainbow and Vinyl had arrived to this strange place. But that was something to worry about later. They were finally safe… and sleep called to them.