The world spun.
Sassi’s vision came in scattered bursts, the venom in her bloodstream making her entire body limp. She wasn’t sure what time it was, only that the mare was spread-eagle against a wall, a thick, reddish substance cementing her to the concrete.
The Thestral was still reeling from the magical mind-control, the horrific, violating sense of being used and controlled making her feel sick. The Spider venom made her unable to focus on anything. Sassi was only vaguely aware of a booming voice, dozens of multi-limbed bodies moving past her.
The last thing she recalled before falling unconscious was the memory of a horrified voice, the roar of guns as she had been dragged away.
Astral.
Astral lost track of time. It was only fifteen minutes, but the pain was merciless, unrelenting as magic coursed through his body. Only one word pushed him through, cementing the singular goal of the entire procedure.
Sassi.
She had gone through decades of pain. Astral wasn’t about to buckle over fifteen minutes that could be the key to saving her. He’d endure it as long as he needed to.
I promised.
Vial trotted back and forth, tapping various keys on the monitors off to the side and ensuring the magical fields remained stable. The unicorn occasionally looked towards Astral, worry shining in his expression.
Don’t worry about me. Just make sure it works!
His mind was clear, but somehow an odd fuzziness was permeating his senses. Maybe it was the painkillers and other chemicals being dumped into the stallion’s system, but it felt weird. No looniness from the painkillers or other side effects, so that was a bonus. Or maybe that was just temporary.
As the crystals slowly began to decrease their magical output, the Thestral had to blink. For a few moments, Vial moved slowly, magical sparks likewise seeming to be moving in molasses. It then sped up again as the unicorn nodded in approval.
“Procedure complete,” Vial muttered, looking at the various charts and scans of Astral. “Take a step out of the station, carefully.”
Astral did so, the world seeming somehow sharper, more refined. He could see the minor imperfections on the tiled floor, and hear the hum of wires in the distance. The cool breeze of the ventilation in the lab against his fur made the Thestral shiver.
“Ok, the procedure took surprisingly well. You’ve got the highest compatibility I’ve seen yet,” Vial explained, scanning the Thestral with a spell. “I guess those chemicals did some good. How do you feel?”
“Really weird,” Astral said, “the world slows down sometimes, and my senses are definitely sharper. I feel lighter too.”
“That’s normal. And with heightened reflexes, you’ll have a ‘super sense’, per se, if combat arises. It lays dormant until you sense a threat, even subconsciously. When you have an adrenaline dump, fight, get startled, or anything that could be perceived as a threat, everything will slow down. It’s an automatic response.”
“That explains Sassi’s movements.”
“Exactly. How about anything else? Lingering pain? You should be starting to feel pretty good.”
Astral blinked. Nothing hurt, and he did feel good. A pool of energy was quickly forming in the pony’s body as if running to Canterlot and back would be a breeze.
“I do feel pretty great. Tons of energy.”
“Excellent. Now let’s get you into the armor. While it can amplify your natural movements when needed, it’s also designed to help acclimate to your own body when the armor is off. It should be seamless, wearing the armor and leaving it.”
“Alright, just tell me what to do, Vial.”
“Stand here.”
Moving to stand in front of the armor’s case, Astral watched as robotic arms peeled the suit apart into a dozen pieces.
“Stand still. Initializing suit-up sequence.”
At first, the metal and mesh were ice-cold against Astral’s fur and skin. Within moments of locking into place, however, the stallion didn’t feel anything as the mesh matched his body temperature. It was the oddest sensation, just a faint weight against his body despite the armor weighing far more than he did.
“Limbo reactor online. I hope it holds…” Vial muttered, watching as a small backpack-like object was latched onto Astral’s back.
“Reactor?”
“We never were able to solve the power generation issue. The reactor on your back is a miniaturized portal. It converts latent Limbo energy into useable electricity to power the suit. But something always interfering with our efforts on the other side. It barely drew enough power to even sustain basic functions, less than ten percent. You’ll need to recharge after about four hours; that’s as long as we could make it last even with the best batteries we have. Even so, some systems may…wait…”
Tapping a few keys, Vial’s eyes widened in shock.
“Reactor output at one hundred percent,” he whispered, “all systems online, Limbo connection stable. But how?”
Tears abruptly pooled in Astral’s eyes. His eyes flickered to his discharged saddlebags, where a soft, friendly blue glow emanated from where he had stowed the Queen’s gift.
“Joro.”
“What?!” Vial exclaimed, shaking his head. “Never mind. Well, that solves the power issue. Carefully take a step over here. We need to calibrate the tactical systems.”
Running through a brief drill of looking at a five-point light system, Astral barely felt the armor as he moved.
“Shields online; they take a good five minutes to recharge once completely depleted, so don’t let them run too low if possible. Take cover and let them recharge. They’re meant for last-ditch defense, not a constant barrage of blows or bullets. It’s an exponential escalation for how much power they drain for absorbing a strike. A would-be fatal strike would drain everything, but minor hits only a few percentage points,” Vial explained. “I hope that makes sense. Usually, we have an entire day to acclimate them to armor systems, and then a week-long training course. We were meaning to then move on to a month of tests, but we never even got to the one-day rapid deployment tests.”
“It makes sense.”
Vial tapped a few more keys, the metal walls opening up to reveal a vast array of items.
“The armor can heal you, but it’s meant as a support system to keep you alive until actual treatment. I’ve activated the auxiliary power systems, so the armor can utilize a wide range of available power options if it senses them, when the reactor isn’t enough. It’s experimental though and may be finicky,” The unicorn walked over to a small set of metal saddlebags, a robotic arm slotting them onto the armor.
“These are the life support systems and the cartridges. You have three spares. Each is slotted in here…” he showed Astral how to reload the rectangular objects into the armor. “Antibiotics, stimulants, painkillers, antivenom, coagulating, and healing foam; it’s a comprehensive mix. You don’t want to use more than one or two of these, but three is for an emergency. There are more in Silo Three. Last I heard, they were being spread around as a one-stop medical station, if necessary,” Vial explained.
“I’ve put eighteen total doses of the follow-up serum in the packs as well. That’s nine syringes. That gives you four spare doses; it’s all we have here at this station. I’ll set reminders for you to inject them. There may be another station in Silo Three, but I don’t know anything outside of rumors.”
The next set of containers was along Astral’s flanks; Vial gently putting the contents of Astral’s previous saddlebags into them, including a brightly glowing stone that made Astral smile.
“Basic cargo storage. You’ve got your old items, and a survival it with a few days’ worth of food and water. The armor has waste elimination and recycling, so don’t worry about that. Just spit the tar into your helmet and it’ll dispose of it. There’s a drinking tube to water reserves inside, to the bottom-right of your HUD.”
Astral nodded, noting how the display was fairly minimalistic. A crosshair, magical shield status, and physical health condition along with reactor output.
“The helmet has night vision, heavy-duty filters, scanning suites, the whole smash. There’s an onboard AI to answer questions and activate them if you can’t reach any of the manual buttons. You’ve also got a map and basic motion tracker, so getting lost isn’t an issue. Just tell the AI where you want to go.”
“Got it,” Astral paused, “Erm, how do I get out of this thing?”
The unicorn let out a snort at that.
“Emergency repair kit. It’s with the medical supplies. There’s a wrench to release each segment under the edges of the armor plating. The armor mesh isn’t a single solid piece, as you saw. But when power is run through the fabric, the pieces work together. It’s stronger than a bulletproof vest, and the plating can take any known projectile like a champ. It’s also modular and can be worn by multiple users if needs be.”
Another few presses of keys, and Vial gestured to the new items.
“And these are to replace your shotgun.”
Astral felt a surge of excitement, an odd swelling of emotion that brought more tears to his eyes. In any other circumstance, he’d be drooling over the beautiful tools in front of him.
The two saddle-mounted weapons were cut-down, tri-barreled miniguns. A black belt fed into each, the rectangular ammunition containers on the rear. If he had to guess, a simple kick to some smoothed extraction levers would eject the magazines and reload them. Blue internal lights made the weapons glow softly.
All he could see now, however, were the keys to rescuing Sassi.
“Emotional swings?” Vial asked, glancing at the readouts.
“A bit, yeah.”
“That’s normal. Let’s get these on you.”
The guns that were strapped to Astral’s frame must have weighed easily half of his body weight each, and yet he still felt light as a feather.
“You have ten thousand shots per gun, and a spare magazine for each,” Vial explained. “The bullets are small, about three times the size of a grain of sand. But coated in magical plasma, they’ll aggressively react with any unarmored targets. They’re far more effective than even your explosive rounds, but minimal effectiveness against armor. The suit can utilize raw metal to obtain more ammunition in an emergency, but it needs to be connected to the reactor. They can function on batteries for a limited time if connected to a normal battle-saddle as well.”
“Miniguns and cannons online,” a disembodied voice abruptly said; the AI.
Tapping each side of the miniguns, Vial gestured to the larger barrels that locked into place above the tri-barreled assembly.
“These are the cannons. They fuse about a dozen normal shots together before being fired, so it uses more ammo. However, it can punch through heavy armor, but they fire much slower, only about two shots a second. They overheat fairly quickly too. You can switch in your HUD, voice command, or use the passive neural interface. The helmet has a similar system to your other one and can pick up on pointed thoughts.”
“No testing range?”
Vial shook his head.
“Try it out in the hall when we’re done. Ok, that’s armor, medical, shields, guns, AI, and power generation…walk around the lab for a few minutes to get the onboard systems used to your movements. Just say ‘activate calibration mode and tutorial.’” Vial then let out a sigh.
“The best advice I can give you is from what Sassi once said about being modified. ‘“If you can think you can do it, then you can. That’s what these modifications do.’”
The Thestral nodded in thanks, activating the calibration and tutorial in his helmet as he walked. The AI ran through a series of simple ‘how-to’ instructions ranging from checking vitals, systems, movement, reloading; everything he needed for a combat scenario. Vial seemed to be recording something, speaking into a camera above a monitor for the minutes he was walking around.
A final chime echoed. Apparently, that did it.
“Calibration and tutorial complete,” Astral relayed, Vial nodding and tapping a few keys. A file popped up in Astral’s HUD before vanishing.
“Perfect. And I just finished making a few messages to you for later. They’ll pop up automatically. The AI can answer questions about the armor as well, but I think that covers everything.” A square robotic arm then jutted out from the wall. “Well, that’s not necessary, but…”
“And that is?”
“A tactical marker. Squad symbol for later deployments. Not necessary now.”
Astral smirked, the rumbling fire in his chest flaring.
“Do you have the icon for a meteor by chance?”
‘Perhaps you will be the meteor who helps to burn away the evil of this place.’
I remember, Joro.
Tapping a few keys, Vial nodded in confirmation, the robotic arm making a matching set of icons on Astral’s shoulder pads.
“Looks good in gold,” Vial mused. “Oh, one thing I didn’t mention, but I suppose it’s worth a shot. You have a satellite communications feature on the armor to pair with other helmets, or broadcast on a wide spectrum. I doubt that’s enough to punch through the Silo’s shielding, and it probably would be seen as a virus by Equestrian Intelligence. But at the very least, you can record and play back your helmet footage. From what messages I got, they’re trying to monitor things down here. So, on the other end, everyone will be looking for a message.”
Astral took a few deep breaths, feeling oddly good. His emotions were muted, for now.
“Well, it’s worth a shot. Then I guess that’s it. Thank you, Vial,” he said, the previous statement about emotions being torn to shreds as Astral’s throat clogged up. “I can’t thank you enough for this.”
Gesturing to Astral, the two made their way back up the small elevator and to the escape pods.
“Consider this my best attempt to do some good in this world. I should be thanking you for the chance at some form of redemption,” the unicorn admitted, pausing next to an empty escape tube.
“You’ll have about four hours from now until the effects wear off. That’s my best guess. By then you’ll need to be in the medical center. So set a timer. Your emotions may be a bit up and down, but overall, you should be combat-ready. Assuming Sassi was taken to the Queen on the reactor level about twenty-five floors down, there’s a utility tunnel that leads to the upper third of Silo Three. Go there, and through the nearest utility stairwell. The medical center will be on your left, past three sets of security doors. After that, I don’t know much about the layout. The suit can scan for a general blueprint of that Silo.”
Silo Three.
The chill that ran down Astral’s spine was offset by the massive guns on his side. That could wait.
“Thank you again, Vial. Is there any way to track Sassi with the armor?”
“Not directly. You can try to tap into the Silo systems and have it scan for any personnel still alive. But there’s no way to know. Sorry,” Vial said.
Astral flipped up the gold visor, meeting Vial’s gaze.
“Then I’ll go floor by floor. If you see my parents…just, in case that camera was faulty, let them know I want to do this. Whatever the outcome may be, and that I love them.”
Vial nodded, reaching out a hoof, shaking Astral’s.
“I’ll do that. Good luck, Astral. You’re better than this Silo deserves.”
With a nod, Vial was then gone, whisked up through the tube.
And now I’m alone.
His thoughts abruptly stopped, the stallion letting out a growl.
No, I’m not alone. There’s someone here.
I’m on my way, Sassi.
And now, Astral heeds the call of the void in his search for Sassi.
one left.
Current Objective: Rescue Sassi
Total left: 1 innocent
1 enemy
Final mission: Finish this once and for all
-End communication-
*beep*
I'm going to take a wild guess, Sassi is either a Spartan I or II, I don;t think Astral could be a Spartan III as that was more quantity of Spartans over quality... Sooooo.... Astral is a Spartan IV? But if I remember correctly, Spartan IV's don't have spartan time like the Spartan II's... But aren't Spartan IV's weaker than Spartan II's? Then... Hmmmmmmm... If Sassi was part of the Orion or Spartan I program, then that would make Astral a Spartan II?
Oh dear, I'm digging too much into this.
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Well, we're tossing out the MJOLNIR armor which is a big part of classifications. If you substitute the MJOLNIR armor for combat experience/living in a super-soldier body...
Biologically, Sassi would be a Spartan II, as she's lived and breathed combat for her whole life/is accustomed to her biological modifications (most severe therapies/modifications from a young age.) It's as natural as living and breathing for her. Combat reflexes are at the point where most of it occurs without thinking.
Technically, if Astral survives, he'd be similar to a Spartan IV- what the program was originally intended to be. (Shorter therapy, higher survival rate, etc.) But unlike Spartans, the augmentations/treatment has a similar endpoint as II (versus being minor/weaker.) The difference is that he just doesn't have the experience of combat and living in a modified body. He got fast-tracked into the upgrades and has only basic training.
Put them against each other (armor or not), and Sassi would throw Astral into the bleachers and then score 10 field goals by the time he can catch up. He (might) stalemate her in an arm wrestling match/keep pace in a dead run, and do similar scores in basic combat exercises, but he just doesn't have the experience in terms of training since he was a foal and living with his upgraded body.
Can't really draw a 1-to-1 comparison, but that's the jist of it.
Why yes, I'm a Halo fan. How'd you know?
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11248943
I'm am doing well, your reinforcements have arrived. Where are the covvies?
This keeps getting better and better! Also nice touch with the title.
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11248951
It seemed appropriate. Glad you're enjoying it!
11248943
I really like the comparison Buck made in New Blood:
I cant imagine the healing process, if Astral survives, is going to be very pleasant.
11249036
Interesting! That's a fantastic comment and way of explaining it.
And...yeah. I mean, Vial was pretty blunt about Astral's chances. The guy has been through Tartarus and back, including a chemical bath.
So Astral has just gone through the Spartan enhancement surgery for a Spartan 4. Nice
11249109
First a chemical bath, now he's diving headlong into a skitter shower. Fun times.
And if you liked that comparison, you'll enjoy the rest of New Blood. They really did a great job capturing Buck's character in it. The sequel wasn't quite as good though. Oh! You also find out what happened to The Rookie from ODST in it.
I'm something of a Halo fan myself.
11249116
Well, a bit more involved than what the IV's went through, and a very good chance of death.
11249119
Ooooh I'll take a look for sure!
Limbo reactor? Oh God he's literally been turned into Doomguy. Good thing the not-argent energy here is coming from at least one friendly source.
11249116
By the time the S4's were being augmented, the UNSC had largely figured out the process.
Astral is definitely a guinea pig here.
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True.
Oh, absolutely. Vial made that clear. He literally said there were only 5 other tests subjects, and the first literally dissolved into a bloody puddle.
It's a 'this is the best version we have, and you'll at least do better than the previous guy....we hope.'
11249144
Something something, only think about moving because otherwise you're going to brain yourself with how fast your hand is moving?
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Basically.
It's not quite the same as what the Spartans are like- Sassi (and Astral...if he lives) will have a slowdown of time on her end. So she won't accidentally smack herself, she'll just see everything else moving super slow.
“I promised.”
Sassi is going to lose it when this guy shows up with his life literally on the line for her.
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So more of the Orion project (AKA Spartan 1) mixed with the Spartan 2 mjolnir armor testing phase for Mark 4 experimental Mjolnir (there was a energy shield feature on the experimental Mark 4 platform which was the bridge between mule near Mark 4 and mule near Mark 5 which is what we see Chief using in the first game on reach most of the Spartan armors were experimental Mark fours especially for Noble team)
11249723
Aaaaaah. The mix up of both different armor versions and modifications is just a bit confusing.
11250104
That's new. Along with Papa-Smurf being resurrected, his mechanicus friend Cawl created new breed, via similar trial and error process.
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Trust me I understand I only know this because I like watching a lot of lore dump videos on Halo
11250312
There. Are. Four. Lights!!
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What I took away from this was what was already discussed, plus something of my own take.
Astral has now become an Instant Elemental, complete with Heavy Machine Guns and miniaturized UAC/2s.
Immediately after seeing the phrase,
the only thing I could hear in my head was good-old Bitchin' Betty saying:
"Reactor online. Sensors online. Weapons online. All systems nominal."
They are rage. Brutal. Without mercy. But you...
You will be worse.
Against all that the Skitter queen clone can send against you, against the hordes of Skitters and Experiments, we send unto them...
...only you.
Rip and Tear, until it is DONE!
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Initiate...crap, now I'm struggling to decide on a song for Astral. Mega Man Zero series has SO MANY to choice from!
Neo Arcadia, Theme of Zero, Falling Down...
11376047
May I suggest 'Materialize' by Two Steps from Hell?
Alternatively, 'Elysium' by Edgar Hopp, or 'Confinament' by Jairo Brao?
I can't believe you gave him the minigun from Ultrakill. Leastways, that's what the description of the ammunition system reminds me of. I wonder if that's intentional?
Isn't it cannons? Canon is either a term related to a cleric, or a term in music that is a contrapuntal compositional technique that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration. The initial melody is called the leader, while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower.......don't ask why I know this.
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.......DOH! Thanks for the catch!