Muhalah just couldn't seem to catch a break.

The commander had been settled into his third hour of sleep as the ships-wide alarm system rang out, ordering all hands to their battle-stations. The first thought that came into the commanders head was who could have been assaulting Eponas' fleet? Who had found out their location, and more importantly, how? Eponas' whereabouts had been kept a solid secret from all aside from those directly involved in its governing. Someone very high up in the federations authoritative or political pole must have been captured, or perhaps the far-flung possibility of treachery at such a level. Yet somehow, someone not of the UTF had found them out in this very bizarre part of the middle of nowhere.

"How many of them?" The commander asked in a shaky voice as he marched into the bridge of the Frontier, the two generals already present.

"Just one, unknown signature and load-out. No weapon systems, no life support and no comm feed, sir." A crewman replied, sliding holographics about the screen before him.

"One ship, out here?" Muhalah asked, his expression strained in disbelief as he finished doing up his jacket.

"Not just a ship, a dead ship. How comes we didn't get a whisper of intel on this thing shocking in?" Mason asked in an impatient tone.

"Web's not squawking about anything making jumps for a seventy light year diameter. And I'm not sure this thing actually jumped using a space-time rip, sir. It just came up on radar out of nowhere, no flux feedback or void-pull to give us a heads up. Looked pretty coming through though." The crewman shrugged.

"What?" Blurted Mason.

"Looked like the craft came out of a damn abstract painting, sir. Reminded me of a damn firework or something." A female technician called out from the rear-bridge sensor assembly.

"So you're telling me this thing came out of some kind of, what, portal?" Mason questioned skeptically.

"No, sir, I'm saying this thing quite literally came out of nowhere. That or it's using tech that's giving output that sweeps right under our sensors."

"Bring it up of holographics." Mason ordered, marching over to the holo-table.

"Scans are taking a while sir, its composite makeup is odd; too dense to get a clear picture." The crewman replied, still hard at work.

"Take us closer, I want to see this thing." Mason ordered.

"You think that's such a good idea?" Dragovich inquired.

"We have a ship dead in the water, one that is clearly not one of ours, I want to know what the postman just delivered us. Jen, what readings did this thing give off when it jumped in?" The general asked the technician.

"Uh, let's see. Radiation, inconsistent levels. Ultraviolet, inconsistent levels. Thermal, low levels. Something happened, just not sure what."

"Visuals coming up, sir. Come take a look." One of the bridge helmsman said.

The three officers marched to the observation window layout to see a small red lump floating in an ocean of black. The object grew in size as the cruiser closed in cautiously. there seemed to be a dust-like aura following the object, which came to be seen as debris as the details of the craft became clearer. Finally the craft came to fill the majority of the glass before them.

The craft was blatantly alien in design, that was clear enough. It's bow was blocky and bloated to a larger size that its mid-section, towards the rear of each of its side was emblazoned with a vast insignia, far to large to be considered practical. The image was a wide-winged, golden eagle with two heads, gleaming a bright gold.

From there the ship slimmed down, like a neck of sorts, each side loaded with what at first seemed to be docking ports, but where far too large and the fact there where multiples of them led the officers to believe that they where an immense battery array. The craft was small, two kilometers end-to-end at most, yet seeing such a vast and visible weapons system struck a sudden sense of mortality.

The terrifying degree of armament continued atop the craft as two massive turrets could be seen, one above the crafts middle, another slightly lower, above the bow. The Frontier had turrets, sure, but not ones the size of a crouching Jaeger. Considering the entire weapons system as a whole, this ship alone could cut a cruiser in half with just a single barrage.

Towards the rear of the craft its hull bulked up considerably, obviously housing most of its engine-work, hangars and crew compartments. Each side of the stern was flanked by a large stabilizing fin of some sort, for what purpose was unclear to them at this time. And finally, at the far rear sat a numerous cluster of massive engines.

"Prepare a boarding team." Dragovich ordered a comms operator.

"Are you mad?! We can't just board that thing!" Muhalah sputtered.

"No, we can't. Comms, try hailing them." Mason ordered.

"Hail who? Look at the thing, it's a wreck! Everything on board is either dead or abandoned ship." Dragovich huffed.

"If that's true then who made the jump?" Mason countered.

"No more than a malfunction. The 'Furian' made a jump after being cut apart forty years ago-" Dragovich begun before being cut off.

"THIS-ISN'T-THE-FURIAN! It's a fucking alien craft with so many guns on it I'm half-way convinced at turning every ship in this fleet around and headed straight back to earth!" Mason roared, shaking his hands beside Dragovichs' un-phased head.

"General Mason, I've had quite enough of your hysterics for one day. Do you wish for me to pull a regulation code on you?" Dragovich asked coldly.

Mason lowered his arms and tensed his neck in the effort to subdue his anger.

"You know what, go on. Go ahead and poke around inside that thing so I can throw a copy of the video-logs at the feds and have your ass court martialed." Mason threatened heatedly.

"The federation won't be complaining when I hand them the first extra-terrestrial spacecraft to be encountered by man." Dragovich boasted calmly.

"Sir, hailing attempt failed. Don't even know if they received our transmission." The operator announced.

"It doesn't matter, ready the boarding team. VTOL them over there and get them cut into that thing." The general ordered with a sense of finality as he wandered closer to the observation windows.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two teams of ten orbital troopers accompanied by three Olympians readied themselves in the Frontiers hangar bay, loading every pouch with a magazine and fixing every useful attachment to every weapon they were taking. Some of them were excited, but most were secretly rose-budding over the whole situation. A dead, alien ship floating through space filled with universe-knows-what aboard. Talks of giant bug-creatures with laser-rocket-launchers spun through the air just as often as the idea of thousands of miniature reptile people that would tear them apart bit-by-bit. Most of the talk was given and taken as trivial banter, simple jokes to soften the atmosphere a little.

"What about Equestrians?" Olympian Private Geoff proposed, a pale man with thin, brown hair.

"What?! You're crazy." Olympian Private Connor replied, the super-soldier having deeply tanned skin and a thin mohawk of jet-black hair.

What if we've just, like, pissed of some massive empire of Equestrians that where, like, 'growing' Equestria to feul their numbers or some shit?"

"Whatever. You know those stupid-ass natives get confused when told to operate cutlery, let alone fly a spaceship."

"Maybe Geoff's got a point. I mean the ship did arrive here in fifty different pieces, maybe the horses did build it." Andrea pointed out with a chuckle, the Sergeant of long, bright blonde hair loading the last of her grenades in her soft pouches.

"Yeh, leave it down to the pretty-ponies to fuck up space travel." Chuckled Connor.

"Take it easy on the cloppers, they'll get there some day." Shrugged Geoff.

"Well, when I'm actually on a meaningful op doing my job and not babysitting these primitives, I'll take that into account, Geoff." Andrea stated.

"Guys, girls and unsure, gather around!" Lieutenant Frederick called out, the twenty three soldiers wandering closer to him as he stood up upon an ammo crate.

"Right, situation is as follows; Gonna get eat by space-beetles, have fun!" The troops gave a chorus of hearty chuckles, " The short of it is we fly on over, knock on the door and invite ourselves in. Cutting teams, any longer than fifteen minutes getting through and we pull back to re-evaluate. Once inside we have Olympian team 'Oracle' support 'Javelin' squad while 'Cherokee' squad walk alone a while. We head separate ways, do a figure of eight and Oracle swaps teams when we meet up again. If we run into trouble then Oracle heads to the hot zone. No clock on this op, the General wants us to be thorough." Frederick said in a very easy-to-understand manner.

"Wonder which general that could possibly be?" Connor muttered to his teammates.

"Oh yeah, mega-mystery." Andrea seconded.

"Plan's solid for now, let's get to it!" The lieutenant finished as he jumped down to the deck.

-------------------------------------------------------

The VTOLs faded from the view of the bridge, the small amount of red on their mostly black hulls shrinking until they blended into the rest of space. Mason stood with his fist rested at his lips, his eyes straining to collect every detail of the alien craft before him. So far few things were clear; It had weaponry equal that of a cruiser, it looked strangely aesthetic for something that should be entirely functional in design and it had been in a heavy engagement that had left it broken and inoperable. Mason closed in on the last detail, the fact it was so heavily damaged. What had damaged it, how long ago and why? He noted the external damage upon the ship and arrived at a horrifying revelation.

"Captain, what do you make of the hull damage to that vessel?" Mason asked.

"Uh, not sure. Doesn't look like ordnance damage I've ever seen. Probably homage to how little we know about these things." Muhalah said with a shrug.

"Does it remind you of anything, Captain?" Mason asked again, a cold sweat developing on his brow.

"Well, um, I don't know really..." Muhalah strained to take in the details of the craft, "...Although, looks like something I saw on 'Animal Plane-'" Muhalah chuckled before realization struck him like a lightning bolt.

"An....a-an animal, Mason. Those wounds look like-" The captain begun.

"Something was chewing on that ships, Muhalah. Something just...something really fucking huge." Mason said with a shaky voice.

"Five hundred meters in length, at least."

"Operation 'Jungle', operation 'Jungle', come in all units. I need a few guys to go and take a close up look at one of the external wounds on that ship and let them know what they find in an immediate observational session." Mason called over the long-range radio.

"Copy that, sir. Micheals, Yuki, get your asses over to the nearest hole and poke around." Chimed back Frederick.

"Please be wrong, please be wrong." Mason muttered to himself.

----------------------------------------

A few minutes later the two orbital troops had reached the closest wound to their landing zone. The ship was truly gigantic, similar in size to the UTF ships, only appearing much less clean-cut and much, much older. The dark-skinned, buzz-cut Micheals was first to reach the giant hole in the broadside of the ship, shortly followed by the neon turquoise haired Yuki.

"Lieutenant, we've reached the impact site. Massive external damage over a one hundred diameter area. Looks like the round cut a couple decks into the hull." Yuki announced over the radio.

"Confirm that, Private. It's definitely a ballistics wound?" General Mason quickly replied from aboard the Frontier.

"Uh, not sure, sir. No blast residue or external scouring that I can see. It's almost like the entire section was 'sucked' right off the ship." Yuki said before looking over the edge of the external deck she stood upon and into the wound.

"Wait," The private noted, "There's something on the hull, inside the impact site."

She knelt down and wiped her gloved hand across the inside of the damaged area, pulling away something shiny.

"Oh wow, that's just lovely." Micheals noted in a disgusted tone.

"Sir, we have some kind of...residue, on the inside of the wound." Yuki said as she played with the slimy, translucent liquid in her hand.

"Origins?" Mason asked.

"Unknown. Coolant, maybe."

"Could it be the crew?"

"Perhaps, not out of the question that someone took a nasty ride out of here after decompression."

"Let me guess, that's the second most disgusting fluid you've ever had on your hand?" Micheals said with a chuckle.

Yuki stood up and wiped her hand on her squad mate, who in turn flinched away in disgust of the alien goo that had smeared over his battle-dress.

"I dunno. It doesn't look like gore though. It's like.....some kind of secreted resin."

"Yeah, but secreted from whaaaaaaaa-" Micheals replied as his eyes floated upwards and spied something of great interest.

Yuki followed his gaze to see something massive sticking out the side of the hull, something bone colored and shiny.

"Uh, General, there is a giant...tooth, sticking out the side of the ship." Micheals said slowly, his attention stretched upon the giant predatory cone above him.

"Confirm that, private. What does it look like?" Mason asked in a panic.

"Well it's big...and toothy?"

"Private." Mason growled.

"It's gotta be twenty meters long, sir. Something the size of a cargo ship decided to use this craft as a chew toy." Yuki confirmed.

"I made out five, six similar wounds when we approached the landing zone, sir. I think there could have been a whole mess of these things gnawing away at this ship." Micheals added.

"Ok. All squads, proceed with the utmost caution. Whatever hit this ship might have left something behind." Mason announced.

---------------------------------------

"Come on Ian, this is taking too long." Fredrick growled impatiently.

"Sorry, sir," The private replied in his tired state, "But the cutter isn't working. The hull is like nothing I've seen before and this blast door is much the same. It's like cutting through a tree with a pen."

"Fine, we get to knock harder. Frontier, we could use a hole here." The officer called over the radio.

"Roger that Cherokee leader, ordnance incoming. Get clear."

The three squads hurried over as fast as their mag-boots would let them, clearing away from the giant blast door to a safer distance. As they reached the safe zone Micheals and Yuki re-joined their squad.

"Have fun?" A trooper asked.

"Sure did. Found out today is the day I get to look forward to being digested." Micheals replied.

"Coil shot inbound." The weapons specialist announced.

Not a moment after the large, super-sonic round hit the outer hull of the alien craft, sending a thick quake through its surface.

"Anyone home?" A trooper asked in jest.

The lieutenant stood up from his braced position and took a look at the blast door. Only problem was the door was still there.

"Control, we have a problem in that this ship is apparently made of stubbornness made into metal. We're going to need another round on this thing." Frederick said in a huff.

"Confirm that round was ineffective on target.

"The door's had the shit kicked out of it, but it's still there! Just hit it again!"

Another magnetically charged round struck the massive door, this time sending thick metal chunks flying in every direction outside the hull.

"We're in business. Fill the hole!" Frederick ordered.

-----------------------------------------------

The inside of the ship was the polar opposite of every federation ship any of the troops had ever seen. Instead of the clean, bright, shiny corridors that made up the inside of their own ships, instead they looked upon the grim, foggy interior of the alien craft. It was like stepping back in time, into some deep, dark temple from an age long forgotten. The walls were a dark metal, lined with strange electronic panels and instruments that appeared like they belonged in the sea-ships of the twentieth century rather than a spacecraft. Something had caught the lieutenants' eye as they rounded another corner, weapons held firmly up to their eyes. There was some kind of console at the end of the tall corridor, some kind of intricate assembly. He led his squad closer to inspect the instrument to find it to have no functionality at all, for it was actually some form of shrine.

The ten man squad was baffled, utterly thrown off guard at the prospect of an advanced alien race actually feeling the need to erect an actual religious shrine inside their ship. Yet this mystery would have to wait, as something truly terrifying revealed itself to them all.

Within the shrine was a single, tall, robed figure gently clutching a sword with its blade rested at the figures feet. Around the larger stone sculpture flew smaller figures, child like and quite daunting in appearance. Each smaller sculpture was depicted as being wired to the body of the central one. Around the edge of the archway that presented the sculptures was hung dozens of lengths of parchment, each with finely written scripture. Two things disturbed the troopers further, the first being that the scripture was a strange form of Latin, and somewhat readable, the second being what the sculptures where carved to represent. The largest had a skull for a face, notably, a somewhat human one aside from its exaggerated features and the waterfall of tubes and wires that flowed out from the back of its head like freakish dreadlocks. The smaller figures were winged, human children, also with skulls for faces; some held lengths of parchment, others appeared to be singing and a couple blew long trumpets hat appeared much like the ones from medieval times.

"Sir....what is this?" A trooper asked shakily.

"Let's just keep going. Cherokee to bridge, this is turning out to be quite the house of horrors here. Can't say I'm comfy with spending any unnecessary amount of time in here." Frederick said.

"Got you there Cherokee. Stream is clear and we're getting everything you are. Looks like a pleasant place to hang out down there."

"Yeh, I think I'll bring the wife here one day." Frederick replied.

The squad continued onward, running into more shrines along with tapestries, stained glass windows and paintings that confirmed the same story time and time again. The crew was human. Or at least some kind of humanoid being that greatly resembled a Terran.

"Sir, dead end ahead. Door's all shut up." A trooper announced as he spotted and approached a very church-like door.

"Sir, look, below the control panel. That might be an emergency manual release." Private Yuki pointed out.

"Pull the switch, Jones." The officer ordered.

The private clutched the over-sized yellow and black lever and gave it a firm tug with no result. Another, exerted pull saw the lever snap away from the wall and activate some mechanism within the door. After a loud clunking sound the door abruptly slid apart from the middle to reveal a wall of razor sharp teeth.

"FUCK! FUCK! FUUUUUUCK!" The private screamed as the mass of ravenous mouths loomed over him.

He, along with the rest of his squad opened fire upon the hoard of creatures that assailed them, rail gun fire peppering their bodies. Pieces of exoskeleton and lumps of bright blue organs flew away from the vast cluster of aliens.

"Cease fire!"

The order went unheard as the troopers emptied their mags into the alien bodies.

"Cease fire now!"

The troopers began throwing curses and hysterics towards the creatures as they ran dry and scrambled to reload.

"I SAID CEASE FIRE YOU BUNCH OF FUCKTARDS!" Frederick screamed.

The squad began to calm down and looked to the officer, their polarized visors hiding their panic-stricken faces. They turned to look at the attacking alien hoard to fin it was not so much attacking as gently floating towards them.

Bodies, all dead and blown to fractions of their former selves. Outside their pale, ill looking flesh contrasted their oily-black chitin that ran along the top of their heads and down their hunched backs. Their wounds bled a sky-blue, milky gore along with strange, alien organs. From what the lieutenant could make out, they were mostly insectile in form, having a flattened head with four diamond-pupil eyes, thick, hunched thoraxes protected by thick armour, a long tail providing them stability and six limbs all tipped with a razor sharp talon.

"Jones, stick one." Frederick ordered.

The private gingerly edged closer to the nearest which looked like it was frozen in time midway into leaping forward to take the privates head off. The trooper took out a bio-probe and thrusted it between the creatures ribs at its underbelly. On the third time and with a little pulling along with pushing the needle went into the leathery flesh of the monster.

"Carbon based. Got some freaky-ass digestive system. Nervous system runs under the organ cluster rather than along the back." The private listed off his findings.

"Rail bullets just rough them up. This one got hit with a dozen rounds and I'm only seeing some supplementary damage. The exoskeleton is like chromed steel." Yuki said as she studied one of the bodies.

"Jones, watch out!" Micheals yelled as he pulled his squad-mate away from his probe display.

A two foot long talon swept down towards the private in the zero-gravity and missed him by just a few inches. His probe remained stuck inside the alien body, the display screen floating beside it, attached by a coiled wire. The talon swooped down and hit the screen with no more speed that a light stroke, yet still the edge of the bony blade sliced clean through the screen.

"Shields, idiot." Jones huffed.

"Just being considerate." Micheals shrugged.

"What do we all think of the crew then? They look super friendly." A trooper asked.

"This isn't the crew, dipshit. I think we're looking at the culprits of the giant-fucking-holes mystery. These must be some form of infantry organism the larger one dispense into ships. Almost like a venom for spaceships." Yuki stated.

"Talking of venom, the science geeks are gonna love this, watch." The squad medic held out one of the creatures blades and broght up a blood-transfusion bag with his other. He threw the bag at the blades point, the squad watching the claw slice clean through the plastic as though it wasn't even there. The blood washed over the blade, the medic leaving it there for a second before pinching the edge of the crimson stain. The trooper then proceeded to peel off the blood that had taken a solid form much like rubber.

"Wow, that's fucked up." Micheals awed.

"The limbs secrete a venomous agent that bonds blood cells together. One painful way to go if you end up getting clipped by one of these." The medic said as he pushed away the alien limb.

"Can't help but notice that bloody is very much not frozen." Micheals said, bringing the squads attention to the doors they had walked through when studying the bodies, the door that had now closed up once again.

"Pressure's stable, we have atmosphere, gravity and by the looks of it we have power." Micheals noted as he pointed to an array of lanterns that hung from the walls of the corridor.

"Great, anyone feeling brave enough to try the air?" Frederick asked with only five seconds of silence as an answer, "Yeh, me too. Javelin, we have the environmental works on our end, you?"

"Power came back a few seconds back, apparently ship-wide. We've had air for about ten minutes." Replied the squad leader.

"How is it?"

"Like shit. Smells like burnt up herbs or something, pretty overwhelming. Helmets have been locked ever since."

"Thanks for the heads up. Actually, I can see where the smell is coming from over here. Some kind of incense burner built into the ceiling, releasing a shitload of smoke that's settling on the floor."

"Roger, I see it too. Had just about enough of the weird shit this ship is throwing at us."

"Run into any ugly-ass bug-dogs yet?"

"Surely you don't mean that bunch of sexy little things that made Timothy piss himself?"

"Yeh, those. Keep an eye out for any that might feel like living again. Frederick, out."

"Sir, I've run a short-wave scan. Before the end of this corridor we take a right and we might just end up in the engine room." said Yuki.

"You sure?"

"Pretty sure, that or it's a big open space with no reason to exist." Shrugged the private.

---------------------------------------------------

"You were saying, Private?"

Before the squad was a vast expanse, a hall the size of an apartment building. The purpose of the space was unknown to them, but it looked much like the interior of churches from ancient times. Stained glass windows gave the room a dim, pale illumination, each depicting some event of great cataclysm or tragedy. Large pillars held up the misty ceiling, all sculpted to depict, or more disturbingly, actually made from what appeared to be human skulls. At the far end of the hall was some kind of altar places before a giant monument that depicted a man of great musculature thrusting a spear into the throat of some unearthly horror, a terrifying monster from a vivid nightmare. The man was made from the purest gold any of the squad had ever seen, giving him an almost liquid appearance. His face was stern and strong, almost giving him a caveman like appearance compared to the soft, smooth features of the Terrans. The creature at his feet was made from a dark marble, an obsidian black with ghostly white veins running across its surface.

"What the hell is with this place? What the hell is with all the skulls! AND JUST WHAT THE OUTRIGHT FUCK IS A...just...why is there a person made of gold up there?!" Frederick roared.

"These beings are extremely humanoid, most certainly the same hominid genus as us if not a remarkably similar one. Muscular structure has to be augmented genetically, maybe chemically. Judging by the state of those bodies we found I'm willing to bet these guys drag around some pretty hefty armament." Yuki said as she looked up at the statue of gold.

"Sir, I highly recommend we get the flying-fuck out of here before we meet the neighbors!" Micheals called from the far side of the hall.

"Right, I'm sure frontier has enough pics to last them a lifetime. Form up at the starboard door and head out the way we came." Frederick ordered.

Thadoom

"What was that?" Jones said shakily.

Thadoom

Thadoom

"Sir, that noise that sounds like fuck-huge footsteps is-getting-closer!" Micheals called in a panic.

Thadoom-Thadoom-Thadoom-Thadoom

"Nice going you loudmouthed moron!" Yuki spat.

"The pillars, get behind the pillars." Frederick whispered over the mic.

The squad hurriedly scrambled to get behind the large, skull pillars as a shadow crept through the main entry way. Frederick signaled with a steadily vibrating hand to keep quiet to every squad member he could see. A massive figure marched through the archway, a dark silhouette of terrible size. Frederick risked a quick peek to see the creature that advanced through the hall and towards the altar. It was eight feet tall, easily, and had bulk that made an Olympian look like a pencil. Its armour encased it entirely, a thick plate crafted into a bulky suit that was obviously powered by the battery pack it had on its back. Its helmet was formed into an intimidating death-mask, the bright yellow lenses aglow with murderous intent above a facial grill that made the figure look like it was bellowing at whoever faced it.

"Well, thieves, I can smell you." The deep roar of its voice was obviously masculine in every way, though it shook the lieutenant with a terribly fear. It made him feel like a child.

"I can hear your breath." Jones was shaking like a madman, fear giving weakness to his form like nothing he had experienced before.

"Where are you?" Frederick clenched his teeth as the titanic footsteps marched past him.

"Where-are-you?!" The mans voice was a monstrous roar, a terrifying thunder of pure rage.

Frederick held his carbine tight against his body armour and slowly slid his index finger to bring it upon the weapons trigger. He began to turn his head with unreal slowness as fear sunk deep into his mind. Suddenly something gripped his shoulder plate and wrenched him around with incredible strength, sending the officer flying off his feet and onto the metallic floor. Thunder strikes rung out as the giant marched to loom over his frail body which had been frozen in utter dread.