[Authors note - From now on, a new chapter will be out every two days. Enjoy. <3]

"What... the fuck?..." Braeburn muttered. The squad was circled around the remains of the unlucky pony.

"What do you think did this, Smith?" Rarity asked, barely holding back her vomit.

"I would say brutes... but, there would be dead Covenant too, and I don't see any plasma burns anywhere. Besides, there aren't any Covenant ships around, and Covenant don't just leave a ship they attacked intact."

"So... this is unheard of?"

"Correct."

"Um, ma'am, I have something on my motion tracker." Backdraft said. "Down the hall."

"Nova, Backdraft, go investigate. Pinkie, Braeburn, cover the rear." Rarity ordered.

"Come on Draft." Nova said, walking down the hall. Backdraft followed, his battle rifle at the ready. As they walked down the hall, they came across even more bodies, all seeming to be horribly mutilated.

"What do you think happened here?" Backdraft asked.

"I don't know, Draft. But I hope we don't run into what caused this." Nova said. A few moments later, the lights flickered and died.

"Shit..." Backdraft muttered. Backdraft and Nova both switched on their helmet mounted flashlights. As Backdraft did this, he noticed something moving in the corner of his eye. He quickly shifted to his left, aiming his battle rifle into the stomach of a human, covered in blood.

"A survivor?" Nova asked.

The human stared down at the two ponies, his eyes showing shock and fear.

"Are you okay?" Backdraft asked, taking a step towards the human.

"Get away from me!" He shouted, stepping away from the ponies and pulling out a magnum.

"Woah! Calm down!" Nova exclaiming, shouldering her shotgun and aiming it at the human. "Identify yourself!"

As the human calmed down, he lowered his magnum. "M-my name is Timothy." He stammered.

"Timothy, what happened here?" Backdraft asked.

"The Marker... we found the Marker..."

"The Marker?" Nova asked, confused.

"Yes... it drove everyone insane... then those things started showing up..." Timothy stammered, before breaking down into sobs.

"Did these things cause this?" Nova asked. Timothy nodded, sobbing heavily.

"We need to go. I have a lot of movement on my motion tracker, and it's heading our way." Backdraft stated.

"Right, let's go. Come on, Timothy." Nova said, pulling Timothy's shirt, dragging him as they ran down the hall.

"Commander, Beta is down." Smith stated. Rarity frowned and switched on her headset.

"Alpha, do you read me, over?" She asked.

"This is Alpha, what do you need Commander?" Alpha asked.

"What is your status?"

"We are at one hundred percent strength ma'am, no trouble... wait a second."

"What is it, Alpha?"

"I am reading lots of movement on my motion tracker. Private, are you reading this?"

"Yes sir. It's not just you." A distant voice responded.

"Sir, there is something in the vents!" Another voice shouted.

Moments later, Rarity could hear gunshots and the screams of Alpha squad.

"Commander, we are under attack! My men are being ripped apart!" Alpha shouted over the radio.

"Barricade yourselves inside the pelican, now!" Rarity shouted.

"Yes ma'am! Let's go team, inside the pelican, now!" Alpha ordered as the radio died. Rarity scrolled up to Alpha and checked their status. Only two of the original ten members were not flat lining.

"Commander, the Sarge is dead. We are locked down inside the pelican. Those things have us surrounded. Your orders?"

"Just stay put. We will see what we can do." Rarity said. "Squad, regroup."

Moments later, Backdraft and Nova arrived, with Timothy right behind him.

"We found a survivor, ma'am." Nova reported, motioning to the blood covered human. "His name's Timothy."

"Timothy, do you have any idea what we are facing? And how we can fight them?" Rarity asked.

"The... the monitor called them necromorphs... they started showing up shortly after people started getting exposed to the Marker. Our Marines were sent in to deal with them, but they were slaughtered. The only way to take them out is dismemberment... otherwise you're just wasting ammo." Timothy stated.

"Hold on... Rarity, where is Pinkie and Braeburn?" Nova asked.

"My God..." Smith said, looking down at the mutilated corpses of Pinkie Pie and Braeburn.

Backdraft just stood there, silent.

"Backdraft..." Nova began, but Backdraft hold up his hoof.

"I don't want to talk about it." Backdraft said forcefully.

"We don't have time to mourn." Smith said. "Take their weapons and ammo, they won't be needing them anymore." Nova sighed and picked up Braeburn's DMR, as Backdraft picked up Pinkies assault rifle.

"Let's go. The bridge is down the hall." Rarity said solemnly as the remains of the squad continued on.

"Ma'am, I've got movement." Smith said. The squad turned around to see a swarm of creatures chasing after them. Instead of arms, they seemed to sprout blades and claws. Their skin was a sickly yellow, and most of them had gruesome injuries. One of them charged forward, raising his claws above his head, preparing to strike. Smith charged forward and blew off its legs with his assault rifle. It fell to the ground and started using its claws to crawl towards the squad. Smith shot off one of its arms, causing it to fall to the ground and go limp.

"You guys keep going. I'll hold them off." Smith said, loading a new magazine into his assault rifle. "Nova, toss me a frag."

"You got it." Nova said, rolling a fragmentation grenade to him.

"Get behind the door!" Smith shouted as the necromorphs began rushing towards the squad. The rest of the squad ran down the hall, as a door sealed behind them. As one of the necromorphs reached him, he pulled the pin out of the grenade and threw it aside. The necromorph cut Smith's arm clean off before decapitated him. Seconds later, the grenade detonated, creating a hole in the hull and sucking the necromorphs out into the vacuum of space.

"Alright... here we are... Nova, Backdraft, breaching positions." Rarity ordered. Nova and Backdraft nodded and took positions by the door. Rarity turned to Timothy.

"Timothy, dear, do you know the access code to the bridge?" Rarity asked.

"Oh... of course... the access code is... access code." Timothy said.

"Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me..." Backdraft muttered.

"Shut it!" Rarity ordered. Rarity trotted up to the door and quickly entered in the access code. The door opened as Backdraft and Nova entered the bridge, scanning for threats. They heard a screech as they saw a necromorph charge towards them. Nova and Backdraft quickly raised their weapons and blew off its arms and legs with ease.

"Clear!" Nova called to Rarity and Timothy. They quickly entered the bridge and sealed the door.

"I'm going to check the Commanders logs. Nova, Backdraft, why don't you two try to find some survivors."

"Alright. Let's go, Draft." Nova said with a wink as she walked away. Backdraft quickly caught up to her.

"This is fubar." Backdraft stated.

"Oorah." Nova agreed.

"Wait... you hear that?" Backdraft asked.

"No." Nova said.

"I did." A human carrying an assault rifle said. "Put down the weapons."

"It's Commander Anderson..." Nova muttered. The ponies placed their weapons on the floor.

"I'm taking the bitch. Any moves from you, I'll blow you both away." The Captain said, grabbing Nova by the tail and pulling her close, keeping his assault rifle trained in on Backdraft. He leaned down and whispered in Nova's ear. "Me and you... we're going to have some fun together..."

Nova's eyes widened at this. "Help..." She mouthed to Backdraft. Backdraft's hoof slowly crept to his holster, feeling his way onto the magnums grip. As he did this, he heard a familiar, yet terrifying screech as necromorph jumped out of the vent, jumping on the Commander. Backdraft pulled Nova away as he pulled his magnum out of its holster, firing two shots to take out the necromorphs limbs. He quickly grabbed his battle rifle and shouldered it, blasting away the Commander and the necromorph with a few quick bursts. He turned to Nova and helped her off the ground.

"You alright?" He asked.

"Yeah... I'm fine... thanks." Nova replied.