Child Of Darkness

@,@@Unicorncob, "Well we're not a charity in terms of weapons by any means. I can't directly provide you with anything. But I can help you get started." The stallion went into a saddlebag he had hidden at the side of the table and withdrew two pouches of Caps. "I have about 2,000 caps that I can give each of you right now. This will not be deducted from final payment. Someone in the town will have the weapons you need. I can't do anything else though. I'm needed back with my people, maybe we will meet again one day. I have my doubts that we will though. Good luck." The stallion walked towards the door of the bar, stopping and turning to the two mercs one last time. "It may sound corny, but you really do need it." With that, he left the bar and vanished into the town.

@,@@Unicorncob, The Stallion chuckled at the difference in personality between the people he was hiring. "One of you is over confident and the other looks like he doesn't have enough faith in himself. Well, now that you have accepted the Job, here's some more details. Their territory consists of most of the mountain range between Fetlock, Fillydelphia and Manehatten. The exact location of the home is unknown and neither is the strength. We can just guess that the more guards you encounter the closer to their home you are. They also have a very unique weapon at their disposal. They control Animals. Mainly scorpions. So watch the ground, lest one pops up and kills you before you even know what's happening. And finally. Their Leader is a mare. If you know anything about your power players, you'll know this name. Blooddrop, Queen Of The Raiders, and the single most dangerous person alive." The stallion stood and extended his hoof to the two. "Shake on it and we have a deal. Walk away and no one will blame you."

"Then I'm afraid you're clearly mistaking them for another. When a bounty this large gets placed on what is a single group of Raiders, one must think that they're quite the dangerous bunch. We don't know much about them, what we do know is they are dangerous. And must he delt with. But I'm not going to turn someone away because of that. You sound confident enough that you could get rid of them in your sleep. Care to prove that?"

@, "Looks like I caught someone's attention. You don't strike me as the merc type, but looks can be very deceiving. Feel no regret if you decline what I am about to ask of you. For I will say this clearly. Only those who are stupid or confident will take this job." The mysterious stallion fixed his suit and hat, keeping his face hidden well. "As you may know, the wasteland is ruled by people who are not scared to flaunt power and are capable of control. Most of these ponies are good individuals and run towns and settlements. But my people have a problem with a certain group of ponies that have become a terror to the Wasteland. If left unchecked, they could one day bring us all down to our knees. I'm talking about a group of Raiders that have settled in the mountains in the west. Not far away from the coastline. They call themselves; White Sting. Not the most original name, but it gets the message across. The Job is to eliminate these ponies. Wipe out most of the gangs members, but make sure that their Leader die. So they do not re-establish in another part of the wasteland. Unfortunately, this is all the Intel we have on them as they are very protective of their home, no one has got a good look at it and lived. If you take this job, it will be the most dangerous task you will ever do. Of course, you will be compensated. My people offer the price of 50,000 Caps and unlimited use of resources and protection for the Pony/ Ponies who do succeed in this suicide mission. Well, have I put you off yet?"

With the events over, now was as good a time as any to stop Ghosting. Nothing more would be gained from this now. He returned to his shell, appearing in an upper corner of the Observation room. 'I swear my Auto-Pilot takes me to some random places at times. Need to make myself a private area. I can get into the areas of the ship no one else can, maybe I'll make a home there. Sounds good to me. Later though. Some peace and quite can be nice.' With the observation room to himself, Specter accessed the terminal in the room, connecting to the remote hacking link he had put in several hours ago. More problems with the ships AI trying to block him out. That and the major systems for the had been locked behind a firewall that was far too complicated for even Specter to crack without the access codes. 'Just what did I know about you before my corruption? And what secrets are you hiding from me? Something dark and mysterious I hope. Ahh, it feels rewarding to finally have a challenge again.'

Specter quickly thought about what the AI was trying to do, flying into a Star like this. I seemed to not make much sense, a machine would never attempt to destroy what it is protected unless it had no choice. These ponies hadn't shown it hostilities, so what was it doing? Then he realised the answer to his own questions. Now he had two options; inform Scarlett of what he learned and solve everything. Or watch this play out from the side lines and have a laugh about it later. He chose the latter and remained silent. Although, on a second thought. He wasn't entirely sure how strong the shielding on this ship was. It was strong, he could guess that much, but a Blue Giant was on a whole other level of energy output. 'This may put some strain on the shields, I do hope they hold.'

@@Ethan Sawyer, "Given that this ship is run by an AI, I found that one out while hacking. Tried to lock me out a few times, didn't work, its safe to assume that it is smart and knows about the power issue. This is all a guess, but I'd say we have a good chance that it brought us here because a Gate is nearby that has resources located on the other side. Possible, improbable, but a chance. Your thoughts?"

'Okay that's cause for concern. Power outage? Most likely. Running on what ever stocks are left won't last us too long. The Gate? Will luck favour us again? That may be our only option. Too soon to disregard other possibilities. What other possibilities? Gate still seems most likely. I don't want to leave this up to a gamble. But I don't think we have much of a choice.' Specter didn't think he needed to inform anyone of the situation. It should be obvious if that was indeed what was happening. Never discount other possibilities. But he did feel the need to get a view from someone else's eyes. With that thought, he sent his signal through to Scarlett's suit and started Ghosting her again. @@Ethan Sawyer, "Just to inform you, I'll be Ghosting now for a short time. I trust I don't need to explain the situation?"

I did promise myself I would do this at one point, that way about 2 years ago. Guess I may as well get it over and done with. Enjoy this very poor quality picture of my face. Thanks Toshiba stock webcams. Its very dark isn't it? I need some lighting.

Listening to the debate from the sides was honestly the most entertained Specter had been in a while. The way they twisted words into alternate meanings in order to make the other look bad reminded him of the political debates they had way back in his time. Some things never change. 'I'll just stay here for now. This is funny. I just have to make sure no hooves start flying. Then I'll intervene.'

After observing everything while ghosting Scarlett, Specter had a mix of what you could consider to be, anger, frustration and doubt. Doubt that these ponies would ever see eye-to-eye and the doubt that they would survive more than a month before someone ends up killing someone else over a petty squabble. Order had to be restored. Since Ghosting does not require a physical body, Specter's shell had been getting a few little modifications in an area of the ship that lacks O2 flow. His private area as he likes to call it. No one else can get to it without a suit. He had added two miniaturised electrostatic coils to two segments of his upper shell powered by his own body and hidden behind two retractable plates, which could function in four ways. A power outlet for a jump start if they ever needed such a thing, a miniature static shock to get attention, a short range Taser if the need ever arrived, or an accurate, all range lethal weapon as a last resort. 'Hopefully, I'll never have to use these in the last two methods, but better safe than sorry.' With his modifications enabled, he stopped Ghosting and returned to his shell. After which he reappeared at Scarlett's side. @@Ethan Sawyer, "That was very interesting to say the least. The whole time travel thing. I never thought it was a possibility but I had my suspicions about you since we arrived here. That's one mystery about you solved. More serious topic now, I've been hacking into the ships main systems, give me 24 hours and I'll have unrestricted access to all of the ships actions, functions, features and files. Though piloting the ship will be impossible, manual control is almost non-existent and the access gateway for AI control is broken beyond repair and is too risky to try and replace. One micro error and we could be on a collision course with a planet. Other than that, I'll see what else is uncontrollable once access has been achieved. Oh and one last thing," Specter's glow shifted from his natural blue to his hostile red. "Someone has to keep everyone under control. If this keeps persisting someone is going to end up a murderer within a month. I don't do social control, and I don't bother talking to many others since most of them have shown to be unreliable. I find no one more reliable than you. Experience and years count for something you know." Specter activated stealth and began his patrol around the ship.

With the way the situation has been developing, Specter had not wanted to get himself involved in anything. He didn't understand social interaction anyway. During the time the ponies had been down on the planet, Specter had been remotely hacking terminals all across the areas of the ship he could access, learning what every he could. All he got so far were small bits of unimportant information, but he had developed a countermeasure for the security systems. His theory was, that if he use this method to hack into the main control terminal in the observation deck, it should allow him to access the main Database for the ship with unrestricted access to data. A theory is a theory but it never hurts to try. Priorities first though, the dwindling power on the ship was cause for concern, if patters are to be made, they would again need to travel to find alternate sources of energy. Is it too much to ask for things to run smoothly? It's like we're all just the twisted created of beings in another dimension. Ahh, what I wouldn't give for some good luck for once.

@Ethan Sawyer "Now while this is all lovey Dovey and interesting, some bits more than others, could you please get back to the mission at hand? I've detected some landscape anomalies located underground in the dunes. Some hollow landscape and other parts don't match the accepted density of the ground you currently stand on. I presume that this may be what we are looking for. Also, I found some bunk rooms on the Port and Starboard sides of the ship, on the edge of the area we can access safely and have begun moving ponies to these rooms. It may be a bit cramped, but it's a good chance we will have enough for one pony to a bed. But, please, we're slowly dying up here so I'm afraid your daughter will have to wait."

"Please, communication across a galaxy is child's play. I can do that without much trouble at all. It all depends on atmospheric interference. It should be fine though. And you bring up a good point about the communication systems on this ship, I'll have a look into that once I have some free time. Also, would you mind doing me a favour? Yell at Amber for me. Her recklessness with the gate annoyed me."

With the gate finally active again and a team assembled, ready to go, Specter had to choose someone to ghost for this operation. Not a difficult choice, as only one pony had really seemed to be rather strange among the bunch. Altering his communication frequency, he attempted to match that of the suit she was in before disappearing. @Ethan Sawyer "I don't know if this is working, but on the chance that it is let me explain myself. When we leave I'll be Ghosting you for the duration of this. I'll be feeding you information on everything important to the task at hand. But I won't physically be with you unless you call for me. Safety reasons. Well we're ready whenever you are."

Specter hoovered stared at the now inactive gate, and the ponies that remained in the gate room. As soon as they reactivated this they would to be be as quick as they could in gathering resources and as much as possible. They may not get another chance like this for a long time. I don't like leaving everything down to a gamble. But we have no choice now.

"Alright. You want to be helpful, I have an idea of what you could do. Actually, I have a few. I'll let you pick one. One: These ponies need a safe place outside of the gate room. We need someone to scout out the ship and fine everyone somewhere safe. Do that and every gets some peace of mind. It would be a huge help. Two: The bulkhead of this ship is making noises that it shouldn't. Most likely in the sealed off areas or the outside. We need someone with an exo-suit who can survive zero oxygen and zero gravity to find some form of damage the ship may have taken. Three: I'll be going through the gate shortly to find these resources we need. My sensors are hundreds of years more advance than Kino, I could find the parts we need with little effort. We're not going to have many volunteers, so any help you can offer on the outside: digging, carrying, moral support, keeping everyone safe. All of these jobs are important. You may do which ever one you think you'll be best at." @Ethan Sawyer Specter remained motionless and silent for a few moments before his light turned back to its regular blue, along with his voice returning to its normal sound. "I apologise for my outburst. I was acting out of concern for everyone's life. If what I did was considered inappropriate, I shall review my data on this chain of events and alter my programming to address it accordingly in the future."

"Not in the wrong? Not in the wrong!? Excuse me, but what part of her action was correct? Sure, the people supposedly in charge acted like children, they deserve to be told to behave. But, if we miss something important because we got pulled away from the sensors, we don't get to resupply, the air stops filtering and you all suffocate, which direction will hooves be pointing? I don't know how your minds work, I'm a machine that operates on logic, reasoning and knowledge. I'd think my point is quite clear if you take a moment and think. I've been alive for millions of years, I have created a plan of action for almost every possible outcome that threatens someone's life. I was designed for situations like this. Emotions can get in the way, cloud vision, lead to rash judgment. And failure. Sorry for being so blunt about it, but we're doing our best and we are the only ones who have at least some understanding of what is going on and how we can survive. We fail, you all die. Understand that we have the lives of everyone resting on us too. But at least think before you act irrationally. You think her Sapphires job is hard, try our job. Then talk to me about a tough job." (Wanted to post this sooner. Then I got connection issues to the website. Good times. About 3 hours this took. GG.)

Oh for crying out loud. We're in the middle of saving our lives. Have some consideration. Specter activated stealth to sneak up on Sapphire and deactivated stealth in front of her. His usual blue glow replaced with red, and his voice became much more metallic. His way of showing anger. "Listen closely. I don't repeat myself. I understand you're thinking of everyone, but we're in the middle of possibly saving everyone from dying and you think it's okay to drag the entire team away for a chat!? The only one that needs scolding for inappropriate actions is you. So if you care about everyone's life, maybe you should think before you act. And if you continue to threaten the safety of everyone aboard this ship, measures will be taken. I made a promise to keep as many people alive as possible, and I won't have the likes of you messing this up. Stand down." (Someone gone and got the robot angry)