S4E06: Hostile Encounter

'''Complete chaos has fallen over Equestria. In the wake of Hellgate's recent victory, the woman suspected of being the Sayan escapes her prison. Following her, the Special A Unit at long last finds themselves face-to-face with the alien invader for the first time...'''

Plot Summary
In the days following Hellgate's annihilation of Cloudsdale, Commander Wolfgang ordered reinforcements from ERAC installations elsewhere in the world to reinforce the Cloudsdale perimeter with the surviving vessels of the Equestrian branch and the rebel carrier. Since then, Wolfgang had remained within his quarters for the duration of the time, along with Olyn and Oneiros. The atmosphere was heavy at base, the recent loss of Cloudsdale still fresh in everyone's minds.

Kanako and Whirlwind were having a stroll around the base together, trying to stave off depression by remaining active. They attempted to convince Oneiros to join them, but naturally he would not hear any of it. After a time, they gave up and decided to try and convince Lynna instead. Just then, the power to the headquarters was cut out. It returned a few minutes later, but by then it was fluctuating wildly.

A group of soldiers came across Kanako and Oneiros, and told them that Wolfgang wants them all in the holding area. Just before the blackout, cameras in that area were being shut down. The Commander had feared the worst, and sent the A Unit to investigate. Upon arrival in the holding area, they found Saiyo's cell to be completely empty, and a trail of corpses lined the corridor. ERAC HQ switched to its auxiliary power mode, and Wolfgang told the A Unit that the rebel ship observed something fleeing the base towards the south, at a town called Sugar Basin.

Wolfgang ordered Arachnos to stay behind as he was needed to assist with the repairs at the base (it would later be discovered that the power lines were forcibly cut). G Squadron would likewise not be joining them, as they were needed to keep watch on the Cloudsdale Bubble. To make up for arachnos' absence, Whirlwind volunteered to join A Unit at Sugar Basin, following them out of the base.

At Sugar Basin, they found the entire town having been slaughtered, and quite recently at that. A thick headache came over the group as they entered the town, subsiding after a few minutes. They eventually found the Sayan itself, feeding on the corpse of another pony. Shining a light on it alerted it to their presence, and it attacked them.

Despite the alien's large mass, it showed itself to be very agile through the use of its many tentacles, which were capable of grabbing anchored objects and using them to literally throw itself through the air at ridiculous speeds. Its true form was also made apparent during the fight, showing a large, bulbous monster covered in melting flesh and decorated with the shriveled up organs of its victims. It had four eyes in the front, with not a one of them lined up properly. One large one was located near the center of the monster's front, and it could open, functioning as a large mouth. Smaller mouths were also observed at the end of some of its tentacles. Thorns could be seen growing out of the Sayan's body, in some places even stabbing itself.

The Sayan gave the A Unit a hard time, but suffered damage of its own. this included having one of its tentacles cut off and part of its eye mouth blasted into a black smudge. At one point the Sayan demonstrated a small degree of control over the terraforming substance, covering an entire house in thorns that even harmed itself. It also seemed to be capable of blinding and deafening Nihility attempts to look at it (such as Olyn's orbs).

After a long battle, the Sayan seemingly disappeared from under a pile of rubble. Another headache overtook the A Unit, lasting for several minutes. At the end of it, a bright flash and explosion at the egde of town led them to Aurion holding an unconscious Saiyo in his arms. Saiyo was badly wounded, her own blood pooling at his feet. She was also missing a finger and had a black scar running down her face. Aurion, seeming to be more like himself, told the A Unit that he left the base in pursuit of Saiyo. Eventually he saw the Sayan barrel at him, and threw an indignation at it, the damage from the battle being enough to knock her out. Aurion was now forced to admit that the woman he had been crushing on was the Sayan.

Saiyo was literally placed under the guillotine while the A Unit spoke with Amadeus. The evidence all but damning at this point, Wolfgang ordered her return to base for her immediate execution, as well as Aurion so that he may be reprimanded for disobeying orders. Mid-flight, however, Wolfgang ordered that Saiyo be taken to the rebel carrier for safekeeping, instead.. A new threat took precedence.

At the former Cloudsdale site, the bubble was receding, revealing a hellish-looking mockery of the Rainbow Factory, constructed out of the flesh and bone of every who was lost in Cloudsdale that day. O-Hellgate spoke, revealing himself to be the Factory itself. He thanked the A Unit and G Squadron for providing the building material, and then set off for Canterlot...

Soundtrack

 * 1) Opening Theme - Main Theme (Sonic:Time Attacked)
 * 2) A Broken Nation - Titania Overworld 1 (Star Fox Command)
 * 3) Blackout - Nightmare (Fate/Stay Night)
 * 4) Sayan On the Loose - Phantom ~ UNKNOWN (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies)
 * 5) Blood Basin - The Demon's Dead (DOOM II)
 * 6) Face to Face - Kazashi (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni)
 * 7) Vs. the Sayan - The Executioner (Umineko no Naku Koro ni)
 * 8) Puppetmaster
 * 9) Under the Guillotine: Phantom ~ UNKNOWN (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies)
 * 10) Lifting Shadows - Urban Jungle (Duke Nukem 3D)
 * 11) The Hell Factory - Shawn's Got The Shotgun (DOOM II)
 * 12) Hellgate Lives - Mithos Yggdrasill (Tales of Symphonia)
 * 13) Ending Theme - Main Theme (Sonic: Time Attacked)

Trivia

 * The reason for the blackout and G Squadron's duties at the Cloudsdale bubble were to keep anything mechanical away from Sugar Basin so that the Sayan's identity wouldn't be revealed until the end. This was also to ensure that, during the fight, the Sayan would not be completely annihilated.
 * This had the unfortunate side effect of making Aurion a non-active player for the majority of the episode. However, due to the scheduling, this worked out just fine. This did result in SDM being forced to stall the battle as long as possible until Aurion arrived in the chat, however.
 * This is the first episode of Season 4 to share its opening and closing theme.
 * For the soundtrack listing, SDM had planned to use the title "Under the Guillotine" for the second instance of Phantom ~ UNKNOWN. Coincidentally,  one of Arahcnos' characters wound up putting Saiyo under a literal guillotine during the intended scene.
 * During the revelation of the Hell Factory, SDM intended to reveal that Rainbow Dash, thought lost, was in fact the power source for this new factory, a'la G3 Rainbow Dash from the first Equestria, where the latter was thrown into a perpetual rainboom machine to provide fuel for that world's Rainbow Factory, being the source of the rainbows in question. However, SDM forgot to have O-Hellgate say this.
 * The Hell Factory's design is very heavily influenced by the video game Doom and its depiction of Hell.