(Author's notes:
Damn! Ten thousand words! most I ever did in one chapter or in one post anywhere on the internet.
In any case, here's the newest chapter of Steel & Stone, luckily I have some of the next chapter written out so it will probably come sooner than the monstrous wait this took. Apologies for that. Anyhow, enjoy)
CHAPTER III-A COMET'S LAMENT
Sharn sat in the briefing room with the other six of his squad. Vaanse had arrived earlier, apparently she’d been held up by a droid malfunction where a bunch of the robots had gone to armory instead of medical. The vernid seemed uncaring however.
Everyone was in full uniform or BDUs now. The four humans and the Vernid wore the standard pants and shirt, Frost idled in the corner, his fridge-suit was made of color-shifting fractal pattern camo. Urak wore his kind’s form of clothes, ‘secondary chitin’ armor plates painted in the GUI grey and Trizar wore spray-on combat gel, since putting cloth on a being covered in sharp, foot long spines was monumentally stupid.
They all watched, silently, as Darius Xarxes entered the room. The man had graying hair wore in a military flat-top and held his hands behind his back.
“Gentlebeings.” He greeted them.
They affirmed his greeting by their varied ways of nodding assent, mandible clacks, pincer-taps, tail thumps and hissing hydraulics.
“The information you are about to receive is classified at level 45 clearance.”
Everybeing straightened slightly.
“Recently, we've made our in-system burn into the Oort cloud of this system, dubbed Resonance, in the newly-named Sabre sector. The system contains seven worlds, eighty-four moons, three dwarf, trans-Neptunian objects, and an anomaly we have dubbed “Raven-one.” As a Raven probe was the machine that alerted us to its state. Now, questions.”
Vaanse, the technician, raised her pincer-hand.
“Vaanse,” nodded Xarxes.
“You say we’ve made our Burn in the Oort cloud, why not go further in?”
“Good question, first off, our fleet is comprised of four ships, all slightly damaged from overcharging the engines, Our ships, like always, cannot approach these worlds, as both the mass would cause significant changes of possibly apocalyptic proportions onboard the vessel and second, because we’re not sure about what will happen when a vessel of significant size tries to close with the second planet from Raven-one. We have tagged this world with the name of Harmonius Repose, or simply, Repose, as it will be our reorient point for at least a year while the engines cool down.”
“What’s Harmonius Repose that makes approaching it so deadly?” Asked Malicant.
Xarxes took a breath. “We fear that due to our vessel’s mass, once it enters the solar system proper, we may be sucked into orbit around this world. Every celestial body in the system orbits around Repose. This includes Raven-one, its sun.”
“What?!” demanded Haley.
“I know it’s a bit to wrap your head around, but you’re GUI operators, you adapt, correct? Just bear with me, here.”
Sharn noticed that their captain was being uncharacteristically patient.
“We launched a probe while entering our burn two days ago, the sun is indeed orbiting this world. As you can imagine, this is unprecedented and highly classified. From here in the Oort cloud, we can observe the sun without the grunts and techs knowing. For now, as far as anyone not in the crew of your transport vessel is concerned, the system of Resonance is just a standard star with a couple of airless rocks.”
“You say airless,” Pointed out Trizar. “Is there a world with breathable air here?”
“Yes,” Said Xarxes. “And that world just happens to be Harmonius Repose.”
Urak let out a throat-rattle. “I can see where this is going…” he grated.
“Yes,” Said Xarxes. “As Galactic Union Intelligence Operators, you as a team speak for me, and I speak for the galactic government. You alone have been trained for first contact and beachhead procedures, so I won’t mince words, you will receive your mission soon and you all know what it’s going to be. But for now, questions.”
“World overview?” asked Urak.
“Terrestrial, more like old earth or Kugazn than Vurkuristar, it’s got the same atmosphere as earth had during the late Triassic to early Jurassic so expect big creatures and possibly an influx of predators. It should be livable for most. Urak, the air on Vurkuristar is laden with poisons and much thicker than onboard a vessel, so you might feel lightheaded on Harmonius Repose.”
Sharn raised his hand. “So, confirmed life? And confirmed mission to Repose?”
“Yes to the first. Plants and trees and so forth. A secondary probe was fired and indicated a scattering of large reptilians in the mountains as well as what seem to be population centers of something, though they may simply be large colonies of termite like life forms or simply mounds, Superluminal probes are notoriously inaccurate.”
He waited for more questions. There were none.
“Now, to your mission, as I’m sure you know, Galactic Union ISVs are unarmed, so we’ll be keeping the sublight warships in the belly of the Sprit of Mars with us for protection. Luckily, we have a sublight transport vessel for you, she’s a Javelin-Seven freighter named the Comet’s Lament We’ll have you doing all the work, along with a representative from the Technocracy.”
“With all respect, sir,” Asked Sharn. “Why are you having us do this? This seems…convoluted.”
Xarxes frowned. “Don’t question me, ranger, but I’ll humor you. Again. What we have here is potential for mass-panic, the fact that this world is doing this unnatural thing cannot be divulged to anyone. This is need-to-know, understood? We can’t get too close because the world might pick us up and lock us in orbit before we can get close enough and because of the ‘sun
problem’. So, were sending you and a platoon of troops in a freighter, A million tons of adamantium is nothing compared to the Starry Ice, the Spirit of Mars, the Twilight or the Red Wake, the Ice herself is a regiment-carrier ship, same for the Spirit, the Twilight is an ordinance-carrier and the Red-wake is crewed by xenophobic technophiles. We need to get a team on the ground, and you’re the only ones trained for this. Got it?”
They all voiced their assent.
“Good, assemble in hangar twelve for launching, enjoy a few hours transit to Repose then get your boots dirtside! Suit up!”
-bridge-ISV Starry Ice
“So,” said Grendel. “First a perverse sun and now natural planetary shields.”
He heard Octavius lean over to Ugor. “Something out here is either the weirdest physics-bender or a god is piss-drunk mad at us” Grendel ignored him.
“Yes sir.” Said the man in charge of the scanners. “The asteroid field around Repose was arranged in a grid-pattern planetary shield. We got massive energy readings coming from the world’s moon at that point. We think that it’s a possibility that the world is home to race advanced enough to create a sort of macro-tractor and move all of the asteroids into an intricate pattern.”
“Hmm…” Grendel steepled his fingers on the arms of his chair. “Interesting, classify this at a clearance of fifty.”
“Yessir. Should I alert the GUI team?”
“No. No! They’ll be capable enough; I don’t want anyone else knowing about this though. That includes Xarxes. He too is to know nothing about this.”
“Sir…he’s…that’s…”began the tech.
“Treason? No. I don’t trust that Intelligence spook. That’s all.”
“Uh, yessir, I’ll keep him out of the loop.”
“Good, now, about those that is going with our Intelligence team?”
First mate Van turned to him. “Xarxes is putting together a team and crew at the moment; we’ve identified a crew of five for the Comet’s Lament, as well as a four-being pilot team for the landers, the fighter and the cargo shuttle. We’re sending a platoon of Astromarines and a six being team along for ground-based vehicles as well as a chirurgeon and the technocracy representatives to be selected.”
“Good, I want their boots on the ground within six hours. Understood?”
The vernid tapped his mandibles in assent.
Grendel turned his gaze out to surrounding space, pointedly ignoring the blasphemous sun in the distance.
The Red Wake was drifting far to the right. The vessel was a black knife, and the glowing red impulse engines lent it a demonic appearance. The Red Wake was an exploration ship. It was armed with who knows what and while it contained the only members of the Technocracy’s ‘explorers’ on this trip it still chilled him. The Technocracy, or ‘Empire of Alpha Centauri’ deserved the nickname: ‘the empire of hatred’. They were…disturbing to put it lightly.
“Open a holo-channel to the Wake.” He ordered.
Octavius responded immediately and Grendel stepped up to the holopad. Within seconds, he was treated to a panoramic view of the Red Wake’s black interior, lit by a hellish red glow. Red, green and yellow dots indicated the eyes of the Technocracy personnel. They were robed as monks, space-black and blood-red were the only colors on the robes, while mechanical and otherworldly appendages slithered from their confines. The commander of the Red Wake and the leader of the Technocracy’s forces, Archon Zyne sat on the ornate throne in the center of the room; his red eyes glaring out from under his hood, nothing else could be seen of his face like the Reaper of old.
“Speak.” It bluntly told him in a robotic growl.
“We have arrived at resonance; I request that you send us an envoy or representative for our away team to Harmonius Repose.” He inwardly cursed himself, he should have made it an order, the Archon would see this as him being subservient.
“You will take Versor who has recently gained the rank of Technomancer. He will be accompanied be tetriarchs Nergal and Mephasm as well as his entourage of combat and servant androids. /terminate link/”
Grendel shivered slightly as the link went dead. The Technocracy’s people had been classified as separate from humans when their DNA had become so tampered with they were rendered sterile and sexually incompatible with humanity. They now carried on in their secret empire, being grown in vats into the orders of technology: Warplocks, Engineseers, Mechanites, Technocrats, Tetriarchs and Computines. They had no gods but instead worshiped ‘void spirits’ whom they believed created the universe as a giant machine, and praised metal and machines above all else for their efficient cold ways. Thus they augumented themselves and tore away their humanity to become closer to the void-spirits by being closer to their vessels –machines. It was disturbing.
“Octavius, how many superluminal transmissions do we have available?”
“One hundred, sir.”
“Send one, direct to Vernox.”
Superluminal transmissions were faster-than-light transmissions, with a rough delay of a day for each hundred light years they covered, they were data, and could as such travel faster than light, as modern physics dictated, data had no upper limit in speed but could not change back to anything solid. Their expense was nearly a thousand thrones per word.
He cleared his throat. “Ahem.”
“Have found Geocentric system, roughly thirty years travel from Vorstag. 1 planet terrestrial, sending away team, requesting orders, technocracy officials upset.”
Octavius nodded, and sent the message; the ship shuddered slightly as the beam of energy shot towards the distant star of vernox roughly two hundred light years away.
“I didn't realize the Technocracy was upset, sir.”
“You learn to read them Octavius, they were extremely upset. Likely because of the perversion to science this star system is.”
“Is it that much of a problem for them?”
“Likely.”
Ponyville-Equestria
Twilight Sparkle sat on a bench in front of sugarcube corner, a parchment floating in front of her.
‘Dear Twilight sparkle. This news is alarming, but not entirely as bad as Spike predicted it would be. I have no doubt that together Luna and I can move this new star or simply nudge it if we cannot. Rest assured; Equestria is safe. Last night, Luna arrayed asteroids in a shield above our world just in case.
Princess Celestia.”
“Oh, hey Twilight!” came a scratchy voice, accompanied by the flapping of wings. Twilight Sparkle looked up to be greeted by a friend of hers, Rainbow Dash. “What’cha reading?”
“Oh, nothing,” said Twilight. No need to bother her friends with doomsday prophecies that would be easily averted,” just a letter from the princess.” She lit it with magical fire and let the ashes drift away in the breeze. “So what brings you here, Rainbow?”
The Pegasus hovered in the air and looked both ways conspiratorially. “Well-eeelll…Me and fluttershy went to Cloudsdale last night and stayed at a hotel, y’know, because it was too late to head back to ponyville. Aaaanyways, when we woke up, Fluttershy saw that there was a flock of vultures up Reeeeeaaaly high.” Rainbow dash went on about their trip to the vulture flock that was up ‘reeeeeeally high’ on some mountain and how Fluttershy did something helpful for them involving some lost eggs but then said something that made Twilight a little nervous.
“So while Fluttershy was talking with them, I decided to see how high I could get. I mean, why not? I was pretty high as it was. Last time I came down when I couldn't breathe but I figured I could still go higher than that if I went really quickly and REALLY fast! So anyway, I was going up to that space where the clouds are below you and the air’s all frosty and it’s hard to breathe, right, so I looked up, and I saw this weird speck in the sky, and it was glowing! Cool huh? It was like a star in the daytime! And THEEEEN…It got bigger, like, a LOT bigger, all of a sudden! in fact, if you squint you can kind of see it from here.”
“What?!?” gasped Twilight. “where?!”
Rainbow, still flapping raised a hoof. “I’m not done yet. I noticed something else about this thing; If you look at it just right, it’s not just one glowing thing, but four!”
Ponyville -Equestria-
Twilight Sparkle had gathered all her friends together at the library. Applejack looked apprehensive at what Twilight was telling them, Pinkie looked exited, Rarity looked as demure as she always did, Fluttershy was terrified of ‘sky monsters’ but was convinced if anything came from the sky it would be friendly like anypony else and Rainbow Dash was excitedly butting in every now and then.
“So in short.” finished Twilight, her eyes closed and a hoof raised. “I believe that it’s probable that the same star, or stars, that I’ve seen is connected somehow with this celestial formation Rainbow saw.”
“Now just a moment Twi’,” said Applejack, raising a hoof of her own. “Yer sayin’ that movin’ stars and big shiny shapes are the same thing?”
“Well, I've yet to come to a conclusion, but it’s unlikely that this is a coincidence. I have my telescope set up on the roof, so this evening I’ll be able to look closely at it and see what it is.”
“Ooh! Ooh! Maybe it’s a giant space dragon! We can welcome it and it’ll be all happy and we’ll learn a new thing about friendship! And another welcome party!” exultated Pinkie Pie.
“Pinkie, Darling, I really doubt parties are the way to go with ominous glowing dots.” Pointed out Rarity.
“Plus if it was a dragon, how could it breath? There’s no air that high.” Said Rainbow Dash.
Applejack spoke up again, in a thoughtful tone. “Rainbow, are ‘yall sure that this is what you saw? I mean, you were deprived of air, it could mean that you were hallucinating’”
Rainbow stood up n her hind legs, wings steadying herself in indignation. “Applejack, let me ask you something. I. Do not. Hallucinate.”
“But…that warn’t a question.”
“What?”
“Yall said, ‘lemme ask ya sumthin’ Implyin’ a question.”
“Whatever,” waved off Rainbow Dash. “I still think that whatever it is, it’s not alive, probably just some shooting star coming our way.”
“Well…’ started Fluttershy timidly. “If it is, we always have a tradition of watching meteor showers, right?”
Twilight nodded at this. “Yeah, it was probably just a shooting star coming our way, we can go up on the roof and we can take a look with my telescope.”
As they started upstairs, Pinkie Pie suddenly stopped, standing stock still and then shivering like she was standing in a blizzard. “Twitchy Pinkie, twitchy Pinkie!”
“Pinkie?” Asked Rainbow, as the rest went upstairs, not noticing the pink-pony’s convulsions. “What’s wrong?”
Pinkie looked up, her hair was slightly less poofy. “I felt the pinkie Sense.”
“Something’s gonna happen?” asked Rainbow, arching an eyebrow.
“Yeah…something Big…and I don’t think it’s for the best.” Said Pinkie Pie in unnaturally reserved tones.
“Like with the hydra?”asked Rainbow.
“Like…bigger, this was the biggest pinkie sense attack I've ever had!” she said, back to her chipper self. “Let’s go join the others!”
The leafy roof of the library was crowded within an hour, with each pony doing his or her own thing as they waited. Fluttershy was talking with some birds perched on a railing as they looked back at her with quizzical expressions, clearly not understanding a thing she was saying, Rainbow was lazily flapping back and forth around the treetop, Rarity was helping Twilight align her telescope ‘just right’ Applejack was producing picnicking supplies and pinkie pie was staring at the sky with rapt attention.
“Alright!” Said Twilight, it’s all set up ,now we just need the big lens.”
As if on cue, Spike came tottering up the steps, panting as he carted the large lens to Twilight yet again. “Here ya go.” He groaned, then sat down heavily and accepted a bottle of cider from Applejack.
Twilight floated the lens over and then screwed it on, making sure the position wasn't off, she put her eye to the scope. “Time for the moment of truth!” The ponies were silent as Twilight remained fixed to the telescope for several minutes.
“Well?” Asked Rainbow.
“It’s…you better come take a look.”
The Pegasus flapped down and then put her eye to the eyepiece.
“..Wow...”
Arrayed in the distance, and made visible by the scope, were four stars in the sky. They had stopped moving. Each one was gigantic, brighter even than the Ice Dragon’s tailstar.
UISV Starry Ice
Sharn looked over their craft. It would be their home from a few months to a year. The craft was big and blocky, a central spar, a frontal personnel area and a rear engine/storage/hanger area. Simple enough.
“So,” Said Vannse, as she watched a pair of dragonfly-like plaavan landers being trundled on board. “looks like we’re getting extra stuff.”
She, Sharn, Urak and Malicant were all kitted out in full combat gear, the journey would take likely only a few hours, if that, but the ferrerium burn on their engines would mean they would have to cool down for weeks.
The difference between their bulk freighter and the giant carrier that was the Ice was simple, an Interstellar Vehicle (ISV) was built for speed and carriage, the Ice and the Spirit carried personnel enough for an entire division, and the Twilight carried ordinance and supplies as well as Ferrerium backups. The ships were so titanically large that they developed internal atmospheres that could be disrupted by large masses nearby, not to mention that large asteroids could be avoided by freighters, but not by city-sized hulks. As a result, the Ice carried her escorts; the escort fleet was comprised of six Frigates, two carried by each ISV. These ships were only about two kilometers long each but unlike the ISVs, they were armed.
The freighter was about half the size of the frigates, and shaped like a bulky bird of prey. It would bring them into planetary orbit in hours, cruising a bit under the speed of light. From there, they could use the plaavaans (named for the predatory flying lizards of Vurka) to Deorbit and set up a research station. The Lament itself was capable of emergency deorbit but it was unadvised.
Sharn inspected the shiny new badge that adorned is shoulder place. Three bars. ‘Mission Commander.’ He had been given command of the mission.
“Vaanse?” He asked. The vernid turned her plated head 90 degrees. “Yes?” She buzzed.
“I notice their loading an Aenir on board. Why?”
A gigantic tank was being rolled up into the Comet’s yawning cargo bay.
“We’re getting a platoon.” She said. “Order just came through from the fleet commander. He says that oxygen levels are high enough that we’ll want military backup in case the life is hostile as well is enormous.”
“But an entire platoon?”
“your kind lost ten humans within the first five hours of landing on Vurka.”
“That was thousands of years ago.”
“And the technology has advanced little since then, we have achieved the most a mortal Union can.”
It was true, the Union troops that made what was referred to as ‘beachhead’ to establish bases on primitive worlds were generally seen as gods or godlike figures by the natives. Nearly two thousand years ago, they had come to what was generally referred to as the highest possible point of technology.
Sharn glanced as a black-robed Technocrat entered the hanger, the metallic man was accompanied by two nearly fully mechanical humans who carried a disruptor rifle each. Behind them, on varied appendages came their droids. A round dozen.
The technnomancer stepped onto the freighter without a word to either of them.
“ Isn't he friendly.” Muttered Sharn
Armor, check, weapons, check, supplies, check. Haley Karras flexed, getting a feel for the exosuit, it raised her height to roughly eight feet and formed a layer protective armor. Her helmet didn't go on yet, the skull-like visage’s eyes were darkened and it hung at her combat suit’s waist. With it on, it was impossible to tell if someone was male or female. The powered armor was meant to turn her into a weapon and protect her as well. There was no logical point for it to be made to enhance her assets. So it didn't
The GUI operator looked to her left and right, Trizar was on her left, fully clad in interlocking metal plates of armor, currently the chameleon program in his armor was set to garish colors that were apparently pleasing to Kugs. His long fingers were encased in Battle-claws, long extensions that would be wreathed in a disruptor field if combat was initiated. His tail would likewise be armed.
The Kugs were a people who had many strange customs, even more than Vurkuristar. This was exemplified in his battle-mask, a construction of adamantium and steel with two eye slits, a long, hook nose to accommodate his own and an insanely grinning mouth with razor teeth, the entire thing made him look like a demon of Earthen myth. They were known for being effective terror-inducers in battle.
To her right was Frost, the Ice Wraith was triple-checking his things, mostly monitoring equipment, Ice Wraiths had always had an insatiable thirst for knowledge.
“We are ready?” Asked Trizar. Haley nodded. “Let’s go find the others and get on board.”
The giant metal doors on the side of the Ice opened like a huge mouth and out of it flew a single silver craft.
The Comet’s Lament looked like a massive bird of prey, a V shaped frontal section, a central body and a bulky rear, replete with winglike attachments and huge engines.
The Ferrerium engines could power this ship for roughly a year of constant travel –not nearly enough to warrant it being an ISV. Like most freighters it had to be shuttled places. This happy fact made interplanetary smuggling nearly impossible.
For a moment, the lament hung suspended under the Starry Ice, before reorienting, and shooting off towards a bright star in the distance.
Harmonius Repose. Known to its people as Equestria.
-IPV (interplanetary vehical) Comet’s Lament
Sharn watched as the speck of the Starry Ice receded into the distance.
The rest of the team was lounging in the passenger room.
The room was with seats facing forward, during the entry into what was commonly called ‘lightspeed’ though was referred to by pilots as ‘cruising speed’
It would take them roughly five minutes to go from a mere few hundred kilometers per second to Cruising Speed. Space was big, and such, the vessels that plied it could travel the circumference of an entire world in minutes. Cinemas liked to show big battles with explosions and what have you. In reality, space warfare was conducted by armed vessels firing missiles and unmanned bomb drones at one another. Lasers were also popular. Railguns were amusingly impractical. While Linear Accelerators might be the go-to weapon for soldiers, in space the shots were outpaced by even the slowest vessel. Instead, most vessels employed Lasers, Hypervelocity Cannons, and Atomics.
Lasers were standard, they shot beams of incoherent light, infantry variants were usually cannons and beamers, that fired powerful sustained beams of light while naval variants were usually house-sized weapons fully capable of scorching a hole in anything. This was usually used for bombardment.
Hypervelocity Cannons used some form of hyperagitated ferrerium to propel a solid slug at near-lightpseed.
Atomics were developed by mankind, they were the most-used weapon, missiles loaded down with uranium or hydrogen charges, built to fly into an enemy ship and rip it apart with a split atom. In some cases, though, they were used in planetary bombardment. These were the worst, lasers left craters, hypervelocity cannons left ferrerium discharge, heady, but nonlethal. Atomics left radiation.
Sharn pulled himself out of his reverie as he heard someone talking to him.
“Sharn, Sharn. You there?” It was Malicant, the medic was unstrapping himself from his seat. “We’re at cruising speed and have a few hours to kill with nothing to do so Trizar’s said he’s gonna try and teach Haley how to play Sallisar.”
“Isn't that the Kug game with all the convoluted rules?” Sharn too unbuckled his crash webbing.
“Better then Urdesh.” Said Malicant, referring to the absurdly complicated Vurkuristar game that was made for a race of perfect predators with superhuman reflexes and four eyes .
Standing up and stretching, the bald human nodded. “Why not?” he said, and followed Malicant to the cargo hold where the others were setting up.
The cargo hold was wide and spacious. With an X shaped pair of catwalks crossing it’s top. One of the five-man crew was taking inventory.
Sharn took a good look around.
The room was brightened by long lamps running across the ceiling and glowing panels in the wall. Much of the hold was filled with supplies and ammunition for the base they were to set up groundside. Several vehicles were in evidence, a pair of Hornet scout vehicles and arralos light artillery platforms predominated, though all were outshone by the massive Aenir tank. The thing could bring down a Tulok with a single shot, it fired anything from solid shot to explosive to thermobaric. Even atomic. It was almost the size of a large house. According to captain Xarxes, it was the heaviest ground based vehicle in the galaxy, only one had been brought by the fleet, and it was theirs. Built for roving over uncharted terrain it would make the perfect mobile ops-center.
Sharn looked up. He felt…watched all of a sudden, and not by the Technomancer in the corner,. Speaking of which…
Sharn approached the Technomancer, apparently named ‘Versor’
It translated, roughly, in the technocracy language, to ‘butcher’ or ‘killer’
He would never understand their obsession with death. The Technomancer motioned him over.
Sharn approached, the Technomancer looked straight at him as he did. His face was a hissing grille and a pair of glowing red eye-lenses. Dozens of mechanical limbs sprouted from the man. Sharn noted the rotary cannon mounted over the technocrat’s shoulder.
“You are the mission commander?” Demanded the technocrat.
Sharn held the red glare. “Yes.”
“I was not informed that an aberration was joining the crew.”
“Excuse me?”
“The…Ice Wraith.” Said the Technocrat, pointing to where the robotlike creature was observing as the others set up their board in the middle of the floor. “You call it…Frost?” The Technomancer seemed like it pained him to grant Frost a name.
“Yeah, we call it Frost,” said Sharn. ‘It’ was not an insult, as far as they knew, the Wraiths were genderless and Frost had done nothing to shed light on this matter.
“I wish to study it, you will order it out of its refrigeration suit for dissection.”
“First off, I’m not even sure he has a body to dissect, second, are you out of your mind? You may be autonomous but you have no authority over me.” Sharn was really quite surprised, the technocrat had been…very blunt in his wishes.
The technocrat walked off. Sharn gawked at his back until he vanished. The 'man' had been human but was now more alien than most aliens. They hated anything not within their near-religious worldview of ‘science is right, if not now, it will be eventually’
He pushed the disturbing technomancer from his mind and watched as the others played their game.
After a while, Urak stood up and made his way over to Sharn.
The Vurkuristar was encased in armor that functioned on the same basis that human armor did, only modified for his crustaceous frame. He jerked a claw towards the door. “I’m getting something to eat, you hungry?” he growled.
“I just spent fifty years in cryo-suspention then got whisked away to some alien world within hours, damn right I’m hungry.” He answered.
The Vurkuristar grunted. “I hope they have some decent meaty creatures where we’re going.”
The Comet’s lament carried roughly sixty people to Harmonius Repose. Thirty of these were soldiers. Grunts tasked with providing support in case things got too hairy for a GUI team.
Herman Rauth was one. Like many, he had joined up for life, in his case, he had no family, like many troops, the Scourge had wiped them out, the mass of warped creatures had come to his home planet and killed nearly everyone. He had signed up for revenge. Now he was in for life.
Currently he was languidly patrolling the corridors in full armor. Not quite what the GUI troops, had. He disliked GUI on a personal level, they were too cold, to clinical, they only cared that the law was upheld, morality be damned. They said they were protectors, bet he’d seen what they’d done to ‘protect’ the Union. Genocide, assassinations, sabotage.
Unfortunately they were a necessary evil.
The ship still had about another hour to go before they entered outer orbit. He was exited, to say the least. Worlds that had life on them were rare indeed, most worlds with such life were filled with Ferrerium, as far as he knew, there were only twenty seven sentient races in the union, altogether there were fifty-nine known sentient races.
Maybe there would be some on this world? He could practically feel the pension it would get him, to discover new life.
Rauth straightened as the commander of the mission ‘Sharn’ went by with a Vurkuristar in tow.
After they had passed, he continued his patrol. He passed several other soldiers, of multiple races on his route.
As he neared the rear gunnery station he heard the alarms sounding.
“PREPARE FOR SUBLIGHT TRANSLATION”
He quickly started towards the nearest crash throne when the ship began shaking like a leaf in a hurricane.
Sharn’s face met his bowl of soup with an amusing splat. Urak roared as the vessel began to shudder. It sounded like they’d entered a warzone.
Sharn quickly removed his face form the bowl. “What the hell’s going on?!” He demanded.
“Y-y-yo-ur a-a-sk-k-k-i-n-g me-ee?” Urak managed as the ship began to buck even more violently.
The loudspeakers blared.
“EMERGENCY SHUT-DOWN OF GRAVITON RINGS”
Sharn slowly lifted into the air as the supersonically-rotating gravity-generating rings in the vessel’s center ceased their spin.
“Disoncerting.” Muttered Urak, as the vessel continued to rock but they remained floating due to the sudden absence of gravity. Urak kicked off of the table. “Let’s head to the cockpit, see what’s going on.”
“Is that wise? Seems like we should get strapped down,” said Sharn.
“You have no sense of daring Sharn, come on, it’s not like we’re facing down a Tulok,” Grated Urak.
“You make it sound like you have.” Said Sharn, floating to the mess hall’s doorway.
“I did.”
“You can tell me all about it later.” Sharn began drifting down the hallway. As they used the prebuilt wall-handholds, the ship continued to shake. They passed a few people clinging to the fixtures and one or two drifting bodies. Sharn didn't know if they were comatose or dead.
“By the Skinner this is bad.”
“Skinner?” Grunted Sharn, as he shoved several drifting crates away.
Urak glared ahead with his four glowing eyes at the long hall that would take them ‘up’ to the bridge.
“Vurkuristar god. Otango in life. His is my tribe.”
Sharn nodded as he pulled himself up towards the cockpit door. Famous Vurkuristar were revered. Not quite ‘gods’ more ‘heroes of legend’ but ‘God’ was the closest word in Galactic for it. They called them “Yavorak.”
They finally reached the cockpit, Sharn hit the button to lower the hatch, as he and Urak drifted inside they saw what the problem was.
Asteroids. Billions of them. Arranged in an almost shield-like pattern.
“Captain!” he yelled , “report!”
“Asteroid field commander, there’s no orbiting this world sir, not without being battered to a metal lump!” the captain of the freighter was a large man with some grey hair at the fringes around the back of his head.
“Can we deorbit?” demanded Sharn.
“In this metal tub? It won’t be pretty but it’ll likely keep most of us alive.”
“Do it!” roared Sharn. “Sound general crash stations!”
The captain looked around. “Sir, with all due respect, wouldn't it be more prudent to evacuate to the savoir pods?”
Sharn scowled. He hated ‘with all due respect’ which really meant ‘you’re a fucking idiot, fuck off’ He shook his head.
“Considering the damage we took, it’s likely that the savoir pods won’t launch at all, and if we crash with anyone in those pods, they will die.”
“Sir!” shouted the pilot. He obviously meant the captain of the five-man crew.
“What?”
The man pointed to the main viewscreen.
Everyone started, and not at the asteroids that were buffeting the ship, or at the floating soda bottle hovering near the ceiling.
“I’ll be damned.” Said the captain.
Before them and growling larger by the second was a blue-green marble. Clouds scudded over oceans and continents.
“It looks like…”
“Earth, Vurka, Kugazn, any green world.”
“It looks…untouched sir.” Said the copilot, a Vernid. “And we’re on a collision course with it.”
“What?”
“Harmonius Repose has us in her gravity well, sir, our space-engines are being crushed by asteroids and we can’t keep orbit in this mess.” The vernid waved a pincer at the asteroids bouncing off the windshield. “We must deorbit or we’ll all die up here. We've already lost the air scrubbers, it’s only a matter of time before asphyxiation.”
“Do it.”
Sharn gawped at the world.
Every world had some metallic presence, even earth, reclaimed as it was still had the gigantic hive-like cities in the British Isles and the northern Eurasian steppes. Kugazn had giant space-rings and Vurka was pockmarked with orbital bombardment craters and nuclear blast zones pounded into the jungle.
“A totally untouched world.” Said another of the crewers.
It seemed like to even land on this pristine beautiful world would be something akin to planet-wide rape, but they had a job to do. They were also beginning their inexorable plummet into its gravity well so it really didn't matter what they thought.
The impact of a skyscraper-sized asteroid on the vessel jarred everyone out of their reverie.
“You two might want to get strapped in, we’re in for a bumpy ride,” said the captain, as he pushed the big red ‘crash alert’ button.
“And an even bumpier landing.” Mumbled the young pilot.
Sharn and Urak quickly pulled themselves into the two available seats and set their adjustments to accommodate their large frames. “So,” Said Sharn, as he fastened his crash webbing, “You know how to make a crash landing, right?”
The pilot spoke back, “I hope so.”
The copilot tapped a few buttons. “Initiating deorbit…shit.”
“What?” Asked Sharn.
“Our ferrerium engines are smashed up worse than we thought; they've overheated and everything, a big, melted, smashed mass of metal. We’re running on secondary engines and thrusters. Steering’ll be hard, we might have to fall back on manual steerage, brace for impact, we’re going down hard,” said the pilot.
“Hard?”
“Yeah, we’re in for a really shitty day today,” said the captain.
The planet was now filling their entire views.
“Entering upper atmosphere.” Announced the copilot.
The pilot began to mutter to himself. “Damned asteroids. We made as pretty a sublight translation as I’ve seen, we could have just stayed up here, but nooo-ooo, his world had to be an ass and have a fuckhuge asteroid belt.”
Sharn started at this. “Can’t we just orbit above the belt?’
“Negative, like I said our ferrerium maneuvering thrusters were smashed to bits. A nearly fast-as-light piece of metal hitting a floating rock takes a lot of damage, as you can imagine. That said, the belt is enormous and these asteroids look like they’ve been lifted right off the moon. They’re not standard space-rocks.”
The copilot checked his tiny little screen. “Hull breaches on decks six and one. Sealing.”
The vernid hit a pair of buttons, sealing the blast doors on the rooms breached. Anyone within was doomed but it would save the rest of the ship.
“Look at THAT!” shouted the pilot. They were approaching the upper cloud layer. The veiwscreen was growing red-hot.
“Scanning,” droned the copilot, his pincer-claws tapping the keys in front of him.
“Well?” Asked Urak, as they settled down in their seats and stopped floating, the world’s gravity had them.
“We appear to be coming down in the local monsoon, the cloud levels are…strongly regimented but yes, there is a buildup of clouds, likely due to ocean winds. We’ll be coming into the local evening, just before sunset, it should be pretty dark down there.”
The pilot interrupted. “Hitting cloud layer in two, preparing arresters, we should level out soon.”
“Wait!” Yelled Urak, do we even know what the hell’s down there? Could be an ocean or we could be flying right into a mountain!”
“Don’t worry, I had this rout mapped out when we started losing altitude, it should take us right into a lake, a nice, smooth landing.”
“Oh, good.” Said Sharn. “Not like there might be giant lake-monsters or anything.”
Urak barked a humorless laugh.
They penetrated the white expanse. The world was grey for a few long, tense, mountain-fearing moments before they shot out, the glowing-red windshield vanishing in a wash of steam for a moment.
“I can’t see anything.”
“Just calm down, copilot, the steam will clear soon. Fire the lower boosters, level us out at sixty degrees for now,” said the captain.
The pilot and copilot tapped buttons and pulled levers, then the pilot shook his head and grabbed hold of the manual steerage. “Control’s fried cap’ we’re about as accurate as a thrown spear right now, hope we hit something soft.”
As the steam slackened and the starship pounded through the driving rain. They all looked at what was ahead of them.
“…Fuck.”
“About sums it up.” Said the captain.
“A lake, you said.” Muttered Sharn, as the looming mountain grew ever closer.
“Oops.”
“Can you steer away?” Asked Urak, eyeing the mountain.
“Manual steerage only works if we can angle the thrusters right. It’s very slow and inaccurate, so no.”
“A pleasure serving with you, sir.” Said the pilot, to the Captain.
“I hated every moment of it.” Retorted the captain, though it lacked the venom a real insult had. A few resigned chuckles were in evidence as the ship thundered down through the torrential rain towards the mountain and their impending doom.
“Wait a moment…” said the copilot. “…is that a…city?”
Sharn leaned forward in his crash webbing as the mountain approached. He felt strangely liberated, knowing his death was approaching.
“I’ll be damned.” Said the captain, for the second time in ten minutes.
The pilot threw up his arms, “great, so our engines are fried by asteroids and now we’re about to crash into an alien city-what the hell is that?”
“What?” asked Sharn.
“Towers.”
Sharn followed his gaze, their path would take them right by a pair of towers, oddly suspended above a mile-high drop by…nothing.
“Must be some pretty decent architects here, I don’t see any gravpoles.”
“You know…I think, judging by our projected path…we’ll clear the city. Might not be dead after all!” said the pilot.
The copilot tapped some more buttons, “I think we’ll pass the towers and city by and land in that giant forest a few hundred clicks away, if I can just get the blasted boosters to fire properly.”
“Look out!”
The captain braced himself in his seat. “Oh shi-”
With a thundering noise, the Comet’s Lament tore through one of the giant towers and continued onward.
The five beings in the cockpit would have been thrown about if not for their crash webbing. They felt something on the vessel come loose with a shuddering however. The starship tilted slightly as it continued on. Alarms began to blare.
The copilot spoke first. “We lost something. I don’t think it was too important though.”
Behind them, the gargantuan three-hundred meter long left wing of the Comet’s Lament scythed through Canterlot like a thrown blade.
“What’d we lose?” asked the captain.
The copilot tapped his keyboard and buzzed uncomfortably. “Um…a fifth of the vessel. Left wing.”
“Motherfucking engineers.” Moaned the captain as the vessel shot over the city.
“At least we missed the mountain.” Grunted Urak.
“Correction, Urak, four fifths of us missed the mountain.” Said Sharn.
Despite the situation and their looming fiery deaths, the cockpit was filled with hysterical, mad laughter like a pack of hyenas. The laughter of dead men walking.
“Forest. Trying to level,” said the copilot, hitting the switches to fire arresting jets. None of them had yet grasped the fact that they had been situated in an area of the vessel with only see-through duramite to protect them and were still alive and relatively unhurt.
“Was a fun ride down.” Said Urak, as the enormous forest loomed. “See you in the afterlife.”
In the holding section of the Lament, the rest of the team was unaware of how really bad it was. All they felt was a shudder as the wing detached.
“So.” Said malicant. “I guess we’re deorbiting.”
Haley nodded, slightly green. She’d always hated deorbits directly from space. They always ended in crashes.
“You holdin’ up Tri?” she asked, turning to Trizar.
The Kug, in his gel-like crash throne nodded. “Trizar hopes we don’t crash.” He hissed.
“So do I, and not the least because there’s a spiky kug behind me.”
The Kug let out a rattling laugh.
Vaanse was silently staring ahead. Frost was standing, having clamped its mechanical legs to the deck.
Malicant turned from his seat. “Frost, are you sure you don’t want to strap down?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“You’re bound to break your bones. Get into a damn seat.”
“I have no bones to break. I would like to experience this crash.”
“…What the fuck, Frost?”
“It would be most beneficial towards the advancement of my knowledge to experience an interplanetary vessel crash firsthand.”
“But…what if your suit breaks?”
“It would be unfortunate.”
In the cabin, the five beings watched, seconds away from impact.
“Brace!” Said the Vernid copilot. The Comet’s Lament groaned as the arresting jets fired, trying to halt their forward momentum.
They hit the leafy canopy with a roar of fire, smashing wood and groaning metal. Sharn’s world slowed, his bionic implants kicking in, heightening awareness, flooding his body with endorphins and slowing his perception of time. He could see leaves being pushed away, smearing the canopy with rainwater and damp branches snapping as they plowed into the rain-soaked evening forest. He saw trunks ripped up as the kilometer-long vessel smashed into the foliage. He saw the cracks in the duramite as they hit the ground, then dirt. Looking around, he could see the captain grimacing, Urak’s pedipalps wide as he laughed insanely at this adrenaline rush, the copilot’s black, unfathomable insect eyes reflecting the carnage in the windshield, the pilot’s open, wide eyes and screaming mouth.
The world snapped back to real-time for him as the ship slammed into the earth, kicking up dirt hundreds of feet into the air and plowing into the mud like a runner sliding onto home plate. Sharn was slammed against his restraints and fought to keep neck from snapping from the force. He heard screaming, and someone throwing up and wondered why he wasn't knocked out yet. In the movies they always went out cold.
Not him. He heard the shattering of Duramite as the transparent canopy smashed open, the tiny stings on his skin as the sharp shards rained down around them and heard the alien world for the first time.
Mostly the snapping of branches and creaking of trees as they were torn to bits, the slapping of wet leaves and the downpour of the rain. Over it all was the tortured grinding metal of the Comet’s Lament being ground into the dirt as it skidded crazily, carving a trench behind it.
He felt the wet leaves and bits of branches slap his face and snap on his armor as they entered the cockpit through the smashed windshield as the vessel’s forward slide began to slow, Urak’s armored eye-protecting plates had slammed shut, the see-through armor film covering them still glowed blue, telling Sharn that Urak was still paying attention.
The captain was out cold, his head flopping every time the ship hit a new tree as it slowed and plowed through the forest.
The copilot was staring at the pilot with his bug-eyes as a branch of no uncertain size smashed through the window and impaled the pilot, tearing through his chest with a crunch like snapping wet sticks.
What seemed like hours later, in fact only a matter of seconds, the ship slowed to a complete halt, slamming everyone into their harnesses. The roar of twisted metal was replaced by the distant cracking of tree branches and ever-present downpour, now invading the vessel through the hole in the shattered canopy.
Sharn sucked in a breath, thanking any deity that would listen for his combat armor; it had likely saved his life.
He coughed heavily spitting up some bloody phlegm, the crash had knocked the wind out of him, and judging by the smoke and steam pouring from the control panels the ship had been hit bad.
His first instinct was to check his comrades, but Urak was already unfastening his crash webbing and the Vernid copilot had already done his. The captain was clearly out of it.
As Sharn unfastened his own webbing and stood up, he realized how lucky he was. He ached a lot and was covered in cuts, but in all likelihood, he should have died. He grabbed his helmet and stood up, ramming the thing onto his head, a Spartan affair, only a pair of teardrops for the eyes and nothing else.
“We all…” he coughed, “we all alright?”
The copilot checked the sarcastic captain’s pulse. “Captian Braig is stable.” He moved onto the pilot. “Pilot Veazy is dead.”
Sharn admonished himself, he should have learned the crew’s names, with a start, he realized he barely knew anyone not on his team. He resolved to become more familiar with his men –if any lived. He looked back at teh pilot's corpse. The man had been well and alive just moments before. you expected this kind of thing in war, not on a beachhead mission.
The vernid clacked his mandibles. “That was a much worse landing than I had anticipated, we likely lost most of our personnel…but we should get out of the ship it’s likely unstable and is gushing flammable fluids.”
Sharn glanced behind them; the hallway had indeed caved in. He quickly fetched a Linear Accelerator Rifle (LAR) from its housing in the wall. The vernid contented himself with a simple Magrifle, a shorter, carbine like affair while Urak had apparently brought a plasma gun with him.
“Let’s get out of this deathtrap.” Growled Urak, smashing the weakened duramite canopy with his powerful servo-assisted arm and gripping the edge in a gauntleted hand to pull himself up and out of the freighter’s sodden cockpit. He unshipped his axe from his belt and flipped it around, offering it’s handle to the vernid, who was unassisted by the bulky armor. The vernid accepted and let himself be pulled out.
“Alright.” Said Sharn, grabbing the edge of the metal frame of the cockpit and hoisting himself out. He leaned in and lifted Captain Braig out. “Let’s see if anyone else lived and hope the damnable thing won’t explode.”
Sharn took a moment to look out around him.
It was getting on an early evening, the land was a dark blue as the rain beat down. Leaves vibrated as water dripped onto them in a drumbeat rhythm and the clearing caused by the landing was being doused in the rain, looking behind the craft, it became clear that the trench plowed by the vessel was only a few hundred yards long. As they jogged away from the vessel, it also became clear just how bad the damage from striking that tower was. A long gash was torn in the hull, coolant gushed out of multiple rents under the cockpit. A savoir pod bay several hundred meters away had been torn open with the landing and the savoir pod within wrecked. The once-relatively proud spacefaring vessel was battered, gutted. Dead. Smoke rose from some of the rents in the hulls.
A wing could be seen missing down near the engine bay, the huge gap lay a pair of corridors bare as well as a crash bay. The second wing had evidently plowed into the ground as the vessel was ‘upright’ but at a tilt to it’s right. A massive gash had been torn in the side and dozens of smaller holes were in evidence, likely caused from the collision with the ground.
“Well.” Said Urak, who had not donned his helmet. “We’re here. Hah.”
Princess Celestia was in her quarters when the Thing passed by. She was reading a letter sent by Twilight Sparkle yesterday night. It detailed that the stars had stopped moving. This was comforting news at least. She could tell Luna that she could rearrange the asteroids into a less precarious position for her, a meteor shower of millions of asteroids would be unpleasant, no doubt. As she began writing a reply, she heard a noise.
It sounded like…like something was tearing, a ripping noise. It was coming from outside and it certainly wasn’t the downpour. The pegasi had elected to allow a heavy downpour for the night as more clouds formed during this time of the year.
Frowning, the Solar Princess stepped up to her window and looked outside.
The sound…it sounded like the sky itself was tearing open. She craned her neck to see what it was but in this infernal rain she couldn’t see past a few hundred feet up. The pegasi had put the clouds extra high this time.
It came like a javelin from the sky.
The roaring intensified and suddenly a giant, smoke trailing shape fully the size of an entire wing of the castle shot by one of the towers. Her heart nearly stopped as it smashed into the west tower and continued on. The tower itself crumbled, its top smashing into its bottom and sending the gargantuan chunks falling to the valley floor a mile below. Her attention was fixed on something else. An enormous…piece of the flaming…thing had broken off with the collision and was spinning through the air scything over the city like a deadly blade. She watched in horror as it landed, pulverizing an entire block with its immense size and caroming into the west gardens, where it plowed up a furrow of dirt and finally came to a halt, steaming as the downpour beat down the fires adorning it’s outer hull
She gaped.
This had been completely unexpected, the first thought to her mind was ‘dragon’ however dragons did not have wings the size of towers that were made of what seemed of be off-white and grey bone with red stripes down one side and giant runes on the top.
Hurrying out of her chambers, the white Alicorn quickly galloped down the stairs. Luna was nowhere to be seen, likely raising the moon now that Celestia had lowered the sun.
After moments of galloping, she realized she could teleport.
With a crack and a flash, Celestia vanished and reappeared in the castle courtyard, where the royal guard was already scrambling. Shining Armor apparently had the situation well under control. Celstia composed herself, the thing was unlikely to vanish by the time she got there, so there was no need of rush. She sedately trotted out of the palace and down towards the west gardens, where several dozen royal guard had already thrown up a cordon.
Shining Armor was there to meet her. “Your highness,” he bowed. “We have made sure nopony can approach the…metal…thing until we ascertain it’s purpose.”
Celestia nodded and started towards it.
Shining Armor spoke up quickly. “This includes you, your highness.”
“Shining Armor, I am not ‘anypony’ and before my little ponies can approach this thing I will make sure it is not harmful, I am likely best suited for the task. Have you sent for Luna?’
“Yes, she is raising the moon, she will be here soon.”
Celestia nodded and entered the gardens.
The devastation was appalling. A long furrow was plowed into the grass, deep too. The thing had come spinning over the city, demolished a block of office buildings and smashed into the gardens. Up close it was gigantic, easily the size of a tower of the castle. The thing was steaming, so it was likely quite hot.
The construct was wide and curved, roughly three stories thick and twenty wide it was an impressive sight. Evidently it was hollow as well, with a few holes scored in the width of it and several long holes that seemed to be a sort of hollow passage down its length.
Construct.
It was artificial.
With the thump of hooves on the wet grass, Luna landed form her frantic flight. Her mane sodden in the rain just as Celestia’s.
“What is that ?” the princess of the moon asked.
“It is…I am not sure, it came from the sky.”
“The star!?” gasped Luna.
“It can’t be, Twilight sent me a letter the other day that the star had stopped moving.”
“Celly, there’s no other explanation.”
“I…it’s not the whole thing,” said Celestia.
“Hmm?”
“I saw it from my balcony window, the…star, for want of a better word, was nearly a kilometer in length, it was like a spear, it smashed into the tower and this bit came off. The…comet, can we call it a comet?”
Luna nodded.
“The comet continued on towards the Everfree. It likely landed somewhere in that vast forest.”
Luna began walking, obviously excited about this thing that had come from the stars.
“It looks…constructed.” Said Luna, taking wing and landing on the top. “See, there’s writing on the side!”
Celestia flapped upwards and landed next to her sister. The rain was slackening off.”Can you be sure? It just looks like lines to me.”
Luna nodded. That’s also a possibility, let’s go inside!”
Celestia was about to protest when Luna took flight again and landed in one of the long hallway-like things where it had been ripped from the comet.
Luna was already looking uneasy. “This is defiantly a construct Celly.”
“Of course, sister.” Said Celestia, looking around at the…corridor.
It was long and curved with the vessel, several open doors of an iron-like substance, possibly steel were spaced at intervals. Luna studied what appeared to be containers before Celestia gasped.
“Luna!”
“Yes?”
“This is a…space-ship.”
Luna’s eyes went wide as she looked back to the container.
It was set into the wall and seemed to contain a trio of clear, possibly glass…things. Each of the glass things was attached by a short of shiny rope to a small container the size of each sister’s hoof, the glass was framed with more of the shiny black stuff.
At this moment, a guardspony landed at the entrance to the corridor.
“Guardspony,” Said Celestia. “Once my sister and I finish examining this thing, you are to put together a squad and take anything that can be taken form this vessel.”
“Vessel?” the pegasus asked.
“Er, yes, just do your duty, guard, what is your name?” asked Luna.
"One Grey Worm, your highness." the guard said.
"Oh? that's an unusual..name, in any case, do your duty." The guard nodded and left to gather his squad.
Celestia and Luna trotted down the corridor, stopping at the first door; it seemed to house quite a lot of complicated machinery and many long things with fins on the end. Celestia was unaware she was staring at Diamond-Boron missiles, each housing a small ‘tactical’ nuclear warhead. She had no idea that the larger ones were referred to as ‘godstoppers’ and a single one could level Canterlot in the blink of an eye. Neither of the sisters knew that the complicated machinery was a belt-feeding mechanism that fired the nuclear weapons like a machine gun in the event of space combat.
They dismissed the finned tubes as irrelevant and largely unimportant and continued onto the next room.
“Luna?” asked Celestia.
“Yes.”
“Have you thought of what creature could have made this? It doesn’t look like gryphon design or diamond dog or anything really.”
“Perhaps…”started Luna.”Perhaps the ship comes from another world?”
Celestia had feared that, and she had no idea what to do about it. “Well, whoever made it was clearly much more advanced than us.”
Luna looked puzzled. “I doubt it,” She said. “nothing here can’t be achieved by simple magic. We’re likely just confused at their different aesthetic taste.”
“Try a detect magic spell on anything here.”
Luna acknowledged and then gasped. “You’re right! Nothing here has an ounce of magic in it!”
Celestia nodded but Luna cut her off.
“Oh no, what if this is an invasion force? What if they’re mad at us? What if they’re EVIL? The world will be swarmed with green-skinned pony-eaters before-”
“Luna! In all likelihood, whatever made this contraption is LONG dead, nothing can survive in space for the time it takes to cross the void between stars, and I highly doubt they are immortal like us. In any case, it’s absurd to assume that they are too different than us, anypony from another world will likely be just as sane as us.”
“Yes…sorry sister,” said Luna, abashedly.
They entered the room and immediately wished they hadn't. Three corpses were the defining feature. And what corpses they were.
They were…strange. It had been generally assumed that anypony from another world would be relatively normal. Four legs, a head, hooves the works, maybe grey and with super big eyes but generally pony shaped. At worst, ‘green-skinned pony-eaters’ like Luna had said.
The first creature looked a bit like Twilight’s dragon, Spike though different at the same time. Pale like Celestia’s fur. It would have stood at roughly her height, if just a bit shorter. A mane covered its head like most ponies and its eyes were close-set and beady compared to a pony’s. It had no real snout, instead having a triangle-shaped snub above its mouth, which was opened in what Celestia first assumed to be a snarl then realized was a silent limp slack jawed pose of death. Its eyes were closed and it was certainly battered. Blood ran from its insides and its neck was at a strange angle. It was strapped into a chair by some strange webbing. The second creature looked like a collection of rocks more than anything else. Unlike the other, it was positively demonic, its skin was as hard as dragonscales and it was impaled upon a spar. It held the spar in one strange clawlike hand while the other dangled form it’s seat. The side of its strange head, (a head that seemed to have no mouth to speak of, just four odd, fat fangs, six limp hair-thin feelers and four eyes, a dull glossy black.) was lolling pathetically.
The third creature looked like the first though darker skinned, it wore a form of patterned green clothing and some sort of armor over its chest, legs and arms. Its head was adorned with a helmet of sorts. Its innards were spilling out.
The sisters looked uneasily at one another.
Aliens.
Dead Aliens.
____________________________________CHAPTER ENDNOTES_______________________________________
FINALLY.
Done with this monster chapter.
In fact, 7,000 words of it are because I didn't want to only have a 3,000 word chapter so I...added...things may have gotten out of hand...
For those of you who feel Celestia and Luna aren't reacting properly, it;s because they're thinking aliens and have been for about five minutes, not enough time for it to sink in really.
I make no claim to ponies, blah blah otherwise I'd be making this a feature film, not a fimficiton.
Special thanks to:
Master109: You'll see their full reactions next chapter, though this was a bit of it here. *grin*
Lightspeed: And humans, of course, technically they're ALL aliens however...
Captain Sigma: As always, gave a great review, I'm a 'hard' sci-fi fan so I like to do stuff the old-fashioned way. luckily, while worlds do change, world wars (true world wars) last centuries. As for your question about the spaces, I liked teh way it set the tone in 'Background Pony' Finally, I took your hint, the bold text thing did throw the story off.
Karikamiya: I LIKE re-posters. Feel free to offer critiques and your views on things.
Me: Hey, Ineptus, you should learn to use the blog.
TheGlassNinja: okay, I get it, he's not a member of the site, but he's a member of another site I frequent and helped me quite a bit with this chapter and the story in general. He also helped iron out the overall plotline.
Liquidjoshi: He is ALSO not of this site but helped me out a bit too, with the way the crash scene would swing in particular.
Everyone who upvoted this story: Thank you.
everyone who reads: Thanks. Comments are appreciated, do leave one. Or type and then hit 'post' urg...you know what I mean.