Sword of Equestria: A Sword of the Stars II Crossover

by ForceUser

With Sword

In space, no one can year you scream.

Unfortunately if your enemies are genetically engineered, psionically enhanced marsupials from hell with every fibre of their being bent on your total annihilation, you can most certainly hear them scream.

Rene Desoto grimaced as the latest wave of psionic screams echoed in her and her crew's heads on board the SolForce Flagship Indomitable. She scanned the enemy armada arrayed before her with an experienced eye and picked out the lead Zuul ship on her console. As one force the forward elements of the 23rd Combat Fleet, with the Indomitable at the tip of the spear, opened fire with immense firepower. Their own psi corpse were doing all they could to stem the tide against the psionic assault but she knew if they didn't do something fast, they would be overwhelmed.

The war, full war at least, has been raging for a 'mere' 9 months. Desoto laughed bitterly to herself; in a 'mere' 9 months they had lost 3 undefended colonies and the prised SFS Leviathan but this time it would be different. This would mark the first actual engagement where the full force of the technologically superior Sol Force and her allies would face off against the Zuul horde. 'This war has been a long time coming', Rene thought, 'and this time we are ready!'

With a start Rene woke covered in cold sweat as the fragments of her dream -memory?- dissipated from her foggy mind that futilely tried to grasp at the last strings of the dream. Instinctively her right arm twitched from the dream and a sharp pain shot throughout her body along her spinal cord and finally straight into her head. Lying dead still she tried another avenue of sensory input; opening her eyes. Unfortunately the only sight greeting her was no sight whatsoever, just a blackness so deep she doubted her eyes were even open at all. As the drug-numbed nerves throughout her body slowly shook off the effect the painkillers she was under the pain returned as well, increasing in pace with her awakening mind. A pained groan passed over her lips but even the sound of her own voiced got engulfed in the seemingly endless darkness around her, the sound merely reverberating in her head.

'That's another sense that seems to be on the fritz', she managed through the pain filled haze in her mind. Instinctively she fell back on her SolForce training and meditation to calm herself, trying to collect her wits and assess what basic functions still worked. Just as she started to get a grasp on what few nerves were not slowly being burned out by the pain she felt a small pin prick, like a needle, on her arm and the warm feeling of unconsciousness embracing her again.

"...I repeat! Attention all ships, this is Captain Rene Desoto of the SolForce Flagship Indomitable.” A blood streaked and limping Rene picked herself up from the heavily damaged and smoking bridge, grimacing as she tried to put weight on her left leg. Calmly continuing her mayday call into her comm badge, “To all surviving SolForce and allied ships, make best speed to Sirius A shipyards.”

Rene took a deep breath before continuing, “Warn SolForce, the Suul'ka Bloodweaver has joined the battle.” Inwardly she shuddered. A Suul'ka was the single most terrifying creature known to SolForce, an ancient multi kilometer long creature of pure hate and malice. The stakes just got a lot higher.

Rene tapped a few buttons, cringing at the three, probably four broken ribs pressing into her side with every breath. Setting the message to broadcast on repeat through all fleet bands to all allied ships she looked up to check on the damage on her own bridge as a few scattered bridge officers slowly picked themselves up. The latest torpedo barrage from the Suul’ka led Zuul forces caught them by surprise and left far too many crewmen slumped over their consoles or unmoving on the floor.

Looking down at her monitor, the warning for more incoming torpedoes flashed urgently across the screen...

As consciousness slowly encroached upon her dreams/memories again, they faded and became frustratingly fragmented. This time though there was far less pain and the sounds of the all too familiar beep of medical machinery were slowly coming into focus as her hearing asserted itself. Trying to open her eyes once more she felt the rough edges of the gauss bandages keeping her eyes closed shift over her face. 'So much for seeing where I am', she though ruefully.

Taking a deep a breath she winced as the broken ribs press into her side. 'Alright so the broken ribs are real, memories then, not dreams.' Taking a slow and measured breath, as deep as she could, she tried to focus on all her senses, mentally ticking them off one by one. The first thing she noticed is the slow and rhythmic sound of the artificial respirator as well as a second medical station. 'Two machines, that must mean I am in one of the Med-bays on the ship.' Her ship.

While feeling a bit more relaxed at being in a familiar and safe place and the ship still being in one piece, a frown formed on her face. Something seemed out of place, something very important. A sense of dread slowly covered her heart in ice as she focused more on her sense of touch. Specifically she focused on the alarmingly absent hum and vibrations of the familiar antimatter engines. The engines were never turned off on a ship -especially one of this size- and as every space captain knew; a ship without an engine was a soon to be dead ship.

The only possible explanation that she could think of was that they must have made planet fall. Thing was, as rare as it was for even cruiser sized ships to make any kind of planet fall, Dreadnought class ships would be destroyed on impact and the Indomitable would probably not even survive re-entry. 'Well, there are no sirens blaring so I guess I will have to trust my crew to handle whatever situation we're in.' She had one of the best, handpicked crew in SolForce. This thought brought some comfort to Rene.

Deciding to focus on her immediate situation, she tried to shift from her position of lying on her side. No matter how she shifted though she couldn't get a comfortable position on the bed, as if the bed was made for an alien body rather than her own human form. Before she could follow that train of thought or explore her surrounding fully she heard the soft tap-tap-tap-tap of what by all accounts sounded like a horse on a hard surface slowly growing loader.

Trying to croak out a word she was answered with silence from both herself and her surroundings.

Her ears twitched 'twitch? ears don't twitch.' as the med-bay door slid open with near silence. A sense of apprehension slowly eroded what little of her mental barriers she has been able to rebuild since waking as the tap-tap-tap-tap grew closer.

“Captain?” A timid yet kind little voice toned, originating from somewhere lower to where Rene would expect it to come, “um, Re- Rene?”

Suddenly the burning sensation in her chest forced Rene to exhaled the breath she had been holding. With a relieved sigh, though still not sure what exactly was going on, Rene tried to speak with a voice that cracked with disuse, “ye-” *cough* “Yes.”

A small squeak emanated from where the voice was earlier, sounding... happy, “Oh my goodness, I am so glad you're finally awake Ren- I mean Captain," With that the scraping of a chair being pulled closer could be heard. The voice of the Captains's caretaker, now in a higher and more normal spatial position rang out with obvious relief, "we were all so worried.”

Rene frowned, trying to place the voice. While it's nearly impossible to remember every face and voice on a ship as big as the Indomitable, the voice did sound awfully familiar but a lot softer and even more timid than she remembered.

Her thoughts were shattered as a shock of panic shot through her as a she felt something soft and furry touched her shoulder "Who... what are you!?"

She felt the furry thing quickly withdraw "Oh dear, I’m so sorry Captain! It’s me Dr Florence Singh. You remember me right?" The captain could hear the panic and fatigue in the small voice, "Oh please remember me... so much has happened this last week that you were unconscious and I was so worried.”

The captain breathed a sigh of relief. Yes she remembered the kind hearted Doctor very well but she definitely did not remember her being soft and... furry. She smiled regardless and with a slight nod simply said, "Yes."

A small "Yey" escaped from the doctor. “You remember me? Um, I mean we were worried you'd have memory loss, you had an awfully hard bump on the head.”

Rene allowed a small smile to play over her face. "Of course I'd remember my favorite medic, you just sounded a bit different is all." In fact It'd be hard to forget the kind Doctor, she had made a definite impression on the Captain at their first meeting on earth space dock. A flash of a memory -the Doctor slumped over her console- quickly brought a worried frown to the Captains face.

“How are you feeling Doc? Last thing I remember you were slumped over your console on the bridge.”

“Oh I'm alright,” The doctor said softly, “but thank you for worrying. It wasn't anything serious.”

Still feeling uncomfortable on her side, the captain turned her body to lie on her back. A blinding pain shot through her body and caused her to yelp out in pain "Ouch!"

"Oh no!” Florence said with concern, helping the captain back on to her side, “Looks like you'll need to lie on your side for a bit longer, your um… well your back was hurt in the landing and it’s caused some complications. We're weren't even sure you’d make it." The captain winced as she was lowered back on to her side.

Faintly Rene heard another set of tap-tap-tap-tap steps in the distance and again the soft and furry thing touching her arm.

"Captain, I have to give you some sedatives now. Please get some rest," Slowly the captain felt the all too familiar effect of the sedatives taking hold and the faint voice of the doctor growing even fainter, "everything will be fi-”

“Captain! Another wave of Torpedoes are incoming on the fleeing ships,” the strain and fatigue of battle creeping into the Lt.’s voice.

“Lt. Belle what's the status of the starboard point defense systems?” The Captain said with a pained voice as her broken ribs bit into her side.

“They are 87% operational ma'am,” the Lt. tapped a few consoles with growing concern but her face showing none of the strain, “but the starboard armour matrix has taken multiple breaches; we can't expose that side.”

“That is fine Lt., prepare to roll the starboard side towards the enemy and get us between our ships and those incoming torpedoes. We will not abandon our friends now, even if it means taking a few hits for them. Primary targets are the torpedoes targeted at the wounded ships.”

The Captain opened up a comm line to engineering. “Alicia, I hope the toys the Tarka gave us are ready for that field test.”

A female voice with a hint of a southern drawl popped up over comm, “Ah reckon the GOOP modules have been ready since we left space dock but ah hate using untested tech. They may work fine with Tarkan living steel but we're still not sure if the GOOP will even bond with the damaged hull. You know them politicians never gave the time to properly test them.”
The captain smiled. Alice Jackson was probably the best engineer in SolForce but she was brutally honest, to a fault even. While this had landed her in hot water with other Admirals and Captains, Rene had come to rely on it.

“Well there's no time like the present, activate them. We need the breaches on the starboard side filled in with polysteel and if there is one thing the Tarka know, then it's polysteel. We will need to trust in our friends' tech to get through this.” The Captain changed comm line to ship wide, “All hands, brace for impact! Point defences, give me some clear sky! ”

With satisfaction the Captain watched as her commands were carried out with the precision of a well-oiled machine, the crew working in perfect concert. As the colossal ship started rolling to present her starboard side, the GOOP solidifying over breaches in the armour and the point defences opening up on the incoming torpedoes, the Captain allowed a small smile to flash across her face. 'We might just make this yet.'

A gentle shake of the shoulder awoke Rene from her dream.

“Good morning sleepyhead,” the once again familiar voice of the doctor greeted the Captain, “how are you feeling today?”

“I've been better,” Rene cleared her throat, “though I'm surprised at how fast I'm recovering. Two days ago I was barely able to move.”

“Oh I know!” The happiness evident in the Doctors voice, “We've had lots of help from the Prin- um, I mean from the medics.”

An awkward silence falls on the conversation as what sounds like Florence’s boot starts scuffing the metal flooring. The silence broken only as the door to the rooms slid open. “Oh AJ! I'm so glad you're here, the Captain just woke up." The joy in the doctor's voice evident.

"Good to see y'all up Rene," A much more pronounced southern drawl came from a familiar voice, again though, not quite in the place Rene would expect it to be.

The captain smiled and gave a slight nod in the direction of the voice, "Alice? You sound a bit different there. Glad to hear you made it as well though. What's the situation?" A worried tone crept into the captain's voice "The old girl's engines seem to be off line."

The chief engineer gave a goodhearted chuckle "A typical Captain, married to her ship and knows when the smallest thing is a'miss." As Alicia's chuckle died down she cleared her throat nervously "Well ah wouldn't worry too much if ya can't remember sugercube as you were in a bit of a state just before ya landed the old gal-"

“I what?!” The Captain exclaimed. "There's no way anyone could have landed this ship, not without an army of tugs to bring her!"

A small "Eeep" and the clang of a chair falling over brought the Captain back out of her thoughts “Florence, are you alright?” she asked with concern.

“Oh I'm okay,” the Doctor said sheepishly, “you just startled me is all.” Picking herself and her chair up from the floor Florence sat back down next to the captain.

Alice shuffled around a bit and cleared her throat. "Well you ordered the engines shut off an ejected. Though to be fair ya had quite a bit of help landing her form what I hear tell." A silence took hold of the medbay as the captain absorbed the rather startling information.

"What do you me-"

The chief engineer cut the captain off apologetically "Ah'm sorry Captain, Flutters, but y'all will have to excuse me, I need to go get the stuff ready now that sleepin beauty here has woken up," there was the sound of the doors opening again a quick "See ya Flutters." before the doors closed again. The captain wondered about that last bit but ultimately shrugged it off as a friendly pet name. An ordeal such as this did tend to bring people closer together after all.

After the door closed Rene turned her head to where the doctor was sitting “So Doc, when can I get these bandages off? Did something happen to my eyes?”

Florence was quiet for a while. “Rene, something happened after we landed… it’s hard to explain and a lot of the crew didn't take it so well. I…”

There was a soft scraping of chair legs against deck plating as the doctor got off the chair and moved closer to the Captain's bed. The doctor laid her arm softly on the captain’s. "Do you feel that?” “The captain felt the soft short fur of the doctor’s arm catch on what felt like the same on hers as she moved her arm up to where the Captain's hand would be. Even though It felt like her hand was still there but fused into a lump it did not feel like a bandage.

“Everyone on board is the same, including you. The bandages around your eyes are partly there to keep you from waking up and seeing, something unfamiliar and panicking. The- the change is rather extensive."

Trying to fight back tears and keeping her voice from chocking up she turned her head to where the Doctor was now standing beside her. “I- wha- what happened to me?”

Feeling a warm and fuzzy embrace as Florence threw her arms around the Captain, comforting her “There there, nothing is wrong,” The doctor reassured the tearful captain, “you're perfectly fine, everyone is fine, just… changed.” Slowly stroking the Captains hair, although even that felt alien she continued, “We all went through the change. When the ship landed something happened, something wonderful really.”

The doctor held Rene softly to her chest, waiting for her breathing to slow down but feeling her own heart continue to race with the tempo of a hummingbird. It was quiet for a long time when -slowly and uncertainly- the captain moved her left arm along the doctor's arm and shoulder, building up a picture in her mind of how both her and the doctor looked like.

Stiffening at first as the Captain put her arm on the Doctor's shoulder she drew in a sharp breath breath and the captain froze. Letting out the breath in a slow exhale Florence relaxed and with a soft voice just said "It's okay, I don't mind."

Rene was amazed to feel how utterly alien her hand felt -and the 'skin' underneath it- mostly due to not having fingers anymore and yet, could still softly and firmly take a hold of the Doctor's arm. As she reached the doctor's face she gasped slightly at the 'snout' protruding from the face and again at the large ears and the long soft hair, much longer than regulations allowed. As her... she almost wanted to say hoof, moved down the back she reached something on the Doctor's back and stopped, frozen in place.

A soft sigh emanated from the Florence "You um- you don't have to sop, if- if you don't want to I mean."

The captain slowly unfroze and explored the objects on the doctor's back "Are those... are those wings Florence?” She asked. The doctor giggled softly "Yes. It tickles a bit though."

Continuing to explore what her mental image showed to be a Pegasus' wings, the doctor slowly opened her wings to full spread and a soft moan escaped from the doctor. Awkwardly the Captain lowered her arm back to her side and she could have sworn she could -hear- the doctor blush.

Clearing her throat to clear the air a bit the captain asked "So, is that why I can't lie on my back? Did everyone get these um, wings?"

The Doctor sighed a bit "No, not everyone got wings. About a quarter of the crew became Pegasi." She giggled as the captain opened her mouth to ask the obvious question, "Yes they work! Oh it's so much fun. You've also got wings but because of the damage to your back they are still mending," Another pause, "they're a bit um... sensitive actually. Most of the other Pegasi, mostly pilots and helmsmen, have gotten quite good with them and have been flying around a bit already but I’m too afraid to fly too high yet."

Rene was silent for a while, taking it all in. "Wait, did you say Pegasi, as in ancient Greek mythology Pegasi, like horses?"

The doctor folded her wings back onto herself. "Oh yes that’s mostly correct. But um… we look more like ponies." The captain started laughing and immediately winced as her back muscles and the wings attached to them went into spasms.

In a soft voice the doctor continued as she moved off of the bed "There's also the colour, or rather colours. As far as I can tell there really hasn't been any limit on the range of colours, from the whitest white with purple hair to blue like you are and even pink and yellow. Some even have... um well, multi or rainbow coloured hair."

Rene was dubious as to that last statement. “Rainbow hair? How would that even work?” Florence giggled "Well you'll see, but first you've been awake much too long. I'm going to give you some more sedatives if you don't mind."

There was a slight pause and the captain felt a small peck on her cheek. "Everything is going to be fine captain." said the doctor as the warm feeling overcame the Captain. The last scraps of thought fluttering through her head; was it the sedatives or the kiss that made her feel like she was walking on clouds?