//------------------------------// // CHAPTER 2 // Story: Those Who Live On // by SpartanD014 //------------------------------// CHAPTER 2 Joker’s eyes shot open, and he gasped in pain. The first thing that he noticed was the throbbing in his head. Sitting up straight in his chair and sliding out of the broken safety harness, the pilot lifted a hand to his head and felt for any damage. There was no blood, but he felt a small bump just above his right eye. Confident that his head was fine, Joker looked down to examine his far weaker legs. A major downside to Vrolik Syndrome (aside from limiting one’s ability to walk) was that, in the event of a crash, damage to the legs was far more likely. His brittle bones had seen their share of damage, he just hoped that they would not be too badly broken this time. Miraculously, his legs seemed uninjured. While his chair had tilted a bit, it looked like he had not moved too much in the crash. Sliding out of the chair, Joker hobbled up and moved over to the slumped-down form of his copilot. EDI’s mobile platform was doubled over in its chair, one of the arms bent at an angle that did not look normal. The ever-present orange visor was gone as well, and none of the unit’s lights were on. Figuring that the crash must have caused some internal damaged that forced EDI to pull out of the platform, Joker instead decided to try the intercom. “EDI?” he asked, coughing through the dust in the air. There was no response. “EDI? You there?” Still nothing. It was only now that Joker noticed the silence. Even on an advanced ship such as the Normandy, there was always some kind of noise. Whether it was machinery whirring behind the walls, or status updates on computers, there was never a lack of noise. Now, only silence. Even the gentle hum of the life support vents was gone. Wherever they had crash landed, at least it had oxygen… Stepping up to one of the cockpit windows, Joker squinted to see if he could make anything out. Scowling, the pilot stepped away as his attempt was fruitless. The windows were all covered with dirt, an indicator that the cockpit was partially buried. Shaking his head, Joker turned around and decided to go have an actual look. He hobbled over to one of the doors and pulled the manual release, stepping back as it opened slightly with a groan. He had to force it open a bit wider to fit, but once it was wide enough he slid through and repeated the task with the inner airlock door. The outer airlock door, fortunately, had its own dedicated power supply that operated on a system completely independent from the rest of the ship. Even in situations of total power failure, the airlock door would usually work. This seemed to be a case where it did, and the door popped out with a hiss, sliding to the left and making way for beams of sunlight to enter the airlock. Joker raised an arm over his eyes to protect them from the bright rays and stepped out onto an outcropping of rocks that had fallen by the door. He carefully moved down the rocks, one foot after the other, and finally came to rest on the soil of the alien world. It was fortunate that they had crashed here – if the gravity well of a gas giant had caught them instead… Joker shuddered thinking of what could have happened. Looking around, all Joker saw for miles were forests. Far on the horizon was a range of large, round-topped mountains, green with life. Joker allowed himself a smile; all of the misfortune that the crew came across on their travels, and they ended up on this beautiful world… Hearing some movement behind him, Joker turned his head and found Liara shakily walking out of the airlock. She nearly slipped on the rocks, but caught herself and landed safely on the dirt below. Joker gestured for her to join him, and a moment later they were standing side-by-side looking out over the forest. “It’s… pretty,” the asari observed, smiling weakly. “… Where do you suppose we are?” “No idea,” Joker answered. “Power’s out across the whole ship, I can’t access anything. Once we get power back up we can check the galaxy map.” “That sounds—“ Liara was interrupted as even more movement caught their attention, and they both turned to see Garrus stepping out of the airlock. He jogged over to them, occasionally nursing a cut that had appeared on his forehead. “Hey, guys,” he said. “You two okay?” “I am uninjured,” Liara replied. “Just a little shaken up…” “Yeah, I’m good,” Joker added. “I wonder how the rest of the crew is. I didn’t see anyone awake in the CIC when I was coming out to the airlock.” “I dropped by the medbay on my way up to check on Tali,” Garrus began. “She’s fine, no injuries to add to the ones Harbinger gave her… Chakwas is fine, too. Everyone in the mess was out cold, but I didn’t see anything too serious.” “Nor did I,” Liara said. “Kaidan was fine, from what I could tell, and I checked on Specialist Traynor once I exited the elevator. She has a cut on her arm, but it’s not too deep. Besides, there’s plenty of medi-gel to go around.” “Good…” Joker said, nodding. “Did either of you drop by the AI core? EDI wasn’t responding when I was calling for her, and her mobile body is offline.” The asari and turian both shook their heads, and Joker frowned. If the power outage was bad enough to take the AI off as well, then damages to the ship could be fairly serious. “Let’s head back in,” Garrus suggested. “We need to work on restoring power, and making sure the crew is okay.” “Yeah, let’s—“ Joker was interrupted as Garrus held up a three-fingered hand, looking around carefully. The pilot made to keep speaking, but was shushed by the turian. It was then that Joker had noticed just how quiet it had gotten… When he had first come out, there was a rustling of the leaves from a weak wind, and the occasional sound of birds chirping. Now… nothing. “What’s wrong?” Liara whispered, with just enough volume to be audible from a few feet away. “Movement in the trees, behind the ship,” Garrus whispered back, pointing. They all paused for a moment, looking in the direction of Garrus’s finger. There was nothing. “Yeah, I don’t see anything,” Joker said, not bothering to whisper at all. “Come on, let’s—“ He froze as the trees rustled, just as Garrus had seen before. In the periphery of his vision, Joker noticed the turian slowly deploying the sniper rifle off of his back. “Activating thermals…” he whispered. “What the…?” “What is it?” Liara asked curiously. Garrus handed her the sniper rifle and she peered down the scope. A moment later her eyes widened, and her mouth opened slightly. “Are those… equines?” “What’s an ‘equine’?” Garrus asked. “An Earth animal, also known as a horse,” the asari answered. “What would an Earth animal be doing here?” “What are they doing?” Joker asked, squinting his eyes in an effort to see through the trees. “Nothing, they’re just… standing… watching us.” Silence filled the air once again as the human, asari, and turian stared in the direction of the horses. It was only broken when Liara made another observation. “Does that one… have wings?” “Alright, gimmie that,” Joker said, pulling the sniper rifle out of Liara’s hands. She began to protest, but instead decided to allow the pilot his turn. He peered down the scope, adjusting his eyes to the bright colors of thermal vision. Sure enough, amidst the blue and green of the trees, there were six glowing orange and red blobs. Just as Liara had said, one of them seemed to be hovering in place with a pair of wings. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light, and the thermals of the scope went entirely white. “Aagh!” Joker yelled, falling backwards and holding a hand up to his eye. “What was that!?” Garrus exclaimed, surprised, while Liara knelt down to help Joker up. Garrus took the fallen sniper rifle and peered back down the scope, observing the horses. “Huh… One of them is gone…” “Alright. This is creepy.” Joker decided. “Let’s go see how the crew is doing.” Garrus and Liara did not say anything, but they did nod in agreement. Liara went down from their observation point first, while Garrus stayed back and helped the handicapped pilot down. Once they were in the airlock, Liara sealed the door behind them… EARLIER Twilight Sparkle’s chariot landed next to her castle, kicking up a fair amount of dirt from the small landing strip that had been set up. While she currently had no personal chariot, the other princesses had seen fit to clear some land for a landing strip whenever the need to use one arose. As Twilight hopped out of her seat, she began to hear the sound of a crowd of voices. Curiously, the princess walked around the circumference of the base of her castle, ending up at the front door. Outside was a rather large crowd of ponies, all of them staring at the door expectantly. All of their eyes turned to Twilight as soon as she came into view, and the alicorn suddenly felt very exposed. “There she is!” one pony from the crowd cried. They all turned and trotted over to her, with several journalists standing in the front. “Your highness, can you confirm the news of an attack on Las Pegasus?” a reporter asked. “What do you have to say about reports of a giant insect firing lasers?” asked another. Soon she could not make out individual voices as everypony spoke up at once, all of them curious to know what happened. There was movement in the hectic crowd, and Twilight sighed, relieved, when she saw her five friends working their way to her. Once they had taken their places by her side, Twilight cleared her throat and magically amplified her voice. “Settle down, everypony!” she requested. The noise died down, and a moment later it was complete silence. Looking around the crowd, Twilight sighed and prepared to answer their questions. “… Yes, there has been an attack on Las Pegasus. And yes, it was from some form of giant metal insect. Right now our knowledge on the subject is limited, but as soon as we learn more, I will tell you. Now please, return to your homes.” Her answer seemed satisfactory to the ponies of the crowd, and in under a minute it had entirely dissipated. Once her friends had her to themselves, they took their turn to ask their own questions. “What happened, Twi’?” Applejack asked, worried. “Reports say half the city is on fire!” “Yeah, and they said that insect thing was a hundred miles tall! What was it!?” Rainbow Dash demanded in her high-pitch voice. Raising a hoof, Twilight urged them to quiet down. “The princesses and I have no idea what it is,” she answered. “It was two kilometers tall, metal, and very strong. And… it came from the Mass Relay.” “The Mass Relay? As in where Legion came from?” Rarity asked, receiving a nod. “What gives!? I thought he was our friend!” “Settle down, Rainbow,” Twilight said, glaring at her friend. “It was not Legion. It didn’t look anything like the geth technology we were shown, and there was no sign of Legion with it. But that’s not all… Shortly after it was defeated, something else came to Equestria. We don’t know what it is yet, but it’s not nearly as big as the machine that attacked Las Pegasus. It crashed somewhere in that direction.” She pointed away from her castle, in the direction of the Everfree forest. Immediately shooting up into the sky, Rainbow flew as high as she could until she was nothing more than a dot to the ponies below. A moment later she swooped back down, panting. “Yeah, I see it,” she reported. “About five miles into the Everfree. Whatever it is kicked up about a mile of dirt, and now it’s sitting at the edge of a ravine. Lots of smoke, too.” “Th-the Ever… free?” Fluttershy asked, beginning to shake. Twilight crossed over to her nervous friend, placing a hoof on her back. “We’ll be fine,” she said assuredly. Then, turning to the rest of her friends, she said, “Let’s get going.” Without waiting for their replies, Twilight set off past her castle and in the direction of the forest. Her friends paused for a moment before falling into step behind her, and in less than ten minutes they were entering the forest. Five miles into the Everfree was further than they had ever gone before. The ancient Castle of the Two Sisters was less than two miles in, and it had a path leading straight to it. This journey would take them deep into the forest, and with no route to guide them. More than likely they would have to rely on Rainbow Dash to occasionally fly up and check their location. “So, like… what are we gonna do if the aliens onboard are enemies?” Rainbow Dash asked, attempting to hide her fear with a tone of disinterest. “We’ll watch from afar first,” Twilight decided. “If they seem friendly, or if Legion is with them, we’ll make ourselves known.” “I do hope Legion is with them,” Rarity said loudly, stepping lightly on the dirt path of the Everfree. “He was an interesting friend.” Twilight nodded in agreement, as did the other four Elements. For a long while, nopony spoke. They likely were doing exactly what Twilight was doing: going over ever possible negative situation. They could arrive and the aliens would be dead, or they could be hostile, or the object would be entirely empty. But if it was Legion, then that would mean that the Reapers had been defeated, that the quarians had failed to destroy them, and that there was peace in the galaxy. It went without saying that she preferred the latter situation. After over an hour of walking, Twilight began to notice something odd… The forest was entirely silent. Forests were never known for being silent – there was always some form of noise, whether from the wind or from animals. And up until this point, that had been the case. A light breeze had guided them along and kept them cool on their walk, while the sound of non-hostile Everfree creatures kept them company. Now it was all absent. Sensing her discomfort, Rainbow Dash glided down from her position above the group and hovered next to the alicorn. “We’re getting close,” she said. “Whatever crashed here has the Everfree critters spooked, even the big ones.” “Ah’m not sure if ah should be comforted by that or not…” Applejack said, worry in her voice. Rainbow nodded and soared back up above the trees, then swooped down excitedly. “It’s just ahead, through those trees!” she reported, satisfaction in her voice. “Alright everypony, let’s be careful,” Twilight warned, stepping up to the edge of the trees. “We still don’t know if this is Legion or not, and if it’s not, they could be hostile. Let’s take this slow…” Forming a line at the edge of the trees, the six friends all squinted their eyes to peer through the gaps in the leaves. Beyond was a very large object, must larger than the ship Legion had arrived in. It was a bright white coloration, with the sun glinting off of the top. On the side was some black text that Twilight could not read, and a thin trail of smoke rose from the back. It was clear that the ship – for that is what Twilight believed it to be – was damaged. Scorch marks along the hull were a testament to that, as was the quickly thinning smoke. She was about to speak, when suddenly she caught movement towards the opposite end of the ship. On the side, a hatch slid open and a bipedal figure slowly stepped out. It was tall – though not as tall as Legion, or even Princess Celestia – and wore a short-sleeved black and blue uniform. On its head was a blue hat, its brim extending several inches over its face. It hobbled out of the ship and, looking around in wonder, approached the edge of the ravine where the ship had crashed. As Twilight watched the figure, she almost missed a second one stepping out of the ship. This second figure was quite different from the first. It was shorter, and instead of having a pale complexion appeared a soft blue. On the top of its head were several tentacle-like appendages, which tapered off at the back. It approached the first figure, and they stood together for several moments, appearing to exchange a few words. A third figure soon joined them, this one several inches taller than both of the first two. It had a beige skin coloration, very small eyes, and a crest that extended back behind its head. The three of them exchanged a few words, looking out over the ravine. “Survivors,” Twilight noted. “But are they friend, or foe?” “Twiiiilliiiight,” came a loud whisper from behind the princess. Annoyed, Twilight turned around to face the disturbance, and came face-to-face with Pinkie Pie. “If they’re nice, can I throw them a party?” “Pinkie, even if they are nice, parties could be offensive to them,” the alicorn said. “We need to be careful.” Turning her head back around, Twilight once again put her attention on the three figures, only to find that they had their attention on her. From the opposite end of the ship, it was clear that the three aliens were watching her and her friends through the trees. “Can they see us?” Dash asked quietly. “I don’t know…” One of the aliens – the tallest one – reached a hand behinds it back and pulled out a long rod-like object. It extended out to nearly twice its original length, and the figure pointed it right at Twilight at her friends. The alicorn immediately recognized it as being a sniper rifle, similar to the one Legion carried. Clearly her friends recognized it as well, as Fluttershy leaned in close to the princess. “Um, Twilight…” she whispered. “Is that…” “Yes, it is,” Twilight whispered back. “We still don’t know if they’re friendly, but this at least confirms that they come from the galactic community that Legion told us about.” She stood still for a moment, before an idea came to her. If she couldn’t figure out what Legion’s contingency did, who’s to say that they couldn’t? Stepping away, Twilight memorize the location so that she could teleport back, then lit her horn. “I’ll be right back.” That was all she said before activating the spell, and a moment later she was back in her castle, standing right in her bedroom. The contingency device was right where it always was: on Twilight’s desk. Grabbing a pair of saddlebags, Twilight dropped the device into them, then put it on her back. As an afterthought, she added a notebook, quill, and inkwell to take notes. Ready to go, she lit her horn, and teleported back to the crash site… The airlock door sealed shut with a hiss, separating the three companions from the alien planet outside. Once again hitting the manual release on the inner door, Joker stepped into the CIC and took a look around. Already a few more crew members were groggily standing up, holding hands to their heads or other wounded areas. Joker, Liara, and Garrus all stepped into the CIC, immediately drawing all attention to themselves. “Uh, what are they staring at me for?” Joker whispered to the two aliens. “Well, with Shepard no longer onboard… you’re technically the ranking officer,” Liara whispered back. His mouth forming an ‘O’, Joker looked around at the injured crew. “All right everyone,” he began. “I know that the situation is a bit… screwed up… We’re on an alien world with no power. Right now our first priority is restoring power to the ship, then we’ll figure out where we are. If you’re too badly injured to do anything useful, report to the medbay.” With salutes, the crew split up and began doing various tasks, including checking power conduits and relay stations. Joker strolled through the CIC to the elevator (which operated on external power, same as the airlock door) and stepped inside. Liara and Garrus followed him in, and the pilot hit the button for the crew deck. Their best chance at restoring power rested in the hands of a certain quarian engineer who was currently being kept in the medbay. With a hum, the elevator made its short descent, and a moment later the door opened, revealing the memorial wall. On it were far too many names… Most had died following the collector attack on the Normandy, but three were recent: Mordin Solus, Thane Krios, and Legion… Joker gulped at the prospect of having to add another. Stepping past the memorial wall, Joker made a left into the mess hall and stepped up to the medbay door, opening it with the manual release. Lying on one of the beds of the medical bay was a bloodied and beaten quarian, and lying on the ground by the bed was Doctor Chakwas. Joker and Liara stepped up to the bed, while Garrus shook the unconscious doctor to wake her up. It did not take much, and a moment later the doctor was on her feet, hand on her head. “Oh, my…” she said to herself. “What happened?” “We crashed,” Garrus explained. “Not sure where we are. Power’s out. How’s Tali?” Stepping up to her patient, Doctor Chakwas activated her omni-tool and scanned over the unconscious quarian. “Fortunately, most of the damage was superficial,” she began. “Some of the blood on her suit isn’t even hers. There was one rather large gash, but I sealed it and applied the necessary antibiotics. It should be safe to try waking her up.” Stepping up to Tali, Garrus shook her shoulder gently. The quarian groaned, and finally her glowing eyes opened, becoming visible behind her purple mask. “Garrus?” she asked weakly. “What happened?” “Shepard… activated the Crucible,” he said. “Still not entirely sure what it did, but it knocked us out of FTL and we crash landed here. Now we’re out of power.” Holding her head, Tali transitioned into a sitting position on the side of the bed, then hopped up. She struggled to stand for a moment, supporting herself on Garrus, but gained her footing a moment later. “And Shepard?” she asked, hopeful. “Where is he?” The turian looked between Liara and Joker, then sighed. “He…” “We could not rescue him, Tali,” Liara finished. “I’m sorry.” The quarian machinist did not reply. Instead her head lowered and her arms hung limply at her sides. Finally she opened her mouth, but all that came out was a choked cry. “… Then…” she forced out. “Is he…?” “We don’t know, Tali,” Joker said. “He was on the Citadel when the Crucible fired. There was an explosion, but that doesn’t mean he’s… you know…” “… Yeah…” she whispered. Everyone stayed quiet for a moment, until finally Tali straightened her back and stepped towards the medbay door. “I’ll get to work on restoring power. Hopefully the other engineers are up.” As soon as the quarian was out of sight, everyone let out a sigh. “Wow…” Garrus began. “Poor Tali… I mean, I knew that she and Shepard were together, but… I didn’t think it was that serious.” “I have transcripts on my terminal from when Tali returned to the Migrant Fleet, after the collector mission,” Liara said. “All she talked about was Shepard. I hope he’s alive. If not for the galaxy’s sake, then at least for hers.” The four remained silent for a moment, before finally Chakwas spoke. “I guess I should go help the wounded,” she said. “I’ll be making rounds through deck two if any of you need me.” She grabbed a medical kit from beneath her desk, then exited the room. “Yeah, I’ll head down to the hangar and check on Vega and Cortez,” Garrus stated, stepping out of the room. “Joker, would you like some help with anything?” Liara asked, turning to the human. Joker turned around and faced the door to the AI core. “Yeah, while we’re here…” He stepped up to the door and hit the manual release, stepping back as it slid open. Once it was open, he stepped into the darkened AI core, looking for any sign of activity. All of the various computers that housed EDI’s systems were offline. The ever-present hum of the computers was absent, giving the room an eerie quality. Joker activated his omni-tool and scanned over the room, looking for any sign of activity. There was nothing. The room was dead. “Whatever hit us was big…” Joker noted. “EDI is fully offline. She’s gonna be confused when we get her back…” “You can explain everything to her,” Liara said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Now come, let’s see if Tali needs any help in engineering.” “Come on you little bosh’tet!” Tali yelled at the emergency power restart button, which had become jammed by a fallen metal support beam. “Adams, have you found that wrench yet?” “Almost, hang on,” the lead engineer muttered as he dug around through the disorganized toolbox. “One of these days we really need to organize this thing.” “It was back when Cerberus owned the Normandy,” Engineer Donnelly said from his position at a power relay. “Just sayin’.” “Shut up, Kenneth,” Engineer Daniels sighed, smacking the back of her partner’s head. “Don’t tell me it doesn’t feel better to be in Alliance uniform again.” “Aye, it does…” Donnelly admitted. “Found it!” Adams exclaimed victoriously, holding a wrench high into the air. He crossed the room to Tali, placing it in her gloved hand. Thanking the human, Tali placed the wrench behind the button and loosened a bolt, making sure to catch it as it fell. She then removed the metal housing that the bolt had been holding in place, and began to examine the electronics beyond. The issue became immediately known to Tali. Several pieces of debris were blocking the piston that the button connected to, preventing it from pressing down all the way. Tali cleared the debris, replaced the housing, then stepped back and pressed the button. It pressed down all the way with a satisfying click, and the lights in the engineering section immediately came back on. They were followed by mechanical whirring as the rest of the ship slowly woke back up, and a loud hum filled the air as the ship’s drive core came online. Just as this happened, Joker and Liara entered the room. “Nice job, Tali,” the pilot complemented. “Hey, we helped too!” Donnelly complained. “Kenneth, I think you were doing more staring than helping,” Daniels reprimanded. “Remember, I’m the only one you stare at now.” “Yes, mum…” “If you keep calling me ‘mum’ then this relationship is going to get very weird.” “Anyways!” Joker interrupted, stopping the conversation before it went anywhere else. “Now that we’ve got power, we can find out where we are. EDI?” There was no response. Even with power restored, the AI was still offline. “If you want, I can initiate a restart of the AI core,” Tali offered. “It will take some time, but when it’s done she should be back online.” “Do it,” Joker said, nodding. “In the meantime we can just use the galaxy map to pinpoint our location.” Nodding, the quarian turned and followed the pilot and asari out of engineering and towards the elevator. Just before entering, the door to the cargo bay opened and a disgruntled prothean stepped out, one hand held to his stomach. “Javik, how are you feeling?” Liara asked, stepping up to the ancient warrior. “I am fine,” he said, stepping past the asari. “What is our status?” “Crucible activated, we crashed, alien world, about to pinpoint location,” Joker explained yet again, stepping into the open elevator. “You coming?” Nodding, the prothean followed him in, and soon the elevator was cramped with five organics of varying sizes. They took the short trip up, soon exiting back into the crew deck. Tali exited, and the door closed as the elevator ascended one more floor to the CIC. It opened, and the human and asari both stepped out. Already waiting there were Garrus, James Vega, Steve Cortez, and Kaidan Alenko. Specialist Traynor was also awake, busily typing on her comm terminal. “Hey,” James said, nodding his head. “Glad to see you all up and about. So you got power back up, huh?” “Yeah, Tali did,” Joker answered. “How are you all feeling?” “My head feels like I had a bit too much of the cerveza with James last night, but other than that, I’m good,” Cortez reported. “I’m fine too,” Kaidan added. “So where are we?” “That’s what we’re going to find out,” Liara said, stepping up to the galaxy map podium. The hologram of the galaxy lit up at her presence, slowly spinning around with the positions of all of the Mass Relays. But something was wrong… Usually the Mass Relays were shown by a small blue circle. Now each one was red with a flashing error symbol above them. “That’s… not right, is it?” Garrus asked, confused. “No, it’s not,” Liara confirmed. “According to the Galaxy Map, none of the Relays are online.” “Could the Crucible have knocked them out?” Kaidan suggested. “It was going to town on the Citadel when it fired, I don’t see why the Relays would be spared,” Joker said, nodding. “If the Mass Relays are damaged, then how are we to return to civilization?” Javik asked. “For that matter, how are we to discern our location?” “We can’t,” said Liara. “For the time being, we are trapped here… Wherever here is.” “Wait… the QEC is point-to-point, right?” Traynor noticed, finally speaking up. “Then it may not matter where in the galaxy we are. If the one on Admiral Hackett’s ship is still working, we should be able to contact him.” “You may have a point, Samantha,” Liara said, nodding. “Though it will need to be recalibrated after the power restart. Perhaps Tali can do that once she’s – oh!” The asari was interrupted as the elevator door opened and Tali stepped out, immediately finding all eyes on her. “What?” she asked self-consciously. “Did we find out where we are?” “No,” Joker answered. “According to the galaxy map, all of the Relays are offline. But we’re pretty sure the QEC can work from anywhere in the galaxy, no comm buoys needed, it just needs to be recalibrated. Can you get on that?” “I’ll get started right away,” Tali said, beginning to walk away from the galaxy map. She made it a few steps before turning back around. “Oh, and I started the reboot of the AI core. It’ll be finished in a few hours.” Nodding his thanks, Joker turned his attention back to the galaxy map. What would Shepard do? He thought. Joker had never expected to be in command of the Normandy, or of any ship for that matter. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to lead, it’s just that he didn’t think of himself as command material. Shepard always was better in situations like this. Somehow his mind was able to think of every possible outcome, and he could make the decision that best benefitted the crew. But Shepard wasn’t here, and Joker was. It was up to him to fix this. Before he could even start thinking about what to do, he was interrupted by a crewman. “Lieutenant!” the crewman yelled, alarmed. “Airlock proximity sensors are going off!” Curious, Joker limped over to the crewman and looked over his shoulder at the computer. Sure enough, proximity sensors were picking up six life forms outside. “Six… that’s how many heat signatures we saw outside…” he said to himself. “Can you get a camera feed?” “No sir,” the crewman reported. “Looks like the camera was damaged in the crash, I’m not picking anything up.” Cursing under his breath, Joker stepped away from the crewman and approached Shepard’s squad. “Alright, uh…” he began, but slowed as he noticed the looks they were all giving him. Each and every one of them was looking at him for orders, ready to follow his commands. It was not something he was used to. “Um… Garrus, James, Kaidan, go grab Private Campbell and Private Westmoreland. Arm up and head out to the airlock, find out what’s out there.” “Will do,” Garrus said, heading for the war room where the two privates were on guard duty. James and Kaidan followed him, soon disappearing behind the door. As soon as they were gone, Joker let out a sigh. “Are you alright, Jeff?” Liara asked softly, approaching the pilot. Cortez did the same, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know…” Joker answered. “I mean, I just have no idea what’s going on… We crashed here somehow, and we don’t even know where here is. The Relays are apparently all offline, and we don’t know if that’s true or if our galaxy map is just screwed up. EDI is offline and we don’t know why, and now there are six life forms outside of the airlock. I have no idea if I’m okay.” “We’re all just as in the dark as you are,” Cortez said comfortingly. “You’re not alone. “Thanks…” The attention of everyone in the room was drawn back to the door to the war room as Garrus, James, Kaidan, and Privates Campbell and Westmoreland stepped out, each one wielding an assault rifle. They walked past everyone in the CIC and ended up by the cockpit, opening the door to the airlock. The door opened and the group of five soldiers stepped inside, the door closing behind them. “I hope whatever they find isn’t hungry…” Joker thought aloud… EARLIER There was a bright flash of light, and when it cleared Twilight Sparkle was standing amongst her friends back in the Everfree forest. The crashed ship was still there, but the survivors were no longer present. “Where’d the aliens go?” she asked curiously. “They went back inside a few seconds after you left,” Rarity explained. “We think they saw your teleportation.” “Well I guess that rules out Legion being with them,” Twilight said. “He knows I can teleport, he’d have recognized it. And if he was with them he’d probably have already taken them to see Celestia and Luna.” “Well what does that mean for us?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I mean… if we just go up and knock on the door, they might shoot us or something.” “Dash has a point, y’all,” Applejack agreed, nodding. “We gotta be careful.” “We will be,” Twilight said assuredly. She reached into her saddlebags with her magic and produced Legion’s device, holding it aloft for all of her friends. “But maybe this can help.” “We don’t even know what it is,” Dash reminded her. “What if it’s like… a bomb… and when they activate it it’ll blow them up?” “I don’t think Legion would do that…” Fluttershy whispered. “He called it a contingency. Why would he leave us a weapon?” “Perhaps we should just leave it by the door for them to find when they come back out?” Rarity suggested, looking around the group. “That sounds alright to me,” Twilight said. “Let’s go.” Carefully pushing her way through the trees, Twilight entered into the clearing that had been created by the crash. As she walked along the ship to the door, she took the opportunity to get a closer look at the craft. It was much larger than Legion’s ship, easily reaching close to 200 meters. The primary color was a bright white, though much of it was caked with dirt from the crash, and scorch marks from something else. Two wings jutted out from either side, and on each were two nacelles of a white and black coloration. Towards the front were blue highlights that stretched back into the middle of the ship, and above that was black text in a foreign language. The ship was elegant, yet imposing at the same time. Twilight briefly wondered about its mission, and what had happened that brought it to Equis… Finally reaching the ship door, Twilight began looking around for a place to put the device where it would be easily noticeable. “How about we put it right in front of the door?” Rainbow Dash thought. “One of ‘em might step on it,” Applejack countered. “We should put it further out.” “Yes but we don’t want them to miss it,” Rarity said. “Maybe we should put it off to the side a bit?” “The side is a bit steep, we don’t want it to fall…” Twilight began. “Perhaps—“ She was cut off as a hiss escaped the door, and a thin cloud of steam sprayed from the edges. The door popped out an inch, then slid open revealing five aliens, all of them wielding weapons similar to Legion’s. The end of each weapon was pointed at a different pony, the expressions of their holders unreadable. Gulping nervously, Twilight’s magic gave out and caused the device it held to fall to the ground. Curiously, one of the aliens – the tall one from before who had the sniper rifle – lowered its weapon and crouched down, picking the device up in its three-fingered hand. It seemed to examine the device, then looked back to the ponies. It said something to the other four, who lowered their weapons and stepped aside. It then stepped aside as well and jerked its head back, ushering the ponies inside. “What do we do, Twi’?” Dash whispered in the princess’s ear. She did not immediately respond. Instead, she simply stared at the aliens who were waiting patiently in the doorway. “… We go inside,” she finally answered. Without hesitation, Twilight stepped forward and entered the door, then turned around and nodded to her friends. Shrugging, they followed her up until each of them was in the doorway. By now it was quite cramped, holding eleven individuals, but there was still some room to move around. The large alien moved to the front and pressed a button on the wall, closing the door behind them. A soft voice seemed to come from the ceiling, and then a glowing plane slid across the small room, covering each of them. When it was finished, the inner door opened, revealing the ship beyond. The large alien stepped forward and ushered Twilight inside. Gulping nervously, Twilight extended her hoof, and took the first step into the alien ship… Garrus watched as the horse creature nervously stepped into the CIC of the Normandy, moving its head curiously as it did. Garrus was no xenobiologist, but there were several clues pointing to these horse things being intelligent. First were the saddlebags on the back of the purple one. They were clearly not of natural construction, and the mark on the side showed some form of customization. Normally he would have thought that another organic could have made them for the horse, but when they started speaking to one another he was positive: these horses were sapient. Once all six were standing in the CIC of the Normandy, James, Kaidan, and the two privates stepped inside and closed the airlock door. Garrus motioned for the two privates to come to him, then leaned in to their ears. “Tell Joker we have guests…” he ordered. “And… get Tali, too.” Saluting, the two soldiers jogged down the length of the CIC to the end, where Garrus could still see Joker standing over the galaxy map, talking with Liara and Traynor. A moment later the pilot was hobbling over to the turian, with Liara in tow. As he got closer, Joker’s facial expression turned from one of fatigue to one of utter confusion. He slowed down the closer he got until he was barely walking to Garrus. “What… the hell… are those?” he asked. Liara seemed intrigued. She approached the horses, her omni-tool active, and began scanning over them. “They were the ones setting off our proximity alarm,” Garrus explained, putting his assault rifle on his back. “So you just… let them in?” Joker continued. “A bunch of animals?” “Yeah, about that…” Garrus began. “I’m pretty sure they’re sapient.” This drew the attention of everyone in the vicinity, including the technicians working at their stations who had been struggling to stay focused. “Let me explain: see that this one has saddlebags. Certainly not something that occurs naturally. Also, they were talking to one another outside.” “Right…” Joker said. “Okay. What do we do about it?” “Well, the reason I let them in is because of this,” Garrus said, holding out a small circular device. “It’s an OSD. A fairly advanced one, not consumer grade. The label on the outside says it has several exabytes of storage space, and the meter here says it’s almost completely full.” “Private Campbell said you needed me, what is – oh,” Tali said, stepping up to the group. “Uh… Why are there horses?” Garrus held the OSD out to her, and the quarian took it curiously. “They had this with them. Think you can crack it?” Nodding, Tali closed her hand around the OSD and walked over to one of the unoccupied computer stations. She was soon surrounded by the rest of the crew present, as well as the horses. Tali plugged the OSD into the computer, and waited as it was scanned for potential viruses. When the scan came back clean, Tali brought up the OSD on the computer, and opened it up… “Oh, keelah…”