Chapter 8
The sky was clear and the sea was calm in the mid-morning sun that hung over of Axial Naval Base. The clouds had been removed at dawn and the bathing warmth of the sun washed over the elegant forms of a flock of birds that cruised overhead. Ultimately it was a calming, serene scene above the port.
The same however could not be said for the ground. Thousands more ponies than those who had turned out for Celestia’s informal announcement had travelled from far and wide. In the six weeks following the Yamato’s reveal, the story of both it and Little Rock had spread like wildfire, not only over Equestria, but to every corner of the globe.
The news of Little Rock didn’t affect most of the globe as it was simply an Equestrian affair, yet the Yamato and its proof of aliens was another matter entirely. Even though Celestia feared that the Yamato’s discovery would instill panic throughout the world it was infact the complete opposite.
Because of the fact the Yamato’s existence had been confirmed from a position of power rather than that of a basement conspiracy nut, the populace had taken the news well. Apart from the occasional one or two dozen ponies whom had freaked out at the thought of an alien ship sitting in one of their cities the rest of Equestria had been more or less excited about it.
With the guiding wing of Celestia, as well as help from Luna, Cadence and the six famed Elements, the populace quickly swung in favour of Celestia's proposed idea of following the aptly dubbed ‘Star message’.
Within the week, Yamato fever had swept the country. Paintings were hung in art galleries, sculptures mounted in dozens of cities, even songs had been rapidly composed telling of the Yamato’s story. All of them fictional however, yet that did little to stop the influx of ponies who were now anxiously waiting.
For the second time in as many months Axial had turned from a prided naval installation to an all out party capital. Carnival rides had been erected between and around buildings, concession stands sprung up selling horribly delicious fairground foods and even photo stands had been built on the dockside beneath the Yamato in order for ponies to have their picture taken with Equestria’s first spacecraft.
Beside the Yamato itself the main attraction was a Wonderbolts airshow. Despite being fairly short notice the stunt fliers had assured Celestia that it would be nothing less than spectacular.
In the time leading up to the main event however, a concert was where everypony had gathered to party, including six familiar mares.
“This is awesome!” Dash exclaimed, “I’ve never been to a party this big in my life!” She finished as the band launched into an impressive guitar solo which the pegasus couldn’t help but rock out to.
“And to think Celestia was worried,” Applejack guffawed.
“Well in all fairness I can see where she was coming fr-” Twilight attempted to respond before being promptly interrupted by Rainbow.
“Oh my gosh I love this bit!” The ecstatic mare cried bobbing her head wildly in time to the powerful tones from the stage.
‘She’s my cherry pie!’ Rainbow sung to herself in her head, knowing all too well how that might appear if a mare had sung that part aloud.
‘Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Cherry Pie is a good looking mare.’
The song soon ended with that thought, earning an deafening roar from the huge crowd. The lead singer quickly accepted a rag from one of the stage hands using it to wipe the sweat from his face as he made his way to the microphone.
“Gooooooood moooooooooorniiiiiiiinngggg Axial!” He cheered, earning another roar from the excited ponies below.
“We know why you're all here! And I know it isn’t just to see us,” He continued. The crowd responded with ear piercing whistles, shouts of agreement and a cacophony of cheers as he smiled and waved his hooves to increase the cheers.
“Fillies and Gentlecolts! Let me re-introduce you to the ship of the hour! The Yamatoooo!” He cheered as a backdrop fell away in a shower of fireworks to reveal the massive bow of the great vessel as the crowd went wild.
“Let’s show this ship just how ponies Paaaaaaaaarrty!”
The iconic bow towered over the band as they started a new song, an instrumental with no lyrics but just as much power, adding to the majesty of the ship.
* * *
A few hours later after the band had given way to a bunch of researchers who began to drone on about the ship the crowd had dispersed around the base.
While some of the more dedicated individuals stayed behind to hear about which direction the toilets flushed in, Rainbow Dash had maneuvered her way to a series of sun tents.
As she entered the open-walled pavillion, she noted that a huge number of long tables dominated most of the area. Curious to see why so many tables had been erected she quickly darted to the closest stall.
At first, Rainbow thought that she had wandered into a market, the tables were loaded with dozens of seemingly random knick-knacks, and odd looking personal effects. Strangely, none of the objects sported a price tag, or any identification as to what they were.
“It’s something else isn’t it?” An older mare spoke up from behind the counter.
“Huh?”
“All these things that we pulled off the ship. It’s bizarre to think that these aliens were so like us yet so different,” The mare replied gesturing to a mane brush.
“Oh,” Rainbow said as it finally clicked, that these weren’t markets, but a museum of sorts.
“So this is all stuff they pulled off the Yamato?” Rainbow pondered.
“Mm hmm, like I said its really quite spectacular to think that they were so much more advanced than us, yet they still had to brush their teeth the old fashioned way,” She said pointing to a cup full of variously colored brushes.
“Yeah I guess,” Rainbow replied in an unamused tone. Not that this didn’t interest her, but she’d seen toothbrushes before.
“I mean, this is cool and all but we’ve got all this stuff already, got anything weird?”
“Well there is this thing.” The mare replied pulling out a strange piece of fabric, which kind of resembled a star with five tubes pointing out from one end and a large hole in the rear, vaguely similar to one of spikes claw warmers.
“I think it’s called a glauve, or something like that.”
“Eh, thats more of a Rarity thing, got anything cool?” Rainbow asked innocently, failing to notice the scowl she got given in return.
“Oh, I have just the thing,” the mare replied as she fished under the table for a moment before pulling out an odd looking box.
The ‘box’ was fairly small, not much larger than a playing card. It was roughly as thick as a pencil and one face was a completely flat, black pane of glass with a small button at one end.
Rainbows eyes widened at the sight of the peculiar object “What is that?”
“Frankly? I’ve no idea, I’ve been using it as a paperweight. All I know is that if you push that little button that bit of glass lights up,” The mare shrugged.
Now thoroughly intrigued, Rainbow scooped up the device carefully, as if it were a precious artifact, which in reality it kind of was.
With utmost care, which was odd considering the pegasus in question, Rainbow gently pushed the button in with the very tip of her hoof. As the mare had said the face light up displaying an amazing array of nine little circles. A small message at the top said ‘enter pattern to unlock.’
“It needs some kind of secret pattern to do anything else, I haven't been able to work it out,” the mare said with a shrug.
“It’s like a monitor on the Yamato, but really small,” Rainbow said turning to object over in her hoof to look at the back.
“You’ve been on the Yamato?” The mare questioned, her curiosity growing.
“Tactical Officer,” Rainbow said off-handedly without looking up from the device.
“My gosh! How exciting! I only got to wait in the labs and look at stuff when they brought it up from the cavern, but I’ve never been inside. What's it like?!” the curious mare said excitedly, leaning over the table and getting very close to Rainbow.
“It’s uh.. big,” Rainbow said, backing away from the excitable mare.
“Really what else? Oh it must be so amazing,” she gushed.
“Uh, I think I hear the princess calling!” Rainbow said quickly, eager to remove herself from the company of the increasingly obsessive mare.
“Oh, well I mustn't keep you then. You can hang onto that if you’d like, you’ll get more use out of it than me,” the researcher added.
Rainbow said nothing, choosing instead to quickly nod her head before her wings sprang open, launching herself away from the stall.
Finding herself back at the stage in front of the Yamato, Rainbow took the time to look over at the reason behind the party.
When she had first seen the Yamato, standing on the small rocky outcrop in the cavern below Canterlot, It looked strange, and weird. When she had stood underneath one of its huge cannons, while it was embedded in the stone floor, it had looked sorrowful, yet imposing. When she had stood underneath its bulk upon the moon, it towered over her and seemed to convey only, raw power and wonder.
But now as she looked at it from its height, matching her altitude with its stature, her magenta eyes directly level with the huge aperture recessed into the head of the bow, The huge length of the mighty ship extending out and away from her, there was only one thing that came to mind. Only one word in existence could accurately sum up what Rainbow was seeing at that very moment.
Awesome.
Yet, Unbeknownst to the pegasus as she gazed at the huge ship before her in awe, a different conscious was at work.
And it gazed back.
* * *
Several hours passed, the band alternated between playing well known rock songs and making way for a classical band to perform more majestic scores. The stalls set up beside the Yamato had been cleared to make way for the main event.
Cheering ponies, griffons and any other race that had shown lined the designated walkway leading to a large gangplank rising up to the ships deck, peasi flew overhead showering confetti as three hundred ponies marched down between the lines of cheering onlookers.
Returning smilies to the ponies waving their hooves, the crew slowly made their way up the ramp before filing in to the Yamato’s innards. More than a few ponies from the sidelines had tried to jump the barrier to join them, but were quickly subdued by security.
The six Elements and their ‘captain’ brought up the rear, adding to the grandeur of the ceremony. While Applejack, Twilight and Fluttershy shied away from the attention, the remaining three mares soaked it up, none more so than the colorful pegasus who reveled in the praise.
After reaching the top, five of the six made their way inside, with only one staying on the deck, intent on taking all the attention she could get.
“Come on, put your hooves up!” Rainbow cried, to which the crowd eagerly responded.
“Careful, Rainbow Dash, too much of that and you won’t be able to fit your head through the door,” The princess smirked as she passed. Rainbow whipped around, mouth agape.
‘The princess has a sense of humour?!’
* * *
A few minutes later, all crew were seated in their respective stations, eagerly awaiting the green light. From outside the loyal band came out on stage on last time.
“Allllriiiigghtt Axial! Are you all ready from the main event?!” The lead singer cheered.
“Yeah!” The crowd cried.
“Come on, I’m sure those brave ponies in there can’t hear you!” He cried, pointing back toward the ship.
“Yeah!” The crowd roared louder.
“Once more!”
“Yeeeaaah!” Their cheers were so loud they were incomprehensible, but the pounding applause from their hooves on the concrete got the message across.
“Alright! Give it up for the Yamato!”
The crowd roared again, this time however they were accompanied by multiple streaks of smoke shooting over the Yamato and continuing over their heads. Seeing their cue the band launched into one last powerful ballard.
The signature move of the Wonderbolts finally signaled to Celestia that it was time to get the ball rolling. Giving a curt nod down to Twilight, the purple unicorn slowly maxed the throttle.
From outside, the spectators below gazes were torn away from the Wonderbolts back to the huge ship that was now quaking violently. Before any of them had time to grow concerned, the Wonderbolts, shot back overhead. In the same moment, the hugely powerful thrusters on the Yamatos belly opened up.
Huge plumes of seawater and steam shot high into the air, just as the Wonderbolts passed, creating a brilliant mixture of smoke,steam and water. The dockside immediately became swamped with the displaced liquid, the Yamato not allowing it to return into the bay.
Once the majority of water had been cleared, more jets opened. The increased thrust began to lift the heavy ship skyward. The onlookers all took an instinctive step back as the hurricane force winds slammed into them, billowing their manes and coats wildly.
The roar from the engines easily deafened any cheers that may have been sounding from excited ponies who watched on in awe as over three-hundred metres of ship lifted effortlessly into the air.
The massive craft continued to rise. Water spilled from every surface, drenching those below. Gun barrels and anchors bristled in the mid morning sun. A sharp eye could easily make out all the micro movements the ships many thrusters made.
Over the din of thrusters, a pained mechanical whine sounded, announcing the reveal of the two colossal wings that unfolded from just above the anti-fouling paint.
Two say that it was a sight to behold was truly an understatement of universal proportions.
Slowly, the Yamato began to pitch over to the right slightly. The movement allowing the behemoth ship to spin in mid air. After completing a complete one hundred and eighty degree about, the bow pitched up, facing back over the ocean.
The elevated position gave the crowd back on the dock a good look at the Yamatos business end, to which multiple photographers immediately snapped up.
More jets, this time on the stern, roared into action, pushing the ship forward away from the excited ponies, giving it just enough room to really open up.
All three mighty boosters warmed to an orange glow, the air in and around them heating until the point where a column of flame and power shot from each.
The effect was instantaneous, the Yamato immediately began to climb, its speed ever increasing as it ascended on its upward path. The Wonderbolts quickly re-entered the picture, none of them quite expected the feeling of being punched in the gut as they closed in but stayed strong.
The trails of smoke began to spiral and corkscrew around the ship as it rose, creating a kind of smoky, black tunnel which was promptly obliterated when the thrust from the engine touched it.
The Yamato continued to accelerate, leaving the Wonderbolts to peel off and return to the port. A few moments later, the double thunderclap, resonated from each end of the ship as it shattered the sound barrier.
Faster still, the speedometer within the ship began to tally up more and more machs, the brilliant, cloudless, blue sky slowly faded as it dimmed to a smoky black and Lunas’ stars began to reappear.
From the ground, the Yamato became no more than a red dot, impossibly high above them. The look of awe never left any of their faces. Equestria had just witnessed its first taste of space travel.
And they liked it.
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Has the ship developed a kind of awareness due to age and time? It seems interested in Rainbow Dash. The vessel also moved one of its guns to follow her if I remember correctly. If it is sentient and becomes further aware Imma flip out because I love sentient ships/machines/AI!
Was the sentience already there? (ref. above)
Did it come as something from the Elements?
[Later] Will the sentience be 'good' or 'evil'?
Ooooh... anticipation!!!!
One of the main themes of Uchu Senkan Yamato was that, somehow, the ship had it's own spirit. This is to be expected.
Someone made a SBY fic!
2888330>>2888436
Whenever I read about Spacecraft launches oder see them in fiction or documentary I always feel that chill running down my spine and my heart becomming warm with the sudden urge to shed liquid pride. Its always such a beautiful moment.
(And then my grandma comes in and states that God wont let us go to space, in that moment it takes all my self-control to not punch her in the face. Stupid religions.
)
2889233 yes because 'God' really managed to stop all the Russian, American, British, Indian, Chinese, Korean rockets that are have now got their payloads floating happily around the planets
2889245 Exactly my words to her.
Btw, as it appears the Yamato is sapient to a point, now the question remains: who is it?
Could it be IQ-9/Analyser who DLed himself into the ship long ago? Or is it the Inteligence that messed with the crew in the 2199 remake? Or something completely different at all? I shall see when the time has come.
Darn I stll need to see the remaining episodes of 2199 but I hardly find anything with propper subs.
2889267
No, I wouldn't
2889820 whut?
Love the Pacific Rim track added in. Pity the movie was all motion blur, darkness, motion blur, and oh yes, more motion blur.
Is it too much to ask that I actually see the movie I paid for?
/unrelated rant
Nice way to send off the Yamato. And you'd think they would have pulled what's-her-name's body out of the navigation room before they left the ship sitting on some planet.
That should be To
Nice to see that they are finally underway.
2891602
2889267 Or maybe it's Starsha's sister like in the SBY Rebirth webcomic?
2897501 There is a webcomic? Cool!
Now the only question is which one of Starsha's sisters, you see in the original Starsha had only one sister, Sasha, who died during the crash on Mars. However in the 2199 remake they talk about a second sister, I think her name was Isha, who delivered the Wave Engine blueprints before Sasha brought the Launch codes.
The way the storywriters made it seem as if that Isha suffered a similar accident but survived with a permanent memory loss and later became part of the Yamato crew as Yuki. However in some of the later episodes it seams that Isha is in fact part of the Yamatos computer core or something as she starts haunting certain crew members. I have no idea whats actually happening since I havent watched the show for a while as it is really hard to find propperly subed versions.
2899963 All this speculation... it's delicious
2899976 Happy to be able to entertain!
2899963 Oh, so you didn't know about it
Uh whoops. Spoilers. But yeah, I was referring to Sasha.
Tim Eldred on StarBlazers.com hosted it, but it's domain was reclaimed by the franchise managers when 2199 launched(the community migrated to ourstarblazers.com), but since it's not hosted yet on the new website I saved the comic to MediaFire if you'd like to read it(469 full color "pages")
Urg, it's taking a while to upload. I'll link it later
2900106 That would be much appreciated! Thanks.
I should tell, I have seen ALL the shows and movies up to Resuraction, but the SBY 2199 remake is still hard to find.
2900153 Mediafire is being strange, uploading after it hit 100%
But this link should work
2900211 Thanks mate. Downloading right now.
Edit: Finished!
2889233 Stupid people, not stupid religions. There's plenty of God-fearing astronauts (ex. John Glenn) and scientists, but that's enough about that. In the end, individuals are responsible for their own decisions.
Author: Please have these chapters proofread more closely before publishing. The typos are reaching critical mass. Even moving chapters to a program with a spell checker could catch quite a few mistakes! (I just confirmed this by using Word's spellcheck on this chapter.)
2911548 Sad but true, the stupid people part. My biggest issue with religions is that stupid people use religion as a subterfuge to do stupid things and the people behind the dogmas let it happen.
I would go on a rant here but its neither the right place nor the right time for such things.
and since when does ponies have guitars??????????
This should be "one last powerful ballad."
Also, what is with the large space at the end of the chapter?