Chapter 2 - Preparations
Mercenary DropShip Heart of Steel
Docked with JumpShip Conch Shell
Unknown Location
Unknown Date
His head hurt. A lot.
Was I drinking again? The man thought as he clawed his way to consciousness. No, I'm weightless, so that means we're in space. You shouldn't get drunk in space, it's not good on the bones. Why are we in space? Slowly, he managed to peel open one of his eyes, then the other, and carefully took in the room he sat in.
To say the view stunned him would be an understatement. He was in the ship's mess hall, along with most everyone he knew, though he realized he was the only one awake. The others, he noted, were all secured to their seats with the usual restraints used to keep people from floating around while in freefall, and for a moment he worried that some assassin had sneaked aboard and poisoned a meal. Why are the lights out, though? He mentally asked as he glanced around again, noting only emergency lighting was working, leaving the room in a deeply shadowed state. Did we have a party? If so, where are the drinks? He winced a bit at the thought of alcohol, fearing a worse hangover. Then again, a nice spot of booze always does a body good, especially after a jump.
The last word in his mental monologue finally triggered the backlog of memories, and James McKenna VII, commander of the mercenary unit McKenna's Dark Horse Brigade (a joke on his part; the unit was the size of a company and had no ties to the famous Eridani Light Horse) looked around again as his mind processed the new information. Okay, we were all here to ride out the jump. Then we jumped and... Ow. He winced again as even the memory of the jump gave him pain. That was not normal.
Slowly and carefully, he undid the latches holding him in, and soon McKenna was floating free. This didn't last, though, as he quickly grabbed the bolted-down chair he'd been in and used its leverage to move over to the next, and he checked its occupant's vitals. Glad to see you made it through, dear, he thought with relief before he continued moving through the room to check everyone else. He completed his circuit just as several others started to stir, and James noted with relief that no one had died on him, though he decided he would keep an eye on everyone in case some internal damage had been done.
The Royal Palace
Canterlot, Equestria
August 24th 1023 RC
The hallways echoed with four sets of hooves and three sets of wings as the personifications of the Elements of Harmony were led by one of the royal guard through the palace. It was the second trip of this nature in only a few short months, and so all six of the ponies who'd been called felt some trepidation at the memory of how the last time had gone. Still, when Celestia calls, we answer, Twilight Sparkle, the lavender unicorn, thought as she followed the guard, leading her friends. There hadn't been room for any other thoughts in the mare's mind, save those for wondering whatever doom had now reared its head.
Even these thoughts were pushed aside as the guard lead them up to a massive set of doors emblazoned with the symbols of the sun and moon. The six ponies paused to catch their breath while the armored pegasus landed and then pushed hard with his front hooves until one of the ornately carved doors opened. “Their majesties are waiting for you,” he said, his voice firm but respectful.
“Thank you, sir,” Twilight had the presence of mind to say before she trotted into the throne room, followed closely by her friends, including the pegasi Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, who had landed out of courtesy.
The room was awash with light from the setting sun, made possible by the fact that it was barely a room at all. Aside from an outer procession of fluted columns to hold up the roof, the entire facade of the throne room was made out of crystal glass, which gave an unprecedented view of the palace grounds and, once one looked up to the equally clear ceiling, the heavens above.
At the far end of the rounded room stood three large seats on a dais; the thrones of Equestria. Twilight felt some awe as she looked over the largest, its tall, smooth form made of metal that seemed to have simply grown into the right shape rather than forged. Off to the throne's right was a smaller one made of wood - definitely grown into its shape - emblazoned with the symbol of the sun, while off to its left was a seat of bluish stone carved with the symbol of the moon.
Sitting in the two smaller seats were their respective princesses, and the six ponies stopped before the dais and bowed. “We came as soon as you called, your majesties.”
Both Celestia and Luna nodded to the ponies, but it was the former who spoke. “We are glad you came, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie,” she said evenly. “Although we wish it were under better circumstances.”
“"We figured you wouldn't call us unless it was important,” Twilight replied. “What's going on, and how can we help?”
Both of the princesses shared a look before they stood as one. “Some explanation is needed,” Celestia said as she descended the dais and walked over to stand in front of the six elements. “But first, a question: how have you progressed in your studies of magic, Twilight?”
The lavender unicorn blinked a few times in surprise, but she managed to recover quickly enough. “Fairly well, if I may say so myself, princess,” she replied.
“How far have you delved into its nature?” Celestia pressed. “You know how to use it well, but do you know the why as well as the how?”
Again, the odd question caught Twilight in surprise, and she took a moment to think. In this moment, though, her friend spoke up. “Beggin' your pardon, princess,” Applejack interjected. “But may I ask how this relates to bringin' us here?”
“It pertains greatly,” Luna said, and then stepped off of the dais to stand by her sister's side. “The nature of magic permeates our world, and indeed our very universe. Without it, pony society as we know it would not exist, nor would our lives be as easy or safe.”
Twilight furrowed her brow at this, and despite her respect for the princesses, she found she couldn't remain quiet. “Yes, I know this,” she said, as she tried to leaven her frustration at the roundabout conversation with respect for the ponies she addressed. “Magic is one of the five interactions that our universe is based upon, along with electromagnetism, gravity, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. I don't think I could ever imagine a world without it.”
“It is rather unfortunate that thou cannot,” Luna replied, sadly. “For yesterday, beings from such a magicless world found their way into ours.”
A gasp rose from the six smaller ponies. “Wh-what?” Twilight asked, her eyes gone wide with shock. “H-how? How could that be possible?”
“Unfortunately, we do not know,” Celestia answered, and then shook her head at the disbelieving looks she received. “Even with our power and wisdom, we cannot comprehend nor investigate such a reality.”
“If that is so, your highness,” the white unicorn, Rarity, spoke up. “Then may I ask how do you know they are from such a place?”
Both of the royal sisters shared a brief look. “There is extensive magical theory you would need to learn to understand it exactly,” Celestia answered. “However, the simplified version is that they are simply not connected to the magical framework of our world the same way you or I are.” The white alicorn paused then and shook her head. “I know that is not very informative, but it will have to do for now.”
The six smaller ponies stood quietly in contemplation for a moment before Twilight Sparkle spoke up again. “If I may be so bold, your majesties, where do we come into this situation?”
“These beings are as alien to us as their world is to our sight,” Luna replied. “Why hath they come here? We doth not know. Their motives are unknown, as are most of their capabilities. Yet they must have considerable abilities, indeed, for they hath crossed into our world not on our planet, but in the depths of space itself.”
“They did that without magic?” Twilight asked, feeling shock wash over her again. “How can they survive? Did they survive?”
“They did, and they have,” Celestia stated, while her sister sagely nodded in agreement. “Such abilities convey a sense of power the likes of which this world has never seen. Although we hope that they are wise and gracious, we must nevertheless prepare for any threats these beings may pose to us should they prove hostile.”
“That is why we called the six of thee,” Luna said, somewhat hesitantly at 'we' but otherwise evenly. “The powers my sister and I wield are not infinite, and so we must ask thee to be our eyes and ears, and even our diplomats when and if these strange new beings come to Equestria.”
“It is a lot to ask of you, I know,” Celestia said. “But we need you now more than ever. If these beings are peaceful, then your welcoming hoof of friendship will win them over.”
“But... what is they aren't peaceful?” Fluttershy spoke up, her eyes wide with worry.
“Then thou art the best ponies to extricate thyselves and report back to us,” Luna answered. “Thou wield a magic more powerful than either of us. If that is not enough to stay the hand of an aggressor...” The midnight-blue alicorn let her voice drift away, leaving certain fears unsaid but stated nonetheless.
Twilight gulped, and then turned to look over the faces of her friends. In them she saw her own fears, her own worries, but also she saw determination and a strength of will. After a moment, the lavender unicorn turned back to the princesses and nodded. “You can count on us, your majesties .”
“You have our thanks,” Celestia said. “It will be several days before the beings arrive, if they even decide to come here. In that time, we would have you all stay in the palace and prepare.”
“How can we prepare for something when we don't even know what it is?” Rainbow Dash asked, her face a study of confusion.
“Simple,” Luna said. “Thou shalt prepare for everything.”
JumpShip Conch Shell
Unknown Location
August 23rd
“How bad is it?” Marquette asked.
“Bad enough,” the Conch's engineer replied over the radio. “I don't know what hit us. It was either big or tough, or fast, but it took out two cubic meters of hull plating and wrecked the starboard quarter helium fill valve. The inner seal's a goner, as is all the helium we had in the tank aft of compartment twelve. The emergency bulkheads look like they worked, though, so we should have at least fifty percent of our helium capacity.”
“That won't do us any good if the core is screwed up,” Marquette observed dryly.
“I'm working on getting a 'bot down there to inspect it,” the engineer answer the unspoken question. “I have Diego checking the logs while I'm out here, but so far he says that aside from the temperature rise, the drive core didn't display any other anomalies. Again, he's still checking, and I'll make sure I go over the logs with a fine tooth comb as well after I've got this thing patched up.”
“Alright,” the captain said, and then sighed. “Thanks Willy. I'll let you get back to work.”
“Sure thing boss. Out.”
With that the line was cut, and Marquette took off his headset and placed it on the velcro strip that held it in place against his chair. “Ugh,” he said as he rubbed the bridge of his patrician nose. “Jacob, please give me some good news and tell me we're in an inhabited system?” He asked of his navigator.
“Uh, well,” the man sitting at the console to the captain's right on the circular bridge began. “I suppose you could say that. I think. Maybe.”
Marquette looked up and gave the other man a savage stare. “Jacob...” he began, his tone warning of dire things.
“Sorry,” the navigator sincerely said. “It's just that I'm not sure if the computer's fried, or it's me, or maybe that jump was worse than we thought.”
Marquette continued to give his navigator a look that would set wet grass on fire. Jacob sighed in resignation and shrugged. “According to the star positions we're at the zenith jump point of the Sol system.”
“Sol?” Marquette asked, stunned. “As in, Terra's Sol? As in two hundred light years away Sol?”
“None other, according to the star charts,” Jacob replied. “I've got the navcomp running a telescope search where the planets should be, but as far as the stars and spectral lines of the primary are concerned, we're at Sol.”
Marquette relaxed a bit then, and he slumped a bit in his chair. Or rather he would have had there been gravity to slump with and no restraints holding him up; instead he went limp. “Well, that's not so bad, not since the Star League took it back from those Wobbie nutjobs,” the captain said, almost feeling relieved. That is, until he saw that Jacob was still tense and worried, and Marquette frowned as something the navigator said percolated through his brain. “Wait, you said you're using telescopes? Why don't you just lock on the nav beacons?”
“I would... If I could find them,” Jacob said carefully. “I'm not picking any of them up. I'm not even picking up system chatter or leakage, captain. Not from Mars, not from Luna, not from Titan, not even from Terra,” he added, pausing as his captain seemed to struggle with his incredulousness. “I'm not even picking up drive flares from intrasystem traffic, sir.”
“That can't be possible,” Marquette stated. “Even with the Wobbies in control, there was some civilian traffic, and a lot of military. History itself records that even the Rimworlders blared out their ruddy propaganda when the Usurper took the place!”
“Look boss, I don't know what to say,” Jacob said, holding his arms up, or what would be up were they seated in a non-freefall environment. “I have the star charts and the spectrograph matching up. I'm looking for the planets now. What I don't have anything artificial to show an inhabited system.”
Marquette looked about ready to pop a blood vessel. After a few moments though he closed his eyes and slowly started counting prime numbers until he felt himself calm again. Or calmer, anyways, he thought wryly. “Alright, keep looking for those planets,” he told Jacob. “Lord knows we have the time. While the computer's doing that, why don't you get a hold of the DropShip crews and see if any of their navcomps are pulling up the same thing?”
“I don't know what mud hopper would carry astrogation charts,” Jacob said with a shrug. “But I'll give it a shot boss. What do I tell 'em if they start asking about things?”
Marquette paused to think about that. “The truth,” he finally said. “There's no reason to lie as far as I can see. Just tell them to keep quiet and don't let their passengers know yet. The last things I need are two bands of mercenaries and a bunch of megacorp employees going ape over this before we have a handle on it.”
Mercenary DropShip Heart of Steel
Docked with JumpShip Conch Shell
Zenith jump point, Unknown System
August 23rd
“Oh for the love of wine, women, and song,” McKenna griped while the captain of the Heart of Steel looked on. “We misjumped? And we're lost?”
“Will you settle down, Jim?” The petite woman who captained the modified Union-class ship countered. “Rebecca will kill me if you blow a blood vessel and die on my bridge. At least if I don't record it for her, so could you wait a bit while I set that up?”
Captain Nguyen's acidic wit bit into McKenna's emotions like a viper, and after a moment he closed his eyes and willed himself to calm down. “Okay, I deserve that,” he admitted, opening his eyes to look at the ship's commander again. “I suppose this is where you yell at me to 'get off of my bridge'?” He asked, smirking and doing a poor imitation of a female voice.
Nguyen cracked a smile, but it was brief. Still, the tension drained from her shoulders as she replied. “You know darn well you're the one who owns this bucket. I only keep her from crashing into things.”
“Yes, and you do a lovely job of that,” McKenna said, though there was a minor edge to his mirth. “But that doesn't do much for us if we're lost somewhere in the rear end of space.”
“And storming up here and raising Cain about it won't help one way or the other,” Nguyen stoically replied. “Or are you going to get out and push?”
“Alright, alright,” James said, throwing up his arms. The spin the unconscious move imparted on his body annoyed him and as he rotated to face Nguyen again he saw her smiling.
“You never cease to amaze me, sir,” she said.
“Don't call me 'sir,'” McKenna insisted as he reached out and grabbed a railing put in for such conditions. “I'm not that old yet.”
“You turned forty-five last month,” Nguyen reminded him. “I was at the party.”
“Pshaw,” Mckenna scoffed as he realigned his feet with the decking. “A body on a developed world can easily live to thrice that.”
“How about a broken old mule who won't quit when he's ahead?” A new voice asked from the entrance hatch to the bridge, and James looked over to see his wife of twenty-two years carefully pull herself into the room. “I seem to recall that we had enough money to retire. Or we did, before you bought this rustbucket.”
Despite her biting words, James smiled as he recognized his wife's good-natured ribbing. “Now dear, you knew I was fundamentally insane before we married. Besides, if Jaime Wolf and Morgan Kell can ride a 'mech into war into their seventies then I can keep going at least as long as they have.”
Rebecca McKenna rolled her eyes. “As much as I love you, dear, you're no Jaime Wolf.” She paused then and looked over her husband with lidded eyes. “You might pass for Kell, though. But we'd have to chop your arm off for that. Want some help?”
James sighed and shook his head. “I'm surrounded by she-bears.”
“And you love every minute of it,” Rebecca replied. “Now what's got you so agitated anyway?”
James and Nguyen shared a look before the latter cleared her throat. “I'm sure you noted that jump wasn't normal. Turns out the JumpShip suffered an engineering casualty just before the drive discharged, and now we don't quite know where we are.”
“Actually, we do know,” James interjected. “Just it makes no sense.”
“How so?” Rebecca asked, and then waited patiently as Nguyen explained the situation. When the captain was done, the female McKenna shook her head. “That's something else,” she finally said.
“Yes, it is,” Nguyen agreed. “I'm having Bill check and double check our own charts, but they're not as refined as a JumpShip's. Still, from what we've got we can confirm everything the boys on the Conch Shell are saying.”
“Well,” Rebecca said, and then floated for a moment in silence as she thought. “Have they found the planets that are supposed to be here yet?”
“They've found most of them, save Mercury, though that's probably just glare from Sol hiding it,” Nguyen answered. “They also haven't found Uranus or Neptune, but given their distance and how little anyone cares about those backwaters I don't think we need to worry about that.”
“Probably not,” Rebecca said with a nod. Then she turned to her husband and gave him a look. “Now dear, why don't we go and let Mei help the JumpShip crew without you up here to jostle her elbow?”
James growled, but both women could tell his heart wasn't in it. “Fine,” he said. “We should be working on getting ready to hit dirtside, anyway. We gotta get helium from somewhere, after all.”
“And find out what happened to drive a planet of twelve billion people into complete silence,” Rebecca pointed out. “Don't think I've forgotten about that chivalrous streak you try to hide, Jim.”
“Yeah yeah, just don't mention it around the unit, lest they think I'll give them all a pay raise,” James grumbled. “Come on then, let's get ourselves tuned up.”
Mercenary DropShip Red Skye
Docked with JumpShip Conch Shell
Zenith jump point, Unknown System
August 23rd
“This could be a golden opportunity.”
Gregory Kilroy gave the man across from him an incredulous look. “With all due respect sir, I don't see it.”
The first speaker grunted as he put down the noteputer with the report from the captain of the Red Skye. “Greg, tell me you can see the value of being able to take first dibs on salvage?”
“Salvage?” Kilroy asked, incredulousness turning into outright shock. “What salvage?”
“Come on,” the older man, one Garth O'Connell, grunted. “You think a place as civilized as the homeworld of our entire species is going to be wiped clean?” He asked, sounding disappointed in his executive officer. “No matter what happened, there's going to be residue, debris, something we can sift through and find the few things that didn't get pulverized by whatever took the place out.”
“And you're not the least bit scared of the fact that whatever wiped it out might be still around?” Kilroy asked with a shake of his head. “Or the fact that the rest of the system is emptier than a Steiner-Davion family reunion?”
Despite himself, O'Connell let out a brief chortle at the joke, given that royal family's recent infighting. “Funny, Greg. As for your point, I'll grant we'll be careful, make sure to keep all the sensors up full all the time, no going off alone, that sort of thing. We'll even have the doc test the air to make sure there wasn't a virus or anything like that. But look at it, man!” He said, turning the noteputer so Kilroy could see the system map. “This is the First World we're talking about! It was the capitol of the Alliance, Hegemony, Star League, and ComStar. Can you even begin to imagine the wealth that's been gathered there? The sheer amount of lostech that might still be hidden in some old cache that even the Blakests didn't touch?” He shook his head at that. “No man, this is it. This is what we need to get our butts into something better than the old machines we've been running around in. We go loot some stuff, buy ourselves some new 'Mechs, and attract better paying employers who won't risk us on suicide missions.”
Kilroy looked at his boss for a moment before he sighed. “Look, Garth, you know I'll back you up on whatever you decide. But I'm begging you, man, think about it,” he pleaded. “This isn't some jerkwater colony in the Periphery; someone's going to notice when the freaking homeworld drops off the grid. Someone's going to come looking, probably the new Star League, and if whatever took the place out doesn't get us, you can bet your rear end that the League will.”
“What are they going to do to interfere with a 'rescue operation'?” O'Connell asked, grinning. “I do appreciate your concern, Greg. You've got some good points, but the gains we stand to make more than outweigh the risks.”
“Then what about these other guys we're with?” Kilroy asked, waving his hand in some random direction. “You think they're gonna stand still?”
“The civvies won't do squat,” O'Connell said dismissively. “As for McKenna, while he's idealistic enough to hate us for it, he's smart enough to know that you don't go up against an Overlord and a battalion of 'Mechs with a Union and a short company.”
Kilroy mulled over his commander's words in silence for several minutes. Finally, he shrugged. “Okay, boss. I still don't care for it, but like you said, it's a golden opportunity. I just hope it doesn't bite us in the dangly bits.”
“Don't worry yourself,” O'Connell said. “We got this one in the bag already. All we gotta do is wrap it up and haul it off.”
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'Thou,' is singular, you only use it for one person. When you're talking to multiple people, you use 'you.'
Also, you better not have both the humans and the ponies speaking English.
529946dude fuck off i have a 60 TON MECH BACK OFF
Sounds kind of like TF2.
Decided to read this over again, and found a few errors in wording and such.
Here -
Probably meant "answered".
And here-
I think "noticed" looks better.
What I saw this time around anyways.
Honestly, the Elements of Harmony only work on "dis-harmonious" magic. It wouldn't do jack to a human, technology (unless it somehow overheats or fries electrical circuitry), etc. Hell, an army of minotaur or griffins or manticore would be completely unscathed by the Elements.
This is starting off a lot better than the USS Vector fic...
despite not understanding a bit, im still enjoying the story
i dunno any of the factions you got going on
and how many ships are inside the bigger ship? the jumpship was it? wassat look like even?
Erm, noticed a small thing there "“But... what is they aren't peaceful?”", seems you accidentally misspelled a word there. Something along the lines of an S instead of an F.
You read that book didnt you? The one where they misjumped into a new place, stanger tides i think?
2962269 A big metal dick.
th09.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2013/079/c/1/at_anchor_by_spooky777-d5yj76n.jpg
Really nice. I like how Twilight explained magic in a way that makes perfect sense. One of the forces of the universe, in a different universe. There are theories that different universes might be just like ours, but with different numbers in the forces of nature or different forces entirely.
I assume there's no direct connection to Snow Raven?
9436595
No, separate line of descent.