Fallout Equestria: Space Captain Andromeda

by Weavers of Dreams

Chapter Four: The Days of Mercy

---WARNING---TOXIC SUBSTANCE DETECTED---THREAT LEVEL: NONE---

"What do mean that stuff isn't dangerous?" Andromeda demanded while she drifted outside the rocketship, secured by the DMC tether. "Look what it did to my ship. And you're saying it's not dangerous?"

---SUBSTANCE NOT DANGEROUS TO SUBJECT---

"And how do you know that?" she asked again louder this time.

---SUBJECT STATUS: DECEASED---CONDITION: STABLE---

"Oh. Of course," Mercy growled angrily. "Because I'm dead that stuff doesn't do anything. That's why you said the radiation wasn't a threat either, now was it?"

---AFFIRMATIVE---

"If I start bursting open with tumors, I'm gonna kill you."

---THIS DEVICE WAS NOT PROGRAMMED WITH FEAR---

"Trust me," Andromeda said through clenched teeth. "By the time I'm done with you... you'll learn."

---SUGGESTION---MAINTAIN SANITY---

* * *

Radiation and toxic gas or not, Andromeda still had work to do. She slowly crept aboard the ship and moved towards the armory, expecting to find it filled with the pink fumes. But it was all clear. In fact, Peppy wasn't reading it anymore at all. She lassoed her self into the maintenance tube, pausing only when the Geiger counter began ticking again. She quickened her pace, not liking it one bit. But her daughter's cries still echoed in her head. She reached the valves again and looked them over. There wasn't even a scratch on them.

"Uuuh, Peppy?" she began as she began to back away, feeling very frightened now, "I may not be the brightest mare in the world, but, I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen."

---LOGICAL---

She took a deep breath and approached the pipes, preparing another saw. "Peppy, I want you to analyze the gas, to see if there are any traces of fuel inside of it."

She didn't even pay attention to the pipbuck's response before she began cutting. This time she wouldn't be frightened away. Last time it had scared her. It brought back memories of that single most terrifying moment of her life. But this time, she was prepared and determined. She narrowed her eyes as the saw cut deeper. Then, finally, the gas rushed out and consumed her. She remained still, shaking a little, but held fast by thoughts of her family.

"Tell me what this is, Peppy," she ordered as she watched the gas swirl around her.

---ANALYSES: ROCKET FUEL---TAINTED BY UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE---UTILIZATION---POSSIBLE IGNITION---

Andromeda watched in amazement as the gas began to seep back inside of the pipes, rebuilding the hole as it went. She leaned in close and inspected it with a hopeful look on her face. "So, it might be good enough to use as fuel?"

---73% CHANCE---

Andromeda nodded and took a deep breath. "I'll take it. Just need to find the ignition batteries then. Do you know where they're located?"

She followed Peppy's display further into the tube and found another panel. Behind it were three red boxes with yellow lightning bolts on the sides. She reached out with her magic, finding them to be quite dead. But, there were perks with being a unicorn.

The zap-zap beam, the joy of foals, and the agony of adults. A simple playground spell for sending a beam of static through the air and making a friend or enemy yelp in surprise. Not to be used on the swingsets or slides.

The beam firmly concentrated on the metal knobs, she sat and began to charge the batteries while thinking of how to pass the time. She never got what she wanted whenever she contacted anypony, and none of the Ministries seemed to be paying attention to the skies.

"Peppy? Can you find a music station?" she asked,watching the purple electricity transferring from her horn to the battery.

---NO KNOWN STATIONS DETECTED---

Andromeda rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Just find one that's playing music. Okay?"

---SUGGESTION---USE THIS PIPBUCK'S STORED PLAYLIST---

Her eyes went wide as she stared at the words, almost stopping the beam. "You have a playlist? Why didn't... You know what? it's not important. Just begin playing, please."

---BEGINNING TRACK 1 OF 23---

* * *

...Because, don't you know?

It's all part of the shooooow

Three songs later, Andromeda had the batteries recharged and ready to go. Her next step was to gather the panels she'd pulled from inside the tube and begin turning them into scales. She cut them quickly and crawled outside to start layering them over the holes. As she began cutting the strands into the area around the holes themselves, movement from the planet below caught her eye.

Turning, she watched as the clouds seemed to be pulling apart. It was strange. They had covered most of the world since she'd woken up. To see them just vanishing like this seemed odd. It would about a million pegasi working in perfect unison to perform such a feat. Perhaps this was a battle tactic or something. Did Equestria hide the sun from the zebras for some reason? She had to admit, that would be a spectacular thing to see from below. Space was getting old.

While the clouds rolled away, she returned to her work, and wove the scales. She almost wished she had a soundtrack of her own for that moment when the clouds passed away. Perhaps it was a good omen, like the world was beckoning her to come back. She'd take whatever signs she could get at the moment.

I'm headin' for Marepony,

With the sun at my back,

And two mares by my side

"What would any stallion do with two mares," Andromeda chuckled to herself while listening to the song. Then an image appeared in her head. She blushed and frowned. "Thanks for nothing brain. Now I'm gonna have nightmares for a week."

She brushed up every covered hole with a quick sanding job before moving on to the next. By the time she figured she had covered half the holes, the rocketship had moved onto the dark side of the planet. This sky was always clear, and with the light reflecting off the moon, she saw could see the zebra continent, appearing peaceful from above. But, she knew war was waging heavily throughout their borders. She wondered if they were as terrified of ponies as ponies were of them.

Andromeda paused for a moment in her work to wave at the zebra homeland. "Don't worry," she called out, even though she knew no pony would hear her, "it's all going to be over one day. Then we can all be friends again."

* * *

"...And with the capture of the notorious Mayor of Route 12, the wasteland travelers can now rest easier knowing the roads are clear once again. The New Canterlot Republic guard has once again fulfilled its duty to Equestria in the aftermath of the Lightbringer's victory. Once again, here's to you, Stable Dweller."

"The New Canterlot Republic again?" Andromeda complained to herself as she repaired the wiring in the cockpit. She had decided to move one of the ignition batteries into the dashboard after finding no way to fix the original power source. It wasn't going to be able to run all those systems on the console for long, so she had been disconnecting everything but the most vital components. That being the engine controls.

"I suppose they're doing a nice job and everything," she continued as she began to route the gold wires to the battery, "but, by Celestia's shiny posterior, its almost all they talk about. What about the Royal Guard and the Ministries? They don't even mention Luna or Celestia at all. Something needs to be done."

She connected the wires and slipped out of the dashboard to stretch her hooves and back. "Aaaaah. That feels good. And they don't even mention the war either. I want to know what's going on. Who's this Stable Dweller? Lightbringer? Why don't they talk about the Enclave anymore? Whoever they were. I guess this is what happen when you wakeup from a gas induced coma."

She sniffed the air inside her helmet. She was thankful Ministry of Image's luster enchantments took care of smell as well. She'd smelled at least a dozen different types of fruits, and a hundred different flowers. The scents cycled randomly so she wouldn't be overpowered by a single scent during her time in space. "I bet I'd smell a hundred kinds of awful if I ever took this suit off. A bath. My rocketship for a bath."

She lassoed herself outside and made her way to the ship's belly, where twenty evenly-spaced ports sat, covering the barrels of Equestria's first astral artillery. This part of Hope was by far the least damaged, since it faced the planet and not open space for a rock to hit it. Still, she moved along to check all the ports to make sure they were solidly in place. After checking each one, she moved back to the thrusters. There were three main thrusters, and six smaller ones spread around the rim for landing maneuvers. They were patched up as well as she could manage, needing them to slow her descent in, hopefully, just a few more days. She actually smiled a truly happy grin. She was almost ready to go home.

She had Peppy cut off the radio and play a random song.

Tea for two and muffins for you,

That's the way we'll fight our battle,

Roughin' up the biscuits,

Plunderin' the pies,

Afore we know it, everypony dies...

She moved to the port side and nodded at all the scaling. It was all finished, now all that was necessary was the sanding. This was the most lengthy and laborious of the tasks. But one she diligently performed so she could return home. She generated the micro DMCs and began her work. She had started sanding around the scaling first, then worked her way out and filled in the gaps.

...burning turnips and curled lettuce,

We fought our way across the banquet,

rivers of punch and canyons of cake,

round and round the sour cream flake...

* * *

This was it. The final day she would have to suffer in the weightless void. Space Captain Mercy Andromeda pulled the antennae off of the outside of the rocketship and brought inside. No sense just letting it snap off upon reentry. She tossed it into the armory and then lassoed herself over to the pilot seat. She settled nervously into it and strapped herself in. A single screen on the dashboard lit up, displaying readouts and commands.

The ship had actually been repaired much earlier, but she didn't feel like landing in zebra territory or the ocean. While waiting, she had gone over every square inch of the engines and dashboard with Peppy, making sure everything was connected properly. Even the though the engines appeared to be repairing themselves now, she had to be certain. She wondered if, perhaps, the zebras might have unwittingly given Equestria an edge. Self-repairing metal would be extraordinary.

"Alright," she said, taking a deep breath, "time to see if that tainted fuel works." She gulped down a lump of anxiety. "Ignite engines 4 and 5."

Two of the smaller engines lit up and began angling the rocketship's nose towards the planet.

"Stop 4 and 5. Fire engines 7 and 8."

The first two stopped working, but the rocketship kept on tilting in the zero-gravity, until numbers 7 and 8 flared up and counteracted the motion.

"Stop 4 and 5. Okay... okay," Andromeda said to herself, breathing hard. This had to be perfect. Too steep an angle and she would burn up, too shallow and she would glance off into eternity. She swallowed another lump and closed her eyes. "Ignite engine 2."

One of the three main thrusters lit up and began to push the rocketship forward toward the planet. Then she lit up the other two in quick succession. She waited a few moments to reach full velocity, and then cut the main engines.

"Ignite engines 4 and 5," she commanded in an unsettled tone.

The plummeting rocketship began to tilt again until its back end was facing the planet. This left Andromeda blind, not able to see the ground. Since the automatic systems had been cut, she had had to go over emergency simulations with Peppy to get the timings correct. The numbers of which engines she was supposed to turn on or off appeared on her HUD alongside countdown times for her to work by. But even if the Ministries had poured every ounce of research and genius they had into this, she still wasn't comfortable in the least. She wasn't sure if her scaling would even hold. At least she didn't have to repair the forward view screen; since it would be facing space the air friction wouldn't even touch it.

---THREE---TWO---ONE---

"Stop 4 and 5," she shouted unnecessarily. "Ignite 6, 7, 8, and 9."

---TWO---ONE---

"Stop all engines." She felt herself starting to shake.

---FIVE---FOUR---THREE---TWO---ONE---

"Ignite engine 2."

Right on time. The second main thruster ignited just before impact with the atmosphere. Breaking the surface tension and allowing the rocketship to slip through. Andromeda felt a special kind of euphoria she had thought only possible in the bedroom. Sound. Not a radio. Not her own voice. Actual sound. As terrifying as the roaring elements outside were, she felt a kind of peace settle over her.

"Sound," she managed to chuckle through the rattling and thundering around her.

---SEVENTEEN---SIXTEEN---FIFTEEN---FOURTEEN---

The air around the rocketship began to glow bright gold, fringed in orange. The scaling rattled and began to glow as well in the extreme heat. But, miraculously, it all managed to hold together.

---SIX---FIVE---FOUR---THREE---TWO---ONE---

"Ignite engine 3," Andromeda shouted, almost immediately as she felt her decent begin to slow. She also began to feel the sensation of being drunk. She remembered Ministry Mare Twilight talking about stuff like this. Where volunteers put in sensory deprivation chambers for extended periods of time would come out and wind up in a literal drunken state when presented a sight, a scent, taste, or even a sound. Her extended time in that hideous void was dangerously close to putting her in a drunken stupor. That would be bad at this moment in time, but she just couldn't remove the smile from her face when she wondered if Princess Luna felt something much stronger after her thousand year banishment.

---FOUR---THREE---TWO---ONE---

"Ignite engine 1." The restraints were becoming less tight around her chest now. She took a couple deep breaths, trying to shake off the drunkenness. "Com'on, Andromeda, you need to focus. Don't do this now."

She stared past her HUD at space, and scowled. At one time, it seemed so long ago now, she had dreamed of being up there. Had imagined a beautiful place of uninterrupted beauty, unsoiled by pony hooves. Now, she hated it. It was dead. It could stay that way for all she cared. Her life's dream had been a waste of time. It had ruined everything for her. When she got home, she wanted nothing more than to hug and kiss the life out of her family. After that, she planned on accepting her husband's birthday plans.

Then, Hope gave a violent buck and snapped her out of her musings.

Some of the scaling had actually melted and went flying off, opening one of the holes. Fortunately, she was descending slow enough to not be ripped apart. The sudden air pressure shattered the forward view screen, and hot air began to whistle past Andromeda's helmet, quickly heating the air inside. Then, the chair she was sitting on began to smolder, then smoke, and finally burst into flames.

Mercy fought to control her panic, feeling the hot bite of the air inside her helmet. The sides of it were beginning to glow from the temperature. All she could do was hope to land soon so she could throw off her restraints and rush outside. The fire wouldn't bother her suit, or her body under it, it was only the helmet that was dangerous to her. It could withstand the normal temperature from the interior, but when the superheated air was brushing right up against it, then there was a problem.

More scaling fell away, and the rocketship began bucking and rocking in the air, its descent becoming rougher and more dangerous with each passing moment. Even the repairs on the thrusters were beginning to fall apart. But the nose was still facing up, which meant that it could still land.

Andromeda watched the final countdown tick as her burning mane and fur started to stink up the inside of her helmet.

---EIGHTEEN---SEVENTEEN---SIXTEEN---FIFTEEN---

She coughed and fought to keep her eyes open in the heat. Cracks started to form on the helmet as pressure and heat built up on the inside. Her chair was little more than burnt stuffing and rods.

---NINE---EIGHT---SEVEN---SIX---FIVE---

She felt her flesh split open in a few places, and the open cuts stung badly. She pushed her head forward to watch the timer more closely. But getting that close to the heated helmet hurt her eyes, and she found herself unable to open them. Grief, not terror, flooded over her. How could get back to her family, if she couldn't see the timer? Could she even talk? She could only give a guess. She would have to estimate the time herself. She took a deep breath as she waited counted down the rest of the way in her head. four, three, two, one.

"Ignite all engines," she managed to croak out.

She felt the chair rods dig into her back as the remaining six thrusters activated, immensely slowing her descent. But was it in time? Or worse, early? If she did it too early, she would wind up back in space. She would much prefer being too late than going back up into that living hell. She pulled in her hooves close to her body and cringed as she awaited the verdict. Long minutes dragged out, creating a sinking feeling in her stomach. Then there was a loud BANG, and the rods of the chair bent until they snapped, dragging Andromeda down with them onto the back wall that now served as the floor.

Andromeda gasped and choked on joyous sobs. She'd done it. She was alive, and she had landed. Then, she began to feel the sensation of rising again. She realized, to her horror, that she hadn't turned off the engines.

"Stop all engines, stop all engines!" she shouted over and over again, until she felt the sensation of falling. This crash was worse than the first, but at least she didn't fall again. She groaned. Her whole body ached. She removed the restraints and wobbled to a standing position. She blinked her eyes open and watched as her helmet ceased glowing; the cracks were sealing themselves. But that wasn't very important to her. She wanted out.

She rushed over to the exit hatch, or at least tried to. The rocketship started to lean to one side, and she slipped and slid across the floor in the opposite direction of the hatch. She hit the wall as Hope fell on her side with crash. There was some minor rocking from side to side, but then it all settled down and was silent.

Andromeda got up and looked up at the hatch on what now served as the ceiling. It didn't matter though. She could just go out one of the opened holes, or where the view screen used to be. She remained in one place for the longest time to make sure it wouldn't move anymore, and then she collapsed upon the ground and wept bittersweet tears.

"I'm home, I'm home," she cried out to the world in ecstatic enthusiasm. She slowly pushed herself back up off the floor and moved towards the nose, ducking down and stepping out to get her first view of the surrounding landscape. Even though it was night, her eyes had adjusted well to the darkness, and, in fact, she had to blink a few times before the moon wasn't too bright for her.

She had, more or less, landed on a hilltop in some mountainous region of Equestria. Peppy told her it was the Red Horn Range, wherever that was. There were trees everywhere, with snow capped peaks higher up; she appeared to have landed in the only clearing within several miles. She would have sat down on the grass and just watched the world go by, but she had a family to find.

She turned around and slipped back into the rocketship, then emerged a few minutes later with her chair's restraints tied around her waist and four pistols from the canisters pushed through them. No way was she going to go through an unknown wilderness without some form of protection. She took a deep breath and took one final look at Hope before turning her back to it and lifting up her pipbuck.

"Peppy, do you know where Stable 41 is?" she asked in a surprisingly clear voice. She hadn't noticed the smell vanish from inside her helmet, nor the fact that al her injuries were quickly fading. Her mane and tail were both full and clean again, and the places where her flesh opened had sealed again without a scar.

---NEGATIVE---

"Then mark the nearest town on my HUD," Andromeda ordered, stamping her hoof back down. A purple triangle appeared on the right. She turned herself until it was in the center of her view, and began marching forward. Her quick, even steps sounded like music to her ears as she vanished into the tree line.

Back at Hope, things were happening. The pink gas began to seep from the engines in long searching tendrils. One tentacle found an old rifle somepony had lost, and began pulling it back to the rocketship, all the while stripping what wasn't metal from it and reshaping what was. Inside as well, whatever wasn't stationary was swiftly gathered up and reshaped. The holes in the hull were slowly beginning to seal up as though it were a living creature. And, slowly, one by one, the screens on the dashboard began to light up, humming in choir.

Comments

[ponyatthedisco]

This story needs more love.... I wonder how you make stories popular?

[Weavers of Dreams]

6047830 The question of the Ages

[Zake]

that gas is not the same as the canterlot one

[Snowkitsune]

Hammers that like button...