Relax wordcount limit 73%
They weren’t left waiting long.
It became immediately apparent to Twilight that the alien facility wasn’t assembling parts from scratch, building Node a body as they had built it computation hardware and transmission hardware. The tower held parts, and it was assembling them. She could watch the process with Applejack, as the body slowly grew up from tiny segments.
“Ain’t a pony shape,” Applejack said, from where she was investigating one of the spiders she had shot.
Twilight followed her gaze. She was right—Node would stand on two legs when it was finished, like a minotaur. The body would be strangely proportioned too. But why shouldn’t it be? We don’t make our drones to look like ponies. They chose this body because it was convenient. It would stand at twice a pony’s height, with two sets of manipulator limbs and no wings. Curiously, the machinery was also cutting apart the probe shell, and most of the other pony hardware besides. It looked like only the alien computer would be left behind when it was finished.
“It wouldn’t be,” Twilight said. “They’re aliens. Six limbs—their spiders had six limbs too. Think they might be insectoid? I mean… the real ones. Not the robots.”
“Could be,” Applejack sounded unimpressed. “Could be you’re getting a wee bit too caught up in science fiction.”
“Yeah.” Twilight sighed, and went back to what she was doing. Searching the room for useful clues about the Signalers.
Does Twilight find any new insight into the Signalers in their facility? Success
They hadn’t left very much behind, or maybe the robots had scoured anything that wasn’t functional out of the way. But as she waited, Twilight found a little side-corridor, and followed it to a tiny room. There was a ground made of sand instead of concrete, which had been precisely groomed into strange patterns.
Lights came on as she entered, illuminating her way to the single object in the room. It was a low table, with a set of empty cups on either side. Alien writing covered the front of the table—more of a cabinet, she realized. And was that—yes. There was a sound in the room, one that was obviously synthetic. Like pouring rain somewhere far away, soothing and repetitious. The lights weren’t the harsh white of the room outside either, but gentler and orange.
“Twi,” Applejack’s voice came over the radio. “Twi, it’s moving. You ought to come in here.”
“Right, sorry.” Twilight took a picture with her camera, then left the cabinet and its strange room behind. Mysteries that she would probably never solve.
By the time she made it back into the central chamber, Node was already moving. The body had no “head” segment, just a central torso with spindly limbs emerging from openings, and sensors along its length. She was relieved to see there weren’t any weapons mounted to the chassis. No swords or saws or gun-turrets. Each limb ended in a spindly manipulator more delicate than the daintiest hippogriff talon. Its whole body was made of metal covered in a dull, greenish paint.
“Reassurance! We have achieved mobility. Compensated for poor understanding… robotics. Survival chances are significantly improved!” It still spoke with Starlight Glimmer’s recorded voice, though it sounded clearer, somehow. That didn’t mean it sounded like a pony, though. The words still came haltingly, an auditory representation of a foalnapper’s newspaper cutout ransom note.
Node’s legs didn’t move like anything she’d ever seen before either, swinging from one side to another in measured, repetitive simplicity. Somepony actually built a probe that walks. If it can walk up stairs, it will be the most advanced bit of robotics anypony has ever seen.
“Alright, Node. We did what ‘ya wanted. We took ya’ all the way down here, almost got ourselves eaten by…” she kicked one of the nearby spiders over with one hoof. Not hard enough that it would’ve been damaged, but hard enough. “Whatever these are. Now you gotta do what we want. That’s what fair means.”
Node turned to watch Applejack, though there was no way to gauge its emotions. It had no face, and nothing on the screen could be used to make guesses about how it was feeling. Assuming it even feels anything.
“I want to meet with your species,” Twilight said. “We followed your signal all the way here from Equestria. Each member of my crew sacrificed eighty years to be here. We came here to meet you. Where can we do that?”
Node didn’t get a chance to answer, because at that moment the entire right side of the room was ripped away. Applejack and Node both were forced to dive towards Twilight’s half, as huge bits of steel went white-hot from the stress.
Does Applejack make the jump? Success
In the opening, through the sound of tearing metal, Twilight could make out a gigantic metallic shape. It resembled a worm, or maybe a snake, with interlocking rows of serrated steel teeth. It stopped in the opening, metal grinding as the entire right side of the room was processed into chunks.
“New instructions!” Node called, running past her. “Back to the surface! Starship is waiting, go!”
Not even Applejack argued this time. Twilight didn’t even stop to grab the cart with their camping supplies—she just ran.
Behind them, the gigantic creature still seemed to be devouring the room behind them. Twilight wept inwardly at so much functional hardware being destroyed. Everything it could’ve taught them about the Signalers was being erased, one bite at a time.
Now that they weren’t stopping to search, the trip up took far less time. After an hour or so of running the worm-thing had faded from a constant roaring to a distant rumbling below them, like an Earthquake that never quite stopped. Then they ran out of door, and Node shoved the door open, and the pale blue sky opened up above them.
Then her radio went off. “Hourly wellness check,” said Fluttershy, her voice distant and fearful. “Is anypony there?”
“Yeah,” Twilight felt exhausted, but she knew she couldn’t stop running yet. “We’re here. Prepare for takeoff, Fluttershy. We’re on the surface, and we need to prepare for an immediate launch.”
“Uh…” Applejack nudged her from one side, pointing down at her suit.
Twilight hadn’t noticed during their flight up the stairs, but now—now she could see the gigantic rip running up the side of the earth pony’s suit. “Did it get into your—”
Applejack nodded. “Air supply reads as compromised, cap.”
Node hadn’t stopped running towards the ship. But now it did. Curiously, it seemed to have incorporated the modifications they made, because it was still speaking over the radio as well as with its external speaker. “We can’t stay here! Chances of a surfacing… unacceptable risk. Starship!”
“You know what you gotta do, cap,” Applejack said.
Did she?
1. Leave Applejack behind with some supplies and a good radio. If she turns out to be okay, we can always pick her up later. No reason the rest of the crew needs to be endangered. [Significant risk to Applejack]
2. Wait here long enough to do all necessary examinations on Applejack. That thing isn’t going to follow us all the way to the surface, there’s no point!
3. Fluttershy suggests setting up the last isolation shelter in the cargo bay. She can have a fresh suit waiting outside the Prospector for Applejack to change into. If our suits can keep dangerous things out, then there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to keep them in, either.
4. Don’t bother with safety precautions, bring everyone and take off right now! Fluttershy already said it was safe. Anything that will postpone our takeoff is unacceptable. Robotic monsters are dangerous, dead planets aren’t. We leave now.
(Certainty 200 required)
I vote option 4, trust in Fluttershy's analysis and RUN!
"Shew as relieved" is a typo for "She was relieved"
"She hadn’t brought" is an incomplete sentence. What hadn't she brought?!
"Then they ran out of door, and Node shoved the door open" - should that be "ran out of doors, and Node shoved the last door open"?
Big scary robot, fun.
3 seems like a good compromise.
You accidentally copy-pasted the bit about the 'longer chapters?' choice into this chapter.
Option 3. It doesn't seem safe for AJ to stay on the surface, and it seems like a good compromise to leave her in an isolation shelter until they can do a full check
Wow, worm bots that is eats rooms? I wonder why it decided now was a perfect time to consume it?
Security? But Node is most likely from this planet, right? Then again, why eat an entire room that is a part of some infrastructure it's probably there to maintain? I wonder if it's something there to be left behind by whatever attacked this planet? I guess the crew is going to have a few questions for Node.
As for what I'm going to vote for, I'm not sure. At this point, Node might be helpful with the knowledge they have probably had and gathered from that connection from that hub they were connected to. But no sense of exposing the rest of the crew to a potential risk, either.
If that worm is part of some security force, there might be more or more dangerous things now made aware that intruders are on the planet. They need to leave now. Getting Applejack in a new suit sounds like a decent idea. The bad part of having such a small crew is that you can't really sacrifice the expertise anyway.
Let's hope the ring doesn't wake up from this, though at this point it would have most likely seen the Equinox and it's lander, it would be a bad sign if this would get a reaction from it.
Going with option 3 here. As others have pointed out it's a good compromise and well... the colored choices haven't really led us astray yet.
Option 3. We need to get the fuck off of that rock right the hell now.
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There have been one or two that were obviously bad ideas.
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"get the fuck off of that rock right the hell now." is option 4, not 3
I don't want to imagine what would have happened had Applejack failed.
I'm pretty sure there's something missing from he last sentence.
Option 3 seems reasonable. A good compromise between biological safety and immediate physical safety.
Option 4 just fucking run! Better alive and maybe sick than dead
That's suspiciously dramatic timing. Just in time for Node to not have to answer the question. Not saying that I don't trust it; indeed, the worm might have been reacting to unauthorized access to a robotics facility. But still...
As for what Twilight found... an entertainment or leisure area, perhaps? Curious, but sadly eaten by this point.
In any case, that isolation chamber seems like the optimal blend of haste and caution. Yes, something nasty could happen to Applejack still, but it won't involve getting eaten.
Get everyone off the planet first. Set up containment in orbit. Monitor circulation filters for signs of contamination.
I urge people not to vote for Option 2. Node already has a funny idea of "acceptable risk", so is Node is in "do not want" territory it's a truly bad plan to stick around longer than absolutely necessary. I'm going with (3).
Node keeps using the word "starship". What they're using barely qualifies as a shuttle. It is not a starship. Node must know the location of an actual starship waiting on the planet.
...Why isn't this one of the options?
go with option 3
I like #4 but need the option of not leaving the planet yet.
There is too much technology to just leave it behind. Too much Stuff and information to gather.
who knows ... It may even be possible to use the alien tech/materials to build a Whole New Starship.
We need to know what happened to the alien society AND we dont even know if ponies can survive the trip back to Equestria using their own technology.
Go to the ship and Fly to the Garden. There IS something special there and we need to know what that is.
Darn. And here we were hoping upgrades to hardware would improve Node's handling of linguistics. Can't be helped until it can constitute better matrices and start synthesizing it's own voice instead of cutting up recordings...
So the planet is definitely not dead. Should have been a bit more quiet with that fabrication!
Do I want to know what would have happened in case of an Critical Failure?
Probably not.
Anyway, for today's question I trusts Fluttershy's advice.
Trust the medical expert i.e. Fluttershy. And if worst comes to worst (AJ turning into an unstoppable abomination or gestating some kinda of airborne-infection-chestburster or whatnot) you can decompress the cargo bay as a last resort.
Call me crazy, but I'm not sure that worm was part of a planetary security force. Or if it was, it's been tampered with or is wildly malfunctioning.
I'm assuming the Signallers are similar to us in that they would do their best to avoid civilian casualties. If the worm was ever was on the side of the Signallers, it was as a weapon of war, probably a bunker buster of sorts. There's no other application beyond mundane tunneling I can think of that doesn't involve gratuitous amounts of civilian casualties.
If it was part of the Signallers, and was after the intruders, why would it thoroughly destroy the entire facility with a bunker buster but completely ignore the intruders themselves? There are far more efficient ways to search for and destroy intruders without blowing up the entire facility every time one shows up.
My guess is that this was sent by an enemy of the Signallers, and it wasn't after the intruders, it only cared about a sudden resurgence of Signaller activity. It's entirely possible the worm doesn't have auditory or visual sensors, and thus doesn't know there were intruders at all.
Anyways, option 3 seems like the best option to me. I'm inclined to take Node at their word about the giant robot space worm we know nothing about, and the preparations on Fluttershy's end wouldn't delay the launch like a full physical examination would. Just in case, better safe than sorry, right?
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Option 4 on FimFic seems to be Option 2 on StrawPoll. Options 3 and 4 seem to have been shifted down by one. I considered pinging everyone, but decided to only ping those who seemed confused about the numbering.
Given what we know from Fluttershy's initial (but incomplete) analysis of the atmosphere, AJ is not at risk. I predict the possibility of AJ being exposed to unknown, deadly contagions to be less than 10%. Acceptable odds for the "immediately GTFO" option. But Fluttershy's idea would take minimal time and lower the odds of contaminating the rest of the crew to 0%.
And 0% is better than 10%. Why not stack the odds in our favor? The worm doesn't seem fast enough for this to make a difference.
Finally caught up with the poll. Don't know if my vote will count but I say option 2: see if AJ is alright, then leave.
Well, that’s wormsign the likes of which even Celestia has never seen.
I say we not ignore Flutterbutter’s expertise again.
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The entertainment area might be one of those Japanese sand gardens (Google tells me these are more correctly called Japanese rocket gardens), based on the description of raked sand and an attempt at recreating a natural environment.
Anyway, voted for the Fluttershy option.
I think option three seems like the best compromise, meeting the aliens only to find you they are a flesh eating virus is probably not a good idea, and if AJ survives unharmed it will probably be an accidental way of finding out rather quickly that the planet is safe.
Good job, RNG! This was an extremely good time to not fail.
Yeah, I'm with the GTFO crowd. But let's have Fluttershy set up a containment facility while the away team is galloping back to the ship. Nothing we've seen has suggested that the atmosphere was unsafe — but then again, nothing we've seen has suggested that the planet was inhabited by GIANT DEATH WORMS.
You've got a space in the wrong place at the start there.
Who the hay voted to leave AJ behind?
Applejack, do you have a death wish?
Option 3
Stop getting into situations that might kill you Applejack. I meant it when I said I'm not choosing to kill my crew, and that also applies to leaving my crew behind.