Teaser 2 · 6:44am May 4th, 2015
Samus, body free from the confines of her 'Unidentified Suit,' tore her eyes away from the eternal, perpetual void of space and focused on the computer in front of her.
"Adam?" she beckoned gently, the blank console screen of her ship flickering to life and displaying the omnipresent 'eye' that she had become so used to on BSL Station.
"Samus," it--no, he--answered in monotone. With each passing day she could almost hear the resemblance.
"How long have we been cruising?"
"Exactly six days, fifteen hours, twenty-eight minutes, and five seconds."
Samus did not respond immediately, sparing a glance behind her towards the three etecoons and two dachoras peacefully sleeping once more. The sight elicited a gentle smirk from the Hunter, still pleasantly surprised that the five creatures managed to not only help her again, but escape BSL Station without infection from the X. Likewise, she was certainly glad that this ship was stocked with supplies, but with no hyperdrive, it would be a long journey to anywhere... and there was truly only one place that Samus could call friendly with any certainty.
"Any idea how long until we reach our destination?" Samus asked, returning her gaze back to Adam.
"With thrusters at maximum power and no obstacles, I'm predicting approximately no less than two weeks until arrival at Planet VK109H... but likely much more than that."
Samus shook her head as she exhaled, cursing silently. After everything had been said and done, all of her adventures after her stay on Equis had taken its toll: Phaaze, SR388, Zebes, The Bottle Ship, and now the X and BSL Station... combined, she had been away for two and a half years with no way to contact anyone (she tried), and perfectly timed interruptions dispelling any ideas of planned visits (she also tried).
They're all probably pissed at me... god I'm gonna get it the moment I touch down.
Samus looked down and tangled the little trinket in her fingers, the one she was given by her friends when she left, the finish having worn down over the past couple of years. Nevertheless, it never failed to bring a smile to her face, reminding her that even though she had jobs to do, lives to save, and enemies to kill, she, as an often cold, calculating warrior, still had friends who missed and cared for her deeply... something Samus did not anticipate missing as much as she most certainly did. In summary, waiting for her, she had great company, a warm bed, and freshly cooked food.
Home.
Samus' reminiscing was cut short when Adam lit up the ship's console in a 'warning' manner.
"Unidentified fleet of warships ahead. Analyzing..."
"Shit... what're we in for?" Samus asked, silently hoping that if they stumbled upon a Federation fleet, that they either did not know what transpired, did not care, or were not in the loop altogether. Steeling her gaze through the cockpit window, the fleet of about twenty ships, an expeditionary force by its size, slowly started to become larger and larger in visible area. The formation appeared to be heading in a perpendicular direction to her vector, but more interestingly, there was one ship whose class she had never laid eyes on before. Samus decreased thruster-speed as they approached quickly.
"Identity confirmed: Galactic Federation Fourteenth Fleet, designate Fleet of Lunar Solace," Adam stated. "They appear to be friendly as of now."
"As of now," Samus parroted with extra emphasis on that clause. Her ship's motion trackers immediately picked up two objects moving towards them at high speed: Stiletto Fighters. The pair quickly made themselves known, stopping right in front of her ship. Almost immediately, the ship's comms began transmitting:
"Unidentified Federation craft: you are approaching a Galactic Federation Military Formation. Transmit your identification key immediately."
"Well Adam," Samus began saying as she keyed in the appropriate characters on her computer's command prompt. "How do you think this will turn out?"
"As non-ideal as this may be, we will have to just see what happens. Transmitting identification key now."
Once the key was sent off, there was a seemingly eternal radio-silence as the fighters relayed and processed the information sent to them. The tension could be physically grasped, especially since this process was taking much longer than Samus had ever experienced before, indicating that something was most likely going wrong.
"ID confirmed: Samus Aran. Thank you. Please standby until you're told, we're patching you through to the Admiral of the G.F.S. Faust."
The line again went dead before Samus could even respond, but before she could even convey her pleasant surprise to Adam, he cut her off with a notification:
"Incoming Transmission. Patching it through now."
After some initial calibrating, the comm-line came alive once more.
"Do you recognize my voice, Samus?" an authoritative yet painfully familiar voice pierced the silence, almost immediately dispelling the tension in the cockpit. Samus, for her part, widened her eyes and her mouth went ever so slightly slack as she processed the tone through her ears.
"L-Luna?" Samus asked just to confirm she was not hearing things.
"Indeed, though it has been some time."
"I... haven't been able to visit. I hope you understand," the Hunter replied with unexpected, marginal emotion. She had little idea how amazing would feel to hear a friendly voice after so long. "For what it's worth though, I was on my way back."
"You know I do... and so it seems, as I have your programmed vector coordinates in front of me. Luckily for the both of us, we are headed to the same place."
Samus could not help the smirk that slowly began to etch its way onto her face, her eyes staring back at the fleet in front of her. She did not need to reply, as Luna continued:
"Come, I'm sending you a flight path as we speak; land your ship in the empty hangar lot. It's time to come home."
Nice! I like it!
And G.F.S. Faust? Lol!
Tore HER eyes.
I almost want to say that "Dachora" should be pluralized as "Dachorae," but that implies a Latin heritage.
'Designate' should be 'designated;' You can use the word 'designate,' but not quite in this manner.
Like you mentioned, a lot has happened to Samus since she was last on Equis, but with Luna being out in deep space & all, I wonder what (if any) changes have happened back there too? Has the fact that the Ponies are allies with the Federation changed the Canon significantly?
If nothing else, I hope Fluttershy is still the same, so we can see her reaction to the Etecoons & Dachoras.
the anticipation, it hurts. But will embrace the pain until the chapter comes out
Well, well, well. Seems like my favorite game series is getting more hype... I like this.
I need to read more of this.
3042874 A lot of things will have happened back on Equis but mostly due to the new dynamic of working with the Federation, such as massive economic and military growth, only to name a few. You'll also find out that Luna has only been away for about a month but that will all come in due time.
Canon-wise, probably not much, since stuff still had to get set up and what not. The ponies I feel would embrace new technology but not let it change who they were as a society, ergo, personalities would not change at all imho.
For some reason, I tried to think what this story would be like and my brain came up with this:
FFFFUUUUCCCKK!K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SSOOOOOO MUCH ANTICIPATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Ah, I do so love the satisfaction and contentment that you give me from this. I'm looking forward to it.