Fallout Equestria: Across The Stars

Chapter 1: Lost in more ways then one...

Their mission was supposed to be simple, rescue Aayla Secura and any other survivors from her ship from a Seperatist attack. Captain Rex cursed under his breath, why couldn't things ever be simple? To be fair... Life serving as a squad Captain under the famous Anakin Skywalker in the seemingly endless war couldn't possibly make for an easy ride...or a sensical one.

Countless missions with his comrades and commanding officers Skywalker and Admiral Yularen, each one more dangerous then the last; but these rescue missions always had very slight margins of error... there was so much that could go wrong.

Fire and shrapnel exploded all around them while an endless barrage of blaster bolts rushed at them from both directions like a crimson downpour of slaughter. Only the occasional flash of bright blue cut through it like bolts of lightning. He though back to his training on Kamino, when he'd thought up a sort of game he would play that would help him as he trained. The game was simple, yet very complicated; Act as though every drop of rain was a blaster shot aimed at you, fired to kill. He smiled under his helmet. Little did he realize how far that little game would help him reach in this war...

They charged to catch up to General Skywalker, who had gone ahead to secure them a foothold on General Aayla's ship which had been overrun by droids, Each one firing at him and his squad. The kid, Ashoka, was the only one who could deflect them, as good as she was for her age, it was still only her; He and his brothers had to pray for a break in this carnage or some cover before they had to reload.

There he was. Slicing down super droids, or as he and his brothers had taken to calling them, "Heavy Clankers", with the grace and fluidity of a Twilek dancer. He pulled one of them into his waiting lightsaber before using that same invisible power to launch it forward, making it plow into an entire platoon's worth of the flimsy B1 Clankers. and a couple of the heavier ones.

That's when Rex saw the blue of another lightsaber. they'd found Aayla and her second in command, Commander Bly. "...Nice entrance, Skywalker!" she called over the chaos as all three jedi now twirled and snapped their lightsabers in every which way to deflect the blaster shots from the droids before them. Still they continued to run, shoot, dive for cover, and run to catch up with their jedi commanders. "...I hope you have a plan to get us out of here!"

Anakin deflected shots in between his words. "Well... we have... a ship... docking in the...lower hanger...as we speak!" the corridor shook all around them, presumably the ship continued to take more and more damage... the fact that they were breaching atmo and were starting to burn up outside certainly wasn't helping...

The ship quaked even harder as the rounded a corner to see a single battle droid standing there. seemingly grasping the futility of its situation as it reluctantly raised its blaster. <Uuhhh... hold it...?>

Anakin raised his own weapon and was about to take a step forward to slice the droid in half when the the blast doors opened and- "...Sith's blood..." he cursed.

The droid was quick to revel in its reinforcements. <Oh! Haha!>. yet began another crimson downpour of blaster fire...

They had to retreat. there was no getting around it... so the group backtracked a small ways before going down a slightly less... exploded hallway... on and on they went... finally they'd made it to the lower Hanger where the ship that would take them back to the Resolute was waiting... "We made it!" Ashoka cheered. Finally...

Rex was about to breath a sigh of relief when Skywalker cut in... "It's too late!" he shouted before he pushed all of their group through the door

"Master!" Ashoka called out in terror. as he turned his back to them to face an oncoming wall of flame...

The next thing he knew, The kid was melting a hole through the blast door and pulling an unconscious General Skywalker through. To say he was in rough shape was a pretty obvious understatement... there were burns and cuts on his face and doubtless more under his clothes...

"Yes Sir!" he shot back as he picked up the injured Jedi and carefully carried him down the corridor while Bly and Secura hurried down another.

The ship approached the Resolute when they were hailed by Admiral Yularen. Aayla opened the transmission. <General Secura, you will not be able to dock in the middle of this battle!>

"We have no choice, Admiral! General Skywalker's condition may be critical. We must get him aboard the Resolute"

They were about to dock when a sudden explosion wracked the bridge. The clone who piloted the ship next to Commander Bly slumped forward onto the sparking remains of the console before him.

Ashoka stared in terror at the console as it flashed and sparked. "The hyperdrive!" she cried. "...we're going to jump!"

"...No no nononononono..." Bly repeated in near panic as he frantically tried to disable the drive core.

"I'm trying!" he shot back as he continued furiously at the severely damaged console... "Grrrr... I can't!" he slammed a fist down on to the console. "...Nothing's going to stop it!"

"Our hyper drive is damaged, admiral..." the jedi declared urgently. "...We're jumping into hyperspace; detach, detach!!"

As they frantically worked to bring their battered ship away from the Resolute, they could hear the voice of the admiral shout. <Take evasive action!>

Not seconds after coming away from the flagship, did their transport make the jump. The stars became long streaks of white across their view port and were replaced by waves of white and blue rushing by them as they entered hyperspace.

.........................thousands of parsecs away, on an uncharted world............................
.........................Stable 55.........................

A young unicorn pony stared forward, she looked over her shoulder to see several armed ponies glaring at her. In between them was the Overmare of the Stable. "...do you have anything to say...?" she asked.

The young unicorn in question, named Goldenshine, stood before the massive sealed door that protected the ponies of Stable fifty five from the irradiated wasteland of Equestria that would kill them in mere hours from the constant exposure... or so they were all told... Goldenshine looked down at her bare left hoof. Her pipbuck was confiscated as ponies accused of treason against the stable, or any severe crime, were...well... banished to the surface... and their pip-bucks taken, it wasn't like they could just make more... She looked back at the Overmare. "...I didn't do it..." she said softly.

The Overmare gave her a disdainful sneer. "Stubborn to the last..." she hissed. "...You killed a pony in cold blood so you could claim his position!" she bellowed. "You had to see this coming..."

"I did not!" Goldneshine cried desperately. "...Why doesn't anypony believe me?" she looked out into the gathered crowd behind the security line. many of the face watching were ponies she knew... many were sad...no. not sad... it was that 'I'm so very disappointed in you...' look, while others were every bit as hateful as the overmare. "...why...?" she was in tears again...

Her "crime" was apparently that she had killed another pony who had been promoted to a high level technician were she was passed over... She didn't even care about the position!

her special talent was Magic, not maintenance! And Star Specs was her friend, no less. Everypony was always quick to agree with the overmare, though... and they all hopped on the band wagon. "Open the door!" the overmare barked. the guard was quick to comply. The multi century old machinery rumbled loudly as the massive sealed door began to open. "

Mechanical arms lowered from the sealing and bolted themselves into the door, all the while creaking from age and wear; rust flaking and falling to the floor around Goldenshine's hooves as the massive system cycled through the process. The overmare and all the other stable ponies watched in a cold silence until the she stared at the opening that led to what looked like a mine shaft.

"Goldenshine!" the overmare called. drawing her attention as well as everypony else's. "For the crime of murder and treason, and by my right and authority, I hereby exile you from Stable Fifty-Five!" The overmare's features hardened further. "Leave immediately, or you will be fired upon."

She stared forward once more; again, she was unable to take another step. She shook in fear, in sadness...in hate... tears welled in her eyes. Wiping her eyes with a hoof, she took a shaky step forward.

<BLAM!!!> a sot from one of the guards seemed to be what she needed as the sparks from the ricochet sent her galloping in a full out sprint into the unknown cave.

Goldenshine sobbed aloud as she ran through the dirt and rubble. her hooves crunching the brittle dirt and what appeared to be bits of concrete... How could this happen? why? she knew she didn't have anything to do with her friend's death, but...nopony else believed her; her family... nope... her friends? they all just cast her to the flames... or, in this case, the cold dark of this cave... her chest heaved and her body ached from the exertion of her getaway sprint.

She dropped back on her haunches and looked down at her cutie mark. A swirling cloud looking symbol that resembled what text books would portray the galaxy. splashes of blue and green decorated with tiny white specks that twinkled like stars, all swirling out counter clockwise... Not many ponies understood her destiny, in truth, she didn't either.

She was always a bit of a black sheep in Stable. When she was a young filly, she started having these strange visions of things that hadn't happened yet. Usually they would come to her in the form of dreams they were usually hazy and unclear; she wasn't sure what it was she was supposed to see half the time... eventually, it became known that she possessed some form of low level clairvoyance, but no pony could really figure out how it worked.

As she got older, she began having these dreams while she was still awake. apparently she would completely freeze up when they happened. Star specs had told her once that she'd frozen in place and was staring as though entranced... apparently her eyes started glowing too... but the vision she'd received that time was a premonition of the power reactor beginning to overheat which would have lead to serious trouble, possibly a mass evacuation had she not warned engineering about it.

perhaps she could sense a way out of this cave? She had to keep moving forward. They would all kill her if she returned. or they would just seal the door back up and leave her to rot... she wiped her eyes with a hoof and took a deep breath to calm herself and closed her eyes. She began to focus her magic in her horn and she felt her senses extend beyond her body. Slowly but surely she was aware of so much more... The vast network of chambers and corridors surrounding the main atrium of The stable at her back, the forking tunnels before her... one of which, she wasn't sure how, but she had a feeling that if she followed her instincts, they wold lead her to the surface. Suddenly, there it was; the image of the entrance of the cave rippled across her mind.

A small smile tugged at her lips. "Well...I have my heading now, at least." with a last sorrowful glance over her shoulder, and a sigh, she stood back up and pressed on for the surface...

.................................Republic ship................................

Ashoka Tano stood over her injured master, her mind racing with worry. Aayla walked in urgently. "Ashoka, I need you on the bridge with Commander Bly, right now!" the seasoned jedi ordered.

Ashoka didn't even look at the older woman. "Commander Bly doesn't need my help; Anakin does!"

Aayla could understand what the young padawan was going through. She had gone through something very similar with her own master years ago, before this terrible war had begun. "You can help him by getting the ship to safety." She said, her tone less harsh then before, but still serious. "For now, we must trust in the medical droid to keep him stable."

She didn't have time to say anything else to ease the girl's mind as the doors to the med bay opened and Commander Bly himself walked in his yellow marked helmet tucked under his arm. "General Secura, we have a problem." he said gravely.

Aayla could sense Bly's worry, and she knew the padawan could as well, as he did little to conceal it. "What's wrong, Commander?" she asked.

He sighed. "In our haste to escape, the navicomputer's coordinates were inputted incorrectly, and well..." he turned on a terminal showing their course. "...We're headed straight for a star!"

Aayla's eyes went wide. "...No...!" the two Jedi rushed out of the med bay toward the bridge. They ran passed Captain Rex, who was trying to fix a sparking conduit on their way, who saw them running and dashed to catch up.

Ashoka jumped into the Co pilot seat next to Bly and began pressing buttons and flipping switches all over the dashboard. Bly himself punched the panel in frustration. "It's no good, the navigation system is completely FRIED!" he growled.

Aayla turned to Rex. "Shut down all power circuits. that will reset the coordinates!"

The blue marked clone nodded and set to the power junctions to do just that. Ashoka however spun in her seat to face the commanding jedi. "...But that will shut off Anakin's life support!" she protested.

Aayla shot the padawan a stern look. "I don't like it either, but it's a risk we're going to have to take or we're all dead!"

Ashoka didn't like it, but she knew that Master Secura was right... "...Shutting off primary power units..."

Bly watched the trajectory feed anxiously. "...come on...we're cutting it too close..."

Rex nodded and pulled the lever down, and suddenly they were all very much aware of how fast they were going without the inertia dampeners to stabalize the ship as Rex was flung off his feet, pressed against the back wall. Aayla was hanging on for dear life from the pilot's chair behind Bly, who was pressed against his chair by the g-forces same as Ashoka next to him.

Their ship dropped out of hyperspace and sure enough, there was a star directly in their path. "We're out of hyperspace! get the power back on!"

The twilek jedi's grip failed her as she flew back, crashing into Rex and leaving them both reeling. while they shook off their impromptu crash, they heard Bly over the roar of the ship. "What are you waiting for? Hurry and get the power back on!" he barked from his seat.

Aayla shook her head and reached her hand out toward the lever on the power junction. reaching out with the force. "...I have it..." she said, however it was inaudible over the noise. with a loud 'ker-chunk!' the lever was flipped and power systems began humming back to life; the first of which was the inertia dampeners in the ship, evident as she and Rex fell to the floor. then power to the controls.

Ashoka and Bly began redirecting the crumbling ship away from the rapidly nearing star as their crippled ship thundered towards it. "...come on..." Bly whispered. Little by little, the clone and the young jedi managed to steer the ship away from the star and they passed it as the ship slowly became more and more stable. despite this, however, this effort brought a new problem in their path.

A planet with large patches of cloud cover loomed before them now. "Well, we aren't going to crash into a star, but we'll definitely hit that planet!" Ashoka said.

Their ship erupted into a blazing mass of flaming metal as they entered the atmosphere of the unkown world "Brace for impact!" Bly called. they had no way of knowing what kind of terrain to expect down there, but to fall from orbit? This had quickly turned into the worst mission in his entire career...

Goldenshine had wandered around the tunnels fro what felt like an eternity, stopping to take a break every now and then, gathering miscellaneous items along the the way that looked like they might be useful.

She'd come across an old tool box and picked up a couple screw drivers, a hammer and a roll of duct tape. All in all a good find.

Next was a mining pickaxe, though she highly doubted that mining was what she'd use it for. she had a feeling that there was something in these tunnels with her; there was a plethora of desiccated pony skeletons scattered throughout, some of the old, but most of them seemed more...recent. The pickaxe levitated in front of her as she turned a corner and discovered something that made her stomach lurch and her face blanch.

Before her was a group of...creatures that resembled ponies, but their bodies were... putrefying... looking like they'd been rotting in a swamp for a few months... there was no way that they should be moving at all, but there they were, six of them, swarming and mauling at the carcass of what looked like a two headed cow... tearing it apart with their jagged, chipped teeth...their grotesque faces and bodies covered in the blood of their kill...

Her heart started beating faster and faster the longer she watched the stench of gore and decay was enticing her lunch to pay her a visit when one of them seemed to finally notice her as it stood up more fully and stared at her for a moment before uttering a guttural roar.

"Kyaaaaaahhhhhh" Goldenshine shrieked at the top of her lungs in response, making the other five snap to attention and look at her. her body entered panic mode as the first one charged at her. the form of a decaying stallion twice her size barreling toward her with the fury of a biblical prophecy whilest the others just seemed to expect him to succeed as they seemed to take a more leisurely pace as they advanced.

The putrid stallion's attack was cut short as she swung the pickaxe at his head, connecting with his bottom jaw, eviscerating the bottom half of his already desiccated face. his momentum kept him going as her attack knocked him off course, her pickaxe ripping off what remained of his bottom jaw as he charged passed, crashing into the wall of the cave. Upon seeing this, Goldenshine dropped the pickaxe in disgust, having it clatter loudly to the ground as another one of them charged at her.

Using her telekinesis, she jerked the zombie pony's front right hoof backward in mid stride, making it faceplant. "I can't believe that worked..." she panted. but growling behind her alerted her that the big one was back on his hooves. she looked over and true enough, he was. His glaring eyes murky and bloodshot as he slowly turned toward her once again. his growling sounding more like gurgling as putrid black ichor oozed out of the gaping hole in his face...

Picking the pickaxe back up she readied for the next attacker to strike, the lumbering beast took another lunge at her and she swung once more, this time, embedding the weapon deep into its skull. the shambling creature attempted to shake free, but it slowly began to sway back and forth. the She tried to pull it back out, but found it was stuck, and he took the pickaxe with him when he dropped lifelessly to the ground. She was defenseless now.

her horn emanated a golden glow as she focused her energy into it. it began building in power as the it began swirling around her horn with growing intensity. Time seemed to slow for her as the remaining three creatures, and the one she tripped all attacked. She released the energy and it exploded out in a powerful blast wave, sending her attackers flying back. Goldenshine dropped to her knees, panting heavily.

'Overclocking' herself as she liked to refer to it, always left her feeling almost completely drained. her skull throbbed painfully as she struggled to get back up, the monstrous ponies around her also slowly getting back to their hooves. She had to get out, NOW! "...gotta get away!..." she whimpered as she pushed herself to run. All the while her body screamed in agonizing protest. her legs burned from the exertion as she pushed up out of the cave.

In her retreat, she came up on a metal box that looked like an ammo box, but opted to keep running... and running... still they followed, ever just behind her.

her lungs burned. her head throbbed. her legs ached. She ran and ran until she just couldn't run anymore... stars and shadow fogged her eyes as a new shape seemed to appear before her in the form of what seemed like a pony in a tattered cloak, reflective goggles and some kind of leather mask readied some kind of rifle. she collapsed and remained conscious long enough to hear the first shot...

little by little it became clearer. A big flaming...thing... punching through the darkness before fading away... a big explosion...

...that hooded pony from before... she's talking... "...No target ever escapes my scope for long..." she says calmly, looking over her shoulder...

another shape... a pony...the same one? ...no... this one is different... an armored trench coat... goggles like the other... but Glowing red... this one's a soldier... a deep, rumbling voice speaking through mechanical filters... "...I have known the terror of war... after the bombs fell... i had to find a new purpose..." ...A green glow envelopes his horn as he turns to look directly at her... "...Wake up...!"

Fallout Equestria: Across The Stars

by The Corrupted Champion

Lost in more ways then one