//------------------------------// // I: Leaving // Story: To the Stars, and Beyond // by The Record Shatter //------------------------------// Chapter One This was it. He was finally leaving his homeworld LHS 3447. After working odd jobs for the past five years, Record had finally saved up enough bits to get a shuttle ride to the nearest starport, Dalton Gateway and then buy a small ship. As the shuttles had no frame shift drive allowing faster than light travel, the ride from the planet to the starport took a few hours. He decided that some rest would be nice before his departure from the system and he noticed as we left the atmosphere by extension, the only home he’d ever known. But sleep could not be found, due to a distant explosion rocking the shuttle. It only took a small look outside the window to realize that somepony was attacking the station that he was to be arriving at! It looked to be a Core Dynamics Eagle MK.II,  covered in pirate markings, a truly horrifying sight for him and the other passengers in the unarmed, and unarmoured transport shuttle. But only a moment after the initial explosion did the station’s defenses in front of the entrance (what is more commonly referred to as the mailslot) open up, destroying the attacker in mere seconds. Record had frozen in place in his seat, realizing that he was not even a day into space and had already seen death and destruction. “So much for the welcoming party, eh?” The pony in the seat next to him said, bringing him out of his frozen state. He turned his head to the side to see a light purple bat pony mare, clad in old and worn brown bomber jacket that was covered in various military patches. And a faded, almost white, yellow scarf was wrapped around her neck. She had dark blue mane with a faint purple stripe and she was looking out the window at the cleanup that was just starting to take place. “Makes me wonder what their goal was.” Record replied. She looked at him with a sad expression, “Pirates will do just about anything to gain a few bits, even if it may be certain death, like what that just was. The name’s Lunar Sky, You?” she asks holding out a hoof to him. “Record Shatter, or just Record.” He replied, accepting her hoofshake. “Huh, that name reminds me of that one DJ from Equiis, a long time ago, what was her name?” she asks looking away and shutting her eyes in concentration. “Vinyl Scratch?” he offered. “Yeah! That’s the one!” “I think that’s what my folks were going for, or at least what they told me.” he said rubbing the back of his neck with a hoof in embarrassment. They made small talk for the rest of the two hours that it took to clean up the wreckage and soon parted ways after they got into the station. Record soon made his way over to the shipyard. Going into the dealership where he was greeted by a salesman. “So,” said the overly eccentric salespony unicorn after a brief introduction, “What kind of ship are you looking for? I actually have a gre-” “What will this get me?” Record interrupted, throwing a sizeable sack of bits on the table. “I think,” he said, taking and weighing the stack of bits on a scale, “I have just the thing for you, my friend. Follow me if you will, Mister…” “Record... Just, Record.” He was led over to a smaller ship, which he recognized immediately. It was an Eagle Mk.II, just like the one that had gotten decimated outside the station. He immediately locked up, as memories of the day’s earlier events went through his mind. The small fighter was a dark green, with many scratches covering its hull, revealing some glimmering white and chrome paint. “What do you think sir? Uhh, sir are you okay?” He finally poked Record in the shoulder lightly, making him come to. “I’ll take it.” he said after briefly shaking his head. “Only the best value for you, of course! We'll even throw in a free nameplate for you. Now go ahead and take look around, I need to go and finalize the purchase in the office.” Record walked up the small staircase that also served as a forward landing gear, and pressed a button on the side of the door, opening it. He walked inside and made his way to the cockpit, setting his things down on the floor haphazardly. He opened his bag and taped down a small picture to the top of the dashboard. Looking out the window, Record realized the real scale of the ship he had just bought. He had flown all of the small trainer ships in order to get his Commander’s License, but this was a lot bigger, even though it was on the smaller scale of ships. Oddly enough there was a small rear-view mirror in which he saw himself. A light gray unicorn, with a messy black mane with thin neon green highlights in it and a unkempt tail to match. Finally he looked back to his cutie mark, a vinyl record from the days of old, with a green stripe surrounding the hole in the middle. He turned around at the sound of knocking behind him, he looked over his shoulder and saw the salespony holding a box with his magic. “Here we are, one flight suit and helmet, one blaster pistol, cartridges not included, and a box of tools for internal ship repair.” He said dropping the box down with a resounding thud. “Now, what would you like to name your ship? He said with a smile. Record looked at the floor, trying to think of something. “Huh, I never really thought what I would call my own ship.” He came and sat down in a passenger’s seat, chuckling softly and shaking his head. “You won’t believe how often that happens, kid. I wouldn’t really recommend naming your first ship anyway, if you are planning to get rid of it and move on eventually. Is that what you’re gonna do?” He seemed slightly deflated as he said this, but Record could not figure out why. “Yeah, that was my plan, actually.” Record said looking back out the window, not that there was to much to see, it was a small hanger underneath the main flight area. “Listen here kid, I got a proposition for you, if you’re interested that is.” “I’m listening.” He immediately seemed to get more nervous, “W-well, you see, the market for selling ships is kinda, less than nominal right now…” Record merely raised an eyebrow at him. “So I may have doing some, less than legal... activities, and got found out just today.” “And you need me to help you?” Record deadpanned. “Exactly!” “What do I get out of it?” He threw back the sack of bits he had been given. “You can take these back for starters, now go ahead and power up the ship.” Record returned his gaze back to the console of the ship. There were many buttons and levers, way too much for any novice to ever learn in a day. He looked it over for a bit and saw a button that did not match any of the rest as it was made of gold, clearly an aftermarket addition. It had an engraving on it that read “INCENDIUM.” He harked back to his Equiish classes back home, and realized that it was the old language, of the time before Princess Luna’s banishment. He pressed it and instantly, the cabin was lit by the light of a dozen warnings and signals of flashing buttons and monitors. But, as soon as it had been alight it was dark once more, except for the console itself, which glowed orange with holograms. The one to the left was of the station we were currently in, the middle seemed to be a 3D map of sorts with blips marking other ships. And finally the one on the right was on the ship with a health indicator under it that read 100%. “Good job son, all systems are nominal it seems. Now see that lever beneath the throttle? Flip up the cover and press the button.” Record did as he said. There was a whir of sorts that filled the cabin, and he looked behind himself to see that there was a large cannon on top of the ship behind the glass of the cockpit. He looked back at the salespony and asked, “Is that a plasma accelerator?” “Indeed it is, you also have two beam lasers underneath the nose, for taking out shields, and if you get me out of here alive, it’s all yours.” Record gaped at him for a moment “You’re serious?” He nodded with a small smile before replying, “Dead serious.” “Consider it done! Now how do we get out of here?” “You probably should get your flight suit and helmet on first… I’ll wait outside.” He went back down the stairs to the hangar floor, leaving him to his thoughts for a moment. Record took a quick look in the rearview mirror again, and saw that he was very faintly blushing. “Welp,” He thought to himself, “You are now helping a wanted criminal, and you made a slight fool of yourself. Good job, go me.” The flight suit was quite snug on record, leading him to make a mental note to acquire a bigger one when he had the chance. At least the helmet was a good fit. Record went down the stairs after him. The moment the salespony saw him he started snickering into his hoof and said, “Uhh, whoops, I seem to have gotten you a small. Sorry ‘bout that.” Record grumbled at him and said “Just get in the ship.” he jumped back a bit in fright, as he spoke the helmet distorted his voice, making it deeper and filled with a small amount of static. “Lead the way, Commander.” They went back up into the cabin, still glowing with orange light. “Alright,” he pressed a button on the console, bringing up a menu that covered the window entirely. “Here is what you will spend most of your time looking at while you are docked.” “It’s, uh, confusing to say the least.” Record said taking it all in “You get used to it,” he said while getting back into his passengers seat from earlier. “It’s touch sensitive, so, see that button that says, return to surface? Go ahead and hit that.” Record obliged him, and immediately they were moving forward on the platform, above them there was a large slab of metal moving backward revealing the large open flight area of the spaceport. The platform reached the end of the hangar corridor and started moving slowly up, before stopping when it was level with the floor. “I believe you know how to do the rest, just jump to the farthest populated system you can and I will be on my way.” The salespony said, looking nostalgic about the whole experience. Record nodded at him, tuning into the traffic control on the internal helmet headset and speaking. “This is Commander Romeo, Echo, Charlie requesting permission to head out.” A voice replied, “This is Tower, Commander, you are good to go, safe travels.” Record flipped on the main engines switch, and they roared to life with such a ferocity that it ‘almost’ frightened him! He hit another button and the landing gear lock disengaged, and they were floating. “Landing gear retracted.” Said a female computer voice inside his helmet. He used the docking thrusters to get the ship perfectly in line with the mailslot before glancing back at the salespony, who mouthed, ‘Oh no.’And then, without warning, Record pushed the throttle to the max, in an instant they raced through the mailslot at a blistering speed into the vastness of space.