My brain rapidly switched gears, clearly whoever had us surrounded had access to modern weapons. I would recognize that sound anywhere, A ballistic rifle, this narrowed down the list significantly considering our location.
In fact, the more I thought about it the more it started to make sense. We're barely 5 minutes away from the escape pod I came down in. Our supposed assailants have been extremely quiet, they also haven't opened fire yet, or tried to communicate in any way. Which means they either want something, or they are trying to keep us here.
Or possibly away from a certain pod near by.
If it wasn't for the mistake of one of their group, we wouldn't have even known they were there. Who knows for how long they have been tracking us? Its also no coincidence that they are this close to the pod, the chances of this being an expeditionary team from the ship, or perhaps whats left of it god forbid, Just rose significantly.
A little bit of hope returned to me, along with an absolutely terrible idea
I went into a more relaxed stance. I attempted to fold my wings back, but of course they were refusing to communicate with me. Luna looked at me in concern, no doubt wondering just what in the hell I was doing.
To be honest I'm not sure even I could answer that, but it didn't stop me.
"My name is Captain Clarissa Ryker of the UEE Endurance, whoever is out there please do not shoot. I am unarmed, and request to speak with whoever is charge of your team." The silence that followed was deafening, from both my group, and whoever was hiding in the trees around us. This was a huge gamble, throwing myself out like this could have huge consequences, especially if it isn't my crew in those trees.
The tension in the air could be cut with a butter knife. The seconds passing like minutes as we waited for a response, until finally... "Lock," Spoke a voice to my right.
A countersign, This particular countersign however is old, and carries with it a strong history back to my grunt days, only one other person besides myself knows it. The only other surviving member of my first squad assignment. I couldn't help but smile as I turned to the source of the voice to give my response.
"Gold...its good to hear your voice Sergeant" I replied.
All around us the movement resumed, but less cautious as figures started to emerge from the trees, Human figures. One of the group stepped into the small amount of light filtering in through the trees just in front of me. His dark green medium weight armor glistening slightly, and a very familiar UEE insignia on his shoulders.
"Captain...Is that really you?" he asked. The grip on his rifle never faltering, nor would I expect it to.
"Yes, its really me. Authentication code: one, seven, kilo, charlie, one, one, three,"
Matthew for his part, didn't react at first. We stood there silently for a long moment, the rest of my group looking on in complete confusion. Save for Luna, who had some idea of what was happening at the very least. At last Matthew slung his rifle to his back and pushed a button on his wrist panel, his visor retracting.
Mathew Strong, one of my oldest friends, was tall even by human standards at around 6,8". He had a square jaw with a 5 o'clock shave and piercing green eyes. His face was marred with scars from battle injuries, including a particularly prominent one on his left cheek.
"We thought you were dead...I should have expected that this had happened when we found your escape pod empty...with no body to recover" He said solemnly.
"Wait...you expected this?..." I asked in surprise.
Matthew made as if to respond before a very confused and agitated looking Alicorn burst forth from our little circle.
"WILL SOMEPONY PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT THE BUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!?!"
Sighing, I looked towards our group. Smiling apologetically at Twilight.
"This is going to take a while to explain."
Some minutes later myself, Mathew and the others, plus 12 UEE soldiers, were situated in a loose circle in the clearing where the pod had crashed. The pod was sitting nearby, still half buried in the dirt. The charred remains of fallen trees and scorch marks still visible from the impact. Some royal guards had been stationed nearby keeping watch, however Luna had ran ahead and told them to return to Canterlot before the squad of heavily armed human soldiers showed up.
The pod was hardly the center of attention however.
The actual center of attention was Twilight, who had one unfortunate soldier practically under a microscope as the princess inspected every corner of his body. The soldier to his credit, was doing a remarkable job at not looking too annoyed with his current situation. Not that I could have blamed him.
"What is this armor? It's not made out of any material I have ever seen, and the figure! Why do you all walk on two legs? Are you only capable of bipedal movement? Oh! What about this strange staff you carry? Is it some sort of magical apparatus? A weapon of some sort? How ab-"
"Twilight please, enough. Your going to scare him, along with giving me a migraine at the rate your going at..." Interrupted Luna, who had a hoof to her temple in agitation.
"Honestly Luna, if someone like Twilight scared him then I would doubt hes actually UEE." I said, snickering behind a hoof.
"Hey! What is that supposed to mean?" Twilight replied indignantly.
"What I'm saying Twilight is that we've seen much MUCH worse..." I replied solemnly.
"We?...." asked Twilight, a suspicious look in her eye.
I looked quickly to Luna, hoping for an out of this situation. This was supposed to be kept secret after all.
"its fairly obvious at this point Clare," said Luna, she wore an unreadable expression on her face, and her tone was so neutral it was almost jarring. Which was completely unlike the Luna I had come to know recently. What could possibly be going through her head to put her in this kind of mood? The train of thought was disrupted with Twilight's next reasonably obvious question.
"Wait i'm sorry, Clare?" Asked Twilight.
And so it begins...
The next half hour was spent explaining everything that had happened to me up until this point. The crash, my transformation, along with a majority of the questions Twilight asked. Most of them were simple things, such as where I was from, what the name of my race was, etc.
Mathew also filled me in on as much as he could on the condition of the ship, which, could be in better shape. After the incident with the anomaly occurred the crew found them selves stuck in decaying low orbit above the planet. With no engines to correct them they had helplessly free fell through the atmosphere. If it wasn't for the quick thinking of the helmsman and some crazy sketchy repairs from engineering the ship would have more thank likely been torn apart on re-entry.
The most difficult question asked though, wasn't from Twilight.
"Are you our enemy?" Asked Artemis from her spot against a mostly intact tree. Her expression wasn't necessarily hostile, but certainly suspicious. The whole group turned their undivided attention to me at the question, no doubt curious of the answer.
It was a surprisingly hard question to answer. Thus far, as much as I hated to admit it, the UEE, the human race as a whole, was a mixed bag. While their first contact, the Banu, had been peaceful and had forged their first alliance. It had only led to what could only be described as disaster afterwards. Cold war with the Xi'an, the forced annexation and "Civilization" of the Tevarins, the Rise of a dictator, the Red System War. Not exactly a great track record, even if the last one was out of defense of our people, it still ended in mass death and destruction.
But after the war, the only way left to go was up. The UEE had gotten better, peaceful negotiations with the Xi'an, a memorial to the Tevarins who had been killed in the annexation. We had a long way to go, but I had to hope that we could make up for all the wrongs of humanity. We had a long way to go for sure, but perhaps...This is where we started. it was going to be easier said than done, but I had to try right?
I looked at Artemis with the most honest expression I could manage, "I hope not." Artemis raised an eyebrow at this, Luna looked up at me with a distraught look. I quickly tried to explain, "Its not that I think of any of you as enemies, in fact, I'm happy to be able to call some of you my friends." I said looking to Luna, who's expression morphed into an almost teary smile.
"I sense a "but" coming here," chimed in Night Scepter.
Nodding I continued, "I may not consider you the enemy...but i'm only one per-err pony, and as...popular, as I am as a war hero publicly. I don't represent the UEE, I'm not the imperious, or the Prime citizen. I can't make that call. However I can say that considering you guys have been nothing but helpful and completely supportive of me, despite the fact you didn't know me or what my motives were. The chances of the Imperious declaring you as an enemy or the Prime citizen calling for hostile action are exceedingly low..." I paused and looked to Mathew who up until this point had been cleaning his rifle.
"Sergeant, take your squad and do a quick sweep of the perimeter" I commanded.
He looked at me with a raised eyebrow before nodding, "alright boys ya heard the captain, lets move." Within half a minute they were disappearing into the tree line.
Turning back to the group I continued, "I don't want them hearing the next part, morale is probably low enough as it is..." Artemis nodded in understanding, the rest of the group looking on edge for my next words.
"Everything I just said, is all under the assumption that we will even be able to go back to the Empire. Even if the Endurance can be made flight worthy again, there is no telling where we are in the galaxy, in the universe for all we know...Mathew told me on our way over here that they got our long range sensors repaired, but that they were coming up completely blank. No known planets, relays, jump points. Not even so much as a damn quantum signal. What does that mean? It means we are so far out into uncharted space that not a single ship has ever come even close to here. so at the end of the day...I don't think it will matter what the UEE will think of Equestria...Not if we can't get back home..."
At that I slowly laid all the way down and rested my head on the ground. I hadn't noticed, but a single tear rolled down my cheek. It wasn't for me however, but for my crew. I didn't really have much to go back too, no family, no friends, the Endurance is the only home i've known for years. The crew though? they are my responsibility, and I quite possibly got them trapped so far from home that none of them would ever be able to see their loved ones again. How could they ever forgive me? I couldn't have just sent in a probe could I? No, my reckless ass had to go off and look for myself, and take the entire damn crew down with me.
those thoughts were banished though as a warm something wrapped around me. You would have sworn it was a quilt blanket with how much it completely covered me. Looking up however I was surprised to see a regretful looking Luna laying down next to me, her large dark blue wing wrapped around me. She put on a small comforting smile before leaning in and nuzzling me behind the ear softly.
A strangely comforting sensation came over me as she nuzzled me, like nothing would ever bother me again.
Looking at the rest of the group, they all wore similar expressions of pity, with the exception of Artemis, who seemed to have a look of complete understanding on her face.
"Well, I may still not totally understand what's going on here," started Twilight. "But so far you've been nothing but cooperative, I'd bet if AJ were here right now she wouldn't sense a shred of dishonesty." Getting up, she started to make her way over to me continuing. "Maybe withholding some bits and pieces, but I can respect that. So I think, the least we can do is hear you out, and maybe we can find away to help the both of us" Twilight reached her hoof out, and I gladly took it with a firm shake.
At that moment a very loud deep roar reached our ears, the sound causing every pony around me to jump up at the ready.
"What in Tartarus is that?" Exclaimed Luna, her wings flaring out and robbing me of my feathery blanket. The unexpected roar was only getting louder with each passing second, and it was extremely familiar to me.
I slowly got up with a small smile on my face, "that my equine friends, is more than likely my doing."
Twilight looked incredulously, "your very clearly not making that sound Lightning-I mean Clare." she corrected.
"Honestly Twilight if its easier you can call me lightning, I kinda like it. As for that noise, you'll understand better here in about 2 seconds." Around 4 seconds later one of the most relieving things I'd seen sense being here flew a few hundred feet over our heads. Its shining, albeit damaged hull reflecting off the light from its massive dual engines in the back.
It wasn't the Endurance, but it would do just fine for now.
The group of assembled ponies looked at it in complete shock, Twilight and Luna both looked on the verge of exploding, for two similar, yet completely different reasons.
"I...." Twilight tried, but was clearly struggling to get any words out, "what....IS that?" she finally managed, her eyes wide with wonder. Something that amused me greatly, for us this was fairly normal, but for them this was something completely out of science fiction.
Luna's reaction was similar, looking up in shock and awe as the 124 meter long cruiser came fully back around in search of a landing spot. Mathew and his squad started coming out of the treeline around the same time, speaking into his wrist communicator, presumably to help the Carrack find an appropriate landing zone.
I took one last look at my pony friends, who were still mostly speechless, before running up to Mathew.
"That Carrack is never going to be able to find an LZ here, we need more open ground. Let me talk to the Princess's about a potential landing spot." Mathew nodded in agreement before speaking into his communicator again, updating the cruiser on our plans and to wave off for now.
As I walked back over to the group the cruiser fired is main engines again, picking up incredible speed and disappearing out of sight. Everypony was still looking at where the cruiser had been with open mouths and wide eyes. Still trying to process what exactly had just happened.
I put my hoof around Luna, giving her a gentle shake, "Soooooooooo, where do you think I can land a 4800 ton ship?"