Voyages of the Lightbringer: Episode 1: Artifact Hunting

by Admiral Wyatt Stone


The Star Chariot

Location: Alpha Quadrant, Mizar Sector

Year: 2409

The system was illuminated by a brilliant glare by the large sun that sat in the center of the 13 Ceti System, a single ship flying by the bright ball of fire. The ship was of Ferengi design, an orange shuttlecraft that had two small arms for wings at the front and a hull that extended outwards.

In the cockpit of the shuttle, a single Ferengi and his co-pilot were seated in their chairs, operating the control console as the latter spoke up. "Well, I must say, our customer must be daring for requesting such unique weaponry from us, Krevak."

"Indeed," Replied Krevak, looking to a nearby box that sat beside his chair before continuing. "And these babies will ring up quite the profit!"

A few days ago, Krevak was contacted by a very shady individual, one who had wanted a new set of elite weapons for his mission deep in Breen territory. While the rich Ferengi was a little hesitant to send himself on a shipping trip into dangerous space, his lust for latinum was stronger than his wits, and so he agreed. As of now, he was nearing the place that they would meet at, exchange the new weapons, and they would both be on their way.

As Krevak checked his console for a sign of their customer, he didn't see any friendly signatures on his map. He raised an eyebrow. "Strange, he's not here. Perform a deep scan, he might have landed on the planet."

"Yes sir." The co-pilot said before he did his work. As his console beeped after a minute or two, he spoke. "This is strange, indeed. I'm not detecting anything on sensors, perhaps we've been duped?"

Krevak looked a bit frustrated at his customer's actions as he spoke, trying to hold himself together. "Well, he'd better be here soon, I didn't make these guns and come out here just to fi-" The Ferengi merchant stopped as he heard his console beep, his co-pilot checking it before responding again.

"I'm detecting several fighters approaching us on an attack vector! They register as Tholian signatures!" The two looked to their window as they saw their visitors, there were three ships in formation, they were made up of three bulky sections attached to the center section, a small engine boasting off of the aft side.

"Our customers, I suspect." Krevak said as he watched the three ships fly closer to his own, tapping his console before ordering to his co-pilot, "Ready shields and weapons, destroy the squadron!"

The two tapped their consoles as the Tholian fighters split out of formation, several blue beams of tetryon energy shooting out from them and hitting the shields of the shuttle.

Krevak tapped his console as he fired several disruptor bolts at the fighter to their right, the ship's shields flickering from the impacting lasers as he spoke. "Let's see how you do against my new tractors, bugboy." As he tapped the console again, a field of energy hit the Tholian vessel, holding it in place as the co-pilot tapped his console, several blue torpedoes shooting out of the shuttle and hitting the fighter, breaking through it's shields and sending the fighter to oblivion.

As the shuttle started to turn to it's left, the second Widow fighter flew in front of the shuttlecraft, firing a trio of energy-based torpedoes at it's forward side. The ship shook as the shields flickered out, giving the two other attackers a hole in Krevak's defenses.

As the shuttle's co-pilot looked at his console, he grew fearful. "One of the ships is transmitting a transporter signature, we're being boarded!" Krevak looked behind him to see a single Tholian beam into the room, its form protected in an environmental suit as to keep it alive on alien vessels.

A computerized voice spoke out from the Tholian's suit. "YOUR CONTINUED RESISTANCE IS INTOLERABLE." As the Tholian prepared to fire, the co-pilot got out of his seat and pulled out a pistol, a red beam firing at the Tholian as it's armor was struck. Krevak then tapped a button on the box as it opened, revealing two very strange pistols within, they had the appearance of a blaster similar to that of an old design from several 20th Century Earth entertainment programs. It was a chrome pistol with two rings around the barrel, a small blue section boasting off the side, along with a small fin on the top.

As Krevak pulled out one of the pistols, he looked back to see the Tholian still standing, a small dent in it's armor showing a slight breach. A yellow bolt of energy shot out from one of the spider's claws, the co-pilot being hit square in the chest as he fell to the floor. Krevak quickly aimed the pistol at the Tholian and fired, the purple beam of energy reducing the invader to nothing but ash in seconds.

As the shuttle shook from another shot courtesy of the Tholian fighters, Krevak tapped his console as he restored power to the forward shield. He then tapped his console as he turned the ship again, facing one of the incoming Tholian ships.

"Enjoy my missiles, you pests!" He said as he tapped his console once more, several small projectiles flying out from the fighter and hitting the fighter, the ship exploding as they broke through the shields.

Krevak then turned the ship around again, the last fighter ringing around him as he tapped his console, catching the small fighter in a tractor beam. As the ship slowed from the beam, the Ferengi tapped his panel again, a flurry of quantum torpedoes shooting towards the fighter, hitting it hard.

As the fire cleared, Krevak saw the ship was still there, it's engine bleeding out fire and plasma as he slowed the shuttle. He tapped his console to get a scan, only to receive a beep from it as the fighter started to explode.

"Curses, they're detonating their own warp core!" The Ferengi said as the ship started to blow up again, the shockwave hitting the shuttle and knocking it back.

The left console that was once operated by the co-pilot exploded a second later, sparks flying out of it as Krevak held his chair, steadying himself. As the ship ceased it's shaking, Krevak checked his console again. He grew a frown as he saw that the ship's engines were offline. He then raised an eyebrow as he saw another signature appear on his map, taking a breath as he saw it wasn't another hostile.

As he looked up to the window of the shuttlecraft, he saw a large blue anomaly appear in front of the shuttle, which grew in size as the shuttle neared it. Krevak got out of his chair to inspect his co-pilot's body lying on the ground as the shuttle drifted into the wormhole. He was dead, and the Ferengi couldn't do anything about it.

"It was nice knowing ya, old pal." Krevak said as he stood back up, taking a seat at his console as his ship exited the wormhole and entered another system. He took in the new surroundings that the system had, a single planet with a lone moon and a sun. He was very surprised to see a large section of the planet covered by a large cloud. "Must be quite the storm down there." The Ferengi said with curiosity as he examined the surface, his stupor interrupted when his console beeped.

He grew worried as he checked it. Some of the debris from the Tholian fighter had been brought with his ship, and a good chunk of it was flying right at his shuttle.

"Emergency thrusters, don't fail me now." Krevak pleaded as he tapped his console, a rejecting beep sounding as his face went pale. The thrusters were damaged from one of the torpedoes that breached the shields during the dogfight at Ceti 13.

Krevak grabbed his seat tightly as he braced for impact with the debris. As the ship was hit, the Ferengi's console exploded, knocking him out of his seat. He hit the ground hard, the shuttle shaking as the vessel's klaxon sounded within the ship. Krevak didn't hear it, though, the explosion along with the rough landing onto the floor had knocked him unconscious. As his body lay on the floor, the shuttle drifted faster towards the planet, heat bouncing off of the shields around the crashing shuttlecraft.

---------

The night sky was dark in the damaged area of Fetlock, made even darker thanks to the cloud cover. At a small street within the town, two ponies trotted about the area, the grey mare with a blue mane and tail speaking to her friend. "So, you think this place will still be running for us, Joke?"

The blue mare with purple mane and tail replied with a smile. "Of course, Homage, I'm sure we're bound to find a pot of gold when we get there! Sure, not many stables have survived the dangers of the Wasteland, but from what I've heard, we shouldn't have any doubt 'bout it."

"I hope so, I could use a bit of rest when we get the-" Homage ceased her sentence as she and her friend heard a loud boom from above. As they looked, they saw nothing in the sky other than the grey cloud cover deployed by the Enclave.

"Was that thunder, Jokeblue?" Homage asked her friend as she replied.

"I don't recall a storm bein' planned tonight." As she replied, the two saw a large orange glow burst out of the clouds, several more following it down.

"RUN!" Jokeblue yelled as the two ponies raced for a nearby chariot, having taken damage from the bombs when they fell on the Last Day. As they crouched behind it, they heard another boom from behind the chariot, the ground shaking as a wave of dust and small bits of rubble flew outwards from the explosion.

As the dust cleared, the two mares stood up, Homage taking a peek around the chariot to see what had hit the ground. They saw a small, strange vehicle crashed within a small building, one of it's small wings on fire and the back of the ship blackened from the heat.

"What is that?" Homage asked as she slowly walked toward the crashed spaceship, Jokeblue following her cautiously.

"Maybe something the Enclave were workin' on?" The blue mare replied as she and her friend stopped in front of the small ship, examining the damage and area around it.

As she looked around the ground, Homage locked her eyes on a strange gun that sat right near the ship's backside, an empty box sitting next to it. Curious, she picked up the gun in her magic, examining it as Jokeblue joined her.

"What's this thing?" Homage asked as she saw the trigger on the weapon, pointing it at a small rock on the ground before pressing it. The two mares jumped in surprise as the rock was struck by the purple bolt of energy, reduced to nothing but ash.

"Okay... definitely not from the Enclave." Homage said as she looked to her friend, who looked upwards to the sky as she spoke to her friend.

"It has to be, we've invented similar weapons like that too, ya know." Homage frowned a bit as she replied.

"Yeah, but not like this thing. It seems... strange, too strange for even such a powerful group as the Enclave." The two mares ceased their stares and looked at the gun, Homage smiling as she spoke once more. "I think I'll hold on to it, we might need it sometime." Jokeblue hesitantly nodded as she and her friend began trotting along the road once more, leaving the burning star vessel behind as they continued their search for the rumored stable.

>>>(==o)

I stared at Jokeblue as she finished the story, my mouth agape as I took in all of that information. So, it seems that that blaster Homage showed me was from a Ferengi merchant who was scammed and almost murdered by a group of Tholians that trapped him in the system he was in. Fortunately, though, one of his two delivery items had survived the crash.

As I shook my head and focused again, I spoke to Homage's old friend. "Wow, so that's how it got there?"

"Ya can count on that, and from what I know, the weapon was at it's max setting, hence why it vaporized anything it struck at." Jokeblue said back to me as I smiled, another part of the mystery solved thanks to a little storytelling.

Jokeblue continued. "And ya remember how there were two of them that he made back there? Well, the other pistol's the one we're lookin' for."

Okay, maybe not.

"I see." I checked my scanner again, we were much closer to the artifact now. I assumed we were only a few meters away at this point.

As we flew closer to our target, I asked my new friend, "Do you think anyone else will be coming after it?"

Jokeblue gave an unsure shrug as she replied. "Not sure, from what I know, the Tholians abandoned the search after discovering the wreckage of their ships."

"Let's hope you're right." I said with a faint smile as my Pipbuck beeped, it's scanner detecting our target below us. We both flew ourselves down to a small area near the volcano, stopping as we saw it. It was the other blaster that the Ferengi pilot had used in his fight against the Tholians, other than some scorch marks from the crash, it was practically unscathed.

We both smiled as we found the secret treasure, Jokeblue deactivating her floater as she examined the pistol.

"Jackpot." The blue mare said as I deactivated my floater as well, landing and trotting beside her as we stared at the customized weapon.