//------------------------------// // Quick Visit/Going Hunting // Story: Voyages of the Lightbringer: Episode 3: The Goddess of War // by Admiral Wyatt Stone //------------------------------// "Captain's Star Log; Equus Date: 2/30/2274: After making repairs at Space Station K-7 alongside the Loskene and Forerunner, we've decided to head back home to deliver Trixie and her former children to Junction Town and help them start their new lives. I'm sure that some of the residents will be hesitant to welcome one of our former enemies into their home with open arms, but I think that with Fluttershy's help, we can make sure that Trixie won't have any problems during her stay here." Equus System, 2274, 1400 Hours, Junction Town "And then I threw a smokebomb down to cover my escape as I ran away from Ponyville. One of the silliest things I had done in my life." I took a drink of a fresh bottle of Sparkle Cola as I listened to Trixie speak to us, smiling at her story. When we had beamed into Junction Town, we got several looks from the townsponies as they witnessed our alicorn friend with us. After telling them of what we went through back at Azure, their faces grew friendly smiles as they welcomed Trixie to their home. The alicorns that came down with us were quite impressed with the place as well, many of them being shocked upon seeing one of the towns resident alicorn fillies, Surprise. "She's one of the first naturally born alicorns we've had in our home, can you show them what you can do, Surprise?" Fluttershy had asked the filly as the alicorns observed, the pink foal generating a small pink shield as she received impressed looks and cheers from the crowd. As for Nightseer, she wanted to stay aboard the ship and serve as one of our security officers, claiming that her fighting skills could help us out should we agree. After agreeing, she was escorted to the holodeck to begin her training against the more recent threats the Alliance had to face. After getting everyone acquainted with the town, my friends and I stopped by the bar to have a chat with Trixie, myself paying for our drinks before joining them. Trixie had finished telling us of her incident with Twilight and the Ursa Minor that she faced as we all laughed at the end, myself trying to hold mine in as I swallowed the carroty liquid down my throat. "Ha, that's quite the image to put in my head!" I said with a choked laugh as Trixie smiled shyly, all of us trying to hold back our laughter as Calamity replied to Trixie. "Ayep, no offense, but Ah'd pay ya all the bits in the world jus' t' see ya do that!" I could hear Trixie chuckle lightly as she joined in our laughter, all of us relishing in the moment before forcing ourselves to quiet down. As I took a breath from the laughing, I looked to Trixie, a smirk appearing on my face as I asked her, "Well, with the friends and magic you have now, I'd bet you could actually do it." "Perhaps, though I've never fought one before." Trixie frowned a the thought, but smiled again as Steelhooves spoke up. "Well, don't be afraid to ask for help on defeating one. After all, we all took one of them out during our adventure years ago." The look on Trixie's face was priceless as she replied to the Applejack's Ranger. "You did?! I wish I was there to see it, it must've been an incredible battle!" Steelhooves nodded in confirmation as I took another drink of my cola, all of our ears perking up as my combadge beeped. I tapped it and heard our blue alicorn speak through it. "Andromeda here, can you hear me, Littlepip?" "Affirmative, what's happening up there, Andromeda?" During our visit to sickbay, we asked our three alicorns about names once we had finished our talk with the others. The trio of sisters liked the idea and we pondered for a good while before we'd found the perfect ones. The blue alicorn took up the name Andromeda, which was also the name of a princess in old Earth mythology. Our green one felt that Cassiopeia could be a suitable name, she said that during her time off-duty, she'd received looks from some of the crewmembers onboard the ship, and felt the name would fit her due to it's history. And lastly, the purple sister chose the name Io, which was one of the many moons in orbit of Jupiter in the Sol System. I listened intently as Andromeda spoke up. "The U.S.S. Chestnut has entered the sector and her captain wishes to speak with you as soon as possible. He says that our recent mission has more to it than we thought." I looked to my friends with a raised eyebrow, Xenith and Velvet returning the same expression as Trixie spoke up. "Oh dear, I should've told you all sooner. Littlepip, if you don't mind, I'd like to go with you, I believe I can help explain this when we get there." "Of course." I replied with a smile as I looked back to my combadge and replied to Andromeda. "We'll be up there shortly, tell Admiral Stone to meet us in the briefing room." "Understood, Lightbringer out." As the signal cut out, we all got up and made our way to the door of the bar, myself taking one last sip of the Sparkle Cola before sealing it and putting it into my saddlebags. As we exited the bar and stepped out into the street of Junction Town, I looked to Trixie as I asked, "Is it bad?" The light-blue alicorn gave a worried look as she replied. "I don't know, but we should hurry if we want to find out. I'm worried we'll be too late." I also frowned with her as I tapped my combadge, all of us standing together as I spoke to our ship's transporter operator. "Littlepip to Lightbringer, six to beam up." A moment later, we were all surrounded by blue fields of energy, the fields obscuring our vision as we were transported back to our ship. (||||||) "And he's supposedly working on creating a new army of artificial alicorns?" I asked Trixie as she nodded, all of us looking to Admiral Stone as he sat up in his chair. When we reached the briefing room, the Admiral was already there with his two security escorts. When we started talking, he said that shortly before our incident with Trixie and the rogue Tholians, a small detachment of them were tasked with acquiring a very important prisoner at Facility 4028, a man named Amar Singh. The admiral and his crew had faced him before at the Klingon world of H'atoria about a year ago, intent on stopping him from using genetic research to create a supersoldier race made from Klingon, Gorn, and Human DNA. From what he found out recently, it seems that Singh has returned to the planet and was tasked by Trixie to make a special variant of her children while on the planet. "It was what you could call my "Plan B"." Trixie replied with a guilty frown as Wyatt spoke to us. "Not only that, but he's currently guarded by a small group of Tholians that were ordered to protect his base while he worked. Fortunately for us, though, we'll have enough ships to fight them once we get there." We all gave smiles at his words before I began speaking. "Good, perhaps we can get him back in a cell before he succeeds in his mission." I then paused for a moment as I thought of something. "And one more thing, what if we encounter some of his.. creations? Assuming he's already made some?" "As far as we're concerned we should take any help we can get from them. As for the non-compliant ones, we'll have to subdue or kill them before they can escape." "I see." I replied before standing up, all of my friends standing as well before I finished. "Then we should get started right away. We'll be ready to head to warp once we get back to the bridge. Trixie will be coming along as well, she says that she may be able to help make our job easier." "Good, I'll see you on the playing field. Dismissed." As he said that, we made our way to the doors of the meeting room, myself turning my head as we entered the hallway. I saw the admiral tap his combadge and speak into it. "Stone to Chestnut, we're ready to beam back." I turned my head back to face ahead of me as we all continued on to the nearby turbolift, the doors opening as we stepped inside. ----------- The white light at the end of the vortex reached us after a few moments, the sight of the H'atoria System appearing before us as we exited the wormhole. The planet was beautiful, along with several continents and blue oceans, I could see several lights on the surface, indicating there was civilization down there. There were no moons nearby, but I saw a few asteroids passing by the area to our left. From the way they looked, I thought that they could form a moon if you put them together somehow. "We've arrived at the H'atoria System, I'm detecting several hostile signatures nearby, four Tholian ships, three Romulan." Velvet said as she examined her console, myself turning to her as I spoke. "Can you get me a visual?" The charcoal mare nodded as she did her work, all of us turning to face the viewscreen as it showed the small skirmish taking place near the planet. There were three Mesh Weavers and one Recluse on the Tholians' side, while the Romulans had one D'deridex warbird and two T'varo Birds of Prey. The D'deridex was massive, even bigger than a Starfleet Galaxy class ship. It had a large head that was connected to two stanchions, which were held by the two connected wing sections that connected to the ship's nacelles. The T'varo warbirds were dwarfed by the larger vessel, it was similar to the old 23rd Century T'liss Bird of Prey, save for the fact that the ends of the ship were sharper and the hull was a bright green. As I examined the battle, I heard Xenith speak as she watched the two sides clash. "Why would Romulan ships travel here?" "Tal Shiar agents, I presume." Admiral Stone said through my chair's comms panel as we watched the battle, listening to his explanation about the Romulan ships. "They must've found out about Singh shortly after he arrived here, and when they see an opportunity to expand their power, the Tal Shiar and the remnants of the old Romulan Star Empire won't hesitate to try and take it. Fortunately for us, however, they're currently being distracted by the Tholians protecting the planet. We should clear them out quickly in order to proceed down to the planet below." "Good idea." I said as I looked to Calamity, the pegasus tapping his console as I spoke to him. "Calamity, ready weapons and shields, let's take care of the two enemy fleets while we have a chance." "Ya got it." Calamity replied as Windsheer turned to face me. "Lil'Pip? Ah'm gettin' a transmission from the Romulan warbird up ahead." "Put them on." I replied as Calamity's brother tapped his console, the screen changing to show a Romulan officer in one of the old uniforms of the Star Empire, the captain giving a glare as he spoke to us. "Alliance vessels, you are trespassing into territory that now belongs to the Romulan Star Empire. Lower your shields and prepare to be boarded!" I returned the glare as I replied, looking to Windsheer and motioning my hoof across my neck after doing so. "I don't think so." As the transmission cut out, one of the T'varo warbirds broke off from it's allied ships and sped towards us, the frigate firing two plasma beams at us as I spoke to Calamity. "Fire Phasers, hit them on the forward side." I then turned to Velvet as I continued giving orders. "Velvet, catch them in a tractor beam." My friend nodded as she worked at her console, our ship shaking from the impact of the Romulan weapons. I looked back to the viewscreen to see the small Bird of Prey get caught in a blue tractor beam, a blue beam firing out from the Chestnut as Calamity tapped his console. A moment later, two Phaser beams shot out from the Lightbringer, hitting the front side of the small warbird and blowing a hole in it's hull. "Firin' torpedoes!" Calamity said as he tapped his console again, four green torpedoes shooting out and hitting the warbird. The ship exploded as the torpedoes hit it, parts of it's hull flying out from the explosion as it dissipated. "I then looked to the battle ahead to see one of the Tholian ships explode, leaving only the two other Mesh Weavers and one Recluse remaining as the warbirds continued pounding their shields and hull with plasma torpedoes. As the enemy ships continued firing at each other, I looked to Steelhooves, the armored stallion tapping his console as he spoke. "I'm deploying some transports onto the field, they could get some valuable intel from the enemy ships." "Good idea." I replied as I turned to my comms panel and spoke to it. "Lightbringer to Chestnut, do you think we could disable one of those ships over there? We might be able to get some valuable intel on why the Tal Shiar are here." "That sounds like a plan, let's try and disable the D'deridex, the rest can be scrapped." The admiral said as I spoke back to him. "Got it, we'll be right behind you. Lightbringer out." As the signal cut out, the Chestnut sped forward with the Loskene, the two ships firing beams and torpedoes at the other T'varo warbird as we flew after them. "Ah'm targetin' the Recluse, Phasers chargin' up!" Calamity said as we turned to the right slightly, closing in on the large Tholian warship before two orange beams of energy fired. They both hit the hull of the enemy ship as we flew by, the ship turning back around to face the vessel as I spoke to Xenith. "Shield drain, quickly." The zebra tapped her console before a blue beam shot out from the Lightbringer, the shields of the Tholian vessel flickering out as Calamity worked at his station. "Torpedoes away!" A flurry of Balefire torpedoes flew out at the pegasus' words, the hull of the Recluse groaning from the stress as it was hit. Not a minute later did the ship explode into pieces, the two Mesh Weavers flying past the ball of fire as we turned to our left. The D'deridex was turning away from us as it caught the two Tholian frigates in tractor beams, plasma torpedoes tearing them both apart as the Chestnut and Loskene fired away at the large warbird. We all gasped as the large Romulan ship faded away from sight a moment later, Calamity scowling as he watched our target flee. "Galdangit! They jus' love runnin' away from us when we have them, don't they?" "Don't worry, I think the admiral's got that taken care of." I said with a smirk as the Chestnut proved me right, the modified torpedo shooting out of her torpedo bay and striking the hull of the warbird a few seconds later. As the warbird decloaked in front of us, the Chestnut caught her in a tractor beam before I spoke to Xenith and Calamity. "Xenith, fire another shield drain at them, Calamity, when she's opened a hole for us, fire two beams at their nacelles!" The two nodded as they did their work, the blue beam of energy firing out and hitting the shields of the D'deridex warbird. As they went out, Calamity fired two Phaser beams at the ship's two warp nacelles, both of them exploding with fire and plasma as they were destroyed. "Their engines are down, Lil'Pip. We've got them!" Calamity said with a smirk as I sat back in my chair, the Loskene firing it's own tractor beam as Windsheer spoke to me. "Pip, we've got a hail comin' in." "On viewer." I replied as the screen shifted to show Admiral Stone in his chair, sitting up as he spoke to me. "Good work, now that that's taken care of, we should get to the surface immediately. I'll meet you at the following coordinates." Wyatt said as he tapped his chair's comms panel, my chair beeping as it received the data. As I tapped my chair to send the data to the transporter room, I spoke to Wyatt with a smile. "Thanks, we'll be down there shortly." The admiral smiled back before the screen shifted back to the enemy warbird and our allies, all of us standing up as I spoke once more. "Alright, Steelhooves, Calamity, Velvet, Cassiopeia, Trixie, let's head to Transporter room 2. Andromeda, you have the conn." The blue alicorn nodded as she trotted over to my chair, the rest of us heading to the turbolift as it's doors opened for us. As the turbolift doors closed in front of us, Trixie tapped my shoulder. I turned to her as she began with an apologetic expression. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you all this, I should've done it sooner." "Don't worry," I said as I smiled to her. "We'll get this all sorted out, especially with your help." Trixie returned the smile at my words, Cassiopeia looking to us both as she joined the conversation. "Let's just hope we don't come across any hostile alicorns down there, especially not genetically modified ones." I nodded in agreement as we waited for the turbolift to arrive at our stop, the doors opening a few moments later as we continued onwards towards the transporter room.