“Senator Graham, representing the Olympus Mons state of Mars, you have the floor.”
“Thank you, Speaker.”
The Republic Senate was packed. Hundreds of Senators sat in their assigned booths, or were represented by shining holographic images of themselves. Many of these gleamed throughout the crowd; rebuilding was still ongoing, even two years after the asteroid strikes against the Sol System, and refused to make the trip to the Terran Senatorial compound on the Atlantic Ocean-City. This was especially true of Belter senators, whose constituencies had taken the hardest brunt of the attacks.
Off to the right side of the Senate, in a newly constructed seating wing, sat the various members of the Equusian constituency, those who had been on the Sol side of the portal when it had been mined, at least. Cadence, Shining Armor, and Twilight Sparkle were the representatives for Equestria and the Crystal Empire; Twilight had spoken with Luna and Celestia over tight band comlink just before the session- unfortunately, they could not be holographically present.
Beside Twilight sat Chrysalis; the Changeling Queen was dressed much in the Jovian style, translated onto her kind’s form- dull greens and blues, hugging her frame tightly, and her mane done back in thick braids. The Changeling Hive that had formed on Titan and Ganymede had intertwined with the local human populations, at least from what Twilight had heard from her sources in Jovia Central’s shipyards. The Changelings had invested much time in rebuilding the aquaculture farms on Ganymede, and a full on hive, led by a newly born princess, had been settled in Titan’s capital city.
Chrysalis caught Twilight’s glance and grinned, shooting her a wink. They were not… friends, exactly, but they had mutual respect for one another, all things considered. And Twilight had found herself working more and more with the Changelings in her own projects. Speaking of…
The alicorn peered thoughtfully towards the Griffons; three large males, dressed in Martian military-inspired jumpsuit uniforms- tight fitting black and silver coloring, with the claw and beak symbol of the Griffon Empire emblazoned on their shoulders. They were staring hard down at the human preparing to speak; griffon faces were hard to read for those not trained in it. Twilight could read the anger in their gazes, however. From what she had heard, Mars’ elite had not taken well to the influx of Equusians on their world.
“I stand here today to speak against this budget proposal. In specification- the ten trillion credit line to be opened to the Equusians. I am sorry, but in a crisis such as this, I refuse to see a reason to spend money on experimental starships. Designed by, and with no offense intended, beings with precisely no working technical knowledge of those craft. If anything, they should be buying proven designs from us.”
Twilight’s ears twitched; the condescension was palpable. She glanced back at the Griffons, nodding to herself as their leader, the former Prince Stormfeather, pressed down on his own buzzer to be heard. The speaker, an older Terran man, turned to nod towards the booth, tapping a control.
“Senator Stormfeather, speaking for the Griffon peoples, you have the floor.”
Stormfeather’s visage appeared on the central , holo-podium. The humans would not be able to tell a Griffon’s emotions, at least not at current, but he was still keeping an admirable control. Silver eyes stared out over the Congress, and he bowed his head, just enough for politeness sake.
“Esteemed members of the Republic. I am honored to be here before you today. Like my colleague, I too wish for what is best for the Republic. Because what is best for the Republic, is the best for griffon kind.”
An aide passed him a small drive, which he plugged into his emitter, replacing his face with that of a set of readouts, and the slowly spinning holographic image of a starcraft. Twilight perked up immediately, peering at it. Much like griffon aesthetics, it was simple and inelegant. The bow was tear-drop shaped, tapering to a point at the stern and boasting two large engines, underslung the stern. The teardrop fanned out on either side to reveal weapon hardpoints built into the wings. Glancing at the information transferred to her own podium, Twilight nodded slowly- a pair of medium torpedo tubes, a pair of light missile tubes, and Terran-style autocannon in the chin of the craft. The craft file name was “Quaestor.”
Interesting…
“As you can see at the bottom of our files, a single Quaestor costs two-thirds that of a Martian Fury, with nearly the same maneuverability and firepower. As of right now, the Griffons have one hundred semi-trained pilot teams. If granted the funds, we can produce a full wing in a month’s time.”
Stormfeather replaced the image after several minutes with his own; the crowd was chatting lowly to one another. His beak quirked in a slight smile, and Twilight peered over at Senator Graham. His arms were crossed, face slightly red as he stared almost thoughtfully at the design. After a moment, he pressed a key to speak.
“Have the other Equusian races brought any designs to the table?”
And the floor exploded in a flurry of activity. The mixed Cervine and Lupine senatorial bloc had been working with Venusian designers on freighter designs; massive ships with improved carrying capacity, that could double as transports for refugees and potential colonists. Twilight felt a pang as she studied it, ears laying back slightly. If they had that back at Titania…
To the surprise of a few, the Changelings had worked with the Jovians on a design for drone carriers- small freighters boasting launch bays for hundreds of small (human sized) semi-autonomous mining, repair, and recon drones. Twilight hid a small grin- its engines boasted a few upgrades the senator had come up with for her own projects, and had borrowed Chrysalis’ primary prototype on Luna. It had come quite in handy!
The Equusians quieted quickly as Twilight rose to her full height, tapping her buzzer to be heard before slipping her own contributory disk in. She had her own ideas to show- but unlike the others, she was not asking for their funding. Not at all…
************************
“Come on Dash, pull up! This isn’t Equestria!”
Rainbow Dash gave a rictus grin as she twisted the twin hoof-controls in the cockpit, which twisted in turn to bring the craft up sharply. Alarms screamed in her ears; ahead of her, the grey-blue ground on the lunar surface roared into view. The control couch the pegasus was laying over shifted to mold to her twisting body, and her rear hooves ground down on the throttle controls. The engine roared in her ears…
And the ground roared away from view; Rainbow grinned wider, cackling.
“Made it!” she crowed triumphantly.
“You snapped the damn thing in half!” Spitfire roared back, yanking open the VR pod’s hood and glaring down at the suddenly sheepish rainbow pegasus.
Scruffing her, the larger pegasus lifted Rainbow up and pounded a hoof against the Scenario Failed screen- outlined in red were the various reasons why. In this case, “g-force sheared craft into separate pieces. Explosive decompression. Pilot killed.”
Rainbow Dash blushed furiously as she dangled from the jaws of both her superior and the head mare of their herd, peering around. Misty Fly and Soarin’ were watching her with wide, playful grins, while Fleetfoot did her absolute best to hold back her snickers. She hung her head submissively, ears and wings folding back.
“Heh, sorry Captain.”
Spitfire sighed softly, the warmth breath tickling Rainbow’s nape as she gently sat her down on her haunches, giving a gentle lap to show all was forgiven.
“S’allright Dash. But you have to study your craft, just like knowing your body’s limits in flight. You might paste yourself on a moon, and then Twilight’ll have my fuckin’ flank.”
“It was, however, quite cool, Mr. Dash.”
Rainbow tensed and growled audibly, glaring up at the ceiling. A small turret with a glowing silver eye stared back at her. Victoria’s minder AI, named Rhea, had full control over their apartment block, and ran most of the functions of it- including VR pod controls. It also seemed to have a sense of humor.
“I am a girl, damnit!” Rainbow snapped, hoof pawing the ground while the rest of her herd broke into amused giggles.
“Whatever you say, Mr. Dash.”
“Be nice to Rainbow, Rhea.”
Victoria smirked as she walked back into the apartment, shaking her head, “Before she tries scrapping you for parts. Hey guys.”
“Hey there, sexy,” Spitfire called with a grin, nudging a fuming Dash over to the calming ponypile on their bed, “How’d the meeting go? And where’s Twi?”
Victoria was still working on her blush response, rubbing the back of her head and clearing her throat. Things had… progressed somewhat, but she was still unsure of what the relationship they all shared… was. And it was definitely something best kept private, something she had each pony promise. Shrugging out of her uniform into her underarmor, the human woman sighed faintly and moved to settle down at a chair.
“It went… alright. A partial budget was pushed through. Twilight unveiled the Leyfinder Project, but it didn’t get quite the reception she wanted. The Belters and Jovians were all for it. Even got a majority vote from Mars. But Venus and Terra seemed pretty… well, I think they wrote off the idea.”
Soarin’ grunted and shook his head slightly, “She on the ship, then?”
“Mhm.”
The Leyfinder Project had been their main drive these last two years- Twilight and Victoria had scoured the system to find investors, and thankfully found them in several Lunar foundry companies, and in a Belter design firm… whose head office had at one time been on Titania. The public support from Senator Twilight Sparkle’s daring rescue of Titanian survivors had been very helpful in building trust, especially for a project that was largely secretive. The gantry was not hidden, but Twilight had been loathe to give out many details to prying eyes, as of late. Now though…
“Miss Victoria. A communique has just arrived from Twilight Sparkle. She asks that all of you report to the Leyfinder Project Gantry at once, dressed in your best. It was noted as being quite urgent. This report was also flagged by the OSSI.”
Welp, Victoria was now awake, and scrambling to get her practical uniform; she could hear the pony herd outside also rushing to get dressed, but not at the same speed as the human. They were not quite aware of the subtleties of the message. The OSSI was a mysterious branch, and one Victoria had tried to stay well away from in times passed. If a Terran soldier attracted their attention, it was generally because they had broken some kind of rule, either militarily or a Terran ordinance.
‘Why would they be interested in the Leyfinder…’
*******************
Nathan suppressed a whistle as he looked the ship over, only nodding slightly as he looked it over. He was in his business jumpsuit, the black and gold of the OSSI running in lines down the arms and legs, pips on each shoulder denoting rank. Both eyes gleamed softly in the low light of the operations deck, implants having brought up the technical readings on the craft, and he was idly scanning over them. Starlight Glimmer, standing to his left, would be doing much of the same- she was a sponge for information, even more so than Sunset. Sunset Shimmer was quickly becoming an expert on the various weapon systems the techs had been coming up with to work with the ‘pony squad.’
Glancing off subtly to his right, Nathan smirked- Trixie was bored, and was rapid-fire casting mini-versions of her various cantrips. He had managed to get her invested in their technology and gadgetry that made the squad more effective- flash bombs and spells, distractions, hacking tech… His ponies were well trained now, and motivated, almost more so than most rookies Nathan had met in his lifetime. Especially after the Seraph’s escape. His hand clenched for a brief moment.
“Welcome to my Project headquarters, Special Agents.”
Twilight Sparkle was in a form fitting blue and purple bodysuit as she trotted into the room, grinning over at the perked up and smiling ponies around Nathan. Sunset scurried over to hug onto her neck, and Nathan couldn’t help but grin. He was still getting used to the touchy-feely culture ponies shared among each other- and their friends. Trixie playfully bumped his leg as she passed him, and he snorted, thumping her dock with an index finger before walking towards the Senator.
“Thank you for having us on such short notice, Senator.”
Twilight peered up at him- though not by much. She seemed to have grown a bit since Nathan had last seen her, and came up to his throat. She didn’t return his smile, but did not seem overly hostile. That was fine with him- he much preferred honesty to the false kindness portrayed by most politicians.
“It seemed like something I should not refuse, coming from the intelligence office. How can I help you?”
Starlight grinned as she moved to sit on Nathan’s side, ears perked up, “The OSSI think we can help you with the minefield. We know about the Leyfinder’s Magical Array. Amazing work, by the way.”
At a raised eyebrow from Twilight, Trixie chuckled softly and waved a hoof, “The higher ups do not know much about magic, but we certainly do. And with the four of us in a magical matrix…”
“You believe our combined abilities in the array will allow us to remove the mines.”
Twilight smiled faintly, walking past the group to stare out the viewport. The Leyfinder was an arrow-shaped, destroyer sized craft, with a broad, rounded forward superstructure, thinning out towards the back, till widening for the trio of barrel-like Heidallman engines at the aft. On gantries surrounding the main ship were several large modules, most of them similar in appearance. According to intelligence, OSSI knew that Twilight had developed a hanger module, one loaded to bear with missile and torpedo tubes; another that was simply a massive storage and transportation bay. And others were in the works. It was impressive.
“And if I said yes, in helping your idea, when would we move?”
“Immediately; as soon as the Leyfinder could be moved to the Portal Point.”
Twilight’s right ear flicked slightly, voice curious as she responded, “Why the rush? I was under the impression that the OSSI tended to operate at a snail’s pace.”
“Only when we have intelligence to gather, ma’am. And we…”
Nathan let out a slow breath. The Director had given him permission only to divulge what was absolutely necessary to gain the Senator’s assistance. But…
“...have good reason to believe the Seraph have good intelligence on Earth and its system. We need to re-open the portal, and quickly, before they strike at us again. We believe Equus will be hit again, and soon.”
Nathan kept his face carefully impassive as the Senator’s head whipped back towards him, eyes burning into his soul.
“What has happened?”
*********************
In the darkest regions of space, unknown to man living in his own star system, a probe roared along on its own momentum. Scored and scarred by its ancient journey, the probe still carried out its duty, scanning for radio signals, driven by the most basic and simple of early AI.
Attention. Signal detected. Activating AI Amelia.
AI core activated. Scanning.
Scanning.
Signal identified: human origin. Preparing handshake protocols.
Scanning.
Military frequency. Unpacking data. Code: SSF-201. Operation: Move to signal. Received.
Telemetry: Locked to signal source: SSF-201 flagship, codenamed Daedalus. Transmitting.
Beginning RCS thruster burn.
Alert. New signal source. Multiple source.
Alert. Plasma detection. Collision course. Transmit-