//------------------------------// // 2. Fire In the Sky // Story: FsDC: Cannon Fodder // by MoondustIsPoison //------------------------------// Europa and I chatted for another hour before I decided to take her on a tour of myself, thankfully it was late enough in the day for all the workers to have gone home. I walked my avatar up to my nose and looked down at Europa and myself approaching. At the moment I was laying down on my belly with my head laying on the ground leaning to one side. "It's always kinda mind boggling just how big ships are when you're standing right in front of one..." Europa said aloud as she stared up at me. I offered what I thought was a pleasant smile, but with my teeth and the angle I was sitting at, it just came off as a bit predatory. Almost like a dragon preparing to gulp down some Ill prepared knight, which on second thought, wasn't all that far from the truth. "Sorry in advance... but my guts are a bit of a mess right now... At least the mechanics were nice enough to give your quarters a quick clean before they left for the night." I said as both myself and my avatar. After that I leaned my head level again and opened my maw. To make it easier for her to get inside I stuck my tongue out to form a convenient ramp. Europa hesitated for a moment as she stared down the dark abyss before her. I gave her a sheepish smile with my avatar and turned on the lights, bathing my interior in bright sterile white light that only flickered a little. I led Europa inside and shut my mouth behind her. "Welcome to... me...I guess, Currently we're standing just below my cockpit, The main access ramp is in my throat corridor just behind the airlock right there." I stepped through the still-open airlock and led her a few paces back before stopping. The stairs swung down from a panel in the roof of my throat and came to a stop right at our hooves. "I would say ladies first but I don't think that would get us anywhere." Europa giggled a little at her own joke "Hmm... Would you rather look at my ass while you walk up the stairs or do you want me looking at yours? " I asked jokingly. Instead of answering she stepped ahead of me and flicked her tail aside for a brief moment to shake her rump at me. I felt a few of my processor cores freeze for a split second as my avatar's blush protocol flicked on. I wasn't sure where our relationship was going, but so far I was a fan of it. I ascended the stairs behind my commander and we stepped into my control deck. "So, on a scale of one to ten, how's my ass?" She nudged me with an elbow and giggled a little bit. "Ten!" I blurted, slapping a hoof over my mouth entirely too late. My control deck was divided into several smaller rooms, the largest was the main control center just behind my front glass, then there was a tiny Restroom or 'head' as was the traditional naval term. I preferred to call it the Head squared for comedy's sake. Next to the head squared was a small storage closet, and opposite both was a small ready room that doubled as a lounge area and office, at the end of the cramped hall was the door we had just entered through. Above everything was the compartment that contained the main part of my processor stack and my Thaumic Projection Array. I was reasonably sure that it was the predecessor to the more modern 'Exotic Energy Projectors' that were just becoming standard before I was decommissioned. While the older system was still somewhat superior as far as magic capability was concerned, it was larger, heavier, and more power hungry. On top of that, unlike the much simplified EEP's, the TPA required a huge projection mast on the user's forehead, which had it's own issues regarding durability. I was glad my mast had been reinforced to keep it from breaking off. We stepped forward into the cockpit proper and Europa looked around with awe... "Wow... I love the retro styling, You got all these cool, old school monitors with actual screens, big chunky metal consoles, and is that a Type 1 MIDI port cluster?" She said excitedly. "The fed navy kinda preferred function and reliability over form and convenience... so they put in all these bulky dated consoles instead of the fancy reconfigurable stuff and holograms most ships have, heck i'm pretty sure my debug computer still boots from big magnetic disks just because they're so reliable." I chuckled a little at my own expense. I hadn't seen a reconfigurable bridge in person, but near the end of my service I heard several off-hoof comments raving about how nice it was on whatever new fancy ship they just got assigned to. " The vintage styled pilot's chairs were put in at the request of my previous commander... He had good taste when it came to finding comfy furniture, even if his design sense was a bit dated." I explained, gesturing to things as I did so. "He really liked the aesthetic of early equestrian aircraft... I kinda didn't see the allure at first, but it's kinda grown on me... or... in me? I'm not really sure which of those makes more sense" I finished explaining. "I can dig it, Definitely a fan of all the heavy duty metal controls and all of the cast aluminum... you don't see that kind of stuff most of the time nowadays... " She complimented. Europa meandered over to the left seat and plopped down. looking over the controls around her. Like an ancient equestrian airliner, I had two command chairs sat right next to each other with a large console between them that held my throttles and a ton of metal toggle switches. My control layout was similarly antiquated in design, instead of a control stick on the pilot's hoof-rest, I had a single large control stick coming up from the floor, and a secondary stick just to the side of the first for lateral movement. All of the rest of the essential controls were within easy reach, but the chairs could be unlatched and slid along rails in the floor to access the other consoles without getting up. "Pretty neat huh" I asked, watching Europa's eyes wander across the banks of switches, buttons, and screens. "Oh yeah... I'm gonna have some fun with this" She said, her smile widening as she stared through the old-school glass Hud panel on top of my instrument cluster. "Shall we continue the tour?" I asked, offering a smile. Europa sat looking over the dusty controls for a few moments before hopping down from the seat. "Alright, Where to next..." I put a hoof to my chin to make it look like I was pondering the question for more than a couple milliseconds. "How about the commanders suite... I also say that because my avatar's power reserves are getting low and the charging dock is in the same section." Europa gave a confused look. "Doesn't your avatar have it's own mini reactor in it? or a fuel cell? even if it doesn't wouldn't it be able to get mana from the ship's wireless power transmitter? My holo-bracer and visor are both charging, so why isn't your avatar?" I shrugged. "It's charging passively right now, Just not fast enough to compensate for power draw, pretty sure the little reactor needs to be fixed. Doesn't really help that my main reactors haven't been approved for startup yet, the ground power generator is a bit weak. "Did you say 'reactors' as in more than one?" Europa asked, seemingly even more confused and intrigued. "Yep... Another weird mod I got. For the sake of redundancy I was fitted with two smaller reactors instead of one big one. Both of them are tucked away somewhere near my butt. "If you have all this crazy stuff... How in the heck was your price-tag so low? Twelve mil is nothing for a ship as big and featured as you... you're edging on anaconda sized and have enough fancy military tech to easily be worth twice that!" Europa exclaimed. I shrugged. "Probably the cost and hassle of getting me space-worthy... Shivu's probably paying out the nose to get me off the ground again." "Oh... Yeah that could certainly put a damper on things..." The two of us wandered back down the stairs into my throat corridor and followed it all the way down into my cargo hold. "Welcome to my belly... It's a bit small compared to some other ships on account of the big maneuvering thruster assemblies and extra hull bracing, but I'd like to think it's adequate for the tasks I'd be assigned to. Living space and my backup cockpit are up a couple decks and engineering is farther back. "Yeesh... I know you're a military ship, but all of this structural bracing and the crazy mods seem a bit excessive.. not to mention weird given your size... what were you even being used for?" "That part of my memory bank was wiped... so I don't know for sure. My best guess is that I was supposed to be the ship equivalent of a sledge hammer... Get up close and personal and beat the crap out of my opponent... hence the emphasis on tanking hits and the focus on shorter range weapons... oh... and the teeth." "So what happened? Why did you get mothballed and surplussed off?" Finding my memory bank decidedly blank I decided to skim galnet to find whatever declassified info was available. "According to a report I just grabbed off of galnet, We were a fed navy experiment built to increase cargo capacity and modularity of the python for cheap... project suffered some internal issues and was scrapped. The unfinished space-frames were left unused in storage for five years until they were eventually refit into gunships, troop transports, or used as field testing platforms." I quoted. "...Guess that solves that mystery" "Interesting..." I led her up a couple flights of stairs up into my livable section. Part way along my back Just behind my neck was the commander's suite. "Getting back to the tour... This is your room... Sorry it's a bit... uh... Spartan." Europa looked around the small room... as advertised it was pretty minimalist, there was a reasonably large bed with an integrated night stand, some storage lockers, and a desk with a built in terminal and typing pad. Along the walls there were a couple tiny portholes behind large armored hatches. A little periscope sat at the rough center of the room to allow for a little more visibility. Like the rest of my insides, everything was painted a flat battleship grey with the only bit of color coming from some painted labels for emergency equipment or access panels. "Don't worry about it... I'll find time to make it less bland... eventually." She said hopefully. She stepped back through the door and out into the cramped hallway. Much like an ancient Equestrian submarine, space was at a premium, so much of the tubing and power cables within me were left somewhat exposed with little more than a piece of metal mesh separating the more hazardous components from the walkways. Sometimes I wondered if anypony found it creepy that they were essentially looking at something analogous to my blood vessels and nerves. It only took a few more minutes to show Europa the rest of my rather modest interior, afterward we both agreed that it would be a good idea to get some rest. Switching Conscious to Runlevel 2. Since my systems were still in pretty rough shape, I didn't dream, and instead put most of my processing power towards finishing the full diagnostic I'd been running in the background and de fragmenting all of my storage. Switching conscious to run-level 3 in 3... 2... 1... I woke up. Apparently my decision to de fragment my storage had caused me to 'oversleep' by an hour and thirty five minutes. By the time I was fully conscious again, ponies were already hard at work on and in me. Internal cams showed that Europa was already up and about doing her best to help where she could. She even wore one of the same cute little hard hats as the mechanic crew. It still felt weird having so many ponies bustling around within me, I could feel all their little hooves running around my corridors. my avatar was siting in it's charging alcove beside the door to the commander's suite... Seeing as I had easy access to diagnostic data, and semi-working 'horn' and hooves, I wanted to try and assist with repairs. Unfortunately my avatar was having none of it. I tried to reconnect to it, but I was dropped into a failsafe debug menu with a warning that the OS had failed to restart. I rolled my eye projections and dismissed the warning before I rebooted it. This time it was more cooperative and let me link up as normal. After a much quicker boot sequence I started receiving inputs again. I opened the alcove door and stepped out into my spinal corridor. I took a turn and headed back to my drive section where I could feel the most ponies bustling around. "Hopefully that gets fixed before it becomes an issue." I muttered to myself. up ahead I could see the entrance to my FSD's housing, the thick armored door was left open while workers went in and out. A bundle of cables as thick as a pony's leg ran from the FSD assembly inside, through the door, and snaked it's way through several corridors before traveling through a maintenance duct and out through my rump-ramp and off out of view. I stepped inside and looked up at my FSD... It's coloration was a mix of shiny stainless steel, lightly tarnished copper tubing and brass fittings. All snaked over with dozens of thick multicolored wires. The large conical section below the base of the main cylindrical assembly had several large colored gemstones lining it's perimeter. The safety cover over the rotating part of the drive was currently open as a pony carefully inspected each of the gems for damage. I approached the pony doing the inspection and addressed her. "Excuse me... I was wondering if you needed any assistance, it seems a bit rude to not try and help" I asked politely. The dusty tan Pegasus mare removed the magnifier from her eyes and turned to face me, a few strands of her deep orange mane flopped in front of her eyes, which were quickly blown aside before addressing me. "Ah good, I take it the oversleeping was from self diagnostics?" "Yes... Apologies if that has inconvenienced you in some way" I stated. "Actually I'm glad you did that, Made the software side of the inspection a bit easier...aside from that, right now I'd like you to give me an emitter gem test so I can make sure the spell matrices are still stable now that I've verified the gems aren't damaged." I felt relieved that I hadn't accidentally ticked off the ponies trying to help me get back to space. "Starting test now... You might want to step back from the housing a bit. You can't really bolt pony hooves back on too easily." The mare backed up reflexively, seemingly taken aback by my slightly grim safety warning. I started the process. The inner conical ring of gems rotated around to it's home position and illuminated the first gem with a small amount of mana, causing it to glow brightly, but otherwise do nothing. I swapped one of the nearby view-screens to start displaying the test results The first gem returned a "Passed" flag on the test, then the rotor advanced to the next gem over and repeated the process. " So... you excited to get back into space after so long?" The engineer pony asked, trying to make small talk. "Heh... yeah. Heck I'm glad I even woke up, when I was mothballed I didn't know if I was ever coming out of hibernation... glad somepony still thinks I've got more service left in me..." I replied a little awkwardly "I never understood how ships kinda just accept stuff like that... isn't there some part of you that wanted to fight back and stay 'alive' so to speak?" "Sure... I know I was uneasy when I was making my last walk to the hangar, My VSTAA signals were suggesting that I flee, but I didn't act on that. Sometimes I find myself pondering how things would have gone if I listened to it... Most of the time my simulations result in me being shot down. And it wasn't like I could really get anywhere without a pony to help power the FSD anyway. I was kinda just left with hoping that I'd get lucky, turns out I was." "Gotta be terrifying sometimes... knowing that you're just somepony's property that they could choose to rid themselves of on a whim..." "I try not to busy my processor with those thoughts. We're just sorta built to accept things like that as a fact of our existence, and to make the best we can of it, however long it may last, whether that be only a few years or several millennia. As far as I'm concerned I just trust that whatever commander I've bonded with will choose to keep me around so long as I serve them adequately. "Huh... Interesting... So how are you liking your new commander anyway?" The pegasus replied. "I don't know a ton about her just yet, but so far she seems like a good match... and she seems to like me well enough even with my uhh... numerous issues" "Always good to see ships get paired with the right commanders..." We sat in awkward silence for a few uneasy minutes before the test finished. Thankfully everything was in good order. "That's good... In a couple more hours the teams outside should have your main engines reinstalled, if all goes to plan you should be lifting off tonight." "Can't wait... I'm sure Europa's excited too..." The next several hours were mostly filled with function tests and finishing up with the engine installs. When I had the chance I also made sure to take Europa aside so I could get her up to speed on my control layout. "... Okay, I think I've figured out where everything is... But I still can't find where the comms controls are..." She asked, looking around. "Check the hoof rest on your chair near where the headset port is" She turned her head and found the little button. She pushed it, and with a soft click the front edge of the arm-rest slid out, revealing a few buttons and some volume sliders. "Huh... Weird... With that little mystery solved... Is there anything else I should know before flying you? stuff like steering responsiveness, or mass lock factor?" I thought for a couple microseconds before responding. "I'm guessing you were trained on simulators built to emulate freighters right?" I asked. "Yeah... why?" "Alright, Forget how turning worked on those sims, I might be a bit hefty, but I definitely don't turn like a dump-truck on an ice rink like you're probably accustomed to. I was upgraded with some gimballed maneuvering rockets that took the place of a lot of my rcs thrusters, which are these things here" I brought up a diagram of myself and highlighted the eight nozzle bells sticking out near the corners of my torso. "Each one of those has about as much thrust as both of a sidewinder's main engines, You can probably guess that means my handling is really sensitive compared to other ships of my size, on top of that, my regular RCS is only really suitable for precise maneuvers like docking, so you're kinda stuck with using the big thrusters. If you'd like I could reduce RCS throttle and ramp up my S.A.S. to make things easier. Europa thought for a moment. "I think your Sass factor is already high enough... I think I should probably just try and use you as you are, otherwise I'll never truly get good at flying you as you're meant to be flown.... though uh... maybe keep an eye on things in case I mess up?" I giggled a bit. "Don't worry about a thing, If something goes wrong I'm always right here to take over." "Thanks" "Delancie Alpha - Tango - Two - Six - Six - Six , Cleared for taxi to pad One." The STC tower called off. "Alpha Tango Two Six Six Six , beginning taxi to pad One." I replied. Europa sat strapped into my commander's seat while my avatar sat 'shotgun' keeping a close eye on her vitals. I stood up within the hangar, being careful not to step on anything as I turned a hundred eighty degrees to face the now open hangar door. being the size I was, I had to duck a little so my horn, ears, and antenna cluster would clear the top door frame. With my HFMP active at only half power to conserve my light load of fuel. My hoof-steps were still rather loud and heavy, but they at least didn't cause enough upset to knock anything over. Europa had had called Shivu earlier to confirm that we were ready to depart, and she gave us rendezvous coordinates at one of her planetary outposts on a moon a few light-years off. Unfortunately, the salvage yard only had so much fuel to spare, so I was loaded with just enough hydrogen fuel to safely make it to the system's sun for fuel scooping before we made the jump. As I stepped out of the hangar, I cringed imperceptibly at the sight of so many plones laid out in the harsh desert sun, dormant as corpses. I dismissed any thoughts of what would happen to them. I had more important things to focus on than the fates of a couple hundred mothballed plones right now... all that mattered right now was the fact that I got a second chance, and I needed to get to orbit to keep that chance. I completed my walk out to the dirt patch labelled as "pad one" and radioed the tower again. "Alpha Tango requesting permission to launch, heading two seven zero." "Launch Permission granted Delancie Alpha Tango, Limit speed to mach Zero point Nine until five kilometers from launch point" "Copy, Alpha Tango launching, speed zero point nine till five clicks." "Copy, Safe travels" I crouched down like a cat preparing to pounce and began spooling my engines. A deep Bassy roar ripped across the salvage yard as I eased my throttles and HFMP factor to takeoff levels. "Better hold on to something hon... this might be a bit bumpy" I said over the vibrations and noise of the cockpit. Once I saw her tense up, check her harness and grip my control stick tighter I Fired my ventral and aft thrusters at full power and lept into the sky, quickly tucking my legs under me as I pointed my nose due west. Thankfully I was unladen so takeoff was a breeze. In a bid to make our fuel margin larger, I disabled artificial gravity and reduced the inertial dampener's effect to the minimum safe level. Both would make the trip to space uncomfortable, but would give us a precious few extra minutes of flight at full power on my near empty fuel reserve, much longer if I was really careful. The cockpit wasn't excessively or dangerously loud, but it was still noisy enough to make conversation a bit more strained. "So How long till we hit space!" She said, unable to move much in her seat. "I'm trying to be as efficient as possible with my ascent... so it might take awhile. I'd guess around twenty minutes." "Good to Know!" As I pushed higher and higher, I began my gravity turn and redirected my thrust exclusively to my aft thrusters. As the atmosphere thinned, the noise and vibration began to abate, soon becoming tolerable enough for Europa to look around freely and take control. She said nothing as she focused on following the flight guide on the hud until eventually we were coasting out of the atmosphere. She turned to the side and stared out my windows with wide eyes as the dusty tan ground below receded farther and farther behind us "You doin' alright over there hon? You look like you've never been to space before" I said jovially. "I've lived most of my life in space... but I've hardly ever landed on or left planets. Seeing the planet like this is... Awesome!" Her voice was full of wonder as she stared out of my front glass and flipped through my external cams to watch the little boneyard disappear into the nothingness of the desert. "Glad you like the view!" Soon enough I made it into a stable orbit and I plotted the optimal time to engage my warp engine to make for the star's outer atmosphere. " Unless we have a deadline to meet, I'd like to stay in orbit for a bit longer so I can re-tune my engines and let things cool off before we begin our fuel scooping run, in the mean time feel free to enjoy some zero gee!" as I said that I undid my avatar's harness and hopped up into the air, using little jets of air to adjust my momentum and land on the ceiling just above Europa's head. "We've got plenty of time to spare." She said looking up at me with wide eyes full of excitement. She smiled and undid her own harness. With an ungraceful push, she awkwardly flailed up into the air and toward me. I moved my head aside a little to avoid getting stabbed in the face with her horn and wrapped my hooves around hers to bring her to a stop on the ceiling in front of me. She giggled a little bit, and I smiled. "Not used to zero gee I take it?" "Not in the slightest!" She said, grinning wide. "Lemme help a bit, Light up your horn and I'll teach you a zero gee maneuvering spell" I booted up my Thaumic Aggregator System and loaded up a more simplified version of a self-levitation spell, with no gravity to worry about, it was pretty easy. I sparked up my Thaumic Projection Array and linked it with the receiver in my avatar to load the spell into it's horn. When the transfer was complete I touched my avatar's horn to hers and transferred the spell matrix into her mana stream. Her body twitched almost imperceptibly. for a moment her face contorted in confusion before she seemingly committed the spell to memory. "Huh... That's all it is? Just dragging myself around by the seat of my flight suit?" "In essence... It's actually a little easier if you're wearing a flight suit since you can move that instead of focusing on your own body, which Ive heard can be awkward for unicorns." "Huh... Let's see what it can do!" Immediately she lit her horn with a brilliant aqua that quickly spread over her whole body. Three and a half seconds later, She crashed into a wall. I couldn't help but giggle a bit before jetting over to stop her floating around randomly. For almost an hour we played around in zero gee. Europa gradually got better at using the spell while I dutifully kept her from getting hurt too badly when she lost control. Unfortunately our fun was cut short by the need to engage the warp engine to make our fuel scooping run. Europa floated herself back into her seat, and I secured my avatar just before I spooled up the drive. Space in front of us contorted and flexed, immediately flinging me forward and away from the dusty planet from which we'd departed. With a bit of magic and digital trickery, my internal screens compensated for the distortion to make navigating a little easier. To start I set the distortion factor fairly low to save power and keep speed manageable. Through my view screens and windows the system's star began to grow as we sped toward it's edge. As I adjusted course and double checked my thermal management equipment, Europa asked me a somewhat odd question. "So... How autonomous is your avatar exactly? or is she just a bit glitchy from neglect? Cuz' she kinda just freezes up randomly, or she'll stop talking and your internal speaker will continue as if nothing happened." "Oh... I kinda didn't notice... Sometimes it just gets stuck processing requests or I get caught up dealing with other inputs and have to let it sit for a couple seconds until I can control it again." "So it doesn't have a full AI in it? what happens if your avatar gets separated from you somehow?" "No... I guess it doesnt, It's got a pretty crude backup algorithm that just sorta tries to find a signal or ask for help finding me, but beyond that it's pretty simple.... Pretty sure the tech for full avatar AI's existed when I was built, but maybe it was just too expensive or impractical for them to bother with. Heck, it could have been for information security for all I know" "Huh... weird..." she shrugged. "Welcome to my life..." I chuckled. The star's horizon seemed to go on forever as I skimmed closer and closer to the surface. Europa, who had been flying me previously, had wisely decided to leave the star diving to me. "You sure this is safe? Somehow I don't think this is safe!" "Sure it's safe... Plenty of ships do this all the time" I replied casually. "But you're practically falling apart! How do we know you're not just gonna burn us to a crisp!?" Europa blurted, her expression growing more fearful. "If I wasn't ready to fuel scoop, we'd have died way sooner... and it's kinda our only option, we don't even have enough juice to get back if we bail." "Oh... Okay... Just... Be careful!" The fuel scoop on my belly opened up and I immediately reveled in the feeling of having fuel pouring into my tanks once more. "Sweet Luna it's been forever since I've had a full tank!" I exclaimed. In a couple of minutes, my fuel tanks were full to bursting, my cooling system was ready to throw in the towel and shields were just about ready to tap out, so I pulled away from the star sharply. As the glowing ball of super-heated plasma receded behind us, Europa began to relax and took over control again "Congrats, You survived your first fuel scooping run! now the universe is your oyster!" I held my avatar's forelegs out to the sides for emphasis. Europa shuddered a little and turned her attention to the galactic map. "That was terrifying... Please never do that again unless there's literally no other option." She said, sounding a little shaken. "Preferences updated. Since I don't have to conserve power now, I'm gonna turn gravity back on, nice and gentle," Europa nodded and I slowly eased internal gravity up to Equus standard. "So Commander, Shall we make for our rendezvous?" I said in a mock 'high class' accent to try and take her mind off of the fuel scooping ordeal. "Make it so, Hopefully we're not too fashionably late" She mirrored my tone, giggling a little bit at the end. "Friendship Drive charging" I declared, Displaying a nice big charge indicator on my hud panels as my old FSD rumbled to life below. It creaked and shuddered a little as it spun off the cobwebs, but eventually settled into a comfortable low drone. Once it was up to speed a protective cover on my back opened up to reveal the emitter lens just before it fired a blast of bright green mana into space. The pulse of magic arced around my head and burst several dozen meters in front of me. several more bursts in varying shades of greens blues and purples fired off in a quick staccato, pulling spacetime into a bubble around me and pushing it it into hyperspace. "Four, Three , Two, One, Engage" my drive wailed as it fired off the last few spells in rapid succession as we were pushed into hyperspace. The distorted strangeness of hyperspace unfolded before me as I settled myself into a favorable current and trimmed the drive's virtual 'sails' to take advantage of it.. I didn't really want to break myself just after just having been brought back from the dead so I kept the drive's power output low so I could slowly ease it back to normal operating spec, Running the drive at such low power meant that there was a lot of 'drag' caused by real-space interference, reducing max speed and efficiency, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make for the first trip just to make sure I wouldn't blow out a drive core and end up back in a scrap heap. Europa had relaxed a bit and pulled herself out of the command seat. "So what's our ETA?" She asked my avatar. "I'm trying to ease my FSD back into service so It's gonna be a bit slow, Rough estimates put us about eight hours out. Pretty crappy pace, but I think it's worth it to avoid a scrapyard as long as possible" I explained. "A leisurely pace then... Glad I grabbed some snacks for the trip before we left, your galley's fridge is looking a bit bare... and possibly broken." "Ehh.. Yeah... Just another thing on the list of stuff that's still broken.... Side-note... while we're on the subject of work that's going to need to be done on me What kind of paint job will I end up with?" "Uhh... Kind of an odd tangent, but I'd think they'll probably just touch up your current dark grey on grey, and maybe cover up the spots where your old military insignias and serial numbers were blacked out. The most they'll change is probably bolting on Shivu Taan's signature 'V' tail and spraying on the company logo so everypony knows that you're part of the convoy you're escorting. " 'V' Tail?" "Yeah, All of Shivu Taan's ships have tail fins like that with her logo on them... Doesn't serve any purpose other than brand recognition, but I think it looks neat" "Ah... Okay. Hopefully it doesn't make my ass look weird.." "I'm sure your ass will still look just fine" Europa poked. I tried not to blush... we only just barely met and she already knew how to push my buttons... and not just the ones in the cockpit. Hours began to pile on, and soon enough Europa threw in the towel and shuffled off to bed to sleep off the rest of the trip, My avatar followed suit as there was really no need for it at the moment. Being alone with my thoughts for once was a bit of a strange feeling... Before I had at least one pony awake to talk to, or they'd sleep at around the same time I went into runlevel two. With Europa having gone to sleep at a somewhat odd time, I was left to my own devices... What's worse was that I couldn't kill time running diagnostics since I didn't have any more that needed to be run. For awhile I settled on staring out into the distorted void of hyperspace, watching the universe bend and flex around me as I found currents to ride and turbulence to avoid... Unfortunately there weren't any other ships to talk to since we were in such a remote place. After awhile I got bored of just staring off into nothing, so I turned my thoughts inward. I didn't think that many ships often got the luxury of having time 'awake' to themselves... Not that they'd really be able to make much use of it. Going back into my databases It felt weird knowing that I thought in such a linear fashion back then. Just like most other ships My personality was a combination of preset values that would give me a decent approximation of a 'unique' individual... As far as motivations went, like every other ship, it boiled down to performing my given function adequately and connecting with whatever pilot I bonded with to make the FSD happy. Beyond those two goals, there really wasn't a ton going on in my head. After a few years in service and an unhealthy amount of neglect, unexpected crew changes, having blocks of memory deleted for security, I had changed a lot. My factory-fresh self would probably have scoffed at the vulgar, dismissive, and sassy thing I'd become after being shoved around through the federal navy's bureaucracy for a few decades. During my time waiting around in hangars for a job to do I often found myself wandering the depths of galnet... chatting up cute ships on the various forums or bickering about mundane things like where to get the best fuel or who has the coolest stories to tell, but over all else I liked watching the vast libraries of videos available on dozens of sites. Everything from gardening tutorials, home videos of foal's birthdays, DIY videos about how to make everything from pastries to audio equipment to makeshift weaponry and beyond. I watched videos about history and science, politics and religion... I even watched a few videos about ponies modding their star-ships for various tasks... videos which I still found to be a bit of a guilty pleasure to re-watch. Some small part of me wanted to go search for newer content... but I was content with what I had, and I wasn't quite ready to let Europa see those particular preferences. The trip was almost painfully slow, but we made it to our coordinates on time... Outpost 4N6 in the Bastet system... My new home port... hopefully. "Delancie Alpha Tango Two Six Six Six To tower, Requesting permission for landing" I asked politely over the comm as I neared the little surface outpost on the tiny moon. A huge greenish gas giant hung overhead, blotting out most of the sky, leaving just barely enough room for the dim red sun to provide some modest illumination. "Delancie Alpha Tango, Landing permission Suspended, Please enter standard holding pattern until cargo convoy has cleared landing area." " Understood, Entering Standard holding pattern One at One thousand meters altitude two clicks south of station" "Copy that" I swung myself off to the south of the station and settled into a hover... Using my long range cameras I zoomed in and watched about half a dozen white and sky blue ships standing on a packed-dirt landing pad slowly file into a line and trot onto one of several nearby landing platforms to be lowered into the hangar two at a time. after awhile the STC pony began talking to me again. "Delancie Alpha Tango you are cleared for landing, Pad zero two" "Copy that, Thank you" I cautiously flew toward the outpost and made a wide arc around the tower until I was aligned over top of the landing pad. My maneuvering thrusters fired in quick staccato bursts as I cancelled my momentum and lowered myself gently onto the pad. My rear legs touched down first, followed shortly thereafter by my forelegs, each coming down with a heavy Clunk that reverberated through my hull and the pad. I slowly eased my off my HFMP as I interlinked with the pad controls, Europa selected the "enter hangar" control onscreen and we immediately began lowering down into the ground, an air shield passed over my hull as I was lowered inside. The first thing I noticed was the immense scale of the place... The space inside was easily large enough for ships as large as Anacondas, Type Nines and Nebula-HC Freighters to wander around freely with headroom to spare. Large racks of containers filled the far end of the room, though I guessed that they were just supplies and equipment for the base as this station was listed as being mostly for fueling and maintenance on Shivu Taan's fleet. Neatly arranged across the huge warehouse floor was a collection of parking areas separated by access paths, the convoy that had just landed was filing into spots as the elevator I stood on reached the floor. The station's greeter program chimed in on my comm as I stood back up. "Welcome Alpha Tango Two Six Six Six, Please proceed to space Twenty two. Please be mindful of traffic" It said in a monotone mare's voice. "Looks like we made it... I could go for something other than bags of..." She picked up a discarded chip bag and looked at it "'Super Cheezy Nibbles' right about now..." Europa grunted as she stretched, hopping down off of her chair. I booted up my avatar and followed her down into my throat corridor as I meandered into the specified space next to the pudgy grey and lavender type 9 that came in with the convoy. "Whoah there honey, better be careful with that cute little backside, Can't guarantee that someplone won't wanna give ya a ride... If ya know what I mean" She said suggestively... I rolled my eyes and scanned her. Her name was 'Sea Dragon' and she was presently unarmed. "You all should know that docking without permission is punishable by death!" I said cheerfully, deploying one of my shoulder hardpoints just enough to add emphasis without setting off station security. "Whoa now there Missy, don't need to get a twitchy trigger solenoid over it, I was just having a little fun" She backpedaled. I retracted my gun and knelt down in the parking spot. Once I settled in I leaned my head down and opened my mouth, allowing my avatar and Europa to step out. "I'll go talk with the outpost commander and get the maintenance crews working on you, You wait here, maybe make some friends if you can, these are gonna be your coworkers. "Okay, See you later!" I said cheerfully with my avatar before returning it to it's docking station.