//------------------------------// // Moonbase // Story: The Eternal Sphere // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// The remainder of the journey to Moonbase had not been without unfortunate news. Wittcomb had reported to Twilight that a number of remote Federation outposts had been obliterated by the Executioners. With the rampage of the administration drones in progress, the Eternal Sphere was going to be a complete mess by the time the situation was resolved. She may have to resort to rewinding the universe’s timeline to a safe point from before the hacker’s interference. Twilight knew that Azure Lazer was not the hacker because she knew her capabilities with computers were only above average from the average pony’s skills and whoever the hacker was, they rivaled her own skills. The Aldian Empire was the first to be wiped out by the Executioners because they were closest to the drones’ spawn point. Swift Burial was in charge of the empire and for whatever reason, enjoyed pitting his forces against Twilight’s Federation. Swift would have more time to dedicate to his real job as the living resources manager. Fayt and Maria spent some time doing a preliminary search of the Leingod Research Facility database. Maria found no new information but made sure that Fayt was up to date with what she knew so far. While she was still a little wary of Twilight, since she was the leader of the Federation, Maria still trusted the mare more than the members of the government and was grateful for the additional information. The knowledge that Twilight was the creator of their universe had a negative impact on her stance toward the mare but understood that she had her own struggles with her duties and the frustrations she had with having to perform them blind. Maria couldn’t fault Twilight for trying to fulfill her purpose and felt bad for her for the struggles she had to go through. Still, having Fayt with her as she was going through the database while secretly mourning the deaths of the Quark members killed by the Vendeeni and the loss of her flagship did help more than she would have let on. Fayt could see through the tough facade that Maria wore and knew that she was hurting from her loss. In reaction, Fayt promised that anything said in that room would never leave it. While Maria wasn’t sure she could trust Fayt enough to vent to him, her emotions were too taxed from recent events for her mask to endure the stress. Maria spent half an hour voicing her frustrations to Fayt while he still had the presence of mind to make sure the room was soundproof. He sat and listened to her while making his own meaningful contributions to the conversation. Maria eventually broke down and cried in mourning for the lives lost. He held her hand as her tears flowed. Eventually, once Maria calmed down, she thanked him for listening to her before he left her in her room while she cleaned herself up and restored her mask. With some time to spare, everyone headed to bed in order to rest up from their ordeal with Biwig. After a few hours of rest, Wittcomb sent them another transmission, calling for everyone to attend. Once everyone was present, he warned them that Moonbase was on high alert because the Executioners were attacking the area. Because of this, direct transport to the lab was impossible at this time. Instead they would be transported to the recreation zone of Moonbase where transports were not being jammed. They would have to make their way to the research lab. “One other thing,” Wittcomb added. “The security system on Moonbase is going haywire and the security drones are unable to discern friend from foe. You will have to fight your way through them to reach Dr. Leingod’s lab.” “Wow, bad timing,” Sophia commented. “With the Executioners approaching Earth, malfunctioning robots are the last thing anyone needs.” “Be careful everyone.” Wittcomb wished the group luck before they filed into the transporter room and transported to Moonbase’s recreational zone. Once outside of the transporter room on the space station, they crossed a small tunnel into the station proper. Everyone looked around the immediate area. The Elicoorians were already in awe by what they were seeing as they could have never imagined such a place in their wildest dreams. A dome above them created a simulation of sunlight to show that it was daytime to protect people’s sense of time. The walls and floors were all composed of metal plating. There were trees and shrubs planted along the walls and isles for decoration. They also came across a few holographic billboards as they went. “So this is Moonbase,” Nel commented. “Ah…it’s–” “Nobody cares about the technicality, Cliff,” Sophia interjected after reading Cliff’s mind. As they headed into the first large circular platform on the station, they witnessed a group of people that Fayt, Sophia, Peppita and the ponies were familiar with. They held a defensive stance while facing what appeared to be a floating orange anthropomorphic pony mare with her eyes closed and wearing an orange ball gown. She also had three pairs of orange wings. “That’s the circus troupe!” Peppita exclaimed. The Proclaimer continued facing the direction of Peppita’s family and spoke, “I proclaim the will of the Enforcers. You are a plague that must be purged from this galaxy.” “Cease your actions right now!” Twilight called out. “Administration code: Spark of Harmony!” The Proclaimer paused for a moment and turned to Twilight. “Invalid code. Voice recognition not on file. Error: Recognition File corrupted. Unable to restore file.” “Horseapples!” Twilight cursed. “The hacker corrupted their recognition software! We have no choice but to destroy it.” “Fine by me, I would have preferred this method anyway,” Albel said. “For once I agree with you,” Cliff added. “Get away from my family!” Peppita called out. “Rossetti Troupe, we’ll distract it! You guys get out of here!” Lyra called out. The circus troupe looked at the group and while they were happy to see Peppita was alright, they knew this was no time for a reunion so they quickly ran into a nearby building for shelter. “If this one is corrupted, it would make sense that all of them are the same way to make sure I don’t try to take control of them,” Twilight figured. Holding a hand toward the Proclaimer, Twilight channeled a powerful spell through it which manifested as a large magic circle. Before the Proclaimer could recognize the spell, Twilight unleashed a powerful blast of magic that hit it. This was followed by a number of magic circles wrapping around it and grew smaller as the creature became narrower until it was one-dimensional. One clench of Twilight’s outstretched hand and the Proclaimer was erased from existence. “That is one scary power you have,” Cliff said. “It’s an administrative power that I have that allows me to delete digital beings.” Twilight explained. “I can’t use it very often because it taxes my magic. It’s similar to Fayt’s Destruction gene.” “Tch!” Albel grumbled as he sheathed his katana. “I wouldn’t worry about not getting to fight one of them, Albel. Most likely we will be encountering a lot more of them before everything is over,” Sophia assured. The conversation was interrupted when the Rossetti Troupe rushed out the door they were hiding behind to greet the newcomers and to have a reunion with Peppita. “Little lady!” cried out a tall and broad man among them. “Young miss!” cried out one of the people among them who was dressed like a clown. “Ursus! Gonnella!” Peppita cried out in reply. This was quickly followed by the little girl receiving a bone-crushing hug from the emotional strong man. Peppita’s uncle Piccolotto had Ursus let her go before he did any damage to her. The next few minutes were spent giving introductions as well as a summary of what she had been doing the past few days since the attack on the Helre. Piccolotto told the rest of the group that the troupe was supposed to be performing here when the station came under attack by the Executioners. The troupe had some fighting experience, but they knew that they would be outmatched in a fair fight. While the troupe wanted Peppita to go with them while they found a safe place to hide until the situation blew over, Peppita refused to go with them because she wanted to do all she could to stop the Executioners before they destroyed everything. The troupe respected her wishes. A few minutes later the troupe went back to holing up in the auditorium after saying their goodbyes to each other. “We need to get through the small army of malfunctioning security drones on the way to Dr. Leingod’s research facility,” Maria said. “It might be a good idea to check out the station’s armory and procure some weapons that should help us against the machines.” Twilight offered. “The armor plating on the Federation security drones are quite thick so a regular medieval weapon is likely not going to cut it.” “We are not proficient in your advanced weapons, you know,” Nel warned. Twilight smirked, “You’ll have to trust me.” The group followed Twilight to a pathway that appeared to be a dead end. She instructed everyone to stay near her before she pressed a few buttons and part of the platform lowered like an elevator down a level. At the bottom of the shaft, they entered what appeared to be a bar with some of the patrons looking like they were drinking while ranting about the end of the world. At the far end of the building was a scientist who was guarding a door. The bartender was a Federation soldier. Twilight addressed the bartender. “Hello soldier, we would like access to the armory.” The soldier raised an eyebrow as he looked at the group. “Uhh…may I ask who you guys are?” “Here’s my identification.” Twilight displayed a holographic identification to the soldier who scanned it with his eyes which widened before he used his quad scanner to determine its authenticity. The results made his jaw drop. “M-m-madame President? What are you doing here?” The scientist raised an eyebrow as he watched the conversation unfold. “I don’t have a lot of time to explain, but I need these people with me armed and ready to take on the machines on the way to the research zone and any Executioners we come across.” “Y-yes ma’am. Right away.” “What!?” The scientist spoke up. “We can’t just leave our last line of defense in the hands of some children!” “Yes we can,” the soldier argued. “I am not going against the President of the Pangalactic Federation.” “You’re insane! Without these weapons we won’t be able to defend ourselves if the Executioners get past the defenders.” “They’re not doing us much good locked up in the armory either,” the soldier countered. “Do you even know how to use the weapons?” “Well…that’s…” Struggling to come up with any excuse, the scientist slumps in defeat and steps aside. The group boarded the elevator behind him and they went up a level and in front of the armory. Inside the armory were a number of weapons that they could and couldn’t use along with armor for the soldiers to use to protect them from weapon fire. Twilight moved to the back of the room and grabbed a number of items that looked like batons and passed one to everyone but Sophia, Lyra, Thanatas and herself. “These weapons can either become energy weapons or be used to augment existing weapons,” Twilight explained. “When used on your own weapons, you will notice that they are able to cut through solid objects more easily or harden blunt weapons while providing a strength boost.” “And how are we even supposed to use them, fool?” Albel asked with his usual attitude which Twilight ignored. “The nanomachines in the devices are linked to the wielder’s thoughts. Imagine your blades becoming sharper or your blunt weapons becoming harder. Imagine cutting through or punching holes in solid metal.” The others followed their instructions, except for Adray who kept his weapon on his sash because while he was still adventurous, he also felt too old to be trying strange new contraptions. Fayt, Nel and Albel imagined their weapons becoming sharper. Cliff, Mirage and Peppita imagined their blunt weapons becoming harder. Roger imagined his axe and his helm becoming deadlier. Maria imagined the rounds in her gun turning into armor-piercing rounds. The weapons reacted to their thoughts and attached themselves to their weapons, augmenting them. As they took out their weapons, they noticed a bright green glow to them. Albel also noticed his new arm was glowing the same color. Being how he was, Albel tested his sharpened blade and claw on a nearby shelf, cutting through the structural supports and causing the shelf to collapse. Albel earned himself a few glares that he easily brushed off. Behind the shelf’s rubble, Sophia took note of an old storage chest in the back of the armory. Curiosity won out in the end and she moved to open it, revealing a number of antiques that shouldn’t have been stored there. Still, she decided to look in there to see if there was anything useful. After some rummaging, nothing of note looked useful except for a pair of books at the bottom of the chest. One appeared to be a dictionary and the other book was another one of those strange numbered books they have been finding lately. This one was numbered ‘six’ Figuring that she might as well see if it followed the pattern, she opened the book and sure enough, it did. Five words only: ‘ten ten three in queen’. At this point, Sophia was beginning to grow suspicious about the nature of the numbered books they had been finding. She figured that they wouldn’t have to worry about the books anymore once they left Elicoor, but to find one on Moonbase of all places was more than coincidence. Out of curiosity, Sophia checked the cover and insides of the book for any clues about its origins, only to find an abbreviation in a place where she would expect to see an author’s name. The abbreviation read ‘PDP’. Not wanting to deal with it anymore, Sophia simply gave the books to Twilight for safekeeping. Twilight had a feeling that the dictionary might come in handy later. With the group better armed now, they backtracked through the bar and back onto the main pathway. They headed away from the circular area. Moonbase, as Twilight explained, was a space station that had seven circular platforms that were used by all inhabitants. The platforms were classified into one of three types: recreational, habitation and research. The Leingod Research Lab was in the center platform. Of course, as they explored Moonbase, they took note that the area had suffered varying degrees of damage, either from the security drones or from the Executioners. Pathways were torn up and some of the systems around them were no longer functional due to the damage. This forced the group to take alternate paths to get where they wanted to go. Strangely, the only enemies encountered during their exploration were the security drones. They took the form of hovering stinger drones, hovering minigun drones, bipedal armored security drones or giant, quadrupedal military-grade tank drones. Cliff, Mirage and Roger mainly handled the bipedal drones. Cliff dealt some powerful Uppercuts to the drones with some well-timed punches to juggle them in the air. Roger assisted by jumping off of Cliff and blasting the drones in pointblank range with various weapons he kept under his helmet. Mirage juggled her own enemies by unleashing shockwaves with sweeping kicks, including using the Crescent Locus and Triple Kick techniques that she taught Maria. Fayt, Maria, Thanatas, Nel and Peppita focused their attacks on the flying drones. Twilight alerted everyone to the fact that the drones of Moonbase were not waterproof and were likely vulnerable to water-type Symbology. Thanatas focused on freezing the flyers with her icy attacks. With the flying drones numerous in the area, they could focus on area attacks. Nel used her Lightning Chain technique to send a charged blade that jumped from machine to machine and electrocuted the chilled drones. Peppita empowered everyone with a Power Dance before summoning a giant star that smashed into the machines around her. Maria fired rounds of pulsing energy at the drones. Given her impressive marksmanship skills, she never wasted a shot. Most other drones were knocked out of the air by Fayt’s Air Raid technique that unleashed waves of pressurized air from above. This left the large military drones to the rest of the group. Twilight kept her targets frozen to the floor with Deep Freeze symbols while Albel used his new enhanced arm to tear through the armored hull. Sophia tried out a new psionic technique where she was able to take the cold air generated by Thanatas and compress it into a small sphere. She tossed the sphere of concentrated cold at one of her targets and the sphere exploded on contact, freezing its joints and turning the armor brittle. Adray followed up on this by moving his hand in front of him and creating an eight-pointed glyph where his hand was. This was followed by a rift opening beneath the mech and a killer whale erupted from the rift, smashing the machine to pieces while the whale dove into a second rift that took it back to where it came from. Meanwhile, Lyra was having no problems cutting through the drones with her energy blades. There were a few instances where the military drones unleashed a volley of missiles but Roger managed to support the others by using his Shield and Cannon to fire his own volley to intercept the enemy missiles. For the ones that he couldn’t destroy, Sophia caught them in her telekinesis and sent them back at the drones or into other drone types. The group fought through what seemed like an army of security drones before they finally arrived at their destination. They took an elevator down into the lab. The lab itself had a number of terminals and holographic displays and interfaces. A large terminal was in the back of the room along with two doors that led to a room with a series of chambers large enough to contain people. Fayt, Maria and Sophia had a feeling that they were once inside those chambers many years ago. Fayt and Maria examined the main terminal and attempted to scan for files that may prove relevant to their situation. However, the computer couldn’t find any files that related to their search. “It’s likely that Robert hid the file under some sort of encryption,” Twilight mused. “Do you know how we can access it?” Fayt asked. Twilight shook her head, “No, he never told me that. He likely assumed that the ones to view the file would be you three so it’s likely that he made it so the only way the file can be accessed would be in a way that would ensure that you three were present.” “I think I know,” Sophia said. “Computer, scan my genetic profile and search for any related files.” The computer scanned Sophia’s genetic profile and after another search, found two results. One appeared to be a video entry about a coming crisis while the other appeared to be research data on Sophia’s irregular genetic profile. “Seems like they were trying to figure out your irregular genes,” Thanatas noted. Out of curiosity, Sophia viewed the file on her. It appeared that the scientists were trying to map out her DNA and tried to figure out what race the irregular DNA went to. They were surprised when the DNA didn’t belong to any known species in the database. They expressed their desire to check the databases of the other intergalactic factions but were rejected due to the risk it posed to them and the Federation. The thing that weirded out the scientists the most was the chaotic nature of Sophia’s ever-changing DNA. Of course, they also guessed that something was keeping the genetic data from becoming too chaotic because they noticed that certain alterations were being inhibited. There was also mention of the equipment being damaged mysteriously whenever Sophia was around. They found out the hard way that she was psychic when some of the scientists got flung into walls. After a while, the Esteeds became fed up with the experiments and decided to terminate the studies altogether. “Huh, guess I was quite the handful back then,” Sophia commented, which earned her a good laugh from Thanatas. With that diversion out of the way, Fayt played the other video. It started out showing a lineup of the four scientists: Jessie Traydor, Ryoko Leingod, Robert Leingod and Clive Esteed in that order. They appeared nineteen years younger. “This project was initiated as a result of the exploration of the planet Styx in Galactic Year 752. Styx is an unusual planet on which explorers found the Time Gate–a portal that seems to be a sort of time machine,” Robert said in the video. “Just to clarify, the Time Gate is actually a maintenance terminal that we use to study and fix issues in the galaxy the terminal is programmed to,” Twilight explained. “It’s also an emergency exit terminal in case something goes wrong and we find ourselves unable to log out for some reason. But we managed to fix that issue a long time ago. Only those who have an existing body on the other side would be able to use it though.” “A full-scale study of Styx and the Time Gate was undertaken in 752,” Robert continued. “The Time Gate is sentient.” Twilight rolled her eyes and shook her head in disappointment. “That was about all we knew about it based on our research up to that point. No one yet knew who had created the Time Gate, or for what purpose. However, all became clear after the study conducted in Galactic Year 752. After an investigation extending over several weeks, we have discovered that the Time Gate responds to symbological data. And it was recently discovered that when certain, special symbological data are sent into the Time Gate, it is possible to obtain recorded data from the Time Gate itself. However, included in these data was information more horrifying than we could have imagined. We learned of the existence of 4D beings. Four-dimensional entities, possessing technology far more advanced than our own–including the ability to travel through time.” Twilight scoffed at that. “Just because we can manipulate the time of this universe doesn’t mean we can manipulate the time of our own universe. This research is based on incomplete information that we have been feeding them to sate their curiosity.” “Don’t you think that’s kind of cruel to string them along like that?” Maria asked. “If you were in my position, would you tell them that their lives were based on a video game?” Twilight countered. Maria couldn’t think of a rebuttal, given that she was still coming to grips with her own existence. Robert continued. “Furthermore, as we continued our research, we found out that these beings may have actually created our universe. The symbological technology that we use today originated with these beings. We also hypothesized that these beings have interacted with us in ways we would not be aware of. We believe that as our symbological technology developed, we gave back to them as they have given to us. “We had thought that the Time Gate was a portal for traveling through time, but it appears that we were wrong. The Time Gate is, in fact, a doorway to 4D space. Time travel was a phenomenon that occurred as a result of the protective measures taken to prevent us from detecting the existence of 4D space. The 4D universe allows free movement through time…And the Time Gate tapped into that potential.” Twilight rolled her eyes again at how poorly the research team interpreted the data. “But then something completely unexpected happened. The Time Gate spoke a threat.” “Resign thyselves. The Eternal Sphere shall be eradicated as a message to the Xel’naga. That which we have created shall be destroyed so long as they remain in power. To carry out this execution, we shall soon unleash the Enforcers upon you all. Resign thyselves to annihilation.” “That’s why the hacker is doing this!?” Twilight shouted. “They want to act like some radical who thinks Equestria doesn’t need the alicorns anymore!? I know that Celestia has been slowly giving away her political power over the past few centuries, but even I can tell that our ponies need a lot more time to mature before we can leave the world in their hands.” “The Eternal Sphere?” Robert asked. “That is the universe which is known to your kind,” the gate replied. “We created the Eternal Sphere as a means of exchanging symbological technology with your kind. We shall not allow that to continue and allow the Xel’naga to gain power. And so, annihilation is the fate that awaits you.” “You think we are just going to lie down and die like you want?!” Robert roared. “We will resist you to the bitter end!” “A meaningless effort. Your kind cannot exist beyond your universe. You fight a battle of futility. Resign thyselves.” “The time gate spoke no more. We returned to Moonbase and dedicated ourselves to our research. Now, we research not just to advance civilization, but also to save our universe. We reported this to the top brass of the Federation and our president, who continues to remain hidden from the public eye, approved of funding for our research.” Twilight scratched the back of her head. “I had just heard of the hacker by this point so in a panic, I funded the research team in hopes that they had a plan to help save this universe.” “We would not accept our death sentence. If we are to die, we’ll die fighting. “Be that as it may, our enemy was the creator of our universe. How can we stand against an enemy with absolute power? To fight, we needed a tremendous power of our own. We decided to use symbological genetics to create a weapon–a human with powers that could defeat the Creator.” “So my dad modified us to fight you, Twilight?” Fayt asked. “Yes, but he didn’t understand the situation enough to know that. Neither the gate nor the hacker gave him complete information so he had to fill in the gaps with a few assumptions.” “This was our project.” The display changed to the strange pods in the other room in the lab. “Two children were selected to be subjects of our experiments. I am sure there is no way we could ever apologize to these children, no way we could ever earn their forgiveness. People may label us as monsters.” Thanatas shrugged, “Eh, I’ve done worse,” she said casually. “Nevertheless, we feel that this research–and this research alone–has a chance of saving us all. These children are our hope. We gave one child the power to destroy–the Destruction gene. To the other child, we gave the power to change–the Alteration gene. However, we do not believe that these two powers alone will be enough to stand up to the 4D being known as the Creator. We believe that our survival rests on one thing: we must enter 4D space and defeat the Creator. That is why we decided to give the next child, Professor Esteed’s child, the power to connect space–the Connection gene. She will be able to use this symbological power to create a path through the Time Gate and enter 4D space.” Thanatas snerked, “Kinda redundant to give her the power to connect space when she was already capable of it in the first place.” Sophia turned to the death knight and raised an eyebrow, “I can?” ”Of course you could. Everyone in our family is capable of traveling to different universes at will. We are a family of multiverse travelers after all.” “So how do I do it?” “I’d rather not show you yet. It would ruin the journey and this thing has been pretty entertaining.” Sophia rolled her eyes then turned back to the video. “The childrens’ powers will not flower immediately. However, when these three children come together, their different special symbological genes will resonate, and it should be possible for them to utilize their powers. Beyond this, they must learn control by applying their powers in combat.” The rest of the video was basically an apology to Fayt, Maria and Sophia for what they did as well as saying that what they did from now on was up to them and they could choose whether to fight or accept annihilation. Sophia deadpanned, “Seriously? That’s not even a choice at all. That’s basically saying that we either fight or die.” “Reminds me of when a certain someone tried to make a deal to bust me and Fayt out of prison,” Cliff said jokingly. Nel remained silent. “The only thing we learned from this was the hacker’s motivation. This just means that they are a threat to the princesses,” Twilight said. “We need to head to the Time Gate on the planet Styx and confront Azure and flush out her allies.” “Alright, then let’s get going,” Sophia said. Twilight deactivated the transport jammer in the lab to allow them to transport directly onto Twilight’s ship.