//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Protogens in Equestria // by Kurookumera //------------------------------// We were enjoying the cruise when the Shuttles hull starts to creak followed by a loud Bang, rocking the shuttle and knocking things around. Then the sirens blared loudly as the the two of us started to run about the cockpit pressing buttons, pulling levers, and checking the consoles, most of which are down. "Get onto the FTL console and reverse the FTL engines Kamori!" My green visor showing an exclamation mark of urgency. "I'm trying Shadow! The console won't respond!" The protogen with navy blue fur and a red visor color responded. Their faceplate sowing asterisks and a water droplet, indicating struggle. "How about you help steer the ship instead of yelling at me you stupid butterfly!" She yelled, the side panels on her visor showing an anger mark. "W-what? That's not fair, they aren't even active right now." I responded, quickly getting into the pilot chair. "Shadow, FTL thrusters are down! So is the Warp Drive! The only ones we have active are the backup rocket thrusters!" "Well then activate those because we're about to hit a planet and if we do, we won't survive!" A few systems caught fire and Kamori quickly put them out with a fire extinguisher and ended up painting my galactic fur white. She stopped to giggle at my new look, my visor showed annoyance. "Get back in the seat and get strapped in Kamori, we're about to land hard and fast!" "Just how I like it!" She exclaimed as she buckled into the chair. "Not the time for jokes!" I said straining to get the shuttle to fly correctly. As the shuttle keeps going down, it starts falling apart as we start crashing into a lot of trees. The wings, the engines, then the backup thrusters. This was most definitely gonna suck. We start nearing the ground and I turn on the Magnetic engines that create a magnetic pulls strong enough to try and slow the shuttles fall. The second we start to touch the dirt the speed starts to rapidly decline and slams me into the floor and tosses me to the front of the cockpit, pinning me against the wall till we come to a complete stop. "Are you alright?" Kamori asks me. "Yeah. Visor isn't damaged and neither are my limbs." I say as I touch the nano plating. "I'ma check outside. Make sure the equipment is functioning. Especially the Nanotech printer. Without it, we won't be able to print parts or equipment. Not to mention we won't be able to revive ourselves without the proper medical stuff." Normally someone would be more worried about this sorta thing but we've been thought a lot together. Almost died in her arms once. Wasn't pleasurable experience but I lived. I made fun of her for her feminine cry. Harsh? Kinda. Whenever I said ladies first, she'd say 'Im no lady.' so I had a lot of fun for It. Although she made fun of me for how dumb it was. To be fair, it was pretty dumb. I wasn't really paying attention. An enemy had walken right up to me and started casual conversation. When I realized they were an enemy they put an energy bullet through my armor gap. She never let me live that one down. "Wait! Don't go out. What if there's no air?" "We crashed into trees during our crash landing. I'm sure it's fine." I say as I open the door only to fall. Thankfully my electronic wings activate before I hit the ground. "Butterfly." She says smugly. She calls me butterfly because of the amount of times I fall. The first time she was pretty freaked out. She calls me butterfly everytime I fall to make fun of my clumsiness. I just grumble and right myself. We're in a dense forest. "It's dark. We should stay in the shuttle until we can print up some combat armor." I fly back up to the door, close it behind me, and lock it. My blue nano wings create a glitching effect and deactivate. "So the printers working?" "Yup. It's a miracle that none of them are damaged." "They're built to survive an explosion. I'm going to get started on the armor and I want you to enable security protocol 8. If the cameras are damaged that's fine. All we need are the motion sensor alerts to make sure nothing is getting too close. After that get some rest, I'll join you in a minute." "Join me huh? We finally getting frisky?" She says in a low tone. "No. Information exchange via direct link." I say as I start the printer. She sighs before leaving. The printer silently whirs as it starts creating the combat armor. We shouldn't need weapons, we can protect ourselves without them pretty well. But we should still go over the combat training program just in case. --- Fabricating the armor took some time since we didn't have all the materials. The nanites will create the missing materials but it requires extra time. So while they're going I grab the communicator and get on the comms. "This is Shuttle 5 to base, I repeat, shuttle 5 to base, is anyone receiving this transmission?" When I let go all I get back is static. I try again and still get nothing. I start a distress beacon with a recorded message. "This is Exploration shuttle 5 in need of assistance. Every engine and thruster are down. Our fabricators aren't made for creating new engine parts and we're stranded on an unknown planet, coordinates attached. Please send a rescue team as soon as possible." Then I put it on repeat. The armor has been fabricated so I put them on Mannequins of us. Or, Protoquins as I like to call em. When I get to Kamori, she's already in sleep mode. I suddenly jerk up and our environment's in shambles. The building we're in has been basically blown to pieces. Kamori is wearing her heavy combat armor which covers her entire body and encrypts her voice as well as muffle it. "You alright shadow? Got hit pretty hard." I look around to see and hear explosions going off. "Also you didn't have to do that. Take that bullet for me I mean. Ballistic weapons can't damage this armor." "Yeah I know. But it wasn't intentional. I was trying to get you down but I ended up receiving it instead. Don't get me wrong though. Would of taken it for you in a heartbeat any day." "That's stupid. You're only going to get yourself killed like that. Nice to know you care though. Perhaps there is a heart under all that armor, eh Cyber Assassin?" She playfully elbows me. "Oh it's more than caring." I lean in and whisper into her ear,"it's love." With that, her ear does an adorable flick and she turns away. I'm sure she's blushing under that helmet. "Let's save the flirting for the dancefloor. Let's move." "Copy that." I say and then I'm suddenly back in the room. Seems I was just relieving a memory. After a few moments I collect myself and join her in bed, touching visors to create the virtual link. "I was starting to wonder if you were going to join me at all." Her VR avatar is a biped Fox, as mine is just myself but with the combat armor on. She seems upset. "We're going to review the combat simulation then hyper sleep." Hyper sleep is done in the virtual world where we rest. Time in the real world slows when inside the virtual world by 75%. "But the sims are so boring. They aren't even difficult." "The reason is because we specialize in it. You remember how everyone else struggled back in class right? Now, no more complaining. Let's start." We trained for 8 virtual hours with a few sparring matches. It ended with a tie and during those practices we learned new moves. Like when she deflects my punch downward and I learned a follow up move to do a spin and use my elbow. Caught her off guard with it. But if caught, it leaves you open. I tried it a second time and she got me in the spine, kicked the back of my leg to put me on my knees and declared a checkmate. I agreed because at the angle, my neck could be snapped. After that we rested for 12 hours virtual time and got up, putting on the combat armor. We bonked combat covers visors to check their durability. Didn't do anything to either one other than make a dink sound. With that we start our tracking program to mark the shuttles location and begin walking about. "Any idea where we're going? Even with this armor, we aren't able to handle energy weapon blasts much. 29 to 60 shots at the most." She says with a worried. "The chances of this place being occupied by another army is slim. Else the area would of already been mapped. The most we'd probably have to deal with is wild animals. Our combat sensors will pick up dangers and other electronics." My visor flashes green. "Life signs nearby. So let's have a look and say hello to the natives." I turn to the signal and come into a clearing where three wooden wolves are attacking three fillies. One of which had wings. "Well let's get this over with." As we start heading towards them the wooden wolves took notice. One lounges at me and I block the bite with the armor around my wrist and listen to the wooden teeth break. I fling the wolf into the air and punch through it's body on its way down. It shattered into pieces. This seems to of scared the other wolves as they run. The three fillies are just staring at us, shivering. Kamori moves over and picks one up. "Poor thing is scared." She coos. The platting on her palm opens up so she can pet them. "MONSTER!" the orange filly yells as kicks away from her before the three of them take off running and screaming. "I think we just met the natives Shadow." She says as she scratches her ears. "Yeah. An alien planet that no proto has been on before and we're the first ones to discover it." I say as I look at the pieces of the destroyed wolf. "I hope the distress beacon reaches someone."