In the vastness of the galaxy, there are uncountable systems, each one floating around the central supermassive black hole. Each one capable to be the scenario of amazing and epic stories, although, well,... it's not like Warhammer 40k lacks epicity.
But today, we're gonna see a specific system, one essential to continue the tale of the equusian faction. These creatures called the system Sky Treasure system or S.T.-s, as an abbreviation.
This name was given in honour to the ship Sky Explorer, fallen 1 week before in the Void Battle, against the tyranids.
When the equusians arrived in the system, they quickly landed on the second planet of the system, a rocky planet a bit smaller than Equus and similar to our Mars. With red sand, an unbreathable atmosphere, sand storms, the entire pack.
The first thing they did after landing was establishing a little, but functional, base on a plain of the planet. There was oxygen, normal pressure levels, in short, there they could live, temporally.
Void Escape was a fleet mostly oriented towards the fight, not colonization, it had just the indicated materials to build the base and continue with the next phase.
The key to expand to this system was a powerful artifact the ships protected through their ship.
A mirror portal.
Not a portal like the forbidden ones, this wouldn't create a path between dimensions, but between S.T.-s and Equus-s. Thanks to the power of a new seed of harmony they carried, the portal could create a connection with another one in Equus, allowing to transport quickly and safely every resource necessary for colonization.
However, this would mean the use of a lot of power of the spirit of harmony and it being distracted from the rest of the world, being mostly focused on keeping the portal opened. Although, it could stop if the situation requires it, closing the path between the two planets.
Spacestar stayed absorbed in his work. The faint beige magic light from his horn held the pencil rigid, in a constant movement and drawing the various sketches of his next projects.
Now that they established in this new planet, Spacestar was given the task of designing new vehicles to explore this world... the lack of a name was a bit annoying, the cartographers were discussing it though.
At his plans, any creature could see what it seemed to be a big box with thick limbs, Spacestar truly liked his idea, however, the design was not finished and the concept should be reviewed, just in case.
The task of developing something as this would usually require several staff members, but Spacestar was not one of the best engineers for nothing. Each technical problem, which presented, he could solve it quickly. In addition, the contributions of geological and atmospheric research were fundamental to conceive the proper idea.
"Heeeyyyy! Space' buddy, how's everything going here?" The question surprised Spacestar, who turned backwards to see who asked. Obviously, it was the only creature that called him Space' buddy.
"Very fine, Volkano. I am still working on this new vehicle I was asked for. And you? Everything's fine captain?" Spacestar asked.
"Well yes. The ships are now like... off, I mean, some are doing more scans of the system, but nothing more. Which gave me free time to visit my friend."
"Aw, thank you."
"Why? I was referring to Jerry, you know, that diamond dog in charge of Geology, he sure knows what gems are the best."
Spacestar's face turned inexpressive, looking at the dragon with staring, opened eyes. Then the both began to laugh, strongly.
"HHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAAAHAHHA!!!"
"You know? Your jokes sometimes aren't that funny, but I liked this one," Spacestar said, wiping away a little tear of laughter with his right hoove.
"Thank you, I've been practicing my comedy," Volkano explained, right after the dragon recognized some books at Spacestar's desk. "Hey, is that the Brightdawn's encyclopedia of rediscovered magic? My great-grandmother had one of those, although it was in a dead language. How did you manage to get a copy? The original was written 10.000 years ago, nobody wants to translate it."
"Oh. No, well, an AI novelist owned me a favour, so I asked him to help me with this," The unicorn said. "I hope I can put something similar to cutie mark magic in the vehicles, but well... I was never good with magic."
"Cutie mark magic? That's really a goo-" suddenly, the communication device from Volkano's wrist began to ring, this was the sign of a new message, which Volkano looked with attention. "Sorry," He exclaimed, "but one of those dust storms is coming, I have to go."
"Go. I will continue with this, good luck."
Meanwhile, above the unbreathable atmosphere of the recently discovered planet, a reunion was going to happen, in the main room of Void Master. Garlid Gobu, captain of the ship, reunited with the ex-captain Seaforce, the hippogriff once in charge of Sky Explorer. They discussed about this new system, how finally, the cartographers decided names for the planets, each one would have two names actually, a more "scientific" name and a normal one.
The first planet was S.T.-1, his common name would be Bloodstone, due to his red color and high volcanic activity, no natural satellites, terraformation unsure.
The second one, where their base was located, was called S.T.-2 or Palomino, no natural satellites, terraformation possible.
S.T.-3, common name still pending, analyze it was difficult because it was now on the other side of the star, Skystar. Unknow of natural satellites presence, terraformation unsure.
After that, there was S.T.-4, Aris. This planet had a lot of mountains and an atmosphere incompatible with life. 2 little natural satellites and able to terraform.
The last planet was S.T.-5 or Umbru, a gas giant with 32 natural satellites for now and unable to terraform.
When the conversation between the captain and his comrade was to finish, a centaur ran towards them. He told that the scanners of S.T.-3 finished and they discovered something amazing.
The planet wasn't only suitable for life, it had life. Intelligent life, civilization was detected.
Quickly, and with pure determination in his eyes, Seaforce asked to lead the first contact mission to redeem himself for the failure of Sky Explorer. His request was accepted and he was commanded with two support fleets to travel to S.T.-3 and create a diplomatic relationship or discover if this alien creatures were hostile too.
The trip wasn't long and the support ships arrived soon to the planet. There they discovered that this civilization already had space ships, although obviously very different to the equusians ships. Their ships seemed more like a bunch of metallic staff united wildly, some crew members even could swear having seen holes in the ships.
They tried to establish communication via radio, this didn’t work though, so the ships approached a bit more to the planet without giving signals of wanting to cause harm.
But even so, the ships were attacked. The pilots had to make a desperate force landing on the planet, it was hard, but the ship where Seaforce was resisted. The other one didn't, when it was some hundreds of meters over the land, missiles attacked it.
When Seaforce stood inside the ship after the landing, he asked himself a lot of questions, but still, he focused and began to think a plan, even with all the shouts outside.
Outside of the ship only a sound could be heard.
WAAAAAAAAAAGHH!!!!!!!