“Don’t forget to bow!”
As Xander was pushed out of the cockpit and into the troop bay of the Skyranger, he was confronted by a bruised Crimson with a missing breastplate, and a majestic white figure. With Mkoll’s words ringing in his ears, he attempted a short bow; before his exoskeleton harness locked with a crunch of metal. Before he could make any apologies, a voice, cut through with whispers of power, spoke out.
“Greetings Human, your friend directed me to speak to you with regards to what is going on here; and I for one would like to exactly what is going on here.”
Xander straightened and gave a quick salute. “I can understand why that would be an important detail. In short, my team and I deployed here to chase down that UFO that crashed in the fields over yonder.” He explained, gesturing vaguely toward the smoking wreck on the horizon. He then strode past the pair and down the ramp; taking a deep breath and tasting the chill and ash on the wind, he continued.
“I am Commander Otto Xander, the man standing next to you is Corporal Rook O’Nayl, and the man in the cockpit behind me is Lieutenant Roderick Mkoll; so, with our introductions complete, mind if I ask who you are?”
The figure spread her wings as she stepped down the ramp after him, before inclining her head in a shallow bow before replying.
“I am Princess Celestia Solari, Alicorn of the Sun and Diarch of Equestria. The town we currently stand in is Harvest, in the Gold Valley province.”
“I see, it’s an honour to meet you, and I’m afraid you’ll have to excuse me for a moment, this really isn’t the time for a pleasant chat, there are still more aliens around; as well as a problematic situation with the chunk of wreckage over to the North.” Xander sighed and turned to Crimson, still standing at the top of the ramp. “Would you be so kind as to reel in your null-field?”
“Yes sir, already done. Sod’s law at work isn’t it? What with the whole suddenly Princess and suddenly… whatever’s in that cargo pod.”
“Sod’s law indeed Crimson; that pod is full to the brim with Brainsuckers.” The colour drained from Crimson’s face as Xander spoke. “Fortunately, there don’t seem to be any large rents in the hull that they can escape from; AJ has formed a cordon around it and is watching for any of the little orange buggers.” Xander reassured him. With a glance over Xander’s shoulder to the patiently waiting Celestia, Crimson nodded and headed off toward the outskirts of Harvest.
“I’m not much use on patrol without any armour; I’ll go join that cordon. Keep me updated will you? I know how forgetful you get Commander, especially considering I’m a Private.”
Xander paled a little. “You are? Well, consider it a promotion. Keep up the good work; tell no one or I’ll tell Jester to give you a high-five.”
Xander turned back to Celestia and gestured toward a nearby shop.
“Shall we talk inside?”
***
Celestia was intrigued. Xander had introduced himself as their Commander, but seemed to maintain a comfortable level of informality with his troops. Even so, there was a certain air about the Human; one that hinted at age, experience and sheer mental determination. Her student had once remarked upon a similar air that Celestia carried, and she wondered if Xander was thinking something along the same lines. The Human’s face was very expressive, almost like a flattened version of one of her pony’s faces; even so, the lined face was surprisingly difficult to read, and his body language offered no hint; the metallic frame holding his body as steady as a rock.
“So, Xander, I need to know just what you plan on doing, and what you’ve done so far.” She thought it best to be direct and straight to the point, none of the pointless verbal dancing that some nobles were oh-so-fond of. Xander seemed to share similar sentiments, and there was a general relaxing of his face.
“Well, when we landed, that big pile of rubble over there had just collapsed and some Micronoid aliens were shooting all of the civilians. Our arrival spooked them a little, and most of the… ponies managed to get away and to safety. We swiftly manoeuvred to cut down the aliens and did so; in the meantime one of my men made contact with one of the locals, one ‘Fallow Fields’. With the area cleared I instructed my man and your pony to go and see if they can round up any survivors so we can get them to safer places.”
Celestia nodded. “I see, when you say safer places you mean…”
Xander frowned. “This may be a bit awkward to explain, but at the moment, there still a few Anthropods and Skeletoids running and these buildings provide next-to-no cover from their weaponry. So we’re taking them aboard the either aboard the Skyranger, or into the building behind it, seeing as the Skyranger has enough armour for more than a few hits.”
“I am grateful to you but still not entirely trustful Xander, if you attempt to harm my little ponies in any way, I will destroy you. Know that I will be watching you very closely, and that not much escapes the eye of someone who has lived for as long as I have.” Celestia glared at Xander; she felt as if she could, and probably should trust him, but to let her guard down would be foolish, and would invite destruction. To his credit, Xander took the threat in his stride.
“I can definitely see your point, I give you my assurances that no harm shall come to them, for what little my word is worth to you… I need to go check on the situation at the pod, care to join me? We can probably find a few more hiding ponies along the way.”
Celestia smiled and gestured for Xander to lead the way; the Human was confident and refused to crack under pressure. He reminded her of herself, many, many years ago. With a sound like the soft tinkling of wind chimes, Celestia’s horn lit up and swept away the rubble and wreckage littering the marketplace, sweeping it all into a pile in the centre.
Xander took a step back, shocked. “What the hell? What was that?”
“It’s magic, Xander; I would have thought one as accomplished in the magical arts as you are would be able to recognize it.”
“You mean my psionics? That’s not magic, that’s just natural selection. Magic is a myth… on Earth at least.” Xander growled. “We need to go, but we’ll talk about this later.”
***
The cargo pod lay in the crushed ruins of a small house. The house looked like it had once been quite impressive, made of wood and furnished with pillars of polished marble; but it had been reduced to splinters and rock shards by the alien pod as it dug its way into the town, leaving a trail of upturned dirt and demolished buildings behind it. Hoofprints in the snow around the pod indicated that some of the local ponies had plucked up the courage to move close, before presumably being scared off by the sounds of battle coming from the town centre.
With her bionic eye whirring, AJ studied the pod. It was made of the same unidentifiable compound of metal and flesh that all of the alien’s tech was made of, and was radiating surprising amounts of heat; the packed Brainsuckers inside moving and wriggling generating immense amounts of it.
After Xander’s radio message, he had gone completely silent. Deciding to take the initiative, AJ took Fitzpatrick, Kerlav and Jones to form a cordon around the pod; intending to stop any curious natives or escaping Brainsuckers. Kronsky had joined them shortly after, as had Ryan and Brad. Brad had joined the cordon and was watching the pod intently, eyes peeled for any sign of movement; while Kronsky took Ryan up and onto one of the nearby roofs. After a few failed attempts at staying stable on the sloped roofs of the houses, Ryan had instead opted to commandeer the top floor of a house overlooking the pod, with Kronsky jumping from roof to roof with his machine gun following his gaze as he scanned the network of streets and alleys for movement.
She hadn’t yet told anyone, but AJ had already crisped a few of the orange, headhugging bastards. There was a small tear in the hull on the top right-hand corner of the side that AJ was facing; the computers of her eye had instantly recognized the creatures and targeted them with a small crosshair; all AJ had to do was follow the crosshair with her laser rifle and let it rip; the near silent weapon incinerating the little beasts with no problem. She was glad that this particular ‘investigation’ had reached the ‘lull point’. The point where a mission stopped being a frantic sweep and clear, and became a calmer waiting game, locking down all exits and simply waiting for the aliens to try to make a break for it.
Lull points were also the most dangerous part of a mission; once everyone had calmed and relaxed, fingers resting off the triggers and weapons hanging low, then that last Popper appears out of a closet, charges at the squad as a little blue thunderbolt, and then detonating like one. AJ shuddered, hand moving to brush the hard outline of her bionic eye; she had been spared a horrible death by a mere centimetre. They had stopped wearing helmets after that, had she been helmetless, she not only would have seen the blue bugger coming, but the resulting detonation would have simply thrown her to the ground, bruised but no worse for wear. Instead, her helmet had buckled, the eyepieces shattered, and her right eye was torn apart in a storm of glass shards and metal fragments. Drawn from her recollections by a mechanical voice over the radio, AJ started.
“AJ, there’s another hole on the East facing side of the pod; a Brainsucker has just made a run for it.”
AJ raised a hand to her headset and transmitted a reply.
“Copy that, who got it?”
“No one, it’s hiding in a small crook between some pieces of rubble. Want me to get it?”
AJ considered this, on one hand; it was the safest and quickest way to eliminate the threat. On the other hand; the report of Ryan’s rifle could probably be heard from the main crash site of the UFO, and that would set everyone on edge. She weighed the options, and made a decision.
“Do it, ah’d rather it died now rather than get away and cause trouble later.”
“Copy.”
A pause.
*Crack!*
The rifle fired for the fourth time that day with its usual deafening report. The large slug turned the small Brainsucker into paste and shattered the blocks of rubble it was hiding behind into mounds of rock dust. Before the last echo of the rifle’s report had been carried off by the breeze, the radio had exploded into life and started bellowing various orders and questions.
“-yone gonna’ answer me?”
“-an someone confirm that sho-“
“Did someone get a confirmed sighti-“
“All clear from up here, what just happened?”
“This is Ryan, target sighted and eliminated, no need to double check; keep your eyes on the pod, there may be more escapees.”
Ryan’s voice silenced the chatter over the radio and calmed the immediate situation, turning minds back to the pod they were supposed to be watching over. Returning his eye to his scope, Ryan scanned over the pod and examined the second tear in the hull. What little he could see of the inside of the pod was obscured by darkness; there was occasional hint of movement, a black shadow against the black background. Confident that AJ had gotten someone to watch that hole-he checked and, just as he thought, the tall MegaPol officer, Kerlav, was watching the hole intently, lawpistol primed and in his hand-Ryan shifted his gaze to the nearby houses that he could see.
After his first quick scan of the windows, Ryan quickly re-oriented on one particular window, alerted by a flash of orange. He remained like this, motionless, for a full minute before daring to quickly sweep the other windows of the house before returning to the first window. After another minute, he saw a brown shape appear in the corner of the window and slowly rise up; training his crosshairs on the shape, Ryan watched as it was raised higher and higher, the rounded shape flattening out into a brim and eventually revealing a pair of green eyes fringed with orange fur and blonde hair. Ryan let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, and pulled his head away from the scope to observe the window from afar.
The pony stared right back at him; he commended its eyesight, it could clearly see him if the wide eyes and slight quivering were any indication of fear, and Ryan was back from the window, resting the very tip of his rifle’s barrel on the windowsill. Raising a black-gloved hand, he gave a little wave and smiled at the pony; still shaking, the pony waved a hoof in return. Letting out a few more emotionless ‘har’s, Ryan returned to the scope, scanning constantly.
***
“I mean it! Stay back foul demon, lest thy monstrous forms become but mere dust in the face of my light!”
“Pastor Funkeln they’re here to help! I swear it, just put the sun-icon down and extinguish your horn!”
The crazed unicorn shook his grey maned head. “Neigh! Not you too Fallow! You were always so pious! But fear not my brother, for I shall cleanse thee of the demons in thy head with holy Celestia’s purifying light!”
Jester shook her head in disbelief as she and Sterling cowered outside the shop, backs pressed against the storefront. “This is bloody insane; maybe we should just stun the nutter.”
Sterling slung his shotgun over his shoulder and drew the stun launcher at his belt. “Maybe, but I doubt their leaders would be happy if the first thing we did was attack one of their subjects with a taser.”
Jester sucked on her teeth. “True, true; but this guy’s about 30 seconds away from trying to perform an exorcism on poor Fallow.”
One of the mares behind Funkeln stood up over the counter and added her voice to the argument.
“Can you not see Funkeln? These aliens were helping us, and they killed all the aliens that attacked us in the first place!”
The unicorn, Funkeln, whirled around to face the mare.
“Their evil magicks have clouded your minds and obscured your vision! Only I can see them for what they truly are! They are demons! Agents of Chaos! Followers of The Discordant Master! They must be driven out lest their madness spread across the land!” Funkeln lowered his horn at the mare and growled menacingly.
“And those that defend them are already lost.” He hissed. His horn began to glow with the beginnings of a simple light spell, when he was tackled from behind by Fallow. Funkeln roared and attempted to buck him off, but Fallow held fast and clamped his forelegs around the unicorn’s horn, blocking the flow of magic.
Avaunt thee foul creature! Celestia’s might shall smite thee from the face of Equestria and back to the pits of Tartarus from whence you came! Behold! For Our lady of the Light has arrived! Free me, Princess, and I shall prove my worth! For I am sworn ever to your service when at peace and when at war!”
Fallow struggled to maintain a hold on the wriggling unicorn as he craned his neck over his shoulder to see what had drawn the crazed unicorn’s eye. His mouth dropped open as he saw Princess Celestia, in full regalia with her wings outstretched to their full breadth, standing in the doorway; flanked by Jester and Sterling, with the figure of Xander hobbling along behind them.
“P-princess Celestia! T-this isn’t what he says! He’s… damaged.” Fallow stuttered.
Celestia looked upon the scene, taking in the cloth bandages that had been wrapped around the incensed unicorn’s head; the scorch marks that lined the walls and ringed his horn. The crowd of mares and stallions pressed into the corner, trying to get some distance between them and the injured Pastor.
The concussed pony wasn't capable of much, but was panicked and jumping at non-existant shadows; not wanting to risk somepony getting hurt, she stepped gracefully into the room on long legs, she reached out and pressed a hoof to Fallow’s forehead and closed her eyes. Seeking to appease the madpony, she spoke.
“Fallow Fields the demons in your mind have been cleansed and you are pure, without taint.”
Catching on, Fallow slid off Funkeln’s back and sank to the floor in a flood of crocodile tears.
“Oh thank You you came! The creature got me during the initial battle, and I’ve been a prisoner in my own mind ever since!”
Pastor Funkeln scrambled to his hooves and bowed deeply before Celestia. “My Princess I knew you would hear my prayers and arrive to deliver us from the chaos that has descended upon Harvest! I-“
Celestia cut him off by putting a golden-clad hoof in his mouth. Leaning in, she whispered: “Your duty is done my little pony, you may rest now.” The air tingled with static as Celestia enforced her Will.
“Neigh my… Princess… there is still so… so… so… much to… do…” Funkeln slumped and his head almost hit the wooden floor before its descent was slowed in the gentle cradle of Celestia’s magic.
Fallow stood back up and looked down at the sleeping form of Pastor Funkeln. With no more than a remorseful whinny, he made his way over to the group of ponies in the corner. Celestia felt a hand on her shoulder; turning to face the human, she was greeted by the smiling face of Jester, who offered out her bionic hand to shake. Celestia peered at the hand for a moment, then recognized the gesture and shook it.
Jester’s smile grew. “Hi ma’am, I’m Atlanta Collins, but everyone calls me Jester, thanks for the help there, we were about to try… rougher solutions-not killing! No no, we were going to stun him.”
Xander caught up with Celestia and panted out an introduction.
“Hey Jester, *huff* this is the pony *huff* Princess, *huff* Celestia, Jester; Jester, Celestia. *huff* I-whew- I’m too damn old for this. Excuse me.” Xander turned and put a hand on his chest while he regained his breath. Sterling moved up behind Jester and performed a quick salute.
“Pleasure to meet you Princess, I’m Sergeant Dan Sterling.” Celestia only nodded in response, growing tired of the constant stream of introductions.
The group of ponies in the back of the shop had calmed down and were beginning to file out of the shop. All seemed well until a deafening sound split the air.
*Crack!*
The group of ponies reared and scattered, some running back into the shop, others diving under stalls as the Humans dived behind various pieces of cover.
“AJ! AJ respond dammit! Ryan? Ryan! Is anyone gonna’ answer me?” Xander swore under his breath and closed his eyes, going bodiless and heading for the cargo pod. Celestia took several steps back as the immense magical wave passed over her head and started sweeping between buildings and down alleys. She turned to Jester.
“What is he doing?”
Jester moved next to Xander and pushed on his frame. Xander rocked on his feet and didn’t react to her prodding; nodding, she turned to Celestia. “He’s a powerful psionic, he’s ‘gone bodiless’ as we call it. He basically shuts off his brain to his body and directs all thought to his psionics; allowing him to search areas with just his mind.” Jester leaned forward and continued in a conspiratorial whisper. “He’s probably the most powerful psionic ever, the only person I know that could beat him in a one-on-one fight is Crimson, ‘cause he can just shut down his psionics.”
Celestia mumbled a confirmation, turning facts over in her head. Xander had denied all knowledge of his magical prowess; was he lying all this time? Was he trying to keep his assets from Celestia? But Jester called Xander a powerful psionic, as had Xander himself; was that a Human version of magic? Xander had spoken to Crimson about a ‘null-field’, and Jester said that he could shut down psionics; but from Celestia’s point of view, Crimson could drain or suppress all of the magic in his immediate area. That was how he had dealt with the alien in front of her when she landed. Celestia let out a small grunt of irritation, so many questions and so much to confirm and disprove! This was something much better suited to her student; she would love an opportunity to find out about these Humans. Maybe if Celestia sent a letter asking her to-no; that would be cruel, Twilight had enough to deal with already, what with her friendship studies and-
Wait, what was in the last letter she sent? Celestia wracked her brain and tried to conjure up the image of the brown scrolls that Twilight was so fond of, sorting through the many that she had been sent, Celestia managed to call to mind the latest scroll sent.
Everything is business as usual in Ponyville at the moment, I’m sorry I don’t have a friendship report for you this time, but I felt I should warn you of possible reports coming from my friends. Pinkie is… being Pinkie and doing something bizarre with Rainbow Dash, something about the Everfree forest and the pranks they could pull with Poison Joke (I’m trusting nothing blue for the next week) Rarity is off to Manehatten to attend a major fashion show. Fluttershy isn’t doing anything much, but we’ll find something to get up to I’m sure.
Oh! I almost forgot, Applejack is going to deliver this month’s apple quota to Harvest instead of Big Mac, she said that there was a stallion there she wanted to see there, and that it would be good to have a little break; the farm would be fine as long as Big Mac’s around to keep up the daily chores. She’ll be back by Wednesday.
That’s all for now.
Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle
Applejack was somewhere in Harvest.
*What’s going on Ryan?*
Ryan, still watching the still town from his vantage point above the pod, jumped and turned to face the voice out of nowhere. Finding nothing, he fixated on a random point on the wall and spoke.
“Geeze Commander use the radio next time, I jumped a foot in the air!”
*Sorry, your shot spooked all the locals, and I need to know what’s going on.* The psionic thoughts had no inflections or emotions, but Ryan imagined Xander sounded impatient and irked.
“Taking care of a little Brainsucker escapee, sir; the situation’s handled.” Ryan replied, suitably admonished.
Xander mentally sagged with relief. *Good, I’m really not ready to deal with that pod opening, keep me posted.*
“Will-do Commander.”
Xander reeled his mind back in time to hear AJ’s voice come over the radio.
“Sorry ‘bout that sir, Brainsucker almost got away, Ryan had ta’ take him.” AJ’s voice came through faintly, as though she was a continent away, and the signal was cut through with static.
Xander reached for his radio on instinct and had sent a confirmation without even thinking about it; his mind was elsewhere, but not in a literal sense. He was coming to a conclusion about the radio interference. Suddenly, a smile appeared on his face and he turned to look at Jester.
Jester leaned back. “That’s an evil grin there sir, what’cha got?”
Grin never leaving his face, Xander spoke loudly and rapidly. “Jester! Pop quiz 1-2-3-go! List the main tells of an open interdimensional gate or breach.”
“Heat haze, feeling of vertigo or nausea, electronic devices overloading and malfunctioning and a wash of static across all major, and most minor, radio waves.” Jester replied instantly.
“’A wash of static across all major, and most minor, radio waves.’” Xander repeated excitedly, “Isn’t it obvious! The static! There’s still an inter-dimensional breach somewhere that we could force open and get some reinforcements through!” Xander whirled about on his heels and started striding toward the open Skyranger. “Mkoll! Get on the horn to the MacArthur and punch through this static. I want you to send them a message! ‘We need a rumble cannon and AFV.’ Send it! Also, see if you can send the audio and visual logs of the mission so far, Bezial would love to get some pictures of the locals.”
As the suddenly upbeat and sprightly man clomped heavily away in his exoskeleton, Celestia turned to Jester and raised an eyebrow. Jester, who was on her hands and knees encouraging a Pegasus out from underneath a market stall, she smirked and answered the Princess’ unspoken question.
“And that’s why he’s Otto ‘Mind-Like-A-Goldfish Xander.”
***
“We just don’t have the vehicle for it sir, and even if we did, Dr Bezial’s dimension gate projector was never tested, we never had to.”
Captain Blaine ran his fingers through his short black hair. Pacing from one end of the bridge to another, he racked his brain for something, anything that they could do to get Xander a rumble cannon.
He stopped pacing. “What about the civilians? Some of them brought vehicles with them.”
Midshipman Crowley looked his Captain dead in the eye. “Oh sure Captain, let’s ask the civilians if they have an Armoured Fighting Vehicle and then see if we can borrow it and stick a sound gun on top.”
Blain glared at the man. “Stow that attitude Crowley, it’s helping nothing.”
“Captain, Dr Bezial sends his thanks on behalf of the science team for forwarding the mission data.” The comms officer reported.
“He’s very welcome.” Aiming his next question at the entirety of the bridge crew, he asked: “Does anyone have an idea? I don’t care how daft or improbable, just tell me.”
An awkward silence filled the bridge until a junior ensign spoke up. “Well Captain, let’s assume that Bezial’s device is going to work perfectly; we could mount a rumble cannon in the back of an Airtrans. We’d have to put in some beefy power generators, and it would have to land before firing, but I think it would be doable.”
Blaine nodded, deep in thought. “Maybe, what’s your name ensign?”
The ensign clicked his heels and snapped a salute. “Lovell, Captain.”
Blaine strode towards Lovell and spoke in a tone that the rest of the bridge had to strain to hear. “Well then Mister Lovell, go down to the hangar and see if there are any Airtrans’ about.”
“Aye aye sir.”
The comms officer stood and called out another message. “Captain, we've got a disturbance in the main arterial between here and cargo three!”
Blaine frowned, ‘now is not the time for such problems!’ He thought, angrily. Outwardly, he sighed.
“Put it on the viewscreen, comms.”
The man sat back down at his console and tapped a few commands in; moments later, surveillance camera footage of ‘Art B-CIII’ appeared on the large screen at the fore of the bridge. The footage showed a number of people and tents being shoved and shunted around as a group of marines and a young man in the red cloak of a Librarian escorted…
Escorted a Griffin AFV down the arterial towards the bridge.
“What kind of dumb luck is this? And since when did the Guild of Librarians have a tank?”
Blaine’s voice was incredulous. The bridge crew peered at the grainy footage and Midshipman Crowley made an accurate observation.
“Look closer Captain, it doesn’t have a turret, and the troop bay looks modified.”
The longer Captain Blaine looked at the live feed, the more obvious these differences became. The AFV looked oddly stocky without a turret, but there were milled rings and a modified hatch to cover where the turret would go; and the troop bay looked like it had been enlarged, slight differences in height and material betraying the subtle enlargement.
As the AFV moved down the arterial, it crushed an abandoned tent beneath its treads; moments after this, a large man in reflective clothing confronted the Librarian, his gestures and posture making his anger clear to Blaine and the bridge crew, who had to go without sound.
The man, presumably the owner of the crushed tent, was shouting at the stead-faced Librarian, who regarded the man with expressionless eyes until he was shoved backwards into the still-moving AFV.
His young face suddenly twisted with anger, the Librarian got back up before the treads of the AFV rolled over him and thumped twice on its hull. The AFV immediately halted, and the Librarian waved off the marines as he confronted the angered man. In a single swift movement, the Librarian swept away the cloak covering his right side and raised his arm, palm open toward the man. There was a device strapped to the Librarian’s arm, with wires trailing down to something in his palm; a moment of the angered man staring at the Librarian’s palm, before he was picked up and flung off his feet and into the crowd of people behind him by an invisible wave of force.
The crowd dragged the unconscious man away, and redoubled their efforts to get their possessions and bodies out of the way of the AFV and Librarian. Another pair of thumps on the AFV’s hull and it started rolling again. The driver must have said something to the Librarian as he threw his head back in laughter, slowly marching toward the bridge.
Blaine walked over to the comms console and flicked a series of switches; the footage disappeared from the screen and was replaced with the exterior view of volcanic plains and dust of the alien world.
“I’m going to go meet them halfway, XO Mathuin, you have the deck.”
***
*If they just paid attention to what’s going on not 30 metres away then we could just roll on down here with ease.*
The blunt psi-speak was shunted into Kadzie’s mind with the delicacy of a drunken knife-man and he winced at the sudden and sharp headache it caused. He focused his thoughts in such a way that they could be read by Murray in the Data Engine.
*Yeah, but these people are confused enough as it is. That and I think they’re used to the clanking of tracks down the city streets at night.*
*-laugh- Yeah I suppose. Oh, a quick heads up, Captain Blaine is making his way through the crowd. He’s about… 20 feet or so from you.*
Kadzie looked up and scanned the sea of faces; seeing a multitude of colours and races, even spying the solid black insectoid eyes of a Hybrid. Kadzie had never met Captain Blaine personally, but had seen photographs and holo-stills of the man, and could easily pick his face out from the crowd. Blaine didn’t look angry or irritated that they were causing this entire ruckus, in fact, he looked surprised and happy. Kadzie made the same two thump signal on the hull of the Data Engine and Murray put the brakes on and drifted to a halt.
Stepping forward and unconsciously pulling his cloak tighter to himself, Kadzie stepped forward to meet the Captain. The throng of people between the two of them suddenly opened up and Blaine closed the distance. Holding out his left hand, Kadzie introduced himself.
“Greetings Captain Blaine, I’m Librarian Kadzie, it’s an honour to meet you.”
Blaine looked at Kadzie’s preferred hand with a look of confusion. “Charmed I’m sure; let’s skip the pleasantries shall we? One Commander Xander just sent a request for a rumble cannon equipped AFV not five minutes ago, and this is just too coincidental an encounter. Care to explain?”
A sly grin appeared on the Librarian’s face. “Well Captain, Scholar Murray and I were browsing through your cargo manifests-“
“Which are classified…” Blaine interjected; Kadzie carried on, overlooking the Captain’s interruption.
“-and saw that you had a rumble cannon in cargo three, so I decided to come up and see about taking it and offering my assistance to Commander Xander. I then managed to overhear Xander’s message to you-“
“Which was encrypted…” Kadzie stared at the Captain as if he were looking at a child asking a foolish question: with incredulous contempt.
“Captain Blaine we are the Guild of Librarians, your computers and minds are like books on a shelf to us: Displayed proudly for all the world to see.” The smile reappeared on his face; “so after listening to the Commander’s request, I decided to snag the first group of marines I could find wandering around, and request an escort to the bridge.” Kadzie revealed the device strapped to his right arm once more.
“They refused at first, but a swift demonstration of the power of a Librarian’s Word was enough to persuade them.”
Blaine studied the device displayed in front of him. A small wire trailed from the tangle of plastic and metal that encased the Librarian’s forearm to something secreted away underneath the rust-red cloak; presumably some kind of power feed. The device was connected to what looked like a small speaker in Kadzie’s palm; on the main body of the device was a small array of knobs and dials set flush into the plastic. Looking back to the Librarian’s face, he saw that Kadzie was smirking, looking Blaine in the eye with an eyebrow raised.
“It’s basically a tiny rumble cannon.”
“I see… since when did the Guild of Librarians have a tank and access to sonic weaponry?”
“You’ve forgotten the sword at my hip, but we’ve had ‘access’ to such things since our founding in 2038. During the second alien war we were the ones that cleaned up what X-COM couldn’t. We got paid in money, respect, favours and military prototypes. All long before my time, but this is what it distilled into.” Kadzie explained, indicating the tank and ‘Word Cannon’.
“Very impressive.” Blaine commented dryly.
“Ah, I’ve started running my mouth haven’t I? I do that, sorry. Well then, shall we find Dr Bezial and his dimension gate?”
“Don’t you need the cannon?” Blaine sighed as he saw what was being dragged behind the AFV; the Librarian was always several steps ahead of him.
Another madman’s grin from Kadzie. “Yeah we’ve already got that, we’ll plug it all in on site.”
Blaine nodded. “Very well, we’ll take it from here Librarian-you man! Get in that AFV and drive it to Dr Bezial’s lab in cargo two!”
Kadzie frowned and stopped the approaching marine with his off-hand. “I’m afraid that won’t be happening Captain. You see, this Data Engine,” he rapped a knuckle against the AFV, “is a modified Griffin AFV. Instead of a troop bay it has a large collection of databanks and computers. It is literally the most valuable thing on this ship.”
Blaine wasn’t so easily convinced. “Oh really, it cost more than 190,000,000 dollars? I find that hard to believe…”
“Not material value Captain, the databanks hold the entire collective knowledge and history of the Human race, and the entire Guild of Librarians died in an effort to get it on this ship. Murray and I are the last, and we will not be putting this beacon of knowledge in the hands of a soldier who will view it as little more than a tool to be discarded after use.” Kadzie’s eyes were hard and his tone was final. “This is not something to be argued Captain.” The Librarian’s eyes softened and the grin reappeared on his face. “So lead the way!”
***
“So let me see if I have this straight…”
Jester had been explaining the situation to Celestia to the best of her abilities, and while she may not have had a way with words like Dr Bezial and the science team did, she felt that she would be able to give a useful opinion. The honest opinion of a ground-pounder was worth so much more than any well-worded account that someone with a PhD put together.
“So, Brainsuckers are small, orange aliens that typically appear in an unhatched state, in pods. These pods are then either fired out of a launcher, or left in inconspicuous locations as booby-traps; these pods will ‘hatch’ upon sensing the psionic presence of a Human.” Celestia dictated, looking to Jester for confirmation. Seeing a reassuring nod, she continued.
“Brainsuckers attack by leaping upon the head of a Human and forcing a long proboscis down the unfortunate victim’s throat, the Brainsucker then discharges its payload of Micronoids-the microscopic psionic leaders of these aliens-into the victim; these Micronoids then subvert control of the host’s body over to them and have a brand new infiltrator or foot-soldier with which they may wreak havoc.”
Jester nodded grimly. “So now you can see why we’re worried about the fact that there could be in excess of a hundred of the little bastards in that pod, even if you gloss over the facts that we have no helmets-not that they protected us much when we did have them- there’s still hundreds of ponies running around with no knowledge of what they are or how to deal with them. Plus, taking into account your description of their natural… magic, I don’t want flying, weather manipulating aliens, nor do I want strong, resilient aliens; and I most definitely don’t want aliens throwing bolts of… magical energy at us.”
Celestia turned to get a good look at the pod that was causing so much trouble, it didn’t look much by itself, of course not, it was little more than a very large box; but the payload…
“Why not simply incinerate them? I have the power of the sun at my command; I very much doubt that they could withstand that.”
Jester gave Celestia a sideways glance. “And could we? More to the point, you’d be surprised how tanky these little buggers get when they’re all packed together like this. By the time you’ve burnt the first, second and third waves, the fourth, fifth and sixth are bearing down on you.” She made a gesture toward the pod with her bionic arm.
“Every time you think you have them figured out, they go and do something else.”
Xander hadn’t returned after hurrying to the Skyranger shouting about AFVs and rumble cannons, curious, Celestia decided to direct the question at Jester.
“What is Xander planning to do to deal with them? What’s a rumble cannon?”
“I’m really not the person to ask on that particular topic, but the general idea of a rumble cannon is a directed wave of sonic energy. You can adjust the frequencies to shake apart buildings, shred vehicles or pulp flesh; it’s terrifyingly versatile, and very power hungry, you need at least a tank to mount it on.” Jester looked over to the silent Skyranger. “And I’d assume that Xander’s plan involves using that to pulp all the Brainsuckers while they’re still in that pod, it should get them all at once, then we can crack it open and incinerate the remains. With that many Brainsuckers, there will be enough Micronoids to cause trouble even without a host, so we’ll keep Crimson about to deal with that.”
Celestia was impressed and slightly scared. What kind of past did a race need to create such horrific weapons? And what kind of horrors had Jester faced to remark upon such destructive capability so… off-handedly? Celestia was getting frustrated, even more questions for her to ask! She cut off her internal monologue as she saw another Human approaching, this one had a pair of red wraparound shades on his face, as well as a torn, damp suit covered with a coat of rubble-dust. As he a approached, he removed his shades to reveal a pair of warm brown eyes.
The brown-eyed Human approached and held out his hand to shake. Upon closer inspection, Celestia could see that this Human was not suited to such exertions, if the dark rings under his eyes were any tell. He also lacked the myriad of scars and disfigurements that all of the other Humans Celestia had met so far owned, and his eyes betrayed a different kind of weariness. This was not a Human that had been fighting as much as one such as Jester had.
“Greetings.” The Human took Celestia’s proffered hoof and shook it before inclining his head in a bow. “I’m David Fitzpatrick, and I’m probably the one you’ll want to talk to after this mess has been sorted; if what Crimson’s told me has any meaning, you and I were once in very similar positions.”
Celestia humoured the man. “Oh really? How so?”
A flicker of a frown crossed David’s face before he could stop it, and he spoke with a tone that spoke of great regret. “I am President Fitzpatrick of Mega-Primus, although I prefer to go by Ex-President now, considering there is no Mega-Primus. We’re in a similar position because Mega-Primus was the last bastion of Humanity, and I was its leader.”
So many of these Humans had scarred pasts and many regrets; Xander had had the look of a Commander, fearful for those under him. Jester’s lack of concern about their weaponry and situation betrayed her denial; Crimson was near insanity, acting with little concern for his own safety; and now Fitzpatrick, a leader who believed that he had lost all and failed his subjects. Yes, Celestia could relate to poor Fitzpatrick, she had felt the same a thousand years ago, as her sister turned to the darkness and betrayed them all.
Deciding to forgo more introductions, Celestia tried to get a feel for the general emotions around her, from the Humans nearby. One Human felt elated, having gotten over a crippling fear and been able to join his fellows in battle; looking over, Celestia saw a Human in blue with a patch in the shape of wings sewn onto his shoulder, standing next to another Human in similar attire, minus the patch. This second Human felt nervous, but gave away no signs of past scarring.
A calm sense of serenity came from a Human in a house not far away, but the calm was marred with a hint of emphatic sorrow. Celestia could not see the Human in question, but assumed that it was the aforementioned Ryan, with the rifle that fired like thunder. Celestia wanted to continue her scanning, but her attention was stolen away by a commotion in a house down the street. The sounds of splintering wood and shattering glass filled the air, along with the sound of hooves on wood, and an animalistic snarl oozed out of the house. A thickly accented voice filtered out between the crashing and growling.
“An’ that’s why ya’ don’t mess with the Apple family!”
There was a wet sound of hooves into flesh and the blue shape of an Anthropod was flung out of the window with great force; before the creature had even hit the road, an orange Earth Pony had leapt out of the window after it, hat flying off in the process.
Applejack landed with a *thump* and nearly slipped on the icy dirt road. Managing to keep her hooves planted firmly on the ground, she stepped up to the creature and began trussing it up with a length of rope. Deft hooves tying knots and wrapping the Anthropod tightly, preventing any and all escape attempts. With the unconscious alien safely subdued, Applejack retrieved her hat, dusted it off and returned it to its rightful place.
A few muted cheers came from the other ponies in the house, and Applejack grinned at faces that Celestia couldn’t see.
“Just givin’ him mah’ honest opinion.”
“Applejack! I’m glad to see you’re alright.”
Applejack whirled to face Celestia, startled. “Princess! Did’ja get em’? Are they all gone?”
“Not quite yet, but soon, the Humans have a plan to deal with the last of them.”
Applejack looked confused for a moment, then something clicked and she brightened.
“Humans? Ya’ mean the fellas who helped us in the marketplace?”
“Quite so, Applejack, them and the ones behind me are the vanguard of an entire race; who have lost much to these aliens, and intend to stop them from doing the same to us.”
Applejack straightened her hat and narrowed her eyes. “Oh really? ‘Cause there’s one I wanna see about scaring the daylights outta me with a big rifle.”
Jester and Fitzpatrick, who had been watching the encounter with bemused looks, both raised a hand to their radios simultaneously as a squeal of static cut through the signal and nearly blew out the eardrums of anyone wearing an earpiece. Applejack, upon hearing the static shrieks, ducked close to Celestia and started looking around anxiously.
*Prepare for imminent dimensional jump. Unknown location, look out for tell-tales.*
As Xander’s psy-message washed over the group, a feeling of nausea welled up while the hair on the backs of their necks rose. Jester was suddenly alert, head snapping this way and that, searching for something; Fitzpatrick looked ill, as if he were about to be sick, as did Applejack.
Celestia suddenly leapt forward, horn ablaze as the pair of Humans and Applejack felt themselves being dragged backwards by Celestia’s powerful telekinesis. Not a moment later, the street disappeared in a flash of light and the sky broke apart with a thunderous sound.
As they blinked the spots out of their eyes, a large red shape began to take shape, outlines gradually forming until, with an anti-climactic *pop*, the AFV snapped into reality. A hatch opened on top of the AFV and another Human raised himself into view. Upon sighting the group, the new-revealed Human smiled apologetically before looking down into the vehicle, talking with someone not yet seen.
The AFV was, at the moment, little more than a large red cuboid, with a bulging rear and large tracks lifting into the air at the fore of the vehicle. The starting of the AFV’s engine was signalled with a small plume of exhaust escaping from the back.
“-so turn off the grav engines! We removed the plates long ago!”
The engine’s tone changed to a smoother, quieter rumble; and the figure stuck his head out of the cupola again.
“Hello! Someone order an AFV? With a rumble cannon garnish and side of paramilitary oraganisation?
***
Fallow Fields and Sterling where sitting against the wall of a house, watching the Librarian dash around the AFV, directing the small team that were fitting the rumble cannon. With Celestia’s help, they had raised the cannon into its dedicated aperture, and the team were connecting power feeds and generally making a meal of the whole ordeal. While the pair watched disinterestedly, a bell in a clock tower outside of the main body of the town chimed once.
With a start, Fallow realised that he had heard the very same bell strike 2 in the afternoon not 5 minutes before the aliens and Humans had arrived; and if the clock had only just tolled half-past… then it had been all of twenty minutes since all of this started. 20 minutes ago, the only thing concerning Fallow was the issue of trying to find someone willing to sell a plough, and now the main thing he was concerned with was merely staying alive. This fact shocked Fallow, and he tried to cast his mind back to the first moments of the attack; alarmingly, he found it difficult to remember exactly what he was doing before the few panicked seconds of pegasi raining from the sky and unicorns falling to the ground.
He remembered haggling with one of the stall-owners over the price of a bushel of… what? Carrots? Spring beans? Any recollection of events from the moments before the alien’s arrival had been seared from his mind as the aliens disintegrated the townsponies.
With a grunt of exasperation, Fallow gave up on the trivial task and decided instead to pull his limbs closer to his barrel. With the heat of battle having since dissipated, the cold was beginning to bite again. Fallow could see that his Human friend was also trying to do the same; pulling his sleeves over his hands and pulling the neck of his coat over his chin. The many similarities in behaviour struck Fallow as funny, and Sterling looked at his Pony companion with look that spoke of bemusement as Fallow chuckled.
“Something funny eh?”
“We’re so alike-races, I mean-, we make the same expressions, the same gestures, right down to the same greetings. Now doesn’t that strike you as at least kind of funny?”
Sterling shrugged. “The universe is weird like that, I stopped questioning it when I saw a Anthropod high-five another.”
Fallow snickered. “That must have been a sight.”
“Hell yeah, it was just a normal day, patrolling the slum quarter, when suddenly- Bang!- there’s an explosion and the wall comes crashing down; as the dust clears, I can see some poor X-COM trooper in crumpled armour on the floor, and these two Anthros step out and look at the guy, then,” Sterling high-fived the air. “Boop! High-fives all round!”
“But what happened to the guy?”
“They’re X-COM, unless it’s overkill, it’s not a kill.” Sterling said wryly.
A mighty cheer went up from the group around the AFV as the turret came to life and swung about, testing its mounting and arc of fire. Celestia said something to the red-cloaked Librarian, who nodded and ducked back into the AFV. The vehicle slowly turned, being careful to not hit anyone, and started to reposition around the pod.
The Brainsuckers inside the pod had been steadily grown more and more agitated, and the sound of Ryan’s rifle had filled the air many times as he executed an escaping alien. The cordon around the pod had swelled to include all the Humans, and even Mkoll had limped his way over, and was standing with a pistol in hand; shifting his weight from his organic leg to his mechanical one.
Sterling got up and grabbed his shotgun, turning to Fallow, he said:
“It’s go time. Stay here, things could get messy.”
***
The interior of the converted AFV was cramped, gloomy and hot; the seat against Kadzie’s back was hot from the engine block situated behind it. A multitude of screens occupied the Librarian’s vision as his hands twitched on the controls, swinging the turret from side to side. Scholar Murray, in the driver’s seat, was marginally more comfortable with the lack of a hot engine block, but was equally cramped and surrounded by various controls. Murray brought the AFV up to the cordon and halted, the troops in front parting to let the red machine through.
As the crowd parted, a sense of anticipation welled up in the group, and a rising hum filled the air, emanating from the shaped barrel of the rumble cannon. Inside, Kadzie tweaked and altered small settings in the turret and the hum changed in pitch, becoming deeper and foreboding. As the hum grew into a steady whirr, the watching ponies started stepping back, while the Humans jostled amongst themselves to get a good view from next to the AFV.
A flash of orange appeared on top of the pod, drawing cries of alarm and orders to ‘Back up, back up!’ from the assembled crowd. Kadzie, oblivious to the escaped creature, pressed his thumbs down on a pair of triggers in the turret.
*Whirr-Thoom!*
The hum and whirr cut out as the rumble cannon fired, sending a rippling shockwave of sound toward, and through the pod. The exposed Brainsucker simply quivered apart under the low-frequency barrage, and a cacophony of alien shrieks filled the air as the occupants of the pod suffered the same fate.
As the screams died down, the engine of the AFV roared and it leapt forward, crashing into the side of the pod with a scream of stressed metal and an unpleasant squelch. As the driver pulled it back, an avalanche of gore and orange flesh slid out of the pod; survivors of the barrage were given away by small twitches in the sea of corpses, and were swiftly executed before they got over their dazed state. Celestia, tired of taking a background role, stepped forward and swung a mighty beam of sunlight through the hole and into the pod. Several ponies retched as the smell of burning flesh filled the air.
When the ghastly deed was done, the rumble cannon pulsed again, sending out a smaller shockwave to check for any hints of movement. When nothing appeared, the engine grumbled to a halt, and Xander relaxed; stepping back from the cordon, he spoke into his radio, safe in the knowledge that the message would be recorded.
“Commander O. Xander, 15 December, 2084; 02:27 Earth-time, mission complete.”