//------------------------------// // Interrogations. // Story: X-COM Ponies // by Sneaky Breeze //------------------------------// Chapter 9: Interrogations and idle moments. -Equestria, secret meeting room in the Canterlot castle. Many hushed whispers filled the circular chamber of representatives as the emergency meeting of the Canterlot council commenced. All wore robes except for a very aged Deep Thought as he struggled to hold onto a cane, and the two princesses who sat on an elevated seat where they could see all the other members of the council. “This meeting of the council shall commence!” Princess Luna, the ever mysterious guardian of the night shouted in her royal Canterlot voice. The very stone masonry of the room shuddered with the strength of her voice as she brought many conversations to an end before bowing her head in respectful thanks. “We thank thee for coming to this emergency meeting of the Equestrian council. No doubt as many of thou know there hath been an incident before our very gate that is of a nature similar to a previous event in our history,” Luna concluded before she indicated to the aged pony in the center of the circular room. Mirrors were turned that shined moonlight upon Deep Thought, indicating he was the speaker. None said a word and listened intently to the lecture ahead of them. “As you know, in the time of our fair princess’s banishment, her highness Celestia had come to me and my fellows in the old royal court of mages to find a way to go back in time.” Deep Thought paused as a slight murmur was echoed through the room before he stomped a hoof, in the manner a judge would a gavel. Once order was reestablished he continued. “Our initial results were promising, we were able to go back a week at maximum but no more as the effects of the spell would regress our bodies that same amount of time. So eventually we attempted to go back in time one year, the result was a vortex that sent us to another world. This world we ended up on was a savage violent one under the rule of a dictator but we met up with a local by the name of Marcus Brutus. He protected us. Needless to say we eventually found our way back but the rest of the details are kept secret for reasons that cannot be stated yet.” Celestia raised her head to speak, the glow of her magic nearly lighting up the dark room. “We are completely positive that a vortex of the same type opened up at the gates to my castle. Tests conducted at the site revealed that it indeed goes to the same world as before. How and why it was opened though is still up to debate,” Celestia said as a pony from the royal guard stood up. “Is it possible that the sentients on that world are plotting an invasion?” the guard asked, causing Deep Thought to suddenly speak up. “No! Marcus told me that he would make sure he destroyed any record of our arrival. He gave me his word.” “Ha! And why should we believe the word of a non-pony? ” A hidden voice shouted before the room began to break out in arguments. “Excellent.” Discord chuckled as he watched the council argue, he would have no interruptions to his plan. -Earth, Crow’s Nest, alien containment unit. The new alien type, designated a ‘floater’ originally as an insult which stuck, roared in anger as is flew around in it’s shatter proof glass cage. The trail of smoke it left from the thrusters on its back obscured the being as it examined the humans studying it. “I can’t even tell where the organics end and where the machine begins,” Dr. Vahlen said as she looked at readings the containment unit was sending to her data pad. “Can we even call that life?” Shen asked as he stood by her, shaking his head. “This isn’t like a prosthetic limb meant to repair what was lost and give a person their life back. These…implants are a perversion of machinery,” Shen continued, feeling disgusted at the sight before him. The two were so focused on the captured alien that they failed to recognize Cotton stepping through the door. He wore a short sleeve X-com duty shirt and a beret that symbolized his position, though he would rather wear a hat since he hated how berets felt on his scalp . “Any news on the interrogation, Doctor?” Cotton asked as he walked over to the front of the containment unit, his eyes never leaving the alien as it finally stopped spinning to stare back at him. An ancient masculinity challenge occurring between the two. “We have been trying for the last two days to get a word out of it, doing some of the things we did with Trixie to attempt to understand its language but so far it has proven uncooperative,” Vahlen said while, as if to emphasize her point, the floater scratched his claws along the glass of the containment unit. “Yeah, keep trying, buddy,” Cotton said as his muscles twitched with anxiety. He then turned back to Shen and Vahlen. “What about that written translation that was extracted from the cult of Sirius?” Cotton asked and Shen merely chuckled. “I don’t think he is a very big reader, Commander.” Vahlen cleared her throat, uncomfortable with the position she was being forced into. “We are running out of options besides using the cerebral probe to be able to extract any information from it.” Vahlen couldn’t help but feel sorry for the alien at the thought. The cerebral probes were experimental technology that more than likely broke every law in the Geneva Convention and then some. But it was not as if the aliens cared for human rules of war. “Commander, I am sure that if we had some more time we could open a dialogue,” Vahlen said hopefully. “No. I’m authorizing the probes. Whatever we can get out of that alien is important and we need every stroke of luck to win this war,” Cotton said. He felt a pang of regret when Vahlen looked away, the hint of disgust in her eyes as she wanted to accuse Cotton of barbarism. Shen quickly stepped in, sensing it was the right time to do so. “Oh, Commander, I forgot to tell you. We got some new gear in from the Australian branch, some scopes that are quite impressive. ” He said, stepping between the two and taking the Commanders arm in a way that was unprofessional. “I need you to come down with me so I can calibrate the scope to work with your eye and helmet HUD.” Vahlen sighed as she watched the two walk away. She had hoped the Commander would give her more time since he was a fairly reasonable and fair man. She sighed for a moment, thinking about him but was taken out of her thoughts when she felt someone watching her. “What?” She asked herself and looked around in confusion. One of her assistants turned. “I didn’t say anything ma’am.” The technician said. “No, it was nothing. I was talking to myself. Begin the…probe and make sure you lock the blast doors.” Vahlen said as she left the room before the process could begin. Confusion filled the floater’s mind as two large glowing disks rose out of the prison cell’s floor. It hurled obscenities at the machines before clawing at them. It felt flashes of searing pain in its head as the machines tried to read its deepest thoughts. But at the moment they were only about escape. The floater slammed his head against the cell glass as blast doors closed, muffling the alien’s cries of agony. -Barracks Trixie lay curled up in her bed, shivering as her horn glowed. For the past week her horn had been acting up without her say so and she had been feeling sick. She felt as sick as the time when Discord had escaped his prison and turned all of Equestria into a mad house. Then her horn dimmed and she could finally relax. “It’s just the lack of magic confusing my horn,” she told herself again and again before lapsing off to sleep, her body exhausted. - Lounge. Chavivi had just finished calibrating his new S.C.O.P.E. to work with his rifle and after test firing it in the range he decided to have lunch. Upon entering the lounge on his way to get something to eat from Tony’s, Chavivi noticed Ramos juggling some eggs while Boris had the biggest smile on his face. Curiosity getting the better of him, Chavivi walked over to the ever curious pair. “What are you doing?” He asked Ramos as he juggled four eggs in the air with amazing skill. “Don’t, bother me man, Boris bet me thirty marks if I can keep this up for half an hour.” Ramos said as Boris had a face as red as blood while he fought the urge to laugh. Chavivi sighed and decided to explained things to Ramos. “Soldier, marks is the name of a German currency, Boris is Russian. I doubt he has any marks on him. ” To this Ramos stopped juggling and three eggs fell to the floor as Boris slammed his hand down onto nearby table, laughing so loud it sounded like he was shouting. “I win the bet!” Boris said and laughed louder. Chavivi quickly left before he could see what happened to the two. He entered the smaller pub like portion of the lounge to see the cross-eyed pony asleep on a beanbag chair with muffin crumbs all around her. “Is that not unsanitary?” Chavivi asked as Tony wiped a beer mug that seemed to never be clean. “Meh, she’s fine, besides she reminds me of my kid,” Tony said as he bent over to put the glass down and pick up a menu, his hand gently brushing the shotgun kept under the bar counter in case of trouble. “I never knew you had a child,” Chavivi said as he took the menu with more kosher options for someone like him. He felt in the mood for something sweet but he wasn’t sure exactly what. “Well you know, I took off my ring and let my wife keep it. In case I was blown up. So I figured I might as well keep the rest of my family secret,” Tony said as he lit himself a cigarette. “Those will probably kill you before the aliens do,” Chavivi said off handedly, even though he had one or two when he needed to lose stress. “Probably, what with me stuck in the base and all,” Tony said, pulling a deep, satisfied drag.. “I think I will just have salad. I don’t feel particular, I just need to eat something,” Chavivi said as he handed the menu back to Tony, wishing he had something to shoot besides wooden pop-ups. Suddenly realization struck Chavivi. “Do you smoke while you prepare food?” he asked and Tony’s silence confirmed the sniper’s suspicions and he lost the urge to eat anything that wasn’t packaged. -Engineering Shen dusted off his pants after sitting down in his office. He had a good view of his engineering wing from his position and liked to go down and provide advice to those under him if he noticed they were having trouble. Mostly since he had nothing to do at the moment. He was bored and there was nothing he hated more than being bored. “I need something to do,” he said as he got up from his chair and looked around his office at diagrams of the Hercules armor, diagrams of the pony armor, and random notes and scribbles littering the many desks. “What I should do is invent an endless desk drawer, or start typing my notes ,” Shen said, even though he hated typing and was a slow at it, he had to admit he was running out of room. Cleaning his messy office took all of forty minutes . Leaving the old man bored again, until he noticed an old book of his mother’s hanging slightly out of a roll top desk he used when he needed to draw schematics. “Maybe I’ve still got it,” Shen said as he pulled his chair over to it and opened the book. His mother was very good at drawing and had taught him her skills when she was still alive. Shen flipped through the book until he reached a blank page. He pulled a pen out and focused, calling up old skills that had been long locked away. His hand guided itself seamlessly across the paper and soon he was greeted with the image of his mother and father smiling at him. “I think I’ve found something to keep me busy.” He said as he ran his hand gently across the paper. -China, HongKong, triad interrogation room. The sound of pained grunts and wet messy impacts filled the dark and filthy room as senior Triad member Shaojie Zhang, watched his superior torture a Cult of Sirius member. Zhang had already attempted to interrogate the man but his will proved too strong. “You will be punished by the gods for this!” the Sirius member shouted, spewing blood from a split lip and spitting out broken teeth. “Oh, really?” said Zhang’s superior as he walked over to a table and searched through the many well worn tools scattered on it. “You are the ones who are going to be punished. We offered you a deal for weapons and you in turn plot to destroy our country,” the Triad leader said as he pulled out a blow torch. “With respect, what else could we expect from these cultists?” Zhang said as he watched his superior activate the torch. “Zhang, don’t rub it in. You were right about not dealing with terrorists. But this can become an advantage to us. Keep him quiet,” the leader said as Zhang soon tied a rag over the cult member’s mouth. “I know that these cultists have something planned, if we can figure it out in time we can bribe the powers that be into giving us whatever we want.” “Isn’t that risky? The Cult of Sirius serves the aliens. Shouldn’t we just hand over the information as soon as possible?” Zhang asked as he put his hand over the cult member’s mouth to muffles his screams further as his feet were kissed by the blow torch, the smell of burning flesh not even bothering the two torturers anymore. “The aliens are a threat to the whole planet; we might as well milk as much out of the world while we ‘do our part’.” The triad leader said as he laughed, quoting the many posters and commercials the world governments had been putting out to get people to keep working and enlisting in the military and paying their taxes to cover the weapons of the military. “But sir, this could be important,” Zhang said as he contemplated the risk of not giving vital data to the right authorities that might prevent him from being blasted by a laser in another invasion. The triad leader shut off the blow torch and stood, facing Zhang. “Why are you so keen to go running to the authorities? You aren’t thinking of leaving our family, are you Zhang?” The leader asked while looking into Zhang’s eyes. “I have always been part of the Triad, I have never betrayed her,” Zhang replied, his eye reflecting his words. But there is a first time for everything. Zhang thought in his mind as he mentally called up the numbers of certain ‘contacts’ he had.