//------------------------------// // Mission Log 2: Under the Hood // Story: Stolen Minds // by TcogArchitect //------------------------------// Published February 12th, 2013 "Was your mission a success?" "Yes, sir." "And I take it this is the Cloud Buster and Energy Keeper you encountered planetside?" "Yes, sir." "And you believe them to be non-hostile?" "I do, sir." "Why?" In answer to his last question, I pulled the mind control unit out of my belt and presented it to him, along with the data eater. He took both items and examined the bulb for a few seconds, unsure of what it was. I gestured for the Energy Keeper to turn around, and I pointed out the matching port on the back of her helmet. Realization came across the admiral's face, and he looked down at the object in his hand with new interest. His face quickly turned to one of disgust as he finally understood the purpose of the bulb, and I saw him barely restrain himself from destroying it. That was one of the things we had in common: we hated seeing injustice and the pain of others. Mentally, we were actually very similar. He and I were both smart, particularly for non-scientist personnel, and we held a lot of the same views on a variety of topics. Physically, though, we could only have been more different if one of us was female. I have black hair and eyes, shoulders as broad as a barn, and I tower over most folks, even with my shoes off, at 6'4". Leeroy, however, had blonde hair, blue eyes, a thin, wiry frame, and barely came up to my shoulders at 5'10". After a moment of regaining his self-control, he handed the items to one of the marines who were there for security. "Take these to engineering. I want a full report on them by tomorrow morning." The marine snapped a quick salute, then ran off to deliver the items. "This is asinine. I can't believe the Emrini are actually trying this shit again. Didn't they learn from last time?" He shook his head in exasperation. "Sir, if I may?" He nodded, and I continued. "The openings I found on the back of the heads of the Cloud Buster and Energy Keeper appeared to be more purposeful. Like the plugs were designed to be removed on a regular basis. I believe the mind control units were regularly readjusted to prevent mental acclimation to their effects by the subject, allowing longer-term mind control with lower probability of unit failure." The admiral considered this for a moment, and then nodded. "That sounds likely. I'll have you debriefed later. Right now, we need to get these two some new clothes. I'm sure the tech boys want a look at their armor, and I don't think they want to stay in there longer than they have to. Take 'em down to the barracks, and get them some regular clothes. We should be back in friendly space in a few hours, and we can get them properly evaluated, but until then, you're their chaperone. I don't doubt your judgement, but I still can't let a pair of recently-hostile individuals run around unsupervised. I'll send someone to debrief you while you get them situated." "Yes, sir!" "Dismissed, soldier." With that, he turned on his heel and strode out, and the marines dispersed, leaving me with the two aliens. I assumed that Big Wing had already left to change his clothes. I waved for them to follow me, and we made our way to the barracks. I got some spare uniforms from the lodgemaster, and helped the two of them out of their armor. By this point, they already had most of their fine motor control back, and were able to dress themselves without issue. I did, however, finally get to see their faces after they got their helmets off. It was interesting, to say the least. Their heads almost looked like a horse's, with large, articulate ears and a flat snout. What really stood out, though, were their eyes, which took up almost half of their faces. I also discovered they had tails, although these had been cut, along with their hair, in order to fit in their armor. The most surprising details to me, however, was that they had very colorful hair and fur, and their legs ended in hooves instead of feet. The Energy Keeper was purple, with a deep lavender and pink-striped tail and hair to match, and the Could Buster's hair and tail were all the colors of the rainbow while her fur was a light blue. I also suddenly realized how small they were. Granted, I'm a tall guy, but these two couldn't have been more than 5'5". Their armor had added a few inches to both of their profiles, apparently. Once their armor was off and they were getting dressed, I decided to switch outfits as well. I removed my armor, revealing my night-black hair and eyes, and stashed it in my locker once I was dressed again. I then started the auto-wash cycle before strapping my guns on, putting in my earpiece communicator, and taking my charges and their armor down to the lab. The place was already a feeding frenzy of scientists talking and debating about the information on the data eater and how the mind control unit worked, and when we walked in, I nearly had to start getting violent against the more... socially inept scientists, who were getting way too far into all three of our personal spaces to get a look at the new arrivals without their armor on, as well as the armor itself. After all, we had only ever seen their uniforms. No one before now had been able to take one down without blowing it to smithereens along with the surrounding area, removing any chance of useful information being collected from them. Once they had calmed down a bit, I set all the armor pieces on a clear workbench and turned to the guy in charge as the other scientists began grabbing various pieces of the armor and moving back to their stations. "Hello there. I'm Doctor Albert Pernaki, the chief science officer here. You must be Shadow Soldier Kuro." He reached out a hand, and I shook it, noticing how strong his grip was for a scientist. "Right on the money. Your buddies seem rather excited about all this. It normally this busy in here?" "No, but your mission success and the mental control unit you brought back deserve this level of attention from the science and R&D departments, both. The gentlemen in the experimental equipment programs are going to have a field day with what you brought back." "Good to know I'm appreciated. You get anything out of that little bulb from hell, yet?" "Yes, actually. You were correct in your guess that it was adjusted on a regular basis. We also confirmed that it gives off a radio frequency of some kind. We have hypothesized that there is most likely an individual controller for each subject, capable of taking direct control of the subject at any time through the unit. We've already deactivated it, and once we isolate the frequency, we should be able to develop a counter-frequency, allowing us to deactivate the units from a safe distance, and free the subjects from the Emrini's control without hurting them." "Sweet. I'm going to take these two to the mess hall, since I'm hungry and I'll bet they're starving. Let me know if you get anything big." "With pleasure, Sergeant." We left the lab and I took a left towards the mess hall, or as I liked to call it: the eating place. On the way, I decided to check on the vocal abilities of our guests. "You two talkin' again yet? Or are your speech pieces still fubar'd?" The Energy Keeper moved her mouth around a bit before clearing her throat. Her voice was a bit raspy from disuse, but she was still perfectly coherent. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is my friend, Rainbow Dash." I could tell from her articulated speech that she was well-read and studied on a regular basis. "Nice to finally hear your voice. In case you haven't caught it already, my name's Kuro. Kuro Maldone. What about you, Dasher? Your speakin' pieces back to normal?" She coughed and hacked a few times, but she still wasn't able to make any legible sounds come out, and shook her head. "That's alright. You probably just need some fluids and munchies. Once we get some sustenance in you, you'll most likely be fine again. Don't worry about it." We got into an elevator and I hit the button for the floor we wanted. "By the way, you two will probably want to try to remember anything you can from when you were under. The higher-ups will probably cut you some slack if you can remember anything particularly important. You're not going to get in trouble if you don't, but I should warn you now that a lot of people are going to give you a hard time. You may not have wanted to, but technically you were working for the Emrini, and there's going to be a lot of distrust because of it." The elevator stopped, and we turned right as we got off towards the eating place. "You don't have to talk to me about any of it if you don't want to, I just figured it would be worth asking if you were able to give us any extra information. And if there's anything bugging you from when you were zombified, I can show you where the psychiatrist's office is. Most folks think they'll be fine without talking about whatever's nagging at their brain, but I can attest to how effective it can be to just get it out and be done with it." We were at the mess hall now, and I held the door open for them as we went in. It was relatively empty, considering the fact that none of the major meals were being served at that point, but I did see one table with a few people around it. "Yo! Shadows!" As soon as they heard me, they turned around and started up their usual storm of greetings when they saw my face. "Commander-dude!" "Hey boss!" "Comrade Sergeant, good to see you with all your parts." "I'm glad you made it back safely, Kuro-sama." The last one in the group, a guy nearly twice my size, got up and strode over to me at the end, and I let him pick me up in the giant bear hug that served as his greeting to people he was fond of. He put me down after a moment, and I took a second to get my ribs out of my lungs and catch my breath. Then, I made the introductions. "Guys, I'd like you to meet a couple new friends of mine: Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash." I moved to one side to reveal them, and I saw lots of raised eyebrows from my squad. "Twilight, Rainbow, this is my squad. The grizzled-lookin' badass cyborg over there is Lance Corporal Dimitri Reznov. The guy next to him is Private Ron Daniels. This chilled-out motherfucker is Private First Class Casey Gerard, but everyone calls him 'Groove'. The nice Japanese lady over here is my Lieutenant, Corporal Toyoko Yamashita, and this big guy," I gave him a couple pats on the shoulder, "is Private Carlton Macmahon. In response to your questions, however," I said as I turned back to my squad, "yes, Twilight is an Energy Keeper and Rainbow is a Cloud Buster. Yes, I expect you all to play nice. And yes, they are friendly. I'll explain everything soon. But right now I'm hungry, and the Admiral said he would be sending someone down for a debrief, so I don't want to have to tell the story twice if I don't have to. Any other questions?" Groove raised his hand, and I nodded to him. He looked at the other two, and I knew he was about to say the same crazy thing he always does when he meets new people. I still remember how unnerved I was when the first thing he said to me was ask me out. I'm still not sure if he was serious or not. "So are either of you single?" Both of our guests blushed and widened their eyes in surprise, and Dimitri gave him a disapproving glare, but he wasn't paying attention. I squeezed my eyes shut to show my antaganation, and when I opened them, I could see him trying to hold back a grin. "Groove, knock it off. If for no other reason than I don't think they're ready for your special brand of crazy yet." He made a disappointed sound, and I rolled my eyes before turning back to my charges. "C'mon, let's get you two some nutrients. I would say 'food', but that would imply something that has taste, which this stuff does not. At least the water's real, though." Suddenly, something occurred to me about them. "By the way, do you have any sort of special diet? Vegetarian, or something? Because I know there are plenty of humans that don't eat meat, and I don't want to give you something you can't or won't eat." Their eyes went wide, and I knew I was right with my guess. I also found out that Rainbow had relearned how to speak, finally. "You eat meat?" she rasped out, her eyes still wide with shock. "Yeah, I thought that might be an issue. Your bodies have enough features that resemble Earth horses that it occurred to me you might be herbivores. And yes, most humans eat meat to some degree or another. Some people don't eat meat at all, though, and I can get the people working the line to give you vegetarian stuff instead, if you want." They both nodded dumbly, and I ordered for all three of us so that nothing they would find even more offensive would wind up on their trays. I say 'more offensive' because to be honest, this stuff was already pretty offensive to begin with. We brought our edibles back to the table and sat down, at which point I heard the door to the area open again. I turned to see who the new arrival was, and found a guy with nicer clothes, glasses, and a clipboard coming in. The debriefer. I waved to get his attention, and he came over when he noticed me. He sat down across the table, and pulled out a recorder. "Sergeant Kuro Maldone?" I nodded once as I ate. "I assume you know why I'm here?" I nodded again. "Good. That makes this easier. I need your account of the mission, and if they're able, the um... other two's as well." He glanced at Twilight and Rainbow and shifted in his seat as he said this, and I could tell he wasn't comfortable being in such close proximity to beings he had probably been trained on how to run away from. I could also tell he didn't want to be here longer than he had to, and I decided to give both sides a reprieve, instead. "I don't think that's a good idea yet. They just regained their ability to speak, and I'm sure they're even more exhausted than I am after today." Rainbow slowly nodded her agreement to this, and the debriefer visibly relaxed. "Okay, then." He clicked on his recorder, and I started recounting the day's events. He occasionally asked a question, but was otherwise silent as his pen scratched away at the paper on his clipboard. When I was finished, the pen scratched for a few more seconds before he flipped another page and handed both items to me. "I just need your signature at the bottom to show you understand everything about this, and you're good to go." I skimmed through the document to make sure there weren't any glaring issues, and once I was sure there weren't any, I signed the line at the bottom and handed his pen and clipboard back to him. He clicked his recorder off, and gave a short salute before leaving us to ourselves. The first one to speak, surprisingly, was not Groove, but Ron. "So, Twilight. Is it true you can do all sorts of crazy, reality-bending mental shit? It's been bugging me for a while, but I'm not exactly eager to take on an Energy Keeper to find out." She nodded, and swallowed the last bite of her food before answering verbally. Her voice had come back completely by now, and I had to admit, she had a nice voice. "I wouldn't call it that, but yes, I can do things that appear to defy the laws of physics." Her horn lit up with a soft purple glow, and a fork was soon enveloped in the same glow, floating in midair. At our reactions to the demonstration, her face took on a quizzical look. "You act like you've never seen magic before. Is this really that surprising?" "Well, considering that magic doesn't actually exist, da." Leave it to Reznov to be as blunt as possible. "Huh. Well, it isn't too surprising you can't use magic, considering you don't have horns. By the way, why do you keep calling me an 'Energy Keeper'?" I was about to answer when I was interrupted by a loud rumble rolling through the ship and a voice coming from my earpiece. "Ship's company, this is Admiral Tornak. We have reentered friendly space. We will be docking at the planet Agrigate's orbital station soon. We will be staying for 72 hours." Twilight looked like she was about to say something, but I put a finger up to let her know to wait. "All non-essential personnel have leave to exit the ship and go on-world. Essential personnel must stay on the station in case of emergency. Shadow Squad two-five-eight, please report to the bridge. That is all." We got up, and I motioned for Rainbow and Twilight to follow. "Looks like our day isn't over yet. As to your question, though, Twilight, the term 'Energy Keeper' came about because of your apparent ability to manipulate an unkown form of powerful energy. We weren't able to see any of your actual bodies because of the armor, so we couldn't come up with proper classifications for you, species-wise. 'Cloud Buster' was a term that came up when several of them cleared a storm that would have concealed a very important advance back on the planet Tarsus. We almost lost the fight because of it. The Earth Crackers got their name after one of them wiped out an entire battalion by burying all of them, and itself, under a rockslide by collapsing the ravine wall. By kicking it. Once." I heard Rainbow let out a small 'woah' before Twilight started talking again. "But, not even an Earth Pony has that kind of strength. Was the wall weakened, or damaged, maybe?" I wasn't expecting the term 'Earth Pony', but I quickly recognized it as the actual name of the species. Her confusion at this feat of strength also confirmed something else we had guessed. "No, but our scientists have been speculating that their armor has strength enhancement qualities. We already knew that Cloud Busters had flight boosters to allow them to move faster, and we figured they also had special armor to deal with the increased g-forces, and someone else managed to get enough camera footage of an Energy Keeper at work for our scientists to determine a shift in the energy aura after a certain distance, so it wasn't much of a stretch to think that the Earth Crackers -sorry,ponies- had strength enhancement technology in their suits. So what are you two called, anyway? I assume since you have different parts, you aren't Earth Ponies as well, right?" I looked back at them as we waited for the elevator, and Twilight nodded. Rainbow was too busy looking at all the various things in the ship to pay any attention. "Yes. I'm a Unicorn, and Rainbow is a Pegasus. There is also one more type of pony. They're called Alicorns, they have a horn and wings, and they are very rare. There are only three that I've met, and they're all royalty." She seemed to be about to start talking further, when she looked like she suddenly remembered something, closed her mouth, and began staring at the ground with her ears pinned back. Before I could react, Toyoko spoke up. "You were friends with one?" Twilight nodded. "Then don't worry. They will be fine." Twilight looked up at her, confusion apparent on her face. "How do you know?" Toyoko simply smiled her usual kind, mysterious smile and turned to get into the elevator, with Ron, Carlton, and a smiling Groove following behind her. As the door closed, we saw Toyoko smile again, and then the elevator door closed, and they were gone. I sighed and shook my head as Twilight looked at me questioningly. "I really hate it when she does that," I said as I scratched my head in slight embarrassment. "Hate it when who does what?" Rainbow Dash asked as she came back from inspecting the electronic bulletin board for the past five minutes. "Toyoko has a sort of... sixth sense, I guess is the best word for it. She can just know how things will turn out without any evidence whatsoever. It sounds crazy, but she's never let me down before, and she's not the type to say things just to make someone feel better. It may take a while, but she said the truth. And if I have any say in it, nothing is going to prove her wrong, alright?" Twilight nodded, and she seemed much calmer as the elevator dinged and the doors opened. We stepped inside, and I sat on the floor, Reznov mirroring me. Twilight and Rainbow got in after, looking at us quizzically. "You two might want to sit down as well." I pushed the button for the command deck, and the doors closed as the two ponies sat down. As soon as the door mechanism stopped, the elevator shot upwards, and I could see the looks of surprise on our guests' faces as the g-forces from the rapid-movement elevator pushed all of us into the floor. A couple of seconds later, the elevator slowed enough for us to stand back up, and the doors opened as we stopped. Reznov and I had to help up the other two, and they had to regain their balance once they were back on their hooves. We stepped out, where the rest of the squad was waiting, and we did a quick brush-down of ourselves before continuing down the hall towards the bridge. When we entered, I knew something was up. The Admiral wasn't in his command seat; he was standing behind it and off to one side. When he looked at me, his face didn't change, he simply turned back to face forward. Doctor Pernaki was there as well, and I had the churning feeling in my gut that said something I wouldn't like was about to happen. My squad and I lined up against a currently-unused wall, and sure enough, someone else stood up out of the command chair. All I could think when I saw his face was Oh dear god, why him? He walked over to us, and I wondered why anyone would have thought it was a good idea to send Admiral Cordon Fallshen to a first-contact situation.