“Well...that’s a good sign...”
Canderous eyed the skeletal remains of an unknown creature on the ground. Small bits of rotting flesh still clung to the diseased, yellow ribcage. The skull however seemed to be missing, but by looking at the three-toed bony feet of the remains, he assumed that the animal killed must have been a large herbivore of some kind.
“Iron Giant to Canderous Nord, I repeat Iron Giant to Canderous Nord...”
His radio earpiece came in with slight static at first, but the voice on the other end came in clear after a few seconds. The message repeated a second time before Canderous responded.
“This is Nord. I read you clear now Iron Giant.”
“Nord this is Iron Giant bridge control. We have called to test comms and inform you that we are now within the midsection of the fog-cloud.”
Canderous could hear a few other voices in the background of the ongoing transmission. The voices only came in as hushed whispers to him, albeit he had to listen through the continuous sound of croaking frogs and chirping crickets. Once the whispers went away, the voice of the speaker came back.
“Nord, the captain has requested that you be put on ship-wide intercom to give everyone up here a thought as to what we are going to see down there. Will you comply?”
“Ya’, I comply.”
“One moment.” the radio went to static then went silent after a few moments. In the moment of silence, Canderous’s ears took in the many vivid sounds of the forest around him. The sounds were plentiful yet mixed in every variety. Crickets chirped, frogs croaked, flies buzzed all over the place, and even the occasional rustling of the thorny bushes brought his senses to shock, causing him to freeze up and search in every direction to discover where the noise came from. If his eyes found nothing, his hands would find the grip of his pistol, his fingers poised and ready to draw out his weapon and strike at a moment’s notice.
After staring at a snake clinging to a tree branch for a minute or so, the voice returned.
“Canderous, your radio will be configured to voice your words over the Iron Giant’s intercom. Your words will be heard throughout the ship so make your intel count.”
The voice went away for a few moments, only to be replaced by the quiet whispers of several hundred others. “Your live Canderous. Await the captain’s order to speak.”
The background noises through the radio soon faded to nothingness. Canderous somehow felt the pressure of several hundred pairs of ears on his brain, each one of them awaiting his words of wisdom.
“Canderous,” the captain of the standstill supercarrier now spoke loudly and clearly through the forest noise behind him, “What does the surface look like? What are we dealing with?”
Canderous cleared his throat before speaking, “I haven’t ventured that deep in the forest area yet, but the layout of the place is very strange. I have found the corpses of several different animals, some fresh and some old, yet there appears to be no carnivores in sight. It’s like they kill the animal, take a bit or two out of it’s flesh, then move on. Strange if you ask me. Every tree, rock, and puddle of mud just seems to mix and match with the environment. Sometimes I find a tall, leafy tree growing strong in one place, and in another I find the dead and rotting forms of several twisted and crooked trees. I have even found some of those stinking trees as sapplings.”
There was silence on the radio for a few moments. “Any other unusual sightings to report?”
“Just one other thing...” Canderous was about to explain before he heard a loud boom from above his head. He saw a cluster of dark rainclouds forming and immediately ran for cover underneath an exposed side of a large boulder.
“Canderous, we are reading a light thunderstorm approaching your location. Is everything alright?”
“That’s just what I was gonna get to sir. The weather patterns, oh dear god the weather patterns! It’s like Mother Nature took up drinking while riding on an endless roller coaster. Sometimes, you see rain. Other times, you see snow or hail. It’s mixed to hell and then some.”
The sky grew into a much darker shade of grey, and the rain started to come down in heavy torrents. Canderous scrunched his body to get as close to the boulder’s covered face as possible. He heard nothing over the radio during the storm. After a full minute of heavy rainfall, the storm clouds dispersed, leaving everything around him damp with water.
“The storm should be clearing up now Canderous. Strange as to how it only lasted about a minute...”
Canderous slowly stepped away from his rocky shelter, taking a quick glance in each direction before acknowledging the captain, “That’s just it sir! The weather in this forest is so ass-backwards that you never know what your gonna get! Like a box of wet chocolates am I right?” Canderous heard a few snickers of laughter through his earpiece.
“Thank you for the intel Canderous. You may continue with your mission. We await your beacon signal.”
“Roger that Iron Giant. Continuing mission.” The connection went to static and broke away. Canderous was finally all alone with the forest and it’s luscious sounds. He took a few moments of silence to himself, then continued his cautious stroll through the dark wood.
~~~~~
Canderous must have walked for at least half an hour, passing tree after tree, rock after rock, carcass after carcass. The strange pattern of nature here seemed endless.
It put strain on his eyes just to count out the number of objects in the drab landscape. He continued walking until he spotted a break in the forest tree line. A long strand of light was spread out before his eyes. He started to quicken his pace in the direction of the light. He looked down at his feet and saw that instead of the usual mud and wet grass that occupied the soles of his boots, there was smooth dirt, laid out in a straight line before his eyes. He took no notice in the straight line and instead furthered his speed, determined to reach the clear area ahead of him.
After a minute or two of fast-walking, he pushed past the last line of crooked trees and fell onto his knees. After gathering his wits, he looked up to find that he had made it to a very large, very wide clearing of land. The land made a near-perfect circle in the midst of the surrounding trees, with few imperfections in the shape. It was like this one patch of land was specifically designed to house a large camp with excellent precision. He walked to the center of the clearing and looked around in all directions, feeling proud of himself for having accomplished his mission.
‘Finally...finally.’ Canderous fell to his knees again, his torso remaining upright this time. His breaths became heavy and drawn out as his chest heaved with exhaustion. He moved an arm to his belt, where he unhooked the beacon from it’s holding place and raised it high into the air. With a smile wide on his face, he drove the beacon into the ground. Once he released his grip, the beacon began to transform. A small hatch opened on top of the beacon and the orange light within started to move upward until it poked out through the tiny hatch. The tiny diode used to create the orange hue of color was attached to a small radar dish, whereupon once it moved completely out of it’s shell, it began to spin around rapidly. The orange light began to flash brightly with each full revolution of the radar dish, a quiet beep accompanying the light with each passing second.
“Iron Giant, this is Canderous Nord. I am calling to report task completion. The beacon is planted and transmitting.”
“We read you Canderous. The beacon is successfully transmitting to us with the coordinates for the base sight.” The radio went silent for a few moments, the same background voices that Canderous had heard before returned for a few moments, then the officer’s voice came back once again.
“Alright Nord, we have the beacon’s coordinates marked and are prepping VTOLs for troop deployment. Estimated time to arrival, ten minutes.”
“Roger that Iron Giant. Nord out.” Canderous switched the radio off.
Once his transmission ended, he looked up to the sky, seeing as to how he had to stare into nothing but near-darkness for the last hour and a half. The sky was still blanketed by a thick cloud of fog, making the light of the sun all but impossible to see. He could make out a few tell-tale signs of the fog’s impending breakup. The lower levels of the fog were slowly drifting away from the upper levels via the help of the wind. Within a few hours, the fog would be gone, and Canderous can finally look up at the sun in the same way his ancestors once did.
~~~~~
“At least the fog is starting to clear up!” said a cheerful Twilight as she looked up at the sky with her friends in the castle gardens area. Fluttershy was playing with a tiny squirrel, Applejack was napping underneath the shade of a tree with her hat lowered over her eyes, Rarity was admiring her mane, and Rainbow Dash was sitting on a nearby bench, cross armed and grouchy. To no surprise, Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be seen.
“Twilight!” said a smooth, happy voice from somewhere unknown.
Twilight turned her head to meet the call of her name. She saw Princess Luna, smiling wide as she walked over. The princess bounced in the air a little bit with each step, clearly excited about something.
“Oh, hello Luna. Is there anything I can do for you?” asked Twilight.
“Well...no not really. But have you noticed that the fog is starting to clear up?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Well, I managed to get a look through the observatory telescope again. The view is a bit crude at best, but manageable, and I was wondering if you wanted to join me in a bit of star-gazing?”
Twilight thought about for a moment, taking note of how she hadn’t really planned anything for today. She looked to her friends, who were clearly occupied with their own doings.
“Alright Luna. I’m in.”
Twilight quietly stood up and walked alongside the princess, but before they could get too far, Twilight turned and yelled out to her friends, telling them that she would see them at dinner.
Twilight and Luna entered the castle and turned right down a corridor. She admired the numerous portraits of galaxies and constellations that adorned the walls next to a random assortment of doors.
“So princess, did you find anything ne-OH!” before Twilight could finish her question, Luna grabbed Twilight by the neck and pulled her through an open door, which soon slammed shut. She found herself in a dark, cramped room. The back of her head was pushed against the brick wall, and her legs found very little room to stand up in. A small, yellow light eminated from Luna’s horn, illuminating the tiny room.
“P-princess? Why the sudden stop? And why are we in a broom closet?” Twilight questioned Luna as she looked around.
“Twilight! You have to help me! I’m exhausted and I’m running out of options!” Luna said with worry in her eyes while she furiously shook Twilight’s head, causing her eyeballs to go loopy.
“H-help you with what princess? Is something wrong?”
“Is something wrong? Is something wrong!?” Luna was shaking Twilight’s head again, this time with more force. Once she noticed her rude behavior, she slowly released her hooves from Twilight’s temples.
“Hehe...my apologies...” Luna said with a weak giggle.
“Luna, what’s going on? Why are you acting so distressed all of a sudden?” Twilight sternly asked the worried royal sister.
Luna calmed herself by taking in slow breaths and exhaling them. This went on for a few seconds before she spoke.
“Do you remember the object that both you and I were studying a few days ago?”
“Of course. I wanted to look into it even further, but the fog has been making things rather difficult. Why?”
Luna’s next word were plain and simply put. “It’s gone.”
Twilight only stared at the princess with confusion in her eyes. “Gone? What do you mean gone?”
“As in gone! The object left it’s place! Just like that! Not a single trace of it’s existence was left behind. But there is more to this...”
“More?”
“Oh yes, more.” Luna’s horn began to glow a faint green, producing a little green cube in the air which slowly expanded outward. Grid-lines formed from within the cube, shaping out a three-dimensional grid-map. A red dot appeared near the roof of the grid, followed by a large blue dot at the very bottom. Soon afterward, a tiny white dot formed above the blue dot.
“Hey... that looks like the same style of visual star map that I used in my demonstration to the high astronomers a few days ago...” Twilight exclaimed.
“Correct, but with a few added details.” Luna’s hoof pointed towards the red dot at the top of the cube. “This is the object that we found around five weeks ago, with you arriving in Canterlot one week later.”
The red dot started to lower itself towards the blue dot at the bottom, but it’s movement halted about halfway. “The object then moved from it’s previous position to right...here. If anypony tried to take a look at the object now, they would only find the blackness of space.”
“How is this possible?” Twilight asked with wide eyes.
“I don’t know! But look at this...” The red dot lowered itself even further towards the blue dot, yet it stopped once again, this time at the tiny white dot just above the blue one.
“This is now the object’s current position! And get this! It went from the mid-point, down to the point of the moon in less than a day!”
“That’s impossible! Are you sure that you’re not just delirious from not getting enough sleep?”
“I am absolutely sure Twilight. I tried several times more to get a look at the object, but the fog made things difficult.”
“So...what did you want me for exactly?”
“You’re the only person who is as intellectually gifted with the studies of astronomy as I am! Once this fog clears away completely, you and I are going to find out what this object really is! It might be aliens, it might be an asteroid, it might even a giant flying spaghetti monster, who knows!”
“A giant what?” Twilight asked with raised eyebrows.
“N-nevermind. Simply put, I need you in the observatory for when the moment comes. With all of this excitement I’ve worn myself to near-exhaustion. I would truly appreciate your help.”
“Of course princess! But you know, instead of dragging me into this cramped broom closet, we could have just discussed this in the observatory...”
Luna’s cheeks blushed a bright red once she realised her silly error.
“Oh...uh...right. Let’s go before someone finds us...like this...”
Twilight giggled at Luna when she blushed with embarrassment. After peeking outside through a crack in the door to make sure that nopony was around, she and Luna cautiously walked out of the closet and hurried down the corridor to the observatory.
~~~~~
“Canderous, you there?” Bendak’s voice came on over the radio.
Canderous could clearly hear Bendak’s voice, but decided to deliberately ignore it for a few seconds. He wasn’t sure as to why he did this, but maybe his eyes wanted to get another taste of the eyecandy that was the clouded sky above him. When Bendak repeated his message, Canderous reached up to his earpiece and responded back.
“Ya’ Bendak? What do you need?”
“Are you at the beacon sight?”
“Course I am. Been sitting here for some time now. Why?”
Canderous started to hear the wind whistle through the trees. With each passing moment, the whistling grew louder and louder, eventually become loud enough that Canderous had to cover his exposed ear with this other hand to muffle out the noise.
“Ya...you might wanna cover your ears...” Canderous just barely heard him as the whistles grew to deafening shrieks of the wind.
“Why?” He yelled through the radio.
At that moment, a massive gust of wind from behind forced him to the ground. He turned his head to the sky. His eyes met with the running lights of a massive utility drone. It was hovering high off of the ground. The nozzles of the drone’s twin ion engines were pointed down, scorching the dirt and grass beneath it. Clamped onto the drone’s belly, was a large, steel-plate construct with a single wide opening on one face, with two port-holes adjacent to the opening. The drone began to lower itself to the ground until the object underneath it was about one foot above the ground, then, in a single kickback motion, the clamps were released. The whole construct slammed into the ground with a strong, earth-shaking thud.
“Whoa...” said Canderous with eyes wide and mouth agape.
“Nord!”
Canderous turned around to meet the voice that called his name. A VTOL was slowly descending towards the ground, turning and stopping just a few inches short from the surface. The passenger door of the VTOL was wide open, and there stood Bendak from within, one hand gripped a metal bar to his right, while his other hand gripped the stock of an automatic rifle at his left side.
“Bendak?” Canderous yelled out to the sergeant over the combined engine noise of both drone and VTOL.
“Nord! Get in here! Rest of the drone’s about to arrive to place the rest of the camp structures, and you don’t wanna get stuck underneath ten tons of solid steel do ya’?”
Canderous took a quick look above him and saw several large shadows through the thinning fog speeding towards him.
“Right!” Canderous yelled back. He sprinted towards the awaiting VTOL and leaped inside just as soon as more drones started to arrive.
“We’re clear! Take us up!” Bendak yelled to the shuttle captain. The VTOL rose high into the air and started circling the clearing, giving both Canderous and Bendak a clear view of the events unfolding before them. Drone after drone shot out from within the fog and descended towards the surface, each drone carrying a different payload underneath them. Some were carrying large cargo containers filled with supplies. Others carried planetside habilitation modules or large stacks of interlocking metal plates. In the midst of the drone invasion, two slightly larger drones came down at the same time. They were both carrying the opposite ends of a very large structure structure. In unison, they turned and descended towards the surface, unclamped their load, and sped off back into the sky.
Finally, after all the buildings and cargo containers were released and the drones retreated back to the Iron Giant, Canderous could look down at the newly constructed outpost with pride. He took special notice to the roof of the biggest structure on the outpost site located in the middle of the clearing. The Gallente Federation logo was inscribed in a bold, grey color. The shield portion of the logo covered most of the roof, while the eagle spread it’s wings out wide, the star above it topping off the shining symbol of free will and liberty.
“Hey Nord, watch the sky above us.” Bendak commanded.
“Why?”
Instead of replying, Bendak started a countdown with his fingers.
“Three...two...one...aaaaand bring on the cavalry!”
On Bendak’s exact cue, an entire armada of VTOL transports emerged from the foggy subspace above. They came down by the dozens, carrying equipment and marines to the planet’s surface. They came close to the ground and hovered above it. Their passenger doors slid open, and marines began to pour out of the belly of the transports. From Canderous’s position, they looked like tiny, gray marching ants, some lined up in assorted formations while others scattered in random directions. Organized chaos was probably the best word to describe the outpost activity right then.
“Bendak! This is Titas! Respond!” Titas’s voice came up over Bendak’s radio.
“Ya’ Titas? What do you want?”
“Captain’s arrived on the planet. He wants to speak with Canderous as soon as possible. Stop sight seeing and get down here!”
The radio went silent. Bendak yelled over his shoulder to the shuttle captain, ordering him to land the VTOL near the outpost. The captain complied immediately and started to lower the ship to the ground.
Before the beautiful views from high above went away, Canderous looked up to the chain of mountain ranges to the north. He smiled as the mountains bid farewell to him by giving off a small twinkle of light near their peaks.
When the VTOL touched down, Bendak leaped out and proudly strolled over to a large group of marines that had gathered near the edge of a the middle building of the outpost. When the marines noticed Bendak’s form walking towards them, they immediately stood to attention and saluted him with their heads held high. Bendak motioned them to be at ease. He breathed in deeply before speaking with a calm, proud tone.
“Marines...” he started.
“Welcome to Earth.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lack of pony? NOT FOR MUCH LONGER!