Humans. Weak. Naive. Violent. Stupid. All words that are commonly used to describe the race on Equus. Throughout the years, ponykind has flourished, making huge advancements in terms of magic research and society. But the humans? Nothing. No advancement, no society. The creatures had basically become little more than pets to their equine overlords. Originally, the humans had had knowledge rivaling the zebras in terms of alchemy and other plant based magic. However, when they came under pony rule, the magic had been lost. Humans possessed only enough aptitude to create remedies for minor ailments.
Light years away, however, on a small blue planet, humanity had become one of the strongest species in the galaxy. Their powerful civilization had been stable for over 1000 years. They had become one of the only races to master a technology. Humans, with their antimatter power, were the only race able to rival the ancient Martians, more commonly known as the Precursors.
When evidence of intelligent life was found on Mars, and evidence of said life leaving the planet, it had become humanity’s quest to find the Martians, who at this point may not have even been martians anymore, and share with them what the race had learned. The humans considered themselves the older brothers of the lost race. It was that quest that led the terran humans to encounter their counterparts on Equus. Or, as the terrans called it, Tango 126. The one-hundred-twenty-sixth target planet that they would travel to in order to look for the Martians.
Back on the small blue planet, the USSF (United Space Search Fleet) was doing the final checks before activating their final matter reactor on the USSF Monarch. Named after a United States naval battleship, the Monarch was a heavy grade ship, able to destroy small moons and sustain itself in space for as long as there were people on board. The ship rivaled a small country with its half million occupants.
“Captain Lee. It’s time for final checks.” muttered the head engineer. The captain of the heavy vessel looked down at his crew. While quite young, only about thirty two, his flawless track record had been what set him up for this job. In his ten years of flying, the man had never lost a single man, nor piece of cargo. As such, he had been stated as a captain of the heavy cruiser in order to “ensure a safe and fast passage” as the planetary mayor put it.
“Good. Perform fast diagnostics.” said Lee.
The head engineer nodded, then rushed off into a corner to run the tests. Lee sighed and looked down at the deck again. The captain couldn’t help himself as a large smile broke out over his face. His chest swelled with pride as he saw the uniformed engineers, pilots and navigators working.
‘Today’s the day. Tango 126... I hope to God they’re there.’
Holding the intercom button down, Lee signaled for one of the ten onboard Elites to come on deck. The trip from Earth to Tango 126 would take only twenty minutes with the wormhole generator, It took space and created a superheavy gravity field that bent the area they needed to travel, essentially the generator took a super dense chunk of metal, normally iridium, and compressed it into an astronomically small area, effectively creating a black hole. Then the hole was shot out, and blasted in such a way, where it captured then expanded one of the spontaneously appearing microscopic wormholes, and then stabilized it.
Lee needed to set up militarization as soon as possible so they could get OSS (Orbital Shock Squads) on the ground to scope out the area. After about two minutes of waiting, he heard a knock on the door. Pressing a button, he watched, open mouthed, as a real, live elite walked into his chamber.
“You wanted to see me, Captain?”
His voice was metallic and distorted due to his face mask. The mask was basically a one way black tinted space grade glass, with a HUD and respirator. The rest of his armor was chunks of kevlar layered over aerogel, and plated with a special metal alloy. The joints had servos and artificial muscle fibers, to enhance strength. On his back was the Specialist's Rifle, one of the USSF’s most powerful weapons. It could do anything from shoot off pulse beams, to fire antimatter rail cannon shells. His armor was jet black and combined with his helmet made him look like a robotic statue.
The Elite stood for a moment, then raised a hand, pushing the lock on his helmet. The plate slowly rose and revealed his face, which had a rather confused look on it.
“Sir? Is there a reason you’re staring?”
“I- Sorry, I’ve never met an elite before. It’s an honor!”
The confusion on the armored man’s face grew. “Thanks, I guess... Is there something you needed?”
“What? Oh, right, come on in.”
Lee quickly regained his composure and cleared his throat. Quickly he explained the situation and asked the elite to set up two drop squads to perform first contact. Once the plans had been made, the captain dismissed the elite and turned around to look back at his deck.
His first day on the job, and he’d already met an elite. This was going to be one hell of a voyage.
“Captain!” Yelled the head engineer. “We’re ready to go!”
Smiling, Lee clasped his hands together. Leaning down, he spoke into a mic mounted to the arm of his chair. “All right! Gear up and buckle down, we’re off in sixty seconds!”
“T- minus 60 seconds!”
Lee looked one more time around the ship
“T- minus 30 seconds!”
The captain looked out the window, and admired the familiar landscape, knowing he wouldn’t be returning home for a while.
At the ten seconds mark, Lee sighed and began counting aloud into his speakers with the computer. They had done it so many times, yet the excitement could still be seen on every member of the ship. They could be the ones who finally found the Martians. At zero, the entire ship began shaking. The crew members onboard held on to whatever they could. The Holodisplay lit up, showing the status of the reactors. They were heating up.
The inhabitants of the ship felt a pressure similar to the one you would feel when going up in an elevator. The earth beneath them began to tremble and a black cloud spread out fast below. With a mighty roar the engines began propelling the ship. The reactors activated to their full power feeding energy the engine and the huge ship took to the air.
The titanic spacecraft shot straight up, breaking the sound barrier as it ascended. The displays lit up, showing their speed.
Mach 2.
Mach 3.
Mach 5.
Suddenly everything became lighter as the ship tore away from the planet’s gravity. The screens stopped blinking as the ship slowed, reducing its speed.
“Cool the reactors!” Shouted Lee over the commotion.
“On it!” yelled the head pilot.
There was a loud hiss and the displays showed the temperature drop as the reactor huds and casings were filled with a Bose-Einstein condensate. The insane temperature difference caused a loud hissing to be heard as the reactors were supercooled. Once the reactors were at operating temperatures, and the ship was cruising along at Mach 12, he leaned near his microphone again.
“Congratulations! The USS Monarch is now fully operational. Great job crew!”
Throughout the ship, there was cheering and shouting. The first ship capable of colonization had been launched. A starship that could travel long distances and set up colonies in under three days. Previous starships took upwards of two months to set up colonies, but with the Monarch’s 500,000 crew members, setting up colonies could happen at insane speeds.
---
Back on Tango 126, a rather tall man stood in the middle of the square of a small town called Ponyville. He was staring up at a mountain. Specifically, the city built into the side of the mountain, Canterlot.
Most of the humans on the planet called it the “forbidden city” due to the fact that no humans were allowed within it. Rumors had spread of how the roads were paved in gold, and of how there was no crime, everything there was “just perfect”.
Some ponies decided to encourage these rumors whilst others, specifically his owner, Applejack, and her companions said they were untrue. No one was quite sure what to believe anymore. After all, only one human had set foot in that city. And that had been over four hundred years ago when she had asked the Princess for help and proposed the contract that basically kept humanity safe.
As the man stared, he felt an odd sense of giddiness. It was something his gut was telling him.
As he stared, the human heard a whistle from behind. It was the high pitched sound of a hoof whistle. Somepony wanted his attention.
‘Great. What now?’
Wheeling around the Jack looked for whoever was calling him. As the human realized who it was, he exhaled through his nose. It was a small filly by the name of Diamond Tiara. Just looking at the filly made him angry. She had a horrible habit of picking on those she deemed weaker.
“Yes, miss?” asked Jack with a false sweetness in his voice.
“How’s working on the Farm with those blank flanks?”
The man clenched his fists. He would have loved to hit her, but the fact that she was a filly, combined with the fact that her father was a high-ranking member of community, made him hesitant to take such action.
‘The nerve. She knows Applebloom is sensitive about that...better me than her.’
“It’s just fine...now if you excuse me, I have some work to get back to...”
“Oh so now staring at Canterlot is work?”
The man gritted his teeth and ignored her.
“You know, you’re never going into Canterlot...humans don’t deserve to.”
---
High above the planet of Equus, there was a blast of light as the USSF Monarch materialized. On the bridge of the ship, Lee stood, looking out the glass, down at the planet of Equus.
The land formations were not so different from earth. Water bodies, forests, mountains...
But no matter how he looked at them, they didn’t look like the ones back home. The land masses were shaped a bit too perfectly, triangles, squares. In certain places, clouds were a lot more common and they never seemed to move on their own. The north and south poles were hidden beneath a thick layer of clouds, and the planet seemed to emit some form of natural majesty that earth had lost long ago.
Turning, he walked back to his chair. Pushing the intercom he spoke into the mic.
“Crew. We have arrived at Tango 126. Please prepare to fall into orbital gravity.”
Slowly, the ship began floating towards the planet. In a matter of minutes, it began falling around it.
-
A race they had encountered, with rather advanced technology, most likely just after an industrial revolution, hadn't been to happy about “outsiders” trying to “steal” their planet and resources.
They had fought the humans tooth and nail. Attacking camps, destroying random supply drops, and causing general havoc. After two years of frustration and failed negotiations, the humans had decided to just leave. The choice was also influenced by scientists confirming that said race was not who they were looking for, the Precursors. The hostiles pursued, and attacked. The crew of another ship, the USSF Starwatch, ended up releasing several tons of antimatter on the planet. The result had been a tremendous amount of energy that literally blew apart the place. Something that Punch still remembered with fondness. The wave of energy, the bright flash...
Out of all of that though, the Elite’s favorite part was the sick sense of satisfaction that the race that had killed his companion, and caused him so much grief, was completely destroyed. According to their sensors anyways...
“Your ship is ready, sir! Do you need anything else?” shouted the engineer.
“Yeah,” said punch as he walked towards the The Veteran, his personal combat fighter, “send in two OSS squads after me.”
“Yes sir!”
Climbing the side of the ship, Punch activated the reactors. The ship lowered into the launch chamber, a long chamber with a runway that opened into space.
The ship began to tremble as a black cloud spread behind it. A blast of bright blue flames shot out from the thrusters, and the ship began speeding down the launch chamber. The incredible velocity of the ship caused Punch to be pressed back in his seat. The intensity of the flames flying out the back of his engines left the launch chamber literally red hot. The Veteran burst out of the chamber, flying at nine times the speed of sound, leaving bright blue flames in its wake. The wings of the fighter, which had been folded in to make the plane fit in the chamber, snapped out and the ionjets mounted to them lit up.
The combat fighter hurtled towards the planet, and the hull began heating up as it entered the planet’s atmosphere. The elite smiled and hit the reverse thrusters. There were plenty of better ways of entering the planet, however, with Punch’s antics, he felt that flying down at faster than sound was a lot more fun than just floating in or using inertia nullification.
Blue flames jutted out of the front of the ship, and the entire thing jerked as it suddenly slowed down. Now cruising at a speed just under the sound barrier, the elite began his descent, and activated visual cloaking. Radioing back up to the Monarch, he awaited further orders.
---
An ear splitting sound drew Jack’s attention to the skies. A black meteor was falling with enough energy to glow brightly, even during noon. It looked as if it would hit the town square in Ponyville. An explosion was heard, coming from the meteor as it started slowing down. Jack began picking up the scent of smoke. The ground began shaking. The unexpected second blast of flames, flew out the front. catching him by surprise, the unexpected blast made him fall over. By the time he had gotten up, the meteor was gone. As if nothing had happened.
Quickly looking around, Jack saw that many others in the square, ponies and humans alike had stopped to watch the phenomenon unfold.
---
Punch pulled back on the throttle, and flew over cites, running scanners, and monitoring for life and technology. So far they the elite had found no notable technology, but plenty of life.
Suddenly his radio switched on, and Lee came online. “Are you insane!? I told you to put together a team, not to go alone!”
Punch chuckled. The captain had obviously never commanded an elite before. Taking a team would have hindered him. After all, most foot soldiers didn’t have energized armor. They would have slowed him down. “Don’t worry.” said Punch. “Scanners say that planet has barely reached stage two development. In terms of military. anyways. Oh yeah, and I asked for two drop squads to fly in after me. They’re gearing up now. I’m totally not alone.”
As he finished relaying the information, his display lit up red, indicating an incoming projectile. Oddly enough the object was organic in nature. But that really didn’t take away the dangers. After all, a mossy rock could set off the organic sensors. Not to mention he had just entered an atmosphere and his ship was traveling at almost supersonic speeds.
‘I’m being attacked?’
Looking out his window, he saw the projectile. A grey...pegasus?
“Oh SHIT!”
Pulling down on his controls, the elite went into a dive. Rocketing towards the ground, he was narrowly able to avoid a collision with the pony. After all, killing one of the locals wasn’t a good way to make first contact.
Lee radioed in. “What happened?”
“A flying horse almost hit me!”
He heard suppressed laughing over the radio. “W-What?”
The Elite shook his head and pushed the call button. “A grey flying horse. It almost hit my fighter.”
“Al-alright!” There was more laughter. “J-Just land.”
Punch then realized the silliness of his statement. He had stated that he almost hit a creature straight out of mythology. Smiling inwardly, he reduced throttle, and looked for a Landing Zone.
---
Inside Canterlot, guard ponies stood at the ready, pointing their spears at the gate. The Pegasi guard floated in the air, effectively setting up a no fly zone over the city skies. From atop her tower, Celestia monitored just outside the city with a large ornate telescope.
As soon as the unknown object had fallen into Equestrian territory, the city had been on high alert. In most cases they wouldn’t have been worried, however, with the way the object had been shooting out flames, and causing loud explosions, they were sure it wasn’t just a stray meteor.
As she stared out her telescope, Celestia felt a chill, as if something was watching her from afar. Suddenly a blast of wind caught her, and there was a distant rumbling. The volume was astonishing, like the roar of a dragon.
“Whatever fell out of the sky must be making that noise...” muttered Celestia.
Panning her telescope, she gasped as she saw it. She couldn’t say much about it other than the fact that it was fast. Faster than almost anything she had ever seen. The only thing that rivaled its speed was the sonic rainboom which she had only witnessed a few times. As she watched it fly away, she decided that it, whatever it was, was neither pony nor human.
---
Punch’s ship, which at the moment was traveling at Mach two, scanned the ground for a suitable landing space. Punch found that space just outside what seemed to be a small town. As The Veteran flew over a small clearing, the display of his ship lit up, signifying a viable place to park the fighter.
Smiling, the elite began slowing down the ship, and finally came to a stop fifteen hundred feet above a clearing. Slowly, he reduced downwards thrust, and the ship slowly began descending.
Within a few seconds, John Punch was opening his hatch, and getting ready to jump down. Quietly, John muttered Neil Armstrong's words as first contact tradition dictated.
“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!” Hopping down, he landed on the planet with a dull thud.
Chuckling quietly to himself, Punch loaded a few high energy rail cannon shells into his rifle, and set it on his back. The weapon locks on his back gave a quiet click as the weapon set into place. Turning on his heel, John began walking towards the forest.
---
Applejack stared open mouthed at the sky. Coming to her senses, she quickly scanned the square and spotted Jack staring up into the sky. Galloping towards, she shouted to try and get his attention.
“Hey! Hey, Jack!”
Hearing the sound of Applejack shouting, he turned around and spotted her running toward him.
“Yes, miss?”
“You all right there, partner?”
“I- yeah. Just a little surprised.”
Sighing, the mare nervously began pacing about the square. A thousand questions flashed through her mind. Most prominently what was that thing that dropped out of the sky. And where had it gone!? The thing had just exploded before hitting the ground!
Applejack shook her head and began walking back to her stand. As is the custom of Ponyville; If you don’t know what it is, leave it alone. The farmer then began walking back to her stand, calling for her human companion to follow.
---
Punch stood on the hull of his ship, looking about through the enhanced zoom scope mounted on his rifle. So far, he had spotted only one thing of interest. A small cottage located a couple hundred feet from his ship. By the looks of it, the place was home to not only one of the locals, but a ton of animals. There were everything from robbins to otters. Half the creatures at the small cottage had actually gone extinct a long time ago, back on Earth.
As the elite looked down his scope at the cottage, a flash of yellow caught his eye. A local by the looks of it. Turning the digital zoom enhancer on his helmet on, he increased the distance he could see. It seemed as though the cottage was home to a butter yellow pegasus; considering she had just walked into the house.
‘So the grey horse I almost hit with my fighter was sapient. The more you know...’
Though there was life on the planet, there were no Precursors. Radioing up to the Monarch, John relayed the news. With a planet this far behind in technological advancement, there was almost no chance that the Precursors had been here. After all, they would have left behind some form of technology.
As he finished relaying the news, he noticed something odd. A completely human man! Punch’s mouth dropped open behind his mask. The man he was watching seemed to be wearing a collar of sorts. He was opening the door for the pegasus, and seemed to be helping her take the bags she had been carrying inside.
---
“Wait, wait. Let me get this straight. You saw a pegasus, and a human man.”
“Yes.”
“And the man was wearing a collar.”
“Yes sir.”
“Like a dog’s collar?”
“Affirmative.”
“And the horse was ordering him around?”
“Not really, but he was following her instructions, yes.”
“Well then what are you waiting for? A special invitation? Figure out what’s happening here! If we already explored this planet and ended up with a crashed ship here, we have a major problem. Especially if the locals were able to enslave us!”
“Yes sir!”
“Lethal force is authorized in retaliation. Monarch out.”
As Punch shut off his radio, he heard a rustling in a bush from just behind him, near the forest. He quickly picked up the faint smell of rotting wood and tree sap. In larger amounts, the smell would have been nauseating. However, his suit was able to filter out most of the odor.
Curious as to the source of the sudden disturbance, he turned around and switched on his thermal visor. Crouched inside the bush, he saw a wolf-like silhouette. His sensors lit up as the woof walked out of the bushes. He was quick to notice the fact that the creature was made completely out of wood. It seemed to be leaking tree sap, as though it were drooling.
‘Not good. I’m too close to my ship to use the rife. Blowing a hole in an air tight ship isn’t a good idea. And then there’s sexy. God, I’ll never hear the end of it. She’ll nag me for hours.’
Turning around, John jumped off the hull of his fighter and landed on the ground. Jumping to his feet, he began running away from his ship, the muscle emulators contracting and relaxing with his biological parts, propelling him faster than any average human was capable of moving.
After about ten seconds of running, he came to a stop and turned around. Bringing up the scope of his rifle, he aligned the target finders and fired a pulsed beam. The powerful laser-propelled matter was easily able to burn its way through the wolf. As the beam blew apart its skull, it suddenly burst into flames, and fell to the ground.
The other creatures weren’t intimidated by John’s display. With a hungry look in their eyes, they charged him. Punch was easily able to dispatch him with his rifle, but even at this range he had to be careful not damage his ship. As the wolves dropped, his sensor lit up again.
‘Not even fifteen minutes on this planet and I’m attacked! Why can’t I ever get sent to the planet of pretty butterflies instead of wooden man eating wolves!’
Turning around, John sprinted full pelt towards the cottage. His breathing became heavy, and just as he jumped the fence a one of the creatures slammed into his back. The momentum of the wolf sent them both hurtling towards the door of the cottage. Rather than the door stopping them though, John and the wolf ended up smashing straight through it, and tumbling into the house.
---
Fluttershy was having a great day. She had just finished feeding all of her animal friends, and was in the middle of making tea for herself and her human. As she made the drinks, she quietly hummed to herself. Her companion, a rather skinny looking man, was sitting awkwardly at the table twiddling his thumbs.
Though he had insisted on making the tea himself, his caretaker had ended up shushing him, and making him wait at the table for her to finish.
As Fluttershy put the tea down on the table she heard a bang. Giving off a small “eep” she watched as a timber wolf was hurled into her kitchen. The animal, which was missing its left hind paw, and had puncture wounds in its ribcage, and legs, slammed into the table, and smashed the tea kettle and cups. It then slid off the table and fell to the floor.
The timid pegasus was shaking in her horse shoes. Her companion had jumped under the table in an attempt to protect himself from the man eating wolf. The air was deathly quiet save for the wolf’s growling and a steady two beat THUNK of metal on wood. After two seconds of tense atmosphere, and silence, a human like, tall, armored figure, with no face walked into her kitchen. He raised an oddly shaped metal rod, with a glowing knife mounted on the end, and brought it down on the wolf’s head. With the loud crack of breaking wood, the wolf’s body lay on the floor, battered and broken, his skull split in half.
The pegasus squeaked again. The almost undetectable sound, however attracted the attention of the no-faced-horror. Slowly it turned and looked at her. Then, it spoke in a metallic, distorted voice, that sounded more like two or three ponies than one. “I apologize for the disruption.”
The no-faced creature spoke again. “Are you hurt?”
Fluttershy opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out. Her chest felt tight and breathing was hard. She was constantly shaking as she stared at her reflection in the creature’s face. The blackness seemed infinite, as she stared at him she realized he looked like a moving statue.
The mare was pulled out of her thoughts when the creature repeated its question. In something of a panic, Fluttershy shook her head.
“Good. Now tell your friend to get out from under the table. I have some questions for him.”
“How did you kno-”
“I know everything. Now get him out.”
“But if you know everything, why do you need to-.”
“Don’t question me, just do it.” he said, putting extra emphasis on the last few words.
---
Punch quickly connected to the Monarch's computers and brought up a list of all the MIA heavy cruisers. As the list loaded up on his HUD, the butter yellow pegasus attempted to coax out the human under the table. After a few moments the skimpy man crawled out and nervously asked, “Is the timberwolf gone?”
Fluttershy went to respond, but was cut off by John. “What do you know about the USSF Apollo?”
The collared man turned to look at him. The way he stared was more childish than anything else. As the he stared at himself in the black visor, his eyes grew in fear. “W-what!? Who are y-”
“Answer the question.”
“I don’t know! I mean, we have folk tales about a man named Apollo.”
The elite shook his head.
‘I should get vaugier’.
“What is a starship?”
A look of confusion grew across the faces of the occupants of the room. Fluttershy’s human, quietly muttered something. Though no one could really hear it, Punch’s audio enhancers were easily able to pick up the quiet question. “If you don’t know what a starship is, you don’t know what I need.”
Once he had finished talking, Punch switched, his external speakers off. He radioed up to the ship, then called up Lee.
“What’d you find?”
“Nothing. These guys don’t even know what a starship is. One obviously hasn’t crashed here. What do geographical sensors say?”
“No outstanding craters. Nor any traces of human tech...but...nevermind, I’ll tell you later.”
Punch sighed. For a first contact, this was going horribly. He’d just smashed in the door to a local's house, crushed the skull of some wildlife in front of them, then asked about something they weren’t even familiar with. It wouldn’t be a surprise if they ended up turning this planet hostile at this rate. Luckily the creatures seemed not to know that a heavy grade star cruiser was orbiting their planet, so that was a plus...
John’s radio crackled and Lee’s voice came back on. “I have a plan, just leave, I need time to explain. Directions are already on the way to your fighter.”
“What about the wolves? There weren’t just two or three of them.”
“The OSS took them out. They’re waiting at the fighter.”
Turning his external speakers back on, John said “Forget this ever happened.”
Punch then turned on his heel, and walked out of the house, leaving the two of them staring out the door.
---
Twilight busily rummaged through shelf after shelf of books. The studious mare was searching for a book on rare astronomical events, she had been dying to know what the odd meteor that had almost fallen into the town’s square, then disappeared before impact, was called. After all, it wasn’t every day that a meteor fell onto the planet. Especially one as big as that.
Suddenly there was a shout from the back room. “Found it!”
Spike came staggering into the room, a massive tome being just barely supported by the young dragon. As he stumbled toward the main table, Twilight hopped with joy. Setting the book down with a loud slam, Spike fell onto his butt and sighed tiredly. “Jeeze Twi, why can’t you pick lighter books?”
The purple mare gave no response as she busied herself in the huge book sitting on the table.
Spike excused himself to the kitchen after muttering something about a jem cake, and a calm settled over the library as the two occupants busied themselves with their daily activities.
About ten minutes later, there was a frantic knocking on the door, followed by a very out of character shout from Fluttershy. “Twilight! Twilight help!” A purple dragon with frosting lining his lips gave an exasperated sigh as he walked towards the door. Tugging on the door, Spike shouted as a rather flustered Fluttershy bolted into the lobby, followed by her rather quiet friend.
“Umm...yes, please, come inside,” remarked a sarcastic Spike.
Fluttershy looked about the room, searching for her friend. Spotting her still immersed in the book, Fluttershy rushed up to her, then gently went to nudge her shoulder. But before she did, she shied away with a quiet “I’m sorry. You look busy...”
As Spike watched the display, he raised a claw to his face and muttered “for pony’s sake...”
Walking up to the oblivious purple mare, the baby dragon poked her on the shoulder. No response. Spike repeated the action, and after the fifth poke, Twilight quickly glanced back, with a slightly annoyed look on her face.
“What is it?”
“You have a visitor,” said the dragon, gesturing toward the timid yellow pegasus, who was hiding behind her mane.
Noticing that all eyes were on her, Fluttershy muttered a feeble “Hello.”
A smile spread across Twilight’s face as she realized her friend had come to visit. “Hello Fluttershy!” she chipped. “Did you need something?”
“Ummm...I just wanted to ask you about something...I saw a creature, and I didn’t know what it was.”
“Well, could you tell me what it looked like?” asked Twilight, excitement growing in her voice. Meteors were cool, but they were nothing compared to discovering a new creature. This could be the opportunity of a lifetime!
“It looked, well it kind of looked like a human, except it was taller.” said Fluttershy. The pegasus seemed to look everywhere but Twilight, she acted like she was afraid. However knowing Fluttershy, that wouldn’t have been such a big surprise.
“Are you sure it wasn’t a human?”
“It didn’t have a face...”
Confusion flashed across Twilight’s face, and Fluttershy continued her explanation. She described everything from the odd stick Punch carried to his voice, and how it sounded more like three people than one. By the end of the conversation, Twilight was staring at Fluttershy’s companion, who was playing a heated game of tic-tac-toe with Spike
---
“This is insane! I’m not doing this!” shouted Punch as he stared at digital copies of the plan.
“I’m your commanding officer! You do what I say,” Lee exclaimed.
John chuckled, “I’m basicly the same rank as you! I can do whatever the fuck I want, Sir.” said the elite, venom in his voice
“Well at least you still said sir. But at anyrate, just trust me on this one.”
“Fine. I’ll do it. I won’t like it, but I’ll do it...”
Jumping out of his fighter, he asked the OSS commander to set his ship up for disassembling his armor, then to take it back to the Monarch.
The plan was simple. John would disassemble his armor, dress up as a commoner, and join the ranks in order to find intel. He would end up with only his rifle, mostly due to the fact that it never left his side, and a suitcase that would serve to conceal the weapon. Lee had told them that they had already put in a Survey and Intelligence, SAI, unit in a large city to the south of this small town, and she had blended in fine.
As he stood in front of his fighter, the elite began feeling awfully naked. Normally he would wear his armor almost 24/7. It was what replaced his uniform when he became an elite. In all honesty it, in a way, held just as much sentimental value as his rifle. Mostly because of how he got it. Back when he was part of an OSS squad, on Hotel 214, the elite there had taken him under his wing. When that man had died, he had given his armor to Punch, in a last ditch attempt to save him. Even now the man didn’t consider the armor his, it wasn’t even his class, but he still wore it out of sentimental value.
As moments of the events on 214 flashed through his mind, the Elite shuddered. Sighing, he lifted his arms, and held them rigid, pointing out to either side. There was a muffled hum, and the front of his fighter opened. Robot like arms reached out and began unscrewing hidden bolts, There were snapping sounds as the artificial muscle contracted out of place, and the entire suit went flabby. Then, just as quickly, more arms picked off the armor plates, and the elite was left standing in nothing but a white cotton shirt and a pair of cargo shorts. His Specialist’s Rifle was sitting on the ground a few feet away.
The hull of his fighter closed up, and one of the OSS members walked over and handed him a suitcase.
With a frown etched on his face, John walked over and placed his weapon in the foam cut out. Closing and locking the black case, he nodded to the orbital troops, as the reentered their High Altitude Low Opening pods.
There was a loud hissing as the HALO pods closed, then pressurised themselves. A drop ship would end up coming to pick them up, but John didn’t have the time to wait around for it to show up. Supposedly the case held everything he needed. A transmitter to talk to the Monarch, a solar panel for charging and of course, his rifle, and ammo, along with some personal belongings.
Wheeling around, John began walking towards the small cottage he had broken into. First contact wasn’t over yet...