As the engines rumbled to life; shaking the entirety of the craft, one of its occupants pulled out an odd token. The clean cut stallion watched as the dog tags twirled about in the predawn light.
"Firing primary thrusters in ten, nine, eight,"
The stallion smiled, closing his eyes as the dog tags spun. "Keep me safe dad." He tucked them back into one of the pockets in his heavy suit, and checked over his instrument panel. "All systems green!"
"Four, Three, Two, One!"
The craft lurched, the sudden exponential increase in thrust cramming its occupants down into their seats. The power increased, sending the craft hurtling off the launch pad as a control tower full of ponies watched in satisfaction, their mission partially complete. The shuttle roared out past the stratosphere; a massive cone of flame burning behind it as it went through the magically enhanced fuel carried them past the bonds of Equis.
The clean cut grey unicorn flicked a switch with his magic, releasing the now spent thrusters. "Thrusters One and Two reading empty and clear. We're flying clean now captain."
A small green pegasus mare smiled, going through her own checklist. "Thank you Mr. Venture, carry on."
Hunter nodded, and went back to his checklist.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
The shuttle floated easily through space, it's Goliath-Sparkle drive pushing it gently towards its location. One of the crew members floated over, grabbing a small hoof-set radio. "Lunar Prime, this is Spomano Six. We're twenty minutes out with your fresh supplies and crew. Hope you've got a welcome wagon laid out."
There was a brief pause, where Hunter rolled his eyes, before going back to his duties.
"Roger that Spomano Six, if you hurry, you might get to see some of the new artefacts be brought up by the archaeologists."
The Cosmonaught with the radio chuckled. "If it's another soda can, I'm telling the royalty."
Hunter shook his head; looking over at his captain. "Ma'am? We're seven minutes out from Lunar Primes landing run. All systems are nominal, and I've got green across the board."
The mare smiled happily. "That's good Mr. Venture. Here's hoping it stays like that." She turned her head for a moment; flicking over a switch that engaged the autopilot. "So, you're going to be Lunar Primes new lead maintenance pony, hey?"
The unicorn smiled, nodding his answer. "Yes ma'am. I'm looking forward to it too. The colony is growing pretty quickly, and someponies gotta keep it from flying apart."
Nodding, the captain relaxed her shoulders, watching the autopilot steer them closer. "Good on you. Personally, I couldn't stand being anywhere close to those ruins. I mean, Nightmare Moon herself apparently built them during her exile. That's enough to creep me right out. I don't know how those diggers can stand it, or you for that matter."
"My dad once told me to never be afraid of what I don't understand."
The mare cocked her head towards him. "He said that?"
Hunter nodded. "Yeah." He glanced over his equipment one more time as the colony landing pad came into view. "He always had an answer for me."
"Is he waiting for you on Equis?" She looked over the stallion.
He shook his head. "No. He's with me right now." At the odd look from his Captain, the baticorn chuckled, pulling out the dogtags.
The mare closed her eyes, and nodded in understanding. "You miss him much?"
"Of course. I miss him every day. But he died when I was young, so I've had time to get over it." Hunter smiled. "I was originally going to join the armed forces, but I remembered him always wanting me to do better than he did."
"And now you're here, on a multi-million bit spacecraft." The mare chuckled. "I'd think any father would be proud of that."
Hunter smiled, stowing the tags. "Definitely, he-"
DANGER! DANGER! GSD SYSTEMS CRITICAL
The automated warning blared as the emergency light doused the cabin in muted red. Hunter swirled in his chain, running his eyes along the ever expanding list of warnings and system alerts. "GSD is overheating! One of the plugs must have popped!" He yelled over the dim of the cabin. "Shutting it down!" He gripped a large lever and pulled it firmly down.
The shuttle shuddered violently, before the warnings stopped completely. Smoke began to fill the cabin.
Captain Winters calm stood up, and popped open a small hatch on the craft. "Gasmasks on ponies, everyone stay together and figure this out. Comet, try and get Lunar Prime on the horn, tell them we've had a small inconvenience. Hunter, you're with me."
Hunter nodded, a small fire extinguisher floating next to him. "Right behind you."
The pair floated through the corridor of the small craft, and towards the GSD containment unit. The smoke was becoming worrisome, but not too dangerous. Hunter pressed the door control, sealing off the bridge as the pilot tried to limp them to port.
"Ma'am, hold on for a moment. Don't open the door." Hunter floated next to Winters, who'd just about opened the door. "I want to preform a visual first." He floated up, looking through the thick bulkhead window. "I'm not seeing any fires, or hull breaches. Computer says it's clear as well. Okay, let's head in."
The mare nodded, and pressed the bulkhead door open. The pair floated over towards the now still magic drive. It's shielding had collapsed, leaving it exposed. A large red plug was half ejected from its moorings, and a trio of flashing red lights spoke of additional damage done when it ejected.
"This might be a problem." Hunter pulled the plug out, grimacing lightly as only half of it came out intact. "Yup."
Winters nodded as she flipped through several breakers and contingency equipment. "ETA?"
"Indefinite. We don't have the machinery to fix this, or the unicorn." He slid a protective cover back. "We're lucky the shielding held as well as it did, or we'd be staring at a big hole in our ship."
"Heh, well, at least we're almost at Lunar Prime, they'll have the equipment to get us flying again. May as well cut it off and use the secondary for now."
Nodding, Hunter closed the primary hatch that led to the GSD's internal components. "Roger that. Stand clear while I disconnect her."
The mare floated back a bit, just before the airlock. Hunter pulled down another lever, and disconnected a large bundle of wires. "Okay, now all I have to do is shut off the fuel valve, and start the secondary."
"Do you have it under control Mr. Venture?" Winters asked.
Hunter looked up. "Yes ma'am. Done it a hundred times."
She nodded, a look of trepidation crossing her muzzle. "I need to return to the bridge. Finish your work and return as soon as possible."
As the airlock closed behind her, Hunter let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Okay... Let's get this done."
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hunter floated through the corridor of the shuttle with his bag of tools trailing behind him on a lanyard. As he neared the bridge, he could hear Captain Winters speaking into the radio.
"Lunar Prime, come in, this is Spomano Six, we've suffered damage to our GSD, and we may have external damage to our shuttle. Please respond."
"Say again Spomano, we're having difficulty- Ẉ̡̭̙͕̬̰͔͓̼̇͒̚͠Q̰̥̦ͬͪ̂ͪ̊́́y͂̓̾̏̈̉̾ͦͭ͏̷̨̜d̠͗̏̍̊͢h̦̟̞̠̙̞̊̓̈́͒͆u̻̯̲̝̿̿̿̒̾ͣͤ͂n̰̜͈͎̰̯̬̅ͣͪ͑́ͩ͟ù̩͚̹̤͚̙g͙̱̭̤̟̲͐ͅh̖̳ͬͪ͆n̴͉̱̞̣̿́͡w̞̟̯̟̒͐͛̔̀͑̈́̚͡k͍̰̪̼͖͍̰̿ͦ̏ͥͤ͌͛ͫ̽j͈͇̠̅͛̾̽̒ͫ̄̚͝ͅň̴͚̗̤͈̱̄̍̌ͬ͆s̳̞͓̜̠̲͌̂͛̽̀̽̀̆ṵ̶͍͕͖̀̀̾́͞w̛̹̼̠̼̳ͯ̿ͨu͓̤̙͙̹̭̯̮̔͒̿͗d̗̥̗̣̖ͧ́̑͌͝͡ - Problem on our end. Small- ṱ̨͇̻̀͌̀r̙̄ͪ̾ͤ͢͠͡y̸̵̬̭̺͙̗̓̾ͥͩ̑́ư͆̿ͥ͡҉̪̮j̷̮̞͙͕̩͈͉̪͈̍ͥ̎̉y̵͉ͭͪ̈ͭ͘ͅt̷̥̝̻̼̫̂͋ͩ̆͌̓ͅy̵͔̗̼͚̎̈́ͥ̃t̮̣̻ͫͩͥ͒̉͘-shower inbound. Please- e̖̲̩̪̳̾r̰̤̠̺̽͑͑̓t̗͎͙͕̬͆ͣ̈́͝f̸̖͖̘̗̄̄̉ͩͫ̀ͅy͋ͦ̐̑̍ͬ͊ù̩͚̹̤͚̙g͙̱̭̤̟̲͐ͅh̖̳ͬͪ͆ - dock."
"Say again Lunar Prime, you're breaking up. Please repeat."
"I said- -teor shower inbound, stay out of grid 2-E-5 through 3."
Winters shook her head, looking displeased. "Comet, where are we?"
The stallion looked over the navigation map. "We- Oh. We're currently passing through grid location 2-E-4. We should be clear of any showers if we maintain this speed. Do you think they're having problems on their end?" The stallion looked over at the rest of the crew; one of his eyebrows cocked for good measure.
"I don't think, I know." The Captain simply spoke, her eyes glued on the monitors.
Hunter floated in the airlock, watching the scene play out. He spoke up once Winters was finished for a moment. "Ma'am. GSD is offline and disconnected. Secondary engine is reading green across the board. Should be enough to bring us into port."
Winters nodded, running a hoof over her forehead. "Good job Mr. Venture. Now if only you could fix Lunar Prime's technical glitches."
"Ma'am!" The pilot called out. "Starboard thrusters just stopped responding! We're listing badly!" He quickly scanned the readouts. "We're coming in too hot, we have to pull out."
Hunter shook his head. "Secondary doesn't have enough power for that, especially with half our thrusters down. I'll see if I can't get them working."
Winters closed her eyes in thought for a split second. "Belay that action Mr. Venture. Everypony, strap in and hold onto something. Mr. Fields, do your best to swing us the right way around. We don't have time to abort; if we tried, that shower would tear us apart. Comet, get Prime on the horn."
The stallion nodded. "Yes Captain."
Winters took the radio on her hoof as she sat down in her chair. "Lunar Prime, this is Spomano Six. We're coming in hot and we can't pull out. Have emergency crews standing by and fire suppression teams ready." She placed the radio down, and pulled her harness down tight. "Brace yourselves ponies."
Hunter strapped himself in, and took a deep breath. He could only watch as the shielded landing pad grew bigger and bigger in the view screen.
"Adjust our angle by fourteen degrees Mr. Fields."
"Negative Captain, sixteen degrees."
"Brace for impact."
Hunter drew in a breath, before going limp. He closed his eyes, just as the rivets on the landing pad become incredibly clear.