About Three Weeks Prior
A high-pitched alarm echoed throughout the cabin. Other than the red lights that flashed in time with the alarm, the only light source, a small beam shining through a crack in the protective window shielding, reflected off of various metal surfaces, dispersing just enough light to make out the cabin layout. The sound of small electric motors and metal sliding across metal filled the air as four stasis chambers’ protective shells retracted, converting them back into beds. Life stirred aboard the vessel as the occupants of the stasis chambers emerged. The hatch in the bulkhead between the cabin and the cargo bay creaked open, and an older male figure ducked through.
"Computer, shut the hell up! Turn off that alarm! Lights! I’m not awake enough for this crap," came a gruff voice from the man stomping through the cabin.
The alarm stopped, and a sigh of relief could be heard from those within the cabin. It did not last long, as it was followed by wincing and grimaces from the sudden light. As the older man made his way between the two rows of seats, two women and a younger man rose from their stasis chambers, stretching their limbs to get the tightness out of their muscles. A third woman remained seated in her now converted bed.
"Brake! Quit fooling around and get your ass up here!" the older, bald-headed man yelled.
A fairly tall man, though not as tall as the one stretching, swiftly entered from the cargo bay. "I'm comin’, Chief," he yelled back.
"Quiet down, you two. No need to burst everyone's eardrums the moment we wake up," one of the women said, scowling.
"Sorry, Ma'am," both men replied in unison.
"Chief Tylor, you and Petty Officer Brake figure out what that alarm was, where we are, and how long we were out for," the brunette ordered.
"On it, Ma'am," the chief answered, before he turned and started talking to Brake.
The commander faced the two stretching near her. "Petty Officer Kozlov and Airman Wellis, go back to the cargo bay and get some food and drinks for everyone.”
The tall man turned to leave, but the blonde woman complained, "Just waking up after who knows how long, and already a gopher."
At this, the small woman still sitting on the bed spoke. "Airman Maggie Wellis, just shut up and do what Commander Sanaba said."
Wellis put a fake pout on and replied, "Yes, Lieutenant Campbell." She then skulked out of the cabin.
Finally satisfied that her prosthetic leg was good to go, Lieutenant Cassandra Elizabeth Campbell began standing up. She gingerly placed her feet on the floor. Now upright, she looked up and around at the other members on board. Bringing her hands to her face, she rubbed the sleep from her blue eyes. She idly ran her fingers through her long, light strawberry blonde hair to get some of the tangles out. She then began to stretch like the others, making sure everything was working properly. After a few minutes, she walked over to the lockers next to the beds and located hers.
Everyone had an assigned escape ship, and on board, each had a locker that came packed with some emergency supplies in the bottom section. Everyone was required to add at least a few sets of regular clothes and two uniforms, then whatever else they wanted. Many used their locker as a small storage unit. At the moment, Cassandra was more concerned with finding the other prosthetic leg she had packed. “Okay, let’s see… camping kit, folding shovel, rope, emergency beacon, clothing… ah, here’s my—” Upon locating it, she let out a loud sigh.
"What's wrong, Cassie? Don't like having to reprimand your friend?” asked CDR Sanaba, a quizzical look in her eyes. “I know you two grew up together, and even went to college together before she dropped out."
"Hey, Ashley. No, no, it's not that,” Cassie responded, shaking her head. “I couldn’t remember if I packed my good leg in here or not, so I was checking if I had. But... I didn't— just another standard one like I have on already. I was hoping it was my robotic one that uses the entire nerve plate. This one, and the one I have on, can only feel a little pressure in the general area when touched, and only let me have slight ankle and knee movement when I’m not walking," Cassie said with a slight frown on her face.
Chief walked back to the two officers at the lockers just as Kozlov and Wellis came back from the cargo bay with the food. Kozlov indicated for everyone to stand back a few feet from the center area between the lockers and stasis chambers. He then punched a few buttons on a nearby wall console. A section of the floor rose up, creating a table that he and Wellis placed the food on. As expected, the long-term storage food was just a very small upgrade from cardboard, but the foreknowledge of that did not stop most from grumbling about the quality under their breath.
With everyone eating, the chief began his explanation of the situation. “It’s been a year and five months since the destruction of the Quasar. Our location is currently unknown. There’s a possibility that we’re not even in the Milky Way Galaxy anymore. The computer could not locate any familiar stars, but that’s most likely because the navigation array and long-range sensors are damaged, and currently have only limited functionality and range.”
Chief took a breath and grabbed a drink, then continued, “It seems that the spatial anomaly we entered after the main ship was abandoned was some sort of wormhole. We’re definitely farther from where the ship exploded than one or two years could take us. Even damaged, the navigation array would be able to ascertain our position if we were still in that general vicinity, space-wise. During stasis, our ship linked up with transport ships one and three. Ship three has had no response, but ship one responded, and Brake is currently getting the status of the ships. Four crewmen made it aboard ship one, but it was badly damaged.” It was at this point that Brake joined them.
Brake leaned against the bulkhead and started relaying the rest of their own ship’s status. “The window shields are malfunctioning. Only one would open, but it only opened about halfway. Engines are basically dead— they’ll only be good for a little bit before complete failure. All compartments still have full integrity. Some of the solar panels are damaged, but power remains at seventy percent. Ship one confirmed Chief's wormhole theory; they could not place our location, either. Ship three still had no response— status unknown. Somewhere in the last year and five months, the three ships got tangled up with some meteoroids. Other than just being battered, a few of the bigger rocks decided it would be fun to wedge between the ships. Unfortunately, they jammed the connectors linking us together. The only way to detach from one another would be for someone to do a spacewalk.”
CDR Sanaba finished the sandwich she was eating. "That shouldn't be a problem for now. What did Captain Wheeler have to say?" she asked.
Brake started fidgeting before he replied, "That's a problem, Ma'am. The Captain didn't make it on board, and neither did the Command Master Chief. Since we cannot get a hold of anyone in ship three, we don't know if CDR Drake is on board. That leaves you in charge of all three ships." Brake's eyes darted around the cabin.
The Chief lightly slapped Brake on the back of the head and said, “Come on, spit it out.”
Brake rubbed the back of his head. "There’s also another problem. In about one to two hours, we’ll be landing on a planet. Due to the window shield malfunction, we can’t really see much. If you get in the far corner of the cockpit and look, you can see we are coming in from the side. The planet appears to have an atmosphere, though the exact composition is unknown. As everyone knows, these ships are designed to find any space body with some sort of atmosphere and automatically land. That way, the air can at least be filtered to be breathable inside the ship while awaiting rescue. From the—" He was cut short; CDR Sanaba had rushed past him, LT Campbell following close behind her. Had they let him finish, he could have told them that the planet looked to be an actual Earth-like planet.
Ashley and Cassie both squeezed into the corner of the cockpit, trying to get a view of the planet. It would have been much easier if they had waited until the ship realigned for a proper approach, but they had to see now. They gazed upon a planet very similar in color to Earth, but it was not Earth— the land masses were all wrong, there was much more vegetation, and no obvious signs of civilization.
"We did it, Cassie. We actually did it. We found an Earth-like planet that is probably habitable, and hospitable, to human life. Not exactly the planet we were headed to, and our circumstances of getting here were not the greatest, but here we are," Ashley whispered excitedly, just loud enough for Cassie to hear. With a huge grin on her face and amazement in her eyes, Ashley said, “Just look at how blue that atmosphere shines, and how clean the air looks!”
Cassie, with an equally large smile and wide eyes, replied, "Hell yeah! Now we just need to get down there and start an atmospheric analysis as best we can with this broken ship. Oh! And figure out where we are, and hope a rescue ship can reach us. But yes, it looks like our mission was a success! Well, in a roundabout way." Almost vibrating in place, Cassie added, “Lots of water down there, too. Look at those large oceans and lakes! I can’t wait to take a dip.”
Over the following hour, CDR Sanaba had the Chief and Brake coordinate with Ship one. The ships were not designed to land while still linked, but there wasn’t enough time to do a spacewalk to try and dislodge the meteoroids. Manual firing of the forward thrusters and deployment of the parachutes were going to have to be timed together. With the status of ship three still unknown, they had to make sure it also landed safely.
With only 30 minutes to go, everyone was in their environmental suits. Even with the suits on, they were still able to easily move about the ship to complete preparations, as the suits were tough yet didn’t overly impede freedom of movement. The suits’ communications were all set to the same frequencies so everyone would be able to talk with the crews on both ships. It was a standard procedure in case the cabin became compromised upon landing, and the air wherever they landed had not been deemed safe yet.
Piloting the ship, CDR Sanaba and PO3 Kozlov went through the final checks for landing procedures. LT Campbell and AN Wellis finished making sure the cabin was secured for landing, then they made their way to the rear-facing seats behind the pilots. With no other seating available, Chief Tylor and PO3 Brake returned to their stasis beds in the cargo bay and strapped in. CDR Sanaba announced to both crews that they were about to enter the atmosphere. Seconds later, they felt the jolt of coming in contact with the upper atmosphere of the planet. A thought tingled in the back of Cassie’s mind, but she could not place it.
A small explosion shook all three ships, and Cassie immediately remembered what it was she was forgetting. For those meteoroids to get wedged between the three ships, they needed to be five to twenty feet long in at least one direction. With the ships around them, they would not burn away like normal, but would superheat and explode. Before she could tell the Commander to somehow stop the landing, several larger explosions rocked the ships, followed by a massive one.
Warning bells blared, and lights lit up the cockpit like a Christmas tree. The ship was violently thrown to the side, and the sound of rending metal resonated through the cabin. The emergency bulkhead slammed shut, cutting off the cargo bay. The screech of tearing metal once again echoed through the small cabin as they started spinning out of control. The Commander and Kozlov panicked, trying to get the craft under some control, and profuse amounts of swearing was heard across the suits’ internal communicators. Thrusters could be heard, but barely felt, as they fired in an attempt to stabilize and slow the craft. The lurch of a parachute being opened was felt for a brief second, but seemed to do little to halt the fall.
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" CDR Sanaba shouted.
There was a final blast of a thruster being fired, followed by the rumble of metal sliding over dirt and gravel, before the ship came to a stop with the crunching sound of metal. Now, the only sounds from the ship were the pings and pops of metal cooling. Not one of the crewmembers was conscious to see the birds and other small wildlife flee the vicinity of where the ship just crashed.
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Anypony that happened to be up at this hour, and looking in the direction north of Canterlot, would have seen what appeared to be an explosion in the sky. Most would have deemed it a very nice meteor shower; a few saw something else. The next day in the papers, it would be listed as ‘a most spectacular showing of a large meteor breaking up in the sky in a fiery explosion, sending flaming chunks across the sky in several directions until they burned up.’ Many letters of praise from the astronomical society, and other amateur stargazers, were sent to Princess Luna, giving thanks for the unexpected show.
Celestia was having a pleasant dream when she was rudely awoken. It was not the sound of the guards running around, or the loud crashing sound moments earlier that woke her— it was the tingling of her horn due to magical wards being breached. She swiftly ran to the balcony attached to her quarters. Knowing where to look, she ignored the nighttime view of the city past the castle walls, and instead looked to the Royal Canterlot Sculpture Gardens.
The usual lovely view of the well-manicured gardens was broken by the sight of a few small fires, smoke rising from a section of the garden, and a large number of ponies running around. It looked like chaos down there, but there was order to it. Pegasus guards were quickly getting the fires under control with well-placed rainclouds, while unicorn guards were picking up debris with their magic, and earth pony guards searched for signs of an intruder. In the sky, Celestia saw the leftover trail of flaming objects off in the distance.
"Discord," she murmured.
Celestia did not bother putting on her royal regalia. She instead teleported in a flash of white light to where Discord's statue should have been. Due to an ‘Incident’ after Twilight's coronation, he had been temporarily re-encased in stone as punishment, but also for him to reflect upon his actions. Celestia was not sure how much of a punishment it had actually been, though. He had taken great joy in picking a new pose for his encasement.
However, it seemed his imprisonment had been cut short. In place of his statue was a small crater with a hot, glowing hunk of metal and wires. Shattered pieces of stone covered the area, some of which seemed to have been pulverized to dust, others most likely vaporized by the heat and force of impact from the metal object.
Celestia motioned to the closest pegasus guard. He landed and gave his bow.
"I need you to go get Princess Luna. Tell her I need her here immediately," Celestia said with a calm voice.
The guard saluted, then took off towards the castle. Celestia looked to one of the unicorn officers nearby and called him over.
Celestia asked, "What is the current report, Major?"
The Major replied, "Princess Celestia, one guard has been seriously injured, one guard is still missing. They were on patrol near here when this happened. Fires are under control and almost out. We do not know enough about Discord to know his status, but his statue was thrown over the hedge. If you look in the sky to the north, you can still see some of the smoke trails left over from whatever it was up there that seemed to explode. This metal part appears to have come from there."
Celestia nodded in acknowledgment of the new information. She then sent the Major back to his duties. In a pale-blue flash, Luna was now standing next to her. Celestia relayed the information she was just given.
Luna then made her own addition to the report. While she was unsure of what metal type it was, or how it came to be there, she did know that part of the explosion was indeed caused by meteorites. However, these were ones that were not supposed to have been there for a few months still.
"Dear sister, where is Discord’s statue?" the younger alicorn asked.
Celestia smiled for a brief second, then her horn gave a soft golden glow for a few moments, opening a section of the hedge.
Luna cocked a brow. "I… see.” She waved a hoof in the statue’s direction and said, “He is likely fine. Let him lay in the dirt.” Luna made a mental note to remind Discord that even when in stone, he was predictable in his mischief.
Together, the two alicorn sisters chuckled a bit before inspecting the large L-shaped hunk of metal. It was still hot, but not glowing hot anymore. They took note of the markings on it— neither could decipher what was written, nor did they recognize what appeared to be a flag and emblem. To keep the investigation quiet, they decided that they would send letters to their fellow princesses to keep an eye out for any strange sightings or unusual devices. They were also going to neglect telling them about the object for the time being. They then recorded the markings for later study.
~| SSC Quasar (SEF-02) |~
~| Transport Escape Ship #1 |~
~| Flag Image Emblem Image |~
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Black smoke filled the already dark cabin. Lights on the piloting console, along with a few overhead, flickered dimly in the darkness, barely cutting through the thick, smoky haze filling the cabin. Various panels were open or missing completely. Wiring hung from the ceiling and walls where sections had fallen in, giving off sparks on occasion. An orange glow emanated from the rear of the cabin, along with a small sliver of silver moonlight filtering in through a gap between the hatch lip and the emergency bulkhead. The moonlight did little to illuminate the cabin; the small sliver was angled into the rolling smoke spreading out along the ceiling and swallowed up, leaving little more than a barely visible beam in the haze.
Cassie regained consciousness in the middle of this chaos. Her head pounded, and she felt like she had been on the receiving end of a tackle from a linebacker. She made a tentative check of her body to see if anything was broken. Thankfully, it didn’t seem that way. She cracked open her eyes to take in what little she could see from her position. It was hot; even through the environmental suit, she could feel the heat. Realizing the orange glow was a fire that needed to be put out, Cassie unstrapped herself from the seat. She tried rolling to the side, but found her movement hindered. Reaching up and turning her helmet lights on, she looked down and noticed that not all of the pressure she felt was a result of the impact. On her lower right leg and foot lay one of the heavier parts of a stasis chamber. Not being the strongest person around, and sitting at a slight tilt, Cassie was unable to get the leverage needed to dislodge the hunk of metal.
"Hey, is anyone out there?" Cassie asked into the comm system. "Commander, Chief, Maggie, Kozlov, Brake! Anyone!" she yelled, receiving no answer.
Cassie looked to where Maggie had been seated, but both her friend and the seat were gone. When she strained her neck to see into the cockpit behind her, she located the seat— it had been ripped from the floor, and was in a pile of debris at the front. Cassie’s spirit took a punch to the gut at the sight. Her eyes glazed over as tears slowly spilled out. She had a very good idea of what lay in that pile of debris, and it was not helping her in this situation. She called out once more, in hope that her eyes were playing a trick on her in the darkness. Nothing came back through the comm system but the occasional blip of static.
With the temperature still rising, and the smoke filling up more of the cabin, she needed to get out of the chair, and quickly. She hastily came up with a plan, though it was very risky. After a quick look around, Cassie found what she was looking for. She reached to the side, grabbed a small, jagged hunk of metal, and began cutting the seat belt straps off of the seat. She took one of the straps and started to loop it around her right thigh, about halfway down. Taking the free end, she pushed it back through the tightening mechanism. Once ready, she cinched the strap down on her leg as hard as she could, then trimmed the free end off so only a little was hanging. Next came the part that broke all protocols— praying that she tightened the strap well enough, she carefully cut into the suit just below the strap.
After a few minutes, Cassie had cut the suit leg off, exposing her prosthetic one. She gently rubbed her gloved hand around where the connection socket on her leg was, pulling the rubbery material off of her skin as well as the socket. It wasn’t painful, as the rubbery material was only glued on with costume glue to hide the black socket. With the rubber free, she rolled it down, exposing the connection point. She started to undo the thumb screws on the front and sides that held the leg to the socket.
"DAMN IT!" she screamed to no one, as the screws slipped from her gloved hand and rattled into the pile of debris.
No longer thinking about whether or not she was still sealed from the unknown contents of the air, she pushed the prosthetic forward until it was free of the socket. Cassie then rolled to the side, hitting the floor with a thud. Thanks to the small tilt, she slid slightly towards the cockpit for a moment. This only helped her, as she needed to get near the front of the ship anyways. After removing some debris, Cassie located the compartment that held one of the cockpit fire extinguishers.
Cassie's eyes narrowed, glaring at the slant, and mess of the ship. "Great. Just… fucking… great… This is going to be a blast trying to get back there to the fire in this tilted mess," she complained loudly, scowling at the rear of the cabin.
It took several minutes for her to finally get into a position where she could put the flames out. The lingering smoke began dissipating, flowing out of the gap in the emergency bulkhead. She leaned back against a dislodged stasis chamber and tossed the extinguisher to the side, letting it clank and clamor in the silence.
After resting a few moments, Cassie made her way back to the front of the ship. Reaching the first-aid compartment, she located the medkit inside and pulled out a tube of sealing bio-gel, which was normally used to close wounds until they could be stitched. Wiping off her leg and the environmental suit as best she could with an alcohol wipe from the kit, she applied a liberal amount of the gel all the way around the leg, including on the inside of the suit up to the strap. She hoped that with enough, it would seal the suit to her leg. After five minutes passed, she gave the flexible gel a slight poke; it was mostly set. Taking a deep breath, she undid the strap around her thigh. She released the breath she was holding and resumed breathing normally. After a few minutes passed, and she was not on the floor flopping around like a fish out of water, Cassie breathed a sigh of relief— it seemed to have worked.
Cassie called out once again, this time hearing a groan in response.
"Lieutenant, is that you?" a male voice shakily asked.
Cassie hurriedly replied, "KOZLOV! Where are you? Are you ok? Answer me! Kozlov!"
Kozlov's voice was much too quiet for him, and tinged with weariness as he answered, "I-I’m still in my seat, but there’s crap all around me. I feel light-headed, and a little cold. Where’s the Commander, or my gir— Wellis?
Cassie grinned for a brief moment. She had a feeling Maggie was dating him, but was never flat-out told. Cassie’s grin quickly returned to a frown as she remembered where her friend was, and her most likely status. Her thoughts were then pulled back to the current conversation.
He shouldn’t be cold.
It was rather warm in the cabin due to that fire. Cassie tried to muster up a confident tone in her reply. "They are… unresponsive at this time." She heard him sigh, but continued, "Just hang in there, I’ll dig you out."
It took a lot longer than Cassie had hoped to dig him out, but she was eventually able to free Kozlov. She was not prepared to see the final fate of her Commander and best friend, so she did not attempt to unbury them on the other side of the cockpit. She helped Kozlov from his seat to the floor, and laid him on his back.
"Ma'am, I have a problem," Kozlov softly stated, motioning for her to look down at his stomach with his arm.
Cassie followed his motions. She gasped upon seeing his left hand; it was wrapped around a shard of glass protruding from his side. Both Kozlov’s glove and the glass were marred with red streaks. She could see blood still slowly flowing from the wound, dripping down his side. She turned to find the medkit she used earlier. Cassie was no surgeon; she had only taken the basic medical training required. This wound, however, needed some tending to.
Cassie started speaking with as calm a voice as she could. "Kozlov, your suit has been compromised. For all we know, you are breathing in deadly toxins and microbes. I hope not, but I don't want to give you false hope. This needs to be removed. I’ll have to cut open your suit even more. The smoke has mostly cleared out, but if you start having breathing problems… I'm afraid there is little we can do at that point. The ship is not sealed," she informed him. She was glad he could not see the sadness in her eyes.
"I-I-it's ok, LT. I know you’ll do your best," Kozlov replied with a small smile.
As stated, Cassie cut open Kozlov’s suit even more, as well as his shirt. It was a nasty wound. Using some bandage wraps, she wiped away as much of the blood as she could. She then dumped a bunch of cleansing alcohol around the wound, causing him to wince and clench his teeth. Cassie placed her hand around the wound and pressed down firmly, but gently. Her other hand held the bio-gel.
"On the count of three, I need you to pull the glass straight out as fast as you can," Cassie ordered, sweat forming on her forehead. She waited for his acknowledgement, and then started the count. "One... Two... Three!" she nearly shouted.
With a pained yelp, Kozlov pulled the shard from his side, while Cassie simultaneously pressed down around the wound. Once the glass was clear, she shoved the nozzle of the bio-gel into the wound and squeezed, pulling it back out slowly at the same time. Kozlov's arm landed on the floor with a loud thump, and the groaning stopped.
Cassie knew he had passed out. He still needed to have the wound bandaged to help the bio-gel hold. She only hoped it worked, and would stop the internal bleeding. She finished the bandaging as the adrenaline finally left her body. Pain from the crash-landing was catching up, and she felt very tired. With the immediate problems solved for now, she found a place amongst the clutter to lay down, and closed her eyes.