Brouge 2130 Standard Time
“Just what the flying buck happened back there you two?!” Hurricane shrieked.
Both Fire Storm and Lance Point stood at attention in front of the commander’s desk. The moon was full on this night and its rays shined through the narrow slits that dotted the walls of the war room. A roaring fire crackled in the fireplace right behind the Commander helping to bathe the room in flickering light.
Both of them had been in screaming sessions before so they knew the drill. Stand straight, stare at the space in front of you, and give whoever was yelling at you exactly what they wanted to hear.
The commander started to pace back and forth in front of them, nostrils flaring and wings snapping out aggressively.“I gave you two chuckleheads one simple order, to watch that….” She paused in her pacing, eyes turning upwards in thought. “….human, that was it, and to come to me once he woke up.”
She turned to both of them and gave them a level, flinty stare. “Now explain to me, how two trained legionaries got bested by a hairless ape, and your answer better be good or I’ll have you building palisades for the next month straight.”
Lance Point and Fire Storm looked at each other out of the corners of their eyes before Fire Storm answered. “It was my fault ma’am; I will take full responsibility for what happened.”
Hurricanes gaze zeroed in on her before waving her hoof in a circular motion. “Noted, now continue.”
Fire Storm took a deep breath then pressed on. “Well Ma’am, It was still asleep and we had been watching it for a couple hours. I thought it would be better behaved if it woke up to find food and water had been given to it. I convinced Lance Point to come with me to the larder to grab some chow and a pitcher of water. When we returned to the room and opened the door we saw nothing in the room. We entered the door at the ready, and that’s when I heard it mutter something. It was pressed against the wall next to the door. That’s when I rushed in to try and subdue it. We tussled for a bit before it gained the upper hoof and that’s when I sent Lance Point to get you. I thought I could take it on but then it put me in a hold and drew that strange blade from no-where. That’s when you came in, Ma’am.”
The Commander’s gaze continued to bore into her then she asked. “So you attacked him first?”
“Yes Ma’am,” Fire Storm quickly answered, “It surprised the living hay out of me when it appeared behind us and I just fell back on my training and reacted.”
Hurricane looked at the both of them for a minute then gave an exasperated sigh and sat on her haunches. “At ease you two.” She stated.
Both Fire Storm and Lance Point complied and sat as well.
“I won’t sugar coat it ladies, you bucked up. You should have never left your post, even though you had noble intentions.”
Fire Storm and Lance point both turned their eyes downcast and gained sullen expressions.
“Now, “Hurricane continued, getting up and resuming her pacing, “For not abiding by your general orders you need to be punished, but I’m feeling generous today. You are going to be on half rations for the next week and instead of rejoining your squad, you will now be assigned to guard the human for the foreseeable future. Is that understood?” She punctuated the last statement with a stomp of her hoof.
Fire Storm and Lance Point snapped to attention and yelled in unison, “Yes Ma’am!” Signs of relief showing in their eyes, they got off easy and they knew it. Leaving your post could be a death sentence if the leader who gave the order was a complete hard-flank.
“Outstanding, now…” the Commander walked over to the door, “Let us go have a chat with our guest.”
As they marched down the winding staircase of the citidel to the room that the human was being kept in. The commander filled them in on their instructions. Making it very clear what they were to do and not do.
“Both of you should have eyes on him at all times, but one of you will be sufficient if the other needs to leave quickly to go do something. You both will be watching him from sunrise to sunset. Afterwards you can divide up the night watch however you wish.”
Fire Storm silently groaned at that. “Great, not only did that thing kick the hay out of me, take away half my chow, now it’s taking away my sleep too!” She fumed.
The Commander continued her orders as they marched up to the door, currently guarded by 5 legionaries. “And if he does anything that puts you or any other legionnaire in danger, you have my express permission to give him a new hole to breathe out of. We clear?” Fire Storm and Lance Point nodded their heads and sounded the affirmative that they did. Hurricane stepped up to the door and motioned with her hoof to have the five guards take off. “Now you two wait outside while I go find out what the hay this thing is doing here.”
When the Commander had walked through the door both Fire Storm and Lance Point looked at each other for a moment before pressing their ears against the door in an attempt to listen in on the, no doubt, very interesting conversation that was about to take place.
As the door shut behind her Commander Hurricane spotted the human standing with his back to her. He seemed to be fully dressed now in his black garment. It was made of two pieces. The top piece covered most of his upper body, only leaving his strange appendages at the end of his forelimbs, and his head uncovered. The bottom, did the same for his lower half, covering everything except the coverings that went over his rear hooves.
As soon as it shut, however, he slowly turned around and Hurricane saw that he had one of his forelimbs shoved into the depths of the garment near his groin. As soon as he made eye contact the forelimb was wrenched out and placed at his side.
Hurricane gave him a dead pan look, “What the hay were you just doing?”
The human gave an annoyed snort, crossed it’s forelimbs over its chest and answered. “Well, you fuckers didn’t bring my skivvies down here so I’m going commando right now.” He flashed her a corny smile and tilted his chin up. “I had to make a few…. adjustments.”
Hurricane swallowed her rising annoyance and chose to ignore that last statement. “Well besides the lack of ‘skivvies’, we have done what you asked. Now I want my questions answered.” She locked eyes with the human. “Just who are you and how the hay did you appear out of thin air into my battlespace.”
The human stared at her for a bit longer before shrugging, and then started to rub the back of his neck with a fore limb. “Well since I pretty much broke all first contact protocol already with that spat with that orange one. I guess an intro and explanation is indeed in order.” He walked forward and his rear legs seemed to fold in on themselves as he squatted to reach Hurricanes eye level. He then stuck his forelimb out and hung it in front of her. “Sergeant Michael Durrant, Charlie company First Battalion 25th DT’s.”
Hurricane quelled the urge to defend herself once she realized that this must be some sort of greeting. With a bit of trepidation she placed her forehoof in the outstretched appendage; however, she was confident that she could defend herself if this Durrant tried anything.
“Commander Praelium Hurricane, Legatus of the first Army.”
Durrant then brought his forelimb up and down in a shaking motion before releasing her forehoof. “I would say it’s nice to meet you ma’am, but we both know I would be lying through my teeth.” He then rose up to his full height and took a step back before gesturing at her. “And just for fairness sakes, I told you that I am a human, I would like to know what yall are.”
Hurricane raised an eyebrow at that. “I am a pony, more specifically a pegasus.”
Durrant let out a huff of air. “Alright, since I’ve never heard of your species and you’ve never heard of mine. It’s probably a safe bet to say you’ve never heard of orks, right?”
“I have no idea what an orks is.”
“Well, imagine something that looks kind of like me, but about a head taller, green skinned, a head full of sharp teeth, a fuck ton more muscle mass, and an aggression level that would put a rabid dog to shame.”
Hurricanes face scrunched up as she tried to imagine the monstrosity that the human was describing. “And you are telling me this why?”
“Because they are the reason I am here.” Durrant deadpanned. “Listen this is going to be a long story, do you mind if I grab a seat ma’am?”
Hurricane stated it was fine before sitting down on her haunches. Durrant followed her lead and sat down across from her legs folded over each other in a way that looked painful to the Commander. She then waved her hoof as an inclination to continue.
“Allright, well I guess I should start by telling you that my species, humanity that is, is space faring.”
“And what does that mean?”
Durrant stared at her for second before pointing upwards and responding nonchalantly. “It means we have machines that allow us to travel through the stars.”
Hurricanes mouth dropped. Her voice was breathless when she could finally manage to speak. “But that’s impossible! You would need the power of the gods to travel through their realm!”
Durrant smirked, “Well sorry to burst you bubble ma’am, but we’ve been traveling the stars for about 250 years now. We use great ships, giants made of metals, alloys, and plastics. On these ships there is a device that allows it to basically tear a hole in the fabric of the universe. Once the ship goes through it enters a plane of existence called slip space. Then a hole is torn at the end of the trip and the ship goes back into normal space.” Durrant stopped in his explanation when he noticed that the Commander seemed to be utterly lost. “Do you happen to have something I could write on?” He asked. “I think I have a way of explaining it better.”
Hurricane nodded slowly, before reaching into one of the pockets in her barding for a roll of parchment and writing implement. She then winged both of them over to Durrant.
Durrant eyed the two devices before muttering, “Quaint.” He then placed the parchment on the ground before drawing a dot on each end it using a stick like object with a black stone on the end of it. He turned to the Commander and said, “Now you see these two dots here correct?”
Hurricane nodded.
“Well let’s say these dots represent our starting and finishing points on our voyage in space. Now these fall in the horizontal plane, you following me?”
Hurricane again nodded, most officers in the legion took some mathematics courses in their training.
“Now what the trans-dimensional engine enables humanity to do is open up a hole to allow us to do this.”
He folded the parchment in half to where the two dots were right on top of one another. “The two places are now in the vertical plane and the distance between them is insignificant when compared to the distance in the horizontal direction.”
The commander put a hoof to her chin, deep in thought. “I won’t lie and say I understand completely, but your explanation makes it a bit clearer.”
Durrant laughed and said, “Well thank God for the space travel MCI, they dumb that stuff down so that mostly anybody could understand it. That’s actually where I learned that whole paper explanation.”
“What is an MCI?” she asked.
“It stands for Marine Corps Institute. Basically they are these different learning courses a marine has to take in order to gain rank. The government doesn’t want stupid marines.”
Hurricane cocked her head and asked, “And a Marine Is what?”
“Well the Marine Corps is one of the different branches of the military my government has. It’s one of four. We have the ODF, the orbital defense force; they are in charge of keeping the immediate area of space surrounding one of our planets safe. The Army, which is in charge of keeping the planets themselves safe, kind of like a guard force. The Navy, which takes the fight to space, with those ships I talked about earlier. And then you have the Marine Corps. We are the assault force; we take planets from the enemy, conduct raids on their ships, and many other offensive oriented operations. I myself am in the Drop Trooper community. We are the shock troops for the Marine Corps. We go in first and clear the way for the main body to land in relative safely and conduct operations.”
Hurricane gazed at Durrant quizzically, “So I’m guessing that this enemy is the orks that you spoke of earlier?”
Durrant began to wring his forelimbs together, eyes glued to the floor. “Yup, we’ve been fighting them for over two hundred years, ever since we sent that first contact team to meet with the orks and they ripped them to shreds. The war was going so bad that nearly 75 years ago congress enacted the ‘first born act’. It was the order that every first born son that is able bodied and able minded, must serve in the military from the ages of 18-40.”
Hurricanes jaw again dropped in shock and she nearly screamed, “They force your males to do the fighting for them! What kind of cowards lead you?”
Durrant looked at her in confusion. “So males aren’t in the military in all here, I’m guessing?”
“pffffffff, buck no,” Hurricane laughed back, “A stallions place is in the fields or at home with the children. There are just too few of them to be allowed into combat.”
Durrant’s eyes widened, and he licked his lips nervously before continuing. “Well it’s pretty much the opposite with my species. Sure there are women, our females, in the military; however, they are not allowed to have any jobs where they would be seeing frontline combat. They mostly do supply, medicine, and admin type stuff. The only place where they would really see some action would be if the ship they were on got boarded.”
He shifted nervously, “Anyways getting off of gender and back onto how I got here. I can’t tell you everything but basically I was on a combat drop to assault an ork ship, when a slip-space drive misfired and I got sucked into the hole I talked about.”
Hurricane became agitated at that. She sprang upright, ears splayed backwards, and wings snapping out aggressively. “You mean there could be more of you or those orks out there right now!”
Durrant stayed seated but moved his forelimbs up and down in what seemed to be an attempt to calm her. “No, No that’s highly improbable. If the rest of the ship didn’t show up with me when I appeared then it went on to some other destination. By all rights I shouldn’t even be here, my guess would be because I was small enough, that I was affected by some force from your planet, and it grabbed me out of slip-space.”
Hurricane didn’t know if the human was telling the truth, but she had no evidence otherwise telling her he was lying either. She sighed and sat down again. “Well that kind of brings me into what I plan on to do with you.” She looked up at Durrant staring into his eyes. “You must understand that you are an anomaly here. I can’t have you just running about the city when I don’t truly know your purpose or intent. So I am assigning you two guards to watch you here for the time being.”
Durrant seemed crestfallen, he gazed at the floor and opened his mouth to attempt to speak. But before he could do so Hurricane interrupted him with a raised wing. “However, if you prove yourself trustworthy, and not a threat, I will consider allowing you to go out into the city, still under guard of coarse.” She then turned placed a key into the door and opened it. “And now Ill introduce you to……,” Both Fire Storm and Lance Point, who had been intensely pressing up against the door, had tumbled head over hoof into the small doorway, “…. Your guards.”
Hurricane rounded on the two and shouted, “On your hooves you two!”
Both Fire Storm and Lance Point quickly untangled themselves and snapped to attention.
“Now.” Hurricane continued, “As I’ve stated before you two are now in charge of…… of…..” She turned to Durrant and asked, “My apologies, what was your station again?”
Durrant, who was losing the battle of trying not the laugh at the scene, barely squeaked out, “sergeant.” Before Hurricane had already turned around to address the two legionaries again.
“Yes, you will be in charge of guarding Sergeant Durrant here. Now if you will excuse me you have your new duties and I have an Army to run.” With that she walked out the door and before closing it turned around and said, “Oh, and Sergeant Durrant, if you threaten one of my legionaries again, I will gut you myself am I clear?”
“Clear as Crystal Ma’am,” Durrant shot back.
With that the door closed and the three enlisted man and mares were alone in the room together, staring each other down.
Durrant tried to break the awkward silence and started to ask, “So what are your na…” But Fire Storm cut him off.
“Look here bub,” She snarled, were not friends with you so you don’t have to try and be friendly to us. You are our principle and nothing more.” She then turned to Lance Point and said, “It’s getting late, you go rack out and I’ll stay in here with monkey boy. Come down in 6 hours.”
Lance Point yawned widely and just nodded her head, she left the room quickly and made her way to the barracks.
Durrant clapped his hands together and said, “Well if you won’t talk to me I’m going to get some sleep as well.”
He walked over to the only piece of furniture in the room, being the small bed that was tucked into the far corner, before kicking off his boots and lying down on the straw stuffed mattress.
He thought briefly about how to try and escape, but decided that was better to put off till tomorrow. He quickly found a semi comfortable position on the to-small-bed, and was fast asleep.