//------------------------------// // Night Run // Story: Adventures Across Space // by zalla661 //------------------------------// Equis Officer Academy June 10, 2154 Within the confines of the Academy, a lone mare walked down its sterile halls under the cover of darkness. She had a silver mane and wore a azure cloak to match her coat. The halls were practically bare they held no grand spires of stain glass windows depicting of heroes, even depictions of Zafran Coran and Echo didn't don the halls. No, they were simple marble floors and steel walls colored similarly to the floor and every so often when a corner would emerge, they were outlined by a dark grey columns to help them show. This hall; however, was different it housed one of the Academies greatest treasures the Lunar One Module. The lone mare continued down a long hallway with no adjacent corridors looking for the Odyssey Hall where the greatest collection of space ships were collected and preserved, including the Lunar One Module. She walked for ten minutes before she reached Odyssey Hall. Two large doors, easily over twenty feet tall, blocked her path. After school hours the hall was closed to all but the security staff and the lone mare had to be careful, wandering the halls after hours could lead to disciplinary action against students, but breaking into them was cause for expulsion. Carefully she inspected the door noticing a ID lock to the side of the double doors leading inside. from inside her cloak the mare pulled out a small black PDA. Connected was a single wire and a transparent filament which she stuck to the ID scanner. Quickly she began to override the lock creating a temporary proxy account from a security guard she knew. it took her over a minute to finish but it'd be worth the wait. /// Override complete /// Begin ID scan? Y/N... Y Beep... Processing... Override in progress. The mare took a quick glance around making sure no pony was around. Satisfied in her solitude she typed Y and pressed begin. The PDA flashed green as a status bar appeared. 0%...12%...24%... The mare glanced over her shoulder, nothing, back to the PDA. 31%...51%...71%... She looked back and once again only darkness and silence save for the PDA. 89%...97%...100%... Beep...Welcome Trixie XD. She couldn't help but grin at the message she loved it when she got to hear her name, even if it was read from a PDA. She removed the filament from the ID scanner and removed the wire from the pad placing them back in her cloak. As she did a short double clicking could be heard as the doors slowly opened inward revealing a museum of space history. Once inside Trixie tapped the ID scanner, now that she had access for the next hour, she closed the doors behind her. She immediately began to search for the Lunar One Module. She walked past the main entrance and glanced over to the tour guide desk. Deciding not to chance it she grabbed a map of the museum opening it she looked for the room which had Lunar One. Apparently it was moved recently to the farthest end of the museum in a special room now dedicated to the Lunar Landing. First was the Horizon Drive exhibits, the NX-13/14a displays, and finally after the ion engines was the Lunar One Module. "Easy." she said grinning to herself. Trixie walked to the west wing heading for the H Drive exhibit. Once inside she found a cornucopia of different drives some that she knew and a few experimental ones that never made it past the prototype stage. These drive were huge compared to her and ranged from being 30 to over 60 feet in length. Some of them were simple cylindrical pods with others running at length with the rest. Others were Hexagonal and one was shape like a tube with small rings around the ends and mid sections leaving areas without rings. Trixie recognized that drive, it was the new H-Drive invented for the new NX-20 Class starship she hoped would be hers to command. As she continued down through the exhibit she began to wonder about her choice to become an officer. Originally she wanted to be an engineer she scored high on the aptitude test, and her knowledge of H-Drives and starship systems was second to none. She could have become any kind of engineer she wanted. It was her childhood dream to become one since she got her cutie mark. She always wanted to be a engineer yet something changed as the years rolled by. When she turned sixteen she applied to the Equis Star Academy and after three years, no one knows why, she quickly transferred to the Officers Academy completely throwing away any hopes of becoming an engineer. No one expected this especially her friends and family. Many of her closest friends transferred to the Officers Academy with her including her marefriend Spitfire. Among Trixie's friends were the ever obsessed human fan Lyra who believed humans existed somewhere in the universe. Then there was Octavia Von Clef earth pony, refined tastes, and inspirational speaker, and a total Filly Scout when it came to the rules. Unlike Octavia Lyra wasn't against breaking the rules, in fact, it was Lyra who gave the security codes to Trixie earlier in the day to enter the museum. And last was Spitfire. Spitfire was a pegasus, she was brash, cold, commanding, and trained to become a MARE Marine commander. Each joined the Officers Academy for their own reasons, in fact each one was planning on telling the others they had intended to transfer at the end of the coming semester. Trixie's quick decision to transfer early prompted them to follow suit after the semester was over. Trixie was glad each decided to come with her. She never considered the fact she was going to leave them behind at the time. Now when she thought about it seemed so selfish. She could have lost her friends had they not been planning to transfer in the first place. She knew she lucked out on this one. Since then she made an effort to never separate from them again. Walking down the halls to the next exhibit Trixie's trail of thought ended when she encountered an unexpected obstacle. In front of her was another security door one she wasn't expecting. She cursed herself for not researching into this before her little venture. Pulling out her PDA and reconnecting the ID scanner she placed the filament on the scanner. "Well, time to improvise. Thank you Lyra for the wonderful gift." she said to no one in particular. With a heavy sigh she began the override. Begin override? Y/N Y...Processing command...Command override in progress. Beep . A small status bar appeared once again Trixie began tapping her hoof impatiently. Occasionally she'd peek around to make sure no guards were around as she continued hacking. "I'm so dead if I get caught. I won't be able to weasel my way out of this one." she said looking over her shoulder. The tapping became faster her patience wearing thin. Beep. ///Message Incoming /// Override successful...Welcome Trixie XD. Beep message received from Octachello. Sent to GPTrixie. June 10, 2154 2301 Trixie it's me Octavia. I have been silent but I won't' stand idly by while you jeopardize your chances at becoming an officer. You need to stop while you can. If you get caught there's no guarantee you'll get off easy as you have in the past. Please if not for yourself then do it for Lyra. If you're caught the PDA will be traced back to her and she'll suffer along with you. I will never forgive you if she's hurt because you couldn't let it go. End message. Reply? Y/N Y Processing... Reply to Octachello on June 10, 2154 2302 I won't get caught. Beep... Message sent. "Well now that that's out of the way," she placed the PDA back in her cloak, "time to finish what I started." she opened the door to the next room. When Trixie entered the next room she was greeted by a Massive scale model of the NX-13/14a Typhoon starship. It wasn't terribly impressive looking but it was the first frigate class warship. In essence Logistic Fleet ships were designated as MX category when named, and warships were designated NX. The Typhoon was the fastest warship of its time and still to this day remains the backbone of the Equis War Fleet. As she walked down the hall she obsereved several other ships in display cases and a few more scale models hanging from the ceiling. One in particular stood out the NX-20 Thunderchild. The Thunderchild was the first cruiser ever built, and is hoped to be the new front-line warship of the fleet. As Trixie walked past its display she noted how different the ship looked from others she'd seen. Unlike the traditional rectilinear design in most ships this one was shaped like a combat knife from the side view. a closer inspection revealed a second identical hull connected in the rear by a two sided fin-shaped hull piece that was perpendicular to the rest of the frame, with two large engines directly behind them. The ship was impressively designed she thought. In truth, she never really liked how starships looked. The NX-20 was by far the most aesthetically pleasing ship she'd seen, from her point of view. Another major difference was the weapons. Instead of traditional canon-like structures protruding from the hull the designers replaced them with weapon nodes instead. This effectively will make the weapons harder to hit and easier to maintain in theory. "Soon my friend. Soon." she said placing a hoof on the model before moving on. She really couldn't wait. Quickly withdrawing and heading to her next destination she pulled out her PDA and prepared to face another security door. To her surprise there was no door this time only a small sign saying closed. "... I really hate this place right now." she mumbled. She placed the PDA back inside her cloak. She slipped past the door now she was on a serious time crunch. It was 2344 and at 2350 is when security began reopening the museum. This barely left her enough time to finish what she came here to do and make a hasty exit. She quickly trotted past the ion engine exhibits and made way straight to the Lunar One exhibit hall. once there she took a quick glance at her watch reading, 2347. "Damn!" she cursed beginning another override for the door. "Why did I waste so much time looking at the exhibits?!" She knew she should have been done by now, yet she knew she wouldn't have been able to resist taking in the sites on en-route. She'd seen the exhibits so many times she could probably give the full four blindfolded. Once again she was met by a security door. She smacked her head. Of course! It couldn't be open like the last one! NOOO! It just had to be bucking locked! she mentally cursed beginning her override routine vis PDA. Beep... Override command in progress... 17%... 22%... 44%... 61%... Come on come on! 87%... 90%... 98%... Beep! Welcome Trixie. XD Finally! She thought while removing the filament and the door slid open with a soft whoosh. She placed the PDA in her cloak. Peeking inside she had found what she'd come for. Standing before her was a- no THE Lunar One Module along side full scale figures of the three crewmen. The suits were the same suit they'd worn on the moon landing all those years ago. Trixie glanced at her ancestor wondering what she was like, what it was like to be there. Luna was banished long ago by her sister Celestia and yet no one knew or even questioned her as to what being trapped on the moon was like. On? In? It bothered Trixie to no end this question and not knowing the answer. She walked over to her ancestor retrieving her PDA once again and took a series of photos including one of herself with the figure of Misty Lulamoon. "Finally!" she growled placing the PDA back in her cloak. I really need to find a way to keep this on my arm or something taking it in and out is so tedious. "Well I got what I came for. Guess it's time to make my exit." she glances to her watch 2351. DAMN! She began to run through the halls making a hasty exit. Not wanting to get caught she left the Lunar One exhibit and ran past the ion engines no door here, past the starship exhibit closed the door, and to the main exit closed the door. No security? WOW! I really lucked out this time! she thought to herself. I need to thank Lyra for this. with that she trotted quickly down the halls back to her dorm where she'd finally make use of her prize which could have cost her academic career.