//-- To: Subsector Captain Astral Mist
//-- From: NSDF Commander [Redacted]
//-- Subject: New OrdersGreetings, Captain Astral Mist. I won't attempt to sugarcoat things: The last few months have been hard on us, and indeed on all those left on Equestria. While the Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi were able to leave this blasted world, we are still stuck on its' subsurface, a mere shadow of our former selves, while the other races continue their endless conflict.
Two and a half decades of a war is long enough, and the Council has convened and decided to send a group of settlers to Equus IX, the farthest planet from our sun and, thus, our 'brothers and sisters'. As the only active-duty Captain we have, with the only combat ship we have available, we need you to escort the colonists in their craft so as not to lose them to the Enemy, or the void. Details will be encoded at the end.
Protect the settlers at all cost, Captain. I do not need to stress what the loss of the fifty thousand lives aboard that ship will do to our population. We number a mere two hundred and seventeen million, and I would hope for us to not lower that any further.
By the Grace of the Night,
NSDF Commander [Redacted]
2,116 ANMTHIS COMMUNICATION IS CONFIDENTIAL. ANY SHARING OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION IS TREASON, AND PUNISHABLE BY EXECUTION. ENCRYPTED CONTENTS ARE AS FOLLOWS.
//--[Encrypt-88P4HJK2]
//-- [End]
The busy interior of the control room was awash in conversation as the Lunar Pony mare slowly read through the encrypted contents, committing them to memory as she did so.
Astral Mist, Captain of the NSDF Vengeance, the only Nocturne-owned spacefaring warship currently in existence, closed the message that had appeared on her screen. She would have rubbed her tired eyes with one of her hooves, but to be seen doing so would not have been fitting for her. As the senior NSDF official on this ship, she had to stay above the commoners.
Even if doing so was a pain in the flank.
She remembered the words her mentor, only a few years ago, had relayed to her: "Command has its' privileges, but there is no rest for those so chosen." Unfortunately, that wise mare had proven to be right, and Astral's sleep schedule was best described in terms related to nonexistance. And so she found herself about to set out on her first true mission, to guide this ship through the void, while operating on three hours of sleep.
All said and done, it was to be expected. The world didn't operate on her say-so, after all.
Sighing softly as she lamented the sacrifices of command, she subconsciously pinged her implant, calling for the notice of every officer on the bridge. All conversation, immediately ceased as they gave her their undivided attention, none daring to draw her ire.
"Soldiers of Nocturne," she began after a short pause, "It is my honor to address you today. This last week of trials has gone smoothly, better than we could have ever hoped. The ship is doing well. However, we have a priority mission: To escort colonists aboard the newly-constructed colony ship to Equus IX, near the edge of the system."
A few soft murmurs came from the crowd. The ninth planet in the system, it only remained uninhabited so far because of its' inhospitable conditions. Conditions that were still, however, better than Equestria itself. Why the Council had voted to colonize what was essentially an Equestria-sized iceball swept by eternal blizzards was far beyond her, but she refused to let herself be pulled away by her doubts. The decisions were made by those far smarter than her in any case, and for her to question them would not look good on her record... Or her career.
After the talking died down, she continued, "To do so, we shall have to move within five light-minutes of Equus III, the site of a colony of the accursed Unicorns. I expect all of you on full alert. Any deficit in attention could result in the death of thousands. Any shirking of responsibility will be met harshly. Coordinates shall be added to your computers. Know this, however: In these dark times, we hold the fate of our species, and we shall not fail them. By the Night, I swear it."
Having finished, her vision swept across them, and she saw no face that held even a tinge of fear. If the ponies under her command held it in their hearts, she knew not, and thus did not bother pondering it.
"Yes ma'am." The various officers on the bridge affirmed in unison, before turning individually around to their consoles and doing all manner of things. Such events were no in her purview: She simply gave the orders, and they followed. It was how it had always been, and how it should always be.
Faintly, Astral Mist recalled her years as a child: How her mother had hidden in the shelters of their underground city as the surface and subsurface was scarred with nuclear and arcane fires, with the four factions Equestria had divided into turning on one another as millennia-long hatred resurfaced. Occasionally the shelters would collapse as the buildings of the city crumbled on top of them. Hers had not.
In reflection, it was a silly thing to fight over. In the old stories, before the Solar Sisters had finally ceased to be, there were tales of an Equestria that existed in harmony with itself. That was a long-dead dream, one long since burned away, along with the surface of Equestria itself. Only the four main species of ponies had survived mostly intact, while the minor species had simply been caught in the middle and annihilated. Astral had heard stories of Griffons that survived in the darkest and deepest areas of Nocturne, but if they had survived, it was only by a miracle.
A small hum made the ship tremble slightly as though She were an actual, living being. Thrusters arrayed along the sides fired in precise patterns as their carefully-planned orbit was interrupted, and slowly changed into one that would sling them around and away from Equestria. The computers compensated for much of the needed experience, but even Astral had to admit that without the other officers on the ship, all of whom knew their stations extensively, the Vengeance would be nothing more than yet another orbiting pile of junk.
There were plenty of those, too. The first wars to rock Equestria after the Great Split were fought on land and in the atmosphere, but all four factions quickly took to space, vying for control of the orbit. Whoever controlled it had free reign to drop Kinetic Bombardment packages wherever they pleased, and all sides involved did so as often as they could. While the Nocturne forces only had a total of fourteen spacecraft launched during the war, they played a decisive role, saving many of the underground cities from being forcibly breached by Fractional Orbital Bombardment systems.
But that was neither here nor there. All five ships left towards the end of the war had been destroyed as the Pegasi forces had fled the planet, putting up a heroic defense against near-impossible odds just inside the orbit of the moon. It was said that Pegasi Confederacy hulks still littered the surface of the moon, although most had been slowly salvaged and torn apart for what was left.
Astral Mist did not know if the stories were true. She did know, however, that a great many hunks still circled the planet, occasionally burning up in the atmosphere as their orbits decayed. In addition, there were entire clouds of microderbies, and while the Vengeance was built to deflect such impacts, those were chances that she would rather not take, lest they cost Astral her head.
"Captain, we shall pass the periapsis in five-point-two kiloseconds." Her first officer said from his console. "Arrival in rendezvous location is set for eight and a half kiloseconds."
"I hear and know. Continue with your duties." Astral ordered. The often-erratic orbit of Equestria had been stabilized some five centuries ago by the Solar Princesses, orbiting the K0eSi-class Main Sequence star at the center of the system at an average of 1.01 to 0.98 AU, which in and of itself was remarkable. The other eight planets in the system had what were best classified as 'unstable' orbits, and often showed remarkable orbital eccentrics. Equestria itself was the closest planet to the star, settled at the outer edge of a massive asteroid belt that circled the sun, believed to be the remnants of six others planets that had failed to form.
Thankfully, the only asteroids that came within a decent distance of the planet were small, no more than a few dozen meters in size, and thus would not put an exclamation point on the damage that had already been done to the once-beautiful world.
By chance, quite a few other planets in their system were at least hospitable. By bad luck, all of those had already been settled when the factions had left Equestria. The unicorns had even managed to settle the only gas giant in the system, settling on many of the eighteen moons that orbited it.
"Passing station three in two centiseconds." Her first officer announced.
Oh, right. The stations. Astral still grimaced when she thought of them. They were hardly sixty meters cubic, and yet were home to almost two hundred ponies. There was no reason for such overcrowding, other than to show that they could. Only twenty ponies should have been needed to staff the weapons systems per shift, and thus a maximum of eighty ponies would have been more than enough for each twenty kilosecond shift.
However, inefficiency was in the norm for the Council that ruled Nocturne. The only reason her ship had even managed to retain its' efficient design was due to the amount of political pull that Command could exert on the ship designers. Many of them were second generation, having learned the trade from those before them, and thus could be reasonably expected to make something survivable.
At least, Astral Mist hoped that the designers had been that good. They might suffer a catastrophic breach in the first few moments of battle: You could never tell.
The Vengeance itself was armed greater than any other Nocturne-built ship ever created. It had two entire batteries of Railgun turrets, a single set of light missile launchers along the lateral lines, CWIS Flak arrayed near the bow, and an experimental bow-mounted focusing laser, one that would play havoc with smaller craft attempting an assault.
Nocturne's intelligence services had little knowledge of how well-armed the other factions were, but Astral hoped that this ship would put them on an even footing. With four more of the 200-meter-long vessels under construction, to be launched in the next three weeks, Command - and Astral by association - hoped to hold the other factions at hooves' length.
Captain Astral Mist leaned back slightly into her chair, willing her mind to quite down. She had nothing to do now but wait.
Six kiloseconds later, Astral fidgeted in her chair. Watching the world pass above their ship - which was currently oriented with the 'roof' facing the planet - was bad enough, and having to do it while sitting completely still was worse.
The only consolation she had was that the rest of her bridge crew were in precisely the same situation, all thirty of them.
"Vengeance, this is Pasture, we have you in optical range."
"Copy that, Pasture. Four hundred and twenty-eight kilometers out and steady. Maintain course and speed."
A rendezvous between two objects in space faces near astronomical odds, and often must be planned out weeks in advance for a close contact. The colony ship, Pasture, had left its' small orbital shipyard nearly sixty kiloseconds ago, and had maneuvered in its' orbit into precisely the location needed to allow the Vengeance to catch up with her.
Captain Astral knew that none of this would matter if the operators aboard either ship made a big enough mistake. With a little over four hundred kilometers separating their craft, they were close enough to be visible to one another via optical enhancers. Atmospheric interference between communications did not matter here, and both vessels were able to understand one another with perfect clarity.
"Vengeance, Pasture here. We have just received a communication from Command. We are not officially at war with any of the factions, and thus we are not allowed to fire unless a threat is perceived. Do you copy that?"
"I hear, and I shall obey." Astral automatically responded. "We are in position to boost out of orbit. Are your engines up to speed?"
"They are." A voice confirmed over the inter-ship radio. "As are our Stellar Drives. We shall accelerate as you do. By the Grace of the Night."
"By the Grace of the Night." Astral firmly replied, before turning to the bridge crew. "Accelerate to ten thousand kilometers per second. Exit the gravitational pull of Equestria, and then activate the Stellar Drive."
"Yes ma'am!" Her first officer replied, the stallion hunching over his console as he did whatever he did to move the ship.
The Stellar Drive was a more recent invention by Arcantech Industries, the firm responsible for magical-based development of existing technology. As far as she knew, it 'bled' the gravity field around the ship to move it forward at a highly accelerated rate, pushing it forward at speeds somewhere in the range of thirty-six percent of c.
As far as she knew, it was perfectly safe. There had been neither the time nor the resources, however, to test it on anything other than a single probe. The probe itself had returned unharmed and faster than expected, and thus Command had chosen to attach one to their only current spacecraft, in addition to the colony ship.
It was a load of horseapples, but if it got them to their destination fast and unharmed, then Astral supposed her concerns could shove it. She simply didn't envy her status as the 'test subject'.
Equestria receded behind them as time ran by. Even the moon, orbited by the hulks of dozens of destroyed ships, passed by quickly. It was another kilosecond past that before they finally exited the majority of the gravitational pull of Equestria.
"All systems green." Her first officer said. "We're ready to engage the Stellar Drive whenever you are, Captain."
Astral looked around the room. A mixture of stoic and eager faces stared back at her, together forming the best and most experienced officers in the fleet.
How would they stack up to the Unicorn officers, or the Pegasi, or even the Earth Ponies? All three other factions had decades of skirmishing under their belt, in addition to whatever spacecraft they currently had. In truth, Astral had no idea.
It was time to find out.
"Engage the drive." She ordered.
The ship practically vibrated with energy as the systems for the Stellar Drive warmed up.
She felt the artificial gravity of the ship shift as those systems tried to keep one cardinal sense of direction.
The Vengeance rocketed forward, followed by the Pasture, on a heading towards the frozen wasteland that was Equus IX.