Deep in the middle of the thickly wooded forest just two hours before Johnny Conway was quarantined from being exposed to an unknown force, Commander William Keshiner and his squadmates were steadily pushing through the thick branches and leaves of the surrounding forest. His clothing was caked with mud and dried dirt, green stains covered his hands, and bits of morning dew had begun to cling to his visor. Will unthinkingly tried to wipe clean the grime obstructing his view, but his dirt covered hand only served to worsen his problem.
He muttered a few curses under his breath and swiped at his visor with the back of his hand in an attempt to clean the rest of the dirt off, all the while trying to clamber over a log that blocked their path. The night was growing late, and the cool air was causing more and more dew to form on the squad’s armored forms. It wasn’t as much a problem as it was a nuisance that he had to repeatedly wipe off his visor in order to see somewhat clearly. Not too far in the distance, the sky was already awash with the colorful rays of the rising sun. Looking up through a small opening in the canopy, William stopped dead in his tracks.
“Is something wrong, Commander?” Stacey asked as she seemed to glide over the log, her feet landing catlike upon the damp grass. Receiving no response, both she and the rest of the squad approached him. Stacey followed William’s eyes up towards the sky, and what she saw nearly brought her to tears.
Reds, oranges, pinks, and even hints of blue hues decorated the sky like an abstract painting. Small, fluffy white clouds decorated with shades of pinks drifted over the mountain, its edges outlined by the orange trees that reflected the sun’s rays. A flock of white birds drifted across the sky only to be silhouetted when they passed through the sun’s light.
William could hardly believe what he was seeing, it was magnificently beautiful. The sun was just starting to peak over the mountain, spreading an aurora of colors across the sky. I wonder, William thought, if everyone else is stopping what they’re doing. And they most likely were, even the rest of William’s squad stopped beside him and watched the sun rise over the mountain top and cast its light upon the world. He heard someone sniffle behind him, followed by “Goddammit, I think I need a tissue.”
The squad stood in awe for a few more moments before William finally snapped out of his stupor. “Alright, that’s enough gazing for now; Central needs us back at base before anything else happens.”
“Y-yes sir,” came his squad’s hesitant reply. He understood they were finding it difficult to avert their eyes from the the beauty that they hadn’t seen in a millennium. He was too.
:[-]:
“Hmm...” Luna bit the bottom of her lip as she read her sister’s letter once more. “This is truly interesting.”
My Dearest sister,
The lone fragment that landed deep in our garden was not a meteorite. After my subjects and I dug it out of the crater we confirmed that it is something not of Equestrian origin. Immediately after it was unearthed I ordered it to be sent to the research facilities in Fillydelphia, as to better determine what it was. However, even our brightest minds therein were unable to uncover anything resembling a solid answer. The materials it is composed of are entirely alien, and the symbols found on its side are of no language that we are aware of, living or dead.
Whatever it is that fell from our sky, little sister, it is not of this world. And if what you say of unknown creatures roaming Bramblewood Forest is true, then it is imperative that we maintain a vigilant guard. If they were able to attack and defeat members of your elite guard, then I fear that these creatures may be more dangerous than any enemy we have faced in recent memory, save Discord and Tirek.
Luna, I implore you; return to Canterlot with all possible haste. You have done much already, and you deserve a rest. I shall handle the situation in Saddleston.
Your Sister, Celestia.
Luna sighed deeply and leaned more heavily against the large stone she had been using as a backrest for the past thirty minutes. Yawning, she felt how heavy her eyes had become. She could hardly feel any life in her sleep deprived limbs, and her thoughts were growing more sluggish by the minute. However, she was not surprised by this. She had been awake for since the night before, after all. The idea of letting her sister deal with this mess was a tempting one. Extremely tempting, in fact.
However, she had been tasked with finding the meteorite that landed in the area, while also ensuring that nopony was injured. Said meteorite was still within these woods, and despite the time they had spent here, they were none the wiser as to even know its general location therein. And truly, she had to admit to herself, she had failed her other objective. The group of ponies she commanded was four short. So far, none of her objectives were met. She sighed once again and skimmed over the letter. Luna was not one to leave a job undone, and knew she could do better. Using her magic to crumple the letter into a small ball, she teleported it somewhere that wasn’t here. With the letter floating somewhere in deep space, Luna noticed one of her officers, Bristol, eyeing her closely.
“Your majesty,” he said, his voice sound calm and collected. His eyes were half lidded and his lips formed was straight. “Our scouts have just returned from their expedition.” As he spoke, Luna couldn’t help but notice that his head seemed to bounce up and down with his every word.
“What have they found?” she asked, another yawn threatening to escape her throat.
Bristol remained silent for a moment, his muzzle contorting ever so faintly. He looked as if he didn’t know quite how to articulate his response. “Well, I can’t believe it, but,” Luna strained to decipher his quiet mumbling, but he quickly cleared his throat. “About twelve miles north, near the base of Mt. Neighson, the scouts reported a massive object resting in the middle of a densely forested area. Or, rather, it was resting in what was left of a densely forested area.”
Luna couldn’t help the smile that had formed on her face. She could at least mark the first objective off of her list now. “Is that all?”
The officer shook his head, stopping it from returning to its prior bobbing. “They have also reported seeing what appear to be tents, and what we logically assume to be supplies scattered around the outer edge of the ‘meteorite’,” he said, putting special emphasis on the final word.
Tents and supplies? Luna began running possibilities through her head. What could these beings possibly be doing? In fact, what are these beings and what could they possibly want?
When had Luna thought the officer had finished and she began to speak, the stallion started up again. “Odd thing is, about thirty seconds after its touchdown, they mentioned something about an alarm sounding off.”
“An alarm? I haven’t heard anything.”
“Neither have I. I’m just telling you what the scouts said.”
“What happened when the alarm went off?”
The officer shifted nervously from hoof to hoof, his eyes pass over everything save for the princess. wavered left and right. “They mentioned black and green creatures that came swarming out of the meteorite. Hideous monsters they said, creatures that stood seven feet tall and one that seemed to reach the treetops.” Bristol shivered and scratched a small patch of his coat just below his armor.
Luna frowned. They must have some sort of detection spell if they were able to discover the scouts. “Then we must act with caution.” Luna stood up, her legs beginning to tingle as blood quickly rushed back through them. “Our mission is to make sure whatever came from that meteorite doesn’t hurt anypony else. Lieutenant Bristol,” Luna glared down at the smaller pony, his eyes focused he nodded. “Write a letter to Princess Celestia telling her that I will not be returning until I know the situation here is stable, afterwards alert the others, we’ll be moving out within the next thirty minutes.”
A hoof came to Bristol’s forehead in a salute. “Yes Your Majesty!”
When Bristol turned and made a beeline towards the rest of the guard, Luna glanced over her shoulder towards the tree tops. From where she stood she could see the faintest bit of white smoke drifting into the sky.
Tents and supplies, Luna thought. Surely what they were dealing with here must be organized; and surely whatever fell from the sky was no meteorite, but instead could only be assumed to be a form of transport. A transport carrying a species nopony has ever seen before, at least to her knowledge. Whatever they were, Luna could only pray that they were friendly.
:[-]:
The sweat on Luna’s coat was causing her chest piece to stick to her much like it was bound by glue. Bugs buzzed around her as if a party had been thrown in that physics defying mane of her’s, her tail continuously swatted back and forth fighting a losing battle against the swarm of bugs that wouldn’t let up.
They were almost there, the crash site was just a mile up ahead, she could smell it. Literally. The air was filled with smoke, and already rotting plants. In the distance the ponies could hear an unfamiliar sound, a sound of steady thumping.
Kkksssh thump, kkkksssh thump, kkkkssshhhh thump!
With each thundering beat came a small tremor gradually getting stronger and stronger as they drew near. Or it drew near. The sound seemed to resemble foot steps rather than a random noise, it traveled in a pattern similar to those of a bipedal creature like a minotaur. Except this sounded like a machine, metal clanking together, squealing rhythmically before producing a loud thud that the ponies could feel in their hooves.
Kkkkksssh thump! Kkkkkkkssssh thump! KKkksssshhh thump!! KKKKSSSsshhh THUMP!!
The sound became increasingly louder, the tremors had started to become more akin to earthquakes, the nearby wildlife began to scatter, scampering from their burrows and hopping from branch to branch in an attempt to escape from the approaching pounding. Leaves fell sparsely from the trees above like light, colorful rain. Luna looked back at her guards. “Hold your ground!” She shouted over the horrendous noise that was resounding ahead of them.
“Look!” Luna saw a guard shoot his hoof forward, his eyes wide with a look of amazement mixed with fear.
Luna quickly snapped her head around, about forty yards away, deep in the trees, a large, tall, and bulky figure that was shrouded in shadows stomped its way past them. The small rays of light that pierced the trees refracted off its silver hull; in its wide fat hands the monster held an elongated thick object that it kept close to its chest. Its body swayed side to side with each step, with each pounding footfall Luna felt like her insides would leap into the air, making her queasy.
To her and her guards’ relief however, it seemed that the creature did not notice them; and it continued down its path through the forest. Its earth-shaking steps becoming quieter with each passing second, Luna released a quiet breath. “We move with extreme caution from here on out, keep your eyes open and nopony make a sound.” Her troops replied with a nod of their heads to which Luna replied with her own.
She was positive that they were close, extremely close to be exact. They began to move once again, up ahead Luna could already hear alien sounds. She motioned for her guards to get down low and she got down onto her belly. Something didn’t seem right here. Quite honestly none of this seemed right, never in all her years has something to this extreme happened. Those bush creatures in the woods, and that massive metallic beast, what were they? Were they all related?
Already the behemoth’s footfalls were returning, Luna took a quick glance back and ordered her stallions with a wave of her head to dive into a nearby patch of shrubbery. Luna winced as a thorn jabbed her side as she crawled into a large bush, her guards followed behind, a few however were forced to retreat back when it became apparent that no room was available.
“Princess,” A guard hissed behind her. “I do not mean to be rude, but your mane will give us away.”
KKkkksssh thump! KKKkKkkksssh thump! KKkkksssh thump!
The dreadful sound became fully audible again, it seemed as if it was heading right for them. Luna nodded her head and her horn sparked for the briefest of moments, followed by her mane falling down to her sides, losing all magical essence it had held previously.
KKKKkssssh thump! KKKKkkssh thump!!
The earth, once again with immense force shook. The ponies clenched their teeth, a few even closing their eyes as they waited for the monster to pass by and the sound to go away. However, instead of the the sound continuing past them, it ended abruptly; like a strummed string on a violin being halted by a hoof, ceasing the melody.
Luna’s eyes, that had been staring straight ahead in anticipation whole, blinked when she noticed how the heavy noise had suddenly stopped. For a second it had seemed that the animal had vanished entirely, just poofed right out of existence. But those thoughts would be forced to stop when a long drawn out hiss echoed just over her head.
“PRINCESS WATCH OUT!”
Luna felt a magical tug on her body, and she was dragged out of the way of a foot, larger than her body, that came crashing down right beside her head. Mud and leaves were thrown in all directions by the force of the enormous limb, completely drenching Luna’s body.
Lt. Bristol quickly yanked Luna to her hooves, his wide, terrified eyes never leaving the towering abomination. The monster backed up and glared down at the scrambling, panicked ponies that ran blindly in every direction. Its body drifting side to side, its lone green eye hopping from guard to guard, the large object Luna once saw carrying in its hands was now attached to its back, held there by a metal clasp. The metal monster straightened itself and exalted, emitting a deafening howl that roared like thunder.
Any remaining pony that wasn’t panicking now turned and fled for their lives, except for Luna. She stayed, brow furrowed and mane flowing as if it was in a hurricane; her eyes shooting daggers into the monster’s one.
The towering beast rolled its shoulders, its metal plates screeching as they rubbed against each other. Raising a foot over her head, the creature went to move on the fleeing ponies; but Luna shouted, a shout so loud her own ears rung at the sound her vocals produced.
“HALT!”
The foot stopped just a couple of feet above her head, then it retracted and brought itself back to the ground. Behind Luna, the panicked guards had frozen in mid run, eyes wide and focused back on their Princess. Luna gritted her teeth and continued to glare fiercely at the metal monstrosity. The creature stared expressionless at Luna, not a single sound admitted from it.
Luna bit her tongue. Her mind was beginning to draw a blank, she had absolutely no idea of what to do or say. The metal beast continued its blank stare for a few moments before finally releasing a grunt and pivoting itself around, moving in the direction back from where it came.
“Y-your Majesty,” Luna could barely hear Bristol mumble, the poor stallion was literally shaking like a leaf. “Wh-what do we do now?”
Luna blinked, the lieutenant’s question somewhat snapping her out of her stupor. She took her eyes off the monster and looked down at the soldier. “We follow it.” Luna surprised herself with how calm her voice sounded. “Whatever that is, it may lead us to the meteorite, rally up any of the stragglers that may have run off and follow that thing!”
Bristol looked behind himself to where the rest of the guard was originally, all that was left of their platoon was nothing more than a small handful of stallions. He gulped. “Aye Your Majesty, I’ll see what I can do.”
:[-]:
Crew members of all kinds aboard Horizon usually liked to think of the Admiral’s office, which doubled as his living quarters, was something to kill for. A luxurious bed, with nice silk sheets and fluffy pillows, their own television, and maybe even a mini fridge with some alcohol. The perfect habitat for one, maybe two, to just kick back and relax; but to be frank, it wasn’t like that at all. Matter of fact, the only thing correct about that was the mini-fridge kept in the corner right beside Watson’s desk. Though the man never stored anything in it aside from his lunch, it was practically useless even then.
Watson’s room was nothing different compared to every other crewmember on the ship, aside from having it to himself that is; he had one bed, an armchair, and a locker. That was it. Nothing fancy, no silk sheets, one extra pillow, and a mini fridge he only used when he decided that he couldn’t eat anymore of that fucking dried beef the kitchen staff kept serving.
Watson sighed and sat back in his chair, he was in his office half past eight in the morning. He was in the middle of working on a couple documents that contained the next steps in the plans to revive humanity, the next order of business, was to set up a small, self sustaining colony. Which was going to be difficult seeing that they landed next to a native settlement constructed by a species that magically seemed to evolve in only the span of under ten thousand years, assumably that is.
Raising his hands he rested the back of his head in his palms, his eyes flicking towards the red digital clock above he saw that it was now eight fifty in the morning. He had ten minutes before he needed to go down to briefing; the chairmen had requested a meeting four hours ago, after that excuse of a landing, to discuss future operations. Hence the reason why he was looking over them now.
Watson always hated going to these meetings. The snobs that practically served no purpose to the survivability of mankind irritated the hell out of him. The only reason these handful of people survived in the first place was because of their positions in politics and their threats to cut funding on the Icarus Project (Horizon’s construction), if they weren’t guaranteed any seats.
“I knew women and children who’d serve better on this ship then these fuckers,” Watson mumbled under his breath as he leaned forward and flicked through a few more pages. One of them being a full page list of the vaults that hopefully contained the last of the human species. Twenty-five vaults in total covered every continent on the entire planet, twenty of them housing civilians while the other five held the last of the world’s military superpowers.
“Zere’s enough veapons and supplies down zere to vage vorld var tree.” Watson could remember Hassel stating, at the time the good doctor was only joking around. However, it was the truth, five military vaults; two being on either coast of the United States, one in China, Germany, and finally Russia; were established in case the Archangel had somehow miraculously survived. Each of them packed with enough weapons that if they were to fall in the wrong hands, history may as well repeat itself and Horizon would find itself drifting along the edge of the solar system once again.
Watson flipped to the last blank page, yawning quietly to himself he grabbed a hold of the folder and closed it, revealing a small black and white photo about the size of a playing card. On it was a young woman standing next to a man dressed in a Liberty dress. The man’s arm was wrapped tightly around the back of the woman's neck, pulling her into a tight hug. Both shared ridiculous smiles and the man held up two fingers as a “Peace!” sign. In the background, he could see the ocean and a warship not too far off in the distance.
Watson smiled and picked the image off the table and flipped it, Hawaii 1966. “Nineteen years old,” he whispered to himself and mimicked the goofish smile his past self held. Raising a hand, he gently trailed his index finger across the woman’s face, the fond memories of years past slowly beginning to resurface. “If only you were here now to see how much we’ve accomplished, dear,” he chuckled.
“Admiral Watson?” a pleasantly calm voice inquired.
Watson blinked twice looking up from the photo he rose out of the sea of memories. “Yes?” he answered.
“Admiral Watson, are you there?”
Beating the palm of his hand against his forehead Watson scolded himself when he noticed the voice was coming from the speaker on his desk. Leaning over he pressed his finger down on the talk key. “What is it, Wendy?”
“Chairman Michelson is requesting for your presence down in the briefing room; I was also supposed to tell you that Commander Keshiner and the rest of Baghdad have returned from their expedition.”
Watson groaned, he absolutely hated attending these sorts of meetings, the ones where a politically inclined fig yammered on without getting straight to the damned point, he sighed, knowing that there was no way out of it. Of course, his finger wasn’t depressing the key, so the irritation was missed by the desk jockey on the other end. Otherwise, the Admiral was pleased, yet somewhat apprehensive about the debriefing and what Baghdad had to report. “Very well,” he pressed the intercom, “tell the Chairman I’ll be down immediately.” It was often best to say that you would be down as soon as possible, rather than in a few minutes, as Watson had learned over his long and exhaustive career.
“Will do, sir. Anything else?” Wendy responded cheerfully.
Watson nodded despite her being in a separate compartment. “Yes, tell Keshiner to report his team’s findings to Intelligence, and that they have two hours rest before they join the other teams along the perimeter.”
“Yes sir, notifying the Commander now.”
Watson took his hand off the receiver and slouched in his chair for a couple of moments, contemplating if he should formulate some bullshit excuse. He decided against it and rose up from his chair. Glancing down at himself, he even considered opting out of dressing up and just going in his white tee and grey cargos. Although, the chairmen would really throw a tantrum if they saw him like that. He smirked, now that’d be a sight to see.
Sadly, it was time to quit the games and throw on his mask of professionalism. Stripping off his casual wear, Watson crumpled them into a ball and tossed them into a clothes hamper. He opened his locker and found his uniform freshly cleaned and coffee stain free, along with five other white T-shirts and pairs of pants. He took the uniform out of the locker and began to put it on. Once he was finished, he looked himself over once in the mirror. Watson proceeded to the door, glancing sadly back at his room and office, which he knew he wouldn’t see for quite some time. He swallowed the lump in his throat and flipped off the lights, the pneumatic door sliding noiselessly shut behind him.
:[-]:
“Mr. Carlson, I’ll say this once, and only once: to insure our survival we cannot go around cracking open every vault there is. We must make sure we ourselves can survive this wilderness, therefore we need to establish a self sustaining colony.” Admiral Watson explained to the fat man across from him that was practically on his tip toes as he leant forward and nasty scowl plastered across his face.
“Don’t forget the natives too,” The women sitting beside Watson, Chairman Angela Weaver said, primary funder of the Icarus Project. “Even with our technological advantage there are far too many of them for us to handle if things are to take a turn for the worst.”
“And speaking of the Natives, Ms. Weaver.” Charles Riley, United States Democrat who had just enough money to make it aboard. “What do you propose we do with them?”
“We attempt negotiations of course. We go for diplomacy and try to gain equal grounds with one another, depending on how things turn out. We can only hope it ends in our favor.”
“And what if it doesn’t,” Carlson sat back down in his seat, a brow was raised and his teeth latched tightly down on the unlit pipe between his lips. “Say these creatures are hostile, what then?”
“We do our best to keep every last person aboard this ship alive, Carlson. Plan for the worst hope for the best.” Watson said, his voice completely monotone, a hand was resting on the side of his head while the other tapped impatiently on the arm rest.
“How about first contact?” A man in a black suit, short brown hair brushed a little to the right, his face was dark and his eyes were brown.
“What about it Mr. Chinaski?” Watson asked.
The man gulped and scratched one side of his skinny neck. “How would we approach a meeting with these... horses?”
“Just call them natives Mr. Chinaski,” Watson sighed while looking over to the woman beside him. She was wearing a nice black skirt that went just past her knees, and a top that really complimented her slim body; her blonde hair was tied neatly into a ponytail that rested on the back of her neck, a pair of black rimmed glasses sat on the bridge of her nose right in front of her equally spaced, blue eyes. If Watson was asked to briefly explain what this woman looked like he’d say, “She looks like a librarian really.”
Weaver sank a little bit in her seat, a hand to her chin in thought. “Quite honestly, Mr. Chinaski, we haven’t come up with an idea on how we’d approach them.”
“Here’s an idea Ms. Weaver,” Riley spoke up. “We don’t.”
Weaver looked at the man and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t what?”
“Isolationism,” He clarified, “we stick to ourselves and focus on what’s at hand.”
Watson sighed and took his hand off his face, straightening his back he looked to Riley and said, “Well I’m sorry to burst your bubble chairman, but last I saw the natives will most likely be making contact.”
Murmurs sprouted throughout the briefing room. “Ladies and gentlemen,” Watson called over the people, “There is no avoiding what is going to happen in the next couple hours or even days. To these creatures we’re aliens that have fallen from the stars. They don’t know squat about us. And that’s bad, very bad. They won’t leave us alone. They WILL investigate us, and we either have to be ready when it comes, or reach out ourselves with our best foot forward.”
All eyes were now on him. “Already Sgt. Conway and his men had captured four of these beings alive–”
Carlson shot from his seat his hands pounding on the table that was in front of him. “Are you kidding me?!” The briefing room fell silent, Carlson looked back towards the other chairmen who watched him with wide eyes, he looked back at Watson. “Admiral Watson, if what you’re saying is true these creatures are bound to attack us on sight! What were your men thinking?!”
Watson leaned forward his eyebrows curving downwards. “I’ll assure you, Carlson, my men had every right to do what they did. Those creatures cracked open the Japanese storage coolers, ten inches of thick steel pushed open as if it was nothing.”
Carlson gave Watson a skeptical look. “And I bet they can fly too,” He said sarcastically.
Watson folded his hands and smirked. “Matter of fact,” he had to suppress a laugh when Carlson flashed him a look of pure disbelief, “they can... at least, the ones with wings can.”
Carlson locked eyes with Watson for a couple of moments before sitting down, grumbling angrily to himself. A woman dressed in a white lab coat with a green undershirt and long brown hair stood up. “And what else do we know of these creatures, Admiral?”
Watson smiled, so much for discussing their next plans. “Well, Christa, what we know of–”
“Attention Security Status 2! All available units are to report to the armory immediately, I repeat: All available units report to the armory immediately! This is not a drill!”
“What the Hell?” Watson rose immediately from his chair, voices throughout the room began to rise as chairmen looked to each other with worried and confused faces.
“Everyone please remain calm!” Weaver ordered as she stood, looking to Watson she said, “Admiral, could it be them?”
Watson took his eyes away from the speaker that was still blurting out the alert. “Maybe... I dunno.” Outside the room he could already hear soldiers rallying towards the armory, the ceiling rumbled as more rushed to the stairs. Watson looked to Weaver, his face returning to its original demeanor. “Ms. Weaver, I want you to stay here and keep them,” He motioned with his hands towards the frightened chairmen, “from causing a panic.”
Weaver bit her bottom lip and glanced towards the indicated party. “Eh.” She gulped. “Yes sir,” She said her confidence returning. Watson gave her a small smile and nodded. Turning, he jogged out of the room and into the fray.
The corridor was packed, shoulder to shoulder soldiers quickly moved to the armory on the second deck, upper right part of the ship. Watson forcefully made his way in the opposite direction, his destination being the command room located in the very center of Horizon. It took him four minutes to push his way past his men to reach the central elevator, mainly used only by important individuals and scientists.
Watson stepped into the elevator, the metal doors stuttered for a brief moment before closing behind him. Even though the engineers had gotten the elevators to work again just a few hours after the ship came down, there still seemed to be a few problems. Something about needing to adjust the lifting mechanisms to account for increased gravity. Oh well. After descending deeper into the ship for a bit, the elevator stopped at its destination, its doors sliding apart, leading out to the third deck, which was devoid of staff except for the few scientist that briskly roamed the halls.
Watson adjusted his collar and began to make his way to the command center, when he arrived the large metal doors groaned as he passed through them.
“Excuse me, sir!” A man dressed in a dark green jumpsuit said just before running by, nearly ramming into Watson. His eyes followed the running man all the way to the other side of the room, around him he could see the entire command center was in chaos. People ran back and forth relaying information to one another, and in the center of it all was a tall, thin woman dressed in a dark green officer uniform with tinted sleeves. She had short black hair that stopped right above her ears, and dark blue eyes that could stare into a man’s soul. Command Officer Caroline Starter stood just beside the center desk, her eyes locked on the blue holo-globe.
Watson approached her. “Officer Starter,” he greeted, the girl in front of him jumped, startled by his sudden appearance.
She quickly turned to face Watson and gave him a brisk salute. “Admiral Watson,” She greeted back.
“Give me a sit-rep,” He ordered.
Caroline nodded and faced the globe, raising a hand she pointed towards a mass of red dots converging in on their location. “That’s what’s happening sir, fifteen minutes ago the majority of sensors were tripped along the western half of the perimeter.”
Watson squinted and leaned in a bit, the red dots almost seemed to make a large bloodstain. He looked at Caroline, “What about our soldiers along the defensive line, do we have eyes on whatever this is?”
Caroline nodded her head. “Yes sir, Leevi!” She shouted towards a man to the right of them who was sitting at a computer just at the base of the globe. “Bring up the footage sent to us by the Mark Two!”
“Yes Ma’am, bringing up the footage now.”
Caroline turned and faced the large screen mounted behind them on the wall, Watson followed suit.
“The video here, Admiral,” Caroline explained, “Is footage that was captured by one of our Panzer mechs that was patrolling a few miles outside of the perimeter.”
The screen flickered as the video began. Watson could faintly hear the sound of the pilot talking to himself, the screen shuddered with every step causing the footage to stutter and occasionally flicker. Listening further, Watson noticed that the man was actually talking to someone else over the radio. The pilot looked to be in control of a Heavy class panzer, standing roughly sixteen feet tall, and weighing ninety tons. The walking hunk of metal the man was piloting was built by humanity’s greatest minds to withstand anything the Archangel could throw at them. The pilot maneuvering the mech sat in the center chest piece protected by four inches of titanium on the front and only two inches on the sides. It appeared that this particular model was outfitted with a GAU-18 rotary cannon, and 120 mm smoothbore.
“Really?” The man said as he snickered “She really did it?!” He laughed.
Watson sighed impatiently. “What am I looking at here?” He said gesturing with an open hand towards the trees on screen.
“Leevi, skip ahead a minute,” Caroline requested.
“Yes, Ma’am, skipping ahead.”
The picture began to move along much more quickly than before, humorously through the eyes of the mech the image bobbed up and down at a fast pace. Suddenly though, something flashed across the screen.
“Stop it now!” Caroline demanded. The image halted, “Resume original pace,” She said.
“What the Hell?” The pilot said his voice struck with confusion. The mech turned towards the brush in which the light came from. Slowly, the pilot turned and began to make his way towards it. The bushes began to shake; something was inside. The pilot stopped the mech just a few short feet away from the vegetation. “Activating thermal,” He said. Suddenly the picture changed entirely, the colors of the trees and bushes transformed into tints of grey, revealing about a dozen white silhouettes laying in the bushes. “Eh... guys?” The pilot began speaking over the radio again.
Watson’s eyebrow raised at the scene before him. “Caroline, are these the creatures that tipped off the alarm?”
She nodded. “We believe so sir, but keep watching, there’s something else I want you to see.”
The pilot finished his conversation, mumbling to himself he switched off the thermal vision. Retaking control the pilot lifted the mechs foot and went to take a step over the bush, but halted right above. “Goddammit, fucking gears locking up again!” The pilot cursed, a slight protesting beep coming from inside the cockpit sign signaling that something wasn't working right. “I don’t got time for this shit!”
A shout of some sorts admitted from one of the bushes as the gears released the foot, causing it to come crashing down on the bush. As if on cue, the entire forest came to life as equine like creatures leaped out of the brush and began frantically galloping around the mech. “Jesus Christ!” The pilot pulled the mech back, nearly causing it to trip on a nearby fallen tree, he glanced from equine to equine, each of them covered in armor ranging from purple to gold. Each and every creature ran blindly in all directions, the pilot holstered the mech’s 120 mm smoothbore.
Watson could hear the pilot’s frustration when he tried to move but stopped when he noticed an equine ran right by the mech’s foot. “Alright you sonsofbitches.” The pilot flicked a couple of switches and jammed his thumb down on the horn, the creatures stumbled, nearly falling on their faces. Glaring back at the mech most of them turned and ran deep into the tree line, a few however began to back away slowly the reality of a metal giant standing before them not having sunk in yet. One in particular, a tall, dark blue, winged equine with a mane that spat in the face of Newtonian physics, stood before the mech, its eyes trapped in a cold stare with the pilot’s. The pilot smirked, rolling the mechs shoulders he raised its foot in attempt to see if he could scare the tall equine off. However, when the mech’s foot came just feet above its head, an earsplitting shout ruptured the audio of the video. The footage fell silent.
“What in God’s name?” Watson mumbled. “What happened to the sound?”
Caroline looked at him and shrugged. “We have absolutely no idea; something blew out the external microphone.”
“Was it that?”
She shrugged once again. “Most likely. We’ve been analyzing the footage sinced the second we saw it and we haven’t found anything else that could’ve done it.”
Watson looked back the screen in bewilderment. Now the mech was turning away and heading back to base. “The damn thing must’ve swallowed a megaphone as a child.”
“HQ, this is Charlie. We’re detecting movement northwest of our position. Do you copy? Over.”
Caroline pivoted around and went back over to the globe, where she picked up the headset that had been resting on the desk. “Charlie, this is HQ. We read you. What do you see? Over.”
Watson came up beside her and rested both his hands on the desk. “I think we don’t need a sit-rep to know what’s coming,” He said quietly.
“Mother of God!” A second marine spat through the speaker.
Caroline reacted quickly. “What is it Charlie? What do you see?!”
“There’s dozens of’em!”
“Dozens of what Charlie?! What do you see?!”
Watson frowned and looked at Caroline. “Tell those men not to engage!”
Caroline nodded and brought the mic to her mouth. “Charlie whatever you do, do not engage I repeat: Do not engage!”
“Roger that–ah shit! They see us! I repeat we’ve been spotted!–” A single shot rang out in the background, both Watson and Caroline flinched.
Watson snagged the headset away from Caroline, and he nearly yelled into it, “Marine by God if your men fire off another round, I’ll have you all by your necks! Now pull back immediately and await further orders!”
“Eh, yes sir, Admiral Watson! Fall back!”
“Admiral Watson, Officer Starter!” Leevi shouted, “Multiple sensors have been tripped along the south western perimeter!”
“Sensors on the East side have gone up, sir!”
“North side has been triggered!”
“By God,” Watson watched as dozens, upon dozens of red dots appeared around the ship. “They’re surrounding us.”
Caroline looked at Watson, Watson however did not look back, instead his eyes remained on the globe. A thick sweat beginning to form on his brow, his frown deepened and his brow furrowed. “Leevi,” He said in a cold voice, “Patch me into Horizon’s intercom!”
“Yes sir! Patching you through now!”
He placed the mic close to his mouth and cleared his throat before speaking, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are on Security Status Red! All units are to remain on high alert at all times!”
Watson placed the headset back on the desk and turned away and began heading for the door. “Admiral Watson,” Caroline said, she began to follow him. “Where are you going?”
“To get my gun!” He said as he jammed the button that opened the door. Caroline stopped before the door as he stepped through it, Watson stopped and looked over his shoulder. “As for you Officer Starter, I want you to stay here and hold down the fort while I’m gone.”
:[-]:
Commander Williams was enjoying his time on break. He was in his quarters sleeping on his bunk when security was bumped up to two and he and his men were ordered to report to the armory. He had only gotten about forty minutes worth of rest in when the alarm was sounded, that is, if you could call nightmares rest. As of now he remained laying in his bunk. His gaze fixated on the single light above. William wondered if anyone would even notice him missing. He smiled, maybe then he could get some more shuteye.
“Yo Commander!” Michael’s muffled voice rung out, “Are you alive in there?”
William took a deep breath, so much for that wish.“Barely,” he replied before rising from his bunk, still blinking the sleepiness from his vision. He yawned and raised his hand to rub the crust out of his eyes. Mumbling under his breath he got up and walked over to his locker, throwing it open with little care. He stared at the contents, his mind drifting off into space. To his right the door opened and the junior lieutenant stepped in, already suited up in his tyvek suit, camo pants, and vest. All he was missing was the helmet and mask that usually shielded his short, brown hair and bright, green eyes.
“Hey Commander, you coming?”
William yawned and grabbed his protective suit out of his locker, he flashed a look towards marine. “What does it look like?”
“Looks like to me you’re slacking off.” Michael smiled and tapped the door frame. “Come on, we need to be down in the armory in five mikes.”
William finished zipping the suit up to his neck and began putting on his pants and the rest of his gear. In a matter of two minutes he was fully dressed and ready to head down. Stepping out in the hallway he saw that he and a few others were the only ones left, a few engineers wearing kevlar vests and helmets strolled by, on their backs were couple of M4 carbines. It was an odd sight to see but William knew that every man and woman aboard Horizon, save for the chairmen, had at least some form of combat experience. Had it be only basic training or an actual gun fight in the streets of some city back when man originally ruled the Earth.
Luckily for William his quarters was on the same deck as the armory and it didn’t take long for him to find a small crowd of soldiers formed right in the middle of the hall by the door caused by a traffic jam of marines trying to make their way out while others tried to get in.
“Come on everyone! Grab your shit and get a move on, you can chat later, lets go!” An abnormally tall man, by the name of Thomas Giles, ducked under the opening and stepped into the armory. Like every other soldier he was already set up in his tyvek. kevlar vest, elbow and kneepads, along with his helmet that was already on top his head. He clapped his hands together for emphasis, “I said lets go!”
“Yes sir!” The soldiers replied in unison quickening their pace. Thomas was on the highest ranking officers on board bellow Jonathan Conway. Thomas turned around and noticed William looking up at him, he flashed his teeth at him with a smile and gave him a mock salute salute before brushing past him.
William’s watched the tall soldier as he disappeared into the crowd. Looking back at Michael, William shook his head and pushed his way into the armory. Inside the armory wasn’t as packed as the corridor. The interior resembled something of a high school locker room, the walls were lined with lockers each marked with a soldier’s name and number. Down the center was large bench for men to sit or organize their gear; William politely made his way past a couple of men who were filling their bags with gear.
Eventually he reached his locker. The second to last one in the barracks. It was right next to a viewscreen that originally showed off the vast reaches of space. However, the exterior camera was fried in the reentry process and it was currently just displaying the United Nations logo on a white background. The engineers were supposed to come up at some point and recycle them, but seeing as to what’s been happening over the course of the last fifteen minutes, that didn’t seem too likely.
Reaching into his left breast pocket William fished out a small white key card that had his name and picture on it. Glancing at it the commander couldn’t help but smile at the young private standing before the camera. it was such a different world then, amazing to think that was over a millennium ago now. Raising the card he slid it into the panel beside the locker’s door. A satisfying bleep emanated from the device and the locker opened with a small click. Inside were two weapons. The first being his trusty M4; which was originally kept under his bed, but he learned that it’s apparently against protocol to keep weapons in your quarters. The second weapon in the locker just beside the M4 hanging up on the back wall was the trusty AK-12, personally it isn’t his choice of weapon, but the guys down in engineering kept telling him it’s much better. Especially due to the modifications they made to it to help improve the durability and accuracy of said weapon.
However, that still didn’t change his opinion on it. He’s not saying that it was a bad weapon, it’s just that the AK wasn’t the gun that got him out of so many hairy situations.. William reached in and grabbed the assault rifle out of the locker along with six magazines and a pair of night vision goggles. From there he placed each item on the metal bench behind him, before turning back and taking the large combat backpack out of the locker and placing it on the floor. Getting one knee he opened it and began to sort out the rest of his gear. Once he was satisfied with what he had, William zipped it closed and slung it on his back before standing back up. He lifted his rifle off the bench and checked the mag. It was full. He loaded the mag into the rifle and attached the others onto his belt William then placed the night vision goggles on his forehead after checking the batteries.
“Alright boys!” William heard Thomas shout, looking over his shoulder he saw the man resting his AK along his chest. “Just got word from the General that he wants us all down in the cafeteria!” Thomas coughed into his fist and then blurted out, “And as for you pilots!” He was referring to the men who controlled the panzer mechs. “Report down to the hangar for suiting up!”
“Why the cafeteria?” Someone asked.
“The briefing room is already in use,” He said, “Lets get a move on it now, we can’t keep him waiting forever!” Thomas Giles shouted once more before he turned and made his way out the door followed by many other soldiers similar to how ducklings would follow behind their mother.
“The General eh?” Michael’s muffled voice crept up behind William. “I thought he’d be down in the meeting with the rest of the superiors.”
William looked over his shoulder, Michael was already wearing his mask and helmet despite them being indoors. “Whatever’s happening must be serious.”
“I guess so.”
William raised an eyebrow. “Can you even breathe in that thing?”
“Barely,” He replied.
“Then why are you wearing it?”
“Makes me look cool.”
William rolled his eyes. “Whatever,” He said and elbowed the man behind him lightly. “Lets go.”
:[-]:
Will watched as General Kenway stepped up in front of everyone, he was dressed in a thick green uniform that was decorated from head to toe in badges and stars. What portions of his grey hair that hadn’t fallen out yet were neatly combed back, his brown eyes glaring sternly at the soldiers scattered about the open cafeteria. The many tables that made up the lunchroom had been folded and pushed against the outer walls and had been replaced by dozens of folding chairs.
The general cleared his throat. “Good morning,” he greeted before taking a few steps towards a map that had been hastily printed out and taped to the wall. He pointed towards a set of thumbtacks that outlined the defensive perimeter around the landing site. “Twenty minutes ago an alarm was triggered along the western half of our perimeter. One of our panzer pilots, Leon Fenwick, was able to cast eyes on one of the intruders and confirm our suspicions,” Kenway glanced over at a man who was standing beside the taped map.
The man nodded his head to a woman sitting behind some sort of control panel. The lights dimmed and behind the soldiers a projector beamed a blurred image onto the wall next to the map. As seconds passed the image came into focus, revealing itself to be a still image of what seemed to be armored creatures fleeing into the forest, the angle in which the shot was taken was assumed to be from the mechs head.
“Earth’s new inhabitants are closing in on our AO, just as Watson predicted.” The General continued, “However, these creatures seem to be relatively harmless.” Kenway tapped his finger on a black, winged equine that appeared to be fleeing for its life. “Your job, ladies and gentlemen, is to keep it that way.” The general nodded again and the picture on the wall flickered as it zoomed in on the tall, blue horse that appeared to be wearing a black chest piece of some sort with a pure white crescent moon in the middle The creature’s eyes were narrowed and it was giving off what appeared to be an angry scowl; its mane was a blue hue, and it was decorated with white specks, casting the illusion of deep space. The mane itself however, flowed off of its body, defying gravity, it was raised high above its head as if reaching up to touch the clouds. One of its front hooves was raised in the air and extended slightly forward as if it was about to take a step. Like its mane, the tail did not obey physics; but to top it all off its wings, massive feathered limbs, were flared at its sides, nearly taking up the whole shot.
“Whoa,” William heard Michael gasp beside him. “Ain’t she just the prettiest thing I’ve seen.”
William cocked an eyebrow and looked at him, up front Kenway continued on with the briefing. “What are you talking about?”
Michael smiled under the mask he was still wearing. He glanced at William and then pointed at the picture. “That up there. If only I had one of them things back on my ranch.”
“What? Pay attention!” William hissed and noticed they were starting to draw attention.
“I could’ve made bank with her.” Michael chuckled.
“What the fu... you know what, never–”
“Commander!” The General snapped.
William immediately straightened up. “Yes, sir?”
“Do you have anything you’d like to add before we start the operation?”
“No, sir.”
“Well then.” Kenway smirked. “That closes this morning’s briefing session. Baghdad I want you out in the field in five mikes!”
The lights brightened up again and the soldiers began to rise to their feet, the room was instantly full with the sound of voices. “Goddammit, Michael,” William grumbled when he realized he had no idea on where he was supposed to go.
“Commander!” A voice shouted behind him, looking over his shoulder he saw Stacy approaching him, her helmet tucked neatly under her right arm. She motioned her head towards the exit. “You’re with us!”
A grin formed on his face. “How convenient.”
:[-]:
“You were really a rancher?” William asked Michael, his back resting against a large tree, his rear planted on a large root that arched out of the ground. The two men and Stacey were in the middle of a thick brush, the air was humid, and the buzz of insects could be heard from all around them mixed in with the occasional bird call. Every now and again the three of them would hear the sound of dirt and leaves rustling as a rabbit or any other small animal passed by.
The three of them were sent to reinforce the ships perimeter, like most of the others on boar Horizon, to help keep an eye out for the inhabitants that triggered the alarm. “Yeah, I really was,” Michael replied he was sitting on a rock across from William, fiddling with a small deck of cards he had found in the cafeteria. “Down in Southern California I raised horses with my Pop.”
“Just horses?” William asked, honestly not intrigued. He was just trying to find a way to pass the time.
Michael shook his head. “We had some cattle, and chickens... I think we even had some sheep...” He frowned. “I can hardly remember it.”
Stacey took a step back from the tree she was leaning on and lowered the goggles to her chest. “Alright, Junior, it's your turn to keep watch,” She said.
Michael stood and dusted his pant legs off. “Okay–here can you hold my card?” He placed the deck back into its box and handed it to her, she took them and the two switched places.
“So why did you leave the ranch?” William turned his head and cracked his neck, lifting his gun he positioned himself so that he was in a more comfortable position.
“Why else would anyone leave? When the damn Ruskies began acting up I felt threatened, and I had the urge to defend myself and my country. And then....” Michael looked back at William and stuck a hand out towards the surrounding vegetation. “This happened.”
“Romeo to Baghdad, I repeat: Romeo to Baghdad.” William’s radio blurted.
He took it and answered. “This is Baghdad, over.”
“We ain’t gettin’ any readings in our position, how about you, over?”
William looked to Michael, who was already peering through the goggles. A few seconds passed while Michael scanned the surroundings before he flipped them up and looked over at William with a shake of his head. William nodded. “Negative, Romeo, we ain’t got nothin’ either. Over.”
“Roger that, anything over by you delta?”
“Negative, over.” Replied another voice.
“Huh.” Stacey shrugged and opened Michael’s pack of of cards, she slid the the deck into her hand and leaned forward on the rock. Stacey then began to place the cards on the ground into seven separate groups, William immediately recognized the game of solitaire she was setting up. “I guess it’s all silent here on the western front,” she said flipping her first card over and revealed a red king of hearts.
“Sorta quiet,” Michael said before flipping the goggles back down and peering towards the north-west, “I’m not picking up any specific kinds of movement but I do see the occasional shift in a bush.”
“You know what I mean.” Stacey smirked and placed a black queen of hearts under the red king, she then took three more cards from her deck and frowned,cursing slightly under her breath and reaching for three more cards. William sat quietly on his root while letting his mind drift off into space. Memories of the dream he had of his wife day or so back and how he completely forgotten who she was resurfaced. The thought of forgetting Laura’s face forced a frown upon his and he quickly tried to think of something else.
“Yes!”
William jolted the voice saving him from having another nightmare. In front of him, Stacey held a large smile on her face as she placed an ace at the bottom of her last solitaire row. He grinned at the sight of the accomplished girl, his eyes then shifting towards Michael whose face was deep in thought, and he sheepishly brought his goggles back up to his eyes.
“Commander,” He said, “I think I got something.”
“What is it?” William pushed himself off the tree root and back onto his feet.
“I can’t tell right off the bat, eh, switching to thermal.” Michael flicked a switch on the top right half of the goggles before freezing in place. “Holy shit...” He said slowly.
“What is it?” William asked again taking a step toward Michael, Stacey was back on her feet the cards still on the forest floor.
“I’m counting six... no twelve... eighteen? Twenty? Jesus Christ!”
William shook his head and unslung his bag, opening it he reached in and took out his goggles as well. Raising them up he switched on the thermal optics and peered into the distance. Approximately a hundred and forty meters out was what seemed to be a small army of quadrupeds, the white silhouettes making it difficult to actually describe what they were.
William’s radio began going nuts with chatter. “HQ, this is Charlie. We’re detecting movement northwest of our position. Do you copy? Over.”
“Charlie, this is HQ. We read you. What do you see? Over.”
“Commander,” Michael said over the chatter, “What do you want us to do?”
William watched the large quadruped force march towards them in an organized fashion. Their bodies were lined up perfectly and their hooffalls were in perfect cadence, thus creating a rhythmic beat similar to a drum’s.
“Mother of God” A marine gasped, “There’s dozens of them!” The man over the device shouted, nearly drowning out Caroline’s voice when she asked him to specify what he saw.
“Commander.” Stacey grabbed William’s attention. “I suggest we pull back immediately.” William looked at her, then back towards the oncoming army, the thunderous beat sending a cold chill down his spine.
“I agree.” He swallowed. “Fallback another hundred towards the river and await further orders.”
“Wilco, sir.” Stacey turned and began dashing through the trees back towards the ship, next she was followed by Michael. Before William could make a single move a gunshot sounded off not too far from their position, freezing him in place for a mere moment.
His device exploded once more. “Marine, by God if your men fire off another round, I’ll have you all by your necks! Now pull back immediately and await further orders!”
Admiral Watson roaring voice rolled out of the walkie-talkie, even though the Admiral wasn’t yelling at William specifically. Just the sound of his screeching voice lit a fire under his ass and caused him to bolt behind his two squadmates. It didn’t take William long to catch up to the other two, Michael was running hastily with his gun hugged tightly to his chest, where as Stacey held it loosely near her waist, William however, held his with one hand, the other shoving twigs and leaves out of his face.
To their right came a startled yelp and the sharp pop of snapping twigs, all three soldiers slid to a stop, weapons drawn and hearts pounding. Only for a pair of marines to come running out of the trees and collapsing to their knees out of breath. “Jesus fuckin’ Christ, Larry!” A small southern accent slipped into Michael’s words, “You almost made us blow yer’ fuckin head off!” He snapped and lowered his gun.
“Sorry,” The soldier wheezed. “We just got back from examining the motion sensors, some five hundred meters back.....” The man gagged. “I can hardly fuckin’ breathe.”
William lowered his gun and took a step forward. “You must’ve been there when they,–” He motioned his head back towards where the marching army was advancing. “–Showed up.”
The marine named Larry breathed in heavily and straightened his back out, the other beside him gagged once more. “Yeah...” He sighed. “Yeah we were. The fucking horses showed up out of nowhere. One moment we’re checking the sensors, making sure everything’s alright. Then these goddamn flying horse things come swooshing over head, next thing I know it’s like a goddamn earthquake is going on and dimwit here.–” He Jammed a thumb towards the man on his knees. “–Comes running out of the trees telling us to get the fuck outta dodge!”
“How come ya’ll–excuse me,–” Michael cleared his throat. “,–didn’t notify HQ when you first saw them coming?”
“Why I don’t know,” Larry gestured sarcastically and glared at the marine still recovering below him. “Tell’m George.” Larry gestured with his hand out towards William and the others.
“I busted mah radio...” He coughed while pushing himself to his feet.
“And how did you bust it?” Larry spoke to him like a child.
The soldier named George shot a scowl at him. “I was climbin’ on the rocks by the mountain and slipped, okay? Fell flat on mah chest and busted it.”
Larry looked at William and nodded his head. “Idiot can hardly make his way to the cafeteria without breaking something.”
George shot another look at him, the man looked as if he was trying to catch Larry on fire with just his eyes. “Hey boys,” Stacey jumped in. “I’m sorry to spoil our little get together but we got orders we need to finish.”
Larry and George looked at them confused. “What orders?” They both asked.
“The Admiral ordered the entire defensive perimeter to fall back to the ship, and judging by what we’ve seen so far these things may have us outnumbered.”
“Well,” Larry said looking slightly worried, “let’s get going then.”
:[-]:
Every man or woman who could carry weapon on Horizon was immediately handed one when the security levels reached maximum, Status Red. No matter if you were a scientist, engineer, doctor, or even person who works in the intelligence department. You were handed a rifle, protective suit, and other various equipment; Then ordered to go to the front and defend if necessary.
Even Admiral Watson himself, the highest ranking individual on board, gathered his gun and stepped outside to assist his men. When Watson arrived outdoors the he took charge in watching over the men making sure things were going accordingly. Dozens of soldiers ran back and forth carrying weapons and supplies towards a large makeshift barricades made out of crates and logs. From the forest, soldiers that were on the perimeter poured out into the clearing, running as fast as they could towards the ship. William Keshiner and his fire team, along with the two boys from the outer edges, were one of the first groups that returned.
Not too far behind the soldiers, Watson could hear the the rhythmic pattern of the advancing army pounding in the distance. A loud horn erupted beside him, followed by a loud hiss and a metallic clank! Looking to his right, a large metal door opened on Horizon’s side revealing the hangar bay. Inside, standing on the edges right before the door were six heavy panzer mechs. One by one the metal behemoths stepped off the ship and onto the Earth, their large, metal feet leaving imprints half the size of cars. The Earth trembled before each mighty step and one by one these iron giants made their thunderous ways towards the midway point that had been cleared between the treeline and ship.
“Admiral Watson!” A shout came from his left. Watson turned his head and saw the commander, along with his squad, running towards him, all of them seeming out of breath.
“Commander,” Watson smiled and saluted William, in which he responded with one of his own. “I’m glad to see you and your men made it back safely.”
William nodded his head. “Sir, permission to ask what the hell is going on here?” He motioned towards the chaotic scenery around them, already a band of soldiers had finished constructing a twelve meter long barricade in the middle of the clearing and were already taking up posts behind it. Setting up huge machine guns through gaps in the top. In front of the barricade the mechs had spaced themselves out into a loose, but very intimidating, defensive line.
Watson rolled his right shoulder which let out three satisfyingly loud pops. “Well Commander.” He motioned for William to follow with his left hand and the two of them, along with Will’s team, headed for a large command tent a dozen meters behind the defensive line. “Judging by our previous satellite footage, the equine army that arrived in the settlement earlier last night finally pinpointed our exact location.”
They arrived at the tent and Watson flung the flap open and stepped in. Inside was a fold out table and a map of Japan. The map was set on an littered with red thumb tacks and rubber bands that Watson himself didn’t quite understand, most likely the engineer’s plans for reconstruction. “Any idea on how much time till they get here?” William asked.
“Well seeing as that we can hear them, Commander.” Watson silenced himself to allow the sound of marching forces express his point. “I’d be damned surprised if we have any time left.” Watson brushed passed William and went over towards the table with the map.
William remained silent for a brief moment, finally he spoke up. “Then what’s the plan, sir?”
Watson unslung his rifle, a standard issued AK-12, and set it aside so that it leaned against the table. “Well, Commander, the best case scenario is that they aren’t coming to blast us off this rock, but rather to assert their power and negotiate The problem with that one is, at least if what Dr. Hassel said to me earlier was true, then these creatures do not speak the same language as us.”
William nodded his head. “Well isn’t this going to be fun.”
“However,” Watson continued and he turned to face William. “If they are here to wipe us off this rock, Commander, let’s just hope we have enough ammo fight them off.”
The two of them remained silent for a brief moment, save for the breathing coming from William’s squadmates that stood by the exit. Watson with his hands planted flat on the table and his eyes locked on the large red cup that symbolized the ship. “So far Commander,” Watson continued, “ I have decided that I want you by my side when the locals arrive. I want you to watch mine and Angela Greene’s back.”
“Angela?” William said, his thoughts immediately drifting back to that tall, extremely thin woman with a chest that’d make every man drool over themselves.
“Yep,” Watson said and straightened himself out. “Due to her skills in diplomacy she’s the only person we can count on when negotiating with them.”
William frowned. He had a bad feeling about where this was going. “But, sir, I thought you–”
Watson silenced William with a raise of his hand. “I know what I said, Commander, and I’m afraid we’re going to have to face the truth. We have no way of communicating with them as of yet and a military stand off is highly undesirable ”
“We’re just going to have to hope they don’t take our actions the wrong way.” William ran a hand across the back of his neck.
“Admiral!” A young voice shouted just outside the tent, the flap flinging open seconds later and a young private stuck his head in causing the two soldiers by the flap to turn their heads around.
“What is it lad?” Watson asked already knowing the full answer.
“Southern half of the coming force has arrived, they’re lining up just along the treeline!” The boy explained.
“Are they posing any sort of threat?” William asked, his voice grave.
The private shook his head. “Not as of yet, it just looks like they’re lining up to wait.”
Watson nodded his head and grabbed his rifle. “They’re waiting for the rest of the surrounding force.” He began heading for the exit, William followed behind.
“Sir, they’re surrounding us?” He asked.
“Yes they have been this entire time.” Watson glanced back. “Caroline hasn’t notified you?”
William shook his head. “No, sir.”
“Well no need to worry, Commander,” Watson ducked through the exit and stepped back out into the mud caked earth. “We’ve already established a reasonable defense around the ship.” Watson briefly waved towards their informant who then made a mad dash back towards the southern end. “And besides, through the intel we’ve gathered, the larger front will be focused on this half.” Watson pointed a finger down at the earth, a shout ringed from his right.
Both men turned their heads and an instrument, similar to a bugle, sounded three times. Out from the trees came a wall of equines, tightly packed together, marching out into the opening. From what Watson could see there had must have been a hundred of them, if not even more on their side of the ship. A vast majority of them wore golden armor, whereas the minority was wearing a dark purple. On the helms of the ones with golden armor were large blue plumes that stretched all the way down to the back of their heads. In contrast the purple soldiers had a thin dark fin that went down the middle of the head.
The wall of panzers stood their ground and readied their weapons, the marines behind the barricades primed their machine guns and adjusted the sights. Watson brought a hand up to a small communication device that sat directly upon his ear and pressed the only visible button. “Ladies and gentlemen. Hold your fire unless I say otherwise. This is first contact, while we must be ready, we do not want to provoke any avoidable hostility.” He ordered, then flicked a small switch, “Caroline, this is Watson, is the negotiator ready?” Watson watched as the small army came to a halt twenty seven meters away from the mechs.
“Affirmative sir,” Caroline’s voice came through rather confidently, “She should be on her way now.”
“Roger that, have you heard anything from the other fronts?”
“Nothing too drastic sir, but I did hear from Delta that a majority of the equines are not carrying any weapons. Not to mention the ones they brought with them seem to be old fashion swords and spears.”
Watson breathed out a sigh of relief. “If that’s the case then, they’re not here to kill us. Thank you Caroline.”
“You’re welcome, sir.”
Watson took his hand off the side of his head and he shot a finger towards William, whose eyes were glued to the wall of equines. “Commander Keshiner, you’re with me!” He ordered and swung around to begin walking towards the front line with his gun lowered.
William snapped out of his trance and nodded his head as he started into a quick jog to catch up. “Yessir!”
“Everybody!” Watson raised a hand and shouted to the surrounding soldiers as he and William passed. “Lower your weapons immediately!” Watson came up beside a mech’s foot and he looked up at it, and brought his hand up to his comlink again. “That includes you heavies, lower your weapons.”
The mechs head rotated around and angled down, before nodding and slipping the massive minigun into the scabbard on its back. Watson smiled and patted the mech on the foot. “Thank you,” He said despite the pilot not being able to hear him. Watson looked on ahead towards the equines, squinting his eyes he took a few steps forward. There, dead in the center, he could see the tallest one of them all, and he recognized it immediately.
“Commander,” Watson said singling it out with a finger.
William followed Watson’s finger and saw exactly what he was pointing at. “That one right here,” Watson continued. “That’s the leader.”
Behind them, Watson could hear the sound of rapid splashes as someone came running up to them. Taking a brief glance over his shoulder he spotted Angela Greene as she came running towards them. She then twisted her legs in a way that she came to a sliding stop just a few feet away from them.
The poor girl wheezing as if she had just ran a hundred miles, her grey tyvek suit and kevlar vest, which clearly did not seem comfortable on her chest, smothered in mud. She bent over and rested her hands on her knees, taking a breather while Watson turned around and noticed that she was wearing a partly closed back pack. Inside he could see a metal pole with a white tank top tied to it.
“You okay there, miss?” William asked in a careless voice, Watson saw in Will’s eyes that he was frowning.
“Oh yeah I’m fine,” Angela wheezed sarcastically before lapsing into a violent coughing fit. “An alien species is knocking on our door wanting to talk..... and I’m the one forced to answer it.... even though,” She gagged. “J-just like the rest of you, I don’t know a damn thing they're going saying, so yeah I’m just peachy.”
William rolled his eyes, shaking his head he bent over and gently grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to her feet. “Come on now, this isn’t the time to get worked up about this.”
Angela straightened herself out and readjusted her vest into a more comfortable position. Watson looked her in the eyes and cocked an eyebrow. “Are you ready Ms. Greene?” He was starting to grow a little anxious, and taking a look back at the equines he had a feeling they were too.
She nodded her head and looked at William. “William,” Her voice opting into a more serious tone. “Could you please be a dear and fish my tank top out of my bag?”
Will nodded and she turned around so that he can reach into her backpack and pull out the pole. Watson smirked. “I see you made a white flag, good thinking.”
Angela nodded her head and turned back towards them after William zipped the bag closed. “Thank you, Watson–”
“It’s, sir to you.” He corrected.
“Sorry, sir,” She apologized and quickly returned to the subject at hand. “I’m hoping we would try and show them that we mean no harm.–speaking of which, I advise both of you to leave your guns here.”
Both William and Watson looked to her as if she was nuts. “What?” She asked. “They came here without weapons,” She exclaimed with an open hand stuck out towards the equine soldiers. “Therefore we should respect them by doing the same.”
“Ms. Greene,” William said, “I respect your morals but I’m highly against–”
“Silence, Commander.” Watson looked at William sternly. “The girl is right, to further show that we don’t want any harm done we should at least try and respect them by putting down our weapons. We have plenty of backup if we need it.”
William furrowed his brow, but then bowed his head in defeat. “Yes, sir.” William unslung his gun from his shoulder and placed it on the ground, then rose back up and handed Angela the makeshift flag.
In which she declined. “I have no time to be waving that thing around during my chat with the natives, William.”
Watson snickered quietly at William’s reaction. The Commander’s eyes looked as if he wanted to tear the girl’s head off, Angela took notice of this and gave him a devious look. Even though he couldn’t see through the mask below the eyes Watson knew she was giving him the most impish smile. One of the highest ranking officers demoted to nothing but a flag boy. For the time being that is.
“Well then gentlemen,” Angela said with slightly more confidence. “Lets go make history.”
:[-]:
Princess Luna stood at the edge of the treeline facing toward she massive metal object that had landed on the surface of the earth. The object spanned to almost the of her and her sisters castle, and that was only the length. From where she stood she couldn’t get a good look at its width but from what she heard from the pegasi scouts, it was maybe at least half the length. The object was dirtied with dried mud, and charred metal.Some of the parts even had panels torn off, revealing a second layer that looked rather unscathed. None of what she was seeing seemed natural, but that only made it more fascinating.
“Twilight Sparkle,” She smiled, the thought of Celestia’s favorite subject when she hears the news humored her. “I cannot wait to see the look on your face.”
Despite the fascinating object that had come falling out of the sky, there were dozens of other things that caught Luna’s interest., most notably the creatures that seemed to have arrived in said object. Dozens if not a hundred tall, slim creatures wearing green camouflage suits with black vests and unnerving masks that shielded everything except for their small, lemon shaped eyes.
Luna bit her lip, her curiosity beginning to be replaced with nervousness. The bipedal creatures were sprinting from right to left seemingly taking up defensive positions, and out in the front of it all was a wall of metallic creatures resembling the one she saw in the forest. They beared an eerie resemblance to the iron golems that roamed the earth back when Discord ruled. Just below one of the metal giants, she spotted two of the bipedal creatures that had advanced further than the rest. Both of them seemed to be of the same height, however the on the left was slightly slimmer by appearance. Whereas the one on the right was much broader and stiff, each of them held what looked to be a weapon of sorts, what seemed to be a smaller variation of what the giants were carrying. The slimmer creature was holding a limb to the side of its head while looking up at one of the golems. The Golem’s head shifted over to look at the slimmer being, then nodded and slid the large metallic object it was carrying into what looked like some sort of scabbard on its back.
The rest of the iron giants followed suit, placing what Luna assumed to be weapons onto their backs and loosening their posture. The smaller creature patted the giant on the foot and once again turned towards the royal guard the two creatures appeared to survey the line for a few moments before the slimmer one lifted a limb and pointed her out from the rest of the soldiers. the small ounce of nervousness in Luna’s chest was beginning to build as she realised they had singled her out as the leader. Here we go. She was starting to worry on how she would approach this, from what she could tell these creatures did not speak any of the languages that she knew, and that presented quite a formidable challenge to the proceedings. She knew she could always try to cast a communication spell, or try to link her mind with one of the creatures, But... there was no telling on what could happen. Every creature exposed to magic reacts differently to it; dragons tend to have a high resistance to it, whereas Griffons can be easily affected by it. Ponies on the other hoof can manipulate magic to their own free will. Luna swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. She had no idea what would happen if she tried to cast a spell on one of these newcomers.
Back behind the giants, Luna saw a third, even smaller, creature come bounding towards the two in the front. From there it slid to a stop and bent over, it’s forelimbs resting against it’s legs, seemingly overcoming some sort of exhaustion from moving so fast. Eventually it stood up and fiddled with something on its chest while appearing to converse with the others. As the minutes passed, Luna shuffled in her spot and glanced towards the dozens of royal guards her sister had sent to reinforce her platoon several hours ago. The guard’s faces were expressionless and their eyes were quietly surveying the situation. Upfront the three creatures had stopped conversing amongst themselves and had turned in her direction once again. This time the larger of the two holding a white flag above his head.
Immediately a smile sprang onto Luna’s lips before her elation dropped back down to concern. I hope their meaning of the white flag means peace. As the three creatures began to move towards her, each second seemed to pass slower than the last. Luna gulped and looked to the stallion that stood by her side her, a snow white pegasus clad in purple and gold armor.
“Well, Captain,” She said eyes flickering back towards the three aliens. “It looks to me that these beings are willing to negotiate.”
The pegasus nod his head and flashed his blue eyes towards Luna. “It seems they are.”
“Shall we go hear what they have to say?” Luna asked.
“The choice is up to you, Princess. If you wish not to, I can send Paperweight up to make contact with these creatures.” The pegasus said.
Luna thought briefly on this then shook her head. “That will not be necessary.”
“As you wish, Princess, shall I alert the guards?”
“Please do so,” Luna said, taking her first step towards the oncoming creatures. “Oh and one more thing, Captain.” She stopped in her stride and looked towards the pegasus once again.
The stallion was already raising hoof to his mouth, getting ready to shout for the others. He lowered his leg and raised an eyebrow. “Yes, Princess?”
“Order your stallions to retrieve a white flag, I believe we’re going to need it.”
:[-]:
William stopped at the sight of Watson’s raised hand. Over on the native’s frontline he saw the lone equine Watson singled out. It was clad in midnight blue armor and seemed to be looking towards a smaller winged equine dressed in a purple, gold armor. The smaller then turned and shouted before launching itself into the air moments later and flying back over the trees.
“I think this is as far we’re going to go,” Watson said over his shoulder. William nodded and shoved the lower end of the makeshift flag into the ground. “Remember, Commander, only Angela and I will be doing the talking.” He rolled his eyes. “Even then, I won’t be doing much. Understand?”
“Yes sir,” William replied quietly.
“Good,” Watson motioned his head forward. “They’re coming.”
As quickly as it left, the same winged horse returned, and in its mouth it held a white flag. It landed beside the equine that the Admiral presumed to be the leader. The two seemed to share a brief exchange before both nodding their heads to one another. Briskly, with a sense of business, they began their approach.
William swallowed and took a quick look back at Angela who stood between Watson and himself. Her eyes were now darting back and forth from him to Watson, she looked as if she was about to have a nervous breakdown. If it wasn’t for the mask she wore her panicked state would easily have been exposed. She noticed William looking at her and she quickly sucked in a breath and breathed out slowly to calm herself.
William returned to watching the alien equines approach and come to a stop just a few feet away from their own envoy. This close he could get a sense of scale for the first time since seeing the creatures. The equine in the golden and purple armor were quite diminutive compared to the horses he’d seen the officers riding in back home during the Labor Day Parade before Archangel’s appearance which had been the first, and only time he had seen a horse up close. Unlike their taller counterparts, they were smaller, and dare he say “thicker”. Their legs were much more rounded, unlike their ancestors long and slim limbs, the head also appeared to be much more rounded and the snout shortened. Each of their eyes took up a large portion of its head, and the height of said creature just about reached his chest. Unlike the leader beside it that resembled more of an actual horse.
William raised an eyebrow towards what he saw as the leader’s escort, the guard caught onto William and glared back. Not wanting to look like he was trying to because trouble, he quickly broke eye contact and looked to the larger equine that seemed to be giving the Admiral a soft look.
“Angela,” Watson hissed, “I think it’s time we get this started.”
The girl cleared her throat and looked to William, as if she was calling for help. Sadly all Will could do for her was shrug and motion towards the taller equine. She sighed in defeat and stepped out in front of Watson and William. Angela stood before the equine leader its eyes looking at her with great interest. Angela cleared her throat. She placed a hand to her chest, and spoke slowly, and softly. “My. Name. Is. An-ge-la.” The equine looked at her with a furrowed brow. “We. Come...–William hand me the flag.” Angela turned and stuck out an opened hand to William, her fingers clenching in a way of telling him to hurry up.
William pulled tore the flag out of the mud and handed it to her. Angela took it and held it out towards the equines. “We. Come. In. Peace,” She said slightly slower than before. Watching this happen, William had a feeling that none of this was coming off to the equines. But to his amazement the horses shared a brief look with one another then smiled happily and nodded their heads.
This seemed to please Angela and she spoke more confidently and she stuck the flag in the mud beside her feet. “William could you please reach into my bag and take out my globe and encyclopedia?” Will leaned forward and unzipped her bag again. He reached in and felt the tip of his gloved fingers brush against a hard, round surface. He grabbed ahold of the small globe and pulled it out of the bag and handed it to Angela, he then reached back into the bag and at the bottom he found a rough, thick book. Which he then took out and handed over. Angela took the book and looked back towards the blue equine who had begun eyeing the two objects in her hands with curiosity. She then presented both objects to the blue creature. The horse smiled and leaned forward, its large, green eyes inspecting the globe with great curiosity.
William watched as Angela’s hands began to tremble when the equine stepped forward. Suddenly a dark blue aura formed around the globe in her hands and it began to gently lift off, floating up a few inches before hovering towards the blue creature. Williams eyes widened in wonder at such an impossible sight. Even though he had seen this technique performed in the past by the town residents during the fire. The sequence was still breath taking.The equine took a step back and levitated the globe a few inches away from its face. It rotated the globe around a few times examining it closely, like an inspector checking for any faults. Turning the globe once more Its eyes filled with astonishment.Then its lips began to droop when it fell on the eastern hemisphere, and it squinted its eyes as it pulled the globe even closer.
William frowned. Something didn’t feel right. The equine leaned back and held the globe out next to its head and looked at Angela with a confused expression. “You-you can have it.” She said motioning towards it. The equine didn’t seem to understand this and tilted its head, Angela glanced back at William. Then Watson, both men of course didn’t know how to react to what was going on. Angela’s eyebrows curled upwards and she looked back to the equine, this time she motioned for it to take the encyclopedia. The equine held the globe off to the side and leaned forward once again to take the book in its aura, like the globe it rotated it around examining it from front to back. Then it flipped the book open and cycled through each of the pages, stopping at almost every picture but skipping the almost certainly indecipherable text. Its eyes widened and another smile began to replace its frown. However, when it reached the last few pages of the book, where all the different maps of the world are. It stopped and frowned once again with confusion.
The blue horse floated the globe next to the map of Earth in the book, it’s eyes shifting between them; first the globe, then to book. over and over again. It flipped back a few pages to a map of Europe in the late seventeen-hundreds. For a few moments it sat there looking back and forth between the pages and the globe. When it was finished, the equine’s head slowly rose up. Its face filled with a mix of confusion and amazement, the equine closed the book and examined it once more before levitating it and the globe back over to Angela.
Angela took both the globe and book in her hands and held them close to her chest. Looking back at the equine who was smiling dearily, Angela shook her head and promptly handed them back. “No, keep them,” she insisted.
The equine looked at her confusedly for a moment before nodding its head and taking the items back from her.. It then looked at the guard beside it and said something. The guard nodded and took off into the air, circling back towards the rest of the equines. William looked to Watson with a bit of confidence. Watson on the other hand shrugged and motioned for William to keep looking straight. A minute later the equine guard returned with scroll. It landed in front of them and the larger took the scroll in its aura before floating it towards the three of them.
Angela held out her hand and the equine dropped the scroll into her palms. She unrolled the scroll and looked at it before sucking in a breath. Angela quickly turned and handed it to Watson. He took the parchment and examined it. William stepped and looked over Watson’s shoulder. It was a highly detailed map of ‘Japan’ it was marked with multiple points where towns and cities were located, as well as what seemed to be some sort of transportation system connecting each major site. Sections of the map such as forests and plains were labeled in a language that neither men could read. Right above the legend was a bold font which William could assume was the name of the ‘country’ that had replaced Japan. In the north William could see a land bridge connecting the north end of Japan with what was once Russia.
“My God,” Watson mumbled. “This is amazing.”
“Admiral Watson, anyone?” William’s radio erupted into a cacophony. “One of the specimens is–” The man was interrupted by a loud crash “–hey! Eh, one of the equines is acting up!”
Both Watson and the larger Equine looked at William. “Commander,” Watson said, “Hand me your radio.”
William did as he was told and unhooked his radio and handed it over. Watson took it. “This is Watson, what the hell is going on down there?”
“We were in the middle of performing an experiment,” The man on the other end explained, “Hassel entered the containment unit and the equine woke up!”
“Is Hassel alright?”
“Ye-yes sir–” Another crash “–we got him out just in time– Now it’s just bashing the table against the glass!”
“How the hell–” Watson stopped himself, the recent memory of the blue equine levitating the globe and book flashed before his eyes.
“Admiral,” William spoke up, thinking on the fly he said, “Maybe if we let them go, we could show off our good will?”
Watson looked at William for a brief moment then nodded his head. “I like your thinking, Commander.” Watson held the radio back up. “Alright, release the captives.”
“Excuse me, sir–?”
“You heard me. Let all four of them go.”
A shifting sound spilled out of the radio and Hassel’s voice came through. “But Admiral, vee can’t do zat, zee amount of information I have retrieved from ze–”
“Dr. Hassel I appreciate your found love for knowledge, but please shut the fuck up and follow my orders.”
There was a brief moment of silence. “Aye sir,” Hassel said, then shouted. “You heard zee man! Let zem go!”
Watson flipped the radio off and handed it back over to William. He then turned back towards the two confused equines with a strained smile. “My apologies,” He said quietly, “But my head researcher can be quite a pain.” The bewildered expression the two equines shared hardly budged.
Minutes passed and Angela stood in front of the blue equine trying her best to find a way to communicate with it. To William it looked as if she was playing charades with it, a rather humorous sight indeed. She was in the middle of trying to explain where they had come from, her right hand was held high in the sky. When her head tilted upwards the sun’s rays reflected off of her visor and nearly blinded William. The equine followed Angela’s finger and looked at the gorgeous blue sky with interest.
Behind the three humans an alarm sounded as the door to the hangar bay opened once more. William looked back and saw five men leading four of the captured equines out of the ship. Their guns trained on them as they walked.
William saw the purple and gold guard tap the tall ones leg, trying to gain its attention. The tall one looked down at the guard with a look of disappointment similar to how a child would when its toy is taken away. The guard pointed forward with its right leg, the blue leader frowned and looked to ship. Its eyes widened and gasp escaped its lips. The four captured ponies were just making their way passed the frontlines, the tall horse slowly made its way forward. The three humans stepped out of its way, it stopped in front of the four equines, its face full of confusion. The four equines looked at their leader with a mix of relief and fear. These feelings were quickly dashed away when the taller got onto its knees and held out a wing to the horned equine in the front, and pulled it into some form of hug. When the embrace broke tall blue equine stood and looked to her guard and barked what sounded like an order. The guard nodded its head and motioned for the freed captives to follow it. When they were out of sight Watson turned to the the five marine escorts and motioned for them to leave with a silent thank you.
The tall creature looked to the humans with what seemed to be a hurt filled look. Angela immediately stepped forward with her fingers laced and pressed against her chest. “Please. Forgive us.” She bowed her head.
The equines face held stern. Then its eyes closed and slowly nodded its head. Its face slowly softened. Its horn was then engulfed by a blue aura and William watched as it took the map from Watson’s hands. William and the others watched in awe when a bright flash of light erupted out of nowhere, blinding them as if a flash bang went off. His stomach lurched and William shielded his eyes, when he opened them he noticed the equine was levitating a quill to the map. The quill spun in a circle and quickly whipped across the map towards the legend and scraped across it two more times vertically. Taking the quill off the paper a second flash went off, startling Will and the others again. Looking back he saw the quill was gone.
The equine rolled the map back and up and floated it back over to Angela. Who took it kindly. She opened it back up and saw that in the very center, was a circle, outlining a large city, to the right she saw under the legend was a sun. Below it there were two dashes. Angela turned towards Watson and William with a confused look strung across her face. Watson reached for the map and took it out of her hands and looked at it. William looked with him.
Beside them a sound came from the equine. The three of them looked over and saw it bowing to them before standing back up and spreading its massive wings and taking off with three mighty flaps. A loud ear wrenching shout came from the flying horse. A high pitched instrument sounded off and the surrounding equine army began to turn away from the ship and march back off into the woods.
“Well...” William said, “I think that went perfectly!” He smiled.
Watson frowned. “One can only hope,” He said quietly while glancing down at the marked map.
Editor’s notes
PhiliChez:
Finally! Things have happened! Wasn’t first contact due like four chapters ago? Sheesh. Though now we get see Luna looking at maps with human political borders with a shoreline that is not exactly the same as the one she knows.
Isaac3924: It's about damn time.
I felt that was appropriate. Now, ya’ll might be wondering why the previous chapter didn’t have my down-to-earth, sagely, and always humorous input at the end of it. And why the last chapter was equivalent to a sack of walnuts when it came to its quality. Well, that was because Dark (is it alright if I call you Dark?), in all his wisdom, forgot to send me the chapter. Eeyup, he forgot all about me. And then I proceeded to have a nervous breakdown thinking that I was a horrid editor and he was dropping me without telling me for no reason, and I pulled out my old stuffed lion, sat in the corner of my room assumed the fetal position and cried tears of shame and guilt and disgust. While cutting myself. With a spork. Yeah, my self-confidence is just through the roof. Anyways, I’ll leave it to youse guyses to guess how much of that is true.
Ummm, let’s see, Destiny did not live up to the hype, like, at all, and I have resolved to not let myself get overly hyped for anything, ever again (except for Kingdom Hearts 3, Star Citizen, The Witcher 3, Dark Souls 4, Half Life 3, Portal 3, Team Fortress 3 (Overwatch) (GABEN WHY CAN’T YOU COUNT?!), Fallout 4, Elder Scrolls 6, No Man’s Sky, Bloodborne, Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy CCLIV, Hello Kitty Remastered, Go Go Barbie: Ken Stay Home and Do My Endless Laundry While I Go Be A Football-Playing King in Space, Sonic Boom 2: Kill Me Now, and Loli Monster Island II) Unity is hilariously buggy, Far Cry 4 and Inquisition are good, Sunset Overdrive was meh, my friends convinced me to buy a game I already have on the 360 for teh Xbone when the developers should have been working on online heists and FUCK YOU ROCKSTAR, the Xbone still sucks on multiple levels and I’m going to have to buy a one terabyte external hard-drive to keep playing, and G-d is dead. Moving on.
I think that’s it. I’m done for now. Uh, keep reading, shit’s only going to get real from here. Well, more real. Fuck it, you knew what I meant.
Nuclear Grenade:
Yay first contact! Even though it was sort of uneventful you got what you were asking for. Now you will have to wait on the edge of your seat for Dark Nebula to introduce the Antagonist. Hopefully this wont take another 10 chapters ;)
Don’t feel bad Isaac3924 he forgot to send me chapter 9 at one point. Also, I have to ask do the numbers after your user name mean anything or was that just the lowest one you could get?
Isaac3924: I like them.