//------------------------------// // Chapter XVIII // Story: The Nautilus Protocol // by Knight Breeze //------------------------------// Chapter XVIII The mood on The Jolly Roger was tense. Everyone knew what was coming, they knew what was at stake, but they also knew that they wouldn't stand a chance. Most of the crew members were intelligence officers, spending more time sorting data or working undercover than fighting the front lines. Yes, their jobs could be deadly. Many had lost friends and colleagues while working undercover, but this was a whole different kind of deadly. This was the reason why Petran was here in the first place. He had fought on the front lines. He had earned his rank the hard way: through the broken ships of his enemies. He had to admit, though; despite the hopelessness of their situation, he wasn't too disappointed to be reassigned to Zelgius' command. With a cool air of authority, Petran strode through the corridors of The Jolly Roger, lifting spirits, giving orders, and complementing his crew as he went. Even though he had only been in command of this ship for a few short months, his presence was still a balm on their psyche; they had heard of his victories, they had heard of his triumphs. Even though the Alliance was still losing this war, he was still their most successful fleet admiral, and as such, he brought hope to those under his command. At his side was the strange, bat winged pony named Night Fall. Despite being from different cultures, not to mention different technological periods, the two seemed to be cut from the same cloth. They were both serious, and knew what needed to be done. Under different circumstances, Petran might have enjoyed the company of the diminutive equine. However, in their current situation, he couldn't afford to let his guard drop for an instant. During his trip aboard The Jolly Roger, Night Fall had been issued a translator to help him understand just what was being said by the many, many crew members aboard the ship. The translator consisted of two small devices that rested comfortably inside his ears, as well as a small device that clipped to his armor. The device itself translated any audible information into his language, though not nearly at the speed that the implanted ones did. Night Fall had commented earlier that one of the princesses was working on a spell to translate for the ponies, but it wasn't ready yet. This device had little to do with their current conversation, but it still aided him in talking not only to Petran, but also the the soldiers that they had met during the tour. “We don't have enough troops to hold the ground,” Petran said, shaking his head a bit. “Even with your abilities, and the training we can provide, there is no way we can fend them off.” The night pony was quiet for a moment as he thought about this. “We've already called up all of our active duty soldiers, and even the entirety of our reserves,” he replied slowly. “Unless we begin drafting ponies, this is all we have to offer.” Petran hesitated at this. He was used to breaking bad news to primitive aliens, used to telling off other commanders for jeopardizing their people for the sake of traditions. But he never really cared for it. On top of that, he was starting to gain a huge respect for Night Fall, which didn't help matters in the slightest. “Look, I know it may be difficult, but we need every soldier we can muster. If that means you have to conscript them, then that's what must be done,” he said. Night Fall sighed at this. “Look, everypony knows about you, about why your here, and about what's coming. What they don't know, however, is just how bad this is going to be. If we begin forcing ponies into the military now, it will start a panic. Not to mention it could stir up resistance to the princesses, and the last thing we need right now is a rebellion,” he said, though he paused for a moment to look up at the admiral beside him. “This world is a relatively peaceful one. While ponies, griffons, and zebras all maintain armies, we haven't had a major conflict in hundreds of years. We've grown to love peace, and many are horrified to let that go.” There was a profound silence after this statement as the two continued down the corridor. Neither seemed to want to break it, either. However, as the two approached the bridge, Night Fall finally spoke up. “Alright, most ponies may be peaceful, but my people still have a strong military tradition. Everyone who is physically capable is expected to volunteer for service. I'll talk to Princess Luna, and see if we can't get some ponies to reenlist. Our numbers aren't great, but it should pad out our forces quite well.” Petran gave a rare smile at this. “Thank you,” he said. He was about to continue, but was interrupted when a voice shouted out to him from the direction of the bridge. “Admiral Petran!” the voice said, accompanied by heavy footfalls. Almost immediately following this, a young, female officer came charging around the corner. She came to an abrupt halt when she realized just how close the two were, giving the admiral a crisp salute as she did so. “At ease,” Petran said casually. He had never been big on formality, and now was not the time to change that. “What's so important lieutenant?” “There is something you need to see, sir,” she said, fighting to get back her breath. Petran froze at this, as numerous fears danced through his brain. “Is it the Dridune? Are they here already?” “No sir,” she assured him. “But you really must see this.” Petran glanced down at Night Fall before returning his gaze to the young woman. “Alright, let's go,” he said. The three started walking again, with the lieutenant leading the way. Oddly enough, Petran felt the need to break the silence with some introductions. “Night Fall, this is Lieutenant Hikari Enokida. She is one of our top navigators. Hikari, Night Fall here is a captain of the local military. He is also currently serving as liaison for the Equestrians.” “It is an honor to meet you,” Hikari said, nodding her head in respect. “Likewise,” Night Fall replied. After the introductions, Hikari rapidly began explaining the situation. “Do you remember when we first arrived in the system?” she asked, but didn't wait for a response. “We had detected a small anomaly, if you recall. Our sensors told us that we had glimpsed an Einstein-Rosen Bridge.” “What's that?” Night Fall cut in. “The common term for it is a wormhole,” Petran replied. “It's a little difficult to explain, but the simplest way I could describe it is a hole in the fabric of space and time, with another hole at another spot somewhere in the universe. It creates a kind of tunnel between two places, allowing for almost instantaneous travel from one point to another. You could use it to travel from one end of your world to another in a matter of seconds.” Night Fall still looked confused at this explanation, but he decided not to say anything else. “Anyway,” Hikari continued. “We had sent out one of our scouts to the area, but there was nothing there. It was just gone. We just figured it must have been a glitch in the system, so we forgot about it and began a diagnostic on the sensors. However, as we were running this diagnostic, we spotted it again!” She was getting more and more excited as she went on, her excitement reaching its peak as the three reached the bridge. They entered without much ceremony and made their way to the navigation panel, where she began to show the Admiral what they had seen. “One of the Lionel ships was returning from recon duties when it detected another Einstein-Rosen Bridge, though this time it wasn't just something on the edge of their sensor range. Not only were they able to get data off of it, but they were able to get a little info from the other side. They were even able to catch a glimpse of a planet!” Petran held up his hands to try to calm the lieutenant down. “Okay, I get it, but why is this so important you had to charge after me screaming?” She gave him a broad smile at this. “Because it's gone.” Petran just shook his head. “What does that have to do with literally anything?” A flash of embarrassment crossed her face, but she immediately regained her excited mood. “When the Lionels first detected it, it had just recently appeared. However, it then disappeared approximately two point four seconds later. It literally opened, then closed seconds later. This defies almost everything we know about them! I think we may have just witnessed something that has never been seen before!” “Or it was the Khallarae.” a voice interjected hesitantly. Instantly the mood of the entire room changed, as everyone stopped what they were doing. No one made a sound. No one moved. Petran shot upright at the comment, and looked around the bridge, trying to figure out who had said it. After a couple of minutes of this, he straightened his uniform a bit, then cast a firm glare around the room. “It wasn't the Khallarae,” he said firmly. “They haven't cared about what happens outside their borders for twenty years.” He paused at this, letting the words sink into the crew. “Despite all of the rumors you may have heard, the Khallarae aren't some massive evil empire. They can't destroy entire star systems, they can't wipe out whole fleets without a trace, and they certainly can't teleport across the entire galaxy. They are just isolationists, who don't want to deal with other people's problems. Now I suggest you all get back to your duties, and forget about the Khallarae.” He then turned back to Hikari, and dropped his voice down to a less audible volume. “Keep looking into these anomalies, but don't let it distract you from your duties.” Night Fall and Petran then left the bridge, though it seemed that they weren't going anywhere in particular. Night Fall also noticed that Petran was unnervingly silent. “What's the Khallare?” Night Fall asked, breaking the silence. Petran didn't answer at first. It was clear that his composure was slipping, despite telling his crew to not worry about it. “They are a species from the opposite end of the Alliance from the Dridune,” he said quietly. “We've known of them for a while now, but still know very little about them. Our first contact scenario with them involved them capturing one of our exploration vessels, and imprisoned her crew. We received a message soon after, telling us never to cross their borders again. We never did find out what happened to our ship, or our people, but High Command didn't think it was important enough to start a war with another species, especially one that we knew so little about.” As he talked, Night Fall noticed a slight tremble in his voice, almost as if the usually solid admiral was afraid. “When I received my first command,” he continued, his face an unreadable mask. “I was stationed on the border of the Jakra. Not long after my posting, though, the Khallarae invaded Jakra space. My ship was close enough to the action, allowing us to hear everything.” “What happened?” Night Fall asked hesitantly. “From what we could tell, the Jakra never saw a single Khallarae ship. Systems just went dark, and nothing was ever heard from them again. The Alliance didn't want to get involved in another war, so we remained neutral,” he said with a sigh. “One day, an unaffiliated trading vessel was moving through the Jakran system just before it went dark. They reported detecting hundreds of wormholes, just before they received a message telling them to surrender. The trading vessel sent a message back, stating that they were just spice traders, having no other affiliation with the Jakra. They were allowed to leave, though they were given a warning to never enter Jakra space again. After this, the Alliance tried to broker a peace deal between the two warring species. It was difficult, but the Khallarae finally agreed to stop attacking Jakra systems. In exchange, however, they were allowed to keep what they had conquered. To this day, we still don't know why they attacked.” He took in a deep, cleansing breath after this, letting his body relax as Night Fall absorbed the information that had been dumped on him. “That was the last we heard from them,” Petran finally said, shaking his head. The two continued down the corridor in silence after that, their thoughts more than enough to keep them occupied. * * * “Um... excuse me?” Hale asked, a little confused at the turn of events. “Did I miss something here?” Captain Breeze agreed. As the Equestrians and their allies looked on in confusion, a rather stocky looking changeling dressed in dark blue armor stepped forward, chattering unintelligibly to his queen in alarm. She quickly got up from her bow to turn and snap at him irritably in that same language. This seemed to have the desired effect, and the changeling quickly backed down, bowing to his queen submissively. Chrysalis nodded at this, then turned and faced Captain Hale and Captain Breeze again. “I apologize for my swarm leader's manners, he can be a little overzealous at times. May I know your names, noble Night Sentinel and Star Warrior?” she asked the confused pair. “My name is Captain Zachary Hale, of the Galactic Alliance,” Hale said with a bow, his new rank still sounding odd in his ears. “Low Captain Knight Breeze of the Night Sentinels,” Captain Breeze said, also bowing to the Changeling Queen. Hale took note that, while Captain Breeze had shown confusion and apprehension before, that was nothing but a memory now as used a more suave and debonair tone. “I must admit, this is an unexpected pleasure to meet with the Queen herself.” “Come, we have much to discuss, and not very much time to do so,” she said with a nod of her head. “If you would care to follow me, my changelings have erected a pavilion where we may discuss the future in relative comfort.” Hale shot Captain Breeze a worried glance, to which the dust pony did not even acknowledge, preferring to instead follow the Changeling Queen. Captain Breeze might have seemed at ease, but Hale had been a soldier long enough to recognize when another soldier was nervous. While Captain Breeze might not have said anything of the sort, Hale knew that he was expecting Chrysalis to betray them at any moment. “Jolly Roger, this is Hale. We've run into an unexpected situation. Instead of meeting with a representative, we've made contact with the Changeling Queen herself. She has apparently given us complete control over her lands and changelings. Our liaison with the equestrian government believes that this may be a trap. How shall we proceed?” Hale mentally messaged the orbiting ship. While Hale waited for an answer, he saw no better course of action than to follow Captain Breeze's example. The tent itself was a rather lavish affair, being a a deep red color, with various throw pillows scattered about on the inside. Hale calmly entered, while simultaneously sending his marines a message using his hardware. “Stay outside and keep an eye out. According to Captain Breeze, their mind controlling trick can't pass through most metals, so I'll be safe, as will you as long as you keep your armor on. If anything happens in there, I'll give you the signal to come in guns blazing. Just cool it out here for now, though." Both the simiate and the wolofor signaled their acknowledgement and stopped in their tracks, standing perfectly at attention while suspiciously eyeballing the changelings who also remained outside. Captain Breeze also signaled for his troops to remain outside, leaving him and Hale to deal with the queen by themselves. As Hale and Captain Breeze took their seats on the cushions, his communicator finally buzzed to life, telling him that orders from his superiors were inbound. “Stay on your guard, but continue to play along, for now,” he heard Major Morris say. “If she turns on you, you are authorized to use deadly force, though hopefully it won't come to that.” “Expect the best, but prepare for the worst?” Hale asked. “Standard procedure,” the major affirmed. “I'm expecting you to have a lot of questions for me, and they will be answered in time,” Chrysalis said, bringing Hale back to the matter at hand. “However, we have more pressing matters to attend to. My sources tell me that you need a number of locations in my desert to place your weapons, as well as troops to help defend them.” “That is correct, Your Highness,” Hale said, remembering his manners despite the weirdness of the situation. “And you shall have them,” Chrysalis said with a wave of her hoof. “I apologize, Your Highness, but don't you have a few questions for us?” Captain Breeze asked with a quizzical tilt of his head. “You have yet to even hear of the threat, much less know how much land we need.” “Do not fret, I am not an idiot. I have plenty of questions, but only some preliminary ones about the slave armies that we will face, as well as a few about training available forces,” Chrysalis said as a changeling poured some sort of red liquid into three crystal goblets. One was levitated towards her, while the other two were levitated to the two captains. Hale and Captain Breeze both took the proffered drinks, though Hale set his down, fully expecting it to be poisoned in some way. Captain Breeze, on the other hand, put the cup to his lips and gently sipped. Or, at least he made a show of sipping the liquid. Hale's software had analyzed the cup Captain Breeze was holding, and had not detected even the tiniest drop in the crystal container's liquid level. Clever, Hale thought to himself. Chrysalis, on the other hand, took a couple of sips before continuing. “As for how much land you need, and the danger you face, I already know the answer to both of those. You face the Willslayer, the Grand Dridi, Lord Tyranny, the Whisperer of Insanity. He has other names, though most cannot be said in polite company,” she said, setting her glass down. “I would give everything that I posses, even my own life and the lives of my children, to ensure that he and his slaves are brought down. It is my purpose, my destiny, and the destiny of the changeling race. When you are ready, so shall we be. When the time comes, we will use everything that we have to bring this dream to fruition. Of that, you have my solemn oath.” “I beg your apology, Your Highness, but we're not fighting a 'Lord Tyranny'. We're fighting a race known as the Dridune,” Hale said, a little confused. Hale then began to elaborate, but stopped when he realized that Chrysalis was reciting word for word everything that Hale was saying. “They are a sadistic race of creatures that use their mental abilities to enslave all those that they see as lessers?” she said, raising one of the ridges of her eyes, much like how a human would raise an eyebrow. “Their physical weapons may have changed, as has their faces, but the Dridune are known to us, as is their ageless, immortal, god-like king. You probably know him by some other name: The Emperor, The Master of All, or He Who Brings Order. Or maybe he has taken up a new moniker since his banishment. I believe that I know more about him than you do, mighty Star Warrior, and let me say that you should be quite grateful that his banishment is still in place. The Emperor's mental powers far outstrip those of his underlings.” “...How do you know all of this?” Hale asked, dumbfounded at the changeling's knowledge. “Let me start by explaining a misconception you seem to have,” Chrysalis said, taking another sip of her wine. “The name 'Dridune' does not specify a single race, or force. Rather, it denotes those whom are the Willslayer's most trusted slaves. He only gives this moniker to those whom he has cursed with a fraction of his power, to be his slave drivers, his overseers. In modern equestrian, the name 'Dridune' improperly translates to 'Your Masters'. A more correct translation would be 'Slave Overseer,' though that is still not completely correct.” Captain Breeze nodded his head a little. “Twilight Sparkle mentioned that, though she didn't seem to know the more correct meaning of the word.” “That is because Ancient Equestrian is a long dead language. It is highly unlikely that she would know the true meaning of the word, because any manuscripts she would have read on the subject would have been second hand sources at best. The language has grown, evolved, changed since it has been in use. Right now, there are probably only six individuals who fluently speak this dead tongue.” Chrysalis told him. “This still doesn't answer my question on how you already know about the Dridune, or about how you know about their Emperor,” Hale said, folding his arms impatiently. Chrysalis just sighed at that, then swirled her drink a little. “...I will explain myself fully, but not here. Not now. What I need to say must be said to you, as well as to the Solar Diarch,” Chrysalis said, finishing her drink. “I believe I must ask that, for now, you trust me when I say that I am on your side, and that it is impossible for you to find anyone who wants the Willslayer dead more than me.” The two captains just stared at her for the longest time, before Captain Breeze finally nodded his head. “I believe you, though you will need to explain yourself sooner, rather than later.” “And I will. First, I must address my hive. I must explain some things that I and the other matriarchs have kept hidden for a very long time, as well as deal with the resulting backlash. In three days time, however, I will fly for Canterlot. What I have to say can only be said there, in front of the Two Sisters, as well as under the gaze of The Wanderer,” she said cryptically as she rose to her feet. Taking this as a sign that their interview was over, the two captains also rose to their feet. “When is the earliest possible time that we can begin deploying our weapons?” Hale asked her. “You may begin to deploy them on the morrow. You may also begin to deploy your weapons in Saddle Arabia on the morrow as well; the Sultan and I are very close. He is the only other living individual who knows everything that I will tell you, and will be there tomorrow to hear what I have to say,” Chrysalis said with a bow. “Thank you, Your Highness,” Hale said, returning the bow.