The Stars are Not Our Friends

by Zangetsu675

Chapter 9: The Past Revisited

Deep within the bowels of the ship, where no one traveled anymore; beneath the hundreds of floors, in the oldest of sectors of the vessel, lay a seemingly failed experimental device. thousands of cords and wires ran from its circular body to monitors all around a room blocked off by the network of pipes and coils outside the doors, suddenly lights up from within with light from the device. the room begins to creak, as the device whirs into motion, a dot not but the size of a pinhead, appears before beginning to expand rapidly and the monitors all flash red before exploding outward as the force that the device exerts begins to draw all surrounding matter into it. Sirens blast a warning all across the ship, but too late; The device imploded upon itself taking the entire 2600 meter ship with it in the blink of an eye, before erupting outward into a swirling vortex of energy, slamming all surrounding vessels with a shock wave of energy large enough to knock those of similar size to the Asimov out of solar orbit and send tremors running through even the hulking 39000 meter I.C.S. Maria.

As all of the other ships recovered, and alarms began to blare across the fleet, the nose of a gargantuan vessel appeared from within the vortex, bolts of energy skipping across its scorched and punctured hull, the name emblazoned upon its starboard bow still clearly read Paimon.

MacAlvery stood on the left of Princess Twilight as they the Admiral walked up to a tall, startlingly white equine, with both wings and a horn like the little lavender leader beside him. This one however was almost twice the size of any of the surrounding equines and had a mane all the colors of the morning horizon and the evening dusk combined. He could only guess that this was the Princess Celestia that Twilight had spoken so highly of and at such great lengths during their walks through the camp. This could either go very well or very poorly. The Admiral was not exactly known as a skilled diplomat. For as long as he had served he had noticed the terrifying way that the sole leader of humanity ruled with an iron grasp and yet never let the populace on to that fact. When it was either the lives of his people or their liberty, that man would always toss liberty aside for survival. That was what had kept him where he was. That was what had kept humanity together for so long. The last great war was proof enough of that. And yet like all humans he could surprise you still, this making that evident for as the young Warrant Officer watched the Admiral removed his cap and bowed deeply.

All of the humans watching were shocked. The man who had fired the shot that killed millions was bowing to a being that was not even human. The only thing that Officer MacAlvery could do was to stutter out a command to all the troops behind him “P-Present Arms!”. He was answered with the sound of more than sixty heavily armored troopers snapping to attention and saluting.

But, just as a river must flow, time must as well. Not but a second had gone by when every communicator and ship blasted warnings, screaming “Red alert, Code Zeta One Niner” in a chorus of noise and confusion. Every being present tensed, some of the ponies raised spear and shields in anticipation others cowered from the noise. Human soldiers shouldered Rifles, while other scrambled back to the craft that had landed to stop the alarms and gather information on just what was going on. MacAlvery could hear several of the Hovers above start weapon spin-up cycles. He couldn’t let this happen. Not now. It was in that moment that he snapped.

“Attention!” He bellowed. “All hands stand down! Stand down! Form ranks and report! I want to know what is going on NOW!” For a few seconds those around him looked stunned before snapping back to reality and stepping back into their filed columns. A few of the armored ponies even snapped to attention at his command. ‘Probably out of instinct’ he thought.

“We have confirmation! A vessel has appeared out of a storm in solar orbit and is headed straight for the planet!” Someone called from a landing craft. “I have reports that indicate all life support systems are functionally but all weapon and propulsion systems are malfunctioning across the fleet!” A communications Officer reported over comms. Things were beginning to look grim, and then, the Admiral spoke up. “What is the name of the ship?” Everyone stared as the ruler of humanity began to walk slowly towards one of the comms officer that had spoken. “What is the name of that vessel soldier?” He asked in a calm but grating voice.

“I-Ill get that for you Sir. Right away!” the obviously scared young man stammered out. She frantically began calling into the fleet for answers.

Without another word the admiral turned and began to walk towards the front landing craft. He had gone half the distance before The comms officer called out. “They aren’t making sense Sir! They keep telling me that it’s the Piamon, but that is just not possible Sir. They were the last ship destroyed in the great war.”

“I know that, soldier.” Admiral Von Starke said, stopping dead in his tracks. “I fired that shot myself, but it would seem that I missed. If those 200 legions are active, I will make sure I do not miss again.”

It was at this point that a single annoyed voice spoke up. “I’m sorry but just what is going on here. You all show up in front of me with weapons in hoof and begin to greet me, but stop short and walk away from me?! On top of that you have kept one of my subjects confined, and severely injured another! Do not think I will let you.. you… whatever you are walk away from me without in the least an explanation!” The tall, white equine spoke up.

Without even turning around the Admiral gave us all the last order we would ever get from him, even if we didn’t know it yet. “Listen up! I’m going to deal with this! Officer MacAlvery! You have command here. Do not let me down.” He said and walked to his craft, climbed in, and whatever he said to the pilot was lost in the sound of the rotors coming to life.

MacAlvery saluted as he flew off before turning to the white one. “It would seem that I am to speak on behalf of my race then.” he said turning back towards a cross looking Celestia as all the human troops fell into formation behind him.

As the wind and sound of Drop-ships flying off died down, and the dust settled around them the two races stared each other down. The Equines held their spears at the ready, some shaking ever so slightly. others glared from under ancient helmets as if a stern gaze alone would stop any aggression. The tall White one stood silent on the crystalline steps of the towering palace. A little over thirty humans stood defiant in front of the little ponies. behind him Officer MacAlvery could hear the sounds of several rifles being taken off of their safeties. Were it not for his artificial body MacAlvery was certain that he would be fidgeting in place right now. all of the sudden he was the highest ranking official on scene, and to top it off he would have to conduct negotiations with the representative of a whole other race without warning.

“If You will not speak up, I guess I will. What do you want? You show up with one of my subjects as a captive not a day after you severely injured another, you make a display of yourselves coming in like you own the place, and then half of you leave before you can say a word. By your gestures I can tell that you can communicate with Twilight so I’ll ask again: What do you want?” The tall white one began.

MacAlvery had no idea what to do, so he put on airs. As he let his posture relax he reached up and turned a port on his helmet. With a hiss of released pressure and the click of gears he removed the head and facial covering, a confident smile found its way upon his lips. “So, we do indeed speak the same language, I have to wonder how that evolved. Anyway, let's start this little meeting with a kind greeting. Hello, I am Chief Warrant Officer James L. MacAlvery,... and if everybody could just relax for one moment,… that would be great.” Several of the rifles behind him began to aim less at the ponies and more at the ground. With a sigh of relief, he continued. “ It would seem that one of your more dangerously curious citizens found herself almost crushed by a falling Terra Extractor. She, along with Sergeant First Class Maxwell Valencio was harmed due to this and they both had to be cared for. Please accept our deepest apologies about that. Her health has now been attended to and we are here to bring her home.” As he said this he nodded to Twilight, signaling her to head back over to her kind. Every being held their breath as the lavender equine walked past them to the side of the tall white one. Not a second had gone by when she was suddenly surrounded by five other ponies of differing colors in a large embrace.

“Please forgive me my assumptions but, you are the Princess Celestia that Princess Twilight spoke so highly of?”

Princess Celestia’s expression softened visibly with Twilight back by her side. “I am. And I would still like an explanation to what this is all about. That, and why you harmed one of my finest guards. Just who are you? What are you?”

“Woah, slow down there. Could you have your people put down their weapons before we get into the pleasantries? I promise you, we mean you no harm.” MacAlvery stated.

“Please Princess Celestia, let’s make this civil. They really do want mean us no harm.” Twilight said as she freed herself from the myriad of hooves and hugs. “And I still have so many questions.” With the way she said the word ‘questions’ MacAlvery wished he could bolt out of there. None-the-less, Princess Celestia nodded and her guards lowered their spears, as she turned and walked into the crystal castle with a motion for them to follow.

The entire site was alive with activity. The Interceptors had been prepped for launch and were now on the squadron launch rails. Gunnery Sergeant Kain ‘Rumbler’ Jackson braced himself for the moment of launch. His breathing shallow in his flight mask, he tensed as familiar feeling of anticipation hit him at the sight of energy skipping across the surface of his craft. Time seemed to slow around him as he and his wing mates suddenly went from 0 to 2600 meters per second and the ground below him seemed to shrink.

His mind suddenly snapped from the world outside the cockpit to the familiar controls. With speed born from thousands of drills and flight hours, he took to the sky as if he had been born in it. Zero gravity debris clearing was one thing, but this sensation of resistance and drag was somehow so fulfilling. Sadly he did not have the time to take it all in as a dark shadow on the horizon came closer and closer.

“16th Interceptor Squadron to Ptolemy, we have the target in site. ETA to active zone, 55 seconds. Requesting permission to begin attack run.”

“16th Interceptor, this is Ptolemy, you are free to engage. Primary targets are engines and all weapon systems. We are getting readings indicating main particle accelerator is charging and will be ready to fire in approximately 7 minutes. You must shut that cannon down. Admiral Von Starke is in route with the Ichaival. ETA 80 seconds. At 180 seconds clear all airspace from in front of him.”

“Understood Ptolemy. Beginning attack run.”

A wicked smile crossed his lips as he switched communications channels to speak to his squad. “This is Rumbler. We have a go. Weapons free and hot. Target engines, the main cannon, and all weapons. Let's show those damn flesh puppets why they lost the war.”

Even dozens of kilometers away one could hear the sounds of the first shots resounding through the air.