//------------------------------// // The First Sins // Story: Galactic Defilement // by Defensive flight //------------------------------// At the edge of the Equees system far from even the most outer orbiting planet where a large asteroid belt marking the border between the system and the large open empty void between the next. Asteroids drift aimlessly, silent as all space is but out her it seemed that there was just nothing other than the void facing outwards. A sudden large flash of light as the Dash appears, her engines go back to the blue shine they had before they cooled off and retro thrusters on the front of the ship slowing all forward momentum while inside the crew began to unclamp their chairs across all decks while on the bridge the captain looked back towards the weapons system monitor seeing the main battery at 85% and reading this he sits up in his chair and specks to the coms specialist "Okay bring us up to yellow alert and prepare for firing" The lights switched to a yellow and all the rails along the sides of the rooms and corridors turned yellow. "Striker you ready yet?" across the intercom came a reply "yes sir! Se have all batteries primed and missile tubes open just waiting for targets and firing solution" "Okay striker i want a full missile spread ahead and then use the rail guns to take out any asteroids they miss or fail to take out" The captain gestured towards the belt ahead as he spoke "Lets test the firing speed of those batteries and i cant wait to see the power of that gauss cannon" He sat back as in the main firing room on the top deck Striker watched screens in front of him flashed through with windows of lettering and numbers ran past before they all switched to read 'SOLUTION ARMED, FIRE WHEN READY' he flung his arm in the air before swinging it to one side of the room where a group of dragons initiated the missiles firing from the prow tubes. An array of missiles seemed to slide out of the tubes before their thrusters engaged and sent them flying towards the asteroids. Some hitting and blowing the smaller ones to pieces while blowing chunks off of larger ones and as the last few missiles flew out through the belt the rail guns began to target them quickly and as they fired they sent rounds flying out their barrels with a blue flash before they impacted the stray flyers and taking them out. All ten rail guns began firing at the asteroids that the missiles failed to destroy but as each battery fired the rounds ripped them to pieces leaving a large dust cloud in the belt. As the weapons systems stopped firing the captain stood up and shouted "DAMN THAT WAS GOOD!" he sat back down before he spoke again "okay lets find a big one to test the main battery against" The ship turned and moved off towards a large asteroid almost the same size as her. The gauss cannon adjusted to aim for its centre before several rings along the barrel light up with a green light from the base to the Muze brake before a round was fired from it leaving a slight green trail behind it before entering the asteroid blowing a massive hole in its face before exploding entirely throwing fragments everywhere. the hole bridge crew silently stared at the main monitor in awe from the mass amount of destruction a weapon fired from a frigate caused to a large asteroid. "well... i think they were right about the power of it" the captain spoke up before looking at the weapons monitor to see that it was already charging for the next shot "Striker get everything charged before we begin our jump to meet up with the Luna fleet. Oh and I'd say that was a successful test" he sat back as everypony went back to what they where doing, and down on the gunnery decks the dragons where sorting out all the ammo racks and preping the firing systems. A short time later all systems ready for FTL jump eveypony on board was secured and preped. On the bridge captain Fishing gave the signal, helmsmen Barrington began the initiation sequence, the engines went dark, Barrington threw the slides on his console and... "Um captain Fishing" a quiet voice came over the intercom "Lieutenant Commander Snow fell her..." "Is there a problem Lieutenant Commander" the captain replied slightly irritated. "Um well sir... we seemed to of..." she stuttered "Spit it out Snow!" the captain snipped at her "WE BURNT OUT THE CAPACITORS THAT FEED INTO THE JUMP DRIVE SIR!" she squealed out with shock in her voice "um... so we cant jump till there fixed sir as without them we cant pump the charge into the jump drive so we cant jump" The captain cut her off "okay okay so how long will it take to repair and how on Equees did we manage to burn them out after one jump?" "Sorry sir I tend to start going on like that when i start talking about anything like that and i just keep going and going and" the captain cleared his throat. "Oh sorry sir, well it shouldn't take too long we just have to replace them and we have plenty in stock but as for how we did it I think we didn't leave enough time for them to discharge" "Okay Lieutenant Commander get it done quick and lets try not to do it again Lieutenant Barrington" Fishing sat down in a humph. down in the engineering deck Snow fell was helping to pry the burnt out capacitors from there emplacements around the drive system. She wasn't the type of pony you'd expect to find in engineering let alone as the chief, she was a unicorn with a pale blue and white coat with a light blue long flowing main which she had pinned up behind her head so for it not to get caught in anything while she worked and her eyes where of pure white, as she was helping the other pony's and gryphon's they where quickly getting through the job of replacing the equipment. "Okay sir we have replaced them all and power is flowing well again we can jump soon as there charged and I'm sorry it happened in the" Cutting her off again "Good work Snow now get your lot ready to jump. okay Barrington lets start that all again" all the bridge crew secured themselves, the chairs shot the rods into the floor, crew where reporting in with their stations readiness, Barrington vigorously hitting the lights on his console before the sliders appeared again. He hesitated before looking back as the Captain who gave him the signal, he threw the sliders to full, the ship shuddered, the engines went dark and... the Dash vanished with a bright flash of white light!