//------------------------------// // 5 - Debris // Story: Harmony Among The Stars // by tom117z //------------------------------// Captain's Log, Supplemental. The ES Harmony received a distress signal, and we have made a slight deviation off of our original course to intercept. The concept of meeting a new, alien species is almost too much to imagine. I have waited for this day ever since my cutie mark appeared. And yet... I am worried. The message was too garbled to assess their situation, and we may be walking into a situation we are ill-equipped to handle. It is incredibly comforting to have an alicorn at my side as we go into this, but still... May Faust watch over us. Empty Space, a few hours after the distress signal was received. The ES Harmony exited FTL with a jolt. Back in normal space once more, The Captain peered on out of the view screen to where the distress signal emanated. Debris. That was all they could see. “What… happened here?” Nimble asked nopony in particular. “Is that, or rather was that really an alien ship?” Iynx asked in turn. Twilight examined the dead debris sadly. “I would guess so. I never imagined our first contact with aliens would be witnessing the grave of Celestia knows how many.” The Captain was also looking towards the debris. “Begins scans, I want to know what destroyed that ship.” “Yes sir!” Iynx got to work. Princess Twilight looked down onto Captain Star Gazer. “So, what do you think?” “What do I think?” Star Gazer asked. “I’m just wondering what a ship was doing out here. Its empty space, no planets, asteroids or anything of interest.” Twilight looked grimly up at the view screen, examining the debris with her own eyes. “Perhaps not now, but when the distress signal was sent there might have been.” “What do you mean?” “I want you to be careful, Captain. Alert me the moment something suspicious happens,” Twilight asked of him. “I will but… where are you going?” “Bed,” she answered. “I have been staying up more than I should have been with all the work going on around the ship. And if something happens I would rather be rested for it.” The Captain nodded. “Alright then, I will wake you if any trouble arises. “Thank you,” Princess Twilight nodded, taking her leave from the bridge. Just after The Princess had left, Iynx spoke again. “I’m detecting unknown energy signatures, they could be weapons fire but I’m not detecting any kind of magical signatures among what is currently there.” “Could we get a better idea if we brought a piece aboard to examine?” The Captain asked. Iynx nodded. “Yes, we could.” “Helmspony, take a shuttle with Iynx and collect a piece.” “At once sir!” Nimble got up from his position, another crewmember moving to take his place while he was vacant. The shuttle sped away from the ES Harmony and moved towards the debris. The shuttle was a small vessel with a single compartment and an airlock at the back. It wasn’t armed and was equipped with a small thaumatic engine on either side of the hull. “We are approaching the debris now,” Nimble reported to Iynx as they got close. The griffon had adorned herself in a spacesuit, holding the helmet under her arm. “Good, bring us about and then to a full stop. This will be safe, right?” “It should be,” Nimble Star responded. “Your own scans shows the debris is moving quite slowly around one area, there are nearly no small fast moving bits to tear into your suit.” “That’s comforting,” Iynx said. “But… on the off chance you do die, can I have your stuff?” Nimble laughed. Iynx was half tempted to throw her helmet at the earth pony, but elected not to. “Jackass,” she muttered as she put on her helmet and moved to the airlock. Once she was inside, Nimble switched on the intercom connected to Iynx’s helmet. “You alright in there?” he asked. “Fine,” was her response to him. “Decompressing the airlock now.” After all the air was decompressed from the airlock, the outer door opened and Iynx spread her wings. The spacesuits they had developed either had room for wings, or came with attachable limb actuators resembling wings for those who didn’t naturally have the appendage. The wings on the suit had special magical devices on them that allowed movement through space as if they were moving through the sky back on Equus. Iynx moved around the shuttle and into the debris field. She visually picked out the piece she would bring back to the shuttle. Nimble himself was suddenly startled by a yelp over the intercom. “Iynx, what happened?!” “A small piece of debris just shot past my face! I thought you said it was clear!” “I said it was nearly clear! Just grab the piece and come back!” Nimble chuckled at the growl directed at him over the intercom. He then watched Iynx grab the piece she wanted and quickly make her way back over to the shuttle. Before any more incidents could occur, and once Iynx was safely inside the airlock and it begun to compress gain, Nimble began to move the shuttle off and back towards the ship which loomed in the distance. Once the airlocks systems deemed there was no dangerous contaminants brought back by Iynx or on the debris, the doors opened up and Iynx re-entered the cabin. “There is your piece of trash,” she said as she placed the piece of debris down and removed her helmet. “I hope it was worth it.” “Well, with an examination we should hopefully be able to identify if what you detected was weapons fire or not. I’m hoping not.” “Oh I don’t know,” Iynx bumped her friend on the shoulder. “I would quite enjoy some action.” “Be careful what you wish for,” Nimble Star responded. “Ah, don’t be a baby. Everything will be fine, they probably just had an accident.” Nimble sighed. “Yeah. I wonder how many were on that ship.” “Try not to think about it.” “Aren’t you the least bit curious to who they were?” “Of course!” Iynx said loudly. “But I would rather not think about the lives lost is all.” “Ah, right,” Nimble sighed. The hangar doors beneath them closed up as the shuttle was clamped in place. The hangar bay was filled with air before crewmembers rushed to greet the returned shuttle. Iynx and Nimble both emerged from the shuttle, meeting the science team waiting for them on the connected catwalk. Iynx briefly examined the other shuttles in the bay before turning to the ponies in front of them. “Did you get it?” one of them asked. “Course,” Iynx responded. “It’s all yours.” The science team nodded as they moved in to retrieve the collected piece, while one stayed behind to speak with the two further. “The Captain wants you back on the bridge immediately.” “Got it,” Nimble nodded. “Come on Iynx.” The two moved up from the hangar bay and though the various corridors and lifts needed to reach the bridge. Eventually they came up on their intended destination. “Iynx, Nimble,” The Captain greeted. “Everything went smoothly?” “Aside from one scare, pretty much,” Nimble reported. “Scare?” Star Gazer asked with a raised eyebrow. “It’s nothing, sir,” Iynx said as she elbowed a smirking Nimble. “Good,” The Captain said. “Nimble, take us away from the debris field, but don’t jump to FTL yet. I want some more scans of the area first, just to be safe.” “Yes sir!” both said as they moved to their stations. Nimble made a few inputs to his console, the ship turned away from the debris field and began to travel slowly in the general direction of Alpha Centaur, readying for the order to jump to FTL. As the ship continued to move Iynx did her scans of the area. As expected, nothing interesting came up. She was just about to wrap up her scans and report them ready for FTL, when something odd suddenly lit up in the screen. “Captain?” Iynx called out. Star Gazer swivelled his chair so he was facing the griffon officer. “Iynx? What is it?” “I… don’t know,” she gawped in disbelief at her console. “I’m detecting some sort of fluctuation from behind us, no wait… two fluctuations… Now its four!” “Put it on the view screen!” The Captain ordered. “And get the Princess up here!” Twilight was shaken from her sleep by the load bleeping of her personal intercom. She used the back of her right forehoof to wipe the sleep from her eyes as she groggily got up and made her way over. “This is Twilight,” she said into the intercom as she answered it. “This is the bridge, Princess you are needed at once. Something is happening.” “Something?” Twilight said questioningly. “You might want to see for yourself. Confused, Twilight switched off the intercom and made her way to the door, levitating on her regalia as she went. Things seemed normal enough as she went through the ship, personnel went about their duties as they always did. It wasn’t long before she had made it to the elevator leading up to the bridge, and the sliding doors slid open to reveal the circular room. “Captain, what is going on?” “See for yourself,” he muttered, pointing a hoof at the view screen. As Twilight looked on, her eyes widened to see four strange distortions directly behind the Harmony. And they seemed to be getting closer. “What are they?” The Captain seemed nervous. “We don’t know. But we believe they are being revealed by the magical trail our thaumatic drive is producing behind us.” “Revealed? So they aren’t being caused by the trail?” Twilight asked. “No ma’am.” “Sensors?” Iynx spoke up. “They are detecting something there, but that is it. Something. We can’t get any clearer reading than that.” Twilight moved over to Iynx’s console, looking the readings she had received over. Twilight though for a moment before she spoke. “Try modulating the sensors and tying them into our engines, perhaps then they-” “Princess!” Nimble Star shouted out. Behind the Harmony the four anomalies shifted, the otherwise clear space being suddenly taken up by the appearance of four starships. The starships had long bulging hulls with a wings coming off each side, each wing contained a nacelle and several vicious looking spikes shooting forwards. “Ships? Were they invisible?” Nimble asked in shock. “Cloaked, more like. I can’t believe we are looking at intact alien starships,” Twilight said as she walked back up next to the captain’s chair. “Scans?” Iynx looked over at her console as new reading came in. “I’m detecting no magical properties aboard those ships, your highness.” “No magic?” Nimble asked in disbelief. “How can they run without magic?” “A species without magic would find other, purely technological means of producing similar effects I’m sure,” Twilight said. “Our magic may have also disrupted their cloak, creating the anomalies.” “To create a cloak without magic… Even our devices can’t conceal an entire ship, just one individual at most,” The Captain noted in awe. “Hail them.” The pony sitting at the communications console moved to carry out his orders, but a frown descended onto his face a moment later. “No response,” he reported. “They’re charging weapons!” Iynx suddenly shouted in alarm. Star Gazer glanced over towards Iynx, and then back to the view screen. “Combat alert! Bring shields online!” “I think we know why we received a distress call and found only debris,” Twilight noted solemnly. “Do what you must, Captain.” The Harmony made a sharp left turn as it moved to evade the first shots let off by the enemy vessels. Blue beams raced across the empty space towards the Harmony, and though the first shots were successfully dodged the enemy ships were fast and quickly got the Harmony back in their sights. The next barrage of beams smacked right into the Harmony’s aft shields. Sparks burst forth from the various consoles as the entire structure shook within the Harmony. Twilight had to grab onto the captain’s chair to stay on her hooves. “Captain! That barrage downed our shields by twenty percent, their weapons are powerful!” Iynx reported. “Their systems are more advanced!” Twilight realised with growing horror. “Helm! Evasive pattern Delta Two! Iynx, fire at will!” The Captain ordered. The Harmony ducked down under several more beams and one torpedo as their own weapons activated and red beams began to fire back at the attacking vessels. Two of the enemy ships moved to the sides of the Harmony and two stayed at the back. The Harmony’s weapons targeted onto the ship directly to their right as they unloaded onto their shields, forcing the ship to fall back away from the Harmony; however, it simply swapped places with one of the aft vessels which moved up above the ship and unleashed another volley of beams and several torpedoes down onto them. A panel on the bridge blew off as wires fell out and hung down to the floor, one of the consoles exploded and the poor pony using it was killed instantly. “We’ve lost shields!” Iynx reported. The ships began to move off from the Harmony now that its shields were down and began to swarm around it. They began moving in for quick strikes as the Harmony desperately tried to outmanoeuvre them. Red and blue beams flew through the vacuum of space as the combatants fired back and forth. One ship moved directly ahead of the Harmony, the latter proceeding to fire a volley of torpedoes at the incoming target; the torpedoes impacted the direct front of the ship though most of the damage was absorbed by the shield, the vessel responded by swooping down over the Harmony and unleashing several bursts of weapons fire all across its hull. Fires erupted on the bridge and one particular fireball came from control circuits in the ceiling, the fireball rushing down and consuming Captain Star Gazer. Twilight lit up her horn and unleashed a torrent of frost which abated the deadly fire. She quickly rushed to the side of Star Gazer, who had fallen from his seat to the floor. “The Captain?” Iynx called out to Princess Twilight. Twilight scanned his body, her face falling as she did so. “He’s dead.” Twilight moved off from Star’s corpse over to his seat, pressing onto his personal intercom as sparks continued to fly and fires ignite. “Engineering?” Twilight called out over the intercom. Silver Wrench heard the intercom, and called out for another engineer to take his place at the console he was working at. As he made his way over he barely avoided a beam as it became dislodged from the ceiling and collapsed down next to him in a heap. He leapt over the fallen beam and managed to reach the intercom with his body intact. “Bridge! What the hay is going on up there!” he shouted. “The Captain is dead!” Twilight shouted back. “Report!” Silver swore loudly before doing as asked. “That last shot knocked out our FTL Drive! Our upper engine is damage so we had to shut it down, if we lose the other we’re dead in the water! If we don’t-” An explosion interrupted him as part of the reactor’s casing flew off and an inferno erupted to life. “Put that fire out!” Silver Wrench ordered as he used his magic to grab onto a fire extinguisher and moved towards the blaze. “Engineering?!” Twilight called out, but received no response. “I’m losing control systems left and right!” Nimble Star shouted. “I’m doing what I can be she’s barely responding to my commands!” “We have hull breaches on multiple decks!” another pony reported. In sick bay the wounded were flooding in as the beds began to be filled up faster than the medical staff could handle. “We need more beds, or else they will be dead!” Geneser shouted as she attended to one patient with burns to much of his body. She moved to treat her patient, but was interrupted when the ship jolted again, barely holding onto her medical tools. “What is happening?” the patient painfully asked. “I know this had been quite a week, but try not to speak,” Geneser softly spoke, getting to work. Back on the bridge, Princess Twilight moved towards the communications station, her fur was singed heavily and her smouldering regalia had been discarded. “Were you able to send a message to Starbase Alpha?” Twilight asked. “Negative, communications are down!” Part of the roof buckled in, falling down directly down atop of Iynx. She screamed in pain as a piece of debris pierced her left arm and she fell to the ground. Fire spewed from the upper engine of the Harmony as its movements slowed and it became more difficult to avoid the oncoming torrent of weapons fire. The enemy vessels had taken only minor damage at best and still swarmed all over them. One blue beam lanced straight through the hull, leaving a clean hole all the way through the ship. Iynx dragged herself up from the floor, and despite her one broken arm managed to reach her console and open fire one more, red beams lancing across towards the ships for what little good it did. “Our environmental systems have taken a hit! We’re losing breathable air in the lower decks!” The fires in engineering only grew worse, warning lights were displaying on every console. “If we continue like this the reactor is going to explode!” one engineer shouted to Silver Wrench. Silver shouted in frustration as he threw his empty fire extinguisher to one side. “All non-essential personnel leave immediately! Everypony out!” he shouted, moving over to the central console and desperately tried to keep the reactor core stable. Lights blinked out all over the ship as the chief engineer was forced to divert power to keep the ship together. The ship rolled through space as the enemy ships danced around it like wolves moving in on some wounded prey. One torpedo impacted directly into one of the spherical habitation modules, completely destroying the top of it. Another beam trailed across the name of the ES Harmony that was written onto the hull, taking a chunk out of it and revealing the corridors beneath to space, several ponies and other species of Equus being blown out into the lethal vacuum. Things seemed to go in slow motion for Twilight as fires roared around her and what was left of the bridge crew fought valiantly in the losing battle to keep their ship together. The bulkheads creaked as the ship was torn apart and another console exploded, taking yet another crewmember with it. With little time left, Twilight lit up her horn and teleported herself directly to engineering. She appeared in a lavender flash just behind the console where Silver Wrench was working. “Your highness!” he shouted in surprise at her appearance. “Get out of the way,” she ordered as she lit up her horn again. As he dodged to the side a beam of magic erupted from the alicorn’s horn and impacted the console. She strained as her magical energy was completely drained into the FTL Drive and the whole reactor began to glow with a lavender aura. The enemy vessels moved in to finish off their prey, only at the last moment seeing the single remaining active engine light up as in a flash the ES Harmony jolted forward and jumped to FTL, destination unknown.