//------------------------------// // -7- // Story: Coarse Diamonds // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// Rarity could see Geoptis Station in the distance. It was a massive space station that was near the closest moon of Ewesen, its size was enough to contain a huge city. The space station in fact did contain a large city inside of itself; as such it was capable of docking battle cruisers which were three times the size of Derringer. The city inside was one of commerce and trade, but most importantly the space station was used by the Planetary Protection Patrol to repair their ships and relax with some downtime. The space station could also be called a space colony given that it has enough civilians living on it and enough armaments to protect said citizens. “This is Rarity Belle, be advised life support on Derringer is compromised. Please take that into account when boarding.” Following procedure and making sure to warn of any complications, Rarity couldn’t think of much else to bother the incoming investigation teams with. “Acknowledged Miss Belle, we won’t want any accidents to happen on my watch. I’m sending only people I know I can trust and I will notify them they need EVA protection. Do the survivors have EVA protection?” Officer Lirutiy had popped up on screen again and was asking for reasons of a safe extraction. “Both survivors are currently aboard the Caravel Boutique in section one of the hangar of Derrigner, I made an EVA suit for one of them and the other has no EVA protection. They’ve both been stuck in a zero G environment for quite a while so take that into account with their health, they’ve had baths and one was recently in a med-bed for injuries caused by one or more of the Xouj they ended up consuming.” Having confirmed that Rarity sat back and stared at the massive space station that even Derringer looked quite small next to. Thanks to the space stations multiple long range sensors, the triple P had seen Derringer coming from a long way away and it was why Officer Lirutiy had hailed Rarity. She was in a commandeered military grade vessel after all and she could be easily suspected of piracy to soon be swiftly fired upon. The station had defense and weaponry emplacements all over to protect itself from any direction, alongside several light cruisers, destroyers, carriers and the like floating around to provide mobile protection to the station or other areas within the system if a threat becomes known. Each station always had at least one battle cruiser minimum in the area, battle cruisers were one of the largest classifications of ship around made specifically for the purposes of confronting incursions with extreme prejudice. Thinking of the space station as the ship slid forward into a position to dock, Rarity opened communications to the drone maintenance room that Gilda and Greta were currently busy in. “Greta, Gilda, we’re about to dock with Geoptis Station. Greta if you want to keep the EVA suit I suggest you put it on. I could use the advertisement so spread the word that I can make clothing and EVA suits, ones that will quite literally suit anyone. Also I’m getting a few ideas for how to make a nice EVA suit for Plurts that I can run by you later.” Continuing over the data of recent news on screen as she spoke to the two griffons from her seat on the bridge, Rarity saw that a bit of Drixsto was on fire at the moment and that had her worried for Miss Pommel’s safety. “I’m already wearing it, it fits nicely and it keeps things a comfortable temperature. We need to see about getting Gilda one of these, especially if the quality of the utilities is improved. I hope to be around to do that.” It sounded like Greta was happy with her EVA suit, then she spoke up sounding a bit shy. “Can I keep the saddle attachment? I might be able to work in a few new features on it.” “Of course dear, you can keep it even if we go our separate ways.” Rarity saw another pillar of fire rising from the city as the hovering news vehicle got an eyewitness account of a flaming crab creature finally falling to the ground. “I still have the other three spares that were given to me by my darling friend Coco Pommel; I do so hope she’s alright down there. The area that she’s in is currently going up in flames.” “Well we’re not going to be around Rarity for a while if at all Greta, so prepare your goodbyes. Also don’t you dare get too sappy Greta, especially if things don’t turn out how you want them to.” It sounded like Gilda was focusing on other things, some tinkering could be heard. “Now get you feathered butt over here and help me with this CAT already!” “Still, wouldn’t it be nice to have an EVA suit of your own Gilda? You could pilot fighters and eject to safety if someone was about to blow you up.” Greta didn’t get a response from Gilda since the Derringer had started shaking when the docking clamps finally attached themselves to the ship and secured a lockdown around the entrance. “Alright Opal, please try to stick to only working under my commands. It would simply be dreadful if they had to take you away.” Looking at the screen and away from the ceiling of the bridge, Rarity could see that Opal’s avatar was giving her a blank look. “Why I have no idea what you mean Ms. Belle, I am perfectly normal AI that follows orders and happen to be completely within the perimeters defined as an allowable artificial intelligent construct. I assure you the rampancy protections have not failed… Meowstress.” If that wasn’t a bold faced lie from Opal, Rarity might have actually believed it had she not seen the change in personality. Opal could actually sell it pretty well though, if only she could resist the dead giveaway that was her affectionate term for Rarity. Shaking her head, Rarity left the bridge of Caravel Boutique to go put her EVA suit on to meet the boarding team. CATs one and two would meet up with her as she exited the airlock. She worried about Coco, her poor dear friend was being chased or at least unlucky enough to look like she was. From all the fires Rarity surmised that at least the Ceantirs were having quite a bad day, the morbid thought that was added on to that was if they weren’t already dead. Energy weapons, unless specifically heat based, still took quite a few shots to set a Ceantir on fire and it could be just one that was set ablaze and stumbling through multiple buildings. - Coco continued to gallop away from the danger down the stone streets, Rarity had been late to their meeting and she now knew why. The buildings in Drixsto weren’t all tall metal and glass skyscrapers; they mostly had an old world charm of being partially made of stone with a Venetian design. Architects made the buildings as strong as possible with the aesthetic in mind; the buildings only looked old and were actually very sturdily constructed to last. If you wanted a huge city of metal and glass, then Geoptis was where you had to look for tall shiny buildings. When Coco came here, it was to study business and fashion. Having done that, she planned to make a joint effort with Rarity after they had become quick friends. She could have gone into business with a pony named Suri Polomare, but Rarity was much friendlier prospect and a generous kind hearted pony from her perspective. To think Rarity got held up by pirates and then the thing at the hotel started up with that armored dragon being blasted through the front door while being followed by various forms of projectiles, things were terrible. The violence has almost been following her. It probably wasn’t on purpose, but Coco Pommel was a paranoid enough mare and she was running down the street that would lead towards Drixsto’s Lakeside Plaza. She stopped at the end of the street and could see the water of Lake Terwa go on for a while; the lakes on this planet were enormous and beautifully sparkling wonders to look at in the right light. Hearing a grunt of pain from behind her, Coco looked back and watched as the dragon was rammed through a wall of stone and steel onto the street by a Ceantir. She admitted it really said something about the dragon that she was still putting up quite a brutal fight and had killed at least three Ceantirs outright without the use of fire. It even seemed like the dragon was actively avoiding using any fire around or even on them at all, she could have even just unleashed a blast of flames from her mouth and just be done with it. Despite Ceantirs having the size and weight advantage over that dragon, not to mention the Macropussians were faster if lacking regenerative properties and protective shells, she was still holding her own in a three way fight. What kind of grit did that take and why did Coco catch sight of the dragon looking her way every so often when they were within sight of one another? Too bad Coco couldn’t enjoy the view of the lake as she turned left and started galloping for the plaza with a bronze chunk polluted fountain sending multiple jets of water skywards. There were various species sitting around it, Pony, Plurt, a Macropussian and even a few Griffons loitering about the fountain. They were all looking at the foreboding amount of smoke rising into the air from where she just came from. Coco also saw a female Parascine, a pink jellyfish being with two round glowing blue nucleic eyes and a random number of tentacles to walk or manipulate things with, they were known to have either immunity or an incredible resilience to energy weapons. The jellyfish was talking to a Minotaur, a large buff looking masculine bull headed biped with thick strong arms leading to hands made for gripping and hauling things into the air. They too were starting to focus on the line smoke approaching the area and started running towards it each one pulling out a weapon as they did so; they were probably officers of the Planetary Protection Patrol. None of the people here mattered at the moment to Coco as she was searching for a bright reddish orange and blue coloring of her pony friend Sassy, a pony who she thought had a rather nice posh accent befitting of someone born in Canterlot. Coco was personally born in Manehatten, but she really liked Ewesen since she came here. The beaches of the lakes were near perfect year round on this planet and Coco loved the tropical climate and the delicious local fruits that went with it. Slowing down to catch her breath, Coco sat down on a bench to wait for Sassy Saddles or the moving battle to catch up with her. Carrying all her stuff around like this in her overly stuffed stylishly designed silver backpack shaped like a landing craft was tiring. From what she last heard of Sassy’s therapist, it sounded like she was making good headway into helping Sassy. Sassy was currently working as a sales manager and would hopefully not freak out if a male was in the same room as her now. It would be good to talk to Sassy again, she was quite a sweet mare before the incident and even after it she was still sweet if a little bit rough to anything of a masculine persuasion. “Well here you are Coco-chan, I’m glad to see you’re alright.” A giggle escaped Sassy’s lips as Coco jumped in fright and flopped off the bench onto her face painfully. She was now seated right next to where Coco had been, her mane had been put up into a thick ponytail and she looked over her cute friend. “Are you okay Coco-chan, do you need a hug?” The response to Sassy’s queries was to receive a bone crushing hug of the likes she had never experienced before in her life. It was amazing what being there for someone can do for them and she was here to protect Coco from the danger that seemed intent to follow her around. She looked off in the direction Coco had come running from with slightly narrowed eyes; nobody was going to hurt Coco-chan on her watch. - Ember’s last job went particularly well, she shut down a slavery ring before it could even get started and she blew open a slave trade conspiracy. The payoff would keep her fed for a while, but she still had work to do as she wouldn’t survive for more than a month on her expensive tastes in consuming gems and jewels. Dragons had to have expensive diets if they were to stay healthy; they actually needed more crunchy minerals in their diets than any other race. The Dragon’s current job wasn’t going quite as well as the previous one, as she was being roughed up quite badly and she had most likely spent half the fight on her back at this point when it came to dealing with the Ceantirs. Fighting like this certainly wasn’t good for her health, but she still had a job to do. Apparently someone paid through the nose to have ten Ceantirs attempt to take Ember out, and most certainly not for a friendly date. Someone obviously had a lot of money to throw around and they really didn’t appreciate Ember ‘Flamethrower’ McFlame ruining their operations. The Macropussians were fighting both the Ceantirs and her for entirely different reasons. Apparently the Macropussian gang was attacking the Ceantirs because there was something of a personal grudge between them and the Ceantir race; they were attacking Ember because they wanted the payout for her current job. The Macropussians were trying to steal her job by acquiring the information on it off of her cold dead corpse, which tended to happen to bounty hunters with a regular enough frequency as this kind of job was consistently hazardous. Though she didn’t personally didn’t partake in Bounty Jumping very much, it was a part of the job and sometimes desperation was a decent motivator to steal another’s bounty or job right out from under them. She held up her boxy material rifle that was as long as she was tall and was currently on her back once again; the Ceantir gripped the midsection of the rifle with its hand and soon clamped its claw down on the gun. It caused an incredibly loud clanging noise and this caused the Ceantir to reel back releasing its grip in shock and pain. It had not expected Ember’s gun to survive the crushing force of its claw much less come away from that without a scratch and cracking the claw in the attempt to split her weapon in half. Ember grunted as she swung the butt of her bulky rifle upwards into the Ceantir’s head as hard as she could and barely staggered it, allowing her to get up into a crouch. She pressed the butt of her rifle against her right shoulder, twitched her left hand on a specific part of the rifle to change the kind of ammo she was going to shoot and pulled the trigger with her right index claw. Fifty bits of low grade metal fired out of the material rifle at insane speeds for the five second burst she held the trigger down for, some of them actually punctured the carapace and forced the crabby cretin onto his back. It didn’t kill him and Ember didn’t believe he’d stay down for long. Getting up, Ember sighed to herself and shook her head as she stumbled away from the Ceantir using her rifle as a crutch to move. Her gold colored armor was heavily damaged and dented; it was going to take a lot of work and dragon breath to buff her armor back into shape. She was glad her personal weapon was built of sterner stuff than her armor was; she had a reliance on her rifle being able to take punishment alongside obviously dishing it out. Ember made her way into a nearby alleyway to lean against the wall, a Minotaur and Parascine moved past it to presumably detain the Ceantir she knocked over and the Macropussians that were still fighting down the street. She sighed with relief as they didn’t see her so she took the opportunity to rest a bit, after a few minutes she moved on out of the alleyway and went in the direction where she last saw her quarry heading. Said quarry was a rather cute earth pony that looked completely innocent of any wrong doing; she had a few things to talk to her about and had incidentally got her caught in the cross fire several times. She shouldered her custom made material rifle and pulled off her helmet to slowly walk away from the action whistling a slightly jaunty tune despite the number of injuries she was suffering from. She might have been upset about all those fires starting and the blazing inferno going on in several places behind her, but it was out of her claws now and she had business to attend to. She just knew someone was going to blame her for all the fire, but if she acted casual enough maybe they’ll believe her when she tells them she didn’t actually set fire to anything. Well except maybe that one Ceantir when she bisected into two completely cauterized halves with her weapons special function. Despite being a dragon, Ember didn’t want to watch any world burn. - “Okay ma’am you are cleared to keep the two extra CATs and even the broken MAT drone, you’re also cleared to leave with the Caravel Boutique. You must return within a week to continue placing claim on Derringer if you do decide to head down to the planet.” Officer Lirutiy was continuing to be a friendly if another straightforward member of her species, also highly safety conscious. “I’m not going to lie things are a bit of a mess down there, I suggest you stick around here and wait for things to calm down.” “I appreciated your candor Officer Lirutiy, but I’m still going to pick my friend up. I may be late in doing that, but I would still like to do it while she’s among the living. Please take care of my new acquaintances; I would very much like to hire them even if I don’t gain ownership of Derringer.” Everything was checked on Rarity’s ship by an investigation team and she was considered clear, the two teams were now going over the burnt remains of the Xouj and had already taken Greta and Gilda into custody on the station. The conversation with the investigation teams had been rather boring if informative for them in regards to the pirates that had attacked her. “My friend may have been caught up in that mess down there and as a good friend I want to make sure she’s okay. I also know another one of my friends is there as well, so I’m a bit more concerned now than ever. As such I respectfully request permission to launch; be a dear Opal and set course for Ewesen and patch me in to traffic control when we’re in orbit. Put us on approach for Drixsto’s spaceport.” “Affirmative, plotting course for Ewesen and prepping for a call to traffic control for an entry vector for the spaceport in Drixsto.” If one were looking they could see a sweating Opal on Rarity’s screen, the fluffy tailed cat was trying so hard not to say ‘Meowstress’ and she was biting her lower lip looking like she was about to positively scream the word. She had been doing so well when they had finished investigated her personally; she was going to literally virtually explode soon if she couldn’t say the word. “Against my better judgment, permission granted, team one access the overview room controls and open section one in the hangar. Caravel Boutique is clear and clean, close up after it’s out and continue with your investigation of the ship. I want to find out how the deceased crew got a Xouj infestation this bad.” With the commands given by Officer Lirutiy, the front of the Derringer opened up and the Caravel Boutique lifted off the floor to fly out through the atmosphere barrier leaving Derringer behind for Ewesen. “Good luck and don’t forget to get a new jump module for your ship! You won’t be able to get very far otherwise if the ownership claim doesn’t work out for you.” - “Coco-chan while I do appreciate your snuggling, please do get a hold of yourself. I’m not going anywhere” Sassy was gently running a hoof up and down Coco’s back and she was crying into the little black number that Sassy was wearing for the occasion. “I’m sorry Sassy; it’s been a while since I last saw you and Rarity really didn’t want to bother you while you were here.” The sniffling Coco leaned back to look Sassy in the eyes, the truth was Rarity would rather avoid Sassy if she could and Coco knew why. “You’re looking better.” “Thank you, I do try to hold myself up to some standards of beauty like Rarity-sama… and I’ve been better recently.” Sassy looked off into space for a bit before blinking and putting her focus back on Coco. “Do you think she’s looking for a sales manager who’s good at handling belligerent customers? I’m still freaked out by med-beds though, but I’m okay if I’m with some friends I can trust.” “Well I’m sure… hold on I’m getting a call.” Coco held up her left hoof to Sassy as she pulled her data pad out with her right. “Rarity, what’s going on?” “Oh thank goodness, I just got finished with the Planetary Protection Patrol detail that was assigned to investigating my ship and piracy claims. I’m coming down to the spaceport in Drixsto within the next ten minutes.” Alongside Rarity’s face a smiling cat appeared on Coco’s screen making her smile as well because she knew Opal was worried about her to. “If you could meet me there darling, then we can work on getting my ship a new jump module and talk over a bit of tea perhaps. Did you find Sassy okay and how are you doing dear?” “I’m here with Coco-chan right now. She’s having a bit of a rough day, but she’s okay in my care Rarity-sama. You can trust me to protect our little sister; we’ll meet you there at the spaceport.” All Sassy received was a nod from Rarity and the screen turned back to normal, she was quite happy to see Rarity again even if she wasn’t happy to see her. Standing up, she stretched out and held out a hoof to Coco, of which the cute pony took hesitantly. “I’m not a child you know.” Coco standing right next to Sassy looked like a child in comparison to their sizes. Sassy had a body like the famous pony super model Fleur De Lis, she personally thought that she looked average next to her Unicorn friend. “Of course not Coco-chan, but I would like to escort you personally to the spaceport to prevent anyone from accosting you.” Sassy’s assurance didn’t seem to make Coco feel any better as she walked forwards holding hooves with her friend. As they turned down the street leading to the spaceport to their left, a Macropussian dropped into their path a few feet from them creating a crater in the ground. “Speaking of accosting people, you two are not going anywhere.” Judging from the lack of pouch, the Macropussian was male and the fact that he was pointing two energy pistols at them didn’t seem to scare Sassy one bit. One would expect an Australian accent from this species; instead the Macropussian spoke with an accent befitting someone from Brooklyn. “You see I went to a lot of trouble today and I want to get some form of payoff, so you two are coming with me whether you like it or not.” Coco moved behind Sassy and looked at the fire that lit her eyes; she could tell this was going to somehow end poorly for the kangaroo given the lit horn. She finally saw a black pole like object resting across Sassy’s back and there was a magical glow around the tip of it. There was also a magical glow surrounding one of the edges of her skirt. “Oh are we now? I’d like to see you try, really I would, but I’m afraid I don’t play for that team anymore. If you were to force my friend into that kind of predicament I might just get ‘testy’ and rip off what makes you a Joey and leave you as a Jill.” She widened her stance and stood protectively in front of Coco. “There would be ‘little’ hope that you can be a Joey again unless cloning technology has gotten better about that sort of thing.” “I suppose you have something better than the stick you have your magic on, but I think I have the upper hand here Sheila and I’m not about to let you close enough to use your weapon.” The street had emptied quickly, not many were willing to come stop this Macropussian from taking the two ponies captive and bystander syndrome suddenly became a thing. “As it just so happens you are already within range of my weapon, lest we forget… I’m a Unicorn and we have quite a bit of range with wielding melee weapons.” Taking three steps forward Sassy created a silver flash that had the Macropussian jumping backwards, she raised a brow and watched as the front halves of his energy pistols fell off making them useless. “I’ll get you back for that, you fucking bi… ah!” The Macropussian threw away the useless pistols and went to jump only to grit his teeth in pain; he looked down and noticed a large object sticking out of the inside of his right thigh. It took some of his blood dripping onto the ground for it to sink in that he was in agony. “Oh dear, it seems I missed.” It looked like Sassy had stuck him with a large pin, like the small ones one would use in the making of clothing. “You’ll still be a Joey by the end of the day thanks to your fast reflexes, but I still stuck a pin in you. So you’re quite done for now.” The top half of round red sphere sticking out of the kangaroo’s inner thigh opened up and all four flaps clamped down on his leg digging itself in deeper, it revealed that inside the cherry red pin’s head was a coil of metal that started sparking with electricity. What happened next was the Macropussian going down due to the shocking amounts of pain he just received to the gonads and body. “Sassy, what in the world was that?” Coco poked her head from around Sassy’s rear end looking spooked at what her friend had just done, not only had she sliced through the guns but also inserted a weapon with near pinpoint accuracy into the kangaroo’s leg without him noticing it. “I’ve put myself through… let’s call it training. I have this kodachi made with some top quality metals, along with a few shock coil pins like that one hidden in my skirt.” Sassy looked away and reached out with her hoof towards Coco. “I just didn’t want to be helpless again, please don’t be hate me like Rarity-sama does.” “She doesn’t hate you.” Coco gently grasped her friends hoof and gave it a squeeze, they then started walking together. She now sadly understood just why Sassy wanted to hold hooves. She wasn’t trying to comfort Coco, she was silently crying out for help.