Chapter Two
The hull temperature of Transport Seven was increasing rapidly, the fires slightly lighting up the night sky. On the inside of the cargo bay, insulating materials and heavy-grade cooling systems struggled to keep the atmosphere inside from rising too much as to cause failures in the delicate electronics and other mechanisms that the shuttle would desperately need if it were ever to fly again. Considering that the amount of metal between the humans and the flames outside was a mere three centimeters in length, this was somewhat more important than what one would imagine.
"Exiting dead-fall in five seconds," Richardson heard the pilot say from within the cockpit. "Fire up the engines again on my mark, Ed."
Though a very basic way of transportation to a planet, falling like a brick didn't require very much energy besides gravity. The shuttle had been speedily falling through the sky without engines for a good thirty seconds so that fuel could be conserved and so that engine temperatures didn't rise to critical levels.
"...two, one, mark." The pilot said, prompting the entire ship's velocity to shift from downwards to sideways. The change in motion jerked the marines and scientists to the side and into the support bars that rested across their chests. Nguyen had been jerked so hard that he began coughing in response to the pain in his chest.
"Engines are back online and we're descending towards the landing zone. We'll be landing one minute, so get your suitcases ready," the pilot came onto the ship's intercom. "Welcome to the ass-end of the galaxy, marines."
Just as they were ordered to, the marines pushed the support bars off of themselves and began gathering their equipment. Emergency MREs, rucksacks, weapons, and ammunition. Richardson brought his things off from the rack over his seat and slung his pack over his soldiers. He retrieved his FAR-11 assault rifle and checked to make sure the magazine was still in place and that none of the parts were broken.
Though meant for simple border control with the local wildlife, the marines had enough arms and ammo to be mistaken for an invasion force. Nguyen and Private Hendricks grabbed the two portable automatic turrets from the rack, the large square machines taking the places of their rucksacks. The sound of rounds cycling in their weapons filled the air like a chorus.
"Peterson, you're taking point," Nelson patted the shoulder of the marine. "Alright, form up on me, people. Standard exit procedure."
"Where do you want us to be, Specialist?" Inquired one of the scientists, the other two placing crates of tech onto trollies.
"Wait for us to clear out and start unloading your stuff," Nelson answered. "We'll need to make an analysis of the air for pathogens before you get out."
"Understandable," the scientist noted as he pulled out his personal datapad and walked back over to his colleagues. Nelson, in turn, returned to his squad and took his place right after Hendricks.
"I always hate explaining everything to first-timers," Nelson muttered over the squad's communication channel. Grunts of agreement came from the rest of the unit. The shaking of the transport became less noticeable as it began to decelerate. Hendricks raised his rifle in anticipation of any hostile animals that could exist beyond the transport ramp. The floor of the ship shook once more and the ramp door emitted a pop-hiss as the air within the cabin escaped to the outside.
"Moving out!" Peterson announced as he walked down the ramp, the rest of the men following suit. The night sky was slightly illuminated by the planet's full moon. Even so, it was still dark enough for critters to be lurking. Hendricks pressed a button on the side of his helmet. "Switching to night vision."
Peterson finally stepped off the ramp and onto the hard dirt, large untamed grasses collapsing under his weighted boot. A full look around revealed nothing but the wavering branches of large deciduous trees. Hendricks signed an all-clear hand signal and motioned the rest of the squad to move forward.
"Air readings?" Nelson inquired from Private Friedman, his rifle scanning the heavily forested area where they landed. The squad began dispersing to cover the edges of the clearing.
"No pathogens detected on the initial scan," Friedman answered while staring down at his portable biomonitor. "Give the pad a second to- never mind. Scan shows nothing is harmful in the air."
"Good," Nelson waved over to the transport and turned his communication channel with the scientists on. "You're clear to exit the ship, doctor."
"About time," Came the gruff reply of a scientist Nelson didn't have the pleasure of meeting on the flight down. "The sooner we get the lab station running, the sooner we can get to work."
Nelson sighed as he turned the channel off. Few scientists held a sense of superiority over the military, but it was easy to tell that this particular man wasn't planning on waiting for standard procedure. Trollies of boxes and other sorts of containers were pushed onto the earth and had begun being unpacked.
On the marines' side of progress, a defensive perimeter was created by the two portable turrets on opposite sides of the landing area. Huxley and Peterson had already begun placing barricades between the gaps, making a wall of sorts around the compound.
As per the Captain's orders, Richardson had already gone off to dig the latrines further into the forest. Nelson smirked as he heard Richardson muttering curses and whatnot over his still open communication channel. Hopefully he would learn to be more subtle in the future.
Nelson slung his rifle over his shoulder and walked over to Nguyen and Hendricks to help set up the tents.
Latrine duty. Great, Richardson thought as he pushed his spade into the cold, firm dirt. Nothing like taking a stroll through a dank forest.
Richardson had to admit that this forest was remarkably similar to one on Earth. Most large expanses of vegetation he had seen on New Macedonia had been nothing but enormous ferns and moss-like grass. He was tempted to take his helmet off and breathe the night air, but regulations required him to keep his helmet on at all times in case of an emergency broadcast or something abruptly hitting his head.
His train of thought came to a crashing halt as he heard a large amount of rustling of tree branches and thuds of what could interpreted as footsteps. He tossed his spade into his hole and readied his rifle. His night vision wasn't reveling anything, but the noises were getting much louder and in constantly changing directions. He decided to fire a few warning shots into brush in order to scare off the possible predator.
Three round left his rifle and a monstrous roar came from the direction where he had fired. Yep, I hit you, Richardson thought with a smirk. Now just walk away and-
Bursting through the foliage was a creature Richardson had never even imagined would exist. A head and body similar to that of a lion or some other feline, a tail of a scorpion, and demonic wings were somehow combined into a very pissed off organism.
"Fuck!" Richardson said as he dived to the side to escape the creature's charge. The beast overshot its target, and Richardson was able to get a clear shot. He switched his rifle to full automatic and let loose on his target without a second thought. Bullets impacted on all parts of the beast, quickly overpowering it. Brass casings littered the floor as Richardson finally went through his sixty-round magazine.
The strange organism let out a final roar, its tone much softer and less aggressive than the first. It slumped to the ground with a large thud, its wings and tail losing their muscle tension and drooping. Richardson waited a few seconds to make sure the creature wasn't getting up.
"What the hell are you doing out there?!" Nelson yelled over the comm channel.
"I just got attacked by a fucking beast, what're you doing?" Richardson shot back, reloading his FAR.
"What'd it look like?" Nleson inquired.
"It's kind of like... a lion thing. Wings and a scorpion tail. It's weird shit." Richardson responded. Nelson didn't say anything for a minute, but he could hear the scientists yelling in the background.
"We're sending Doctor Carsiri to you," Nelson sighed out of exasperation. "He's the xenobiologist of the group and wants to examine whatever you just killed."
"There might be more of them out here, Nelson. Not that I have a problem with a Lab Boy becoming lunch meat, but still," Richardson said.
"Just shut up and transmit your coordinates." Nelson said before turning off the channel.
Doctor Ronald Carsiri, unlike his "esteemed" colleagues back at the camp, didn't relish the fact that he was on a planet far enough away from the core colonies that it had been dubbed Unknown Space. The fact that the journey between Aegis, the most distant colony from the core, and B4-D4 had taken a standard week had not lightened his spirits.
He would have preferred New Macedonia even in light that its atmosphere was almost entirely hydrogen and a protective environment suit was needed at all times. At least there he could go back onto a ship and take a hot shower whenever he pleased.
He pushed his bitter thoughts aside for a moment to make sure he was heading in the right direction to the marine Corporal Nelson had directed him to find. Carsiri wanted to make sure he was able to examine the corpse before it began decomposing.
Unless, of course, the animal had been mutilated beyond observation by the inane amount of bullets the marine had seen fit to kill it with.
"Doctor? Over here," came the voice of the soldier Carsiri was looking for. Carsiri navigated the shrubs and other vegetation that separated him from his specimen. He finally found the marine sitting next to a gargantuan mammal. It was difficult to see the soldier with his dark armor in the night. "I'll leave you to poke around the remains. Mind the blood."
That, actually was Carsiri's first reaction. The blood on the ground was red, signifying that this beast had a similar oxygen-carrying protein to hemoglobin. He pulled out a small plastic slip and retrieved some fresh blood from the animal's rancid smelling corpse. Once the slip had been thoroughly covered, he slid it into his bioanalysis pad.
Interesting, Carsiri pondered as he viewed the results. This animal actually uses hemoglobin like Earth mammals! He ran his hand through his balding blonde hair as he tried to make sense of the analysis. All vertebrae fauna that research teams had found on other planets had used a different compound than hemoglobin such as coboglobin. This would suggest that a similar evolutionary path had been taken between Earth and B4-D4 mammals.
Another odd note was that this feline-like animal had an arthropod appendage, the tail. He took a sample from the base of the stinger and packed it away for future study.
"So what the hell are you going to call this thing?" Richardson asked from behind. "Lionus Deathicus?"
"I would actually go as far as to call it... a manticore, Corporal." Carsiri responded as he took a step back from the animal. "Part lion, dragon, and scorpion. This organism completely resembles the description of the mythical creature. That's uncanny."
"Whatever you say, Doc." Richardson said, looking over his soldier to view the trees behind him. "Can we hurry this along? There's probably more things like this out there."
Carsiri chuckled as he knelt down beside the manticore. "The man in the metal suit is afraid of a few animals. Where is this fearless soldier I was told would be protecting me on this expedition, hmm?"
"Watch it, egghead," Richardson threatened. "I could always say you fell off a cliff."
"Because that is obviously believable," Carsiri said sarcastically as he took another sample of the creature. He lifted himself from the ground and smiled at Richardson. "I am done here. You may escort me back, fearless soldier."
Carsiri couldn't determine if the marine was frustrated behind the face-encompassing helmet he wore, but he was pretty sure he had struck a nerve. Carsiri followed the Corporal through the forest back to the camp, taking notes on his personal journal.
"There's a lot of plants here, wouldn't you say?" Richardson said, trying to make small talk.
"Forests are known to contain a lot of vegetation, yes." Carsiri answered.
"I meant that there are a lot of strange plants here. For instance, I walked through a load of blue flowers on the way here. I think I saw a rainbow-colored plant too." Richardson continued.
"There are plenty of blue flowers on Earth," Carsiri replied. "It's plausible that rainbow flowers are just as common here."
"I'm just saying that these plants are really weird compared to-" Richardson spoke before a rustle in the brush captured his attention. Carsiri heard the noise as well but continued to move.
"Not all of the fauna can be predators, Corporal. Relax," he said as he walked nearer to the landing zone.
A sudden shadow in the moonlight streaked across Carsiri's peripheral vision. Quickly turning to see what the mysterious figure was, he didn't notice that there was more than one of the phantoms behind him. Pouncing onto his unprotected back was a wolf-like animal, two more of them waiting as the leader took down the scientist. Struggling to get away, Carsiri flipped himself onto his back and tried to move away.
The wolf began clawing and biting at his face with unrelenting speed. Carsiri could barely summon his hands to try and prevent the creature from achieving its kill. The texture Carsiri felt was not fur at all, but coarse, solid material. Almost like wood.
Just as Carsiri had begun to prepare himself for his near demise, a loud bang resounded through the woods from Richardson's pistol. Splinters rained onto Carsiri's face, the paws of the attacking entity suddenly becoming limp. Frenzied yelps from the other wolves became softer and softer as they rushed back into the depths of the forest.
Richardson removed the wooden wolf's body from Doctor Carsiri, offering a hand to the dazed intellectual.
"I can honestly agree with you now, Corporal," Carsiri muttered as he accepted the hand. "There are some very weird plants here."
Stats
Page generated in 0.038 seconds
Total duration
964 users online
1,242,359 hits today, 1,822,946 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
2568948 You've caught it. I suggest you say nothing. Keep it like a rare coin. Never speak of it until prompted.
If I'm right, they're in the Everfree. If so, the night is going to be absolute hell.
I'll heat up some popcorn and watch.
NO, NOOOOOOO The first creature encountered manicore...
what is this HiE # 300 that i have read with that being first encountered?!?
I shall follow.... *mumbles* Manticore, so cliche...
2569013 I know. It burns. Want some water?
2569029
Fluttershy isn't going to be happy you killed Mr. Nibbles (Manticore) and Henry Wood (Timberwolf).
2569039 It's digital, so I can't guarantee flavor. Or the possibility it won't explode upon rematerialization. But it's ice cold!
Oops, double post, sorry.
2569052
*is soaked by Mr.pipp, shivers* It twas cold....
heh heh heh poison joke
Usually stories like this are pretty bad, in both character execution and grammar. I can say I was pleasantly surprised when I read this, and am looking forward to more
2568958
It's not exactly subtle. There's only one kind of blue flower in that forest anyone knows about and it's ALWAYS one of the first things the earthlings blunder into.
Writing has been good so far, but we've yet to reach first contact. I hope you're going the route of the language barrier and that this isn't one of those "instant friends" fics. The "colonists/explorers visit Equestria" plot is getting kind of overdone, so I hope you have a more complicated plan than that in the works.
MOAR!
Please? 
Dunno if anyone mentioned this but be careful of that 41% oxy mix. That's high enough to cause oxygen poisoning.
I'll give it a fav to see how it progresses... hopefully you won't overuse the 'scientist hate military and the feeling is mutual' trope.
2567016
The definition of sentient is "able to perceive/feel/sense", the definition of sapient is "to be or appear to be wise"
These terms are only ever used to refer to human-like qualities or level of intelligence in science-fiction. And they are both used. And since this is sci-fi, you could use either.
However, since law recognizes animals as sentient, and since "wisdom" implies a certain level of intelligence while "perception" does not, I would say that "sapient" is the far more correct term.
just my 2c
* Poison joke is used in every single "humans from space visit Equestria" fic I've read. So is the inevitable shootout with a manitcore. If you haven't already, you might consider reading a few other fics of this type and avoiding things that they all do.
* 41% oxygen is below toxic levels, assuming earth-normal atmosphere. But I would think they'd tend to get giddy and silly from aerobic activity, and it would present a serious fire hazard.
* Personally...the dark tag discourages me. There are some very good "humans from space visit Equestria" fics out there, but like others are saying...it's been done. None of your characters seem particularly likable so far, and I'm not really seeing anything unique here. If you want to hold reader interest...do something other than just having unlikable characters show up for reasons we don't care about shooting up ponies over some completely predictable misunderstanding.
Not a bad start.
That said, 2567005 is completely correct about the different between sentient and sapient.
2570446
1 - Nothing happened with the Poison Joke.
2 - I don't see any mention about this.
3 - Dark tags don't always imply bad things. The Dark tag can simply mean some things that happen (warfare, blood, hurting of some ponies that people disagree with even though it'd make sense) may be a little different for your tastes. Of course, you may see those things as bad, but I don't. Because I don't care that the precious ponies may be hurt by aggressive human beings known to kill things because they're "different".
Also, I don't see how you can judge the characters this fast. Nor do I see them "bad". At least they don't want to have "le sex" with the ponies.
That's a lot of comments in seven hours of sleep... I need to sit down...
Anyway, I should probably address this high oxygen content problem as it seems to be irking many of you. I did little research over this, so please forgive me on this detail. I will change this details should it become a public outcry rather than a small annoyance. To be fair, they are all wearing protective respirator masks. They are still breathing stable atmosphere.
No, there will be no of the stereotypical humans landing on Equestria stuff. To be fair, I thought this idea was fairly unique when I first thought of it, but apparently the brony culture has wandered in places I haven't even thought of. (I'm not a brony. Merely a writer.)
And as for storyline, I hope that what I have planned is sufficient and likable for a plot. It painns me to think of suddenly having people jumping ship because of slow plot development, so I will try to move quickly along.
Thanks to everyone for their input. It means a lot.
As for a proofreader, I don't think you even need one. So far, I've only seen one mistake in terms of grammar or spelling. That last sentence.
There are some very weird plants.
Oh, and great story so far.
:)
Yes we have. Dogs, cats, monkeys, earthworms and venus fly traps are all sentient, as are most forms of life detected so far. The word you are looking for is sapient, and even that's a bit of a grey area, what with some high inteligence apes, and our relatives the neanderthals and other members of the genus Homo posibly being sapient (although you could argue that since all the other species of human went extinct well before records began, they don't count).
Sentiance is the ability to percive the world around us. Sapience is the ability to percieve that we are able to percieve the world around us. Trippy stuff, I know.
Anyway, sorry about that little nitpick. I'm looking forwards to reading this.
One thing I noticed:
I find it odd that the UEG would use the US/Imperial system of measurements when the vast majority of its member nations would have used the metric system. Also, hull thickness wouldn't be expressed in length.
It would be more appropriate to say that the hull is a few centimeters thick, rather than an inch long.
"Sentient" means its aware of its surroundings, like animals. "Sapient" means its capable of wisdom or judgement, like humans and the ponies of Equestria. Common mistake, didn't know about it myself for a long time.
This story seems good so far. Always nice to see a sci-fi human fic. I think you got the attitude of the people here well.
There is some very weird plants here "Is" should be "are", because plural.
2570748 I know. Dragons would have incinerated the planet by now with a concentration that high.
2571093
Professor, why are you always such a sir? You're making me jealous.
Personally, I like reading stories to find out what others think would happen in any given scenarios, how characters would interact, how they'd change along the story. I enjoy delving into others' fantasies, that's just the way I am.
I shall await what's next to come.
More corrections in this chappie:
This should be 'somewhat more important'.
This should be 'to be mistaken'.
*you're
A tense mistake, this should be 'are'.
Anyway, This story is rather basic so far, nothing unexpected or new jumps out and gives the reader a concussion. It's always fine if you're fine with that, but I would suggest attempting, at least, a bit of differentiation between the half dozen other very similar sci-fi HiE stories on this site.
I'll be following anyway, I look forward to your future endeavor.
2568958
WHAT WILL IT DO
Is now the question.
Also, I could help as PR. Well, not as experienced as Garbo or EqD's, but I'll try.
2571914
My profile pic demands it!
2571105 I should have caught that, thanks. I'll make corrections now. In fact, just to make everyone happy, I'm changing all of the details that have been recurring point-outs. I'm sorry that my research wasn't up to par on everything.
I'll work harder in the future. Please understand I am trying my hardest with limited time. Thank you all so much for helping out.
His taking point what?
But honestly, I love first contact stories.
2572194 Thank you so much!
Well, this certainly looks good. I'll fave and upvote it to see where it goes.
2569013 well there is ONE that the first was a cockatrice
so far so good, I'll watch and see where this goes
Not bad. I look forward to more.
If the scientist was wearing clothing that prohibited his skin from directly contacting the poison joke, he should be fine.
2573141 SHOULD being the all important wording
2573409 You... how did you know?
i seriously hope none of these marines shoot or kill any of the ponies on this planet............well that's not true, they can shoot Diamond Tiara, just not her friend Silver Spoon. i like her
So another story about human-pony first contact?
Nice...I like these stories
Your grammar doesn't look too bad, to be honest. There's a few mistakes here and there, but it's nothing a word processor can't handle. It's a lot better than some other stories I've seen.
Did you delete chapter three, mister?!
Why set a password on the 3rd chapter?
I WANNA READ IT!
2574181 I accidentally hit publish instead of edit! I'm so sorry!
*snickers* it happens. A little tip, if you want this story to show up on the front page AGAIN. Then I would recommend you delete your chapter on the site and just copy paste into a new one. When you're ready hit publish and it should show up. 2574304
2574344 I don't know what you mean, but okay. I know its against the rules to delete and repost chapters though...
It isn't if you have made a mistake. If it helps you feel less nervous, PM a moderator and ask them if you can. I asked once when i made a huge mistake on my story, and they said it was fine. 2574384
2574451 Thanks again for the advice.
2574304
Aww, I was excited to read it. I had just finished the first two, faved it, went to my mail to see an update notice literally when I had just faved it, and I was all 'Wow, new chapter already? I just faved it! Coincidence, or... are you a spy‽'
But no, none of the new chapters were being had. So sad, bad dad.
Well, I shall await the real chapter.
2574451 How are you everywhere I go!
Not like that's a problem, it seems we both have similarly good tastes in reading is all... eerily similar... 