16: The Signal
High in the remote parts of The Alps mountain range stood a solitary building. It was barely a concrete slab formed into the peak with a steel door being the only sign that it had ever been used. The drab and weathered orange paint bore the tell-tale scorch marks of a breaching charge. A jury-rigged rat’s nest of barbed wire served to seal the door and the facility behind it from most of the blizzard that raged against the mountain ice.
A singular orange light flickered sporadically above the ice-covered door, casting Loki, Conrad, and five human intelligence field operatives clad in warm white winter gear in a tense gloom. The pegasus looked to Loki while the mare gently tapped the ground with her eyes closed. “Sniff out any alarms or traps?”
Loki’s magic echoed through the stone and concrete, finding many places her earth magic could not tread within the door frame and the stairs that descended far below. She shivered as she spoke. “Yeah, both the walls and concrete have been wired with C4.”
She gently tapped her left forehoof on a cleared patch of ground three times, sending small razors of rocks to slice through several wires. “It’s going to take a bit to make it safe to enter from here, not to mention the alarms I have to disable.”
Conrad scowled and looked to the men. “This might take some time, form a perimeter and stay frosty.” The men looked first at him, then at all the snow blowing around them.
While the operatives had enough professionalism to keep from groaning, Loki outright snickered at him. “You’re terrible at jokes, ya know?”
Conrad snorted, but otherwise ignored the comment. I hope Alex finds an alternate route in the chopper, or we’re going nowhere fast. He settled into a nook of ice to wait out Loki’s progress on the traps. We’ve got ten MLRSs scattered throughout the area and the entirety of Europe’s Comsat watching this mountain. If anyone tries to flee like that desert base back in Africa, we’ll have a tomahawk on it in five seconds flat. All we need to do is storm the place.
Deep beneath the frozen rock, Tzadavek was sweating profusely over a computer terminal as he hastily typed away. “Subspace Transmission coil… online. power plant… fully operational. Still need to wait for the capacitors.”
Pain shot through his spine and into every fiber of his being, causing him to double over. He forced himself to remain silent, even as every instinct wanted him to scream out in pain. His muscles bulged, his bones thickened and cracked to form new shapes. The light of intelligence started to leave his eyes as more animalistic thoughts tore away at his sanity.
He writhed in an otherwise empty chamber with no one to hear him scream until Whesker leapt from an open stairwell and rushed over to cup Tzadavek’s head in his hands. “I still have need of you, Overseer.”
The Herald, in Whesker’s body, tried to exert his control signal over the bulking Mion. He was having an affect, but it was painfully slow to act. Tzadavek fought through the pain to point a claw at the terminal. “It issss… ready for you, my Heraaaawwwwooo!”
Tzadavek howled out in pain and manic confusion as his mind faded away completely as the virus ran wild. All that was left by the time the Herald finally got his Overseer’s body under control was a hulking hungry behemoth. All it took from the Herald was a single probe of his mind to know there was little more to save. “Damn these wretched Terrans!” He heaved Tzadavek away from the computers and onto a long empty concrete floor. “Had I not been controlling this body when my shell was destroyed…” He trailed off as the computer screen’s command console caught his eye.
The screen was rather simple. A scattered few readouts proclaimed all systems green with a field for a message and transmission coordinates. A cruel vindictive grin crept across his face as he ignored Tzadavek, keeping only enough of his severely limited control to make sure the fallen Mion stayed away from any electronics. The Herald started tapping away at the console. “These Terrans think they’ve won. Pah. My masters offered them a kindness in sending me here, and this is the thanks I get? Once they receive my signal, the Golden Fleet will obliterate this damned world from existence!”
With the message he had prewritten selected, a triple check of the access code, and the space-time coordinates punched in, the Herald’s eyes glinted as he all but smashed the enter key. A small message popped up.
Coordinates locked. Powering subspace transmitter now…
“Good. The Algalon Failsafe is hardly the way I wanted to greet my creators, but better this, than failing them entirely.”
The Herald sat back and sighed in relief, keeping only enough psychic control over Tzadavek to keep him from moving. He slumped in his chair digging furrows in his scalp out of impotent rage. Damned humans, I never should have had to use this contingency plan. I underestimated them, badly. True, their technological development exceeded even the most extreme estimates my masters had, but I should have been able to handle it. After all, not only did I have the wisdom of my masters, but full use of human technology as well.
His mind wandered to the news reports several months ago. Even with their underestimated technological growth, they still didn’t have the power to reach my shell… not without magic. His eye idly watched the monitor’s command console execute thousands of lines of code that flashed past the screen too fast for his organic eyes to follow. Renewed hatred flashed through him at the loss of his grossly superior intellect. I don’t know where those equines came from, but the Koridost will no doubt want to thoroughly test my findings on mana.
No doubt I’ll be deactivated after this failure. An AI that’s trapped in an organic body? He ground his teeth and hung his head in absolute shame. Even if I must face my creators in such a shameful state, my directive is clear. The Herald rotated in his chair to give his last remaining Mion a cool stare. Such a pity. He alone might have convinced the masters to ascend him to their lowest of ranks.
A tiny, almost inaudible clink from above turned the Herald’s eyes upward. The chamber he was in was a vast hollow, carved from the mountain with metal and stone stairs running along the circular edge. He saw a faint glint of red light and several shadows along one particular side. Realization struck him, causing him to gasp in shock before several silenced flashes of light appeared. A split second later, the Herald was riddled with over two dozen bullets before three lucky shots caved his head in.
The Herald’s consciousness barely transferred into Tzadavek in time to avoid death. He hardly had two seconds to gather his wits before looking up to see one of the assailants heft a rocket launcher and fire at him. Using the serrated claws in his new hands and feet, the Herald tore at the ground in his haste to reach the stairwell. He grabbed the railing the instant the rocket exploded behind him. Shrapnel tore chunks off his flesh when the explosion failed to send him clear across the room. A hail of gunfire ripped across the stairs as he tumbled down them towards the transmitter. I have to protect it at all costs until the transmission is complete!
With the Herald on the run, and no other hostiles in sight, ropes fell to the ground as the human operatives repelled down. Conrad carried Loki down and was headed towards the stairs until she pointed at the computer terminal. “Wait, take me over there. I need to try and pull any records they have before they’re wiped!”
“Alright,” He bit down on his mouth radio. “Echo three, take the rest of the team down to finish off that runner, and anyone else you find. Avoid further collateral damage at all costs.”
The first human to hit the deck, brought his weapon to bear on the stairwell. “Roger, Echo One.”
As soon as Conrad was close enough, he dropped Loki to the ground who proceeded to sprint to the computer and shoved the body away. She snatched a flash drive from a pouch and jammed it into an open port. Scowling at the rapid text, Loki placed her hooves over the keyboard to try and stop whatever program was running.
Conrad took a close look at the dead Mion before taking up a defensive posture in case of ambush. “Looks like our intel was on the money. These are the same guys we’ve been chasing since Miami. Are you going to be able to save anything this time?”
Loki managed to slow the text scrawl enough to catch glimpses into the code. “I don’t think this is a data wipe…” Her throat caught as a few words struck fear into her. “Transmission, some physics mumbojumbo. Hold on, I’ve never seen coordinates with so many ... Wait a second! This isn’t a data center, this is some kind of communication center!” She turned to Conrad while trying to fish out a different flash drive. “Whoever ran off is trying to get a signal somewhere.”
“Weird coordinates?” Conrad’s brow furrowed as his thoughts darkened. “You don’t think that guy was trying to contact the Koridost, do you?”
“Oh fuck me sideways and call me Earl,” Loki freaked.
Doing what he did best, Conrad pulled out a pistol and leveled it at the computer, only for Loki to pull his aim up before he could fire. “No, no, no! Don’t it, bad idea!”
Conrad scowled at her and kept trying to point his gun at the computer. “Why not? We break it, the system goes down.”
“Cause my left flank is pinchy and my ears are wiggily! That means breaking something will be super bad news.”
Conrad shot Loki a glare that could melt iron. Loki’s determined and pleading pout eventually made him growl and put his gun down. Still the weirdest person I know. “How long do we have?”
Making sure he would behave, Loki returned to the screen to activate her next drive. “A minute, if we’re lucky. There’s not exactly a progress bar here.” She grunted in irritation. Every command she entered was blocked. “Damn it all, the whole program is locked until the transmission goes through.”
“As if you ever let that stop you before,” Conrad rebuked humorlessly.
“Yea… my magic,” Loki replied with far too much concern for Conrad’s liking.
Conrad tapped his radio. “Echo team, forget the Mion, he’s a decoy. Look for any sort of power generator or Communication or some sort of strange equipment and blow it to hell!”
Loki’s ears perked up at his comment, but missed the operative’s reply. “Generator? Duh, of course, you Green Goblin!” Loki rummaged around her pack and pulled out a red flash drive with ‘Kill Command’ written on it. “Conrad, I don’t have an opportunity to say this much, but you’re a genius!”
The pegasus arched an eyebrow as Loki jammed the drive home and waited for the virus to execute. “Thanks, I think. Did you come up with something?”
“Sure did. The security on the comm program and allocated resources are tighter than a penny pincher on Christmas, but I’m betting the rest of the network was largely overlooked. Whoever set all this up probably didn’t have the time, sooo…”
A predatory grin flashed across her muzzle as her virus worked its magic across the command console. Her mirth started dying rapidly the longer it took for the virus’ work to complete. A deep hum started to emanate from the ground as the subspace transmitter started to open a comm channel.
“This is Echo Three,” he was interrupted by constant gunfire and a mix of human and Mion cries of anger and pain. “The bastard’s not going down easy. He sealed himself inside a large room that was glowing like the sun. We’re trying to find another way in.”
Conrad swore under his breath as he grew increasingly concerned by Loki’s worried expression. “Keep at it, Echo Three!”
“Yes, sir.”
Both ponies started shivering where they stood as the hum grew louder and louder until it started rattling their teeth. Conrad felt the vibrations spike in frequency right up until all the lights cut out, and the hum abruptly ceased. The room remained dark for an eerie few moments before the emergency lights cut on. Most were so old that they burned out immediately, leaving the ponies with only a single light at the far top of the stairs.
“Ya da!” Loki shouted when the hum remained silent. “I think I did it!”
Conrad didn’t share her short lived optimism as he brought his low light vision goggles on. “What do you mean, you think? Did the transmission go out or not?”
“Err…” Loki tried to remember if the screen had told her. “I think I cut the power before that happened, but I can’t be sure.”
The ponies couldn’t shake the adrenaline rush out for a solid minute, causing Conrad to jump in fright when his radio crackled in his ear. “Echo One, this is Echo Three, target has been neutralized. He had no chance in the dark. We’re sweeping the area now for additional hostiles, but I think he was alone here.”
“Roger Echo Three, good work.” Conrad looked to Loki who couldn’t keep from rubbing her fore hooves together out of nervous energy. “I hope the tech teams that come in after us can tell us if you stopped it or not.”
Alexia stood in the center of the garden in her manor’s backyard barely three days after the raid on the Alps facility. A large swath of land had been cleared of trees to be replaced by several palm trees, and an assortment of various flowers ranging from sunflowers to roses were scattered between walkways cut into the shape of a healing array. At the center of the garden, almost as if a crown jewel, was a small crystalline sapling. The tiny tree was not even a foot high, but it was strong and proud as its prismatic leaves reached for the sun above.
Twilight Sparkle’s phantom stood beside the quiet silver alicorn as they gazed upon the sapling. Her image had been improved to replicate her coloration to the point where it was almost impossible to tell she wasn’t actually physically there. For the time being, Alexia was content to pretend.
“I still can’t believe it,” Twilight thought aloud, drawing Alexia’s attention. “To think that ponies, not nature, created a Tree of Harmony.” She looked to Alexia with a scholarly smile. “If this is how our tree came to be, it would shed some very important light on our own history.”
“Do… Do you think it might have been tainted by my nightmare episode? It formed from… us I guess, right after I calmed down.”
Twilight rubbed her chin with a wing while slowly walking around the sapling. “It doesn’t look like it. But then again…” Twilight studied the plant intently with both her eyes and magic. “I don’t think this is a Tree of Harmony, per say, but it is still a tree of power. As to what it reflects, I have no idea. In any event, the garden you’ve been tending to around it will certainly help it mature into a force of good.”
A rich smile danced over Alexia as she observed her garden with pride. “You like it? All I’ve ever really used my earth magic for was combat. So I wanted to do something more constructive, and,” she took a long deep breath of the pollen filled spring air. “I only wish I had discovered gardening sooner.”
I’m glad she’s finding more civil uses for magic. Twilight sidestepped the sapling to join her student and friend. “It’s a common hobby among ponies. Celestia has a castle garden as well, maybe you can see it sometime tomorrow, now that your last day in the CIA is finally over.”
Twilight’s wording piqued Alexia’s curiosity, making her refocus on her friend. “I would love nothing better but-”
Girlish squeals heralded two galloping alicorn fillies racing from the backdoor. Crimson watched from the door with Dusty on her back and a knowing grin across her muzzle. Alexia knelt down and opened her wings to catch her daughters as they barreled into her, giggling up a storm. “Did you girls have fun at preschool today?”
Violet blew a short raspberry. “Nou, it was boooring! I wanted to eat the flowars but mean boss lady said no all the time.”
Aurora jumped for joy at the suggestion. “Oooo! Ooo! I wanna eat flowars! Can we eat these now, pleeeeease!”
Before Alexia could reply, Twilight stepped over and spoke with a coy tone. “Your momma still needs to grow them, but how about I take all of you to an even bigger flower garden?”
The fillies squealed in delight, yet Alexia balked at the suggestion. “You take? But how?”
Twilight looked away to bring her own tome over to an unseen table. “I had multiple plans to help you cope with agelessness. Even though your daughters are a prime cure for that loneliness, I didn’t stop pursuing my own project.” Twilight set her tome on a device that looked for all the world to be a heavily glorified stand for a full length mirror. “I was planning on waiting to tell you this in a decade or so, but that sapling of yours is giving off enough ambient mana to finally allow… this!”
A bright teal light burst forth from Alexia’s tome, and molded itself into a hole in space the same shape as the mirror. Twilight’s phantom walked straight through it and, in a moment that Alexia would always remember, the purple princess set hoof on planet Earth. Alexia was dumbstruck to the point where her brain was misfiring out of joyful overload.
The fillies, on the other hand, belted off more happy squeals and bolted over to Twilight and proceeded to bounce up and down around a snickering Twilight. “I can’t keep the portal open for very long, but I can finally cross over.”
Twilight waited a moment for Alexia to gather her wits, but the poor mare was in dire need of a jump start. So Twilight walked over a gently nuzzled her, finally snapping Alexia back to the present. Alexia shed several tears before latching onto Twilight with both forelegs and wings. With a gentle grin that would make Celestia proud, Twilight wrapped her own wings around the joy struck alicorn.
Crimson was equally stunned by Twilight’s portal, but she was cut off from joining her alpha by Thompson himself when he laid a hand on her withers. She looked up at him in surprise while he studied the portal off in the distance, along with Alexia’s tender moment. “Director! what are you doing here?”
He remained outwardly emotionless towards the portal, but Crimson could see the gears churning in his head. “I came in to personally wish all of you good luck on your herd’s retirement from Section Nine. I had Jackson bring you all a cake. Yet before all that, we need to get down to brass tacks. The tech teams finished their preliminary findings of the Alps operation. I know your security clearance will be downgraded starting tomorrow, but I felt the four of you deserved to know.”
Crimson’s ears wilted slightly when the Director’s voice didn’t brighten. “So I take it there’s some really bad news.”
He sighed, and turned away from the portal for the moment, and affixed the earth mare with a calculated neutral expression. “More like indeterminable news, which can be just as bad if not worse. I’m having a more in-depth analysis already underway, but so far we know that the facility was a comms station. Far beyond anything we have. Command and the Joint Chiefs are in agreement that those Mions were trying to get a message out to the Koridost. What we don’t know is whether or not the message they were trying to send got out, let alone received. Our best minds are scratching their heads at how the transmitter even works, let alone if it fired off a flare or not. I’m hoping the computer techs will give me a clearer answer. The only thing we’re sure of, is that there were no records, deleted or otherwise, that shows the facility had been in use prior to the raid.”
“But that’s still good in another way, right?” Crimson added optimistically. “That means they have been unable to send a signal up until now, and that group was the last reported intelligent Mions left, correct?”
“As far as we know,” Thompson admitted with a curt nod. He leaned against the wall while crossing his arms and drumming his fingers. “The good news is twofold. The first is obvious. We managed to acquire an intact communication device so far beyond our technology that scientists are going to wet themselves over the chance to study it. Secondly, the techs did in fact, pull the complete transmission coordinates from the servers.”
Crimson saw a flash of vindictive victory in the man’s eyes for a brief moment. “So now we know where to look for incoming ships.”
He cast a slightly dissapointed look her way. “Assuming they use a propulsion method that would actually give us any real sort of advanced notice. I don’t think they’d bother using a second virus sphere. However…” His gaze returned to the portal. “There might be a better opportunity to defend ourselves.”
Crimson followed his gaze. She thought he was focusing on Twilight Sparkle and Alexia. “Such as?”
Thompson’s eyes moved back over to Twilight and her portal. “Princess Twilight Sparkle…” he trailed off with concealed astonishment. “So she’s actually physically here.” Crimson nodded slightly. “That changes things.”
“Very much so,” Crimson agreed. She started pawing the wooden deck nervously on how he would take the existence of the portal. I hope he doesn’t try anything crazy. He knows what Alexia will and will not accept. I hope.
Thompson huffed in appreciation, and shot Twilight a short salute, even though the mare wasn’t watching to see it. “If Twilight could open a portal to cover the distance between our two worlds, then maybe we could do the same to whatever planet the Koridost are based at in that star system.”
Understanding caused a vengeful sneer to mar Crimson’s features. The idea of enacting revenge upon the Mions’ alien masters was seductive. “And take the fight to the assholes who tried to wipe us all out.”
“The Koridost didn’t even have the god damned common courtesy to do it themselves,” Thompson added in an equally acidic tone. “I won’t ask Princess Twilight to give us this technology… directly anyway.” He turned to Crimson with all of his command authority. “Which is why I’m asking you to do that. I suspect you or Alexia would have far more pull over the subject than I would.”
“I understand, sir. I doubt she’ll refuse after all we’ve done to save our world.”
“I suspect as much.” Thompson made to leave, but stopped short of the door. “Make this request shortly. I’ll need to draw up a report about this portal to my superiors regardless of Twilight’s decision. Her cooperation would be the final bit of leverage we need to keep everyone in Washington from trying to press any of you back into service against your will.”
“I wish I shared your optimism, Director, but I agree with your plan in any event. I’ll make sure Twilight sees it our way.” She watched him go, spying in the corner of her eye that Dusty had remained asleep on her back during the whole conversation. Well, before I inform Twilight of Thompson’s request, I want to enjoy Twilight’s company for a while.
The mare in question was snort-laughing at the fillies’ attempts to play pirate robot robbers while acting like their mother was Loot Mountain, and were trying to climb all over top of her to touch Alexia’s horn. An event Crimson hardly wanted to interrupt with shop-talk. It can wait a bit.
Back on Equis, Discord lounged on a waterbed in his little corner of chaos in the northern mountains. The bed had an outer lining of hard liquid water keeping a core of sloshy plastic in the center. He was sipping Chardonnay through a silly straw while he watched the Earth from his crystal ball. “Well, it seems as though my plan worked beautifully! Not only did I,” he said with a dramatic flourish that would send Rarity in a tizzy, “The Great and Benevolent Discord save an intelligent, and delightfully chaotic, species from the brink of death, but I also managed to create some less harmonious ponies in the process.
A victory if ever there was one.” He tossed his glass away to spin the crystal ball. “To think Purple Smart beat me to it in fully manifesting on their world. Poo…” He soured in disappointment, only to spring right back up to jolly. “Ah well, let her have her fun, and I’ll have mine. I think I’ll see those two little whippersnappers of Alexia’s a little later when things get too boring around there. In the meantime though…”
The crystal ball came to a sudden halt when a new world caught his eye. “Let’s see what other good deeds I can pin to my belt. Ohh, that starship captain looks like an interesting fellow.” A mischievous chuckle resounded throughout the cavern as Discord toiled on how to reveal himself to his unwitting new playmate.
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Looks like things are starting to come to a close. I really hope that there is another sequel after this though as things are looking interesting. Plus I want to see Loki meet Pinkie Pie
5130613 I wonder if the space captain was a Koridost captain. Maybe the leader of whatever fleet will be sent to Earth. And I wonder how Discord will 'help' him.
Yay for portals!
They still don't have an ironiciconic name for the tree? We guess that's ok, "Tree of Terranity" does sound pretty dumb...
Keep going! ;)
5130693 Dollars to donuts that the captain was Jean Luc Picard, who John De Lancie (Discord's VA) trolled quite often as Q
bonded is not the correct word for your title, what your looking for is "Bound" i think.
I'm betting there's gonna be a third section as well, for the revenge.
Awesome story! I'm gonna be re-reading this once it's done~
OOooh.... that cliff-hanger tier suspension of not knowing if the signal was launched or not....
5130890
There have been many parallels made between Q and Discord aside from the common actor
5131157
Nope. A bound is a jump. The word this verb comes from is bond.
Discord, no. No Discord. You can't mess with Captain Kirk, nor can you disguise yourself as Q and he's gone.
I liked this story, and sincerely hope for more!
5133403 Picard not kirk
Ooh my. That reference. Not bad, so twilight can zippitty zoop between worlds using the eqg mirror? Fancy as fuck. I, for one, doubt that twilight would be as pro revenge as the rest of them are. You know, peace and harmony and all that, but we'll see I suppose.
Wow, it looks like things will not be in dire need after all and what's more, is this going to be the birth of Equestria on Earth setting or will that still be secret until the magic on Earth gets much better. Though I don't think they can reach the Koridost's planet if don't they have magic on their own world, but they heroes have every right to fear them since they managed to break the mold and if someone breaks another person's rules then they will personally come to visit that someone and try to fix the problem.
freaking chaotic cliffchanger.
Great chapter but we need Twilight time with Alexias herd
Also... Golden fleet... Protos maybe ? or just a reference to Starcraft hm?
And then Discord saves Captain Kirk from death just in time to teleport him into an alternate reality where there are two Mr. Spocks...
5135187 hey I said maybe and who knows maybe they are the bastardized version
5131157
Bonded as in they were bound by fire - past tense - as they did go through enough shit in the first book to definitely qualify, IMO.
It works, though "Bound by Fire" does as well.
Nice WoW reference.
Oh you sneaky bastard... Come here and give me a hug.
Great fic. I've read this and the first arc. And I really hope there is a third arc to the Tune herd story. I love every moment. Keep this going. Can't wait for more!
OH GOD! I see what you did there. Transmitting Reply Code Omega and requesting for Reorigination, eh?
A Tree of Harmony eh? Well when the Koridost eventually arrive – come on, we all know they will – it'll be a perfect chance for them to get a taste of the Orbital Friendship Cannon. Lets see their 'hyperadvanced technology' protect them from that. Or whatever their version of the Elements will be.
A portal to the Koridost? Even better. Bring the Orbital Friendship Cannon to their doorstep.
Yes! Kill their women and children! Kill thier entire race! Kill them all! Use nukes, use magical enhanced nukes! Hell, they could probably get a ton of anti-matter via magic and and drop it in their solar system! Get Celestia to get their starto go super nova! Kill them all!
I love Purple Smart. Such a cute nick name for Twilight.
And please tell me that Discord isn't about to go Q on a version of Picard...
Fits though, since it's the same actor
6312574 Discord was even based on Q if I remember right, so it makes even more sense then you think.
7004165 that relationship is why Hasbro approved his character.