Chapter 8: The Ace of Spades
Slipping his limbs into the tyvek suit, Johnny Conway quickly yanked the zipper up his chest and pulled the respirator over his face. His heart pounding, he nearly sprinted out of his quarters and towards the stairs. Originally he would have taken the elevator, but due to the propeller’s failure Horizon found herself crashing into the ground a lot harder than they expected, thus damaging the elevators in the process.
Johnny pushed open the stairwell doors and began making his way down to the airlock, stepping through and letting the doors shut behind him. He gave the order for the outer door to open, causing the sound of clanking metal to echo throughout the small chamber as the door slowly hissed open, revealing a world of darkness.
Johnny was practically dripping with anticipation as his hand slowly clamped around the edge the ship, his head slowly edging itself out as he craned his neck around the opening. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness he could see the outlines of trees and shrubbery that surrounded the ship with their ghastly branches. Not too far away, he could hear the bustling activity of crew members and soldiers moving about, already unloading the ship’s cargo. To his left, Johnny could hear the grinding, hissing gears followed up by the steady thumping of a panzer stomping its way towards him.
“Excuse me sir,” a loud, nearly robotic voice said as a large metallic foot, the width of a small car, came smashing down a few feet in front of John, its foot sinking into the mud.
Johnny nearly fell face first at the sight of the foot, and its sudden proximity towards him. His hands tightened around the edge of the ship. The foot then lifted and the pilot continued his patrol down the side of the ship. John took a deep breath, releasing his grip as he jumped down to the ground a few feet lower than the doorway. Upon landing on the ground, his feet slid a little on the damp mud. John paused, the mud taking the shape of the bottom of his shoe felt alien to him. It was nothing like the hard metal floors on the ship. John hadn’t walked on mud in what felt like years.
Regaining his balance, Johnny carefully followed behind the lumbering mech. “Hey!” John called up to the pilot, but whomever was in there didn’t hear him. He called again, this time gaining the pilot's attention. The head of the mech turned and glanced down at Johnny, who was only able to keep up by jogging.
“What do you need, sir?”
The pilot slowed the mech, allowing the officer to briskly walk alongside him. “Have you heard back from Sergeant Conway and his squad?”
The two walked for a few moments, allowing the pilot to think before responding. “Matter of fact I have, sir. His team should be showing up in a matter of a few minutes. Head to the clearing up ahead. That’s where they should be coming in. Now if you would excuse me sir.” The mech began to speed back up. “I’ve been ordered by the admiral himself to patrol the area, and he won’t be happy if he finds out that I’m wasting my time talking. No offense meant to you, sir.”
“You do that then,” John yelled to the mech but it was already too far away to hear him. Doing as the pilot suggested, John made his way to the small clearing just outside the hangar bay’s massive hatches. Inside the hangar the doors that lead to the rest of interior have been air sealed to keep the crew isolated from the pathogen that had been confirmed to be floating around outside. The clearing itself was brightly lit with large construction lights scattering about the area, already some crew members had managed to pitch a few tents that were being used to protect the outside equipment. In the center of it all however was the command tent, seeing his new objective Johnny walked towards the tent.
Pushing the flap open John was greeted by Chief Engineer Ronald Davis, and Chairman Richard Carmichael who was assisting in the planning phase of the reconstruction. Both men were standing in the center around a large table with a make shift map that was printed off one of Horizon’s computers. The map was cluttered with tacks and rubber bands, just by the sight John could see that the two men had been working for a while now.
“What I’m saying, sir,” Ronald said dragging his finger across the map away from Horizon, which was indicated by a large red cup. “We should build away from the native settlement.”
“Who cares about the natives, Ron?” Richard sighed. “We came first before them, and I say we stay where we are now!” His finger came down hard on the map. “We have a healthy supply of water and trees, and we’re right by the mountains. We can use them when we begin our mining industry.”
Ron raised an eyebrow. “Who said we’re going to start a... nevermind, we have no clue if these mountains even bare any useful ores, sir.” Ron scratched the back of his neck. “But you’re not seeing my point, we aren’t supposed to even be in this thick of the woods, matter of fact we should be further down south. If we stay here and things go off without a hitch, what happens when we wake the others and our population booms by the thousands?”
Richard shook his head. “So what if we’re going to have problems with the locals! What are they going to do? They probably haven’t even invented the wheel yet for Christ’s sake!”
Ron immediately face-palmed. “Who in the right mind paired me with this idiot,” He mumbled.
Richard went to say something but was stopped by Johnny clearing his throat. “Pardon me, guys, but have you happened to see Sergeant Conway around here?”
Both men stared at John as if he was some sort of ghost. “Eh...” Ron and Richard shared a look with each other .”No not yet, they’re probably at the Jap’s storage cooler, if not, they’re probably on their way back now.”
Johnny nodded his head. “Alright, thanks,” He said as he ducked his head through and out the tent flap again. John stepped back outside his face nearly colliding with a stray soldier's chest.
“Hey watch it!” The soldier snapped and went to push him out of the way, but stopped when he noticed John’s face. The man immediately changed attitudes and saluted. “My apologies, sir.”
John shook his head. “It’s alright, have you seen Sergeant Conway?”
The soldier brought his hand down. “Yeah, him and his squad just arrived not even a minute ago with the infiltrators in tow. You’ll find them right over there.” The soldier pointed in the direction where a large set of tables and equipment were located.
“Thanks,” John said and turned to leave, he stopped. “Wait.” He looked back at the man. “They brought them back?”
“Yeah,” The soldier replied. “Under Dr. Hassel’s orders. The crazy twat thinks we can learn something from these horses. Possibly a vaccine for the pathogen and maybe even these creature’s language.”
“For fuck's sake!” Johnny turned and stomped away. “Not even one day and we’re already abducting people!”
:[-]:
“Come on people, make some room!” Shouted Arin Conway waving his arms, trying to make some room for the five armed men that were carrying four armored, unconscious, and restrained equines.
As the men entered the clearing, all around; soldiers, engineers, and scientists, dropped what they were doing and crowded around them, each driven by curiosity.
“Seriously people, move out of the way!” Arin shouted this time.
Johnny Conway being one of the last people on scene fought his way through the crowd. “Arin!” He shouted but went unheard. “Arin!” He called again, “What the fuck are you doing?” John gently pushed past a scientist and stepped in front of his younger sibling.
Arin took a step back, shocked at his brother’s sudden outburst and appearance, quickly recovering he frowned. “I’m following orders that's all. After incapacitating four of the five infiltrators, Hassel ordered us to bring them back for examination.”
Johnny’s mouth fell open. “Examination? Jesus, Arin, this is abduction!” John shot a hand out towards the unconscious equines, that were now lying on the ground. “And what do you mean four of the five?”
Arin looked back at his squad mates who were standing there watching the two, he motioned for them to move on ahead. Nodding their heads the men hoisted the creatures into their arms carrying them ahead. “Look,” Arin said staring John in the eyes, “I’m not too fond of this idea either, but if Hassel’s right, he and his men might be able to figure out what the fuck is up with the air, and hell when they do they might be able to fix this.”
“You haven’t answered my question yet.” Johnny’s face hadn’t changed, his eyes were still and a his brow formed massive crevices just above them. “Where’s the fifth?” He asked.
Arin sighed and broke eye contact. The crowd around them began to disperse and return to their previous activities. “It got away and flew back to the settlement.”
“Ah for fuck's sake!” John turned away his hand covering his eyes. “Watson isn’t going to be happy at all.”
“Come on, John, it can’t be that ba–”
“Can’t be that bad? Are you fucking kidding me?!” He spun back and spat, “We haven’t spent a day on this rock and we’re already attacking and abducting natives!”
“We didn’t attack them! They broke into the Japanese storage cooler!” Arin said, trying to defend his actions.
Johnny gave Arin an unimpressed look and cocked an eyebrow. “Impossible. Nothing can break through a three foot steel door, not unless they hacked into the module or produced a key card.”
“I’m not yanking your chain, John, somehow they got in.”
Johnny rubbed the back of his head. “So what now? One escaped and is now probably alerting the herd.”
Arin shrugged. “We just carry on with what we’re doing, and if worst comes to worst...” He sighed, stepped past John and began walking to the ship. “I dunno... what the hell is a species that hasn’t even invented the wheel yet gonna do anyways?”
:[-]:
Forty five minutes had passed since the hostages' arrival, at least that’s what John saw them as. He was sitting in a chair right outside the door to the research department, his eyes drooping, he forced himself to stay awake. He hadn’t slept in what felt like years, but in all reality it had only been a few days; Johnny continued to sit in the chair waiting for Dr. Hassel to get back from his short errand he was running.
He was waiting outside the door because the good ol' doctor wanted him to participate in a little “experiment” he had planned since the arrival of the “specimens”. Quite honestly John didn’t see why the doctor needed him when he could just use anyone else, but he didn’t mind. The old geezer did tell him that it wasn’t anything that involved too much work, and it would provide him with something more interesting besides sitting in a chair watching a transparent globe spin around.
The sound of shoes clanging against metal stairs made its way to John’s ears. His head perked up at the sight of Hassel coming down the small staircase to his right, rising up from his seat he saw the senior carrying a box full of wires and other pieces of technology.
“Ah, Officer Convay, glad to see you made it, here take zese–” Hassel shoved the box of electronics into his arms and immediately whipped out his key card and began entering the code for the door. “Don’t vorry about zee specimens zay are already in zee containment room.”
“Eh, okay, uh so what do you need–” Before John could finish the door slid open and Hassel hurriedly walked in, again John John was interrupted by two guards in uniforms and loaded rifles that passed by him and followed Hassel into the room. “–whoa, whoa what’s with the grunts?” John quickly stepped in before the door closed on him.
The lab was dark and empty mainly because it was after hours and the lab coats were either off sleeping or working outside, the light issue however was quickly solved by Hassel flicking the nearby switch.
“Zey are just a precautionary measure Officer Convay.” John placed the box on a white table filled with built in sinks, microscopes, beakers, and many various types of equipment.
“I thought you said this wasn’t going to be dangerous,” Johnny said, his eyes starting to wander around the room. The room was filled with multiple rows with a similar type of table he had just set Hassel’s items on, along with computers, shelves that held files, and jars that were waiting to be filled. However, In the far back the lab were two sets of doors each leading to a multitude of rooms. One of those doors was in the process of being opened by Hassel, the largest door of the four that was second to the right.
“Heh,” Hassel chuckled as he punched a code into the door panel and glanced at the guards behind him. “Zere is no vay to predict zat, Officer Convay.” The door slid open and Hassel walked in, the two guardsmen following shortly behind. Johnny stood in the center of the lab debating on whether this was a good idea or not. Deep in his chest he knew it wasn't. He stole a quick glance back at the exit wondering if he could still back out, but he knew it wouldn’t be worth it. John closed his eyes, sucked in a deep breath and forced himself to follow Hassel.
“This better be worth it.”
:[-]:
“I’m telling you, Officer convay,” Hassel turned the lights on, and locked the door behind them so that no one would disturb them. “Zat zee short period of time I has had vith zese creatures vas truly remarkable.” Hassel was beaming with joy while quickly moving about the room; cleaning off his desk, flipping switches on a control panel. The whole time the old man held a slightly crazed look in his eyes, he placed the box of electronics on the desk and smiled.
The room the two men, along with the guards, stood in was rather small, matter of fact it appeared to be an office. Yet it wasn’t really, Hassel’s desk was pushed up against a wall that held a window, through the glass Johnny could see a white room with a lone white table and chair. Beside the desk were speakers and above that were monitors, displaying colored charts and graphs that held no data yet, he supposed. On the table below and beside all the geek tech were four T.V.s that showed off camera footage broadcasting from each corner of what John could only guess was an interrogation room. They were in an observation room.
John noticed that while his eyes ventured around his surroundings the doctor had been rambling the entire time. “–I been vanting to run zee CT Scan on zem but vith all zee ozers resting, I haven’t been able to. Vich is a shame...” Hassel’s mind ventured off for a brief moment, then he grinned. “But if zere is one sing I haf learned about zem, Officer Convay, is zat just like vee humans. Zay haf races!”
“Races what?” Johnny finally tuned in. “You mean like relays?”
Hassel gave John a dead look, the two guards by the door snickered. “Fery funny, Convay.” Hassel took a seat at his desk. “But zat is not vat I meant, vat I mean is zat just like how vee haf vites und blacks, zese equines haf... hm, how should I put zis. From vat Sergeant Convay brought back, I vas able to take a blood sample from two specimens. One bearing resemblances to bats, and zee ozer one zat bared normal equine traits, safe for zee horn zat is.”
“And what did you uncover?” John was beginning to grow impatient.
Hassel beamed. “Zere zee exact same species! Judging by zere appearances, with zee bat’s larger eyes, and its darker colors, I’m able to conclude zat zis specimen must be nocturnal in nature. But vat really intrigues me is its eyes, zere slits! I vonder why...” The doctor's smile widened even more, the corners of his lips carving massive wrinkles into his already cracking cheeks.
“You’re not going to cut them open doctor, these are sapient creatures here.” John wrapped his arms like he use to whenever he was disappointed in his daughter. “For all we know they’re terrified beyond belief.”
Hassel waved an arm to the side. “Bah! No one vill know zey vere even gone.” He chuckled. “Especially ven vee are done vith zem.”
John cocked an eyebrow, his mouth slowly falling open. “Eh, yeah... Doc? I think you’re taking this discovery a little too far.”
Hassel laughed out loud. “Don’t vorry, John my boy, I’m only playing. Now!” He nearly shouted the last word. “Time vee start zee experiment don’t you sink?”
Johnny lightened up a little bit. “Finally. What do you need me to do?”
Hassel looked out the window and into the other room, his right eye still trained on the officer. “I vant you to go in zere and talk to it.”
Johnny’s face fell immediately. “Really? That’s it?”
Hassel nodded his head, and pulled open a drawer to his left. He reached in. “Also–” He grabbed out a pack of cards. “I want you to take these.”
John took the pack and opened it, just like the cover showed, it was just an ordinary deck of cards. “You want me to play cards with it?”
“Somesink like zat.” Hassel bent back over the drawer and took out a pair of headphones and placed them on the desk near the speakers. “I Vant to see if vee can use zis as some form of communication, via symbols, pictures, zat sort of sing.”
Johnny shrugged. “I guess I can see where you're coming from, doc. But how do we know if this thing will even understand what we’re trying to do?”
“Vee don’t,” Hassel said rather enthusiastically, “and zat is zee fun part!” He rose up from his chair, grabbed the electronics, and turned towards the guards, he pointed at the rather largely built man on the right. “You zere, come vith me, and Convay–” Hassel turned around. “–vait in zat room vith zis lad.” He pointed at the smaller guard on the left.
John nodded, watching as Hassel and his guard left through the door they came in. The smaller guard cleared his throat. “Permission to speak sir?”
“Permission granted, what is it private?” John glanced at the boy, the kid literally looked like he wasn’t even a few days out of camp. His bright blue eyes were small, his figure in general was small, everything about him was small. If it wasn’t for his uniform and gear the lad at first glance would have appeared anorexic to John.
“Do you think this is a great idea?” He asked, his voice having a slight feminine tang to it.
“Can’t say I do.” John glanced around. “Quite honestly I don’t want to go in that small ass room with whatever Hassel’s about to bring out.” He chuckled nervously.
The kid giggled. “I can agree with you there, sir.”
John smiled. “Hey, at least you got a gun.”
He gave a small smile and shrugged his shoulders. “It helps I guess.” The boy frowned, his eyes wandering down his uniform. “Say sir,” He spoke up, “If you’d like I can lend you my sidearm.”
Johnny thought about it for a moment. Looking back at the small room he was about to be locked in, Hassel would be back any moment with the test subject. “Yeah, hand it over please.” He turned to see the small boy was already holding the nine millimeter in his palm.
Johnny grabbed the gun, as he pulled back though, he noticed how boney the boy’s hands were. “Say, private,” Johnny said as he instinctively took the magazine out to check how much ammo he had, “what’s your name?”
“Susan Walker,” He(she) said, “can I ask why?”
Ramming the mag in; John’s face distorted into confusion, then realization, and finally embarrassment. “Oh...” He mouthed never taking his eyes off the gun.
“Is something wrong, sir?” Susan asked.
He couldn’t believe he'd mistook this soldier for a young man. Looking at her now, Johnny couldn’t really see this as a surprise for her, it was highly likely that this wasn’t the first time either. As long as he kept his cool he would hopefully be able to avoid an awkward conversation.
Johnny quickly regained his composure and smiled. “No, not at all. I was just thinking about what I’m going to say when I’m putting in a nice report for you.”
The girl’s face immediately lit up. “R-really?!” She said, her eyes filled with joy, “I mean–” she cleared her throat and nodded her head. “Thank you, sir.”
“Thank you.” John corrected her, “Because of you I feel much safer.” He buried the gun in his back pocket and turned to the door. Inside the room he could see Hassel already hooking an equine up with a multitude of wires he had gotten from the box he had been carrying. “Well,” he said looking back. “Can’t keep the good doctor waiting any longer.”
:[-]:
The room's bright walls nearly blinded the poor officer, from inside the office, the room appeared to be a lot dimmer. He soon realized why, as he took note of the tinted windows. John squinted his eyes, letting them slowly adjust to his environment. He sat in a small metal chair beside a cold metal table; his elbow resting on it, his head in his palm, while his free hand toyed with the deck of cards.
Opposite of him was a grey equine with a horn protruding from its head. Its massive eyes were closed, head hung low, and legs restrained, somehow, Hassel and the guard had gotten it into a larger chair. The equine sat there unconscious, at least at the moment. Before Hassel went back into the office, he had told John and the two guards standing at the door, that he had injected the equine with something that’d help wake it up.
After that it was time to start playing the waiting game. Ten minutes had passed. Nothing had happened, John was beginning to think this was all a waste of time. That is until their little friend began to stir and snort itself awake. Its gigantic eyelids fluttered open, its eyes held a look of calmness, then confusion struck. Quickly raising its head the equine made a sound that added to its confused state, and it began to look around the room. First at the two guards, then the cameras, the walls, and finally John.
John’s eyebrow was raised, a frown firmly planted on his face, the equine's eyes were at a comical size when they met his. Its lower lip began to twitch, trying to move its legs, the equine realized it was in restraints, grunting, it tried to pull itself free. No luck, it tried again, same results.
The inner-com above the door chirped. “Sorry to bother you Officer Convay, but vee do not haf all day.”
Sighing, John lifted his head off the palm of his hand and released the deck of cards. Popping his neck he lowered both hands onto his lap and straightened himself out. “Okay,” He mumbled quietly, watching the equine that was trying to figure out where the loud mysterious voice came from. “Where do we begin?” He asked no one in particular.
Immediately the equine's eyes locked on Johnny’s, its eyes shrinking, even more, it tried to move again but the restraints held. The equine made more sounds as if it was trying to speak to John, while doing so it glanced over his shoulders and watched the two guards by the only exit.
Johnny took note of this and scooched his chair into its line of sight, blocking the view of the door. He took a deep breath and shook his head, raising a single, open hand he spoke softly, “Hello there,” he waved his hand side to side. The equine stopped its struggling, its eyes matching up again with John's the softness of his voice immediately calming it. He smirked. “My name.” John tapped his chest with his index finger and spoke slowly, “Jon-a-than. Con-way.”
The equine tilted its head and looked at John stupidly while he repeated the gesture a few more times. Johnny sighed once again and rested his arm onto the table. “This is a waste of time,” He said to himself, “we aren’t going to get anywhere with this.”
“Joh.” The equine muttered, John raised an eyebrow.
“Excuse me?” He said, wondering if the creature was just muttering to itself or actually trying to say his name.
The equine nodded his head. “Joh?” It said again more questioningly.
Johnny smirked. “Heh, maybe we are getting somewhere.” He planted his hand back on his chest. “My name is Jon-a-than.”
“Jonethun?”
He shrugged and leant back in his chair. “Close enough.” John thought for a moment, leaning back forward he pointed at the horse. “What is your name?” He asked.
Again the equine gave him a look as if it didn’t understand, Johnny lowered his arm onto the table. Breaking eye contact he stared at the metal surface trying to figure out a way to get this creature to understand him. He looked back to the horse, he purposefully made a confused expression and pointed at the equine and shrugged. That didn’t work either. Johnny ran a hand across the top of his head, the rough sensation of his buzz cut sending a chill through his fingers. He let out a deep breath, and let his eyes wander across the table as he went deep into thought, in doing so he noticed something in particular.
The deck of cards.
An idea sparked from within him. It wasn’t anything special, probably something that wouldn’t even advance Hassel’s studies, but instead it would give John a chuckle or two, to brighten things up.
He’s going to show this little creature a magic trick.
Snatching the deck of cards off the table John undid the packaging and gently, so that he wouldn’t have to play fifty two pickup, slid the cards into his hand. The equine watched him with a curious eye the entire time.
Throwing the empty box aside John placed the deck on the table, now John wasn't always great when it came to games. That would’ve been his father’s specialty, the old man always knew how to wow a small crowd whenever he had a deck in public. Over the years John was able to pick up a few tricks and techniques, nothing really applause worthy, but just a bit that helped get him through basic training.
Flashing the equine a tooth filled grin, Johnny whipped three cards off the top of the deck and laid them face down out in front of it. Opening both arms out wide he gestured to the confused animal pick a card. Surprisingly the equine caught on rather quickly, without the help of its legs the horse nodded to the center card.
Johnny’s smile widened as he snatched the card in between his middle and ring finger, bringing his arm back fast enough that he was able to catch a glance at what it was. The Ace of Spades, thankfully the pony hadn’t noticed, then again it probably didn’t even know what was going on. John faced the image on the card towards the horse, he held it there for half a minute allowing the equine to engrave it into its memory.
Nodding his head Johnny gathered the other two cards and threw them into the deck. Hoping that his memory serves him well, Johnny began to shuffle the deck, even though he should’ve been focused on the shuffling so that he wouldn’t mess up, John decided to take a quick peek at his audience. As of yet, the equine’s face was contorted into something rather amusing.
Its lips were pursed, eyes half lidded, and its head was tilted whilst leaning in closely for a better look. Johnny’s hands moved swiftly and efficiently, splitting the deck into two, he placed both halves across from each other and quickly riffle shuffled the two decks into one. This caught the equines full interest.
Once the two decks had become one. Johnny slowly, for suspense, placed the deck out in front of him. Opening his hand out wide he, ever so slowly, reached for the top card. Knowing that, so he hoped, it was the equine’s Ace of Spades. He grasped the corner of the card and lifted it upwards, the image reflecting the light off its painted surface.
Squinting its eyes a picture of a black arrowhead like figure came into view along with the letter A in the top corner. As it dawned on the slack jawed creature, its eyes widened and immediately looked at Johnny.
He dropped the card that glided smoothly onto the table’s surface, the officer was struck by a fit of light laughter as he sat back in his chair. The creature’s face alone was priceless, the equine broke contact, its eyes focused on the lone card with sudden interest. Squinting its eyes the pony watched the flat piece intently, the corners of its mouth curving into a frown.
Johnny, who was still laughing, stopped abruptly when he noticed a faint hum in the air and a tingling sensation deep in his gut. It felt as if he had butterflies all of sudden flapping around down there, he always hated that feeling. Immediately he was struck with confusion, his mouth fell along with the rest of his features. Another feeling in his gut told him to leave right now! Looking back at the two guards, he noticed both shared a similar look with him, diverting back to the equine he saw just how concentrated it was on the card.
Its features twitching occasionally, the hum was growing louder now, Johnny had a sudden headache, the feeling in his gut was growing worse. Something bad was happening, whatever it was he needed to leave. Now.
Johnny rose from the chair, never taking his eyes off the horse. He had an idea that whatever was happening it was coming from that thing. Johnny cringed as a sudden surge of pain formed in his skull, behind him he heard the guards groan too. The headache had turned into a migraine, the tingling feeling had turned into nausea. He felt like he was going to throw up.
The hum began to crescendo into something much bigger, his ears began to ring and it felt as if they were going to bleed. It was beginning to drive him mad!
“Hassel!” John cried. “Open the door!” He turned to the one way window, to him it only appeared as a mirror. But he knew Hassel could see them, Johnny stumbled to the mirror and pounded his fist against it. The guards had begun trying to force the door open. “Open the door!” He pleaded, the nausea and the stinging pain forced his eyes to water. “Open the goddamn door!” John repeatedly pounded his fist against the window. His own voice going completely unheard by the deafening hum that tormented his ears. The hum grew into a high pitched ringing that forced tears to roll down his cheeks, the nausea caused his knees to buckle, his vision blurred and John felt as if he was going to faint. Clutching a hand to his stomach John let out a pain filled cry for help.
Abruptly, the sound ceased.
A bright green flash of light, followed by a terrifying sound of twisting metal reached their ears. Playing cards were scattered across the room, a few landing beside the three humans that held their backs against the wall. Their eyes focused on the one creature standing in the center of the room, what was once the metal table, was now a hunk of shredded scrap metal. The restraints that kept the creature from moving laid charred and burnt just below its hooves, the chairs they sat in were strung across the room in pieces.
And floating in front of its terrified face, wrapped in a green magical glow. Was The Ace of Spades.
Editor's Notes:
Am I the only one still doing this.....? Well, if the editors' notes aren't here another time I won't do it again. Even though I know how much ya'll love the sou-...... text of my voi-.......... my eloquently put opinions/advice on life.
KISSES.
Anywho (that IS a word), I'm happy to finally see first contact, even though it's a little limited right now, but lord knows shit's going to hit the fan soon enough, and I'll be there, munching on popcorn and laughing maniacally the whole while. And it will be beautiful. Once again, I am going to futilely remind people that I'll be at Nan Desu Kan in a vain attempt to...... actually I'm not too sure why I'm doing it.... whatever, hit up "Star Swirl the Bearded's Journal Entry 6-13" for that info.
Last thing, Dark, PLEASE BE CONSIDERATE FOR DESTINY ON THE 9TH FOR ME. IMMA BE A HERMIT .Also, I will be busy with NDK that weekend so... yeah. I mean I'll still pull through for a chapter if you need me to (I'm just that amazing).
Peace.
Stats
Page generated in 0.031 seconds
Total duration
998 users online
66,727 hits today, 2,054,621 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.®
FIRST!........ I hate myself so much right now.
Who here is also gonna hermit on the 9th
Cause I am
Same here, bro. The Echbox 360 will bemoan all the times it signed me out of XBL.
4955507
Someone seriously down-voted my obviously sarcastic remark....?
quickmeme.com/img/00/00e3277b06cfb0c4f4761b3fb2fbcda6b1f5dbf36fe8fb8d86835579767f9be7.jpg
What Hassel is thinking at the moment and seemingly not caring about what's happening to the people in that room.
I get the feeling this will happen in the future if one of the humans die and Hassel operates on them.
4955581 No, because you were the person that has to say "first" because being the "first" to comment is just stupid.
4955507 999999999999th
4955800 Oy, show some respect for one of the Editors, eh?
4955751
Right, I guess I'll explain this. I was aiming for a tiny satirical piece of humor here about the whole "First" comment thing, because in the end, it doesn't matter. There will be a number of comments that will be posted here that will bury this beneath all the relevant and irrelevant conversations taking place. I don't know what your reasoning is for thinking "First" is a stupid comment despite this. If it's because it has nothing to do with the source material this comment thread is about, then you'd most likely think that all other comments not referencing the story are stupid as well, including your own referencing back to this. But, keep in mind, this is the internet, irrelevance is as commonplace here as porn (rule 34). Getting mad about it won't do anything, neither will down-voting it, especially if the comment itself is poking fun at the very thing you dislike. You could be mad that I just didn't read the story and then sped to the bottom to write that. Well, I'll admit I didn't read this on the internet. I did however read it when I was editing it though, so I decided to have a bit of internet-related fun at the expense of being trite and indulge myself and hopefully others, in what I perceived as an innocuous endeavor. Apparently not, though, and I apologize for harming your person, I suppose.
I take your ace of spades and counter with another ace of spades!
otakugamelife.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/kamen-rider-blade.jpg
John may be normal, but that actually makes him unusual, has most people in media are crazy. His normality may be nice latter on.
Way to much stuff is happening 'off screen' for me to really be getting into this story.
That ending was ... unexpected ... ehh I didn't like it. I'd rather stories stay more grounded and focuses on telling a good story, then have all these 'holly shit" moments. My prediction, an adverse reaction to using magic on pre (?) materials.
4955903
That is a very long and intelligent comment to defend dicking around on the internet.
4956102 we must defend our rights to dick around
Ooh, we're gettin' somewhere now. Also card tricks, because they're awesome!
4956061 I don't really see where you're getting at with his normality being unusual. As for the overall chapter though I'd say I can't please everyone unfortunately. I like to look at my chapters as episodes, and like most TV shows, there's bound to be that one episode that isn't too great. Hope you found some decent parts though.
What the fuck happened? Some kind of weird reaction to magic?
I love the story, one question, how many people are on the starship, I thought there were 300 people aboard the ship?
4957499 Yep it's been said that there are 125 soldiers, and the rest are scientists, engineers, and important individuals.
4957475 It would seem that way.
one thing that confused me about this was the time we are on the ship in space, 12thousand years? seems a bit long and not have made it very far from earth. it took 40 years with tech from the 1960 for the first satelite to get to pluto, the nearest star is 4 light years away which is 1/25000 the total distance of the galaxy. i guess ultimately i want to know if we were even moving away from earth and not simply hanging out in our own solar system.
I need more of this!
Anywho (because apparently it IS a word) I would have probably shot the equine. Seriously, you have 3 armed soldiers in the room with an unknown and potentially dangerous intelligent beast and they prefer to flee in complete and utter panic when something bad starts to emanate from the said creature? Just grab something and shoot it god dammit! Or at least hit it or try yelling at it...
What if at the end he would have torn THEM apart instead of the table?
P.S. Now that you put it like most unicorns can tear apart tanks and stuff, as well as having 3 (because Twilight and Cadence are half-gods) Goddess and Discord on their side, I am inclined to think that humanity stands no chance
... Oh well, all hail ponies! 
4957924 The Chairwoman says in Touch down that they only traversed half our solar system.
4957924
That's what I said too. And basing on some character interactions from the previous chapters it looks like they never actually planned to leave the solar system rather then just wait out the consequences of the war.
Going along this line, it is uncertain why they haven't built a huge space station instead (would fit in more people and resources too) and why they flew so far away from Earth that they had to go through all the problems of constructing, sending and then waiting to get data back from the drones if they could just hang around in high orbit and monitor it directly. Also, it took them a loooong time to get back to Earth after they discovered it was habitable.
Plus with the said speed of the ship, the time they'd need to spend just to fly to the nearest star is ridiculous. So that ship wasn't supposed to leave the solar system at all. Probably should have hanged around Earth or Mars...
But it is not that much crucial to the story itself since this bit has already passed... Just broke the immersion a bit at the beginning.
4958442 There's a big difference between a table and a tank xD. Anyways I guess the soldiers panicked and chose flight over fight.
4958468 Their goal was stated in chapter 2 and 7 or 8, first half was correct they were not intending to leave. Instead they were running away from Discord and waiting for the planet to recover.
4958472
Well, ponies (presumably) broke through a "three foot steel door". That's not a table if you ask me...
I guess if they wanted to flee from Discord they could have overdid it and flew further from a planet that was actually needed... Panic much? Though they couldn't have been certain that he won't get them while they are on orbit, so I dunno. Reasonable enough to fly to the Moon maybe? Or Mars? But 6k years away from Earth is a bit of overshot in my opinion. Though it is not really that much important, I am just curious why you went with that idea, that is all.
Also, they would have to purposefully SLOW DOWN to travel this slow. Because you need to gain a certain speed to leave Earth's orbit, and at that speed given 6k years they would have left the solar system.
4958533 After seeing a creature that can travel to the other side of the earth with a snap of his fingers, create an army that is able to over throw every super power on the planet, and destroy a single city just by looking at it. I would want to get as far away from it as much as possible.
Why they didn't build a space station to house more people? Well again they were running away, there was no way to fight Discord even with our technology. The story says that he survives over dozens, maybe even a hundred or so atomic blasts! The dude is made to be a fucking monster that is nearly unstoppable.
The only thing that can stop him is magic (as seen in the show). Mortal weaponry has no effect on him, unless you were to some how deprive a god of his magic. So they wanted to get as far away from him as possible.
Slowing down? Yes, so that they wouldn't burn all their fuel and travel too far away from Earth. Sounds like a contradiction but lemme explain. They want to get as far enough to the point that Discord would stop trailing them (that's if he was that is) but they also want to stay in a range that they could still keep an eye on the planet. Reason being, as stated in chapter two, these humans are on a mission, Operation Lazarus.
-Leave Earth
-Wait till Earth recovers
-Return and check for any survivors
Breaking through steel doors? It's never actual said if they actually destroyed the door or not. Broke in, is more or less a figure of speech. The character didn't mean they literally tore down the door and walked inside. For all they know they could've just wrapped in magic and slid it open, or shot enough juice through the control panel and overrode the locking mechanism.
It's not stated because the story isn't following those characters. Instead we're focusing on the humans, but starting next chapter and here on it I'll be focusing heavily on the pony side of things along occasionally throwing in a large chunk of human stuff.
4958642
Thanks for the explanation, it seems logical enough to me.
When put it this way Discord sounds waaay more serious than I imagined =)
Will be waiting for more chapters!
P.S. Don't forget about Newtonian physics cos the "so that they wouldn't burn all their fuel and travel too far away from Earth" part is kinda wrong since fuel is used only to accelerate or decelerate and not to maintain speed. They've spent some fuel to slow down. Then they used some to reverse and gain speed again. That's it. They could have saved the fuel that needed for slowing down and used it (and the extra amount they ended up with) to reverse the direction later on without slowing down at the beginning (thus travelling far greater distances). BUT that is illogical since, as you said, they still need to keep an eye on Earth and such stuff.
P.P.S. I need to learn to read properly... Sometimes I just misunderstand stuff
4958689 Yeah the fuel bit I noticed right after I posted, but was way too lazy to fix it seeing I had to do the washing up.
I meant to say they slowed themselves down so that they wouldn't over shoot it like you said.
fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/057/e/5/gummy_approved_by_ambris-d4qv6ii.png
4958442
Ponies ripping up tanks? Sorry, I've got to call bullshit on that one.
It’s been established that most ponies only have only ‘a small amount of magic related to their special talent’ –as Spike put it in the Trixie episode. And Twilights fight with Trek- which used all the magic in Equestria; including the combined power of all the Alicorn’s, and discords magic- amounted to less than a couple of daisy cutter bombs- let alone a single nuke.
Unless this is going the way of 'The Alicorns and Discord are Gods' bullshit. Discord is a physical metaphor of his namesake- like the windigoes are for hatred- and like 'hatred with make your hear cold' -'with disharmony comes chaos' But If there is no disharmony then Discord has no power.
4959881 I already told him that there won't be any pony ripping up tanks, aside from Celestia seeing as she is the strongest out of everyone. (Not implying that it'll happen) Discord on the other hand has already been established to be a fucking overpowered being that has wiped out an entire species (A.K.A 90% of mankind.)
Doesn't mean he is immortal though, he just cannot be harmed by human weaponry. Instead you must fight fire with fire, or in this case: Magic with magic. Or you could take his magic away, but pssh like that'll be possible.
4955903 https://www.google.com/search?q=tl+dr&biw=1280&bih=807&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=M5gKVOjqE4W4ogSqpIKADg&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=38XIJIBl07JFNM%253A%3B1OOYopyiPKbtRM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fstatic.tumblr.com%252Fmfxyxgh%252FwZ5m5ze9a%252Ftldr.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ftldrsocial.tumblr.com%252F%3B599%3B500
Your paragraph is too long to read. You actually put effort into it.
4961157
Hhhhm... your comment is kinda wrong but it actually made me think "what if all ponies in their origin are actually humans from vaults being turned pony?"
Damn, that would be a twist! Just imagine if Celestia is someone's wife! Or if Applejacks's family has been established by your child... Or if the humans from the most recently discovered vault have been turned too but still live somewhere without their proper memories...
4960897
Learn to use proper URL's and links!
4961467 Then how I will make people do all the work for me just to see a useless meme?
Alright Nebula, What's with the Ace of Spades? Ever since LOST introduced the Smoke Monster and NEVER explained what it was, I have had little patience for cliffhangers of this caliber (the prior ones were acceptable). If the answer is "Discord", then why isn't the card The Queen of Spades?(9:31-9:38)
Furthermore, what is the deal with Jonny? At first he is all like "Hey man, this is shit, we're abducting these native people and treating them like animals!", and then he's like "You want me to experiment on them? Meh, got nothing better to do..."
Other than these two blips, this was a great chapter as always. I personally admire how the crew members are debating the impact they are making on the ponies lives in a semi-forced, believable way. Very Full Metal Alchemist the Damned Series of you.
P.S.: If you are wondering what the Damned series is, look at this...
This is Sloth in the manga and Brotherhood:static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11116/111165127/3932468-fma2-34-06.jpg
This is what they did to him in the first anime:33.media.tumblr.com/1c410be64e735e876d637cb4462101db/tumblr_nbijqwzoSh1s54f7vo1_400.jpg
4965552
Nothing really, it's just a card, also I thought it'd be an interesting chapter name. Not to mention it's the pony's card during the magic trick, and it's the said card that triggered the unexpected events in the end.
It's only there to show that the human's are highly allergic to magic, and that for some odd reason when ponies tried to pick it up it resulted in a table, chairs, and restraints, being torn to shreds.
So the card itself isn't entirely important, so don't expect this magic trick might change in the future to make any returns. The card doesn't imply anything to discord or anything heavily plot based.
This chapter was only here to give you guys something to read (A.K.A filler), while I work on the major/really long length of chapter might change though, and to give Johnny more free time/tell you that humans aren't immune to magic like 90% of any HIEs out there.
I wouldn't say he's willing to do it, because if you remember right before the experiment he was debating on if he could walk out or not. Thus hinting at he doesn't really want to do it, mainly because it could be potentially dangerous which it was.
Now what I'm about to say probably should have been implemented into the story. I like to think of his actions as if he didn't really have any control, can't forget that what Sergeant Arin Conway that these creatures may even help in finding a cure for the pathogen. So I thought of it as even though John is against the idea of experimenting on these creatures, it may shine some light on their problems and may help them learn more about them.
Other than that glad you enjoyed it!
4967158 That was an idea I had, but then I thought that'd end the scene too quickly. And if the other ponies (Luna and Celestia) were to find out they did that, that'd cause a huge issue I don't even want to begin to delve into. Yet.
4983918 Don't end up falling too much in love with me I don't think I'm ready for long distance, I'm constantly getting/changing ideas. So don't hold me on it yet, because anything can happen.
4983951 The humans being allergic/weak to magic will always be an issue to them. But! <– Here we go with "buts" again.
As long as the humans are wearing protection (hazmat suits and gas masks), they'll be perfectly fine when it comes to suffering from nausea, migraines, and having their ears bleed. Doesn't mean a unicorn soldier (normal unicorns in my head canon, such as rarity, do not posses high magical abilities) from picking up a boulder and smashing a couple humans, or developing a shield to protect themselves from a certain amount of bullets. Unless they get blasted by a rocket launcher, only ones that can protect themselves are possibly Twilight and the alicorns.
Now for humans being able to nerf magic?
Now how does one do that? I know. I'm writing the story, but do you? Does anyone else? Why am I asking random questions you all obviously won't know the answer to aside from myself?
All I have to say this
*Look if you dare*
EMP
4983972
Hmmmmmmm....... That is quite interesting, and if the humans somehow find out that knowledge, I hope they are able to use to to finally give Discord the punishment he deserves.
4955662
MAGIC!
Begin anal probing.
All this talk about no wheels... didn't they spot railways when they sent the probes? What do they think the trains use then? Squares?
Or was that a different story? Too many sci-fis to keep track of.
Is it just me or his accent actually getting thicker as the story goes on?
This unicorn seems to certainly lack the... finesse other unicorns seem to have with their levitation spell.
Also:
>Still not italicising Horizon even though it's a ship's name and I mentioned it before multiple times.
Laddie, you be asking for a headslapping.
4983972
I read a story once where Tesla Coils emitted an EM field at the right frequency to essentially cancel out magic.
If you were to use my headcanon on magic things get a lot more complicated. (Cause I turned magic into science. Cause science.
)