Chapter 13 - Unwinnable Scenario
Three Months Later
The sun was crisp, though artificial light could only feel as crisp as it looked, vents on the walls of the Terrace level creating a light breeze as holographic panels in the walls recreated the view from one of the Accord Hotels on one of the human planets, birds fluttering in the distance as clouds drifted past. Twilight, in part, was impressed with the upgrades that had been made, but was even further impressed by the near-realism of the projected images.
“Very few Fortresses even have projections like this. Mostly they have to settle for simulation rooms, or virtual reality helmets. Zvaro-Jun really is at the forefront of the technological world, huh,” Isaac mused as he walked beside his Commander, glancing down at a fresh scar on the back of her neck. Rubbing his own, he knew how taxing some of the implants could be, and he knew she had started to embrace the more interesting side of transhumanism, albeit whatever the equivalent for non-human races was. For what it was worth, though, she wore her new prosthetic well.
“Y-Yeah. I’m still having issues with my leg, but that’s a topic for later, heh.” Isaac rubbed her head, scratching behind her ears as they both took seats overlooking the holographic waterfalls.
“Eurasia.”
“What?”
“Eurasia. That’s the planet that the panels are projecting. It’s a world of dense jungle and beautiful rivers. Of course, they’re a tough breed of humanity – the nearby colony of Valhalla has invaded them once or twice. They’ve got this plant that tastes almost exactly like potatoes, but grows like corn. Massive stalks of tuber-corn, fields as far as the eye can see on the mountain plateaus where it can even grow,” Isaac explained, motioning around him as he talked. Twilight sat still, enraptured by his words as he explained about the worlds he had explored, or simply traveled to. The jungle planet Eurasia, the ice world of Valhalla, even the volcanic mining planet of Janus, it seemed that she could not get enough of the tales of each world. It was one thing to read about them, watch mobile platform footage or play movies based around the planets, she needed to hear accounts that were how someone felt about the world, how they perceived it. She had been learning so much in the time that they had been spending in orbit around Deepwell, she had scarcely had time to process it all.
“Ah, darling, I knew we’d find you up here.”
Twilight turned to face her friends, but something seemed… off to her. It was almost as if she was remembering their faces through a data record, rather than her own eyes and feelings. Shaking her head, she tried to keep her mind settled, staring down at a cup of coffee that had been slid in front of here.
“This isn’t… why doesn’t this feel real?”
“That’s because it isn’t.”
Twilight glanced around, seeing sparks fly out of monitors, unconscious or dying crew around her as she dragged herself. A sharp, stinging pain filled her foreleg as she tried to move, gradually increasing until it felt more like someone was ripping her apart. Sparing a glance, she gagged as she looked at her foreleg, trapped underneath a piece of fallen metal, blood pooling as small tendons barely kept it attached. She felt the bile bubble up in her throat, spewing from her mouth as she tried to make sense of what was going on.
“I was… on my way to the Terrace, where Isaac was needing to go over new safety protocols, and we- what was going on-”
“She’s here! Get the heavy lift exo-skeleton, she’s trapped under some plating!” A voice shouted nearby, trying to call attention to her, but Twilight could have sworn Isaac was screaming in her ear. She felt hands lift her, several ponies around her grabbing and shifting her gently as she was slid upon what felt like a stretcher, the fabric comfortable against her coat.
“Get her to the Infirmary! Bridge, what’s the status on those ships? Any contact from the Bastion?”
“Sorry, Isaac. We’ve had no contact from the Bastion since we Tunneled out. Enemy forces are at near full strength – our cannons are barely making a dent in their armour!”
“Dammit. Okay, keep up the good work – use that asteroid field we scanned earlier to screen their missiles, should buy us some time. Hey, Fluttershy, we’ve got wounded up in Habitation! When can I expect another team of medics?” Isaac clicked his comm-link, the handset attached to his combat suit growling with static as he awaited replies. It had only been six hours, but the beating the unknown vessels were giving the Solus Invictus was not something he would have expected from supposed pirate fleets; they were more likely to tag you with a marker and steal from you at a backwater port than risk a confrontation with a Battle Fortress and a potential support fleet. Starlight was out of commission, having been blasted halfway across the Command Bridge when a surge panel blew, and Twilight was certainly in no shape to lead her crew in a defensive operation. Several security personnel – a squad of Minotaurs in combat suits, if his eyes were telling him the truth – stopped before him, loading their rifles.
“Commander Humphries, we’ve got teams stranded in areas of the ship where gravity has shut down. What would be the best course of action to get them out?”
“Check your Mag-Boots before going down to help – zero-gravity means floating objects are just as deadly as a bullet. Did you clear a path to the Bridge yet? Medics can’t get up there until we clear it out.”
“The objective was completed, sir. We’ll be on our way down to Engineering – Applejack’s engineers are panicking where they’re trapped,” the leader of the squad replied, nodding as he spoke. Isaac in turn nodded silently, pointing his thumb behind him before lifting a dataslate to his face.
“Computer, pause simulation,” he requested, glancing around as the scene around him rendered down to blank projector walls and several stunned individuals. Twilight stood ramrod stiff, her face a mask of terror and fright as she tried to process what she had just been through. Rainbow Dash stood off to the side, slamming her head against a nearby wall, while Fluttershy had rolled up into a ball, shivering and quivering as she muttered under her breath.
As Isaac turned to them all, he felt himself lift off his feet as two back hooves impacted the body armour he invariably wore underneath his uniform since offering to train Twilight’s Command Team when they left Deepwell. A Holographic Simulation Center had been installed where the previous Sim-Center had been, giving Isaac in-depth tools for rather realistic training.
Which was also why he was sailing twenty feet through the air towards a wall.
“You done did it now, sugarcube. Why would them pirates attack like that? I don’t rightly think you understand the damage you put us through!” Applejack shouted at him, glaring as he hauled himself to his feet. Brushing off his uniform, he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Lifting the dataslate up again, he tapped various symbols, the projector walls beaming out a two-word phrase, something which had him annoyed, and irritated against both himself and the crew he was attempting to train.
“You asked me to train you all so that you could do your jobs better, and then you choose a form of the ‘Kobayashi Maru’ situation! Do you all just not believe in the ‘no-win’ scenario?!” Isaac angrily spat, his voice echoing throughout the Sim-Center. “I would have been fine using any other scenario, anything at all, but all of your team, Commander, invariably choose the Kobayashi Maru scenario. It’s like they’re wanting to get boarded and shot!”
Tossing the dataslate to the side, he heard the tell-tale crack of the smart glass shattering against a wall, his own anger getting the better of him. Breathing deeply, he walked over to the door, wincing as he felt the bruises underneath the armour. He had been warned her buck could be lethal, but he was still relatively surprised – it had felt like he had been hit by a cannon shell. The silence in the room was palpable as he activated the door unlock, only stopping when one of the others grunted, laughing as she spoke.
“This is the Kobayashi Maru? The unwinnable scenario? I’ve seen crazier things in the simulators-” Rainbow Dash paused as Isaac was almost directly in front of her face, his eyes hard and unyielding as he stared her down. She could feel panic rise in her throat as the long stare of his gaze seemed to not be on her, but through her. She could see the sweat beading on his forehead, the shallow breaths he took. It was almost close to how she had seen Minotaurs on the crew look moments before they began to panic or freak out, but he was already freaking out, and she thought it could be something else.
However, Isaac was clearly not in the mood, leaving for the door once more when Twilight cleared her throat, getting his attention.
“Why let us talk you into that scenario, over and over, if you hate that scenario?” Twilight inquired quietly, watching his hand grip the edge of the door and clench, hard. She could have sworn that if it had been a robotic limb, he would have crumpled that metal like a paper cup. His eyes, though, told a story not of anger, but of fear, sorrow, and… worry?
“It’s different when you’re in a flight sim for it. You know that you can’t win, that you are able to get out of the pod. Doing it on foot, feeling the fire on your face, the blood on your hands… it changes a person. Even if you’ll never see combat, seeing people you are supposed to protect die over and over, simply because of how the scenario works, and being unable to help them, how would you think I would react?” He turned his head to expose his face to all of them, seeing the lines of anguish written on his face. Something about it made it hit far more readily than him just speaking, his facade of a war-torn leader breaking and showing the aging man underneath, the one that knew he could not run, fight, or live forever, and was trying to instill as much knowledge in the next generation as possible. Rarity backed away, her ears flat against her head as she glanced from Fluttershy to Applejack.
“What do you-”
“I’ve seen combat. Not this… war for sport, but actual combat, and actual fighting always leaves its mark behind,” he sighed, pulling a latex covering off of his right arm. With an unsatisfying plop, the fake skin hit the ground, the whirring of his prosthetic arm more noticeable without the muffling nature of thee synthetic sheath it normally bore. Tightly gripping the arm at the base of his elbow, he twisted, the arm retreating into a canister shape as he detached it. He knew he was showing them more than he should, but he felt, needed to prove to them to stop thinking of it all like everyone was going to make it out alive.
“Is that…?” Rarity shakily asked, her eyes gleaming with tears as she looked at the arm, and then down at the synthetic skin on the ground.
“Yeah. We stood up against invasion once… the UEC called them the Graawl, bio-synthetic lifeforms that seemed to be able to kill or destroy, consume and feast at will. They can corrupt and control both flesh and machine, and I lost my arm destroying a Graawl Planetary Node when they last invaded. The UEC gave me this prosthetic and kicked me out to the black, though. Had me kissing sky before I’d even left the cruiser I was on,” Isaac explained, reconnecting the arm to its socket and retrieving the skin from its position on the floor. It was a little unsettling to anyone he showed the arm to, but it always drove the point home. Flexing the fingers as a check to make sure the connection was solid, he slid the artificial skin over it like a glove, stretching it into place before rolling his sleeve down.
“Commander Sparkle to Command, repeat, Commander Sparkle to Command.”
“Commander, I think you should probably go. I… need to lie down.” Wincing, Isaac groaned as he sat down on the floor of the SimCenter, looking over at Twilight. Her face showed confusion as she glanced around, still somewhat in shock as to what happened in the simulation. Removing his chestplate, he tossed it to the side, the dents clearly visible as the armor had serve its purpose. Applejack looked from him to the armor piece, back up to Twilight, and then back to him, her eyebrows asking a question her mouth would not.
“I-I think we should all take a break, if that’s a-all right with everyone.” Everyone turned to look at Fluttershy, whose voice barely lifted above a whisper, her fear and apprehension visible in her movements. Tilting backwards until he was flat on his back, Isaac stared up at the ceiling, his face neutral as he tried to regain his composure.
“I warned you all that it would be hell to do. I fucking warned you, and you still decided to go through with it… your race was never one for war, was it? Blood, pain, praying to whatever deity might listen – as the saying goes, ‘There’s no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.’ Nine heavens, why did I get stuck with training duty?” Fluttershy shakily approached the swearing human, sitting down beside him as she stole a few glances over in his direction. With a quick motion, he sat up, rubbing his face with his hands as he whispered out a small prayer in apology for his outbursts.
“W-what is the… ‘Nine Heavens,’ I-Isaac,” Fluttershy inquired of Isaac, her voice barely a whisper. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he looked at the blank wall where a bank of hologram-field projectors had been damaged from his impact with the wall. Sighing, he glanced over at the Pegasus, his hands on his knees.
“It’s funny. About two millennia ago, people would have sworn that religion was dead and that people could survive without faith in some kind of pantheon. What a crock of shit that was. The Nine Heavens is a system of belief adopted from an alien race, the… Thalrazyne, I think. The belief is that when your life ends, your spirit, all that you are, is judged by the Celestial Architect, and you are sorted into one of nine Heavens. If you are exceptionally evil, your spirit is returned to the material universe and you are reborn to atone for your mistakes in your past life. The Pentecostal Assemblies of Mars were another group, based off of old Earth Protestantism, and even the Hall of Glory is a belief, held by the people of the planet Valhalla. I believe in the Nine Heavens, as it is said that even soldiers have a place there, a special heaven where ‘they can finally rest, after their time in hell.’ Heh,” Isaac chuckled as he looked over at Fluttershy, her face a mask of confusion, “I wouldn’t expect you to fully grasp it. I’m sure there are some from your world that deify the Diarchy as goddesses. Considering what I’ve heard about your world, I wouldn’t put it past your people.”
“T-There are groups like that, yes. The Solarians and the Lunites.”
“Wait, so, they believe that only one of the sisters is a goddess? You think they’d have it be both, but one be more powerful than the other.”
“You’d think that. But for all intents and purposes, they really don’t.” Fluttershy stood up quickly, her hoof raising to her brow in a quick salute.
“At ease, PO Fluttershy. We’re on the Fortress, don’t be so formal.” Captain Janus Stoneclaw entered, his rank insignia shining and somewhat different, compared to what Isaac had seen on most Coalition personnel.
“Ah, the captain of the Bastion.”
“And you must be Security Chief Isaac Humphries. Thanks for keeping my brother, Oscar, out of trouble. The Bastion is still docked, of course – my engineers are still trying to clear out the final portions of debris around your shuttle bays. By the Ancestors, you all took a beating. Those Etheric Cannons are something else.” Isaac stood up as Janus finished, grimacing as he felt his abdominal muscles cramp. Stumbling, he rose to his full height, the Gryphon coming up to his midriff.
“How many of those destroyers does your Hegemony have, if you don’t mind me asking,” Isaac requested, hoping to understand the industrial capacity of the Gryphon Hegemony. He understood that a majority of races had joined the Coalition, but most of what he had seen had been the Ancestral Changeling Hives, the Minotaur Alliance, and, of course, the Equestrians. If the Gryphons were far more industrialized, it would make them far more invaluable in his mind – of course, the Coalition was who he now served under, but Isaac was never a man to show his hand too early.
“The Bastion-class destroyer… well, the Bastion is the namesake of the ship class. We’ve got maybe another 4 nearing completion now, but that’s just the ship itself. The Tunnel Drive is another matter – without the designer of the drive present on Equus, we cannot fine-tune the Magi-Tech Computational Matrix that she designed for it. We couldn’t even run it properly until we arrived here, and she’s been very protective of it, even going so far as to not tell anyone that the MTCM existed. Due to such circumstances, we cannot boast the efficiency of the Solus Invictus’ Tunnel Drive. Then again, the Coalition is somewhat against sharing quantities of magicite to fuel drives not built by their own shipyards.”
“I wasn’t aware that the Equestrian Coalition had any shipyards.”
“You would be hard-pressed to get the information out of them, but deep in the Everfree Desert, at the base known as Luna’s Cradle, they’ve repurposed the Fortress Cradle they designed originally for ship production… though what type of ship they hope to produce, I cannot begin to fathom. Anyways, I was mostly coming to see the result of the simulation training, and to see if I could request your assistance in setting up a training regimen for my own crew.” Isaac chuckled as he retrieved the chestplate, tucking it under one arm as he left the room. Pointing at the far wall where the human-sized dent was, he shook his head, tapping the switch for the door.
“We’d need a full repair and recalibration after someone chucked me into a wall. Talk to me later, Captain. I’ll see if I can’t create a decent anti-piracy scenario for you.”
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“That stupid human! Always thinking he’s better than us, smugly sending Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy, of all ponies, into the Kobayashi Maru! I would love to kick him in his stupid, smug teeth, break his jaw, show him what we’re really capable of! ‘Your race was never one for war.’ I’ll show him ‘not one for war-’”
“Rainbow! Calm down, you’re denting the door.” Rainbow Dash looked up to see Deadwood, on his feet, slowly walking up in his new uniform. The Hegemony Command insignia shone proudly on his collar, the brown and green of the Hegemony uniform barely clashing with the colours of his own coat. Turning back to the door, she saw where her hooves had impacted, leaving a tell-tale imprint in a dent.
“Deadwood. Not long until the transfer paperwork finishes, huh.”
“Actually, it’s just finished. We never talked much during training, but you’re still just as hot-headed now as you were as a cadet. Gryphons are… interesting, to say the least, but I get the feeling that they have a more deep-seated respect for me due to my relationship with Oscar. Gryphon’s got a run-on mouth, but he’s dependable.” Fiddling with his rank insignia on the opposite side from his Command insignia, he smirked as Rainbow Dash looked him over, raising an eyebrow as she got to the Hegemony officer’s cap hanging off his side.
“It suits you, really. Hey, let the hotshot Gryphon pilots know that if they want to have a match, Rainbow’s Raiders are always ready to throw down.”
“Yeah, I will-” Deadwood stopped, looking down at the deck plating before turning back to Rainbow. “I didn’t make this decision lightly, you know. Communication came in before Twilight had even known about the possibility of a transfer. Gryphons are amazing engineers and soldiers, but navigating seems to be a skill very few possess.”
Lifting the officer’s cap, he firmly placed it on his head, a stump where his horn had once been. A gasp from behind him caused him to turn around, facing Twilight and Starlight, their jaws slack as their eyes were drawn to the hornless unicorn. He saluted, smiling before the expression faltered, his eyes falling to the deck once more.
“Y-Your horn-”
“Had it removed. Honestly wasn’t doing anything anyways – I don’t have magic. Never stopped me before. Your medics recommended I get it removed, anyways. Something about ‘etheric interference’ restricting my body’s admittedly incredible ability to heal. Commander, XO, it was a pleasure to serve under you. I need to get over to the Bastion, get settled with my new crewmates.” With a curt nod and a quick salute, Deadwood turned to leave, chuckling as he joined with another group of crew members returning to the Bastion. Something about it made anger well up inside of her, but as for why it did, Rainbow could not fathom.
“Hornless. Unable to use magic, so preferred the more efficient approach. Odd that such a being would take that path.” The mechanical lilt of the speech had Rainbow stiffen up, turning her head slowly until she locked eyes with a human holding a dataslate, his eyebrows raised in a quizzical expression. The face looked familiar, but as she was about to ask the human, he walked away, disappearing around a corner before he could be questioned.
“No, that couldn’t be… that would be impossible, wouldn’t it?” Sighing, she looked at the docking interlock, the heavy doors groaning as they shut. Most of the transfers to the Fortress were done, but the crew that left, it was a little unnerving to her. Gryphons were a proud race, idealistic and strong, but they were fast outclassing any Equestrian engineer or scientist with their efficiency and focus.
“Still worried about the future?” Rainbow glanced around until she noticed, floating in the corner of her vision, a small icon that looked like Twilight’s face. With a sigh, she mentally allowed the connection, chuckling as she turned away from the interlock.
“If I said I wasn’t, I would be lying.”
“You’re thinking about the Graawl, aren’t you?”
“Wish I wasn’t. I’m still angry with Isaac, that hasn’t changed, but the Graawl are… something else.” Rainbow turned several corners, returning to a main thoroughfare through the vessel’s main command deck. Her anger was still a tempered flame, but her mind wandered, wondering just what the Graawl looked like. Something about the way Isaac had talked about them almost seemed like respect, after a fashion, but not the sort of respect one gave a friend; it was the unmitigated respect one would give a strong opponent, while making certain to never be defeated in the future.
“Managed to pull up some information after I… calmed down. And they’ve been around a long time. Apparently, the space they used to occupy contains a massive interstellar gate some called the TitanusGate, named for a powerful warrior in the Thalrazyne culture. They’re still active on a planet in the Janus Accord region, where Valhalla, Eurasia and a couple of other planets are as well.” Twilight cut her mic quickly after finishing, letting Rainbow’s thoughts catch up with her. They had a match soon, though it was not for another few months, meaning that they had the chance to do a little… ‘sightseeing’ of their own. Humans, as far as Rainbow was concerned, were warlike and rather hot-headed, though a few of the crew had pointed out to her that her attitude was more human than she would care to admit. Her mind flashed back to the training simulation, with the smell of the blood, the metal and oil, even the screams, it was a little too real for her. Gritting her teeth, she stepped into a Mag-Rail pod, taking a seat before speaking up.
“Engineering, Manufacturing Level 1.” With the doors hissing shut, she glanced up at an advertisement strip that had been recently installed in the pods. A marquee sign rotated below a couple of advertisement loops that detailed out various products from around the galaxy. As she watched them, one product caught her eye as it detailed out several new products.
“Primogen Information Dynamics, with the newest model of Sentient Integrated Program androids. The Mark Nineteen is the sleekest, most robust model ever developed since the days of the Janus Accord. Available now at your nearest PID distributor.”
“Rescind last request – take me to Terrace Level 1. Hey, Twilight? Meet me on the Terrace, I have a request of sorts.”
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“No.”
“Twi, come on!”
“In matters like this, it’s Commander or ma’am. If you remember, Rainbow, I am your commanding officer. And no, we cannot justify the expense to acquire a new SIP android. Besides the fact that there is no one onboard the Solus Invictus who has the slightest idea on how to interface the SIP with the Fortress, we’re not about to take a detour into disputed space just because you want a p-” Twilight stopped as Rainbow stood on her hind legs, slamming her forehooves down on the metal table. Breathing hard and staring angrily at Twilight, she settled herself back down, staring away from Twilight as she forced her breathing under control.
“Twilight, the SIP isn’t a pet, they’re a sophisticated piece of technology, and the heart of any starship! According to data available on the ship’s database, a Battle Fortress is not operating at its full potential without one! Unit 3, the Kepler’s SIP, is still assisting Star Swirl with science stuff back in the Cradle, and Unit 27 was the SIP for a ship that no longer exists. We. Need. One. Twilight.” Rainbow finished with a sigh and a deep breath, still attempting to keep her cool. Since her cybernetic enhancement, she had found a majority of information far more easily understood than before. From what she was aware of, something about how the enhancement worked made her mind offload a portion of the processing needed onto the Fortress in case of matters where she had never even touched the surface of what was there. Twilight, on the other hand, was used to all of the technological studies that were a part of their lives, and could explain things away without having to rely on her MIS implant. Leaving that aside, the limited amount of data she could scrounge up from the database supported her, but the SIP itself – the frame, the networked operating system, and even the uplink interface that connected one such android to a ship’s main computer to act as the ship’s Artificial Intelligence,
“And we do not have a dedicated AI Specialist! Without someone with that expertise, we may as well be handing our opponents the trigger themselves! I-”
“The simulation’s still on your mind, isn’t it?” Twilight’s sudden choking confirmed what Rainbow believed, as Twilight tried to regain her composure after swallowing and breathing slowly.
“That’s not- wait a- fine, yes, it is. But can you blame me? Isaac put us through literal hell-”
“At your request, Twi. At your request. He did warn all of us, and you still went through with the Kobayashi Maru. Wish I knew what that was actually in reference to… probably some old Earth thing. But still, you requested it, because you wanted to understand what some of the humans have gone through. We are still here, despite attempts from someone at sabotage. I think we need all the help we can-”
“Commander, Warrant. May I join you?”
“Captain Stoneclaw. Have you been listening to our conversation?”
“Only the last few minutes. We do have a crew member that might interest you. Crew says she’s an old… acquaintance of yours. Her name is-”
“The Great and Powerful-”
“Sergeant. Trixie. Lulamoon. You’re neither great, nor powerful. You were a showmare back on Equus, but out here in the black, you’re not going to impress even a human with that kind of boastful language,” Janus finished, his eyes narrowed at his new charge. “Despite all that, she’s the best mare we have for dealing with Artificial Intelligence research. She’s a bit… unpredictable, but she might get the job done. Provided she can keep her mouth shut this time.” Trixie glanced away, her face pale as she looked anywhere but where her captain stood. Twilight glanced at the uniform, raising an eyebrow at the deep blue that covered Trixie’s bright-blue coat before returning her gaze to Janus.
“Civilian?”
“Military Research and Development, actually. She’s part of the reason the Bastion works as well as it does. While the Coalition does not have as powerful AI units as the humans, Thalrazyne, or Torassi, she’s still our top scientist in that regard.” Twilight could do nothing but stare as her brain tried to wrap itself around the new information that refused to assimilate itself into her mind.
“Her. Trixie. Self-proclaimed nemesis, an AI Specialist?!” Twilight finished her sentence, still working her jaw in confusion and sheer completely befuddlement as Trixie narrowed her eyes at her former nemesis and chuckled, letting Twilight stew a minute before a smug expression crossed her face.
“Sir, if I may…”
“Speak quickly, or I might just rescind my approval of you being aboard the Bastion.”
“Ahem.” Trixie sighed as she withdrew a small holographic projector, a disc that Twilight remembered from one of the few times she had met Captain Brightstone. However, Trixie affixed it to a brace around her foreleg, lifting it to display a very detailed chart of calculations. Her eyes flashed blue quickly as her tone shifted, as if someone else was speaking through her. The pace of speech was different as well.
“As you are aware, Commander Sparkle, all Coalition vessels currently in service are severely lacking in the AI Command department. Due to this, we cannot react as effectively to external threats as we could, which includes pirates and possible enemy action. This program is to attempt to replicate such an Artificial Intelligence, though, as you are no doubt aware, this one is unfortunately far more primitive than the Sentient Integrated Program androids available from most commercial android producers.” With a cough, Trixie’s eyes flashed blue again as she withdrew a small package of white tablets from a pocket on her uniform.
“Bit, next time you decide to speak for me, give me fair warning before you hijack my implant. That was worse than it normally is.”
“Bit? Hijack?” Twilight raised an eyebrow as he looked over at Janus, who sighed and covered his face with his claws. Handing over a dataslate to Twilight, he examined Trixie closely, attempting to see if she was still tracking reality.
“Trixie is an AI Specialist of the most experimental degree. Her own personal program, Bit, sort of… lives in her implant? It’s hard to explain, but he basically is her management software, except has a tendency to ‘jump the gun,’ as it were, and hijack Trixie’s motor functions to explain things without the verbosity of Trixie’s normal explanations. We’ve attempted to copy his program, and only succeeded in the program that the both of them displayed. It’s not what we hoped for when she was assigned to the Bastion, but as I said, she’s the best on Equus.”
“Trixie is an outstanding programmer and her mind is uniquely adept at handling the merger of Artificial and Natural Intelligence. Technically, we are one being, in a way, but we also do not have shared experiences like other beings in the galaxy.” Trixie tapped a speaker on her uniform, chuckling as she tapped on her brace again, the hologram disappearing. Sighing, she popped one of the blisters on the tablet package and sucked one down, grimacing as she swallowed.
“And yet I still have to take Coltix so I don’t lose what’s left of my sanity, Bit! Ahem. Anyways, as I was trying to explain, the program I wrote, with Bit overseeing an injection of his own code into it, should suffice until we can acquire a SIP or AI Core of some kind. Of course, if you do not need me, I can continue my work aboard the Bast-”
“Sweet Celestia, Twilight, please take her! She hasn’t stopped talking once since we set off from Equus! Just… take her!” With that, Janus turned and left, several Bastion officers following him out who had been relaxing on the Terrace. Trixie raised a hoof in protest, lowering it only when she realized that Janus would not hear her. Lowering her head and smiling sheepishly, she took a seat at the table Twilight still sat at, Rainbow raising an eyebrow before waving over at Donut Joe and tapping her dataslate to order some food.
“I may have not been as… discreet as I should have been.”
“That’s an understatement. Outside of our home planet, things work differently, Trixie. There are things you can experience that could drive you mad, or have incredibly strange panic attacks, in the case of Starlight. Speaking of Starlight, Twilight, are you pulling her from Avatar duty after the first match? Her aptitude-” Rainbow looked up, interrupted by Donut Joe placing coffee and pastries on the table, muttering a silent thank you before returning to the conversation.
“Her aptitude was never in doubt, Dash. But she doesn’t have the nerve it takes for a combat scenario. Hmm…” Twilight trailed off as she looked around, her eyes darting until they settled on Trixie. Sputtering, Rainbow’s eyes flew wide in shock, her eyes bouncing from Twilight to Trixie.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I’m being serious, Twi. Her. The one that caused enough problem for Ponyville that the local economy was still feeling it after we left.”
“I’m serious as well, Rainbow Dash. Take her down to the Infirmary, get Chrysalis and Fluttershy to run the compatibility battery of tests. I would take over as Avatar, but, as you remember-” Rainbow Dash started to snicker, her laughter echoing throughout the Terracce.
“’You’ve got the compatibility of a baked potato!’ The medics were talking about that for weeks! But, yeah, sure, I’ll take her down.”
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“There’s been another electrical burn case in Hydroponics… again. Redheart, dispatch Med-Team 5 to the area – we’ve told Braeburn to keep the maintenance panels free from obstacles, but I don’t think he’s really understanding- oh, Fluttershy! The new crew member is here for her physical!” Chrysalis, her blue Science Division uniform a stark contrast against her black, chitinous body, tapped the focused Pegasus on her back, the touch enough to make her shriek and run a couple feet away before she realized where she was and sighed deeply.
“Sorry, Chrysalis. I kinda got over-focused on the genome sequence again. I still have no idea why your genetic sequence has such a powerful effect on the Growth Accelerant Gel – not the Changeling genetic sequence in general, but yours specifically- oh, hey, Rainbow. Who’s the newcom- oh. Hello.” Fluttershy tentatively held out her hoof, lightly shaking Trixie’s hoof before she turned to gather instruments. Motioning to a nearby medical examination table, she placed a head-lamp on her head, making certain that Trixie’s motor functions were working as they should.
“You okay, Fluttershy?”
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen her, but she was going through the Coalition Security Forces training center with us. AI Specialist, though, that’s better than Explosive Ordinance Disposal, isn’t it?” Fluttershy glanced up at Trixie, who stuck out a tongue. “No need for that. I just need to draw some blood for the Compatibility Exam. Hold still, you’ll feel a little prick- ah, there we go. Just enough for the computer to render a decent result. Let’s just pop this in and- oh. Oh. Oh my.”
“Fluttershy?”
“Rainbow, she has zero compatibility with our cloning material. It’s not that she’s incapable of being cloned, it’s that there isn’t a single clone that would retain form for more than a few seconds!”
“I am not here to be a Commander in the War Games – I am here to get your ship properly running- well, myself and Bit-”
“Warrant Officer Dash, Sergeant Lulamoon, please report to Command. Warrant Officer Dash, Sergeant Lulamoon, report to Command.”
“Duty calls, Trixie.
Welcome to the Solus Invictus.”
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oof THAT scenario thats a rough one.....also best pony is in the house
sorry to hear you lost your job in the army what are you doing for work now are you getting some kind of compensation?
also, what does the sol Invictus look like?
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Employment Insurance, formerly known as Unemployment Insurance, is a service in Canada where you get paid a certain amount of what you made during your time working. For me, that was about 50 weeks of insurable earnings which gives me... about another 6 months to stay afloat? Due to my injury, it's kind of hard to maintain positivity.
It's paid out on a bi-weekly basis, so it helps. I stream on Twitch to occupy my time, as job-hunting is hard currently.
10796391
I swear I mentioned that in an earlier chapter.