57
“Welcome to the flagship of the armada, the Grand Councilwoman will see you shortly. Wait for a security detail to show you the way.” The small ensign then made her way off to do who knew what around the ship as Fluttershy took a look around.
There were plenty of non humanoids wandering about; there were even some naturally occurring intelligent mechanical beings. The one thing to be said about the ship… it was big, definitely Valhalla big and much better armed. Everyone here was wearing a space suit of some kind unless they weren’t affected by the rigors of space or was of a legitimate sentient robotic life like XR was.
There were a lot of suited lizards around and they were armed with rifles and watching the entrance to the corridors and other places as well, they were definitely expecting complications. Even Fluttershy herself was prepared wearing her Rhizome suit for the occasion as she and Team Lightyear were led by two beings that had them scanned for any extracurricular weaponry.
This issue of Team Lightyear’s weapons came up quickly, mostly their multipurpose wrist lasers and the fact that XR was loaded with missiles, grenades, plasma and laser based weaponry in the folded subspace compartment inside his chest. Said compartment in XR which somehow including hundreds of random mechanical arms somehow still connected to his body; he was literally the most heavily armed out of all of them and could shoot in every direction at once at the same time. XR was cleared through as Fluttershy vouched for him as a bodyguard which warmed his mechanical heart some.
What didn’t come up was Fluttershy’s weaponry, aside from her glass knife that is. She had a container of water and twenty or so inert pod grenades ready to be used. Sure she only had one pod grenade generator, but no one told her that she couldn’t have some stored away in case of an emergency. It was a good thing Fluttershy was already wearing her universal translator and as such things should go smoothly provided it didn’t get damaged again.
All of this was in her left saddlebag and the odd thing is… pod grenades actually tasted pretty good and would look like a snack item to anyone who checked her bags. They were like giant peas and had a bit of a buttery taste. The only way to even prime a pod grenade was to be wearing a Rhizome suit, so they were completely safe for her to be holding onto as she didn’t intend to set them off unless necessary. It was surprising that they got through security without a second glance or mention. Some Rhizome weaponry was actually somewhat edible to Fluttershy. Though the thorn based weapons even without the acid or paralytic substances involved were highly inedible and tasted chalky.
As an afterthought Fluttershy considered that it would have been prudent to tell the security team that she could possibly use the water she had to lethal intent. Even if she wasn’t going to do so, it would have been nice of her to warn someone about it. Instead she kept silent about her abilities, it was always better to not tell anyone anything until asked about it in case trouble happens and she was definitely expecting it this time. She had enough water on her for a high powered electrical shocks while still having enough for her personal use. Fluttershy wasn’t the best at cloud manipulation, but she could wing it and see if it worked or not in a dire situation because that would be the only chance to find out if she could create an electric current generating cloud.
“Right you’re all cleared, though I hope you understand that we will be keeping a close eye on the robots. That one is armed like a tank and could take out this whole ship on his own if he was performing to full specs and the other is just plain weird when we scanned it.” The mouth full of sharp teeth caused Fluttershy to squeak slightly as it smiled in her direction, these lizard people were definitely carnivores. “If I were head of security I wouldn’t let that mentally warped robot through with that many weapons at the sway of an unknown ambassador vouching for him.”
Fluttershy took a calming breath; she had to trust herself to be calm around them. They were just doing their jobs and they had to eat like anyone else did to live, so what if they looked like scary dinosaur faced beings. Booster was bigger than they were and he was also a big eater, but he was too friendly and colorful to really frighten her. Speaking of, the big Space Ranger gave her a soft pat on the back to help her calm down further.
“Um… Roller’s not a…” Fluttershy petered off as she tried to speak up, the lizard’s scary visage scrutinizing her through both their helmets.
“Hey pal, I had a complete tune up two months ago! Besides that’s not a robot, he’s biological and was checked by LGMs to be completely clean of any foreign contaminants that could be considered dangerous or viral.” XR seemed irate enough for Fluttershy’s sake that she didn’t bother to speak up, the lizard certainly had a reevaluating look towards Mr. Wheel as he sat there beside Fluttershy cuddling up to her. He also seemed vaguely frightened at the angry visage of a floating robotic head getting in his face. XR didn’t like the feeling of Fluttershy being treated poorly in any given way. “If you need a second opinion then Fluttershy here would know, as she is an expert in animal care and has been with him since she arrived in the Galactic Alliance! Also you don’t know Fluttershy; she’s one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a lot of ambassadors that weren’t anywhere as nice as she is. In fact I’m sure you’ve seen more than your fair share of self important assholes.”
“Calm down XR, while I agree that what he said was uncalled for; you shouldn’t try to make an incident of it! We’re ready to follow you, just lead the way.” Buzz was sticking to the diplomatic sides of things; Mira seemed indifferent to everything at the moment. Everything was kind of calm for once among his friends and team, they weren’t getting aggressive, they weren’t doing anything dumb and they were being relatively calm.
By now XR would have caused an incident, only he backed down immediately at Buzz’s insistence without a fight, but he did cross his arms and muttered a bit.
This kind of confused Buzz; his entire team was acting positively balanced and overly well behaved. He noticed that his team’s entire change in demeanor was all centered on the shy and gentle little ambassador who was starting to exude a calm that even he was beginning to feel. He had to stay tense as he knew that even while on a ship as heavily armed as this one was, things could still go wrong and it was hard not to smile at the squeaks and the adorably shy way Fluttershy held herself. She was the best at not being an entitled jerk of an ambassador that he had ever met despite the position she now found herself in.
As they were led down the hallways, Fluttershy thought about how safe she should feel instead of having this building sense of dread in her gut. The outside of the vessel was defended by hundreds of constantly manned guns, the ones Fluttershy had seen coming in on Star Cruiser Forty Two when it landed horizontally. Star Command Vessels can launch and land either vertically or horizontally; it was a unique feature that Fluttershy thought was interesting given that orientation only mattered when it was landing horizontally.
The inside of the vessel was equally well defended; hundreds of armed armada officers were stalking the hallways for even the slightest hint of something going wrong. Then there was the automatic defense turrets, Fluttershy saw them and knew that they were dangerous having seen similar things on the Valhalla that were usually inactive except when the vessel came under attack, luckily she had been in the hangar during that situation before the turrets were activated. Here the security was very well active even if there wasn’t a visible threat, it was noticeable by the wall turrets visibly moving left and right scanning for an opportunity to shoot an unwarranted intruder that didn’t know how to bypass them safely.
In comparison the Valhalla seemed too relaxed and entirely reliant on their scanners whereas here it didn’t seem as if they couldn’t be careful enough, this Grand Councilor definitely ran a tight ship and nobody here was dropping their guard for too long.
Fluttershy kept a slow walking pace following the two escorting lizard guards that looked like dinosaurs; it’s as if they were expecting everything around them to explode. Nothing happened, but they were still weary as the six of them were led up to the chamber where the Grand Councilor resided ready to receive Fluttershy and begin talking about things.
After a moment of mental math Fluttershy began to wonder something about the design of space bound vessels. The Great Fox had a forward facing bridge; the Valhalla had a bridge towards the rear of the ship above the thrusters and in the case of the Alliance Armada Flagship, the bridge was at the center of the ship away from everything vital.
A bridge in the forward position was likely good for running away from whatever is shooting at you and or observation purposes. A bridge in the rear was good for facing what was shooting at you and having a lot of armaments between you and whoever is shooting at you, it would be mostly used for ambush or assault purposes. It was obvious all space vessels were built with at least some form of self defense, but a ship with a bridge in the dead center of a large generally rectangular vessel? Now that was something of interest as it meant that you were likely in the safest place you could be while having an equal amount of firepower facing in all directions. So this kind of bridge was in a defensive and readily balanced position.
In fact it was becoming a bit of a common thing for Fluttershy to have been on multiple ships where the bridge was mostly exposed. Even if the bridges she’s seen were well armored or shielded, it still seemed kind of dumb to her to put a bridge closest to the outer edge of a space. This ship seemed to be designed so that to take it down you’d have to have enough firepower to split the entire ship into two halves or you’d inexorably pay for not doing that the first chance you had. Boarding it was also a problem since you would have to board the ship from all sides and even then there would still probably be an escape route from a central bridge.
The idle introspection into ship design was cut off when Fluttershy was brought up to a large door. Taking a deep breath she walked forward into the room after the door was opened and saw the tall imposing figure of the Grand Councilwoman who looked down at her with cold emotionless eyes. The room had plenty of other beings working at consoles and making sure the ship was running from their positions and they would talk every once in a while. The people at the consoles would continue to mind their own business unless the Grand Councilwoman needed something of them specifically or if there was a huge problem.
“So you’re the one who has the target painted on her back, to think he is now just as cuddly as you look to be.” After a pause she stepped forward gesturing for her to move over towards a monitor to stare at the stars projected on it. “I hope we can at least be amiable and open with each other, unlike he was at first. At least he’s found a home where he belongs and stopped being a terrible menace, can’t say the same for the rest of his family finding a place where they belong…”
“Um, I would like that we could be friends too. If it’s not too much of me to ask, who are you talking about?” The tall alien gave Fluttershy a simple glance and turned back to the screen, she seemed a bit cold and aloof.
“His name is Stitch, I thought him nothing but a monster and his highly extensive family also nothing but monsters. Some of them are still monsters, but they aren’t bad once you can give them something better to do than what they were made for.” The Grand Councilwoman knew she should try to think in the here and now, but she was having problems focusing after hearing the efforts of the little native girl of the planet Earth becoming a home to all those dangerous experiments. She often questioned if she had been wrong about whether or not one could be made evil, but be given a better purpose in life and had found the question daunting given what happened with Stitch. “I’m sorry; I’ve been a bit lost in thought as of late. I suppose you would like to talk about what you’re here for?”
“Um, I was okay with talking about what you wanted to… I’m not exactly the greatest diplomat in the world or even know what I’m doing as an ambassador. I think I’m here to try and befriend the Galactic Alliance in the stead of my race and I’m okay with doing that.” All Fluttershy got was a stare and a slightly raised brow.
“Quite, now tell me, what is the highest level of technology on your planet?” The Grand Councilwoman had heard a few things about this ambassador; she was wondering what the real situation was to have at least half of the worst criminals the Galactic Alliance had to offer out to get her. Aside from being a first contact race that is. “Also, what would you say is the greatest achievement of your race?”
“Um… well the most technological thing I can think of would be an airship.” As Fluttershy explained what an airship was, the Councilwoman frowned at her slightly. This led Fluttershy to feel a bit of a sinking pit in her stomach. “I think our greatest achievement as a race is that we live in harmony with every other intelligent race of Equus… well most of the time anyway. Every pony has a special talent, something that they are good at and mine is that I’m good with animals like Mr. Wheel here.”
Roller revved in an adorable manner and hopped in place, he like Fluttershy a lot too since she took him to the coolest places ever to roam around at high speeds. He really liked the place with the unmoving moving ground that went nowhere.
“Tell me did any of these other races of Equus build the ship that got you out this far… not to mention alone? Or are you another one of those races that was forced into slavery or abducted?” The Grand Councilwoman tried not to think of those first contact cases where they met the slaves pleading for help from the race that moved in and enslaved them with their technological prowess. Those affairs were always so… messy.
“Um… no, no one on the planet of Equus actually has the ability to build space capable ships as far as I know of. Does the abduction and slavery thing happen often, it didn’t to happen to me and it just sounds horrible. Aside from that I’ve recently learned that a species called the Chozo might have visited my planet and may have seen me in a dream. Does that mean anything to you?” Fluttershy didn’t like the idea of being forced into slavery and was lucky she wasn’t picked up by one of Andross’s units back on Aquas. Realizing she was being stared at she quickly came back to her senses she shyly poked at the ground with her front right hoof drawing small circles in a bashful manner. “Oh I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Fluttershy and I’m a pegasus pony, what’s your name?”
“I agree that it is a horrible thing to subjugate those who aren’t as developed; one of the worst I’ve seen doing that is the Lowardian’s. At least the Galactic Guardian known as Atomic Betty is keeping them in check. They are a rather brutish race that I hope you never have the misfortune to meet without the aid of the Galactic Alliance to protect you. As for these ‘Chozo’ as you call them, hearing that they still see things means a great deal more than you can ever truly imagine or grasp. I imagine that there are very few planets they wouldn’t touch with wonder like a Star Nomad has.” Now the Grand Councilwoman would answer a question she hadn’t needed to in a long time. It was one that was hardly ever asked anymore and here she thought being personal with others was dead and everything was all title all the time. Still she held her regal tone and calm demeanor as she stared out at the depths of space with her arms folded behind her with the being from a new race standing beside her. “I have been simply called Grand Councilwoman for a long time, but as a friend you may call me Veritas.”
“I think Veritas is a nice name. I’m actually the second of my race or any being on our planet to leave our atmosphere in a long time. A little over one thousand years ago princess Celestia launched her sister to the moon, it was in the last few years that she came back and rejoined all of us on the planet.” Fluttershy found the Grand Councilwoman Veritas to be unflappable; she was looking at her with a bit of mild intrigue as if telling her to continue her story. “Well we have these beings on our planet we call princesses who are immortal, they’ve been documented as existing long beyond the normal lifespan of any pony and they are our leaders despite how few of them there are. Luna was the only one to leave our atmosphere before I did; she was sealed on the moon for being a bad pony and wanting our world to be plunged into eternal darkness.”
“How would she have gone about doing this?” Veritas the Grand Councilwoman was not one to say that something was impossible, at least not anymore after witnessing even Jumba Jookiba find his own place in the universe where he felt like he truly belonged. Though she missed Agent Pleakley at times, he was always drawn back to The Ohana. Family meant a lot to some and Veritas could understand the sentiment as a long lived entity.
“Well she could control the moon before Celestia sealed her on it using these things call the elements of harmony, oh my… I haven’t told you about all our princesses yet. Celestia is the princess of the sun, instead of the planet revolving around the sun she makes the sun revolve around the planet and her sister does the same thing only with the moon.” It was a bit surprising that she didn’t receive an incredulous look for saying that, Fluttershy continued on. “While it is true that not many of us have been off our planet, we have the ability to at least jump into alternate dimensions that is not technologically related. Would being in another dimension technically count as off planet or being on the same planet? Oh dear, I have a lot to think about and I’m sorry for not being good at this. Anyway of the other two princesses we know of, one is my good friend Twilight who is the princess of friendship and the other is Cadence the princess of love.”
“Does this Cadence force love to happen between two individuals?” Veritas was just asking for clarification, she was still wrapping her mind around a planet that had a sun and moon revolve around it. She hadn’t seen anything like it quite yet, but she wasn’t about to say such a planet existing wasn’t possible. There was strange sense of calm exuding from this pony and Veritas found it relaxing.
“Oh no, she’d never do that. She’d likely help you find true love or help you if your current relationship was going badly, but she’d never force anyone to do something they didn’t want to. Well unless it was by accident or she was turned evil. So normally she wouldn’t do something like that of her own volition.” At this point Fluttershy liked Veritas, she was letting her talk and she wasn’t being judgmental or anything. She actually let Fluttershy finish her thoughts out loud, but she still seemed cold and distant as she stared out at the stars. After a moment Fluttershy found herself doing the same thing, somewhere out there among the many stars was her home waiting for her to return.
“So tell me more about you’re race.” It was easy for Veritas to say that she had already accepted ponies as a part of the Galactic Alliance if they wished to be a part of it. At the very least Fluttershy was pleasant to talk to and she wasn’t demanding or anything.
“Well, do you want to know about just ponies or all the other intelligent races on Equus as well? I’m sure they’d like some acknowledgement too.” The shy little pony couldn’t fathom why she was receiving the smile that she got from Veritas. “I should mention that I still have contact with my home world, I just can’t find it. Princess Celestia asked me if there was a chance of an embassy and since you mentioned them; do know how I can find a Star Nomad?”
“I’m more than interested in learning about every being on your planet, but only the most prominent races.” Now here was a being who thought of others instead of just herself. In fact Veritas thought the meeting was going quite well, even if Fluttershy was obviously not a brave diplomat she was still quite friendly. “An embassy can be easily arranged. As for finding a Star Nomad to help you find your home world. I would suggest you try the next Galactic Conjunction, one always tends to be drawn towards that particular event and the next one should be happening soon.”
From there they simply spent time talking, while others watched on as the Grand Councilwoman known as Veritas opened up to the pony.
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just wanting to know before i read it...how far away are we talking?
Well, in real ships the bridge is usually exposed. I'm not sure why?
In space visibility is probably not a factor, but then again any hit to a ship is probably going to destroy anything in its path and continue on out the other side, so putting it in the center of mass might not help much.
Well, I guess the meeting did start undisturbed... though I still think party crashing could still happen.
Galactic Conjuction huh. Wait, I've seen that episode! That is interesting... I can see it now, Fluttershy reaches the place, hoping to see a Star Nomad, only to find... it was her the one going!
Yeeeeeeah... no, I doubt that will happen.
Or is it!?Bridge placement huh. Well, in my opinion, it would depend on the setting if it's sound to have the bridge where it is. Stuff like if the ships need to be close to each to attack or simply snipe each other. Durability to withstand hits. How mobile they can be to dodge and if the weapons are easy to avoid as well or not. The types of weapons and how they work. If they can "see" through sensor and stuff or can make "windows" from transparent material that won't break easily from either the vaccum or battle damage.
Uh, yeah, I'd judge it on a case-by-case basis, to be honest, due to how varied settings in fiction can be.
5947397
I would think it's like that since, at the end of things, it doesn't matter. I may not have that much military knowledge, but here it goes:
In war, I'd say the bridge is actually a low priority target. Ships are bound to have each section with it's own chain of command or at least have an idea on what to do if contact is lost with the bridge. And most likely have stuff like redundant or isolated systems and the like to ensure that power loss in one area doesn't affect others. As such, one would prioritize taking out stuff like weapons so it can't fight back, break the hull so it starts to sink, or aim for where the engine and generators are to halt it or blow the whole ship up chain-reaction style from the get-go. As such, the bridge can afford to be exposed since it matters little where it is. So might as well be where the bridge personnel can evacuate easily, still get a regular view of their surroundings, and/or something else like that.
Yeah, that's the best I could come up with.
5947591
Dun dun dunnnnnn in deed lol
I mean, on a ship that would sail on the ocean an exposed and visible bridge makes more sense in several ways. They would typically not need to worry about attacks from below, and in -most- cases above, is it would typically happen horizontally parallel to the water. When you introduce things like needing to keep your ship running at all times in order to keep from crashing or being attacked, such as an airship or spaceship, then you would see some unique challenges regarding safety and operating effectively.
The way I would see it, any ship that is over a certain size, particularly if they do not or cannot enter a planet's atmosphere, would want to get away from a forward facing command center and bury itself deeper into the center of itself. Not just for the sake of possible attacks, but to keep vital systems and elements from suffering incidental damage from minor or micro impacts. Beyond that, smaller ship designs with a smaller crew can likely still work with a forward bridge, possibly with a backup one.