• Member Since 15th Nov, 2011
  • offline last seen January 19th

FanNotANerd


Hello? Is... is this thing on? The red light means it's on, right? Or do I... I have to push a button, don't I? Well, which one? There's like ten! The black one? They're all black!

T
Source

After the return of Princess Luna, Equestria entered a period of unparalleled innovation. Space flight and faster-than-light travel became not only reachable goals, but reality. And so equine civilization expanded throughout the cosmos. But in their search for other intelligent life, they discovered a race that could not be befriended, appeased or reasoned with. The race they encountered existed only to feed.

Now, in a war where defeat means extinction, any victory counts.

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 7 )

More dakka! :pinkiecrazy:

A little heavy on the exposition at the start, but I guess that's unavoidable in a one-shot like this. I like the physics, but don't really get the logistics. Why isn't there a detection/alert network around Equus? Seems like an absurd vulnerability for a home planet. Even if the 'lings can jam radio comms, there's always laser. Also, for a story that's trying to be physically accurate, I find myself viscerally objecting to the idea that they'd leave so much debris in orbit...but I guess I can just assume they have Sufficiently Advanced deflector systems to keep high-Δv collisions from being an issue.

Entertaining. Twilight needs to demand a chair on her next bridge. :twilightangry2:

Pretty nice little thing, although one detail sticks out like a sore thumb.

Namely, a civilian ship just happened to see the battle begin? Big coincidence there, enough that it jarred me out of reading for a few seconds.

4918548 To be perfectly honest, I wrote myself into a corner on that one. I couldn't think of anything better. When/if I do, you can expect a ninja edit.

EDIT: Ninja edit complete.

4918421 As for the detection thing, I referenced a few times that unless they were firing weapons, Changeling ships couldn't be tracked. Maybe I should try to make that a little clearer. It's unknown how they do so, but it renders any sort of detection system moot. As for the debris in orbit, well... Equus just has to live with Kessler Syndrome. Even if they can de-orbit the hulls, there's still a bunch of bits and things floating around that'd be next to impossible to track.

4918714
Ehh, but Twilight was able to see the ship, so it seems like optical recognition and differentiation systems should be able to track. And even if that doesn't work for some handwavy (hoofwavy?) reason, a swept laser-continuity grid should be able to provide some degree of alert.

I guess the feeling I have is that while we couldn't do it right now, the ponies are obviously well ahead of us, so they should be able to have the density of satellites and laser tracking ability to do some sort of security grid.

Same for the debris, really. Even we have some ideas coming out for systems to help clear LEO of small debris, you'd think with magic and advanced tech they wouldn't have a problem. I guess I could see it being a lower priority with a war on, but again, only if they have really good deflector and/or point-defense shield systems on the ships.

Of course these aren't really things I'd expect to be addressed in a one-shot--I'm just nerding out. :twilightsheepish:

Really awesome story. Wish you'd continue it. :twilightsmile:

It's not my style to read into the details of stuff like the physics of space battles or wondering why they have this kind of technological marvel, but not some other. I read for the enjoyment factor and if the portions I've read drive me to read the next portion. Especially for one-shots, it's all about whether or not I found the time spent reading to be fun.

And I did have fun. It feels familiar in a way that everything is easily compared to popular franchises, so for me there was no lag in picking up on the basics of the universe I was stepping into. I like that when I dive into a one-shot over lunchtime. And it scratches the itch for those of us who love a bit of sci-fi action and ship-to-ship combat. There's also enough there that I want to see more of this world and more of this war. Nicely done.

“Captain, I’m seeing targeting pings from over three hundred different ships!” her navigation officer yelled, his voice tight with panic.
“Evasive maneuvers!” Twilight yelled. “Try to get a signal out! Tight-beam, radio, anything!”

I expected Twilight would try something like an emergency FTL jump.
But I guess those doesn't exist in this universe.

Start at 2:15 to see how to escape with an emergency FTL:


Good story!
I enjoyed reading it.

I assume whichever changeling general had the brilliant idea for this attack plan was on the dreadnought.
And if he wasn't, he probably whished he were there.
Because the queen will certainly ask him to explain himself to her.
In person.

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