Cosmic Rifts

by Silvak

Chapter IX: Present

"Now, Captain, hold still and rema—"

"I am calm, but I won't be if you take your bloody time getting this bullet out of me! Take any longer and I'll just use a knife to get it out myself!"

Sighing, the medic replied, "Fine Captain, just give me a moment," before he lit his horn as I felt the bullet moving around in my side before it came out of the hole that the bullet gave me. I was behind some cover with my chest armor taken off while Agate kept a shield up.Luna went off to find the sniper after a few medics arrived with reinforcements, and judging by the rather big explosion that had a blue hue to it, I guess she found it.

"Considering that you're not showing a single sign of pain, I wonder if you actually enjoy having a piece of metal in you," Windbag joked, causing me to glare at him. Before I could make a retort, I felt the medic applying a cleansing potion to my side, which naturally gave it a burning sensation due to the fact that since we're facing an enemy that had unknown metal compounds and chemical weapons at their disposal, it was standard issue to cleanse any wounds that were hit by any non-energy weapons. Looking at the medic after I felt him patching my side up, I watched as he deposited the blood-soaked bullet into a storage container, another standard issue so we can get any insight on what kind of physical ammunition the enemy was using.

"Alright Captain, the bullet is out, and the wound wasn't deep nor did any of your organs get hit, but I recommend that you don't go back into battle still," the medic said, which I responded by rolling my eyes at him.

"Like I'm going to sit back and relax while others are still fighting," I stated as I got up, holding back a wince as my side stung me for the effort while the medic just sighed before moving to help his fellow medics with Delta Five's wounded. As I checked my shields while lighting my horn up to recharge their battery, I turned on my radio as I said, "All units, report your progress." After receiving the reports that none of the other squads faced any trouble beyond the simple shield formations, I ordered, "Alright, everyone, continue your approach towards the enemy, but keep an eye out for snipers. Keep your shields charged, but if any squads are unable to do so, fall back and wait for reinforcements. We can't take any more risks for the time being. If you spot any heavily entrenched forces or enemy armor, just report their locations to the Solar Glory so they can blow them to Tartarus." Turning off my radio, I looked around to notice that Cherry and Night were missing, causing me to look at the rest of my squad as I asked, "Where the fuck are Cherry and Night?"

"They followed Luna in order to provide her support. They figured that you rather have them pushing forward instead of staying here until you were treated," Agate answered, causing me to roll my shoulders as I cracked my neck.

"Alright then, time to get ba—" I started to say until Windbag held his foreleg out in front of me, causing me to glare at him as I said, "What the fuck are you doing, Windbag?"

"Princess Luna has given me orders to ensure that you don't rejoin the fight," Windbag stated with a smug grin.

"Windbag, you got to the count of three to get your foreleg out of my fa—" I started to say until Agate stuck his foreleg in front of me as well. "Oh come on!"

"Princess Luna has ordered me as well, Captain," Agate stated, trying to take on a serious expression, which faltered under my withering glare. "She doesn't want you getting injured again, and that it wouldn't due for you to suffer magical exhaustion." As I was about to open my mouth to holler at the two, Agate added, "Though, I have a recommendation at what you could be doing to aid the troops, Captain."

Giving him the stink eye, I replied, "It better be good, Agate, or you'll find yourself cleaning the toilets with just your tongue."

Blinking in surprise, Agate glanced at Windbag, who simply commented, "She's not kidding, she will make you do that if you can't satisfy her demands."

Gulping at the threat hanging over his head, Agate said, "Princess Luna had proposed that you instead return to the Solar Glory to take command of the long-range artillery guns. She mentioned that you might find amusement peppering where you think the Xartik may be entrenched."

Giving him a long hard look for a moment, I let out a sigh as I replied, "She's right, I would like to rain down destruction on the enemy. Time to see if robots could understand the concept of shock and awe," as Agate let out a sigh of relief. "Now let's get moving so I can start blowing things up."

---

"And this is the holomap designed by Twilight Sparkle herself, using the Cutie Map at her castle as a form of inspiration," Captain Stone explained with Gregory at his side. We were gathered at the Solar Glory's command deck, which was staffed with species of all kinds and the holomap that Stone was talking about dominating the center, looking like a light blue projection of the battlefield with various green and red dots on it. The deck was at an elevated position above the rest of the ship, but was given a secondary shield since its position would make it a prime target for enemy fire. I was on the side with the windows closest to the battlefield, where I could see the constant bombardment by the ship's cannons on enemy positions, as well as the sight of one of the fallen alien ships being peppered with the long range guns.

"Nice design we got here, I assume these windows aren't just for our viewing pleasure?" I asked as I lifted a pair of binoculars to get a view of the rest of the forest.

"Of course not, Captain. These windows are reinforced glass enchanted with magic to make them even further stronger. Even a sniper round would have a hard time penetrating them," Gregory said, causing me to nod in approval as I spotted signs of another crashed ship’s remains.

"Good to see that whoever designed the ship made certain to cover any potential weakness as best as they can. Also, Stone, shift the long range cannons over to that position to the left of their current target," I ordered, causing Stone to come to my side with his own binoculars, taking a moment to see what I saw.

"Impressive Captain, you have a good eye on you," Stone said before looking at one of the officers on deck as he passed on the orders.

"Eh, it's something I developed in my younger years. Hard to survive if you don't spot the things that want to make you their next dinner," I idly replied as I watch the new target get peppered before turning my attention to Gregory. "I want you to start scanning the area for more alien crash sites, that way we can beat them to Tartarus before our troops move in for the kill."

"Yes Captain," Gregory said as I held my binoculars to him, which he grabbed as he made his way to the window, allowing me to walk over to the holomap to give it my full attention.

"We really need to make some name differences," I muttered to myself as I gave the battlefield a better view, seeing that not only was the holomap projecting the battlefield, but I could see tiny floating signs over the various units we have on the field, as well as indicators for various battlefield locations, marking potential crash sites or enemy ambushes. It was then that a claw came down from above me to poke my nose, cause me to scrunch it as I looked up to see Discord floating above me. "What are you up to now, Discord?" I asked as I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Why, just checking on my work, ain't it wonderful?" Discord said as he started poking various spots on the map, some of them being spots where there was marked alien ship remains, others unmarked spots, causing me to narrow my eyes at them.

"Captain Stone, mark those locations for bombardment immediately. Gregory, keep viewing the forest for anything suspicious, I don't want a wave of tanks coming down on a vulnerable squad or something like that," I ordered before turning my attention back to Discord, who was still floating around leisurely. "Thanks for the assist, and your little trick on the Xartik ships."

"My pleasure, even if this is all dreadful business, in my opinion. But alas, with such cruel monsters going after us, we have no choice but to fight for our survival. Hopefully my present will deter them from their desires to take over Equus," Discord stated as he filed his claws.

Looking at the remains of the enemy ships, I said, "I don't know, despite losing ships on arrival, they kept sending in some more, so I don't think that hurt them too much."

"I was talking about a different present, my silly filly," Discord replied with a chuckle, causing me to tilt my head at that.

"Huh? Then what did you gave them?" I asked, tilting my head as I ran my mind on what Discord could possibly do to them, before shaking my head at the futility of it.

"Oh, just something to mess with their center of gravity, so to speak," Discord simply answered as he gave me a smirk.

---

"This anomaly... to have such a capability, Species 3249 has much potential for not only scientific study but military capacities as well. Acquiring this species would grant us a new military edge over our competitors."

"Interesting proposal, Executive 423. Perhaps we will devote resources to this pursuit in order to further our corporation's goals. It appears that Executive 517 and 498 seemed interested in partaking in this particular endeavor."

"Their forces and assets would be mo—"

"Alert. Alert. Unknown anomaly detected at Mustering Station 4."

"What in limbo... Is that some sort of box? Command Unit 924, send a drone to investigate it."

"Orders received. Unit TW8923924 has arrived at the anomaly, inves— error, error, gravitational distortion detected."

"Gravitational distortion? Command Unit 924, what is going on? Report!"

"Report: Gravitational distortion detected, strong gravitational pull detected at the origin point of the anomaly. Nearby drone units are being drawn towards the origin point, losing connection to drones."

"By the founder, commence evacuation of the immediate area of all mobile assets!"

"Orders received, remaining drone personal and transport ships moving from vin—alert. Alert. Gravitational pull growing in strength, drone personal are immediately being drawn into it, transport ships report pull into the anomaly."

"My ships‽ Put their engines at full power! Jump to another dimension, even if its a random jump!"

"Orders received, engines at maximum thrust, gravitational pull has increased in response. Opening dimens—alert. Alert. All transport ships staffed at Mustering Station 4 and the station itself has ceased connection."

"..."

"Sounds like this species has more tricks up its sleeves than we thought. But do not worry Executive 423. You may have taken quite the loss there, but this event has perked my interest. Any species capable of manipulating gravity in such a fashion is most certainly something one must not pass up on investigating."

"I, on the other hand, will not participate in this matter. May you both profit from this 'venture' of yours, Executive 192, 423."

"...Command Unit 924. Muster all military assets at Mustering Station 3 and 5. Have all ground forces board the transports, and scatter them into space. I don't want any group of ships together, they should all be isolated from one another. This species is going to pay for destroying my property."

Comments

[bonberjean]

I wonder if/when they send living troops, Aether will try to capture them or just kill them outright

[hive vs machine]

[Crescent Glaive]

Those execs just got smacked and hard XD

[Mother3Forever]

Discord... really? Black Hole in a Box?

[Auxiliary Nexus]

I'm concerned about the desire for others to experiment on the ponies' magic capabilities. It would be too big a risk for them to get their hands on it, assuming they can even understand and utilize such a supernatural force.

The ponies should pull a tactic the Necrons use in WH40K, where dead and severely injured automatically teleport away to a safe location. It made Necron tech extremely hard to obtain. I don't think they can nullify the teleports because they don't know how the magic behind it works.

Better yet, just make the whole place one-way. Anything can get in, but make it extremely hard to get back out.

Hopefully Discord doesn't get wrecked or captured by some sort of convenient secret weapon that gets pulled from nowhere. He's the kind of guy who always has a fallback, probably a teleport back to his pocket dimension of his.

[Spiral_Donut]

8582776
It works. And it causes a ton of chaos.

[Lancerlot]

Any species capable of manipulating gravity in such a fashion is most certainly something one must not investigate."

I see what you did there.

[Rusty Bascule]

To be fair, Discord finds death to be far too orderly and un-chaotic. A black hole in a small box is a different matter: A box which contains surprise and the provides eventual spaghettification of the recipients over infinite time (due to time dilation) is somewhat funny.

[Lysander Shadowheart]

Great chapter Silvak. I also have to nod at discords present. Looking forward to the next one.

[HoneyBadgerr]

Rut roh. Theyre pissed off now.

[Greatazuredragon]

"Huh? Then what did you gave them?" I asked, tilting my head as I ran my mind on what Discord could possibly do to them, before shaking my head at the futility of it.
"Oh, just something to mess with center of gravity, so to speak," Discord simply answered as he gave me a smirk.

"Orders received, engines at maximum thrust, gravitational pull has increased in response. Opening dimens—alert. Alert. All transport ships staffed at Mustering Station 4 and the station itself has ceased connection."

Discord is best Draconequus.

So their defense of the initial assault was a success, but the reactions from the enemy command is a mixed bag. Some are cautious and abandoning the venture, while others are now wanting to push it even further.

Nice chapter, good work.

[CuriousCurse]

"you Mutually Assured Destruction bro?"

Seriously though, now that discord has sent effectively a WMD at them, how long before aether starts planning for tactical WMD strikes? Even just a few fat boy-esqe nukes deployed tactically with radiation shielded shock troops could burn away a large enough area to set up a foothold. Let's hope radiation doesn't pass through shields, though if air is allowed then subatomic particles and gamma rays in a dispersed pattern may leak through.

But on the more political side, what are the chances of reaching out to less blood thristy governments for mutual assistance? Would Aether's paranoia create tension and force her to be kicked out of peace talks or even cause worse problems, forcing her to develope her character beyond "paranoid asshole commander that seemongly can't lose"? (Maybe it's just me, but she seems a bit sueish lately, not quite without meaningful flaws, but they seem to not have a real adverse impact on how she handles things. She handles logical and tactical situations well, but she seems to not be punished at all for being an unappologetic sociopath or general asshole)

[Midknight Defender]

"Oh, just something to mess with center of gravity, so to speak," Discord simply answered as he gave me a smirk.

Oooh. Unintended double entendre, there.

Yes, yes, the obvious, Discord's playing with gravity somewhere.

But you also reminded me of a sci-fi series I read about an interstellar war.

The fleet commander wants to strike deep into enemy space, even though the politicos are terrified to let him take his fleet away from Earth because invasion, but he says the best way to keep Earth from being struck is to strike into enemy space and shift the "center of gravity" of the conflict away from human controlled space. He then explains the usage of center of gravity there is a metaphor hearkening back to old terrestrial battles and the idea of center of mass of a conflict, which doesn't refer to physical mass, but more where a conflict is centered and how assets are deployed to force battle farther away from ones own vulnerable areas.

Which is basically what the entire US strategy with the aircraft carriers is...project force far away from home so any conflict inevitably takes place out there, rather than at home.

But what I'm saying is, Discord's little gravity bomb shifted the center of gravity of this little conflict away from Equus and dimensions nearby and into alien robot butthead space. Now would be a good time to keep it there.

[Kevin Lee]

Discord could easily give the ponies more of a respite by just going to the Xartik's home dimension and adjusting the controls of their dimensional drives so the Xartgik end up going to Fluidic Space of Species 8472 rather than the world Aether set up for their battlefield....just as an extra layer of dimensional travel they'd have to get through before reaching Equus.

As Colonel O'Neill succinctly put it, "First one being a Black_hole and all. They get progressively darker from there. "

[TwilightDrgn]

8589567
w8 hold up is there like a map and list for this stuff cause you just confused the crap out of me

[Kevin Lee]

8592055
Wait. There someone who doesn't get any of those references!? Heh!

The Xertik evidently categorize every new species they encounter in the same manner as the Borg.
oocities.org/hollywood/8459/8472attack.jpg
The Borg designation of Species 8472 is from ST:Voyager. They are some serious bad asses in they have obliterated every Borg ship sent to assimilate any of the creatures.
i.imgur.com/HOs6Z2Q.gif
Colonel O'Neill, of course, is from SG-1.

[Black Ash]

I think they better think it out again. Discord is playing games with them right now. If they do the wrong thing...

[TheDerpySoupCan]

This is still going, right?

[Luckyfanisaac]

"I want you to start taking scanning the area for more alien crash sites,

"Huh? Then what did you give them?"

the holomap that Stone was talking about dominating the center, looking like a light blue projection of the battlefield with various green and red dots on it.

Reminds me of the hologram map at Gallifrey high command. 0:03