Chapter 3: Animal Caretaker (R)
Strider found himself once again grunting back into the waking world, his aching and sore body reminding him of his current situation. It's one thing to sleep in uncomfortable armor, but if you add on the chase and skirmish in that forest. Yeah, he was certainly gonna be feeling the effects from that taste of action for a bit.
But that wasn’t an excuse to simply lie there all day. So the trooper found himself once again rising to his feet whilst fighting back a couple groans of pain. His leg was still giving him spikes of pain, informing him that if he kept holding this off, it'd only continue to get worse.
Knowing this, he sat back down against the tree. This time, he removed the backpack from its spot behind him and set it down on the rich grassland. With relative ease, he opened up the pack and shuffled through its contents before finding what he wanted. The medical kit came out easily, and upon opening it, also managed to survive the skirmish of last night in a good condition.
Not wanting to waste time, Strider immediately got to work in fixing up his injury. He grabbed what he needed, removed the necessary pieces of armor off of his body, and began treating himself. For the most part, his leg didn't seem that badly banged up, much to his relief. A bit of bacta later, and he'd hopefully be able to sprint on it without constant pain spiking through it.
"First night on the planet, and I'm already treating wounds. Hopefully I don't have to spend any more time than I need to here." Strider thought, finishing up the job and placing everything back in the kit.
The kit was then placed back into the backpack, which was then slung back over his shoulder. As he stood back up for the second time, he took in his immediate surroundings.
The forest had dissipated rather abruptly, leaving a vast open plain with healthy looking green grass and a full view of a slightly clouded blue sky. Just a bit to his right was the building he’d seen before going under, only now he could see it much clearer thanks to the solar light.
The building itself seemed to be a two story structure with a handful of windows and a stubby looking chimney. The roof appeared to be composed of heavily dense leaves and overgrowth, masking whatever its original color had been and replacing it with a dark shade of green. There were several smaller structures spread on and around the building, each one appearing to be small shelters, possibly for the local wildlife.
Speaking of wildlife, the entire area around the building hosted a bountiful amount of animals, far more than what he'd seen in the forest. There were winged animals circling the roof, land animals grazing over the lawn, and aquatic animals swimming in a small creak that led back into the forest. Whoever lived in that building must either really love animals, or had an incredibly bad critter invasion partaking on their property.
“Hopefully whoever owns this place has a long ranged transmitter, or at least knows where the nearest town is.” Strider thought to himself, beginning his trek towards the building’s rather small looking red door.
Using the DC-15A as a makeshift cane a couple times, the trooper found himself crossing over the small creak and walking up the dirt path towards the building. The wildlife upon noticing him had either fled, not minded him, or had gotten themselves into rather weak defensive stances. Whatever these animals were, they didn’t seem nearly as threatening as the creatures from the forest, which was quite a relief.
Strider knocked on the hard wooden door a couple times before pulling his hand away and waiting. Not long after did he manage to make out the sound of something approaching the door from the opposite side, most likely the owner. He heard the muffled sounds of a voice on the other side, before the door moved inwards and exposed the creature who’d opened it.
Strider was about to greet them, but his sentence never left his mouth once he made eye contact with the creature. Whatever it was, he hadn’t seen anything like it before. It seemed to primarily host equine features; a short muzzle, equine-like ears atop its head, four legs, and lots of yellow fur covering its body. It had a very long pink mane which slightly covered one of it's large cyan eyes, along with a matching pink tail that trailed behind it.
As the clone looked over the unknown lifeform, he quickly noticed that it seemed to be doing the exact same with himself. It’s eyes started down at his boots, before rising up to his helmet slowly and methodically. Once they met his visor, they seemed to widen quite a bit and its pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks.
The two stood in silence for a bit, neither quite sure if they should make the first move. Once Strider finally found words to say, he was suddenly greeted with the door slamming back into its frame, along with an audible click from most likely a lock on the inside.
Whatever they were, it was obvious that they were scared of him.
”Huh, well that complicates things. If they’re scared of me, then one of two things are possible. Either this place is under C.I.S. control and their propaganda is in full force, or this planet just hasn’t ever seen a CT unit in the flesh.”
Strider looked down at his armor, and then the blaster he was gripping in his right hand. If either of these possibilities were right, then he could somewhat see why they might be scared of him. Still, surely he doesn’t look that scary right?
Deciding to knock again, he waited for a response. When none came, he decided to simply talk as if they were on the other side of the door. Hopefully, they were, and he could calm them down.
"Uh, sorry if the armor startled you… " Strider said, "I promise I have no intentions of harming you. I’d just like to talk, and possibly get directions to the nearest space port.”
Luckily, his assumption proved to be right and he heard a faint muffled voice on the other side of the door;
"promise?" They mumbled.
"Sorry, couldn't hear you. Could you say that louder?" Strider asked.
"Promise?" They repeated a little bit louder. At least it spoke Galactic Basic.
"I promise." Strider claimed, watching as the door clicked and gently moved inwards once again.
Once he was sure the creature was looking at him, he made sure to prove that he’d been honest and set the blaster down on the ground in front of him. That seemed to provide a bit of ease, as the door opened up a tad more, revealing more of their butter yellow face.
"Wh-who are you?" The life form asked, it's tone sounding female and quite shaken up.
"My designation is CT 3719, but I prefer the name Strider. I’m a clone soldier serving in the Grand Army of the Republic, or G.A.R. for short." Strider explained.
"A-Army?" The pony stuttered, her eyes widening.
"Um, yes? The G.A.R. clashing against the C.I.S.’s battle droid armies? A war typically involves armies." Strider pointed out.
The life form’s eyes somehow managed to widened even more at the word war, which didn’t exactly make sense. Surely they knew about the war just beyond their skies right? Practically every planet in the galaxy knew for gods sake!
"What's the name of this planet? Where did I crash land?" He asked.
"E-Equus? A-And the land y-you crashed in is Equestria." She exclaimed.
"Equus? Equestria?” Never in his entire time training on Kamino had he heard either of those names. That didn’t bode well for him, but he decided to simply shelve it for the moment. Right now, he needed to deal with the life form before him.
“I’ve got a couple questions for you, uh… “
Realizing what Strider was trying to say, the life form cut in;
“Oh, sorry. I-I’m Fluttershy.”
“Thanks. As I was saying, I’ve got a couple questions for you Fluttershy.” Strider stated.
“Oh, um. Uh, ok. I guess. W-Would you like to come inside then?” ‘Fluttershy’ asked.
"If it's fine with you, but I'm not sure if it's exactly my height." Strider claimed, putting a finger over the top of the doorway which was easily at eye level.
"O-Oh, don't worry, it looks smaller on the outside." Fluttershy claimed, before opening the door the rest of the way, allowing him to enter. Strider quickly snatched up his weapon and ducked below the doorframe, hearing its door shut behind him in the most gentle way possible.
The interior of the building seemed to be a standard living quarters, with two couches in the back and bookshelves behind them. There was an old stone furnace against the right wall which had a few framed pictures on it, along with a handful of logs next to it. The place hosted several unlit candles spread throughout the room, unnecessary considering all the windows were open which offered up plenty of natural light. Although the fact that they were candles and not powered lamps sent another trail of worry through Strider’s mind.
There were also several small structures that seemed to serve as places for animals to sleep in, play on, or walk atop. It was like the whole building was some sort of old wildlife jungle gym that children might play on, except scaled much smaller for tinier creatures.
"Cozy place." Strider said, standing back up fully. The ceiling wasn't as low as he’d thought but it was still low enough that if he jumped, he would most likely hit his head on one of the support beams.
"I wanted a nice area for all of my animal friends to be able to explore and play in." Fluttershy explained.
"So, are you an animal caretaker? Or just like animals a lot?" Strider asked.
"Both actually. Animals have always helped me out through rough times and I want to help any animals who need it."
"That's quite kind of you." Strider pointed out.
"A little kindness never hurts," Fluttershy claimed. "Um, d-do you want some tea?"
"Sure." Strider stated, eyeing a green chair.
"Do you have a preference for what kind of tea?" Fluttershy asked, halting in front of an empty door frame that most likely led to a kitchen.
"That would be a no, just pick one you're comfortable with." Strider stated, approaching the green chair with interest.
Fluttershy walked through the doorway and into the kitchen, vanishing from sight. Therefore, leaving Strider alone for a bit. He set the backpack down against the chair and sat down, his mind beginning to drift back to the hundreds of questions he had.
For one, how did the L.A.A.T. even crash? The last thing he remembered was fleeing with a squad of troopers towards an evacuation point deep in space when they, along with the other Gunships, were shot down by an attacking Separatist command ship. How his L.A.A.T. didn't just explode from being struck by one of those canons was unknown to Strider. Did the ship even get hit? He couldn't tell due to the state the ship was left in after the crash. Yet again, it was still mostly intact, maybe an E.M.P. went off or something and---
Strider halted his trail of thought when he spotted a small snow white bunny watching him from a basket he hadn't noticed before. The bunny was watching him intently, a look of uncertainty across its face.
"Uh… hi?"
The bunny didn't react. Instead, its eyes seemed dead focused on the DC-15A that was currently lying against the chair Strider was sitting in.
Realizing this, Strider quickly picked the blaster up and switched its safety on, before setting it on the top shelf of a bookshelf behind him. The last thing he needed was some creature playing with a military grade blaster rifle in a house likely full of other animals, not to mention vases and picture frames.
The bunny frowned at his actions, before hopping away into another room. Right as the bunny left Strider's sight, Fluttershy returned to the room, a tray with tea cups resting on her back. She set the tray down on a table between the chair Strider was sitting on and a nearby sofa.
"So, what questions do you have?" Fluttershy asked, taking her own seat on the sofa.
“Well, first off I’d like to know if you’ve heard of the Clone Wars.” Strider asked.
Fluttershy shook her head, looking both confused and incredibly worried.
"Have you ever contacted anything beyond your planet's atmosphere?"
Another shake.
"Did you even know life existed beyond your stars?"
"There are stories of life on other planets, but not many ponies believe them. They were just bedtime stories to tell foals, or scary stories at camp. I didn't really like the latter stories... " Fluttershy exclaimed. "... wait. Does that mean you're an alien!?"
The fearful question seemed to fall on deaf ears, for Strider's mind had locked onto what she'd said prior. No communication, no space flight, no knowledge of life beyond their sky. This was turning more and more into a worst possible scenario. If this planet was so far back technologically, then what were the odds of him alerting the Republic that he was even here? He'd crashed on the worst possible status of planet to get stranded on; a backwater planet.
He was gonna be stuck here for far longer than he’d thought...
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9701169
Fun Fact, I actually messed up on that. Clone Troopers numbers are actually a maximum of 4 numbers. I'll be correcting that now.
As for the Clones themselves, it's actually in the next chapter.
Not English, but Basic.
Ahhh, this reminds me of the earlier fanfiction when humans get to the everfree as the standard landing ground for the writers.
Keep it up!
U
I love it I like the back story the way it leads up keep typing this story I would like this story to get atleast get to 20 chapters I support this story by giving it a follow and a like
Heheheheheheheheh
Why would he think the cottage strangely small? Aliens come in all sizes. He'd think this was just a house for a small alien, and that this is not strange.
This should be replaced with "Galactic Basic" as in the SW universe, "English" doesn't exist.
Not to be a nit picker, but I think it's called the G.A.R or the Grand Army of the Republic.
Flows a bit better as well
9758889
Well you are being nitpicky. Besides when it isnt called by its full name it actually is referred to as the Republic army in published canon books.
Dr.Hooves universe. No doubt. He connects ALL of it.
Oh ho ho this could get interesting.
10144288
YA THINK??????????????
Ok I like this fanfiction already
9701811
To me, that's honestly a pretty good cliche in fim stories. They're very interesting if done right just like in this story^^