Salvation

by voroshilov

A visitor

The approach to Sanctuary’s Watch was slow, with the Retaliator forced to exit the Rift on the edge of the Chronovus system, to be scanned by authorities and then given a permit to enter the defensive zone. Ablazed Glory relinquished her controls, as the Luminary brought them in with a steady cruise. The bubble of defensive stations loomed all around them, with a shadow cast over them by a gun platform the size of a city.

“I live on Chronove’s moon,” Penumbra said, “Sanctuary’s Watch. It’s a nice place.”

A Dominion battleship passed by ahead of them, its sleek black silhouette creating a long, thin wedge in the starlight.

“Nicer than Chronove.” She chuckled. “I don’t know where you’d stay, though. Could always use my bed and I’ll just go for a walk, or something.”

Ablazed Glory waved a talon. “Eh, I don’t need sleep. I’ll be fine.”

Penumbra nodded. “When do you want to go back to New Horizons?” The moments between their bouts of speech were utterly silent, with only slight shadows reminding them they were still moving.

Her companion shrugged. “Dunno. Depends what happens, if there’s something interesting from being here I might as well stay here a while. Besides, I’ve been missing from New Horizons for three years, what’s another few days?”

She made a good point. Besides, Penumbra could always use the company, as well as the help with the ship. Ablazed Glory had a knack with it Penumbra just didn’t, although, if nothing was happening then that knack would be of better use elsewhere.

“How long do you reckon it’ll take to get to Sanctuary’s Watch?” She asked.

Though she had asked Penumbra, it was the Luminary who answered, “three hours and forty five minutes.”

Both of the alicorns slumped back, preparing for the long ride. Ablazed Glory was jittery and restless, clearly already bored, desiring anything to do no matter how mundane. Penumbra, meanwhile, was almost relaxed, glad for the calm routine that the procedures brought.

Regardless, neither could tear their eyes away from the scene around Chronove. Vessels of all sizes buzzed about like bees, appearing chaotic but clearly organised. There was an odd beauty to it, the elegant and almost random dance of millions of ships, carrying about a hundred thousand tasks against the backdrop of the de facto capital of the Dominion. Hundreds of thousands of kilometres away, hung the planet that had once been the seat of power of Emperor Nicholas, and the Irenton Empire.

Penumbra had only read about the heady days of the Empire, back when Chronove wasn’t visible from Sanctuary’s Watch due to the sheer density of ships. Long ago, when the shipyards around Chronove had been working at near impossible rates, when Chronove’s defensive fleet alone exceeded the current Dominion Navy. Her station in the Dominion allowed the travel time from Chronovus’ entrance to Sanctuary’s Watch to be significantly shortened, but, long ago, a twelve hour wait would have been considered extraordinarily quick.

It had been a good four hours by the time they entered Sanctuary’s Watch’s atmosphere. The broadcast of Penumbra’s credentials kept the planetary defence guns, visible as immense grey metal patches in the woodland, from simply vapourising them. An area outside of Penumbra’s observatory home was clear, built initially as a landing pad - with Penumbra having once planned to turn it into an outdoor study, though that plan amounted to nothing.

The ramp descended, the two being greeted by the fresh, spring air of Sanctuary’s Watch, and the smell of newly blossoming flowers. The air around Penumbra’s observatory often had a sweet aroma to it, especially during the spring.

Penumbra relished the feeling of the soft grass at her feet. It felt somehow more real than that on Cradle, though it was no more natural or unnatural than it. The ground was definitely softer, however, with more of a spring to it, as opposed to the rigidity of Cradle’s platforms. Perhaps it was simply the feeling of being home that relaxed her so much.

“This is my home,” she said, waving her talon in a flourish towards the stone tower, “let’s head inside and get some tea.”

Tea was, of course, a very standard beverage in the Irenton Dominion. Coffee was much more of a pain to make, as well as being a source of caffeine, so its popularity with the military - which, whilst its impact had lessened significantly, had remained the main sample for popularity since the Irenton Empire - had not been as high. Tea was simple, tasty, warm and could be supplied in a variety of flavours and manners, all coming together to make it the Dominion’s drink of choice aside from water. Although, especially amongst civilians, whiskey was making a resurgence, along with brandy amongst naval officers.

Penumbra didn’t stock brandy, as she was not a naval officer, but she did stock whiskey. Although, she rarely drank it. Instead, it sat in the whiskey cabinet, where a bottle may be removed once every blue moon and replaced with barely a shot missing. She did, however, stock immense amounts of tea, like any good citizen of the Dominion did. Her tea crate was always half full, it never went below half but also never really went above.

Her kettle activated via her voice, a feature she had wondered as to the necessity of. That was not to say it wasn’t useful, far from it, as it allowed Penumbra to boil the kettle whilst performing another task like reading a book or wondering why she kept a cupboard solely for whiskey. It did, however, seem like there were many more important innovations that could have been worked on in the time it took a voice-activated kettle to become a reality.

The upstairs floor was a bit of a pain to get to, more in terms of the time spent doing so than any particular difficulty. Regardless, it was where she had put everything, creating a bedroom-cum-library-cum-kitchen-cum-living room, with an enclosed en-suite bathroom connected to it - though Penumbra had no actual use for it given she had her magic to clean and had no use for a toilet regardless.

What the upstairs floor shouldn’t have been, however, was occupied.

Stood just in front of Penumbra’s bed, facing the door, was a WarSynth. Its body, skeletal, silvery alloy, shining as though it had just been produced. It’s tall, thin eye glowed light blue, held in the centre of its head, which bore an additional fan-like headdress with two large cut outs. It’s beam weapon, two long prongs connected by a filament of red energy, was held downwards, with minimal charge. It was a WarSynth, without any visible alterations - completely and utterly generic.

“A warning,” it screeched in binary, before reverting to language both she and Ablazed Glory could understand and repeating itself, “a warning.”

Ablazed Glory flared her horn, but Penumbra held her back with a talon.

“A warning?” She questioned, “a warning about what?”

The WarSynth screeched again, “a coming darkness,” it switched once again to more comprehensible speech, “a coming darkness, one that threatens to envelop all. Take to your ship, gather your allies. They will be needed for the final battle.”

Before Penumbra or Ablazed Glory could question the WarSynth further, it was wreathed in a smoky fog, crackling with energy, wherein it vanished, teleporting to someplace unknown.

Ablazed Glory spoke up first. “I take it we’re not staying then?”