Chapter 10
The destroyer had been experiencing more and more problems. First with the electronics, and then with other things as well. The engines were responding strangely and several other pieces of equipment head experienced malfunctions. It was an incredible relief to pull into Yokosuka Harbor.
Commander Delgado observed as the ship laid out its anchor chain. As soon as things were secure, he left the bridge feeling somewhat ill. Worryingly, he knew that in the past few hours other men had complained of sickness.
A harbor ferry boat had come alongside with about three dozen ponies in it, most of them unicorns. Shining Armor met them. “All right everypony, get aboard. We’ve got a lot to do and it needs to happen as soon as possible.”
Most members of the group were civilians from the Royal Magic Institute. The rest were the security detail Shining had requested. He gave them all a brief on the situation.
“Why are we doing this again?” asked Solar Flare, the lead researcher from RMI.
“Princess Celestia wants to help,” Shining replied.
“What is Equestria getting out of it?” pressed Solar.
Shining gave him a look. “I don’t know, but ponies and people have already died over this. I should think that preventing more of that would be reward enough.”
Solar nodded to his team and led them below deck without another word. The officer of the military unit, Lieutenant Gumdrop, asked, “What do you want us to do, sir?”
“Stand by for now. If there’s a problem, we’ll need your help.” Shining nodded to him and departed to find Delgado. They would need to work together to make sure there was nothing that would hold either the sailors or the ponies back from completing their joint mission: saving the ship.
The Equestrian Army detail set up on the helicopter deck to wait. A couple of Navy men were there, either smoking or merely relaxing and taking in the sight of the city across the water. As international military members often did, the two groups found some common ground and soon had a lively conversation going. Information, jokes, and stories were traded. For a while, it was easy to forget the catastrophic events that had brought them together.
★
In Canterlot, the Equestrian Secretary of the Navy reclined at his desk, hooves folded behind his head. From a telephone in front of him, a voice asked, “Mr. Seas, are you there?”
Calm Seas leaned forward. “Yeah, I was just thinking for a moment.”
The man on the other end of the line, the United States Secretary of the Navy, sounded annoyed. “I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything.”
“No, not really. It was kind of a silly idea that you probably wouldn’t be interested in.” The pony leaned back again, letting the speakerphone do its thing.
After a moment, the man sighed. “Let’s hear it. We haven’t been able to come up with anything else in this conversation.”
“Well, you were thinking of getting rid of that ship soon, right?” said Calm Seas. “I don’t know extensive the magical cleanup will need to be, but it’s pretty clear we’re more qualified to handle that. Why don’t you just give us the ship and let us take care of it?”
There was a pause. In a different tone of voice than before, the man said, “It’s a very interesting idea. I personally would have no problem with you taking care of the ship. We can’t just give it to you, though. It’s still a perfectly serviceable vessel, and Equestria isn’t poor.”
The stallion winced. The Americans had a strange sense of what things were worth. They supplied billions in foreign aid, but wouldn’t let one old ship go. To get the funds, he’d have to go talk to Celestia.
Balancing that, however, was the fact that it was a really great ship, or so Calm Seas had been told. The Equestrian Navy owned a few man-made vessels. This one—Cushing, was it?—had missiles! If there was an opportunity to grab a really sweet new ship for cheap, he wanted credit for authorizing it.
"All right Mr. Seas, I'll talk to my people and you talk to your ponies. We'll come up with a figure, and you tell us if you want to pay that."
"Sure." A sudden thought occured to the pony about the size of the ship versus the size of the dimensional doorways. He wanted to ask if it would fit through, but decided that the Secretary probably wouldn't know technical details like that. He would wait until later.
The call was disconnected. Calm Seas sighed and reluctantly began dialing Princess Celestia's number.
★
The Japanese Police were good at their jobs, but they certainly weren’t US Navy SEALs. Custody of the prisoners from the fishing boat had only just been turned over when fighting broke out.
The detainees were not armed, and in fact the unicorns had been hobbled by magical suppressors provided by the Equestrians. Several police officers were injured though, and a few attackers were shot. Order was restored fairly quickly, but it took several hours for things to settle out enough to take another roll call. Four names were missing: River, Island Breeze, Star Show, and Smith.
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Who's a silly pony? Well apparently Calm Seas is for thinking that the US government would hand over a ship -with- missiles. If anything, we'd keep the missiles and any decent tech that is still on board. The ponies would be getting a shell of a ship. Only a shadow of its former glory.
Then again, what do I know? I am not aware of the actual procedures for this type of thing.
1337520
It doesn't help that Calm Seas is kind of a idiot
Government employment, you know
Still, selling it seems a lot more profitable than just sinking it as a target.
The Equestrians could always, I don't know, make the Americans pay for servicing, then return the vessel.
Since you're bringing up the topic of the US Navy selling an old ship, would you accept a comission to add some more old ships to that list?
Oh! Oh! *raises hand* If the US is getting rid of any more ships, we'll happily take them off of your hands!
mojoimage.com/free-image-hosting-08/9313navy.jpg
Please???
1337520 Russia sold China an empty aircraft carrier. Not even an engine.
deathbymovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/agent-smith.jpg I don't want him getting out.
1338446 Living near Victoria, I can safely say that the Pacific Fleet is boring. We should 'relieve' the US of some of those rusty old aircraft carriers. You know, like the George H.W. Bush and Enterprise. It's not like they need them or anything.
*reading*
So, this is where the part where the description about "arms deals" comes into play? I was wondering what happened to that.
*gets to the end*
DAMN IT, SMITH.
1339152 ...Sorry, no can do. We 'Muricans are good at refitting and refueling. So chances are we'll just either scuttle em', decom them, or just refit em'. Also... Before you ask, no you can't have our Super Carriers.
1339553 Well, can we at least have some missiles?
1339562 ... We might have some spare ICBM's laying around here somewhere...
1339562>>1339567
Yeah, we've already got the NORAD facilities set up in Canada.
1339575 Well then how about one of those VTOL things? They're so damn cool!
1339575 Ah, with that settled, we'll just sell you these off-brand defective M4 and M16 rifles. Have fun!
1339590
They've already got C7 and C8 rifles, basically the same thing.
1339607 Exactly! But these are... wait for it.... M4 and M16's! Why wouldn't anyone want these, other than them being sucky and jamming all the time, along with this particular batch being defective! Who wouldn't want one?! I would!
1339617
I built my own. I love mail order!
1339622 >.< That's so cool!
1339152
Nah, I really wouldn't want to be on any hand-me-down american ship, I'd rather had something state of the art. Small, fast, versatile and destructive. Like Derpy!
1339575
Not that there's anything in them these days... I've been to the one in North bay. It's abandoned now, but it used to be full of BOMARC nuclear missiles, but then we signed some piece of paper saying that we'd get rid of them. All of them...
Considering the exchange rate between the Bit and Dollar would be massive (due to the Bit presumably being made out of gold while the Dollar is made out of...cotton), Equestria wouldn't have to fork over a lot of money. Or they could simply call up Rarity and have her wheel over a few minecarts full of precut precious gems worth a few hundred million to give them.
1341892
Considering that after the portals opened Earth was probably flooded by gold and precut gems, they are probably pretty worthless right about now.
1345295
If that were the case, then the world economy would have imploded with multiple Civil Wars breaking out in Africa as precious metal and jewel prices plummeted. While most monetary systems no longer use gold or other precious metals to back them, such a drop in prices would, more then likely, cause those systems to crash.
1337520
Not only that, even if they got missiles they would be worthless without GPS.
1339553 Can I have your Battleships?
