They lit up the night, and fell from the sky. They opened our eyes to the heavenly horrors above us and brought war to Equestria. They are the Star People and this is their story.
The ponies of Equestria have always seen the night sky as a beautiful portrait, but recently a few more lights have appeared in the night sky, and they are coming to Equestria. Their presence will change the course of history. Who are they? And what do they want?
A new fleet hangs over an alien world. A new threat seeks to bring war to a land of peace. A new face of evil emerges, and a new hope for friendship is born.
Rated teen for the socioeconomic policies implemented by a post-scarcity interstellar civilization during a first contact gone awry and for lasers that go "PEW PEW PEW!"
“…but if you’re here, then that means!-“ “Yes, my dear it was I, Fredrick d’Mane Trotsky all along! It was I who poisoned the librarian and put the candlestick into your saddlebags. You have played right into my hooves, and now that you are trapped here in the underbelly of Trottinham you will…be…mine.”
“No!” Shouted Inspector Le Hoof. But it was too late. Trotsky swooped down to the inspector and swept her off her hooves. As she tried to struggle the vial’s potion worked on her body.
Her eyelids became heavy, her head became light and before she succumbed to the potion she heard Trotsky laugh the evil cackle of The Shadow Stallion!
Chapter 16: Is that a Rat I Smell?
**********
Rarity was on the edge of her seat. Mr. Trotsky as the killer? Impossible. She never would have guessed the mild-mannered postal worker would be the suave and cool murderer of Trottinham. The next chapter called to her, and she was sorely tempted to read the whole night through, but she had other priorities.
Rarity looked up from the paperback and glanced around the campsite. The fire still burned low ready to make s’mores when Luna’s night fully set. The tents and log benches were set up and waiting to let ponies rest on them or in them, and Scootaloo, Applebloom, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were playing with a Frisbee near camp.
‘Well they seem to be having a fun time without me, I can probably fit in the next chapter before anypony notices.’ Rarity was about to return to the book she managed to snatch from Twilight before she suddenly looked up. She couldn’t put her hoof on it, but it felt like she was forgetting something…something squeaky.
‘…Applejack, Applebloom, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo…” ‘Sweetie Belle! Oh no! She’s gone! I never should have taken her! She’s probably dead! I lost my baby sister! Oh how could I have let this happen?! Mother and Father will be devastated! No, I can’t let that happen! I’ll get Twilight and we’ll build a clockwork pony Sweetie Belle! Yes, nopony will ever know! Would Mother and Father be able to tell the difference?’ Rarity looked around frantically. ‘Oh, how could I lose her? My poor, wonderful sister-‘ At that moment Sweetie Belle moved back into Rarity’s line of sight after going long for one of Rainbow’s overzealous throws behind the tents. When she saw her big sister, Sweetie Belle turned and waved with a carefree smile upon her face. Rarity gave a little wave and half-smile back and beckoned her sister back to her game. “That filly nearly gave me a heart-attack and all she can do is wave?! Oh, if I wasn’t so glad she was alive I’d give her what-for!” Rarity muttered as she prepared to return to her book.
Despite what ponies may think, Rarity actually liked the outdoors. Admittedly at first the idea of being around…dirt, had made the prospect of a camping trip rather unsettling, but now she rather enjoyed these trips they would take with the fillies. The Whitetail Woods were so calming to the fashionista’s mind. Nature had a certain rugged beauty about it the she couldn’t replicate in her own work, and being out here made her appreciate the messy lines and simple colors of the woods.
The wind played against her coat and caused a slight shiver from the sudden cold. Rarity looked up from her book and saw that it was nearly dark and the others were coming in to the fire. She had made it through most of the chapter, but she had to leave the inspector to escape her cell for another day. As the other ponies made their way back Rarity put down the book and turned her full attention to her friends. It would be rude to not be a part of their conversation. “An’ that’s why ya never give a pig dairy products, or prunes for that matter, but that is a story for another time.” Applejack beamed as she finished her tale. Suddenly Rarity wasn’t so keen on being an active member of the conversation, if the horrified look on Sweetie Belle’s face was anything to go off of.
“Hello everypony, I trust you had a good time?”
“Ya, ya it was fun and all, a little slow for me, but I still found of way to be awesome.” Rainbow Dash flared her wings and stuck out her chest as though ponies everywhere should feel enthralled by her Frisbee ability.
“Totally! You were so cool Rainbow Dash!” Apparently Rainbow was not alone in her assumptions of grandeur as Scootaloo mirrored her mentor, although she was unable to get so much lift off the ground.
Applejack rolled her eyes and sighed before getting everypony’s attention. “All right ya’ll, now who’s ready to settle in and make up some s’mores?” That got the fillies excited again as they rushed to either help with the marshmallows or dig the chocolate out of one of the bags.
The sun was dipping below the horizon and the sky had turned a deep red by the time everything was ready. It was at this part of the trip that the friends would always roast some marshmallows, Rarity would make sure nopony got any in their hair, and Rainbow Dash would begin a the nights first scary story. It was a picturesque moment for Rarity. Here they were all together around a campfire, having a nice time and strengthening their bond of friendship, arguably the strongest force in all of Equestria. Rarity wished she had gone camping more when she was a filly, but looking at the smiling faces of the Cutie Mark Crusaders more than made up for it.
They were an adorable bunch. Often aggravating but always lovable, Rarity really loved their little group. And while she and her friends often had to step in to be the voice of reason, she was nearly as anxious as they were for them to get their cutie marks. She sometimes just wanted to drag Sweetie Belle in front of a crowd and tell her to sing, but no, they needed to learn their talents at their own rate. She did worry though, looking at the other two fillies she sometimes couldn’t help but feel that she needed to help them along. When Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow Dash with that twinkle in her eye, Rarity could only hope that she would one day think about herself as cool like that. Rarity also hoped that if Applebloom’s talent broke from tradition she wouldn’t need to go too far away to find her place; separation could hurt both little fillies and big sisters alike. But there was nothing that she could do. Oh, she could just step in and try to fix everything and take all the responsibility, but being generous often meant letting other ponies sole their own problems. And besides they were just too adorable while on their little adventures.
The stars twinkled into existence as Rainbow Dash started her tale.
“It was a dark and stormy night, and three little ponies had gathered around a camp fire…”
The three fillies looked on attentively as Rainbow began to speak, and Applejack and Rarity listened in even though they knew the outcome. Applejack shot Rarity a knowing smile and both suspected that that this particular tale would end with Rainbow jumping out of a bush when the fillies least expected it. But before the story could continue much further Applejack’s gaze rooted itself to the sky.
“What in tar ‘nation is that?” Applejack asked. The others were quick to follow her outstretched hoof to a point just above the tree line.
“Huh, let me see,” Rainbow Dash said as she flew up for a better look. “Oh, cool! A falling star!”
“What-I can’t see-Where is it?” The Crusaders said, trying to get a better look. Even the two adults had a hard time seeing it from their vantage point.
“Rarity…I can’t see it.” Sweetie pouted.
“Well I’m sorry Sweetie Belle, but there’s not much we can do about that now.”
“Sis’ can’t we go up the hill away’s,” Applebloom suggested. “We could see it better from up there.”
“Wait, what hill is she talking about, Applejack?” Rarity inquired.
“Oh, it’s just a little ways in the woods. Nothin’ to worry about, The Whitetail Woods is perfectly safe, s’long as you don’t run off too far.”
The crusaders took this as permission to go and quickly scampered off to get a better look at the falling star. It wasn’t every night you got to see one good enough to keep Rainbow Dash enthralled.
“Oh wait!-OK, just be careful,” Rarity called after them.
“He-he. Oh, the girls will be just fine, Rarity. You should relax and let them enjoy themselves. Speaking of enjoying yer’self… Hey, Rainbow! What’s got you so quiet anyhow?”
Rainbow Dash didn’t answer immediately, but when she did she didn’t turn away from her vantage point.
“Uh, guys. Does that shooting star look, weird to either of you?” Both other ponies looked back up and saw that it had moved into a much better position above the tree tops.
“Why whatever do you mean, darling? It looks like any other meteor to me.”
“I don’t know. I never seen ‘em so…red before.” Now that she mentioned it all three of them looked more intently at the strange sight. Compared to other shooting stars this one had burned for far too long. And what a burn, a fiery red streak cut across the sky behind the object as it made its way across the sky. It glowed brighter than any star in the night and seemed to wave or shimmer as it fell. If she used her imagination, Rarity could swear it was so close she could see it tumbling as it passed overhead.
“Well it is a quiet, extraordinary meteor. I’m afraid I don’t know what to make of it. Twilight would probably be able to give a lecture on it, she always knew more about this kind of…thing…”
Before she could finish her thought the object tumbled and did something nopony expected. Suddenly fire shot out of the front of the meteor. And as they watched the glow was quickly muted and it was plain to see that the object was slowing down.
“What the hay it that thing doin’?” Applejack asked nopony in particular.
“It’s slowing down!”
“Why is it slowing?”
“Girls, I don’t think-“
BOOM
“Wha-“
BOOM
The sound of thunder filled the air after two successive concussive blasts. Mountains to every side repeated the booming call of the noise. The ground reverberated from the shockwave as the ponies could only look up in disbelief.
The fire now came only from the leading edge of the object and it slowed until its fall brought it arcing towards the nearby ground. As it sunk below the tree line the ponies stared wide eyed and open mouthed at the area where it crashed.
They stood transfixed until the sound of howling brought them to their senses.
“Uh-oh,” Applejack murmured.
“What is it?”
“If I’m not mistaken I think that’s the sound of Timberwolves, but what are they doin’ out here?”
“Maybe they’re lost,” Rainbow pleaded hopefully.
“I think they got scarred of what-ever that thing was…I don’t feel comfortable with them and girls here. A Timber wolf is bad enough, but one that scared can be a might bit more dangerous.”
“Well,” Rarity gulped, “I for one am not too keen to be out here alone after that. I think with Timber wolves and a meteorite crashing near-by we can afford to ask Twilight for help.”
“Right you two stay and get the crusaders, I’ll get Twilight. The egghead’s sure to love a space rock to add to her collection. She’ll have this thing under wraps and us in a lecture in no time flat!” With that Rainbow Dash sped off to Ponyville radiating confidence as she flew.
Applejack and Rarity glanced at each other, and hoped that it would be that simple.
The Fallen Star People Chapter 2: Sub-Orbital Velocity
“Come on girls, I think it landed somewhere over here.” Scootaloo pushed another branch out of her way as she beckoned for the two slow-poke crusaders to follow.
As far as camping trips go this one was shaping up to be Scootaloo’s favorite. Spending time with Rainbow Dash, the promise of flying lessons tomorrow and a chance at her mountaineering cutie-mark made all this pretty good, but the shooting star made it great. She couldn't help but be excited when she thought about it, the adventure, the mystery, the look on Spike’s face when he finally was going to win that bet he had with Applejack once they told him about how it exploded, twice.
Ponies say if you wish upon a shooting star your wish will come true, and Scootaloo was sure this was a wish granting one. Her wish was to be as cool as Rainbow Dash and then the shooting star just happened to fall were she could get it. Coincidence, maybe. Chance to be awesome, definitely! She could practically taste that cutie-mark.
“You sure about this Scootaloo?” Sweetie said, “I’m not sure we’re supposed to be out this far.” Applebloom nodded in agreement.
“Oh don’t be such sissies. If we turn back now there’s no way we’ll get our cutie marks in…uh… meteor…uh…” Scootaloo paused and tapped her hoof to her chin.
“Meteorology?” Applebloom suggested.
“Ya, that! I was going to say that.” Scootaloo lied.
“No, it’s not meteorology. Meteorology is weather studies, I think.” Sweetie’s voice trailed off as she contemplated the confusing scientific naming convention.
“Weather? What’s that got to do wit’ meteors?”
“I don’t know. But that’s what it means.” Sweetie replied.
Scootaloo was glad that for once she was not the one in the middle of one of Sweetie Belle’s arguments over vocabulary. At least they had continued on without too much delay. She had a sneaking suspicion that Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity would not be so happy that they went off by themselves.
But it would be so worth it when they found the meteor! Scootaloo could hardly contain herself. I wonder what it’ll be like. Probably a big glowing star in a crater. Maybe they’d get in the paper, for something good for once. Or maybe Princess Luna would thank them for finding one of her shooting stars and give them all metals. Or maybe they’d all become famous meteor hunters after they got their cutie marks.
As the girls got closer to where they assumed the crash site to be the full moon rose and painted everything in its pale light. The path was difficult to find and many faces were slapped by springing branches.
“It’s getting late. Maybe we should turn back.” Sweetie Belle said with growing concern.
“Yah, Sweetie’s right maybe we should go. I don’t think we’re goin’ find this thing tonight.”
“Nah, I just know we’re getting really close now. We’ll get our meteorology cutie marks for sure,” Scootaloo said as she moved another branch, “We just gotta go a little further.”
“I told you it’s not meteorology,” Sweetie Belle huffed, “Were you even listening?”
“Alright so if it’s not meteorology then what-“
“Hey, do ya’ll smell that.” Applebloom interrupted.
The other crusaders stopped and smelled the air, then wrinkled their noses in disgust. It smelled like somepony had thrown a tire on a bonfire. As they turned around trying to find the source they all focused on a dense patch a bushes they had been avoiding.
“Oh, what is that smell? It’s horrible.” Sweetie Belle whined.
“Ah think it’s coming from the other side of these bushes.”
“Come on, I think we’re getting close now.” Scootaloo said before swiftly diving into the foliage.
“OK, we’ve been at this fer too long. I think we need to head back now Scootaloo.” Applebloom scolded.
“What’s that, scaredy-cat? I can’t hear you over all the shooting stars I’m finding.” Scootaloo mocked from behind the leaves.
“Hey, wait up.” Applebloom said before wading into the plant.
“Do you see it yet, girls?” Sweetie Belle said after a moment, with no response she resigned to get sticks in her mane and moved in after her friends.
It was a tangled mess inside the maze of vines and leaves and took a few minutes to navigate towards the smell of burning grass and chemicals. The girls struggled to make their way through and had to go single file in a few places. After a minute or two Scootaloo was able to pop her head out the other side and see the object of their adventure. “I told you it was this way. I think I found…whoa.” “What was that? I think I got braches in ma’ ears.” Applebloom joined Scootaloo and stooped dead. “Do you see it yet…girls…hello.” Sweetie Belle said before finding an open space to stick out her head and saw what had memorized her friends. “Whoa-So awesome-What is that?” All three said as they gapped in awe at what was defiantly not a meteor.
Small fires burned and cast faint red light around the clearing as a silver glow reflected off the top of the structure. It was a giant white bird-like oddity propped up by three poles going to the ground. A shiny dome-like protrusion sat at the skinny end while two smoldering tubes rested above what looked like solid wings swept back in flight. The whole things looked like a massive bird or fish with its sweeping curves and single tail fin sticking up in the back. Black tile smoked on the underbelly of the machine and no doubt added to the noxious smoke that nasty-ed up the air.
Perhaps the most notable thing about it however was a protrusion on the underbelly directly below the black bubble thing on top. It was about the size of a kitchen sink with two bars running down both sides and a flat mirrored side pointing out. The weird thing about it was that it had a glowing red light near the flat part revolved slowly sweeping the clearing a methodical circle.
“What is that thing?” Sweetie Belle asked breaking the silence after a full minute.
“I-I don’t know. What about you, Scootaloo. What do you think it is?”
Scootaloo slowly turned to face her fellow crusaders. Her eyes were lit up and of the dinner plate variety. With a smile that would be at home on Pinkie she said without hesitation.
“Aliens.” …
“What?” Both crusaders said at once.
“It’s got to be aliens. That’s their spaceship. We are going to be so cool!” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle became worried for their friend’s mental health. Maybe she had hit her head one too many times while on her scooter. Or maybe it was all those comics that came out after Luna’s return, the ones about ponies on the moon coming down to enslave Equestria. After having the subject brought up, in great detail, by Scootaloo for show and tell in class one day, the two crusaders knew just how far fetched the idea was. But then again, they were looking at what might be an alien spaceship.
“Well, no use in sitting around. I’m going to go make first contact!” Scootaloo squeed and made to rush out to the ship.
“Wait! It might be dangerous.” Applebloom grabbed onto to Scootaloo’s tail and kept her from breaking out of the bush.
“Dangerous? Ha.” Scootaloo laughed and made to leave the bushes again. “It’s not like it’s going to bite me, come on Applebloom.”
“But what about-,” Sweetie Belle was stopped by a sudden rustling in the bushes a few feet away.
“Oh no! It’s the aliens. Hide!” She yelled before ducking back into the bush.
The bushes parted and out came the alien itself. It was short, very short. Its head came to about one of the crusader’s bellies, but its long ears were nearly as long as its body was tall. There was death hidden behind its cute black eyes and its long whiskers twitched with crazy alien power. Its powerful legs could probably let it jump over the tallest building in Manehatten, and it had a little fluffy tail just for show.
“AAAHH!” Scootaloo screamed, “Alien!” …
“Scootaloo, that’s just a little bunny-rabbit.” Scootaloo slowly poked her head out of the bush.
“You’re not scarred of rabbits are you, Scootaloo?” Applebloom mocked.
“N-No. Of course not.” The pegasus in question said with a blush.
“Aw, it’s so cute. Hey there little fellow, what are you doing out here?” Sweetie Belle said as she reemerged from the bush.
“I can’t believe that a lil’ bunny-rabbit’s got you so worked up Scoots. You should have seen the look on your face,” Applebloom laughed.
“Shut up. I was not scarred!”
“Were to.”
“Was not!”
At this point the rabbit chose to ignore the ponies and continued its investigation in the case of “What the heck just landed in my backyard” and gave a few hops out towards the spaceship.
The crusaders were so caught up in their ‘debate’ that they did not notice until Sweetie Belle spoke up.
“Where are you going bunny, it’s dangerous.”
The others glanced away to see that the rabbit had made it out into the clearing about four feet in front of the bush-line. It paused for a moment as the crusaders turned towards it. The rabbit shrugged and gave one final hop before something unexpected happened.
As the crusaders watched the rotating thing on the bottom of the ship suddenly spun around to face the rabbit and with an electric tone connected the creature’s head to itself with a beam of red light. Within a second of the connection the rabbit landed for the last time and promptly exploded.
One moment the bunny been a perfectly passable mammalian ball of fluff, and the next it made a sound like frying eggs and a lit firework. A circle as big around as a loopdy-hoop around and behind the former bunny burst into flame and joined one of the many fires surrounding the clearing. Bits of smoldering rabbit rained down and littered the area while the fires emitted a new smell into the noses of the crusaders.
It took them all a moment to fully realize what had happened. The improvised campfire flickered and cast new shadows across their faces. The death ray under the ship continued to spin. And the girls screamed. They screamed loud enough to shake the smoke laden air and they bolted as fast as they could away through the bushes. Plants that took minutes before were burst through in seconds as the crusaders ran from the grizzled corpse of the woodland creature screaming the whole way.
**********************************
Back in the clearing the cockpit had evacuated its air and broke open along a seam in the middle. The machine inhaled a gasp of air as the two pieces moved to allow access to the interior. Digital read-outs and physical user interface moved aside to give freedom of motion to a figure in a pressurized and armored flight suit.
First Lieutenant Robert Davids stood up for the first time on the alien world. From behind his seat he drew out emergency supplies clearly labeled “FOR TERRESTRIAL USE ONLY: MATERIALS NOT SUITABLY FOR MICRO-GRAVITY”. He chuckled to himself. Both he and the Sol Federation probably thought it was a waste of space six months ago to supply the mission for such emergencies. He was never supposed to touch ground throughout the engagement and certainly wasn’t supposed to crash land on an unknown planet. At least someone thought he might, heaven forbid, actually use any of the survival training he got on Earth and for that he was thankful. But then again, the idea of ‘survival gear’ was to extend a downed pilot’s life until help arrived, not very reassuring when your distance from help is measured in parsecs.
A 9mm survival pistol went to his hip while a 20mm Personal Direct Energy Assault Weapon went on his back mounted holster. He could use a gun and he could use a laser, but with the way his day had been going he did not trust himself outside the 10 meter kill radius of his fighter. And even the eight week personal weapons training period did not leave him with much confidence.
He brought the laser up into his shoulder, the cheek rest made a tap against his mirror black helmet. Aiming at what looked like a pinecone 15 meters away he squeezed the trigger. With a sizzling pop the pinecone vanished into ash. Satisfied he secured the weapon and made his way to the ground.
“First Lieutenant Davids on ground prepared to pursue subjects of interest. Monet, do you copy, over?”
Static filled the line for a few moments. Lt. Davids began to panic.
“Monet, do you copy, over?”
…
“Damn it, pick up. Lieutenant Davids to The F.S.S. Monet, do you co-“
“Alright! We hear yah! Quit yer’ bitching already! In case you forgot we’re still dealing with the situation up here.”
Oh thank God! Until that moment he had not realized how beautiful Captain Blake’s voice was. Her sweet Irish syllables seemed to lose their slightly pretentious tones and became like the voice of an angel singing him to safety.
“It’s great to hear you captain. I am on the surface and ready to for orders.”
…
“Captain…?”
“Oh, sorry about that,” Captain Blake said with sarcasm dripping from her voice. “We’re still a bit busy trying to deal with the astrophysics of this fucking insane solar system. So excuse me if I’m a little too busy to be telling you what to do on a planet you’re not supposed to be on!”
She coughed once quickly.
“Ahem, uh, sorry. You’re not hurt are you?”
“No, ma’am. Entry was rough, landing was nominal if a little rustic.” He pushed through the bush and continued to walk towards where those screaming animals went.
“Ah, good. Well then. Ah, you said something about the fauna acting odd, right? I think I will leave the course of action up to you. Just remember to shoot anything big before it eats you, wouldn’t want you to really die after that tricky aero braking would we?”
“No ma’am. I will investigate the life forms here at a safe distance and report-“
“Now on a more serious note,” Blake said cutting him off. “I was serious when I said I had more pressing matters up here. So unless you find The Draconis or are about to get eaten or some combination of the two I don’t want to hear it. Report back in an hour, and stay alive. Monet out.”
…
“Yes, ma’am.” Lt. Davids ended his transmission and continued into the night after the three creatures that didn’t get burned up by Magdalene. Something about them made him want to investigate and see them up close. Perhaps it was his inner scientist excited about a whole new biosphere, or his inner adventurer ready for a quest. Or maybe it was the fact that they were the only living things he knew of that weren’t hurdling away at two kilometers a second over the other side of the world.
***************
“Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo!”
“Applebloom, where are yah!?” Applejack called.
“Gosh darn it. We never should’ve let them go running off on their own.”
The two ponies pushed through the underbrush. Moonlight illuminated the ground around them but offered little visibility until Rarity lit up her horn.
The once peaceful setting turned sinister as the Whitetail woods took on a more Everfree aesthetic. Branches reached out and snagged in hats and manes and roots stuck out to trip hooves. Nothing for a pair of grown mares with extra light and experience in frightening situations, but for three lost little fillies it might be too much.
“I do hope the girls are all right. You don’t think they could have wandered too far off do you?” Rarity’s voice was pleading as she asked Applejack.
“I hope not. They probably just went off a bit and lost track of time. I know Applebloom has good enough sense to stay out of trouble,” Applejack said as she rounded another large tree.
“Yes, I think you’re right. They’re most definitely fine. The girls know how to stay safe and out of trouble of course.” It took the two a few moments before they realized just how wrong the previous sentence was.
…
“Maybe we should pick up the pace a little,” Applejack said with growing unease.
“Quite right. Best not to dally.” The two mares moved in earnest and called louder hoping to find the crusaders quickly.
“These woods are fine fer little fillies and all. I jus don’t like that all that been going on tonight.”
“Yes, that frightful meteor and then those Timberwolves. I don’t think they would have come this far but I don’t want to take that chance.”
“Yah, they couldn’t come this far. Them Timberwolves are dumb, but I don’t think they’d be stupid enough to run all this way from the Everfree on account of some silly old shootin’ star.”
“Yes, they probably-“
At that moment both mares’ blood froze in their veins. The howl of wolves could be heard in the distance. They both stopped and strained to pinpoint were the sound came from, and if it was followed by the sound of any fillies. Their mission suddenly became far more imperative.
Applejack slowly turned to Rarity, “I think we better move a lot faster now.” Rarity nodded and the two galloped of to save the little ponies. *************
Scootaloo ran. She didn’t think. She just ran. The two other crusaders were right behind her as she sprinted in the direction most opposite the death-ray-machine.
All three crusaders were silent, save for their panting and frantic hoof steps, their screams having died a while ago. Now they pushed further through the woods with all the speed they could muster. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom hoped Scootaloo knew where she was going and that they soon would be back at camp, but neither thought to check. The thought of the rabbit and the aliens were on the forefront of their minds. Try as they might to quell their fear their minds created questions and images faster than their hooves could outrun.
Poor little bunny. Why did the aliens murder it?
It was so cute…And then it died!
What if it comes for us?!
With these thoughts the crusaders pushes on into the night wanting nothing more than to see their big sisters and hug the fear away. Thus far running did little to ease memory and the shock of the discovery of the alien craft and the witness of their first murder.
Eventually though they could run no further and Scootaloo slowed to a canter. Then a trot. Then stopped, and all three stood at the edge of ditch and panted for a few moments.
“I think…that we…need to go back to camp.” Applebloom chocked out between breaths.
“I think you’re right,” Scootaloo agreed.
…
“Well?” Applebloom asked. “Lead the way.”
“What? I don’t know where it is. Weren’t you keeping track of where we were?”
“No! I was following you.”
“Well I wasn’t leading! I was just running away!” Scootaloo practically screamed as the seriousness of their situation began to sink in. It was at that moment that Sweetie Belle began to cry in long wailing sobs.
“Oh, it’s ok Sweetie Belle. Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash are probably on their way right now to find us. We’ll be back at camp in no time.” Applebloom sat next to her friend and wrapped her in a hug.
“*Sniff* I know….It’s just….That poor bunny,” Sweetie Belle stopped crying long enough to say before beginning to softly cry again.
Scootaloo, though not broken down, was not doing much better. This part of the woods looked different from any they’d seen on their way to the crash site, or at camp, or even on their way up to the camp in the first place. She knew they had been running for a while, but they couldn’t have gotten too far away from camp…right?
“Girls, I think we’re lost.” Sweetie Belle began to cry again.
“Well maybe,” Applebloom shot a glare at Scootaloo. “But my big sis’ can’t be too far away. I’m sure they’ll find us lickity-split.” Scootaloo wanted to believe that, but she had a nagging feeling that they were in more trouble than they thought.
“I think we need to wait here,” Sweetie Belle said. “I don’t want to run anymore and get more lost.”
The others nodded and sat together in a small circle, waiting to be rescued. They were silent for a few minutes save for quiet sniffling coming from more than one crusader. Each one thought about their predicament as they shivered against the cold. After a while Sweetie spoke up.
“I feel bad for that rabbit.”
“Yah, it was a cute little rabbit before…you know.” Applebloom’s ears flattened as she spoke.
“I wonder why the aliens killed it. I mean it didn’t do anything besides look at their spaceship,” Scootaloo said before going very quiet.
“You don’t think it’s coming after us do you?” She asked, fear in her voice.
The girls became deathly quiet as they realized the sounds of the forest had changed. It seemed as though the trees held their breath in anticipation for what would happen. As the girls intently listened to the night for sounds of death wielding monsters they became aware of a slow set of footsteps coming closer. They looked over to where they came from, near the direction of the ship, was this the alien?!
Two glowing green eyes appeared from behind the leaves and a stench filled the air. A Timber wolf emerged from the bushes and howled.
Sweetie Belle screamed and fell over backwards. In an instant the Timber wolf pounced and snarled barring teeth and made to snap up the filly. Applebloom and Scootaloo were screaming and running from the wooden nightmare before they saw their friend about to be eaten.
“NO!” Scootaloo shouted as she changed direction and charged at the wolf. She slammed into its shoulder and the two of them tumbled down the steep sides of the ditch and into the gully below.
Scootaloo shook her head to clear her thoughts. When she looked up the Timber wolf had recovered and gave a bone chilling howl before leveling its head at the frightened filly.
Once again Scootaloo was running. This time, however, she ran with danger right on her tail. She pushed her limbs as fast as they would go as she screamed at the top of her lungs for dear life.
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom could only watch on in horror as the Timber wolf chased down their friend. What were two little fillies to a Timber wolf besides lunch?
“Somepony HELP! Do something!” Sweetie Belle shrieked.
“Run, Scootaloo, run! It’s gaining on you!”
With death just feet away Scootaloo did the worst thing imaginable at the moment. A pair of roots washed out to stick above ground formed the perfect catch for a little orange hoof and she tripped and fell flat on her face sending a twinge up her hind leg. She tried to pull against the roots but they twisted and held firm as the other wooden danger slowly approached.
The wolf, sensing that its prey could no longer run, took its time to approach the helpless filly. Its green eyes filled with wolf-y mirth as it made its way to a lucky meal. If the wolf could form coherent thoughts it would probably thank that strange skylight for driving it to the noisy and delicious looking pony pups, he might have to start hunting this area more if these things were so easy to find.
Scootaloo watched in horror as the wolf approached with teeth exposed and lips parted to eat the little pony.
This is the end. I’m really going to die! She thought as the Timber wolf was only a pony length away from consuming her.
For the second time that night an animal did something strange.
One moment the wolf was ready to feast on the flesh of the little pegasus and the next its neck erupted into flame. It seemed confused for a moment until the strange fire cut up like a knife and its head fell to the ground crackling with fire.
The rest of the wolf’s body staggered and slumped to the ground. It stayed for only a moment as its natural healing magic tried to put the splintered and burnt pieces back together. With trembling movements the wolf slowly pulled thorny paws under its body and tried to push itself up into a standing position. It was unable to. Fire erupted out of its chest and moved in long sweeping streaks of crimson up and down the length of the wolf. Segmented pieces of animal and charcoal stayed together for a short moment before collapsing in a makeshift campfire. The last parts of its anatomy broke apart and became unrecognizable. The wolf stayed down.
In their own way Timberwolves are majestic creatures of the forest. They are blessed with bodies adept at repair and reconstruction. Because of this they are feared hunters and masters of their ecosystem. They have no fear of predators or worry of attack. But despite, and perhaps because, of their intriguing wooden beauty fire poses a great threat to them. This wolf was not special. Its body burned like any firewood, serving only to cast light to the area.
None of the crusaders moved and hardly drew breath for half a minute. Scootaloo was in total shock. The wolf was dead and she was not. It was the second death she had seen today. Of all the things that could possibly happen this was the strangest possible thing. She stared at the smoldering smoking remains of the wolf as the fire burned itself to embers in the wet wood. The light was fading by the time she became conscious of another creature.
By the time she had come to her senses the sounds of the newest arrival had stopped just short of her. Scootaloo looked towards what probably was another Timber wolf. She was strangely calm after all she had been through.
She thought it was funny. There she was with no Timberwolves chasing her and no threat of danger for so long and then she just let another monster walk right up to her. It was so silly not to notice yet another Timber wolf sneak up on her. Didn’t she learn her lesson? Well whatever it was, it was good at hiding. Even now it eluded her gaze behind two glistening white tree trunks.
Well, no use in running now that it’s seen me. Might as well get it over with. But it is weird, I mean where is it? I know I heard it walk up, but it just disappeared behind…
Scootaloo refocused on the ends of those tree trunks and then looked up. And up. And up. Finally at the top of the massive creature she meet the gaze a filly about her age looking back. The filly’s face was framed by a shiny black bowl in a circle around her. As Scootaloo looked on the filly’s expression changed from scarred to confused, mirroring her own expression.
No, wait that’s an actual mirror. Great, after all that I’m going to get eaten by The Faceless Phantom. Before she could develop that idea the creature took one long step forward and pointed a tube it carried down at her.
Suddenly the night lit up in heat and light and the last thing Scootaloo heard was the crackling burn of a death ray.
Davids could feel his heart pounding behind his eyes as he ran in the narrow hallway. Long ago his lungs had lost any semblance of a steady cadence, but his legs made up for it by driving like pistons into his chest with every step and left him with rhythmic gasping if nothing else. The white walls on either side of him seemed to never move past him as he struggled to keep pace with those in front of him. Hips, calves and feet groaned and complained in perfect harmony to the tune of his foot falls. It felt like the floor was being pulled out from underneath him with every step, but he pressed on. He was so close.
This was it, he had to push now or never make it. The last of his energy was burned up as he made a final push, but he could feel himself slipping behind. Any moment now it would be too late or he might make it with the others. Time was running out but all he needed was a few more steps.
…4.91…
…4.92…
…4.93…
“ALL RIGHT BOYS AND GIRLS! THAT’S IT FOR THE DAY, SO STRAP-IN AND SHUT-UP, WERE’RE SPINNING DOWN!”
Damn. I really need to cut back on the sweets and take the calisthenics more seriously. I don’t think I’m gonna get a 5K in till then.
First Lieutenant Robert Davids stepped off the treadmill, looped his arms into the straps of a small seat bolted to the wall and sat down. Around him, heeding the marine sergeant’s call, men and women jumped off their own machines and made their way to similar minimalist chairs on the two walls of the gymnasium. After their allotted two daily hours the crew was ready to return to their duties around the ship while maintaining the tried and true mandatory naval fitness levels for their positions.
The gym itself was actually pretty nice. It was basically just a hallway, but considering where they where it was a nice hallway at least. It was a little too narrow to be comfortable and the way all the machines were lined up made walking around its own exercise. But despite all that it was rather nice for a space ship. Davids was pleasantly surprised when he first saw it, gyms of this quality where usually reserved for stations, but apparently the navy had a few perks. Although the quality of the gym only made its one issue more noticeable.
“I can’t believe they only give us two hours,” Davids said to the man next to him. “I here the marines get at least three a day, and I’m here just trying to get a 5K before the tedium that is space flight.”
“Yeah I feel yah.” A man named Pete on his other side chimed in. “Six months is way too long to be cooped up in this tin can. And we’re only allowed two hours to stretch our legs? Man, we get back The Security Council is going to get such a strongly worded letter.”
The crew around them laughed. Second Lieutenant Pete Gilmore was one of the constant sources of entertainment onboard the F.S.S. Monet with his lighthearted sense of humor and witty repartee. With a very uninteresting flight, crew members like Pete were essential in order to keep ‘sigh’ levels under control. But ever the pillar of discipline and functionality officer Kevin kill-joy¬ stepped in and silenced the group.
“Oi! Lock it up! Chat when I don’t have to listen. They pay me to watch you flyboys train, not babysit you lot.” Staff Sergeant Kevin Brunswick was the kind of man who demanded obedience, and looking up at the group as he stood holding a hatch on the ceiling he quickly regained order. The fact that he was only one of a few marines on the Monet meant he had an air of formality and discipline about him, though it was far more friendly than intimidating. Though, in Davids’ opinion, he would look really cool with some battle scars on his face.
Everyone remained silent after that and simply waited as the sergeant made sure everyone was strapped in and waited for the spin-down.
After a few moments the sound of machinery became more and more obvious and Davids began to feel the left strap push against his body a little bit harder. A minute later and everyone was leaning to one side, except the sergeant who preferred to stand grasping the lever on the ceiling. Soon Davids felt the bottom of his chair become less and less friendly with his butt. The sound of motors and gears began to shake the gym before a jolt and sudden stop sent everyone to the opposite side of their chairs. A tone sounded as the other noises stopped before the bottom of Davis’ chair fell away and he was suddenly falling.
Zero gravity was never something that bothered him much. It was the transition that was a little unnerving. The ‘chair’ was now simply a pair of straps to hold his body as it floated above small seat. Looking around drops of sweat could be seen hanging in midair before the ventilation system would gobble them up and recycle the water. It was rather surreal to have his world transformed from an endless hallway of gym equipment into a metal donut plummeting through space without any support.
No, not falling. I am floating, I am flying and I am in control. He repeated the small phrase as the sergeant opened up the hatch to the rest of the ship and jumped up and out. (Or down and out if you were on the other side of the gym.)
As the crew filled out Davids regained his bearings and by the time he was moving along the bright white hallway towards his cabin all thoughts of falling were gone. He was ready for space again.
***********
Davids slipped along the “East” wall towards the nose of the ship. After months in space handholds and designated traffic lanes became little more than part of the scenery. He would lazily stretch out a hand to the surface and pushed himself through the air. When the crew first arrived they clung to the walls like barnacles and would “climb” their way around. Now, however, Davids would not even slow down for the twin bulkheads that jutted over half a meter from the wall and marked the division between the modules. A simple push, bend and grab let him continue past on his easy float.
Past the second bulkhead and into an open doorway marked “4” Davids entered the room that served as the quarters of himself and eleven other pilots. For a space ship it was comfortable enough. Every man got his own section of wall and no one seemed too cramped. Its partial trapezoidal shape gave it more wall space on the far side and gave the whole space a functional (if odd looking) geometry. He never understood why they gave it such a strange shape until after an engineer tried to lecture him on the merits of radial geometry. The engineer actually didn’t answer his question, quite the opposite in fact, the confusing lecture actually drove him to find a cross section schematic of the blasted thing and only then did he figure it out. I mean, come on, how hard is it say, ‘Oh, the ship’s like a square with a tiny square hallway in the middle and if you make the rooms square also you waste the corners.’ That makes sense, but he doubted that any schematic would explain the color selection.
Like everything onboard the color scheme consisted of at least twenty shades of white. White lights in the walls shone on the white storage bags next to the white sleeping bags tethered to white walls lined with white cubbies. During the voyage the crew had collectively found an implausible number of permutations of white. The designers must have thought the clean look it gave everything would be comforting, but mostly it just showed where the stains were. Indecently the shade for the kitchen had been dubbed “Bleached Dalmatian” because of this.
Davids moved to his own stretch of wall and started opening up bags and cubbies, making sure he didn’t end up pushing himself into the middle of the room. Changing clothes was a little awkward in zero-g if only because your socks tended to fly away on their own adventures. It took some adjustment for the crew to adapt, but they eventually all learned to put everything in a container or just attach it to a wall. Of course even now some men still had bad habits.
Davids flinched when he felt something bump into his back. Turning around he found an odd sight, a paperback physical book. Probably Wen’s. He thought. Wen had one of the few collections of paperbacks on the ship and a nasty habit of letting them float around in the air currents when he wasn’t reading them. Davids couldn’t be too mad though. Wen let the others read from his little library, and Davids really liked paper books. The feel, the sight, the smell, it was just so more real than a tablet.
Davids finished putting on his shirt and took hold of the book wondering what the Mandarin was currently reading.
The Classic Age of Space Exploration: 2023-2095 A look into the lives and technology that gave us the Solar system By Susana H. Elson and Daniel Goldberg
The cover had a picture of an astronaut in EVA around, what looked like Titan, as he “sat” next to a space station. Robert had to read the book in high school and it was pretty good, even if Dr. Elson was a little liberal in her use of flowery language. It was still a pretty popular book even if it was a few years old.
He slid open one Wen’s compartments and pushed the book in amongst the cluttered socks and underwear. Wen would find it eventually, unless it was true that he never changed his underwear.
The rumor was actually kind of mean when he thought about it. It was true that Wen was a little different, he ate different food in the galley, he listened to different music and worst of all would occasionally curse in Mandarin. Of course he wasn’t too weird, but the others still didn’t really like him. It was probably due to his nationality more than his personality and Davids couldn’t really blame them for their prejudice. It was fickle and stupid, but Wen was probably nearly as old the Mandarin Confederacy and they were still trying to deal with people’s reaction to the reformation of China back home.
Davids surveyed the room once more before exiting the open door and once again made his way towards the bridge. The rooms were boring anyway and he didn’t feel like watching a movie or playing games right now. The bridge was always fun, and next to the mess hall it was the best place for social interaction. ***********
“…So what are they going to do? They’re both stranded out in the middle of a dust storm, no communication no transport and no way out. So they guy with the busted led is like, go on without me, I’ll only slow you down, and his buddy is just having none of it. So they stay together and they’re limping on through the storm with basically no O2 and they think they’re gonna die. But then, what should they see sticking up out of the dirt but an antenna!”
Davids kept a hand on the doorway and chuckled as he listened in. He may have missed the first half of the story, but he had heard this particular tale over a dozen times and they always made the same mistake.
“So they start digging. And they’re digging away and start pulling up this really big piece of machinery, so they uncover most of it and you know what they find?” The crewman paused his story just long enough to add suspense to those unfamiliar but not long enough to allow anyone to spoil the reveal.
“The Mars Science Laboratory! They dug up Curiosity!” That got a few various reactions mostly in the form of chuckles and ‘no-way’s. “Well both these guys are technicians and as you all know Curiosity is nuclear powered. So they fix it up, throw the hurt guy on top and manage to just ride out of the storm back to their base.” The end of the story brought about a few more laughs and then some applause as the crewman attempted to take a bow which resulted in a summersault.
Davids clapped like the rest, but couldn’t just leave it there. “Oh is that it? The first time I heard that story they turned it into a hot-rod and jumped over a canyon and the second time they made it into a hydrolysis station and then waited for rescue. Put some flare into it, man, that story is best tall tale Mars has.” The others looked over at Davids as he pushed himself into the middle of the group.
“Hey, true story man. They really did ride Curiosity out of a storm.” The crewman (Jenkins?) insisted.
“Really? Cause as I understood it Gale Crater is one of the most populated places on Mars and almost never gets dust storms.” The crew looked between the two before giving a collective ‘ooooooo’ in Jenkins’s direction.
*In reality Curiosity was rediscovered by accident. A Martian prospecting expedition found its remains at the bottom of the slope it fell down years earlier. When they righted it they did in fact sit on top for a group photo, but the rover was completely inoperable.*
“Oh good.” Captain Blake said, as she flew over to the little gathering. “I was hoping someone would step in to shut him up. Practically everyone in the Empire will try and make you listen to that little folk story.”
Now here was where the bridge excelled as a gathering place for the crew. Captain Blake and her officers seemed to live in the bridge and always made the crew discussions more interesting. Throughout all the ship if you just wanted to gather with friends and hang out the bridge was the place for it. The only other room large enough to support a large crowd of people for hours was the mess and in the mess stories and debates always ran the risk of being interrupted by the wayward banana peel. (And of course the marines hung out in the mess, and let’s face it, they make terrible conversation.)
For over half a year the crew of The Monet had made their way through space without incident. At first they were the very definition of discipline, each man and woman eager and excited to finally be able to serve, but the ship literally flew itself. Their trajectory was laid in before launch and the bridge crew suddenly found itself with nothing to do in front of their terminals. It became a simple progression from there. The officers talked, they invited others in to talk, and soon everyone started coming into the bridge to just...talk.
They told stories, talked about home, the war, which games sucked and which didn’t, they had debates and discussions but mostly they tried to keep themselves occupied. Throughout it all the bridge crew seemed to offer the best conversation for the general population of pilots. The engineers’ section of the ship was far enough away that Davids would hardly ever see them and the marines seemed to think that if something wasn’t worth shouting it wasn’t worth saying at all. But the bridge crew was nice. Many of them had high degrees in fields Davids himself was studying before he signed up for the navy. Their expertise in physics and aerospace was astounding and he had had long conversations with every one of them.
Well, everyone except the captain. She only seemed interested in the discussions when she could butt in and say something witty. He always wondered why while everyone else seemed to be bursting with personal information she remained unnaturally stoic. He never even figured out why her parents named her Φ Blake. (Pronounced Phi or Fee)
“Oh, so you’ve heard the story too?” Davids asked trying to finally get some insight into the captain. “Where did you hear it? It had to be somewhere in the Empire. Everyone else has more important things to talk about.”
She looked back and forth between Davids and the rest of the crew, all of them looking back at their captain hoping to drag her into the friendly shackles of comradely. After a moment she realized that maybe being a fraternizing captain they warned her against in training wouldn’t be so bad, after all the crew seemed rather eager to get to know her as more than just a superior officer.
“Well the first time I ‘eard that particular tale would ‘ave ‘ad to ‘ave been when I was just a wee lit’l girl still living with me parents on Luna.” The others looked on a little surprised at the news.
“You were born on Luna?” She nodded. The crewman looked stunned.
“I thought for sure you’d have been in Ireland your whole life… I mean, with the accent and all.” A crewman finished lamely.
“Nope. Me parents were both Irish though. As for me, I’m a Luna girl born and raised. Stayed on the far side, Imperial Luna. Never saw the Earth personally till I was six when we moved.”
“Wow! That must have been a sight! It must have been amazing to see it for the first time.” The pilots all seemed to nod in agreement.
“Well aye, but I was a wee bit more interested in looking at where we were going.” This got the others interested. Most had assumed she would have actually gone to Earth at that point, but if not, then where?
“So where’d you go? To Mars and the rest of The Empire?” She shook her head. “The Common Wealth?” Another crewman asked. Again no.
“Oh come if not the Empire or Common Wealth then where? Those two are everywhere.” Jenkins asked getting slightly annoyed that people had forgotten about him.
“Well I never said I left The Empire, only that I didn’t go to Mars.” She smiled mischievously, she knew they were just dying to know now.
“Alright I’ll give you a hint. We left in about ’96 and everyone made a big fuss about the whole thing.” Most of the crew looked on blankly or wore a look of indignation, but after a second those with a good knowledge of recent history gasped.
“Alpha-Centauri!?” They said at once.
“Yep, parents got tickets for the first interstellar immigration in history. Spent the next 24 years around Alpha Centauri B on Kaiser the third planet around the second star. I remember back to when it was still called ACBC but that just doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well.”
The crew gapped at her. Every man and woman on board had spent their entire life around Sol. For everyone else this was their first time on an interstellar voyage, but apparently the captain had beaten them to it while most of them were still in diapers.
Blake smiled again as her crew looked on in admiration and shock. “Yep, didn’t see Sol again till after they offered me a captaincy. Apparently they were short on people who had and experience out of the nest, and I was, at the time, on the Sicily, a trade ship that went back and forth in that stellar neighborhood. So when we suddenly had a need for captains with interstellar experience they picked me up in a heartbeat.”
“Wow.” Said Davids. “And here I thought I was special just because I’m a Martian native, but Alpha Centauri. That will put the guys from Europa in their place*.” Everyone laughed. The engineers from those moons were good at their jobs, but were always prideful to a fault. *It should be noted that the colonists of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn like to rub everyone’s faces in the face that they never had to rely on anyone or anything to establish colonies in the hardest conditions imaginable. The crew members from Titan especially like to remind everyone that they had to walk to school by wading through liquid methane both ways.*
“Well I wouldn’t want to stoop to their level by making where I lived such a big deal. And I must say, Kaiser was a much nicer place to live than the outer moons. I mean it’s so warm there you don’t even need to be a bitch to everyone you meet.” The others bust out in laughter before she moved on. “My only complaint was that the days were so very short. I mean, it was distressing to a little girl to have the days suddenly stop being a month long. After two weeks I asked me mum where me presents were, I thought I was at least another year older by then.”
The laughter in the bridge continued as everyone retold the own stories but was suddenly cut off as alarm bells went off. The emergency sirens blared and the room turned an angry flashing red before the intercom roared to life.
“Engineering to Captain Blake! Emergency! Red Alert!”
“General Quarters all hands!” She said as she rushed to the intercom. People were flying to their positions before she even spoke. Davids rushed out the door before he could even hear her response and was strapped down in his room before she got the news.
An hour later the words continued to illuminate his face from the tablet he cradled in his hands. They were words that he couldn’t quite understand. It seemed like some sick bastard had taken a standard work roster report and violated it for some cruel joke. He saw reports like this every day, each of them identical, standard and uniform. But this one was wrong, so wrong that he couldn’t stop reading it. Rank; Ensign Last; Montgomery First; Vince Section; Engineering Duty; Direct inspection of Alcubierre main ring through Extra-Vehicular Activity.
That made sense. Every week the engineering team went out to double check every system around the ship and that meant a few had to go on EVA and fly around outside and check everything. The main ring kept them all moving at faster than the speed of light and needed to be checked just like any other system. It was routine, Ensign Montgomery probably did it a hundred times before. Which is why the next line was so confusing. Status; KIA. Exited Trans-space bubble.
KIA. No one died on the Monet. No one. They had not even reached the enemy and someone had died? It seemed impossible. It couldn’t be right. So he read it again. Status; KIA. Exited Trans-space bubble
It was wrong and he knew it. In his heart Davids didn't want to believe that the Ensign was gone, but that was true. The nature of warp travel meant it was entirely possible to simply fall out. The ring collapsed space in front of the ship while expanding space behind which propelled the ship forward while simultaneously maintaining a football shaped (American of course) area of stability in which the ship itself sat. As long as something remained in the ‘warp bubble’ they would move along with the ship and could travel between the stars. Montgomery had not. He was inspecting the ring, the very edge of the bubble. If he was careless or bounced off the structure it would be easy for the top of his helmet to just brush up against the inner edge of the bubble. And that would be all it would take.
Davids looked back towards the aft end of the ship. He tried to look back beyond metal and a million kilometers of dead space and tried to see Ensign Montgomery. Because while it was true that he had fallen off, fallen out of the bubble and into the universe, the line on Davids’ tablet was still wrong. Status; KIA. Exited Trans-space bubble
Going through a warp horizon, the bubble’s edge, wasn’t fatal. You became just as stretched or contracted as the space around you, but it wasn’t fatal. If you blinked you would miss it, during the event your atoms’ proportional distance from one another wouldn’t change so you had no way of knowing it had happened until you looked around. One moment he would next to his ship, making his rounds, chatting through the intercom. Then, suddenly, his vision of a ship would be gone and in its place would be an endless expanse of stars. Status; KIA. Exited Trans-space bubble
And that was why it was wrong. Exiting the bubble wasn’t fatal, but he would still die. He would die in the same way that sailors thrown overboard had died for centuries; lack of air. He had slipped out a little over an hour ago, but the suit maintained life support for ten. Status; KIA. Exited Trans-space bubble.
So Davids looked back, looked back to where Montgomery floated alone. Lost in the space between stars with now less than nine hours to live. It would take years before any dying messages would reach human ears. In all likelihood no one would hear him again as the suit radios lacked the range for interstellar communication. No one would ever know if spent those nine hours screaming…or if he ever reached up to the neck of his helmet and ended it sooner.
And so that night for the first time in years Davids was sick in zero-G. It was strange to think that he was so upset by the passing a man he didn’t know and never met. Davids had never even heard of the man and still felt rage and grief over his loss. Maybe it was the fact that their first introduction was still in his arms staring him in the face. Status; KIA. Exited Trans-space bubble. Davids put the tablet away and closed his eyes, trying to forget.
Nothing was known about Montgomery in the front half of the ship. No one knew about the man from Titan who left a wife and 12 year old daughter to join the war. None of his friends had any idea how the answer the 231 emails left for him by those back home. No one knew what to do the tiny bonsai tree he had smuggled on board and kept alive with a water bottle and small UV light. No one knew what to say about the first man of many who would die on the Monet.
So not much was said, and not much was done. His messages were deleted and his family answered with single message of condolences. The tiny tree was recycled into the hydroponics garden as mulch. And his bunk mates divided up his space and any issued supplies among themselves and boxed up anything personal to be brought home.
If it was any consolation, the shipboard funeral they had was at least held after they were sure he was dead.
Today was the day they had been waiting for. The crew was excited and unruly and halls were filled with groups signing along to music blasted through the intercom. The officers allowed them their fun and had even became so caught up in it themselves that a fairly large party had been organized and thrown in the mess. Everywhere you looked people were smiling, singing and soaring around eagerly talking about what was to come.
After six and a half months in a Trans-space bubble The F.S.S Monet was ready to drop back into real space. They had arrived at their destination; Pegasi 51.
As the hours counted down everyone made ready to enter the system. Gear was stowed and final inspections made before every man and woman squeezed into their suits, strapped down into brace positions and the entire ship was purged of air. If anything went wrong the entire crew would be ready for maneuvers or hull breach.
Fastened into her command seat on the bridge Captain Φ Blake went over the system briefing with her crew once more. After swallowing her own nervousness she thumbed the intercom and addressed her entire crew. “Today we will dropping into the star system Pegasi 51. We will arrive close to the star itself to minimize ability to be detected by the enemy and from that point we will act accordingly. Intelligence predicts that the Draconis forces will still be en route, so we should encounter no resistance.” At that many of the crew gave a ‘whoop’ into their helmets. “However, we will be prepared to engage the enemy if necessary.” The same crew members suddenly found themselves far more nervous than excited.
“Due to the nature of the movement of the First Fleet, it is entirely possible that we will may arrive before any other ship. If this is the case we will have to scout the system and prepare a strategy before the others arrive over the next four days.” Now the crew was more nervous. They had never thought they would be the first to arrive in the system. Never thought they would be the ones to test the waters for the other ships.
“The system has never been directly observed by probes, so the planetary configuration is mostly unknown. We do know from telescopes on Earth that the star wobbles significantly. This is due to a planet of similar mass causing a binary orbit. The planet was determined to be very massive and close to its star and it was dubbed Bellerophon in 1995. We do not know of any other planets in the system, so we will be conducting scientific research on the system if possible. I am also pleased to say that if we arrive before the others we will be the first humans to ever see Bellerophon directly.” That small fact helped many of the crew. To them it almost made the trip seem like a scientific rather that a military journey.
“When we enter the system we will need to match velocity with the star and then thrust ourselves into a stable orbit. Depending on where exactly we arrive this may happen immediately or take place at a later time and the duration of the burn could be anywhere from a few hours to a few days. We will inform you all and we will require all personnel to be braced at the time.” She paused for a moment to let the information sink in.
“All hands make ready we will be arriving in the next 15 minutes.” And with that the intercom went silent and the crew braced themselves for the ride of their lives.
Light cannot penetrate the edge of a warp bubble and so during the trip the screens around the bridge showing camera feed had been shut off to conserve power. Now they showed an inky blackness in all directions as the bridge officers stole glances to the beat of a timer marking off the minutes until ETA. Each and every one of the officers on the bridge seemed to hold their breath in anticipation. Figures were ready out and double checked, all systems were green and now it was only a matter of time before the screens would light up with stars.
Suddenly all the screens flashed and tones sounded throughout the bridge as everyone jumped into action.
“We’re out of warp, ma’am. All systems are looking good.”
“Prepare system observations. Keep me posted.” Blake turning to the next officer.
“Distance to star: .93 AU. Velocity within acceptable range. Thrust interval is nominal.”
“Excellent!” Captain Blake almost shouted. So far so good. With any luck the Draconis would still be months away and she could relax for a few days while the fleet caught up.
“Lieutenant, are we in a good position for orbital insertion?”
“Yes ma’am. It should be an easy burn, no more than 18 hours.”
“Good. What is the status of the Draconis, can we see any other ships?”
“Negative ma’am. All spectrums are clear at this time. We will need to probe the system further for confirmation, but at this time we seem to be alone.”
Captain Blake could have kissed him, but instead settled for wide grin underneath her helmet. No Draconis and a good entry, today seemed like it was going to be a good day. She breathed a sigh of relief as the realization hit her; they were going to OK.
“Jesus Christ…” A crewman muttered into his mic. Blake barely had time to register the outburst before every alarm in the bridge sounded off at once. ALERT COLLISION DETECTED. EVASIVE ACTION REQUIRED. IMPACT IN SIXTEEN MINUTES TWELVE SECONDS.
The breath caught in the throats of the crew. Everyone gaped at the information before Blake took action.
“What is it?! What the fuck are we going to hit?!” The crewman who uttered the first curse remained in stunned silence while others around the bridge suddenly stopped and gasped as they found what she was looking for. With no one answering her Blake slapped at her arm rest until the image appeared on the main screen.
The screen flashed a bright silver color and Blake thought for a moment it was broken. When her eyes adjusted she made out details and was stunned like the others. It was the moon. Craters scattered across a silver grey surface of rock. A surface they were plummeting towards.
“PILOT! Aim above the horizon and PUNCH IT!” He didn’t even acknowledge her before grabbing the controls and jerking the ship into a new orientation. To the tune of rumbling reaction thrusters Captain Blake tried to rationalize what she was seeing. That looks just like Luna, that luminosity is unique among moons. It could be another body in Pegasi 51, but it could still be the moon. But how could we have gotten back here?
Her thoughts were interrupted as the main engines exploded to life and pushed the craft forward at 3G’s. An engine cluster at the back of the craft quickly magnetized as the fusion core heated and propelled Hydrogen, Deuterium, Helium 3 and Lithium into a collision chamber. The reaction materials, already hotter that the core of the sun, smashed together and breaking them down at the sub-atomic level, the resulting Quark-Gluon plasma was shot out the magnetized tail pipe at near the speed of light. The explosive force thrust the ship forward and gave many a crew member whip-lash.
If an observer were to sit on that hemisphere of the moon they would be able to look up and see a new star appear in the sky for a spit second. For that time it would be the brightest object in the sky. It would have been quite a thing for anyone to see, but unless viewed from behind three centimeters of treated glass any observer would have their retinas irradiate to blindness by Gamma radiation.
Within three minutes The F.S.S. Monet had propelled itself fast enough to fall over the far horizon and make a successful orbit. For a moment the crew breathed in regular tempo again. Blake looked around her bridge and then dived back into reports and update from each and every officer. They still had a job to do and they couldn’t put off their duty just because of a near miss with death. The relative peace they enjoyed was short lived as the universe seemed hell-bent on their destruction.
The moon seemed to grow brighter for a moment or two before every man and woman aboard the ship felt the contents of their lunch move on their own. WARNING ORBIT DECAY. THIS VESSEL IS DECELERATING.
“What’s going on now? Why are we slowing down?” ALTITUDE DECREASING. IMPACT IN NINE MINUTES FORTY THREE SECONDS.
“I don’t know ma’am! I’ll try and burn us out of here!” The pilot shouted over the sounds of alarms before realigning the ship.
“Keep us alive! I want status on our velocity now! What slowed us down peop-.“ She was cut off as the automated alarm blared again and made every heart in the ship sink. IMPACT IN FOUR MINUTES FIFTEEN SECONDS
The engines fired again much higher above the horizon than before. IMPACT IN FIVE MINUTES THRITY TWO SECONDS
The engines fired another burst. IMPACT IN FIVE MUNITES TWELVE SECONDS
“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?” Captain Blake screamed as everyone on board began to panic. The COM line became choked with every desperate officer shouting, cursing, praying, screaming and disbelieving the situation.
The engines gave the ship the thrust to launch from a planet three times the size of Earth if they wanted, and yet, this moon was pulling them down faster than anything the universe had any right to. The computer couldn’t handle the situation and read the time out until their death faster than what should be possible. As far as the system was concerned the Monet was now falling faster that gravity should allow while also thrusting away a multiple G’s.
Through all the confusion an officer frantically waved at her Captain while shouting into the cluttered intercom. It took a moment for Blake to notice and then mute everyone on the bridge. For a moment the line was silent and the only noises anyone heard came from their own breathing or screaming. After a second Blake found the right officer and unmuted her line.
“-MOVING AT US!” She squeaked when she found her line was reopened, but promptly continued. “Captain! It’s the planet that’s moving at us! I checked our position by the stars, the planet-er-the body is moving at us! It must be orbiting incredibly quickly and we must be on the leading face.”
Captain Blake stopped breathing for a full four seconds before something in her mind clicked and she turned and shouted to her pilot.
“Aim 90 degrees to the moon’s vector. Get us out of its way!” With his mike still muted he could not respond, but quickly aimed the ship and began firing again.
Below them the ground moved faster and faster as it approached at a dizzying speed. Still the computer read of numbers as they fought to overcome the speed of the moon. Coming within ten kilometers of impact the ship found itself rising once again. The ground fell away twice as fast as it had risen before Blake cut the engine.
Everyone on board was panting or trying to keep from flooding their helmets with vomit as the bridge crew slumped down in their seats finally free of the unknown body. Blake looked around, feeling exhausted, at least now she had a moment to collect herself.
OK, she’s not Luna. But that still doesn’t explain what happened to the moon’s velocity. She continued to call the body a moon as she pondered their situation in the silence of the bridge. It was just a gut feeling that it was moon and not a planet, it did look significantly like the moon back around Earth and bodies that small were usually much less smooth and often a darker color. She didn’t realize just how many similarities it had with Luna until her attention was called to the horizon.
“Боже мой!” An outstretched arm pointed to the main screen drew the attention of the bridge crew. There peaking over the horizon was the beginning of a blue oval. As they looked a brown smear across the surface became apparent. Before it had fully come away from behind the moon everyone looking knew what it was.
It’s a planet…No…It’s a terrestrial planet. That thing can support life…Shit.
Lieutenant Davids rushed along the corridor along with 30 other pilots. The warp was a failure. They had dropped in too close to a moon and the past ten minutes they had been put through was the crew’s attempt to dodge a moon that apparently had moved at them. Davids had had no idea how to react when the captain had said that. The part that really concerned him was the fact the sudden course correction coupled with the moon’s gravitational sling shot was sending them straight into the nearby planet.
The part that had the crew on edge was the fact the planet was terrestrial and seemed to be life bearing. The unspoken question burned in everyone’s mind, Did the Draconis get here first? Is this their home world?
As the pilots entered the airlock elevator they went over their short briefing once again. The Monet was in danger of crashing into the planet and it was unknown if the ship could pull away in time. There was also the concern the body might move to intercept the ship, and so with this information all pilots were put on standby to be deployed if necessary. With the fighters gone the lower mass of the ship should be able to move out of the way while the extra vantage points provided by the fighters should give a more accurate measure of velocity.
Soon over 50 pilots were loaded in the elevator airlock and began to move. The Monet was part of the new carrier vessels assigned to the first fleet. As a carrier the major division of its 900 meter length was little more than a skeleton structure of beams on which the deployable craft rested. This massive section was open and exposed to the vacuum of space and divided the Bridge, Pilot’s Quarters and Forward Mess from the Engineering Section, Technician Quarters and Rear Mess. The only pressurized passage between the two was a moving airlock, called the elevator, which ferried crew between the two sections.
The doors at both ends were left open and pilots dashed out as their fighters came into view. Soon Davids found himself thrown out and grasping for one of the many support beam that would act as a ladder to his craft. Without any control of his flight he bounced into one of the beams before stabilizing himself and looking around for Magdalene.
Magdalene was name of his high school girlfriend and his ship. He decided to name it after her because he told everyone that Magdalene the girl was ‘big, mean and could breathe fire’. The breakup had not been a pleasant one.
As he approached the fighter he was able to take in its beauty for the first time in months. It had the general shape of the Americans’ first set of space shuttles complete with color scheme and lifting body characteristics, the two boosters sitting on top of the structure and the pointed nose defined it as its own ship however. The boosters were a powdered Aluminum and liquid Oxygen hybrid called ALLOX* Thrusters (*Pronounced like Alex) and along with the internal fuel could provide a large amount of thrust.
When Davids came up to craft he clung onto a nearby girder and started fiddling with controls on his left wrist. After a moment the cockpit dome broke in half and moved away to reveal the interior. He pushed himself slowly to the open seat and maneuvered himself into a seated position before strapping himself into the elaborate harness and powering up the craft.
In just a few moments the cockpit sealed around him and the interior lit up as data and power flowed into the fighter. Suddenly the inside of the protective dome shimmered and filled up with a dynamic image of the stars above. The simulated canopy and strategic technical screens worked in tandem to give a pilot all necessary information to control the craft. As Davids and the other pilots made their final equipment checks the voice of their commanding officer, Commander Bailey, came over the line.
“Attention all pilots, this is Commander Bailey. Captain Blake has informed me of some new developments in this situation of which you must be informed.” Davids stopped in his work to listen to his commander. The man had kept to himself during the trip but had now taken charge of his fighter squadrons and made ready to rely orders from the Captain.
“As far as we can tell at this time the planet is not inhabited by the enemy. All frequencies have shown no communication even those known to be used by the Draconis. We believe that the original project was correct in so much as we will not encounter enemy contacts at the current time.” Pilots everywhere sighed with relief as one of their many worries was dispelled.
“It has been decided to jettison a number of fighter type craft to reduce the overall mass of the vessel. These ships will utilize on board fuel to perform the maneuver and meet up with the Monet afterward.” Davids’ heart sank slightly at the thought of being separated from the ship, but took some comfort in at least knowing what he was expected to do.
“Furthermore, we require a number of these fighters to move to a significant interval away from the ship and provide data on velocity and on the planet itself. It is expected that they may need to perform aero braking in the planet’s upper atmosphere to gather data and decrease velocity to remain in the planetary system.” Davids sucked in his breath at the words. He was almost on the verge of begging when the words he dreaded came over the line.
“Squad leaders will decouple when able and take positions 1.5 kilometers from the ship and be prepared to enter the atmosphere if requested. Await assignment at designated positions. All other pilots of fighter craft, be ready to undock and move to a computer aided parking position.”
Shit. I knew this rank was more trouble than it’s worth. With that Davids quickly punched a code into the terminal on his right and became the first to start flying to his position.
The three other squad leaders waited with First Lieutenant Robert Davids spread out kilometers away from the Monet. Other fighters parked closer to the ship and prepared to make a group burn to follow the ship when ordered, but from his vantage point nearly 15 kilometers away Davids could barely make out the glint of the main craft. He sat as the farthest craft out and would act as a reference point for the ship and he rest of the fighters. He knew all too well what this would mean. I am going to be the last one to move. He looked out his digital canopy at the planet. At this time it seemed to be incredibly close to them now and growing all the time. Unless they decide to change my position in the next few minutes I am going to be the one who has to perform the aero braking.
He took what time he had to reflect on his position. Squad leader was a difficult rank to achieve and grandpa Bellon was ecstatic when he heard the news. He wondered what his grandfather would say if he could see him now, after all it was he who encouraged Davids to join in the first place. Actually, knowing grandpa Bellon he would probably say something about how this is just like Earthlings abusing and oppressing a Martians natural martial talents. He shook he head at that, grandpa was always pretty bitter at Earth.
Thinking more Davids began to wonder what the hell he did to get stuck in this position. It probably had to do with his other grandfather actually. If grandpa Bellon inspired Robert to join the navy, then grandpa Davids had inspired him to be a pilot. He had been in the Air Force back in the third world war and took Robert flying when he was attending high school in the U.S. It was probably the extra flight time and extra-terrestrial experience that put him ahead of his peers in training. Either way Davids couldn’t help but feel that this rank was going to be the death of him.
Well before he was comfortable the Monet and its group of orbiting remoras were ordered to fire and move into a new orbit that would hopefully bring them out of danger. As Davids sat there his fighter was used to measure the other’s velocity and ensure they were fast enough.
Davids almost felt useful as the main body and then others used him and Magdalene to make their escape. No not quite useful, more like used. As he sat there more and more ships were ordered to move until the Monet had determined itself to be able to miss the planet and his radio cracked to life with welcome news.
“OK Davids, thanks for being our marker. Now it’s time for you make your burn. Both you and Lieutenant Hagiwara will be entering the atmosphere at 50 kilometers above the surface. Vectoring will be laid in to your fighters shortly.” Davids was actually surprised when it was the Captain’s voice over the line but didn’t have much time to ponder it as he gave his confirmation and lined up his fighter with the computer guided vectoring.
By now the planet filled a good deal of his canopy with all of the other crafts well out of visual range. Davids moved in to take the position in front of Lieutenant Hagiwara and aimed his fighter with the belly to the planet as the altimeter read smaller and smaller numbers. However, he double checked his speed and orientation as a growing sense of unease filled him.
“Command, this is First Lieutenant Davids.”
“This is command, report.”
“Sir, I believe my orientation is incorrect for a maneuver of this speed. From what my instruments are showing I’ll most likely hit too fast and bounce off the atmosphere before reaching the intended altitude. If I skip out it is unlikely I will have the delta-V to return to the ship, Sir.”
The line was quiet for a few moments as no doubt everyone who heard the message was busy double checking the information. Relative velocities were recalculated as craft information was collected and shared. After a significant pause the Commander opened the line again.
“You may be right Lieutenant. But sensors are unable to get accurate readings on all craft at this time. Thus far the computer calculates an 88% chance of success in your current position, but I would like to get your opinion as well.”
“Sir, from what I can see I think the computer has underestimated my velocity and the atmosphere’s density. I would suggest an inverted entry.” The line remained quiet before he spoke again. “I mean, sir, I should enter the atmosphere with my belly up and my nose below the horizon, upside-down.”
For almost a full minute the line was quiet before the Commander began to speak.
“OK people. You heard the man. The engineers say it’ll work and the computer says no. I want pilot opinion. Hagiwara, you are in a similar position, what is your assessment.”
The next few minutes were filled with deliberation as everyone tried to figure out the correct course of action. A major problem they had was a lack of sensor agreement. Sensors on the ship read the atmosphere at wildly different densities and no one could determine speed in relation to the surface. In the end Davids was ordered to perform an inverted entry and Hagiwara was told to be ready to perform either orientation. The decision was reached only when Davids’ sensors began to pick up trace amounts of the atmosphere.
Soon Davids craft began to slow rapidly. The fighter shook violently as Davids was tossed around in his harness. Red flames streaked around the craft as he passed into the night side of the planet. He fought to maintain control but neither orbital nor atmospheric controls responded. In a panic he shouted into his mike.
“I’ve lost control. The atmosphere is way too thick! I’m reading hull temperature in excess of 700 degrees. Please advise I can’t see shit from here!”
Before he had a moment to worry anymore the line snapped to life with the voice of Captain Blake.
“Davids! Hagiwara! Get out of there! It is over twice as thick as we thought. I repeat, get out of there now!”
Davids gasped and tried desperately to regain control as Hagiwara passed overhead skipping out of the atmosphere in her standard entry position. Her new orbit left her with a dangerous amount of excess speed and a low chance of meeting back up with the ship. As she gave her own confirmations his heart seemed to leap into his throat with a new computer message. WARNING: SUB-ORBITAL VELOCITY.
“Davids get out now! Use your boosters and get back into orbit.” As he tried to reply static began to fill the line. Atmospheric disturbances made his plea for help become muddied and unrecognizable.
“Bad co-…… Breaki-…Repeat that las-….Vids?...Hear me?”
Before he could worry about this newest problem another more pressing issue became apparent. His frantic attempts at control had managed to flip the fighter over and he begin a tumbling motion that threatened to bring up his lunch and burn up his craft.
Cursing furiously he fought with everything he had as warnings blared. The craft was out of control and overheating. Projected landing had the fighter crashing into the middle of an ocean if it even came down in one piece.
In the heat of the moment, with death a sure alternative, Davids did the only thing he could think of. When his nose next became level with the horizon he ignited his ALLOX thrusters and was forced back into his seat as the fighter went into rapid deceleration. If he couldn’t get his vessel under control as a glider he sure as hell could control it as a rocket-plane.
Once he had activated the thrusters control came back slowly. Soon the flames stopped burning up his craft and the temperature began to drop to safe levels. As he dropped below 10 kilometers he broke through the sound barrier and slowed to a speed at which landing became possible.
With a damaged craft and an unknown topography below him he flipped on sensors to find a suitable place to land and assess the situation. Soon a small clearing became visible.
Davids flipped on VTOL control and brought the fighter down on pillars of fire coming from the underbelly. At this point fatigue and G forces had worn away at the pilot and so he was struggling to control the craft and stay conscious. Once he had stopped most of his momentum he punched the Auto-Land feature and the ship began to descend on its own. Before he passed out he had just enough sense to turn on the automated laser turret on the bottom of the ship and take a look out the canopy one last time.
As the gear touched down Davids looked out to trees in every direction. Slumping in his seat he was able to think to himself, Stupid planet.
The little orange creature sat motionless at Lieutenant Davids’ feet. If he had to choose, the weirdest part about it would definitely be the coloration. If his night vision was to be believed, light orange fur stretched across the majority of its body. And stranger still, long maroon hair sprouted from its head and hindquarters. Davids wondered for a moment if it was some sort of camouflage for the creature, but unless these things lived in Disney World they would be pretty easy to spot.
Davids spoke his descriptions into the small microphone on his helmet as he continued his survey. His eyes swept over the creature as he cataloged it as best he could. He counted no less than six limbs, including a pair of miniature wings, which technically made it a mammalian insect.
Just like the Draconis. He thought before shuttering. While it was true that his enemy was also an unholy combination of exoskeleton and exothermic flesh he highly doubled they were related to these things.
With his observations complete he shifted his weight nervously from foot to foot. He hoped he didn’t kill it. After cutting down its pursuer he had assumed it would run back into the forest. He was a little confused when it stayed rooted to the ground afterwards, but seeing as it was literally rooted to the ground, he did the only sensible thing he could think of. Cutting the gnarled wood had been easy with his laser, but he did not expect the creature to look up at him and then faint.
Slowly he approached again and carefully poked it with his boot…In his defense, many scientific truths were discovered by poking things. He hooked his toe under an orange legs and freed it entirely from the burnt remains of the root. As far as he could tell the creature was uninjured. Perhaps it has a distant relation to the fainting goat? It looked a bit like a goat, and it had fainted, so he added it to his report on its anatomy.
He was about to poke it again (For SCIENCE!) when he heard a noise from about 20 meters away. Looking up two small figures became highlighted on his HUD. Instantly he recognized them as the others he had seen at the landing site. At least the orange one would be among kin if he left, so it wouldn’t be in too much danger. Then again, looking to the pile of smoldering wolf he figured he might as well bring lil’ Orange back to her family.
He tucked the laser back to the side of his backpack and reached down to pick up the creature when he remembered something. Wait a moment…I’ve seen this before. Then it hit him. This was the opening shot to every B-horror film from the past two decades. Lone astronaut finds a strange alien being/egg/artifact/whatever and brings it right up into his face and then…BAM…blood everywhere, roll title. Screw this.
He straightened up and reached for his laser again but stopped when he thought about saving lil’ Orange then just leaving her comatose in the forest. Sighing he reached for his side arm, if he was going to do this he was at least going to be smart about it.
**********************************************
Both Crusaders looked helplessly at one another as Scootaloo was hoisted into the air by the gloved appendage. The creature picked their friend up and pointed something in its other hand at her head. Apple Bloom worried she may need to intervene, but before she could act the creature rose up and made its way towards them.
Neither Sweetie Belle nor Apple Bloom could move as the one giant, unmoving, unblinking, reflecting eye fell upon them. The only sound in the forest came from the crunching footfalls as the natural carpet of the forest was mangled beneath its stride. In just of hoof full of moments it stood towering before them and froze.
For a few agonizing seconds nopony moved, until in one jerky motion Scootaloo was placed a few paces away from her friends. The creature then quickly took a few steps back and readjusted its grip on the object in its right hand. It continued to gaze at the Crusaders with its shiny black eye until the two fillies rushed over to their friend.
Sweetie Belle was the first to react, and taking experience from their ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders Paramedics’ attempt, began to violently shake her friend while yelling for her to wake up.
“Scootaloo! Please be okay, Scootaloo!” Sweetie wailed. Apple Bloom quickly put an ear to Scootaloo’s chest and sighed with relief when she heard the steady sound of her breathing. With one friend stable she turned to more difficult of the two.
“She’s all right, Sweetie Belle. Ah think she jus’ got scared is all.” After a few more soothing words Sweetie fell silent and hugged Scootaloo close while waiting for Apple Bloom to make the next move. Secure in the knowledge that their friend was safe, Apple Bloom looked back up to the one eyed monster. It had taken a half step closer to where they stood.
She froze up. As she looked on, in horror, the creature edged closer and closer. She glanced at her friends, both were still unmoving, one mouth agape petrified by the sight, the other, mouth agape and drooling on the ground. She realized running now would only put her friends in danger, so she turned back to the creature ready to face anything. It had stopped within one of its arm-lengths away from them. Apple Bloom was both terrified and relieved to see that it seemed to not be paying any mind to her friends, it was looking only at her.
Very slowly it reached out one of its hands to snatch up Apple Bloom. She wanted to run but fear and loyalty held her firmly in place. The hand made for her skull and she could just imaging the hand crushing her like an egg. It was too late now, she shut her eyes and silently wished it would be over soon. As her thoughts composed a last goodbye to her sister she felt something tugging on her hair.
She opened her eyes and looked up.
The glove was a few inches above her and making a small rubbing motion… on her bow? It didn’t make any sense, but there it was. The creature had pinched her red hair bow in its fingers and seemed to be examining the fabric.
Before she could think any more on this, the creature did a few more unexpected things. It let go of her accessory and backed up again. A bright flash of light came a spot on its chest before it raised its left wrist and began to tap incessantly on it. After a few moments it appeared to be satisfied until part of its right shoulder opened up and a little bird shot into the sky, making a buzzing noise the whole way.
Apple Bloom blinked, once, twice… and then looked over at Sweetie Belle who appeared to be in a similar state of confusion.
“So…any idea wut that waz all about?” Sweetie shrugged, sending Scootaloo’s head into the dirt again. She picked her back up and dusted her off before replying.
“Well…it didn’t eat us…so that’s good, I guess.”
“I guess.” Apple Bloom agreed.
The four of them sat in uncomfortable silence as Scootaloo continued to snore softly. Apple Bloom figured any time they weren’t being eaten was a good time, but as soon as Scootaloo came back to the land of the living they were gonna get the buck out of there like Granny found your crayon art on the wall.
As she was about to tell Sweetie Belle of her foal-proof plan the buzzing bird returned. It came down through the branches overhead, sounding like Scootaloo on her scooter, when it came to a stop hovering in front of the alien.
Now that it wasn’t moving so fast Apple Bloom was able to make out more detail. It definably wasn’t a bird, it seemed to be little tube hanging under four black rings arranged at the four corners. It buzzed and hovered for a moment, occasionally dipping to one side, before it moved back to the alien’s shoulder and locked and folded itself back into place.
Neither Crusader knew what to make of this new development before the alien took out the long tube from its back and began to walk away. Both sighed in relief as it seemed to leave them alone. With one less problem they could once again focus on getting back to their sisters.
Before this could happen, however, the alien returned.
It stood before them and began sweeping its arm at them and then flicking it in the direction it had been walking. Both conscious Crusaders glanced at each other before the alien tried a new tactic.
It put one end of the ‘long thing’ in it shoulder and pointed the smaller end away. After a moment a bright green line burst into existence in the direction it had indicated. They were momentarily blinded but the message was clear.
Go this way.
There was no was in Tartarus Apple Bloom would follow an alien one step. So she looked it right in the one big eye. “No way,” she said with as much force as she could muster. After a moment Sweetie Belle, shaking like a leaf, added her own meekly formed answer.
The alien seemed to ponder this for a moment. The moment was over quickly however as it suddenly swooped in and picked up Scootaloo. She had forgotten how far it could move in a single step and before anypony could react it had the sleeping pegasus in one arm and was walking back towards the underbrush.
“Hey! Bring her back!” But it was to no avail. The creature only stopped stuck ‘long thing’ to its side and beckoned for them to follow. It did this by holding the sleeping body of Scootaloo in both hands an inch off the ground and gave her a little bounce to make it seem as if she was walking.
*Unbeknownst to either pony, Lieutenant Davids was giggling insistently at his like joke. A cheeky smile adorned his face (not that they could see it, but that didn’t make it any less cheeky) as he made trit-trot noises with his mouth. Come on ‘Giddy-Up’ I’ve got places to be!*
The puppet show over, she was moved back to her spot as the alien drew out ‘short thing’ and continued to walk into the bushes.
“Apple Bloom?”
“Ya, Sweetie Belle.”
“It just foal-napped Scootaloo.”
“Eeyup.” She responded.
“Should we go after it? What if it’s dangerous?”
Apple Bloom sighed. “I think we’d better. Ah jus hope it don’t probe us, or notin’.”
***
The sound was the first thing that was wrong. It was the sound of some critter coming at them, and it didn’t sound right. It seemed to lumber through the forest making all sorts of racket, but didn’t seem to move very fast. It was slower than anything she knew, only making the crunch of a step every second or so. Applejack knew about almost every creature in these parts, but whatever that was, was a mystery.
“Quiet, Rarity. Something’s coming.” Rarity paused her nervous discussion of hats and strained to hear the approaching noise.
Both ponies took a defensive stance and waited in silent darkness for the source of the noise to arrive. After a minute the sound seemed to be almost on top of them before the forest was suddenly silent again. Applejack and Rarity tensed against this new development. But try as they might to prepare themselves, the next noise from the trees was something they could never have expected.
“Hey, why are we stopping?”
…
“Sweetie Belle?” Rarity said, eyes going wide.
“Rarity!” Suddenly the bushes opened up and a tiny white filly ran straight into her sister’s legs. She was joined quickly as Applejack’s own sister followed suit. Both had tears in their eyes as they grasped on to their older siblings. Applejack was delighted to have both back safe and sound, but something still bothered her.
“Say sis?” Apple Bloom looked up and met her sister’s gaze. “Where’s Scootaloo?”
“…run off like that again, I was so worry-. “ Rarity cut herself off when she heard Applejack’s words. She quickly whipped her head around to either side looking for the orange pegasus, when she saw nothing she lit up her horn and illuminated to area around them.
The trees and earth around them shone with the light of Rarity’s horn. Features only shown by sparse starlight glowed a soft blue and became distinguishable from the darkness. Rocks and branches caught the light, but did not reveal Scootaloo. As Rarity put more power into the spell a new object became apparent out of the gloom.
A shining orb reflected the scene before it was joined by an outline of a body. Rarity drew in breath in a long gasp and Applejack shoved her sister behind her as more of the creature was revealed. Applejack’s eyes quickly traced over this new threat ascertaining the danger before she saw what was tucked under its left arm.
Seeming to notice her outrage the creature stepped forward. The two mares tensed as it broke through the bushes to tower over them. Applejack wished she had brought her rope and doubted whether she could fight it or not. As it turned out she needn’t have worried about a confrontation as the creature simply squatted down and gently placed its orange bundle on the ground before retreating out of sight.
Nopony moved for almost a full minute before Rarity snatched up Scootaloo in her grasp and placed her on her back.
“Applejack. I think our time in the forest is over. Let us get back to camp, now!” She said before marching back the way they came. Applejack followed quickly and pushed Apple Bloom alone ahead of her keeping an ear out for any sound of the creature.
“Apple Bloom, what in tarnation was that thing? An’ how’d it get ahold of Scootaloo?”
She only half listened when her sister started to talk about how it came from outer space and shot out death rays with its mind. She wasn’t interested in her sister’s imaginative explanation. However, her sister’s outlandish claims were only one reason she didn’t pay attention, because something behind her drew far more of her focus.
Just at the edge of her hearing came a sound that filled her with dread.
Crunch-Crunch. Crunch-Crunch.
***
Davids chuckled to himself as he made after the retreating creatures. It was exhilarating to be on his own interacting with such a strange new species. The more he observed them the more excited he became, no longer did he think of them as mindless beasts, the bow and the hat had seen to that, but also the way they moved and seemed to communicate gave him a sense of intellect.
And then there was the magic. That was the only way he could explain it. Whip a moon around a planet? Magic. Create light and lift a creature? Magic. It was beyond what he thought could be possible. The white one (he called her Snowball) had been able to create bioluminescence and levitation! Any thought he had of leaving the group alone were dashed aside in order to learn more about this strange ability.
Following closely behind he began assigning names to the different individuals to keep track of their actions. Lil’ Orange, Snowflake, Bowie, Snowball and Cow Boy. Fortunately their coloration meant he wouldn’t lose track of them. He thought for a moment more about their coloration and behavior and decided they were most likely a family unit.
He couldn’t back up his assumption, but it did explain much of what he saw. Snowball was almost definitely the mother of Snowflake and Cow Boy seemed to take what appeared to be a masculine defensive position to protect the group. He added the information to his notes, but he had been wrong before about their intelligence and made a note that he might have gone pi radians in the wrong direction with his assumptions.
As he looked to his map he realized the group must be getting close. His drone had mapped out the visible and thermal spectrum for this area, and if his assumption was correct the creatures had almost made their way back to what had appeared to be a campsite. The thermal imaging for that area had shown enough heat for a fire in the middle of a clearing, and the visible had shown various unnatural shapes that seemed to be structures.
He made sure to stay out of sight of the group as they moved into a lighter part of the forest and hunkered down to avoid being detected by Cow Boy. You would think someone was spinning a hat given how often its head would swivel back and forth. The creature shooting back glances the entire trip but didn’t appear to spot the pursuing pilot.
Davids stopped as the group broke through the last of the trees and rushed over to an area lit up with firelight and surrounded by three tents. If he followed it be impossible for him to stay hidden, his bright white suit was made to be seen in case of emergency and, with its bulk, made stealth impossible. Scouting out from a distance would not yield nearly as much data as a close encounter, however.
He sighed. They had seen him once, what was one more time? Before he moved from his position, as an after-thought, he reached into one of the oversized pockets on his suit and pulled out his backup plan. After a few seconds the flat rectangle hung rigidly under the barrel of his laser. He hoped he wouldn’t need to use it, but in a pinch it would be his best option.
With his weapon and science equipment ready, Davids moved slowly towards the light.
***
Scootaloo had awoken just before the ponies had returned to camp. Instantly she had jumped up and started screaming before Rarity could calm her down. While she was happy Scootaloo was alright, Applejack couldn’t help but feel that she liked the filly better when she wasn’t making so much noise.
As she sighed the forest gave way and the campsite finally came into view. So far the creature hadn’t reappeared, but she threw back another glance back just in case.
I swear that thing was following us. It didn’t appear to be hostile and it had returned Scootaloo so it seemed alright, but on the other hoof, why would it be hiding from them if it wanted to be friendly? Applejack pushed these thoughts from her mind as she made her way into the light of the camp. She scrubbed the worry form her face and turned to take charge of the situation.
“Alright, Rares! You get the tents folded up and I’ll pack up the bags. We’ll break camp and be on our way back to Ponyville in an hour.” She stomped her hoof for emphasis before Rarity saluted and began taking down the closest tent. Applejack turned to get her own saddlebags when she was stopped by six large eyes.
“What’d you want us to do Applejack?” Her little sister asked eagerly. The other crusaders wore looks of apprehension and restlessness respectfully. None of the little ponies knew exactly what was going on that had the adults in such a panic, but the idea of being left out of the action was still troubling.
“Ah want you three to just wait right here for us to finish, then we’ll all go back to Ponyville together.” Her attempt to be soothing was greeted by a trio a sighs.
“Look, ah know ya’ll want to help an all, it’s jus…” She struggled to find the right words. Coming out and saying ‘There is an unknown and possibly dangerous creature lurking just outside the firelight and I don’t want you to die’ might be a bit extreme. On the other hoof, it wasn’t in her nature to lie to them about the danger. So she settled for something in between.
“Ah think you three have had enough excitement fer one night. How about you jus’ let me and Rarity break camp while you rest?” The crusaders nodded sadly but didn’t put up a fight over it.
Applejack smiled as she began to pack away the gear they had brought. Now at least they could get out of the forest and regroup. Once they got their hooves back under them and didn’t have to worry about three missing fillies they could begin to deal with the mystery creature. Her only regret was leaving so soon, if they could stay longer she would have waited until all ponies were present.
She didn’t have to wait long, however, as the final member of their group came soaring in overhead.
“AJ! Rarity! There you guys are! They’re over here, Twilight! I told you they’d come back.” Applejack flinched at the outburst. She hadn’t been expecting Rainbow Dash to fly in so fast. She pulled her head of the tent she was working in and looked up and the pegasus overhead.
Rainbow Dash hovered over the campsite with as much ease as she could fake. When she arrived with the purple princess in tow to find her friends missing she had panicked, but in a cool way. Searching the surrounding forest had been easy from the air, her wings definitely helped speed things along. In the few minutes she had been here she had already covered a few acres, she didn’t claim to be the fastest pegasus around for nothing (in fact, until that night she had been the fastest creature alive.)
Princess Twilight Sparkle caught up a bit more slowly. Her flying had been improved since her coronation, but she was still nowhere near able to match speeds with a distraught pegasus.
“Howdy Rainbow, Twilight. You two showed up just in time we could use yer help to-“
“Hey, squirt. So AJ what gives? I went to get Twilight, like you said, and then when we get here you guys were gone.”
“Well ya see, me and Rarity had to go looking for the girls after they ran off. They went to go see the shooting star from on top of a hill not too far away but when we got there-“ For the second time in as many minutes, Applejack found herself unable to finish a sentence.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you three run off again? What do we keep telling you? You’re not going to get your cutie marks by getting into trouble,” Rainbow said, glaring at the ponies in question.
The three crusaders deflated under her gaze. “We’re sorry, Rainbow Dash.” Scootaloo began. “We tried to come back, honest, but the alien chased us into a pack of Timberwolves and-.” Rainbow Dash cut her off with a gasp.
“Timberwolves! You three ran into a pack of Timberwolves?!” She said horrified.
“Well only one.” Sweetie Belle answered, lamely.
“I don’t believe this! I’m gone for five minutes and you get yourself into so much trouble. I mean really, if I wasn’t around….” Rainbow Dash paused for a moment as she alighted on the ground. “Wait, what do you mean, ‘an alien’ chased you into Timberwolves?”
Three filly heads suddenly perked up. That’s right, the alien, they hadn’t told Rainbow Dash about the alien! If she knew what they had been through she couldn’t be mad at them. So all at once they began to bombard her with everything they knew.
“Ya, the alien! It was huge and scary!” “It shoots death rays!” “It killed a bunny so we ran away from it-“ “It also saved Scootaloo! It burned up a Timber wolf.” “I did something weird to me when it got close. That’s why I was unconscious” “No it didn’t! Scootaloo just fainted ‘cause she’s chicken.” “Am not!” “And it has a spaceship-.” ‘Are too! You were asleep the whole time.”
Rainbow Dash sighed and looked over at Applejack. They shared their patented ‘Kids, what’ch gonna do?’ look. “So…what really happened?” Rainbow asked, if the crusaders weren’t going to give her an honest answer then Applejack sure would.
“Well to be honest, I don’t know what they were with.” Rainbow’s eyes widened at the implication.
“Wait, was there really an alien!?” She just thought the crusaders were trying to get their cutie marks in annoying adults and getting out of trouble, but if they were telling the truth…
“I don’t know. I ain’t never seen nothing like it. Had Scootaloo under one arm and looked like it had a big fish bowl on its head.” The image that came to Rainbow Dash’s mind of princess Luna in a glass helmet was quickly dispelled.
“OK.” Twilight said. “It’s an unknown creature, we know that. The ‘fish bowl’ is interesting, but not pressing. Applejack, they said it had a ‘death ray’? What is that all about?” Applejack scratched her chin before opening her mouth.
“Ya! It shoot out death rays! It used one to make a poor little bunny EXPLODE! And then used it to burn up a Timber wolf that was gonna eat me! Applejack didn’t see it, but there was fire everywhere. It was all ‘GRRRR’ and then it was all ‘AHHHH---BRRURRURREEER’.
Everypony looked over at Scootaloo in dead silence. She looked at the others and began to withdraw slightly as she realized how she sounded. The quiet lingered for a few more moments as everypony tried to come up with some statement that was reasonable enough to offset the wild claims.
Rarity was about to break the quiet when a new sound entered the clearing. It broke through the situation and made every ear perk up. Coming from the edge of the fire light it sounded distinctly like a discarded Frisbee being crushed under a heavy foot.
As one their eyes turned. It was big. The same creature dressed in white stood over the remains of the toy that had given it away. During their conversation it had been slowly approaching, gathering research data. Now it was almost at the tents. There was a scream from one of the crusaders.
Instantly the situation got out of control. The creature tensed up and leveled something at the group. A death ray!? Everypony thought at once. Rainbow Dash was the only one to react as she took to the sky, ready to fight.
“Hey! What do think you’re doing huh!?” She bellowed at the monster that endangered her friends. Its only response was to jump back and point the object squarely at Rainbow Dash. Not waiting for a response, she charged straight at it.
The moment seemed to slow down for a moment as she flew to tackle the creature. As the ponies watched on a point of sharp green light appeared on her face before a loud buzzing tone came from the creature. She screamed.
Rainbow Dash lost control instantly and flew directly into a tree a short distance behind the creature. During her whole flight the alien had pirouetted and kept the device pointed at her the whole way.
Rainbow’s scream and impact into the tree snapped Twilight out of her daze. Nopony hurts her friends! She quickly charged up her horn to knock the creature back and keep it away from the fillies. It turned at the sight of her glowing horn and pointed the device at her.
She screamed. It ran back into the underbrush.
***
The ponies had packed quickly after that.
Both Rainbow Dash and Twilight turned out to be fine. For Dash the greater injury had been from smacking into the tree. Neither felt any different after only a second. Whatever the attack was, it left no lasting pain or injury. Which isn’t to say it didn’t hurt. Twilight’s only way to describe it was having molten lead poured into the backs of her eyes. Or as though she had been given the worst sunburn of her life for a fraction of a moment. She could think of a number of nonlethal spells the guard used that would cause enough pain to stop a pony, but nothing quite like what the alien had done.
Everypony was glad they were uninjured, but they all decided to pack only what they absolutely needed and leave. Rarity even volunteered to leave much of her gear behind in favor of speed. And she didn’t even take her newest ‘expedition’ outfit from out of her tent, so the situation was obviously dire indeed. She just threw everything into her still-standing tent and sealed it before harnessing herself to her cart and pulling the remaining necessary equipment.
The ponies moved as fast as they dared down the slopes back to their homes. Nopony said a word, except for the crusaders who were in various states of shock. They moved with purpose and made it back in less than an hour, a new record.
The whole time they all tried to wrap their minds around what had happened, and as she led Twilight was already composing the first lines of her letter to the princess.
***
“Shit! Scheiße! Дерьмо! Merde!” Davids cursed as he hurdled another pile of smoldering creature. Thus far he had killed three of the branch laden animals. In the distance he heard more howls and realized with growing dread that the graphene superconducting battery for his weapon was running low. This did not bother him much, however, as he a far more pressing issue in his mind.
Good going! Absolutely great! That was obviously the best way to make first contact. He stopped his sarcasm long enough to move down of steep dirt slope before continuing. I mean, really, what were you thinking?! Land in the middle of the woods, find some campers and start shooting at them! Brilliant!
He looked down at his map again, he was close. OK, so the flying one charged and the purple one had started the bioluminescence, but still, that could not have gone worse. He took a moment to slow down and actually consider what he had done. Yes, he had screwed up and probably angered the locals, but it definitely could have been worse.
If he had not taken the time to attach the active denial system to his laser he would have two dead aliens on his hands. They were still pissed off, but having microwaves bounced off your skull was less lethal than a focused high energy beam. The active denial system would still hurt like a bitch, though, and he knew any further attempts at contact would have to account for his mistake.
Before he could think more on his blunders he made it to his destination.
A dozen new fires surrounded Magdalene, the undercarriage turret seemed to have no trouble finding targets. Perhaps the first batch of barbecued forest life had attracted larger creatures. Either way he knew now that the forest was far from safe.
Quickly he ran to the ship and made his way onboard stowing everything he didn’t need in flight. Within minutes the turret was retracted and began his final check before firing up the VTOL engines.
The quiet of the forest was suddenly broken as the thundering sound of directional thrusters fired down into the ground. Leaf litter exploded into flame as the front end of the fighter pointed itself into the air. Within seconds the ALLOX solid state boosters fired and the vehicle shot forward.
From his new vantage point Davids looked out and tried to see a suitable place to land. No mapping had been completed on this area and he was utterly alone. He shivered for a moment before continuing. He knew his craft could not return to orbit on its minimal sum of fuel, but landing anywhere else on the surface would be a great boon to his endeavors. As he scanned readout and images a flashing display caught his eye.
Oh no…
His fuel was at less than 50% and dropping, his fighter was meant for the easy flying of space and couldn’t handle the drag and gravity. As he watched the number fall he knew what he needed to do.
With one motion the craft went silent as the engines were cut. He began to glide to the ground slowly and searched for a landing site with greater earnest. Any fuel he used now might be crucial later, he didn’t think he had burned up so much in his descent, but now he needed to save every bit off it.
He spotted a flat grassy hill close-by, free from trees and flat enough to land on without use of his precious fuel. He was so caught up in his landing that he didn’t even notice the few specks of candlelight coming from the sleeping town just a little ways farther into the valley.
The lone pilot sighed once more as the final checks were made. Landing was perfect, and now the fighter was set up to burn anything dangerous that came in the night. He tried to send his reports but it didn’t go through.
Everyone he had come to know and love was on the opposite side of the planet, thousands of miles away hurtling through space. Radio contact would be impossible for hours and in that time, he would be alone.
So absolutely and completely alone. For a moment, no one in the whole universe was so cut off as he. Every other human being had someone close by, someone they could talk to and he did not. The Monet was still struggling to make orbit somewhere in the black and everyone else he knew was even more removed.
He sat up higher in his chair suddenly and craned his still helmeted head in all directions as he looked out of the digital canopy around him. With such complete darkness the stars shone down upon him and with well-trained eyes he scanned the heavens for his target.
There. A small white star stood just above the horizon. It looked so ordinary sitting still amongst other brighter stars. With a push of a few buttons crosshairs appeared over his view of it and confirmed the name of that star. It might have been any star, but he wanted to be sure. With three little letters the point of light gathered new meaning. From this distance it was barely discernible, its reach blocked by parsecs of space. From this distance it was just one of millions of stars. From this distance it seemed so insignificant. But from 51 light years away Davids looked back at the little dot his HUD had labeled. Sol.
After nearly half an hour he turned away. The antenna went down and his radio was turned off, he would not be transmitting tonight anyways, what was the point of listening? The canopy was the next to go and he was suddenly completely immersed in darkness. Davids undid his straps and shoved the controls out of the way and leaned back in his seat.
And for the first time in a long time, Davids cried himself to sleep.
