Celestia I, a new space station has become the target for a terrorist attack.
Equestria's first space station has been threatened by the Saddle Arabians. An ex-military captain has been enlisted to head the security team, and protect the station. But what happens when a saboteur aboard the Celestia I opens the doors to a team of terrorists intended of dropping the satellite back down to the planet?
Post-war Manehattan was never the same. The population had dropped significantly, as most everyone had moved to smaller town like Ponyville. What was left of the biggest city in Equestria was little more than a ghost town. Many of the towering skyscrapers had fallen within the first week of the war, and those that still stood were far too unstable to be of any use.
When I came back a year ago, as the only commander to have her entire squad intact, there were no celebrations, no cheers for the heroes. No victory. Once the last bullet had been fired, both Equestrian and Saddle-Arabian forces retreated and signed a treaty, returning to what was left of their decimated homelands.
Despite this, Saddle-Arabian nationalists still attempt to attacks on Equestrian lands, and I was asked to return to service, and help defend this country again, but I was done. I’d just like to sit a home and live a quiet, normal life. Six months after being discharged, however I got a call.
The Equestrian Aeronautics and Space Administration. EASA. They wanted me to lead the security team on their recently launched space station, the Celestia I.
It took some convincing. I’d just returned home from the worst war in recent history, and now some ponies wanted to shoot me into space. Needless to say, I declined, but EASA pressed on. They gave me the obvious rigmarole, “I’d be doing a service to my country”, “A once in a lifetime opportunity”, “A fantastic adventure,”
After they started sending ponies over to my house, I finally caved in. They took me down to the EASA headquarters in Hoofston, one of the few cities to be relatively untouched by the war, and showed me around.
Admittedly, I was impressed. The whole facility was remarkably well maintained, and had been reactivated extremely quickly since the end of the war.
I met this the administrator of EASA herself, where she finally convinced me to accept their offer, and join the first security team on the Celestia I.
I soon began my training, over the next six months I was put through a series of rigorous tests and intense training sessions to prepare me for going into orbit. I was to be launched with four other ponies. Morning Dew, who had served in the war as a combat medic, a pony named Malin, who had worked as a security guard in Prance, and Silent Night, who I knew next to nothing about.
The only other pony who I was training with was a brown earth pony from Trottingham. He was the only pony going up with us who was not on my security team, instead joining the rest of the science team when we arrived on the station. Trottalier, or Trott as he like to be called, shared almost all training sessions with me, and he and I quickly became friends. We spent almost all out free time together so it was rather sad when I was sent home after my training.
All that was three weeks ago. Tomorrow, I meet the rest of the team, and we all board the Celestia I.
Sleep didn’t come easy last night. EASA ponies came and took my bags to Hoofston after sundown. I guess it was so I wasn’t weighed down when I made the final journey tomorrow. So I sat in my apartment as the sun rose for the final time for me, and watched the minutes tick away.
The clock on the kitchen counter rang and, as if on cue, there was a knock on my door.
I leapt up from the couch, and pulled the door open. Behind it were two ponies, one I recognised, one I did not.
Trott stood shorter that his companion, though not by much. His pale brown coat was covered with an EASA jacket, which was itself partially covered by his grey mane.
His companion was a beefy looking pony, with a strange streak of blue through his white tail.
“Trott!” I exclaimed, all thoughts of dread and trepidation leaving my mind. I threw my arms around my friend, affectionately.
“Azura!” Trott said in his Trottingham accent, and returned the hug, “how’ve you been?”
“Honestly? Nervous. Really nervous,” I admitted, stepping aside to let them in, “how long do we have?”
“You’ve got an hour before you have to leave,” said the beefy pony behind Trott.
“Who’s he?” I asked under my breath.
“Your house sitter. EASA asked for someone to mind your home while you’re away,” explained Trott.
I made Trott and the house-sitter a cup of coffee, and cantered to the bathroom for a quick shower. I tied my mane back in its usual two hairclips, and checked myself up and down in the mirror.
My pale pink coat still contrasted nicely with a greying purple mane and tail, already highlighted with a grey streak. Between the bangs coving a third of my face, an unusually lengthy horn protruded rather rudely. Flicking my mane over my left shoulder, I returned to the living room, where Trott was just finishing his coffee.
“All set?” he asked.
Nodding in response, and levitating the empty cups into the sink, I lead us both to the door. Saying one last goodbye to my home, I closed the door behind me, and lead Trott down the stairs.
Waiting for us outside the building was an official looking EASA cart, being pulled by another muscly looking pony, who looked very similar to the one we left in my apartment.
We travelled back to Hoofston, and pulled into the EASA headquarters around an hour later. Clouds began to cover the sky above us, excepting the tall, monolithic towers of the EASA building before us. I assumed the pegasi had cleared the area just for us.
We entered, and walked down white corridor after white corridor all looking the same, but each one feeling differently familiar. Before long, Trott and I reached a fancy, wooden double-door. Behind it, I recognised the room where I first met with the EASA director.
Sitting at the table that ran the length of the room, where three other ponies. A jolly looking pony with a pink coat, and a pale yellow mane, which contrasted rather suddenly with the unicorn next her, with a dark grey coat, and a darker, greyer mane, who was simply staring at the table in front of him. Finally, at the end of the table was a dark green pony with a white mane wearing an EASA jacket.
This was my security team. Upon entering, they all looked up at Trott and I. The jolly pink pony stood up to greet us as we approached the table.
“Hello! You must be Azura Stars,” she said with a slight Caneighdian accent and shaking my hoof vigorously.
“That’s me. And just Azura is fine,” I said warmly.
“Well, my name is Morning Dew,” she smiled, and pointed around the room, “that’s Silent Night,” the dark grey pony nodded quickly before returning his focus to the table. “And that’s Malin,” she pointed to the green pony, who gave a quick smile.
I sat down at the table next to Morning Dew and Trott who sat on my other side.
“So, how did you all get this position?” asked Malin, who, judging by the way he talked, was probably from Prance.
“I’ve been working at EASA for a few years. A while ago they asked me if I wanted to do some field work and, here I am,” said Trott, “what about you?”
“I was undercover in Saddle Arabia for a while. When I came home, I was told that EASA wanted me in space.” Malin explained.
“I was a medic during the war,” Morning said cheerily, “helped hold the Baltimare forward base, and well, same thing as both of you. I got back and EASA offered me a job.”
“Baltimare?” I questioned, the name sparking a memory, “you didn’t fight with the 21st did you?”
“I did,” Morning said, surprised, “how did you know?”
“I was there,” I said excitedly, “we fought together.”
“We did didn’t we? Captain Stars?”
“That’s me.” I confirmed, “It’s a small world, isn’t it?”
“Too true.” Morning said with a nostalgic sigh. In the wake or wartime reminiscing, we turned to Silent Night who had remained true to his name throughout the conversation.
“What about you? What’s your story?”
“I was a security guard for Gage Industries. Was part of the defence when the Saddle Arabians tried to take it,” Silent spoke with a strange inflection, possibly Neighwegian or something similar.
“Did you serve in the war?” Morning asked, leaning closer to hear his near murmur of a speech.
“No. Moved out to Ponyville to avoid the war altogether. Took a full time security job.”
The murmur of conversation continued to fill the room as the minutes ticked away. Mostly Trott, Morning, Malin and I, as Silent continued to live up to his name.
The clock on the wall above the table rang, and we all stood up. Moments later, an older looking pony entered to the room, and beckoned for us to follow him. He led us out of the lavishly decorated room, into a hallway, and eventually down a tight concrete passage, brightly lit with the occasional flickering light.
We emerged past an automatic sliding door into a clean, tiled room. Hastily, several ponies ushered us into separate stations sunk into the walls of the room, and began to help us into our EVA suits.
The process was fairly familiar as had done it several times before. When my helmet slid on, the familiar hiss of escaping air rushed past my face before the suit was completely sealed.
The pony assisting me performed one final check before asking, “All good?”
I nodded, and she retreated into a side door.
I turned to look at everypony else in their own suits, my horn almost tapping against the visor. Malin, Trott, and Silent’s ears were all pulled back in their suits and their manes tied back in a very mare-ish way. Morning was the same, but looked more comfortable with the position of her mane.
The name tags on the front of the suits seemed to be colour coded. Morning, Silent and Malin all had their names on dark blue patches, Trott’s was red, while mine was blue bordered with yellow. SECURITY CAPT. A. STARS.
I walked over the where Trott was standing, looking rather awkward in the bulky space suit, a clear juxtaposition to his usually stocky figure.
“Enjoying yourself?” I joked as I approached him.
“Not really,” he grumbled as he shuffled around in the suit, “It feels like an extra layer of skin. One that’s not attached to my bones.”
I chuckled slightly, shuffling around in my own suit. I could see what me meant.
“So… you nervous?” I asked.
“Nope. Not at all.”
“You’re a terrible liar, Trott.”
The interior of the shuttle was exactly like every sci-fi movie ever. Six seats occupied a large amount of interior space with two seats in the front behind the controls, and four in the rear, with a long slit of window running the length of the shuttle. An array of confusing switches and dials spanning the walls was enough to completely boggle my mind as I sat down in my pre-designated seat in the sear of the cabin.
“Okay folks,” a voice buzzed in my ear, “we’re got a few minutes until launch. For you two in the front of the shuttle, please don’t touch the controls. Everything is done from down here.” Morning Dew immediately took her hooves away from the control panel. “Good luck y’all and have a safe trip!”
A faint series of clicks echoed around the cockpit as safety harnesses were engages. I used my magic to set mine and buckle myself in. As soon as it clicked into place, the flashing red light on the harness switched to a steady blue.
“Thirty seconds, y’all,” the ground control pony informed us.
There was a rumble from beneath us as the rocket’s engine engines began to heat up. The vibrations become more erratic and the ground control’s countdown was barely audible. A moment later, I just barely heard to word ‘liftoff’ in my ears.
The vibrations were almost unbearable, before an immense pressure coupled with a sudden lurch of my stomach began to bear down upon us. I could fell the blood rushing to my hooves below me as the magic fueled rocket pulled us away from the planet and sent us skyward.
With tremendous willpower, I turned my head to the left, and looked out of the thin windows next to me. Clouds rushed by and the horizon line gradually grew more curved as we rocketed toward the heavens.
With another feat of exhaustion, I looked to the front of the ship. I could only see Morning and Malin, but I had to assume that everypony else was experiencing that same feelings, and making the same strained face, as I did.
After a long, long time, I began to feel the immense pressure lifting from my shoulders. I looked to my right and saw Silent squeezing his eyes shut, breath fogging the visor in his suit.
“Okay, guys,” the radio inside my helmet buzzed as Trott spoke, “I think we’re good to take off the helmets.” There was a series of sharp hisses around the cabin as we all removed our helmets.
Stowing my helmet under my seat, I half walked, half floated over to the window on the other side of the shuttle. All that was outside was both indescribable blackness, and the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen.
An enormous expanse of pale blue, and patches of green grew beneath us. Swirls of clouds covered the north, and a glorious golden glow bloomed out from behind the eastern hemisphere. The view became more extravagant as we moved further away from the planet.
“Wow,” a voice breathed from behind me. I turned to see Trott standing behind me, also looking out of the window, “you have to admit that, that,” he pointed towards the planet, “is absolutely stunning.”
“Yeah, it is,” I said slowly.
I stood there for a while longer, simply marveling at the planet below. When I was finally able to tear my eyes away from the outside, I turned back and gazed at the other passengers. Malin and Morning were looking out the opposite window at the Celestia I, which was growing bigger as we neared it.
I joined them to get my first real look at the Celestia I. I’d seen pictures before, but, like looking down at the planet, nothing compared to the real thing.
A long, central spire ran the length of the station, almost a kilometer long. On the left, what I assumed was the rear, an enormous solar panel array glinted and reflected in the bright sunlight. A few meters down, the first of two immense, thin tori revolved around the central spire, with windows dotting the outer surface. Close to the front of the station was the second torus, identical to the first, but revolving in the opposite direction. Both were held in place by two arms which attached to the spire.
At the front of the station, or the right-hoof side were five separate long, thick tubes. These had to be docking ports.
Chatter soon blossomed inside the shuttle as we steadily approached the enormous structure. Cheerful optimism from most everypony, and silence from Silent.
Soon enough, Trott called for us all to replace our helmets and return to our seats. We were now close enough to begin docking. Radio chatter began as our shuttle began to communicate with the station. The whirring of pistons attaching to each other and locking into place rattle the cabin.
“Shuttle one, green lights. Docking complete. Confirm?” I heard over the radio.
“Confirmed,” replied Trott. After a final resounding thud, the flashing lights stopped, switched from yellow to green, and everypony began to unbuckle their safety harnesses for a final time.
Hooves cantered along the metal floor as we all lined up at the airlock. Malin reached forward and pressed a green button on the digital display, and the airlock opened silently. It was barely big enough for one pony at a time, but Malin squeezed his way in.
As the doors snapped shut, the pressure inside began to equalize and Malin floated up into the air. After a minute or so, the display where the button had been turned green, and the doors inside the shuttle opened.
Two smiling ponies greeted Malin and showed them through the door. They gave the rest of us a wave, before the airlock doors closed and the cycle began again. Next was Morning, then Silent, then Trott, and finally me.
A strange feeling enveloped me, similar to being levitated with magic, but without the tingly feeling.
Once the feeling had dissipated, the door finally opened in front of me.
“Hello!” one of the station ponies greeted us.
“Welcome to Celestia I,” said the other, dramatically.
“My name is Blue Moon,” the red pony on my left said, shaking my hoof vigorously.
“And my name is Red Moon,” said the blue pony on my right, also grasping and shaking my hoof.
“Let us give you a tour of the station, and show you to your room.”
Red and Blue floated down the length of the station, me following close behind them. We reached the first torus and stopped, as Red spoke.
“This first ring is the residential one. Can house up to thirty ponies at full capacity.”
“This door next to it is the first security station,” Blue took over, “It has two emergency EVA suits and a security terminal which monitors everything around the station.”
Beyond the security station was one of two immense orange rings. Red and Blue explained that they were only for use in emergencies, and were designed to completely seal off sections of the station. Oxygen and all.
Floating up further, Red, Blue and I reached the second security station. This one housed only a security terminal. Just beyond it was the second seal, separating the first two thirds of the station from the final one.
Next was the second torus. Red and Blue explained that this one housed all facilities. Bathrooms, gymnasium, cafeteria, and study areas.
Finally, at the far end of the station was a tiny door with a radiation caution symbol on it.
“What’s in there?” I asked.
“The nuclear reactor…” said Blue, ominously.
“A nuclear powered space station. I can’t see how that could go wrong.”
“It’s also the solar farm. All the power for the station is generated inside that room,” Red added.
We turned around and floated back down the end of the station, toward the residential torus.
“Any personal possessions you’ve brought with you will be delivered to your room shortly. Speaking of which, choose any one you want, provided it isn’t already occupied,” concluded Blue.
“We’ll give you and everypony a full tour tomorrow,” Red smiled again, “until then.”
As I made my way down one of the tubes, centrifugal forces kicked in, and I was forced to grab onto the ladder to avoid falling down. I hit the roughly carpeted floor and looked down the corridor. A long stretch of white doors separates by a few meters stretched along in front of me, quickly disappearing over the curve in the torus.
The door immediately to my left read, “S. Night”, and “M. Dew” to my right. I walked a few doors down, and spotted Trott’s name on his door. I decided upon the one opposite my friend’s, and watched as my name flashed over the “vacant” sign as I entered.
I studied the room before me, silently. It was spacious, yet homely. Four blank, white walls enclosed the clean white bed, the clean white carpet, and the clean white wardrobe. I think I began to notice a pattern in the décor.
There was a button on the wall across from the doorway. Curiously, I pressed, and stumbled back onto my haunches as the wall split into shutters and slid away.
The second spectacular view in as many hours revealed itself to me as the windows shutters stowed themselves in the wall. A perfect curvature of steel and aluminum rolled out in front of me, the sheer size of it not apparent until I was this close.
As the ring rotated around the central spire, the sun reflected against the odd surfaces within the torus. Beyond, the void of space and her twinkling stars and clouds of gas flickered in and out of view.
From a few rooms down the ring, I watched as another window opened and revealed a pony behind it. Morning Dew smiled and waved at me from her room which, from the look of it, was identical to mine. I grinned and returned the wave, before turning back to my room.
I took a few moments to fully process that I was finally here. Finally on the station that I had trained for so long to reach. There were too many thoughts buzzing around inside my head, conflicting thoughts of fear, pride and excitement all tried the best to be at the forefront of my mind.
I laid down on the bed, closing my eyes, and attempted to order my emotions. I soon discovered that this was too much, and I drifted into an easy slumber.
“Azura? Azura wake up!” a familiar voice called from a long way away. “Azura, wake up!” the voice came closer and closer, almost as if it were right next to me. “Azura! WAKE UP!” someone shook me violently, and my eyes snapped open.
Trott stood over me, a look of panic on his face.
“What?” I said groggily as my brain began its boot sequence.
“Azura, we may have a security breach,” Trott said, taking his hooves off of my bed.
“Security breach?” the phrase instantly woke me, “what do you mean security breach?”
“Follow me, I’ll explain on the way,” Trott said as he galloped out of my room. I paused for a moment to pull on my security barding, and quickly followed my friend into the hallway.
“So what’s going on?” I asked as we galloped the length of the torus.
“I was in one of the security stations, the one near the docking area, looking for a screwdriver. One of the monitors started blinking and said that the docking codes had been accepted.”
“Docking codes? Someone’s trying to board?”
“Potentially,” Trott began to climb the ladder into the central spire, “but it could just be a bug or a resupply shuttle,” he continued when I floated out of the exit past him. We kicked off, floating down the end of the ship where incoming shuttles docked.
“I don’t think so, they sent supplies up here with us,” I said pushing past one of the emergency seals. There were two seals that separated the station into thirds when closed. They also provided and airtight seal on all the ventilation systems throughout the station.
“How much farther?”
“It was the security station near the docking ports at the far end of the shuttle.”
We reached the right door, and squeezed inside. Trott floated over to the terminal and started tapping away.
“Ahm, here,” he said, pointing to the terminal, “recent docking logs. These two were resupply shuttles,” he highlighted the two bottom entries, “this one was us,” he highlighted the second most recent entry, “but this one here,” finally, he highlighted the most recent entry, dated no more than five minutes ago, “that’s the concerning one.”
“Docking can be approved from the ground, and up here, right?”
“Yes, but this one came from on board.”
“Can you trace who it came from?” I asked.
“No, but I can trace where it came from,” Trott hammered the terminal for a few moments before saying, “a public terminal. In the cafeteria.”
“Okay. I’m gonna head over there, see if the pony who confirmed this order is still around. How long until our mystery shuttle docks?”
“Two hours and fourteen minutes. I’ll stay here and check for updates. Take one of these.” Trott tossed me a radio headset from the wall. Catching it with my magic, I fixed it to my ear.
“Keep me updated,” I said, floating out of the security room and kicked off back down the way I came, toward the facilities torus.
As I floated down the central spire, something dawned on me.
“Trott, you can’t approve docking requests from the cafeteria terminal. Only the security ones,” I said stopping my propulsion, allowing the air resistance to slow me down.
“Oh, right. But the terminal… hold on a mo’,” there was the sound of hooves tapping at a terminal before Trott swore loudly in my ear.
“What?” I asked, concerned.
“Whoever our hacker is, they are very clever. They’ve scrambled the IPs.”
“English please.”
“Every terminal on the station has a number assigned to it, so it can be identified on the network. Each number has a name attached to it, which tells me which computer it’s coming from,” Trott sighed, “our hacker scrambled these IDs so I can’t tell which terminal the approval came from.”
“Can you un-scramble them?” I said, now simply hanging in the air, my mane floating off of its own accord.
“Not without restarting the whole system, which at this time is not an option,” Trott gave another frustrated sigh, “okay check the last two security stations. Look for any sign of recent use of the terminals,”
“Copy that,” I muttered, reaching for a hoof hold along the walls of the station, and dragging myself forward.
The three security stations were at the front, rear and middle of the station, the front and rear ones just behind the emergency seals.
I reached the center station and hit the door release. The fluorescent light flickered and buzzed to life inside the tiny room. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. The weapons cabinet was locked, the terminal inactive and its keyboard slightly dusty. It was clear nopony had been in here for a long time.
“Trott, middle station is empty. Moving to station three.”
Outside the windows, the sun blasted its way into the station, the windows magically adjusting their tinting to filter the light down to non-dangerous levels.
Before long, I reached the final security room which was stationed a few meters from the entrance to the power generation area at the rear of the station.
I hit the release and the door slide aside. Somepony had definitely been in here. The terminal, which shouldn’t have been touched since the station launched, was still in a shutdown process, and the keyboard had been cleared of dust.
“Trott, I’ve found the station. The terminal is still active.” I cancelled the shutdown and opened the security tools. Trott walked me through how to access recent logs and user details.
“There’s over a thousand entries here, Trott. Shouldn’t there only be like, two or three?”
“Dammit,” Trott shouted in anger, “this pony, whoever they are, are too fucking clever for their own good. They must have flooded the logs with phantom entries. It could take days before we find them.”
I turned to leave the station, but stopped suddenly as an enormous, horrendous, ear-crushing sound rang up and down the station, followed closely by intense vibrations which shook the area around me as I hung in the air.
“Holy shit! What the hell was that?” I screamed as red emergency lights began flash around me. I started to drag myself towards Trott’s end of the station. Where the disturbance had come from.
“Sweet shit, that came from the docking station.”
“Docking station? I thought you said we had hours!”
“I thought we did,” Trott made a terrified yelp, “Shit, whoever just boarded is right outside the fucking door!”
“Trott!” I started, practically flying down the spire toward him, “calm down. Okay, calm down. I want you to lock that door, seal yourself inside. Use the manual lock.”
Trott’s breathing became less rapid, and finally to a normal rate again.
“Okay,” I could hear the shaking in his voice, “now what?”
“Er…” I paused for a moment to think, before I realized that I didn’t have a moment. Danger close. “Get on that security station and use those cameras. I need you to be my eyes and ears.”
Just as I floated past the entrance to the residential torus, I collided head on with Silent, who was followed closely by Morning Dew and Malin. I clutched my head and waited for the world to stop spinning. When it didn’t, I stretched my hoof out to stop myself spinning.
“What is going on? What are all these alerts?” asked Malin as Morning went to check on Silent.
“Unauthorized docking. Potential threats,” I said, continuing to Trott’s security room and hammering on the door. “Trott, that’s us outside. Can you see us?”
“Yes, yes I can,” he said feigning his composure.
“Okay, Malin, hang back here. Silent, cover our rear. Morning, you’re with me.”
Everypony nodded and took their positions. I lead the team, along the final few meters of the spire, toward the closed docking area door.
I signaled for everyone to stack up behind me, and hit the door release.
Instant chaos. Instead of the doors sliding steadily open, they were nearly ripped from their niche as to extremely burly ponies forced them open. As soon as they spotted us, they pounced.
A flurry of extremely well trained hooves flailed in front of me, stopped only by pure reflex. The mass of muscle assaulting me was hitting hard and fast, and I was quickly getting tired.
Without warning, a blurred mass of grey rammed headlong into my assailant. Silent grappled with him before kicking off back towards the first seal.
“Retreat!” I shouted, following Silent, who was looking toward Morning and Malin, engaged in a melee with the second burly intruder. Morning planted two rear hooves into the face of her attacker and, dragging Malin behind her, arrived next to me, behind the seal.
I punched in the code, slammed the lever and the two doors of the seal slammed shut, putting at least a foot of steel between us and the intruders… and Trott.
“Azura? The doors sealed and I’m the other side!” exclaimed Trott.
“Don’t worry, the lock on the security room will hold against just about anything,” I had no idea what I was talking about, but I had to keep Trott from panicking.
“What about the seal?” asked Malin, tapping a hoof against it.
“It’s hermetically sealed now. Nothing short of blowing it up with explosives,” Morning explained.
“Azura,” Trott said quietly, “they’re planting something on the door.”
“What? What are they doing?”
“They’re putting something on the seal.”
My heart stopped dead as I realized what was just about to happen.
“Get to the second seal. NOW!” I shouted to everypony, and followed them as we pulled ourselves to the second seal as fast as we could.
“Azura? What’s going on?” I could hear the panic in Trott’s voice.
“Trott. Listen to me. You’re going to be fine,” I had to lie. It was the only way, “listen to me, Trott,” his ragged breathing rippled through my earpiece as I reached the seal before anypony else.
“Azura, I--,” Trott’s voice was cut off as an immense explosion rocked the station end to end. From the first seal, a bright yellow fireball ran its way up the spire and, fed by the oxygen remaining in the station, charged its way towards us.
Malin was past the seal, but Morning and Silent were still very much within the path of the oncoming explosion. At the last possible moment, Silent charged into Morning, pushing them both into the safe area behind the seal.
I slammed a hoof on the lever and the two doors crashed together, but not before a great tongue of flames snaked its way between them and burned away at Silent, who was still protecting Morning.
Silent roared with pain as his flesh bubbled and seared before me. Both his upper and lower back were a stomach-churning dark red and brown, smoke still billowing off of him. Underneath Silent was Morning, who had been completely shielded from the flames, aside from a scorched tail.
“Malin, Morning, get him down into the med-bay, now!” I ordered. Without delay they began to drag him towards the entrance to the second torus. As they disappeared into the hole, I touched the radio in my ear and spoke.
“…Trott?” I called out into the air, “Trott, if you’re out there, please respond.”
Radio silence. Then, a sudden and very loud rush of static filled my ear. “Shit!” I yelped, ripping the radio from my ear. Tentatively, I returned it to my ear, but still only heard white noise. The intruders, whoever they were, had installed a radiowave jammer.
I floated my way into the second torus and, once my hooves were firmly on the ground, made my way along the facilities torus to the med-bay. I slid open the door to see Morning applying some form of salve to Silent’s back. Morning looked up as I entered, but continued to work on Silent.
“Azura, could you hand me that needle over there?” she asked, pointing to a medical tray loaded with gauze and a singular needle filled with a glowing purple liquid. I floated the needle over to Morning who jabbed it into Silent’s side.
His body immediately seemed to relax and his breathing slowed.
“Thanks,” Morning said, pulling the gloves from her hooves with her teeth and tossing them into a bin, “I’ve set him off to sleep. The magic in the cream works best if he’s not moving around.”
“Is he going to be alright?” I asked, my voice sounding like chalk about to snap.
“He’ll be right as rain in a few hours,” Morning looked at me carefully, “what about you?”
“What about me?” I knew where this was going, and did not want to be along for the ride.
“Well… you and Trottalier? You seemed close.”
“What? No, no. We were just friends,” my voice betrayed me, “Really good friends…”
Morning said in front of me, not saying a thing. Instead she wrapped her hooves around me in a hug. Then I broke down. I didn’t know whether to be sad or angry, so I chose the former, the latter would come later. Tears welled in my eyes before bursting forth and running down my cheeks.
The emotion I hadn’t even realized I’d crammed into the back of my mind exploded out of me in a rush of tears, sobbing and shaking.
It’s true what they say. You never know what you’ll miss until it’s gone, and sweet Celestia I missed Trott.
Since I ended my service in the war, I’d shied away from other ponies, choosing the comfort of my home rather than the outdoors. When I met Trott, he was really the only friendly pony I had come across in years. My first friend. And now he was gone.
Then it dawned on me. It was my fault. I was the one who told him to stay in the security station. The one who told him to lock the door.
As I vocalized my thoughts, Morning pushed away from me and looked me dead in the eye.
“No,” she said sternly, “no it’s not.”
“It is. I told him to sta-” my words were cut short by Morning’s hoof slapping across my face.
“You are not responsible for Trott. They are!”” she shouted, as though she were trying to force the words into my brain.
Ignoring her, I pressed my face back into her shoulder. The sadness was beginning to fade, and the anger beginning to replace it.
Save it for them, I thought. Shuddering a final time, I pulled away from Morning, and wiped my eyes.
At that moment, Malin entered, looking rather grim,
“Red and Blue, they are dead,” he said quietly. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Morning giving angry looks towards Malin, and pointing to me.
Malin immediately looked apologetic, and edged his way around the room, out of my line of sight.
From the corner of the room I heard him say, “capitaine, I am sorry for your loss.” It was a small consolation, but it meant a lot to me nonetheless.
The main spire that ran the length of the station was eerily quiet as I emerged into it from the rotating facilities torus. None of the usual humming of machines or rush of the air filters. I looked out toward the seal through which, mere hours ago we had narrowly avoided being pulled out into space. A lone spanner twirled past my face, clinking against a wall as I kicked off down the spire toward the third security station where I had first discovered the traitor aboard.
I unlocked the doors and climbed inside, the florescent light buzzing to life. Turning to the locked cabinet on my left, I tapped in the code and opened the arms cabinet. All defensive arms on board the station were non-ballistic, instead they used charged magic rounds that would not puncture the station hull. Magic rounds would dissipate when hitting a non-organic target and would only stun, not kill. I grabbed all four guns and the twelve clips of ammunition. The guns were semi-automatic and fitted for both hoof grip and magic grip, and held fifteen rounds.
I stuffed them into a small bag I had brought with me, I began to retreat from the station, before realizing something. The security station could access the cameras set up around the station. I fired up the terminal and navigated to the camera access, noticing that more than half the cameras were offline. Scrolling through the camera feeds, I briefly saw Silent in the med-bay, Malin rummaging through some boxes, and Morning sitting sentry at the ladder to the central spire. Flicking through “NO SIGNAL” screen after “NO SIGNAL” screen, I stopped on a few flickering images partially hidden by lines of static.
I peered at the fuzzy screen before realising the camera was stationed just outside the first seal, or what was left of it, anyway. Silhouetted figures in EVA suits floated about outside the second seal which was just visible from this cameras view. It seemed either they’d run out of explosives, or knew better than to try again.
A large spacecraft was still attached to the docking station which had barely survived the blast, and seemed to be acting as a base of operations. I flicked to another camera and got a closer view of two ponies attempting to open the door.
Something about a yellow box on the wall next to them caught my eye. I zoomed in on it, attempting to read the letters printed on it chassis, which was in a foreign, yet familiar language. From what I could make out, it seemed to be the radio wave jammer that was cutting us off from Hoofston.
The yellow box and the language the label was in was disturbingly familiar. Then it hit me. It was from Saddle Arabia. I’d heard of the minor attacks by the deranged nationalists but this was one hell of a step up. A genuine terrorist attack. In outer space. Space Terrorists. The humor was lost on me however, as I turned around, flicking the terminal off, and exiting the security station. Malin was outside, hoof poised over the door switch.
“Ah, capitaine, Silent has awoken,” he said, “I thought you should know.”
“Thanks,” I said tentatively, pulling the bag of guns along behind me, “I’ll come down in a moment.”
“Oui capitaine,”
“Malin, you can call me Azura you know,” I said warmly.
“Of course, Azura,” he returned my smile before retreating back into the torus. Following him, I sung the gun bag around my neck and returned to the med-bay where Morning was comforting Silent.
“You saved me,” Morning was saying as I slid the door open.
“I did,” replied Silent, who was still lying on his stomach. I could see the burns on his back were almost completely gone, albeit still quite pink. That magic cream worked like, well… magic.
“Why me though?” pressed Morning.
“You were in danger.”
“Well thank you again,” Morning said before turning to me, “Oh, Azura. Where did you go?”
“I went to get some guns,” I said, levitating the bag from around my neck and placing it in the corner, “and I got some bad news.”
Morning’s face fell slightly as I spoke.
“Well, first of all, it’s the Saddle Arabian nationalists that attacked us,” Morning gasped but Silent just sighed and put his face into his pillow, sadly, “second, we can’t contact EASA because they’ve deployed a radio wave jammer.”
“What about magic communication?” asked Morning.
“Too far to transmit, and there’s no satellites in orbit to relay the signal.”
“Shit…”
“So,” I continued solemnly, “for the moment, we’re stuck on this station, with no incoming or outgoing comms.”
We sat there in silence for a long while, thinking about who knows what. Not talking to one another, not moving. After what seemed like forever, Malin spoke to the room.
“I believe there may be a way to disable the jammer,” he stood up and crossed the room to the electronic map on the wall, which was flashing red on two thirds of the mapped station, “In the maintenance area there is a circular cutter for emergencies. We may be able to use it.”
“Where would we put it then?” I asked.
Malin examined the map for a moment, beckoning for us to come closer. Up close, I could see that the map was extremely detailed. It highlighted areas of the station still in working order in blue, areas without oxygen in red, and places where the hull was missing in black.
“Where did you say the jammer was?” he asked.
“Right… here,” I pointed to the area just outside of the first seal, next to the door of the second security station. We peered at the map for a while, thinking.
“What about here?” Morning pointed to the afore mentioned security station. I stared at the room Morning had pointed out, analyzing her suggestion.
“It’s not intact. We’d need EVA suits to get there.”
“And where are these EVA suits?” Malin pressed.
“In there…” I pointed to the security station in question.
All three of us stared at the map, looking for a solution. After a while I stopped processing what I was looking at, and just stared blankly at the glowing lines snaking across the surface of the map.
“Here. Oxygen ventilation shaft,” Morning pointed to a central shaft that ran the length of the station,
“That could work…” murmured Malin. He was right. It could work, if we were very, very lucky.
“If that pipe isn’t damaged, we could use it. But that’s the main distribution pipe. Every three minutes, it opens the filters into space. Anypony in there would be killed instantly.”
“Why does it open every three minutes? Isn’t that just wasting oxygen?” asked Morning.
“It’s to clear all material obstruction. It is the main distribution line,” said Malin, taking the words out of my mouth, “and the magic filters stop anything gaseous from escaping.”
I looked up and down the station diagram and saw that, surprisingly, the main pipeline was completely undamaged. From what I could see of the station on the map, the pipe ran along the one side of the station that was still holding the entire thing together.
“So we just use the vent access in the spire to get there. How’re gonna get there without EVA suits? The only place we can get them is where we have to put the cutter,” I said, my brain whirring. I though back to my training in Hoofston, what they taught me to do in an emergency. The spell they taught me. The spell!
“I think I have a way!” I said, spurring Morning and Malin out of thought, “the spell the taught us in in training.” Morning and Malin gave me an annoyed look. “The spell the taught me in training then,” I corrected.
“It only lasts a few minutes, but it casts an air bubble around a pony’s face. Lets them breathe.”
Malin and Morning looked at each other, then at me. They were clearly thinking exactly what I was.
“Morning, remember what we spoke about. Keep an eye on Silent, and I’ll do the same for Malin.” I aid to my friend as I slid the helmet on and locked it in place before following Malin out of the torus and into the spire. He floated in front of me, dragging the circular cutter behind him, and reached the door first.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Ready,” he confirmed.
“Okay, hold onto that saw tight, this is not gonna be pretty,” I put a hoof on the door and pushed the release.
Instantly, the air in the spire attempted to drag us out into the void with a gut wrenching force. Before I could do anything, Malin slipped out of the open door, taking the saw with him.
Without even thinking, I hit the button to close the door and dived out after him before it slammed shut behind me. With one rear leg outstretched for him to grab onto, I grasped a piece of debris jammed into the exterior of the station. Malin scrabbled at my leg for a moment before finding grip and holding tightly.
With a furtive glance behind me to check on Malin, I began to claw my way back up the debris towards the emaciated doorway. When we at last reached the exterior wall of the station, Malin let go and floated in front of me.
I’m okay, he mouthed.
Nodding, I pointed down the length of the station to a small gap in one of the room jutting out of the spire. Together, we moved silently along the pitch-black wall until we reached the gap. My heart fluttered with relief as I saw that the gap did indeed lead to the security station.
Taking point, I squeezed into the small, dark room, careful to avoid the jagged pieces of ruined wall. Malin followed close behind, and once through, pressed his helmet against mine, allowing us to talk.
“So where do we place the cutter?” he asked.
“Jammers like that, I remember from the war. They give off vibrations, like a pulse,” I explained, “touch your helmet to the wall. See if you can feel it.”
We both pressed our helmets to the steel wall, listening to the low vibrations emanating from a point somewhere nearby. We shifted along the wall, carefully treading over piles of debris floating around the floor. Moments later we reached the far end of the wall, where the vibrations were much more intense, and seemed to be emanating directly from the other side.
I tapped twice on the section of wall that was vibrating and gestured to the circular cutter. Malin nodded, lifted the cutter onto the wall, and clamped into place before beginning cutting. The saw was doing so extremely slowly, its only propulsion being an outdated motor.
As Malin steadied the saw, I turned to the door of the security station, behind which were a lot of ponies ready to kill us in an instant. Moments later, the door began to rattle and shake silently. Somepony on the other side was attempting to break it down. I should have known this wasn’t going to go smoothly.
Little by little, I could see large dents appearing in the door. I frantically looked about the room for something to bar the door with, but found nothing. I instead used myself, pushing my back against the door and bracing my rear legs against the walls. The terrorists outside continued to hammer on the door, getting closer to knocking it down.
“How much longer?” I pleaded, before remembering that Malin could not hear me.
With all my strength, I pushed against the door, but to no avail. Seconds later, a particularly brutish against shove sent me across the room, along with the door. Thinking quickly, I kicked the it back across the room where it hit one of the intruders, sending him back outside. I pushed away from the wall and launched myself at the terrorists, head first. As I flew across the room I could see Malin in my peripheral vision, gaping at the sight before him.
I planted two hooves into the helmet of the closed assailant and, feeling a satisfying crack, spun to the next in line for a similar attack. My plan backfired however, as the second intruder caught my rear legs and used my own momentum to send me right back at Malin… who turned around and kicked me square in the chest, knocking the wind out of me.
In my dazed state the pony whose helmet I’d cracked wrapped his front hooves around me, holding me in some form of deranged bear hug. Once my lungs had refilled, I briefly saw the second pony nod to Malin, who returned it, before I was dragged out of the door into the wrecked interior of the station.
I began to struggle. I flailed my legs, shaking my whole body, trying to escape the vice-like grip of the pony holding me. My front legs kicked out, knocking a shotgun from the hooves of my captor, where it spun out of the gaping hole in the side of the station.
In sheer desperation, I swung my head backwards, smashing it once more into the helmet of my captor. Once again, I heard a satisfying crack followed by an even more satisfying crunch. The pony holding my let go suddenly, trying to cover the hole in his visor spewing precious oxygen.
As the last of the air in his suit escaped, he gave one last bitter attack, two hooves connected with my back, shooting a burst of pain through my body and kicking me out of the station and into the black.
My stomach churned as I spun around, swinging my legs in attempt to counter my rotation, all the while the Celestia I was getting smaller and smaller. When I had successfully stopped spinning, I allowed a few moments for the panic to set in, and then vocalised my verdict regarding my current situation.
