One night something crashes into the Apple family orchard, and Applejack ain't gonna let some freaky space alien ruin her family's hard work and get away with it!
One night something crashes into the Apple family orchard, and Applejack ain't gonna let some freaky space alien ruin her family's hard work and get away with it!
Mankind's greatest fantasy and destiny was to roam the stars; to discover new and wondrous things, to meet new and exotic aliens, and to settle and build up civilization from even the most barren wasteland into thriving metropolises. The endless expanse of space had it all, and if you knew what you were doing you could become wealthier than your wildest dreams... Or you could end up deader than the vacuum that surrounded your tin can as you hurtled out of control to your doom.
"MAYDAY MAYDAY!" My voice screeched into my helmet's mic once more, my throat was already raw from constantly yelling, and if I survived the next few minutes I'm sure I'd have lost my voice. "OUR SHIP HAS BEEN ATTACKED BY THE VANDUUL! REPEAT! WE HAVE BEEN ATTACKED BY THE VANDUUL!"
Now, you may be thinking 'Why does he keep shouting like that? Couldn't the radio hear me clearly inside my helmet?' Well, no actually. Not with your ship tearing itself apart as it burns its way through an alien atmosphere. The sound was like that of a roaring blast furnace loud enough to rival that of a Constellation's afterburners, plus there was also the cacophonous racket of every single damn alarm going off at once, not to mention the creaks and groans of my Super Hortnet as it shock violently in our decent.
Forget the sore throat, every bone in my body's gonna be sore if I live through this.
"OUR SHIP HAS BEEN DISABLED AND WE'RE ON A COLLISION COURSE FOR PLANET KPX-97225!"
Notice how I kept saying 'we' there? Yeah, I wasn't alone in this burning metal coffin. "WILL YOU STOP SHOUTING ALREADY!?" My co-pilot hissed from behind me, though thanks to the com link between our suits it was as if he was screaming right into my deaf ears. "WE'RE FUCKIN' DEAD MATE! NO ONE'S GONNA GET HERE IN TIME!"
"WELL MAYBE WE WON'T BE DEAD BY THE TIME THE U.E.E. SHOWS UP IF YOU FIX THAT DAMN SHIELD ALREADY!"
"I'M FUCKIN' WORKIN' ON IT YOU PRICK! NOW SHUT UP! YOU'RE DISTRACTING ME!" If we weren't in imminent danger I'd slap a bitch, but sadly that'd have to wait to after we crash or see each other in hell, whichever comes first.
Twisting my neck to the side I looked out the cockpit window to see heavy flames envelop our Hornet. Hot orange jets of burning atmosphere rolled across cherry red metal, if I didn't have my evo suit on I'd have roasted in seconds to nothing more than a crispy space man. You gotta count the small blessings right? At least I'd be uncomfortably warm instead by the time our ship finally exploded into a million pieces. Just as I was thinking this I noticed a tinge of blue bubble slowly wove it's way into the fiery storm outside. The flames were diverted over and around the hull of the Hornet, protecting the ship from any further beating.
"FUCKIN YA!" I heard Rook scream in victory, "SHEILD'S ARE BACK ONLINE!" The declaration was swiftly followed by what I felt to be a punch to the back of my seat. "NOW SUCK IT!"
"FUCK YOU!" I spat back, because unlike my junior I still saw how royally we were still screwed, "WE WON'T SURVIVE MUCH LONGER! WE STILL HAVE NO CONTROL OVER OUR DESCENT!"
There was a long pause as Rook took a step back from his little achievement to see how it didn't matter that much in the end. "FUUUUUUCCK!"
We'll the boy did give it his best, and recovering any amount of shielding from the fried hunk of circuitry was damn impressive. Sadly, we needed those shields long ago, because without them we already lost too many parts to the vacuum of space or the remaining parts were now fused together in molten slag. There was only one or two functioning maneuvering thrusters, barely enough to keep us upright, but not enough to bring us out of the atmosphere.
Seeing that we broke through several layers of cloud I briefly contemplated telling Rook that I was actually kind of proud of him, he was a cocky little shit sometimes, sure, but he was one of the best co-pilots I had ever flown with. Too bad out flight ended rather violently as we plowed straight through a hillside covered in trees. If I had the time I would have noticed several interesting things about the hill were were about to completely obliterate: The trees were in neat orderly rows, they were apple trees, and there was a giant red barn not too far away sitting atop a nearby hill.
*~ Y ~*
The sight of a bright orange and blue shooting star arching across the sky that night was witnessed by many star gazers. Most thought it was merely a special little beauty their eternal Diarch of the Night had brought out to give her subjects a small little show, afterwords they thought little much of it as they carried on with their night.
Over on Sweet Apple Acres however things weren't so peaceful.
A horrible screeching wail tore through the night air, like that of a runaway train . Applejack was instantly wide awake and shot straight up in her bed, her instincts telling her that she and her kin were in grave danger. Snapping her head to look out her bedroom window the orange farmer saw the world ending.
A massive inferno was descending upon her and all that she held dear as it broke open the black night sky.
"SWEET MOTHER OF CELESTIA!" Applejack screamed in terror as the blazing object arched over the barn and smashed into the Eastern fields. The impact shook the whole world from top to bottom for Applejack, nearly sending her flying from her bed. Geysers of dirt and debris flew in all directions with a few stray branches and clods of dirt impacting against the Apple farm house.
Then, as suddenly as it had all started things began to quite down.
After a long pause Applejack managed to find her voice "J-just what 'n tarnation was that!?" The fear, and even awe, of what had just happened left the mare trembling atop her bedding. "Was that ah'n airship?!" Tho, it wasn't anything like what she had seen in Canterlot, so Applejack couldn't be certain. But from the small glimpse she had taken it had seem to be some sort of pony made contraption.
"Applejack!" A tiny yellow filly cried out as she tacklehugged her older sister, Applebloom clung to her sister as Applejack returned the embrace. Tears started to stain the mare's fur but she didn't pay it much attention as she gently rocked her sister back and forth. All of Applejack's previous feelings of fear and apprehension vanished as she saw what that thing had done to her family... and what it nearly took away.
Heavy hoof falls by the bedroom door told AJ that her older brother was now there with them. Turning to the giant red stallion Applejack felt a deep fire starting to burn in her chest, whoever it was that had recklessly lost control of their airship was going to get a stern talkin to, and they were definitely gonna pay for the damages Sweet Apple Acres had suffered. There was also a lot of fire sounding the object, so that needed to be taken care of ASAP or else the whole orchard would be nothing but ash soon.
"Big Mac, take care of Apple Bloom an Granny Smith. Once they're safe go get the fire brigade. Ah'm gonna see if anypony needs a hoof ta get out of whatever that thing was."
It wasn't hard for Applejack to find the wreckage of the downed craft, in fact it was quite hard to miss the darn thing. Flaming piles of debris littered Sweet Apple Acres after it had been tore open by the impact of the strange flaming vehicle. A massive ditch was dug deep into the soil with a dozen trees either shattered into smoldering tinder.
"Jus what in the hay caused all this?" Applejack muttered to herself as she stepped around a jagged sheet of metal stuck into the ground. A mixture of feelings swarmed inside the orange mare at that moment; on one hoof she was beside herself with a fiery rage, this thing that had crashed into her home had nearly crushed her whole family and had ruined a large portion of Sweet Apple Acres. Months of hard work from all the Apples had gone into those trees. But then again, none of this seemed to be on purpose. No pony in their right mind would crash such an advanced machine just to cause some wanton destruction.
"Hello!" Applejack called into the oddly quiet night, "Is anypony alive out there?!"
Only the sound of crackling fires met her ears, nothing else could be heard from all around, none of the usual ambient sounds of bugs or nocturnal critters that would normally fill the air on the summer nights.
"This ain't right..."
With a quick survey of the wreckage Applejack found what was most likely the cockpit of the metal construct. Sparks danced around the fuselage and illuminated parts of the craft briefly, but there still wasn't enough light to make anything out in the darkness, least of all the shadowy space within the shattered glass.
Cautiously trotting closer to the glass Applejack found a new sort of feeling take hold of her: Fear
She remembered several campfire stories that Big Mac would tell her when she was still just a filly, one or two had been about little green ponies that came down from outer space to ponynap unsuspecting fillies to conduct awful experiments on them. It had been years since she ever thought those tall tales were real, after all everypony knew there was no such thing as aliens...
Then why was she suddenly remembering those old horror stories?
Applejack swiftly shook herself back to reality, right now whoever was flying this thing needed medical attention at the bare minimum and thinking about useless thoughts at a time like this helped nopony!
"Hello! Anypony alive out there!?" No response.
Moving right up to the glass didn't get Applejack much more of a view of the inside of the cockpit, bust she could confirm that there was definitely something sitting at the controls. Right now all it seemed to the mare was a black blob in among slightly darker blobs... she needed a light.
Within a few minutes of searching Applejack had found a broken tree branch to light on fire as a makeshift touch. The light from the burning branch made the area much easier to navigate, yet the heat from the flames kept licking at the orange farmer's hair a bit too much for her liking as she held it as far away from her as possible.
"Now, where were we?"
The first thing Applejack noticed was that the charred hull had something written on it, it's legibility was far too gone to understand what it once was before fire had swept away at the paint. Perhaps it was the name of the ship, but the only way to know was to ask the owner for certain.
The next big find was very unsettling and drew the air out of Apple Jack's lungs. What she had previously thought was shadows and dirt on the glass now turned a deep crimson as the light of the fire revealed it's true nature.
Applejack wasn't afraid of seeing blood, on the farm it was pretty easy to be injured, especially with some of the sharper farming tools. Not to mention all the crazy adventures Twilight brought them on. But this... This was a gory scene like nothing she had witnessed before... Applejack swallowed a hard lump in her throat and tried to keep her dinner down with all her might.
Whatever was inside that thing was obviously injured, and from the amount of blood was any indication it was in serious trouble... if it was still alive.
*~ Y ~*
Canterlot Castle stood fast in the gloom of the night, many lights shown out along the winding streets and held the shadows at bay. From the right distance Canterlot almost looked like a glowing candle even. One might assume that such a display of combating the darkness of the night would upset Princess Luna, or at least cause her to bring forth unending hellfire for shunning her element. Yet, as the ponies of Equestria's capitol soon realized that to make such an assumption of their Princess was to also make an ass out of themselves.
In the twilight a few ponies strolled along, either heading to one of the late night clubs or merely on an evening stroll. Luna watched her subjects pass along from her balcony, content to just sit there on her favorite cushion and dainty sip at her steaming cup of tea. To her she saw such innovations as electricity to be a blessing, it made it reasonably affordable to stay up late at night as before it could be extremely costly to light up a home with only candles or oil lamps. Even simple magical light stones were only used by the wealthy back then.
Electricity also led to such things as new forms of music, movie theaters, and even this machine called a "Computer". Tia had tried several times to explain the concepts and how such a thing worked, but for now Luna was content to just know that such things allowed her subjects to make use of the night more than before. And for that, she was satisfied.
"If only such things existed before..." Luna sighed in melancholy.
It was wishful thinking of course, and it wouldn't lead anywhere pleasant if she kept saying these "What if's" over and over again. What happened all those years ago happened, and nothing could change that... Much as she would want it too.
"Ughh, I'm still doing it!" The dark mare groaned and rubbed at her temples. She needed something to distract herself and fast.
As luck would have it one of her wishes did come true in the form of something moving at break neck speed across her sky. It was very bright and trailed an orange streak behind it as it burned up in the atmosphere. The object almost immediately caught Luna's attention as she felt the thing entering her night sky than saw it. She followed the alien object's flight path to where it disappeared near Ponyville.
There was little that could shake Admiral Sheng's nerve. The cool and collected figure his men knew him as would sometimes joke that if an explosion could go off in the same room as him and Sheng wouldn't even bat an eyelash.
Which wasn't too far from the truth, as once during a skirmish with a Vandul assault force his ship was rammed and a hull breach started to depressurize the bridge, Sheng's only reaction then was to shut the connecting door as if he was annoyed with a draft of air someone let in and continued the battle as his men and women worked to repair the breach.
Sheng was also known as one of the more capable commanders among the UEE, having numerous sorties as both as a fighter pilot in his youth and later as a commodore leading successful raiding parties behind enemy lines. His mettle was tested and proven repeatedly, yet despite the scars and losses he made he would ways make it through to victory.
So when Admiral Li Sheng read the report regarding Major Castle's mission and subsequent ambush a cold sweat broke over Sheng.
"...God, what a mess." He muttered as he re-read the report back in his office. Sheng could almost feel the grey hairs starting to increase in number and add to the near white tuffs at ether side of his head.
"This needs a drink, don't you think so Lieutenant?"
Across the other side of the desk sat an extremely pale faced woman in uniform. She gulped down some air and tried to respond to her superior officer. "Sir, I must remind you that drinking is prohibited while on duty." It seemed that if even the stone faced Admiral needed a stiff drink to handle the news then things were that bad.
The man hummed at his aide's remark, silently agreeing with her. Later then, he'd burn his gut with a bottle of bourbon. So for now he did the next best thing. From a drawer the middle aged man pulled out an engraved cigar box and set in between them. Lieutenant Page frowned, but held back on stating regulation again.
After Sheng had lit up and placed a micro carbon collector next to his tray did he finally let himself relax into his chair. The thick leather chair had nearly served as long as he had, it had been a gift from the crew of his first command over an Idris class frigate. The soft material felt cool under the Admiral's palms as he let his bones settle comfortably.
Lt. Page anxiously awaited a response from her commanding officer, with her body sitting rigidly on her own chair and piercing gaze she was the complete opposite of Sheng. She didn't know all the details, all the related documents where classified several times higher than her pay grade, but from what she could gather one of their operative's was MIA during an operation and somehow this could lead to an even bigger disaster. The cold knot in her stomach increasingly grew tighter as the seconds ticked by. She needed to know or else the pressure might swallow her whole.
"...Sir, What happened out there?"
Sheng opened an eye to peer across his desk, his gaze calculating as if to sum up his aide's character to see if she was worthy of his secret. Lt. Page felt a shiver run down her spine at the way Sheng glared at the red headed woman across from him. "You should know better than to be so direct, Lieutenant... But I suppose it's rather pointless at this time to keep it hidden for much longer, especially since I'm sure I'll need you up to date on this matter in the coming days."
Waving a hand over his desk the Admiral brought up a holo map of the surrounding star systems, another flick of the wrist shifted the map's coordinates to a far off corner of the UEE's frontier. "How much do you know about Alien's Lieutenant?"
"About as much as anyone else; there's quite a few other species other than Humans out there, Xi'an, Banu, and of course the Vanduul. Only a few Tevarin still exist, and there's also the Kr'Thak, but they're almost a complete mystery."
Taking another puff from his cigar Sheng let his Leftenant finish before he pulled the rug out from under her, "You're correct, those would be all current sapient life the UEE has officially come across. Unofficially there's quite a few more."
It took a moment for Lt. Page to register that last sentence, her face carried the look of someone told they had a second head growing out their armpit "...What?"
"About a few Earth standard months ago an unmanned probe was sent into an uncharted system that displayed some unusual radiation signatures. Our little drone came across a little planet called KPX-97225, where upon further inspection found evidence of a pre-space flight civilization, not of human or any previous alien civilization that we've come across thus far. We haven't sent any probes past the atmosphere, but judging by the amount of light pollution, terraformed land for agriculture, and even railway lines we've guessed they're somewhere around 1960's Earth in terms of technology. Luckily enough it seems they've never caught onto our little snooping around their back garden either... Well, maybe that's changed after Castle's clash in orbit, but we'll find that out later. If we're lucky they're a kind and tolerant race that'd be open to talking with extraterrestrials. If we're not, we can expect a warm nuclear welcome if they've figured out how to build bombs yet."
"Also mind you this was only a relatively recent discovery, so the brass at the very top has been sitting around with their thumbs up their asses as they make up plans regarding this discovery." Though it wasn't uncommon for Sheng to use some crude vocabulary he occasionally used it when his temper flared at certain topics, usually his less than favorable view on politicians. "So far everything's been kept hush hush, with little traffic near the sector. Castle was stationed above orbit to keep an eye on the surveillance equipment and to keep any wandering eyes away... But it looks like the Vanduul don't care too much if we have a guard dog on patrol."
"We're gonna have to act fast in order to salvage this situation Lt. Page, that means mobilizing an entire blockade around an alien planet we've never established contact with, keeping any info leaks to an absolute minimum till the UEE can figure out how to actually deal with these creatures in the long run, and to top it all off we need to find out if one of my best men is alive or a meat popsicle floating in orbit... God, this is all gonna go to shit."
After listening to Sheng's little debrief Lt. Page couldn't find any words to express how she felt about the mess she and her CO had found themselves in. Wordlessly she left her seat and opened up a cabinet on a far side of the room. Retrieving an amber bottle and two glasses she returned to the desk and shakily deposited the glasses between each of them, "I-if it's all the same to you Sir, I'll take that drink."
